India's Problem, Krishna or Christ

by John P. Jones

In the meanwhile mission schools have a grand sphere opened to them on this line. They are not only a common agency, with governmental and all other higher institutions, in the work of undermining and destroying vain credulity and the whole brood of superstitions which are legion in India; they are also a positive and constructive force in the impartation of those principles of morality and teachings of religion which will ennoble life here and hereafter. And in this connection it should not be forgotten that all mission schools—higher and lower—enjoy unlimited opportunity to teach, daily, to all their students God's Word and to apply its principles and its saving message [pg 355] to the minds of the half million students who are being trained by them.

I desire to emphasize again the importance of all these schools as the most potent agency, apart from the native Church itself, in the transformation of the thought and life of India. It is a noteworthy fact that the only statue erected to a missionary in India was that recently unveiled by the Governor of Madras in the city of Madras to Dr. Wm. Miller. This noble missionary educator has wrought mightily, through his great institution in Madras, for the upbuilding of Christian truth in the minds of Christian and non-Christian youth alike. And this statue is a unique tribute of gratitude from his “old boys”—most of them still Hindus, indeed—to the man who has been instrumental in opening before them the broad vistas of Western thought and of Christian truth and life. But more enduring than marble will abide the blessed results which he and his colabourers have wrought in the thought and life of the more than 2,000 graduates who have been educated by them. Of these there are 1,800 who represent the Hindus of thought and culture in South India at present. Such is the influence of one Christian school.

If the work of the thousands of village Christian schools is more humble in its aim it is much more pervasive in its reach, and it marvellously directs thought and inspires life in remote villages.

Twelve years ago I opened one little primary school in a small unlettered heathen village. Ten bright Hindu boys sought instruction at the hands of the devout old Christian teacher placed there. Today these boys have grown into manhood and, with one [pg 356] or two exceptions, have entered into the Christian life and have been formed into a Christian congregation. They are not only intelligent, but firm and beautiful in their new-found Christian hope. Moreover, the whole village is permeated with Christian truth and it resounds with the appeal of our faith. In this way have come into existence many of the best and strongest congregations of the Christian Church in India.

But, to return to the educated class in India. We have considered already its attitude of mind towards the supplanting religion of Jesus.

Madras Christian College.

Bombay Railway Station.

Their opposition to Christianity, as it is now presented to them, I can appreciate. They are beginning, for the first time, to think seriously and philosophically about religion. They are, more than ever before, impatient with their past, and annoyed with the inadequacy of their present faith. It is not strange if this feeling is shown in their attitude towards the only supplanting faith. In this matter they are on the way to light and truth. The under-current is strongly right and in the direction of an enlightened and an enlightening religion. They are more earnestly in quest of truth than ever before. Moreover it is not substantive Christianity, but adjectival Christianity—the too Western type of our faith—which arouses their antagonism. And I must again express my belief that, before Christianity is to gain universal acceptance by the people of India, it must be dissociated from many Western ideas and practices which seem to us essential even to its very life. When we learn to forget our antecedents and prejudices and to study well the Hindu mind and its [pg 357] tendency, then perhaps shall we be prepared to present a Christianity which will commend itself universally to that land. The Rev. G. T. E. Slater in his new book, wisely emphasized this same need.