This is as true in the higher as in the lower grades of education. There are today living 418 native [pg 320] Christian graduates of the Madras University. Last year twenty-seven of these Christian youth received the B. A. degree in that Presidency alone, and the only three Indian ladies who have seized the difficult and much coveted prize of Master of Arts from that University are Christians. These facts are significant and reveal the marvellous progress made by this once despised community.
As to the character of these Christians the testimony of Sir Alexander Mackensie, a distinguished Anglo Indian statesman of large experience, may be of interest:—“The advance made (in missions) during my time,” he says, “have been substantial and encouraging, and it is my firm belief that the day-spring of still better things is very close at hand, while the simple faith and godly lives of many native Christians, might put all, or most of us certainly, to the blush.”
It may be well to add emphasis here to the position of woman in the native Christian community as a direct result of mission endeavour in that land.
The new womanhood of the infant native Christian community has begun to impress itself upon the land. There are nearly five hundred thousand women and girls connected with the Protestant missions of that country today. They are being trained for, and introduced to, new spheres and opportunities such as the women of India never dreamed of before. Thousands of them are engaged as teachers and as Bible women. Some practice medicine; others adorn and cheer the homes, beautify the lives and strengthen the work of pastors and preachers, of teachers, doctors and other professional [pg 321] men. They grow into the full bloom of womanhood before they leave their school training; and they go forth well equipped intellectually, morally and spiritually for the manifold duties of life.
The last few years have not only helped the Christian women of the land, as a class, they have also brought into distinction many of them who are worthy to stand among the eminent women of the age and world.
The first of these, both on account of the remarkable career which she has led and of the noble work which she is performing, is the well-known Pundita Ramabai. Herself a Brahman widow, who lost her father in the tender years of childhood and who subsequently entered into the joys and blessed power of a Christian life, she dedicated herself to the work of redeeming her unfortunate Hindu sisters from their sad lot. To this noble work of philanthropy and of heroic Christian service she has given herself absolutely; and through distinguished administrative skill and a triumphant faith she has achieved marvellous success. Beside her well-known institution for child-widows at Poonah—the Sharada Sadan, which the writer visited and greatly admired—the recent famine inspired her to a new effort to save the waifs and orphans of that region. So that, today, she has under her care more than two thousand of the unfortunate ones of her own sex whom she is not only protecting and wisely training for worthy positions in life, but is also bringing forward into the joys of a true Christian life. Few women, in any land, have found a more useful, or more honourable, career than this noble woman of the East. She combines, in a [pg 322] rare degree, large capacity for work, the highest sanity in her methods and the deepest love for those whom she has given her life to bless.
The Sorabjis, also of Western India, have achieved distinction beyond most native Christian families. Mr. Sorabji was one of the few Parsees who have embraced Christianity. One of the daughters of the family, the widow of an Englishman, lives in London and has delighted the Queen by her exquisite rendering of Persian songs. One sister is an artist, whose paintings are exhibited in Paris and London. One is a surgeon of distinction. It was another daughter of this family who was the only representative of her sex from the Orient at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago. The most distinguished of these seven sisters is Cornelia Sorabji, the barrister. Her graduating paper on “Roman Law,” at Oxford, was classed among the best papers produced by the pupils of that famous institution. She is the first lady barrister of India, and is not only a powerful advocate, but also a brilliant writer, as her book and her articles on the woman question in “The Nineteenth Century” amply testify.
Toru Dutt, of Calcutta, one of the brilliant young stars of India, was versed in French, German and English. At twenty-one she published “A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields.” It is a skillful and able English translation of the works of famous French authors. She and her sister, Aru, were remarkably talented. It is sad that she, who was so full of intellectual brightness and so beautiful in Christian life, should have been taken away by death in the bloom of life.
Miss Goreh is the only Indian Christian who has [pg 323] thus far added to our popular English hymnology. Her beautiful hymn:
“In the secret of His presence how my soul delights to hide;