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Chapter V: South Indian Missions: 1820-1895, Excerpt from The history of the London Missionary Society, 1795-1895
by Richard Lovett [1851-1904]
In Two Volumes, Volume II
1899
P. 52-171
CHAPTER V: SOUTH INDIAN MISSIONS: 1820-1895
Each great centre in India occupied and worked by the Society affords material for a volume full of instruction and full of attraction to the student of missions, and to the disciple who is praying for the triumph of Christ's kingdom. But to trace in detail the full course of these many streams of blessing is impossible. The broad features of the work are alike in both Northern and Southern India; but during the century Christianity found more fertile soil in the south among the low-caste section of the Tamil, Telugu, and Canarese countries, than along the valley of the Ganges; it received a much more cordial welcome among the devil-worshippers of Travancore than among the haughty Muhammadans of the north. We shall, then, first trace the stream of Christian influence as it flows and broadens through Southern India. And it seems on reflection to be most satisfactory to allow the three great languages of Southern India to define the course taken by history.
The celebration of the completion of the first twenty-five years' history of the Society gave a great impetus to the work in South India. The reports which had been sent home by Messrs. Tyerman and Bennet of their visits to the Indian stations, and the great influence of the latter on the Board for many years after his return, led to considerable development of the Society's work in India.
I. Tamil Missions. This great Dravidian language, rich in the possession of a varied literature, is spoken along the whole south-eastern coast of India from Madras to Cape Comorin. It is the vernacular of about 15,000,000 people. With the exception of South Travancore, all the chief stations where Tamil is spoken are in the Madras Presidency.
I. The Madras Mission. Madras, like the other great Indian cities, and especially the great ports, has always been a difficult centre for Christian work. Yet many of the great Societies have felt it imperative to maintain there a staff of workers, and have devoted much time and money to Christian service. Here, as in the case of Calcutta, it would be a pleasant task to indicate the good work which has been carried on there throughout the century by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the Church Missionary Society, the Wesleyan, and many other Societies, and also to indicate the great and beneficial results achieved by the two great educational institutions under the care respectively of the Free and Established Churches of Scotland. But we can deal only with the work of the London Missionary Society.
In a missionary magazine entitled Forward, edited by W. Robinson, and first issued by him at Salem in 1893, there is a graphic sketch of the course of the Madras Mission after Loveless returned to England:—
As early as 1832 Mrs. Drew initiated girls' schools, and in later years her work was carried forward by Mrs. Porter. When the latter left in 1856, there were 98 girls in the boarding school, and 120 in the day schools. In 1834 a school was begun in Black Town, and Mr. Drew tried, without success, to establish a mission there.
Two remarkable men were at this time connected with the Madras Mission, but each only for a short period. John Bilderbeck, after being received into the Church at Black Town by Mr. Smith, after visiting England in 1831, was ordained and appointed to Madras. He laboured there during 1832 and 1833, and in the latter year removed to Chiltoon. In 1841 he resigned, and later on joined the Church Missionary Society. Robert Caldwell, B. A., was appointed to Madras in 1837, and from 1838 to 1841 was active in the work of the mission. In 1841 he joined the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and for the next fifty years was famous among the great Indian missionaries of that Society. In 1877 he became Bishop of Tinnevelly, and he died at the Pulney Hills, South India, in August, 1891.
In 1851 the school in Black Town for native boys was established. It has ever since been known as the English Institution, because the instruction was given in English, and it has had a most successful history. The first superintendent was the Rev. F. Baylis, who began work there in September, 1851, By December, 1852, the number of pupils had mounted up to 220. Of these, 165 were Hindus, six Muhammadans, thirty-one native Christians, and eighteen East Indians. The second annual report thus describes the work done: 'Besides a good amount of Scripture, the boys have studied history, geography, grammar, and other subjects to a considerable extent. Only those who have engaged in the work can fully realize the difficulty of communicating knowledge through the medium of a foreign language.' In 1853 Mr. Baylis was transferred to Neyoor; in April, 1854, the Rev. George Hall, B.A., took charge of the Institution. He had been transferred to Madras from Jamaica. Mr. Hall continued in charge until 1876, when ill health compelled the relinquishment of the work which for twenty-two years he had carried on with conspicuous success. In 1857 a native church in Black Town was formed in connection with the Institution, and in 1861 Mrs. Hall established a high-caste girls' school in Vepery. The Rev. J. P. Ashton, M.A., who was appointed to Madras in 1859, and who became associated with Mr. Hall in 1860, taking sole charge of the Institution during Mr. Hall's furlough, has also placed on record in the columns of Forward his recollections of life and work in Madras and the Madras Presidency in the middle of the nineteenth century. Writing of the year 1860, he says: —
Mr. Ashton's graphic picture of the South India District Committee of 1860 must not be taken as applicable in any degree to the committee of recent days. For very many years the South India Committee has been the largest, the best organized, and the most business-like of the Society's Indian Committees. This is not due to deficiencies on the part of the other committees, but to the fact that the number and importance of the South Indian stations necessarily brings to that Committee a large number of able, experienced, and devoted men.
The Report for 1870 gives the ten years' progress of the mission as follows: — In 1860 the native church had twenty-nine members, in 1870 there were sixty-eight members, with the Rev. M. Cotelingam as native pastor. In 1860 there was a theological class of eleven preparing for the native ministry; in 1870, of these three were ordained ministers and six evangelists; but in 1869 from financial reasons, but with a most mistaken conception of the true conditions and requirements of the work, the Directors discontinued this class. The 389 scholars in the Institution in 1860 had by 1870 become 500; in 1860 there were no fees, in 1870 they realized 4,900 rupees.
In January, 1862, the Rev. A. Corbold reached Madras. From 1851-60 he had laboured in the Gujerat Mission. He took charge of the Tamil Church at Pursewaukum and Mrs. Corbold of the Girls' Boarding School. In 1866 Mr. Ashton was transferred to Calcutta. From 1867 to 1871 Mrs. Whyte superintended the female educational work in connection with the high-caste school, and was succeeded by Miss Gordon. In January, 1872, the Rev. T. E. Slater was transferred from Calcutta, where he had been engaged in the work of the Bhowanipur Institution, to Madras. For three years he laboured in connection with the English Institution, together with the Rev. Henry Rice, and then gave himself to work among the educated natives. This, one of the later developments of mission-work, is assuming great importance in the chief centres of Hindu life. The work consists in visiting native gentlemen at their homes, and in receiving them at the missionary's home; in holding meetings and classes for students and non-Christian teachers; and in giving courses of public lectures1 [For further details of work of this kind, see p. 117.]. In 1875, upon the resignation of Mr. George Hall, Mr. Joss of Coimbatore was appointed to succeed him. Mr. Corbold also resigned this year through ill health. In 1876 the Rev. F. Wilkinson, who had been at work for many years in Travancore, joined the mission, and became General Treasurer for the South Indian Missions. He also took charge of Pursewaukum Tamil Church. In 1881 he returned to Travancore. In 1878 the statistics of the Madras Mission were seven European missionaries — four male, three female — two native pastors, four evangelists, two out-stations, 139 communicants, 226 adherents; eight schools, 879 pupils; native contributions, 307 rupees.
In 1895, connected with the Society, there were six missionaries — three male, three female— three ordained native ministers, five preachers, eight Christian teachers, eight Bible-women, thirty Christian female teachers, 179 communicants, and 446 adherents; twelve schools, and 883 scholars; and the school fees amounted to £271, while the local contributions for the mission amounted to £79.
In 1877 Miss Brown and Miss Bounsall, two of the first lady missionaries appointed by the Society, arrived in Madras. The former took charge of the girls' schools at Chulai, and also in connection with Pursewaukum native church; the latter engaged in house-to-house visitation. In the first instance the houses of former pupils were visited, the wives of native pastors and evangelists rendering helpful service. In her report for 1885 Miss Brown gives some instructive illustrations of how far-reaching very often is the Christian instruction given in these and similar schools: —
In her decennial report for 1890, Miss Brown points out that in 1870 there were two girls' day schools in the mission, one with 60, the other with 28 scholars. In 1880 Chulai school had 104 girls, Pursewaukum 85. In 1886 the Chulai building collapsed during the monsoon, and for the next year the school greatly suffered in attendance. But in the course of 1888 and 1889 a handsome new building was put up at a cost of Rs. 7,000 and presented to the Society, and in 1890 there were 188 scholars. In 1890 Pursewaukum had 117 names on its roll. A measure of recent progress is found in the fact that in both schools all the teachers but one were Christians, and that one a widow earning her own living, and one over whom the school was expected to exert a Christian influence.
Miss Brown superintended the Society's zenana work in Madras also, and in the report already referred to she states: —
Miss Bounsall took charge of the girls' boarding school, and also of the girls' school and the evangelistic work carried on in Kosapettah.
Miss Gordon, who since 1871 had been actively engaged in the work of the girls' school at the other end of Madras, in Black Town, was in 1879 placed upon the Society's staff. She continued her active service without furlough to England till 1889-90, and her death took place at Madras in 1894. She was a grand-daughter of John Gordon, who joined the Vizagapatam Mission in 1810, and daughter of J. W. Gordon, who began work in the same mission in j 835. Her work in Madras for nearly twenty-five years had been very quiet and unassuming, but she won the affection of those for whom she toiled, and she gave freely herself to the support of the mission. During Miss Gordon's absence in 1889 her work was under the care of Miss Lois A. Cox, of Adelaide, sent to India by the Australian auxiliary. Unhappily her health failed in 1891. She returned to Adelaide and died there in August, 1892.
In 1880 the Rev. G. O. Newport removed from Salem to Madras. He superintended the mission until 1885, when he returned to England. In the course of 1883 he had visited Australia as a deputation for the Society. Mr. Newport was succeeded by the Rev. Maurice Phillips, who at Madras has carried on very systematic work in preaching in Tamil to the Hindus. In 1893 the Rev. R. J. Ward, who had been for many years a pastor in England, joined the Madras Mission and undertook the pastorate of Davidson Street Chapel.
During the decade 1880 to 1890, Hinduism in Madras and elsewhere, alarmed at the growing influence of Christianity, and fanned by the Theosophical Society, determined to use Christian methods in defence of Hindu faith and practice, and formed for their advocacy and enforcement a tract society and preaching society. For some years vigorous efforts were made to carry on by these agencies an active defensive and offensive propaganda. In 1887 Mr. Phillips refers to this movement: —
But in 1891 Mr. Phillips wrote: —
Madras is the great port of Southern India; it is the gate through which the missionaries enter to pass to their different fields of labour. It has been from early years a great centre of education, steadily growing in efficiency, in importance, and in influence, and as a centre where Western thought and civilization are beginning powerfully to affect the mind of the younger Hinduism.
2. COMBACONUM AND CHITTOOR. — Combaconum is a town situated on the south of Madras about twenty miles north-east of Tanjore. Its population is about 40,000. In 1825 Mr. Mead, leaving Travancore in consequence of ill health, commenced a mission there with the assistance of six native readers, and at once entered on evangelistic work in the town and neighbourhood, and by degrees opened schools. The Directors of the Society for a time deferred giving their approval of the occupation of this town as a permanent station, probably on account of its proximity to Tanjore, an old and important centre of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. For two years Mr. Mead carried on the work with energy and success, but in 1827, as his health had improved, he returned to Travancore, where in August he met the Deputation of the Society, who arranged that he should superintend the western division of the Travancore Mission, making Neyoor his centre. On this account he did not return to Combaconum, but the work there was carried on with a reduced number of readers. In July, 1829. Mr. Edmund Crisp settled at Combaconum as the resident missionary, and work was conducted with an increased number of readers and with much efficiency and success. In 1833, as Mr. Crisp was suffering in health, Mr. Nimmo. an East Indian agent, who for the past ten years had taken part in the work at several stations in connection with the Madras Mission, removed from Chittoor to Combaconum in order to assist Mr. Crisp, and rendered valuable service in itinerating and other forms of work. In June, 1835, Mr. Crisp left Combaconum to proceed to Madras to take the place of a member of that mission whose health had failed. Mr. Nimmo was thus left in sole charge of the work, and in March, 1837, was ordained and placed on the list of the Society's missionaries. From this time until the close of 1851 he conducted the work with much efficiency, his long experience and his intimate acquaintance with the people and their customs well qualifying him to meet the various demands of the position. But in January, 1852, by the decision of the Directors, the station and district was handed over to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, a step rendered advisable by the near neighbourhood of Combaconum to Tanjore. Mr. Nimmo therefore removed and took up work at Tripassore. But the results of the labour of the Society's agents during the twenty-six years of their occupation of Combaconum remained, though not in a form which would appear in statistical tables. Their persistent itineration, their frequent personal interviews with natives of all castes and creeds, their visits at Hindu festivals, their educational work in schools, and the wide circulation of Christian literature had formed a valuable foundation on which others might build.
CHITTOOR, lying about eighty miles due west of Madras, and properly belonging to the Telugu country, must be mentioned here, as it was worked practically as an outstation from Madras. A church of native converts was formed here about 1825 by Mr. E. Crisp of Madras. From 1831 to 1835 Mr. Nimmo was the resident missionary; from 1833 to 1840 Mr. Bilderbeck laboured here, and at Arni and one or two other out-stations of Madras; and from 1840 to 1842 it was under the charge of Mr. Alexander Leitch. Work at Chittoor appears to have been carried on in a somewhat intermittent fashion, and after this period it ceases to appear as a head station in the Society's reports.
3. Salem. This town, about 210 miles south-west of Madras, gives its name to one of the twenty-one districts which make up the Madras Presidency. Salem District1 [In this sketch of the Salem Mission the author is largely indebted to a sketch written by the rev. Maurice Phillips and issued in 1879.], with an area of 7,604 square miles and a population of over 2,000,000, is divided into nine taluks or sections, and these contain 3,594 villages. Except towards the south the district is hilly, with large plains lying between the hills. The chief river is the Kaveri, second in sacredness to the Ganges only. The language, with the exception of a part of one taluk, is Tamil. A somewhat detailed description of this district may serve for many others in central Southern India.
The majority of cultivators are comparatively poor, but seem quite contented with their lot. So long as the wants of the day are supplied, they think little of the future. Their greatest trouble is (like small farmers in England) the payment of taxes! They rise before dawn and go out to their fields, where they labour more or less all day. The morning meal is generally the cold remains of the previous night's supper, the latter being as a rule the only meal cooked. A piece of white cloth round his loins and another round his head form the only attire of an ordinary cultivator. His wife is equally simple in her mode of life. One or two cloths, ear-rings, and nose-rings, more or less costly, as the husband's circumstances admit, together with the Thali (sign of marriage, answering to our ring), form all her possessions. The children up to ten years or more go in a state of nudity, relieved perhaps by a piece of string round the waist. The ravika or jacket is worn generally by Musulmanis and by women of high castes, but rarely by the lower orders, except above the ghats, where the colder climate makes it necessary. The wealthier classes dress more richly in public, but in their houses their attire is very scanty. The people as a rule are well-made and often handsome.
The great bulk of the people, including cultivators, artisans, and pariahs, though nominally ranging themselves among the followers of Vishnu and Siva, worship certain village gods and goddesses, remnants of aboriginal pre-Aryan cult, the most popular of which is Mari-amman, the goddess of small-pox and other ills that flesh is heir to; and hence she is propitiated on the coming of every calamity by the sacrifice of fowls, sheep, and goats. A rude temple to this goddess is found in every village and hamlet of any importance; and there are hereditary priests to officiate before her. If a village be too small to support a priest, his services are divided between two or three villages. All classes and religionists believe more or less in the doctrine of metempsychosis or transmigration of souls.
The Salem Mission was commenced in the year 1827 by the Rev. Henry Crisp. Several schools which had been established and supported by the collector, M. D. Cockburn, were at once given over to the charge of the missionary. Mr. Crisp, after having acquired sufficient knowledge of the language, entered with much energy, zeal, and devotedness upon his work. He built school-rooms and a chapel, and began to preach and itinerate in full earnest; but he died in 1831, only four years after his arrival in the district. His devoted wife had died in 1829.
For nearly a whole year the station was left without the superintendence of a missionary. In the course of 1832 the Rev. G. Walton, an East Indian, was sent from Bellary to Salem. He carried on the work as he had found it with faithfulness, collected a little congregation around him, and selected five or six men to be his assistants as catechists or native teachers. The schools then contained 350 heathen children, and on Sundays the number of hearers had increased from five to fifty. Mr. Walton from time to time, with some of the native teachers, made evangelistic tours to several parts of this vast district, which then comprised more than a million of souls. Their principal work, however, was in Salem and its immediate vicinity.
In May, 1840, the Rev. J. M. Lechler arrived. He was a German by birth, and had been associated with the Church Missionary Society in Tinnevelly, reaching India in 1835. Prior to settling at Salem, he had worked for some months in Coimbatore. In June, 1841, when the Rev. G. Walton died, he took entire charge of the mission, and laboured alone for twenty-one years.
Mr. Lechler was no ordinary man. He possessed both the power to conceive, and the energy and determination to execute, great plans for the propagation of the Gospel and the building up of a Christian church in India. His piety, zeal, earnestness, and reliance upon God, as well as his abandonment of plans when found to be unsuitable, are worthy of imitation by all missionaries.
The first plan which he tried was to establish schools over the greater part of the district where Christian books were taught, and where he and his assistants preached during their periodical visits. This plan failed because the masters were all heathen and could not be prevailed upon to teach the Catechism and Christian lessons.
The second plan was to collect scattered families willing to place themselves under Christian instruction, and to form them into Christian villages, giving them pecuniary assistance to start as cultivators. The catechists in charge proved unfaithful, and the people, when the assistance begun was not continued, went back to their old habits and beliefs! And 'thus,' writes Mr. Lechler, 'the plan of forming Christian villages, and of making them rallying- points for inquirers and depots of Christian truth, also failed almost entirely. In the neighbourhood of those villages, however, much good has been done; many a soul has heard the Gospel, many children have been rescued, brought in and educated in our asylums, and some of the higher castes of cultivators have furnished themselves with copies of the New Testament or portions of it.'
The third and most successful plan tried by Mr. Lechler was the establishment and maintenance of an Industrial School. In 1854 Mr. Lechler visited England and also Germany, and upon his return in 1855 was accompanied by T. G. Kubler as his assistant, and by two artisans, and brought out material for the establishment of this school. The special object was to teach carpentry, smithery, and bricklaying to the boys of the orphanage and any young men desiring to place themselves under Christian instruction. The school, though not fulfilling all of Mr. Lechler's expectations, did good work, and was only abolished after his death, as it was deemed unadvisable to continue it under the altered circumstances of the mission. Many Christian artisans in this and other districts were brought up in the Industrial School, and occupied respectable positions, who otherwise would have been only common labourers.
Mr. Lechler placed a high value on itineration, and 'regarded it as one, if not the most important, means of propagating the Gospel;' but he felt, as every missionary since in the district has felt, that 'it is to be regretted that it can be practised so little where there is only one missionary in a station.'
According to Mr. Lechler's report for 1859, a year and a half before he died, the statistics of the mission were as follows: — Catechists, 11; out-stations, 4; communicants, 35; 'under Christian instruction, about 350.' The schools were: Boys' Orphan and Boarding Asylum, containing 30; Girls' Orphan and Boarding Asylum, containing 25; Industrial School, 25 lads; and six country day schools containing 75 pupils.
Mr. Lechler died very suddenly on June 17, 1861. Mrs. Lechler was then in England about to embark for India, and the sad news of her great loss only reached her after her arrival in Madras. She survived her husband for over thirty years; and was quite a leading spirit in the mission, especially on the Sherarog Hills, where she resided.
The Rev. Colin Campbell from Bangalore took charge of the mission after Mr. Lechler's death until the arrival of the Rev. Goodeve Mabbs in January, 1862. Mr. Mabbs, in consequence of ill health, was often away for lengthened periods from the district, so that he was able to do but little; and in November, 1865, he was transferred to Travancore, and the Rev. W. E. Morris took charge of the station. Mr. Morris threw his whole soul into the work, but after three years it proved too much for him. He was obliged to go home in February, 1869, to recruit his shattered health, with the hope of returning; but that hope was never realized.
In January, 1869, Maurice Phillips added the charge of the Salem Mission to Tripatur, where he had been stationed since 1862. He resided at Salem, and itinerated through the district. There were at the end of 1869 eleven out-stations, fourteen native preachers, 129 communicants, 475 baptized persons, including communicants; five boys' schools, containing 125 scholars, and two girls' schools, containing 84 girls, in connection with the mission.
In February, 1870, the Rev. Henry Toller and his wife arrived to take the place of Mr. and Mrs. Morris; but within six weeks of their arrival, he was suddenly attacked with cholera, and died in a few hours. Mr. Toller was a young man who had just left Cheshunt College, full of zeal, who, humanly speaking, had a fair prospect of a long and useful life before him, but God, who does all things well, ordered it otherwise. Mrs. Toller returned home in the ship in which both had come out.
The Directors were greatly perplexed when they heard of the sudden death of Mr. Toller. They felt that they had lost four men at Salem during eight years, two by death and two by illness, and naturally feared the consequences of sending another man there. They therefore contemplated handing over the district to the Arcot Mission. The District Committee strongly and unanimously opposed the proposal. They pointed out the disastrous effect it would have in breaking up the symmetry of the field. If necessary to give up any station, either Belgaum or Vizagapatam, or both, on account of their distance and isolation from all other stations of the Society, could be better spared than Salem. They pointed out that much work had been done in the district; that valuable property for carrying on missionary operations had been procured; that the town of Salem only was unhealthy, and not the district as a whole; that the unhealthiness of the town could be avoided to a very great extent by living in the suburbs; and that as Mr. Phillips had had experience of the place, and did not object to live in it, he should be relieved of Tripatur and devote the whole of his time to Salem. In the end the Directors relinquished the idea of giving up the district, and Mr. Phillips continued in charge of the mission until 1884. During Mr. Phillips' furlough in 1873-74, the Rev. H. Rice, of Tripatur, superintended the work from that station.
In July, 1875, Evangelist Mutthu was ordained pastor over the church in the town of Salem, the church agreeing to pay ten rupees a month towards his salary and all incidental expenses of worship. In the same year the Anglo-vernacular school was raised to the standard of a High School preparing scholars for the Matriculation Examination of the Madras University. The old mission house was turned into a school-room on the completion of a new house erected in a healthy locality outside the town, with the money realized by selling a part of the old mission compound. This High School was designed to give a high-class education on Christian principles in a town containing 50,000 inhabitants, and the capital of a district containing nearly two millions. Such a school has now become a necessity, without which missionaries can never exert the influence in the town and the district which they desire. Boys who have been in mission schools are generally the missionaries' friends, and often protect them from the abuse and insolence of crowds when preaching in the streets; and as they come from different parts of the district to pursue the higher education, they always prepare the way for preaching in their villages. This being a new and a most important work, the Directors transferred the Rev. G. O. Newport from Nagercoil to Salem in March, 1877, to take charge of the school and the work in the town and suburbs, thus leaving Mr. Phillips free to devote the whole of his time to itinerating and the out-stations. Ill health compelled Mr. Newport's removal to Bangalore in 1880.
The statistics of the mission at the end of 1878 were as follows:— Native minister, 1; native preachers, 8; out-stations, 12; communicants, 158; baptized (inclusive of communicants), 790; boys' schools, 6, with 335 scholars; girls' schools 2, containing 138 pupils.
The Rev. W. Robinson, of Tripatur, was formally appointed missionary of Salem in 1885. In December, 1885, he was joined by the Rev. A. A. Dignum, who was transferred from the Gooty Mission. For nearly three years the station then had the benefit of two resident missionaries. Mr. Robinson came to England on furlough in October, 1888, and returned to India in the autumn of 1890. During his absence the Rev. C. G. Marshall, appointed to Tripatur, arrived and resided in Salem for a few months, to commence the study of the language and to become familiarized with mission-work. On his removal to Tripatur at the commencement of 1890, Mr. Dignum was left entirely alone for nearly twelve months. The Rev. R. C. Porter was appointed to the mission in 1893.
Mr. Dignum in the report for 1890 wrote: —
Evangelistic work has been vigorously carried on in the town of Salem by the Rev. A. Devasagayam and Mr. Pakkianathan, who completed his course of study at Bangalore at the end of 1889.
Educational work has progressed remarkably in both branches. The High School, freed from Government control, has continued to improve. The number on the roll has largely increased. The heads of the most influential and wealthy Hindu families send their sons to the school, though its Christian character is constantly maintained, all the teachers on the staff being Christians. The girls' schools, though not large, have been very successful in educational results.
As in the other South Indian stations, for many years Christian work was carried on at Salem among the women and girls. But in 1891 new life was infused into this department by the arrival of Miss Lois A. Cox. In the year 1889, largely as the result of the visit of Mr. Wardlaw Thompson and Mr. Spicer, the Australian churches resolved to take a more active share in the work of the Society. In connection with this development Miss Cox volunteered for service, and to her belongs the honour of being the first missionary thus sent forth by the Australian churches. We have already referred to her work in Madras, and in January, 1891, she was transferred to Salem. There she was able to organize and commence, by the aid of Australian friends, four schools for girls. Unhappily her health failed, and in January, 1892, she returned to Adelaide, where she died on August 10. Brief as her career was, she has left a deep and inspiring influence upon the Salem Mission.
Only a few weeks before the compulsory retirement of Miss Cox, Miss Annie Crouch, of Hobart, Tasmania, arrived in Salem as her colleague; and only too soon found the main burden of the work resting upon her. The Church in Hobart from which Miss Crouch came, sent to her in December, 1892, a helper, Miss M. G. Lodge. The report for 1895 stated that in the four girls' schools there were 354 scholars, and that there were five Bible-women in active service. A Lois Cox Memorial Home — a boarding school for girls — was erected by Australian friends, and in 1897 contained twenty-one pupils.
Signs of the great change coming over Hindu society in its recognition of Christians and of Christianity have been evident in Salem. The Rev. A. Devasagayam stated in 1890: 'The chasm which once divided the Hindu from the Christian now no longer exists. They rub shoulder to shoulder on every possible occasion. Is it a social meeting, or one for political reform, a religious address, a lecture on science or literature, or a reception to a public benefactor, you are sure of noticing Brahman, Christian, and Mussulman mingling freely and doing their work as if they all belonged to one brotherhood. This is an unmistakable sign of the decay of caste.' Yet persecution and hostility to the Gospel are not by any means dead, and in Salem, as in other centres, the labours of the nineteenth century have been but the preparation for the success of the twentieth.
Chapter V: South Indian Missions: 1820-1895, Excerpt from The history of the London Missionary Society, 1795-1895
by Richard Lovett [1851-1904]
In Two Volumes, Volume II
1899
P. 52-171
-- The history of the London Missionary Society, 1795-1895, by Richard Lovett, 1851-1904
-- London Missionary Society, by Wikipedia
-- Chapter I: India in 1795, Excerpt from The history of the London Missionary Society, 1795-1895, by Richard Lovett [1851-1904]
-- Chapter II: Nathaniel Forsyth and Robert May, Excerpt from The history of the London Missionary Society, 1795-1895, by Richard Lovett [1851-1904]
-- Chapter III: Pioneer Work in South India: 1804-1820, Excerpt from The history of the London Missionary Society, 1795-1895, by Richard Lovett [1851-1904]
-- Chapter IV: Pioneer Work in North India, Excerpt from The history of the London Missionary Society, 1795-1895, by Richard Lovett [1851-1904]
-- Chapter V: South Indian Missions: 1820-1895, Excerpt from The history of the London Missionary Society, 1795-1895, by Richard Lovett [1851-1904]
CHAPTER V: SOUTH INDIAN MISSIONS: 1820-1895
Each great centre in India occupied and worked by the Society affords material for a volume full of instruction and full of attraction to the student of missions, and to the disciple who is praying for the triumph of Christ's kingdom. But to trace in detail the full course of these many streams of blessing is impossible. The broad features of the work are alike in both Northern and Southern India; but during the century Christianity found more fertile soil in the south among the low-caste section of the Tamil, Telugu, and Canarese countries, than along the valley of the Ganges; it received a much more cordial welcome among the devil-worshippers of Travancore than among the haughty Muhammadans of the north. We shall, then, first trace the stream of Christian influence as it flows and broadens through Southern India. And it seems on reflection to be most satisfactory to allow the three great languages of Southern India to define the course taken by history.
The celebration of the completion of the first twenty-five years' history of the Society gave a great impetus to the work in South India. The reports which had been sent home by Messrs. Tyerman and Bennet of their visits to the Indian stations, and the great influence of the latter on the Board for many years after his return, led to considerable development of the Society's work in India.
I. Tamil Missions. This great Dravidian language, rich in the possession of a varied literature, is spoken along the whole south-eastern coast of India from Madras to Cape Comorin. It is the vernacular of about 15,000,000 people. With the exception of South Travancore, all the chief stations where Tamil is spoken are in the Madras Presidency.
I. The Madras Mission. Madras, like the other great Indian cities, and especially the great ports, has always been a difficult centre for Christian work. Yet many of the great Societies have felt it imperative to maintain there a staff of workers, and have devoted much time and money to Christian service. Here, as in the case of Calcutta, it would be a pleasant task to indicate the good work which has been carried on there throughout the century by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the Church Missionary Society, the Wesleyan, and many other Societies, and also to indicate the great and beneficial results achieved by the two great educational institutions under the care respectively of the Free and Established Churches of Scotland. But we can deal only with the work of the London Missionary Society.
In a missionary magazine entitled Forward, edited by W. Robinson, and first issued by him at Salem in 1893, there is a graphic sketch of the course of the Madras Mission after Loveless returned to England:—
'Before Mr. Loveless retired, the Directors of his Society greatly cheered him by sending out to Madras five missionaries, four of whom were remarkable men. Crisp, Nicholson, Massie, Knill, Traveller, all laboured in Madras, and the results of their labour are still seen. With the exception of Nicholson, who was cut off by cholera in a few months after his arrival, the other missionaries did a noble work, and helped to make the historic past of the London Missionary Society. Like most men of strong individuality, Traveller and Massie went their own way, and it was not the way of the Directors at home. Traveller built Pursewaukum Chapel in an incredibly short time after his arrival in Madras. On the day he arrived the idea was mooted, and he took it up with red-hot enthusiasm; he could not, like Mr. Loveless, be content to hasten slowly, and he went dead against the prejudices of certain Anglo- Indians. Probably if there had been less driving and more leading, things would have turned out more happily than they did. Mr. Traveller's connection with the Society ceased in 1823, but it is significant to note that he ever remained its faithful helper, and took the warmest interest in its welfare.
'Dr. Massie was simply a tornado let loose. He anticipated much of the later scheme of missionary higher education, but he was before his time, and would not wait until his ideas had taken root and fructified. His idea was to found a Christian University for India to be established at Bangalore, and he threw himself into the work of carrying it out with tireless energy. The difficulty is to find out where he did not go to secure subscriptions, for money poured in from all quarters. In those days of slow locomotion and costly postage it was a record feat to have accomplished what he did for his Mysore College1 [See p. 105.]. In other respects he was out of the common run of men — thus, he was married five times. "Last of all the man died also," but not before he had left behind an extraordinary impression of his indomitableness. Dr. R. W. Hamilton once declared that the futility of resisting a certain measure was like attempting "to resist the rush of the Mississippi, or the impetuosity of Dr. Massie."
'Edmund Crisp was a striking contrast to the brilliant but erratic men who were with him in Madras. His devotion to his work never flagged, and he excelled in all departments of it as pastor, preacher, theological tutor. From the Tamil Seminary at Bangalore he sent out some of the ablest native ministers the Tamil churches have had. He was in charge of Davidson Street until the Rev. J. Smith came out in 1828. John Smith was the brother of Mary Moffat, and had his sister's enthusiasm and love for missionary service. He soon had fruit to his labour; the soldiers of the Cameronian Regiment liked his preaching, and some of them joined the church. A godly Sergeant-Major named Symonds opened his house in the Fort for morning and evening prayer; from ten to twenty soldiers regularly attended the meeting, and this is but one evidence of the spiritual activity which abounded in the church.
'Mr. Smith soon gathered round him an interesting band of young men of proved aptitude for spiritual work. The church has never been numerically strong, but its quality has been of the very best. In the fifteen years Mr. Smith had charge of it, the Church sent out the following missionaries: — the Revs. J. Bilderbeck, J. Gordon, J. A. Regel, H. Bower, D.D.,W. Dawson, R. D. Johnston, C.E. Thompson, E. Marsden and others, who were valiant soldiers for the truth in South India.
'In 1843 Mr. Smith went to an Ordination Service at Vizagapatam. Two of his students were set apart for work among the Telugu people. Mr. Smith embarked in the Favourite, a coasting boat, for Madras. It was a dangerous part of the year — the month of May — and the boat is supposed to have been overtaken by a cyclone. Nothing was heard of her or her passengers again.
'William Porter has left the memory of his service deeply graven in the hearts of the people. His was an earnest, unobtrusive ministry. Singularly calm in judgment, warm and devout in feeling, he "Allured to brighter worlds and led the way." Other men have entered into his labours, but he is still remembered with great affection in Madras. Among Mr. Porters successors, the Rev. S. W. Organe, who took charge of the church in 1867, has been conspicuous for his missionary devotion to the interests of Davidson Street. During his time the English Church, being self-supporting, ceased to be an integral part of the mission. The congregation has had much to contend against in the rivalry of other churches which have arisen. Black Town again has grown more and more the centre for mercantile offices, stores, and warehouses. The people have been driven into the suburbs, but they still cleave to the time-honoured chapel, believing that" Where saintly memories abide,
Perpetual benediction falls."
'The other church around which mission-work centred in Madras in these early days was Pursewaukum, founded, as we have seen, by Mr. Traveller. When his connection with the mission ceased, the Rev. William Taylor succeeded to the oversight of the Tamil and English churches. He was an Oriental scholar, and the list of books and tracts he prepared in Tamil is formidable. He had large private means, and these he devoted liberally to the poor and to deeds of charity. In 1834 he retired from the Society's service.
'Taylor's successor was W. H. Drew, whose memory is held in grateful reverence by Christians all over South India. His ministry was blessed above that of most men. Under his fostering care the Tamil Church grew strong, and he had crowded congregations in Pursewaukum. William Drew went in and out among the people, and won them by his gentle goodness and his glowing piety. The call to rest came to him at Pulicat in 1856, where he was stricken by cholera. He had just time to reach his home in Vepery, and soon after "he was not," for God had taken him.'
As early as 1832 Mrs. Drew initiated girls' schools, and in later years her work was carried forward by Mrs. Porter. When the latter left in 1856, there were 98 girls in the boarding school, and 120 in the day schools. In 1834 a school was begun in Black Town, and Mr. Drew tried, without success, to establish a mission there.
Two remarkable men were at this time connected with the Madras Mission, but each only for a short period. John Bilderbeck, after being received into the Church at Black Town by Mr. Smith, after visiting England in 1831, was ordained and appointed to Madras. He laboured there during 1832 and 1833, and in the latter year removed to Chiltoon. In 1841 he resigned, and later on joined the Church Missionary Society. Robert Caldwell, B. A., was appointed to Madras in 1837, and from 1838 to 1841 was active in the work of the mission. In 1841 he joined the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and for the next fifty years was famous among the great Indian missionaries of that Society. In 1877 he became Bishop of Tinnevelly, and he died at the Pulney Hills, South India, in August, 1891.
In 1851 the school in Black Town for native boys was established. It has ever since been known as the English Institution, because the instruction was given in English, and it has had a most successful history. The first superintendent was the Rev. F. Baylis, who began work there in September, 1851, By December, 1852, the number of pupils had mounted up to 220. Of these, 165 were Hindus, six Muhammadans, thirty-one native Christians, and eighteen East Indians. The second annual report thus describes the work done: 'Besides a good amount of Scripture, the boys have studied history, geography, grammar, and other subjects to a considerable extent. Only those who have engaged in the work can fully realize the difficulty of communicating knowledge through the medium of a foreign language.' In 1853 Mr. Baylis was transferred to Neyoor; in April, 1854, the Rev. George Hall, B.A., took charge of the Institution. He had been transferred to Madras from Jamaica. Mr. Hall continued in charge until 1876, when ill health compelled the relinquishment of the work which for twenty-two years he had carried on with conspicuous success. In 1857 a native church in Black Town was formed in connection with the Institution, and in 1861 Mrs. Hall established a high-caste girls' school in Vepery. The Rev. J. P. Ashton, M.A., who was appointed to Madras in 1859, and who became associated with Mr. Hall in 1860, taking sole charge of the Institution during Mr. Hall's furlough, has also placed on record in the columns of Forward his recollections of life and work in Madras and the Madras Presidency in the middle of the nineteenth century. Writing of the year 1860, he says: —
'Under Mr. Hall's able guidance, my work commenced in the Institution and the theological class, then half through its course of studies. It was a privilege, which I can never value too highly, to help those noble young men in their studies. My work in the Institution prevented my touring except in the winter vacation, but this sufficed to give me a good insight into that department of work. But the experience I thus gained, combined with my frequent visits to the schools in the Tripassore and Pulicat districts, filled my mind with the importance of the work and the great call for more labour in a semicircle of thirty-five miles' radius round Madras as the centre. The matter was brought before the Madras Missionary Conference, and a map was drawn of the district with a view to subdivision of the work among the missions. The grand example of Ragland, Fenn, and Meadows in North Tinnevelly was fresh in our minds, and great resolutions were taken; but obstacles arose, and the enthusiastic proposer, left in sole charge of the Institution, Black Town Church work, and out-stations, was too much involved in other duties to lead the way.
'The District Committee of those days was a curiosity. It consisted of Hay of Vizagapatam, Porter of Cuddapah, Addis of Coimbatore, and Hall of Madras, and no additions of new men were allowed. It having been found that the brethren agreed better when apart than when together, no meeting had been permitted for a space of twelve years. All business was transacted by correspondence; and in those days, when there were no railways, and Mr. Porter was ever on the move, a letter would take a week or two before it could overtake him in the district, and a circular seldom returned to head quarters under three months; and if there was division of opinion, it might take another three months to go round again. This anomaly continued, though several new men had arrived and new stations were in process of opening in the Coimbatore and Salem districts. When Mr. Hall went on furlough, Mr. Corbold acted as his substitute, but was not allowed to be a member. He and I felt that this anomaly ought not to continue, but there appeared to be no means of redress.
'In the meantime the students above referred to had been located in Coimbatore, Erode, Salem, Sunkerydrug, Tripatore, Tripassore, and elsewhere. Some prejudice was felt against these city men of high education, who were not so subservient as the worthy old catechists who were their predecessors. Corbold and I thought it would be a good plan to have a Conference of all the Tamil missionaries along with a gathering of these men for examination in a course of private study. Two of the best of the old set, Unmeiudian and Suviseshamutthu, were added to their number. The Directors favoured our plan, and we all had a happy and memorable meeting at Salem, in that grand old compound of ninety acres, in which the large Church, the Mission House, the two Boarding Schools, and the splendid Industrial School were situated.'
Mr. Ashton's graphic picture of the South India District Committee of 1860 must not be taken as applicable in any degree to the committee of recent days. For very many years the South India Committee has been the largest, the best organized, and the most business-like of the Society's Indian Committees. This is not due to deficiencies on the part of the other committees, but to the fact that the number and importance of the South Indian stations necessarily brings to that Committee a large number of able, experienced, and devoted men.
The Report for 1870 gives the ten years' progress of the mission as follows: — In 1860 the native church had twenty-nine members, in 1870 there were sixty-eight members, with the Rev. M. Cotelingam as native pastor. In 1860 there was a theological class of eleven preparing for the native ministry; in 1870, of these three were ordained ministers and six evangelists; but in 1869 from financial reasons, but with a most mistaken conception of the true conditions and requirements of the work, the Directors discontinued this class. The 389 scholars in the Institution in 1860 had by 1870 become 500; in 1860 there were no fees, in 1870 they realized 4,900 rupees.
In January, 1862, the Rev. A. Corbold reached Madras. From 1851-60 he had laboured in the Gujerat Mission. He took charge of the Tamil Church at Pursewaukum and Mrs. Corbold of the Girls' Boarding School. In 1866 Mr. Ashton was transferred to Calcutta. From 1867 to 1871 Mrs. Whyte superintended the female educational work in connection with the high-caste school, and was succeeded by Miss Gordon. In January, 1872, the Rev. T. E. Slater was transferred from Calcutta, where he had been engaged in the work of the Bhowanipur Institution, to Madras. For three years he laboured in connection with the English Institution, together with the Rev. Henry Rice, and then gave himself to work among the educated natives. This, one of the later developments of mission-work, is assuming great importance in the chief centres of Hindu life. The work consists in visiting native gentlemen at their homes, and in receiving them at the missionary's home; in holding meetings and classes for students and non-Christian teachers; and in giving courses of public lectures1 [For further details of work of this kind, see p. 117.]. In 1875, upon the resignation of Mr. George Hall, Mr. Joss of Coimbatore was appointed to succeed him. Mr. Corbold also resigned this year through ill health. In 1876 the Rev. F. Wilkinson, who had been at work for many years in Travancore, joined the mission, and became General Treasurer for the South Indian Missions. He also took charge of Pursewaukum Tamil Church. In 1881 he returned to Travancore. In 1878 the statistics of the Madras Mission were seven European missionaries — four male, three female — two native pastors, four evangelists, two out-stations, 139 communicants, 226 adherents; eight schools, 879 pupils; native contributions, 307 rupees.
In 1895, connected with the Society, there were six missionaries — three male, three female— three ordained native ministers, five preachers, eight Christian teachers, eight Bible-women, thirty Christian female teachers, 179 communicants, and 446 adherents; twelve schools, and 883 scholars; and the school fees amounted to £271, while the local contributions for the mission amounted to £79.
In 1877 Miss Brown and Miss Bounsall, two of the first lady missionaries appointed by the Society, arrived in Madras. The former took charge of the girls' schools at Chulai, and also in connection with Pursewaukum native church; the latter engaged in house-to-house visitation. In the first instance the houses of former pupils were visited, the wives of native pastors and evangelists rendering helpful service. In her report for 1885 Miss Brown gives some instructive illustrations of how far-reaching very often is the Christian instruction given in these and similar schools: —
'Two pleasing incidents have lately occurred, showing the value of these and similar schools, and the good they are calculated to do to the girls educated in them. One of the girls educated in Chulai school many years ago (when the late Mrs. Hall superintended it) married, and went to live in Triplicane. She never forgot the Bible instruction she received in school, and lately a strong desire sprang up in her heart to see some Christian women, and to speak about the subjects which filled her mind. A school belonging to the Wesley an Mission is located in Triplicane, and every day she walked past this school in hopes of meeting one of the Christian teachers. As she was looking out in this way for some one to whom to unburden her heart, she happened to meet one of the Zenana teachers belonging to the Church of Scotland Mission, and seeing by her appearance that she was a Christian, eagerly accosted her and asked her to come to her house. This Christian teacher has visited her regularly since then to read and pray with her, and now the woman wishes to be baptized.
'The other incident is quite as striking. When Mrs. Whyte had charge of the Black Town schools, a little girl in school was so impressed by reading the lesson on idols in the second book of the Christian Vernacular Education Society's series (still used in the schools), that she entirely gave up idol-worship, and was so determined about it that her friends seemingly let her alone; perhaps her being a widow made them careless about her, as widows are very unimportant members of a Hindu household. After she left school she was visited by a Zenana teacher belonging to the Baptist Mission, and for some years has been a believer in Christ. For some time back she has been very desirous to take her stand on the Lord's side, and has suffered a good deal of persecution from her relatives on this account; but a few days ago she quietly left them and came to Mrs. Dawson, the superintendent of the Baptist Female Mission, and on Jan. 31, 1885, was baptized at her own request by the Rev. N. M. Waterbury, of the Baptist Mission.'
In her decennial report for 1890, Miss Brown points out that in 1870 there were two girls' day schools in the mission, one with 60, the other with 28 scholars. In 1880 Chulai school had 104 girls, Pursewaukum 85. In 1886 the Chulai building collapsed during the monsoon, and for the next year the school greatly suffered in attendance. But in the course of 1888 and 1889 a handsome new building was put up at a cost of Rs. 7,000 and presented to the Society, and in 1890 there were 188 scholars. In 1890 Pursewaukum had 117 names on its roll. A measure of recent progress is found in the fact that in both schools all the teachers but one were Christians, and that one a widow earning her own living, and one over whom the school was expected to exert a Christian influence.
Miss Brown superintended the Society's zenana work in Madras also, and in the report already referred to she states: —
'Zenana visitation in connection with our mission has rapidly extended within the last few years. It was commenced in 1878, a year after my landing in Madras. We began with three pupils — old scholars of the Chulai school — and as the number of pupils increased, Zenana teachers were engaged to visit them regularly and systematically. We have now a staff of five Zenana teachers, and sixty houses in which are one or more pupils. These houses are exclusive of the houses visited by Rebecca, the Bible-woman. An encouraging feature of our Zenana work is the increasing willingness of our pupils to pay fees, and as education among the women becomes more general and more valued, our difficulty in this matter will become less and less, as has been the case in regard to our girls' schools.
'One great difficulty in carrying on Zenana work is the lack of fully qualified teachers, and I purpose to establish a training class for Zenana teachers. Zenana teachers must be women of mature age and established character — mere school-girls will not do; hence our boarding school cannot supply the need, though it has been very useful in supplying teachers for our schools. An institution to give women a proper training and education for Zenana work would be a very valuable auxiliary to our work.'
Miss Bounsall took charge of the girls' boarding school, and also of the girls' school and the evangelistic work carried on in Kosapettah.
Miss Gordon, who since 1871 had been actively engaged in the work of the girls' school at the other end of Madras, in Black Town, was in 1879 placed upon the Society's staff. She continued her active service without furlough to England till 1889-90, and her death took place at Madras in 1894. She was a grand-daughter of John Gordon, who joined the Vizagapatam Mission in 1810, and daughter of J. W. Gordon, who began work in the same mission in j 835. Her work in Madras for nearly twenty-five years had been very quiet and unassuming, but she won the affection of those for whom she toiled, and she gave freely herself to the support of the mission. During Miss Gordon's absence in 1889 her work was under the care of Miss Lois A. Cox, of Adelaide, sent to India by the Australian auxiliary. Unhappily her health failed in 1891. She returned to Adelaide and died there in August, 1892.
In 1880 the Rev. G. O. Newport removed from Salem to Madras. He superintended the mission until 1885, when he returned to England. In the course of 1883 he had visited Australia as a deputation for the Society. Mr. Newport was succeeded by the Rev. Maurice Phillips, who at Madras has carried on very systematic work in preaching in Tamil to the Hindus. In 1893 the Rev. R. J. Ward, who had been for many years a pastor in England, joined the Madras Mission and undertook the pastorate of Davidson Street Chapel.
During the decade 1880 to 1890, Hinduism in Madras and elsewhere, alarmed at the growing influence of Christianity, and fanned by the Theosophical Society, determined to use Christian methods in defence of Hindu faith and practice, and formed for their advocacy and enforcement a tract society and preaching society. For some years vigorous efforts were made to carry on by these agencies an active defensive and offensive propaganda. In 1887 Mr. Phillips refers to this movement: —
'I cannot describe the religious ferment now going on in Madras, and rapidly spreading all over the Presidency, better than by transcribing a few sentences from a Tamil tract published by The Hindu Tract Society, a Society lately established for the purpose of sending forth tracts and handbills against Christianity and in defence of Hinduism. The tract is addressed to all sects and castes. "Missionaries," says the tract, "come from England at great cost, and tell us that we are in heathen darkness, and that a bundle of fables called the Bible is the true Vedam (inspired book) which alone can enlighten us. They have cast their net over our children by teaching them in their schools; and they have already made thousands of Christians, and are continuing to do so. They have penetrated into the most out of the way villages and built churches there. If we continue to sleep as we have done in the past, not one will be found worshipping in our temples in a very short time; why, the temples themselves will be converted into Christian churches! Do you not know that the number of Christians is increasing and the number of Hindu religionists decreasing everyday? How long will water remain in a well which continually lets out but receives none in? If our religion be incessantly drained by Christianity without receiving any accessions, how can it last? When our country is turned into the wilderness of Christianity, will the herb of Hinduism grow?"
'After this wail over the decay of Hinduism and the apathy of its votaries the plan of campaign is sketched. Learned pandits must go forth and put the missionaries to shame by their dialectics. Tracts against Christianity must be published in all the vernaculars and distributed all over the land. Committees must be formed in all the towns and villages to warn the people against listening to Christian preachers.
'"We must not fear missionaries because they have white faces, or because they belong to the ruling class. There is no connection between Government and Christianity, for the Queen-Empress proclaimed neutrality in all religious matters in 1858. We must therefore oppose the missionaries with all our might. Whenever they stand up to preach, let Hindu preachers stand up and start rival preaching at a distance of forty feet from them, and they will soon flee! Let caste and sectarian differences be forgotten, and let all the people join as one man to banish Christianity from our land. All possible efforts should be made to win back those who have embraced Christianity, and all children should be withdrawn from mission schools."
'These extracts show clearly that Hindu zealots are fully alive to the fact that Christianity is a mighty power in India, and that unless it can be overcome it will ere long destroy the fond superstitions of thirty centuries. No more convincing testimony to the marvellous effect of the Gospel can be given than this of its enemies.'
Ziegenbalg liked Freylinghausen's teaching so much that in 1709 he summarized Freylinghausen's Foundation of Theology into Tamil and named it Vetacastiram ('Theological Treatise,).13 [HR, I, 2. Con, 83: On December 7, 1709 Grundler, informed that Ziegenbalg had prepared Vetacastiram and desired to send a copy of it to the King of Tancavur to illustrate what the missionaries in Tranquebar were teaching.] Two palm leaf manuscripts of this Vetacastiram are now recovered (AFSt/P TAM 36 and AFSt/P TAM 93), and each manuscript is divided into two parts. The first part contains seven chapters that deal with the attributes of God as revealed in the Bible. Accordingly, God is understood as the One who is eternal, unchanging, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, all-truth, all-wisdom, all-holy, all-justice, all-mercy and all-compassionate (AFSt/P TAM 36, palm leaves 6v-18r). Ziegenbalg uses this definition of God to evaluate the authenticity and credibility of the South Indian deities. The second part describes the nature of humankind (AFSt/P TAM 85 containing 307 palm leaves) as those who are created in God's image. Out of their own free will they sinned against God and misused the ability to discern between good and evil. Their sin damaged the image of God in them. As far as their present worldly life is concerned, they are able to do several things rightly; but their spiritual life is corrupt....
-- Genealogy of the South Indian Deities: An English translation of Bartholomaus Ziegenbalg's original German manuscript with a textual analysis and glossary [Christian Propaganda], by Daniel Jeyaraj
During a phase of persecution in a neighboring region, a Jesuit missionary's library was stored in Tranquebar, and Ziegenbalg found himself suddenly in possession of much interesting materials that included a Tamil translation of the New Testament. This stroke of luck made him an heir to Jesuit research on terminology that had flourished since the days of Roberto de Nobili. In the Bibliotheca Malabarica of 1708, Ziegenbalg already listed sixteen Roman Catholic works and wrote that he had corrected five of them to such an extent that they could be used by his Protestant flock "without any problem" (p. 291-92).
At this early stage he thus began to employ de Nobili's loaded terminology; for example, he often used the word Caruvecuran (Skt. sarvesvara, lord of all) for God. According to Jeyaraj (2003:292), the twenty-six Tamil sermons of de Nobili contain many words picked up by Ziegenbalg -- for example, the Tamil words for God, angels, devil, world, man, soul, death, salvation, remission, and eternal life. Ziegenbalg's Tamil community was likely to learn, just like de Nobili's flock a century earlier, how important it is for manusan (Skt manusa, man) to avoid pavam (Skt. papa, evil), to embrace punniyam (Skt. punya, virtue), and to worship Caruvecuran (Skt. sarvesvara, lord of all) in the form of Barabarawastu (Skt. paraparavastu, divine substance) because there is no other path to the other shore (karai-erutal) of motcam (Skt. moksa, liberation) (p. 292).
Apart from terms for God such as Caruvecuran and Barabarawastu, the juxtaposition of jnana (knowledge, wisdom) and ajnana (ignorance) was particularly important for Ziegenbalg's view of Indian religions and his mission enterprise. The title of the first pamphlet from the brand-new Tamil mission press in Tranquebar reads: "The Veta-pramanam (Skt. vedapramana, Vedic norm) demonstrating that akkiyanam [ajnana] must be detested and how those in akkiyanam can be saved" (pp. 309-10). In the very first sentence Ziegenbalg comes straight to the point: "We have come to you in order to save you from akkiyanam" (Grafe 2004:83-84).
-- The Birth of Orientalism, by Urs App
But in 1891 Mr. Phillips wrote: —
'The glad tidings of great joy have been proclaimed daily in Madras and the out-stations during the year. We held 919 meetings, and preached 2,228 times to 61,063 people. We sold 404 portions of Scriptures, 2.503 tracts, and 3,600 of the monthly paper, The Messenger of Truth, and distributed gratis 10,785 handbills. Three evenings in the week we preached in the Bazaar at Gujelly to large congregations. In previous reports we had to relate how, in consequence of our preaching, Hinduism was rousing itself like a giant from its sleep of apathy, and putting forth all its strength to thwart our work and hinder the progress of the Gospel. Now, however, we are equally thankful that the giant, feeling its strength unequal to the task, is retiring to sleep. In the city of Madras we were seldom annoyed during the year, and indeed only saw the agents of the Hindu Preaching Society once in force.
'Sunday afternoon lectures to educated Hindus have been delivered by missionaries of different denominations. The attendance was larger and the interest manifested was greater than in any previous year. These lectures are the only special agency in Madras for bringing the Gospel to bear on the educated Hindus and Mahometans who have left the schools or colleges.
'Tours have been made as before in the districts connected with the out-stations of Tripassore and Pulicat, and in both centres a living work appears now to be carried on throughout the year. Public profession of Christianity is still accompanied by such serious social penalties that it is rare. The number of members received during the year was only seven, but indications appear from time to time in unexpected quarters of the way in which the Gospel is silently working among the people.'
Madras is the great port of Southern India; it is the gate through which the missionaries enter to pass to their different fields of labour. It has been from early years a great centre of education, steadily growing in efficiency, in importance, and in influence, and as a centre where Western thought and civilization are beginning powerfully to affect the mind of the younger Hinduism.
2. COMBACONUM AND CHITTOOR. — Combaconum is a town situated on the south of Madras about twenty miles north-east of Tanjore. Its population is about 40,000. In 1825 Mr. Mead, leaving Travancore in consequence of ill health, commenced a mission there with the assistance of six native readers, and at once entered on evangelistic work in the town and neighbourhood, and by degrees opened schools. The Directors of the Society for a time deferred giving their approval of the occupation of this town as a permanent station, probably on account of its proximity to Tanjore, an old and important centre of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. For two years Mr. Mead carried on the work with energy and success, but in 1827, as his health had improved, he returned to Travancore, where in August he met the Deputation of the Society, who arranged that he should superintend the western division of the Travancore Mission, making Neyoor his centre. On this account he did not return to Combaconum, but the work there was carried on with a reduced number of readers. In July, 1829. Mr. Edmund Crisp settled at Combaconum as the resident missionary, and work was conducted with an increased number of readers and with much efficiency and success. In 1833, as Mr. Crisp was suffering in health, Mr. Nimmo. an East Indian agent, who for the past ten years had taken part in the work at several stations in connection with the Madras Mission, removed from Chittoor to Combaconum in order to assist Mr. Crisp, and rendered valuable service in itinerating and other forms of work. In June, 1835, Mr. Crisp left Combaconum to proceed to Madras to take the place of a member of that mission whose health had failed. Mr. Nimmo was thus left in sole charge of the work, and in March, 1837, was ordained and placed on the list of the Society's missionaries. From this time until the close of 1851 he conducted the work with much efficiency, his long experience and his intimate acquaintance with the people and their customs well qualifying him to meet the various demands of the position. But in January, 1852, by the decision of the Directors, the station and district was handed over to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, a step rendered advisable by the near neighbourhood of Combaconum to Tanjore. Mr. Nimmo therefore removed and took up work at Tripassore. But the results of the labour of the Society's agents during the twenty-six years of their occupation of Combaconum remained, though not in a form which would appear in statistical tables. Their persistent itineration, their frequent personal interviews with natives of all castes and creeds, their visits at Hindu festivals, their educational work in schools, and the wide circulation of Christian literature had formed a valuable foundation on which others might build.
CHITTOOR, lying about eighty miles due west of Madras, and properly belonging to the Telugu country, must be mentioned here, as it was worked practically as an outstation from Madras. A church of native converts was formed here about 1825 by Mr. E. Crisp of Madras. From 1831 to 1835 Mr. Nimmo was the resident missionary; from 1833 to 1840 Mr. Bilderbeck laboured here, and at Arni and one or two other out-stations of Madras; and from 1840 to 1842 it was under the charge of Mr. Alexander Leitch. Work at Chittoor appears to have been carried on in a somewhat intermittent fashion, and after this period it ceases to appear as a head station in the Society's reports.
3. Salem. This town, about 210 miles south-west of Madras, gives its name to one of the twenty-one districts which make up the Madras Presidency. Salem District1 [In this sketch of the Salem Mission the author is largely indebted to a sketch written by the rev. Maurice Phillips and issued in 1879.], with an area of 7,604 square miles and a population of over 2,000,000, is divided into nine taluks or sections, and these contain 3,594 villages. Except towards the south the district is hilly, with large plains lying between the hills. The chief river is the Kaveri, second in sacredness to the Ganges only. The language, with the exception of a part of one taluk, is Tamil. A somewhat detailed description of this district may serve for many others in central Southern India.
The majority of cultivators are comparatively poor, but seem quite contented with their lot. So long as the wants of the day are supplied, they think little of the future. Their greatest trouble is (like small farmers in England) the payment of taxes! They rise before dawn and go out to their fields, where they labour more or less all day. The morning meal is generally the cold remains of the previous night's supper, the latter being as a rule the only meal cooked. A piece of white cloth round his loins and another round his head form the only attire of an ordinary cultivator. His wife is equally simple in her mode of life. One or two cloths, ear-rings, and nose-rings, more or less costly, as the husband's circumstances admit, together with the Thali (sign of marriage, answering to our ring), form all her possessions. The children up to ten years or more go in a state of nudity, relieved perhaps by a piece of string round the waist. The ravika or jacket is worn generally by Musulmanis and by women of high castes, but rarely by the lower orders, except above the ghats, where the colder climate makes it necessary. The wealthier classes dress more richly in public, but in their houses their attire is very scanty. The people as a rule are well-made and often handsome.
The great bulk of the people, including cultivators, artisans, and pariahs, though nominally ranging themselves among the followers of Vishnu and Siva, worship certain village gods and goddesses, remnants of aboriginal pre-Aryan cult, the most popular of which is Mari-amman, the goddess of small-pox and other ills that flesh is heir to; and hence she is propitiated on the coming of every calamity by the sacrifice of fowls, sheep, and goats. A rude temple to this goddess is found in every village and hamlet of any importance; and there are hereditary priests to officiate before her. If a village be too small to support a priest, his services are divided between two or three villages. All classes and religionists believe more or less in the doctrine of metempsychosis or transmigration of souls.
The Salem Mission was commenced in the year 1827 by the Rev. Henry Crisp. Several schools which had been established and supported by the collector, M. D. Cockburn, were at once given over to the charge of the missionary. Mr. Crisp, after having acquired sufficient knowledge of the language, entered with much energy, zeal, and devotedness upon his work. He built school-rooms and a chapel, and began to preach and itinerate in full earnest; but he died in 1831, only four years after his arrival in the district. His devoted wife had died in 1829.
For nearly a whole year the station was left without the superintendence of a missionary. In the course of 1832 the Rev. G. Walton, an East Indian, was sent from Bellary to Salem. He carried on the work as he had found it with faithfulness, collected a little congregation around him, and selected five or six men to be his assistants as catechists or native teachers. The schools then contained 350 heathen children, and on Sundays the number of hearers had increased from five to fifty. Mr. Walton from time to time, with some of the native teachers, made evangelistic tours to several parts of this vast district, which then comprised more than a million of souls. Their principal work, however, was in Salem and its immediate vicinity.
In May, 1840, the Rev. J. M. Lechler arrived. He was a German by birth, and had been associated with the Church Missionary Society in Tinnevelly, reaching India in 1835. Prior to settling at Salem, he had worked for some months in Coimbatore. In June, 1841, when the Rev. G. Walton died, he took entire charge of the mission, and laboured alone for twenty-one years.
Mr. Lechler was no ordinary man. He possessed both the power to conceive, and the energy and determination to execute, great plans for the propagation of the Gospel and the building up of a Christian church in India. His piety, zeal, earnestness, and reliance upon God, as well as his abandonment of plans when found to be unsuitable, are worthy of imitation by all missionaries.
The first plan which he tried was to establish schools over the greater part of the district where Christian books were taught, and where he and his assistants preached during their periodical visits. This plan failed because the masters were all heathen and could not be prevailed upon to teach the Catechism and Christian lessons.
The second plan was to collect scattered families willing to place themselves under Christian instruction, and to form them into Christian villages, giving them pecuniary assistance to start as cultivators. The catechists in charge proved unfaithful, and the people, when the assistance begun was not continued, went back to their old habits and beliefs! And 'thus,' writes Mr. Lechler, 'the plan of forming Christian villages, and of making them rallying- points for inquirers and depots of Christian truth, also failed almost entirely. In the neighbourhood of those villages, however, much good has been done; many a soul has heard the Gospel, many children have been rescued, brought in and educated in our asylums, and some of the higher castes of cultivators have furnished themselves with copies of the New Testament or portions of it.'
The third and most successful plan tried by Mr. Lechler was the establishment and maintenance of an Industrial School. In 1854 Mr. Lechler visited England and also Germany, and upon his return in 1855 was accompanied by T. G. Kubler as his assistant, and by two artisans, and brought out material for the establishment of this school. The special object was to teach carpentry, smithery, and bricklaying to the boys of the orphanage and any young men desiring to place themselves under Christian instruction. The school, though not fulfilling all of Mr. Lechler's expectations, did good work, and was only abolished after his death, as it was deemed unadvisable to continue it under the altered circumstances of the mission. Many Christian artisans in this and other districts were brought up in the Industrial School, and occupied respectable positions, who otherwise would have been only common labourers.
Mr. Lechler placed a high value on itineration, and 'regarded it as one, if not the most important, means of propagating the Gospel;' but he felt, as every missionary since in the district has felt, that 'it is to be regretted that it can be practised so little where there is only one missionary in a station.'
According to Mr. Lechler's report for 1859, a year and a half before he died, the statistics of the mission were as follows: — Catechists, 11; out-stations, 4; communicants, 35; 'under Christian instruction, about 350.' The schools were: Boys' Orphan and Boarding Asylum, containing 30; Girls' Orphan and Boarding Asylum, containing 25; Industrial School, 25 lads; and six country day schools containing 75 pupils.
Mr. Lechler died very suddenly on June 17, 1861. Mrs. Lechler was then in England about to embark for India, and the sad news of her great loss only reached her after her arrival in Madras. She survived her husband for over thirty years; and was quite a leading spirit in the mission, especially on the Sherarog Hills, where she resided.
The Rev. Colin Campbell from Bangalore took charge of the mission after Mr. Lechler's death until the arrival of the Rev. Goodeve Mabbs in January, 1862. Mr. Mabbs, in consequence of ill health, was often away for lengthened periods from the district, so that he was able to do but little; and in November, 1865, he was transferred to Travancore, and the Rev. W. E. Morris took charge of the station. Mr. Morris threw his whole soul into the work, but after three years it proved too much for him. He was obliged to go home in February, 1869, to recruit his shattered health, with the hope of returning; but that hope was never realized.
In January, 1869, Maurice Phillips added the charge of the Salem Mission to Tripatur, where he had been stationed since 1862. He resided at Salem, and itinerated through the district. There were at the end of 1869 eleven out-stations, fourteen native preachers, 129 communicants, 475 baptized persons, including communicants; five boys' schools, containing 125 scholars, and two girls' schools, containing 84 girls, in connection with the mission.
In February, 1870, the Rev. Henry Toller and his wife arrived to take the place of Mr. and Mrs. Morris; but within six weeks of their arrival, he was suddenly attacked with cholera, and died in a few hours. Mr. Toller was a young man who had just left Cheshunt College, full of zeal, who, humanly speaking, had a fair prospect of a long and useful life before him, but God, who does all things well, ordered it otherwise. Mrs. Toller returned home in the ship in which both had come out.
The Directors were greatly perplexed when they heard of the sudden death of Mr. Toller. They felt that they had lost four men at Salem during eight years, two by death and two by illness, and naturally feared the consequences of sending another man there. They therefore contemplated handing over the district to the Arcot Mission. The District Committee strongly and unanimously opposed the proposal. They pointed out the disastrous effect it would have in breaking up the symmetry of the field. If necessary to give up any station, either Belgaum or Vizagapatam, or both, on account of their distance and isolation from all other stations of the Society, could be better spared than Salem. They pointed out that much work had been done in the district; that valuable property for carrying on missionary operations had been procured; that the town of Salem only was unhealthy, and not the district as a whole; that the unhealthiness of the town could be avoided to a very great extent by living in the suburbs; and that as Mr. Phillips had had experience of the place, and did not object to live in it, he should be relieved of Tripatur and devote the whole of his time to Salem. In the end the Directors relinquished the idea of giving up the district, and Mr. Phillips continued in charge of the mission until 1884. During Mr. Phillips' furlough in 1873-74, the Rev. H. Rice, of Tripatur, superintended the work from that station.
In July, 1875, Evangelist Mutthu was ordained pastor over the church in the town of Salem, the church agreeing to pay ten rupees a month towards his salary and all incidental expenses of worship. In the same year the Anglo-vernacular school was raised to the standard of a High School preparing scholars for the Matriculation Examination of the Madras University. The old mission house was turned into a school-room on the completion of a new house erected in a healthy locality outside the town, with the money realized by selling a part of the old mission compound. This High School was designed to give a high-class education on Christian principles in a town containing 50,000 inhabitants, and the capital of a district containing nearly two millions. Such a school has now become a necessity, without which missionaries can never exert the influence in the town and the district which they desire. Boys who have been in mission schools are generally the missionaries' friends, and often protect them from the abuse and insolence of crowds when preaching in the streets; and as they come from different parts of the district to pursue the higher education, they always prepare the way for preaching in their villages. This being a new and a most important work, the Directors transferred the Rev. G. O. Newport from Nagercoil to Salem in March, 1877, to take charge of the school and the work in the town and suburbs, thus leaving Mr. Phillips free to devote the whole of his time to itinerating and the out-stations. Ill health compelled Mr. Newport's removal to Bangalore in 1880.
The statistics of the mission at the end of 1878 were as follows:— Native minister, 1; native preachers, 8; out-stations, 12; communicants, 158; baptized (inclusive of communicants), 790; boys' schools, 6, with 335 scholars; girls' schools 2, containing 138 pupils.
The Rev. W. Robinson, of Tripatur, was formally appointed missionary of Salem in 1885. In December, 1885, he was joined by the Rev. A. A. Dignum, who was transferred from the Gooty Mission. For nearly three years the station then had the benefit of two resident missionaries. Mr. Robinson came to England on furlough in October, 1888, and returned to India in the autumn of 1890. During his absence the Rev. C. G. Marshall, appointed to Tripatur, arrived and resided in Salem for a few months, to commence the study of the language and to become familiarized with mission-work. On his removal to Tripatur at the commencement of 1890, Mr. Dignum was left entirely alone for nearly twelve months. The Rev. R. C. Porter was appointed to the mission in 1893.
Mr. Dignum in the report for 1890 wrote: —
'With reference to evangelistic work in the district, I am afraid that I cannot report anything fresh or encouraging. It is a thrice-told tale that the area attempted to be covered is far too large to be thoroughly worked; or, in other words, that the means at our disposal are all too inadequate for the work that needs to be done. Only one of the four taluks — that of Atur — is fairly supplied with agents. In Salem taluk, however, which is the most populous and in every way the most important, we have no mission agents outside Salem except at Yercaud and Razipur. During the year I have spent 137 days in visiting the out-stations and in preaching in the villages, and the conviction has been more and more deeply borne in upon me that a visit once, or at the most twice, a year to the larger villages, unless followed up by frequent visits from strong, earnest, Christian native workers, will not, and cannot be expected to, produce any lasting good.'
Evangelistic work has been vigorously carried on in the town of Salem by the Rev. A. Devasagayam and Mr. Pakkianathan, who completed his course of study at Bangalore at the end of 1889.
Educational work has progressed remarkably in both branches. The High School, freed from Government control, has continued to improve. The number on the roll has largely increased. The heads of the most influential and wealthy Hindu families send their sons to the school, though its Christian character is constantly maintained, all the teachers on the staff being Christians. The girls' schools, though not large, have been very successful in educational results.
As in the other South Indian stations, for many years Christian work was carried on at Salem among the women and girls. But in 1891 new life was infused into this department by the arrival of Miss Lois A. Cox. In the year 1889, largely as the result of the visit of Mr. Wardlaw Thompson and Mr. Spicer, the Australian churches resolved to take a more active share in the work of the Society. In connection with this development Miss Cox volunteered for service, and to her belongs the honour of being the first missionary thus sent forth by the Australian churches. We have already referred to her work in Madras, and in January, 1891, she was transferred to Salem. There she was able to organize and commence, by the aid of Australian friends, four schools for girls. Unhappily her health failed, and in January, 1892, she returned to Adelaide, where she died on August 10. Brief as her career was, she has left a deep and inspiring influence upon the Salem Mission.
Only a few weeks before the compulsory retirement of Miss Cox, Miss Annie Crouch, of Hobart, Tasmania, arrived in Salem as her colleague; and only too soon found the main burden of the work resting upon her. The Church in Hobart from which Miss Crouch came, sent to her in December, 1892, a helper, Miss M. G. Lodge. The report for 1895 stated that in the four girls' schools there were 354 scholars, and that there were five Bible-women in active service. A Lois Cox Memorial Home — a boarding school for girls — was erected by Australian friends, and in 1897 contained twenty-one pupils.
Signs of the great change coming over Hindu society in its recognition of Christians and of Christianity have been evident in Salem. The Rev. A. Devasagayam stated in 1890: 'The chasm which once divided the Hindu from the Christian now no longer exists. They rub shoulder to shoulder on every possible occasion. Is it a social meeting, or one for political reform, a religious address, a lecture on science or literature, or a reception to a public benefactor, you are sure of noticing Brahman, Christian, and Mussulman mingling freely and doing their work as if they all belonged to one brotherhood. This is an unmistakable sign of the decay of caste.' Yet persecution and hostility to the Gospel are not by any means dead, and in Salem, as in other centres, the labours of the nineteenth century have been but the preparation for the success of the twentieth.