NEW MOVEMENTS IN INDIA

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 239, 27 June 1918, Page 6

NEW MOVEMENTS IN INDIA

AN INTERESTING LECTURE. ' The Rev. J. W. Burton, M.A. (author of "The Call of !the Pacific," etc.), delivered an interesting lecture last evening in the Wesley Church Schoolroom on "Some New Movements in India." Tho Kev. J. G. Chapman, who presided, said that Mr. Burton was about to go through tho Dominion, anil assist in raising the .£ISOO set J)y tho Methodist Conference as being necessary for the Church's foreign mission work. What was required was education on missionary work, which would eliminate a good deal of misconception and arouse enthusiasm.

The lecturer said lie was glad (o learn that the Church was taking an increasid and (lelinito interest in mission work, ami suggested that the Taranaki' Street Church should take up Hie responsibility of having its own representative in the mission field. There was no church in Australasia that gave more to foreign missions than did the Methodist Church. The missionaries of other churches were finite as earnost and hard-working as the Methodist missionaries, but the assistance given l>y this Church was very substantial. Ho referred to the work of the Methodist missionaries in the Pacific, and stated that in their sphere thero were over .100,000 persons to whom tlio Gospel had never been introduced. Of the 65,000 Indians in Fiji there were not MO who wore Christians. There was a population in India under the sphere of. tlio Methodist missionaries far larger than the population of New Zealand, aud amongst this huge population they had only two missionaries, whilo New Zealand, with its small population, had 12,000 ministers. AYas that fair? There was absolutely no chance of winning the' world to Christ on the Church's present elforts. Progress was being made, but it was slow. In fifty years they had secured 4,000,000 converts, but in that period the population of India had increased by 5,000,000, so that at the present time there were -10,000,000 more heathens in India than fifty years ago. India was so complex that it was impossible for any one speaker to discuss it in one lecture. There iveve numerous languages, customs, religions, and social functions, so that it was impossible for any one man to know the country. India was loyal, far moro loyal than was expected. He saw a camp of Gliurkas, small, nuggety soldiers, and at Agra ho saw a.company of the tall Sikh soldiers. At Lahore he saw tho great bushy-beard-ed Pathans, the fierce fighters from the frontiers. These men had been fighting m Gallipoli with bur own New Zealnnd and Australian Jjoys. and stood steadfast in the trenches of Prance. Should we '■not do something Tor these loyal, brave peopio? India was hustling how; the apathy of the past had gone, and the hustling Wis to some effect. The great problem ot the future would not he how to meet tho Teuton, but the contest between East and AY est. , The railways of India wore .'ringing the people together, and singularly enough was having a good spiritual ef.ect. '1 he country was laced with telegraph lines, and the development of the Instill service hail amazed him. , The peopio were uneducated, but that did not prevent them writing letters. In every village there was a public scribe, who wrote letters for the villagers for a ,V, e - Motor-cars were very plentiful, llio !\mm of Hyderabad had six hun<lral motor-cars with thirty to forlv European chauffeurs, but as the Nizam had six hundred wive*, lie no doubt had some use. for (ho six hundred motor-cars, t he All-India Conference had caused the question of Homo Eule for India to bo a burning one. He. then referred to the educational work in the toilers and universities in India. The people were mvsstical, religious, and poetical, but they ivero not analytical. The cause of tho unrest in India prior to the war he illustrated by an incident. He met an educated Indian in a railway carriage, and asked him for the reasons for tho unrest, the Indian said that ho was educated in J'/iigland and the Continent, and had passed the severest examinations in the universities; he had lived in India, and her blood was in his veins, yet ho had no say in the government of tho country. But the selfsame Indian did not hesitate to ill-uso a railway porter who was of low caste. Tho Indians wero not yet ready for home rule, and tho danger was that they would get self-government nctoro (hey wero ready for it. Tho In(iians were not opposed to Britain, they iid not want Germany to govern them. the fact was that they did not want anybody to govern them; thoy wanted to Kpvorn themselves. Their ideal wagthat of Canada, Australia, and Now Zea-land-they wanted India to be a self-gov-erning Dominion of the Empire.