ART. II.—THREE CRISES FOR INDIA

THERE have already been two occasions in the Christian era when the conversion of India and all Asia seemed imminent. God's set time to favor Zion, when the heathen should be given to his Son for an inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for a possession, came. The hour of victory struck. These nations were willing in the day of his power, but the chosen instruments failed. God's greatness poured round their incompleteness, but they did not receive it. From the dawning of the morning the nations staggered back into the blackness of night, and darkness covered the earth and gross darkness the people for centuries. The burning question now is whether our coöperation shall enable the Lord to arise upon Asia for the third time and his glory be seen upon her.

The greatest event in human history after the death of Christ was-its appropriate consequent-the conversion of the Roman empire, culminating in the time of Constantine. Thence flowed the conversion of the northern nations, the development of European and American civilization. God prepared the same victory for Syria, Persia, India, and all Africa. Jews went thither from the Pentecost burning with its divine fire. Syria, that first called the followers of Christ Christians, that sent out Paul and Barnabas on a three years' missionary tour, that gave us such illustrious men as Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Tatian-the author of the first Harmony of the Gospels-Eusebius, Jerome, and Sozomen, was a fruitful field. Persia, that had faith enough to send the wise men to greet the newborn Christ, had faith enough to receive him as a Saviour when the Mesopotamians returned from the Pentecost. Tradition asserts that the apostle Thomas gathered disciples in India, and modern research finds a large body of Christians called after his name. However that may be, it is certain that Pantæus, principal of the Christian College in Alexandria, was the first historical missionary to India. He found a copy of the gospel of Matthew said to have been brought by the apostle Bartholomew. Between A. D. 180 and A. D. 190 the Bishop of Alexandria received an appeal from a great body of Christians in India to send them a

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Methodist Review

[January

missionary. We cannot pause on evidences, but it is altogether likely that India was farther advanced in the acceptance of the gospel than any part of Europe was before the conversion of Constantine. The Nestorians had so thoroughly Christianized Persia that Shahpoor II thought it necessary to stamp it out by perse

THE OLDEST CHRISTIAN INSCRIPTION IN INDIA-SEVENTH CENTURY.

cution in A. D. 339. Forty years of desperate effort put an army of souls, of the martyrs around the throne of God, but failed to accomplish the extirpation. The Nestorians carried the gospel into China, as the famous inscriptions of the Si-nganfu, with its conference roll of one hundred and twenty-eight preachers, so clearly disclose. Southern India has had many Pahlavi or PersoSassamian inscriptions like the one reproduced in this connection,

on which one sees the cross and the descending dove. This was discovered in 1547 and built into the wall behind the altar of the Church of the Great Mound, near Madras. Another, built into the church at Kottayam, is inscribed, "Let me not glory except in the cross of Jesus Christ." These belong to the seventh century. A bishop from India is reported to have been present at the Council of Nicæa, A. D. 325. The sixth century was a crisis in the history of the Christian church and the human race. All southern, central, and eastern Asia was within the reach, if not the grasp, of the Nestorian Church. But, alas! that church failed. Heroes, martyrs, died in vain, and the Son of God on the throne, expecting, looking out, until his enemies should be made his footstool, was disappointed. If he wept over Jerusalem and its million to be slain surely he might weep here over thousands of millions in the long centuries to follow. Here rose the Nestorian heresy. They made Christ to us God and man, but no God-man. There was no divine humiliation nor human exaltation. "Not liking to retain him as the God-man in their knowledge he gave them over to a reprobate mind." Small human thought tried to measure the infinite mysteries of God and failed. Neither could men claim the almighty help of a divine Christ to aid them in their mighty task of converting a world, nor could Christ bless a theology that dishonored him. They discrowned themselves of their glory, and Samson was shorn of his strength. Then not only a few tribes turned back from the borders of the glorious Promised Land, but all Asia was sent back into the wilderness, if not into Egypt itself. Not forty, but a thousand, years drag slowly by. What dolorous and accursed ages! What limitless ravages and sounds of war where the angel of peace was meant to be! But the hour of opportunity strikes again for Asia. Once more they come to the Promised Land. Will they now go over?

In 1542 Xavier came to India. He brought zeal, courage, heroism enough to possess the whole land. The great Mogul emperors asked for Christian instructors. Akbar the Great welcomed them to the discussions in the royal palace. The hour was propitious. The people were willing in the day of God's power. The all-conquering Kublai Khan, of China, wished to study Chris

050 M59 V.88

tianity. He sent an embassy all the way to Rome asking for one hundred intelligent men, acquainted with the Seven Arts, well qualified to show that the law of Christ was best, that all other religions were false, saying that if they would prove this he and all under him would become Christians and the church's liege men. He was another Constantine, with an empire broader than that of Rome. Once more the cross blazed in the eastern sky with the legend, "In this sign conquer." What was the result of this embassy? Anxiously we ask, for the fate of Asia was in the answer. When the messengers arrived from traversing a continent Clement IV had just died. Factions and squabbles had run rampant for three years when Gregory was elected Pope, in 1271. He at length sent two friars (not a hundred), and they deserted the returning embassy at Port Lagos, in the Levant, and the embassy returned to Kublai Khan with nò hundred men: with nothing but a vial of holy oil, mere grease, from the Sepulcher. O perfidy immeasurable! recreancy to Christ without name! Then all China, and all that its conquering arms were covering, sank into night for centuries. What in India? There was palmed off on it a theory of sacramentarian salvation, an efficacy of works, with the great might of a present God on human hearts left out; but, worse than all, temporal power was sought, schemed for, and the eternal kingdom of God sold for a potter's field in which to bury all man's hope of eternal life. For this Christianity became a disguised form of Brahmanism in India, and of Buddhism in China, that people might be deluded. into accepting it. That church bears the brand-marks of Buddhism yet in all parts of the world. It gets thence its abominable doctrine of Purgatory and deliverance therefrom by the payment of money, and it justifies its assumption of heathen doctrines and practices by the tenet that the end justifies the means. The Portuguese, coming just about the time Columbus discovered America, did no better. John III of Portugal, on the 10th of November, 1545, gave Xavier permission to introduce the damnable methods of the Inquisition into Goa to enforce the acceptance of one ritualistic system for another. It continued its accursed work until abolished by British influence in 1816. The French did no better, though they held the West of India from 1500 to 1600, for they all had the same

travesty of religion. There is little sign of their presence here, except five hundred thousand people of mixed blood. Once more Lucifer, son of the morning, fell into utter night and dragged a third of the earth with him. O gigantic apostasy! recreancy impossible to be repeated! Half a world sacrificed to the accursed lust for temporal power!. The tiara is a triple crown, large at the bottom, which represents civil power, small at the top, which represents spiritual power, and, alas! based on the temporal. This cannot be the kingdom of God.

The weary centuries drag by, but in them all the way is being once more prepared for the Lord to take possession of his own. How is it being done? Just as it was before. God chooses the best way the first time. He duplicates his movements that men wise in observing may discern the signs of the times. How did he prepare before? He gave Kublai Khan dominion from the China Sea to the Straits of Malacca on the south, and to the border of Europe on the west. Travel in that vast region was more free and safe than it is to-day. Just so God gave the Roman empire dominion over part of three continents, and the apostles could go everywhere preaching the Word. We lift up our eyes and see the same sign for India. The cross of Saint George flies from Himalaya peaks for flagstaffs and has dominion from sea to sea. Travel is as safe for missionaries, men or women, as it was for Paul in the days of the Roman empire. We cannot fail to discern the signs of the times; cannot fail to read God's handwriting on the earth as well as in the sky. This is the hour when the command has gone forth, "Go forward!" Happy the people that can hear and understand, and, understanding, obey. This is our hour for the conversion of India. How shall it be done? First, we will avoid the colossal mistakes of those going before. We look at these millions and say, "Who is sufficient for these things?" We know that all our sufficiency is of God. "Not by might, nor by an army, but by my spirit, saith the Lord." Unitarians have never done anything toward the conversion of the world. They play at salvation as amateurs and dilettanti only. We must remember that there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved, but the name of Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all. We