Life and Work in Benares and Kumaon, 1839-1877Kennedy, James
History
Life and Work in Benares and Kumaon, 1839-1877
Kennedy, James
India -- Description and travel; India -- History -- British occupation, 1765-1947 -- Biography; Missionaries; Missions -- India
Kol and Santhal converts, but we may well anticipate for them a far less
clouded day than that which dawned on our forefathers when Augustine
went to them.
In Bengal there are two large native Christian communities, one in
Krishnagurh in connexion with the Church Missionary Society, and the
other in Backergunje connected with the Baptists. In both cases the
conversion of individuals has led to numbers avowing themselves the
followers of Christ. Where conversion is thus what may be called
collective rather than individual, there may be in some a high degree of
spiritual life, but the majority simply go with the stream. It will be
observed that in the statistics of some missions so many are represented
as baptized, so many members of the church, so many adherents, the last
class often outnumbering the other two. These adherents openly declare
their abandonment of idolatry, attend public worship with more or less
regularity, call themselves Christians, and are called Christians by
others. They may be described as in the outer court of the temple, from
which not a few from time to time enter the inner.
In the great Presidency cities, Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras, and their
immediate neighbourhood, the native churches connected with Protestant
Missions are comparatively small. The members of these churches differ
more widely in social position, mental culture, and I think I may add
spiritual character, than any other native churches in India. Some of
the members are highly educated, have acute and disciplined minds, and
have an intimate acquaintance with our language and literature.
Individuals among them have made sacrifices by becoming the followers
of Christ, of which the only adequate explanation is that they have come
under the power of an all-controlling faith, of the faith which gives
the victory over self, the world, and the devil. Persons more
established in the faith of Christ than some of these are, more
thoroughly assured that He is the Son of God and the Saviour of the
world, I have never met. In these churches there are degrees of culture
and social standing, till we come to unlettered persons in the humblest
rank of life, some of whom are, I doubt not, as genuine Christians and
as devoted to the Saviour as their brethren of higher social standing
and larger mental attainment.
[Sidenote: THE NATIVE CHRISTIANS OF NORTHERN INDIA.]
I now proceed to speak of the native Christians of Northern India, with
whom for many years I have been closely associated, and of whom I can
speak with a measure of confidence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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