Unitarianism in America: A History of its Origin and DevelopmentCooke, George Willis
History
Unitarianism in America: A History of its Origin and Development
Cooke, George Willis
Unitarianism -- United States
Since the death of Mr. Dall the aid given to India by American Unitarians
has been through the natives themselves. The work of Pundita, Ramabai has
received considerable assistance, as has also that of Mozoomdar. Early in
the year 1888, Rev. Brooke Herford, then minister of the Arlington Street
Church in Boston, received from India a letter addressed "To the chief
pastor of the Unitarian congregation at Boston." It proved to be from a
young lawyer or pleader in Banda, North-west Provinces, named Akbar Masih.
His father was an educated Mohammedan, who in early life had been converted
to Calvinistic Christianity, and had become a missionary. At the Calcutta
University the son had outgrown the faith he had been taught; and a volume
of Channing's Works, put in circulation by Mr. Dall, had given him the
mental and spiritual teaching he desired. Tracts and books were sent him,
and a correspondence followed. He read with great delight what he received,
and in a year or two he desired to become a missionary. Mr. Herford sent
him money, and he was employed to spend one-third of his time in the
missionary service of Unitarianism. When Mr. Herford removed to London, the
support of Akbar Masih was arranged for in England; and he has done a large
work in preaching, lecturing, holding conferences, and publishing tracts
and books.
Nearly in the same week in which Mr. Herford received his first letter from
Akbar Masih, Mr. Sunderland, in Ann Arbor, received one from Hajam Kissor
Singh, Jowai, Khasi Hills, Assam. He was a young man employed by the
government as a surveyor, was well educated, but belonged to one of the
primitive tribes that retain their aboriginal religion and customs to a
large extent. He had been taught orthodox Christianity, however; but it was
not satisfactory to him. A Brahmo friend loaned him a copy of Channing, and
furnished him with Mr. Dall's address. In the bundle of tracts sent him by
Mr. Dall was a copy of The Unitarian, which led him to write to its editor,
Mr. Sunderland. A correspondence followed, and the sending of many tracts
and books. Mr. Singh began to talk of his new views to others, who gathered
in his room on Sunday afternoons for religious inquiry and worship. Soon
there was a call for similar meetings in another village, and Mr. Singh
began to serve as a lay-preacher. A church was organized in Jowai, and then
a day school was opened. Tracts and books being necessary in order to carry
on the work successfully, Mr. Sunderland raised the necessary money,
printed them in Khasi at Ann Arbor, and forwarded them to Assam, thus
greatly facilitating the labors of Mr. Singh and his assistants. Also,
through the help of American Unitarians, Mr. Singh was able to secure the
aid of two paid helpers. When Mr. Sunderland visited the Khasi Hills, in
1895, as the agent of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association, he
helped to ordain a regular pastor; and he found church buildings in five
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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