The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1925, Page 52

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52

be present at festivities nor play with other chil-
dren. She can wear no ornaments, nor bathe as
other children are wont to bathe. Her touch is
pollution, and the name “rand” by which she is
generally known is equivalent to the term “harlot.”
Ill treated by her family or the family of her dead
husband, in which she may dwell as a disgraceful
and contemptible being, it is no wonder that the

A Brahman with Token of Vishnu on His
Forehead, Breast, and Arms.

young widow often seeks escape from her lot by
committing suicide or leading a life of shame.
‘Finally, we must not forget to state that thou-
sands of women in India give their bodies to the
service of the Hindu religion as temple girls, and
that as such they are the concubines of the Brahman
priests, to whose pleasure they are primarily de-
voted. These temple girls are called devadasis, that
is, slaves of the god. Theirs is a life of shame, and
they, together with the dancing-girls of India and
the muralis, who from infancy are devoted by their

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

parents to the service of the god Khandoba, form
an awful blot upon the moral life of India, espe-
cially since they are dedicated to impure lives in
the name of religion.

India and Christian Missions.

Since the dawn of history, India has been “a
land of desire” to all nations on account of its
untold wealth and strategic situation. But if India
has been a “land of desire” to human monarchs and
earthly powers, how much more should this country
with its teeming and spiritually needy millions be
“a land of desire” to Christ and His Church! Of
its more than 350,000,000 scarcely 5,000,000 are
Christians. Two hundred and thirty-four millions
are adherents of immoral Hinduism and are depart-
ing this life at the rate of 10,000,000 a year for the
8,400,000 incarnations after death which they deem
possible; 71,000,000 are the followers of the false
prophet Mohammed, 12,000,000 are Buddhists, and
11,000,000 Animists, not to mention the 7,000,000
who are adherents of a countless number of smaller
false religions.

Christianity is spreading rapidly, for each new

. convert counts tremendously in dispelling the hid-

eous darkness of superstition around him and set-
ting a new example of living. The most outstand-
ing feature of Christian opportunity is the

Mass Movement

as it is now going on in many parts of India with
far-reaching effects. It is probably no exaggeration
to say that the mass movement toward Christianity
now going on among the lowest classes of India,
a movement as a body in groups, villages, and
castes, is the greatest since the Christian Church
was founded. Villages whose people have been
doomed for centuries to carry on the dirtiest work
and most arduous labor, and who never were al-

-lowed to enter schools, are begging for Christian

missionaries, and the prospects are that the whole
village will accept the Gospel. It is a movement in
great waves. The Methodists and Baptists and sev-
eral other denominations, which have large mis-
sionary staffs in the field and are therefore better
able to take care of those who come to them, are
baptizing thousands every week. And yet, in spite
of all, the Methodists were compelled to refuse bap-
tism to 150,000 in one year for lack of Christian
teachers. It is estimated that there are to-day no
less than 50,000,000 people available for Chris-
tianity in India! What a challenge to the Chris-
tian Church! What a strong refutation of the