1

methods to

follow.

VII. The last inquiry is the most important one-what is FIFTH DAY. the right line of action to be pursued in these mass movements? What The writer would be presumptuous in the extreme were he to even hint that this question is answered in this paper. The best he can do is to express his own convictions and give some conclusions from experience. In the Lutheran Mission of the General Synod we are on the watch for better methods, while every few years we modify our system of work and improve it, or at least hope we do.

A study of the dangers from mass movements shows them to Pagan usage. be five-sourced in pagan usage-impoverished mind, debased motive, wrong expectation and lack of moral courage.

(1) The introduction of entirely new customs in every point tainted with heathenism is imperative, so that it should be seen to that feasts, marriages and burials are put on a new basis. Some features of the old might be allowed to remain with respect to music, but not with respect to song or story. We in the Lutheran Mission, at our stage of the work, cannot change those social customs of our people based on caste, and are only hoping for enlightenment to do this; we try to keep caste out of the Lord's Supper, the Church and Christian work, but, if we were to begin again, the writer would make thorough renouncement of caste in all social life also to be indispensable to church membership. However, the place to begin work in a mass movement is not at the customs of the people.

(2) Firstly, candidates should be taught as much as possible Teach before before baptism, and advantage should be taken of the motive, to baptism. impel the inquirers to learn chief truths about Jesus, salvation and the church. They will better persevere and learn before baptism, and if they do not then learn they will never do so, for at baptism their ends will have been accomplished, and then they will have, as they suppose, every reason for every claim they wish to make.

(3) Again, discrimination should be made among inquirers; Individuals. they should be dealt with as individuals, never as a body, and they should be tested before baptism is administered. Many

will not continue even to attend church, much less to learn, and many will revert to former pagan usages in any case, so that it is infinitely better to give the most unworthy, time to withdraw before taking on the Christian name rather than after that event.

FIFTH DAY.

(4) Once more, not a soul should be baptized until he can be Instruction. provided for with regular instruction and worship-if there be no teacher available, then let the baptism be postponed, for ignorance and heathen customs will not abandon these people because they have received baptism. None of us yet know the exact nature of Christian-heathen still following heathenism and perverting any precious Christian truth spread among them and their community.

Duty of giving.

Renewal

(5) Further, the duty and the pleasure of giving should be inculcated from the first. While yet their wants are urgent they will contribute, and this contributing should be developed-lack here is death to the incipient church. The writer has many a time seen proportionately larger giving by the inquirer than by the Christians. They should therefore at the outset be taught to contribute for teachers, for houses of worship, for the mission, for the Bible and other Societies, and for every good cause. (6) Again, these people should be required to present of promises. themselves in public in stated meetings, at fitting times and as frequently as possible, to renew old promises and make new ones. This will kindle a sense of responsibility and develop courage. The writer has found it helpful to so use the time when the new candidate first promises to learn the Gospel-the time of tonsure, for we have uniformity as much a possible in the wearing of the hair, the reason of baptism and the time to admission to communion; moreover, he would rather increase these stages if he could, for all the church, her institutions and her workings are markedly pedagogical in the case of these people, cultivating them slowly into the Kingdom of Christ.

Worship.

Schools.

(7) In another direction, the usual form of worship ought sometimes to be varied, no matter what that form may be, and this will prevent to some extent the perpetuation of formality which broods like the night-mare over these masses as well as over India.

(8) In another respect, this whole subject of mass movements, touches heavily on the educational work of missions, which work should be pressed and pushed to supply needed teachers for schools and congregations. Even for the raw, untaught, undisciplined multitudes of inquirers, the more advanced teacher or catechist is the more to be desired, and the upper secondary student does infinitely better work than the upper primary

man, while with the better teachers the sooner and the surer will those multitudes become Christ's children.

FIFTH DAY.

(9) Once more, there is the matter of discipline. Slight Discipline. nothing. Do all things with dignity. Make no haste. Rebuke every case, study individuals, in successive steps shame, warn, fine, increase fines, send individual letters, call before the church, excommunicate. In a wayward, lower class man, a right motive cannot be touched early in his church life, and he must be moved where best he can, if by any means he shall be saved.

Important points have been omitted under this inquiry of the right line of action, but the main concern is with the inquirer in his relation to instruction, admission into the church, development, discipline, benevolence, Christian organization and work. With the right line of action and the blessings of God there will arise, in the future, churches of great numbers of Christians, both men and women, born out of the filth and degradation of these lower classes, and taking their place with fellow Christians throughout the nations. For the coming of that time there must be wisest method, sacrifices of many lives and ceaseless toil.

FIRST SPEECH.

By the Rev. J. HEINRICHS, A. B. M., Vinukonda,

Kistna.

Malas and

Mâdigas.

The subject of the Social Condition of the Lower Classes has already been ably presented in the papers. It will be necessary, however, to make a few additional explanations, in order to throw some light on the remarks which I wish to make. In the Telugu country, where our mission works, the non-caste people are called Mâlas and Mâdigas, and form about a fourth part of the population. Some are farmers, others farmlabourers or serfs; while others live by day labour or cooly work. There are also artisans a nong them, for many Mâlas are engaged in weaving, and the so-called caste occupation of the Their occupa · Madigas is leather-dressing and shoe-making. Some of these who have landed property are in comparatively comfortable circumstances. I baptized a Mala last year, who is said to possess Rs. 2,000 worth of farm land, cattle and houses. The farmers then rank first in independence, then come the

tions.

FIFTH DAY. artisans, next the day-labourers, and last the serfs, who, I think, constitute the larger bulk of the outcastes.

Debt.

Debased condition.

Aid of

Debt is common among all classes, but these last are almost sure to be in debt to the farmers for whom they work. This fact makes serfs of them, otherwise they would simply be labourers hired by the year. If one of these becomes a Christian he is likely to be asked to pay up his debts at once. If he can do so, he is free to seek some other work; if he is unable, the farmer can and does cause him great trouble, not infrequently selling his house by auction and leaving him and his family without shelter. The abject poverty of these people is so well known that I need not enlarge on this subject.

In their heathen state these non-caste people live submerged in ignorance, superstition, filth and indifference as to their social improvement. They have not even the consciousness of being ignorant. Superstition is an outgrowth of their heathenism and idolatry. They take to dirt as naturally as we take to cleanliness, and since they know no better they are quite indifferent as to the consequences. It is only after Christianity has come to them that they begin to shake off the shackles with which they were bound for centuries and turn their faces toward higher ideals. Here, then, I think, we can properly discuss the next question :

I.-How far are missions called upon to ameliorate this condition?

As a rule, the endeavours of missionaries to improve the condition of the heathen socially, however loudly that may call for the assistance of the philanthropist, will prove hopeless. All that a missionary can do is to prevail upon the Government to suppress slavery, the eating of carrion and similar moral evils Government. from which these people are suffering and to aid them in getting possession of land and other means of an independent existence. Their customs and habits are so ancient and sacred to them that they will not abandon them simply because they are told to do so. Appeals to their reason or moral sense are fruitless, for in the majority of cases these people are unreasonable, and their moral sense needs first to be developed in order to be made productive of good. Neither has the missionary time to engage in secular matters, nor cash enough to supply the demands that would be made.

make them

free.

Only he whom the Son of God makes free is free indeed. FIFTH DAY. After Christ has entered the heart of these people and they are Christ can made obedient to the Spirit, they will also have faith in the missionary's message and the superiority of his social, moral and religious ideas. They will, on accepting Christ as their Saviour from the sins and evils of this world as well as the everlasting misery of the next, not only learn the Ten Commandments by heart, but try to practise them in their daily lives. They will try to keep the Sabbath holy, endeavour to speak the truth, look upon adultery and bigamy as erimes, will cover their bodies, comb their hair, keep their houses clean and whitewashed, abstain from eating carrion, and do a great many other things which they formerly did not do; and that, not always from personal and religious conviction, but simply because the missionary's religion inculcates these principles and they have faith in him. Thus it will happen that in villages where heathens and Christians live side by side, the latter have on many occasions reaped the practical benefits of their new religion, while the former had to suffer the consequences of their old mode of life. In Ponnaluru, of the Nellore District, ninety Sudras were swept away by cholera last year, while all our Christians living close by escaped.

If it be true what our religion teaches, that godliness is profitable unto all things having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come, there is no reason why missionaries should not try to ameliorate the state of these poor people socially as well as morally and spiritually. To instruct them in the divine arts of Christianity, such as cleanliness, the proper care of the sick, the training of children, the duty of diligence and thrift, &c., is certainly within the domain of our duty toward our fellowmen. This fact that the religion of Christ is practical in all its bearings is one of the striking object lessons which Christianity is constantly setting before the people of India. He would be a madman who deprecates this argument, and a poor missionary who does not avail himself of it. A tidy, clean Christian home, in which the whole family is seen to be better clothed, better fed, whose children are better taken care of and are being educated, to whom better ministry comes in sickness, with the care and attention of the missionary to look after their interests and help them

Cholera.