A spiritual awakening among India's students : addresses of six student conferences of the Student Volunteer Movement held at Jaffna, Lahore, Calcutta, and Madras

Preface

For some years there has been increasing interest in the spiritual welfare of the students of India, both among missionaries and those in the home lands who have studied missionary problems. At the urgent invitation of workers among students in India and other mission fields, Mr. John R. Mott, the College Secretary of the Intercollegiate Young Men’s Christian Association, was led to make a tour, visiting all of the leading educational centres of the Orient.

Mr. Mott was also the representative of a still wider organization which was only called into existence last summer. One outgrowth of the Students’ Summer Schools, held in Great Britain, Germany, and Scandinavia during the last few years, was the uniting of the Student Movements in these countries, together with the Young Men’s Christian Association Movement in Foreign Lands, under the name of the World’s Student Christian Federation. This at once brought all these movements into far closer fellowship. It seemed best to the Federation to make Mr. Mott its General Secretary, especially in view of his proposed tour among Eastern students. And hundreds of the leading Christian students in these various countries have been united in continuous, special intercession for blessing upon this tour. Attention is called to this fact as furnishing the explanation of the remarkable results already apparent.

On account of the limited time Mr. Mott was able to spend in India, it seemed to the workers on the field that more students could be reached by a series of conferences held in different sections than in any other way. Arrangements were accordingly made by a Central Committee for Student Conferences at Jaffna, yi.

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Ceylon, December 11 — 13, 1895, at Bombay, January 9 — 12, 1896, at Lahore, January 23 — 26, at Lucknow, January 31st — February 2, 1896, at Calcutta, February 13 — 16, and at Madras, February 27 — March 1, 1896.

The objects of the Conferences were : (1) To promote spiritual life and activity among Christian students. (2) To consider the most approved methods for reaching non-Christian students. (3) To discuss the important part which educated young men must take in the evangelization of India. (4) To wait unitedly on God for power from on high.

The total number of delegates at the six conferences was 1,500. Of these, over 300 were missionaries, representing more than 60 societies, or practically all the leading missionary agencies at work in India and Ceylon. There were 133 institutions represented, including not only the great majority of the missionary colleges and high schools, but also many Government and private institutions having Christian students. The aggregate attendance of student delegates was over 1,000, or more than were present at the Student Conferences in Great Britain, Germany, Scandinavia and Switzerland combined, in the summer of 1895. The large attendance of educational missionaries, Indian Christian teachers, and British and American student volunteers was also noteworthy.

Eighty-seven men, of whom practically all were students and school boys, professed to accept, for the first time, Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour. Some of them were Hindus and Mohammedans. One Mohammedan has been baptized to the writer’s knowledge, and it is earnestly hoped that the remaining number will have grace to endure that severe test of public baptism. A majority of those who publicly confessed Christ were children of Christian parents, though not themselves Christians any more than students in Western lands who have never personally accepted Christ.

In another direction, the Conferences were found to be specially helpful, that is, in deepening the life of those who were already Christians. The fundamental importance of Bible study for personal spiritual growth, the great need of a far deeper and more increasing l’REEACE.

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prayer life, the supreme privilege and duty of being filled with the Holy Spirit, were keynotes at all of the gatherings ; and the fact that 722 voluntarily covenanted with God to keep the Morning Watch is in itself a result of great significance. It is, as it were, the turning of Divine power through hundreds of new and enlarged channels. The “Morning Watch” was explained to be the setting aside of at least the first half hour of every day for meeting God, face to face, in devotional Bible study and secret prayer.

To those who pray and work for the evangelization of the world, no other result was more cheering than the voluntary dedication of a number of students to the work of reaching their own country for Christ ; some of this number are among the most promising Christian students in India. They are largely the fruits of the toil and prayers of faithful missionaries. Unless India is to be an exception to all history, the leaders of her church will be her own sons. We are here simply to co-operate with these young men, — to be helpers with them in reaching the country with the Gospel.

We are thankful that the Conferences received the strong endorsement of missionaries throughout India and Ceylon, and that an earnest desire was expressed for their repetition.

Representatives from the five Indian Conferences met at Madras, at the close of the series, to make plans for conserving and extending the work already begun ; and after two days’ prayerful conference together, it was unanimously decided to have a similar series of meetings next year. It Avas further decided to band together those students who had offered themselves, and who should in the future offer themselves for Christian work, into an organization to be called the Student Volunteer Movement for India and Ceylon : and an Executive Committee of three members Avas arranged for : two of these Avere appointed by the delegates present and a third by the Intercollegiate Young Men’s Christian Associations. Mr. Robert P. Wilder, Mr. Crayden Edmonds, and Mr. J. Campbell White were appointed on this Committee, to which, in conjunction Avith a committee of three from

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the Intercollegiate Young Men’s Christian Associations, was entrusted the general arrangements for next year’s Conferences. Arrangements were also made for the appointment of provincial committees for each of the sections in which conferences were held this year.

Mr. Mott had been authorized, as the General Secretary of the World’s Student Christian Federation, to affiliate any movements among Christian students answering to certain tests laid down by the General Committee. The prevailing and almost only type of Christian organization among students is the College Young Men’s Christian Association. Already over twenty such college associations exist in India and Ceylon, while a number are being organized. In view of this fact, the Indian National Council of the Young Men’s Christian Associations requested that these associations be affiliated with the Federation, as the Intercollegiate Young Men’s Christian Association Movement of India and Ceylon. Having answered to the tests laid down by the General Committee of the Federation, this Movement was admitted to the F ederation on an equal footing with the Student Movements in America, Great Britain, Germany, and Scandinavia ; the two representatives appointed to the General Committee of the Federation being Mr. Kali Churn Bannerji, m.a., b.l., of Calcutta, and Mr. S. Satthianadhan, m.a., ll.b., of Madras. We cannot but believe that a new epoch has come in the life of the students of this great empire. It is not putting it too strongly to call it A Spiritual Awakening among India’s Students. In behalf of all the delegates to these Conferences the Committee would express their gratitude to the World’s Student Christian Federation for the help of their official representative, whom God has used in so marked a way in the inauguration of this Movement, the fruitfulness of which we feel has only begun. We trust that the plan of sending’ a representative to visit and to assist these new and inexperienced Movements among Eastern students may become a regular feature of the work of the World’s Student Christian Federation.

It is safe to say that India’s Christian students feel

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much more deeply than ever before their oneness with the Christian students of the world. They join with their fellow-students in Christ, wherever found, in giving thanks to God for the mighty work He has been carrying on among the students of various countries, and they join in the great circle of prayer and work extending round the world that speedily Christ’s Kingdom may come, and His will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

J. Campbell White.

Part I. The Deepening Of The Spiritual Life

Page.

Bible Study foe Personal Growth ... ... 1

Mr. John R. Mott.

Rev. H. J. Bruce.

Rev. Norman H. Russell.

The Overcoming Life ... ... ... 22

Mrs. Constantine.

Mr. Robert P. Wilder.

Mr. John R. Mott.

Rev. John N. Hyde.

Days of Prayer in Mission Work ... ... 54

Mr. Charles F. Reeve.

The Spirit Filled Life ! What is it P ... ... 56

Rev. J. J. Lucas.

Mr. Crayden Edmunds.

How to Labor with Christ ... ... 62

Rev. R. McCheyne Paterson.

The Act of Receiving the Holy Ghost... ... 64

Mr. Charles F. Reeve.

Xll.

CONTENTS.

Part II. The Evangelization Of India

Page.

Rev. J. E. Robinson.

The Secret of a Spiritual Awakening ... ... 78

Mrs. M. B. Fuller.

The Student Volunteer Movement and its Message to India ... ... ... ... 83

Mr. John R. Mott.

What Christ Thinks of Statistics ... ... 90

Rev. J. J. Lncas.

How to Preach a Full Gospel ... ... 92

Rev. R. Wright Hay.

How to Hasten the Evangelization of India ... 95

Rev. M. B. Fuller.

Mr. J. Campbell White.

Part III. The Call To Students

Prof. S. Satthianadhan.

The World’s Student Christian Federation ... 109 Mr. John R. Mott.

The Higher Education of Christians in Bengal ... 117 Mr. J. N. Farquhar.

Mr. N. Tilak.

Consecration ... ... ... 135

Rev. John R. Forman.

Three Young Men of the Bible ... ... 137

Rev. R. S. Haywood.

Work Among the Depressed Classes ... ... 141

Rev. F. L. Neeld.

Rev. R. Wright Hay.

CONTENTS. Xlll.

Part IV. An Appeal From India

Page.

An Appeal fkom India ... ... ... 147

Mr. Robert P. Wilder.