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IHE WORLD-WIDE REVIVAL
I.
THE REVIVAL AT PODILI.
The revival has reached Podili, is the news given
in the Baptist Missionary Review. The occasion
was the joint quarterly meeting of Podili and Dar
si fields. The subject was revival, and the pro
gram was planned with the thought of waiting on
God for an immediate revival rather than consider
ering <the need and nature of revivals and similar
themes. Brethren were here to help us from Aaama
kur and Ramapatam, but when the revival came it
was as sudden as a flash of lightning and seemed
to have no direct relation to program or leaders.
The meeting's had seemed unresponsive and the
Sunday night meeting was just closing, when sud
denly a young man fell on his face and began to
cry out for forgiveness. From that moment until
midnight on Wednesday the meeting continued all
day and far into the night. There was no leader
and no program. The nature of the revival was
the same as that in Wales and other places in
India, deep agony for sin, confession and great joy.
Quarrels wefre made right, money restored and
secret sins confessed. With a very few exceptions
this experience was passed through by all workers
of both fields. The revival is still powerful in
the near villages and among coolies and servants.
We are beginning to hear some reports from the
Spirit-filled workers, but it is too soon for many
such reports.
11.
2,000 HINDU CONVERTS.
Good news comes also from the East Coast of
India, where a remarkable awakening has been in
progress four years resulting in 2,000 converts
from heathenism. Mr. A. iS. Paynter, speaking re
cently in London, gave a graphic picture of the
spiritual movement, now in progress. He said:
“Four years ago, a friend of mine, a converted
Mohammedan living on the East coast of India, be
gan to teach the heathen about Christianity, and
how it destroyed caste and made all people equal.
About a thousand Hindu people then signed a pe
tition asking us to come and instruct them about
the Bible. Although we were a long way off, we
went to them. Since then over two thousand souls
have been won to Christ through our labors, and
so great is the hunger after the Gospel we believe
that in two or three years’ time we would have a
church of 20.000 members if we were only able
to go to all the people who call us. I have walked
thousands of miles from village to village preach
ing the Gospel. At times I have been for months
without a home, have slept under trees, and have
eaten only (he food given to me by Hindu villag
ers. ’ ’
“Three years ago there was not a Christian in the
village of Bhoga-Puram. Now every soul in the
village of five hundred persons is a professing Chris
tian. There is not a heathen in the whole village.
Not one of those who have accepted Christ has
back'slidden. When we went there three years ago
there was a heathen temple in the village, where all
the villagers worshipped a brass image of Luksh
mee Devi, the goddess of wealth, who is worshipped
/by millions of people in India. After their con
version to Christ the villagers demolished her shrine
and gave us the brass idol as a memento of the oc
casion. ’ ’
111.
FRUIT IN THE SUDAN.
The Sudan in Africa is now declared to be the
largest unevangelized territory in the world. Dr.
Karl W. Kumm has organized the Sudan United
Mission for giving the gospel to the benighted mul
titudes of heathen black men living in the enormous
district.
Tn the Missionary Witness, the official organ of
the Mission, Dr. Kumm vividly portrays the first
fruits of the work:
“We rose from our knees, seven brethren on
News of Gracious Awakenings tn Home and Foreign Fields.
Whom the Lord had heavily laid the burden of the
waiting millions of the Sudan. It was our last eve
ning at Wase, away in the heart of the West Cen
tral Sudan. We had asked the Master to show us
some first fruits before leaving Central Africa, and
we believed our prayers to have been heard and
accepted. (Ezek. 18:23; 1 Tim 2:11; 2 Peter
3:9.)
“The address was given, the word preached in
power iaryd demonstration by Mr. Maxwell, the
meeting was over but still we were waiting. I felt
I had to say a last word of farewell to the men.
“ ‘Boys,’ I said (we call our colored people
boys), ‘you have been with us for over six months.
Every day you have heard the Gospel, again and
again we have explained to you what it means to
be converted and become a Christian. I want to
ask you a question before leaving, perhaps never
to see some of you again.
“ ‘You know Christ the Master loves you. Who
would like, before saying goodbye to me, to accept
Jesus as his personal Savior? Who would?’
“There was a moment’s silence. Then quietly
and reverently Tom says: ‘lna so’ (I want to).
“Another moment and the Headman and Dan
follow. ‘lna so.’ ‘lna so.’
“Then the Doki (horse) boy—‘lna so’; fol
lowed by man after man, ‘lna so.’ ‘lna so.’ ‘lna
so.’
“ ‘Do you realize what it means?’ I asked. ‘Do
you really want to accept Christ? Do you fully
understand that it means giving up all lying, steal
ing, adultery, immorality, all evil doing, and all evil
thinking, and—loving your enemies? For when
Christ comes into the heart, the evil one must go.
“ ‘Once more I ask a second time, Who wants
thus to serve Jesus, and make Jesus King?’
“Again silence. ‘Who wants to?’
“Quietly, slowly, and in low voices, but firmly
and with determination, the answer comes from lip
after lip, in the gathering darkness of the tropical
evening.
“ ‘lna so,’ ‘lna so,’ ‘lna so,’ ‘lna so.’ right
through the ranks of the bOys and men sitting there
before us on the ground.
“How I wished that friends at home could have
been there at that moment, and could have seen and
heard what it was my privilege and joy to see and
hear.
IV.
RISKED DEATH FOR CHRIST.
Dr. Kumm finally asked the men if they were
willing to go and cany the tidings of salvation to
the Cannibals, and they answered in the affirmative.
He continues:
“ ‘My third time I ask you, my boys, who is not
only willing to make Jesus King in his own heart,
but after he has stayed here with the white man
a little longer, and learned to read the Word of God
for himself, who is willing to go back to his people
and make Jesus King in his own tribe?’
“ ‘Representatives are here of at least half a doz
en different peoples. Some of the tribes in our
neighborhood are cannibal.
“ ‘You know, my dear fellows, if you go to some
of your kings, like the Gazum, the Yergum, the
Burumawa, with the doctrine, love your enemies,
they will not like it. They do not wish to love their
enemies. And it may be that you will be sudden
ly spirited away, there will be a feast, and—well,
that will be the end of you.
“ ‘Who, I ask, for the last time, is willing to
make Jesus King in his own tribe, and if necessary,
die for Jesus?’
“Silence. No words; but from the ground they
rise, they stand upon their feet, they lift up their
hands to the starry sky, and with upturned faces
we vow unto the Lord of Hosts:
“ ‘Whether we live, we live unto the Lord,
Whether we die, we die unto the Lord.
Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the
Lord’s.’
The Golden Age for January 17, 1907.
By GEORGE T. B. DAVIS.
“Brethren, it is worth while to be a missionary.
“We do not say that all who were there fully
realized the meaning of what they said, but we
know, thank God, that some did, and do. One of
them, Tom, a former slave boy, returned with me to
England, and is daily living a faithful and consist
ent life.”
V.
GIFT OF TONGUES IN INDIA.
Remarkable scenes are being witnessed in connec
tion with the revival in India. Trustworthy wit
nesses report trances, tongues of fire and the gift
of tongues. Mrs. Annie H. Downie, the wife of one
of the oldest and mose conservative missionaries in
India, after reading a criticism of these “physical
phenomena” in a religious journal, writes to the
Chicago Standard as follows:
“We have never for a moment supposed that this
was a ‘repetition’ of Pentecost and we hardly
think that those persons quoted as saying so real
ly meant that. But are we justified in assuming
that because the phenomena at Pentecost differed
from those at Nellore the latter were any less
the work of the Spirit?
“One of the marked features of these trances is
the unwillingness of those experiencing the vis
ions to tell about them. Some of them said: ‘We
are commanded not to tell.’ Others would tell a
little and then say the rest was too sacred to talk
about. But on all their faces there was such a
shining and for a long time a rapt look, a sort of
aloofness, that was noticeable, and when they sang
or spoke their heads were lifted and eyes raised
as though trying to pierce the skies and renew their
visions.
“When we first saw these ‘phenomena’ as ‘The
Standard’ calls them, we were perhaps as skeptical
as any one. When the first girl went into a trance,
my husband was disposed to order her carried over
to school and put to bed. But he had the grace
of patience given him to wait and see. Since then
there has been a steady increase of strength and
power on the part of the Spirit-filled ones. For
merly our prayer meetings were so tiresome—often
killed by the leader at the beginning and dragging
through what seemed a long hour. But for four
months we have had no leader but the Holy Spirit
and our prayer meetings are love feasts from start
to finish—no long waits, no halting, and two hours
not enough for those ready to speak or pray. There
is no excitement, no ‘physical phenomena’ now, but
only the intense earnestness of those who have been
taken to the pit and given a sight of the horrors
there and who are now Christ’s for time and eter
nity.
“In another part of the editorial it is inferred
that the Spirit is not now manifested through
tongues of flame and the ability to speak unknown
languages. It was not in Nellore but it has been
in Bombay and Mukti. My husband saw a letter
written by an American missionary working in
Bombay in which she said she was called by some
of the girls to come quick, for so and so was on
fire. She saw the flames enveloping her and caught
up a blanket to throw over the girl, but was stop
ped midway by the look on the girl’s face and the
feeling that here was something supernatural. In
Bombay one young woman suddenly developed pow
er to speak in five languages and several became
so fluent in Hindustani that they began preaching
in it at once, though it was a foreign language to
them.”
Henry Mitchell of Boston has been for forty
years maker of the dies for the stamped envelopes
issued for the government, with a brief intermis
sion. At one time a change of administration re
sulted in his being relieved. But he was not out
long—only a few months—for it was soon discov
ered that nobody but Mitchell could properly make
the dies needed by the government.
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