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| The Christ of the Indian Road by E. Stanley Jones |
October 1927 Printing
Eli Stanley Jones, author
Nashville TN: Abingdon Press, 1925
This blog post by Mary Katherine May of QualityMusicandBooks.com.
The Christian reader may wonder what relevance there is in reading what E. Stanley Jones has to say about missionary work in India in 1925 except for the history it contains. There is, however, inspiration and relevance to be found in his words, as well as maybe some wisdom to be discovered in learning about his approach toward missions in areas where people have a culture that is so very different from Americans and Western Europeans.
Immigration Act of 1924
A good example of practical and applicable remarks from Jones about what is relevant today are what he has to say about the change in immigration laws enacted then in Chapter 6: The Great Hindrance.
From Wikipedia: The Immigration Act of 1924, or the Johnson-Reed Act, including the National Origins Act, and Asian Exclusion Act was a United States federal law that limited the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from an county to 2% of the number of people from that country who were already living in the United States in 1890, down from the 3% cap set by the Immigration Restriction Act of 1921, according to the Census of 1890.
If I might take only one significant thought out of The Christ of the Indian Road it would be in the form of a question. Is our purpose as Evangelists for for Christ to witness for Him to salvation or is it to change the culture of people into what we think is a Christian society? For truly, they are two very different goals for which history has proved to have two very different results.
8 Quotes from The Christ of the Indian Road
1. p. 37. As yet there is no such thing as a Christian nation. There
are Christianized individuals and groups, but the collective life of no people
has been founded upon the outlook of Jesus. We are only partially
Christianized. That does not mean that we are not appreciative of and thankful
for the Christianization that has taken place, nor are we blind to the fact
that our civilization is probably the best that has been produced so far in
human history, but we are not measuring ourselves by ourselves, but in the
white light of the person of Jesus.
2. p. 40. If the end and motive of Christianity, and therefore of
Christian missions, is to produce Christlike character, I have no apology for
being a Christian missionary, for I know nothing higher for God or man than to
be Christlike.
3. pp. 59-60. He [Jesus Christ] said that the Kingdom would come in two
great ways: It would be like a grain of mustard seed, a tiny thing that grows
into a great tree: this speaks of the outward growth of Christianity—men coming
into the organized expression of the Kingdom, namely, the Christian Church. Again, it would be like the leaven which would silently permeate the whole:
this tells of the silent permeation of the minds and hearts of men by Christian
truth and thought until, from within, but scarcely knowing what is happening
the spirit and outlook of men would be silently listened by the spirit of
Jesus—they would be Christianized from within.
4. p. 122. Another Hindu put the matter just as strongly but in
different words. He was a Hindu head judge of a native state and was the
chairman of my meeting. At the close of the address he spoke to the audience in
these words: “You have heard tonight what it means to be a Christian. If to be
like Christ is what it means, I hope you will all be Christians in your lives.” Then, turning to us who were Christians, he
said: “I have one word to speak to you: if you Christians had lived more like
Jesus Christ, this process of conversion would have gone on much more rapidly.”
5. pp. 125-128. In conversation with him one I said, “Mahatma Ghandi, I am
very anxious to see Christianity naturalized in India, so that it shall be no
longer a foreign thing identified with a foreign people and a foreign
government, but a part of the national life of India and contributing its power
to India’s uplift and redemption. What would you suggest that we do to make
that possible?” He very gravely and thoughtfully replied: “I would suggest,
first, that all of you Christians, missionaries and all, must begin to live
more like Jesus Christ.” He needn’t have
said anything more—that was quite enough.
“Second,” he said, “I would suggest that you must practice
your religion without adulterating or toning it down.”
“Third, I would suggest that you must put your emphasis upon
love, for love is the center and soul of Christianity.”
“Fourth, I would suggest that you study the non-Christian
religions and culture more sympathetically in order to find the good that is in
them, so that you might have a more sympathetic approach to the people.”
Here, then, is the epitome of the whole thing. From every side they say we must be
Christian, but Christian in a bigger, broader way than we have hitherto been.
6. p. 146. Religion is the life of God in the soul issuing in the
kingdom of God on earth. But first of all it is the life of God in the
soul. Religion means realization. If not, then religion soon means ritual, and
that means death.
7. p. 147. Someone has suggested that the early Christians conquered
that pagan world because they out-thought, they out-lived and they out-died the
pagans. But that was not enough: they
out-experienced them.
8. p. 147. If, as someone suggests, all great literature is
autobiography, then all great appeals to the non-Christian world must be a
witness.
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