11 TEMPERANCE AND PASTORAL WORK
Chapter 11 TEMPERANCE AND PASTORAL WORK
DR. PHILLIPS was an enthusiastic temperance worker, and if he occasionally expressed himself with unusual vigour in his denunciation of the use of intoxicants, it must be remembered that he had abundant reason to feel strongly on the subject. The missionary who sees his new converts drawn back into heathenism by this vice, and who daily witnesses the terrible havoc wrought amongst the Europeans by it, is not greatly to be blamed, if he is unable always to speak with perfect calmness on the subject. A few extracts from some of Dr. Phillips’ public letters will serve to illustrate his feelings on this point : —
" Our community has been startled this month by a very sad and suggestive event. An English magistrate belonging to a subdivision of this district committed suicide on the 14th inst., under the influence of strong drink. The case is one of the saddest I ever knew. The poor man struggled long, and with some success, against his temptation, till the social drinking habits of another Englishman, who was his guest, overcame all the resistance his nature could make, and he fell never to rise again. Who can tell how bravely he fought the drink demon inch by inch till the last foothold yielded ; and who can describe in words strong, and sharp enough, the conduct of those who put the wine to such a man’s lips? A freshly-turfed grave in St. John’s Churchyard tells a pitifully sad tale. I called on Keshub Chunder Sen, and had a free talk with him. Oh that he would become a Christian, and lead his people out into the light! He is doing a good work in the line of temperance, being the president of a society called the Band of Hope. Over 500 baboos are already enrolled, and their pledge excludes all forms of tobacco as well as all intoxicating drinks and drugs. This is surely cheering. The secretary of this society has asked me to lecture for them when I come to Calcutta again, I gladly consented to do so, for I wish to encourage every movement of this sort among the natives."
" I have today seen one of the Bengal Government ’ out-stills,’ You might have smelt it a mile away, A putrid stench in the nostrils of all decent citizens! At its doors sat lads learning to drink. Men who love the intoxicating draught, and full-grown drunkards who learned and loved long ago, are pouring their meager earnings into the hands of these miserable brewers and distillers. May the Government soon grow ashamed of such shops! It is now sixteen years since I began work in Midnapore. There were liquor shops and drunkards when I came, but there are vastly more now. It is my firm conviction that drunkenness has increased fifty-fold in the district since the introduction of this abominable out-still system. I used to say that the chances of meeting or being molested by a drunkard were greater in either London or New York than in Midnapore, but I can say this no longer, for in these days our zenana and school teachers frequently experience serious inconvenience from drunken people in the streets and villages, and on certain days it is hardly safe to venture out. The only plea on behalf of the outstill system seems to be this — it pays. There is a little question which the Government should ponder over — Is it right ?
" Let me give you a case. A missionary inquired of a collector whether anything could be done towards ousting a liquor shop which a native with an eye to business had planted near the mission training school for teachers. The answer was a decided negative, because this would interfere with the revenue. More recently another missionary has been addressed by a collector, anxious to increase the district revenue, on the subject of planting a distillery within the limits of a Christian village belonging to the mission. In this case, fortunately, the missionary had a right to resist, and did successfully resist, the wishes of the Government. There is a woe pronounced upon him who puts strong drink to his neighbour’s lips, but this is what the Government is doing on a scale vast and appalling. Multitudes of young men are being tempted and taught to drink intoxicating liquor, and everybody knows how this habit when formed will break up industry, honesty, and every other good element of character. India will need a hundredfold more gaols and insane asylums at no distant future if this out-still system is left unchecked to work out its illegitimate results. Since the introduction of the system in this district there has been a greatly marked increase of drunkenness. Our rules are very strict, and we dismiss teachers at once who are proved to be given to strong drink, whether moderate drinkers or drunkards. The other day we were obliged to dismiss a very promising young man, one of the cleverest Santals I ever met. The Government had planted a distillery in his village, and he had learned to drink.
" I could give you many instances in point. I never used to see so many people drunk at the country markets as I do now. The product of the distilleries, planted well-nigh everywhere by the outstill system, is vastly worse than the home-made beer of the Santals. The foul, abominable stuff served out to customers by these Bengali distillers is sending hosts of poor people to a drunkard’s grave. The Santals in this district are not allowed to brew their home-made beer as formerly. Illicit manufacture is guarded against, and severe penalties are inflicted upon offenders. Hence these Santals who drink are driven to the Government distilleries to purchase the miserable stuff I have described. Every well-wisher of the Santals would delight to see, not only a large reduction in the out-still system, but, I believe, a complete revolution in the present system as well." In 1884 the health of Mrs. Phillips made it necessary that she should return to America with the children, for whom Dr. Phillips was anxious to secure greater educational advantages than were available in the district of Midnapore. To a man of his affectionate disposition, whose whole interest may be said to have been divided between his work and his children, this separation was necessarily a very sad one. The burden of loneliness was now to be added to the already heavy weight of responsibility and care which pressed upon him, and too often weakened his health. The first recorded principle of sociology ever laid down tells us upon the highest authority that it is not good for man to be alone. In no case is this more true than in that of the foreign missionary. Living in complete or partial isolation from European or civilised society, often with a distance of scores of miles stretching between himself and the nearest white man, that white man being perhaps one whose ideas and aspirations are altogether apart from those of a missionary, surrounded by all the ignorance, the vice, and the cruelty which invariably accompany heathenism, the Christian worker comes to lean more and more for support and cheer upon the society of his wife and family. When these are removed, as is so often the case, it is little to be wondered at if the man’s heart sometimes sinks within him, and fits of depression destroy his happiness and mar his usefulness. This may be less marked in the case of a celibate missionary who has become inured by long habit to a life of solitude, but it is inevitable and too often disastrous in the case of a married man who finds himself deprived of all that made his home bright and helpful.
Dr. Phillips found consolation in work. During the remaining time of his stay in India, he was engaged as busily as ever in the work of the Bible School and in the many wider interests which he advocated both by speech and pen. After seeing his family off, he wrote thus to Mrs. Phillips —
" At five o’clock this morning I reached our own dear home. Thank God, Tom [his sister’s husband] was here ; but you were not here, nor the four darling children, whom I seem to miss more and more. Your letters by the pilot have come, and I have cried like a baby over all four of them. Yes, it all seems so new and strange. These twenty years our heavenly Father has let us live and work together."
Signs of ill-health again appeared, and in his next letter to the Morning Star we find a sadly significant statement —
" My illness has made a serious break in this year’s work, but during my absence in the hills, faithful hearts and hands bore the burden of the Bible School. Had it not been for those few weeks in the bracing atmosphere of Darjeeling, I fear it would have been quite impossible for me to carry on and complete the work of this session. The prayers of beloved friends here and at home were heard in my behalf, and strength was given me for my labours. Another year I am hoping if practicable to divide the session of seven months into two parts, putting one month’s rest in the middle of it. By rest I mean a change of place and work, such as Contai, Dantoon, Silda, or Tumlook would give me for a month."
Dr. Phillips from the commencement of his ministry had held strong views on the subject of women’s work. It will be remembered that he came much under the influence of Mrs. Upham, who was one of the first in America to break through the conventionalities, and to take a part in public ministrations which had hitherto been reserved for men alone. In the Bible School Dr. Phillips sought as far as practicable to train native women, as well as men, for the work of teachers and evangelists, and he frequently took occasion to express the strong views which he held on the subject. One example may serve to illustrate this —
" The women’s meeting during our quarterly meetings was particularly stirring and full of interest. Reports of women’s work from various parts of the district were presented at the public meeting. What a stir there will be when all our native Christian women become thoroughly aroused and heartily engaged in Christian work ! India’s evangelisation depends, I believe, not a little on them. God grant them faith and the zeal that is according to knowledge for pushing on the glorious triumphs of the Cross among the heathen ! I hope we may be able to do more in this mission toward the training of young women for the several branches of Christian service. The education and elevation of women is one of the living themes in India just now. Christian missions directly and indirectly have done much towards elevating the poor, ignorant, superstitious woman, who is often man’s slave rather than his companion, into her true place in society.
" All missionary societies are labouring for the education of Hindu girls. Tomorrow the London Missionary Society holds a meeting in one of the largest halls of the city for the presentation of prizes to several girls’ schools. The Commissioner will preside, and hundreds of Hindu girls will sing sweet Christian hymns, and recite prose and poetry. What a change since Mrs. Millins began her work for native women in 1856! I was quite startled today on noticing a signboard over a door in College Street announcing the residence of a native woman as a midwife with a diploma. There are several such now in Calcutta, and many Bengali girls are now studying for the university examinations. This month there is announced a Bengali monthly magazine conducted by native Christian women. Verily the world doth grow." His increasing sense of loneliness he kept pretty much to himself, but now and again indications of it appear in his diary.
" Sabbath evening. Our congregation is gone, and the old home is as still as a graveyard. This separation is teaching us lessons we never learned before, and so our parting works for our good."
Once more an attack of fever laid him low, and he was obliged to retire to the hills in Ceylon for six weeks’ rest and change.
"August 31st, 1884. — From the hilltop I got my first view of Pedro, the highest peak in Ceylon. This has been a very eventful day for me. Having waited a week for fine weather, and this being my last opportunity, I was determined to climb to the top of Ceylon. My English chum was none too enthusiastic, but finding me quite resolved upon the expedition he decided to come along. Through cloud and rain, mist and mud, we pushed on our way. I kept up his courage by shouting ’ Excelsior ! ’ I am at the top of Ceylon — on the map — now, the very northern point, with the blue sea stretching out before me, but my heart is eager to cross it again and to resume my work at Midnapore."
Dr. Phillips, after his return from Ceylon, stayed some months longer at Midnapore, where he spent his last term in the Bible School. The reluctant conclusion had now forced itself upon him, that his only chance of remaining in India lay in his removal to a cooler district. An invitation to take the oversight of a congregation at Simla came providentially at this time, and with much reluctance he tore himself away from the educational work to which he had devoted himself with so much enthusiasm, and removed to the hills in the summer of 1885.
’’July 28th, 1885. — My writing day chances to be the last in Midnapore for the present, so I must not let it pass by without beginning a brief letter. The month has been an unusually full one, but a very pleasant one withal. Our glorious Independence Day was celebrated as heretofore by giving the children of the Industrial and Kagged Schools a treat. Our American friends would have rejoiced to see the happy faces of no less than 450 children as they sat on our long, wide, south verandah singing beautiful hymns and reciting Bible texts. Mrs. Millar and Mrs. George had reason to be proud of their pupils on that day. Who can tell how much some of those very children may one day do towards advancing the kingdom of Christ in their native land? If the work of Christian missions in India proves anything beyond the possibility of doubt, it is that it pays to work for the children of the heathen. The good seed dropped into this fertile soil must ultimately yield a glorious harvest." The closing exercises of the Bible School took place on the same day, commencing at seven in the morning. Hymns were sung in Bengali, Oriya, and Santa, and four addresses were delivered by native preachers. The subjects, if a little detached, are suggestive of the wide and practical character of the kind of preaching given in the School. They were these, " What the Church has gained by persecution " ; " Lessons from the missionary life of St. Paul"; " The means of increasing liberality in the Church " ; and " Present fruit of Martin Luther’s work." An alumni address was given by one of the 1884 students upon the subject, " Fulfillment of prophecy relating to the Jews." With the doxology in English, and a prayer by the Principal, Dr. Phillips’ work as head of the Bible School at Midnapore came to an end. A pathetic farewell from the students followed, and he left for Simla the same evening. The following extracts from his letters will explain the circumstances which led him to take up this new work : —
"Simla, Aug. 5th, 1885 -- Several weeks before leaving Midnapore I had been fighting fever, and I could not have held out much longer. You will recollect my saying that if I could but get work in the hills for a part of the year, the way would seem clearer before me. Repeated calls to Darjeeling were hardly the right thing, for they came for help during the cold months, when I could work on at Midnapore. The other point is this, the Simla call came to me when I was on my back with fever, and praying for light.
" It seemed clearly the hand of the Lord opening my way before me. I was almost despairing of my Indian work, when this light broke upon me, and how could I do other than follow it? This mountain air and this bracing cold are sweeping the fever out of my system, and making me feel like a new man. Indeed, if it were not for this Himalaya sanitarium, I should despair of working long for India. Simla is the summer capital of India, situated 7000 feet above the sea, and more than 1000 miles north of Calcutta. During seven months of the year the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, the Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjaub, and the Commander-in-Chief of all Her Majesty’s forces in the East, make this mountain retreat their home ; and these three headquarters have so many branches and ramifications, that their coming means the coming of a great multitude of minor departments, with hundreds of assistants, clerks, etc. I can understand now, as never before, why the sad howl was raised in England several years ago against this annual migration to the hills, for it involves immense expenditure from the public exchequer, such that no Parliamentary opposition could afford to let slip by without angry challenge and determined protest. It is probable, however, that whether Liberals or Conservatives rule at home, Simla will continue to be the summer capital of British India. These five years enormous sums have been expended in erecting Government buildings on these slopes and spurs of the lower Himalayas, and the din of hammer and chisel, pick and shovel, reach my ears as I write in the quiet room in the manse. Uncounted wealth is pouring into the place, for both natives and foreigners are quick to see that it pays to build, to trade, and to live beneath the benign aegis of the Vice-regal rule. Notwithstanding all party howls at home, the Government is right in choosing this hill sanitarium for its officers during the sweltering heat of the summer. It is well that men who have much to do should work in the most healthful climate available ; and as far as beauty of natural scenery or salubrious climate are concerned, it is said that even Europe affords no better sanitarium than does this Himalayan station in India.
" My present charge is a very pleasant one. The church to which I minister is a Union one, and is now in its seventeenth year. It was founded by a godly man who used to bring all evangelical Christians here to the worship’ and service of our common Saviour. We have three churches, the Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Union Church,"
" In recent years our best periodicals, both religious and secular, have been deploring the lack of power in the pulpit. Eight weeks in Simla as the pastor of Union Church have stirred many dormant thoughts on this theme. I have been musing much, and while I have mused the fire has burned. Pastors of old England, Wales, Scotland, and Germany have come to my mind. Men whom the common people flock to hear. Whoever will be at the pains of considering their ministry and marking its salient points of strength and success, will agree with that eloquent Scottish preacher, who taught in Edinburgh that a house-going minister makes a church-going people. It is sad to note that some who come out to India forget this good old principle, and so fall an easy prey to discouragement and doubt." With the approach of the cooler weather, the exodus from Simla began to take place, and Dr. Phillips’ term of office drew rapidly to its close. He had now practically decided to return to his wife and family in America. How much he longed to go the following letter plainly shows : —
" One more weary week is gone, and only two more are left me here. We had an orphan children’s meeting this afternoon. Some of my brightest and best children have gone already to the plains, and others are leaving soon. This is breaking up with us forever so far as the earth is concerned. God bless these beautiful children, keeping their tender feet from the thorns which abound in their path ! The days are flying now, and soon the last will be gone, and I shall be on my way towards my dear ones in America. The Lord has blessed us to-day. Only one more Sabbath here. This letter will probably be my last from India for some time. I hope to sail from Bombay on the 6th of next month in the SS Peshawur, of the Peninsula and Oriental Company’s line, for London, touching at the Suez Canal, Malta, and Plymouth. If all is well, I hope to reach New York by the 20th December (1885).
" I often wish the sun would stand still a while, and so give me time to overtake my work, for it seems as though there was no such thing as clearing the docket ; but it is true in missionary life, where there is hard work to be done, that love for the work brings zeal and zest, and though sometimes one grows weary in the work, one never grows weary of it. An orator at a university meeting once exclaimed in fervent eloquence, ’ We want missionary graves in India! ’ How it came to me I do not know, but it has been much in my mind of late. Graves ! Are they not here already at Sambhalpore, Midnapore, Balasore, and Jellasore ? Yes, of men and women who counted not their lives too dear to them for the sake of India. Did I think that my dying now would stir my people to do their duty to my dear India, I would gladly turn away from the expected happiness of meeting my loved ones beyond the sea, and would die at once if it were God’s will, so that these inviting fields which have waited so long for the toiler might at last be tilled, and the golden harvest gathered in." A few days before quitting India, he wrote to his wife —
" A telegram from Balasore has come, ’ Committee say. Go to America,’ so I start next Monday morning for you and the babas. I am to give my seventh and last lecture on the Lord’s Prayer at 5 pm. My goodbyes have begun, but I dread those that follow. My last children’s meeting I held yesterday afternoon, and my text was, ’ Of such is the kingdom of heaven.’ May all those children meet me before the throne! How tired I am! " On the 14th November he left Bombay, and after a good passage went ashore at Suez, upon which he passed the unflattering comment, " It is a horrible hole ; and one sees scarcely anything but dirt, drink, and devilry." While in the Arabian Sea he composed an address to Christian workers, of which the three key-words were, " Be willing," " Be watchful," " Be winning." A brief entry in his diary at this time is very characteristic of the man — " A baby has been fretting badly today. I have been helping the mother and nurse to take care of her. She likes to lie in my arms."
"New York, Christmas Day, 1885 -- I am so happy. My heart was singing the doxology before I got out of bed. We are steaming in fast."
" East Providence, Dec. 26th, 1885 -- At my heart’s home, with my own dear ones. We are all singing the doxology together."