A Lady of England 58

A Lady of England 58

‘BATALA; _my beloved Laura’s Birthday, May 20, 1878_.

 

‘On this day of all days in the year I could not but write to

my own precious sister, even if I had not such a nice, long,

interesting letter to thank her for, as I received yesterday....

 

‘Like you, I earnestly hope that the Almighty will preserve

our dear land from the fearful evil of war. You and I would

scarcely now care to sing--

 

‘“In the proud battle-fields

Bounding with glee.”

 

‘How little realisation the juvenile writer had of what war

is!... _We_ are in another kind of warfare here. This living in

the First Century, instead of the Nineteenth, seems to give a

more vivid colour to life. I suspect that I should find some

Missionary stations so dull after one like this! Such as those

where year after year passes without an adult baptism being

witnessed,--hardly expected,--perhaps in some instances hardly

_hoped_ for!... The fact is that it needs some moral courage in

the Missionary, as well as all sorts of courage in the Convert,

to face the storm that may follow a baptism.

 

‘One feels almost ashamed of remaining in such perfect

security,[81] when encouraging a poor brown brother or sister

to go up, as it were, to the cannon’s mouth. I was thinking

to-day what would be the _most_ painful sacrifice which one

could make. It seemed to me that of the _love and esteem of

all our dear ones_. And that is just the sacrifice which some

of our brethren have to make! No wonder that they hesitate,

weep, shrink from the flood of sorrow before them; but the

true-hearted ones make the plunge at last. “The love of Christ

constraineth.”

 

‘The enclosed to ---- will give you an idea of some people’s

trials; but ever and anon new cases seem to crop up. I expect

that our fair Batala will be a kind of harbour of refuge

to hunted ones. Mera Bhatija has been telling me that a

Missionary--I forget where--is about to have a Baptism, and

wants to send the new Christian over to us for a week, to let

the storm blow over a little. Another lad was all packed ready

to come, but he was caught. He means to take the opportunity of

escaping when he can....

 

‘Mera Bhatija and I are curious to see the Rainbow glass.

Perhaps, if it be small, I may show it off in the Zenanas. New

and curious things give much pleasure. From a little round

pin-cushion of mine the pretty glass picture of a Cathedral

came off. I often take it with me, and show it, and say, “This

is an English Church, in which God is praised every day!” Mere

prints do not take with the Natives. They like coloured things

that glitter.’

 

TO MRS. J. BOSWELL.

 

‘_May 21, 1878._

 

‘It is wonderful to me how an English lady can go without fear

or danger all about Batala, meeting with so much respect and

courtesy. I do not feel it the slightest risk. Into narrow

lanes, up dark staircases,--amongst women, amongst men,--I go

without the smallest excuse for being alarmed. The people,

too, generally listen very quietly, though what is said may

be dead against their views. I make the slender concession

of calling Muhammad “Mr. Muhammad”--“Muhammad Sahib”--but no

one could object to so common a title. He is never called

“Hasrat”--Saint--like Moses and David.’

 

TO THE SAME.

 

‘_May 29, 1878._

 

‘Three new boys have arrived to-day. I am glad that they did

not come till I had pretty well learned up the first seventeen,

tacking the right names to the right faces. It took me a good

while to do this, for I have a difficulty in remembering faces....

 

‘The Natives who send their boys to this upper-class school

are of course anxious that the lads should be good English

scholars. At this time of high-pressure education it is

necessary that they should be so. Mr. Baring drudges day after

day at the English classes; but it occurred to me that I could

give a little help in play-hours. I have written an English

charade for our young Panjabis to recite; and the idea has, I

think, taken with them. It needed a little management to give

a separate part to every one of seventeen boys, apportioning

it to the individual’s capacity. Pretty little P. (five years)

could not be expected to manage more than a line and a half;

but it would never have done to have left him out. Into each of

the three divisions of the charade I have introduced a lively

chorus, in which all can join. The song that takes most is--

 

‘“I am a brisk and sprightly lad,

But newly come from sea, sir!”

 

‘This is rather curious, as none of our Punjabis have ever seen

the sea. The chorus will be first-rate practice for rapid,

clear pronunciation; for

 

‘“When the boatswain pipes ‘All hands aloft!’”

 

would not be an easy line even for some English boys. If the

lads manage tolerably well, the charade will be great fun. Who

would ever have dreamt that part of a Missionary’s work should

be to set boys to learn a lively charade!

 

‘I pity the City boys. I suspect that there is a sort of

wistful longing raised in many a young heart, “I wish I were

one of those Christian boys!” If there could be a blind ballot

of Batala boys, as to whether the whole town should become

Christian, I am by no means sure whether the votes would not

be in our favour. I do not mean that the poor, dear lads are

_converts_, but that they use their eyes and ears,--and think

that ours must be a very pleasant, genial kind of religion,

connected in some sort of way with singing, and cricket, and

kindness.’

 

Another short English play, written by Miss Tucker for the boys, was

called _The Bee and the Butterfly_. Miss Mulvany, a Missionary, went one

day, somewhere about this time, to Batala for a few hours; and in the

course of her visit she was sent upstairs, while Charlotte Tucker gave

the boys a lesson in acting the said little play. Miss Mulvany has never

lost the impression made upon her by the peals and shouts of laughter

which came up from the merry company below.

 

TO MRS. HAMILTON.

 

‘_June 19, 1878._

 

‘I am reading the Granth,[82] the sacred book of the Sikhs.

Like the Koran, it is very long,--I think more than 600 quarto

pages,--and with an immense deal of repetition in it. But it

leaves on the mind a very different impression from the Koran.

As far as I have read, it is wonderfully pure and spiritual. If

you could substitute the name “Almighty” for “Hari,” and “Lord

Jesus” for “Guru,”[83] it might almost seem the composition

of hermits in the early centuries, except that celibacy is

not enjoined. Woman seems to be given her proper place. Many

exhortations are addressed to women....

 

‘There is something touching in the longing--the

yearning--after God,--the intense love of His Name! The Sikh

idea of God is not that of the Hindus, with their fiend-like

deities. The Creator is light, and goodness, and happiness.

There is indeed the ridiculous idea of people having to pass

through 840,000 states of existence,--unless the probation be

shortened by meditation, purity, and the repetition of God’s

name,--but this fearful number of births is regarded as very

tiresome indeed.

 

‘One might call the Granth “the book of yearning,” and I feel

humiliated that I, with Gospel light, should in spiritual

contemplation and longing for closest communion with the Deity

come so far behind these poor Sikhs. Unfortunately, the Sikh

religion has been so much corrupted that it is almost dying

out. I suppose that it was too pure to please the Enemy;

he knew that the Granth would offer no strong opposition to

the Bible. Here, in Batala, his stronghold seems to me to be

Muhammadanism. It shocks me to find how that invention of

Satan darkens the moral sense. What would be thought sin in

another, is by some openly defended as no sin _if committed by

Muhammad_!!

 

‘The Muhammadans too are so ready to stand up for their false

faith; far more inclined to defend it than the Hindus are to

defend theirs. Mera Bhatija was saying to-day that no book has

been written against Christianity by a Hindu. I have myself,

however, seen a very bitter article in a paper. But, generally

speaking, the Muhammadans seem to be much sterner opponents of

Truth than the Hindus. I feel it in the Zenanas.

 

‘Now, my own Laura, I am going to my long task of reading

the Granth. It puts me on vantage-ground when I can tell the

Natives that I have read their scriptures.’

 

The High School was not to have broken up before the middle of August;

but circumstances caused Mr. Baring to fix upon a fortnight earlier,

and this decided Miss Tucker to go to Amritsar on July 28. She at once

planned that two of the hard-worked ladies at the Mission bungalow should

then take their holiday, while she remained as a companion to the third.

It does not appear that she had any idea of the Hills for herself. No

doubt the change to Amritsar would mean pleasure, if not rest; and

she was still able to speak of herself as ‘wonderfully well’; but the

unselfish thought for every one else, rather than of her own needs, is

not the less remarkable.

 

To one of her correspondents she wrote from Batala on the 6th of July:

‘You know that I am the only Englishwoman within twenty miles. Now and

then friends pass a night here; but in the hot weather not often....

The 29th will, if I stay till then, complete sixteen weeks of steady

residence, during which I have only twice seen English ladies,--for less

than twenty-four hours. I doubt whether any European has ever stopped

in Batala so long before without a single night’s absence.... Once from

Friday evening to Monday morning I saw no white face. There is a nice

brown lady in the house.’