With and Without Christ

There is no doubt that real Christian life, whether open or secret, will always be fruitful, and wherever it is it will have an influence on others for good, and searchers after truth, seeing the reality of lives such as these, will always be drawn to the Source of Life.

Take this instance. Once two preachers went out to the Bazaar to preach. The first was quite clever and eloquent. He began to preach, but after a few minutes a Hindu began to bombard him with questions and he had to stop to answer them, which he did to his own but not to the questioner’s satisfaction. At last, as he was making no headway, he turned to his companion and said: ‘Now this brother will answer you.” ‘This second preacher was neither a good speaker nor a skilled debater, but he was a sincere Christian and a man of prayer. As soon as he came forward the Hindu at once, with joined hands, bowed to him and, salaaming to him, said to the first preacher: “I have no question to ask him, for I know his life, and I have seen the Living Christ in his life, and have found the way of salvation through him. But my argument is with you, for with your mouth you present the Living Christ, but in your daily life you deny Him. It would be far better if such a mouth were closed for ever, because you have kept me and others away from Christ. I wish I had met your companion years ago, then I would not have been kept away from my Lord for so long a time. Well, ‘Der Aid, darust did’ (who comes slowly comes rightly). In this, also, there must be some good purpose. May God forgive you.” On hearing this the eloquent preacher went off home with head bowed in shame, and the new convert went with the man of God and dedicated his life to God’s Service.

It is a matter of common experience that he who seeks finds, and he who finds seeks still further. As Pascal said: “Thou wouldst not have been seeking for me if thou hadst not already found me.” If a man has had no experience of God’s presence, he will not be particular whether he tries to find Him or not. God indeed gives the sense of His presence to all, but it depends on themselves whether they further seek Him or not. God is within reach of us all, but to lay hold of Him it is necessary that our hearts should be attuned to Him. For us to hear the message of wireless, which in the form of song, music, or address is present in the atmosphere, it is necessary to have a receiving set which is perfectly attuned to the message. For if it were not so tuned, the existence or non-existence of the message would be one and the same thing for us.

A seeker after truth related to me his experience: “In my old religion I had a kind of consolation, but I had no peace. This consolation stirred up in me a desire to seek real peace, and, while I sought it, in a wonderful way it gradually led me on to find the source of Peace. When I had arrived at this position I realised that this impulse and this satisfaction of heart had both come from the Living Christ, in whom all my restless strivings have now found rest.”

I can illustrate my own state, and that of other seekers after truth, who at first did not know Christ, by relating the following story: » A few years ago, during a famine, a man ina respectable position found himself without money and at the point of starvation. Through pride or shame he would neither tell anyone of his helpless condition nor beg for help. He could only cry to God. His prayer was soon answered, for a merchant, recently returned from a foreign country, heard of his difficulties and secretly sent provisions to his house at night. Overjoyed at this answer to his prayer, he knelt and poured out his soul in praise to God. Not long after this the famine ended, and the merchant visited him and offered such advances of money as he needed. When his benefactor’s intention dawned on him, in sincere gratitude he fell before him and kissed his feet, and it was only then that he learned that his benefactor was his own elder brother who, he had long believed, had died in a foreign land.

One day I went to preach to the pilgrims at a town on the river Ganges. Just as I took my stand a pundit came and sat by me and asked: “Have you also come here to bathe like other pilgrims?” I said, “No, I have already bathed by faith in the blood of Christ, and by His grace have been saved, and have no need for ceremonial bathing in the Ganges. I have come here to tell these pilgrims about the Saviour.” When the pundit heard this he was amazed, but my own amazement was no less when, with beaming face, he said: “That is splendid, Swamz; I too have come for the same purpose,” and with great love he embraced me. On seeing this several of the pilgrims joined us, that they might hear the conversation of the pundit and the Sadhu. We both preached the Gospel to them, and they listened attentively.

Then one of the pilgrims asked: “By Christ, do you mean Krishna, or some other incarnation?” Then the pundit repeated a few Sanscrit verses, and said: “We are preaching not about Krishna, but about Christ, the sinless ‘Incarnation’ promised in the Shastras, for Krishna did not come to save sinners, but to destroy them (Gita iv. 8); but Christ came to save sinners’ (Matt. ix. 13; Luke ix. 56 A. V.).

When we had finished preaching the pundit took me to his house and introduced me to his wife and two sons, who were as zealous and earnest Christians as the pundit himself. After we had eaten, we talked for several hours, and he told me that for many years he had been working for the Lord in this way, and that many had believed through his preaching. He was not known to the missionaries and Christians of that place, though the seed that they cast upon the ground was beginning to spring up and grow, they knew not how (Mark iv. 26-29).

I asked him to tell me how he had become a Christian, and he told me his story: “I had often heard about Christ, but owing to my prejudices I used to keep as far away from missionaries and Christians and their Christ as I could. But it once happened that at the Kumbh Mela, at Allahabad, I met two learned men belonging to the Secret Society of Christians. They were Sanscrit scholars, and at first I thought them to be Hindus, but little by little they proved with great clearness that Christ alone is the Saviour. In a few days all my abhorrence and misunderstanding of Christianity disappeared. Then these two Sannyasis, or Sadhus, baptised me in the Jumna River in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. From that day I have spent my time and strength in my Saviour’s service. Had I never met those two Sannyasis it is possible that I should never have become a Christian.”

“These two Sadhus,” continued the pundit, “gave me a satisfying explanation of some of my difficulties. For example, they said that as in some other religions the Law is taught, so in the Hindu religion as well, there is the law of Karma (Works and Retribution). The Law makes no one good. It only distinguishes between good and bad, or be- tween what we ought and what we ought not to do. No one ever has fulfilled or ever can fulfil the law, so all are without hope of salvation. It matters not whether the law was given through Moses, or through Rashis (Sages). Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John i. 17). The law makes no one righteous, but emphasises the need of righteousness, and this need is met in Christ. By Himself becoming man He fulfilled the law for man (Rom. v. 19) and, by giving His own life, He imparted life to those who are dead in sin, and then over all this completed work of salvation He proclaimed, ‘It is finished.’

“Now,” added the pundit, “I and my family believe in Christ, not merely because someone has removed our difficulties, but because we have come to know through personal experience that Christ is indeed our

Saviour, and the Saviour of the world” (John tv. 42).

I recollect a similar testimony being given to me, when I was in Cairo, by a man who outwardly appeared to be a Mohammedan, but was a Christian at heart. He said: “I had been taught from childhood according to the Law and Commandments of God and, though I really wanted to live up to the Law, I found that I failed so often that at last I became hopeless. I knew that God was the Merciful and the Compassionate, but I got no peace. I saw clearly, whenever I thought of my sinful state, that God and heaven are holy and that, even if my sins were forgiven, I could never enter the presence of the Holy God so long as my sinful nature remained unchanged and unpurified. For years I studied the Quran, Hadis, and other holy books, that I might find how to get rid of the old nature and how to obtain salvation and new life, but all my efforts were in vain. But I thank the God of Love that, even before I had begun to search for Him, He was already seeking for me. Even when I had found Him, and He had found me, I did not fully know Him till I was born again. Now I know Him whose likeness is in me and who, since the foundation of the world, has been mine and I His. My heart is now full of peace, for I have found the real Islam, which is Jesus Christ, who was crucified and now lives for ever. Now I am spending the rest of my life in His service.”

He then went on to criticise the low state of spiritual life in the Church, and added: “It would be better for me to drown myself in the Nile rather than that I should be baptised as a member of the Church, because the life of its members is often little better than that of the members of my old religion. What good would it be if I got out of the thorns to fall into the thistles, or out of the swamp to fall into the mud? It seems better that I should keep apart from them all and remain in touch with my Lord, that, whenever and however I can, I may bear witness to Him. I fully believe that He will accept my work for Him.”

This man was well acquainted with both Eastern and Western Christians and knew their moral, spiritual, and social life. He had never joined the Church though he had accepted Christ, for he found the Church to be lacking in sympathy, love, and Christian fellowship. This state of things is a challenge to Christians to awake and realise their responsibility, for this man by no means stands alone. There are many like him who, repelled by the cold formalism of Church life, prefer to remain apart from it; and the Living

Christ Himself will declare to the Christianswithout-Christ, “I never knew you” (Matt. wilsZ3)).

Another man whom I met several times had, after many years of search, found Christ as his Saviour. He too remained outside the visible Church, but carried on work in his own way, and there can be no doubt that the Lord had blessed his work. One day, in the presence of another man, he gave me a very interesting account of his work. ‘When I accepted Christ as my Saviour and He received me, I first of all tried to get my own relations to know Him. As Andrew first went to his own brother Peter (John i. 41), I first spoke to my brother and said: ‘I have found Jesus of Nazareth. He has given me salvation from sin and that real peace that I have sought for years.’

‘As soon as he heard this he flew into a great tage, and said: ‘Curse you and your peace! You want to leave the Hindu religion and join these Christians whose religion is all humbug. You will bring disgrace on your name and on your family. It would be better if you would go and drown yourself in the well. I pray that Iswar (God) may bring you back to the right way, or that He will smite you with blindness, that you may know the truth, and not leave your religion.’ I said to him, ‘Don’t be angry, but examine these things seriously for yourself, then you will be able to see which religion is false and which is true. You have prayed to your God that I may become blind, but I pray to my God, who is Love, that He will open your eyes so that you may see Him and know Him.’

“When he heard this he calmed down and became quiet. For many days we continued our talks together, and after some time he said to me, ‘Well, there will be no great harm in it if you continue to believe in Christ, and stay as you are doing among us, provided you do not move from here to that poultry-yard of a Mission compound.’ I replied: ‘I have no desire to live at the Mission, for I have not become a Christian out of consideration for any padre or preacher, but for Christ Himself, who is always with me’ (Matt. xxvili. 20). After that he began to read the Bible with me daily, and the Spirit of God began to work in him. God heard my prayer and opened the eyes of my brother who had prayed that I might become blind. Now, not only by physical but by spiritual relationship as well, he is a real brother to me”; and turning to the man at his side, he said: ‘““This is that brother.” Then he also, with grateful tears, began to tell of his Christian experience and we three knelt together and in turn prayed for each other. Then with salaams we parted.