Note

Where written and why, — The first month of ’the Tamil year is called by the Tamils Mother-month. But to the children of Dohnavur September is Mother-month, for then we go together to the forest.

Near the end of such a month when the tire of the year had worn off a little, I read from an old-faded forgotten book, Perowne’s Memoir and found it full of penetrating stuff and very kindling, and wished others could share it. Then, (perhaps it was the fellowship of the growing green things of the forest that caused it), the desire to re-create came upon me.

And the; children helped in the work. They had looked forward to this time for many months, but they left me alone in a shady cave with the trees and the birds and the sound of a mountain stream, and tried not to interrupt.

Sources of informatioit, — Dr. Stock’s History of the C.M.S,j Memoir of Henry Venn by Knight, Perowne’s Memoir of Ragland and the memories of those who knew him.

So far as we can discover, after searching all available records, Ragland was the first Englishman to camp among the people of India as a missionary of Christ. Eighteen months after his departure the Breath blew across his field, and many were refreshed and renewed. But perhaps the deed of his life

was the dropping of a new thought into the missionary mind, and wherever a white tent is pitched all over this Empire of India, and from it goes forth the Evangel of Peace, there you have Ragland’s seed in fruit. His years in camp were few; but eternal values are not counted in terms of earth’s coin, and in what splendid fields may he not be pioneering now?

Lrater Note

While this book is in the Press, the C.M.S. Mass Movement Quarterly for May, 1922, was sent to us, and it throws another ray back upon the story.

‘ Although these first missionaries of Travancore made some efforts to “meliorate tfie condition” of the Outcastes, it was through a famous Tinnevelly missionary, the Rev. T, G. Ragland, that the movement began. He was in Travancore in 1850 and was filled with compassion for the slaves, especially after seeing one of them unequally yoked with an ox pulling a plough. He infected with a like compassion an Indian clergyman who induced Outcastes to come and learn of the love of God in Christ.’ So the journey that led out into that first camp set loose other forces that operate mightily among us to this day. Verily, it is no vain and fruitless thing to be God’s corn of wheat.