A glimpse of India : being a collection of extracts from the letters Dr. Clara A. Swain, first medical missionary to India of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America.

  • Clara Swain
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A glimpse of India : being a collection of extracts from the letters Dr. Clara A. Swain, first medical missionary to India of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    saving power, gave ample evidence that they under- stood the spirit of Christianity. The singing was all in Hindustani and the hymns were certainly sung with spirit. A hymn-book was handed to me but though I knew the tune the words of the hymn were beyond me. Occasionally there would be short, earnest prayers and a few verses of a hymn would be sung to a native tune in a most enthusiastic manner. Truly it was a blessed beginning of the sacred day. Eleven o’clock was the hour for the Hindustani preaching service and the chapel was crowded. Bishop Kingsley preached in English, his words being interpre- ted by one of the missionaries. We could understand every word of this simple but excellent sermon. Then followed the communion service, and after that the native Sunday-school. The opening exercises were conducted in the chapel, then the classes retired to the small rooms, coming together again at the closing hour. There was a special service in the afternoon for the older girls of the Orphanage which I did not attend as I wanted to rest a little before the evening service. This was an English service and besides the mission- aries quite a number of the English residents of Bareilly were present, notice having been sent around the sta- tion that Bishop Kingsley would preach. Weariness was forgotten as we listened to the forceful, eloquent sermon, uplifting in its simplicity, convincing in its [ 24]