Amy Carmichael :: Nor Scrip—Note

There is no separate entry labelled 'Evangelistic' because we take it that every entry represents the making of a road upon which the word of the Lord may run and be glorified. The work is nothing if not evangelistic through and through.

The accounts given in pounds are identical with those in rupees, taking the pound as worth fifteen rupees, the rate before the war. To avoid perplexity (for the rate is perpetually changing) this has been the plan all through. [This was written in 1921; the exchange now (1932) is much lower.] But to see the wonder of these accounts it is needful to remember that about three thousand rupees was what we then required a month, and that no one who sent to our help knew what any other was sending, that sometimes to make up this three thousand, £200 was enough, while sometimes over £400 was needed because of loss on exchange, and that yet the right amount (as an average) came all through 1919, while in 1920 when exchange was at its worst it still continued to come and at the end we had a balance, the 'baskets, over and above.'

Could the kindest, most far-seeing financier have so adjusted matters that (for the most part small) gifts from several thousand people, sent to us from many different countries, should be according to the measure of the need, whether greater or less, caused by the fluctuations of exchange in India? Can any wonder that we trust our Heavenly Financier and feet safe in His hands?

The story already told explains the previous page. A few words will put those unaccustomed to diagrams on the track. When the thin line rises above the thick line there was a balance called in the story 'Baskets.' When the thick line rises above the thin, the expenses were greater than the gifts of that year but were met by the balance from previous years; in other words, we drew on the Baskets. When the thin line again rises above the thick the Baskets were refilled. The thick line therefore expresses the needs of the work, and the thin their supply, and the only explanation of their adjustment through these years is to be found in Phil. 5:19.

Over and above these gifts for general expenses, including building, we have the nucleus of a fund called Comforts, made up in part from the Baskets, to provide things honest for worn-out workers. As no Dohnavur worker has 'pay' it will be recognised that the thought of these gifts is Comfort indeed to those responsible for the conduct of the work.

Finally, remembering once more that never to man or woman on earth were our needs or even desires made known, and that there is no promise for the continuance of any sum mentioned in this book except the legacy of £200 a year (which when exchange was as its worst realized less than £100, and in purchasing value less than £40), and yet that not once have we lacked any good thing, the word of our hearts can only be this, Who is like unto the Lord our God that hath His dwelling so high, and yet humbleth Himself to behold the things that are in heaven and earth?

To save givers trouble, those who take meetings for Dohnavur gladly receive and forward anything given; but there is no collection at any meeting. We gratefully use whatever is sent to us; but we ask all to refrain from asking for gifts, and we trust them to see to it that no money is drawn for us by means of entertainments. Is it needful to entertain God's friends in order to get them to give to Him?

Gifts may be sent direct to us:-Dohnavur, Tinnevelly District, S. India, by draft, cheque or money order, or to any of the friends of the work who act as Hon. Secretaries in Ireland, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and the United States of America.

The name and address of any of these friends will be sent on application either to the General Secretary for England:

Miss O. Gibson,

4, Alan Road,

Wimbledon,

London, S.W. 19,

or to:

The Secretary, Dohnavur,

Tinnevelly District,

S. India.

Where legacies are concerned Miss O. Gibson (address as above) acts as Hon. Treasurer.

The Dohnavur Books (see following page) are obtainable from any of the above, also through booksellers in any part of the world.

The words hung on Bishop Moule's study walls many years ago. They often come to us with comforting force. All fellowships, all loyalties meet there.

For the sake of some who are interested in such matters we have been asked to say from what the children are delivered and how we work.

The children: we have told in other writings what we can about their peril. In a letter to The Times, Sir Valentine Chirol has thus described them as he lately saw them: 'Between (the worshippers) flit about laughing bright-eyed little girls, the daughters of the temple, still unconscious of the life of the temple to which they have been dedicated from their birth.' Should any require more explicit information they will find it in Pierre Loti's India; but will those who can bring themselves to read that description (so un-English in its unreserve), of the dance of the Bayadere, remember that the 'delicate and glittering butterfly' tamed to the will of her captors, was captured when she was a babe in arms or a tiny innocent child. And let the reader imagine if he can what it means to dare to lay hands upon such a one, fated, doomed, trained to life in that gilded cage. We require no usual easy sympathy and prayer, but the prayers of men and women whose hearts are scarred by the burning grief of it.

But the less said (in print) the better. The children, many of them of gentle birth and most delicate refinement of feeling, are growing up as other children, alert, sensitive to every wind that blows. And certain words, blown across the seas, howsoever kindly meant, can be as the vādai of South India, that cutting north-east wind that shrivels growing plants.

The boys, for whom a separate work is beginning, are wanted by three sets of people, the Temple authorities, dramatic companies, Muhammadan. Of this matter we do not feel free to say more at present, but we earnestly ask for co-operation in prayer that these little lads may be found. [See Brothers of the Lotus Buds. Godfrey Webb-Peploe.]

Finally, to revert to ourselves again, we are all of one mind in an house as regards the Bible, very Word of Very God, and no one would be at home with us who was not happy in the simplest form of evangelical religion. It has sometimes seemed to us that perhaps one reason why we were set here was that God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, took pleasure in showing that, unaffected by the whirl of talk, unconfused by findings of committees to consider unity, it was possible simply and happily to do the things so much discussed and be one with His lovers everywhere. Surely all who love meet in essentials. There are places where questions and differences fall off. In those places, heavenly places in Christ Jesus our Lord, we meet and move, and know no other, nor wish to know them. Nor do our children. To them 'our unhappy divisions' are not even names.

The work then and we ourselves belong to the people of the family. The children belong to them. To the love of that dear family we commit them, in the love of the Lord.

And the future? There may be no future. Perhaps He will come for whom we are all looking. But should there be a future, what can we do but train our children in truth and in love, and trust Him to open the way before them? We never deceive ourselves by imagining it will be easy for them. We are trying to prepare them to endure hardness, every kind of hardness, as good soldiers.

All round us there is work to be done; the opportunities know no boundaries but those set by our strength and the means at our command. Large communities of Moslems, and Hindu towns unaffected by the Gospel or hardened in resistance by their contact with it, stand on three sides of us. Near our forest is a Hindu shrine to which pilgrims go. When the way opens we hope to do something that will reach many from far away.