Christianity means an
equally facile way of return to the ancestral faith. If the Hindu has
little to surrender in becoming a Christian, neither has such a Christian
any serious obstacle to prevent his return to Hindu gods and ceremonies
when it suits his convenience to do so. Hence it is that the new
accessions to Romanism hardly exceed the number of those who leave it in
order to resume their allegiance to the faith of their fathers.

3. PROTESTANT MISSIONARY EFFORT began late. In India it was introduced
with the Dutch conquest in the early part of the seventeenth century. But
the proselytizing methods of the Dutch in those days savoured too much of
the Romish inquisition under the Portuguese. When the pressure of
religious compulsion by the civil government was removed, consequent upon
the English conquest in Ceylon and India, the people apostatized in a
body.

(_a_) It was not until the truly Christian King, Frederick IV. of Denmark,
took, himself, a religious interest in that land at the beginning of the
eighteenth century, and sent, at his own expense, the first two Protestant
missionaries to Tranquebar on the east coast, that really consistent
Protestant effort for the redemption of India began.

Zeigenbalg and Plutschau, the two pioneers who were sent to Tranquebar,
arrived in 1706. They inaugurated the great work of Protestant
Christianity for the spiritual regeneration of India, and will always find
an honoured place among the heroes of the cross.

Zeigenbalg was a man of great piety and of intellectual resources. He died
in 1719 after a most successful service of unremitting toil. He gathered
hundreds of converts into the Christian fold, established schools and
erected a beautiful church edifice which stands today as the oldest
Protestant Mission Church in the East. Above all, he felt that an open
Bible in the vernacular was essential to the conversion of India; and he
therefore gave himself to the translation of God's Word. He was not able
to complete this work; it did not issue from the press until 1725. This
Tamil version of the Bible was the first translation of God's Word in
India and in all the East; and it stands today as a monument to his
intelligent labours and to those of his worthy successor, Schultze. It
also represents the beginning of a new era of missionary effort in the
country. The Roman Catholics, during all their stay in that land have done
nothing towards giving to the people the Bible