537
by the Rev. G. U. Pope to have produced “the general impression ”
that a more encouraging movement in favour of Christianity had
“ never yet taken place in India ” [19].
About thirty years before, Mr. Sawyer, a trader or “ East Indian
writer ” at Palamcotta, who acted occasionally for the Society in pay-
ing catechists and superintending schools, purchased some land in
order to secure a refuge for the poor converts who were being perse-
cuted in the district. The village thus formed was named after him —
“ Sawyerpuram ” — and continued to form a rallying-point for the scat-
tered members of the Church. But for his benefaction the light of
the Gospel would doubtless have been extinguished during the long
period when no European Missionaries visited the congregation. In
May 1842, when Mr. Pope was appointed to the district, he found 512
persons in connection with the Mission, under five catechists, and one
school, in which thirteen children were being instructed [20].
In March 1844 the Bishop op Madras reported that ninety-six
villages in the district had “ come forward, unsolicited, but by the
preventing grace of God, and by the example of a purer life among
their converted countrymen,” had “utterly abolished their idols,” and
“ begged ” to be “ placed under Christian teaching ” [21].
Eleven hundred persons were immediately received as catechumens,
and on April 25 a new church, built without any aid from the Society,
was opened at Sawyerpuram, when “ The presence of seven Mis-
sionaries, three European gentlemen, with a congregation of upwards
of 500 converted natives, uniting in the service of God, formed a scene
rarely witnessed in this part of India.”
After the opening (on the same day) a Church Building Society
was formed for the district. The peculiar and most important feature
connected with this movement consisted in its including several of the
higher castes of cultivators, people who had hitherto been inaccessible to
Gospel truth. The Committee of the new Society consisted entirely
of native Christians of several different castes — Pallers, Shanars,
Vellalers, Retties, Pariahs, and Naiks. All being converted Hindus,
they met as brethren to consult how they might “ best aid the
cause of Christianity, which once was the object of their detestation.”
Another local association, called “the Native Gospel Society,”
was formed in January 1845, for the carrying-on of the general work
of the Mission, which had been divided into four circles (Sawyerpuram,
Puthukotei, Puthiamputhur [and Veypelodei]). In the seventy-seven
villages included in these four divisions there were now 3,188 people
under Christian instruction ; and many devil-temples had either been
destroyed or converted into Christian prayer-houses. The local
societies proved of the greatest benefit to the people, who willingly
contributed to them ; and in 1845 Rs.50 were sent to England from
their local offerings as a token of gratitude for the benefits derived
from the parent Society. Great caution was shown in receiving con-
verts, but the steadfastness of many failed under the persecution and
the varieties of temptation to which they were exposed in 1845. In
one village the converts were kept close prisoners some days, subsist-
ing upon such food as they had in their houses. In Puthiamputhur
itself the congregation was for the time broken up by the apostasy of
two of the headmen [22J.
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