INDIAN PIONEERS STICK TO THEIR WORK

Consider now the work that the Indian pioneers were doing. A rare incident occurred when an isolated pioneer got a Hindu man to study the Bible. The interested Hindu had a brother who was a sanyasi (a Hindu ascetic) who had visited almost every place of pilgrimage in India. He came to live for a while with his brother and was surprised to find him studying the Scriptures. He, too, started reading the Bible. This prompted much discussion with both the brother and the pioneer. “Now,” wrote the pioneer, “to our astonishment, the long, dirty, matted hair and beard, which had not taken the perfume of oil or cream for many years, had disappeared. He . . . attended the ‘Watchtower’ study along with his brother.”

At about this time Sister Pope was studying the Bible with a Mrs. K. Peters, a doctor’s wife who was a schoolteacher for the Seventh-day Adventist sect. Once convinced of the truth, even a visit from one of her leading European ‘pastors’ failed to turn her aside. After this encounter, he remarked to Sister Pope: “You are taking away one of the best Indian workers.” Indeed, Sister Peters became an extremely zealous Witness. Some of her advanced academic qualifications were put to good use in translating the Society’s publications into Hindi.