Religion: One Hope

An Ashram (retreat) in Lucknow, India is the spiritual home, and sometimes the physical home, of the world’s greatest Christian missionary—Dr. Eli Stanley Jones, Methodist, author of The Christ of the Indian Road, evangelist to high-caste Hindus, who call him Rishi (a saint). From his Ashram last summer Dr. Jones wrote his friends about the Kingdom of God, declaring: “Never have I been so convinced that this is the one hope of the human race. How my heart tingles with joy that we have such a message for such a time as this.” Missionary Jones then left India, bound for the U. S. where, for two months during the autumn, he toured the country as chief speaker in a University Christian Mission of the Federal Council of Churches.

The Christian Mission, most vigorous evangelistic onslaught on college youth in a generation, brought Dr. Jones and his dynamic, intensely personal message to a dozen State universities. Last week, looking weary from his labors, he sailed for Europe. Thence he will make a four-day airplane dash to Madras, where this month meets an international missionary conference of high import.

The University Mission, staffed by speakers who are all able if not all of Dr. Jones’s high calibre, continues through the winter at 15 more colleges. Altogether, the Mission’s sponsors hope to reach 130,000 students. Results to date, while they have not included a general increase in churchgoing in the colleges, have borne out what the missioners felt at the beginning of their tour—that “American students are in a mood of vague wistfulness and are open to a vital presentation of the Christian message. . . .”