Christian missions in the Telugu country - Uecf.net

THE S.P.G. MISSION : MODERN
PERIOD 123
food distributed in sixty-two villages to the children.
In this dark time congregations melted away as their
individual members wandered here and there in search
of means of subsistence. Nor must it be supposed
that prosperity returned as soon as the actual famine
ceased. No less than five years passed away before the
first good harvest was secured. In the wake of the
famine came the cholera. Compared with the heathen Cholera,
the Christians suffered slightly ; fewer took it, and
more recovered. But the cholera brought its own
peculiar trial of faith, for, as usual, the refusal of the
Christians to participate in the sacrifices offered to the
cholera goddess to drive away the disease, was made
in some places the signal for persecution. Altogether
we cannot but thankfully wonder at the manner in
which the Mission came through these various trials and
recovered its vitality.
The progress of the Mission during the years 1889-
1899 appears from the following figures :
Baptised
Year. Congregations. Christians. Catecbumens.
1889 .. 115 .. 5562 .. 2325
1899 .. 172 .. 9471 .. 3362
The last period that we have to review has witnessed 1899the
long-needed increase in the strength of the mission '''''
staff. For the greater part of this time there were as
many as six to eight missionaries at work in the Mission.
The consequence of this accession of strength was that
the Mission was able to reorganise its whole system,
to provide for future growth, and to start new methods
of work;