Roland Bateman, Missionary Bible Translator in the Punjab

Roland Bateman [1860-1916] served as a Bible translator in the Punjab. This book, written by a close friend in the Indian Civil Service, tells the story of his life and work.

R. Maconachie, Rowland Bateman. Nineteenth Century Apostle. London: Church Missionary Society, 1917. Hbk. pp.208. [Click to download in PDF]

Reproduced by kind permission of the Church Missionary Society.

1 – Parentage, Birth, and Early Days
2 – The Punjab as a Missionary Environment
3 – His Personality
4 – Work at Dera Ismail Khan, 1868-9
5 – Work at Amritsar and Lahore, 1869-72
6 – Itineration From Manhopur, 1872-4
7 – Early Visits to Narowal, 1872-4
8 – Narowal, Home, and Narowal Again-Typhoid Fever, 1874-7
9 – Clarkabad – Marriage – Second Furlough – Narowal – Kashmir, 1876-85
10 – Narowal – Three Visits to England – Beginning of “Outcaste” Work – Last Years at Narowal, 1886-97
11 – Home – Canada – The Indian Aftermath – Last Days in India, 1897-1902
12 – A “Fisher of Men” – Living Epistles
13 – Deputation Work – Sermons – Addresses
14 – R.B. as He Appeared to His Friends
15 – Work in England, 1902-15
16 – The End – A Beginning
Postscript
Appendix
Index

Preface

If any reader of this book is given to the habit of “skipping over” a Preface, I hope he will make an exception in the present case, otherwise an injustice may be done to him whose life is here described, as well as to the writer, though that is a point of less importance. Had Rowland Bateman (or as I shall generally call him for convenience “R. B.”) followed his own inclinations, he would not have had his biography written at all. During the course, however, of his last illness, representations were made to him that an account of the work which God had done through him might still after his death serve the great cause to which he had so whole-heartedly given his life. After some hesitation he acquiesced in the proposal, but expressed his wish that I should write the story. I take up the task therefore as a trust, and can only hope that remembering steadily the purpose of the book, and doing my best to represent faithfully the man and his work, I may produce something not quite unworthy of the “noble dead.” [Continue reading]