As a young Christian, I read "The Unlisted Legion" which was Jock Purve's account of his missionary endeavours among the Muslims in Lesser Thibet and on the Indian-Afghan frontier from 1926-30. I was greatly challenged. You will seldom see his name mentioned with great missionaries like Mary Slessor or William Carey etc. Indeed, I suggest that had the Banner of Truth not have printed this account, then his name would be known only to a relatively few. (Having said that, he also wrote Fair Sunshine which is a useful account of the struggles of the Scottish Covenanters, but knowledge of his missionary exploits might well have been somewhat limited)
With some of his missionary companions, Jock Purves started a school for young Muslim children. He taught them Scripture and had each boy read from the Bible in their own language. He soon ran into problems ("strikes and rebellions") because when they came to any reference to Christ being the Son of God, then they would stop and refuse to read any further. This opened up an opportunity, at least, for some discussion but neither side would back down. Sometimes the school just broke up and the books were handed back in.
However, the young Muslims soon filtered back again and a full school would be in operation and then another roadblock situation and they were back to the beginning again. And so on. Then something wonderful happened. Mr Purves takes up the story.
Phru Chik the brightest of our scholars was a poor boy who was always in rags. He was an able reader of Urdu, but had rebelled with the rest when asked to read words that stated directly, or implied that the Lord Jesus Christ was the Son of God. One day in the Scripture lesson, this young lad stood up to read his verse, and the offending words were in it. He read them. Every boy in the class gazed at him. There was an intense silence. Questions were written on every face. What had happened? Had he lost his senses? What would be the outcome of this? How could he be so foolish, and so unfaithful to Islam, and to us all? He looked around them all, every eye in the class intent upon him, and ours also so. 'You need not be surprised' he said, 'I can read these verses now. I have Jesus Christ in my heart.' From that moment he boldly took his stand for Christ. We rejoiced with trembling. We had seen what can be, comparatively speaking, a rare event among the Islamic peoples, the conversion of a soul to Christ."
This book is still in print. I suggest that you splash out a little and buy it.
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