Missionary Monograms:

8vo, pp. x, 260, [2] advertisements; entirely unopened in the original publisher's cloth, spine lettered in gilt; once in the Free Church College library, Edinburgh, with their neat stamps on title and front free endpaper; a very good copy.

The work contains a summary of Gritton's efforts as an evangelical Christian in Southern India to convert the 'heathen' and attempt to thwart, or at least counteract the Hindu philosopher and social reformer Keshub Chandra Sen (1838-1884) interest in assimilating Christian belief into Hinduism.

Gritton was absolute in his faith and any muddying or cross fertilisation of philosophical and religious ideas was a complete anathema to him. As the result of a visit by Keshub Chandra Sen to Madras in 1864 a society for educated Hindu's called the Vyasa Veda Samajam or Vyasa Association was formed. To counteract this group Gritton published a monthly magazine called ^gSatthia Dwajara; or, Banner of Truth.^g and formed his own association, the Sathhia Veda Samajam. Lectures given to both these associations by Gritton, together with articles for his monthly magazine, lectures to the Madras Native Christian Literary Society and at other occasions in Madras and Tinnevelly [Tirunelveli] are here reprinted in ^gMissionary Monograms^g.

Gritton, who as a young man, 'offered himself' to the Church Missionary Society and was ordained in 1857, then travelling to Southern India to convert the masses. He appears to have had a certain predilection for trying to convert upper caste Hindus, and it was reported that he had also managed to persuade 53,000 to convert to Christianity. The reprinting of his lectures (Gritton had returned to England in 1866) may have been prompted by Keshub Chandra Sen's visit in 1870. Not much notice was taken of the book at the time, however, and this copy indeed did not impress anyone in the Free Church of Scotland as it remained unopened and unread. Once back in England Gritton was appointed secretary of 'The Lord's Day Observance Society' and vigilantly suppressed any joy to be had on a Sunday; he also became a minister in a church at Sidcup but fell out with them over doctrinal and ecclesiastical difficulties and became a nonconformist and tried his hand at ministering to a congregation in Hackney, but was found to be to conformist for them. One has the feeling that Gritton was a driven man and found it impossible to make any compromise about his own ideas of Christianity. Born in Richmond, Surrey in 1829 he died at Hackney, London in 1901.