When he made his first visit to the West in 1920 (England, America and Australia), many minds of a completely different type from his own were turned to the contemplation and discussion of the man, his experiences, methods of thought and work, and the probable influence of his unique personality and teaching in east and west.

As Christianity came out of the east, it is natural that many earnest Christians in western countries should look again to the East for that new stream of divine life, whose flow should bring a true revival of religion to those myriads upon the Great Wart has cast its black mantle of forgetfulness of God.

The Church of the West, blessed with an early vision of the Savior of the world, has yet to mourn its inability to meet entirely the needs of those for whom He died. The simple gospel, passing through the minds of men throughout the ages, has taken on the color of those minds, and has thus become less potent for its great task; for not in ceremonial appealing to the senses nor yet in mighty organizations is the new birth found. The accretions of the centuries sanctioned by time can offer only a semblance of the life, which is in Christ Jesus, and no other life can satisfy. The cry is “Show me a man like Christ”. A Swedish Archbishop pointed to Sundar Singh and said: “The gospel has not undergone any change in him…In the history of religion Sundar is the first to show the world how the gospel of Jesus Christ is reflected in unchanged purity in an Indian soul”

“Christianity is imperishable”, said another writer, “and out of the east it will come again. The Sadhu is perhaps the first of the new apostles to rekindle the fire on dying altars”.

Archbishop Soderblom, in speaking of Canon Streeter’s book “The Sadhu”, said: “As far as I know there is no other instance in the history of religion of an original and charming saintly character, already surrounded with the glamour of miraculous faith, during his life-time being the object of methodical examination by a scientific investigator – an examination as scholarly in its sound criticism as in its sympathy for its object”.

From his experience in the West, the Sadhu certainly realized the truth of Sir Philip Gibb’s words:

“I do not believe with Anatole France that Europe is dying yet. I think there will be great agonies to go through unless there is a complete change of heart, a tremendous spiritual revival among the peoples of Europe”.

On March 9, 1920, the Sadhu met and talked for an hour with the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the following day he spoke at the Church House, Westminster, to some seven hundred clergy of the Church of England, including the Archbishop of Canterbury and six bishops, probably the first occasion when Churchmen of all shades of opinion met together to well one to whom sect is nothing but Christ is all in all.

The Church Times of March 12 gave an excellent account of this remarkable gathering:

“The atmosphere is instinct with expectancy. Slightly before the time announced there enters the strange figure of Sadhu Sundar Singh. He is as a man from another world. His sermon went to the heart of things. To men was given the inestimable privilege of witnessing to Jesus Christ. The angels could reveal truth, could make plain hidden mysteries: but they could not witness; man alone out of his own experience of God’s love and mercy could do that. So the angel spoke to Cornelius, but sinful Peter witnesses”. The writer added, “Nothing I can say here can convey the impression I could wish – that of a man apart, renouncing great possessions, exulting in the saving grace of his Master and speaking with the utmost simplicity. His complete freedom from any self-consciousness made even the Bishops’ gaiters seem a bit ridiculous”.