Part 3
Miss Parsons, of the Poona and India Village Mission, who spent a month the same autumn with Ramabai, helping to care for and instruct these rescued famine victims, thus records her experiences among them:
" The stories connected with some of these dear women and children are sad in the extreme. A young
Brahmin woman about eighteen years of age has found a home here with her little boy ten months old. I asked her why she came. * Oh,* said she, * I got up one morning and found my husband had deserted me. I saw nothing more of him after that.* Praise the Lord since she has come she has accepted Christ. Another knew very little of what love or home-life meant. Married young, and not being strong, she suffered a great deal. One day her husband said, ' I've had enough of this ; you're never able to cook my rice. You can go.' The poor girl was too ill to move, however ; so he moved —deserted her, and has been unheard of since. After some weeks she was able to walk a little, so went to her mother's home ; but was there told that they had nothno PANDITA RAMABAI ing for her to eat, and so she must go ; and while wandering about seeking food was picked up by Ramabai.
Another was one of two wives ; and being the younger of the two, she fared badly. The husband used to get the other wife to beat her; so much so, that she ran away and was eventually brought here, where she is very happy and contented, and will, when won for
Christ, be a very useful woman. She is very quick, bright, and capable; and it is a great pleasure to have anything to do with her.
" Another is a little widow about nine or ten years of age. Her husband died when she was five, and she has had anything but a happy life since. Indeed, such a thing as love or happiness is not in the province of a great many of these dear little people; and one just longs to be a comfort and joy to them. This little widow is very quick—learns the hymns very quickly; remembers the Bible stories wonderfully; and best of all, has accepted Christ as her Saviour. It is very touching to hear this dear child pray. She rises early, and she always prays aloud: you can hear her pouring out her little heart to the Lord, and thanking Him for giving her such friends as the Christians. One day, after I had been praying with some of the sick girls, a voice from near-by was heard—*0 bai (sister), do come and pray for me. Last night my hand was so bad I could get no sleep. I sat up, and three times
THE FAMINE OF 1897 III asked Jesus to give me sleep ; but I can't understand it a bit. He didn't let me sleep at all. Do ask Him to give me sleep to-night; I am so tired.' I prayed for sleep for her, and next morning her beaming face told the tale. * Well, Anandi
' said I, * did Jesus hear
prayer last night ? ' ' Yes
' she said, ' and I slept all
night.'
" I think the most beautiful work of grace I have ever seen in any child's heart was the following. One evening we were late in going to have prayers with the girls. When we got to the door, we found dear little
Anandi had gathered all the women and children together, and was praying aloud with them, and they repeating the prayer after her. How the heart of our
Father God must have rejoiced as He heard such requests and thanksgiving as ascended from that room!
Our kind heavenly Father, we do thank You for bringing us here, giving us such dear friends—and especially for Ramabai. Oh, our kind Father, those of us who love You, we want You to keep our hearts very clean ; and those who don't love You, quickly clean their hearts, and keep them clean by Your Holy Spirit dwelling in them. Oh, our kind Father, take care of all of us in this Home and the Poona Home to-night; bless all who look after us, and abundantly bless Ramabai and Soonderbai, who take such care of us. Now
Father, we thank You for Jesus, and for what Jesus
112 PANDITA RAMABAI promises to do for us. Take care of us to-night, and forgive us wherein we have given You pain to-day, for
Jesus' sake. Amen.'
" I praise the Lord for the privilege of hearing such a real, simple prayer; and I am sure our home people will join me in offering a big praise note for * what God hath wrought ' in less than a year in some hearts out here.
" Truly He is ' able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. '^ To Him be the glory."
" MUKTI "—THE NEW SETTLEMENT AT KHEDGAON
"The Lord thy God: He it is that doth go with thee."— Deut. xxxi. 6. THE hand of the Lord has been remarkably seen in raising up helpers for Ramabai in the great work He has put into her hands. The hearty way in which the older girls, even some of the Hindus, threw themselves into the work of caring for the famine girls, was delightful and inspiring. The conversion and baptism of groups of the new girls from time to time had a reflex influence for good upon the older ones.
Many who had been halting between two opinions came out boldly for Christ, and a holy enthusiasm seemed to pervade the whole establishment.
After the girls had been gathered at Khedgaon, and all their material wants provided for, a vision opened out to Ramabai of what such a settlement might mean to the country around, from an evangelistic point of view.
Here, she thought, is a great missionary opportunity for some fully qualified and consecrated Christian woman to come and live among these girls, lead them to the
Saviour, and train them in the Word of God, so that
114 PANDITA RAMABAI they shall be fitted to carry the Gospel to all the region round about, where no missionary work has ever been carried on. Ramabai spoke of the need and the opportunity to several whom she thought suitable, but none responded. She and her immediate helpers made it a matter of constant prayer ; and God Himself called the one He had chosen for the post.
Miss Minnie F. Abrams came to India in 1887 as a missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In Bombay she had varied experience, both of visiting the women and caring for children. In 1895 she relinquished the care of the girls' boarding school in Bombay to devote herself to the work of village evangelization. She became a deaconess of that Church, and was duly set apart for this work. Miss Abrams aimed to reach the women in those villages, where the Gospel had already been preached to the men. With a tent, and two or three Bible-women, she itinerated from place to place in the villages around Poona, coming into the city each year for the rainy season. She came into
Poona as usual at this period in 1897, and employed herself in caring for a number of older famine widows, some of whom were sent her by Ramabai. When the end of the rains came in October, she was planning to leave this work in other hands, and was making arrangements for another camping season.
One morning at this time she awakened earlier than
THE NEW SETTLEMENT AT KHEDGAON 115 usual, and as she lay with the duties of the day in her mind, a voice seemed to say to her, " Go to Khedgaon."
The impression deepened on her mind, and she went.
Ramabai was absent, but Miss Abrams surveyed the place, and saw the girls and women gathered there.
She returned to Poona in the evening wondering why she had been sent there. She said as much to the Biblewoman who had accompanied her. The woman replied : " Who knows ? Perhaps one of those tracts you gave at the station had a message for some one ! "
The following morning, Sunday, Miss Abrams was again awakened early. In telling the experience of this hour, she said reverently that it was as if the Lord
Himself came and commissioned her to go to Khedgaon and take up the office of spiritual teacher to that flock of girls and women. The holy influence of that hour followed her all day. The sermon at the morning meeting was singularly appropriate, and confirmed to her the commission she had received.
The next day she went to the Sharada Sadan, and found that Ramabai had gone on her final visit to the
Central Provinces on rescue business. Miss Abrams opened her heart to Soonderbai Powar, and as she told of what she believed the Lord had called her to, the tears ran down Soonderbai's cheeks and she said:
" This is what Ramabai and I have for months been praying for." When Ramabai returned, her practical ii6 PANDITA RAMABAI question was, " When can you come ? " In a fortnight all difficulties had been overcome—Miss Abrams was established at Mukti, and commencing the work which has grown so remarkably under her care.
I must mention here the case of Ramabai's clerk, or chief steward. He was a Brahmin of good education, a member of the sect of reformed Hindus known as
Brahmos. He had been in Ramabai's employ for several years. At one time, when the tide of Brahmin disfavour was setting strongly against Ramabai, this man acted against her interests in a way for which most employers would have dismissed him. Ramabai, however, retained his services, though obliged to withdraw her most confidential work from his hands. But, as the years went on, Ramabai's faithful life and teaching led him to see that there must be something in the religion she professed. Then the Lord dealt with him. His wife became an early victim of the plague at Poona. And when a large group of famine girls were baptized in 1897, more than making up the number promised to
Ramabai at the Lanouli camp-meeting, Mr. Gadre came out also as a believer in Christ, and was baptized with his younger children.
Miss Abrams contributed a graphic account, to an
Indian paper, of some of the scenes that occurred in connection with the early conversion of the girls in the first weeks of her residence at Mukti. She spoke of a
THE NEW SETTLEMENT AT KHEDGAON 117 great and general awakening that had taken place in both the Poona and Mukti Homes. This revival prevailed not only among those who had been rescued from famine, but reached to a goodly number of the widows who were previously in the Sharada Sadan. It was an outcome of special services held by Rev. W. W. Bruere —first, for ten days in the Poona Home, when one hundred and sixteen women and child-widows were baptized. He then went on to Khedgaon ; and what happened there we must give in Miss Abrams' own words
" The women had been prepared for these services by constant daily religious teaching, ever since they entered the Home. The older widows, and consequently those most hardened in sin, are living at the farm in Khedgaon. But the Spirit of God is able to transform even hardened sinners. He was present in great power from the beginning of the service. At the close of three days' services when Mr. Bruere was called away, sixtyseven had been converted. The meetings were continued; Mr. Bruere returned; and as the crowning event, November 15th, the baptismal service took place.
" It was a rare sight when seventeen bullock carts, crowded with seven and eight women in each, started out for the Bheema River, five and a half miles distant from the farm. Songs of joy arose one after another, as they slowly went along, methinks mingling with the joy around the throne when sinners are converted.
ii8 PANDITA RAMABAI
" A tent was pitched on the bank of the river, which served as a dressing room. A short service was held by Rev. W. W. Bruere, after which the baptisms took place. Pandita Ramabai's secretary, Krishnabai/ and the writer, stood in the water and helped the candidates to enter and return to the shore. One of the schoolmistresses on the shore called out the names of those to be baptized. It was very interesting to hear each one repeat with the minister, ' In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.* The happy faces and frequent expressions of praise showed that the
Spirit teaches His children alike the world over, for these women had never come in contact with many
Christians, revivals, or baptismal services. One hundred and eight women and girls, and one boy of twelve years of age, were baptized.
" When Pandita was taking the names of those who were asking for baptism, a little girl of six years tugged away at my dress and said, * Bai, bai, mere nam likna
(Bai, bai, write my name).' This dear little child, who prays much and gives evidence that she really loves
Jesus, was carried out into the water. Mr. Bruere took her into his arms and put her under the water.
Jesus took such in His arms and blessed them.
" I should like to tell of how the Spirit led many to
of the former converted widows who had been acting as Bible-woman with Miss Abrams for some time previously.
THE NEW SETTLEMENT AT KHEDGAON 119 confess their sins of stealing, lying, quarrelling, and fighting; and many with tears confessed their idolatry. One woman arose to speak. She covered her eyes, and began to pray in the Marathi language, but soon broke forth in her own language (Hindustani) with the confession of her sins, enumerating them one after another. Her whole frame was convulsed with weeping as she pleaded the merits of Christ's sufferings on her behalf. Then she broke forth into loud praises to Jesus, for salvation, the forgiveness of sin. It was a solemn yet a joyous time.
" When Pandita was bringing widows from the Central Provinces, a deaf and dumb woman insisted on coming. Pandita refused to bring her. She came and sat in the train. They made her understand that she could not learn in school, hence could not be taken.
She told them by signs that she would grind, cook, wash clothes, scrub, etc. She literally refused to leave the train; and at the last minute Pandita laughed and bought her a ticket. She has been true to her word and works cheerfully.
" She always preserves a reverent attitude during worship. When the women were asking Pandita for baptism, she persisted in having her name written.
Pandita tried to put her aside, but again she was persistent. One day she arose to testify. We all felt
God's presence as she stood in silent eloquence before
120 PANDITA RAMABAI
God. The girls said aloud, * Mookkie knows God as well as we.' On two occasions she tried to speak and made a low sound. She received baptism with the others. While the services were going on, one day she brought two children to the altar, closed their eyes, and then closed her own in prayer. All who have contributed toward this famine work will rejoice at this bountiful harvest of souls.'*
Ramabai rejoiced so at these spiritual developments that she said she could not wait for another campmeeting at Lanouli, she must have one of her own at
Khedgaon. Accordingly she issued invitations; and, in response, a goodly number of missionaries and Indian Christians gathered in December, 1897, to praise the Lord with her for all His goodness. Those who attended it spoke of it as a most favoured time. It included adedication service of the new settlement to
God, by the name of Mukti,^ i. e., salvation. The large barn served for the meetings, and the visitors camped out in grass huts. By this time arrangements had been made for a permanent settlement, and ground was laid out for a large building. Ramabai gratefully dedicated the whole to the Lord, and called the place
Mukti " in reference to Isaiah Ix. 18 : " Thou shalt call thy walls salvation and thy gates praise."
The ten years for which the Ramabai circles in
^ Pronounced Mooktie.
THE NEW SETTLEMENT AT KHEDGAON 121
America had pledged their help was to expire in March,
1898, and Ramabai's American friends had been urging her to come over and help to devise some way for conserving the interest in the work and reconstructing the
Association, in view of its great recent developments.
Ramabai had hitherto seen no possibility of leaving her post, but had gone on in faith, feeling that if the
Lord wanted her in America He would Himself open the way. Now, Miss Abrams' capable help being provided; Mr. Cadre's conversion more than doubling his usefulness to the institutions; with Soonderbai Powar in full charge of the Sharada Sadan—Ramabai felt clear to go.
My husband and I spent a day at Khedgaon early in
January, 1898. We happened on the very day Ramabai was leaving for her visit to America, a day of farewells.
It was affecting to see how genuine was the grief of large numbers of these newly-rescued girls and women, when at the close of the afternoon meeting in the barn they came up one at a time to receive a farewell embrace from the only real friend many of them had ever known. It was a long day ; the train did not leave till near midnight. About a hundred of the older girls were permitted to remain when the others retired for the night ; and with the teachers and a few visitors from
Poona, all sat out in the bright moonlight and pleasant cool air of that January evening while Ramabai gave
122 PANDITA RAMABAI her farewell counsels. Her progress to the station, about a quarter of a mile distant, reminded me of nothing so much as a swarm of ants carrying a cherished trophy up the wall, a frequent scene in India. There were girls in front of Ramabai, behind her and at each side, all pressing to get as near as they could, till Ramabai seemed to be literally carried along in the midst of the crowd. How gladly they would all have accompanied her to America!
It had long been a cherished plan in Ramabai's mind to send some of her specially bright pupils of suitable character to America for further education and training, with a view to their helping her more effectively in the future of the Sharada Sadan, or of carrying on similar work among the vast and needy masses in other parts of India. From her own experiences she believed that such training would be of immense benefit to them in cultivating independence and individuality of character. Acting on this belief, she sent three girls to
America in 1897, and took two others with her on this journey ; her own daughter, who had been in England for eighteen months, joined her mother on the way, and went on to America with her.
Manorama's education had already been generously provided for. In one of her recent Reports, Ramabai
When I was tells how this came about. She says : about to start from the United States to undertake the
THE NEW SETTLEMENT AT KHEDGAON 123 work for Hindu widows, a Christian lady, quite unknown to me, came to see me in Philadelphia. She was led by God to help me in some way. I did not know when I first met her what a faithful friend God had raised up for me in her. After hearing a little of my story and what I needed, the lady before finishing her call placed one hundred dollars in my hand and promised to pay all expenses of my daughter's education. This incident occurred nearly twelve years ago.
I am very glad to mention gratefully that this good lady has kept her promise, and has been paying my daughter's expenses for the last eleven years. God be praised for such help, and for the helper! But for this help I would not have been able to throw myself heart and soul into this work. God has freed my mind from one other care. I was seeking for a Christian home for my daughter while she stays in America for her education. God has given me another great friend in Mrs. Emma S. Roberts, Principal of the A. M.
Chesbrough Seminary, North Chili, N. Y. She not only cares for my daughter, but has undertaken to support and educate five young widows, former pupils of the Sharada Sadan, who were sent to America for education."
These girls are making good progress. Tungabai, who had studied Sanskrit, Marathi, and 'English at home, is reading Greek and Latin, and will take up the
124 PANDITA RAMABAI sciences. Her thought is to estabHsh a school similar to the Sadan in the southern part of India, and thus will the influence of the Sharada Sadan continue to spread. These girls, having tasted the bitterness of child-widowhood, could tell many a sad story. Chumpabai, for example, had been made to fast so long that one day hunger overcame fear and prudence ; she attempted to help herself to a little of the porridge cooking over the fire : her sister-in-law, discovering it, tried to pour the scalding hot porridge down her throat. Yessoobai exclaims again and again, " How can you be so kind to a poor widow ? " Nermaddabai was a widow at five ; and, when first an inmate of the Sadan, she would shrink and crouch with fear before any one approaching her. Now she is friendly with all, and is making fine progress in her studies. Jewoobai, who scarcely understood a word of English when she left India, now speaks it quite well, writes a clear, bold hand, is quick to see and to learn, desires to know how to do everything, and promises to be an invaluable helper to Ramabai.
Ramabai received a warm welcome on her arrival in
America. At the Annual Meeting of the Ramabai Association the Executive Committee disbanded; but a
Committee was formed, including a number of the old workers, with a desirable infusion of new friends. Mrs.
THE NEW SETTLEMENT AT KHEDGAON 125
Judith Andrews, the President of the Executive Committee, continued in office with all her former zeal and energy. Before disbanding, the former Committee put it upon record that those who withdrew from the work did so from no lack of confidence or interest in Ramabai, nor from any lack of faith in the future. They testified to the harmonious way in which the work had been carried on, and wished Ramabai a hearty Godspeed. The new Committee stood pledged to work on the same lines, to support the Sharada Sadan as before, with no time limit, and to encourage Ramabai in the God-given developments of the work at
Mukti.
Ramabai's address to the Annual Meeting was throughout a happy inspiration. Here are a few extracts :
" You have heard the reports of the school which you started in India nine years ago. . . . You see the first scholar of that school standing before you; she has learned a lesson there—it is to thank and praise God.
For this work has not been done by human strength alone. The Eternal God is behind it, and at the foundation of it ; and as there is no end to Him, there will be no end to His work. . .
" In these nine years we have erected a monument a monument to the saints. Let us call this All Saints'
126 PANDITA RAMABAI
Day ! It is that to me ; and I thank God for the saints He has given me for my friends. There are these dear departed friends who are, no more in this world; but I do not mourn for them as those who have no hope.
This Sharada Sadan which stands in Poona is a monument to honour their memory, and also to the honour of those saints who live here in the Church militant you, all of you, who are working for us everywhere in this country, and many who are working for us all over the world.
" Now, what shall be the future of the school ?
There is nothing to regret ; and you have a property of sixty thousand dollars, and two schools with three hundred and eighty girls in them. What shall we do with these schools and this property ? The first thing I have to tell you in this connection is that Ramabai is dead.
The person who went in your stead is dead and gone. What will you do with the property ? The first scholar of the school suggests that a new Association be formed. God gave me this morning a name for it, if you will adopt it. That is, the Faith, Hope, and Love
Association for the Emancipation of the High-caste
Child-widows of India ; for nothing but faith and hope and love will redeem India. Do not concentrate your interest in one person, for that person will die and be gone, as many have gone before; but this Association
THE NEW SETTLEMENT AT KHEDGAON 127 must not die. It must be perpetually alive; and how will it live but through faith, hope, and love ? Let this new Association be organized right here, to go on working in the same old way.
" We want twenty thousand dollars a year. When
I came here first, I only asked for five thousand; and you gave me six thousand a year. Now my hopes and expectations are enlarged, and my ambition for my girls and for the elevation of the women of India prompts me to ask for great things. I believe, if we had not a single cent in hand, God would shower from heaven the funds we want. Last year God sent thirty thousand dollars. He is as rich to-day ; and He will send us twenty thousand dollars—not for one year, or two, or ten, but so long as India and its needs exist.
" We are not to take thought for to-morrow. We are only to do His work faithfully. * Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.'
" Yet tell me that you are very busy, and your interests are divided; and some of you say that you are very old and cannot work any longer. You have many poor people to help, and many widows and deserted wives, I suppose; but our needs are greater. Are you too busy to pray for us? No, because you are members of that royal priesthood whose privilege and right
128 PANDITA RAMABAI it is to pray for us. Why can you not work for us?
Yes, you can work for us^ and you will. And what about old age?
Just about the time I started from India I was getting very tired, and wishing to rush out from the school and give up the work. I thought I too was getting too old, and could not stand it. But the Father told me to go and read the Bible; and in Luke's Gospel I found the story of a prophetess who is called Anna—Mrs.
Anna, the prophetess, let us call her—and the Bible says she worked for eighty-four years^ and did not give up her good work in the temple service all that time. And
God said to me, * If you live to be that age, you must work till then.' And I bring that same message to you, my dear friends ; and it is a glorious thing for you to look for."
In disbanding, the former officers of the Ramabai Association transferred the property and all its interests to Ramabai personally. She remained in America a sufficient time to see the New Board legally constituted and the property duly vested in the hands of responsible trustees.
CHAPTER XI.
MATERIAL PROGRESS AND SPIRITUAL ADVANCEMENT
"As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things."—2 Cor. vi. lo. TESTS and trials came both to Ramabai and her helpers during the time of her absence inAmerica. When she started from Mukti, the foundations were rising for a large new building, erected in the form of a square, providing dormitories for these three hundred girls and women, with rooms at each corner for officers and matrons. There was some money in hand, but not sufficient to maintain the establishment and complete the building during the expected months of Ramabai's absence. The stone was quarried on the premises, and the whole work was under the care of a qualified Bengali Christian overseer. Miss Abrams undertook to be treasurer; and Ramabai left the work in faith that God would provide means as needed.
Miss Abrams was instructed to pay all bills as money came in, but to stop the work if funds ran low, and on no account to go into debt. For a considerable time funds did run low, and on two occasions building was
I30 PANDITA RAMABAI stopped for a week or two ; but there was always food.
Still, it was a time of trial to Miss Abrams and to
Soonderbai ; and the latter experienced added difficulties on account of the recrudescence of the plague in Poona.
This condition of affairs was reported to Ramabai; and reaching her at a time when she was quite worn out with the fatigue of travel, and the strain of re-arrangement of the American Association, it tried her far more than if she had been at home to face the difficulty herself. For two years without respite her mind and body had borne the continuous effort of caring for these needy ones, sustained only by her brave spirit and firm faith in God. There was no rest for her when she got to America. It was her earnest desire to meet the wishes of her friends for her to speak here, there, and everywhere ; the distances being often so great as to require travelling by night, followed, at times, by two addresses during the day. To this was added her intense anxiety about her poor children at home. She bore it bravely between herself and God.
" But at last there came a day," says a friend in
America, " when all this was too much for the overtaxed body and mind ; and she lay upon her bed, crying to God in her anguish, and feeling that she must go home to suffer and to die, if need be, with her dear ones there. During that day of pain and terrible fear she poured out her heart to one who loved her. The story
MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL ADVANCEMENT 131 was told to two of her best and most generous friends and on her return to Boston, a few evenings afterward, the entire sum necessary to relieve, for a time, the needs of her children and her own anxiety, was placed in her hands. When she realized the meaning of it all, her weary, anxious face became illumined with joy and with grateful love, as she exclaimed : * Thank God and those dear friends! Oh, I shall sleep to-night as I have not slept for weeks thinking of my poor hungry children!'"
Ramabai's longing for home deepened. The times for successful work in America grew more unfavorable. The receipt of a telegram from London, requesting her immediate presence, decided her. She sailed from New York early in July, with the hope that an
English Association might be formed to work in harmony with the American Association. In this she was disappointed. No plans had been formed, and none could be formed during the summer. She hastened her departure from England, after visiting the Keswick
Convention. In August she was with her own again, and none too soon. For able, and faithful, and devoted as were those having charge of the schools, they were not Ramabai. On the farm hundreds of fruit-trees had died through the neglect of the gardener, and Ramabai found herself obliged to discharge him, and take up the management of the farm herself
132 PANDITA RAMABAI
In spite of delays the buildings were sufficiently near to completion for a dedication service to be held in September; and again a large number of missionaries and
Christian friends from Poona, Bombay, and elsewhere, gathered at Mukti, to unite with Ramabai in praising
God for progress in material blessings, and for spiritual advancement in the pupils. Soonderbai and the whole of the Poona establishment were present.
The picture of the building which we reproduce here was taken at this time. The inscription over the large gateway is " Praise the Lord," in Marathi, in pursuance of Ramabai's determination to call her walls " Salvation," and her gates " Praise."
After Ramabai came out into the fulness of spiritual blessing, as related in Chapter VIL, her views as to the power of God expanded. She translated the Scriptures literally. She believed that as the Lord made the human body, it was His province to heal it; that the
Spirit would so "quicken" her "moral body" as to remove ailments and keep it in health. Taking Him at
His word she commenced praying for the healing of an internal disorder for which she had for years been consulting physicians at home and abroad to no purpose.
Soonderbai joined with her in prayer for half-an-hour daily, and in the course of two months she was able to tell of her own complete healing, and that of two of her pupils from serious maladies. She thus tested God
MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL ADVANCEMENT 133 and proved that the prayer of faith did heal the sick.
Continuous miracles of this sort have been wrought since in connection with this work of faith and love.
There is so much scepticism on this subject, even among Christians, that I do not feel called upon to relate details here; but if Ramabai would write her own experiences on the line of Divine healing, I believe it would be a more remarkable story than any I have told in these pages. I must, however, relate one circumstance here of the continuous overruling of God's power with regard to the pupils at the Sharada Sadan at the time of the plague in Poona. I referred in Chapter IX.
to the arbitrary action of the magistrate in carrying off to the Plague Observation Camp eighteen girls suffering from various complaints left by the famine. These were all returned to the Sharada Sadan in the course of a few days, except one who was reported to have plague. When Ramabai inquired for her, she was told she had died. A few weeks later a party of girls was being brought into Poona by rail, when a little one who was suffering with slight fever was taken at the railway inspection office and sent off to this Observation
Camp. Ramabai insisted on accompanying the child, a mere baby, and spent some days there with her, until she was released.
While there Ramabai began to make particular enquiries about the girl who was reported dead. She never
134 PANDITA RAMABAI had been able to believe that the girl had the plague ; and now discovered that she had not, and that she was not dead, but had been detained by one of the native officials of this camp, and was living with him in sin. The poor girl's joy on seeing Ramabai proved that she had not been a willing partner in the transaction. She was again rescued, and sent to a kind missionary friend, but died after a few months.
This experience proved to Ramabai what unsafe places these plague observation camps were for young girls, and yet to these places families suspected of having cases of plague were constantly being sent by the authorities. Should a case of plague occur at the
Sharada Sadan, there would be no appeal against the removal of all; and fever cases would also be taken there singly if any were found. Ramabai and Soonderbai made it a matter of earnest prayer that they might be protected from plague, and from any mistakes on the part of the plague inspection parties who visited the house several times a week. It was a generally unhealthy season, and cases of slight fever were common.
Soonderbai has told me of the way in which they would all gather and pray when a case of fever occurred ; and of how, even when five or six had appeared unwell at once at night, the temperature of each would be normal when the inspection party came round the next day.
Thus God protected them, and no further cases of re-
MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL ADVANCEMENT 135 moval occurred. But it will explain the strain upon those in charge of the work at Poona during Ramabai's absence. Writing of Mukti after her return from
America, Ramabai said:
" There are neither doctors nor medicines found in this village; those girls who wish to resort to medical help in sickness are in no way hindered from it. They are taken to Poona, and proper medical treatment is given them. Yet it must be said to the glory of God that the large majority of girls seek God's help in their sickness. The Lord has wonderfully protected us from the dreadful plague and other sickness. The sun, so terribly hot, has not hurt us, nor the cold and rains.
The girls realize that divine help is better than human means. So when any one among them is sick, they get around her and begin to pray, and God answers their prayer beyond their hope and expectation."
From the time of the 1897 famine there had been scarcity in the country district around Khedgaon, though not actual famine. Ramabai's building operations, therefore, were a great boon to the workpeople who came from the neighbouring villages. It has also been a golden opportunity for giving them the Gospel. When the building work had to be stopped for want of funds—and this happened after Ramabai^s return, as well as while she was absent in America—the workmen were told that work would be started again when God
136 PANDITA RAMABAI sent the means. Not an opportunity was missed to thank and glorify God for His bounteous help, and to show how absolutely dependent we are • upon Him.
Thus the heathen workmen employed on the buildings came to know that there is a living God who hears and answers prayer, who does not desert His people, and who is so different from the lifeless gods and devils whom they serve. The number of workmen employed on the buildings has averaged from eighty to one hundred and twenty. Their usual time of labour is nine hours every day ; but they were allowed to work only for eight hours, and in the last hour are called together to hear the Gospel preached by Miss Abrams and other missionaries. A number attended Sunday School in connection with the Mukti Church, and the Gospel is finding its way into some of their hearts.
Ramabai's desire that the rescued girls should be trained to work in these villages was granted almost sooner than she expected. At Christmas, 1898, Miss
Abrams gave several addresses on the spiritual needs of India, in the endeavour to incite a missionary spirit in the minds of these young disciples, themselves so recently won from heathendom. She then told them of the Student Volunteer Movement in the American and English colleges, and of the numbers of students who had pledged their lives to mission work, as God should open the way. When Miss Abrams suggested
MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL ADVANCEMENT 137 the formation of such a mission band at Mukti, thirtyfive volunteered to be ready for training for evangelistic work. They agreed to meet daily at noon for an hour's extra Bible teaching. In a few months from that time several were regularly employed with the other Biblewomen in visiting the villages.
When the Collector of the district (the British magistrate) visited Khedgaon, he was astonished to find how strong was Ramabai's influence for good among the villagers. Beside the amount of work provided for them in needy times, Ramabai proved their benefactor in another sense. The ground on the opposite side of the road to the Mukti buildings was owned by a liquordealer. This ground came close to the buildings.
There were rumors that some one intended to open a liquor-shop close by her property. Ramabai went to the Collector of the district and secured a promise from him that no license to sell liquor in Khedgaon should be granted to any one. But to make herself secure from any possible annoyance of the kind she purchased the liquor-dealer's farm containing seventeen acres. She then invited the people in the surrounding country to establish a weekly bazaar on this roadside. They were thankful for the opportunity to do so, as the nearest bazaar was eight miles away. This new bazaar is a boon to the people; Ramabai and her employees buy a good deal of the produce brought for sale, and it tends
138 PANDITA RAMABAI to cheapen some kinds of goods. It also brings the people within sound of the Gospel, which is proclaimed, both by voice and the printed page, every bazaar day.
In January, 1899, my husband and I paid a farewell visit to Khedgaon before leaving India. We found the work going on most satisfactorily, and a number of industries in full swing.
These industries were chiefly of an agricultural nature, preparing food-stuffs for consumption at Mukti and the Sharada Sadan, and thus reducing materially the expenditure of both establishments.
The dairy department provided all the milk, butter, ghee, and dhye, for both institutions. A gift of fifty pounds sent to Ramabai by a lady in England, instead of a legacy, had then recently enabled her to enlarge this department of the work by the purchase of more cows ; and while in America the previous year a wealthy
American friend had given her some American chums and other improved dairy appliances, including some very nicely contrived cans in which milk was daily sent by rail to Poona. We went to see the cows, a number of which had young calves. Ramabai was then anticipating the increase of this department into a regular business of supplying dairy produce to customers in Poona; but the subsequent famine made it very difficult to maintain the cattle, and all the milk and ghee obtainable
MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL ADVANCEMENT 139 were needed to sustain and succour the famine victims.
The deaf and dumb woman was in charge of the churning department, and eagerly displayed to us the superiority of the new churns over the previously employed native methods. This old method consisted of a pole about the size of a broom-handle, with short cross-way bars fixed on the lower end, not unlike a
" dolly " used in some parts of England for washing clothes. The pole is swiftly whirled in the pot of milk till the cream comes. Both kinds of churn are shown in our illustration.
" Ghee " is clarified butter ; and " dhye
is a kind of curd-cheese much used. Both are important elements in the daily food of non-meat-eaters in India. When sufficient butter and ghee cannot be obtained, a good substitute is found in a sort of vegetable oil.
This is made from a grain called Kardi (or " Tilly " in the Central Provinces). The grain for making this oil was grown on the farm at Mukti. Among the widows rescued from the 1897 famine was one who understood the process of oil-making. Ramabai, prompt to seize opportunities, purchased a second-hand oil mill, and placed her in charge. The mill interested us very much; it was a clumsy looking erection, a heavy upright beam, some cords and pulleys, with another
I40 PANDITA RAMABAI beam placed crosswise; this was attached to the yoke of a small bullock who patiently plodded round and round in a circle with his eyes blinded. A large hundie
(cooking pot) stood at the mouth of the mill, and received the oil as it flowed. This had to undergo some process of boiling or purifying before it was ready for use. Several girls were employed, beside the woman in charge, sifting and sorting the grain and preparing it for the mill. Ramabai said this manufacture effected a great saving in expense.
While we were there, the woman lifted up a full pot of oil and put it aside. We had been admiringly watching the patient little bullock, and just then I ventured to pat its back. Then was a transformation scene. The unaccustomed caress so scared the apparently gentle little creature, that he began kicking and plunging in every direction. We had to beat a hasty retreat, and send a workman to assist the woman in disentangling the animal from the cords of the machinery into which it had pranced. Happily the pot of oil had just been placed outside of his range, and no damage of convSequence was done. A field of red peppers ready for harvest at this time was employing a troop of women and girls in gathering, sorting, and drying the pods. Another detachment was at work harvesting the jowari crop—a grain used instead of wheat in making bread.
MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL ADVANCEMENT 141 A weaving department with about twelve looms was under the care of a Christian man, who was employed to teach, to a selected number of young women, the art and mystery of weaving sarees (the length of material which gracefully twisted about the person forms the dress of the Marathi women.) The preparation and spinning of cotton yarn from the raw material is an adjunct of this industry, and employs as many in proportion as the looms.
The manufacture of these hand-loom dress-stuffs is an industry which has not been affected to any great extent by the modern Manchester competition. True, the mills do put out a printed cotton saree, but in wear and durability it is not to be compared to the handloom production, and for women's garments the handloom still holds its own. It is well that it is so; and I for one trust the day is far distant when this wholesome simple family industry will be substituted in India by the herding together of crowds of persons in the unhealthy moral atmosphere of mill life. Bombay has already its forest of mill chimneys. The workers are chiefly men from country districts, and the women are the wives of working men, who are in all sorts of employment in the city. Frequently a man will have two wives, one of whom works at the mill from seven in the morning till six at night ; the other remaining at home to provide for the family. Tragedies often
142 PANDITA RAMABAI come up in the police-court which reveal the sort of life led by these unfortunate women. Contrast this with a model settlement of Christian weavers which we saw at Itarsi, in the Central Provinces, in connection with the Friends' Mission. These were hereditary weavers who had become Christian. Their comfortable home-life, wives and daughters plying the spinning wheel, dyeing and winding the yarn, the boys learning to take their father's seat at the loom when school days should be over, and the babies rolling in the sunshine, gave an almost ideal picture of what industrial life should be.
Those who would successfully solve the problem of the industrial employment of Indian Christians will be wise to take into consideration the system of family industries indigenous to the country.
Rev. Albert Norton, a missionary of many years' experience, had arrived with his wife from America, and was helping in the outside mission work.
Fifteen villages in the neighbourhood were then accessible to Gospel work. Mr. and Mrs. Norton had organized Sunday Schools in some of these. Two
Bible-women were going out daily from Mukti to these villages. Miss Abrams accompanying them as often as her other duties permitted.
I had the privilege of going with them on one afternoon to a village two miles away. I was impressed
MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL ADVANCEMENT 143 with the miserably poverty-stricken aspect of the place.
It had the appearance of having been at some time wrecked, and then patched up with any and every kind of material that could be got : mud and straw by choice. Some of the stone walls were high and massive, and the doorways pretentious. Some of the " cosiest homes," if such words could be used in such a connection, were mud walls with thatched roofs. These at least were in keeping. I was told that this village was in fair average condition.
Seven times during the afternoon we sat on doorsteps or outside of houses, at the invitation of the inmates, while a little crowd gathered around to hear the
Gospel hymns and messages from Miss Abrams and the Bible-women. All castes were visited, high and low.
As we drove home through the moonlight. Miss Abrams told me of some of the responses made by the people, which I had been unable to understand, and also of some of her experiences in the work. When she first visited some of the villages in this district, she found they had never seen a white woman before ; some were afraid, and afterwards told her they took her for a soldier in disguise. At one house where the neighbourwomen had gathered to hear, one excused herself from remaining by saying she had grain to sift at home ; the hostess spoke up and said : " Don't go, you can clean
144 PANDITA RAMABAI grain any day ; but it is not every day you can see such an image as this/*
We left Mukti more than ever impressed with the wide possibilities and healthy developments of the work in the hands of Ramabai and her helpers.
Two Christian women from America were then on a visit to Mukti. These friends helped Ramabai to give shape to a thought that had long been with her, for the erection of a building specially for the care of girls who had been sinned against by wicked men ; many of these were sick, and it was undesirable that such should be mixed with the others. The younger lady took charge of a few of this class already with Ramabai.
She remained for nearly twelve months. She nursed several of these poor girls back to good health, and then left to establish a rescue home of her own in another part of India. The other stayed and saw the foundations in for a new building on the piece of ground purchased from the liquor-dealer. She then returned to
America, and worked for some months both there and in England, and raised half the amount needed for this new building.
Rev. Albert Norton and his wife remained with
Ramabai till February, 1900, when they removed to
Dhond, ten miles distant, being led to undertake famine relief work especially on the line of caring for destitute boys.
CHAPTER XII.
RESCUE WORK DURING THE FAMINE OF I9OO
" The servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart." Eph. vi. 7. WHEN Ramabai was making her garden at the
Sharada Sadan in years gone by, she planned to have a fernery around a fountain.
Ferns were brought from the Ghauts at Lanouli, or
Khandalla, where in the rainy season they adorn in profusion the sides of the rocky hills, clothing their native barrenness with a garment of tender and lovely green. Baskets of these ferns can always be purchased for a few annas at the railway stations on the Ghauts, and many people take them home and transplant them, but they rarely survive the operation—they are rockgrown, and will not root in ordinary garden soil. This was also Ramabai's experience. But she meant to have a fernery, and nothing daunted by failure, she hired two bullock carts, and went off one day to a river-side some twenty miles distant, where she knew she would find what she wanted. She brought back quantities of
146 PANDITA RAMABAI beautiful maiden-hair, roots, soil, and all, and planted her fernery, which flourishes to this day.
It is this characteristic of determination and perseverance that has been a large factor in the human side of her work. Ramabai ascribes all the glory to God, and looks upon herself as solely an instrument in His hands. But she is a polished instrument, and will have the reward of those who have placed all their talents out at highest interest in God* service. Her versatility is a constant source of wonder to her friends. In a recent
Report of the Ramabai Association, Mrs. Andrews wrote
" Do you ask if she is equal to doing so many things, and doing them well—of buying and building, of planning and executing, of farming and teaching? Dr.
Hale's words, uttered years ago, are as true now as then, and will answer the question : * This little woman, who has had this remarkable success with audiences; who has had the wit to think out this combination of circles which work together so well, goes back to India. The chances were ninety-nine out of a hundred that she would have wasted the whole of her money. There are very excellent people, who can do something of what she has done, who have not the slightest executive capacity; and it ought to be said that. most people who talk well, as she does, are singularly destitute of the power of working well. . . . But here this wonderful
RESCUE WORK 147 little woman who has roused the whole country, and has raised this sum of money, and has organized all this thing, goes out there and proves to be a first-rate educator. And she proves to be a first-rate buyer, and a first-rate person to get on with contractors/ "
We may add to this that she is a capable farmer, and a poet of no mean order. In the Kindergarten, which is a part of her educational work, training the older girls to teach the little ones, many of the action songs used in English schools have been aptly translated into
Marathi by Ramabai. She has also enriched the song of the Marathi Christian Church with a number of beautiful hymns to English as well as Indian tunes.
And the spring of all her inspiration is love to God and man, kindled by that love of Christ which constrains to spend and be spent, and to suffer for others. Ramabai tells how in one part of her father's house, when she was but nine years old, there lived a poor family. The family consisted of a man of thirty years of age, his girl-wife of sixteen, and his old mother. The mother-in-law was all the worst that is implied by that name in India—a heartless old hag, always beating, abusing, and cruelly treating her daughter-in-law. One day when the girl was spinning, a monkey stole her cotton. For this carelessness the girl was abused by the mother-in-law, who nagged the husband on to beat her. Ramabai adds : " I was an eye-witness to all
148 PANDITA RAMABAI this. Her piercing cries went right to my heart ; and I seem to hear them now after nearly thirty years. My childish heart was filled with indignation. I was powerless to help. But I have never forgotten that poor girl's cries for help ; and I suppose it was the first call I received to enter upon the sacred duty of helping my sisters according to the little strength I had. But
I never realized the extent of grief and suffering and the need of my sisters just as long as I remained in darkness, and had no love of God in me."
The funds raised in England in the autumn of 1899 for the new rescue building were doubly welcome. Another famine had broken out in India, and this time the country around Khedgaon was more deeply affected.
This money came in time of need to employ many starving people in the erection of the rescue home. And
Ramabai found herself obliged to make the needs of her starving neighbours known, and to help many with work and the more helpless with alms. This new famine increased in severity, and added trouble was caused by the scarcity of water. Still Ramabai's heart went out to the poor wandering and starving high-caste widows.
In Bombay Presidency and the Central Provinces organized relief work met to some extent the needs of the people ; but in Gujerat, in which there had been no famine for one hundred years, and in Rajputana, a ter-
RESCUE WORK 149 rible state of things existed ; and Ramabai felt she must go and gather some of the poor girls from these places.
She knew that the emissaries of evil were busy already, and felt she must be up and doing. She waited on God to know His mind about it. She writes : " The treasury was quite empty; and when the quarterly balance sheet was prepared in the middle of October, there was no balance left at all. Reports of the widespread famine and the wicked traffic in girls reached me from many sides. Still there was nothing to be done except to wait and pray. The Lord did not try my faith very long. The very next day a cheque for Rs.272-2-0 was sent for Mukti, and another daily need was supplied in a wonderful manner. It was then made clear to me that I must step out in faith, and receive as many girls as the Lord would have me reach. So the work was begun at once. Workers were stationed at different places to search for young girls. There was no money for buying material to build new sheds, so some old material was gathered, and a shed was prepared to shelter the newcomers."
Ramabai was happy in having some good workers to send on this errand. They have done the greater part of the work, though Ramabai paid, at least, three visits herself to the most terribly afflicted districts. She says of these women that they have shared all the hardships in the famine relief work. " Gangabai, who has been in i^o PANDITA RAMABAI this work from the beginning, has gone through many hardships. She has spared neither strength nor time to do all she can for the famine girls. She is a splendid worker, called of God to gather many girls, and seems to have a special gift in this line of work. Kashibai and Bhimabai are both converts from Hinduism,
Kashibai gave up her comfortable home, her husband, and all, for the sake of following the Master when He called her. She is a very simple woman, very timid and unacquainted with the wisdom of the world.
Bhimabai was a Hindu Fakir, had travelled a great deal, visited many sacred shrines, bathed in the sacred rivers and tanks to have her sins washed away ; but all to no purpose. At last the Lord took compassion on her and revealed Himself to her as the Saviour of her soul ; and now she is a happy Christian, preaching the
Gospel to hundreds of village women.
" These three simple and almost illiterate women, protected by the strong and mighty hand of God, have travelled alone for hundreds of miles in jungles, villages, cities, on highways and byways, in search of starving and dying young girls. They have walked for miles in the burning sun; gone without food and rest; worked incessantly for the salvation of the dying hundreds. Their work will be recorded in the Book of the
Lamb ; for no one who has not borne the hardships of work among famine-stricken people, and been with
RESCUE WORK 151 them for days and nights, can appreciate their labour and know what they have to endure. I see the Gospel declaration— i Corinth, i. 26-29 ^—verified when I see these and other simple Christian women used of the Lord for His service. They are doing a work from which many a mighty man would shrink.
" It is but a small thing to fight a great battle and win a victory with many titles, compared with the heroism of such women. They must be truly blind who cannot see the strength and high courage which the Spirit of
Christ gives to the most timid and despised women of this country. I have more than one hundred noble young women in my schools alone who are nobly sacrificing their comfort, even their lives, in the service of their sisters. Since their conversion to Christ they are so changed that one who was acquainted with them before they were Christians could hardly recognise them now. God be praised for His wondrous love, which can turn the selfish, unruly, and devilish heart, and reflect into it the beautiful image of His meek and loving
For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in his presence."
152 PANDITA RAMABAI
Son! It rejoices my heart to see some of the girls saved from the last famine going out into the famine districts with my workers to save the lives of their perishing sisters in the present famine [1900].
" It is hard work to gather and save girls and young women. Their minds have been filled with such a dread toward Christian people, that they cannot appreciate the kindness shown them. For instance, many of the unconverted girls in my homes have a great fear in their mind. They think that some day after they are well fattened they will be hung head downward, and a great fire will be built underneath, and oil will be extracted from them to be sold at a fabulously large price for medical purposes. Others think they will be put into oil mills, and their bones ground. It is only lately that our girls gathered from the last famine have begun to lose these dreadful thoughts ; but the minds of the new one are filled with more dreadful ideas than these.
They cannot understand that any one would be kind to them without some selfish purpose.
" Bad men have succeeded in gathering large numbers of girls by enticing them away, and selling them to a bad life. It is too shocking to the refined feeling of refined people; but facts are facts, and Christian mothers ought to know them, that they may be prompted to pray and to work hard for the salvation of young girls—^perhaps of the same age as their own sweet
RESCUE WORK 153 daughters. Let the thought and love of our daughters move our mother-hearts to come forward and save as many of the perishing young girls as we can. I have found out to my great horror and sorrow that over twelve per cent, of the girls rescued by my workers have been ruined for life, and had to be separated from the other girls and placed in the Rescue Home. The bodies of some of these poor girls are so frightfully diseased that there is no hope for their recovery.
" The Word of God says * :
' Open thy mouth for the dumb In the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction.'
And woe will be to me if I do not obey the command, even at the cost of losing the favour of the high and mighty of this world. Many a careless official has allowed children to be taken away by people who will turn the boys and girls into slaves and concubines. The poor children who have been sheltered in poorhouses and eaten food from the hands of people of other caste, will not be taken back into their caste, but will be in lifelong slavery if they are 'adopted' by Hindus or Mohammedans. The Contagious Diseases Act, which has again come into force under the name of Cantonments Act is a great power on the side of the devil, and enables wicked people to carry
*pRov. xxxi. 8.
154 PANDITA RAMABAI on their evil traffic in girls for the * benefit ' of the
British soldiers. Missionaries and others in their rescue work have found it much more difficult to get girls than to gather boys from famine districts. Men and women who are engaged in this traffic in flesh and blood were very busy for months gathering girls before any of the relief works and poorhouses were started.
Whenever they saw any of the Christian people coming to the rescue of the girls, they started such alarms and told such dreadful stories about Christians, that in many cases the girls refused to place themselves in charge of
schools, and have gone to their destruction."
The foregoing vivid description from Ramabai's own pen is a portion of a Report issued by her in May,
1900. A few more extracts from the same, concerning the present condition and progress of the Mukti school, will bring my narrative near to its close.
" From a small beginning of temporary character, the
Mukti s.chool has grown into a permanent and large institution. Three hundred girls rescued from starvation in 1897 have received regular secular and Christian instruction. They are the children of many prayers ; much love and labour have been bestowed on them; and I am able to say, with great joy, that the workers have not laboured in vain. The money which so many friends have sent for them has not been spent in vain. The Lord is very good to let us see the fruit
RESCUE WORK 155 of our labour; and He is giving us abundant joy as we see the girls growing in grace and proving themselves worthy of the love and labour bestowed on them.
" Five hundred and eighty in the Mukti Sadan, and sixty girls in the Krapa Sadan,* are being trained to lead a useful Christian life. The number of the inmates of these homes is doubled, and will increase as days pass by. God is greatly blessing the work, and the prayers of our friends in all parts of the world are answered daily. Including the hundred girls of the Sharada Sadan, I have altogether nearly seven hundred and fifty girls under training. It will be easily imagined that they need a large number of teachers and helpers to train them. I have only sixteen paid teachers from outside in these homes. There are eighty-five other persons to help me in the three institutions. Thirty-three teachers, ten matrons, and forty-two workers in different branches of industry, are daily labouring for the good of their sisters and their own improvement. Although they are dependent on these schools for their daily bread, they may be said to earn their own living, as most of them receive no pay, or have but nominal pay. The Sharada Sadan has trained seventy teachers and workers in the past eleven years; and the Mukti school has trained nearly
'Kripa Sadan—Home of Grace—is the name of the Rescue Home started last year.
156 PANDITA RAMABAI eighty girls to earn their own living in the past three years. Eighty-five of the old and new girls have found work in their own mother institutions; and sixty-five of the old girls are either married or earning their living as teachers and workers in different places.
" A question has often been asked, namely : What is going to become of all these girls? It is not difficult to answer it. India is a large country, and a vast amount of ignorance prevails everywhere. Men and women of education and character are needed, to enlighten this and the coming generation. I have had a hundred requests from missionaries and superintendents of schools to give them trained teachers, Bible-women, or matrons. I have had quite as many, perhaps more, requests from young men to give them educated wives.
It will not be difficult to find good places and comfortable homes for all these young girls when the proper time comes. My heart is burdened with the thought that there are more than one hundred and forty-five millions of women in this country who need to have the light of the knowledge of God's love given them!
All the work that is being done by missionaries and their assistants in this vast land is but a drop in the ocean.
It will be very small help to add our particle to that drop. But every particle added will increase the drop; so it will be multiplied, and permeate the ocean un^il it becomes a stream of the living water that flows
RESCUE WORK 157 from under the throne of God, to give life and joy to this nation. My aim is to train all these girls to do some work or other. Over two hundred of the present number have much intelligence, and promise to be good school teachers after they receive a few years' training. Thirty of the bigger girls have joined a training class for nurses. Some of them have mastered the trade of oil-making. Others have learnt to do laundry work, and some have learnt dairy work. More than sixty have learnt to cook very nicely. Fifty or more have had some training in field work; but want of rain has stopped that branch of our industry, which will, I hope, be started again after the rain falls. Forty girls have learnt to weave nicely; and more than fifty have learnt to sew well, and make their own garments. The rest, small and large, are learning to do some work with ' the three Rs.'
" One of the smaller girls rescued from starvation in the last famine is taking charge of a few of our blind girls. Miss Abrams very kindly taught her to read the blind characters. The girl herself is studying hard while engaged in teaching the blind girls to read the Scriptures. Besides reading the Scriptures she teaches them tables, mental arithmetic, and geography, in her spare hours. She sees to their bathing, taking meals at proper times, and can be seen going about her work with her family of the blind and