The transition from the conditions in the midst of which we have lived so long to these in which we find ourselves this morning, are so great that I wish you would travel with me backward from this place, and join with us in a moment of hero worship. Miss Frost and ourselves arrived in Boston harbor on the 26th of September, 1909, one hundred years to the day after Alexander Campbell saw the shores of the New World for the first time. And there was something of a thrill ran

E. C. DAVIS.

through us day by day as we breasted the seas, realizing that he whom we are glad to honor was sailing these seas a good many years ago.

      And then go, if you please, across the seas to India. I had thought to give you something about the conference upon union, which met last April in the city of Jubbulpore, at which representatives from several of the large religious bodies of India were present, and the topic for discussion and consideration at this whole meeting was the coming together of Christians, all under the banner of Jesus Christ and presenting a united front to heathenism. That day upon which that conference met is a day to be remembered and is written red in our hearts, and must be followed by my prayers and your prayers that God will bring to fruitage the seeds and the plans that were sown upon that day.

      Let me tell you briefly of some of the evangelistic work. And I feel that a few concrete illustrations will be most acceptable, and perhaps may stay best in the memory. The chief work of the mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is sometimes accomplished in the classroom. It is accomplished in the orphanage, it is accomplished by the Christian missions, but it is also accomplished by the actual declaration of God's terms of salvation in the midst of the people.

      In civic righteousness the missionaries have sometimes had a share. Why, we go to these great religious fairs, kept for a week or ten days at a time, and we hold aloft the standard of Jesus Christ as the only standard worthy of the imitation and the ambition of a human heart. And at such a time, especially in the town of Chamee, we have found that gambling is the great sin. That fair was established upon the vow of a man to establish this should God give him a son. The son was born, and the fair was established, and it has continued now for nearly thirty-five years. And the worst man, absolutely the worst man in the gambling business, is that very son whom this man sought from his idols. And so you can imagine on the streets the people spread their oilcloth tables, and gather the multitude and rake in the rupees, and it was a new thing to have a man without any badge of authority, except the authority of righteousness and fear of God in his heart, come to him and say, "Take up these things. Take them out of the midst of the Mala," and they are afraid to disobey. And for five years we have stood for righteousness, and every year we have found there is additional fear of the missionaries.

      I want to tell you about the women and children at the fair in Gundi. About the people that come and pay their honest money for a drink of the water in which the idol has been bathed, about the new fair at Bagahrra, where we had a talk with the presiding priest, at which multitudes of women and children prostrated themselves before this man, and when a slack time came we said to him, "Why do you so delude the people in this way?" and he tapped upon his stomach, and said, "That is for my stomach's sake, because [49] I have got to live." And to think of the children being trained in this thing! It tore our hearts as we sat there watching this operation. And at that Mala, or fair, I saw a thing I have not seen before. I saw a Mohammedan who professes to know no God but God, and Mohammed as his prophet--I saw such a Mohammedan participating in the sacrifices of the Hindus, and I said to this man, "Are you not a Mohammedan?" He said, "We are Mohammedans, but what can we do?" And when the sacred feast was ready, they even passed it to me as I would pass this plate to you. Paul says, "If that sort of food is set before you to eat, and you don't know anything about it, eat it and ask no questions." But when it had been offered to those idols, I said, "No, thank you." But how these Mohammedans have got so far away from the truth which they have proclaimed, as to participate in this thing, is beyond me. And this has been a lever which we have since used in our conversations with them.

      About the medical work, about the woman whose ankle is bound by the brass, and think when it begins to enter the sole and to fester and the foot to swell--you can hardly imagine it. Such a woman came to Dr. Crozier with her feet almost ready to drop off. It was a loathsome task to take files and actually cut that through, if possible, to save the foot. This is but an illustration of the conditions. And Dr. Crozier is rejoicing to-day in the newly dedicated dispensary which we helped to dedicate the week before we came away.

      You are wanting to know something about what it costs to become a Christian. I have quite a formidable list, but you are just going to get two or three. Yockavalli, who has been with us six years, and was with Miss Graybiel before that, is a Mohammedan. He was well taught in their sacred books. He kept the fasts and the feasts. But he heard something of Jesus Christ, and he went to his teachers and said, "What about this?" They were unable to satisfy him. This man came out against the traditions and the opposition of a well-regulated home and the wealth of his people; he came out as a Christian, as a follower of Christ, and he has stood firm to this day. He is in the work at Maudha, and he knows about this Centennial. And on more than one occasion I have had this as our subject of conversation--the Centennial of the Disciples of Christ, with which you and I are identified, and Yockavalli is rejoicing with you and with me in this assemblage this week. And in just one Maudha congregation of less than two dozen Christian members their gift of $25 went into the Centennial offering. How their hearts responded and their faces shone when we told them of the great movement, and how they rejoiced when, two months later, we told them that we had the acknowledgment of their gift.

      There is one little boy I must speak of briefly, and his name means light. He came from where Miss Vance used to be. Miss Mills knows him. It looks very much as if his father had been one of the many priests in the temples of Deoghur. The boy does not know. He knows his mother. He was sent to the Maudha Orphanage and very soon he expressed a desire to become a Christian. The day came for his confession and baptism. He made his confession in the morning and we arranged to have his baptism after Sunday-school in the evening. The Sunday-school had closed when the little lad asked permission to say something, and he stood up in his place and began to say, "I want to confess that I am one of the boys that took away the sweetmeats from the missionary's house and divided them among the boys, and so far I have denied it. I want to confess that thing." And you know that this is the attitude of penitence and obedience. With joined hands he made his confession, and it seems to us that there are many in whose veins has run the blood of greater men who have never done as well as that in endeavoring to make the record as clean as possible before coming into the kingdom. Will you pray for this boy? Will you pray for these people? Will you multiply the number who go to work among them? Will you fill up those gaps? My dear people, I plead with you to fill those awful gaps, because there are opportunities there vastly beyond anything you can think of. [50]

[CCR 49-50]