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Several women entered

I one day happened to be in a street car.
and sat near me, and I at once entered into conversation with the
woman next to me. "From where have you come ?" I asked.
"From Kali Ghat." Why did you go there ?" was the rext
question. "To pray to the goddess Kali." "What is the use
of praying to her?" I remarked, "she is only made of wood."
Here I made a mistake which the woman at once corrected by
saying "not of wood, only of mud." She then asked a ques-
tion: "Does your God hear your prayers"? "O yes," I said,
"He is a Spirit, and is every where present, and He hears us.
Just then the conversation was interrupted by the woman to
whom I was talking turning round suddenly and slapping a
woman behind her. "Why did you do that?" I asked, being
startled. "She is very drunk" was the answer. I turned
round to see the women who was very drunk," and I saw a
good looking young woman about twenty, her face flushed
and soiled as if she had been rolling on the ground. The
woman beside me told me this young creature had been
taught in Dr. Duff's school for Bengali girls, and could read.
While she was talking I had several times been aware of a
suspicious smell. So I said to her, "I think you have been drink-
ing also." "O yes," was her unblushing answer, and then with
amusing simplicity, she said, "Don't you drink too ?" How glad
I was to be able to say that I never on any consideration touched
the evil thing. Just then I had to leave the tram car. There
were three women at least in that group of women who entered,
who could read, and I fancy every one of them had drunk more or
less. Some ladies employed in Zenana work have told me that
they have come across women drinking. Can we not do some-
thing to check the beginnings of intemperance among these poor
women? If it is almost impossible for a strong English woman
to get free from the power of drink when once enslaved, what will
it be for these physically weak Bengali women?

I think too that we women should not only try to influence
the women of India in this respect, but also the men.
The spread
of intemperance among the men is woeful, and it is more visible
than among women.-Let us try to influence all, men and women,
the Babus and their wives, the domestic servants and the poor
working women. But in order to do this we must set the example
and shun the source of this evil.

There is yet another form of work which has come before mework among our servants.

Temperance work among

the men.

I have often thought this, that while Work among we are busy here and there throwing light around us, we do not our servants. throw it on our own households. "The darkest place is under the lamp," is an old proverb, and I sometimes think it true, of at least many Christian households. Our domestic servants are very willing to hear. I often get our servants together on a Sunday evening, and talk to them and sing to them, and they seem to enjoy it and even learn the hymns and join in them. I have

Woman's

a friend who is mostly all the time confined to her couch. She, whenever well enough to talk, gets her own servants, and any others who may wish to come at the invitation of her servants, and shows them a Bible picture and tells them its story. Then she asks them about their families and their troubles, and concludes by praying, and in her prayer telling God what they need. Sometimes they ask her to pray for definite blessings, such as the recovery of a child &c. and then tell joyfully of the answer to her

prayers.

It will be a glad day for India when in all Christian households this plan is adopted, and when, not only on Sundays. but every day in the week the servants hear the voice of prayer in their own language. It will do more to settle the question of difficulty with servants than any other plan which can be devised.

When I commenced I said Christ had put us women back to the work higher place we had forfeited at the beginning. But is it not true that than before the place to which Christ has lifted us is a far higher place than the Fall. we had at the beginning? Eve had only to help Adam to "dress and keep" the earthly paradise. To us it is now given to help, and that in no small degree, in making the Paradise of God such as He will delight to see it. Let us then be ever busy, scattering with a lavish hand everywhere seeds which will spring up and develop in beauty above.

Women's

Hinduism.

Ere I close, on this the first day of a New Year, I would repeat the prayer of the sainted Frances Havergal, knowing that all my dear sisters will unite with me in the petition.

"O use me Lord. use even me,

Just as Thou wilt; and when, and where;

Until Thy blessèd face I see,

Thy rest, Thy joy, Thy glory share."

MISS GREENFIELD, S. F. E., Lodiana, Punjab, said:-In work aims at listening to the eloquent speeches of our brethren on the the heart of important topics that have already occupied the attention of this Conference, I have been struck by the fact, that speaker after speaker has urged that by bazar preaching, by higher education and other branches of Mission work you are dealing heavy blows at the head of the gigantic form of heathenism which it is our Mission to meet and to conquer. told" was to slay Hinduism through its brain"-though it has Higher education" we are not done so yet!

46

My sisters, you and I in all our woman's weakness and conscious insufficiency are here in India to strike the death-blow, not at the monster's head, but at his HEART, and by God's help we shall drain out his life-blood yet! For I believe that the heart of Hinduism is not in the mystic teaching of the Vedas or Shasters, not in the finer spun philosophy of its modern exponents, not even in the

bigoted devotion of its religious leaders; but enshrined in the The heart is homes, in the family life and hereditary customs of the people; in the home. fed, preserved, and perpetuated by the wives and mothers of India. Therefore I say, that the Zenana teacher with her constant personal influence on the family life of her pupils, the lady medical Missionary with her double ministry of healing for body and soul, the teacher of girls in Christian and heathen schools, training the future women of India, these all are directing their blows with no uncertain aim at the very heart of the gigantic forms of ignorance, superstition and heathenism which have long held despotic sway over this vast empire. Let us in our Master's name lay our hand on the hand that rocks the cradle, and tune the lips that sing the lullabies. Let us win the mothers of India for Christ, and the day will not be long deferred when India's sons also shall be brought to the Redeemer's feet.

Should the brethren be disposed to think that I am boasting too highly of the importance of woman's work, I am satisfied to leave it to them to place their own value on their own pious, praying mothers and sisters.

The Panjabis have a proverb to the effect that a carriage cannot run with only one wheel, and use it to illustrate the fact that man and wife must pull together if the household is to prosper. I think the Mission chariot is no exception to this rule; that even though you may consider woman's work a very small wheel, like the little wheel of the bicycle, still that little wheel bears an important share in the general progress; and I venture to think further that your carriage will be all the steadier and run more safely, when the two wheels are of equal size, and run on parallel lines instead of one behind the other.

Woman's work is as

important as man's.

When Dr. Thoburn asked that the subject of selecting and training female native agents might be introduced on the morning appointed for that subject generally, he was told that the proper place for that would be during these precious 24 hours, which is all the Committee have seen fit to allow to the consideration of woman's work in India. Did our good friends fear we should lack subjects to fill up the time? During the first week in December we held a Ladies' Conference in Lahore, and invited all the lady Conference in Missionaries of the Panjab; 52 responded and we sat for 5 days for 5 hours a day, besides special Committees, in earnest practical discussion of the many branches of our work in the Panjab alone. The subjects of discussion comprised the following:

Day and Boarding Schools, European, Eurasian, Native
Christian, Normal and Heathen.

Sunday Schools and Orphanages.

Zenana work.

The selection, training and salaries of female agents.
Vernacular Literature, general and educational.
Medical Missions and training of assistants.
Village work.

Lahore.

These and kindred subjects, all of them strictly within our sphere, were discussed, and I ask which of them shall we consider this morning in all that remains of the 24 hours so generously bestowed for their consideration?

My Christian sisters, I trust before another. decade is passed you will organize a Ladies' Conference for all India, where we can compare our experiences and warm each others' hearts, as the hearts of all were warmed who met in Lahore.

There are just two questions on which I should like to get the sense of the meeting, though I know that the utterance of them will stamp me as a Missionary far behind the spirit of the age, yet I trust they are not alien to the spirit of the gospel. Let our brethren settle the education question as they think best, but I ask, are we as Zenana Missionaries here in India to educate first and Evangelize evangelize afterwards, or does our Master call us to evangelize first first, educate and educate afterwards? In other words, shall we spend our time afterwards. and strength in pruning and training and watering the wild vines,

chain.

in hope that eventually they may get grafted with grace, or shall we seek first to get our pupils engrafted on the True Vine and train them afterwards? Shall we spend our best energies in teaching year after year pupils who show not a shadow of interest in the great truths we seek to impart, or shall we give higher education only to those who desire to know Christ?

The second question is nearly allied to the first. It is this. Are not many Missionaries fettered in the kind of instruction they Government give in Zenanas and schools by receiving Government grants. grants a silver When this question was before the Lahore Conference a large majority of those who receive Government aid stated that they were so hampered, and they felt it to be an evil, though in their opinion a necessary evil. Friends, is it really necessary you should wear these silver chains? I know the Societies cry out of poverty and lack of funds, and the Missionary's heart often sinks as he or she looks round on promising openings for advance if only money were more plentiful. But we do not hold our commission from the Committees that hold the Mission purse strings, but from Him who holds the purse strings of the universe; and just as the homely proverb tells us, that God never sends a mouth but He sends bread to fill it, so I believe He will never send an opportunity for work that needs money, but He will also send the money to carry it on, and if He does not, then let us wait on Him till He does. But let not our weak faith lead us into a false position, an unholy alliance. I would rather not touch Government pice, they are not sanctified. I think the free-will offerings of God's people are the proper means for carrying on God's work. If secular education be not God's work it is no part of ours.

Remember

what our

work is.

One more word and I have done. I would ask all of you my Christian sisters to look back to the day when you resolved to leave all for Christ and come to India, and say, What was it that

moved your inmost soul to pity, and prompted you to self-devotion? Was it not the inarticulate cry of the millions of women steeped in blackest depths of sin, ignorance and misery, and passing through time out into eternity without a single ray of hope from the Sun of righteousness. The MILLIONS are in darkness still. In spite of all the progress of Zenana and school work, the masses in our cities and still more the masses in our villages are untouched.

By all the solemnity of our first consecration vows, I implore you, whatever be your special branch of labour in school or Zenana or Hospital or Dispensary, to give some portion at least of your time to purely evangelistic work. Learn the vernacular of the poor and then-go out into the streets and lanes of the city and compel them to come in. Go out to the poor outcasts and tell them of a Burden-bearer for them. Go out into the villages, and as the women flock around, tell them in song and speech of the love of Jesus. Go out into the melas and festivals and lay hold of the women there, and tell them of the water of life and the blood of Christ that can cleanse their polluted hearts. Preach the gospel to the poor, and thus follow in His blessed footsteps who spent the three years of his public ministry in seeking poor lost sinners in the towns and villages of Galilee. It will keep alive in your own heart that thirst for souls which is so apt to become deadened by long weary waiting for fruit from among our Zenana pupils. It will give you an opportunity of showing them that you regard the salvation of souls as of first importance, and that every soul is in your eyes, as in God's, equally precious.

Oh for more time, more strength. The harvest truly is plenteous but the labourers are very very few.

Go out and

save the lost.

Twenty years

ago.

MRS. FERGUSSON, E. C. S., Calcutta, said:-I venture to speak only because I am one of the few present who were engaged in Zenana work in this city twenty years ago. I have returned to India after many years, and find many changes in native life and thought, besides many changes and much advance in the methods of reaching the women, but I am proud and thankful that the name of my mother, Mrs. Mullens, is still remembered in some of the Zenanas with love and gratitude. Having had large experience lately in trying to stir up Missionary interest at home, the only thought I would like to leave with fellow-workers is, not to forget our connexion with the home churches that send us out. Next to the responsibility we owe to God we are responsible to them. expenditure. Much self-denial is often exercised in the giving of money, much prayer is offered for us, and if we realize this strongly it will make us very careful in the expenditure of money, and be a help and encouragement in our work.

THE HON'BLE MISS SUGDEN, C. M. S., gentlemen do not know our women's work.

Calcutta, said:-The
You who have wives

Be careful in