Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/139

Rh has a bare aspect from the want of trees, which are here thought to be unwholesome when too near the house, and though India is in some respects truly a weary land, yet many a less pleasing spot may be found than the mission station at Royapooram.

Some romantic persons, looking upon missionaries as heroes, and their work as one of unmingled toil and self-denial, may be surprised that they should value the beauty and fragrance of flowers or seek for the comforts of life. We have known of visitors to India condemning missionaries as lacking in self-denial on account of the sweetness of the gardens with which (after many years of residence) their houses were surrounded. Such persons mistake the aim of the missionary: it is not to deny himself for the sake of denying himself, but to be willing to deny himself for the sake of doing good; and to encounter whatever self-denial he is called to by God in his providence, for the sake of making Christ known among the heathen. It is not to degrade himself to a level with idolaters, and to despise the gifts of God, but to convert, elevate, and refine those who are degraded, that he leaves his home. Such persons, astonished that Christian mis-