Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/199

Rh get paid for it? Have you no wages? You came to get money, to have a house, and wife, and children! How old are you? Whence did you come, that you set yourself up to teach us? You do not know how to speak. You have a church; go there and preach!" Then brandishing his fingers insultingly and threateningly within an inch of my face—

“Get out of this street! What are you doing here! Go! go! Be off!"

Though this torrent of abuse, with the laughter of the crowd, was far from inviting, I waited, yet with a tingling face, until he became tired and went away. Then again briefly addressing the people, and distributing some tracts, I turned homeward. Every such encounter adds to the experience of the missionary, and prepares him for future labours. He learns to avoid offence and to anticipate objection, and also the best modes of meeting the arguments they advance. He learns to feel his own helplessness, and to go to God in prayer that his great name may be vindicated and glorified, and that hard hearts may be softened by the Spirit of grace.

The too common notion, that “Any one is good enough to preach to the heathen,” that