Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/319

Rh asked why, if it were wrong, God had thus made it unavoidable, they were puzzled for an answer.

After giving them tracts, I left them, pleased and cheered, and yet not without the painful consciousness that when they more clearly understood the claims of God, their hearts would rise up in rebellion against them.

It was evening, and the little square rice-fields, separated by slight earth ridges, with their starting grain, the trees concealing the villages, and all nature around, seemed charming. The mountain, surmounted by its temples, stood out boldly against the sky, and the air though hot, was balmy and soft as the sun hid himself below the horizon. I could not but feel that even torrid, sultry, and now idolatrous India might, if blessed by the gospel, be a happy and a joyous land.

Reaching the bungalow, quite exhausted with constant throat-work, my heart misgave me on finding the verandah full of people. But they must be talked to before they went away. At last they left us. It was now quite dark, and the Hindu devotee, who every evening climbs the mountain, had lit his fire before the idol upon its summit. Like a lurid star, it