Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/333



has been fitly called the cement that binds the great structure of Hindu institutions. Not only does it separate each class from all others, but compacts the whole, so as to form of dissimilar and uncongenial units an almost impregnable body. Its influence cannot be overlooked by any who long for the regeneration of India.

You are met by caste when you first put your foot upon the shores of Hindustan, and you meet it at every step of your progress and in every effort to Christianize the people. In the city and in the village, in the highway and in the byway, in the school and in the church, with the high and the low, the child and the gray-headed man, the influence of caste must be met and overcome. It constitutes one of the chief obstacles to the spread of Christianity among the Hindus. To know the work to be Rh