Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/376

324 two to each village. These catechists assemble at the mission-station once a month to report each as to the portion of the field under their charge, and to receive instructions for the coming month. Several days are spent in religious exercises, and the catechists then return to their charges. At other times the missionary is engaged in preaching and labouring at the central station, which is intended to be a model for the out-stations, in preaching to the heathen, and in visiting the various villages under his care. Schools for the education of children, both boys and girls, and higher seminaries for the training of native preachers and teachers, afford full employment for all the men upon the ground. The success which has attended their labours has compelled them to become, to a great degree, bishops or overseers of their flocks, and leaves them but little ability to preach extensively among the heathen beyond their parishes, without neglecting their charges. Devoted men are now being sent forth, whose duty it will be to go beyond the labours of these brethren, and to itinerate among the villages and towns. It should be remarked, however, that the heathen villages and Christian villages are so intermingled, and single villages