Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/471

411 against the Bible and its readers, combining with the heathen to thwart the labours of the missionaries and to persecute their converts.

The former pastor of the native church at Bangalore, Shunkuru-lingam, afterwards known as Samuel Flavel, was very successful in his labours among his countrymen, both heathen and Roman Catholic. Not only in this city, but in the surrounding villages and towns, many had their eyes opened to the folly of idol-worship and false religion through his preaching. Although in both cases a profession of faith in Christ brought reproach and persecution, they were not deterred by the love of friends or the fear of enemies from confessing his name before men.

Among others, two brothers employed as catechists by the Romish priest at Mysore, were convinced that they had received doctrines but little better than those of their heathen ancestors, and wrote several times to the Bangalore native preacher, begging an interview. He accordingly went to Mysore, (eighty miles distant,) and, by his teaching from the Bible, with the blessing of the Spirit of God, convinced them that it was their duty to forsake the Romish Church. On his arrival, informa-