Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/598

526 from which religion and the Bible are excluded, and by the instructions given by missionaries in their educational institutions and in public preaching, faith in their old superstitions has ceased in the minds of thousands in Calcutta. Thousands and tens of thousands, in appearance and profession idolaters, have no shred of respect for the religion of their ancestors. Policy alone prevents their throwing off even the appearance of faith in Hinduism. Of these, many have rejected their old belief without receiving Christianity; others have an intellectual conviction of the truth of Christianity, but fear to encounter the trials which attend a profession of faith in Christ; others still, (to the praise of the power of God be it spoken!) have had the courage to face opposition and persecution for the sake of confessing Christ before men.

Of the converts, many have been Brahmins, and others are of high standing in society. They have relinquished home, and submitted to the loss of hereditary possessions; have been reviled, chained, confined, beaten, and threatened with death by poison; have been excommunicated and cut off from all social ties by their former associates; and to all this they have submitted, rather than violate their con-