Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 1.djvu/414

364 Veeresalingam, with his earnest soul and persuasive life, had been trying to elicit from the yoiing men was ripened and matured into action by Pandit Sastri’s lecture ; and shortly after, the hrst widow-marriage was celebrated. Thus this harbinger of divine truth and apostle of divine light, was the great supporter of the social reform cause which has made this part of the countiy, thank God, known aiid respected elsewhere as an advanced part of the land. What he did liere and at Rajahmundry he did elsewhere, lie came to Cocanada on three occasions — 1881, 1890 and 1907. He visited different places ; and w'henever he went, he carried wdth him his authoritative conviction. A friend at Masulipatam said, The peculiarity about Pandit Sastri is : he told us what you have told us several times ; and yet, as he spoke, people felt as if they listened to it for the first time.” No wonder. He spoke from the heart ; and I spoke from the lip. He said what emerged from his heart ; I gave out how I heard that gospel. Ho spoke as a man who expressed what