Page:The leather-workers of Daryaganj.djvu/12

8 we have at present to do in this country—may be dealt with as regards their future place of abode and manner of living, the one being to leave them in their own surroundings, and, as far as possible among their own people, in the hope that they may be a witness to guide others from among them into the truth, the other being to separate them off almost or altogether from their old associations and gather them together into a knot by themselves. The latter policy is usually known as that of segregation; to the former perhaps because it is so perfectly obvious and simple, no special name that I know of can be given. It is not difficult to account for the fact that the segregation policy is that which has, in greater or less degree, been followed by far the greater number of Missions. In the first place the caste prejudices of Hindoos, and to an almost equal extent the bitterness of Mahommedans, makes it quite impossible for a convert, if living as so many of them do in a kind of clan fashion, two or three generations and all degrees of relations massed together in one house, to continue his old position among them as though nothing had happened. He must, whether he wishes it or no, go out from among them and set up for himself. But this, to mention no other difficulty, means of course greatly increased expense which he is very frequently not able to undertake. What then more natural than that he should take refuge in the Mission Compound where he can usually find, not only a house sufficient for his wants and not seldom free of rent, but also a Christian atmosphere and congenial companionship secured from the taunts and insults to which he would certainly be, for some considerable time at least, exposed if living in the open Bazar. Add to this the natural hope on the part of the Missionaries that by bringing Christians together into a purer air, away from their old and so often debasing surroundings, a higher standard and tone of Christian thought and life may be evoked, many, it may be, feeble sparks combining to form a really vigorous and active flame, and it will not seem strange that this is the policy which, whether in the form of a Christian village entirely distinct from all surrounding habitations, or in the modified form of a Mission Compound in the city of size sufficient to afford shelter to as many as are at present likely to need its refuge, has been most commonly followed. Now while on the one hand it is hard not to think that the plan of leaving them to be a light to their own world, where more than elsewhere their influence and testimony ought to make itself most powerfully felt, is really the truest and highest, it is also certain that