race from all
privileges of human brotherhood. Slave-owners were shocked when Abraham
Lincoln lifted his hat to salute a negro, and Southern men protested
when President Roosevelt entertained Booker Washington at his table.
Christian proclamation of human brotherhood constitutes one of the chief
obstacles to the success of the gospel in India.

The low place of woman and her lack of education is another obstacle
which must be removed if India is to profit by the renaissance of
learning. This undervaluing of the physically weak is itself a fruit of
man's apostasy from God. And as Brahmanism set its stamp of approval
upon distinctions of caste and fixed them for centuries, so it was with
woman's position and influence. She was condemned to inferiority. She
became a mere instrument of man's pleasure, or a mere drudge in his
household. She never sat with him at his meals, but ate what was left
after he had been served; she never walked by his side, but always
followed behind, when she was not shut up in the zenana at home. One of
the best signs of a new civilization in India is the growing conviction
among the higher classes that woman must be educated, if her children
are to emerge from their superstitions and become of use in the modern
world. The suttee has been abolished by law, but child-widowhood yet
remains to curse the lives of millions. There is no better proof that
Christianity is permeating society with its influence than is found in
the increasing number of girls who are seeking education in our mission
schools and colleges. Pundita Ramabai has become a glory to her own
countrymen, as much as has Rabindranath Tagore by his utterance, "The
regeneration of the Indian people to my mind, directly and perhaps
solely, depends upon the removal of this condition of caste." We may add
that the dominion of caste and the degradation of woman will come to an
end together, and nothing but Christianity will abolish them.

The renaissance of learning is not enough. A new spirit of love is
needed to solve the problems of India. For there is no country of the
world where racial antagonisms are so felt. Entirely apart from the
distinctions of caste, which are racial in their origin, there is the
distinction of Hindu from Mohammedan, which has its origin in religion.
Remember that, of India's population, sixty-five millions are Moslems,
while one hundred and eighty millions are Hindus. The Hindu men of caste
cannot help paying s