elp for the work among the
heathen; but often we feel we need it almost as much for the work among
the Christians. Over and over again it is told, but still it is hardly
understood, that the Christians need to be converted; that the vast
majority are not converted; that statistics may mislead, and do not
stand for Eternity work; that many a pastor, catechist, teacher, has a
name to live, but is dead; that the Church is very dead as a
whole--thank God for every exception. We do not say this thoughtlessly;
the words are a grief to write. We humble ourselves that it is so, and
take to ourselves the blame. It is true that the corpse of the dead
Church is dressed, just as it is at home, only here it is even more
dressed; and because the spirit of the land is intensely religious, its
grave-clothes are vestments. But dressed death is still death.

This will come as a shock to those who have read stories of this or that
native Christian, and generalising from these stories, picture the
Church as a company of saints. God has His saints in India,[1] men and
women hidden away in quiet places out of sight, and some few out in the
front; but the cry of our hearts is for more. So we tell you the truth
about things as they are, though we know it will not be acceptable, for
the best is the thing that is best liked at home; so the best is most
frequently written.

This may seem to cross out what was said before, about the darker side
of the truth being often told. It does not cross it out: read through
the magazines and reports, and you will find truth-revealing sentences,
which show facts to those who have eyes to see; but though this is so,
all will admit that the sanguine view, as it is called, is by far the
most in evidence, for the sanguine man is by far the most popular
writer, and so is more pressed to write. "People will read what is
buoyant and bright; the more of that sort we have the better," wrote a
Mission secretary out in the field not long ago, to a missionary who did
not feel free to write in quite that way. Those who, to quote another
secretary, "are afraid of writing at all, for fear of telling
lies"--excuse the energetic language; I am quoting, not
inventing--naturally write much less, and so the best gets known.

This is nobody's fault exactly. The home authorities print for the most
part what is sent to them. They even call attention sometimes to the
less cheerful view of things; and if, yielding occasionally to t