ence to it would involve? "Suppose ye that I am come
to give peace on earth? I tell you nay, but rather division." And then
come words which we have seen lived out literally in the case of every
high-caste convert who has come. "For from henceforth there shall be
five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three.
The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the
father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the
mother; the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law." These are truly _awful_
verses; no one knows better than the missionary how awful they are.
There are times when we can hardly bear the pain caused by the sight of
this division. But are we more tender than the Tender One? Is our
sympathy truer than His? Can we look up into His eyes and say, "It costs
them too much, Lord; it costs us too much, to fully obey Thee in this"?

But granted the command holds, why should not the baptised convert
return home and live there? Because he is not wanted there, _as a
Christian_. Exceptions to this rule are rare (we are speaking of Caste
Hindus), and can usually be explained by some extenuating circumstance.

The high-caste woman who said to us, "I cannot live here and break my
Caste; if I break it I must go," spoke the truth. Keeping Caste includes
within itself the observance of certain customs which by their very
nature are idolatrous. Breaking Caste means breaking through these
customs; and one who habitually disregarded and disobeyed rules,
considered binding and authoritative by all the rest of the household,
would not be tolerated in an orthodox Hindu home. It is not a question
of persecution or death, or of wanting or not wanting to be there; it is
a question _of not being wanted there_, unless, indeed, she will
compromise. Compromise is the one open door back into the old home, and
God only knows what it costs when the choice is made and that one door
is shut.

This ever-recurring reiteration of the power and the bondage of Caste
may seem almost wearisome, but the word, and what lies behind it, is the
one great answer to a thousand questions, and so it comes again and
again. In Southern India especially, and still more so in this little
fraction of it, and in the adjoining kingdoms of Travancore and Cochin,
Caste feeling is so strong that sometimes it is said that Caste is the
religion of South India. But