to our amazement, that they
were _full_. Without any delay, therefore, I mounted the platform,
and the sight that met me certainly was sufficiently surprising to
be actually bewildering. They say the place seated 3,500; it
appeared to be full. It was a simple circle, with a ring set in the
centre. At one end was a little platform seating myself and my
Staff, opposite me was the entrance for the horses, which was
packed by the crowd, while the remaining space, on circle upon
circle, tier upon tier, the audience was to be seen. On the right
hand we had row after row of Queen's soldiers in their red jackets,
lower down the Eurasian and middle-class Europeans, with a few
natives. In the centre we had a very fair proportion of the _elite_
of Calcutta: there was the Lieut.-Governor, the Chief Commissioner
of Police, the Consuls of America and two or three other countries,
some great native swells, ladies bespangled with jewellery and
finery, while on the left was one mass of dark faces reaching right
up to the canvas sky. It was the most picturesque audience I ever
addressed, to say the least of it.

"Our singing of 'Grace is flowing like a river,' was very weak,
still everybody listened, nobody more so than the swell Europeans.

"The solo, 'On Calvary,' was sung with good effect, and then I rose
to do my best. The opportunity put new life into me. I was
announced to speak on 'The Religion of Humanity,' but this did not
seem to me to be the hour for argument of any description; there
was no time for dissertation. I felt I must have something that
went straight to the point. I had been talking to these Brahmo
Samaj and other people upon Social Work, alluring them on
afterwards by indirect arguments long enough. Now I felt that I
must go as straight to the point as it was possible to do. So I
took 'What must I do with Jesus?' and made it fit into 'The
Religion of Humanity' as best I could.

"I never hit out straighter in my life, and was never listened to
with more breathless attention--except for the few wretched natives
in the top seats, who would go out, I guessed, because they did not
know the language, and came perhaps expecting I should be
translated, and after sitting an hour felt that was enough.
However, they soon cleared out, the audience