faith in a
resurrection of the body is surely most in consonance with our
time-honored custom of laying our dead away in their kindred earth,
"until the day dawns, and the shadows flee away."

From Bombay to the town of Kedgaon may seem to some a descent from great
to small. Not so; it is rather an ascent from the false to the true,
from the impure to the pure, from the illusory to the real. For Kedgaon
is the home, and center of the work, of Pundita Ramabai, perhaps the
most learned, and certainly the most influential Christian woman in
India. The very name pundita is given only to those of high intellectual
attainments. A Hindu of the highest, that is the Brahman, caste, she was
many years ago converted to Christianity, and she has devoted all her
powers to the education and uplifting of her countrywomen. Her father
was a great Sanskrit scholar. He was one of the first in India to
determine that his daughter should be a learned woman. Accordingly she
was thoroughly instructed. She knew by heart the sacred scriptures of
her people long before she became a Christian. She could repeat from
memory an amount of them equal to that of our whole English Bible. It is
especially the improvement of the condition of women, and particularly
of child-widows, to which she has devoted her attention. The condition
of the child-widow in India is most pitiable. She is held responsible
for the death of her husband, no matter how young she may be. She is
subjected to indignities. Her hair is entirely shaven from her head. Her
jewels are taken from her. Her bright clothing is taken away, and she is
clad in the coarsest garments. She becomes the slave of the family;
virtually an outcast; frequently a prostitute. She can never remarry, no
matter how young she may be at the beginning of her widowhood.

It was to ameliorate this condition of affairs that Pundita Ramabai set
herself many years ago. She gathered child-widows under her protection,
surrounded them with Christian influences, and gave them a Christian
education. A time of famine threw upon her care in one year twenty-four
hundred girls, who depended upon her alone for food to keep them from
starving. That time of great distress is now past, but when we remember
that in India there are estimated to be as many as two millions of
child-widows, it will be clear that the need of a refuge for such is
still immensely great. Girls of the highest caste are in the greatest
need, for among t