become Christians in order that they might receive physical and
temporal blessings. We dare not say that this motive does not exist; but
we are confident that in three-fourths of our converts it is not the
prevailing or the dominant motive. There is a soul-hungering and a
heart-thirsting in India such as are not in any way satisfied by their
ancestral faith. And Christianity appeals to the people increasingly as a
soul-satisfier and as a power of God unto salvation; and they more and
more realize this fact and are impelled more by that motive than by any
other in transferring their allegiance from Krishna to Christ.

And even when some do come with prevailingly low and sordid motives and
seek to be enrolled as members of the Christian community, we dare not
discourage or deny them; because we hope soon, after they have united with
our community and have placed themselves under Christian instruction, to
impart to them loftier conceptions of life and of truth. And even should
we fail to reform them and to give them worthy views of our religion and
of their relationship to it, we entertain the hope that their children
will become worthy and genuine Christians. Many of the best and most
honoured members of our community, today, are the children and
grandchildren of very unsatisfactory Christians of the past.

I might say here that missionaries are being frightened less and less by
the charges so frequently made, by those who know the situation least,
concerning the unworthy motives of those who become Christians. Indeed, to
be frank, the question of motives is, in my opinion, one of very little
consequence, save as it may involve down-right hypocrisy or gross
deception.

Ordinarily we do not expect, from a people who have been brought up in so
selfish and so debasing and sordid an atmosphere as that of the common
Hindu of today, a highly spiritual, or a purely ethical motive in becoming
Christians. If such be the prevailing motive, or even if we are convinced
that it is not absent, we are satisfied. Nor can there be anything wrong
if a man in India seeks alliance with Christianity in order to better his
earthly circumstances. This may mean a purpose to secure an education and
the blessings of civilization and culture for his children; or it may
reveal a desire for relief from injustice, or protection from gross
tyranny; it may signify merely a vague hope that, by becoming a Christian,
the general circumstances both of hims