000--two-thirds of them being boys and one-third girls,
which represents a percentage to the total of school-going-age of 68.7 for
boys and 33.7 for girls; and this while, in the general community, only
twelve per cent, of those who are of an age to be at school are attending
school. Among the Brahmans only is literacy more common than among Indian
Christians. And even that caste, which has for thirty centuries
represented the cultured aristocracy of India, must look to its laurels;
for, though their males are preeminent in culture, the females are as
illiterate as any class in India, only six in 1,000 being able to read. In
the Christian community, on the other hand, the women are not far behind
the men in the race for culture. It is therefore not difficult to prophesy
that the day is not far off when the Indian Christians, among whom both
sexes find equal opportunity and inducement to study in the schools, will
outstrip the Brahmans and stand preeminent as the educated and cultured
class of India.

This is as true in the higher as in the lower grades of education. There
are today living 418 native Christian graduates of the Madras University.
Last year twenty-seven of these Christian youth received the B. A. degree
in that Presidency alone, and the only three Indian ladies who have seized
the difficult and much coveted prize of Master of Arts from that
University are Christians. These facts are significant and reveal the
marvellous progress made by this once despised community.

As to the character of these Christians the testimony of Sir Alexander
Mackensie, a distinguished Anglo Indian statesman of large experience, may
be of interest:--"The advance made (in missions) during my time," he says,
"have been substantial and encouraging, and it is my firm belief that the
day-spring of still better things is very close at hand, while the simple
faith and godly lives of many native Christians, might put all, or most of
us certainly, to the blush."

It may be well to add emphasis here to the position of woman in the native
Christian community as a direct result of mission endeavour in that land.

The new womanhood of the infant native Christian community has begun to
impress itself upon the land. There are nearly five hundred thousand women
and girls connected with the Protestant missions of that country today.
They are being trained for, and introduced to, new spheres and
opportunities such as the women of India never dr