t is, so far as she dares to tell them. What she says is
the truth, and nothing but the truth; but it is not the whole
truth--_that_ she could not tell. If she wrote it, it could not be
printed. If it were printed, it could not be read. But if we read
between the lines, we do just catch glimpses of what she calls "the
Actual."

It is evident that the authoress deeply felt the responsibility of
writing such a book; and I too feel the responsibility of recommending
it. I do so with the prayer of my heart that God will use it to move
many. It is not a book to be read with a lazy kind of sentimental
"interest." It is a book to send the reader to his knees--still more to
_her_ knees.

Most of the chapters are concerned with the lives of Heathen men and
women and children surrounded by the tremendous bars and gates of the
Caste system. But one chapter, and not the least important one, tells of
native Christians. It has long been one of my own objects to correct the
curious general impression among people at home that native Christians,
as a body, are--not indeed perfect,--no one thinks that, but--earnest
and consistent followers of Christ. Narratives, true narratives, of true
converts are read, and these are supposed to be specimens of the whole
body. But (1) where there have been "mass movements" towards
Christianity, where whole villages have put themselves under Christian
instruction, mixed motives are certain; (2) where there have been two or
three generations of Christians it is unreasonable to expect the
descendants of men who may have been themselves most true converts to be
necessarily like them. Hereditary Christianity in India is much like
hereditary Christianity at home. The Church in Tinnevelly, of which this
book incidentally tells a little, is marked by both these features.
Whole families or even villages have "come over" at times; and the large
majority of the Christians were (so to speak) born Christians, and were
baptized in infancy. This is not in itself a result to be despised.
"Christian England," unchristian as a great part of its population
really is, is better than Heathen India; and in the chapter now referred
to, Miss Carmichael herself notices the difference between a Hindu and a
Christian village. But the more widely Christianity spreads, the more
will there assuredly be of mere nominal profession.

Is the incorrect impression I allude to caused by missionaries dwelling
mostly on the brighter sid