die before you come back. This going away is not
good." And again and again she repeated, "_If it is so very important,
why did you not come before?_"

Don't think that the question meant more than it did. It was only a
human expression of wonder; it was not a real desire after God. But the
force of the question was stronger far than the poor old questioner
knew; it appealed to our very hearts.

The people saw we were greatly moved, and they pressed closer round us
to comfort us, and one dear old grandmother put her arms round me, and
stroked my face with her wrinkled old hand, and said, "Don't be
troubled; we will worship your God. We will worship Him just as we
worship our own. _Now_, will you go away glad?"

The dear old woman was really in earnest, she wanted so much to comfort
us. But her voice seemed to mingle with voices from the homeland; and
another--we heard another--the Voice I had heard on the
precipice-edge--the voice of our brothers', our sisters' blood calling
unto God from the ground.

Friends, are these women real to you? Look at this photo of one of them.
Surely it was not just a happy chance which brought out the detail so
perfectly. Look at the thoughtful, fine old face. Can you look at it and
say, "Yes, I am on my way to the Light, and you are on your way to the
Dark. At least, this is what I profess to believe. And I am sorry for
you, but this is all I can do for you; I can be very sorry for you. I
know that this will not show you the way from the Dark, where you are,
to the Light, where I am. To show you the way I must go to you, or,
perhaps, send you one whom I want for myself, or do without something I
wish to have; and this, of course, is impossible. It might be done if I
loved God enough--_but I love myself better than God or you_."

[Illustration: A Brahman widow, the only Brahman woman who would let us
take her photo. Brahman women wear their seeleys fastened in a peculiar
way, and never cut their ears. Brahman widows are always shaven, and
wear no jewels. This one is a muscular character, strong and resolute,
an ordinary looking woman, but there must be an under-the-surface life
which does not show. A widow's fate is described in one word here,
"_accursed_."]

You would not say such a thing, I know, but "Whoso hath this world's
good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his compassion
from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?"

CHAPTER XVIII

The Call Inten