with them you are often impressed
with their manifest sincerity, with their gratitude for having been
brought into the fold of Christ, with the honour conferred on them by
bearing His name, much reproached as they are on account of it, and with
their desire to walk worthy of their profession. See them in the house
of God, cleanly clad, and as they engage in the different parts of the
service you are struck with their devout appearance. Observe them in
their intercourse with each other, and you will find much of mutual
kindness and helpfulness. Observe them in their intercourse with Hindus
and Muhammadans, and you will find that instead of hiding their
Christian profession, and being ashamed of it, they glory in it. I have
said that missionaries are tried by their converts. I ought in candour
to add that converts are sometimes tried by missionaries. Their training
has been so different from ours, their position is so different from
ours, that it is very difficult for us to understand them thoroughly;
and so far as we fail to understand them, we fail in sympathy and in
right action towards them.

[Sidenote: FAITHFULNESS TO THE DEATH.]

The native churches passed through a fiery ordeal in the Mutiny of 1857,
and came out of it in a way which reflected great honour on their
Christian constancy. Even those who had the most favourable opinion were
not prepared for the readiness shown by them to part with all, to part
with life itself, rather than part with their Lord. I cannot say how
many were put to death, but we know that thirty-four were killed on the
Parade-ground of Furruckabad by order of the Nawab, and seven or eight
perished at Cawnpore. In Foxe's "Book of Martyrs" there is not a more
striking instance of witnessing to the death for the Lord Jesus than was
manifested by Vilayat Ali, in the Chandnee Chauk of Delhi, when,
surrounded by infuriated Muhammadans calling on him to recant or die, he
declared Christ to be his Saviour and Lord, and when falling under the
swords of his enemies uttered with his last breath the prayer of
Stephen, "_Lord Jesus, receive my spirit._" The account is furnished by
a witness of the scene. There were defections, but if our view be
confined to Christians connected with the different missions they were
remarkably few, fewer, it is affirmed, than those of Europeans and East
Indians. One whom I knew well, though he was not of our Mission,
apostatized to save his life, and died most miserab