caste marriage and of true Christian fellowship among different castes will best accomplish the desired result. Christian schools are also powerful agencies in weakening the system, as is the work of medical missions.

III. PROBLEMS CONNECTED WITH NEW CONVERTS

1. Polygamy. One difficulty in the way of receiving a professed convert, though affecting only a small percentage of candidates, is a most perplexing one; it is that of applicants who have more than one wife. As Hindu or Mohammedan they have entered in good faith into marriage contracts with these wives, and if a man puts away all but one, what provision shall be made for the rejected? and on what principle shall he decide as to the one to be retained? While it is a question easily answered in missionary society councils at home, it is a more serious problem at the front. Some good missionaries hold that where the husband is living the Christian life in all sincerity, it is better to receive into the Church such a candidate, though not eligible to any church office, - than to require him to give up all but one wife and thus brand with illegitimacy his children by them, as well as occasion the wives so put away endless reproach and embarrass

ments.

2. Probation. Nor is it a simple question to decide how long a probation candidates for baptism, who do not suffer from such entanglements as polygamy, should undergo before being received. If there is reason in Christian lands for requiring a period of probation before receiving persons to the church, how much greater reason is there in case of those who are almost inconceivably ignorant of Christian truth, and who are steeped in heathen ideas and surrounded by a hopeless environment? Yet it often happens that a man hears the Gospel at a festival far from home, or else when temporarily residing

in a distant village. If he defers baptism until the probationary period has passed, he may not be able to reach the missionary again; or the opposition of his family may prevent its being administered. In any case he loses the stimulus which a pronounced and irrevocable stand for Christ gives; since the administration of this sacred rite is the Rubicon which, when crossed, commits him to the new religion and cuts off hope of easy return. Some missionaries do not hesitate to baptize all those who seem truly desirous of serving God and are conscious of their sinfulness and of saving grace, in the hope that divine power will keep them true to their faith and inwardly instruct them in the things of God. Others regard such a position as destructive of church order and likely to result in a corrupt Christian community.

3. Private Baptism. — In the case of some converts, if baptism is to be administered at all, it seems almost necessary to hold the service in secret. Such cases are usually those of women, especially in the better homes whose inmates can not well attend church, and others in the higher walks of life. In the case of women, to be baptized may and probably will lead to their being cast out, thus at once depriving them of the possibility of influen cing other members of the household and making it necessary for the church to make some provision for such castaways. But if it should be granted that secret baptism is permissible, who is to perform the rite? Into such homes a male missionary could not well go, and what other means of meeting the requirements of the case is there except to authorize lady missionaries to perform the ceremony? Other difficulties confront the men who ask for secret baptism, the greatest being those which beset young students who desire to enter the Christian life through this rite. In cases not a few such persons have been lost to sight after their baptism became known, or else have been poisoned, and sometimes—what is worse

than death they are drugged and led into lives of shameless sensuality, or increasing imbecility. The question of public baptism seems most vital when facing such cases, and many missionaries perform the rite in secret.

Madras Resolution. The prevailing opinion with regard to women converts, however, is that voiced by the Madras Conference: "We all agree that in no case should wives and mothers be urged to break family ties in order to publicly confess Christ by baptism, but rather that they be encouraged, even in the face of bitter persecution, to witness for Christ in their own homes, in order that their husbands and children may be by their consistent lives won for Christ. At the same time there will often be those who, after earnest thought and prayer, will themselves be led to the conviction that the call has come to them from God to confess their faith by baptism. Dare we, who have ourselves experienced the blessing that has come into our lives from obedience to Christ's commands, keep such back? We dare not take such a responsibility, but would encourage them rather to be true to the voice of conscience, however great the cost. We do not advise secret baptisms in zenanas. Widows and unmarried girls of legal age, as well as married women who have been cast out on account of their faith can of course act for themselves; but, if baptized contrary to the wishes of their parents or guardians, they will usually need protection and support."

IV. EMBARRASSMENTS DUE TO MASS MOVEMENTS

1. In Tinnevelly. One of the greatest problems in some missions arises from success. While the phrase "6 mass movements " may be rather grandiloquent, it

describes conditions

I where certain castes and classes

have, in large bodies, sought the blessings of our faith. 1 Report of the Madras Conference, 1902, pp. 99, 100.