Show CAN THE HKDOOS BE CONVERTED The number of native Christians in J3ritsh India is it appears from missionary statstics about 718000 This includes the half breedB the number of pure Indan converts being be-ing about 600000 Of these the Protesients claim 3S005JO and the remainder are Catholics One mjght supptse frm these figures that Christianity has made great progress pro-gress in India but when it is borne in mind that the population in India In-dia is 250 000000 the percentage of convert is seen to be very ligutr only about one fifth of 1 per cent Govinda Das a Hindoo writes from Calcutta to a New York paper pa-per a long letter giving these figures and ha concludes that the conversion conver-sion of the Hindoo is a hopeless task The following is a passage from his letter Education and not conversion Is the great work for the Chrisfan missionary The former will literally liter-ally draw the people of India nearer to the Vest while an attempt at the latter repels them at the outset The beet that Christian benevolence can do for us is to spread among us those arts and sciences whicn have onened out a new life for man on this esrtn Alexander Duff of the Scotch Presbyterian mission the pioneer of English education in India In-dia when he laid the foundation of his college laid the cells of a galvanic gal-vanic battery which has sent a thrill of new life to the very core of Hlndoo society shaking the inertia of age and casting off abuses and superstitions like chaff befoie the wind Can this poor heathen b rght In his conclusions Tue atatis Ics if he quotes them correctly s em to support his view of the matter for Christian mseionarics have been laboring in India for generations And since tbe Christian world has obtained a better knowledge of the Hindoos it has become plain that the task of converting them is not so easy as religious enthusiasm once made it appear One of the most distinguished poets of Christendom now finds in the literature of India his loftiest Inspirations and in his Light of Asia he has revealed glimpses of the surpassing beauty of traditions whch Hindoos regard as sacred and to which they persistently persist-ently cling Sacramento Bee |