WOMEN UNDER POLYGAMY
Mrs. A. M. L. Smith, a missionary, writing in 1892, asks: "What effect are we producing upon the Mohammedans of Bangalore? Humanly-speaking, we are so feeble—surrounded with difficulties, one and another often failing in health, the language strange to us, the people so far removed from our ways of thought that it is difficult for us to understand them—we cannot wonder that we cannot point to great results. But our faith is in God and we believe that His mighty Word will accomplish His Will even in our weak hands."[1]
Again, Miss Pontin, writing from Barrackpore, says: "One thought has been often in my mind during the past year; how very little we have yet done! how very little impression we have made." She continues that the Hindus are apathetic to the ministrations of the missionaries, and that there are few indications of a widespread conversion to the Christian religion.
Indian native publicists have, however, written commending the efforts of English missionary ladies, especially in the field of popular education and medical attention in the harems. The secular work of the Christian missions is in many respects beneficial from the Hindu point of view. One native writer speaks with unqualified admiration of the Zenana
- ↑ Op. Cit., p. 409.
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