Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/196

This page has been validated.
168
OPPOSITION.

obtain a clear perception of the heavenly Being. They who, with tumultuous noise, deride the idol, are a stupid race. Forsake these hellish padrés, (missionaries,) and follow the six sects. (of Hinduism.) Attack and drive from you the mouthings of these vagabonds. If the padrés come to seduce you to your entire ruin, regard them as so many crocodiles which seize and devour men, and keep aloof from them.”

At the instigation of the emissaries of this society, heathenism made an effort to rally its strength to resist the preaching of the gospel; but in a short time the enthusiasm of the friends of idolatry was exhausted; the society became insolvent, the poet a drunkard, and a Brahmin, who had been one of their hired opposers of the truth, came to me, asking for employment in a mission-school. He was willing to teach Christianity for three dollars a month; but failing in that, he for a while resumed his old trade, and preached against Christ over against the place in which one of our missionaries[1] daily preached the way of salvation by Christ.

The heart of the missionary will shrink at times from the thought of going forth into the


  1. The devoted Dr. Scudder, since deceased.