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Show NATIVE PREACHERS AT SIRUR out to a village eight or ten miles away over the mountain to call on a former patient who had become deeply interested in Christianity while in the hospital. They were good caste Hindus, and perhaps you can imagine the surprise of the pastor when the family of the patient invited him in to dinner with them. They all sat down and ate with the pastor-good caste Hindus eating with a Christian, an all but unthinkable event in these parts. "The explanation was that not only had the patient been for about two months under the leavening influence of the hospital, but also his mother- who rules the home-and his wife- who will rule it after his mother is gone-were with him in the place where the pastor became their intimate friend, and where low caste and high caste have to live in close proximity and all but eat together. The old father, too, paid several visits to the hospital for a day or two at a time during those two months, and the whole family had breathed an atmosphere of which they had never dreamed before. "This former patient brought in to sing to the pastor a class of village boys to whom he had taught a lot of Christian hymns that he himself had learned at the hospital. The pastor was very enthusiastic over the singing of this village boy choir. This patient has given up all idol worship now- declares openly that he will never have anything more to do with idols. Another former patient in that same village the pastor considers ready for baptism. This man also is a good caste Hindu. He gave up caste before he' left the hospital, to the extent of eating freely with Christians. I certainly know of no such effective way of reaching this caste system among the common adult population as a hospital." + The Plague in Sholapur A note from Rev. L. H. Gates, of Sholapur, in the Marathi Mission, says:- "On our return from the mission meetings at Ahmednagar we found the plague raging in the city. It was too late before we realized that the wife |