30 THE GOSPEL AND THE PLOW 



so persecuted that missions hesitate to accept them. It 

 is better to wait till the few have gained more. The 

 whole village is better able to protect itself in its new 

 faith than the isolated individual. Many more than 

 actually are baptized each month want to be baptized, 

 but because of lack of missionaries and lack of properly 

 trained Indian preachers and teachers, the Christians of 

 India are saying to the greatest Godward tide of history 

 "Not quite so fast, you are swamping us, we cannot take 

 care of you, wait till we get caught up with our schools 

 and teachers and churches and preachers." The prob- 

 lems of Christian missions in India to-day are not prob- 

 lems caused by failure to get converts but are problems 

 caused by the successes of so great an ingathering that 

 we have not room to contain so great a harvest. The per- 

 centage of illiteracy is growing in the Christian church 

 in India to-day. Only seventeen per cent, of the Christ- 

 ians can read or write. It is not because the missions are 

 doing less educational work. They are actually doing 

 more. The low-caste converts are almost totally illiter- 

 ate and it is this great illiterate host of believers that 

 are increasing the percentage of illiteracy. 



There was a day when the missionary felt that bap- 

 tism was the end. To-day he knows it is only the begin- 

 ning. When these people come they are still poor, still 

 ignorant, their eyes not yet clear, so that they see men 

 as trees, walking. They have in them the inheritance of 

 centuries of oppression and degradation. If we only 

 baptize them and leave them alone we do them infinite 

 harm. Baptized they are babes in Christ and need the 

 milk of the Word that they may grow up to the full 

 measure of the stature of men in Christ Jesus. How can 



