HE Sunday before Christmas we observed as White Gift Sunday, and that service always impresses me deeply. For two weeks before, the ee Crims had been bringing handfuls of grain, ur, salt, onions, peppers, or little toys of their own at they were willing to give to poor children. hen at the White Gift service one representative om each class brought forward the accumulated fts of the class, and you can imagine the collecon! As they brought the gifts forward each reated a Bible verse about giving. They had a nice rvice, too, with many lovely Christmas songs. It is inspiring to see over eight hundred children the criminal tribes gathered together to worship e Christ Child, and sometimes I feel that there more fervor in their worship than there is among iny groups of Christians.

In a few days they took these gifts, and a group ent with them to the schools for the depressed sses in the city and there told the old, old story song and verse, and distributed the gifts to the or children. In reality, there are few children y poorer than themselves, and they are members the depressed classes, too. They are gradually rning that it is more blessed to give than to reve, and they are learning it not by precept alone, by project.

It has always been the custom to give small prizes ch year to those who have passed in school, and the school examination is held in November we ay the prize giving until nearer Christmas, and en it looks like a Christmas gift as well. It is a simple matter to try to give over eight huned children gifts, and this year not many boxes ne out from home and Old Mother Hubbard's cupard was looking a bit bare. But one day I got o that cupboard and cleaned it out, and found that h careful planning I could make the things go und. And the very day before the prize giving the old Settlement, what do you suppose came m some very thoughtful people in a certain Chito church who are always doing thoughtful things many of us in India? A lovely new artificial ristmas tree! About five years ago they sent one Miss Hoxie, and I doubt if anything, or even any son, has done greater service or given greater than that little Christmas tree! Each year it I been dressed up in its sparkling clothes and

been carried about from one function to anotherto the Settlements, the Girls' School, the Kindergarten Training School and the Leper Asylum, until the poor wee thing was just about worn out and would not stand being carried about much another year. It wanted a place where it could settle down and enjoy its last days, and so when this new one came I passed the little old faithful on to the Girls' School, where I knew it would be well taken care of and appreciated. Then the new one was christened at the prize distribution at the Kalyanpur Settlement. As I told them about the people at home who had sent it and how it had just arrived in time, the myriads of brown eyes registered appreciation.

At that Settlement there are only about two hundred children, so the affair there was not quite such a big undertaking as it was here the next day, when we gave prizes to over six hundred. For the lucky children who stood highest in their classes there were flaming red bandannas, which they love better than anything else, but which, unfortunately, were few in number, so that they could not all have one. There were dolls enough, so that the girls who stood highest could have their choice of a bandanna or a doll. For those who passed minus cum laude or cum difficultate there was a large assortment of whistles, crayons, tops, marbles, paint books, trumpets, etc. I let each one choose what he wanted, and it was interesting to watch the process. And it was pathetic to see longing eyes turn toward the unattainablethe red bandannas, or the dolls. For months afterwards you can spot the bright Crims afar off because of the bandannas!

We were all quite thrilled to have the Collector Sahib, the highest representative of the British Government in the city, and his wife come to the prize giving at Umedpur. It added much to the general excitement already in the air. After the prizes had been given out, the air was filled with a blare of trumpets and a blast of whistles, and the Settlement was not quiet for a long time.

Then one night the children put on a nice Christmas program, and the next night at the other Settlement, and for a while they were transformed into little brown angels and wise men and shepherds and sheep. They did some very sweet things and I was proud of them. Hundreds of people came to see those programs and they listened very quietly and

reverently. That means more than one might think, for it is not the custom in India to sit quietly for any length of time.

The poor people in the Leper Asylum are wholly dependent on others for a happy Christmas, and if these others forget they have a very dull time of it. One morning they got some nice presents which had been sent out from London by that splendid organiza

tion, the Mission to Lepers. But aside from that there wasn't very much to make their Christmas merry. So I took a few cheerful little Crims over to brighten things up for them, and they certainly did. They repeated some of the best things that they had done on their program, and the lepers were very pleased. And so the Crims did their part, too, to make it a joyous time for others.

IT

T is seven o'clock on a warm summer day in Southern Rhodesia, Africa, but it is also Christmas morning. We are beginning to be used to having December 25 come in the summer and the Fourth of July in the winter. The native Christians are already gathering for their tree. The missionaries celebrated on Christmas Eve with a dinner and a tree at one of the missionary homes. This is the day for the people. Early this morning some of the boys brought two trees from the bush and planted them near the schoolhouse. Now the trees are becoming laden with gifts, and what an assortment! A sheep is tied at one side; chickens with their legs tied together are lying on the ground or in baskets; bundles of green corn still on the stalks weight down the branches; baskets of onions, potatoes and maz

I

NDIA is no longer merely a distant land of romance and color, notable to us chiefly for its jungles, spices and handwrought fabrics. India is today our neighbor nation, whose life and progress have an increasingly profound influence upon the life of the world. India is worthy of your deepest respect and consideration. She has a great contribution to make to the world. She is facing the most complex problems, however, that any nation of our time is called upon to face. I bespeak for her your understanding sympathy as she struggles toward nationhood.

For India is a continent rather than a nation. Within an area about half that of the United States she has nearly three times our population-320 millions of people of seven distinct racial groups. You think of India as under British rule, but actually one-third of India is not ruled by the British at all. There are 700 Native States scattered all over the country, varying in size from a tiny township of nineteen square miles to a great commonwealth as large as Italy, with 13,000,000 subjects, having its own coinage and postal system. There are 222 separate languages, dialects not included, spoken in India

today. No one language is a common medium. Only one man in ten and one woman in fifty can read and write a simple letter, even in their own language. Imagine trying to create public opinion or to foster a national spirit under such handicaps!

LIFE REDUCED TO ITS LOWEST TERMS

Ninety per cent of India's people live in tiny villages as agriculturists. The great majority of these have an average income of five or six cents a day, eat only one meal of the coarsest food, and cut life down to the barest necessities. Insanitation is beyond your power to picture. At the village well, pond or river, all the caste people bathe, drink, wash their clothing and their cattle, then carry home vessels of contaminated water for cooking and drinking. Latrines and sewers exist only in the large cities. Cholera, bubonic plague, tuberculosis, malignant malaria, leprosy, and countless lesser diseases are commonly prevalent in almost every part of India. From three to six out of every ten babies die within their first year, and the average length of life is only twenty-two years.

A WAR OF RELIGIONS

There are nine great religions in India, of which two are so bitterly antagonistic that their fanatical hatred is a constant menace to public peace and safety. The Mohammedans abhor idolatry, while the Hindus worship more than a million idols. Hindus worship the cow and hold all life sacred, while Mohammedans are beef-eaters and take delight in slaughtering cattle as near to Hindu temples as they dare. Only the acceptance of Christ's spirit and teaching can ever solve the problem. Gandhi tried with all the power of his compelling personality to bring about religious toleration between these groups, and he failed.

THE SORROWFUL SEX IN INDIA

India's most serious problem, however, is none of these things. It is her treatment of her women. No nation can rise higher than its source, and the source of all national life is in the home. Child wives and mothers are India's greatest curse. I am glad that a considerable change for the better is being made. There is hardly a Province or a Native State in all India that has not a bill, either past or pending, to make the minimum marriage age for girls sixteen years. The 1921 census report showed that only three girls in a thousand are now being married under ten years of age, but 400 in a thousand are being married under fourteen years, a total of 50,000,000 girl wives!

The most pitiful class in all the world is composed of India's widows. A woman is held to be guilty of the death of her husband through some sin which she has committed in this or a previous existence, perhaps a million years ago, and for that sin she must be disgraced for life. Her hair is shaven, her ornaments and pretty clothes taken from her, and for one year she suffers penance in seclusion. Thereafter she lives, despised and forlorn, in the home of her husband's people. She may never remarry. Thousands of these poor women make pilgrimages to sacred rivers and shrines to get rid of their babies, for no one wants to support a widow's child. There are 56,000,000 widows in India, 5,000,000 of whom are under fifteen years of age.

"OH, I WANT TO KNOW YOUR GOD!"

I sat one day in her chamber of sorrow with a widow who two weeks before had been the proud ruler of a Brahmin household, surrounded by her sons and daughters-in-law, honored and revered by all the family. Now, "He is dead," the maid told me in hushed tones, and led me to the dingiest little room in the house, where my once beautiful friend sat with shaven head, all her jewels gone, and a coarse gray cotton garment thrown round her body as she crouched, weeping, on the damp earthen floor. Looking at me with anguished eyes she said, "Your religion is kind to widows; ours is cruel to us." I said, "How much do you know of our religion? Have you ever heard the story of our Great Teacher, Jesus Christ?" She had not, and there in the gloom I sketched for her in twenty minutes the matchless

story of Love Incarnate. She simply drank it in, and when I came to Christ's prayer on the cross"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," she gripped the Brahmin maid beside her with Can you both hands, crying, "Do you hear that? believe that even a God could love like that? Oh, I want to know your God!" But just then some of the men of the family came in and I had to go. I was never allowed to see her again, for it was a very orthodox Hindu family.

One day, on a railway platform, an old widow with a strong, deep-lined face sat waiting for a train. As I approached her she shrank away from me with every fibre of her being, but when I spoke of God her whole face changed and she said, "Do you know God? I have spent my whole life searching for God. I have three times been to Benares and all the great shrines of India. There I felt nearer to Him, but when I came away I lost my peace. Tell me about your God." It was a great joy to look into her hungry eyes and tell her that I did know God as my loving Father and Friend, in Whose companionship I found peace and victory over self increasingly, and that He had sent One Who revealed His love to all men, so that they have no further need of pilgrimage. The train came in and she had to push her way into the crowded thirdclass carriage. There, thrusting the other women aside, she put her head out of the window and said, "Oh, tell me more about your Father God. I have never heard of a God like that. I, too, would know Him!"

IF HAPLY THEY MIGHT FIND HIM

It is a joy to report that men like Mahatma Gandhi and other great leaders who have caught the spirit of Christ have in recent years been rousing the public conscience against these evils, and now splendid efforts for reform and social service are being made in many parts of India. These things are being changed; but age-long customs with the sanction of religion cannot be quickly abolished among the backward and illiterate masses. Be påtient with India in this trying time of transition. All over India men and women in every walk of life are seeking God, ready to subordinate everything to that search. Read Stanley Jones' "The Christ of the Indian Road" and "Christ at the Round Table" for vivid pictures of this God-hungry people.

WORTH WHILE?

Are missions in India worth while? Is it rewarding to take Christ to this land of age-long patience and devotion? To permeate the life of a whole people with new ideals and fresh hope? Look with me at a plague-stricken district, where people were dying like flies in the autumn of 1923. Rats carried the infected fleas and thousands deserted their homes in fear, to live in tiny huts in the fields, where they hoped to escape the rats. There is no cure for this dread fever, but cleanliness and inoculation render communities largely immune from the epidemic. Superstition and fear had prevented most nonChristians from being inoculated, but the Christians