The older converts form more and more of a nucleus, and although there is a large class who hang about missions from interested motives, there are also multitudes of quiet and contented villagers whose simplicity and remoteness shield them from the notice of the travellers who sneer at Christianity and call mission reports _couleur de rose_, because they have been taken in by some cunning scamp against whom any missionary would have warned them.
The towns and the neighbourhood of troops are not favourable places for observing the effects of Christianity.

The work of the schools in the great cities tells but very slowly.

At present, out of a hundred boys who go thither and receive the facts of Christianity intellectually, only the minority are practically affected by it; and of these, some lose all faith in their own system, but retain it outwardly in deference to their families, while others try to take Christian morality without Christian doctrine; and only one or two perhaps may be sincere and open believers.
But even if only one is gained, is not that an exceeding gain?
It took three hundred years of apostolic teaching to make the Roman Empire Christian.

Why should we "faint, and say 'tis vain," after one hundred in India?
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