Christian missions in the Telugu country - Uecf.net

MALAS, MADIGAS, AND SUDRAS 95
if it is a school primarily for Christian or Mala children,
the Sudras will generally send their boys to it ; and in
their own homes they are very accessible to earnest and
capable teachers.
If it were asked why the Mission, during these many
years, has not concentrated on work among the Sudras,
the first answer must be that it has been led in another
direction. At the beginning there was no attempt to
select any class for the hearing of the Gospel. The first
missionaries went impartially to all, but the response
very early came from the Malas. Since that time the
Mission has always had its hands full, except during the
short period of the Evangelistic Band, with almost
exclusively out-caste work. But the second answer to the
question is that experience has fully justified this course,
and increasingly tends to show that the true way to win
the higher castes is through the conversion of the low
castes. In support of this we may point to the changed
attitude of the Sudras of our mission districts. The
violent opposition of the earlier days has over and over
again changed to an attitude of respectful attention. And
this change has been found to be greatest where the
Mission has worked longest. Some of our Indian helpers
are experienced in the two methods, both of public
evangeUstic preaching to the Sudras, and of personal
appeal to those who have lived within the influence of a
good Christian congregation. If we judge from their
experience there can be no doubt at all that the Christian
congregation is a far more persuasive testimony to the
Gospel than the spoken word of the preacher. In the
Mutyalapad district, where our Mission first began work