RAMABAI'S MISSION

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 148, 24 June 1914, Page 11

RAMABAI'S MISSION

HINDU CHILD WIDOWS. The work of Pundita' Eamabai in saving child widows in India from destruction was the subject of an address given by Mrs. Nalder at the Terrace Congregational Schoolroom last evening. The speaker described the ill-treatment of infants and little girls in India, some shocking instances being related. "If I were one of those little girls, I would infinitely prefer to throw my body on the funeral pyre of my husband, and be free trom the misery, than I would live the life which those young children have to live," said J\lrs. Nalder. There were thousands of them who committed suicide every year, and nobody' took any notice, because they were considered accursed; The Hindu sacred books taught that because & man. died his wife had been guilty of some terrible sin in a previous life. They taught reincarnation. Oh ! the curse of their terrible teaching — the teaching that a child' had been^ guilty of'some terrible crime in a previous' existence, and, therefore. God took hei Husband away to punish her. It was to help these child widows that Ramabai started her home. Cases were related of tho neglect and cruel treatment of sick women. Hinduism had nono of th© loving spirit of Christ. -Hinduism was tho most cruel thing out of hell. Infants and girls were received in Ramabai's flomc, and were fed, clothed, and educated. Ramabai rescued large numbers of young girls who were left out to die. During the last few years Ramabai had taught 1500 of these children to know Christ. The speaker stated that she had been working for tho Ramabai Home for twenty years, and had carried on the mission in many countries. Mrs. Nalder will speak at St. John's Classroom this evening.