A NATIVE'S WORK FOR NATIVES.
Few lives have had more mysterious experiences than Pandita Ramabai, the mother of India's widows and orphans. A visit to her home at Khedgaon was one of the most profitable events of my tour. Ramabai was born of Braman parents in Gungamal in 1858. She was carefully educated by her father, who was a man of remarkably advanced views. She learned many of the dialects of India, besides gaining a thorough knowledge of Sanskrit. Through her intellectual attainments she gained the highest title possible for a woman, Sarasvati, “goddess of wisdom.” After her husband's death she became deeply concerned for the suffering of the child-widows, and went to England to secure training. It was there she was led to Christ. Soon after her conversion she came to America to plead for her oppressed sisters. On May 28, 1887, an association was formed to support a school for high caste girls for ten years. That night she was found sobbing in her room, and exclaimed, “I am crying for joy, that my dream of years has become realized.” Since that day Pandita Ramabai has had many thousands of girls in her school. Her love and devotion to them has made her life the most fragrant in India. One of the girls, in telling how she was led to Christ, said, “It was seeing Ramabai's great love.” A lady missionary, with her little girl, was stopping a few days with Ramabai for rest. There was considerable weighing on the Pandita's mind at that time concerning the care of the school. One of the girls had been unruly, another was ill. One night the missionary's daughter was taken ill, and she carried the child into the yard where it might have fresh air. She was startled to see a form walking on the flat roof of the house, and occasionally bending down. She was on the point of crying out, when she discovered that it was Pandita Ramabai. It was past midnight, and she was spending the quiet hours laying her troubles before her heavenly Father. She would walk awhile and think, then kneel down and tell God about them. Thus it is that her work has been so blessed.—The Ram's Horn.