‘My heart,’ it runs, ‘is stirred by sorrow and pity for those suffering widows of India; but there are some whom I pity more,—those who inflict the sorrows on them, since it is far better to suffer than to do wrong.... But what grieves me, too, is the thought of the waste of all that wonderful amount of energy and life which God has given your country-women in order to bless others. If the men of India believe in God’s goodness and wisdom, as I think they must, even though they may not trust Him, they must think He has not made all those widows to be a burden and misery to themselves and others, but to do good work. What mistakes people make when they think that they are wiser than God.... I look forward to the future and rejoice and think that as India grows wiser with that wisdom which trusts the infinitely wise and good God, Whom we worship, she will send out her clever and good women, who are now crushed by sorrow and unkindness, into the rich harvest-fields of the world, will cheer them on in their work for others, and they will become a blessing; surely that is the only joy of a woman’s heart.... Not this only, there will be many who will gladly give up all thought of the happiness of wife or of mother, in its limited sense, and go forth to live for others.... I can remember when Old Maid was a term of contempt in England, but it is not so now; you have seen me and sixty old maids working together happy and content, and if I could send out a hundred women where I can now send one, I should not have too many, so constant are the demands for “old maids,” as you would call them,—for teachers, nurses, missionaries, and all sorts of good work.... India will some time feel all that her wasted women’s life can do. God will put it into the hearts of men and of the happy women, who are sometimes hard on the unhappy, to set these women free to do all that is in their heart, and other good women will teach them to use their precious gift of liberty as in God’s sight.’ Ramabai undoubtedly made Miss Beale realise the need for definite Christian teaching in India. Here is an interesting extract from a letter on this subject:— ‘_1884._ ‘Rama Bai is very learned and thoughtful, and says how powerless most missionaries are, for want of the knowledge of native philosophy and religion.... I thought that the native religions were feeding the higher life, but it seems not so now; but the state is much the same as in Greece and Rome just before the Christian era. She spoke much as Plato does in the _Republic_ about the character of the gods in the Indian poetry, and felt the wonderful power of the perfect Example, and the inward Grace to follow it.’