Notwithstanding many predictions, he had come back, and in apparent vigour; but his health was undermined, India had done for Norman. Though to a certain section of the clergy he was still an object of suspicion, his magnificent services could not be denied, and, besides, in the Indian undertaking--his years and his physique considered--there was a gallantry, a derring-do, that stirred men’s spirits finely. So, on his first rising to speak in the General Assembly, after his return, he received an ovation. His speech, giving the results arrived at by the deputation, lasted for two hours, and, in an intellectual point of view, is perhaps the highest of all his works. There is a thorough grasp of the whole problem of the conversion of the Hindoos, with splendid ability in the presentation. Of the contest against the system of caste he says: I hesitate not to express the opinion that no such battle has ever before been given to the Church of God to fight since history began, and that no victory, if gained, will be followed by greater consequences. It seems to me as if the spiritual conquest of India was a work reserved for these latter days to accomplish, because requiring all the previous dear-bought experiences of the Church, and all the preliminary education of the world, and that, when accomplished,--as by the help of the living Christ it shall,--it will be a very Armageddon: the last great battle against every form of unbelief, the last fortress of the enemy stormed, the last victory gained as necessary to secure the unimpeded progress and the final triumph of the world’s regeneration. He shows how the evangelising methods with which we are familiar at home are inapplicable in India. ‘One of the noblest and most devoted of men, Mr. Bowen of Bombay, whom I heard thus preach, and who has done so for a quarter of a century, informed me in his own humble, truthful way,--and his case is not singular except for its patience and earnestness,--that, as far as he knew, he had never made one single convert.’ In insisting on education as the first means all authorities are now at one with him; but his other idea, that in India the various Christian sects should forget their differences, and aim at a native Church, which should be independent of Western creeds, is still a devout imagination. Is the grand army to remain broken up into separate divisions, each to recruit to its own standard, and to invite the Hindoos to wear our respective uniforms, adopt our respective shibboleths, and learn and repeat our respective war-cries, and even make caste marks of our wounds and scars, which to us are but the sad mementoes of old battles?[7] He foresaw a time when for idols would be substituted Jesus, the divine yet human brother; for the Puranas the Bible; for caste Christian brotherhood; and for weary rite and empty ceremony the peace of God.