After the assembly broke up, the man who had lost his chance of getting a big rent for his house, stopped to ask some questions. “If the use of opium and liquor were so bad, why did the Sircar, who was the mabap to all the people, urge and compel them to raise opium, build distilleries and license places for the sale of sharab? Was the Sircar so bad as to be willing to injure the people? He had heard in the bazar of the station, that all the sahibs drank liquor, and that the khitmutgar of one of the Collectors had said that his sahib would often be drunk after dinner. All the sahib log were Esai log, Jesus people. If the Christian religion was the true one, then how could these Christians make opium and liquor for sale, and use them if it was wrong to do so?” A great question, as difficult to answer, as it is to excuse Jesus for making wine; and make an apology for Paul, recommending Timothy to take wine for his stomach’s sake. It is an unpleasant task to have to apologize for the wrong-doing of Christians. I explained that the sahibs were only men, and many of them often did wrong, which was no excuse for others. If other people should steal, it was no reason why he should become a thief, no matter who they were. Why should he not ask such questions? They are asked daily throughout India. The occurrences in the European households, the tiffs between husbands and wives are freely discussed in the bazars, and are as well known as if they had been performed in the street in open daylight. The people may be heathen, and uneducated, yet they know a great deal more than they are credited with. There was no more trouble after that about the culture of opium, or the sale of liquor in the villages. The people saw enough of the evil effects in the communities around them, where the government had established liquor and opium dens, to convince them that they had happily escaped a great calamity and nuisance.