"My light; oh, it is unworthy of the name!" exclaimed Isa Dás, shrinking more from praise than he had done from persecution. "My light is as the feeble spark in the earthen lamp, the lamp made of the clay which is in itself so worthless that men trample it under foot! What was I a year ago but a poor idolater, a worshipper of Shiv, with his mark on my forehead!" * * Natives often draw lines on their foreheads, and from these lines being horizontal or perpendicular may be known which of the false gods they specially adore. "And now," said his friend, "on that brow the water of baptism has been sprinkled, the sign of the cross has been made. Hereafter, through the merits of Christ, there may the crown of glory shine! God grant that both to you and this new believer may be fulfilled the promise made to Christ's redeemed, 'His servants shall serve Him, and they shall see His face, and His name shall be in their foreheads'" (Rev. xxii. 3, 4). [Illustration] CHAPTER IX. GANESH THE MILKMAN. ISA DÁS started on his travels, but not before he had had the joy of seeing poor Gopal admitted by baptism into the Christian Church. The two parted, not indeed without sorrow, yet cheered by the hope of meeting again in a world where sickness and death are unknown. Mr. Madden's duty was to travel through districts visited by famine, to start relief works, and see what else could be done for the suffering people. It was said that he carried in his camel trunks lakhs and lakhs of rupees of Government money. As around the jar of honey swarm innumerable flies, so around the Sahib came numbers, not only of the poor, but sellers of grain, sellers of rice, contractors, and all those people who pay court to the powerful and rich. Isa Dás was Mr. Madden's confidential servant, and every one looked upon him as a door by which they could gain entrance into a treasury of favour. His recommendation could procure an audience with his master; a word from him, it was supposed, would cause extortion to be winked at, and raise the unworthy to a lucrative post. Never had Isa Dás, even before becoming a Christian, received so much honour as he did now; never had he heard so many flattering words. Instead of titles of contempt, he was now called huzur (your highness), Maharaja, and provider for the poor. And not only low salams and compliments were offered, but rupees and many other gifts by which men try to bribe the favour of those who can aid them to make unlawful gains. Great was the amazement of greedy bunniah and cheating contractor to find that the native Christian would not so much as touch a bribe. Isa Dás steadily refused to receive any present. As he had before given up his profitable occupation of writing charms as being an acted lie, quite unworthy of a Christian, so he now prayerfully resolved never to be persuaded to accept any species of bribe.