“I was greatly struck by the practical work being done by these German missionaries. The children were being taught in an elementary and practical manner suitable to their village life. For instance, the girls were given a sum; one stated it on the blackboard, another worked it out in her head and gave the answer, and then both had a pair of scales and weights with some sand, and before the others they weighed out the amount which, according to the sum, they were entitled to. In the same practical way the girls were taught cooking and other things which would be useful to them as the wives of country villagers. “I was taken to see the theological seminary and boys’ boarding school, and the fine church, where about eight hundred of the native congregation meet every Sunday for the worship of the true God; and yet we are told that missions are a failure! “One very striking thing in the seminary was the singing class; I was amazed at the splendid way in which they rendered selections from Handel’s ‘Messiah’.” [Sidenote: Purulia.] One of the chief enterprises of the Gossner Mission is its famous leper asylum at Purulia. The asylum was founded by _Missionary Uffman_ in 1888, the immediate occasion being the driving of a number of poor lepers from their miserable huts. The missionary offered them a refuge in his compound and there relieved them as much as possible. From this small beginning has grown the largest and finest institution of its kind in India. There is a model village on a tract of fifty acres of evergreen woods, with sixty spacious houses, offices, dispensaries, a hospital, prayer rooms and a lofty Lutheran church. Four-fifths of the inhabitants are Christians. The medical treatment is that prescribed by the latest investigations of scientific men who have discovered the blessed fact that the prevention of leprosy for the children of lepers is possible and inexpensive. [Sidenote: Hope in the Midst of Misery.] A visitor describes thus a Christmas celebration. “The lepers came marching out singing hymns and playing instruments. Some limp slowly, some blind ones are led by their comrades, some are carried. At last all are seated in the sunshine. There were knitted garments, mufflers, scrapbooks, toys, something for everybody, and how grateful they were! But when we saw the disfigured hands held out for the gifts, or little leper girls caressing their new dolls, our hearts were deeply touched, and we could hear those leper boys making music with their new instruments almost through the whole night.