Where Missions Co-operate.

The Women’s Christian College is not only international, it is also intermissionary.  Supported by fourteen different Mission Boards, including almost every shade of Protestant belief and every form of church government, it stands not only for international friendship, but also as an outstanding evidence of Christian unity.

The staff and the student body are as varied as the supporting constituency.  In the former, along with British and American professors are now two Indian women lecturers, Miss George, a Syrian Christian, who teaches history, and Miss Janaki, a Hindu, who teaches botany.  Both are resident and a happy factor in the home life of the college.  Among the students nine Indian languages are represented, ranging all the way from Burma to Ceylon, from Bengal to the Malabar Coast.  From the last named locality come Syrian Christians in great numbers.  This interesting sect loves to trace its history back to the days of the Apostle Thomas.  Be that historical fact or merely a pious tradition, this sect can undoubtedly boast an indigenous form of Christianity that dates back to the early centuries of the Christian era; and it stands to-day in a place of honor in the Indian Christian community.

[Illustration:  A road near the College]

[Illustration:  The Potters’ Shop
 STREET SCENES IN MADRAS]

The Sunflower and the Lamp.

Perhaps much of the success which the College at Madras has achieved on the side of unity is due to the fact that her members are too busy to think or talk about it because their time is all filled up with actually doing things together.  Expressing this spirit of active co-operation is the college motto, “Lighted to lighten”; the emblem in the shield is a tiny lamp such as may burn in the poorest homes in India.  Below the lamp is a sunflower, whose meaning has been discussed in the college magazine by a new student.  She says, “To-day the sunflower stands for very much in my mind.  It is symbolic of this our College, for, as our amateur botanists tell us, the sunflower is not a flower, but a congregation of them.  The tiny buds in the centre are our budding intellects.  To-day they are in the making; to-morrow they will bloom like their sisters who surround them.  Nourished from the same source, their fruit will be even likewise.

“Around these are the golden rays—­each a tongue of fire to protect and inspire.  There is none high or low amongst them, being all alike, and these are our tutors, and the sunflower itself turns to the sun, the great giver of life, for its inspiration, ever turning to him, never losing sight of his face.  A force inexplicable draws the flower to the King of Day, even as our hearts are turned to Him at morn and at eve, be we East or West.”

In a Garden.