[38] In this Circular of Bishop Wilson’s, it is surprising to observe the contradictions that exist.  At one part of the Circular we are told that the apostle’s language is conclusive:  and “Seeing ye have put off the old man, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all, and in all,” is quoted as evidence of the Divine wishes.  “So overwhelming,” continues the bishop, “is the flood by which all petty distinctions of nation, caste, privilege, rank, climate, position in civilization are effaced, and one grand distinction substituted.”  And yet, at another part of the Circular, we are told that the distinctions in civil society are acknowledged by the Gospel, when they are “the natural result of difference of talents, industry, piety, station, and success.”  Another decision of the apostle is quoted in the same Circular, and it is this—­“There is neither Jew or Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for we are all one in Christ Jesus;” and so, of course, we are all equal in his sight.  And yet this is quoted as being a decision in favour of doing away with the civil institutions of caste, which are undoubtedly the marks of that “station” which the bishop tells us is acknowledged by the Gospel, and in no way different from the station that a member of the House of Lords inherits from his predecessors.  And here, though I do not think that it is advisable to cling to isolated texts as evidence of the general conduct of the apostles regarding the prejudices of their converts, I may mention that Peter, in his first Epistle, says, “Submit yourself to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake.”  And if we take Dean Alford’s interpretation of this, and consider it as equivalent to a command, extending to every human institution (and I can see no reason why we should not), it is plain that our missionaries in India, if they wish to follow the examples of the apostles, should yield to the prejudices of caste as long as they do not involve idolatrous rites.  But it is in the general action of the apostles, as illustrated in Acts xv. 19, that the safest guide may, I apprehend, be found; and when, with reference to difficulties as regarding the customs of their converts, St. James said (Dean Alford’s edition), “Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them which from the Gentiles are turned to God; but that we write to them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood;” and again:  “For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than [these] necessary things; that ye abstain from meats offered unto idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication; from which, if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well;”—­when the apostle said thus, I think we ought to feel little doubt as to the course we ought to pursue regarding the social customs of the peoples of India.