Excerpt from A Life Lived for India: The Rev. Philip S. Smith of the Oxford University's Mission, Calcutta

There are occasions when we seem to feel and know as well as believe, (which we are always bound to do) that the death of a faithful servant of our Lord and Master distinctly advances the cause he served. His departure awakens sentiments which would have otherwise remained dormant, it gives point to thoughts which otherwise would have remained in a state of flux, it braces individuals to acts which the will would otherwise have had no sufficient strength to perform; it thus brings on a crisis in the moral and spiritual condition which otherwise would never have culminated, and so we seem to note that it has marked a stage of progress.

Now such an occasion seems indeed to have arisen in the death of our dear brother, Philip Smith. No one can know or read of all that his departure has called forth from the minds and hearts of those who knew him without recognizing that much has gone forth to the glory of God which the prolonging of his life might never have produced.

Amongst our non-christian friends, our brother's death has been instrumental in breaking up the ground of many hearts, such a breaking up of the ground as calls for and invites us to the hopeful task of sowing broadly and freely.

Strange then as it may seem, we may thank God that this death has occurred, offer ourselves with all the more fervour to die in like manner, if only in like manner our death may advance the work we have in hand, and boldly call on others to come on and follow up the advantage gained. When we cry out for help and for more workers, it is not in despair - far from it - it is rather that we may make good our hold upon the ground assuredly gained by the devoted life and death of our brother, and make it more certainly a basis of operations for further advances.

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