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at present be sent to India. But soon another
claimant comes from the West; another
plantation, and then another, want a mission-
ary. The claim is responded to; "Can so
many souls be left to perish, souls, one of
which is of more value than a thousand souls
in India?" But now another claim appears.
A missionary from the West stands up and
pleads for the erection of two or three larger
chapels, not to be built of mats and straw,
like many of our native chapels in India;
such ought to do for negroes in the West as
well as for natives in the East; but no! they
must be of brick or stone, commodious, gen-
teel, ornamented. But, say some, and with
great truth, "The funds of the Society must
not be expended on such objects; we have
sent the negroes preachers, let them erect
chapels at their own expense." "But the
negroes are poor, and they cannot erect such
chapels.' That may be; let them then
erect such as they can afford."
"But stop;
if we may not take the Society's funds for
this purpose, we may request individuals to
assist such an object by specific donations for
that purpose." "O yes! a good plan, and
as the wealth of our denomination is unlimited,
we must not allow ourselves to think that any
one will give the less to the general purposes
of the mission because he may give largely to
this specific object." Fine indeed! but who
does not know that even the Euphrates was
made shallow by turning the current another
way? And it really appears to our common
intellects in India, that the more people give
to one object, the less they will have to give
to another. And has not the result exactly
verified this common sense view of the sub-

know, been dried up, but it has been so
divided that little of it now flows to India.
You complain of the want of success, when,
excuse my plainness, no adequate means are
used to obtain success. Look at the paucity
of your missionaries; look at the restrictions
under which they are laid. A ship for
Africa, and not a one-oared boat for India.
Missionaries have been poured into the West
Indies, while India has been left destitute.
It was but for a missionary from the West
to appear on your platforms, and tell you an
affecting tale, true enough no doubt, of the
destitution of the poor negroes; it was but for
him to tell you that the negroes at a certain
plantation had no instructor, and that if the
locality mentioned were supplied with a
preacher, numbers from other places would
soon become his hearers; it was but for him
to make these statements, and a missionary
was appointed almost by acclamation. Who
then thought of India? Who said, "Re-
member India, to which we have long been
pledged?" India alas! is far off; the mis-
sionaries employed there are neither expected
nor allowed to return for the mere purpose of
pleading the cause of their mission before the
public; they are expected to persevere till
death; never to pause to ask assistance;
never to stop to take breath. They are a
sort of forlorn hope, that must, at once,
either conquer or die. But a letter arrives
from a missionary in India; he tells you not
that a labourer is wanted for a locality that
will furnish a few hundreds of hearers, but
he asks for a preacher for a whole county or
zilla, and a county containing a whole million
of perishing sinners. What is the result?
A million deserves the preference to a thous-ject?
and. Very true; but such is not the esti-
mation of many in our churches; we wish
they understood the rule of proportion better;
there is a sort of rule of reverse, by which one
is made to appear of more importance than a
thousand, and a thousand of more importance
than a million. This, strange as it may seem,
is the rule by which many a problem on
missionary labour has been worked. But
the letter from India is laid before the Com-
mittee; and judicious men, who know the
importance of India, wish that not only one,
but twenty missionaries could be sent to that
extensive and populous country; but, say
they, "The publication of this letter will
draw little attention; it is not exciting enough;
it does not dazzle; our churches will not
respond to it; here is no mention of numerous
conversions and baptisms, nor does it present
the immediate prospect of any. We wish the
supporters of our mission would think more
of India, but we cannot stem the mighty
current of public opinion." The missionary
is addressed in terms of very sincere Christian
friendship, this we gladly own; the writer
sympathizes with him, but he cannot give
him any hope that even one missionary will

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About fourteen months ago one of our poor brethren expressed a wish for a grant of a hundred rupees, i. e., beloved reader, ten pounds; yes! he had the impudence to ask the enormous sum of full ten pounds to erect a chapel, in which to preach to the natives, in lieu of a former chapel which had fallen down. And did he get this sum? Get it! why should he get such a sum for so useless a purpose? He was refused. Had a missionary from the West Indies appeared on your platforms stating the wants of the poor negroes, he might, for anything I know to the contrary, have got ten thousand pounds for such an object; but the natives of India can meet, if they please, under a tree, or in the open air.

What have their dense skulls to fear from a tropical sun? and let the missionary learn to make his skull as dense and as insensible to solar heat as theirs. But perhaps our poor brother had not learned to bear an intense solar heat on his head; or it may be, his knowledge of geography led him to suppose that a tropical sun on the continent of India is quite as hot as a tropical sun in an island fanned by sea breezes in the West; but whatever may be his views on these

points, I know that he was on the very point the project does not argue a culpable deof being sent home to weep over his fallen ficiency in faith and patience? If you did chapel, without the hope of being able to not despond relative to India, would you erect another in its stead. In this crisis, think of a mission to China? Your present four of us, whose pockets were not over- means cannot support a mission both to India flowing, said to our treasurer, "Advance our and China; and what will you gain by poor brother the amount; if you meet so abandoning India, and commencing in China? severe a castigation for your transgression I say abandoning India, for if your resources that you can by no means endure it, we will are not competent to the vigorous support of pay twenty rupees each-eighty rupees,-and the Indian mission now, what can you do but you will perhaps pay the other twenty your- abandon it when you have to bear the exself." 66 Agreed," said he, and our brother pense of a mission to China? was sent away with a glad heart to go and erect his new chapel. I suppose our treasurer has met with no severe reproof, for my twenty rupees have never been demanded.

We complain not, dear friends, of your liberality to our brethren in the West, we know too well the feeling of a missionary to envy them the support which you have afforded them; but is it not the duty of our churches first to consider India? and that not only because their support was first pledged to their missionaries there, and it cannot therefore in good faith be withdrawn, but chiefly because of the vast importance of India? If you cannot support a mission both in the East and in the West, then we think that the East has a prior claim, because of its superior importance. And how unbecoming, in those who ought to be men of unshaken faith and unsubdued energy, thus to faint in the day of trial, thus to despair of India, and turn their chief attention to another object, an important one we own, but light, yes! very light, when placed as a counterpoise to India. You despair of India, yet what have you done for India? Of late years, not, I suppose, a thousandth part, the population considered, of what you have done for Jamaica. You have, in one case, sown bountifully, and you have reaped bountifully; in another case, you have sown sparingly, and, what wonder! you have reaped sparingly. And can you, dear friends, consistently with your acknowledged faith in the divine promises, and your love to the Saviour, abandon India! Are you so partial to easy undertakings and immediate success, that you cannot undertake any thing for Christ which will be a long and heavy tax on your faith, your patience, and your resources? There must be something wrong where such feelings predominate. And now you talk of a mission to China. We are sorry, very sorry, that you should at present entertain any such intention; we believe it to be wrong; you ought, we think, to keep to India, and very greatly to strengthen your mission here, before you think of China, or any other new country. And oh! let the motive for a mission to China be carefully weighed. We do not wish to judge uncharitably, but we beg leave to ask whether

I am becoming too prolix, the subject is a prolific one, but I will now draw to a close. Hear, then, in a few words, the real state of the case. You have, dear friends, sent men to India to clear a dense forest, and prepare the ground for cultivation. And now I beg to inform you, and I am an eyewitness, that the forest has been cleared; yes, the work of clearing is now done, and the plough may now be freely used in all directions; but if you now refuse to cultivate the soil, the forest will grow again, and then the plough cannot be used without the labour and expense of another clearing. I tell you, dear friends, a fact, opposition and prejudices are fast dying away; preaching, and the liberal distribution of the scriptures and tracts, have had such an effect on the population of India, that, go wherever we may, the people will hear us. We now want men to drive the gospel plough through the whole length and breadth of India. But where are the men? Where are the cultivators? We have scarcely any, and some of the few we have cannot labour much longer. My poor old colleague, after serving the mission more than thirty years, is quite laid aside by age, and my sinews are not iron and brass; and there are others, whose strength does not surpass my own. You must send men to India, you must, if you wish for success, do much for India. We expect a divine blessing; we may reckon upon it; then send men to India, and lose not the harvest for want of labourers.

Excuse, dear friends, my freedom of speech. I am in earnest; send men to India. I remain, my dear brother, Yours affectionately,

W. ROBINSON.

The above was originally appended to Mr. Robinson's account of the circulation of the scriptures in 1846, and intended for publication in the report on the translations, but being thought not quite suitable for that, it was determined to print it separately, being a document well worthy the serious consideration of the friends of the Indian mission and of the churches of the denomination generally. J. THOMAS.

CALCUTTA.

Mr. Thomas, writing on the 7th of August, speaks of the intelligence from the stations generally as encouraging, and adds, "I hope ere long to report additions to several of the churches. Brother Leslie baptized three persons last sabbath, and brother Pearce one on the previous Saturday. He is now gone to the villages to open a new chapel. I am not able to give you any definite information respecting Barisal, except that the dark clouds seem to be dispersing, and we hope ere long to report that missionary efforts are resumed. Through brother Parry, a beginning has been made at Degalia, one part of the district, and he has just written to say that some of the people at Dhan Daba have written expressing their desire of receiving religious instruction from the Society's agents. We must see what can be done, but we are sadly in want of a suitable person to go there."

DINAJPUR.

Mr. Smylie, who is persevering in his labours here, preaching on Lord's days and teaching heathen children in the week, writes thus, July 26th :—

Since I last wrote you several young men have been bold enough to throw off caste, and join us. Two of these left us almost immediately for other stations, the employment they received calling them to do so. The difficulty in obtaining employment for Christian converts renders it impossible to get together a large church. At present we have two young men whom we hope to baptize shortly.

A young brahman of more than ordinary promise in lively zeal and courage for the Christian cause, made his escape from a confinement of more than two years. On his arrival here he was examined in a variety of ways. As soon as he found there was a hope of his being received, he pulled off his sacred thread and tied it to a post, and immediately cast in his lot with us, eating and drinking of our cup and board as if he had been among us from his infancy. His progress in the knowledge of divine truth has been great for the short time he has been with us, and he continues to hunger as if he had only received the taste of the first crumb. O that all were such! for the public bazar, scorn, ridicule, and contempt, and he has had his share of it, only serve to increase his boldness and love of the truth. Some of the Muslems have been seen looking at him with a degree of wonder and disgust; they have been hardy

enough to ask how he could become a Christian, when he might have been better in a worldly way had he become a true believer. However, they never ask the second time, as they soon find that he is able to give them a reason for the hope that is within him, the same party never venture to assail him again. Bats can only make headway in the dark; when they try it in the sunshine they are sure to dash their heads against a stone wall, or something of the same hardy nature. The history of this youth is interesting: I should say he is not more than sixteen or seventeen years of age, and must therefore have been about fourteen when confined.

This indeed is the day of small things. At times the mind sinks, but God is a present help to lay hold and bear us into the vessel. I am inclined to think the word of God is making its way quietly to the heart of the natives. For two months I had a time of great refreshment. A very worthy brother of ours who is settled at Dargiling (the Rev. G. Neibel) came down here, and during his stay at Dinajpur we travelled and preached in many villages to the east and west of this station. Brother Neibel labours among the Lepchas in the hill country with Mr. Start.

I have but one request to make. Remember in prayer all who labour in a strange land.

BENARES.

An account given by Mr. Small of a native assistant, though intended for a specific purpose, will probably interest the readers of the Herald generally.

I sit down to give some account of our native teacher, or catechist, Jacob, alias John Burringer, for the support of whom some kind,

but to us unknown friend, has liberally subscribed £10 per annum. It would be much more agreeable and convenient if I could

communicate directly with the said generous no longer, however, associated much with friend, and I hope, after a while, this privi- Hindoos, and seem to have been convinced of lege may be vouchsafed, but in the meantime the folly of their idolatrous system. They I have no alternative but to make you the embraced the opportunity, therefore, of permedium of intelligence. suading their Hindoo relative to become like them. They taught her what they knew, and the ten commandments especially seem to have made an impression on her mind. She felt and confessed her sinfulness, and after a little further instruction from the chaplain would have been baptized, but that he advised her to wait till she obtained the consent of her husband.

I had intended to have forwarded by this mail a brief history of the man, drawn up by himself, in Hindi originally, but translated by Mr. Smith. The paper, however, containing the translation has somehow got out of sight, and the original has been destroyed; so, as I think it scarcely worth the trouble of doing all over again, I shall on this occasion set down any particulars that occur to my memory concerning him, and should the said document again cast up, it can perhaps be forwarded hereafter.

John Burringer (for by that title I shall in general speak of him in my future communications with home, though here we must continue to give him the name by which he has hitherto been known) was born at Jutteyghur, in Central India, about forty years ago, of heathen parents. His father died while he was yet a child, his mother only about ten months ago, both of them continuing idolators to the last. He had two brothers and a sister, the former of whom are both alive, and, like himself, nominally at least, Christians; the latter died young, an unconverted Hindoo. The brothers are both in the army, one now in Burmah, the other in Arracan. The subject of this memoir entered the army as a band-boy, or drummer, when about eleven years of age. One of the officers of the regiment (the colonel, I think) seems to have been very kind to him, and had him taught to read and write, and otherwise was useful to him. He continued in the army about seventeen years, and at the time he left it was a drum-major, which rank he had held for six years before. Being brought much in contact with Roman catholic and church of England nominal Christians, he frequently had conversations on the distinctive doctrines of these and the Hindoo and Mohammedan religions. But it was not till shortly before he left the army, I believe, that he was led to renounce the religious creed of his forefathers, and embrace that of the Christians. This was mainly through the instrumentality or influence of his wife, and in this way :-On the regiment to which he was at first attached being broken up, he left his wife for a time to go and seek for some employment in a distant part of the country. Meanwhile she repaired to the house of his elder brother, a married man, with whom she lived for several months. This person and his wife had some time before adopted the Christian profession. They had been taught the Lord's prayer, the apostles' creed, and the ten commandments, and this seems to have been, as usual in that class, the sum total of their religious knowledge, and the only requisite for baptism and communion with the episcopal church. They

Some time after, the brother had to accompany his regiment to Cawnpore, in northwest India, and John Burringer's wife, of course, went with him, her husband being stationed, as she had heard, somewhere in the neighbourhood of that town. On reaching the vicinity of the locality where he was, a message was sent to him from the boat, and he immediately repaired to the banks of the Ganges to meet them. He was greatly surprised to find that his wife as well as brother had become Christians, and at first was disposed to be angry, though he himself had already sometimes meditated such a step. However, after a good deal of conversation and argument with his brother, he resolved to throw up his situation that he then held under some native raja or king, and to accompany the party to Cawnpore. He did so, and after some time he was convinced by the arguments of his brother and the chaplain, and won by the good conversation of his wife, who seems to have been a truly pious woman, and resolved to be baptized. Something, however, prevented this taking place at that time. He removed to another part of the country, and was employed for some time by a pious civilian to collect native boys to a vernacular school. From thence he went to Dinapore. There he got acquainted with some Roman catholics, who persuaded him that there was little or no difference between their system and that of the church of England, and at last both he and his wife were sprinkled by the popish priest, whose name was Jacob, and after whom the subject of this notice was then called. Their three children had, however, been christened by the same about seven months before, the priest maintaining that they being so young (the oldest about ten years only!), were fit for the ordinance, but that the parents must have a little further instruction in the prayer book before they could be admitted into the holy mother church.

Some time after this (a year or two perhaps), Jacob, as he was then called, became acquainted with the Rev. Mr. Start and some of his missionaries, for as you are aware, that devoted servant of God has brought out and supported at his own expense, a number of missionary labourers to the Indian field,

several of whom, like himself, adopted baptist sentiments. With these Jacob had a good deal of religious conversation, and, among other topics, on the nature of the sacraments. One passage of scripture referred to particularly impressed his mind, viz., the account in Matthew of the baptism of our Saviour. After mature consideration he and his wife felt it their duty to be immersed in the name of the Trinity, and accordingly the ordinance was administered to them both by Mr. Brice at Dinapore. He was then employed for about two years under Mr. Brice, receiving his salary from Mr. Start, as the teacher of a native day-school. On this being broken up he was engaged for several years as a catechist in connexion with Mr. Kalberer, another of Mr. Start's missionaries at Patna. Along with him and Mr. Beddy be frequently attended several melas (fairs) in the neighbourhood, besides preaching regularly in the city of Patna. He attended Mr. Beddy's church, of which he and his wife became members. About this time his first wife died in childbirth, full of triumphant faith and a blessed hope. Her sufferings for some days previous to her spirit's release were of the most excruciating kind, occasioned by the death of the infant in the womb and the natural consequences, but she endured all with exemplary meekness and resignation. Among the last words she spoke were these to her husband, "I know that I shall not recover. I am going to God. To Him and you I commend these little ones. Take care of them."

come up to Benares, offering to take him on trial as a teacher, with the prospect, if his future conduct gave satisfaction, of his being received again into church communion, and employed as a catechist by us.

Accordingly he and his wife arrived here in September last, and after two or three months' probation and further correspondence with friends at Patna, Jacob was received again into full communion. Once or twice we have had to admonish him on occasions of misunderstandings with his wife (they are in general a most loving couple), but with this exception, however, he has given us for the most part entire satisfaction. He is of an active, cheerful disposition, and evidently has his heart and mind much engaged in his work as an evangelist. His education is not such as to fit him for the highest grade or offices of a Christian teacher, but he exhibits considerable skill and readiness in the use he makes of what he does know in preaching and arguing with the natives.

I have lately suggested to him the propriety of keeping a journal, in which to mark down occasionally notices of his ministrations, which may be interesting and satisfactory to his anonymous patron, as illustrative of the character of his work and of his mind. Not being much accustomed to writing, at least of that sort, his very brief records give but a feeble idea of these, but I may as well make a few extracts, as a specimen, from his incipient attempts at formalizing. They show a considerable acquaintance with the Hindoo mythology, which may be turned to good account in argument.

Journal of John Burringer.

15th June, 1847. I went to Purlad Ghat (on the Ganges), and on my reading a Hindu tract a crowd soon assembled, to whom I spoke for a considerable time. On my concluding, a brahman said, "If Ram were not God, how could he collect bears and monkeys and fight with Ravun and kill him?" I replied, "Without the assistance of Soogreen, Hunooman, and Babec Khan, Ram was not able to do any thing wonderful; and when Maignuth killed Luchman with a rocket, Ram began to cry very bitterly; by this I know that he was not God, but a man."

A Christian lady, a member of Mr. Beddy's church, for some time supported Jacob as a preacher, and he lived on her premises. This charitable lady had in her household several orphan (or slave) girls, whom she had undertaken to bring up and provide for. One of these, Jacob was induced to take as his second wife about a year and a half ago. She was not at that time a member of any church, but was a candidate for baptism, and it was thought at the time was a subject of divine grace. Afterwards, however, on account of some charge of untruthfulness or prevarication, the pastor thought fit to decline administering the rite of baptism to her at that time. Not long afterwards Jacob and his young wife (she is much his junior) left Patna for 16th. As I was going to Rajghat, a man Benares, on account of some slight misunder- asked me if eating animal flesh was not a standing between him and a brother catechist. great sin. I replied, "No, but to kill a Jealousy on account of his wife, who is good human being is a great sin, and also to comlooking, led him to suspect and accuse her mit self-murder, as Ram did, by drowning and other parties without good ground, and himself at Surjoo Nuddee." He answered. for this and certain wrong expressions used in" There is no sin attributed to an all-powerful anger, he was suspended from church communion by Mr. Beddy. About this time he wrote to Mr. Heinig, with whom he had laboured for some time at Patna, &c., but who was then stationed at Benares. Mr. Heinig, after consulting with me and his brother missionaries at Patna, invited him to

being." To which I replied, "There is no partiality with God Almighty." This conversation caused a crowd of people to assernble, to whom I read a portion of scripture, and spoke to them for a considerable time.

28th. Went to Rajghat, and read a Hindi tract to a crowd of people. A Mussulman

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