a very able man, decided them. The oldest said to me, with tears in his eyes, 'I go with my mother; but I will return to-morrow;' and the youngest followed his example, saying, 'If they have taken my brother, they will take me also.' They went away in good faith, believing that they were to return; but, like the young man in the Gospel, they went away pale, downcast, and very sorrowful.' They have written to one of our Catechists since, saying that they are confined, and asking for James's 'Anxious Inquirer,' which was sent to them. We scarcely dare to hope that they will return to us; but we leave them with their God, and to the prayers of Christ's people. Such a defeat is all but equivalent to a victory. It is well to mention that their relatives stated that they had been treated with perfect fairness and kindness."* But let us now glance at other parts of India, and see whether the same movement is not clearly discernible. At Burdwan, the whole of the first class in the English School acknowledged to our Missionary, the Rev. J. J. Weitbrecht, their full conviction of the truth of Christianity, although as yet they dared not to profess it. The following extract from a letter of the same Missionary confirms the news of religious movements amongst the Coles, one of the Hill tribes, in Chota Nagpurt— "Many parents are bringing their children to Ranchee, delivering them to the Missionaries, and requesting them to bring them up as Christians. The work seems to bear a healthy character. A converted Cole has been chiefly instrumental in rousing the attention of his countrymen. Scores of people are coming in from the villages on Sunday to hear the Gospel. It is encouraging to hear such pleasing news from any quarter. How truly seem the words now realized among the hill tribes of the western parts- The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose!"" From our new Station at Bhagulpur the accounts are also encouraging. On the 5th of April five adults were baptized, and eleven more individuals on July the 3d, all of the hill tribes. A simple and impressive address, * Mr. M'Kay, &c., pp. 121, 122. The Chota Nagpur Mission, in connexion with the Berlin Society, was commenced in 1845. There are three Stations, one at Ranchee-the most considerable and prosperous-one at Lohurdungga, and one at Govindpur. delivered by Archdeacon Pratt, who was present, added much to the solemnity of the occasion. There had been twenty-two baptisms at this place during the previous eighteen months. Benares, like Calcutta, had been thrown into great excitement by a lad presenting himself to our Missionary, the Rev. C. B. Leupolt, as a Candidate for Baptism; a fact showing the sensitive state of native society in that city with respect to the progress of Christianity. Other Candidates were under instruction. At Agra and in its neighbourhood several baptisms had occurred during the month of May-one in our own Mission, the others by the Baptist Missionaries. An intelligent Hindu, who had been earnestly seeking truth during the previous year, was baptized at Mirut on Trinity Sunday last by our Missionary, the Rev. R. M. Lamb, notwithstanding the efforts made to prevent him, and the trials and persecutions to which he was subjected, especially from the Mussulmans. Along the western coast we read of two converts at Sholapur in the month of April, and during the progress of that month thirtyfour baptisms, young and old, by the German Missionaries at Mangalore and in its vicinity. At Bombay a young Tamul convert, brought to the knowledge of the Truth principally by the instrumentality of a Christian soldier, was baptized by our Missionary, the Rev. C. W. Isenberg, on the 16th of May. In the course of June the Free-Church Mission at Madras was favoured with the conversion of three young Hindus, two girls of about thirteen years each, and a youth of sixteen. A Moonsif, of mature age and independent position in society, who has for the last ten years been reading the Holy Scriptures, and carrying with him convictions of the truth of Christianity until he could resist no longer, has since then, with his wife, received baptism at the hands of the same Missionaries; and another Hindu, of fifty-nine years of age, in the beginning of August followed their example. At Cuddapah, in the Mysore country, the Missionaries of the London Society baptized five adults in the beginning of July. "It was to us," they say, "an occasion of no small joy to witness the increase of the Redeemer's kingdom in this dark land. May the Lord add unto our number many of such as shall be everlastingly saved!" Nor is it only the amount of conversion which is remarkable, but the manner in which Christian Missionaries are received when on preaching journeys, and the attention From Mr. Weitbrecht, and the populous district of Burdwan, the accounts received are precisely similar. In January of the present year Mr. Weitbrecht and the Rev. A. F. Lacroix proceeded on a Missionary journey, describing in their travels a semicircle from the town of Burdwan southward, until they had reached the south-western borders of the Hoogly district, then turning eastward to the Hoogly above Serampur. Large towns were visited given to the message which they bring. Mr. Lamb returned to the spot after break"There are now,' " writes Mr. Isenberg, fast, to the great joy of the people, who refrom Bombay, July 24, 1851, "facilities which quested him to remain three or four days did not previously exist, and the field is, to a among them, that they might have further great extent, white for the harvest. Doors instruction out of the Scriptures, offering to are everywhere open. If we had men, true supply food without payment. As he was Missionaries, in the field in good number, we seeking some convenient spot from whence to could extend our labours to an indefinite ex- preach, he was invited by some people to go tent, and be sure of a great harvest in pro- into their shops out of the sun, as they were portionably short time. I think it is high themselves anxious to hear. The largest one time that the Committee should send a was soon filled with fully 400 persons, who new supply of devoted European Missionaries. listened with the greatest patience and silence The people have become much more familiar while Christ, in His power and willingness to with, and favourable to, the Mission. Itinera- save sinners, was made known. All aption ought to be constantly carried on." The peared very favourably impressed, one inteltestimony of Mr. Lamb, at Mirut, is equally ligent man in particular, a Pundit, declaring decided. We have now lying before us his his resolution to read and inquire further into Journal for two months, from October 15th the subject. Earnestly did these poor people to December 13th of last year. During entreat Mr. Lamb to return and establish a this period, on Missionary excursions the School, where their children might learn Gospel had been preached 135 times to up- those things which would make them happy wards of 24,000 people, and was heard by in this life and the next. them throughout attentively, respectfully, and with an earnest desire to receive further instruction. Such notices as the following are frequent throughout the Journal-"I preached at Dohai to thirty people, and was kindly received they listened with very great attention, and particularly requested that on our return from Delhi we would pitch the tent at their village, as they wished to hear more of the Scriptures and the way of salvation. They even offered to supply us with every thing we might require, without payment, if we would go." Again, at the great mela of Gharmuktezer, extending seven miles on both banks of the Ganges, and attended from its commencement by not less than two millions, the message of mercy was made known to crowds of willing hearers. A boat from whence to preach the Gospel, after the example of Him who entered into a ship and taught, was diligently sought for: none, however, was procurable, with one exceptionthe one which contained the Ganges idol, a representation in brass of an ugly old woman -but this the owner, who had no object in rowing from bank to bank except gain, was willing for hire to place at their service. The idol was covered up, that there might be no offerings presented to it, and the boat bore the Missionary and his Catechists from one group of ready hearers to another. At Moradabad, Futtehgunge, Bareilly, Chundowsie, the Gospel was preached to congregations varying from 50 to 500 in number. In the bazaar of Husseinpur a great sensation was produced amongst a large audience of 400: they eagerly sought for books, which they commenced reading forthwith. Such was their anxiety that Kyti, Dewangunge, Ramchibonpur, Chundercorah, where probably a Missionary had never been before. At Kamerpokur, containing 1200 houses, Mr. Weitbrecht preached before a Kali temple: the horrid image was placed in a shrine, on the walls of which were painted Satanic figures; while before him stood a most attentive congregation of 350. At Hajipur, a populous place, there was no lack of hearers-weavers, shopkeepers, and peasants. They conducted him to a Shib temple, and requested him to preach from its steps. "I always like such a spot," writes our Missionary: "it is carrying the lamp of the Gospel into Satan's darkest corners. I had the honour to sit before the nose of the idol, and spoke on the text, 'God so loved the world.' Among about 400 hearers there were some thirty females peeping out between the nearest cottages, and listening with intense interest." At Ramchibonpur, a place of 10,000 inhabitants, they were followed into the market-place by at least 500 people. "It is not likely," says Mr. Weitbrecht, "that a Missionary ever saw this town, yet the people immediately found out who we were-'Jesus Christ's people are come!' was the report that was carried from mouth to mouth." From Kirpoy they turned westward to Chundercorah, one of the largest Hindu towns, containing 8000 houses, 53 streets and lanes, and 52 bazaars. The celebration of an idol festival was going forward, and the roads and paths across the fields were lined with Hindu men, women, and children, proceeding to the mela in their holiday attire. The multitude of people in the great bazaars and adjoining streets was immense. Mounting an embankment, the Missionaries were soon surrounded by a thousand hearers. The people were invited to come the next day to the Missionaries' tent, when Gospels and Tracts would be distributed. They came in crowds, until, fearing lest the tent ropes might be torn off by the pressure, the Missionaries invited them to assemble under a large tree. Here about 500 attentive hearers grouped about the preacher, and, whenever a sentence struck them, gave vent to their feelings of approbation by "Ahaha." "We have distributed," says Mr. Weitbrecht, "during these last three days, about 800 Tracts and 100 Gospels. The Gospel has been freely preached at Chundercorah, and in all probability for the first time, for we could not discover a trace of a Missionary having ever been here." Dewangunge is another large and populous town. Many Hindu merchants reside there, who trade in cotton clothes of every description, and in silk, sending the manufactured articles on camels and carts to Benares, Mirzapur, &c. The people came by hundreds to the Missionaries' tent, and one crowd after another was addressed. in His name, and make it fruitful to the salvation of many immortal souls." After enumerating many other interesting matters, which our limits will not permit us to introduce, Mr. Kreiss concludes by saying"The experience we made at this Mela is very encouraging indeed. There was little disputing and gainsaying, but much inquiry after truth by respectable men. Their confidence in their idols is very much shaken, and there are not many who venture openly, and in the presence of the people, to defend idolatry and all the evil practices connected with it. And why? Because they know that their arguments will be refuted, and that they will thus expose themselves to the ridicule of the crowd, who feel less sympathy with them in proportion as the conviction of the truth of Christianity is more deeply rooted and widely spread abroad. These are sure signs of the approaching fall of Hinduism, and the advancement of Christ's glorious kingdom May it soon come, and the King of Glory reign in every heart!” * Who can think of India, and its teeming millions willing to hear and ready to welcome the Christian Missionary, without having stirred within his breast something of the spirit of Him, who, "when He saw the multitudes, was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd?" What need is there not to follow His high example when He "went about all the cities and villages, teaching... and preaching the Gospel of the kingTake the experience of another Missionary, dom!" Who can realize the present aspect of the Rev. F. A. Kreiss, of Agra, on his visit to this important country, the forward movement the Mela at Goberdhan last November. in favour of Christianity which has place in the “Nov. 2, 1850—After rising in the morn-minds of many, the facility of access to all, ing I opened the Bible, and was greatly encouraged in my work by reading the 96th Psalm. Here I was told, 'Declare His glory among the heathen, His wonders among all people.' So I did, and the Lord strengthened me to open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the Gospel. Preaching, and the distribution of Scriptures and Tracts, were carried on till eleven o'clock, when we retired to our tent, to rest during the hottest part of the day. We had been surrounded by many attentive hearers, several of whom seemed to be deeply convinced of the truth of the Gospel, and openly declared that they were deceived by their Brahmins and Pundits; that idolatry led to destruction; that their Shastras were full of errors; and that the truth was to be found only in our books. I heartily thanked the Lord for the blessing He had bestowed on the preaching of His Word, and besought Him to watch over the seed that had been scattered abroad VOL. II. without feeling the strong conviction, that the present is a moment of special opportunitya time to work for God. In earthly battlefields there have been often such moments, which, decisively apprehended and vigorously improved, have brought to a successful result many a long-protracted conflict. It was so with the last well-remembered and well-contested struggle which closed the disastrous The circulation of books and tracts during the year 1850, as stated in the Report of the Bombay Tract Society, is also interesting. The tracts are no longer circulated gratuitously, but sold by a Colporteur; yet the amount of tracts issued was double that of 1849. They have been as follows Marathi Total. 55,816 5055 2763 3835 67,514 2 N period of Napoleon's wars, and gave to England the long peace which she has since enjoyed. For hours the utmost efforts of the British troops had been requisite to sustain their ground. Heavy masses of a more numerous army were directed against them in rapid succession. Tremendous as the tempest was, they flinched not, failed not. In patient endurance they remained rooted to the spot where their colours had been planted, until the crisis of the contest arrived, and the encouraging word "advance" was heard along the line. There was then no delay-no hesition; and the British troops advancing over the summit of the hill, behind which they had again and again lain down as the storm of iron hail swept over them, scattered before them a broken and disheartened host. our Missionaries, in localities widely separated from each other, and without any knowledge each of the intentions of the other, have offered themselves to the Committee for this special work, if freed from those local duties which have hitherto circumscribed their sphere of action. Mr. Weitbrecht writes, in a Letter dated March 28, 1851-already referred to in our Number for August, but which we notice again because of its appositeness to our present subject-"I would earnestly recommend that you appoint a travelling Missionary for the district and neighbourhood of Burdwan. Let preaching be his exclusive business. It requires a mind free from other cares and responsibilities. A Missionary who has a variety of other duties to attend to is not fit for preaching; and he who has been sitting for hours teaching in Schools is ill-fitted for it either, after a grilling day; but if his mind be divested of every and evening, even in the most unfavourable season." We believe this statement to be most correct. Itinerating Missionary work, as contradistinguished from pastoral Missionary work, is that which India requires at the present juncture; and this is a work which, to be met effectually in all its largeness of opportunity, must be taken up exclusively. The labours connected with it are peculiar, and to him who would enter upon them it may be said, "Give thyself wholly to them." It is not every one who is fitted for this service. It is the more necessary that they who are found to be so should be exclusively set apart for it. The conflict with Hindu idolatry has been of a protracted character. Positions of importance have been occupied by us, and these we have been enabled to retain, notwithstand-other care, it can be done effectually, morning ing the utmost efforts of the adversary to expel us. Persecution has been directed against us, and often in tumultous force has it raged and swelled around our infant congregations; but, although weak in themselves, and unequal to contend with the fierce outbreak of human violence, they have been marvellously strengthened, and have been enabled to endure. That which has been wrested from the enemy has been resolutely maintained, and we have, perhaps, thought it well that we have been so far successful; but we must do more-we must advance; and now is the favourable moment. Some of the adversary's most important defences have given way, and the stupendous system of idolatry, within which he has so strongly fortified himself, was never SO assailable as at present. The Hindus are in a position to hear; and now is the opportune time, by an universal proclamation, to place the Gospel message before the mind of India. It is the time for an extensive preaching of Christ throughout the length and breadth of that populous country. "Hear, O heavens, and give ear O earth: for the Lord hath spoken!" We need itinerating Missionaries, able and devoted men, for this forward, and, by the blessing of God, decisive movement; men who will penetrate into districts as yet unoccupied, where a Missionary has never been, where no converts have been made, no Christian Congregations raised up; each, with his Catechists, spreading himself over an extensive range of country, and yet not so extensive but that he shall be enabled to return to the same place before the traces of the previous visit have been obliterated. The urgent necessity for such a procedure is so strongly felt by those on the spot, that two of We do not mean to undervalue the importance of the pastoral work, nor to diminish in the least the care and laborious effort which have been so well bestowed on it. Our God has graciously blessed endeavours which were commenced in great apparent weakness. Faithful men, at their Lord's bidding, went forward to the stupendous work of India's evangelization. They were few in number, like Jonathan and his armour-bearer, but they went forward in the same spirit-" It may be that the Lord will work for us: for there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few." The world derided the effort, and scornfully inquired whether the supporters of Christian Missions expected, with such poor appliances, to overturn the massive bulwarks of India's idolatry. had the power been of man, it would have been a vain attempt; but they who entered upon it knew that the power was of God, and that His power can accomplish great results through insignificant instrumentality. The despised Missionary is armed with weapons, "not carnal, but mighty through God And truly, to the pulling down of strong holds." He introduces into the dense mass of heathenism an element mysterious in its mode of action, and astonishing in the results which it produces; peculiar in this, that it always commences in apparent weakness, as a grain of mustard-seed sowed in the field, as leaven hid in the meal; but the very smallness of whose incipient condition facilitates its introduction amidst a people. For a time it seems lost, its primary operations being invisible; but in due season it does not fail to manifest itself. "So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how." Thus it has been with the seed sown by former Missionaries: it has sprung up, we know not how, and in the Native Congregations which have been formed in different parts of India that growth is manifested. Raised up by almighty power, we behold in them the divine recognition of past labours, and our encouragement to future and more extended operations. We cannot prize them too highly, or tend them too diligently. They are Native Churches growing and full of promise; but in an infantile condition-tender plants, needing much care. "Whom shall he teach knowledge, and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little." This minute care, this patience of instruction, they require, and our Missionaries need to be gentle among them, "as a nurse cherisheth her children." It is no light thing to have the charge of a district containing upwards of 5000 converts to Christianity, scattered abroad in sixty-six villages, with one Ordained Native, eleven Native Catechists, and sixty-seven other Native Teachers engaged in their instruction. Such is Meignanapuram District in Tinnevelly, and there are several other subdivisions of the same Missionfield not much inferior in the number of converts and weight of responsibility. Missionaries so circumstanced, however anxious to go down into the quarry of the unexcavated heathen, and labour there with their own hands, are absolutely precluded from so doing. Where the pastoral charge is more circumscribed there may be room for occasional excursions amongst the surrounding heathen; yet we believe that the attempt to combine these departments of labour is only practicable where the pastoral charge is of very limited extent, and beyond a certain 66 point becomes distracting to the Missionary, and injurious to the whole work. Let us again hear Mr. Weitbrecht's testimony on this subject. Among many mistakes I have made in my past Missionary career, one stands prominent before my mind: it is this-I have tried to do too much, and therefore I have done less than I might have done. Those extraordinary men are very rare in any profession of life who excel in various ways; whereas men of ordinary powers frequently attain to eminence by devoting their undivided attention to one branch of science or art. To apply this to Missionary work. Alas! how unfavourable is our position generally for efficient operation! Why, we are to be every thing and to do every thing! I have been preacher in English and in Bengali; translator and Schoolmaster in the week, and Pastor on the Lord's-day; doctor, apothecary, and architect, and many other things besides. It is naturally and properly expected that Missionaries are and should be preachers to the heathen; but how few comparatively are such! and those who are, how much of their time is taken up in other duties, so that they really cannot give themselves to the great work as fully as they would! "I read the other day a passage in Chalmers's Life, the affecting truth of which I felt deeply: it was spoken from my own soul. I know not,' he says, 'a more effectual method of making one's earthly existence most painfully harassing and uncomfortable, than by associating an excess of Missionary with an excess of mental labour; than by combining in one person a jaded body with an exhausted spirit. One species of fatigue may be endured, but both together are insufferable; and when both kinds of service are attempted in too high a degree, the quality of both will be most essentially deteriorated.' "And I may add to this judicious remark, that many of our brethren, and most valuable ones, have sunk under the burdens, within my remembrance, just because they undertook too much; whereas, humanly speaking, had they been less burdened, had division of labour lightened their portion, they might have been a blessing for many years. "I feel persuaded that a great work will be accomplished, if an experienced Missionary, with active mind and habits, be appointed here to do the work of an evangelist among the heathen, divested of all other cares and impediments, at liberty freely to move about to the east and west. We have confined our efforts far too much to the narrow circle of Missionary Stations. Many of our brethren feel it, and they have been spreading the good seed more extensively this |