In a Hindoo

abomination to a Mussulman. mattam, or place of prayer, I remarked some beautiful carving in wood. The Hindoo architecture is very inferior to that of the Mussulman, the pagodas being in general far too low for their size, while the eye is delighted with the proudly swelling dome of their rivals. The temples at Madura are, indeed, an exception to this charge of disproportioned lowness of roof, but they are not purely Hindoo. There is a "solemn stillness" about this place, which is very charming, and well suited to the thoughts which the beginning of another year brings to my mind. Indeed, I could gladly pass a few days here; but as my commission is to spread the Gospel, I must not give up to reflections, profitless, however pleasing, on things gone by, that time which belongs to Him who bought it with the price of his own blood. "Henceforth thou shalt catch men." May my chief and, indeed, my only object ever be, to win souls to Christ!

One of the best ways of estimating the state and prospects of religion among our countrymen in India, is to observe its sober, steady development in private families. Now, from all that

I see as I wander on from place to place, I have good reason to believe there is much sterling vital piety in India; and what I mentioned three or four years ago to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, of the regular observance of family prayer among the higher orders of civilians and officers, is fully borne out by my better acquaintance with the country. Wherever I go, whether to a dinner or as a guest for two or three days, I almost always find my kind hosts thankful for our little domestic services, which they seem to me to enter into as a duty to which they are quite accustomed, thus rendering one part of a Bishop's office as he journeys on his visitation, that of teaching the whole counsel of God from house to house, as easy as it is delightful.

I have been passing three days with Mr. and Mrs. T., and their sister; and I have never met with a more loveable family, or one over whom Christ reigns with more undivided empire. Where this empire is divided, we find affectation of manner, or genuine moroseness, or uncharitableness, or a servile devotion to forms, or an insolent contempt of them, or offensive singularity of some

kind or other. But not so with those who follow Christ only and always; there is a reality about such persons, which we recognise as we know silver from Sheffield ware. They are full of nature, but it is nature made holy unto God in Christ.

Our Sunday services yesterday were peculiarly delightful to me; and I could have listened for hours to their sweet singing of the psalms, so simple; I am sure they made " melody in their hearts." I preached on the 21st of Revelation, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th verses, connecting the awful subjects to which those verses refer with the close of the year. The past is indeed a solemn word: it tells of so much time mispent; so many opportunities of good neglected, so many opportunities of evil caught at, and followed up; so much left undone that we ought to have done; so much done that we ought not to have done. It may be, it tells some of us of friends gone, whom our voice can no longer reach, our example no longer benefit, and about whose eternal welfare we were careless while they were yet with us. It may be, it tells some of us of an indifferent preaching of the Gospel to those committed to

our charge, or of an insufficient commendation of that Gospel to them by our lives. It may be, it tells some of us of having often closed our ears to the word of God when it struck too deeply, and having turned our backs on the sacramental body and blood of our Lord, because it did not suit our present habits and pursuits to make preparation to receive them worthily. By God's grace, in whatsoever point we have offended against Him, may a new spirit be planted within us all; may we begin the new year with a new heart; and may we be among those who keep this regenerated heart unto the end, through Jesus Christ our Lord!.

May God give grace to us all, and more especially to me, to spend the whole, or whatever portion He may grant us, of the present year, far more to His glory than we have spent the past!

I had the comfort of administering the Lord's Supper to the whole party, including an aged native Christian, a converted Brahmin, who has undergone much persecution for Christ's sake, but who appears determined that no man shall take his crown. Mr. and Mrs. T. spoke highly

of him, and there was a quiet peace in the old man's countenance which greatly pleased me. The Bishop of Calcutta had given him his blessing when he visited Bombay, I think, in 1836; and he now asked for mine.

I was most unwillingly compelled to leave Konoor immediately after evening service, after taking an affectionate leave of my new friends, whom it is very improbable I shall ever see again; but I believe in the communion of saints.

Monday evening.-Did we not know that God makes all things for good, one might almost fancy this country intended by nature as the stronghold of mounted marauders. It is a vast continuous plain for miles and miles, dotted about with occasional lumpy hillocks, on each of which is perched a fortress, large or sinall, and from whence their owners may come down at will, and plunder and gallop away with their prey. This was their way of life for centuries; and there is no doubt that they would gladly take to it again, were they not kept within bounds by that word of might, "Company."

Our way this evening lay through so stony a