think I had ever read it." He "took God at His word," and there and then received other promises from the Bible, which he accepted as infallible truth. That day he found himself, to his utter amazement, in a state "most wonderfully quiet and peaceful," with no more anxious concern about his salvation. At night he was blessed with very special Divine manifestations. This young man of calm, logical, and subtile intellect went through experiences which his own words must describe, and at which it will be profitless for unbelievers to smile: "There was no fire and no light in the room; nevertheless it appeared to me as if it were perfectly light. As I went in and shut the door after me, it seemed as if I met the Lord Jesus Christ face to face. It did not occur to me then, nor did it for some time afterward, that it was wholly a mental state. On the contrary, it seemed to me that I saw Him as I would see any other man. He said nothing, but looked at me in such a manner as to break me right down at His feet. I have always since regarded this as a most remarkable state of mind; for it seemed to me a reality that He stood before me, and I fell down at His feet, and poured out my soul to Him. I wept aloud like a child, and made such confessions as I could with my choked utterance. It seemed to me that I bathed His feet with my tears, and yet I had no distinct impression that I touched Him, that I recollect. 66 I must have continued in this state for a good while, but my mind was too much absorbed with the interview to recollect anything that I said. But I know as soon as my mind became calm enough to break off from the interview, I returned to the front office, and found that the fire that I had made of large wood was nearly burned out. But as I turned and was about to take a seat by the fire, I received a mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost. Without any expectation of it, without ever having the thought in my mind that there was any such thing for me, without any recollection that I had ever heard the thing mentioned by any person in the world, the Holy Spirit descended upon me in a manner that seemed to go through me, body and soul. I could feel the impres sion, like a wave of electricity going through and through me. Indeed it seemed to come in waves and waves of liquid love, for I could not express it in any other way. It seemed like the very breath of God. I can recollect distinctly that it seemed to fan me, like immense wings. "No words can express the wonderful love that was shed abroad in my heart. I wept aloud with joy and love; and I do not know but I should say I literally bellowed out the unutterable gushings of my heart. These waves came over me, and over me, and over me, one after the other, until I recollect I cried out, "I shall die if these waves continue to pass over me!' I said, 'Lord, I cannot bear any more,' yet I had no fear of death." Here was "a chosen vessel." He had now received "the enduement of power," and was qualified to speak words of salvation to his fellow sinners. And he began at once to do so with great success. The next morning after this baptism of the Holy Ghost he was in the office when Squire W- (his principal) came in. He" was having a renewal of these mighty waves of love and salvation flowing over" him; and he said a few words to Squire Won the subject of salvation. That gentleman made no answer, but held down his head, and went out. Mr. Finney found afterwards that his remark had pierced like a sword, and that Mr. W- had never recovered from the wound "till he was converted." In the course of that day a good deal of excitement was created in the village by its being reported that Finney was converted. Several, among whom was the minister, would not believe it. But the new convert talked with a number of persons, one by one, that day, in a way which left no doubt as to the reality of the change he had experienced; and those to whom he spoke were, with few if any exceptions, speedily converted. (To be continued.) 257 HISTORY OF INDIAN MISSIONS. BY THE REV. J. S. BANKS. THE Panjab, of itself a splendid | kingdom, is a fine specimen of the effects of British rule. Twenty-five years of just administration have transformed it from the normal poverty and dissension of native states to the peace and wealth of an orderly country. The men who have successively governed it have been equally able and good-the Lawrences, Nicholson, Edwardes, Montgomery, Macleod. The missionaries, too, of the Panjab have been above the average. Mr. Sherring speaks from knowledge of " the saintly Newton, the learned Pfander and Loewenthal, the generous Martin, the patient and loving Clark, the devout Morrison, the gifted Knott and French, and the earnest Janvier and Rudolph." Delhi is politically, though not geographically, in the Panjab. Here the Baptist Society began work in 1818, and the Propagation Society in 1854. In the mutiny of 1857, the missionaries of both societies with their wives and native helpers were cruelly butchered. An eminent preacher of the Baptist Church, Wilayat Ali, said to the troopers who seized him, "Yes. a I am Christian, and mean to live and die a Christian." His last words were, O Jesus, receive my soul!" The Propagation mission is active in female education, employing seven ladies as zenana-missionaries. In the Panjab proper eight societies are at work at thirty central places, covering the country and extending far into the Himâlayas. The most northern mission is at Kyelang, a region of frost and snow where the Moravians began work in 1855. "Here, exposed to the VOL. VI. FIRST SERIES. intense cold, far away from civilized life, the missionaries have laboured in a lofty spirit of self-abnegation, from that time to the present," writing and translating in Tibetan. The first Panjab mission was established at Loodianah, in 1834, by the American Presbyterians. In 1857 the whole of the mission property was destroyed. Happily none of the Christians lost their lives, but schools, churches, presses were all burnt. In 1874 a prince of Kupurthala was baptized. The mission has the usual apparatus of orphanage, poor-house, leper-asylum, dispensary, and a superior boardingschool of the same kind as the one at Dehra Doon. At the capital, Lahore, the Church Mission has an important Divinity-school with thirteen students under the charge of the Rev. T. V. French. The purpose is to impart a thorough training in the original languages of Scripture, theology and church history, as in colleges at home. Mr. Sherring says, Very soon after the opening of the college, Mr. French lost his gentle, saint-like colleague, Mr. Knott, who of all spiritually-minded men whom it has been our privilege to meet, seemed to be the most like Enoch, of whom it is said that he walked with God.'" The peculiarity of Mr. French's mode of training is thus stated by himself: 6 66 a few select disciples with all that we ourselves have been taught of truth, and trying to train and build them up to the highest reach attainable to us. . . . The learned missionary, or the deep, spirituallytaught missionary, is rather in his study and his books than reproducing his doctrine, spirit and character in the minds and hearts of some chosen followers. It was such a method of working to which our Lord has encouraged and led us, not by example, but by the memorable words, The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master."" At the important post of Peshawur, at the mouth of the Khyber Pass, the Church and Presbyterian Missions are at work. Here, in 1863, the highly-gifted Loewenthal was shot by his watchman. A few months later in the same year, the Rev. Dr. Janvier, another Presbyterian missionary, of Sabathoo, was killed by a fanatic. A Church missionary, the Rev. T. P. Hughes, gives the following interesting details: 66 Amongst our Afghan converts there have been men who have done good service to government. When Lord Mayo wished to send a trusted native on very important service to Central Asia, it was an Afghan convert of our mission who was selected. Subadar Dilawari Khan, who had served the English well before the gates of Delhi, was sent on this secret mission to Central Asia, where he died in the snows, a victim to the treachery of the king of Chitral. Some three years ago an officer employed on a special service of inquiry as to the doings of the Wahabees, wanted a trustworthy man to send to ascertain the number and condition of these fanatics who now reside at Palori, on the banks of the Indus. An Afghan convert was selected for this difficult and dangerous undertaking. In the Umbeyla war of 1863, it was necessary that government should have a few faithful men who could be relied on for information. Amongst others selected were two Afghan converts of our mission. "Our schools contain five hundred pupils, one hundred of whom are Mohammedan females. The Afghans are strongly prejudiced against the study of English, and consequently there is some difficulty in inducing them to enter our schools. I attach great importance to itinerancy amongst the villages, which are beyond the corrupting influences of a large city and military cantonment. The farther I go away from Peshawur, the more kindly I am received by the people. On these occasions I usually wear the Afghan dress which, in my opinion, is more elegant and graceful than ours; and I find it does not excite the curiosity of the villagers half as much as my English dress would. The Afghan villagers are a very sociable class of men. Hospitality is the bond of perfectness to an Afghan mind. A missionary to the Afghans should be given to hospitality.' It has been the custom of the Peshawur missionaries to keep up guest-houses for Afghan visiters." Ground has been broken in Cashmere by Dr. Elmslie, the story of whose labours and early death has been lately so well told in "SeedTime in Kashmir."* Mr. French confirms the account there given. Speaking of a visit he paid, he says, "Hearers we had in great numbers; and sometimes they seemed struck and thrilled through with the preaching of repentance. But on not a few * See this Magazine for 1875. P. 309. occasions they were with difficulty restrained from personal violence, and we were treated as the offscouring of all things. The bitter speeches and howls of derision with which the vices of some English tourists in Cashmere were dwelt upon and held up to reproach were shocking to a degree; and yet it seems to me it is well that they should know that this is not Christianity but the clean contrary." Before descending from the Panjab, along the west coast, we must cast a glance over central India. There we find but few mission stations, and of the few most have been established since 1860. Any one who examines the valuable missionary map at the beginning of Mr. Sherring's volume will be struck with the contrast between the interior of the continent in this respect and the outer circle, the latter thickly covered, the former barely sprinkled. In the splendid central table-land, a vast field is almost untouched. In the territories of Scindia and Holkar, who ought to be better known to us after the Prince of Wales' visit, there is only one mission, formerly under the charge of the Rev.N.Goreh, a Benares pandit, now a minister of the English Church. To the United Presbyterians belongs the honour of being the only missionary agency in the wide states of Râjpootana, where they have six stations, with four hundred and ninety-four converts, and two thousand three hundred and twenty-two scholars. Their "leader and pioneer," the Rev. W. Shoolbred, is a man admirably adapted for the work, full of tact, resource and bright intelligence. Mr. Robson, whose book, named at the head of these papers, brings out the contrasts of Christianity and Hinduism with great clearness, formerly belonged to this mission. Their medical missionary, Dr. Valen tine, has done a great deal towards gaining the confidence of the people. His description will apply to many other parts of India : case. "My first station was Beawr in Rajpootana. Close by was the city Nya Nuggur, containing a population of between eight and nine thousand people, with numerous and pretty populous villages in the neighbourhood. My custom was to ride out to one of these villages each alternate morning, and to take along with me my medicine-box and surgical pocketOn these occasions oftentimes the whole village turned out, some to get relief, more attracted by the strangeness of the scene, women bringing along with them their children for vaccination. Medicines were dispensed, minor surgical operations performed, and sometimes as many as a hundred children vaccinated in one morning. And then do you think I should have been doing my duty as a medical missionary, had I considered my work finished, and dismissed these poor villagers to seek elsewhere food for their spiritual sustenance ? I am fully convinced that I should not, and therefore, as soon as I was able, I stood up beneath the burr-tree (ficus Indica) in the centre of the village, and pointed them there and thento the Great Physician of souls. In this way my brother Shoolbred and myself several times went all over Mairwara, and visited villages where the face of a white man had never been seen, the practice of a European doctor never known, and the name of Jesus never heard." Beside others, the Scotch Free Church has a successful mission in Nagpore, the capital, which began in 1844. Its founder, the Rev. T. Hislop, was a man of high attainments and broad sympathies. He took the greatest interest in everything belonging to the knowledge and well-being of the province, and was the means of establishing a museum. At the same time he was a thorough missionary. His death, by drowning, made a great sensation. Here was fought out the battle of freedom of conversion in native states. The Rajah demanded, on the ground of treaties, the surrender of a caste-youth who asked to be baptized. The British Resident enforced the demand, and the Governor-General declined to interfere. The youth was imprisoned three months, but was then set at liberty under the pressure of public opinion. The Free Church is also at work among the Gonds, an aboriginal race numbering five millions. At Jalna in the Nizam's dominions it has a Christian village. A grant of land to the extent of six hundred and fifty acres was obtained from the enlightened prime minister, Sir Salar Jung. It is to be rent-free for twentyfive years. It stands high, and is constructed on model principles, furnished with wells, church, manse, schools, market-shed, public-inn, and good roads. Half the grant is already under cultivation. The Church Mission at Jubbulpore is also effective and well organized. It has its native preachers, orphanages and ten schools. "Some of its Christians are men of great local influence, while one of them is a writer on the Mohammedan controversy of considerable power." We come next to Bombay, the western capital. Six societies are at work here: the American Board, which began in 1813; Church Mission (1820), Scotch Church and Scotch Free Church (1828), Propagation Society (1859), and Baptist. The Scotch Free Church has been especially happy in its agents in this Presidency. The Saul among his brethren is Dr. John Wilson, who began labour in 1829 on the field on which he has just died, rich in learning, in experience and universal esteem. He will always rank among the best missionaries India has ever known. We quote Mr. Sherring's eulogium, written not long before the venerable missionary's death: "Grown old in the glorious work of endeavouring to enlighten the native inhabitants of that great city, he still clings to it with all the ardour of his first love. With a keen and well-balanced intellect, amply furnished with knowledge of many kinds, eager to investigate not only the social and political problems of the native races, but also the many phases which their various religions assume; delighting in historical and scientific researches, and taking supreme interest in every subject bearing upon Hindoo life and character, this noble missionary during the last forty-four years has exerted an immense influence over the native and European population of the Presi dency. But his mental vigour and varied learning have never led him astray from the singleness of purpose which moved him to consecrate himself to missionary toil." Dr. Murray Mitchell, by high culture and scholarship, exercised great influence over Hindoo youth. His writings on Christian evidence in various languages-Sanscrit, Mahratta, English-have had a wide circulation. The Rev. R. Nesbit, who died of cholera in 1855, after a long career, was as eminent a type of a popular missionary. One present at his funeral says: "To see the children and those of extreme age crying at the grave was a day never to be forgotten. Natives of all classes-Hindoos, Parsees, Mohammedans, without distinction, all shed tears-nay, even cried aloud-over the dust of their friend |