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PRIN('ETON, X. J ^ Div i s i o n j[ No. Case, No. Shelf; Section 7 No. Book,^- /_____- r Digitized by the Internet Archive

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https://archive.org/details/christianwork3211unse February 1, 1865.] jj

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CHRISTIAN WORK |l

I A M AGAZI N E

OF

Jdigtaus aiib Pissioirarg Infarntatioii

FORTY YEARS IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS*

BY THE REV. W. FLEMING STEVENSON.

It is little more than eighty years since Captain of an extinct crater with a soft velvety verdure. Cook lost his life in one of those Sandwich Islands Above luxuriant masses of tropical foliage, cocoa- which he had discovered, and where he had been nuts, kous, and bananas, "rises East Maui, the worehipped as a God. The people were then as House of the Sun, a gi-and, symmetrical, noble barbarous pagans as in the South Seas. They mountain, having a base of thirty miles, and a now constitute a civilised, and for the most part height of more than 10,000 feet. The crater on Christian kingdom, and the change has been the top of this mountain ceased long since to be wrought through but forty years of missionary active, but is regarded as the largest in the world. effort. It is eight miles by twelve in diameter, thirty-two

The Sandwich, or properly Hawaiian Islands, are in circumference ; has a depth of more than 2000 ten in number, of an area of 6000 square miles, and feet, and New York, with all its buildings and lying "midway between the Western terminus of parks, might be hid wdthin it." Nor is the pic-

the Panama railroad and China, nearly in a straight turesque beauty of these islands their ouly charm :

line between the two." The circumference of Hawaii for the weather at aU seasons is delightful ; the sky is about 300, of Oahu, nearly 100 miles. Volcanic cloudless, the atmosphere clear and bracing. Nothing in their origin, the islands present more singular can exceed the soft brilliancy of the moonlight and bold features than most others in the Southern night. Thunderstorms are rare, and pass quickly groups. Lofty domelike mountains rise and lightly they come. hurricanes have i slowly when No up to a height of 14,000 feet, breaking the trade been known. 1 winds, and making a smooth and tranquil sea along In such delicious climate and in such visible the Western coast. The entrance to the harbour of presence of the most awful powers of Nature, the Hilo is described as revealing one of the most mag- Hawaiian native dwelt from an unknown antiquity. nificent scenes in the world, huge snow-crested His nature was soft and sensuous, his worship mountains lifting their vast bulk to the front and savage and terrible. Human sacrifice was of the right, and sheltering one of the greenest landscapes commonest occurrence, and accompanied with re- that ever rose from the seashore. Lofty and full volting barbarity. In 1804, when a pestilence broke cascades leap and sparkle among the woods, or out in the king's army, three men were demanded plunge sheer down into the sea. Vivid contrasts to propitiate the gods. It was three days too early are always to be had between the black plains for the ceremonial, but meanwhile the victims were covered with great lava boulders, and the luxuriaut seized, their eyes put out, their arms and legs vegetation of the tropics. Here a stream of the lava broken, and, on the appointed day, bound and laid has flowed over a gigantic precipice and congealed beside the swine and fruit that completed the offer- on its course, where it hangs like a Niagara stiffened ing. They were stabbed and beaten until they died. into stone and here ; the kindly and prodigal hand ! One of the largest temples is dedicated to Tiari, a of Nature has covered the ' feet, and sharp perpendicular walls I god of war. ' Its length is upwards of 200 its breadth 100 feet—a huge mass of black lava * The Haxcaiian : Islands their Progress and Con- I j dition under stones. On the top is a fine view of the sea. Missionary j Labours. By Kurrs Ander- I

' I SON, D.D. 1864. Somewhere upon it stood the idol, surrounded by \ 50 FORTY YEARS IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. [christian work. Feb. i.iscs.

images of inferior deities. We were shown tlie and destroy the idols that had been concealed ; and place Avliere victims were offered." Grief was ex- more than 100 were burned, including evcQ the

pressed by personal outrages. The hair and the famous poison god of Kamehameha I. Another

teeth were pulled out ; the flesh was cut and burnt. female chief, Kapiolani, made a long journey to the " Almost every old man and woman we met with crater of Kilauea, the shrine of the great Pele, in the islands had thus been deprived of the front that she might openly defy the power and wrath of teeth." Their grief rose to its height on the death that pretended goddess. of a chief or king. "The people shaved their heads, Two incidents, each so remarkable in its way, as burned themselves, knocked out their front teeth, the story of Obookiali, and the abolition of idols broke through all restraint, and practised all by idolaters, and each so singularly controlled manner of crime as if it were a virtue. All ages, by God to one end, have not probably occurred in both sexes, gave scope to the vilest passions, in the history of any other mission. Permission was self-torture, robbery, licentiousness, and murder." given to two of the missionaries to reside for a year Infanticide destroyed two-thirds of the children. in a hut three feet and a half high at the foot of the They were sometimes strangled, more frequently rafters, without floor, ceiling, windows, or furni-

buried alive ; and the latter punishment was in- ture, and in the midst of a noisy, filthy heathen flicted if the child only cried more than usual, or village. The rest were scattered through the dis- gave trouble in the rearing. "Instead of clasping trict of Honolulu. An alphabet of twelve letters the little sufi"erer to her bosom, the mother stopped was soon constructed, and in two years the printing its cries by thrusting a piece of tapa into its mouth, press came into use. In 1823 twenty-four chiefs, and, digging a hole in the floor of the house, x^erhaps as many female as male, were pupils of the mis- within a few yards of her bed, and the spot where sionaries, lu 1825 the regent and nine chiefs were i she took her daily meals, has relentlessly buried in received as members of the Church, and have all the untimely grave her helpless babe." In the lived and died in the faith of the Gospel. The

midst of these terrible cruelties there was one re- rulers were in advance of the people ; but large deeming feature. There were two refuges in numbers soon followed. A congregation of 10,000 Hawaii, North and South, to which all might assembled to hear the preaching of the Gospel in flee, whatever their condition or crime. "The 1826. In the same year a church was built at Kailua gates were ever open, and there the pursuer must that covered 14,000 square feet, and held 5000 people. stop. Non-combatants awaited there the issue of "Men drew the timbers for it from the mountain battles, and thither the vanquished fled and were forest, and thousands laboured in its erection and in safe. The refuge is an enclosure upon the sea- thatching its broad roof and its capacious sides and shore, more than 700 feet in length, and 400 broad, ends. " Schools rapidly spread over the islands and with high thick walls of lava, and two enormous were crowded with the atlults. Six years after the heaps of stones. One of these heaps had an altar foundation of the mission there were 25,000 pupils:

for human sacrifices. The walls were formerly sur- in 1832 there were 53,000 and 900 teachers ; and mounted in their whole extent with images, four more than a fourth of the population could read rods apart. Cocoa-nut trees abound within and the Bible, A Christian marriage law was intro- without." duced, and was followed in 1830 by 2000 weddings. In 1808 a young lad, Obookiah, was brought by The Christian doctrines spread with extraordinary a trading vessel from the Islands to the United swiftness. Then there came a period of appa- States. The story of hig conversion, and the in- rent statiouariness. Neither the missionaries nor

terest of his life awakened great sympathy ; and the converts felt the old warm impulse. The Church when he died in the mission school at twenty-six, grew careless, indifferent, worldly. But in 1838 a singularly deep impression was produced in the there were indications of a change. " The dull and American Church. From this there sprang the stupid, the imbecile and ignorant, the vile, gi'o- Hawaiian Mission. In the year 1819 the first mis- velling, and wretched, became attentive hearers of

sionaries set sail ; and when they arrived they found the Word, and began to think and feel. Even such the idols abolished. The king and the queen-dowager as had before given no sign of a conscience, became had headed a movement against the restraints anxious inquirers after the way of life." The next

of their idolatrous customs. Their motive was year witnessed the completion of the Bible ; and simply to obtain greater freedom of conduct, and on the new movement gathered wonderftd force. the king's part, to secure dissipation without check. "The congregation at Ewa was compelled to leave The idols were ordered to the flames and the tem- their chapel and meet under a shelter 165 feet ples to the ground. The high priest was the first long l)y seventy-two wide, sitting in a compact

to apply the torch ; the smoke of heathen sanctua- mass, in number about 4000. Of two congrega- ries arose at the from Hawaii to Kauai ; idolatry was tions at Honolulu, one was estimated 2500,

abolished for ever by law ; and the islands pre- other at between 3000 and 4000. At Hilo the congre- sented the spectacle of a nation without a religion. gations were between 5000 and 6000." In the latter Civil war was the consequence, but the victory district and out of a population of 14,000, there leaned to the iconoclasts. The queen-dowager were 8000 added to the Church in three years. made a toiir of the islands, expressly to search out " Mr. Coan deemed it proper to admit 5000 in one Christian Work, Feb, 1, 1865.] FORTY YEARS IX THE SAND WICH ISLANDS. 51 year, and as many as 1700 in one day, after per- for judging of our own favoured land than I had o^ sonal inquiry into the case of each individual, ex- . the Hawaiian Islands. Every^vhere I had the same tending through some time previous. " At Waimea, sort of evidence that I was among a Christian the Church iu 183S, people presents itself in country, Mr. Lyons admitted 2600 to ; which my own and nearly as many the year foUo%ving. More than Famdy prayer is prevalent : social morning prayer

j haK the inhabitants of liis district are now Chmxh is common. At Honolulu, I was awaked on the

I members : and he declares their standard of morals morning after my arrival by the bell of the great j to be as high as can be reasonably expected. He stone church, before the day had fairly dawned. says also we must judge his people by their fruits ; It was for a prayer-meeting. Occasionally my at- and within six years they have expended 20,000 tention was caUed to small houses in sohtary dollars on thirteen churches. In 1837 the total places, and I was told they were prayer-houses, number of members in the Islands was 1259 ; in 1843 erected by the people for their neighbouring meet- it was 23,804. ings. Their vie-^'s of prayer were described to me The residt of this movement has been lastiug as very simple. They expect, when they pray, to ; the Church has continued a steady advance ; and be heard. As we stood in the pulpit of Mr. Hawaii is as properly a part of Christendom as Brown's church, at the close of the afternoon

Europe or America. In 1863 Dr. Anderson, the i service, he called my attention to one of his aged foreign secretary of the American Board of Foreign Church members. That man, said he, some years Missions, was commissioned to visit the island group, ago, was off the coast with two other natives in a and to ascertain the character of the churches, and canoe, fishing ; and a monstrous shark came up afford counsel to the pastors. He found that forty with the evident intention of upsetting it. They years of Christian teaching had left but little trace beat him away with their paddles. He went off of the ancient barbarism. The government was some distance, and came down upon them the vest-ed in a constitutional monarchy, and the king second time. Again they drove him away, and was a man of cultiu-e, intelligence, and diguity. he returned. Their courage then began to fail, ; Education was aided and partially controlled by the and they said. The shark will have us. But this

State ; and the schools were efficient and increasing. man proposed to the others that he should pray Commerce had been largely developed, and the to God, whde they used the paddles. To this country was eargerly developing its resources. In they agreed, and he fell on his knees in prayer, the towns, the harbours, the roads, the dress and while they stood on the defensive. Down came habits of the people, there was every evidence of the monster, but when very near he sheered off,

' a rapid and stable civilisation. ' May it please and was soon out of sight." They have built you, true Christian fathers," they say in one of the more than 100 churches, at a cost of 150,000 addresses Dr. Anderson received : "1. God has had dollars. Some of the largest are built of coral, or mercy on us and given us His Spirit to believe iu blocks of lava; more are framed wooden houses, the Father, Sod, and Holy Ghost. 2. We have painted white ; one on Kauai is of a light coloured learned to read in our own language, to write, and sandstone ; a few had walls of mud hardened in also arithmetic. 3. There have been enacted, passed, the sun ; and a few even of grass. Dr. Anderson and confirmed, a constitution and laws securingpeace was witness of an ordination at Honolulu, "one under a royal administration. 4. We have been of the most interesting events that came under my released from a condition of serfdom under oppres- observation. It was in the afternoon, and the two sive and robbing masters, o. We have learned to native congregations united, forming an audience know that it is shameful for men, women, and of scarcely less than 2500. The people had made children to go naked ; as was the case with our an- out a call, promised a salary of 1000 doUars, to cestors down to the time of Kamehameha II. " And be raised by themselves ; called a coimcil by letters

' in another address : ' During the forty-three years missive ; were present by their committee at the the missionaries have resided in the islands, much examination of the candidates in the native lan- seed has beeo sown, much labour performed, and guage ; and the church officers had the care of wonderfid have been the results. We were men all preserving order in the assembly. The vast dark, buried in darkness, sunk to tbe lowest audience, its becoming appearance, the interest, the an depths of ignorance ; roaming about the fields attention, the singing, — everything indicated and woods like wild beasts ; without clothing, established and true Christianity." In another our naked bodies most shamefully exposed and chui'ch he was witness to a mode of making a monthly

blackened by the sun ; without books, without coUectiou, and which the natives have the credit Bibles, without of lead- Christianity ; plunging into the devising. "Just before the sermon, two darkness of heU. Xow we are clothed like civilised ing men took their seats at the table in front of the beings ; we are Christianised ; we are gathered into pulpit. The whole people having been di\-ided into churches ; we are intelhgent ; we are supplied with classes, somewhat after the Methodist custom, each books. Bibles, and hymn-books ; and are living for with a luna, or leader, the presiding deacon called God and for Heaven." the name of the hum, when all of his division, Dr. Anderson corroborates all these statements : who chose to contribute, came forward to the table " No foreign traveller ever had better opportunity and laid down their money ; while the other took 52 GLIMPSES OF CHRISTIAN WORK IN THE EAST. [Christian Work, Peb. i. isss.

note of the contributions, and the names of the home missions, and to depend upon Hawaiian sup- donors. This practice has a singular resemblance plies for the Church. But the most important con-

to the habit of our forefathers. In the ' Life clusion was that the missionaries divested themselves and Times of William Brewster,' it is said that of the governing authority they had held it necessary

after the sermon ' the deacons put the congre- to assume over the infant Church. The Church gation in mind of the duty of contributing for the henceforward is on its own basis, strictly self-sup- poor and the support of public worship, when the porting and self-governing. The mission, as a

governor and all the others go to the deacons' seat, mission, has been merged in the community ; and deposit their gifts, and return.' " To these glimpses this noble experiment of the American Board has of the Church many others were added no less inte- ceased to be experimental. The mission found a

resting ; some, perhaps, even more interesting from nation of barbarous pagans. "There is now an the light they threw upon the habits and tempta- organised Christian government, with a constitution tions of infant churches, and their corroboration and laws as accordant with the Holy Scriptures as in essential features of the Christian life at Corinth. in the best old Christian nations. Nearly one-third The easy abuse of the Lord's Supper, the possibi- of the population are members of Protestant

lity of the grossest sins in the ('hristiau commu- Churches ; there are no avowed pagans ; the idols nity, the presence of licentiousness, the more easy are utterly abolished, the native education is pro- fall into debasing temptations, and also the return vided by the Government ; houses for the worship with increased humility and zeal, are some of the of God have been everywhere erected, and are pre- features noticeable in Christian congrega- both churches. They involve served by the people ; regular a matter of much importance, — the standard by tions assemble on the Sabbath, and there is all the which such communities should be measured. Dr. requisite machinery for the healthful development Anderson pleads that to compare them with the of the inner life of the nation."

churches at home is unfair ; for the civilisation of Other missions have obtained a footing in tlie centuries enters into the hourly manifestations of island. In the days of Louis Philippe and the our home Christianity. Unfavourable views of Tahiti outrage, French priests were forced on the

Hawaii, he attributes to this mistaken standard, Crovernment by the guns of a French frigate ; they and to contact with only the worst class of the reckon that they have baptised 2.3,500, among whom,

community. His deliberate conclusion is, that the it is said, those excommunicated by the American difference between their piety and ours is more Mission bulk largely. The Mormons also have a circumstantial than real. From the statistics it settlement, numbering 3580 adults. And recently appears that the first native convert was Keopuo- a bishop has been sent out by the Church of Eng-

lani, in 1823 ; that up to 18.33, the whole number land. It is, to say the least, iin fortunate that the recog- .was 577 ; that 29,651 were admitted in tlie next members of this new mission have refused to are ten years; 12,325 in the following decade ; and in nise their American brethren as clergymen, and the last, 8,802; which with 1500 in East Mani known as the Reformed Catholic Church. It is make up 52,413. During these 40 years, the deaths unfortunate, too, that they are identified with a

have been 20,017 ; the excommunications, 8000; and sensuDUS ritualism, that would be regarded with the number of church-members has never exceeded suspicion at home. They seem likely. Dr. Ander- 24,000 at any one time. At present it is 19,079, son says, to be an element of discord and not of a diminution owing much to the decrease of the strength to the native Church. It would be population, which has sunk in 40 years from 140,000 pleasant to believe that this opinion might be modi-

to 70,000. fied. However it may be with the future, for the Before Dr. Anderson left, a religious convocation present "the outlay has been less than the cost of was held for three weeks, and attended by thirty the Exploring Expedition to the Pacific Ocean mider clergymen, of first-class seven laymen, and about forty women Commodore Wilkes ; less than that a who were merely present. It was resolved to form ship of iron, or a moderate section of a railroad. forty new churches in fifteen missionary districts, Yet how vastly greater, liow vastly more precious to establish boarding-schools for girls, to prosecute are its results !"

GLIMPSES OF CHRISTIAN WORK IN THE EAST DURING THE AUTUMN OF 1864.*

BY THE EEV. A. W. THOROLD, M.A.—Paet IL

We left Damascus in the blaze of a scorching was still visible. About sunset we turuea ott afternoon, and soon entered a long and monotonous towards Gebel-es-Sheikh, or Hermon, almost the plain, the only relief from which was in looking entire circuit of which we were to make, before back at the its southern base at Paneas, \ green oasis, which for several hours staading underneath and encamped just beyond Catana, near a tiny *EuRATUM page 1 ! —In of January Number, 2nd column, inhabited by innumerable leeches, and Ime 10, /o;- " birth-place " read "dwelling-place." brook,

I cauistian Work, Feb. 1, 1865.] GLIMPSES OF CHRISTIAN WORK IX THE EAST. 53 pleasantly overhung with quince trees, golden they give the Jew ten curses, the Christian twenty, with ripening fruit. but the Mahomedan thirty. They believe also in To Rasheya next day the ride was rough, burn- the transmigration of souls, and it is one of their ing, and wearisome, up and down monotonous hills, doctrines (curious for the light it casts on the with neither greenness to cool the eye, nor laud- popular view of the future of the Hebrews) that in scapes to refresh the spirit. There was however the last day, they themselves will rise as rulers. one small excitement in. the shape of a swarm of Christians as apes, Jews as ass- drivers, but Ma- enormous hornets, which had come down to a road- homedans as asses with Jews on their backs. * side weU to drink, and to which we felt it prudent As to their political relations, while the Maronites to give ample elbow room. have always sided with France, the Druses have Rasheya, a of gar- town some importance, and identified themselves with England. Let us trust risoned with a regiment of Turkish soldiers, was that this circumstance may induce them freely to one of the chief scenes in the massacre of 1860. As avail themselves of the Protestant schoojs, which we entered it, a in a scarlet tunic (after man we are to be found here and there in the Lebanon, and had heard about him it seemed blood colour) fami- which are the true hope of better times. liarly saluted our dragoman, and accompanied us to The mountain road from Rasheya to Hasbeya the only available camping ground. This man was may be safely described as one of the most pictu- one of the ringleaders in the massacre, and not resque in Palestine. The rich and abruptly broken only gave the signal for the murder of the princes vaUeys which we looked down upon at our feet of the Lebanon, but slew seven persons with his soon after leaving Rasheya, suggest to the English own hand. It is characteristic of an Oriental Go- traveller the beautiful neighbourhood of Stroud, vernment, as well as corroborative of the suspicion, Gloucestershire, ha\4ng the advantage in wood and that after all the Porte was not so very sorry for verdure, while Syria is free from the plague of tall the massacre, that this is man now employed in the chimneys and black smoke. Hermon to the south public service. It is also curiously illustrative of falling westward in swelling hills of deceitful and the shocking cheapness of human life in these parts, tempting smoothness, filled up the' horizon on our and of the prevailing impression that most killing left. Towards the north we had enchanting is not murder, that he goes in the and out among glimpses of distant countiy, and at one spot in townspeople respected rather than otherwise. particular, where we halted for a few moments' But it is more shocking still that the widow of rest, almost the finest panorama of mountains I one of his victims, to whom, dripping with the blood ever saw out of Switzerland opened in front. of her husband's life, he ran of the down out Westward, the entire range of Lebanon from slaughter that she might wash the stains from his Sunnin to Deir-es-Khatib, shut out as vnth. a waU clothes, and so enable to go his him back to work of amethyst, Beyrout, Tripoli, and the sea. In of butchery, was quietly standing by close to him front was the plain of Buk^a, fertile in soil, famous our tents, whilst all this stor>' was being told to us, in history, rich in antiquities. Behind the lower apparently on terms of easy acquaintance, certainly range of Anti-Libanus towards the east were Horns with no outward show of aversion or alarm. and Damascus. At our back was the Holy Land. These Druses are a singular people and have a Yet nothing is quite perfect anywhere. In sunmier singular history, of which, by the way, it is ex- and autumn Syria is without snow. But no moun- tremely difficult to get a consistent and reliable tains can compare with snow mountains. The accoimt. They inhabit the Lebanon to the south drawback to a sky of spotless azure and an atmo- of the road from Bey rout to Damascus, to the sphere of pellucid clearness, is in the absence of number of about 70,000, and happily for their neigh- those lights and shadows which are born from bours keep very much to themselves. WTien not clouds, and which to the most exquisite scenery irritated they are a kind-hearted, generous race, add softness, and variety, and colour. industrious, skilful farmers, rigorously abstaining The approach to Hasbeya from the north is ex- from wine, honest, moral, and in fact the backbone tremely beautiful. The town is buUt on the of the native population. There is no occasion to southern bank of a somewhat steep raA-ine, at speak about what everyone has heard of, their the bottom of which flows one of the sources of prowess in war. As to their religion they profess the Jordan, —and the hills aU round, on the left to lie followers of a fanatical Egyptian caliph, rising up into Hermon, on the righl; abruptly termi- named Hakim, who lived about the eleventh nating in a prettily wooded elbow, present a picture century, and was put to death by his own rela- of luxuriant fertility. tions in consequence of his intolerable cruelties. A wayside grave, out of which human bones were His clothes being found in a cave, while his body visibly protruding, bore a mute but ghastly testi- had disappeared, it was concluded that he had mony to the massacre already mentioned, and ascended into heaven, and he is worshipped as a which in this place was more terrible than any- kind of incarnate god who is presently to return to conquer the earth and give supremacy to their * For an elaborate and more complete notice of the religion. Being no exception to the rule that all Dnise religion, see Lokd Carn.vrvon's Recollections of sects are intolerant in proportion to their smallness, tlie Druses. " ;

54 GLIMPSES OF CHRISTIAN WORK IN THE EAST, [chrisuan work, Feb. i. \m.

where. In the expectation of greater security the with deep interest the Poman votive tablet cut into Christians fled to Hasbeya from all the villages the living rock, towards which Dean Stanley, in round. The result was that, like cattle driven into a brilliant flash of imagination, suggests that the shambles, they merely saved their enemies trouble Lord may have pointed, when He said to Simon, in killing them, and without having to be hunted certainly in this immediate neighbourhood, and for, they were slaughtered at leisure. close to this same mountain, if not actually on this

j ' Good Mrs. Thompson has a school here, but she square foot of earth, ' Thou art Peter, and upon { had returned to Beyrout, and we again missed her. this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of A Protestant place of worship is being erected. hell shall not prevail against it. In our next day's ride to Paneas, some of us had "We spread a carpet by the river side, and passed our first view of the Land of Promise, ]\Iouuting a still, happy hour, drinking of the water of which out of the town by a steep but pretty lane, and Christ had drunk, doing our best to seize the con- riding for an hour or two through vineyards and \'iction, more easily seized at a distance than on orchards, with smiling glimpses of cultivated the spot, that here in these coasts of Csesarea country, we made a slight detour to visit a Philippi, we were on common ground with the

Poman ruin, which, like many others of the sort, Son of Man ; that down some one or other of these j it, but that it mountain paths descended from the place of had nothing miich to recommend He ;

was Poman, and that it was old. Then after push- His excellent glory ; that in one or other of these ing our way through a wood, and climbing up a nooks and corners, where the mountain touches the tedious hill, a vast plain stretched out before us plain, He rebuked the multitude, and healed the with a sheet of glittering water at its utmost ex- demoniac. tremity, and towards the south-west a girdle of I have spoken already of two sources of the blue mountains, imposing even after Lebanon. The Jordan. There is yet a third, which rises in a plain, Ard-el-Hfdeh, was the vast battle-field where secluded spot in the midst of the plain, and marks Joshua finally routed the Canaanites, and won the the precise site of Laish, or Ban, the scene of the victory which completed the conquest of Palestine. surprise, extermination, and massacre described by The silver water Avas the Lake of Merom. The Joshua. purple mountains were the heights of Safed, com- This source is a large and beautiful pool, fringed

manding almost the finest xiew in Galilee, and to round with trees and bushes ; and we pavised to which Christ is supposed to have pointed, wlien He watch the infant stream, the most sacred, but as

' said in the Sermon on the Mount, ' A city set on a has been truly said, the most useless of rivers, as

hill cannot be hid." it started on its journey from the far end of the It must be confessed however that the plaiu, pool, gleaming with silver light under an archway welcome as it was to look at in the distance, was of green boughs.

hot and long when we came to ride across it ; and Great things might be made of this X)lain, and glad we were to turn the shoulder of the mountain vast crops of corn, and cotton, and tobacco grown

on our left towards a lovely nook nestling a few on it, if there were but English capital and Eng- miles off under the very shadow of Hermon. lish farming. Now, most of it is uncultivated

Cheerily we rode on by a musical rill of running and the lower part of it, simply, no doubt, from

water, past shepherds with their sheep, through I want of draining, is an impenetrable morass. shady thickets, and up hill after hill in a continual Our road struck- right across it to the mountains j

but easy ascent, imtil we heard the sudden rushing I on the west, and from the summit towards the of a rapid stream as the sound of many waters. east and the south-east we had a fine view of the Then suddenly it was before us, laughing and leap- trans -Jordanic country, to most travellers at pre-

ing in the joy of its liberty, and we plunged through i sent inaccessible, but to the student of Scripture the foaming torrent, and picked our way carefully, rich in the historical associations of Bashan and first over a ruined bridge, and then over a Poman Ramoth-Gilead, Mahauaim and Pella. pavement all broken now, yet once hallowed by the It seemed an elevated table-land, occasionally touch of the most sacred feet that ever walked this studded with mountain summits, and just where

earth ; and passing through the village, where, the eye reached no further, losing itself in a sultry during summer, the people live in booths on the haze towards the Pisgah range.

roofs of their houses ; and rapidly dismounting at Here we entered Naphthali, and our camping our tents, which were pleasantly pitched in a shady ground w^as at Kedesh, near a ruined temple. This

glade, we made our eager way to the sacred river. is the spot, in the plain of Zaanaim, where Deborah j In another the Jordan was before us, I moment rush- met Barak, and where Barak assembled the army ing swiftly from under the crest of the mountain, which defeated Sisera. Four hours more brought

into a pleasant wilderness of green copsewood ; not, us to the fastness of Safed, at the foot of which are I think, in the least disappointing, but even exhila- some green and pleasant gardens, and which, though rating by the exceeding beauty of the place of its I missed the Tagus in some things, reminded me of nativity, as well as solemnising with the memories Toledo. of the past. There is also the mountain—the Safed is one of the most sacred cities of the Jews,

mountain of the Transfiguration— and we observed and few places are more interesting for associationj i 55

or scenery, or inhabitants. It is almost entirely Latin Convent; and one of our party, who was new, having been to a great extent rebuilt after a suffering from illness, received from a Spanish

recent earthquake ; but it is chiefly interesting for monk much kindness, and a partial cure. The the Jews, who must number thousands, and who place itself has been often described. It is shut come from all quarters of the world to end their off from the north by a ridge of some eleva- days here. It was a touching sight, as we rode tion, to which further allusion will be made pre- through the narrow and filthy streets, to behold sently, and on the slope of which many of the in all variety of costume, and age, and condition, houses are built. Several other hills in a kind of such a multitude of the Lord's kinsmen after the semicircle gently and pleasantly swell round it, on flesh, though aliens in the spirit, dwelling in His the west, south, and east; and my recollections of

land, while still rejecting Him, and many on the it, in respect of its stillness and quietness much the point to die, through age or infirmity, without the same as that of the Sea of Galilee, make me describe

blessed hope that comes through faith in Him. it as pleasing rather than beautiful ; quite Oriental Most of the faces I noticed were sad and care- with its flat-roofed houses, and feathery palm-trees,

worn, many emaciated and haggard to the last and thickets of prickly pear ; the place of all others

degree ; but in the majority of instances, I thought for a retired and meditative life, while from its I observed a certain quiet dignity of gait and proximity to the sea on one side, and the Hauran

demeanour, as if in spite of their poverty and suf- on the other, it is well adapted for a mission. fering, they felt themselves at home in the land of With Mr. Zeller, who has lived seven years in their father David. It was a real satisfaction to the the country, first at Nablons, and afterwards here, Christian traveller, it seemed to touch them as a we had much interesting intercourse. His regular mark of kindly respect, when as he rode by, he work, in which he has the aid of a valuable cate- uncovered his head to greet Hebrews, standing on chist, comprises of course teaching and preaching.

their ancient soil. There are schools for boys and girls, numbering

In some respects, Safed would be an admirable about seventy children ; and on Su.ndays he holds mission station. Yet it is not to be denied that the two services in Arabic, at which the usual attend-

difiiculties would be formidable ; and it is just one ance is seventy-five. It is easy to understand that of those cases, where one would shrink from the a great prejudice existed, in the first instance, responsibility of ad\asing action, yet where one against any attempt to elevate or educate the would be glad to see the attempt wisely made. women. Much, however, has already been effected We passed through the town to an olive grove through the quiet and happy agency of Mrs. Zeller

almost overlooking the lake, and the view from (a daughter of Bishop Gobat) ; and it is reasonable thence (shall I weary my readers with so much to hope that as the men discover that their wives

description ? ) is certainly one of the most moving make home more comfortable through learning that human eyes can see. Beneath, so near that a housewifely arts, and their lives happier through

ten minutes' walk would apparently reach it, yet in increased good temper and intelligence, their oppo- reality three hours' off, lies, sleeping in perfect sition is likely to be converted into a hearty good- stillness, that fair mountain lake, which more than wiU. any other spot in the world is associated with the In the cool weather, Mr, ZeUer takes his tent, j

daily life of the Lord Jesus ; and, Jerusalem per- and itinerates in the neighbourhood. Speaking \

haps excepted, is the most marked by His ministry", Arabic fluently, and possessing considerable influ- i

Three impressions of it abide with me : Stillness, ence among the natives, he proceeds, in the fii-st j — as if it were resting from a troubled past for a instance, to engage them in friendly conversation

I glorious future. Bareness, for there are no trees on ordinary topics, leading them on by degrees to j on its banks, no ships on its waters, no fishermen his Divine message, and he seldom finds either j on its shores. Sultriness, for never, while I live, reserve or shyness on religious subjects. shall I forget the burning heat of the sirocco, which This of course is an enormous advantage for mis- began to blow furiously the night we were at Safed, sionaries, and one which they duly appreciate. The

and made it almost intolerable to breathe. - So in- only thing is, they must know what they are about. tense indeed was the heat there, even at the end of To challenge controversy in the presence of a whole

September, that I have since asked myself if the village, only to have the worst of the argument, is temperature could have been the same when our no gain to Truth. Lord lived at Capernaum, and a thriving population Mr. Zeller has another field opening before him, inhabited its shores. South of the lake, tlie among the Bedouins, which makes one hopeful j rounded crest of Tabor rises up, and Mounts Gilboa about a fine race of men, for whom no one at and Gilead, and the distant heights of Samaria. present seems able to do anything. To be listened On the left is the Hauran. On the right the bluff to, there, as much as here, is the first condition of Carmel runs out into the sea. of success. To speak their language, to know i^azareth, which we reached by way of Cana, is their habits, to understand their ideas, and to con- a town of some four thousand people, the majority ciliate their respect, are all essential, over and of whom are Christians, and include Latins, Greeks, above the help that comes from God alone, for and Protestants. We took up our abode in the any one, who would win to the Saviour these 56 GLIMPSES OF CHRISTIAN WORK IN THE EAST. LChristian Work, Feb. 1, 1865.

neglected souls. So far as I can judge, the mis- a large stake in the country in the shape of lands sionary, to whom I have alluded, is eminently- and buildings. As owners, and occupiers, and tax- qualified for the work. Yet He who knows the payers, they have a just claim to be heard, when work, and chooses the workman, ^ill make the way there is anything to complain of. Property is plain in His own good time. power. At !N azareth we were able to appreciate with in- Once more, not only have they dispensaries to creased clearness the difficulties that impede the which the poor come eagerly for advice and medi- * Gospel in this part of the world. cine ; but it is also the practice of the monks in First and foremost there is the Turkish Govern- several parts of the country to lend the peasants ment, which by misrule, by neglect, by oppression, money on their olive trees. The advance is made by monstrous fraud, crushes independence, robs in- in the spring, to be returned in the autunm, when dustry, and paralyses the spirit of progress. At the olives are gathered, and often, of course, there Constantinople it may reform on paper, but in the are heavy arrears. This is certainly a real assist- provinces it knows no change except gi-owth in ance, but it must have the effect of compromising

decay. Candid and enlightened when promises the independence of those who accept it, and of must be made to European Powers, it is true to its binding more closely to the monks, if only by a old traditions in the remoter parts of the Empire, proper sense of obligation, those who are benefited

where it is administered by governors, whose life is by it. Further still, in some places (and Nazareth i often one long crime. Indeed, it seemed to me is one of them), the monks contract with the that with the exception of the Pashalik of Jeru- Turkish Government for the taxes of the place, salem, the local administration was worse rather reimbursing themselves by a private levy on indi- than better since my first visit in 1848. Certainly viduals. Here is a screw, which may easily be during the ^March of that year we traversed with turned so as to pinch very tightly, where it may be perfect safety a district of the Hauran, which last desirable to punish or alarm. autumn was pronounced impassable. To turn to one more difficulty. It is a serious Now in the nature of things, a condition like this is matter, as a missionary himself remarked to me, unfavourable to the progress of religion. A sick man to urge a man to profess Protestantism, while it is compelled to be in a continual posture of self-defence impossible to ensiu-e him protection. In the great

against disease is not easily disposed to postpone cities where a conversion from Islamism is imper- the claims of the body to those of the spirit. A fectly known, or speedily forgotten, and where bad government affects in the same way the ad- shelter from mob violence can more readily be ob- vance of Truth. Though God can overrule all tained, the case is different. things, and even make times of persecution to be In the provinces, however, and most of all in the times of inquiry and awakening, we still feel bound villages, a Mohammedan renouncing his religion to pray, as by an instinct of our nature, that we would probably be put to death by Lynch-law may be delivered from the fear of our enemies. within an hour or two of its being known. Now it

History teaches us, and personal experience con- is a grave responsibility, not lightly to be incurred, firms history, that (in the language of our Liturgy), though indeed not lightly to be evaded, deliberately

' only as we can ' keep our hearts in peace and to urge on a human conscience the taking of a step

Austria, and Russia make it their deliberate policy direct communication between the local govenmient i

to protect Christianity in the East. Whatever theii- there and Nazareth : it would occupy a position of |

motives may be, it is a recognised principle of their some importance on the sea coast : and it might oc- } diplomacy to identify with their own interests, and casionally set Mr. Zeller free for an expedition to to guarantee through their own representatives, the Bedouins, the rights of the members of their respective com- Then, our friend wants to build a church at j munions. All this, of course, gives the inhabitants Nazareth, and his reasons seem to justify him. Of j

j i of the various monasteries throughout Syria a great course it would, in the first instance, be convenient feeling of security both for themselves and their for the many English travellers who come to the j

proselytes. It must also make their enemies very place in the course of the year ; and those who cautious how they inflict an injury, which, if needs have already visited the spot, may be ^villing to

I be, would be instantly avenged by a fleet and army * There is also a Protestant Dispensarj'' at Naz:\reth, from Odessa, or Trieste, or Marseilles. conducted by Dr. Vartan, and likely to do vast good. Then, again, the Greek and Latin Churches have See Christian Work, for 1864, p. 359. :

Christian Work. R»b.i, I860.] GLIMPSES OF CHRISTIAN WORK IN THE EAST. 57

aid an object which would ensure the perma- outstripped by Germany in this adventure for nent preaching of a pure Gospel in the earthly Christ. house of the Saviour, and be a blessing to their What a blessed imion it would be in which poor OMTi countrymen in a distant land. But the reasons as well as rich, artisans as well as graduates, lay- likely to prevail with the Church at large are these men as well as clergymen, would enjoy the oppor- that a solid material building would invest the mis- tunity (the blessedness of which none of us can ap-

sion with a definite and lasting character, both in preciate now) of sowing the seed of Eternal Life ; the eyes of the native population, and with the where peasants, strong in their personal experience

local government ; that it would certainly be the of what the Lord has done for them, and students visible ceotre and raIl3T.ng point for Protestants from the University, furnished with the weapons of between Jerusalem and Beyrout ; and that it would critical knowledge, would join hands and hearts also give additional accommodation to the steadily over the very grandest work that human souls though slowly increasing native ^congregation in can do. Nazareth. Yet however desirable and efficient these methods The ground is purchased, and the plans for a may be in themselves, one thing is necessary, if simple and commodious building are already pre- Christian missions are to be conducted with security pared. The estimated cost is 2000/. , not a penny and success. There must be religious liberty. too much, when the great expense of building in There must be liberty for the missionary, not this country is considered. Two things are needed indeed to insidt, but to argue, to confute, to ex- further. A firman from the Porte must be pro- plain, to instruct. Putting aside the fact that to cured to authorise the erection. Then, as but little some few persons everywhere all diff"erence of can be obtained on the spot, if the church is to be opinion has the appearance of insult ; triitli, as * built at all, it must be built by friends at home. opposed to error, is in the nature of things essen-

Once more : the question seems worth asking, if tially a controversy, and can never be anything our missionary plans and agencies here and else- else. Dr. Pfander has only said what commends where are quite as complete and practical as they itself to erery man's good sense, when he wT-ites, might me. To the plan of missions conducted by "The Gospel cannot be preached to the Moham- the preacher and the school-master, may we not medans without causing opposition and contention. join that of missions propagated by the family and Is the missionary not to state the grounds of the the colony ? We have long possessed the voice of hope that is in him, or to stop the mouths of the prophet crying in the wilderness. Our great gainsayers? Silence here would be nothing less need is of the secret leaven of Christian men and than unfaitlifulness to his commission. Has women coming to settle and dwell in the land, who the Gospel ever been preached without producing should earn their own bread, cultivate the soil, opposition ? " There must also be liberty for the work at their several trades, go in and out with individual that he may be free to follow the dic- the natives on kind and familiar terms, and so bring tates of his conscience, and to profess the religion the meaning, and power, and beauty of a pure he prefers without let or hindrance. Eeceut events Christianity to their very doors, with the light have shown that even in the metropolis of the they behold and the air they breathe. This plan Turkish Empire there is a strong fanatical party is well understood on the Continent, and is admi- utterly opposed to granting this liberty ; and it is rably described in an interesting book called only fair to weigh the extreme difficulties which " Praying and Working." It will be seen from that embarrass the action of the Government, as well as volume how the Christian energy of Louis Harms, to remember that all legislation too much in ad- pastor of Hermannsburgh near Hanover, so roused vance of the prejudices of the common people, only and stirred his flock, that there went out from that provokes reaction and retards success. We may village alone eight poor men to settle at Natal as a be thankful that Lord Russell has spoken out in a missionary colony : and how in seven years' time way that might have been expected of him. The there have come to be 100 settlers, eight stations memory of Lord Stratford still lives on the Bos- with dwelling houses and workshops at each sta- phorus. Fuad Pasha has certainly done a good tion, 40,000 acres of land obtained, fifty heathens deal in setting the imprisoned Christians at liberty. l>aptised (not, we may believe, w^th Xavier's bap- To return for a moment to Nazareth, it is a positive tism), besides a ship of their own. gain, since that tlirough Mr. Zeller s exertions, and

Now why should this be so impracticable for us ? in spite of the intrigues and opposition of tbe Is there no English parish, where a minister of faith Greeks and Latins, the Protestants there have been and prayer might animate his flock to a similar en- officially recognised as a religious conmi unity by terprise ? We of all people, with our inborn in- the authorities at Akka. Further, while there are stincts for colonising, and our real zeal for the welfare Enghsh Consuls in the East, like Mr. Skene at of the heathen, should not suffer ourselves to be Aleppo, Mr. Rogers at Damascus, and Mr. Sand- with at Caiapha, wise and strong friends will never * The writer of this paper will gladly receive any r on- tnbutions lor be wanting to ensure legal protection, and to mani- this object. His address is 16, Bedford Square, London. fest kind sympathy towards Protestants in Syria. After all, it may be better that we shoiUd be "

A REMINISCENCE OF MY PRISON LIFE. [Christian Work, Feb. 1, 1865.

compelled to put more trust in God, through lean- before His Divine mind, as clouds out of the sea ing less on man. "I, even I, am He that comforteth floating over a calm sky.

you : who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid Yet even then, though knowing all things that of a man that shall die, and of the son of man were to be accomplished, He went forth from which sliall be made as grass ; And forgettest the Joseph's house to teach, to suffer, to die : for He Lord thy Maker, that hath stretched forth the had come not to do His own ^^•i^, but the will of heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth ; Him that sent Him. and hast feared continually every day because of He can wait now, for He is strong. He is wise, the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to and He loves us Avith a love deeper than the deep

destroy ? and where is the fury of the oppressor ? 1 sea ; and His intercession goes on and faileth not. am the Lord thy God, that divided the sea, whose "One soweth and another reapeth." No true

waves roared ; The Lord of Hosts is His name. And workman, whoever he may be, is forgotten. Hour I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have by hour, from their finished labours on earth, His covered thee in tlie shadow of mine hand, that I elect come up to stand before the Throne. " Others may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of have laboured, and ye have entered into their la- the earth, and say unto Ziou, Thou art my people." bours." No true work is ever lost, though for a I have spoken already of a mountain brow over- moment it be suspended. The Lord takes care that looking the town from the north, which commands His work is carried on from age to age.

a noble prospect of all the country roimd, and is a If only we are true workmen, what matter it, (piiet retreat for those who wish to be alone. Many when viewed in the light of Eternity, where we

and many a time, we may reverently believe, has work ? In Asia, or in Europe, we plough the same

our blessed Saviour mounted that hill for fellow- soil, we sow the same seed, we serve the same Lord, ship with the Father, and to muse upon His only let us believe. The promise is for all of us. kingdom. " They that sow in tears shall reap in joy." The

! And as He looked forward tlirougli the coming precejjt is to all of us, " Watch ages, to His own ministry and death, and ascension If all these years the Lamb of God has waited for to glory, —to His holy Church throughout all the the accomplishing of His elect, we surely, for our world, in its rise, and gro\\i;h, and decay, —to the short season may watch and pray, labour and suflfer Company of the Apostles, to the Fellowship of the with Him. Prophets, to the Army of Martyrs, to Paul and Does He not still say to us, as He said to them of

Jerome, to Saladin and Napoleon, to Saracens in- old, " Sifc ye here, while I go and pray yonder?" vading, and Crusaders reselling, and Turks oppress- Who that loves Him woidd —not desire to escape the ing, and missionaries labouring : —what a train of reproach to them that slept " What, could ye not " events, what a succession of actors, what a dismal watch with me one hour ? catalogue of failures and crimes must have passed

A EEMINISCENCE OF MY PRISON LIFE. BY MANUEL MATAMOROS.*

In the first months of the third year of my im- There w^as in prison a young man of twenty-eight, prisonment my health was much enfeebled. I was against whom there had been a number of charges, often scarcely able to take a few steps in my for only two of which he had been condemned to chamber. This exercise had now become im- thirty -five years of penal servitude. He had been possible. I felt, and my friends agreed with a chief of brigands. He was a man of savage energy me, that the time of my earthly removal was not and of intrepid courage, who had many a time far off, and I rejoiced in the hope that I would be fought with the police agents sent to capture him, in the presence of my Saviour. The governor of and in every such combat forced them to retreat. the prison, impressed, without doubt, with the Such he had been, and was still even in prison. Every- seriousness of my illness, offered me, in the name one suspected him, his fellow-prisoners, who had of his chief, the choice of a man among the often felt the effects of his brutal force, as well as prisoners who might perform for me the duties the gaolers. Such was the man given to me for my of a servant. servant. The governor was evidently well pleased I accepted the proposal. " Very well," he said, to see him separated from the others. Though " "and who will you have ? such was the case I received him with joy, and "Send me," I answered, "the worst criminal felt myself moved with much compassion for him of all." when I knew his history as it was told me by the gaoler. On his part he undertook the service with * Translated from a little pamphlet published for the pleasure, for near me his position was much im- Lenefit of Spanish Evangelistic Work, to which our readers proved in every respect. He enjoyed more liberty, can contribute by sending communications to the treasurer of the Spanish Evangelistic Society, Edinburgh. and he had the privilege of receiving his old father " : — " ;

Christian Work, Feb. 1, 1S65.] A REMINISCENCE OF MY PRISON LIFE. 59

from time to time ia my cell ; he had been before most Hvely joy, and -with that energy which permitted to see him only at a distance, and in characterised him. "Oh,] yes . . . you are truly a

! presence of the gaolers. By degrees the respect father to me. . . . Oh, may God reward you which the unfortunate man had for me changed "Very well," I said, " your application will test into a lively affection. Often he said to my mother, the sincerity of your desire." " gaolers in I gave him money to buy a primer, and, the Ah ! madam, if the shutting up of the this dungeon would have set your son at liberty, I same day, he had his book in his pocket. We would have done it long ago, as I easily could." began at once, and from that moment, he took And I am sure he would have tried it, dangerous every opportunity of advancing in this study, as it was, if I had not turned him from it. When taking advantage of the help of those prisoners I knew better his character and his thoughts I was who knew how to read. He employed in tlus convinced that, notwithstanding his depraved and way the most of the day. criminal life, he had still a heart susceptible of His progress was rapid, and, at the end of a noble and generous sentiment. One day he said month and a half he read tolerably. "If I had not met with vile friends I woidd never He continued to listen to the reading of the some word of God every morning. He assisted Avith a have taken to robbery ; but, pushed on by cowardly fellows who did not dare to try it them- clearly indicated joy, in many of the religious and selves alone, and once drawn into it in this way, brotherly meetings which took place in my prison robbery soon became a habit of my life." " But," during my captivity. His peace gradually became

' added he, with a look of satisfaction, ' I never took most complete. anything from the poor, and I never, either with He troubled himself no more about devising my gun or my poignard, drew a drop of blood. I means of escape, for he was in a state of entire was a brigand without doubt, but a brigand who submission to the will of God. could boast of being always honourable. "... Poor, Our relations became more fraternal and Chris-

unfortunate ! tian ; I felt myself happy in the society of this Certain details of his history were unknown to man. His love extended also to all the other anybody. I was the only person to whom he com- prisoners ; he spoke of them all with deep interest municated them, for had they been known he he knew their wants, and his greatest pleasure certainly would not have escaped capital punish- was to give them some relief. ment. Thus I arrived by degrees at a knowledge Often I saw him reading with his companions of his deeper feelings. portions of the New Testament. He distributed One day, at the moment when I was beginning also the tracts which I had in my possession my morning worship, he was preparing to quit my and I am sure that his prudent and firm conduct cell. I induced him to remain ; and he sat down at this time did much good. beside me. I opened the Bible at the third chapter I was rigorously prevented from speaking with of St. John's Gospel. During the reading of it his the other prisoners ; but he felt himself happy face brightened up with a happiness that increased when he could act as a means of communication every moment. AVhen I came to the 16th, 17th, between them and me, bringing to them a word and 18th verses, which. I read slowly and with of consolation, or some religious— book, which he emphasis, a deep emotion seemed to agitate him. would hand to them, saying : " Take this, see I seized my opportunity, and read further the what Don Manuel has sent you in the name of the eighth chapter of the Epistle to the Eomans. We Lord." fell upon our knees, and it was given me to pray Thus he made, every day, progress in the way with much fervour and confidence for the man who of life eternal. The increasing peace which his had already inspired me with so much affection. soul enjoyed was -vv-ritten upon his countenance. When we rose the tears were pouring down my One day I received a visit from Mr. W. Greene, companion's face. I know not if, in my whole life, an English Christian, who has long taken a deep I have ever had a happier moment than this in interest in Spain, one of the most zealous friends which I saw this soul entering on the path of life of us Spanish prisoners, who came into my cell eternal. I left him under this sweet impression, to ofier me the consolations of his brotherly affec- and later I asked him only, "What he thought of tion. During the day he passed with me, he this that we had read together—this that God noticed the bearing of my servant, whose life, with " had spoken to us ? the recent'circumstances, I recounted to him. Struck

"Ah! Don Manuel," he answered, "if I had with my story, Mr. Greene asked him : known how to read, I would have learned to under- "How can you bear the idea of passing thirtj'- " stand all about these things, and I never would five years in the gaUeys ? have been a criminal. It is very beautiful. I "Oh, sir!" my poor friend answered, "what is never shall forget it. Ah ! if I only knew how thirty-five years in the galleys to a man who had to read, I would not be so unfortunate. been condemned to an eternity of misery ? Before "Well, do you wish me to teach you? Do you I knew Don Manuel, I only thought of planning " want to begin now ? I asked. my escape, even though it had cost the sacrifice of "Yes, yes," he said, with an expression of the life. I was in despair : but everything is now — "

60; THE UNITED STA TES CHRISTIAN COMMISSION. LChristian Work, Feb. 1, 1866.

changed ; I kuow that Jesus Christ came to save " Yes," I answered him, "let us be faithful unto Y sinners ; that by His merits my sins are all par- death, and we shall wear the crown of life." doned that past life ; my can never be a means of Here is a friend whom the Lord gave me in my condemnati6ti to- tne, because Jesus is my inter- confinement, one of the consolations that he vouch- cessor. Therefore I sh-all go to the galleys tranquil safed me. The remembrance of this man who was arid happyV for I am assured of the salvation that ODly a vile criminal when he entered my prison, is Jestis'has purchased for me, and I rejoice that He now to me dear and precious. Oh ! how touching has called me to quit this wretched career. this manifestation of the great love of God towards It is impossible to express the joy and emotion sinners. Of every soul where there still exists the

of • my dear friend, Mr. Greene, while listening to dominion of sin, it cau make a temple of the Holy him. He did not cease to take a lively interest in Ghost, and the criminal, even the most degraded, him, and to recomnlend him to God in his prayers. can thus be transformed into the image of our

. The mQment finally arrived when my poor com- Divine Saviour. pq,nion " ^ was obliged to leave the prison for the Come unto me," says the Lord, "all ye that galleys.- 'He shed abundant tears on parting with are weary and lieavy laden, and I wiU give you

: me. He was, however, able to say rest. I am meek and lowly in heart. " Oh ! yes, ' "-I- regret much leaving you, but let us be cou- let us go to Him, just as we are, with'the desire of sO'led with the tli ought that Jesus does not forsake reaching the measure of the perfect stature of u^,-jind that the love of God to us is unchangeable. Christ. " Wfe" shall meet again in His presence ; is it not so ?

I

THE UNITED STATES CHRISTIAN COIVIMISSION.

BY WILLIAM GILBERT.

AlTHOi; OK "SHIRLEY HALL ASYLUM," "PIVES AXD LAZARUS," ETC.

The sad history of the war now raging in America, were reduced to two or three all working in perfect and the details of the various battles as they reach amity together, and carrying on their exertions to a us, each narrating episodes more terrible tlian its magnitude which would appear almost fabulous predecessor, makes at first sight the consideration had we not the most indisputable proofs of their of the subject painful to every well regulated mind. truth.

We naturally turn from it in deep sorrow as soon as Without the slightest wish to under- rate the our first curiosity for the latest telegrams have sub- wonderfid exertions of the United States Sanitary sided, and we fervently hope as we read of fresh Commission, the subject of our paper will be con- battles having been fought, that the next accounts fined to the transactions of the United States Chris- that reach us will contain some news that shall pro- tian Commission, a society springing out of the mise the probability of peace. Deeds of heroism events of the war, and carrying on their operations have been chronicled to such an extent, both of in a manner, in every sense of the word, worthy Federals and Confederates, that their very chivalry the denomination of Christian Work. The exercise

begins by use to lose its attractions. It is pleasant, of charity and good works seem in their theology in however, in the midst of this lamentable war, to the light of physical prayers, and while admitting notice not only that religion and charity have not to the fullest the necessity of religion in the ordi.

lost their power among the inhabitants of the land, nary sense of the word, they add to it, with a con-

but, strange as it may appear, it almost seems that sistency and tact second only to the social laws of the bounty of the Almighty has allowed these Moses himself, the obligation of administering to virtues to increase rather than diminish among the temporal wants and comforts of their fellow them,^ alleviating to an enormous extent the citizens.

miseries caused by their terrible battle-fields. If, in Although the United States Christian Commission

the history of the world, no example can be found is comprised of men of all professions and occupa- of a similar determination of purpose on both sides, tions, the principles actuating them being based

with equal certainty, it will V>e impossible to find primarily on religion, the greatest honour should an example where piety and charity have been de- naturally be giveu to its ministers. Many divines veloped in a people to a proportionate extent. are active members of the committee, indeed in At the outbreak of the war the wish to assist the proportion to the members of their profession they warrior and the sick and wounded sprang into are far more numerous than those of any other existence, but at first their efforts, as a nation, were calling. rather that of separate individuals exerting them- Here we would especially claim the attention of selves in a good cause, but soon the necessity of our English clergy to one fact which, in our opinion, organisation and centralisation became apparent, does their American brethren the greatest credit. and several societies were established which at last Although the clerical portion of the committee ap- Christian Work, Feb. 1, 1865.] 61

pears to be made up of different sects, not a particle the chaplains and medical officers: The head- of sectarianism can be detected in any of the volu- quarters of the Commission were established in • minous reports and docimients before us. They • New York. liave marched to their duty—Presbyterians, Con- No sooner was the Commission established, and gregation alists and Episcopalians — shoulder to its objects known, than it excited the greatest shoulder, having before them two only motives of interest in all parts of the Union, and meetings action—the love of God and the welfare of their were held in Washington, Boston, Philadelphia, brethren at the seat of war. Xor is the lay element and all the principal towns, carrying resoluiions to its one jot more prejudiced ; they seem actuated by support objects, and forming committees for the

exactly the same reasons which brought from their purpose of co-operation ; and so successfid has been pulpits and congregations their spiritual teachers. the experiment of this combination of good works Another feature should also be noticed and with pure theology, that the Committees of Com- retained in the memory of all Protestants— the mission at present reach from the Atlantic to the power of their clergy in the promotion and organisa- Pacific, from New York to CaHfomia. tion of good works. The Catholics speak with most A description of the obligations imposed on the justifiable pride of the influence of their priesthood members of the United States Christian Com- in teaching the necessity of such acts, and not un- mission, especially those on the delegates at the frequently have pointed at the weaker power of the seat of war, will perhaps somewhat surprise the

Protestant clergy ; but here we have a proof how English reader. In the first place they must expect far the reformed creed can go in works of general no remuneration either for their ser^nces or loss of

j utility when the necessity for their exretion is called time from their private affairs. The delegates, into action. before proceeding to the seat of war, have placed in

In no Roman Catholic country can be quoted a their hands a description of the duties they v^ jll be mission of mercy in point of magnitude equal to ' called upon to perform, and we are certain the

that at present to be seen in America. If, in Eug- ! reader will admit they are such as the hypocrite or land, good works are less developed among the Pro- the idler would not engage in. Visiting hospitals,

j

i testants than among the Roman Catholics in proper- under the direction of the surgeons ; distributing tion to their numbers, and which with regret we stores where needed circulating good pubKcations | ;

are inclined to believe, it arises infinitely more from among the soldiers and sailors ; aiding chaplains in j

the inertness of our spiritual teachers than from their ministrations ; encouraging special meetings

j

any lack of latent charity in the breasts of the Pro- for prayer ; helping soldiers and sailors to com-

testant laity. We know perfectly weU that the municate freely with their friends, and writing I

exertions of the clergy in America have on more their letters for them when sick or woimded ; and than one occasion been animadverted on severely, especially in aiding siirgeons on the battle-field in and in our opinion most unjustly, by certain por- the kind care and removal of the wounded, gi%'ing tions of the English press, and quotations from them food, and drink, and everything needed to speeches inserted, stated to have been uttered by mitigate suffering and assist recovery, or if dying, them, which would have been less objectionable in point them with prayer to Jesus, and give them the mouths of military officers. Admitting them to Christian burial. In short, striving to do all that be true, although we sincerely believe them to have man can do to meet the wants of brethren far from

been exaggerated, we may fairly ask if, in case of a home and kindred. national war, our own divines might not be found The delegates to the seat of war are divided into occasionally tripping in the same way from an ex- three classes—those to the field, to the hospitals, cess of patriotism. Again we have carefully and to the battle-ground. The duties of the first examined the reports and papers before us con- appear in a great measure to be clerical, they assist nected with the Commission, and we can say with the chaplains in their duties, read to the soldiers, perfect truth we have not found one expression organise Bible classes, and other work of the same uttered or written by any of the clergy engaged in description. The delegates to the hospitals, in it incompatible with the character of a Christian addition to spiritual duties under the instructions minister of religion. of the official chaplain, act as nurses and dressers, The movement which forms the subject of our having strict orders in all matters at all influ- paper originated at a convention of delegates encing the recovery of patients, that the surgeon's from different Young Men's Christian Associations instructions shoidd be sought for and implicitly held iu the city of New York, November 16th, obeyed. But the most arduous duties of the

1861 ; and a niunber of members of all classes of Christian Commission are those assigned to the society, comprising among them a large proportion battle-ground. The moderate amount of house or of the clerg>', merchants, lawyers, and medical tent accommodation afforded them in hospital duties men from different parts of the Union were ap- at these times is generally wanting. Their orders

. pointed as a United States Christian Commission. are here most explicit from the head-quarters of the Its object was to promote the spiritual and tem- Conmiission that in no impediment less than the poral welfare of the officers and men of the battle-field having fallen into the hands of the United States army and navy in co-operation with enemy may stop them in their duties. They, first, — "— — —

62 THE UNITED STA TES CHRISTIAN COMMISSION. [Christian AVork, Feb. i, ms.

are simply directly or indirectly to assist the Jesus, his death, his love, and I then raised my surgeons. They are especially charged not to ofifer voice in prayer. As soon as the sound of prayer

spiritual consolation till they have given physical went out on the night air over those thousands of help. Their duties may be in some sort judged by wounded men, every moan and groan was hushed, a description of their uniform and accoutrements. and amidst the most profound and solemn silence I They consist beyond uniform coarse clotlies, of a prayed for that soul so soon to meet its Judge, aud

badge inscribed on it, United States Christian for all who were near us. After prayer, a lady Commission, a blanket and strap, a havresack, sang a hymn most sweetly." containing a towel and soap, biscuits, aud dried The following description of a field hospital was beef, with other stores for private use, and to gis^e written by the Rev. C. H. Richards, himself a to the wounded, a bucket to carry water or cofiee delegate, the day of the mine explosion and bloody

in, and a cup to serve it out to the disabled, stimu- repulse before Petersburg :

lants with beef tea in cakes, and a small lantern, What was the legitimate lousiness at such a time ? candles, and matches, for night work, aud a small It was, as always, to imitate his Divine Master. Bible to use with the dying and in burying the Accordingly the delegates worked with untiring zeal dead, a w^arm under-shirt, strong easy slices or in mitigating the bodily distresses and sufferings of boots, and a soft cap, and, in conclusion, they are these brave men. Some twenty-five or thirty ear-

' requested to show ' a heroism not inferior to that nest, faithful men, laboured at the field-hospital of which charges to the cannon's mouth, but to the ninth and eighteenth corps, through all the heat conquer imder the Banner of the Cross, and take of that long day, and rendered most effective service. captives for Jesus. Here was a divine with his coat off, aud sleeves The number of Christian ministers and laymen tucked up, tenderly cutting off the clotted gar- j in 1SG.3 by this societ}^, to minister ments from a wounded limb, and bathing it with commissioned 1 to men in battle-lields, in camjis, hospitals, and almost a mother's care. There kuelt another clos- j

ships, was 1207, and this irrespective of extraneoiis ing the eyes of one who had just died, and clipping I aid on particular occasions. The Maryland com- from his brow the lock of hair to be sent home with

j effects, as a memorial for his friends to cherish. mittee alone sent to the seat of war 90 non-official his i delegates, almost all of whom were ladies. Yonder passes a delegate with a pail of ice-cold Let us now glance at the sort of duty imposed on lemonade, or milk-punch, and here comes one with these ladies, clergy, and laymen, acting as delegates some canteens full of water for parched lips and

of the " Commission ;" perhaps the best idea wiU aching wounds. Thank God for water ! It is the be formed by quoting verbatim the words of the prime necessity at such a time, and he who gives a in of is Rev. Mr, Sloane writing from York Town ; he cup of cold water the name the Lord here

says : doubly blessed. "Those who have laboured in this noble cause Nor do the duties of these gentlemen, when en- less have found that far more is to be done than talk- gaged in the hospitals, appear much onerous, as I publications, and praying. the following extracts from a letter written by the I ing, distributing They will show. It is dated have to nurse, dress wounds, strip ofi" filthy gar- Rev. Henry Henries from the ments, wash the blood and dust of hard fights aud No. 3 divisional hospital at Annapolis ; hard marches from helpless soldiers, cleanse them '* The capacity of this hospital is about 2000, from vermin, and put upon them clean and cora- occupyiug the buildings and grounds of the naval fortable clothing, dig graves for the dead, lift aud school. The quarters of the midshipmen and offi- I open boxes, make wearisome visits on foot, sleep cers are now used as wards for the sick aud wounded, or floor, or bags, or boxes, and here in elegant apartments may be found the on the ground, and often j { work from daylight until midnight or all night long brave and noble defenders of our common country I little to with little to eat except dry bread or bisciuts, and and flag. . . . As to my own work, have tried to do duty, but the field has meat without cooking." say ; I have my I Many of the rei^orts and letters of the clergy act- been so large that, at times, there have been feel- I discouragement come over me. am , ' ing as delegates, are exceedingly graphic, and we ings of utter much regret our space will not allow us to give the on duty from early morn until late at night, and extracts we w^oidd. A few must suffice. The Rev. am at the call of the sick and dying at all hom-s of j

of three men. i Mr. Boulty writes : the night. I have at least the work , alone is enough to keep one ' " correspondence After labouring all day among the wounded at The j

Antietam, and the roar of cannon with shell above more than busy. While I write, there are more 1 I than fifty letters before me unanswered—letters I and aroimd us, about 11 o'clock at night lay on the ground completely exhausted, in the midst of and telegrams of inquiry coming from all parts of acres of wounded around me, to get some rest. I the coimtry, in reference to the living and the dead. had just fallen asleep when I was aroused by the It will be remembered, that all parolled prisoners passage, request to visit a dying soldier who desired to see from Richmond are here, some die on their days, or weeks, me. I went and found him lying in a waggon others reach us but to linger for frequently had two evidently near his end, and desiring to know the and then pass away. I have unfrequently, bury three way to Christ. As briefly as I coidd I spoke of funerals a day, and, not Chmtian Work. Feb. 1, 1865.] THE UNITED STA TES CHRISTIAN COMMISSION. 63

or four at a time. I am happy to say that the We stated that no difference was made by the

| in a CTiristian Commission between friends and foes, let burial services of our dead are now conducted \ effect of manner which must prove highly satisfactory to 1 us now see what has been the their labours the friends of those who fall in our midst. The on the minds of those who a short time before were | services are performed in the chapel, in the presence their most deadly enemies. One example must

j of the medical officer of the day, escort, and fre- suffice. It is taken, perhaps, from that portion of j

quently a large number of soldiers." i the seat of war which has shown the most deter-

But although the delegates to the seat of war are i mined hostility to the Federal armies, the prisoners unpaid for their labours, they by no means go there taken before Eichmond. It will be shown by a

| on the contrary, it would, perhaps, memorandimi sent by the prisoners to the Confe- empty-handed ; ; be impossible to find men more liberally supplied, derate Government at Richmond, and dated from |

especially when the distance their stores have to ! the depot for prisoners, Johnson's Island, near

: be carried is taken into consideration. Again, it Sandusky, Ohio, October 31st, 1863 — I \ should be remembered that the funds required for " The imdersigned prisoners of war at Johnson's

| the purchase of these stores, and the duty of collect- Island do hereby certify that by their personal

j

ing and forwarding them to their destination, have \ knowledge and experience, the delegates of the all to be doce by an unpaid agency. The task United States Christian Commission, in their Chris- of providing and collecting the funds for the pur- tian efforts to relieve the sick and wounded of the \ various fields, pose has been thrown on the Young Men's Christian ; battle make no difference or discri- Associations in the different towns assisting in the mination between the contending parties, relieving movement, and well and honourably have they alike the sufferings and wants of the Confederate carried out their self-imposed duties. By the and Federal men aud officers, and we therefore sin- j

Second Annual Keport of the Transactions of the 1 cerely trust that the authorities of Richmond and Christian Commission, published in Philadelphia, elsewhere will treat any of said , the delegates that April, 1864, we find that in 1863, alone, these may fall into their hands with the kindness justly

committees collected the enormous sum of 358,239 I due to them, and grant them a speedy return to

dollars ; Boston alone contributing no less than their Christian work." 78,000 dollars of the amount. The memorandimi was signed by sixty Confe- It must not be imagined that sum comprises the derate officers, among them eleven colonels. Might whole amount spent by the Christian Commission in not such a victory as this be chronicled among the aid of the sick and wounded that year. Besides highest of the brilliant achievements of the war? the hard cash named, they received as presents, At Fort Delaware the exertions of the delegates

stores to the value of 385,829 dollars, which "v\-ith were crowned with equal success. The island con- railway accommodation (and it should be noticed to tains but seventy-five acres, and on it were confined the honour of the railway companies, they afforded no fewer than 11,000 prisoners, all in a state of free passes to the delegates of the Commission and utter destitution. These were clothed, fed, and their stores), reached a total of 916,000 dollars. comforted both physically and spiritually by the To go into detail of the different class of stores delegates. Unfortunately space vnW. not allow us sent by the Christian Commission to the seat of to do more than glance at an admii'ably written

' I war, would far exceed our limits ; but a slight letter of the Rev. Wm. Paddock, chaplain in the

notice of their distribution for the months of May, United States army, bearing testimony to the exer- 1 I

June, and Jidy of the present year to the army tions of the Christian Commission : — j of the Potomac alone, may assist the reader in " This mass of humanity, as truly named by the

j forming an idea of the charitable Rev. Dr. Braiuerd, was poured in exertions of the upon us all at I committees, not only for the once in the heat of summer, before the Union soldiers, but Government | the sick and wounded prisoners in could properly prepare for their reception. Full their liands, | for no distinction is made between friend or enemy, of the bruise of battle, thousands of them com- —-to reUeve suffering humanity generally being the pletely broken in spirit and constitution, unwilling sole object of their endeavours. The list comprises and unable for the most part to take exercise, what no fewer than 196 articles. Among them we find wonder is it that our temporary hospital was soon 14,760 shirts, 10,439 drawers, 11,500 socks, 1809 lbs. crowded to overflowing. At great expense, work-

! of tea, 7004 lbs. of coffee, chocolate, and cocoa, 4543 ing day and night, the Government erected a spa- hams, 8800 lbs. of assorted dried meats, 5548 cans cious hospital It has 800 beds, and is as com- of preserved turkeys, 6350 lbs. of beef tea in pletely and comfortably arranged as any of our cakes, 38,290 cans of preserved milk, 28,266 boxes hospitals in Philadelphia. The service, both tem- of biscuits, 12,564 cans of jellies, 3910 gallons of poral and spiritual, of this hospital has been greatly assorted pickles, 12,215 bottles of fruit syrup, 18, 178 assisted hy the Revs, Holman of Connecticut, Gas- cans of tomatoes, 15,600 of assorted fruits, 297 ton of Ohio, Merrell of Maine, Bradford of Penn- tons of ice, 3150 cans of peaches, 35,389 rolls of sylvania, with many others both lay and clerical. bandages, 24,302 quires of paper, 468,290 envelopes, The day of Judgment alone will reveal the worth 708 mosquito nets, 4920 house-wives, and 656 cases of the great missionary work of the Christian Com- of assorted hospital stores. mission here. That it disarms our enemies more —

64 MEDICAL MISSIONS. [Christian Work, Teb. 1, 1865.

than the weapons of our national warfare, we daily- York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, have all re-

hear ; and it was the first fruits of a good work turned their quota. From the last mentioned is now going on, the present value of which is three- the celebrated Mrs. Dr. Harris, a name we may score souls dedicated to Christ." predict which hereafter will not only be a house- It may be said that we have dwelt far too little hold word of honour in America, but in all civilised in our paper on the exertions of the delegates for nations as well. • the spiritual welfare of the sick and wounded, and We cannot take leave of the subject of the at too great length on the temporal. The accusa- United States Christian Commission without point- tion may possibly be true, but it arises less from ing out an extraordinary problem their committees want of interest in our subject than space placed at and delegates are solving, " That the success of our disposition. Probably on a future occasion we Roman Catholic missions, whether for the increase

may go more deeply into that question ; at present of their religion, or for good works, is weakened by we can offer but a short, though most conclusive, the practice and obligation of celibacy." Never proof, that the exertions of the delegates have been has this unnatural fallacy been in greater danger

as noble for the spiritual welfare of the army, navy than it now is. America is proving that so far and prisoners, as the temporal. In the year 1863 from the efforts of missionaries being deadened by they distributed 465,715 copies of the Scriptures, the ties of families, the Christian Commission shows 371,859 hymn and psalm books, 1,254,591 knapsack that by the simple effect of co-operation they are books, 39,713 library books, 120,492 magazines vastly increased. The vdie at home assists the and pamphlets, 2,931,469 religious newspapers, husband at the seat of war, or if engaged %vith her, 11,976,722 pages of tracts. as frequently happens, on the battle ground itself, In a recent number of Christian Woek we theii- mutual aid greatly augments their efficiency, brought under the notice of its readers the admir- either in tending the sick or administering religious able behaviour of the American ladies in assuaging consolation to the wounded or dying. Again, that

the miseries caused by the war ; unfortunately we freedom of friendly intercourse between the un- cannot now, beyond a few remarks, again return to married male and female delegates, without the

the subject, although we omit it with regret, as it slightest fear of slander, or the necessity of the con- would be impossible in the whole range of human fessional, aids immensely in increasing their power. enterprise to find anything more worthy of honour- That the Koman Catholics are energetic, conscien- able publicity. Their kind offices are continued tious, and courageous, we readily admit, but a mis- I with the same energy courage sionary system, such as is at the present day estab- I and we before men- tioned, while their numl)ers appear rather to in- lished in America at the seat of war, would far crease than to diminish as the war advances. We exceed the most noble and strenuous efforts of the do not know a more interesting work than a collec- Romanists. We sincerely trust that, when the war tion of episodes of these ladies' adventures woidd is ended, the present organisation of the Christian make. ^lany of them, from the courage and en- Commission will not be allowed to die out. Let it durance they have shown, deserve to be recorded be kept alive with only a hundredth part of the

among the heroes of their nation ; nor is it likely energy, after the war, it has shown during its dura-

that a people with the unaffected gallantry of the tion ; let its efforts be turned to the welfare of the Americans towards women, will fail to do them jus- heathen, and a success will attend them greater tice. These ladies have been recruited from all the than any which have hitherto followed missionary principal cities of the Union. Washington, New labours.

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

In this number we give extracts from letters active, promising youths ; and with these young which show wliat is doing in several parts of the men as assistants, I indulge the hope of seeing, in foreign field by medical missionaries already known the covirse of two or three years, a Branch Mission to the readers of Christian Work. Mr. Lowe, of Dispensary at each of the home stations, or in some Travancore, is so impressed with the necessity of of the large heathen towns in each of our mission providing medical, and especially surgical, aid for districts in South Travancore. We will then have the population, that he contemplates the training of an aggressive agency at work among the surround- native Christian assistants, who may afterwards ing heathen, which I doubt not, with God's bless- take charge of branch dispensaries under his own ing will be productive of great and glorious re-

eye, and so be the means of doing good both to the sults. Setting aside the chief object toe have in i

bodies and souls of many whom, without sucli help, view in training these young men, the claims of i he could hardly expect to reach. He writes as humanity are here sufficiently strong to urge us to j

follows : use every effort to raise up among the people, men |

' " I have enrolled seven young men as students, who know something of disease and its proper treat- all of intelligent, ment, and who will supplant that worse than use- them weU educated in English, — j — J " — —

Christian Work, Feb- 1, 1865. MEDICAL MISSIONS. 65 less class of men, * native physicians, who, though continued for a month or two, when gradually they they make great pretensions, know actually no- began to drop away, until they d^^indled down to thing except how to rob their deluded patients." two or three, among whom was one whose face was Mr. Lowe then adduces several terrible illustra- never missed—whose thoughtful face and pertinent tions of the injuries inflicted within his own questions showed he was drinking in the word of knowledge by these pretenders, and goes on to life. A few weeks ago, he had a confession to say: make— as he expressed it—which was, that he had

*' These instances, which I could greatly multiply, by the strength of God resolved to break olf from I call upon us loudly to do what we can to raise up his old worship and declare himseK on the side of

' from among the natives themselves a respectable, Christ. He is, as I already mentioned, an earnest intelligent class of men instructed in the principles inquirer. In all this let us mark the hand of God.

and experienced in the practice of European medi- I Our first convert was one of the highest caste cine and surgery. In entering upon this work, I Brahmins ; through him the most philosophical look to the Lord for the means, the strength, the Hindu heathenism received a severe blow. Our two wisdom, and the help I need. last, the Jogi and the weaver, belonged to a secret Mr. Colin S. Valentine mentions some interesting heathen sect of great extent. Each of these have cases of conversion, springing, to all appearance, hundreds of disciples in Marwar, Mairwarra and j out of medical mission work, which are fitted to Meywar. Through these men, these sects have re- I strengthen the hands and encourage the hearts of ceived another and most deadly blow." j

all faithful labourers in the same field :

**A Jogi (a religious man who wanders about In the August Number of last year we gave some I over the country begging and making disciples) for account of Mr. Vartan of Nazareth, and published more than twenty years had been visiting all the an interesting letter, in which he showed the great

holy places in Rajputana, and many in Guzerat, i desirableness of his having accommodation for

&c. He was one of those few who reaUy thought ' patients from a distance. He again takes up the

about something more than how he could live a ' subject and makes it clear that a good nurse and a

lazy life, and had, in his own way, been really an ! single room, with the needful appliances, would inquirer. Li the course of his wanderings he had almost satisfy him as a beginning. His ideas are I often occasion to be in Bea^T, and came in contact extremely moderate, his means are very limited, !

with one of our converts in the Mairwarra local ! and his faith appears to be strong. We are confi- I

battalion. From him he heard of Jesus Christ as ' dent that a small sum bestowed for the object he

the Saviour of sinners. At once he said, 1 have ! has in view, upon one so zealous in his Saviour's

' ! found one who can be my Saviour ; he who is cause, so intelligent, so able as a professional man,

himself sinless ; he who is God and man in one, and so full of real benevolence, would be the means can draw me a poor sinner from the pit into of conferring a large amount of benefit upon the \ which I have fallen. I wiQ no more put faith in souls as well as the bodies of many poor people. It j avatars (incarnations of the Hindu gods). I must will be very lamentable if a British surgeon who I learn more of the Lord Jesus Christ. Stripping him- understands the language of his patients, and pos- j seK, the following day, of all his heathen orna- sesses so many other qualifications for being useful, ments and charms, and placing them in my own shall be denied the small pecuniary aid which he

hands, he said : 'I have parted from these things needs, in a place surrounded by memories of the for ever ; teach me how I can obtain salvation most sacred kind, —the very town where our Lord through this sinless avatar, Jesus Christ.' He Jesus was subject unto his parents, increasing in and his wife are now under regular instruc- wisdom and stature, and in favour -with God and tion, with a view to receiving baptism. An- man. But we shall allow him to state his owa i

other inquirer, who is also under instruction, with case : a view to baptism, is an old weaver in the city of *' My hospital is simply a room, and nothing Nya Nuggur. When I first came to Beawr the more. I have set it apart for such patients as come cholera broke out in the city. As is always the from a great distance, having no friends to accom-

case, the poor, ill-clad, ill-fed people first ill, faU modate them, hoping that it wUl prove by and by I — so was it with the poor weavers. I was verj- the germ of a good, small hospital. I have hitherto much with them, j and God blessed the remedies asked from each patient that he provide for himself, i applied. Since then I have been a good deal in and be attended by a friend or relative of his own. their families, and have spoken with them often Each and all promised to do so on their a(1 mis- and earnestly about their souls." sion, but could not keep their promise ; and even " Some four months ago, there was a great spiri- if some could provide the absolute necessiries tual awakening amongst them, resembling more the for their maintenance, the mode of their own revivals that took place in our own beloved Scot- living and fearfully dirty habits would have been land a few years ago, than anything else I have ever entirely inconsistent with a succcssfid issue of seen. The whole caste turned out to our preach- their cases. My means, at the same time, were such ings forty or fifty ; men and women came to our wor- that I could only assist to save them from starvation ship dady at the bungalow. This state of matters and dangers that their disease might have threat- III —5. 66 MEDICAL IIISSIONS. [Christian Work, Feb. 1, 1865, ened. The reason of my having such a beginning, particular, which has compelled him, much against as yon may imagine, was, that I was anxious to get his desire, to decline numerous cases from a distance, a small hospital established for the poor of Naza- Mr. Vartan mentions that he was lately meditating reth, and of its neighbouring villages, as well as of what arrangements could be made for a poor Moslem the Bedouin Arabs, and at the same time, I had female requiring amputation of her foot, when his nothing in my hand, neither courage enough to ask servant, a young married man, volunteered to un- others. Now as I have some experience in dealing dertake the very part of nursing which others had

' with the people here, knowledge of the extent of declined. He adds : ' this act of my servant, if the field, the numerous sufferers therein and their he do properly, with the help of an old woman in need of Christian charity, I take courage to ask my lighter things, will facilitate the management of my Christian friends to extend a little help towards the poor hospital, and it will bear, I hope, a better establishment of a small but complete hospital. I aspect hereafter. I shall also take all the expense mean by complete, of course, that it should have a upon myself, and be strict in rules. But as my good Christian nurse, be furnished simply, and the means at present (about 24/. ) are so little, I think necessary provision for the maintenance of the I cannot take more than one patient at a time. So, inmates secured. I can hardly estimate the amount God willing, the poor woman above-mentioned will of good to be expected from such an institution, be my first patient as soon as the house and its and in such a place, where, besides giving the in- furniture is properly arranged." mates the comfort of good European treatment, of Contributions for the various objects of the which they are utterly ignorant, daily lessons of Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society will be re- the blessed Gospel can be communicated to their ceived in London, by Mr. James Watson (Messrs. minds under the most favourable circumstances, Nisbet & Co. ), 21, Berners Street, W. ; or by Messrs. even to those of the wildest Bedouin Arabs." After Fuller, Banbury, Mathieson, & Co., 77, Lombard dwelling at considerable length, upon the extreme Street , in Edinburgh, by Dr. Omoud, 43, Charlotte repugnance which the natives, even females, have to Square. the duties of an attendant upon surgical cases in "

Christian Work, Feb. 1, 1865.] LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS. 67

LETTEES

PROM THE COEKESPONDENTS

OF "CHRISTIAN WORK."

above fifteen, there were seven communicants and eleven church-goers. The week of prayer appointed for the first days The Rev. Henry Venn, Secretary of the Church of the New Year was celebrated as usual by prayer- Missionary Society, treated the subject in its bear- meetings in many parts of the city of London, and ing on missions to the un-Christianized populations the other cities and towns of England. The prin- of the world, whether idolators, Jews, or Moham- cipal meeting at Freemasons' Hall, which was at- medans. He thus regarded the vastness— of the tended by a large number, was addressed by well- field and the method to be pursued : "One single known ministers and laymen of different churches, fact will show the impossibility of evangelizing the and the feeling pervading it was excellent. heathen world by the agency of European or Ame- The Islington Clerical Meeting, which is held rican missionaries. Transplant the whole clergy of annually, has been attended this year by about England into China, place them as they are placed 250 of the clergy. The chair was taken by the Rev. here, so many clergymen to so many immortal

Daniel Wilson, and the subject for consideration souls, and what would be the consequence ? You - was, " Is the Church of England duly fulfilling her would have occupied just one 200th part of the office as a Missionary Church ? " In treating of this population of China. 199 out of 200 parts would topic, Mr. Wilson referred to the smallness of the have been unsupplied, even if every clergyman in whole amount of missionary contributions, as com- England had migrated to China. WTiat, then, is pared with the resources of the country. The the real object of missionary societies under the

Chancellor of the Exchequer had stated the im- present dispensation ? It is not to spread their ports and exports at a million and a half a day, missionaries over a whole country, but to esta- while the whole contribution of the members of blish in each district, and especially where there the Church of England to the four great mis- are separate languages, a self-supporting self-go- sionary societies, the Propagation, the Church verning, self-extending native Church. And what Missionary, the Jews, and the Colonial, was is the duty of the mother Church towards such

250,000/. The Eev. C. D. Marstou discussed the native daughter Churches ? It is, first, to keep up subject of Home Missions. The Rev. Edward the spiritual standard in such churches ; and then, Hoare considered the missionary question in re- secondly, to secure for those churches a sound lation to small towns and villages. ' ' In towns theology, with all the advantages which in this generally there was, among the working popula- country and in the English language so greatly tion, a most painful abstinence from attendance on abound." He gave the following statistical view public worship. Last week he collected a few facts of the increase of membership in the missions of

in his own parish, and he gave them with sorrow. the Church Society during the last twenty years : In a district comprising forty-two persons above "The number of communicants was in 1845 over fifteen years of age, there was but one communi- 9000 ; in 1865 they may be reckoned 24,000, in- cant, and there were but two regular church-goers, cluding those who have been transferred to the where there was a kind, devoted Christian lady, care of stated pastors, both European and native, labouring zealously ; out of sixty-two persons above in Sierra Leone, the West Indies, and New Zealand. fifteen, there were but two communicants and seven This is indeed in itself a great fact, that at least

regular church-goers ; in another district, with forty- 150,000 souls should have been brought into the three persons above fifteen, there was one commu- visible fold of Christ." He defended in conclusion nicant, and there were only three regtdar church- the principle of the selection of its agents by the

goers ; and in another, with sixty -four persons Church Missionary Society. "Twenty years ago — ;

G8 LETTERS FROM CORRESPOND£!NTS. [Christian work. Feb. 1, 1865.

the charge against the Church Missionary Society had done. First, he was convinced that it was for was that it was no Church Society. I was myself the interests of the Church to take the liberal and that it at some pains to draw up a paper to show just course ; and, secondlj^, he would say that he, was a true Church Society. iS'ow the attack is from as a public man for many years, had done all that

an opposite quarter ; and because we are a Church lay within his poor power to aid in bringing about Society we are reproached with the charge of a a state of things in England by which the blessings sectional spirit in the selection of our men, and of education should be brought to every door, how- that we do not send out a fair proportion of various ever humble or remote, and he was convinced that kinds of ministers found in the Church at home. whatever they did to accomplish this, all their la- They are said to be all of one hue. We are charged bour would be in vain unless they could find some with exacting tests of doctrine narrower than the solution to the religious differences which up to the doctrine of our Church. To such charges—if they present time had been the great impediment to the deserve the name of charges—we reply that we progress of education. In conclusion he moved, take the best men who ofiFer to us according to the ' That in the opinion of this Meeting the rules of standard fixed by the fathers and founders of our the Board ought to be revised, so as to enable all Society—a standard confirmed by the practical ex- Church schools within the archdeaconry which are perience of every year in the mission -field as com- in need of assistance to benefit by its grants, qualifications can win souls or liave I prising the only which whether they have not accepted the con- " to Christ. Our standard we proclaim in all our science clause. ' — Sir John's motion was lost by a publications. We seek men who have so felt the large majority. constraining love of Christ as to be weaned by it Considerable interest has been excited by the from the love of this woiid, and to be willing to abduction of a girl by the " fathers " of the

spend and be spent for Him ; men who know what BromptoQ Oratory, contrary to the wish of her true conversion of the soul is by personal experience, mother. The mother applied to Mr. Selfe, the ma- and can testify to others that they have found the gistrate, who was permitted to see the girl at his pearl of great price. It is by no formula of doctrine house, when she protested that she acted of her that we judge, but by the spirit of the men." own will and wished to return to the retreat from The Bishop of Huron gave an account of the which she had been taken. The "fathers" have state of his diocese, and a number of others present used every means to blacken the character of the took part in the proceedings. The whole was con- mother, who is said to be dying from grief, but the cluded by a sermon from Canon Miller, on the text, whole case will be carefully sifted and the truth "He that watereth shall be watered also himself." undoubtedly elicited.

, Sir John S. Pakington has spoken in a very liberal A shop has been opened in Norwich, says the Bury spirit at the annual meeting of the Worcester Archi- Post, for the sale of all sorts of things required for diaconal Board of Education, met to discuss the setting up monasteries—viz., vestments, church fur- Conscience Clause lately introduced by the Com- niture, statuettes, crucifixes, rosaries, and crosses, mittee of Council on Education. The meeting was incense at Qs. per lb., &c. How much patronage presided over by the Bishop of Winchester. The the proprietor is likely to get remains to be proved following is an extract. but the fact of such an establishment being opened "Was it to be considered that the education of would indicate that ecclesiastical affairs in Norwich the children of Dissenters was a matter, not of right must be "tending Rome- ward." and justice, but of favour on the part of the clergy- We have been requested by Dr. Gather, the

man of the parish in which the school was ? And, secretary of the Systematic Beneficence Society, to above all, were the Dissenters to feel that a different publish the following letter sent to a number of

measure was dealt out in diflferent parishes ; in one ministers : parish the clergyman, by grace and favour, admit- " Proposal for Simultaneous Sermons (with- ting the Dissenting child to the school, while in the out collections) on the 29th January, or

adjoining one, perhaps, he was excluded ? That THE 5th February, 1865.

was the definition which he made of the question ; "Dear Sir,— The first week in January has and he thought they could not hesitate as to which been proposed by the Evangelical Alliance as a of the alternatives they should choose. His (Sir season for united prayer—for all the wants of the John's) conscience told him that as a matter of Church and woes of the world. charity, as a matter of justice, as a matter of policy " The last Sunday in January or the first in Feb- in reference to the interests of the country, they ruary is hereby suggested by the Systematic Bene- were bound to take the side which he had chosen. ficence Society as a suitable time for simultaneous He had been asked why he, as a member of the sermons on Scriptural Beneficence. Established Church, appeared as champion of those " The combination of these Christian virtues (see whd differed from him in religion, and his answer Acts X. 4) is so acceptable to God, and so profit-

was ah easy and a simple one. Irrespective of the able to man (Malachi iii. 10, 11), that we surely grounds of abstract justice and right, by which the need not apologise for asking your cordial co-opera- conduct of every public man ought to be regulated, tion in bringing it about to a much larger extent he had two main grounds for taking the course he than yet prevails amongst us. ... ' '

Christian Work, Feb.l, 1865 ] LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS. 69

"We shall be much obliged by yoiir letting us of topics—for the two sermons on Systematic Bene- I

' ; know on what Sunday, and on what text you ficence, viz, , 1. Money may be a bad thing

* preach, and to what number of hearers, that we II. Money may be put to an excellent use. ' One may be able to embody all this in a summary form might be discussed on the 29th January, and the

in the next number of the ' Benefactor.' other on the 5th February. For illustration of "On behalf of the committee, the theme see also first-rate article in the January

' ' ' Robert G. Gather, General Secretary, number of the Sunday Magazine. "R. G. C. "P.S. —In his capital book 'Money,' just out, "High Street, Oxford Road, MSnchester, the Rev, T. Binney has an admirable distribution "29th December, 1864."

The Protestant AUiance have published the following statistics showing the progress of Romanism

in Great Britain, in the last fifteen years :

Churches and Religious Houses Colleges. Priests. Convents. Chapels. of Men.

Xame of Pretended d

Til APPQP p

Increase. Increase. o lO Increase. o o o Increase. CO CO CO 0 CO 00 x> GO CO 00 00 CO CO

England : 69 116 61 90 29 1 6 2 19 17 1 1 124 82 100 18 6 3 (dec, 13 27 14 Birmingham . 141 17 3) 1 1 49 62 13 31 49 18 2 3 1 5 13 8 2 1 (dec. 1) 70 99 29 51 81 30 1 1 2 11 9 1 1 Liverpool 113 193 80 79 110 31 5 5 1 26 24 1 1 22 47 25 18 42 24 3 3 6 6 36 10 'i 5 4 Northampron . 27 31 4 26 *2 '2 *2 Nottingham .... 53 59 6 42 52 10 3 "b 4 5 1 25 34 9 28 35 7 1 (dec, 1) 5 8 3 Salford 61 107 46 35 70 35 1 "d 4 1 14 13 'i i Shrewsbury .... 33 71 38 30 59 29 3 3 1 7 6 1 "i South wark .... 67 147 80 57 100 43 i 9 8 9 16 7 2 15 Westminster . 113 214 101 46 117 71 13 9 31 22 'i *i Bishops 17 17

Total in England 826 1338 512 586 941 355 17 58 41 53 187 134 10 10

Scotland : Eastern 29 57 28 25 64 39 6 6 1 1 32 29 (dec. 3.) 25 36 11 3 3 i (dec. 1) 51 93 42 47 91 44 5 5 *i 1 Bishops 4 4

Total in Scotland 112 183 71 97 191 94 14 14 1 2 1 Total in Great \ 938 1621 583 683 1132 U9| 17 58 41 53 201 148 11 12 1

A testimonial fund having been recently raised restore them has been most liberally responded to for Dr. John Campbell, the editor of the BritWi by persons of different Churches who seem to re- Standard, well-known among the Congregationalists gard the great Indian missionary as their common as a leader of what may be termed the Conservative property. It is to be hoped that, through his influ- section as regards theology, a numerous company, ence, and that of Dr. Murray Mitchell and presided over by Lord Shaftesbury, recently as- others, the missionary spirit, which had somewhat sembled to present it. The amount raised from abated in Scotland in recent years, may be much persons of diSerent denominations has been 3000Z., revived. besides a sum of 500/. given by Congregationalists A decision of considerable import, as indicating alone. the sentiment of the country, has been come to on London, January, 1865. behalf of the stoppage of Sunday goods trains —the Chamber of Commerce of Edinburgh, composed of men of all parties, having decided by a majority of between twenty and thirty against four, in favour The advantage of the presence of Dr. Duff, late of of the following resolution: — "That, -wathout re- Calcutta, to the missionary cause, has recently been ference to the running of Sunday passenger trains made most apparent. The premises of the Free on railways—a question that does not properly fall Church mission, which he had so long and ably su- within the competency of a commercial association perintended, having been almost totally destroyed —the Chamber strongly disapprove the systematic by the late hurricane, an appeal made for a fund to running of goods trains on the Sabbath-day, and 70 LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS. [Christian "Work. Feb. 1, 1865. til at this resolution be communicated to railway and this object has been prosecuted with remark- companies in Scotland, and corresponding Cham- able energy, wisdom, and success. Ireland has bers of Commerce." Mr, Duncan ]\I'Laren stated been educated for the last thirty years ; and a that many were entirely opposed to Sunday larger proportion of children pass through its traffic of this kind, who did not object on the schools than in Great Britain. A reading power principle that the Jewish Sabbath had been incor- has thus been acquired ; and it is of vital import- j porated w^th the Christian system. Meetings have ance to foster and direct a reading taste. The I been held on this subject in various parts of the press supplies the healthiest and most attractive ' country— one, very large and important, in Perth. literature at the cheapest rate ; the Society seeks A deputation has waited upon the directors of to introduce this literature to the homes of work- the Jforth British Railway, and presented 198 ing men. Books to the number of 64,136 and memorials from public in Scot- periodicals towns and bodies 367,752 were sold last year for 3627/. ; land. and each year there is a demand for publications The organ movement is making rapid progress, of a higher character. The missionary aspect of | especially in the Established Church. Dr. Nor- the Society, through its colporteurs, presents i man ilacleod has just opened a district church features of the greatest interest ; and there is no with an organ in Anderston, Glasgow. In Ayr, sign of the country so healthy as the rapid growth '

Greenock, and other towns, it is intended soon to of this Association, and the welcome with which i introduce organs, while congregations in some other its efforts have been met by the people. i towns are beginning with harmoniums. Another philanthropic body has also presented A sad gloom has been cast over Edinburgh by its annual report in Belfast —the Ulster Society for the recent loss of life at the burning of the the Education of the Deaf, and Dumb, and the theatre, and especially by the death of the Dean of Blind. During the year 36 pupils have been ad- Guild, Mr. Lorimer, who knowingly risked his mitted (24 deaf and dumb, 12 blind), and the insti- life in the hope of rescuing a fellow-creature. Mr. tution is occupied by 148 pupils (of whom 117 are |

Lorimer has long been known in the city as a deaf and dumb) ; being the largest number at any j man abounding in works of self-denial and one time since the foundation of the charity, and charity. He was an elder in the congregation of very nearly the full number estimated to meet the | Mr. Cutnming of Newdngton, of the Established wants of the province. An extra class of 17 adult Church. An immense funeral procession accom- deaf mutes is held every Simday. The condition panied the body to its last resting-place in the and progress of former pupils was reported as on family vault of the West Churchyard. Such a pro- the whole very satisfactory and encouraging, and cession has not been seen in Edinburgh for many the highest eulogiums were passed upon the Prin- years. cipal. The Bishop of Down, Sir Hugh Cairns, and January, 1865. Dr. M'Cosh, were among the speakers. Previous to the meeting, the pupils were invited to a brilliant and gigantic Christmas tree, furnished by the ladies of the province with^every variety of gift, and the The great agitation heralded with so much Episco- delight of the children must have been the fullest pal noise by the ecclesiastical leaders of the Romish reward of the donors. Considerable agitation pre- Church has already well nigh died out. The mon- vails in the Church of Ireland about the services. ster meeting was held, speeches were made for In some parishes a ritual has l)een introduced offen-

several hours, and intemperate invectives were sive to many of the worshippers ; and a strong cur- poured out iipon the intended objects of attack. rent that has set in towards extreme High Church But neither the country priests nor the laity were views is watched with the gravest suspicion by the present, and the same want of sympatliy that Low Church party, which has been hitherto almost crushed the meeting is crushing the movement. the only party in the country. It has been sought The intelligent classes, and all who have a stake to prevent the clergymen of the Church from attend-

in the country, detest agitation ; those who have ing religious meetings even in private houses, and a hitherto been the prey of Irish agitators distrust case has been submitted to two eminent English

their clergy ; and the rural priests wiU not move counsel, whose opinion is that " clergymen in Ire- without the support of their flocks. It would be land do not subject themselves to any punishment

unfortunate and unseemly if, as recent speeches by saying extempore prayers, or by joining with seemed to indicate, English politicians should side ladies in reading the Scriptures." An effort is also with a clerical clique instead of consulting the made to restrict every minister within the bounds feelings and interests of the nation. of his parish, so as to prevent him joining in those An agitation of a far diflferent character has been meetings for prayer and Bible exposition that have carried on for a few years, and has just reported been characteristic of Dublin in late years, and in itself at the annual meeting of the Bible and Col- which men have taken part without regard to portage Society in Belfast. The object of this parochial boundaries. The innovations in the society is to supply a healthy book and periodical Church have already led to the resignation of one

literature, through book agents and colporteurs : of the most exemplary and faithful of curates, and chrirtiaii Tvork. Feb. 1. 1865.1 LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDEXTS. 71

to the immediate formation of the parishioners into and Christian uprightness allows, seems to have been a committee practically to sympathise with both taken by the orthodox to enlighten the electors. Last the curate and his opinions. It seems foolish, and week two circulars were added to the many previous even dangerous, to provoke discord within the ones, one of which so clearly and calmly describes the Church at the time that it is so threatened from situation, that I transcribe it. It is attributed to without. M. Guizot. "To our brethren of the Reformed DuBLix, Janvxiry^ 1865. Church of Paris. In presence of the disturbances which are agitating our beloved Church, and on the eve of exercising, tlirough the approaching elections, a great influence upon her destinies, we think our- A FEW notable moves from both parties have selves conscientiously, and before God, bound to called redoubled interest around Emperor and Pope, manifest boldly our sentiments, and to tell you and seem to point towards the conclusion of the what principles and duties determine our resolutions somewhat lengthy game. The deep-planning Em- and efibrts. We are and we choose to remain faith- peror courteously warned the Pope of the approach- fully Christians and Protestants. "VVe see in our ing check he should give him in 1866 ; forthwith Sacred Books divinely inspired, the source and

Pio slinks into his lissured fortress and bangs olf rule of our faith ; and when we meet in our churches his medieval matchlocks with imperturbable gra- to worship and pray to our God, we perform an act vity, dealing fire and bi-imstone against every species of intimate and devoted adhesion to the truths and shade of freedom. Xapoleou beckons to au expressed in the sacred Scriptm-es, and in the con- unthougbt-of knight to step up and face him as secrated monuments the holy reading of which we j second in the French privy-council. The Pope stirs i listen to, according to the example of our fore- up his bishops, the Emperor stops them short, fathers.

j

"What next ? Some cry martyrdom ! and two "For every man's conscience we have the deepest bishops have volunteered and read the Pope's respect. We regard religious liberty as the purest

encyclical in the teeth of the law of the land, and I and most precious conquest of our times and society. are cited before the Conseil d'Etat. But the Arch- Xo pretext and no price would induce us to impose bishop of Paris gives the tone to the clergy, by upon any man, pastor, or layman, a religious belief shirking the martyr s crown and drawing the line not really his own, and we hold that each one has between politics and religion. About a dozen pre- a right freely to profess his faith. But at the same lates, however, have protested, and some in no time it is evident that a common faith is the basis measured terms, while they bowed to the ministe- and band of every religious society, and in parti- rial circular. It is easy to see the intentional un- cular of the Protestant Church. It is in the name hinging of the pontiffs spiritual authority, by the of Christian faith that our Church was founded, freedom with which the whole press is allowed to that she has out-weathered all the trials she has publish and comment upon the definitive bill passed through. She can worthily and safely of I divorce between the papacy and every conquest of subsist only so far as she constantly makes pro-

j modem times, fession of that faith could while the clergy are prohibited there- 1 ; and she not admit into from. Thinking men foresee in this the prelimina- her bosom a more or less veiled negation, without j ries either to enervating, herself. the breaking of all bond between I contradicting, and destroying State and Church, or \iltimately to a secular des- Xo one can disallow that the essential bases of | potism lording it over the spiritual, perhaps both, Christian faith are in our days and before our very

j one consequent upon ' the other ; short-sighted men eyes ardently attacked and sapped. Outside of our rejoice in the separation, and look for a sort of Church, negation and doubt arise daily more boldly paradise beyond,— I oh how short-sighted ! The against faith. Can we admit that within oui' Church

, breaking-up of the tyranny of negation shall dare to take their the clerical man will i and doubt up but make place for the rehgion of the future, the dwelling, and to propagate themselves together | rationalistic despotism of the with faith ? Such is the yoke and fatal germ from atheistic man. Let i Christians take heed to themselves, and to the which the Protestant Church is caUed upon to-day part they play during this seething time. It is no to preserve itself. As much as any we have at time for vague speculation, but for sober, solid heart that peace should reign in our Church. As grounding upon the eternal word of God; "the much as any we regret the dissensions which dis- wicked shaU do wickedly, and none of the wicked turb her harmony. But it would be no true peace shall understand, but the wise shall understand." which should be purchased at the price of forgetting A seething time it is, evd in doctrine bubbling Christian truth or allowing it to lie dormant ; and up to the surface, and evil men and seducers wax- religious harmony is but a false appearance and a ing worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. falsehood where sympathy of faith is absent. We This week is the exceedingly important election have watched with deep solicitude the various week in the Reformed Church. In those commu- phases of the crisis which our Church has been nities where, like Paris, Havre, Nimes, &c., Ra- passing through for some time back. We have tionahsm is more or less rampant, the struggle is conscientiously sought that Cliristian charity should tremendous. Every measure which wisdom suggests preside among us over the defence of Christian j 72 LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS. [Christian NVork, Feb. 1. 1865.

truth. We regret all narrow exigencies, all arro- Consistory of Grenoble. The young pastor was gant pretensions, all inquisitorial tyranny. We regularly installed last month. j know what latitude should be granted, and what Last Sunday the vigorous Church of Fontaine- patience manifested, in difficult times, to the bleau, created and cherished for twenty years by a j variety of sincere and conscientious minds. But pious and energetic layman, who built the churcli j

: after having carefully examined, we have remained in his own garden, established a school, and perse- convinced that the legal authorities of our Church, veringly carried on all the pastoral labours, received j

I the Consistory and Presbyterial Council, have been its first pastor, having been recognised by the Go-

' wanting to none of their duties, and to none of the vernment as one of the Reformed Churches of scruples of moderation and charity. ... It is not France. M. Payre was installed amid much aflfec- j is in 1 faith alone, but also order which now attacked tionate congratulation to the excellent Christian

our Church ; belief and authority are sapped at the man, ^M. Brand, who had for so long a period pi*e-

I individual are raised above i same time ; sentiments pared the way, voluntarily stepping aside for the

acknowledged faith ; and personal will, above all benefit of the Church. He is editor of two good I ecclesiastical power. Anarchy is claimed in the periodicals, the Bulhtin du Monde Chretien, and the j govermnent of the Church to support negation in Jeune Chretien, a monthly paper for children. I faith. Such is the double evil which painfully strikes us, and which we call upon you to help us to remedy. We would impose our faith on no

one, nor touch a single liberty ; but we cannot con- There is little news here concerning religious sent to undergo, within the very bosom of our interests, and, in our public affairs, none of an en- j Church, the working up of negation, and the couraging kind. assassins of the 22nd August t Our

I absence of all authority. It is our duty and our have appeared before the federal tribunal appointed maintain in our religious society. Christian to federal jury, of which I right to judge them, and the faith and legal order. Shall we remain a Christian the majority consisted of Catholic Radicals, has and Protestant Church, faithful according to o\\r acquitted them one and all. This verdict produced sacred books, and organised according to the disci- a most painful impression, not only in Geneva, but

pline and tradition of our fathers ? Such is the vital through the whole of Switzerland. We feel our- question we have now to solve." This is signed by selves abandoned henceforward to every violence

fifty of the most respectable and best known Paris which it may please the Radicals to employ in order laymen. to maintain themselves in power. We must either

The orthodox list of candidates is the following : submit indefinitely to their yoke, or else resist them Messieurs James Mallet, Guizot, Vernes, Latfon by force, and make every election a battle. So de Ladebat, General de Chabaud Latour, Alfred much have Radicalism and Catholicism, united to four first are re-elections, destroy our old Geneva, been able to effect amongst I Andre. The the two last are new. us. j The first week in January was kept as a week of The elections, however, of November have once

I prayer, and a central prayer-meeting was held more given a victory to the party of order ; and the

. every evening in a different churcli. They were Grand Coimcil (our House of Commons), which union meetings, but the weather and the extreme resulted from the late elections, is keeping Tip a j pressure of business just after Kew Year's struggle with the Government, which is still com- 1 Day thinned them. It woidd be desirable for Paris posed of friends of the dictator Fazy. But these that another week in the year should be chosen. elections have afforded us a new exemplification of The English meetings took place daily in the con- Catholic perfidy. I have mentioned to you a charge gregational chapel. The Rev. H. Grattan Guinness of the Abbe Mermilliod, the ewe of Geneva, lately

spoke to a full congregation last night ; it is re- elevated by the Pope to the episcopal dignity. I freshing to hear the truth of God spoken simply, told you that this charge — a pious and judicious Well, lovingly, forcibly ; such preaching saves souls ; the one—constituted a rupture with Radicalism. presence of the Lord is felt. a week after employing this language, Mermilliod Montauban saw the interesting ceremony last ordered all his subordinates to vote for the Radical

month of the consecration of six young pastors all candidates ; and the Catholic-Radical alliance is imited in the closest bonds of Christian brother- now as intimate as ever. hood. Nor did this priest lose a moment in exercising Annecy, the city of Fran9ois de Sales, out of the influence lent him by his new dignity. Although which Protestantism had long died away, is reco- the State recognises him merely as a ciwe, not as a vering its old faith, after having for a few years bishop, it is yet as a bishop that he speaks and

past worked with untiring zeal to discover and acts ; and the Radical Government shuts its eyes. gather together the remnant of the dispersed ones. He has visited our hospitals and prisons in great

Pastor Freundler, from the Society of Relief to state : and is officiating as bishop at all the solem- Disseminated Protestants of Geneva, succeeded in nities. Other intrigues have yet to be mentioned. forming a church. Now Annecy belongs to France, Hitherto, for instance, the Christmas mass, called and the Society has given up its station to the the midnight mass, had never been celebrated Christian Work, Feb. 1,1865.] LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS. 73

within the city. Now it has been imposingly cele- the last volumes, those which embrace the present

brated ; and a Catholic journal has described the time, are by Mounard himself ; and the picture of

affair as if Catholicism had thereby formally taken the eighteenth century, above . all, is a remarkable possession of the city of Calvin. We are surren- work. He has, moreover, contributed articles to a dered and sold to the enemy. No hope remains to great number of religious and philosophical jour-

us except in our perseverance, aided and sustained nals, to an extent sufficient to fill many volumes. by the help of the true Head of the Church. His country, when the popular excitement had

But, if Catholicism is strengthening itself at once calmed down, would willingly have recalled

Geneva, we have at least the consolation of seeing him. He paid it a visit three years ago ; and was it everywhere growing weaker, and losing consi- received wirh an enthusiasm which made his sojourn deration throughout the world by the folly and des- a truly national festivity. His friends had no sus- potism of its chief. You will readily understand picion that they would never welcome him again. with how much interest we read the celebrated en- He died at the age of 74, but still vigorous and in cyclical letter, in which we see that the Pope has full possession of his remarkable mental powers. clearly formulated all the points which we re- Geneva, Jan. I860. proach Popery with teaching, or with allowing to

be taught. When a Church reaches such a pitch of Erratum in last number, p. 48 : for Geneva read frenzy as this, it is certainly one of the signs of Genesis. the times ; and we may now, if ever, say with the ancient poet, that "Jupiter blinds those whom he wishes to ruin." The new anathema against the Bible Societies NORTHERN ITALY. — Here during the last reached us in the very moment when our own was year (for out of Piedmont it has not existed longer), celebrating its fiftieth anniversary. Like many a steady advance has been made. One new centre other Genevan institutions, our Biblical Society is after another has been opened, until almost all the a patriotic as well as a religious one. It was on large provincial capitals, and some few even of the the 31st December, 1814, the first anniversary of smaU towns and villages, have their regidar Evange- our return to independence, that a few citizens lical ministry of the Word Thus in Turin, Genoa, assembled to offer a memorial of their gratitude Spezia, VerceUi, Casale, Alessandria, Milan, Pavia,

to the God of our restored ancient Geneva ; and Intra, Como, Brescia, Bergamo, Caravaggio, Cre- this memorial was our Biblical Society : —the first mona, Parma, Guastalla, Modena, Carpi, Bologna, one established, I beheve, on the continent. Ferrara, Pesaro, Ancona, and perhaps some other We have just heard of the death of Professor places which I have overlooked in this rapid survey, Mounard, the friend of Vinet, and the most dis- exist more or less frequent Evangelical services ; in tinguished member of the Church of the Canton of most of them is established a resident minister or Vaud. Unhappily, it was not to his country nor to Evangelist, ia some of them more than one, and in the Church that his last years were consecrated. many of them the work of direct preaching is Expatriated by the Vaudois revolution of 1845, he strengthened by popular schools. The last-opened has lived since that time at Bonn, where the King centre has been that of Bergamo, and as the events of Prussia instituted a professoriate of French lite- that chequered that opening are strongly typical of rature on his account. JMounard was a religious the various currents of influence, both favourable man, but a politician at the same time : for pastors, and unfavourable, which the work encounters, I in the canton of Vaud, were entitled to be members will give you a succinct narrative of it. The young of the Grand Council, and even of the Government. Evangelist who labovirs in connection with the I cannot now describe how much good he did in Wesleyau Methodists, had secured with great diffi- this capacity : 1 will only mention, that in 1838, culty a central and spacious hall, and had put in when the war was on the point of breaking out circulation a sort of programme announcing the between France and Switzerland on account of opening service for Sunday, the 11th of December Prince Louis Napoleon, the present Emperor, Mou- last. Bergamo is one of the head- quarters of the nard then, together with the Genevan Syndic, priestly reactionary party, infamous throughout Bigaud, stood at the head of the opposition which Italy for the ignorant fanaticism of its bishop, and was offered to the violent pretensions of France. the number and profligacy of its clergy. No wonder It was he who caused Switzerland to adopt and pre- then, that on the appearance of the programme a serve that firm and courageous attitude by which it furious opposition was excited. Threatening letters conciliated the sympathies of all Europe. were sent anonymously to the Evangelist ; appeal Mounard has published numerous works : one is was made to the Prefect to jjrohibit the service, only astonished that so eminent a man has almost every mode of argument, honest and dishonest, was always been content to play the part of a trans- tried with the proprietor of the hrill, to induce him lator. It was he who made the French public to rescind the contract. When all proved vain, acquainted with the celebrated Siunden der An- incendiary discourses were delivered in the parish dacht of Zschokke, and who translated into French churches, in which it was by no means obscurely the grand Swiss history by Jean de J^Iuller. But hinted that to drive out these heretical Protestants, —

74 LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS. [christian work. Feb. i,

even by violence, would be a grateful sacrifice to already to distribute some of them, though it will the Immaculate Virgin, long the central divinity in prove very difficult to get people interested at this Rome's Pantheon. time, consisting, as they do (jhiefly, or rather exclu- As might be expected, early on the day announced sively, of the Gospel of St. John, the Acts of the for the service a vast crowd of people was surging Apostles, and the Epistles to the Romans, unless I in the little piazza in front of the house in which try another trip to Rome, where I distributed 500 the hall had been takeu. Through the midst of of those sent me last simimer. this noisy expectaut rabble, at the appointed hour, Mrs. C the mother , of the boy C , is here passed the Evaugelist, unrecognised, uutil he reached in a state of madness, which leaves little hope for the door of the house, which unfortunately he found her life. When the little boy was asked by the closed through the terror of the inmates. On turn- Pope whether it was truly his wish to become a ing to go and seek assistance from the authorities, Christian, he answered, "Yes, 0 holy father, for I the whisper passed through the crowd that it was am happier now than in my father's poor and he, the arch-heretic. A posse of peasants, labourers miserable house, and under the shoemaker s rough for the most part on the lauds of the priests, rushed treatment." You see what a convert and what a upon him, hiu'led him to the ground, commenced gain for the cause of Christianity, when fine clothes belabouring him with kicks and cuffs, and would and good food, preceded by theft, are the means of very likely have proceeded to more deadly violence Christianising the Jews— of the Jewish boy, C . but for the providential arrival of the Colonel of On the subject, I had the other day a veyy interesting National Guards, by whom he was rescued and des- conversation j with Mr. S (brother of the Rabbi patched forthwith to Milan. lu these scenes of S ), who, after having expressed his justifiable violence, however, the citizens of Bergamo had taken horror at the proceedings of the Romish Church,

no part ; all was the work of rustics from the all the while insisting upon Judaism being by far country parishes, infuriated by the preaching and preferable to any other existing religion, at last de- not unlikely bribed by the money of their priests ' ; clared, ' Sir, I agree with you now, inasmuch as the as soon, therefore, as what had occurred was known entire Biljle is the only for j guide men upon earth ; in the city, a loud and just indignation was j and I confess my belief in the efficacy of Chris- awakened, and a company of young Garibaldians tianity in the light you and your brothers pre- I have seizing their arms were with difficulty restrained seuted it to us. to Christians j Would God had not

: from avenging, with Lynch-law, the stain cast upon rendered their words of God odious in the sight of the good sense and civilisation of their native place. a Jew ; for whilst, on the one hand, we can be Meanwhile from Milan a strong appeal was sent convinced of the reasonableness of your creed,

directly to the Government ; the local authorities there is, on the other hand, an attachment to our too bestirred themselves, and arrested the leaders of persecuted nation which renders it difficult to

the sedition ; so that on his return, a few days after- renounce our very errors in exchange for receiving wards, the Evangelist found himself so strongly be- your truths." girt by public protection and private favour as to Recently I had a visit from Rabbi N and Mr. have nothing more to fear. After a week or two, B . Whilst we were deeply engaged in religious the inauguratory service was held before a large and conversation, a Dr. G , with his cousin, entered sympathising audience ; that audience has since the room, and soon participated in our discussion, steadily increased ; and now neither the hall, nor which, after half-an-hour, was again interrupted by its contiguous chambers, are large enough to con- Mr. C , a merchant, who declared himself very tain the eager multitude that flock to hear. That much delighted to have the opportunity of attend- come, so as a sort of liberal many who do demon- ing such an interesting meeting, which lasted till nine stration, that many others are influenced by a curi- o'clock in the evening, at which time all of them osity that will cease with the novelty, is of course left me with hearty thanks for the instruction re- a truth that we do not hide from ourselves, yet it is ceived, and recpiesting me to allow them to return surely something to have the opportunity, even for again soon. a few mouths, of scattering broadcast the seed of A very dear friend unto me, and decidedly a life over so large a field of human souls. Christian God-fearing Jew (Mr. B ), from hence, I had intended to enter upon the general charac- has made up his mind to spend the rest of his teristics of the Evangelical work, noting both excel- eartlily life—liis age is about eighty years—in Chris- lences and defects but letter is ; my already too long, tian works of love and charity. His thoughts are im- and I therefore reserve this subject to a future mistakably directed towards heaven, and from his communication. praying lips you may frequently hear the name of MiLAJ!f, January, 1865. Christ. Yea, he preaches to the poor, whom he assists, and is daily on the look-out for men and women to whom he might be usefid. He is not JEWISH MISSIONS IN ITALY. baptised, but declares, " I w^ill not bind myself is Dr. Mayer of the British Jews' Society writes : under a ceremonial obligation, which of far less The two boxes of different books of the New importance to me than Christ's commandment of Testament arrived safely, and I have been able love to God and to our fellow men. Now God Christian "Work, Feb. 1, 1865.] LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS. 75

knows whether I endeavour to live . a new life by mena to witness in the ecclesiastical system of following the commandment, and whether or not Germany. the Bible (which he always carries about with him) Ever since the war with Denmark was success- " is dear unto me ! fully concluded, we have seen the ecclesiastical

question, that old yet ever novel one : What think

ye of Christ ? Whose Son is He ? resuming its pro- minence in every region. Perhaps divisions in the The commencement of the year has here been cele- Church are shortly to be expected. The Lord, brated with some energetic demonstrations against however, will protect His people, and may He grant the ever bolder and franker advances of infidelity. to them that they may emerge from these struggles In particular, more than sixty EvangeHcal clergy- more pure and sound than ever. men of this metropolis have issued an encouraging In these anxious times the prayer-meetings which address to our distressed brethren of the Grand- took place during the first week of the New Year, Duchy of Baden, who have entered into a spirited have afforded a salutary gratification to the earnest- controversy with Dr. Schenkel, for step, minded Christians in Berlin. The most numerously which j however, they have Ijeen severely reprimanded by attended of these meetings took place on Thurs- the highest Ecclesiastical court. day, the 5th of January, in the large and beautiful Among the subscriptions to this address are found hall of the Evangelical House of Assembl3^ This the names of the most distinguished and estimable meeting was distinguished by the attendance of ecclesiastics of Berlin; at the head of whom are her Majesty, the Queen Augusta. The addresses the two General-Superintendents of the Province of and prayers were delivered by General Superin- Brandenburg, Dr. Hofl&nann and Dr. Buchsel—of tendent Dr. Hoff'manu ; by the Queen's chaplain, whom the latter will be known to many of your Dr. Koegel, one of the most distinguished ministers readers his by "Ministerial Experiences,"* pub- of this metropolis ; by WUnsche, the preacher of lished also among you. the Society of Brothers ; and by a young, gifted, Of no less importance is a report in connection and truly Evangelical minister, named Hesekiel. with Dr. Schenkel, which has been addressed by Her Majesty stayed through the meeting to the the highest ecclesiastical authority of Prussia, the very end, with an interest not faintly manifested, Evangelical Ober-Kirchenrath, to the provincial con- and finally expressed to the various members of sistories. He has in tliis memoir distinctly declared the Committee her desire that the Prayer-week at himself for those fundamental principles of the Berlin might be renewed from year to year with

Christian faith which Dr. Schenkel has endeavoured a constant increase in the number of its adherents. ! to overthrow in his " Characterbild Jesu," and May the Lord allow this \\-ish to be fulfilled. solemnly borne his testimony to Jesus Christ as the Beelix, January, 1865. eternal Son of God, uprisen, and hereafter to be our Judge. This confession cannot fail to be very The Eev. Dr. ^Mayer of the Jewish jNlission at encouraging to all the true witnesses to the Gospel Leghorn, Italy, gives an interesting view of the in Baden ; and by reason of the influence which change taking place rapidly in the German Jewish Prussia exercises in ecclesiastical as well as in mind, as evidenced by his intercourse during a tour other relations over the rest of Germany, the voice through Germany :— of the Ober-Kirchenrath will, no doubt, have a You are quite right in saying that Jews and salutary eflfect upon the other local Christians draw nearer to each other my daily Evangelical ; German churches, amidst which Ptationalism is experiences confirm this opinion. When last again raising its head audaciously. summer on the Continent, I found myself almost You will now perceive that the antagonism be- continually in Jewish society, both whilst I tra- tween belief and unbelief is continually growing velled and sojourned in cities ; and among the more distinct amongst us. We feel more and more many conversations on religious subjects, there was keenly the positive impossibility that the confession not only no hatred against Christianitj' visible, but, of the Gospel and the denial of Jesus Christ's on the contrary, an uncommonly warm feeling of having come in the flesh should subsist together in brotherhood and heartiness expressed. Y'ou know the same Church. This conviction is also gaining that from my very outset till I arrived, by way of ground in Switzerland, where very lately a con- Switzerland, Germany, and Holland, in London^ I wderable section of the clergy of the Canton always travelled in company with Jews; where- of Zurich united in a pubUc declaration against a soever I stopped I visited relatives, friends, and young clergyman, who had preached in his pidpit acquaintances. I preached in a Freemason's lodge, the most direct infideUty, and attacked the funda- introduced by a Jew ; and in a synagogue, requested mental principles of rehgion in a manner most by the congregation. I dined with Jews and oflFensive to Christian feehngs. lodged with them. I was recognised by Jews un- Unless all the signs of the times deceive us, we known to me, who were happy to tell me shall, at no distant period, have important pheno- that members of their family had embraced Christianity, and that they themselves were not * London: StraJian. averse to it. I enjoyed the gratitude of two ; —

76 LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS. [Christian "Work, Feb. 1, 1865.

Jewish gentlemen, residing in Eome, who vi- and a sermon preached on the morning of each sited their relatives in Germany, and to whom I day, various theological topics were discussed, preached the pardoning love of the Saviour according to a very able programme drawn up another from Berlin thanked me with tears in his by a talented and godly young clergyman, who ' eyes for the comfort I had given him, pointing out had beea previously appointed by the Bishop to

to him the subhmity of true Christianity ; with be the preses of the meeting. It may interest our another Jewish travelling companion I exchanged readers to know that the topics there set forth visiting cards, and was fervently requested to pay for discussion were a skilful adaptation to the con-

him and his family a visit ; three other young gen- troversies of the day, such as these, viz. : —No

tlemen from the Lower Rhine, whose parents had religion without miracles ; no religion without known me, were overjoyed when, in course of con- conviction of sin, and the confession of the faU,

versation, they heard who I was, and requested me, and a worship in accordance with this ; no Chris- tianity before parting at N , to write a remembrance in without faith in the divinity of Christ ; no their pocket-books, which readily Christianity without an atonement, and an atone- I complied with ;

another travelling merchant from Berlin kept close ment by blood ; no Christianity without a pure and to me during our stay in Rotterdam, and from unadulterated historical source, and an infallible

thence to London I was again in company with a standard of doctrine ; no Christianity without a

young Jew, who would not even leave me after our church ; no church without a ministry, and no

arrival there. Now, among all these encounters ministry without learning ; no living church without and meetings of educated people, I had in one in- discipline, and no discipline without the Church's

stance only to complain of sneer and mocking. freedom with reference to the State ; and no free Throughout the many occasions, however men- and strong church without synods and synodical au-

I tioned, I found favour, cordiality, attention, and thority. Some very strange opinions were certainly even response. If I compare these observations with broached in the course of the discussion, such as circumstances of twenty or thirty years ago, when that the belief of Christ's godhead was not essential

Christians had a dislike to Jews, and Jews looked to true discipleship ! But whilst exceptions were upon Christians as idolaters and enemies of Jehovah taken to the form in which some of these points and His people Israel, I must come to the conclusion were stated, the substance of all of them was ably that the Spirit of the Lord has worked in a won- and edifpugly expounded and maintained. The drous way, and that perhaps thirty years hence interest taken in this meeting was attested by the greater wonders will be acknowledged by Jews and great crowds that resorted to it. The Bishop dis- Christians alike. Of course societies and contribu- solved the assembly in a very earnest and deeply- tors to the funds of societies for the j^ropagation of affecting speech. The last word is the best—not be- God's Word may look with satisfaction and gratifi- cause it is mine, but because it is God's. I will not cation upon their high calling as instruments under utter it in my—own sinful name, but in the name of the guidance and influence of the Eternal, and may Jesus Christ : "I admonish you to be watchful in cliug more closely to Him whose last cry of agony your ministry. I admonish you to seek help from on the cross was a triumphal shout of all-sufficient above, in comparison of which all other help is of redeeming love to mankind. no avail. I admonish you to this especially at present, when lies are openly promulgated. I ad- monish men with great gifts to consider that with-

siderable town on the railway between Gothenburg the Spirit and not of the flesh ; to seek really after and Stockholm. The principal topic which was the Word which shall gain the victory. I admonish handled was the subject of Sabbath observance, you who visit humble cottages and heal the souls of with reference both to its Scriptural obligation and men, not to use any other medicine than the one, the prevailing outrages on it in the miUtary marches and not to distrust its power. I admonish all of and reviews of the rifle corps on the Lord's Day. you to hold fast by Christ, as to Him who has ever-

The discussion was earnest, and the principles lasting might ; and to walk in Him, not haughtily, asserted by the conference scriptural. The whole but day by day more humbly, so that the power tenor of the meeting seems to have been evangelical may appear, but not. of us. This be my last word

and doctrinal, and before it broke up a resolution shall it be my last word to you ? It is not indif- was adopted to hold another similar one in the ferent, for nothing is indifferent to a Christian who month of ^Nlay. looks to what the Lord wills, and endures every- A Clerical Conference of a more formal character, thing not because he is so strong, but because he is that is, a diocesan meeting of the clergy, simimoned so weak. Tlie roof does not fall, though a pillar by the Bishop, was held at Lund about the same falls. The master builder easily replaces it by period, and continued its meetings for three days. another. But this is my last word to you—it shall In addition to the transaction of ecclesiastical come again and judge you. Dear brethren, let this business connected with the affairs of the diocese, be said in the name of Jesus, and do not regard it "

Oiristian Work, Feb. 1, 1865.] LETTERS FROM CORRESPOXDENTS. 77

as the word of an old and nearly exhausted man, to an account for the impertinence and falsehood of that when the Lord demands of me the last word, his assertions. On the contrary, his superior, the and asks on which side I will stand, your prayers governor of the province confirms them by treat- may bear me up that I do not sink." ing the innocent but defenceless preacher as a The speech, of which only this very imperfect re- felon and an outlaw, and by leaving the other Pro-

port is given, was listened to with deep emotion, testants of the place to the insults and outrages of and brought tears to many eyes. After the Bishop their triumphant enemies. And what notice does

had pronounced the blessing he began to sing an the Government here take of the affair ? When, appropriate hymn, and was immediately joined by through the kind offices of Mr. Stuart, the present the whole assembly. Thereupon the clergymen ac- representative of Great Britain at the Porte, the companied the Bishop to his house, and when at the case is stated to Ali Pasha, he at once promises to door he turned round to take farewell of them, they send a telegram to Bolu, ordering the liberation of i as with one %'oice gave expression to the feelings the preacher. Bolu is in immediate telegraphic I •which swelled in their hearts, by singing one of connection with Constantinople, and yet nine days Luther's hymns, beginning "God's word and pro- subsequent to the giving of that promise the mise shall stand fast. preacher is still detained, and to his earnest request The fiftieth anniversary of the mission in Sweden to be allowed to return to his people and his work, and Norway was celebrated with great rejoicings on the Pasha replies that he must await orders from the 4th of November. It is pleasant to see that, in the capital. i every instance throughout both kingdoms, part of The exiled Christian Turk, whose imprisonment the celebration consisted in public worship in all the at Kodosto, and subsequent liberation were men- churches, or the preaching of an appropriate sermon. tioned in the DecemberNumber of ChristianWork, The churches seem to have been filled to over- was allowed after his liberation to go to the neigh- flowing. bouring city of Adrianople, where he was very kindly treated by the Pasha. This Pasha, it is furfcej. said, is the same official whose summary execu- tion, some years ago, of a Christian who had pro- Illustrations are multiplying of the evil conse- fessed Mohammedanism, and subsequently re- quences of the retrograde steps taken by the Turkish turned to his former faith, called forth the so I government last summer, in reference to religious earnest protest of Lord Straford de Redcliffe, and led liberty. to the promise of the Sultan, that the like of it At Murad Tchai, a small town to the east of the should not occur again. In the progress of that city of Broosa, a native Protestant preacher, while affair this came, it is also said, to the English quietly pursuing his work of instructing the Pro- man Embassy to make some explanations of his agency, testants of the place, and others who sought his ac- and was peremptorily refused admittance to his quaintance, in the doctrines of Christianity, was lordship's presence. The lessons he then received suddenly arrested, nearly a month ago, by the appear not to have been in vain. At Adrianople, ' governor of the province, and, in the depth of as at Rodosto, the Christian Turk spent his time winter, in a state of health which rendered the in perfectly friendly intercourse with all the classes journey hazardous to his life, and against his most of the popidation. During his stay there, in con- earnest protestations, was carried off under guard I sequence mainly in all probability of the interest to the distant city of Bolu, where he is still kept his presence, the the Pro- under surveillance. No crime nor misdemeanour excited by attendance at testant congregation in the place more than is charged against him. All that can be ascertained was

doubled. the of his exile having ex- I is that the Armenian ecclesiastics of the region have Recently term

' pired he has returned to Constantinople, and thus said to the Pasha, ' If this man remains at Murad Tchai, there will be excitement and bloodshed," and far has been permitted to remain unmolested. of the native forthwith in " the interests of the public peace, and The week prayer was observed by Protestant congregations here. Daily meetings were for the personal safety of the preacher," he is put held at which there a good attendance, and no under arrest and violently carried off in the Pasha's was train. little interest manifested in the subject of prayer. resident are so widely Is there any evidence of this apprehended ex- The foreign Protestants scattered in the great city that they were able to hold citement and impending bloodshed ? Just this, and but one united meeting during the week. At this, no more ; that when unprincipled and violent men are made to understand by those in authority that however, notwithstanding the very unfavourable I weather there was a attendance. they can do as they like with impunity, there is good always reason to apprehend that they will take ad- Constantinople, Jan., 1865. vantage of the licence. The Mudir (mayor) of Murad Tchai asserts in public that "the Protest- ants have been cursed by the Sultan, and put out of the pale of his protection, and still," as he says, MISS FIDELIA FISKE.

"they have the impudence to go about trying to Few, if any, of that devoted band of men and spread their doctrines. " This official is not called women who have laboured so faithfully, and with 78 LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS. [Christian work. Feb. 1. IS65.

such eminent success, among the Nestorians, —few, The first great revival connected with the mission indeed, of all the "honourable," godly women, among the Nestorians occurred in 1846, and the whose praise will long be in the churches, from first indications of the work were witnessed in this their connection with the missionary work, —will female seminary, where it very soon assumed a be held in more lasting, loving, honoured and grate- most marked and powerful character. Up to that ful remembrance than Fidelia Fiske. Not the time, women had not come much to Miss Fiske for Nestorian mission and the Nestorian Christians religious conversation, (though she had gone to

only, to whom, imtil recently, she hoped to return, them, ) but the extent and happy character of the —but very many in the United States will mourn influence she had so soon acquired appears from ' her death, as a deep personal affliction. the fact that now, ' the school became a centre of Miss Fiske was born at Shelburne, Massachusetts, holy influence for the women." "The Seminary

May I, 1816; became hopefully a subject of re- was thronged with visitors, who desired the time

newing grace in September, 1830 ; and united with to be filled up with religious instructions." "The the church at Shelburne, under the pastoral care of teacher who received visitors alwjays found enough Rev, Dr. Packard, in January, 1831. She was a to do, both by day and by night ;" and when Miss pupil and then a teacher at Mount Holyoke Female Fiske and her associate. Miss Rice, went to a vil- Seminary, and partaking largely of the spirit of lage, the women expected to be called together for Mary Lyon, thoroiighly accepting her views of prayer, and when they returned the visit, sought Christian education, she would probably have been to be prayed with alone. This is not the place to connected permanently with that institution but for depict the scenes of thrilling interest among pu- the conviction in her own mind that she was called pils of the schools and other females, connected missionary field. She embarked at Boston, with this and several subsequent revivals, but surely I to the

for the Nestorian mission, March 1, 1843, in com- few servants of Christ have had more occasion I pany with Mr. and Mrs. Perkins and Mar Yohannan, to be grateful for having been employed as instru-

I returning to Persia, and Messrs. D. T, Stoddard ments in bringing fellow-creatures from darkness I and E. E. Bliss and their wives, and Miss C. E. to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, j Myers, reached Oroomiah, June 14, of the same than had the subject of this notice. As she was

; year, and after labouring there for fourteen j'ears, about to leave Oroomiah, the many women and was constrained by impaired health to return to girls who had gathered around her to bid her fare-

the United States in 1858, and died at the house well asked : "Can we not have one more prayer- of her brother in Shelburne, July 26, 1864. meeting before you go?" And " May it not be in " At Oroomiah, seeing the intellectual, social and that Bethel ? —her room. One petition of a touch- I ' ! moral degradation of those for whose good she was ing prayer on that occasion was : ' May our teacher's to labour, while she had, as she wrote a friend, dust never mingle with a father's dust, or with a j

"felt j)ity for her poor sisters before going among mother's dust ; but may she come back to us to j

I them," she was moved to "anguish when, from mingle her dust with her children's dust, hear the actual contact she " realised how very to ! with them," trumpet with them, and with them go up meet

i low they were." " I did not want to leave them," the Lord, and be for ever with him." They were she adds, "but I did ask, Can the image of Christ accustomed to style her " mother," and themselves

I ever be reflected from such hearts ?" How beauti- her "children." fidly that image was reflected afterwards, fi-om Two or three brief extracts from subsequent many of those hearts, and in no small measure letters to her, indicating both the feelings of

' through God's blessing upon her efforts, will be her pupils towards her, and something of the

' readily recalled by those who have read ' Woman ground for such feelings, should find a place j

I and her Saviour in Persia," and by all who are here. One who, before her conversion, had been

familiar with the history of the Nestorian very rude and obstinate, wrote : remember I "I mission. how you used to jjut your arms about my neck, I In educational efforts among Nestorian females, and tell me how Christ became obedient unto j

I Miss Fiske had been preceded by Mrs. Grant, death ; not for friends, but for enemies like me. whose short missionary life was one of great use- Especially do I remember how you spoke of that .fulness in this direction, and afterwards by Mr. love which saw a remedy in its own blood, when

I different ladies of , Holladay, Dr. Wright, and the there was no help for a lost world. At that time

mission, assisting as they could in the school until I did not understand it, but now I know not how

I

\ her arrival to take charge of it. But thi:s far it to express my gratitude." Another writes : "How

had been only a day-school, the pupils being in can I forget you ? And were that possible, I could I habitual contact with the vice and degradation of not forget your instructions. I remember them at their own homes. She greatly desired to make it all times, by day and l)y night. They comfort me in a boarding-school, and thus retain pupils continu- sorrow, and strengthen me in anguish. You have" ously imder a more happy influence. By much taught me the duties of this life, and you have etiort the prejudices of the people were overcome, pointed me to the world to come. I remember

about ; to lead I and this change was brought and within when you used take me by the hand, and j

two years, day scholars were dropped entirely. me into your closet, and there pray with me ; and j — —i

Christian Work. Feb., 11865.] LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS. 79 my heart fills with mingled joy and sorrow—with them aU to a more fuU participation in the self- joy, that such precious seasons were given me ! sacrificing spirit of the Saviour. She was per- with sorrow, that they will be mine no more. Shall mitted to close her labours on earth by taking I never see your face again—that face, which bore part in that recent and remarkable work of divine to us more than a mother's love ? " Still another grace, which left but twenty of the three hundred referred to the feelings of the pupils generally, and forty pupils in the school without a hope in after this loved teacher had left them, as follows : Christ." " My heart longs to teU you of the change in our One who had known Miss Fiske long and well, dear school. Our return, after vacation, was much says of her character and influence : " That she like that of the Jews from Babylon, when they was generally regarded by those who knew her as found their city laid waste, and their temple in a remarkable woman, was not owing to the predo- ruins. Every time they looked on the spot where minance of any one quality in her character, but it had stood, their hearts vv'ere crushed. So when to a combination of qualities, intellectual and emo- I did not see you, and went not to take your tional, surpassing anything, as it we hand i seems to me,

and be kissed by you, —when we saw not your ready ! that I have ever seen in any other man or woman. feet coming to the door, to bring in each one and I remember enough of her uncle, Pliny Fiske, the make her happy, —our hearts were broken, and we companion of Parsons in commencing the Palestine could not restrain our tears ; especially when we mission, to believe that he owed the strong hold he remembered the times that the daughtei-s of the had upon popular interest to the same cause. Her church used to meet in j'^our room to mingle our emotional nature was wonderfully sanctified ; and j of prayers, our tears, and our joys together. These I each her powers being well developed, and all recollections leave an aching void which cannot be nicely adjusted one to another, the whole worked filled." with regularity and ease. Hence that singular A person so eminently faithful on missionary accuracy of judgment, that never failing sense of ground would not be idle, so long as she could propriety, for which she was distinguished. Hence work, wherever she might be. After her return to tbe apparctit absence of fatigue in her protracted j the United States, Miss Fiske was very usefully conversation and conversational addresses. Hence

I employed, in different ways. In quite a number of the habitual control of her sanctified afi"ections places she addressed Sabbath -schools, and meet- over her intellectual powers, so that she seemed ings of females, respecting the missionary work, ever ready at the moment for the caU of duty, and always producing a most excellent impression. especially to meet the claims of perishing souls She furnished the material in great measure, for around her. In the structure and the working of her nature, she the nearest the valuable work alreadj"- referred to, "Woman j was approach I ever and her Saviour in Persia," assisted in preparing a saw to my ideal of the Saviour, as he appeared when "Memorial of Mount Holyoke Seminary," and was on earth. engaged at the time of her death, upon " Reminis- "Theamoimtof her usefulness is as extraordi- cences of Miss Mary Lyon." Most of her time nary as her character. The book entitled "Woman was spent at South Hadley, where and her Saviour in Persia," strikingly sets forth she had special I connection -with the religions instruction and train- her influence on Isestorian character, and I doubt ing of the pupils, — a sphere for which she was not it would be the judgment of the mission, that remarkably endowed, and one in which she could few of their number exerted so great a formative not fail to exert an influence which will long be influence on the Nestorian mind, as did this de- j felt for good. parted sister. Many who were pupils there during I Certainly the tidings of no death those few years, like so many in Persia, will could awaken so many voices of lamentation, as doubtless ever regard themselves as her "children will the tidings of hers, over the plain of Oroomiah in Christ." and in the glens and fastnesses of Koordistan. " A Trustee of the institution says, in regard to Missionary Herald. her connection with it at this time, "On return- ing to the United States, Miss Fiske's feelings drew Iniia. her, as soon as other claims on her time had been satisfied, to the beloved Seminary. Her position THE RECENT HURRICANE. there, by her own choice, was entirely unofiicial. The Telugu Mission of the Church Missionary The Trustees ofi'ered her any amount of authority Society has suffered grievously from the same hurri- «be might deem necessary for accomplishing the cane as overwhelmed Calcutta. The Rev. J. Sharp, greatest good, but she declined everything except of Masulipatam, writes to his parents : the opportunity of aiding the teachers in their Nov. 7. — When you receive this you must give responsible duties as spiritual guides of the pupils humble thanks to our Heavenly Father, throng] committed to their care. It is said by those most Jesus Christ, that I am ahve to write it. Last competent to estimate her labours in the Seminary, Tuesday (Nov. 1) was wiudy, more or less, all day, that they were of the greatest value. Teachers and rainy. Between four and five p.m. it became and pupils give their unanimous testimony to her very much so. I got home from school soon after unwearied, judicious, and earnest efi'orts to bring five, and we had some dinner under great difficul- — "

80 LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS. [Christian "Work, Feb. 1, 1865,

ties. Afterwards the servants all went to their the cyclone swept over Masulipatam on the night of homes, and we fastened up. But the wind kept the Istinst., I have not had a word direct from quarters becoming more violent, and blew from all ; any of our beloved friends there yet, and all I have the rain streamed in torrents into the house, and heard is from Brother Darling, in a letter just come the noise of the elements was deafening. I ran to hand. He gives a most appalling account, but I about, fastening doors and A\Tindows as well as I have every hope that, as he heard it from a native, could, moving the furniture away from the stream it may not be accurate. He says (writing from of rain, and baling out the water, my mfe helping Bezwara, on November 7th), "You will be concerned me most energetically. But the doors and windows to hear that we have not yet had any direct com- began to come off their hinges, and break their munication with our dear friends in Masulipatam fastenings. We blocked them up with all the heavy since the night of the storm, and there has been no

furniture we could get ; but all in vain. At last, tappah Mr. Wilson, the head assistant collector, between eleven and twelve, we found water rushing has received expresses, from which we learn that into the house, and rising most rapidly. Every- nearly the whole of Masulipatam and its suburbs thing began to float. The house floor is raised a have been submerged by the sea, which rolled in for yard or more above the compound, yet the water several miles. All European lives have been saved, inside was above our knees, and we knew not how but many East Indians and thousands of natives much higher it might get, for it was from the sea, have perished. He has also been asked to send two miles off. Mrs. Sharp was bent on going out supplies of grain from this place, and coolies to help to the back of the house, and trying to cross to the to bury the dead. A pestilence is feared. He has nearest house, but I knew how deep and muddy it learned no more particulars, but we hear dreadful must be, and would not hear of it. We then tried accounts of the distress from natives who have to go outside, and climb the staircase, which goes escaped and come over to Bezwara. I do not know from the verandah to the housetop. Twice Mrs. what to say about the rumours which reach us, or Sharp was perfectly unable to advance, from the whether we can credit all that we hear; but the water, wind, and rain, which struck us like hail- suffering is doubtless very awful. I give you the stones. The third time we succeeded in reaching worst, as I have received it, I saw a respectable it and knees. Brahmin this morning ! the staircase, and climbed on hands who declared that what he Mrs. Sharp was all but blown over. We crawled stated is true. He said that all our missionaries along the top into one of the elevations of the roof, are safe, but that Mr. Noble had a narrow^ escape, and just managed to get inside among the rafters. having been found nearly dead. Many of the con- The wind and rain beat upon us, and we had verts had perished. All the girls of Mrs. Sharkey's little on but xiight- clothes. We had to keep one boarding-school were killed, also Mallazza and his

another warm by constant rubbing, and felt at times wife ; Bushanam's wife and Ratnam's wife and

overpoweringly sleepy. A light, which we left children ; but Bushanam and Ratnam had escaped, below, shone through the chinks of the ceiling, and Mr. Sharkey's boarding-school boys had also escaped. I was a great comfort to us, as it showed that the The Mission-house, as well as many other European I it. houses, been I water had not risen high enough to extinguish had wjished away. Oh that I could

We prayed often, and little expected to see the contradict any part of this sad intelligence ! I shall dawn, for the walls shook with the wind and waves, write again as soon as we hear anything authentic." and, I thought, would certainly fall. But we were It was only a few days before that I had heard heard, and preserved till the dawn came—an un- from Mr. Darling of the great damage done to speakable relief. The staircase was all but gone, Bezwara also by the cyclone. His own house had but we were able to descend it when the storm been in part blown down, but no injury of person abated. The desolation around is indescribable: had been sustained. all our out-houses flat, our furniture carried away P.S. Nov. 13. — I have just received another for hundreds of yards, trees down, many houses letter from Mr. Darling, enclosing a short line from fallen, and hundreds of corpses. The Sharkeys lost Mr. Sharp. thirty-three girls. Other native Christians and Mr. Sharp says — "My dear Darling, Colonel East Indians are gone. The Europeans are almost Anderson told us yesterday that you and the Elling- all alive. We have had great difficulty to get food, tons had suffered much by the cyclone, so one line One day I got, very thankfully, some horse-grain. of sympathy and joy that you are all alive. So are

Mrs. Sharp's horse is gone ; mine lamed. Every- we, by God's great mercy. The sea came into our

is ruined, are alive. house about thing around but we Let us a yard deep, with awful violence ; we, be thankful. with the greatest risk and difficulty, got to the top of Just as we were going to press, we received the the house. I can't tell the story now. Everything following letters from our Secretary at Madras, the is ruined, and hardly a habitable room in the station. Rev. W, Gray :— Thirty-three of the Sharkey's girls, Adiamma and Nov. 12, — I will postpone all other matters to let Prakasham (Bushanam's wife and little son), Mal- you know, by the mail just come in, of the sad lazza and Fanny, Mamazza and his family, with

calamity to Masulipatam. Encolsed is an extract hundreds upon hundreds drowned. . . . The respecting it from one of the daily papers. Though whole place one mass of desolation and corpses. — j

81

Mr. Darling adds, " Mr. Jsoble and all his house, roaming below. To build houses on the ground, including servants, are safe." and reclaim a little land from the uncleared forest, exposes the inhabitants to constant risk. Herds of KOOLIN BRAHMHiISM. wild elephants trample down their crops, destroy A recent issue of the Friend of India contains the the plantain trees, and sometimes crush the roofs of

following notice : their huts, and injure or kill the sleepers within. "At Union Chapel, Calcutta, there was baptised Hence, till a settlement is of some years' growth, on Sunday last a convert, Nironjon Makarjee, whose and the land around thoroughly cleared of trees and family history strikingly illustrates one of the brushwood, the people naturally prefer these grossest features of Hiudooism. This j'oung maa's "nests on high;" and our missionary station of grandfather, a Koolin brahmin, during his lifetime Mundakyam, in 1850, must have been more like a married sixty wives. His great-grandfather married human rookery than an ordinary Indian village. one hundred and sixty, eleven of whom, girls of Into these mountain forests, however, the Gospel is eight and nine years old, he married in one day. penetrating, and we will now give some informa- On his death, eleven of the wives burnt themselves tion of missionary work among the inhabitants of on his funeral pde. Such was Hindooism a hundred them. years ago." In the kingdom of Travancore the mountain We may add, for the information of our readers, people number frem 14,000 to 18,000 souls, and are that the KooHns are the highest caste of brahmins, called Arrians. Some lead a wild, wandering life, and the monstrous polygamy which obtains among staying a few months in a particular spot, and them has, as Ward truly observes, "no parallel in then deserting it for another, as soon as their scanty the history of human depravity." The reader will crop of grain is reaped. Others, however, have be surprised to know that lads at school have been their fixed villages among the mountains, clearing

known to possess five or six wives ! Some instances and cvdtivating the ground, and sometimes even be- of this kind are given in an Educational Report of coming rich thi'ough industry. These villages are Government six years ago. One lad of this caste, often lovely spots, in ravines not accessible to under fifteen years of age, supported, while at elephants, near to some gushing rivulet falling over school, his father and mother by the doweries he rocks, and shaded by gigantic trees and palms,

gained on his marriages ! I have heard of others rarely at a less elevation than 2000 or 3000 feet

who have paid their school fees and supported them- above the sea ; but the dense jungle and the heavy selves at school by the presents given when they mists collecting on the hill tops make the climate

visited their wives ; for another feature of the unhealthy, and fevers are very common at the be-

system is, that many of the wives remain at their ginning and end of the rains. fathers' houses, and whenever visited by their hus- The Arrians have no knowledge of the one true bands, the fathers-in-law are bound to give them God, but worship the spirits of their fathers, or j presents. K the sums offered be not so much as certain demons supposed to live in the peaks and | expected, they will go away highly displeased, and rugged rocks around their villages. Fragments of

refuse to see their wives. Curious scenes are some- granite are held in reverence ; and on one occasion times WT^tnessed when very early marriages are con- a missionary was shown a hollow tree where the tracted. I heard, not long since, of a little fellow fearful demon dwelt, whom more than 2000 Arriau crying bitterly for his mother in the midst of the families adored. He looked within, and saw-

ceremony ! Many cases have been mentioned of nothing but what appeare^ to be the hilt of an old old men of this caste marrying little girls and never sword, which he took away. Each village has its seeing them after the day of the wedding. In priest, who, when required, calls on the demon of other cases, the neglected wife is visited at her tbe hill, and, working himself up into a state of father's house once in three or four years by her so- frenzy, is thought to be possessed by the evil spirit, called husband, but he expects a handsome present and yells and screams out answers to the questions for doing her the honour of calling. Such is Koolin put to him. They bury their dead in sepulchres of brahminism. stone, such as our forefathers in England used. Numerous vavdts are seen in all their hills, like MlSSIOif AMONG OF TRAVANCORE. THE ARRIAI^S Kit's Cotty House in Kent, and the Thevegenny One of the missionaries (of the Church Missionary stones in Cornwall, &c. On the death of a Society) began his work some years ago among the member of any family, as the body is being buried, I Hill Arrians of the Travancore forests in Southern I the spirit is supposed to pass into a brass or silver India. To be out i of the reach of the tigers and image, or an oblong smooth stone, that is shut into wild elephants abounding jungles, in these the this vault. A few offerings of milk, ghee, &c. , ar people build huts, or nests, in large trees, some made, a torch lighted and extinguished, the cover- twenty or thirty feet from the ground. There is ing stone placed on, and all leave. On the anniver- not much house-room in them, as you may suppose; sary, similar offerings are made, the covering stone but still they sleep safely, though their slumbers lifted, and then again hastily closed. The spirit of are often disturbed in the dark nights by the the departed is thought to be shut up within the savage roar or ahriU trumpeting of the wild beasts vault, and no one ventures at any other times to " ;

82 LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS. [Christian -VVorU.Feb. 1, 1866.

touch the cell. They have sacred groves where they looking men (the representatives of some 800 or will not fire a gun or speak above a whisper. They 900 souls) were gathered round the missionary, practise certain rites when fixing on laud for culti- and heard for the first time, from his lips, the vation or the site of a house. These appear to be blessed tidings, "God so loved the world that He their only religious ceremonies. gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever be- They are a handsome, well-made race, free- lieveth in Him should not perish, but have ever- spoken and intelligent, more truthful and generally lasting life. " The meeting lasted till long after mid-

moral in their habits than the people of the plains. night : then, at the bidding of the missionary, all There is an openness in their countenances which knelt down, and after he had prayed for wisdom, you look for in vain among the dwellers in the low counsel, and help, he made them repeat the Lord's

country : lying and stealing they are proverbially Prayer, sentence by sentence, and blessed them in said not to know, and the filthy language so com- the name of our Father and lledeemer, x>raying mon elsewhere is never heard from them. Drunken- the Comforter to enlighten their souls. ness, however, is lamentably prevalent, and, when The work began in three villages—Combuku- excited with arrack and toddy, they fight despe- thie, Copara, and JSIangapetta. The people pro- rately. They are great hunters of the wild beasts mised to assist the teachers sent them, by build- of the hills, and every man has to watch with his ing them dwellings, erecting prayer-houses, keep- gun during seed time and harvest, to protect liis ing the Lord's Day holj^ having daily prayers crops from elephants, deer, and other animals that and lessons, removing the lamps at their fore- abound in the jungles. fathers' graves, and abandoning superstitious prac- The Eev. H. Baker, jun., our missionary at tices, attending the teaching given, and setting Pallam, Travancore, was led to visit these people apart promising young men, who should prepare and preach the Gospel to them, by the following themselves to be teachers of others. All this was circumstance. He was one day in his study at faithfully performed for some two years. Mr. Pallam, in 1848, when his little daughter ran in to Baker visited them from time to time himself, say that some "very curious-looking men" were while his native Scrijjture readers and other agents come to see him. These were five Arrians from as at Cottayam and Pallam volunteered to make a many different hills and villages, who had come a month's work among the villages, three at a time, considerable distance to ask liim to establish and continued to do so amidst many difficulties. schools among them. Mr. Baker at first declined At the beginning of 1851, numbers of the Arrians

to listen to their request : their motives seemed had heard of Christ, and some 120 determined to

doubtful ; his own district was. large, and his time ask for baptism. Several young men had come for-

much occupied ; the Arrians were forty-five miles ward to prepare themselves for teachers, learning

off ; it was difficult and even dangerous to ap- half the day from the instructors, and working on proach them," through a jungle without roads, and their land the other half, to provide themselves fever prevailing everywhere. But again and again with food. The missionary then resolved to occupy they came to urge the same request. At last a central spot from which to visit the hills around,

' they said, ' Five times we have been to call you. and settle among the people. A suitable place, You must know we are ignorant of what is right; named Mundakyam, on tbe banks of a river, within

, will you teach us or not ? We die like beasts, the reach of twenty Arrian villages, was selected,

and are buried like dogs. Ought you to neglect and the land cleared of the old -forest trees ; huts us?" were built, some on the ground, and some in trees, "Cholera and fever," said another, " carried off and a schoolliouse erected, through the liberality of

such and such members of my family : where are Sir H. Lawrence, of Lucknow. Gradually the work j they now ? went on. The Gospel was preached for twenty I

This appeal was not to be resisted, and at last miles round ; aud though Hindus, Muhammadans the missionary promised to visit them. In a few and Pv-omanists resolutely opposed, still abundant days, accompanied by his brother, he set out encouragements Avere furnished in the simple ear- and after a walk of thirty miles through the close nestness of the poor mountain people. jungles, with a hot sun overhead, wading through In the year 1855, the work had become so im- the mountain streams, and making his way along portant, that the hiU country was made a separate an elephant track, he found some Arrians waiting missionary charge. The Rev. H. Baker resigned to convey him to their village, and at length his congregations at Pallam, and entered upon what

reached it in safety. No sooner was the arrival is now called the " Mundakyam Church Mission of the strangers known, than voices were heard District," devoting himself wholly to the Hill shouting from one place to another far away up Arrians. Great indeed had been the changes the hill-sides — " He is here! he is here! Come effected during the past few years, even in outward all. " By this means the news was conveyed from things, amidst these forest solitudes. Christian

village to viUage with great rapidity. At night villages, churches, ' and schools were established, au assembly was held on a level space among the where the missionary formerly had to make,his night's living toge- hiUs ; pdes of blazing fire-wood at the four cor- lodging in a tree. Here hundreds are ners ligiited up the scene. Two hundred wild ther, of all castes, many of whom are baptised "

Christian Work. Feb. 1. 18S5.] LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS. 83

members, and the rest under Christian instruction. An elephant carried our baggage and provisions, The mountain jungle has been cleared over a large and I was borne in a vehicle invented by the Karens space of country, and the cultivated soil not only themselves, like nothing else that ever was created, supports the industrious labourer, but does much to —a hybrid between a chair and a palankeen. defray the expenses of the mission. For the first two miles the road lay through But the changed characters, consistent lives, a tract of land in the forks of the Sittang river meek endurance of persecution, and happy death and Kanney creek, that Mrs. Mason obtained from of many, show that the work has been inward and Government for the Mountain Karens to cidtivate, spiritual. In 1859 the cholera broke out at Mun- and on which we now settled. dakyam, and upwards of fifty-two of the people This land, and other portions near the Karen Insti- were laid in their graves. The missionary watched tute, have been the source of much trouble to Mrs.

by the bedside of every one ; and what must have Mason, and brought on her much unjust oppro- been his gratitude and joy as one and another, brium, from which the Chief Commissioner, Colonel i during the sharpest agonies of the disease, took Shayre, who has come up to see things with his ; his and clasped hand his knees, and, while all i own eyes, has triumphantly Adndicated her. thanked him for kindness towards them, many In an official letter he writes Mrs. Mason, under spoke of a cheerful hope in Christ. One young date of 28th January, 1864:— "Having been pre- man, as the sun was rising and he was departing, sent at the examination of the Karen girls who are

' said, ' I shall soon be where there is no night. studying at the Karen Female Institute at this All that I have learned from you will now be station, I beg to express to you the satisfaction I realised," A heathen blacksmith was seized, and have derived from witnessing the progress they while he, in his pain, tried one moment to bribe have made. It is essential that the interest of the his goddess, Kali, and the next cursed her for Karen chiefs in the institute should be maintained, sending tlie cholera, his neighbour, an old man, and that they should feel they have a voice in the suffering with the same dreadful disease, once a management of it. Your plans for maintaining heathen, but for years a consistent Christian, their interest in the institute, and for making it, prayed, "0 Christ, wash me, forgive my hard together with the young men's school, an effectual

heart ; Father, receive my spirit ; I am thine. instrument for good to the Karen people, appear to A young woman, who seemed to be recovering at one me to be judicious. The land adjoining the insti- time thanked the missionary for all he had taught tute ground, where chiefs from the hills and other her of God, asked for a draught of water, and Karens can have houses for themselves when they quietly died. —Many more such instances might come to town, for their daughters while studying, be given of a change during life, closed at last and where dwellings are provided for those engaged by acknowledgment of God's love in death. in cidtivating the neighbouring fields, is necessary Persecution has also been patiently endured in in order that your entire plans may be carried out. many cases for the truth's sake. Villagers, severely In my opinion, you have rightly judged that for beaten for their attendance on the means of grace, the education of the Karen people a knowledge of made to stand in water up to their necks, " to w^ash literature and science is only a part of the secular Christianity out of them, " kept in the stocks for instruction which should be imparted. You have days, with pepper rubbed into their eyes, and their undertaken to teach them better methods of agri- heads tied up in bags tilled with the large black or cidture than they knew before ; to build better red wood-ants, have nevertheless held fast the faith. houses than their fathers inhabited, and to live in a Others have had their crops destroyed, houses higher degree of comfort and cleanliness than they burned, fruit-trees cut down, implements of hus- hitherto have been accustomed to. It was with bandry taken from them, yet with the same reference to these objects that the land adjoining results. the institute ground was made over to you for At this present time the number of souls who the benefit of the Karens generally. A thorough have renoimced idolatry and joined themselves to investigation by me, in the presence of all con- the Christians amounts to 1000, of whom 300 are cerned, has shown that in the matter of that land communicants. In your prayers, dear Christian you and those Karens who were ejected from a part friends, for those gathered from the heathen in of it have been deeply wronged.* But as that sub- India, do not forget the Hill Arrians of Travancore. ject has been fully treated in a separate proceeding, —Church Missionary Paper. I will not now enlarge thereon. "NVliat has been remarked here on that subject has been done only to show you, as is your due, that I fully understand and appreciate your large plans of education, to A JOURNEY TO A BGHAI ASSOCIATION. carry out which, the land— of which I regret to say A BRACING cold morning on the 2nd of February, 1864, found a large party of us en route * The Chief Comniissionor here refers to si?: acres and from " Toungoo which he says "was niado ovor to to the Bghai Association on the top of the a half of this land, ]\[rs. Ma-on, now orcupic(i by Tlev. E. B. Cro^^s, and from highest northern mountains, and on the borders of which " Karens were ejected," that he might erect his the Gaikho country. building on it. 84 LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS. [Christian Work, Feb. 1, 1865. !

efforts were made to deprive you, and M hicli have behind me, and he began to suspect about the partially succeeded—was absolutelj'^ requisite. middle of the day that aU was not right, and he "Again, however, I express a hope that the turned back to meet the elephant. He found, how- orders which have now been passed relative to that ever, no traces of it till he came down to Mrs. land will relieve you of all anxiety, and enable you Mason's Karen land, south of Kanney, where he and the E.ev. Dr. Mason to pursue your usefid found by the tracks it had taken another road. He labours without being any longer distracted by followed on speedily, and overtook it at the dis- the cares and troubles which, for the past twelve tance of several miles, when he brought it back, months and more, have been forced upon you. and never stopped all day until he reached us in the " One point connected with the Karen Female deep darkness. Institute still remains to be decided. In my minute The next day we turned up to the mountains, dated 1st May, 1863, I commented upon what had and rested for brealdast at a village at their base, been charged against you in regard to what was inhabited by unconverted Bghais, that are engaged

called the ' Karen national flag.' I decided that in the teak timber business. Among them we found the flag or banner in question was merely a flag a widow and her children from a Christian village, with educational and Christian emblems, with an who said she continued to worship and pray to God appropriate motto inscribed on it from the Epistle in the midst of heathenism around her, although to the Ephesians. I remarked that, when I consi- she had lost her reckoning, and could not tell when dered the time had come when the flag might no the Sabbath came. longer be viewed as a party emblem in regard to We pitched our bamboo leafy tents for the night the existing disputes, I should have no objection high up among the mountains, by a beautiful to its being hoisted within the institute inclosure. cascade, and were here overtaken by a Bghai Chris- I have now fully considered this point. I am of tian chief on horseback, who insisted on going on, opinion that the flag was only intended as ' a bond though then sunset, to announce our approach to of brotherhood for education,' and that the time the nearest village. has come when it may be exhiliited without any The follo^ving day, before noon, we were met by bad effects whatsoever. I therefore beg to say I some women, laden down with large baskets of have no objection to the said flag or banner being boiled rice, and various Karen delicacies. A dozen

displayed in any manner you and the committee of men soon followed ; but wherever religion is con- management may think proper within the institute cerned, woman is always in the foreground. " Last land." at the cross, and first at the sepulchre," reveals her After crossing Kanuey creek we journeyed all character. day through an uninhabited region between the Before evening we reached a Bghai village, with a Sittang river and the hills. Teak trees, and several new chapel on the very summit of the highest hill, species of the wood-oil family, afforded magnificent excepting one knoll, for thirty or forty miles around. specimens of a tropical forest, diversified by hoary- It is at the point of commencement of a table-land

headed black varnish trees, now in full bloom. that stretches far away into the Than states ; and On one occasion, we roused a hamadryad, some though not level here, as it is farther east, yet the ten feet long, whose bite the natives say is more hills are low, while the general level of the country fatal than that of the cobra. Indeed, I knew a is some three thousand feet above tide waters. well-authenticated instance of a man dying half an Here hoar frost is found every year, though in hour after being bitten by one on the wrist. As the southern part of the province I have never the brute has been correctly described as " very seen it under four or five thousand feet above the fierce and always ready not only to attack but to plains. pursue when opposed," he was allowed to crawl With this village commences the breeding of quietly away, no one in the company being disposed the silkworm, which is raised in all the Bghai

to enter into a contest with him. and Gaikho villages north and east of it. The When evening came, we encamped for the night silk is used in parts for their own clothing, but in a forest of bamboos, and the Karens made me a more is sold to the Thans and Burmese. The booth at the foot of a thick clump. cocoons sell at half a rupee or a shilling a We then began to look anxiously for the arrival thousand, and the raw silk is sold at two rupees of the elephant, wliich was behind us, and a party or four shillings a pound. The worms are fed went back to look for it, but returned without any about a mouth before they take the chrysalis tidings of its appearance. Darkness came on, and state, but longer when badly fed. They are fed we had to lie down hungry and cold, having eaten on mulberry leaves, some of which are oval, and nothing since our early breakfast in Touugoo, and others deeply lobed and serrate. I judge it to with no clothing but what we had on. Just as be the white mxdberry, but it is possibly the weariness had made me forget my dinner and my Morus indica. bed, I was aroused from my slumbers by the wel- The plant is raised from cuttings, and never goes come intelligence that the elephant had arrived. to flower or fruit. The next day I saw a large It appeared that Tan -dee, one of our faithful patch of the young shoots that had been killed by people that assist Mrs. Mason in the institute, was the frost, which seemed singular enough to one 85 familiar vith the red mulberry, where the Missis- to more industrious habits, the people even dress sippi is often frozen over.* better than Karens usually do. There sat toge- This is a small church, and nearly the only way ther before me, every time we assembled, more than by which they can obtain a little money in these three hundred of the best dressed and fairest Karen mountain fastnesses is by their silk, yet they con- women I ever saw. It is a singular fact that the tributed to the Institute schools in town the pro- dresses of these Bghais and the Gaikhos are pre- duce of seventeen thousand cocoons ; floored their cisely alike, and those of the females are most pic- chapel of forty feet square with boards for which turesque. Their white, short gowns are covered at they had to pay for the sawing, as well as for bottom, a foot high, with red silk worked on them, frame, and spent much labour in dragging and hew- and above, stars and rays, as of the rising sun, are ing the massive posts, which, I regret" to say, embroidered in blue or yellow or red silk. The are not of the most enduring character, there being native turban has been nearly wholly set aside by no teak, or iron wood, or hokea in the region. commerce with the Than traders, and every woman On Friday, the 5th of February, we reached the has a few silk handkerchiefs thrown over her head. place of the association, a village of about forty From the same source the men obtain very comfort- families, where Gua-man, the principal Bghai chief able wadded jackets, which are imported by traders in the region resides. The houses stand on a conical annually. knoll well adapted for defence, which has to be taken Seventy-six congregations were represented at the into consideration, inasmuch as their enemies the Association, reporting several hundred baptisms ; and Gaikhos live close by them, who, within the last haK the contributions that they brought in expressly year have plundered two Bghai villages, killing for the schools, in charge of Mrs, Mason and my- and maiming, robbing and kidnapping the inhabit- self, amounted to six hundred and twenty-nine ants. Neither of them, however, were Christian rupees. villages. Some stirring appeals were made by our leading A temporary booth, more than two hundred feet Bghai assistants, in favour of more vigorous efforts long by one hundred broad, had been erected for for education in the villages ; and it was proposed the place of assembly ; and here, for three days, we to establish two high schools for a few mouths, at held one of the most interesting associations I two central positions in the Bghai country, to have ever attended. Between one and two thou- impart advanced instruction to those who cannot sand persons were present, and among them several attend the schools in town. parties of wild Gaikhos from the neighbouring If Christians do not work in earnest, Satan will. villages. We have sown good seed in the field, but our These northern Bghais, as well as the Gaikhos enemy has sown tares. The Roman Catholics have beyond them, are a much finer-looking race than recently established three village schools in the the more southern Karens, being larger and more southern part of this region, where they teach muscular, which I attribute in part to the climate, Burmese, which many of the Karens that live which is much more bracing than any other Karen near the Burmans wish to learn ; and they are regions I have visited. They seem, however, to reported to teU the people that they may drink be a different race. Their skidls have decidedly intoxicating liquors, God having created paddy for more of the Caucasian the purpose of having spirits extracted from it. form than the other Karens ; the breadth across the forehead being only slightly Thus they can become Roman Catholics without less than that across the cheek-bones, and they any essential change in their habits, and have a are much fairer. The young people, both male form of religion without its power. and female, often show red and white in strong The Gaikhos are a very interesting tribe, that I contrasts on their countenances, altogether unlike am anxious to see embracing the GospeL For the uniform clay colour of the more southern tribes. several years I have sent assistants among them, I met with individuals who, if seen alone, would be and two little churches have been formed in their pronounced half European. Indeed, if not exposed midst in the present year, both of whom were re- i to the sun, some of them would be as fair, I think, presented at the association. The day before I left } as the inhabitants of southern Europe. I say some to return a Gaikho chief arrived with credentials { of them, for there is a great difference among them, from Bo-gyee, the principal Gaikho chief in the j

and apparently an admixture of two races. At a region, to treat with Gua-man, our Bghai chief, I

small village where I spent a night, on my return, between whom there is some difficulty. His ere- ! I found all the inhabitants of this rosy-cheek, fair- dentials were a piece of tobacco, which was con- | necked tribe, and I tried in vain to obtain some sidered by all concerned as conclusive as a letter traditions of their history. They knew nothing be- signed and sealed at the Foreign Office would be yond having lived where they now do from time im- among European diplomatists. memorial. Bo-gyee promised to make a lasting peace if the Perhaps owing to the coolness of the climate, and Bghai chief would give him a kyee-zee. I told him the chief conmaissioner had just appointed an agent to settle all the difficulties between the Bghai's and * The Bghai name of the Mulberry is Ma-moo^ which any- is probably of common origin with the Greek 'ill6pov. Gaikhos; and that Gua-man had no longer : —

86 LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS. [christian Work, Tcb. 1 , 1865.

thing to do in the matter but to obey orders from classmates, in youth, in studying medicine in Charles- the English Government, and that if the Deputy- ton. Mr. Boone had previously pursued his studies

Commissioner said he must furnish a kyee-zee he in the University of South Carolina ; then studied

would do so. law under Chancellor Desaussure ; and finally went The following day I was overtaken at evening in throiigh a course on medicine, to qualify himseK the village where I had put up for the night, by the for missionary life. Thus armed and equipped, and nephew of this great Gaikho chief with twenty aUied by marriage with one of the first and best armed followers. They carry well-finished match- families in the State— for he married a daughter of locks, that are said to be of their own construction, the Chancellor Desaussure with whom he studied and which they told me sold among themselves for —he gave up all for the work in China. Bishop thirty nipees a-piece. They also make their own Stevens went with him on board the ship when he gunpowder. first set out thither, and had seen him on every This man, Nen-gyan, is associated with his uncle, occasion of return to this country. He felt drawn Bo-gyee, and is his most active supporter. A few to him in a peculiar manner. He was a man of montlis ago he came down with an armed party God, whose whole heart was filled with zeal for the like the present, and plundered a Bghai village, cause of Christ. He never spared himself in any killing some, and carrying off others into slavery. respect. He was eminently wise and judicious, and The excuse he gave for his atrocious acts was that succeeded easily in attaching others to him. His he was hired to commit them by a party of Bghais benevolence, integrity, and singular administrative in the village he plundered. Yet he is a large, power won for him the sincere respect of the noble-looking man, and appears utterly incapable of foreign residents in China, as well as of a large such deeds. circle of friends at home. He humbly thanked I went to the house where he had taken up his God for such a model missionary bishop, and prayed lodgings, and asked him to attend worship with us that another might be found to take up the standard in the chapel at evening, which he very readily and bear it on, conquering and to conquer. Before promised to do. He came with all his followers, his death, God had been very near him, both in and I preached to them from Genesis to Revela- personal afflictions and in those that had befallen tions, and a more attentive congregation I never his beloved country. He had only a few weeks had. After the service closed, the chief told me before laid a dear wife to rest in a lonely island in

that the Gaikhos had traditions of an eternal God the Bed Sea ; and feeble and broken in health, he who created all things just as the Bible stated, had refused the invitation to visit this country once and that God formed at first one man and one more, and had turned back to his work in China. woman, from whom all the nations of the earth On the way tliither he was nearly wrecked in a have descended. Adam, he said, they called, fearful cyclone. Thus purified in fire after fire,

I Al-ra-bai, and Eve, Md-ra-mif. his gold was bright enough to reflect clearly his From other Gaikhos I have obtained the names Saviour's face, and he received the welcome invi- of thirty generations succeeding Adam, after which tation, "Friend, come up higher." God confounded the language of the people and In Pekiu, says the Spirit of Missions, the organ scattered them, because they were building a large of tlie American Episcopal Board, a wide door is pagoda to reach up to heaven, and had got half opened for the preaching of the Gospel, and the way there. Though this is manifestly a Scriptural climate is singularly healthy. Six missionaries have tradition, yet I cannot find in their genealogies any taken up their abode in that city during the past decided coincidences with Scripture names. year, three places of residence have been purchased

I The Gaikhos j have no name for themselves as a for the location of missions, two schools have been

tribe, excepting the name for is all j man, which Ka- opened, and two chapels rented, without opposi- young; and this is I think very probably the origin tion from the government. The people of the place of the Burmese word Kayen or Karen, as xAogli- are willing to hear, free from prejudice to a great cised, and given to aU the tribes. degree, and, what is remarkable in China, women Next morning the Gaikho chief told one of our form a considerable part of the audiences. One of assistants, "If the great teacher will only say we these missionaries is of our sister Church of the may drink spirits, I will call a teacher and establish United States, two of the English Church, two of a school in my village immediately." the London Missionary Society, and one of the F. Mason. American Board. The Spirit of Missions, in suggesting that the evangelising work by foreigners should be con- ducted henceforth chiefly in the north of China, Bishop Boone, long an agent of the American makes some encouraging statements as to the supe- Episcopal Mission, died recently at Shanghai. rior salubrity and other attractions of that part of

Bishop Stevens at a late meeting of the Board gave the empire : a brief sketch of bis career "Mr. Blodgett, a missionary of the American Bishop Boone had been his intimate personal Board, recently visited a cemetery of Roman Ca-

friend for more than thii-ty years. They had been tho lie priests at Pekin. ' Of twenty-six priests ;

Christian Work, Feb. 1, 1865.] LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS. 87 whose remains were interred there, the average and with unanimity now goes forward to the con- term of life in China was twenty-four years, and summation. the average total of life was sixty years. The In the Synod of Australia there was the firm average age for entering the field was thirty- five determination to abide by the mutual agreement to years. No settled minister who feels inwardly unite on the Basis and its accompanying resolutions. called to the missionary work need he detained by Their meeting was prolonged on account of their his age from coming to China, if he be not above anxious desire to give other parties full time to thirty or thirty-five. ' Pekin is in the province of deliberate, and because of their wish to come to 43° Chihli, which is situated between the 38° and a final understandiDg before they adjourned. of N. latitude. Nankin is about 33° N. ; and in the Throughout their late assembly a spirit of con- province in which Nankin is situated, the average cihation and charity has been remarkably appa- term of labour of the Jesuit priests was but eleven rent, and for which they deserve due credit. years, as Mr. Blodgett ascertained in a similar way. In the Synod of Eastern AustraHa there was But all the Protestant missionaries have, until re- keen and prolonged debate. One minister and cently, been compelled to labour in cities which are three elders dissented from the resolution of last south from Nankin, and the average term of Protes- year, to accept the Basis and to unite in terms tant missionary life has been hut five years. We give thereof. This year several others had resiled from the latitude of the ' Five Ports ' which have been their former pledges, and expressed their disappro- 32" 30° occupied by them. Shanghai, ; Ningpo, bation of various resolutions and articles of the Fuhchau, 26°; Amoy, 24°; Canton, 23°. What common agreement. At the first meeting of the has added to the unhealthiness of these southern Synod partisanship appeared, and the appointment cities is, that they are surrounded by malaria-pro- of a Committee of Bills and Overtures, to arrange ducing rice-fields, the fruitful source of the fevers the business of the Court, led to a division. So which have laid the missionaries low. Some of did the roU of members entitled to vote. But the northern provinces are free from these rice-fields, the friends of Union on the Basis obtained the and are mountainous in their character. majority. "Now that they have the treaty right of going The overture from the Presbytery of Maitland, to these salubrious northern provinces, the mis- which requested a discussion about Erastianism sionaries of nearly all the societies represented in with the Synod of Australia, was debated during China are moving northward. Why should they go two evenings. The overture was ably supported on labouring in a part of the empire where the by the Rev. S. F. Mackenzie of Maitland, who had average term of missionary life is only five years, introduced it in his own Presbytery ; but his views when another part is opened which is equally po- met with no sympathy, and received no echo from pulous and equally needs the Gospel, and where the any of those who supported him. He declared average term of labour is twenty-four years ? Why himself for Union on the Basis and Resolutions. shoidd they continue their labours in the pestilen- They were all dissatisfied with these. The speeches tial south, when more important fields are opened which these gentlemen delivered were all against in the healthy north ? The centre of poHtical, Union on the " Basis, because some of the persons literary, and religioiis influence in China is in the who had joined with them in making these doc- north, and not in the south. There is more intelli- trinal and ecclesiastical terms of union were sup- gence, manliness, and strength of character in the posed by them to approve of the position of the northern than in the southern Chinese. The lan- Established Church of Scotland. The rejection of guage spoken in the north is the standard of correct the overture was argued by the Rev. A. C. Geikie, speaking. The embassies and caravans from Tibet, the Rev. J. Kinross, Rev. J. S. Laing, Mr. D. L. Manchuria, Mongolia, and Corea, congregate in the Waugh, and by various speakers, with great ability, north, and not in the south, and we may influence and was carried by a decided vote of the Synod of those countries best from that quarter. The thirteen to ten. After such a fidl and fair dis- northern Chinese will see fewer unprincipled cussion, parties shoidd have been satisfied ; but traders and profane sailors from Christian countries instead of this, the minority took every opportunity than the southern. as their numbers diminished to harass the other side, and on every occasion to divide the Court and enter their dissents. When the Draft Bill came up, it was met by a motion for precedence, that the Synod of New NEW SOUTH WALES.—At the late meetings South Wales be admitted to the negotiations. The of Synods and Conference, Presbyterian Union was Synod decided to adhere to the order of procedure considerably advanced. When clouds were darkest as previously arranged. Then the motion for ap- and prospects threatening, light appeared and a proving the Bill was assailed as being changed in way was opened. Difficulties that had seemed for- terms from the general notice of it given offhand a midable have been honourably surmoTinted. Parties few evenings before. It was only after a vote that have been comprehended, who had hitherto been leave was obtained by Dr. Steel to introduce the excluded. The Conference has been re-adjusted, motion, which was expressed in terms of a most —

88 LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS. • Lctristian A^ ork, Fob. i. ises.

conciliatory nature. The Rev. W. Grant, who had scene of protests. Two protested and left the not voted on the overture, now felt it to be his duty Synod for one reason, two for another, one for a

j to second the approval of the Bill. The supporters third, and the Rev. S. F. jSIackenzie would not call of this motion did uot consider it necessary to speak his reason for refusing to go with the Synod, either at length. The opponents of the Bill reiterated their a protest or a dissent, but the Court agreed to regard arguments on the ©verture; but the Bill was carried it as a protest. The Moderator satisfied himself by a majority of fourteen to ten. There were ten with simply entering his disseut, and left the chair, ministers and four elders for, and five ministers and which was taken by the ex-Moderator—the Rev. J. five elders against the motion. Kinross. The next point was the motion, of which notice The union of the Synod of Eastern Australia and had been given by the Rev. C. R. Greig, that the the Synod of New South Wales, and the Rev. R. S. Synod of Xew South Wales be invited to the nego- Paterson, then took place in the presence of a large tiations. This was met by an amendment by the assembly. The Rev. John Kinross for the Synod Rev. A. C. Geikie, to the effect that the Synod, on of Eastern Australia, and the Rev. Dr. Lang for the its own account, confer with the Synod of Xew Syood of New (South Wales, signed the articles, as South Wales and certain other ministers. The Rev. also did the Rev. R. S. Paterson. The new Synod William M'Intyre, acting as secretary to the was then formed, when the Rev. Archibald Con- minister of Bombala, prepared a motion which em- stable Geikie, M.A., of Bowenfels, was chosen

! braced the amendment, and which the Synod unani- moderator. The Rev. James Cameron was ap- mously accepted. This led to a conference with the pointed clerk. • The business of the evening was of j Synod of New South Wales, when it was ascertained a routine character, necessary for the reconstruc- that that Synod was quite satisfied with the basis tion and organisation of the Church. The Rev. R. applied for admission as a minister in and resolutions, and prepared to unite on them. Boag, B. A. , A new turn was now given to the debate of the full standing, and was admitted on his signing the Synod of Eastern Australia. It was proposed that basis and formula. a committee be appointed to confer with the Synod Thus was consummated a preliminary and prepa- of New South Wales and certain Presbyterian ratory union on the basis agreed to hy all. The pro- ministers, with a view to union. Strange to tell, tests taken against it had no reference to this union, this Union was opposed by the very parties that but to the articles and resolutions as affecting the had pressed the motion for the admission of others Synod of Austraha, and form the poorest founda- to the conference. But the vote was decided tion imaginable, to apologise for a schism, or on thirteen to six. which to erect a church. The General Committee on Union appointed by The General Conference met on the morning of the S5Tiod of Eastern Australia did not contain any the 17th of November, and unanimously agreed to members of the minority, for an obvious reason alter the nomenclature of the Bill, and authorised that the minority wished to begin de novo, while the Law Committee to introduce it to the Legisla- the Synod maintained the statues

felt this defeat very sorely ; but the course taken As matters now are, all who agree to the basis was essential to the success of the negotiations. and resolutions are pledged to unite whenever the The committee frankly conferred with the other ne- Bill has passed the Legislature. Those who stay gotiating parties respecting the proposed preliminary without are, with one or two exceptions, dis- for Union, and obtained a written agreement that satisfied ^\ith the terms of union which they greatly the contemplated Union would be admitted to the helped to make, and for which they joined in giving Conference on the same terms as the Synod of thanks to Almighty God. We have reason to Eastern Australia had been. This was thoroughly expect that, when the union is consummated, some satisfactory, and greatly expedited the issue. The of these will be comprehended in the Church. If a Synod of Eastern Australia resolved to unite by a few still resolve to stand apart, it will be on majority of thirteen to six, and appointed the even- grounds that can have little sympathy from the ing of Tuesday, the loth November, for the con- Presbyterians of New South Wales, or from the summation. Church in the mother country to which the pro- On that evening Dr. Steel proposed the last Act testors profess attachment. and Declaration of the Synod of Eastern Australia, The union now agreed to is on definite terms, which will be found in the proceedings of Synod, satisfactory to the churches at home as well as to and which recited all the steps taken by the Synod, those in this colony, and is a favourable omen for and declared that it entered into this preliminary the future welfare and usefidness of the Presbyte- Union for the purpose of advancing the compre- rian Church in New South Wales. It is in answer hensive Union. The Rev. A. C. Geikie seconded to many prayers and longings of the people, and this motion. It was met by an amendment, that after years of discussion aod mutual arrangement. the Act and Declaration be not adopted. The It is in unison with the leadings of Providence in motion was carried by fourteen to .six— there being other lands, and is, we humbly believe, an approxi- ten ministers and four elders for, and five ministers mation to the earnest prayer of our Lord and and one elder against the Act. Then followed a Saviour: "That they all may be one; as Thou, — ' — — ;

Christian Work, Feb. 1, 1865.] LETTERS FROM CORRESPOXDEXTS. 89

Father, art in me and 1 in Thee, that they also the chair, have been the means of reviving Christian believe that behalf of our aborigines. may be one in us ; that^the -world may sympathy on The Thou hast sent me. Governor drew attention to the fact that, in the last session of Parliament, an Act was passed, with- QUEEXSLAXD. — The last compilation of our out one dissenting voice, authorising grants of land Colonial statistics estimates our Eiiropean popu- for schools and missions on behalf of the aborigines. lation at about 62,000, and the denominational James Morrill, who was shipwrecked on the returns show that, by a very large majority, we northern coast, and resided amongst these people for are still Protestant. This aggregate of Protest- seventeen years, and is thoroughly acquainted with antism is of course weakened by the want of their language and customs, is still in the colony, spiritual life in many of the indi\'iduals, and by a and has exerted a beneficial influence as interpreter defective sympathy amongst the churches. Yet between an exploring party northwards and the

there ,'s considerable effort among all the denomi- natives. But it seems that, for missionary teachers, iiations to promote Church extension and religious we must look to the Moravians. revivaL It is matter of regret, however, that the Church of England lags behind. Her members are in a very unsettled state, chiefly from two A XARRATivE published in a pamphlet at Sydney, causes. First, they complain openly that their due of the wreck of the ship "All Serene," gives an in- share of control over the finances of the Church is teresting view of the influence of Christianity upon not allowed them. Consequently building enterprises the islanders : languish, and clerical maintenance is insufficieot. The "All Serene," it says, was capsized in the Another and greater grievance with many of the South Seas. Some boards were insecurely nailed influential members of this Church, is the alliance together ; and in this frail vessel thirty-one per- of their bishop with the bishop of the Roman sons were crowded, nineteen of whom were saved, Catholic Church in an agitation up and down the after having been twenty days on board this rude- land to revolutionise the system of public education made punt. At the end of this period they now established. reached the Island of Kandavu, one of the Fiji Bishop Tufnell, in the presence of the Roman group. Upon landing, the natives hid themselves, Catholic Bishop, at their meeting, complained of the supposing that the new-comers were slavers, but system now in operation as teaching too little Scrip- (says the writer of the narrative) ture. "At la^t we succeeded in attracting the atten- Bishop Quinn, on his part, emits in Bishop tion of one of them, as he was leaving the house by Tufnell's presence the following objection to the the back-door. He saw our helpless condition at same system as teaching too much Scripture. Ques- a glance, and in a few minutes many more came tion was asked : from their places of concealment and gathered " Are lessons from Holy Scriptures read daily in around us. Xone of us could speak a word of " the schools or not ? their language, neither could we imderstand any-

The following was the Bishop's reply: "They thing they said, with the exception of one word ; ; ' are, and that is one reason for objecting to the it was the word, Missionary ' but this word systeuL Catholics reverence the Bible too much made us feel perfectly safe. They conducted us to use it as a common book, and they prohibit the to a small village, leading and supporting us all the perusal of it to the general body of the laity, for way, and seeming to vie with each other in their they are not capable of interpreting it ; but the unremitting attentions to us. The kindness of priests are enjoined to read a portion of it every these natives was remarkable. They took us into day." their houses, and they seemed to anticipate our

Yet, with this direct^opposition between them as every wish ; and evinced the greatest delight in to the change sought for, both agree to travel toge- being allowed to minister to our wants, holding ther through the colony to agitate the public mind the reviving cup to our lips, and supplying ub with and to secure a hold on the public purse to help abundance of food. ^Ve succeeded in making them { them hereafter to oppose each other. This is an understand, that there were more of our comrades I unedifying spectacle, and has occasioned pubKc stdl on the beach, and many of them went with ' meetings to elicit the true sentiment of the members torches (as the moon had now gone down) and of the Church of England. Such meetings show brought them to the village. diflFerence of opinion, but show also the strongest "On the following morning some of the natives dislike on the part of many of the most influential went to inform Mr. Xettleton, a gentleman be- members of this Church to this crusade of the longing to the Wesleyan Mission, and residing mitres. twelve miles from the village. He came to see us on the next day. This was a happy meeting A visit of Bishop Patteson, and a lecture by the he prayed with us, and we cried like chiltlren. Rev. Mr. Campbell of Geelong, delivered in the "We learned from him that we were on the island large hall of the Normal School, the Governor in of Kandavu, one of the Fiji group, and that we 90 LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS. [Christian Work, Feb. 1, 1865.

must have come between four and five hiindred been enabled to dispose of about thirty Bibles and miles in the punt. He also told us that had we as many Testaments, and to distribute more than not made this island we must have perished, 800 tracts amongst them. It is a sad thing to meet as this is the outer island of the group, and we so many who are entirely ignorant of reading, as had struck on the most southern point of it. The the Spanish population in this colony is chiefly com- natives showed great reluctance to part with us, posed of poor labourers, and yet they are intel- but Mr. Nettleton took us all away in boats to the ligent, and active, and sober, so that if once touched Mission stations, and afterwards sent them presents with the love of the Gospel, they are anxiously I in return for their kindness to us. left half of our desirous to learn to read, as some have actually i He number with his brother missionary, Mr. William done in order to be able to judge for themselves I Fletcher, about eight miles from where we had whether the Protestants are right and the Romanists

I

i landed, and took the others to his own place. wrong. This colporteur, Siguor Hernandez, from "We remained nearly two months under the Gibraltar, is an efficient man, of a zealous and reli- I care of these gentlemen. WoiUd tliat I could speak gious character, who not merely tries to sell Bibles, in terms of praise equal to the merits of these kindly Bible \ two furnished by the British and Foreign

• gentlemen and their most amiable ladies. All I can Society, but visits his countrymen in their houses, say is this—they administered solace to our wearied both in town and the adjacent villages, to read and

, spirits ; they supplied us with many temj^oral com- to explain to them the Word of life ; he has thus by forts they clothed our nakedness, and healed our the blessing of God succeeded in assembling num- j ; wounds. It is but justice to the other few white bers of Spanish men and women in different places

I

' inhabitants of those islands to say that they in this neighbourhood, who afterwards evinced an treated us with imiform kindness. May God bless ardent desire to hear the Gospel announced by the I

I themaU." Spanish pastor himself, so that Mr. Ruet does not only hold Sjianish service in the Protestant church twice a week, but has also regular preaching at Algiers. i present in at least five different localities ; besides which, has large meetings with Spaniards ! THE MISSION TO THE SPANIARDS. he who

I It may be interesting to notice in your vahiable live in the country, and follow agricultural pursuits, Magazine of religious information, something about the fishing trade, and other manual work. His

i the efforts that are made for the evangelisation of the ministrations have so far produced good results, the Spaniards in tliis and the neighbouring places. The seed of truth has germinated, and began to bring

first Spanish meeting held by myself, was on my forth precious fruit ; some of bis congregation in arrival in this town in 1859. It was with only two Alger have had their children baptised by him, and

persons in my own house : the attendance gradually last month he administered the Lord's Supper to ;

: increased to a considerable number. Two regular above twenty communicants in the most simple and services were then established solemn manner, according to the rites of the Pro- I duiing the week, and a manifest blessing of attended the testant church here. I might have given you some j God preaching of his W^ord amongst that very interest- more detailed account of the work, but I must I ing people. But an adversary interfered to inter- defer it for the present. In the meanwhile I trust I rujjt the work, and public preaching was conse- that those who may happen to read these lines

I quently suspended, and the little Spanish congre- will be able to form some idea of what is done

I

i gation dispersed ; but the Lord di^ not suffer the for the evangelisation of the 25,000 Spaniards re-

i enemy to triumph in his attempt to ruin the work, siding in the one province of Algiers. We need for Mr. F. Ruet, who had already laboured with the interest, sympathy, and prayers of British success among his countrymen in Gibraltar, came Christians in the cause here. The adversaries are just in spread- j here a year ago, to the obstacles the way of carry on a regidar mission ; mighty, and he was encouraged to do so by the Protestant ing the truth amongst that people are truly great. I

pastors, Mr. Coyne and Mr. Durr, and myself : Mr. Ruet has not only to contend with Spanish j

1 together with two more Christians, we formed a fanaticism and spiritual ignorance, but meets with committee to sustain him in his endeavours to make much opposition from the priests, who seem to j

i known the truth to the numerous and neglected cherish a very strong affection for the Spaniards, Spanish population in this province. There were and do everything in their power to keep from I

i great difficulties in the way of finding the means them the light and life of the Gospel ; but priestly for his support, and after eight months' trial, the hostility and intolerance neither diminishes his j Lord put it into the heart of the Spanish Evangeli- zeal and faithfulness, nor impedes the progress of sation Committee in Paris to employ him as their the cause he has devoted himself to defend. Be

agent, and then a Spanish colporteur was procured it remembered that Mr. Ruet was persecuted for from Gibraltar, who is paid by some Christian professing and preaching the Protestant religion friends in Germauj'^, to assist him in the dissemina- long before his countrymen who suffered impri- tion of the Word of God amongst the Spaniards, sonment and banishment in Spain. He, too, was and to prepare their minds for the reception of eight months in prison, and afterwards condemned Gospel truths. Within the last six months he has by the tribunal at Barcelona (on 26th of October, Christian Work, Feb. 1, 1865.] LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDES TS. 91

pinned to the wall, and 1856) to perpetual exile, which he preferred rather calico renewed at of Avorship, forms than to return to the bosom of that erroneous every api)roach the backgroimd and persecuting church. He then found a safe of the altar. On the step raised immediately be- asylum on British soil at Gibraltar, where he has neath this is a human skull, foul with the clotted laboured for several years amongst the Spanish gore of sacrifices. In the middle of the altar stands inhabitants with much success, and now he is an ordeal jar or bottle, set in a shallow basin of native while on both sides of these putting forth his activity and zeal for the con- make ; are piles version of his neglected countrymen here. May of bones, the skulls of crocodiles and goats, and the Lord signalise his ministrations with an espe- other animals. At this altar scattered brothers, cial benediction is the earnest prayer of your who have now become independent heads of houses, humble servant, J- Lowitz. reunite on special emergencies to worship the spirit of their deceased father, with whom they used formerly, as members of one household, to surround

. ©ID Calitbar. the altar of God, Of this altar to the paternal SUPEESTITIONS OF THE PEOPLE.* spirit, the eldest surviving son is priest and guar- dian by right. Goats and barn-door fowls are the We find the heathen of Old Calabar worshipping offerings commonly presented—the fowl boddy, but the spirit of their deceased fathers, —propitiating with which their timidity only the blood of the goat. innumerable demons I streams placing their con- Higher still, and claiming the service of a wider peoples their woods and ; I divination ' circle of worshippers, is the altar in front of the palaver fidence in charms and idols ; practising house or town -hall, at which the father-spirits are to discover hidden shapes and things to come ; and j in This altar using ordeals, of many descriptions, to detect and worshipped their collective capacity. is piece of igneous rock, of no remarkable punish guilt. usually a size or form, set up at the foot of the outermost of There is an idol or a charm for almost every pur- the main pillars of the house. It is approached pose under the sun, and of these a man may have j

I chiefly in connection with the feasts of those formi- as many as he can pay for, and every adult heathen dable societies known to Europeans under the name has at least one or more of them. He may have one i of Egbo. defend him in the time of war ; another to pro- to I It is in these societies that the chief ruling mote his trade ; a third to secure the goodwill of I power of the country resides, and they claim to be men ; a fourth to cause him to be feared ; a fifth to I under the patronage of the father-spirits, and to ex- protect him from witchcraft, and yet a sixth to \

! ercise theii- power and authority with their sanc- enable him to plead and lie cleverly, and perjure besides others tion. Only members of these Egbo societies worship himself ^^dth impunity ; a hundred I at this altar. The chief who is first in order by —^if only he can pay for them and spare the time j family rank and seniority, officiates as priest. The and the means to worship them as they demand. j is : blood of animals slain at Egbo feasts here These charms or idols are called in the native ofiered to the father-spirits, and I believe also tongue Ibok, and of aU idolatrous objects they ; a portion of the blood of all persons executed by attract the strongest faith. The Iso-ibok or idol ; Egbo. presence or altar is sometimes a diminutive shed I

' or, as erected in the middle of one or other of the inner Next follow demons, they are called in the native language. Idem. Whatever is grand or im- courts of the premises, or it may be a mere clay step i in a dingy corner of the court, concealed from view ' posing in nature—whatever strikingly departs from the common unifonnity is sure to create fears in by a screen of palm leaves or other materials. The I —

i suspicious heathen mind. Hence, almost idol itself may be a metallic ring or a rude human the every aged or great tree, every chasm and every bold cliff, figure of wood or clay, or a foul object of no particii- j every dark pool and every meeting of waters, is lar form. In the worship of these every man is priest for himself, and barn-door fowls and eggs are conceived to be the haunt or dwelling-place of a the common offeriogs. demon. Hence, also, as you cannot choose a site for object Next in order to these should come the Iso-abasi, town or farm without some such being found in the vicinity, one or more qf these imaginary or altar of God, already noticed, which is a household beings is sure to be worshipped wherever men dwell. altar, and of which the father of the family is priest. of these in Calabar is Then follows the Iso-egbo, or presence of the The greatest demons proper that which the whole tribe worships under the ghost. This is the altar of the paternal spirit, each deceased father becoming an object of worship to name of Adem Efik. Its haunt is supposed to be in the waters of the Calabar Eiver, at a spot a his immediate descendants. It is built of hard on great oc- beaten clay, in the form of a short sofa or arm- few miles below Duke Town, where casions sacrifices offered to it the chair projecting from the waU. A sheet of printed are by represen- tatives of the tribe. At Duke Town there is an * Extracted from a speech kindiv forwarded to us in altar dedicated to it, where minor acts of wor- MSS., which was delivered by tlie Rev, Mr. Cooper, ship are performed. The priesthood appertains to of the United Presbyteiian Mission at Liverpool, on the eve of his embarking to return to his field of labour in a particidar family, and in former days the priest West Africa. was a personage of the greatest consequence, rank- ;

92 LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS. [Christian Work, Feb. 1, 1865.

ing highest of chiefs in position, though of the tion and beat of Egbo drum to withdraw their least in point of power. He used to be called by malicious influence, and restore their victim to excellence King Calabar. Since the last priest health on pain of condign punishment in the event died, about ten years ago, no other has been of his death. found willing to assume his ofBce. The appro- Of ordeals there are many kinds in use, some in priate offering to this demon on great occasions is a themselves quite harmless, others again of a very white negro or Albino. barbarous description, though not fatal. These are It remains now to say a few words here on the employed in trials for minor offences. The chief subject of ordeals and divination, which also par- ordeal is that of the Calabar bean, esteemed in-

take of the nature of idolatrous objects, inasmuch as fallible in cases of witchcraft. It is the fruit of a their design is to scrutinise the future and discover large climbing plant. The bean is a deadly poison,

the secrets of the heart ; whereas God alone knoweth a very small portion of a bean sufficing often to what shall be, —He alone searches and tries the reins. destroy life. When taken in large doses, however, The Calabar heathen conceives himself to be sur- it not unfrequently occasions nausea and vomiting, rounded and victimised byahostof malignant powers, and so becomes its own antidote. When admi- which are to be prevented or averted only by the aid nistered to persons under public trial for witch- of the diviner. Hence the diviner is his resource craft, the quantity given varies a good deal, from before every undertaking of any importance, and in a dozen beans upwards. As many as 200 beans all his troubles. Ere he starts on any journey he have been administered to one person. It is given consults the diviner, to forewarn him of dangers in first in the entire state, and while the person is

the way, and forearm him against them, if they be engaged devouring these, others are pounded to not such as lead him to postpone the undertaking pulp, which he is afterwards compelled to receive

to a more convenient season. Before he dare lift mixed with large quantities of water. If he rejects

axe to clear new ground for farming purposes, he the poison completel}^ he escapes ; if not, he gradu-

I must consult the diviner, to ascertain w^hether he ally subsides into an apparently comatose state, and be or not intruding on the domains of a demon ; and dies. In such a case he is declared to have been if so, he asks what tree is the demon's special certainly possessed of the wicked power, whether

abode ? what offerings suit its particular appetite ? he had employed it in the instance ascribed to him

and on what day of the week shall labour on the or }iot.

grounds be abstained from in honour of the demon ? If repeated ills have befallen him, he seeks the The heathen of Old Calabar speak of the duality diviner to ascertain cause and remedy. If the cause of human nature, the duality of soul and body. be pronounced to be of God or of a demon, then They speak of a pre-existent state of the soul with

what shall he offer to appease them ? If the cause Abasi or God, and say that every human being

be of man, then who is it ? and if that cannot be comes into this world according to their own answered, what shall be done to bribe the malignant previous choice, ^^'^latever be a man's nation or

power his enemy employs against him ? In cases of position in life, or personal character, it is what he sickness also, when their absurd remedial agents made choice of before coming into the world. The are found to produce no healing effect, recourse is white man is such by his own previous selection, had to the diviner. He may ascribe the sickness and so the black man, so the freeman and the to the hand of God, or to the anger of an offended slave, the rich man and the poor, the honest man

demon or idol ; and in such cases means that may and the thief. After death the soul is said to avert the consequences are at once prescribed. retire to the city of ghosts. On passing from the More frequently, however, witchcraft is discovered body it still lingers for a season about its old

1 to be at the bottom of it, and the diviner, with- haunts, or else wanders lonely without the city of out necessarily having particular persons in view, spirits, into which it may not enter until its ob-

I throws out various criminating insinuations of the sequies in the fleshly world have been convicted vaguest sort, which the invalid and liis friends when it is allowed admittance, and takes its place I i eagerly sei^e and revolve in their minds. These among its predecessors. The city is said to be sur- insinuations may be simply to the effect that the rounded by a high palisade, and its gates to be { invalid suffers of guarded. manner of j from the malice some one with constantly and vigilantly The

he has quarrelled, is repetition of that of the i whom or from the covetousness life within simply a

I of some one who longs to get possession of his present life in a ghostly or spiritualized form. Its

property ; and thus the minds of the sick man and inhabitants dwell in the ghostly immaterial forms, his friends are sent in revengeful and never-failing as it were, of their former habitations, the dwelling- search among relations and others, of persons on place of each householder being abandoned to ruin whom to fix the too often fatal imputations. If at his decease, that it also may pass away with the invalid be a man of power, proceedings are at him. They employ themselves similarly as on once instituted against the suspected persons, who earth. Then the social relations and ranks of the are required to clear themselves by means of the fleshly world are still perpetuated. The chiefs, ordeal of the Calabar bean. Otherwise the un- and freemen, and slaves, and wives of former days named suspected are warned by public proclama- are still such in the ghostly city. Their manners, ; — ;

Christian Work. Feb. 1, 1865.] LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS. 93

and habits, and pleasures are sinailar. Nor can it all are willing and anxious to read the Word of be said of this city that there is no death there. God. In due time its inliabitauts seem to die again, and "As an illustration of their eagerness, let me return to Obasi or God, from whose presence they say that some months ago, just after we had re- originally descended, when they are said to be in a ceived a small supply of Testaments from another position to make a new choice of life in the old source, I was preaching to one of the regiments world of solid flesh and bone. One often hears then in the line of battle. I mentioned to the such resolutions expressed as these : —When I come chaplain that we could let him have some of them, back again I'll come a white man. When I come and he stated to the men that he could furnish Tes- back again I'll come a freeman. When I come back taments to those who were destitute, if they woidd again I'll come a man, not a woman. It would seem come up at the close of the service and give him

' also to be a superstition amongst them that certain their names. Scarcely had the Amen ' of the modes of death exclude their subjects from the city benediction died on the minister's lips, before the of spirits, as, for instance, such as die bloody acci- war-worn heroes charged on the chaplain almost as dental deaths, those who die in war, and such as furiously as if storming the enemy's breastworks are put to death with the view to their becoming and I could not but notice the care they took to avenging demons. With regard to those who die give not only their name, biit that of their com- in infancy, they are thought to be soon in a position pany, &c., so that there might be no mistake in to return. It is a conunon custom with Calabar their securing the coveted treasure. Whenever the women to mark their dead infants, with the view men are passing throiigh the city, if they can get of recognizing them when they shall have them the opportunity, groups of them, dusty and battle- restored. And hence, persons are sometimes met scarred, come into our depository, asking for a with called Nyong, or wanderers, being so named Testament. by their mothers, who look on them as their dead "I regret that so large a part of the supply we infants returned. have received, and are expecting, is made up of portions. These are not nearly so much sought after as Testaments. Indeed, the desire for the ®Ije CfinfAerate States. entire Bible is constantly increasing. Those who Notwithstanding the large grants which the have made a profession of religion very generally Committee of the Bible Society have from time to wish the whole Word of God. " time made to the Confederate States, frequent in- The work of grace in our army still goes on, telligence still reaches them of the great dearth of notwithstanding the difiiculty in holding meetings, the Word of God which exists there, and of the on account of the men having been for months past eagerness with which the Scriptures are sought after so much in the trenches. War has almost always and read by all classes, but especially the military. been regarded as eminently hurtful to the morals of the soldiers but one of our Christian generals not A letter -which has just been received from Rich- ; mond, and a portion of which is here appended, long since said to me that he was satisfied that, at brings out these points into prominent relief. The the conclusion of this war, it wiQ be found that our Committee have cheerfully made a free grant of soldiers have improved, both as to intelHgence and Bibles and Testaments to the value of 250?. to meet as to their moral and spiritual condition. And I j have no doubt he is correct in this opinion. Many i so pressing a want. "To show you the extraordinary dearth of the of the men have read more within the last three it, years than in their whole lives before they have Word of God, &nd the great desire for I may ; mention that the tirst day after the cases arrived, received more and better spiritual instruction, and and before we supposed a dozen persons knew we large numbers of them have been hopefully con- had them, every hospital in the neighbourhood of verted. The ofiicer to whom I have referred also Richmond sent in for a supply, and a number of told me that he had been much struck, in going through his command, with the chaplains came in after them from the field ; but, frequency with they which he saw the men sitting apart, reading the alas ! though we did not give them a stone when asked for bread, we gave them a lamentably small Word of God, and, in some instances, one of them portion of bread in proportion to their wants. reading aloud to a group of his comrades. How rarely have such Ten Testaments, four or five Bibles, and some spectacles been witnessed in armies ! portions, was the quota we were compelled' to allot "Whilst I write, the bright October skies —the to each hospital, though ten times that amount most beautiful of the whole year in our country wotdd not have sufliced for the actual wants. The —are smiling down upon us, the air is balmy and demands from every part of the army, which had bracing, and all in the city seems fair and tranquil. been accumulated during months past, rendered One almost forgets that only a few miles from us this parsimony unavoidable. A chaplain from the are 100,000 men, armed with the most formidable field came with pressing appeals in behalf of 1500 implements of destruction, making ready for another men, but we could give him only fifty Testaments. desperate efi"ort to capture this stronghold. But so Many of these men have been recently converted it is. ' Every prospect pleases, and only waii is

others are seriously inquiring the way of life ; and vile.'" Monthly Reporter of the Bible Society. I : —

94

for hard labour to the nearest workhouse for one month, and for every subsequent offence be sen- tenced to receive a j^^tblic not exceeding JUBILEE OF THE BAPTIST MISSION. flogging thirty-nine lashes." To this clause there is a The religious history of the island of Jamaica is "proviso," " That whenever the offence committed deeply interesting. Three hundred and seventy- by a white person shall appear of extraordinary two years ago the island was inhabited by the heinousness, the justices are required to secure the inoffensive aboriginal Indians : a simple-minded, appearance of every such offender at the next sub- people, who were harassed and distressed by the sequent supreme or assize court, by sufficient bail barbarous Caribs of the Windward Islands. or commitment, .... and on conviction to suffer first took possession of the The Europeans who such punishment as such court shall think fit to inflict^ Spaniards, who, by their avarice island were the not extending to life.'" Another clause secures the and by the oppression they exercised, rapidly exter- infliction upon every owner or occupier of premises minated the native population. who should knovidngly permit any such meeting, or Rather more than two hundred years ago the openly hear any person of the description herein- { English drove out the Spaniards and took posses- before declared to he a rogue and vagabond, a fine

: sion of the island and with them the Protestant not exceeding one hundred pounds,'^ &c. ' religion introduced. In Cromwell's army, by was The Baptist Mission may be said to have had its ! ^vhicb the Spaniards were expelled, were many de- beginning with the introduction of George Leile,

j vout men, who became religious teachers and re- who accompanied his owner from Georgia, in ceived State pay. The Act of Uniformity deprived America, to Jamaica about 1784. This master was

|

them of their stipends ; but they continued to give an officer in the British army, and when he died he

j religious instruction, being dependent for support gave Leile his freedom, who then became a preacher, on the voluntary contributions of the people. Their and endured great persecutions. The mission at numbers were from time to time increased by the the north-west end of Jamaica originated in the Nonconformists, who, during the reigns of the labours of Moses Baker, a mulatto, who was intro- Second Charles and his unprincipled brother James duced to that part of the island by a Quaker named the Second, were deported from England and sold Isaac Lascelles AVinn, or Wynne. Mr. Wynne as slaves to the planters. They were folio wed 'by appears to have been a truly generous man, who a considerable number of " Friends," who, charged felt much concern for the spiritual well-being of with religious contumacy, were driven out of his slaves, and exposed himself to some obloquy

England, and, settling in Jamaica, maintained their by allowing his negroes to be instructed ; but he religious belief, and met for social worship. was in part seconded ]>y Mr. Vaughan, a man of

The revocation of the Edict of Nantes sent from considerable influence in the district. It was I

Francei considerable numbers of Huguenots, who through this last-named gentleman that the Bap- i settled in Jamaica, and whose services as ministers tist Mission Society in 181,3 were induced to com- were accepted by the Government, which charged mence a mission to the island. That mission has itself with their support. now continued in existence for fifty years, and the Very soon after tliis, we find the religious instruc- ministers and churches are endeavouring to celebrate tion of the slaves M'as prohibited by express enact- the Jubilee in a suitable manner. In 18C3 a Jubilee ments of the Legislature of Jamaica, which, under Committee was formed. That committee issued an heavy penalties, forbade the admission of slaves to address to the churches on the reasons for keeping places of worship in towns. So late as December, Jubilee, and on the manner in whicli the season 1802, an Act was passed of which the following are should be observed and turned to practical account. extracts:— "Any person not duly qualified and Some months ago, that address appeared in the authorised, who shall, under the pretence of being columns of the " Herald," but we may briefly a minister of religion, presume to preach or teach advert to it again.

in any meeting or assembly of negroes or people 1. It reminds the churches of the noble men of colour within this island, shall be deemed who, in the providence of God, have been sent as and taken to be a rofjue and vagabond,''^ &c. missionaries of this Society to the island, mention- Another section of the Act empowers "Any ma- ing some of the departed by name. gistrate of the parish in which the offence has been 2. It shown the success with which missionary committed to cause the offender to be apprehended, labours in Jamaica had been crowned, in the over-

and committed to the common gaol—forihioith ; to throw of slavery, with its attendant evils, and in associate with two other justices of the peace, and the dimensions to which the mission has attained.

upon due conviction .... adjudge him or lier, The following particulars are thus given :

if of free condition, to be committed to the work- (1) The mission has established itself in every house, there to be kept to hard labour, for the first parish in the island.

offence, for the time of one month ; and for every (2) There are seventy- four regular organised subsequent offence, for the time of six months each churches, having a membership amounting to and in case the offender shall be a slave, such about 30,000. These churches are, and have for offender shall, for the first offence, be committed many years been, supported entirely without foreign —

Christian Work, Feb. 1, 1865.) SUGGESTIONS AND REPLIES. 95 aid. Xineteeu of the pastors are natives of the ably identified with every movement calculated to

j island. promote the best interests of the people of tlie ; (3) The mission has its own college and training island. school for the education of its pastors and teachers, The Jubilee meetings at Falmouth were held in

j maintained at an anilual cost, to the churches, of August, and were of a very demonstrative character.

j 300Z. The large chapel in which William Knibb was wont

I (4) It has also its own Missionary Society, and i to deliver his soul-stirring addresses was gaily de- raises for Home and Foreign Missions, from 1000^. corated for the occasion, and was well filled with , to 1300/. per annum. grateful people, many of whom knew by experience

(5) Its day-schools number alDOut ninety, and its the change from slavery to freedom and from dark- Sunday-schools seventy, with 1100 teachers and ness to light. William Knibb's nephew, the Rev, 13,000 scholars, a large proportion of whom are Thomas Lea, is now pastor of the church at Fal- |

able to read the Holy Scriptiires. i mouth, and the Lord is prosi^ering his ministry. Practical suggestions follow, recommending the The meetings in Lower Clarendon, where the holding of Jubilee services at the various stations, Rev. W. Claydon labours, were also held in August, for both adults and children, and the raising of and were of a very enthusiastic character. The a Jubilee Fund to be devoted to the following speakers on the occasion were Messrs. Claydon,

objects : Hewett, Duckett, Johnson, Randall, Moodie, Dal-

1. The African Mission- bng, and Holt, Baptists ; Rev. A. Lind, Independ-

2. Day-schools. ent ; Rev. J. P. Russell, Weslej^an ; and J. W. P. | 3. Restoration and repairs of Mission Premises, Baker, Esq. &c. At nearly every station in the island Jubilee 4. Home Missions. services have now been held. At some of them, In accordance with these recommendations, the both juvenile and adult, the writer had the pleasure first week of February, 1864, was devoted to special of being present and taking part in the proceedings. prayer for God's blessing on the services and pro- But these meetings have been held in the midst of ; j

ceedings of the Jubilee year. very trying and afflicting circumstances, and it is i |

On the fiftieth anniversary of the landing of greatly feared the proposed Jubilee fund in the '

John Rowe, the first missionarj', at Montego Bay, a island will fall far short of the amount it was at i

^

large Jubilee meeting was held, when it is stated one time expected to raise. The continuance of I that not fewer than 10,000 persons attended from the American War has greatly interfered with the different parts of the island, to testify their grati- supplies of the island, and enhanced the price of j ; tude to God for what He had done through the in- all imported aii;icles, especially of every descrip-

j strumentality of the Baptist Mission. All the free tion of clothing. The last two years, a severe | places of worship in the town were thrown open drought has, to a large extent, destroyed the on the occasion, and flocked with multitudes of fruits of the people's industry, and now the fearful people. This grand gathering has been followed by visitation of small-pox is aggravating the general Jubilee services at the various stations, the ac- distress. The Jamaica churches are, therefore, counts of which are of a very interesting character. trying to be jubilant under very afflicting circum- The Jubilee meeting at Spanish Town was pre- stances, and we feel sure the churches of Great sided over by the Honourable Richard Hill, who Britain will sympathise with them and come to delivered a speech on the occasion full of informa- their help in the efforts they are making to put tion and strongly expressive of goodwill The the institutions of the mission on an extended and name of Mr. Hill has for many years been honour- improved basis.—Rev. W. TraiU in Baptist Herald.

SUGGESTIONS AND REPLIES.

THE COURT OF APPEAL. for any such alteration. The decision in the Gor- ham case, which legalised the Evangelical, as dis- TO THE EDITOR OF "CHRISTIAN WORK." tinguished from the High Church view of baptism, Sir, — I trust you will find room for a remark or was the decision of the Committee of Privy Council. two on your English correspondent's letter, in your And in 1850, the late Bishop of London brought January number this year. It seems by him to be forward a bill to alter the Court of Appeal in con- supposed that the greater part of the bishops and sequence of this decision. In doing so, he was clergy of the Established Church wish for an altera- acting for the High Church party, who were tion in the Court of Appeal in Ecclesiastical cases. thoroughly vexed at that decision, and at the " This is very far from being the case. I think I am dereliction of their favourite " Church principles speaking the sentiments of the Evangelical, as dis- which it involved. The attempt was defeated then. tinguished from the High Church section of our But, if now an episcopal court should take the communion, when I say that they have no desire place of the present Judicial Committee, the Gor- 96 ham decision might at any future time be rescinded. I am convinced, choose the former. If each earnest Most clergymen who are not at the present time minister in his sphere earnestly labours for the truth, biassed by a wish to set forward extreme Church laxity of opinion will never (in vitally important principles, feel that lay judges can be better trusted points) spread very far. The history of the to adhere to precedent than episcopal judges. Of early Councils warns all to beware of episcopal the two evils, the toleration of some degree of absolutism. laxity, and the settmg up of an episcopal des- Yours faithfully, potism in the Church, the evangelical clergy would, Rugby, Jan. m, 1865. E. T. Sale.

NEW BOOKS.

Mr. Ludlow has chosen a subject of great im- have spread among the Protestant Churches of the it ability. * portance, and treated with great Whether Continent, almost as widely as Dorcas Societies ; women have work to do in the Christian Church is Lutheran and Reformed have found in them the scarcely now a matter of dispute. Work has been same source of strength and usefulness. And conceded to them; ungraciously, perhaps ; with graduallj'^ it has been discovered that the principle misgiving, and ominous mutterings of failure. Tliey of these Societies was what we wanted at home. have had to find it for themselves, and have had to Dr. Howson's book on Deaconnesses helped to set about it in a desultory way. Yet notwith stand- spread the impression in their favour. The Bible ing such unfavourable circumstances they have made women felt the need of more training, more dis- their claim good, and illustrated it by examples, tinctness, more constancy of efifort, and devoted- conspicuous even in an age that is most conspicuous ness in the superintendence. Slowly, and against for its earnest philanthropy. But how far, and in much irrational, and some not unnatural prejudices, what direction they may work is a problem that we the idea for which Dr. Fliedner, and many more, are far from having settled : whether in sisterhoods so nobly spent their lives, has won a hold upon the or as individuals, trained or untrained, parochial or Enghsh mind ; and tentative efforts liave been made nonparochial, with how little or how much system ; to introduce it in a practical shape. It is in this by irregvdar impulse, or under the control of a state of feeling that Mr. Ludlow's book makes its guiding principle, or a firm governing will. On the welcome appearance. He reviews the position of face of it, trained and systematic work seems the women in the Church from the beginning, —a his- most desirable : but there have been sisterhoods in torical inquiry of the greatest moment to a right England that made men suspicious of system, conclusion on the siibject. He traces this principle Kames, and rules, and vows have been paraded that of womanly help through its various developments made Englishmen start back as if from a convent. in the Romish Churcli and elsewhere, till it seems Rather than that, they have said, let us have the to have died out in the stagnation and repression of

most desultory effort, be as feeble and uneconomical, conventual life : and follows it into its more active as full of great aims and petty results, as much development in the French Catholicism of the pre- among the poor, with as little understanding of sent century, and the free and healthy revival of poverty, as we have been. Meanwhile the need the Protestant communities. It is a review of deep for work has increased ; there is more to do, and interest, and marked by the most careful study, and

it is harder to do it. And abroad, the experi- a fine historical spirit. It is a stream of Church ment from which we shrank has been tried, and history that has never been fairly explored, and to found to answer. It has been as great a blessing which Mr. Ludlow has betaken himself with a per- to the poor who were helped, as to the womeo severance and ardour that have been amply repaid.

that helped them : in both ways it has brought It is an able book that will help to guide opinions blessings to the Church. Deaconness's institutions on a matter of the widest importance, and more than any other we know, will lielp to the recognition • Woman's Work in the Church. By J. Malcolm of woman's true place in the Chiu'ch of Christ. LvDLOW. 'London : Strahan. 186J.

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