with sticks and a blanket over it, creep under this, and deem themselves luxuriously accommodated. This gathering at Allahabad is in the cold weather, and if the nights be very cold, as they sometimes are at that season, no doubt many suffer severely. Every now and then heavy rain falls, and then, as may be supposed, the suffering is extreme. Sanitary precautions are of the utmost importance where such vast crowds meet and remain together for days, and these are taken by the authorities. They cannot, however, provide against suffering caused by bad weather. Occasionally cholera breaks out, and then the scenes witnessed are appalling. At the mela of 1840 the weather was good, and there was no indication of disease among the people. Some years afterwards we were travelling towards Allahabad at an early period of the mela, and met crowds fleeing from it on account of the outbreak of cholera. Here and there we saw corpses at the side of the road, occasionally without one person near, at other times with a weeping group around, who were preparing to carry off the body to some rivulet to have it burnt, or, as it often happens, to have it scorched, and then left to be devoured by jackals and vultures. Some had held on their way with weary limbs till the fell disease seized them, and then they succumbed, lay down, and died. We remember stopping where a young man was dying, with two or three sorrowful ones around him. We spoke to him, but got no reply. His glazed eye told he was beyond all human help.

One of the first things I saw at this Allahabad mela was a quantity of human hair, and was told that it had been cut off after the fulfilment of vows, reminding one of a custom to which we find frequent reference in both the Old and New Testaments. I also saw a very disgusting

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sight-men in stark nudity, sitting in a very composed dignified fashion, and women approaching them with folded hands, and paying them profound homage. These were deemed men of great sanctity, whose blessing brought signal benefit, while their curse entailed terrible calamities. At an early period of our residence at Benares we sometimes met these naked creatures in the streets; but for many years they have disappeared, as there is a magisterial order that they be flogged for their indecency, however loud may be their pretension of sanctity. At Allahabad there were many devotees with their tangled hair, besmeared bodies, and very scanty clothing-if what they had on could be called clothing. These are yet seen all over the country. The time has not yet come for stringent orders in these cases.

On the occasion of a gathering such as that of Allahabad a stranger sees no sign of the separating influence of caste. The people move about and mix with each other as freely as people do in Europe when assembled in large numbers. There is nothing in caste to prevent people conversing with each other and being on friendly terms; but the friendliness must not go the length of eating together or of intermarriage. There are indeed large classes deemed so low, so outside the pure Hindu castes, that, so far as is possible, their touch is shunned, and they are not allowed to enter temples; but even these may be spoken to and caste purity retained. We have not in Northern India a class so low that they must hide themselves when a Brahman appears, as Pariahs have to do in some parts of Southern India. In fact, at Hindu melas one receives a pleasing impression of the social character of the people, when he observes their good humour and friendly intercourse.

We do not wonder at the popularity of these gatherings. The social feeling is as strong among the Hindus as among any people on the face of the earth. The vast majority lead lives of monotonous toil in places where there is no excitement greater than that of ordinary village and hamlet life, and to them it must be a great pleasure to resort to the gatherings of their people, where religion, business, and amusement are very happily combined, and where there is so much to interest, exhilarate, and gratify them. These times are to them the red-letter days of the year, without which life would be intolerably dull. Resort to these gatherings no doubt involves them in toil, in expense, and sometimes in great suffering; but they do not shrink from the cost, as they anticipate the expected benefit.

There cannot be a doubt that Hinduism is greatly strengthened by these melas. Judaism was greatly strengthened by the people according to the Divine command going up thrice every year, at appointed times, to the place where the name of the Lord was, and by their repairing in vast numbers once a year to their sacred capital after they had become widely scattered among the nations. Muhammadans, by long journeys and perilous voyages, make their way to Mecca and Medina, their sacred cities, and make it a point to be present at the most sacred season, when many thousands are assembled. These pilgrims return to their homes more devoted than ever to Islam. It would be strange if Christianity, which above every other religion aims at producing and sustaining the feeling of universal brotherhood, did not avail itself of this social feeling, to which so much scope is given in human religions, and which is so potent in confirming the devotion of their adherents.

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Our blessed Saviour, the Head of the Church, has by the institution of Churches, and the instruction given to them through His Apostles, provided for the fellowship of His people; and the occasional gathering of the members of different Churches, to which the principles of the Gospel point, and to which it gives the fullest sanction, presents precious opportunities for the manifestation and exercise. of the brotherliness so characteristic of the kingdom of heaven which our Lord came to set up on the earth.

CHAPTER XI.

THE OBJECT OF MISSIONS, AND VARIOUS MODES

OF OPERATION.

THERE is no difference of opinion among missionaries as to the object for which they have gone to the heathen. They are all agreed their object is to make known the Gospel, the message of salvation, to all to whom they obtain access, to explain its nature, and press its claims on their acceptance. To this nothing can be held superior; to this everything must be deemed subordinate. To place anything above it, or even beside it, would be to lose sight of the very raison d'être of their missionary calling.

There may be, however, and there often is, a difference of opinion as to the line of operation best fitted to secure success. Missionaries find themselves in presence of widely-separated classes, who must be approached in different ways, and it is the part of wisdom to find out the most direct path to their understanding, conscience, and heart. About these modes of operation there has often been marked diversity of opinion, some pleading for one mode, and others for another. It cannot be denied that in the discussion thus carried on there has often been one-sidedness, resulting in some cases from natural liking, in some from special fitness, in others from