till it rests in Him,"-as even Heaven itself will not be Heaven unless it be Home,—and since no man cometh thus to the Father's House but by the Lord Jesus, with what untiring zeal should we strive to make known to the Heathen the knowledge of that saving Name! Here lies the grand distinction between Christianity and its counterfeits, together with all other creeds. "By Me alone can you come to God," says the Lord Jesus; and the believing heart replies, "Nothing in my hand I bring." "By your own merit," say other religions, "or by the merit overflowing from saints or ancestors, so must you come to God;" and, "something in my hand I bring," says the believer in such creeds. The gates which lift up their heads with joy for the one, will never open for the other.

home was near.

In the autumn of 1879, a Chinese Christian lay dying in the village of Great Valley. The tidings of outrage and robbery directed against the Christians reached his ear. Distressed and grieved, he rapidly became worse; but as death approached, earth's sorrows vanished, for "Jesus calls me to go home," he said, as he departed. Home, to the Father, he passed in peace, through the Lord Jesus, as His Shepherd, Guide, and Mediator,-that blessed Name which was unknown in Great Valley only four years ago; and might have been unknown for ever to poor Lebbous Chow, but for the work of the Church Missionary Society in those regions.

Whatever the future of the Great Valley Mission may be, that one soul safely landed on the eternal shore will infinitely overpay all the toil and tears, the anxiety and the fears which have marked its course; and such cases might, through God's grace, be multiplied manifold, were Christians to awake to their solemn duty, and the Church to go forth in her loving might, to proclaim to the despairing Heathen the knowledge of Jesus Christ, "the Way, the Truth, and the Life."

ON MISSIONS IN THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES OF INDIA. NE of the chief difficulties in explaining missionary work among the heathen abroad arises from the vast amount of practical ignorance which still exists in England, even among persons comparatively well informed, as to the variety of races, languages, customs, and habits which among us is classed under some one compendious term, such as India. It is almost in vain that endeavours are made to make it clear that what may be perfectly true of one division of the country may convey totally erroneous impressions concerning the rest. Certain general ideas have been, with difficulty, grasped by hearers or readers, and no amount of labour avails to dispel what produces illusion, or to differentiate where it is necessary. Even persons who have been resident in India not unfrequently contribute to this confusion. Their sojourn in the country has been limited to a certain province or provinces; they have been familiarized with certain races. They are too apt to generalize from their own imperfect experience, and to argue from

what they thoroughly comprehend to what they, in reality, only guess about. Hence a multitude of conflicting, and often erroneous opinions, uttered bona fide, and with extreme confidence; sometimes, too, decisions are founded upon theories which are well enough in certain cases, but inapplicable in other conditions.

If any one would care to investigate the appropriateness of these remarks he may consult Mountstuart Elphinstone's History of India. That great authority, in the outset of his work, is careful to call the attention of his readers to these necessary distinctions. He explains that in India there are ten different civilized nations found within Hindustan and the Deckan, a country equal in extent to all Europe, except Russia and the countries north of the Baltic. All these nations differ from each other in manners and language, nearly as much so as those inhabiting the corresponding portions of Europe. But even although this has been proclaimed since by others, as well as Mountstuart Elphinstone, how many ordinary Englishmen realize it? They have some conception of the difference between a German and a Spaniard, but the Hindustani and the Tamil are one and the same, they are all alike Indians. Yet, "in the extremities of the north and south of India the languages have no resemblance, except from a common mixture of Sanscrit; the religious sects are different; the architecture is of a different character; the dress differs in many respects, and the people differ in appearance. The northern people live much on wheat, and those in the south on rági, a grain almost as unknown in Hindustan as in England." Mountstuart Elphinstone then goes on to explain the distinction between Bengal and Gangetic Hindustan, where there is great dissimilitude between the people, arising mainly from climatic causes, although there is no difference of race. Some will be surprised at learning that "the language of the Bengalis is quite unintelligible to a native of Hindustan," although the countries are contiguous, and were early subjected to the same government.

It must, of course, be borne in mind that there are general points of resemblance among the Natives of India, but we do not insist upon them here, as the error in England mainly consists in fancies about this resemblance, while the important fact of differences is lost sight of. Before discussing missionary operations it may be convenient here to note the characteristics of the Hindustanis in our North-West Provinces. We are told that "the Hindustanis on the Ganges are the tallest, fairest, and most warlike and manly of the Indians; they wear the turban, and a dress resembling that of the Mohammedans; their houses are tiled, and built in compact villages in open country; their food is unleavened wheaten bread." In the North-West Provinces the density of the population of India reached its highest point in the time of Elphinstone, namely, 420 to the square mile, a population of thirty millions and a quarter within an area of 72,054 square miles. There are few instances in the North-West of the magnificent pagodas which abound in other parts of India. Al

*The census of 1871-2 altered these figures, and the approaching census may alter them again.

though an original seat of Hindu worship, the temples as a rule are insignificant, being rather small shrines than temples, and free from the elaborate and often most obscene carvings which are supposed to adorn, but in reality disgrace, Indian shrines in other districts.* The Hindi language is a branch of the Sanscrit, altered by some admixture of local and foreign words, and new inflections. The northern division of the North-West Provinces comprises much of the country which is the scene of the exploits recorded in the Mahabharata, while in the southern portion we have more to do with those mentioned in the Ramayana. At present some of the greatest seats of Hindu superstition, such as Benares, Muttra, and Brindrabun, are found in the North-West Provinces, while the waters of the Ganges are held in most especial veneration, and pilgrimages and bathings in sacred streams, especially at their junction, are much frequented. It is questionable, however, whether this will be much longer permanent. There are not wanting indications that as the goddess now worshipped in the Ganges migrated thither from her former seat on the river Saraswatti, now not a stream at all, so she may not erelong shift her quarters once more. The next century will, it is anticipated, witness this change, and we are already on the verge of it. În the event of this the valley of the Nerbudda will be the next seat of Hindu worship. Astute Brahmins are already anticipating and making preparations for this change. It is not easy for those who have become familiar with the notion of Benares having been so long what Delphi was to the Greeks, the "navel" of the whole of India, to anticipate the time when Benares may be a neglected, and perhaps mouldering city, sparsely inhabited, on the margin of an unhonoured stream+

"While each peculiar power foregoes his wonted seat."

In the meantime, the North-West Provinces contain the most extensively venerated seats of Hindu superstition. This, in itself, is an especial difficulty in the way of the progress of Christianity in this particular region. The introduction of Christianity into the North-West Provinces may be fairly ascribed to the honoured names of Martyn and Corrie. They arrived in Calcutta in 1806. Shortly afterwards, Martyn, who would have liked to have gone to Benares, "the heart of Hinduism," was appointed by the commander-in-chief to Dinapore, near Patna. As an illustration of the condition of European society in India at that time, we may mention that, on his calling on the judge at Bankipore,

* Temples with obscene carvings to be seen in Benares, might be instanced in contradiction to the above statement; but it is a curious fact that such temples have been built by wealthy princes and natives of Southern India, like the Rajah of Vizianagram and others. These are a foreign importation as much as Jewish synagogues are in London.

† Although this notion is now very prevalent, and is resulting in a certain kind of action, it is no novelty. In the C. M. Record for January, 1832, Mr. Bowley reports, "This morning Thakoor and Rhodim went to read at the Ghaut. There was a pretty good crowd assembled, and a pundit from among them said, 'Take my word for it, in the course of sixtyone years all shall become one.' In the course of the above-mentioned time the Gunga is to disappear, and be no more." Again, in the same year, at Meerut, a Brahmin stood up, and said, “In fifty years there will be no more a worshipper of Gunga. The days are coming when we shall all be of this faith, for there is no more power remaining in Gunga."

he had to remind "that aged apostate to Mohammedanism, that the Son of God had died in the stead of sinners. His mosque (it being the Mohurram) was adorned with flags, and attended with music, and at night illumined, proclaimed the shame of the hoary sinner." Father Angelo, a Romish priest at Agra, wrote to Martyn, complaining of a Father Gregory, who gave a feast, and had Mohammedan dancing girls on Good Friday, and forbade the people to eat pork, and did all he could to ingratiate himself with the Mohammedans! Two years afterwards Martyn was transferred to Cawnpore, and so found himself in the North-West Provinces, whither Corrie, who was stationed at Chunar, had preceded him. The opportunities for direct missionary operations were, however, so restricted, that although Martyn was a "black chaplain "* his translations of Holy Scripture and Abdul Masih were his chief contributions directly to the work: his indirect influence was great and blessed. Corrie, who was gifted with more abundant health, was zealous in season and out of season. He engaged a Native catechist to teach, and established schools for Native children. He built a small church at Secrole, and a beautiful church at Chunar, with a small chapel at Buxar. In 1813 he was appointed chaplain at Agra, and took Abdul Masih with him, who gathered in a congregation which soon counted fifty members. In 1816, Mr., afterwards the Rev. William Bowley, was settled as a missionary at Chunar, where he was afterwards found, in 1819, by the first ordained missionary sent out by the Church Missionary Society. As Bishop Middleton refused to ordain missionaries, Mr. Bowley was ordained according to the usages of the German Lutheran Church by Messrs. Jetter and Deerr, who had arrived in India under the auspices of the Church Missionary Society, as Schwartz, Gerické, Kohlhoff, and so many others, had been maintained by the Venerable Society, C.K.S. He was afterwards admitted to Episcopal ordination by Bishop Heber.

It is from 1819 that regular and direct missionary operations in the North-West may strictly be dated as commencing. Some converts had been previously gathered in, but a convert was a "prodigy," and "to renounce heathenism was the blackest crime a man could commit." At Benares the first efforts were made in connexion with schools, preaching being only occasional, until the arrival of Mr. Smith. We may be spared further reference to the work at Benares, in consequence of the full details recently, and still being furnished in this periodical, by Mr. Leupolt. Allahabad was for a long time not taken up as a station, but the chaplain preached to the Natives, and it was visited by Mr. Bowley on the great festivals. Nonconformist Missions, however, existed there. The origin of missionary stations at Agra, Meerut, and other places, is very similar. In the North-West, in the absence of missionaries, evangelistic work was commenced by pious chaplains, for the most part not directly, but with the help of Native catechists. When the chaplain could, in subordination to his proper duties, he preached; he usually took the oversight, but whenever the work

* "Black" chaplains were those interested in Missions; the "white" chaplains took no interest in the matter.

grew missionaries were invited to superintend it, and upon them devolved the charge and the growth of the infant Churches. In this they acted independently, and with steady devotion to their own peculiar department of Christian work. Still, the names of such "black chaplains" as Martyn at Cawnpore, Corrie at Chunar, Parish at Agra, and Fisher at Meerut, are deservedly held in honour in the Church of Christ. With the exception of Cawnpore, it was to the Church Missionary Society that the chaplains appealed for missionaries, and to which they transferred such converts as there were. The number, even in 1837, was not great. Twelve communicants were reported from Benares, and there may have been a few more at Chunar and Goruckpore, but no information is given. There were about 400 boys and 100 girls in the schools, and 600 youths and adults are specified at Benares. Such was the spiritual condition of the NorthWest Provinces, viewed in connexion with actual results. There had of course besides been much dissemination of the good seed, the Word of God, which was to bear its fruit in due time. In various ways, too, by preaching-chapels in cantonments, at melas, and by itinerations, there had been continuous proclamation of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It may be noted, as a matter of interest, that at Kurnaul, in 1836, the first Brahmin ever admitted into Holy Orders of the Church of England, was ordained by Bishop Wilson. Anand Masih was a convert of fifteen years' standing, a catechist of the Church Missionary Society, and received his title from the Society.

It is a curious fact in connexion with the progress of Christianity in the North-West Provinces, that although the see of Calcutta was founded in 1813, no Bishop of the Church of England was seen in them till 1824. Bishop Middleton visited the Straits of Malacca, Madras, Ceylon, and Bombay, but in his own peculiar diocese, or archdeaconry, as it was then termed, he did not penetrate further than Dum Dum, seven miles from Calcutta. Bishop Heber passed through on visitation in 1824. The next Episcopal visit was that of Bishop Wilson in 1836.

While the period between 1819 and 1832 was marked by direct missionary operations, it should be noted that, with few exceptions, these were carried on by catechists under the direction of those chaplains who were willing to assist so far as their own peculiar duties admitted. The regular pastoral ministrations, evangelistic preachings through the country-in fact what is usually understood as missionary work-was the business of the catechists. Local supplies were raised, interest was created among European residents, places of worship and schools were erected by the energy of the chaplains, who also occasionally supplemented the labours of the catechists where their intervention was necessary. In some few remarkable instances the chaplains preached to the Natives, but these were rare. Relics of this system still survive in India, in places where our great societies are unable to maintain Missions. In these sporadic exertions Missions too often originate, even in our own times; all such efforts, however, are, and must be, precarious, as they depend upon the zeal of indi