105-6.

Happily, in Bristol, where he conducted a school, the door of the Church was not so very low, but that even men with heads on their shoulders could get in. There he was the means of converting a Mr. Grant from infidelity; and there at last he offered his services for the Indian Mission; and in three weeks from that day was sailing down the Channel.

knowledge' of Christianity to have much Yet the first-fruit gathered was to be part'heart knowledge' of its truths. They kept ly of his planting. On the very day that him, therefore, in a state of probation for seven his inquirer had rejoiced his heart by tell. years, and he eventually left Westbury Leighing the "Church" at Serampore of his rewithout having been baptized.”—Vol. i. PP. ligious experience, he had to set a native's arm. He preached to him till he wept. Nor were his tears feigned, or from transient feeling. Mr. Thomas was in a few weeks summoned to take part in the baptism of Krishnu, with his brother, wife, and daughter. He came. He saw the wonderful sight of these Hindus sitting down to the table of the missionaries, and thereby renouncing their caste. This step raised the mob, who dragged the converts before the magistrate; but he sensibly commended Krishnu and his brother, and ordered the mob to disperse. The converts were brought before the Church to state the way in which they had been led to embrace the religion of Christ. Poor Thomas, who now saw his long labors of many years repaid, was overcome. Heavy weights of sorrow had not overturned his ill-balanced mind; but as he heard these first Hindu converts tell how the grace of God had led them, his reason gave way under excess of joy. The mob once dismissed by the magistrate returned, accusing the convert Krishnu of having refused to give his daughter to the man to whom she was betrothed. But the feeble Danes showed a moral courage which, after all these years, is not always displayed by British magistrates, as witness the Royapettah riot at Madras. The rioters were dismissed, the girl was assured of liberty of action, and a voluntary offer of protection was made to the missionaries for the public administration of baptism.

At Serampore the missionaries found the governor and authorities among their best friends. In Calcutta they had on their side two chaplains-David Brown, a noble Yorkshireman, who long and well bore witness for his Master amid fearful ungodliness, and Claudius Buchanan, whose name is better known in England. The British Government were persuaded by them that the missionaries did not mean any harm. The state of religious information in Calcutta may be judged of from the fact that a newspaper editor, taking it for granted that the unknown word "Baptist" must be a mistake, announced that four Papist missionaries had arrived.

The missionaries, according to a plan of Mr. Carey, agreed to live together as one family. They were to dine at one table, to place all their income in a common fund, by whomsoever earned, and to allow each family a certain sum for "personal expenses." This was a plan conceived in a fine spirit, but not fitted for permanent working. No Missionary Society then laboring in India had adopted the rule, which served the Methodists so much from the first, that men were not to engage in secular pursuits. The devoted at Serampore had their own efforts to look to for the chief part of their expenses. Yet, as Mr. Marshman shows, those who did little in the way of money were willing to do much in that of control, and could give strong opinions even upon the cost of Mrs. Ward's bonnet.

Poor Mr. Thomas, as fervent and wayward as ever, was away in the interior manufacturing sugar, and preaching the Gospel. He came with a hopeful inquirer to Serampore in a great excitement of joy; but when, after his return, his disciple disappeared, he became as much depressed,

The scene of the baptism was on steps leading down to the river, before the Mission premises. The Governor, the Europeans, and a vast crowd of natives assembled. Carey walked forward with two candidates-his own son and the Hindu Krishnu on either hand. The other converts had quailed at the last hour. As he advanced from the mission-house, poor Thomas was raving wild in a room on one side of the path, and his own wife hopelessly wailing on the other; as if the spirit of darkness had permission to rage at the first triumphs of Christianity among the natives of Bengal. Down to the water went the Baptist preacher and his two disciples, the one the son of his own heart, the other the first-fruits of a

great nation. He solemnly addressed the crowd. Silence and deep feeling prevailed. Brave old Governor Bie shed manly tears. The waters went over the Hindu, and the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, sounded across an arm of the Ganges. That evening the Lord's Supper was first celebrated in the language of Bengal. The cup of the missionaries was full of joy and hope. Krishnu was but one, but a continent was coming behind him.

Perhaps we feel all the more touched with this ceremony from the fact that we are thorough anti-immersionists. It is as certain that "dip" in our English version is never baptize in the original, as it is impossible to say where three thousand people could be immersed in a day in Jerusalem. Besides, we do not believe that any living soul ever saw one man immersed by another (unless he were a European Baptist) in all the East on any occasion. We have watched for the phenomenon in India, Egypt, Arabia, Palestine; but never once saw a native of those countries immerse himself. No doubt they do dive or duck sometimes; but we never saw it. They go down to a piece of water; sit by it or in it, and dash it over themselves, or go in to the shoulders, or swim, though seldom; but diving or ducking must be very rare. There was a tale told, we know not how true, of a Baptist translation into Bengalee which, in making the word "baptize" mean "immerse," got a term which meant "to drown." When the people heard of multitudes being "drowned" by John, they innocently murmured, "What a sinner!"

About six weeks after the first baptism came another great and holy event. The blessed New Testament was placed complete in the hand of its happy translator. The first copy was solemnly laid on the communion table; and the whole mission group, with the native converts, gathered around to offer up fervent thanksgiving. Men talk of making history; but of all the history-makers in the annals of a nation, none is equal with him who gives it the word of God in the mother tongue. From that hour the names of Carey and Serampore were touched with that true immortality which lies in the principle, "The word of the Lord endureth forever."

As in many other languages, the New Testament was the first prose work printed in Bengalee, except a code of laws.

Three eventful years of progress and toil had passed; and another great occasion came in the Mission-the first Christian marriage of Hindu converts; the first solemn inauguration of that happy institution, the Christian family, before which the seraglios of Bengal were eventually all to disappear. The pair to be united were a young Brahman and a girl of the carpenter caste; thus setting aside the prejudice of ages. Under a tree in front of the father-in-law's house, the faithful Krishnu, the first convert, gathered the party. The natives sat on mats, the Europeans on chairs. Mr. Carey performed the service, and the youthful couple signed the agreement-the first time the hand of a Hindu female in North-India had performed that act. All the missionaries signed as witnesses; and we feel sure that they were happier men that day than proud fathers attesting a flattering alliance. That night they partook of the wedding supper. The repast began by singing a hymn of Krishnu's own, which still lives; and then the Brahman husband, the European missionaries, the Sudra father-in-law, all feasted together; nothing wonderful in the eyes of England, a prodigy and a portent in those of India.

Another solemnity soon came. The little band of converts was called to see one of their number die-the same whose heart failed him the first day of baptism, but who " afterwards repented and went." The first Christian death was a scene of tranquil hope and joy in prospect of immortality. It strengthened the souls of the converts. How was the Christian to be buried? Usually persons of this creed were borne by drunken Portuguese, and among the Hindus a corpse is touched only by those of the same caste. A crowd gathered around to witness the novel ceremony. To their stupefaction the missionary Marshman, and young Carey, Byrub a Brahman, and Perroo a Mohammedan, placed the coffin of the Sudra on their shoulders. Singing a Bengalee hymn, "Salvation through the death of Christ," they marched the funeral march of caste among the Christians of Serampore. The German missionaries in South-India had unhappily permitted caste to enter among the converts; but in the North it was faced at first, and the benefit has been great.

The first labors of a native evangelist soon followed. The Serampore Mission

of state, was seated the magnificent Mar-
quis of Wellesley, in the full meridian of
his renown. The occasion was to honor
the college which he he had created, by
a public disputation. Three selected pu-
pils from each class were brought forth as
disputants, headed by the professor, who
acted as moderator.
In that presence
stood forth the meek but mighty Carey,
as professor of both Bengalee and Sans-
crit, and on him devolved the task of ad-
dressing a speech to the great viceroy, in
the latter ancient and, to India, sacred
tongue. He fully avowed his work as a
preacher and teacher, and took his place
as bravely as he wore his fame humbly.

aries early perceived that the most fruitful of all their works would be sending forth native laborers. They kept this car dinal point steadily in view. They daily and carefully trained their converts, and prayed much and earnestly in all their undertakings. The first who had gladdened their hearts as a convert, Krishnu the carpenter, was also the first to go forth on Christ's errand among his countrymen. In this journey tracts were freely distributed, thus bringing two powerful agents into play at once. The eagerness of the people to receive the strange thing, a printed book, was very great. Some of the books thus given away brought inquirers from a great distance to Serampore, who, following the light first showed by the book, found the teachers and became true Christians. The first convert from the Kayusts, the caste next to the Brahmans, came in this way from a distance of thirty miles: and the first from the Brahmans themselves, a fine young man, came by the same means from the neighborhood where Carey had passed a miserable month in the Sunderbunds. The history of every mission in India shows many cases of this kind. Yet good men, even missionaries, are found zealously op-culty to five European ones. They learned posing a free distribution of books, ay, even the word of God, in regions where, at the present rate of progress, a missionary can not reach for ages. Crotchets can stop the simplest efforts at usefulness, as well as the most elaborate.

Now came the effort to establish stations on British territory. One was tried, but the missionary had to retreat under shelter of Serampore.

Nearly twelve years had passed since Carey was smuggled into Calcutta, and sheltered in a hovel by the charity of a heathen. It was a high day at Government House that superb residence built at a cost of £145,000, for the GovernorsGeneral, by the most splendid of their line. The fashion, wealth, and beauty of Calcutta crowded its noble throne-room. "The most eminent men in the native community; the learned Brahmans from all parts of the empire, in their simple attire; the opulent rajahs and baboos, and the representatives of the native princes of India, in their plunied and jeweled turbans, were assembled to do honor to the majesty of British power." On the dais at the head of this grand assembly, surrounded by the judges and high officers

The position of professor in the Fort William College, to which his preeminent talents had carried him, was advantageous to him in many ways, and all these were turned into advantages to that for which he lived his mission. In point of literary labor he and Marshman were scarcely men, they were a sort of miracles. They dealt with languages, hard and untried languages, as other men might with poetry. To learn one language well is a work of some skill; and all agree that one Indian language is about equal in point of diffi

the living and the dead, those spoken at their doors, those spoken far away. They made grammars and translations of Scripture, and of native works into English, on a scale that had much more of prodigy than of practical wisdom; but, as a prodigy, nothing like it has been done. They conceived grandly, lived like great souls in a wide sphere, and wrought for millions, and for distant generations. Men in Serampore translating into Mahratta, and Canarese, and Teloogoo, was not wise, but it was wonderful and zealous. But wonderful beyond all, and a proof of patience combined with intellectual power never exceeded, was Marshman's undertaking, in the midst of his other labors, to learn Chinese. He did it, and actually translated the Scriptures; and then, to get money to print them, translated Confucius, for which the rich liberally subscribed. This can be written in a sentence, but, before it can be done

"How large a space of fleeting life is lost!" And how many lives would have to be doubled a dozen times before it could be done at all! The man who did this was earning £2000 a year, with his wife, for

bad. The public body ought to engage for the man's full support, and the missionary give his whole efforts to the public interest alone. This had not been the case at Serampore; and serious, we may say painful, collision between the missionaries and the Society at home was the natural result. Into the results we do not enter. They will be remembered as an instruction in the future management of missions.

writings did much to bring the mission
not only before his own denomination, but
the public at large. After having preached
one Wednesday evening, he was next day
seized with cholera, and speedily rested
from his labors. "The three old men,"
says the historian, "had lived and labored
together for twenty-three years, as if one
soul animated them, and it was difficult to'
realize the fact that one of them was gone."
Grief turned a partial deafness of Dr.
Marshman into a total one.
"I never,"
he said "did any thing, I never published
a page without consulting him." He had
first gained the missionary's reward, and
his brethren had yet to wait and labor.

Twelve years longer the two Titans of
Indian philology toiled on in love and one-

The great passion of Dr. Carey's life was to give the holy Scriptures to all India in the mother tongue of each province. Few things more clearly display the magnitude of the country, than the difficulty of learning how many languages are spoken in it. At Serampore a map was published, according to the best lightness. Marshman more than once fell, for of the day, showing where each tongue prevailed, the errors of which are a touching proof that India is a region so vast as to baffle not only conception, but even inquiry, for a length of time. Pundits of different nations were assembled at Serampore, and labored under the direction of the missionaries in producing versions in the various languages. Seven years was the shortest period given to the preparation of any one version; but several proceeded simultaneously. In the year 1822 the New Testament had been published in twenty of the languages of India. This prodigious performance overtaxed the resources at their command, and brought them into straits. These, and the painful separation from the Society in England through questions of property, clouded many of their later days.

It was more than thirty years since Dr. Carey, now renowned and honored, had landed friendless on the shores of Bengal. For the chief part of that time his two great coadjutors had been joined with him in every success and trial. They were not alike, but well suited. They had misunderstandings with their colleagues, struggles with the government, controversies with persons of other denominations, and heart-burning differences with their Society in England; but between themselves had always subsisted a firm and happy union. Ward was the most genial, affectionate, and eloquent of the three. He was eminently devoted to the service of God, and happy in the active work of seeking souls, to bring them to the Redeemer. He had been to Europe and America, where his speaking and

a season, under the effects of melancholy, but was mercifully delivered from it, and enabled to "enjoy almost a heaven upon earth" with his Bible, and in his glorious work. Carey had generally good though not robust health. He had reached his seventy-third year. More than forty had been spent in Bengal without a break. He was, as Sir Charles, afterwards Lord, Metcalfe expressed it, "surrounded by his own good works, and attended by the respect and applause of all good men." He had the feeling of every good servant strong in him-a dread of "becoming useless." To labor till the hour of his final rest sounded, by his Master's order, was his ambition. Yet he was gently laid aside for a little while before the moment for meeting his Lord. The two old men loved each other like boys, and took counsel together like patriarchs, standing on the banks of the deep river we have all to cross, with the unseen but not unknown shore only hidden below the horizon. Dr. Marshman

"visited him daily, often twice in the day, and the interviews were always marked by cheerfulness. They had lived and labored together in the same spot for nearly thirty-five years. They were the last survivors of a generation which had passed away, and they seemed peculiarly to belong to each other."

"The progress of Christian truth in India was the chief topic of conversation with the various missionary friends who visited Dr. Carey during his illness. While confined to his couch, Lady William Bentinck repeatedly came over to visit him, and Dr. Wilson, the Bishop of Calcutta, came to his dying-bed, and asked his benediction. In the prospect of death Dr. Carey exhibited no raptures and no apprehensions.