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ALEXANDER DUFF, D.D., LL.D.

BY THE REV. J. MURRAY MITCHELL, LL.D.

To describe the career of Dr. Duff with have no enthusiasm ; I can only plod." We

any fulness would require a volume rather than the few pages to which we must restrict ourselves. We can barely enumerate the more prominent points in his long and noble career; we cannot afford to dwell on any one of these, when we would fain linger on each.

He was born in the parish of Moulin, in Perthshire, on April 25th, 1806. Those that are acquainted with Charles Simeon's biography will recollect the name of this parish and that of the pious pastor, Alexander Stewart. A visit from Simeon in 1796 was of great service in quickening into holy joy and active usefulness the seeds of true faith that were already sown in the young minister's heart. He began to preach with burning zeal, and the inhabitants of his mountain parish listened with rapt attention. A great revival of religion followed, the effects of which were clearly discernible many years afterwards. When I visited Dr. Duff, in 1838, while he resided in his native parish on his first return from India, he spoke with admiration of the meekness and other Christian graces that adorned the character of not a few members of Stewart's flock who still survived. He grew up in the midst of such influences; his own father being among the fruits of that remarkable awakening. We have dwelt on this at the greater length because, through Stewart and Simeon, Alexander Duff becomes linked to Henry Martyn, who owed much to Simeon, and to whom Simeon owed much.

Alexander Duff attended the parish school of Kirk Michael, then the excellent Perth academy, and so qualified himself for entering the University of St. Andrews, which he did in 1821. He gained by competition, on beginning his academical career, one of those bursaries which have been of signal service to deserving students in Scotland.

By the time he entered college young Duff already exhibited many of those qualities which became so marked in his after-life. Characteristics that seemed almost necessarily to exclude each other were combined in him. He had in the fullest measure all the fire and imagination which we ascribe to the genuine Celt; but he had also, as much as Saxon ever had, an unconquerable energy and dogged perseverance. One is reminded of the admirable Carey's complaint of himself: "I

apprehend that Carey had no small measure of what may be called latent enthusiasm, and that this sustained and fructified his plodding. Duff, on the contrary, had enthusiasm irrepressible, a soul of fire that revealed itself in every look and gesture; yet he could plod as well as Carey, and force a way, when he could not find it, with all the iron will of Livingstone. Then, along with a glowing imagination, there co-existed a singular power of concentration, a faculty of close consecutive thought, a sagacity, a constructiveness, and what a writer who watched him closely in India has called "the highest kind of diplomacy." Added to all this there was an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. No book came wrong to him. He read rapidly, and was able to "tear the heart out of the book." He filled-as a fellowstudent of his once informed us-some dozen manuscript volumes with extracts from his favourite authors; all of which, however, went to the bottom of the sea on his voyage to India.

The reader will not be surprised to hear that a young man of this character rose to distinction, both at school and college. In almost every class Alexander Duff stood, if not actually first, yet amongst the first. Classics, mathematics, natural philosophy, and mental philosophy were all in turn successfully grappled with; and when he came to attend the College of St. Mary's, in which theology is taught, his ardour as a student remained unabated. While he relished every branch of study, yet theology and mental philosophy seem to have been those in which he delighted most. His class essays and his discourses at the Theological Hall seem to have been remarkable productions-very carefully elaborated, and marked by that breadth of view and "large utterance" which characterized him through life. At debating societies he was, as a matter of course, a leading man-ready, rapid, impassioned as a speaker, and, in demolishing an error or an adversary, altogether overwhelming.

When young Duff attended its classes, the moral and religious condition of St. Andrew's was anything but satisfactory. As Dr. Lindsay Alexander informs us, the students "had long had an unenviable reputation for lawlessness and ungodliness ;" and Duff himself has testified that, "as a whole, they were a

singularly Godless, Christless class." It is evident, however, that Alexander Duff was not injured by the contagion that was all around. The example and teachings of his pious parents had already impressed his soul with a profound conviction of the reality and power of vital religion. He was also greatly strengthened by the companionship of a very remarkable young man, John Urquhart, whom he had previously known at the Perth Academy. Urquhart was described in afteryears by Dr. Duff as having been "one of the saintliest youths that ever trod the stage of time." In physical, and some mental qualities, there was a striking contrast between the two friends. Duff in his bodily frame was firmly knit, robust, overflowing with manly energy. Urquhart was delicate in frame, and still more delicate in mind, although intellectual in a very high degree. He had consecrated himself to a missionary life; but his seraphic spirit had early done its allotted work on earth, and he was called to heaven, instead of going forth, as he had hoped, to China. He died at the age of eighteen.

Still another influence powerfully affected the mind of Duff. Soon after he entered college Dr. Thomas Chalmers was appointed Professor of Moral Philosophy at St. Andrew's, beginning his duties in November, 1823. Of the wonderful gifts of Chalmers it is wholly unnecessary to speak. His lofty enthusiasm kindled the hearts of all around him; and the change was unbounded which he introduced into the dull routine of the academic life as it then was at the venerable university. Alexander Duff was one of the many youths who came under the beneficent sway of "the mighty master." Almost immediately on the arrival of Chalmers a few of the theological students formed themselves into a Missionary Association; and early in the session of 1824-5 a general society was established, the small society of the theological students was united with it, and thus originated the "St. Andrew's University Society." The society early had the distinction of sending forth not a few of its members to the high places of the field. Including Duff and Urquhart, there were six young men who soon felt themselves called to go "far hence unto the Gentiles," Robert Nesbit leading the way.

At this time the Church of Scotland had not, in her corporate capacity, sent forth missionaries to the heathen. Perhaps for the sake of readers in England I should explain that the Presbyterian Churches of Britain

and Ireland do not conduct their evangelistic work through "societies." The whole Church is a missionary society, and the work is carried on by a Committee appointed at each annual meeting of the General Assembly. At the time of which we were speaking the Scottish Church had not, as a Church, embarked in missionary work; but a large body of her ministers and members were hearty supporters of evangelistic enterprise. Dr. John Love had a great share in the establishment of the London Missionary Society; and that institution received large support in Scotland. So did the Baptist Missionary Society, when men like Andrew Fuller and Marshman of Serampore pleaded its cause in the north. Then the Scottish Missionary Society, which was formed in 1796, was maintained with considerable zeal by men of evangelical belief. But the missionary spirit was rising; and in 1824, on the proposition of Dr. John Inglis, a man of deservedly great authority, it was agreed by the General Assembly that the Church should enter, as a Church, on foreign missionary work, India being named as the special sphere of the proposed operations. Some delay occurred, and Mr. Duff, on the conclusion of his theological course, was recommended by Dr. Chalmers and Dr. Haldane, Professor of Divinity at St. Andrew's, as in every way qualified for the Indian work. The Assembly, in May, 1829, appointed him its missionary, and in August he was ordained to the holy ministry, Dr. Chalmers preaching and presiding. Soon after, he married Miss Drysdale, a lady of whom we simply remark that there could not have been a more faithful and devoted wife, or a more affectionate mother. Mr. and Mrs. Duff sailed for India in October of the same year.

His passage to India was not the smooth thing it has latterly become since the opening of the Overland route. As Dr. Duff expresses it, in his "India and Indian Missions"-" Seldom has there been a voyage, from first to last, so fraught with disaster and discipline; within the 'floating home' on the deep, a fiery furnace of evil tongues and wicked hearts; without, unusual vicissitudes of tempest and of danger." The vessel was completely wrecked on the 13th February, near Cape Town. With difficulty the lives of crew and passengers were saved; but almost everything on board was lost. Duff lost eight hundred volumes, including all his journals, note-books, essays, &c. The only thing that was recovered in an undamaged state was a copy of Bagster's Comprehensive Bible. The ardent missionary

Mr.

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recognised, in this fact, a call from Heaven, that thenceforward the Book of God should be his treasure and his directory through. life. They sailed from the Cape on 7th March, but disasters were still to come. The vessel nearly foundered in a gale off the Mauritius. Next, at the mouth of the Ganges, they were overtaken by a tremendous hurricane; and "all the horrors of a second shipwreck were experienced." It was not till the 27th May, 1830, that Mr. and Mrs. Duff reached Calcutta, "It

I more dead than alive." seemed," continues he, "as if the Prince of the power of the air had marshalled all his elements to oppose and prevent our arrival; and he very deeply felt that, at all events, the voyage had been a continuous time of sore discipline, preparing him for his future work.

In the end of May the atmo

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VII. N.S.

But

Dr. Duff was not the first missionary that taught the natives English. But in those days a little knowledge of our language went a long way; and when the pupil had acquired a sufficient measure of it to fit him for some clerkship, he invariably left school, and the result had been felt to be very discouraging. Little good, it was believed, could be effected through English. "the schoolmaster is the school:" and here had come a wonderful schoolmaster-a hero schoolmaster, as some one called Arnold,— and the passion for knowledge quickly passed from him, who was brimful of it, to all his pupils. So they stayed on to learn more and still more, and lamented when they were obliged to go.

sphere of Calcutta resembles that of a vapour to be taught; but it is important to know bath, and inspires a strong desire for repose how. Certainly not in that utterly astonishboth of mind and body. But the young mis-ing way in which it is often taught to children sionary had at once to face a very difficult whose vernacular is Welsh or Gaelic; the question. What was to be the sphere of his la- result of which is that the pupils often read bours? The Committee had proposed that this English fluently without comprehending a should not be in the city of Calcutta, though, syllable of the meaning. No; every lesson if possible, in the neighbourhood. A com- was translated into the vernacular; and, till bined system of teaching and preaching had the pupil had mastered the rendering, he also been recommended by them as the best received no new lesson in English. mode of carrying on his work. Where should he break ground, then? He made personal inquiries everywhere; saw the noble Serampore missionaries, Carey and his colleagues; consulted missionaries of the Church of England, and the London Missionary Society; visited the more enlightened leaders of native society; watched the mental state of the pupils attending the Hindu college; and after two months of careful inquiry, he decided, contrary to the views of the Committee at home, that Calcutta itself ought to be the seat of the mission. He saw there was in the capital a thirst for knowledgeand European knowledge-that existed nowhere else. He saw also that the youth attending the Hindu college-in which English literature was taught, but wholly without religion-were rushing with fearful rapidity into scepticism, and in many cases into unblushing immorality. These were the minds on which he felt himself specially called to work. They must be saved, if possible, from the gulf into which they were falling; they would be potent instruments of evil if they continued sceptics, and potent instruments of good if, through the grace of God, they could be brought to a knowledge and belief of the truth. For these then, God helping him, he would work with all his heart and soul.

But work how? "Sit down and study Dengali first," was the advice of all around him. He by no means undervalued the study of the native languages, in later days at least. But to master Bengali would take fully a year; and he longed-almost fretted-to begin his labours at once. He would try it. Great was the astonishment, and not small the merriment, occasioned by the strange attempt. When he opened his school, many excellent men (as he informed us long afterwards) cried out "There is the missionary who knows no Bengali, teaching boys that know no English." The Committee at home had set their hearts on having a college; but he saw there were no materials, and he determined to begin with a school, however humble. He actually began with five boys. English was

A great question at that time occupied the minds of all the friends of education in India. Should the higher instruction be communicated to the natives through English or their own classic tongues-Sanskrit in the case of Hindus, Arabic in the case of Mohammadans? The battle was at the hottest when Mr. Duff reached India. The question "convulsed," as he expresses it, "nearly the whole world of Orientalists and Christian philanthropists. Great names were ranged on both sides; the two most formidable of those who pleaded for English being Mr. (now Sir Charles) Trevelyan and Duff. A noble minute by Macaulay, then Legal member of council, which was written in February, 1835, finally won the victory; and the Court of Directors gave orders that the system of pampering Sanskrit and Arabic should cease, and that the literature and science of Europe should thenceforth be communicated to the natives of India through the medium of English. Lord William Bentinck, who was then Governor-General, was a man of progress and enlightened views, and he gave full effect to the dispatch of the Court of Directors. We presume the question of Sanskrit versus English need not be argued now. It will suffice to give an extract from Duff, which is as clear and convincing as the most brilliant paragraph in Macaulay's famous minute. There are scarcely any

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European works translated into Sanskrit ; and even if there were, every term in the sacred tongue is linked inseparably with some idea or sentiment, or deduction of Hinduism, which is a stupendous system of error; so that a native, in acquiring it, becomes indoctrinated into a false system, and after having mastered it is apt to become tenfold more a child of pantheism, idolatry, and superstition than before. Whereas, in the very act of acquiring English, the mind, in grasping the import of the new terms, is perpetually brought in contact with the new ideas, the new truths of which these terms are the symbols and representatives; so that, by the time the language has been mastered, the student must be tenfold less the child of pantheism, idolatry, and superstition than before."

So Anglomania, as the opponents of English styled the view advocated by Macaulay, Trevelyan, and Duff, completely carried the day. Dr. Duff hailed the change in Government policy with overflowing joy. He published a series of papers on the subject in a Scottish magazine-for he had quitted India before either Macaulay's minute or Lord W. Bentinck's Order in Council appearedand these were afterwards published in a pamphlet entitled "New Era of the English Language and Literature in India."

Until he left India he was indefatigably busy with his school. The system of teaching was modelled as far as possible on the system pursued by the schools of highest standing in Scotland; and every class was visited and watched over by the enthusiastic superintendent. The religious character of the school was of course unmistakable. Every morning the school was opened with the Lord's Prayer as a brief and solemn form of adoration. The "first and freshest" hour was devoted to the reading and explanation of a portion of the Bible. Earnest appeals were made to mind and heart and conscience. So passed a year away-not without storms; for the Chundrika, the organ of the most bigoted Hindus, thundered against the school and for a time almost destroyed it; but though anathema followed anathema, the effect became less and less, until the bootless thunder was allowed to sleep. An examination of the school was held at the end of the first twelvemonth; the boys were questioned and cross-questioned, and their ready and correct answering showed how thorough had been their training. Thenceforward the success of the school was assured; it steadily developed; an able coadjutor, the Rev. W.

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S. Mackay, came to Mr. Duff's assistance; and, ere long, the Governor-General declared that it had produced "unparalleled results." The success did not consist merely in the large attendance and the intellectual enlightenment of the pupils; there were some cases of genuine conversion.

In addition to steady work in his school, Mr. Duff made very earnest efforts to reach the young men who did not attend its classes. Such of them as had made considerable progress in English had sunk in many cases into atheism. They were very reluctant to accept instruction from missionaries, whom they regarded as either fanatics or hypocrites. But a considerable number of these young men consented to attend a course of theological lectures. The subjects embraced in these lectures were four in number: 1. External and internal evidences of religion; 2. The fulfilment of prophecy'; 3. The facts of the gospel history as exhibiting the character of Christ and his religion; 4. The doctrines of Christianity. The four subjects were respectively taken up by Mr. Duff; his old St. Andrew's friend, John Adam, of the London Missionary Society; Mr. Hill, of the same society; and Mr. Dealtry, afterwards Archdeacon of Calcutta. When the lecture was finished, a free discussion was to be allowed. The first lecture it was agreed should be a general introduction to the whole course. That lecture accordingly was delivered by Mr. Hill in August, 1830. All Calcutta was immediately in an uproar. Even sensible natives seemed to become impressed with the idea that they were to be forced into a profession of Christianity. The managers of the Hindu College-consisting both of Europeans and natives-listened to complaints lodged by the parents of the young men; they met in hot haste; concocted and issued a decree expressive of their "strong disapprobation" of the conduct of those who attended the lectures or any lectures for religious discussion, and forbade the students from doing so in future. The conduct of the managers was denounced by the English newspapers of Calcutta as intolerant and tyrannical, and it roused the spirit of the youth to determined resistance. They would hold meetings and discuss religious questions as much as they liked. New debating societies started up on all sides. A whole crop of newspapers arose at once. There was no love to Christianity; on the contrary, Hume's Essays and Paine's Age of Reason" had infected the minds of most; but there was a strong and strength

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