"His soul was greatly afflicted on witnessing the conduct of those who were swayed by the dominion of Satan,-souls enslaved, corrupted, debased, and rendered incapable of the highest enjoyments by that very subjugation.

"The magnitude of the work before him cost him intense thought and anxiety; convinced, as he was, by a few weeks' residence in the country, that mighty aids must be at work ere the gigantic foe he beheld could be brought low. The foe, under whom millions had fallen, and to whom millions still bowed, yet stood erect, and challenged the attack of every enemy. David's daring had secured for him eternal notoriety; but his contest was more easy and more equal than that of the Missionary in India. It was impossible for one frail individual to do very much against such powers; but, relying on the strength of the great I AM,' who has promised to uphold all who depend on Him, the young soldier resolved to be faithful, and to fight manfully.

"Commencing his Mission with such exalted views of his work, and such entire dependence on the Giver of all grace for the right performance of it, we may suppose he carefully availed himself of every means to enable him to compete with surrounding difficulties.

"Mr. Griffith was four years at Negapatam. During that time he had charge of the head native school, and took pleasure in the duties connected with it. He delivered weekly lectures to the students, who were required to write down as much as they remembered. He was not a little amused to find that one had entitled his book, 'Griffith's Theology.' Some of those youths are now labouring as Missionaries in our own Society, and others are engaged in the Church Mission. "During part of the time, he was appointed the Government Chaplain, and had charge of the lazar-house,' a Government institution for diseased persons. The leper, the insane, the maimed, the deformed, were all received there, and supplied with medicines both for body and soul. For his services in the office of Chaplain, remuneration was offered, and was accepted on the condition that the sum might be appropriated to the benefit of the Mission.

"After the lapse of four years, Mr. Crowther, requiring help, sent for Mr. Griffith to take his duties at Madras. The congregations increased to overflowing; and Mr. Crowther requested that Mr. Griffith might be appointed to Madras, believing it would be found advantageous to the station."

The change of station at the end of two years, or, at the most, three years, which forms part of the economy of Methodism in respect to its Ministers in England, does not apply invariably to the Missionaries abroad. It may be easily imagined that a longer residence on a Heathen station would be required to gain the confidence of a suspicious people, profoundly ignorant of Christian motives and the principles which guide Missionary operations. At Madras, also, Mr. Griffith remained four years, where his labours and character were highly appreciated by the natives, as well as by admiring and intelligent English congregations. It was during his residence at Madras that

he formed a happy and lasting attachment to the second daughter of the Rev. Joseph Roberts, who became his wife in the year 1843, and who now survives him as his widow, to cherish in her memory the many noble qualities and valuable attainments which fitted him as a servant of Christ for the Mission-work in India. He had subsequently a four years' appointment to the Tamul department of the Mission in Bangalore, but, in consequence of failing health, was obliged to leave before its completion.

During his residence in Bangalore he performed a literary service of no ordinary merit, in preparing an Essay on the Bhagavat Geeta, which should be read by all students of Sanskrit who love truth as well as learning.

Mr. Griffith's Essay on the Bhagavat Geeta, dated Bangalore, December 16th, 1847, accompanies the publication of that remarkable composition in Sanskrit and Canarese, with an English translation, printed, in the three characters, at the Bangalore Mission-press. The Essay first disposes of the historical pretensions of this episode in the divine poem of the Maha Bharat, and pronounces its fabulous character. Its pretence to be a revelation from heaven is exploded; its contradictory doctrines concerning God are shown to be irreconcilable; and it is reduced to the rank of a human composition, in which very sublime doctrines concerning God and the soul are put into the mouth of the god Krishna, (who is said to be the eighth incarnation of Vishnu,) for the instruction and comfort of his disciple Arjoon. Krishna himself is shown to have been unknown when the first three Vedas, or sacred books of the Hindus, were composed; and thus the pretence that the four Vedas are of the same date is also exhibited as a fallacy. Having made these initial strictures, the Essay proceeds to the fair and dispassionate examination of the substance of the poem, following the order of Humboldt's analysis of it, and comparing its various statements and speculations with the truths and doctrines of Christianity. In this Essay the claims of Divine revelation are exhibited, and the great truths and doctrines of the New Testament are held up to view, by which, instrumentally, the soul of the believer is saved from guilt and pollution, and their direful consequences. This Essay, going forth with the Bhagavat Geeta, a work which attracts the attention of every student of the Sanskrit language, whether European or Hindu, is a most valuable contribution to our sacred literature. It may be the means of preventing many European students from becoming Hinduized, (of which, to the present day, there have been several instances; men, nominally Christian, washing ceremonially in the Ganges, and observing other idolatrous rites,) and of leading the Hindus themselves to seek in Christianity that sure salvation which the sublimest compositions of their own poets and reputed saints or gods fail to communicate to them. "Hinduism cannot conceal its great, cardinal, crying defect. There are wants in the human heart which it cannot satisfy; misgivings and reproaches which it cannot explain; problems which

it cannot solve. It gives no answer to the inquiry, coming from unnumbered hearts, how a sinner may be reconciled to God. The expiation of the guilt of wicked beings is as far off as ever, even after all the humiliation and struggles of the abject soul. The consciousness of guilt and of helplessness burns in the heart as fiercely now as aforetime. There are wounds within, which Hinduism cannot heal; distempers which it cannot eradicate. This desideratum, in all its fulness, is announced to us in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The relief, the atonement, which we in vain search for elsewhere, we are graciously supplied with by the intervention of the adorable Son of God." (Essay, p. 56.) It was a deed worthy of a Missionary to the Heathen, the earnest advocate of Christian truth, to seize the opportunity of exposing the fallacies of the most admired composition on Hindu theology; and, while placing in a favourable light the sublime notions concerning God and the soul which have been acknowledged by Hindu sages, to contrast them with the saving truths of the Gospel of the Son of God: his advocacy of the truth being strengthened by courteous acknowledgments and tender sympathy towards those who are still in essential error. And it was to the credit of the cause of Missions, that a young labourer in the field, always remarkable for a modest estimate of himself, should have the consciousness of a mastery of the language, and of the subject, which enabled him to place his name side by side with those of Wilkins and Schlegel, and Wilson and Baron William von Humboldt, most distinguished Orientalists, in connexion with a work which commands universal attention among students of the sacred language of the Hindus.

The study of Sanskrit is by no means an unprofitable occupation to a Missionary to the Hindus. When he has learned the vernacular Tamul or Canarese, or whatever may be the common language of the people, he will afterwards arrive at a more perfect knowledge of it by forming an acquaintance with the source from which it has been furnished with a copious supply of terms connected with science and religion. He will rise in the estimation of the people in proportion as he becomes acquainted with their sacred tongue; and he will draw from it, as from an armory, weapons which he can use against the follies and vices of Hinduism, before which the most learned and acute will bend, and acknowledge themselves vanquished.

In this pursuit Mr. Griffith found an occupation at once congenial to his taste and habits, and commending itself to his diligent attention by its important relation to the work of propagating Christianity among the Heathen. How fully he studied Hinduism. with this view, is known to his surviving fellow-labourers and friends in India. Among his numerous papers I find Essays beautifully written, elaborately composed, on subjects essentially Hindu; such as Lingam and Yóni, Yógam, Dwija, Máva, &c.; in which the peculiarities of Hindu philosophical speculation are compared with those of the Greeks and other ancients on the same topics. These Essays, with a wide embrace, grasp the literature of the West as well as of

the East; and show that their author was, in no common measure, master of both.

While Mr. Griffith was devoting himself with godly diligence to every duty connected with the work of the Mission in Bangalore, it seemed good to Providence to allow affliction to enter his family. With honourable reluctance to quit his work, he resisted for some time the most urgent motives to seek a change of climate for Mrs. Griffith, whose health had suffered under repeated attacks of illness. At length, in the year 1849, he yielded to the sad necessity, and accompanied her on her voyage to England. He was now entitled, by experience in India, by labours, and by success, to speak with authority on all subjects connected with the evangelization of the Hindus. The opportunities for doing this during his visit to England were frequent, and some of them of great importance. At the Annual Meeting of the Society, in Exeter-Hall, on May 5th, 1851, he spoke with clearness and convincing energy; especially addressing himself to the subject of the education of the Hindus, and adducing many instances, which had occurred under his own observation, of the lasting benefit of Christian instruction given in the schools and institutions. He showed that the very commencement of Missionary operations, which has been made by the Society in India, implies an obligation to carry on the work in an increasing ratio, both as to men and means; and that the cause of Protestant Christianity had suffered incalculable loss by the limited measure of support which had been dealt to it for many years: as, for instance, in Negapatam, where a Jesuit College had been established, with a full staff of Professors, while the Wesleyan Institution had been allowed to languish and almost die out. The impression produced by this able address is well remembered. It was the more remarkable, because the attention of the Meeting had already been riveted, and almost exhausted, by speeches from that eminent Missionary Dr. Duff, and other practised advocates of Missions. It was matter of congratulation that the man who could plead so powerfully on behalf of India in that assembly had himself pleaded the cause of Christ in India, and was about shortly to return thither on the same blessed errand. Many consciences were made uneasy at the thought, that, asking for twelve men to accompany him, he was nevertheless about to return alone. The disappointment and the sacrifice were great it was magnanimous to bear the disappointment; it was Christian to make the sacrifice. He, as an individual, did not do and suffer too much for India; but the church, in its collective capacity, was not prepared to do enough.

It required a more powerful voice than that of Mr. Griffith to awaken the attention of the Christianity of England to her neglected duties in India. That voice has been heard in the judgments of God. The seditious mutiny of the native army, from Bengal to the Punjab, is an event without parallel in the history of nations. The ingratitude, treachery, atrocious cruelty, and hateful vice, discovered in the mutineers, are a loud call on England to give them such instruc

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tion in the word of God as may serve to release them from the bondage to caste and superstition, and introduce them to the saving benefits of the Gospel, which proclaims, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will toward men." The Society Mr. Griffith addressed has been roused by the voice of Divine Providence in the late events. Every Missionary meeting now held becomes a meeting for India. Every prayer-meeting is an occasion of prayer on behalf of Missions to the Hindus. The proposal to send fifty Missionaries to India expresses the feeling entertained by a large portion of the supporters of the Wesleyan Missionary Society. It will not be forgotten. The provision already made for sending out ten of the number in the course of the current year, (1858,) is a pledge and earnest of the ultimate fulfilment of the whole. God grant that men may present themselves for the work, whom the Lord of the harvest has blessed with a Divine call, and the requisite qualifications!

Mr. Griffith had not been long settled in the Mission at Madras, after his return from England, when he received directions from the Committee to remove to Jaffna, and take general charge of the Mission in North Ceylon. This was an appointment he did not desire. The continent presented a much wider field for cultivation; and his abilities and acquisitions were better suited for usefulness in the large and mixed population of Madras, than among the more secluded inhabitants of North Ceylon. Nevertheless, he did not hesitate to obey what he believed to be the call of duty; and, on his arrival in Jaffna, he devoted himself with unabated diligence and zeal to the important business of his District. The three years he spent in Jaffna were years of useful labour; the valuable results of which remain to this day in the comparative prosperity of each station in the District. They were, however, years of suffering also. consequences of excessive rains-famine, small-pox, cholera-followed or accompanied each other in destructive march through the native population. The tenderest sympathy was manifested by the Missionaries and other European residents, during this time of sorrow; and, according to the means at command, liberal provision was made for the relief of the sufferers. No small measure of benevolent activity distinguished Mr. Griffith and his colleagues throughout this period of calamity, exhibiting to all observers the self-sacrificing zeal of the servants and imitators of Christ.

The

Much spiritual good was hoped from this severe visitation; and there can be no doubt that such a result will appear in the great day as the reward of disinterested labour and much sacrifice. But the ingratitude of some portions of the population, and their resistance, both by the press and every other means at their command, to the progress of evangelical truth, were severe trials to a generous heart. Mr. Griffith almost repented of the labour that had been bestowed on the education of young men who now proved themselves the most subtle and bitter opponents of the Gospel. Such, however, have been the trials of Christian teachers in all ages; and the modern Missionary must not too confidently hope to be exempted from them.