he would pay stealthy visits by night, and assure me that he regretted he could not be with me as others of his father's nobles. His mind, therefore, could not

be expected to have such liberal views as his father, who has had such a lengthened acquaintance with me; and he has therefore to be won.

INDIA.

BANGALORE.

WE publish with pleasure the following details of Missionary labour, which may enable our readers more clearly to understand the position, duties, and trials of our brethren in India. The unpretending narrative of incessant labour, with the variety of reception accorded to the Gospel message, vividly recalls the inspired record of the labours of those first Missionaries who "daily, in the temple and in every house, ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ." "The Jews spoke against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming." "He separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus." These and similar statements find their exact counterpart in modern Missionary labour. It is obvious that those who are thus tried need to be "wise as serpents, and harmless as doves," and have a strong claim to be remembered in the prayers of God's people.

WE continue our street and way-side preaching as usual. Passing events are sometimes referred to by persons in our congregations, and the opinion expressed that our rule in this country is coming to an end; but this, and the return of the Mussulman rule, the people in general strongly deprecate. The congregations are very variable, both as to numbers and to behaviour. Sometimes we have but two or three, or even a solitary one; at others, the street is blocked up by the crowd. Sometimes we are gladdened by the eager and earnest attention of our hearers, and the inquiries they make; at others, grieved by the apathy, contempt, and almost fiendish rage they manifest, and the horrid blasphemies to which they give utterance. Sometimes we are treated with the greatest politeness and respect: at others, we are the subjects of the vilest

abuse, and, upon leaving, are followed by the hootings of impudent boys, and occasionally by dirt and stones. It is seldom that we meet with anything new in the way of objection to Christianity or in defence of Hinduism.

February 27th.-At our vernacular school, in the main street, I read a few verses, and Mr. Sanderson preached, to a large and interesting congregation. Mr. Hodson also gave a short address. A Mussulman entered into discussion, and, amongst other things, said that four great Prophets had come into the world; Adam, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed, who had each in his turn given laws to mankind; and that those who walked according to them, obtained heaven. He denied that the miracles wrought by Christ proved His divinity, since Moses and Christ's disciples had done the same. Mr. Sanderson, in reply, showed that, while Moses performed miracles by the power, and in obedience to the command, of God, and the disciples did the same, in the name and in obedience to the command of Christ, He Himself performed them by His own power, and in His own name. He also contrasted the religion of Christ with that of Mohammed, the modes of their propagation, and the heaven of the Bible with that of the Koran. Addressing the Hindus, he alluded to the cruelties practised by the Sultan Tippoo, -his forcibly circumcising Brahmins, and compelling them to eat cows' flesh, &c. At this, the Mussulman was evidently much annoyed, and with difficulty retained his temper. The discussion was at length brought to a satisfactory conclusion by Mr. Sanderson giving him a copy of the Gospel of St. John, in Canarese, and urging him to read it, which he promised to do. During the whole of this discussion, many Hindus were listening with intense interest.

March 11th.-We met a large company of pilgrims on their way to Tripetty. Mr. Walker stopped them, and preached for a short time, during which they were very attentive. Little impression, however, appeared to have been made, as they started again, repeating aloud the name of their idol, Govindah! Govindah!

12th. We went to Kunuakunua, a village about a mile from Bangalore. In the centre of the village I saw a small idol placed in a small box, which was supported upon a portable stand. Upon making inquiries, I found that it belonged to a travelling mendicant, who was performing the part of a showman, and receiving the contributions of the villagers. A number of bells were suspended from the idol, and, upon inquiry, we were told that these were the votive offerings of persons who had recovered from sickness by praying to it. Seeing us looking at the idol, a number of the villagers gathered around. Mr. Walker preached to them that they "should turn from these vanities unto the living God."

19th. We went into the main street. We had a small and very fluctuating congregation. On our way home we visited the hospital for native patients, where we witnessed many distressing cases of sickness and insanity; the latter chiefly caused by smoking bang.

25th. A few days ago a wing of Her Majesty's 43d Foot left this place for Madras. To-day I hear that they have been attacked by cholera on their march; and more than thirty men, besides women and children, have died. Some of the former were members of our Society here; and one of them was a ClassLeader. The death of the latter was eminently peaceful and happy.

April 24th. We were at our vernacular school. We sat down in the doorway, and heard a class of boys read Luke xvi. Mr. Sanderson then explained part of the chapter, and catechised the boys; after which a Brahmin commenced a discussion, which he carried on for nearly two hours. The discussion embraced a wide range of subjects,-the omnipresence of God, and the defence of idol-worship which the Hindus profess to found upon it; their practical denial of it by their ceremonies at the consecration of an idol; the freedom of the human will; the Vedas, Puranas, and their teachings as contrasted with those of the Bible; the way of salvation to be found only in the Bible, in opposition to the oft-repeated assertion that the Bible points out the way of salvation to the Christian, the Vedas, &c., to the Hindu, and the Koran to the Mussulman; caste; objects of Missionaries, &c. The Brahmin was evidently a thinking man, and, when hard pressed, manifested much ingenuity in his attempts to evade the difficulty. He was evidently surprised at Mr. Sanderson's frequent reference to their own books,

and the use he made of such references. We left him and the people generally in very good temper.

25th.-Passing along a street to our appointment, we met two men, one of whom accosted us, and said, "All your teaching is a lie." We immediately stood still, and invited him to prove his assertion before a number of people who quickly gathered around us. From this, however, he excused himself, and somewhat hastily departed, leaving us to preach to an attentive congregation.

Sunday, May 3d.—At half-past seven A. M., Mr. Sanderson preached in Canarese, from Gal. iii. 26—29; and baptized five persons,—a_man, two women, and two children. The service was a very interesting one, the first of the kind that I have attended since I came into the Mysore country.

9th. We stood in front of a temple near the Balabagulu. The congregation was very quiet and attentive, notwithstanding our nearness to the temple and to the idol-car in front of it, it being the time of the idol-festival. One man, who mentioned the names of several Missionaries of our own and the London Missionary Society, made sundry objections, and said, "Among you Christians there are so many different sects: which are we to believe?"

23d. I was in the Cotton pettah with Mr. Walker, who preached to a numerous but cavilling congregation. One man wished to ignore the doctrine of Divine Providence, and to prove that fate governed all things, because of the inequalities in the condition of men; he also attempted to defend transmigration on the same ground. Another asked Mr. Walker if he were a sinner; and, upon receiving an affirmative reply, said, "How is it, then, you come to preach to us? What is the use of hearing you?" After these and similar objectors had been silenced, and the way of salvation again and again explained, we took leave.

June 8th.-I went to the Town Chuckler's village with Mr. Sanderson. We had a good, but noisy, congregation. The principal disturber was a man evidently somewhat deranged, but exercising great influence over others. The Hindus think that such persons are possessed either of a god or a demon, and regard them with a superstitious awe.

9th. We went to Nursiah's corner. I read the account of St. Paul's visit to Athens, and Mr. Sanderson preached. The congregation was large, but (even for this place) unusually noisy and abusive.

We have seldom met with so much personal abuse; but this we passed over in silence. The rage of some was absolutely fiendish; the obscenities of others were most disgusting. But our spirits were most deeply stirred and grieved by the horrid blasphemies against the Saviour to which others gave utterance. An attempt was made to drive us away, by burning chillies near us; but these Mr. Sanderson extinguished by pushing them with his foot into a small pool of water that was close at hand. Some mischievous fellows also commenced throwing stones; and a number of Brahmin lads and young men were particularly impertinent, hooting us when we left. Thus does Satan rage, knowing that his time is short. As we were leaving, a man said that, though he did not approve of our religion, he did approve of the way in which we had borne the insults heaped upon us.

10th. On our way home, observing a large assemblage in front of a native's house, we went near to ascertain the cause, and found that the poojarree of the village had come, as the bystanders said, to heal a sick child. The people offered incense to him, after inhaling which, he pretended to be possessed with a demon, and began to rave and howl in a dreadful manner. The parents stood before him with profound reverence, the father holding the child, which, alarmed by the conduct of the poojarree, was loudly screaming. The poojarree then beat the child with a shrub which he held in his hand, after which the father placed the child upon the ground, and the poojarree trode upon its stomach with his foot. Some of the bystanders then threw water upon it. The poojarree, after again beating the child, and tearing the shrub he had employed for that purpose in pieces with his teeth, started off at a furious rate to make the circuit of the village, followed by a number of the villagers. While, for the first time, beholding such an exhibition of Heathenism as this, my mind was filled with mingled feelings of indignation and pity;-of pity for the child, its parents, and the people generally, who had implicit confidence in this deceiver's power to restore the child to health; and of indignation against him for his deceit and treatment of the child. A good whipping would, I think, effectually cure such pretenders to demoniacal possession. Mr. Walker spoke to the people about the folly and wickedness of such proceedings, but apparently without effect.

11th. This morning, in company with VOL. IV.-FIFTH SERIES.

Messrs. Sanderson and Stephenson, I visited several temples in the neighbourhood of Bangalore. We found a Sanyasi living in a cave adjoining one of them. Mr. Sanderson showed him the impossibility of obtaining salvation in any way of his own, and directed him to Christ as the way. He listened and assented to all as good and true; but I fear that little impression was made upon his mind. From the top of another temple we had a very fine view of the surrounding country,

"Where every prospect pleases,
And only man is vile."

30th. We were in the pettah. Passing through one of the streets, a bazaarman called out to us to stop and preach. Whether he spoke seriously or in jest we could not tell. Putting the former interpretation upon it, however, we stood in front of his bazaar, and Mr. Walker immediately commenced preaching.

July 2d. I went out with Mr. Walker, intending to go to a village. On our way, observing a group of persons seated in front of a house, we turned aside to them, and Mr. Walker preached. They listened with considerable curiosity and attention, and I was particularly pleased with the intelligence displayed by a little boy in the answers he gave to questions proposed to him. Leaving them, we entered into the court-yard of a temple dedicated to Shiva. A gooroo and a number of his disciples reside there. Several of them came out and sat down with us in a verandah, and seemed much interested while Mr. Walker was preaching. They manifested great politeness, and, so far from regarding our visit as an intrusion, were quite willing that we should take a survey of the whole place.

14th. I went to the Devanga with Mr. Walker. Passing along one of the streets, we saw a temporary erection of mats in front of a house. Judging from its appearance that it had been erected for the reception of some dying person, (the Hindus, if they can avoid it, never suffer anyone to die within the house,) we went to it, and found an aged woman near death. A number of persons were assembled within the house, and to these Mr. Walker preached on death, and the destiny awaiting the righteous and the wicked after it. A little farther on, in the same street, we came to a similar erection, and found a little girl, who appeared to be dying of fever. Walker again preached, and also spoke to the people of the inhumanity of bring

G

Mr.

ing out of the house those whom they supposed to be dying, and exposing them in a place where they were so imperfectly screened from the weather. Leaving this place, we entered a narrow passage leading to a yard, in which several persons were engaged in preparing thread for weaving. They were so intent upon their work, that they had no disposition to hear us, but wished us to proceed. Entering another street, we collected a considerable congregation, who were, excepting a few well-known opposers of the truth, very attentive.

30th. We went to the Cotton pettah. As we were about to commence, an old man, from a bazaar opposite, called out, "Before you, the Mussulman came, speaking against our religion, and abusing our gods; and their power is gone. Here he stopped short, but evidently wished us to understand that similar conduct on our part would be followed by similar results.

August 7th. We visited our vernacular school. After Mr. Sanderson had examined a class of boys, a young Brahmin, standing by, commenced a discussion. He denied the divinity of Christ, and, to establish his assertion, as he thought, brought forward the fact of Christ's having, at the marriage of Cana in Galilee, converted water into wine. A novel kind of argument, truly! In conversation with another man, Mr. Sanderson spoke of the uselessness of going to Benares, and other so-called sacred places. A Mussulman, standing near, assented; upon which the Hindu quickly replied, "Why, then, do you go to Mecca ?

I would just say, in conclusion, that, after many delays and disappointments, we have at length obtained, in one of the principal streets of the pettah, a suitable site for a chapel, which we hope shortly to commence.-Rev. Robert W. Pordige, Bangalore, August 24th, 1857.

NORTH CEYLON.

JAFFNA.

AFTER an absence of exactly five weeks, I reached my own loved home on Saturday last. A brief sketch of my journey may not be uninteresting to you.

Having provided myself with a bullockcart, about a thousand copies of portions of Scripture, and a large assortment of tracts, and having commended my family and dear people to God, I started on the 29th of August, my thirty-fourth birthday.

I had previously arranged to spend the following day-the Sabbath-in the Patchilipalle district, preaching in English and Tamil on one of the central estates there. A reference to a map of Ceylon will show a large tongue of land, forming the north-east coast of the island, and terminating, in that direction, the Jaffna peninsula. Eleven thousand acres of this land have been purchased by Europeans, chiefly gentlemen in the service of the East India Company; and seven thousand acres have been actually cleared, and are now covered with beautiful groves of the cocoa-nut palm. These plantations commence at about twenty miles from Jaffna, and extend to Elephant Pass, a distance of about twelve miles. An intelligent proprietor assured me that a sum exceeding £150,000 has been expended on these estates.

It is now nearly eleven years since, on my arrival in the country, I first passed through this district on my way to my station at Trincomalee. The growth of the trees was therefore very observable. Then, the estates were about four years old, and the trees just peeped over the tops of the fences: now, they are filled with majestic palms, which fling their feathery tops against the clear blue sky; and they afforded a pleasant shade against the slanting rays of the setting sun as I rode on to Plopally estate, where I was engaged to preach on the Sabbath. Plopally is one of the oldest and finest of these plantations. It is managed by a religiously disposed young gentleman, who gave me a very cordial welcome.

On the 30th, at nine A. M., I read prayers and preached in English to a small congregation. There are fourteen European superintendents and assistants on these estates, and due notice of the service had been sent to all; but I regret to say that but five attended. I could not refrain from asking my host, "Where are the nine?" In the afternoon, at four, we had a very different scene. About seventy adult villagers sat in the verandah, whilst I endeavoured to persuade them to become Christians. They listened with marked attention; for it was a new thing for them to hear the Gospel.

Early on Monday morning we crossed the water at Elephant Pass, and entered on the central road, which runs from this point to Kandy. For three days we continued our journey to the south, preaching in the hamlets that lie along the road, and giving a portion of Scripture or a tract to everyone who could read. The population is exceedingly sparse, and we frequently came upon