demnation therefore is double. "He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God." As your condemnation, so will your punishment be; "It will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment than for you!" And is the course, which you are now so fondly pursuing, thus fearfully to end? After a life of carelessness and indifference, of attempted peace and confidence, are all your religious theories and spiritual dreams to be thus broken up, and cease forever? Can it be that you are as a man under sentence of death, eternal death, and yet are looking forward to life, eternal life in heaven. "Be not deceived: God is not mocked; what a man soweth, that shall he also reap; he that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption." You have been sowing to the flesh, and what must you expect to reap? The flesh is condemned, and the flesh is sin; you can therefore only reap according to the seed sown, even more sin and more condemnation; and, when the harvest comes, and the ear is ripe, sin and condemnation will be found to be everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord! You say, that there seems no likelihood of such a fearful end following such an indifferent course. Ah, my friend, could you ever anticipate the field of full-ripe corn from the small tender green blade? Is there any resemblance between them? In this case, the seed is rebellion, and the harvest is righteous execution! Trust not, my poor friend, to suggestions and imaginations, in a matter of plain revelation. If God has spoken, hear His voice. The Bible will be the standard of the public judgment; let it in all wisdom be the standard of our private judgment. I write now over that book; if you question my statements, I am ready to pour forth its decisions. upon you. But I know you will not appeal; no one in your state ever does; for, he feels, that he lives by darkness, not by light. Such as you now are may appeal to a floating creed, to some conventional standard, that passes current and unquestioned in human society, but never, oh never, to the Bible alone. They will never submit to have their case decided by that book, which they dread more than they love, and which they dislike more than they dare despise. Is it then manifest from the Bible that you are still an "unsaved sinner;" that you are still labouring under the ruins of the Fall; that you are still under the dominion of sin; that you are still under divine condemnation; that you are rapidly approaching to final and everlasting punishment; that the amount of your retribution is rapidly increasing in proportion to the grace of God which you are sinning away from you? If all this be as certain as the Bible is true, and as evident from your life, as your life is clear to the world, then surely it is time for you to pause and consider seriously what you are next to do, in order that you may be safe from present evil and future wrath. I do not wish to excite your feelings, but I wish to arouse your whole soul to a rational, legitimate concern about its own everlasting welfare. Your time is short and uncertain; much remains to be done; the battle is not even begun with you. Look at that vast eternity! say, are you ready to plunge into it? behold that seat of judgment are you ready to stand before it? See that opened grave! are you ready to lie down and rest in it till the resurrection-day? Trifle no more of your precious time; but go study that question of eternal profit or loss, "What is a man profited if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul !" The Saviour still stands revealed in the Gospel, and his words are, "Come unto me, all ye who labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest!" Go unto Him, with that burden of sin and guilt; lay it down at His feet, and He will give thee rest! I have gone to Him, and found this to be true! Come thou with me, and I will do thee good! May the Lord the Spirit direct thee to the "Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world." With a friend's and a Christian's love, Yours ever, J. M. D. XI.-Enmity of Hindu Versifiers to Christian Converts. To the Editors of the Calcutta Christian Observer. DEAR SIRS, You are aware that a pupil in the Assembly's Institution in Cornwallis Square, by name Mahendra Lall, was baptized some fifteen days back, on his profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; a profession of the perfect sincerity of which the judicious and excellent Missionaries who conduct that admirable establishment were abundantly satisfied before they acceded to his request for admission into the Christian Church. It may be amusing and not uninteresting to some of your readers to peruse a translation of some doggrel verses which appeared in the Native newspaper called the Sambád-Prabhákar or Sun-newspaper of the 11th instant, a few days following the baptism. It is as follows: "Hari! Hari! what artifices these Missionaries employ! A child has turned aside to join in the praises of Jesus! The fair-skinned, smooth-spoken, mind-bewitching child-catchers go about from place to place with the noose of (professed) kindness (to ensnare their victims). Alas! alas! only on Friday last one Mahendra Lall of this neighbourhood was ruined through a fatal bewilderment of his understanding. (Yet is it not to be greatly wondered at, for) first, he was but a lad; and, secondly, of the stupid weaver caste! and so (heedlessly) falling into Duff's tub he lost his caste for ever! Yet how much had his anguished parent laboured to convince his mind (of the folly of the course he saw him inclined to pursue)! But notwithstanding all, the luckless devil (left his home), and has not returned! Then his mother-she, too, beholding her beloved child no more, as though she were entreating and alluring him (to come back to her) exclaims amid her wailings, Oh come, my sweet Gopal, my wealth, my darling, my jewel of witchery, my moon-faced! come to me and eat curds and cream and butter, and play about in the court-yard just as you will. Oh go not to pasture the cows amid the herd of the heterodox and apostate! Ah me! I die! my child in his tender youth has forsaken Krishna (or the dark) and sunk in the black waters of Jesus. Ah! my sweet one, how canst thou have any relish for the broth of the beef-pot, or bear to sip it through that mouth with which thou wast wont to eat savoury condiments and cakes and sweet-meats? "But-when sorrow is written by the fates upon the forehead, who can escape it? So when the ant's wings appear, they are but the precursor of its destruction! I once told his now smarting parent,-let your durwán go with the child (to guard and watch him). What arguments can that unfeeling old wretch of a Missionary have employed to entice him? Where is Gopal gone, now that he has left Mathura?" The above is as nearly literal as possible. It may be well, for the benefit of such as may not have much acquaintance with native mytho logy, &c. to observe that Gopal or the cow-herd (also-the guardian of the world) from cst a cow or the earth, and a herd or preserver, is one of the names of Krishna, the popular deity of Bengal, who is esteemed an incarnation of Vishnu, whose gambols with the fat or milk-maids, are celebrated in the current songs of the country and are commemorated in the ribald sports of the annual Húli festival. Thence the word cat is used by Bengali mothers as a term of endearment in addressing their male children, as exemplified above. There is a play upon the word in line 19 of the translation, where it is first applied as a proper name to the deified cow-herd of Mathurá, and then as an adjective to the waters of Christian baptism. Its etymological meaning is dark, deep blue, the colour with which the images of Krishna are often painted, and also the colour of the deep sea or níl páni, to which the baptismal element is compared as destructive of the caste, &c. of the baptized. The word however may also be taken to mean the sentiment of devotion, which when referring to the Divine Saviour of the Gospel is designated as dark, gloomy, and destructive, in this puerile composition. Observe also, that or a Mathura was the birthplace and early residence of Krishna; it is a town in the province of Agra and a place of pilgrimage to the Hindus. Insinuating Krishna's final destruction as consequent upon his abandoning Mathurá, the writer applies his name of Gopal to the neophyte Christian (as his mother had done in her endearment) and hints his similar ruin as infallible. The phraselogy, &c. is characteristic and so far interesting. The reference to Dr. Duff and his baptismal tub will not escape observation. Such wretched trifles are a fair specimen of the abusive doggrel, directed against the Missionaries, with which the Native Bengali newspapers are often filled. CINSURENSIS. March, 1839. Poetry. THE SINNER'S REQUEST. [For the Calcutta Christian Observer.] While thro' this wilderness Guide, and throughout the way, When I confess thy name, When any troubles rise, To make known all my griefs, When flesh and heart shall fail And need support from thee, Look on a dying wretch When at my journey's end Thro' the dark vale of death, When in the clouds of heaven Thou once shalt come to be The judge of all the earth, When to thy mansions high AMICUS. REVIEW. Medhurst on China. "Medhurst on China," and "Williams's Narrative," should, in the Library of the Friends of Missions, stand side by side. The profit derived from each would be greater, by reading both conjointly.allowing the perusal of no other volume to intervene, but carrying the impressions derived from the one, in all their force and freshness, to mingle with the impressions derived from the other. The impressions derived from each are of an extremely different character, but admirably fitted to modify and correct the other, and when blended flow together in the most useful channel. Whilst reading Medhurst we are oppressed at seeing the vast amount of Missionary work yet untouched; our soul faints, when, after glancing at the difficulty, the apparent straining of every nerve, with which the Church preserves the present amount of missionary operation in being, we find that nearly one-half of the vineyard which our Saviour committed to the cultivation of his people, is yet untouched by the Christian husbandman; -on one-half of the putrid mass of human depravity the salt of Christian doctrine and principle has never been cast. In such a state of feeling "Williams's Narrative" is a refreshing balm to our sinking spirits. It practically announces the consoling truth, that though our work is arduous, the power by which we are aided is Almighty. It seems to add to our faith in the divine promises, the certainty of sight. It aids us to feel confident, that though China be now a vast moral desert, fruitless and verdureless, yet the fountain of our sufficiency is amply abundant and continuous in its streams to irrigate and fructify the whole wilderness; that though the inhabitants of China have walled themselves off from the worshippers of Jehovah, by a structure of pride, prejudice and exclusiveness, encircling their land, yet the power of the Spirit of God, can level this barrier and bring the millions of her population, with the inhabitants of every clime to offer, " at high strains in new and lofty measures," praise and adoration to the universally victorious Messiah. On the other hand, if the perusual of Williams' should excite in our breasts, that kind of exultation which would induce inaction,—would lead us to sit down and divide the spoil as those who have no enemies left unconquered, Medhurst steps forward and shames us out of that feeling. That there is a danger of our cherishing such an exultation, we think every attentive listener to the strains of the pulpit and platform at the great Missionary Associations in our fatherland, will admit. As an instance, at the last Annual Sermon on behalf of the London Society, the eloquent author of Mammon, urging British youth to haste to the missionary field, tells them that unless they haste, the whole ground will be occupied,-they must "enter into other men's labour." We think it quite easy to allay the anxieties of these aspiring youths without sending them beyond the precincts of Calcutta. If this should not satisfy them, we will point them to China. Do not weep, |