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expedient. All this information is contained in the communication referred to. Of the new proofs of God's goodness which the missionaries have since experienced, Dr Duff thus speaks, in a letter received a few days ago, of date the 16th March:

"Our bark is once more fairly afloat, and Providence is fast filling our sails with a favourable breeze. Oh for grace to trust more, and strength to labour more, and faith to expect more! Our mercies have been so great and numberless, that we know not how to recount them, or in what terms to refer to them. Is it not a mercy to be brought into trouble, in order to experience the joys of a complete deliverance? Such mercy has been ours. A few weeks ago, we were reduced to the very depths of perplexity, not knowing what to do, or which way to turn. To-day our feet are

set in a firm place, with a clear and open way before us. The Lord be praised! His holy name be magnified!

"It was a singular, but on our part most undesigned coincidence, which threw the certain receipt of the intelligence respecting the necessity of ultimately evacuating our former mission premises, and the regular period of our ordinary annual vacation as regards the Institution, into mostly the same point of time. At the usual term, about the middle of January, the business of the past year was wound up with a public examination. A day or two afterwards, the overland mail arrived with the unfavourable intelligence. Our pupils were of course dispersed, and we could say nothing to them as a body. The senior youth who remained in town came constantly about us, and they were duly apprised of our position. On Monday the 4th March, the day fixed on, agreeably to the routine of former years, for recommencing the labours of the Institution, we simply appeared in our new premises in Nimtollah Street, instead of our old premises in Cornwallis Square. The pupils soon found us out; and in a few days the whole were marshalled in their respective classes, without any noise or confusion, as if nothing at all had happened! Indeed, everything looked the same except the building. The European superintendents the same,-the native teachers and ministers the same,-the pupils of the school and college departments the same, everything the same except the apartments in which we met; and if these differed from the former, it was only in being more numerous, and in many respects more commodious. The number, not in the class list or register merely, but the number in actual personal attendance this day, is seven hundred and ninety, or almost eight hundred! According to the ordinary proportion of absenteeism from sickness, domestic ceremonies, &c., this would give us upwards of a thousand bona fide pupils! Pray that He who inclined their hearts to follow us to the material building may dispose their souls to enter the spiritual edifice of a living Christianity. Never, certainly, was there a secession more complete, and never was so complete a secession more noiselessly managed.

"Agreeably to previous arrangement, on Saturday morning the 9th instant, Mr M Ewen, treasurer of the Corresponding Board, appeared at the Institution, Cornwallis Square, and in the presence of Messrs Ewart and Smith, I delivered up to him the keys of the Institution, dwelling-house, and other premises, leaving behind library, apparatus, and everything down to the minutest atom that could, by the most microscopic ingenuity, be claimed by our friends of the Establishment. The premises were then shut up, and the whole is now about as complete a solitude as the desert itself could well supply, and will, I presume, continue so, until our future successors from home shall arrive to take possession. The peculiarity of our sensations in surrendering a place so endeared to us by labours, and trials, and hallowed associations, it were vain for me to attempt to describe. I shall therefore forbear, and for the future think only of God's wondrous dealings of providence towards us, in so readily supplying us with another place, equally, if not still more suitable, in which to carry on, without variation or interruption, our manifold operations.

"One thing we do sorely miss, and that is, a library and philosophical apparatus. But we formerly began without any,-laboured for several years with only a scanty supply, but ended with a rich abundance. And may it not be so again? Doubtless it may, and we believe it shall. The same God who put it into the hearts of His people before liberally to provide for our wants in this respect, can put it into the hearts of His people again. We live in faith, and wait in hope, to see it so ; and that, too, within a shorter period than before. Already is there a noble begin

ning. Within the last few days, upwards of eleven hundred volumes, large and small, have been received as gifts from Christian gentlemen in Calcutta; one of whom, with a munificence altogether princely, has contributed upwards of six hundred ; while one native gentleman has sent us upwards of two hundred! In the department of apparatus, a magnificent beginning has also been made in the presentation to us, by another gentleman, of a ten-feet telescope-one of the finest instruments of the kind in existence. And our prayer ever shall be, that, in surveying the glories of Jehovah in the visible heavens, our own minds and those of our pupils may ever be carried upwards to the still more transcendent glories of the heaven of heavens. Such, amid many trials, are a few of the mercies experienced at the hands of a graeious God and Father in Christ Jesus. Would that we could more adequately testify our gratitude and love! Would that we could witness more of that spiritual fruit in the saving conversion of souls, which alone can enable the Redeemer to see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied! Let the Church pray unceasingly for so blessed a consummation-towards the realization of which all human means and instrumentalities, direct and indirect, are but subsidiary.

"But while we feel truly grateful to those kind friends amongst us here, who have begun so well and so effectually to repair our losses, it must not be forgotten that we must look mainly to our friends at home for a full and complete replenishment.'

"In the same letter Dr Duff communicates the intelligence that the branch school at Taki, established and chiefly supported by Babu Roy and his brother, and taught by Mr Fyffe, has been removed to Baranagur, a populous village on the banks of the Hugly, a few miles above Calcutta, where the Babus have one of their principal family mansions. The chief reason of this change was the great unhealthiness of Taki. Not only has it proved most injurious to Europeans, but even the native population generally suffer for two or three months every year, towards the latter part of the rainy season, from fever and ague. On one occasion, from this cause alone, the English school was reduced from 150 to 5. The proposal for removing the institution came from the Babus themselves, and was highly approved of by all the missionaries. Mr Fyffe had commenced his labours at the new station, and the school was already in a flourishing state.

"Of the branch station at Ghospara, occupied by the two converts, Mahendra and Khoilas, the account is very cheering, The catechists Mahendra and Khoilas,'

says Dr Duff, have been getting on beautifully at Ghospara. Through their own unaided labours they have raised up a spot of verdure in the barren wilderness there. Their school, when lately visited by Messrs Ewart and Smith, was in a highly ef fective and flourishing condition, and their intercourse with the adult population full of encouragement. I have sat up till past midnight, listening unwearied, and with the deepest interest, to their varied narratives. Some of their own statements were sent home by the Memnon, and lost. Since then every thing has been unsettled. Till we received the decisive intelligence of the disruption in July last, we scarcely ever alluded to the troubles at home; and even such occasional allusions arose from some passing or incidental circumstance. After the announcement of the disruption, we plainly told them our position-leaving it to them to judge of their own path of duty. We did not precipitate a decision. Quite the contrary. It was only after several months that they gave in to us their formal adhesion; though, from the first we could scarcely doubt, from their general character as well as oral statements, what their formal and final decision would be. This, however, I may state, that the longer and the more thoroughly they and the other Christian converts now in Calcutta have studied the subject on its foundations, bearings, and details, the more thoroughly are they persuaded that, with the Bible in their hands, they could not conscientiously do otherwise than cast in their lot with us.'

"Your Committee cannot refrain from adding an extract from Mr Smith's report of his visit to Ghospara.

"I have only an hour ago returned from visiting the most interesting station of our mission,-Ghospara. I say the most interesting station, for it is the first in which the full working of our native agency is developed; and as I was in another

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quarter of the globe when most of the negotiations regarding it were transacted, f may be allowed to give testimony to the complete success which has hitherto attended it, a success which the most sanguine could not have ventured a year ago to anticipate. The usual number of attendants actually present at school is about 80 : but as yesterday was both a Hindoo holiday, and a high festival among the KartaBhoja sect, only 56 were present. These we examined with great care; and I venture to say that there is not a better taught school in the world. Our young friends have the advantage (no slight one as every teacher knows,) of beginning' almost all their scholars and they have done their duty to admiration. The two teachers, Khoilas and Mahendra, are so much unlike one another in natural disposition, and indeed in everything except honest sincerity and simple zeal in their work, that the result of their joint labours is as near perfection as anything human can well be conceived. Of course I speak of the school as little more than begun, but a thing may be perfectly begun, as well as perfectly accomplished.' Mr Smith proceeds to give some account of the sect known by the name of the KartaBhoja, from which it would appear that it holds tenets which may render it more accessible to Christian instruction than any other portion of the native population, and that it is an increasing sect, drawing converts from both Mahommadans and Hindoos; and he adds, It is to us a matter of humble thankfulness that we have two such agents as Khoilas and Mahendra, as the first native missionaries of the Free Kirk. But we rejoice with trembling, and look away from them to Him whose mighty power can alone do th work, and who will do it in his own good time and way.'

"In connexion with this subject, your committee have the satisfaction of stating, that some years ago a ladies' association was formed in Glasgow, for the purpose of raising funds for maintaining a native catechist or missionary in India, and that they selected Mahendra as the individual for whose support they were to provide. The association has been reduced in numbers in consequence of the disruption, but has lost nothing of its zeal and activity.

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"Through the Missionary Record, the members of Ass embly, as well as the public at large, have been made acquainted with the state of the missions at Bombay and Madras, down to the end of February. It is not necessary, therefore, to enter on any lengthened detail in this report. By the last mail letters have been received to the end of March. From these it appears that the institution at Bombay bas been gradually recovering from the shock which it had sustained by the baptism of Narayan, a Brahman. The number of pupils in the English department previous to that event had reached 223; but such was the opposition raised by the Hindoos in consequence of Narayan embracing Christianity, that the number sunk down below Now it was more than double that number, and Mr Nesbit writes that the Hindoo pupils are returning, and the thunders of Brahmanical wrath are heard even by the natives without alarm.' It would appear, indeed, that there is a considerable division among the Brahmans, which Mr Nesbit conceives may bring on a crisis in the history of Hindooism in Bombay. There are now,' he says, Marathi magazines at the Presidency, setting forth the various shades and degrees of native feeling. They are all busily employed in statement and argument, attack and defence, and will, under the Divine blessing, work out much good. They will build up that which they destroy, and destroy that which they build. The Brahmans no longer look with calm and elevated contempt on the doings of foul and ignorant barbarians, but address themselves in good earnest to the work of meeting and counteracting their agency. Even at the seat of the Marathi empire, where Brahmanism has long held its proudest superiority, the Brahmans are bestirring themselves in self-defence. A magazine has been started at Poonah! This, of course, is the most genuinely Brahmanical of all periodicals. The very first numbers contain accounts of great miracles,-lending their powerful support to the truth of Hindooism, which it calls upon its readers to believe, that their faith in their own religion may be established. The birth of these magazines strongly attests the depth and extent of the sensation produced by the baptisms at Bombay and Ahmednuggur. May the Lord give us a prayerful heart and a diligent hand, to meet and

improve these spirit-stirring events; and may He enable you, and your pastors and licentiates, greatly to add to and invigorate our small and feeble agency.

"In the meantime Mr Nesbit and Mr Murray Mitchell, the two ordained missionaries, with the assistance of Mr Cassidy, a European teacher, and the two converts, Hormazdji and Narayan, are carrying on the work of the institution, and other missionary operations. Mr Nesbit has resumed his weekly lecture, which had been interrupted by the state of his health. That lecture is attended by several of the pupils of the Government school, in which no religious instruction is given, and some of these young men have manifested an earnest desire for Scriptural knowledge. Mr Cassidy and the two converts, while rendering very important aid to the missionaries, are at the same time diligently prosecuting their theological studies. On this subject Mr Nesbit and Mr Murray Mitchell thus report to the Auxiliary Mission Society in Bombay:- One very interesting and important branch of our labour is the superintendence of these studies. With Mr Nesbit they study syste matic theology and scriptural interpretation; with Mr Murray Mitchell, Church History and New Testament Greek. While these two converts study these branches with us, Dhanjibhai, who accompanied Dr Wilson to Europe, has been enrolled as a theological student in the College of the Free Church in Edinburgh. If we and our young brethren are spared in life and health, we hope, ere long, to ordain them to the work of the holy ministry, when they will have gone through a course of study as thorough and systematic as is required of candidates for the ministry at home. The conviction is deepening in the minds of most friends of missions, that native agency is the great means by which European missionaries can best act on the native mind, and that our native agents ought to be thoroughlyeducated men. Such is also our conviction, and we endeavour to act accordingly.' "In these sentiments your committee do most cordially sympathize, and they anticipate with heartfelt delight the time when their young friend, now enjoying the instructions of the Free Church Divinity Hall in Edinburgh, and his two fellowconverts in Bombay, shall be commissioned to enter on the great work of preaching to their countrymen the gospel of the grace of God. Your committee look forward to this with the more earnest longing, that, in their opinion, the station at Bombay stands in need of additional labourers. The same remark is applicable to Poonah, where there are also but two missionaries, Mr James Mitchell and Mr Aitken. The English school there, by the last accounts, contained about 90 pupils, being much the same, in point of numbers, as formerly, but consisting of younger and less advanced boys; partly because of the removal of some in consequence of the conversion of Narayan at Bombay, and partly because some of the more advanced scholars had been appointed to the charge of schools established by benevolent individuals in different parts of the country. The Marathi schools, including those at Indapoor, are eight in number, and contain 450 children. The only European teacher at Indapoor, about 80 miles from Poonah, is Mr Drake, a very pious and laborious man. Mr Mitchell states, that there is much knowledge of Christ throughout the district of Indapoor, and expresses a strong desire to see it occupied by an ordained missionary. In regard to their own labours at Poonab, Mr Mitchell and Mr Aitken write, that they have had little to cheer them during the past year in the way of conversion to God-that sometimes pleasing blossoms had appeared, which had yet disappointed their expectations. Two aged persons, a man and a woman, had been added to the native church.

"Your Missionaries at Madras, Mr Anderson, Mr Johnston, and Mr Braidwood, amidst many trials and disappointments in the backsliding of some of whose conversion they at one time entertained high hopes, have had a great deal also to encourage them. For a very interesting account of the state of the different branches of the Mission in and near Madras, your Committee refer to the last number of the Record. A few extracts from Mr Anderson's letter of the 25th March will be sufficient to put the Assembly in possession of the latest information on the subject. “Our_little_congregation, consisting of seventeen members,-Europeans, East Indians and natives,-sat down to the communion on Sabbath the 10th current. was a season of special refreshing from the presence of the Lord. The number is

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not many, though greater than the few who broke bread with George Wishart in the Castle of St Andrews the night before he was burnt. It was no little joy to us all, that Mr Huffton, our East Indian teacher, who has been with us from the first, but who was brought up an Episcopalian, spontaneously, and without the least solicita. tion on our part, cast in his lot with us, by partaking of the feast. He seems truly taught of God, and is a most efficient teacher. Mr Whitely, our Triplicane teacher, is also in sentiment with us, though he does not yet feel prepared to join our communion. Your Committee will rejoice to see that a wide door, and an effectual, has been opened up to us at Triplicane, at least for the present. Satan, our great adversary, is both malicious and watchful; and false and mischievous rumours are already afloat there. The Lord is our defence and refuge, and we desire to go forward in His strength.

"We now preach on the forenoon of every Sabbath at Madras, and every Sabbath evening on the Mount Road, near Triplicane. Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, is our theme. The people of God who come, appear edified and refreshed, and some of our heathen young men have come under convictions,— -some more, some less deep. Two,-a Brahman lad of nineteen, and a Sudra youth of sixteen and a half,— were so deeply impressed that they both came and offered themselves for baptism. Considering their youth, the confessions they made of the sins of which they had been guilty, the confession, especially, of the Brahman to me in private,—were as touching as they were horrible. We feel that Christ alone can save and cleanse such sinners; and our hope for them is not less, because they have been such great ones. Nothing, however, short of the Spirit's creation will do. My colleagues and myself have been deeply interested in their case; and so has Teukataramiah, under whose teaching they have of late chiefly been. But we have told them to count the cost of forsaking all for Christ. Yesterday the youngest appeared to waver; to-day, the Brahman bas sent to say, that he is not prepared to be baptized at present. The will of the Lord be done,-not ours,-in so grave a matter. He may yet pluck them out of the snare, if His Spirit has been dealing with them. We have need of patience to wait in such cases as theirs and Narrainsaivmy's. Pray for us, dear friend, that we may wait for such souls in hope,—taking hold of the exceeding great and precious promises of Christ. Oh that, like Paul, we could travail in birth for them till Christ is formed in the most hopeless of them.

"Our native girls' school is prospering amazingly. The girls are all of the Tamil and Zelugu castes at Madras, and, though poor, are intelligent and interesting. The other day there were present in Mr Huffton's house forty-six caste girls, quite a phenomenon here. Mrs Huffton and her sister are the teachers, and Mrs Braidwood visits and superintends. It is wondrous to us all that the door to native caste girls has opened so easily. I attribute this to the connection with, and influence of the parent institution. Provided the girls stay with us a reasonable time, it will be as easy to instruct them in the simple truths of the gospel as their brothers in our schools. They are delightful little creatures, some of them; and though ignorant enough of God, are as simple and natural as can be. May the Lord grant us all wisdom and tenderness to manage and keep them, till they are able to hear and understand of Christ!

"Mrs Whitely has also got ten nice caste girls at Triplicane; one of whom, a little Arab girl, the sister of a promising Arab boy who drew much attention at our late examination. She is full of spirit and character; and when unable to repeat a letter of the English alphabet, she says in Hindustani, with primitive naïveté, won't come, brother.'

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"These female schools will cost us about a hundred rupees per mensem. will not grudge the money if it pleases the Lord to smile on them. The domestic and social hope of India, and the well-being and increase of the native Christian Church, are bound up in their prosperity. Let the Marys and Marthas in our Israel help us with their prayers for this new and promising field.'

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Though there has already been laid before the Assembly by the Board of Missions, a Report of the funds collected for the Foreign Missions as well as for the other Schemes of the Church, yet your Committee feel it to be their duty to advert

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