First Fruits of the Harvest. 77 had been themselves Brahmins, to be present at this conversation. They saw nothing in her story improbable, or unworthy of belief; and, by a strange coincidence, it was found that Bossonto was distinctly related to one of them. He knew her family, and could vouch for its respectability and its wealth. Bossonto was then asked about the writer of that strange letter. She was afraid it would bring him into trouble with his own people, therefore it was with considerable reluctance she gave his name, and that only when she was assured that it was absolutely necessary. He proved to be a Brahmin, well known to the mission family. They were aware that he knew the truth, but not that he had felt its power, or that he had any love for it. Surprised, therefore, were they to hear that it was from this man's wife that Bossonto had first learnt Christianity. Her husband had taught her; and when her widowed friend told her of her doubts respecting Hindooism, and her longings for a religion that would satisfy the wants of her soul, she said, "Bossonto, Christianity is the religion for you. Go and be a Christian. I only wish we could be Christians too; but, alas! we have too many ties of caste and family. You are free, do go," and then the husband gave her that letter of introduction. She had got away from her family (father and mother she had none) by implying that she was going on a pilgrimage to Benares. That was a holy purpose. They were used to her ways, believed her, and let her go. and as she heard, she thought of, ment merely, Mrs. Mullens asked the waiting one at home, and it two of the native preachers, who seemed to her as though the answer to her prayer had already come, and that Jesus was saying to that one, "O woman, great is thy faith; be it unto thee even as thou wilt." She was soon back. It took three hours to hear the Brahminee's strange, sad story, with all its thrilling interest. Hers had been, eminently, a life of seeking. Had she found at last the hidden treasure? Left a widow at fourteen years of age, her penances and her austerities had commenced, though otherwise she was kindly treated; but ever since she had thought at all, she had been dissatisfied with Hindooism; and when the death of her husband left her free, and comparatively wealthy, she had begun to visit the various holy places celebrated in Hindoo story, with a view to find out whether they could give her that soul-rest which was denied to her at home. Her account of this search after spiritual peace was often most touching. Once, she said, when she was a little girl, her elder sister was dangerously ill, and her parents took her to a distant shrine to join her prayers with theirs for the recovery of their child. The idol was propitious; the sister got well, and Bossonto believed in that idol. In after years, when God sent this longing for truth into her heart, she bethought herself of the being who had once, as she considered, heard her prayer, and she again repaired to his shrine. They told her his most acceptable worshippers were those who approached him fasting. For two whole days she fasted, and this time her prayer was, "Teach me Thy way, O God." On the third day she fainted, with that prayer for light and guidance still on her lips. "Now," she asked, "may not the unknown God, to whom I then prayed, have heard my prayer, and brought me here in answer to it ?" The missionary's wife was silent. How could she tell? though this she knew, that "God looketh on the heart." Not wishing to trust her own judg Such was Bossonto's account of herself. The next step was to try and discover whether it was all true. One of the native preachers kindly undertook this, and rode many miles for the purpose. The result was perfectly satisfactory. At that time, Bossonto's state of mind was that of a humble learner. It was not that she knew much of Christianity, but it was as if what her heathen friend had told her had also been revealed ITS APOSTLE. to her by a far higher power, that THE ZENANA MISSION AND Jesus was the only Saviour for her sin-sick soul; and she sought after the Lord, if haply she might feel after Him and find Him. Bossonto has now been nearly three months in the mission family at B, and every day increases their love and affection for her. Naturally very clever and intelligent, she has learnt to read her Bible in an incredibly short time; it is rarely out of her hands; and each morning may find her taking her place among the girls of the native Christian boarding school, to get the benefit of their daily Bible lesson. Every now and then she looks up, with extreme earnestness depicted on her bright face, to ask, Oh do you think this blind one will ever see? Do you think I shall ever understand it all ?" She may know it not, but the Spirit has already taught her to behold wondrous things out of His law, for she said, on one occasion, "I think I see the difference between the Hindoo Shastres and the Book of God. Is it not this, the former is filled with outward ceremonies, which cannot make the heart better, while the latter has to do chiefly with the heart, how can it be purified and made fit to dwell with God?" When asked what made her first think that idols were not true Gods, she replied, "Because I saw the glorious sun, and moon, and stars. Not only so, but I saw that all these were governed by certain laws; the planets were round the sun, and the tides were influenced by the moon; then I knew there must be one Being greater in the universe than any I had yet heard of." But still this was not the feeling that had brought her to the feet of Christ. To Him she came on account of her need, her want; and Christians will understand her, though she often says, "I wish I could express myself better, but I do not know what else to say, than that I have been needing the true religion all my life, and now I have found it." From the Friend of India, Nov. 28. BUT, it is said, how can the English in India help to educate its eighty millions of women? The missionaries have their orphanages for the outcast, and their day schools for children already Christian. The Bethune School of Calcutta, which Lord Dalhousie maintained, though carefully hedged round from Christianity, compared with their efforts has been a gigantic failure. But we have yet to learn that any difficulty would be found in establishing schools for girls of the lower classes under female teachers. Even under old pundits the success in the North West, and the comparatively large number of girls under instruction in Madras and Bombay, shows what may be done. By a less rigid grant in aid system and by a female Normal School in each of the Presidencies, we believe the country could be covered with girls' schools, and three-fourths of the girls under ten, of each village in India, be induced not only to be taught but soon to pay for the teaching. The difficulty is with the higher classes of natives, the native gentry. No one who knows the intense dislike of the English of even the middle class to allow their daughters to attend public schools, will wonder that it exists in the East, however great the intelligence and slight the superstitious prejudices of the father may be. if a whole generation is not to be lost, wives as well as daughters must be educated. The boarding school system meets the difficulty in England, and in a still higher rank that of private governesses. In India the native social system at once makes this easy. Whole clans, regular "gentes" forming with their establishment a familia," live together. They have their property in common, and while each male member of the clan has, as a rule, only one wife, the zenana will generally contain, on an average, eight ladies. Occasionally houses 66 And, The Zenana Mission and its Apostle, &c. 79 are contiguous, or even surrounded, no pressure. The first object is to by the same enclosure. In the open the eyes of the understanding, house of every native gentleman in not to terrify them by the dazzle of India, then, it may be said that a the sun. But the majority read school is ready to hand in the Christian books - even the four zenana. All that is wanted is per- Gospels, and they are educated as mission from the husbands for much by conversation as by books. English ladies with a knowledge of the vernacular and attended by native assistants, to visit each zenana periodically. Since 1855, a Zenana Mission has been at work in Calcutta. We have abstained from noticing its progress lest the breath of even the slightest publicity should wither the young plant. We cannot, therefore, enter into its details or picture its success as we otherwise would. The educated clerks of Government offices and some of the leaders of Anglicised native society, are the class who at first timidly but now eagerly welcome the English ladies who devote themselves to the work. The want now is not open zenanas but ladies to enter them. There has been more than one labourer in the field, but at present there are only three who are acquainted with Bengali, an indispensable requisite for success. They visit 22 houses containing about 160 native ladies and 150 little daughters for the most part of the Brahmin, writer and doctor castes. Each house is visited once a week by the English ladies, who are thus employed every day for three or four hours, but native women teachers, each receiving eight rupees monthly, attend daily, one woman having the care of two houses. Thus every day the work goes on, for native ladies have few if any family duties, and once a week the English superintendent, whose visit is always longed for, examines the results and supervises the whole. The pupils grandmothers, mothers, and little children -are all taught to read and "work" in the feminine sense of that term. Thus the educated husband comes home to find a companion instead of a slave, and when absent he is cheered by letters from his wife. Our readers ask-what of Christianity? On this subject there is The Apostle of the Zenana Mission has just passed away and there is the more need that others fill her place. Living we should not have mentioned her name. Dead, the memory of Mrs. Mullens will long be fragrant among those who knew her work of faith and labour of love. The daughter of the missionary Lacroix, she was worthy of her father. How few of our readers have even heard of her-she was a reformer before the reformation! Since her return to India she has devoted her life to the zenana mission. She had the genius as well as the zeal of an apostle. Her "Phulmani and Karuna" has been translated from its exquisite Bengali into every vernacular of India, and has become to the native church what the Pilgrim's Progress of Bunyan has been to the masses of England. Her "What is Christianity ? was prepared for educated heathens who inquire like Nathanael. And when taken away after a brief thirty hours of intense suffering, she had half finished another Bengali classic for the instruction of those native ladies whom she taught from week to week. Is it so difficult for one English lady out of every hundred in India to conquer a vernacular language, and devote part of her leisure to such of the zenanas in her neighbourhood as would welcome her visits ? This for the rich, and State schools for the poor, and India will yet have a chance among the nations! MISS BUTLER, of Cuttack, was expecting to sail from Calcutta, by the Overland Route, on the 23rd ult., and hoped to reach England early in March. The cost of passage will be defrayed by the Society for Promoting Female Education in the East, under whose auspices Miss Butler went out to India. Foreign Letters Received. BERHAMPORE.-J. O. Goadby, Oct. 19th. | CUTTACK.-W. Hill, October 3rd, NoCUTTACK.-J. Buckley, Oct. 2nd, Nov. 18th, 26th, Dec. 3rd. vember 4th. Contributions RECEIVED ON ACCOUNT OF THE GENERAL BAPTIST From November 20th, 1861, to January 20th, 1862. Tetley-street... MISSIONARY SOCIETY, Burnley 10 9 6 Burnley Lane London, Rev. J. Batey... Cambridge, by Mrs. Cockle... 1 5 2 12 0 Gambleside Ilkeston Wood-gate 512 8 15 10 6 Kirkby & Kirkby Woodhouse 5 8 1 Leeds, Byron-street 21 8 3 Ripley Subscriptions and Donations in aid of the General Baptist Missionary Society will be thankfully received by Robert Pegg, Esq., Treasurer, Derby; and by the Rev. J. C. Pike, Secretary, De Montfort Square, Leicester, from whom also Missionary Boxes, Collecting Books, and Cards may be obtained. THE GENERAL BAPTIST MAGAZINE. MARCH, 1862. A FOOLISH KING'S WISE ANSWER. BAD men often give good advice. | In the majority of cases it is not very difficult to explain how this happens. They were once under religious teaching, and their wise words are the spasmodic outcome of a conscience whose susceptibility is not yet wholly destroyed. Or they think, by a miserable self-delusion, that to say what is good, will be taken as a palliation for doing what is evil. Besides, good advice is cheap; and good deeds are costly. For one man who does, you may generally find a hundred men who simply say, what is right. The appearance of virtue can be purchased at the easy rate of empty words. The reality of virtue is only to be bought with a very great sum. As an illustration how wisely sometimes foolish men can speak, look at King Ahab. He had been monarch of the separate kingdom of Israel for some years; had done his best, at the prompting of his wicked wife, to bring the worship of Baal and Asherah into popularity; and had gratified his own luxurious tastes to such an extent as to excite the cupidity of a neighbouring VOL. III.-NEW SERIES, No. 3. monarch. Benhadad, the Second, King of Damascus, with thirty-two vassal kings, lays seige to Samaria. Ahab is in great alarm; would rather live a beggar than die a prince:' and at once acknowledges the haughty king as his superior. He has no longer any possessions: his gold, silver, wives, children, and whatsoever is pleasant in his eyes, are now Benhadad's. Tomorrow then, says the king, I shall enforce my claim, and carry all these treasures away. Ahab now begins to repent, calls the elders and all the people together, and at their suggestion returns a second and more kingly answer. Then follows Benhadad's boast, clenched with a pagan oath, The gods do so unto me, and more also, if the dust of Samaria shall suffice for handfuls of all the people that follow me. Ahab is stung to the quick, and again answers, this time in the wisest words that ever fell from his foolish lips: Let not him that girdeth on his armour boast himself as he that putteth it off. Ahab's words are suggestive of other enemies of man than angry kings, and with many of which one |