On my return to this place in 1844, he was among the first to rejoin the school; and, as he had made considerable progress in English, and my former best scholars were all scattered, I soon entrusted to him the over-sight of a small class. I had generally reason to be satisfied with his diligence in preparing his own lessons, as well as with his attention to the youths who were placed under him. Nevertheless, he was a decided Hindoo; and, when his increasing knowledge rendered it impossible for him to believe in all the abominations of the popular superstition, he sought refuge in a form of Vedantism. That, too, I was at length delighted to observe, began to give way; and I believe I witnessed its dying struggles, one day, several weeks ago, when he came to me, and asked me whether I could procure him a copy of the Bhagavadgita*.

A very little conversation revealed the state of his mind; and, after I read and explained to him a few sentences of that celebrated jargon, he seemed satisfied, and wisely concluded that the book did not contain what he wanted. I, therefore, gave him instead of it a little book containing the three tracts-" Believe and Live;"" Sin put away by Christ;" and "Poor Joseph." He studied his Bible, and was a constant attendant in the Bible-class on Sabbath-morning. But I could never induce him, on any consideration, to write a line upon any subject which involved a comparison of the claims of Hindooism and Christianity.

This seemed so unlike the conduct of many others in similar circumstances, that I almost felt discouraged by it. But the fact was, he would not denounce the religion of his fathers, nor commend that of Jesus, until he was prepared to abandon the former, and embrace the latter. The conduct of many who have acted differently seemed to astonish him very much.

Some months ago, one of his brothers died, and his mind was filled with poignant grief. One day, soon after that event, I could see that his soul was deeply agitated, when we read a fine chapter in "Abercrombie's Moral Feelings,' which concludes with these words-"No wanderer lost-a family in heaven." From that time, according to his own account, his misery rapidly increased. At home, he strictly observed all the rites and ceremonies incumbent on him as a Brahmin, and then prayed to God, sometimes with and sometimes without a reference to Jesus Christ. But, in the latter method, he avers he could never find any peace at all. His employment in the school now became an intolerable burden to him; for, to use his own words," he felt as if he were playing with God." At one time, he had almost formed a resolution to run away,

and never more appear in this district. His mental distress was still farther increased, when his family made him drink with them the Panchagavya†, assuring him that it freed them from all sin. His own experience but too distinctly told him that such was not its efficacy.

His relations at length began to suspect that all was not right; and it was arranged that he should forthwith be married. As a preliminary step, therefore, they asked him to swear that he would never embrace Christianity that, however, he would not do; and some of his school-friends, knowing the state of his mind, admonished him that now or never was his time to follow Christ. He was still greatly perplexed; and, only a few days before he finally took up his abode with us, he returned some books which I had lent him, intending, as he now informs us, to leave the school for ever. However, he finally concluded to open his mind to me, but with so little determination, that, even when on the way to my house on Sundaymorning, he felt strongly tempted to run away. "But where,' was his reflection, "where shall I go? my trouble is in my own soul." In that state of mind, he and another Brahmin youth were observed on Sabbath the 25th of April, at an earlier hour than usual, seated in the Bible-class Room; the former reading his Bible with tears, and the latter looking very grave and solemn. When the class was dismissed, Jaganuatham followed me to my room, and said he did not wish to go home again.

"Why? I asked, "Have you had any quarrel with your family?"

"No, Sir, I never quarrelled with any of my family-I love them all much; but I am a sinner, and I believe that Christ alone can save me."

"Are you, then, determined to follow Him?"

"Can you brave it?"

At

in vain, he requested leave to carry him away by force; and, being refused, very reluctantly left the house.

His mother and sister now arrived, and set up such a noise, that we deemed it prudent to close the door for a while. As we had anticipated, an immense crowd began to assemble; and we did not think it safe to open the door again. Two Police-peons, however, arrived, for the purpose of apprehending our protégé on a charge of theft. This turned out to be entirely a false charge, brought forward for the purpose of getting the lad into their possession. When the mob-headed, as they were, by some of the most influential Government Servants broke into the house, they screamed and yelled most hideously. His aged mother moaned sadly, striking her head against the stones; but because she did not perform this latter service with sufficient energy, a Brahmin was observed to do it for her several times.

Jaganuatham was subjected to much illtreatment in the Police-office. Of course, all his relatives were allowed free access to him; but, in addition to that, all the haughty Brahmins in the place were allowed to torment him as they liked with their silly babblings. They gave him water to drink, in which they had dissolved some drug; but he refused it. They afterwards gave him sour butter-milk a favourite beverage with Brahmins-in which they had previously immersed some copper-coins. This proved emetic, and proclaimed the fact that his caste had been broken; though the Brahmins afterwards, in open court, declared that they had reason to believe he had eaten nothing with us.

About ten o'clock, Mr. Johnston and myself went to the Police-office, accompanied by several European brethren, and found the place still crowded with Brahmins. After some conversation with him and the bystanders, I asked him, Whether he thought he should be comfortable there all night?

"Yes!" he replied, laying his hand upon a little bundle under his arm; "I have my Bible with me." This he had retained through all the rough treatment he had met with; and, in the middle of the night, when some of his fellow-prisoners asked him, Why he, a Brahmin, who ought to be a guide to others, should forsake his religion, and bring so much trouble upon himself?-he told them that the Bible contained the only true revelation of the will of God to man; and, at their request, having procured a small light, read and explained to them some portions of the blessed volume. Amid all the distractions of his position, the Lord enabled him to give some very convincing replies to his adversaries.

On the Monday morning, we all appeared before the Magistrate; and, after an inquiry attended with great clamour and excitement, we were escorted home by a party of military, without further molestation; though it was thought prudent to leave a small guard with us for a few days. Jaganuatham was baptized on the following Wednesday, and next Sabbath sat down with us to commemorate our Redeemer's death. He said he was happy, and felt that the Lord was with him. His family have performed his funeral rites, and he has now returned to his duties in the School. May the gracious Lord preserve him, and make him to be a great blessing to his countrymen !

The whole community is at present shaken to its centre on the subject of Christianity. The exhibition made of its power and its worth has told very favourably on the minds of the natives generally. Our refusal to prosecute the Ringleaders of the riot, even though the Magistrate openly said they would be severely punished if we did so, has led to surmisings by no means agreeable to the supporters of Hindooism. This, of course, increases the exasperation of our adversaries, and calls forth malicious fury, where gratitude ought to have had place.

SHUNKURU-LINGUM, the former name of the subject of this biographical notice, was born at Quilon about the year 1787, of respectable, but heathen parents, of the Vellaulu or Cultivator-caste. In early life he differed little, if at all, from his countrymen in blind devotedness to idolatry, and in the practice of the degrading observances it enjoins. Divine Providence led him by a way he knew not: he left the home of his boyhood; and, after seve

ral changes in his temporal circumstances from the lower to the higher grades of personal service in the camp and elsewhere, entered the employ of a gentleman holding a civil appointment under the Ceylon Government. An apparently trivial circumstance was the turning point of his life. Under a tree of the forest, he found a copy of the Gospels in Tamil, probably left there by a follower of the British Camp; it being the time

of the Kandyan war, and strangers from Tranquebar having come over to Ceylon with the Army. He read the book with eager delight-it opened up to him a new region of thought and inquiry, and eventually was blessed to his conversion.

Deeply affected by a sense of the spiritual degradation of his countrymen, and impelled by love to the Saviour, he sought to make known to others those glorious truths he himself had embraced. He was soon after called to devote himself to the stated Ministry of the Gospel, when his ardent, wellsustained zeal led him to conduct his labours wherever he could obtain an audience, and not unfrequently in the midst of the most bitter opposition. The success which attended his preaching, in different parts of the Mysore, but especially at Bangalore, was too great to pass unobserved by the bigotted and the ignorant of the prevailing Creeds. Hindoos, Mahommedans, and Roman Catholics combined against the man who, full of earnest, godly zeal, made known Salvation by grace through faith in a Crucified, but Divine Saviour, and who would admit of no mediators from the catalogues of the saints, and of no observances but such as are sanctioned by the Gospel. His discussions with the Romanists were replete with interest and instruction, and well had it been for his opponents had they confined themselves to this legitimate mode of defending their peculiar tenets; but, on the failure of argument, they united with the enemies of the Gospel, and sought the aid of the Civil Power to silence their common antagonist. Mr. Flavel was excluded from Mysore, Seringapatam, and the Pettah of Bangalore, not as an evil-doer, but as a 66 setter-forth of strange gods; because he preached unto the people Jesus and the resurrection."

At Bangalore, where he had connected himself with the London Missionary Society, he was ordained to the pastoral charge of the Native Church formed at that station of persons brought to a knowledge of the truth, chiefly through his instrumentality. In 1827 he removed from Bangalore to Bellary, and entered on that important sphere of labour,

which he occupied until his death, with many evident tokens of the divine approbation, in the growing esteem of his colleagues in the Mission, and the gradual increase of the church under his pastoral care.

Few men in this country have been more honoured of God in the conversion of sinners than Mr. Flavel; and, among our Native Brethren, in the extent and accuracy of his knowledge, the thoroughly scriptural character of his teaching, and its practical bearing upon the circumstances and wants of his flock, he stood almost alone. His addresses to the heathen were ever distinguished by great adaptation to their modes of thought and feeling. The graceful dignity of his manner, added to the benevolent expression of his countenance, gave him a great advantage in recommending the Gospel. Men who rejected the message generally treated with respect him who brought it to them. disarmed hostility by his gentleness, and won conviction to the truth, as far as human instrumentality can do so, by his clear and forcible statement of its claims.

He

His last hours, past in much suffering, add another illustration, to the many already on record, of the power of the Gospel, alike over men of every country and clime, to dispossess the mind of fear and fill it with sacred joy in the prospect of dissolution.*

Divine Providence has left the family of Mr. Flavel entirely dependent on the sympathy and aid of the christian community. It is confidently believed that the circumstances of the Widow and fatherless' need only to be known, to meet with a generous response from the disciples of Him, who acknowledges the cup of cold water' given to a disciple in his name. Something, too, may not improperly be considered as called for from the friends of Missions, as an humble thank-offering to God for raising up, among the natives of this country, one so eminently pious and devoted, and enabling him by his grace to continue faithful unto death.

A brief Memoir of this eminent Native Minister is contemplated, in which a sketch of his character, labours, trials, and successes, will be presented to the Christian Public.

We have now been a little more than a year with the Bakwains. No conversion has occurred, yet real progress has been made: the indications of advancement may be more interesting to myself than to any one else, yet I believe it would be apparent to all who might witness it. The Sabbath is observed so far, that no work is done in the gardens on that day, and hunting is suspended. There is a general impression among the people, that we are their real friends. This is manifested in a variety of ways.

When we came, the belief in Rain-making was universal-they believed that, as God had given the white man guns and other things, whereby he excelled the black, He had conferred the knowledge of rain-making on them, as one thing in which they might excel the white. It availed nothing, when told that their rain-medicines produced no sensible result. "Your medicines," said they, produce no visible effect either, when you administer them, but they enter into the inward parts-do their work-and then the cure follows many days afterwards. In like manner, our rain-medicines enter into the clouds, heal them, and we have rain some time afterwards."

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Sechele was chief Rain-maker himself, and had unbounded confidence in his own powers. Last year, however, proved one of unusual drought-the clouds went round and round us, until the people began to say, "These clouds make sport of us." Our house was supposed the cause why no rain came down, and we were requested to allow them to sprinkle it with medicine. To this we had no objection-yet no rain came-the crops were lost. When I asked Sechele whether he intended to make rain this year, he replied, "You will never see me at that work again." A Rain-maker came from a great distance he asked a sheep, and promised rain at a certain period; but the time having arrived and no rain, when he asked another sheep, the people only answered him with laughter. Many still fear the Rain-maker, but at one time no one dared to laugh at him.

Formerly, all believed that preaching, praying, observance of the Sabbath, were just the customs we had derived from our ancestors; and many felt jealous, lest compul

The

sion should be used to make them part with their superfluous wives, and other practices, and become makoes, or white people, in customs. But after some time they began to inquire, Why only some white men observed the customs of their ancestors, and others observed neither the Sabbath nor any custom whatever? "To be plain with you," said one, "we should like you much better if you traded with us, and then went away without for ever boring us by preaching that Word of God."

They were exceedingly anxious to obtain medicine, which would enable them to shoot well. A Griqua came and sold a little bit of sulphur at a high price, and some of it was inserted under the skin of the hand of the Chief: this was shewn to me as a great acqui. sition. I told them they had been deceived, and handed the chief a cupful of sulphur, as a proof that it was not mere niggardliness that prevented me from distributing "gun medicine." He looked at it for some time, and then said, "I wish you would deceive me too-it would be pleasanter, though you cheated me out of my goods." He returned the sulphur, apparently feeling that falsehood was sweeter than truth.

The people, in general, shew more curiosity than any others with whom I have come in contact. Most of the principal men attempt to acquire a knowledge of reading: the famine caused by the loss of the crops has, however, prevented many from making much progress. After attending a few days, they are obliged to go to the fields in search of roots for their subsistence: the Chief, having always had food, has never been absent-he and his wives have, therefore, been our best scholars. He can read the Testament pretty well, and always seems to relish our explanations of passages which he feels difficult. He has adopted European clothing, and is most desirous of acquiring the advantages of civilization. We are encouraged to hope, that his example will have a good effect on the people. We trust our friends at home do not cease to pray, that the influence of the Holy Spirit may change their hearts, for, unless they are converted, any advance they may make in civilization will be but a poor reward for our toils.