S. Harcourt, of Sutton St. James. The collections for the removal of the debt on the chapel were good. J. C. S.

DERBY, Sacheverel-street.-On Lord's day, August 8th, two sermons were preached in the G. B. chapel, Sacheveral street, by the Rev. S. Ayrton, of Chesham, when collections were made on behalf of the chapel funds. On the following evening a public teameeting was held for the same purpose. From both occasions a sum of about £19. was realized. We are very thankful to state that at the latter meeting, an effort was commenced towards reducing our large debt; and that at a special church meeting we have unanimously resolved to raise, during this year, not less than £250. for this purpose. Brethren, aid us in this effort by your prayers, and if possible your donations.

BARTON, Day-school. The anniversary meetings of this institution were holden on Thursday, May 27th, and afforded great satisfaction and encouragement. The examination of children in the afternoon, in reading, mental arithmetic, geography, English grammar, &c., was highly creditable both to themselves and their devoted teachers. Trays for the tea were very kindly provided gratuitously, and produced with a collection at the close of an interesting public meeting in the evening, about £26. The attendance was large, and all parties were, we believe, highly interested and gratified. J. C.

BAPTISMS.

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who is to be received into the church at Magdalen, was baptized in the Baptist chapel, Downham, after a sermon by the minister, Rev. J. Bane, on the commission. J. C. S.

MELBOURNE. Since we last reported twelve persons have been baptized and added to the church. Five of the candidates were from our Sabbath-school at Melbourne, and three from the branch at Ticknall. T. G.

MISCELLANEOUS.

DERBY, Brook-street.

On Lord's-day, July 18th, our respected minister, Mr. J. Lewitt, late of Coventry, commenced his ministerial labours amongst us. The attendance in the morning was very good, and an appropriate discourse was delivered from Rom. xv. 29th verse. In the evening the congregation was unusually large, and our minister preached from Col. i. 28, from which we hope good will ensue. On the following Monday evening about 150 persons took tea together in the school room. Addresses were delivered by Revds. J. G. Pike, Gawthorne, Poile, Stanion, Meeworth, and Lewitt. The unanimity of feeling and cordial sympathies cherished and expressed by all the speakers augur well for the success of the church assembling in that house of prayer, with which so many hallowed associations are connected.

INDIVIDUAL USEFULNESS.-Most of our readers doubtless must have heard of the Lowell Factories in one of the New England States; and of the 'Lowell Offering,' a

tized and added to the church in this town.

BILLESDON.-On Lord's-day morning, July 18th, three esteemed friends, who had long been halting between two opinions, publicly dedicated themselves to Christ, by following him in the ordinance of baptism. We have cause for thankfulness, and pray for continued prosperity. M. C.

BOSTON.-On Lord's day, May 30th, we baptized five persons; on June 27th, four; and on July 25, six more. We have still some candidates. T. W. M.

WIRKSWORTH. After a suitable sermon by our minister, Mr. Nightingale, three ap. proved candidates, two males and one female, were immersed on Lord's-day morning, July 18th, before a large and serious congregation. At the table of the Lord, in the afternoon, they were admitted to fellowship. This service was rendered peculiarly interesting to our sister because it was owing to some observation made at a former admission of members that she was induced to decide.

MAGDALEN.-On Sunday, August 1st, an excellent sermon was preached by Mr. J. Bormond, of York, after which one female was baptized; and on the 8th a male friend VOL 9.-N. S. 2 M

those establishments. We have just met an instance of usefulness on the part of one of these females, which deserves, we think, this public record. A young female has, for several years, supported from the produce of her own labour a pupil in a school connected with the Nestorian mission. This pupil has now become a preacher, and his ministrations are received with favour and acceptance. The missionary bears the following testimony to his acceptance and usefulness: He is remarkably winning and impressive in his proclamation of the gospel. Although a mere stripling in years and in size, he is still manly in appearance and mature in character; and it is not without good reason that the rude villagers, to whom he preaches regard him with great respect, and His many of them with strong affection. audiences are often melted to tears by the pertinency and power of his discourses.'

Thus a female operative in a public factory proclaims, by an agent whom her liberality sustains, the gospel of peace. May many be induced, by this record of her benevolence, to imitate her bright example. Such conduct will produce no sorrowful reminiscences when on the verge of another world.-Morning Star.

A LOAN FUND FOR NATIVE CHRISTIANS IN INDIA.

Boston, Aug. 10th, 1847.

To the Editor of the Missionary Observer.

DEAR SIR,-The object of the friend who suggests in your last No., page 254, a Loan fund for native christians in India, appears so philanthropic and reasonable, that I hope it will meet with the approbation of the missionaries themselves, of the committee, and of a sufficient number of friends in England. If it do, I shall willingly be one to venture on the loss your correspondent supposes possible, of £10; with the hope of doing something to help poor christians to a morsel of daily bread; and of perhaps contri. buting eventually to the extirpation of those enormous usurers, by whom the poor in most of our colonies have long been so grievously crushed.

Hoping to see this benevolent object extensively taken up,

I am, dear Sir,
Faithfully yours,

T. W. MATHEWS.

[We willingly insert Mr. Mathews' note, relative to a communication which appeared in the last number of the Repository, from Mr. J. Chapman, of London. For our own part, we can scarcely yet form an opinion on the subject. It would certainly be very pleasing if anything could be done to assist the native converts in India in their temporal circumstances; but we much fear that any advantage conferred on our brethren there, would be too much regarded in the light of a boon to induce persons to assume the mere profession of christianity. The results in such a case would be disastrous.-ED.]

A FEW WORDS TO COLLECTORS.

BELOVED SISTERS.-My present purpose is not to communicate information, but in christian love to address to you a few words of encouragement; and perhaps I cannot begin better than by mentioning the particular circumstance that induced me to write. A few days since, in the private perusal of the Divine Word, 1 Samuel ii. came in course, and the incident recorded in the 19th verse arrested my attention in a way that it had not previously done. 'Moreover, his (i. e. Samuel's) mother made him a little coat, and brought it to him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.'

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many this may seem a small matter to be recorded in the word of God, but we know that whatever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning.' Trivial, however, as may at first sight appear, does it not suggest to a reflective mind this important idea-that God notices the least things that are done for the furtherance of his own glory, and overlooks the greatest that are performed without regard to himself? Nothing is said in scripture respecting the studies of the sages, the contentions of the politicians, or the exploits of the conquerors of that age; they neglected God, and God lightly esteemed them: but 6 a little coat' that a fond mother made for her firstborn son is specially mentioned. No doubt there were many mothers in Israel besides Hannah who made little coats for their little sons, but this only is recorded, the reason obviously being that it was made for Samuel when he 'ministered before the Lord.' Musing a little on this verse, and calling to mind your work of faith and labour of love,' I resolved to take occasion from the little coat,' to encourage the hundreds in our connexion who are employed as missionary collectors.

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I have commenced with 'beloved sisters,' on the ground that this self-denying, but most honourable service devolves almost exclusively upon you; nevertheless, any dear brethren that may be expending their manly energies in this praiseworthy department, will regard what is written as designed also for their encouragement. And, first, I should not do justice to my own feelingsfeelings which are fully entertained by all my brethren and sisters in the mission, if I did not from my heart of hearts' thank you for your disinterested and zealous exertions. When we tell the dear children in our asylums, and our beloved native christians how you go about to collect money to send the gospel to this wicked country, they are filled with wonder and delight; they see that the religion of Jesus Christ is a religion of holy love, and it stirs them up to give thanks and pray to God on your behalf. But, beloved friends, you have something far better than any thanks we can offer, or than the grateful sense of obligation which the converted heathen entertain. You have the testimony of a good conscience-you have the approving smile of God-you have the hope through grace of an abundant recompense at the resurrection of the justit is your happiness to be assured that the fruits of love to Christ, unnoticed though they be by the world, and even by many in

the church, will be graciously remembered when your Lord shall come in the clouds of heaven; your names and deeds will not be written in the book of fame, but they are recorded in the book of remembrance. He who noticed and approved the little coat which was made by the mother of Irsael's prophet, is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love. We know that you meet with discouragements, and that they are sometimes severe. It is to some of you painful that you have not more countenance and support from experienced members and office bearers in the church; but let not this unduly depress you. Many good men, and good women too, might be better than they are. Rise above all inferior considerations, and realize that you are labouring for God; you will then go to your work with a glad and grateful heart. It is a sore trial to many of you when there is a falling off in the subscriptions, but if it arise from no lack of zeal and effort on your part, (be quite sure on this point) you may comfort yourselves with the thought that 'where there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what a man hath, and not according to what he hath not.' Men look at the result of actions, but God looks at the motive, and you are acting for Him.

I beseech you, my dear sisters, suffer the word of exhortation. Be regular in calling on your subscribers. Many cheerfully give a small sum, to whom a larger is a serious affair. Be well acquainted with missionary details. Read the letters in the Observer, the extracts in the quarterly papers, the facts in the Report, and you will always have something interesting to tell your subscribers. Be sure to appeal to sound scriptural principles in urging the claims of the mission. This is very important, but we cannot suppress our fear that it is not sufficiently regarded. We fully admit that emulation within certain limits, is lawful and virtuous, and that the reasoning of the apostle Paul in 2 Cor. viii. and ix., proves it to be so; but it is only within certain limits, and in subserviency to nobler and more important considerations that we should appeal to this principle. Take the higher grounds of duty, and impress on your subscribers, that whatsoever they do, they must do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.' Christ has commanded his servants to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,' and it is clearly the duty of all his disciples to aid in carrying out his last command. How are we to urge obedience? Listen to his own blessed words in his valedictory address to the disciples, 'If ye love me,'-how tender -how forcible the plea! it touches the secret springs of action in every christian heartif ye love me, keep my commandments.'

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Love to Christ, then, is the grand motive to exertion in the missionary cause. Sustained by this your zeal will be a pure and steady flame; your compassion will be excited for heathens at home and in China, as well as in India; your attachment to the cause in days of darkness and adversity will be marked by constancy and ardour-whoever deserts it, you will be firm-whoever declines, you will abound more and more. Seek, dear sisters, after high-principled affection to the Lord Jesus, and all will be right. Often meditate on such texts as these, None of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself; for whether we live, we live unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lord; whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.' 'Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.' 'The love of Christ constraineth us.' 'Who loved me and gave himself for me.' 'To me to live is Christ.' In presenting the claims of the mission to your friends, fill your mouth with arguments, but let them all be derived from the cross-let them all be urged in love, and be assured that such arguments, presented in such a spirit, and with a woman's winning tones and persuasive manner, can hardly be resisted. Urge your subscribers to pray as well as to give. All the wealth in the world would not enlighten one of all these millions of idolaters; the influences of the Divine Spirit are essentially necessary, and these will be obtained by prayer. O my sisters, prayer is a mighty weapon; thousands of times it has defeated the plans and routed the forces of Satan; and he fears it, as well he may, more than any thing else. Thousands of times it has done wonders for the church of God, and we believe it is destined to achieve tenfold greater. Prayer honors God, lays us low in the dust, strips us of self reliance, fits us for success, and teaches us when success is bestowed to say, 'Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory.'

Remember your sisters in Christ who are wearing out health and life on a far distant shore. They would not do it in any other cause, but they rejoice that they are counted worthy to do it for Christ. They have an especial claim on your sympathies and prayers, and you fully recognize the claim. Think of the deep degradation of your sex in heathen lands. How many thousands of them annually perish on pilgrimage. Be thankful that a happier lot is yours. By nature you are no better than they, Rom. iii. 9. Dwell on the honour of being employed in aiding the triumphs of such a cause. Look forward to the time of the end. Brighter days will dawn on long benighted

Orissa: her hideous idol will fall before the preaching of the cross, and she will be one of the brightest of Immanuel's many crowns. And finally when Christ who is our life shall appear, then will myriads from Orissa appear with him in glory. Therefore, my beloved sisters, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.'

Your affectionate brother in Christ,
JOHN BUCKLEY.

LETTER FROM MR. STUBBINS.

MANY thanks, my beloved brother, for your kind and interesting letter to our dear native preachers. They were very much delighted with it, and I hope benefited by it. I translated it to them at our Thursday afternoon's service. We have lately told them more about friends at home, and the concern which is manifested by them and different ministers for their establishment in righteousness and growth in grace; and it has had a very happy influence in leading them to feel themselves more identifiedmore closely united in one common bond with them, and to pray for them with increased interest and fervour. They have often remembered you and our beloved secretary, with deep feeling at a throne of grace, especially when they heard that you were sick. Our dear native brother Balagi has given me a letter to translate and forward to you, which I hope may not be unacceptable. By the way, in one of your letters you express a wish that they would not address you in an adulatory strain. can appreciate the modesty of that wish, but it should not be forgotten that an Asiatic would esteem it almost, if not quite, an insult to address a person in the same (shall I call it) phlegmatic strain, that we should. The people will be oriental in spite of all that can be done; but I am sure the language was not that of fulsome flattery. But for the letter, excepting one or two of the titles which he gives you at the beginning.

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for the welfare of us poor unworthy creatures, in the presence of God and of our Lord the Saviour, in private and in public praying, should supplicate on our behalf the influence of the Holy Spirit, as we know you do. You honour us by asking in what condition we Hindoo preachers formerly were, and in what condition we now are since we received the gospel. I will freely inform you concerning myself.

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From my birth, even all my life long, how the Lord has preserved me! but not knowing him, how evil were my works and ways! For ten years after my birth, knowing nothing, I spent my time in a childish manner. For three years after that I attended cattle. At fourteen my father, according to the instruction of the wicked bades, (books occupying the same place among the Hindoos which the Bible does among christians, only all castes are forbidden to read them except the brahmins,) caused me to perform various ceremonies, and invested me with the poita, (braǹminical thread.) From this time the people called me, my lord brahmin. then cultivated the soil. At this time I, with three others, thought it would be well to learn to read and sing the shastras, for then all the men and women in the village surrounding and hearing us, would call us great pundits, (learned men.) In this way, encouraging each other and flattering ourselves with the praises we should receive, we called a teacher, and engaged to give him three rupees (six shillings) a month. I then went home and told my father and mother what I had done, but they, with my brothers and sisters gave me great abuse, saying, You have not even rice-water for your belly, where will you get three rupees a month? With labour you may get something to eat; but without, nothing. Other people, your forefathers, and your elder brother, never learned to read, and they are able to maintain their families, and do you think you are any greater than they? Many people from learning to read have become boishnobs, (asetics) and fled from their homes, and you will do the same? Then sorrow arose in my mind, and I wept. said to my companions, My people abuse me because I wish to learn to read. They said, We will read in the night and work in the day; and however difficult it may be, we will labour and gain the rupees, and not tell your father. In six months I learned to read. I afterwards read the shastras, when the people called me a brahmin-called me also wise in the shastras,' and were surprized that I should have learned so quickly. Then I thought in my mind I will commit to memory the barat and ramayan; when, striking together two pieces of wood in my hand and singing in the villages, I shall obtain many rupees. I took with me a com

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panion, and sung and danced, and thus obtained money for nearly four years. When I was about sixteen years old, I fell into a river, and was nearly drowned, but the Lord preserved my life. When I was seventeen years old, a bear seized me in a field of sugar-cane, and tore me almost to pieces. I was taken up and carried to my father, who seeing my wounds, died that night. (He had been ill for some days, and the sight of his son weltering in his blood, with scarcely a hope of his recovery, produced such a shock on the father's mind, that from the effects of it he died in a few hours. Balagi still bears the scars of the fearful wounds on his back, and on the upper part of his right arm. He says there is no doubt but the bear would have killed him, but that after the first attack he threw himself into a small grip, with his face downwards, and appeared dead, so that when the bear returned to make an end of him, it smelt of him, and seemed to think he was dead, and marched off. The bear will never touch a dead carcase.) When I was eighteen my mother died. Then I was employed in farming, but finding it difficult to obtain a living, I was not married till I was twenty-two years of age. I then thought it would not be proper to go singing about any longer, so engaged in trading. I went and fetched down large rafts of wood, by which I gained fifty rupees. I then thought if I should worship Mahadeb, I should get more rupees, and in another birth in the house of a rajah, or a wealthy man should be born. Thus for a year I worshipped in the temple of Seeb, and attended to penances, fastings, austerities, &c., but after that I had no more desire to worship Mahadeb, and thought I would visit shrines, perform ceremonies, &c. Then taking with me two others, I set out to go to Brindabun; but after travelling more than 100 miles, some days feasting and some days fasting, we halted at a place called Peepal. While there the man who carried my things, stole a piece of gold which I had for expenses, and started off. We went in search of him, and having found him, brought him to the police, and again obtained the gold. I then said, In the beginning of my pilgrimage this evil has happened; it would not be proper to proceed further. I will return, and by singing the Bhagabut, obtain salvation. Saying this,

we turned round and went to Pooree to behold Juggernaut. Having entered the temple, a panda raised me up in his arms, and told ine to behold the face of Juggernaut, saying, Looking in that face, declare what you will give;' while another put maha prasad (holy food) into my mouth. I said, I am not able to give anything. He said, If you don't give us something, we will- (here follows a piece not fit for translation,) and

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take you to the police, declaring you have defiled the temple. Hearing this I became alarmed, and offered to give four annas, (sixpence.) But he replied, What, you, the son of a Maha jana, (wholesale trader,) and only give so much! There are two of you, and you must give a rupee each. (Many Europeans tell us that all the offerings to Juggernaut are voluntary. This, surely, is voluntaryism with a vengeance!) I then took hold of his hand and chin, entreated, saying, I have no money; if I had, would I not give you it? &c. The sinner then let me go, and I went home. On entering my house, my brothers and sisters abused me much, and having nothing to say, I hung down my head with shame and remained silent. After that I again read various books, and among them one called the Tula Bhinna, which says pilgrimages, penances, &c., are false the supreme worship alone is true. But the supreme,' I thought, what is that? I inquired of several, but none could tell me. In this way I remained confused, some years worshipping various gods of wood and stone, &c., but obtained no satisfaction. I then said, 'Let all go; what is to all the world, the same be to me!' (giving himself up to carelessness and infidelity;) but still distress prevailed in my mind. When near twenty-four years of age my wife came to live with me, (the wife of a Hindoo does not usually live with her husband immediately after marriage, but remains in the house of her parents a longer or shorter time, according to circumstances.) During the first ten months we were together we only quarrelled and abused each other. But at the end of this time Purushutam, Krussa Sindhu, and Brown sahib came to my village, and preached the gospel and distributed books. I obtained one called, the First Catechism,' and another called 'the Essence of the Bible.' When the preachers departed, I accompanied them a little way, and asked the sahib whether in his religion they admitted women? He said, Yes, people retain their wives, of course. I then said -God is the Creator, but who is Jesus Christ? He replied, Jesus Christ gave his life for sinners, and is the Saviour; but if you wish to hear more, you must talk with Purnshutam; it is too hot for me to remain out longer. I then asked Purushutam and Krussa Sindhu about sin, holiness, &c., and they told me all. I said, I will come to your village. They then told this to the sahib, who asked when I would come. replied, Next Sunday. After this I went home and read the books. Several asked me, Why do you read those books; they only contain the instructions of demons? I said, they are God's books; but if they were not, what harm is there in reading them? They replied, They will only lead to the eating of

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