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KASHMIR AND ITS INHABITANTS.

[MARCH,

ter are known by the coloured marks on their foreheads; those of Siva's followers being horizontal, and of Vishnu perpendicular. Saffron is the principal colouring ingredient. The Mussulmans are known by the talism or device, a sentence of the Korán bound on the arm. Besides the forehead, they are distinguished by their mode of wearing the turban, the Hindu smoothing it over the right temple, the Mussulman on the left. In wearing the tunic, also, the Mussulmans tie it on the right side, whilst that of the Hindu is folded over the left breast. The Mussulman Kashmírian is not darker than southern Europeans: the Hindus are still fairer, which they ascribe to their eating less animal food than the Mussulmans. The features are large and aquiline, and wear a manly expression, which the character of the Kashmírian does not justify. The women possess the comeliness of their race. They wear a red gown, with large loose sleeves, a red fillet on the forehead, over which is thrown a white mantilla. The hair is collected in separate plaits, then gathered together, and a long tassel of black cotton is suspended from it, almost down to the ankles. The Hindu women usually wear a white rolled cloth, tied loosely round the waist."

1855.]

THE FIRST CHRISTIANS.

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At Sirinagar the Missionary party was not idle: various and important efforts for the temporal and spiritual benefit of the strange people amongst whom they found themselves fully occupied them.

We had brought with us a large supply of books for distribution, but our stock was very soon exhausted. The Persian language is read here more than any other, and a large number of natives also write it. A plan was therefore formed and carried out by Major Martin for increasing the number of our Persian books by means of copyists. A considerable number of separate gospels, and also the Acts of the Apostles and Genesis, have thus been copied out very correctly, in beautiful clear manuscript, which have been executed for very moderate sums. The charge, for instance, for writing out St. Mark's Gospel was six annas, or 9d.; that of St. Matthew's Gospel, 18.; of Genesis, and twenty chapters of Exodus, 1s. 6d., &c. The funds for this and for other objects have been supplied on the spot by a kind friend, who placed 100 rupees, or 10%., at our disposal for Missionary work in the valley. The advantages of this manner of multiplying copies, it is hoped, will be twofold, as it will bring the word of God directly before the mind of the writer, and perhaps before his family, as well as benefit the future reader. Two of the writers have already, of themselves, introduced the subject in conversation, and spoken to Major Martin concerning "the wonderful things" contained in the books which they were copying out; and the very serious and earnest manner in which they spoke has afforded peculiar encouragement.

A Kashmír relief fund has been set on foot also by Major Martin. A paper was circulated amongst the English residents, and about 30s. a month subscribed. On the first of the month about sixty persons were relieved, many of them blind, and crippled, and covered with disease and sores. There were also several lepers. The same amount is to be given away on the first day of every month, during the six months of the stay which visitors make in the valley. It is given in connexion with our Mission to this place, and it is hoped that the endeavours to impart relief to the body may lead some to pay more attention to the efforts made to benefit their souls.

The letter then proceeds to describe various cases of inquirers who presented themselves; but we must defer these to a subsequent Number.

THE FIRST CHRISTIANS.

An approved writer, in describing the religious character of the primitive Christians, observed that when they gave themselves to Christ, they counted all things lost for Him and His salvation; and the surrender was an honest, whole-hearted transaction, never to be reconsidered, never to be regretted.

Hence, from the hour of their conversion, they made little account of property. If it was confiscated by government, or destroyed by the mob, they "took joyfully the spoiling of their goods," assured that in heaven they had a better, and incorruptible inheritance. When the cause required, how ready were they to lay all at the feet of the Missionaries.

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NATIONAL REBUKE.

[MARCH, Generally they were poor. A rich Christian! why, such a thing was hardly known. However it may be now, it was then "easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." And if, as an act of special sovereignty, a man of wealth was converted, he seldom retained his riches for a long period; for such was his sympathy for the despoiled and suffering brotherhood, and such his solicitude for the conversion of the perishing, that his funds were poured forth as water. Yet, poor as were the first Christians, they were liberal to a degree seldom surpassed. We, from our much, give little. They, from their little, gave much. "Their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality." Baptized covetousness was the product of a later age.

They understood Christ to be in earnest, when, standing but one step from the throne of the universe, he said, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.' It was not, therefore, with them a matter to be considered, whether they should go or not go. The command was positive and peremptory; and how could they escape from the obligation? With us, to stay is the rule, to go is the exception. Wonder not that they accomplished so much-wonder not that we accomplish so little. They did not wait indolently for openings, but went forth either to find them or to make them. If defeated at one point, instead of returning to Jerusalem in despondency, and writing a book on the impracticability of Christian missions, they proceeded to another and more distant field, and then to another, until they had gone over the appointed territory. Their piety was enterprising: the spirit of obedience made it such. [From the Macedonian.

NATIONAL REBUKE.

EARTH has its pageants, brilliant while they last,

But evanescent-as the burnished hues

That tint the evening clouds. They soon have passed,
And we have sighs for tears, and griefs we would excuse.
Thus there are endless changes. Sunny hours

Prevail awhile, and then the tempest lours.
The seas sleep calmly, till the winds arise
And toss the troubled waters to the skies.
Domestic life proceeds, a tranquil scene,
Until to-day is gone, and then to-morrow
Sickness and death and anguish supervene,
And widows weep, and children pale with sorrow.
And nations rise: their wings are burnished o'er
With high prosperity. Aloft they soar,
Ambitious of the sun, and men admire

The upward flight which never seems to tire.
All prospers for a time. Their name is great,
Their riches manifold. Their high estate

Beyond misfortune seems, and men grow proud,
Think themselves strong, and vaunt themselves aloud.
Their fleets-the mighty ocean owns their sway,
And the huge war-ship, heedless to obey
The winds and waves, perpetuates its course,
Triumphant o'er them by an inward force.

1855.]

ENCOURAGEMENT AT NINGPO.

Their armies that magnificent display,
Sparkling and glitt'ring in the light of day,
Its country's boast, the terror of its foes,
Is sure to scatter all that shall oppose.
Thus, in their carnal weapons men confide,
Strong in self-confidence, resolute in pride.
Their weakness without God they will not own,
Nor bow themselves as suppliants at His throne.
Hence sometimes, even from a righteous cause,
The Lord, displeased, His countenance withdraws.
The bravest fall, long-cherished plans are crossed
With strange calamities, great ships are lost,
Unhealthiness prevails, diseases spread,
And camps become the places of the dead.
Stern winter, from the regions of the north,
His ample stores of hail and snow brings forth.
The soldier, cow'ring in his canvass tent
O'er the small charcoal furnace vainly bent,
Weak from defective food, intensely worn,
Wonders why England leaves him thus forlorn.
He ponders o'er the past, his home and friends,
And boyish days; and faithful memʼry lends
Her strange renewing pow'rs to paint the scene,
And fill his mind with what he once had been-
A healthful urchin on the village green,
A mother's joy, a thoughtful father's care,
Both anxious their young charge for God to rear.
And then remembrances of truths once heard
And little cared for, in his soul are stirred-
And thoughts of God arise: his soul awakes
From its long sleep of death and silence breaks.
He learns to pray, and, lightened of his woes,
Rests in the Saviour's love, and finds repose.
'Tis well! the trumpet sounds, the foe is near,
He joins his comrades, gives one hearty cheer-
A Russian bullet marks him as its prey,
And, with his cheer, his life has passed away.

Thus suffering are thy soldiers! England, thou,
Haste thee to tear the laurels from thy brow!
The cypress now befits thee. Thou shouldst mourn
For thy lost children never to return.

Put on thy mourning garb, and weep for those,
Crushed by neglect, though victors o'er thy foes.
Be wise, and kiss the rod; for should'st thou prove
A stubborn people, He who reigns above

Will give thee sterner lessons, till the proud
And haughty spirit in the dust is bowed!

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ENCOURAGEMENT AT NINGPO.

In our last Number we introduced some extracts from a letter of the Rev. W. A. Russell, descriptive of the progress of Missionary work at Ningpo. We again refer to that letter, as making mention of other circumstances which afford to him encouragement.

The most prominent among them is the apparent interest on the

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ENCOURAGEMENT AT NINGPO.

[MARCH, subject of Christianity, which seems latterly to have arisen amongst many of the female population of this city. Hitherto, at Ningpo, the sight of a female in our churches was quite unusual; and when one did make her appearance, it was only to take a hasty peep at what was going forward, seldom to be prevailed on to sit down and listen. Now, on the contrary, I am happy to say my little chapel is regularly attended by several respectable females, amounting often to thirty persons, who seem to listen to what is said with considerable interest and attention; and about a dozen of whom also regularly come to Mrs. Russell, on each Wednesday, for catechetical instruction. Now, my dear Sir, may we not hope for much, under the Divine blessing, when the leaven of the gospel is thus penetrating this portion of the population, which in China, as every where else, is not only more accessible to impression itself, but which also more readily communicates to others the impression it receives?

Again, in corroboration of my statement, I would refer to the unusually large and attentive congregations I have been latterly having in my chapel, which, from its situation, not being in a business part of the town, has hitherto been rather thinly attended.

Lastly, I would mention the constant application there has been to me, during the past half-year, on the part of parents, for the admission of their children into my day-school, which, if large enough to accommodate so many, might now number some hundreds, instead of forty, which the smallness of the room necessarily confines it to. And this, notwithstanding the fact, that half of the boys' time is exclusively devoted to the acquisition of religious truth-principally the commitment to memory of the Holy Scriptures in their own mother-tongue, through our alphabetic system for writing the Ningpo colloquial-and that the instruction that I myself give these boys is also almost exclusively confined to the same.

And here I would remark, that the present hopeful state of things seems to have grown up during a season of very considerable political excitement, which perhaps, to human calculation, would be regarded as the most unpropitious, but which nevertheless shows the importance of the advice, and verifies the statement of inspiration-" In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good."

At present, indeed, politically, the state of things at Ningpo is most unsatisfactory, all sorts of evils louring over the people from within and from without, and threatening every moment to come upon them with a tremendous crash. The authorities seem completely at their wits' end, not knowing what to do, or what to think. From within they are in momentary danger of having the city taken by a body of rebels similar to those at Shanghae, several of whom have been arrested on suspicion during the last few days; and from without they are in danger of a threatened bombardment of the city by a Portuguese corvette which lately reached this port, despatched by their governor at Macao to demand reparation for some real or imaginary insult asserted to have been offered to the Portuguese flag by certain Cantonese at this place. To show they were in earnest about the demand they made of a large