BEFORE The Fruitful Fig-tree. EFORE a leaf appears, the fig-tree putteth forth her little green figs. She seems so anxious to be fruitful, that all else may wait till she has essayed to produce her sweetness. Should it not be so with all the fig-trees which " a certain Man" hath planted in his vineyard ? Should not our chief care be to bring forth fruit unto him, so that when he cometh and hungereth for the first ripe figs he may not turn away disappointed? Let us see to this with all our hearts. Leaves we must have in due season; we must confess our Lord, and become verdant with a fair avowal of his name; but our very first production should look towards that fruitage of good works to his glory. for which we have been planted by the Lord. Fruit unto the Lord must be our main thought, and not leafage towards man. Love to Jesus, repentance of the sin which wounded him, communion with his heart of tenderness, praise to his adorable person,-these should primarily occupy us in our spring-time, and indicate the first flowing of the secret sap. These may be unsatisfactory to ourselves, but they will be pleasing to him who joyously noted in the Holy Song, "The fig-tree putteth forth her green figs": he does not despise their greenness, for he looks beyond the present, and foresees their coming maturity. It is ill for a young convert to be chiefly caring to stand well among those around him; there is, then, a danger of that state of "nothing but leaves," which is so terrible to think upon. Jesus looks for fruit, and our consideration should be to let him see what he looks for, and then the rest will follow in due season. It is to be feared that many who examine young converts for church-fellowship are too anxious to see the leaves, which indicate a further development, and they too little appreciate the "green figs." They are not of the same mind with the eastern vine-dresser, who is quite content with those little knobs of fig which stand out upon bare branches upon the fig-trees in early spring I mean that if our elder brethren see contrition, they also require a correct expression of it; if they discover faith, they demand also a clear doctrinal statement; and if they perceive love, they ask also for an experience of its joys and griefs. Be moderate, dear elder brother, be glad that the green figs are there, for life will clothe itself with leaves in due season. Remember that the order of grace is not that of the apple-tree, but of the fig; fruit first, green and immature, it is true, but still fruit, and then the leaves further on. : Again, we say, let the new beginner never trouble himself about the second, and really secondary matter, till the first is secured. Obey the Lord first, in that grand word, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you"; do what he bids you do, as unto himself, without thought of man; consecrate yourself thoroughly, live in him believingly, cling to him lovingly; and then let the light which he gives you shine before men. HE is ever to be your Master and Lord, and his opinion of you is to be your main thought, and it is well to begin as you mean to go You shall furnish others with a leafy shade before long, but now supply HIM with figs, for he is an hungered for the gracious tokens of your all-absorbing love to him! on. C. H. S. NA Natibe Christians in India. [ATIVE Christians in India form so large and varied a community, that right views of them can be obtained only by those who consider the component parts of that community. In Southern India there are thousands calling themselves Syrian Christians, or Christians of St. Thomas. Either the Apostle Thomas, or some of his spiritual children, went to India and founded a Christian Church. The descendants of these first converts have clung to Christianity, and have kept up their connexion with their fellow Christians in Western Asia. They have made great progress through their intercourse with European missionaries. In Southern India and Ceylon there is a large body of native Christians, the descendants of the many baptized by Xavier and his companions. Everyone who has read the life of Xavier knows how widely he opened the door of the church; with what facility he "made Christians." Many relapsed speedily into heathenism; but a large number remained steadfast, and their descendants are reckoned by hundreds of thousands. Protestant opinion of these native Christians, however, is very unfavourable. Even the Abbé Dubois condemned them as a scandal to the Christian name. In Travancore and Tinnevelly, in the far south, there are large native churches in connection with the Propagation, Church, and London Missionary Societies, composed of Shanars, a people outside the Hindu pale, and greatly despised by them. When whole villages come over to the profession of Christianity, we generally find a few who may be regarded as true believers, while the many simply assent to the action of their neighbours, and are little changed except in name. Among the non-Aryan tribes, the Kols and Santhals, occupying the hills and forests of Central and Eastern India, a great work has been done during the last thirty years. Thousands have been brought into the fold of the Christian church. In habits, character, and condition these tribes resemble our rude Teutonic ancestors. The first converts were the direct fruit of mission labour; their number increased; inspired by zeal, they told their countrymen the treasure they had found, and called on them to share it with them. Many accepted their message. The work spread from village to village till it extended to parts of the country never visited by a missionary. The Rev. Wm. Jones made his way through a wild country to the border of the Kol region, and came to a hamlet where the people were startled by the appearance of a European, having never seen one before. Though from difference of language their intercourse was limited, they understood each other sufficiently to discover, to their mutual delight, that they had a common faith. In Bengal there are two large native Christian communities, one in Krishnagurh, in connexion with the Church Missionary Society, and the other in Backergunge, connected with the Baptists. In both cases the conversion of individuals has led to numbers avowing themselves as followers of Christ. Where conversion is thus collective rather than individual, there may be in some a high degree of spiritual life, but the majority simply go with the stream. In the great Presidency cities-Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras-the native churches connected with Protestant Missions are comparatively small, and the members differ more widely in social position, mental culture, and spiritual character than in any other native churches in India. Some are highly educated, and have acute and disciplined minds, and an intimate acquaintance with our language and literature. Individuals among them have made sacrifices for Christ, of which the only adequate explanation is that they have come under the power of an all-controlling faith. Persons more established in the faith of Christ than some of these are, I have never met. Other members of these churches, unlettered persons in the humblest rank of life, are, I doubt not, as genuine Christians as their brethren of higher social standing. In the North-Western Provinces, as in other parts of India, we have different classes that go under the name of native Christians. Most drummers of native regiments are nominal Christians. They are descendants of Portuguese. To these have been added a considerable number of the waifs of native society who have attached themselves to European regiments as camp-followers, and are so separated from their own people that they find it convenient to profess the Christian faith. Some of these bear a good character, others are no honour to the Christian name. ; All our missions have had accessions from both Hindus and Mohammedans, but chiefly from Hindus. I heartily wish I could say all have joined us from right motives. This I cannot say. It is undeniable that some have joined because they have broken with their brethren others, pressed by want, in hope of support; and others in hope of a life of less toil if they can get under the wing of a missionary. I suppose there is no community of any extent that has not unworthy members; persons who have increased its size, as a tumour increases the size of a body, but are its weakness and disgrace actually. Very different is the general character of the native Christians connected with the various missions in Northern India. Some of our converts by avowing themselves the followers of Christ have made sacrifices to which persons in our country are never called. They have literally left father and mother, houses and lands, wife and children, for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. During my first year at Benares one of the catechists of our mission was a Brahmin, who had been baptized by Mr. Ward, at Serampore. He was stripped of the property to which he was heir, of which the annual rental, according to an official document, was 5,000 rupees (£500). His income as catechist was small, but I have often heard him charged with the lowest mercenary motives by those who knew not, and did not wish to know, anything of his antecedents. He bore the charge patiently, deeming it an honour to be reproached for his Master. He was not a perfect character, but no cloud ever seemed to come over his belief that Jesus was the Saviour of the world. When on his death-bed I asked him if he regretted the life of poverty and reproach he had led because he had become a Christian. He tried to raise himself on his pillow, and said with an energy that startled me, "If I had a thousand lives, I would give them for him who died for me." The native churches passed through a fiery ordeal in the Mutiny of 1857, and came out of it in a way which reflected great honour on their Christian constancy. I cannot say how many were put to death, but we know that thirty-four were killed on the parade-ground of Furruckabad, by order of the Nawab, and seven or eight perished at Cawnpore. In Foxe's "Book of Martyrs" there is not a more striking instance of witnessing to the death for the Lord Jesus than was manifested by Vilayat Ali, in the Chandnee Chauk of Delhi, when, surrounded by infuriated Mohammedans calling on him to recant or die, he declared Christ to be his Saviour and Lord, and when falling under the swords of his enemies, uttered with his last breath the prayer of Stephen, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." There were defections, but they were remarkably few. One whom I knew well, though he was not of our mission, apostatized to save his life, and died most miserably, abandoned by his new fellow-religionists, but tenderly watched by those whom he had left. I believe that in every mission in the North-West native Christians contribute regularly to the support and diffusion of the gospel, and, considering their means, their contributions are liberal. Some years ago a native church in Calcutta agreed, without a dissentient voice, to give a month's salary for the erection of their new church building, an act of liberality which has been seldom equalled in our country. The native Christian communities in India may be thus enumerated :-Eurasians, 62,000; Protestant Native Christians, 492,882; Roman Catholics, 865,643; Syrians, about 300,000; total, 1,720,525.-Abridged from "Life and Work in Benares and Kumaon, 1839-1877," by James Kennedy, M.A., late Missionary of the London Missionary Society.T. Fisher Unwin. (See review.) IS Be Plain. TS it not very possible for a man to talk without knowing what he is saying? Certain "modern thought" teachers appear before us as a luminous haze. It is "not light, but darkness visible." Like M. De Biran, our learned lumberer might say, "I wander like a somnambulist in the world of affairs." He has an idea, but he does not quite know where to find it; and so all through his talk he hunts for it, "upstairs, downstairs, and in my lady's chamber." We once heard a sermon which for half an hour did not convey to us a single thought. We whispered to our neighbour, and found that he was equally befogged, and so we concluded that the density was not in our brain, but in the discourse; yet the preacher was no fool, and we therefore concluded that he had been taking an overdose of metaphysics. It did not matter much, for the sermon was not upon a subject of any material importance to man or beast; but when a person is preaching the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ it does matter a great deal. It is treason to men's souls to conceal the plain truth of salvation beneath a cloud of words: where God's honour and man's eternal destiny are concerned, everything should be as clear as the sun at noonday. Metaphysical becloudment, when a soul is at stake, is diabolical cruelty.-C. H. S. Tto its parents. The Happy Mute. HE subject of my history was a boy as dear to me as ever was a child to its parents. A year and a half has scarcely passed since I saw him depart to be with Christ; and often do I look back with thankful wonder on his short but happy life, his slow and painful, yet most joyful death; and then I look forward to the period when, through the blood and righteousness of that Saviour whom he so dearly loved, I hope to meet my precious charge in the mansions of glory. John B- was deaf and dumb. His parents were poor people in a very humble rank of life, and had no means of affording any instruction to their child, whose situation seemed to shut him out from all hope of it. They had one son a few years older than John, and four daughters. Living in the suburbs of a county town in the South of Ireland, and subsisting on the produce of two cows, with what the father and the eldest son might occasionally earn by working in the fields, they were, of course, very poor. But I was glad to find that they did not consider poverty to be an excuse for vice; and John's mother remarked to me, Though we could teach our child no good, we have kept him from learning any evil, and have never suffered him to play about the streets with bad children. We watched over him; we could do no more." 66 Our Lord Jesus Christ, in applying one of his beautiful parables, said, "To him that hath, it shall be given;" and so it proved to the parents of the dumb boy. They did what they could in protecting their child from evil example; and God, in his own time, sent another to teach him that good which they had no means of communicating. John B was brought to me by a little companion, also deaf and dumb, towards the close of a cold day in October, 1823. He was then more than eleven years old, but looked scarcely nine. His aspect was remarkably mild and engaging, combining the simplicity of an infant with a great deal of respectful modesty. He was poorly clad, but very clean; and when his little bare feet had made acquaintance with the warm hearth-rug before my fire, and a good many wistful looks into my face had convinced him that he had found a friend, he became exceedingly well pleased with his new situation. New, indeed, it was to him; for I afterwards found that he had never before seen a carpeted room, nor anything superior to the contents of his father's cabin; and I well remember his mounting a chair to peep through what he supposed to be a window-a looking-glass-and falling down in fright at suddenly beholding the reflection of his own face in the mirror. John did not at all appear expert in expressing himself by signs. Generally I have found the deaf and dumb remarkably animated and adroit in so doing; but he was naturally reserved, and the perfect seclusion in which he had lived, through the watchful care of his family, had afforded him little opportunity for exercising his ingenuity in that way. I could not get any answer to the various gestures that I used in the way of enquiry, encouragement, and remark; but a very affectionate smile told me that he delighted to be noticed, and therefore I went on. Having some large alphabets cut out, I took the three letters, D, O, G, and arranging them together I pointed to the word, and then to my dog, until I was persuaded that he understood the connexion 1 |