:

"A godly, gifted minister, of open communion sentiments, ordained in England, holding the doctrines of the Divine Sovereignty-not backward to warn every man opposed to State pay for religion, and ready on all occasions to take his stand as a man of God."

of Baptists, but they are scattered like been sent on the subject, will cheerfully sheep upon the mountains, without a shep- furnish further particulars. An extract herd to lead them into "green pastures, and from the last letter will give an idea of beside the still waters." Some from their the spiritual wants of Natal :scattered position have fallen into sin; but there are others panting for the streams that make glad the city of God. A few of the latter description are holding private meetings for prayer and consultation, for the attainment of a Baptist minister, and they respectfully but earnestly solicit pecuniary assistance from home: they have It was resolved at our meeting on the no doubt of raising one hundred pounds 13th of February last, that letters be per annum for the first two years, and they drawn up by the brethren for insertion in confidently look to the brethren in England, the "Freeman," "Baptist Magazine," the not only to make up the deficiency, but to" Church," and "Primitive Church Masend a godly, gifted minister. This is felt gazine;" and in compliance with the above to be the greatest difficulty; for emigra- resolution, at the meeting held in the Town tion in a thoughtful, intelligent mind, implies Hall on the 22nd of the same month, some amount of enterprise. This tempera- this letter was approved, inviting the ment sharpened in the colony by intercourse attention of the Baptists in England to with kindred spirits, produces congrega- the spiritual wants of Natal: and should tions of clear-headed, hard-thinking, warmhearted men, who are able to give the why and because on most matters; therefore, any minister unable to get and keep up a congregation in England, would be unable in this colony.

It may be confidently affirmed that the doctrines as held by the Particular Baptists are already in the minds of the settlers here; it is impossible to converse with any on the distinguishing doctrines of the New Testament without discovering that the field is ready for the harvest.

The highly esteemed treasurer of the Christian Young Men's Association (Mr. J. Templeton), to whom many letters have!

the Great Head of the Church be pleased to grant a response to our earnest appeal, by sending us a man of God, we trust that in the issue he may have every reason to adore that grace that directed his way to

Natal.

The brethren appointed to write to the above journals are Mr. James Holmes, known to Mr. Olliver, treasurer to the Baptist Tract Society; Mr. J. Wheeler, brother to the Rev. -Wheeler, Norwich; and, Yours very truly,

March 10th, 1858.

Editorial Postscript.

EDWARD LONDON.

THE private address of Mr. Trestrail will for the future be, Stanmore Villa, Beulah Hill, Upper Norwood.

With great regret we find ourselves unable, from want of space, to insert a biographical notice of a highly-esteemed member of our body in Scotland, the late David Macallan, Esq., of Aberdeen. A Baptist by conviction, he was a stanch supporter of our denominational tenets; vet of so genial a disposition, and so catholic a spirit, as to be loved by all. He held a prominent position among his fellow-citizens in Aberdeen, and was widely known and respected beyond the locality of his residence. The Free Press, of which he was a proprietor and editor, says of him :—

"Mr. Macallan was in his sixty-sixth year, and his removal leaves a blank in the religious society of Aberdeen, which will not be readily filled up. To his family and more intimate friends his loss is irreparable. He was both a kind and wise friend, and it is the testimony of more than one who met him in almost daily intercourse for years together, and at times under circumstances that might be reckoned sufficiently trying, that they never saw his temper in the least degree ruffled, nor heard an angry word escape his lips. His was a true, loving nature, mellowed by the discipline of Christian experience and sorrow. In the earliest years of his married life his tender heart was wrung by the loss of his children, who all died in infancy; and now his own removal is mourned by a loving wife and sister, whose tender watchfulness over him while living, and whose sorrow at his removal, are matters of that sacred circle of the heart and home which can evoke adequate sympathy only from those who have been tried by a like experience."

CHITOURA.

CHITOURA is a heathen village, lying about twelve miles to the south of Agra. It contains about a thousand inhabitants. It is divided into three or four sections, or thokes, each thoke being a separate enclosure, and occupied by individuals of one caste. The majority of the people are weavers. The village and its lands are the property of a zemindar owning some three or four other villages. He is a gosain, or religious teacher, and of a sect which does not allow him to marry. The chief disciple succeeds to his possessions on his death. His religious duties consist of little more than the repeatal in the ears of his followers of a muntra, while he receives almost divine honour at their hands.

It was in the year 1844 that some of the villagers gave a very friendly reception to Mr. Williams, then the missionary at Agra, and his native assistants. Before the close of the year, three had been baptized, and three others had expressed their desire to renounce their ancestral faith. In these labours Mr. Williams was assisted chiefly by Gunput, who subsequently became for a short time resident at the village. Nainsukh, of Monghyr, then on a visit to Agra for his health, also rendered valuable aid.

During the year 1845, a small chapel was opened, the number of converts was increased to sixteen, and the friends in Agra began to contemplate the necessity of founding a Christian village as a shelter and home for the converts, then much tried by the opposition and persecution of their countrymen.

In January, 1846, a church was formed, consisting of forty-two persons, and Gunput became their pastor. Fifteen others were baptized during the year, so that at the time of the settlement of Mr. Smith at the station as the missionary, in 1847, on the invitation of the Agra Auxiliary, the church numbered fifty-seven persons. The state of things appeared most hopeful. A very considerable interest in the gospel had been awakened, in the numerous villages which lie so thickly spread among the cotton and corn fields of this locality. To Mr. Smith was committed the Christian culture of this promising region. In this arrangement there was no intention to interfere with the native church; Mr. Smith's time was to be devoted to evangelic labours in the surrounding hamlets. Owing to some difference with the Auxiliary, Gunput, however, soon abandoned his post, and the duties of the pastorate then devolved upon Mr. Smith. He found great laxity of discipline existing, and that the members still retained many heathen practices among them, wearing their kunties, or necklaces, intermarrying with the heathen, and even attending their pagan festivals. In a short time it was discovered that caste continued to be observed; that the Punchayat, or council of the caste, still exercised its power over the people, many not daring in opposition to its decisions even to attend the house of God. The attempt to remedy this evil led to the breaking up of the church. Some bathed in the Jumna, others paid fines, and eventually nearly all were again settled in caste. And now the prospects of the spread of the gospel were very discouraging. The zemindars would not allow a Christian to remain in the village. The wells and shops were closed to Christians; they were driven from the markets. The threat of exclusion from caste, freely used by the Punchayats, seemed to shut the door to the entrance of the truth. It

presented an apparently insurmountable barrier to the diffusion of divine truth.

The formation of a Christian village was resolved upon. Two hundred bigahs of somewhat sterile land were rented of the zemindar, within halfa-mile of the village of Chitoura, which were relet to the native Christians, and for some years at an annual loss. However, its value gradually increased, and before the mutiny, it had for some time been entirely in the hands of the native Christians, by whom the entire original rent was paid. Thus one difficulty was overcome, and a refuge found for the persecuted followers of Christ.

The church was reorganised on the 5th of June, 1847. The truth slowly spread and every year witnessed additions to the little flock. At the close of the year 1849, there were twenty-three members in the church, and the village contained ninety inhabitants, all of whom had separated themselves from the caste customs of their countrymen, and were daily receiving Christian instruction. "Three years ago," said the missionary, speaking of himself and Thakur Das, his native helper, and of the success which had already dawned upon their labours,-" Three years ago we sat in the old building, in the heathen village, nearly alone, almost despairing of success, the prospect appeared so dark and discouraging. The place where I now write was then a barren plain; now it contains two bungalows, a comfortable building used for a chapel and school, and three rows of Christian houses, containing altogether a population of ninety souls. Some have been, we hope, brought out of the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of Christ; others are inquiring the way to Zion. Schools have been commenced for boys and girls, and are well attended, and prospering; and the gospel leaven is at work through the whole district." Some ninety villages were embraced within the circuit of the itinerant labours of the missionary.

The girls' school partly consisted of some orphans who were received at Chitoura, on the breaking up of the Orphan Refuge at Patna.

In the following year severe trials befel the station. First, Walayat Ali was arrested while preaching at Shumshabad, on an action commenced by his brother, a bigoted Mohammedan. The claim was for money and property, said to have been left by his father, who had been dead twenty-three years before. The Mohammedan judge, through religious hatred, decided against Walayat Ali; but the decision was reversed on appeal to the English judge.

Next, the son of Thakur Das was inhumanly murdered on his way to the Christian village. Seven of the native Christians were seized by the police, and two were at length charged with the crime. Witnesses were suborned, money and grain distributed, and promises of reward lavishly made, should their efforts be crowned with success. The adversaries threatened to dig out the Christians root and branch. The two prisoners suffered severely; they were handcuffed, and their feet made fast in the stocks. On one occasion they were beaten by the head of the police, to force them to a confession of the crime. Bail was at length taken for their appearance at the trial, when the magistrate at once dismissed the case. The evidence was so contradictory as to satisfy him of the innocence of the accused.

Yet the word of God grew. Eight persons during this year of trial put on Christ by baptism. At the markets and the fairs the preaching of the cross was listened to by increasing numbers. The stormy clouds of tribulation passed away, and a period of peaceful and successful labour

followed. The refuge afforded by the Christian village was resorted to by several converts; schools were established in other villages, and many were found to be halting between two opinions, doubting whether Krishna or Christ should have their obedience and love. The Shumshabad school had, however, to meet the opposition of the pundits of the neighbouring temple; twice they succeeded in nearly emptying the school, but it shortly recovered its numbers, and contained usually from forty to fifty boys under regular instruction.

At the commencement of the year 1856, Mr. Smith was constrained by failing health to return for a time to England. Immediately preceding his departure, John Bernard, a native catechist, and for some years a tried servant of Christ and preacher of the word in Muttra, was chosen as pastor by the people, and regularly set apart to the ministry of the Word among them. The church then contained fifty communicants, and the total number of residents in the Christian village was 104. From this time to the breaking out of the mutiny, missionary labour went on. The neighbouring villages were visited by Bernard and Thakur Das, and several persons were added to the church by baptism. In some cases discipline had to be exercised, and generally the prospects of the native pastorate were good. Suddenly the storm of rebellion swept over the land. The Christians were scattered in every direction. Some found a refuge in the Fort of Agra, others in the villages among their friends. But their faith has stood the sharp test of persecution and suffering, and measures are now in progress to reorganise the church and station, which the return of Mr. Smith will complete.

When the church was disorganised by the caste question there appeared no possibility of a Christian living independently in his own village. He was not permitted to buy or sell: every avenue of employment was closed against him. Hence arose the necessity for the formation of a Christian settlement. Some have advocated the establishment of native Christians in villages, distinct from the heathen. Such separation it is supposed would lead to an earlier laying aside of heathen practices, and afford to the missionary frequent opportunities of instruction and oversight. But in the North-West Provinces the real necessity lay in the nature of the tenure of the land, and the exclusion from all family connection by the loss of caste which followed the confession of Christ. As a general result the good effects of this isolation have been few. Probably it has hindered the diffusion of divine truth rather than fostered it, while some evils have arisen in the body of the Christian community which have neutralized the good that has been done. It was not possible to confine the inhabitants of the village entirely to true Christians. Hence the occasional presence of improper persons has thrown discredit on the profession of the rest; while the heathen have not seen much of that piety which adorned the daily walk of the great body of the converts.

Until, however, a better feeling prevailed in the surrounding villages no other course was practicable, and this small Christian settlement of Nistarpur, "the town of salvation," grew up by the side of the heathen village of Chitoura. The people were there protected from persecution, and from the grasp of the zemindar. But employment must be found for them. Most of the converts were weavers: and weaving is but a poorly remunerated employment in India. Four shillings a month is the average of earnings with the native loom. This led in 1851 to the introduction into the village of two Scotch looms, kindly obtained by Mr. Urquhart, and Mr. Smith now busied himself in instructing the native