1863.]

THE COUNTRY ROUND NINGPO.

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leave it. He remained in prison twenty-one days, and then was sent as a conscript to enter the Turkish army in Damascus. While in prison he wrote several prayers, which he has read to me, in which he pleads that God, who rescued Joseph, and David, and Daniel, and the three Hebrew youths, would rescue him from prison and from the hands of his enemies. Though illegally arrested, being a Christian, and not liable to conscription, his hands were put in wooden stocks, and he was marched by land all the way to Damascus. Just before reaching Damascus, he found some Protestants at Nebk, and requested them to write to Dr. Meshaka, to use efforts for his release after he reached that city. After a week's search, Dr. Meshaka found him in a loathsome prison. Though his fellow-conscripts declared that he was a Christian, the Turkish authorities refused to release him until, providentially, Colonel Fraser, the British Commissioner to Syria, visited Damascus, heard of the case, and procured his release. He remained a month with Dr. Meshaka, and has now come to Beyroot. He says he is anxious to labour for the conversion of the Nusairiyeh people, who are in gross darkness and ignorance. He has a thorough acquaintance with the Scriptures, knowing whole chapters by heart, and is familiar with the Arabic, Turkish, and Armenian, and somewhat so with the Hebrew.

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THE COUNTRY ROUND NINGPO.

AMONGST other labours carried on by our Missionaries at Ningpo, have been journeys into the country districts.

One of these was to the district of San-poh, the inhabitants of which have had opportunities of Christian instruction from the location amongst them of a native catechist, and the occasional visits of a European Missionary.

This, like the other districts in the vicinity of Ningpo, suffered severely while the Taepings had possession of the city. Traces of the havock they wrought were not wanting. On the way up, at a place called Ts'o-kyin, the side of the hill at the back of the village bore these marks, several skulls and human bones being scattered about. To those who assembled, Christ was preached as a refuge from sin and sorrow. Proceeding up the hill, the Missionary reached the "convent of the influence of rain." Here was a monk busy in reciting Buddhistic canons. The Missionary, being invited so to do, took a seat opposite him, and conversation ensued. "After putting questions," writes our Missionary, "as to the escape of his convert during the rebel days, I was drawn on to speak earnestly to him of the true way. He was as dull-looking a man as usual; but I felt much comfort in telling him of the long-suffering of my God. I had no books left, but I wrote him the Lord's Prayer with pencil on a scrap of paper."

While at San-poh, Mr. Moule visited Meing-ngoh-dziang, a very considerable unwalled town at three or four miles' distance. The ruin was great, some few good houses remained unburnt. One stately mansion, which he passed in front of, arrested his attention. It had official flagstaves before it, in token of having acquired dignity through the promotion of a scion of the family domiciled in it. Alas! these honours

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POETRY.

[aug.

afforded no protection to the inmates from the sword of the Taepings. The old householder and grandfather to the mandarin, with seven or eight other persons, chiefly women, who had sought to hide in a clump of bambus near the house, had all been butchered.

Advancing through the burnt streets of the town to the chapel of the deity of the great eastern hill, which was unburnt, idols and all being left, as usual, the Missionary took up a position in a door-way, and spoke to some of the people who had gathered round him. He spoke of the terrible judgments which had come upon the place; of the mockery with which the clay gods seemed to look out on the misery of their worshippers; of the rejection of the messages of the true Lord by many who had heard them, and then of mercy-"I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee."

Another Missionary visit was to the eastern lakes to visit a town of some 20,000 people, the abode of two of the native Christians, Andrew and Peter. A third trip was of a still more interesting character. It was in answer to an invitation from two men, who had paid visits of inquiry to the Missionary, to visit their family, residing nearly twenty miles away in the heart of the western hills, for the purpose of instructing their aged mother, who was most anxious for Christian teaching. this picturesque village an interesting day was passed. The old woman appeared to understand and to receive the truth, giving up her stock of Buddhist indulgences and charms, and thus affording a tolerable proof of her sincerity.

At

Some months after she fell ill, and the Missionary was suddenly summoned to visit her on her death-bed. He found her sensible, though unable to utter more than a few syllables, and baptized her by the name of "Evening Glory," in reference to the words of Zachariah, "It shall come to pass that at evening time it shall be light." About an hour after she died.

Thus, amidst much that is dull and dead, instances occur from time to time of souls won to Christ, the harbingers of happier times, which shall surely come.

THE RIGHTEOUS ADVOCATE.

"FATHER, I bring this worthless child to Thee
To claim Thy pardon-once, yet once again,
Receive him at my hand, for he is mine.
He is a worthless child; he owns his fault :
Look not on him, he will not bear the glance :
Look but on me, I'll hide his filthy garments.
He pleads not for himself; he dares not plead;
His cause is mine; I am his Intercessor.
By that unchanged, unchanging love of Thine,
By every drop of blood I shed for him,
By all the sorrows graven on my soul,
By every wound I bear, I claim it true.
Father Divine! I would not have him lost;
He is a worthless child, but he is mine!
Sin hath destroyed him-sin hath died in me;

1863.] MISSIONARY WORK AT KAPURTHALA, IN THE PUNJAB. 95

Satan hath bound him-Satan is my slave:
Death hath desired him-I have conquered death.
My Father, hear him now, not him, but me;
I would not have him lost for all the worlds
Which Thou hast long created for my glory,
Because he is a poor, a worthless child,
And all his every hope on me it lies.

I know my children, and I know him mine.
By all the sighs he pours o'er outcast Israel,
By all the prayers he breathes o'er Judah's sins;
I know him by the sign my children bear,
That trusting love by which he cleaves to me.
I could not bear to see him cast away,
Vile as he is! the weakest of my flock,

The one that grieves me most and loves me least.
Yes! though his sins dim every spark of love,
I measure not my love by his returns;
And though the stripes I send to bring him home
Should seem to drive him further from my arms,
Still he is mine! I lured him from the world.
He has no right, no home, but in my love.
Though earth and hell combined against him rise
I'm bound to rescue him, for we are one."

Oh sinners! what an Advocate is thine;
Methinks I see Him lead the captive in,
Poor, sorrowful, ashamed, trembling with fear,
Shrinking behind his Lord, accused, condemned,
Well pleased to hide the form himself abhors,
With that all-spotless garment of his Friend.
But look; some secret impulse lifts his eye,
To see if love be mingled now with wrath,
If mercy beam upon the Father's face.
Poor sinner! read thy welcome in that smile,
And hear the Father's word to Him for thee,

"Take Thy poor worthless child! I have forgiven."

MISSIONARY WORK AT KAPURTHALA, IN THE PUNJAB. THE principality of Kapurthala is situated on that Doab of the Punjab called Jullunder Doab, which lies between the Beas and the Sutlej. It ranges along the eastern bank of the River Beas, and contains a population of less than 300,000. The father of the present Rajah united with his countrymen and co-religionists the Sikhs in their hospitality to the British, and shared in the consequence of their defeat, his principality not only coming under British control, but the Rajah being mulcted of a considerable portion of his dominions. Instructed by previous experience, the present Rajah, on the occasion of the great mutiny in 1857-58, adopted a very different line of conduct, and, siding with the British power, afforded to us, at that critical period, the most important aid. Honours and rewards have been heaped upon him; there has been added to his dominions more than his father lost, and he has been appointed a member of the Legislative Council at Calcutta.

The Rajah has taken as his second wife an Eurasian lady, who was

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MISSIONARY WORK AT KAPURTHALA, IN THE PUNJAB. [AUG.

brought up in the school of the American Missionaries, and is professedly a Christian. The Rajah himself has not so avowed himself, and remains unbaptized; but from the encouragement he gives to the Christian Missionaries, we are led to entertain the hope that in his heart he is convinced of its truth, and will eventually, if life be spared, honour that conviction, and give it strength by openly avowing it. He himself invited the American Missionaries to his capital, and presents to us the first instance in India in which the progress of the Gospel has been fostered by a ruler who makes no profession of faith in its doctrines.

In Kapurthala the Missionaries have more than toleration: they have open encouragement. On the Lord's day there are Hindustanee and English services. The latter is attended not only by all the European residents, but by the Rajah and his family, together with the Rajah's brother, Sardar Bikrama Singh. These services are at present held in the house of one of the Missionaries, but a church is being erected at the cost of the Rajah, and will soon be completed. May it long stand, a noble monument to the first Indian Prince who has raised, not temples to Shiva and Kali, but a sanctuary to the true God.

The Mission school is attended by the Rajah's two sons, the issue of a previous marriage, Kharak Singh, aged fourteen years, who is the heir apparent, and Harnam Singh, aged eleven; both of them boys of singular intelligence and promise. These, together with ther cousin, Bhagat Singh, a young man of nineteen, no way inferior to the others in ability, form by themselves a class, which receives at the Missionary's hands special attention. And he is repaid. Rank and wealth, instead of inducing in their case habits of indolence, appears rather to stimulate them to exertion; so that few lads of any rank or county can display greater quickness of apprehension or love of knowledge for its own sake. These young lads, destined as they are one day to fill positions of influence and authority, should attract the sympathy of Christians.

The Missionaries, as might be expected in such circumstances, labour earnestly to spread abroad among the masses the knowledge of the Gospel. As yet, however, not one soul has publicly professed faith in Christ. A dispensary has been established by the Rajah, and is visited by the Medical Missionary, who prescribes for all who present themselves. But as the Missionaries inform us, "the people look with distrust upon all medical science that is at variance with the precepts of Bokrat and Jalinus. And yet it is patent to all that the man, who, for weeks, has been shivering with an inveterate ague, recovers within a day or two after he begins to take quine at the Haspatal. Moreover, other patients who enter the building from time to time go forth to declare themselves quite cured. Such being the case, the intelligent populace have determined to secure such advantages as may be derived from Farangi medicine, without yet running any unnecessary risks. Having exhausted all the resources of all the hakims in the town, and found them unavailing, they consent, at length, to try the dispensary.

If such prejudices exist as to the dispensing of medicine for the body, we cannot marvel if the great medicine for the soul, in the first instance, is much distrusted.

GOOMPA, OR MONASTERY, OF SIMONBORG, SIKKIM. SIKKIM is a mountainous district, divided from Nepaul by a southern spur of the great mountain Kinchinjunga. It is inhabited