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with me now in these barracks; He will be with me to-morrow on a floating barrack; He will preserve me amidst the dangers of the stormy deep; He will steer my own bark, though frail, through the troubled ocean of life, and He will eventually pilot me safely to the ever-blooming shores of the heavenly Canaan. In the Lord Jesus I have strength, fortitude, and courage, to brave all perils, trials, and difficulties; and my sincere wish is, that He may exalt me to the sincerity of a Bunyan, sink me into the humility of a Matthew, fire me with the zeal and forwardness of a Peter, and in every way qualify me to proclaim His unsearchable riches to perishing sinners, that His power and glory may be the more signally displayed for accomplishing the designs of His boundless benevolence, by the instrumentality of fishermen, Publicans, hodmen, and tinkers.

"My love to all the Brethren, all the Missionaries, &c. O what has not the religion of Jesus Christ done for me! It has made me rich in mind, rich in fortitude, and rich in pocket. It has emancipated me from the sink of degradation, and brought me to shake hand and associate with gentlemen indeed-Yes, with the flower of the world-the excellent of the earth.

"Mind yourself when you come to this coast. Have little rambling and less talking. And now farewell, a long farewell. "Your affectionate Brother, "J. D."

VIII.-Retrospect of Mrs. Wilson's Missionary Labours.

[The BOMBAY ORIENTAL SPECTATOR, for JUNE, contains the following extracts from the Funeral Sermon preached by the Rev. J. WILSON, of the Scottish Mission at that Presidency, on the death of his excellent wife. We transfer them to our pages, not more in justice to her active and self-denying labours, than with the hope that many of our female readers especially may be led, from their perusal, to a serious examination and determined performance of their duty, in relation to the great work of evangelizing benighted India.-ED.]

The loss which I, and my family, and dear friends, have sustained, is one, which, considering the deep affliction of my heart, I dare not yet venture to estimate, and which I shall not attempt to characterize. As far as the cause of Christ is concerned, however, and with a view to a right improvement of the dispensation with which we have been visited, and to the praise of the God of all grace, I must say a few words. When she, who afterwards became my beloved wife, had her thoughts first directed to this great land of heathen darkness, and cruel and degrad ing and soul-destroying superstition, she was living in comfort among friends and relatives to whom she bore an affection strong as death; and she was moving in the most pious and intellectual circles of her native country, in which her finest sympathies, both of nature and of grace, were brought into exercise, and in which she was loved with almost idolatrous fondness, and treated, on account of her gifts and graces, with a respect and veneration seldom exhibited to one of her sex and years. It was the desire of her heart, when a union was formed

between us, to cheer and encourage me, and to take part with me, according to her ability and the grace which God might give to her, in the great work of evangelizing the heathen, to which I had looked forward; and with a view to accomplish these objects, she presented herself as a living sacrifice on the altar of God, vowing, in his sacred presence, that she would devote to his cause, her person, her talents, her acquirements, her time, her strength, and her substance. With a heart burning with zeal for the glory of God, and melting with compassion for the souls of men, she crossed with me the stormy ocean, and came to this country, which she did not view, like many, as a place of temporary and reluctant exile, but which she adopted as her home, in which she wished to live, and labor, and die. With the greatest ardour, she entered on the study of the native languages, and persevered in it amidst every distraction, till her acquirements in the two most important of those spoken in this quarter*, enabled her, with ease and effect, to communicate instruction respecting the true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. The difficulties arising from superstition, custom, and corrupted feeling, which are in the way of female education, she found to be numerous and formidable; but she resolved, in reliance on the promises and assistance of God, to encounter them. She instituted and organized no fewer than sir female schools, containing, at an average, between one hundred and fifty and two hundred scholars. She trained the teachers, making the least respectable of that class, the only persons who could be engaged for the work, the most efficient in the mission. Principally at her own expense, and with a great expenditure of strength, she visited the scholars and their parents at their homes, and sought to engage their affections, and thus secure their attendance. She not only superintended the schools, but, even in her weakest state, she daily spent several hours in them, particularly after she was successful in bringing most of them to the mission-premises, hearing the children repeat their tasks, examining them, pressing home divine truth to their understandings and hearts, and praying with them. Several adult females she herself taught to read, and communicated to them a knowledge of the first principles of the oracles of God, The only two females whom I have baptized, and the wives and children, and female relatives, of the converts and servants, and two females who are at present candidates for admission into the church, are under the greatest obligations to her for a thousand kindnesses and services; and the day of the Lord may show, that to her instrumentality they owe their conversion and Christian progress. To the Poor's Asylums she frequently repaired, with the view of instructing their destitute inmates. For a long period she held a regular weekly meeting with the wives and children of European pensioners and their descendants, both in the neighbourhood of the mission-house, and in Kolábá. Her services, when required for the Bombay Sabbath School, were not withheld. During the long journeys which I undertook with the view of proclaiming the glad tidings of salvation throughout the country, she managed, with much fidelity and prudence, the general concerns of the mission, and she always freed me from many secular cares connected with its business. She was a principal attraction to many of my native visitors, and particularly to those distinguished among their countrymen for their education and intelligence; and, with much ingenuity and tact, did she seek their improvement, and promote

* Maráthí and Hindustání. She studied Gujarathi with me for a considerable time; but she afterwards abandoned it for the Portuguese, connected with which she had greater prospects of usefulness, and which, from its resemblance to other European languages with which she was acquainted, she found little difficulty in acquiring.

their welfare. She wrote several striking papers in native periodicals, calculated to advance the cause of the Redeemer; and to her pen the Oriental Christian Spectator is indebted for its brightest pages*. At a time when the religious discussions, in which I have been engaged, required the use of some volumes, which I could not detain for a sufficient length of time, she spent many hours in copying large extracts from them; and even the whole of the Vendidád Sadi, which few would read for hire, she translated from French into English, for the use of some Parsis, and for the facilitating future reference, when a comparison with the original, and Gujarathi translation might be attempted. She has left Marathi translations and compositions, prepared during the last year and a half, and almost all in a state ready for the press, in a quantity almost as great, if we except translations from the sacred Scriptures, as any published by any Missionary who has yet come to the west of India. Amidst all these personal exertions, she ever communicated to me the most valuable counsel, and the most exciting encouragement in my work, and the many trials connected with its duties; and ever proved to me, as it were, a second soul. Most faithfully and tenderly did she discharge her duties as a wife and a mother; and most affectionately and disinterestedly did she prove herself a Christian friend to those with whom she was acquainted. The Spirit of the Saviour, to a rare degree, animated her in all her exertions; and the graces of the Christian character were conspicuous in her whole deportment. Her prayers for the nourishment of the Divine life within her own soul, and for success in the propagation of the Gospel, prevented the rising sun; and they formed the engagement of many of her midnight hours. The records of her devotion, never intended to meet the eye of man, reveal an intimacy of communion with God, a humility of spirit, and an intensity and agony of desire for the advancement of the Divine glory, which may well shame many thousands of the Lord's most devoted servants. In her removal from the scene of her labours, and her arduous work, a loss has thus been sustained, of which we must all be sensible.

In regard to the people of the Lord in this country, and in other lands, the solemn lessons are conveyed, that while the harvest is so great, and the labourers are so few and short-lived, they ought to beseech the Lord of the harvest to thrust forth labourers into his vineyard; and that they ought, in the presence of God, and in the view of his judgment, most anxiously to inquire, whether they ought not personally to take a part, or, if already engaged in it, to do more, in the work of evangelizing this great country, connected with which there is an incalculable responsibility resting on our nation. In reference to the last point, I speak the sentiment of all who knew her, that the disinterested, devoted, arduous, and persevering labours of her with whom I was united, were most exemplary, and such as are well worthy of imitation. Now that she is removed from this sublunary scene, they can be looked upon with greater tenderness, and less prejudice, and they can be reported with a greater particularity, and in a much wider circle, than when she was alive. Materials are not wanting for a record-I trust it will be to the praise of that grace to which she owed her all, and to which, with a humility unfeigned, she ascribed her all -of her "works and charity, and service, and faith, and patience;" and she, though dead, may yet speak, and plead with an eloquence, which may

* Her Reviews of Mrs. Judson's Life, Douglass on Errors in Religion, Dods on the Incarnation, Mrs. Simpson's Diary, Stebbing's Church History, and Chalmers's Bridgewater Treatise, have been much admired; and some of them have been reprinted in other periodicals.

affect the hearts of thousands, the cause of these millions around us, who are perishing for lack of knowledge. May God grant that her memory may be hallowed to the promotion of His honour, the great object for which only it is worthy of being preserved; and that we, in the holiness of our lives, and the diligence of our endeavours, may follow her, and other devoted servants of the Lord, in as far as they followed Christ! Whatever may be the delusions in which we are now involved with regard to what the world judges desirable and interesting, the day is fast hastening, and it may be very near to most of us, when we shall estimate the value of our lives, not by our personal enjoyments and honours, but by the opportunities which they have afforded us, and which we have embraced, of promoting the Divine glory, and advancing the best interests of our fellow-men. In the view of its solemnities, let one and all of us, be up, and doing, and beseech the Lord to be with us, with his supporting and directing grace, and his enriching blessing. Let us profess, to all around us, that we are the disciples of Jesus; and let us be ready, by the study of their languages, or by instructing them in ours, to tell to all with whom we can come into contact, what He has done for our souls, and how they may find acceptance in his holy and gracious presence, and live not only as the monuments of the Divine mercy, but the instruments of the Divine praise. "Whatsoever our hand findeth to do," and much indeed there is in this great country pressing upon it, "let us do it with all our might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither we hasten."-May God abundantly bless His word, now, henceforth, and forever. Amen.

IX.-The Slave Question.

[From a Correspondent.]

It has afforded us sincere pleasure to hear of the admirable working of the bill for the emancipation of the Slave in the West, nor has our delight been diminished by the spirit with which that boon has been received; but that which makes our happiness replete on this subject, is the conservative influence* which the Missionary and pious negroes appear to have possessed, over such incongruous elements as those of which the newly emancipated society must necessarily consist. In many cases they appear to have voluntarily stepped forward, to quell the incipient stages of dissatisfaction; while in others, the officials had called upon them to give a right direction to the vague and misguided ideas of many of the poor creatures, who supposed that liberty was synonymous with idleness and confusion. The last testimony which has been borne on this subject is by one who will not be suspected of an overgreat partiality for either negroes, or Missionaries: we refer to Lord Aberdeen, who is reported as saying, in answer to certain interrogations, that the system

In how effectual, yet how benevolent a way this influence operates, will be seen, by referring to our Intelligence Department, in the case of the Negroes, who had formerly enjoyed the ministry of Mr. Burchell, when his return gave them an opportunity of expressing to him their grateful affection. True Christianity, it may be truly said, "emollit mores, nec sinit esse feros."-ED.

was working better than its most sanguine friends could expect, and that the statements bearing an opposite character were false. An English journal, the John Bull, who has ever been the uncompromising opponent of emancipation, and through whose medium the dark reports, to which His Lordship refers, had met the public eye, commenting on the answer, says, that its correspondents must have seen the matter with a jaundiced eye; that they must have erred; and congratulates the friends of the slave, on the triumph of their labours. We can only say, "Tempora mutantur," and give all the praise to him who has caused the wrath of man to praise him, and the rest of that wrath to restrain. Surely the voice of Liberty, which now bursts from the Western Isles, is one of the earliest notes of the Millennium Song, "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ." We may probably return to this subject. φιλος.

X.-Striking Anecdote.

CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE.—A slave in one of the islands ofthe West Indies, who had originally come from Africa, having been brought under the influence of religious instruction, became singularly valuable to his owner, on account of his integrity and general good conduct. After some time, his master raised him to a situation of some consequence in the management of his estate; and on one occasion, wishing to purchase twenty additional slaves, employed him to make the selection, giving him instruction to choose those who were strong and likely to make good workmen. The man went to the slave-market, and commenced his scrutiny. He had not long surveyed the multitude offered for sale, before he fixed his eye intently upon one old and decrepit slave, and told his master that he must be one. The master appeared greatly surprised at his choice, and remonstrated against it. The poor fellow begged that he might be indulged; when the dealer remarked, that if they were about to buy twenty, he would give them the old man into the bargain. The purchase was accordingly made, and the slaves were conducted to the plantation of their new master; but upon none did the selector bestow half the attention and care he did upon the poor old decrepit African. He took him to his own habitation, and laid him upon his own bed ; he fed him at his own table, and gave him drink out of his own cup: when he was cold, he carried him into the sun-shine; and when he was hot, he placed him under the shade of the cocoanut trees. Astonished at the attention this confidental slave bestowed upon a fellow-slave, his master interrogated him upon the subject. He said, "You could not take so intense an interest in the old man, but for some special reason he is a relation of yours, perhaps your father?" "No, massa," answered the poor fellow, "he no my fader!" "He is then an elder brother!" "No, massa, he no my brother!" "Then he is an uncle, or some other relation ?" "No, massa, he no be of my kindred at all, nor even my friend !" "Then," asked the master, "on what account does he excite your interest ?" " He my enemy, massa," replied the slave; "he sold me to the slave-dealer; and my bible tell me, when my enemy hunger, feed him, and when he thirst, give him drink."

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