or even. Baptist (Eng.) Missionary Society. CALCUTTA.-From the Calcutta Missionary Herald for June, we extract the following notices of a recent addition to the church in the Circular Road, under the care of Mr. Tucker; and also of a Mohammedan inquirer, where impressions originated in reading the scriptures, without the aid of any living instructer. Our readers will not fail to mark the exhibition of British justice made by the presiding magistrate. Recent Baptism. that mistakes in Chinese are more fatal to | cannot view the subject as it is represented the sense, than they are in the languages of by Mr. Medhurst, in his recent work on Europe. Chinese words, and especially the state and prospects of China, pp. 259 the tones which in effect constitute differ- and 426 of the American edition. It seems ent words, are so similar that none but nice to them that the reader must obtain from and well trained ears can distinguish them. those paragraphs a far too favorable imHence the Chinese themselves do not under- pression relative to the facility with which stand each other with the ease with which a missionary may become able to preach to Europeans do. In Malay, or French, or the Chinese.-[Miss. Herald. English, if one gets his words nearly right, he may blunder a good deal in the idiom, and yet be understood. And as to the key or tone, it matters not in the least whether it be high or low, sharp or grave, waving But in Chinese he must have the precise tone; he must be right in the nasals, which are very numerous; he must be right in the aspirates, which are so delicate that persons sometimes discover, after many months of study, words of every day use to be aspirated, which they had supposed to be unaspirated; he must be right in the idiom; he must be right in the word. In all these respects he must be right, in order to be well understood. The range of sound which the Chinese allow themselves is so limited, that in talking the language one is cramped in on all sides, something as a man would be who should attempt to walk all day in a bushel measure. Persons who have praised the Chinese language have referred to the written language. If the Chinese spoken language is thus difficult, (and it is with this chiefly that most missionaries have to do,) may not this be a good reason for not sending a large number of persons to study the Chinese in the Indian Archipelago? Should we not rather wait till we can enter China itself, where we can study the very dialect we wish to use, and where the climate will be all in our favor. The average of missionary life in the Archipelago is probably not over ten or eleven years. Most persons will need ten years for acquiring the language, and some can never learn it sufficiently well to make themselves useful in conversation or preaching, however long they may study it. It will be understood of course that we mean by acquiring a language something quite beyond an ability to give directions to servants, and to convey our meaning to a limited extent in common business. We mean such a knowledge of the language as will enable one readily to converse with the people on moral and religious subjects, getting at their state of mind, understanding their objections and removing them. Respecting the ease or difficulty with which a knowledge of the Chinese language can be acquired, the intelligent reader will observe that the missionaries differ from some late writers. They remark that they 66 On Lord's day, the 7th inst., four persons having made a profession of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, were baptized in the new chapel in Entally, by the Rev. F. Tucker, pastor of the church. In this instance the promise The seed of the righthas been verified, eous shall be blessed," one of the number being a son of W. T. Beeby, Esq.; who during his residence in this country, was, for many years, a deacon of the church. Another, the Rev. T. Atkins, has been a minister of the Gospel for upwards of six years. After carefully searching the Scriptures, and otherwise examining the subject, he came to the conclusion, that immersion is the only mode authorized by the word of God of administering and receiving baptism, and that faith in Christ must precede this public profession of allegiance to him; he therefore determined to obey the divine command. May the Lord, to whom these our friends have given themselves, keep them, by his grace, until that great day, when all who belong to him, of whatever name, shall be glorified together with him. Conversion of a Mohammedan. Within the last few days, an intelligent and well-educated Mohammedan young man, Moulavi Qazim Ali, teacher in La Martiniere, has abjured the errors of the false prophet, and declared his cordial reception of the truth as it is in Jesus. His religious impressions are the result of reading the scriptures in English, unaided by the assistance of any Christian teacher. for some time, to have been He appears, strongly impressed with the striking contrast presented between Mohammed and the Lord Jesus; and the purity and loveliness of the Savior were the means of drawing him to Christ. About a month ago he addressed an anonymous letter to the Rev. J. D. Ellis; and, having received an encouraging reply, he went two or three times to his house to converse with him. These visits attracted the attention of some of his connexions, who forthwith commenced a system of violent persecution. His wife's relatives were very anxious to remove and separate her from him. But having failed in this, after a series of most violent outrages, they suffered them to remain in peace. He has been, with his wife, for some days under the care and instruction of Mr. Ellis; and as there is every reason to believe that God has commenced the good work of grace in his heart, so we may firmly hope that his piety will be increased and developed by the power of the Holy Spirit. earnestly commend him to the sympathy and prayers of all our christian friends. We MONGHYR. [In N. Western Hindustan.] Mr. G. B. Parsons, in a letter dated June 30, 1840, after speaking of the severe illness, and subsequent recovery of a much esteemed native laborer, Naynsook, subjoins an account of Converts added to the Church. A gracious God, too, has crowned his other mercies with this unspeakable blessing, that we have seen six, we hope sincere converts added to the church. Five of them were natives, one European. They were a most interesting group. The European was a young man born of Jewish parents in Poland, and brought to the knowledge and love of the once despised Messiah here. One of the natives had been, in youth, under the care and instruction of honored Mr. Chamberlain; another was arrested and secured by Divine grace when returning from a pilgrimage to Juggernath. One native woman appeared, to those who knew her past history, as a Magdalene washed in the fountain; whilst another, a Mussulman, had, quite late in life, been pulled out of the thick smoke of Mohammedan darkness. What triumphs of Divine grace were here! Jew and Gentiles, Mussulman and Hindoos, combining to honor him whose name shall be honored by every tribe, and kindred, and nation, and tongue; who now reigns, and, blessed be his glorious name! shall reign till he has saved all his people, and subdued all his foes. Even so reign, mighty Jesus! Their baptism, too, was a specially interesting service. It was administered after the prayer-meeting, on Saturday evening. Our evening services commence at sunset, so that by the close of the meeting the stars were shining out in all the clearness and brilliancy of an eastern sky. The cool evening breeze was balmy; sufficient lights were placed round the baptistry, which is outside the chapel, to render the whole scene solemnly, and not glaringly distinct; and there surrounded by silent, attentive, and some weeping spectators, after an address to the natives who were present, the Savior's authority was recognized, and his institution honored, by dipping in water, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, those who had previously declared themselves his disciples. their baptism, two especially of the new It is gratifying, too, to add, that, since converts are manifesting a pleasing desire to labor for the spiritual benefit of others, who are, as they were, dark and enslaved. One, the young pilgrim, attends daily at Mr. Leslie's for instruction, in preparation for the ministry; the other, who was under the care of Mr. Chamberlain, and was when baptized, in service, expressed a desire to be more directly employed in doing good; and we took him as a teacher in our little school. May the Lord preserve and bless them both, and increase them a hundred fold! For a month or two after the baptism of these candidates we had no new inquirers; but the Lord has again heard prayer, and we have two inquirers with us at present. We hope their faces are Zionward; but as they have been but a short time with us, and very many such cases prove only disappointments, it would be quite premature to say any thing about them yet. May God preserve them from proving either stony ground or thorny ground hearers! then it will be our delight to inform you that they stand fast in the Lord. him to think that the man should go into eternity without the opportunity of hearing the Gospel simply and plainly expounded to him, he therefore sent for Naynsook to visit him. Naynsook went, spoke to him of the crime he had committed, and for which he was about to suffer. He with cool and hardened indifference, replied, "I have done no harm, I have only killed my wife; why should I be hung for that?" In this state of heart he died, still persisting in the assertion that he had committed no crime. And, indeed, it seems that not only heathen subjects, but heathen lawgivers, were so abandoned to hardness of heart, that, by heathen law, the murder of a wife was deemed no crime, and was never punished. To see such hearts broken for sin, and such idolaters weeping tears of penitence, is, indeed, to witness a signal triumph of Divine grace. The more you have directly to do with idolaters, the more you become convinced that they are not only sadly ignorant, but malignantly opposed in heart to the Gospel, as a system of purity inflexibly opposing their corrupt practices and depraved tastes. This has appeared sadly evident to me, as I have accompanied Naynsook to the ba Zaars. The depravity of the heart a greater obstacle to the spread of the Gospel than caste. Naynsook very justly observed to me, the other day, that caste was much spoken of as a great hindrance to the reception of Christianity by his countrymen, but that sin was the great chain that kept them in bondage,that, could that be broken, caste would soon be got over. This witness is true; and yet it is true, also, that the whole system of idolatry and priestcraft connected with it is so craftily contrived, and so intimately interwoven with the common occurrences of life, as to give a fearfully increased power to this reigning depravity of the heart. Brahminical theory of eclipses. According to Hindoo wisdom, or rather brahminical craft, the theory of eclipses is this: One of the celestials, in mischief, seizes hold of the sun or moon, and breaks off the portion obscured. The injury can only be repaired, it is said, by giving money to the brahmins. But how is this money to be collected? It would be a difficult thing to run from village to village to get it. Another device follows: It is given out that the waters of the Ganges are peculiarly sacred at such seasons, and that whoever bathes in them then, washes off his eins, so that the poor deluded things flock to the river to bathe. Thus they are collected together in a place easy of access, that the Brahmins may come and fleece them at will. This is only one specimen of the consummate skill and craft of the system. This is no cause of discouragement, for greater is He that is for us, than all those who are against us. All the massive chains of sin, caste, and brahminical despotism will prove but as cobwebs before omnipotent grace; but it does seem to render every conversion among such a people an especial mercy. These assemblies of the people so far serve the cause of the Gospel, that they enable the missionary to put the word of life into the hands of many, and preach the Gospel to many who live in remote villages, and would, perhaps, otherwise, never have an opportunity to hear the joyful sound. One of the inquirers whom I mentioned, first heard the Gospel at the river's side, whither he had come to bathe, and lose, as he thought, his sins. Children under instruction. Having mentioned our school, a few particulars may not be uninteresting to you. Our number is at present seven, five boys and two girls. One is the son of a native Christian; the remaining six would, in all human probability, have grown up under the hardening, defiling influence of a heathen education, had not the Merciful God, and the kind efforts of Christian friends, provided this asylum for them. They came to us in the most distressed situation, being picked up either by the police or our native members, begging a mere starving subsistence in the bazaars. The heathen would far rather their children should die, than that they should lose caste by associating with Europeans. Naynsook told me, the other morning, of a poor man, who had come down from Benares, begging, with six children. They are all, he told me, miserably poor, naked, and crying nearly the whole day with hunger. He told the poor fellow that there was a sahib in Monghyr who would take his two youngest children, feed them, and clothe them, and instruct them, and would not require to be paid a pice in return. No," said the man, with hardened indifference, "if I die, I shall be thrown into the river; and if they die, they will be thrown there; but I will not give them up to the sahib;" intimating that it would be much better to throw them into the river dead than to the sahib alive. As you would expect, we find both their bodies and their minds grievously injured by the wretched circumstances in which they have lived. riches of Christ and gospel grace, when we shall be silent in the tomb. Such is our desire, and our aim, and our prayer. The end, it is true, is far off; and the beginning seems very disproportionate to such an end; but the husbandman has long patience; the seed is small, and many, many days it lies hid, aud shows no signs of life; but it grows up and increases, he knows not how, yet he becomes enriched with a plentiful harvest. And is not the God of grace as worthy of our patient trust as the God of nature? The success of similar attempts, which sprung from small beginnings—may encourage the friends of Christian education to hope, though it may seem hoping in part against hope. Miserably ignorant they seemed, quite destitute of all idea of a Supreme Being, the Creator of themselves and the world around them. Their minds seemed one thick, black blot. Petty lying and petty thefts were their daily employ, so that they were not at all unlearned in the arts of deception. So obstinate were they that I know not when we shall teach them the duty of prompt obedience. This costs us a struggle with their waywardness almost every day, and sometimes very hard struggles too. God had not promised the aid of omnipotent grace to those who endeavor to "train up children in the way they should go," I should be ready to throw up the undertak-lation into Hindoostanee with which I am ing in despair. It is distressing to think that this is the condition of millions of poor children, who if timely aid be not afforded, will grow up in this condition, and die in this condition, and leave behind them a race as ignorant, depraved, and prejudiced as themselves. If Immensity of the work to be done in India. It is quite overwhelming to reflect on the vast amount of work to be done in the great Indian jungle; and which, as the age of miracles is past, must be done by the instrumentality of Christian benevolence. Surely from my heart I pray, Lord, give triple strength, and faith, and zeal, and love to every laborer in the field, and send out quickly additional hosts! Our endeavor is, to separate the children, when they come under our care, entirely from heathen influence. For this purpose, we never allow them to go beyond the bounds of our own compound, except when they go to chapel, and then they are accompanied by a native Christian. We feel very grateful to God that he has supplied us with a native Christian to take charge of them when out of school, and one to instruct them in school. Compared with the wants of the people and our own desires, we feel that ours is a very, very small beginning, very indeed; but we are encouraged by knowing that God does not "despise the day of small things," and we have confidence in Christian friends that they will not, but will labor together with us in their prayers, that from these little ignorant, despised ones, God would raise up some champions for the truth, some to preach powerfully the Excellence of Mr. Yates's translations. A good work was nobly done in the formation of the Bible Translation Society. Independently of the translation of every term, which is not done in any other trans acquainted, there appears to me a transparency, and clearness, and definiteness about Mr. Yates's Hindoostanee translation which I see in no other. Of course this is my own private opinion, and may be controverted; and yet, in confirmation of it, I have heard it objected to the translation, that those passages which our English translation leaves so indefinite that the reader is compelled to put a sense on the word as he reads, or receive no definite idea from the reading, are not left thus in Mr. Yates's translation, but have a clearly defined sense enstamped on them. This is called putting his own sense on Scripture. To me this property seems a most valuable one, especially when intended to be read by prejudiced persons, and listless, indifferent persons, who would need but a very trifling inducement to throw the book aside, and who would be sure to find such an inducement in the unintelligibility of the language, if such existed. If it be so great a fault in a translator to put a sense on Scripture, I think it a far greater one to write that as translation of God's word which he is conscious has either no sense, or, as the Mussulmans say of every sentence of the Koran, sixteen different ones. I am glad Mr. Yates's singularly eminent qualifications as a translator begin to be known and appreciated. The very retiring, patient, laborious thought, and beautiful simplicity, which are among the most eminent of those qualifications, have tended to shut him up from public notice; but his noble works in the translation department will live after him, and be a radiant and imperishable crown around his memory. WESTERN AFRICA. This Society having resolved to establish a mission in some portion of Western Africa, the Rev. John Clark, late of the W. I. mission, offered himself for that service. He with a companion, Dr. Prince, also late of Jamaica, embarked at London, on the 16th of October last, for a destination, probably somewhere on the river Niger, as far up, it is said, as Idda, Egga, or Rabbah. A note from Mr. Clark, to the secretary, while lying at anchor, before sailing, indicates a very happy state of feeling, in prospect of the labors and perils before them. I write these few lines to bid you again farewell, and to beseech you to do all you can for the sending of the gospel to the interior of Africa. We may be swallowed up in the mighty deep, and joyfully go to heaven from that water which is held in the hollow of the Almighty's hand; but Afric's millions must not, for this, be left to perish. We may die on the voyage, or soon after our arrival on the coast; but still remember we die happy in the performance of duty, and care not that our exit to a better state should be lamented. But Afric's woes ought to induce lamentation, and excite not only to tears of compassion, but to acts of devotedness and self-denial, and to endeavors to rescue her from her long, long night of misery and eternal death. We may live to do all that our hearts desire. God grant it may be so! I at this moment am willing to die, or at any moment God has appointed; but I do not desire to die, but to live, for the good of Africa. I shall think it real pleasure to suffer in the service of my God and for Africa; and, as long as I can do good for that land, I shall gladly endure any trial, and remain absent from the blest abode above, where holiness and freedom from suffering eternally fill each blest seraphic spirit with unspeakable delight. Sailing of Missionaries. [American Board of Com. for For. Missions.] The Rev. Messrs. Dole and Bond and their wives, destined for the Sandwich Islands mission, and the Rev. Mr. Paris and wife, and Mr. and Mrs. Rice, destined to the Oregon mission, who recently received their public instructions in Park street church,-embarked in the ship Gloucester, Capt. Easterbrook, on Saturday, 14th inst. The customary religious services were held on the occasion, the Rev. Dr. Jenks leading in prayer. day was pleasant, but the wind being light, the ship came to anchor among the islands, where she lay till Monday morning, and thus providentially escaped the storm which arose during the night of Saturday and continued nearly through the following day. The missionaries for Oregon go by way of the Sandwich islands. The On Tuesday, 17th inst. the Rev. Stephen Johnson and wife, Rev. William Theodore Van Doren and wife, and Rev. Isaac P. Stryker, sailed in the barque United States, Capt. Webb, bound to Batavia, on the island of Java. Mr. Johnson is returning to his mission in Siam, after an Messrs. absence of two years or more. Van Doren and Stryker are members of the Reformed Dutch Church. They are destined to the mission in Borneo, but, according to the rules of the colonial government of Netherlands India, must spend a year at Batavia. The prayer at the emUnited barkation of the company in the “ States," was made by the Rev. Mr. Blagden, of this city.-[Boston Rec. of Dec. 20. |