ARE THE MISSIONARIES DOING ANY THING IN INDIA?

[Kindly communicated by a Christian Officer returned from India.-ED.]

THIS question was asked me by a lady not long since. "Why, madam, may I ask," I replied, "do you doubt their doing anything? Do you read the missionary registers and reports ?"

"Sometimes I do; but Colonel C., whom I lately met, and who has just returned from India, after spending thirty years there, assured me he had never seen a missionary, and that I must not believe the reports which are got up in London, merely to rob simple people of their money."

It is hard to say in what part of India "Colonel C." may have served, or in what sort of society he took delight. If he were a gay and worldly man, who frequented balls and billiard tables, it is probable that he knew as little about the operations of missionaries in India as his Excellency's aides-de-camp at the Castle in Dublin are likely to know of those in Kerry or Connemara.

India is a large place, and the occupations of Europeans there are as diverse from each other as they are in Britain; and it is quite possible for an officer in the East India Company's Service to have lived at stations unoccupied by missionaries, or even if at the same station with them, to be unacquainted both with their persons and their operations, To show, however, that missionaries and their labours are not, in every instance, the mere produce of imagination, I will narrate a little incident which occurred to myself one morning in the month of February, A.D. 1851, in the vicinity of Ahmednugur, a large city in the presidency of Bombay.

My tents were pitched outside the town of Yewla, same miles north of Ahmednugar; the hour was early-the sun not long risen-and I had just returned from a ride, when, at the door of my tent, I was accosted, in the Maratha language, by a respectable looking individual, apparently a Bramin. I asked his business; he informed me that he was a Christian, converted by the American missionaries at Ahmednugur, that he, with three other converts, were travelling through the country, selling books on account of the missions. After a little conversation on matters connected with the mission, Sukhopunt (for so I wil call the Bramin convert) offered to bring me his store of books, in case I should wish to purchase any. I at first declined, and he left me; he had not, however, left me many minutes, when I changed my mind, and sent a messenger after him, to invite him and his companions to my tent at ten o'clock, to display their books.

My messenger returned after a little delay, and informed me that he had found the converts with some difficulty, as they were not lodging at the "Dhurmsala" (the usual halting place for travellers) but they had halted in the open plain, outside the village, and that he found them preparing their breakfast, under the shadow of their cart.

At ten o'clock, a cart drawn by bullocks, drove up to the tent; in it I observed Sukhopunt, and his three companions, one of whom was charioteer. They evidently were not "Bramins ;" and observing the friendly terms on which they lived together, I was curious to know whether the latter were Hindoos of the working classes, or whether they belonged to the despised race of Pariahs. They soon entered the tent, carrying in two large boxes full of books, and Sukhopunt introduced his three companions, whom I will call Lakhoram, Rama, and Krishna; the first was an elderly man, the last two were youths. They

came up to me with smiling faces, and in a friendly, though respectful manner, held out their hands (instead of raising them to their heads, to "Salaam," as Asiatics usually do). I readily gave them my hand, and then asked them to be seated; and they forthwith took their places on the ground, on each side of my chair. I found that Lakhoram, and his two companions, were by birth, Pariahs, and I was forcibly struck with the utter annihilation of caste prejudices in the mind of Sukhopunt, through which he had consented familiarly to associate with people whom no Bramin of Western India would, for any consideration, touch, and whose very shadow is considered a pollution. But a more striking instance of the triumph of the Word of God, in this respect, remains to be told. I asked Sukhopunt why he and his companions had halted in the plain, instead of entering the village, "Dhurmsala." 66 "The reason is," he replied, these, my brethren, being Purwarees (ie., Pariahs), by birth, the villagers would not allow them to enter the Dhurmsalas; and as we are all brethren, I refuse to separate from them."

that

The circumstances of a Bramin thus claiming brotherhood with Pariahs, and sharing hardship voluntarily with them, was the most striking instance that I had ever seen of the abolition of caste, through the genial influence of the Gospel.

The countenances of the three Pariahs struck me forcibly, as evincing the power of religion to "make wise the simple." There was a modest intelligent propriety in their appearance and manner, that strongly contrasted with the uncouth ignorance usual in men of their class. Lakhoram, the eldest, espe cially struck me as superior in intelligence and demeanour. I asked him to tell me the history of his early life and conversion, which he did in nearly the following words :

"When the great Wesley (the Duke of Wellington),

conquered Holkar, I was 14 years old. I lived at Ahmednugur, of which my father was hereditary gatekeeper. It was about that time that a holy mendicant arrived at our city, and to him my father intrusted me, saying-‘Take my son, and make him a holy man like yourself.'

"The next day I left Ahmednugur with my preceptor, and I commenced a life of travel with him from one shrine to another; we visited every sacred river, mountain, and temple, from one end of India to another, including Rameshwara, at the south, all the holy places in the Carnatic Jugonath, Gaya, Benares, and various places in the Himalaya Mountains, beyond which mortal man cannot travel. We then travelled down to Dwarca, on the west coast, and after a length ened tour of several years, in which we visited hundreds of holy places, of lesser note, I returned to my native city, and sat down in the gate in which I was accustomed to play as a boy.

"My father was dead, and many other changes had occurred in Ahmednugur; the Peshwa's government had passed away, and the English had come in its stead. I saw in the gate, a new gate-keeper, whom I presently recognised as one of my boyish companions. While conversing with him about the many changes which had come over my native city since I left it, another friend came up-the father of this lad (pointing to one of the converts), and, addressing me, he said, Well, Mr. Pilgrim, you have spent many years visiting shrines, and rivers, and sacred places, and you know the Holy Book Kubeer almost by heart; tell me, after all, what are you-are you a saint, or are you a sinner?'

"The strangeness of this question offended me not a little; however, as I had learned that anger was disgraceful to a holy man, I curbed my temper, and thought over his question- Am I a saint, or am I a sinner? I have visited every shrine, and washed in

every holy river; I have observed every fast, and every religious observance enjoined in Kubeer; I ought to be a saint; but then Kubeer says, 'Anger, pride, lust, avarice, envy, &c., are sins, and till these are all driven out of the heart man is a sinner. So, after a little reflection, I replied,- I am a sinner.'

"Indeed! (he rejoined) a sinner still, after so many religious deeds! When, then, do you expect to be a saint? And if you are not a saint, how do you expect to see God ?'

"I answered out of Kubeer, of which I was very fluent, showing the various penances and mortifications that a man must perform to subdue sin, and to fit him for heaven.

"But he rejoined,—'Well, but all these you have performed, and that for many years; what hope have you of attaining to holiness in future years, having so wholly failed in those that are past ?'

"This question rather provoked me, the more so as it proceeded from an ignorant Pariah, who had spent all his life in the lowest menial occupations, while I had read, studied, and travelled, and expected to be regarded by my countrymen as a person of no small sanctity. The unlooked for questions and objections, therefore, of Lukma, set my mind at work with new thoughts and ideas. To his last question (above stated), I offered sundry replies suggested by the Book Kubeer, which I reverenced much, and on my acquaintance with which, as well as an attendance upon the duties therein prescribed, I fully depended for elevation to the highest station in the worlds of spirits. My replies, however, not appearing to satisfy Lukma, I, in my turn, asked,—'How do you expect to see God, and to attain heaven? Have you reached sinless perfection ?'

"Not I,' he replied; I am an unworthy sinner, but I believe that the Almighty became man, under the name of Jesus, the Christ, and that He died to bear