of the C. M. S. at Krishnagar. I remember the work of Prof. Cowell in the Presidency College. He had a Bible class of young men at his own house, and they will never forget him. Would that there were more such men in our Government Colleges! The General Assembly's Institution is doing a great work. I was once talking with a Babu about the Bible, when he exclaimed: " [ know all about the Bible. In the General Assembly's Institution I took a prize of two hundred Rupees for a Bible examination." All of our Christian Colleges are the honoured Missionary agencies of the church. I wish we had more Bible prizes. The Bible scholarships established in the North-West by Mr. Budden are most excellent and deserve encouragement. One point more. In dealing with educated native gentlemen we need more of the suaviter in modo and less of the fortiter in re. Let us try to reach the hearts of our native friends. A Christian student once visited a sceptical class-mate, who refused to listen and began to argue in loud and offensive language. The Christian silently turned away, and on leaving the room said with manifest emotion. "O, how I love your soul." This tender word brought the sneering sceptic to Christ's feet, and he became a preacher of the Gospel. Let us take aim for the fifth rib. The human heart is the preacher's shining target. There are many encouragements. Once on tour I found a Hindu zemindar who welcomed me to his house. On his table lay a Bible. On the title page of that Bible in a firm hand were written the words-" A secret Christian." This man had three Bibles, and he prayed to Christ every day. Such men are well worth working for, and golden fruit awaits the faithful worker. THE REV. S. JACOBS, M E. C., Colar, said :-Brahmans cannot be convinced by logic and arguments. Their consciences are their vulnerable points. These can be best reached by the Gospel carried home by the Holy Ghost. DR. DOWNES, C. M. S., Kashmir, said :-We heard in this room this morning that beautiful chapter of Ezekiel about the waters which flowed from the temple and gave life to the desert wherever they flowed, and no one believes more firmly than I do that it is the blood of Christ, typified in this chapter, which cleanses us from all sin. But I wish to say, I hope not rashly or unkindly, that it is no use preaching about a Saviour of sinners to those who have no conviction of sin. If I am asked to define the meaning of that expression of our Lord, "Cast not your pearls before swine," I should be inclined to say that it was just that, viz., preaching of a Saviour to those who had no conviction of sin. There are some cases in which we fail to cause sinners to see that they are sinners, and we must thus find out what our obstacle is. We must be good physicians and make a proper diagnosis. Drawing the bow at a venture is very well when we can do nothing better, but we must be discriminating. A speaker just now said that he believed preaching Christ would never fail to succeed. I can only Scripture prizes. Suavity. Love. A secret Christian. Aim at the conscience. First convince of sin, then preach Christ. Questions must be answered. Great readiness to hear. say that repeatedly I have been stopped in my preaching by questions which my hearers demanded should be answered: these people were not highly educated, and I can hardly think that educated persons would not at any rate be equally peremptory in their demands to have difficult questions answered when we speak to them on questions of religion. Once a man put forward an excuse for some slovenly work in speaking to a Christian minister, that God does not require the wisdom of men; nor does He require our foolishness, was the appropriate reply. What then shall I say to the Christian teacher who, when asked some of the most difficult and most important questions regarding the very foundation of our belief, answers-Solve these problems for yourself, I will only preach Christ? THE REV. J. FORDYCE, Simla, said:-If I came only from Simla I might be silent on this subject; but my winter tours since 1870 have given me remarkable opportunities of observing the state of Educated Natives. Whilst the chief object of the Anglo-Indian Evangelisation Society is to reach Europeans, more or less destitute of Christian ordinances, it is our duty and privilege to address English speaking natives also. In most parts of India there is great readiness to hear the word of life in lectures or otherwise. This is well known in reference to cities and large towns, but few, probably, have any idea of how interest and inquiry have extended to a multitude of places where the population is small. I may refer to Silchar in the East and Mercara in the South as examples, as well as to many Railway stations. In a word there is here a vast field opening for Christian action, and it is now white unto the harvest. I hope I may be permitted to link this subject to others that have been already considered. We have had many plans of Missionary work All agencies brought before us. Whilst modifications may be suggested and co-operate. adopted, one plan should not be set against another. In this great enterprise "there are diversities of ministrations but the same Lord." Each has its own place in a complex service. They are mutually supplementary; and all are needed in the great and difficult work of evangelising India. The Christian and the Brahmo. The Brahmo THE REV. T. P. HUGHES, C. M. S., Peshawar, said:-Though a Missionary to Mahomedans, I determined to interview the educated Bengali when I came to Calcutta. I was much influenced by the lecture from Mr. Keshab Chundar Sen last evening. I have seldom listened to greater eloquence. But to-day after having heard here Mr. K. C. Banerjea, I must say that I prefer (infinitely prefer) the educated Christian Bengali. There is a ring of sincerity in the one which I fail to find in the other. The want of definiteness of thought which characterizes the teachings of the Brahmo Samaj has done much to produce scepticism and agnosticism in India. Last year it was my privilege to address an audience of educated natives at Simla, and in the course of my remarks I said that I thought there was a striking difference of thought between religious principles as exhibited in Shakespeare, and mere religious sentiment as seen in Byron. After the lecture an apostle of the New Dispensation said to me, "Sir! we willingly sit at the feet of your great poet Byron." What can be expected from a religious system which believes in the inspiration of Byron and accepts him as a guide. FOURTH DAY. MONDAY, January 1st, 1883. Morning Session. The meeting was opened by the reading of Scripture and prayer by the Rev. J. Fordyce. 181 Coman's work in the Indian Mission Field. FIRST PAPER BY MISS HEWLETT, C. M. S., Amritsar, Panjab. A work specially This special branch of work in which some of us are privileged to be engaged, may perhaps be entitled to rank among the most interesting, the most promising, and the interesting. most difficult of Missionary undertakings. (1.) Among the most interesting, because it brings us into contact with a very large number of women whom we should probably never see but by its means, shows us an infinite variety of cases of need and suffering, reveals to us many of the sorrows and trials as well as the habits of thought and ways of living of the people among whom we are come to labour, and sometimes brings to light one and another who are feeling after God if haply they may find Him. (2.) Among the most promising, because in ministering to the suffering bodies it teaches the sufferers that love is a real and living thing, that those who come to their Specially promising. homes to help them in sickness asking nothing in return, must be actuated by love, and that God is love. It is, even when no words are spoken, thus pointing the weary and afflicted away from all their misery and pain straight up to the One who loves them, and who has sent His servants for their relief. The simple preaching of the Cross is indeed the " power of God", and men do feel and acknowledge this; but when by His gracious blessing upon the use of means we can say to the sometime helpless cripple, "Rise, take up thy bed and walk", who can doubt that the message of " forgiveness of sins" comes with increased power to the heart? And it is a promising work inasmuch as it tends to improve the moral and physical condition of the women, to teach them how they may best avert sickness from themselves and from their children, and how they may meet it with some amount of common sense if it should come. That there is sad need for work in these directions every Zenana Missionary can abundantly testify. (3.) Among the most difficult, (a) because it can be undertaken in all its branches by women only, and their facilities for fitting themselves for the work have hitherto been few; and further, when they are as fully equipped as they can be, they are but women after all, weaker than men, less able to stand alone, and more likely to suffer from hard work and exposure to weather in a country like India. (b) Because the prejudices and habits of the people of India in their normal condition, while they form immense barriers to Missionary efforts in other respects, are most especially hindering in the treatment of disease; the well known difficulty in giving fluid medicines or soups to Hindoo patients, the custom of taking the advice and drugs of some Hakim (or of more than one) without informing the European doctor in attendance, the fact that the more ill the patients the more crowded will be the room, and the more noisy will be her friends, and the prejudice which in severe and lowering types of fever puts a hundred leeches to each foot and refuses to allow the patient any food, are sufficient instances. (c) Because it is double work. One has often heard it spoken of as if to attempt the healing of body and soul at the same time were the easiest thing in the world. A moment's thought will show that the very opposite is the case. Given that there were no more obstacles than there are in English Medical Mission work, given that the patients though ignorant and unbelieving as London heathen are, were nevertheless not unwilling to listen to a short address, and not without perception of its truth and the importance of receiving it, there would still be double work, double responsibility, double thought, double prayer, while neither work may give place to the other, for on the one hand we dare not let those go away without hearing the Gospel message to whom the Master has commissioned us to tell it, and on the other hand we have no right to gather people together with the promise of bodily healing, and then to give so much time to spiritual instruction that we must hastily slur over the cases, and make our medical treatment less satisfactory than at any other hospital. The difficulty of doing wisely and well these two great works in combination is very great; one Zenana Medical Missionary said lately, "I am often obliged to tell my Saviour of my patients instead of telling my patients of my Saviour." Work in work. Gospel teaching. Having spoken of the threefold aspect of the Zenana Medical Mission, of its interest, its promise, and its difficulty, we may look at the way the Lord our God has led us in this special branch of work in Amritsar. We have a Hospital conducted on English principles, where 18 inpatients can be received. We have had an average of 125 a year who have been treated and nursed. In connection with this are two Dispensaries, and a small medical school, and from this centre work in the homes of the people is carried on. The Dispensary work has been Dispensary in operation for nearly three years, and in that time about 9000 cases have been attended to. The Gospel is always read, and some words of explanation and invitation to Christ are spoken. Mrs. Grimké's text cards are used as tickets of admission, and in this way thousands of these precious messages must now be scattered over the city, frequently too there is conversation with one or more who show signs of being interested. From the Dispensaries the Hospital is supplied. The question is often asked whether the women will come, and whether they will submit to English treatment. There is of course often difficulty in persuading them to come in, and many are the excuses made and falsehoods told to ensure treatment at home. The woman who has declared but a Difficulties. minute ago that she never had a child in her life, will on the first mention of remaining in hospital, assure us that she has several at home too small to be left. Sometimes Hospital. |