press my feelings to you as I could wish; but I beg you to accept my warmest thanks for the kindness you have shown to me personally, for your continued kindness to my school children. Oh, may you meet many of them in heaven, to sing aloud the praises of redeeming love in perfection, which their infant lips have but imperfectly learnt to lisp in the schools on earth! Then, dear Madam, you will feel that all you have done for Christ below, he has more than repaid. Then will you rejoice that he made you the honoured instrument of snatching many of these young immortals as brands from the burning. Oh, when we know that eternal death awaits those who know not God, who believe not in Jesus as the only Mediator between us and God, oh, how should our hearts burn with holy zeal to bring these miserable heathen children to the knowledge which can alone make them wise unto salvation, the knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord! May God bless you, for thus strengthening our hands and cheering our hearts amidst our anxieties and discouragements which are such as no one, except those labouring among this people, can have any idea of. But though these discouragements and difficulties are at times almost overpowering, the grace of God has hitherto supported us; and the cheering effect which the continued sympathy of Christian friends in our beloved native land has upon us I cannot describe to you. However drooping our spirits may be, we feel impelled to go forward; for our friends assist us and pray for us, and the Lord of Hosts is with us; and can we despair? Oh, no; we will ever trust to our God, and have faith in Him who ordereth all things right.

"But the Lord gives us encouragements also, blessed be his name! A few nights ago, when Mr. Lewis was from home, two of my little girls came in to talk with me about their souls. I put by the letter I was beginning to write, while they, seated crosslegged on the floor by my side, freely and fully opened their hearts to me on the subject of religion, and expressed themselves in such a manner as would have gratified many a dear minister in England. They desire baptism and admission into the church; but they are very young,-the elder of the two,

Elisinal Glover, supported by yourself, being only fourteen years of age, and the other, Ellen, about twelve. If the Lord has indeed begun the work, he will carry it on to the end. I pray that they may not be deceiving themselves, but that the Lord, who searcheth the heart, may reveal to them the state of their inner man. Pray for them, dear Madam; and may the Hearer and Answerer of prayer grant us answers of peace through Jesus Christ. Last week, also, my dear husband was out three nights, and each night some of my girls came to help in the hall to keep me company. The first night, two of my other girls and I had a long conversation; and a third girl, one of our congregation, but not in the school, having learnt to read in my morning class, was with us. She is, I trust, a pious girl, and is a candidate for baptism. When one of them had read a chapter, and I had just asked the last-mentioned girl, Anna Marial, to pray, two of the widows from the almshouses came in to see us and joined us. Anna Marial prayed in such a manner as pleased and delighted me. She is a very modest girl, and I was therefore much surprised that she was able thus freely to commit herself to God in prayer before others. I know she is in the habit of having family prayer with her poor ignorant parents, who, I fear, are far from God. After she had concluded, we conversed a little with the widows, one of whom has joined the church and is a very pious woman, and the other confessed such grátitude to God for having brought her here, and given her an opportunity to learn to read his holy word as well as to hear it preached, as would have melted your heart. She is the young widow I told you of, who had had her property taken away by her heathen relatives because she had no son living, but only daughters. She sought a refuge in ore of your almshouses, while she pleaded her cause in the court; and after a most tedious trial,-having had to walk forty miles and back, several times, to Trevandrum, and live there an unprotected widow for days,-it has been decided in her favour, and she has now taken possession. But she seems as though she could not bear to leave us. She is quite a young woman, but has buried five scns, and if these sons had not been taken away she would have

aries by Drs. Yates and Carey. We have Tamul grammars by Ziegenbalg and Rhenius; the Malayalim dictionary and grammar by Mr. Bailey of Cottayam; a Gujurati grammar by Mr. Clarkson of Baroda; and a Singhalese grammar by Mr. Chater of Colombo. Of other languages we are unable to speak, but doubt not that many such efforts have been made in them likewise.

SCRIPTURE TRANSLATIONS.

"Their great work, however, in this direction, has been THE TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE, a work, which ranks first in importance among the agencies employed for India's conversion. Besides the numerous Serampore versions, including thirty translations of the whole, or parts of the Bible into Indian tongues-and which, however good for a beginning, and however useful in powerfully directing attention to the greatness of the object, are acknowledged to be unfit, for standard use-apart from the great products of these mighty minds, we have translations of the whole Bible into the following languages, carefully revised during the last twenty years. There are versions into Hindustani or Urdu, and Hindui; into Bengali and Uriya; into Tamul and Singhalese; into Canarese and Malayalim; into Mahrati and Gujurati. We have ten versions of the entire Bible-not first attempts by scholars at a distance, but the work of ripe years, by Missionaries, who were constantly in intercourse with the people for whom the versions were intended. The complete New Testament has been similarly revised, and published in five languages; viz., in Assamese, by the American Missionaries; in Telugu, with much of the Old Testament, at Vizagapatam; in Tulava, by the Mangalore Missionaries; and in the ancient languages of India, the Sanskrit and Pali. Besides these again, we have a gospel or two published in four languages, spoken by the barbarous hill tribes; in Santal, Lepcha, Khassia, and the Tankari of Koteghur. Translations have also been commenced in the Punjabi. Thus are the civilized Hindus and Mussalmans of all India and Ceylon enabled to read in their own tongues the wonderful words of God, clearly and intelligibly set forth. The value of such a book who shall declare? How many years of thoughtful labour are concen

trated in this small library of Bibles! How many millions of immortal minds will draw from it the streams of instruction, which shall convince the sinner, make the Christian grow in grace, comfort the sad, rebuke the backslider, warn all of hell, point all to heaven. Had Missionaries done nothing else but prepare these excellent versions, incalculable good would have been effected. Apart from all good to the natives, they have lightened the labours of their successors, and given them an immediate entrance to their work, for which the first Missionaries long sighed. This is an effect of past Missionary labour, which it will take a long time to develop fully. As an illustration, we quote a passage from the letter of a Ceylon Missionary, on lately receiving Mr. Percival's beautiful translation of the Tamul Bible:

"For several years all the Tamul Scriptures, which I obtained, were some half-adozen copies of the Serampore edition of the New Testament, and one copy of the Tranquebar edition of the Old Testament by Fabricius, the printing of which was so bad as to be scarcely legible. What a pleasing contrast to that state of things does our present supply of Tumul Scriptures exhibit! Now we have the whole of the Old and New Tesments beautifully printed and bound in one volume. We have it also in parts of almost every form and size suitable for distribution among the people, and for the use of our numerous schools.'

CHRISTIAN BOOKS AND TRACTS.

"The translation of the Bible constitutes but one portion of the results of Missionary labour in the native languages. In all the languages above mentioned, Missionaries have prepared a small library of Christian books, to explain and enforce the truths which the Bible teaches. In each of the chief languages, they have prepared from twenty to fifty tracts, suitable for Hindus and Mussulmans, exposing the errors of their systems, and urging the claims of the Bible upon their attention. A few books and tracts also have been similarly published for the instruction of native Christians. In almost all these languages we find translations of the Pilgrim's Progress; the Holy War; Doddridge's Rise and Progress; and similar works. We have books on the Evidences of Christianity;

on the doctrines and duties of the Bible: exposures of Hinduism and Muhammadanism; and in Tamul, an exposure of the errors of Popery. There is also a goodly collection of vernacular school books, Instructors, Readers, books of Bible history, and the like. Christian and Papist, Hindu and Mussulman, will find in every language of this land useful instruction in the gospel of Christ: and the stores of knowledge thus opened are enlarging every year. A fresh impetus has been given to these efforts only recently, by the proceedings of the Calcutta Tract Society; the Madras Society has followed it up; and there is every probability of two very extensive Christian libraries being rapidly formed in the Tamul and Bengali languages, containing numerous standard works thoroughly adapted to the people who use them.

MISSION PRESSES.

"There is one circumstance, which greatly contributes to the production of these native works, and in connection with which Missionary Societies have not, perhaps, received that meed of praise which is their due; we refer to the establishment of Mission Presses. At the present time there are no less than twenty-five printing establishments, in connection with Missionary stations in India: and it is from the facilities they furnish for producing tracts and books, as well as from the liberal donations of the English and American Bible and Tract Societies, that Missionaries have been able to publish so much for the instruction of this country. Not only directly, but indirectly, have they promoted the extension of information through. out India. This example, and that of their countrymen, engaged in the periodical press, have led the natives likewise to import presses for themselves; and at the present time, in the Presidencies of Bengal and Agra, there are no less than fifty-four presses belonging to natives, engaged in printing vernacular works or publishing newspapers and magazines.

Of these, twenty-six are in Calcutta.

MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE.

"Missionary literature does not stop here. Indian Missionaries have done much towards drawing the attention of the Christian world to the claims of Hindustan upon their sympathies and prayers. Many of our country

men engaged in Government employ have described its scenery, its productions, its history, its resources, and the social life of the Europeans, that reside within its borders. But to Missionaries are we indebted for full accounts of the religious systems professed by its people; of their religious rites, their religious errors, and their social condition; of the character of their priesthood, their caste system, their debasing idolatry, the ignorance and vice which everywhere prevail, and the great difficulties in the way of the people's conversion. While but three or four such works describe the religious condition of China, or of the South Sea islands, or South Africa, or the West Indies, we can name at least thirty works written about India by Missionaries, or containing the lives of Missionaries who have died in the country. These works embody an immense amount of information respecting the natives of India, and fully illustrate the attempts which have been made to spread Christianity among them. Neither are these of an inferior kind, por written by inferior men. They include works by the Serampore Missionaries; by Dr. Duff, and Dr. Wilson of Bombay; the works of Messrs. Weitbrecht, Long, Wilkinson, Buyers, Leupolt, and Smith, on Missions in the Presidency of Bengal: those of Messrs. Peggs, Sutton, and Noyes, on Orissa; those of Messrs. Campbell, Hoole, Hardey, and Smith, on the Missions of South India; and the admirable work of Mr. Arthur, published not long since. They include the Memoirs of Carey, Schwartz, and Rhenius, the Sketches' of Mr. Fox, and the 'Journals' of Henry Martyn. Shall we pause to describe the usefulness of these valuable contributions to the Missionary literature of our Missionary age?

"Missionaries also maintain several English periodicals, descriptive of their work and its details. Of these two monthly periodicals, and one quarterly, are published at Madras; two at Bombay; and four in Calcutta. These have been most useful in recording the difficulties and encouragements of Indian Missionary life, in developing the experience of friends, and meeting the calumnies of opponents. Two of them have existed twenty years, and contain a vast accumulation of useful information."