صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني
[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][merged small]

canoe, pretty and clean, to carry me to Metlakahtla about 12 miles up the coast. Five young men paddled; but since I had learnt to manage a paddle, we together made six. I could tell they were proud to have such a passenger-the men that they passed on the way were told who I was, and immediately all their hats were respectfully taken off.

My companions at my request sang first in Tsimshean, "There is a happy land"; and secondly, in English, "Whosoever will may come." In the latter I was able to join them. The singing of these hymns quite refreshed me. I saw that this is the fruit which God would give me if I was faithful to my work; these are the happy results which follow the leaving of one's country for Christ and His Gospel. The men sang so earnestly, that I felt they realised what they were singing. Three of them lived with Mr. Duncan.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF METLA KAHTLA. What of the work here ? It is marvellous. No "Stranger than Fiction," or any book, I imagine, can adequately set before the world a faithful representation of what Christ has done here.

We have three services on Sunday at eleven A.M., three P.M., and seven P.M.; also on Wednesday evening at seven P.M. David is my interpreter. I write my addresses in short sentences. David sees them before the service, and gives the people my thoughts very correctly. Many of them know English, and so hear my message twice-of course it would be better if I had Mr. Duncan's tongue; but still God has blessed me through my interpreter. The first Sunday I was here, after all the services were over, a man knocked at my door and said the people wanted more "bread." We rang the bell, and 200 people came in quickly. Again, last night, a young man wanted to speak to me alone; to my joy, he told me that himself and two others wanted salvation; he said they were just going to meet in prayer, and would I pray for them? To-day I called at the young man's house, and the three young men were sitting at a table with open Bibles meditating upon the promise, Matt. xxi. 22. Remember, I took them by surprise. All three of them, Mrs. Schutt tells me, have given Mr. Duncan some trouble in the village.

:

Every evening I have a meeting at seven P.M. Monday and Thursday I read "Peep of Day" with several young men. Tuesday: Catechumens. Wednesday Service. Friday: Bible Class. Saturday: Sunday-school Teachers. Yes; we don't play at missionary work out here-all is real, and the people know what the Gospel is, and nothing else will suit them. I am sure many of you would like to stand in my shoes on Sundays. It is a thrilling sight to see a crowded church of sable faces gazing at you with real, piercing Indian eyes. All listen, little boys listen; all sing, even the old women, if the hymn is Tsimshean. We have two hymns or chants at each service, one Tsimshean and one English.

BISHOP CROWTHER: HIS LIFE AND WORK.

I. THE SLAVE-BOY.

FTEN as the story of Samuel Crowther has been told at missionary meetings, there must be many thousands of the readers of the GLEANER who have but very vague ideas respecting it. This story it is now our purpose to relate. Its interest lies not only in its describing the career of a remarkable man-not only in the truly marvellous chain of providential circumstances by which the little Egba slave has become an honoured Missionary Bishop--but still more in the fact that in the history of Samuel Crowther's life is wrapped up the history of the three Missions of the Church Missionary Society in Western Africa-Sierra Leone, Yoruba, and the Niger. We cannot better describe the origin and progress of these three missions than by simply passing in review the life and work of the man who has, in the course of fifty-six years, been so closely connected with all three.

When King George III. died in 1820, there existed in the Yoruba country, about 100 miles inland from what is now the port of Lagos, a town called Oshogun, inhabited by the Egba tribe. This town is not now to be found on the map; but it was some twenty miles from Isehin, which is marked in the map given in the GLEANER of July last. Like many others, it was swept away by the wars which at that time desolated the land. Early in 1821, the warriors of Eyo, a large Foulah town still further inland, who were Mohammedans and men-stealers, attacked Oshogun, utterly destroyed it, and carried the inhabitants into slavery. Among the captives were the wife of an Egba who (it is supposed) fell fighting in defence of his home, and their three children, a boy of eleven years and two younger girls. That boy, Adjai, was the future Bishop of the Niger.

Bound together by cords about their necks, the miserable captives were driven the twenty miles to Isehin, passing on the way the smoking ruins of once flourishing towns and villages. There the spoil was divided; and there little Adjai and his mother and sisters had to bear those pangs of separation which so embitter the sufferings of slavery. The mother and the baby were allotted to the warriors who had captured them; the boy and his other sister fell to the share of the principal chief. The same day Adjai was bartered away by the chief for a horse, but after two months, the horse not suiting, he was again exchanged, and taken to a place called Dadda, where he found his mother and infant sister, and was able at times to see them. For three months he was fairly happy even in his bondage; but then he was sent off in chains to the slave-market at Ijaye to be sold.

During the next few months Adjai was the property in succession of four masters, being bartered generally for tobacco and rum. One dreadful fear haunted him through all these changes, and that was that he would be sold to the "white men "-the Portuguese slave-dealers then on the coast. To avoid this, he at one time purposed to throw himself into the river; and on several occasions he tried to strangle himself with his belt. But an all-seeing Eye was watching over him, and an almighty Hand protecting him; and the very thing he so much dreaded was ordained to be the means of opening out to him a career of liberty and usefulness far beyond his wildest imaginations.

His fourth master brought him to Eko (now Lagos), and sold him to one of the Portuguese who resorted thither for slaves. In trembling terror did the Negro boy feel for the first time the touch of a white hand; but he soon had to feel something worse than that. Iron fetters were fastened on the necks of the slaves, and a long chain passed through them, securing a whole gang together. For four weary months were the poor creatures thus confined in a stifling barracoon or slave-shed; but the chain not being long enough when some more men were brought in, the boys were released and, to their great relief, corded together by themselves. Others were chained in the way represented in the accompanying picture. One night Adjai and his fellow slaves were taken out, conveyed on board a slave-ship, and stowed in the hold.

[merged small][graphic]

A cargo of 187 miserable victims of this shocking system was soon on its way to cross the Atlantic to Cuba or Brazil. But deliverance was at hand. The British squadron, which had not long before been commissioned to cruise off the coast and intercept the slavers, and which, after forty years' vigorous effort, succeeded in putting an end to the seagoing traffic from West Africa altogether, had to be passed; and on the next day after leaving Lagos the ship that bore little Adjai away was captured by one of the men-of-war, H.M.S. Myrmidon. A young officer who took part in that rescue is still alive, and residing in Devonshire; and his son is Lieutenant Shergold Smith, the leader of the Nyanza Mission! Sometimes we are permitted to see the links that make up the wondrous chain of God's providential dealings. Have we ever seen one more touchingly significant than this? The father is engaged in suppressing the slave-trade on one coast of Africa, and helps to deliver a little boy who becomes the great pioneer missionary of that side of the continent; the son is the first messenger of the cross to penetrate Africa from the other side, on a mission, too, which must, if God prosper it, do much to counteract the slave-trade that still desolates that eastern coast.

[subsumed][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

GODOMA CHRISTIANS BAPTIZED AUGUST 22, 1875.
(Photographed by the Rev. W. S. Price.)

THE CHRISTIANS OF GODOMA.

S Mr. Price observed in the GLEANER of November last (p. 130), our East African Mission is not confined to the Freed Slave Settlement at Frere Town. The original design of Krapf and Rebmann, thirty years ago, was to make Mombasa merely the head-quarters of extended evangelistic work among the Wanika and other neighbouring tribes; and it was in order to be in the midst of them that the station of Kisulutini, at Rabbai, fifteen miles from the coast, was established. The visible fruits of Rebmann's lengthened ministry there were but small; but one interesting result has been the planting of a little Wanika Church of living souls at Giriama, in the heart of the country.

The story is a singular one, and illustrates very remarkably the inscrutable providence and sovereign grace of God. Some years ago, a Native servant of Mr. Rebmann's, named Abe Ngoa, who had embraced the Gospel, in a moment of irritation severely wounded his wife, and caused her death. Filled with remorse, he left Kisulutini, and retired to a hut in the forest near his native place, Godoma, a small village in the district of Giriama, and dwelt there alone. One day he met a man who was gathering wood, and spoke to him of the God he had learned to know and serve. This man brought another, and the two persuaded Abe Ngoa to go and live with them and be their teacher. He had nothing but the Gospel of St. Luke in the Wanika language (which Rebmann had taught him to read), and his recollections of his old master's instructions; but the two men, and nine others, soon gave up their superstitious charms and fetishes, and "joined the Book." Some years passed away, and in 1874 Godoma was visited by Mr. Chancellor, who was then in East Africa. He found the little company leading Christian lives as far as their light went, and most anxious for

[graphic]

further teaching. When Mr. Price arrived on the coast, three of them came down to him and asked to be baptized. This he could not do without further knowledge of them; but soon after (June, 1875) he sent to Godoma George David, the Native catechist, who found the number of inquirers increased to thirtyfour. They showed the greatest eagerness to know more of the Gospel, and scarcely allowed him any rest from the work of reading and explaining to them the Scriptures. "It is most encouraging," he wrote to Mr. Price, "to hear these people praying in their huts morning and night, husband and wife praying together for the forgiveness of their sins, and thanking God for His care of them." On Aug. 22nd, 1875, five men and three women, having come down to Kisulutini for the purpose, were publicly admitted into the Church (see the picture); and their baptism was followed, two months later (Oct. 17th), by that of the chief of the community, Abe Sidi, and his wife, who took the names of David and Rachel.

In the following year Mr. Binns paid a visit to Godoma, and baptized ten children; and in July last Mr. Lamb and Captain Russell went there. Mr. Lamb's account was printed in full in the C.M. Intelligencer of December; but we give an extract:—

The Christian settlement is quite detached, and is prettily situated on the slope of a hill which looks towards, but does not sight, the sea. Bush surrounds it, through which there are pretty paths to the farms. These are in beautiful condition, and prove the industry of the people.

We had prayers in the shed used as a church the first night. The next morning (Saturday) I went out early to see if they wanted the church for prayer, and heard a hum in the different houses. On inquiry. at Abe Sidi's, he said that they all had prayer in their different houses before going out to their farms, and then all met in the church for prayer on their return home before sundown, and previous to preparing the evening meal. They most of them stayed at home all this Saturday preparing for Sunday. From 11 to 2.30 I was engaged examining each of the seven candidates for baptism separately. Their answers were very satisfactory. All of them then assembled, and we had prayer. After this the Church members came together, and we explained the Lord's Supper to them, first reading from their Kinika St. Luke, then the passage in 1 Cor. xi. They said they understood its meaning, and that it would give them much joy to have it-that they wanted to do just the things Christ had appointed.

Morning service on Sunday began at eleven with a hymn in Kisuaheli; then George David took the usual Morning Prayer in Kisuaheli, as far as the Venite, which was then repeated by all, clause by clause; then he read John vi. 1-14 in Kisuaheli; then he took the Prayers, beginning at the collect for the day to the end, in Kisuaheli. We sang a hymn, and then Abe Sidi offered prayer in Kinika; then I preached from John iii. 14, 15, George David interpreting in Kinika; then I administered the Communion (in Kisuaheli, beginning at the sentences) to the nine of Godoma already baptized, and four of ourselves. If they had all partaken for years, they could not have done so with more solemnity and propriety than they did.

In the afternoon the dear people assembled under the village tree-a nice large one just in front, a little further down the slope-and there George David was teaching them a Suaheli hymn they wanted to learn, which begins, "I love Thee, my Lord, for Thou hast loved me."

The afternoon service was at four. We had both services at their usual time. It began with the General Confession and the Lord's Prayer. Then we had the Adult Baptismal Service in Kisuaheli. They were the first adult baptisms that have taken place at Godoma. Then we sang the hymn they had been learning under the tree. Then we had the Infant Baptismal Service for four children of those baptized; then the hymn, "Jesus, meek and gentle," was sung in Kisuaheli; then G. David offered prayer, and preached in Kinika from Matt. xxviii., last three verses; then Abe Sidi gave an address. I could not help remarking how well adapted he looked for a preacher. He read a piece from a Kisuaheli book of instruction (part of Genesis i. or ii.) as his subject, and gave a history of God's wonderful dealings in the formation of the Godoma Church, alluding very effectively to the man sitting amongst the audience, still a heathen, who had been the means of leading him first to inquire after the Truth.

Mr. Lamb aptly compares the Giriama Church to a young tree that has sprung from a seed borne from a distant spot by a bird. Certainly it is "the planting of the Lord," and that in no ordinary sense. Will not our readers pray that not only the community as a whole, but each member of it, may be a tree of righteousness, "that He may be glorified"?

EPITOME OF MISSIONARY NEWS.

We rejoice to hear that many of the Society's friends are bestirring themselves to increase its funds. Thus, Tunbridge Wells has raised an extra £1,000 in commemorating its jubilee. St. Margaret's, Brighton, is sending up £1,000 this year instead of its usual £500 or so. The Dean of Carlisle has raised £600 by an appeal to a few friends. Christ Church, Hampstead, made a special offering of £380, and St. Paul's, Brompton, one of £700, in connection with the Day of Intercession; and on that day a £500 note, marked "Answers to Prayer," was put into the plate at Sheffield Parish Church. £1,000 has been given by one friend to prevent the projected diminution of Native agents in North India. In a large rural Association efforts are being made to double all the annual subscriptions.

The Rev. E. C. Stuart has been unanimously elected by the Synod of Waiapu, New Zealand, to the Bishopric of that see, vacant by the retirement of Bishop Williams. It is remarkable that Mr. Stuart and Mr. French (the new Bishop of Lahore) went out together as young C.M.S. missionaries to India in 1850. Mr. Stuart was for some years the Society's Secretary at Calcutta, and was Chaplain to Bishop Cotton. He preached at Westminster Abbey on the first Day of Intercession, 1872; and read a paper on Missions at the Bath Church Congress, 1873.

On the Day of Intercession, November 30th, a Special Service for the C.M.S. Committee and friends was held at St. Dunstan's-in-the-West, at 11 A.M. The Service authorised by the Archbishop was used, and the Holy Communion was administered. Mr. French, the Bishop-designate of Lahore, preached the sermon, which is published in this month's C.M. Intelligencer. A prayer-meeting was also held at the C.M. House.

Lord Dufferin, the Governor-General of Canada, lately described, in a brilliant speech at Winnipeg, the "Great North-West" of British America, its immense territories and mighty rivers and lakes. This vast Dufferin, is the field of the C.M.S. North-West America Mission, in country, which the Times called a "new world" revealed by Lord which there are 15 European missionaries, 11 country-born and Native clergy, and probably 10,000 Native Christian Indians.

We are glad to observe the first results of the affiliation of Fourah Bay College, Sierra Leone, to Durham University. "The Examiners for the First year in Arts have issued the following supplemental list :-N. S. Davis, Fourah Bay College. The Examiners for the First year in Theology have issued the following supplemental list :-D. Brown, Fourah Bay College; S. Hughes, ditto; W. Morgan, ditto; S. Taylor, ditto. A. Plummer, M.A., W. Sanday, M.A., Examiners." The men thus passed are, of course, all Native Africans.

The Institute of France has awarded the Volney Gold Medal for the best linguistic work to the Rev. J. F. Schön, for his Grammar, etc., of the Hausa Language. This is the second time that the prize founded by the famous French infidel has been gained by a C.M.S. missionary; Dr. Koelle having received it some years ago for his Polyglotta Africana.

Three ordinations last year in the Mission field missed being recorded in our pages: viz., those of Mr. B. McKenzie and Mr. P. Bruce (both country-born) by the Bishop of Rupert's Land, and Mr. Joseph Carter (Native, North India) by the Bishop of Calcutta. Mr. McKenzie is now Pastor of Cumberland, on the Saskatchewan River; and Mr. Carter, of the City Church, Benares. Mr. Bruce is working at Red River.

Lieut. Sanders, R.N., of H.M.S. Fawn has written to the Society warmly commending Mr. Chancellor's Industrial Institution in the Seychelles Islands, which he has lately visited.

Mr. W. Harris, who was at Mombasa some time when Mr. Price was there, has gone out again to take charge of Kisulutini.

Bishop Crowther's steamer, now building by Messrs. Löbnitz & Co. at Renfrew, has not been delayed by the lock-out on the Clyde. At a time when not a man was working on several large steamers in the same yard, men were found willing to complete the missionary ship.

An Abeokuta Christian writes to the Rev. H. Townsend :-" My sister, whom I redeemed from slavery when you were here, and eight of her relatives, some of whom were baptized last year, and the rest candidates for baptism, were taken and sold by the Ibadans, and all their property carried away." Mr. Townsend, in sending this to us, adds, "The writer, once a slave, redeemed himself and mother and sister with other relatives, and will now have to set to work to redeem as many as he can find again." The Native Christians of Kotghur and Peshawar, in the extreme North of India, have sent 100 rupees and 35 rupees respectively for the relief of their famine-stricken brethren in South India. "Surely," writes the Rev. D. Fenn, "God's blessing will rest on those who out of their deep poverty have thought of their fellow Christians 2,000 miles away." The Mission at Leke, of which Mr. Hinderer laid the foundations last year, is progressing most hopefully. Mr. J. B. Read, an English catechist and schoolmaster, is now stationed there, and finds much encouragement in large congregations, many candidates for baptism, and the general goodwill of the people. Twelve persons were baptized lately by the Rev. J. A. Maser; and the Ifa priest or babalawo, referred to in the GLEANER of February last (p. 20), has become a decided Christian.

[ocr errors]

THE CHURCH MISSIONARY GLEANER.

VINEYARD WORK.

FEBRUARY, 1878.

Thoughts for those Engaged in Christ's Service. BY THE REV. G. EVERARD, Vicar of St. Mark's, Wolverhampton.

II. PREPARATION FOR SERVICE.

[ocr errors]

go

for

"Then said I, Here am I; send me."-Isa. vi. 8. HENCE comes this hearty response to the Lord's appeal, "Whom shall I send, and who will us ? It is the fruit of pardoning mercy. The prophet has seen a vision of the Lord sitting on His throne. He has heard the cry of the Seraphim, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts." In the Lord's presence he has seen his own exceeding vileness, "Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips." But he has learnt more. He has found the comfort of full forgiveness; the atoning sacrifice has been applied; sin has been put away; the live coal has touched his lips; a message from the King has assured him of acceptance-" Thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged." Then comes the glad and willing selfconsecration, "Behold me!" (as in the margin). "Look upon me as Thine. I am ready to do Thy bidding, to run Thine errands, and go whithersoever Thou shalt send me."

[ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors]

Imagine the younger son on the morning after the welcome, and the kiss, and the feast. It may be the Father calls him to work in the field. How joyfully would he do his utmost, that he might give some token of his gratitude!

Even so must I do my Father's will as a pardoned, reconciled child. Not with a doubting, burdened spirit, but rejoicing in everlasting redemption in Christ, must I do my appointed work. The joy of the Lord must be my strength. The new song must be in my lips. His free love must be as melody in my heart.

Through the Spirit's grace I would ever be ready to confess the spot and the stain upon the garment, but I must bring it at once to the cross of Christ in humble faith. I must abide ever more beneath the shelter of His atoning sacrifice. Thus shall I ever go forth to my work in the spirit of thankfulness and praise. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, and healeth all thy diseases.'

[ocr errors]

THE TRIDENT, THE CRESCENT, AND THE CROSS. Gleanings from Vaughan's Religious History of India.

II. EARLY HINDUISM.

[ocr errors]

T the very time," remarks Mr. Vaughan, "that King David was composing the 8th Psalm, When I consider Thy heavens the work of Thy hands,' &c., and the 19th Psalm, The heavens declare the glory of God,' &c., thousands of Hindu sages, gazing on the same firmament, were pouring forth devout strains in adoration of the deity which they saw therein." The Psalmist, divinely taught, rose in thought from the heavens to Him who created them. The Vedic poet, with his unaided human intellect, could only deify the sky itself. Probably Dyaus, heaven, was the earliest object of worship among the original Hindus. Then came Aditi, space, and then Mitra and Varuna, representing the sky by day and the sky by night.

The beauty and mysteriousness of the starry heavens caused Varuna to receive the most fervent worship, as we see from some fine passages in the Atharva-Veda (the latest of those sacred books). Here is one, which reminds us of another Psalmthe 139th:

The mighty Varuna, who rules above, looks down
Upon these worlds, his kingdom, as if close at hand.
When men imagine they do aught by stealth, he knows it.
No one can stand, or walk, or softly glide along,
Or hide in dark recess, or lurk in secret cell,
But Varuna detects him and his movement spies.
Whoe'er should flee

Far, far beyond the sky, would not escape the grasp
Of Varuna the King.

One cannot but sadly admire such poetry; but how different are Addison's familiar lines :

[blocks in formation]

In reason's ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious voice;
For ever singing, as they shine,

"The Hand that made us is Divine!"

Varuna's reign, however, did not last. The worship of gods many and lords many having begun, their numbers constantly multiplied. The wind, the fire of heaven (sun and lightning), the rain and dew, must each become a god; and these ideas once afloat, the people naturally paid most attention to the deities whose forces were supposed to injure or to help the worshipper. We know from the sad experience of the recent famine that the prosperity-the very life of India depends upon the rainfall, and that a serious drought means thousands of deaths by starvation. It has always been so; and, therefore, it was natural that the prayers and hymns of the early Hindus should be addressed most of all to Indra, the god of rain. Sometimes for days and weeks millions of longing eyes are watching every motion of the heavy clouds, which continually seem about to fall, and yet do not fall. The early Hindus conceived that hostile demons were hindering the beneficent downpour, and the Vedas describe Indra's victory over them in lines which, says Mr. Vaughan, most vividly describe the storm when at length it bursts upon the thirsty plains:—

Vainly the demons dare thy might; in vain
Strive to deprive us of thy watery treasures.
Earth quakes beneath the crashing of thy bolts.
Pierced, shattered, lies the foe-his cities crushed,
His armies overthrown, his fortresses
Shivered to fragments; then the pent-up waters,
Released from long imprisonment, descend
In torrents to the earth; and swollen rivers,
Foaming and rolling to their ocean home,
Proclaim the triumph of the Thunderer.

Another important deity was Yama, the god of death. He was said to have been the first man who died, and after death to have become ruler of the world of spirits, to which he welcomed the righteous from among men. "Let him," says the Vedas, "who desires heaven offer sacrifice," and it is remarkable that, among so gentle a race as the early Hindus evidently were, even human sacrifices seem to have prevailed.

But the Hindus were not only a religious people, but also great philosophers. It would not be possible to explain their

*These extracts are from the translations in Professor Monier Williams's Indian Wisdom. It must not be supposed, however, that such picked extracts are a fair sample of the Vedas as a whole. Professor Monier Williams himself says that they "abound more in puerile ideas than in striking thoughts and lofty conceptions" (Hinduism, p. 31).

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed]

HANUMAN ANNOUNCING TO RAMA HIS WIFE SITA'S HONOURABLE ACQUITTAL FROM THE FIERY ORDEAL.
(From a Hindu Picture.)

speculations intelligibly here, nor is it at all necessary. One,
however, may be mentioned for the sake of a story Mr. Vaughan
tells in connection with it. There was an idea that, after all,
nothing in this world is real; that we are not living beings, but
only fancy ourselves to be so. This particularly pleasant doc-
trine still prevails widely in India, and, indeed, is by no means
unknown among
"thinkers" even in civilised Europe. Mr.
Vaughan says that he has frequently been interrupted when
preaching in the bazaar by some clever pundit (learned teacher)
calling out, "But, Sahib, don't you know it's all maya (illusion)?
The dreamer feels all to be real that passes through his mind in
his sleep, but we know it is all illusion; and so it is with us."
How shall such a remark be answered? A missionary brother,
says Mr. Vaughan, listened quietly, and made no reply, but sud-
denly snatched the pundit's umbrella out of his hand and walked
off with it. The indignant pundit pursued him. "But it's all
maya," pleaded the missionary, "both the umbrella and my
seizing it." The pundit, however, insisted that the abduction
was real; and the amused crowd saw at once the absurdity of
his doctrine of maya.

Although some of the old philosophy has lasted through the three
thousand years, it is not so with the family and social customs
of the early Hindus. Very different is the picture presented of
them in the Vedas from what may now be seen in India. What
caste is now we shall see in a future chapter; in primitive times
there was no such thing. The contrast is also very striking with
regard to the position of women. A Hindu gentleman who has
been converted to Christianity thus describes what it is now :-
"The daughters of India are unwelcomed at their birth, untaught
in childhood, enslaved when married, accursed as widows." Mr.

Vaughan draws a beautiful picture of what it was then. There
were no infant marriages, no strict rules of seclusion, no poly-
gamy, no suttee (burning of the living wife with the dead hus-
band), no prohibition of the marriage of widows.
"Hindu
wives," he observes, "are depicted as models of domestic purity
and simplicity." The heroines of the great poems, Sita, Drau-
padi, Damayanti, "as women and wives, are painted in almost
perfect colours. Indeed," he adds, "we know of no other pic-
ture anywhere of surpassing excellence, except it be that of the
virtuous wife in the Book of Proverbs." One of the poems, the
Mahabharat, thus describes a wife :-

A wife is half the man, his truest friend ;-
A loving wife is a perpetual spring
Of virtue, pleasure, wealth; a faithful wife
Is his best aid in seeking heavenly bliss;
A sweetly-speaking wife is a companion

In solitude, a father in advice,

A mother in all seasons of distress,

A rest in passing through life's wilderness.

From those comparatively virtuous and happy times there has been a terrible falling away, as we shall see in future chapters, and it is the Gospel only that can bring back to India the "times of the restitution of all things," and a blessedness never dreamed of even in its best days.

NOTE.-The above engraving is from a Hindu picture representing a scene in the classic epic poem called the Ramayana, of which Sita, one of the female heroines alluded to by Mr. Vaughan, is the chief female character. After Sita is rescued by her husband Rama from the clutches of Ravana, she has to go through an ordeal by fire to prove her unsullied virtue; and the picture represents her emerging unhurt from the flames. The result is announced to Rama by his faithful ally Hanuman, the monkey-god, whose followers are seen welcoming the triumphant queen.

« السابقةمتابعة »