if few, go together, or if several, in two parties to the villages agreed upon before starting. They as a rule begin this work as soon as possible after daybreak, that is about half-past six or seven, and return at twelve or one or two o'clock, according to the distances to be traversed. From two or three to five villages may be visited in this way every morning. After that they have leave till four or half-past four in the afternoon, to take their meals and rest a little. At half-past four the evening preaching commences, and lasts till seven or eight o'clock, as occasion offers. N.B.-(3) The preaching in the district is always alternated with the singing of bhajans, or Native Christian hymns, set to Native tunes-this way of preaching has been found very useful and acceptable to the people, especially in the villages, who are very fond of this kind of music, and often ask for another bhajan before the preachers leave. After the Gurhmuktesur mela it was found that people in villages quite in another direction from Meerut still remembered words and lines of bhajans sung at the mela, and asked to have them sung again and the words repeated to them. Next let us see Mr. Hermann Hoernle's account of his Wednesday evening open-air service, which appears to be a new plan : A kind of evangelistic open-air service has been commenced and conducted regularly every Wednesday evening. The whole Christian staff of the Mission (except those who live at too great a distance to come in), the missionary, the catechists and readers, as well as all the Christian teachers in the schools, assemble on this evening at one common place. We have fixed upon four conveniently situated places in four different parts of the town of Meerut, so situated that crowds can easily assemble without obstructing the traffic, and where we have space enough to put up a small shamiana. These four places we occupy by turns, in an established order, one Wednesday here, the other there, and so on. The preaching, all the year round, commences just a little before sunset, and continues for about three hours. The Christian boys living in the boardinghouse, who belong to the church choir, are also always present, so that with their co-operation we vary the preaching by singing hymns and Native bhajans. The usual order for the conduct of these open-air services is this. On Wednesday mornings the hymns to be sung and the names of those who have to give addresses (generally four or five at one evening) are given out by the missionary. At the appointed time in the evening, which varies according to the season, all being present under the shamiana, we sing the first hymn or chant, then we have a short introductory prayer, then another hymn, after which In the cold weather, the days being short, we commence at five o'clock, in the hot weather as late as half-past six or at seven o'clock. the preacher, first on the list, gets up to address the audience assembled. And thus we continue, singing and preaching by turns, until the number of preachers on the list is exhausted, when the meeting is concluded again by a short prayer, and after the blessing and the final hymn we all disperse to our homes. These evangelistic services were introduced, because a kind of stirring up appeared to be necessary, both for preachers and hearers. It was thought good for the people to attend sometimes a preaching somewhat different from the common way of preaching in the bazaars, whilst a change in their everyday routine would be useful for the preachers themselves. By being thus brought together once a week they would feel encouraged in their work. And by hearing each other's addresses and by noticing the way in which each of them was accustomed to speak and to expound the word, they might have an opportunity for improving themselves. As to our audience, the result hitherto has been encouraging, at any rate in this respect, that we have always had a good number of people to hear us. The singing is evidently a great attraction, and a good advertisement at the same time. The people, in their way, are very fond of music, and no doubt many are induced by the sound of the singing to come and to listen. Many of these stay to hear also the next following address, after which, perhaps, the expectation of another song makes them remain a little while longer. The time for this kind of preaching, namely, that it commences just a little before sunset, was fixed thus advisedly, for two reasons. The first is that M the ordinary preaching is carried on, generally, in the morning, and in the afternoon or evening before sunset. It follows that numbers of such as are at their work during the day, in the fields, the workshops, or are otherwise employed, can but rarely be reached by the preacher. Hence it was thought that by having these Wednesday preachings at another time, viz., from sunset till late in the evening, many of those who during the day, perhaps, had no opportunity or leisure to hear, might be induced to listen. The other reason for choosing this late hour was that in Meerut, as in other places, there are amongst the multitude of apparently indifferent people, some who like Nicodemus of old, might come to "Jesus by night," though they would not come by day. They are timid souls, who do not care to be recognized in the light of the day, amongst the listeners to the street preacher; or respectable people, who from false shame keep away; or women who do not venture, during the day, to be seen on their housetops. There can be no doubt, that, by means of these late out-door meetings, the ordinary preaching work is profitably supplemented. There is also this advantage connected with them, that they are conducted at a fixed place, at a fixed time, and invariably on the same day again of the week, so that if there be any who wish to attend again, they can always ascertain when the preaching will be again at the same place. impressed favourably. As to opposition and contradiction, the writer considers it the next best thing to acceptance. It is certainly better by far than the stolid apathy or contemptuous indifference one so often meets with, as if the preacher was scarcely worth hearing, or was to be pitied as a half-crazy, odd sort of man, whose fancy for bawling in the streets must be borne with, though it is a nuisance. Where there is opposition, and objections are raised, and moulvies and pandits are brought forward to refute us, it will be a sign that men's minds are not indifferent, but that their hearts are stirred. Even if they be for the present excited by hostile feelings, and the desire to confound and put to shame the hated Christian, yet the very fact of their finding it necessary to oppose and to contradict, proves the power of the Gospel message. Besides, in order to oppose efficiently and to some profitable purpose, some will be forced to read and investigate our books, and to consider our arguments diligently and searchingly. And who knows whether the end in some cases may not be to turn an enemy into a friend, to make a Paulus of a Saulus! On the other hand many have evidently been impressed favourably. Some of these are seen to attend very regularly, when the preaching is in their neighbourhood; others remain all the time, from beginning to end, listening with more or less attention; others have come afterwards to say that the Native tunes which we sing at these occasions, and the words, please them very much, and that they would like to have copies of them to take home. Whether these special endeavours will bear any direct results in the shape of converts (baptisms) stands, of course, in God's hands. This much, however, is certain, that these Wednesday preachings have not been without their effects on many people. Some have been roused to opposition, others have been To which is appended a list of these List of united preachings on Wednesday evenings: *At the late Nauchandi Mela two or three Moulvies were called by telegraph from Delhie to come and stop the mouths of the Christian preachers by opposition preaching. services for six months : : Subjects of Addresses. How can we do God's will? Consider your ways. Holiness, without which no man can see God. Why do we preach Christ and always Christ and nothing but Christ? True peace, what is it? How can it be obtained? The Divine question to Adam: Where art thou? No. of Hearers. Date 1878. 9th October Place. 16th do. Govt. School 150-170 150-200 23rd do. Ch. Miss. School 200 6th Nov. Medl. Hall Press 100 13th do. Govt. School 120 Subjects of Addresses. God's physical and moral laws, as such, immutable in their consequences; only His Grace in Christ can save us from the sinner's doom. God recognizes only two divisions amongst men, believers and unbelievers, forgiven and unforgiven, saved and lost. To which do you belong? Recapitulation of previous addresses. God's will and law, the same for all men and countries. God rewards all his children, but not all in this life. Everything should be used for spiritual progress. Do not neglect God's loving-kindness. The true God does not hate but seeks the lost. A new year, a new year of grace, a new year of We cannot of course go on extracting at this rate. But a paragraph about the Native Christian Evangelical Association, which is assisted by the Henry Venn Fund, will interest our readers : D.-The Native Christian Evangelical Association. A sign of religious life and activity in the congregation is the continued existence of this Association and the support it receives from its members. The two objects for which it was started about four years ago are still kept in view and acted upon, viz., that one part of its funds be used for charitable purposes, the other for spreading the knowledge of the Gospel by means of a preacher or preachers appointed for the purpose. This latter object was practically realized last year by the engagement of a catechist. Since then the Home Committee of the Church Missionary Society have commenced to assist the Association by a monthly grant from the Henry Venn Memorial Fund. Subjoined is an extract from the Report of the Association, which will show more clearly the kind of work done by their evangelist, and what the financial status of the Association is. With regard to the preacher they write: He has been nine months in the service of the Association. During the week he was to go twice a day to preach in the bazaar. Upon the whole people hear him well and ... pay him more attention than they do usually. He has also been out three times to preach in the district. His first tour-a short one-he made with the head catechist here. They visited about eighteen towns and villages and preached the Gospel to about 900 people. The second time he went to his native place. He was there for more than a week, discussing the chief points of Christianity, with his relatives, and delivering the good news at a number of houses. The last tour was the longest, and extended over more than 100 miles. In this itineration he went with several Mission agents, and a little after Mr. Hærnle himself joined them. They had the Ganges fair at Gurhmuktesur for their destination. On their way to and from Gurhmuktesur, they visited about eighty-five towns and villages, and preached the message of salvation through Jesus Christ the Lord, to about six or seven thousand souls." There are at present, twenty-six members of this Association, subscribing from one anna per month to Rs. 2. The total amount collected during the past year was Rs. 294: 14, of which sum Rs. 105 has been spent for preaching purposes, and about Rs. 100 in charity, leaving a balance for the current year. This is just a glimpse or two of what a "weak Mission doing. May the Lord God strengthen it continually with His own strength, can do, and is and make it mighty through Him to the pulling down of Satan's strongholds in many hearts! BISHOP FRENCH ON THE LATE REV. G. M. GORDON. [Although so much has already appeared about Mr. Gordon in our pages, we are unwilling that our readers should not see the following "Contributions to an In Memoriam," written by the Bishop of Lahore, and printed in the first instance in the Indian Church Gazette. They are full of most interesting personal details, and highly characteristic of the honoured writer. We should have presented them before, but have been waiting for their completionwhich, however, we have not observed even yet.] E met for the first time in the Rectory of Beddington, sixteen years ago, of which parish the saintly and patriarchal Dr. Marsh was then Rector. Gordon was fresh from his admission to Deacon's orders, Mr. O'Rorke and myself being jointly Senior Curates. Gordon became my fast friend from that time forward. Probably he had already felt a secret drawing towards missionary work; and as I had but just returned in very bad health from my second (too short) campaign in India, and our brotherly intercourse often took the shape of missionary conversation, it is likely enough that vague, indistinct yearnings became definite and unalterable resolves. Yet his quiet, selfpossessed manner, his unpretending humility, his constant devotion of his time to Bible-classes among clownish and untaught rustics, besides the gentle and dignified refinement which much intercourse with persons of rank had cultivated in him, prevented my discovering what was working in his mind; and it was not till after Dr. Marsh's death, some eighteen months after, when he had become Curate of St. Thomas's, Portman Square, that he opened his heart to me on the subject of spending the rest of his life as a missionary. I have by me a photograph of one of his Beddington Bible-classes, in which he sits at a table surrounded by grey-headed barnservants and rough ploughboys, some of whom I remember as having been seals granted to the ministries, lay and clerical (Miss Marsh's not least), which the parish at that time enjoyed in cottage and schoolroom lectures, gatherings and tea-drinkings in the Rectory gardens, addresses in the dininghall of the Old Elizabethan mansion of the Carews (noted for the rich fruitage of its ancient orchard walls, its fish-ponds, elm avenues of royal memories, and velvety turf lawns); above all, in the village church, a fairly graceful and substantial fabric newly erected by the Lord of the Manor. It was about the close of our associated ministry there that I had the privilege of accompanying him to the death-bed of his admirable father, Major Gordon (near Westbourne Terrace), a distinguished M.P., before whom I have been told that even the redoubtable Mr. O'Connell trembled as before no other antagonist in the house. In my friend's early youth, the death of a young sister of rich promise, to whom he was deeply attached, and in whose case a very single-hearted piety shed a lovely bloom over what was otherwise a rare attractiveness of character, had cast over his life a softened, mellow sadness-an "assombrisement," as our neighbours would call it—and I doubt not her memory survived ever fresh and fragrant in his heart. If there was any other secret sorrow buried in his heart that might help to account for the pensive melancholy which was noticeable in him, to myself at least it was never revealed. This in reality was one of the charms of his character: though he seemed at times to attribute it to his never having been at a public school, of which he would speak regretfully, both because it had narrowed the circle of his friends, outside of his own family, and had not fetched out into full development and expansion germs and capacities of heart and mind which in the greater isolation of his boyhood he had been tempted to fold too closely within himself. After about twelve months at St. Thomas's, he offered his services to the Church Missionary Society. The first five years of his missionary life were spent in itinerations with men of apostolic character like himself (David Fenn and others, in S. India), of whose work and character he never spoke but with love and reverence as the most exemplary men of God he had met with. He was exceeded probably by none of them in the endurance of hardness as a good soldier of Christ, journeying incessantly through the towns and villages of his allotted district, in all seasons alike, always on foot, I believe with more "weariness and painfulness" if possible, than even a St. Aidan or a Carlo Borromeo-sheltering himself from the inclemency of the elements (if at least his earlier life truly foreshadowed his later) in the smallest and meanest of tents. Even my friend's stalwart nature succumbed at length to this drain and exhaustion of physical powers, and ever-recurring fevers. The result was that he was forced to resign his South Indian charge. For some two or three years he sought relaxation and recovery of strength by almost worldwide travel, for which his ample means furnished abundant material. Australia, New Zealand, China and Egypt (I believe), later on the Holy Land and Persia, and the ancient Chaldea, were all visited and traversed; and all modern and ancient traces of the work of Christ and His Church, whether Miss Whately's in Cairo, Bruce's in Persia, or (probably) Le Père Besson's in Baghdad, were observantly and practically studied. It was in 1869, or early in 1870, that Mr. Gordon was constrained to abandon his work in S. India. It was clear that the climate of the Madras Presidency, and his incessant hazardous exposures of himself in all weathers, had for the time undermined his constitution seriously; and a course of foreign travel, with a short visit to England, gave the best promise of restoring his shattered health. He was anxious in the midst of his other journeys to visit the North Indian Missions, and especially to spend a few days in Lahore. But a serious illness had detained me in Dharmsala, and the doctors forbade his proceeding further north than Allahabad; so for that time we had the disappointment of not being suffered to meet, which was all the more to be regretted as he had taken the deepest interest from the first in the Lahore Divinity School, which I was then, with the strenuous co-operation of friends in India and at home, trying to establish. My honoured and singularly accomplished friend, John Knott, of B. N. Coll., Oxford, and Vicar of East Ham, a more than embryo apostle already, a chosen follower and ally of the elder Mr. Aitken, had just succumbed to what a cold criticism could call indiscreet and intemperate zeal at Peshawar, in the service of the British soldier and the Moslem of the frontier. To those who never saw Martyn and Carey, it is an unspeakable privilege to have been associated with men like Knott, Gordon, and Dr. Pfanderand a very few others, passed away or living, whom I must refrain from dwelling upon here-on whom, in the truest and fullest sense, their mantle fell. No Christian evidences, after Christ Himself, can come up to the evidence supplied by the life and character of such men, in whom the sacrifice of Calvary, and the Resurrection life of Christ, are reproduced and revived. To the original cost of the grounds and buildings Mr. Gordon had contributed several hundred pounds; and several hundred pounds more are lying in Lahore banks, awaiting the day that a sufficiency of funds will warrant the erection of a college chapel. |