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WANDERED far off on the mountains so cold,
Away from my Shepherd, away from His fold;
But His heart yearning o'er me with tenderest love,
To seek and to save me He came from above.

He sought me, He found me, and brought to His fold;
The half of His tenderness cannot be told;

He feeds me, and guides me, and lest I should stray,
Has promised to keep me by night and by day.
His sheep hear His voice, and they follow Him too,
And ask Him what things He would have them to do.
He answers-oh! let us attend and obey !—

"I have yet other sheep' who in darkness still stray;
"They are dear to My heart, for them also I died,
But still they are wandering far from My side.
They know not of Me, or they gladly would come
And find Me their Shepherd, My sale fold their home.
"O sheep of My pasture, and do ye not care

To bring in these wanderers, your blessings to share?
I have laid down My life, because I must bring,'
Will not ye go and tell of your Shepherd and King?
"Oh, wherefore spend money for what is not bread,
When thousands are starving, whom ye might have fed?
Oh, wherefore spend labour for that which is nought,
When other sheep' wander, whom ye might have brought ?"
Lord! we too have "strayed from Thy ways like lost sheep,"
But help us henceforth Thy commandments to keep;
Give us "largeness of heart," give us love, Blessed Lord,
To seek Thy lost sheep, both at home and abroad.
Give wisdom, give patience, give all that we need;
To Thy guiding voice may we ever take heed;
Then, crown Thou our labours as Thou seest best,
Till with Thee for ever Thy "one flock" shall rest!

TEN WEEKS IN INDIA.

A. J. M.

Extracts from Letters to my Children during a Winter Tour.
BY THE REV. E. H. BICKERSTETH, M.A.,
-Vicar of Christ Church, Hampstead.

IV.

BISHOPSTOW, LAHORE, January 4, 1881. T Amritsar the Rev. R. Bateman's servant met us, and we got into one of their Native carriages in the dark, and the horse again and again refused to go. However, at last we drove through the gates of the old wall and reached the City Mission-house. As I gave the driver a rupee (four annas too much) he was furiously clamorous for more-their way! We found a bright fire and hot tea, and got to bed for two or three hours, and I came down at 8 o'clock to their Native Church Council, which met under the Revs. R. Clark and R. Bateman. Some twenty-seven Native converts were present, men of high intelligence, and many of them of high position, for at Amritsar the Gospel has conquered men of rank. It was the most striking result of Christian Missions I have yet seen. The Rev. R. Clark would have me address them twice through interpreters. Afterwards we drove down to the Golden Temple of the Sikhs. Their worship is a mixture of Hinduism and Islamism-no idol in the temple, but a great book (Grunth) covered with a cloth, before which they make offerings of flowers, fruit, and money. Some rude music was kept up all the time. We had to take off our shoes and wear slippers before we crossed the marble bridge leading to the temple, which is built in the midst of a great tank. We also

saw the large Mission schoolroom for boys (200), two orphanages for boys and girls, the Alexandra School-a noble institutionfor Christian girls of high caste; most of them were away for their Christmas holidays, but some eight or nine were theresuch bright, intelligent girls. I spoke to them of the inscription in the Lollard Tower, Lambeth-Jesus Amor meus. The whole Mission station is full of life.

At 4 o'clock we left for Lahore, Mr. Clark and Mr. Weitbrecht with us in the train. Bishop French met us at the station, and drove us and Archdeacon Matthew to Bishopstow in his carriage. The next morning, Dec. 29, the Synod began with early service-Holy Communion and part of the Bishop's charge in the ProCathedral. At 11 o'clock we met, some fifty of us, in a large tent opposite the palace door. The Bishop's opening address was quite apostolic. I then read my paper on the Christian ambassador. My second paper was delayed till the evening, in the Lawrence Hall; it was on the love of Christ and the love of His appearing. Edward read a very thoughtful paper on the spirit of Jesus Christ. The next day began with Holy Communion in St. Andrew's. The subjects of the Synod were very varied, such as, (1) Study of the Lessons other than in Church services; (2) Hill schools; (3) Lay ministrations; (4) The Cathedral; (5) Medical Missions; (6) Mohammedan controversy; (7) Sustained theological reading. All was full of interest. On Friday we began with the Communion (in Urdu) in the Divinity School Chapel; it was so striking to see some twenty clergy mingling with some thirty Native communicants. The Synod was closed at night by a meeting in the Lawrence Hall, at which I spoke on "Woman's special and most useful work in India," a subject the Bishop assigned me; though I felt great scruple in taking it, still I hope a word was given me. It was solemn speaking to Mission labourers in the closing hours of the year. Oh that the verse we have chosen as our watchword may be graven on our heart and life, "For me to live is Christ"! On Saturday afternoon we went to the Shalamar Durbar in the old royal gardens, four miles from Lahore-a garden of fountains of waters, which looked so pretty with the throng of Native gentlemen in gorgeous costumes. At night Mr. Shireff and Mr. Weitbrecht invited some sixty of the Native converts. The Bishop sat amongst them as if they were his children, and would have me speak to them while they ate sweetmeats, &c.

On Sunday morning I preached in the magnificent church at Mian Mir, the military station (they say the finest church in India), to nearly 1,000 soldiers of the 8th Regiment, the King's Own, and a battery of artillery corps, and in the evening at the Pro-Cathedral on "Go speak to the people all the words of this life." The Pro-Cathedral is an old Mohammedan tomb, built in memory of a dancing girl. Is it not time there should be a Christian edifice? On Monday I attended the Missionary Conference for two hours, and then the Bishop drove us to the Fort, the tomb of Runjeet Singh, and the Great Mosque, where the Moslem Commissioner told us two thousand had been praying that afternoon for Lord Ripon, as they felt so deep a regard for him, seeing the Government had helped them to rebuild their

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Since I wrote last from Lahore we have travelled in peace and safety, embraced with mercy on every side, more than 1,300 miles. On Tuesday afternoon, January 4, at Lahore, Bishop French had a large party of Eurasian children whom he would have me address after their games and feast, so I made an acrostic on the name of his palace, Bishopstow, and said a few sentences to them on each letter, which seemed greatly to delight them. B-beloved; I-industrious; S-sunny; Hhopeful; O-obedient; P-peaceable; S-saintly; T-trustful; 0-onward; and W-watchful. I told them it was the secret of a happy life dug up at Bishopstow. In the evening we

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started for Benares. We had a smooth night, and awoke the next morning near Umballa to find all the lower ranges of the Himalayas in clear view, with their glorious snows glowing in the sunlight. We kept them in view for two hours, and I confess it satisfied many longings of my heart at last to have seen "the ancient Himalays." We journeyed on all the second night in the same comfortable carriage, and kind Mr. Hackett, Edward's friend, the C.M.S. missionary, met us at Benares at one o'clock on Thursday midday, and took us to his pleasant home at Sigra, one of the suburbs of Benares. His wife is the granddaughter of a delightful old lady who has a beautiful estate there, and who will be 94 in March, but who is as active as if she were 24. She was married at 15, had 18 children, of whom 8 are still alive, the oldest being her dear "boy" of 75 years. She has scores of grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and three great-great-grandchildren, having had 169 direct descendants born to her, of whom 118 are still alive. She has lived all her life in India, and lost eight of her family in the Mutiny.

Well, now about Benares. You know it is the stronghold of Hinduism; poor humanity seems enslaved in the bitterest slavery there. The day we arrived we drove to the monkey temple, where there were at least 100 monkeys overrunning every part of it-doorways and roofs, and sculptures and images. It was piteous to see the devotees as they entered the shrine and seemed to pray to the hideous idol, and struck a suspended bell ere they went out, their "worship" done.

Thence we went to a lecture by Mr. Hooper in the large divinity school, on "The image of God being the dignity of man," in English, but to the learned natives of Benares. were some sixty men present, more than half young men. Hooper invited discussion afterwards, and I spoke and others.

There

Mr.

Next day we drove down to the Ganges, hired a boat, for which merry Mr. Hackett told the boatmen he would give one anna hire and fifteen annas backsheesh, and rowed down the river. We pulled up close to one of the burning ghâts where they burn the dead. [See picture on page 63.] There were two or three

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bodies there. By one pyre there was the poor widow dressed all in white, who, when the body was consumed and the glowing ashes quenched by water thrown upon them with their hands by several men standing in the Ganges, came and raked with her hand the ashes of her husband; she then turned her back to the river, and they put a pitcher full of water between her shoulders, which she held for a few moments, and then let fall so as to shiver it, and she was at once led away by the next of kin. I thought of the words, "The pitchers broken at the fountain." Thence we went to the chief Mohammedan mosque, and Edward and I climbed the highest minaret and had the most extensive view of the city. The city is full of temples, some of them covered with horrid sculptures. We walked through the narrow streets-narrower than those at Genoa-often met by a sacred bull, tame but impertinent. We bought some of the famous Benares brass-work, &c., and then went to the Golden Temple, the holiest place in the whole world in Hindu esteem, with its well of knowledge, from which decaying flowers and rice, mixed with Ganges water, sent forth the most poisonous odour, though the wretched worshippers paid highly for a spoonful of the deadly water to drink. We also saw a temple crowded with sacred cows, which roamed from court to court at their pleasure. Surely in Benares Satan's throne is. In the afternoon, by delicious contrast, we saw the beautiful Mission schools, where all is purity and love.

The next day (Saturday) the Maharajah of Benares, to whom I had sent the letter of introduction kindly given me by Professor Monier Williams, sent his paddle-barge to meet us at the river side, and an English-speaking Baboo to escort us, and we made our way very slowly, against stream, some four miles up the river to his palace, where he received us in state. I counted some forty attendants in his court, which was sumptuously furnished. His nephew and heir could speak English, and his chubby grand-nephew or son made himself quite at home with M-, and showed us all his musical boxes and toys. It was a thoroughly Oriental scene, and ended by his throwing necklaces over our heads, and pouring lavender water on our hands and kerchiefs, and sending us on his noble elephant and in his carriage to his gardens and great tank. That evening we drove in the setting sunlight, and returned by moonlight to see an old Buddhist temple.

On Monday at 10 o'clock we started for Calcutta.

THE C.M.S. DIVINITY SCHOOL AT CALCUTTA.
Letter from the REV. W. R. BLACKETT, M.A., Principal.
To the Editor of the GLEANER.

CALCUTTA, September 10, 1881.
Y DEAR SIR,-I notice in the August GLEANER you
express a determination that your readers shall know some-
thing about the work of the Divinity School in Calcutta.
Perhaps it is my fault that they have not had the oppor-
tunity already.

In the first place, after floating about for some time, we have at last got a "local habitation and a name," and both are too large for us at present. But we are not "an airy nothing" in this large house even now. We are a growing child, and hope to fill out in time the present slackness in our habiliments.

Our house is an admirable one, and thanks to a liberal gift, conveyed through the Rev. A. C. Thiselton, of Dublin, has been admirably adapted for our purposes. We have one large dormitory, and two or three smaller ones, three lecture-rooms, a chapel, and a library, all on the ground floor; and on the upper floor our own living rooms, and a large hall for public lectures. Just outside we have a fine square, with public college buildings on two sides of it. Here we hope to do some public out-of-door work when our staff is stronger. And indeed the students are not backward now in entering into conversation with those whom they find taking exercise in the square.

Our staff is at present incomplete, as we are waiting for the brother who has been appointed to the work. The Rev. Piari Mohun Rudra, Pastor of Trinity Church, gives two hours a day to our Junior Class, and

Mr. Parker and Mr. Clifford each give some hours a week to the English Class. The rest of the work I have to manage as best I can myself. sentence by sentence, and then we discuss it conversationally. There are We work mainly by dictation. I give the students a short paragraph few text-books in Bengáli, and if there were more, I doubt whether we should be able to use them satisfactorily. But the notes of lectures are valued by the students, and usually bound up for preservation and future study. Every few months we have an examination, in which the men generally answer fairly. But I must own I don't much believe in examinations; I would rather inspire my men with a mind to study and to think than cram their minds with a pile of answers to examination questions.

What do we read? The Bible, of course. Pyari Babu-Mr. Rudra's usual designation-reads the historical books of the Old and New Testament with the Junior Class, and I am just now going through Romans with the Senior Class, and Isaiah with all together. Then sometimes we have an hour's practice in the topical use of the Bible, in hunting up the texts bearing on some important subject, explaining and combining them in a systematic form. They wanted me to give them the Bengáli version of the "Dublin Text Book," but I say we must make one for ourselves. Then we are reading through the Prayer Book, which I am sorry to say becomes a somewhat controversial exercise, owing to the increasing attacks on the Church's doctrines, both from without and from within. Mr. Rudra has also read the Church Catechism with his class. Church history is not neglected, but I find, as I was led to expect, that the Indian mind is not easily interested in anything historical. We also have some time every week at pastoral theology, and at sermon composition, both theoretically and practically. I have begun to make the students preach on Wednesday evenings at Christ Church, and they have really acquitted themselves very fairly. Theology I take in a systematic way with the elder class twice a week.

This is all Bengáli work. With my little English Class I have been reading Pearson on the Creed, but I hardly think I shall take it up with another class, as it is rather hard for them. But what am I to take instead? We have also been reading Angus's Introduction to the Bible. They have made good progress in Greek, and will soon be able to read the Greek Testament with some ease. This is rather important in this country, where every educated Hindu can quote the Shastras, and every Musalman the Koran, with more fluency than intelligence certainly, but yet in a way that makes it desirable that our better educated Christian teachers should know the Christian Shastras in the original. Then, by way of setting them to think, I have been reading some logic with them, and find it both interesting and useful. Moreover, finding that one of them had been studying Latin by himself for two years, I have just begun giving him an hour a week in it. I should not wonder if I have to begin Hebrew with him some day. These two men have read Paley with Mr. Clifford, and are beginning Butler.

Now as to our students. They are our weak point at present, for we have only seven of them. But, after all, if we can turn out seven fairly taught men every two or three years we shall supply all the present wants of our Missions. And we are very particular as to the quality of the material we accept. Let me give you an introduction to my disciples.

My first man is Du'khlál Bishwás. He is a working catechist, posted at Christ Church, and a man of some standing. He only comes to us for some of the deeper subjects, which he has not previously studied. He is a fair preacher, and a diligent pastor, under Mr. Clifford, of the little flock at Christ Church.

Then comes Nathanael Paramánduda Sarcar, whose stature is long in proportion to his name. He is a dear good fellow, with his heart very much in the right place, but he finds it difficult to grasp recondite ideas, or to keep anything clearly in his mind. I am not sure though that he will not make a good preacher. Once before the stupidest of my pupils turned out the most eloquent of the class, and one of the most earnest. And Nathanael is very zealous in visiting in the hospital, and in teaching a class of heathen boys in the little Sunday-school, which is held by a lady of the American Mission in our lecture-rooms.

Brem Chand Bishwás is my other English-speaking student. He is a promising young man, with intellect as well as piety and zeal, and I should not be surprised if he proves very useful to us by-and-by.

Among the students who work only in Bengali, Brán Náth Bishwás is the most intelligent, as one might judge by his fine forehead. But, like most Bengalis, he is wanting in energy. He was a schoolmaster in the Krishnagar district, and a former pupil of the Training School.

Sabján was also engaged in school work, but in a lower grade. He is a good man, but no amount of city life or training would take the clodhopper out of him, and he is conscious of it. However, he is able to take in a certain amount of knowledge, and will, I think, be a useful man for some of our village congregations.

Gopál Chandra Mukerji is another style of man altogether, though he gets on very well with the others. He is a Brahmin convert of some three years' standing, sufficiently intelligent and thoughtful, but not well grounded in knowledge of any kind. In this he resembles many of his

class among the Hindus. But I trust he has in him that which alone can SKETCHES OF MISSIONARY WORK IN PALESTINE. serve as the foundation of all knowledge useful to a worker for Christ. He is tolerably good-looking, but quiet in his manner.

Swapneswar Misri is much more talkative, having indeed travelled about all over North India, and come in contact with all sorts of people. He was converted among the Presbyterians, I think, and was appointed our reader among the Kols in Calcutta some three years ago. Besides these, the Rev. Molám Bishwás, pastor of Krishtapúr, comes to me for instruction, preparatory to priest's orders.

I ask for your prayers for our students, that they may be filled with the Holy Ghost, and established in the truth as it is in Jesus. W. R. BLACKETT. P.S.-We have inherited the library of the old Cathedral Mission College, but it wants enlargement in the theological department.

BY LOUISA H. H. TRISTRAM.
IV.-ES SALT AND THE BEDOUINS.

E had been wandering about on the east side of the Jordan for a fortnight, visiting the ruins of the old Moabite cities, Medeba, Heshbon, Elealah, and above all Mount Nebo, whence our eyes had wandered over the Promised Land from the snowy summits of Hermon to the heights of Hebron. We were now bound for Es Salt (Ramoth Gilead), where is our only C.M.S. station on the other side Jordan.

It was in such drenching rain as only travellers who must be

THE MISSIONARY EXHIBITION AT CAMBRIDGE. regardless of weather know the discomfort of, that we left Ammân

DEAR

To the Editor of the GLEANER.

EAR SIR,-In your very interesting and special number for April, it was no doubt difficult to find space for any lengthy notice of the Missionary Exhibition at Cambridge; but, as one who had the pleasure of seeing it, I feel that a little more ought to be said about it. First-As a pecuniary success, after paying all expenses, it cleared more than £400, and this, let it be remembered, at a time when there is, especially in Cambridgeshire, very heavy agricultural depression, which

more or less affects all classes.

Secondly-A far more important result of the Exhibition was, I feel sure, the vivid way in which it brought the realities of Mission work before the general public. The building being very large, distinct courts were marked out for each country, e.g., China, India, Japan, Africa, Palestine, &c., &c., and each court was well stocked with curiosities from each country, illustrating the productions, habits, customs, dress, and more especially the religious worship of that country. Just to take one instance. I am sure no one could have spent half an hour in the African court, handling the awful slave-drivers' whips, examining the native implements, and studying the hideous idols, without carrying away a very lively impression of the curse and brutality of slavery, the debasing effect of idolatry, and the great importance, apart even from its highest spiritual blessings, of bringing true Christianity, with all its civilising influences, to bear upon the Negro races.

Thirdly-Another result of the Exhibition, which was perhaps the most important of all, was the great amount of information upon Mission work which it disseminated. Not only did the things exhibited speak for themselves, but several persons, some of them missionaries of the Society, were present from time to time in the several courts, to explain some of the objects of interest, and "to put in a word by the way." And in addition to this, at the opening of the Exhibition, and at other periods, specially in the evening, short addresses were given upon the various parts of the Mission field, illustrated by some of the articles in the Exhibition. The addresses of the Bishop of Moosonee, an old missionary of the Society, were peculiarly instructive, and attracted much attention.

Lastly-There is the great amount of interest in Mission work which the Exhibition must have aroused. First, there were the kind friends who worked for the bazaar; for I ought to have mentioned before that a large bazaar was combined with the Exhibition. Through the zeal and activity of the Rev. J. Barton, several boxes of articles from India, China, Japan, Africa, America, &c., &c., were procured, and offered for sale, together with numerous articles worked by the ladies of the working parties. And the interest taken in these working parties, the accounts of Mission work

read during them, and the healthy impulse to further effort which the

pleasure of having already done something for Christ's Kingdom naturally creates, all these have been, and still will be, productive of good to the great cause of Christian Missions. And then there were the crowds of visitors who daily thronged the Exhibition, and who could not fail to have been more or less interested in what they saw and heard. More than £126 was taken at the door. When we saw, as we did specially on the last night, the throngs of undergraduates present, the prayer could hardly help rising in our hearts that, with God's blessing, it might be to some the little spark of interest, which hereafter might, under the Spirit's guiding, be fanned into a flame, which should end in their offering themselves as Christ's ambassadors to heathen nations.

But I should be very thankful if the grand result of the Cambridge Exhibition should be that every large town should "go and do likewise.” I do not see why, if it can be a success in Cambridge, it should not be a still greater success in such places as Bath, Cheltenham, Leamington, Birmingham, and even in London itself. Why should there not be an Exhibition every year in one or other of our large towns?

It only requires some energy and willing hands. But it wants some one to come forward in each place. The question I want answered isWhat town will take the Exhibition next year? A. H. A.

for Salt. We were more fortunate during the latter half of our ride, when it cleared up, and we were able to enjoy the beauties of the Land of Gilead, certainly the most picturesque part of the Holy Land. We passed through lovely glades of oak-trees; then over open moorland; and lastly a most precipitous and rocky defile brought us face to face with the town of Es Salt, built on the steep slope of the hill. Here we were greeted warmly by a little knot of the men belonging to our small Protestant community, and by them led to the Mission-house, where we were most hospitably received by the Rev. Chalil Jamal, our C.M.S. Native pastor. Our tents were far too wet to be pitched, and also the weather looked still very unsettled, so we were truly grateful for the generous accommodation Mr. Jamal accorded to us in his own house, I fear much to the inconvenience of himself and his family.

Seventeen years previously my father had visited Salt, and on first entering the town had been greeted by an old man, who told him he was a Protestant, and knew Bishop Gobat. Hearing that my father also knew him, he wrote a letter, begging hard for a teacher for Salt, and also urged with tears that English Christians would help them. Bishop Gobat had opened a school there once, but persecution had obliged the closing of it, and now this one man was doing all that lay in his power to lead his townsmen into the way of life, and praying day and night for a missionary. His two little boys he was bringing up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and so far the result of his labours was an earnest desire for more teaching. The old man's prayers were answered, and he had the joy of seeing a young Church growing up in his native town, full of the zeal and devotion of primitive Christianity, before he entered into his heavenly rest just three months previous to our arrival. His memory will ever be fragrant in Salt, but not till the day when all secrets will be disclosed can it be known what is owed to the years of faithful prayer that rose in that dark place from its one solitary convert.

We had reached Salt on Saturday afternoon, and were soon feeling quite at home there. The Mission premises are all enclosed in a small courtyard, and consist of the neat and simple church, which now can only just hold its congregation of from 200 to 250 persons, a large room used for prayer meetings and communicants' classes, and Mr. Jamal's house, containing two large and one small room. This latter, the study, with the reception-room of the house and the class-room, were most kindly given up to us, and the rest of our party were entertained in a house in the town.

On Sunday morning at 9 o'clock, the bell (a present from the late Colonel Joicey, M.P. for North Durham) summoned us to church. Though it was pouring with rain the congregation numbered 210, most of whom were men. The service was of course in Arabic, but here, as at Gaza, our Prayer-books made us feel quite at one with our fellow-worshippers. second lesson had been read, Mr. Jamal's little daughter of a month old was baptized by her father. Mr. Bickersteth, who

After the

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