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النشر الإلكتروني

OF THE

AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS. No. V. August, 1832.

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AMERICAN MISSION CHAPEL AT BOMBAY.

THE above is a front view of the American Mission Chapel at Bombay, erected in the year 1823. The walls of the edifice are built of stone and mortar, and are plastered and white-washed. The chapel is 60 feet long, 35 wide, and 20 in height, with a verandah, or piazza, projecting ten feet from the two sides, and a portico in front. The verandahs are open, excepting the ends upon the street, which are walled up, as in the engraving. The main body of the house, with three doors, is seen behind the pillars of the portico in front. The chapel faces the north, and stands in the midst of a dense native population. The principal street of the city, running north and south, is distant only about a hundred feet westward. The native town extends more than half a mile on the north side of the chapel, and more than a mile on the south, and through the whole extent the houses, almost without exception, join each other.

The chapel was planned, and the erection of it gratuitously superintended, by Daniel West, Esq., a distinguished English architect then residing at Bombay, and cost about $3,900, exclusive of $600 paid for the land. Of this sum about $1,700 were contributed by friends of the cause in Calcutta and Bombay, and about $1,300 in this country, expressly for the chapel. The rest of the expense was defrayed from the general treasury of the Board. The building is neat and commodious, and has been a very important acquisition to the mission. It was solemnly dedicated to the worship of God on the 30th of May, 1823, and ever since there have been regular services in English and Mahratta. Schools are taught in the verandahs.

Somewhat more than a year since, Mr. Charles Theodore Huntridge, an inhabitant of Bombay, left a legacy for the support of public worship in this chapel amounting to 7,000 rupees, or more than 3,000 dollars.

The American Mission Chapel at Bombay was the first erected by Protestants in that part of India, for the purpose of accommodating the natives of the country with the regular ministrations of the gospel.

PART OF THE DYING APPEAL OF GORDON HALL, ONE OF THE FIRST AMERICAN MISSIONARIES TO BOMBAY, TO THE CHURCHES OF THE UNITED STATES.

THIS appeal was written by Mr. Hall in February, 1826, a few weeks before his death, and twelve years after the mission became establish

ed in Bombay. The facts stated in the appeal have not materially changed.

Beloved in the Lord, do you from Zion's most favored mount, turn a pitying, waiting, longing eye to this dark hemisphere, and ask, "Watchman, what of the night?" I am permitted to stand in the place of a watchman; but it is on a slender, incipient outwork, very far distant from the walls of Jerusalem. O that I may always be found vigilant and faithful at my post, and ready to give a true report.

I will send you tidings. In some respects they are joyous; but in others they are grievous. I see much around me that is joyous. If I turn back no farther than to the period of my own arrival on this spot, and survey but what seems to be our own neighborhood, much that is cheering greets the eye. Then from Cape Comorin through the whole range of sea coast by Cochin, Goa, Bombay, Surat, Cambay, Bussora, Mocha, and by Mosambique, including Madagascar, Mauritius and other Islands, to the Cape of Good Hope, there was not one Protestant missionary; if we except a native missionary who was for a short time, partially established at Surat.

But about three months ago, delegates from five missions met in the Bombay Mission Chapel, and formed a Missionary "Union to promote Christian fellowship, and to consult on the best means of advancing the kingdom of Christ in this country."

The individual missionary who constituted one of these missions, has since gone to England not to return, and therefore, for the present, that mission is extinct. To the other four belong nine missionaries, and two European assistant missionaries. These missions have two common printing establishments, and one lithographic press, consecrated to Christ as so many powerful engines for scattering abroad the light of life. These four missions have in operation about sixty schools, in which are more than 3,000 children, reading, or daily learning to read the word of God, and receiving catechetical instruction. The missionaries, some or all of them, are every day preaching Christ and him crucified to the heathen. The Scriptures and tracts are travelling abroad, and the word of God is working its way to immortal minds in every direction. Prayer is made, and the promises of Jehovah are laid hold on; while the means (missionaries excepted) of doing a thousand times more in similar ways for the cause of Zion here, are ready at hand. These are good things: and we rejoice in them. You

too will rejoice in them; and let us all praise the Lord for them.

But there is something in the weakness of our nature, or in the deep subtlety of our adversary, which, even while we contemplate such good things, and are praising God for them, is exceedingly liable to practise a mortal mischief upon us, by so alluring and engrossing the mind with the little that is done or doing, as to render it seemingly blind to the almost all that still remains to be done. This brings us to the grievous part of the subject.

It is grievous to behold such an extent of country and so teeming with immortal souls, but yet so destitute of the messengers of life.

From Bombay, we look down the coast for seventy miles, and we see two missionaries; and fourteen miles farther on, we see two more. Looking in a more easterly direction, at the distance of about 300 miles, however, as a chaplain among Europeans. we see one missionary, chiefly_occupied, In an eastern direction, the nearest missionary is about 1,000 miles from us. Looking a little to the north of east, at the distance of 1,300 miles, we see ten or twelve missionaries in little more than as many miles in length on the banks of the Ganges. Turning thence northward, at nearly the same distance from us, we see three, four, almost as many hundred intervening miles. or five more, separated from each other by And looking onward beyond these distant posts, in a northeast direction, through the Chinese empire and Tartary, to Kamschatka, and thence down the northwestern coast of America, to the river Columbia, and thence across the mountains to the Missouri, the first missionaries we see, in that direction, are brethren Vaill and Chapman among the Osages.

Again we look north, and, at a distance of 180 miles, we see two missionaries; but from thence (with two or three doubtful exceptions) through all the north of Asia, to the pole, not a single missionary is to be scen. In a northwestern direction, it is doubtful whether there is now one missionary between us and St. Petersburgh. Westerly, the nearest is at Jerusalem, or Beyroot. Southwest, the nearest is at Sierra Leone; and more to the south, the nearest may be among the Hottentots, or on Madagascar.

Can you count the millions and millions comprised in this range? Can any but an adamantine heart survey them, and not be grieved?

I should like to see a new chart of the earth adjusted to a double scale of measurement, one shewing the comparative surface, and the other the comparative population, of the different sections of the earth-all presenting a black ground, except those

spots where the gospel is preached. And on a slip of white ground, 1 would have a note of reference to Mark xvi. 15, 16; and this I would have bound up in every Bible, so as to face the same divine charge of Christ to his disciples. It might be recommended to all church members, deacons, pastors, and teachers of theology, to add to the note on their map, Romans x. 14, 15, and Isaiah vi. 8, to the last clause; which latter clause I would have every student in theology, and every young believer of good talents and education, print on his chart in GRAND CAPITALS; preceded by, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?

As we must habitually set the Lord Jesus before us, or not expect his love will habitually constrain us; so must we habitually contemplate a fallen world, lying in the wicked one, or not expect that our hearts will be exercised with any proper sympathies for the perishing.

But I will take a more limited view. Here are the Mahrattas. They have been estimated at 12,000,000. To preach the gospel to these 12,000,000 of heathen, there are now six missionaries, four from the Scottish Missionary Society, and two from our Society, that is, one missionary to 2,000,000 of souls. And to furnish these 12,000,000 with the Christian Scriptures, and tracts, and school books, there is one small printing establishment. It is now about twelve years since the mission here began, in some very small degree, to communicate the truth to some of this great multitude. Let these facts be well weighed.

During those twelve years, the facilities for imparting Christian knowledge among this people, or for employing among them the appointed means of salvation, have so multiplied and improved, that I think it moderate to say, that a missionary arriving here now could, in an equal period, do ten times as much for the diffusion of Christian knowledge, as could have been done by one arriving here twelve years ago. Then there was no school in which to catechise and give lectures-no chapel-no Scriptures and tracts to disperse. Now we have a chapel-more than thirty school-roomsand the Scriptures and tracts for distribution-while hundreds of towns and villages, by all the eloquence and pathos that the most imperious want and the direst necessity can inspire, are supplicating for more mission schools-millions of people, calling for Scriptures, and tracts, and preaching and an untold number of large towns, in population like Boston, Cambridge, Andover, Providence, Dartmouth, Williamstown, New Haven, Albany, and Schenectady, calling for missionary establishments in them. If some of these places are not quite open for the reception of missionaries, others doubtless are, and all, we believe, will be by and by; while all are now open, in various ways, for the reception of Christian books.

Under such circumstances, with such facilities, what number of Christian books might be prepared, printed, and distributed; what number of children taught to read the word of God, and catechised; and what number of perishing sinners pointed to the Savior's cross, in one year, if there were but a supply of missionaries!* Is it not a grievous thing to witness such facilities for missionary action, lying comparatively neglected? Is not here a vast and fertile field broken up and ready for the casting in of the seed? And is not the seed already in the field waiting for the sowers to scatter it? What should we say of the farmer, who would turn away from such a field, and leave the seed in the field to perish unscattered, and go to some comparatively desolate heath, where much must be done before even that can be prepared for the seed?

Surely no one can understandingly answer the question "where is it best to send missionaries?" without first duly considering the comparative population of the places in question, and the comparative facilities for imparting Christian knowledge to that population. On this score, I plead that justice may be shown to these 12,000,000 of heathen. Here I ground my plea. Let the facts speak. Twelve millions of your race are prostrate at your feet. You can need no delineation of their moral character. It is enough to know that they are your brethren, but are heathen-that they are idolaters and in ignorance of their Maker and their Redeemer; and that you can, if you will, send them the gospel. Their untold miseries supplicate you to open your hands, and give them that salva

The following facts, from the last report of our schools, show how extensively Christian knowl

edge might be diffused among a rising generation of idolaters, were there only a supply of missionaries and funds; and if but the Spirit of God were given, in answer to prayer, to seal upon the youthful mind such Christian instructions, what would not soon be accomplished.

Our number of schools at present is thirty-two. The number of children on the teachers' lists is 1,750. Of these 75 are girls, and 133 are Jewish children.

During the past year, as nearly as we can calcu

late, 1,000 have left our schools, most of them having obtained what the natives esteem a suf

ficiently good school education. Among these, together with those who have left in former years, are many boys and young men, who can read with a fluency and propriety that would put to shame a great majority of the common brahmins. And the fact is peculiarly gratifying that, instead of having imbibed any prejudice against us, or our books, from the Christian instruction given in our schools, these very youth, and their relatives, wherever we meet with them in the country, are

of all others the most forward to receive, and read, and beg, the Christian scriptures and tracts. In not a few instances, fathers earnestly solicit them for their little sons.

During the year, about 786 children have committed to memory the Ten Commandments, and 376 a Catechism of sixteen small pages. A much greater number have committed to memory parts of the same.

plications for additional schools; but shall be obliged to decline them, until we are furnished with larger funds, and more fellow laborers.

We continue to have numerous and urgent ap

tion, which your Redeemer and your Judge has entrusted to you for them, and so long ago charged you to give them. You see also what are the facilities for now giving them that salvation you have so long held in trust for them, but so long withheld from them. What will you do? Will you spurn them from your feet, and command them to let you alone, and wait, as they are, till the judgment day? Is this the love of Christ? Is this the beauty of the Lord upon his holy Zion? Where are the hundreds of students in theology? Where are the tens of hundreds of blooming, pious, well-educated youth, the professed followers of the Lamb? Is there none among you, who have a love, a sympathy, a compassion, for all these your long neglected, your dying, your perishing fellow men? O remember, there is a dead love, a dead sympathy, a dead compassion, as well as a dead faith; being without works. O, it was not a dead love, or sympathy, or compassion, which brought your Redeemer to the cross. That was not idle breath which he uttered, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature," nor yet that interceding appeal to the Father, "As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world." O contemplate on the cross, your bleeding Savior, tasting death for every man, and then survey the spiritual miseries and prospects of these millions of heathen souls dying in ignorance of that only name, by which it is possible for them to be saved; and then lay upon your hearts your Redeemer's farewell charge, and when you have faithfully done this, judge of your love and regard for Jesus, and of your compassion for immortal souls, by your works.

I will endeavor, as God shall enable me, so to labor here on the spot, that the blood

of these souls shall not be found in my skirts; and while I cannot but witness a generation of 12,000,000 of unevangelized souls, in succession to the hundreds of generations gone down before them, dropping into eternity, leaving prospects but little better for the next generation, I will endeavor, as a watchman at my post, faithfully to report what I see. Wo is unto me, if I proclaim not the wants of this people, and the eminent facilities made ready for the supply of those wants. This I would wish to do so plainly and so fully, that if the guilt of neglecting their salvation must lodge any where, I may be able to shake it from my garments; so that I may stand acquitted before my Judge, both as to my personal labors among them, and as to my pleading with you on their behalf.

The remarks I have now made, are, in a great measure, applicable to other parts of India. And there is yet another very grievous view to be taken, which I can but barely mention. In little more than a year past, death, sickness, and other causes,

have, so far as I can learn, laid aside nineteen missionaries in India, while but six or eight have, in the same time, come to India; and so far as I know (from missionary appearances, not from God's promises) there is a prospect of further diminution, rather than of augmentation. In view of these things, what will the English and American churches do? Is it not time for every missionary in India, to cry aloud and spare not? Would you have your missionaries leave their work, and come home, to plead, in person before you, the cause of the heathen? Do not tempt us to do so. Some have, in Providence, been called home, especially to England, and their pleas, in person, have been successful so far beyond what has been otherwise attempted, as seemingly to call for the measure, though so expensive, and, for the time, so privative to the heathen. Why is it so? Why cannot facts be weighed? Why cannot the well known necessities and miseries of the heathen speak, and plead and prevail, without the aid of any such disasterous expedients? Does this tell to the credit of those whom the gospel makes wise to do good? O think of these things every one who has a mind that can think! O feel, every one that has a heart that can feel. O ye redeemed of the Lord, whom he has made kings and priests unto God, "I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service," and in the true spirit of such an unreserved consecration of yourselves to your Redeemer, ask him, "Lord what wilt thou have me to do?" And let his Spirit, and his truth, and your own conscience, give you the answer, which shall guide you in a matter of such unparalleled moment.

Your affectionate fellow servant in the

Lord,

GORDON HALL.

There are now six American missiona

rics at Bombay, and one other on the way from this country. All but two have wives, and there is besides a single female, superintendent of native female schools. The city of Bombay is upon an island of the same name: a detachment from the mission has lately gone to labor upon the adjacent continent.

On the island and continent are 20 boys' schools, containing about 1,200 children. There are also 18 schools for girls, all on the island, containing about 500 pupils.The amount of printing which has been executed at the mission press in Bombay, exceeds 10,000,000 of pages.

The New Testament and parts of the Old have been translated by the missionaries of the Board into the Mahratta language, and printed, and, to a great extent, among the people.

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Pretended Miracle.

for believing that they intended to impose upon the people by a pretended miracle. My remarks, I perceived, gave some of fence, and occasioned a murmur of disapprobation. This is the season of the annual festival at the temple, and great multitudes are assembled.

13. From the reports given at our church July 21, 1831. Quarterly communion meeting this evening, it appears that there held at this station. Harriet B. Meigs and is a great excitement and much boasting Mary Anne Poor, (the two eldest children among the heathen, in consequence of the in the mission,) ten members of the semi-miracle wrought, as they fully believe, on nary, and fifteen other natives were received into the church, on a public profession of their faith in Christ. The sermon preached on the occasion was founded on the passage, "Vow and pay unto the Lord thy God." It was a season of spiritual refreshing from on high, and we were urged by new motives to devote ourselves anew to the service of our Master in the work of

the mission.

27. Commenced a course of evening preaching at South Araby.

Aug. 5. Went to the principal temple at Nellore, to see a man who, it is reported, has cut off his tongue from a belief that it will be miraculously healed, and that in consequence of his doing this penance he shall be relieved from the asthma, with which he has been long afflicted. I found the man lying under a tree near the temple, covered with a white cloth, and surrounded by a large concourse of people. Under an earthen pot kept filled with water, perforated in the bottom, and placed upon stones near the man's head, lay a piece of a tongue about an inch in length. This was so swollen by the running water, that it was not easy to determine whether it was a part of a human tongue, or not, nor was I permitted to examine it. I requested that might look into the man's mouth and satisfy myself whether his tongue had been cut or not. To this his friends wholly objected, saying it would tend to counteract the object for which the penance was done. I then told them my motives for inquiring into the case, and that I saw some reasons

VOL. XXVIII.

the man mentioned above, who cut off a
part of his tongue. As this affair took
place at the time when great multitudes
were assembled, not only from the Jaffna
district, but from more distant parts of the
island and from the adjacent continent, this
reputed miracle will, for many years, be
confidently appealed to in support of the
prevailing system of idolatry. Different
accounts are given of the supposed miracle.
Some affirm that the tongue is grown to its
natural size. Others, that though his tongue
continues maimed, he has the power of
On these
speech and is cured of disease
subjects the great mass of the people have
no fear of being misled, and those who have
discernment enough to distinguish truth
from falsehood, are yet quite willing that
others should be deceived. Consequently
the circumstances of the case will probably
never be known, but by those in the imme-
diate vicinity of the temple, who have
every motive for concealment and mis-
representation.

Sept. 12. It is now well ascertained that the inan mentioned under date of August 5th, and who is a native of Nellore, did cut off a piece of his tongue, but whether that which was exhibited to the view of the

people was the piece which he cut off, is doubtful. It is my intention to visit the man that I may if possible satisfy my own mind on this point. The man speaks in a lisping manner, and is still afflicted with asthma, to the shame and mortification of those who had confident expectations of a favorable result. It would be tedious to

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