CONVERSION OF A HINDOO WOMAN THROUGH

THE SCRIPTURES.

The following remarkable instance of the influence of the Scriptures, through the Divine Blessing, without other outward means, occurred at Tannah, about 25 miles north of Bombay.

One of the chaplains of the East-India company had held Divine Service, when a native woman applied for Christian baptism: this was, of course, declined; and she was informed that Christian baptism was a rite too serious to be entered on without due preparation. The woman burst into tears: and said that for two years she had been the most miserable of beings: she had, about that period, met with a Bible in the native language; and as women in India are not taught to read, she induced the man with whom she lived (plurality of wives being common in India) to read it to her occasionally in the evenings: this man was a native officer in one of the Bombay regiments.

She then declared, in the most artless style, the workings of her own heart; and said that she had discovered that her breast contained another or second heart. Sometimes one heart, which brought to her recollection her crimes, sunk her into the deepest compunction for her sins, and directed her to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as necessary for salvation: the other heart would tell her not to mind, but to live on and not care about all this. At first the bad heart had the preeminence; but, for some time past, the good heart had so troubled her that she had resolved to set out for Tannah from the cantonment in which she lived, and to arrive there on that day on which she understood the Padre (clergyman) would be there. Her grief at finding that she would not be accepted was very pungent, and vented itself in tears.

On hearing this artless tale, the clergyman thought fit further to qustion her. He asked if she was content to forsake the man with whom she was living, as he had another wife; and whether she could abandon all her sins, as the holy laws of God demand. She replied, that she would do all this; and even live in the jungle (wilderness) if it were to God's honour. She solemnly declared, that she had not spoken to a single Missionary or other Christian; and that from the reading of the Holy Bible she had been thus affected. She was accordingly admitted to baptism, and adorned her Christian profession.

A DEATH-BED VIEW OF THE VALUE OF MISSIONS.

We subjoin an account of the death-bed feelings of one lately departed, which should speak to the hearts of all who read it. The dying man thus addressed the clergyman of his parish

O sir, if it should but please God to raise me up again-though I desire to leave all to his disposal, yet if he should raise me up -I trust that I shall set about things in a very different spirit from that in which I have lived. A little while ago I should have replied, if any one had asked me the ground of my hope toward God, that I had done no harm to any-NO HARM!-why WHAT GOOD have I done? What greater harm can a man do, than to do nothing? The little that may have done, I did it as if I did it not. There is the Church Missionary Society. Oh if I live, I hope I shall promote it in a better spirit. I see things very differently now. I used to think you a little visionary, at all events a little tainted with enthusiasm, in that cause. I gave you a guinea a year out of respect to you; and I gave a guinea to another fund to please the good people connected with it: but my heart was not in this. I was pleased with the meetings, and gratified to see others pleased, and thought these good things; but that was all!

On being asked what had been the means of leading him to view things in a different light, he said

A night or two since, it might be about midnight, I awoke from a doze; and, after having recollected myself where I was I stretched out my hands and pulled back the bed-curtains to see if any one was watching with me. My two dear sons were sitting on each side my bed; and instantly bent forward, with affectionate care, to see if I wanted any thing. The recollection instantly flashed across me of what was said at the Missionary meeting concerning the Hindoos drowning or forsaking their aged parents, when they became a burden to them: and as suddenly it came across me, "to what do I owe the difference? Why am not I taken out by my dear sons, and laid in the river to perish? How is it that I have them thus leaning over me, and watching every breath and wish, and my family contending among themselves who shall have the honour and privilege of sitting up with me? It is to the Gospel of Christ that I owe this!" I used to reason that pious men were too much wanted in England to send them abroad; and that we ought to wait till the Gospel produced more general fruits among us. But I was wrong; if the first Christians had waited till the Jews had been converted, I should not have had my two sons bending over me-no affectionate family to cheer me --and I should have perished without a hope!

MISSIONARY ZEAL IN A NEGRO.

An old Negro, nearly 70, of Charleston in South Carolina, brought from Africa at nine years of age, a barber by trade, had wrought himself and his wife free; and then, saving a good deal of money, resolved to visit his native country, for the

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purpose of imparting the knowledge of Christianity to the people. For the last two years he had been making preparations, and endeavouring to persuade his apprentices and friends to go with him; the apprentices agreed to go; but, when the time arrived, they all drew back except one. The beginning of last summer, he purchased a schooner and set sail and has not yet been heard of. Immediately before sailing, he waited on an old lady to bid her farewell. Why, John," she said, "you are a very old man: you cannot be of much use." "Mistress," said he, "I think I know as much of my own countrytalk yet, as to tell the people about Jesus Christ; and if God spares my life a few years, I think I can do them good. I don't expect to find one relation alive: all dead-but me no care-will do what I can." The lady asked him what he would do with his vessel when he arrived. "Do," said he, "why, nothing: me get there-me no care for the schooner." He was sexton and a member of one of the Episcopal Churches in Charleston.

The Rev. John Raban, one of the Church Missionaries at Sierra Leone, met with him in that Colony, and speaks of him as a very religious and upright man. His master had treated him with much kindness, and had given him religious instruction; and having found hereby the knowledge of a Saviour in a strange land, he returned to his native shores, in order to impart that knowledge to his own nation, the Congos. He had been obliged to sell his schooner at a very considerable loss of not less, he assured Mr. Raban, than 2000 dollars: all this, however, he cheerfully bears, if he may but be useful, in his closing years, to his poor brethren the Congos, many of whom are resident in Sierra Leone.

The name of James Creighton ought to be had in remembrance, and his example should stir us all up to greater zeal for the salvation of the perishing world.

THE VALUE OF THE PENNIES.

A minister from Wales, in pleading for the Bible Society at a public meeting, addressed a few sentences in Welch, to some of his countrymen who were present: his words produced such a powerful effect on them, that the curiosity of those who did not understand Welch was excited to know the purport of what he uttered. "Oh," he said, "I was talking to them ABOUT THE PENNIES. I told them that in passing over the mountains, in my way to this place, I saw the rills running down the sides of those mountains, and I said to them, 'rills, where are you going?" 'Oh,' said they, we are going to the valleys to join the streams.' Then said I to the streams, 'streams, where are you going?' Oh,' said they, we are going

into the river.' 'Rivers,' said I, 'where are you going?' 'Oh, we are going into the sea, and there we will bear your greatest ships, and toss them about like feathers. Now I am come to this Society, and I look at the pennies, and I say, 'pennies, where are you going?' 'Oh, we are going to the Branches.' 'And, Branches, where are you going? 'Oh, we are going to the Auxiliaries. And, Auxiliaries, where are you going?' 'Oh,

we are going to the pocket of the treasurer in London, and then he will scatter Bibles over the face of the whole earth.' Oh, my friends! take care of the pennies."

BENEVOLENT SCHOOLMASTER.

The following account of the zealous and self-denying exertions of a schoolmaster in support of missions will be read with pleasure. A clergyman writes

In attempting to engage the attention of my parishioners to the great object of the Society, I laid some of its papers before an old schoolmaster, of whose piety and benevolence I had the highest opinion. In a few days, he walked three miles to insert his name in my book, as an annual subscriber of twelve shillings; and to declare his intention of becoming a collector: by his exertions among the cottagers, he has got fifteen subscribers on his list; who, principally by his means, have been excited to a lively interest in the cause. At Christmas, after paying his collections, he begged me to receive a five-pound note: I was astonished; and, knowing his scanty means, was reluctant to take it: his answer was- -"sir, I have considered and reconsidered the subject of missions: and the more I read and know of it, the more I am convinced that this is the very best object of Christian charity. Do take it: I am only sorry that I have no more to give." That this act may be duly appreciated, it is right to state that his whole income derived from the charity school does not exceed 201. per annum. general conduct corresponds with this act; for he confines himself to the mere necessaries of life, in order to administer to the wants of his poor neighbours in their times of distress and sickness.

His

TEMPERANCE SOCIETY.

I have at present but one other fact to communicate, and it is not less remarkable than those I have already stated. A person who resides in a small village, a few miles distant from this city, was, some time ago, left a very considerable sum of money by a wealthy relative. So attached did he become to intoxicating liquors, that, in a short time, he spent all the