the importance of the translations being effected in the best possible

manner.

"The slip of paper inserted in one of your letters concerning an observation of Dr. -, on Martyn's nicety of style, surprised me much. It is not like the judgment of a scholar and critic. Would not the Professor be ashamed of a false concord or bad idiom in addressing the university? How can we be too attentive to these proprieties? How can we hope that any translation of the Scripture shall survive the lapse of ages, unless the style be carefully attended to? Bad style is like bad poetry, soon forgotten or despised. Accuracy and elegance combine to form a standard which is itself a great means of preserving languages from decay. Martyn is justified by experience. He has in his Hindoostanee translation of the New Testament finished a work which will last, for it is a model of elegant writing as well as of faithful translation; it is so faithful as to represent with scrupulous accuracy the whole meaning; yet not so elegant, but that any one acquainted with the language, can read it with ease. That honoured and beloved labourer is now at Shiraz, busied about a Persian translation of the New Testament. What may we not expect from him, if God should be pleased to spare his life a few years!

p. 188. To complete Mr. Thomason's happiness at this period, his own ministry was, by the blessing of God, rendered eminently successful.

"It would fill your heart,' he tells Mr. Simeon, with joy to see us here. Whatever reason we have had formerly to see the hand of God in our coming to India, has been greatly increased of late. New scenes of usefulness open; my hands are now quite full, and through mercy, I see the gradual operation of a gospel ministry. Some persons of late have been brought to a serious concern for their souls. Those who were once scoffers, hear and weep, and endeavour to promote the cause they formerly despised; and our own people, which is a great mercy, and received as an answer to prayer, are more united amongst each other." p. 189.

Such were some of Mr. Thomason's bright prospects. But clouds and sunshine chequer the path of human life, and the Christian is not the man to be exempted from this vicissitude; for "whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and correcteth every son whom he receiveth." There is, however, this, among other differences, in the trials of the Christian and the afflictions of the worldly-minded man,—that the latter is wounded only through something that relates to himself, or those whom he loves upon earth; whereas the former feels for the honour of God, and would still find his soul vexed and his mind depressed in a wicked and perishing world, even were there no immediate cause of personal suffering. This is remarkably instanced in the life of Mr. Thomason: we have seen the spirit of faith and patience in which he endured shipwreck and the loss of his little worldly accumulations; in a similar spirit he met the subsequent capture of a vessel which contained, by the kindness of his friends, a supply of many of the necessaries and comforts which he had lost by the former calamity, especially of books: these and similar matters he only speaks of as useful mementos of the uncertainty of all earthly things, and of the importance of working while it is called to-day. But very different were his feelings where any loss or disappointment occurred which he feared would impede the cause of Christ in the scene of his labours; and several such circumstances arose about this time, to try, but not to damp, his constancy.

First, there was the well-known fire at Serampore, of which he says: "I could scarcely believe the report; it was like a blow on the head which stupifies. I flew to Serampore to witness the desolation. The scene was indeed affecting. The immense printing-office, two hundred feet long, and fifty broad, reduced to a mere shell. The yard covered with burnt quires of paper, the loss in which article was immense. Carey walked with me over the smoking ruins. The tears stood in his eyes. In one short evening,' said he, the labours of years are consumed. How unsearchable are the ways of God! I had lately brought some things to the utmost perfection of which they seemed capable, and contemplated the missionary establishment with, perhaps, too much self-congratulation. The Lord has laid me low, that I may look more simply to him.' Who could stand in such a place,' he asks, at such a time, with such a man, without feelings of sharp regret, and solemn exercise of mind. I saw the ground strewed with half-consumed paper, on which, in the course of a very few months, the words of life would have been

printed. The metal under our feet amidst the ruins was melted into mis-shapen jumps the sad remains of beautiful types consecrated to the service of the sanctuary. All was smiling and promising a few hours before-now all is vanished into smoke, and converted into rubbish!-adding, with self-application- Return now to thy books, regard God in all thou doest. Learn Arabic with humility. Let God be exalted in all thy plans, and purposes, and labours; he can do without thee.'" pp. 192, 193. Next followed the death of his beloved friend and fellow-labourer, the apostolical David Brown, of whom an ample memoir will be found in our volume for 1817, from the narrative of his life edited by Mr. Simeon. It is now nearly fifty years since Mr. Simeon accompanied Mr. Brown to the vessel which was to carry him out to India. That venerable man has since performed similar offices of friendship for many others, who have gone to their rest, like Brown, in comparatively early years; while he himself has been spared to witness, not only in India, but in England and throughout the world, and not least in his own beloved university, such an extension of true religion as must gladden his heart, and cause him, like one who bare the same name of old, to be ready to depart in peace, having seen the salvation of God.

Of Brown, Mr. Sargent says:

"Mr. Brown, for the space of seven and twenty years had preached the pure, unadulterated Gospel of his Redeemer, and had been an ornament, intellectually and spiritually, to the Church of England. He was the father of the Bible Society in India, and to him it was owing, that H. Martyn, who venerated and loved him, brought the Hindoostanee version to a successful termination. He began to sicken in the spring, and before the hot season had expended its strength and fury he was where the sun could not light on him, nor any heat, and was led by the Lamb to the living fountains of waters. To Mr. Thomason was assigned the task of preaching his funeral sermon. Concerning Mr. Brown's disinterestedness, Mr. Thomason, who from happy consciousness could well estimate this attractive quality, taking his text from John iv. 35-38, observes, He possessed a soul superior to sordid viewsin proof of this we appeal to his labour in this church. It was well known he undertook its duties without any prospect of pecuniary emolument, and continued to preach Christ here during the long period of twenty-four years, under great discouragements, without the smallest remuneration for his labours, except what arose from his love to the work, and the hope of gathering fruit unto eternal life. So far from being enriched by the church, he was ever forward in contributing to its support. His memory is blessed. He now receiveth his wages. Those who are acquainted with Mr. Brown's labours, have seen an example of patient continuance in well doing. He maintained his post here under circumstances that would have dismayed others who possessed not the same humble dependence upon God. The attendance at first consisted of no more than two or three families; still this faithful servant kept his course, and he lived to see much encouraging fruit of his labours.'" pp. 193-195.

The death of Brown was followed by the intelligence of the death of Martyn and here also Mr. Thomason, much as he loved his friend, seemed almost to forget the private in the public loss. His predominant feeling was, "The chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof." How great, and humanly speaking irreparable, he considered this loss to be to the rising cause of Christianity in India, appears from his letters. He thus writes on that mournful occasion :

"Few have reason to mourn individually as I have; with him I hoped to spend my days in mutual deliberation and united labour. Here in a short time he would have been fixed, and hence we neither of us would have wished to stir a foot. He has often said it to me. I fondly counted on his return full fraught with health and Arabic. On this his heart was set, though not for itself. It has pleased God to remove him to the rest for which he had been panting, and from which nothing but the love of his work here would willingly have detained him. With his presence in Calcutta, the Persian and Arabic versions would have proceeded with spirit; he was so eminently qualified with all needful endowments for a good translator. The great Head of the church lives, that is our consolation. I have learnt more than ever what that Scripture means, Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils.'

"We are deeply wounded,' are his words in another letter; His walk was so grand, his labours so important, his attainments so rare! O how fondly we counted upon his future labours! how the heart leaped for joy at the thought of Martyn's successful career in Persia, and hoped-for return to Calcutta. Here he hoped to return and spend his days, having often said to us there was no spot in the world so dear to

him as Calcutta; we responded with affection to his notes of love, and panted with eager desire to see him. Often have our petitions been offered up at our social meetings for his preservation and success. Once especially the conversation at table was wholly engrossed with Martyn, and the prayers which followed were unusually fervent. The very next day we heard of the termination of his career.

"You can judge (it was a letter to Mr. Simeon) of the extent of my disappointment and depth of my sorrow. Here I had hoped to spend the remainder of my days with that honoured minister, participating his labours, administering to his comforts, and roused by his example. But it has pleased the great Head of the church to take him to himself-it bath pleased Him, and dare we repine? No event within my recollection has filled me with so much sorrow, and caused so hard a conflict between faith and unbelief, from which I have learnt much of the idolatry of the heart, and of its rebellious opposition to the will of God. We idolized this rare creature so the Lord has removed him, and taught us more simple dependence upon himself. The experience has been bitter, the ultimate fruit I hope will be sweet. Our great Head remains, and He shall see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied. If He is satisfied we may well be so; who knows how He may bless us in our bereaved state?

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Where are all those zealous young men who assembled in your Town Hall, and helped forward your Biblical Associations? O that they would take the map of India in their hands. O that the Lord would dispose their hearts to look upon this immense country with Christian tenderness and compassion. The labourers must be disposed to cheerfulness-a melancholy turn of mind is highly unfavourable in India. The climate itself depresses more than you can conceive. In all your estimates of characters let cheerfulness be considered an essential requisite." pp. 200—202.

Another of Mr. Thomason's allusions to Henry Martyn shews his own unfeigned humility ::

666

"A few days ago I was favoured with the sight of a London paper, which gave an account of the 8th anniversary of the Bible Society. It was impossible to express what I felt on this occasion. Joy, thankfulness, wonder, praise—the heart labours— all words are weak to convey the effects of these good tidings in this distant land. One thing only I do truly lament, that my name should have been coupled with Martyn's in Mr. Simeon's speech- It was a very unbecoming union of names. Pray let all who love me be silent. My desire is that they would not mention my name. Why may I not be gratified? I have no right to be mentioned with that honoured servant of God. I am ashamed to think of it, and scarcely know how to lift up my head. God be merciful to me, and give me a heart for His work. O that my soul could rise up to meet the occasion, and that there were some little correspondence between my diligence and the need there is for diligence.'

p. 293.

Another of those discouraging circumstances to which we have alluded, and which Mr. Thomason keenly felt, was the expulsion of the American missionaries from India. He was at that time pressed down by his important occupations; he was prosecuting assiduously his pastoral engagements, every detail of which bore upon himself, as he was not allowed an assistant; he was engaged in revising the Arabic version of the Scriptures, with Sabat, and in conducting through the press H. Martyn's Hindoostanee New Testament; he executed also, at the desire of the Government, the office of Examiner in Arabic, in the college at Fort William; he was preparing further work for himself, by inviting the Church Missionary Society to place two missionaries in his house, whom he undertook to instruct gratuitously in Oriental literature; and he was forming a plan, which of all others lay nearest his heart, for the establishment of native schools, and, as a preparatory step, a school for schoolmasters. Thus incessantly occupied in furthering the cause of God in India, and lamenting the death of Brown and Martyn, and the want of labourers where the fields were white to the harvest, while those who were to reap them were but few, and wholly unequal to the pleasing toils that were opening before them, he had hailed with joy the accession to the shores of India of those eminent servants of Christ, the two American missionaries Judson and Newell; and most deeply was he distressed to see them banished, by the arbitrary and disgraceful decree of the local government. It has never been alleged that they had interfered with political matters, or endangered the public peace; but it was sufficient to cause their deportation that they were Christian missionaries; being expelled by

the absurd jealousy which at that period closed India even to English missionaries, and caused the Baptist brethren to take shelter in the foreign settlement of Serampore. The majority of the authorities at the India-House supported the illiberal and unchristian policy of their Governor-General and his Council. Their nerves were not in the least disturbed by the immolation of widows, or those horrors of Juggernaut which helped to fill their coffers; but they were dreadfully alarmed at the thought of Christianity getting a footing in India; and prognosticated evils beyond expression which must ensue, should the light of the Gospel be brought to beam upon the native superstitions. But the petitions of the people of England, which covered the tables of both Houses of Parliament, forced the legislature and government to introduce a more enlightened system into the new Charter, and the unfulfilled prognostications only remain upon record as a lesson for the future. At the present moment the scene of petition has been removed from the East to the West, and the people of England have been demanding for the missionaries in Jamaica that toleration which it was then necessary to ask for those in India. We would not, however, advise the friends of religion to be too passive in regard to the present renewal of the Charter. They rely, and we doubt not they may do so safely, upon the right and Christian intentions of some of those upon whom the consideration of the intended plans will fall; but it is not to be disguised that there are in other quarters prejudices still unremoved; and, as a recent instance of the difficulties which still exist in the way of an enlightened course of legislation for India, we might allude to the difficulties which Mr. Grant has met with from the India-House in his efforts to abolish the Pilgrim Tax, and to add to the strength of the Episcopate. Commercial interests have not been inactive in their efforts to render the renewing of the Honourable Company's Charter as favourable as possible to their views; and we trust that the friends of religion will be equally vigilant in regard to whatever relates to the promotion of Christianity. The present moment is an important crisis in the history of India; and if a few judicious men of active piety, who are acquainted with the circumstances of that vast empire, would take the subject into deliberate consideration, it seems probable that they would be able to devise safe and practicable plans of religious benefit which have not yet been thought of, at least to any practical purpose.

Mr. Thomason's anxiety on the subject of the American missionaries is strongly depicted in the following passage.

"In the middle of October 1813, the Earl of Moira arrived at Fort William; and whilst the guns were announcing that he was in the midst of those he was to govern, Mr. Thomason with many other Christians was revolving whether a revocation might be obtained of that cruel edict which had expelled some missionaries, and had driven others to the outskirts of the empire. Our new Governor General,' Mr. Thomason says, 'is arrived. Hope is revived. His language will not I hope be altered by the climate of India: He comes with noble intentions and great promises. What he will do cannot be conjectured—but he is about to be put to a hard trial. The late Governor having peremptorily ordered all the missionaries away who came from America, they went to Bombay. There a government order followed them, commanding Sir Evan Nepean to send them off by the first opportunity. Sir Evan is their friend, but cannot resist authority. Mr. Udney, Dr. Carey, and myself, are about to prepare a memorial to the new government on the subject, entreating permission for the missionaries to reside quietly in the country. We should not have chosen so early and strong a test of Lord Moira's principles, if we had been left to our own judgment. But the ship in which the dear missionaries are ordered away is on the point of sailing. If speedy exertion be not made, they will be gone. May it please God to touch the heart of the Governor General, and incline him to comply with our request! They are good men, full of zeal, ripe for usefulness-the harvest great. The expense of their journeying already is enormous-what a reproach that a Christian government should turn them back, and sport with the best interests of its subjects!

"Ineffectual was this earnest appeal of Christian brethren. Messrs. Nott and Hall were compelled to leave India, and whilst withdrawing from a land which was not worthy of them, they put forth this vindication of their characters and principles. It was addressed to Sir Evan Nepean.

"We looked upon the heathen-and alas! though so many had passed away, three-fourths of the inhabitants of the globe had not been told that Jesus had tasted death for every man.' We saw them following their fathers in successive millions to eternal death. The view was overwhelming-the convictions of our own duty were as clear as noon-and our desire was ardent to bear to the dying heathen the glad tidings of great joy. Affected and convinced as we were though fastened to our country by the strongest ties; though we had aged parents to comfort, and beloved friends to enjoy; though urged by affectionate congregations to stay and preach the Gospel to them-we were compelled to leave all, and come to this land with the pros. pect of no temporal advantage, but with the prospect, nay certainty, of much temporal loss and even suffering, should our lot be cast under a heathen government. We were determined to deliver our message, at the hazard of every personal convenience or suffering, trusting in God, who guides the ways of all men, and willing to abide his allotments.

"Confident as we are of none other than the best intentions, we most earnestly hope, and anxiously desire and pray, that the time may not be distant, when we shall be freed from the painful duty of vindicating ourselves, and then shall enter with joy and thanksgiving upon that work for which we are already strangers and pilgrims, and have no certain dwelling-place; but the matter rests with God: on him we will endeavour quietly and patiently to wait; to him we will look to bear us through our present trials, to publish his own Gospel to the dying heathen, and to honour his dishonoured Son among all nations.'" pp. 209-212.

Mr. Thomason's interference in behalf of these men of God, though unsuccessful, was far from prejudicing him in the eyes of the Governor-General, who often attended the Mission-Church, notwithstanding its unfashionable character, and appointed its minister to perform stated service at Barrackpoor, his own country residence: he fixed upon him also to accompany him as chaplain, in a journey of state through the provinces; and, as yet a further proof of the manner in which he appreciated his talents and judgment, he commissioned him, in the early part of 1814, to draw up and submit to the government a plan for the education of the Indian population. We regret, however, to add, that this last particular formed for a considerable time another of Mr. Thomason's discouragements; for though the GovernorGeneral had expressed himself favourable to native education, and urged Mr. Thomason to draw out a plan for facilitating it, yet he afterwards, much to Mr. Thomason's grief, checked the design; till at length the impulse given, chiefly by Mr. Thomason's efforts, induced the natives themselves in 1816 to take it up, and to form the Hindoo College, precisely upon his proposed plan for instruction in the English language, in general literature, and science. We think it, however, very possible that Lord Moira (afterwards best known as Marquis Hastings) secretly promoted the object among a few influential natives, though he considered it prudent to avoid being seen in it, and even caused Mr. Harington to withdraw from the institution; whose retirement was followed, through the same influence, by that of Sir Edward East, the Chief Justice. How great an instrument of benefit this institution has proved to India is not unknown to those who have watched with anxious eye the progress of events in that country, and the avenues which are preparing for the triumphant march of Christianity throughout its vast extent. The college, being formed by the natives themselves, gave no cause of offence; even the Bishop of Calcutta's subscription being declined, lest it should lead to jealousy of European influence. The possibility of such a project would, a few years before, have been treated as chimerical, and its actual achievement far surpassed the most sanguine expectation of those who were most ardent for the diffusion of knowledge in the East. Mr. Thomason, with whom the design originated, though he had felt greatly disappointed for a time at the mortifying coldness with which his proposition was