"I should not have been writing to you by this mail, but that I received, two days ago, from Dr. Medhurst, the copy of the 'North China Herald,' which will be delivered to you, I hope, along with this. He asks me to send it on to you, as you would like to read the portion of the bishop's charge which is given in it. The reading of it filled me with astonishment; it is so much more decided and thoroughgoing than anything which could have been expected. "His views of the religion of China are precisely those which I have maintained and illustrated in my 'Notions,' &c.; and his giving up, first, his former idea of using TEEN-SHIN for God, and then his proposal to adopt the Roman Catholic term, TEEN-CHOо, and coming out, without reservation, with SHANG-TE for God, and SHIN for Spirit, are very creditable to his ingenuousness, and highly encouraging to us. "I am informed that after the delivery of the charge, the Church Missionaries at Shanghae and Ningpo all met and agreed to adopt the bishop's terms. Only one man demurred; and he, finally, gave in. So now, English Missionaries are very nearly of one mind, on this vexed question, and entirely of one practice. . . . . "This is a great triumph to us, or rather, an issue in which we cannot but greatly rejoice. The American camp is greatly troubled, and many are wavering. Should the men at NAN-KING finally triumph, the question will be speedily settled, and only Bishop Boone, Dr. Bridgman, and one or two more, will be obstinate enough to stick to their old colours." We participate strongly with our Missionary brethren in their joy; because we are convinced that they are right in the terms they have employed for "God" and "Spirit;" and because, moreover, we deem it an imperative duty in translators not to attempt to deprive the Chinese language of the words for "God" and "Spirit," when the soundest philology has shown that it possesses them. Our Missionary brethren are well entitled to a triumph which has been the result of their profound scholarship, and for which generations yet unborn will pronounce their names with reverence and gratitude. EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM A MEMBER OF THE REBEL ARMY AT NAN-KING. 66 "Two or three months ago," writes Dr. Legge, on the 26th November, 1853, a shoemaker here (Hong-Kong) showed me a letter from a relative, who is in the ranks of the rebel army at Nan-King. It was obviously the production of an unlettered man, but an enthusiast. I have joined,' writes he, this army, because God has raised up our true Lord to drive out the Tartars, and deliver China from idolatry. Our army is a holy army, and we are sure of success. Every morning and every evening, and at our meals, we pray to God. Formerly I was an idolater, and worthy of death, as you are now. Worship God! Go to some of the foreigners at Canton, and get a copy of God's Holy Book. That will teach you what to believe and what to do.' "Surely," observes Dr. Legge, a movement, in which such letters are go.. ing about through all China, must be regarded by us with intense solicitude." We may assure our Missionary brethren that many enlightened minds and warm hearts sympathize deeply with them, in their present interesting circumstances. Not a few, we trust, are pleading earnestly for China, and the Chinese Mission, at a throne of grace. The results of the appeals on the 22nd of January will show that the churches in this land are not indifferent to the claims of China. We believe they only require to be brought prominently forward, in order to secure a wide-spread and generous support. If ministers will but preach discourses to their flocks on the subject of China, the poorest of them will surprise them by their liberality. May the God of Missions raise up the men who are adapted to this sphere! INDIA. MISSIONARY TOUR IN BENGAL. THE Missionaries in this Presidency have adopted the excellent practice of making annual itinerancies in the country, for the purpose of disseminating, far and wide, a knowledge of the truth, by means of preaching, conversations, and discussions with the people, and the distribution of portions of the Scriptures and Christian tracts. With a view to encourage so important an object, the Calcutta Auxiliary Bible Society liberally supply the Missionaries with copies of the Scriptures in the languages suited to the districts they visit, and also, when necessary, pay the expenses of the journeys. In pursuance of this plan, our devoted Missionary Brother, the Rev. A. F. Lacroix, in December, 1852, and the two following months, accomplished a tour through the Zillahs (districts) of Rajshaye, Bogra, and Rungpore, all situated to the east of the Ganges. He was accompanied by Mr. Samuel Hill, and also by two native assistants, Gobindo Gir, a native of the Zillah of Rungpore, and Tara Prusad Chatterjee, one of the students of the Bhowanipore Institution at Calcutta. The expenses of the tour were, as on former occasions, defrayed by the Ladies' Missionary Association connected with the Established Church of Geneva, whose members, since Mr. Lacroix's visit to that city eleven years ago, have manifested the liveliest interest in the Bengal Mission. DEPARTURE. "We left Calcutta," writes Mr. Lacroix, "on the 13th December, 1852, in two boats, with a large supply of Scriptures and Tracts, and proceeded up the Hooghly and Matabhanga rivers with all the speed we could make; it being our aim to reach our appointed field of labour as soon as possible. We found the Matabhanga in some places almost dried up, and had occasionally great trouble in forcing our way through the numerous fleets of native boats detained by the shallowness of the water. In no former year have the various arms of the Ganges been so low. The Bhagirstty and the Jellinghy were entirely closed at the end of November; and from what we experienced, it was but too evident that the Matabhanga will soon share the same fate, when all the trade and communications between the Upper Provinces and Calcutta will have to be carried on through the Sunderbund rivers. "We had no alternative but to proceed down the Ganges for two days, as far as Pubna, intending to continue our journey eastward through the river of that name, when lo! on arriving at Pubna, we found the river through which we had hoped to pass not only shallow, but absolutely dried up; so that the magistrate had actually caused a carriage road to be constructed across its deserted bed. "After preaching in the Pubna bazar, visiting the government school at the station, and distributing many books, we were compelled to sail down the Ganges as far as its junction with the Berhampooter, by ascending which we might, without difficulty, prosecute our journey eastward. This we accomplished; but instead of going through Rajshaye and Bogra, we had to content ourselves with merely coasting those districts, and finally penetrated through the river Titsa, to some distance into the Zillah of Rungpore. "The Berhampooter, or rather its principal branch, called the Joboona, which we ascended, is an immense river, at this time of the year filled with innumerable sandbanks, and so wide, that at particular spots it was with difficulty the opposite shore could be discerned. Owing to the periodical inundations of this great river, there are but few villages immediately on its shores, nearly all of them being erected at a considerable distance inland, and often of very difficult access, which prevented us from visiting as many of them as we could have wished. There are, however, on the Berhampooter and its branch streams several large 'Gunges,' such as Jaffir-Gunge, Seraj-Gunge, DewanGunge, Manik-Gunge, and others which offer excellent opportunities of usefulness; these Gunges' being vast emporiums of trade, and resorted to by immense numbers of boats from all parts of the country. Such of these Gunges' as we were able to visit formed the principal sphere of our labours during this excursion. POPULATION. "The parts we visited appeared very populous. The features of the inhabitants differ but little from those of the Bengalis residing more to the westward. The farther, however, we proceeded towards the East, the more strikingly it appeared that there was an intermixture of the Mongolian with the pure Hindoo race; the high cheek-bones and peculiar cast of countenance of the former being easily recognizable in many individuals. In the district of Rungpore we observed not a few women with goitres-a very unusual sight in other parts of Bengal. This peculiarity, it is supposed, is owing to the use of the water of rivers proceeding from the Thibet mountains, and which are fed by melted snow; but if this be the case, it still remains unaccountable that the goitre should be almost entirely confined to females, whilst the males are scarcely ever afflicted with this deformity. "The people are very simple, timid, and easily overawed in the presence of a superior. The daily hire of a field labourer ranges from one and a half to two Annas (twopence farthing to threepence); but, on the other hand, living is very cheap; two and a half Maunds (two hundred pounds weight) of coarse rice being sold for one Rupee (two shillings). The produce of the country consists chiefly of rice, sugar-cane, indigo, tobacco, beetle-nut, hemp, linseed, mustardseed, ginger, turmeric, chillies, and several kinds of pulse. The universal language is Bengali; but a nasal twang and a very peculiar intonation of the concluding words of a sentence characterise the inhabitants of East Bengal, and at once betray their origin wherever they go. We found few schools among them; nevertheless numbers were able to read; it being a practice for shopkeepers and others, in their leisure hours, to teach two or three of their neighbours' sons along with their own. The females are very retired, and scarcely any but those of the very lowest classes were seen abroad. "The Mahometans in these eastern districts preponderate over the Hindoos; but from their appearance and habits they evidently were originally Hindoos who, during the Mahometan rule, must have been compelled to embrace Islamism. They have retained many of the Hindoo habits and superstitions, and in general know but little of their own religion. Among those who are better acquainted than the rest with its tenets, many have of late years become Ferajees, which is a sect much like the Wahabites in Arabia, who reject all traditions, holding the Koran only as the revealed word of God, and as possessing any authority; and may therefore, with some propriety, be called Mahometan Protestants. We "Among the Hindoos, there seemed to be fewer learned Brahmins than I had seen in other parts of Bengal. This is perhaps the reason why the people are divided into endless sects, some professing the most absurd tenets; though all, at the same time, hold the present system of idolatry in less reverence than the orthodox Hindoos. found these sectarians in general exhibiting a certain feeling of doubt and dissatisfaction in regard to their religious state and a hankering after something better, which feeling, in my opinion, renders them more fit and better prepared for Christian instruction than their more orthodox brethren, who are, alas! but too often content to remain what they are. "I will now make a few extracts from my Journal relating to our labours among these interesting people. A NATIVE POLICE OFFICER FROM A MIS SIONARY SCHOOL. "December 23rd.-On the Matabhanga river. Came in sight of what appeared at a distance an immense fleet of boats at anchor; but on drawing near found that they had all stuck in the mud owing to the shallowness of the water. They were so jammed together as to occupy the whole breadth of the river for a considerable distance, without leaving even the narrowest passage for any lighter boat that might come up; and, what was worse, the crews which manned these boats would not make the least exertion to open one. After ineffectually toiling for some time to get through, we espied on the shore a native police officer, to whom we beckoned to come to our assistance. He immediately came, and after great exertions eventually managed to open a way for us, and so we passed on. We were much pleased with this man, and his manner of dealing with the indolent boat people who obstructed our progress. Unlike most of his brethren of the same calling, he never once resorted to violence or abuse; but by kind and encouraging words, and skilful directions, got the boats' crews to bestir themselves to open a passage, in doing which he eventually, as stated above, proved quite successful. When he left us, we gave him a trifle in money in token of our satisfaction, and two Bengali Tracts, at the same time commending him for his behaviour to the people. On this, he told us that he had been brought up in one of the Missionary Schools at Kishnagur, where he had learned many good things which he still remembered. This at once showed us the reason of his superior conduct in the discharge of his duty, and afforded us a pleasing evidence of the beneficial influence exercised over the population by Christian instruction. OPEN DOORS FOR THE MESSENGERS OF MERCY. "December 28th.-Arrived at Pubna, a civil station, and the chief place of the district of that name. It contains a very large bazar, to which we proceeded, dividing ourselves into two parties. Tara went with me, and Gobindo accompanied Mr. Hill. Seeing a fine open place, I engaged in ordinary conversation with one of the shopkeepers, not doubting but this would soon attract a crowd, and was not mistaken; for I had barely spoken five minutes, when we were surrounded by a large assembly. Then, gradually giving the conversation a religious turn, I ended by addressing the whole of the people, pressing on them the necessity of seeking that meat which perisheth not, and those treasures which neither moth nor rust can corrupt. The people listened with great attention, and said they had never heard of these things before, nor of the Saviour they were admonished to take to as their refuge. We distributed among them all the Tracts we had brought with us; but the supply was scarcely adequate to the demand, so numerous were the applications. It was a gratifying sight, immediately after we had done with the distribution, to observe a number of persons sitting down together, when one of them read aloud the book he had received, for the benefit of the rest. "Mr. Hill and Gobindo were equally suecessful, and addressed two congregations in different parts of the bazar. In the afternoon, several young men who are studying English in the Government School came to our boat, asking for English New Testaments, which request we cheerfully complied with, in the hope that the contents of that holy book may furnish them with instruction tending to benefit their immortal souls, which is denied them in the institutions supported by Government. THE HIGH CASTE CHRISTIAN YOUTH RELIEVING AN AGED BEGGAR WOMAN. "December 31st.-Reached the junction of the Ganges and Berhampooter, or Joboona. We made a halt to alter the rigging of our boats, which-our course being now against the stream-must be made fit to have them pulled by means of a long rope along the shore. While our boats' crews were so employed, we observed at a short distance on the beach what appeared the lifeless body of an old woman, with only a few rags covering it. On getting near, however, we saw that the old woman still breathed, and on calling her aloud, she slowly sat up, and with a feeble voice told us she was a poor beggar |