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regarded by the people as consecrated carried out against the customs and beings. But when the appointed moment arrived, and the Meriah victim was made fast to the post, none spared him, nor were they satisfied until their fields had been sprinkled with his blood. Then Tari was with confidence invoked

"O Tari Pennu! You have afflicted us greatly; have brought death to our children and our bullocks, and failure to our corn ;-have afflicted us in every way. But we do not complain of this. It is your desire only to compel us to perform your due rites, and then to raise up and enrich us. We were anciently enriched by this rite: all around us are great from it: therefore, by our cattle, our flocks, our pigs, and our grain, we procured a victim and offered a sacrifice. Do you now enrich us. Let our herds be so numerous that they cannot be housed; let children so abound, that the care of them shall overcome their parents, as shall be seen by their burned hands; let our heads ever strike against brass pots innumerable hanging from our roofs; let the rats form their nests of shreds of scarlet cloth and silk; let all the kites in the country be seen in the trees of our village, from beasts being killed there every day. We are ignorant of what it is good to ask for. You know what is good for us. to us !''*

Give it

It is with thankfulness and gratification we refer to the energetic efforts put forth by the British authorities for the suppression of this rite, and the great degree of success with which they have been crowned. A mode of procedure was adopted at once decided and conciliatory. The despotic plan of crushing the system by bullets was rejected as impracticable and cruel. Simultaneously with the efforts to put down the Meriah sacrifices, measures were adopted for the suppression of female infanticide.

These were necessary measures; yet enforced by authority, and,

* Macpherson, p. 47.

wishes of the people, they were resisted. An armed intervention became requisite, and blood was shed. In this the gospel procedure stands pre-eminent. It accomplishes wondrous changes in the customs of races, without the necessity of resorting to carnal weapons. It is by a gentle persuasive influence on the man, enlightening his understanding, and so correcting his views and feelings, that such changes are effected. The man becomes convinced of the enormity of his old practices, and of himself abandons them.

On the restoration of tranquillity the British authorities resumed their efforts for the suppression of the barbarous practices which had so long prevailed amongst this people, and with increasing success. Tribe after tribe yielded obedience. Since the first war in Goomsur upwards of 2000 Meriah victims have been saved, and female infanticide has greatly diminished. In the infanticide district of Suradah, containing 2150 families, there were, in 1848, less than 50 female children. In the beginning of 1853, in the same district, there were 900 girls under four years of age.-The Church Missionary Intelligencer.

REMARKABLE CASE OF A

POOR CRIPPLE.

VERY seldom do the records of the world present a case exhibiting more strikingly the power of Christian faith, than does the following narrative, furnished by Dr. Dwight, of Constantinople. Visiting different missionary stations in Western Asia, Dr. Dwight came to Killis, an outstation of Aleppo, and he writes:

"I witnessed in Killis a most remarkable spectacle. We heard that a poor cripple had been brought there lately, from a place in the Taurus mountains, called Eyber, about two

Remarkable Case of a Poor Cripple.

359

days' ride distant, and that he was re- | Testament by his side, and from time joicing in the hope of the gospel. to time comforts his desolate heart We (Mr. Goss and myself) called by reading from its sacred pages. upon him. The hovel that he was in He appears to be somewhat over fifty would not have been considered fit years of age. Truly, here is a miracle for animals in America. It was con- of grace! I asked him if he felt that structed of mud, had only the ground his sins were forgiven? Yes,' said for a floor, and was composed of a he, 'by the grace of God our Saviour, single low room. He was lying on Jesus Christ, I have found peace. I his back, with nothing under him but have no hope in anything else but a piece of coarse hair bagging; and Christ, but through Him I have peace his head was supported by a very and joy.' He said he had no fear of small and thin straw pillow, resting death left, but was ready to depart upon a pile of stones. He was covered whenever it should be God's will. I with rags and filth, and his bodily inquired particularly about the terms infirmities were calculated to excite on which the sinner can be admitted our deepest commiseration. His to heaven. Said he, 'It is all by the bony hands were drawn firmly to- free grace of God. Nothing that the gether, so that he could by no means sinner can do can ever avail to puropen them, and his elbows were quite chase pardon and eternal life. Even stiff. The flesh was gone from both if he were to collect a heap of silver hands and arms, and I presume, in a as high as from earth to heaven, it great measure, from his whole body. would all avail nothing.' If ever there was in this world an object of pity, that man was such an object. And yet, from the time we entered the room until we left it, he never uttered one word of complaint, never even spoke of his pains and sufferings, or of his poverty; but his whole conversation and his whole appearance were those of a most perfectly contented, cheerful, and happy man! For twenty years he had been in this crippled condition, unable to move his limbs; and previously he was a robber, and lived by his own wickedness.

"Four years ago, while in his mountain village, he first heard of the Protestants. Subsequently, some copies of the New Testament found their way to his village, and one of them was read from in his hearing. A native Protestant first explained to him the gospel way of salvation; and, two years ago, he thinks he received, by faith, the Lord Jesus Christ; and ever since he has been filled with peace and joy.

"Many a king and emperor might well envy him his lot. Within the last year, notwithstanding all the disabilities and discouragements of his condition, he has actually learned to read, and now he keeps the New

"O what power there is in the gospel of Christ, to enlighten and transform so dark a mind, and to put hope, and life, and peace into such a soul! A few years ago he was an ignorant, degraded, hardened and abandoned wretch. And now, if

anybody were to look into his hovel, and see him drawn up and withered by disease, and often racked with pain, lying neglected upon the hard ground, he would feel that he was the most miserable of all human beings. And yet there are few happier men in this wide world! I went there hoping to impart some good, but I received far more than I gave, I went hoping that I might afford some little consolation, but he became God's instrument in greatly comforting my own soul.

"We do not yet know what great results may follow the conversion of this one man. The leaven is spreading in the mountain village from which he came.

It has now become an out-station of Aintab, and ten Armenian families have already declared themselves Protestants. It seems plain that this is the work of the Holy Spirit, and we have reason to expect that it will extend through all that part of the mountains." News of the Churches.

BIBLE TRANSLATION

SOCIETY.

THE Committee of the Bible Translation Society have recently made the following grants in aid of the translation of the Scriptures by Baptist

missionaries.

by Mr. Buckley, of the General Baptist Missionary Society, the sum of £200. Towards the new version in Cingalese, by Mr. Carter, of Ceylon, £150; and towards the translations by Mr. Saker into the Camaroon language the sum of £100, making a total of £850.

W. W. EVANS,

Towards the translations in Bengalli, Hindosthani, Sanskirt, and Hindi, the sum of £400. Towards the new version in Oriya, 33, Moorgate Street, London.

Secretary.

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Subscriptions and Donations in aid of the General Baptist Missionary Society will be thankfully received by Robert Pegg, Esq., Treasurer, Derby; and by the Rev. J. C. Pike, Secretary, Quorndon, near Loughborough, from whom also Missionary Boxes, Collecting Boxes, and Cards may be obtained.

THE

GENERAL BAPTIST

MAGAZINE.

OCTOBER, 1 8 6 1.

THE CAREY CENTENARY.

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be lost. By attending this meeting so argued my friend somewhat profanely we should contribute our small share towards honouring the memory of one of the noblest and best of men, and, at the same time, run down a large number of really fine lions,' and probably bag a few small birds into the bargain. There was the splendid new Tabernacle, we should see that; there was what the metropolitan Baptist appeared to designate a 'soiree,' we should be able to note wherein that differed from a plain country tea meeting;" there were the Revs. Mr. Hinton, and Chown, and Tucker, and the great Son of Thunder, Mr. Spurgeon himself; we should see and hear them all. So the afternoon of Monday, August 19th, found us threading our way on foot through a crowded labyrinth of streets from one well-known point to another, from the Angel, in Islington, to the Elephant and Castle, on the Surrey side. Though unmistakeably from the country' we had been in London some time, and had accustomed ourselves to its thoroughfares and its busy roar of life; we were also getting inured to our work of lion

EVERY Country cousin when he visits the great metropolis goes, as a matter of course, through a most laborious and exhaustive round of sight-seeing. He must see all the 'lions,' hear all the great guns,' and do' all the places of note, if possible, at whatever tax on his power of physical endurance, or whatever expenditure of locomotive energy. Should he be a considerate and thoughtful man he will, therefore, lay out his plans with a due regard to economy of time and strength, and will endeavour to kill two or three birds with one stone, and accomplish many wonders in one excursion. It happened to us in our visit to London, in August last, to read an announcement on a large placard to the effect that the Baptist Young Men's Missionary Society would hold a soiree and public meeting, in the Metropolitan Tabernacle, in honour of the hundredth anniversary of Dr. Carey's birth, and that the Revs. J. H. Hinton, J. P. Chown, F. Tucker, B.A., and C. H. Spurgeon himself would address the meeting. Here, we thought, was an opportunity to metropolitan visitors, and to Baptists too, who believe in the great com-izing. On the Monday previous, we mission which sent Dr. Carey to India, an opportunity too good to VOL. II.-NEW SERIES, No. 10.

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had paid our respects to Du Chaillu's well- stuffed and shaggy coated

gorilla, that grins at the visitor as soon as he mounts the stairs at the British Museum, and makes one feel that if he is the nearest approach to man of the baboon race, the gulf between us is, thank Heaven, wide enough after all; the gorillas may grin over it for ever, they cannot pass to us that would come from thence.' The week before that we had seen the huge hippopotami at the Zoological Gardens, blowing like blacksmith's bellows and snorting like wild elephants, as they lay disporting themselves in their muddy pool, with only their hideous-looking heads out of the water. To-day we have before us another kind of task, and our reflections are somewhat in harmony with the occasion, as we wend our way to the Tabernacle. We pass over Blackfriar's Bridge, and take a glimpse, a fond one, at old Father Thames. There beneath us he rolls along as venerable as ever; but alas! for our classic taste, this utilitarian age will make beasts of burden of its rivers, and those beautiful epithets of limpid,' 'glassy,' 'translucent,' 'silvery,' and 'divine,' so often applied to the streams of yore, will not apply to him. He may be, as Milton calls him, royaltower'd Thame,' but he is as black as Acheron, and as terrible as Styx. Those naked little urchins that are dipping themselves in the stream, and frolicing on the bank, are of that peculiar genus known as 'the London boy,' and they are dyeing their dirt skin deep, or tanning their living hides in the strong waters of the muddy Thames. The waternymphs with amber-dropping hair' and pearled wrists,' and tinsel slippered feet,' of whom that halfheathen poet Milton speaks as a power

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"That with moist curb sways the smooth Severn stream,'

have not even been thought of, in the memory of the oldest inhabitant, in connection with the Thames; and when any unfortunate damsel plunges into his cross-flowing course' she is not borne

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'Straight to aged Nereus' hall; Who, piteous of her woes, rears her lank head, And gives her to his daughters to imbathe In nectar'd lavers, strew'd with asphodel.' These are the poetic fancies of darker days; the enlightenment of the nineteenth century discards them, sings its' Bridge of Sighs,' and turns the glassy, cool, translucent wave' into a sewer. Nevertheless, that we live in an age of progress those 'penny steamers' plying briskly to and fro, and that 'express' boat with a flaunting flag at its head, that drives at a furious rate from London bridge to Westminster, sufficiently prove. But what mean those heavily-laden craft, panting and puffing in the river, and crammed with human beings thick as bees in a hive? They are going to Battersea. The 'female Blondin' walks to day on a tight rope across the Thames from Battersea to Cremorne, and that anxious and eager crowd rushes off to see the performance, and Watt's steam engine and Fulton's steam boat are pressed into service to carry them thither. Is it cynical to say, as my friend did, 'What a moral may we read here on the refinement and progress of these latter days, when such exhibitions are popular, and the charms even of the Palace of Light at Sydenham have to be sup plemented, and the gardens dis figured, by the 'hero of the Niagara,' as he calls himself, who has crossed that deep channel on a tight rope, and cooked an omelet in the very thunder and mist of the falls! And what materials are we furnishing to the Carlyle of the future who shall undertake to speak of the "heroes and hero worshippers" of these advanced and enlightened days, when Blondin's world-renowned conquest in cookery at Niagara is followed by the wild flight of uprisen sons of Puritans and the great stampede of the grand army of the Potomac at Bull's Run! O tempora, O mores.'

With a suggestion to our friend to have done with such satire, for the nineteenth century had other heroes, and we were about to join in the celebration of the birth of one who

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