134 ARCHDEACON ROBINSON. college, their preparation for the church is sedulously kept in view. When I saw one hundred and three boys thus educated by one clergyman, in so many different branches of learning almost all of which were totally unknown to them a few years ago, I could not help viewing it as an institution of incalculable value and importance." CHAPTER X. THE DANISH MISSIONS. MISSION ΤΟ TRANQUEBAR-EUROPEAN SOCIETY-REGARD FOR THE HEATHEN-TAMUL LANGUAGE-ROMAN CONVERTS-DAILY STUDIES-PECUNIARY EMBARRASSMENTS-CHRISTIAN KNOW LEDGE SOCIETY-LETTER OF GEORGE I.-DEATH OF ZEIGEN- SUCCESS-BAPTISM-ARUNASALAM -CASTE-BISHOP WILSON-REFORM. Ar the time that Asia was laid open to the zeal and enterprise of the western nations, an East India Company was established in Denmark; and some of its citizens tried their fortune at Tranquebar. Though the speculation did not succeed, and the company were obliged to resign their charter into the hands of the sovereign; the factory thus established was maintained by the state; a governor and other subordinate officers were appointed; the undertaking continued to flourish under more powerful auspices; and many of the subjects of Copenhagen became rich, in consequence of their commerce with their settlement on the coast of Coromandel. Frederick, who reigned at the beginning of the eighteenth century, appears to have been a wise and a benevolent prince, and at the suggestion of Dr. Lutkens, he determined on establishing a mission for the conversion of the heathen at Tranquebar. Though many difficulties arose; Providence evidently favoured the design by raising up two young men, endowed with eminent zeal, piety, self-denial, and devotedness to take the lead in the arduous work. No Christian soldiers were more fitted, by gifts and grace, for their sacred enterprise, than Zeigenbalgh and Plutscho; nor could they be excelled in the spirit with which they entered upon the field. After their arrival at Tranquebar, discouragements soon attended their steps. Like all Europeans who visited India in those days, their own countrymen were more intent upon making fortunes, than on setting examples of virtue to the heathen. They scorned, they calumniated, they persecuted the missionaries; they hated them for the truth's sake that was in them, and for the testimony which they bore against their works of darkness; and on one occasion, the governor arrested Zeigenbalgh, and confined him four months in prison. Such scandalous conduct would have been little to the missionaries, had it only affected themselves. But alas! it had most injurious effects upon the cause of God among the heathen, and it therefore wounded them the more. The language of the natives, expressed in their bad English, used then to be, “Christian religion, devil religion; Christian much drunk, Christian much do wrong, much beat and much abuse others." "Truly," says an author of that day, "it is a sad sight there, to behold a drunken Christian, and a sober Indian; a temperate Indian, and a Christian given up to his appetite; an Indian that is just and square in his dealings, and a Christian that is overreaching and exorbitant; a laborious Indian and an idle Christian, as if he were born only to fold his hands. O what a sad thing it is for Christians to come short of Indians, even in moralities! come short of those who themselves believe to come short of heaven." Nor was this all. But these very Danes who ought to have supported the truth, scoffed at Christianity, laughed at the heathen who became anxious about their salvation, and told them often that they were better in their own religion, than to make themselves mean and contemptible by embracing ours. But amidst evil report and good report; troubled on every side, yet not distressed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in their body, the dying of the Lord Jesus; the brethren persevered in their course; they were willing to suffer all things for the elects' sake, and continued therefore, to preach the word in season, and out of season. It does one's heart 138 FAITH AMIDST TRIALS. good to record their sentiments amidst the howling of the storm. "At this rate," say they, "the word of God runs on amain. Our congregation consists of sixtythree persons, and another is to be baptized tomorrow. We hope more will shortly come over; there being a pretty many up and down, who have already received a favourable impression of the Christian religion. There is a blind man in our congregation, endued with a large measure of the spirit of God, who begins to be very serviceable to us in the catechising of others. He has such a holy zeal for Christianity, that every one is astonished at his fervent and affectionate delivery in points of religion. We cannot express what a tender love we bear to our new-planted congregation. Nay our love is arrived in that degree, and our forwardness to serve this nation, has come to that pitch, that we are resolved to live and die with them. I am sure you would wonder, if we should give you an account at large of all the oppositions we have met with hitherto. Yet all these engines set on work by the devil, have only served the more gloriously to display the works of God, and to unite us the nearer to him who is the only support of all the distressed. Heathens and Mahometans are kind enough to us, notwithstanding we have all along laid open to them, the vanity of their idolatries, and superstitious worship. But those that pretend to be Christians and are |