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 BV 3265 .C425 1846 
 Chambers, James. 
 Bishop Heber and Indian 
 missions 
 
BISHOP HEBER 
 
 INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 REV. JAMES CHAMBERS, B.A. 
 
 LATE OF ALL SOULS' COLLEGE, OXFORD. 
 
 LONDON: 
 JOHN W. PARKER, WEST STRAND. 
 
 M DCCCXLVI. 
 
" Ram boweth down, 
 Creeshna and Seva stoop, 
 The Arabian moon must wane to wax no mo:-e. 
 And Isbmael's seed redeemed. 
 And Esau's to their brotherhood, 
 And to their better birthright then restored, 
 Shall within Israel's covenant be brought." 
 
 " How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth 
 good tidings, that publisheth peace ; that bringeth good tidings of good, 
 that publisheth salvation." 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The history of Christian missions is full of a high 
 and enduring interest. After it, all other histories 
 seem poor and uninteresting. They are full of 
 battles, and disappointed ambition, and successful 
 intrigue, and cunninir state-craft. Almost all the 
 actors in their scenes seem to be influenced by low 
 and selfish, or, at the best, by very mixed motives. 
 They will not bear looking into. Then everything 
 is so full of change. Kings are made and unmade; 
 cities and empires pass away, as if they had never 
 been — all is restless unquiet. There is nothing 
 done to last. 
 
 How different is the history of the church's feeble 
 efforts to fulfil her Lord's last command. There is, 
 indeed, on the outside often the mutability, and 
 strife, and tumult which mark earthly enterprises ; 
 but it is only on the outside. We must look beyond 
 this, even into the secret sanctuary of the redeemed 
 soul. There is established a spiritual kingdom — 
 immortal as the soul itself — indestructible — ever 
 perpetuating itself, amid the revolutions and downfall 
 of human dynasties. There Christ sitteth enthroned. 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 Thus the history of missions tells of the gradual 
 approach of that universal reign of love and truth 
 with which the Saviour shall rule a regenerated 
 world. 
 
 In the annals of the propagation of the Christian 
 ftiith we find fresh proofs of its divinity. We read 
 therein the fulfilment of those prophecies which 
 foretold that Jesus the Redeemer "should have 
 dominion from sea to sea," and that " He should be 
 for salvation to the ends of the earth." 
 
 "By this persevering mission, and by the re- 
 generating labour of the Apostolate, the youth and 
 glory of the church are unceasingly renewed; the 
 beauty of the ancient days is perpetuated, and at 
 the same time, it stands proved that civilization is 
 inseparable from Christianity; that exists not where 
 this has not appeared; that disappears when this is 
 removed. 
 
 " It has been said, and it is true, ' no single 
 country can be named in which the torch of the 
 Gospel has been extinguished, which has not fallen 
 back into barbarism.' 
 
 " On its track with virtue and truth are seen to 
 appear the sciences, civilization, and all the benefi- 
 cent institutions. While these great hearts, urged 
 by zeal, seem to obey only the sublime instinct of 
 the Apostolate which pushes them on, they carry 
 with them at the same time, and dispense to a dis- 
 tance on foreign shores, all the moral and charitable 
 influences ; they inspire into the people the love of 
 order, moderation, justice, true liberty, and all the 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 social virtues whicli lend tlieir real dignity and 
 their sweetness to the affections of family and of 
 country." 
 
 In the lives, too, of those holy men who forsook 
 all and followed Christ, braving the perils of sea and 
 land that they might rear his cross on barbarous 
 shores, we find noble examples of Cliristian cha- 
 racter. It is in the work of the Apostolate — in its 
 self-denying toils and sufferings, that ardent and 
 generous souls, filled with a restless thirst for action, 
 when converted, find their true vocation. 
 
 " Immortal thanks be given for it to Heaven, 
 there have still not been wanting among us— there 
 never will be \vanting, those hearts of apostles, who, 
 tearing themselves from all the bonds of family and 
 country, go wath joy to the extremities of the world 
 to carry the good news of the Gospel." Beautiful 
 on the mountains — yea, bright as the sun when he 
 first riseth over their tops, are the feet of those 
 humble men who are beheld coming from afar, 
 bringing heavenly peace, declaring eternal good 
 things, preaching salvation, and saying — "O ye 
 people, buried in the shadow of death, lo ! your God 
 shall reign over you!" 
 
 Of the many fields of missionary labour, none 
 present so many claims to our attention — none are 
 so white already to the harvest as Hindoostan. Its 
 political and commercial relations with our own 
 country — its vast extent of territory, and the num- 
 ber of its population, joined to the peculiar character 
 of a religion which makes it the stronghold of 
 
Tl PREFACE. 
 
 polytheism, invest all attemi^ts to introduce the 
 Gospel with a remarkable interest. 
 
 Beset on all 'sides with the greatest difficulties, 
 and opposed by all the jDowers of evil, the mis- 
 sionaries of Christ have succeeded in planting in 
 these regions the seeds of Christian doctrine. They 
 have watered them with tears and blood. The dews 
 of the Holy Spirit have descended upon them. 
 They are growing .up into trees of life, which shall 
 bear health-giving fruit for the nations. Beneath 
 their tutelary shadow, the people shall find rest and 
 shelter. 
 
 What tale can, then, be more interesting than the 
 story of that holy warfare which the church has 
 Avaged with the Evil One in India. What lives more 
 interesting than theirs who occupied the van in this 
 noble conflict? Bright as the morning, and terrible 
 as an army with banners, is the missionary church 
 in India. Of its triumphs, and of the lives of some 
 of those who bore its banners, and unfolded to the 
 people the consecrated standards on which the sign 
 of the blessed cross was emblazoned, these joages 
 present a faint and meagre outline. 
 
 Yet will they suffice to show the course of God's 
 providence — the blessed effects of Christianity — the 
 presence of Christ with his followers— the greatness 
 of the work of the Apostolate. 
 
 To speak in the words of the blessed Fenelon — 
 " Immense regions opened themselves on a sudden 
 — a new world unknown to the ancients. . . . Be- 
 ware well of thinking that so great a discovery was 
 
PREFACE. VU 
 
 owing to the mere boldness of men. God gave to 
 men's passions, even when they appear to determine 
 everything, only what is needful to make them the 
 instruments of his designs; thus man disturbs him- 
 self, but God guides him. The faith planted in 
 India amidst so many storms does not fail to bear 
 fruits there. 
 
 " What remains ? People of the extremities of 
 the East, your hour is come. Alexander, that rapid 
 conqueror, whom Daniel represents as not touching 
 the earth with his feet — he who was so eager to 
 subjugate the whole world, stopped short far on this 
 side of you; but charity goes much further than 
 pride. Neither the burning sands, nor the deserts, 
 nor the mountains, nor the distance of places, nor 
 the tempests, nor the rocks of so many seas, nor the 
 hostile fleets, nor the barbarous coasts, are able to 
 stop those whom God sends. "Who are these that 
 fly as the clouds ? Winds, carry them upon your 
 wings. Behold these new conquerors who come 
 with no other arms than the cross of their Saviour." 
 
 This little volume contains an introductory chap- 
 ter on the geography and physical characteristics of 
 India; the habits of life, religion, and languages of 
 the Hindoos; a sketch of Indian missions up to the 
 death of Bishop Middleton; a life of Reginald 
 Heber, Bishop of Calcutta; and a brief notice of 
 the progress of Indian missions from his death, in 
 1826, to the present time. 
 
 Among the works which have furnished materials 
 for these pages, and to which the reader may refer 
 
vili PREFACE. 
 
 for further information, are — La Crozes' Histoire 
 du Christianisme des Indes; Fabricius ' Lux Evan- 
 gelii; the India Orientalis Christiana of Paulinus; 
 the Letters of the Abbe Dubois, on the State of 
 Christianity in Lidia; Professor Lee's History of 
 the Syrian Church; Geddes' History of the Church 
 of Malabar; Dean Pearson's Life of Schwartz; Le 
 Bas's Life of Bishop Middleton ; Buchanan's Christian 
 Eesearches; Hough's History of Christianity in India, 
 of which only two volumes are published; Carne's 
 Lives of Eminent Missionaries; Gowrea's History 
 of Menezes; theworksof J. S. Apeman; Tennant's 
 Thoughts on India; the Lives and Journals of 
 Heber, Martyn, Brown, Barnes, &c. &c.; Grant's 
 Bampton Lectures, the Reports of the Christian 
 Knowledge, Church Missionary, and other Societies; 
 and for the earlier period, passim the Ecclesiastical 
 Histories of Eusebius, Socrates, Du Pin, Milner, 
 Cave, Fleury, Burton, Mosheim, Lardner, &c. 
 
 I have mentioned these, that the reader wdio feels 
 an interest in the history of the church in India, 
 may know where to go for materials to fill up the 
 faint outline presented by this little book. 
 
P2IUG5T0n 
 
 ^' 
 
 THSOLOGICili 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Geographical boundaries — Territorial and political divi- 
 sions — The three Presidencies, Bengal, Madras, 
 Bombay — Calcutta, Serampoor, Delhi, Benares — 
 General aspect of the country — Domestic habits — 
 Employments — Character of natives — Brahminism 
 Boodism — Vedas and Shastres — Languages — Dia- 
 lects p. 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Did an Apostle visit India? — Mark the Evangelist — 
 Pantsenus of Alexandria — Johannes, Bishop of Persia 
 and India — Indian church episcopal — Cosraas Indi- 
 copleustes — Nestorianism — Goa — Mission of Francis 
 Xavier — His life and death — Armenians — Syrian 
 church of Malabar — Papal encroachments on its 
 liberty — Menezes Synod of Darapier — Madura 
 mission — Pondicherry mission — State of Roman 
 missions up to the present time — Failure of Roman 
 missions in India — Its cause 26 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Responsibility of Christian governments for the spiritual 
 interests of their colonies — Oliver Cromwell's mis- 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 sionary scheme — Dean Prideaux — Dutch missions 
 to India — Danish missions — Swartz — Christian 
 Knowledge Society's mission — Chaplains of East 
 India Company — Memorial of Christian Knowledge 
 Society — Discussion in House of Commons — Mr. 
 Wilberforce — Provision for episcopal superinten- 
 dence of the Indian church — Bishop Middleton — His 
 regulation of the church — His death — Succession 
 of Bishop Heber p. 52 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Completeness of Bishop Heber's character — His child- 
 hood — Anecdotes — School-days — Entered at Bra- 
 sennose — Carmen Seculare — Palestine — Essay on 
 Sense of Honour — Elected a Fellow of All Souls — 
 Tour through Norway, Sweden, &c. — Swedish 
 scenery — Qilsterval peasants — Archbishop Plato — 
 Good Friday among the Cossaks — Hungarian Latin 
 
 — Returns home — Receives holy orders — Marries 
 
 — Appointed Barapton Lecturer — Preacher at Lin- 
 coln's-Inn — Life as a parish priest — Edition of 
 Jeremy Taylor's Works — Accepts Bishopric of Cal- 
 cutta — Farewell letter to his mother 88 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Arrives at Calcutta — First Indian impressions — 
 Bishop's College — First visitation — A river journey — 
 Pictures of Indian life and scenery — Letter to Miss 
 Stowe — Lines to his wife — An evening walk to 
 Bengal — Entrance to Benares — Prayer on recovery 
 from illness — Mountain scenes — Emperor of Delhi 
 — Bombay — Climate — Ceylon — Palm-trees — 
 Importance of visitations — Returns to Calcutta — 
 Abdul Mussul — Second visitation — Madras — 
 Vepery — S. Thomas — Caste — Pondicherry — Tan- 
 
CONTENTS. Xi 
 
 jore Missions — TrichiDopoly — Death — Character 
 of Bishop Heber — His writings — Honours paid to 
 his memory — Lines by R. Southey p. 104 
 
 CHAPTER Vr. 
 
 Peculiar difficulties of Indian bishops — Necessity of 
 subdividing the see of Calcutta — Memorial of Chris- 
 tian Knowledge Society — Success of this measure — 
 Cathedral — Importance of general education — 
 Bishop Wilson — Prospects of the East. .... 140 
 
THEOLOGICAL/ 
 
 BISHOP HEBER, 
 AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Geographical boundaries — Territorial and political divisions 
 — The three Presidencies, Bengal, Madras, Bombay 
 — Calcutta, Serarapoor, Delhi, Benares — General aspect 
 of the country — Domestic habits — Employments — Cha- 
 racter of natives — Brahminism — Boodhism — Vedas and 
 Shastres — Languages — Dialects. 
 
 INDIA,^ Hindoostan,2 or the East Indies, as it is 
 called, to distinguish it from the West Indian 
 group of islands, is nearly comprehended between 8° 
 and 35° of north latitude, and 69° and 92° of east 
 longitude. It is a triangular-shaped country, and is 
 bounded on the north by the snow-clad range of the 
 Himaleh mountains — so called from heem^ an Indian 
 word meaning snow; on the west, by the river 
 Indus and the Indian ocean; on the south, by the 
 
 * Derived from Indus, the great western river. 
 
 - This word is of Persian origin, being compounded of stan, 
 a country, and Hind or Hindoo, Indian — i. e., the Indian 
 country, or country of the Indus. 
 
 BP. HEB. B 
 
2 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 Indian Ocean; and on the east, by the river Brahma- 
 putra, the Birman Empire, and the Bay of Bengal. 
 The modern territorial and political subdivisions 
 of India within the Ganges are — 
 
 I. Northern Hindoostan, a large and rugged tract 
 of country, containing — 
 
 1. The country between 4. Kemaoon. 
 
 Sutuleje & Jumna. 5. Painkhandi. 
 
 2. Gurwal,or Serinagur. 6. Bhutant. 
 
 3. Sources of the Ganges. 7. Dominions of 
 
 Nepaul. 
 
 II. Hindoostan Proper, containing the more 
 central provinces of India, and holding the most 
 important place in the records of its ancient Ma- 
 hommedan dynasties. It extends southward to the 
 Nerbudda river, and includes these thirteen large 
 provinces — 
 
 1. Bengal. 8. Cashmere. 
 
 2. Bahar. 9. Ajmeer. 
 
 3. Allahabad. 10. Mooltan. 
 
 4. Oude. 11. Sinde. 
 
 5. Agra. 12. Cutch. 
 
 6. Delhi. 13. Guzerat. 
 
 7. Lahore. 14. Malwa. 
 
 III. The Deccan. This division lies south of the 
 last one, and extends from the Nerbudda to the 
 Krishna, a river flowing into the Bay of Bengal. 
 The Deccan is a much less fertile province than 
 Hindoostan Proper. Bombay, a small island on the 
 west coast, belongs to this division. The Deccan 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 3 
 
 contains the following provinces, a portion of which 
 once formed the Mahratta empire — 
 
 1. Gundwana. 5. Berar. 
 
 2. Orissa. 6. Beeder. 
 
 3. The Northern Cir- 7. Hyderabad. 
 
 cars. 8. Aurungabad. 
 
 4. Candeish. 9. Bejapoor. 
 
 IV. India, south of the Krishna. This division 
 comprehends the most southerly portion of Hindoos- 
 tan, and its east and west coasts are respectively 
 called the Malabar and Coromandel coasts. It con- 
 tains the following provinces — 
 
 1. Canara. 6. Mysore. 
 
 2. Malabar. 7. Coimbatoor. 
 
 3. Cochin. 8. Salem and the Bar- 
 
 4. Travancore. ramahal. 
 
 5. Balaghaut, ceded 9. The Carnatic, in 
 
 districts. which is Madras. 
 
 A little to the south-east of Cape Comorin lies 
 Ceylon, a large, fertile, and beautiful island. The 
 extreme length of India, from north to south, is 
 about 1900 miles, and from east to west about 1500; 
 its superficial area measures 1,280,000 miles. 
 
 The best authorities reckon the population of 
 India within the Ganges at upwards of 140 millions, 
 of whom 90,000,000 are under British authority 
 and protection; 40,000,000 under native princes, 
 who are our allies or tributaries; and 11,000,000 
 under their own independent princes. 
 
 The British possessions in India are divided into 
 b2 
 
4 BISHOP IlEBER, 
 
 tiiree Presidences — 1. Bengal, which contains the 
 provinces of Bengal, Bahar, Allahabad, Agra, and 
 Delhi ; 2. Madras, comprising the Carnatic, Tan- 
 jore, the northern Circars, and a great part of 
 Mysore and Visiapour; 3. Bombay, -which contains 
 a large part of Aurungabad, Candeish, and Guzerat. 
 Calcutta stands on the Hooghley, a branch of 
 the Ganges, and contains about 14,000 Christians, 
 48,000 Mahommedans, and 120,000 Hindoos. The 
 vivid and picturesque description, in Bishop Heber's 
 Journal, of the motley groups and varied scenes 
 which occur on its crowded quays and its bazaars 
 gives an interesting idea of the appearance which 
 an oriental city presents to an European stranger: — 
 " Behind the elegant frontline of houses is ranged 
 the town, deep, black, and dingy, with various 
 crooked streets, huts of earth baked in the sun, or of 
 twisted bamboos, interspersed here and there with 
 ruinous brick bazaars, pools of dirty water, cocoa 
 trees, and little gardens, with some fine large dirty 
 houses, the residences of wealthy natives. Fill up this 
 outline with a crowd of people in the street, beyond 
 anything to be seen even in London, some dressed 
 in tawdry silks and brocades, more in white cotton 
 garments, and most of all, black and naked, except 
 a scanty covering round the waist; besides figures 
 of religious mendicants with no clothing but their 
 long hair and beards in elf-locks, their faces painted 
 white or yellow, their heads in one ghastly lean 
 hand, and the other stretched out like a bird's claw 
 to receive donations; marriage processions, with the 
 bride in a covered chair, and the bridegroom on 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 5 
 
 horseback, so swathed round with garhinds as hardly 
 to be seen; tradesmen sitting on the ground in the 
 midst of their different commodities; and old men, 
 lookers-on, perched naked as monkeys on the flat 
 roofs of houses; carts drawn by oxen, and driven by 
 wild-looking men with thick sticks, so unmercifully 
 used as to perfectly undeceive all our notions of 
 Brahminical humanity; attendants with silver maces 
 pressing through the crowd before the carriage of 
 some great man or other; no women seen except of 
 the lower class, and even these with heavy silver 
 ornaments on their dusky arms and ankles; while 
 coaches covered up close with red cloth are seen 
 conveying the inmates of the neighbouring seraglios 
 to take what is called *the air;' a constant creaking 
 of cart-wheels, which are never greased in India; 
 a constant clamour of voices, and an almost constant 
 thumping and jingling of drums, cymbals, &c., in 
 honour of their deities; and add to all this, a 
 villanous smell of garlic, rancid cocoa-nut oil, sour 
 butter, and stagnant ditches, and you will under- 
 stand the sounds, sights, and smells of what is 
 called the ' Black Town' of Calcutta. 
 
 " The singularity of this spectacle is best enjoyed 
 on a noble quay, which Lord Hastings built along 
 the shore of the river, where the vessels of all forms 
 and sizes, Arab, Indian, Malay, American, English 
 — the crowds of Brahmins and other Hindoos, 
 washing and saying their prayers — the lighted 
 tapers which towards sunset they throw in, and the 
 broad bright stream which sweeps by them, guiltless 
 
b BISHOP IIEBER, 
 
 of their imjDiety, and unconscious of their homage — 
 afford a scene such as no European and few Asiatic 
 cities can at all parallel in interest and singularity." 
 
 Serampoor, a Danish settlement, about twelve 
 miles from Calcutta, contains a college for the educa- 
 tion of native Christians, Hindoos, and Mahomme- 
 dans. There is also here a large printing establish- 
 ment, from which Bibles in many languages have 
 been issued. 
 
 Madras, the seat of government of Southern 
 India, is in the Carnatic. The climate here is 
 warmer than at Calcutta or Bombay, the Carnatic 
 being a dry and hot region. Among other valuable 
 institutions here is the school for male and female 
 orphans. Bishop Heber says that the native Chris- 
 tians here are numerous and increasing, but un- 
 fortunately a good deal divided about castes. The 
 Armenians too are numerous here. The shore is 
 low and dangerous for vessels. 
 
 Bombay, the seat of government for Western 
 India, is a small rocky island on the west coast. It 
 is low and wet, and is generally considered to be the 
 most unhealthy of the presidencies. Its deep tide 
 water has made it a seat of extensive trade, as well 
 with the Persian gulf on the north as with the 
 south of India. Cotton is the principal article of 
 export. 
 
 Delhi, formerly the capital of the Mogul empire, 
 is in the province to which it gives its name, and is 
 distant about 976 miles from Calcutta. It is said 
 once to have occupied a space of t^venty square miles. 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 7 
 
 The British resident here possesses a very extensive 
 authority, and is always a person of great ability and 
 experience. 
 
 Benares, or the Holy City, is an ancient and 
 venerated town on the banks of the Ganges, about 
 halfway as you go from Calcutta to Agra. This city 
 may be called the chief university of the Hindoos. 
 Their laws, mythology, and other learning are here 
 explained and taught by the Brahmins in establish- 
 ments devoted to this purpose. The Hindoos think 
 Benares a place of peculiar sanctity. To die there 
 is happiness ; for thence, they say, the way to heaven 
 is sure and easy. The religious character of Benares 
 and its other associations make it by far the most 
 interesting city of India. 
 
 A country of such vast extent as Hindoostan 
 necessarily presents a great variety of surface. A 
 portion of it consists of immense and fertile plains, 
 well watered by the greater rivers and their numerous 
 tributaries, and rich in all the luxuriance of tropical 
 vegetation. Parts of these plains are occupied by 
 marshes and overgrown with low underwood, which 
 renders them unfit for cultivation, and forms a 
 shelter for the elephant, the tiger, and the hyaena. 
 These are called jungles. Then you will come, it 
 may be, upon a wide tract of sandy desert, suc- 
 ceeded by high-lying and flat regions, called table- 
 lands, or bounded by a long line of fine, undulating 
 hill-country. The more important rivers of Hin- 
 doostan are, the Indus on the west, the Brahma- 
 putra on the east, and the Ganges, which with its 
 
8 BISHOP HEBER, ' 
 
 tributaries waters a great part of the north-east of 
 India, and finally enters the sea in the province of 
 Bengal. The inundations of this river, like those 
 of the Nile in Egypt, cover and so fertilize a large 
 tract of the level country on its banks, v^hile those 
 who are more remote secure the same benefits by 
 an artificial irrigation. The vast alluvial plain of 
 Bengal, and the valleys of the Ganges and its tribu- 
 taries, comprise the fairest and most fertile portion 
 of India. Well cultivated and luxuriant fields, with 
 villages sheltered beneath groves of the cocoa-palm, 
 and swarming with inhabitants, form its general 
 characteristics. 
 
 But that which most wins the attention and ad- 
 miration of the traveller who has lived in a northern 
 clime, is the gigantic aspect which all the products 
 and operations of nature assume in Hindoostan. 
 Whether he turn his eyes to the mighty range of 
 the Himaleh mountains, rising in some parts to a 
 lieight of 25,000 feet above the level of the sea, 
 and clad in everlasting snows — whether he watch 
 so memighty river rolling its floods through plains of 
 boundless extent — or listen to the mountain torrent 
 thundering down the rocky ghaut, or wander amid 
 the pathless forest, where one leaf of the fan -palm 
 serves for shelter for a dozen men, and the cotton- 
 tree, with its gorgeous purple blossoms, grows to 
 the height of fifty feet — he is lost in admiring 
 wonder at the immensity of the scale of the natural 
 objects by which he is surrounded. 
 
 The traveller in India is indeed often greeted by 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. y 
 
 scenes of magnificence and beauty which fulfil even 
 the bright dreams of his imaginative boyhood : for 
 it is to the sunny orient that we turn in thought in 
 those days, led alike by the early associations of 
 Holy Writ and the dazzling pictures of eastern 
 fiction. Baron Hugel, in his Travels in Kersh- 
 mir and the Pimjaub, has painted in warm and 
 glowing colours a landscape in which the prominent 
 features of the finest Indian scenery, with their 
 picturesque and characteristic accessories, will be 
 at once recognised. 
 
 " Bilaspur lies in a spacious valley, through 
 which the Gutlez winds its long and fertilizing 
 course, while in the distance, high and waving hills, 
 crowned with villages, stretched for several miles, 
 the snowy peaks of the Himalaya being distinctly 
 visible on the horizon. The valley is extremely 
 fertile, and every tropical plant flourishes in richer 
 profusion here than in most other parts of Hin- 
 doostan, as if the Great Author of all nature had 
 lavished his gifts on it without any reserve. The 
 sun was sinking when first I gazed on this beautiful 
 scene; the river rolled proudly on beneath the 
 garden where I stood, surrounded on every side by 
 a treasury of fragrant flowers, among which rich 
 orange and citron-trees, entangled with jasmines 
 and groujjs of magnolias, wafted their exquisite 
 perfume around in the descending dews. The stars 
 and moon arose one by one ; not a breath was felt; 
 the lofty palms rustled, and gently stirred their 
 leaves, as if some spirit breathed upon them ; the 
 
10 
 
 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 trees were lighted up by fire-flies, and within their 
 deep recesses was heard the soft twittering of the 
 birds, and the shriller tones of a kind of mantis, 
 which has its dwelling in the citron-trees; in the 
 distance, bright lamps, shining through the night, 
 pointed out the temple where loud voices and noisy 
 drums were sounding to the praise of their idols; 
 the fantastic costumes, the dreamy air, all — all com- 
 bining together, might well have inspired the 
 coldest spectator to exclaim, as he gazed — ' This is 
 the very India of which I have dreamed !' " 
 
 It is in such an hour, and in a scene of so fair a 
 beauty, that the contrast between the moral and 
 physical aspect of Hindoostan forces itself most 
 strongly on the thoughtful mind. All external 
 nature is rich in so surpassing a grandeur and loveli- 
 ness, that the fond fancy might well deem it some 
 long -lost relic of Eden's bowers, where sin and 
 sorrow had found no place, and on which the 
 primeval curse had not descended. 
 
 Alas ! over this land, so abounding in the choicest 
 beauties and blessings of nature, there broods 
 a moral gloom of almost impenetrable obscurity. 
 A thick darkness covereth the minds of the people 
 who dwell therein. Sunk in the depth of a most 
 gross and debasing superstition, their hearts cannot 
 apprehend the hidden harmonies of nature. In the 
 fair page which she spreads open before them, they 
 read no records of the love of their Father who is 
 in heaven — of his wisdom and omnipotence, and 
 loving care for the happiness of the children of men. 
 
 Even on the fairest works of creation, sin and 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 11 
 
 error have impressed their foul marks, and when the 
 excitement of imagination has passed away, hill and 
 dale, wood and water, alike teem with signs of man's 
 fall from his first estate. 
 
 Behold, drifting down that mighty river, gnawed 
 corpses of men and women, with the black vulture 
 settled on them, gorging himself on a human heart, 
 and flapping his funeral wings in triumph. 
 
 Seest thou far up in yon wild mountain glen a 
 strange scarecrow thing, with wild, matted, elf-like 
 hair, skin like parchment, nails like talons, and limbs 
 turned and twisted into the strangest contortions? 
 That poor fanatic fakir seeks to be a saint, stager, 
 enduring for ten long years, wath unflinching con- 
 stancy, the self-inflicted tortures encouraged by 
 his gloomy and cruel creed. 
 
 Hark, from yon green grove, the outline of whole, 
 tall, feathery cocoa-palms against the deep blue 
 sky, you were just now admiring, arises the wild 
 and frantic yell of demoniacal worship. Or is it not 
 rather the despairing shriek of a human victim? 
 Loud beat the drums, and madly do the wretched 
 multitude shout; but clear above them all, appealing 
 to heaven for mercy, rises that death-cry of hopeless 
 agony. 
 
 And again, far along the horizon, bursts forth a 
 fitful glare. It is the pyre, on which a wddow, 
 bound hand and foot, is given as food to the flames, 
 a victim to the manes of her husband. 
 
 Man, for whose sake this beautiful earth was 
 created, debased by superstition, and given up to 
 the imaginations of his own heart, has here become 
 
12 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 its foulest — its only blot; and the sunny scene, 
 wliicli erewliile was to the fancy a new-found Para- 
 dise, seems to grow dark and gloomy as we think 
 of the sin and misery to which those who dwell 
 here are abandoned. 
 
 We cannot think of these things without feel- 
 ing as the Saint and Bishop of India felt when he 
 wrote his Missionary Hymn : — 
 
 " What though the spicy breezes 
 Blow soft on Ceylon's isle, 
 Though every prospect pleases, 
 And only man is vile ; 
 
 " In vain, with lavish kindness, 
 The gifts of God are strewn ; 
 The heathen, in his blindness, 
 Bows down to wood and stone. 
 
 " Shall we, whose souls are lighted 
 With wisdom from on high, 
 Shall we to man benighted 
 The light of life deny? 
 
 " Salvation ! oh salvation ! 
 
 The joyful sound proclaim, 
 Till each remotest nation 
 Has learnt Messiah's name." 
 
 Nor when we turn from the darker features of 
 their superstition, is there much to cheer us in con- 
 templating the present condition of the native Hindoo 
 population. War, rtipine, anarchy, and famine 
 continually lay desolate the land, and, except in the 
 districts where British authority prevails, there is 
 little security for life or property. Where fair oppor- 
 tunities for its development occur, the native cha- 
 racter for the most part appears in a favourable light. 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 13 
 
 The Hindoos are a frugal and temperate people, 
 obliging in disposition; and the chief defects of their 
 character, such as indolence and an occasional love 
 of knavery, seem to be mostly those which neces- 
 sarily grow out of the climate in which they live, 
 and the social position which they occupy. Their 
 natural abilities are good. They quickly and readily 
 adapt themselves to the pursuits of agriculture, 
 navigation, or a military life. They are ingenious 
 in manufactures, and show a great fondness for 
 arithmetic, the mathematics, and such sciences as 
 astronomy and chronology. Of the general cha- 
 racter of the native Hindoos, and their capacity of 
 improvement. Bishop Heber, whose calm and tem- 
 perate habits of thought, and practised accuracy of 
 observation, no less than his opportunities for seeing 
 the native character from many different points of 
 view, render his opinion peculiarly valuable, writes 
 thus : — 
 
 " To say that the Hindoos or Mussulmans are 
 deficient in any essential feature of a civilized life, 
 is an assertion which I can scarcely suppose to be 
 made by any who have lived with them : their 
 manners are at least as pleasing and courteous as 
 those of the corresponding stations of life among 
 ourselves; their houses are larger, and, according to 
 their wants and climate, to the full as convenient 
 as ours; their architecture is at least as elegant ; 
 nor is it true that in the mechanic arts they are 
 inferior to the general run of European nations. 
 AYhere they fall short of us, (which is chiefly in 
 agricultural implements and the mechanics of com- 
 
14 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 mon life,) they are not, so far as I have understood 
 of Italy and the south of France, surpassed in any 
 degree by the people of those countries. Their 
 goldsmiths and weavers produce as beautiful fabrics 
 as our own, and the ships built by native artists at 
 Bombay are notoriously as good as any which sail 
 from London or Liverpool. 
 
 "Li the schools which have been lately estab- 
 lished in this part of the empire, some very unex- 
 pected facts have occurred. As all direct attempts 
 to convert the children are disclaimed, the parents 
 send them without scruple. But it is no less strange 
 than true, that there is no objection made to the 
 use of the Old and New Testament as a class-book; 
 that so long as the teachers do not urge them to eat 
 what will make them lose their caste, or to be bap- 
 tized, or to curse their country's gods, they readily 
 consent to everything else; and not only Mussul- 
 mans, but Brahmins, stand by with perfect coolness, 
 and listen sometimes with apparent interest and 
 pleasure while the scholars by the road-side are 
 reading the stories of the creation and of Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 '' The different nations which I have seen in 
 India have, of course, in a greater or less degree, 
 the vices which must be expected to attend on 
 arbitrary government, a demoralizing and absurd 
 religion, and in some of the districts a laxity of law, 
 and an almost universal prevalence of intestine feuds 
 and habits of plunder. Their general character, 
 however, has much which is extremely pleasing to 
 
AMD INDIAN MISSIONS. 15 
 
 me; they are brave, courteous, intelligent, and most 
 eager after knowledge and improvement, with a 
 remarkable talent for the sciences of geometry, as- 
 tronomy, &c., as well as for the arts of painting and 
 sculpture. In all these points they have had great 
 difficulties to struggle Mdth, both from the want of 
 models, instruments, and elementary instruction, 
 and the horror entertained till lately by many among 
 their European masters for giving them instruction 
 of any kind." 
 
 On comparison with other accounts, this would 
 seem to be a rather favourable, though generally 
 correct, picture of the native character. 
 
 Of the religious faiths possessed by the people of 
 India, Brahminism and Boodhism are the most 
 important. It would seem, both from the character 
 of its tenets and the testimony of historical records, 
 that the latter of these creeds is much the most 
 ancient. It appears at one time to have prevailed 
 through almost the whole of India within the 
 Ganges, but when Brahminism had acquired 
 strength, to have been afterwards expelled from a 
 great part of the country by a series of persecutions, 
 of which the Brahminical records make frequent 
 mention. It took refuge in Ceylon, Burmah, 
 China, Tartary, Siam, Thibet, and other regions, 
 where it still is the prevailing form of faith. 
 
 Brahminism, alike from its antiquity, the number 
 and skill of its priesthood, and the system of divi- 
 sion into castes, which, founded on its first doctrines, 
 forms its most remarkable feature, is the most in- 
 
16 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 eradicable of the heathen superstitions, and presents 
 the greatest obstacles to the progress of civilization 
 and Christianity. Among the innumerable deities 
 of the Hindoo polytheism, three hold a distinct and 
 prominent position. Brahma the Supreme, Vishna 
 the Saviour, and Seva the Destroyer, are the several 
 members of this triad. Of these, Brahma is said, 
 anterior to the creation, to have reposed in silence 
 and self-absorption — a state of being which the 
 Hindoo faith regards as the most perfect and god- 
 like. He is the Almighty Self- existing, creating 
 by the energy of mind all material things, and the 
 eternal forefather of all spiritual life. 
 
 Vishna the Saviour, the second member of this 
 triad, exemplifies in his character and office the 
 notion of metamorphosis, or transmigration, which 
 runs through the whole of the Brahminical creed. 
 He is said to appear on earth only when some great 
 and universal danger is threatening it, which he is 
 supposed by his incarnation to ward off. Of these 
 successive avatars, or appearances, on earth, which 
 take place at regular successions of periods, and 
 which have been supposed to be symbolical of 
 astronomical revolutions, there are ten. Of these, 
 nine have already taken place. The tenth and last 
 is yet to come. 
 
 The office of Seva the Destroyer is denoted by 
 his name ; but in the vagueness and inaccuracy 
 which pervade the sacred book of the Brahmins, he 
 is often represented as changing character with 
 Vishna, and employing himself in acts of beneficence. 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 17 
 
 His wife, Doorga, or Kalee, is an object of worship. 
 She is propitiated with animal blood, and her wor- 
 ship is defiled with the foulness of all impurity. 
 
 There is an innumerable host of lesser deities. 
 Some have reckoned up more than three hundred 
 and thirty millions of these. The elements, war, 
 peace, the sun, the winds, have each their patron 
 gods. The fountains and rivers, especially the 
 Ganges, are objects of worship. To this they make 
 annual pilgrimages; on its banks children expose 
 their dying parents, where they are either drowned 
 by the rising tide, or perish by the burning sun and 
 the attacks of wild beasts. 
 
 The respect, and sometimes worship, which is 
 paid to certain animals, as the monkey and cow, 
 and even to the lower classes of insects, may be 
 traced to the Hindoo doctrine of the transmigration 
 of souls. This belief is common to other Oriental 
 mythologies. The Brahmins teach that the spirits 
 of the departed pass after death into some form of 
 the animal creation. The spirits of the wise and 
 good migrate into a Brahmin, or demi-god, while 
 those of the wricked are condemned to the degrada- 
 tion of animating the bodies of quadrupeds or rep- 
 tiles. The sacred books attempt to regulate the 
 scale of punishments by the nature and extent of 
 the crimes committed. Thus, he who stole corn 
 is supposed to be changed into a rat, and the pil- 
 ferer of fruit becomes an ape. The soul thus 
 degraded must pass through a long series of gra- 
 
 BP. HEB. c 
 
18 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 dually ascending births, before it is admitted to the 
 privilege of once more assuming a human shape. 
 
 In addition to this system of rewards and punish- 
 ments, they believe in a heaven and hell, the former 
 of which they regard as full of the objects of volup- 
 tuous enjoyment, and the latter as containing a 
 number of compartments assigned to various and 
 graduated punishments. 
 
 Like the Pharisees in our Saviours time, the 
 daily religious duties of the Hindoos consist in an 
 observance of a great number of ritual precepts, 
 while the weightier matters of the law are altogether 
 neglected. The devotees who seek after a higher 
 state of holiness, inflict on themselves the most cruel 
 and fantastic tortures ; and the sight of these poor 
 deluded wretches, suffering pain with a firmness and 
 constancy worthy of a better cause, is a source of 
 constant sorrow to the Christian stranger. These 
 fanatics are called yogues or fakirs. The Vedas, 
 and Shastres are the most important of the religious 
 writings of the Hindoos. Of these, the Vedas, 
 written in Sancrit, are divided into four books : — 
 1. Rug Veda, or the Science of Divination ; 2. Shee- 
 ham, or Piety ; 3. Judga Veda, or the Knowledge of 
 Religious Rites ; 4. Obater Bah, or the Knowledge 
 of the Good Being. The contents of these books 
 are indicated by their titles. They are of great 
 antiquity, but full of absurdities and inconsistences. 
 
 The Shastres are not regarded by the Brahmins 
 as possessing the same claims to inspiration as the 
 Vedas. They seem rather to look upon them in 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 19 
 
 the light of commentaries. The different Shastres 
 teach the theory and practice of the sciences of 
 architecture, law, logic, moral philosophy, astrology, 
 and medicine. 
 
 It remains for us to notice the division into 
 castes — a system which, above all others, tends to 
 prevent the progress of social improvement, impede 
 the advance of the arts and sciences, and bind 
 down a people in almost hopeless bondage to a dark 
 and absurd superstition. 
 
 The Hindoo population are divided into four 
 tribes — 1. The Brahmins, who form the priesthood, 
 and are, by the eternal will of Brahma, the first 
 and most honoured order among men. 2. The 
 Kyetra, or military tribe, embracing also the 
 princes and officers of the state. On these the 
 Vedas enjoin a thirst for glory, the practice of 
 bravery, honour, generosity, and all chivalric vir- 
 tues. 3. Bhysya, corresponding pretty nearly to our 
 middle class, and comprising merchants, farmers, &c. 
 4. Soodra. This last tribe contains the greater por- 
 tion of the people. It embraces the artificers, 
 mechanics^ tradesmen, inferior agriculturists, and 
 the working-classes of all kinds. These four tribes 
 are again subdivided into many others, the members 
 of which intermarry, eat, drink, and associate with 
 each other. Besides these, there are the Pariahs, 
 or excommunicated. These poor creatures are the 
 very outcasts of society ; their touch is contamina- 
 tion ; and it is the duty of every true worshipper of 
 Brahma to shun and despise them. Of the four 
 c2 
 
20 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 castes, the second and third have been gradually 
 amalgamating themselves with the first and second, 
 so that the whole Hindoo nation is now practically 
 divided into Brahmins and Soodras. 
 
 The bad effects of the caste system are co-exten- 
 sive with its deep and wide ramifications. These 
 penetrate the foundations of the fabric of Hindoo 
 society, intertwining themselves among all the parts 
 of its civil and religious polity. The tendency of 
 an artificial division into classes over which no 
 intellectual superiority, no moral excellence, no 
 energy of the human will, can prevail, is to produce 
 that spirit of fatalism and abject submission to cir- 
 cumstances to which the Oriental mind, from the 
 influence of climate and other accidents, is in itself 
 too much inclined. Brahminism goes even further 
 than this — it makes fatalism a virtue. The Soodra 
 who longs for the more exalted position of the 
 Brahmin, or who, by diligence and talents should 
 seek to attain the dignity of the Eyetra, is a rebel 
 against the eternal decrees of Brahma, and incurs 
 the anathemas of his priests. The son of the 
 Brahmin is necessarily a Brahmin ; the son of the 
 Soodra, a Soodra. Trades and professions, too, 
 are hereditary. The son of the snake-catcher re- 
 mains a snake-catcher ; the son of the mat-maker a 
 mat-maker. Thus no possible means exist by which 
 a man may raise his position in society; all motives 
 to the cultivation of the intellect and to industrious 
 exertion are removed; the individual will and 
 energy which might have benefited a whole people, 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 21 
 
 struggles in vain with the system by which it is 
 enslaved, and in a hopeless apathy or in a fierce 
 defiance of all social laws, the ardent soul finds its 
 only refuge. In Cliina, England, and other coun- 
 tries, a man may rise from the lowest to the highest 
 degree in the social scale; and it is easy to point 
 out men who, being the sons of peasants or mechanics, 
 have won for themselves a seat among the nobles of 
 their land. But in India^ no such prospect is held 
 forth to the Soodra : and even when from the 
 hand of British power he receives authority involv- 
 ing civil distinction, the Brahmin would refuse to 
 taste food cooked by his hand. The destruction of 
 social feeling, and the spirit which our Lord in his 
 parable attributed to the good Samaritan, is another 
 injurious effect of the caste system. It is pollution 
 for the members of one caste to eat, drink, or inter- 
 marry with those of another ; and thus men who 
 are brethren, being all children of one Great Father, 
 are taught to look upon each other as beings of a 
 different race. If through any neglect of ritual 
 observance a Hindoo lose caste, the wife disowns 
 and spurns the husband, the father the son, the 
 sister the brother. However respectable he may 
 have been before in every social relation, henceforth 
 he is a vagabond — a wanderer on the face of the 
 earth, whose touch brings pollution — banished from 
 the dwellings of men, and a victim of the just w^rath 
 of Brahma. To all these severe trials is the Chris- 
 tian convert invariably exposed. 
 
 So fearfully does this superstition pervert the 
 common feelings of our nature, that cases frequently 
 
22 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 come under the notice of Europeans, where the 
 Hindoo, who, under other circumstances has shown 
 himself to be not destitute of humanity and kindli- 
 ness of heart, will pass by with a frown the dying 
 man writhing in agony, and praying for a cup of 
 cold water at his hand, because he is a member of 
 a different caste. ^ 
 
 Christian baptism, or the partaking of the sacra- 
 ment of the body and blood of Christ, involves a loss 
 of caste and all its consequent penalties. Hence the 
 peculiar interest of the history of the church in India. 
 We see Christianity coming in contact with Hea- 
 thenism under the greatest possible disadvantages. 
 We behold the soldiers of the cross storming the very 
 citadel of superstition, and winning their way in 
 tears and blood over its lofty bulwarks. Too often 
 betrayed by foes within their own ranks, assailed 
 by the calumny of a world which dares despise the 
 feeble efforts of the church to fulfil her Lord's last 
 command, saints and martyrs have fought and fallen 
 beneath the burning suns of Hindoostan. Let 
 translations of the Word — let churches, and schools, 
 and Christian villages — let virtuous lives and peace- 
 ful deaths — let prayers, breathed in the silence of 
 the pathless forest, and hymns ascending from the 
 palm-grove, testify that they have not fought and 
 fallen in vain. 
 
 1 In the immediate neighbourhood of cities frequented by- 
 Europeans, as Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, the caste 
 system appears to have suffered some modifying influences; 
 but in the remoter provinces and independent territories, it 
 presents all the features which I have mentioned. 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 23 
 
 Boodliism has been mentioned as an ancient form 
 of faith prevailing in Ceylon and some parts of 
 India. It is interesting, as being the professed 
 creed of nearly one half of the human race. Though 
 sometimes confused with Brahminism, its features 
 are distinct, and for the most part opposed to those 
 of its rival faith. Boodh is a general term for 
 divinity, and not the name of any particular god. 
 In various ages, and different worlds, there are sup- 
 posed to have been many manifestations of the 
 Boodh. In this world, there have been four, and 
 one is yet to come. While Brahminism admits the 
 doctrine of incarnations, Boodliism rejects it as 
 inconsistent Avith their notion of there being no per- 
 manent god. The austerities and self-tortures of 
 Hindooism are not inculcated or encouraged by 
 Boodhism. In the place of many idols, it has but 
 one. Blood sacrifices form a prominent part of the 
 Hindoo worship; this forbids the extinction of 
 animal life. Brahminism, putting bitter for sweet, 
 and sweet for bitter, sometimes commends the prac- 
 tice of theft, lying, and other vices, and represents 
 the gods as excelling in these accomplishments. 
 Boodhism, on the other hand, neither confuses the 
 ideas of right and wrong, nor seeks to make excuse 
 for any sin. The supreme good of the former faith 
 is absorption into the Divine Essence; of the latter, 
 annihilation.^ 
 
 1 For a very interesting account of Boodhism, see Mr. 
 Howard Malcom's " Travels in the Burman Empire," from 
 ■which the above particulars are taken. 
 
24 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 It would seem that Brahminism grew out of the 
 purer and older creed of Boodhism, and that having 
 acquired power and numbers towards the end of the 
 first century of the Christian era, it drove the 
 teachers of Boodhism into further India, by whose 
 instrumentality the faith extended into China, 
 Tartary, Japan, Loochor, and other neighbouring 
 countries. 
 
 The origin of the languages and dialects in use 
 among the Hindoos has furnished matter for much 
 and learned controversy. Sir William Jones, Dr. 
 Carey, and other oriental scholars, have given it 
 as their opinion that the Sanscrit is the parent of 
 all the vernacular tongues. Later students, on the 
 other hand, have come to the conclusion that, largely 
 as Sanscrit enters into the composition of the Indian 
 languages, it can no more claim to be considered 
 as their parent than the Latin can to be viewed as 
 the original source of our own vulgar tongue. 
 The result is confirmed by the almost universal 
 agreement of the native grammarians. The cognate 
 dialects of the peninsula — the Tamal, the Telloogoo, 
 and the Canavese — belong to a different family of 
 languages from the Sanscrit, and appear to have no 
 closer connexion with it than with the Persian or 
 Arabic. Another proof that the Sanscrit is not the 
 parent of these dialects, may be found in the fact, 
 that in their ancient classics scarcely any Sanscrit 
 words occur, and that the higher you advance, the 
 freer they become from its intermixture, while 
 the more modern and vulgar specimens of these 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 25 
 
 dialects are replete with Sanscrit terms. The study 
 of the Indian dialects confirms the notion that the 
 Brahmins were a mighty race of conquerors from 
 the North, who, having overrun and subdued Hin- 
 doostan, introduced into it their own language. 
 Nor should we omit to notice that the names of 
 natural objects, agricultural implements, cattle, food, 
 dress, and the words expressive of those things and 
 ideas which have a place in the early stages of 
 society, are in the vernacular, while the Sanscrit 
 supplies the terms of law, literature, science, and 
 religion. 
 
 Tlie Sanscrit, then, is at present a dead language, 
 though entering extensively into the composition of 
 the spoken dialects of Hindoostan. That a tongue 
 possessing so copious a vocabulary, so perfect in its 
 structure, and embracing such a wide round of 
 technical phraseology, was once the spoken language 
 of a great and mighty people, far advanced in theo- 
 retical and practical science, admits of no doubt. 
 It has three genders, and its alphabet consists of 
 sixty letters. All the sacred books of the Hindoos 
 are written in this language. 
 
26 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 Did an Apostle visit India? — Mark the Evangelist— Pan- 
 tsenus of Alexandria — Johannes, Bishop of Persia and 
 India — Indian church episcopal — Cosmas Indicopleustes 
 — Nestorianism — Goa — Mission of Francis Xavier — 
 His life and death — Armenians — Syrian church of 
 Malabar — Papal encroachments on its liberty — Menezes 
 Synod of Dampier — Madura mission — Pondicherry 
 mission — State of Roman missions up to the present 
 time — Failure of Roman missions in India — Its cause. 
 
 HAVING taken this brief survey of the moral and 
 physical aspect of India, and having seen, by a 
 mere glance at its languages, social system, and 
 religious creed, what extreme obstacles Christianity 
 has to surmount, we proceed to trace the first faint 
 dawnings of the True Light of the world on this 
 benighted country, and in the lives and deaths of its 
 earlier apostles and confessors, to see how beauti- 
 ful on the mountains of Hindoostan were the feet 
 of the messengers of peace. 
 
 Eusebius, in his "Ecclesiastical History," relates 
 that S. Bartholomew preached the Gospel in India. 
 Socrates, who takes up the history of the church 
 where Eusebius leaves off, says, that in the division 
 of the gentile world among the Apostles, as nar- 
 rated by Eusebius, India was assigned to S. Bar- 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 27 
 
 tholomew. But when we turn to liis authority, 
 no mention of S. Bartholomew occurs; and, more- 
 over, his description of the position of India is so 
 vague, that it may with equal likelihood be applied 
 to Asiatic Ethiopia. 
 
 A tradition of very early date attributes the in- 
 troduction of Christianity into India to S. Thomas, 
 and Bishop Heber, Archdeacon Robinson, and 
 others have (on the authority of Paulinus, the 
 author of " India Orientalis Christiana,") inclined 
 to favour the claim of the Syro-Malabaric church to 
 an apostolic origin. But the general credulity of 
 these chroniclers, and the uncertain reception of 
 this particular legend by the churches, give to it a 
 very doubtful character. The more probable ac- 
 count of the matter would seem to be, that during 
 some period of his labours in Parthia, Media, Car- 
 mania, and Bactriana, (of which Origen, writing in 
 the third century, makes express mention,) the 
 Apostle, moved by holy zeal, crossed the Indus, 
 visited some of the northern districts of Hindoostan, 
 and so acquired the title of the Apostle of India. 
 
 We may, however, with confidence assign the 
 introduction of the Faith into India to a period but 
 little posterior to the apostolic age. About the ninth 
 year of Claudius, Mark the Evangelist, the fellow- 
 traveller of Paul and Barnabas, is said to have 
 founded the church of Alexandria. This city was 
 then the great emporium of the world. The 
 merchandise of the east and east was disembarked 
 on its quays. Men of Libya, Cilicia, Ethiopia, 
 
28 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 Arabia, Bactria, Scythia, Persia, and India, thronged 
 its crowded marts. The commerce of India was a 
 great source of wealth to the Alexandrian mer- 
 chants. 
 
 The exact course of the progress of Christianity 
 from Egypt to India may have been as follows: — 
 
 Somewhere about midway between these two 
 countries lies the island of Socobora. A colony of 
 Greeks was settled here by Alexander the Great, 
 in furtherance of his commercial views. These 
 Greeks, when they heard of the advent of Christ, 
 embraced this truth, and continued steadfast in the 
 faith. Hence, without doubt, even by the ordinary 
 medium of commercial intercourse, a knowledge of 
 the first principles of Christianity would extend to 
 the western shores of India. Nor were there want- 
 ing men, who, more anxious to lay up for themselves 
 treasure in heaven than to heap together goodly 
 stores of gold, and silver, and precious stones, went 
 forth in a holy traffic, to sell, without money and 
 without price, the comfortable truths of Christian 
 doctrine. " For," writes Eusebius, " there were 
 many evangelical preachers of the word even at 
 that time, who, inflamed with a divine zeal, in imi- 
 tation of the Apostles, contributed their assistance 
 to the enlargement of the Divine Word, and the 
 building up men in the faith." 
 
 In the second century, Demetrius, Bishop of 
 Alexandria, received an earnest request from a body 
 of Christian Indians that he would send to them a 
 teacher. Pont^enus, a Stoic philosopher of great 
 
AND INDIAN MISMONS. 29 
 
 learning and celebrity, who had been converted to 
 the faith, offered himself for this mission. Re- 
 nouncing rank and power, he went forth cheerfully 
 to instruct these poor people. How long he dwelt 
 among them is not known; but after a time, he 
 returned to Egypt, and resumed his chair in the 
 School of Alexandria. 
 
 At the great CEcumenical Council of Nice, con- 
 vened by the order of Constantine in the year of 
 our Lord 325, we find one of the bishops sub- 
 scribing himself as Johannes, Metropolitan of 
 Persia, and of the Great India. Hence it would 
 appear that, if not resident in India, he yet ex- 
 ercised a paternal authority over the church there, 
 somewhat similar, it may be, to the jurisdiction of 
 the Bishop of London in those of our colonial 
 dependencies which are yet destitute of a local 
 diocesan. It is interesting to know that the polity 
 of the early church in India was strictly catholic. 
 It was governed by bishops, beneath whom served 
 the subordinate orders of priest and deacon, and 
 therefore in no point differed from the constitution 
 of all the primitive churches of the east and west. 
 
 Cosmas, surnamed Indicopleustes, from his 
 voyages to India, was a native of Egypt, and a 
 merchant of Alexandria. His writings furnish the 
 first authentic record of the state of the Christian 
 church in India. They were given to the world 
 in the year of our Lord 547, and were the fruit of 
 his retirement to a convent, within whose walls he 
 sought the content and happiness which he had not 
 
30 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 found in the excitement of successful enterprise or 
 adventurous travel. " There is," says he, " in the 
 island of Taprobane (Ceylon) in the furthermost 
 India, in the Indian Sea, a Christian church, 
 with clergymen and believers. In the Malabar 
 country also there are Christians; and in Calliana 
 there is a bishop, who comes from Persia, where he 
 was consecrated." The ecclesiastical dependence 
 on Persia, which he here notices, is important in 
 connexion with the charge of Nestorianism, which 
 Cosmas afterwards brings against the Syrian church. 
 It is well known that the Christians of Malabar 
 no longer hold the dogmas of this sect, and there is 
 no distinct record of a change in their creed. Grant- 
 ing, however, that Cosmas viewed this church 
 through the coloured glass of his own tenets, we 
 have no ground to dispute his positive testimony. 
 
 What Nestorianism was, and how it arose, we 
 will in few words explain. 
 
 Nestorius, a devout and eloquent priest of An- 
 tioch, was in the year 429 consecrated to the patri- 
 archal see of Constantinople. He was a man of 
 violent disposition and ill-regulated zeal. In his 
 attempts to uphold his own views of Christian 
 truth by the temporal sword, he made a violent 
 attack on the use of the term Theotokos — i. e., 
 Mother of God — as applied to the Blessed Virgin. 
 This term, though afterwards adopted by the whole 
 church, originated with a sect called the Colly- 
 ridians, from their offering oblations of cakes, and 
 otherwise paying worship to the Virgin. This con- 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 31 
 
 troversy must not be looked on as a mere logomachy. 
 Words, in cases of this kind, are things, and Nes- 
 torius' hasty zeal was stirred up by the confusion of 
 the natures of our Lord which prevailed among the 
 disciples of Apollinarius. St. Cyril, of Alexandria, 
 earnestly opposed the views of Nestorius on this 
 point, and they were condemned by the third ([Ecu- 
 menical Synod, or the Council of Ephesus. We 
 must not, however, make Nestorius responsible for 
 all the tenets of his followers. Of Nestorianism, 
 as commonly understood, the two distinguishing 
 tenets are — 1st, That in Christ there were two 
 persons, the divine and the human. 2nd, That the 
 Blessed Virgin ought to be called Christotokos — i.e., 
 the Mother of Christ, and not Theotokos — i.e., the 
 INIother of God. Nestorianism spread through the 
 cliurches of Egypt, Syria, Persia, and according to 
 Cosmas, of India, in its connexion with which we 
 have been led to notice it here. The native Chris- 
 tian church of India had been, in the words of 
 Bishop Ileber, for ages shedding its lonely and 
 awful light over the woods and mountains of Mala- 
 bar, when in the sixteenth century it had to en- 
 counter the attacks of an enemy, more dangerous 
 even than the hostility of the adherents of Ma- 
 homet, or the worshippers of Brahma. The Roman 
 church, in its insidious attempts on the indepen- 
 dence of foreign churches, did not neglect the 
 opportunities which were afforded by the marine 
 discoveries of this century. The Portuguese espe- 
 cially distinguished themselves by the zeal and 
 
32 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 energy with which they compassed sea and land, 
 that they might make proselytes. Still may the 
 footsteps of this once enterprising people be traced 
 on the coasts from the neighbourhood of the Cape 
 of Good Hope to the Sea of China, by the corrupted 
 forms of their language which prevail around the 
 sites of their emporia or merchant settlements. We 
 have not space to narrate at any length the progress 
 of Roman influence in India. The government of 
 the Roman church was ultimately vested in two 
 titular archbishops, two titular bishops, and three 
 bishops in partibus^ with the title of Vicars 
 Apostolic. The four first of these bishops were ap- 
 pointed by the Court of Portugal. The Holy See 
 endeavoured to maintain its spiritual supremacy by 
 disputing the right of Portugal to this ecclesiastical 
 patronage. The court, however, positively main- 
 tained its own claims, and the Pope, finding his 
 remonstrances unavailing, had recourse to the final 
 expedient of ordaining three bishops with the title 
 of Vicars Apostolic, who were placed under the 
 control of the College de propaganda at Rome. 
 These were stationed respectively at Bombay, 
 Verapoly, and Pondicherry. The titular bishoprics 
 were those of S. Thomas, near Madras, and Cochin, 
 in Malabar; the archbishoprics, those of Goa and 
 Cranganore. The former of these also gives the 
 title of Metropolitan of India and Primate of the 
 East. The Archbishop of Goa presided over a 
 body of fifteen hundred native priests, both regular 
 and secular. The laity who came within his juris- 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 33 
 
 diction amounted to nearly 300,000 souls, according , 
 to the Abbe Dubois. Dr. Buchanan, in his Chris- 
 tian Researches, says, that there are three thousand 
 priests connected with Goa. The external appa- 
 ratus of the church corresponded in splendour with 
 this noble spiritual establishment. Goa might have 
 been called the City of Churches. It abounded 
 with Christian temples, on which treasures of 
 oriental wealth had been lavished. The chapel of 
 the Palace, the church of S. Dominic, the cathedral, 
 and the church and convent of the Augustinians, 
 are far superior to any ecclesiastical buildings 
 reared by the more vague and parsimonious efforts 
 of modern Protestantism. Yet is it very important 
 to remember how, with all its ample resources and 
 magnificent external means, the Roman church 
 completely failed in keeping alive the flame of pure 
 Christian faith. In very many places, as amongst 
 the Samaritans of old, Christianity was mixed up 
 with, and polluted by, heathen beliefs and cere- 
 monies. The Inquisition of Goa, too, exerted a 
 most baneful influence on Christianity, and in the 
 present fallen state of this once glorious city — in 
 the silent desertion of its streets — in the sloth and 
 ignorance of its priesthood — in the mockery of its 
 forsaken or coldly-served altars, we see how the 
 form may remain when the spirit has departed; and 
 we learn that while there needs due attention to 
 the various parts and appliances of ecclesiastical 
 machinery, it is yet more important to build up 
 
 BP. HEB. D 
 
34 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 the living members of the spiritual church in the 
 life and doctrine of our holy faith. 
 
 Yet, amidst the superstition and secular ambition 
 which disfigure the history of the Roman church in 
 India, we find some notable examples of Christian 
 zeal. Francis Xavier was one of the brightest of 
 these burning and shining lights. He was born 
 April 7th, 1506. He distinguished himself greatly 
 at the University of Paris by his lectures on Aris- 
 totle. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the order of 
 Jesuits, persuaded him to turn from the study of 
 human philosophy to that of divine truth, and 
 finally succeeded in inducing him to become a mem- 
 ber of his order. After a long internal struggle, 
 Xavier took the vow^s of the order, renouncing all 
 worldly ambition, the pleasures of literary ease, and 
 the dearest social ties, thenceforth to live a life of 
 chastity, poverty, and self-denial. With the natural 
 energy of his character, he pursued the spiritual 
 exercises prescribed by Ignatius. He sought, by 
 fasting, and prayer, and midnight vigils, to mortify 
 the flesh with its affections and lusts, and to die 
 unto the world that he might live unto Christ. In 
 the words of the Apostle, he counted all things for 
 loss, that he might win Christ and be found in Him. 
 Having received holy orders, he was appointed to 
 the church of S. Lawrence in Damaso, where the 
 energetic eloquence of his preaching produced a deep 
 impression. While thus engaged in parochial 
 labours, the providence of God opened to him a 
 ofate unto the heathen. Gorea, an ambassador from 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 35 
 
 the King of Portugal, John III., to the Pope, was 
 struck with admiration of the pious zeal of Xavier, 
 and saw in him a fit person for the work of the 
 church in India. Xavier accepted, without hesita- 
 tion, the call to gather into the fold of Christ these 
 sheep for whom He had died, but who as yet had 
 not even heard His name. 
 
 Ignatius commended his zeal, and bade him fare- 
 well in these words: — " Go, my brother; rejoice 
 that you have not here a narrow Palestine, or a 
 province of Asia in prospect, but a vast extent of 
 ground and innumerable kingdoms. An entire 
 world is reserved for your endeavours ; and nothing 
 but so large a field is worthy of your courage and 
 zeal. The voice of God calls you; kindle those 
 unknown nations with the fire which burns within 
 you." When, with tears in his eyes, he had taken 
 leave of the " father of his soul," and his " sincere 
 and holy friend," he departed at once for Portugal. 
 He did not pay a last visit to his relations, knowing 
 that He to Whose service he was vowed was a 
 jealous God, and fearing to indulge at such a time 
 merely earthly feelings. He spent the Avinter at 
 Lisbon, in cherishing religion among the courtiers, 
 and in visiting the sick and dying in the hospitals, 
 in one of which, though apartments were offered 
 him in the palace, he took up his lowly abode, 
 thinking that it became a Christian priest to prefer 
 the house of mourning to that of joy. When the 
 fleet set sail, Xavier embarked, refusing the com- 
 forts ordered for him by the king, and taking only 
 d2 
 
36 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 a few books, and a cloth to shelter him from the 
 cold. Rodriguez, one of his colleagues, went on 
 board with him to bid him farewell, and as they 
 were jDarting, Xavier said to him — " You may re- 
 member, Rodriguez, that when we lodged together 
 in the hospital at Rome, you often heard me crying 
 out in my sleep, and asked me the meaning of the 
 words which I uttered. A vision or dream was 
 given to me, in which I beheld a wide ocean, lashed 
 by the storm and full of rocks, desert isles, and bar- 
 barous lands, hunger and thirst raging everywhere, 
 with death in many a fearful form. In the midst of 
 this ghastly scene, I cried out — ' Yet more, my 
 God ! yet more !' I then beheld all I was to suffer 
 for the glory of Jesus Christ, and I prayed that the 
 Divine goodness would grant to me in India what 
 he had foreshown to me in Italy." admirable 
 example of holy fortitude! O bright pattern of 
 Christian self-devotion! worthy rival of primitive 
 zeal! 
 
 The fleet arrived at Goa, May 6th, 1542. Xavier 
 spent the whole of his first night in India in prayer 
 in one of the churches. His earliest labours were 
 among the Portuguese of Goa, which, though bear- 
 ing the name of Christian, and well supplied with 
 monks and friars, seems to have been in a sad state. 
 He regulated the college of S. Paul as an institution 
 for the education of native heathen youths, and 
 appointed relief to be administered to the poor con- 
 verts, whose reception of the faith had brought 
 them into a state of poverty. His residence at Goa 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 37 
 
 gave him, too, tin opportunity of acquiring much 
 useful information concerning the manners, religion, 
 and languages of the natives who flocked thither 
 from the interior for the purpose of barter. "When 
 he thought himself sufficiently prepared to com- 
 mence preaching to the heathen, he sailed, in Octo- 
 ber, 1542, to Cape Comorin, the southern ex- 
 tremity of Hindoostan, and thence immediately pro- 
 ceeded up the country. By the aid of some natives 
 who understood a little of the Portuojuese tongue, 
 he contrived to translate into Malabaric the Creed, 
 the Catechism, and certain forms of devotion. Thus 
 provided, with a bell in his hand, gathering toge- 
 ther all he met, both men and children, he visited 
 thirty villages on the coast, instructing the people 
 in the Christian doctrine, and baptizing great num- 
 bers. On Sunday, he used to assemble men, women, 
 and little boys and girls, in the chapel, whither, he 
 says, they came with " an incredible joy and a most 
 ardent desire to hear the Word of God." He began 
 the service with confessing the triune being of God. 
 After this, he recited distinctly, and with an audible 
 voice, the Lord's Prayer, the Angelical Salutation, 
 and the Apostles' Creed. All these the people, 
 with much pleasure, repeated after him. He then 
 questioned them on their sincere belief of each 
 article of the Creed, the people all the time pro- 
 testing with loud cries, and their hands crossed on 
 their breasts, that they firmly believed it. After 
 this, he proceeded to explain simply the Christian 
 law as contained in the Ten Commandments. He 
 
38 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 then repeated with them the Lord's Prayer. To 
 this succeeded another repetition of the Creed, after 
 each clause of which they recited some short prayer; 
 as, Jesus, thou So7i of the living God, give me grace 
 to believe firmly this first article of thy Faith, and 
 with this iyitemtion ive offer unto thee that prayer of 
 which thou thyself art the Author ; adding a Pater- 
 noster. In the same manner, they chanted the 
 Ten Commandments, saying after each precept a 
 short prayer; as, after the first, which is to love God 
 — Jesus Christ, thou So7i of the living God, grant 
 us tliy grace to love thee above all thmgs. With 
 these pious devotions were mixed up superstitious 
 prayers to the Virgin for her intercession with her 
 son. Xavier's mode of proceeding was to spend 
 about a fortnight in each village, and when he had 
 formed a congregation, to set over it the most intel- 
 ligent of the native converts. 
 
 Having returned to Goa, and placed in the Col- 
 lege of S. Paul the most promising of the native 
 youth, he turned his attention to the populous dis- 
 trict of Travancore. His labours here were at- 
 tended with wonderful success. He says, in one of 
 his letters, that he baptized in one month, with his 
 own hand, ten thousand idolaters. The converts 
 vied with each other in overthrowing the pagodas 
 and idols. Forty-five churches were immediately 
 erected for Christian worship. The zeal and suc- 
 cess cf Francis Xavier brought to him many re- 
 quests for instruction. When he thus saw before 
 him vast fields white already unto the harvest, and 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 39 
 
 only wanting labourers to gather their fruit into 
 the heavenly garner, his righteous soul was vexed 
 within him that, through the indolence of Chris- 
 tians, the gospel was not preached to the heathen. 
 His letters to Rodriguez in Portugal, to Ignatius in 
 Italy, and to the Doctors of the Sorbonne, apply to 
 the students of our universities and the priests of the 
 English church in the nineteenth century — " I have 
 often thought," he writes, "to run over all the 
 universities of Europe, and principally that of Paris, 
 and to cry aloud to those who abound more in 
 learning than in charity — ' Ah ! how man}^ souls are 
 lost to heaven through your default !' " And again 
 — "I take God to witness that, not being able to 
 return into Europe, I have almost resolved to 
 write to the University of Paris that millions of 
 idolaters might easily be converted, if there w^ere 
 more preachers who would sincerely mind the in- 
 terests of Jesus Christ, and not their own concern- 
 ments." 
 
 After this, he visited the island of Manaar, and 
 made many converts, who shortly after sealed the 
 testimony of their faith by suffering death for the 
 name of Jesus. In 1545, he visited Malacca and 
 the Molucca Isles, Amboyna, and Ternate. While 
 at the latter place, he heard of the terrible savages 
 who inhabited the Isles of Delmoro. He resolved 
 to make a voyage hither; but his friends were so 
 alarmed for his safety, that they persuaded the 
 governor to forbid any vessel to convey him. Un- 
 deterred, and courting the martyr's crown, Xavier 
 
40 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 thus remonstrated with them: — "Where are those 
 people who dare confine the power of Almighty God, 
 and have so mean an apprehension of our Saviour's 
 love and grace? Are there any hearts hard enough 
 to resist the influences of the Most High, when it 
 pleases him to soften and to change them ? What, 
 shall He who has subjected the whole world to the 
 cross by the ministry of the Apostles — shall He 
 exempt from that subjection this petty corner of 
 the universe ? Shall, then, the Isle of Moro be the 
 only place which shall receive no benefit of redemp- 
 tion ? And wdien the Eternal Father has offered to 
 Jesus Christ all the nations of the earth as His in- 
 heritance, were these people excepted from the 
 donation ? If these islands abounded with precious 
 woods, and mines of gold, Christians would have 
 the courage to go thither, and all the dangers of 
 the world would not be able to frighten them; they 
 are base and fearful, because there are only souls to 
 purchase. You tell me they will take away my 
 life either by the sword or poison ; but those are 
 favours too great for such a sinner as I am to expect 
 from Heaven. Yet I dare confidently say, that 
 whatever torment or death they prepare for me, 
 I am ready to suffer a thousand times more for the 
 salvation of only one soul. If I should happen to 
 die by their hands, who knows but all of them might 
 receive the faith ? For it is most certain that 
 since the primitive times of the church, the seed of 
 the Gospel has made a larger increase in the fields of 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 41 
 
 paganism by the blood of the martyrs than by the 
 sweat of missionaries." 
 
 When he reached the shore of the first of these 
 horrible islands, they were greeted by the sight of 
 newly-murdered Portuguese lying on the shore in 
 their blood, and a group of wild savages standing 
 over them. Xavier fearlessly approached them, 
 followed them into the woods, and pointed out to 
 them the craters of their volcanoes as the mouths of 
 the hell which awaited all who should turn a deaf 
 ear to the Gospel. He suffered no injury at their 
 hands, and before he left the island, succeeded in 
 erecting churches and crosses in many parts of it. 
 He afterwards visited Java and other places, re- 
 turning in March, 1548, to Goa. He found the 
 College of St. Paul in a flourishing condition, and 
 one of its most promising students in the person of a 
 Japanese, Anger by name. His conversations with 
 this interesting student on the state of his native 
 country ended in his forming a resolve to visit 
 Japan. Having written a noble letter of remon- 
 strance to the King of Portugal, on the responsi- 
 bility involved on him by his eastern dominions, 
 and having ordered, to the best of his ability, the 
 temporal and spiritual affairs of the church of Goa, 
 he embarked for Japan in April, 1549. His suc- 
 cesses here were even greater than in India, and the 
 Abbe Dubois says, that the congregation of Ja- 
 panese Cliristians, of which he laid the foundation, 
 amounted within less than a century to more than a 
 million of souls. After two years' labour in Japan, 
 
42 BISHOP HEBEK, 
 
 he returned to Goa in November, 1551, whence he 
 shortly sailed for China. As the vessel was off the 
 island of Sanciar, he was taken ill, and having been 
 carried on shore at his own request, he died in a 
 miserable shed, exposed to the burning suns of the 
 day and the cold winds of the night. His prayer 
 had been heard; he died a martyr of Christ, enter- 
 ing into his eternal joy, December 2, 1552. His 
 body was taken to Goa, where it now rests, in a 
 coffin enchased with silver and precious stones, and 
 enshrined in a richly-carved monument. Francis 
 Xavier was a saint of truly apostolic zeal. In 
 labouring and suffering for souls, in prayer and 
 austerities, in patience and meekness, in all the 
 fruits of a burning and divine charity, he showed 
 himself a true evangelist and a faithful follower of 
 his Lord. 
 
 " If the religion of Xavier agreed with ours," 
 says Baldeus, in his History of the Indies, "we 
 ouofht to esteem and honour him as another St. 
 
 o 
 
 Paul; yet, notwithstanding this difference of religion, 
 his zeal, his vigilance, and the holiness of his life 
 ought to excite all good people not to do the work 
 of God negligently; for the gifts which Xavier had 
 received, in order to exercise the charge of a 
 minister and ambassador of Jesus Christ, w^ere so 
 eminent, that my mind is incapable of expressing 
 them. If I consider the patience and gentleness 
 with which he presented to great and small the 
 holy and living waters of the Gospel — if I regard 
 the courage with which he suffered injuries and 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 43 
 
 affronts, I am constrained to cry with the Apostle, 
 ^Who is capable like him of these marvellous things?* 
 
 " It was Francis Xavier who opened into the 
 Indies, to tlie Moluccas, and to Japan, new ways 
 for the Gospel- It -was given to this extra- 
 ordinary man to renew all the most astonishing 
 prodigies of the primitive establishment of Chris- 
 tianity, and to bring thus to the world a thousand 
 new proofs of its divinity. He converted fifty-two 
 kingdoms, hoisted the standard of the cross over an 
 extent of three thousand leagues; he baptized with 
 his own hand almost a million of Mahommedans or 
 idolaters; and all this in ten years.'' 
 
 With regard to the character of these conver- 
 sions, all subsequent experience of the exceeding 
 difficulty of impressing on the Hindoo mind the 
 principles of Christian doctrine, forces us to con- 
 clude that they were attributable as much to the civil 
 influence of the Portuguese, as to a real conviction 
 and sound understanding of the faith. Inclining 
 too much to look on the sacrament of holy baptism 
 as an opus operatum, Xavier seems to have used it 
 with unjustifiable haste; and we find in fact that he 
 soon became ashamed of crowds of his converts. 
 Blessed shall they be who, having in God's good 
 mercy received a purer form of faith than Francis 
 Xavier, shall unite with his love to God and man 
 equal self-denial, renunciation of the world, and 
 self-devotion, to the noblest and most glorious work 
 that can engage the energies and faculties of man 
 in this his state of trial. As the object of this little 
 
44 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 volume is rather to trace the progress of true 
 Christianity in India than to detail the corruptions 
 of certain churches or the errors of its professors, 
 we shall pass over the painful history of the Inqui- 
 sition of Goa, and briefly notice the encroachments 
 of the Roman church on the native Syrian church 
 of Malabar only as far as it is necessary to under- 
 stand the past history and present condition of that 
 most interesting community. We have already 
 seen, that the Syrian church had at first no con- 
 nexion with Rome, and that it acknowledged as its 
 head the Patriarch of Mosul, who dwelt at Se- 
 lencia, on the Tigris, and was the successor of the 
 ancient Patriarchs of Persia. All external and 
 internal evidence alike tend to prove that it had 
 nothing to do with the Roman church, and that it 
 was independent of any other church save that of 
 Babylon. 
 
 Of its doctrines and discipline previous to its 
 subjection to the see of Rome, we have a full 
 account in the Histoire du Christianisme des Indes 
 of La Croze. And it is most interesting, as fur- 
 nishing another historical proof of the real primitive 
 faith and constitution of the church, and of the 
 novelty of Roman innovations. The Syrian church 
 was governed, as we have said before, by a metro- 
 politan, furnished by the Nestorian Patriarch of 
 Mosul. Beneath him were the catanars, or inferior 
 clergy, consisting of the two orders of priests and 
 deacons. The clergy were held in the highest 
 honour. They took no vow of celibacy. Their wives 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 45 
 
 wore a cross of gold to distinguish them from other 
 women. The priests chanted the divine offices 
 twice a day at stated liours, and the elder presbyter 
 presided in the church. They acknowledged three 
 sacraments; baptism, holy orders, and the eucha- 
 rist. Of purgatory and the Romish doctrine re- 
 specting the real presence they knew nothing. 
 They rejected with indignation the title of Mother 
 of God, as applied to the blessed Virgin ; and when 
 her image was brought before them, they vehemently 
 exclaimed — "Away with this abomination; we are 
 Christians, and not idolaters !" No images were 
 allowed in their churches, but crosses found a place 
 in and about them, and as holy symbols, were re- 
 garded with special reverence. 
 
 When, in the year of our Lord 1502, Yasco de 
 Gama arrived at Cochin, with a fleet of twenty sail, 
 the Syrian Christians, who had of late suffered 
 much from heathen persecution, w^ere anxious to 
 obtain the protection of a Christian sovereign. 
 Their applications did not at first receive much 
 attention; but after a time, Portuguese ecclesiastics 
 were appointed to examine into the state of the 
 Malabaric church. They pronounced it guilty of 
 both schism and heresy. The Nestorianism which 
 tinged their creed, the witness which they bore 
 against the chief errors of the Roman church, and 
 the independence of their discipline, provoked the 
 zeal of the Romish agents. They did not scruple 
 to have recourse to every artifice which jealous 
 fanaticism could suggest. Violence, fraud, and 
 
46 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 misrepresentation, find a place in the painful his- 
 tory of the unscrupulous attempts of the Roman see 
 to aggrandize itself by the subjection of this church. 
 This iniquitous work of oppression was chiefly 
 accomplished by the zeal and duplicity of Alexis 
 de Menezes, Archbishop of Goa. The Synod of 
 Diamper, at which he presided in the year 1599, 
 finally effected his object by imposing on the Indo- 
 Syrian church unlimited submission to the Pope. 
 The sixty years of servitude which followed this 
 usurpation were chiefly marked by the overbearing 
 ambition of Jesuit bishops. When the successful 
 enterprise of the Dutch shook the eastern power of 
 the Portuguese, the Romish ecclesiastics were com- 
 pelled to relinquish their prey, and the Indo- Syrian 
 church was left at liberty to assert once more its 
 independence. But the lust of Rome had marred 
 the fair form of Christ's bride. The comeliness of 
 her countenance was disfigured, and the love of her 
 youth was gone from her. Rent by schism, and 
 troubled by discord and confusion, this church still 
 remains. A great number of the Christians <of 
 Malabar continued under the Roman see, and to the 
 right of episcopal jurisdiction over these the Portu- 
 guese Archbishop of Cranganore and the Propa- 
 ganda Society at Rome lay rival claim. The 
 Syrians who re-asserted their former independence, 
 retired to the hilly country of Malayalim. They 
 now receive Jacobite prelates from the see of 
 Antioch. For a detailed account of the present 
 condition of this interesting body of Christians, the 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 47 
 
 reader may refer to several of the more modern 
 works on the history of Ciiristianity in India, a 
 catalogue of which is appended to this volume,, for 
 the use of those who may be sufficiently interested 
 in the subject to enter into the details of any par- 
 ticular period or locality. 
 
 The Armenian Christians in India, though few in 
 number, are interesting on account of their strict 
 adherence to their faith, which is free from essential 
 error. Dr. Buchanan writes of them, that they 
 are to be found in every principal city of Asia; 
 they are the general merchants of the East, and are 
 in constant motion from Canton to Constantinople. 
 They would thus, if actuated by missionary zeal, 
 have remarkable opportunities for diifusing a know- 
 ledge of Christianity. They have churches at Bom- 
 bay, Madras, and Calcutta, and their ministers are 
 furnished from Persia, w^ience bishops make occa- 
 sional visitations. 
 
 Of the Roman missions to India, we shall not 
 speak at any further length. The mode of their 
 operations and their want of real spiritual success 
 alike well-nigh exclude them from the history of 
 the church of Christ in India. We will, however, 
 briefly notice two scenes of missionary labour occu- 
 pied by agents of the Society of Jesus. 
 
 Madura is the capital of a province in the 
 southern Carnatic. In the year 1606, Robert de 
 Nobili, a nephew of Cardinal Bellarmine, founded 
 a Jesuit mission here shortly after the departure of 
 Archbishop Menezes from India. Attributing the 
 
48 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 want of real success which attended Xavier's labours 
 to his beginning with the lower classes of the 
 people, he resolved to make himself learned in all 
 the wisdom of the Brahmins, and by influencing 
 first the minds of their instructors, to bring to a 
 knowledge of the truth the nation at large. He 
 and his colleagues assumed heathen names, and in- 
 troduced themselves as Brahmins of a superior order 
 from the western world. Robert de Nobili confirmed 
 this statement by an oath. They also published 
 works in the Brahminical dialects, on the being and 
 attributes of the Deity, in wdiich the train of argu- 
 ment and phraseology of the Hindoo Vedas and 
 Puranas are imitated with the most consummate 
 skill. After this, they proceeded to mix up Chris- 
 tian ceremonies with the forms of the native ritual, 
 and in their personal habits and dress altogether 
 conformed themselves to the life of the Brahmins. 
 They succeeded in gradually substituting the cruci- 
 fix and images of the saints for Hindoo objects of 
 worship, and in winning from many a nominal ad- 
 herence to the Romish faith. But they seem only 
 to have substituted one form of superstition — one 
 kind of ecclesiastical domination, for another. There 
 is no evidence of their seeking to set forth the 
 spiritual mysteries of the Gosj^el — no trace of its 
 influence on the minds of the Hindoos. The other 
 orders remonstrated with these proceedings ; Bel- 
 larmine condemned them ; and the pope issued an 
 edict, ordering the Jesuits at Madura to abandon 
 immediately all practices implying idolatry and 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 49 
 
 superstition. They did not, however, obey this in- 
 junction, but continued their attempts to graft a 
 lifeless form of Christianity on the Brahminical 
 system. 
 
 The Romish mission at Pondicherry deserves a 
 brief notice. The French obtained a settlement 
 here in 1664. Much success attended the labours 
 of the priests, till, as at Madura and Malabar, the 
 Jesuits began to interfere. Determined, at all 
 hazards, to support the interests and extend the 
 influence of their order, they made unjustifiable 
 concessions to Hindoo superstition. This provoked 
 the remonstrances of the other priests ; and finally, 
 as I have before mentioned, called forth the Consti- 
 tution of Gregory XV., prohibiting their adoption 
 of heathen and superstitious forms. The measures 
 of the Jesuits brought a series of tragedies on the 
 mission, till, in 1703, the Pope, seeing how little 
 they regarded his edicts, sent the Cardinal de 
 Tournor to examine into and regulate their pro- 
 ceedings. After much equivocation, they assumed 
 an attitude of open defiance towards the legate ; 
 and when his injunctions had been sanctioned by 
 the Pope, refused to yield even to his authority ; 
 and the Bishop of S. Thome went so far as to assert 
 that his Indian episcopal power was equal to that 
 of the Holy See. Indeed, the history of Roman 
 missions in India furnishes one among many evi- 
 dences of th© falseness of the assertion, that the 
 ecclesiastical domination of the Pope preserved even 
 an. external unity in the church. 
 
 BP. HEB. E 
 
50 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 After the death of Cardinal de Toiirnor, the Pope 
 sent as vicar-apostolic of India a M. de Visdelon, 
 who zealously but ineffectually attempted to put a 
 stop to the superstitious practices of the Jesuits. 
 It avails not to trace further the gradual decline of 
 this mission, or to relate at length the interminable 
 altercations between the Jesuits and the Capuchins, 
 the j)ious frauds of the former and the disgrace 
 which attended their exposure. Suffice it to say, 
 that this painful chapter in the history of the 
 Roman church points out in its every circumstance 
 the folly of attempting to substitute the rationalistic 
 machinations of man's wisdom for those simple and 
 spiritual means of evangelization which Jesus com- 
 manded to his holy apostles, and which were used 
 by them and their immediate successors with such 
 triumphant success. 
 
 The whole number of nominal Romish Christians 
 in India in the year 1815 amounted to 644,000. 
 They do not appear to have increased since that 
 time. 
 
 Itls a strange but most interesting fact, that the 
 Romish ecclesiastics who have laboured in India 
 have inferred from the ill success of their missions 
 that the conversion of the Hindoos is impracticable. 
 The Abbe Dubois does not scruple to declare it as 
 his deliberate opinion, that Christianity has done 
 its work in the world, and that all attempts to 
 Christianize India, or to convert the countless 
 millions of China, are alike vain and hopeless. In 
 this avowal, we trace the want of faith in the pro- 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 51 
 
 mises of Christ and the disguised spirit of rational- 
 ism — even the prophesied Antichrist — which made 
 them have recourse to vain devices instead of 
 simply obeying Plis order to preach the Gospel, 
 baptizing in the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
 and of the Holy Ghost. We regard with pain, but 
 with no surprise, the failure of their efforts ; for 
 we know that the kingdom of Christ is a spiritual 
 kingdom — even peace, and joy, and holiness in 
 the heart of man — and therefore must be extended 
 by spiritual influences. Vain, as we have seen, are 
 all the external appliances of a church — vain its 
 pompous ritual and gorgeous ceremonies — vain 
 the talent, and energy, and self-devotion of its 
 ministers — vain all attempts to rear in a heathen 
 land the church of Christ, unless the mind which 
 was in Him abide in its builders, and the glory of 
 our God descend on the sanctuary. The hopelessness 
 with which the Abbe Dubois and his colleagues 
 regard missionary operations in the East is opposed 
 to the express words of Scripture ; and as we 
 trace with cheerful hearts the progress and exten- 
 sion of the church in India, we shall see that it is 
 alike opposed to the records of experience. 
 
52 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Responsibility of Christian governments for the spiritual 
 interests of their colonies — Oliver Cromwell's missionary- 
 scheme — Dean Prideaux — Dutch missions to India — 
 Danish missions — Swartz — Christian Knowledge So- 
 ciety's missions — Chaplains of East India Company — 
 Memorial of Christian Knowledge Society — Discussion 
 in House of Commons — Mr. Wilberforce — Provision for 
 episcopal superintendence of the Indian church — Bishop 
 Middleton — His regulation of the church — His death — 
 Succession of Bishop Heber. 
 
 IT was a custom in the colonies of old to send with 
 the emigrants priests who should minister to the 
 gods after the manner of their fathers, and the ever- 
 burning fire on the public hearth was kindled from 
 the Prjtaneum of their fatherland. Even heathen 
 governments thus recognised the duty of providing 
 for the religious interests of their foreign subjects, 
 and understood the policy of strengthening the 
 natural tie which bound them to their mother-city 
 by the claims of a common faith. Christian govern- 
 ments more especially are bound to extend to their 
 foreign dependencies the temporal and spiritual 
 blessings of Christianity, and to plant on the shores 
 which own their dominion the crosses and temples 
 of our holy faith. For he who reads the pages of 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 53 
 
 history with a discerning eye, and traces the down- 
 ward stream of time by the light of the w^ord of God 
 will see that He gives glory to nations and sheds 
 success on their counsels for greater and more last- 
 ing ends than the swelling of the merchants' coffers 
 or the triumph of victorious generals. This general 
 truth applies with especial force to our Indian pos- 
 sessions. Our power and influence in that exten- 
 sive empire of the East stand alone in the history 
 of colonial dependencies. While the unvarying 
 orders of the Company have been, not to extend the 
 present boundaries of their territories, circumstances 
 have compelled them to do so; and almost daily we 
 hear tidings of new conquests. If Providence has 
 given to a Christian kingdom so great temporal 
 power in so distant a region, it is surely not pre- 
 sumptuous to suppose that He who works by human 
 agents, wnlleth that we should enjoy the high pri- 
 vilege of diffusing through the millions who now 
 sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, the 
 knowledge of that name at which, before the world 
 has its end, all nations shall bow the knee. 
 
 Hitherto the English state had but feebly reco- 
 gnised her moral and spiritual responsibilities towards 
 her colonial dependencies. She had not stretched forth 
 the strong arm of the secular power to shelter and 
 aid the servants of Christ in their apostolic labours. 
 Alone and unsupported, in toils and sufferings, 
 through good and evil report, they rejoiced and 
 were content in the mere permission to labour be- 
 neath the burnin<r suns of India for His dear sake. 
 
54 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 Pointed at with the finger of scorn, assailed with 
 the most varied and inconsistent calumnies, they 
 sought in life and death to fulfil their Lord's last 
 command, and to extend his kingdom of love and 
 truth and peace. 
 
 There was, indeed, much in the peculiar cha- 
 racter of our Indian dependencies, and in the man- 
 ner of the growth of English power in the East, to 
 palliate, if not to excuse, this neglect. Had Hin- 
 doostan yielded at once to the sword of a victo- 
 rious conqueror, civilization and Christianity would 
 doubtless have made a more rapid advance; and — if 
 I may so speak — the church would have been 
 naturally introduced among the new institutions 
 which such a change would have wrought. The 
 idols would have been hurled from their polluted 
 thrones, and the cleansed temples of a vile super- 
 stition would have been dedicated to a holier 
 worship, and sanctified by the practice of the rites 
 of a purer faith. Throughout the length and breadth 
 of the land, Christianity would have been received 
 as the religion of the conquerors. But the very 
 opposite manner in which our gigantic eastern 
 dominions were acquired, presented the greatest 
 difficulties to such a course. Our Indian empire 
 has always been recognised as one held by the 
 tenure of opinion — that is to say, as depending on a 
 strong conviction in the native breast, that the 
 foreigners' rule was better for them than inde- 
 pendence. To interfere with their religious pre- 
 judices was looked upon as at once dangerous, and a 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 55 
 
 kind of breach of the tacit treaty of non-interference 
 with them in such matters. To avoid any cliance of 
 weakening the good faith of the natives — to avoid 
 the being driven into the sea, was for a long period 
 the overpowering necessity of the EngHsh position. 
 When this position was raised to the rank of power, 
 they became more sensible of their duties. 
 
 The growth of our Indian empire was — I write 
 for the young and uneducated — after this kind. A 
 few trading factories at first, of insignificant im- 
 portance, formed the germs of this vast empire. 
 Around these the elements of power and wealth 
 rapidly gathered. As might be expected, their 
 measures were conceived rather in a spirit of ad- 
 venturous cupidity than in that of a paternal or 
 Christian sovereignty. 
 
 All the relations of this country w^ith India — the 
 new-found El Dorado — were rather commercial than 
 political. Conducted as all modern colonization has 
 unfortunately been — with the exception, in some 
 points, of New Zealand — on false and low principles, 
 the worst passions and energies of human nature 
 were called forth in the struggle by which their 
 position was won and maintained. Of all governors, 
 too, merchant princes are the worst. The pursuit 
 of wealth, which almost necessarily becomes the 
 engrossing passion of their existence — the sordid 
 and selfish views which such a pursuit engenders — 
 and the mean expedients to which they are tempted 
 to resort for its gratification, unfit them for being 
 entrusted with power. Whatever interferes with 
 
56 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 their cupidity is proscribed; whatever gratifies their 
 avarice is encouraged. 
 
 So has it been found in fact. For a long period, 
 the Indo-British government did not recognise its 
 real end — the real end of the existence of all govern- 
 ments — the well-being of its subjects. To fill their 
 coffers was their simple and acknowledged object. 
 Indeed, they made no disguise about the matter. 
 
 The idea of introducing Christianity was out of 
 the question. Besides that the building of churches 
 and paying of priests was expensive, they were 
 afraid of interfering with native prejudices, and so 
 — of losing their custom. 
 
 To educate them was to give them power; the 
 very thing they most dreaded. 
 
 Alas ! for the rulers who tremble at the diffusion 
 of truth and knowledge. The first appearance of 
 any attention on the part of British rulers to the 
 spiritual welfare of their Eastern dominions, occurs 
 in the account which Bishop Burnet gives of a 
 design for a protestant college in opposition to the 
 congregation de propaganda Jide of Rome, formed 
 by Oliver Cromwell, in the case of his assuming 
 the crown. He intended that it should consist of 
 seven counsellors, and four secretaries for the re- 
 spective provinces. These were to be; the first, 
 France, Switzerland, and the Valleys; the second, 
 the Palatinate and the other Calvinists; the third, 
 Germany, the North, and Turkey; the fourth, the 
 East and West Indies. The secretaries were to 
 receive a salary of 500Z. per annum, and to keep up 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 57 
 
 a correspondence with the churches everywhere, in 
 order to protect and assist the interests of religion 
 throughout the world. Chelsea College was to be 
 refitted for them, and they were to have at their 
 disposal 10,000/. a-year, besides occasional grants. 
 
 In the year 1694, the learned Dean Prideaux 
 published a paper, entitled, " An Account of the 
 English Settlements in the East Indies, together 
 with some proposals for the propagation of Chris" 
 tianity in those parts of the world." In this paper he 
 complains, that " while the Dutch settlements are 
 provided with missionaries, and their factories and 
 ships with able missionaries, the English crews are 
 left wholly without prayer, instruction, or sacra- 
 ments — the chaplains of the factories rendered 
 nearly useless — and the promotion of Christianity 
 among the natives altogether neglected." He goes 
 on to propose means by which the English name 
 may be redeemed from this reproach, such as the 
 erection of schools and churches, the establishment 
 of a seminary for missionaries in England, and the 
 appointment of certain missionary stations in India. 
 Above all, he recommends the appointment of a 
 bishop in India, and a college for native priests, 
 under his immediate superintendence, adding this 
 memorable passage, that " the existing evils and 
 deficiencies cannot otherwise be remedied than by 
 settling bishops and seminaries in those countries 
 where ministers may be bred and ordained on the 
 spot." Four years after this, it was enjoined by the 
 legislature, on the renewal of the Company's charter. 
 
58 BISHOP IIEBER, 
 
 that they should constantly maintain, in every 
 garrison and superior factory, one minister, and 
 provide there also one decent and convenient place 
 for divine service only, and that these ministers 
 should diligently apply themselves to the study of 
 the native tongue, the better to enable them to 
 instruct the Gentoo servants of the company in the 
 protestant religion. 
 
 In 1793, many circumstances concurred to fix 
 the attention of the public on British India. Hitherto 
 the great distance of our eastern territories, the 
 low light in which our connexion with them was 
 regarded, and the spirit-stirring exigencies of con- 
 tinental affairs, had alike contributed to induce a 
 careless indifference as to the moral and social in- 
 terests of our native subjects. But a transformation 
 of this commercial relation into a political one had 
 been long in progress. The merchant settlements, 
 which owed their origin to the daring of a few 
 speculating traders, became the centres of European 
 influence, and the capitals of a vast territory. Daily, 
 in spite of their efforts, this territory extended 
 itself with an unexampled rapidity; and these traders 
 found themselves the lords of a great and increasing 
 kingdom. The trial of Warren Hastings had called 
 the attention of the legislature to the condition and 
 government of our eastern dependencies. The ad- 
 ministration of justice, the mode of government, the 
 trade and finances of India, were subjected to a 
 minute and vigorous scrutiny. In this examina- 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 59 
 
 tion, the highest interests of the people were not 
 entirely neglected. 
 
 The House of Commons resolved, 
 
 "That it is the peculiar and bounden duty of 
 the legislature to promote, by all just and prudent 
 means, the interest and the happiness of the British 
 dominions in India, and that for these ends such 
 measures ought to be adopted as may gradually tend 
 to their advancement in useful knowledge, and to 
 their religious and moral improvement;" and further, 
 " that sufficient means of religious worship and in- 
 struction be provided for all persons of the pro- 
 testant communion, in the service or under the pro- 
 tection of the East India Company in Asia, proper 
 ministers being from time to time sent out from 
 Great Britain for those purposes." 
 
 A clause was subsequently added to the bill, 
 " empowering the Court of Directors to send out 
 schoolmasters, and persons approved of by the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Lon- 
 don, for the religious and moral improvement of 
 the native inhabitants of the British dominions in 
 India." This was, however, on some opposition 
 being offered by the Court of Directors, thrown 
 out on the third reading. While the English had 
 thus shown themselves either altogether or com- 
 paratively careless of the religious interests of Hin- 
 doostan, the Portuguese, the Hollander, and the 
 Dane, had made successful efforts to spread a know- 
 ledge of Christianity through the immediate neigh- 
 
60 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 bourhood of their respective settlements. Of the 
 Portuguese missions something has been already 
 said. 
 
 In the beginning of the 17th century, the Dutch 
 obtained some valuable possessions on the coast of 
 Ceylon; and their missionary efforts were so suc- 
 cessful, that when, in 1796, these settlements were 
 surrendered to the British army, the number of the 
 native Protestant Christians was estimated at more 
 than 340,000. These were divided into 240 church- 
 ships or parishes. There was a college for the 
 training of preachers and catechists, and a great 
 part of the Scriptures had been carefully translated 
 into the Malabar and Angalese. 
 
 But the high honour of being the first to make 
 single-minded and systematic efforts for the con- 
 version of the Hindoos, by the preaching of a pure 
 faith, was reserved for Frederick IV., King of 
 Denmark. Nearly a century before his accession to 
 the throne, the crown of Denmark had become 
 possessed of the town of Tranquebar and some 
 adjoining territory on the Coromandel coast. En- 
 gaged in their commercial transactions, the mer- 
 chants who had settled there gave no signs of any 
 interest in the religious welfare of the natives. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Lutkens,, one of his Majesty's 
 chaplains, had, while he was yet Prince Regent, 
 been frequently engaged in conversations with him 
 on the subject of the conversion of the heathen to 
 the Christian religion. In the beginning of the 
 eighteenth century, his pupil having ascended the 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 61 
 
 throne, he pressed on him with much earnestness 
 the establisliment of a mission at Tranquebar. Dr. 
 Franche, the celebrated professor of divinity in the 
 University of Halle, in Saxony, and the founder of 
 the Oriental College of Divinity in that place, was 
 commanded to select from his pupils such as might 
 seem to him best qualified by zeal and learning to 
 undertake the arduous work of preaching to the 
 Hindoos, and founding a church in India. 
 
 Bartholomew Ziegenhalg and Henry Plutscho, 
 two young men of piety and talent, w^ere chosen. 
 They gladly surrendered themselves to this call 
 from Heaven. 
 
 These successors of the apostles, animated with a 
 generous ardour for the conquest of souls went 
 forth with a cheerful confidence in His word, who 
 had said to the first missionaries, and who now 
 by His Spirit said to them — '' Lo, I am with you 
 always, even unto the end of the world." 
 
 They embarked at Copenhagen on the 29th of 
 November, 1705, and arrived at Tranquebar on 
 the 9th of July, 1706. 
 
 They encountered much opposition from the resi- 
 dent Danish authorities. Strengthening themselves 
 by prayer and by daily study of the Word of God, 
 especially of the Acts of the Holy Apostles, they at 
 once commenced their work. 
 
 They in the first place devoted themselves to the 
 acquiring a competent knowledge of the Portuguese 
 and Tamul languages. The former was generally 
 understood by the surrounding natives, while the. 
 
62 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 latter was tlie vernacular spoken from Madras 
 southwards, and in the north of Ceylon. In both of 
 these they were soon sufficiently proficient to cate- 
 chise the children, and after a time to converse 
 with the natives on the abstract truths of religion 
 and morality. Ziegenhalg in particular made re- 
 markable progress in his Tamul studies. 
 
 Their first convert — the first-fruits of a precious 
 and abundant harvest of souls — was a young man of 
 high caste, Modaliapa by name. Moved alike by 
 the sweetness of the heavenly doctrine which these 
 strangers taught, and the divine purity of their 
 lives, he cast in his lot with them, confessing Christ, 
 and declaring that he was " willing to live and die 
 with them, desiring nothing more than to have 
 maintenance in this world, if he might but partake 
 of the blessings and promises of the Gospel." 
 
 In May, 1 707, several catechumens were received 
 into the church by baptism, and the office of cate- 
 chist conferred on one of them. 
 
 Soon after this, a stone church was built for the 
 use of the mission. It was consecrated in August, 
 in the presence of a vast number of Christians, 
 heathens, and Mahommedans. In this Christian 
 temple, the Word of God was fiiithfuUy preached, in 
 Portuguese and Tamul, twice a-week, and the sacra- 
 ments of the Saviour duly administered. 
 
 What churches are for the full-grown man, 
 schools are, in a certain sense, for children. By the 
 former, we Christianize our own generation; by the 
 latter, that which is to succeed us. I do not mean 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. DO 
 
 really convert them, but implant in their minds the 
 principles and seeds of divine truth, which, though 
 they may long lie dormant, so often, sooner or later, 
 spring up and bring forth fruit to life everlasting. 
 
 The missionaries accordingly established schools 
 for the education of the native and Portuguese 
 children, and devoted much time and labour to 
 them. 
 
 A letter from Ziegenbalg to Dr. Lutkens furnishes 
 an interesting picture of the succession of labours in 
 which the day was spent. 
 
 To his morning devotions succeeded the explana- 
 tion of Luther's Catechism. After this he sat down 
 to his Tamul studies, conversing and reading at 
 intervals with a native poet. He then catechised 
 the children. The rest of the day was devoted to 
 his Tamul studies. This day of Christian labour 
 was concluded by " an exercise of piety with some 
 German residents at Tranquebar." 
 
 " All the evenings," he adds, " we converse with 
 each other respecting our work, and the best means 
 of advancing it. After supper, I review the business 
 of the day, and examine my own heart, and con- 
 clude with singing and prayer." 
 
 How truly apostolic a life! What sweet sim- 
 plicity and single-mindedness! I will only say; com- 
 pare these days spent in God's service — this life so 
 consistent — so full of a divine harmony — so com- 
 plete — so free from all disordered affections, with 
 the existence of those who, without ain^ or object, 
 live on from day to day. In a word, compare the 
 
64 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 Christian life — the highest grade of it — I mean the 
 apostolic life — with the life of the flesh and the 
 world. 
 
 The missionaries abounded in trials of faith. 
 Their remittances from home failed — they were 
 assailed with various persecutions — opposed by their 
 own countrymen. Ziegenbalg was thrown into 
 prison, where he lay four months. When, however, 
 patience had wrought out her perfect work, the 
 cloud passed away, and the sunshine of aid, and 
 sympathy, and immediate success was shed on 
 them in good time. 
 
 Three new missionaries arrived from Europe, 
 with money and stores for the use of the mission. 
 The King of Denmark, too, sent an express com- 
 mand to the governor of Tranquebar to assist, to 
 the utmost of his power, the pious labours of the 
 missionaries. 
 
 These efforts to introduce Christianity into India 
 did not escape the notice of religious persons in this 
 country. The Society for Promoting Christianity 
 had been established a few years. The Rev. Mr. 
 Boehm, chaplain to Prince George of Denmark, 
 and an active member of the society, brought them 
 before its committee. A grant of money and books, 
 accompanied by a cordial expression of sympathy, 
 was sent over the seas to cheer the hearts of the 
 labourers at Tranquebar. 
 
 In 1714, a work of the last importance, after 
 many delays and perplexing difiiculties, was accom- 
 plished. A translation of the New Testament into 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 65 
 
 the Tainul, by Ziegenbalg, was issued from the 
 press at Tranquebar. In transmitting a copy of 
 his version to the Society for Promoting Christian 
 Knowledge, he wrote — 
 
 " May God Almighty prosper our labours by his 
 heavenly blessing, and grant that His holy word 
 may, like an incorruptible seed, be scattered among 
 these nations to preserve them from eternal de- 
 struction." 
 
 The great increase of converts, and the inefficiency 
 of their means to support the various institutions 
 connected with the mission, induced Ziegenbalg to 
 make a voyage to Europe, for the purpose of exciting 
 a greater interest in the cause of the missions. Ac- 
 companied by a native convert, he arrived at 
 Bengen, in Norway, June 1, 1715, having occupied 
 his time during the voyage in the composition of a 
 Tamul Grammar, still held in esteem by Oriental 
 scholars. 
 
 He had an interview^ with the King of Denmark, 
 who was engaged in the siege of Stralsund, in 
 Pomerania, by whom he was graciously received, 
 and honoured wnth the title of " Inspector of the 
 Missions." He also took counsel with Professor 
 Franche; and made arrangements of importance 
 with the Danish East India Company. At Halle, 
 he married a lady whom he had long loved. To- 
 wards the end of the year he went to England. He 
 was received with the greatest kindness by George I., 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishop of 
 London. The Society for Promoting Christian 
 
 BP. HEB. F 
 
66 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 Knowledge presented him with a congratulatory 
 address in Latin, to which he replied in Tamul 
 immediately, adding a Latin version of his speech. 
 
 He landed at Madras, August 10, 1716. Re- 
 joining his ancient colleagues at Tranquebar, he 
 commenced with energy the institution of a semi- 
 nary for the education of native catechists and 
 schoolmasters, and the establishment of schools at 
 Madras and Cuddalore. The remaining years of 
 his life were spent in the translation of the Bible 
 into Tamul, in preaching journeys, and in religious 
 discussions with the natives. 
 
 In the beginning of the year 1719, his health 
 rapidly ftiiled. "Having reached Cuddalore, he 
 found his end approaching, and sent for his friend 
 Grundler, to whom, on his arrival, he expressed the 
 most humble yet exalted hope of heavenly happi- 
 ness; and having received the holy communion, and 
 requested a favourite Lutheran hymn to be sung, he 
 expired in perfect peace on the 23rd of February, 
 1719, in the 36th year of his age, deeply lamented 
 by his excellent colleague and the native converts, 
 and esteemed and regretted even by the pagans 
 themselves." 
 
 " In the 36th year of his age;" — and so much 
 done — work, too, to last for ever. The Word trans- 
 lated — the foundations of a church laid — in a word, 
 so many souls saved. One characteristic value of 
 missionary history is, to show how much can be 
 done by an individual. Take the lives of Henry 
 Martyn, or Francis Xavier, or Frederick Swartz, 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 67 
 
 or David Zeisberger, or Brainerd. We here see 
 men who simply abandoned themselves to one pur- 
 pose — who devoted their lives to the working out of 
 an idea which was predominant in their souls. We 
 see what a wonderful energy the completeness of 
 self-dedication communicates to the will. And 
 what were the consequences? Continents converted, 
 millions of souls redeemed from darkness, a fresh 
 life imparted to the church at home, a thirst for 
 self-devotion in her priests, and a willingness to 
 contribute of their worldly wealth in the people. 
 And all this resulting from the single-minded 
 self-dedication of a few individuals. 
 
 Wliat I wish to impress on the young reader is, 
 that it is impossible to limit the effects for good or 
 evil of an individual life. Weak as man is in him- 
 self, he yet has in this sense a power the respon- 
 sibility of which we are apt to overlook. 
 
 For though God worketh, it is by and through 
 us, his created instruments, and it depends on our- 
 selves whether we give up ourselves to him, bound 
 as it were hand and foot, without wish or will or 
 purpose of our own, save to do His work when and 
 where he calleth us. 
 
 To return to Ziegenbalg. His piety, zeal, judg- 
 ment, and patient perseverance entitle him to an 
 eminent place among missionary saints. His trans- 
 lation of the New Testament into Tamul, accom- 
 plished amid difficulties at first sight insuperable, 
 remains the great and lasting monument of this 
 holy man. He was succeeded in the superintendence 
 f2 
 
68 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 of the missions by Grundler; and on his death, in 
 ] 720, by Schultz, one of three new missionaries who 
 had recently arrived. Such was the ardour and 
 perseverance of these men in the study of the 
 Portuguese and Tamul languages, that they were 
 able to enter on their duties as preachers and cate- 
 chists within three months after their arrival. 
 
 Schultz especially devoted himself to the great 
 work of completing the Tamul version of the Old 
 Testament, which Ziegenbalg had only carried as 
 far as the book of Ruth. His acquaintance with the 
 original Hebrew, and the various European versions, 
 enabled him, with the assistance of a Brahmin and 
 some learned natives, to complete it in 1725. It 
 was printed in 1727. Thus was the first complete 
 copy of the Word of God, translated into one of the 
 most prevalent languages in Hindoostan, given to 
 the people of the East. 
 
 The appointment of natives as catechumens, and 
 the ordinary priests from among the converts, is 
 always a most important and necessary step in mis- 
 sionary operations. Already had Archbishop Wake, 
 in a letter to Mr. Schultz, recommended the selec- 
 tion of such of the converts as might appear most 
 qualified for the pastoral office, and the association 
 of them with him in his apostolical labours. 
 
 The labours of the native catechumens had 
 already been found very useful. In 1733, Aaron, 
 a man of family, and distinguished by his piety and 
 success as a teacher, received holy orders, according 
 to the rites of the Lutheran church. He was made 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 69 
 
 the instrument of the conversion of many hundred 
 souls. After eleven years of faithful service, he 
 died in 1745. 
 
 Among the labourers in this mission, from the 
 year 1733 to 1749, appear the honoured names of 
 Garborius, Reich steig, Croom, Pressier, Diego, 
 and Fabricius. Their self-denying labours supply 
 but little material for the page of history. Dry 
 details of funds expended, schools built, and paro- 
 chial arrangements, are all that appear on the 
 outside. 
 
 We shall know all about them in that great day 
 when the secrets of souls shall be made manifest, 
 and the names of those who have found a place in 
 His book shall be proclaimed before the assembled 
 universe. We shall then see and be able to appre- 
 ciate the results of their labours, for we shall then, 
 and never till then, know the value of one soul. 
 " They who turn many to righteousness shall 
 shine as the stars for ever and ever." 
 
 It appears by the returns regularly made to the 
 Mission College at Copenhagen, and to the Society 
 for Promoting Christian Knowledge, that from the 
 arrival of Ziegenbalg, in 1706, to the year 1750, the 
 number of the converts at Tranquebar, and in the 
 towns and villages of the neighbouring districts to 
 which the missionaries had access, amounted to 
 nearly eight thousand; and that from the year 1728 
 to the same period, the converts at Madras and 
 Cuddalore, and along the coast of Coromandel, 
 might be estimated at more than one thousand. Of 
 
70 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 these a very small proportion were proselytes from 
 the Roman-catholic faith; though such is the 
 general ignorance of the converts from heathenism 
 by the missionaries of that church, that with the 
 exception of a few unmeaning forms, they could 
 scarcely be considered as differing from their pagan 
 countrymen. A few instances occurred of conver- 
 sion from the Mahommedans, but their well-known 
 prejudice and bigotry rendered these extremely rare. 
 The great majority of the protestant converts were 
 native Hindoos or their children, chiefly, as might 
 be expected, though by no means exclusively even 
 at that period, of the lower castes of the inhabitants. 
 
 It is not intended to be asserted, that all these 
 converts were well-informed and consistent Chris- 
 tians; but one of the principal features in the 
 history of these protestant missions is, the unwearied 
 diligence, and the scrupulous care, and conscientious 
 fidelity with which the missionaries and other 
 teachers laboured to prepare their catechumens for 
 baptism, and to instruct their congregations in the 
 doctrine and precepts of the Gospel, and the primi- 
 tive discipline which they exercised over them. 
 
 Their periodical reports afford many unquestion- 
 able proofs and most interesting memorials of the 
 faith and piety of their converts, many examples of 
 Christian virtue, and many instances of opposition 
 and persecution " for righteousness' sake," sustained 
 with a steadfastness, meekness, and patience, well 
 worthy of the purest ages of the church, the 
 genuineness and authenticity of which cannot fairly 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 71 
 
 be doubted. Many a death-bed scene also is re- 
 corded in these reports, in which the dying Hindoo, 
 and not unfreqiiently the female convert, expressed 
 with intelligence, humility, and ardent gratitude, 
 the heartfelt penitence, the holy dispositions, and 
 the heavenly hopes of the true Christian. Even 
 where the instructions and exhortations of the mis- 
 sionaries fEiiled of producing any effectual change of 
 religious profession, there was often a strong con- 
 viction on the native mind of the folly of idolatry 
 and the truth of Christianity as a divine revelation ; 
 and a very general impression was evident in its 
 favour from the unwearied and disinterested labours, 
 and the holy and exemplary lives of the Christian 
 teachers. Nor was this all. The dispersion of the 
 various translations of the holy Scriptures, and the 
 distribution of numerous tracts and treatises, printed 
 at the Tranquebar press, tended to disseminate 
 Christian knowledge and Christian principles far 
 beyond the narrow limits of the protestant missions 
 and their immediate vicinity, and to prepare the 
 way for that more extensive diffusion of the Gospel 
 in India, which we have happily lived to witness.^ 
 
 Chief among the saints who laboured in the 
 Dutch mission is the honoured name of Christian 
 Frederic Swartz. When a student at Halle, he was 
 selected, with another, to learn the Tamul, for the 
 purpose of superintending the printing of the Bible 
 then in the press. After a year and a half s diligent 
 
 » Pearson's Memoirs of Schwartz, i. 51, 53, 
 
72 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 Study of this tongue, he accepted an offer made to 
 him by Professor Franche, to go forth as a mission- 
 ary to India. 
 
 Having obtained the consent of his surviving 
 parent, he went to pay a farewell visit to his native 
 place, and to meditate for the last time over the 
 grave of his sainted mother. He was about to 
 fulfil her dearest wish. When on her death-bed, 
 she had declared to her husband and the parish 
 pastor, that she had dedicated this her son, in a 
 peculiar manner, to God's immediate service, ad- 
 juring them in His name, so to aid him in pious 
 exercises and useful learnings that her vow might 
 in due time have its accomplishment. Having 
 received holy orders at Copenhagen, he sailed, with 
 two companions, to England, whence they embarked 
 for the Indies, and arrived at Tranquebar in July? 
 1750. 
 
 He here spent twelve years in patient and un- 
 remitting labour. 
 
 In the prime and strength of his youth, he made 
 a vow of virginity — believing that he had received 
 the gift, and that he should thus be better able 
 to discharge the arduous duties of a missionary 
 life. 
 
 In 1765, he raised a church and school at Tritchi- 
 nopoly. In 1766, he was engaged by the Society 
 for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge. Soon 
 after, the Danish mission at Tranquebar was trans- 
 ferred to this society. 
 
 A few extracts from his letters and journals will 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 73 
 
 present the best picture of his situation and pros- 
 pects. 
 
 " To-day, I was early at the river Caveri, and 
 beheld the many pagodas at Sirengain, and I 
 thought within myself — What is all this? What can 
 it avail? A beautiful and shady tree grew near; I 
 sate myself beneath it; the river was skirted with 
 verdant shrubs as with a border; all looked fresh 
 and green after the abundant rain, and my heart 
 was quite exhilarated with the view of God's lovely 
 creation. I asked the people who came here, to 
 whose honour the temple was erected. Was not their 
 deity a poor, dying, and, withal, very vicious being? 
 A Pandaram showed me several TamuJ verses, 
 which he read over to me; the substance of them 
 was, ' Our forefathers taught us to celebrate such 
 and such ceremonies, and are dead; he who can 
 confer immortality is the true priest.' I said, 
 ' Would you be immortal?' It was not often that 
 this question was put to these bigoted men. The 
 glory of the true God, the corruption of our nature, 
 and the love by which this is redeemed, were set 
 forth without ceasing; but men, whose ideas of 
 futurity were so vague and disconsolate, were more 
 likely to be allured by the glowing promise -and 
 picture of its felicity.'' After a pause, the learned 
 Hindoo replied to Swartz's sudden question, " that 
 he was desirous of such an immortality only by 
 means of which he should be obnoxious to no sick- 
 ness, pain, or death; where he could wander far and 
 wide, in the full powers of his mind." "First," 
 
/4 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 said the other, " be concerned how you, a poor 
 sinful man, may become reconciled to God." " I 
 know of no sins," replied the Hindoo, " and expect 
 a more exalted instruction from you; that God 
 would tell me clearly how this life is to be ob- 
 tained." "I perceive," said the former, "you are 
 full of vain imaginations." 
 
 As a specimen of the trials to which Christian 
 converts in Hindoostan are exposed, we find the 
 following record in his Diary — 
 
 " In May last, a youth was received by baptism 
 into our church ; he listened to our instructions in a 
 calm spirit, daily increasing in knowledge, and 
 inspiring us with a hope also, that the instruction 
 was not without fruit in his heart. But his parents 
 were ill contented that he should forsake hea- 
 thenism. His aged father, to whom I urged him to 
 give all reverence, came to Tritchinopoly, and chid 
 him that he should turn to the Christian doctrines; 
 that in so doing he must never more see his rela- 
 tions, brothers-in-law or his sisters, and, above all, 
 that he must resign a young woman who had been 
 affianced to him as his bride. The son fell at the 
 feet of his aged father; he implored him not to 
 draw him back again to idolatry. We pointed out 
 to the parent the blessedness of true Christians: we 
 entreated him to turn to the living God. He 
 listened; but again spoke to his son on the subject 
 of the marriage, telling him that all was settled to 
 complete the nuptials the following month. The 
 youth had a cruel conflict to maintain: he, 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 75 
 
 however, held fast his integrity, and the father went 
 sorrowfid away. The aged mother came likewise 
 from a distance, but soon returned, for she said 
 there was no standing it; that every day there were 
 twenty coming to talk to her about Christianity; 
 that it was not to be borne. At last, the girl came 
 in much distress, would listen to nothing, and wept 
 when she was addressed. The tears of the betrothed 
 were hard to be resisted; father and mother had 
 been witiistood, but to her sorrow he yielded; be- 
 came her hu&band, yet forsook not Christianity. A 
 year elapsed after this; and," says the journal, " he 
 maintained his profession with courage and joy; 
 but his wife remained a heathen ; she said, ' I cannot 
 resolve to profess Christianity yet, the hatred of 
 relations is so great.' " 
 
 Such is the influence Avhich is invariably more or 
 less exercised to induce the convert to deny the 
 faith, and forswear the Lord who bought him. 
 
 Amongst the most distinguished disciples of 
 Swartz was a priest of the sect of Isurer, Arunasa- 
 lem by name, a man of high caste, abilities, 
 and learning. Wearied and heartsick with the 
 snares of vain philosophy, he found in the Gospel 
 dogmas a solution for all his doubts. Having em- 
 braced Christ in baptism, he received the following 
 letter from the College of Pandarams at Tarna- 
 buran, in the kingdom of Tanjore. It is a most 
 curious and interesting document. 
 
 " The grace of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, the 
 Creator, the Redeemer, and the Destroyer, be effectual 
 
76 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 in the soul of Arunasalem. If you inquire into the rea- 
 sons of our writing this letter to you, know then; you 
 were on a journey to the holy place of Cashy ; and be- 
 hold, by the cunning fraud of that arch-enemy the 
 devil, your great wisdom and understanding have been 
 so blinded that you were not ashamed to go to Cud- 
 dalore to the Christians, who are no better than the 
 Pariahs, and hear and be instructed in their despi- 
 cable religion. Oh, into what amazement were we 
 thrown on hearing this ! The moment we heard it, 
 we met in the divine presence of the head of the 
 sacred college of Pandarams, and consulted on this 
 event. Indeed, we are sunk in an ocean of sorrow. 
 Remember, Arunasalem, your change is like a king 
 turning Pariah. What have you wanted among us? 
 Had you not honour and reputation sufficient? Con- 
 sider, Arunasalem, the noble blood of the Tondamar, 
 from whence you are sprung. We must impute this 
 misfortune that has befallen you to a crime that you 
 have committed against God in some former gene- 
 ration. The moment you receive this letter, return 
 again to this place. May S give you under- 
 standing." 
 
 Such was all the adherents of heathenism could 
 say. To their appeal, Arunasalem gave the follow- 
 ing sublime answer. It reads as if written by a 
 converted Platonist of Alexandria. 
 
 " Your promises of honour and riches touch me 
 not. I have changed my religion, but not my 
 caste. I am still a Tondamar. I forsook the re- 
 ligion of my fathers, whose head is that haughty 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 77 
 
 spirit Satan. How holy, how majestic is God as 
 described in the sacred books of the Christians! 
 The deities I have forsaken were fountains of im- 
 purity and evil passions. Can sins be expiated by 
 the sacrifice and washing of Lingliam? On the 
 soul of Arunasalem is risen an everlasting kingdom. 
 Friends, Pandarems, noble descendants of Tonda- 
 mar, come and inherit it with me." 
 
 His Diary is full of the most beautiful and affect- 
 ing passages. 
 
 " There are many, I may well say thousands, that 
 listen to the Word with joy, approve it much, and 
 would gladly place themselves under instruction, 
 were not the cross connected with it." 
 
 " These people are to be won only with great 
 care and caution. By addressing them in kindness 
 and meekness, we graft on our words a representa- 
 tion of Christianity in its loveliness ; then they 
 usually listen with attention and reflection. Several 
 families of the higher caste have now become Chris- 
 tians." 
 
 " On the walls of my church I had inscribed in 
 the Persian language, in gold letters — ' No one 
 Cometh to the Father but by me;' but they could 
 not brook it. On the whole, God hath given me to 
 witness much that was joyful, to the strengthening 
 of my faith and the comfort of my heart, amid all 
 the sorrows that I daily witness." 
 
 Describing the death of an aged convert, he says : 
 
 " He was an ancient father of a hundred years of 
 age; his wife wept over him; her white hair was an 
 
78 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 ornament to her. Just before he expired, he said to 
 jriQ — ' Now, priest, I go to the kingdom of blessed- 
 ness; be diligent that my wife, who is ninety years 
 of age, may follow me. We have endured much 
 together; do not let us be parted in eternity." 
 
 In the month of August, he undertook a danger- 
 ous journey to Seringapatam, at the request of the 
 Eno-lish o;overnment. That bold and remorseless 
 usurper, the Rajah of Mysore, was proposing an 
 invasion. With the innate dignity of conscious 
 truth and holiness, Swartz, having, after a perillous 
 journey, reached the capital, represented to the 
 tyrant how great a responsibility he would incur by 
 commencing war. Ignorant of the art of diplomacy, 
 v/ith no weapons but simplicity and justice, he both 
 effected the object of Jiis mission and won the esteem 
 of the Rajah and his court. Hyder presented him 
 with a purse of gold, accompanying it with warm 
 expressions of admiration, and sent a message to all 
 his officers between the capital and Tanjore "to 
 permit the Father Swartz to pass unmolested, and 
 to show him respect and kindness, for he is a holy 
 man, and means no harm to my government." 
 
 On his return to the mission at Tanjore, he found 
 the converts for the most part faithful to their pro- 
 fession. " Our intention is not to boast," he writes; 
 '' but this I may safely say, that many of those 
 people who have been instructed have left this world 
 with comfort, and with a well-grounded hope of 
 everlasting life. That some of those who have 
 been instructed and baptized have abused that ad- 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 79 
 
 vantage, is certain; but all sincere servants of God, 
 nay, even the Apostles, have experienced this grief." 
 Believers were continually added to the church. 
 Swartz, too, had fellow-labourers with whom he 
 could sympathize. With Pohle, with Gericke, and 
 with KholofF, he held much and sweet counsel. 
 
 " The favourite country scene of Swartz was still 
 the village of Ratchanmaley : it continued faithful. 
 The lonely pagoda was still there that told of his 
 success better than a pillar of marble; the forsaken 
 Brahmin, instead of being the lord of the people's 
 faith, now sat on the steps of his neglected shrine, 
 begging money, not for his idol, but for his own 
 wants. There, when the evening hymn was raised 
 by the missionary, and the people gathered eagerly 
 round, and sang the praises of Christ instead of 
 Vis] ma, it Avas a moment such as life seldom offers 
 to the soul. To pass thus from the palace of Hyder 
 to the Hindoo cottage — from the restless home of 
 ambition and cruelty, to the lowly hearths which the 
 peace and hope of God shadowed Avith their wings — 
 was a lesson to the spirit of Swartz more indelible 
 than many volumes of wisdom. 
 
 " Such was the change which many years had 
 wrought in his situation. Had he, in the long 
 struggle vnih the powers of paganism, compared 
 the difficulties to be surmounted with his own 
 lonely and feeble resources, he would have failed 
 utterly. But he never lost his noble reliance on 
 Him 'with whom nothing is impossible;' whose love 
 filled his heart, calmed every sorrow, and nerved 
 
80 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 every hope afresh. ' My way is covered with 
 thorns,' he writes; ' no cloud rains upon it; yet it is 
 made dear to me.' To his mission was given the 
 whole force and vigour of his mind, as well as the 
 warm affections of the heart, unshared by the love 
 of woman or any dear domestic tie. No man ever 
 succeeded greatly in a career in which he did not 
 feel a delight even to enthusiasm: if this enthusiasm 
 abates, his strength is withered. With Swartz it 
 never abated, even to the last flitting energy of 
 life." 
 
 In his advanced years we find him, though his 
 strength and vigour were rapidly failing, still en- 
 gaged in an untiring course of good works. " He 
 persevered," writes Gaspar KolhoflP, " in his minis- 
 terial office and in his studies with great fervour, 
 under all the disadvantages of his advanced age. 
 He preached every Sunday in the English and 
 Tamul languages by turns, and on Wednesdays 
 gave a lecture in the Portuguese language, and 
 afterwards in the German to the private soldiers. 
 During the course of the week, he explained the New 
 Testament in his usual order; and he gave an hour 
 every day to instruct the Malabar children. He 
 was very solicitous for their improvement, especially 
 those whom he was training up for the service of 
 the church. Though his health was greatly im- 
 paired, yet his love to his flock constrained him to 
 deny himself a great deal of that ease and repose 
 which he now required. He took a particular de- 
 light in visiting the members of his congregation, 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 81 
 
 to converse freely on the subject of their eternal 
 interests. It was a pleasing sight to see the little 
 children flock to him with such joy as children feel 
 in meeting their beloved parent after some absence, 
 and to observe his engaging method to lead them 
 to the knowledge of God and their duty. During 
 all this his strength was visibly on the decline." In 
 that union of zeal and prudence, of energy and 
 patience, which every missionary requires, Swartz 
 has seldom been equalled, and perhaps never ex- 
 celled. " His career," writes Mr. Carne, in his Lives 
 of Eminent Missionaries, " was of great and lasting 
 aid to the interests of the East India Company and 
 the stability of their dominion, as well as to the 
 ascendancy of British character over the minds of 
 the natives. By them he is not, and never will be 
 forgotten. He was the first European who obtained 
 that singular and commanding influence over their 
 feelings and conduct, which he never used but to 
 the best purposes. A gentleman, who occupied a 
 high official station in India, and visited Tanjore, 
 informed me that he often conversed with the pre- 
 sent Rajah, in the hall of whose palace is the monu- 
 ment of Swartz, executed and sent over by Flax- 
 man. ' There,' said the prince, pointing to it, ' is 
 the image of my father.' Every morning, as soon 
 as he is risen, and before he goes to his durbar or 
 council, he enters the hall, approaches the tomb, 
 folds his hands on his breast, and bows before it. 
 It is to be observed, that the prince is no Christian, 
 and still adheres to the Hindoo belief. No regard, 
 
 BP. HEB. G 
 
82 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 therefore, for the faith which the deceased inculcated 
 had any share in these feeUngs; they were the fruit 
 only of the simple and fervent remembrance of his 
 virtues. It is also the Rajah's desire that his people 
 shall remain true to their ancient religion. He in- 
 culcates this both byword and example; yet he is 
 surrounded by his courtiers and officers, and many 
 people in the great hall at the very time he pays 
 his daily reverence to the tomb of the missionary. 
 Does not this refute, more clearly than a thousand 
 arguments, the objections raised against the diffusion 
 of Christianity in the East ? What a beautiful and 
 beneficent influence is here, over which time and 
 death have no power! Will not these people hand 
 down to their children's children the name of the 
 man who thus walked among them, and tell the tale 
 of his saving the famished, of his wresting them 
 from the tyrant's grasp, and making their burdens 
 light. It is said that the religion of Christ will un- 
 hinge the minds of the people, and shake their alle- 
 giance to their European rulers; but had the govern- 
 ment of India many such agents and ministers as 
 Frederic Swartz, it would find their example of 
 more avail than the mountain fortress or the armed 
 battalion. Wherever Christianity is so illustrated 
 amongst the heathen, its fruits will be the same, on 
 the ruler as well as on the slave. It was in com- 
 pliance with Hyder All's request that Swartz was 
 sent to him to treat of peace. His message was in 
 these words to the council at Madras: *Do not send 
 to me any of your agents, for I do not trust their 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 83 
 
 words or treaties; but if you wish me to listen to 
 your proposals, send to me the missionary, of whose 
 character I hear so much from every one; him I will 
 receive and trust.' " 
 
 After the death of Swartz, the missions were still 
 successful; and by the eifort of Geriche, Saeniche, 
 Powle, and Kolhorff, a great number of new con- 
 verts were every year added to the church. It is 
 impossible to follow out into detail the progress of 
 the work. The lives of Brown, Buchanan, and 
 Kiernander will furnish interesting pictures of the 
 labours of the missionaries and their satisfactory- 
 results. In the missions which Swartz and his 
 successors founded and extended lies the strength of 
 the Christian cause in India. At the time of their 
 greatest prosperity they contained 40,000 members. 
 When Bishop Middleton arrived in India, the native 
 Christians of these missions occuj^ied seven prin- 
 cipal stations — Vepey, Tanjore, Trichinopoly, Tin- 
 nevelly, Caddalore, Madura, and Ramzad. In these 
 districts about 23,000 natives professed the Christian 
 faith in 1 822, and were attached to the Protestant 
 episcopal government. The converts in Tinnevelly 
 were more than doubled in 1832; and at the other 
 stations much progress had been made. These 
 great works in southern India were maintained 
 firstly by the faithful and benevolent in Denmark 
 and Germany, and afterwards chiefly by the Society 
 for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge. The 
 chaplains of the East India Company in many cases 
 G 2 
 
84 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 zealously co-operated with the missionaries. In the 
 year 1813, when the renewal of the Company's 
 Charter was discussed in Parliament, the Christian 
 Knowledge Society addressed to the British govern- 
 ment, through the Archbishop of Canterbury, an 
 earnest memorial on the religious condition of India. 
 They earnestly set forth the claims of our eastern 
 empire on their Christian king, and urged the duty 
 and policy of building churches, founding seminaries, 
 and appointing bishops for the presidencies. These 
 measures, they submitted, were necessary both for 
 the spiritual instruction of the English residents in 
 India and for the enlightening of the natives and 
 the ordering of the churches then in existence. 
 They more especially pleaded that these ends coftld 
 only be effectually obtained, and the foundations of 
 a permanent church in India laid, by the appoint- 
 ment of bishops for different parts of Hindoostan. 
 This proposal met with the most violent opposition. 
 It was argued by some that the enmity of the mil- 
 lions of India would be fearfully provoked by an 
 open attempt to subvert their faith; others de- 
 nounced the schemes as visionary and impracticable. 
 A great quantity of evidence was taken before the 
 Houses of Lords and Commons, and after some 
 vehement discussion, the House of Commons adopted 
 certain resolutions of the commiitee. These w^ere 
 to the effect that it was expedient to place the church 
 in India under the superintendence of a bishop and 
 three archdeacons, provision for whom was to be 
 made from the territorial revenues. Also that it 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 85 
 
 was the duty of the country to encourage such 
 measures as might tend to the introduction of useful 
 knowledge, and the moral and religious improve- 
 ment of the subjects of the crown in India. Also that 
 all facilities should be aiforded by law to persons en- 
 gaged in this benevolent work. Mr. Wilberforce an- 
 swered, in an eloquent speech, the objections of those 
 who anticipated bad effects from this toleration of 
 missionary efforts. " The act which renewed the 
 charter of the company erected their territories into 
 one vast diocese, with an archdeacon to be resident 
 at each of the presidencies, Calcutta, Madras, and 
 Bombay. For this result the friends of Christianity 
 were deeply grateful, even though it fell short of 
 their wishes and expectations, and was clearly in- 
 adequate to the spiritual exigencies of the country. 
 The territory comprised within the diocese of Cal- 
 cutta stretched from Delhi to Cape Comorin, and 
 from the Indus to the mouth of the Ganges, no less 
 than twenty degrees of latitude and ten degrees of 
 longitude, an extent of country very far exceeding 
 the w^hole of the British empire in Europe." The 
 very inadequate salaries of 5000/. and 2000/. a 
 year were assigned to the bishop and his arch- 
 deacons. 
 
 The bishopric of the Anglican church in India was 
 conferred on the Rev. Thomas Fanshawe Middleton. 
 His lordship landed at Calcutta on the 28th of 
 November, 1814. He was cordially received by 
 the English residents; and he told them in his first 
 sermon that he was come to India as Titus went to 
 
86 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 Crete, to set in order the things that were wanting, 
 and that in the primitive ages episcopacy had been 
 at once the bond of unity and the safeguard of 
 truth. 
 
 The novelty of his functions — the indistinct 
 range of his episcopal power — and the careless lives 
 of nominal Christians, together with the vast size of 
 his diocese, and the difficulties of making frequent 
 visitations, rendered the office of Bishop Middleton 
 one of anxious and arduous care. His first visita- 
 tion was made to Madras, whence he proceeded 
 southwards, visiting Vepey, Tranquebar, and Tri- 
 chinopoly. He examined into and supported the 
 Danish mission, and was refreshed by local memo- 
 rials and recollections of the holy Swartz. He pro- 
 ceeded to Bombay, whence he visited the ancient 
 city of Goa and the Jews of Cochin. He carefully 
 investigated the Syrian church of Malabar, and 
 obtained much valuable information concerning 
 their history, creed, and ritual. He next visited 
 Ceylon, where he found a promising state of Chris- 
 tianity. It would be foreign to our purpose to 
 trace at any length the details of the Bishop's pro- 
 ceedings. He laboured in every way to strengthen 
 and extend the church, by ordering its discipline, 
 by charity towards those out of her pale, by courtesy 
 towards all men, and above all, by promoting a 
 knowledge of the English language and literature 
 among the Hindoos. He declared, as the result of 
 his experience, that this, even more than direct 
 religious teaching, would tend to divert the pre- 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 87 
 
 judices of the Brahmins. He died July 8, 1822, 
 and was succeeded by Reginald Heber, who arrived 
 at Calcutta in October, 1823. During the vacancy 
 of the see, Archdeacon Loring, and after his death, 
 the Rev. Messrs. Corrie and Parsons, exercised an 
 episcopal superintendence over the church. 
 
88 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Completeness of Bishop Heber's character — His childhood — 
 Anecdotes — School-days — Entered at Brasennose — 
 Carmen Seculare — Palestine — Essay on Sense of Honour 
 — Elected a Fellow of All Souls— Tour through Norway, 
 Sweden, &c. — Swedish scenery — Qisterval peasants — 
 Archbishop Plato — Good-Friday among the Cossaks — 
 Hungarian Latin — Returns home — Receives holy orders 
 — Marries — Appointed Bampton Lecturer — Preacher at 
 Lincoln's-Inn — Life as a parisli priest — Edition of 
 Jeremy Taylor's Works — Accepts Bishopric of Calcutta 
 — Farewell letter to his mother. 
 
 "D RIGHT as with light from Heaven is the story 
 ■*^ of many an Indian martyr, who having counted 
 his life cheap for the sake of the Word, hath now a 
 place among the living dead, and with the saints of 
 God his holy habitation. It would be a good and 
 a pleasant thing to linger by the graves of Swartz, 
 and Corrie, and Henry Martyn, speaking much of 
 the works which through faith they wrought — of 
 the spiritual kingdoms which they subdued — and of 
 the promises which they made their own. Still 
 more sacred and fraught with a deeper interest 
 would be the history of their inner life — the tale of 
 the soul's struggles as it " went sounding on its dim 
 and perilous way" — how Faith gradually prevailed 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 89 
 
 over the disordered affections, and gave birth to 
 noble designs and child-like self-devotion — and how, 
 having vowed themselves to the altar, they thence- 
 forth went on from strength to strength, till in 
 peace, possessing all their powers, and endued with 
 a divine charity, they fell asleep in Him who was 
 the desire of their souls. But the time would fail 
 us to tell of all these things. I will write only of 
 one whose life presented a beautiful and uniform 
 example of Christian character — of one with whom 
 the bright gifts of genius and the rich treasures of 
 human learning were but as oil to feed the flame of 
 evangelic zeal and a holy life, that so, it burning 
 with a brighter light, men might the more glorify 
 his Father which was in heaven. From childhood, 
 through early youth, and the first days of his 
 thoughtful manhood — when, storing up strength for 
 the years which were to come, he paced the quiet 
 cloisters of All Souls' — in his pastoral labours at 
 Hodnet — to the time when he won a martyr's grave 
 — as poet, priest, and scholar — was seen in Bishop 
 Heber the same earnest strength of purpose, the 
 same single-mindedness, and love of all that is good 
 and great and beautiful. It would be difficult to 
 point out in the pages of biography the story of a 
 life showing more completeness of character, or a 
 truer balance of the intellectual faculties and affec- 
 tions, preserved and perfected by a healthy tone of 
 religious feeling. 
 
 Reginald Heber was born at Malpas, in the 
 county of Chester, April 21st, 1783. 
 
90 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 His early childhood was marked by obedience to 
 his parents and great sweetness of disposition. 
 When he was going to be bled, being about two 
 years old, the apothecary took hold of his hand lest 
 he should move it during the operation; he said, " Do 
 not hold me; I wont stir;" and steadily held out his 
 little arm to the end. About a year after this, as 
 he was travelling with his mother on a stormy day 
 through a wild part of the country, seeing that she 
 was much alarmed, he, sitting on her knee, said 
 earnestly, " Do not be afraid, mamma; God will take 
 care of us." 
 
 He was very anxious to learn. On recovering 
 from a severe attack of typhus fever, the first 
 indulgence for which he pleaded was, that he might 
 have his Latin Grammar in bed. He was very 
 fond of reading the Old Testament history. When 
 he was about six years old, some of his young com- 
 panions were asking the favourite child's riddle, 
 " Where was Moses when his candle went out?" 
 Little Reginald, who was reading, laid down his book, 
 and answered readily, " On Mount Nebo, for there 
 he died, and it may well be said that his lamp of 
 life went out." 
 
 He was often heard praying aloud and earnestly 
 in his own bed-room when he could not have thought 
 that any one was near him. 
 
 It was a common saying among the servants that 
 Master Reginald was never in a passion. When 
 only seven years old, he showed his ingenuity and 
 application by a translation of the Fables of 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 91 
 
 Phoedriis into English verse. A year after this, he 
 was sent to the Grammar-school at Whitchurch; and 
 in 1796, he was removed to the care of Mr. Bristovv, 
 who took private pupils at Neasdon, near London. 
 Here began liis life-long friendship with Mr. John 
 Thornton. Of this period of his life many pleasing 
 traits are recorded. He was so unselfish, that it 
 was found necessary when he left home at the be- 
 ginning of a half-year to sew up his bank-notes in 
 the lining of his pockets, lest he should give them 
 away on the road. He was very diligent in his 
 studies, and his school-exercises were marked by 
 vigour and elegance. He showed himself of a 
 thoughtful disposition, choosing rather, when his 
 companions were engaged in boisterous sports, a 
 long solitary ramble, with the " Faerie Queene" for 
 his companion. In after years, he seldom made a 
 journey without a volume of his well-w^orn school- 
 copy of vSpenser. Yet, though raised by compar 
 rative maturity of thought above them, he was 
 always a great favourite with his school-fellows. 
 They delighted to gather round him in the long 
 winter evenings, saying, " Tell us a tale;" when he 
 would narrate some story of knighthood, or wild 
 legend of the north, or with his peculiar measured 
 intonation, so full of a strange and solemn beauty, 
 recite an antique ballad. 
 
 From this time till he went to Oxford, he ripened 
 with his years in goodness and useful learning, 
 winning the love and esteem of all who knew him. 
 He was entered at Brasennose College in November, 
 1800. 
 
92 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 The years which he spent at the university were 
 a season of high and solemn mood. The sacred in- 
 fluences of the place — the thoughts of those who, in 
 the same cloisters which he trod, and at the same 
 altars where he knelt, had braced their souls for the 
 toils and struggles of their maturer years, were not 
 lost upon him. AVarm friendship, an earnest pur- 
 suit of academical studies, crowned with brilliant 
 success, and a constant attention to the development 
 of his moral nature, mark Heber's life as a college- 
 student. 
 
 In the first year of his residence, his " Carmen 
 Seculare" gained the university prize for Latin 
 verse. In the spring of 1803, "Palestine" was 
 written. During its composition, Sir Walter Scott 
 breakfasted with Heber. On the poem- being read 
 to him, he remarked on the omission of an allusion 
 to the striking circumstance that no tools were used 
 in the erection of the temple. The author retired 
 to a corner of the room, and immediately produced 
 those beautiful lines, beginning — 
 
 " No hammer fell — no pond'rous axes rung — 
 Like some tall palm the noiseless fabric sprung : 
 Majestic silence ! " 
 
 These lines were afterwards quoted by Sir C. E.Grey, 
 as typical of the manner in which it was trusted 
 the church of Asia, in the laying of whose founda- 
 tions the author had laboured with such unobtrusive 
 and incessant energy, would arise. The poem 
 gained the university prize; and with the exception 
 of Mr. Stanley's " Gipsies," is far superior to any 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 93 
 
 similar production. On its recital in the theatre, 
 it was received with the utmost enthusiasm. When 
 on his return from the scene of his youthful triumph 
 he was missed from the circle of friends anxious to 
 offer their congratulations, his mother found him 
 " in his room on his knees, earnestly giving thanks 
 to God, not so much for the talents which had on 
 that day raised him to honour, as that those talents 
 had enabled him to bestow unmixed happiness on 
 his parents." 
 
 In November, 1804, he was elected a Fellow of 
 All Souls', in the hall of which society a portrait 
 of him, marked by the " comprehensive eye and 
 brow serene," is suspended. The list of his uni- 
 versity honours was completed by his essay on " A 
 Sense of Honour," which, in 1805, gained the 
 bachelor's prize for English prose. Towards the 
 middle of the same year, he set out with Mr. John 
 Thornton on a tour to the north of Europe, which 
 extended through Russia, the Crimea, Hungary, 
 Austria, Prussia, and Germany. 
 
 From the copious correspondence with his family 
 during this tour, preserved in Mrs. Heber's Memoir, 
 a few such extracts as are interesting from their 
 subject-matter, and at the same time characteristic 
 of the writer, are here given. 
 
 Describing the general characteristic of Swedish 
 scenery, he writes — 
 
 " Excessive barrenness has exceeded on the whole 
 my highest expectations of the sublimity of the 
 landscape, and the occasional appearance of culti- 
 
94 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 vation and fertility. These qualities, indeed, are 
 strangely blended with the wildest and most gigantic 
 features of nature. Each day's journey has taken 
 us through a rapid succession of rocks, forests, 
 meadows, and corn-fields ; and we have often met 
 with lakes which in size certainly excel, and cannot, 
 I think, be surpassed in beauty by those of Cum- 
 berland. In one point only Sweden falls short of 
 an English landscape; there is a sameness and want 
 of variety in the fir-woods which made us often 
 regret the oak and beech we had left behind. The 
 ridges of the mountains are either bare, or assume 
 a bristly appearance from the pine and spruce fir, 
 which are the ordinary timber of the country. 
 Amid the crags, junipers and strawberries grow 
 very abundantly ; and in sheltered situations, we 
 have frequently found whole thickets of rose- 
 bushes and a kind of wild raspberry. The moun- 
 tains we have passed are not particularly gigantic : 
 those of Wales are, I think, higher : their appear- 
 ance is, however, very striking, from their perpen- 
 dicular or craggy sides and the tall fir-trees which 
 clothe them. I was once or twice reminded of 
 Hawkstone on a much larger scale. Heath is very 
 rare, except in the country about Hede, which is as 
 barren and desolate as can possibly be conceived — 
 entirely crags and heath." 
 
 Here is a road-side sketch — 
 
 " We met a large party, among whom were three 
 CEsterval peasants in the costume of their country; 
 one of them was a very pretty girl of about eighteen; 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 9-3 
 
 her hair was quite concealed under a close lace cap, 
 covered with a quantity of ribands, and she wore 
 a great many gold and silver ornaments ; but the 
 dress was not altogether ungraceful; her father, a 
 venerable old man with white hair, asked us to 
 his house on our return from Trondheim; the third 
 was the girl's lover, a gigantic, wild-looking figure, 
 a carpenter by trade, from the same neighbourhood." 
 
 His correspondence contains some delightful 
 pictures of Norwegian life and manners. Tliese 
 are made more interesting by the admirable tales 
 of Frederica Bremer, which have of late excited so 
 much interest in everything which concerns this 
 primitive country. After describing the rural 
 riches of a warm-hearted farmer of Driostuen, he 
 writes — 
 
 " The greatest simplicity of manners reigns 
 within this valley, in some respects, almost approach- 
 ing to Arcadian elegance ; the inhabitants were all 
 perfectly without shyness and coldness towards 
 strangers, and they took great pains to understand 
 and answer our questions. One of the peasant- 
 maidens had a kind of guitar with five strings, 
 which she used to call up the calves from pasture. 
 On Thornton asking her to sing, she refused, 
 because it was Sunday ; but on a sign from her 
 father, she ran to fetch her elder sisters and her 
 little brother, who began singing psalms very agree- 
 ably, till the old man and his son Knate joined in 
 the chorus, which they did w^ith the true parisli- 
 clerk twang. They all read the psalms out of a 
 psalm-book." 
 
96 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 Here is a little sea sketch worthy of Clarkson 
 Stanfield — 
 
 " On Sunday, we came in sight of the tall, blue 
 mountains of Norway, stretching along our northern 
 horizon, a rocky and almost perpendicular coast, 
 with many fishing -vessels under it, and above 
 these, some pointed Alpine hills rising to a great 
 height." 
 
 He then describes an interesting interview with 
 the Archbishop Plato, at the convent of Troitza, 
 about forty miles from Moscow — 
 
 " We found him a fine, cheerful old man, with a 
 white beard floating over his breast. He asked us 
 many questions about Porson ; and on finding we 
 knew him, showed us Greek books, which consisted 
 entirely of the fathers ; he made us construe a page 
 of S. Chrysostom's Litany, which put us into his 
 good graces. He coincided very much in appear- 
 ance and manner with our ideas of a primitive 
 bishop, and unfortunately his circumstances seemed 
 primitive too. The house and the dinner were 
 those of a poor man, and I often thought of Whit- 
 taker's " Father Tempest." The Greek priests, 
 indeed, though clothed in purple and fine linen, are 
 far from faring sumptuously. Their lands are 
 secularized, and they have no tithes. In point of 
 education, they are improving fast; and everywhere 
 we have found public schools founded by private 
 persons as well as new churches on a magnificent 
 scale." 
 
 A letter from Okhasi contains a fine description 
 of the ecclesiastical ceremonies with which the 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 97 
 
 Cossaks celebrate the day after Good Friday. " At 
 night all the churches were illuminated, and all 
 were crowded, particularly the Cathedral. The 
 congregations were dressed in their best clothes, 
 and held lighted tapers in their hands. The effect 
 produced Avas very solemn and magnificent. The 
 priests and choir alternately continued singing 
 plaintive solemn hymns. We observed that the 
 same hymns occurred repeatedly. The priests stood 
 in ranks on each side the steps of the altar, all in 
 the most magnificent habits; and the choir was 
 placed in a very high gallery at the west end. The 
 congregation were attentive, and showed wonderful 
 patience; many, I think, remained there the whole 
 night, without any rest or change of attitude except 
 from standing to prostration. The priests made 
 several processions round the church, carrying the 
 great cross, the bible, &c., and occasionally incensed 
 the people, and received their offerings in a silver 
 plate. At the moment of day-break, a cannon was 
 fired, at which signal all the bells in the town rang, 
 and the choir burst into a loud hymn, ' Christos vosk- 
 ress,' Christ is risen; to which the chorus of j^riests 
 below answered — 'Yes; He is indeed risen!' They 
 then embraced each other, and kissed a cross, which 
 they presented first to the attaman, and then to all 
 such of the congregation as were fortunate enough 
 to get near it. After this, the service for Easter- 
 day began, the sacrament was administered, and 
 a sermon preached. After the sermon, the priests 
 distributed small cakes of consecrated bread; and 
 
 BP. HEB. H 
 
98 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 the people presented eggs to each other, accompanied 
 by the address, ' Christ is risen,' which was always 
 answered by an embrace, and the answer — 'Yes; 
 He is indeed.' The empress herself durst not re- 
 fuse the kiss of a slave when accompanied by a hard 
 egg and this exclamation. The eggs are often 
 curiously painted and gilt. To foreigners, the Rus- 
 sians in the south say always, XjOtorog dvearrj, as the 
 Greeks are the foreigners of whom they see the 
 most." 
 
 Passing through Hungary, they were much 
 amused by the conversational Latin of the people, 
 who called them " magnificentia et excellentia." 
 
 " A servant of the Archbishop of Erlau came in, 
 and addressing himself to the postmaster, ordered, 
 in very fluent Latin, horses for his master next 
 morning. Our host's principal cause of complaint 
 was, that ' Rex Hungariae Germaniam habitat.' 
 With this he said — 'Degustata est natio.' Of 
 Buonaparte and the French they spoke with great 
 fierceness; but likewise said that Hungary would 
 not act heartily against France, 'quia degustata 
 adeo et pertsesa est natio.' The addition of two 
 strangers to their household caused a good deal of 
 inconvenience to our kind host ; but w^e could not 
 help being amused at the condensibiUty of which 
 a large family is capable in a small house : one little 
 boy was put to bed in a drawer. The mistress only 
 knew Magyar, but their maid-servant, a pert lass in 
 red boots, spoke German." 
 
 Mr. Heber returned from the Continent in Sep- 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 99 
 
 tember, 1806. He was welcomed home to Hodnet 
 with great rejoicings. lie writes to a friend, that 
 " the farmers and people of the village have sub- 
 scribed among themselves to purchase three sheep, 
 and have made a great feast for the volunteers, their 
 wives, and families, on the occasion of ' Master Regi- 
 nald's coming home safe.' It takes place to-day, 
 and I am just going to join them with my old red 
 jacket. They are laying the tables on the green be- 
 fore the house. How I do love these good people!" 
 In 1 807, he received holy orders, and was insti- 
 tuted into the family living of Hodnet, in Shrop- 
 shire. In April, 1 809, he married Amelia, youngest 
 daughter of William Davies Shipley, Dean of St. 
 Asaph. We have now to regard him engaged in the 
 holy but humble functions of a parish priest. Like 
 one whom in so many points he resembled, the saintly 
 George Herbert, he devoted the talents which would 
 have raised him to eminence in any profession, to 
 the service of a village flock. Alike when minister- 
 ing at the altar, or praying by the poor man's bed- 
 side, exhorting, encouraging, or reproving, he was 
 as an angel of God. Loved almost to enthusiasm 
 by his parishioners, as the "Master Reginald" of 
 former days, he was reverenced for the severe, and 
 simple, and cheerful piety which shone through all 
 his words and deeds. The hours spared from the 
 duties of his profession were employed in several 
 literary schemes, among which may be mentioned 
 his collections for a Dictionary of the Bible, (which 
 have not been published); his Hymns for the Sun- 
 H 2 
 
]00 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 days and holydays throughout the year, and several 
 articles for the Quarterly Review. About this 
 time, he superintended a collection of a complete 
 edition of his poems. The fragment of the Morte 
 d' Arthur, and the " History of the Cossaks," are 
 appended to his Life by Mrs. Heber. In 1814, Mr. 
 Heber was appointed Bampton Lecturer for the 
 ensuing year. He chose for his subject " the Per- 
 sonality and Office of the Christian Comforter." 
 His lectures excited much discussion, and some of 
 his speculative views were warmly assailed, but 
 their publication established his character as a 
 learned and eloquent theologian. Mr. Heber's life, 
 from this period till 1 822, presents few materials for 
 a popular biography. An earnest attention to his 
 parish, varied by correspondence and occasional in- 
 tercourse with many of the most distinguished men 
 of the time, describes briefly the tenor of his days. 
 He lost during this period a dear brother and child. 
 In both of these afflictions, severe as they were to 
 his gentle and loving heart, he show^ed himself able 
 to bear sorrow as becomes a Christian. From the 
 miscellaneous poems composed by him during this 
 period, is here given a little piece not very generally 
 known; — 
 
 THE SPRING JOURNEY. 
 
 O green was the corn as I rode on my way, 
 And bright were the dews on the blossoms of May, 
 And dark was the sycamore's shade to behold, 
 And the oak's tender leaf was of emerald and gold. 
 
 The thrush from his holly, the lark from his cloud. 
 Their chorus of rapture sang jovial and loud ; 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 101 
 
 From the soft vernal sky to the soft grassy ground, 
 There was beauty above me, beneath, and around. 
 
 The mild southern breeze brought a shower from the hill, 
 
 And yet, though it left me all dropping and chill, 
 
 I felt a new pleasure as onward I sped, 
 
 To gaze where the rainbow beamed broad o'er my head, 
 
 O such be life's journey, and such be our skill 
 
 To lose in its blessings the sense of its ill, 
 
 Through sunshine and shower may our progress be even, 
 
 And our tears add a charm to the prospect of Heaven !" 
 
 In 1822, Mr. Heber received the distinguished 
 appointment of preacher at Lincoln's-Inn. In this 
 same year was published his Life of Jeremy Taylor, 
 prefixed to a new and complete edition of the 
 bishop's works. " It derives a peculiar interest, from 
 the evident sympathy with which his biographer 
 (perhaps unconsciously) contemplates the life and 
 writings of that heavenly-minded man. Much in- 
 deed they had, in common — a poetical temperament; 
 a hatred of intolerance; great simplicity; an abomi- 
 nation of every sordid and narrow-minded feeling; 
 an earnest desire to make religion j^ractical instead 
 of speculative, and faith vivid in proportion to the 
 vigour of high imagination." 
 
 In the December of this year, the bishopric of 
 Calcutta was offered to him. After much delibera- 
 tion, and anxious examination of his motives, he 
 resolved on accepting the appointment, believing, as 
 he piously said, " that he should be doing God more 
 acceptable service by going to India than by staying 
 at Hoduet." His parting from the scene of his 
 ministerial labours is too painful to dwell on. Loved 
 
102 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 and reverenced by rich and poor, who knew how he 
 had studied, and sorrowed;, and prayed for their 
 soul's health, he bade farewell to his weeping flock, 
 in a sermon unequalled for tenderness and affecting 
 interest. He besought them, as his last request, 
 that they would love one another and forgive one 
 another, even as God for Christ's sake had forgiven 
 them. 
 
 Before his departure, the Warden and Fellows of 
 All Souls' honoured him with the request that he 
 would present a portrait of himself, to be suspended 
 among the likenesses of distinguished men which 
 adorn the hall of that society. The University of 
 Oxford also conferred on him, by diploma, the degree 
 of Doctor of Divinity. On the 13th of June, he 
 received the valedictory address of the Society for 
 Promoting Christian Knowledge. He then declared 
 that his last hope was that he might be the chief 
 missionary of the society in the east. At the end 
 of his address, all with one accord knelt down, sor- 
 rowing most of all that they should see his face no 
 more. 
 
 His last letter written in England was to his 
 mother. It is dated Lincoln's-Inn, and contains 
 these pious and affectionate expressions : — 
 
 " God Almighty bless and prosper you, my be- 
 loved mother. May He comfort and support your 
 age, and teach you to seek always for comfort where 
 it may be found, in His health and salvation through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord! 
 
 "Bless you, dear, dear Mary, you and your worthy 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 103 
 
 husband. May He make you happy in your children, 
 and in each other, in time and eternity ! 
 
 " I know we have all your prayers as you have 
 all ours. Believe me, that we shall be, I hope, 
 useful, and if useful, happy where we are going; 
 and we trust in God's good providence for bringing 
 us again together in peace when a few short years 
 are ended, in this world, if He sees it good for us; 
 if not, yet in that world where there shall be no 
 parting nor sorrow any more, but God shall wipe 
 away all tears from all eyes, and we shall rejoin our 
 dear father and the precious babe whom God has 
 called to Himself before us." 
 
104 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 CHAPTER y. 
 
 Arrives at Calcutta — First Indian impressions — Bishop's 
 College — First visitation — A river journey — Pictures of 
 Indian life and scenery — Letter to Miss Stowe — Lines to 
 his wife — An evening walk in Bengal — Entrance to 
 Benares — Prayer on recovery from illness — Mountain 
 scenes — Emperor of Delhi — Bombay — Climate — Cey- 
 lon — Palm-trees — Importance of visitations — Returns to 
 Calcutta — Abdul Mussel — Second visitation — Madras. 
 Vepey — S. Thomas — Caste — Pondicherry — Tanjore 
 Missions — Trichinopoly — Death — Character of Bishop 
 Heber — His writings — Honours paid to his memory — 
 Lines by R. Southey. 
 
 THE good ship Grenville anchored in Sangor 
 roads on the 3rd of October, 1823, and Bishop 
 Heber landed at Calcutta on the 10th of the same 
 month. 
 
 Of the banks of the river he says, " They abound 
 with villages, interspersed with rice-fields, planta- 
 tions of cocoa-palms, and groves of trees of a con- 
 siderable height, in colour and foliage resembling 
 the elm. We have seen one or two pagodas; dingy 
 buildings, with one or more high towers like glass- 
 houses." Here is his description of the first impres- 
 sions produced on an European mind by an Indian 
 village. " I never recollect having more powerfully 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 105 
 
 felt the beauty of similar objects. The green-house- 
 like smell and temperature of the atmosphere which 
 surrounded us, the exotic appearance of the phmts 
 and of the people, the verdure of the fields, the 
 dark shadows of the trees, and the exuberant and 
 neglected vigour of the soil, teeming with life and 
 food, neglected as it were out of pure abundance, 
 would have been striking under any circumstances; 
 they were still more so to persons just landed from 
 a three months' voyage ; and to me, when associated 
 with the recollection of the objects which have 
 brought me out to India, the amicable manners and 
 countenances of the people, contrasted with the 
 examples of their foolish and poluted idolatry now 
 before me, impressed me with a very solemn and 
 earnest wish that I might in some degree, however 
 small, be enabled to conduce to the spiritual advan- 
 tage of creatures so goodly, so gentle, and now so 
 misled and blinded, ' Angeli forent si essent Chris- 
 tiani!'" 
 
 With such feelings did Bishop Heber enter on 
 the work of the apostolate. 
 
 His first attention was paid to the educational 
 institutions of Calcutta. Bishop Middleton had left 
 his testimony that " a preparation of the native 
 mind was required to enable them to comprehend 
 the importance and truth of the doctrines proposed 
 to them — a preparation which could only be efiected 
 by education." For this purpose the services of 
 native teachers, and translations of the Scriptures 
 into the dialects of the country, were required to 
 
106 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 precede the more direct labours of Christian 
 preachers. Encouraged and aided by the Society 
 for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge and the 
 Church Missionary Society, he devoted much time 
 and labour to the founding of Bishop's College. 
 This important establishment was intended for the 
 instruction of Mussulmen and Hindoos in the 
 English language and literature, the training of 
 native and European Christians as schoolmasters, 
 catechists, and priests, and the procuring correct 
 translations of the Scriptures. When Bishop Heber 
 arrived in India the building was incomplete; but 
 under his zealous superintendence it progressed 
 rapidly, and its various departments came into use- 
 ful operation. The Bishop also issued an order, by 
 which all English clergymen in India, as well as 
 the Company's chaplains, became subject to his 
 jurisdiction. On the 15th of June, 1824, the Bishop 
 commenced the first visitation of his extensive 
 diocese, accompanied only by his chaplain, Mr. 
 Stowe, and native servants. A letter to Mrs. Heber 
 gives an interesting account of the mode of travel- 
 ling by water in India: — '"'We set out, attended by 
 two smaller boats of very rude construction, with 
 thatched cabins, and huge masts and yards of 
 bamboo, something like the canoes of the Friendly 
 Islands, as Cook has represented them. One of 
 these is a cooking-boat, the other for our luggage 
 and servants; and it may give you some idea of the 
 number of hands employed in Bengal for all pur- 
 poses, when I tell you, that twelve servants are 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 107 
 
 thought a very moderate travelling establishment 
 for three persons, and that the number of our boat- 
 men is thirty-two. We are indeed obliged to carry 
 everything with us, even to milch goats, supplies 
 being seldom to be procured in the line of country 
 through which we have to travel. 
 
 '' Our way was through the heart of Lower 
 Bengal, by the Matabunga, the Chundna, and those 
 other branches of the Ganges, which make so 
 tortuous a labyrinth in Rennell's map. The Sun- 
 derbunds would have been a nearer course, but this 
 was pleasanter, and showed us more of the country, 
 which along the whole line of the river was 
 fertile, well cultivated, and verdant to a great de- 
 gree, and sometimes really beautiful. The banks 
 are generally covered with indigo, and beyond are 
 wide fields of rice or pasture, with villages, each 
 under a thicket of glorious trees, banyans, palms, 
 plantains, and bamboos, and though we here and 
 there passed woods of a wilder character, their 
 extent did not seem to be more than in one of our 
 English counties. The villages are all of mud and 
 bamboos." 
 
 Bishop Heber excelled in the difficult art of 
 describing natural scenery. He sketches in a few 
 words, a groupe of the natives, or a tree, or a sun- 
 set, with equal beauty and correctness. His fine 
 taste and cultivated fancy impart a subdued warmth 
 of poetic colouring to his pictures. Nothing beau- 
 tiful or characteristic seems to have escaped his eye. 
 " The betel is a beautiful tree, the tallest and slen- 
 
108 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 derest of the palm kind, with a smooth white bark; 
 nothing can be more graceful than its high slender 
 pillars when backed by the dark shade of bamboos 
 and other similar foliage. A noble grove of this 
 kind succeeded to the pawn rows at our village this 
 evening, embosoming the cottages, together with 
 their little gardens, and what I see here in greater 
 perfection than I have yet seen in Bengal, their 
 little green meadows and homesteads. We rambled 
 among these till darkness warned us to return. We 
 saw a large eagle seated on a peepul tree near to us. 
 On the peepul an earthen pot was hanging, which 
 Abdallah said was brought thither by some person 
 whose father was dead, that the ghost might drink. 
 I before knew that spirits were supposed to delight 
 in peepul trees, but had forgotten the coincidence 
 between the Brahminical and classical Xoat. On 
 the shore were some fine specimens of the datura 
 stramonium, which, as night came on, opened a 
 magnificent and very fragrant white lily-shaped 
 flower, while all the grass and bushes were gemmed 
 with brilliant fire-flies." 
 
 Here again is an admirable sketch of the country 
 immediately round Calcutta. It is only one of a 
 thousand in his journals and correspondence. They 
 are really studies for tourists who keep journals or 
 write descriptive letters to their friends. " The 
 roads round Calcutta, as soon as the boundary is 
 passed, wind through beautiful villages, overhung 
 with the finest and most picturesque foliage the 
 world can show, of the banyan, the palm, the tama- 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 109 
 
 rind, and more beautiful perhaps, than all, the 
 bamboo. Sometimes the glade opens to plains, 
 covered at this time with the rice liarvest, or to a 
 sight of the broad bright river, with its ships and 
 woody shores; sometimes it contracts into little 
 winding tracks, through fruit trees, gardens, and 
 cottages; the gardens fenced in with hedges of aloe 
 and pine-apple; the cottages neater than those of 
 Calcutta, and mostly of mats and white wicker- 
 work, with thatched roofs and cane verandahs, with 
 gourds trailing over them, and the broad tall plan- 
 tains clustering round them." 
 
 At Dacca, Mr. Stowe, the Bishop's chaplain and 
 friend, died after a few days' illness of dysentry. 
 The letters in which the Bishop gives an account of 
 his death are eminently beautiful, overflowing with 
 the Christian sorrow of a most loving heart. His 
 letter from Furreedpoor, to the sister of his chaplain, 
 urges with striking clearness and tenderness all the 
 grounds of consolation which can be suggested to 
 those who mourn not as without hope. 
 
 " Furreedpoor, July, 1824. 
 
 " "With a heavy heart, my dear Miss Stowe, I 
 send you the enclosed keys. How to offer you 
 consolation in your present grief, I know not ; for, 
 by my own deep sense of the loss of so excellent a 
 friend, I know how much heavier is your burden. 
 Yet even the many amiable qualities of your dear 
 brother, joined with that deep Christian humility 
 and reliance on his Saviour which he evinced in 
 
110 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 his illness, while they make our loss the heavier, 
 should lead us to recollect that the loss is ours only 
 — that, prepared as he was to die, it was his un- 
 speakable gain to be removed from a world in which 
 he had many sorrows, and, above all, that your 
 separation from him will only be for a time, till He 
 who has hidden him from your eyes, shall restore 
 you to his society in a happy and eternal state of 
 existence. Separation of one kind or another is 
 indeed one of the most frequent trials to which 
 affectionate hearts are exposed. And if you can 
 only regard your brother as removed for his own 
 advantage to a distant country, you will find, per- 
 haps, some of that misery alleviated under which 
 you are labouring. Had you remained in England 
 when he came out hither, you would have been as 
 effectually removed from him for a time. The dif- 
 ference of hearing from him is almost all; and 
 though you now have not that comfort, yet even 
 without hearing from him you may well be per- 
 suaded (which then you could not always have been) 
 that he is well and happy ; and above all, you may 
 be persuaded, as your brother was most fully in his 
 time of severest suffering, that God never smites 
 his children in vain or out of cruelty. His severest 
 stripes are intended to heal; and he has doubtless 
 some wise and gracious purpose both for you and 
 for your poor Martin in thus taking him from your 
 side and leaving you in this world with Himself as 
 your sole guardian. 
 
 " A mighty and most merciful protector be sure 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. Ill 
 
 He is, and one who always then deals most kindly 
 with us when we are constrained to cast our cares 
 on Him alone. This was your brother's comfort — 
 this should be yours ; and thus may both he and 
 you have occasion hereafter for unspeakable joy if 
 the mysterious dispensation w^iich has deprived you 
 of your brother serve to bring you to a closer and 
 more constant communion with your God. * * * * 
 So long as you choose to remain with us, we will 
 be to our power a sister and a brother to you. 
 And now, farewell! God support, bless, and comfort 
 you ! Such as my prayers are, you have them 
 fervently and sincerely offered. But you have 
 better and holier prayers than mine. That the 
 spirits in Paradise pray for those whom they have 
 left behind, I cannot doubt, since I cannot suppose 
 that they cease to love us there ; and your dear 
 brother is, I doubt not, still employed in your ser- 
 vice, and still recommending you to the Throne of 
 Mercy — to the all-sufficient and promised help of 
 that God who is the Father of the fatherless, and 
 of that blessed Son, w^ho hath assured us that they 
 who mourn shall be comforted." 
 
 The entry in his journal made at Bogwangola, 
 contains the following very sweet lines : 
 
 " If thou -v^ert by my side, my love, 
 
 How fast would evening fail 
 
 In green Bengala's palmy grove, 
 
 Listening the nightingale ! 
 
 " If thou, my love! wert by my side, 
 My babies at my knee, 
 
1J2 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 How gaily would our pinnace glide 
 O'er Gunga's mimic sea. 
 
 " I miss thee at the dawning grey, 
 When on our deck reclined, 
 In careless ease my limbs I lay, 
 And woo the cooler wind. 
 
 " I miss thee, when, by Gunga's stream, 
 My twilight steps I guide, 
 But most beneath the lamp's pale beam 
 I miss thee from my side. 
 
 " I spread my books, my pencil try, 
 The lingering noon to cheer ; 
 But miss thy kind, approving eye, 
 Thy meek, attentive ear. 
 
 " But when of morn and eve the star 
 Beholds me on my knee, 
 I feel, though thou art distant far, 
 Thy prayers ascend for me. 
 
 " Then on ! then on ! where duty leads, 
 My course be onward still ; 
 O'er broad Hindustan's sultry meads, 
 O'er bleak Almorah's hill. 
 
 " That course not Delhi's kingly gates, 
 Nor wild Malwah detain, 
 For sweet the bliss us both awaits 
 By yonder western main. 
 
 " Thy towers, Bombay, gleam bright, they say. 
 Across the dark blue sea; 
 But ne'er were hearts so light and gay 
 As then shall meet in thee." 
 
 A few days after, there occurs in liis journal a 
 poem of remarkable beauty. Almost every line of 
 it contains a characteristic eastern image. It fur- 
 nishes a more vivid and picturesque description of 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 113 
 
 the general aspect of Indian scenery than many a 
 laboured volume of travels. It is entitled — " An 
 Evening Walk in Bengal." 
 
 " Our task is done ! — on Gunga's breast 
 The sun is sinking down to rest ; 
 And moored beneath the tamarind bough, 
 Our bark has found its harbour now ; 
 With furled sail, and painted side, 
 Behold the tiny frigate ride : 
 Upon her deck, mid charcoal gleams. 
 The Moslem's savoury supper steams, 
 While all apart, beneath the wood. 
 The Hindoo cooks his simpler food. 
 Come, walk -with me the jungle through : 
 If yonder hunter told us true, 
 Far off, in desert dark and rude, 
 The tiger holds his solitude ; 
 Nor (taught by recent hurm to shun 
 The thunders of the English gun) 
 A dreadful guest, but rarely seen, 
 Returns to scare the village green. 
 Come boldly on ! — no venomed snake 
 Can shelter in so cool a brake. 
 Child of the sun ! he loves to lie 
 'Midst nature's embers parched and dry, 
 Where o'er some tower, in ruin laid. 
 The peepul spreads his haunted shade — 
 Or round a tomb his scales to wreath. 
 Fit warder in the gate of death. 
 Come on ! — yet pause ! — behold us now 
 Beneath the bamboo's arched bough. 
 Where, gemming oft that sacred gloom. 
 Glows the geranium's scarlet bloom. 
 And winds our path through many a bower 
 Of fragrant tree and giant flower; 
 BP. HEB. I 
 
114 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 The ceiba's crimson pomp displayed ^ 
 
 O'er the broad plantain's humbler shade^ V 
 
 And dusk anana's prickly blade ; J 
 
 While o'er the brake, so wild and fair, 
 
 The betel waves his crest in air: 
 
 With pendant train, and rushing wings, 
 
 Aloft the gorgeous peacock springs ; 
 
 And he, the bird of hundred dies, 
 
 Whose plumes the dames of Ava prize : 
 
 So rich a shade, so green a sod, 
 
 Our English fairies never trod. 
 
 Yet who in Indian bowers has stood 
 
 But thought on England's *' good green wood," 
 
 And blessed, beneath the palmy shade, 
 
 Her hazel and her hawthorn glade. 
 
 And breathed a prayer (how oft in vain !) 
 
 To gaze upon her oaks again ? 
 
 A truce to thought ! — the jackal's cry 
 
 Resounds like sylvan revelry ; 
 
 And through the trees, yon failing ray 
 
 Will scantly serve to guide our way. 
 
 Yet mark ! as fade the upper skies. 
 
 Each thicket opes ten thousand eyes ; 
 
 Before, beside us, and above, 
 
 The fire-fly lights his lamp of love ; 
 
 Retreating, chasing, sinking, soaring, 
 
 The darkness of the copse exploring : 
 
 While to this cooler air confest, 
 
 The broad dhatura bares her breast 
 
 Of fragrant scent, and virgin white, 
 
 A pearl around the locks of night. 
 
 Still, as we pass, in softened hum. 
 
 Along the breezy valleys come 
 
 The village song, the horn, the drum 
 
 Still, as we pass from bush and briar, 
 
 The shrill cigala strikes his lyre ; 
 
 And what is she whose liquid strain 
 
 Thrills through yon copse of sugar-cane ? 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 115 
 
 I know that soul-entrancing swell ; 
 It is — it must be Philomel ! 
 Enough, enough ; the rustling trees 
 Announce a shower upon the breeze ; 
 The flashes of the summer sky 
 Assume a deeper, ruddier dye ; 
 Yon lamp, that trembles on the stream, 
 From forth our cabin sheds its beam ; 
 And we must early sleep, to find 
 Betimes the morning's healthy wind. 
 But, oh! with thankful hearts confess, 
 Ev'n here there may be happiness ; 
 And He, the bounteous Sire has given 
 His peace on earth, His hope of Leaven." 
 
 For selection and beauty of imagery, and appro- 
 priateness of diction, this little poem is not sur- 
 passed among descriptive verse. The cadence of 
 the rhythm, too, is very pleasant and suitable, and 
 there is enough of personal and reflective interest 
 to throw a thoughtful and earnest tone over aU the 
 objects of the picture. 
 
 The Bishop's Diary contains a full and interesting 
 account of Benaves. He was welcomed into this 
 ancient centre of Brahminical learning, and " most 
 holy city of Hindoostan," with a vocal and instru- 
 mental concert, of which he gives a very amusing 
 and characteristic account — 
 
 " FiKST Beggar — Agha Sahib ! Judge Sahib ! Barra 
 Sahib ! yek puesa do ! hum fuqueer hue ! hum padre hue ! 
 hum booku se mur jata hue ! (Great lord, great judge, give 
 me some pice ; I am a fakir, I am a priest ; I am dying with 
 hunger.) 
 
 " Bearers {trolling under the lonjohn) — Ugh ! ugh I ugh ! 
 ugh! 
 
 I 2 
 
116 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 " Musicians — Tingle tangle, tingle tangle, bray, bray, 
 bray. 
 
 "Chuprassee (clearing the way with his sheathed sabre) — 
 Chup ! chup ! jugih do judge sahib ke waste, lord padre sahib 
 ke waste! baen! deina! juldee! (Silence; give way for the 
 lord judge, the lord priest ; get out of the way, quick.) Then, 
 very gently patting and stroking the broad back of a brahminy 
 bull— He ! uchu adraee! chulo, chulo ! (Oh, goodman, move, 
 move.) 
 
 "Bull (scarcely moving) — Ba u uh. 
 
 " Second Beggar (counting his beads, rolling his eyes, and 
 moving his body backwards and forwards) — Ram, ram, ram, 
 ram, kirte huen ! 
 
 " Bearers (as before) — Ugh ! ugh ! ugh ! ugh !" 
 
 Benaves is an old town with narrow streets, 
 which, like those of Chester, are lower than the 
 ground-floor of the houses. Many of these are five 
 or six stories high. " They are richly adorned with 
 verandahs, galleries, projecting oriel windows, and 
 broad eaves, supported by carved brackets. The 
 number of temples is great. They are covered with 
 beautiful and elaborate carvings of flowers, animals, 
 and palm-branches, equalling in minuteness and 
 richness the best specimens that I have seen of 
 Gothic or Grecian architecture." From Benaves, 
 the bishop's route lay through Chunar, Allahabad, 
 Futtehpoor, and Cawnpoor, to Lucknow, at which 
 place he had several interviews with the king of 
 Oude. A few days after leaving this town, he was 
 attacked by influenza, and on his recovery composed 
 this prayer : — 
 
 " I thank thee, O Lord, that thou hast heard my 
 prayer, and helped me in the needful time of 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 117 
 
 trouble; tliat tliou hast delivered me from sharp 
 sickness, and great apparent danger, when I had no 
 skill to heal myself, and when no human skill was 
 near to save me. I thank thee for the support 
 which thou gavest me in my hour of trial, that thou 
 didst not let my sins triumph over me, neither my 
 iniquities to sink me in despair. I thank thee for 
 the many comforts with which thy mercy surrounded 
 me; for the accommodations of wealth, the security 
 of guards, the attendance and fidelity of servants, 
 the advantage of medicine and natural means of 
 cure, the unclouded use of my reason, and the holy 
 and prevailing prayers which my absent friends 
 offered up for me. But, above all, I thank thee for 
 the knowledge of my own weakness, and of thy 
 great goodness and power, beseeching thee that the 
 recollection of these days may not vanish like a 
 morning dream, but that the resolutions which I 
 have formed may be sealed by thy grace, and the life 
 which thou hast spared may be spent hereafter in 
 thy service; that my past sins may be forgiven and 
 forsaken, and my future days may be spent in serving 
 and pleasing thee, through thy dear son Jesus 
 Christ our Saviour. Amen." 
 
 At Shahee, he heard such formidable accounts of 
 the dangers which he was about to encounter in the 
 shape of wild beasts and jungle-malaria, that he 
 wrote to Mrs. Heber, giving minute directions in 
 case of his sudden death. Persevering in his 
 journey, he had to pass through a mountainous 
 region. " The road was steep and rugged, and 
 
118 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 particularly when intersected by torrents; I do not 
 think it was passable by horses accustomed only to 
 the plain. I was myself surprised to see how dex- 
 terously our ponies picked their way over large 
 roUing pebbles and broken fragments of rock — how 
 firmly they planted their feet, and with how little 
 distress they conquered some of the steepest ascents 
 I ever climbed. The country, as we advanced, 
 became exceedingly beautiful and romantic. It 
 reminded me most of Norway, but had the advan- 
 tage of round-topped trees, instead of the unwearied, 
 spear -like outline of the pine. It would have been 
 like some part of Wales, had not the hills and pre- 
 cipices been much higher and the valleys narrower 
 and more savage. We could seldom, from the 
 range on which the road ran, see to the bottom of 
 any of them, and only heard the roar and rush of 
 the river which we had left, and which the torrents 
 which foamed across our path were hastening to 
 join. We saw some interesting plants and animals, 
 black and purple pheasants, a jungle-hen, some 
 beautiful little white monkeys gambolling on the 
 trees; and what pleased me most, we heard the 
 notes of an English thrush. I also saw some very 
 large nettles and some magnificent creepers, which 
 hung their wild cordage as thick as a ship's cable, 
 and covered with broad, bright leaves from tree to 
 tree, over our heads. After about an hour and a 
 half's ascent, we saw some dog-roses, a good many 
 cherry-trees of the common wild English sort in 
 full blossom, some pear-trees with fruit, and a wild 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 119 
 
 thicket of raspberry and bilberry-bushes on either 
 side of the road. The men whom we met were all 
 middle-sized, slender, and active, of not dark com- 
 plexions, but very poorly and scantily dressed. All 
 were unarmed, except with large sticks. ' The 
 women might have been good-looking, if they had 
 been less sun-burnt and toil-worn, or if their noses 
 and ears had not been so much enlarged by the 
 weight of the metal-rings with which they were 
 ornamented. Their dress was a coarse cloth wrapped 
 round their waist, with a black blanket over the 
 head and shoulders. All had silver bracelets and 
 anklets — a circumstance which contrasted strangely 
 with the general poverty of their appearance." 
 
 From Lucknow, the bishop proceeded through 
 Bareilly, Almorah, and Meerut, to Delhi. At 
 Meerut, he administered the communion to two 
 hundred persons on Christmas-day. He was pre- 
 sented to the old Emperor of Delhi. His descrip- 
 tion of the interview will serve as a specimen of 
 the way in which these affairs are conducted in the 
 East : — 
 
 " After we had passed another richly-carved but 
 dirty and ruinous gateway, our guides, withdrawing 
 a kind of canvas screen, called out in a sort of harsh 
 chant, ' Lo, the ornament of the world! Lo, the 
 asylum of the nations! king of kings! The Em- 
 peror Acbar Shah! Just, fortunate, victorious!' 
 We saw, in fact, a very handsome and striking 
 court, about as big as that of All Souls', with low 
 but richly ornamented buildings. Opposite to us 
 
120 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 was a beautiful open pavilion of white marble richly 
 carved, flanked by rose-bushes and fountains, and 
 some tapestry hanging in festoons about it, within 
 which was a crowd of people, and the poor old des- 
 cendant of Tamerlane seated in the midst of them. 
 Mr. Elliot here bowed three times very low, in 
 which we imitated his example. This ceremony 
 was repeated three times as we advanced up the 
 steps of the pavilion, the heralds each time repeating 
 the same expressions about their master's greatness. 
 We then stood in a row on the right hand side of 
 the throne, which is a sort of marble bedstead, 
 richly ornamented with gilding, and raised on two 
 or three steps. Mr. Elliot then stepped forward, 
 and, with joined hands, in the usual way, announced, 
 in a low voice, who I was, I then advanced, bowed 
 three times again, and offered a nuzzur of iifty-one 
 gold mohurs in an embroidered purse. This was 
 received, and laid on one side, and I remained 
 standing for a few minutes, while the usual court 
 questions about my health, my travels, when I left 
 Calcutta, &c., were asked. 
 
 " I had thus an opportunity of seeing the old 
 gentleman more plainly. He has a plain, thin, but 
 handsome face, with an aquiline nose, and a long 
 white beard. His hands and his face were all that 
 I saw of him; for the morning being cold, he was 
 so wrapped up in shawls, that he reminded me 
 extremely of the Druid's head on a "Welsh halfpenny. 
 The emperor then beckoned to me to come forward, 
 when he tied a flimsy turban of brocade round my 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 121 
 
 head with his own hand, for which, however, I paid 
 four gold mohurs more. The hall of audience was 
 entirely lined with white marble, inlaid with flowers 
 and leaves of green serpentine lapis lazuli, and blue 
 and red porphyry; the flowers were of the best 
 Italian style of workmanship, and evidently the 
 work of a native artist. Its pillars and arches are 
 exquisitely carved and ornamented with gilt and 
 inlaid flowers, and inscriptions in the most elaborate 
 Persian character. Round the frieze is the motto 
 
 in Persian : 
 
 ' If there be an Elysium on earth. 
 It is this, it is this.* 
 
 " The gardens, which Ave next visited, are not 
 large, but in their way must have been extremely 
 rich and beautiful. They are full of very old 
 orange and other fruit-trees, with terraces and par- 
 terres, on Avhich many rose-bushes were growing, 
 and even now a few jonquils in flower. A channel 
 of white marble for water, with little fountain pipes 
 of the same material, carved like roses, is carried 
 here and there among these parterres; and at the 
 end of the terrace is a beautiful octagonal pavilion, 
 also of marble, lined with the same mosaic flowers 
 as in the room which I first saw, with a marble 
 fountain in its centre, and a beautiful bath in a 
 recess on one of its sides." 
 
 From Delhi, the bishop proceeded through Agra, 
 Mowah, Jyepoor, Ajmeere, Chittore, Neemuch, 
 and Baroda, to Bombay. At the latter place, he 
 met Mrs. Heber and his eldest daughter, who had 
 
122 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 come thither by sea. Here he consecrated five 
 churches, and held much cheering intercourse with 
 his clergy. Of the healthiness and climate of Bom- 
 hay, he writes — 
 
 " Of Bombay, from my own experience, I should 
 judge favourably. Its climate appears, in produc- 
 tions, in temperature, and other respects, pretty 
 closely to resemble the West India islands ; its heat, 
 like theirs, tempered by the sea-breeze, and more 
 fortunate far than they are in the absence of yellow 
 fever. Inferior as Bombay is to Calcutta in many 
 respects, it has in some, besides climate, decidedly 
 the advantage. With me, the neighbourhood of the 
 sea is one of these points ; nor is there any sea in 
 the world more beautifully blue, bordered by more 
 woody or picturesque mountains, and peopled with 
 more picturesque boats and fishermen, than this 
 part of the Indian Ocean. I know and fully par- 
 ticipate in your fondness for latteen sails. They 
 are here in full perfection; nor do they ever look 
 better than when seen gliding under high basaltic 
 cliffs, their broad white triangles contrasted with 
 the dark feathers of the cocoa-palm, or when furled 
 and handled by their wild Mediterranean-looking 
 mariners, with red caps, naked limbs, and drawers 
 of striped cotton." 
 
 On the 15th of August, the bishop sailed from 
 Bombay for Ceylon, accompanied by Mr. Robinson, 
 the chaplain of Poonah. He was received with joy 
 and thanksgiving by the holy men who had laboured 
 with so much success in this beautiful and fertile 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 123 
 
 island. The missionaries presented to him an 
 address, " expressive of their joy at ranging them- 
 selves under liis paternal authority, their gratitude 
 for his kindness, and their thankfulness for his 
 present visit, and at seeing a friend and protector 
 and father in their lawful superior." Mr. Robinson, 
 giving an account of the bishop's visit to Cotta, 
 writes : " The scene was to me most beautiful. We 
 were embowered in the sequestered woods of 
 Ceylon, in the midst of a heathen population; and 
 here was a transaction worthy of an apostolic age ; 
 — a Christian bishop, his heart full of love and zeal 
 for the cause of his Divine Master, received in his 
 proper character by a body of missionaries of his 
 own church, who with full confidence and affection 
 ranged themselves under his authority as his ser- 
 vants and fellow -labourers — men of devoted piety, 
 of sober wisdom, whose labours were at that moment 
 before him, and whose reward is in Heaven." 
 
 The natives in Ceylon seem to love ease and 
 idleness even more than is usual in tropical countries. 
 " Give a man a cocoa-tree, and he will do nothing 
 for his livelihood — he sleeps under its shade, or 
 perhaps builds a hut of its branches, eats its nuts as 
 they fall, drinks its juice, and smokes his life away." 
 This reminds one of the people who, hearing from 
 a returned traveller of the wonders and luxuries of 
 England, desired to dwell in such a land ; but 
 learning that there were no palm-trees there, at 
 once became contented with their own lot. The 
 chief article of export is cinnamon. The cinnamon- 
 gardens near Colombo occupy 17,000 acres. 
 
124 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 Having passed a laborious month in Ceylon, and 
 given much advice to the missionaries on important 
 points of ecclesiastical order, which they submitted 
 to him, he embarked for Calcutta, amid the prayers 
 and benediction alike of priests and people. He 
 arrived at Calcutta on the 21st of October. 
 
 In reviewing this first visitation of Bishop Heber, 
 the importance of such a proceeding to the well- 
 being of a missionary church will strike every 
 candid mind. To either division of the church — to 
 the priests who rule and minister in holy things, 
 and to the people, for whose sake they labour — do 
 equal advantages accrue. They are both brought 
 into immediate communication with their episcopal 
 head — the weak are encouraged, the strong derive 
 new vigour, and those who bring dishonour on their 
 profession are visited with ecclesiastical censure. 
 The young are confirmed, schools are inspected, 
 fresh stations appointed, and the things that are 
 wanting are set in order. An important feature of 
 church discipline is brought before the minds of the 
 people, and they are gladdened by the presence and 
 blessing of their chief spiritual pastor. From the 
 altar, with awful dignity, as in Christ's j)lace, the 
 bishop exhorts his clergy to renewed self-devotion 
 to the great work of the apostolate; he rejoices with 
 them in souls already safe — precious seals of their 
 labour and their Master's promise — he warns, he 
 exhorts, he encourages, with a holy simplicity and 
 the earnestness of a divine charity. By such epis- 
 copal superintendence can a missionary church 
 alone be sustained for any length of time in vigour, 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 125 
 
 and the bounds of its habitation enlarged. When 
 we have learnt that the presence of bishops is a 
 necessary condition of extended and lasting success 
 in missionary operations, we may look for the fulfil- 
 ment of the promise, that the knowledge of the 
 Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the 
 sea. The recent appointment of many colonial 
 bishops — men of learning, piety, and discretion, 
 gives reason to hope that this primitive order of 
 things is beginning to be again understood. 
 
 In December of this year, the Bishop conferred 
 holy orders on the well-known Abdul Musseh. He 
 had received Lutheran ordination from the hands of 
 some church missionaries in 1820. He was a man 
 of higli family, zeal, and considerable attainments. 
 He was a convert of Archdeacon Corrie's, and his 
 death, in 1827, was a great loss to the church in 
 India, This ordination of a native priest was a 
 solemn and interesting spectacle. " The bishop 
 read the service for Abdiil Musseh, who did not 
 understand English, in Hindoostanee with great 
 fluency; and there were present nearly twenty 
 clergymen, all kneeling around the altar and assist- 
 ing in the holy act. Father Abraham, the Arme- 
 nian suffragan, from the patriarch of Jerusalem, 
 with the Armenian vicar of Calcutta, was present, 
 dressed in the black robes of his convent; he sat at 
 the bishop's right hand during prayers, entered 
 with him the communion rails, and laid his hand 
 with his on the heads of the candidates. After the 
 ceremony was concluded, they embraced at the door 
 of the church." 
 
126 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 At this time, too, tlie bishop paid constant and 
 unwearied attention to Bishop's College, expressing 
 his conviction of its pre-eminent importance to the 
 Christian cause. 
 
 On January 30th, 1826, Bishop Heber again left, 
 " with a heavy heart, his dear wife and children, 
 for the visitation of Madras and the south of India.' 
 He was accompanied by the Rev. Mr. Robinson, 
 his chaplain, afterwards Archdeacon of Madras. 
 They had a tedious voyage in the Bussorah Mer- 
 chant. During his short residence at Madras, the 
 Bishop paid particular attention to the male and 
 female orphan schools, and the important station of 
 the Christian Knowledge Society at Vepery. 
 
 This last place is in the centre of a large Chris- 
 tian native and half-caste population. It contains 
 a printing establishment, and, from its near neigh- 
 bourhood to Madras, furnishes a convenient place 
 for the instruction of missionaries on their first 
 arrival. All the appointments of this station, and 
 especially the native schools, excited Bishop Heber's 
 warm admiration. 
 
 An entry of his journal, made at this time, contains 
 his views on the question of who evangelized India. 
 " We went in a carriage to visit the spot marked out 
 by tradition as the place where the Apostle S. Thomas 
 ^was martyred. That it is really the place I see no 
 good reason for doubting; there is as fair historical 
 evidence as the case requires, that S. Thomas 
 preached the Gospel in India, and was martyred at 
 a place named Milliapoor. I know it has some- 
 times been fancied that the person who planted 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 127 
 
 Christianity in India was a Nestorian bishop named 
 Thomas, not St. Thomas the Apostle. But this 
 rests absolutely on no foundation, but a supposition 
 equally gratuitous and contrary to all ecclesiastical 
 history, that none of the Apostles, except S. Paul, 
 went far from Judea. To this, it is enough to 
 answer, that there is no reason why they should not 
 have done so, or why, when S. Paul went (or 
 intended to go) to the shores of the further west, 
 S. Thomas should not have been equally laborious 
 and enterprising in an opposite direction ; but 
 that all the Apostles, except the two S. James's, 
 did really go forth to preach the Gospel in different 
 parts of the world, as it was a priori to be expected, 
 that they did so we have the authority of Euse- 
 bius and the Old Martyrologies, Avhich is at least 
 as good as the doubts of a later age, and which 
 would be reckoned conclusive if the question related 
 to any point of civil history. Nor must it be for- 
 gotten that there were Jews settled in India at a 
 very early period, to convert whom naturally induced 
 an Apostle to think of coming hither; that the pas- 
 sage, either from the Persian Gulf or the Red Sea, 
 is neither long nor difficult, and was then extremely 
 common; and that it may, therefore, as readily be 
 believed that S. Thomas was slain at Malapoor, as 
 that S. Paul was beheaded at Rome, or that Leo- 
 nidas fell at Thermopylag." 
 
 Here, as elsewhere, the bishop was consulted by 
 many of the clergy as to how far they might allow 
 the native converts to keep their old caste observ- 
 
128 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 ances. The drift of his advice on this difficult point 
 was, that the missionaries should endeavour to 
 ascertain whether these distinctions of caste were 
 considered by the natives as civil or religious, and 
 when the former, that their prejudices should be 
 as little as possible interfered with. It appears 
 from the testimony of Christian David and others, 
 as given to Bisbop Heber, that by numbers of the 
 higher class, caste is looked upon as of no essential 
 value, but merely as a mark of a grade of society, 
 in the same way as in Spain the old Spaniards 
 and Castilians are divided from persons of mixed 
 blood ; and in America, the whites from negroes and 
 mulattoes. The bishop's letter to Rev. D. Schra- 
 vogel on this subject concludes with the memorable 
 words: — " God forbid that we should make the 
 narrow gate of life narrower than Christ has made 
 it, or deal less favourably with the prejudices of this 
 people than S. Paul and the primitive church dealt 
 with the almost similar prejudices of the Jewish 
 converts !" 
 
 From Madras, the bishop proceeded to Pondi- 
 cherry, and thence to Tanjore. The account of 
 this part of his visitation is chiefly derived from Mr. 
 Robinson's '' Last Days of Bishop Heber." At 
 Tanjore, he dwelt with fond earnestness on every 
 memorial of the apostolic Schwartz : — "It was 
 at Tanjore, in the institutions of the venerable 
 Schwartz, in the labours of those excellent men 
 who have succeeded him in the same field, and in 
 the numerous churches of native Christians which 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 129 
 
 they have founded and built up, that his interest 
 was most strongly excited, and the energies of his 
 powerful mind most earnestly employed. He lived, 
 alas! only to feel how much there was of future 
 usefulness before him, if his life were spared; to 
 witness, with deep and holy pleasure, the numbers, 
 the apparent devotion, the regularity, and Chris- 
 tian order of the several congregations assembled 
 around him ; to mourn over the contracted means at 
 the disposal of the missionaries, (which, in truth, is 
 the only limit to the extension of their usefulness,) 
 and to collect such minute and accurate information, 
 and make such immediate arrangements, as the 
 shortness of his time and the magnitude of his 
 avocations allowed." 
 
 As the end of Bishop Heber's earthly labours 
 draws nigh, we are met at every step with striking 
 instances of Christian love and apostolic zeal. The 
 pages of his biographer are full of beautiful pic- 
 tures. Here is an account of an evening service at 
 Tanjore — men but lately rescued from the de- 
 basing influences of superstition — a band of happy 
 worshippers, in a wilderness of sin and sorrow, 
 gather around the altar of the living God. Who 
 could gaze on these men and not repeat to himself 
 tliose w^ords — " Ecce omnia nova facio." " Behold, I 
 make all things new." " In the evening, the Bishop 
 attended a Tamul service in the same church, which 
 was literally crowded with the native Christians of 
 Tanjore and the surrounding villages, many of 
 whom had come a considerable distance to be pre- 
 
 BP. HEB. K 
 
130 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 sent on this occasion. Mr. Barenbruck, assisted bj 
 a native priest, read the prayers; Dr. Coemraerer, 
 from Tranquebar, preached; and the Bishop de- 
 livered the blessing, in Tamul, from the altar. 
 
 " Mr. KohlofF assured me that his pronunciation 
 was remarkably correct and distinct, and the breath- 
 less silence of the congregation testified their delight 
 and surprise at this affecting recognition of their 
 churches as a part of his pastoral charge. I de- 
 sired one of the priests to see how many were 
 present, and I found they exceeded thirteen hun- 
 dred; and I have seen no congregation, even in 
 Europe, by whom the responses of the Liturgy are 
 more generally and correctly made, or where the 
 psalmody is more devotional and correct. There 
 was a thrilling interest, in which memory, and 
 hope, and joy, mingled with the devotion of the 
 hour to hear so many voices, but lately rescued 
 from the polluting services of the pagoda, joining in 
 the pure and heavenly music of the Easter Hymn 
 and the 100th Psalm, and uttering the loud Amen 
 at the close of every prayer. I wished that some 
 of those who deem all missionary exertion a sense- 
 less chimera, and confound the silent and humble 
 labours of these devoted men with the dreams of 
 fanaticism or the frauds of imposture, could have 
 witnessed this sensible refutation of their cold and 
 heartless theories. The Bishop's heart was full; 
 and never shall I forget the energy of his manner, 
 and the heavenly expression of his countenance, 
 when he exclaimed, as I assisted him in taking off 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 131 
 
 his robes, * Gladly would I give years of common 
 life for one such day as this.' Some time after he 
 had retired to rest, while I was writing in my bed- 
 room, wliich is next to his, he came back to me to 
 renew the subject on which his thoughts were 
 intensely fixed — and his often repeated expressions 
 of wonder and thankfulness at the scenes of the past 
 day, were followed by a fervent prayer for the 
 people, for the clergy, and himself." 
 
 On the 27th, he held a confirmation in the Fort 
 Church, and afterwards addressed the clergy who 
 were present. " He sat in his chair at the altar (as 
 he usually does in every church except the cathe- 
 dral), and after the sermon, before he dismissed 
 them with his blessing, he addressed both mission- 
 aries and people in a strain of earnest and affec- 
 tionate exhortation, which no ear that heard it can 
 ever forget. TVe were standing on the graves of 
 Schwartz and others of his fellow-labourers who 
 are gone to their rest, and he alluded beautifully to 
 this circumstance in his powerful and impressive 
 charge. As this was probably the last time that he 
 could hope to meet them again in public, he ex- 
 horted them to fidelity in their high office, to 
 increasing diligence and zeal, to a more self-denying 
 patience under privation, and neglect, and insult, 
 looking for the recompence of reward; and lastly, 
 to more earnest prayer for themselves and the souls 
 committed to their trust, for the prince, under 
 whose mild and equal government they lived, and 
 for him their brother and fellow-servant. The ad- 
 k2 
 
132 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 dress was short and very simple, but no study or 
 ornament could have improved it. It was the 
 spontaneous language of his own heart, and ap- 
 pealed at once to ours." 
 
 He had here several interesting interviews with 
 that remarkable man the Rajah, who became much 
 attached to him, and proposed to confide the educa- 
 tion of his son to the Bishop. When the Rajah 
 heard of his death, he was much affected, and on 
 being requested to continue his patronage to the 
 poor Christians, especially now that they had lost 
 their spiritual father, he answered, " I will always 
 love those whom he loved, and whatever John 
 Kohloff (the oldest resident clergyman) asks of me, 
 shall be done." 
 
 Of the interest and importance of the Tanjore 
 missions, Mr. Robinson writes — " "We leave Tan- 
 jore with the sincerest regret and with the strongest 
 interest, in a spot so favoured and so full of promise. 
 The Bishop has more than once observed to me, 
 that instead of the usual danger of exaggerated 
 reports, and the expression of too sanguine hopes, 
 the fault here was, that enough had not been said, 
 and repeats his conviction, that in these mis- 
 sions lies the strength of the Christian cause in 
 India, and that it will be a grievous and heavy sin 
 if England and the agents of her bounty do not 
 nourish and protect the churches here founded. 
 He has seen the other parts of India and Ceylon, 
 and he has rejoiced in the extension of Christ's 
 kingdom in many distant places, and by many 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 133 
 
 different instruments; but he has seen nothing like 
 the missions of the south, for these are the fields 
 most ripe for the harvest." 
 
 He arrived at Trichinopoly on the 1st of April, 
 1826. On the third day of the same month, after 
 public service at the Mission Church in the Fort, 
 he returned to the house of Mr. Bird, the Judge of 
 the Circuit. After some earnest conversation with 
 Mr. Robinson, on the state and prospects of the 
 missions in South India, he retired to his room, 
 and thence went into a large cold bath which he 
 had used on the two preceding mornings. 
 
 Half an hour after, his servant found him a life- 
 less corpse. It was the opinion of the medical 
 men, that disease, strengthened by climate and 
 nervous excitement, had long been lurking in his 
 frame. Thus suddenly was this faithful feeder of 
 Christ's Indian lambs and governor of His church 
 called by the Great Master of all, the Chief Shep- 
 herd, to his eternal reward. Blessed is the servant 
 whom his Lord shall find thus prepared. He is 
 entered into his rest, and his works do follow him. 
 
 The remains of Bishop Heber were laid on the 
 north side of the altar in S. John's Church at Tri- 
 chinopoly. Monuments were erected to him in this 
 church, at Bombay, Madras, Calcutta, and Colombo; 
 and every honour paid to his memory. When the 
 tidings of his death reached England, a meeting was 
 held in Oxford, and a subscription entered into 
 for a monument, by Chantrey, to be placed in 
 the Cathedral Church of S. Paul. In America, 
 
134 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 his name was engraved in letters of gold on a rock 
 of granite, which forms the foundation of the 
 church at Canandaigua; public monuments were 
 erected to him in several places; and the church of 
 Portsmouth, in New Hampshire, was dedicated to 
 his memory. 
 
 The character of Bishop Heber presents a rare 
 union and harmony of the highest qualities of the 
 head and heart. Whatever period of his life we 
 contemplate, we see the same singlemindedness and 
 cheerful piety. Of his life at Hodnet, we read 
 that " he was daily among his parishioners, advising 
 them in difficulties, comforting them in distress, 
 kneeling often to the hazard of his own life by their 
 sick beds; exhorting, encouraging, reproving, as he 
 saw need: where there was strife, the peacemaker; 
 where there was want, the cheerful giver. Yet in 
 all this there was no parade — no effort apparently — 
 not the smallest consciousness that his life differed 
 from that of other men. His duty seemed to be a 
 delight — his piety an instinct." 
 
 Of his life as a Missionary Bishop, too warm ex- 
 pressions can scarcely be used. His talents and 
 attainments, his earnest and sustained enthusiasm, 
 regulated by prudent discretion, his entire self- 
 devotion, and the winning amenity of manner, 
 which was but the natural result of his gentle and 
 affectionate heart, eminently qualified him for this 
 arduous post. " To dwell upon his virtues," said 
 Mr. Carr, at a meeting held after his death, " upon 
 the charity of his heart, the sweetness of his dispo- 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 135 
 
 sition, the amenity and simplicity of his manners, 
 or the delight of his conversation, were superfluous, 
 recently as we have all been witnesses to them. No 
 man, perhaps, was ever more calculated, from the 
 reputation of his name, the splendour of his talents, 
 the depth of his erudition, the purity of his life, 
 the sanctity of his office, and the eminence of his 
 station, to inspire us with respect and veneration; 
 but on the slightest intercourse, on the shortest 
 acquaintance, or converse with him, these feelings 
 were absorbed and lost in a still deeper sentiment 
 of affection and of love." " How vividly he was 
 impressed with the responsibility of his mission," 
 writes Mr. Wilmott, in his delightful Lives of Sacred 
 Poets, " how anxiously he laboured to diffuse the 
 hallowing blessings of his holy religion over that 
 benighted world; with what gentleness he per- 
 suaded; with what patience he suffered; with what 
 charity he forgave all things; and with what re- 
 ligious cheerfulness he hoped all things; — these 
 traits of his character are displayed in their natural 
 loveliness throughout his Journals. Whatever is 
 amiable and of good report in the accomplished 
 scholar — whatever is wise and sagacious in the 
 reflective statesman — whatever is tender and beau- 
 tiful in the Christian minister, may be found har- 
 moniously combined in these deHghtful volumes. 
 
 The literary works which Bishop Heber has left 
 behind him show how much might have been ex- 
 pected from him, had time and opportunity enabled 
 him to contribute more largely to the stores of 
 Enjrlish literature. Wantinp; in the highest kind of 
 
136 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 genius, his faculties were clear, strong, and well- 
 developed, his taste remarkably correct, and his 
 style chaste, vigorous, and picturesque. He had a 
 quick eye for the beautiful in nature and art — a 
 fancy and imagination which lighted up whatever it 
 touched; and there is in all his writings an earnest- 
 ness and a reality which it is in these days most 
 delightful to meet with. Of Palestine, his earliest 
 poem, it has been said, that it does not contain one 
 original line. This might, without much difficulty, 
 be proved; but for melodious diction, well-chosen 
 images, correct versification, and artistic manage- 
 ment, it will well bear comparison with any similar 
 work in the English tongue. The portion of the 
 Morte D' Arthur which has been published will be 
 welcome to the lover of the Faerie Queene. It is 
 full of picturesque description, and the rhythm and 
 numbers are very perfect. His Hymns are the 
 most perfect and interesting of his poetical works. 
 The more one reads them, the more true and beau- 
 tiful do they appear. Instinct with subdued earnest- 
 ness of devotional feeling, they reflect, as the blue 
 lakelet the passing clouds, the varied moods and 
 feelings of the religious life. I have already had 
 occasion to speak of his Indian Diary as by far the 
 most delightful book of its kind in our literature. 
 In its quiet and unpretending pages, fresh beauties 
 spring up on every perusal, like unbidden violets 
 from the sod. Full of information, thought, and 
 moral interest, it contains more beautiful pictures 
 of life and scenery, more suggestive passages, more 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 1J7 
 
 true poetry than any book of travels which I am 
 acquainted with. And how, as we read on, do we 
 learn to love and reverence the author — to love him 
 for tenderness of feeling and a gentle heart — to 
 reverence him for his ability, attainments, and, 
 above all, his self-devotion to the work of the Apos- 
 tolate. His learning and accomplishments were all 
 consecrated to the service of the altar; and instead 
 of diminishing his usefulness, acquired for him in- 
 fluence and power over men's minds, to be used for 
 the propagation of the faith. " The love of poetry, 
 the taste for painting, the thirst for knowledge, 
 which have so often hung like vapours about the 
 path of the traveller climbing to the Celestial City, 
 were kindled into gold by the glowing faith and the 
 spiritual illumination of Heber." 
 
 A great and good man, who has now gone to his 
 long home, has chanted a noble ode to his memory, 
 with whom in past days he had paced the terraces 
 of Llangedwin. Let us humbly listen to the words 
 which Robert Southey hath written of Reginald 
 Heber : — 
 
 " A messenger of love, he went, 
 A true Evangelist ; 
 Not for ambition, nor for gain. 
 Nor of constraint, save such as duty lays 
 Upon the disciplined heart, 
 Took he the overseeing on himself 
 Of that wild flock dispersed, 
 Which, till these latter times, 
 Had there been left to stray, 
 Neglected all too long. 
 For this great end, devotedly he went, 
 
]38 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 Forsaking friends and kin, 
 His own loved paths of pleasantness and peace. 
 Books, leisure, privacy. 
 Prospects (and not remote) of all wherewith 
 Authority could dignify desert. 
 And, dearer far to him. 
 Pursuits, that with the learned and the wise. 
 Should have assured his name its lasting place. 
 
 How beautiful are the feet of him 
 That bringeth good tidings. 
 That publisheth peace, 
 That bringeth good tiding of good. 
 That proclaimeth salvation for men ! 
 Where'er the Christian Patriarch went. 
 Honour and reverence heralded his way. 
 
 And blessings followed him. 
 
 The Malabar, the Moor, the Cingalese, 
 
 Tho' unillumed by faith. 
 
 Yet not the less admired 
 
 The virtue that they saw. 
 
 The European soldier, there so long 
 
 Of needful and consolatory rites 
 
 Injuriously deprived, 
 
 Felt at his presence the neglected seed 
 
 Of early piety. 
 
 Refreshed, as with a quickening dew from Heaven, 
 
 Native believers wept tor thankfulness, 
 When on their heads he laid his hallowing hands! 
 And, if the saints in bliss 
 Be cognizant of aught that passeth here, 
 It was a joy for Schwartz, 
 To look from Paradise that hour 
 Upon his earthly flock. 
 Hadst thou re-visited thy native land, 
 Mortality, and time, 
 And change, must needs have made 
 Our meeting mournful. Happy he 
 Who to his rest is borne 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 139 
 
 In safe and certain hope, 
 Before the hand of age 
 Hath chilled his faculties, 
 Or sorrow reached him in his heart of hearts :— 
 
 Most happy if he leave in his good name 
 A light for those who follow him, 
 And in his works a living seed 
 Of good prolific style. 
 
 Yes, to the Christian, to the Heathen world, 
 Heber, thou art not dead — thou can'st not die; 
 Nor can I think of thee as lost. 
 A little portion of this little isle 
 At first divided us ; then half the globe. 
 The same earth held us still ; but when, 
 O Reginald ! wert thou so near as now ! — 
 'Tis but the falling of a withered leaf— 
 The breaking of a shell — 
 The rending of a veil ! 
 Oh ! when that leaf shall fall- 
 That shell be burst — that veil be rent — may then 
 My spirit be with thine !" 
 
140 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 CHAPTER yi. 
 
 Peculiar difficulties of Indian bishops — Necessity of sub- 
 dividing the see of Calcutta — Memorial of Christian 
 Knowledge Society — Success of this measure — Cathedral 
 — Importance of general education — Bishop Wilson — 
 Prospects of the East. 
 
 THE premature death of Bishop Heber, hastened 
 as it was by the burden and excitement of duties 
 too great for any one man to sustain, drew attention to 
 the importance of subdividing the diocese of Cal- 
 cutta. The peculiar difficulties of an Indian bishop 
 began to be better understood. " For all civil pur- 
 poses," says Mr. Le Bas, in his Life of Bishop 
 Middleton, " our eastern possessions are divided into 
 three presidencies, each having its separate governor 
 and council, and its separate judicial, civil, military, 
 and medical departments, while in ecclesiastical 
 matters alone the British interests are placed under 
 the administration of a single individual. The 
 statesman who governs India is assisted by the judg- 
 ment of responsible councillors, and by the advice 
 of legal authorities; and besides, he is relieved from 
 the burden of official drudgery by a liberal appa- 
 ratus of secretaries and preparatory boards. The 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 141 
 
 bishop Avlio administers the church of India has no 
 such assistance or relief. He is without the aid 
 of a clerical chapter, and even responsible or legal 
 advisers. He is, in short, a solitary unaided func- 
 tionary, weighed down at once by cares which 
 demand the highest faculties of his mind, and by 
 toil which exacts the most unsparing sacrifices of 
 his bodily ease; an enormous portion both of his 
 time and strength must be spent in protracted and 
 harassing exj^editions both by sea and land. In a 
 tropical region, no human energies can, for many 
 years together, endure such a course of applica- 
 tion." 
 
 In 1827, the "Incorporated Society for the Pro- 
 pagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts" presented 
 a memorial to the government, in which occur the 
 following passages : — " The suspension of the epis- 
 copal functions, and of every measure depending on 
 the personal direction of the bishop for a very con- 
 siderable period, on every vacancy, to which must 
 further be added the time required by the new 
 bishop to become acquainted with the peculiar 
 nature of his local duties, is in itself a great evil. 
 And if men of attainments and character should, by 
 a succession of unfortunate events, be deterred from 
 accepting this important ofiice, there might be 
 reason to believe that the system commenced with 
 such prospect of success by Bishop Middleton, and 
 continued with equal judgment and power by his 
 lamented successor, might never be carried into full 
 effect. 
 
142 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 " With these considerations in view, the society 
 are impelled by a feeling of duty most humbly to 
 submit to his Majesty's government the expediency 
 of establishing a bishopric in each of the three 
 Presidencies. They are impressed with the fullest 
 conviction that the effect of such a measure would 
 be— 
 
 *' Istly, That the charge of each bishop would 
 
 be less disproportion ed to his powers. 
 " 2ndly, That men of professional eminence 
 would be more easily induced to undertake 
 the office. 
 " 3rdly, That during the vacancy of any see, 
 the episcopal duties might be performed by 
 one of the other bishops. 
 " 4thly, That a prospect of rising to the highest 
 stations of the church would be opened to 
 the inferior clergy stationed in India, from 
 which they are now precluded, on account 
 of the time which would be lost in the in- 
 terchange of the necessary communications 
 between that country and Europe." 
 Since the adoption of the arrangements here pro- 
 posed, the church in India has been progressing in 
 an uniform course of increasing power and useful- 
 ness. The presence and immediate superintendence 
 of such men as Bishop Wilson and Corrie have 
 enabled the church system to present itself to our 
 Eastern colonies in the completeness of its full 
 development. It is quite impossible, in a volume of 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 143 
 
 this size, to give any detailed account* of separate 
 missions. For these, we must refer the reader to 
 the reports of the various societies, and the lives 
 and writings of the missionaries themselves. Suffice 
 it to say, that the kingdom of Christ has been ex- 
 tended in proportion to the means and zeal devoted 
 to it, and analogously to simihir periods in the 
 history of the church. Above all, in the exact pro- 
 portion in which our ecclesiastical system has been 
 developed in its completeness and fulness, have the 
 results of missionary labour acquired a consistency 
 and permanence in which the isolated efforts of in- 
 dividuals and societies have been so deficient. " It is 
 well known," writes Dr. Grant, in his Bampton Lec- 
 tures, " that Bishop Heber computed the number of 
 converts in Southern India, in 1826, at 15,000. This 
 calculation has been disputed, and has been broadly 
 stigmatized as being very much too great. I will 
 content myself with saying, that official returns 
 made two years before represented the converts in 
 connexion with the church as exceeding the com- 
 putation of Bishop Heber, which is, moreover, con- 
 firmed by collateral evidence; and further, that had 
 the missions of other bodies been included, the cal- 
 culation of Protestant converts even at that period 
 
 1 1 had intended to give a chronological account of missions 
 in India during the last twenty years, but I find that a mere 
 enumeration of dates and names, which is all the space will 
 allow, would be of little use, and no interest to the general 
 reader. 
 
144 BISHOP HEBEK, 
 
 should at the least have been raised to 23,000, the 
 number certified three years before in parliamentary- 
 evidence by a missionary, as the result of his per- 
 sonal knowledge. 
 
 " And since those days, the progress has been 
 decisive. Tinnevelly became, in 1828, the scene of 
 a considerable movement, and many heathens were 
 led to receive the Gospel. Let me refer to recent 
 events. The difficulty in obtaining reports of the 
 older missions of Tanjore and Triehinopoly prevents 
 the possibility of any accurate statement being made 
 respecting them. At Vepery, however, a mission 
 founded by Schuitze in 1728, and supported by 
 the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in 
 Foreign Parts, twenty-two native adults were bap- 
 tized in 1838. The Bishop of Madras, in his visi- 
 tation two years ago (1841), speaks of meeting with 
 whole Christian villages in the Tinnevelly district. 
 He states, that lately 3000 had been added to the 
 church; and that in four stations alone, he had con- 
 firmed 1500 native converts. Without mentioning 
 the dissenting associations, (one of which, however, is 
 said to have 10,000 natives under instruction in the 
 province of Travancort,) take only these facts to- 
 gether with the statement that in connexion with 
 the Church Missionary Society there are nearly 
 7000 baptized converts, and above 19,000 receiving 
 more or less instruction, and we must conclude that 
 a wide and eifectual door has been opened in 
 Southern India for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 145 
 
 We may believe, as the prelate of that diocese assures 
 us, that ' the Gospel is as surely tliere as it is in 
 England, and may be preached there with as saving 
 effect to tens of thousands as it is already preached 
 to thousands.' 
 
 " This is no isolated instance. In the northern 
 province of Bengal, a stirring of men's hearts to 
 the reception of the Gospel similar to that witnessed 
 in Southern India — perhaps more extraordinary, 
 from the obscurity in which its origin is veiled — is 
 preparing the way for larger results. At Barhipur 
 and Krishnaghur, both of them missions in connexion 
 with the church, whole villages seem to awake 
 almost simultaneously, and demand to be instructed 
 in the truth, and to put on Christian baptism. At 
 Barhipur, but few signs of any spread of the Gospel 
 showed themselves before the accession of the Rev. 
 C. E. Driberg as a missionary, in 1835. From that 
 time, converts have been gathered into the church; 
 in 1838, the number of the baptized amounted to 
 131; of catechumens, to 235. Three years later, 
 (in 1841,) there were of baptized, 472, of catechu- 
 mens, 517; so that a congregation of nearly 1000 
 was collected, exclusively of many (above 200) wlio 
 w^ere inquiring after * this way,' and of such un- 
 w^orthy catechumens as were excommunicate, and 
 recent reports confirm the expectation of increase. 
 At Krishnaghur, it would seem as if the seed scat- 
 tered on the ground by missionaries accustomed 
 forty years back to travel through the district had 
 
 BP. IlEB. L 
 
146 BISHOP HEBER, 
 
 suddenly taken root and sprung up — as if the leaven 
 secretly hidden had begun to ferment through the 
 whole lump. A few pilgrims, as it Avere, came 
 first for instruction ; these carried the tidings back 
 to their native villages ; and shortly after, messengers 
 from forty and sixty miles distant flocked to see 
 what ^ was come to pass there in these days.' In 
 one year, (1839,) on the visits of the Archdeacon 
 and the Bishop of Calcutta, 980 heathens were 
 baptized, which increased the number of converts 
 to 1420; in the year following, (1840,) the baptized 
 were again increased to 2000, and 3000 more were 
 preparing for the laver of regeneration." 
 
 " Here then are certainly converts of no am- 
 biguous character; not influenced by interest or 
 by alliance with Europeans ; not outcasts from Hin- 
 dooism or from the Roman communion, but through 
 the concurrent causes of inward conviction, and the 
 offer of the truth, stirred by God's grace to seek 
 and receive salvation in Christ ; not hastily bap- 
 tized, but after patient instruction ; and not in- 
 effectually sealed with the Spirit of grace, since in 
 the hour of trial, which has come on them even 
 already, neither the spoiling of their goods, nor op- 
 pression, nor much personal suffering, has prevailed 
 on them to deny their profession, or grow weary of 
 His service who bought them with His blood."^ 
 
 Two points of general importance remain to be 
 noticed; first, the erection of a cathedral under the 
 
 ' Grant's Bampton Lectures, pp. 198—200, 2nd edition. 
 
AND INDIAN MISSIONS. 147 
 
 zealous superintendence of Bishop "Wilson. This is 
 now in rapid progress, and its importance and value 
 in giving to Christianity in India ^' a local habita- 
 tion and a name" cannot be overrated. 
 
 The second point to be noticed, and it is one of 
 the greatest interest, is, the growing desire in the 
 native mind for European learning and literature. 
 That education must precede any general reception 
 of our holy faith by the natives is admitted by all 
 who have had any practical experience. In the 
 very last communication which has been received 
 from the Bishop of Calcutta occur these memorable 
 words — "All knowledge, all learning, if not poisoned 
 with a sceptical leaven, subserves the interests of 
 religion; all history, all chronology, all improve- 
 ments in agriculture, medicine, jurisprudence, all 
 legitimate commerce, all the arts and conveniences 
 of life, every step towards the increase of human 
 happiness, is a preparation for our holy faith. 
 
 " And yet more colleges and schools, where the 
 elements of every division of human knowledge are 
 taught, and the evidences and history of the Chris- 
 tian religion are duly interwoven with it, are of 
 the greatest importance. So churches, where those 
 who profess Christianity may worship their God 
 and Saviour, receive instruction in morals and 
 piety, and be consoled in the hours of sickness and 
 death, are of still higher moment. They are full o 
 the seeds of things, as was said of Lord Bacon's 
 works; every school is an academical preparatory 
 church, and every church a * pillar on the border of 
 
148 BISHOP HEBER. 
 
 the land to the Lord.' They prove to the Hindoo 
 and Mahomedan that we have a religion, and lead 
 them to reverence us for our open, consistent per- 
 formance of its rites and ordinances." 
 
 Bright and glorious, we believe, will yet be the 
 destiny of our mighty eastern empire. England, to 
 whom the great moral Governor of the universe 
 has given such a high place among the nations, has 
 learnt to confess her responsibility w^ith regard to 
 the spiritual interests of her colonies. Nothing w^ll 
 so ensure our possessions in the east as the promul- 
 gation of the faith and the complete establishment 
 of the church; and when we look at the progress of 
 Christianity in the east in its highest light, and 
 think how a pure faith, bringing with it all the 
 social virtues, all the blessings of civilization, all 
 the influences that can exalt the soul, has been sub- 
 stituted for the debasing superstition of a gloomy 
 and cruel creed, we feel how deeply interesting is 
 the history of Indian missions, and the lives of those 
 saints and martyrs who have lived and died for this 
 sacred work. 
 
 Ram boweth down, 
 Creeshna and Seva stoop, 
 The Arabian moon must wane to wax no more, 
 And Jshmael's seed redeem'd. 
 And Esau's to their brotherhood 
 And to their better birthright then restored, 
 Shall within Israel's covenant be brought. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 T. C. Savill, Piinter, 4, Chanclos Street, Covent Garden. 
 
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 Bishop Heber and India missions. 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 
 
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