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be delighted to see these twin brothers together: they are always happy with each other, and as for a quarrel, no one ever heard of such a thing between them.

"Mr. Ruyhouse, the artist who took the little sketch of them, said he felt sure, from their elegantly-formed hands and good features, that they must be high-caste children. Many others have made the same remark, and we were told that when they were found they had many valuable ornaments on them; and as it is a common practice among the high castes to load infants with ornaments, and a very uncommon one among the lower castes, we are led to believe they are of high birth: and yet how to account for the silence of their relatives about them, (in case our suppositions are correct) we are quite at a loss.

"Some of you may remember that they were baptized by Mr. Campbell, at Mysore, and the names chosen by dear Mrs. Glover and given to them. It was for these dear children that I first wrote and suggested whether, in a congregation like Carr's Lane, something could not be done towards supporting them. Little did I think that your boxes would be so valuable as they have been, and that we should realize nearly £90 by one. It is a most noble help to our schools; and though the results will never be known so fully as we could wish in this world, still enough is known to encourage us all. Now, my dear

friends, what I want is, that you should consider these orphan twins your own, peculiarly your own; help them with your money and by your prayers, that they may never disgrace the much-loved names they bear. We hope and expect much from them, as they have never known anything of idolatry or heathenism; and their naturally amiable dispositions lead us to hope that they may be destined to do much good. I often picture to myself these boys as the future ministers and teachers of the Native Christians. I wish I could tell you they were now truly seeking the Lord in their youth. At present all we can say is that they are good, obedient boys, and carefully avoid all they know would be displeasing to us. As soon as they are able they shall speak for themselves. Meanwhile I will tell you how they are getting on, and hope the accounts will always be satisfactory. These little twins are now six years of age, judging from what they were when they first came to us; I keep their birthday on the 2nd of May, that being my own boy's birthday.

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NEW YEAR'S OFFERING TO THE NECESSITOUS WIDOWS AND CHILDREN OF MISSIONARIES.

THE Directors are desirous to mark the opening of a new year by submitting to the friends and supporters of the Society, the very urgent claims of the surviving families of their deceased Missionaries. By the humane and benevolent, no appeal on behalf of the widow and orphan can be regarded with indifference; and when it is considered that the devoted men who, at the sacred call of duty, have gone forth to the heathen to proclaim a Saviour's love, have, by the very nature of their engagement, been debarred from the opportunity of making future provision for the objects of their affec

tion and solicitude, the Directors are induced to cherish the lively hope that, on a perusal of the following statement, their appeal will meet with a cordial and generous response.

ADDRESS OF THE DIRECTORS TO THE PASTORS, OFFICERS, AND MEMBERS
OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES.

Of all the demands for Christian sympathy and generous support, it will doubtless be readily admitted that none are stronger than those of the widows and fatherless children of faithful Missionaries,-men who have sacrificed their lives for the sake of the Lord Jesus and the salvation of the heathen. To enforce appeals on their behalf, arguments are superfluous; to sustain their claims, motives the most tender and sacred will present themselves to every Christian mind.

By the Directors and friends of the London Missionary Society, such motives have long been warmly cherished; and they have endeavoured to supply to the widows and bereaved families of their honoured and lamented Missionaries, not the means of adequate support (for this has been beyond their power), but a measure of assistance, whereby they might be enabled to support themselves.

Twenty-two widows, with their dependent children, are now receiving the aid of the Society; and a brief reference to their several cases will be sufficient to prove their necessities and establish their claims. One is the widow of a Missionary in Polynesia, with a young family of nine children: -another with seven children is the bereaved partner of a devoted labourer in British India, who, in the prosecution of his Missionary work, went to sea, was shipwrecked, and lost:-the husband of a third was shot (it is hoped accidentally) by the French troops in Tahiti, leaving two infants-the husband of a fourth, leaving three young children, was drowned in one of the rivers of South Africa. Among the rest are devoted Christian women, who laboured with their deceased husbands in the mission field for twenty and thirty years, and who are now, in the evening of life, oppressed with the infirmities inseparable from a life of toil and anxiety in a tropical climate.

To meet the affecting and urgent wants of these widows and orphans, the Directors attempted some years since to establish a separate Permanent Fund, and several liberal contributions were made with that design, which are invested in Government Securities. But the annual produce of this fund amounts only to £286, while the additional contributions for this specific object have not, on the average of the three last years, exceeded £160 per annum, making a total of less than £450. On the other hand, the annual payments to widows and orphans during the same period have exceeded £1130, leaving £680 to be supplied from the general funds of the Society.

Most gladly would the Directors continue to appropriate this amount to

an object of so much interest and importance, did the state of their finances permit; but the extension of the Society's Missions, the expenditure of nearly all its funded property, and the inadequacy of its income for many years past to meet its ordinary expenditure, compel them to make a distinct and urgent appeal to their friends on behalf of the widows and orphans of their departed Missionaries.

They urge no claim, however, requiring the exercise of unusual liberality, much less of self-denial; but they venture to suggest a method of Christian benevolence, which, if generally adopted, would meet the necessities of the case, and prove as easy as it would be gratifying to the best feelings of the contributors. They respectfully recommend to the pastors and officers of the several churches by whom the Society is kindly sustained, on the first Sabbath of the ensuing year, when they assemble with their brethren at the table of the Lord, to mark this occasion by a special offering on behalf of the widows and children of their faithful messengers who have fallen in the field of missionary toil.

It may be possible for the more numerous and wealthy churches thus to appropriate a moiety of their sacramental offerings on that occasion; but the Directors would not in any instance press their application to the injury of the poor members of churches who have the first claim on the sympathy of their brethren; in such cases, they simply ask that those Christian communicants who are willing, may have the opportunity of making some addition to their usual contributions at the Lord's table; and that the amount thus given, over and above the ordinary sacramental collection, may be appropriated to this special object.

On the pastors and officers of the churches the success of the present application will mainly depend; and the Directors cherish the hope that ministers will give it their cordial and effective support by commending it to the deacons and members of their respective churches, and thus securing their co-operation in an exercise of Christian mercy, which while it will afford hallowed though mournful pleasure to the donors, will also awaken in the objects of their Christian sympathy, renewed gratitude to the British churches, combined with humble thankfulness to the God of the widow and the Father of the fatherless.

Signed on behalf of the Directors,

ARTHUR TIDMAN, Foreign Secretary. P.S. Should this application be kindly acceded to, it is respectfully suggested that extracts therefrom be read to the churches, explaining the necessities of the widows and orphans of the Missionaries. And it is further requested that the amount specially contributed on the occasion for their relief, be transmitted, by Post-Office Order or otherwise, to the Rev. Dr. Tidman, Foreign Secretary, by the 15th of January, as it is desirable that the several contributions should appear in the MISSIONARY MAGAZINE for the following month.

INDIA.

APPEAL AGAINST THE LEX LOCI.

In our Number of October last, we brought under the notice of our readers the passing of the Lex Loci, an act which, by securing the rights of conscience throughout the territories subject to British rule, rendered the 11th of last April a day memorable in the civil and religious history of the people of India.

It was scarcely however to be expected that so great a boon conferred upon the population of that country, would be regarded by the upper classes of native society, and all others who are rigid in their adherence to idolatry, with any other feelings than those of alarm and irritation; and accordingly measures were forthwith adopted with a view to the repeal of the obnoxious enactment. The native Indian press has sounded the alarm through the length and breadth of the land, and vigorous, though hitherto abortive efforts have been made to excite the abettors of heathenism to an organized opposition to the new law.

For the following notice of these preliminary proceedings, we are indebted to the Calcutta Christian Advocate; and we desire in an especial manner to invite the attention of our readers to the remarkable admissions disclosed by the avowed organs of Hindooism, which, while appealing for the sympathy and the aid of their partisans, betray a humiliating consciousness of the hopelessness of their enterprise, and bear an involuntary, though most impressive testimony to the fact, that the strongest bulwarks of Hindooism are no longer proof against the successful aggressions of the Christian Missionary.

"

SUBSCRIPTION FOR APPEAL AGAINST THE
LEX LOCI.

"The Bengali papers continue to direct attention to this subject. The Bhaskar has published the Address of the Sub-Committee appointed for this purpose, from which the following passages are taken:

"A very small sum will not suffice to provide the means necessary for engaging earnestly and successfully in this undertaking. About 30,000 rupees will certainly be required. The English residing here have already collected nearly 40,000 rupees for their appeal against "the Black Acts," and more will probably be received. Both these objects must be secured by the use of the same means; we may therefore calculate upon the expenses being pretty much the same. Indeed, the English are appealing to

their own country, which is not the case with us; there they have no want of friends, and in regard to the cause of their appeal they will find almost all their countrymen on their side, desiring their success, and ready gratuitously to do anything in their power to promote it; whereas, in our case, we may be sure that all will be against us: we can only make trial of our fate by the help of any whom, at a considerable expense, we may engage on our side. In some matters that concern us we might be able to find there some three or four unprejudiced persons; but in regard to the case now in hand, we believe that the whole country, with scarcely an exception, will be unfavourable; and many will exert themselves to secure our defeat. It is unnecessary, therefore, to attempt to show how very difficult it must be to succeed

in such a country and among such a people: nor can it be a matter of surprise that so large a sum should be required; indeed, if it can be effected for that sum, we shall have reason to say that our object has been gained at a cheaper rate than theirs.

"There is another thing to be considered. Of all the cases of injustice shown by the Government towards their Hindoo subjects, this is by far the worst; for the law which through our evil destiny has been lately published, will prove the weapon that will utterly root up the whole tree of Hindooism -of this there can be no doubt. By this act the Government has opened the doors, so long closed, which stood in the way of the destruction of the Hindoo religion, and has made the way easy for Hindoos to become Christians. The Missionaries lose no opportunity to do us all the injury in their power. They are continually employing all kinds of means by force and fraud to root up our religion, and to establish the Christian faith. Many boys, fascinated by their wiles, have forsaken their mothers' arms, and fled; parents have been bereft of their children, brothers of their brothers, wives of their husbands: all the corners of the earth have been filled with sounds of lamentation through the violence of the Missionaries. How many of the Hindoos, wounded by their pitiless arrows, pass their days in endless sorrow! Nevertheless, all this violence we could bear; for hitherto real fear had not entered our breasts. We well knew that, so long as the Government forbore to render them any assistance, all the outrages of the Missionaries, though counted by thousands, might be disregarded. But now, when the Government itself, in whose hands are our lives, our property, and all that we have, begin to favour our adversaries and to seek the destruction of our religion, we too clearly see that our safety is at an end.

"You may therefore be fully confident that the tide of our evil fortune has reached its height, and that our trouble is absolutely without bounds. In order to our escape from this sea of troubles the most strenuous exertions of all-men, women, and children-are absolutely necessary. At such a time the whole body of the Hindoos must unite to seek justice from the Government, and be prepared

even to surrender their lives and fortune to preserve our religion and our race. In such a case therefore the sum that has been mentioned must not be regarded as extravagant. Rather we should consider, if success crown our effort, that four times that amount would be well spent; if otherwise, we shall still have the satisfaction of feeling that every possible effort has been made, and that no blame rests on us for the failure.'

"Regarding this document, the Editor of the Bhaskar writes as follows in a rather despairing strain, but suggests that the list of subscriptions will at least serve to show who are Hindoos to the present day, notwithstanding the falling away to the Christian faith.

"We entreat (he says) our friends and neighbours to show that they are true Hindoos, and that they really desire to save their own religion, to send us their subscriptions—every one according to his ability-from Rs.1000 to four annas; we will transmit their contributions to the Treasurer and Secretary, and publish their names and residence in the Bhaskar; and we shall be happy to receive contributions from any of our subscribers who are foreigners, but who are favourable to the Hindoo religion.

"The whole body of the Hindoos have been grieved by the rejection of their Memorial by the Governor-General, and are now preparing to appeal to England. Although we have great fear as to the result of this measure, and feel almost certain that the prayer of the Hindoo Memorialists to the home authorities will be unsuccessful, still the attempt will serve to show how many Hindoos there really are at the present time, as compared with the number at the time when the rite of Suttee was abolished.

"We know very well that a very great number of Hindoos have become Christians. Even of those who have not been baptized, and thus publicly professed Christianity, a great many adopt in secret Christian practices. We have now a favourable opportunity of finding out how many are Christians, either publicly or in private, on the one hand; and on the other, how many there are in this country who piously adhere to their own religion. Every man who comes forward with his wealth and influence in support of the Appeal, is a Hindoo; he who does not thus aid his brethren is a

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