of perfect glory, and to drink the dew of immortality. leaf unfolding full to breathe the light | lines of streets, erected within the last thirty years, and tenanted mainly by just that class of the working population which might be well to do if sobriety and a love of the social virtues and a regard for religion prevailed among them. As it is, the dingy complexion of their dwellings is too apt a likeness of the disorder and discomfort within, and of the spiritual darkness which broods on the benighted inmates. So it was, more extensively than at present, when Mr. Garratt began to visit and converse from house to house. His mildness, kindness, and evidently disinterested concern for the welfare of his promiscuous charge, gained him welcome admission to the hearths and to the hearts of many, and some of these it was his joy to bring into the fold of the Great Shepherd and Bishop of souls. Preaching, which at first was confined to private houses, was at length begun in a public room situated in the Broughton road, the rent of £10 per annum being paid by the friends who adhered to him. The attendance was frequently overflowing Three children out of seven that had been born remained, whose training was sufficient to engross more of their father's time than he could spare. The labours of a rural pastor, (which never are light or few) were increased in his case by absence from home in collecting for the chapel debt, and in assisting destitute churches. His re-marriage, which took place at no long interval with Miss E. Wilbraham, a member of the church and teacher in the Sabbath-school, contributed to a restoration of domestic comfort, and so long as it subsisted was a source of uninterrupted happiness to both. Step-maternity, too, was not in this instance the cold and repulsive thing which some facts, and more fiction-have represented it to be. It was while on one of his begging tours that, being at Manchester, he became acquainted with the existence of the City and Town Mission. For this species of christian operation he felt a great attachment, and being emphatically qualified for it, only a short time elapsed before he was transported from the quietude and narrow bounds of a country village to the hurly-whirl and thick clustering population of a manufacturing town. A pastoral connection of eleven years standing, and of the kind noticed above, could not be dissolved, however, without many regrets, and the farewell sermon, on March 9, 1845, proved, by the congregation assembled and the feelings displayed, that the separation would not have been submitted to without a violent resist ance had there not been a persuasion that this would have been unjust to the man of their affectionate esteem. Mr. Garratt's missionary exertions were assigned to Salford, and to one of the most spiritually depraved and destitute districts in the borough. Broughton road on the right side is marked off at short spaces with long six of the converts embraced Baptist sentiments, and judging that it was a duty to persevere and enlarge a cause whose foundation was thus voluntarily laid, it was resolved to erect a chapel nearly facing the meetingroom, and to organize a church. This measure dissolved, of course, Mr. G's. connection with the mission, and on Sep. 28th, 1850, he was ordained to the pastoral office, Rev. Messrs Bott, Sutcliffe, and Dunckley, and J. Hodgson, Esq., engaging in the services incident to such an occasion. The congregations advanced, the Sabbathschool flourished: but the palmbranches were soon to be exchanged for the willow and the cypress. At the beginning of last January a severe cold ended in pleurisy. After three weeks intense suffering he retired a few miles out of town, and the indications of recovery which for a short season threw a flicker of exhilaration around the bed of sickness, were su- 'Sweet fields beyond the flood, blessing, he said, "Yes, poor old Jacob! I shall soon see the prophets and apostles, and all the ministers that have gone before; but I shall want to see Jesus first!" How like a christian was this! To a friend who had been very kind to him in his illness, he said, "O don't neglect your soul! Look what religion has done for me." As Mrs. G. was bending over his face, he raised himself up, flung his arms around her, and exclaimed, "O my dear," and the soul was released without a struggle. This was on Tuesday, April 15th, and on the following Sunday his remains were interred in the chapel yard by Mr. Fogg, (now of Retford) in the presence of many hundreds. Mr. F. delivered an impressive discourse from 2 Tim. iv. 7. In the chapel a tablet is erected, having this inscription, "In memory of Rev. W. J. Garrett, first pastor of Zion chapel, who departed this life April 15th, 1851." Mr. Garratt's success from the first was materially assisted by his being so well-known in the neighbourhood from his several years of missionary exertion: but it is plain that this knowledge must have left a favourable impression, or it would have impeded, not aided, the operations of his regular ministry. The teachers of religion have been accused of neglecting the temporal welfare of the people, in their anxiety to proselytize. The charge is partly founded on de"Ifective views of the comparative value of things temporal and spiritual, partly true, partly exaggerated, and partly false. Mr. Garratt was a refutation of it in his own case. He had no cold and icy eye, no nether-millstone heart when he came into contact with physical poverty and disease. While cholera raged he exposed himself like a martyr, in affording medicinal relief to the sufferers, and he acquired by these means the purest of all rewards. Mr. Garratt was a practical philan thropist of the lower platform, but he did not magnify this above the higher Stand drest in living green."" On awaking from a doze, he remarked, "I hope I shall sleep no more, I want to leave the world praying." Having received a little wine from his wife, he said, "Thank you, my dear, I shall drink no more until I drink it new in my Father's kingdom," He fervently gave his blessing to Mrs. Beesley, and in answer to an observation from his wife that Jacob died post he sustained as a minister of the "gospel which bringeth salvation unto all men." As a preacher he was plain, faithful, and stirring, shewing in the selection of his themes a profitable variety, and in their discussion great evangelical clearness of view and fervency of feeling. In all these things (and in his efforts to supply the defects of an imperfect education) he is worthy of being studied and imitated by those who are, or may be, occupying spheres of ministry resembling his. The promise stands sure, that he who goeth forth "sowing precious seed, weeping, shall come again rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." D. B., M. EARLY LABOURERS AND FIRST BAPTISMS IN ORISSA.-No. 2. In the introduction to the 5th vol. of the Periodical Accounts occurs the following sentence, which will probably surprise many of our readers, as it was published nine years before the establishment of our mission :-"A mission has been planted in Orissa, the seat of the horrible Juggernaut, where the Scriptures have been liberally distributed in the language of the country, even within the precincts of the temple, the gospel diligently preached, and a church raised of between thirty and forty members." It is to furnish some information of Peter's labours, and of these first baptisms in Orissa, that the present paper has been prepared. Our next and final letter will relate to Carey's Oriya Bible, and to the various Oriya tracts translated and printed at Serampore, and to the extent to which God has blessed them in the evangelization of the province. John Peter removed to Orissa in Jan. 1810, and settled at Balasore. He took with him a considerable number of Oriya Testaments and tracts, with various English and Bengalee books. He was followed in two months by Krishnoo Das, of whose holy life and peaceful death the reader has been already informed. On Peter's arrival in the province, he describes the moral desolation that surrounded him, in these words, "The state of this country is deplorable in a religious view. None are seeking God. The bones and skulls of dead men, the worshippers of Juggernaut, lie about the streets, especially on the river side. Hundreds are going, almost every day, to worship this great idol." He adds, "I proclaim the gospel to them, and invite them to believe in Christ: I make known to them the account of the incarnation, life, and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, shewing that he came on purpose to save sinners, and is able to do so effectually: I endeavour to prove that they are all in need of a Saviour; that without Christ none can go to God; and that without his atonement there is no forgiveness." But the people had little disposition to hear, and none to regard his message. Nor is this, apart from the natural aversion of the human heart from divine things, much to be wondered at. However powerfully Peter might proclaim the word of life in Bengalee, he must have been, for some time at least, comparatively inefficient as an Oriya preacher. But while seeking the salvation of the natives of the country, he did not neglect opportunities of benefiting others through the medium of the English language. He was by no means well acquainted with English, and is described as a very black man, but he had on the Lord's-day, English worship, and either read or delivered a short discourse. There were more at Balasore in those days to be benefited by such labours than at present. His first success was from these efforts. John Slater, a European soldier, was baptized in less than four months. A sermon from the text with which Luther silenced the devil, and which, as the courageous reformer believed, Satan could not endure, -"The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin," was much blessed to him. He saw that there was no remedy for sin, but the blood of Christ, and he determined to yield himself unto God as one alive from the dead. Precious text! and precious blood of which it treats! That blood cleansed us when we first believed. It has purified us from the defilement daily contracted since; and it will cleanse us at the last. "Washed from our sins in his own blood," we shall be made meet to mingle with sinless angels and redeemed spirits, who walk with him in white, for they are worthy. The next month three others were baptized from the regiment, one of whom was the drum major. They are described as very zealous in the cause of God, and as being constrained by the love of Christ to devote themselves to his service. The drum major, whose name was William Smith, appears to have been especially diligent in making known to others the mercy which the Lord had revealed to him. Soon after his baptism, it was said, "Brother Smith talks of Jesus to the sepoys." No doubt he talked of Jesus to the members of his own family as well as to the sepoys, and talked to purpose too, for the following month his mother and his wife, with two others from the regiment, were baptized and added to the church. Before the close of the first year, the church had increased to sixteen, but none of those added were Hindoos. I shall have occasion to refer again to the drum major. Other additions were made in the two following years, so that before the close of 1812, more than thirty members are reported; but before this time, many of them had removed with the regiment to Cuttack; and It though most of them held fast their integrity, they were but nominally connected with the church at Balasore. Such removals and changes are discouraging and painful; but society in India is constantly changing, and the only hope of gathering a church that will remain, is to gather it from the bleak wilds of heathenism. Peter left Orissa for Calcutta in 1817, having laboured in it more than seven years; but the last four years the additions were few and small. He assigned as the reasons for his leaving, the great alarm produced in the province by the approach of the Pindarees, and the indifferent state of his health; but these were not the only reasons. appears that he secured, especially at the commencement of his course, the esteem of the Europeans and IndoBritish, and that he was very useful to many of the latter class. As he was sent to Orissa on a Mission to the heathen, the reader will expect to be informed of the results of his labours among the Oriyas, so far as they can be ascertained; but here fidelity forbids our saying much that is encouraging. Krishnoo Das appears to have laboured with a good degree of diligence in the cause of Christ. One instance of his affectionate tenderness in making known the word of the Lord to a Mussulman, and of the effect which it had on the obstinate follower of the false prophet, may be given in his own words, "While reading to him from the 25th of Matthew, respecting the day of judgment, I could not refrain from tears; seeing this, the Mussulman exclaimed, I have seen thousands of Mussulmans, but never saw one love God so as to weep over his word. I will become a christian.' Alas! the Mussulman's resolve was as "the morning cloud and as the early dew." Peter refers again and again to the dark and discouraging prospect presented whenever he went among the heathen; and on one occasion, after describing his encouragements in other respects, he adds, "What shall I say concerning the natives? I mourn for them daily. But few of them call on us; they seem afraid to hear the doctrines of Jesus." While at Balasore, however, he baptized two idolaters, but nothing satisfactory can be said of either. One of them was a byraggee from Guzerat; he left a few days after his baptism, saying, "that he would make known the name of Jesus in his native place, and would rather die than deny him." But those who know the dreadful hypocrisy of these wicked deceivers of the people, can cherish little hopes of his sincerity. The other was a brahmin, whose name was Jugunnat'ha-Mookhoojya, but it is now known that he was not of sound mind: and the only reference that Peter makes to him after his baptism, describes him as in confinement, and mentions "his mournful affliction." 66 persecution and reproach when they were baptized, but they bore it patiently and joyfully. When Bampton and Peggs came to Cuttack in 1822, they were the first to join the church which was then formed; their names appear in the church book among the seven who in that year constituted the church; and, so far as the records of the church testify, they have never been brought under church reproof. The last time I visited them, on asking Miss George how she was, she answered, “ Feeble in body and mind, like a ship tossed up and down by the violence of the waves; but I lay hold of Christ, and am safe." It may be interesting to add, that Mr. Rennell,† the husband of the former of these friends, was the first baptized by our brethren after their arrival in Orissa; and I believe also, the first member of the church removed by death. His conduct was in a good degree consistent with his holy calling; and his mind was sustained in prospect of standing before God, by the consolations of the gospel. It would be interesting if we could furnish particulars of the subsequent christian course of those who formed the first church of Christ in Orissa, but the members were soon scattered in different parts of India; and it is likely, that ere this, most of them have fallen asleep. Still a little is known of three of the members, which it appears desirable to record for the information of the friends of the Mission. Mrs. Rennell and her sister, Miss George, were baptized by Peter in April, 1812, and to these friends a brief reference may with propriety be made, as they are still approved members of the church at Cuttack. They are the only members now in the church who have belonged to it from the beginning, and the only persons now in Orissa who were baptized by Peter. They were both of the Romish persuasion; and it appears to have been by Peter's instruction that they discovered the wickedness of the system in which they had been brought up, saw their lost condition as sinners, and fled to the Lord Jesus for pardon and salvation. They suffered much journals, "I have hope of Mr. Rennell." "How can I sink with such a prop As my eternal God," was his language when the last conflict was at hand. I have already referred to the holy activity and usefulness of Smith, the drum major, and must pass on to remark that subsequent accounts of It is stathim are not less pleasing. ed that he continued to grow in the knowledge and experience of divine truth; and was instant in season and out of season in speaking of Christ to others, especially to the natives. When the regiment removed from Balasore to Cuttack, he diligently employed himself at the different *These seven were, Mr. and Mrs. Bampton, Mr. and Mrs. Peggs, Abraham, Mrs. Rennell, and Miss George. + Peter refers to him in one of his |