schools. This marriage was one of perfect happiness till her death, thirteen years later.

In 1806, Henry Martyn, won to the cause of Missions by hearing Simeon's praise of Carey, had come to Serampore; and with Brown, Provost of Fort William College, Buchanan, and many others, enjoyed delightful fellowship with our missionaries; often meeting for common worship, especially in what is still called Henry Martyn's Pagoda, a deserted heathen temple, which they changed into a place for Christian conference and prayer.

Manning, the friend of Charles Lamb, and "the most accomplished scholar in India," was attracted to Marshman by his Chinese attain

ments.

ABUNDANT LABOURS.

It was a time of immense literary activity for all three of the missionaries. They packed their long days full with abundant labours. Carey, besides his college duties, correspondence, miscellanous philanthropies, and famous garden, was daily busied in several translations of the Scriptures, and also in translating Indian classics, and took his full share of preaching. Marshman, besides his school, toiled at his translation of the Bible into Chinese, and published a translation of Confucius; and Ward, while he worked the press, and endeared himself to colleagues and natives by cheerful godliness and constant preaching, wrote his book, "A View of the History, Literature, and Mythology of the Hindoos," a book which Dr. George Smith in his noble "Life of William Carey" calls "unrivalled" still, "except for the philosophy of Hinduism," where naturally early writers are at a disadvantage.

Through evil report and good report, the mission work went on under the shelter of Denmark. The Bengali Bible was at length published, and then, as though the tension of the work had been too great, the next day Carey was smitten down to the brink of the grave by a fever; and Marshman took his place for a time at the College of Fort William. Carey's first letter home after his recovery shows that during his illness his eyes were still directed to the regions beyond, and he pleads for a mission to Siam, Pegu, Arracan, Nepal, and Assam; but he says nothing of extending the Mission in a territory where Christian England could, and would, hinder the spread of Christianity! Paganism offered less opposition to Missions than the Christianity of Mr. Worldly Wiseman.

The first missionaries that the United States sent to the Eastern Hemisphere-Judson, the Apostle of Burmah, and his colleagueshared with the English missionaries the honour of banishment from our territories. But where English Christians were not permitted to work in India, Carey sent trained native evangelists to preach to their own countrymen. The early missionaries never ceased to set before every convert his duty to bear witness for Christ. First and last the great pioneers regarded a native ministry as the hope of every land, and directed ceaseless prayers and labours to that supreme end; a pattern to which every missionary society must return.

By 1809, after ten years' work at Serampore, "amidst all the opposition of Government, they had succeeded in establishing four mission stations in Bengal;" they had sent a missionary to Patna, and to Rangoon, and to the confines of Orissa; "the number of members in church fellowship exceeded 200, while in Calcutta they had collected a large church and congregation, European and native." Their work of translation is set forth elsewhere.

THE FIRE.

In March, 1812, the Mission suffered a loss which at first sight seemed irreparable-the Serampore Press was destroyed by fire. There were "fourteen founts in the Eastern languages," priceless treasures of versions in many tongues, besides immense stores of material in the building, and the fruit of twelve laborious years was consumed in a night. Certain labours, such as the translation of the Ramayana, and "the polyglot dictionary of all the languages derived from the Sanscrit," were never resumed. If dismay mingled with their sorrow it was but for a moment. Next day, before Carey could reach the ruins from Calcutta, Ward found "the punches and the matrices uninjured," and, with an incredible expedition, pundits began re-translating, and a large band of type-casters "worked night and day," so that in thirty days from the fire two of the versions were again in the press, and in another fortnight "three other founts were completed," and by the end of the year "there remained no indication of the fire." What seemed a crushing disaster proved a signal blessing. The new versions were better than the old; the fire advertised the Mission through the world; all sections of the Church of Christ. hastened to help, and in a few weeks all the money needed to repair the loss was in hand. The gratitude and trust of the brethren in India were strengthened, as if to meet the second storm of opposition

that was soon to break out upon them; and a quickened interest in them and in their work was awakened in Christian hearts throughout the world, but especially in Great Britain.

FRIENDS.

Missions for many years had found a steadily growing number of astute and noble friends amongst the statesmen and councillors who served the East India Company both in England and in India. All the churches at home had been touched with the missionary spirit. Other great societies had arisen. The Christian conscience was outraged by the Company's hindrance of Christ's messengers. Andrew Fuller, more than any other Englishman, had awakened his countrymen to the shameful facts; Robert Hall's eloquence did noble service, and English love of fair play had increased admiration for the traduced leaders of the noblest crusade of the age. So that as the year 1813 approached, the date when, according to the Constitution, the Company's Charter came under its twenty years' periodic review in Parliament, just twenty years from Carey's landing in India in 1793, the forces for banning and blessing Missions were arrayed against each other in India and England, in the Press, and in the House of Commons. And there Wilberforce, speaking for a Christian people that had, beyond all precedent, deluged Parliament with petitions in favour of full liberty for Christian Missions, shamed the scorners by simply enumerating the works of the missionaries, whose holiness, zeal, learning, and munificence had slain ridicule and triumphed over hindrances. That victory practically opened India to Missions. But even Wilberforce, in 1813, could hardly say more than Lord Wellesley had said in 1804, when speaking of Carey's praise of him: “I esteem such a testimony from such a man a greater honour than the applause of Courts and Parliaments."

The period of conflict was almost at an end.

FRESH FIELDS.

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Meanwhile, Judson and his colleague had entered into fields left by Felix Carey, who had taken service with the King of Burmah, and, with fair intentions of doing service to the Mission, had, in his father's estimation, "shrivelled from a missionary into an ambasssador." To the American missionaries who were so worthily beginning the Eastern Missions for their country, the Serampore brethren gave a press, and always hailed, and if possible aided, every effort to reach the

further nations. Carey sent two other sons besides Felix into the mission-field-William to Cutwa, and Jabez to the Moluccas.

The Ceylon Mission was begun in 1812 by Mr. Chater, who was originally sent to reinforce the Serampore Mission, but not being allowed to land, the brethren sent him first to Burmah and then to Ceylon, where he is still remembered as the author of an excellent Cinghalese grammar, the founder of native churches, prosperous schools, and an influential press. Workers of equal worth followed him there.

Hopeful signs of conversions abounded at Serampore, much itinerating work was carried on, schools were established, and Marshman prepared his key to the Chinese language. Looking back, it seems incredible that such victories should have been won at home, and the work so widely extended abroad, in less than a quarter of a century.

THE SERAMPORE CONTROVERSY.

When the removal of Government opposition left Carey and his companions free for wider work, a controversy arose that hindered the Mission at home and abroad more than persecution. Sutcliff had died in 1814, and Fuller in 1815. Carey had then been absent from England twenty-two years, and the Committee at home was now somewhat strange to the great pioneers. The Committee knew the younger missionaries and listened to them. We have seen how the three men soon became self-supporting; they used whatever funds were sent from England for some specified work, and accounted for every penny to the Society at home. But they gave no man an account of their own constant and princely gifts. With large carnings and a fine house for the chief school for girls in India, they seemed to new comers affluent; but they all lived frugally to lavish their savings upon ever-increasing missionary work. The whole world recognised this in later days. Their gifts, including those of their families, probably reached a total of £100,000. But their control of Mission property and work was considered too absolute by the new Committee. When this became clear, immediately after Fuller's death, Carey, Marshman and Ward, who held life and all things in trust for Missions, were not willing for the work's sake to yield a larger control of their property and work to the new Committee than the old Committee had ever desired. If Fuller had lived, the controversy would have died at its birth. But his death loosed the silver cord of