Both myself and brethren are much delighted with the New York Mission Society. May the God of Abraham bless their efforts abundantly. If you see dear Brother Holmes or his colleagues give our very cordial love to them, and through them to the believing Indians. We shall be much gratified with anything curious relating to any of them, or indeed with only knowing their names. The name of the person who was our first-fruits unto Christ is Krishna, who has seen three others of his family received into the church, his wife, his daughter, and his wife's sister.

I must conclude, and indeed feel that I have tired you with this long detail. I thank you for the circular letter of the different associations. Do continue to send them, as they afford us much pleasure, and a knowledge of the state of the churches gives us a peculiar interest in them, and excites us to pray for them. Dear brother, pray for us, and especially for your very unworthy but

Affectionate brother in Christ,

CALCUTTA, June 15, 1802.

WILLIAM CAREY.

This last letter of Dr. Carey's comes with a strange force to those who read it after the lapse of so many years and with the knowledge of the events which have taken place since its writing. He who should, to-day, attempt to write the history of Christian missions,

would scarcely think of looking to North America as the portion of the world in which to find a great ingathering of the church; rather would he go to those barren fields of which Carey writes, and the very territory known to our fathers as the "Lone Star Mission" where, year after year, the word had been preached and the seed sown, but the laborer had seen no whitening harvest. Among the Telegus at Ongole and Nellore he would find ingatherings greater in one day than those over which Carey rejoiced as the result of a year's labor; and yet as we read the letter we may almost catch the echo of a yet earlier account of a more ancient mission :

Then tidings of these things came unto the ears of "the church which was in Jerusalem, and they sent "forth Barnabas that he should go as far as Antioch, who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose "of heart they would cleave unto the Lord, for he was a good man and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith."

They tell us that the days of inspiration are over, and that with the passing from earth of the last of the apostolic band there passed also the last lingering rays of that light else never seen on land or on sea, but, to some at least, it seems as if the Spirit which animated and energized the church at Jerusalem was the same ever-present and ever-potent Spirit which guided the

councils and blessed the labors of the churches in England and America and far India in the days of Carey and his associates, and will in our day work the like results in the hearts and lives of men of like faith and like courage. The ingatherings in America, whose Pentecostal fervor and extent kindled the heart of William Carey in 1802, are the work of the same Spirit which in later years has gathered thousands into the churches at Ongole and Banza Manteke, and the interchange between home and foreign missions is, after all, but the refluent tide of a mighty ocean over which broods that divine Spirit, which at the creation moved upon the face of the waters, till from the darkness there came the light.

News did not travel as fast in the opening years of the century as it has done since the days of the submarine cable; and it was not until 1802 that the English brethren seemed to have learned of the correspondence between Mr. Williams, representing the New York Missionary Society, and Dr. Carey; but in that year the following letter was sent and received:

DEAR SIR:

May 8th, 1802.

We see by the Magazines you have had some correspondence with our dr Bror Carey at Serampore. A young man who is going with his wife to join them is obliged to go to New York to get passage. We recom

mend him to your cordial friendship, as one whom we think to be a partaker of the right missionary spirit. Receive them, therefore, accordingly, my dear Bror, and if they want any assistance in a pecuniary way, you may be assured that Bror Chamberlaine's drafts will be punctually paid by the Treasurer of the Society in England.

They can tell you many particulars of the last news from ye East Indies, as well as what concerns ourselves. I must only subscribe myself in haste,

Your cordial Bror,

JOHN RYLAND.

To explain the allusion to Mr. Chamberlain, it is necessary to travel back again to Olney and to the Baptist Church of which John Sutcliff was pastor there. Mr. Sutcliff was not satisfied with confining his labors simply to his pastoral office, but at his house (first that of which the kindness of Mr. Wright has furnished a view and later a larger edifice on the main street of Olney), he had been in the habit of training young men for the Christian ministry, and after the formation of the Missionary Society, he trained not a few for the Mission field. Among the students thus trained by him was John Chamberlain, formerly a farm-laborer of Braunston, who had married Hannah Smith, a member of Mr. Sutcliff's church; and this is the Bror Chamberlaine" alluded to in John Ryland's letter. The