version of young men in New York. The Spirit of God goes with him. Frequent meetings are held, and many are awakened to a sense of their sins. One evening there came a youth, about eighteen, and fixed his eye on the speaker with a sort of fascination in his look. The latter grew intensely interested, and directed his remarks especially to this young stranger. At the close he came forward, and, with a countenance almost of despair, seized his hand and said, "Do you think there can be mercy for me?" "Yes," was the prompt reply-" there is mercy for the chief of sinners." Night after night he

came.

At length, after much personal conversation as well as public appeal, he took his seat as usual. Looking closely, his countenance seemed to wear a calm expression, significant of a change within. The meeting ended, he came forward, took the speaker by the hand, and, with his whole soul in the sentence, said, "Yes, you were right; there is mercy for me, and I have found it."

Years passed. This converted youth became an evangelist. His power in the pulpit was acknowledged by the crowds which sought to hear him. Meanwhile Dr. Scudder's eldest son-the wild youth before spoken of— was finishing his collegiate course in the New York University. A great revival was in progress in the Rev. Dr. Skinner's Church (Mercer Street), during which the son of Dr. Skinner was converted. He was the intimate friend of young Scudder, and his classmate. At this time Dr. Kirk, the evangelist before mentioned, was aiding Dr. Skinner, and preaching powerful and pungent sermons to the careless and impenitent. After much entreaty, Skinner induced Henry to accompany him to church. The sermon interested him-penetrated his

conscience; and when the invitation to enter the inquiry meeting was given, Henry Scudder, overwhelmed with a sense of his sin, was found among the inquirers. Here is a remarkable chain of providences, embracing three families, including four ministers, and extending over many years. Who can calculate the good which this chain incloses, or the good which prospectively it may inclose? What a powerful motive to labor for the conversion of young men!

Successively the other sons followed in the train, so that nearly at the same time seven of them were laboring in different parts of India for the conversion of the heathen. In their visit to America, Dr. and Mrs. Scudder found great satisfaction in the reunion of their scattered family, gathering them all around the family altar, and consecrating them anew to their covenant God.

CHAPTER XIII.

Madura Mission.-Caste.-Successful Treatment of Cholera.

RETURNS TO INDIA.

DR. SCUDDER'S health having to some extent been restored, yet still far from being reliable for future labor, he prepares to bid adieu to his friends in America, and wend his way back to the land of his adoption. Often when here, enjoying many comforts and even luxuries, he would sigh for a return to his field. "There is no place," he would exclaim," like India. It is nearer heaven than America."

Glad was he, then, when it was announced that he must be ready to embark in the first vessel that should leave Boston for the East in the coming fall-1846.

And now the adieus and farewells had the emphasis of finality. We sorrowed most of all that we should see their faces in the flesh no more. They felt it as well as we; and still the glow of sacred joy lighted up their countenances, the sure presage that on other shores and amid brighter scenes we should again meet, "where adieus and farewells are a sound unknown."

On their arrival at Madras they resumed their mission work with renewed interest and unflagging zeal. Knowing how short the time would be, this veteran laborer pressed into the work all the remaining energies of soul and body. He preached, and prayed, and wrote, leaving

himself but little time for relaxation, while the younger members of the mission gathered about him for advice and encouragement.

He undertook, also, to send contributions to the religious papers of America, and keep up a vast correspondence with the numerous Christian friends he had left behind.

THE MADURA MISSION.

Soon after Dr. Scudder's return to India, it was thought expedient that he should, for a short time at least, take up his residence at Madura, and give the brethren there the benefit of his long experience as a missionary, and his eminent skill as a physician. This removal met his wishes, and he proceeded to this new field with high expectations of increased usefulness. Here he labored with his usual assiduity and success. His heart was cheered by finding a woman who, fifteen years previously, had been converted by reading a tract which he had given her. The following is copied from his diary:

"January 17th. Since my arrival at Madura I have met with a woman who is, I trust, devoted to her Saviour; who told me that she was, as she hopes, born into the kingdom of grace by a tract which was given to her by myself at least fifteen years ago. The tract is entitled "The Loss of the Soul."

CASTE A GREAT IMPEDIMENT TO MISSIONARY LABORS.

Hindoo caste is perhaps the most formidable barrier to Christianization in India. It is a deep-laid plot of Satan, by which human pride and prejudice array them

CASTE AN IMPEDIMENT TO MISSIONARY LABOR. 215

selves against the humility and common brotherhood required by the Gospel. A high-caste man would no sooner touch a low-caste than he would touch a viper. The low-caste trembles lest his shadow should cross the path of a high-caste man. Every thing possible is done to maintain these social and religious barriers. Even when converted, the high-caste can with difficulty be persuaded to sit or associate in any way with the low-caste. Our missionaries in the schools and churches have taken strong ground against this caste system, as they have found it more potent in its power to thwart their efforts than any single element in the Hindoo system. Some good men have proposed to tolerate it, or at least to connive at it, until gradual enlightenment may enable them the more easily to put it down.

The policy of the successive magistrates in India, from the governor general down, had been sometimes tolerant of it, and at others sternly opposed. Dr. Scudder's whole heart and soul was enlisted against it. He saw no hope of success for India but in its abolition. He would give it no tolerance in school or church, inasmuch as, according to his views, it warred against the very foundations of the Christian faith. He was conscientious in his belief; and if, at times, he spoke so strongly as to seem uncharitable toward others who may have differed from him, it was but the strongly expressed convictions of an honest heart. But as this caste controversy will not interest our readers, we will enter no farther into it, hoping that one day this Hindoo pharisaism will yield to the combined action of civilization and a pure Christianity.