"Treasurer, Mr. I. B. Biss. Secretaries, Rev. F. Tucker, and Rev. J. Thomas. Committee. Rev. Messrs. C. C. Aratoon, R. Bayne, J. D. Ellis, T. Morgan, W. H. Pearce, J. Wenger, W. Yates, Messrs. J. S. Biss, W. N. Garrett, E. Grey, P. Holmes, C. Holmes, H. Kemp, J. Rowe, J. Sykes, M. Wittinbaker, and S. G. Wyatt."

Mr. Campbell, in proposing this resolution, spoke on the importance of a working Committee; on the very heavy responsibility which rested upon all persons appointed to carry on the work of God; and the high degree of criminality attached to the neglect of the duty. He also adverted to the folly and criminality which attached to those who appointed such Committee, without any desire and feeling to sustain them in their work. The Rev. speaker further adverted to the vast importance of the Entally Institution, as a means for educating pious youth for the Christian Ministry.

Mr. Boaz, in seconding the Resolution, remarked, that although late in the evening he could not refrain from offering one or two remarks, especially as he had been asked to take an earlier part in the proceedings, although circumstances had prevented him from complying with that request. He could most fully concur in the remarks of the last speaker, as it regarded the indisposition of a Committee to labor, if they did but obtain a working Treasurer or Secretary. He hoped it would not be the case with this Society. He could not say, however, that the laity were ever backward in coming forward with their aid, if the cause was good and needed support; on this account he trusted that the heavy debt under which the Society labored would soon be wiped off. He had just been on a vessel parting with a friend-it was a scene of grief: there were parent and children, husbands and wives in the deepest sorrow, and why? They were about to part, perhaps to meet no more on earth, and yet hope did faintly light up their future. One parent had given a vast sum, amounting to several hundreds of rupees, for a trust-worthy person to take care of the health and morals of his child, that he might meet it, if ever he should, with joy and not with grief: -was there not a lesson for us in this scene? We, as Christians, are daily surrounded by thousands of those who are of one common brotherhood with us,-hasting to an awful eternity;-many of these, it is to be feared, unfitted and unblessed and shall we feel less, shall we do less than these parting friends? Every thing conspires to forbid it; let us do every thing for their happiness, and give amply of our substance for their protection in the highest sense of the term. He said, when he entered the sanctuary, he felt very chilly and cold; and when he endeavoured to ascertain the cause why he should be so in a place so apparently cheerful and warm, he found it was because he was sitting alone and in a cold place when he came forward and sat in the midst of his brethren and the assembly, he felt immediately warmed and cheered. Might we not read a lesson in this also?-Christian effort is cheerless and cold when carried on alone; we should unite, and then shall we be warm; we should come together, and then shall we be cheered. He regretted to hear that the Society was so deeply involved-surely this ought not to remain long as an incubus on the Society. Many had left the place, and the collection had been made; but he nevertheless feared that the collection would not cover the insolvency: he would therefore suggest that all those who could should add to that which they had already given, and those who had given nothing, should give now, and those who had left should be denied the privilege. The reverend gentleman related one or two instances in point which had occurred in England, and proposed that the parties present should endeavour to aid the Society in wiping off the debt, that the Committee might pursue the even tenour of their way with alacrity and peace.

The Chairman offered a few appropriate observations in conclusion, and the meeting concluded with prayer. The collection, we understand, amounted to nearly four hundred rupees.

THE

CALCUTTA

CHRISTIAN OBSERVER.

(New Series.)

No. 3.-MARCH, 1840.

I.-Hindu Female Education. By Priscilla Chapman. London, 1839.

First Report of the Scottish Ladies' Association for the advancement of Female Education in India under the Superintendence of Missionaries of the Church of Scotland. Edinburgh, 1839.

Few objects, if any, are nearer our heart than the Christian education of the whole people of India-rich and poor-male and female. But if we were to examine narrowly, we might perhaps find that at present the subject of female education occupies the greater share of our attention :-and that for two special reasons;-first, because of its own intrinsic importance, and secondly, because of the comparatively little attention that has been paid to it, and the small exertions that have been made to overcome the mighty obstacles that confessedly lie in the way of introducing a general system of Christian Education among the females of this vast country.

As to the importance of female education we might fill a volume, without saying a word that would give any new idea to a single Christian reader: for the subject is patent to ordinary observation, and cannot fail to stand out in its vast magnitude before the minds of all who shall but direct towards it the eye of an intelligent and Christian regard. As well as the education of the other sex, that of females has souls for its objects, and its results in reference to these souls stretch out into the duration of endless ages. As in every community the number of males and females is nearly equal, and as in the estimation of God and of every rational man, a woman's soul as well as a man's is unspeakably precious, the first blush of the subject presents it to us invested with an importance not

inferior to that which attaches to the education of the other sex. But when we consider certain other bearings of the case-as the miserable state of degradation in which the females of India are sunk—their seclusion from all other modes of mental enlightenment-and the vast influence which the female character must exercise over every community, the subject is invested with such an overwhelming interest that we cannot approach it without a feeling allied to fear-that kind of awe which we may suppose to occupy the soldier's mind on the eve of the battle which is to decide the question of his country's liberty or that dread solemnity which may be supposed to be felt by the general who leads an army to the base of some ancient fortress, which he sees to be impregnable, yet knows that he must take, or else consign the expedition to irretrievable failure. With what feelings does he sit down to its investment, resolved to do by means of time and famine what cannot be effected by the power of active warfare! And does not the stronghold of female ignorance seem at present impregnable? Garrisoned by veteran hosts of prejudice and sin,-ruled over with strictest discipline and defended with craftiest policy by Satan himself, it raises its moss-clad battlements to the clouds, and scowls haughty defiance on the little band that threatens to beleaguer it. As yet the least important outposts are scarcely taken; the fortress stands in appearance as gloomy and in fabric as strong as in other days. Time which changes all else, seems to make no impression on this hell-built pile; and so it is even as it seems. If we trust that time will work any important improvement, we shall most certainly be disappointed. If we wait till the natural progress of events shall make female education an easy work, we shall wait for ever. And while we wait the souls of thousands are going yearly into the presence of their judge, unjustified, unsanctified, unsaved. Thousands of children are yearly born, and the earliest and most important part of their education is committed to ignorant mothers, who rear them as children of wrath. The end of the world would come if we still should wait, and the last trumpet would surprise millions of immortal souls who had not heard of the Saviour's name. But this may not be: we may not, we must not thus wait: the gospel must be preached to all, as a witness to all, before the end come.

We are at all times anxious that all exertions for making known the truth of God to perishing souls should be based upon the right foundation. The command of God ought always to form the grand motive of action, the indefeasible promises of God are the only sure basis on which to rest our hopes of success. But surely to creatures constituted as we

are, gifted by our Creator with innumerable sensibilities, feelings and desires, it is not forbidden to have regard in a subordinate degree to those inferior motives which are calculated to excite the various sensibilities of our souls, and which conspire with the command of God to propel us to action for the good of the souls of our brethren. Thus while Paul, in reference to the commandment of God which was laid upon him, declares regarding himself, "Woe is me if I preach not the gospel;" it is also related by the inspired historian regarding him, that his spirit was stirred within him when he saw the Athenian city wholly given to idolatry. And if we have any portion of that Spirit which actuated the Apostle, we shall not remain indifferent spectators of the spiritual and mental degradation of the females around us. What though, we may not see their degradation and misery so visibly spread out before us, as was the idolatry of the Athenians before the eyes of Paul? What though the greater part of Indian females and their sufferings are alike unseen? What though, shut out from the light of day and almost from the air of heaven, they drag out the lives of slaves, subject to the despotic rule of tyrants who usurp the name of husbands? What though they have no attentive ear or sympathizing heart into which they can pour the tale of their heavy woes?—is their suffering on that account the less real? Shall we on that account refuse to shed a tear over their misery? Shall we on that account refuse to offer up a prayer on their behalf in sincerity and faith? Shall we on that account be less zealous in making exertions to remedy their condition? If we cannot benefit them materially in this world, shall we not do what God enables us to do, and give them that which will make all their afflictions, though for the present grievous, work out for them an exceeding and eternal weight of glory? Shall the bolts and bars of the zanána shut out Christian sympathy? Shall we turn away because we cannot see that misery, of which we know that it is at once an element and an aggravation that it is not permitted to be seen? God forbid !

And here it will be well to state explicitly, what that is which in our estimation is the main constituent in the composition of female distress in India. They must have but little knowledge of the state of Hindu females, or little capability of estimating those distresses which lie deeper than the mere bodily sensations, who deem it needful, in order to create sympathy on behalf of the females of India, to rake up the embers of the extinguished satí, or dwell upon the horrors of the prohibited system of female infanticide. We have heard and read certain declamations, whose tone and spirit would

almost make one suppose that their authors regretted the abolition of these horrid practices, because by their abolition the said declaimers are deprived of a most exciting topic for harrowing the souls of their auditors, and producing a kind of interest which might haply issue in the gift of some paltry gold, and it may be the effusion of some sentimental tears. With what art do they strive to render it ambiguous whether those scenes, which with pencils dipped in blood they strive to paint, belong to the past or the present day! What poetic confusion of times and tenses do they employ, as if for the purpose of presenting to the eyes of their auditors as being now enacted, which, thanks be to God, are closed forever! While these abominations were actually being practised, no language too strong could be employed in their condemnation; but now they are abolished, the dwelling upon them can only excite those feelings which should be reserved for realities. The human mind is too delicate a piece of mechanism to be wound up when it has no work to do; every time it is so wound up and allowed to run idly down, the fine edges of its sympathies are abraded, and it becomes at last unfit for active duty altogether. In every way it is bad policy to go back upon other days, and represent their appalling practices as if they were the practices of the present day. By dwelling upon these fearful effects which no longer exist, we are apt to lose sight of the cause which does still exist in undiminished force. Those practices moreover, when they did exist, were proper subjects for legislative interference; the legislature did interterfere, and did abolish the inhuman practices. But the root of female misery lies in a region into which legislative enactments cannot penetrate. Great as is the honour conferred by God upon Civil Governments, and upon the Government of this country in particular, as His own ministers for good, there is a higher department of His work which He reserves for His Church and to this department clearly belongs the digging out of the root of female misery in India. When the practices in question existed, they were but a few twigs more on the baneful tree. Now that they are lopped off, the tree is shorn no doubt of some of its leaves, but scarcely curtailed in its dimensions, and retaining all its vigour of growth, it still spreads far and wide its upas shade.

The root of all the miseries of Hindu females is ignorance, sinful ignorance-ignorance of God and of the relation in which men stand to God. Now if we could paint the Egyptian darkness in which the females of this land are sunk, it would be admitted that we needed not add the lurid flames of the satí in order to give a horrifying effect to the picture.