effective. We trust the appeal for aid to support it will not be disregarded by those who would desire to see the young brought up in the "fear of the Lord." There is a very interesting statistical document concerning the little church at Krishnapore, furnished by one of its co-pastors. It is a faithful report, and presents a miniature as to much of the work in this country. The following extract is valuable :— "If it be inquired, what is the actual condition of these people? the answer will, it is to be feared, prove but little satisfactory either to those who put the question, or to the Missionary who deems actual personal conversion of the heart and mind, turned not only from darkness to light, but from the power of Satan unto God, the great aim and only adequate result of evangelical labour. In this point of view, it must with deep pain be confessed, both that the knowledge of the truth of the Gospel possessed by the majority of these people is very limited, and what is still more to be deplored, its saving and sanctifying impression on their souls in some cases doubtful, in most but small. On the other hand, we must take into account, the deep debasement of mind and conscience and moral condition from which these poor people have been drawn. That they should not at once shake off all the mire of superstition, emerge into a clear light, and pant after the Divine likeness with all the earnestness of soul evinced by a less apathetic poeple when enlightened by the truth, roused by the law, and drawn by the Gospel of the Redeemer, can scarcely be a matter of surprise to those who have a full acquaintance with the actual state of mental and moral, civil and physical, degra dation in which we found them. Meanwhile the missionaries in charge have, from the first, been diligent in doing the work of evangelists in faith, affection and prayer-it is theirs to labour; success is from above. Divine service, including singing, prayer, reading of the Scriptures and preaching is regularly conducted on every Sabbath day. Besides which a Bible-class meets in the afternoon of that day, when those who can read, men and women, are carried regularly through a familiar exposition of some portion of holy Scripture, previously read by them verse and verse about. Questions are asked calculated to elicit their measure of knowledge, arrest attention, or excite spiritual affections-the whole concluding with prayer. Already has very essential improvement resulted from this exercise, which was begun only in the latter part of last year, since when the whole book of Genesis, with a considerable portion of the Psalms, has been gone over, it is trusted, not without a divine blessing. This plan seems to meet peculiar acceptance with the best disposed among the people, as indeed was naturally to be expected. The word of God is the lamp, alike, and the stimulus and the food of the soul there can be but slow and small advance in knowledge or growth in grace, where it is not constantly read, studied and applied. I certainly attach the greatest importance to the persevering adoption of the plan of Bible-classes, as much more calculated to maintain attention than ordinary sermons, which are both presently forgotten and afford but small aid towards entering into the meaning, force and spirit of the Scriptures, in their private perusal. A school-master also gives daily instruction to the children of the Christians and to any others that choose to attend ; while at night he teaches the adults who have not as yet learned to read -for, till a man can read the Divine word for himself, he can be but on a very unstable footing of spiritual safety and comfort; most of his unoc cupied time will be unprofitably spent ; and inducements will be many to lazy sauntering, idle gossip, sleep or other worse modes of spending what he has no mode of happily employing." Chinsurah, Berhampore and Mirzapore present their quota of inter- We are glad to see that some of the servants of Christ in those Altogether we commend the spirit of the Report as a plain and VIII. Further Supplement to the Index of Bengáli Dictionaries (Continued from the Calcutta Christian Observer for May 1839.) This volume was published only in the month of Shrában (including It merits a place in the library of every European student of the Dictionaries, &c. so long as he has no means of getting at a purely native explication of the words he meets with in his reading or has occasion to employ in composition or conversation. This will very often carry to the mind a much clearer impression of the shade of meaning than can be obtained from any English Dictionary. There is a certain idiomatic nicety of idea which is conveyable in no other way, as any scholar advanced beyond the condition of a mere tyro, must be well aware. It is highly gratifying to find well-instructed natives beginning to awake, on the one hand, from the lethargy of indifference in which they have hitherto been laid in all matters of literature not directly bearing upon the acquisition of gain; or shaking off, on the other, the absurd contempt, so long indulged, of the vernacular idioms, in a supreme superstitious preference of the so-supposed language of the gods, the refined Sanskrit, and which even yet marks the whole race of Pandits and others, whose attainments are still limited within the range of the native Shastras and Puráns. Europeans who, whether from a love of literature simply, or from a higher and holier desire to extend the knowledge of a pure faith among the millions of Hindustan, take an interest in the progress of education generally among the natives of this country, ought surely to be pleased with and liberally to encourage every attempt like the present to supply an admitted deficiency, and to aid the great cause of the advance of knowledge, of true religion, and of morals among them. A little patronage only is wanted to allure many others into the same curriculum of useful effort. CINSURENSIS. Missionary and Religious Entelligence. 1.-MISSIONARY AND ECCLESIASTICAL MOVEMENTS. The following movements have occurred since our last. The Rev. W. P. Lyon and Mrs. Lyon, Mrs. G. Pearce, and Mrs. Paterson and child have sailed for England on the Owen Glendower. We are happy to find, by a letter from the vessel when opposite Madras, that the health of Mrs. Lyons had greatly improved.-Rev. Dr. Somers, Mrs. Somers and child have arrived from Benares on their way to Europe.-The Rev. H. Fisher, junr. leaves Dinapore to officiate at the Presidency.— The Rev. Dr. Hæberlin and Mrs. H. have arrived in Calcutta. - Rev. J. Weitbrecht and Mrs. W. have gone to Benares. We regret that the health of Mrs. W. has required this movement. The Rev. Messrs. Gogerly and Lacroix have proceeded on an extensive Missionary tour to the North-East of Calcutta.-The Rev. A. Stronach of Singapore will occupy the station formerly filled by the Rev. J. Davies at Pinang.The Rev. A. Gros has been obliged to leave Mauritius on account of ill health; we regret to learn that but little hope is entertained of Mr. G.'s recovery. The German brethren connected with the Patna Mission, referred to in our last, have proceeded on their way.-Mr. Start has left Patna with a view to establish a Mission amongst the Nepalese.-Dr. Duff has, we believe, left England for this country ere this.-it affords us sincere pleasure to announce, that letters have been recently received from Rev. W. S. Mackay, which state that his health is much improved, and that he may be expected very soon in Calcutta.-We regret to announce the death of Mrs. Caldwell, the wife of the Rev. J. Caldwell of the American Presbyterian Mission, Upper India. The following appointments have received the approbation of the Governor General. Rev. H. Pratt, to be Chaplain at Nusserabad; Rev. M. J. Jennings, at Kurnaul; and Rev. R. Eteson, at Cawnpore. 2.-ANNIVERSARIES AND EXAMINATIONS. During the month some of the Religious Societies and many of the public Schools in Calcutta have held their anniversaries. The Bible Society and the Bethel Society appear from their reports to be in a healthy and prosperous condition. The Schools, both European and Native, Secular and Missionary, appear to be in a progressively improving state; but as it is our intention to enter more at length into these subjects, and give a more lengthened account if possible of these matters in our next, we forbear adding more at present than an expression of the gratification we have experienced in the present state of the different Missionary and Scholastic Institutions in our city. May they continue and increase, until the whole country shall be filled with the knowledge of Christ. 3. THE REVIVALS IN SCOTLAND. Our readers have doubtless been made acquainted with the cheering intelligence that a good work of revival in religion has taken place in Scotland, especially at Kilsyth. The accounts rendered by the public prints however, are so vague and burlesqued, that it would be impossible to gather the truth from them. From public and private information of an authentic nature we have reason to believe, that this revival is the work of God. That the work is at least in great part of God we have no doubt whatever; hundreds have received the truth in the love of it, and the spirit has spread far and wide. Our readers must not imagine that this is the work of a sermon or of a day's excitement; it would appear in this, as in most similar revivals, the preparation of the soil has been the work of years. The venerable Pastor states, that for 18 years he had been preparing his parish for the reception of an enlarged blessing by prayermeetings, fast days, humiliations and visitations of the whole parish; it is in answer to the use of these truly legitimate means that God has poured out his Spirit from on high.-Would that we all, in a consciousness that we had been so preparing the seed, could look with any degree of hope for the like blessing in India. 4. THE PILGRIM TAX AT Gyah has been entirely abolished, the Government having granted a remu neration in perpetuity to the Raja to whom the territory pertains; the connexion of Government with the shrine at Juggernauth will, we hope, be very speedily abolished also. We sincerely rejoice in the triumph of truth in this important matter: we hope to treat of it more at length in an early number. 5.-MISCELLANEA. The Opium question is still in an unsettled state, though the practice is still distressing; loss of reputation, individual and national, risk of property and loss of life appear to be the inevitable consequences of the plans pursued. The Government, strange to say, still continue their sales!!!The poor Coolies in the West Indies have been and are still suffering very much from the treatment they have received :---an inquiry has been instituted, which has not reflected much either on the piety or humanity of the Cooly dealers. The Coolies at the Mauritius are mani festing, as we always foretold, symptoms of uneasiness and a wish to return. -Famine is again threatening many parts of India. The Steam question is in statu quo, save the prospect of a precursor. —Our arms seem still to be triumphant. Khelat has fallen after a desperate struggle, and other minor strifes in the West have terminated to our advantage, and at present there is every where the prospect of peace. May the Lord grant it in his own time. 6.-ORATORIO-PROTEST. The Christian Observer of passing events sees little in this sinful world, and least of all in such a country as this, on which he can look with pleasure. Few and far between are the occurrences which Heaven or the heavenly-minded upon earth can approve. Wickedness walks with unabashed countenance; God and the things of God are banished alike from the politics, the business and the amusements of men. Most of those who bear the Christian name are but negatively distinguished from those who bow themselves before the idols of the land. How seldom do we see a positive recognition of the authority of God, a decided part taken on the Lord's side, a testimony lifted up against those practices which give occasion to the Lord's enemies to speak reproachfully, The cultivators of science are looked upon with respect even by those who cannot fully appreciate their pursuits, and the amateur of the fine arts, when he waxes warm in the praise of his favourite study, is deemed to be possessed of a noble ardour, the sure proof of a superior mind. And all well. But why is it that while eager listeners pay reverence to the noble zeal of the devotees of science, literature or art, a proscription is laid among the circles of the polite upon that subject which alone can justify all the warmth and energy of feeling of which the powers of men are capable? Why is it that while he who leads our country's armies to successful war is eulogised as if he were more than mortal, and the strifes of the potsherds with the potsherds of the earth give rise to hourly discussions and speculations, the discomfiture of the powers of darkness by the Captain of our Salvation is an unheard-of thing? Why is it that while the attempt to expedite the communication with other lands is considered to entitle Him who exerts himself in it to the gratitude of the whole community, the name of him who opened the only way of communication between heaven and earth is dishonored and despised? Why is it that while theatres and balls and assemblies form the common topics of discourse, that theme, which engrossed the whole attention of the heavenly visitants on the sacred mount-the decease accomplished by Jesus at Jerusalem-is passed over as if it were unfit to engage the attention of cultivated minds? In a word, why is it that to far the greater part of our countrymen here, the world with its wars, its politics, its business, its pleasures, its vanities and its sins is all, while God and Christ are not in all their thoughts? In such a state of things (and that such is the existing state of things is but too well known to all) the Christian hears with no ordinary pleasure a word spoken in favour of Jesus and his cause; even as the heart of the exiled wanderer thrills with joy when in a land of strangers the accents of his mother-tongue fall unexpectedly upon his ears. It is to him as waters in the desert, refreshing his soul. Such a refreshment we have received from a circular that has been sent to us (as, we believe, to all our readers resident in Calcutta), containing a Protest against the desecration of the name of God by the recent performance in this city of Handel's Oratorio of the Messiah. It were vain to expose the profanity involved in the performance of music adapted to scriptural language for the purposes of entertainment or of gain. We can scarcely conceive a more literal trampling under foot of the blood of the covenant, a more direct treatment of that blood as a com |