Lord's work, Mrs. Sutton's hearty interest continued to the last. Not only in death, but in life, she was a liberal though unknown contributor to the funds of the Mission. For particulars of her history the reader is referred to the interesting sketch by Dr. Buckley which appeared in the Report for 1876, p. 43-47; also in the Observer p. 277.

Letter to the Secretary.

BY REV. T. BAILEY.

One

I AM happy to inform you that we had a baptism of five on Sunday last. of these, Anunda Behara, has for a long time been a member of the nominal Christian community, and there seemed little prospect of his becoming more, but the evidences of a saving change are very genuine and gratifying. The remaining four were from the girls school-may they all be owned of Christ, and be kept humble and faithful.

On June 19th we had the pleasure of marrying eight of our girls-seven of whom were from the orphanage, and one from the village. This event has perceptibly thinned the orphanage ranks, as there are now only seventy-three on the Girls' Register, and a number of these are engaged to be married. Two of the bridegrooms were young men who only a few months ago joined the Christian community. They have found suitable employment, and have conducted themselves creditably, so that we have felt a pleasure in helping them to secure homes of their own. The interest of the day was considerably increased by the feast held in the evening, the main cost of which was borne by T. E. Ravenshaw, Esq., the late Commissioner of the Province. This gave us the opportunity of inviting a large number of the old scholars to share in the enjoyments of the day.

You would observe from my last letter that we have moved into the new bungalow, and I am thankful to say we find it very airy and convenient, and a great contrast to the unhealthy closeness of the old one. Nearly all our mission friends have seen it, and express their hearty approval, and I trust that the result will be seen in more vigorous and effective work in the great Master's

cause.

The native brethren have left for the Pooree Festival, which takes place on July the 12th, and I am arranging to follow in a day or two. There were a few pilgrims on the road this morning, but they were the first I have seen this year, and it seems probable that the number will be small. I am anxious, if possible, to make arrangements for the erection of a small house there for the preachers, as was proposed at the last Conference. The difficulty in obtaining lodgings for them increases year by year, and as materials are very dear there, the expense would be considerably reduced by utilizing those of the old bungalow here. It is the more important that we should have permanent accommodation there as the way appears to be opening for more extended labours in this neighbourhood. Several of our people have gone to live there, and there are various indications of a work for Christ being in progress among the Hindoo residents. Our congregation was a little fluttered a few Sunday mornings ago by a young man in a fakeer's dress, and his body smeared all over as usual with ashes, calmly taking his seat in the chapel and reverently joining in our worship. He was a companion of the late convert from Pooree, and was now on his way to Cuttack to rejoin his friend as a Christian. We held a good deal of conversation with him, and were much pleased with the extent of his Christian knowledge, and the account he gave of himself.

You will, no doubt, have heard of the almost famine price of rice and all other grain. The actual famine districts seem to be draining the whole country of its food stores, and many of the people even here are in great distress. I fear there will be no great improvement till the next harvest has been gathered. Happily the rains are very copious and timely, and the prospects correspondingly good.

Persecution of Christians at Choga.

MY DEAR BROTHER HILL,-I am not certain whether I referred in my last letter to the Choga case, in which the Atgarda rajah has again shown his determination to annoy and persecute the Christians whenever he has an opportunity. On the 29th May a man from an adjacent village name Mantrey, came to Thoma, native preacher, and said he wished to carry out his longcherished intention to become a Christian. After questioning the man as to his knowledge, motives, etc., he was requested to remain until the villagers and members of the church who knew him best returned from their work in the fields to eat. It was then ten a.m. At three p.m. the man's brother, with several of his friends, arrived, and for three hours did all they could to persuade him to return and give up the idea of being a Christian. He, however, was firm, and his friends went off in despair. At nine p.m. the rajah's police-jamadar, with some thirty men, came to the mount, and after a little conversation with Thoma, seized the man, tied his hands behind his back, and using very threatening language, forcibly walked him off, notwithstanding the man's remonstrances and declaration that he should return as soon as he was at liberty. Of course our people were exceedingly annoyed and astounded in witnessing this unprecedented and outrageous proceeding-especially so as the jemadar repeatedly said that he was carrying out the rajah's orders, who had determined that no more of his subjects should profess Christianity. He also said the man had committed murder, and had run away from his village-a malicious falsehood, as the sequel will prove.

On the 2nd inst. the Choga people were startled by the arrival of messengers from the rajah, with an order to seize and convey to his presence the three oldest members of the community, to answer the charge said to have been made against them by the man's brother, of having at nine a.m. on the 30th ult. seized the said man, dragged him into the village, torn off his malee or necklace, compelled him to eat, and thus destroyed his caste, in order to make him a Christian. In vain did these four men plead that they were not in the village when the said individual arrived, and knew nothing whatever of his coming; also that it was the time they were most needed in their fields. Go they must a distance of some twelve miles, for an indefinite period, at their own expense, as well as pay the rajah's messengers four annas per day. One man, however, was so ill of fever that he could not possibly be moved. On the 3rd inst. the two, accompanied by Thoma, who was determined to stand by them and watch the case, were walked off to the garda. I have been daily expecting Thoma to come and report proceedings. He only arrived here last night, and informed me that the case is not settled yet; that the accused are in custodyat least will be subjected to a fine of twenty-five rupees should they remove from where they are placed; and that the whole affair is the greatest farce imaginable, though a very serious one to the sufferers, and such an outrage of law and justice as surely will not be allowed to be perpetrated with impunity, even in one of the tributary states of Orissa. Should you receive the last number of the Ukal Depeeka, you will see a very severe though truthful statement of the Government policy in regard to the Gurjat rajahs. The writer 'states, I suppose on good authority, that when the present Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal was Collector of Cuttack, he most strongly disapproved of it, and said it was 66 as if the goats came to the shepherd for protection from the tiger. The shepherd drove them back to the tiger, and telling him to open his mouth, threw them one by one down his throat." In other words, when the oppressed subjects of these rajahs appealed to the Government for protection, they were sent back with their petition to the rajah. Whether this policy is to be continued in future has to be seen; I trow not. I saw the Commissioner this morning, and mentioned this case. He wished Thoma to be sent to him; so I trust something may be done to liberate our people, if not to punish the rajah as he so richly deserves. Thoma states that the rajah was not at all pleased to see him; that there are five witnessess for the plaintiff; and that our people actually heard the rajah's half-brother school these men as to what they should say next day when the case was to come on; and when giving evidence they all

stood within hearing of what each said. Notwithstanding this their statements differed, and only one had the brass to say that he saw our people seize the party. Our people when giving evidence were kept far apart as witnesses should be. The rajah professes to regard the charge as true (murder was never mooted), and professed to be very indignant at the idea of any even trying to teach, or in any way to persuade, his subjects to be Christians. Our people manfully said that nothing he could do to them should prevent them from speaking about Christ when they had an opportunity-a privilege which the Christians had enjoyed for forty years. I may add that this same rajah acted very unjustly and illegally last year in detaining a young man of Choga at his garda for nearly two months. I mentioned it to Sir W. Herschell, who was then here, and somehow the young man was liberated the very next day. This was a case in which the rajah had no right to interfere. It is near posting time, so I must close. With love to you and yours, in which all mine unite, I am, affectionately yours,

W. MILLER.

Recent Baptisms in Orissa.

CHOGA.-Feb. 25, three; June 10, four.

CUTTACK.-May 6, three; June 3, eleven, others were added at the same place; and July 1, five.

MINCHINPATNA.-Feb. 6, three, by Tama Patna.

In the afternoon Soda Sebo Praharaj preached on putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, after which the Lord's Supper was administered.

Foreign Letters Received.

BERHAMPORE-J. G. Pike, August 1.

H. Wood, August 9.

W. Brooks, August 11.

CUTTACK Dr. Buckley, August 4, 11.
PIPLEE-T. Bailey, August 2.
Mrs. Bailey, August 16.

Contributions

Received on account of the General Baptist Missionary Society from August 16th to

Subscriptions and Donations in aid of the General Baptist Missionary Society will be thankfully received by W. B. BEMBRIDGE, Esq., Ripley, Derby, Treasurer; and by the Rev. W. HILL, Secretary, Crompton Street, Derby, from whom also Missionary Boxes, Collecting Books and Cards may be obtained.

Individualism in Christian Work.

ANOTHER WORD FOR WORKERS.

CHRIST JESUS, the Pattern Worker for man's salvation, came into the world to save sinners; to save all sinners; but He began His redeeming work by saving a few souls first; such as Andrew and Peter, Matthew and Zaccheus, Martha and Mary, "the woman of Samaria,' and the woman "out of whom He cast seven devils." Although the people were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd, and His tender and compassionate heart yearned over their wretched condition, yet He steadfastly clung to the wisely chosen method of saving a few individuals first; and instead of weakening His work by diffuseness, poured the wealth of His love and labour into a small and elect company of sympathetic and willing souls; and then urged them to pray the Lord of the harvest, to thrust forth more labourers into the field of the world, that so piercingly called for more tillers of its soil.

This plan He adopted early in His ministry. He did not seek the crowd. The crowd sought Him. For some time He restricted His work to the quiet villages and towns in the neighbourhood of the lake of Galilee; and even when He did enter the busy metropolis, and "the masses" gathered about Him in wondering excitement, "He did not commit Himself unto them :" He knew better, for " He knew what was in man;" BUT there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, to whom He did commit Himself in loving confidence, in soul-searching and self-disclosing talk, and eager effort to lead an honest inquirer into the acceptance of the truths of His spiritual kingdom. He could do more good by dealing with one man in personal, face-to-face, heart-to-heart talk, than by committing Himself to a crowd of folk moved by no other hunger than the craving for a new sensation.

This concentration of saving energy upon a few persons is not only the dominant feature in Christ's method of work, but it is also the unique charm of the gospels: the secret of their stirring, quickening, and imperishable interest, imparting to them such an intense realism that we can scarcely help regarding ourselves as actual participants in the scenes they describe. We see for ourselves the tearful widow embracing her risen son, and catch the strains of music from the house made glad by the returned prodigal. Miracles and parables alike, owe their power not merely to the superior wisdom and supernatural lessons they show, but rather to the intensely human and personal interest with which they are invested. Even the discussions into which Christ enters are no dry word-debates, but real battles between living antagonists. The Evangelists never weary us with abstractions; they fascinate and hold us with photographs; nay, rather with the vigorous movement and throbbing life of men of like passions and like needs with ourselves. The intense individualism of Christ's work as depicted in the gospels renders them unequalled in all literature for power to GENERAL BAPTIST MAGAZINE, NOVEMBER, 1877.-VOL. LXXIX.-N. S. No. 95.

arrest and impress, and, also, makes Christ Himself the Everlasting Pattern of Christian Service.

That same individualism in work overflows into the Acts of the Apostles. We start in the midst of a small assembly of souls, a gathering of about one hundred and twenty, that grows by the addition of some three thousand souls on the day of Pentecost, and continues to grow by the work of "souls" on "souls;"-by the work of men intensely realizing their individual responsibility and privilege, whilst exulting in their common joys. Christianity was an individual fact before it was a social institution. It disclosed measureless possibilities of good for society, through the revelation of the infinite possibilities of regenerated souls, and it won its early victories by the vehement energy of its individual piety and consecration to the Lord Jesus Christ. Pentecost is the register, not merely of the results of the preaching of Peter, but of the work of the Holy Ghost through all those in whose hearts Christ dwelt as a new and Risen Lord.

The apostolic culprits, still smarting from the punishment they had received by direction of the council, ceased not from their public labours in the temple, nor from their private work AT HOME, but continued to teach and preach Jesus Christ. Each man breathed the saving spirit of Christ, and set himself to do his utmost for his fellow, not only by public appeal, but also by the stronger and more victorious influence of private and personal endeavour.

Two men casually meet in Rome. One is a Phrygian slave, a fugitive, who has sought a refuge in the slums of a great city. He is a slave in the first century of the Christian era. A more degrading position he could hardly find except by adding, as he has done, the deeper ignominy of being a thief to the dark dishonour of oppression. C. Pollio, the founder of the first public library in Rome, flung such slaves as gave him offence into his fishponds to fatten his lampreys. Even the inflexible Cato could turn out his old slaves to die by the river side without a word of sympathy or an act of kindly regard. Slaves were treated worse then, than dogs are treated now. It was counted a dishonour, even to speak to a slave. Onesimus is a slave and a thief too!

And yet when Paul, the son of a Pharisee, a born Jew, once possessed of all the supercilious pride of a Jew,-when this prisoner for Jesus Christ meets Onesimus he discovers for him a wondrous pity, pours into the poor slave's heart all his love, and labours for his salvation with an earnestness that is more astonishing than any miracle, treats him as a dear friend, calls him his own son, and, as if that were not enough, begs his master, Philemon, to receive him as if he were Paul's other self.

Rome, with all its glories, has never had in it a grander sight than the fellowship of those two men. City of paintings and sculpture and architecture, and of thrilling history, thou hast never known a theme of richer interest than the toiling of that great and gifted nature for the salvation of that poor runaway thief!

But that is no solitary exception. It is an example of the law of his work, of the spirit of his life. Speaking of his continued labours at Ephesus he says that he ceased not to warn "each one of you" with