stances; but were they as sensitive as their opponents, not a week could pass in which they would not have to correct errors or refute mistatements in reference to their work. How different is this to the conduct of their opponents, who, if one word be dropt impeaching their integrity or honor even by implication, come down all armed and ready for the fray! The slightest implication of their motives is resented and accompanied by every kind and degree of attack on Missions; nor are they ready to make the amende honorable by inserting our defence in their organs or of allowing such documents, however convineing, to influence their minds, or induce them to cease the repetition of oft-repeated, and oft-refuted calumnies. The animus of the whole may be illustrated by a recent and striking fact. Our contemporaries, with one or two exceptions, have been in the habit for several years of inserting in their columns every scrap of intelligence from foreign Mission spheres which insinuated any wrong doings on the part of the Missionaries. One of these papers has especially earned to itself a notorious repute by its bitter and scurrilous, its untiring but ineffectual, hostility to every thing good,-a journal whose injurious effects, if its influence were equal to its size and intention, would be immense ; but happily for truth's sake it defeats its own purpose by its coarseness, bitterness, and misrepresentations. Recently a work appeared containing a most virulent attack on the Cape Missionaries,-a Mission this which had received the especial patronage of the journal referred to-which work was answered in the pages of this magazine; this answer was honorably copied into one of our contemporaries (the Englishman) and into one only, though the whole press both religious and irreligious had joined issue in giving unqualified approbation to the work containing the charges brought against the African Mission. But the moment this article appears in our page about the Government schools, down come these individuals as the advocates of injured truth and calumniated institutions, charging us in the course of their defence with uncharitableness and all the other superfluities of naughtiness of this wicked world! We should have felt the remarks of our brethren of the pen, who crowned their efforts by the recommendation of a work that made no bones either of private or public character, if they had manifested the slighest regard for the character of those, who for a series of years it had been their study to calumniate. What is to be inferred from such a line of procedure but that the conduct of our contemporaries is marked by at least disingenuousness, if not by something worthy a harder name? nay it proves more-that there is evidently a strong sympathy between the opponents of Chris tian Missions and that part of the press alluded to; and a sym pathy equally strong and powerful between that press and the Hindu College; ergo, there is manifestly a hostility in both to vital godliness which only wants the opportunity and power to exhibit its bitterness and wreak its malice on that religion which the professed liberality and toleration of the age protects. We are aware that there are honorable exceptions both in the conductors of the press, and in the committee of all the institutions referred to, as well as in their teachers towards them we entertain but one feeling of the deepest respect, though we think their views anti-scriptural and unwarranted by other historical testimony. We say to them most advisedly the parties with whom you are allied will work with you, and cajole and compliment you, so long as the sacrifice of principle is all on your side; but once speak, and they will declare you incapable of acting under a liberal and universal-religion-patronizing board. So long as religionists can be quieted by your presence without acting on your principles, it is well; but once act and you are the Jonah,-the lot will fall on you; you must be cast out to allay the fury of the storm. Our advice to evangelical Christians is, Come out and be ye separate; let the dead bury their dead. Let us not add to the other sins of the church the ineffectual effort to unite Christ and Belial, light and darkness, God and Mammon. φίλος. VI.-W.'s remark on Editorial Note, page 343, June No. To the Editors of the Calcutta Christian Observer. DEAR SIRS, From the editorial note at the bottom of the 343rd page of the June No. of your paper, it appears that you regarded the unpublished part of my letter as of too personal a character to find a place in your paper. I am sincerely glad that as you esteemed it so, you did not publish it. For I do regard the subject as too sacred and too dear to be injured by any thing that would even seem to be of a personal character. As I wrote and despatched the article in haste and did not happen to retain a copy, I will thank you to return me the manuscript that I may reconsider the objectionable part. I owe it to myself to say that when I wrote the article I had the impression that Mr. Mundy was the writer of the article signed "Cinsurensis" in the Feb. No. And I am sure Mr. M. will not suspect me of having any other personal feeling than that of kindness and respect towards him. Long since the article was written a person of my acquaintance assured me that it is not Mr. M. who writes under the signature "Cinsurensis." In either case I had not the man but the subject before my mind in writing the article. But I writhe under the thought of even seeming to treat any correspondent of your paper in any other than a courteous and respectful manner. Will you kindly give this a place in the C. C. O. as near to the note at the bottom of the 343rd page of the June No. as may be. Allahabad, June 8th, 1838. W. VII.-Death of the Rev. J. C. Rhenius of the Tinnevelly Mission. We are confident our readers will feel the same deep sorrow on the perusal of the following information that we experienced ourselves on its reception. We can but be still and acknowledge the hand of the Lord.-Mr. Rhenius has left a widow and nine orphan children wholly unprovided for. The church of Christ in Bengal and throughout India will, we are confident, not allow this opportunity to pass without endeavouring to place them beyond the reach of necessity. Fellow Christians! we call upon you not to raise a cold and marble monument to the memory of our devoted and beloved brother; he lives in hundreds of renewed hearts, which is his best monument; but we ask you to come forward in behalf of the widow and fatherless children of one of the best and most devoted Missionaries India ever saw. "Visit the widow and fatherless in their affliction." We shall be happy to be the means of conveying any subscription for this purpose to the conductors of the Tinnevelly Mission. φιλος. We hope all our brethren of the press will aid us in this effort. Let the subscription too be worthy of Rhenius.-ED. Extract of a letter from the Reverend J. J. Müller, dated Palamcottak, June 7, 1838. "Perhaps you have heard before this reaches you that my dear fatherin-law, Mr. Rhenius, was called, on Tuesday evening the 5th June, from this vale of tears into his eternal rest. In my last letter I mentioned that he was indisposed, the heat having of late affected his health more than at any former period during an active life of 24 years in India. However, none of us thought that his sickness was unto death; his end was sudden and unexpected. A strong determination of blood to the head, not only deprived him at intervals of his senses, but fell so powerfully upon the brain that, within 3 hours from the commencement of the attack, all his sufferings were over. You will see from this that his death was caused by apoplexy. "I cannot write much, my heart is bleeding; sorrow has filled our souls, not only on account of our loss, but also for the great work, which the Lord has now left in our hands. The dear man of God, Rhenius, is dead! Lechler is absent on account of his health, Schafter and myself are standing alone; but the Lord is our helper and will glorify his strength in our weakness. Do not forget us in your prayers, and remind others also of the word of the Lord-"it is more blessed to give than to receive." May our good Lord strengthen our faith! My dear wife and myself arrived this morning from our station just in time for the burial, neither of us having seen his face any more. Mrs. Rhenius is wonderfully comforted. The dear father has left a widow with 9 living children. But the Father of the fatherless, and the Husband of the widow will provide for these. The end of our dear brother was peace. His rest after the troubles of life will be sweet indeed, and his reward will be glorious; he has sown bountifully and will doubtless reap also bountifully. May God's spirit direct us and may we be faithful unto death !" Poetry. For the Calcutta Christian Observer. The following lines pretend to no poetical merit whatever; they are given as a simple and most literal version of a rather natural and pleasing episode extracted from the first Book of the great Indian Epic, the Mahabharat. They may prove interesting to such as admire the simplest expression of natural emotions, and be the more gratifying as proving, that even in Hindus the sympathies and affections of nature have not been altogether crushed and destroyed by the blighting and paralyzing superstitions to which they have been enslaved; but do, however rarely alas! appear amidst even the most monstrous absurdities and the most demoralizing details. A cannibal demon had made a compact with the inhabitants of a certain city, who, to stay his rage from wholesale devastation, had engaged to supply him with a daily ration of a single human victim. In the rotation of the householders, the lot for furnishing the supply had fallen on a Potter's family who had hospitably received and entertained the wandering Kunti, mother of the Pándava Princes, and her sons; one of whom, the Herculean Bhím, slays the demon and so rescues not only his hosts but the city in which they sojourned. This is the machinery of the tale. THE POTTER'S FAMILY. Of rightful honors reft, of friends and home— 10. Abode, the wailings came-the grateful heart And now the vengeance comes; from which to save, Dear as I love you, not a hope appears, Through many a year a source of sweet delight- Myself alone will to the foe depart" Here thought's sad utterance checked by grief of heart, He wept aloud and she too wept with him! At length found pow'r awhile the faithful wife My dearest lord! Oh! why those thoughts conceive Whence could my feeble arm gain strength to give |