THE subject upon which I shall endeavour to speak to you, and for which I would ask your kind and indulgent attention is chosen for me by circumstances. I have the honour to represent on this occasion the Orissa Mission -a separate and independent branch of Baptist Mission work in India. But little is known, I fear, of this Christian enterprise in Orissa. The mission is among the obscure things of the world and the Church. No report of it is given year by year in the great missionary anniversaries of Exeter Hall. No place as yet is found for it in the records of the great societies that annually urge their claims and relate their successes on the platforms of the May meetings. Our modesty and timidity are content with provincial anniversasaries, and a too restricted and local support. But recent events have brought Orissa itself into public notice. The calamities and sorrows of the province have awakened the attention of Indian legislators and called forth the sympathies of the English nation. The Government has lately spent about two millions sterling in measures for the prevention of famine by public works for the husbanding and control of the water supply of the province.

The late Governor-General was on his way to Orissa to see for himself its needs, and how best they could be supplied, when the dastardly dagger of the frenzied assassin terminated his life. Moreover, an able and accomplished writer, the brilliant author of "The Annals of Rural Bengal," has just published two volumes which treat of the province of Orissa, and bring its history, its calamities, its customs, its religion and life before the notice of the reading world. The friends of missions generally, and the friends of the Orissa mission in particular, owe to Dr. Hunter a large debt of gratitude for his interesting and elaborate work; and I would thus publicly express hearty thanks for his kindly recognition of the services of

the Orissa missionaries in the cause of humanity and education. Still further, it is fifty years last spring since the Orissa Mission was established. This is the jubilee year of the Mission. Under such circumstances I feel that my subject is chosen for me, and that I should be wanting in good taste as I should certainly be wanting in my duty to the Mission, if I did not use this opportunity to promote as far as I may be able, a wider knowledge of our work in Orissa, and a deeper sympathy with the small and devoted band of brethren who are labouring to evangelise the province.

SKETCH OF ORISSA.

Orissa was selected fifty years ago as the sphere of the General Baptist Foreign Missionary Society by the adIvice of that illustrious trio of heroic men at Serampore-Dr. Carey, Dr. Marshman, and Mr. Ward. It was selected as a wide field, distinct and separate from all others, and then wholly unoccupied. Orissa lies, you will remember, on the shores of the Bay of Bengal not quite midway between Calcutta and Madras. It is a province about the size of Scotland, with a population somewhat larger. It is made up of three districts on the coast, and nineteen tributary states that lie back among the hills. The Delta, as the districts of the coast are sometimes called, has been formed by the silt which the three great rivers bring down from the hills to the sea, and by the sand which the sea throws up upon the shore. The process of land-making goes on still, but less rapidly than formerly. Some of the old coast towns are now several miles from the sea. Balasore was a maritime settlement in 1642; it is now seven miles inland. Tamluk, the ancient capital of Orissa, was before the Christian era washed by the ocean; it is now sixty miles from the shore. There is a local

proverb which speaks of the surf of the sea dashing once against the base of the hills. For centuries Orissa has played an important part in the history of India. Amid the changes that have swept over Hindostan, this province has been a place of refuge for exiled creeds, and old dynasties and races. For more than a thousand years it was an important stronghold of Buddhism. Five hundred years before the Christian era, the sacred tooth of Buddha was brought to Orissa; and six hundred years after the beginning of the Christian era, Buddhism, expelled from India, had still a flourishing existence in this province. All over the sandstone hills of Kurdha, in the district of Pooree, there are cells and caves carved out of the solid rock-temples, shrines, monasteries-which bear witness to-day of the prevalence and power of Buddhism through many generations. Here, in the dawn and twilight of history, Buddhist monks and ascetics spent their lives in contemplation, while on the sands of Pooree the worship of the golden tooth and the yearly procession to the rural shrine impressed the popular inind as the car festival of Juggernath does to-day. In this province the wild aboriginal tribes held their own against successive waves of invasion, and exist at this hour in the tributary states, "one of the ethnical curiosities of the world." In this province the last Hindu King of Bengal found an asylum against the Afghans; here too the Afghans in their turn made a stand against the Moghuls; and here the ravaging Mahrattas found a basis of attack against the Moghul empire until, in 1803, the Mahratta disappeared before the advancing power of English arms. If the missionary to the Hindus needed a secluded province walled off from the rest of India by gigantic mountains, and shut out from the maritime world by impracticable harbours and sand-choked bays, he could find no more suitable spot in all the peninsula of Hindostan.

But it is publicity and not seclusion that is sought for the kingdom of God. Where people most do congregate, where crowds gather, where pours the living tide of human souls, there should the standard of the Cross be planted, there should the message of salvation be proclaimed. Orissa,

with all its seclusion, is such a province. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims visit this land every year. For two thousand years it has been the Holy Land of the Hindus. It is celebrated in song and story as a region beloved of the gods, a land that taketh away sin. To touch its sacred soil, to bathe in its divine rivers, to taste its holy food, to gaze upon its golden flowers and fruits, to worship at its ancient shrines is to ensure forgiveness, though sin may weigh like mountains. Here are cities crowded with temples. Here the gods

come down to dwell with sinful men. Here is the seat and home of Juggernath, the Lord of the world. Here, on the sands of Pooree, is the gate of heaven. For twenty generations devout Hindus have " gone through life haunted by the yearning desire to visit this hallowed spot," and here hundreds of pilgrims come to worship or to die lulled to their last long sleep by the roar of the eternal ocean." Day and night through every month of the year troops of devotees arrive at Pooree. For 300 miles along the great Orissa road every village has its pilgrim encampment. They come from remote city and hamlet, they come from hill and valley far

away.

They march chiefly on foot along burning roads, across unbridged rivers, through pestilent regions of jungle and swamp, a great unfailing army with weary aching limbs, and lame and bleeding feet, blindly seeking at heathen shrines that gift of peace and salvation, which only the grace of God by Jesus Christ can offer to heavy laden, sin-burdened souls.

SKETCH OF THE MISSION.

The

Such is Orissa, where fifty years ago, went two brave and earnest-hearted men to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. Their task was a great one. They were alone in the province. The foe was in tremendous and overwhelming force about them, but they were not unharmed or defenceless. first era of English trade in Orissa was an era of armed industry. Two factories in Orissa were very early founded, and lie at the basis of our greatness and power in Bengal. One of them was at Balasor, whither, indeed, after a few years the other was transferred. The merchants who founded this fac

tory were soldiers as well as traders; they had sometimes to fight as well as to barter. So they fortified themselves in a strong position. They mounted guns upon the ramparts. An armed sloop or two lay off the river, and the merchant fleet, bristling with cannon, commanded the Balasore Roads, sixteen miles down. Thus, though Moghul and Afghan worried each other, our merchants traded in peace; or should black-mail be levied by a belligerent chief and no fair concession satisfy his demands, these merchants, after the English fashion, "loaded their cannon, lit their matches, and told him to come on." Our missionary heralds were armed with other weapons and for other foes. They carried with them the prayers and good wishes of eight thousand brethren at home. They carried with them the prayers and good wishes of the devout and self-denying missionaries at Serampore. They carried with them copies of the word of God already translated into Oriya by Dr. Carey,that master of many tongues, that he might speak of Christ in all of them. They carried with them the grace of God in their hearts, and the love of Christ, and the love of the souls of men; faith steadfast and firm, hope undying and immortal, a holy glowing enthusiasm which found fuel for its flame in the very difficulties and perils by which they were beset. Here, in the power of God, was their stronghold against foes of every guise. Here, in the sympathy and God-speed of brethren were their ramparts and ships bristling with guns. Here, in faith and prayer, were their cannon of long range. Here, in love and enthusiasm for Christ, was their lighted match and summons to the fray.

The missionaries (Bampton and Peggs) began their lonely and arduous work. They learned the language of the people; they founded schools; they distributed tracts and gospels; they put the glad tidings of salvation into Oriya words; they got these words by heart, and went forth to street and bazaar and wayside to speak them. Within two years they took their stand by the Temple of Juggernath, and preached to crowds of flocking pilgrims the glorious gospel of the Blessed God. Another missionary joins them, and yet another and another (Lacey, Sutton, Cropper);

but one of the earliest is driven home' and one of the latest dies. For six long years the work goes on, but though strong in faith and strong in hope they see not a single convert from among the native Oriyas. It seems as if all is in vain. They hope against hope. Not a single native of the province breaks away from the traditions of his fathers, and finds in Christ his Saviour. It was as if God had said, "I will make your heaven as iron and your earth as brass, and your strength shall be spent in vain." But it was not so; they were clearing the way for future triumphs. On the slope of a barren hill I once saw two men, with four stout horses and an iron plough, ploughing up the heath for the first time. Fern and heather and gorse had been cut away, stones had been picked out, and now the virgin soil had to be upturned with the unaccustomed share. It was a work for a Hercules rather than a farm labourer, for giants rather than men. One held down the plough, which again and again started up out of the unyielding, gnarled, root-entangled earth, the other with all his might pressed upon the handle of the plough; both shouted to urge on the horses, who struggled nobly at their task. Only a small space was ploughed after many days, and when it was done how vain the labour seemed! But byand-bye that barren heath will grow green with up-springing corn, and wave with golden harvest in the autumn sun. So success came at length to reward the toil of the missionaries. A young Brahman breaks caste, throws aside his sacred thread, and is baptised in the waters of the Mahanuddy. A friend of his, of high intelligence and good social position, follows the young Brahman's example. A devotee comes next, puts aside his boishnob's chain, washes his matted hair and filthy form and sits at the feet of Jesus clothed and in his right mind. Others come after. Here was a beginning of better days for Orissa. Here were souls won to the Lord-picked men, selected by distinguishing grace to become pioneers of the gospel among their countrymen. Here was a little handful of fine large seed, the first crop, and it was sifted and winnowed of God for future harvests on that heathen soil.

So the good work of grace began. The first missionaries continue their

toil and die, others fill their places; help is obtained from churches of a kindred faith in America. The first converts serve the Lord and die, and other and numerous converts succeed. The venerable first projector of the Mission dies, and the noble band at Serampore; and now the Orissa Mission closes its first half century of work, what is the result? "An immense amount of indirect good!" says the Government writer of the annals of the Province. "Indirect good!" Yes; the tax the Government levied upon pilgrims is abolished, and the English rulers of Orissa no longer compromise themselves and their country by their connection with idolatry. "Indirect

good!" Yes, the Suttee is abolished, and living widows no longer are burned upon the funeral pile with their dead husbands. "Indirect good!" Yes, human sacrifices on the hills no longer stain the earth they were supposed to make fruitful. "Indirect good!" Yes, the marriage tie is more sacred in many a home, and examples of the purity of social life begin to appear. In accomplishing all these reforms, the missionaries bore an important part.

"AN

IMMENSE AMOUNT OF INDIRECT GOOD!" "Schools and printing presses have introduced a new culture and a new literature among the Oriyas." Yes, before Government woke up to the importance of promoting education among the people, the missionaries here as elsewhere founded schools, opened asylums for orphans, and for victims rescued from sacrifice, erecting printing presses and began to scatter books, Gospels, Bibles, far and wide in the province. The first schools, the first orphanages, the first printing presses in Orissa were those of the Orissa Mission. So education and philanthropy prepare the way for good government and the grander victories of the Kingdom of Heaven.

But the good has not been all preparatory and indirect. The Christian church, when once founded among any community, is a direct and positive good. It is an institution of God. There is a vital and benign power in it. It is a spring of living water in the desert. It is a centre of life and blessing whose influence none can measure, and whose existence rests upon the Spirit of God. One such church has in it the possible future regenera

tion of a whole province, nay, of the whole world. Dr. Hunter eloquently says our fortresses, our embankments, our roads, our railways, our canals, our iron-girded bridges, "We call these our reproductive public works. But the slenderest blade of grass has more elements of reproduction and duration in it than our most solid edifice of iron and stone. It is by what we have implanted in the living people rather than by what we have built upon the dead earth that our name will survive in India." Now, the Christian church is a living institution "implanted in the living people," abiding and perpetuating itself from generation to generation. Its life is of God, and it continues and survives, expanding and growing by its own law. It is not a work of man, "built upon the dead earth," to decay and crumble before the hand of Time. It is a creation of God-not " a slender blade of grass but rather 66 a fruit-tree yielding fruit after His kind, whose seed is in itself;" and, as on the first creation, so in this new creation, God beholds His work, and sees that it is good. I read in the last report of the Baptist Missionary Society," a trim model of an English church is an artificial thing. It owes its existence to foreign benevolence, and its shape to foreign civilisation, and with the failure of foreign resources it must necessarily fall to pieces." I am sure Mr. Lewis would admit, however, that the true church-the society of the faithful-is of God, and possesses in itself a reproductive and self-propagating power. The history of Christendom during eighteen centuries abundantly shows it. Now, the planting of one such church in a heathen land is a good-direct, positive, divine. It would repay the labour of fifty years to do no more. But to-day the Orissa Mission has a family of churches. This living self-propagating institution is found at Cuttack, is found at Piplee, is found at Berhampore, is found in the north at Balasore, at Jellasore, at Midnapur. A cluster of branch churches in most cases gathers about the parent church. Cuttack has three branches, and eight native preachers, with over 300 members in church fellowship. Other churches also are spreading forth their arms like the banyan-tree, each arm taking root afresh in the soil it touches. Five or six Christian villages, moreover, group

families together, and make green and fertile spots in the desert. Fifty years ago there was not a single Oriya Christian in the province. Now nine hundred faithful Oriya disciples testify the power of the grace of God; a thousand more wait upon the threshhold of conversion, having broken with idolatry, if they do not realise the full privilege of faith in the Lord. Nearly two thousand children are under Christian training; thirty native preachers or pastors preach Christ to their fellow-countrymen; a native college prepares for the succession of the native ministry; an Orissa Home Mission, sustained by Oriya Christians, sends forth an Oriya evangelist; the province is becoming penetrated with Christian light; and all the English missionaries that supervise the work you may count on your fingers. Blessed be God for these Oriya Christians-living witnesses of the power of His hand! Blessed be God for those who have died in the faith, and gone to their eternal home! Blessed be God for these Christian churches in Orissa!each a centre of spiritual life and blessing-whose growth and development shall yet by God's grace bring the whole province into the kingdom of Christ.

FUTURE PROSPECTS OF THE MISSION.

Encouraged by the blessing of God upon the work of the past half century, the desire of the supporters of the mission is to seek greater results in coming years. Yet difficulties of a formidable character confront us. The staff of missionaries is very small, and our efforts to reinforce it become foiled by sickness or death. The cost of living in Orissa increases, and there is scarcely a proportionate increase in the resources of the Society. The field of work widens. The population has exactly doubled since 1822. There are three millions and a half of souls in the province. Our small band of missionaries is only as five loaves and two small fishes among so great a multitude. Just imagine nine or ten preachers and thirty assistants in all broad Scotland! With only five brethren in the southern part of Orissa, and four in the north, and not a single European missionary in all the nineteen Tributary States, there is a great deal for faith to fill up, a great chasm for hope to bridge.

Every cold season some of our brethren, with the native preachers, go forth upon a tour of evangelisation. One

has recently gone along the river Mahanuddy, where, says Dr. Hunter, "every rocky islet and wooded crag is crowned, not as on the Rhine, with the castle of a noble, but with the temple of some god." Everywhere indications are found that light is breaking, that Christian books are read, that the influence of the Mission is felt, but everywhere the same cry comes for more frequent and longer visits, and for more light. Few in number amid that large population, the faith and patience of our brethren are often sorely tried. Every year pilgrims come with monotonous regularity, but with little diminution of numbers. Every year 10,000 die on the way, or on their return. Many a precious life, and many an ample fortune is sacrificed at Juggernath's shrine. With what a power have our missionaries to cope? The total income of the temple at Pooree is equal to that of 100 societies like the Orissa Mission; and 20,000 persons-priests, warders, pilgrim-hunters, cooks, dancing-girls, and other servants of the god, live by this lucrative superstition. Besides this, the rent-roll of the heathen monastic institutions of the province is large and ample. Every town is filled with temples, every hamlet has its shrine, and the priests are everywhere a privileged class. Vested interests oppose the progress of the gospel, as they oppose the progress of many righteous reforms at home. The people are not homogeneous. Caste separates them from each other as sin separates them from God. On the hills Conservatism is elevated into a self-satisfied, self-complacent religious faith. Once a year the Khonds assemble, and offer sacrifice and prayer, "that they may remain exactly in the state of their forefathers, and that their children may live exactly as themselves." Everywhere some form of superstition, hoary with years, and venerable by its traditions, enslaves and debases the mind. Our brethren would often faint if they did not believe; they would say with Elisha's servant, when encompassed in Dothan by the horses and chariots of the Syrian king,

Alas, Master, what shall we do?" But the Lord has opened their eyes to see the mountains full of horses and chariots