the universities the duty of consecrating themselves to the work. In this he found much to discourage, few ready to respond as he desired to his appeals, but he left no means untried to effect something for India. As the time approached for his return, the thought of parting from his two children was very bitter to his soul; but he was able, with a good degree of cheerfulness, to leave them, under Providence, to the same faithful guardianship to which his own childhood was so largely indebted; and on October 20th, 1846, he took passage at Southampton, in the Ripon steamer for Madras, by the "overland" route. He arrived at Ceylon on the 6th and at Madras on the 10th of December.

His return to these too-well-remembered scenes, and the entrance on his work with all of earth that he most prized at such a distance from him, brought a fresh trial to his spirit, but we soon see him surrendering all his powers to the ministry in which his soul delighted. His journal for the following year shows him in the most active exercise of his powers, proclaiming the truth at all times and in all places, in season and out of season, wherever he could find ears to hear. To cavilling brahmins who pertinaciously denied first principles, to besotted sensualists, to the worldly and indifferent, he daily proclaimed the words of eternal life. At heathen festivals, in the streets of cities, in the numerous villages scattered through the country, he spoke boldly and hopefully, against opposition, which grieved, but could not discourage him.

When first setting out as a missionary, he felicitated himself on the prospect of being "a pioneer in a land in which he hoped and believed the Christian church will hereafter be triumphant." A change took place in his views, and during this period of his work his letters show that he had adopted the millenarian doctrine, that the setting up of the kingdom of Christ on earth is to be by his personal coming and reign. But this did not slacken, it rather increased his activity, for he held that before that event can take place the gospel must be preached to all nations. He writes: "I think I have, for the last two or three years past, at least, ceased to expect, as unauthorized by the prophecies, an universal or gencral conversion of the nations to Christ. Some may become professedly so or not, but one object of a missionary is to be engaged in calling Christ's sheep out of this naughty world and gathering them together to wait for him. But my strong motive of late, has been the promise, that when the gospel has been preached (it does not say received

or not) among all nations, then shall the end come: so that when I go and tell the people of Christ,-whether they listen or not,-one of the two grand objects of my mission is already completed." The other object, the conversion of individual souls,-was fulfilled to a limited extent: a few cases afforded him a present reward. Though he sowed the good seed mainly with the hope of its future germination, he was permitted to gather some of the first fruits.

What he might have accomplished, had he been spared to continue through many years of activity in India, cannot be conjectured. But his time was short. Like him whose brief and brilliant career stirred within him his first desires of missionary work, he was early withdrawn from it. But, unlike Martyn, he was privileged to end his days among his kindred, and to find a grave where he had been. early taught the resurrection and the life.

Toward the close of the year 1847 he was reduced by repeated attacks of dysentery, which compelled him to try the sea air. He sailed along the coast, but without material improvement, and on repairing to Madras was decidedly advised by physicians that he could not endure the climate of India, and must resign all further prospect of missionary labour. The disappointment was extreme, and he often spoke of it as the sorest trial of his life, but there was no alternative, and he submitted himself to the divine disposal. He arrived in England in March, 1848, just in time to witness the peaceful close of his father's life. He revisited his college, but the beauty and interest of those long-remembered scenes did not minister to his enjoyment. "They make me think," he wrote to his sister, "of all that has passed since-my five years with dear Elizabeth, and my missionary life in India; and till I go down to the grave myself, and till I am called away from all work on earth, these two recollections cannot but contain much that is bitter. My cessation from missionary work is still a fresh grief, and at times it is very hard to bear; I knew it would be a trial, but I did not know how great a one, and sometimes I begin to think of going back again, but am checked by the strong assurance that I have, that I should return to India, but not to active work. How little do men know the real state of the case, when they think that the trial consists of going to be a missionary! for with all its palliations of returning to England-to home, friends, family, and children—it is the coming from being a missionary which is the real sorrow: and beautiful as are

our green fields and hedge-rows, they make me sigh to be back at dear Bunder, even in the midst of this burning May."

His health was rapidly restored, and he began to consider in what way he could be useful in England. The Church Missionary Society offered him the post of assistant Secretary, which was so congenial to his feelings from its relation to the cause he had most at heart, that he promptly accepted it, and entered on its duties with an energy that excited the best hopes in the friends of the society, but which proved too great for his strength. It was a time of unusual interest, -the jubilee of the society was to be celebrated on the first of November, the fiftieth anniversary of its formation. To this occasion he looked forward with lively satisfaction, but before it arrived he was not, for God took him. A relapse of his Indian complaint arrested his labours, and he visited Durham in September to gain a few weeks of recreation. He reached home on the 14th in a feeble condition, but notwithstanding officiated twice on the ensuing Sabbath at South Shields, addressed a missionary meeting on Monday at Bishop Wearmouth, and another on Tuesday evening at Durham. Though much weakened, no danger was apprehended, but the ensuing two days he kept his room, and thenceforth his bed. He gradually sunk under his disease, and after lingering for nearly three weeks, in near prospect of eternity, and with increasing desire to depart, giving full testimony of hope and joy, of unshaken faith and patience,

"Life so gently ceased to be,
It lapsed in immortality."

It was a blessed end of a life such as it is not often given to human pens to record:—an eminently useful life; but if it had accomplished less by direct action, the example of so pure, and noble, so simple, ingenuous and unselfish a character, would still have been by itself an invaluable bequest to the world. In the most emphatic sense of a word not to be lightly uttered, he was a godly man. The aim, and the consummation, of his earthly existence was, "to glorify God and ENJOY HIM FOR EVER."