{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_76355/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_76355","id":"gutenberg_76355","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76355","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Biographies","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Duff, Alexander, 1806-1878","Missionaries -- India -- Biography"],"text":"Transcriber's notes: Unusual and inconsistent spelling is as printed.\nNew original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the\npublic domain.\n\n\n\n                       THE STORY OF DR. DUFF\n\n\n                                BY\n\n                            A. L. O. E.\n\n\n\n                         \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\n                    FIRST EDITION, 2,000 COPIES.\n                         \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\n\n\n\n                           [Illustration]\n\n\n\n                              MADRAS:\n            THE CHRISTIAN VERNACULAR EDUCATION SOCIETY.\n                      C. K. S. PRESS, VEPERY.\n                               \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\n                               1882.\n                             1 _Anna._\n\n\n\n                            CONTENTS.\n\n                             \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\n\n_Chap._\n\n    I. BOYHOOD AND YOUTH.\n\n   II. TAKING UP THE CLOAK.\n\n  III. PERILS OF THE DEEP.\n\n   IV. LANDED AT LAST.\n\n    V. BEGINNING WORK.\n\n   VI. FIRST-FRUITS.\n\n  VII. THE KOOLIN BRAHMIN.\n\n VIII. A CONVERT'S STORY.\n\n   IX. DRIVEN HOME.\n\n    X. TUMULTS AND THREATS.\n\n   XI. GLIMPSES OF INNER LIFE.\n\n  XII. A HOLIDAY WITHOUT REST.\n\n XIII. IN INDIA AGAIN.\n\n  XIV. GOLDEN SUNSET.\n\n\n\n                       THE STORY OF DR. DUFF\n\n                                BY\n\n                            A. L. O. E.\n\n                              \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nBOYHOOD AND YOUTH.\n\nListen to the story of a man who loved Hindustan, and laboured night\nand day for the good of her sons. His was a life of toils and dangers,\nof cheerful work and brilliant success. In the list of heroes who have\ndared, and of gifted men who have done much, Dr. Duff may well find an\nhonourable place.\n\nIn a farm-house near the middle of the land of Scotland, lived a pious\ncouple of the name of Duff: to them was born a son whom they called\nAlexander. The couple were not rich in worldly wealth, but they had\nthat which is better than gold, the fear and love of God. As their\nchild grew old enough to understand stories, his father delighted to\ntell him of holy men of old, of martyrs who had died for the faith.\nHe spoke to his little son also of lands far away, where dwelt boys\nwho had never even heard of a Saviour. Alexander Duff lived to be\na renowned man, honoured by nations, but he always remembered with\nreverence the pious father who had first, in a humble home, sown in his\nheart the seed which was to become a goodly tree.\n\nIn his boyhood young Duff had two remarkable dreams. Once he dreamed\nthat the great day of judgment had come. He beheld the holy and\nterrible judge seated on great white throne, and millions upon millions\nof human beings appearing before him, to receive their final sentence.\nSome were condemned to everlasting punishment, some were granted\neternal life. The heart of the dreamer was filled with terror. Little\nDuff knew not what his own fate might be, whether he would be sent to\nHeaven or Hell. The boy shook on his bed with terror, and when his turn\nfor judgment came, trembling with fear awoke. Never was that solemn\ndream forgotten. It was as a voice from Heaven crying, \"Repent ye, the\nDay of Judgment is at hand; prepare to meet your God!\"\n\nThe other dream was less painful, but scarcely less striking than this.\nThe Scotch boy lay by the banks of a stream, and there he fell asleep.\nHe dreamed that he saw in the distance a light more bright than the\nsun. Presently from the midst of the great light came a magnificent\nchariot of gold, adorned with jewels, drawn by fiery horses. The\nexceeding glory on which he gazed filled the boy's soul with awe. The\nheavenly Chariot reached his side, and from it came a gentle voice\nwhich was not the voice of man, \"Come up hither, I have work for thee\nto do.\" In trying to arise to obey the divine call the young dreamer\nawoke.\n\nAlexander Duff told the dream to his parents, and many many years\nafterwards he told it again to his grandson, so deep was the impression\nwhich it had left on his mind. That dream was as a voice from heaven,\n\"There is holy work, Oh! child, for thee to do in the future. The world\nis a great corn-field, God gives to thee a sickle, and bids thee go\nforth and reap.\"\n\nDuff had not only dreams in boyhood, but he had also deliverances from\ndanger to remember in after years. Once when he was lifting water out\nof a rushing stream, he fell in and was nearly drowned. At another time\nhe and a companion lost their way at night in a dangerous place where\nthere were deep bogs, and a lake into which had the wanderers fallen,\nthey would have almost certainly perished. Bitter was the cold, and\ndeep was the darkness. The poor boys struggled on and on, dreading\nto slip down some unseen precipice, or to fall into some deep water.\nThey tried to cheer each other, but their voices grew faint, their\nstrength was failing, they were obliged to sit down to rest. Then the\npoor children cried to God to save them. Suddenly, as if in answer\nto prayer, a bright light flashed before them. It disappeared almost\ninstantly, but the gleam was enough. The boys sprung up from the snowy\nground on which they were in danger of being frozen to death, ran\nforward, and stumbled against a garden wall. The light had been but the\nflare of a torch used by some men in night fishing, but it had been\nthe means of drawing the boys towards a cottage where their shivering\nbodies were warmed and fed. From that cottage they could be safely\nguided to the home of Duff's father. Often, when he was a man, did Duff\nin times of trial and danger remember that sudden flash of light. He\nthought that the God who had sent it to guide the wandering lost boy,\nwould never leave or forsake the afflicted man who cried to him in the\ndarkness.\n\nDuff went to school in the town of Perth, and was so diligent in his\nstudies, that when he left Perth at the age of fifteen, he was the\nhead scholar. He then studied at St. Andrew's college, and carried off\nprize after prize. Duff was strong in body and strong in mind, and\nof a brave and cheerful spirit. If he wrote an essay, people read it\nwith admiration; if he made a speech, they listened with delight. He\nhad unusual power to convince and persuade. There was an earnestness\nin the youth, which united with remarkable talent made his influence\ngreat, but we have no reason to think that this rendered him vain. As\na friend, Duff was obliging and kind; as a companion, pleasant and\ncheerful.\n\nOn Sundays he gathered children around him to teach them such holy\nlessons as he himself had learned from his father. Duff was full of\nmirth, but he suffered no impure jest or oath to fall from his lips.\nThe holy spirit of God had shed life into the young man's heart, and\nit was shown in his words and actions, as we may trace the course of\na stream which we do not see by the bright verdure, the flowers, and\nfruits which grow on its banks.\n\nThus Duff's course as a college student was one of activity,\ncheerfulness and success. Can we doubt that his life in Scotland was a\nhappy one? Dearly did he love his country, his family and his friends,\nand with such talents as his, he was likely to rise in the world. Why\nshould Duff ever leave his beautiful country and those to whom he was\ndear? Yet Duff did leave all with a willing heart, he exchanged his\npleasant studies for hard and toilsome work, he went thousands of miles\nfrom his father's home to dwell amongst strangers. Why he did this you\nwill see in the following Chapter.\n\n                           \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nTAKING UP THE CLOAK.\n\nAmongst the friends of Duff there was one to him especially dear; this\nyoung man's name was John Urquhart. Theirs was a love to last unto\ndeath, and even after death, for its strength was this: that both the\nfriends adored the same Lord, both delighted in His service, and both\nlooked forward to dwelling together in a bright home beyond the grave.\n\nOften when Duff went in holiday time to his parents' house, he talked\nto them much about John Urquhart. He told how one day Urquhart,\naddressing his follow-students, had told them that he was going to\ndevote himself to Missionary work, and charged every one of his\ncompanions to think seriously over the subject of spreading the Gospel\nin heathen lands. The name of John Urquhart had grown quite familiar to\nthe parents of Alexander Duff, from the accounts of him given to them\nby their son, as he sat and talked with them by the cheerful fire-light\nin their home amidst the Grampian Hills.\n\nPerhaps Duff's mother sometimes thought, \"I am glad that it is Urquhart\nand not my Aleck who is going so far away. My clever son will be a\npastor and dwell near us, and I shall hear him when he stands in the\npulpit, preaching the Word with that eloquence which every one praises!\nI shall watch his success, oh! with what gladness and pride! I wonder\nif Urquhart has a mother, and, if so, how she can bear to part with\nsuch a son! I am thankful that my Aleck is not to be a Missionary like\nhis friend.\"\n\nA time arrived when Alexander Duff came home for his winter vacation\nwith a sad heart and a burdened mind. His parents welcomed him, as\nusual, with tender love, and he brightened up to cheer them; nothing\nseems to have passed at first to awaken his mother's fears. Doubtless\nshe spread the table with the nice bannocks of barley meal which she\nhad prepared with her own hands, and stirred the fire to a brighter\nblaze, and fondly gazed on the face of her son, now a fine young man in\nthe prime of his strength. Duff sat and talked of many things, for when\nhe returned from college he had always much to tell, and he related\nstories with such spirit, that it was ever a pleasure to listen. But\nit surprised Duff's parents that he did not so much as mention John\nUrquhart, the favourite friend who used to be a principal theme of his\ntalk.\n\n\"What of your friend Urquhart?\" at last exclaimed the father.\n\nA change came over the face of Duff. Doubtless his heart beat faster,\nnot only because his father's word had touched a wound, but because the\nmoment had come for him to say something which he too well knew would\ngive his dear hearers pain.\n\n\"Urquhart is no more!\" cried Duff, thus suddenly announcing the death\nof the youth who had devoted himself to Missionary work, but who had\nbeen summoned early to his rest before he could enter on such labours.\nThen, gathering courage to say what he felt must be said, Duff slowly\nand wistfully added, perhaps glancing at his poor fond mother, \"What if\nyour son should take up his cloak?\" By which he meant, should take up\nhis Mission work and go out to India in his place. \"You approved the\nmotive that directed the choice of Urquhart, you commended his high\npurpose.\" Then Duff added the words which announced his own dedication\nto the cause, words which must have thrilled to his parents' souls,\n\"'The cloak is taken up.'\"\n\nThe father and mother were at first too much startled to speak. We are\nnot told what followed. The parents were pious indeed, but they may\nhave felt somewhat as holy Abraham felt when called on by God to offer\nup the only son whom he loved. We do not know whether the mother threw\nher arms round the neck of her son and wept, or if the father's face\nbetrayed an inward struggle. We only know that both parents consented\nat last to part with their hope and pride, never perhaps in this world\nto behold his dear face again. They would not hinder him from obeying\nthe call of his God, heard in his childhood's dream,\u2014\"Come up hither, I\nhave work for thee to do.\"\n\nAnd what was this work taken up by Duff, as a legacy from his friend, a\nwork for which he was ready to leave and to suffer all?\n\nEre the Lord Jesus left earth He gave a last charge to his disciples,\n\"Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.\"\n\nIn the command followed a promise, \"Lo, I am with you alway, even unto\nthe end.\"\n\nObeying that command, and resting on that promise, from the earliest\nages Christians have gone forth to give glad tidings of salvation to\nother nations. Men, aye and women, have cheerfully left country and\nhome to say to those thirsting for eternal life,\u2014\n\n\"'Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters!' We have found\nthe Fountain of life, and we bid you also come and drink. Oh! Weary\nand heavy-laden with the burden of sin, come to Him who has taken away\n'our sin.' Christ has opened the door of heaven to us, and we would not\nenter alone. Come dear brothers\u2014sisters, come Hindu, Mahomedan, Sikh,\ncome all ye children of men, share with us the inheritance of glory,\nshare with us the Kingdom of Heaven!\"\n\nWhat Duff thought of a Missionary's calling may be shown from his own\nwords. A Missionary Committee had offered to send him out to labour in\nCalcutta, and after much prayer and searching of heart he was able to\nwrite thus:\u2014\n\n   \"I am now prepared to reply to the Committee in the words of the\nprophet, 'here am I, send me.' The work is most arduous, but is of\nGod and must prosper. Many sacrifices painful to flesh and blood must\nbe made, but not any correspondent to the glory of winning souls to\nChrist. With the thought of this glory I feel myself almost transported\nwith joy; everything else appears to fall out of view as vain and\ninsignificant.\"\n\nMr. Duff was now ordained as a clergyman, and before he departed for\nIndia, preached missionary sermons and gave discourses which came with\nmuch force from one who was offering himself up, body and soul, for the\ncause for which he pleaded. In one church, with tears gushing from his\neyes, thus the young missionary spoke:\u2014\n\n   \"There was a time when I had no care or concern for the heathen, that\nwas a time when I had no care or concern for my own soul. When, by the\ngrace of God, I was led to care for my own soul, then it was that began\nto care for the heathen abroad. In my closet, on my bended knees, I\nthen said to God, 'Oh! Lord! Thou knowest that silver and gold to give\nto this cause I have none; what I have I give unto Thee; I offer Thee\nmyself, will Thou accept the gift?\"\n\nDuff tried to comfort and cheer his parents. He prayed his dear mother\nnot to make an idol of her son. He wrote lovingly to his father,\u2014\n\n   \"Will you be a loser by so giving me up to the Lord, and so praising\nHim for His goodness in having called me to so mighty a work? No, God\nwill bless you with the blessing of Abraham, will enrich you with his\nfaith and reward, and will reward you a thousand fold for your willing\nresignation and cheerful readiness in obeying God's command. The Lord\nbless you and my dear mother!\"\n\nAnd so Alexander Duff prepared to go forth to a strange land, and a\npeople whose language he knew not, believing it to be likely that he\nnever would return again to his dearly loved Scotland.\n\n                           \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nPERILS OF THE DEEP.\n\nMr. Duff did not go forth alone; he was given a faithful partner in\nall his joys and sorrows, a gentle helper in his work. Just before\nthe young missionary was ordained, he married the pious Miss Anne\nScott Drysdale, who for many years proved to him one of God's richest\nblessings.\n\nIn the month of October 1829, in a ship called the \"Lady Holland,\"\nthe young couple embarked for India. They knew not the sufferings\nand dangers that lay before them ere they should reach Calcutta, but\n\"farewell\" is a bitter word, and it was doubtless with heavy hearts and\ntear-dimmed eyes that some of the travellers saw the shores of their\nnative isle recede in the distance behind them.\n\nVery rough weather was encountered by the \"Lady Holland.\" Day after day\nthere was a succession of gales. Many inhabitants of India have never\nseen the sea, the \"black water\" as they call it. Let them imagine what\nit must be when nothing is to be seen around but furious waves, with a\nstrong sky above, and how one must feel when tossed on the surface of\nthe water. The ship plunges like a terrified horse, now borne aloft on\nthe top of a huge billow, then swept down into what looks like a watery\ngrave from which she may never arise. There is violent motion which\nallows not a minute of rest; were it not for little wooden fences made\non purpose, the dishes would roll over from the tables, the sick would\nfall out from the beds! Many of the passengers are lying in a grievous\nstate of exhaustion. The violent shaking, plunging, and rolling, make\nthem feel as if taken with deadly sickness, they can neither rise nor\neat till the fury of the gale be spent.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nWeek after week the rough weather continued, and the ship was detained\nby various causes, so that it was not till at least four long months\nhad passed that the \"Lady Holland\" had nearly reached the Cape of\nGood Hope, the half way station on the way to Calcutta. How glad the\nstorm-tost passengers must have been at the thought of being, though\nbut for a short time, on firm solid ground, and able to look on green\ntrees once more! But the ship was never to reach the port, a time of\nterrible danger was near.\n\nOn the 13th of February, at the dead hour of night, when lamps had been\nput out, and most of the passengers had gone to rest in their cabins,\nat that time the accident occurred. Those who had closed their eyes\nin sleep were suddenly awakened by a violent shock, which almost made\ntheir hearts stand still with fear! What could have happened to the\nship! The frightened passengers sprang from their cots, they rushed on\ndeck, wrapped in blankets, sheets, or whatever was near, only to find\ntheir worst fears realised. The vessel had struck with violence on a\nsandbank, her back was broken, she must ere long go to pieces! The wild\nfoaming waves were sweeping over her like hungry tigers eager to devour\ntheir prey.\n\nMr. Duff had been half undressed when the shock took place. He too\nran up on deck, where he met the captain of the \"Lady Holland,\" who\nexclaimed in agony\u2014\n\n\"Oh! She's gone! She's gone!\"\n\nIt would be difficult to describe the scene which followed on that\nawful night of the shipwreck, so as to bring it before the minds of\nthose who have never been in a storm at sea. Passengers were on the\ndeck, terror depicted on their faces, as far as they could be seen in\nthe dim light, they could neither stand nor sit without clinging to\nsome object near. All felt as if death were near, and after death the\njudgment!\n\nOne voice, that of an officer, was heard to utter the bitter cry, \"What\nwill become of me, I have been such a hypocrite!\"\n\nThe wretched man knew not how to face the Judge of quick and dead\nbefore whom he might so shortly be summoned to appear.\n\nA few of the passengers were God-fearing people, and they even at such\nan hour, were calm. Duff was one of these for whom death had lost its\nworst terrors, he knew that God ruled the storm, and that the way\nto Heaven was as short from a foaming sea as from the most peaceful\ndeathbed.\n\nThe missionary's clear voice was heard over the dashing of the waters\nand the roar of the wind. Duff called out that as all might suddenly\nbe summoned together to give their final account, they had better join\nin prayer as best they could for deliverance, if such were God's holy\nwill, or if not, for preparedness to meet Him. All passengers clustered\naround the missionary, holding on so as not to be swept off the deck\nby the waves, whilst the man of God poured forth his soul in earnest\nsupplications. Oh! What a never to be forgotten prayer meeting was that\nin darkness and danger, on the billow-swept deck of the wreck!\n\nMeanwhile the captain and crew were doing all that they could to launch\nthe longboat which might afford a means of escape from a sinking\nvessel. The task was one of extreme difficulty; the sea was a mass of\nfoam gleaming white through the darkness now dimly lighted up by the\nmoon. At last, the work was accomplished,\u2014the longboat was heaving up\nand down on the waters near enough to the ship for the terrified people\non the deck to get in. But it could not hold more than one third of\nthose on board the doomed vessel.\n\nNo doubt the quiet prayer had calmed the spirits of those who had\njoined in it, for now a very striking display of unselfish Christian\nlove was shown. Unmarried men said to those who were married, \"You go\nwith your wives, you are two, we are only one.\" The wives had declared\nthat they would not go without their husbands.\n\nBut none of those on deck were to be lost. Through God's mercy the wind\nabated; the little island of Dossen, like a place of refuge, was near.\nThe longboat with another smaller boat were able to make three trips,\nand so at last each one of the shivering, dripping passengers and crew\nwas landed safe on the desolate isle.\n\nSoon after the last trip had been made, the longed-for daylight\nappeared. Before dawn there was no means of knowing whether the place\nwas inhabited. Dreary enough was the scene revealed by the opening day.\nThe island was merely a haunt of sea-birds, and the only persons to be\nfound on it were two men employed to collect their eggs. But the sight\nof these two Dutchmen was welcome to the poor desolate shipwrecked\nsufferers who had lost their all, especially as the strangers possessed\na cooking-pot, under such circumstances a valuable acquisition indeed.\n\nThe poor passengers and sailors dispersed, some to collect eggs, some\nto collect grass and seaweed with which to feed a fire; others remained\nbeside the pot constantly employed in boiling sea-birds' eggs, as that\nwas their only food.\n\nNo doubt, Mr. Duff thought of the shipwreck of the great missionary,\nSt. Paul, saved like himself, from a watery grave, and cast, like\nhimself, desolate upon an island. But what gratitude must have filled\nhis soul when he looked on his beloved wife, preserved to him through\nall that night of terrible danger! They had indeed lost their worldly\nall, their clothes save what they actually wore, their property, money,\nand books, wedding-gifts and parting keepsakes; all was lost to them\nbut each other, and their calm firm trust in God; shipwrecked and\nstript of every earthly possession they were still rich in faith, and\neach happy in the love of the other.\n\nA sailor is seen advancing eagerly towards them. What is it that he\nholds in his hand? Something which the waves have washed ashore from\nthe wreck.\n\nWhat is the Missionary's surprise and delighted wonder when he\nrecognises \"his own Bible\" and an old Scotch psalm-book, somewhat\nshattered indeed, but received with adoring gratitude as a gift from\nthe Lord! Would a bag of gold or a bracelet of costly diamonds have\nbeen such a welcome treasure!\n\nAll the shipwrecked people were deeply affected by what they regarded\nas a message from God. They knelt down on the white sand, whilst Dr.\nDuff held a touching service. The Missionary read the 107th Psalm,\nso suitable for these who had cried unto the Lord in their trouble,\nand been delivered from their distress. Fervent prayer and grateful\nthanksgiving followed the psalm.\n\nFor days the passengers and crew remained on the desolate island, till\nthey were relieved by a vessel sent from Cape Town, to which tidings of\nthe shipwreck had been forwarded. With what thankful joy they at last\nlanded on the shores of Africa, the inhabitants of Cape Town crowding\nto see the poor tempest-torn wanderers, and to show them sympathy and\nkindness. Several weeks passed in this haven of refuge before the Duffs\nwere able to embark in another vessel called the \"Moira,\" to pursue\ntheir voyage to Calcutta.\n\n                           \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nLANDED AT LAST.\n\nIf the Missionaries hoped that they would now in peace and tolerable\ncomfort pursue their voyage to their long desired haven, they were to\nbe sadly disappointed. It seemed as if wind and waves joined together\nto keep them back from India. The experience of the Duffs in the\n\"Moira\" was not to be very unlike theirs in the poor wrecked \"Lady\nHolland.\"\n\nContrary winds drove the vessel far out of her course, increasing to\nsuch a hurricane that she nearly went down into the depths of the sea.\nNot till the end of May did the poor half exhausted travellers see the\nlittle pilot ship which was to guide them up the Hoogly to Calcutta at\nlast.\n\nIn thought we can see the missionary Duff, with his tall form, handsome\nface, animated manner and sparkling eyes, standing on the deck, and\npointing out to his wife the distant land beyond the heaving waters,\nand crying out, \"That is our India, yonder is our future battle-field,\nso long hoped for, so long desired!\"\n\nThe long muddy flat of Saugar island indeed was nothing beautiful\nto look at, yet was full of interest, and welcome was the sound of\ndropping anchor in the rapid stream which flows by its shore.\n\nThe long ocean-voyage was over, but the river had its perils as great\nas those of the ocean. See how the clouds in big black masses gather\nbefore the sun. Make ready, brave sailors, a storm is coming, and will\nbe upon you soon! It came\u2014the terrible monsoon in all its fury! In vain\nhad three anchors been thrown out from the \"Moira,\" anchors and cables\ncannot hold her; like a baited animal breaking loose from the stake,\nshe struggles on the furious whirling waters. Driven before the roaring\ngust, the \"Moira\" is hurled on a mud-bank, she is in a position of\nawful peril. Nothing can be done to save her, for not even moonlight\nnow relieves the horrors of the darkness only lit up by flashes of\nlightning!\n\nHas the missionary come so far, and already endured so much only to\nperish close to the land which he has vainly tried to reach! It was a\nterrible night indeed, and with the wild monsoon sweeping around them,\nthus helplessly \"standed,\" how anxiously must the poor passengers in\nthe \"Moira\" have waited for daybreak! It came at last, and there was at\nleast light enough to show them their danger.\n\nThe appearance of the river was very fearful; the wind, whirling round\nin cyclone gusts, raised columns of water which broke into foaming\ncataracts. What had been land was so flooded that it looked like a\nwidening of the river. Yet to reach it was the travellers' best chance\nof safety. There was a large tree not far off standing out of the\nwater. By swimming, some men managed to carry a rope from the ship to\nit, which they could fasten to its branches. Along this rope a boat was\nmoved to the tree, and by its means the travellers were \"landed\" on\nSaugar island, if that term can be used when they had to stand up to\ntheir waists in water!\n\nOh! What a close to a long toilsome voyage, what a rude welcome\nto India! Battered by the gale, drenched to the skin, the twice\nshipwrecked Duffs with their companions struggled on till they came to\nthe first Hindu village which they hoped to enter, and find at least\na little rest in some hut however mean. But alas! From prejudices of\ncaste, the villagers would not take the poor weary ones in! Here was a\ntrial of faith and patience. Doubtless Duff felt far less for himself\nthan for his loving faithful wife. Turned back from the village, the\nshipwrecked sufferers took refuge in a temple, and there, drenched with\nmud, in a terrible state of exhaustion after the fearful night, the\nMissionary pair remained for a while.\n\n\nWhen the tidings of their state reached Calcutta, help was quickly\nsent. After some time dinghy boats began to appear; in one of these\nMr. Duff and his patient wife at last reached Calcutta, the city of\npalaces, where by a Scotch clergyman they were hospitably received. The\njourney from London to Calcutta with such a succession of disasters,\nhad taken them more than \"eight months\" to accomplish. When the natives\nof India heard of the perils surmounted by the Missionary Duff, the\nremark was made, \"Surely this man is a favorite of the gods who must\nhave some notable work for him to do in India.\"\n\nWhat Duff himself thought of his troubles may be seen by what he wrote\nin a letter on the day following that of his arrival in Calcutta.\n\n   \"The loss of earthly comfort and possession is a rich gain indeed,\nwhen accompanied by the increase of that treasure which nothing can\ndiminish. Where is faith without a victory? Where is victory without\na struggle? And can there be a struggle without enduring trials and\nencountering difficulties? To us, we would pray, be the toil and the\nhardship and the danger, and the crown of victory for our reward, or\ndeath when maintaining our Master's cause, for an eternal glory.\"\n\nBefore this, Alexander Duff had written in reference to his large\nstock of books and valuable papers lost in the shipwreck of the \"Lady\nHolland\":\u2014\n\n   \"They are gone, and blessed be God, I can say gone without a murmur. So\nperish all earthly things; the treasure which is laid up in Him alone\nis unassailable. God has been to me a God full of mercy, and not the\nleast of His mercies do I find in cheerful resignation.\"\n\nThus \"Faith turns the sands of life to gold.\"\n\n                           \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nBEGINNING WORK.\n\nThe special work for which Alexander Duff had been sent to India, was\nto set up a missionary College. In doing this, he had to meet with some\ngreat difficulties, and some of the most trying of them from his own\nEuropean friends. This sounds strange, and needs a little explanation.\n\nA great many English people, some of them doubtless sensible and good\nmen, thought that though Hindu boys should certainly be taught, they\nshould only be taught in Oriental languages. They might learn Sanscrit,\nBengali, Persian, Arabic, it was said, but what would be the use of\nteaching them English? Some persons think the same thing now; they\nwould feed boys' minds with stories from the Vedas, they would let them\nknow ancient poems filled with impure legends, and become good Oriental\nscholars, but to teach English is, in such persons' opinion, to bring\nin insolent manners, vanity, deceit and infidelity.\n\nDr. Duff held a very different opinion. He looked on the English tongue\nas the key to a rich storehouse of science, wisdom and truth, where\neager minds and hungry souls might feed, and so grow to manly stature.\nWhy only open presses full of sweetmeats, some of them well-known to\nbe poisoned with vice, while a rich granary might be thrown open to\nyoung India? Duff resolved, with the firmness of his resolute nature,\nthat he would teach Hindu boys English; and in this he was encouraged\nby an enlightened native, Raja Rammohun Roy. The native languages were\nby no means to be neglected, but the English key to knowledge was to\nbe given to India, the granary was to be opened. Duff saw that it\nwas not true that his pupils must become, as was feared, like those\nworthless natives who had caught a smattering of English just in order\nmore easily to cheat Europeans lately arrived from the West. It was\nnot true that because some English books, alas! contain the poison of\ninfidelity, that ignorance of the language would keep Bengalis safe\nfrom the evil.\n\nWe see the truth of this reasoning now, but at that time Duff had to\nface a strong opposition. Before he opened his school, one of the\nMissionary's dearest friends came to implore him to give up his design\nof teaching boys in English. Finding all his arguments and entreaties\nin vain, the friend rose, and shaking Duff by the hand, uttered this\nsad prediction:\n\n\"You will deluge Calcutta with rogues and villains!\"\n\nOh! What a strange mistake was made by this doubtless well meaning man!\nIndia has at this moment no nobler sons than the boys taught in the\nCollege of Duff!\n\nThe Missionary's first efforts to instruct in Calcutta have been thus\ndescribed.\n\n   Duff \"planted himself in the very heart of the native town. Nor did\nhe, as some advised, begin with the erection of a grand building which\nwould do much, it was urged, to attract the pupils. The grand building\nwas left to the future, and a room of a Hindu house, in Chitpore, a\nsmall ill-ventilated room, was in the first instance sufficient. Here,\na month and a half after landing, Mr. Duff might have been seen in\neager converse, mostly by means of an interpreter, with five young men,\nwhom Raja Rammohun Roy had persuaded to attend. The despisers of the\nday of small things would have read failure over that first day's work.\nTo Mr. Duff it was a hopeful beginning.\n\n   \"Next day twenty-five appeared, and before a week was over, the room\nwas filled at different periods of the day with two distinct sets of\nscholars. Two hundred and fifty were thus accommodated, and still many\nhad to be refused.\"\n\nHere then was the opening work of him who has been described as \"the\nMissionary who knew no Bengali, and taught boys who knew no English.\"\n\n\nAn amusing account has been given of Duff's early lessons; of course he\nhad to begin with the alphabet. He who was so learned and eloquent was\ncontent to stoop to teach boys their A B C. Gathering his class around\nhim, the Master would begin by showing a large pointed O on a frame.\nVery soon the letter was shouted out by some hundred young tongues.\nThe letter X would follow, the word OX was thus formed, and the merry\nscholars were delighted to find that they had mastered an English word.\nThe teacher then exercised the minds of his pupils by asking them\nquestions about the animal whose name they had learned. So delighted\nwere the boys at this new, simple, and amusing way of instruction, that\nwhen they went out into the streets, and saw an ox pulling a cart, they\nwould shout \"Ox! Ox!\" at the top of their voices.\n\nThis was the first step to something higher. Duff was training his boys\nto \"think;\" they were no parrots merely to learn a lesson by rote. Duff\nopened the intellects of his scholars, and at the same time won their\nhearts by his kindness. The work wonderfully grew and spread. The hired\nhouse was exchanged for a better one, which was\u2014after the lapse of a\nconsiderable time\u2014to be succeeded by a beautiful college.\n\nAfter a year, a public examination was held. Those who were present\nat it were surprised at reading of the boys, their knowledge of\narithmetic, geography and grammar. Those who had expected that\nbut little could possibly have been done in a year, listened with\nadmiration to the prompt and clever answers given by the bright young\nstudents.\n\nHere indeed was grand success. The desire of the youth of India to\nlearn under Alexander Duff became greater and greater. As the Master\nafterwards wrote,\u2014\n\n   \"The excitement amongst the natives continued unabated. They pursued us\nalong the streets, they threw open the very doors of our palankeens,\nand poured in their supplications with a pitiful earnestness of\ncountenance that might have softened a heart of stone. They craved for\nEnglish reading, English knowledge. In broken English some would say,\n'me good boy, Oh! take me!' Some 'me want read good books, Oh! take\nme!'\"\n\nSuch was the press of new candidates that it was found quite needful\nonly to admit by tickets, and to station two men at the door to see\nthat no boys came in who could not show such a ticket.\n\nThus was the blessing of God given to the first efforts of the\nMissionary Duff for the improvement of the boys of India.\n\n                           \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nFIRST FRUITS.\n\nIt must not be thought that whilst the missionary opened the minds of\nhis pupils, he for one day forgot the care of their souls. What avails\nhuman learning without that knowledge which leads to life eternal! Duff\nhad seen a parable of this in his shipwreck. Eight hundred volumes\nwhich he had carefully chosen were destroyed; so were the papers on the\nwriting of which he had bestowed weeks and months of pains; \"but his\nBible was left to him still!\"\n\nSo when the flood of death swallows up the fruit of mere earthly\nlabours, and the sage and the idiot alike are cast on the shore of\neternity bare of all that belonged but to this world, the Word of God\nwill abide for ever, the Christian's best treasure is left to him still.\n\nThe boys of Duff's school were every day taught pure religion, and\ntheir parents were invited to attend during the lesson.\n\nOne day that lesson was on Charity as described in the Thirteenth\nChapter of First Corinthians. \"Throughout, all were attentive, and\nthe minds of a few became intensely riveted, while the glistening eye\nand the changeful countenance reflected as in a mirror the inward\nthought most clearly. At last when the concluding words of the inspired\ndescription of heavenly love was given, 'endureth all things,' a youth\nwho but a few days before had risen to oppose the reading of the Bible,\nstarted from his seat exclaiming aloud, 'Oh! Sir! That is too good for\nus! who can act up to that, who can act up to that.'\"\n\nA deep impression was made on the mind of one young Hindu from the\nsimple reading of the words that promise blessedness to him who loves\nand prays for his enemy. For days and weeks the youth could not help\ncrying out, \"'Love your enemies, bless them that curse you!' How\nbeautiful! how divine! surely this is the truth!\"\n\nDuff's explanation of the causes and nature of rain led his bright lads\nto understand that it neither comes from Indra, nor from a celestial\nelephant. They felt that they had been too long grossly deceived in\nmatters of science. In some minds there was doubtless a struggle\nbetween the new ideas and the old. \"What becomes of our Shaster if your\naccount be true?\" asked a young Brahman. \"The Shaster is true, Brahma\nis true, and your Gurus must accordingly be false, 'and yet it looks\nlike the truth.'\"\n\nOn the occasion of an eclipse, a true exposition being given of the\nreal cause of the wonder, a very great shock was given to Hindu\nprejudice. Many of the intelligent lads perceived that the wild tales\nwhich they had been told about a monster attacking the sun, were not\nonly false but absurd.\n\nThe movement going on was one which could not be hidden; Gurus and\nBrahmans, accustomed to be adored almost as gods, saw that Hinduism\nitself was in danger. Those whom it had been their interest to keep in\ndarkness, were having their eyes opened. The Brahmans determined to\ncrush the Missionary school. A decree went forth that whoever attended\nit should be excluded from caste. It was suggested that a yellow flag\nshould be placed before the school to warn all Hindus from entering so\ndangerous a place.\n\nThe timid people were frightened by the threats of those who had been\ntheir spiritual leaders. The school was almost deserted. Only half a\ndozen boys sat on the benches that had been crowded by three hundred.\nBut the panic lasted for a very short time; in less than a week, back\ncame the deserters. Dr. Duff went calmly on with his duties till his\nclasses were more crowded than ever.\n\n\nIn the second year of the Missionary's labours in Calcutta, he received\na note from a Hindu which must have thrilled his heart with joy. It\nwas written by one who had been tossing on an ocean of doubt, but was\nnow seeing the lights in the port. Mokesh Chunder Ghose sent his own\nbrother to Mr. Duff with the following remarkable letter.\n\n   \"If you can make a Christian of him you will have a valuable one, and\nyou may rest assured that you have my hearty consent to it. Convince\nhim and make him a Christian, I will give no secret opposition.\nScepticism has made me too miserable to wish my dear brother the\nsame. A doubtfulness of the existence of another world, and of the\nbenevolence of God, made me too unhappy and spread a gloom all over my\nmind, but I thank God that I have no doubts at present. I am travelling\nfrom step to step, and Christianity, I think, will be the last place\nwhere I shall rest, for every time I think, its evidence becomes too\noverpowering.\"\n\nOh! With what delight must the faithful Missionary have read such a\nletter! With what fervour must he have prayed that the enquirer should\nnever never pause, until he found rest indeed, and for ever, at the\nfeet of the Blessed Jesus!\n\nSuch a prayer was granted. The brave young Hindu dared to come out and\nconfess Christ openly by baptism. Mokesh Chunder Ghose stood forward\nas the first convert given to Duff. The young man's own account of his\nconversion, given before many witnesses is too interesting not to be\ninserted here. After long silence Mokesh Chunder Ghose thus broke forth.\n\n   \"A twelve month ago I was an atheist . . . and what am I now? 'A\nbaptized Christian!' A twelve month ago I was the most miserable of\nthe miserable, and what am I now? In my own mind 'the happiest of the\nhappy.' What a change! How has it been brought about? The recollection\nof the past fills me with wonder.\n\n   \"When I first came to your lectures it was not instruction that I\nwanted. Instruction was the pretext; a secret desire to expose what I\nreckoned your irrational and superstitious follies was the reality.\nAt last against my inclination, against my feelings I was obliged to\nadmit the truth of Christianity. Its evidence was so strong that I\ncould not resist it. But I still felt contrary to what I 'thought.' On\nhearing your account of the nature of sin, and especially sins of the\nheart, my conscience burst on me like a volcano. My soul was pierced\nthrough . . . I was in a hell of torment. On hearing and examining\nfurther I began, I know not how or why, to find relief from the words\nof your Bible. What I once thought most irrational I soon found to be\nvery wisdom, what I once hated most I soon began to love most, and now\nI love it altogether . . . 'In spite of myself I became a Christian.'\nSurely some unseen power must have been guiding me! Surely this must\nhave been what your Bible calls grace, free grace, sovereign grace!\"\n\nSuch was the simple, straight forward, manly confession of Alexander\nDuff's first Hindu convert.\n\n                           \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nTHE KOOLIN BRAHMIN.\n\nMokesh Chunder Ghose was not long to stand alone. He was followed by\na Koolin Brahmin, Khrisha Mohun Banerjea, now a well-known and much\nrespected Christian clergyman. Of a candid, enquiring disposition, he\nhad been convinced of the errors of Hinduism before he had received\nChristianity as truth from God. He was at the head of party of\ndeep-thinkers who would no longer consent to be duped, and his own very\nhigh rank as a Koolin Brahman made him an object of special wrath to\nhis former co-religionists. They fiercely demanded of Banerjea's family\nthey should disown him, on pain of themselves losing their caste should\nthey refuse to do so.\n\nThe reformer's family called on him to renounce what they called his\nerrors, and own his belief in the Hindu religion, or be for ever cast\nout from his home. The poor young man chose ruin rather than falsehood.\nBanerjea left his home at night with some of his friends who held the\nsame views as himself.\n\n\"We left,\" wrote he, \"the home where we passed our infant days; we left\nour mother that nourished us in childhood; we left our brother with\nwhom we associated in our early days; we left our sisters with whom we\nsympathised since they were born.\"\n\nPersonal danger was added to private grief. As Banerjea and his friends\nwere returning, a furious mob broke loose on them, and it was with\nsome difficulty that they made their escape. No wonder that the Koolin\nBrahman fell into a fever. He had as yet lost all, without any positive\ngain; he had left Krishna but he had not found Christ.\n\n   \"I was perfectly regardless of God,\" he wrote at a subsequent time,\n\"yet, as a merciful Father He forgot not me!\"\n\nDr. Duff sent a native friend to invite Banerjea to his house.\nBlessed was the hour when the out-cast reformer crossed a Christian's\nthreshold. Banerjea's own description of the interview must be given.\n\n   \"Mr. Duff received me with Christian kindness, and enquired of the\nstate in which we all were. He openly expressed his sentiments on\nwhat we were about, and while he approved of one half of our conduct\nhe lamented the other. He was glad of our proclamation against error,\nbut sincerely sorry at our neglecting the truth. I told him that it\nwas not our fault that we were not Christians; we did not believe in\nChristianity and therefore could not consistently profess it. The\nReverend gentleman with great calmness said that it was true that\nI could not be blamed for my not believing in Christianity so long\nas I was ignorant of it, but that I was certainly guilty of serious\nneglect for not enquiring into its doctrines and evidences. This word\nenquire was so uttered as to produce an impression on me which I cannot\nsufficiently well describe . . . I was so struck with Mr. Duff's words\nthat we instantly resolved to hold weekly meetings at his house for\nreligious instruction and discussion.\"\n\nPersecution drove the reformer to a European lodging house, for not a\nnative dared to shelter him. Banerjea narrowly escaped death by poison!\nBut the former Koolin Brahman went on earnestly with his search after\ntruth, and at length he found it. \"Knock, and it shall be opened unto\nyou.\" Banerjea desired to be baptised in the house of the Missionary\nwho had led him to Christ, and was so, in the presence of many of his\nfriends who still remained Hindus.\n\nAfter prayer by another clergyman, Mr. Duff thus questioned the\nconvert:\u2014\"Do you renounce all idols, superstitions, and all the\nfrivolous rites and practices of the Hindu religion?\"\n\nTo this the former Koolin Brahman replied, \"I do, and I pray God that\nhe may incline my countrymen to do so likewise.\"\n\n\"Do you believe in God the Father and Creator of all; in Jesus Christ\nas your Redeemer, and in His Sacrifice as the only means whereby man\ncan be saved; and in the sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit?\"\n\nTo this Banerjea with emotion replied, \"I do, and I pray God to give me\ngrace to do His will!\"\n\nThen the convert received the pure water of baptism, and the company,\nkneeling, engaged in prayer. Thus was gathered in Alexander Duff's\nsecond sheaf in Calcutta.\n\n                           \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nA CONVERT'S STORY.\n\nI will not attempt to give an account of half the lads whom Mr. Duff\nfirst taught to think, then to pray, then to leave all and dare all\nfor the sake of religion. They formed a noble band, of whom some are\nstill living in positions of usefulness and honour even in the distant\nPanjab, while others, represented on earth by their children, have\ngone, like their loved Missionary, to join the Blessed above. But the\nstory of the third youth who became a convert is so interesting, that a\nchapter must be given to him.\n\n[Illustration: GOPINATH NUNDI.]\n\nOne morning a young man named Gopinath Nundi came into Mr. Duff's\nstudy, and bursting into tears exclaimed, \"Can I be saved!\"\n\nHe told how the last of a series of lectures given by the Missionary\nhad driven him to seek the advice of Banerjea, who prayed with him,\nand sent him to Mr. Duff. Bitter trials were afterwards endured by\nthis young convert, such as are experienced now by many Hindus and\nMahomedans who, when convinced of the truth of Christianity, take up\ntheir cross and follow the Lord. Gopinath was cast off by his family,\nafter enduring first their entreaties, then their abuse. The most\npainful wrench was when Gopinath heard his old mother's cry of anguish.\nThe convert wept, but was granted strength to keep firm.\n\nHe threw up his arms and turning hastily away exclaimed, \"No! I cannot\nstay!\"\n\nHe knew that the Lord Jesus Christ hath said, \"he that loveth father or\nmother more than me is not worthy of Me.\"\n\nIt was about twenty-five years after that painful scene that Gopinath,\nthen a Christian pastor, had to pass through one more terrible still;\nthe same grace that had supported him through the first trial, bore him\nup in the last.\n\nIn the dreadful time of the Mutiny in 1857, Gopinath, then a married\nclergyman of Futteypore, had to endure a confessor's sufferings, and\nalmost met a martyr's death. Of his sufferings, when attempting with\nhis wife to fly from the murderous foe, a shortened account shall be\ngiven, chiefly in his own words.\n\n   \"We travelled till 9 A. M. when both ourselves and our dear children,\n(two of them six years, and the baby one year old,) felt tired and sat\ndown under the shade of a tree. The poor children cried most bitterly\nfrom hunger. We laid our petitions before that God who fed His people\nwith manna in the wilderness, and indeed He heard our prayer. We saw\nin the distance a marriage procession; I went up to them and they gave\nme five pice, which enabled me to buy suttoogoor; with this we fed the\nchildren and resumed our journey.\"\n\nAt night the poor exhausted travellers found shelter in the house of a\nkind Hindu, and in the early morning started for Allahabad.\n\n   \"There,\" Gopinath goes on, \"we saw with heartfelt sorrow that the\nmissionary bungalow was burnt to ashes, and the beautiful church\ntotally disfigured. On our arrival swarms of Mahomedans fell upon us.\nA Hindu goldsmith took us into his house, and kept us safe during the\nday. At sunset, when we left his protection, we fell into the hands of\nsome other Mahomedans. When we saw that there was no way of escape,\nand the villagers ready to kill us, we begged them hard to take us to\ntheir head the Moulvie, who for some days assumed the supreme authority\nthere. When we were brought before him, we found him seated on a chair;\nsurrounded by men with drawn swords. We made our salams, upon which he\nput to us the following questions:\u2014\n\n   \"'Who are you?'\u2014'Christians.'\n\n   \"'What place do you come from?'\u2014'Futteypore.'\n\n   \"'What was your occupation?'\u2014'Teaching and preaching the Christian\nreligion.'\n\n   \"'Are you a Padri?'\u2014'Yes, Sir.'\n\n   \"'Is it you who used to go about reading and distributing tracts?'\n\n   \"'Yes, Sir, I and my catechist.'\n\n   \"'How many Christians have you made?'\n\n   \"'I did not make any Christians, for no human being can change the\nheart of another, but God, through my instrumentality, brought to the\nbelief of His true religion about a couple of dozens.'\"\n\nThis roused the man's fury. He exclaimed that Gopinath deserved a cruel\ndeath; he threatened to cut off his nose, ears, and hands, and to make\nslaves of his poor little children. Then, perhaps moved by a little\npity, the Moulvie offered not only to spare but to favour Gopinath if\nhe would become a Mahomedan. The converted Hindu replied that he would\nprefer death. The same offer was made to Gopinath's wife, and she\nreturned a like brave answer.\n\nThe Mahomedan sent the family to prison, saying that he would give them\nthree days to consider. The prison was shared with a European and some\nnative Christians. After relating to each other their sad stories,\nthe whole afflicted party, at Gopinath's suggestion, knelt down to\npray. Whilst they were thus engaged, one of the guards came and kicked\nGopinath on the back, bidding him pray after the Mahomedan form or hold\nhis tongue.\n\n[Illustration: CHEKE and GOPINATH NUNDI.]\n\nThe next day a youthful officer, named Cheke, sorely wounded, was added\nto the band of prisoners. Gopinath tended him as well as he could,\nwhich seems to have made the daroga angry, for he put Gopinath into the\nstocks. A party of Mahomedans now came, and again Gopinath was offered\nimmediate release if he would deny his faith.\n\nThe almost dying Cheke cried with a loud voice, \"Padri, Padri, be firm,\ndo not give way!\"\n\nAnd God enabled the sufferer to keep firm, though he saw his poor wife\ndragged from him by her hair, and brutally wounded in the face.\n\nThree days passed, but God withheld the Moulvie from fulfilling his\nthreat of murdering his heroic prisoner. A fourth\u2014a fifth day found the\nChristian family still enduring their ordeal of fiery trial. On the\nsixth day the Moulvie came to the prison, and mockingly, asked his poor\ncaptive if he were comfortable.\n\n\"How can I be comfortable when my feet are fastened to the stocks?\" was\nthe reply; yet Gopinath added an expression of submission to the will\nof his Heavenly Father.\n\nBut the parent could not forbear asking the tyrant how he could be\nso cruel as not to allow a drop of milk to a poor innocent baby. The\nsufferings of his helpless family must have been to Gopinath even more\ngrievous than his own.\n\nBut these sufferings were near their close. Brave Europeans and Sikh\nsoldiers were now at hand; a fierce fight ensued, and the Moulvie's\nfollowers were utterly routed. Gopinath and his family were free! Who\ncan describe their delight when they found themselves rescued by God's\nalmighty power, with the yet higher joy of feeling through all that\nawful trial of faith they had been kept from denying their Saviour! How\ndevout must have been their thanksgivings to Him who had brought them\nthrough that Valley of the Shadow of Death into light, and joy, and\nfreedom!\n\nGopinath and his wife lived to re-organise the church in Futteypore\nthough they were not very long afterwards called into the presence of\nthe Heavenly King whom they had so faithfully served.\u2014What cause had\nDr. Duff, (he had then received the title of Doctor,) to rejoice over\nthe convert who so many years before had come to him in tears with the\ncry, \"Can I be saved!\"\n\n                           \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nDRIVEN HOME.\n\nLet us return to the earlier days spent by our Missionary in Calcutta.\n\nAlexander Duff had started for India a remarkably fine and powerful\nman. But hard work, fiery heat, and long fatiguing journeys taken\nin the course of his labours, ere many years had passed, brought\nhim to the brink of the grave. First he had violent jungle fever,\nbut recovering from this, he was soon again at his work. Remittent\nfever came on; Duff struggled on, loth to give way. But when severe\ndysentery followed, the once strong man was reduced to a state of utter\nprostration. An experienced doctor pronounced the sufferer's state to\nbe almost desperate, but very little hope was entertained of saving the\nlife of Mr. Duff.\n\nHowever, after awaking from a long deep trance, the sufferer so far\nrevived that he could be taken on board a ship. The sick Missionary\ncould hardly endure the idea of leaving his work in India. He implored\nthe doctor to send him on a short voyage and not all the way to England.\n\n\"I devoted myself to the Lord,\" he pleaded, \"to spend and to be spent\nin His service in this land.\"\n\nThe doctor almost sternly replied, \"In the last nine months you have\nsuffered more from tropical diseases than many who have passed their\nlives in India: let not a day be lost!\"\n\nAnd so, looking the wreck of his former self, after four years of very\nhard but very successful work, Mr. Duff for awhile took his leave of\nthe land which he loved. His feelings towards Hindostan were expressed\nin words which he wrote at a later period.\n\n   \"Wherever I wander, wherever I stay, my heart is in India, in deep\nsympathy with its multitudinous inhabitants, and in earnest longings\nfor their highest welfare in time and in eternity!\"\n\nIt was a comfort to the Missionary that he was able to leave his work\nto be carried on by wise and pious men, of a like spirit with himself.\n\nIt was on a Christmas day that the ship which carried Mr. Duff and his\nfamily, (for he was now father as well as husband) entered the Firth\nof Clyde. Once more the Highlander trod the soil of his dear native\nland, once more he looked with admiring eyes on the beautiful city of\nEdinburgh, with its bold hills, and picturesque castle.\n\nThe sea-air had greatly restored Mr. Duff, and the pure breezes of\nScotland seemed to give him new life. But what measure of strength was\nrenewed to him, was freely to be expended in the cause of Missions.\nDuff had not come home to rest. If he could not work \"in\" India,\nhe would work \"for\" India still. He would rouse Scotland, aye, and\nEngland too, to give more freely, to labour more heartily, to pray more\nfervently for the benighted Hindus.\n\nOnly the fervour of his zeal enabled the Missionary to undergo the\ngreat fatigues which followed his return to his country. Amidst the\nfrosts of winter or the heats of summer travelling North, South, East\nand West, Mr. Duff addressed hundreds of congregations all over the\nland of Scotland. Twice he visited London, and other large cities of\nEngland. Often, when almost exhausted, the Missionary would make long\nspeeches in crowded meetings, he was known to do so even when just\nrising from a sick bed. Mr. Duff's thin gaunt form, his worn wasted\nface, pleaded as well as his voice.\n\nOn one occasion when Mr. Duff began to speak, it seemed as if he\ncould only utter a few sentences, and he was conscious that many were\ngazing at him, fearful, as was afterwards said, that he would soon\ndrop on the floor. But oh! the power of eloquence which God gave to\nthat almost worn-out man! Though Duff's voice at last so failed that\nit was an effort to bring out a whisper, and he was so drenched with\nperspiration as to feel as if dragged through the sea, the effect of\nhis speech was wonderful. Down the cheeks of even stern hard men the\ntears were flowing. Those who had cared little whether India's millions\nwent to Heaven or Hell, were now ready to join heart and hand in the\neffort to save them. The rich gave largely, children joined in penny\nsubscriptions, the poor gave gladly of their little. Oh! That the\nnatives of India knew how much self-denial is shown by some of the\nhumble subscribers to missions; what warm sympathy and loving pity is\nfelt in Britain for nations in darkness, who have not yet welcomed the\ntidings of Salvation!\n\nA lady who had seen Mr. Duff at a Communion service thus described him:\n\"He seemed like one from Heaven; and he looked so ill, as if he might\nhave passed away as he broke the bread.\"\n\n\nLet us give a short specimen of the eloquence which, by God's blessing\non it, made hearers not only give money, but in some cases \"themselves\"\nto the holy cause of missions. Let the voice of Duff, Oh! reader, speak\nto you as from the dead. You cannot look on the earnest face of him who\nalmost died in the work of bringing sinners to Christ,\u2014but imagine the\nmissionary now before you,\u2014imagine his words as addressed to yourself,\nhis piercing gaze fixed upon you, his appeal made to \"your\" heart!\n\n   \"Collect what is fair and lovely in every world, what is bright and\ndazzling in every sun . . . and after having united these myriads of\nbright orbs into one glorious constellation combining in itself the\nconcentrated beauty and loveliness of the whole created universe, go\nand compare an atom to a world, a drop to the ocean,\u2014the twinkle of\na taper to the full blaze of the noontide sun, then may you compare\neven this all-comprehending constellation of beauty and excellence to\nHim Who is the brightness of the Father's glory, who is God over all,\nblessed for ever!\n\n   \"And yet, wonder Oh! heavens, and rejoice Oh! earth! this great and\nmighty and glorious Being did, for our sakes, consent to veil His\nglory, and appear upon earth as a Man of sorrows, whose visage was so\nmarred more than any man's, and His form more than the sons of men!\nOh! is not this love, self-sacrificing love, love that is 'higher than\nthe heights above, deeper than the depths beneath!' Oh! is not this\ncondescension, self-sacrificing condescension, condescension without a\nparallel and without a name! 'God manifest in the flesh!' God manifest\nin the flesh for the redemption of a rebel race! Oh! is this the wonder\nof a world, is not this the astonishment of a universe!\"\n\nThen referring to the angels who had witnessed the wondrous coming of\nChrist to earth, the fervent speaker went on:\n\n   \"Tell me, Oh! tell me if in their cloudless vision it would seem\naught so marvellous, so passing strange, did they behold the greatest\nand mightiest of a guilty race, redeemed themselves at so vast a\nprice, . . . issue forth in the footsteps of the Divine Redeemer into\nthe waste howling wilderness of sin, to seek and to save them that are\nlost!\"\n\nDuff himself had thus gone forth once, thus was he eager to go forth\nonce more. In vain was he tempted again and again by offers of\nhonourable employment, which would have given him ease and comfort in\nthe land of his birth. It was not that Duff did not love Scotland; no,\nhe passionately loved his country. He declared that as regarded his\nown comfort, he would rather have the poorest hut, with the homeliest\nfare, and the bleakest cleft of Scotland, than be the possessor of the\nstateliest palace in Bengal.\n\n   \"I would go,\" cried the true-hearted Missionary, \"not because I love\nScotland less, but because I humbly and devoutly trust that, through\nthe aid of Divine grace, I have been led to love my God and Saviour,\nand the extension of His blessed cause on earth still more.\"\n\nAnd so, as soon as he was well enough to return, Mr. (now Dr.) Duff\nprepared for another long voyage to India, accompanied by his loving\nfaithful wife. They both had a sore sacrifice to make, for they left\ntheir fondly loved children behind. For eleven long years the parents\nwere never to look on their faces again, and one little darling they\nwere never again to behold in this world. When Dr. Duff preached his\nfarewell sermon, the listening people were in tears.\n\nWe will not stop to give an account of the outward journey. It was a\nvery long one, and again, before landing in Calcutta, the travellers\nencountered the monsoon. For twelve hours the fierce hurricane raged.\nBut at length the haven was reached, and Dr. Duff again set his foot on\nIndia's shore, to begin once more his loving labours for the welfare of\nher children.\n\n                           \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nTUMULTS AND THREATS.\n\nEducation work grew fast and increased, as the banyan-tree sends down\nshoots that themselves grow to be trees. Before Dr. Duff had reached\nthe age of forty, there were three colleges and many schools belonging\nto the Scottish mission. Many indeed were the learners, but it is only\nnow and then that one is found bold enough and faithful enough to come\nout openly and declare what he believes in his heart. Such a one was\nUmesh Chander Sirkar.\n\nFor two years the Bible teaching in the college had deeply impressed\nthe soul of the young Hindu. His friends in alarm, advised him to study\n\"infidel\" writings; they would rather have him devoid of all religion\nthan a believer in Christ! They would rather, as it were, put out\nhis eyes, than let him fix their gaze on the Saviour! But what Umesh\nChander read made him but the more firmly a Christian. He was youthful,\nonly sixteen; he longed to keep with him his sweet child-wife, then\nonly ten years of age. For two years the young couple in the dead of\nnight studied the Scriptures together; at no other time could they have\nbeen safe from interruption. It was a sight to make angels rejoice when\nthe youth, his own heart glowing with holy love, taught the child-wife\nto look to Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life! Umesh Chander's\nwords dropped like seed on a rich soil, the little Hindu wife showed\nherself worthy of her husband.\n\nAt last Umesh Chander put into the girl' hand that wonderful allegory,\nthe \"Pilgrim's Progress.\" The quick mind of the little Hindu grasped\nthe meaning of the parable. When the girl of twelve read the\ndescription of Christian's flight from the City of Destruction, she\nexclaimed, \"Is not this exactly our condition? Are we not now living in\nthe City of Destruction? Is it not our duty to act like Christian, to\narise, forsake all, and flee our lives?\"\n\nThe brave child's words seem to have brought her husband to a decision.\nThe next idol-festival gave an opportunity for flight.\n\nIt was a Sabbath evening; a meeting for prayer had been held with\nnative converts. After it, Dr. Duff had retired to his own room. It\nwas to him a time of great anxiety and trial. News from Scotland had\ntroubled him greatly. Dark clouds seemed to be gathering round; even\nhis brave heart was oppressed with care. Such seasons come to try the\nfaith of the most devoted Christians. Dr. Duff was wondering how God\nwould interfere to deliver His people from their distresses, when his\nsad thoughts had a delightful interruption.\n\nSuddenly Umesh Chander with his brave little wife, and Jugadishwar, a\nconvert who had aided their escape, appeared before him! In the joy of\nhis heart the Missionary exclaimed, \"The Lord be praised!\"\n\nBut a terrible tumult was to follow. Not even Gopinath's conversion had\nexcited such a commotion. Umesh Chander's father was a man of great\npower as well as bigotry; he was the treasurer of the Mullik family who\npossessed enormous wealth. The Mulliks and Sirkars with their numerous\nfollowers besieged the house of Dr. Duff, the place of refuge which\nhad been sought by the youthful pair. The mob attempted violence, they\nwere full of wrath and fury. Dr. Duff had to keep his door fast closed\nto prevent the fugitives thronging in and carrying off his guests by\nforce. Finding that they could not rush in, the Hindus changed their\nmode of attack. The scene was changed to a court of justice. Umesh\nChander's father, boldly lying, declared that his son was but fourteen\nyears of age, and that Dr. Duff was keeping him in his house by force\nand against the boy's own will! What must that religion be which needs\nthe prop of falsehood!\n\nThe Chief Justice appeared on the Bench, the case was investigated at\nonce. The convert was proved to be really upwards of eighteen years of\nage. No question was raised about the wife; the brave child was allowed\nto remain with her husband. Both were baptised together, two youthful\npilgrims starting hand in hand on their journey to the Heavenly City.\nOh! Tie of marriage how close and how blessed when husband and wife are\n\"one in the Lord!\" This was the first instance in Bengal of a wedded\nHindu pair receiving baptism together.\n\nIt is some time since Umesh Chander Sirkar reached his celestial home,\nbut it is interesting to know that his wife still survives, and works\namongst Hindu girls! May she win many to enter on the same blessed\nflight from the City of Destruction!\n\n\nAbout a week after the double baptism, the tumult was repeated; another\nChristian convert had dared to confess his faith! Baikunta Nath Day\ntook refuge with Dr. Smith from the storm which his conversion had\nraised. But the protection of this house proved less effectual than\nthat of Dr. Duff's had been. While the Missionary was absent, the\npoor fugitive was torn by force from the dwelling, carried off to a\nrelative's house, and \"imprisoned in chains!\" And actually Baikunta's\nfamily were wicked enough to try to bind him in the yet stronger chains\nof \"vice!\" If they could make him utterly vile, they thought that he\nwould be unfitted to become a Christian. What cared they for the ruin\nof his soul, so that the family were not disgraced by his adopting the\nreligion of the pure and spotless Jesus!\n\nBut the dear lad was strengthened to resist all the temptations which\nman or devil could bring to drag him down to perdition. And the Lord\ndelivered Baikunta not only out of temptation but out of his chains.\nThe place of his confinement was discovered, and the law obliged his\ntormentors to give up their prey. The Rev. Baikunta Nath now preaches\nthe Gospel of Christ.\n\nThe Hindus exerted themselves to the utmost to ruin the work of\nChristian education. Their efforts at first seemed to have great\nsuccess. The number of Dr. Duff's pupils had risen to above a thousand\nin daily attendance, but he lost three hundred youths in one week!\n\nNor was this all that tried the Missionary. More baptisms fanned the\nflame of bigotry into farther fury. Four more Koolin Brahmans had\nconfessed the Saviour. A violent anti-Christian meeting was held.\nActually a plot was formed to get rid altogether of the great opponent\nof idolatry, Dr. Duff. If his eloquent persuasive tongue could be\nsilenced in no other way, it could be silenced in death. How easy to\nhire ruffians to waylay and attack him.\n\nDr. Duff received kindly warnings of his danger. One person wrote,\n\"There is, I hear, a conspiracy amongst the wealthy Baboos to hire some\nruffians to maltreat you. If you treat it (the report) with contempt,\nyou will go on us usual; on the contrary if you think the report to be\ntrue, you will avoid going out at night, or rather never go the same\nroad twice together.\"\n\nAnother wrote, \"I have been credibly and seriously informed this day\nthat there is, or is to be, a plot by which some ruffians of the baser\nsorts are hired to assault you . . . pray do not at least go out by\nnight &c.\"\n\nThe brave soul of Dr. Duff was not to be moved by personal fear. He\npublished a paper headed \"A word of faithful and firm yet kindly\nadmonition to some of the Calcutta Baboos.\" This paper is too long to\nbe inserted in full, but an extract will show the writer's spirit.\n\n   \"As to the rumour of threats regarding myself, I shall continue to\nregard them as an idle tale. Amongst the Calcutta Baboos there are\nthose whom I respect and esteem, and to whose keeping I would at any\ntime entrust my life, in the most perfect confidence of friendship\nand protection. If others, who do not know me personally, should in\nignorance of my principles and motives, entertain unkindly or hostile\nfeelings towards me, the fact would be in no way surprising. Even if\nthe alleged threats were real, and not the progeny of lying fiction, I\nshould not be in the least moved by them. My trust is in God.\"\n\nAnd towards the end of his paper, Dr. Duff alluding to the well-known\nsaying that \"the blood of martyrs is the seed of the church,\" thus\nshows his calm confidence that even his murder could do no real injury\nto the cause of God and His truth.\n\n   \"The first actual missionary martyrdom that shall be enacted in\nthis heavenly cause may do more, under the over-ruling Providence\nof God to precipitate the inevitable doom of Hinduism, and speed on\nthe chariot of Gospel triumph, than would the establishment of a\nthousand additional Christian schools, or the delivery of ten thousand\nadditional Christian addresses throughout the towns and villages of\nthis mighty empire.\"\n\n                           \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\nGLIMPSES OF INNER LIFE.\n\nA pleasant picture of the great Missionary has been given by one of his\nconverts.\n\n   \"We joined Dr. and Mrs. Duff, (their children being away in Scotland)\nat family worship both morning and evening. Duff was punctual as\nclockwork. At eight in the morning, not one minute before or after,\nthe prayer-bell rang, and we were all in the breakfast-room, where the\nmorning worship used to be held. Duff was always observant of the forms\nof politeness, and never forget to shake hands with us, asking us the\nusual question, 'How do you do?' By the way, Duff's shake of the hand\nwas different from that of other people; it was not a mere formal stiff\nlanguid shake, but like everything else of him warm and hearty. He\nwould go on shaking, catching fast hold of your hand in his, and would\nnot let it go for some seconds.\n\n   \"We always began by singing one of the grand old Psalms of David . . .\nThe reading over we all knelt down. Oh! how shall I describe the\nprayers which Duff offered up both morning and evening! Much as\nI admired Duff in his public appearances in the pulpit or on the\nplatform, I admired and loved him infinitely more at the family altar,\nwhere in a simple and childlike manner he devoutly and earnestly poured\nout his soul before our common Father in Heaven.\"\n\n\nIn 1847 Dr. Duff was deeply grieved by news of the death of a dear\nand revered friend, Dr. Chalmers, who was called the Father of the\nFree Scotch Church. Dr. Chalmers had indeed held the highest and most\ninfluential position of all the church ministers in Scotland, and an\nanxious question arose as to who would be worthy to succeed him. There\nwas one man indeed, who was felt by many to be most worthy, talented,\ndevoted and wise; that man was Alexander Duff. By vote the opinion of\nthe Free Church was taken in this very important matter; and the result\nwas that Dr. Duff received a call from the General Assembly to come\nback to his native land, take the Theological chair,\u2014and so in clerical\nmatters hold the position of leader. So certain were some that Dr. Duff\nwould with pleasure accept so highly honourable a post, which would\nrestore him to his country and children, that not only individuals,\nbut writers in newspapers congratulated him upon what they called his\npromotion.\n\nThe young Church of India was struck with alarm at the prospect of\nlosing their teacher and guide. Duff's converts implored him as their\nmuch-loved spiritual father in the Lord not to leave them. Even to\nnon-Christian natives the news of Dr. Duff's probable departure came\nlike a blow. A remonstrance was written by eleven learned Brahmans\n\"desirous of the Chief Good,\" to the people of Scotland. The Hindus\npleaded with his countrymen that Dr. Duff might be left to India. They\nthus wrote, \"this illustrious person has devoted his head and heart,\nand spent large sums of money . . . Such a man as the Reverend Doctor\nwas never seen in this country before . . . Good men have become sad,\nand bad men are rejoicing. The friends of true religion are praying\nthat God would change the minds of the people of Scotland, and prevent\nDr. Duff's recall.\"\n\nThe infant Church had no need to fear that anything short of God's Will\nwould suffice to make their beloved teacher give up his Indian work.\nDr. Duff declared that he must die as he had lived, a Missionary.\n\n   \"The Church of my fathers,\" he wrote home, \"must see it to be right\nand meet to allow me to retain in the view of all men the clearly\nmarked and distinguishing character 'of a Missionary to the Heathen;'\nabroad labouring directly amongst them, at home pleading their cause\namong the Churches of Christendom . . . For the sake of the heathen,\nand especially of the people of India, let me cling all my days to the\nMissionary cause.\"\n\nIt must never be thought that it was from indifference to his children\nthat Dr. Duff endured to be parted from them so long. With grief and\nbursting tears, he received news of the death of his darling little\ndaughter Annie. Long afterwards, he thus wrote of her in a letter to\nhis wife.\n\n   \"I seldom allude to dear child who bore your name, but the sweet image\nof her often crosses my mind. She was a perfectly loveable one, and\nI know not that I ever felt any stroke so acutely as her unexpected\ndeath. And even still, when alone by myself, the thought of her\ncheerful animated countenance, with its sweet expression and lisping\ntongue, often brings the tear to my eye, as now.\"\n\nThe brave man, the talented scholar, had a tender affectionate heart;\nhe loved to play with little ones. In his kindness, he followed the\nsteps of the Blessed Saviour, who took up children in His arms, and\nblessed them.\n\nStill less must it be thought that because Dr. Duff was so honoured\nin lands, near and afar, and had been the means of leading so many\nconverts to Christ, that his heart was lifted up with spiritual\npride. Brahmans indeed had declared that there was never such a man\nseen in the country before, but what did the gifted Missionary think\nof \"himself?\" An extract from Dr. Duff's private journal gives us\na glimpse of the brave strong Christian, not as he appeared in the\nschool-room, the lecture-hall, or the Church, but as he was when on his\nknees in his chamber, alone with his God. Read and ponder over what\nfollows, ye who think that a man can be justified by his works.\n\n   \"All my days I have been a child of Providence, the Lord leading me\nand guiding me in ways unknown to me, in ways of His own, and for the\naccomplishment of His own heavenly ends. Oh! that I were more worthy!\nBut somehow I feel as if the more marvellous the Lord's dealings with\nme, the more cold, heartless and indolent I become. Is not this sad,\nis it not terrible! All the finer ores are melted by the fire, the\nearthy clay is hardened. Oh! God, forbid that this should continue to\nbe my doleful case! May I be like the gold and silver ore, when warmed\nand heated by the fire of Thy loving-kindnesses, may I be melted,\nfused, purified, refined, assimilated to Thy own holy nature! Oh! Lord,\nsoften, break, melt this hard heart of mine!\"\n\nIf such a man so wrote, so felt, so condemned himself, what mortal on\nearth can boast over what he is, or what he has done! The devoted,\nself-sacrificing Duff trusted in nothing in himself, his only hope\nof Heaven was in the Saviour who died for sinners, the blood which\ncleanseth from guilt!\n\n                           \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\nA HOLIDAY WITHOUT REST.\n\nWhen it became known in Scotland that Dr. Duff declined going home\nto become Divinity Professor, he was urged at least to return for a\nlimited time. There was so much work to be done in Britain; so much\ngood, it was truly said, might result to the Missionary cause by Dr.\nDuff's pleading for it again, as he had pleaded before. It is doubtful\nwhether Dr. Duff would have consented even to this, had he had health,\nafter ten years of hard labour in this second visit to India, to remain\nwithout a change. But the doctor urged him to go home for a while after\nwork which had \"evidently shattered his constitution,\" and Dr. Duff\nsubmitted to what he felt to be the Will of the Lord. He gathered all\nthe information which he could regarding missions in various parts of\nIndia to make use of in his addresses at home, and in May 1850 found\nhimself in his native land, and in the bosom of his family once more.\n\nAgain what might have been called the Missionary's holiday was employed\nin the most earnest labours. In hurrying from place to place, from\nmeeting to meeting, the Missionary perhaps endured as much fatigue as\nfrom the heavy work in India. Thus he wrote in the bitterly cold month\nof November, when on one of his numerous journeys.\n\n   \"Since I left the pulpit on Sunday I have scarcely yet got into\nanything like warmth, either by night or day. I have felt as if the\ncold were oozing through my whole body from head to foot . . . And what\nwith unseasoned rooms and unseasoned beds and frosty air, and chills\nafter full meetings, I feel as if it were a kind of living martyrdom\nto be encountering all this . . . But most gladly would I bear all,\nand a great deal more, if possible, for the sake of Him who so loved\nus as to lay down His very life for us, were I to behold substantial\nfruit to His praise and glory. I must however leave all to Him. My own\nshortcomings are ever before me . . .\n\n   \"Nothing sustains me but the divine assurance that the blood of Jesus\ncleanseth from all sin. Blessed Saviour! Who would not cheerfully toil\nand suffer for Thee!\"\n\nDr. Duff, exhausted, yet struggling on still, thus wrote to his wife\nwhen he was engaged on one of his preaching tours.\n\n   \"It is some relief to the mind to get disburdened, and to whom can I\ndisburden it if not to you, the partner of my joys and sorrows for\nnearly a quarter of a century. No one can over fully know how much I\noften suffer both in mind and body in the midst of these frequent,\nprolonged, and violent exertions: and to none but yourself can I ever\nmoot the subject except in the vaguest and most general terms. In the\nexcitement of speaking, the spirit forgets the fragility of the body,\nand therefore people think me strong. Oh! if they could see me in my\nsolitary chamber all alone . . . the whole frame feverish, the whole\nnervous system from the brain downwards in a state of total unrest. The\nvery tendency to sleep gone. Going to bed, as this morning, at half\npast one, not from sleepiness but from inability to sit up longer from\nexhaustion. Turning and tossing from side to side, and longing for\nsleep . . . Getting up, disquieted and unrefreshed, to meet a company\nat breakfast, with aching head besides and sorish throat . . . Yet,\nthe Lord be praised; in the midst of all this I have intervals of real\nspiritual enjoyment, indeed, when most weak and pained often is that\nenjoyment proportionally increased. And then the favour which the Lord\nshows me in the sight of His people, and the good so often unexpectedly\nachieved, all this makes me feel that what I suffer is the discipline\nof a Father's rod to keep me humble in walking before him.\"\n\nExhausted as the Missionary was, he could not refuse what he felt to be\na call from God to visit America, as he was earnestly entreated to do.\n\n\"We want to be stirred up there; there is plenty of material there, we\nneed only to be stirred up,\" was the appeal which Dr. Duff could not\nresist.\n\nHe knew that in two mighty countries of the West, the United States and\nCanada, embers, as it were, of Christian love were smouldering that\nmight be stirred up into a glorious blaze to illumine half the world.\nDuff's own heart was glowing with zeal, he must go, by God's grace,\nto infuse his own warmth into others. The Missionary embarked on the\ntwenty-eighth January, 1854, for the United States of America.\n\nAgain was Dr. Duff to meet with tempest and tribulation, though not\nthis time with shipwreck. Such a gale came that, in the Missionary's\nown words,\u2014\n\n   \"It looked at one time as if the vessel could not possibly survive\nit . . . On Thursday morning the spectacle presented by the vessel was\nmost extraordinary. Though it still blew hard, the sky cleared with\nintense frosty air, exhibiting the ship as if one huge mass of ice. The\ndeck was covered with it, several inches thick, the ropes, spars, and\nrigging; the masts up to their sails, all well encrusted in ice from\ntwo to six inches thick.\"\n\n[Illustration: NEW YORK, UNITED STATES.]\n\nIt was doubtless a wondrous and beautiful sight that of a large ship\nturned, as it seemed, into ice. But not only must the great cold have\ndestroyed anything like comfort, but the weight of the quantities of\nice sank the ship nine inches deeper in the water. Of course the hard\ncrust had to be knocked away, all hands were set to work to break off\nthe glittering masses; and we may hope that the violent exercise served\nto warm the chilled crew of the ice-mantled ship.\n\nWhen the vessel had almost reached the harbour, Dr. Duff thus wrote to\nhis wife.\n\n   \"To the Lord do I give thanks. He hath brought us at last over the\nstormy billows into a quiet haven. Nor has all this trial been in\nvain. When downright ill, the mind was utterly incapable of thought,\nbut there were intervals when, in spite of the sick sensations, the\nmind could variously exert itself. The whole of the past came up in\nreview before me, all the way in which the Lord hath led me. And Oh!\nhow humbling the retrospection as regards myself! The loving-kindnesses\nof the Lord how manifold; my own shortcomings in every way how\nmanifold . . . In the end I had no consolation whatever but in clinging\nas with a death grasp to the precious assurance that the blood of Jesus\nChrist cleanseth from all sin . . . I thought that if never heard of\nany more, and our vessel founder amid the stormy Atlantic waves, the\nLord might, in one way or other, overrule my death to the good of the\nsouls of the members of my family and raise up friends to them, and\nensure the furtherance of His own cause. On these points I came at\ntimes to a serene feeling of resignation to His holy will. But, if\nspared, Oh! how I longed to be a new burnished instrument in His hands.\nI wait for guidance, I wait for light in the path of duty. Oh! for\nsimple single-heartedness, and self-denying devotion to Him that loveth\nus!\"\n\nI will not attempt to give a detailed account of Dr. Duff's very\ninteresting visit to that grand country, the United States. He was\nwelcomed with a warmth and enthusiasm which quite astonished the\nMissionary.\n\n   \"Each one (in a large meeting) shook hands with me,\" he wrote, \"as if I\nwere an old familiar friend, as if he knew all about me, and hailed me\nas a brother in the Lord . . . I was lost in wonder, adoring gratitude,\nand love. I approached these shores with much anxiety, in much fear and\ntrembling. I felt an oppressive uneasiness of spirit which I could not\nshake off. My only relief was in casting myself entirely on the Lord,\nand in praying His will might be done, and His only . . . Surely, I\nfelt, this unparalleled reception must be a first smile of Jehovah.\"\n\nIndeed the loving kindness, the generous enthusiasm which Dr. Duff met\nas he passed from city to city, and held crowded meeting after meeting\nin the United States and the Dominion of Canada, was marvellous to\nbehold. If ever a man was half killed with kindness, that man was Dr.\nDuff. Every one was so eager to hear him, so impatient to see him, that\nhis small remaining stock of strength was utterly overtaxed. He wrote,\u2014\n\n   \"I am driven in spite of myself, to do more than I know I can well\nstand . . . If I could multiply myself into a hundred bodies, each with\nthe strength of a Hercules, and the mental and moral energy of a Paul,\nI could not overtake the calls and demands made on me here, and from\nmany other quarters since my arrival . . . All very delightful, if I\nhad the needful strength. But no strength of any man that ever lived\nwould stand out all this . . . As regards this place I have abundant\nsatisfaction in already knowing that I have not come here in vain.\"\n\nNo, indeed, Dr. Duff had not come to the West in vain, his labours bore\nrich and varied fruit. When he embarked again for home, a letter was\nput into his hand containing \u00a33000, or at least 30,000 rupees for the\nmissionary cause from New York and Philadelphia. Canada also gave her\ncheerful aid, and this though Dr. Duff \"had nowhere pleaded for money,\"\nand had only spoken of his own special work in India when pressed to\ndo so at social meetings. Nor were large subscriptions from various\nquarters all the results of that memorable visit; American love for\nmissions had been stirred up to a blaze which has never since died out.\nThe United States still give some of their noblest sons and daughters\nto work for the Lord in India, side by side with their brethren and\nsisters from England and Scotland.\n\nOn the morning of his embarkation, Dr. Duff preached for the last time\nin America to multitudes assembled to see him depart. With a loving\ngrateful heart he gave the people his solemn blessing, and all the\ncongregation rose to receive it. Then leaving the pulpit, and making\nhis way through crowds who pressed forward to have one more grasp of\nhis hand, the Missionary passed on to the steamer.\n\n   \"There,\" wrote an eye-witness, \"the scene defied description. The wharf\nand the noble 'Pacific' were crowded with Christians assembled to bid\nhim farewell. Many could only take him by the hand, weep and pass\non. Never did any man leave our shores so encompassed with Christian\nsympathy and affection.\"\n\nDr. Duff's visit to America had been a glorious success, but a heavy\nprice was to be paid for it by the exhausted Missionary. After his\nreturn home, Dr. Duff became fearfully ill. Congestion of the brain,\nfollowed by utter prostration of the over-worked mind, made the once\npowerful and talented man helpless as a little child. It was a cause\nof deep thankfulness, after a long space of time had elapsed, to find\nthat the grand mind was not permanently impaired, that the brain was\nrecovering its power.\n\n                           \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII.\n\nIN INDIA AGAIN.\n\nLong as it was before the invalid regained the power to work, with that\npower came the renewed desire to labour in India. Dr. Duff never forgot\nthat beloved land. How the Missionary felt may be shown by part of a\nletter written in 1853, before his last severe illness, to one of the\nIndian converts.\n\n   \"Separated from you in body I am continually with you in spirit, in the\nInstitution and among your classes. If I am remaining in this country\nlonger than I had expected, it is only for the sake of India's welfare.\nFor India is ever uppermost in my mind, and my prayer to God is that\nshe may yet be 'great, glorious and free.'\"\n\nAt last the earnest desire of the Missionary to return to his post\novercame all obstacles. On the 13th of October, 1855, for the third and\nlast time Dr. Duff started for India. He was still in weak health, but\nthe spirit firm and brave as ever. We can imagine the welcome which he\nreceived from his Calcutta children in Christ.\n\n\nHere an anecdote may be introduced which shows that Dr. Duff's power\nto draw out sympathy and liberality, was not limited to times when he\naddressed Europeans, Americans or Native Christians. At a period when\ngrievous famine desolated part of India, Dr. Duff was requested by a\nwealthy Baboo to make an address on the subject in his house. The upper\npart of the dwelling was occupied by native ladies, who behind their\npurdah could listen without being seen. Gentle is the heart of the\nHindu; Dr. Duff spoke not to those who were so full of their own cares\nor pleasures that they could not feel for others. Plates of rupees\nwere brought down from the ladies for the relief of the sufferers from\nfamine.\n\nA very terrible time for India was at hand, when the Missionary\nreturned to her shores. In May 1857 the fearful Mutiny broke out. We\nwill not dwell upon the story of horrors, a glimpse of which has been\ngiven in the 7th chapter. Calcutta was full of disturbance and alarm.\nDr. and Mrs. Duff lived in the native part of the city, entirely\nunprotected. Their friends implored them to retire to a safer place.\nBut the brave pair thought it better to remain at their post of duty.\nDr. Duff and other clergymen went on with their work.\n\nOne Sunday there was a very great panic in Calcutta; the Duffs and but\none other couple had the courage to remain in their dangerous quarters.\nBut, as the Missionary wrote, \"Faith in Jehovah as our Refuge and\nStrength led us to cling to our post, and we laid us down to sleep as\nusual; and on Monday morning my remark was, 'well, I have not enjoyed\nsuch a soft, sweet, refreshing rest for weeks past!' Oh! how our own\nhearts rose in adoring gratitude to Him who is the keeper of Israel,\nand who slumbers not, nor sleeps!\"\n\nDr. Duff's Bengal Mission went on growing; it was remarked that it\nhad never been so prosperous as in the Mutiny year. In his College\nand School about twelve hundred lads assembled, receiving freely\ninstruction in science and in the Christian religion. The Hindus\nthemselves were astonished at the large blessing vouchsafed by God to\nthe work.\n\n\nIn 1861 Dr. Duff had the grief of losing his spiritual son, the Rev.\nGopinath Nundi, whose sufferings and heroism in the Mutiny have already\nbeen related. The touching words in which the Missionary wrote of the\ndeparted convert, show how dear his native pupil was to his heart.\n\n   \"Little did I dream when parting with him then that it was the last\ntime I was to gaze on that mild but earnest countenance. Little did\nI dream when we knelt down together, hand in hand, in my study, to\ncommend each other to the Father of spirits, it was the last time we\nshould meet till we hail each other, before the throne on high, as\nredeemed by the blood of the Lamb. But so it has proved. I mourn over\nhim as I would over an only son, till at times my eyes are sore with\nweeping. It is not the sorrow of repining at the dispensation of a\ngracious God and loving Father, Oh! no! but the outburst and overflow\nof affectionate grief for one whom I loved as my own soul. But he has\ngone to his rest, and to his glorious reward!\"\n\n\nTwo years more of earnest, successful labour, and Dr. Duff's own\nworking days in India were over. In the month of July, 1863, dysentery\nagain laid him low. To save the Missionary's life, the doctors hurried\nhim off on a sea-voyage to China. This remedy was insufficient, and\nthe devoted Duff himself saw that after nearly a third of a century of\nalmost perpetual work, it was the Master's will that His servant should\nretire at last. Sore must have been the struggle in his mind, but Duff\nwas trained to believe that in all things God knows best. Bitter was\nthe trial of parting to the many natives of India who honoured and\nloved him, bitter to the Missionary himself.\n\nThe following is part of his reply to an address from a Society\nrepresenting all educated non-Christian Bengal. It expresses the\nfeelings with which this apostle of India quitted her shores for ever.\nHe comforted himself with the hope of that day when the Gospel shall\nspread through the length and breadth of the earth.\n\n   \"That bright and glorious era for India and the world I have long seen\nin the vision of faith. The vividly real hope of it has often sustained\nme amid toils and sufferings, calamities and reproaches, disappointment\nand reverse. And the assured prospect of its ultimate realisation\nhelps now to shoot some gleams of light athwart the darkness of my\nhorizon, and so far to blunt the keen edge of grief and sadness when\nabout to bid a final adieu to these long-loved Indian shores . . .\nSome of you may live to witness not merely its blissful dawn, but its\nmeridian effulgence; to me that privilege will not be vouchsafed. My\ndays are already in the sere and yellow leaf . . . the sap and vigour\nof summer's out-bursting fulness have well-nigh gone, leaving me dry\nand brittle like a withered herb or flower at the close of autumn; the\nhoar frost of old age, age prematurely old, grim wintry old age is fast\nsettling down upon me. But whether, under the ordinance of the High and\nHoly One who inhabiteth eternity, my days be few or many, whether my\nold age be one of decrepitude or of privileged usefulness, my best and\nlatest thoughts will be of India. Wherever I wander, wherever I rest,\nmy heart will be still in India.\"\n\nSo, attended by sorrowing, weeping friends, the wearied wasted\nMissionary went down to the ghaut, and embarked for Britain. Oh! What\ntear-dimmed eyes watched him as the vessel weighed anchor, and followed\nhim as the ship moved farther and farther away, which bore from his\nIndian children their friend and father! At last it was seen no more!\nDr. Duff had departed, but never to be forgotten; perhaps to this day\nthere is no man's name remembered in India with deeper reverence and\nlove, than that of the devoted Missionary, the gifted teacher, the\nChristian hero whose story we are relating.\n\n                           \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV.\n\nA GOLDEN SUNSET.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nAs this little book is specially designed to tell of Dr. Duff's mission\nwork in India, no account need be given of his many labours after\nquitting her shore. This however must be said, that if Dr. Duff had\nreached \"grim wintry old age,\" in that season, his life bore richer\nfruit to the glory of God and the good of man, than one mortal out of\na thousand brings forth during life's whole year. And on what labours,\nand what success the noble Duff could look back, since in youth's\nspringtime he gave himself to the Lord!\n\nIn Calcutta, instead of the hired house which could not hold all his\npupils so that they had to come in relays, in a splendid building,\nwhich cost 150,000 rupees, multitudes have received instruction. A\nproud man, in Duff's place, might have exclaimed: \"Lo! Where I went\nforth alone, in the single Free Church Mission to which I belong, there\nhave been in the last half-century one hundred and fifteen Scottish,\nand forty-four Native Missionaries, some still on earth, and some now\nin glory; of these how many did 'I' draw to the work! There were in\n1830 'two' primary schools in Bombay and Calcutta, now behold 'two\nhundred and ten' Colleges and Schools in the land, in which more than\nfifteen thousand youths and girls can hear the glad news of salvation;\nhow many of these institutions owe their beginning to me! The Free\nChurch of Scotland alone has numbered 6,458 adult converts; how many of\nthem were as sheaves gathered by me! And this is but a part of my work.\nIf a stream of liberality flows in the channel of missions, not only in\nmy own land but in others, how often have the springs which feed them\nbeen opened by me!\"\n\nBut we cannot even imagine the lowly Missionary uttering such words of\npride, or even in thought exulting presumptuously in the success which\nhe owed to the blessing of God. This is his own idea of what would be a\nsuitable inscription on his tomb.\n\n   \"Here lies Alexander Duff, by nature and practice a sinful guilty\ncreature, but saved through grace, through faith in the blood and\nrighteousness of his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.\"\n\nAnd were aught to be added to such an inscription, Dr. Duff would have\nit but this: \"by profession a Missionary; by his life and labours the\ntrue and constant friend of India.\"\n\n\nA heavy affliction came to Dr. Duff before he was called to his\nheavenly rest. Early in 1865 the light of his eyes, the joy of his\nheart, his beloved wife, sank to sleep in Jesus. Dr. Duff, as we have\nseen, was a man of very keen feelings, and sore must have been his\ngrief as he stood by the grave of her of whom he thus wrote:\n\n   \"My faithful loving spouse, my other half, who sustained and cheered\nand comforted me, and was not only the life of my dwelling but my very\nhome itself, . . . is gone! She is not, for God hath taken her to the\ntemple above, to serve and enjoy Him there for ever.\"\n\nThe aged Christian did not mourn as those without hope. As he writes in\na letter to his sorrowing son:\n\n   \"What my own feelings are I dare not venture to attempt to describe,\nnor would I if I could. The union cemented by upwards of thirty eight\nyears of a strangely eventful life, in many climes and amid many perils\nand trials and joys, so suddenly so abruptly brought to a final close\nin this world; Oh! it is agony to look on in itself. But when I turn to\nthe Saviour, and the saintly one now in glory, I do see the dark cloud\nso lustred with the rainbow of hope and promise, that I cannot but\nmingle joy with my sorrow, and we can all unite in praising the Lord\nfor His goodness, His marvellous loving-kindnesses towards me in the\nhour of our sore trial.\"\n\n\nBut one more scene shall be given from the life of Dr. Duff,\u2014and that\nscene is the last. In 1878 the aged Christian became so ill, that his\nsecond son was summoned by telegraph from India. He arrived in time to\njoin with Dr. Duff's daughter and grandson in loving ministry to the\ndying saint. The old Missionary's sun was calmly, peacefully setting,\namidst clouds of glory. When the first joy of seeing his son was over,\nthe pilgrim so near the end of his journey said, \"I am in God's hands\nto go or stay; if He has need of me He will raise me up, if otherwise\nit is far better.\"\n\nThoughtful to the last of his friends, Dr. Duff dictated a list of\nabout fifty persons to whom he wished books to be sent as a dying\nremembrance from him. When told that the doctor thought ill of his\ncase, quietly the sufferer replied, \"I never said with more calmness\nin my life, continually by day and by night, 'Thy will, my God, my God\nbe done!' In my own mind I see the whole scheme of redemption from\neternity more clear and glorious than I ever did.\"\n\nYes, it was on the perfect sacrifice Christ, the son of God, that the\neyes of the dying believer were fixed.\n\nDr. Duff's daughter repeated the beautiful hymn,\u2014\n\n     \"How sweet the name of Jesus sounds\n      To a believer's ear,\n   It soothes his sorrow, heals his wounds,\n      And drives away his fear.\"\n\nThe voice of Dr. Duff, so soon to be hushed in silence, exclaimed with\nemphasis, \"unspeakable!\"\n\nTruly the Christian, whether living or dying, in that blessed name can\nrejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory!\n\nThe Twenty-third Psalm was afterwards repeated by Dr. Duff's daughter\nto her dying father, as he lay apparently unconscious. But life was\nlingering yet, he responded at the end of each verse. How blessed when\nbelievers, passing through the valley of the shadow of death, can\nrealise as the Missionary did, \"I will fear no evil, for Thou art with\nme!\"\n\nAt last the once eloquent lips that so often had pleaded with and for\nthe sons of India, could utter no word more, yet still the departing\nsaint knew the voices of those whom he loved, and he showed his\nconsciousness by a tender grasp of the hand. The sun of life was\nslowly, calmly disappearing behind the horizon. The voice of the Master\nwhom Duff had deeply loved and faithfully served, was bidding him come\nup higher. The disciple was laying down the cross for ever, to receive\nthe heavenly crown. And so, in perfect peace, Alexander Duff sank\nto rest. We cannot follow his enraptured spirit as it rose from the\nslumbering clay, nor conceive the bliss which awaits him when the body\ntoo shall rise in the Resurrection-day!\n\n   \"Fulness of joy! on Christ's right hand to hear\n    Love's invitation to draw yet more near,\u2014\n    Ye blessed children\u2014come!\"\n\nAnd now the story of Alexander Duff's life has been briefly told. It\nonly remains to add a few words to the reader.\n\nIf you are not yet a follower of the Lord Jesus, if you are not yet\nassured that Christianity is of God, pause and look at the picture of a\nbeliever which has been placed before you. Was it mere natural goodness\nof heart that made Dr. Duff what he was? What nerved him to moot\ndifficulties, danger, distress with unflinching courage; what made him\nnot count his life dear to himself? What made him patient in trouble,\nand humble in triumph, working like a giant, yet trusting like a child?\nDo such fruits naturally grow on the trees of earth, and if not, must\nthey not have a heavenly origin? Duff could have given the answer, \"I\nlive by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.\"\nDuff's course was upward, onward, heavenward, because he was following\nthe steps of the Saviour, and pressing forward looking unto Jesus.\n\nReader! If you be a believer, then there is also a word for you. Has\nnot your conscience reproached you while reading the life of Dr. Duff?\nIs not his life and death a call to us not to stand idly looking on\nwhile labourers are sorely wanted in the Lord's great harvest field?\nIs there no sheaf which you can bind, is there no work which you can\ndo? Does not the example before you rouse your languid spirit like the\nblast of a trumpet? Rise and be doing for the time is short; use your\ntalents, be they few or many, to the sole glory of Him who gave them;\nthe fountain from which Alexander Duff drew strength is open to you,\nthe bliss upon which he has entered you may share; waiting, working,\npraying, praising, you too, with him may swell the victor's song,\ngiving \"glory, honour, thanksgiving and praise to Him who sitteth on\nthe throne, and to the Lamb for ever and ever!\"\n\n                           \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\n\n\n\n[Illustration: EDINBURGH, THE CAPITAL OF SCOTLAND.]","title":"The story of Dr. Duff","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":18388}