faithful unto death, and I will give unto thee a crown of life. Oh that I may obtain that crown!" He added, "Christ left everything for us; it is only right that we should give up a little for Him. Mr. French was always saying this to us. Alas! how few there are who are willing to do this. I should greatly like to finish my work at Pind Dadan Khan. I have a great desire to preach. The people are bad, yet we must tell them of the Lord's mercy." We were a very little band as we stood round his grave on the 9th December-only Yakub, the Native Christian chowkidar, and the Native Christian schoolmaster of Bhawa, and the Collector of Customs at Kheura, who kindly came five miles to show his sympathy-a very small company, in view of a very large town of heathens and Muhammadans. I earnestly desired that all my Native Christian brethern in Lahore and Amritsar could have been there too, to gather some instruction from that open grave, if perchance there might be one heart touched by a generous impulse to stand in the breach and to say, in response to that silent appeal, "Lord, here am I, send me." CHAPTER VIII. SIMLA AND KOTGURH, WE have spoken of our Church Missionary Society's central stations in the midst of the Punjab Proper. We now proceed to give a brief account of our long line of Frontier Missions, which begin at Simla, and terminate in Kurrachee on the sea. It was in the year 1840, that the first committee met together in Simla to establish a Christian Mission in the Himalaya. It consisted of Mr. Gorton of the Civil Service, Captain Jackson of the Bengal Artillery, Captain Graham, General Smith, Dr. Dempster, Major Boileau, and Captain Rainey. They were amongst the first residents at Simla; and the names of two of them are handed down to the present day in "Gorton Castle" and "Boileau Gunge." The Simla and Kotgurh Missions are, thus, the oldest Missions of the Church of England in the Punjab, and in the Diocese of Lahore. All other Missions were commenced afterwards. We notice that Simla, as well as Kotgurh, has always been one of the Missions of the Church Missionary Society. These Missions, like most others in the Punjab, owe their origin to the earnest zeal and effort of Christian laymen, who in a few years collected more than Rs. 15,000 for them. Mr. Gorton alone subscribed Rs. 100 a month to the Himalaya Mission; and at his death, in 1844, he bequeathed to the Mission Rs. 22,000, which has since become Rs. 31,500, and is still called the "Gorton Fund," from which the chief part of the expenses of the Kotgurh Mission are now defrayed. In transferring the whole of the funds of the Himalaya Mission to the Church Missionary Society, the local Committee wrote thus to the Parent Society :-"From the first we were anxious to enter into the closest connexion with you. We are anxious to secure not only the permanence and enlargement of the Mission, but the acknowledgment and continuance of decided evangelical views. We want to be clear on this subject; and desire, as far as in us lies, the prevention of any uncertain sound' of the Gospel trumpet. The blessing of God has hitherto accompanied you. You have been enabled to uphold and maintain the truth as it is in Jesus; and you have the means to undertake the important work which we have pointed out to you. We are persuaded that if you undertake the Himalaya Mission, our whole object, and more than that, will be gained." The Missionaries who have laboured in Kotgurh and Simla have been Mr. Rudolph (who afterwards joined the American Presbyterian Society), the Revd. M. Wilkinson, the Revd. Dr. Prochnow, the Revd. J. N. Merk, the Revd. W. Keene, Mr. Sandys, Mr. Beutel, and the Revd. A. W. Rebsch, who, after more than 20 years of faithful and devoted labour in Kotgurh, and as many more years of Missionary toil in other stations in the plains, has at last retired from the direct work of the Society, and now lives in Simla, where he still assists the Society's Missionary work. Our present Missionary in Kotgurh is the Revd. A. Bailey; and our Native Pastor in Simla is the Revd. T. Edwards, who has left a lucrative position to minister to the Native congregation, and has lately been ordained by the Bishop of Lahore to the Pastorate charge of the Christians in this station. Kotgurh (called by the natives Gurukot, or the residence of the Guru, whose grave is still seen in the midst of the village, decorated with colored flags), is situated on the high road from Simla to Thibet. It is 54 miles from Simla, It is built on a and is 6,700 feet above the level of the sea. The well-known traveller, Captain Gerard, who for a time lived in Kotgurh, writes: "Kotgurh is free from fogs; has good water; a population close together of 1,200 souls; and is just opposite to Kulu, a populous district on the other side of the Sutledge. The people are very simple, and show a great anxiety to be educated by us; and fairs are held in the neighbourhood, which would greatly help the spread of the Gospel to distant nations. It is a most interesting tract; and a better field could not offer itself for a Missionary establishment." This was written 40 years ago. In 1873 Kotgurh contained 41 villages, with a population of 2,400 souls. Human sacrifices were formerly offered up to the gods; and a cave is still seen near Kotgurh, where a young girl was annually sacrificed to the demon of the place. It is a bleak and weird looking spot, and is still accounted an accursed place, on which goats and cattle are not permitted to graze. When we visited it in 1881, we were told that on the last occasion, when a beautiful girl of 15 was brought by the priests to be immolated, a storm arose; and the swollen stream carried away both altar and temple, and scattered all the people. The offering up of human sacrifices has, from that time, ceased. In former years infanticide used to be common; and as lately as the year 1840, four cases were brought to light by Government, in which parents had buried their children alive. Polyandria was also practised. It was not uncommon for three or four brothers to marry one woman, who was the wife of all in rotation. As most men had not sufficient means to purchase and maintain a wife, it was the custom for several men to club together, and buy one common spouse. The children belonged to all. Soon after, the school at Kotgurh had been opened, it was observed that two men brought food to one of the boys; and that both called him son. The two men had married one woman; and they had only one son, whom both considered as their own. Superstition and ignorance then everywhere prevailed. Every accident or misfortune was attributed to the genii of the different places, some of whom were believed to preside over the crops; some held influence over the heart of man; some over the mountains, or forests, or sources of rivers. In most villages flocks of goats were kept for sacrificial purposes. Every peak, cave, forest, fountain and rock still has its presiding demon, one of whom is appropriately called "Shaitan," whose effigy is brought out on special occasions, with human masks fixed on it, and the people dance before it, waving branches or swords. And in this land of vice and ignorance, we see that tea and wheat and barley and other cereals grow; and that rice, which rivals that of Bengal, is largely cultivated. We see that all the timber trees of the Himalaya are represented in the forests; and that apricots, peaches, apples, pears, mulberries, figs, oranges, citrons, limes, plantains, walnuts, hazelnut, sgrow in profusion wherever they are planted. No wonder that the feelings of Christian men were moved when they saw the ravages which idolatry and ignorance of God had made in a country like this, a country which lay at their very doors, and which in their excursions from Simla they often visited. No wonder that Captain Jackson, in a most affecting letter, writes thus :-"For my part, it seems that the Lord hath opened the way, and made it plain for us to establish here a Church Mission; and I pledge myself, as long as the Lord may spare my life, to pay £60 annually, in any way the Committee may direct, either in England or India." Kotgurh lies midway between Brahminism and Lamaism. Some 25 miles beyond Kotgurh scarcely a Brahmin can be |