also increased, but the chief advantage to the Society's work would be the closer attention which would be given carefully to it, by those whose talents and experience would give the greatest weight to their opinions and advice.

In the meantime the Missionaries of the Divinity College in Lahore have been invited to visit Simla during their summer long vacations, from 1st July to the 30th September.

CHAPTER IX.

KANGRA.

THE next Mission on our frontier line is that of Kangra. The Kangra District contains 730,845 inhabitants, of which 637,635 are Hindus. The whole district, like Cashmire, is one of the most beautiful countries imaginable. It is "a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills"; a land of fruits and rich harvests, a land where the people can eat their food without scarceness, and need not lack anything in it. Nature has done everything for Kangra. It contains mountains which rise to the height of 16,000 feet, with their forests of oaks and pines, and glades and little side valleys, with streams of water everywhere, and the richest and most fertile plains, in some of which the tea-planters have made their gardens, in the direction of Palampore. The Revd. C. Reuther wrote respecting it :-"The country all round is pretty, likea garden of the Lord; and that it may become so in a spiritual point of view, is my constant prayer." Kangra itself is about 2,500 feet above the sea, and is thus beyond the reach of the hot winds of the Punjab plains. The heat for two months is excessive, owing to the stillness of the air; but at other times the climate is delicious.

The Kangra Mission owes its existence to the counsel. and efforts of Mr. (afterwards Sir Donald) McLeod. It was commenced by Mr. Merk, in 1854; when the house which was built by General Lake, then Deputy Commissioner of Kangra, was purchased for a Mission House from Sir T. Douglas Forsyth, then Assistant Commissioner, on the removal of the civil station from Kangra to Dhurmsalla

Mr. Merk's incumbency lasted from 1854 to 1874, with a short intermission of about two years, when Mr. Menge acted for him when he was on furlough at home. On his death in 1874, he was succeeded by the Revd. C. Reuther. Mr. Merk now lies in the Dhurmsalla graveyard, not very far from the tomb of Lord Elgin, the late Governor-General of India; and Mr. Reuther was laid to rest in the pretty Native cemetery in Kangra, where he died in January, 1879. From that time till March, 1882, the Mission suffered from the want of a head, notwithstanding the visits of many Missionaries. Our Society has lately appointed Mrs. Reuther to the charge of the Mission, in which she is ably assisted by her two daughters, one of whom is a Missionary of the Zenana Missionary Society.

It was the writer's privilege, in October last, to baptize no less than nineteen persons in Kangra and the adjoining station of Dhurmsalla, in Missions which our Church Missionary Society were a short time ago on the very point of relinquishing, on the alleged ground of their unproductiveness. The new converts belong chiefly to the servant class, and are most of them connected with the family of our dear friends, the late General Prior (who died a few months ago, after a long and useful life) and Mrs. Prior. It will be a great encouragement to many in Northern India to hear of this accession to this Christian Church from the servant class. There are many Christian friends in India who devote much time and attention to the instruction of their servants, with, perhaps, little apparent result. There are many who leave India, or die, without seeing the conversion of men and women, who, for twenty or twenty-five years, perhaps, have ministered faithfully to their temporal wants, whom they have often spoken to and often prayed for. Such persons may well be content to wait. The ground of our patience is our perfect trust in God and in His Word. Just as the husband

man sows his seed, and waits for the harvest, and finds that through all the changing seasons Nature may be trusted; so they who sow the seed of the Word of God in the hearts of men can afford to wait for the harvest of souls, because they have perfect trust in the power of the Word of God. They know the wondrous life which lies concealed in that Word, and know that the vital germ will be developed ultimately in the future plant. We believe in the capacities of the human soul for the reception of the Word of God. We believe in the influences of the Spirit of God to quicken the seed and to fertilize the heart. We, therefore, are content to wait. The Christian example, and the long-continued efforts of our dear friends, General and Mrs. Prior, in Dhurmsalla, have not been lost.

The Kangra register of baptisms contains the names of 120 Natives, who have, through its instrumentality, been admitted into the Church of Christ. Of these, twenty-nine were heathen men, thirteen heathen women, twenty-three heathen children, and fifty-five children of Christian parents. There are also many other entries of European births, deaths, and marriages. The first marriage which was entered in the Kangra Mission register, was that of Donald F. McLeod (our late Lieutenant-Governor), married on the 10th October 1854, to Frances Mary, the daughter of Sir Robert Montgomery (also a Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab), and grand-daughter of Mr. Thomason, Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Provinces. The first death recorded in the Kangra Mission register of burials is that of Frances Mary, wife of Donald F. McLeod, on the 22nd August, 1855, aged 20. The marriage was performed by the Revd. T. H. Fitzpatrick, a C.M.S. Missionary; and the burial by the Revd. J. N. Merk, also a C.M.S. Missionary. Both the husband and the wife, together with both of these Missionaries who married and buried them, are now in Heaven. A few more names follow in the burial

register, and we then come to that of Frances Anne, wife of William D. Arnold, Esq., (son of Dr. Arnold of Rugby, and first Director of Public Instruction in the Punjab), who died on the 24th March, 1858, aged 33 years; about seven months after the birth of her youngest child (who bears her name), who was born on the 7th September, 1857 (the year of the Mutiny), and whose baptism is entered amongst the baptisms. Both the baptism and the funeral were performed by the C.M.S. Missionary, Mr. Merk, in whose house Mrs. Arnold died. There are many other names in the Kangra registers which are familiar to Punjab residents; but we will not here mention more than these.

In the Kangra Boys' School there are now, under Mr. Banerjea, 77 pupils. Miss Reuther has an interesting Girls' Purda School of about 15 Mahomedan pupils in the town; and Miss Ida Reuther is in charge of an excellant school for Hindu and Christian pupils, which has about 40 pupils.

The Dhurmsalla Boys' School, under Marcus, has 64 names on its rolls. Most of the boys are Gurkhas; only nine Mahomedans and 12 Hindus being present. The Revd. Mr. Tribe, the Chaplain at Dhurmsalla, has very kindly now undertaken the superintendence of this school for the Society. A local committee has been appointed, of which Mr. Tribe has very kindly consented to be the Secretary. The Mission in Dhurmsalla is also greatly helped by Mr. Leman, the Bandmaster of the Gurkha Regiment, and Mrs. Leman, who has become the local Superintendent of the Girls' School.

A catechist is now required in Kangra to take the place of Samuel Fathu, who, after twenty-five years' service, has retired on a small pension. A second catechist is needed in Dhurmsalla; and it is very desirable also, that a third catechist should be located in Nurpur, one of the largest cities in the Kangra District. The number of catechists in the