to the concerns of his soul. The hardy mariner burst into tears, and exclaimed "Stop. stop, don't talk to me so, it is just as my mother talked to me when I was a boy." A mother's counsel had followed him through all his wanderings, and still the words of her who prayed for him, retained their hold on his conscience. The time has come when it is esteemed a greater honour to be the mother of Brainerd or a Martyn, than of a Cæsar or a Napoleon. And suppose the mothers of these men, whose characters, though so widely different, are so universally known, should, from their unchanging state, look upon those sons whom they have nourished; what would be the view presented to them? Who would not choose to have given birth to the Christian heroes? It is not for this short state of existence only that you are to train your children. The little group that now cluster round you are destined for immortality. When the world on which they stand shall have passed away, and its pleasures and its honours shall be forgotten, then they whom you have introduced to this state of being will but begin to live. Their characters are now forming for eternity, and you are aiding to form them. Though you may not design it, though you may quiet yourself that, if you can do them no good, you will not do them injury, yet you exert an influence which is felt, and will be felt when your head is laid in the dust. Let, then, this appeal to a mother's feelings be heard; let it come to your own bosom, and ponder it in your heart. Do you know the way to a throne of mercy; and can you kneel before it, and forget the chiidren of your love? Can you watch their closing eyes, and not commit them to your God? You see them growing up around you without hope and without God in the world, and can you refuse to pray that He, who in a peculiar manner extends the arms of mercy to those in the morning of life, would take them to his embrace, and prepare them for his kingdom?

You have seen the hand of disease fasten upon them, and have passed days of anxious toil and nights of sleepless solicitude to arrest their malady; and have cried from a bursting heart, "Oh, spare my child!" You have seen the object of your tenderest affection sinking in the arms of death, and with a heart rent with anguish have said, with the nobleman, "Come down ere my child die." And when the last duties of parental affection were performed, and the grave had closed over the child of your bosom, you have perhaps looked back to the time when it was under your care and mourned that you thought no more of its immortal part, that you prayed no more for its precious soul. If you have passed through scenes like these; if you have thus felt; then remember those now in life and health, and improve the opportunity now given you. The time for your exertion is very short. Soon your children will arrive at that period when a mother's influence will be feebly felt, unless it has been early exerted. Would you find in them a rich source of consolation when your head shall become white with years, and your body be bending to the grave? then you will now commit them to him who can sanctify and save the soul. Should you go down to the grave and leave these object of your love in a cold, unfeeling world, what better can you do for them than to secure the friendship of one who sticketh closer than a brother, and whose love is stronger than death?

The tender tie which now binds you to them will soon be dissolved; you cannot resist the stroke which shall tear them from your bosom. You may have felt the pang-your heart may have been filled with sorrow. O then, if you ever pray, if your soul ever went out to your Father and your God in humble petitions, tell him of your children who know him not; when you know what it is to wrestle in secret with the God of Jacob, give him back in faith your children. Then you may hope, through grace,

to say, in that other world to which you are going, "Lord, here am I, and the children whom thou hast given me."

Should this address fall into the hands of a mother who never prayed even for herself, she must, she cannot but pray for those to whom she has given life. Prayerless mothers, spare, oh spare, your children! stop where you now are, on the threshold of eternity, and remember, as you gaze on those countenances which smile in your bosom, that you have never prayed for their souls which will live for ever. Have you a mother's feelings, and can you still neglect this?

Oh! give me poverty, give me pain! leave me friendless and forsaken by the world-but leave me not to the embrace of a prayerless mother; leave not my soul to the care of one who never raised her weeping eyes to heaven, to implore its blessing on my head.

Are you a mother, and can you close your eyes upon the scenes of earth, and remember that you never raised, even in your silent breathings, the desires of your heart to heaven for a child, perhaps your only darling?

In some lonely hour, when the labours of the day are ended, and you have performed the last act of kindness for your sleeping babes; kneel, if you never have before, kneel before him who seeth your heart in that silent hour, and utter one short prayer, one broken petition of penitence, faith, and love to the Saviour of sinners for your dear children.

V.-Oppressions of Zemindars.

To the Editors of the Calcutta Christian Observer.

GENTLEMEN,

It is delightful to see the large amount of public interest which Missionary operations are beginning to excite in this country. The difficulties which oppose the Missionary's labours, and the means by which they may be met and overcome, occupy the attention of many influential and benevolent individuals. The temporal condition however, of our Christian converts, I suspect has not excited that interest, which it demands. Many doubtless have been deterred from taking up the subject, from a fear of representing our holy religion as a matter of mere temporal advantage, and from a laudable jealousy lest, the high claims which Christianity, from its native excellence and dignity, has upon the attention of every man, should be weakened by diluting it with secular prospects and interests. Christianity is indeed great gain independently of all secular advantages and the man who is not prepared to embrace and profess it for its own sake,-for the moral dignity which it impresses on the character, and the influence it exerts over the affections, for the present happiness it imparts, and the future prospects it unfolds, is unworthy of its name and destitute of all right to be numbered among its disciples. Although the main design of the Gospel is not the improvement of man's secular condition, it will nevertheless be admitted that so

far from overlooking this, it has a powerful bearing on his present and temporal as well as on his future and eternal happiness. It would be easy to show, were it necessary, from the nature of Christianity as well as from its history, that civilization, morality, intelligence, personal and social comfort and happiness have always followed in its train. If this be admitted, as I presume it will by every one acquainted with the subject; it then becomes a matter of serious inquiry how far the condition of our native converts presents a tangible proof of the blessings which Christianity bestows; and how Missionaries and others may labour to improve the personal and social comfort of their brethren, in consistency with the higher and more direct aims of the Gospel? Converts to Christianity, in this part of the country, are principally found among agriculturists, a race of people beyond description oppressed and impoverished. Is it not our duty to protect our people, to ameliorate their condition, to teach them habits of industry and a better system of agriculture? I do not mean to say that Missionaries ought to become mechanics and farmers. But how can they see their people cruelly oppressed by an avaricious unprincipled Zemindar, their families reduced to penury and want without feeling for them and helping them? This is a subject which has been long impressed upon my mind, and I am happy to see that it has at last been taken up by an able writer in the Christian Intelligencer. Thes oil on which we live is proverbial for its fecundity and richness. In these respects it is equalled by few, perhaps surpassed by no other country. But notwithstanding the abundant blessings which Providence has scattered upon the soil, the inhabitants who cultivate that soil, are perhaps the most abject, impoverished serfs in the world. God has crowned the land with plenty and endowed it, in a high degree, with productive powers, but the cruelty of man to man counteracts the blessings of a kind Providence, and converts a land overflowing with abundance into the habitations of penury and wretchedness. The state of the ryuts of this country requires only to be mentioned in order to excite the interest of a discerning public. The cruelty and oppression by which the faces of the people are ground require only to be known to call forth the sympathy of every benevolent breast. It is not my intention at present to enter into particulars, in order to bring to light the oppression under which the people groan; this I shall attempt at a future opportunity, and will not fail, with your permission, to unmask the enormous evils of the zemindary system as at present in operation. Many of your readers are well acquainted with the subject, and it is to be hoped that some of them will be induced to furnish you with facts in order to ex

pose to public view the wickedness that is practised. This is a work of humanity and I believe well deserving a place in your pages. To attempt to ameliorate the condition of our fellow-man and to protect the oppressed is our duty as Christians. To expose a system of oppression and iniquity is a duty which we owe to the public and to the Government under which we live. Strange as it may appear, it is a fact that under a Government justly famed for the liberality and clemency of its measures, the bulk of the people, the labouring and agricultural population, are groaning under a system of the most heart-rending cruelty and despotism on the part of the Zemindars and their myrmidons.

It may be said that the courts are open to the ryut as well as to the Zemindar. Alas this is a sorry consolation to the poor man, for as the writer in the Intelligencer has well remarked, "the length of the purse gains the day." Such is the system of bribery and bad faith existing in all the courts that a rich Zemindar is never under the least apprehension of not carrying any cause against his ryuts. Permit me, as an illustration, to give the following instance with which I am personally acquainted. A poor ryut in the zemindary of inherited from his

forefathers, the privilege of taking all the fish brought by the tide into a small jhíl, at the rent of 74 rupees per annum. About 12 years ago, the Zemindar's náib perceiving that the poor man contrived to support his family upon the profits of the fishery, insisted upon doubling the rent, and in order the more effectually to do so, forcibly deprived the man of his paṭṭá. He complained against this oppression and violence, but being too poor to be able to bribe the umlahs, and other harpies of the court, the case has been tossed about from court to court for the last 12 years, and is not yet decided, and the poor ryut and his family have been living in a state of poverty ever since. But the evil consequences of his having applied for redress do not end here. The Zemindar has wreaked his vengeance not only upon him, but upon all his connections, and not one of them can get a bigah of land from him. Had this man been able to pay a good bribe, it is probable that the case would have been soon decided in his favour. This is not a singular instance; thousands of similar cases might easily be produced: such in fact is the agricultural state of Bengal, that a regular system of chicanery and oppression is practised by every individual, from the highest of the Zemindar's myrmidons down to the lowest, (and in many cases he also comes in for a share of the booty;) and the weight of the whole comes upon the poor ryuts. No wonder that he is such an abject creature, no wonder that he is devoid of character, and will in his turn cheat if he can. He learns the lesson at a high price from his superiors. Where will this

fearful evil stop? It is vain to attempt to raise this people in moral excellency of character, so long as this system of wickedness is so prevalent. Your excellent periodical, Gentlemen, is I hope destined to do much good to this country. Allow me to entreat you to agitate this subject, to bring it before the public. It has an important bearing upon Missionary operations as every Missionary who has a native church has felt; but Missionaries as such can do little or nothing, as it would be prejudicial to their main object to interfere in quarrels and litigations. To enter into any detailed plan at present, to ameliorate the condition of the ryut, would be premature. Let the subject be first fairly discussed, in order that the public may be well informed, and this will lead to the formation of some definite plan, to meet the existing evil. It ought to be taken up on the general grounds of humanity founded on Christian principles. It would not, 1 conceive, be prudent for any Missionary body, as such, to take an active part in any plan that may be proposed. A society for protecting the ryuts, and for giving them pecuniary assistance ought to be formed; doubtless it would be ably supported by all those who feel an interest in the well-being of the natives, but especially by those who desire the advancement of Christ's kingdom in this country. I leave the cause of the oppressèd ryuts, among whom are most of the native Christians, in your hands; trusting that you will agitate the subject, and call forth the sentiments of some of your correspondents, that something may be attempted to check a widely extended and growing evil, which, if not stopt in its progress, will soon present an irresistible barrier to all moral improvement, to all social confidence and happiness.

Yours sincerely,

T.

SIR,

VI.-Chapter of Varieties.

1.-TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

It was truly gratifying to read in your No. of the Observer for February an account of the interesting meetings which took place in Calcutta at the beginning of the New Year. No doubt the different Societies in that important city will be greatly benefited, when such exertions have been made, and interest taken for their further advancement. But is it not strange, that in the year 1838 there was no meeting for a "Temperance Society?" There are Societies of this kind, in the principal cities and Towns of Europe and America, and they have been the means of doing a vast deal of good; this, no one can deny, and one should think there ought to be such an institution for the population of Calcutta, there are