English language well. She had an unbounded zeal to do good, and an ardent hope for the elevation of her sex in India, though she knew their deep degradation far better than we did. But it was then a dark day in Bareilly.
Maria had been led to Christ while on a visit to Calcutta, through the instrumentality of the Baptist missionaries there. Thus, the first Church Member of American Methodism in India was contributed by the English Baptists, while American Presbyterianism donated the first Native Preacher to lay the foundation of our work in that land. No opening then appeared, even to her, by which we could reach and enlighten the daughters of India. Every door seemed shut, and we could not obtain a single female scholar to instruct or save. But Maria believed that the morning light would break soon, and a better day would dawn upon her country, and that it was near at hand. We would sit and converse with her, and then, with our hearts full of mingled hope and anxiety, would kneel down and implore God Almighty to come to our aid, and open a door of faith to those millions of souls so closely shut up. Prayer would give us renewed confidence, and help us to hang upon the naked promise of our God, while we struggled hard to answer the anxiety of our hearts as they would exclaim, “Watchman, what of the night?”
This precious girl, who, of all her race and sex in Bareilly, alone loved us for the Gospel’s sake, seemed raised up to encourage and aid us in our new mission. She was likely to become as faithful a helper to my wife as “Joel” was to me. But the fearful Rebellion broke over the land, and Sepoy bigotry aimed to extinguish every vestige of Gospel light in India. Maria became a martyr for Christianity. Her blood baptized the soil of Bareilly and made it sacred forever for our mission and for Christ. And there, on the very spot where she fell, has sprung up a harvest of good for the daughters of India of the realization of which we had but feeble hope in those dark days before the Mutiny.
This wood-cut of the Mission-House and Orphanage at Bareilly represents the first spot in India where the denominational stand-
