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THE LAND OF THE VEDA.

be against us.” Besides, our experience is not singular. Many missions that have been eminently successful have had very unpropitious beginnings; and God eminently honored the faith that did not shrink from difficulties. We recollect with what interest the Church of Scotland sent forth her first missionary, Dr. Duff, to lay the foundation of her mission in India. But seldom has a voyage been more protracted or disastrous than Dr. Duff's first voyage to India in 1830. His ship went down off the coast of Africa, and he lost all he possessed in the world, (including a valuable library, too,) except one copy of the word of God, he and his devoted wife barely escaping with their lives. They made their way to the Cape of Good Hope, and sailed again; but, off the Mauritius, came near foundering, and actually were a second time shipwrecked in the Bay of Bengal: so that their disastrous voyage lasted eight months from the time they left England till they reached Calcutta. But what a glorious work of God has sprung from that perilous and untoward commencement! God grant that the Methodist Mission to North India, notwithstanding “the fight of afflictions” in which it was begun, may find its sufferings, and its faith and patience, honored by similar success! And why not? I thank God we were not discouraged. Notwithstanding all we had passed through, or might pass through, we lost neither heart nor hope; we still held on to the expectation that India had a bright future before it, and that our mission would live, and “triumph in Christ,” among the very people at whose hands we had suffered.

The refugees from Moradabad reached us by the southern pass within a couple of hours of those from Bareilly. We went to meet them; and how hearty was each congratulation upon their escape and safe arrival! Each man, too, added to the force for our defense, and so strengthened us. One officer, as he came over the brow of the hill, and caught his first view of Nynee Tal, looked delighted, as he rested his loaded rifle by his side, till a sudden thought flushed his face with anxiety, and, turning to us, he asked, “But are we safe here?” We dared not answer; for we had been asking that question of our own fears for many previous hours, as