successful efforts he had made to do good among the poor. This letter having been shewn to an officer in the East-India Company's service,a new direction was given to all his prospects in life. In the month of February, 1785, he was invited by this officer, Major Mitchell, to undertake the task of superintending an institution recently formed in Bengal, for the support and education of the orphans, of both sexes, belonging to the indigent deceased Europeans of that presidency. He was at first disinclined to listen to this proposal, deeming it his duty to pursue his academical studies to their natural termination; but the friends whom he consulted being of a contrary opinion, he yielded to their judgment, and agreed to accept the situation that had been offered to him, provided he could obtain episcopal ordination. Here, however, a new difficulty arose. Dr. Lowth, then Bishop of London, gave a peremptory refusal to his application, alleging, that he had already or dained several men for the colonies, who afterwards remained lounging about town, a disgrace to the clerical profession. On this repulse, Major Mitchell applied to the late Bishop of Llandaff, Dr. Watson, who agreed, that if the Archbishop of Canterbury saw no impropriety in his ordaining Mr. Brown, after what had passed, he would cheerfully do it. The Archbishop approved of the proceeding, and Mr. Brown was ordained by the Bishop of Llandaff on the 26th of February, 1785. The Bishop shewed him much pastoral regard: he had himself conducted a long and close examination of Mr. Brown, and he gave him much valuable counsel, which proved afterwards a comfort and support to him. His Lordship's last words were; "Go in peace, and may the blessing of God go with you! Do all the good you can; and if it is no better for you in this world, it will be in the world to come."

The Society for promoting Christian Knowledge elected Mr. Brown a corresponding member, gave him books, and recommended him to the Court of Directors of the EastIndia Company, who, with great liberality, advanced 300 guineas for his outfit. He did not leave England until the month of November following. The interval appears, from his journal, to have been passed partly among his friends in Yorkshire, but chiefly in London. During this time the frame of his mind appears to have been that of devotedness to God's service, and resignation to his will. Before the East-India Company had resolved to make him an advance, he experienced much pecuniary inconvenience. On one occasion he observes; "My duties this day have been, preaching two sermons, reading prayers three times, a funeral, a churching, and a christening. Major this morning came to church, and begged me to make use of a ten-pound note as long as I wished. I had but two shillings remaining, which I left this evening with a poor soldier whose wife lay-in of twins, which last Sunday I baptized, My God, continue to help me to serve thee, and follow me this day and every day with thy blessing!"

From an incidental expression in his journal, Mr. Brown appears to have been married about this time; a circumstance which, probably, added to his pecuniary dif ficulties. "I am now," he says, "to reside in Chelsea, and have very little money and food to provide for my wife and self. The Lord will provide. Of this he has given me a precious token this evening; for unexpectedly were sent in various supplies."

The friends whose regard he seems at this time to have cherished with the greatest affection, were Mr. Simeon, the Messrs. Lloyds, of King's College, Cambridge, and Mr. Houseman. Mr. Simeon accompanied him to the ship in which

he embarked for India, on the 15th of Nov. 1785, with Mrs. Brown, who was delivered on board, of a son, on the 1st of February. The journal of his voyage exhibits the same deep piety which was visible in his former memoranda, and contains many interesting details. The following incident is selected merely because it marks that union of firm ness and suavity which was characteristie of Mr. Brown's mind.

"Feb. 25, 1786. The evening of the day was remarkable for a debate, in which my sentiments respecting Bong-singing, drinking to excess, &c. were brought to the test. After a glass of claret, I declined taking more, when the Captain forcibly urged me, and would have taken my glass and filled it: but with a determined air I told him, he might as easily attempt to shake Gibraltar as to shake me from my purpose. It was replied, "Then you must sing.' I told them I considered it as inconsistent with my character, and 1 could not oblige them by a violation of my judgment. This was followed by arguments on the necessity of being good company, of the innocence of festivity, &c. The Captain observed, that we ought to accommodate ourselves to the spirit of the company we sit down with, and that it was only good breeding and harmless to do so. I replied, that I was a great advocate for liberty; that I gave large scope to others to follow their own judg ments, and thatI valued myself on this prerogative: I had opinions that I could not part with to oblige any company whatever;-that a man must be dastardly and unprincipled who would, to please others, act contrary to his judgment, and thus give up the most precious right of human nature; that as to the innocence of song-singing, I would not hesitate to affirm, that some songs were really criminal, and by no rules of morality to be justified, and that to me all seemed improper and inconsistent. I added, that it was contrary to good sense as well

as good breeding, to press a person after such a declaration; and that I did not doubt but the present company would have as contemp tible an opinion of me as I deserved, should I comply; and concluded by saying to the Captain, that I did not believe it would give him any satisfaction to hurt my feelings, but that I should disoblige him by granting what they had asked. To this he made a short and proper answer-that I should never more be pressed to do any thing disa greeable or contrary to my judg ment, so long as I was in his ship. Mrs. reddened, and could not conceal the ebullition of passion excited by my serious harangue. She affirmed, that she knew a cler gyman, the best of men, whose respectable character none need blush to copy, who would sing a lively or jolly song and think no harm. I objected to any man's opinion or conduct being a rule of action for me: there were clergymen capable of doing things that debased their character, and sunk them beneath their dignity. She made another pass at me before she desisted: People will never think worse of you for singing a cheerful song, and being gay a lit tle. I answered, that my aim was not the opinion of others: I referred my conduct to a higher law than the law of reputation. The conversation ended amicably, and in my complete enfranchisement."

The ship reached Madras Roads on the 27th of May, when Mr. Brown learnt the afflicting news of the loss of the Halsewell Indiaman, in which he had intended to sail in preference to every other: he had even actually applied to Captain Pierce for a passage. "Alas!" he observes, "how blind is man! Let us be content, with St. Peter, to be well assured that the hidden things of the providence of God we shall know hereafter. Our defect in foreknowledge is more than amply provided for in the knowledge, wisdom, and goodness of God. O

that I may hang on him as a son on his father, and forget my cares and dangers in the abiding conscious. ness of his ever-watchful protection!"

On the 8th of June, 1806, Mr. Brown landed at Calcutta, where he met with a kind reception from the Rev. John Owen, now the Chaplain-General of our naval and military forces; from Mr.Charles Grant; and Mr. Chambers He took up his abode at the Orphan Establishment; and a few days after his arrival, he received a farther appointment as one of the chaplains of the Company. On entering on the charge of the Orphan Establishment, he prays, May these souls committed to my care be led to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus, and be instructed in all right things, to the praise and glory of God! O Lord, my joy will be to see them trained in the way they should go ; but give them thy Spirit, which alone can direct and keep them in right paths."

Mr. Brown had not been in Calcutta above a month before he began his efforts for a mission to the natives. He had been diligently preparing himself for this while on board ship, by a study of one or two of the oriental languages; and we find him devoting a part of his time at Calcutta, to the acquisition of Bengalee, and expressing his hope (December 3, 1786) that the Lord would enable him to acquire this language, that he might "translate the Scriptures of truth for the benefit of the poor benighted heathen of this land." His letters during the year 1787, as well as his journal, evince much anxiety on this head. "I am beginning," he says, a native school of young Hindoos, who will not only be my scholars but my family and property." "This I consider as the first seed of Christianity sown on the native soil of Bengal." He drew up a Memoir on the subject, "entitled a Proposal for establishing a Protestant Mission in Bengal

and Bahar," which was forwarded to England.

In this Memoir, which is framed with singular wisdom, while it manifests an ardent zeal in the cause he had espoused, he recommended the measure of translating the Scriptures into the different languages of the East, and the sending forth of missionaries to instruct the natives"fit men, of free minds, disinterested, zealous, and patient of labour, who would aspire to the arduous office of a missionary." After assigning his reasons for desiring to have young clergymen of the Church of England, he adds: "But genuine piety is the grand requisite in a missionary. His work must be his business, his delight, and reward. Whoever is greedy of gain and seeks great things for himself, whoever prefers a life of ease and competence to a life of toil with an humble subsistence, is not fit for the purpose. But men who are ready to endure hardship, and to suffer the loss of all things; who count not their own lives dear to them, and who are willing to do and suffer for the sake of the Gospel: these are the men who are wanted; these are the true missionaries to instruct the heathen successfully in the way of salvation."

This Memoir was presented to the East-India Company; and Mr. Brown, at the same time, addressed letters to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Llandaff, Mr. Wilberforce, and other distin. guished characters in this country, urging them to use their utmost efforts to draw the public attention to this object, and to gain for it the sanction of Government. Thus, as Mr. Simeon justly observes, long before the great Missionary Societies, or the Bible Society, had been thought of, did this honoured servant of Christ, in conjunction with his two friends Mr. Grant and Mr. Chambers, urge, with great force and energy, the claims of the natives on our Government, and

the duty of imparting to them the blessings of civil and religious light. But the zeal and earnestness which have since been called into action had not yet been kindled, and Mr. Brown's efforts proved for a time fruitless. He lived, however, to witness the dawn of a brighter day.

In the year 1766, the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge endeavoured to form a mission at Calcutta, and sent thither for that purpose the Rev. Mr. Kiernander, who had resided for some time as a missionary on the Coromandel Coast. Mr. Kiernander laboured with considerable assiduity, but with little success, for many years. He erected a church in Calcutta, which continues to be known by the name of the Mission Church, and in which he performed Divine Service. In consequence of this undertaking, and various other disappointments, his circumstances became embarrassed, and his property, being seized by his creditors, was exposed to sale. This happened in the year 1787, soon after Mr. Brown's arrival in India. On this occasion Mr. Grant came forward, with his accustomed liberality, and purchased the Mission Church for 10,000 rupees, with the view of devoting it exclusively to its original object. In October 1787, the property was vested in three Trustees; Mr. Brown, Mr. Chambers and Mr. Grant; Mr. Brown undertaking, in addition to his other duties, to officiate in it. This engagement, however, was not satisfactory to the managers of the Orphan Establishment, who in sisted on bis either renouncing it or quitting their service. He chose the latter alternative, though it was attended with some pecuniary loss; and in August, 1788, he left the Orphan House.

The Trustees communicated these proceedings to the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, sending to them at the same time a copy of the Memoir that had been drawn

up on the subject of a mission to Bengal. The reply of the Society is so creditable to both parties, that I have much pleasure in inserting an extract from it. "I have the pleasure," says Dr. Gaskin, who was then as now the Secretary of this venerable institution, "to inform you, that the contents of your letter were received with much satisfaction, and the part you have acted respecting the concerns of the mission and the Mission Church hath greatly endeared you to the Society." "That you have stepped forward to rescue it from secular uses, and secure it for the sole purposes of religion, is a matter that speaks creditably for you as Englishmen, Christians, and members of our national church. Your act, therefore, is highly approved by the Society; and in the most cordial manner they fall in with your wishes of sending out a new mis sionary to carry on the sacred purposes they have all along had in view in Calcutta." "The proposal for establishing a mission on a more extensive scale, in Bengal and Bahar, which you were so good as to transmit to my hands, has been listened to by the Mission Committee and the General Board with peculiar satisfaction. They apr prove its plan, and admire the judgment and piety, with which it has been drawn up, and only lament that it is not in their power to give full effect to your wishes. hope, however, may be encouraged that the time is shortly coming when efforts for introducing the knowledge of Christ throughout your parts of India may generally take place; and whereinsoever the Society can be aiding to forward such designs they will not be found wanting."

The

Mr. Brown's life at this period, as well as during the whole of his remaining course, was one of considerable labour. While he retained the superintendance of the Orphan Establishment, he was zealous and indefatigable in the dis

charge of its duties. Besides being chaplain to a brigade in Fort William, he voluntarily undertook, with the approbation of his brother chaplains, the charge of the Mission Church; officiating at each of these points in succession every Sunday. On separating from the Orphan Institution, he received private pupils into his house, and this domestic school was much in request. He paid great attention at the same time to the Free-school of Calcutta, and statedly visited the hospital and gaol, in order to impart religious instruction to the inmates of these places. At the gaol, he was blessed with remarkable success, as indeed he had been in England, in bis endeavours to awaken convicts to a sense of their sins, and to bring them to unfeigned repentance. Be sides all this, he continued to apply himself assiduously to the acquisition of the native languages, with a view to his being eventually serviceable in translating the Scriptures. His studies in this line, however, were greatly impeded by the necessary attention he was forced to pay to the increasing duties of his ministerial office, and at length gave place to more successful labourers in the same field.

The following extracts from his journal will shew the devout and pious frame of his mind at this period:-"My anxiety and grief for the mission still continue upon my mind. Nothing remains for me but prayer to the Lord, that he will please to raise up men whose zeal shall never abate of its fervour, and whose exertions shall be unwearied in carrying on so great a work. I hope I may be permitted to say thus much, that I feel disposed to labour wheresoever the Lord shall open a door. My chief delight is, to meditate on and preach the unsearchable riches of Christ; and I would this were my only employ ment, but that the wish is selfish and shews me to be too fond of happy moments. I think I am

now where God would have me to. be: may I be found faithful in his service!" "My soul thirsteth after a better country, where the inhabitants follow righteousness, peace, and love, and where Jesus walketh in the midst, conversing as a friend face to face. The company of hea ven is a most delightful meditation! My friends will there appear in perfect beauty, and the Redeemer himself in the midst, the King of Glory! Oh, my Saviour, what earthly prince can do thus for his best friends? Thou art worthy of all my love, talents, strength, and time. Lord, help me to devote all these fully to thee alone." for the spirit of a Brainerd or á Howard, on whom I have been thinking and conversing this day !"

(To be continued.)

To the Editor of the Christian Observer. THOUGH the character of “a plain man" may suit well enough with the common affairs of life, it carries bat little value with it in religious controversy, unless it is united with the character also of a wellinformed man. I have been led to make this remark by observing in your Miscellany for November last, p. 698, a communication on the baptismal controversy from a writer signing himself Q. C.

Q. C. represents himself as having made, and being astonished with, the discovery of "an important fact," which seems to him so clear and decisive that "it deties all the efforts of the most torturing criticism to wrest it froni its obvious and natural application."-I imagine the surprise of this writer might have expanded itself through a wider space than that of the arena occupied at present by those "acute disputants on the baptismal controversy" he speaks of, as I am not aware of any commentator, either of early or later date, having made the discovery which Q. C. has; or that it was ever supposed, by any one who