Original Papers.

SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF THE REV. J. J. WEITBRECHT, LATE MISSIONARY AT BURDWAN, BENGAL.*

DENOMINATIONAL effort has a tendency to narrow the mind, and curb the outgoings of Christian benevolence. It is not necessarily so; and yet many fancy there is no good doing except in connexion with themselves, and some even own to a lurking idea that no good can be done unless they, some way or other, have a hand in it. To many who derive their information, as to missionary effort, from the records of the Presbyterian Churches alone, such biographies as those of Henry Martyn and J. J. Weitbrecht, would be sources of wonder. They do not conceive of the Church of England as a Missionary Church, and cannot fancy her priests leading the lives of self-devotion, characteristic of the earnest missionary.

Yet the Church of England has sent forth many a patient, and painstaking, and devoted missionary. Many an one who has taken his life in his hand, and gone forth to carry the tidings of salvation into the swamps and jungles of India. The fascinating biography of Martyn has familiarized us with his daily labours, and constant, prayerful yearnings over India's dark millions-millions, in efforts for whose salvation he toiled even unto death. The life of one like-minded, has just been given to the public. We owe a debt of gratitude to Mrs. Weitbrecht for the deeply interesting narrative of her husband's labours-labours, continued in season and out of season for twenty-one years, and only terminated by an early death at fifty. We propose to present our readers with a brief outline of Mr. Weitbrecht's life.

He was the third of seven sons, born at Schorndorf, in the kingdom of Wirtemburg, on the 2d of April, 1802,-" a day of sorrow and joy," he wrote afterwards, "in my paternal home. A little sister died in the morning and I was born on the evening of the same day." His parents were pious, and they were blessed to see a large family walking in the way of truth. The simple habits and homely training of the primitive Wurtemburgers were well suited to give habits of self-reliance; and specially fitted the subject of our sketch for his future vocation. The first impressions made upon his heart he traced to his mother's early teaching, though he lost her when he was only six years old. A godly step-mother continued what she began, and the sense of divine things was deepened in him by the death of his father, when he was seventeen.

Mr. Weitbrecht entered first on business, and by it was led to Stuttgart. "While there," he says, "the day of salvation came to me indeed. The powerful and evangelical preaching of the sainted Holfacher revealed to me more and more of the plague of my own heart; and after many an internal struggle, and much earnest prayer, the blessed hour arrived when I was to find Christ and to be united to Him, to be separated no more." He had before this much desired to become a missionary.

He now

Memoir of the Rev. J. J. Weitbrecht, late missionary of the Church Missionary Society, at Burdwan, Bengal: compiled from his Journal and Letters, by his Widow. London: Nisbet and Co.

No. 80.-New Series.

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VOL. VI.

resolved to be one, and in 1825 he proceeded to the missionary seminary at Basle. "This seminary," we are informed, "was established in 1817, after the fall of Napoleon, as a suitable token of gratitude to God for the delivery of Germany from the yoke of France. An intimate connexion has existed for many years between it and the Church (of England) Missionary Society; and an annual supply of students has usually been sent to London to complete, in the Church Missionary College at Islington, their preparation for the stations to which they are destined."

Mr. Weitbrecht underwent a preliminary training of three years at Basle. He afterwards, in India, thus affectionately sketched the Mission seminary: "The whole establishment, consisting of about sixty individuals, presents the beautiful picture of a family living in the most unbroken harmony; humility, peace, and love reign there in a higher degree than the writer ever remembers to have witnessed elsewhere. A sweet spirit of prayer pervades the place, which is fostered by voluntary meetings between the members of the various classes and the teachers. It may truly be said that prayer and praise resound through the dwelling continually; and this, doubtless, is the key-stone to the happy spirit of its inmates. It were indeed devoutly to be wished, that every missionary who leaves that place might ever retain the spirit of simplicity and piety which he brings thence, and keep alive in its full warmth the feeling which so animates both teachers and students there—that a missionary needs more than the mere frame-work of human learning, and that his own soul must stand in the right position before God, if he wish to become a useful and efficient labourer among the heathen."

Here Mr. Weitbrecht not only prosecuted his studies diligently, but he soon became fully occupied in doing good to others. He was the leader and instructor of a band of young men in the town, who met together for mutual edification and prayer; and he frequently presided at a weekly religious Meeting which was in charge of the junior tutors and senior students of the Missionary Seminary. He held early morning prayers in the town prison, and taught Sunday-school classes there likewise; and after being licensed to preach, he embraced every opportunity of publicly declaring the Gospel of salvation in various country churches around; once making a little tour at Christmas, for this purpose. Ilis disposition was amiable and affectionate; his fellow-students confided in him, and looked up to him for counsel and comfort. His letters to his own family, during this period, show us how he was growing in grace, and in the knowledge of Jesus; and he left for England with this thought impressed upon him, in view of the work before him, "Shall I remain faithful to the Lord, and promote his honour under all circumstances?" But he could also say, "Thank God, the Saviour still lives. He has overcome Himself, and gives his soldiers the right weapons both for the fight and for the victory. Faith, a living faith in Him, is what we need. This is the victory that overcometh the world."

Appropriate sentiments for a chosen vessel to bear God's name to the Gentiles !

On the 20th of December, 1828, Mr. Weitbrecht landed at Ramsgate. "As I set my foot for the first time on English ground," he writes, "I uttered the earnest prayer, May this be a blessed land to me !" We are told that on reaching London, between eleven and twelve at night, he proceeded at once to the Church Missionary-house, believing, according

to an idea not then unusual in Germany, that a considerable part of the business done here is carried on by night. He was somewhat surprised to find that the office had long been closed, and that it was necessary for him to wait till the following day to see the Secretary. He was speedily received into the Islington Institution, and made acquainted with Mr. Bickersteth, Mr. Jowett, and others. He spent his Sabbath evenings in Mr. Jowett's family circle, which he found a great pleasure.

It was at first designed that Mr. Weitbrecht should go to Abyssinia, and with that view a native of that country, John Coffin, was placed in his charge for instruction, with the hope also that he would be able to learn the Tigree language from him. In both these aspects of his labours, at this time, he encountered many and great difficulties. The boy was intractable, and very troublesome, and the help he could get from him, in Tigree, very small. He records, "I try to gain words from John (the Abyssinian youth), and write them in a book. I then try to form conjunctions and declensions. Mr. Bickersteth said to me the other day, John must be my grammar, lexicon, and reading book."

He had scarcely settled down at Islington when it was found necessary, on account of the health of his charge, to send them both into Devonshire. At Brixton, there, he prosecuted his labours with earnest diligence; and though he got little or no help from his wilful pupil, he yet managed to make some progress in Tigree and Amharic, and even began to translate the Gospels into Ethiopic. After seven months of this trying work, it was found that nothing could be made of the boy, and Mr. Weitbrecht returned to pursue his studies at Islington.

İle was ordained deacon on Trinity Sunday, 1830, and was afterwards permitted to preach in Islington workhouse, where he delivered his first English sermon from the words, "Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him." His studies at this time included medicine, a most important branch of the education of a missionary. When ready to be ordained, his destination was finally fixed for India, a change to which he joyfully consented; and when he commenced the study of Bengali, it was the fourth language to which he had applied, in the prospect of different fields of labour.

On the 27th of August he left London, and early in the following January he reached Calcutta. Before leaving England he received a letter from the pious mother of the captain of the vessel, who wrote to him, although she did not know him personally, commending her son to his notice and prayers. Captain Young was then quite a man of the world, though there is reason to believe he was eventually brought home to Christ, a circumstance which, when communicated to Mr. Weitbrecht afterwards, encouraged him much. During this voyage he only allowed one service on Sabbath, and did not give Mr. Weitbrecht full liberty to do all he would have liked for the passengers; but he was permitted to go among the sailors and distribute tracts and the Scriptures; and he fixed an hour on Sabbath morning, after the service, when every one might come and receive these supplies, and not one was left without the Word of life. Mr. Weitbrecht also embraced that welcome opportunity to speak to each man singly about "the one thing needful," and perceived some very encouraging signs in several of them. One or two of the passengers were also, he hoped, truly impressed with divine things. These efforts were not accomplished without many trials-but he persevered. He preached his farewell

sermon on board from the words, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure ;" and in bidding his fellow-passengers adieu, he expressed his hope that they might so apply his exhortations as to give him the prospect of a joyful reunion with them on the morning of the resurrection.

It was with no common feelings that, on the very evening of his arrival in Calcutta, he witnessed the native Christians assembled for a prayermeeting, and, as he wrote, "saw some twenty swarthy faces around him, and heard their voices joining in a hymn of praise to our common Lord and Redeemer."

Here, for the present, we leave him, hoping to trace his farther history on a future occasion.

THE EDUCATIONAL CONDITION OF ENGLAND IN 1851. ANOTHER bulky volume has just been issued from "Her Majesty's Stationery-office," containing 267 pages of elaborate Tables, the results of the Census on Education in England and Wales, taken in 1851. In addition to these tables there is a Report extending over ninety-two pages, prepared by Mr. Horace Mann, exhibiting the same clearness and painstaking industry which characterized his able Report on Religious Worship, twenty thousand copies of which have already been sold in an abridged form.

We regret to observe that the Bishop of Oxford has thought fit to make a most unjustifiable attack on the Report last named-or rather on the Dissenters of England-in a speech in the House of Lords. Bitterly mortified at the results of the Census, he charged the Dissenters with making unwarrantable efforts to increase the attendance at their chapels on the Census Sunday, and then to have exaggerated that attendance even beyond the capacity of the buildings! But these charges have fallen lightly on those they were meant for, and have recoiled upon the heads of the worthy prelate and his clerical correspondents.

The Report before us states that the difficulties encountered in prosecuting the inquiry on education were considerable, owing to the opposition which the scheme met with from some quarters, which led to the discovery that inquiries on this subject did not come within the scope of the Census Act, and could not, therefore, be assisted by the compulsory provisions applicable to the other departments. It was, therefore, necessary to prosecute the inquiry on a purely voluntary basis, and, accordingly, 30,610 enumerators delivered schedules of the questions to 70,000 heads of schools. But it is much to be regretted that when the returns were delivered it was found that in a large number of cases no information had been received.

"Stated summarily, the result of the inquiry is, that returns have been received from 44,836 day-schools (15,411 public and 29,425 private), from 23,137 Sundayschools, from 1,545 evening-schools for adults, and from 1,057 literary, scientific, and Mechanics' Institutions. But in addition to the above number of schools, from which returns were received, the lists supplied by the enumerators make mention of 1,206 other day-schools (107 public and 1,099 private) and 377 other Sundayschools, from which no returns were procurable. If we assume that each of these last-named schools contained, upon an average, as many scholars as did each of the schools which made returns, the ultimate result of the educational census will be this: Day-schools-public, 15,518; private, 30,524; total, 46,042. Scholars at