THE SOUTH INDIA MISSIONS. TRAVANCORE. V.-TWENTY YEARS AT COTTAYAM. HEC OU will remember Mr. Fenn, Mr. Baker at Cottayam living The letter ofthe Metran or Bishop, Mar Dionysius,1 shows that some of the Syrians at least were glad of the missionaries' coming. This Metran wrote a letter which he sent round to all the churches, telling his people to observe the Sunday, to keep away from the heathen feasts, and to welcome the help of the missionaries, who had come to do them good; and he sent to all the schools which Mr. Baker visited saying, "they must learn all they could from him and attend his preaching." Year after year the missionaries patiently continued their labour of love; they taught in the college, where they generally had about fifty students; they visited the schools, which were scattered over the country; they preached the Gospel of Jesus in the Syrian churches; they watched, and prayed, and waited for the signs that their work was bearing fruit, longing to find that the cold hearts of the Syrians were being stirred by the power of God's Spirit, that their teachers were beginning to see the sinfulness of their sacrifice of the mass, their prayers for the dead, their mixed worship of heathen gods and Christian saints and images, and that the people were turning away from these vain things and wished to worship God in spirit and in truth. And had they the joy of finding these signs? There is a sad answer in a letter they wrote in 1825, after seven years. "There is little improvement in the Syrian Cattanars." These Syrians were glad to have the Protestant Christians for their friends, they liked to be helped in rebuilding their churches, they sent their sons to get a good education, and they seemed willing to listen to advice, but they meant to stop short at these things, and when it came to parting with their unscriptural teaching and giving up their evil practices, "they wanted no changes," they said. But the missionaries had come to them just because there were so many things among them contrary to God's Word that needed to be changed. In 1825 there were fresh hindrances. Mar Dionysius, the Metran, who had been so friendly with the missionaries, died; and just as his successor was appointed there came from Antioch a Syrian bishop, who tried to get everything into his own power. We can tell what was the spirit in which he came, for one day in the church he threatened to tear the native bishop's robes off his back with his own hands if they were not given up to him immediately! He also claimed a right to have the college under his care. When he had been a year in Travancore he had done so much mischief that the Maharajah ordered him to leave the country, but the parties and divisions he had stirred up made the people less willing than ever to listen to the simple message of Gospel peace. In 1827, after Mr. Fenn had been teaching nine years at the college, he became so ill that he was obliged to leave Travancore for good, and come back to England. Dr. Duan took his place at the college. Then, in 1831 and 1833, Mr. Bailey and Mr. Baker had to come away also to take a short rest, for their strength was so worn out that they could work no longer. They were not able to leave helpers enough to carryon their work. I think you can hardly ever have read a story of missionary work, dear children, in which you have not found words something like this-not enough helpers. Who can tell how many battles fought for Christ our King in heathen lands have been lost, not because the enemy was too strong, but because the soldiers were too few for the fight? No soldiers waiting to fill up the gaps made by the brave men who have fallen in their Lord's battle-no reserve force ready at a moment's notice to go out and fill the place of those regiments who are weakened and worn out with long years of foreign service. We should be ashamed, should we not, if we found that we Englishmen were so idle or so cowardly that not enough soldiers could be found among us to fight the Queen's battles wherever they might be ordered? Let us hope that some day Christians at home will be ashamed to say, "We have not faith, or we have not courage to obey the orders of our King; we cannot come out to help you in fighting His battle." Mr. Baker and Mr. Bailey found when they went back to Cottayam in 1834 that their work had suffered sadly, and much ground had been lost in their absence for the want of helpers to take their place. The Syrian Church was in a still worse case than before. The Metran who followed Mar Dionysius took the side of the Cattanars who clung to the old customs; boys of twelve and fourteen were made Cattanars just because of the money they paid at their ordination, though he had promised the missionaries this should not be done. Then they ordained so many priests there was not money enough to pay their salary, and this was made up by the people being encouraged to pay for having prayers said for the dead. This was not all; even the students of the college were told that the missionaries' teaching was not true, and they were found disputing their words after class, encouraged by a Syrian teacher who pretended to agree with what they said. In 1835, Wilson, the Bishop of Calcutta, came to see if he could persuade the Syrians to mend their ways; they welcomed him and made some professions, but soon after he left they gave an order to forbid any youths going to the college where the missionaries taught. They declared by solemn oath, "We cannot deviate from the rites and ceremonies of our Syrian Church," and they closed this very declaration with a prayer to the Virgin Mary. Thus the leaders of the Syrian Church would not take the hand of those who tried to help them to come out into the light of God's truth, but they chose to stay in darkness. And now the missionaries knew the time was come when they must leave the college; they did so in 1838. We might expect, perhaps, that they would be angry and refuse to have anything more to do with the people who had disappointed their hopes; but instead of this, they felt like St. Paul, who said, even after the Jews had |