CHAPTER X.

TUMULTS AND THREATS.

Education work grew fast and increased, as the banyan-tree sends down shoots that themselves grow to be trees. Before Dr. Duff had reached the age of forty, there were three colleges and many schools belonging to the Scottish mission. Many indeed were the learners, but it is only now and then that one is found bold enough and faithful enough to come out openly and declare what he believes in his heart. Such a one was Umesh Chander Sirkar.

For two years the Bible teaching in the college had deeply impressed the soul of the young Hindu. His friends in alarm, advised him to study "infidel" writings; they would rather have him devoid of all religion than a believer in Christ! They would rather, as it were, put out his eyes, than let him fix their gaze on the Saviour! But what Umesh Chander read made him but the more firmly a Christian. He was youthful, only sixteen; he longed to keep with him his sweet child-wife, then only ten years of age. For two years the young couple in the dead of night studied the Scriptures together; at no other time could they have been safe from interruption. It was a sight to make angels rejoice when the youth, his own heart glowing with holy love, taught the child-wife to look to Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life! Umesh Chander's words dropped like seed on a rich soil, the little Hindu wife showed herself worthy of her husband.

At last Umesh Chander put into the girl' hand that wonderful allegory, the "Pilgrim's Progress." The quick mind of the little Hindu grasped the meaning of the parable. When the girl of twelve read the description of Christian's flight from the City of Destruction, she exclaimed, "Is not this exactly our condition? Are we not now living in the City of Destruction? Is it not our duty to act like Christian, to arise, forsake all, and flee our lives?"

The brave child's words seem to have brought her husband to a decision. The next idol-festival gave an opportunity for flight.

It was a Sabbath evening; a meeting for prayer had been held with native converts. After it, Dr. Duff had retired to his own room. It was to him a time of great anxiety and trial. News from Scotland had troubled him greatly. Dark clouds seemed to be gathering round; even his brave heart was oppressed with care. Such seasons come to try the faith of the most devoted Christians. Dr. Duff was wondering how God would interfere to deliver His people from their distresses, when his sad thoughts had a delightful interruption.

Suddenly Umesh Chander with his brave little wife, and Jugadishwar, a convert who had aided their escape, appeared before him! In the joy of his heart the Missionary exclaimed, "The Lord be praised!"

But a terrible tumult was to follow. Not even Gopinath's conversion had excited such a commotion. Umesh Chander's father was a man of great power as well as bigotry; he was the treasurer of the Mullik family who possessed enormous wealth. The Mulliks and Sirkars with their numerous followers besieged the house of Dr. Duff, the place of refuge which had been sought by the youthful pair. The mob attempted violence, they were full of wrath and fury. Dr. Duff had to keep his door fast closed to prevent the fugitives thronging in and carrying off his guests by force. Finding that they could not rush in, the Hindus changed their mode of attack. The scene was changed to a court of justice. Umesh Chander's father, boldly lying, declared that his son was but fourteen years of age, and that Dr. Duff was keeping him in his house by force and against the boy's own will! What must that religion be which needs the prop of falsehood!

The Chief Justice appeared on the Bench, the case was investigated at once. The convert was proved to be really upwards of eighteen years of age. No question was raised about the wife; the brave child was allowed to remain with her husband. Both were baptised together, two youthful pilgrims starting hand in hand on their journey to the Heavenly City. Oh! Tie of marriage how close and how blessed when husband and wife are "one in the Lord!" This was the first instance in Bengal of a wedded Hindu pair receiving baptism together.

It is some time since Umesh Chander Sirkar reached his celestial home, but it is interesting to know that his wife still survives, and works amongst Hindu girls! May she win many to enter on the same blessed flight from the City of Destruction!

About a week after the double baptism, the tumult was repeated; another Christian convert had dared to confess his faith! Baikunta Nath Day took refuge with Dr. Smith from the storm which his conversion had raised. But the protection of this house proved less effectual than that of Dr. Duff's had been. While the Missionary was absent, the poor fugitive was torn by force from the dwelling, carried off to a relative's house, and "imprisoned in chains!" And actually Baikunta's family were wicked enough to try to bind him in the yet stronger chains of "vice!" If they could make him utterly vile, they thought that he would be unfitted to become a Christian. What cared they for the ruin of his soul, so that the family were not disgraced by his adopting the religion of the pure and spotless Jesus!

But the dear lad was strengthened to resist all the temptations which man or devil could bring to drag him down to perdition. And the Lord delivered Baikunta not only out of temptation but out of his chains. The place of his confinement was discovered, and the law obliged his tormentors to give up their prey. The Rev. Baikunta Nath now preaches the Gospel of Christ.

The Hindus exerted themselves to the utmost to ruin the work of Christian education. Their efforts at first seemed to have great success. The number of Dr. Duff's pupils had risen to above a thousand in daily attendance, but he lost three hundred youths in one week!

Nor was this all that tried the Missionary. More baptisms fanned the flame of bigotry into farther fury. Four more Koolin Brahmans had confessed the Saviour. A violent anti-Christian meeting was held. Actually a plot was formed to get rid altogether of the great opponent of idolatry, Dr. Duff. If his eloquent persuasive tongue could be silenced in no other way, it could be silenced in death. How easy to hire ruffians to waylay and attack him.

Dr. Duff received kindly warnings of his danger. One person wrote, "There is, I hear, a conspiracy amongst the wealthy Baboos to hire some ruffians to maltreat you. If you treat it (the report) with contempt, you will go on us usual; on the contrary if you think the report to be true, you will avoid going out at night, or rather never go the same road twice together."

Another wrote, "I have been credibly and seriously informed this day that there is, or is to be, a plot by which some ruffians of the baser sorts are hired to assault you . . . pray do not at least go out by night &c."

The brave soul of Dr. Duff was not to be moved by personal fear. He published a paper headed "A word of faithful and firm yet kindly admonition to some of the Calcutta Baboos." This paper is too long to be inserted in full, but an extract will show the writer's spirit.

"As to the rumour of threats regarding myself, I shall continue to regard them as an idle tale. Amongst the Calcutta Baboos there are those whom I respect and esteem, and to whose keeping I would at any time entrust my life, in the most perfect confidence of friendship and protection. If others, who do not know me personally, should in ignorance of my principles and motives, entertain unkindly or hostile feelings towards me, the fact would be in no way surprising. Even if the alleged threats were real, and not the progeny of lying fiction, I should not be in the least moved by them. My trust is in God."

And towards the end of his paper, Dr. Duff alluding to the well-known saying that "the blood of martyrs is the seed of the church," thus shows his calm confidence that even his murder could do no real injury to the cause of God and His truth.

"The first actual missionary martyrdom that shall be enacted in this heavenly cause may do more, under the over-ruling Providence of God to precipitate the inevitable doom of Hinduism, and speed on the chariot of Gospel triumph, than would the establishment of a thousand additional Christian schools, or the delivery of ten thousand additional Christian addresses throughout the towns and villages of this mighty empire."

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