CHAPTER XIII.

IN INDIA AGAIN.

Long as it was before the invalid regained the power to work, with that power came the renewed desire to labour in India. Dr. Duff never forgot that beloved land. How the Missionary felt may be shown by part of a letter written in 1853, before his last severe illness, to one of the Indian converts.

"Separated from you in body I am continually with you in spirit, in the Institution and among your classes. If I am remaining in this country longer than I had expected, it is only for the sake of India's welfare. For India is ever uppermost in my mind, and my prayer to God is that she may yet be 'great, glorious and free.'"

At last the earnest desire of the Missionary to return to his post overcame all obstacles. On the 13th of October, 1855, for the third and last time Dr. Duff started for India. He was still in weak health, but the spirit firm and brave as ever. We can imagine the welcome which he received from his Calcutta children in Christ.

Here an anecdote may be introduced which shows that Dr. Duff's power to draw out sympathy and liberality, was not limited to times when he addressed Europeans, Americans or Native Christians. At a period when grievous famine desolated part of India, Dr. Duff was requested by a wealthy Baboo to make an address on the subject in his house. The upper part of the dwelling was occupied by native ladies, who behind their purdah could listen without being seen. Gentle is the heart of the Hindu; Dr. Duff spoke not to those who were so full of their own cares or pleasures that they could not feel for others. Plates of rupees were brought down from the ladies for the relief of the sufferers from famine.

A very terrible time for India was at hand, when the Missionary returned to her shores. In May 1857 the fearful Mutiny broke out. We will not dwell upon the story of horrors, a glimpse of which has been given in the 7th chapter. Calcutta was full of disturbance and alarm. Dr. and Mrs. Duff lived in the native part of the city, entirely unprotected. Their friends implored them to retire to a safer place. But the brave pair thought it better to remain at their post of duty. Dr. Duff and other clergymen went on with their work.

One Sunday there was a very great panic in Calcutta; the Duffs and but one other couple had the courage to remain in their dangerous quarters. But, as the Missionary wrote, "Faith in Jehovah as our Refuge and Strength led us to cling to our post, and we laid us down to sleep as usual; and on Monday morning my remark was, 'well, I have not enjoyed such a soft, sweet, refreshing rest for weeks past!' Oh! how our own hearts rose in adoring gratitude to Him who is the keeper of Israel, and who slumbers not, nor sleeps!"

Dr. Duff's Bengal Mission went on growing; it was remarked that it had never been so prosperous as in the Mutiny year. In his College and School about twelve hundred lads assembled, receiving freely instruction in science and in the Christian religion. The Hindus themselves were astonished at the large blessing vouchsafed by God to the work.

In 1861 Dr. Duff had the grief of losing his spiritual son, the Rev. Gopinath Nundi, whose sufferings and heroism in the Mutiny have already been related. The touching words in which the Missionary wrote of the departed convert, show how dear his native pupil was to his heart.

"Little did I dream when parting with him then that it was the last time I was to gaze on that mild but earnest countenance. Little did I dream when we knelt down together, hand in hand, in my study, to commend each other to the Father of spirits, it was the last time we should meet till we hail each other, before the throne on high, as redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. But so it has proved. I mourn over him as I would over an only son, till at times my eyes are sore with weeping. It is not the sorrow of repining at the dispensation of a gracious God and loving Father, Oh! no! but the outburst and overflow of affectionate grief for one whom I loved as my own soul. But he has gone to his rest, and to his glorious reward!"

Two years more of earnest, successful labour, and Dr. Duff's own working days in India were over. In the month of July, 1863, dysentery again laid him low. To save the Missionary's life, the doctors hurried him off on a sea-voyage to China. This remedy was insufficient, and the devoted Duff himself saw that after nearly a third of a century of almost perpetual work, it was the Master's will that His servant should retire at last. Sore must have been the struggle in his mind, but Duff was trained to believe that in all things God knows best. Bitter was the trial of parting to the many natives of India who honoured and loved him, bitter to the Missionary himself.

The following is part of his reply to an address from a Society representing all educated non-Christian Bengal. It expresses the feelings with which this apostle of India quitted her shores for ever. He comforted himself with the hope of that day when the Gospel shall spread through the length and breadth of the earth.

"That bright and glorious era for India and the world I have long seen in the vision of faith. The vividly real hope of it has often sustained me amid toils and sufferings, calamities and reproaches, disappointment and reverse. And the assured prospect of its ultimate realisation helps now to shoot some gleams of light athwart the darkness of my horizon, and so far to blunt the keen edge of grief and sadness when about to bid a final adieu to these long-loved Indian shores . . . Some of you may live to witness not merely its blissful dawn, but its meridian effulgence; to me that privilege will not be vouchsafed. My days are already in the sere and yellow leaf . . . the sap and vigour of summer's out-bursting fulness have well-nigh gone, leaving me dry and brittle like a withered herb or flower at the close of autumn; the hoar frost of old age, age prematurely old, grim wintry old age is fast settling down upon me. But whether, under the ordinance of the High and Holy One who inhabiteth eternity, my days be few or many, whether my old age be one of decrepitude or of privileged usefulness, my best and latest thoughts will be of India. Wherever I wander, wherever I rest, my heart will be still in India."

So, attended by sorrowing, weeping friends, the wearied wasted Missionary went down to the ghaut, and embarked for Britain. Oh! What tear-dimmed eyes watched him as the vessel weighed anchor, and followed him as the ship moved farther and farther away, which bore from his Indian children their friend and father! At last it was seen no more! Dr. Duff had departed, but never to be forgotten; perhaps to this day there is no man's name remembered in India with deeper reverence and love, than that of the devoted Missionary, the gifted teacher, the Christian hero whose story we are relating.

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