CHAPTER VI.

FIRST FRUITS.

It must not be thought that whilst the missionary opened the minds of his pupils, he for one day forgot the care of their souls. What avails human learning without that knowledge which leads to life eternal! Duff had seen a parable of this in his shipwreck. Eight hundred volumes which he had carefully chosen were destroyed; so were the papers on the writing of which he had bestowed weeks and months of pains; "but his Bible was left to him still!"

So when the flood of death swallows up the fruit of mere earthly labours, and the sage and the idiot alike are cast on the shore of eternity bare of all that belonged but to this world, the Word of God will abide for ever, the Christian's best treasure is left to him still.

The boys of Duff's school were every day taught pure religion, and their parents were invited to attend during the lesson.

One day that lesson was on Charity as described in the Thirteenth Chapter of First Corinthians. "Throughout, all were attentive, and the minds of a few became intensely riveted, while the glistening eye and the changeful countenance reflected as in a mirror the inward thought most clearly. At last when the concluding words of the inspired description of heavenly love was given, 'endureth all things,' a youth who but a few days before had risen to oppose the reading of the Bible, started from his seat exclaiming aloud, 'Oh! Sir! That is too good for us! who can act up to that, who can act up to that.'"

A deep impression was made on the mind of one young Hindu from the simple reading of the words that promise blessedness to him who loves and prays for his enemy. For days and weeks the youth could not help crying out, "'Love your enemies, bless them that curse you!' How beautiful! how divine! surely this is the truth!"

Duff's explanation of the causes and nature of rain led his bright lads to understand that it neither comes from Indra, nor from a celestial elephant. They felt that they had been too long grossly deceived in matters of science. In some minds there was doubtless a struggle between the new ideas and the old. "What becomes of our Shaster if your account be true?" asked a young Brahman. "The Shaster is true, Brahma is true, and your Gurus must accordingly be false, 'and yet it looks like the truth.'"

On the occasion of an eclipse, a true exposition being given of the real cause of the wonder, a very great shock was given to Hindu prejudice. Many of the intelligent lads perceived that the wild tales which they had been told about a monster attacking the sun, were not only false but absurd.

The movement going on was one which could not be hidden; Gurus and Brahmans, accustomed to be adored almost as gods, saw that Hinduism itself was in danger. Those whom it had been their interest to keep in darkness, were having their eyes opened. The Brahmans determined to crush the Missionary school. A decree went forth that whoever attended it should be excluded from caste. It was suggested that a yellow flag should be placed before the school to warn all Hindus from entering so dangerous a place.

The timid people were frightened by the threats of those who had been their spiritual leaders. The school was almost deserted. Only half a dozen boys sat on the benches that had been crowded by three hundred. But the panic lasted for a very short time; in less than a week, back came the deserters. Dr. Duff went calmly on with his duties till his classes were more crowded than ever.

In the second year of the Missionary's labours in Calcutta, he received a note from a Hindu which must have thrilled his heart with joy. It was written by one who had been tossing on an ocean of doubt, but was now seeing the lights in the port. Mokesh Chunder Ghose sent his own brother to Mr. Duff with the following remarkable letter.

"If you can make a Christian of him you will have a valuable one, and you may rest assured that you have my hearty consent to it. Convince him and make him a Christian, I will give no secret opposition. Scepticism has made me too miserable to wish my dear brother the same. A doubtfulness of the existence of another world, and of the benevolence of God, made me too unhappy and spread a gloom all over my mind, but I thank God that I have no doubts at present. I am travelling from step to step, and Christianity, I think, will be the last place where I shall rest, for every time I think, its evidence becomes too overpowering."

Oh! With what delight must the faithful Missionary have read such a letter! With what fervour must he have prayed that the enquirer should never never pause, until he found rest indeed, and for ever, at the feet of the Blessed Jesus!

Such a prayer was granted. The brave young Hindu dared to come out and confess Christ openly by baptism. Mokesh Chunder Ghose stood forward as the first convert given to Duff. The young man's own account of his conversion, given before many witnesses is too interesting not to be inserted here. After long silence Mokesh Chunder Ghose thus broke forth.

"A twelve month ago I was an atheist . . . and what am I now? 'A baptized Christian!' A twelve month ago I was the most miserable of the miserable, and what am I now? In my own mind 'the happiest of the happy.' What a change! How has it been brought about? The recollection of the past fills me with wonder.

"When I first came to your lectures it was not instruction that I wanted. Instruction was the pretext; a secret desire to expose what I reckoned your irrational and superstitious follies was the reality. At last against my inclination, against my feelings I was obliged to admit the truth of Christianity. Its evidence was so strong that I could not resist it. But I still felt contrary to what I 'thought.' On hearing your account of the nature of sin, and especially sins of the heart, my conscience burst on me like a volcano. My soul was pierced through . . . I was in a hell of torment. On hearing and examining further I began, I know not how or why, to find relief from the words of your Bible. What I once thought most irrational I soon found to be very wisdom, what I once hated most I soon began to love most, and now I love it altogether . . . 'In spite of myself I became a Christian.' Surely some unseen power must have been guiding me! Surely this must have been what your Bible calls grace, free grace, sovereign grace!"

Such was the simple, straight forward, manly confession of Alexander Duff's first Hindu convert.

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