INDIA'S WOMEN.

VOL. IV.

MAY-JUNE 1884.

No. 21.

Endia.1

A land which the Lord thy God careth for; the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.'

'DOTH the Lord indeed care?'

Is not His arm- -at least in this dark land—
Shortened until it cannot save? His ear
Grown dull and heavy? Ah! hath He not ceased
To hear His people's sighs and count their tears?
See all around the people sold to sin,
Serving strange gods, adoring wood and stone.
See them alike in pleasure and in pain,
All blindly unaware that He 'Himself
Hath done it,' He the Giver great and blest
Of all their mercies-faithful Chastener
Of their yet froward and unchastened hearts.
The pure sweet air seems all defiled with sin;
For everywhere, from high estate to low,
From those who in their boasted wisdom great
Yet know not God, down to the humblest slave
Who knows not anything—all are 'far off
By wicked works,' nor in them is the will

1 From Perfection of Healing, by S. S. H. Just published by the C.E.Z.M.S. VOL. IV.

I

Nor power to cleanse their hands, and with their hearts Draw nigh to God.

'Doth the Lord indeed care?'

Thus may a daughter of the people sigh,

Who having deeply drunk of God's most sweet
And blessed stream of life and perfect joy
Now thirsts no more, but satisfied and glad,
Rests in His presence, whose great act of love
Has made her His for ever! But her thirst
For those who know Him not is only more
And more intense the more she learns of Him;
And almost like a shadow on a life

Of brightest sunshine is the bitter thought,

That they who with her call one country 'home,'
Call not her Jesus 'Lord.'

'Doth the Lord indeed care?'

'Listen, dear purchased one, dear loving child,

Well hast thou done that thou hast prayed and striven;

Pray on and strive; sweet to My yearning heart

See!

Thy every deed of love; yet weep not.
The fields are white to harvest; many a heart
Unknown to thee turns even now with fasting
And with prayer to Me. I have My loved ones
In this land, and therefore are Mine eyes
Still watching here; what time the year is young,
And all along its days and nights, until
It passes into age, and so away
Into the past Eternity-I watch.
Always upon it is My eye of love.
It is a land for which I care, a land
From which already I have gathered out
My saints, and yet shall gather many more,

For joy and service in the better land!
All that I do thou knowest not; thine eyes,

Though strengthened much by faith, are still too dim.
Told I thee all My purposes of grace

Thy heart would faint; thy spirit could not bear
The wonder and the joy. Wait thou a while,
And thou shalt see the land where ransomed ones,

Of every people, kindred, nation, tongue,
Shall sing as one their glad triumphant song.
Now much is dark and sad; yet still trust Me,
The land thou sigh'st for is a land the Lord

Thy God doth care for; and what land on earth
Was ever cared for by thy God in vain !'

'De are God's Husbandry.'

AVE you ever meditated deeply, dear readers of India's Women, on these four remarkable words, and considered what they really mean? Has it ever struck you that they are applicable to every redeemed child of God, and therefore to you, if you are such? and have you ever pondered over what they involve to you personally? If never before, will you do so now? and may it be given you, by Him who speaks these words, to realise that they claim as His, by right, every power of your mind, every member of your body, all that you are and have, to be used for His glory and resolutely employed in obedience to His command. What that command is we read in the words spoken by Jesus Christ's own lips, Mark xvi. 15, 'Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.'

Most emphatically are we also told that we are not our own; our connection with Jesus has broken our connection with self, and handed us, so to speak, over to Him. Surely, surely when this is realised deep down within, fathers and mothers will not withhold their daughters, and daughters, with parents' permission, will not withhold themselves, but promptly, willingly, yea, even joyfully, go forth to cultivate for the great Husbandman the wastes of heathendom! What an honour, dear friends, to be invited, permitted, and encouraged to go! What a glorious privilege to be fellow-workers together with this great Husbandman! Will not some you (who can go) grasp the honour thus offered you, and let the heart of Jesus be made glad by seeing a noble company of His choicest daughters step forward in response, and go forth to tell of His grace and truth and love to the myriads of women far away, who are continually and earnestly inviting, yea, beseeching, you to come!

of

25th Feb. 1884.

M. WEITBRECHT.

The Women of Scripture.

By the Rev. J. E. Sampson, Vicar of Barrow-on-Humber, Lincolnshire.

XVI.-MARY OF JERUSALEM.

T is little we know of this woman, but clearly she was a worker and a witness for the Lord Jesus. I have called her Mary of Jerusalem, because it was in the Holy City that she wrought so boldly for her Master. Possibly she came from Cyprus, as Barnabas her brother is said to be 'a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus.' But I find Barnabas, as well as his sister Mary, first and chiefly in Jerusalem.

Mary's brother was one of those who, 'having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet.' He was therefore a disciple, and had devoted himself and all that he had to the service of Christ.

Mary had a son, 'John, whose surname was Mark.' He was a good man, an active, self-denying worker for the Lord. This, I think, speaks well of Mary. And I cannot help thinking that when Mark left Paul, on one of his great missionary journeys, it was love to his mother, care for her in the poverty which had fallen upon the Christians in Jerusalem, where she was, which constrained him to leave the apostle and go to the help of his mother.

doubt dis

I do not

Jerusalem was the first city to hear the gospel of our salvation, and Jerusalem was the first to be persecuted for Christ's sake. James had been killed. Peter was in prison. The disciples were no mayed when they saw their leaders thus removed from them. read that they indignantly protested against a harsh and tyrannical oppression. They told their sorrow to God. They gathered together for prayer. But who in the face of this threatening danger dares to open her doors, that Christians may gather in her house? It was Mary.

Mary, then, was a Christian. And not only so, she was not ashamed of Christ. She was not afraid of confessing His Name in the midst of outbreaking persecution. If the brother had given his land to the Lord, the sister will open her house to the Lord. We sometimes think that our possessions are our own. At least we may close our door, and sit quietly by our fireside, and think that our home is ours. It was not so with Mary. I think I hear her saying, 'Lord, all that I have is Thine.'

I do not know the condition of her carpet, or the quality of her furniture, nor the kind of people who would come to her house. Perhaps she did not think of these things herself. Prayer was the great need just then.

Christians had no great buildings in which to meet. But God had intrusted Mary with a house in Jerusalem. Like Lydia (what a wonderful family likeness there is among Christians !), she said, 'Come into my house,'' and many were gathered together praying.'

It was a 'prayer-meeting,' as we say. What? a prayer-meeting in a lady's house! Yes, in Mary's.

It was their last meeting. The imprisoned apostle was to be brought forth' the next morning. These things, all apparently against them, did not daunt the Christians. Had not the Lord said, and said it to Peter (yes, and Mary's son records it in his Gospel), 'Whosoever shall say to this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith'?

I do not think that Mary and her friends knew of these words, but they knew the great principle that underlies them, 'Have faith in God.' And so they gathered in her house for prayer. Here was a mountain, passing human skill to remove. So they prayed.

The man for whom they prayed was no stranger in Mary's house. The minister of Christ had been always welcomed there. Rhoda, her maid,' knew his voice' well. Peter's first thought, when he had been liberated, was to go there. If brethren were praying, he knew where they were praying. Mary's house, he knew, was, like Lydia's resort, 'a place where prayer was wont to be made.' Happy the Mary whose house is thus known!

Sowing and Reaping, or Labour in the Field.

'Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.'-AMOS IX. 13.

N our two previous numbers this article has been devoted to our North Indian Missions. In this and the next number it will be occupied with our Punjab and Scinde work. We have this month the pleasure of giving our readers the Annual Reports from Amritsar, Batala, Jhandiala, and Jalandar. We take Amritsar first.

PUNJAB AND SCINDE MISSIONS.