Lutheran missionaries, were upheld by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in England. Before the junior associates of Schwartz, who died in 1798, had rested from their toils, another generation was rising, breathing a more ardent zeal, and enforcing, with greater distinctness and pathos, the doctrines of grace and justification by faith. While Dr. Cæmmerer at Tranquebar, Dr. Rottler at Madras, and Mr. Kolhoff at Tanjore, were gradually sinking in years and ability, the Church (of England) Missionary Society, which embraced Africa and the East, was acquiring energy and resources to enter with young and elastic strength upon its fields of labour. In 1811, Messrs. Schnarre and Rhenius devoted themselves at Berlin to missionary work, and were sent forth in 1814 by the Church Missionary Society to Tranquebar. From this parent station Mr. Rhenius was removed to Madras, where he was joined by Bernhard Schmid. While these faithful men laboured under the auspices of the younger society, three other brethren, also of the Lutheran denomination, Dr. Rottler, Mr. Falke, and Mr. Haubroe, carried on missionary operations under the direction of the elder, the Christian Knowledge Society: both branches of the Anglican Church.

The German agents of the younger society were not inclined to become subject to any restraint which would infringe a catholic fellowship, or quench the fire of christian charity. Besides missionary tours, extensive and repeated, made by Mr. Rhenius, he was instrumental in forming the Madras Tract Society, and a Tamil Bible Society. He also united in acts of public worship, as well prayer-meetings as public services, with missionaries of the London Missionary Society; he even took part in ordination services with them when a brother missionary was set apart to the work. In one of these I had the pleasure to join with him; and could testify how cheering were these acts of mutual recognition, and how pleasant it was for brethren to dwell together in unity. It was then I first formed a friendship with this zealous and faithful brother, and learned the sincerity of his love, the catholicity of his spirit, and the ardour of his devotedness to God. He loved all that in every place call upon our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, but he could not suffer himself to be "cramped into the narrow chair of the Church of England rubrics and canons." He had himself been ordained without subscription to any confession of faith, and upon the Bible alone, and he felt bound to contend against the spirit of formality which he thought was hostile to the spirit of christian liberty. There were others, however, in authority, who did not see clearly what Mr. Rhenius saw. Bishop Middleton had proposed to re-ordain Dr. Rottler and the other Lutheran brethren; but even the old doctor thought this was a step too far. Mr. Rhenius had gone beyond the line of passive resistance, and he was removed from Madras to Tinnevelly. Here he followed the course he had adopted when he began his missionary career, and observed "no other rule for spiritual ministrations but the word of God, simple and plain as it is in the Bible." And as he had been sent out in the providence of God to make known the unsearchable riches of Christ, according to his word, he did not feel it his "duty to separate from the society, but simply to go on conscientiously in his work."

The province that he occupied, properly called Tirunelvelli, contained about 800,000 inhabitants, many of whom were idolaters; a large number of Mohammedans were dispersed throughout the district; about 20,000 were Roman Catholics, the fruit of Xavier's exertions: nearly all the fishermen along the coast being of this class; and about 4,000 Lutherans, in connexion with the Tanjore missions, resided in and around Palamcottah. The province is almost a plain of about 100 miles square. After fourteen years of prayer and labour, the gospel had been planted and received in all directions, and the congregations consisted of 3,225 families, containing 11,186 souls, in 261 villages, instructed by 120 native christian teachers. Few men had ever acquired such facility and idiomatic terseness in the Tamil language; few men had ever become so familiar with the people, or had laboured so assiduously by preaching, by translations, and original works, for the instruction and conversion of heathen or nominal Christians, as was the lot of Mr. Rhenius. A gentleman who had been chaplain at Poona, and was then archdeacon of Madras, visited Tinnevelly in 1830, and testified-others can vouch for the literal truth of archdeacon Robinson's description, "While the people were assembling in the Chapel, I had an opportunity of witnessing Mr. Rhenius's method of addressing the heathen; we were walking round the splendid cloisters of the great pagoda of Varunnen, and were followed by many hundreds. His lively and perfectly native mode of address, as well as the fluency of his language, attracts them wonderfully. The Brahmins crowded around him with eagerness, and as we stopped occasionally at an angle of the building, a question led to a remonstrance of the folly of this stupendous idolatry, thus convicted and exposed by their own replies; till his remarks assumed gradually the form of a more general discourse, addressed to the multitudes around, while the pillars, the sides of the tank, and the pavement of the cloister were covered with eager listeners, who were hushed into the most breathless silence. He is bold, impressive, vivid, cheerful in his whole appearance, happy in his illustrations, and a master not only of the language, but of their feelings and views." It was the testimony of the most accomplished scholars of the language that, to overhear Mr. Rhenius in discourse, you could not discover but it was a native speaking his vernacular dialect. In the spirit of his own counsel did this honoured man labour. "Therefore, my soul, watch and pray! be ready. Do diligently what thou hast to do, whilst it is yet day to thee in this land of the living, and at last go into the blessed mansion prepared for thee by thy

gracious Redeemer. Amen." He was again joined by his beloved brother Bernhard Schmid; and it was their desire to associate with themselves such brethren from the native converts as they believed were faithful men, and to commit to them the things which they had themselves been put in trust with, that they might be able to teach others also. They wished to administer to them the same ordination which they, as Lutherans, had themselves received; but the society replied that "the Church of England is regularly organized in India, and the bishop of Calcutta is empowered to confer holy orders on natives:" therefore they "would naturally present to him any candidate for ordination that may be raised up at any of its stations within the Indian diocese." Bishop Heber was the first to carry out "His Majesty's Letters Patent," empowering the Calcutta bishop to confer such orders. The controversy excited by this diversity of opinion was so keen, and Mr. Rhenius felt so decided, that in 1832 he made a communication to the Society, in which he thus expressed himself: "As the Committee have determined not to accede to our request, and as I cannot conscientiously accede to their determination, so necessity seems to be laid upon me, to request for a change in our connexion." As a consequence, the Committee proposed to recall Mr. Rhenius and he made ready to separate himself from the flock which he had gathered. The bleating of the sheep, however; the grief and dejection of his people and his associates, and the opposition of