Missionary Register. No. 16. APRIL, 1814. No. 4. Vol. II. Biography. DEATH OF THE REV. DR. C. S. JOHN, LATE SENIOR OF THE ROYAL DANISH MISSION AT TRAN→ QUEBAR! OUR readers will learn, with regret, the decease of this excellent man. The Committee of the Church Missionary Society were apprised of this afflicting event by a letter addressed to the Secretary, by the Rev. T. T. Thomason, dated Calcutta, October 9th, 1813, of which the following is an extract. The venerable Dr. John is removed to his rest! He died of a paralytic affection, after an illness of a few hours. Feeble as he was, his very presence among us, in his arm-chair, was of inestimable value. His prayers for the prosperity of Zion were unceasing; his influence, though old and blind, very great: he was a centre of union to the Missionaries on the Coast; their patron, their example, and their friend. Alas for the Tamul Schools! I scarcely know how they will be conducted. Yet I hope to have some cheering accounts to send you by the next fleet. The death of this good man will lead our readers to recur, with pleasure, to those records of his ability and zeal which we printed in our First Volume; and the members of the Church Missionary Society will congratulate themselves that its funds were judiciously and seasonably applied (as they have learnt from Mr. Thomason's letter to the Secretary, printed in our First Volume, pp. 298, 299) to the relief of his increasing anxieties, by assuring to him a steady support for his schools. The joyful Christmas which Mr: Thomason expected the venerable man to keep, surrounded by his Tamul Christians, in consequence of the unexpected grant from the Society's funds of one hundred rupees per month for the support of his schools, was his last celebration of that sacred festival. He died in the following year, but passed the closing months of his life in applying to the best purpose the charity of the Society, by the extension of his schools. Should it please God to give a safe passage to the Society's Missionaries, the Rev. Messrs. Schnarré and Rhenius, they will arrive most seasonably to the support and furtherance of those designs which have now lost their principal friend. They will enter into Dr. John's labours; and extend his plans to other parts, as the Society may be enabled, by the state of its funds, to encourage them. The substance of the following account appeared in the Calcutta Gazette. On the 1st of September, in the sixty-sixth year of his age, died the Rev. Dr. C. S. John, Senior of the Royal Danish Mission at Tranquebar, where he had fulfilled a long and laborious ministry, with great acceptance, among his own countrymen and the surrounding natives, By these-Christian and Heathen-his loss will be felt and bewailed deeply and extensively, beyond that of perhaps any former Europeans in India, with the exception, it may be, of the late excellent Swartz and Gerické. Scarcely less known among them than Swartz himself, he was every where equally beloved. His heart, it may be truly said, was wholly devoted to them; his mind continually engaged in forming plans for their benefit; and all his powers occupied in doing them good. The Father of the Mission, in the fullest and best sense of the term, and as such revered by all the native Christian Congregations, he possessed, in a scarcely less degree, the confidence and esteem of the Heathen, as the common friend of them all. But the object which, above all others, occupied his attention, was the education of the Native Children. To this he had applied himself from the beginning with great success; and, feeling more and more sensibly, with his advancing years, its great importance, as a means of effecting a radical improvement in the moral and religious state of India; and assured of the general acceptableness, even to persons of the highest castes, of the System of Education invariably pursued by the Mission Schools; he had matured and drawn up a plan for the establishing of Native Free Schools throughout the country, to be open to children of every caste and religion, which he was preparing to submit to the different Governments in India. Dr. John was no Theorist: his plan was the result of many years' study, of the freest communication with natives of every rank, and of actual experience in six schools, established and long supported at his own expense, in which even Braminy Children take their places, and learn the same lessons as any other children.. On this, as an approved means of doing the greatest possible moral good, of imparting the greatest possible benefit to the Natives, his heart was particularly bent through the last closing years of his valuable life. It was the matter of experiment from day to day; with still accumulating proofs of its practicability, and its desirableness to persons of all castes: it was the subject of his correspondence with his friends, and it drew forth his most fervent prayers to God. His schools, increased lately by the liberality of the Church Missionary Society through its friends in Calcutta, remain; and may they remain with increasing prosperity-monuments of the wisdom and piety of their excellent founder, the guide and encouragement of the benevolent who wish well to India, and the blessing of long succeeding generations! Dr. John was a man of a liberal and highly cultivated mind, rich in human learning and acquirements, and full of the word and grace of God-of a disposition most affectionate, and abounding in good will to all men-and of unwearied industry and activity. For some years previous to his lamented death, he was nearly blind. Yet still he maintained, through an amanuensis, an extensive correspondence throughout India and Ceylon; and continued his ministerial duties to the last, in preaching, su perintending the schools, and directing the general concerns of the Mission. In short, in the simple language of his afflicted surviving colleague, "In him the world has lost in every respect an active and much industrious man, and Christianity a faithful servant, having devoted himself forty-four years to the Mission."-" The memory of the just, of Swartz, and of Gerické, and of John, shall live."-May it so do, particularly in the minds of their surviving colleagues and successors, and of all who give themselves to the service of God in India! May these all " so follow their good examples, that, with them," and with multitudes redeemed through their ministry, they may rejoice together in the resurrection of the just Home Proceedings. SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOW, FROM the Report of the Society for 1813, which has just appeared, we extract the following particu lars. They cannot fail to gratify all who wish well to our venerable Church, and rejoice in the increasing exertions of her members. This sum appears, from the Society's account, to Le the amount of receipts during the year. Abstract of Expenditure. Of the above sum there has been expended in Salaries and Gratuities to the Missionaries in the East Indies, 1,935/. 6s. 1d. The other principal article of expenditure is books. The distribution of the Holy Scriptures, the Book of Common Prayer, and other books, whether in the English or in other Languages, continues to increase yearly, and rapidly; being the natural effect of the great increase of capital annually devoted to religious purposes, and especially through the instrumentality of Parochial and District Collections. The statement of the number of books issued from April 9, 1812, to April 8, 1813, is as follows: The Members' charge on the above being 13,8241. 2s. 8d. The portion defrayed by the Society, 8,7911. 18s. 8d. Other packets, within the same interval, issued gratuitously, and charged to the account of stores, consist of Bibles New Testaments and Psalters Other bound Books 2,113 7,082 2,931 616 |