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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