From Boston to Bareilly and back

Front matter

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

AND BACK.

\SriLLlAM BUTLER.

Preface

THIS work owes its origin to the kind suggestion of the Rev. J. H. Yincent, D.D. It has been my effort, in its preparation, to keep close to the ideal which he presented as to what should be its character and aim. I found it impracticable to finish the work at an earlier date, chiefly on account of the statistics ; but I feel satisfied that the reader will not regret the delay, when he comes to consider the value of the figures presented ; a large portion of which had to be referred to India for more careful verification. The privilege conferred upon the writer of this book was unique. After the expiration of twenty-seven years, those who sent him forth in 1856, on the duty of founding a mission for their Church, concluded, in their generosity, to send him again, that he might witness its development, and rejoice over "what God had wrought" during the interval in the field which he had selected, and along the lines of labor which he then laid out for his associates and successors.

Few founders of missions have been thus favored as to time and circumstance and the opportunity for reviewing their work. Perhaps not one among

6 Pkeface.

them has been so peculiarly privileged, in view of the extraordinary circumstances which attended the origin of our mission in the great Gangetic Yalley.

The reader will excuse the occasional references which I had to make to my other work, The Land of the Veda, as this book is, in a sense, the sequel of that work. The Land of the Veda shows " what entering in " we had, and the immense resistance which Almighty God overcame in order to open the way for the Gospel which we had to plant there for him. This book shows the results which have been accomplished, and enables the Church to understand what is the outcome and answer to her liberality and prayers, and thus gives the facts by which she can contrast the fearful condition of her mission field in India in 1856 with the blessed changes and results which it exhibits in 1884.

It has been said that " truth is stranger than fiction." Of the assertion this book will furnish many illustrations. As a participator and eye-witness of most of the events described, it is a duty that I should not leave them unrecorded, and especially when I have been so highly favored as to revisit the scenes where they occurred, and review and rejoice over those victories for Christ and Christian civilization which the record of the first quarter of a century presents to the Church.

William Eutler.

38 Bromfield Street, Boston, Mass,

FROM BOSTON TO BAREILLY.

CHAPTEE I.

" And some clays after, Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do. . . . And [they] departed, being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God." Acts XV, 36, 40.

BosTOi?5- April 5, 1883. — In the record of the proceedings of the Kew England Annual Conference, held on this date in Bromfield Street Church, there occurs the following passage :

When the name of Dr. William Butler was called, the presiding elder presented the following resolution, which was unanimously adopted by a rising vote :

Besohed, That this Conference has heard with deep gratitude of the intended visit of our brother. Dr. William Butler, and his devoted wife, to our missions in India, the scene where, under God, by labors, sacrifices, and devotion of the most truly apostolic type, they became the honored founders of that, among the largest and most prosperous of our Church missions. We rejoice that God has raised up to them friends who have so liberally contributed to enable them to enjoy this privilege; and we bid them the most hearty Godspeed, and assure them of our earnest prayers for their health and success in their undertaking and a safe return again to us.

8 Feom Boston to Eakeilly.

On this action tlie editor of Zion^s Herald was kind enougli to remark :

One of the most interesting events of the present session of the New England Conference was the passage of the fraternal resolution in reference to the visit of Dr. and Mrs. William Butler to India during the coming year, and the responses made by them. We have rarely seen the Conference more moved than it was by the address of Dr. Butler, in which he referred to the remarkable religious progress since he entered alone the field of his mission in Northern India, and especially to his providential escape in the Sepoy rebellion, and his witnessing of the sentence and execution of the great leader of it. Tears and subdued shouts bore witness to the deep emotions awakened by the magnetic power and eloquence of the doctor's reminiscences.

Amid that blessed scene how easy it was for the mind to rush back to the same ]^ew England Conference, when, on the morning of April 8, 1856, Bishop Janes presiding, I stood before that body to take my farewell, and they listened and gazed upon me with tearful eyes, as I was about to go forth in their name to found a mission in the far East, but with no definite idea where it would be located, and with none there then to bid us welcome ! But ere we say more about that occasion, let us follow the present events, until they lead us back, as they surely will, by a wonderful line of providences, to that remarkable hour, twenty-seven years ago, in the city of Salem. The present first demands our attention.

The Boston Methodist Preachers' Meeting passed resolutions as cordial as those of the Conference here given, and had even appointed tlieir presiding officer and two of tlieir number to attend the farewell meeting in ISTew York, and then see us off from that port on the following morning. With similar kindness the 'New York Preachers' Meeting took action, appointed a committee of their number, with Dr. Curry as chairman, and arranged for two meetings, one in St. Paul's, l^ew York, and another in Summerfield Church, Brooklyn, as well as for the farewell meeting in Washington Square Church on the evening before we were to sail. This latter service was the crowning occasion of all. Bishop Harris presided, and Drs. Keid and Fowler, the Missionary Secretaries, addressed the crowded audience, and congratulated "The Father and Mother of the Indian Mission," w^ho were thus so munificently privileged to go forth to visit the scene of their former labors, attended by the sympathy and blessings of the whole Church. The singing was inspiring, especially the new hymn, " The Church's Rallying Song," printed for the occasion and distributed among the audience. It was delightful to see the gifted authoress of the hymn, Fanny Crosby, herself in the congregation, her face aglow and her sightless eyeballs rolling with enthusiasm, as she sang, with the rest, her own grand words ; while J. P. Sweeney, the composer of the music, presided at the organ, and did justice to his own composition. ' Then Chaplain M'Cabe, sustained by W. J. Kirkpatrick, led that wonderful outburst of glorious song, in which a thousand voices united ! Perhaps heaven does not often hear from earth a more enthusiastic psean of Christian joj.

It certainly ought to have inspired me when my turn came to speak to such an audience, and under such circumstances. But, though so well used to address public assemblies, and especially on the topic of Christian missions, I found myself so overmastered by my emotions that I began to hope I should not be required to say any thing upon the occasion. 1 felt like one dazed, and wondering whether all this honor and these words of eulogy were not spoken of some one else than myself. But I was called, and had to address the audience ; my feelings overpowered me, and I realized how weak I was, and how unworthy of this commendation. Beyond all former experience, I estimated how appropriate and safe was humility, and had a consciousness that the joy of heaven, and the words of approval from the lips of even the blessed Master himself, can best coexist with the most profound selfrenunciation, and the entire and hearty ascriptions of all the honor and glory of whatever good is done to Him to whom alone the praise is due. "He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." Yet I could not but feel what compensation was here for the long and anxious responsibilities which I had tried conscientiously to bear for my Church and my God in that far-off land to which we were returning, and how on this glad occasion I was so amply repaid. We had then to take our stand in the altar, and for nearly an hour wife and daughter and myself had such a handshaking as we never knew before : and still the people lingered, and many a tearful " Good-bye " and " God bless you ! " were spoken.

Next day, May 5, 1883, a large concourse of these sympathizing friends assembled at the " Anchor Line " pier, where the steamer Devonia lay ready for departure. They soon tilled the saloon. Brother Cooper, on behalf of the Boston Preachers' Meeting, and Chaplain M'Cabe gave the farewell words, the warning whistle sounded, and our friends passed to the wharf and remained there to see us off. Even then their wonderful kindness had not ended, for they held an informal consultation and agreed that if we wished to return home from India by China and Japan, they would furnish the additional funds to enable us to do so. Our beloved Brother M'Cabe (who, under God, originated this delightful trip for us) came, on their behalf, to the side of the ship, made the additional offer, and urged its acceptance. I promised to give it careful and grateful consideration during the voyage. But, while fully appreciating the interest and joy it would be sure to yield us, and especially to see our missions in China and Japan, we felt that we ought not to allow these kind friends to go to further expense on our account, especially as the great privilege already conferred in this visit to our own mission

12 Feom Boston to Babeilly.

field was in itself an enjoyment so complete and satisfactory.

A few minutes after three o'clock P. M. tlie last cable was let go, and the great ship moved into the river, and turned her head to her course. But as long as we could see that wharf, we could discern the waving handkerchiefs which signaled the loving benedictions of our noble friends. Thank God for true Christianity ! ISTothing else could create and consummate the privilege and the joy of such an hour as this. How fervently we prayed that night, in our sea-home, that God might remember every one, from first to last, who had united and sympathized in conferring upon us this great privilege and joy ! Surely if any thing could make an old missionary superintendent feel young again, to be the center of a scene like this ought to do it. But the joy was deepened when I reflected upon the fact that was underlying it all, and that fact was, how much the Church must value her mission in India when she can thus so magnanimously treat the humble founders of that work ! We had no other claim to her consideration, and she was generous enough to consider this sufiicient. But the reader will kindly excuse all this talk about ourselves. We will proceed to speak of the voyage, and one or two of its incidents.

We had about eighty saloon passengers, mostly quiet people. There was very little drinking or loose language. We had no storms certainly, and the officers said the " weather was fine," though there were many of our number, among the ladies especially, who concluded that these sea-faring people had a definition of their own for the word " fine." When one goes on board an immense ship of this class, 4,279 tons burden, he cannot at first realize that any power less than a storm can make her heave up her great form and roll about as if she were a mere whale-boat. The reflecting mind. will naturally turn in such circumstances to Him, the Almighty One, who has conferred this wondrous force upon these elements, whose play around you is so amazing, and gather comfort from the thought that there is more than power here. There is control and guidance of these forces by Him who "rides on the whirlwind and directs the storm." This justifies the prayer with which the anxious heart invokes his blessed protection from the raging violence around, and the confident expectation of being brought in safety to "the desired haven."

On the fourth day out we were crossing "the Banks," where the cod-fishing is carried on — a wild and exposed occupation, prosecuted amid perils of its own by our hardy " toilers of the sea." The locality where we were now fioating naturally suggested to the memory those queer lines which were found about two hundred years ago in the psalmody of the times : lines which, in these days of sweeter songs and perliaps of sweeter singers, make one wonder that sncli doggerel ever could have been tolerated for an hour by Christian people. The poet who perpetrated this amazing versification must have been at a great loss for illustration, if not for sense, when he allowed his imagination to lead him to " evolve from the depths of his inner consciousness " the following whimsical specimen of hymnology :

" Ye monsters^ of the briny deep,

Your Maker's praises spout ; Up from your sands, ye codlings, peep —

And wag your tails about 1 "

The remembrance of these queer lines was enough to make a man laugh, even though he were seasick. The laugh might have been longer and more relieving, too, as we lay there and held on, but for the untimely interference of the Devonia herself. For just here she had begun to act as though resolved to draw our attention from those codfish and that poetry to the contemplation of her own performances, with that great " tail " of hers, which, as it rose and fell, and went round and round, and " wagged " from side to side, showed how it could thrill and stir you up, until all your poetry was gone, and several otlier things along with it, and you had to conclude that the situation was not friendly to merriment, and all the more because this specimen of her ability to " wag her tail about " became more lively in its manifestations, and was pertinaciously persisted in, as if to show how tliorouglilj it could be done, and what pleasure she took in doing it ! Still, in spite of her, we did have our little laugh, and concluded therefrom what a good tonic in sea-sickness a hearty laugh must be, and especiallj if you can have a few of them quickly after each other. On reaching the shore, and falhng in with an old antiquarian friend of mine, I inquired if he knew where the quotation before mentioned could be found. He promptly informed me that a copy of the book was in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, and offered to aid me in obtaining a sight of it. I did not need his assurance that the quotation, though in a version of the Psalms, had no authorization from the sacred Hebrew. Of course not. God's holy Book never violates good taste or utters any thing preposterous, nor should it be held responsible for the human errors which some of its expositors, poets, and painters have committed. I did not accept my friend's assistance in searching for the book.

Our careful captain had chosen a southerly course to avoid meeting with icebergs, and until the fifth day, when in latitude 42° 23' and longitude 51° 03', we did not sight any. But early that morning one was passed, and three more before midday, all of them, however, away to the north and quite a distance from us. But about three o'clock in the afternoon one was discerned right on our course. The afternoon was fine, sea-sickness was forgotten, and all crowded on deck to see that great sight. Every eye was soon fixed upon it, though we required more than an hour and a half to come abreast of it. It was, to the passengers at least, an awful sight, and we shuddered at the thought of our great ship rushing on to collision with such an object in the darkness of the night. Here was explanation enough why some vessels have never been heard of after leaving port. This berg seemed almost a cube in shape. We discussed its dimensions and sought information from the officers. It was generally agreed that it was about four hundred feet long on the sides and perhaps over one hundred feet high! Though I had crossed the Atlantic six times, I never before had an opportunity of seeing an iceberg, and now, to see one so large and so near, was quite an event. The afternoon sun was shining upon the tall side, and made it look as brijliant in its majesty as it was terrible. To crash into that cold mass would be as sure destruction as to strike any precipice that overhangs the sea, with the additional horror that there might not be the most distant chance of help or escape, and that the surrounding waters, which would engulf the unhappy passengers, in their intensity of cold would freeze them to death in a few moments. Although we were so far away, the increasing cold which emanated from it in the air and in the sea, changed all the conditions around us. Our ship was kept not less than a mile and a quarter south of it, and our careful officers had

Fkom Boston to Baeeilly. IT

been all day testing the water and the air every halfhour. By such process they are able, in the darkness of the night, to discover the nearness of such a danger, and so may decide upon requisite precautions. Half an hour before we came abreast of this berg the water was found to register 54°, while abreast of it the mercury had fallen to 38° and the air had become nearly 10° colder than it was half an hour previous. Half an hour after passing (say six miles) the conditions corresponded with what they were one hour before. Such was the chill created on the outer rim of a circle that was two and a half miles in diameter. The reader can imagine how the thermometer would register half a mile or a full mile nearer, and what it would likely be by its side.

We also had discussions as to what proportion of this mountain of ice must have been below the surface, in order to sustain the huge dimensions which towered up above the water. The displacement seemed to us almost incredible. Although the composition of the berg is said to include great masses of compacted snow, the specific gravity of whicli is not equal to the rest, and that the whole mass is not, therefore, as hard and consistent as the ice blocks with which we cool our summer beverages ; yet, after making all allowance for this, let any one contemplate a piece of ice as it floats 'in his tumbler of water, and he may gain some adequate idea of the colossal proportions of this mountain of submerged ice, which

18 Feom Boston to Bareillt.

could float and sustain to one hundred feet above the water this fearful object, which for three hours we watched with such intense interest. It was generally agreed that at least seven eighths of the whole mass must have been under the surface. If this calculation be correct, then this mountain of ice must have been eight hundred feet high from bottom to top ! It impressed us as having such power of resistance to the sun that it would require years of time to melt it down, especially as the reserve below wonld come to the surface as fast as the top portion melted away. And so, perhaps, it would, were it not for the provision made by the Almighty to have the warm south wind concur with the gulf stream to act on the enormous mass. How long this one had been floating around, or where it came from, who can tell ! But, what a sight it must have been when it first let go its fastenings within the Arctic regions, and tore its thundering way down those eternal hills of ice and dashed into the deep and astonished ocean !

Yet this enormous mass was only one of those " morsels " from his " treasuries," to which the Lord God Almighty referred when he showed Job his utter insignificance, by asking him, " Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail ? Out of whose womb came the ice ? and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it ? " Job xxxviii, 4, 22, 29. Or again, in David, " lie casteth forth his ice like morsels : who can stand before his cold ? He sendeth out his word, and melteth them : he causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow." Psa. cxlvii, 17, 18. A Christia,n has a clear right here to draw attention to the fact, that his Holy Scriptures shine out with an original and permanent light and knowledge, unshared and unapproached by any, even the most ancient of human compositions. The Yedas, for instance, of the land to which we were going, tliough the most venerable of them all, has no wide sweep of vision to include such facts. They are local and limited in their allusions, and even their admirers have to admit their monotony, and their worthlessness to mankind. Brought into contact with these great facts of nature, or science, or of human experience, they shrink, like so many owls, back to the silence and the darkness of the ruins where they have dwelt so long, unable to endure the light or the questionings to which our modern knowledge and civilization would subject them. But this blessed word of God, more venerable still than they, is as fully adapted to the illumination and discoveries of the centuries after Christ, as it was to the knowledge and civilization of the centuries before him. From the first it boldly accepted, in its utterances, all risks of the future^ assured that no development of nature or man would ever be able to antiquate its utterances. This was a wonderful risk to assume, and that, toOj in a world where there was so much change inevitable, and at a time which was merely the early dawn of knowledge. But the Bible could afford to do all this, because it was written with divine foreknowledge. To-day, fairly interpreted, it transcends, as fully as it ever did, the highest attainments and experiences of the human race, and no doubt it will continue to march ahead of all true development until time shall be no more.

Here is as keen a test and as critical an appeal to facts as even its foes might desire. The quotations which I have just given were first spoken to men more than three thousand years ago on the plains of Mesopotamia or the hills of Judea — men who never saw an iceberg, and never gazed upon even the outer circle of that awful Arctic, whose interior secrets are still only known to Him who made them. Even our own hardy and inquisitive race, with all its appliances for discovery and endurance, realizes keenly its impotence, and the limit of its power and knowledge, in the presence of these mysteries. Again and again it has made heroic and desperate efforts to penetrate and explore them. Alas ! their frozen bodies and deserted ships on its outer margin are the ghastly evidence of its inability to penetrate those reserved secrets of the great God. Their very failure is additional evidence of the perpetual truth of His holy word, which thus still maintains its indisputable right to "hide pride from man," and to challenge liis profound and intelligent humility, as lie stands in a presence like this, and reflects upon that unexplored birthplace of these mysterious "wanderers of the sea." So that ancient revelation, and nature's amazing manifestations, and the true philosophy which reverently contemplates both, combined to inculcate the duty of adoration of that awful, but glorious Being, whose wisdom and resources are so unsearchable and past finding out, that, in this supreme independence of us and of our judgments concerning him and his ways, he can afford to make the visible operations and forces of nature to become merely "the hiding of his power." We bow in reverence before Him and exclaim, " Thou art the God that doest wonders : thou hast declared thy strength among the people. . . . Tliy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known ! "

As the sun went down we gladly parted company with our fearful visitant, thanking God for our safety ; but never shall we forget the wonderful scene on which we so intently gazed that day. l^ext morning, no other icebergs being visible, and the Great Bank having been crossed, our course was altered more to tlie north-east, but the chilly winds which soon poured down from the icy north made warmer clothing very necessary to our comforf.

On the second Sabbath the sea was calm enough to permit us to hold divine service. The scene was very interesting. Part of tlie congregation occupied the upper saloon, where the organ was, and looked down, as from a gallery, upon the preacher and the rest of the audience in the dining saloon below. Beautiful flowers and creeping plants festooned the sides, and ran across, and among them hung the cages of canary birds. The singing of the hymns was sweet, and a very gracious influence rested upon the audience. How appropriate were the words, " The sea is his, and he made it : and his hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow down : let us kneel before the Lord our maker."

On the evening of the tenth day our gentlemanly captain informed us that before midnight we should see the first light on the north-west coast of Ireland, and we remained up to behold the welcome sight. Early next morning we ran into Lough Foyle, and landed the mails and passengers for Londonderry. We then skirted later the Giant's Causeway and the islands, entered the Clyde, with its historic scenery, and at three P. M. reached Greenock. As we approached the pier, there stood James Young, smiling his hearty welcome down upon us, the same kindly face which, along with that of William Stewart, shone out its welcome at the landing-place at Calcutta on our arrival in India, September 22, 1856. Here he was, twenty-seven years later, to repeat the same kindness, and conduct us to his hospitable Scottish home on the other side of this beautiful bay.

Thank God for Christian friendship ! But how good and grateful we should be to prove at all worthy of those loving attentions on both sides of the Atlantic !

After a delightful visit to Helen sburg and the Scottish capital, I crossed over to Ireland in company with my oldest clerical friend, Rev. John Hay, to visit the scenes where we began our ministry together in the centenary year of British Methodism. We had, of course, a blessed time, full of suggestive and grateful memories. From there I went to Dublin, my native city, and to the locality where my religious life began. I then recrossed the Irish Sea to Liverpool, and one of the first things I did was to visit St. John's market, to find out the spot so memorable to me for what occurred there forty-six years before. Had it not been for that event I should probably never have seen America, and this journey could not have occurred. This, then, to me is memorable ground. Hither my thoughts have frequently returned, and here now the divine voice seemed to say, "Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God [hath] led thee these forty years," etc.

In view of its importance to me, and in the grateful duty to recognize the links which have connected that hour with this in a blessed chain of providences, which included my becoming an American citizen and a Methodist Episcopal minister, and founder of American Methodist missions in India and Mexico, I am here led back to review life and its results, with special reference to these facts, then so unexpected. I trust my readers will excuse me in taking a few pages to indulge these personal reminiscences. God may make the record profitable to them, as it certainly will be to myself. It was on this spot, one Sunday afternoon in August, 1839, that I first made an attempt to preach the Gospel. The duty was performed with much misgiving ; but by His grace I have been enabled to continue proclaiming his truth from then till now. Perhaps I may not be assuming too much if I modestly suppose that God had some special work that I could do, and that, " when he called me by his grace," it was with the expectation that I should do that work for him. Yet without that " revelation of his Son in me" w^hich took place a few weeks before I first stood here, I should have been both unfit and unwilling to be led forth to such a duty.