"Trust in the Lord, ye tempted ones and tried,

God's promises like lilies fair unfold; We must not tear the shrouding leaves aside,

Time will reveal the Chalices of gold."

Speaking of her age (seventy-two), and growing weakness, she said, smiling brightly,

"The soul's dark cottage, broken and decayed,

Lets in new light thro' chinks which time has made."

And then a little after she sang to me from memory, in a quavering voice, the following beautiful verses to a tune of Handel's, which she said "suited them well," i.e. "La Carissima" :—

"Soon, and for ever, such promise our trust,

Tho' ashes to ashes, and dust unto dust.

It has been agreed to found some suitable memorial to the late Miss Tucker at Batala. The Financial Secretary, C.E.Z.M.S., 9, Salisbury Square, will gladly receive contributions towards this object.

Bishop and Mrs. Hill at Rest"

(Telegram received January 6th, 1894).

ONLY a few weeks ago, many friends assembled at the Church Missionary House to take an affectionate farewell of the Bishop of Western Equatorial Africa and Mrs. Hill, and to commend them to the grace of God for the important and responsible work to which they had in His providence been called. We were hoping soon to hear of their safe arrival at Lagos, and were anticipating for them both a warm welcome, and a long and fruitful period of service for Christ. But God's ways are not our ways, nor His thoughts our thoughts. A brief telegram received on Saturday morning, January 6th, conveys the tidings that both the Bishop and Mrs. Hill are "at rest." Our heartfelt sympathy is with the C.M.S. in this sudden loss with the Church at Lagos, in Yoruba and on the Niger, and with Mrs. Hill's sister and the orphaned children.

In Memoriam.*

MARIAN A. PINNIGER,

Born August 14th, 1851; died November 21st, 1893.

N Wednesday, October 11th, 1882, in spite of a constant downpour of rain, a large company met at the Kensington Town Hall to commend a band of outgoing missionaries to God's loving, tender keeping. Up to the morning of the 11th, only nine names were on the list of freshly-accepted candidates; and prayer was made constantly that God would find other labourers to fill important vacancies in the mission-field. On the very day of the dismissal two more were added, and one of these two was Marian Pinniger.

God did exceeding abundantly above all that was asked or thought, when He was told the need and left to find the right labourer. Surely it was an illustration of "Before they call I will answer," for from early girlhood until 1882 the Master had been preparing and polishing His instrument, and now, at the age of thirty-one, as an experienced Christian worker, and chastened by recent sorrow, Marian Pinniger was ready in distant lands as in England to "doe the nexte thynge " for His Name sake. After she had been proved a little time in India, Miss Haitz wrote, "I am very grateful to our Committee for choosing and sending Miss Pinniger as my fellow-worker and companion." It was evident that the Committee and Miss Pinniger were alike guided by Him "Who, when He putteth forth His own sheep, goeth before them, and His sheep follow Him, for they know His voice."

Speaking of her early days, one of Marian Pinniger's friends said, "She was just a sunbeam." In the Sunday-school, as a tract-distributor, district visitor, or in the home of her father or married sisters, her cheerfulness, common sense, bright intelligence, and naturalness made her valued and welcome; whilst her practical capabilities caused her to be a specially

*The readers of this In Memoriam sketch are referred to INDIA'S WOMEN, March Numbers, from 1882 to the present date, for interesting details of the progress of work in Bhagalpur.

needed person when there was a new baby to be welcomed, or a nursery epidemic.

"Auntie was a great fascination to the nephews and nieces, and she was devoted to them; "I am so proud of my children," she would laughingly say. Even in later days, when almost too weary to get off the sofa, she was always fresh when "the children," who were then fast growing up, came to see her, and would watch from the window for their appearance in true mother-like fashion. A little thing! you say, but Marian Pinniger's life was not one of great and striking incidents, but just a beautiful, harmonious whole, every act and word and thought for the Master. She was full of the Spirit, and as she walked through this dusty world, the well of water she had received was always overflowing in refreshment to all who knew her.

How gladly would we linger over this sweet home life; but we must speed across the Indian Ocean and go with her to foreign work. During the voyage, she managed to get hold of the children and young people, and had Bible-classes, and in her usual cheery way enjoyed all that was to be enjoyed, and made light of all misadventures. Miss S. Tugwell, the bride-elect of Mr. Lewis of Agra, was her companion.

A year previous to this date, in December, 1881, Miss Haitz, at the earnest entreaty of Mr. and Mrs. Droese, veteran missionaries in Bhagalpur, was appointed to undertake work amongst the women and children of that large and straggling station. Bhagalpur, the capital of Behar, covers eight square miles and contains a series of villages with 67,000 inhabitants. Gladly Miss Droese handed over to Miss Haitz and her Native assistant, Ruth, the two C.M.S. Bazaar Schools and their teachers. Work quickly opened out amongst the Bengalis, Hindus, and Mohammedans. At the end of the year, in spite of the help of a second Native convert, another English missionary became a necessity, and Miss Haitz delighted in the thought, when she started for the Calcutta Decennial Conference, the day after Christmas, 1882, that she would be in Calcutta when the Manora arrived, and would be able to welcome, and bring back Miss Pinniger with her.

After all, the Manora came in before she was expected, and Mr. Harington and Mr. Lewis, going down to the docks to make inquiries about the date of arrival, greeted the newly-arrived missionaries. What days of whirl and bustle followed, in overcrowded missionary houses, with their dozens of fresh faces! The time was fully occupied with meetings,

a conversazione, and Miss Tugwell's wedding. Miss Pinniger stayed at the Zenana Mission-house, and here first saw her future friend and fellowlabourer, Fanny Butler. Miss Haitz, too, was like a guardian angel, and her loving welcome and constant thoughtfulness at this time was always gratefully remembered.

The first year in Bhagalpur was chiefly spent in grinding hard, hour after hour, at Hindi. Early in March, Miss Butler opened the medical work in Bhagalpur, and sometimes in the evening, as a recreation from books, Miss Haitz and Miss Pinniger would help her to make up hundreds of powders or a hundred pills, or would wash medicine-bottles. Now and then, Miss Pinniger would accompany Miss Butler on her distant expeditions to visit patients, but her work was, from the first, almost exclusively amongst the schools and in the zenanas. The quiet, hard work was varied by a weekly Bible-reading with the C.M.S. missionaries, Mr., Mrs., and Miss Droese and Mr. and Mrs. Baumann, to whom all the missionary ladies were much attached.

Miss Pinniger always told of her pleasures, and gives a full account of all the love that greeted her first birthday in India. Another time, after writing an account of a six weeks' holiday, she adds this characteristic sentence: "I don't know how it is that every one is so kind to me, I am sure it all comes from God."

In October, 1883, she passed a very satisfactory examination, and then as a fully-fledged missionary was able to undertake schools and visit in zenanas with her Bible-woman. "It is much pleasanter work," she says, "than constantly studying indoors."

In these early days, she came to a house where a pupil was always ready for instruction, but found her with a holy teacher, and a crowd of other persons, holding a festival to the sun. "Had I been able to speak fluently," she writes, "I would not have hesitated to go amongst them, but I could not send Sarah (the Bible-woman). I just looked up and asked for guidance, not liking to go away and thus lose an opportunity of speaking to so many. Just then a voice saluted me, 'Please to sit.' I at once sat, and began to talk, and within five minutes had forty women around us, and by means of my dear little Wordless Book, we were enabled to show them how useless all this is, and how only the blood of Jesus can make our black hearts white, and then the glory that will follow."

Later, in the year 1884, Miss Haitz returned to Europe on furlough,

and Miss Pinniger had her first experience of Indian housekeeping and Mission accounts, and also an insight into some of the sorrows incident to missionary life. Violent epidemics of small-pox and cholera scattered. many of her pupils. A still worse trouble, however, was disappointment in some of the Native converts and teachers, though there were the brighter days when she could write, "I am beginning to feel that my people belong to me. It is pleasant as we go through the streets to see even among the darkies a bright smile and to have a cheery salaam. It may be a long time before we see any real result of our work, but I believe we shall some day."

A week's holiday in the Santhal Country greatly refreshed her at this trying season, and she sent home a long letter telling of her stay with the C.M.S. missionaries, Mr. and Mrs. Brown: "This is just such a Mission station as one reads of in books, people walking six or eight miles to church over ploughed, sodden ground; the church full in spite of it being a wet Sunday; and the people not trained in Mission-schools, but having left devil-worship to turn to the living and true God." Fortunately for her, the one elephant, belonging to all the missionaries, was at Mr. Brown's during her visit; and she enjoyed an expedition to some scattered heathen villages where ordinary riding or driving would have been impossible. She tells with great amusement of the children of the house "opening a new dispensary in their bath-room," rolling up earth pills and desiring to enlist her as a patient to swallow their decoctions.

"I am glad," she writes after a short holiday from Bhagalpur," to return home; it is worth while to be away for a time to get the welcome back from the Native children. One said, putting her little hand on my shoulder, 'Mem Sahib, I do love you !'"

This sketch would be very incomplete if we omitted her happy visits, many years, to Masuri; especially enjoyable these were after the dear old friends of Bhagalpur, Mr., Mrs., and Miss Droese, were moved to the Himalayas. It was when there in 1886 that we first got in her letters an intimation that the good health, for which in early life she had been remarkable, was waning: for nearly six weeks all she could do was to lie on the couch, under the trees in Mr. Droese's garden, too tired to work or read. Old Mr. and Mrs. Droese were kindness itself, watching over her as if she had been their daughter. They had given the names of Faith, Hope, and Charity to the C.E.Z. missionaries of Bhagalpur, and were devoted to "Hope," as they fondly called Marian Pinniger.