Old Daniel | Page 2

unsuspected as were at the time those of which the
reader will find the account so striking.
Good Edward Hardey, whose words were the first that were sent home
to the heart of the washerman with the power that quickens dry corns
into sprouting seeds, and good Matthew Trevan Male, who baptized
him as the firstfruits unto Christ in Goobbe, are both gone to their rest.
Many others who have sowed on that field are also gone. Daniel has
ended his course in peace. And still the harvest is not reaped. But the
harvest is to come. In such a work delay, disappointment, and the
deferring of hope are to be taken as but a call for more faith and more
prayer. If the lights struggling in the heathen mind of Chickka were but
an example of what is taking place in the minds of many, so also the
change by which Chickka became Daniel, the steadfast Christian, was

but an example of thousands of thousands that are yet to come. `Behold,
I make all things new,' says He who caused the light to shine out of
darkness; and in the Mysore He will yet bring forth a new and glorious
creation. In that country, at this present time, a terrible famine is
making ravages. Even that calamity may be overruled for good. At all
events it gives fresh emphasis to the call for all followers of Christ to
enter in and work for God, where the harvest indeed is plenteous and
the labourers are few. It may be that even in times of trial the Spirit will
be poured out from on high, and that God will yet gladden with tidings
of great joy the hearts of some to whom those fields are unutterably
dear, and who have long waited for the full corn in the ear.
W. ARTHUR.
CHAPTER ONE.
DANIEL'S PARENTAGE.
Before Daniel was baptised his name was Chikkha, but we will call him
Daniel from the beginning to the end of this little memoir. He lived
sometimes at Goobbe, and sometimes at Singonahully. Goobbe is a
large market town in the kingdom of Mysore, and Singonahully is a
small village about two miles from Goobbe. The Wesleyan Mission
premises are situated between these two places. If my young readers,
for whom this little book is written, will take a large map of India, they
will see `Goobbe,' in Latitude 13 degrees 19 minutes North, and
Longitude 77 degrees East. It is fifty-five miles north-west of
Bangalore, and about seventy north-east of Seringapatam.
Many years ago,--it is not known exactly how many--a man of the
Washerman caste left his native village and came to Singonahully. He
brought his family with him, but left behind a box containing an idol
and some other sacred things, in charge of the village priest. This man
was Daniel's grandfather. In Singonahully he entered into friendly
relations with the old village washerman, who was nearly blind, and
helped him in his work. In due time one of the blind man's daughters
was given in marriage to Daniel's father, whose name was Veera

Chickka.
Daniel was born May 4th, 1799, or according to his own phraseology,
"I was born on the day Seringapatam was taken by the English." It may
here be observed that many of the middle and lower classes of the
Hindoos do not keep any correct record of the time when their children
are born, so that if no event of importance happens about that time,
there is generally no means of ascertaining the age of anyone in such
families.
Daniel's father was always a poor man, so that his son was never sent to
school; and he was never able either to read or to write; but, when quite
a child, he manifested a very clear judgment in many things, and
especially in the view he took as to the worship of idols.
CHAPTER TWO.
DANIEL'S FIRST PROTEST AGAINST IDOLATRY.
One day when Daniel was about ten years old, and living with his
father in Goobbe, a relation of the family came from Toomcoor, on
what, to him, was a very important matter; and he said to Daniel's
father, "Well, Veera Chickka, your father shut up our goddess in a box
and left it, in his village, in care of the temple priest, and there she now
remains. The goddess has had no worship paid her from that time to
this; she is angry, and a great calamity has, in consequence, come upon
me and my family. Come now, let us fetch the goddess from our
ancestral home, and worship her here in this place." The goddess
referred to was Lakshmi, the wife of Vishnu, the goddess of wealth and
prosperity. When little Daniel heard this proposal, it seemed
foolishness to