After telling the story of his sorrows one evening to his friend Ditu, after a silent pause the convert remarked, "I had suffered so much from my first marriage that I resolved never to contract a second; and after my baptism the seeming impossibility of finding a Christian partner confirmed me in my resolution. But oh! my brother, since I have entered your home, my resolution has disappeared like dew under the rays of the sun; and I now ask from you the only blessing needed to complete my earthly happiness."
From that hour Isa Dás became the affianced husband of Tara.
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The second marriage of the convert was as unlike the first as anything could possibly be. Without any pomp or show, in a little mission church, Isa Dás was united to the zemindar's daughter. The bride's dower was her purity and piety, her ornaments "a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price" (1 Pet. iii. 4). No treasures were spent at the wedding; the bride herself was a treasure, which year by year her husband found increasing in worth. Solomon's description of a good wife might have been the description of Tara,—"Her price is far above rubies; the heart of her husband doth safely trust in her. She openeth her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue is the law of kindness" (Prov. xxxi.).
So Isa Dás and Tara walked on their heavenly course together, happy in mutual trust and love, happy to see their little ones growing up around them. And they had deeper sources of joy even than these. They were happy because they both had received from the Saviour the pardon of sins; because they were fellow-heirs of His glorious kingdom, where all the children of God—from the north and the south, the east and the west—shall meet together and rejoice together in bliss that never shall end.
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[NOTE ON HURDWAN FAIR.]
To show that the above description of the great Hindu melá is far from being coloured, it is only needful to give a few extracts from a description of the last one which appeared in a Calcutta paper, 24th April, 1879:—
"The multitude which came in at last baffled all calculation. It is now believed that the melá must have numbered between 750,000 and 1,000,000 of souls . . . Bathing at Hurdwan, during such a melá, may be said never to cease. All day on the 11th the police were obliged to be present up to eleven o'clock P.M. They were on the ground again at two o'clock A.M. on the 12th, and from that time till ten o'clock at night they were obliged to remain at their posts. It is said that several of the brave men who worked so hard at the melá have died . . ."
Writing of the Bairagis, the correspondent goes on:—