NEWTON, John

[s. 554] : Bom about 1811; appointed mi ionary to India, 1835; died Muree, India, July 21, 1891. Dr. Newton went to India as a mi ionary of the PN in 1835, arriving at Calcutta in June of that year, accompanied by Rev. James Wilson and his wife. Setting out from Calcutta in a native boat on the Ganges they began their long journey of 1,200 miles to their chosen field at Ludhiana. His labors were most various. Always foremost with him was the direct preaching of the Word, and that hand-to-hand effort by conversation with individuals which he felt to be one of He the mi ionary’s most effective methods. was a powerful and attractive preacher, both in English and in the vernaculars. Dr. Newton took with him when he first went to India an old-fashioned wooden printing pre , which he set up in a little house secured for that purpose, and thus laid the foundation for that Eublishing establishment which, during the next fty years, was destined to i ue about two hundred and sixty-seven million pages in ten different In this literary work, Dr. Newton languages. throughout his mi ionary career was eminent. The Punjabi language is indebted to him for the foundation of its religious literature. Besides the translation of the New Testament into Punjabi and numerous tracts in that language, his literary labors, with those of his a ociate. Rev. L. Janvier, included a Punjabi grammar and dictionary, a commentary on Ephesians in Urdu, and important tracts in both Urdu and Hindi. From the Ludhiana Mi ion, of which Dr. Newton was then the senior mi ionary, was i ued in 1858 that call to the observance of the week of prayer, which has since become so widespread and so fixed a custom throughout the Christian world. 554