BUTLER, William

[s. 142] : Born in Dublin, Ireland, January 30, 1818. Died August 18, 1899. Soon after his conversion he entered the Hardwick Street Mi ion Seminary and Training School,.in Dublin, and afterward Didsburg College, near Manchester, where he studied theolunder ogy the venerable Dr. Hannah. After preaching several years in the Irish Conference, he came to the United States, and labored for some time in the New England Conference. In the spring of 1855 he was deeply impre ed by an article published by Dr. Durbin entitled “The Crisis,” urging the needs of the India Mi ion on the heart of the Church, and in the following autumn he offered himself as mi ionary to this fleld. He was appointed superintendent of the mi ion, and he sailed with his wife and two children in April, 1856. The provinces of Bellary, the Dpccan, Rajputana and others were brought to the attention of Mr. Butler as especially needy on his arrival in India; but after spending several weeks in Calcutta he went to the northwest to consider the opening in Oudh and Rohilkhand. These provinces, covering an area nearly as long as England and con taming a population of 20,000,000 of unevangelized people, presented an attractive field to the heroic mi ionary; and in Oudh, in the very stronghold of the enemy, the Mi ion of the Methodist Church was established. The capital of Oudh, Lucknow, had three times the population of Boston; and this city was soon to be the storm center of the dreadful mutiny. Mr. Butler, with his family, settled at Bareilly, a city of 200,000 inhabitants; but soon his work was interrupted by the rumblings of the approaching outbreak. Within ten weeks of the establishment of his work, Mr. Butler was obliged to flee for his life; and ten months pa ed before it was po ible for him to return to his station. Khan Bahadur, who, during the mutiny, a umed the title of the Nawab of Rohilkhand, put a price on the head of each of the refugees, and, as a writer puts it, “Mr. Butler’s being listed at five hundred rupees.” The first meeting of Mr. Butler’s mi ion was held at Bareilly, August 20, 1858. Three mi ionaries, one European helper and two natives answered the roll. Yet to this mi ionary was given the joy of living until he could see 125 hundred you sand of the people of India accepting Christ as Lord, brought into this new life tnrough the agency of the Methodist Mi ions. Returning to the United States, Mr, Butler took charge of several churches in New England, and.afterward he was called to the secretaryship of the American and Foreign Christian Union, an organization devoted to work in Papal lands. About this time Mr. Butler wrote The Land of the Veda, which had a large circulation. Seventeen years after Mr. Butler was commi ioned by his church to go to India to found a mi ion, he was called to perform a like service In 1873 he entered the Aztec land, in Mexico. and soon his influence was felt in the City of Mexico and throughout the surrounding country. President Diaz received him personally on several occasions, and the govei’nment of Mexico gave him full protection in laying the foundation of a mi ion that has prospered through the years. It was the pleasure of this venerable mi ionary, in 1883, to return to India, and after twenty-six years he gave thanks to God at Bareilly for the;growth and power of the mi ion that was founded He spent his in the dark days of the mutiny. last days at Newton Centre, Ma . Butler (Mi C), William Butler, the Founder of Two Mis- •one sions, Eaton & Mains, New York. 143