Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/213

Rh with the carriages of ladies enjoying the female luxury of shopping. The English Church Missionary Society, and the Wesleyan Missionary Society, have each a neat chapel on this street. On the next street is the “Davidson Street Chapel" of the London Missionary Society, of which Henry Martyn, on his first Sabbath in India, writes: “Went to Black-town, to Mr. Loveless's chapel. I sat in the air at the door, enjoying the blessed sound of the gospel on an Indian shore, and joining with much comfort in the song of divine praise. This is my first Sabbath in India. May all the time I pass in it be a Sabbath of heavenly rest and blessedness to my soul!” These chapels are provided with comfortable rattan settees, lamps for cocoanut-oil in Indian shades, and punkahs (large swinging-fans) kept in motion during the services by men stationed outside of the doors. These, with the brilliant white of the chunam plastering, strike the stranger's eye, but soon are so familiar as to be unnoticed. The preaching at these places is mostly in English, to English-speaking congregations; during a part of the day, however, they are used for services in Tamil.

Hard by the Davidson Street Chapel stands