Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

in barbarity and superstition, and our altars polluted with human blood ?*

3. "Preach the Gospel unto every creature." -Hath one preacher, belonging to our Church †, been sent forth by the national Church to "preach the Gospel" to the Hindoo? A father hears the Divine precept, and teaches his children. Has our nation considered her Hindoo subjects as her children? If we owe them not paternal regard, who does? Is Brahma their Father?

4. "All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and

* Before the preaching of the Gospel of Christ in this kingdom, no church existed but the temple of a hideous Idol: who, like the Moloch of the East, had his regular libations of human blood. To the cruel rites of the Druidical superstition succeeded the Roman Idolatry. In Cornwall, stood the Temple of Mercury; in Bangor, the Temple of Minerva; at Malden, the Temple of Victoria; at Leices ter, the Temple of Janus; at York, where St. Peter's now stands, the Temple of Bellona; in London, on the site of St. Paul's, the Temple of Diana; and at Westminster, where the Abbey rears its venerable pile, a Temple of Apollo.

See a Survey of ancient British Idolatry, in a Sermon of Dr. Plaifere, preached, in 1573, before the University of Cambridge.

+ The four Missionaries supported by our Church in India are Danes or Germans of the Lutheran Communion.

"shall glorify thy name."-Do we believe this Divine record? Or does the event seem so improbable, that we absolutely despair of its accomplishment; so that we no more expect it than the heathens themselves? And is this despair the reason why we have not sent one torch amidst the darkness ?*

* So long ago as 1762, the following eloquent and evangelic Appeal was made to Britain by the Bishop of Oxford, in consequence of her extensive conquests. With how much more justice may it be urged now!

[ocr errors]

"A new field is now open to our labour. By the blessing of God on his Majesty's arms, it stretches itself to the uttermost parts of the globe. Our armies have gone before us; they have made the most distant countries accessible to our Missionaries, and brought multitudes innumerable within the reach of our instruction. But where, in this 'wilderness,' can be found, bread from heaven' sufficient to satisfy their wants? Their wild untoward minds remain in the same savage state of ignorance in which they were formed. Their superstition, their prejudices, their brutal habits and inclinations, remain still unconquered. Our sword carried no instruction with it. It made them own and obey a superior upon earth; but it could not force their intellects; it could not open their hearts to receive and obey a higher Master in heaven, the one true God, and Jesus • Christ whom he hath sent.' This victory over their hearts can be gained only by the force of Truth, by the Word of God.' But truth has no force where it is not perceived; nor the Word of God,' where it is not published. Teachers must therefore be sent to explain and enforce it; and these in some proportion to the number who want it. New schools

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

But it may possibly be alleged in excuse for these neglects, that the minds of the Hindoos are "not

not accessible to reason and argument; that "their superstitions are impregnable and their prejudices invincible." We ask then, has the nation fulfilled her Christian obligation to those

66

of virtue must be founded-new seminaries of religion planted-new churches for Divine worship erected. The plenteousness of the harvest exceeds the power of our la bour to gather it. We must pray the Lord of the harvest ⚫ that he will send forth labourers.' The same good Providence, which, beyond all human expectation, has opened this extent of country to our victorious forces, can equally open it for the entrance of His Word, and may, for that very reason, have already opened it to our arms, in order to make a way for His Truth to follow them. 'The Sowers,' therefore, must go forth to sow the seed;' and however small its success may at first appear, we have no reason to despair of its future growth. We know to what our Saviour has likened the kingdom of heaven: The kingdom of ⚫ heaven is like unto a grain of Mustard Seed, which a man took and sowed in his field; which indeed is the least of all seeds; but when it is grown it is the greatest among herbs ' and becometh a TREE, so that the birds of the air come ⚫ and lodge in the branches thereof.""

See Sermon by Dr. Hume, Lord Bishop of Oxford, preached before the "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," on Feb. 19, 1762, p. 16.

Every sentence of the above is descriptive of Hindostan, as it is, or as it will be.

orphans and outcasts, whose minds are pliant, who have yet no religion and seek a Faith? Or, have we fulfilled "the new commandment" toward those natives who already profess Christianity, but who are destitute of its institutions, and are wandering like sheep without a shepherd? -"A new commandment I give unto you, that "ye love one another." Have we yet regarded these as 66 brothers," as "neighbours," as par"takers of the benefit" and of "the heavenly calling ?"

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

What apology shall be offered for these omissions? It is this. The British nation, during the progress of conquest by a private Company, scarcely recognised the Hindoo people as her charge. Her right in them, or her dominion over them, was not ascertained. Her relation to them was dubious. She did not (that is, the nation at large did not) view them directly as her children. This was literally the case. But she will acknowledge, we trust, that she views them as her children now.

Besides the motives for giving Christian instructian to India, which are purely Evangelical, and are common to all our possessions; there are some considerations which refer to Hindostan exclusively; and these are, Political and Moral.

POLITICAL CONSIDERATIONS.

The Diffusion of Christianity favourable to the Perpetuity of our Empire in India.

OUR Indian Empire has been called an Empire of Opinion; by which expression is intended, That our security is dependent, in a great measure, on the opinion of the people; and that this opinion may be easily changed. And it is believed that the opinion may be easily changed, because the natives are of one religion, and we of another. If they were of the same religion with ourselves, we should understand their principles, and might, by degrees, repose confidence in them, as we do in our subjects at home. In time there would be a common interest, and some reciprocal affection, between us. ments cannot exist in the principles of each are not fully understood. Even between the religion of England and the prevailing religion of Ireland, there exist want of harmony and want of confidence. How much greater must be the dissonance between Christianity and Paganism !

But these cordial senti

any great degree, where

« ÎnapoiContinuă »