spirit, and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird; she is still the Tophet of Ben-Hinnom, where the children pass through the fire unto Moloch, and the diabolical shouts are to be heard, and the fumes of abominable sacrifices infect the air: she is still the chamber of imagery where the form of creeping things and abominable beasts, and every sort of idol, are portrayed upon the walls; where the ancients and the young unite to hold their censers, and send up clouds of incense to Baal; where all the women sit weeping for Tammuz; and where not five-andtwenty, not seventy, not a million, but where all the men have their backs turned to the temple of the Lord, and are worshipping the sun and the host of heaven; she is still the land where the whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint; where, from the sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no soundness in it,—all is wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores, which have neither been closed, nor bound up, nor mollified with ointment; where the princes, and the people, and the priests, and the devotees, are all bound, devotedly bound, to their idols. She is not, as the islands of the West, ruled with a rod of iron, groaning under the weight of 700,000 slaves, and ready to sink into ruin and anarchy; but she is the mighty centre of the East, swarming with the 100 millions of enslaved freemen; heaving with the groans and miseries which Satan and his agents have inflicted for many an age; and prepared, like the cities of the plain, to be visited with 'snares, fire, and brimstone, and an horrible tempest,' as the portion of her cup. "Who would not mourn and weep over the guilt, the superstitions, and the idolatry of India? But the evils which have thus sprung from her idolatry have only been augmented by the oppressions of her conquerors. Torn with internal dissentions under her own native princes, she fell a prey to her rapacious invaders. The Mahometan dynasty was perpetuated for ages, amid despotism, exactions, blood, and anarchy; and held over her the sword, to establish, throughout her empire, the worst and basest of impostures. The Portuguese entered her fair domain to pillage and oppress; to drain her resources; to make their settlements so many depôts for intrigues, for spoliation, and for empire; and offered her in exchange the grossest superstition. Now, in return for the wealth and riches which she has yielded; in return for the power, and patronage, and rule which she has put into our hands; in return for the marts which she has opened for our trade and commerce; what has Great Britain done for her? "We have given her a large and powerful army to preserve her from invasion from without and from rebellions within; I allow it. We have given her governors that wish her prosperity; collectors and magistrates, many of whom would be an honour to any nation; and judges, who administer the laws in justice and righteousness; I allow it. We have given her peace for war, quietness for turbulence, security for property, instead of vil lanous rapacity, and temporal prosperity instead of perpetual misery; I allow it but we have not given her religion; we have not offered the gospel of salvation by Jesus Christ; we have not tendered to her, as we ought to have done, that blessing and that privilege which would have consolidated our empire, and bound her to our interests by ties more engaging and more indissoluble than the splendour of our name or the power of our arms. No; our religion was the last boon which we thought of granting to her. The golden image of Nebuchadnezzar has been set up there as well as in the plain of Dura. If the proclamation has not given warning, the laws and regulations of the empire have, that at what time they heard the harp, and the cornet, and the sackbut, and the psaltery, her collectors and magistrates were to fall down and worship the image, and to pay their acknowledgments to this divinity. But if not, they shall know what power and influence can do. What! fiery furnaces in India? No; Dens of lions in India? No; but there have been crucibles there to compel men to bow the knee to Baal. The sword of state has been suspended over the heads of refractory citizens; the offices, the character, and the prospects of the best and most honourable men, have been in jeopardy; and the frown and malediction of the great have followed the Daniels, and the children who would not bow down to the mage. "I know that the enemies of the cross may as soon attempt to stop the sun in his course, as to think of defeating the high destinies of India; but I know, also, that the means are necessary for the end; and there must, therefore, be the pressure from without; you must speak out boldly and fearlessly in defence of the gospel; and, in addition to earnest and importunate prayer that God would not suffer these measures to be lost, but would watch over them, and cause them to be carried into effect, that he would send us out governors after his own heart; you must watch over the interests of India, you must memorialize the government at home, and must endeavour to control, as much as in your power, the operations abroad. But, while I deplore these evils, which I hope, my Christian friends, will, through your exertions and your prayers, be speedily removed, I should most deeply regret that this meeting, or that any friend of missions throughout the land, should be led to suppose that India is not a country prepared for the Lord. No; this would be a very grievous mistake; and if any individual were so to understand me, as to fall into it, I should deeply deplore that I had not used language better calculated to convey the sentiments of my mind. No, Sir, if ever there was a country where there was a wide door and effectual for the entrance of the gospel,-if ever there was a country where a missionary could obtain a peaceable and attentive audience to reason with and to persuade, and where he is protected in the discharge of his high and important duties-if ever there was a country where the valleys were exalted, and the mountains and high hills were brought low, and crooked paths were made straight, and rough places plain, that the glo of the Lord might be revealed-it is, certainly, British India. Go from the east to the west, and from the north to the south, you are safe under the protection of the law; your temporal comforts are regarded as much by the kindness and urbanity of the people, as the measures adopted for your convenience by the government; you may stand in the street, or in the public place of resort, or in the porch of the heathen temple, and proclaim the gospel of God. The Lord has sent his armies before you to prepare your way, and he goes before you in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire, as on your right hand and on your left, he is a defence. I wish not to set up India, as a field of missions, in competition with any other kingdom upon the earth. But, if the providence of God has opened widely to us one door, while another, equally under his control, is rendered inaccessible by gates and bars of iron; if the people of Macedonia are crying out loudly "Come over and help us," and we assay to go into Bithynia, while the Spirit suffers us not; if God has laid the empire of India at our feet, and has, in defiance of Acts of Parliament, and the hostile policy of the government at home, added one kingdom to our territories after another, that his designs of mercy may be fulfilled, while the empire of China is hurling her anathemas at our heads, and denouncing us in terms of obloquy and insult; are we not neglecting a plain and important duty, and seeking out paths of our own devising, if we forsake the one to make an attack upon the other? And are we not incurring an awful responsibility, while we raise up and send forth missionaries, and command them to enter the heart of China at the risk of their lives, while India is ready to receive us with open arms, and welcome us as the messengers of peace? And are we not acting too much the part of the priest and the Levite, who would, I doubt not, have compassed sea and land to make one proselyte, while they passed by the man who had fallen among thieves upon the other side, instead of acting the part of the good Samaritan, who found his object of pity in the way, and bound up his wounds, and brought him to the inn, and took care of him?" SCRIPTURE ILLUSTRATIONS. BLINDNESS. See John ix. "AT Erment, the ancient Hermontis," says Captain Light, "an old woman applied to me for medicine for a disease in the eyes, and, on my giving her some directions she did not seem to like, requested me to spit on her eyes, which I did, and she went away, blessed me, and was well satisfied of the certainty of the cure." Ye shall SPOIL the Egyptians.-Exodus iii. 22. THE original word by signifies to recover property that had been taken away by violence. 1 Samuel xxx. 22. R. C. THE FIRST PRAYER. "Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord." Gen. 4. 26. In all her spring-tide loveliness Beneath heaven's own unclouded light, Was vocal from a thousand strings, Brought hope and joy upon its wings. Oh! surely earth was almost heaven Seek they the garden's deepest shade? Oh earth! in pristine glory bright, How darkly falls the shadowy hour! Hide, fancy, hide thy drooping head, Nor dare with venturous hand to raise Which guards that moment from our gaze; Earth hath her bitter partings still, Her last long looks of fond adieu; Time, then a narrow infant tide, Yet rolled with course as full and free As now its deepening waters glide To thy dark sea, eternity! No more on Eden's happy ground Sin had its first dark trophy raised, The first dark dwelling of the dead, Nor fadeth that perennial root: Children of one vast family, How short that moment to recall, Like breathing incense up to heaven, Eternity! thou shalt disclose What answer to that voice was given ! E. M. I. LINES WRITTEN ON A BLANK LEAF OF A BIBLE. Ar this celestial fount, whence living streams Since thou, O God, hast unto man reveal'd O may my heart with gratitude be fill'd, Nor dare to slight such gracious love conferr'd! |