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the temple of Janus,-the open gates of which so long bespoke to the eyes of every Roman citizen that war had not ceased to convulse the nations! 66 Then," say our biblical critics and ecclesiastical historians, "Then, was the fulness. of time; and then did the hosts of heaven, commissioned on the joyous errand, announce the advent of the incarnate Deity." What, in like manner, we would ask, has been the history of India for the last three thousand years? What but a history of the up-setting and down-putting of kingdoms? At one time, divided into a thousand petty States, scowling defiance at each other: here, the parricide, basely usurping the father's throne; and there, the fratricide, wresting the lawful crown from his brothers. At another time, split up and parcelled into groups of confederacies,-cemented by the bond of indomitable hate,-and leaving the retaliation of fell revenge as a legacy to their children's children. After ages had rolled their course,-in the tenth century of the Christian era-our eyes are turned away from the interior to the far distant north. There, the horizon is seen thickening with lurid clouds, that roll their dense masses along the troubled atmosphere. Suddenly, the tempest bursts; and one barbarian conqueror issues forth after another. At length, the greatest and the mightiest of them all,-from the hyperborean regions of Tartary, from the gorges of the Indian Caucasus, -descends upon the plains of poor unhappy India,-proclaiming himself the scourge of God, and the terror of men. His path is like the red lightning's course. And speedily he blasts the flower of India's chivalry; and smites into the dust her lordly confederacies. Her villages, and cities, and temples, and palaces, lie smoking in their ruins. Through fields of carnage, and rivers of blood, he hastens to grasp the sceptre of a universal but transient dominion. All India is made profusely to bleed; and, ere her old wounds are healed, all India is made to bleed afresh. In swift and destructive succession new imperial dynasties spring up out of the blood and ashes of the old.

Such is the melancholy epitome of India's tragic history for nearly three thousand years. Oh how different the

scene now! About two hundred years ago, a band of needy adventurers issue forth from this our native land,-from this, one of the remotest islets of the ocean;-and they sit down in peaceful settlements on India's fertile shores. By a strange and mysterious dispensation of Providence, these merchant-subjects were destined to become sovereign princes. In opposition to their own expressed wishes-in direct contravention of the imperative mandates of the British Parliament, district was added to district, and province to province, and kingdom to kingdom, till at length all India lay prostrate at the feet of Britain. During the twelve years preceding that which has last terminated, for the first time in the course of thirty centuries universal peace did reign in India ;—and if there were a thousand temples of Janus there, the thousand temples might then be shut. Who now can resist the inference which analogy supplies? Were the Roman legions commissioned by an overruling Providence to break down the barriers to intercommunion between the states, and nations, and kingdoms of Antiquity, to prepare the way for the ambassadors of the Cross to announce the advent of the Prince of Peace? And have not the British legions been commissioned in our day, by the same overruling Providence, to break down the barriers to intercommunion between the tribes, and states, and principalities of Hindustan? Have they not levelled mountains and filled up valleys, to prepare a highway for the heralds of salvation who proclaim the message that ought ever to fall upon the sinner's ear more enchanting far than the softest sweetest strains of earthly melody? Ought we then to have shut our eyes, and to have steeled our hearts against an opportunity so favourable for extending the boundaries of the Redeemer's kingdom? If we did, what ought we to have anticipated as the necessary consequence? What, but the usual retribution,even the removal of the trust that had been neglected or abused? And did it not seem, about a twelvemonth ago, as if the Divine patience had been exhausted, and the knell of British connection with India had been rung out? While all were shouting their peans of triumph about the omnipotence of British sway, and the passing of legislative enactments

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that were to consolidate and perpetuate our empire ;-lo, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the tidings reached us from afar, that, within, a mine of discontent was ready to explode in universal rebellion; and that, without, enemies on every side were marshalling their forces, to seize upon the spoil! Every one looked pale. For no one knew whether the next intelligence might not be, that the proud fabric of British power had suddenly dissolved,-like the apparently massive walls and turreted battlements of the clouds before the blast of the north wind. But of late, the prospect has once more brightened. When the decree was about to go forth, "cut down this unprofitable connection between Britain and the millions of India,-why does it continue to blight and wither the best interests of that mighty people?"-it would seem as if the Angel of the Covenant had interposed, saying, "Spare, oh spare, a little longer; and see whether this hitherto profitless connection be not yet improved for the grand end for which it was instituted and designed,-even the establishment of that kingdom of righteousness, that shall never be moved."

And now, that the period of stewardship has, to all appearance, been prolonged, shall we, by again wrapping up the talent of the national guardianship of that distant realm in a napkin, once more provoke the Almighty in His displeasure to deprive us altogether of the trust? Now is the set time for diffusing the light of the Gospel through the length and breadth of India. Say not that we have not the means. The wealthy have the means in abundance, and to spare,-if they had only the large Christian heart to communicate. The poorest have something; even the widow has her mite, and if she have not, she has her closet; and thence, in communion with all the saints on earth, may thousands of prayers be made to ascend into the ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth, more grateful and more acceptable far than the incense of a thousand sacrifices offered upon a thousand hills. Shall we then refuse to redeem the time-refuse to employ the means, now placed so abundantly within our reach, of extending the renovating principles of the Cross among the millions of our fellow-subjects in idolatrous India?-India, which is linked to so many of us by being the temporary home

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or the perpetual grave of beloved friends!-India, which is linked to all of us nationally, by being the brightest diamond in the British crown! Oh! if we neglect such a golden opportunity of advancing the cause of the Divine Redeemer, how shall we be able to stand before the bar of heaven, and plead guiltless of the blood of the perishing millions that now lie conquered, prostrate, weeping at our feet? Surely, me

thinks, this awful responsibility ought to paralyse into weakness many of the best-laid projects of life, and crush many of its busiest occupations beneath the weight of an oppressive burden. Methinks it ought to introduce the pall and the shroud into the gayest of our noisy revelries; and, like the handwriting on the wall of the palace of Babylon, suddenly freeze the flowing current of our festive excitements. Methinks it should follow us as an ever-present tormentor into the solitary chamber; and render restless and feverish the repose of night; and haunt its fleeting visions with images of terror more alarming than the fabled ghosts of the murdered! Oh! if it do not, rest assured it is not for want of a cause more than adequate.

But why should we appeal to duty and responsibility alone? why not to the exquisite enjoyment experienced by those who know and value the privilege of being fellow-workers with the Great God Himself, in advancing that cause for which the world was originally created, and for the developement of which the world is still preserved in being? We appeal to all present who have basked in the sunshine of the Redeemer's love, whether the enjoyment felt in promoting the great cause for which He died in agonies on the cross, that He might see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied,―be not ineffable? Oh! it is an enjoyment which those who have once tasted it, would not exchange for all the treasures of the Indian mines;-for all the laurels of civic success;-for all the glittering splendour of coronets. is a joy rich as heaven,-pure as the Godhead,-lasting as eternity!

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In the midst of troublous times, when the shaking of the nations, and the heaving of the earthquake that may ere

long rend asunder the mightiest empires, have commenced, what stay, what refuge, what hiding-place can be found like the faith and hope which are the stronghold of the righteous? They whose faith has been firmly planted on the rock of Jehovah's promises, can look across the surges of the tempestuous ocean to the bright regions that lie beyond. Yea, should still greater dangers rise, and greater terrors frown, and days of greater darkness fall upon them; oh, is there not enough to cheer and exhilarate their spirits in the believing contemplation of the latter-day glory? Think of the earth, as it now is, rent with woe and burdened with a curse: think of the same earth, in the radiance of prophetic vision, converted into gladsome bowers,-the abodes of peace and righteousness. View the empire of Satan, at present fast bound by the iron chains of malignant demons that feed and riot on the groans and perdition of immortal spirits. Behold, from the same dark empire,-in the realization of prophetic imagery, the new-clad myriads rise, chaunting the chorus of a renovated creation-the jubilee of a once-groaning but now emancipated universe. Over the slaughter of undaunted heroes, and the smoking ruins of some citadel that long held out as the last asylum of a country's independence, poets have sung of freedom's shriek. Over the fall and ruin of immortal spirits, and a world dismantled by the fall, we might covet the tongue of an angel to tell of creation's shriek. But surely with an ecstasy of fervour might we long for the voice of an archangel to celebrate creation's shout of joy over a world of sinnerssaved-restored, through grace, to light and liberty. Oh that the blessed era were greatly hastened! Oh that the vision of that mitred minstrel who erewhile sung so sweetly of "Greenland's icy mountains, and India's coral strand," were speedily realized !—that glorious vision, wherein, rapt into future times, he beheld the stream of Gospel blessings rise and gush and roll onwards, till it embraced every land and circled every shore ;-aye, till," like a sea of glory, it spread from pole to pole." Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly; even so. Amen.

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