QUESTIONS More large, more momentous, more thrilling, it were difficult to imagine, than those which must press upon the mind of every statesman, philosopher, philanthropist, and christian, in the perusal of such publiIcations as those now before us. India once so distant-nay China, more distant still-are brought almost to our fire-sides, by the rapidity of steam and overland communication; and the importance of the mighty and agitating events which force themselves upon us and that not in the abstraction of Britons separated by a vast portion of the globe swelling between us; but in the home relationships of our commerce, our political interests, our social ties, and let us not forget to add in our most solemn responsibilities. Every month brings before us new and stirring topics. The events of the late central Asiatic war --would that we could hope the word late is not premature-have rekindled the embers of national enthusiasm for tales of tented fields and battles, which had been smouldering since the days of the great European strife; and our children talk as familiarly of Cabool and Affghanistan, as did their fathers of Spain or Germany; and glow at the names of Ghiznee and Kelat, with emotions like those excited by the victories of Salamanca or Saragossa-we had almost said of Trafalgar or Waterloo. India, once the easy prey of the ferocious Mahmoud, has carried back, under British rule, the warfare to his own imperial city: the far-famed "second Medina," as Gazna (we hardly know it under its modern orthography) was wont to be called, surrendered in one short hour its fortresses, which for ages had been deemed impregnable, to a more powerful arm than that which in the tenth century had filled them with the

rich spoils of Hindustan, having converted, as by enchantment, a village of savage shepherds, perched on the ridge of bleak and barren and inhospitable and almost inaccessible mountains, into the abode of mighty princes and conquerors; a city of palaces and temples; a treasure-house for the gold and silver and precious stones, brought back by the conquerors from softer regions, to swell the magnificence of the Caliphate.

In the mean time, while Great Britain, in her India power and prowess, was achieving martial renown, and disposing of thrones and dignities like chessmen, on the borders of Tartary, she was writhing under severe infliction and severer mortification in China, from the confiscation and destruction brought upon herself by her own nefarious dealings; to revenge which for though the Chinese have behaved badly in many ways, the opium seizure is the real, though not perhaps the diplomatic, cause of hostilities -we are about to commence a fearful, and it may be a protracted and bloody, warfare with three hundred millions of the human race. In short, we touch the East at so many points, that we cannot think of Russia or Turkey, of Egypt or Persia, of India or China; of our arts or arms, our commerce or manufactures, our political or social relations; without feeling, as Englishmen, that the affairs of Asia press upon us with an importance scarcely second to those of our home districts.

But there is another aspect in which Christians ought eminently to regard the scenes which are passing in the East, What is their aspect upon the eternal interests of the many hundreds of millions of human beings who are living without God and without hope in

the world, revelling in the grossest vices; a prey to the direst superstitions; wretched in the present world, and utterly unprepared for another; ignorant of that name by which alone men can be saved -of that blood which was shed upon Mount Calvary, for the sin of the world-and of that record of salvation which God has given to mankind in his holy word? And to British Christians the seriousness of this enquiry is fearfully augmented by her close relationship with many of those nations, as the mighty mistress of India, and as standing pre-eminent throughout the East in her commerce, her arms, and her overwhelming influence. The people whose ships and colonies exceed those of any other nation of ancient or modern times; whose merchants are princes and whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth; on whose dominions the sun never sets, and whose flag every ocean reflects from its bosom ; and who, in addition to the extraordinary facilities afforded by their position for influencing the world's population, combine the solemn responsibility arising from their own enjoyment of pre-eminent religious privileges, cannot be innocent, or slightly guilty, if they neglect the duty incumbent upon them, of doing all in their power to communicate to the distant regions of the earth, wherever their sway or influence extends, unsearchable riches of Christ."

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We are not harsh accusers of our beloved country; something —let us say much-has been done, and more is in progress, towards rising to the high measure of our religious duties to our foreign dependencies; and we cannot take up such a pile of volumes as that before us-the cursory gatherings of only a few months-without being much struck with observing

how increasingly these solemn considerations are pressing upon the minds of British Christians; and how, by the powerful sway of precept and example, they are beginning to be acknowledged as no light matters even by many who do not profess to enter very deeply into religious questions.

But it is only by comparison that we speak thus favourably; just as we might of a man who, after a lengthened lethargy, began visibly to breathe and move his limbs; not as considering this an indication of perfect health and vigour, but as rejoicing to see even partial symptoms of approaching convalescence. It is something to say that Great Britian is not in that state of spiritual torpor which paralysed her as late as a quarter of a century ago; we might specify a yet more recent date. She has on various occasions publicly acknowledged that she has religious obligations to discharge to her colonies and dependencies; though alas! the little she has done but makes the gloom more visible; and if we are not false vaticinators, there is a spirit abroad which bids foul to frustrate all that has been attempted; and to recede from ground already assumed rather than to "go on to perfection." We cannot but feel such an apprehension, when we observe how very widely among our statesmen, merchants, and travellers, hints are still thrown out as broadly as public opinion will allow, that the heathen, especially the Hindoos, have after all a very tolerable religion of their own; that our interference does them little good and much harm; that few converts are made in name, and fewer in reality; that the empire of India hangs by a thread, which a breath of fanaticism or a flame of hasty zeal may instantly dissever; and that it is a matter of grave inquiry whether we have not al

ready evoked a dangerous spirit which it may not be easy to quell. The Parsee conversions at Bombay, or any other topic which can be adroitly tortured, is laid hold of— as was the mutiny at Vellore, some thirty years ago-to frighten the timid, to impose upon the credulous, to arm the scoffer with sneers, and the dogged opposer of religion with specious arguments. And thus while all seems fair and calm, a ground swell is threatening to heave the bark from its moorings; or while she rides buoyantly on the surface, an undercurrent is thwarting her progress, and counteracting the labours of her zealous

crew.

It is the bounden duty of every servant of Jesus Christ to oppose this selfish, sneering, sceptical, and essentially infidel spirit; and that not by timid, wavering arguments, as if he were ashamed of his divine Master's cause, or hoped to disarm opposition by palliations; but by setting forth, in all its magnitude, the spiritual debt due from us to our colonies, and the heathen lands with which we hold intercourse; and our enormous guilt, individual and national, if we neglect to discharge it. The nation has appointed a few bishops; and located here and there a presbyter in its vast foreign dominions; (though alas! of late years undoing, by its encouragement of Popery, much of what might be effected by such a modicum of Protestantism) and societies have sent out, by the voluntary aid of private Christians, Bibles, missionaries, and catechists and schoolmasters, to inclose a few barren tracts, and break up the fallow ground for the future vineyard; but all that has yet been done is little more than to shew the extent of the surrounding desolation.

There is no one conclusion which seems to us to come out more clearly from the whole his

tory of Christianity, than that of the importance of setting up as speedily as possible a local, visible, and indigenous church wherever our influence extends. This will include either a single or a twofold object, according as the district to be operated upon is Christian or Pagan, or both mixed.

In the case of a Christian colony, the mother-land is bound to see that the national worship of God is implanted with its very first settlement; for we cannot admit that this essential duty is to be postponed, as some will tell us, till all bodies of Christians learn to think alike on all subjects. Several of the English colonies, like many of our new towns at home, are at this moment suffering severely in their peace, their character, and their religion, from the neglect of this primary obligation. The people were left without a publicly recognised form of religion, till they grew up without any religion at all; or with so many shades of it, that they were too busy in quarreling about what they differed in, to find time or inclination to establish even what they held in common.

In the case of missions to the heathen, a national church is not at first attainable. The missionaries are strangers; and though they are themselves a standing testimony for God, they are not the germ of an indigenous communion. But their labours should be very early directed to form one: they should teach their converts as much as possible to depend, under God, upon native agency; they should not lead them to expect to nestle for ever unfledged under the wing of the missionary; their language should be, "When thou art converted, strengthen thy hrcthren." This line of proceeding has been too often overlooked or thwarted. The parent has been so fearful

that the child would get into danger, that he has paralysed him with kindness; he has prevented his running alone by keeping him too long in leading-strings, to prevent his injuring himself or others. Perhaps for even good men are not free from defects-he has been somewhat jealous lest native pastors should rival himself, and has viewed them too much as his own agents, instead of giving them due weight among their countrymen. He has thought rather how the mission could be extended, than how it could be superseded; and has thus failed of calling out to the utmost the local resources, and establishing churches aided by the mutual sympathies of kindred and country. It is indeed true that young converts need supervision; and that men educated in the ignorance of heathenism, even though brought to the knowledge and belief of Christian truth, are often very defective teachers: yet when we remember that it was of such men that the early churches were composed; and that uninspired believers often became faithful and useful pastors with a smaller stock of dogmatic theology, and less perhaps of doctrinal precision, than many modern missionaries would consider requisite even for a catechist, we fear that the reticent system has been followed-we will not say with too much caution,-but with too little faith. It is true that a man cannot swim till he has been in the water; but he will never swim if he never ventures in, or only with bladders, or a friend's aid. So in civil society, it is often urged that a nation, or a class of persons, is incapable of exercising some public duty; and yet if never tried it will never become capable. It is a question of degree; it was so in the extension of the experiment of trial by native juries to the people of India; it was so in the re

stitution of freedom to the neglected population of the slave colonies; but everything must have a beginning; and the severance of native pastors from direct dependence upon inissionaries, among the rest. To send out a minister, is in every case a serious experiment, as indeed is every ordination from Oxford or Cambridge; and a missionary may be well excused if, seeing the remaining ignorance, weakness, and many defects of his native friends, the infinite importance of the Gospel, and the danger of mistakes fatal to souls, he hesitates long before he encourages the establishment of independent offsets. Yet this is the ultimate design of his mission; and though to precipitate it would be unwise and dangerous, it ought to be kept pre-eminently in his eye as the desired goal of his efforts.

In the third case, that of a Christian population dwelling in, and ruling over, a heathen land—as in India-the two efforts must be conjoined. There ought to be, from the first, a visible church among the settlers; there ought also to be strenuous efforts, with the blessing of God, to establish churches of native Christians, with pastors of their own speech and kindred; and we scruple not to add, that all equitable and peaceful methods ought to be used, as Christian wisdom may direct, to unite both in one. For a time-perhaps for a long time--varieties of language and of social relations may keep the two classes from thoroughly amalgamating in their ordinary employments and habits, even though they feel themselves to be brethren in Christ Jesus; one church before they are one people; but the uniting process ought to be from the first in action, and its final results in contemplation; and towards this

end we enjoy singular advantages in an episcopal communion and pre-composed liturgy and offices. There may thus be substantial union even where for a time divers languages are necessary; as our church is the same in Wales as in England, though the inhabitants of each could not orally worship together.

It is this sort of union which the several Bishops of India ought, we conceive, to be earnestly promoting; as indeed they do. They have to keep up and enlarge the fabric of the English national church; they have to employ every scriptural instrument for gathering the heathen natives into the fold of Christ, and forming them as soon as may be into local pastoral assemblies under indigenous instructors; and they have to use every lawful endea vour to connect the whole into one visible communion; instead of allowing them to be dissipated into the dust of individuality." Hitherto the chief bond of union has been the superintendence of a European chaplain or missionary; but we wish to see a less artificial and more permanent tie; a healthful union of true fraternity; not the constrained collectiveness of children in a school, or soldiers in a company, which lasts just so long as the school-master or the captain retain them in subordination, but would vanish as soon as the pressure of control ceased; but the union of citizens in one common weal; all admiring and living under the same constitution, and discharging their various duties under a well-ordered and universally respected national government. And here we must do

afforded to religion; but no sooner do they find a national ruler willing to promote their designs than they gladly embrace his offer; and like zealous converts they are perhaps rather inclined to overstrain than to undervalue their new doctrine. Witness, for example, the proceedings in some of the South Sea Islands, where Rome herself might admire, hopeless of rivalling, the domination with which the church rules the state. This influence has been hitherto used for the glory of God and the good of the people; but it is inconsistent, even in its elements, with the anti-establishment principle; and it is stretched to a point at which, if a worldlyminded priesthood should succeed after the holy missionaries have gone the way of all the earth, it might lead either to pontifical tyranny, or to throwing off the yoke by a popular revolution.

The above views are not new in their particulars, nor perhaps generally in their connection; but we could wish to see the subject set forth and enlarged upon with all the detail and argument due to its importance. For the present we lay it aside; and will relieve our readers by quoting, from the works before us, a pas sage on each of the two heads of our enumeration.

With regard to the first, the duty of Christian nations to plant offsets of their national church in their colonies, we are glad to see a vindication of it in a publication which from its title might not have led us to expect it. We refer to a new periodical work, No. 6 on our list, under the superintendence of Mr. Martin, the well known author of an elaborate " History of the British Colonies." We did not doubt Mr. Martin's zeal for the promotion of the Gospel, or his wish to make the labours of his pen conducive