England's Stewardship / The Substance of a Sermon Preached on the Fast-Day, in Trinity Church, Tunbridge Wells
Date: 2016-08-08T00:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Church of England -- Sermons; India -- History -- British occupation; 1765-1947; Sermons; English -- 19th century

The Project Gutenberg eBook of England's Stewardship

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Title: England's Stewardship

Author: Edward Hoare

Release date: August 8, 2016 [eBook #52748]

Language: English

Credits: Transcribed from the 1857 Thomas Hatchard edition by David Price

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLAND'S STEWARDSHIP ***

Transcribed from the 1857 Thomas Hatchard edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org

ENGLAND’S STEWARDSHIP:

THE SUBSTANCE OF
A SERMON
PREACHED ON THE FAST-DAY,
IN
TRINITY CHURCH, TUNBRIDGE WELLS.

BY THE
REV. EDWARD HOARE, M.A.,
INCUMBENT.

LONDON:
THOMAS HATCHARD, 187, PICCADILLY.
TUNBRIDGE WELLS: MRS. HASTING,
AND ALL BOOKSELLERS.

1857.

MACINTOSH, PRINTER,
GREAT NEW-STREET, LONDON.

ENGLAND’S STEWARDSHIP.

Luke xvi. 2.

“Give an account of thy stewardship.”

At no time in England’s history has she been called to humble herself before God under more harrowing circumstances than the present.  We have not to deplore the discomfiture of our armies, or the hardships of our soldiers,—not the privations on the heights of Sebastopol, or the deadly conflicts of Balaklava and the Redan,—events which are, more or less, to be expected in a soldier’s life; but we are now summoned to prayer by the cries of tortured infants, by the unutterable agonies of heartbroken mothers, of daughters, sisters, and wives, who have been called to endure outrages and witness scenes in comparison of which it would have been a light matter to have been torn limb from limb by the tigers of the jungle.  Satan appears to have been let loose in India, in all his deadly and corrupt ferocity.  There has been a kind of filling up of God’s four sore judgments.  Famine, pestilence, and war had already followed each other in quick succession; but we thought we were free from noisome beasts.  But now we have something incomparably worse let loose on our fellow-countrymen to fill the fair plains of India with wailing, lamentation, and woe.

But it is not needful to recapitulate these tales of horror.  I am persuaded that I need not stand here to excite your sympathy for the sufferers.  You have felt that already, and I trust that many an earnest cry has long ere this gone up from your homes for India.  If not, just think on the little garrison at Lucknow, hemmed in by rebel thousands, with provisions every day diminishing, with the massacre of Cawnpore before their eyes, and with the horrid murderer at the head of the blockading force thirsting for their blood, and eager, if ever he can gain the power, to re-enact the same barbarities on themselves.  Think what those women must endure, as the little stores are doled out day after day; and they know that, unless they are relieved, they have no prospect but the foulest massacre; and every heart must acknowledge that the time is come, if it be not already past, for the universal cry of wrestling prayer, and most earnest pleading with God on their behalf.

But this is a day for humiliation as well as prayer, and national judgments are so intimately connected with national sins, that the nation’s prayer should clearly be accompanied by the nation’s humiliation.  It behoves us, therefore, to consider what ground there is for such humiliation, and what sins there are to call forth our repentance and confession.  But we need not in this inquiry occupy time by the consideration of those sins which are more especially connected with home, for the finger of God points to India.  It is there that the blow has fallen, and there that we must look for this sin.  It is clearly on Indian matters that God now has a controversy with his people, and therefore our conduct with reference to India should be the subject of especial enquiry.  Let us, then, examine, in the first place, England’s stewardship; and afterwards, England’s account of that stewardship.

I.  The Stewardship.

There can be no doubt that England stands in a position of a steward before God.  We are all stewards of the various talents and opportunities which we possess.  The minister is a steward of the mysteries of God, and I stand here myself this very day as his steward, or servant, to declare his word.  The parent is a steward; and what a stewardship it is to be entrusted with the training of immortal souls for the kingdom of the Lord!  The rich man is a steward; his property is not his own, but he is entrusted with it in order that he may lay it out for man’s happiness and God’s glory.  On the same principle, nations are entrusted with their various stewardships.  The Jewish nation, for example, was the steward of Scripture: “Unto them were committed the oracles of God;” and whatever be the particular power or privilege of a nation, that power or privilege is a talent, or stewardship, to be employed in the service of Him who gave it.

Now, if ever there was a case in which this stewardship was conspicuous, it is in England’s relationship to India.  It was placed in our hands by God himself.  When our merchants first settled on the banks of the Hooghly, there was no thought of territorial possession.  In their first acquisitions of property they were influenced merely by motives of self-defence.  They were compelled to occupy districts surrounding them, in order to protect themselves from aggression.  I fear that the same cannot be said of our more recent annexations; but it was most unquestionably the case when India was first placed in our hands.  Our first merchants had no thought of a kingdom, but the providence of God gave it us.

Look, again, at the wonderful power with which that vast empire has been held.  Look at the two countries on the map—the one a little island on the western ocean, and the other a vast territory 15,000 miles distant, extending thousands of miles in every direction, and supporting a population of not less than 160,000,000 souls.  Remember, again, that India contains many large, powerful, and warlike nations, and you will see that there must have been a power far beyond the hand of man which has enabled a little handful of Englishmen to hold under control so large a proportion of the inhabited world.  As the Lord gave the stewardship, so the Lord has likewise preserved the power.

But look again at the religious condition of the two countries; one, being the centre of Asiatic idolatry, with its vast population sunk in idolatrous worship, and degraded by the most soul-abasing superstitions, while the other has been the centre of Christian light, with a greater amount of Christian truth, and greater opportunities for its spread than any other nation in the world.  Is there not enough in this to teach us the character and purport of our stewardship?  Idolatrous India is placed under the government of professedly Christian England.  This vast mass of heathen darkness is brought into direct contact with the clearest light to be found in Christendom, and is it too much to conclude that the stewardship was a Christian stewardship, and that the great purpose for which it was entrusted to our care was that the scriptural light of England might be freely communicated, and shed its beams in the midst of the deep darkness of Indian heathenism?

And is it not again most remarkable that this trust was given to Protestant England?  There were other nations which preceded us in India, but to us was the stewardship given.  It was entrusted to the care of no Romish people, of Spain, or France, or Austria, for none of those nations had the great qualification for the trust.  Not holding the truth themselves they were disqualified from the high commission.  In England there was the profession of Scriptural truth.  In England the light of the Reformation burnt steadier than in any other nation.  In England there was a larger circulation of the Scriptures than in any country in the world, and therefore to England was the great trust given.

Can there then be any doubt as to the real character of England’s stewardship?  Can we suppose that such a trust was given simply in order to enrich our merchants, or to find employment for our sons?  Can we believe that these 160,000,000 immortal heathens were placed under our care in order that the wealth and luxury of the East might be transferred to our little island? and that our merchant princes might return to erect palaces, and spend their latter days in luxurious ease?  Was it not rather given in order that England’s light might shine in India’s darkness; that heathen Asia might have Christianity presented to its view, and that the millions of that vast empire might be brought under the blessing of a Christian government, and favoured with that which is the highest gift within the reach of man, the clear exhibition of Christian truth?  I believe it may be safely said, that throughout the history of the world no nation was ever yet favoured with so noble an opportunity, or intrusted with so high a stewardship.  We have had both light and power, and with this double qualification in our hands we have had a vast empire for a whole century placed under our care.  No wonder then that God now says to us at the close of the hundred years, “Give an account of thy stewardship.”

II.  And now let us consider England’s account.

And here it is a joy to acknowledge that a vast amount of good has been done for India, and that our rule has been productive of great social and moral improvement.  Roads have been made and canals formed; justice has been administered to an extent never known previously; Thuggism, Sutteeism, and child murder have been abolished, and on the whole there has been a vast and increasing amount of just and beneficial legislation.  All this we most freely and thankfully acknowledge.  Why then, it may be asked, is there need for humiliation?  If so much good has been done, what reason is there to be humbled for our sin?

For the answer to this question, we must not merely consider civil and social improvements, but we must consider the Christian character of our trust, and I fear it will be found, that instead of holding it as a stewardship from God, we have treated India as if it were our own, holding it in the pride of our own power, and making use of it for the purpose of our own aggrandizement.

Consider some of the acts of Government, and in the first place, the trade in opium.  The use of this drug is of comparatively recent date in China.  In 1767, there were only 200 chests imported there, whereas now there are above 60,000.  And this has been done in defiance of the Chinese Government.  The opium used to be carried in fast vessels, fully armed, so that our opium merchants were in fact armed smugglers.  The determination to force the trade on China, was the simple cause of the former Chinese war.  But the Chinese Government has been utterly unable to contend against British enterprise, and the result is that thousands and tens of thousands are at the present time falling victims to the scourge.  You may see all along the coasts of China innumerable cases of constitutions broken, intellects impaired, hopes blasted, homes desolate, and whole families sunk into the lowest state of degradation and distress, and all through the opium which we Englishmen have supplied from India.

The effect is also most injurious in India itself.  It is stated that there are 100,000 acres of the finest land in Central India, besides the alluvial valley of the Ganges, now devoted to opium, which were once productive of sugar, indigo, corn, and other grain for the sustenance of man.

And who are the parties to this great crime?  If they were simply private individuals, it might be exceedingly difficult to check the trade by legislation, and it might possibly be beyond the power of Government to prevent it.  But what are we to say when the Government itself is the great offender?  When, instead of putting the smallest check on the traffic or the growth, they interpose their mighty power, and claim to themselves the sole monopoly of the trade.  In this respect the East India Company is a vast monopolist, and in order to increase the profits of their monopoly, they adopt a system of advances which forces the growth of the poppy on the ryots or cultivators of the soil.  Oh, who can wonder that God has brought a scourge on India!

And why, it may be asked, is all this done?  The question has often been discussed, but I never heard more than one answer given.  There is no plea put forth of social improvement.  There is no pretence that any good is done either to India or China.  It is admitted that thousands of acres of our best land are diverted from useful purposes.  It is admitted, for it cannot be denied, that the trade is spreading death like the most fatal pestilence in China, and there is but one argument put forth in defence of the system.  There is but one apology even offered.  I know it is a strong argument to some minds, and it seems to be strong in the minds of the East Indian Government.  That one argument is, that it pays so well.  It is said to bring in about 5,000,000l., a-year to the East India Company.  And this is a rapidly-increasing income.  In 1836 it was 1,399,000l.  In 1850 it had grown to 3,309,637l., and now it is said to have reached the large sum of 5,000,000l. a-year.  This is the one argument for China’s ruin, and is it strange that God has smitten us in India?

But again we endeavoured to show, in the outset, that England had a religious trust, being the steward of truth as well as power.  But the Indian Government, on the other hand, has taken up the position of absolute neutrality between the Gospel and the most foul idolatry.  Indeed, so far has this gone, that in some instances it might have been almost supposed that they looked with a more favourable eye to idolatry than Christianity.

For example.  Until a very recent date the Government has not merely maintained some idol temples, but paid the expense of the idol worship, not merely paying the priests, but actually going one step further, and providing the payments for the abandoned females who are connected with the idolatrous rites.  Such honour has the Indian Government paid to idolatry, that British troops have been ordered out, under British and Christian officers, to fire salutes in honour of foul and filthy idols, such as Juggernaut.  Nor has this deference to idolatry even yet altogether ceased, for to this very day the filth and obscenity of idolatry is spared, while decency is enforced in other quarters.  There was a law passed not long since against obscene paintings and publications, but there was this clause inserted, “Nothing contained in this Act shall apply to any representation sculptured, engraved, or painted on, or in, any temple, or on any car used for the conveyance of idols.”  So that even public decency has been set aside out of respectful deference to an obscene and filthy idol.  Oh! brethren, have we not reaped what we have sown in the late most awful outbreak of abominable and polluting passion?

But much has been done in India in the way of education.  Large schools have been established at the expense of Government, and a great effort has been made to elevate the standard of intellect amongst the natives.  But here again there has been the same fatal principle of indifference, I cannot say of neutrality in religious matters.  The education given in those schools has been secular not Christian.  There have been many books read and taught there.  The Koran has been studied there.  The Hindoo Shastres may have been seen on the table, English literature of all kinds is taught in the classes.  There you may find Bacon, and Milton, and Gibbon, and Shakspeare, and other great authors that adorn our own libraries; but there has been one book till very recently excluded, one book that even now you can merely find on the shelf, while the Koran and the Shastres are on the table; one solitary book on which is placed the ban of the East Indian Government, and that one book is the Bible, the only book that has come direct from God; the only book that claims, by its divine authorship, the universal study and obedience of mankind.  Who can be surprised, then, if the pupils in those schools grow up without scriptural principles?  And are we not reaping the fruit of our own seed when such a wretch as Nena Sahib, who is reported to have been one of the pupils in these very schools, teaches us, by his foul acts, the awful atrocities of which educated human nature, without the grace of God, is capable.

And now for missions.  And here we are met by the fact that for the first fifty-six years of our century of power a missionary, as a missionary, was not allowed to set his foot on British soil.  It is true that some of the chaplains, such as Martyn, Buchanan, and others, went out in a missionary spirit, and though their duty was to attend to the Europeans, they went beyond it, as volunteers in efforts among the heathen; but it was not until the renewal of the Company’s charter in 1813; that missionaries, as missionaries, were allowed to land in British India.  Before that date several had actually been sent away by the authorities of Calcutta, and in order to pursue their labours, were compelled to take refuge under heathen governments.  So completely did we forget our stewardship that, for more than half the time we have held it, we did not even allow God’s missionaries to attempt their work among the millions committed to our charge.

But our treatment of the Sepoys has been worse still.  In them we have had a body of men entirely under our orders, separated very much from the rest of society, living in lines completely under our own control.  Now, what has been the case with them?  I believe it is an admitted fact that no missionary work has been permitted amongst them.  The gentleman who was here a short time ago for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel stated that he had laboured for more than twenty years in the neighbourhood of military cantonments, but had never been allowed to labour among the Sepoys.  Who can wonder, in such a case, that those Sepoys are utterly ignorant of the true character of Christianity, and are therefore ready to believe that the use of a greased cartridge could make them Christians?

But more than this.  There has been in our treatment of these Sepoys the most complete departure from even our boasted principles of neutrality; for, although it seems a strong statement, I believe it to be a true one, that in many eases idolatry has been encouraged in these regiments, while Christianity was dishonoured, if not put down.  If a Brahmin raised objections on the ground of his idols or his caste, he was humoured in his folly, and regimental discipline was set aside in his favour.  But if a Christian spoke of conscience, and if he objected on Christian grounds to fire a salute to some horrid idol, in former days he was cashiered.  The Brahmin’s folly was respected, the Christian’s conscience outraged.  But in one case it went further, for in 1819 there was a devoted chaplain labouring at Meerut of the name of Fisher, when a Sepoy who had been for years inquiring, applied to him for baptism, and was baptized.  The man was highly respected in his regiment, a fine soldier, bearing the best of characters.  But the fact of his baptism was reported to the Governor-General: and, to the shame of our Indian Government be it spoken; to the lasting shame of all that had a hand in that guilty act,—without any fault being laid to his charge, on the contrary, with the highest testimony being borne to his character, for the one act of becoming a Christian, that Sepoy was dismissed the Service.  Verily it seems as though that guilty act had been hid in the soil of Meerut as the seed of the present mutiny.  There it was that a professedly Christian Government cast its Christianity out of a Sepoy regiment, and there, on that very spot, did the Sepoys shed the first Christian blood, in their efforts to cast us out of India.

And now, it may be asked, why has all this been done? and what can have been the motive for this unchristian policy?  It has not been the love of Hindooism, for no one supposes for a moment that any of India’s rulers cared for it.  But it seems to have been the result of a false expediency and a timid policy.  The one defence that has been constantly put forth has been that we must not endanger British power by offending heathen prejudices.  It has been thought that the open and honest avowal of our Christianity might alarm the advocates of idolatry, and so endanger English rule.

Now, I believe that nothing can be more fallacious than such an opinion.  No man ever yet gained anything in the long run by holding back his principles.  He may patch up a difficulty for a time, but it will tell upon him with increased power afterwards, and then he will have to meet it, distrusted by his fellow men, and forsaken by God himself.  Oh! brethren, if you ever wish man to trust you, be honest to your own principles, and remember the words of Scripture, “Them that honour me I will honour.”

The truth of this has been abundantly proved in India, and there are many facts to show that, as elsewhere, so in India, the open avowal of our Christian principles has been the surest means of obtaining the confidence of the natives.  For example, our Mission schools have been established on Christian principles.  In them there has been the Bible, but no Shastres, and the Gospel, but no Koran; and it is a most remarkable fact, and one that surely teaches a lesson of deep import, that, although the Government schools have had all the advantages of the support and patronage of the State, the people, the heathen people, mark! have preferred the schools where Christ was honoured, and have sent so many more children to them than to the others, that the Government have at length been induced by the demonstrated fact of their superior popularity, to admit them to the advantages of a grant in aid.

Again, at this present time the gentleman acting in the Commissariat department for the little force at Benares, is a missionary of the Church Missionary Society.  He has been requested to leave the missionary compound, and go into the cantonments, in order to make the necessary purchases for the force.  And why?  Because the people of the country trust him as they do no one else, and he can make purchases when others fail.  Here is a man that has been never seen but with the Bible in his hand and the Gospel on his lips; a man who has attacked Hindooism openly, in the streets and in the bazaars, and he is the man best trusted by the native population.  Can there be a more conclusive proof of the utter absurdity of the foolish clamour that missions have stirred up the mutiny?

But there is another fact of the same kind.  The Church Missionary Society has a small mission at Bhagulpur, on the borders of the Santal tribes, and when, in the late Santal rebellion, those tribes came sweeping over the plains, that little spot was preserved, like Gideon’s fleece, moist, when all around was dry, and dry when all around was moist with blood.  The influence of the Mission over these people was so strong, and the tranquillizing power so clearly proved, that the East Indian Government, to their great credit be it spoken, have admitted the fact, and in order to keep the district quiet have actually requested the missionary of Bhagulpur to organize similar missions at Government expense throughout the Santal tribes.

Who can doubt, then, the fallacy of the idea, that a plain, honest, and affectionate avowal of Christian principle would ever have weakened British power?  But even if it were otherwise—if there were risk in introducing the Gospel and in fulfilling our Stewardship—suppose there were the deliberate choice between British sovereignty and the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ—suppose it to have been a fact that there was danger to our rule in India if we openly avowed our faith in Jesus—suppose that there were real risk in a plain, open, honest, Christian government, what, brethren, should have been the decision?  Dearly as we love the prosperity of our land, thankfully as we recognise the many beneficial changes that have been effected by British power, fervently as we hope for still greater results when the present crisis has passed away, yet if there were antagonism between all this and the Lord’s Kingdom, there must not be one moment’s hesitation as to the verdict of the Christian man.  Christ must be honoured at all costs; and God forbid that England ever hold a sovereignty either purchased or maintained at the awful price of the suppression of our principles or the keeping back of God’s truth!

Here lies, I believe, the root of this sad calamity.  The contrary has been in many cases our decision.  England’s power has been preferred to the Lord’s kingdom.  We have forgotten our Stewardship.  We have not held India by Him or for Him.  We have relied on our own arm, and have governed for our own purposes.  And now that arm has failed us, and those purposes have been completely frustrated.  The reed has broken and pierced through the hand that leaned on it.  God has let us feel what we are in our own strength; and who could be surprised if He were now to say, “Thou mayest be no longer steward?”

But there is danger in fixing our thoughts too much on governments, for by so doing we are apt to lose sight of our personal responsibility; whereas we ought to remember that the Church of God has had its trust likewise, and that every individual amongst us has been more or less connected with the question.  Consider, then, the stewardship of the Church.

In the last century there was very little done for the spread of the Gospel in India.  There are a few remarkable names on record such as Schwartz and Martyn, and a few institutions such as the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, in connexion with which Schwartz laboured.  But it was not till the beginning of this century that the missionary spirit sprang up with any vigour in the Church.  The first half of the century was almost wholly lost.  This might be explained partly by the opposition of Government.  But since the year 1813 there has been no such impediment.  There has been a great country with its teeming millions.  There has been the most perfect personal safety.  The missionaries could travel from north to south without a danger.  There has been a peaceable population ready to discuss, and regarding with respect the British name.  There has been, in short, for the last forty-four years the noblest and most magnificent opportunity for Christian Missions that the world has ever witnessed.  There has been a vast opening before us, such as would have filled the Apostle’s mind with zeal and wonder.  And now what have we done?  Let the Church of God give an account of her stewardship!

We thankfully acknowledge that this stewardship has not been altogether neglected.  Great and well conducted missionary institutions have been at work, and devoted men have been raised up for the service.  Nor has God left us without tokens of his blessing.  In 1853 the whole Bible had been translated into ten languages, the New Testament into five others, and separate Gospels into four more.  There were also at that time as many as 2,015 missionary schools established; and, as far as could be calculated, there were then no less than 112,000 converts.  We may, therefore, thank God most heartily for what has been done; but still it is nothing in proportion to the immensity of the demand.  In that year the Church of God throughout the world—English, Scotch, American, and European, including all Dissenting bodies—supplied only 395 American or European labourers, not one for half a million of the Indian population.  I have not the means of ascertaining the present total, but, as far as I can gather from the Reports, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel is now maintaining about forty-eight English clergymen in India, and the Church Missionary Society about ninety English clergymen, with about twenty English laymen.  There are Germans and natives employed in addition, but the total, 158, very nearly represents the sum of England’s contribution of her own sons to this great work through these two Church of England Societies.  And now, if we remember the eagerness with which parents seek for appointments either civil or military, and the steady stream of gallant young men that are every year going forth to India—when we contrast the difficulty of obtaining a single missionary with the eagerness to obtain a Company’s appointment, I fear that we must come to the conclusion that we are not yet awake to the responsibilities of our Stewardship, and not yet alive to the loud and solemn call with which the great Head of the Church is summoning us to the honour of his sacred service.

The same may be said with reference to funds.  In 1853 the large sum of 190,000l. was contributed, of which no less than 33,500l. was subscribed in India itself, leaving 156,500l. to be collected from the rest of the world.  I am again unable to give the statistics of other bodies at the present time, but the two Societies already mentioned appear to spend between them money collected in England to the amount of only 76,834l., of which 57,635l. is spent by the Church Missionary Society, and 19,199l. by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.  There is doubtless some that passes through other channels, in addition to the large sums expended by other bodies of Christians.  But we may regard 80,000l. as a near approximation to the whole sum now spent by the Church of England on Indian Missions.  Now just contrast this sum with the large fortunes made in India, with the number of families altogether maintained from India, and, above all, with the fact that the Company is deriving a net profit of 5,000,000l. a-year from the opium traffic alone, and there is, I fear, most overwhelming evidence that we have utterly failed in our Stewardship; that we have received much, but given little; that we have been entrusted with great wealth and great opportunities, but have made a most poor and pitiful return, having been content to grow rich on India’s produce without fulfilling our sacred trust, or employing even a decent proportion of the income derived from India on the evangelization of her people.

And the result of this defective liberality is evident in the total spiritual destitution of vast districts, more especially amongst those which have been the scenes of the present outbreak.

Let us examine the state of some of these districts, now too well known by the sad events that have happened there.

In a district around Agra, containing a population of 3,500,000, there were in 1852 nineteen missionaries; and around Benares, for a population of 7,100,000, nineteen missionaries—a tolerable supply, it may be thought, but yet very little, when you reflect that around Benares there was little more than one man to nearly 400,000 heathen.  But look at other cases.  Take the case of Cawnpore, that place whose name should be written in tears.  Around Cawnpore there is a district containing 3,200,000 persons, for which in 1852 there were only seven missionaries, one for nearly half a million.  Around Meerut there is a district containing 3,300,000, for which there were four missionaries.  Around Bareilly, a population of 4,400,000, for which there was not one.  Around Delhi, a population of 1,500,000, and not one, although a Mission has since been established by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and another by the Baptists.  But up to the year 1853 there was not one.  And so again at Lucknow.  The Government has for years been friendly to us, the whole kingdom of Oude has been open to us, and for the last two years it has been under our own dominion.  But up to this day I believe I am correct in stating that not a single missionary has ever yet crossed its border.  Such is the spiritual condition of vast regions in India at the present time.  According to the language of an able writer, “Some of the finest and most populous parts of the country are altogether neglected, or, if not neglected, supplied at the rate of one missionary to a million or half a million of people, scattered in great districts!  Let any one study the map of India, and allow his eye to affect his heart.  He will find a district as large as Wales or Yorkshire, with a population probably larger, without a single missionary.  He may go on and add to that another, and then another, and finally will discover a long range of fertile, populous countries, as much neglected as if they were districts in Japan.”  So fearfully have we failed in the stewardship which God has given us.

But let us remember who are really the parties that have been thus deficient.  In the acts of Government we may feel but little personal responsibility, for, as private individuals, we cannot control them.  But it is not so with the stewardship of the Church, for the deficiency has arisen there not from any want of principle in the ruling body, but from want of interest in the private individuals composing the flock.  We have had large and well-conducted Institutions doing their utmost: we have had appeal after appeal to our liberality, sometimes from the bishops, sometimes from military officers, sometimes from residents in the civil service, sometimes from the little band of missionaries, and sometimes even from the heathen themselves.  They have appealed for money, and appealed for men, and appealed for prayers.  They have urged upon us the awful necessities of millions of perishing heathen, and pressed on our attention the noble opportunities and most solemn responsibilities which we have received from God.  The neglect has been with ourselves.  The responsibility cannot be shifted upon others.  We have not responded enough, either in men or money.  There have been plenty of young men for the army and the civil service.  There has been no difficulty in obtaining chaplains, but few have volunteered for Missions; and even of these few several have been deterred by their parents’ unwillingness to part with them for such a service.  And so with funds: we have been content to give an annual guinea, or perhaps much less, and then leave the whole great work to others.  There has been very little self-denial for God.  How little have any of us ever given up for India’s good!  How small have been the sacrifices which any of us have ever made for the evangelization of those many millions!  I cannot but think that God is now awaking us by the rod to a sense of our responsibility.  He is awaking the north wind to rouse us from our indifference.  We have not listened sufficiently to India’s plea for help; so now He is shaking us from our slumber, and I trust that the result may be that we may “hear the rod, and who hath appointed it.”  I do not believe that the stewardship is about to be taken from us, but I believe, on the contrary, that a new era is dawning on India.  I can imagine it possible that after this experience of heathenism there will be any more deference paid to its horrid idolatry by Government; and I pray to God that his Church may rise an one man to the deep sense of its sacred trust; that we may all be brought to a deeper personal knowledge of the love of Christ, and each one act more conscientiously than he has ever yet done, under the steady recollection of India’s claims and England’s stewardship.

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

The Scriptural Principles of our Protestant Church.  Price 3s.  Hatchard.

The Time of the End.  Price 1s. 6d.  Hatchard.

The Communion and Communicant.  Intended for Inquirers respecting the Lord’s Supper.  Price 4d.  Hatchard.

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Baptism as taught by the Bible and the Prayer-Book.  Wertheim.

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- ENGLAND’S STEWARDSHIP:

- ENGLAND’S STEWARDSHIP.

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