III.

Removing Obstructions.

I AM anxious to show, as far as I can, the finger of God, not only in raising the superstructure, but in removing obstructions to its progress-not only in giving impulse to the current, but in creating the channels in which it is to run-not only in building the grand superstructure of a temple that shall be vocal with his praise, and sparkle with his glory in unsetting suns, but also in removing those great obstructions to its erection and its progress which are still more or less spread over all the world. And in order to show this, I will refer, first of all, to that ancient and grand obstruction to which we alluded in the last chapter, namely, paganism. Let us recollect what heathenism or paganism was, when Christianity first started on its majestic march, and by comparing the countries of the world it once overflowed, we can ascertain what paganism is now, and how it was dwarfed and dwindled down into a comparatively small obstruction. Let us refer to that portion of Asia called India, and there, I think, we are able to show, not from guesses, but from the testimony of competent witnesses, that paganism in its formula of Hindooism, one of its most degraded

developments, is fast giving way. Whether it be dislodged by Christianity or not, is another question, but that it is being gradually wasted and overthrown day after day is obvious from the statement of competent witnesses, as well as from the progress that Christianity is making in different provinces of that vast and splendid empire.

All India is under the jurisdiction of Britain, and there is, therefore, in it what there was not in ancient times, freedom and facility for circulating the Bible, and preaching the everlasting Gospel. India, Birmah, and China are more or less accessible at this moment, as they never were before, to the preaching of the unsearchable riches of Christ. Hindooism, I am told, is being abjured day by day by the educated and higher classes of the natives of that land. We know the effects of caste; we know the pride and inveteracy of sect; but we no less see that, in proportion as the natives of India become educated, they see the absurdity of the system of which they have been the victims; and whilst they do not all accept Christianity as a substitute, for some of them have unhappily accepted infidelity, yet they are in great numbers abjuring that religion which has been the ancient belief of millions of that long benighted land. What aids the ruin of this ancient superstition, is the fact that has been brought before the public by the various missionaries who have laboured in Hindostan - that the whole Hindoo system is sacred- and has no secular parts in it. For instance, that this earth is a vast plain, supported, I believe as they imagine, by an elephant, and surrounded by concentric seas, is as much an article of an Hindoo's creed as any theological dogma strictly

so called. The eclipses of the sun and moon, accord ing to their Shasters, are theological and supernatural phenomena -and so part and parcel of their religious system. The astronomer, who with his telescope sweeps the firmament, the geologist who excavates the earth, the mathematician who calculates the eclipses, the man who proves the earth to be a spheroid, and not a plane, does not merely make the Hindoo a better scientific scholar, but he actually destroys a vital and infallible dogma of his religious system. And hence, the telescope, mathematics, and science, just in proportion as they spread, are at this moment destroying not secular scientific conclusions, but sacred and infallible dogmas in the creed of the Hindoos. If one could prove to a Roman Catholic, which it is very easy to do, that transubstantiation is an unscriptural falsehood and absurdity, one not merely dispossesses him of that dogma, but shakes his confidence in the infallibility of his church; so, if we can convince a Hindoo that the earth is round, or that an eclipse is one of the regular phenomena of nature, we do not merely convince him that he has believed a scientific error, but that his religion is not Divine-we take away a vital article of his creed; and if we go no further, we necessarily throw him into infidelity. Hence, while I should rejoice to see Scriptural religion taught in India, yet I rejoice to hear of education of any sort there; just as in Ireland, we are thankful, while we may not approve, that any sort of education is taught; because where the darkness is so dense, and the superstition so universal, light of any sort goes to overthrow an obstruction to the Gospel, and then the ministers of religion must go and spread those blessed truths that will fill

the

gap that is left behind. I cannot but believe that this is the finger of God in India stirring the long stagnant waters preparatory to the descent of the angel of the everlasting Gospel to impregnate them with spiritual and eternal healing. One, therefore, rejoices that missionaries of every section of the Church are labouring in India at this moment, and so increasing the means of the spread of the Gospel with very great and growing success. The most honoured Society beyond all question is the Church of England Missionary Society; and in such a field to feel envy at brother labourers seems as extravagantly absurd, where there are millions of people in darkness, as if two little minnows should quarrel in the midst of the Atlantic Ocean for want of room to live in. We rejoice, then, to see the Church of England Missionary Society having in South India alone between 200 and 300 schoolmasters, 270 native catechists, and 30,000 at least under tuition: and at various stations there is evidence of the progress of the Gospel of the most encouraging kind.

The Bible has been translated into Sanscrit by the Bible Society, and thus the Brahmins can read the glad tidings of salvation in their own sacred tongue.

The whole of Hindooism, as statesmen as well as Christians tell us, is undergoing disorganization; and in the political world, as in the material world, whenever substances become disorganized, it is preparatory to new combinations; and when moral systems become lisorganized, it is always before the presence of some greater and higher manifestation. Out of the ruins of Hindooism, and from the destruction produced by silent, but successful elements, there will emerge a far

more glorious temple than the Hindoo has ever witnessed, around which there will be no revolting practices, and in the progress of which there will be no immolation of unhappy victims-a sanctuary around whose altars all will find a refuge, and in which mercy and truth will meet together, and righteousness and peace will kiss each other. We thus see in India at this moment the finger of God; and if we do not see progress amongst the educated so much as we could wish, yet schools are doing in India a most noble work. The Church of Scotland schools at the different Presidencies are allowed by the present distinguished Governor of India to be most eminently useful. Twelve hundred Hindoo children are taught in one of them to read God's Holy Word; while the opportunities of teaching the young Hindoos are so many and so pressing, that the Scotch Church is only prevented from opening larger premises from want of larger funds.

But let me look at another province of the world where I think we shall see the finger of God-that is, Africa. "Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands," is an ancient prophecy, and one can see in Africa the first beams of approaching morn, the elements of progress, if not emancipation, into the glorious liberty of the children of God. First, philanthropic merchants from this country are every day endeavouring to penetrate into the interior of Africa-commercially in the minds of some, philanthropically in the hearts of others; but in whatever way, they go, in the providence of God, as pioneers of the missionaries of the Gospel of Christ. I think I see in that fearful system which we feel has stained the southern states of America, a great