lately taken place in the North West Provinces, to rebellions headed by fiends like Nena Sahib, or Tippoo Saib. Christianity alone can effect the regeneration of a race debased by idolatry, whose priesthood practise iniquity, and whose gods glory in sin. I do not believe in any civilisation which is not founded on true religion; and I am firmly persuaded that if we persevere in our attempt to govern India, whilst we ignore and contemn it, we shall only be digging the grave of an empire which, if based on the Bible, might endure as long as the Himalayas remain capt with snow. The more one searches the records of history, or studies the condition of nations that do not profess Christianity, the more conspicuous will the beneficent influences of that religion appear. At the present moment, no country where heathenism prevails, can pretend either to a high degree of civilization, or to a widely extended power; and those commonwealths which are most religious certainly command, in every respect, the destinies of the globe. The Mussulman kingdoms are admitted on all hands to be tottering to their fall; no human arm can retrieve the waning fortunes of the prophet; "Mene, Mene, Tekel" is written on the dynasties of Constantinople and Teheran. Nor does Buddhism show any signs of enduring influence. Siam, Japan, and China manifest unmistakable symptoms of weakness; and some of us may very likely live to see Christian instructors welcomed, with open arms in Jeddo and Pekin. Both of these creeds were once proselytising; both have subjugated millions of men; but they seem to have run their race. The successor of Sulieman the Magnificent is indebted for the preservation of his dominions to Christian nations; and the Celestial Empire appears, to well informed observers, on the eve of dissolution. Neither, at all events, can lay claim to influence in the world. Christianity is the only advancing agency, the only leaven working for the well-being of men. The doctrines of the false prophet were suited to a time c ignorance and warlike excitement; but they cannot bear the light of science, or harmonise with the triumphs of peace. When Omar built at Cairo the mosque which bears his name, he is said to have exclaimed, "With this mosque the religion of El-Islam rises, and with its fall perishes the faith of our holy prophet." This is regarded by Eastern nations as a true prophecy; and, as the Arab gazes on the dilapidated building, he will tell you that the day is not far distant when the tide of Islamism shall roll back towards Arabia, and the cross replace the crescent on the Seraskier's tower. Nor is there a province which will regret the change; for what has Mahommedanism, the least revolting and most rational of heathen creeds, done for the benefit of mankind? How has it effected the social condition of nations which once took the lead in literature, science, and art? Let the waste howling wilderness beside the Euphrates-the starving villagers on the banks of the Nile -the ruined towns and neglected agriculture of Asia Minor -the robber-infested plains between the Indus and the Caspian, answer the question. The sword of Mahomet has been like that of the destroying angel, carrying desolation and ruin in its path. The Saracenic conquests were rapid and awful as a tropical tornado, but they left behind the stillness of moral death. They were a simoom which converted the fairest spots in creation into deserts of sand. Having made these cursory observations in regard to the condition of nations whose God is not the Lord, permit me to advert for a few moments, and more directly to the influence of Christianity on character, manners, and social life. What surprised many Roman sages most in the new religion imported from Syria was the transformation which it effected on mankind. They did homage to its pure morality; the wisdom and holiness of its injunctions forced from them a reluctant admiration, and they were free to confess that in the teaching of Jesus there were an elevation of sentiment and a true philosophy, far superior to anything that had ever emanated from the groves of the Academy. Laertius and Cicero both maintain that the majority of those to whom the ancient world looked up as luminaries, were notorious for their profligacy and their disregard of moral restraints, and it is undeniable that no religion that does exist, or ever has existed, except our own, exercises any appreciable effect in subduing the passions of men. It is the only medicine which can cure, the only remedy for the countless calamities superinduced by sin. Those who sincerely embrace it are the true benefactors of their race -the men who give most liberally to promote the happiness of their fellows-who are oftenest found in the abodes of poverty and wretchedness-who have taken the lead in every great movement for the advancement of mankind— who are the main supports of national greatness and free institutions-who are secretly honoured and respected for their philanthropy and virtues by the very scorners who profess to contemn their faith. So little, indeed, do other creeds encourage the development of the benevolent affections, that the latter may almost be said to have sprung from Christianity; and, in the case of the Roman Catholic church, the prominent exercise of these emotions has covered a multitude of sins. In times of fierce polemical controversy the Sisters of Mercy have always been the most efficient props of the Papal power. The philanthropic labours of the Jesuit missionaries, the kindness to the sick and poor shown by the founders of monastic orders, the teaching and nursing of the nuns in schools and hospitals, did more for the Romish religion than all its councils and conclaves, its inquisitors and doctors of law. Almshouses, infirmaries, and such like institutions, which bring into play the better sympathies of our nature, and mitigate the sufferings of the masses, had no existence in the pagan world. When in the year 254 an epidemic broke out in Carthage, the Christians answering an appeal made to them by the venerable Cyprian, though immediately before they had suffered a violent persecution, by their laborious zeal, and self-denying courage saved the city from pestilence. Their heathen neighbours, afraid of infection, refused to minister to the sick, or bury the dead; the diseased lay in the streets in heaps-corpses tainted the air. "Let us now overcome evil by good," exclaimed the noble bishop of the afflicted church; the effect of his words was talismanic, and the uttermost ends of the Roman empire heard how notably had been manifested forgiveness of injuries, and disinterested kindness-emotions which the philosophers of Athens scarcely inculcated in their lessons, much less practised in their lives. Gratitude is another of the virtues which may be said to be the offspring of Christianity. None of the Eastern languages of the present day can boast of a word having the same signification; and we know that our countrymen have rome into contact with races in whose bosoms it does not xist at all. The humanising effect of religion was remarkably illustrated in the case of the northern barbarians who over-run the Roman empire, whose ferocity and savage manners carried terror into every Italian home. Scarcely had they begun to learn the precepts of the Bible when their very nature seemed to undergo a change, and men soon ceased to look with dread on a Visigoth or a Vandal. Their altered demeanour proved how completely successful the apostles of the new faith had been in their endeavours "To make man mild and sociable to man; Whether we contemplate Christianity in the light of history, or regard its present manifestations in individual character, its influence in the customs of nations, or on the temper and conduct of persons, we are constrained to look upon it as " A pure redeeming angel, sent to free This fetter'd world from every bond and stain, "All religious history may be appealed to," says Isaac Taylor, "in attestation of this averment, that the Christian doctrine of forgiveness of sins is the only one which has ever generated an efficacious and tender spirited philanthropy. The Christian (and he alone) is expansively, and assiduously compassionate." The beneficent effects of our religion seem to me to admit of no denial. To say nothing of a thousand cruel practices and debasing superstitions, which it has superseded, how inestimably blessed have been the results of abolishing polygamy and slavery; the one destructive of domestic happiness, and interposing a serious obstacle to the education of youth-the other ruining the moral sense, blunting the natural affections, and training a rising generation to the exercise of lawless tyranny. If Christianity had done nothing more for society than to rescue woman from a state of degradation, and assign to her that influential and honourable place which, in every religious country, she holds, it would be scarcely possible to over-estimate the benefits conferred by it on the world. You do not require to be told, that females amongst Moslem and heathen nations, are either toys or drudges, considered as an inferior order of beings, and not permitted to share in the conversation and the social pleasures of their lords. In some instances they are conceived to have no souls; in all the most limited amount of education |