The Express.
London, England, 1858-02-17 00:00:00

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TO CORIMPONDINTO.
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NIGH WATIIi AT LONDON BUMS.
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LONDON, TrEDNEEDAY, FEBRUARY 17.

Tut dark aspects of the native Indian character
which this mutiny has unveiled, have immensely en-
hanced the interest of Christian Mimics)s to that
country. It has been universally felt that we shall
not have possession of India until we have con-
quered its ideas. This impression, which cannot bo
said to be confined to " the religious world," works
its way to the hUlfece in various modes. and often in
singular combinations. It runs up the whole gamut
of sentiment : from a mere rude national feeling,
which longs to say how absurd and intolerable it is
that a set of black people, whom we thrash six
times in every T,lcgram, should pretend to know
better than we what religion is good for
them, up to the highest and purest reli-
gious conviction. A solemn belief is general
that something which it was in our power to do
for India, and which we ought to have done, has
been neglected. The practical genius of our country-
men is a guarantee that this feeling will bear fruit.
Remorse is lavish, but it is also rash, and it will be
peculiarly the duty of those who through years peat
have been silently consecrating their cares and
labours to the cause of missions now to guide and
direct the zeal w Bich =gee itself by their side. If
they have vitality er.ough to assimilate and strengthen
themselves by the new element, they may bring
blessings to the wl.ole empire ; if,on the other hand,
they permit themselves to be carried away from their
original, simple principles, and form worldlyallianees,
their usefulness sill be at an end, and their work
may even become a snare.
Then is a very prevalent disposition to believe
that in some unexplained way we have recently
acquired unusual facilities for the conversion of the
natives of India. Certainly we have heard of
late unwonted language on the missionary plat-
form. The victories of Sir COLIN Calm=
have a tendency to connect themselves in the
speaker's mind with the triumph of the gospel.
The future relations of the British Government
to religion in India are discussed, not only in
the assemblies of those who expect new bishoprics
in that country from the Crown, but :among those
who at home, end for themselves, conscientiously
maintain that to religion the Government should
maintain no relation at all. The Government of
India, we are told, must show itself Christian, but
we are not permitted to suppose that the most
exemplary piety tf its members, from the Governor-
General and Commander-in-Chief downwards, would
satisfy this 'Milo irc tn en t.

Sometimes we get at a more positive statement.
At a meeting held last week at Manchester, where
the resolutions were moved and seconded by clergy-
men and ministers representing all the principal
religions bodies of this country, the chairman laid it
down that "whatever political form of government
" might be assumed in India, the Word of Gun
" should be declared as the standard of truth—not,
" as hitherto, as one of the standards, along with the
" Xmas and various others—as recognised by the
0 English nation." Of course he hastened to add
4 that no creed should be forced upon any one, but
" that there should be toleration free as the air." And
this kind of profession is very common. So easily
do we dectiveourtelves when we wish to enjoy the
pleasures of exelLsiveness together with the calm
satisfaction of equal justice to aIL
Sometimes, again, we find a desire to interfere
violently for the moral reformation of India, dis-
guising itself under the form of tenderness of con-
science. At the meeting just mentioned, a reve-
rend Canon proclaimed that "the sins of India, if we
" could and did not prevent them, were our sins," and
that "we had a right to enforce our moral laws on
" India with the sword "—an assertion thoroughly
Dominican in its spirit, as true in England as in the
East, and utterly uutneaning except upon an assump-
tion destructive of all moral liberty. The doctrine
that we are answerable for other men's sins forces
upon us a power ,net flattering to the natural pride
of man, and has invested with sanctity the most
atrocious perscec• ions which the world has yet seen.
Even• bodily pan 7 suffered in the vaults of the In-
quisition was int' cted for the restoration of the erring
soul.

We know not what may be in the counsels of the
London Missionary Society, which is to appeal to
the metropolitan public to-morrow ; but we may
reasonably hope from its past history, from the
character of its constituency, and from the principles
it has hitherto held, that it will recognise the exclu-
sively spiritual nature of its work and its means.
Remembering and honouring the eminent and apos-
tolic men whom it has sent to the East, we cannot
conceive it am admitting geographical limits to reli-
gions liberty, or recognising any other human
authority than conscience in matters of faith.
It will demand fur its native converts, and it
will wish to see extended to those who
are not converts, the protection of an equal'
law. At horns and abroad the denominational body
on which it has mainly relied has always asserted
Christianity to be above and before all things a
spiritual and personal influence, raising and uniting
the individual man to the great object of all
religion, and, therefore, • constant witness for
human rights. We are warranted, then, in looking
confidently to this Society for a correction of those
misconceptions si Inch • confusion of religions and
political ideas is I.lr/clueing amid the excitements of
the times.

Rut indeed coo might appeal to the message
which every saionary Society holds in its
hands against that spirit of domination which
la so prone to mingle with every work
for which apparently a Divine sanction can be
claimed. There is no rpiritual primacy of noes.
The sacred recut do speak of a common disaster
which has befallen the entire human family, and
announce a common redemption. The doctrine
which reposes grandly on the infinite basis of an
ineffable Divine Charity, and has a sublime act of
humility and self-sacrifice foe its corner-stone, must
be lamentably misunderstood before the attempt can