The Express.
London, England, 1857-11-27 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 27, 1867.

INDIA 3M8107 JLII7LffBIO7.

THE MEETING AT WILLIS'S ROOM&
The Bishop of Loanoc, in moving the first resolution
at yesterday's meeting, rid The trolntion I have
to present to you is That the Church of England
is rani. by the late calamitous events in India, to adopt
mites amorgetic meareimis for the diffualon of the Gospel in
that benighted land ; and that this meeting will give Its
hearty support to the Society foe the Propagation of the
Gospel in its efforts to strengthen and extend its minions
among the Hinder and Mahronetans." (Hear, hear.) As
to the first part of that resolution there is no man calling
himself • Christian in the country, who will not at ones
Arent to it ; and my belief is that if the principles of the
Society fur the Propagation of the Goebel were thoroughly
and fairly underetood, there would be almost as fewereons
Lead to dissent from the mond part. (Hoeg, her. The
=Li the Propagation of the Gospel is intimately con-
Irlih the church to which we belong ; and it professes
le ben narrow and excludes section of that church.
(MINIM It whhee that in all it brings before you it should
REA drams width of Christian charity's that church
apealw (Obnew) An instance I can quote in which It has
be reek adosadentood, ham occurred within the last fur
days. Every one who bar opened a newspaper has seen
something as to the Crimper° Memorial Church. And
strup k Is, but a (define hat got abroad that this is smatter
whack hes something to do with party views and party:purpories.
Swami diet euce a feeling should be entertained with regard
to men whom only object it is with one heart end one tubed
to euppreas their admiration of the heroism of those who died
a, Christians—ha that awful eineagency—to thank God that
the evil did not spread farther, sad to pray Him that that
mine of diabolical wieltedness may soon become a centre of
Christian truth. (Cheers.) Ilow the idea arose that
there wee anything of party connected with this matter, I
cannot under/tend. (Hear, hear.) No sooner lea proposi-
tion made to alter the terms by which it was tailed, than, In
order to dispel the feeling, the committee consents to It, and
a reolution within the last few days we. adopted by this
society intended to meet the sort of difficulty which, however
unreseenably, has oreuned to the minds of some who had
rend the reports of this Memorial Church, and • negotiation
was immediately opened also with that other great society
spoken of ,in the report, and which is supposed to represent a
somewhat different section of the church of England, in order
that there might not be • shadow of • doubt se to the real,
the Christian, the:catholic spirit in the highest sense, in
which the auroraee of this society desire to undertake
the work. (Hoar, hear.) I therefore think I am
entitled to Mile that, if this society were properly
understood, there would be few persons who would refuse
remit t, the second part of the proposition es well as to the
Ifin:—"fi—" That this meeting will give its hearty support to the
Society fur the Propagation of the Gospel in its efforts le
strengthen and extend its missions among the Hindoos sad I
Mahocuotana." (Cheers.) I trust that the events—the so-
teem events—which have induced all et us to units logetber
for miring the Compare church may remind us en ethic
ocerione oleo, that, whin WOO go forth to preach the Gerd
to the heathen, they forget theee foolish party division.—
ac.er.)— which make them stand asunder from eseh other
(Loud cheers.) The fi ret part of this resolution rya,
"That the Church of England is called by the late calsealtoes
event• in In to adopt more energetic urailures for the
diffusion of the Gospel in that benighted land." Let me kir
• eminent coy one word ea to the full and comparative
weaning of this phrase—the Church of England! It Is net
the clergy who are thus summoned to miesimasny dart
alone; but the Church of England, its laity as well r
it. chirry, arc bound to emit themselves in this work, end
not only In the obvious way of subscriptions to promote MAYO
denary effort, but in this way, perhape, more then say
other. There is a vest amount of missionary work that coq
be done by those who never considered themselves r nit.
siouries. (Hear, bear.) What is the general sentimest se
to the way in which India is hereafter to be administered?
It is • very common impersion that we must have in that
country • far larger forcer of European soldiers than we have
ever had before. Lot one ask this question—Whether we
should not see that thine giddier. we scud forth shall Lei speci-
men. of whet Christian ribber. ought to lee—(choers)—
that they ebould Mow thernwlves Christians in their ham,
MI that we Mirth] take care, by the provision we make fer
their instructkin sod worship el God, no one shall hencefor-
ward be able to ry we sent them forth into • heathen
country as if they were thenwelym heathen ? (Cheers.) Let
us everyone in our sphere endeavour to impress this on those
whom we can influence, that every English regiment that is
to go Nab to take its part in maintaining England's supre-
macy in India shall go forth as a band of Christian soldiers ;
and that nothing 'lint the common weskoeoe of hors
nature shall prevent their exhibiting whet Cher? iann ought
to ho when they live in the midst of heathen. (Cheese)
Ili,* hard is the lot of our common oldest even in these
times! How few °portal:tides have they heel of having
their minds raised from the temptations around them How
much has been done to improve =acre, but how meek
se-
mains to be done still, How much does it depend on the ex-
ertions made at hoe.° that every nigioient mall have its
eheplein—(checm)—that every regiment with its mhoolmes-
ter and he Chrietien school shall thew that we at home are
newt earnest for the Christianity of at least our own troops.
(Cheers.) But corning Dearer home, how mazy of us have
brothers, nephew, or /90. in India, and at this time how
very etrungly doer tho thought force itself on our minds, that
our trainiug of them at hour before we sent them forth was
not exactly ouch as was bent suited to make them exhibit the
Gospel et Christian soldiers and Christian officials in that
heathen laud. (Hoar, hoer.) Lot every parent who has •
young man in his family training up for Indian service lay
to heart what that young man is going forth to do, and let
him Uprose upon bite, young's he is—in those tender emo-
tions 'Mich cannot but be called forth when a young man
goat from his home, not to merit It, perhaps for twenty
years—when the voice of warning will find a plaeo in his
heart—let hies Impress upon him that he must denioan
himself as • Christian ought, and show what •
privilege it has been to him to have had a Christian truining
in the centre of • Christian church. (Cheers.) Let so, for
one moment, think if we can humbly, not dogmatically, what
have been God's purposes in allowing this most exireordia
eery outbreak of Satanic wiekedraess to betel the world.
Find, certainly, God has proved to 0.11 in a plain way thee
we are all dependent on him from day to day. It so ha
that in the year 11145—the niemoreble year when the thrones
of Europe were shaken to tho foundation—l was visited eel, h
a serious Illness, which for two weeks deprived me of the
power of knowing anything that took place in the world
beyond the teach of my own room. When I lay down all
Europe was is perfect tranquillity; there wear little thought
of an vast outbreak&
of neural wickedness throughout
the whole continent of Europe as there is at this moment.
When I awoke there was not • Leg sitting on hie throne
sue in our own beloved Island, and the countries imme-
diately connected therewith, or In the further regime of the
south, or among the barbarians of the north. Nothing
could more strikingly bring to one's mind how Mestere
is the whole world, exeept when it depends on God,
than when we awoke one morning and foul to our asto-
nishment that the great empire of India on which we prided
ourselves for so many years had collapeed, and was disap-
pearing altogether. I hope there are few of these present
in this room who have not some thought forced on them of
the dependence of the world and its relation to the Almighty
hand which rules the destiny of our race. And when God
thus vindicates to himself the absolute governance of the
world, He alms lets us He what become. of those fine theories
of human nature by which we are told that man educating
himself without religion may become, not only great, but
good. (Hear, her, and cheers.) 1 fear we cant for a
moment hesitate to grant that, however much wo rosy have
wished to excuse human nature before, we must now
think very lowly of unregenerated human nature. Many
of us bare been brought up with such admiration of
the Iridium tee old classic times that we are led to think
that, after all, a relined heathen ie not such a bed sort
of man. Bat now we know whet he is and that in •
moment he, and the community to which he belongs,
is liable to this tort of impute° from some demoniacal power
that leads him to exhibit such scenes of atrocity that we
could hardly suppose human nature would ever have wit-
nessed. Whim we reed the account in the Epistle to the
Romans of what the refined heathens were, we think it
cannot be • her picture of armee whose writing. we delight
to read ; but ft is a true picture, and hers we have before oar
eye* another picture of what the heathen Is now, so also to
the value of our Chridianify. We should now be mote
forward to value our Christianity than ever we were
before. What do you think it is that has nerved those few
Eurofeens to such seta of daring reelf-saerifiee end pearl
endurrinee P I behove, although the high spirit of young
men and their 1,..1d adder-like daring may account for
much, these qualities alone will not account for such quiet
cede/ante in the midst of the meet awful trials the human
eye has ever witnessed. (Cheers.) It has been customary
to talk of the Roman Matron and the Romeo Maiden ;
we may now henceforth speak of the British Matron and
the British Maiden. (Cheers.) We know how, under eir-
cumetenees to which it was impossible to supper they
could err have been exposed, they had risen merrier to
every attempt to degradw every attempt to terrify them;
and sow, long er the world lads, the memory of them mothers
and daughters of England will be regarded and honoured
wherever the Beglish name is known. (Cheers.) We have
set before no a faith which nothing could move. When we
read their letters we Mall find what is the spirit which ani-
mated them. I read het night two leases from a lady, since
massacred with her husband rd her child, who for weeks
was expecting every hour the awful catastrophe which ulti-
mately fell apes her. In this extremity sir wrote day by
day • journal, which site sent to bar Mende at home. Never,
out of the pages of Holy Writ, have I read words which
'poke more truly of the reality of Christianity to the ftreeeth
of Christian faith than those few page' ; and that is but
ono specimen out of a hundred which we rejoice to think
so many families will hereafter be able to lay by and
treasure among their rust precious Or
other thought only, before I sit down—what Gad
intends by the great warning ? I shall not detain you
by endeavour( to show LOB& it is re duty r assist
those who see say way is and ; or that the ran= woe
=fly reminds me that
Mk 'ewe vales the away Ng grallOd
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