The Sun.
London, England, 1857-09-22 00:00:00

ONE THING AT A TIIIE.

There is a class of busy men who will do any-
thing, and with industry and zeal, except the
matter in hand, the business which stands first in
order of time and importance. For these men,
although divines and churchmen are often of the
number, Solomon has in vain written that "there
is a time for all things under the sun." They
will not have it so. , When one great affair, one
overwhelming anxiety, is tasking all the energies
of Government-, arid engrossing the mind of the
Wale, these men are for doing something else,
and pressing other subjects and other under-
takings, for which the season is net yet come, and
for which nobody had any stomach but themselves.
We have a striking instance of this mischievous
activity iu the untimely zeal for Indian missions,
of which we are sorry to perceive symptoms her e
and there through the country, at the most inop-
portune moment for such exertions that indiscre-
tion could select. We are engaged in the sup-
pression of the most formidable revolt that ever
placed.an empire in peril, a revolt raging over a
distant and vast continent, and accompanied with
crimes and horrors that make it not less our duty
to chastise the rebels than to crush the rebellion ;
and with this work upon our hands, this double
work 'of conquest and punishment, we are,
it seems, to charge ourselves with the addi-
tional burthen of preaching to, and converting the
insurgents. A moment like this is thought a fit
and decent opportunity for giving an impulse to
missionary labours, and even for raising funds to
encourage and support them. We rely upon the
common sense of the country to discountenance a
zeal so ill-timed as this, even in a cause so in-
trinsically good and laudable. The season will come
for employing the missionaries of religion, when
our soldiers, the missionaries of our justice, as welt
as the defenders of our empire, have acquitted
themselves of their prior functions. There is no
greater mistake, or one more prolific of bitter fruits,
than that into which many pious men are apt to
fall, to think that what is abstractedly right to be
done, and a duty to do, it is therefore incumbent
upon them to do at all times, and under all varieties
of circumstances. This is the mistake that Mr.
Hanna has fallen into with such lamentable con-
sequences .in Belfast ; but a thousand times
more mischievous would be its repetition here
in England at a crisis like the present, when per-
haps the very existence of our empire in India may
require the concentration on its defence of
every thought and. faculty, energy and resource
of the nation, without the slightest distraction of
purpose or relaxation of effort. On in-re grounds
of humanity, however, we enter our protest
against a second subscription, which canuot but
interfere most unjustifiably with that which the
yearnings of public sympathy have already or-
ganised for the relief of our suffering coentry-
men in India. Here, again, are two works that
cannot go on together; the public will not con-
tribute to two Indian funds at the same time.
Which, then, is to have precedence ? Even among
works of charity there rau,t he subordination of
claims. And in this instance can any right-minded
man have a doubt which ought to be postponed to
the other ? For out part, et least, we have none.
We think our martyrs have the first claim on
our compassion. The conversion of Nana Sahib
to Christianity would unquestionably be a glori-
ous work, though it would not prevent us from
also hanging him ; but wo submit that our first
concern is for the wretched survivors, alas too
few, 'of Indian outrage and brutality ; and we
have too much confidence in the Christian in.
tincts of Englishmen to think that from these
opinions there can be many dissenters in the
country.