The Sun.
London, England, 1857-10-15 00:00:00

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TUE CHRISTIAN DUTY OF EIELPING
THE RECRUITING SERGEANT.

The following passage is taken from the sermon
prea( lied by the I. ev. Mr. Robertson, of New
Groyfriats, Edinburgh, on the day of humiliation
—" I have no apprehension of gibe or sneer when
I declare my beFef that every man who, in his own
person or by his influence with another, adds a
single true-hearted recruit to the battalions of his
!ountry performs a good deed in the sight of God
And man. On our army, humanly speaking, de-
pends the future of India, and every brave man
who joins that army is a benefactor not only to
Britain, but to India too. This is no time Jr..
cold calculation, as if it were about the value of a
t,tle of merchandise, whether Britain has in time
past shown as much gratitude as she ought to have
done to her brave defenders, when the day of
anger was past. This is no time for chaffering
nd bargaining for pay, pension, or bounty. We
ve not speaking of mercenaries selling themselves
r hire in a cause which is nothing to them, but of
British men combating for Britain's honour, to
maintain her high place among the nations, to se-
cure to her the van in the march of civilising and
evangelising the world, and to protect her distant
empire from the unspeakable evils which threaten
ier, from years of anarchy and massacre, from cen-
turies, it may be, of the vilest PaganiAn. Nor let
t be forgotten that thousands of our countrymen,
.vith their wives and daughters, are still exposed
to the same terrible fate, and look to us for pro-
,ection ; that our brave Highlanders, with their
(qually gallant companions in arms and noble
leader, though they have already performed deeds
,f heroism of which Scotland shall be proud as
tong as she has a place among nations, notwith-
tiding their marvellous valour and unequalled vic-
tor ies, arc still hemmed in by unnumbered hordes of
savages thirsting for vengeance, and that the confi-
.lence which nerves their hearts with such indornit-
Ole daring, and cheers them in the battle-field,
,vhere each one encounters a hundred foes, is the
confidence that they are not forgotten at home—
that there are thousands of brave hearts here burn-
ing to rush to the rescue, thousands of souls stirred
to the very depths with the longing desire to share
in their dangers, their toils, their glories, and
their triumphs. And let not the fond Christian
oother tremble in sending forth the child of many
prayers on such a mission, lest his soul should there
be placed in circumstances of greater peril than at
home, owing to the godless companions he may
there mingle with, and the godless examples to
the influence of which he may )zie subjected. The
,:ost of duty, be assured, is always the place of spi-
ritual safety. And there are dangers to the soul
in our ball-rooms and theatres, in our haunts of
lissipation and our temples of debauchery, in our
streets and lanes and closes, as deadly, to say the
least, as are to be fuund in the barracks and in the
camp ; nay, the experience of late years has often
proved the latter to be the safer of the two. Ay,
NO know that those godly instructions and holy
lessons which the young heart little heeded in the
peace and quietude of domestic life, have sometimes
been brought home with marvellous power by the
Spirit's grace in the turmoil of the march, the re-
pose of the bivouac, or the roarof the battle. Many
a light and thoughtless heart has there been ravingly
imiwessed and solemnised, and many a one con-
strained to think who never thought before. I
speak not to others of a duty with which I would
not myself cheerfully comply. Had las many
sons as Priam I should not shrink from seeing them
in arms for a cause which from my heart I be-
lieve to be the cause not of Britain and India alone
but of the world, of civilisation, of religion, and
of God."