And now, it may be asked, why has all this been done? and what can have been the motive for this unchristian policy? It has not been the love of Hindooism, for no one supposes for a moment that any of India’s rulers cared for it. But it seems to have been the result of a false expediency and a timid policy. The one defence that has been constantly put forth has been that we must not endanger British power by offending heathen prejudices. It has been thought that the open and honest avowal of our Christianity might alarm the advocates of idolatry, and so endanger English rule. Now, I believe that nothing can be more fallacious than such an opinion. No man ever yet gained anything in the long run by holding back his principles. He may patch up a difficulty for a time, but it will tell upon him with increased power afterwards, and then he will have to meet it, distrusted by his fellow men, and forsaken by God himself. Oh! brethren, if you ever wish man to trust you, be honest to your own principles, and remember the words of Scripture, “Them that honour me I will honour.” The truth of this has been abundantly proved in India, and there are many facts to show that, as elsewhere, so in India, the open avowal of our Christian principles has been the surest means of obtaining the confidence of the natives. For example, our Mission schools have been established on Christian principles. In them there has been the Bible, but no Shastres, and the Gospel, but no Koran; and it is a most remarkable fact, and one that surely teaches a lesson of deep import, that, although the Government schools have had all the advantages of the support and patronage of the State, the people, the heathen people, mark! have preferred the schools where Christ was honoured, and have sent so many more children to them than to the others, that the Government have at length been induced by the demonstrated fact of their superior popularity, to admit them to the advantages of a grant in aid. Again, at this present time the gentleman acting in the Commissariat department for the little force at Benares, is a missionary of the Church Missionary Society. He has been requested to leave the missionary compound, and go into the cantonments, in order to make the necessary purchases for the force. And why? Because the people of the country trust him as they do no one else, and he can make purchases when others fail. Here is a man that has been never seen but with the Bible in his hand and the Gospel on his lips; a man who has attacked Hindooism openly, in the streets and in the bazaars, and he is the man best trusted by the native population. Can there be a more conclusive proof of the utter absurdity of the foolish clamour that missions have stirred up the mutiny?