SERMON III.

NORTH INDIA.

BY THE VEN. C. J. HOARE, M.A.

MATT. ii. 2.

"Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the East, and are come to worship him."

THE longest journey, my dear brethren, which brings us, in the sincerity of Christian worship, to the feet of the Saviour of the world, will well repay all the toil and all the expense. Such labours and sacrifices for the benefit of others, have seldom been wanting (to the glory of God's grace) in the history of the Christian Missionary through other ages, and certainly not in the present one. Nor for their own sakes, did the truly wise men, whose inquiry is recorded in these words, shrink from the hazards of their toilsome march, the wondering looks, perhaps, of their countrymen, and the bestowment of their gifts on the infant Object of their faith and veneration. It was enough for them to know that the star they followed could not lie or mislead them; and very characteristic was their emotion at the

sight: When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.

It is no doubt a great matter of interest to us, that our Church has associated this narrative of the Eastern sages with the richest revelations of the Apostle, touching the call of the Gentiles. In her epistle for the Epiphany, or feast of the Magi, she exults with the Apostle in the mystery now revealed, that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs and partakers with Israel in all the most precious blessings of the Gospel: after which the Apostle himself breaks forth in his accustomed style of apostrophe, Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ! Nor does the Church fail in her spiritual application of the whole event to her own interest in the covenant of mercy; praying that He who so manifested His Son to the Gentiles, may grant to us, that, knowing Him now by faith, we may each of us, after this life, have the fruition of His glorious Godhead, through Jesus Christ.

We have this day to speak of the diffusion of Gospel-blessings, more especially in the Eastern world—in Northern India. We may not consider this, indeed, within the literal geographical definition of the East in the text, since we must rather refer the country of the Magi to the much nearer land of Arabia Felix, abounding in the gifts here presented of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Or if we suppose, according to some traditions, that St. Thomas afterwards visited that country, and conversed with them or their descendants, we shall trace this connexion at the farthest in Southern India; where the

remnants of the St. Thomas Christians abide to this day in many primitive usages, and unbroken to any foreign or Romish yoke.

But we take this mysterious tale as a bright encouragement and example, for furthering the light of the Gospel in any one Eastern tract or territory, which shall be placed by Providence under the same political influence with others; and may be now found acquainted with the mild and just sway of British rule, whether in Southern or in Northern India; all addressing us together as Christians, with no unmeaning voice-Give to us your religion, as you have given us your laws; and be to us, in this our land of darkness and slumber, the vivid reflection of that bright and morning Star which has so long shone upon your own shores; and that Sun of Righteousness which has arisen upon you with healing on his wings.

We may first connect a brief survey of former days in Northern India, with the more recent introduction of our own true Gospel-message; after which we may follow out our especial duties in that region of the East, our prospects of ultimate success -ever depending on Him only, whose counsel shall stand, and who will do all His pleasure.

I. Historically, we look back with gratitude to that day when first our eminent north countryman, Dr. Buchanan, made the application of our text to those especial regions of North as well as South India-to both which his researches were equally directed. It is remarkable, that in the very year when the first stone of our Church Missionary Society was laid (in 1799), he used the words which follow:-"As far as my own inquiries

have gone, I can truly say, I have seen the Star, and worshipped in the East. In the study of Eastern history and learning, there is endless proof of the truth of both the Old and the New Testament." He meant to say, that there was some basis for the Christian revelation to stand upon, even in the traditionary superstitions of the Eastern world. And, doubtless, in the darkest page of Hindoo superstition, he saw some remains of ancient truth, some hereditary knowledge of the one only and true God. Even to the Mosaic period itself, 1400 years before Christ, some had traced their ancient Vèdas, and then the Institutes of Mènu embodying their doctrines, some seven or eight centuries after; and both these, in a measure, standing clear of the more vile corruptions of their later codes;-so little can they plead ancient prescription for their present abominations. Then, at the Christian era, in the very Star which led the Magi, he might have seen an event, which confirmed to themselves some traditional knowledge left in the Eastern recollections of that Star that was to come out of Jacob, and the Sceptre to rise out of Israel which met so literally in the saying of the wise men, Where is he that is born [to bear the sceptre as] King of the Jews? for we have seen his Star in the East, and are come to worship him. Whatevev abuses afterwards intervened, whether under native Hindoo blindness, or later Mahomedan invasions; still some there are, even among their invaders, testifying to the true, though unknown God; so that the Christian philanthropist might reasonably, at any time, repeat to them the call of mercy addressed to the Athenians, The times of their ignorance God

Pearson's Life of Dr. Buchanan, vol. 1, p. 176.

winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. In those remote regions, no less than in the chosen classic ground of Greece and Rome, God has not left Himself without witness; nor has the Christian Apostle or Missionary to be without hope, that, in the end of the days, and, at least, in the close of the present dispensation, and on the eve of some future Epiphany, the voice of peace and grace should sound forth among them, and violence be no more heard in their land, wasting nor destruction within their borders; but thou shalt call their walls salvation, and their gates praise.

The introduction, indeed, of Mahomedan teaching, some thousand or many more years after the period of their own peaceful institutes, accompanied and enforced with fire and sword, pillage and insult, this was not that message of peace which would induce inquiry, or shake the idolatry they long had clung to, or persuade them to exchange their own Shasters for the tricky Koran. The lurid crescent of Mahomet was not like the Star in the East which they were to see, and so come to worship the true and the living God, in His incarnate Son. If it testified against the worship of idols, if it taught again the unity of the Deity, if it even named the name of Christ-though truly it was but to revile it-it gave no such instruction to the prostrate Hindoo, as to lead him on to a consideration of truths thus obscurely disfigured in characters of blood and massacre: and another period yet awaited the forlorn votaries of the Shasters, and worshippers of their incarnate Vishnu or Siva— and that period was to be introduced at length by the