one of their priests stood forth, and said before all the people, that in many cases that would be no sin; and much as the writer was surprised at the assertion, and at the apparent assent of the people to it, he found afterwards, upon examination, that the laws of Menu by which they are governed, maintain the same strange position. How destructive must such laws and such sentiments be upon the social circle! Confidence can rarely be found between man and wife, and reverence as rarely between parents and children. 3. Another of the things inconvenient to which the Heathen are addicted, is covetousness. If a covetous man may be considered an idolater, it will not be thought wonderful, that idolaters should be covetous. The universal object of their pursuit, and subject of their conversation, is money. The system of pilfering which is carried on by menials in the families where they reside, is endless, and is a source of constant mortification to their employers. And there are those who will offer their prayers to the goddess Kalee to be assisted in the work of nightly depredations; one instance was known by the writer, in which these petitions not being heard, the goddess herself was robbed of all her ornaments. 4. The last thing which we shall notice as inconvenient, is their cruelty, and this will be found very extensive, if we include all its kinds, negative and positive. In scenes of distress they will look on with indifference and without making a single effort to afford relief: they will see their neighbour's house burning to the ground, and never attempt to afford the least assistance to stop the growing evil. But why mention negative, where positive cruelties are so numerous? Look at their conduct to the sick and afflicted. Instead of using medical aid, and administering consolation to them in their distress, they hurry them to the river side, immerse their feet in the water, fill their mouths and nostrils with mud and water, and so hasten their dissolution! II. Reflections upon vices like the foregoing, ought to produce some effect upon our minds, and in pursuance of our subject, we shall now consider what that effect ought to be. I. In the first place, we ought to learn from the state of the heathen, how evil and how dangerous a thing it is, to resist the light which God has given us. If we banish him from our thoughts, we must expect that he will cast us off from his presence. How came the Gentiles to sink into this state of moral degradation? It was through their not liking to retain God in their knowledge, from which we learn that to banish God from our thoughts, is a great sin. We all acknowledge that the Divine Being is just and if so, the calamities into which he has suffered the heathen to fall on account of this sin, is a proof that it is an exceedingly great one. What sin can be greater than the desire not to retain even one thought of God in our minds? He must be our most inveterate enemy whose name we do not wish once to cross our minds; and on whose person and character, we cannot bear to reflect even for a moment. To what a pitch of enmity against God must men arrive, before they can say no God-no God! Such a disposition left to operate to its full extent, would dethrone the Eternal, and involve the universe in perpetual anarchy! When men go to such lengths of iniquity, what must be done? It becomes necessary for God to give them over to a reprobate mind, that their subsequent experience may exhibit the folly of their conduct; that they may receive from themselves the just punishment of their sin, in being made to eat the fruit of their own doings; and that their example may serve as a beacon to others, to guard against the dangerous rock on which they split. Let not any one, therefore, think it hard in God thus to give them over. You may beseech a man who is your enemy to be reconciled, but if after all means have been used, his hatred still continues so great that he cannot bear even to think of you, you must give him up, and leave him to himself. Thus God has given up the heathen to a reprobate mind, and to do the things that are not convenient. If the not liking to retain God in their thoughts, has brought upon them such miseries, then we infer that the same crime in us, who have much greater light, will be attended with consequences still more aggravated. Those who oppose the clearest light of heaven are, like the Hindoos, given over to a reprobate mind, and to the idol which they have preferred to their rightful Lord. God says to them, as he said to Ephraim of old, 'Ephraim is joined to his idols, let him alone.' And though the fatal results of being thus given up by God do not show themselves so plainly in Christian, as in idolatrous countries, yet there is a time coming, when that will appear to be an awful crime, which caused a total dereliction of the divine presence. Our Saviour tells us that it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for some cities in which his miracles were wrought. And why? Because their light was so much greater. What then will be the condition of those who perish under the gospel dispensation? to whom the gospel, which was designed to be a savour of life unto life, proves a savour of death unto death? Could we look into the invisible world, we should find that the bitterest cries, and the loudest lamentations, arise from those who have perished under a faithful ministry. They may say, 'Ah! had I, like the heathen, resisted only the light of nature, my case had been more tolerable: but alas! when I knew that God was just and good, still I did not like to retain him in my thoughts; when I knew that there was no Saviour beside Christ, still I trifled with his salvation; in justice, therefore, God cut me down as a cumberer of the ground; and now there is reserved for me nothing but weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth.' Do we wish then to avoid, as the greatest of all evils, being given over by God to a reprobate mind? let us take care that we retain the knowledge of him in our thoughts, that we set him always before our eyes, and dread more than death itself, the idea of being given over to the devices of our own hearts. When convictions of the importance of religion are impressed upon us, let us tremble at the thought of smothering them. Who can say what may be the consequence, and whether God, provoked by our conduct, may not swear in his wrath, that we shall never see his rest. Let the example of the heathen impress upon us a holy dread and salutary caution! 2. While we guard against the sin which has brought upon the heathen so much darkness and distress, let us learn to be grateful for our superior situation and privileges. Some have argued that if our greater blessings bring greater responsibilities, and the heathen can be saved by the light of nature without the gospel, then their condition being equal to ours, we have no ground to boast of our superior advantages, or to seek their improvement. But the question is, Can the heathen be saved without the gospel? If they can, the objection is valid. It is of no use for us here to speculate on possibilities, we must appeal to actual experience; and where was there a Gentile nation ever known that found the way of life without the gods and goddesses, in that book Gospel? How many ages have the which they revere as their bible. nations of the East tried to find Your Bible excites in your mind this way without success? How repentance for sin, and desires after many years did the learned Greeks holiness; theirs sanctions sin, and and Romans seek without being excites in the mind the most unable to find it? With all their wis- hallowed passions. Yours shows dom they knew not God, or when to you the way of life,, and the they did know him, glorified him means by which that life is to be not as God. We do not take upon obtained; theirs bewilders them in us to say that no one amongst them an endless labyrinth of ceremonies, ever was saved, but this we main- and leaves them in utter darkness tain, that few, if any, ever were; about futurity. You have teachers and if ever such instances did oc- to instruct you in the things that cur, they were saved in consequence belong to your peace; whilst perof the atonement and intercession fect ignorance might be considered of Christ, and would have prized, as bliss, compared with the instrucabove all wealth, the knowledge of tion which they receive. Once a the gospel. But while we are in year some of their teachers have a uncertainty respecting the salva- temporary shed erected under tion of a single individual from which they chant the history of among all the Gentile nations, we their gods in poetry; and besides are certain of the salvation of thou- | this, they have no publick instrucsands, even from a single nation, tion. Their priests go to their where Christianity has prevailed. private dwellings, and fixing their To argue against the gospel eyes on something that pleases because it involves great responsi- them, command it to be sent to bility, would be to argue against their address; and if the command every blessing that God has bestow- is not obeyed, they depart without ed upon us. It would be to assert leaving the blessing which they' that non-existence is better than professedly came to bestow; and existence, because existence in- instead of it, pronounce a dreadful volves responsibility. It would be curse on the miserable offenders. to argue that ignorance is better You have Sabbaths and the means than knowledge, because knowl- of grace; while the name of Sabedge involves responsibility. Every bath, and all its blessings are totalthing valuable has great responsi-ly unknown to them. You who bility attached to it, and by the esteem with David, one day spent vast responsibility attached to the in the courts of the Lord's house gospel, we learn its infinite value. as preferable to a thousand comInstead, therefore, of despising and mon days, may conjecture what a trifling with this greatest gift of dreary land that must be, on which Heaven, let us learn rightly to ap- the light of a Sabbath day never preciate and use it ourselves, and dawns, and where there are no calls exert our influence to send it to to remind the soul of God, its duty, others, who are perishing for lack and its destiny. You, many of of knowledge. you at least, have the hope that when you die, you shall, through the grace of Christ, be carried by angels into Abraham's bosom; but they, at the very best, can hope only for a sensual heaven, and after enjoying that, have the gloomy prospect of returning again to this world of sorrow. When we thus Contrast your state with that of the Hindoos, and you will see that you have great cause for thankfulness. You have a Bible which is as a light shining in a dark place to guide your feet in the ways of peace they have nothing but the wildest romances and fictions about we not be grateful? shall we not adore that Providence which placed us in a Christian land, and that grace which placed us in a Christian Church? Unworthy of the name of Christians, and of the blessings of Christianity must we be, if such considerations fail to move us. Let us be ashamed of our ingratitude, ashamed that we have lived so much below our high vocation, and let us seek that our gratitude may in some happy proportion correspond with our exalted privileges. contrast our state with theirs, shall || objects more calculated to excite compassion can there be than these poor, deluded, perishing idolators? Do we sympathize with those who are labouring under a loathsome disease? They are deeply and degradingly affected with the leprosy of sin. Do we pity the dying, when they perish far from friends and all relief? They are dying far from God, and all relief in trespasses and sin and their death is not that of the body merely, but a death which must extend its influence through eternal ages. Would it excite our commiseration to see thousands dying all around us, and the devastation universal? What then ought to be our feelings, when we look on the plains of India, and find that there are more than a hundred millions there dying in their sins, and that the disease of which they are perishing, is extending its malignant influence from generation to generation; whilst scarcely any are to be found who will attempt to stop its progress? Do we really believe this to be the state of the heathen, and can we look on this vast field, stained with the blood of so many millions, without feeling pity? Then we must have hearts of flint and not of flesh; for certain it is, that no scene on earth can be more touching to the sensibilities of a renewed mind. Some will say we do indeed pity them, and deplore their wretched condition; but then the question is, do you pray for them? do you wrestle with God on their behalf? That pity which is not accompanied by prayer, is all formal. Pity without prayer is affectation, as prayer without exertion is hypocrisy. We exhort you to compassionate their case, that this divine feeling may lead you to intercede with God on their account. A few sensations of regret, and a few expressions of condolence, will be of little avail in a case like this. Unless you are brought so far to piety, as fer 3. The view given of the state of the heathen, while it leads us to be thankful for our enjoyments as Christians, ought also to lead us to pity and pray for them. In viewing ourselves as elevated above them by gospel light and gospel blessings, let us take heed that we do not look down upon them with contempt, as that would ill become the elevation to which we have been raised by grace alone; rather let us learn to look upon them with eyes of compassion, as the Saviour did upon us, when he saw us in our sins and in our blood. Though they brought all their miseries upon themselves, and deserved to be given over to a reprobate mind, since they liked not to retain God in their knowledge, still they are objects of pity; and it is in vain for us to excuse ourselves from the duty which we owe them, by alleging their unworthiness. We, like them, have all forsaken the fountain of living waters, and attempted to hew out for ourselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water; and had God assigned this as a reason for not pitying us, we had to this time been in a state of hopeful misery. We are to look at what they are, and not at what they deserve. When we see persons in utter wretchedness, we pity them, although we know that that wretchedness has been owing to themselves. And what vently and constantly to pray, your || therefore given up for ever, and compassion will never reach the that it is useless to attempt their reheathen. As an encouragement covery. To show the equity of his to prayer, let it be remembered, that sad as their case is, it is not hopeless. They are included in the covenant that is ordered in all things and sure they are promised to Christ for his inheritance; and it is in answer to the intercession of Christ and the saints, that they are to be given. Pray therefore in faith; and in all your supplications remember the labourers that are in the field, entreat for the success of the means already employed, and for the extension of those means. Many are the plans now in operation-the preaching of the gospel, the translation of the Scriptures, the instruction offered by schools, &c. Pray, therefore, that all these may be made instrumental in turning men from dumb idols to serve the living God, and that they may be extended till the whole world shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. Much has been accomplished by these means already, but count nothing done, whilst so much remains to be done. The harvest truly is great, and the labourers are few; pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, to send forth labourers into his harvest and in answer to your prayers, it will soon be said to him, in whose hand the sickle is: 'Thurst in thy sickle and reap for the time is come for thee to reap for the harvest of the earth is ripe.' 4. Lastly, the preceding view of the state of the heathen ought to lead us to use the most strenuous exertions for the melioration of their condition. It is well to pity and pray for them, but it is a stinted charity that stops there. It is not enough to say, be ye clothed, and be ye fed; we must send to them the robes of righteousness, and the bread of heaven. Let not any one say because they have been given over by God, that they are law, the righteousness of his government, and the evil nature of sin, God gave over our first parents to suffer the consequences of their transgression; but he did not give them up for ever, he entered into a covenant of mercy with them, and in that covenant the heathen are given to his Son for a possession. If the end had been unattainable, it had never been binding on us to use the means; but God has taught us by nature, by reason, and by his holy word, that it is our duty to relieve the wretched, and to preach the gospel to every creature. Where light is given, it is given to be communicated: a candle is not lighted to be put under a bushel, but to give light to all around. The moon receives light from the sun, and reflects it again on the earth; and so all enlightened bodies give as well as take; consequently, if we have received the light of the gospel, we do not make it answer one great end for which it was bestowed, if we do not communicate it to others. The common dictates of reason teach us that it is our duty to return an obligation; we have received the word of life from others, and we do not discharge this obligation, till we impart it to others. That which nature and reason teach, the word of God confirms. Christ says, Freely ye have received, freely give;' and, 'Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.' He has committed to us this precious deposit, and we act unworthily of the confidence he has placed in us, if we do not dispose of it according to his last will and testament: to do this, some must be willing to go and bear these glad tidings to the heathen; and others must be willing to contribute of their substance to send them. Some will say, we believe it is our duty to send the gospel |