But it is not needful to recapitulate these tales of horror. I am persuaded that I need not stand here to excite your sympathy for the sufferers. You have felt that already, and I trust that many an earnest cry has long ere this gone up from your homes for India. If not, just think on the little garrison at Lucknow, hemmed in by rebel thousands, with provisions every day diminishing, with the massacre of Cawnpore before their eyes, and with the horrid murderer at the head of the blockading force thirsting for their blood, and eager, if ever he can gain the power, to re-enact the same barbarities on themselves. Think what those women must endure, as the little stores are doled out day after day; and they know that, unless they are relieved, they have no prospect but the foulest massacre; and every heart must acknowledge that the time is come, if it be not already past, for the universal cry of wrestling prayer, and most earnest pleading with God on their behalf.
But this is a day for humiliation as well as prayer, and national judgments are so intimately connected with national sins, that the nation’s prayer should clearly be accompanied by the nation’s humiliation. It behoves us, therefore, to consider what ground there is for such humiliation, and what sins there are to call forth our repentance and confession. But we need not in this inquiry occupy time by the consideration of those sins which are more especially connected with home, for the finger of God points to India. It is there that the blow has fallen, and there that we must look for this sin. It is clearly on Indian matters that God now has a controversy with his people, and therefore our conduct with reference to India should be the subject of especial enquiry. Let us, then, examine, in the first place, England’s stewardship; and afterwards, England’s account of that stewardship.
I. The Stewardship.
There can be no doubt that England stands in a position of a steward before God. We are all stewards of the various talents and opportunities which we possess. The minister is a steward of the mysteries of God, and I stand here myself this very day as his steward, or servant, to declare his word. The parent is a steward; and what a stewardship it is to be entrusted with the training of immortal souls for the kingdom of the Lord! The rich man is a steward; his property is not his own, but he is entrusted with it in order that he may lay it out for man’s happiness and God’s glory. On the same principle, nations are entrusted with their various stewardships. The Jewish nation, for example, was the steward of Scripture: “Unto them were committed the oracles of God;” and whatever be the particular power or privilege of a nation, that power or privilege is a talent, or stewardship, to be employed in the service of Him who gave it.
Now, if ever there was a case in which this stewardship was conspicuous, it is in England’s relationship to India. It was placed in our hands by God himself. When our merchants first settled on the banks of the Hooghly, there was no thought of territorial possession. In their first acquisitions of property they were influenced merely by motives of self-defence. They were compelled to occupy districts surrounding them, in order to protect themselves from aggression. I fear that the same cannot be said of our more recent annexations; but it was most unquestionably the case when India was first placed in our hands. Our first merchants had no thought of a kingdom, but the providence of God gave it us.
Look, again, at the wonderful power with which that vast empire has been held. Look at the two countries on the map—the one a little island on the western ocean, and the other a vast territory 15,000 miles distant, extending thousands of miles in every direction, and supporting a population of not less than 160,000,000 souls. Remember, again, that India contains many large, powerful, and warlike nations, and you will see that there must have been a power far beyond the hand of man which has enabled a little handful of Englishmen to hold under control so large a proportion of the inhabited world. As the Lord gave the stewardship, so the Lord has likewise preserved the power.
But look again at the religious condition of the two countries; one, being the centre of Asiatic idolatry, with its vast population sunk in idolatrous worship, and degraded by the most soul-abasing superstitions, while the other has been the centre of Christian light, with a greater amount of Christian truth, and greater opportunities for its spread than any other nation in the world. Is there not enough in this to teach us the character and purport of our stewardship? Idolatrous India is placed under the government of professedly Christian England. This vast mass of heathen darkness is brought into direct contact with the clearest light to be found in Christendom, and is it too much to conclude that the stewardship was a Christian stewardship, and that the great purpose for which it was entrusted to our care was that the scriptural light of England might be freely communicated, and shed its beams in the midst of the deep darkness of Indian heathenism?
And is it not again most remarkable that this trust was given to Protestant England? There were other nations which preceded us in India, but to us was the stewardship given. It was entrusted to the care of no Romish people, of Spain, or France, or Austria, for none of those nations had the great qualification for the trust. Not holding the truth themselves they were disqualified from the high commission. In England there was the profession of Scriptural truth. In England the light of the Reformation burnt steadier than in any other nation. In England there was a larger circulation of the Scriptures than in any country in the world, and therefore to England was the great trust given.
Can there then be any doubt as to the real character of England’s stewardship? Can we suppose that such a trust was given simply in order to enrich our merchants, or to find employment for our sons? Can we believe that these 160,000,000 immortal heathens were placed under our care in order that the wealth and luxury of the East might be transferred to our little island? and that our merchant princes might return to erect palaces, and spend their latter days in luxurious ease? Was it not rather given in order that England’s light might shine in India’s darkness; that heathen Asia might have Christianity presented to its view, and that the millions of that vast empire might be brought under the blessing of a Christian government, and favoured with that which is the highest gift within the reach of man, the clear exhibition of Christian truth? I believe it may be safely said, that throughout the history of the world no nation was ever yet favoured with so noble an opportunity, or intrusted with so high a stewardship. We have had both light and power, and with this double qualification in our hands we have had a vast empire for a whole century placed under our care. No wonder then that God now says to us at the close of the hundred years, “Give an account of thy stewardship.”
II. And now let us consider England’s account.