James Galloway Cowan

“ Brutally treated, savagely murdered, it is too late to do anything for them. But there are many whom danger as yet but threatens; whom fiendish lust and cruelty are seeking to grasp and victimise; whom the sword may smite or the pestilence lay low, or the famine starve. ”

“ We have to make our humble petitions to Almighty God; and to be acceptable petitioners, we must offer righteous prayers—righteous, not simply in the feeling that we merit punishment, that we do not merit mercy; but in the resolution to provoke punishment no longer; to deserve, by appreciating and turning to godly advantage, the supplicated mercy. “We have done wrong, we repent, we pledge ourselves to amend:” in this tone do we pray for peace and the restoration of our dominion; at least if we do not, the intelligent Christian must devoutly hope that our prayers may not be answered. ”

“ And what shall we say of that which is uppermost in all men’s minds and foremost on all their tongues at this time—our warfare in India? Is our part therein a righteous one? Assuredly. Do those to whom we are opposed merit the severest chastisement our sword can inflict on them? ”

“ A warning this, and a very solemn one, to all nations; but more especially to ours, my brethren, because we seem to be chosen like the Jews to be a peculiar people to the Lord—our privileges are higher, and consequently our responsibilities greater, than those of other nations. If sin is a reproach to any people, we are sure it must be a crying offence in us: for what nation is there that hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is to us in all things that we call upon Him for? ”

“ It may be, often is, that the sword is put into a people’s hand for them to use as the soldiers of God: but that sword is always two-edged, wounding those who wield it as well as those on whom it falls. To be thus enlisted in the service of God should never be the source of self-gratulation or be regarded as a proof of Divine favour. It is a calamity (that is, a Divine judgment) , even when we maintain the righteous cause of a weak ally, or defend ourselves from a wanton aggressor, or put down our wickedly rebellious subjects. ”

“ If the knowledge of the facts which you possess did not move you, it were vain to expect that any reasoning, any expostulation, any entreaty would avail. Whoso hath this world’s goods, and seeth his brother in such need, and shutteth up his compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God—or anything else excellent or human—in him? ”

“ In administering temporal reward and punishment, God does not call into being new elements, out of which to construct His instruments; but He avails Himself of what already exist, either directing, perhaps diverting, natural agencies, or making the dispositions or doings of men, the ministers of His providence. It is thus that He orders rain to make the earth fruitful or to flood it: wind to waft health or to bring pestilence: lightning to ripen the fruit or to blast the tree. ”

“ The famine-stricken garrison allowed by Him who can save by few as well as by many, who can give food from Heaven, or sustain without it, to yield itself to the foully treacherous foe—the pestilence-stricken band of noble, righteous warriors checked in their good career—are these proofs of God’s unmingled approbation? ”

“ With the soil, we have acquired dominion over some two hundred millions of human beings, possessed like ourselves of immortal souls, and destined to inherit an eternal state of bliss or woe, according as they shall have pleased or displeased God in the flesh. ”

“ I am not going to adduce proofs that God so deals with nations. Every reader of the Bible can find them for himself. He has but to study in Scripture light the history of kingdoms, to ascertain beyond a doubt that righteousness ever exalts a nation, and that sin is ever the reproach, and sin persisted in ever the ruin of any people ”

“ We shall not be at a loss to ascertain what are national judgments, if we bear in mind that in Scripture they are represented as identical with national calamities. Anything that affects the honour, the influence, the lives, the resources of our people is a judgment, of mercy or wrath—of mercy it will prove, if we heed it ”

“ Now, it is a first principle of the Gospel (which we had then no excuse for not understanding) , that none of us lives for himself; that a candle is not lighted to be hid under a bushel; that what we have received, Christian love and Christian duty require us to impart. ”

“ In the case of nations, the same discipline seems to be observed; only, as they have but a temporal existence, they are always ultimately dealt with here according to their deserts. For a time, indeed, what God is pleased to account a righteous nation may for their shortcomings and offences be abased and troubled; but ere long it will be exalted: while a sinful people, though they wax strong and are counted the excellent, and mighty, and honourable of the earth, shall soon know terribly that sin is a reproach and an everlasting destruction. ”

“ When, then, a famine starves our people, or a pestilence cuts them off, or an enemy assails them, or they are involved in an aggressive war, or perplexed by civil commotions and intestine broils, we may be sure that p. 7God’s judgment is upon the earth, that He is requiring us to learn righteousness, or to eat the fruits of iniquity. War in all its forms, aggressive, defensive, or intestine, is assuredly a Divine judgment. ”

“ If we are, as we boast of being, “the temple of the Lord,” surely we shall be more displeasing to Him than un-consecrated ground, if we become a den of thieves or a house of unholy traffic. He has exalted us to be the first of nations in religious, political, and social privileges. He has done great things for us. He therefore expects much of us. If, then, we grow unmindful p. 6of Him, and nationally dishonour His holy name, whereby we are called, either by neglect or transgression, we may expect His rod of chastisement, His visitation of judgment. ”

“ We are bound as a Christian nation to exhibit Christianity to all our subjects; or, at any rate, to encourage the efforts of societies and individuals to do it. We must do it discreetly, but it must be done. How else shall we give account of our stewardship—that stewardship entrusted to us for the good of our subjects? But, my brethren, we have not even brought moral influences to bear p. 12upon this people. In our country every one is bound at least to obey the common law, and so is he (as far as I know) , in all our dependencies, save in India. ”

“ Do we not deserve a judgment for this? And have we not got it, alas! in kind? We have left the Mohammedan to believe that it is heavenly to gratify lust, that it is meritorious to kill the disbeliever in his prophet. ”

“ It is recorded in history against the East India Company (and I need not tell you that the responsibility does not rest wholly on them) , that they never sought to make converts to Christianity, but only to get money in India. Nor, my brethren, is this a crime, a dereliction of most solemn duty chargeable on past ages only. To this day and hour, no effort has been made by authority to persuade the natives to become Christians. Nay, worse; no clear exhibition of Christianity has been made to them. ”

“ He does not afflict without a cause. He may and does spare when we deserve punishment; He cannot afflict without provocation.
In thus tracing effects to their causes, I am not pointing at the calamities which have befallen individuals, further than as illustrations of the general judgment. They were not sinners above the rest of men, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell. The p. 9wicked man often lives on in outward prosperity and comes in no misfortune like other folk; while the righteous is afflicted and goes mourning all his days, or is cut off in the midst of them. ”

“ Anticipating the effect from the cause, we may deter ourselves from national sin, by considering that its commission will surely provoke a national judgment: or looking back from the effect to its cause, we may find in national judgments a sure indication that as a people we have displeased God, that there is something in us which He would correct and punish. ”

“ He often allows righteousness to be long without its rewards, and wickedness without its punishment. In the case of the individual, reward may be deferred till he enters the future state which awaits him ”

“ In some of the ways in which He afflicted His people of old, He will afflict us, and with the same design; for a long time, to correct us and restore us to obedience and so to favour; but ultimately, if we refuse to be reformed, to make us feel the weight of His wrath and to cause us to cease from among the nations of the earth. ”

“ We believe God’s rule to be a strictly moral one, that is to say, that He ever recognises and rewards what is right, and condemns and punishes what is wrong. His times of interference, it is true, are not always such as we should fix on. ”

“ With such sense of our neglect of God’s work, and our fearful responsibility to Him, let us draw near to the Throne of Mercy on this Solemn Fast Day. Let us humble ourselves as a people for the aggregate of this sin, and as individuals, for the shares in it, which by our deeds, our influence, our voice, our silence, we have respectively had. Let us consider, too, that as this wound in a “member,” affects the whole “body,” so may it have been inflicted p. ”

“ A wonderful Providence has made us, on most easy terms, possessors of a territory abounding in all kinds of riches: we have brought home thence great stores of treasure: we have found there lucrative and desirable employment for our children, who in their turn have been enabled to make ample provision for their families, and we have reaped there many other advantages. ”

“ There are sufferers in this sad mutiny who have escaped with life, but nothing else. We read of crowds of them, helpless babes without nurse or mother; gentle, delicate women, accustomed to all the comforts p. 15of life, huddled together in one room—their hearts torn with the loss of those they loved—their minds distracted with the remembrance of the atrocities they have witnessed—perhaps experienced—their bodies enfeebled, if not diseased, through their unspeakable hardships—without a comfort of any kind, or the means of procuring it! ”

“ You know the value and power of sympathy timely shown in relieving pain, in binding up the wounds of the heart. In the name of the Great Sympathiser be not slow to manifest that sympathy in all possible ways ”

“ Inoffensive women, innocent children, godly servants of the Cross have endured unspeakable agonies, and gone dishonoured before men to the grave; while unbelievers, and blasphemers, and licentious, have, perchance, escaped unhurt, unassailed. ”

“ It is thus, too, that He rewards the well-doers, out of their good thoughts and ways, and punishes sinners out of their lusts and evil pursuits, making men’s own hearts and lives to be their friends or enemies. ”