tions for Canaan, impair their physical strength, break their spirit, and render them unfit tools for an advancing foe. They are now set to brick-making, and the building of treasure cities, and possibly of the pyramids. Vast numbers are drawn away from their peaceful homes in Goshen, and scattered among these works, by which family intercourse is seriously interrupted. Taskmasters exact the utmost amount of labour, rule with rigour, and make their lives bitter with hard bondage. They feel themselves now to be not only strangers but slaves. Goshen was no longer to them what it had been. The sunshine was gone, dark clouds hung over it, and their unwillingness to leave it was somewhat shaken.

Still they increased and multiplied. The disappointed king, therefore, must adopt more vigorous measures to suppress them. A secret plan for destroying their male infants as soon as born was attempted, and failed. A public edict then commands every Egyptian to cast their male infants into the Nile; and, moreover, the police are charged to search their dwellings for newborn males. What could give to a people a more painful feeling of insecurity than such arbitrary and cruel measures? What more likely to overcome their love of place? This fearful edict, permitted for a time that a Moses might be introduced into the palace, may after a time have been revoked, or have lost its power; but the general oppression under which the people groaned, suffered no abatement. A generation passed away, and with it probably the king who introduced this system; but the policy was continued, and when Moses returned from Midian the bondage was as heavy, and the groans as deep, as ever.

But how was the wisdom of God traceable in this state of things? It would have been easy for Him to remove this jealous and cruel king from his throne, or to compel the abandonment of this line of policy. He was, however, permitted to inaugurate and enforce it, and his successors were allowed to perpetuate it. Why? because it was the only mode by which the hearts of Israel could be weaned from Goshen, moved to higher aspirations, and made willing for the day of God's power. Pharaoh, acting out his own wicked intentions, must be the instrument of turning Goshen into a desert, and planting in the pillows of this slumbering people the thorns which should disturb their too lengthened repose. They did not understand these things at the time. Perplexed and discouraged, they were tempted to think that God had forgotten His promise to their forefathers, and had delivered them over to the cruelty of their oppressor. But it was they who had forgotten those promises, and God who remembered them. He was looking on all the time, and waiting for the period when they should be ready for the demonstrations of His power. "I have seen," He said, when that period arrived: "I have seen the affliction

of

The Power and Wisdom of God.

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my people. I have heard their cry, for I know their sorrows:" and Moses was sent to deliver them.

Here, then, was

the wisdom of God,-unostentatiously adopting a course not understood at the time,-using even the craft and cruelty of an enemy to accomplish its ends,-and ruling events, which caused perplexity and despair to the minds of those in whose behalf they were adopted, to a most successful issue. And then at length the whole scheme blends with the power of God manifested in those terrible judgments by which the stubbornness of the enemy is overcome, the hearts of the afflicted are invigorated, and the event of their deliverance is achieved. "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out." (Rom. xi. 33.)

May not these observations apply, by analogy, to the redemption of the individual soul? It has often been so applied, and, we are disposed to think, correctly.

into one of reconciliation with God through the redemption The act by which the soul is delivered out of its carnal state that is in Christ Jesus, is undoubtedly an act of Divine power. "I am not ashamed," says the inspired apostle, of the gospel of Christ, "for it is the power of God unto salvation." We find, too, on referring to cases of conversion, especially when very distinct and decided, that they usually take place, as before observed, under some manifestation of Divine has occurred in connexion with a striking portion of scripture, The change an alarming book, an eloquent, solemn, or persuasive sermon. An awful dream foreshadowing the terrors of judgment, the proximity of some frightful accident or sudden death, a marthe means by which the Spirit of God powerfully and pervellous escape from danger or dreaded evil-may have been

manently arrested the thoughtless or reckless sinner, and turned the whole current of his life. This is first noticed.

On closer inspection we should probably find that the wisdom of God, not noticed till afterward, had been carrying on some preparatory work within the mind, by which these demonstrations of power have been rendered successful. Like Israel once happy in Goshen, the soul was dwelling contented in the far-off country, scarcely deeming it a strange land. There was no sense of alienation from God, no real consciousness of its spiritual misery and danger. It had heard, indeed, of eternal life beginning on earth, to be consummated in heaven, and of the promises which offer it to the professed people of God, just as Israel in Egypt had heard of Canaan; but its glories, lying beyond the reach of sight and sense, were too far off to be attractive. The world near, visible, and tangible, had many charms, and pleasing associations; and there was time yet for seeking the heavenly Canaan, if indeed it must be sought at

all.

But this dream, if the soul is to be saved, must necessarily be disturbed. Thorns must be planted in the pillow. Affliction, in some form or other, must be employed-pain, loss, disappointment, poverty, anxiety-arise and embitter the world. The self-satisfied spirit, falling under some fierce or subtle temptation, is humbled; conscience is aroused, and Satan's work is turned against himself. The law of God begins to utter its spiritual demands and dreadful penalties within the heart; and the soul resolves upon reform. Attempts to subdue evil propensities, to gain a self-righteousness, and restore self-satisfaction, bring about that feeling of bondage mentioned in Rom. vii. under which the soul moans and despairs, as Israel did under the bondage of Pharaoh. Now the soul is willing to leave its Goshen, for the liberty wherewith Christ makes His people free. Thus, quietly, gradually, and almost imperceptibly, has the wisdom of God been preparing for the demonstration of power: and at the right moment the soul, under this gracious influence, passes out of bondage into liberty, from death unto life, from the power of Satan unto God.

E.

HOUGH'S CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA.

The History of Christianity in India, from the Commencement of the Christian Era. By the late Rev. James Hough, M.A., Incumbent of Ham, and Chaplain to the Hon. East India Company at Madras. Vol. V. Edited by his Son, Rev. F. G. P. Hough, M.A., Incumbent of Ham. London: Church Missionary House, and J. Nisbet and Co. 1860.

To avoid the reaction of indifference, after such an intense degree of interest as we felt for British India during the mutiny of 1857, is a difficult task. We cannot, therefore, but regard the publication of this volume as opportune. The two preceding volumes detailed the first efforts of modern missions to gain a footing in India, as well as the commencement of their operations after an entrance was at length gained at the renewal of the East India Company's charter in 1813. The peculiar excellence of this fifth volume is, that it exhibits the subsequent progress of those missions, together with that of others more recently established, to the close of 1826. It is so arranged as not neces sarily to require a reference to the preceding volumes; the author having himself, in some instances, recapitulated what he had before written; and where this had not been done, the editor has supplied the deficiency by giving a condensed account of the mission under notice in the form of an appendix at the end of the book. Thus we have a connected history of every Protestant mission which existed in India in the above

Hough's Christianity in India.

scarcely be overrated.

volume.

Prefixed is a

419

mentioned year, and the importance of such a record can A number of highly interesting topics, intimately connected with the responsibility of the church of Christ to an empire under our rule, as well as with the management of Christian missions, present themselves in the course of this book, some of which are specially noticed by the author; others suggest themselves, or are easily discernible. Some of these we propose to select for consideration; but, before doing so, we may call attention briefly to the general structure and contents of the with excellent taste, by an affectionate son. From this we learn biographical sketch of the author, written, that Mr. Hough, while faithfully discharging the duties of chap to devote time and labour to the general establishment and care lain at Palamcottah, the European capital of Tinnevelly, was able of native schools. He also undertook the superintendence of the native Christian congregations in that province which had been cessors; visiting and encouraging both them and their teachers, and reporting to the Christian Knowledge Society, with which they then stood connected, their condition and necessities. The demands for Christian instruction in his own neighbourhood, and the openings for usefulness around him, became at length so urgent, that finding that Society unable to meet them, he

to take up the new work which he had begun. After five years' residence in Palamcottah, he was removed to a chaplaincy nearer Madras: but not till after he had welcomed those excellent missionaries, Rhenius and Schmidt, who had been sent by the Church Missionary Society to labour as their agents in the

province.

These were not the only services which Mr. Hough rendered to the cause of Christian missions. His able published replies to the aspersions, first of the abbé Dubois, and afterwards of Dr. Wiseman, since exalted into a cardinal, manifest not only his Christian zeal, but also his extensive and accurate knowledge both of Protestant and Roman Catholic missions in India. This knowledge, after his return to England through weak health, he generously placed at the service of the Church Missionary and the Christian Knowledge Societies, as a member of their home committees, and has moreover bequeathed to the Christian church in the work under notice.

The preceding volume had brought down the history of Christianity in India to the year 1816, soon after the commencement of the first Protestant episcopate in India. The first chapter of the present volume furnishes a succinct narrative of the proceedings of Dr. Middleton, the first occupant of the see;

notices his plans and exertions for the extension of Christianity throughout his diocese; and discusses his character and qualifications, as well as the influence of his episcopate upon the Christian cause. Succeeding chapters detail the ten years' operations, at their various stations, of those missionary organizations which had taken root in India, or were then commencing. Those of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (which had not then, at least not till 1824, transferred its missions to the Propagation Society) are first detailed: including as well the proceedings of its own missionaries at Madras and other places, as of those pious chaplains who, like Mr. Hough, laboured more or less, in connection with it, for the education and conversion of the Hindoos. Then follow the operations of the Baptist missionaries in Bengal and the East, among whom were those admirable men who founded the Serampore mission, Carey, Marshman, and Ward. Next comes the affecting narrative of the American Baptist mission in Burmah, in which Dr. Judson and his devoted wife laboured and suffered so much. The next four chapters are occupied with the ramifications of the Church Missionary Society's work, first in North India, as aided by the zeal and wisdom of Corrie, afterwards bishop of Madras; then in South India, especially at Madras, Tinnevelly, and among the Syrian churches of Travancore; also in the Bombay presidency, and in the island of Ceylon. The Wesleyan missions in Ceylon and in South India are detailed in the next two chapters. Then follow those of the American Board of Missions in Bombay and in North Ceylon, where the educational element in missionary work has been so fully tried. The details of the London Missionary Society in Southern and in Western India are next given, especially those of its very successful mission in South Travancore, which adjoins Tinnevelly, and resembles it in many particulars. A notice of the Scottish Missionary Society in Bombay, then recently commenced, completes the history of the several Societies.

From this diversified and comprehensive view of many agencies engaged in the same great work, we are introduced into one more easy and absorbing, because it furnishes, as it were, a single thread upon which to hang the varieties of missionary development. We refer to the episcopate of the accomplished Heber, who succeeded bishop Middleton in the see of Calcutta, and devoted, like him, a large portion of his time to the visita tion of his diocese. It is impossible to trace the footsteps of this remarkable man, whether to the bedside of a dying chaplain, to the cathedral pulpit, or to the floor of a native congre gation, till they reach the fatal bath at Trichinopoly, and cease in the midst of his short but laborious career, without feelings of the deepest interest. With the close of this norrative Mr. Hough had intended to conclude this volume.