KESHUB CHUNDER SEN'S ENGLISH VISIT Recently Published, price 5.?., LECTURES AND TRACTS. BY KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. First and Second Series. EDITED BY S. D. COLLET. STRAHAN & CO., 56 LUDGATE HILL. KESHUB CHUNDER SEN'S ENGLISH VISIT EDITED BY SOPHIA DOBSON COLLET STRAHAN & CO., PUBLISHERS 56 LUDGATE HILL, LONDON 1871 Main lib. JOHN FRYER pHINESE LIBRARY LONDON : PRINTED BY VIRTUE AND CO., CITY ROAD. PREFACE, i '"PHE object of Baboo Keshub Chunder Sen's mission to England is already well known to many in this country viz., to help to bring England and India into closer union by promoting a fuller sympathy and a clearer understanding between the two countries, and especially to excite the interest of the English public in the political, social, and religious welfare of the men and women of India. In pursuit of this aim, he sought the co-operation of men of all shades of public opinion in England, and not in vain. Some of the most honoured among our statesmen and philanthropists, and among the leaders of religious conviction in the various Established and Dissenting Churches of Great Britain, came forward to welcome his efforts, in every part of the country which he visited ; while the popular response to his utterances was unmistakably cordial and extensive. 74781 5 vi PREFACE. The following pages present a record of the principal occasions on which he met the British public, whether in the pulpit, on the platform, or at less formal social gatherings. As it was inevitable that, in addressing dif- ferent audiences, he should often repeat the same in- formation in but slightly varied forms, large omissions were necessary in this compilation. Care has been taken to avoid repetition as much as possible, his utterances on each main topic having been inserted in their completes! form, and subsequent remarks on the same subject having been seldom retained unless where any additional point of interest came out. The speeches of the gentlemen who received him on different occasions have necessarily been much condensed (except at one or two special meetings), but original remarks concerning the lec- turer's country or faith have been retained whenever possible. The reports have been taken from the most reliable sources, chiefly from the newspapers or magazines issued by the societies or localities concerned. Nearly all the addresses have been carefully revised by Mr. Sen, but among the unavoidable exceptions are his last two sermons in England, and his parting words at South- ampton. The reader is therefore requested to bear in mind that those addresses, though evidently rendered PREFACE. vli with substantial fidelity, have not received the speaker's corrections. Several other addresses which should have been in eluded in this collection have been necessarily omitted, because Mr. Sen has not had time or strength to revise them. Among these are several characteristic sermons, which he will probably publish at some future time. For all unavoidable imperfections in this compilation, the Editor requests the indulgent consideration of the public. S. D. C. LONDON, December, 1870. CONTENTS. WELCOME SOIREE i SERMON: The Living God -Si SERMON : The Efficacy of Prayer 65 ADDRESS AT STAMFORD STREET CHAPEL. . . .81 S*ERMON : The Love of God 91 SPEECH AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE RAGGED- SCHOOL UNION . 107 SPEECH AT THE ANNUAL SESSION OF THE CONGREGA- TIONAL UNION 113 SPEECH AT THE EAST INDIA ASSOCIATION, ON FEMALE EDUCATION IN INDIA 125 BRIEF MENTION OF Two SERMONS 137 SPEECH AT THJI ANNUAL MEETING OF THE PEACE SOCIETY 139 SPEECH ON THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC IN INDIA . . .147 SERMON : The Prodigal Son 159' SERMON: Rejoicing in God . . . . . . .177 ADDRESS TO SUNDAY-SCHOOL CHILDREN . . . .187 LECTURE ON ENGLAND'S DUTIES TO INDIA . . .191 LECTURE ON CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY . . . .233 ADDRESS ON TEMPERANCE AT SHOREDITCH . . . 259 RECEPTION AT THE SWEDENBORG SOCIETY . . . 269 CONGREGATIONAL MEETING AT BRIXTON . . . .291 b x CONTENTS. PACK LECTURE ON HINDU THEISM 295 SPEECH AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION . 303 SPEECH AT THE ANNUAL COLLATION OF THE UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION 315 VISIT TO BRISTOL 329 RECEPTION AT BATH 337 RECEPTION AT LEICESTER 347 RECEPTION AT BIRMINGHAM . . . . , -359 RECEPTION AT NOTTINGHAM 381 ADDRESS FROM THE CLERGY OF NOTTINGHAM, WITH MR. SEN'S EEPLY 393 RECEPTION AT MANCHESTER . . . . . 403 SPECIAL RECEPTION BY THE UNITED KINGDOM ALLIANCE 413 VISIT TO LIVERPOOL 427 SERMON : The Conditions of Regenerate Life . . 431 ADDRESS AT THE DINGLE 439 SPEECH AT A MEETING TO PROMOTE THE FORMATION OF A THEISTIC SOCIETY 449 SPEECH ON THE CONDITION OF WOMEN IN INDIA . . 463 INTERVIEW WITH THE QUEEN 479 RECEPTION IN EDINBURGH 483 RECEPTION AT GLASGOW 507 RECEPTION AT LEEDS 521 SERMON : The Living God in England and India . . . 527 FAREWELL SERMON : The Divine Unity .... 549 SPEECH AT THE INAUGURATION OF THE BRISTOL INDIAN ASSOCIATION 567 FAREWELL SOIREE 581 PARTING WORDS AT SOUTHAMPTON 613 APPENDIX : EPISTLE TO THE THEISTS IN INDIA . . 625 WELCOME SOIREE, In the Hanover Square Rooms, London, April 12, 1870. ON THE INVITATION OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION. o N Tuesday evening, April i2th, 1870, a Soiree was held at the Hanover-square Rooms, for the pur- pose of giving a welcome to Baboo Keshub Chunder Sen, the distinguished Indian reformer. An enthusiastic and brilliant auditory, comprising ministers and lay re- presentatives of all religious denominations, crowded the Rooms and the platform. Amongst those present were Lord Lawrence (late Governor-General of India), Lord Houghton, the Very Rev. the Dean of Westminster, Sir James Lawrence, M.P., the Rev. Stopford Brooke, the Rev. Dr. Cappell, Sir Harry Verney, M.P., Arthur Russell, M.P., the Rev. James Martineau, the Rev. Dr. Marks, the Rev. Dr. Mullens, the Rev. Dr. Brock, the Rev. Dr. Trestrail, the Rev. Dr. Bayley, the Rev. Dr. Wardlaw, the Rev. Dr. Robins, the Rev. Dr. Davies, the Rev. Matthew Wilks, the Rev. H. Marten (Secretary of the Baptist Union), the Rev. Robert Littler, the Rev. Alexander Hannay, the Rev. J. Pillans, the Rev. C. Geikie, the Rev. J. W. Coombs, and Louis Blanc, &c. &c. The chair was taken by SAMUEL SHARPS, Esq., President of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association. 4. WELCOME SOIREE. The CHAIRMAN briefly explained the object of the meeting, and referred to their eminent guest's successful efforts to recall his countrymen from idolatry and poly- theism' 'to the "JVofship 'of- the One undivided God. He Kq.cf 'atsa^eiiVtnjsyii^promotmg education, in raising the condition of women, ' 'in checking the too early marriages, which so much retarded the progress of the country, and in trying to break down caste. The SECRETARY (the Rev. R. Spears) said he had received letters from about forty of the most eminent ministers in London who were not able to be present. He had also received letters of sympathy from the Duke of Argyll, Sir J. Bowring, and Sir Charles Trevelyan, Mr. J. S. Mill, Mr. Grant Duff, Sir Bartle Frere, and Professor Max Miiller. Amongst the ministers who had written, were the Rev. H. Allon, of Islington, the Rev. S. H. Booth, the Rev. W. Roberts, Dr. Fisher, the Rev. Baldwin Brown, the Rev. Dr. Rigg, the Rev. T. Binney, the Very Rev. the Dean of St. Paul's, and the Rev. F. Maurice. He stated that they had present on the plat- form ministers from ten different denominations. The DEAN OF WESTMINSTER, who was received with loud applause, moved the following resolution : " That this meeting, composed of members of nearly al Protestant Churches, offers a hearty welcome to Keshub Chunder Sen, the distinguished religious reformer of India, and assures him and his fellow-labourers of its WELCOME SOIREE. 5 sympathy with them in their great and praiseworthy work of abolishing idolatry, breaking down caste, and diffusing a higher moral and intellectual life amongst the people of that vast empire." (Cheers.) I feel less hesitation than I otherwise should have felt in under- taking so arduous a duty, because I am reminded of one who was united by ties of common friendship with our distinguished guest and with myself I mean the late lamented Bishop of Calcutta, Bishop Cotton. In introducing that name, I will venture to mention a cir- cumstance which may serve as an introduction to the few remarks I am about to make. On the day on which Bishop Cotton was called to his office in India he did me the honour of consulting me as to whether he should accept it, and if I advised him to do so, why ? I replied, " Accept it by all means, and for these two reasons first, because I believe that you will act im- partially by the various Christian Churches with which you will be brought into connection ; and secondly, because you will be able to understand and to do justice to the old religions of India." (Cheers.) Those hopes were more than fulfilled, and but for that deplorable catastrophe which cut short his beneficent career, he would have been in England this very year to discharge the duty which I am now endeavouring imperfectly to fulfil. I feel that I am now doing what he would have wished I might also say, though here I cannot speak 6 WELCOME SOIREE. from the same personal conviction, I believe I am doing what his successor would wish; at any rate, the two grounds on which I urged his entrance on that career may give the tone and framework to the few words I shall offer. First, as to the attitude of the various Christian Churches on this occasion. We, the members and ministers of widely divergent churches, are most anxious to impress upon Keshub Chunder Sen, that amidst and athwart all the divisions which he may find amongst us in England, there is still a common Chris- tianity to which he would look with reverence. We feel that every Church, then, is great and noble only in proportion as it is able to recognise what is great and noble in other Churches. (Cheers.) We feel that we approach most nearly to the spirit of the Founder of our faith in proportion as we are enabled to recognise His traces in every form and shape of human excellence wherever it might be seen. I am tempted to quote on this occasion some words that fell, some years ago, from the eminent statesman, Mr. Gladstone, who now sways the fortunes of this country. (Loud cheers.) In a lecture which he delivered at Edinburgh, he impressed upon his hearers that " it is our duty, above all things, to avoid the error of seeking to cherish the Christianity of isolation. The Christianity which is now and hereafter to flourish, and through its power in the circles of inner thought to influence ultimately, in some manner more WELCOME SOIREE. 7 powerful than now, the mass of mankind, must be filled full with human and genial warmth, in close sympathy with every instinct and need fcf man, regardful of the just title of every faculty of his nature, apt to associate with and make its own all, under whatever name, which goes to enrich and enlarge the patrimony of our race." (Cheers.) This is most true. One of the strongest claims put forward in the New Testament as a ground for the reverence due to the Founder of Christianity, was that " He was the light that lighteneth every man that cometh into the world." One of the highest aspira- tions breathed concerning this by the ancient Prophets was (almost in the very words with which our eminent guest has made us familiar), that He was to be the inheritance alike of Europe and of Asia. It was always said to be one of the most striking proofs of the heavenly origin of our religion, that, having sprung from the East, it was able to conquer and assimilate the West j and that proof would be redoubled if, having become European and Western, it is enabled to win back unto itself the higher intelligences of the remoter East. This can only be by fixing our minds on that common element in the various Churches of Christendom which presents our faith at once in its most sublime and its most attractive aspect. The day, thank God, has gone by in which the idea of a common Christianity, independent of the differences which separate the various- 8 WELCOME SOIREE. Churches from each other, was regarded as chimerical. It stands acknowledged in the most striking form in the practical field of national education. It has always been known to exist, both amongst the simplest and also amongst the most cultivated intelligences of Christendom. It has been known to exist amongst the very poor, and little children, who care for nothing beyond the grand and simple outlines which form the basis of all true religion. " Of such is the kingdom of Heaven : " for the kingdom of Heaven is the kingdom of the childlike, the genuine and the truthful. It has also been long known to exist in the gifted spirits who soar above the narrow distinctions of sect and party, and who have been able to see the meaning of truths behind the forms in which they have often been shrouded. The Christianity of Bacon, of Shakspeare, and of Walter Scott needs no special decrees and no special confession of faith to recommend it. (Cheers.) It is this which goes to the minds and hearts of all ; and it is this which I venture to recommend as the Christianity of England to our dis- tinguished guest. (Cheers.) And if I may speak for a moment of myself, I will add, that if there be any one ecclesiastic, who by virtue of his office is bound to take this view of Christianity, it is myself, because the great national sanctuary is committed to my care, which enshrines the virtues and the genius of every sect alike that Temple of Silence and Reconciliation, as it has well WELCOME SOIREE. 9 been called, in which the enmities of twenty generations lie buried and forgiven. (Cheers.) In turning to the second point, viz., the hopes for India and for England, excited by the presence of Keshub Chunder Sen, it is in strict conformity with those common principles of our faith, to which I have adverted, that we hail the rise of a new light in those regions in which it has hitherto been so difficult to find points of contact or communication. When the first preachers of Christianity set forth on their mission, they cast right and left in every direction to find such points between themselves and the unknown world on which they were entering. St. Paul, at Lystra, addressed himself to the natural conscience of the Lycaonian tribes, and at Athens to the Altar of the Unknown God, and to the verses of the heathen poets. St. John sought from the philosophical schools of Alexandria the metaphysical phrase in which he em- bodied the sublimest thought of Christianity. So, even in later times, the great Roman Pontiff, who sent the first missionaries to convert our Anglo-Saxon forefathers, entreated them not to proceed by precipitate leaps, but by gradual steps ; and another Pontiff, still more eminent, when he sent his missionaries to found the Church of Northern Germany, implored them, in the words of their Master, not to pour new wine too hastily into old vessels. What we hope and desire for India is not that it should take without change or modification any purely Euro- io WELCOME SOIREE. pean form of Christianity, whether Anglican, Presby- terian, Greek, or Roman, but that, in the same way as Roman Christianity planted itself in the Latin race, and Teutonic Christianity in the race of England, Germany, and America, so there should arise some native form of Indian Christianity. (Cheers.) The first dawn of that native form is seen through the religious reformers of whom the guest of the evening is the leading representa- tive. In looking forward to the future we might gather hopes by reflecting on our own part how different would the fate of European Christendom have been if its re- ligious teachers had always been confined to those of Jewish or Alexandrian lineage ; or of English Christians, had its pastors continued to be drawn, as they were for the first hundred years, from the ranks of Italian and Grecian prelates. We see, amidst whatever differences between ourselves and our guest, in his aspirations after moral excellence and Divine love, a pledge that he will receive more and more, for himself and his country, what we hold to be the best and purest light, and also that he will enable us, by witnessing the approach to that light from a point of view not our own, to comprehend more clearly those aspects of it which the fulness of time, from age to age, is evermore unfolding. And let us remember, that as our distinguished guest cannot but feel an interest in coming to this, the cradle of our race, the focus of our national life, so mysteriously interwoven with the fortunes WELCOME SOIREE. n of his own country, so we also can assure him that no serious Englishman can regard without peculiar emotion that distant country which is not only endeared to thousands of English households by the closest family ties, and the memory of noble lives spent in the varied labours of that boundless vineyard, but also which has, by a marvellous power of fascination, always attracted towards itself the speculations and studies of some of our profoundest thinkers of Colebrooke, Sir W. Jones, and Dean Milman, in philosophy and literature ; of Macaulay and Burke, in their splendid oratory ; of Southey, in his beautiful though now too much neglected poem, in which was drawn almost a second Christian Pilgrim's Progress out of the heights and depths of Indian mythology. With these remarks I ask the audience to welcome in this week, dear to the large part of Christendom, the traveller from the shores of the Ganges to the shores of the Thames. (Cheers.) What those thoughtful inquirers after truth, which he represents, have done or propose to do, I leave to be set before you by himself, or by that illustrious person (Lord Lawrence) who honours our meeting this evening, and whose profound acquaintance with India is only equalled by his deep interest in those great subjects which form the bond and basis of our mutual sympathy on this occasion. Lord LAWRENCE, in seconding the resolution, said he was in some degree instrumental in inducing Keshub 12 WELCOME SOIREE. Chunder Sen to undertake what, to a Hindu gentleman, was a most serious, indeed a most tremendous, under- taking a voyage across the sea to England. Their guest was a Hindu gentleman of respectable and well- known lineage. His grandfather was the associate and coadjutor of one of the most profound Sanscrit scholars in this country, the late Mr. Wilson.* He belonged to * The following extract from a letter written by Horace Hayman Wilson, after the death, in 1844, of Baboo K. C. Sen's grandfather, Ram Comul Sen, appeared in the Athenceum for June 25, 1870: " My acquaintance with Ram Comul commenced towards the end of 1810. He was then in the service of Dr. William Hunter, and, amongst other duties, was the managing man of the Hindustani Printing Press, of which Dr. Hunter was the principal proprietor. At that date, Dr. Ley den and myself joined Dr. Hunter in the pro- perty; and when that gentleman and Dr. Leyden went to Java early in 1811, they left the press under my charge, nominally at least, for I was a young man little acquainted with the business of printing, and the real conductor and superintendent was Ram Comul. Dr. Hunter and Dr. Leyden both died in Java, and the press came almost entirely into my hands. I was joined by Captain Roebuck, Ram Comul continuing to conduct, to our entire satisfac- tion, all the business details until 1828, when the establishment was transferred to other proprietors. He was also at the same time Sircar to the Asiatic Society, of which I was Secretary; and these duties and occupations brought us daily and hourly together, and afforded me every opportunity of knowing his ability, integrity, and independent spirit. I esteemed and loved him, and trusted him with the management of my private affairs, which benefited by his regulation of them much more than by my own. We had many objects in common. Although he had not had time to make much advance in Sanscrit, he was deeply interested in the language and literature, and in its professors. He was an excellent Bengali scholar, WELCOME SOIREE. 13 the section of the Hindu community which represented the physician caste. Left an orphan in his youth, he was as you know ; and these acquirements, and his connection with the Asiatic Society, of which he eventually became the Native Secre- tary, fostered in him that love of knowledge which was one of the peculiarities of his character. In the course of time he became Dewan of the Mint, and, about the time I left Calcutta, Cashier of the Bank. I left India in 1833 ; a period of twenty- three years, there- fore, had passed since I had first known him, and during the whole of that time I found him uniformly and consistently intelligent, indefatigable, upright, calm. I never for one instant saw him slow of comprehension, weary of labour, discomposed or angry ; and I never had, nor do I believe any one connected with him ever had, a momentary doubt of his probity, notwithstanding the large pecu- niary interests which were in his keeping. His labour in the Mint was at most times intense, for ten and twelve hours a day, yet he was always cheerful and alert, and truly placed his happiness in the faithful discharge of his duty. To me he was of infinite value as an adviser in all my intercourse with his countrymen, and as a colleague upon whose judgment and discretion I could always implicitly rely, and whose personal regard and just appreciation of my motives secured me his assistance and support. This was especially the case in the management of the Hindu College, of which, as well as myself, he was an active member. In short, in the press, in the Asiatic Society, in literary pursuits, in public and private business, in the Mint, in the College, we were constantly united ; and it must ever be a subject of grateful recollection to recall the long and uninterrupted cordiality with which through so many years our objects were the same. There were very few persons in Calcutta from whom I felt it so painful to part as from my friend Ram Comul Sen, and it was some though an inadequate compensation to maintain with him a correspondence upon subjects in which we still continued to take a common interest. "H. H. WILSON." 14 WELCOME SOIREE. placed by his uncle in an English school, and afterwards graduated in the College at Calcutta, where he gained a thorough knowledge of the English language, literature, and history. It was impossible that with this knowledge he could remain an idolater. (Hear.) Early in his career he learned to despise the worship of idols, and by degrees, by thought, by reflection, and prayer, he learned to believe in one God. f He then joined a party known in Lower Bengal as the Brahmo Somaj, who worship Brahma, the Creator. After a short time he became the head of a reforming party among those reformers, so that in Keshub Chunder Sen they saw the representative of the most advanced section of the great reforming party which was rising in Bengal. He could not well express the importance of this movement, even though it was now in its infancy. He believed it would have a leaven- ing effect over whole masses of the Hindus. Already, in Calcutta and the adjacent country, a large number of the intelligent middle classes of the country had thoroughly im- bibed a knowledge of the English language and literature. It was impossible that those men could any longer adhere to the tenets of their own religion. The tendency hitherto among them had been to split into two classes one class believing rationalistic doctrines, and the other who had become a great body of Theists. But he believed it was equally impossible that these men should remain in their present belief. In the course of time, year by year, day WELCOME SOIREE. 15 by day, that class, reinforced by large numbers of the educated youth of the country, would progress in divine knowledge, and at no very distant period a large number might be reckoned among their fellow Christians. It was very difficult for any one who had not resided in India and mixed largely among the different classes of that immense country, to appreciate the enormous diffi- culties which attend any man of the Hindu race and belief who secedes from the religion of his ancestors. (Hear, hear.) In the eyes of those nearest and dearest to him he was considered a leper, an outcast from their community. Individuals were only resolute enough to break through such ties when allied to the strongest and most assured conviction that what they were doing was right and just in the eyes of God Almighty. (Hear, hear.) The Rev. JAMES MARTINEAU said there was one circumstance which always struck him as characteristic of the religions of India, and which made the problem of religious reform, in one sense, more encouraging, and in another more difficult, than in any other country with which England stood in national relationship. Else- where, idolatries were the palpable manifestation of ignorance, prior to the life of civilization : in India, they were rather the product of a very ancient and complex, though somewhat exhausted, civilization. It was well known to Indian scholars, that in the early period of their literature there existed philosophers who constructed 16 WELCOME SOIREE. systems of the utmost possible metaphysical refinement. The extreme subtlety with which they reduced theological truth to a species of impalpable essence, rendered a personifying reaction necessary to bring the religion within the grasp of popular apprehension. The rich imagination and the quick affections of the Indian race, unable to bear the cold solitude of the " Infinite," let in the sunlight of fancy into this vast and impalpable abyss, dividing it with shadows and with colours, till images shaped themselves forth, and personal semblances ap- peared in the immensity, and the universe became populous with gods. Thus was India the victim, in spiritual things, of her keen intellect and flexible ima- gination the one thinning away the substance of re- ligion, the other repairing the wasted form with illusory creations. As her dramas were allegories in which abstract qualities appeared upon the stage, made love, fought battles, and performed all the mimicry of life ; so did her religion pass from poetry- into mytho- logy, crystallizing at last into idolatrous worship. The tendency thus originated became fixed through two causes, both operative only in civilized communities literature and caste. When floating fancies were taken up by Language, and delivered into the hands of Tradition, they rose into positive agencies in life. Just as our dreams, when often told, define themselves upon the lips, and, in emerging from silence, pass from ghostly vestiges WELCOME SOIREE. 17 into acted dramas ; so, in a nation gifted with imaginative speech, do the pictures and parables of thought, invented to relieve the mystery of religion, slip into solid form in the stereoscope of popular faith, and cease to be dis- tinguishable from realities. And so the people might inherit what most degrades them from the men of letters who should most guide them. And still more must this fixity be given by the fatal institution of caste, which abandoned the mythologies to the lower orders of the people and kept the interpretation to the higher ; which cut off, in short, the acuter intellect of the Indian people from the popular worship, leaving the latter a faith with- out light : the former a light without faith. Might it not have been expected that this country, bringing the fruits of the Western civilization into the East, and making itself responsible for the government, and education, and future condition of the Indian race, would also have suc- ceeded in imparting a higher gift the religion which is the root of all that most ennobles the life of the West ? Alas ! what had England taught her Indian subjects about her religion? not, indeed, through her mission- aries, whose only weakness was in their complex and divided doctrine, but through that which left the deepest impression the spirit of her early rule. Who could say that the conquerors of India exhibited an embodied Christianity the inflexible veracity, the sense of right, the considerate care of a dependent people, which were c 1 8 WELCOME SOIREE. demanded of a Christian conscience? that they bor- rowed no arts of intrigue, imitated no crimes of violence, familiar to the civilization on which they presumed to look down ? No wonder that the Indians turned away from a religion so little able to conquer insolence and pride as the Christianity exemplified by the early occu- piers of the land ; and, accordingly, notwithstanding the unquestionable fact that the English State had long awakened to its responsibilities, and was anxious to do the fullest justice to the claims of India, it had been left for the spirit of religious reform to arise from the native mind itself, borrowing, apparently, but little from the religion of the rulers. And it merits especial remark, that the reform of which their distinguished guest was the representative was no restoration, appealing to recog- nised historical authority, but a movement creative of faith de novo. It did not derive itself from the ancient religion of the country, nor from Christianity, but com- menced afresh from the native resources of the human heart and soul. (Applause.) There were times when the religious sense, clogged with unrealities, had absolute need to clear itself of the tangle of traditional and inherited beliefs, and instead of struggling for the truth by merely thinning away the thicket of difficulty in which their minds had lost their way, to begin afresh, and to see what could be done with the native resources of humanity reverting to the Living God. Such crises, no doubt, WELCOME SOIREE. 19 severely tried the souls of men. But as it was often ennobling, though painful, to individuals to be wrenched from their habits, stripped of external reliances, and flung into the deeps of some terrible experience and never, perhaps, till then, did they know what Divine light may remain in reputed darkness, what strength be perfected in weakness ; so might societies and churches be first brought, by the crumbling of customary faiths, to the real bases of spiritual life. Was it not so with the Brahmo Somaj ? Here were a teacher and a people who had left their popular religion, and had not made them- selves dependent on any other ; but who yet so realized the life of man with God as to dedicate themselves to justice, purity, and piety towards men, and a tender piety and saintly trust towards God. The result had been what he believed it ever would be that God and the human soul had found each other out. The experiment had shown what was left for humanity in loneliness and isolation ; that, when the floods of doubt had spent their power, and the wrecks of tradition had been swept away, there abode beneath the foot the Eternal Rock against which the tempest beat in vain, and above the head the glorious Heaven which survives every passing cloud. (Applause.) The noble lesson read to them by this Indian reformer was destined to react upon themselves. Many a time had the Divine interpretation of the world many a time had successive religions come to the 20 WELCOME SOIREE, West from the East. He believed it was destined to be so again. The European mind had a certain hardness in it, in virtue of which intellectual force was gained at the expense of spiritual depth; and the larger the scientific universe became, the more did it shut us up in a materialist prison, and disqualify us for passing from the laws of things to their Divine Cause of Life. It seemed in our own time as if there was to be again an apparent hostility between Science and Religion. With the Indian genius he believed it would be otherwise. While quick to absorb and appropriate all modern science, it would do so without sacrificing at the same time the Divine interpretation of the universe. It would put our hard and gross philosophy into the crucible under a more refining and intenser fire, and save many an element which we had lost. With subtler thought and gentler affections, it will go behind the phenomena which stop our way, and bring back the flood of Divine light upon the world. It was said in one of the Indian dramas that the external creation and God had been separated from one another in the human mind by the action of the demon Illusion, and that whenever that demon was destroyed they would again re-unite. That Illusion was a demon that had ever haunted the Western mind ; and again and again had Eastern prophets set us free. So, perhaps, it would be now ; and if their Eastern friends could restore to them something of that tender mind, and WELCOME SOIREE. 21 of that sweet affectionate humanity of which they had an example present that evening; if they could show the way to consecrate afresh the world without and the soul within, and renew Divine relations in both, they would be returning perpetual good for transitory ill \ and, by redeeming their Western brethren from the European hardness, would give them the best form of forgiveness for the offences of a Clive and a Hastings, and the truest gratitude for the benevolent justice of a Ben thick and a Lawrence. (Loud cheers.) The resolution was also supported by the Rev. Dr. MULLENS, Secretary to the London Missionary Society, and the Rev. Dr. MARKS, a Hebrew clergyman. The Rev. Dr. MULLENS said he had been requested to join in expressing the welcome of that meeting to their distinguished friend, because he had been a resident in Calcutta for more than twenty years, and had the pleasure of his acquaintance during the latter part of his work there. They welcomed him as a reformer. Those who had had a practical acquaintance with Indian life, and had seen the extent and depth to which idolatry in its lowest forms had taken hold of all the lower classes of the people, would understand what a great work any one had to do who took the position of a reformer. Within a mile of the city of Calcutta was one of the most sanguinary of the Hindu temples. Mr. Sen and his friends who were present would know the festivals, and 22 WELCOME SOIREE. the worship and the sacrifices of the temple of Kalighat. They knew the condition in which the women in the most respectable as well as the commoner families of Bengal had been kept down to a very recent period. They knew the small extent to which vernacular educa- tion had been carried among the people. They knew that the friends of the native race, those who wished to enlighten them and lead them onward in education and religious truth, had been comparatively few in number, and had a hard battle to fight. He had to say with pleasure that amongst those natives of India, gentlemen of education, who had always spoken gratefully and kindly of the work of evangelical missionaries, their friends of the Theistic school had always taken a prominent position. (Applause.) They had had their controversies, as the Baboo well knew, but they always treated each other with very great respect. The mis- sionaries had never had to complain of any hard terms that he or any of his friends had uttered against them, and it could also be said that the missionary body had always treated Mr. Sen and his colleagues with the same extreme respect. On many occasions during his life in India he had had the pleasure of meeting with him and his companions, and of sharing in their worship. Many an English visitor coming to Calcutta and asking for one of the sights of the city had been taken to see the hall in which they worshipped. Any one who had seen Kali- WELCOME SOIREE. 23 ghat and its worship of sacrifices, and had then gone to the building in which the Brahmoists worshipped, must have been astonished at the contrast ; and it was because they knew the great difficulties that men of advanced opinions, practical men as Mr. Sen and his companions were, had to contend with, that they rejoiced greatly in their success ; they saw their advance with the deepest interest, and earnestly wished that their numbers might increase, that the light of truth might come more com- pletely into their hearts, and that the practical measures which they had been led to devise might meet with still warmer and more complete success than in the days gone by. (Applause.) Amongst those practical measures the question of female education had occupied a con- spicuous place. The ladies of their households were permitted to take a special and particular share in the public worship at their religious meetings ; they had a place in their assembly and joined in the worship. This was a thing which, he believed, the ladies themselves earnestly desired, and it was felt right that their wish should be attended to. And then again, great questions of morals, great questions of social life, the degree and extent to which caste had held them, and to which its rules should be broken through, these had all had a very practical share in their attention, and not only so, but they were amongst the prominent native gentlemen who stood by the side of the missionaries when they sought 24. WELCOME SOIREE. to advance the education of the poor, and were anxious to see not only the progress of English institutions and schools, but vernacular education spread widely amongst the villages and the people at large. He thought that any one who came before Englishmen, who were re- formers, and were always trying to improve the institutions of their own country, any man who came before them as a reformer in an empire the institutions of which had been settled and stereotyped for so many centuries, must always meet with a hearty welcome. He for one was rejoiced to see his old acquaintance and friend. He had been telling him how glad he should be to introduce him to the portion of the philanthropic work of England with which he was best acquainted, and was quite sure that all his brethren and the ministers and members of all Churches would only be too glad to do the same. (Applause.) The Rev. Dr. MARKS said the only object he had in presenting himself that evening was to show by his bodily presence, and nothing more, how deep a sympathy and interest he had with the work which had been under- taken by their distinguished guest. He was not even sure that those who drew the resolution contemplated the possibility of a Jew taking part in the meeting. It is said "that this meeting, composed of members of nearly all Protestant Churches," &c. (Laughter.) He assured them he was not going to take exception to that ; he should ill deserve the name of an Israelite, and would be WELCOME SOIREE. 25 a very unworthy representative of that race to which it was his distinguished honour to belong, if he and his race, whose mission lay in the very fact that they were to know God and to make Him known, should hold back for a moment their sympathy and support from any brother whose object was to diffuse a knowledge of the One and Only God in any part of the world. (Loud applause.) What . that distinguished gentleman had effected in India he knew but very partially ; what he was intended to effect would no doubt be great, and he prayed Almighty God to crown his efforts. But he (Dr. Marks) was not indifferent to what he had effected here. (Hear, hear.) He had only to look round to see how their guest had been the means of bringing men honestly differing from each other to put aside all their differ- ences, and seeing what had been done in that respect, he was almost inclined to throw himself back upon what his Jewish fathers, ages ago, set forth as an evidence of the advent of Messiah, when men should be more attracted by those things upon which they might agree in common, than they should be repulsed by those things on which they honestly differ. (Applause.) As a Jew, and on the part of Jews, he bade their guest God speed. He hoped that what the Bible records of the King Ahasuerus, who extended his kingly power over 127 provinces, from India to Cush, or Ethiopia he hoped that the same influence would attend the moral and spiritual exertions 26 WELCOME SOIREE. of this distinguished gentleman, and that he would also carry his influence far and wide ; and how glad should he be as an Israelite, when he learnt that his success tended to promote what he, in common with every Jew, loved, and taught their children to love to bring about that glorious time when " the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." (Loud applause.) BABOO KESHUB CHUNDER SEN, upon rising at the call of the chairman, was received with prolonged cheer- ing. He said : Ladies and Gentlemen, the cordial welcome accorded to me to-night excites in me profound feelings of gratitude which almost overpower me, and which I cannot sufficiently express. When I left India I did not in the least anticipate, and could not for one moment expect, that there would be such a gathering as this. The kind speeches which have been delivered, and the enthusiastic cheers with which I have been received, make me feel as I never felt before, that England is deeply interested in me, my Church, and my great country. You are perhaps aware that I have not come to England for the sake of business or pleasure ; it it not to satisfy idle curiosity, or make money, that I am amongst you. A most sacred duty brings me here : I have an important mission to fulfil. I come from India to tell you English men and women what you have done in my country. I bring to you the heartfelt thanks of WELCOME SOIREE. 27 one hundred and eighty millions of my countrymen for the great work which you have commenced there, and which you have carried on for^some years past. What that great work is you can only appreciate when you see it with your own eyes. It is not the opening of railways, nor the conversion of forests into smiling fields, to which I allude. It is no partial reform to which I draw your attention. The great work which is going on in India, under the auspices of the British Government, is a work of revolutionary reform of thorough-going radical re-, form. (Cheers.) You are not lopping off the branches of corruption and evil ; you have laid the axe at the root of the tree ; you are carrying on a crusade against all the evils from which India has been suffering for many centuries. This is not man's work, but a work which God is doing with His own hand, using the British nation as His instruments. When India lay sunk in the mire of idolatry and superstition, when Mahometan oppression and misrule had almost extinguished the last spark of hope in the native Indian mind, when Hinduism, once a pure system of Monotheism, had degenerated into a most horrid and abominable system of idolatry and polytheism, when the priests were exceedingly powerful, and were revelling in their triumphs over down-trodden humanity, the Lord in His mercy sent out the British nation to rescue India. (Cheers.) In obedience to God's injunction, England came and knocked at the 28 WELCOME SOIREE. doors of India, and said, " Noble sister, rise ! thou hast slept too long." And India rose. The invitation was providential, and the response too. India rose from her lethargy of ages, and saw the degraded condition into which she had sunk, and asked England for help : and the help so much needed has been given. Certainly the earlier British rulers in Hindostan were corrupt, certainly the means often employed by the early settlers were questionable, but I look not to the human agency that was employed, but dive beneath it, and see the finger of the All-wise Providence working for the redemption of my country. I forget and forgive all that individual Englishmen did to injure the cause of Indian redemp- tion, and, standing upon the universal basis of humanity, see how in history God employed special agencies to elevate and exalt my countrymen. (Cheers.) England and India became thus connected by an overruling Providence. I am one of those who have profound respect for the doctrine of God in History. As He takes care of individuals, so does He take care of the interests of nations ; and when impoverished India, degraded spiritually and morally, looked with tears in her eyes towards the Omnipotent Father, He, out of the riches of His inexhaustible mercy, came forward to relieve her even as in times gone by He had rescued other peoples. In the course of time England felt the responsibility of her position as the ruler of India, and WELCOME SOIREE. 29 became connected with her in the closest ties of political and moral relationship. A stream was opened which connected England and India, intellectually, socially, morally, and religiously, and all the refined and liberal ideas of the West came through this great channel into the East, into India. It is beginning to work wondrous changes. There are signs of new life on all sides in India, from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin. You see a new nation, rising up, as it were, with new aspirations, holier and loftier thoughts, pursuits, and speculations. When we came to receive English knowledge in our schools and colleges, we learned to respect your Shakspeare, Milton, and Newton, and now I may say that in some measure they have become our own. We can now sympathise with you in all your intellectual pursuits and speculations. Your philosophy and science are ours. Thus we are one in thought. It is not merely the same Government that rules us, it is not merely the same generous-hearted and noble sovereign whose sway we all acknowledge, but we are at the same time one in heart and thought; politically united, we are also intellec- tually united. (Cheers.) When I say, " Long live Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria," I feel that my words are reverberated throughout the length and breadth of India, and that all my educated countrymen join with me in wishing prosperity and health to that great Queen from whom we have received so many and 30 WELCOME SOIREE. such rich blessings. (Applause.) England has already achieved wonders in correcting prejudices and dispelling the ignorance of my country. England's intellectual conquests in India are of a remarkable character. Just as on a fine morning the mists are gradually dispelled by the rising sun, so in India the mists of ignorance and prejudice are being scattered away by the dawn- ing light of English knowledge, Western literature, and science. The work of material prosperity has also vastly advanced. The railway and the telegraph, those great pioneers of civilization, have already com- menced their work, and are showering upon the people advantages and blessings of which they could form no idea a century ago. On all sides the inexhaustible physical resources of the country are being developed ; and although India is rich, and has made many rich, there is a great future before her of vast material prosperity and aggrandisement. Nor has India been inactive in the matter of social reformation. Her great curse is caste ; but English education has already proved a tremendous power in levelling the injurious distinctions of the system. The Indian who has received a liberal English education finds it impossible to retain his allegiance to caste, and although many, through fear of man, do not practically carry out their principles, their convictions are deep. The customs of premature marriage, and the practice of polygamy, had long been WELCOME SOIREE. 31 acting banefully in India ; but the influence of English education has tended to operate most powerfully in turning away public opinion from these baneful customs. It is now beginning to be felt that if India is to be reformed, early marriage and polygamy must be abolished, and the marriage customs must be improved and re- formed. The material, social, and intellectual improve- ments already achieved by England in India are lasting monuments of her rule. "These are thy trophies, Queen of many Isles !" The grandest achievement of all, however, is the moral and religious reformation of the country. When England embarked in the work, she, of course, went out with the Bible in her hands. (Cheers.) That wonderful book has been received and studied, and in many cases, I am happy to say, appreciated by the educated natives of India. Whatever their religious denominations may be, whatever their peculiar prejudices, I am certain, and can confidently say in this large public assembly, that if any of my countrymen feel a real hungering and thirsting after spiritual comfort, they must now and then open the pages of the Bible. However proud we may be of our own religious books, however great the value may be which we attach to those ancient books inculcating principles of pure Theism, bequeathed by our forefathers as a precious legacy, it is a fact which must be admitted by all candid men that India cannot do without the spirit of 32 WELCOME SOIREE. the Bible. (Cheers.) India must read the Bible, for there are certain things in the Gospel of Christ which are of great importance to my country in the present transition stage through which it is passing. The spirit of that wonderful book must come into contact with the Indian mind. Honour, all honour, to that sacred band of energetic and self-sacrificing missionaries who went out to India on a sacred mission, in order to reform and regenerate that great country ! (Loud cheers.) Honour, all honour to them ! for they did actually go through, in many cases, enormous self-denial for the purpose of bearing witness unto the truth. Their lives are still before the Indian public, and often has many an Indian heart lovingly looked on these great monuments of the past, in order to draw encouraging, cheering, and life- giving lessons therefrom. Thus, through that book, and through the examples of many honest, indefatigable, God-fearing missionaries, India has received a large amount of spiritual influence, which has helped her to go on and career nobly forward in the path of national religious reform. As soon as this spirit went to work into the very heart of the nation, India rose and said " Railways and telegraphs will not satisfy me. Mere schools and colleges cannot supply all my wants, cannot meet all my requirements. I must satisfy the spirit ; the immortal spirit within me must be satisfied all the noble aspirations of the soul must be gratified." And it is very WELCOME SOIREE. 33 striking that pure English education and pure religious reformation commenced almost at the same time in Bengal, and have since gone on m parallel lines. Nearly half a century ago, two remarkable men met together in Calcutta to consider the best means of reforming India. These men were David Hare, who proposed to reform the country by means of education, and Rajah Ram Mohun Roy, who said that schools and colleges were not enough, but that the influence of a purer faith was also needful. The result of the conference was that while on the one hand was established the Hindu College, followed in time by other similar educational institutions, there arose on the other hand the Brahmo Somaj, or the Hindu Monotheistic Church. This reformed church has gradually extended its opera- tions on all sides. The object of its founder, Ram Mohun Roy, was to revive the primitive Hindu religion, and, in spite of persecution and threats of excommuni- cation, he effected his noble purpose. He, however, shortly came to England, and was unfortunately pre- vented by death from returning to India to complete his work. The cause of reform suffered a temporary col- lapse, but it subsequently received fresh impetus, and prospered in worthy hands. At first this Brahmo Somaj, to which I belong, was simply a Church for the worship of the One True God, according to the doctrines and ritual inculcated in the earliest Hindu Scriptures. The D 34 WELCOME SOIREE. members of the Brahmo Somaj, in its infancy, were simply Revivalists, if I may so say. Their object was to restore Hinduism to its primitive state of purity, to do away with idolatry and superstition, and caste, if pos- sible, and to declare once more throughout the length and breadth of India the pure Monotheistic worship pre- scribed in the Vedas, as opposed to the idolatrous teach- ing of the later Hindu Scriptures. The founder of the Brahmo Somaj had for his sole object the restoration of the primitive form of Hindu Monotheism. By numerous quotations from the Hindu Scriptures he succeeded in convincing a large number of his misguided countrymen that true Hinduism was not to be found in the later Puranas, which taught idolatry and superstition, but in the earlier books which taught the worship of the One True God. Unfortunately, however, either as the result of his teachings or from their own independent judgment, his coadjutors and followers for some time maintained the doctrine of the infallibility of the Vedas. Twenty years elapsed, and the great mistake was exposed. It was ascertained, after careful, honest, and dispassionate inquiries and researches, that the Vedas could not be accepted as containing " all truth, and nothing but the truth," but that they contained, along with some very high truths, some of the worst forms of nature-worship, some absurd doctrines and ritual. And so the Brahmo Somaj, because it was the work of God, could not but WELCOME SOIREE. 35 break with the Vedas as soon as they were found to con- tain errors. (Applause.) In spite of the inevitable con- sequence of forfeiting the sympathy of a large number of their countrymen, the Brahmos eventually threw the Vedas into the background altogether, and took up the bolder position of pure Theists. Since that time the great tide of true Theistic reformation has been setting in in all directions. From that time we date the rise in India of the true Monotheistic Church. In the early days of the Brahmo Somaj we see nothing but the revival' of old primitive Hindu Monotheism, on the authority and basis of the Hindu books but in later times, we see a purer kind of Theism, unfettered by the Vedas, un- shackled by the authority of priests, undefiled by those absurd doctrines and speculations which lay mixed up with truth in the original books of the Hindus', a pure Theism which daily assumed a more noble and definite position in relation to surrounding Hinduism, to idolatry and caste, a Theism which could not, for that was im- possible in the nature of things, remain long in the state of mere intellectual dogmas and doctrines, but was morally constrained to develop itself in all fields of speculation and practice, a Theism which was destined by the will of God to assume an aggressive attitude towards all manner of evil rampant in the land. (Ap- plause.) That these are not mere words we have con- clusive evidence to prove. Theism in India has already 3 6 WELCOME SOIREE. lived to accomplish that kind of work which I have already dilated upon, and I believe, if you only look at facts, you will find that the Brahmo Somaj, not only in Bengal, but in Bombay, in the North-Western Provinces, and even in the Punjab, is the centre of moral, social, and religious reformation. In the Brahmo Somaj we see concentrated all those great, urgent, and pressing reforms which India needs at the present moment. Is it the amelioration of the condition of woman that India wants? Look at the Brahmo Somaj, and you see already are gathered in some of its chapels, ladies who have discarded idolatry, superstition, and caste alto- gether, who have learned to pray in their own houses unto the One True God, and have set their faces boldly against every form of Polytheism and idol-worship, and some of whom have published most beautiful Theistic verses and hymns. Is it the distinctions of caste that are to be levelled? You see amongst the Brahmos a good number of valiant and brave men, who not only dine with men of all classes, irrespective of the distinc- tions of colour, caste, and creed, but who have promoted intermarriages between members of different castes. (Ap- plause.) The high-caste Brahmin has accepted as his wife a low-caste Sudra, and vice versa. Through the exertions of the Brahmo Somaj and the agency of government schools and colleges, caste is daily losing its power. Very few amongst the educated natives of WELCOME SOIREE. 37 India, very few, indeed, amongst the members of the Somaj, attach any importance to caste distinctions, except for merely social purposes. Just as there is caste in all parts of the world, so there may be caste in India, a mere system of social distinctions perhaps political distinctions but as a system of religious distinctions no educated man in India, no Brahmo, would tolerate it for one moment. It is simply revolting to the ordinary feelings of human nature to perpetuate a system of dis- tinctions which run counter to the spirit of the great doctrines of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. Perhaps you will ask me, "What is the attitude you assume towards Christianity towards Christ ? Do you accord an affectionate and brotherly welcome to the missionaries of Christ, or do you look upon them with feelings of abhorrence and hatred ? " I for one must say that it is impossible for a true Theist, whether Indian or European, to cherish in his mind feelings of anti- pathy or aversion towards Christ or his disciples. (Applause.) That is literally impossible. There are thousands in India, I know, and many of them I num- ber amongst my own friends, who do not at all like to see Christ preached to the population of India. Christianity has come to India in a foreign and repulsive form. Christianity in its founder, in its earliest traditions, in its earliest labourers, was Oriental, Asiatic ; and there 38 WELCOME SOIREE. is no reason why Christianity should in the present day be presented to the Indian population in any other than an Oriental and Asiatic aspect. (Applause.) Leave us to ourselves and let us study the Bible. (Loud applause.) Do we not find there imageries and precepts of an Asiatic and Oriental stamp ? Do we not find that there is much in these descriptions with which, as Indians, we cannot but sympathise? Do we not feel that the spirit of Christianity comes to us as something very natural, congenial to our hearts, something with which, by the very peculiar constitution of our Indian mind, we are bound to sympathise. The true spirit of Christianity shall be accepted by India. There are thousands amongst my countrymen who deny that j but I for one, so long as I live, shall continue to say that the real spirit of Christ India will one day receive. (Loud applause.) But I cannot say the same thing in regard to the doctrines and dogmas which you have presented to India. (Applause.) There are so many Churches into which Christianity has been divided, there are so many different kinds of doc- trines, and ceremonies, and rituals prescribed and followed by different religious denominations who call themselves Christians, that India is really confounded and perplexed when she is asked to solve the great problem which of these is to be accepted, which is the true one ? All these different sects which constitute the Church of Christ represent different principles, different doctrines, although WELCOME SOIREE. 39 they have something in common; but in India we are obliged to look to the matters of divergence more than to those matters in regard to which there is unity in Christ's Church. Each sect comes at a time to the Indian inquirer and exhibits its own doctrines and dogmas. For the time being these doctrines and dogmas engage the attention and interest of the Hindu, and perhaps he is partially satisfied. But then comes the missionary of another Church, and his mind gets unsettled ; and thus, as he passes through various dogmas and teachings, he naturally becomes quite confounded and knows not what to do. But remember that all this time, though passing through a bewildering series of endless dogmas, he still cherishes in his heart respect and reverence for the central figure of Christ. (Hear, hear.) Thus is it that though we Indians have not been able to accept any particular form of Christianity, yet we are steadfast in our attachment to Jesus Christ, whom you so much respect and reverence. The peculiarly catholic feature of this meeting interests me deeply. I see gathered on this great platform ministers of ten different sections of Christ's Church assembled together to honour India, to encourage India in her great work of self-reformation. I feel that though, in regard to doctrines and dogmas, there are differences among us, and must continue to be, yet still we are all one in spirit, one in soul and heart, so far as we recognise those vital and central truths which Jesus 40 WELCOME SOIREE. Christ promulgated, Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and mind, and soul, and strength, and love thy neighbour as thyself. These two, I believe, are the cardinal principles of true religion as taught by him. (Applause.) Is there a single man in all India who would for one moment refuse his assent to doctrines such as these ? (Hear, hear.) It may be urged that the very name of Christianity is repulsive to an Indian ear ; yet I say that by the irresistible charm of spiritual influence, Christ comes and enters secretly into the Indian mind. The Indian mind is perhaps unconscious of his entrance for some time. The enlightened Hindu perhaps knows not that he has in his heart something which the spirit of Christ put there. Unconsciously, therefore, thousands, hundreds perhaps consciously, are being led into real and spiritual communion with Christ. I come here, my friends, to study Christianity in its living and spiritual forms. I do not come to study the doctrines of Chris- tianity, but truly Christian life as displayed and illustrated in England. I come to study the spirit of Christian philanthropy, of Christian charity, and honourable Chris- tian self-denial. It is my conviction that England has become a great nation, not merely through commerce and trade, but through the hallowing influence of a life-giving religion. Now, my friends, pardon me if I say that you have done great harm to our people in sending into our country a large number of nominal Christians, who, WELCOME SOIREE. 41 though they have in their minds doctrines and dogmas in endless number, do not show strict and faithful allegiance to their master Jesus Christ in actual life. If there is one honest sincere Christian in India who exercises irresistible heavenly influence on those around him by his love of God, by his conscientious discharge of duty, there are around him ten who are every moment trying to neutralize this sacred influence. (Hear.) It greatly distresses me, and it is for this reason alone that I bring forth before you this unpleasant truth ; for the good of India, for the sake of England, let us be spared such nominal Christians. You ask me why Christian missions have proved a failure there. You ask me, why do not your people receive our missionaries in a cordial spirit ? You have yourselves to thank for that. (Hear.) We Indians attach greater importance to righteous life than to pure doctrine. (Hear.) If there is real Christian life in India it will make itself felt one day. Many a Chris- tian man and woman laboured in the great Indian vine- yard, of whom the memory has not passed away. The good things that lay in their lives have gone into the life of India. The spirit of truth like leaven leaveneth the mass, and although these men and women were not missionaries, although they did not preach from pulpits, yet the secret imperceptible Christian influence of their lives leavened the mass of humanity around them ; and thus every true doctrine, every true practice, 42 WELCOME SOIREE. was treasured up in India. And if in future any one could open up the depths of the Indian heart, he would assuredly find there the living influence of all those truths which were communicated by truly Christian men and women. India is a grateful nation, and India will continue to acknowledge with thankfulness all those blessings which she has received or may in future receive from England. But if good men and good Christians have benefited my country, a host of profess- ing Christians have exerted a baneful influence which has told frightfully upon the destinies of my country. I wish from the depths of my heart that such men never went out to India ; the fair name of England would then have remained undefiled. If, therefore, my brethren, you desire to give India the blessings of true religious reformation, send us good men, men whose lives will prove true to the spirit of the Gospel. Doctrines, in themselves, are not strong enough to shake men's convictions, which oftentimes appear to be deep-rooted. The Hindus are so peculiarly wedded to the traditions of the past, that it is hard, perhaps next to impossible, to overcome their prejudices entirely. But I say, if there is the power of truth in your life you will command the respect and gratitude of my countrymen, and make a lasting impression on them in spite of their conformity with ancient traditions and customs. Ladies and Gentlemen, I have explained to you the WELCOME SOIREE. 43 great object which has brought me here. I dare say you sympathise with me. If I have in any way offended you, as a stranger I throw myself entirely upon your indul- gence and sympathy. Though there are many points on which we differ, yet the great work of abolishing idolatry and caste in India must enlist the sympathy of every one here present. Let us, therefore, harmoniously co-operate to give India the knowledge of the pure and saving God. Let us give India true brotherhood, uni- versal brotherhood, which shall not recognise the dis- tinctions of caste at all. Your destinies and the destinies of India are interwoven with each other ; your interests and our interests are identified ; and I hope, therefore, you will no longer withhold from us that active sym- pathy, that friendly co-operation, which you have for a long time denied us not because you were wanting in sympathy, but because you did not know enough of us. I have given you my warmest thanks for what England has already done for us; but she has still a great many things to do. There are many serious defects in the administrative machinery which have to be rectified, many just grievances of the people to be redressed, many instances of injustice and oppression whose recurrence should be prevented by more humane legislation, many scandals which have to be removed. For these you are responsible, and I trust you will not neglect to give India all she wants, and which she has a right to demand 44 WELCOME SOIREE. from you. You must do justice to my country. You must prove true to the sacred trust Providence has reposed in you. I trust you will accept my humble pleadings in behalf of my dear country. I hope you will feel more and more the importance of that vast country which God has placed under your protection that country which has always been the prolific theme of philosophers, antiquarians, poets, theologians, and no- velists, and has excited the admiration of all ages the country of stupendous mountains and majestic rivers, the land of inexhaustible physical and mental resources, the country of countless races and tribes, of endlessly diversified languages and creeds, manners and usages, the country where the most transcendental Pantheism, the purest Monotheism, and the most gigantic system of idolatry reign together, the country which boasts a most ancient and exalted civilization, and is destined to have a more glorious future. As an humble representa- tive of such a country, I hope during my sojourn here to receive your kind sympathy and aid in all that is calcu- lated to bring about a closer union between that country and England. I do not want the outward glitter of civilization, the formalities of external refinement; let me enter into the heart of the country, let me study its deep spiritual life. Give me something more substantial than advertisements, which to the stranger are such tormenting proofs of your outward prosperity. (Laughter.) WELCOME SOIREE. 45 Show me that you have something nobler than the hollow science of puffing, which seems to have been carried to perfection here. (Applause and laughter.) Bring me into contact and intercourse with truly Chris- tian hearts ; show me all that is great and pure in your national institutions. Above all, I reiterate my suppli- cation, bring the best energies of your hearts and souls and your whole enthusiasm to bear on the great work of Indian regeneration. Let us all unite, for the glory of India and for the glory of England, to discharge the great duties we owe to those two countries, which an All- Wise and All-Merciful God has united together in the inscrutable economy of His providence. May we all thank the Lord, may we bless His great name. May India and England one day be found to kiss each other as dear and beloved sisters, and, taking the name of the True God on their lips, proceed hand-in-hand together into that far land, that distant Kingdom of Heaven, where there is eternal peace and everlasting happiness. (Loud and continued applause.) Lord HOUGHTON : I am honoured by being selected out of this distinguished and varied audience to propose a vote of thanks to our Indian guest for the address he has just delivered to us. We thank him politically, for the generous words in which he has expressed his con- victions as to the effect of British rule over that vast portion of the Oriental world which Providence has 46 WELCOME SOIREE. entrusted to its care. I have long felt very deeply on this subject, and believe that to the future historians of our country it will be a source of legitimate pride to contrast the principles of our power in India with those that have characterized the conquests of other European nations over the East and West of the globe. Foreign domination bears with it inevitable evils, but it is difficult to see how without it the civilization of the world could have attained its pre- sent proportions ; and if, in the main, our authority has been guided by justice, and tempered by humanity if such men as our guest tell us that India not only accepts its destiny, but looks on us as benefactors all we have now to do is to strive to the utmost to conciliate and deserve that esteem. We thank him socially, for the evidence which his remarkable individuality affords of the probability of such a development of the native intelligence and character in India as may relieve us from the monopoly of power, and enable us to associate the inhabitants of the country with ourselves in the adminis- tration of justice and in the duties of the executive. He has declaimed with just indignation against the destruc- tive effects of the custom of caste on the mind and heart of his race; let us show him that that institution which, in its mitigated form, in connection with the feudal system, has inflicted so much injury on Europe, has not served to raise a barrier between us and members of the WELCOME SOIREE. 47 other human families ; and that we can work with them, in all friendship and sympathy, for the common good. And lastly, we thank him religiously, for the recognition of the influence of Christianity in India, even where its dogmatic truths have not been definitively accepted. An Eastern friend of mine a Tamil gentleman of much cul- tivation told me that his best consolation in contrasting the intellectual and material pride of the West with his own decayed civilization, was given him in the words of Monsieur Cousin, the French philosopher : " Remember that all the theosophies of the world came from the banks of the Ganges." It was that same Oriental who, in answer to my remark that it always seemed to me a strange problem that Christianity, itself an Eastern reli- gion, should have had so triumphant a progress over the Western world, while its advance in any part of the East was so tardy and uncertain, suggested that I did not take into account the pure Theism which lay at the bottom of all Eastern religions, however corrupted; and that the first work of the Christian religion was to destroy the various forms of heathenism that were degrading the populations of Europe. In our guest we see an illustra- tion of this principle ; he tells us he has come here to learn may I add that he has something to teach ? " So may we justly weigh, the worth Of Truth, that shall be bora From marriage of the Western earth With nations of the Morn." 48 WELCOME SOIREE. Rev. DR. SANDERSON : I have much pleasure in seconding this vote of thanks to Keshub Chunder Sen. Knowing the difficulty which a Hindu has in overcoming his dread of the sea, and in breaking the trammels of caste, so as to undertake a voyage, I am glad to welcome him to England, and hope it may lead to others following him. His visit will, I trust, give us a deeper interest in India, and enable him to carry back ideas that will better fit him to serve his country. Having spent many years as a missionary in India, I can assure the meeting that India neither is, nor has been, the stereotyped immovable country it is generally supposed to be. India is not a stranger to reformers. The religion in which our guest was born owes its present form and extensive spread, some centuries ago, to the active itinerant zeal of one of those master-minds that make epochs in history. My principal work as a missionary was preaching the Gospel to the people in their own language. This brought me into frequent close contact with all classes of the people, and would, in the opinion of most persons, be likely to produce bitter opposition. I can testify, however, that in no other country is there more real toleration. With some exceptions the Hindus give perfect freedom of opinion, though disliking proselyiism, and are always ready to afford a patient and impartial hearing. They are, as a rule, intelligent, polite, and gentlemanly in all their intercourse. Much as I have seen of the great and WELCOME SOIREE. 49 extensive good effected by the labours of foreign mis- sionaries, I have always felt that the full regeneration of India must be accomplished by means of her own sons. And they are capable of doing it. Christianity must become naturalized. It has seemed to me that as, under God's providence, the English, at first a few humble traders, then establishing small fortresses for the de- fence of their trade, eventually subdued the whole country by discipline and employing the natives them- selves as soldiers, so God will, as He ever does, use the people themselves to subdue them to His truth. We cannot tell how soon He may raise up reformers who, like Saul of Tarsus, will change the customs of the whole country. With regard to the Brahmo Somaj, of which our guest is the chief present representative, every man will view and judge of it from his own standpoint. I have watched it with deep interest, because it cannot stop where it now is. Keshub Chunder Sen has told us its origin in dissatisfaction with modern Hinduism. Its promoters, convinced of present errors, hoped to find in their most ancient scriptures, the Vedas, a pure form of monotheism. That hope has been disappointed. The puerilities of the Vedas, he tells us, compel them to look further. In the Bible, he avows, their wants are met. They want the Bible. They must have the Bible. At present they are puzzled by the diversity of opinion and ritual in Chris- 50 WELCOME SOIREE. tendom, and the inconsistent lives of professed Christians. Though this movement is as yet far from the point where I long to see it, I gladly hail it as a great step in response to the gracious invitation of Him whom we revere and love, " Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." A vote of thanks to the chairman, moved by Lord LAWRENCE and seconded by JAMES HEYWOOD, Esq., ter- minated the proceedings. SERMON AT LITTLE PORTLAND STREET CHAPEL, Sunday, April 10, 1870. THE LIVING GOD. [A large congregation was drawn to Mr. Martineau's chapel in Little Portland Street, on Sunday morning, by the announcement that Keshub Chunder Sen, the leader of the Brahmo Somaj, a society of Hindoo reformers, who have renounced idol-worship without embracing Christianity, would preach. Among the congre- gation were members of both Houses of Parliament, and several men of eminence in science and literature. The devotional part of the service was conducted by Mr. Martineau, and at its close Keshub Chunder Sen ascended the pulpit, and announced as his text the words, "In Him we live, and move, and have our being," but without quoting the passage from the Bible. Inquirer.'} IT is of the utmost importance to us that we should realize the presence of that great and holy God whom we profess to worship, and the solemn relation in which we stand to Him. Without it, religion is almost power- less : it may satisfy the understanding and the intellect, but it cannot exercise any influence upon our life and conduct. There are thousands among nominal Theists who seem to entertain very accurate theological notions of the Divinity ; they boast of their knowledge of God ; they congratulate themselves upon having given up idolatry in all its forms, and complacently think they are very near the kingdom of heaven. But beneath their boasted theological scholarship there oftentimes lurks unbelief in its milder, but not less insidious forms. They think of the Lord as one who is remote from them ; they think of Him as one who does very little in the direct administration of the affairs of the world. They have, it is true, very correct abstract conceptions of God, immor- tality, and duty ; in regard to doctrines and dogmas their ideas may be perfect j but when they sit down to pray when they try to open their hearts to their Lord they 54 THE LIVING GOD. seem to send their words, their prayers and thanks- givings, into empty space where there is none to hear them no Personal Divinity to respond to them. It is very necessary, if we are really anxious about our salva- tion, that we should not boast of mere intellectual ideas of God. It is one thing to say with the understanding that God exists ; it is quite a different thing to say with the whole heart and soul, My Lord is before me and behind me, and filleth all space. It is one thing to talk of God as the eternal, infinite, majestic Sovereign of the universe ; it is quite another thing to feel Him very near our hearts as our living and loving Father. Let us not, therefore, merely satisfy our understanding with proper ideas of God. Let us see that the heart, too, is satisfied. God created the universe, but He has not gone away from the universe. He liveth among us; He dwelleth in our homes ; He is present with us in all the vast and varied concerns of life ; wherever we are He is with us. He does not stand in the same relation to the world as the watchmaker does to the watch. The Lord animates all the movements of the physical world He quickens all the spiritual movements of mankind. He is in the midst of history. His merciful finger works beneath all those important transactions and affairs which give so much interest to history. When we look up and see the vast starry convex when we see that the moon is bath- ing the whole of nature in one flood of serene and sweet THE LIVING GOD. 55 I light, are we to think that the Lord is away, that it is through some mechanical law that all these vast planetary orbs move, and nature appears so beautiful ? No ; the Power of all powers is the Lord, the Beauty of all beauty. He pervadeth all space ; He quickeneth the movements of the universe. So, when we enter our homes and look into the affairs of our every-day life, we find that we are not alone j we feel that even in all the little details of our daily transactions, the Lord is present with us : He is- moving matter and mind, so as to bring unto us spiritual blessings in the end. And when we enter into the arena of public life, even there we find that the Lord has not deserted us. Nations are governed by His supreme will, just in the same way as individuals are. There is no part of space where the Lord is not ; there is no nation whom the Lord has deserted. He was present when He created the universe ; He has been all along present in the universe ; and even to-day we can speak of Him as the sublime I AM. Nominal Theists may be satisfied with an intellectual and abstract idea of God, but the true Theist cannot rest satisfied with that. Not until the very mention of the Living Being who is ever I AM causes a thrill of devotional fervour in his heart will he be satisfied. He desires to feel that he is ever surrounded and encompassed by One who is near and dear to him. That is the true Theistic notion of the Deity. Formu- laries of logic, dogmas, and doctrines, have their worth, 5 6 THE LIVING GOD. and are good in their own way ; but when we wish to reform and purify our character, when we are sincerely anxious to satisfy the hungering and thirsting of the soul, we want One who will live with us as a real power ; we want a Friend and a constant Companion for time and for eternity, One who will sympathise with us, so to say, in all the difficulties and trials of life, One to whom we can open the depths of our hearts in prayer and earnest supplication, One who will not only hear our prayers, but grant them. Such a God is the need of the world, and the sinner peculiarly feels the want of such a God. Unless and until he has such a God clearly before him, unless and until he succeeds in abiding in the constant presence of such a God, he cannot believe that he has entered the safe harbour of true faith. There are many who, when they attend church, seem anxious to realize the presence of God ; but when they leave the church, and go about their business, they leave Him behind and forget Him. It is absolutely necessary that we should realize His presence, not only in the chapel, but even in the banking establishment, in the library, in the school, in the university, in all the fields of daily labour, that we may be able to hold communion with Him whensoever we like. When we see those whom we love we feel refreshed ; the countenance of a friend takes away from us a load of affliction and difficulty ; the very sight of a dear friend whom we have not seen for months chases THE LIVING GOD. 57 away sorrow, and blunts the edge of adversity, and affords us peculiar delight. But do we feel such emotions when we see the Lord ? Do we care to realize such emotions when we are before Him ? When we offer our prayers, are we to congratulate ourselves on the mere fact that these prayers are not offered to false gods and goddesses ? If we do not believe in the millions of deities that fill the idolater's pantheon, are we to rest satisfied ? That is negative work. We have come out of the Egypt of idol- worship, it is true ; but have we gone far enough towards that land where alone we can find peace and comfort in direct communion with the True God ? Have we enabled ourselves to form positive ideas of the Real Divine Per- son, and draw near to Him in spirit ? Now, in this church, who is it that stands before us ? Who hears our words ? Are we to look up and down, are we to look forwards and backwards, and then say it is all empty space, and nothing more? When we offer our prayers do we address them to an abstraction ? or is there a Person before us clothed in the attributes of infinite righteousness and mercy, power and wisdom ? Do we feel certain in our hearts that the space we see before us is not empty space, but the abode of the Deity ? Our outward eyes see Him not ; our ears hear Him not ; but still He is real. Because invisible, is He the less real ? Is He less real than the false but visible gods and god- desses that are worshipped by the idolater? He is the 5 8 THE LIVING GOD. Supreme Reality that gives reality to all men and things in the universe ; and as such we ought always to regard Him. Ere we sit down to pray, let us feel satisfied that He is before us, about to hear all we have to say, and ready to grant the prayers of an earnest and sincere heart. Let us feel that now, in this church, He is present among us to give us the blessings of salvation not as some ethereal, metaphysical abstraction, not as a dead, lifeless divinity, but as a Living Person, far more personal, far more living, than anything we could conceive or see in this world. We are apt to suppose that what we see with our eyes is the only reality in the universe that beyond the region of the senses there is nothing but abstraction, nothing but ideal existence, nothing that is real. But no. The whole universe is full of that majestic and awful reality which would stir the inmost depths of our hearts if we could once realize and feel it. The presence of God is really a great school of dis- cipline. Those who do not feel the Lord's presence often find that when temptations gather around them they have no power, no strength within them wherewith to oppose the assaults of these temptations. But those who feel that the Lord is near unto them, feel at the same time the power of the Lord entering into the depths of their heart in order to arm the soul for fighting the great battle of truth. Let temptations come around us, let penury hurl its darts upon us if we feel that the THE LIVING GOD. 59 Father is with us we shall not fear, we shall not faint, but open out our sorrows unto Him ; we shall say unto Him, " Lord, help Thou Thy poor and weak child." A word of prayer uttered in a spirit of sincerity and earnestness will be sufficient to bring down from the Father of Mercy strength enough to resist all the temptations that can come to us. When we lose riches, when we are visited with domestic affliction, we want strength sometimes an extraordinary amount of strength, in order to overcome these peculiar calamities and reverses to which we are now and then exposed. And who can help us in these seasons of trial but the Lord God, plenteous in loving kindness? and how can we realize His loving kindness unless we always place Him before us as our constant Companion and Friend ? Our joy is increased a hundredfold, and all that is painful in life is removed altogether when we see the loving countenance of our Father. The presence of the Lord is thus not only a school of discipline where our cha- racters can be purified and temptations guarded against, but it is also a source of happiness to us. An abstract God can never please us ; mere conceptions of God cannot take our troubles away. When the heart is heavy, and all is dark around, when all earthly friends have given us up, when we are deserted even by our parents, and all those who are near and dear to us when we are in solitude, and see none on earth to wipe 60 THE LIVING GOD. the tears of sorrow from our cheek, to whom shall we appeal ? at whose feet shall we open out the thoughts and feelings of our hearts ? The Lord is our only hope, the fountain of happiness and joy ; and as soon as we offer our prayers unto Him, He wipeth off the tears of sorrow and removeth the heaviness of our hearts. He says unto his children "Blessed are ye, for all your sorrows and troubles have been taken away." We are all in need of happiness. There are so many things in this world to distress and dishearten us that we every now and then feel the necessity of realizing the presence of that God who alone can bring unto us true peace and happiness. Such joy we can always have, not only while we are in the church, but while we are in our own houses, not only while we are engaged in the adoration and worship of God, but even when we are engaged in mercantile speculations, in the dry drudgery of daily business. The Lord is everywhere present; and his faithful servant, in whatever sphere of duty he may be engaged, finds happiness and peace in His service. There is no work ori earth which is dry, uninteresting, or painful to him. There is no duty, however unpleasant it may be to other men, which is without religious sig- nificance to the true Theist. Everything comes to the Theist as the direct command of God, and willingly, faithfully, and cheerfully the son carries out the behests of the loving Father. And wheresoever the child may THE LIVING GOD. 61 be, the Father is always there. As soon as the time for prayer comes, the Lord is there to hear prayers. As soon as the time for worldly avocations comes, the Master is there to give the reward of daily labour unto the servant. In this way alone can we feel ourselves strong and safe in this world of trial, happy and joyful in this land of affliction and sorrow. Tell me, brethren, can you get on in this world without this soothing, this life-giving, and purifying presence of the Lord? Ex- perience has taught us that mere theology cannot help us when we are in the midst of trial; earthly friends cannot save us when we are actually deluged with temp- tations and sins. In such moments we feel the presence of the Lord very much. When, therefore, you come into the house of worship you should try your best so to realize God's presence that you may acquire faith, joy, strength, and purity, by holy and quiet communion with the Lord; and carry those blessings always with you wheresoever you may go. Thus, the doctrine of Divine Presence becomes a mighty power of salvation with sinners. For when the Lord says, / am t all His children, servants, believers, and worshippers in all parts of the world feel stirred up, and as soon as the Master issues His commands, all the servants go forth to serve Him in His strength. If ever, through moral infatuation, we commit sin, the great Judge and Saviour reveals Himself unto us as a tremendous and overpowering reality ; and 62 THE LIVING GOD. through fear of Him we depart from the path of evil. When the earthly teacher is present before the wicked pupil, when the father is just before the eyes of the guilty son, would not the son, would not the pupil feel instantaneously the pressure of an influence dissuading him from the path of wickedness, iniquity, and dis- obedience? In solitude man might do anything he chose j but when in the solemn presence of a teacher or father, the wayward child finds that there is an influence which cannot be easily set aside, and which is destined to rectify his habits. So is it with us in our relations to God. If we were all assured that the Lord was near unto us, who could overcome the influence of His presence ? It is because we are unmindful of Him that sin makes us captives, easy and willing captives often- times. Friends and brethren, realize the presence of the Lord whom you have learned to worship and obey. Carry Him about with you wheresoever you may go, and let Him speak unto you daily as your loving Father, as your Friend in times of trouble, as your Great Friend in time and in eternity. And when we die, on our death- bed the loving-kindness of the Father shall reveal itself; the darts of death shall become inoffensive, all the sorrows of death shall be taken away, and we shall go joyfully, carried by the hand of our Great Lord, our Merciful and Loving Father; we shall leave all our friends and the riches of this world behind, not with THE LIVING GOD. 63 tears in our eyes, but with joyful hearts. We shall feel we are now going with the Father into the mansions of righteousness and peace, where there is no weeping, no sorrow, no sighs, but where we shall enjoy eternal peace and eternal happiness. Realize the Father, in all His works. In the little flower behold Him. In all the beautiful things that our Father has scattered broadcast over the universe, see Him and feel Him. Do not think He is remote from any of the objects in this world. Wherever you go, see that there is a direct connection between every little thing and the Father ; then you will find that the whole universe is the house of the true Theist, the great house where our Father doth ever dwell, the great cathedral where we may every moment pray unto Him. We shall find that there is very little differ- ence between this church and the great cathedral of God outside, the vast universe, where every son of God may pray every moment unto Him. , We shall then find that there is nothing like a season for prayer or for worship ; but wherever and whenever the child asketh, the Father is ready to give. Friends and brethren, ye shall have comfort everlasting if ye realize the presence of the Lord in this way. I thank the Lord that He has brought me amongst you. I thank Him that I am enabled to mix with you this morning in His house, and to raise up our hearts in one swelling chorus, and offer our thanks, our prayers, and supplications unto Him. It gives me 64 THE LIVING GOD. peculiar happiness, indeed, to be amongst you. I feel that, though a foreigner, I can mingle my feeble voice with yours in adoring and glorifying Him who is our common Father. I feel that He whose real presence is felt here in England dwells in India too. I feel that though my brethren in India are remote physically from their friends here, yet in spirit we are always near unto each other, and that the great Lord who dwells in this great church to-day is the Father of all nations. Therefore, brethren, let us sing forth His praise and glory all the days we live : let His real spiritual presence be the great gospel of salva- tion unto all sinners in this world. Unite and co-operate harmoniously in order to bring unto yourselves, and to all those who are suffering from sin and iniquity, the blessings of true salvation which His felt presence can secure. May the Lord hear us; may He be with us always here and here- after ; may He dispense unto us peace and righteousness ! SERMON AT HACKNEY UNITARIAN CHURCH, Sunday, April 24, 1870. THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER. "Ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you, For every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." MATT. vii. 7, 8 THE text I have just read to you embodies an important spiritual law, as fixed and unchangeable as the laws which govern the physical world. It must be remembered that with God there is no variableness nor shadow of turning. As He governs the physical world with immutable laws, so does He govern the spiri- tual world with immutable laws. He is not a capricious governor, He is not a fickle king. All His operations, all the modes of His action are unchangeable, and His administration of the world is according to fixed laws. This is seen clearly, not only by men of science and philosophers, but also by the most uneducated people. We all see our daily experience tells us that God does not act according to certain whims, but always, in all circumstances, in all places and ages, according to immutable laws. In fact, law, whether in regard to the physical or spiritual world, means nothing more than the immutable modes of action which we see in all parts of the universe, modes in which God's will acts. If we are sure that there can be no deviation from God's law in the physical world, let us be equally 68 THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER. sure that deviation from God's law is absolutely impos- sible in the spiritual world. "Ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you " this is a spiritual law of great interest and importance to us all. Let there not be the slightest doubt about this. Let it be believed by us all that this applies to all mankind in all circumstances j for we are assured that every one that asketh receiveth, whoever seeketh findeth, whoever knocketh, to him it shall be opened. This makes no distinction of person or clime ; but we are assured, in language at once emphatic and consoling, that God does always respond to the sincere and earnest prayers of His children. If we pray in a humble spirit, if we kneel down and open up the depths of our hearts, our longings, our sorrows, our afflictions unto the One Living God, He who is plenteous in mercy will hear us, and grant our prayers. Let us take comfort from this lesson, and let us accept it without any doubt or question- ing. But what is this prayer what is it to pray ? Prayer does not mean the words which are generally accepted as prayer, but the spirit in which those words are used. Prayer simply means a longing of the heart, it is the wish felt it may be expressed, or not expressed. It may take the form of human language, or it may never be uttered at all; still, it is prayer, if God only hears it THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER. 69 in the secret recesses of the heart. It is for God to hear our prayers, not for man. When we sit together in chapels, and in one harmonious chorus offer up our prayers and thanksgivings unto the Lord, do we believe that He takes into consideration the words we use, our posture, the external manner in which we offer up our prayers ? No ; He looks into the depths of the heart, He sees the spirit in which we offer our prayers. Whether expressed or unexpressed, a prayer is alike real and sincere if God hears it, and accepts it, and responds to it. Prayer means, therefore, simply a wish of the heart. Do we really feel a thirsting for emancipation from the bonds of sin and iniquity ? As the body feels hunger, does the soul feel spiritual hunger? It will not do simply to say, " Oh Lord, deliver me from sin ; " that is not the form of prayer that God demands from us, nor is He ever likely to answer such prayers. The question always is, whether we feel in the inmost depths of the heart a real hungering and thirsting after righteousness. We know what it is to feel hungry, what it is to smart under appetite; we know how intensely we feel our physical wants they are pressing, they are urgent; sometimes they are inexpressible. So are the wants and necessities of the heart. When we feel that there is something which we need very much, some spiritual food for the purpose of giving health and strength to the soul, then is it, and then only, that we offer our sincere 70 THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER. prayers unto God prayers which must be accepted be- cause they are sincere. It is, therefore, necessary before we commence our prayers, that we should always feel that what we are about to say we realize in our hearts. Whether it is knowledge that we want, or strength, or purity, or deliverance from particular immoral habits, whether it is for our own welfare or for the welfare of others that we pray, let us be sure that our prayers are not hypocrites' prayers, not a mere repetition of stereo- typed phrases and words, but that they are the outpour- ings of a truly sincere heart, smarting under a sense of sin and wickedness : such prayers God hears. Whether we offer them in congregations or in solitude, whether we realize God's presence alone or with friends and relations, God is always near unto us to answer our prayers, whether expressed or not. Such prayers are granted, not by the violation of God's laws, but by ful- filling the laws which govern the spiritual world. God has said unto us all, "If ye pray I shall hear your prayers." That is the law to which we always look. He therefore fulfils the law when He hears our prayers. When we come unto Him we do not ask Him to break His laws ; we do not ask Him to set at nought all those laws according to which He has governed the universe, and the destinies of individuals and nations for ages. No ; we humbly come unto Him, and make our prayers known unto Him, in the belief and hope that by grant- THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER. 71 ing our prayers He will only fulfil his own laws. When the body feels hunger, we are obliged to conform to certain laws in order to satisfy our hunger. When the soul feels hunger and thirst, we conform to certain spiri- tual laws for the purpose of satisfying these wants; and the mode of action which we employ, is to pray unto God. Prayer, therefore, is a means whereby our wants may be removed. Some may say, why not en- deavour to live righteously, why not be charitable, patriotic, and philanthropic j do all those deeds of the law which God has commanded, and without which there can be no salvation ; lead pious and holy lives, do good to the poor, be honest, gracious, and truthful, be candid, be simple and innocent as little children ; it is not by prayer, it is not by kneeling down before God that you can expect to have salvation, no, but by fulfilling the will of God, by obeying His command- ments. This hollow morality is not the royal road to salvation which many represent it to be. Without prayer it is impossible to attain to the blessings of salvation. Man's strength, man's wisdom, man's pro- found philosophy, man's purest affection must always fail to secure the blessings of salvation fully. Labour as we may, it is impossible for us to realize that amount of strength wherewith we can hope to overcome all manner of temptation, and chase away all manner of sin. We may become honest and philanthropic ; we may feed the 72 THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER. hungry and clothe the naked ; but, after all, when we return home from our gigantic field of philanthropy, from our sublime actions of benevolence, we find there is still something within us that defiles and contaminates our hearts, which has not yet been purged away. In vain do we look to those outward actions of philanthropy and benevolence of which men are so apt to boast ; in vain do we try to gather up comfort and strength from our hollow morality ; we find there are wants within us which require to be supplied, we feel that we are weak and cast down, we feel that some power is needed to lift us up from the mire of iniquity into which we have fallen ; we feel that some heavenly voice must speak to us, in order to stir up the drooping energies, the dormant powers of our souls; we feel that the Almighty must come to our rescue. Nothing short of Almighty aid can elevate us from sin, can rescue us from evil. Naturally, therefore, we run to our Father's embrace, we fall at His feet and say, " Helpless we are, it is for Thee to help us." We pray unto Him, not because philosophy has taught us to pray, not because our parents are in the habit of offering prayer, not because the ministers of our churches have taught us to pray, but because the soul feels a natural longing for that salvation which, without God's aid, it is impossible to secure. When, therefore, we pray, we simply respond to a natural longing of the heart ; we come before the Father THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER. 73 and tell Him what those wants are which we feel very much, and we throw ourselves entirely upon His mercy, His loving kindness, in order that He may help us. It will not do, therefore, to approach God and try to pro- pitiate Him with all our deeds of philanthropy and benevolence as a passport to heaven. He will not accept these; He wants of us something more, and that is prayer. Prayer is the beggar's attitude, which the soul must assume before it can expect to be heard by God. It is not the words which are indispensable, it is not the outward posture that is necessary ; it is the feeling, the longing within, that God demands. Without it we can- not make our most righteous lives acceptable to God; we cannot make our hearts pure and holy, as they ought to be pure and holy, unless we assume that attitude of prayer and devotion. When the heart, conscious of sin, brings itself into the position of a little child, and looks tenderly towards the Father of Infinite Mercy, then, whether the language of prayer is used or not, whether the inward longings are expressed or not, that childlike heart has already commenced to realize the blessings of true communion with the Lord. Look at that childlike heart, and already you see heaven opened up there. The importance which belongs to prayer belongs to that childlike posture, that humble attitude of the soul which the soul realizes in prayer. If you have that, you fulfil all the conditions of acceptance with God, and you 74 THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER. find purity and righteousness. Similarly in regard to the great wants which we feel in our physical relations with the world, as soon as we conform to the external conditions of life we find health, prosperity, and strength. There are always certain conditions under which we receive physical blessings; and so there are conditions under which we receive spiritual blessings. Prayer is the sum and substance of all those conditions under which the soul can expect to receive the blessings of communion with God. Give up the attitude of prayer, stand before God as an arrogant and conceited soul, bring before Him all your outward rites and ceremonies, and you will feel, I assure you most emphatically, that there is some- thing in you which repels God, which casts you away from His presence. But assume the humble position of a child, you may speak or not, already the Lord is in your embrace already you find that ^the Lord has vouchsafed unto you His merciful interposition; He is ready to remove the load of iniquity under which you are groaning. Prayer, in order to be successful, must, therefore, be always earnest and genuine. Let us tell God what we feel. Let us always avoid unnecessary repetitions and the use of vague words and phrases. Let your words be simple and sincere, earnest and brief. Let the Lord be convinced that you speak not from a hollow heart, but from a heart full of emotions, full of consciousness of sin, THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER. 75 full of a sincere desire to cast away instantaneously the trammels of sin and wickedness. You should feel as if you are in a diseased state of mind, and that you do not like any longer to abide in wickedness. You should not only say, " Lord, save me from sin," but feel the enormity of your wickedness, and seek to be emancipated from sin at this very moment. You must not wait till to-morrow ; you must not say, " Father, allow me to stretch myself now in indolence on the couch of intemperance and iniquity, and to-morrow I will think of reformation." No ; if the sinner wishes to have his prayers heard by the Lord of Mercy, he must show that at that moment he is sincerely anxious to cast away the evil from which he asks deliverance. We should not only be earnest and sincere in our prayers, but we must always pray for the right thing the one thing needful. What is it we should pray for ? Not for rain, not for pleasant breezes, not for outward prosperity, for the luxuries of this world, not for bodily gratifications, not for riches or fame. For one thing only shall we pray unto the Lord, that we may always abide in His temple and see His holy and loving countenance, that we may always enjoy quiet and sweet communion with the Lord. We desire that wherever we may be we shall have the Lord with us, that even in moments of activity and worldly occupation we may now and then turn to the Lord, in order to enjoy silent communion 76 THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER. with Him. That is the object of life. We may pray to the Lord for physical blessings ; but, my brethren, are we sure that those are conducive to our real welfare ? May they not turn us away from the Lord; may they not make us worldly-minded if we obtain them ? Let us leave all these issues in the hands of Providence. Let us simply say, in regard to temporal matters, in regard to the things of the body and the things of the world, " Whatever is good in Thy sight dispense unto me." In regard to spiritual blessings there need be no wavering ; we have one course clear and open before us. Pray for spiritual strength, spiritual wisdom, the light of God's countenance, for purity, righteousness, peace, and truth. For all these pray, and pray with unwavering and stead- fast hearts; pray without any doubt or any wavering; for we are sure it is the wish of the Lord that we should have those blessings. While we pray unto Him for feeding, strengthening, and purifying the spirit, we are sure that our prayers are consonant to the Divine will. We do not want anything which the Lord does not like to give us, but our prayers are in unison with His will the human will harmonizing with the Lord's will, when we pray earnestly and sincerely for spiritual blessings. We therefore need not be afraid of disappointment. Whenever we open our hearts in prayer and devotion unto the Lord for purity, truth, wisdom, and righteous- ness, let us be absolutely certain that our prayers will be THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER. 77 heard. Do not, then, pray for the things of this world, but seek one thing only which you are sure to have. Say, with the Psalmist, " One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after : that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord." If that be your only object, you may rest assured you will day by day grow in purity and righteousness, through prayer. No man ought to be allowed to pass an opinion, or has any right to pass an opinion, on the doctrine of the efficacy of prayer, who has not tested its merits on the ground of experience. I myself remember that when the Lord first taught me the doctrine of the efficacy of prayer, He taught it not through the pages of philosophy, not through doctrines or dogmas, not in an intellectual manner, but He opened my eyes to the necessity of prayer in a practical way. I felt that I must pray, for I found that all my unaided endeavours after true spiritual life were unavailing and ineffectual ; I found that unless the Lord's arms were outstretched to save me, unless I had Omnipotence on my side, I could not hope to enjoy the blessings of salvation. And so I went to Him, sat at His feet in an humble attitude, and opened my heart unto Him, and He heard me; and since that time He has always heard me. Lay aside all the philo- sophy and logic of the world j let the dreamy scientific man try to point out to us that prayer is not necessary, 78 THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER. or that it is unreasonable and foolish ; experience tells us a different tale. Whoever has felt in his own heart and life that God does hear and has heard earnest and humble prayer, will continue steadfast in the path of prayer and devotion, and will never swerve from that path. It is a matter, therefore, on which experience alone can throw light. Let us ask our own lives. When we felt that the shades of darkness were gathering round us, the heart perhaps only lisped in prayer; but the Father was there and He heard, and He responded to our prayers. Have we not found that since that time we have seen something like a new course of life alto- gether, something like regeneration ? What is regene- ration what is new life ? When the Lord hears us He effects a radical change in our life. From that time we see the dawn of a new day. There we see a turning- point, a point of departure from our past life ; there we see life turning into new, into holier, nobler, purer channels. If we have seen that with our own eyes in our own lives, we shall always pray. My brothers and my sisters, do always persevere in true and earnest prayer, and the Lord will hear you. Believe that the highest revelations of science are conformable to the doctrine of the efficacy of prayer; that in this doctrine the highest philosophy harmonizes with the purest devotion. Believe that you do not depart from philosophy, but that you obey and act under the spirit of THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER. 79 true philosophy, in offering your prayer unto God. Be certain and confident about the fruits of prayer. Sin- cerely and humbly and hopefully, therefore, " ask and it shall be given, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you." And let all our friends and brethren here assembled bear unanimous and emphatic testimony that every one that has asked has received, he that has sought has found, and to him that has knocked the doors of the mansions of righteousness have been opened. ADDRESS AT STAMFORD STREET CHAPEL, Thursday, April 28, 1870. THE spring Social Meeting of this [Unitarian] con- gregation was held on Thursday, April 28. The opportunity was taken to welcome Baboo Keshub Chun- der Sen and two of his companions to a more informal gathering than the recent meeting at the Hanover-square Rooms. The chapel was beautifully decorated with flowers, and was well filled by an audience of from three to four hundred persons. No public notification was given of the meeting, and the attendance was composed almost exclusively of the members of the congregation and their friends, including the Rev. J. Hunt, one of the contributors to the Contemporary Review. After tea the Rev. R. SPEARS took the chair, and, in an appropriate manner, gave a hearty welcome to the members of other congregations and denominations pre- sent that evening, and especially to their distinguished friends from the East, worshippers of the One True God. After a few remarks from several visitors, the Chair- man, with a brief reference to the new religious reform movement in India, introduced Mr. Sen to the meeting, by which he was most cordially received. He then delivered the following address : 84 ADDRESS. There are many in England who are in the habit of looking upon India as a sort of dream-land. India is a real land, and a great country. We all must acknow- ledge that the East ought to feel interested in the West, and the West in the East. Asia has something to do for Europe, and Europe for Asia. Unless the two con- tinents unite, through their best representatives, England and India, their true welfare cannot be accomplished. Each has a mission to fulfil towards the other. He (Mr. Sen) hoped that in his humble mission he should be able to excite a truer, deeper, and more abiding interest in the affairs of India, not only in England, but in Europe generally, and, if possible, in America. He hoped that the East and the West would unite in acknowledging the great doctrines of Absolute Religion the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man. The true interest of the English public in the people of India was to be shown, not by teaching them the various sectarian creeds here promulgated, but by throwing away all dogmas, and teaching the true spirit of Christian life. When we con- template the future of our great country, we cannot look with anything like unfriendliness towards any section of the Christian Church, but would ask them all to come and work in the vast field of India. There is fair play there for every sect, and no favour. Truth is not mono- polized by any particular section of the Church. Like the free air of heaven, it extends over all the earth ; and ADDRESS. 85 wherever we are, if we repose our absolute faith in God, we shall be led by Him into the paths of truth and righteousness. He would heartily and sincerely rejoice to see all Christian sects in India. India had had enough of superstition and sectarianism. He wished to take from each of the Christian sects the good things it had to teach. In a free, liberal, and eclectic spirit he wished to get all the truth that Christ preached to the world, which was fitted for all men in every country. To acknowledge Christ as master is not to believe in all the dogmas taught by Christian sects, but to reverence him as our teacher and our elder brother. And we best show our reverence for him by living unto Christ, not by believing in the letter that killeth ; by putting the spirit of Christ into our hearts, and feeding upon it, and allowing it to grow with our souls. If they had Christ's love of God, his reverence for truth, and his readiness to lay down his life for human welfare, they might not believe in what this or that Church pro- pounds, but their life would be acceptable to God and man, and they would have secured to themselves seats in the kingdom of heaven. (Much applause.) He was always of opinion that the best book a man could have was the book of his own life. The only living book is our own biography. He had always learned great lessons from the study of his own life. He was a Hindu, and as such believed in his early days in all the superstitions 86 ADDRESS. and idolatries of his unfortunate motherland. He not only believed in idolatry, but went through all the super- stitious observances it enjoined. When he received an English education his faith in idolatry died, without effort on his part, a natural death. He found that the darkness of idolatry was altogether gone, not because he had come into contact with Christian missionaries, but because he had placed himself under the influence of a liberal English education, which taught him that idolatry and caste were false, and that he must discountenance both, not only theoretically, but practically. But English education unsettled his mind, and left a void ; he had given up idolatry, but had received no positive system of faith to replace it. And how could one live on earth without a system of positive religion ? At last it pleased Providence to reveal Himself unto him. He had not a single friend to speak to him of religion, God, and immortality. He was passing from idolatry into utter worldliness. Through Divine grace, however, he felt a longing for something higher the consciousness of sin was awakened within him ; sin was realized in the depth of his heart in all its enormity and blackness. And was there no remedy? Should he continue to bear life as a burden? Heaven said, " No ! Sinner, thou hast hope;" and he looked upward, and there was a clear revelation to him. He felt that he was not groping in the dark as a helpless child cast away by his parents in some ADDRESS. 87 dreary wilderness. He felt that he had a Heavenly Friend always near to succour him. God Himself told him this ; no book, no teacher, but God Himself, in the secret recesses of his heart. God spoke to him in un- mistakable language, and gave him the secret of spiritual life, and that was prayer, to which he owed his conver- sion. He at once composed forms of prayer for every morning and evening, and used them daily, although he was still a member of no Church on earth, and had no clear apprehension of God's character and attributes. He felt profoundly the efficacy of prayer in his own ex- perience. He grew in wisdom, purity, and love. But after this he felt the need of the communion of friends from whom he might be enabled, in times of difficulty and doubt, to receive spiritual assistance and comfort. So he felt that not only belief in God was necessary, but he wanted a real brotherhood on earth. Where was this true Church to be found ? He did not know. Well, he established in his earlier days a small fraternity in his own house, to which he gave the somewhat singular but significant name of " Goodwill Fraternity." He did not allow himself for one moment to harbour sectarian- ism, but preached to his friends these two doctrines God our Father, every man our brother. When he felt that he wanted a Church, he found that the existing sects and Churches would not answer his purpose. A small publication of the Calcutta Brahmo Somaj fell into his 88 ADDRESS. hands, and as he read the chapter on " What is Brahmo- ism ? " he found that it corresponded exactly with the inner conviction of his heart, the voice of God in the soul. He always felt that every outward book must be subordinated to the teachings of the Inner Spirit, that where God speaks through the Spirit in man all earthly teachers must be silent, and every man must bow down and accept in reverence what God thus revealed in the soul. He at once determined that he would join the Brahmo Somaj, or Indian Theistic Church. From his own personal experience, therefore, he attached the highest importance to the direct agency of God in the conversion of the soul. Mr. Sen then referred to the fact that every Hindu family has a priest, a spiritual friend, and it was customary to accept his offices in certain initiatory rites. When the period for such ceremony came in his life he had a great trial. There were his friends and relatives on one side trying to persuade him to submit to these old traditionary customs, and God within saying, No. He prayed, and the response was refreshing and sanctifying. He was enabled to overcome all the influences of his relatives, and he succeeded in bearing witness unto the truth. There came another great trial, which eventuated in his exclusion from his family house, with his wife, almost penniless, simply because he had taken a practical step in violation of the rules of caste. Spiritually and physically he was then ADDRESS. 89 under a load of suffering, and when he called to mind those days of difficulty and darkness, he felt that only God saved him. Six months elapsed, full of spiritual uneasiness and difficulty, his spirits gradually sinking and his health declining. He again found in prayer great strength and comfort, and ultimately reconciliation with his family, and his own beloved mother now attends his chapel at Calcutta, and delights in their hymns and prayers, although still a member of the Hindu com- munity. Many of his countrymen were acting up to the spirit of his faith, although they outwardly differed from him. The Theistic movement was secretly spreading all over the country. Mr. Sen concluded with hearty thanks to the meeting for listening to him so kindly and at- tentively, and hoped that they would enjoy many more cordial congregational meetings of this kind. And with a happy allusion to the beautiful flowers around them, he expressed a hope that their hearts would have similar freshness, sweetness, and purity. The Rev. JOHN HUNT, in response to a call from the chairman, next gave a very interesting speech. As one who had taken a great interest for many years in the religions and philosophies of India, l\e united with the preceding speakers in offering a hearty welcome to Mr. Sen. He was a student of the religions of the world, and it was through his reading that he first became acquainted with Unitarianism, although it must be understood that 90 ADDRESS. his presence there that evening did not imply in any way that he shared their distinctive views. He should like to hear from Mr. Sen something about the religions of the East, and especially that remarkable Buddhist faith re- specting which writers and scholars give such conflicting accounts, some asserting and others denying that Budd- hists believe in God and Immortality. Mr. Hunt briefly unfolded a chapter of his own experience as one who had groped his way out of the rigid Scotch Calvinism in which he had been educated, and concluded by expressing a hope that Mr. Sen would have the opportunity of seeing religious life among all sections of the Christian com- munity. The meeting, which was full of interest and animation from the beginning to the end, was brought to a close with prayer and the Benediction. Three or four appro- priate hymns were sung at intervals during the evening with unwonted fervour. SERMON AT UNITY CHURCH, ISLINGTON, Sunday, May I, 1870. THE LOVE OF GOD. "And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life ? He said unto him, What is written in the law ? how readest thou ? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind ; and thy neighbour as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live." LUKE x. 2528. A CCORDING to this answer, which Jesus Christ -^""*- gave to some of his disciples, and which we now see embodied in the text I have just read to you, the way to eternal life J is the love of God. Jesus in reply said, " This do, and thou shalt live." The only way to inherit everlasting life is to love the Lord with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength, and with all our mind. This is "the whole law and prophets." This is God's first and highest commandment. The whole law, religious and ethical, is concentrated in this precept. If we fulfil this precept, if we love the Lord with our whole heart, mind, strength, and soul, we shall certainly inherit everlasting life. But what is it to love God? There are many who suppose that the love of God consists in simply accepting a few dogmas and doctrines. Others there are who think that the love of God does not at all lie in the intellect or the understanding, but simply in the performance ol righteous deeds, which are acceptable to the Lord. Others indulge in a sort of mystic sentimentalism, and think they thereby love God. There are, again, others 94 THE LOVE OF GOD. who spend several hours of the day in mere contemplation, in abstract conceptions, in reveries and ecstacies, and they think the love of God consists in these things. Such views of the love of God, if not absolutely incorrect, only partially represent the truth. The love of God embraces all the departments of our life. The sweetening and purifying and strengthening influence of the love of God must be found in all the details of our daily life, as well as in the grandest aspirations and pursuits of men ; and unless that is done, unless we find that tliere is the love of God in our whole life, we ought not to administer to ourselves a sort of perfidious solace, and suppose that we have loved God as we ought to have loved Him. Then only ought we to congratulate ourselves on having the love of God, when we have found that we love Him with the intellect, with the heart, with the soul, and with the will. Let us take these various elements of the love of God one after the other. Our love of God must, in the first instance, be intel- lectual. We must love God with our whole understand- ing, with all our intellectual powers. Our reason, our intellectual faculties, must all love God by loving truth. He cannot love God who does not love truth. He who is wedded to error, falsehood, fancy, delusion, cannot be said to love God, for all truth is in God, and whoso loveth God must love truth ; and in proportion to our love of truth is our love of God. If we love errors and THE LOVE OF GOD. 95 falsehoods we cast away our hearts from God, because God is perfect truth. There are some people who are afraid of the advance of scientific knowledge and enlightenment, simply because they feel that the progress of science will endanger the Church, will upset men's faith, and take away from them, the power of loving God. NOJ all truth harmonizes with all truth, whether it is physical or metaphysical truth whether it is mathematical or religious truth. Every truth is welcome to us if we are lovers of God. We must welcome every form and species of truth. Let us open all the windows of our mind, and take in truth of all kinds and on all matters, as we take in the light and air of God. Let us freely and dispassionately and fearlessly welcome all kinds of scientific truth. Let us love science in all its varieties, in all its departments ; let us love every form of truth ; and let us be certain that truth can never upset truth. On the contrary, the more scientific we are, the more religious we shall be ; the more we love scientific truths, the more we love God. That is what I mean by intel- lectual love of God. By loving truth we love God. Our understanding and reasoning powers shall all be in unison with the spirit of God's truth in the worlds of matter and mind ; and when we go to worship God, let us be sure that our love of God is founded upon the rock of everlasting and enduring truth, that there is not a particle of error or falsehood in our creed and in our 96 I HE LOVE OF GOD. conceptions of God. When love is well grounded upon the firm rock of truth, that love will stand firm through everlasting ages. Our love of God must be not only intellectual, but also practical. We must love God with all our strength, not merely with all our mind. If we love God we must carry out His precepts into practice. That is hollow, hypocritical, worldly love, which shows itself merely in intellectual exercises, in dogmas and doctrines, but does not seek to exhibit itself in deeds of righteousness. Our doctrine may be correct ; we may be very punctual and regular in attending our churches and chapels ; but if we are not honest men, if we are not straightforward, if we are not pure in our characters, pure in words and in actions, how can we say we love the Deity ? Can men love God, and yet at the same time love impurity and sin ? Can men love holiness and light, and at the same time abide in unholiness and darkness ? If our hearts are -wedded to the world and its fascinations, how can we love the Lord, who is pure and holy? Our character must be holy; our hands must be very active in the discharge of those momentous duties which we owe to ourselves and to others, which we owe to those who are near and dear to us, and to all mankind. We must always be found diligent, industrious, active, and un- wearied in our efforts to promote the welfare of others. We must never be idle , we must never enter into the THE LOVE OF GOD. 97 paths of wickedness, deceit, and fraud ; but whatsoever the Lord commandeth, that we should do. Purity of character, cleanness of conscience, is one of the highest treasures on earth, and we must try to gather up such treasures in our sojourn in this world. We must be assured that our hearts are pure in the sight of the Lord, else our devotions, our prayers, cannot be accepted by the Lord. He looketh into the depths of our hearts, and whoso kneeleth before Him, must satisfy Him that he desires to be pure. We must be righteous, we must practically discharge our duties to society. Go and feed the hungry and clothe the naked, and quench the thirst of the thirsty, and bring riches unto those who are poor, and divide your substance with those who are in need. Go to the helpless, the poor, the miserable children of God in various parts of the world, and try to befriend them and assist them according to your means and cir- cumstances. Let God see that every one of His children is engaged all hours of the day in promoting the welfare of society ; let us satisfy Him that we are ready and willing servants, ready to do all that He commands us to do, and to do it willingly with all our heart. If a man, therefore, wishes to love God, he must try to be at the same time a faithful servant of God. His love of God must be intellectual, and at the same time practical. We must love Him with all our activities and energies with our whole strength. H 98 THE LOVE OF GOD. Our love of God must, in the third place, be devotional. We must not rest satisfied with hollow deeds of righteous- ness, with empty morality. We must worship God, we must bring before Him the offerings of our souls, our thanksgivings, devotions, and prayers. The soul must be at work as much as the hands ought to be at work. If the intellect has made itself acceptable unto God, and if the hands have *been found ready to give offerings unto the Lord, the soul must not be idle. Let the soul send forth all its best and noblest aspirations, prayers, and devotions unto God. Let us be found unceasing in our prayers. God wishes to see all His children assembled in churches and chapels to glorify His name, and also round the family altar in order to render thanksgivings in the domestic circle. Nay, He demands from us prayers in solitude when no man is near to hear our prayers, when no earthly eyes are near to see what we do, no earthly ears to hear what we are about to say. In soli- tude let us open our hearts in the best manner possible unto our God, for our best prayers, our best devotional offerings, are those which we give unto the Lord in soli- tude. When we are alone we feel His thrilling presence as we never felt before, as we never can do, perhaps, in large gatherings. We then open our hearts freely and unreservedly, and tell Him, as the child tells its parents, what we need. Let our devotions be warm ; let us not go through cold ritual, cold forms of prayer, but let our THE LOVE OF GOD. 99 hearts be warm ; let our souls give out fresh devotions, fresh prayers every day of our life. We must love God with the soul. If we do not worship God, how can we be said to love God? If He is the Highest and the Mightiest, should we not think it a privilege to approach Him and offer our prayers and thanksgivings before His great and majestic throne ? He who is above us all, who filleth all space, does He not demand from us devotion, homage and worship, and heartfelt adoration ? Who can think of the Lord and let his heart and soul remain idle ? No ; the very conception of the Deity naturally and spontaneously touches the chords of our soul, and instinctively we offer Him praise and glory, and we desire to do so time without end. The very idea of the Majestic and Supreme God presiding over the destinies of indi- viduals and nations, the very conception of a God full of heavenly majesty, purity, and glory, calls forth our homage. We kneel down almost without an effort, and the soul sends forth its best and warmest devotions, and its sweetest prayers. But, above all, our love of God must be emotional ; we must love God with the heart. That is the great thing needed in modern times. We have perhaps learnt to love God with the intellect, with the will, and with the soul ; there are places for worship, there are hospitals and houses of charity, and there are also vast theological libraries. All these things prove most conclusively that TOO THE LOVE Of GOD. our intellect is busily employed in seeking God, that our hands are active in serving Him, and that our souls are engaged in praising and adoring Him. But what of the heart ? Do we not see that there is something like heartlessness, if I may so say, in the theology of the present day ? Do we feel it comforting to our hearts ? Are our hearts cheered and refreshed when we draw near to the Lord ? I admit that there are many whose under- standing and reason find satisfaction in correct concep- tions of the Deity and the next world. I do admit that there are many men, truly Christian men and women, in Christendom, whose hands are ever ready to serve God practically, who are faithful servants of their Master. I do admit that many are engaged regularly and punc- tually in worshipping God, and that in doing so they rigidly conform to the prescribed ritual. But the heart perhaps does not find that amount of comfort which it has a right to demand. We cannot ignore the heart. Stiff, heartless religion is no religion at all. We cannot mutilate any department of life. Our whole lives must be made acceptable to God. The love of God ought to leaven the whole of our lives. If our hands, and if the mind and soul have been brought as willing offerings before the Deity, why should not the heart also be present there ? When we enter our churches, shall we leave our hearts behind in the domestic circle, in the place of business, in our offices and banking establish- THE LOVE OF GOD. 101 ments ? Shall we allow the world to devour and swallow up our hearts completely, so as to leave no residue for our God, our dear and beloved Father ? Shall we allow the interests of the world to consume and exhaust our affections, and will not a little be left, for the Lord, who is or ought to be dearer to us than ali things: el,3e. in this world? But, alas, our hearts do not feel, as {hey, ought to feel, the Lord. We know the Lord; we serve the Lord, and we worship the Lord, but the question is, " Do we love the Lord?" The very mention of God's name ought to enkindle the best and purest affections of our heart. We ought to feel a thrill running through the inmost depths of our heart as soon as we are reminded that a God, a Living and Loving Father, is present before us. Dry theology can never be interesting. Perhaps Christendom has for a long time passed through heartless systems of theology, and lifeless ritual. Perhaps the heart has been smothered under the crushing weight of too much intellectualism. Now the devotional feelings, the sentiments of the heart, must have due recognition ; you must not do injustice to them. They must have their due. Let all our feelings, then, be called forth ; let us summon up all the warm sentiments of the heart, and let us bring our best feelings before the feet of the Deity. If we wish to love God, shall we venture to please Him with hollow professions of our moral life ? What are all these great deeds of patriotism and philanthropy ? If io2 THE LOVE OF GOD. we have paid our debts and given alms to those who are weak and hungry, are we satisfied ? Let our hearts be catechized. We must confess that we have neglected our hearts, that we have done them injustice, that we have not taken rare of them properly. Many a person *,y:il say" Talk to me of father and mother, and brother a. id ,sibtei,. and, wife and children; talk to me of riches and fame \ talk to me of the beauties and fascinations of the world you please me, you interest me immensely, you call forth my emotions. But talk to me of God, the heart does not feel Him ; my heart is benumbed ; there is a sort of chill ; my heart is cold, my heart is dry." There is theology, there are vast and varied works of philanthropy of which I am apt to boast ; there are devotions and prayers long and numberless, but after all the heart does not feel. Such a state of mind is indeed sad and painful. Oh, I wish I could hug my God to my heart ! Oh, I wish I could love Him as my Father, my loving and beloved Father ! I wish I could ever keep Him in the midst of my heart ! I wish I could love Him as the son ought to love the Father, as one ought to love his dearest and everlasting Friend. You have not given God your entire love if you have not yet loved Him with your heart. If you wish to inherit eternal life, love Him not only with your mind, with your will, with your soul, but also with your heart. Let your love of God be intellectual, practical, devotional, and at the THE LOVE OF GOD. 103 same time emotional. Let there be warm love present in our hearts always, and let us try to cultivate it with mutual aid. When we see each other, let us now and then talk about the riches of God's love ; and the more we converse about God's love, the more we shall enable each other, with the aid of mutual experience, to love Him as our dear and common Father. In all spiritual and religious assemblies let us make this the grand topic of our conversation. Let us communicate to each other our experiences of Divine love, and soften each other's heart. Let the name of Christ, who taught the world the riches of God's love in the best and most impressive manner possible, not merely by loving Him during his lifetime, but by exhibiting his grandest love of his Father by offering his life, let his name be heard by all Christian men and women with warm feelings of love ; and, as he loved his Father with his whole heart, and mind, and soul, and strength, let us also try to imitate him, and render our whole lives unto the Lord. Let not a single department in our life be estranged from God. Let us feel that the spirit of our life is in unison with the spirit of God, that what He wishes, we wish too j what He asks of us, that we give Him ; what He commands us to do, that we do as faithful servants; whatsoever He loves, that we love too. In that way we shall be enabled to constitute a loving family on earth, with a Loving Father above. Feel your Father. My brothers and 104 THE LOVE OF GOD. my sisters, I, as an Indian, do humbly beseech you to feel the great God, who is your Father and my Father. Coming from a distant country, I am anxiously look- ing forward to the day when we shall all be united in the love of God. After all those dreary systems of theology through which Christendom has passed, the lifeless, heartless, cheerless dogmas of cold intellec- tualism, men's hearts have become dry, and we cannot but feel the deep necessity of a shower of genial moral emotions and affections over the hearts of all men. I desire that Heaven should be opened wide, and there shall come from above a flood of the pure waters of life, which shall make us cool, and give comfort unto our dry and dreary souls. Do you not feel the necessity of such a shower? Do you not feel that men's hearts have be- come dry ? If the Living God is present this morning in this large church, He certainly hears our prayers, and He shall answer our prayers. Let us look unto Him and say " Our hearts are dry ! Lord, we know that Thou art our Father, but our hearts are sunk in worldliness, and we cannot feel Thee. We are lost amidst the charms and allurements of the world. The world draws us away. Our hearts cannot love Thee. Though we know Thee, yet we cannot love Thee." If the Lord is present here, and if He sees with His own eyes to what a dreary condition we have reduced our souls, and hearts, and minds, He will certainly satisfy the thirsty soul. He THE LOVE OF GOD. 105 alone is the abode of happiness ; He alone is the ever- lasting fountain of peace and comfort. I know it is possible to have the highest and best kind of enjoyment in the Lord. There are some who think that if you do not perceive God with the senses, that if you do not find in Him something to please your senses, you cannot love Him ; that none can love the Spirit. Such a thing I can hardly believe. My own experiences tell me (and what I have seen in others confirms my conviction) that it is quite possible to approach an absolutely spiritual, unseen, and invisible God, yet spiritually clad, if I may so say, in all the attributes of infinite loving-kindness and mercy, it is possible to feel the warmest kind of love for such a loving Father. It is because we do not feel His mercy that therefore we do not feel ourselves able to love Him. If the Lord is a Spirit, do we not see His mercy and loving-kindness in our daily life ? Do we not feel that His arms encompass us, and that, wherever we may happen to be, our great and merciful Father feeds us, that we do not feed ourselves, that He saves us, and that we do not save ourselves. If such is the Lord's loving-kindness unto us unto us great and miserable sinners, why shall we not love Him with our whole heart ? If He is spiritual, is His spirituality an argument that we ought not to love Him ? Is that an excuse and pretext which we should put forth in order to justify our- selves for not loving Him as we love the world ? If we io6 THE LOVE OF GOD. can love our father and mother, surely we can love Him who is the Mother of mothers and the Father of fathers. If we can give our entire hearts to those we love on earth, can we not, shall we not, give up our entire heart with the whole warmth of our emotional nature unto Him who is our best, and our truest, our Everlasting Friend ! That is what I am anxious to see amongst you. Show me that sort of love of God which alone can give you true life, and give the whole world true life. The world expects that from a nation which calls itself Christian. Give your whole love to God, and you will enkindle similar love in others, and thus a vast and irresistible stream of pure love going forth from a Christian country will fertilize the various countries around, and thus we shall see opened on all sides of the earth living fountains of pure love. We shall not then drink of the wells which are now dry, but we shall drink at the feet of the Lord, we shall drink at the everlasting fountain of purity, and love, and wisdom, and strength, which can never be dry. Let us dig wells of living faith in our own hearts, and there shall come a perennial stream of purity and peace which shall flow on everlastingly. Brethren, love your God with your whole heart, with your whole mind, with your whole will, and with your whole soul, and you shall inherit everlasting life. SPEECH AT EXETER HALL, AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE RAGGED-SCHOOL UNION, Monday, May 9, 1870. THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY, K.G., IN THE CHAIR. / nr s HE Annual Report having been read by the Secre- -*- tary, the Chairman made an address, after which two gentlemen spoke to the first resolution, moving the adoption of the Report. LORD SHAFTESBURY then said : We are honoured this evening by the presence of a very distinguished gentleman from India, who takes the deepest interest in everything that concerns the welfare of England, and in all classes of our population ; and I have, therefore, requested him to address a few words to this assembly. I now, therefore, call upon Keshub Chun- der Sen to give us his opinions on this subject. BABOO KESHUB CHUNDER SEN said : My lord, I came to this meeting simply to see and hear, not to speak; and, therefore, when I was invited to take part in the proceedings, I felt quite unprepared to accept so kind an invitation. But, my lord, the object which has gathered us together this evening is a noble one, and is calculated to enlist the sympathy and interest of all classes of mankind ; and I therefore feel that I ought to say one or two words to express my appreciation of that object. Coming from India, where true education spreads 1 10 SPEECH AT EXETER HALL. among the higher and middle classes of society, but does not descend to the masses; where pure literature, and science, history, and mathematics, float almost on the surface of society, and are hardly to be found amongst the poorest and lowest classes of the population, com- ing from that country, I must say that I am struck with astonishment at the amount of work which you have done for the education, enlightenment, and reformation of the poor. The stupendousness of the work of charity which this Ragged School Union has incessantly carried on for the last quarter of a century is indeed amazing. That more than 300,000 persons of the poorest class have been saved from ignorance and poverty; that there are 3,200 voluntary teachers, who are at present engaged in the work of educating the poor, and who have accepted that duty as a labour of love ; that more than 200 persons who formerly belonged to the poorest and most destitute class are now engaged in the honourable avocation of teaching persons who now belong to that class ; that there are scores of young accomplished ladies who are engaged day after day in the work of giving instruction to the helpless young children, very rude and rough, who surround them these are facts whose eloquence tells us, as no mere theory could tell us, that those who are engaged as teachers, or conductors, or supporters of these Ragged Schools, are really entitled to the gratitude of all those who SPEECH A T EXETER HALL. 1 1 1 have hearts to feel. My beloved friends, teachers, and conductors of Ragged Schools, persevere in the great and noble work in which you have embarked. Persevere " heart within and God overhead." Be not very anxious about the results of your work ; for in these matters, results cannot always be tangible and visible, but must be more negative than positive. If you are sure that you have prevented a large amount of crime, that you have saved many men belonging to the poorest and lowest class of the population, the very dregs of society, from leading criminal and immoral lives ; if you have reclaimed thousands of men from material and intellectual poverty ; if you have prevented hundreds of men from repeating the painful list of crimes recorded in the papers, whose exhibition by his lordship to this meet- ing cast a gloom over our hearts, if you have done all that, you have done enough to make your lives accept- able unto God. You have within you the smiles of con- science to cheer you ; you have around you, beloved teachers, the smiling faces of those little children who gather round you day after day, and look up to you fondly as if you were their parents smiling looks that cannot fail to comfort and cheer you. And, above all, there is the approbation of that Divine Being who super- intends all works of charity, and sustains everything that is truly benevolent and generous. Is He not always at hand to help you, and will He not abundantly reward 1 1 2 SPEECH A T EXETER HALL. you ? I hope and trust, my lord, that these humble words of an Indian friend to Ragged Schools will be acceptable. The CHAIRMAN : I am sure I may be allowed to express on behalf of all here assembled our gratitude to our Indian friend ; and for the welfare of India, God grant many such now, and for generations to come ! The meeting then sung the hymn, " From all that dwell below the skies," SPEECH AT THE ANNUAL SESSION OF THE CONGREGATIONAL UNION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. Tuesday, May 10, 1870. THE Business Meeting took place in the morning at Finsbury Chapel, and in the afternoon the mem- bers of the Union met for luncheon at the Cannon Street Hotel. The Rev. JOSHUA HARRISON, Chairman of the Union, presided. After the customary loyal toast and the National Anthem, The PRESIDENT said : We are favoured this afternoon with the presence of a guest whom I am sure you will all welcome, and from whom you will wish to hear a few words. (Applause.) In consequence of changes made within the last few years we may welcome him as a fellow- subject, though he comes from the other side of the world. Dr. Mullens, who is well acquainted with him, will introduce to you Baboo Keshub Chunder Sen, from India. (Applause.) Dr. MULLENS : Mr. Chairman and Christian brethren, the committee of the Congregational Union have invited my friend Mr. Sen, who has recently arrived from India, to dine with them to-day. They have done so for this reason. They are aware of the position which Mr. Sen u6 SPEECH AT THE occupies in the religious world of India, and they know also that he is one of those who are seeking to promote a great reform in the religious thought of the empire, and especially in the Presidency of Bengal, in which he was born. They are also aware that of late years great pro- gress 'has been made amongst the educated gentlemen of Bengal and other parts of India, and it is a matter of common report that the Baboo Keshub Chunder Sen, the leader of this new school of religious thought, has not only been a distinguished teacher in the city of Calcutta, but that he has visited the upper provinces of India, and the cities of Madras and Bombay, in order to promote the same great reform. I had the pleasure of knowing him in Calcutta. I have often seen the body of religionists of which he is the principal teacher, and I have attended their worship. In recent years the pro- motion of education in India, both secular and religious, has done a great deal to break down the belief in the old idols of Hinduism ; and it has been the lot of Mr. Sen, and those working with him, to gather round them as a nucleus a body of laymen, who have cast away the old idols, and with them some of the institutions that their fathers thought wise and right. They repudiate caste, and seek to have their women enlightened by education, and to abolish polygamy. They have taken up a Theistic position. Mr. Sen will speak of this matter presently; but we can regard him and his friends as practical CONGREGATIONAL UNION. 117 reformers of that great system of Hinduism which has now ruled over the thought and life of Hindostan and the Hindu population for something like 3,000 or 4,000 years. Mr. Sen has been distinguished among the Theists of Bengal for the thoroughness of his proceedings. There was a notable gentleman in Calcutta, Baboo Debendro Nath Tagore, who was the leader of this school ; but he, although a most excellent man, and one whom Christian missionaries who knew him have always regarded for his personal character with very great respect, was in our judgment far too ready to compromise his views because of the customs that prevailed around him ; and the con- sequence was, Theist as he professed to be in recent years, he submitted far too closely to the institutions of caste. Mr. Sen, a few years ago, when he came to the front of the Theistic school as one of their most eloquent teachers, discerned the inconsistency of that position, and he said " If we are true Theists, and recognise all men as of one blood, we cannot compromise ourselves with caste ;" and the consequence was, he led a secession from the original school. He is thus the leader of the reformed school amongst the Theistic religionists of India. Now, I am sure that the descendants of the Puritans will give such a man a welcome to-day. (Loud applause.) If ou? Puritan fathers were esteemed and beloved for anything it was for their thorough principle. They were prepared to give up everything for principle; they admitted no u8 SPEECH AT THE compromises, and the consequence was they went for- ward to imprisonment, to chains, and even to death. Such a man as Mr. Sen may be assured on the part of the Congregationalists of England of the most hearty sympathy. Let any man submit himself to a teaching which he believes to be sound and right, and follow his conscience to the last degree, and, whatever be the con- sequence, amongst us at least he will always be honoured for the thoroughness of his principles. (Applause.) BABOO KESHUB CHUNDER SEN, who on rising was greeted with great applause, said : Mr. Chairman and friends, I thank you heartily for the kind words that have just been said about myself and the great movement in which I have been humbly engaged for the last twelve years. I am glad to say that wherever I go I carry with me the wishes of all liberal-minded Christians. They all sympathize with me, and say God-speed ; they all sym- pathize with me in the great Theistic movement which has been carried on in India, and on which I believe the future welfare of my country depends. You have asked me to say a few words about this movement ; I gladly respond to your call. I have always felt that the Brahmo Somaj, or the Reformed National Church of India, to which I belong, is God's work in the fulness of time. It is a great thing to emancipate a large number of human beings from the thraldom of idolatry and caste, and it is just that work in which we are engaged. Those who CONGREGATIONAL UNION. 119 have never been in India will hardly be able to realize the stupendous difficulties which lie in our way. They know that the work is great, but they are not alive to the amount of difficulty which is to be overcome, and the amount of opposition and persecution which has to be met. Many of my young friends have oftentimes been excommunicated by their caste people, and driven away from their homes j some have been asked to leave their wives, and children, and parents, their brothers and sisters, and all who are dear and near to them; many have been deprived of their means of livelihood ; some have been obliged to leave those villages in which they were born ; and all this has been submitted to for the sake of truth and God. (Applause.) They felt that it was their duty to themselves, to their country, and to their God, to glorify Him and magnify truth in the face of the direst persecution and opposition. Hundreds of their antagonists gathered round them, and, by per- suasion and entreaty on the one hand, and threatening on the other, tried to drive them back, as it were, into Hinduism ; but their conscientious convictions stood firm, and through prayer and with the strength of God they eventually succeeded in overcoming opposition, and now they stand before the whole world, a small band of faithful, earnest, and honest men ; and I hope wherever their names are mentioned, wherever their movement is known, they will have the best prayers and the best izo SPEECH AT THE wishes of all who are interested in the welfare of mankind. (Applause.) We are engaged in a great work, and every day and every hour of our life we feel that we are not equal to the task, and unless we have the Almighty on our side we shall fail, most decidedly fail to rescue the millions of our countrymen from idolatry. But oh, it is a grand work, and if all that is near and dear to us be taken away from us, and we are deprived of all the blessings of life, if all manner of destitution and want were to stare us in the face, yet if we could thereby glorify God and save our countrymen, we would think it a work worth dying for. (Loud applause.) Great sacrifices must be gone through, whether in India or in England, if you want to magnify truth ; you must sacrifice riches, and fame, and the pleasures of your life. I am glad that though we differ in matters of opinion on some points, yet still there is a common platform on which we all stand. It has been said, and I heard it remarked just now, that I have fallen into the hands of the Unitarians in England. This is not the case. I have been endeavouring to fraternize with all Christian sects and denominations, and I say most emphatically and frankly that it is my hearty and sincere desire to accept truth wherever I find it. (Ap- lause.) If there is anything grand, or ennobling, or puri- fying in the Nonconformist movement in England, I hope you will not find me slow to accept it. (Applause.) I know that you have set examples of strict conscientious- CONGREGATIONAL UNION. 121. ness ; you have shown that you are ready to rely upon yourselves and upon your independent exertions for the maintenance of your Church and for the propagation of your views. With that spirit of independence and liberty I fully sympathise, and I hope and trust that the time will come when we shall no longer have to depend upon Government aid. (Applause.) I hope the time is coming when every individual will have to depend upon himself, and will live in the way consistent with the dictates of conscience, and will discharge his duties, placing his own Maker before him as his only guide and his only friend. If God is with us, we need not look to man for aid. Organized co-operation is certainly a great instrument of success, but in all these matters we have mainly and principally to look to God for His aid and assistance, for we find that the best earthly resources are as nothing compared with the gigantic work which lies before us. Therefore I say, depend upon God, and wherever you go truth will prevail. If there are differences of opinion, let us discuss them with candour, dispassionately and calmly. (Applause.) We maybe wedded to our own doctrines we are apt to think that beyond the pales of our own denomination there is no truth \ and oftentimes people, under the impulses of their weak nature, begin to feel that all truth is monopolized by their own sects ; but I believe that, in spite of our natural partiality, in spite of our fondness for our own denominations, there is still a 122 SPEECH AT THE large, broad ground of truth outside, and that in some matters, if not in all, we may associate with others who do not belong to our denomination. (Applause.) I am glad that there are liberal-minded Christians, not only here, but in India, who thus associate with us and extend to us the hand of fellowship. I thank them for their good wishes and their warm prayers, and I hope and trust that as time rolls on, sects and denominations will harmonize with each other, and instead of looking at points of difference, will try to stand upon a common platform, when all sects into which Christ's Church has been divided will form one universal brotherhood, and when men in all countries, and members of all races and communities will see that God is their Father, and that they are bound for the sake of conscience, and for the sake of their own welfare and the welfare of mankind, to fraternize. We shall then realize the great truth that there is but one true Church as there is only one true God. As it is impossible to believe, recognise, or wor- ship two Gods, so it is impossible for us to believe any two churches or sects to be both true, both infallible. There can be but one true God and one true Church. Let us, therefore, promote free discussion and free in- quiry ; let us spread education amongst the upper classes, the middle classes, and the poorer classes of mankind ; let us scatter the blessings of a liberal, useful education, both general and technical, far and wide. It is educa- CONGREGATIONAL UNION. 123 tion that has revolutionized all India throughout its length and breadth, and caused a sort of social, moral, and spiritual fermentation all over that vast peninsula, and I hope, therefore, that wherever there is a liberal, true, useful education, there will be a similar revolution effected, and as soon as men's old systems get exploded, as soon as their old faith is unsettled, as soon as the influence of education reaches the heart, all nations will, under the guidance of God, begin to feel a hungering and thirsting after the true light unto salvation, and in the fulness of time in every country you will find the true Church coming on. In India we are hopefully looking forward to the time when a grand national organization will be effected amongst the 180,000,000 of the popu- lation, when all distinctions of caste will be destroyed, and the Church of the One Supreme Lord established throughout the length and breadth of the country. Then I hope and trust England and India will look upon each other with cordial affection and mutual confidence and with true spiritual tenderness j then there will be no more bickerings, as unfortunately we see nowadays be- tween members of the ruling race and the subject popu- lation ; the European residents will not look down upon the natives, as is unfortunately the case too often, nor will the natives become disloyal and hostile to the mem- bers of the ruling race, as is also unfortunately the case too often ; but the people will understand their rulers 124 SPEECH. and the rulers will understand their people; the rulers will know that India is not a country to be trifled with, but that the destiny of so many millions of human beings constitutes a stupendous trust reposed by God Himself in the hands of the British nation (loud applause) and the people of India will come to find that God sent the British nation to help them, and that if they prove faith- ful and loyal, they will receive from the hand of the British rulers all those great blessings which they are designed by Providence to confer on them. Thus will all misunderstanding be removed, and there will be good feeling and fraternal intercourse established between Englishmen and the population of India. I have made these few rambling remarks in compliance with your kind request, and I hope and trust you will accept them in the spirit in which they are offered. (Long continued applause.) The company then separated. SPEECH AT THE EAST INDIA ASSOCIATION, Friday, May 13, 1870. FEMALE EDUCATION IN INDIA. A CROWDED meeting, called by the Council of the ** East India Association, was held on May i3th at the Society of Arts, to hear an address by Miss MARY CARPENTER on her work for the promotion of female education in India. C. WREN HOSKYNS, Esq., M.P., was in the chair. In her address, Miss Carpenter referred to her three journeys to India, taken with the object of showing sympathy with, and learning the wants of, female education in India. Acknowledging that the British Government desired to do all it could for the welfare of India, she pointed out that there was also wanting sym- pathy springing from an individual and mutual knowledge of each other's social habits and manners. Her object had not been to found institutions, but to learn what could be done to help native gentlemen in the great work which until recently they could not promote, but upon which they were now disposed earnestly to enter. There was no want of knowledge of our language in India, but one great obstacle to the improvement of female education was the want of female teachers. She determined from the first to avoid any interference with 1 2 8 FEMALE ED UCA TION IN INDIA . the social customs or religious belief of the natives ; and her reception by the native gentlemen was most gratify- ing. At present girls were taken from school at eleven years of age, partly because it was not considered proper for them to remain under male teachers after that age, and this was naturally a great drawback. The young men of India could come to England and get a high-class education, but no such advantage was enjoyed by the female population. Having referred to several native gentlemen who had suffered religious persecution for their efforts to emancipate their ladies from the social customs of India, Miss Carpenter detailed the mode which she adopted to bring about an improved system of instruction by native female teachers, and the valuable assistance which had been rendered by English ladies. In conclusion, she pointed out the necessity of Govern- ment finding some respectable house of lodgment for English female teachers going to India, such provision not being made at present. She had money for pre- sent use, and did not fear any failure on that head. What was chiefly wanted was Government recognition of female teachers as essential, and Government aid to female as well as to male schools in India. (Cheers.) In the course of Miss Carpenter's address, after review- ing the state of female education in the Bombay and Madras Presidencies, she gave the following account of her observations in Calcutta : In Calcutta the benevo- FEMALE EDUCA TION IN INDIA. 1 29 lent Mr. Bethune, in order to promote female education among the higher classes of Hindus, erected for it a mag- nificent building ; and he himself supported the school during his life. Dr. Duff also established a large Girls' School, and his name is held in the highest reverence in Calcutta by all, whether English or natives, and many owe their whole education to his exertions ; he was the first who originally induced the missionaries to pay their chief attention to schools as the means of improving the natives. I regret to say that I saw in Calcutta extremely little eifort for female education among the natives ; in fact, I am not aware of any school (at any rate, of im- portance) established by the natives themselves in Cal- cutta. The Government has been in the habit of helping them to the utmost. We sometimes find that too much fostering rather slackens personal effort ; and I think this is the case in Calcutta. In another respect, however, this Presidency is much in advance of the other parts of the country; here the Rajah Ram Mohun Roy, who visited England, was the leader in India of pure Theistic worship more than forty years ago. He first broke the bonds of superstition ; he was persecuted by his family, and exiled from his home ; but he succeeded in establish- ing the worship of the One True God in Calcutta, where he founded and endowed a place of worship for the One True God. He came to England, where he died, to our great regret. What he did was not completely lost, K 1 30 FEMALE EDUCATION IN INDIA. though for some time it did not appear as if much im- pression had been made. After a time, however, the movement was revived. I need not enter into any account of it, because the gentleman is present who may be regarded as the head of it, Baboo Keshub Chunder Sen. I found continually throughout my journey that the native gentlemen who were advanced in their religious opinions, who dared to throw off the shackles of idolatry and openly to renounce it, were those who were most ready to treat their wives as equals, and bring them for- ward in all respects as far as the customs of society per- mitted. In Calcutta, then, among the Brahmos and Theists, I found an advance in many respects beyond what I had seen in other parts of the country. MR. DADABHAI NAOROJI (Honorary Secretary of the East India Association) spoke at some length in com- plimentary terms of the good influence which Miss Carpenter had exercised on India. The CHAIRMAN said he knew he should only be anti- cipating the feeling of every one present in offering the best thanks of the meeting to Miss Carpenter for the information she had given. He had much pleasure in introducing to the meeting Baboo Keshub Chunder Sen, a gentleman who had unbound one of the tightest of all the chains that bind mankind, the chains of local and national prejudice : and who, he was sure, would not have laboured in vain in assisting towards that great FEMALE ED UCA TION IN INDIA . 131 union which all Christians and all those who worship the One True God must wish to see spread upon the earth. BABOO KESHUB CHUNDER SEN said it gave him great pleasure to be able to bear his humble testimony in England, as he had done more than once in India, to the noble work which Miss Carpenter had done for the promotion of female education in India. The warm and philanthropic interest she had evinced in that work, the readiness with which she had risked her life and health and exposed herself to many inconveniences and hard- ships, entitled her not only to the lasting gratitude of the Indian nation, but to the sympathy and respect of all in England who appreciate useful work. When the first important public female school worthy the name was established by the late Mr. Bethune in the metropolis of India, during the administration of the late Lord Dal- housie, it evoked a feeling of discontent throughout the country, and excited great opposition and bitterness ; but in spite of a large number of conservative and orthodox men saying, " Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther," the advancing waves of progress went on till at last, not only in the large cities and presidency towns, but even in the small provincial towns and villages, school after school rose up, and, in the course of a few years, not only were there scores, but hundreds of little girls coming day after day in order to receive instruction in vernacular litera- ture, in arithmetic, and in writing. In carrying out the 1 3 2 FEMALE ED UCA TION IN INDIA . work of female education great impediments, some of them of an almost insuperable character, had to be over- come, and many defects had to be rectified. In a country where little girls become mothers when they would hardly be supposed in civilized countries to have attained the marriageable age, and where they became grandmothers when perhaps they ought to think of marrying ; girls could receive education only for three or four years at most in a public school, their education stopping at a time when it ought to begin. This custom of premature marriage was pernicious, not only physically, but intellectually and morally considered ; for the work of education was arrested when little girls, having become mothers, began to talk with ridiculous gravity of the duties they owed to their children. It was, therefore, absolutely necessary to supply the deficiencies of the work of education of the native girls with zenana instruc- tion. As soon as that want was felt, many kind-hearted ladies both in India and in England took up the matter with an amount of earnestness which was very creditable to them. They combined in order to get funds, and sent out trained governesses to visit native ladies in their own houses. Zenana instruction was indispensably neces- sary for the real welfare of the country so long as the system of seclusion prevailed, which he felt would prevail for a considerable length of time. Another want which was deeply felt was the want of female teachers, and just FEMALE EDUCA TION IN INDIA. 133 at the time when that want was beginning to be felt, Miss Carpenter arrived in India. Her advent was cor- dially and enthusiastically hailed by those who were directing their efforts towards the improvement of the education of females in India. They knew she would help them, and she did help them, she saw the want with her own eyes. At once she saw that without a large number of well-trained native female teachers it was im- possible to make female schools really useful. She, therefore, represented the matter to several distinguished native gentlemen in Calcutta, in Bombay, and in Madras. Many, of course, did not show their appreciation of the usefulness of the scheme. They were backward in the matter ; a few, however, stepped forward manfully and assured her of their warm interest in the scheme, and their readiness to do all in their power to help her. She was then obliged to lay the matter before the Govern- ment. Unfortunately the Government also had serious misgivings as to the feasibility of the scheme, not that they were unwilling to educate native women, but they felt that it might interfere with the prejudices, and shock the feelings of the native population if they went too far in such a delicate matter ; and it was not till instructions were sent out by the Secretary of State for India, that the Government began to be really in earnest about it. It was then that the Government sanctioned a liberal grant for the purpose of establishing and supporting normal 134- FEMALE EDUCATION IN INDIA. female schools in each of the presidency towns. In Bengal hardly anything had yet been done towards the establishment of those normal schools. As Miss Car penter had already very justly said, Bombay was far ahead of Bengal in the matter of female education. He had visited some of the best schools in Bengal and Bom- bay, and he could say from his own experience that there was a larger number of girls receiving public education in Bombay than in Bengal ; but while Bengal did not come up to Bombay as far as regarded extent of education, Ben- gal was not behind Bombay in the matter of solidity and depth. Already several books had been published by native ladies of Bengal of a really valuable character; among others a drama, a beautiful story, and some charming verses on the beauties and sublimities of crea- tion. A periodical was also published in Bengal, to which Bengalee ladies very often sent most charming contributions, mostly verses, which native ladies took great delight in composing. Some of the best Theistic hymns were from the pens of Brahmo ladies. This showed that native ladies were not slow to learn. The Government having come forward with a liberal grant, it was the duty of the natives of India to co-operate with the Government in a friendly and harmonious manner, in order to give effect to the noble scheme which Miss Carpenter had suggested, and which, through the instru- mentality of Government, had been realized at least in FEMALE EDUCATION IN INDIA. 135 one of the presidency towns. If full effect could be given to that project; if a sufficient number of schools could be brought into existence, not only in the presi- dency towns, but in the chief provincial cities in the North-West and in the Punjab, India would be supplied with that which it most wanted at the present time. He hoped and trusted that those English ladies who were present, would well weigh all that had been said by Miss Carpenter, and that they would all be stimulated by her example. He fully agreed with Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji that we must not too sanguinely look forward to actual and visible and tangible results, but we must look beneath the surface, in order to see whether or not Miss Carpenter's visit to India had produced a lasting impression on the native public mind, and on the minds of all those who were really interested in the work of female education in India. A brief discussion followed, and Mr. Sen suggested the formation of a society in England for the promotion of female education in India. This idea was warmly supported by Miss Carpenter. Mr. Davis, of the Reli- gious Tract Society, observed that societies already ex- isted for that object, to which Mr. Sen rejoined that they were of a sectarian character, and that what was wanted was secular instruction, apart from the doctrines of the Protestant, Roman Catholic, or any other creed. This sentiment seemed to meet with the general approval of the audience, among whom were two native ladies. SERMONS ON SUNDAY, MAY 15, 1870. BABOO KESHUB CHUNDER SEN IN THE EAST END OF LONDON. On Sunday last the Baboo preached to large and crowded congregations in the Artillery Hall, Stratford, and Beaumont Hall, Mile End. He wished to have the poorest men of London, but excepting a few of the poor working population, we fear it was a different class which filled those halls. SPEECH AT FINSBURY CHAPEL AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE PEACE SOCIETY, Tuesday, May 17, 1870. J. W. PEASE, ESQ., M.P., IN THE CHAIR. THE first resolution was as follows : " That this meeting rejoices to know that a strong conviction of the folly, iniquity, and unchristian character is our sole Master, and He shall occupy the whole worship of our life ; His holy jurisdiction shall be established throughout the length and breadth of human existence, and whatsoever He says shall be done ; to Him shall the heart, and the soul, and the will be consecrated; they shall not devote themselves to the 558 THE DIVINE UNITY. service of Mammon. All our love and our aspirations, our reverence and gratitude shall belong to Him. We see that there is a tendency in man to be altogether too intellectual, too devotional, or too practical; the unity of religious life has yet to be realized. True Unitarians ought to show in their own lives what unity of life means. When passions lead us violently and irresis- tibly one way, and a sense of duty pulls us another way ; when Heaven attracts us one day, and darkness and untruth, the world and all that is corrupt and evil, attract us the next; when Sunday is the day of God, and Monday the day of evil ; when mornings are spent in the worship of God, and evenings in the worship of Bac- chus ; when thoughts are pure, and actions are unright- eous ; when the heart gives place to God, but the mind is wedded to untruth ; when the outward eyes see the glory of God in creation, but the inward eyes are blinded through infatuation and prejudice, and obstinacy in the cause of untruth and error ; when the hands serve God, but the soul does not know what the warmth of devotion means ; when the mind believes in truth, but the heart is not expanded with charity; when God the Father is wor- shipped as the Father of all nations, but the heart does not recognise the doctrine of human brotherhood, then we say there is chaos, and confusion, and discord in the families of men ; there is no peace, there is no united life. We must preserve and exhibit what true spiritual THE DIVINE UNITY. 559 unity means ; the central power must be God, and from Him must we derive encouragement and strength, holi- ness and purity. We are too apt to cut our lives off, and give only a fragment to God ; but the Divine Master will not rest satisfied with anything short of the whole life ; we must give our lives entirely to God ; there must be harmony and purity in all our actions every hour of our lives, every minute of the hour. Every action we do, every thought and word, must be acceptable unto the Lord : that is what I mean by the unity of spiritual life. All the feelings and aspirations as willing servants stand before the Throne of God, and praise Him and magnify His name day after day, and month after month ; every place is God's Temple, every word of truth is God's Holy Scripture, every man that speaketh truth and gives counsel of peace and purity is a master and a brother, who deserves to be respected, and esteemed, and loved. Every part of creation where God's voice is heard must attract us by its holy attrac- tion ; everywhere we shall feel is a fit place to worship the Lord, with whom communion is possible at all times of the day, in all places, and in all circumstances of life. In Unitarianism we discover, then, these grand unities the Unity of God as the Creator and Saviour of us all ; the Unity of God's Church embracing all mankind as one vast brotherhood, one vast sisterhood, gathering together all that is true and good, and noble and holy, S 6o THE DIVINE UNITY. in the books of nations and the lives of individuals then, thirdly, there is the unity of religious life, which means salvation and sanctification, when the whole life is placed in a state of communion with God, when every man is able to say, " My will is in unison with God's will ; " when every man can say conscientiously and prayerfully, " I and the Father are one ; " it is not my spirit warring with God's spirit, nor my spirit seeking heaven apart from God, but my will entering into communion, deep and mysterious, with God's will. Such is the true service of God higher than this, purer than this, nothing exists on earth ; nothing can attract our aspirations or draw forth our energies so well as this, and to this, then, let all nations look up the union of our will with God's will. " Not my will, but Thy will be done," as Christ Jesus meekly said, and let us all say unto God every day of our lives, " Not my will, but Thine be done ;" then that deep communion between the Divine and the human, between God's Holy Spirit and man's obedient spirit, will bring unto us all spiritual blessings which we stand in need of. Do you want a knowledge of sal- vation? Go to the pure channels of sacred communion with God j from those channels, from the fountain-head of God's wisdom, shall come streams of regenerating truth. Art thou feeble, oh brother; weak, heavy-laden with iniquity? Dost thou say thou hast not strength enough to resist temptation, or the inclinations to false- THE DIVINE UNITY. 561 hood and deceit ? Then enter the temple of the Lord, sit at His feet for hours together if need be, and then you will see the Almighty encompassing and surrounding the feeble form and soul of man, and, in the strength of the Omnipotent, the wicked sinner, reformed and purified, rising in order to exalt His majesty and honour the Saviour of all sinners. Is it joy that you stand in need of? Are you all-oppressed with cares and anxieties ? Do you say the world has promised joy, but has given sorrow and heaviness of heart ? Where shall you go ? Go to the abode of all happiness, the mansions of gladness and joy, where there is no weeping, no heaviness of heart, no suffering ; the Lord is full of happiness, He Himself is the abode of joy, He will give you that joy and happiness which men could never have given you. These truths which I have placed before you this morning are simple truths ; you have heard them times beyond number ; there is nothing like originality in the communication I have made to you, but still these truths, may I say? receive special force and special interest because they come to you from, one who belongs to a distant country and a distant nationality, and who has seen with his own eyes of faith every one of these truths tried and confirmed by his own individual and personal experience. When I was in the midst of idolatry and superstition, and there was none on earth to help me, o o 562 THE DIVINE UNITY. who came to my assistance ? My heart says, my God. When no book brought me comfort, no human hands came to my rescue, the Lord of Love and Mercy vouch- safed unto me most invigorating and encouraging help ; in His strength I rose, I endeavoured to overcome temptations, and the Lord granted unto me success. In my own life I saw the fruits of His care, and I could not continue a sceptic. Could I receive the assurance of God's love, the promises which He distinctly and unmis- takably made unto me of my salvation, and the salvation of millions of my countrymen and countrywomen in India, in any other spirit than the spirit of faith and prayerful resignation ? Could I say unto my God, " I shall not have Thee, for Thou hast not heard me ; when I came unto Thee with prayer and asked Thee to help me, Thou didst not do it?" No, never shall this mouth utter language of infidelity such as this, for I have seen in my own life that the Lord has heard me, and every prayer I uttered in a spirit of humility and faith has been accepted by my Father and your Father, and I am bound to tell all men and women in different parts of the world what the Lord has revealed unto me. It is not books, it is not doctrines, it is not men that have brought me into the path of salvation ; no, but the spirit of God working in my heart. Oh! what a contrast between the light streaming into my heart at the present moment and the impenetrable, horrid darkness, the deep THE DIVINE UNITY. 563 spiritual gloom, the death-like dreariness and desolation that existed in my heart before it pleased Providence to reveal Himself unto me ! I was in the land of death, if I may so say, in the midst of spiritual gloom sin, idolatry, and superstition aiming at the vitals of my heart, but now my Lord has told me that He will save me, and I cannot but offer Him my deepest and most fervent praises. He is my only King, my only Master, my only Saviour ; I cannot be satisfied with calling Him King and Master only, I must say that " He is my refuge and my fortress ; my God ; in Him will I trust." Not in books, not in men, but in the Lord ; for the Lord has brought unto me comfort and peace. He is the abode of happiness, as I have told you. Men cannot make me happy, but when I fall at the feet of my God, His rays of happiness, like the rays of the meridian sun, shine forth upon the dark chambers of my heart, and where before there was darkness, now I see the light the light not of doctrines, the light not of men, but the light of God's face. When I am heavy-laden with iniquity, God is serene, joyful, and merciful; His face shines upon my heart like gentle moonbeams, and then my sorrow is gone, there is no longer heaviness of heart. What I have seen in my heart I have this morning preached to you ; from all the Unitarian pulpits that were kindly placed at my disposal Sunday after Sunday during my sojourn in this country, I have preached these great 564 THE DIVINE UNITY. truths for greater truths or more precious truths have I none. Greater truth than this I do not possess that God is Love; the sweetness of God's love conquers man's hideous sinfulness and wickedness. I am a great sinner, but my God's mercy is greater than the multitude of my sins. His love is more powerful than the power of evil working in the midst of my heart, and if men and women are to be saved and nations are to be regene- rated, I am sure, and most confidently do I say it, that they will not be saved by a multitude of dead doctrines, not by the letter that killeth, but by the simple truth that God is Love. There is a beautiful passage in the Hindu Scripture which says, " Who can attain God, except he who says, 'He is ? '" That is my Bible, my creed ; my hope of Heaven resteth on that. Firm as a rock is this truth, simple yet strong my God is, and when in India I preached unto men, and in England preached unto you, in seasons of prosperity and adversity, in the times of gladness and sorrow, He has always revealed Himself unto me as the Indwelling Spirit, the Omni- scient God "He is;" without irreverence I may say, He is not dead but liveth. God is an ocean of truth ; an ocean of living and saving truth lies in those two sacred and significant words, "God is." If my Father is, I have hope of salvation ; if He is here, He sees what we are doing and hears what we are saying ; there is His eye that follows us wherever we go, there is His ear THE DIVINE UNITY. 565 which hears whatsoever we say ; His ruling spirit fills this church and fills our hearts ; we are enlightened, we are quickened by the very thought of God's sacred presence. Then rise, brethren, rise to vindicate the doctrine of God's unity rise to worship him as your only Saviour, your only Master. One friend only have we in this world, Him shall we love, to Him shall we give our hearts the Lord of Creation. One Heaven alone waiteth for us in the world to come, not made of human hands, but God Himself, I say, is our Heaven. What else do we need ? Not riches, not friends, not books, when we have the splendour of God. As the psalmist said in days gone by, "One thing shall I seek." And what is that? "To behold the face of the Lord." Is not that charming, is not that a compensation for all our woes and sufferings in this world ? To that I look for- ward most hopefully, that I may dwell with my God, in my God, for and unto my God. I have served you, my beloved brethren, feebly and humbly, with my humble and limited powers and abili- ties, but I can assure you that I came to this country because God wanted me. He commanded me to come here, and I have said here to you what I thought it was my duty to say unto you. The Lord brought me here ; I know nothing else j I know this only, that whatsoever I have said in the name of God, and in the spirit of God, that shall bear fruit. Accept my service, and when I say 566 THE DIVINE UNITY. this, I say I shall thankfully remember abroad the kind- ness which I have experienced during my brief stay in this country. You, my Unitarian friends, have always been very kind to me, and this I shall always remember with heartfelt gratitude. England is my home, India is my home j wherever I see brethren and sisters around me, there I feel and there I must say, "This is my home." If my Father is here, and if my brothers and sisters are here, what else is needed to constitute a home? The love of brethren is sweet ; my heartfelt gratitude belongs to you ; from the depths of my heart I thank you. In the evening Mr. Sen preached a very interesting practical sermon at Effra-Road Chapel, Brixton, on " Incorporating the Spirit of Christ in the Heart and the Life." The chapel was filled to its utmost capacity, and, as at Islington in the morning, numbers were unable to obtain admission. SPEECH AT THE INAUGURATION OF THE BRISTOL INDIAN ASSOCIATION, Friday, September 9, 1870. Indian Association, planned during Mr. Sen's -*- June visit to Bristol, having taken definite shape, he went again to Bristol in order to be 'present at its inauguration, which took place on the Qth of September, 1870, at a public meeting at the British Institution, Park Street. Mr. H. THOMAS expressed the regret of the meeting that the Mayor, who had kindly consented to preside, was unable to be present. He, therefore, proposed that Mr. W. Terrell take the chair. The motion having been adopted, The CHAIRMAN read letters from the Mayor (who had been compelled to go to London that morning), Mr. Morley, M.P., Mr. K. D. Hodgson, M.P., Sir Bartle Frere, and Mr. Commissioner Hill, all of whom ex- pressed sympathy with the objects of the association ; and he stated that he had also received letters from the High Sheriff, Dr. Budd, Rev. S. Hebditch, Dr. Goodeve, and the Rev. J. W. Caldicott. He next alluded to the noble exertions of Miss Carpenter in the promotion of education in India, and said that it was partly through 570 SPEECH AT THE her efforts that such gentlemen as Mr. Sen had come to England, to tell us of the wants of India and our own shortcomings in respect to it. The Chairman then read the following remarks, which had been written by Miss Carpenter, and also the subjoined "objects" of the Indian Association : " Great Britain and India, though under the same government, have not had hitherto much sympathy with or knowledge of each other. This has necessarily arisen from the difference of races, religion, climate, and social customs, which has prevented them from comprehending the modes of thought and princi- ples of action of each other. Thus the English in India, and the Hindus in England, seldom become really acquainted with each other. The English would gladly help the Hindus, but few know how to do so, except those who devote themselves to missionary effort. The existing condition of India prevents the formation in that country of a healthy public opinion, which is in England the mainspring of public action the support and stimulus of voluntary effort. To extend a know- ledge of India in our own country, to create here a healthy public opinion in her favour, and to stimulate such voluntary effort in her service as may enable the inhabitants of Great Britain to assist in the enlighten- ment and improvement of our Hindu fellow-subjects aiding them in such way as they may themselves desire, and working on the government principle of non- BRISTOL INDIAN A SSOCIA TION. 5 7 1 interference with their religious and social customs, is the object of this association. The members of Parlia- ment for Bristol, and several of our citizens, have already signified their desire to co-operate. Members have joined from various parts of England, and a branch association,. with a ladies' committee, has been established in Edinburgh. The Right Hon. Sir Bartle Frere, late Governor of Bombay Presidency, and now member of the Indian Council, has signified his full sympathy with the movement. His approbation is particularly valuable, while his long official residence in India, and his known sympathy with the natives, render him especially quali- fied to judge of their wants. The association may therefore be considered as already established, and the provisional committee have waited only for a fitting opportunity of bringing it before the public. The visit of Baboo Keshub Chunder Sen to this country has in- spired multitudes in every part of the kingdom, not only with sympathy and admiration for himself, but also with respect for the courageous and dignified manner in which he has acknowledged with gratitude what England has done for India, but told her solemnly of her duties to that vast country confided to her guardianship. A desire to help India has thus been awakened in this country, which should not be allowed to subside without being called into action. This Indian Association should be a national one, but the approaching departure of our 572 SPEECH AT THE distinguished visitor renders immediate action necessary. Bristol will rejoice to send through him to India the announcement of the establishment of this association, as the first-fruits of his visit amongst us. We deem it a good augury of our future success that he should be our first honorary member and native correspondent. We request that he will now favour us by informing us of what he desires that we should now do for him and for India." INDIAN ASSOCIATION. OBJECTS OF THE ASSOCIATION.* To promote by voluntary effort the enlightenment and improvement of our Hindu fellow-subjects. To extend a knowledge of India, and interest in her throughout our country. To co-operate with enlightened natives of India in their efforts for the improvement of their countrymen. To obtain parliamentary action where necessary. N.B. In all the proceedings of the Association, the Government principle of non-interference in religious and social customs is to be strictly maintained. * This programme is given here in its finally revised form, which slightly differs (in a few points) from that which was read at the inaugurating meeting. ED. BRISTOL INDIAN ASSOCIATION. 573 ORGANIZATION OF THE ASSOCIATION. An annual subscription of ten shillings and upwards to constitute membership. A general committee of gentlemen and ladies, to conduct the affairs of the Association, and to summon meetings. BUSINESS OF THE GENERAL COMMITTEE. I. To obtain information respecting the wants of India, and the means by which these may be supplied. The particular wants now to be mentioned are i st. The education of the masses of the people. 2nd. The education and improvement of women. 3rd. Sanitary improvements. 4th. The improvement of prison discipline and the establishment of juvenile reformatories. II. To promote friendly intercourse with native gen- tlemen now in England, and to introduce them to a knowledge of such institutions in our country as may benefit theirs. Also, to show kind attentions to young natives of India who are in Great Britain for education. N.B. Natives of India resident in this country may be elected honorary members. English and native gentlemen and ladies resident in India will be invited to become correspondents. 574 SPEECH AT THE BABOO KESHUB CHUNDER SEN confidently believed that the society which they were inaugurating that even- ing would live to carry out successfully the objects which it professed to have. Since his first visit to that place he had been travelling about the country, and had seen many of their great cities and important towns. Kind- ness and sympathy he had experienced everywhere, and he had the best reason to believe that there was amongst the English public a wide-spread interest in Indian affairs ; but it had struck him that all the excitement might subside in the course of time. Such apprehen- sions and fears were quite natural, and he was sure that many of his countrymen in India had such fears. He was, however, sorry the English press in India had tried and perhaps successfully to foster and encourage such apprehensions. In speaking of the reception which he had had in this country, some of their countrymen in India seemed to think and they had said so in the local papers that it was all a nine days' wonder. They had seemed to say that the people of England had deceived him with false promises, an(J that they were not at all anxious or earnest in the matter that all the speeches and addresses with which he had been deluged during his sojourn in this country would end in nothing. He confessed he was inclined to be more charitable to them than his countrymen in India seemed to be. He had a better opinion of the English public, and from BRISTOL INDIAN A SSOCIA TION. 5 7 5 what he had seen with his own eyes he could not but honestly and sincerely believe that good would come out of all this excitement, that it would not prove to be the agitation and excitement of the hour. The establish- ment of the Bristol Indian Association belied the fears and apprehensions which many of his countrymen had been cherishing. That was one of the most conclusive proofs that they could possibly have of the genuine and abiding interest of England in the prosperity and welfare of his country. He now felt as he never felt before, that they were determined to do something practical that they were anxious to put their sympathy and interest into some definite and lasting form. He was glad that Bristol had taken the initiative in the matter. Every city had shown kindness and sympathy, but it was reserved for Bristol to do something practical in the matter. The most important thing that India wanted at the present moment was education, which he looked upon as the grand remedy for all the evils from which his country suffered at the present moment. He spoke of the necessity of providing education for the masses of the people by the establishment of small elementary vernacular schools all over the country. They eould not do in India without English education ; but if they wished to educate the people, they must educate them through the vernaculars of the country. He also urged upon them the necessity of adopting measures for the 576 SPEECH AT THE purpose of giving instruction in those things which would enable the poor people to receive the light of literature and science, and at the same time make them proficient in industrial occupations. Referring to the education of the women of India, he asked that the Government should attach the same amount of importance to it as it did to male education, and that the women should receive an unsectarian liberal education. He was strongly of opinion that normal training schools the favourite idea of Miss Carpenter were just what were wanted in the country. He alluded to the question of the sup- pression of the liquor traffic, and said that hundreds of educated and intelligent young men were dying in India year after year as victims of intemperance. He sug- gested the exercise of personal influence and the action of the Government with a view to the suppression of the liquor traffic. Another object which the association would have in view would be the improvement of prison discipline and the establishment of juvenile reformatories ; and, in concluding his speech, he advocated the promo- tion of good feeling between the rulers and the ruled, and the establishment of a healthy public opinion in India. The Rev. J. EARLE moved a resolution that the meeting rejoiced in the establishment of the association, and believed that if it was carried out in the spirit of the scheme proposed, it would be productive of great benefit to India. BRISTOL INDIAN ASSOCIATION. 577 Mr. HERBERT THOMAS, in seconding the resolution, expressed a hope that Mr. Sen would live many years to see the good fruit of his labours. The resolution was adopted. After some criticisms had been made and replied to, Mr. F. TAGART moved the next resolution, that the meeting especially sympathized in all efforts for the education of the masses of the people in India, and for the education and improvement of the women of India. Mr. GAWLER seconded the resolution, and it was carried. Miss MARY CARPENTER moved the next resolution, that the meeting offered the expression of its warm sympathy to Baboo Keshub Chunder Sen, in his efforts for the improvement of India, and tendered to him its best wishes for the success of his labours. Miss Car- penter was truly thankful that Mr. Sen had come to this' country, and she was sure he would carry back to India assurances of the true sympathy which he had seen evinced here : this alone would produce a great effect in his native land. Mr. C. J. THOMAS seconded the resolution, which was carried by acclamation. Mr. SEN returned thanks for the resolution ; and a vote of thanks to the Chairman terminated the proceedings. p P 578 SPEECH AT 7 HE A permanent Committee of the Indian Association was formed early in October, consisting of the following gentlemen and ladies : Chairman of Committee : FRANCIS TAGART, Esq., Sneyd Park, Durdham Down, Bristol. Treasurer : LEWIS FRY, Esq., Goldney House, Clifton Hill, Bristol. Secretary : Miss CARPENTER, Red Lodge House, Bristol. Committee : Dr. and Mrs. BEDDOE. Dr. GOODEVE. Miss ROSAMOND HILL. WILLIAM A. LEONARD, Esq. Professor NEWMAN. Mrs. NORRIS. WILLIAM TERRELL, Esq., J.P. CHRISTOPHER J. THOMAS, Esq., J.P. Miss YENNING. MisS WlNKWORTH. SAMUEL WORSLEY, Esq. This Committee speedily issued a report, explaining the origin and intended action of the Association. It thus concludes : " The Committee are desirous of beginning their work without delay. Several native gentlemen in various parts of India have already offered to become correspondents, and to furnish the Committee with information on many of the subjects mentioned in BRISTOL INDIAN ASSOCIATION. 579 the programme. Correspondence will at once be com- menced with these. Openings have already presented themselves to members of the Association, in which friendly co-operation is gladly welcomed by native gentlemen who are working in India for the enlighten- ment of their countrymen. A Brahmin gentleman of very narrow means, having been excommunicated by his people, has lately commenced a Workman's School and Institute near Calcutta the first of the kind in India in connection with a large factory. He had already, during the last four years, established and chiefly main- tained a girls' school, classes for workmen, a Social Improvement Society for educated young men, a public library, a dispensary, besides in other ways contributing to the improvement of the neighbourhood. He has received friendly encouragement and help from English gentlemen in India, and sympathy from England is very valuable to him. A large box containing books, en- gravings, educational apparatus, and presents for native ladies and the girls of the school, is being forwarded to him ; the contents are contributed from London and Southampton as well as from Bristol. Another native gentleman has elsewhere commenced, with the permis- sion of the authorities, the regular visiting of prisoners in two districts where he has been stationed; while in various parts of the Bombay Presidency, for many years, girls' schools have been established and supported by 580 SPEECH AT BRISTOL. natives, who now gratefully receive help and sympathy from Europeans. Many ways open at once in which those who desire to do so may take useful action. Books, journals such as the Illustrated News and the Graphic engravings, &c., are very gladly accepted by native gentlemen who are thus working. A depot will be formed in Bristol to which such articles may be sent for transmission to India. A Ladies' Committee will find work for the cause in preparing tokens of sympathy with native ladies and presents for the school children ; these are gratefully received by them as evidences of the kind feeling towards them of English ladies. When plans for the improvement of female education are matured, there will be much to be done in many ways. " One part of our programme can at once be deve- loped. There are many native gentlemen now in India who would gladly become acquainted with good English society, and gain a knowledge of the principles on which our institutions are founded; but this is impossible for them without introductions, which at present they may not know how to obtain. Through the medium of the Association they may receive this advantage. " We trust, then, that from the very commencement, our members will find openings of usefulness, and that as our numbers increase, other agencies will open, and a gradual but sure development will be given to the objects of a NATIONAL INDIAN ASSOCIATION." FAREWELL SOIREE, In the Hanover Square Rooms, London, September 12, 1870, ON THE INVITATION OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION. ON Monday evening, September i2th, 1870, the Hanover Square Rooms were crowded on the occasion of a soiree being held to bid farewell to Mr. Sen, previous to his return to India. Eleven denominations of Christians were represented at the meeting. The chair was taken by C. J. THOMAS, Esq., President of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association ; and among those on the platform and in the hall were the Revs. Professor Plumptre, Dr. Woolley, Dr. Cappel, D. Burns, M.A., J. Gibson, J. D. H. Smyth (Norwich), T. Smyth (Nor- wich), J. V. Mummery, F.R.A.S., W. Hudson, J. Mills, G. Small, M.A., J. Thomas, Isaac Doxey, George St. Clair, W. Ballantyne, Brooke Lambert, Henry R. Davis, John Morgan, J. Bligh, G. Hawtrey Camburn, Fred. Perry, C. Winter, Robert R. Finch, Andrew M earns, G. M. Murphy, W. Brock, Jun., W. H. Chambers, Horrocks Cocks, Dr. Young, W. Tyler, F. Rae, John Murray, Richard Coleman, Christian Hoenes, S. March, Henry J. Berguer, W. H. Channing, D. D. Jeremy, H. lerson, J. Heywood, T. R. Elliott (Hunslet), R. Shaen, R. Spears, R. E. B. Maclellan, M. C. Gascoigne, 584 FAREWELL SOIREE. J. Phillips, T. Rix, W. C. Coupland, J. P. T. Wilmot, H. Solly, W. A. Clarke, T. Hunter, M. D. Conway, J. W. Coombes, T. Hunt, and Professor Branend ; Sir James Clarke Lawrence, Bart., M.P. ; Edwin Lawrence, Esq., LL.D. ; H. S. Bicknell, Esq.; James Hopgood, Esq. ; David Martineau, Esq. ; J. T. Preston, Esq. ; S. S. Tayler, Esq.; W. N. Green, Esq.; Aid. Bourne, Esq. (Secretary of the British and Foreign School Society) ; George Cruikshank, Esq. ; John Robert Tay- lor, Esq. ; Richard Keating, Esq. ; J. T. Hart, Esq. ; W. Shaen, Esq. ; J. E. Mace, Esq. ; J. Fretwell, Esq. ; Alfred Preston, Esq. ; George Hickson, Esq. ; J. Troup, Esq. ; J. M. Drake, Esq. : E. Kensell, Esq. ; J. Hilton, Esq., &c., &c. The CHAIRMAN said : Ladies and gentlemen, We are here this evening to bid good speed to Baboo Keshub Chunder Sen, and it gives me very great pleasure to find that there are present gentlemen of almost every phase of Christianity in this country to do honour to him. In the August number of the Contemporary Review there is an article on " The Brahmo Somaj and the religious future of India," by the Rev. W. H. Fremantle. He advises us as Christians not to dwell upon the points in which the Brahmos fall short, but upon what they hold as true, for they hold it with no feeble grasp. Although Mr. Sen does not agree with us on all points, yet he is a wor- shipper of the common God and Father of us all ; and FAREWELL SOIREE. 585 we know that his labours have been successful to a con- siderable extent in his own country, and we hope they will be still more so, in spreading more enlightened views among his countrymen, and in sending forth dis- ciples to the uttermost parts of India with the same object. As Christians we hope that their labours will tend towards a closer affinity with us. Whether we approve of all their views or not, the difference must be immense between the idolatry prevalent in India, and such an idea of our common God and Father as that held by Baboo Keshub Chunder Sen. (Applause.) The Rev. R. SPEARS read the following report of Mr. Sen's proceedings since his arrival in England : It may be interesting to the present meeting and the friends of Mr. Sen to have before them the catholicity of -the engagements and duties of a public character in which he has been engaged since the welcome meeting in these rooms. He has visited fourteen of the chief towns of England and Scotland, and lectured or conducted reli- gious services, occupying the pulpits of Baptist, Congre- gational, and Unitarian chapels. He has had invitations from upwards of forty towns which he has not been able to visit. He has addressed meetings promotive of Peace, Temperance, Reformatories, Ragged Schools, and General Education. He has also spoken to gatherings of children at different places, and at medical, literary, and philosophical institutions. He has addressed the 586 FAREWELL SOIREE. students at the Borough-Road British and Foreign School, and spoken at several social meetings. The Baboo has addressed several meetings at the Tabernacle, the East India Association Rooms, and other places, on the Duties of England to India, and on Zenana or Female Education. He has also preached to large congregations of the poor in the east of London. Mr. Sen has thus had an opportunity of speaking at upwards of seventy different public meetings since his arrival in England, to upwards of forty thousand people j and has attended a large number of meetings of a less public character than those now mentioned, at which he has also taken some part. Mr. Sen has, in addition to the above meetings, had several interviews with our states- men on the subject of some of the legal disabilities under which his co-religionists labour, and has fair prospects of their early removal. The Rev. Dr. CAPPEL (German clergyman) said that the Christians of Germany felt a great interest in the work which Mr. Sen was carrying on among the natives of India, and wished him God-speed. They knew that he would meet with many difficulties, and would require an energy, and at the same time a gentleness of character, which were rarely found combined in one individual; but from what they had heard of Mr. Sen they trusted that he would act in the spirit of Luther, and be the reformer of his native land. FAREWELL SOIREE. 587 The Rev. Professor PLUMPTRE fully believed that the prayer which for centuries had gone up from the heart of every devout Brahmin, that the light from Heaven might shine upon his soul, had in the case of Mr. Sen been answered. It was a great thing, amid the decay of ancient systems, and in the valley of dry bones, dead and cold, or animated only by a putrescent life, to see the stirring of a higher and diviner breath, bringing bone to his bone, and reuniting them once again into an organized vitality. It was a ground for great confidence in the new movement carried on by Mr. Sen, that it was not content to waste itself in a mystical devotion, or in the proclaiming of a bare negation of polytheism like the creed of Islam, but had set its face at once against crying social evils. In India the distortion of a native worship, which was originally pure, into a multitude of fantastic and prurient superstitions, had made men lose sight of the unity and brotherhood of mankind, and stereotyped for centuries institutions and lines of demarcation which were originally in their nature but transitory and pro- visional ; and any protest against that evil going hand in hand, as it must do, to be effective, with the proclama- tion of the truth of which the evil itself is the practical denial, could not but be an element for good. Once before in the history of India there had been an energetic and mighty protest against this evil. There was nothing nobler in the history of mankind and in the history of 588 FAREWELL SOIREE. religious thought than the legend or story of Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, and his sacrifice of wealth, power, and princely dignity, in order to claim fellowship with the meanest and most outcast of mankind. In this consisted the strength of Buddhism ; but that which ren- dered it impotent to remedy the evils against which it fought, and which gave to the solitary religious system of India the power to regain its influence, was this that Buddhism based its recognition of the brotherhood of mankind only on the common inheritance of the same misery, the same frailty, the same disease and death. Though it presented to the minds of men a nobler ideal, which the world failed to receive or to realize, it led them to sigh for even utter annihilation as a relief from that misery which was the common lot of all men. Buddhism failed because it taught men the fellowship of misery and did not teach them the fellowship and the fatherhood of God. The work of the Brahmo Somaj, however, was based upon something more than the common inheritance of weakness ; it recognised a divine light which was streaming in upon the souls of all men, and was based upon the truth that all may turn, even from the far country where they have wasted their sub- stance, and say, "I will arise and go to my Father'' Another element of hope was that the work in which Mr. Sen was engaged was a test of sincerity and energy. No great warfare against gigantic evils had ever been FAREWELL SOIREE. 589 carried to a successful issue without something like a martyrdom, if not the martyrdom of the stake or scaffold, the martyrdom of broken relationships, of separation from those most esteemed and loved. Such a trial those to whom Mr. Sen was a guide and teacher would doubtless have to undergo, but in it they would carry with them the sympathies of Christians throughout the world, and also, he hoped, have the active support of the English people and the English Government. (Ap- plause.) The Rev. W. BROCK thought Mr. Sen's visit had been well timed, as 1870 had been a stirring year among the nations of Europe. The people of England had warmly welcomed him on his arrival in this country, but henceforth they would take a more personal interest in his labours, and hope and pray to God for his success. The Rev. H. IERSON said : No doubt Mr. Sen before his visit knew the external differences between Church- men and Dissenters, between High Churchmen and Low Churchmen, and something he might have known as to the meaning of the word Broad Church, but per- haps he did not then know that these distinctions ran through all the sects, and that there is not one of the sects which has not its High Church, its Low Church, and its Broad Church. (Hear.) He trusted Mr. Sen would be pleased with the discovery, although some people were alarmed at it. Mr. Sen had been able to 590 FAREWELL SOIREE. greet face to face men of very different persuasions, who unhappily stood apart from one another when not in the presence of a man like himself, and he had been the means of bringing them together. (Applause.) English people had a wretched habit of ticketing themselves, and when a man once got his peculiar ticket he was shut off from all whose tickets differed from his. When a man was introduced to them they noticed whether or not he looked straight at them, and if he did they formed a notion that he was probably an honest man, but there was always a lurking question, " What church or what chapel does he belong to ? " and this question influenced the intimacy which ought to exist between men who acknowledged each other's honesty. (Hear, hear.) Brethren of different denominations had too long stood separated from each other; hearts that beat with the same love to Christ, that earnestly reverenced the same living God, that desired equally the welfare of mankind at large, had refrained from that united action which ought to have been the characteristic of their Christianity. The meeting which welcomed Mr. Sen on his arrival was a grand one, because it brought together representa- tives of so many denominations ; but he was then an untried man, whereas since then he had stated his views until everybody knew what he meant, and therefore those who were present at the farewell meeting committed themselves fifty times more strongly than those who first FAREWELL SOIREE. 591 greeted him. (Applause.) Of all who had visited this country from foreign lands and succeeded in interesting the people, none had shown a career more simple- hearted, more direct, more straightforward, more per- fectly open at all times, more ready to avow his own convictions, or more determined not to be misunder- stood. (Applause.) The time for sectarianism was pass- ing away through the increased energy of individual convictions, which rose above the level of the sects to which men happened accidentally or by mere social influence to belong. He trusted that those who were present would not be content with clapping their hands in unison, but would forget their sectarianism, and re- solve that henceforth whenever they met a Christian man, a God-fearing man, a man earnest for the truth, under whatever name he appeared, they would welcome in him a brother and a child of God, so that Mr. Sen might take away with him an unmistakable indication that there was hope for England as well as for India. While they were undoubtedly united in the prayer to God that their guest might be guided and helped in the future, it should be with a feeling of perfect brotherly Christian charity, which would be to him the true triumph of the Christian faith. (Applause.) The Rev. G. MURPHY rejoiced to know that Mr. Sen recognised in the Bible a vast power for a higher if not for the highest civilization of the world. The presence 592 FAREWELL SOIREE. of Christians of various sects did not commit them to all the opinions held by Mr. Sen, but manifested their hearty desire that so far as God showed him, and those who worshipped with him, to see what is right and true, they might follow that out consistently and wisely. He was glad there were different sections of the Church, but there need not in consequence be any unkindness between them. The peculiarities only became offensive when men said to their fellow-men, " Stand aside, we are holier than you." As a Congregationalist, he believed that every man for himself must seek the truth, and as he professed and acted out that truth, give an account by-and-by to God for himself and for none other. Though not specially delegated to do so, he thanked Mr. Sen on behalf of the Temperance party for the noble efforts he had put forth in the cause which they had at heart. The Rev. DAWSON BURNS said that Mr. Sen had done a great deal to help forward several important social reforms in this country, and had greatly encouraged those who were carrying on the war against intempe- rance, and who wished the law to assist in its repression. Professor ALBITES (of Paris) announced himself as representing the " Society of Free Conscience and Pro- gressive Theism " (" Societe de la Conscience Libre et du Theism e Progressif "), and after briefly explaining its principles, said that, holding these views, he followed with great interest the magnificent movement which FAREWELL SOIREE. . 593 Mr. Sen had begun, and felt an unbounded enthusiasm with regard to his labours. (Applause.) Miss EMILY FAITHFULL, on behalf of the women of England, expressed the greatest gratification at finding that Mr. Sen was thoroughly interested in the work of female education, and regarded it as a fundamental necessity in his country. It was impossible to ex- aggerate the difficulties which would have to be encoun- tered in the prosecution of this noble work in India ; but the women of England fully appreciated Mr. Sen's noble efforts, and were convinced that no true man could work for the elevation of woman without bringing down speedy blessings upon his own head, for "Woman's cause is man's : they rise or sink Together, dwarfed or godlike, bond or free." (Applause.) Mr. SEN, who was greeted with the warmest enthu- siasm, after thanking the audience for the expression of their sympathy, said, in reply to a suggestion in the speech of the Rev. H. lerson, that he was quite willing to give us his impressions of England, deeming that we " had a right to know what he thought of us." He then spoke as follows : Nearly six months have elapsed since I arrived in this country, and during that time I have studied men and things according to my means and opportunities, and I have attended several meetings, both public and private, Q Q 594 FAREWELL SOIREE. with a view to excite the interest of the British people in Indian affairs, and to unite as far as possible these two great countries in the closest ties of social and religious fellowship. Before I proceed to the graver topics I have to dilate upon, allow me to give out my first impressions of this country. The first thing that struck me and dazzled my eyes in London was the brilliancy and splendour of your shops. The neat arrangement of the various shops I saw on both sides of the streets pleased me very much ; but their number bewildered me. I thought, " Surely the English must be a nation of shopkeepers ; but if everybody sells, where are the buyers ? " (Laughter). The next thing to which my at- tention was forcibly drawn was the art of puffing. East, west, north, south, everywhere I saw handbills and advertisements. No place was free from them. If I wished to move from one place to another, I must get into the Daily Telegraph omnibus or the Echo omnibus ; if I wanted to go by railway from one city to another, I was driven from station to station, and I could not possibly make out what those stations were, for I passed through a forest of advertisements. I should not wonder if in future you send out every man and woman through the streets with a placard posted on the forehead. (Laughter.) Thirdly, the Englishman's activity troubled me very much. John Bull's whole life seems to be concentrated in the right hand. He works FAREWELL SOIREE. 595 and works, and cannot live for anything like contempla- tion or thought. He is a machine made for work, eternal and everlasting work, and he does not like rest. He is like Hamlet's ghost, hie et ulnque, here, there, everywhere, always moving about. I may say also a few words about eating. An English dinner part}', I always think, is a hunting party (laughter) ; and what confirms this view of the case is the fact that ladies always seek the protection of gentlemen before entering the dining-room, lest there should be, perhaps, some accident. (Laughter.) They always go armed 'with spoons and forks and knives, in order to attack the fowls of the air, the beasts of the wilderness, and the fishes of the sea that are gathered on the table. (Con- tinued laughter.) It troubled me very much, may I say it frightened me, when I saw birds and beasts on the table almost ready to start into existence again. Why, if you go on at this rate, you may hereafter feel afraid of sitting in each other's company. My flesh creeps on my bones when I see a huge piece of roast English beef on the table. (Renewed laughter.) Lastly, I must say one or two words about ladies' dress. Per- haps John Bull will not tolerate such a thing, but I am one of those who, fortunately or unfortunately, do not believe in man's infallibility or in woman's infallibility. The Girl of the Period is really a peculiar creature. I hope she will never make her appearance in India. 596 FAREWELL SOIREE. There are two things in particular which I object to, the head and the tail. (Much laughter.) In these days of "women's rights," may I not seriously suggest that women ought not to occupy more ground than men. (Laughter.) It is a fact that a civilized and refined lady of the West occupies five times as much space as a gentleman. The fair sex ought to be fair. (Renewed laughter.) And as regards the head. At first sight the hair on women's heads in England and in European countries generally seemed to me to be much longer than that on women's heads in India. But I am told there is a secret inside that huge protuberance at the back of the head, which would not bear criticism. (Continued laughter.) I hope educated and sensible ladies of the present day will give better proof in future of the fertility of their brains. (Laughter and applause.) Let me turn to the deeper social life of the people. It is with feelings of grief and distress that I have witnessed the vast amount of poverty and pauperism which prevails in this city. God help and bless the poor of London ! The sight of London beggars is very painful. My sur- prise was great when I found in this civilized Christian country so much moral and spiritual destitution and physical suffering, caused by the curse of intemperance. I was also pained to notice an institution which I cer- tainly did not expect to find in this country I mean FAREWELL SOIREE. 597 caste. Your rich people are really Brahmins, and your poor people are Sudras. (Hear, hear.) I thought caste was peculiar to India ; certainly in a religious sense it is, but as a social institution it perpetrates prodigious havoc in this country. Cases of baby-farming, and breaches of promise of marriage constantly figure in the columns of your daily papers, and my attention has been several times drawn to these frightful disclosures. But nothing has distressed me so much as the obstinacy with which the government of this country has afforded, indirectly if not directly, vast and potent encouragement to intemperance and prostitution by unwise legislative enactments. It is the duty of every humane and civilized government to discourage and put down with a high hand the two great social evils of the day drunkenness and prostitution. (Applause.) I have noticed these defects in the social life of the nation with feelings of concern and regret, and, as one of your best friends, I sincerely wish to see them rectified. (Applause.) Turning to the other side of the picture, I must express my admiration of the charities in London, of the noble work which is being carried on in hospitals, in reformatories, and in schools. I am amazed at the fact that the aggregate annual income of London charities is upwards of ^3, 000,000. Certainly it is the sjlirit of Christianity which has pro- duced this great result. If there are evils in England whose parallel it would be difficult to find in any other 598 FAREWELL SOIREE. country of the world, there are, on the other hand, means and agencies at work for crushing and extinguishing those evils. One institution in England I have looked upon with peculiar feelings of delight the happy English home, in which the utmost warmth and cordiality of affection and sympathy are mingled with the highest moral and religious restraint and discipline. The spirit of prayer and worship seems mixed up with daily household duties, and the influence of the spirit of Christ is manifest in domestic concerns. The bright and loving faces of English children have deeply impressed me. and I have frequently said, " Happy is that family where such children dwell." The power of English public opinion, too, is a great blessing, for it has obliterated many of the evils from which this country for a long time suffered. I trust that India may soon have such a thing as public opinion, for its want is daily felt. As I am now about to return home, I can ask for nothing better than the co-operation of Englishmen in obtaining for my native land English charity, English homes, and English public opinion. True, thousands of Englishmen have gone out to India, and many have settled there ; but where in that country is Christian charity exhibited in its extended dimensions, in its un- tiring industry and disinterested earnestness as it is here ? I hope that attempts will soon be made there to extend the light of education amongst the masses, to establish reformatories and sanitary societies, and to found work- FAREWELL SOIREE. 599 houses, schools for the blind and deaf, and other charita- ble institutions. At all the meetings I have attended, every demand I have made for India in the name of justice and humanity has received a favourable response, and tens of thousands have indicated their love and sym- pathy towards that country, and their anxious desire to do justice to the hundred and eighty millions of its population. (Applause.) Whatever may have been the shortcomings of the rulers of India hitherto, I thankfully acknowledge that if evils are pointed out, no other nation is so anxious as England to remedy those evils. (Hear.) Unfortu- nately, English people are profoundly ignorant of the actual state of things in India, and the requirements of the people confided to their care. What I ask for rnay be briefly said, the education of the masses, the improvement of women, the suppression of the liquor and opium traffic, the introduction of those charities which constitute the glory of England, and, lastly, an Act for reforming marriage customs. The Reform party in India are protesting against and trying practically to put down, if possible, such evils as bigamy and polygamy, the cruel custom which prohibits the re-marriage of widows, pre- mature and untimely marriage ; while at the same time we primarily declare a violent crusade against idolatry and caste. (Loud applause.) For God's sake, for truth's sake, let the English nation and the Indian legislature assist them in this great work. (Applause.) 600 FAREWELL SOIREE. The last and the most important subject I have to deal with is the religious life of England. What do I think of English Christianity ? I shall notice three characteristics of Christian life as it exists in this part of the world, and these three are, no doubt, great draw- backs. English Christianity is too sectarian ; it is not large enough, not broad enough. It appears to me that the waters of immortal life, bounded by the barriers of sects, are small in quantity, and therefore, in order that they may be deep, the channels through which they run have been made narrow. Thus Christian sects have become narrow too narrow, indeed, for large human hearts and souls. I have often been amused at the patronizing way in which your countrymen have talked to me about my country. The Thames is a little stream compared to the mighty Ganges, and your mountains are mole-hills in comparison with the Himalayas. The houses here, too, are small, and I am afraid that the houses for the soul are smaller still. (Applause.) God's Church has been split up into a thousand little sectarian huts. Differences of opinion are inevitable ; where honest differences do not exist, there must be stagna- tion and lifelessness ; where there is life there must be disunion, and against this I have nought to say; but what I protest against is the spirit of sectarian antipathy and antagonism which ill becomes a Christian. Christians of all denominations, Catholics and Protestants, FAREWELL SOIREE. 60 1 Trinitarians and Unitarians, are bound to stand together on the same platform. This is what Christ has told them, " By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." (Applause.) I am distressed to find that such a spirit does not exist now, but I have hopes for the future. Secondly, English Christianity appears to be too muscular and hard. It is not soft enough for the purposes of the human heart. On the battle-field, amid the crash of war, Western Christianity offers prayers to- God that thousands of men may be slaughtered and butchered. (Applause.) That is not the right sort of Christianity. (Hear.) Where there is true Christianity there must be soft, gentle hearts ; not hard muscles stretched out for the extermination of the foe, but hearts expanded with love and charity, offering prayers that the foe may be forgiven. Unfortunately, soft Christianity is not found here, at least not to that extent to which it ought to exist in a Christian nation. Thirdly, Christian life in England is more materialistic and outward than spiritual and inward. English Chris- tianity looks forward to something visible, tangible, out- ward ; men do not close their eyes in order to see within the recesses of their hearts and souls the reality and grandeur of the spiritual universe, vaster, nobler, grander far than the outward universe. There is a spiritual life as there is a material life, and the spirit, if I may so say, has its eyes, and its ears, and its hands, as the body has. 602 FAREWELL SOIREE. The spirit can see things of the spiritual world just as external eyes can see external objects, and the spiritual ears can hear the direct utterances of God's lips in the same way that our outward ears can hear man's voice and the sounds of the material world. If God is to be worshipped, He must be worshipped in spirit and in truth. In England there is hardly anything like medita- tion or solitary contemplation. Englishmen seek their God in society ; why do they not now and then go up to the heights of the mountains in order to realize the sweet- ness of solitary communion with God ? There is a tendency to see God outside, in forms, in rites, in dogmas, and in propositions, and there is very little spiritual insight. As regards the distinguishing tenets of Christianity, I may say, without entering the arena of theological controversy, that there are three great ideas in true Christianity ; first, the Father ; second, the Son ; third, the Holy Ghost. Though these three words, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, are often repeated fiom pulpits and in the theological literature of the present day, the world has yet to realize their deep significance. The Trinity is recognised, but the Unity is not yet understood, though all Christendom is struggling to attain and realize it Where is this Unity ? This is a problem which has been put aside as incapable of solution, but humanity demands that it should be FAREWELL SOIREE. 603 solved. Can this Unity be realized? Is it a mys- tery ? No ; it is not inexplicable ; it is no mystery. The doctrine of divine unity was grasped by the Jews. The mighty Jehovah was worshipped by them, Jehovah seated on His glorious throne, clad in the robes of celestial righteousness and purity, with wide- extended hand ruling the destinies of nations and ex- hibiting in a variety of ways His infinite mercy and power. To whom were the Psalms of David addressed but to the One Supreme Being? Not to things of clay and stone, not to beasts or creeping things, not even to man, but to the One God of spirit and of truth. But mankind wanted to know the way to the God of Spirit, to the invisible and everlasting Jehovah. They must not only adore and worship Him as the God of Spirit, but they must also see righteousness in human life in order to attain a godly and righteous life. They wanted to see righteousness in life, divinity in the life of man, the manifestation of God's truth and love in human character," God manifest in the flesh." To that the world looked forward hopefully and anxiously, and according to the promise in the Jewish theocracy, in the fulness of time the Son of God came, and was received and accepted by many as the promise fulfilled, but he was not perfectly honoured, and up to the present time even in the heart of Christendom he has not been properly honoured. It grieves me to find that the once crucified 604 FAREWELL SOIREE. Jesus is crucified hundreds of times every day in the midst of Christendom. The Christian world has not imbibed Christ's spirit. Many, it is true, have deified him, many have accepted him as God Himself in human form, but even these have not truly honoured him. Christ has received honours which he himself would protest against with all his heart and soul; but he has not received the honour which he wants and claims. And what is that honour? That he may be made the flesh and the blood of his disciples and followers. We find him in the dogma of Atonement, in the pages of the Bible, in the utterances of ministers, in the creed of believers, perhaps also in the heart of the devout and in the right hand of the philanthropist and the reformer, but he is not seen in the flesh and blood of Christendom. Every man must be Christlike in order to be worthy of Christ. (Applause.) The true Christ of all nations is not the Christ of flesh and blood that lived some time ago, not the Christ of pictures and representations, not the visible but the spiritual Christ. When Christ was about to leave this world, he said, " I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now : howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth. If I go not away, the Comforter will not come." But, alas ! the Spirit of truth has not yet come. The promise of the Son of God was fulfilled ; the promise of the Spirit of God has not yet FAREWELL SOIREE. 605 been fulfilled. Christ knew that his followers would give him external homage and doctrinal worship, but he was not to be satisfied with that, and hence, just before leaving the world he entered his protest against it, both by direct counsel and by the ceremony known as the Last Supper. He told his disciples there were many things they could not understand, and so he did not give them the whole truth. They had yet to learn better truth, higher truth, and fuller truth; and who would reveal that ? The Spirit of God. The Jew beheld God in Nature, and the Christian sees God manifest in Christ, but God manifest in the spirit of the individual believer few have seen, and unless that is seen, the Father is lost in the Son, and the Son lost in the Father, as is pain- fully the case in Christendom. Do Christians see God as Spirit ? do they worship Him as Spirit ? Do they not rather start from the proposition that man cannot con- ceive of Divinity except in human form ? Therefore they bow down to Christ, and, in so doing, dishonour both God and Christ. Must a visible incarnation be worshipped because men cannot realize the Invisible God ? God forbid. He needs not flesh to reveal Him- self; He is present, filling the whole universe, one vast spiritual Entity, before whose reality the world is but a delusion. What is the world's reality, what man's reality, what even Christ's reality, before the reality, the grandeur, the majesty of the Supreme Jehovah ? I protest against 606 FAREWELL SOIREE. the doctrine of the heart's inability to conceive of God as a reality. It is consistent both with philosophy and true theology to maintain that man can by prayer and by faith, not by the all-sufficiency of human reason, not by the dim light of human judgment, realize God, though he cannot comprehend Him. To honour Christ, therefore, the first thing needed is to honour God, and, like the Jew, to be able to worship Him without Christ, without mediation, without dogmas of atonement, pro- ceeding to the Father directly and immediately; then God will come out to receive the penitent sinner with His own hands, and will kiss him as the Father kisses His dear son, who was lost, but is found. He who does not understand God cannot- -understand Christ. How, then, can Christ be known? Not through a book, not through doctrines, not by having recourse to minis- ters or priests, but by having recourse to the Spirit of God. The world has tried the experiment of the worship of incarnation, and that experiment has sadly failed, for man by logic and dogmas has broken up the Divine Unity into three persons. That was not the promise made to the Jew, that was not what Christ meant. Goodness as goodness is God's goodness, and cannot belong to any other being ; truth as truth is Divine, and is God's property wherever met with, in Socrates, in Confucius, in the Bible, in Christ, in the Hindu Scrip- tures, or in the Mahometan Scriptures. Here behold FAREWELL SOIREE. 607 the unity of Truth and Goodness. Christ identified the spirit of truth in himself with God, and he never for a moment allowed his disciples to believe that he came into the world to do his own will and not his Father's. He was the willing and humble servant of the Great Father. God's will was his will, God's delight his delight. The object, then, of all men should be to attain and realize that unity of spirit which is to be perceived in all forms of truth and practical goodness in this world. The Hindu, so far as he believes in God, is true to Christ. If purity, truth, charity, resignation, self-sacrifice constitute Christianity, then, in whomsoever they are found, there is Christianity, whether the man be called a Christian, or a Hindu, or a Mahometan. None would rejoice so heartily as the living spirit of Jesus Christ to see his followers give all the glory to God and reserve nothing for him or for themselves. If all the glory be given to God, there will be unity ; if not, all must be confusion. Why is it that many Hindus are far better Christians than some who take the name of Christian ? Because the same God inspires them, because from the same fountain comes truth to all. God is no respecter of persons, and all men who are true to Him will be accepted by Him, rich or poor, ministers or laymen, Hindus or Christians. The great secret of revelation, inspiration, and salvation lies in this third idea Holy Ghost. So long as the Holy Ghost comes not to an 6o8 FAREWELL SOIREE. individual or to a nation, so long God cannot be wor- shipped as he ought to be, and Christ cannot be honoured as he ought to be. Christ has been in the world for the last eighteen hundred years, yet how far is Christendom still from the kingdom of heaven ! And why ? Because people do not look within, they do not sufficiently acknowledge the Spirit. John the Baptist paved the way for Christ ; another John the Baptist is needed now, to prepare the way for the Spirit of God. I must say that I hopefully look forward to this, for I believe that the spirit of Christ is the spirit of truth in humanity, not Christ as God, but Christ as manifesting God, not another God, but God's spirit, working practically in the human heart. In England two great forces are at work one inside and the other outside the Church bringing the whole Church of Christ nearer to Christ and nearer to God ; the Broad Church movement, breaking down the barriers of sect and extending the sympathies of the Christian heart; and Dissenters and Liberal thinkers, helping, by a pressure from without, to bring about a more rational and liberal interpretation of the doctrines of Christianity. The result of my visit to England is that as I came here an Indian, I go back a confirmed Indian ; I cam e here a Theist, I return a confirmed Theist. I have learnt to love my own country more and more. English patriotism has by a sort of electric process quickened my FAREWELL SOIREE. 609 own patriotism. I came here a believer in the Father- hood of God and the brotherhood of man, and I shall return confirmed in this belief. I have not accepted one single new doctrine that God had not put into my mind before ; I have not accepted new dogmas or doctrines, but I have tried as far as possible to imbibe the blessed influence of Christian lives. . I have placed myself at the feet of Christians of all shades of opinion, and tried to gather from their lives and examples all that was cal- culated to enlighten me, and to purify me, and to sanctify my native land ; and I have been amply repaid for all my exertions. I have learnt a great deal, but all in con- firmation of my views of God. On the banks of the Thames, as on the banks of the Ganges, I have opened the secrets of my aspirations and prayers to the one loving and holy God, and He has heard me here as He did there. As on the heights of the Himalayas I have entered into sweet, undisturbed, and solitary communion with my Divine Master, so while gliding on the placid waters of Loch Lomond and Loch Katrine, I have looked devoutly at the hills which surrounded me, and seen the majesty of the Supreme God in the solemn stillness of those solitary heights. Whatever city I have visited, I have seen everywhere the same God, the same dear Father. Were it not for this, existence would be a burden, and my visit to England ineffectual. I am now, thank God, a man of the world, and can say that England is as R R 6 io FAREWELL SOIREE. much my Father's house as India. Often in the midst of my friends and companions in India I have glorified God with the most enthusiastic rejoicings, and I have done the same amid large congregations of fellow- worshippers in England. Wherever I have been I have met with a cordial welcome. From Her Majesty down to the poorest peasant in the kingdom, I have received sympathy and kindness. People of all denominations, putting aside their doctrinal differences, have loved me as a brother. 1 have been in official circles, and from the authorities I have received emphatic assurances that earnest efforts will be made in order to do justice to India. (Applause.) I was always a faithful and loyal subject of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, but since my interview with her, my attachment to her has been deeper than ever. What can I give you as an adequate return for all the kindness and sympathy which you have shown me ? I have not told you the whole truth with regard to your kindness; for I came here almost penniless, and you have not only given me a public welcome, but you have fed me and clothed me during my residence in this country; and for that with my whole heart I give thanks unto my Father and your Father. All this weight of obligation presses heavily on my heart now that the day is coming when I shall depart from the shores of beloved England. How can I show in an out- ward manner my grateful appreciation of your unusually FAREWELL SOIREE. 6n generous interest and your unbounded kindness ? Gold and silver have I none ; in wisdom as in wealth am I poor. When I came here I knew not that I should be honoured in the way I have been ; such honours came spontaneously from your sympathizing and generous hearts, but I assure you most strongly I deserved not honours such as these. I have humbly served you, and that is my only consolation. That will gladden my heart, and all the sympathy you have shown me during my short sojourn in your country will always encourage me to be good and to do good. I deeply regret that I have absolutely failed to show my inmost and heartfelt grati- tude, which lies stifled in the recesses of my heart. God alone, who searches the depths of human hearts, knows it. To Him I offer my prayers that He may bless you. Prayers and good wishes alone can I give. My God is the God of Love. That truth I learnt when it pleased my Father to reveal Himself to me, and that truth He has revealed more and more unto me, and up to the present moment that has been my doctrine, rny theology, my ethics, my riches, my treasure, my joy, my hope, my con- solation in the midst of trials and tribulation, my strength and my fortress in the season of difficulty and doubt. That I leave with you. God is Love. Know that, realize the deep truth that lies therein, and you will find comfort in it. May that be your religion, your life, your light, your strength, your salvation ! My God is a sweet 612 FAREWELL SOIREE. God, and if you love Him as your Father, He will show His sweetness unto you. Forget and forgive all the offence that I may have given you during my stay in this country. If I have not treated you well, if I have not honoured you as I ought, pardon me, for I knew not the customs of your country ; if I have shown any indifference, it proceeded from ignorance, not from any deficiency in the heart. My brethren, the time has come for me say the last word of farewell. From England I go away, but my heart will always be with you, and England will always be in my heart. Farewell, dear England ; " with all thy faults I love thee still." Farewell, country of Shakespeare and of Newton, land of liberty and charity ! Farewell, temporary home where I realized, and tasted, and enjoyed the sweetness of brotherly and sisterly love ! Farewell, my Father's Western house ! Farewell, my beloved brothers and sisters. (Long-con- tinued applause.) Sir J. C. LAWRENCE, Bart, M.P., proposed, " That we offer to our distinguished guest the hope that he may have a pleasant passage to his home and friends." This was cordially agreed to, and, after singing a hymn and the offering of a prayer by Mr. Sen, the meeting concluded with a vote of thanks to the chairman, moved by G. CRUICKSHANK, Esq. PARTING WORDS AT SOUTHAMPTON, Saturday, September 17, 1870. MR. SEN left London early on the morning of September 17, 1870, for Southampton, whence he was to sail for India in the Australia that afternoon. The Rev. Edmund Kell had interested himself in securing Mr. Sen's delivery of an address in the Unitarian Church of the Saviour, Southampton, and here a large number were assembled to hear him, including the Revs. Charles Williams, S. March, W. Heaton, R. Caven, W. Emery, and S. Alexander (minister of the Jewish congregation), Dr. Watson, Dr. Hearne, Messrs. E. Dixon, Chipperneld, Barling, Phippard, Steel, G. S. Coxwell, Stevens, Preston, &c. Mr. SEN, having been briefly introduced by Mr. Kell, said : I cannot but acknowledge with a thankful heart the kindness those present have shown in meeting me. I am glad you have afforded me an opportunity of delivering a parting address to the English people. Standing on the shores of your grand country I say " Farewell." I have received many expressions of kind- ness and sympathy during the six months I have spent in this country, from men of all shades of political and 6i6 PARTING WORDS religious opinion. I have humbly endeavoured to fraternize with all classes and all religious denominations, and I am glad to say that from the highest to the lowest from men in high position and from working men I have received marks of sympathy, and of generous interest. I am glad to be able to carry home pleasant and encouraging recollections of my visit to this country, and I assure you that I feel stronger than ever as the result of it. My visit has confirmed all the best and holiest convictions of my heart, and my sympathies and my affections have been greatly extended and enlarged. Though an Indian, I am a man of the world ; I belong to the universal brotherhood of nations, and I feel it quite possible to realize the sweetness of that brother- hood, even in a foreign country. I love my own country, and it was that love which actuated me to bid farewell to my fellow-countrymen for a time, and to visit this land. I now feel far more strongly than ever, that though sincerely interested in the welfare of my own country, it is my duty to point out the defects and shortcomings in her character and institutions, and to take in all that is good, sacred, and noble in other nations. (Applause.) I hope to take back with me all that is good here, in order that England and India may be united in spiritual, moral, and social fellowship, as they have already been linked together by the bonds of political union. (Renewed applause.) I am sure you will readily admit that the A T SOUTHAMPTON. 6 1 7 union of my nation with yours is altogether providential ; that the course of the two countries during the past hundred years has been guided by the over-ruling pro- vidence of a merciful, holy, and good Father ; and that the events recorded in the annals of the British adminis- tration of India conspire to prove that the time is coming when India, under the direction and guidance of England, will be enabled to occupy a high position in the scale of nations. (Applause.) Their political relationship, though outwardly political alone, has not been in the present case entirely political. It has been moral and spiritual, and I feel that the countries cannot unite together unless their souls unite. The mind of India may receive the truths and the light of Western science and knowledge, but the soul of England and the soul of India the hearts of the two nations must be blended together in one harmonious unity in order that the common Father of all of us may be glorified. I am a firm believer in the doctrines of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man (applause) and I now feel more deeply convinced than ever that it is possi- ble to realize these two great ideas in the world. When I get back to my own land I shall tell my fellow-countrymen that I have seen with my own eyes the germ of that noble brotherhood. Thousands of men and women in England have promised me their hearty support.. They feel as much interest in India as in their own country, and they 6i8 PARTING WORDS are ready, if they only know the actual wants of my coun- try, to do all in their power that justice to India may be secured. (Applause.) That being so, I shall return with strengthened hands, and a heart full of hope and confi- dence in regard to the future. There is a great future before us, and England must join with us to realize it. Allow me to say though such a statement may not be agreeable to all that the true kingdom of God will not be realized, indeed can never be realized, unless the East and West are joined together, for it has been said, and every clay, through inspiration, we may hear the voice from God, that the East and the West, the North and the South, shall sit down in the kingdom of God. (Applause.) The W T est, with all its thought and culture, its social purity and domestic sweetness, is but half the circle of human civilization and progress. The East is the other half. I admire the earnestness and firmness of purpose which I have seen here: I admire those stupendous works of noble and disinterested charity in which thousands of pure and generous-minded English men and women are daily engaged : I admire the force of will and the strength of character which I see in your nation : I feel that you have nerves of adamant, with which you overcome any amount of opposition and surmount obstacles that may come in the path ; but that is not the whole which God requires of us. When I turn to my country and the East, I find warmth of heart, solitary contemplation on AT SOUTHAMPTON. 619 her hills and mountains, deep communion with the in- dwelling and omniscient spirit of the One Supreme God ; I see a voluntary and deliberate withdrawing of the heart from all anxieties and cares of the world for a time in order to engage in uninterrupted contemplation of the attributes of God, I see the heart in all its fervour and sympathy directed in daily communion towards the one loving Father : I see there the heart of man, and in England the mind of man, there the soul, here the will, and as it is our duty to love God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, it is necessary that all these four elements of character should be united. I do not mean to say that there is no such thing as religious fervour in this nation, nor do I mean to say that there is no such thing as practical righteousness in the nations of the East, but that each nation, so at least I believe, represents one side of truth, and represents it with peculiar fidelity. The truths which are represented in England and Western countries generally, are those which refer to force of character, earnestness of purpose, con- scientious strictness, noble charity, practical duty, whilst the truths which I find peculiarly developed in India developed to a greater extent than anywhere else, and in Eastern countries generally, are those which have refer- ence to sweetness of communion, sweetness of temper, meekness, and resignation unto God. Is it not, then, our duty as brothers to unite England and India, the East 620 PARTING WORDS and West, that the East may receive of the truths of the West, and the West some of the grand ideas of Eastern countries ?. The thing is inevitable. In order that there may be national redemption and universal salvation, the truths of one nation must pass into another. Just as in political, commercial, and worldly intercourse we always try, by mutual traffic, to exchange our commodities with those of other nations, so in the spiritual traffic going on in this world we are beginning to recognise that principle of exchange. I see that the West is beginning to appre- ciate the East my country is beginning to appreciate all that is good in this country, and when, therefore, I get back I shall tell my friends and countrymen the same thing that I have told you. I shall say that it is neces- sary for the welfare of the East and West that they should be united. Permit me to add, that these being the ruling principles, convictions, and aspirations of my heart, I go about serving my God according to the light that is in me. If we differ on doctrinal matters, as, perhaps, some of us do, that is no reason for finally excluding ourselves from each other's friendship and intercourse. (Applause.) A great and glorious future is before us ; and England, I fall at thy feet, and now most humbly implore thee to do all in thy power to promote the welfare of my country, for I believe God has placed my country in thy hands, that thou, under His guidance and inspiration, mayest do for the men and women, the AT SOUTHAMPTON. 621 sons and daughters of noble India, all the good that lies in thy power. If I have done anything wrong in this country, I hope that all utterances in public and private have been and will be received in the same spirit in which they were made. I now say "Farewell " to all my beloved friends ; to all those who have shown me anything like sympathy and kindness I again say " Farewell." I look upon you all as brothers and sisters, and daily I hope to grow in that conviction. With this view I feel all official relationship and all political union will be, by-and-by, but as nothing. God will try us by another test a more rigid and spiritual test. He calls upon us to do our duty to each other, and to love each other. Do you love me ; do you love my country ? If you do, my country will be grateful for your help and co-operation, and if we love you, you will certainly find a noble stream of truth and power coming in from the East and fertilizing the mind and soul of the West, and producing a glorious harvest. (Applause.) That time is coming. Men are brothers wherever they may be. Therefore, let us forget the differences of caste, and colour, and nationality, and let us find ourselves now united together in the presence of that great Father of us all, who is plenteous in loving- kindness, holy and pure, who not only answers the prayers of His people, but looketh to the interest of the nations, and guideth and governeth the destinies of com- munities. To Him let us offer our prayers, and He will 622 PARTING WORDS answer and grant them, for He really is a merciful God most kind and merciful even to the meanest and poorest of His creatures. I hope my visit to this country has made me love Him more and more. I begin to feel now that He is my all in all. Wherever I am, I see His presence encompassing me ; I see Him going with me from place to place. He brought me to this country, and He is taking me back to my own dear land. I have felt His loving presence with me and around me, and that is my strength, my comfort, and my salvation. If I have taught you nothing else, I have told you this plain truth that he who humbly receiveth the Lord, to him will the Lord be merciful and kind, and He never leaveth those that place their confidence in Him. May He strengthen our hands for the difficult work we have to do. We have great opposition and stupendous diffi- culties to overcome, but if the Lord is on our side, we shall succeed and triumph in spite of opposition. Mr. Sen then offered up a prayer, breathing much venera- tion (the audience kneeling), in behalf of his country and ours that true brotherly love might exist between them; that God's spirit might be their all in all ; and that the two nations might become a united family for time and for eternity. The Rev. EDMUND KELL then, in a few sentences, proposed the following resolution : " That this meeting feels privileged in bidding a last farewell to Baboo AT SOUTHAMPTON. 623 Keshub Chunder Sen, on his departure from England. They have watched with extreme interest his progress through our country fearlessly pointing out to England her duties towards his country, while thanking her for what she has already done for his people. They warmly sympathize with the work he has commenced in con- tinuation of that begun by the Rajah Ram Mohun Roy forty years ago, of calling India to abandon idolatry, proclaiming the Fatherhood of God, and the brotherhood of man. They fervently wish him God-speed in his mission, and beg him to accept their prayers that the blessing of God may rest upon it, and upon him." E. DIXON, Esq., J.P., having seconded it, The Rev. S. ALEXANDER, as representing the Jewish congregation, tendered his sincere thanks to Mr. Chunder Sen for his kindness and courtesy in coming amongst and addressing us, and, wishing him prosperity in his noble endeavours, said we might all hope that he would realize the words of Balfour " Thy love a rich reward shall find From Him who sits enthroned on high ; For they who turn the erring mind Shall shine like stars above the sky." The Rev. Mr. OSBORN (Wesleyan Minister) expressed a sincere hope that Mr. Sen would be supported by the English people in devoting his energies to the promotion of female education in India. 624 PARTING WORDS. The Rev. C. WILLIAMS (Baptist Minister) said he had been requested by a few friends around him to express sympathy with Mr. Chunder Sen, and to assure him that although he was not, perhaps, quite so advanced as some of them in regard to his religious convictions, there were not in this country more earnest well-wishers of his than the Evangelical Nonconformists. We could not forget that we had received our Bible, our Saviour, and all that some of us held to be most precious, from the East ; and whatever sacrifices we might make in its behalf, the balance of advantages would still be with ourselves. The Rev. E. KELL having put the resolution, which was carried, the audience upstanding, conveyed it to Mr. Sen with a few expressions of his deep personal sympathy with him in his work. Mr. Sen made a brief acknowledgment, and the meeting terminated. Immediately afterwards, Mr. Sen embarked in the Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamer Australia, thus terminating a visit of little less than six months. APPENDIX. [The following letter, addressed by Mr. Sen to his Church in India, just before he left London for the provinces in June, is appended here, as showing the home aspect of his foreign visit.] S S (Bpfetle to tjje Deists in Etrtrta. LONDON. DEARLY BELOVED BRETHREN, Health and happiness attend you, and purity and peace adorn your hearts evermore ! Safely has the Lord of Mercy brought me, across seas and oceans, to this land, protecting me by His almighty arm from the ten thousand perils of the deep. Blessed be His great name ! Here am I in this far-off country, thousands of miles away from my home, my family, and friends. Yet I am not wholly a stranger in a strange land. England is as much my Father's house as India. His loving arms encompass me here as they did in my country. He has given me numerous friends, and has enabled me to feel myself at home in many a family. He has touched the hearts of many English brethren, and excited their sympathy and affection for me. They received me with open arms when first I arrived amongst them, and with intense cordiality and even enthusiasm testified their interest in me, my Church, and my country. And ever since, in all public meetings and private circles, they APPENDIX. 627 have extended to me the right hand of fellowship. Hundreds have manifested their warmest sympathy and love, such as brothers and sisters alone can show. They are truly affectionate ; 'they feed me, and clothe me, and supply my daily wants. May God bless these my kind friends, and may He abundantly reward their hospitality to a foreigner! Often have I rejoicingly united my feeble voice with theirs in the worship of our dear Lord, the common Father of England and India. In spite of the differences of race and nationality, we have all stood round His holy altar, and, as one united family, rendered homage to Him. May such spiritual fellowship extend on all sides, and embrace all the nations of the earth ! I thank the Lord that He has also enabled me, unworthy though I am, to go about as an humble servant, advo- cating the cause of truth, and furthering the moral and social interests of this country and mine, according to the light within me. I thank Him that many have kindly listened to me, and accepted my humble services. I have spoken of the sweetness and the all-conquering power of God's mercy, of man's unworthiness, and the need of prayer and humility. I have protested against worldliness and weak faith, against the heartless worship of an abstract and absent Deity, and against impurity of character concealed under the cloak of theological con- formity. I have pointed out the difference between the spirit of Christ and the dogmas of Christianity ; between 6z8 APPENDIX. saying unto him, " Lord, Lord," and doing the Father's will ; between the profession of Christianity and the inward growth of Christ's life in the individual soul, and the assimilation of his blood and flesh to man's spiritual being. I have said that to be a Christian means only to be Christ-like; and that salvation, redemption, atonement, and regeneration mean nothing more than the sanctifi- cation of the sinner's heart, and the harmonizing of man's will with God's will. As a member of the Universal Theistic Church, I have protested against all manner of sectarian antipathy and unbrotherliness, and advocated the unification of all Churches and sects in the love of the One True God. I have denounced war and the use of intoxicating liquors, and have advocated the Peace Move- ment and the Temperance Movement. Blessed are they who promote peace on earth and good-will among men ! Blessed are they who place not temptation in the way of a brother ! I have also discoursed on England's duty to India, and urged the importance of diffusing the bless- ings of liberal education among all sections of the Indian population, high and low, men and women : and I have demanded, in the name of justice and humanity, a better treatment of my countrymen by the dominant race. I am conscious I have spoken on all these great questions imperfectly and unworthily ; but I devoutly trust that, by the grace of God, my humble efforts may bear some fruit. May God Almighty, who in His merciful provi- . APPENDIX. 629 dence has knit together England and India in political relationship, unite them in pure religious brotherhood, and make them blessings unto each other ! You, my brethren, must feel greatly encouraged by the kind treatment which I have found among men of all classes and r v eligious denominations in this great country; for they do not confer honour on me per- sonally ; they do honour to India and our Church. They have all assured me, privately and publicly, in writing and by words of mouth, of their warm sympathy in the great work of national reformation in which we are engaged, and of their best wishes for its success. Such assurances ought to expand your hopes, strengthen your hands, and comfort your hearts in the midst of trials and difficulties, and stimulate you to greater exer- tions in your holy work. Thousand hands are here extended to help you; thousand voices are raised to bless you and cheer you j and thousand hearts, in the fulness of brotherly love, say Amen to your prayers. Go on, dear brethren, encouraged by the sympathy of numerous brothers and sisters in this remote land. Fear not ; faint not ; advance manfully and rejoicingly. How cheering are the signs of the time ! All nations are pressing forward to the Kingdom of God. Let not India sleep or lag behind. Rouse up the millions of her sons and daughters, and cast off the fetters with which they are enchained to idolatry and caste. Proclaim the 6 3 o APPENDIX. joyful message of Liberty throughout the length and breadth of the country, and build in every town and in every family an altar unto the True God of Salvation. Preach not lifeless dogmas or creeds ; form no narrow sect or clan. Faith in the Living God is your only creed a creed of fiery enthusiasm an dir 'ncible power. Go forth in all directions with this li\ jg faith, and it will enkindle in the hearts of all around the sacred flame of pure religion. And let your words be words of love and peace, not of sectarian antipathy. Love all parties, and gratefully accept all that is good and true in each. By love shall ye conquer falsehood, and error, and un- charitableness. Be true to the sweet and eternal Gospel of the " FATHERHOOD OF GOD AND THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN," and gather all races and tribes, castes and clans, in one fold. Thus faith and love shall make India free, and thus shall our nation joyfully unite with other nations of the East and the West in hailing the Kingdom of our God. Come, Kingdom of our God, Sweet reign of light and love ! Shed peace, and hope, and joy abroad, And wisdom from above. Soon may all tribes be blest "With fruit from life's glad tree, And in its shade like brothers rest, Sons of one family ! PRINTED BY VIRTUE AND CO., CITY ROAD, LONDON. 747815 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. 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