and labours justly attracted to him so much public attention; and so many contradictory statements have been made of his religious views, that it cannot be regarded as an indelicate or uninteresting inquiry, whether he embraced the gospel entirely and unreservedly, and what was his decision amidst the conflicting theories of Christian sects upon the true scheme of doctrine propounded in the Christian Scriptures. My answer to this inquiry will be anticipated from the words which I shall now read as a text, the groundwork of some observations not, I trust, foreign from the subject. You will find the words in

Matthew VIII., 11.

AND I SAY UNTO YOU, THAT MANY SHALL COME FROM THE

EAST AND WEST, AND SHALL SIT DOWN WITH ABRAHAM,

AND ISAAC, AND JACOB, IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.

"The speaker is our Lord. He was now acting in his great and delightful character of a Comforter and a Saviour, and his gracious prediction was uttered upon the contemplation of an extraordinary degree of faith and piety in one from whom they might have been least expected, a Roman centurion or captain, who improved the opportunity of his military employment in the Holy Land to inquire after true religion, and whose inquiry terminated in his abandonment of the idolatry of his fathers and his adoption of the pure Jewish worship.

"It would seem to follow of necessity from the admission of the gospel as the power of God and the wisdom of God, that the more earnestly and diligently it is studied, the better it will be understood and the more highly valued;

that the pleasure derived from it will be in proportion to the love of it, from a knowledge of its fitness and excellence; that oneness with its spirit and obedience to its requirements will always go together; and that the union of faith and virtue is the only qualification for the perfect enjoyment of its promised blessings in that world where faith will be turned into sight, but where charity never faileth.

"These are solemnly important conclusions. They should impel us, on the one hand, to inquire seriously into the truth of God by Christ, lest by our own indolence and worldly-mindedness we fail of discovering the pearl of great price; and, on the other hand, to take a willing part in all wise and sincere efforts for the promotion of the moral and spiritual improvement of the world, and to hail with disinterested fervour, and to embrace with fraternal love, all the wise and good, whether from the east or the west, from the north or the south, who enter into the church of Christ with minds enlightened by the wisdom from above, and hearts purified by the influence of divine truth, praying and seeking only for glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, good-will to men.

"We shall thus, my Christian friends, be prepared to unite with the multitude that no man can number, out of every kindred, tribe, tongue and people, and from every dispensation of light,-with patriarchs and prophets, apostles and martyrs, who, their warfare accomplished, their affections wholly sanctified and their spirits perfected, will sit down in heavenly places with Him after whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, to pursue divine knowledge, to exercise universal love, to taste pure bliss, and to proclaim eternally growing gratitude to the

Almighty Father, blessed in himself and blessed, too, in all his creatures for evermore.

"To apply the subject to the occasion. There has been recently taken from the earth one to whom many of our humble observations, to whom I solemnly believe the sublime words of our Lord, apply; a rare, perhaps an unparalleled instance of a man who, by the virtuous use of great talents and splendid acquirements, under the divine providence and grace, delivered his own spirit from the enthralment of idolatry, and entered by degrees into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.

"None can deny that our departed Christian brother was an extraordinary man, whether we consider his intellectual energies, his moral qualities, or his theological attainments. Centuries may intervene before his equal in all respects shall rise up in Hindostan, so bright a light shining in so dark a place. He is a memorable example to the world of what an individual may accomplish by firmness of purpose, diligence, perseverance, fortitude, disinterestedness and candour, in the acquirement of truth, amidst the greatest disadvantages, and the diffusion of truth, amidst opposition and reproach. Would that they could be warned by his example, who, with all the opportunities of improvement around them, neither inquire nor think, neither instruct nor are instructed, lay down no error and acquire no truth, and, except as far as self-interest prompts, meditate no one good service to their fellow

creature.

"The name of RAMMOHUN Roy will endure as long as the history of religious truth. It is already, in part, and will hereafter be generally cherished in both hemispheres, in that which is distinguished by his birth, and in this,

which will, it is now probable, have the boast of keeping his honoured relics: here, he will be celebrated for breaking the first link of the long chain which has pressed down the heart of his country to the dust; at home, when India shall stretch out her hands to the true God, he will be revered as the first of her reformers and philanthropists. And more than this, and above all earthly fame, may we not gather from the promises of the gospel, this morning imperfectly expounded, that when the Throne shall be set, and the books shall be opened, and the dead, from both sea and land, shall be judged out of those things that are written in the books, according to their works, his name will be found in the Book of Life, and the Son of Man will welcome him, with all the righteous, into his Heavenly Father's kingdom! Even so. Amen."

Mr. ASPLAND gives in notes to his sermon the following statements, which were probably derived from the article in the "Athenæum" :—

"Mr. ARNOT says, that during the greater part of the period of RAMMOHUN ROY's residence at Calcutta, 'the whole powers of his mind were directed to the vindication of the doctrine of the unity of God. In this, he maintained the sacred books of Hindus and Mussulmans, Jews and Christians, agreed; and that all apparent deviations from it were modern corruptions. He propagated it day and night, by word and writing, with the zeal of an apostle and the self-devotion cf a martyr. He was ever ready to maintain it against all gainsayers, from the believer in thirty-three millions of gods to the denier of one: for both extremes are common in the East. The writer remembers finding him at his Garden House, near Calcutta, one

evening, about seven o'clock, closing a dispute with one of the followers of Budh, who denied the existence of a Deity. The Rajah had spent the whole day in the controversy, without stopping for food, rest or refreshment, and rejoicing more in confuting one atheist than in triumphing over a hundred idolaters: the credulity of the one he despised; the scepticism of the other he thought pernicious; for he was deeply impressed with the importance of religion to the virtue and happiness of mankind'."

"There were,' says Mr. ARNOTT, in the 'Athenæum', 'three maxims in politics, in ethics, and in religion, which he often repeated; with these I shall sum up this brief sketch of his life and character. The first he expressed in an Arabic sentence, Insàn abid ul ihsan Man is the slave of benefits.' The second, a couplet from the Anwari Soheili, which will be found in many a fair lady's album: "The enjoyment of the two worlds (this and the next) rests on these two points; kindness to friends, civility to enemies.' And the third, from the philosophic Sadi-which he often repeated, and often expressed a wish to have inscribed on his tomb:

'THE TRUE WAY OF SERVING GOD IS TO DO GOOD TO MAN.' "Amen: so let it be the religious reformer of the Hindus could not have a more appropriate epitaph."

Though the Rajah had not been able to visit Ireland, yet the Sister Isle was not uninterested in the visit of the Hindoo Reformer, and on October 27th, 1833, a sermon was preached in the Presbyterian Church of Strand Street, Dublin, on occasion of his death, by the

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