Note D — Sacred Philosophy.

“Was it not for the manifestation of this brighter era, and the realization of its promised blessings, that all else which preceded it was overruled by divine Providence, as subservient and preparatory? All things being now ready, there began to spring up in the bosom of the British churches, a wide and simultaneous sense of the solemn responsibility under which they had been laid by the events of Providence, to avail themselves of so favorable an opening for the diffusion of the gospel throughout the eastern world. Men, qualified to undertake the high commission, must be sent across the ocean—and have not the toils, and perils, and successes, of Vasco de Gama, and other navigators, opened up a safe and easy passage? That their labours might pervade the country, and strike a deep and permanent root into the soil, they must be delivered from the caprices of savage tyranny, and the ebullitions of heathen rage; and have not our Clives and our Wellingtons wrested the rod of power from every wilful despot; and our Hastings and our Wellesleys thrown the broad shield of British justice and British protection alike over all? In order that they might the more effectually adapt their communications to the peculiarities of the people, they must become acquainted with the learned language of the country, and through it, with the real and original sources of all the prevailing opinions and observances, sacred and civil. And have not our Joneses and our Colebrookes unfolded the whole, to prove subservient to the cause of the Christian philanthropist? In this way have our navigators, our warriors, our statesmen, and our literati, been unconsciously employed, under an over-ruling Providence, as so many pioneers, to prepare the way for our Swartzes, our Buchanans, our Martins, and our Careys.”—Duff’s India and India Missions.