arising. In the emergency a Christian missionary, Mr. Leupolt, could do what the commissariat officers failed to effect. He went out among the villagers—heathens, to whom he had often preached on the guilt and danger of their idolatry—and told them what the Government needed. The people asked him if he would give his word that they should be justly treated if they furnished what was needed? He said he would. Without more ado they loaded their hackeries, and accompanied him to the city, and furnished all that was required. This I know to be a fact. A similar instance is on record in the experience of Missionary Swartz in the south of India.
Honesty is the best policy. If the India Government had acted on it they would not have exposed themselves to the retort of Rajah Janaryan, of Benares, a liberal and wealthy friend of native education, who, when a Christian physician, who had raised him up from a severe illness, urged the claims of the Gospel upon his mind, the Rajah at first seemed disposed to yield; but presently, on reflection, he stifled his convictions by the remark, “Sir, had the Christian religion been true, the Company Bahadur [the Government] which has, in other respects, benefited my country, would not have withheld from at least commending this religion to our notice!”
Sir John Lawrence was Governor of the Punjab when the Rebellion broke out; the elements around him were as energetic, and some of them as dangerous, as any in India. He had been superior to the policy of his masters, and would insist on favoring Missionaries and the Bible in the schools. What was the result of this open and candid course, even in the hour when all around them had fallen? The missionaries waited upon him to say that, if their public preaching in the streets of Lahore was any embarrassment in the condition of the country, they were ready to pause for a season, if he thought it requisite to do so. His prompt reply, which will be a lasting honor to him, was, “No, gentlemen; prosecute your preaching and missionary enterprises just as usual. Christian things, done in a Christian way, will never alienate the heathen.” They acted on his advice, and did not preach a sermon
