CHAP. descends 2." And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one Holy Ghost place. And suddenly there came a sound from upon them. heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."1 Endued thus Uncertain whether In ited by an apostle. miraculously with grace and ability for the work," they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following." With such diligence did the first preachers of Christianity attend to their Lord's instructions, that within thirty years from the descent of the Holy Ghost upon them, St. Paul applied to their unparalleled exertions to instruct mankind in the Gospel, the very terms in which David described the revolution of the heavenly bodies.— "Their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world."3 It is not probable that the apostle meant these expressions to be understood literally of all the countries then known to the civilized world. They are to be taken metaphorically, as descriptive of the vast extent to which the glad tidings of salvation had already been conveyed. 3. Whether India was honoured with the dia was vis- presence of an inspired apostle, is a question involved in great uncertainty. Of its probability, or otherwise, we may perhaps be able to judge, from a brief review of the events which led to the opening of that continent to the natives of the West. Geography is truly said 1 Acts ii. 1-4. 2 Mark xvi. 20. 3 Rom. x. 18. to have been chiefly indebted for its improvement to the wars and commerce of nations; and the all-wise Ruler of the world has made the same means subsidiary to the diffusion of Divine truth. Mankind, intent on the objects of their ambition, are as unconscious as the winds that blow, of the subserviency of their exertions to the Almighty's designs. Even the hearts of kings are in His rule and governance, and He disposes and turns them as it seemeth best to His godly wisdom.' And as of monarchs, so of their subjects, all their projects and exertions are under the absolute control of the King of Kings. When He causes them to prosper in the world, they have their reward; but it is earthly, and fadeth away suddenly like the grass. The permanent fruit of their endeavours is reaped by the church of God, and the glory that may result from them must ultimately return to Him. 4. With this recognition of a wise and gracious Providence guiding all human affairs to accomplish His own designs, we regard Alexander the Great, King of Macedon, as an important agent raised up by the Almighty, to prepare a way for the Gospel in the East. For that ambitious prince first opened India to the people of the West, and the opening that he effected was never again entirely closed. The country, indeed, had long been partially known to the natives of Egypt and Syria, by means of the commerce carried on between those countries. The most ancient navigators of whom we read, are the Egyptians and Phenicians, whose first voyages were made in the Mediterranean, called in sacred writ, the Great Sea, and the Sea of 1 Prov. xxi. 1. Eng. Liturgy. Com. Service. India first known to the Egyp tians and Phenicians. Tarshish. Their trade, however, was not long confined to the countries bordering on its shores. Acquiring early possession of some ports on the Arabian Gulf, they extended the sphere of their commerce, and are represented as the first people of the West who opened a communication with India by sea.' 5. The Indian trade was soon engrossed by the Phenicians, who for many ages continued in undisturbed possession of the monopoly, the Egyptians becoming indifferent about the commerce, while they could obtain the commodities of the East without personal risk or trouble. The fertile soil and temperate climate of Egypt producing the necessaries and comforts of life in rich profusion, rendered the inhabitants almost independent of other countries; and they laid aside their maritime pursuits for so long a season, that they began at last to think themselves the greatest nation in the world; and it became an established maxim of their policy, to renounce all intercourse with foreigners. In consequence of this, they held other people, as well as the Hebrews,2 in abomination; and they especially regarded all sea-faring persons as impious and profane. In the end they carried this prejudice so far, that they actually fortified their harbours, and refused admission to strangers. 6. The enterprising ambition of Sesostris, king of Egypt, disdaining the restraints imposed upon it by these contracted ideas of his subjects, prompted him to render the Egyptians a commercial people; and in the course of his reign he so completely accomplished this, that, if we 1 Robertson's Historical Disquisition concerning antient India, P. 5. 2 Gen. xliii. 32; xlvi. 34. may give credit to some historians, he was able to fit out a fleet of four hundred ships in the Arabian Gulf, which conquered all the countries stretching along the Egyptian sea to India. At the same time, his army, led by himself, marched through Asia, and subjected to his dominion every part of it, as far as the banks of the Ganges: whence, crossing that river, he advanced to the Eastern Ocean. Some are of opinion that these efforts produced no permanent effect: but others have very reasonably conjectured, that they wrought a considerable change in the manners of the inhabitants, and that several laws and customs now prevailing in India, which resemble those of ancient Egypt, were introduced by Sesostris at the time of his invasion. His subjects, however, were too proud, or too indolent, to derive any immediate benefit from his exertions. They appear to have been so contrary to the genius and habits of the Egyptians, that, on the death of Sesostris, they resumed their ancient maxims, and many ages elapsed before the commercial connexion of Egypt with India came to be of much importance.3 B. C. 1491. Phenicians hold the permitted to monopoly of the Indian 7. The Egyptians willingly abandoned the toils and the gains of commerce generally, as well as those of India, to the more enterprising inhabitants of Phenicia, the situation of whose trade;country was favourable to the commercial spirit. earliest The territory which they possessed was neither route of large nor fertile. It was from trading with tion with 1 Robertson's India. La Croze. Histoire du Christianisme des Indes, p. 434. This subject will be noticed more particularly in the account to be given of the Mythology and Customs of India. 3 Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus. See Rollin, vol. i. pp. 78-83. theirs the communica India. CHAP. I. other countries only that they could derive either opulence or power. Accordingly, the traffic carried on by the Phenicians of Sidon and Tyre, was extensive and adventurous; and, both in manners and policy, they resembled the great commercial states of modern times, more than any people in the ancient world. Among the various branches of their commerce, that with India may be regarded as one of the most considerable and lucrative. As by their situation on the Mediterranean, and the imperfect state of navigation, they could not attempt to open a direct communication with India by sea; the adventurous spirit of ambition prompted them to wrest from the Idumeans some commodious harbours towards the bottom of the Arabian Gulf. From these they had a regular intercourse with India on the one hand, and with the eastern and southern coasts of Africa on the other. The distance, however, from the Arabian Gulf to Tyre, was considerable, and rendered the conveyance of goods thither by land carriage so tedious and expensive, that it became necessary for them to take possession of Rhinocolura, the nearest port in the Mediterranean to the Arabian Gulf. Thither all the commodities brought from India were conveyed over land by a route much shorter, and more practicable, than that by which the productions of the East were, at a subsequent period, carried from the opposite shore of the Arabian Gulf to the Nile. At Rhinocolura they were shipped again, to be transported by an easy navigation to Tyre, and thence distributed through the world. This is the earliest route of communication with India of which we have any authentic description; and it had so many advantages over any other ever known before the |