the occasion of his son and daughter escaping from a great disaster, 'thanked Divine Providence for the merciful deliverance.'

And then, as to those things that seem to militate against the character of God, and thus virtually to disprove His existence, we are to remember that they do not receive His sanction. They move His deepest pity, and are opposed to His will. And it is in this mysterious power of man's opposing his will to that of God, the precious but perilous gift of liberty, that the solution of the problem of the existence of evil must be sought. Man is not a mere mechanical contrivance made to move in a given order; he is a free human being made in the divine image, and partaker of the divine freedom of choice and action. And when we carefully consider the laws of God, we see that they are all holy, and just, and good; that it is not the keeping but the breaking of them that brings wretchedness and ruin. So admirably and entirely adapted are they to promote the welfare of man, that if they were only perfectly obeyed, the ills under which we groan would utterly disappear, and earth bloom anew with all Eden's beauty and blessedness restored. That God is, and is love, is plainly declared, not only by the myriad voices of nature and the still small voice of the gospel, but by every law and precept which He has given for our observance.

In connection with honest inquiry there must be a pure and prayerful life. Though the being of God is a great mystery, and may seem to make undue demands on our faith, such is not the case with moral law. He that runs may read, and who breaks it is without excuse. A dissolute officer in India was excusing himself to the devoted Richard Knill from believing the Bible on the ground that it contained so many mysteries. The seventh commandment is no mystery,' was the deserved and crushing reply. We can have no respect for Byron, living in grossest sin, belching forth blasphemy, and raving about being the victim of an iron and evil fate. Such an one may not expect to gain a vision of the Most High. Only the pure in heart shall see God. Unto the upright light ariseth in darkness. And this ought to be carefully remembered, even by those whose lives are pure and aspirations high, but who nevertheless are tormented with doubt and disbelief. Morality has its highest sanction in religion; and if the foundations of the one are moved, the foundations of the other are rendered insecure. The duty, then, must be done if the doctrine is to be known; and the promise is, "They shall know who follow on to know the Lord.' But the life must be prayerful as well as pure. It may here be objected, indeed, that this is to assume too much, for does not prayer imply belief in one to whom we pray? Certainly it does; and yet so strangly contradictory is our nature, that we often feel impelled to pray when darkness is all around. And if we are in earnest in this matter, we must pray; and though it be most imperfectly, yea ignorantly, it shall not be in vain. What are we at our best estate but

'Infants crying in the night,

Infants crying for the light,

And with no language but a cry?'

The prayer of the honest doubter and earnest searcher after truth may have more of faith in it than that of the cold, formal believer, and more even than he himself dreams of. If we wish to have faith, let us pray-let us pray.'

IV. THE ADVANTAGE OF HAVING FAITH. It is clearly intimated by our Lord that it is of great importance for us to have faith in God. Yes, blessed are they who, having not seen, yet have believed.' It would be easy to enumerate many and great blessings that come to us through faith,

but our space permits us only to refer to one, and that the one of which our Lord speaks and illustrates.

It imparts true strength to us.—If we have faith, Christ affirms we shall be able to remove mountains. Now this manner of speech is evidently figurative, and is used to show that faith inspires us with mighty power.

It is supposed in certain quarters that faith is an evidence of weakness; doubt, of power. The strongest minds are harassed with doubts, while the weakest repose calmly, but ignorantly, on a traditionary creed. We grant that strong minds are likely to be tried with doubt, and the stronger the mind the greater the trial. But doubt is not strength, and it is not really born of strength, but of weakness. The angels that excel in strength are ever firm in faith; and true strength is never gained till doubt is conquered and replaced by an intelligent, unshrinking faith. One of the most gifted and delightful of modern writers tells us in her brief autobiography that her early days were sad and sorrowful, spent in an atmosphere of heaviness and gloom. She felt the need of a change of outward circumstances; but, more than this, she felt the need of a change of heart. By the divine blessing on the use of means, she came into the possession of what she so longed for a firm religious faith; she saw God as the God of love, Conquering Goodness, working in all and over all for highest and most blessed ends, and then her life was truly happy. She was strong, and able to do many works of love among the outcast around her, and write books which will charm and elevate mankind for ages yet to come. The Chevalier Bunsen, in a letter to his sister, says: 'Since I have attained to a clear consciousness, by inward experience, that there is no way of satisfying the needs of the soul, or tranquillizing the heart's longings, but by the inner life in Christ,-aspirations after eternal blessedness, and consequent direction of the mind and all its powers toward God,-I am aware of an increase of power for the work of my calling, whatever it be, and of joy and spirit in performing it.'

This is an aspect of our subject of interest at all times, but specially so at the time we have now reached. We stand on the threshold of another year, and in these circumstances we not only review the past, but forecast the future. That future is to us unknown. We know not what it may bear in its mysterious bosom. It may bring to us great joy or deep sorrow, or joy and sorrow alternating, as the shade and sunshine in the fitful days of spring. But whatever it may bring, we feel that we need, and shall evermore need, strength. If we are to be strong, however, strong to do and to suffer, we must be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. If our past experience has been of any avail to us, it must have taught us our own utter weakness. We must, then, begin the year by looking to the hills whence alone can come our aid; we must have faith in God. This, as we have seen, is difficult at all times, and it is especially difficult in the times that are passing over us. Everything is being shaken, and the foundations moved. When we look to the speculative and intellectual tendencies of the age, we see many things against us. Men, eminent in the walks of science, tell us, God, if such a being exists, is unknown and unknowable, and consequently is to us as if He were not; the prevalent philosophy is decidedly materialistic in its tone, and, seeing no divine spirit in man, can discern none working in the universe; poetry, also, forgetting her true nature and mission, sings sadly in the language of unbelief and hopeless isolation; whilst much even of what is deemed best in our periodical literature, now so vastly influential, is more suggestive of doubt than confirmatory of faith. Coming down to the ordinary level of life, we find an

amount of luxury which is hurtful in many ways, and most

unfavourable to the higher life. When Jeshurun waxed fat, he kicked.' There is strife, bitter strife, among the various classes of society; and where strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.' Great, also, is the greed of gain, the hasting to be rich, and they that will be rich fall into many snares; while side by side with enormous wealth we have the most abject poverty, and 'the destruction of the poor is their poverty.' For, amid utter distress and penury, how hard to believe in a good and gracious God! If, then, these were to be the days of the coming of the Son of Man, would He find faith in the earth, and would He not say to many of us, as to the disciples of old, Where is your faith?' But after all, things are not what they seem.' There is a deeper life than that which appears, and amid all these doubts and disasters there is a present God and a seeking after Him. For what do all these things tell us but that man needs God? And could even those who are most restless and farthest astray rightly interpret their own longings, and their futile attempts to satisfy them, they would learn that they thirst for God, and, with the Psalmist, would cry: As the hart panteth for the water brooks, so do we pant for Thee. Oh that we might find Him!' Find Him! Happy finders.'

6

A little child was left in a room alone with its toys around it, but the sense of solitude brought feelings of distress, and, despite its toys, it gave way to tearful cries. At that moment its father chanced to come into the room, and, smiling upon it and speaking kindly words, at once allayed its fears; the neglected toys were resumed, and in the father's presence and the father's smile it enjoyed its play right merrily.

And so, if our heavenly Father withdraws His presence, or by doubt is driven from His own world, how great the solitude, how dire the distress of His helpless children! But let Him return,-let us by faith hear His loving words and see His smiling countenance, then all is changed. That which makes true joy possible, and puts gladness into all common things, comes to us. We go on in the strength of the Lord,—from strength to strength,—in the confident and blessed hope of at last appearing before Him in Zion, where, all difficulties surmounted, and all doubts dispelled, we shall be with Him, and see Him as He is.'

SCENES FROM RAJPUT HISTORY.

BY THE REV. JOHN ROBSON.

I. INTRODUCTORY.

RAJPUTANA is the name given to that district of India which stretches westward from Agra to Guzerat, and southward from the Panjab to Malwa. It is divided into two parts, nearly equal in extent, by the Aravalli hills, which run through it in a north-easterly direction from Guzerat to Delhi. To the north-west of these hills lies the vast sandy plain of Màrwàr, stretching away into the Indian desert, which separates it from Sind. To the south-east lie the more fertile and populous plains of Mewàr and Jaipur. Amid the fastnesses and sands of this district the survivors of the old empires of Hindustan, when driven from their ancient seats by a foreign foe, found refuge, and laid the foundations of kingdoms which exist to the present day. While the Raj-puts (sons of kings) thus claim to be descended from the oldest kings of India, they have yet obtained possession of their present seats

All

at a comparatively modern date. The oldest of the Rajput houses that of Mewar dates its rise from the earliest Mahomedan invasion of India. the present capitals of Rajputana, with the exception of Ajmer, were founded at a much later period. Of the families that now rule the country, only one held sway before the foreign foe appeared, and that one has changed both its name and seat of power. While the history of these states does thus not extend back into a very remote antiquity, they are yet the oldest in India. They alone have preserved their distinctive existence through the period of foreign domination, and can claim to be representatives of early Hindu society, modified by the pressure of circumstances rather than by the importation of foreign elements. Their history exhibits great virtues struggling with great vices,-heroism, chivalry, endurance, statesmanship, neutralized by pride, slothfulness, dissension, and prejudice. It shows what vitality attachment to even a false faith may give a nation. Its religion has been the blessing and the bane of Rajputana; the source alike of its political strength and of its political decline. Attachment to it supplied the motive which enabled the Rajputs to wrestle with and expel the Mogul usurper. Respect for its principles introduced those dissensions which left them a prey to a still more cruel foe. Yet, on the whole, we shall see in them elements of character which, educated and disciplined by the truth, give hope of a bright and glorious future.

Rajputana was, in the earliest glimpses we have of its history, ruled by the Agni-kul or Fire races. The tradition with regard to them is, that after the extermination of the old warrior caste of India by Parasram, when there was no one left to protect the cow and the Brahman, the gods assembled on Mount Abu, the highest of the Aravallis, to effect its regeneration. Indra, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva met beside the Agni-kund, or Fire-tank, on that hill. Each in succession pronounced incantations, and in succession Pramàr, Solanki, Chohàn, and Parihar, the fathers of the four Fire tribes, emerged from the water. They destroyed the demons that infested Abu, and thereafter conquered the most of India, establishing the religion of the Brahmans wherever they went. The scene of this miracle is still pointed out. In one of the most remote valleys of Abu the remains of the square basin of the Agni-kund still exist. Around it old shrines and older trees cluster. The perpendicular precipices of Achalgarh frown over it on one side, and the more distant peak of Sikar Muni guards it on the other. Notwithstanding these evidences, which to the devout Hindu establish undoubtedly the truth of the legend, Europeans will be more apt to see in it merely a Brahmanical mode of telling of the conversion of these four tribes to the Brahmanical faith, and in their fresh zeal for it conquering the Buddhists, the enemies of their religious teachers, who had spread over nearly all India.

The Parihars settled in Marwar, where they did not do much to make themselves a name. The Solankis ruled principally in Guzerat and Saurashtra, now Kuttiawàr. Being situated on the sea coast, they commanded the trade of India with the west, and became the wealthiest of the Fire races. The Pramars ruled chiefly in Mewar and Malwa, though they seem at one time to have extended their conquests throughout all India. They were the greatest of the Fire races, whether we consider the extent of their sway or the impress they have left on Hindu history. The most illustrious of this tribe was Bikram, who reigned in Ujjain in the first century before Christ. He was the greatest warrior of his day, having made the whole of Northern India subject to himself. His court was adorned by some of the first names in Sanscrit literature, and he forms the centre of a whole cycle of Indian

romance.

But it is chiefly as an astronomer that he is remembered. He established the Samvat, the era by which Hindus principally reckon, corresponding to the A.D. of Christendom and the Hegira of Islam. It dates from 56 B.C., and computes time by lunar days and months and luno-solar

years.

The Chohans, the fourth and bravest of the Fire races, ruled from Ajmer towards the Jumna. They attained distinction later than the Pramars, but they were paramount in Hindustan at the time of their overthrow by the Mahomedans. The Deoras, who rule in Sirohi, and the Haras, who rule in Bundi and Kotah,* are branches of this tribe, and have well maintained their old reputation for desperate courage. They are thus the link between ancient and modern Rajputana,—between its historic and pre-historic times. The earliest name of any importance which we meet with in their annals is that of Aji Pàl; and all that is known of him is, that he had the title of Chakwa, or Paramount Sovereign, and that he founded the city of Aji-mer,† now Ajmèr. The date of this event, as given by Chand, is Samvat 202, which would correspond with A.D. 156 if the era be that of Vikram, and 523 if it be that of Balabhi, which was sometimes used. Whenever founded, this city continued the capital of the Chohans till the close of the twelfth century of the Christian era. The information which we have regarding it, however, is the most meagre possible, and it is not till the first Mahomedan invaders appear that we get light on its history.

In the beginning of the eighth century the armies of Walid overran the northern part of India, and some of them made a successful attack on Ajmer, killing the King Dola Ràe and his son Làt, who has since been deified by the Haras of Bundi. Manika Ràe, the brother of the king, took refuge by the salt lake of Sambhar, where he remained for some time, and founded the town of that name. He seems to have been the first to appropriate the revenue to be obtained from the sale of salt from it, and the oldest grants on this revenue are in his name. He eventually recovered Ajmer, though probably not till the Saracens had been overthrown by the young prince of a race new to Rajputana, to whose history we now turn.

Bappa was a lineal descendant of Ràma, the hero of the Ràmàyan who ruled in Oude about twelve hundred years before Christ. He had two sons, Kash and Làwa; from the former are sprung the Kachàwas, the rulers of Jaipur, and from the latter Bappa and the kings of Mewar. Lawa's descendants migrated first into the Punjab, and afterwards to Saurashtra, where, in A.D. 321, they founded the city of Balabhi, which gave the name to an era long used in that part of India. About two hundred years afterwards this city was destroyed by some northern foes, and the king and all the royal family, with the exception of one of the queens who was absent on a pilgrimage, were slain. She was then pregnant, and was shortly after delivered of a boy, whom she entrusted to the Brahmans, and then mounting the funeral pyre perished in the flames. The Brahmans called the boy

* These states are hence called Harauti. It is principally to affect them that our new mission station has been begun at Deoli, where the Harauti political agency is also established.

†The hill of Aji. The word mer or mair means either a hill, in which sense it is the termination of a number of proper names in Rajputana, or a mountaineer, in which sense it is applied to the tribe inhabiting the hills south of Ajmer. Some who adopt the classical spelling write the name Ajmir, because the English generally pronounce it Ajmeer.

Tod inclines to think it may be the Virát era, which would make the city 4000 years old!