ADVERTISEMENT.

It may be necessary to apprize the Reader, that the late lamented Bishop of Calcutta had intended on his return to Madras, after his Visitation of the Southern Provinces, to appeal to the Christian Community at that Presidency, in behalf of the Venerable Society here recommended, with a view to the formation of an Archidiaconal Committee, similar to those already established in the other Indian Presidencies, and in Ceylon. This only was wanting to complete his Lordship's plan of uniting every part of his Diocese in co-operation with the labours of the Society; for not only had he recommended it himself from the pulpits of all the principal Churches, but had commanded all his Clergy to do the [v/vi] same in their several Stations. After the afflictive event which deprived the Indian Church of its loved and honoured Prelate, and the Incorporated Society of its powerful and unwearied Advocate, the melancholy duty of this last public appeal devolved upon the Author, who begs to acknowledge his grateful sense of the kind indulgence with which he was received, and of the zeal land cordiality by which all evinced their veneration for their beloved Bishop, in the completion of his plans and purposes, in a manner, of all others, the most agreeable to his expressed wishes.

BISHOP'S COLLEGE,
June 14, 1826.

Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified, even as it is with you.

SAINT PAUL, the great Apostle of the Gentiles, is writing to his beloved converts of Macedonia, to comfort and confirm their minds in the faith and obedience of the Gospel. They had concluded too hastily, from some expressions in his first Epistle, that the end of the world was rapidly approaching, and many were disheartened and perplexed. In this second Epistle he corrects that error, and fore-tels the future trials of the Christian Church in many an age of danger and corruption, from the pernicious effect of an anti-christian heresy, which was soon to spring up and trouble them. Having warned them of the coming evil, he encourages them to stand fast, and [7/8] hold the doctrines they had been taught; and then commends them, with all the affectionate earnestness of a tender father, to the power and grace of God.

But his heart, however foil of love for the Church of Thessalonica, was not confined to one field of labour, but diffused itself over every portion of the human race, and embraced in the ample folds of its affection and desire the scattered nations of the earth. He, together with his fellow-soldiers, the Apostles and Evangelists of the Lord, had harnessed himself for that spiritual warfare, which was to cease only with the universal conquest of the enemies of Christ, and the final establishment of his religion. For their success in this holy enterprise, he entreats the prayers of the Thessalonian disciples, and reminds them that gratitude for the privileges they possessed should excite their compassion for others who were yet left in ignorance and sin,--"Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified, even as it is with you." In appropriating these words on the present occasion, you will not wonder that I feel myself in a situation of more than ordinary difficulty and embarrassment. To have brought forward a subject of such magnitude before an audience like this, would, under any [8/9] circumstances, have appeared to me an arduous and perplexing service. But how painfully are thorn feelings increased when I remember m whose place I stand, and how changed from our former hopes are the circumstances under which we now plead our cause before you! We trusted to have made known our plans and purposes by his voice who was never heard but he bowed the hearts of all men as the heart of one man; and we looked forwards with confidence to your willing and efficient patronage when it should be solicited in the name, of the Most High, and by his beloved and honoured servant. But it has pleased the Almighty governor of his Church, "whose power we are little able to resist, and whose wisdom it becomes us not at all to question to order it far otherwise; and whatever our weakness may suggest, far better, is bright and splendid career of Christian labour was abruptly terminated; his plans, almost in the very moment of accomplishment, were left unfinished; and the leader of our peaceful warfare, whose presence imparted hope and vigour to his followers, is removed from them at the very time when his skill and conduct, his spirit and example, seemed to assure them of success and triumph. His loss is indeed irreparable to all that [9/10] were within the range of his authority and influence. Yet something is still left for the survivors; some of those plans may yet be carried forward, and something of the fortune of the day is yet in our own power. For though the instrument is broken, the invisible and directing hand is still near us, and His promised aid is still vouchsafed to our weaker and more humble efforts. It is with us, as with the successors of the first Apostles. The original promise descended together with the duties that were prescribed; and though separated from their great masters at an immeasurable distance, they were bound to labour in the same work, they were supported by the same encouragement, "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world."

I am confident that I do but anticipate the ready and spontaneous feeling of every one that hears me in applying this precedent to ourselves. The plans which occupied his most anxious hopes, and which he purposed to have recommended most warmly to your support, you will not suffer now to fail. I well know the high place he held (and most justly) in your confidence, your esteem, and your affection; and I need only state in plain and simple terms the object which was near his heart to secure for it in this Presidency, not now [10/11] only, but for ever, a prompt and delighted acquiescence. Could I have thought myself excused, most gladly would I have shrunk from this service; yet the privilege I have enjoyed of nearness to him,--a nearness not less of affection than of duty, and especially on points most connected with this subject,--seemed to do away with the impropriety, that would otherwise have existed, of a stranger intruding himself upon your notice. I will be careful to state nothing to you which I have not heard repeatedly from him; and I trust, without fear, to your love for his memory, to pardon every less important imperfection.

You are already apprised of his intention to nave recommended to your notice the Christian labours of the ancient and venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and especially the extension of its missionary institutions to the spiritual wants of our Eastern empire. Before I proceed to state the claims of the Society to your support, I trust it will not be necessary to detain you long with any previous observations on the duty and the, encouragements to missionary exertions in general There was a time, and that too at no distant period, when it was a subject of doubt and hesitation, how far we [11/12] might with safety, or with any prospect of success, labour to extend the religion of Christ to heathen and Mahomedan nations. Happily that age of doubt has passed away. The grounds of the duty are recognized and maintained by every portion of the Christian Church, and by none more strongly than our own; and the encouragements to an unwearied and increasing activity form the subject of thankfulness and joy to every Protestant communion. I must not however pass it over in silence. There may be many of those who hear me, who may wish to be reminded of what they have known before, and many others, perhaps, to whom the subject is entirely new. The time will but allow me a very cursory and confined view of so large an argument, and I must refer you for fuller information to publications which are not difficult to procure, and for plenary conviction to the volume of truth itself.

Assuming then (what I should blush if I thought it necessary to prove in an assembly of professed Christians) the infinite superiority of our religion over every other system of faith and practice, the great duty of missionary labours might be sufficiently established on the very lowest grounds of humanity and [12/13] benevolence. For, on what principle of natural right are we justified in withholding from the ignorant, the knowledge we possess; or from the destitute and afflicted, the aid and the consolation which it is in our power to bestow? And if this natural obligation is strongly binding for temporal blessings, how much more to for those that are eternal! I assume not now the helplessness and hopelessness of the heathen world (for who but God can know the infinite resources of His mercy, and who shall dare to limit the boundless efficacy of the death of Christ?) but simply, that we are in possession of a far purer sad more holy faith, and of hopes and consolations, which to them are utterly unknown; and who, without incurring the charge of selfish and unfeeling cruelty, can deny (even on this principle) to them that be in error, the light of God's truth?

But the Christian stands on far higher grounds m this labour of love; no other than the positive and express command of his Saviour, "Go ye and preach the Gospel to every creature.--Freely ye have received; freely give," The commission he gave to his Apostles, those first Missionaries of his Gospel, knew no other limits than the bounds of the habitable world, no utter termination than the last hour of time. "Go ye and teach all nations, baptizing [13/14] them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you;--and Lo! I am with you always, even to the end of the world." Until that commission is repealed, and that promise withdrawn, I see not how the Ministers of his Church, in any age, who hare entered into the labours of the Apostles, can escape, from the necessity that is thus laid upon them, according to the measure of their talents and opportunities. VAE MIHI SI NON EVANGELIZAVERO! should be the motto, not only of the Apostle of the Gentiles; but of every Christian Church. It should be inscribed on the manual of every Minister of the Gospel; it should be deeply graven on his heart. Woe be to me if I preach not the Gospel! Woe be to me, if from any motive, of fear or selfishness, from any coldness of love to my Divine Master or to the souls of men, I seek not, by every lawful and prudent means to extend to all, the blessedness and the promises of the Gospel! The choice of proper means will require deliberation and discretion:--the duty itself must be undoubtingly and implicitly acknowledged,

Even if it could be fully established, that idolatry were followed by no social evils in its train, if it could be proved--what has been [14/15] so often asserted--that the heathen countries of Asia are less vicious than the nations of Christendom; still there is enough in the very essence of idolatry itself to stimulate our zeal for its suppression. Its rites and observances are in themselves a dishonour to the name of God, and the intricate and elaborate system of its mythology and its sacrifices is not merely the passing insult of a word--(yet even such an insult God is not slow to punish)--but an open, palpable, and lasting defiance to the majesty of Heaven. We are surrounded with their temples and their idols, and are familiarised by long habit with their idle and monstrous superstitions, and the very frequency of these sights has a tendency to diminish, what it ought daily to increase, a feeling of deep compassion for the deluded victims, "who when they know God, glorify him not as God, but become vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart is darkened."

But what is there in this assertion so often repeated, and which it is hardly credible that the assertors themselves can seriously believe--that there is an equal share of social virtue in the heathens of India as in the Christians of our native island! If it be so, I, for one, will gladly exchange the religion of the Bible for whatever system the wit of man may next [15/16] devise. To what purpose are we blind to the experience of those who have had the best means of information; and who have seen and lamented the vices which pervade and influence the whole mass of society in this country? To what purpose do we blot from our memory the records of the moral greatness and beauty of our beloved country? I appeal not to the more splendid monuments of her public benevolence, her refuges for the orphan and the destitute, her schools of learning, her hospitals of mercy; though in these alone she is unrivalled among the nations of the earth; I appeal to the great aggregate of her private virtue, which adorns and beautifies, preserves and hallows the whole frame of her domestic society. It is this that makes her towns great, her villages lovely. And where, alas! shall we look, in heathen lands, for the general prevalence of veracity and benevolence,--for the sanctity of the marriage vow,--the retiring scenes of peace and love, of order and religion, of useful knowledge, of unshaken Royalty, of active and enlightened patriotism? But add to this general character, the lives of thousands of our fellow-countrymen, spent in the most disinterested and unwearied exertions for the good of others; their days of labour, and their sabbaths of holy rest; their lives full [16/17] of whatever can snake life useful and admirable, and their death full of hope and joy--and who can for an instant doubt the determination of the question? We must forget the scenes of our early youth, the friends that we have loved, the parents we revere, the examples that animate us; we must forget the very country that gave us birth, if we do not feel with delighted gratitude the pre-eminence of Christian morality.

But in addition to all this, it is most essential to remember that the nominal Christian, in proportion, as he is immoral, in the same proportion does he depart from the spirit and the requirements of his religion; the Hindu, whatever crime he commits, though it be forbidden indeed by the laws of his country, may yet plead for it the example and the sanction of the very god he worships.

But it has been said, (and if it can be said with truth, I consent to plead before you this day in vain) that, however superior Christianity may be to Heathenism, yet God will look on each with equal favour. I have read, indeed, that the times of this ignorance God winked at, before the coming of his Son--but I also read that now, from the first publication of his Gospel, he commandeth all men every where to repent. That God should have created light, and yet should love darkness equally, were absurd to imagine; nor can it for a moment be maintained, without a contradiction, that the blessed God can equally delight in the homage of those who degrade and insult his majesty, and in their worship who believe the revelation of his will, and obey the Gospel of his Son.

It has been said, also, that whatever be our obligation to missionary labours, yet that it is sufficiently obvious, that we have no reasonable prospect of success;--and we are told on one side that the heathen are too good to need reform, and on the other, with equal positiveness and greater absurdity, that they are too vile for any religion to amend. As to the latter part of the objection, the truth will be found, I believe, as in most points of popular opinion, to lie between the two, They who have the most exalted opinion of the native character will hardly venture to place them above the nations of Greece and Rome in all the meridian splendour of their civilized glory: yet to them, no less than to the savages of Melita, the Apostles proclaimed the name of Christ as the [18/19] only method of salvation. And they who most unjustly despise our heathen fellow-subjects, cannot deny that there are in them the germs of many great and good qualities; nor has it been ever found in the records of past ages, that the inhabitants of the East, under proper cultivation, have yielded, either in intellectual or moral greatness, to the natives of Europe. The truth is, the degradation of their character, whatever it be, is justly chargeable, either mediately, or immediately upon the religion they profess; and this must be exchanged for a purer and better faith, before we can hope to amend the other.

As to the despair of success, it proceeds, in many cases, from defective information as to what is actually accomplished; in others from an unwarranted expectation of an immediate harvest; in many more perhaps from a forgetfulness of, that on which all our hopes are founded, the word and promise of God. Many have actually embraced the faith of Christ, many have adorned it in their lives by an uniform and consistent course of Christian obedience, and have finished their course with joy. Nor can we with greater justice, doubt the sincerity of such men, than that of those who have been born and educated within the pale of the Christian Church, The numbers of [19/20] the converts (I speak not of the converts of Rome and Portugal, which in many districts have brought such disgrace on the Christian name in India, but of bur own Protestant communion) their numbers, in different parts of the Peninsula, and of Hindostan, extend to many thousands: the fruit therefore, even in the present early stage of missionary exertions, has not been small. It may be asked, indeed, what are these scattered thousands compared to the millions of India? and it is a question well calculated to rouse our slumbering zeal,-- but surely of no weight to drive us to despair. The infancy of works like this is reckoned not by years but by centuries; and little more than one century has passed since the first Protestant Missionary arrived in India. This is but the seed-time of the heathen world; and it were indeed a strange delusion to expect the harvest while the early showers are falling, and the seed is not yet committed to the ground. "Behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and the latter rain: Be ye also patient, establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh."

I confess I see nothing in the history of Protestant Missions which the analogy of nature in the operations of God's providence would not [20/21] lead us to expect; and nothing which does not strongly remind us of the first age of the propagation of the Gospel, even in spite of all the difference which results from the miraculous powers of the Apostles. It should be remembered too, in all fairness, that bad the resources of wealth and power been open to us, far more, in the same space of time, would assuredly have been accomplished. While the. Missions of the Roman Church have in times past been fostered with most abundant and even lavish expenditure, and supported by all the power of the pontifical College, our exertions, in a far less space of time, have been cherished only by the benevolence of individuals; and it has only within these few years, and in the Society which I am now advocating, received the official sanction of the Church and Throne of England. The Churches founded fifty years ago in the Peninsula, and which, under the labours of the apostolic Schwartz spread through many villages, and flourished in the faith and obedience of the Gospel, have languished from actual want of means. Such has been the wisdom and prudence of their first founders, that they have in them a principle of self-expansion to almost any extent: and, that too, not in the hasty and abrupt employment of new measures, but as the natural growth of an existing body. Yet this [21/22] healthy and natural growth has been cheeked from mere want of nourishment They need the fostering care of their nursing-mother, the Church and nation of England--they need the labours of a greater number of prudent, and learned, and holy men--they need that fatherly hand, removed from them, alas! at the very moment when it was stretched out to protect and bless them. Let them but enjoy these advantages in future, and the Churches of Tanjore alone will soon silence for ever the objection of the inefficiency of our Missions.

But we hear of some who had received the faith of Christ, and have apostatized from it, Alas! it is most true--but do we not read also of a Demas, who forsook the Apostle, having loved this present world, though the teacher whom he followed was gifted with inspired wisdom, and armed with miraculous powers?--do we not read of many even of our Lord's disciples, "who went back, and walked no more with him."

But this is not all: there are many direct encouragements for our perseverance in these labours of love. I might quote to you the full and express declarations of the word of God, that the religion of the Cross shall one day become universal; but the time would fail me to enumerate even those passages which are obvious and striking. The sublime and [22/23] evangelical Isaiah is full of these visions of future glory. The time of its accomplishment is with God. It is for us to trust in the assurances of his word, that in defiance of all opposition, of the chains of ignorance and superstition; and the still more dreadful slavery of passion, these and all other nations of the world shall hereafter rejoice in the universal advent of the Redeemer. But passing over this general topic of encouragement, which is equally suitable to all ages and all nations, there are some peculiar circumstances in our present relation to this country, which, white they powerfully increase our obligation to labour, encourage also, in an equal proportion, our hopes of success. I mean the undisputed sway of the British sceptre, and the establishment of our Church as an orderly and visible communion in almost every province of the empire. It is hard to conceive, (because it is an anomaly in the moral government of God) that the dominion of this vast continent should have devolved upon a little island of the west, for the sole purpose of aggrandizing her children, without some ulterior design of moral and religious good, of which she might thus become the ready and efficient instrument. And why should we not be permitted to indulge the delightful hope,--suggested not less by the probability of events [23/24] than by an affectionate love for the communion to which we belong,--that our Church, by holding forth the word of life, may be not the least among the honoured instruments of gathering within the fold of Christ the scattered millions of India?

In close and official connexion with this Church is the ancient and venerable Society which it is now my duty earnestly to recommend to your Christian bounty and support. More than a century has elapsed since the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts was first incorporated by royal charter; and during the whole of that period her labours have been wisely and zealously directed to the spiritual wants of the vast continent of America, The fruits of her care and zeal are seen in the episcopal churches of that interesting country, whose stated and regular clergy were originally her Missionaries, as those in the remaining British Dominions of Canada and Nova Scotia are to this day.

The events of later years have encouraged her to extend, the sphere of her labours to the British Empire in India; and a letter from the King, calling upon the governors of our Church zealously to aid her endeavours, enabled her to collect the alms of the Christian public for this especial purpose through the Churches of the [24/25] United Kingdom. It was determined to apply the proceeds of that collection to some plan which might form a solid and permanent basis for their future labours; and they willingly acceded therefore to the suggestion of the first Bishop of India, for the foundation and perpetual endowment of a College for the promotion of this great end. The objects embraced by this institution are various and most important. The first is one perhaps whose utility is most immediately apparent, the reception of Missionaries on their arrival from England,--to prepare them by all facilities, of books, of native instructors, of leisure and advice, for the field of labour on which they are entering; to direct their view, without loss of strength or time, to those studies and pursuits which will best fit them for future usefulness; and thus to make the wisdom of those who have preceded them, available for their encouragement and instruction. They who are at all acquainted with the history of Missions, and who have seen how much of patient labour and ardent zeal has been absolutely wasted during the first years of the young Missionary's residence in this country, from the mere want of libraries, of instruction, and above all, of the advice and controul of those who have already borne the burthen and [25/26] heat of the day, well know how to appreciate the wisdom of this part of the design. A second object is to encourage and superintend translations of the Scriptures, the liturgy, and other religious books, into the different languages of the East, and to take care that no work issue from their press, but with the careful revision and approval of the learned persons connected with the Establishment, and a syndicate of revision specially appointed in each several language, But the chief and most important object of all is the instruction of youth, both Native and European, in sound learning, and religious education, with an especial reference to the sacred office, and thus forming a nursery of future labourers in this vast and important field. These advantages are not, however, confined by the parent Society to those employed by herself alone: they are open to all other Societies connected with our Church; and the only condition required of them is that which gives energy, and weight, and sanction to their exertions, a conformity to the direction and authority of our ecclesiastical governors.

These plans, which the time will not permit me now to enlarge upon, but which I hope to state to you more minutely to-morrow, are now in active operation. The Ministers of the [26/27] Gospel have already issued from its walls, and some whose humble and zealous labours, especially among the Paharees of Northern India, are not without large promises of future success. But the great and essential value of the Institution is not, in the very nature of things, to be fully seen, till they who have nursed its infancy and watched its growth shall have been long silent in the grave. And it is on this ground that I venture most strongly to ask for it your present liberality and your continued support. The plans of individual Missionaries, however useful and admirable they may be, cease with the life of those who gave them birth; and much general effect is lost by the interruption and change of a regular system of procedure. This will be a permanent and abiding source of knowledge and truth to generations yet unborn.

In the earliest ages of the Christian Church, such Colleges were found abundantly useful for the propagation of our holy religion in heathen lands; such were the Gymnasia of Ephesus and Alexandria; and by the aid of such seminaries the light of the blessed Gospel was first communicated and continued in our own land. And why may we not indulge the pious hope, that the building now raised on the banks of the Ganges may, by the abundant [27/28] blessing of Almighty God, (without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy) become the fountain of spiritual light to the nations among whom we dwell?

But to fill up this large and extended outline, the liberal and continued bounty of our countrymen is absolutely necessary. If it be not supported and extended on a scale of efficiency answerable to the plan of its first foundation, much of what has already been expended will be thrown away. It has been called into existence, and kings and prelates have watched over its infancy; but its steps are yet trembling, and it looks earnestly to you to care and provide for its weakness. Much yet remains before it can arrive at its mature and perfect age; when the strength and vigour, which it is now acquiring, will be exerted with successful energy in diffusing, to, the provinces of India, an hundred fold the fruits of your present bounty.

But though this be the immediate object for which we solicit your pecuniary support, it is not by any means the only one, nor indeed, (when the relations of this Presidency are considered) the most important. The Venerable Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge have lately transferred their missions, in this place and in the Southern Provinces, to the Chartered [28/29] Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, as the more directly Missionary establishment, and intend, henceforward, to continue their own future labours to other and more appropriate objects. The formation, therefore, and support of an Archidiaconal Committee of this latter Society, similar to those which have already been formed in the Archdeaconries of Bombay, Columbo, and Calcutta, is peculiarly important here--the very field of their Missionary labours. Upon such a Committee the care of all the different Missionary Institutions of the Peninsula will henceforth naturally devolve; and it was therefore that our beloved Bishop attached so much importance to the measure, and desired its establishment so ardently.

It had been at first his intention to have formed the Committee immediately on his arrival at the Presidency; but he delayed it for two reasons; first; that in the course of his southern tour he hoped to gain a complete knowledge of the actual state of the native Christians, and the necessities of the several Missions, and thus be able to speak to you with greater accuracy from immediate inspection--the other, that he might have longer opportunities of personal intercourse with you, before whom he was to plead their cause, and from the increase of [29/30] mutual esteem and regard, which would naturally have resulted, he might appeal to your liberality with the mom confident hope of full and abundant success. There was, indeed, but little force in this last reason--your love for him would assuredly have been increased by further intercourse, but you did not withhold it from him for a single hour, from the time that he first ministered amongst you at this altar. He could not even then have pleaded with you in vain. The result of his personal observations is a loss never to be repaired, even in that part of his tour which he had already accomplished. You can well imagine how invaluable would have been his mature and deliberate plans for their welfare and revival, when I tell you, that upon those Churches, especially of Tanjore and Trichinopoly, he rested with a complacency and delight which he had felt in no other parts of India, and which (from the unobtrusive character of the Missionaries themselves) he had not expected there.

To the means which were in his power for their future good, he directed both the feelings of his heart and the energies of his mind with unremitting concentration. It were worth a thousand arguments to engage your sympathy and co-operation in the same cause, if you could have witnessed the divine benevolence [30/31] and affection of his manner when those native converts flocked around him, to receive his blessing, and to partake from his hands the consecrated elements, in those holy mysteries which seemed yet dearer to them and more venerable, when administered by him, whom all alike conspired to honour, and in the language of their native land. Had he been permitted to return to this place, to tell you what he had seen and felt, he would have rejoiced to dwell on the numbers, the order, the devotion, of their public congregations, and the general superiority of their moral conduct. And oh! with what touching and resistless eloquence would he then have appealed to you in their behalf, and commended to your powerful kindness these humblest and poorest of his flock! With what earnestness would he have charged you by the love you bear to the Saviour of your souls, by your gratitude to that Blessed Spirit, (through whose sanctifying power alone the sacrifice of your own faith can be accepted) not to cease in your labours of love, till the knowledge of that Saviour is extended to all for whom he died, and the light of that Holy Spirit is diffused, like the light of heaven, over all the kingdoms of the earth. Could he now speak to you from the resting-place of the tomb, or rather from that blessed world whence, [31/32] enthroned in imperfect and intermediate happiness, he looks down on these holy assemblies of the Churches which he loved,--this would be his earnest and affectionate appeal: "Let not the cause of your Master's kingdom be the less dear to you because I was not again permitted to challenge for it, in His behalf, your allegiance and support You repaid my love while I was among you, with all dutiful and affectionate observance; you cherish my memory, now that I am removed from you for ever. I ask from you this proof of your love, that you would impart to others, by means best suited to that end, the blessings you yourselves enjoy--and let your wealth, your influence, and your prayers, be cheerfully directed to this object, that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified, even as it is with you."

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