blessings which he has the opportunity of dispensing? Indeed, in a happier moment, he can say, "As a most sincere, and most undisguised Believer of the Divine Origin of the Christian Religion, and firmly persuaded that this Religion alone can render man happy in this life and in that to come, my most earnest wishes have always been to see it believed and professed by all mankind, and extend its dominion, its mild and genial influence, all over the World, and among all Nations:" (p. 47.) Why, then, has he forsaken the Missionary Cause in the East, and done his part to deter others from entering upon the same undertaking? He will doubtless reply, as he has already said, because he thinks the Conversion of the Hindoos impracticable. Suppose this were conceded; yet his own admission, just cited, of the effect it is calculated to produce in the World, and which it has already produced in India, condemns his deliberate abandonment of that Idolatrous Land. Allowing, with him, that the Native Roman-Catholics are not True Christians, yet to effect even the minimum of good which he admits that they have derived from Christianity, is worth all the pains and expense bestowed upon them. But Protestant Missionaries, notwithstanding the con

temptuous manner in which M. Dubois speaks of them and their works (pp. 17-21. 25, 26. 51, 52, &c.) have met with still better success; and I now proceed to explain the nature of the means they have used.

Their main instrument is the Bible. Though the Abbé seems amused at the idea of giving the Scripture to the Hindoos, and thinks it the least likely instrument to effect their Conversion, (pp. 1, 2, &c. &c.) yet I maintain, that it is the most effective that ever was, is, or can be, employed. For this purpose the Evangelists wrote their Gospels, and the Apostles their Epistles. The earliest. Missionaries of the Church of Christ translated the Bible into the languages of the Nations they endeavoured to convert. So far back as the Second Century, we have accounts of the Syriac, the Egyptian, the Ethiopic, and the Old Latin* Versions. In the next Century, Origen, and other Missionaries, translated and dispersed the Scriptures, in various Languages. Indeed, until the Papal Supremacy was established-when means more characteristic of Mahomedanism than Christianity were used to convert Infidel Nations ; when Cardinals and Bishops were seen lead

This Translation is known by the name of "The Italic."

ing armies to the field, to extend the dominion of Christ by fire and sword-till then, the Translation of the Bible into the language of a country, in order to effect its conversion, was considered a measure of primary importance. And with reason: for that Blessed Book imparts knowledge that is able to make men wise unto salvation, and that in a manner adapted to every capacity. Though it contains Mysteries that are beyond the comprehension of the Learned-much more of the Illiterate-yet is there sufficient, that is calculated, at once to enlighten the understanding, arrest the attention, convict of sin, engage the affections, and, in a word, convert the soul to God: (Ps. xix. 7. Heb. iv. 12.). This then, if any thing, is adapted to rouse the Hindoo from his mental apathy; and quicken him in the paths of life.

When it is considered, also, that the Bible is the only Revelation of the Nature and the Will of God ever vouchsafed to man; that it contains all the information which we have of Him who was sent to be" a Light to lighten the Gentiles;" there can be no question, in the unprejudiced mind, about the neces sity, and the duty, of giving the prece dency to this, among the various means used for the Conversion of the Heathen: for the

sacred light of the Scriptures can alone dispel the moral, the mental darkness which overshadows India, and every other Pagan Land. I know that the Abbé Dubois objects to the present Versions of the Bible in the Oriental Languages-to which I shall presently reply: but this will not serve him as a refuge here; for, when endeavouring to explode the idea of converting the Hindoos by giving them the Bible, and to prove the absurdity of the attempt, he speaks in the most unqualified terms of the Scripture itself, as unsuited to the purpose, without reference to any specific Versions: (pp. 27–33. 121, &c.)

His principal reasons for this conclusion are, because "the Sacred Book contains, in almost every page, accounts which cannot fail deeply to wound their feelings, by openly hurting prejudices which are held most sacred." "What will a well-bred Native think," he asks, "when, in reading over this Holy Book, he sees that Abraham, after receiving the visit of Three Angels under a human shape, entertains his guests by causing a calf to be killed, and served to them for their fare? The prejudiced Hindoo will at once judge that both Abraham and his Heavenly Guests were nothing but vile Pariahs; and, without further reading, he will

forthwith throw away the book, containing (in his opinions) such sacrilegious accounts." "What will a Brahmin say, when he peruses the details of the bloody sacrifices prescribed in the Mosaïcal Law, in the wor ship of the True God? He will assuredly declare, that the God who could be pleased with the shedding of the blood of so many victims immolated to his honour, must undoubtedly be a Deity of the same kind (far be from me the blasphemy!) as the mischievous Hindoo deities Cohly, Mahry, Darma-rajah, and other infernal gods, whose wrath cannot be appeased, but by the shedding of blood, and the immolating of living victims.""But, above all, what will a Brahmin, or any other well-bred Hindoo, think, when he peruses in our Holy Books the account of the immolating of creatures held most sacred by him? What will be his feelings, when he sees that the immolating of oxen and bulls constituted a leading feature in the religious ordinances of the Israelites; and that the blood of those most sacred animals was almost daily shed at the shrine of the God they adored? What," &c. &c. &c. (pp. 28 -31.) After mentioning several other instances, he concludes thus: "I could point out, in almost every chapter of Holy Writ,