Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

say the gentlemen lately returned from India. (p. xlii.). I need not repeat the refutation of these falsehoods. Before they were said all to have previously lost cast: but now it seems to be only some of them. Judge, reader, do these men believe what they say? But the whole of them were rescued from poverty, and procured a comfortable subsistence by their conversion," A considerable number of the Christian natives live many miles from Serampore, and subsist in the same manner as they did before their baptism, and without any aid from the Missionaries. The subsistence of others, who reside in the neighbourhood of Serampore, is from the same employment as it was before they became Christians; and those who receive pay from the Missionaries are such as are employed by them. Mr. John Fernandez says, "I have been present almost every time when the converts have professed their faith before the brethren, and have repeatedly heard the Missionaries tell them, that unless they worked with their own hands, they would receive no help from them. Inquirers were always kept for some time on probation. Some of them were Byraggees, a sort of religious beggars but they are no longer so when they become Christians. No one is supported in idleness. If any are bettered in their circumstances, it is by being taught to be industrious and frugal. But many of those whom our author calls "beggars by profession," lived in a much greater fulness by that way of life, than they do now by labour; and it is not very likely that they should have relinquished the one and chosen the other, from interested motives. What is it that kindles the wrath of this man? If a word be spoken against the character of these people while they continue heathens, he is all indignant but if they become Christians, the foulest reproaches are heaped upon them. It is because these beggars are become industrious, and cease to live upon the superstitious credulity of their neighbours, that he is so offended? Does he think the British Government would be overturned, if all the rest of the beggars were to follow their example?

But "one of the Missionaries writes to England, that a hundred rupees a month, would support ten native converts with their families, and a still greater number of single brethren; which,

he says, is undoubtedly true, because the wages of our common servants are but three, four, and five rupees a month.” (p. lxi, lxii.) Why does not our author refer to the pages from whence he takes his extracts? As this passage stands in his pamphlet, it conveys the idea that every native convert with a family, costs the Society ten rupees a month: but if the reader look into No. XVI. p. 171, from whence the extract is taken, he will find, that it is of native preachers that Mr. Marshman writes; who observes, that "while they are thus employed in disseminating the good seed, they cannot be at home supporting their families." It is one thing, surely, to pay a man ten rupees for the support of his family, and his own travelling expenses; and another, to give him the same sum as a common labourer at home.

Major Scott Waring may give as many extracts from our publication as he pleases; but he should not pervert the meaning. He may think us wild and foolish to lay out money in such undertakings; he may call it "ridiculous to talk of the perishing millions of India; (p. Ixii.) he may reckon compassion to a great city, wholly given to idolatry, a proof of the want of common sense; (p. lxv.) but let him do us the justice of allowing us to think otherwise. We are not surprised at his having no compassion for perishing idolaters, nor indeed, at any thing else, unless it be his pretending, after all, to be a Christian; but let him not represent us as employed in' bribing bad men to become bypocrites.

"Some of these converts have been expelled for gross immorality." True, and what then? "Such I am confident would be the fate of the remainder, were not the Missionaries afraid of being laughed at." But why should he imagine this? Does he think the Hindoos all bad men; or do they become such when they embrace Christianity? And why should the missionaries be supposed to retain bad men in their society, for fear of being laughed at! Had they feared this, they had never engaged in the work. Did they fear this, they would not exclude so many as they do; or, at least, would not report it in their letters. I may add, it is not long since they had a fair opportunity to have entireVOL. III.

31

242

ly desisted from their work; and that in a way that would not have incurred the laughter, but possibly the commendation of these men. They might also from that time have gone on to accumulate fortunes, instead of sacrificing every thing in a cause which they knew, it seems at the same time to be hopeless. Surely these Missionaries must be worse than madmen; and the government at Calcutta, and the Asiatic Society, cannot be much better, to think of employing them in translating works of literature.

Once more,

"

"The new orders of Missionaries are the most ignorant and the most bigoted of men. Their compositions are, in fact, nothing but puritanical rant, of the most vulgar kind; worse than that so much in fashion, in Great Britain, during the days of Oliver Cromwell.' We hope the author will furnish us with a specimen. Yes, here it is: "When Mr. [W.] Carey, and Mr. Moore were at Dacca, they write on the Lord's-day as follows: What an awful sight have we witnessed this day! A large and populous city wholly given to idolatry, and not an individual to warn them to flee from the wrath to come. As soon as we rose in the morning, our attention was unavoidably excited by scenes the most absurd, disgusting, and degrading to human nature!" Judge, Christian reader, what a state of mind that man must possess, who can call this language vulgar rant, and adduce it as a proof of ignorance and bigotry! "Could men possessing common sense," he adds, "have written such nonsense as this is, unless blinded by enthusiasm? Had they discovered, that a single Englishman was a convert to the Hindoo, or the Mahometan religion, they would have been justified in giving their sentiments to him, as to his apostacy from the true, to a false and idolatrous religion; but to pour out such unmeaning and useless abuse on an immense population, which merely observed those forms and ceremonies, which had been used throughout Hindostan for above two thousand years, is folly and arrogance in the extreme." (p. lxv.) I wonder whether this writer ever read a book, called the Bible, or heard of any of its languages, excepting a few passages held up, perchance, to ridicule, in some history of the times of Oliver

:

Cromwell! I presume the reader has had enough and as all that follows is little else than a repetition of what has already been answered, interlarded with the usual quantity of low abuse, I shall pass it over unnoticed. I have seldom seen a performance, by a writer calling himself a Christian so full of bare-faced Infidelity. May God give him repentance to the acknowledging of the truth!

« AnteriorContinuar »