enough to sacrifice their lives to his honour); nor to the immolating of the Hindoo Widow upon the funeral pile of her husband's corpse (at which horrible ceremony a Brahmin is present, and commonly the most active person there): I will mention only one case in point, which I have witnessed. It occurred at Courtallum, in the Tinnevelly District. At the conclusion of a Festival which had lasted several days, two kids were presented before the Idol: the head of one was severed from its body, and laid upon the altar, with boiled rice, the blossom of the cocoa-nut, flowers, &c. &c. as an offering-not to the mischievous Hindoo Cohly, &c. &c. but, to the god Ramah!-The second kid was next presented, its ear slit, and then it was suffered to escape*! A holy Brahmin officiated at this

bloody sacrifice."-So much for M. Dubois' pretence that they will be shocked at the very mention of such a thing in Scripture.

The offence taken by his people at the mentioning of the fatted calf (p. 33), furnishes

The Reader will observe the similarity between this and the Levitical Ceremony of the Scape-goat: (Lev. xvi. 7, &c.) ; 1 could not ascertain that it bore any reference to this Jewish Ordinance; the only reply given to all my inquiries being, "It is our custom"-the Hindoos' general answer to such questions, so little do they know of the origin or signification of their own observances,

its own answer. It was his duty to mention it, accompanied with an appropriate explanation, which he, doubtless, gave. If they were dissatisfied or scandalized, he might lament their weakness, but was not responsible for the unfavourable effect produced upon their minds. We are bound to preach the Gospel as it is revealed to us. We must explain it, indeed; but it is at our peril to alter or disguise it, in order to meet the prejudices of any people. While conscientiously fulfilling our duties, as Ministers of the Word, we may safely leave the consequences to God.

A similar reply may be made to their objection at the describing of our Lord as the son of a carpenter, and the naming of the mean occupation of His Apostles. This objection is as old as Christianity: it was advanced by our Lord's own countrymen, against His pretensions as a Public Teacher, (Matt. xiii. 54-58.); and by others, against Himself and his Apostles (Acts iv.) Though He foreknew that this prejudice would exist, yet He chose to appear in that humble station, and appointed to the Apostleship men of the same rank. We have already seen, that the Hindoos cannot be more scandalized by the human origin of Christ and His Apostles, than the Jews were; and we may fairly

conclude, that it was intended thus to humble their pride, and correct their expectations of worldly grandeur and power under Messiah's reign. It is for the destruction of such principles that the Gospel artillery is pointed. Are we then to disguise those circumstances, in the history of Jesus Christ and His first Disciples, which He evidently intended to be made most prominent? Shall we be ashamed of his humiliation? Neither St. Paul, nor any of his Apostolic Brethren, acted thus (1 Cor. i. 23, 24. 2 Cor. xi. 6, 7): and if we adopt a contrary mode of proceeding, we shall only prove ourselves unworthy of the sacred office to which we are ordained.

Not unnecessarily to prolong this discussion, I maintain, and am prepared to prove, if more than is here stated be required, that there is nothing in the objections advanced by the Abbé Dubois that can do greater violence to the prejudices of the Hindoos, than the ceremonies and doctrines of the Old and New Dispensations offered to the notions of the Ancient Heathen. And since, notwithstanding these obstacles, the Cause of True Religion has triumphed, in a greater or less degree, wherever it has been proclaimed, we may reasonably anticipate success even in Hindoostan.

But I would ask the Abbé Dubois, Who does distribute the Bible among the Hindoos in the manner he describes-indiscriminately, and without preparation? Certainly not the Bible Society. I never heard of a single Agent of that Institution thus employed in India. Their specific object is, to procure and publish the most-approved Translations of the Bible into all the Languages of the East. Missionaries, and other persons, are furnished, from the Society's stores, with what number of copies they may require; but in distributing them, they are left to their own discretion. Having been upon the Committee of the Bible Society at Madras, I can bear testimony to the caution exercised in receiving and answering the applications made for supplies of the Scripture. Pains were always taken to ascertain the number of copies likely to be wanted, and whether the person applying for them might be expected to distribute them with care. As far as my experience goes-and it extends to a considerable part of South India-they were given with prudence. Indeed, numerous as they appear on paper, our stock was too small to admit of an indiscriminate distribution among the Heathen. In Tinnevelly alone, we had not enough to supply the Na

tive Christians. Not quite 200 copies of the New Testament were sent to us annually by the Christian-Knowledge and the Bible Societies: we could have disposed of twice the number among our own people and the Roman Catholics alone: and seldom was a copy given to a Heathen, unless it were to one of our own Scholars, who, upon completing their education, generally begged to be allowed to keep their books. To give an idea of the scarcity of the Scriptures in our districts, we had the Gentoo New Testament bound up in Two, and the Tamul in Three Parts, to make them go as far as possible. All this does not look very much like an extravagant and indiscriminate distribution of the Holy Book. Indeed, to use a colloquial phrase, we could not afford it.

The Abbé asserts, that Christians in general are as unprepared to read the Scriptures as the Heathen. This I shall soon shew is not the fact. At present, I will only remark, that, whatever may be the case with his own people, I know many Protestants, and some Catholics educated in our Mission Schools, who are as capable of reading and understanding the Word of God in their vernacular tongue, as the same class of persons in any Christian country.