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immorality of the Hindoos, he hesitates not to assert, that their general character is actually superior to that of Europeans: (p. 152-163.) We have already seen how differently he can write, when he has another object in view-that he can represent the Hindoo as entirely destitute of charity, if his purpose be to shew the impracticability of converting him from his depraved condition (p. 113); and can go so far as to assert, that, "in order to make true Christians among the natives, it would be necessary, before all things, to erase from the code of the Christian Religion the great leading precept of charity :" (p. 63.) But when he wishes to contravene Mr. Ward's more charitable and more rational inference from the same premises-viz. The necessity for their conversion-he actually asserts, that they are more charitable than Europeans: (p. 159.) I leave it for him to reconcile these contradictory statements; and also to explain how it is possible for a man to be a "true Christian," without charity: while I go on to argue, that if he will admit that some Europeans have been really converted to the true faith of Christ, the possibility of converting the Hindoos must follow as a fair and natural conclusion. Supposing that he believes

his own statement respecting their superior virtues to be correct, he cannot fail to perceive that they must be more promising subjects for the reception of the Gospel, than the inhabitants of Europe.

Again: "When I behold them prostrating themselves before their gods of stone and brass, I exclaim," he says, "Such were our ancestors, and so did they; and so would we ourselves do, had not God, through his infinite mercy, taken us out of such an abyss of darkness, in order to illumine us with the bright light of his Divine Revelation! Let everlasting thanks be returned to Him, for this the greatest of all his divine favours in this life:" (pp. 114, 115.). Surely the man, who penned this sentence, forgot himself when asserting the impossibility of converting the inhabitants of India! The only legitimate

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inference from these remarks is not that of M. Dubois, that the Hindoos cannot be converted, but that since, by his own shewing, they are no worse than our own ancestors were, the same “infinite mercy" and "bright light of Divine Revelation," which were vouchsafed to these, may, in the day of God's power, be extended also to the idolaters of Hindoostan. And if he rightly appreciates "this greatest of all the divine favours in this life,"

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and feels grateful to God for it, he renders to the Lord a very unsuitable return for so unspeakable a mercy, when exerting his utmost ability to prevent its diffusion throughout the habitable globe. Christ is glorified in the conversion of sinners, from vice and idolatry, to faith, and holiness, and love. M. Dubois would persuade us to extinguish His glory in the Eastern World; to deny Him one jewel from the countless multitudes there, to decorate His crown'; to disappoint His anticipation of as goodly a company from the East as from the West, to. "sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven:" (Matt. viii. 11.)

The Abbé contends, that in no country in the world has the Christian Religion had to encounter the stupendous obstacles that are to be met with in India;-that the sufferings which Hindoo Converts would have to endure, must for ever operate as an insurmountable barrier to the introduction of the Gospel among them. By embracing the Christian Religion," he says, a Hindoo loses his all. Relations, kindred, friends-all desert him. Goods, possessions, inheritance, all disappear. The spiritual tyranny and cunning of the priests, and the baneful division of the people into castes, present (as he asserts)

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such impediments to the propagation of Christianity in India, as have never existed in any country whatever: (pp. 13, 14. 97-99.) Can the Abbé Dubois need to be reminded of the absolute controul held by the Scribes and Pharisees, in the days of our Lord, over the minds of their countrymen? Does he not know how entirely they gave the tone to the public feeling, and led the national opinion? What is there in India that can exceed the mental thraldom in which the Jews were held by their Rabbis? (Matt. xxiii. 4, 13. Luke xi. 52.) In short, we have only to read the account of the character and proceedings of the Jewish Rulers, given in the Four Gospels, to be convinced that every Israelite who embraced Christianity, at its first introduction into the world, had, at least, as much to encounter as can possibly await the converted Hindoo: (John vii. 46, &c. ix. xii. 42. xix. 38.)

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There is nothing whatever, in the case of the Hindoo Convert, so bad as what our Lord candidly led his Disciples, of every age and country, to expect, as the consequence of their fidelity to His Cause:-"The brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to

be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men, for my name's sake:" (Matt. x. 21, 22.) "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household:" (Id. 34-36. Mark xiii. 9, &c. Luke xii. 49, &c.) M. Dubois himself knows, that, whatever losses, or privations, or reproaches, the Hindoo may have to encounter on embracing Christianity, his life is protected by the British Laws, which would condemn to the gibbet the murderer of the humblest individual.

Christ forewarns His Disciples, that the time would come, when whosoever killed them would think that he did God service: (John xvi. 2.) Hindoos would persecute a relation embracing the Christian Faith, more out of regard for the reputation of their family and caste, than for the honour of their gods. And I believe it will be generally allowed, that persecutions arising from religious bigotry have always been more obstinate, furious, and cruel, than those which have originated in other causes. The Hindoos therefore, on embracing Christianity, have less to fear than

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