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life, without having injured either his constitution or his family by the excesses which too often accompany the Hindoo holidays.

Above all, the whole of the profit of his increased and improved energy, is his own. As happily all contributions to temples, to devtas, to brahmuns, to religious beggars, are voluntary under a British Government; from all these continnal taxes on the labor of his idolatrous neighbours, wrung from them often by the dread of curses at which their flesh trembles, the christian native is completely free; and as his missionary teacher takes nothing from him either for common religious services, or for the marriages, the births, and the funerals which occur in his family, the expenses of which, as exacted by the brahmun and the gooroo, sometimes plunge his idolatrous neighbour into debt from which he never rises to the end of life, to say that by his change of religion, every native who embraces Christianity has a clear gain of Twenty per Cent added to his labor to the end of life, is saying little, In energy and real comfort he has far more. He becomes a man; a free, enlightened, just, and affectionate man; and a small community of these, are more than a match for all their heathen neighbours around. They have the advantage over them in knowledge, in energy, in affection, and every virtue. Instead of their being "an expelled, forlorn race," it may be said in a qualified sense of them, as Balaam was constrained to say of Israel when he contrasted their happiness with that of their idolatrous neighbours; "Lo this people shall dwell alone; they shall not be reckoned among their neighbours. Jehovah their God is with them; and the presence of their Redeemer is among them." For every word of unmeaning

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reproach received from their idolatrous neighbours, they have in return a reason to give for their own conduct, and an interrogative to add respecting their neighbours' idolatrous practice, which leaves them scarcely more to say for worshipping the stock, than the stock has to say in its own behalf. When to this we add the light of knowledge and of sound scriptural religion shining around them from its purest source, the Sacred Writings, continually in their hands, and the energetic exercise of benevolence towards their neighbours in their every time of affliction; it will naturally follow, that while those who speak evil of them must be ultimately put to silence by their good conversation, the happiness they enjoy, will sometimes constrain their neighbours to lament their own want of resolution to burst their chains.

It is evident indeed, that however gradually it may be, as long as their Saviour shall be among them, such a community must increase. It is not only certain that God will cause, "the stone cut out without hands" to increase till it "fill the whole earth;" but that such is its natural tendency. It must increase. As long as their grand desire is, to please God, such a community will evidently possess within itself those elements of wealth and power, which must ultimately render it pre-eminent in any country whatever. We were about to add the qualifying clause, if there be no persecution; but we will add, that it will rise to eminence in spite of persecution. This the Christians did in the first three centuries. At the end of that period Christianity was not established throughout the empire, merely because the reigning emperors favored it; rather they found Christianity so firmly rooted in the understandings and affections of men, and idolatry so completely fallen, that no means appeared so likely to establish their own power, as that of

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favoring Christianity.

Had the knowledge of the Divine word been preserved in its purity and vigor among them a few centuries more, it would have destroyed idolatry throughout the whole earth. This the god of this

world knew, and quickly turned the attention of men from the Holy Scriptures; nor ceased deluding them till he had rendered it a crime for any one to read them with a view to understand them for himself. But that no Mission ever yet flourished which was not constantly nourished with the divine word, the Romish missions in India, Japan, and China, afford the fullest proof. When at the very highest, they were withered branches, separated from Christ the "true Vine," which the first wind of persecution might easily lay prostrate in the dust. Of this state of scriptural piety in a mission fed by the divine word, however, our author can say nothing; for he has never seen any thing of the kind. All he can say

is, "I have never given the Sacred Scriptures to the natives; and I have never seen a sincere, undisguised Christian' among them." And this confirms the fact, that in the present day as well as in those of the apostles, it is only by means of the Divine word, that heathens. are "born again," that they "grow in grace," and are "built up on the foundation of the Prophets, and Apostles, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone."

In our author's exclaiming, (p. 14,)" Where is the man furnished with a sufficient stock of cynical fortitude to be able to bear such severe trials?" he only discovers his ignorance of the Scriptures. And has he so learned Christ, that he thinks a christian has no resource under persecution but "cynical fortitude?" Does he know nothing of "being strengthened unto all long-suffering with joyfulness?" Was it "cynical fortitude" that actuated the apostle when, after declaring, "the Holy Ghost witness

eth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me;" he added, "but none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto me, so that I may finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God?" Was it "cynical fortitude" which filled him and his companions "with joy and with the Holy Ghost” when expelled the coasts of Pisidia? With what has our author been feeding his flock in the dreadful circumstances in which he has described them as being placed? He has withheld from them the written word of God, and reduced them wholly to what they could imbibe of it from his own lips; and has he been teaching them "cynical fortitude," instead of dependence on Christ for strength and support? Whose missionary has he been all these years? Has he been Christ's, and neither led his flock to him, nor fed them with his word? What "account" will he "give in" when he appears before the Redeemer?

What his "cynical fortitude" is really worth, we learn. from himself. He tells us, (p. 135,) "In spite of every kind of disgust and contradiction, in spite of the inutility of my pursuits, I am determined after having embraced the profession of a missionary, to continue the desperate struggle and persevere in it to the very last." This ebullition of cynical fortitude is dated the 16th of November, 1816. But behold, in June, 1823, we find him quietly housed in London! "for," says he in his Preface;" at length entirely disgusted at the total inutility of his pursuits, and warned by his grey hair that it was full time to think of his own concerns, he has returned to Europe, to pass in retirement the few days he may still have to live, and get ready to give in his accounts to his Redeemer." Such then is the amount of our author's

'cynical fortitude." Would it be any wonder if all his roselytes in India and their companions in bearing the Christian name, should imitate so heroic an example, and, convinced that Christianity will never take root in India, at once retire to Hindooism or Mahometanism?

Our Author now gives us two pages in praise of his own method of conversing with the heathens on religious subjects. We are pleased to find that " he never forgot the decorum, calmness, forbearance, and mutual rerard, that ought ever to be observed in such cirumstances." Still for a man to extol his own course vho at the same time declares that he never saw it prouce" a sincere, undisguised christian," is somewhat ike a medical man's dwelling with complacency on the exterous manner in which he consigned every patient o the grave who fell into his hands. He might not tell hese idolaters that their idols were nothing but demons, Ithough Paul declared that "the things the Corinthian dolaters sacrificed, they sacrificed to demons:" nor night he plainly declare as the Apostle did; "Be not leceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters-shall inherit the kingdom of God." His spirit might not be stirred within him when he saw them wholly given to dolatry; and hence he might not "dispute in the market daily with them that met with him," nor be termed "a babbler" as was the Apostle. We greatly doubt however, whether this will be found to his honor when "he gives in his accounts to his Redeemer ?" It is certain that his account will differ widely from the Apostle's, who could say in the language of joyful anticipation, "I have fought a good fight; I have FINISHED MY course, (instead of deserting it;)—henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness."

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