absolution. Not being able to bear this expense many are put out of caste forever.

There is a prophesy in the Bhagabat that brahmans will in time lose their influence over the sudras, and that time is represented as being the very consummation of the evil age. (12 Bk. 2, 36.) “Sudras shall become Bramhacharís, Vaishnabs, and Sanyásis. Being proud of a little knowledge, they shall revile the way of the baids. The brahman shall become the disciple of the sudra and speak to them the instruction of incantations. They will be called excellent gúrús and be raised to eminence. Brahmans being ignorant will salute them. Such will be the feature of this evil age, men will become so wicked." What could be better calculated to make men look with horror to that unfortunate time, than such a prophesy as this? Numerous other passages might be quoted, showing how ingeniously brahmans have contrived the phraseology of the shástras, so as to render their very names sacred.

3. It is well known that worshipping the gods is another means the shástras mention, by which men may obtain salvation. Their sacred books say there are 33,000,000 (10 Bk. 3, 113.) "The thirty-three millions of gods who are under Bramha, Shiba, and Indra, all assembled in the city of Mathura, and each one saluted the feet of Daibaki, the mother other isha." Thus they all acknowledged their inferiority to Krishna, marking ce it appears to be more important to worship Krishna than include Almost every chapter closes by declaring that by worshipping O alone, salvation is to be found. But notwithstanding Krishna cons highly exalted, any man is at liberty to worship his favorite god, arch the certain promise that he shall find salvation by so doing. This actrine is founded upon the belief that God animates all things, and Hence let us worship what we will, we worship him. (11 Bk. 3, 8) Narayan sits as the eternal cause in all bodies." (10 Bk. 25, 61)" My gods are the wilderness and the mountains, the water and the air that I enjoy."

By the following passage we see how important it is for one to serve the god of his own fancy. (10 Bk. 25, 31.) "The man who is covetous orships not his favorite god, has to the least pleasure and enters into isfortune."

4. Bathing is mentioned as another method of finding salvation. When brahmans bathe, they repeat the names of the following rivers and tanks with a wish that they may bathe in them, Ganga, Ganga Narayan, Modadhí, Rohenachí, Bata Krishna (and some others.)

These appear to be most renowned in the shastras as sacred places of pilgrimage. After referring to several of these sacred waters, it is said, (5 Bk. 20, 19:) "He who practises bathing daily will find salvation from endless sins." "Whoever bathes in these waters whether men or beasts put all sin at a distance and will be filled with pleasure."

5. Another celebrated way mentioned in the shastras, is by performing austerities, called tapusya. By using this means, it is believed, a person may be born in the body of a brahman or a god, that he may enter one of the heavens and remain years, centuries or ages, just according to his amount of merit, which when exhausted he may again fall. Bramha, Vishnu, Shiba, Indra, and in fact all the gods are believed to have ob. tained their inheritance in this way. The nature of the services to be performed by Vaishnabs varies according to their peculiar sect; but the grand object of all is to destroy the bodily passions and appetites through a rigid course of discipline. Among the numerous devotees Dhruba is one of the most noted. His history begins with an invocation to Ganesh (6 Bk. 8). "I salute the water-lily feet of the son of Ambika, whose name among all the gods is the opposing king. Thy moon-like beautiful aspect, thy diadem-hair, falling about thy breasts, fascinating to the

t:

mind. Thou quaffest ambrosial waters, O thou holder of the noose and the iron hook! By virtue of whose sight the ties of this world are broken, for pure words proceed from thy lips. Be propitious to my mind, O Lambadara! and I will declare the words of the Bhagabat, that saves from this world. Among the services of devotees, that which is most excellent I will relate even the history of Dhruba.

The substance of this history is as follows. In ancient times there was a great king whose name was Dakyaprajápatí. He married two wives Suruchi and Sunati, of whom the first was his favorite. In process of time each of his wives bore a son. The name of Sunati's son was Dhruba the hero of this history. When the two boys were about seven years old the king was one day, according to his custom, holding both upon his knees. Suruchi seeing this, and knowing herself to be the favorite queen, was emboldened to address Dhruba in the most reproachful language. She told him he had no right to sit upon his father's knee with her son, as it was clear from his having been born of the less beloved wife that he had suffered no austerities in a former birth. This was more than the proud spirit of Drhuba could bear, and with eyes filled with tears, he goes and unbosoms his feelings to his mother, who though she sympathizes with him still affirmed that what' Suruchi had said must be rue, an advised him to repair to the forest immediately. Dhruba, alt Loy. tender an age resolves to go and secure such an amount of merit pears raise him above all his enemies. When his mother saw hish this determination, her maternal sympathies began to triumph over is But in spite of all her dissuasions her son was stelfast in his purpis and immediately repaired to the dense wilderness and commenced ascetic life. So great was his tapusya that it soon made heaven an earth to quake! The gods, fearing that he would obtain such favour of Vishnu as to rob them of their respective dominions, repair to the court of Indra for counsel. Indra after listening to their complaint, replied that if they would break his tapusya, they must resort to such means as was calculated to affect children, either fear or sympathy. Accordingly they first filled the wilderness with the hissing of serpents and yells of wild heas awful thunders and vivid lightnings; but all this did not move t intrepid spirit of Dhruba. This plan failing, they resort to another mor likely to succeed. A demon takes the form of his own mother, comes to him with hair all in confusion, clothes rent, and countenance grief-worn. In this plight she clasps him to his bosom, telling how much abuse she had suffered from Suruchi since his departure; that she had wandered over hills and dales, among brambles, serpents and beasts of prey, and now that she had found him he must go home with her, for he had already suffered too much for so small a child. But Dhruba, suspecting all this to be some trick of the gods, paid no attention to her entreaties. As Indra would give no further counsel, the gods now go to the court of Bramha, who after hearing an account of their fears told them not to be concerned, for the child would never interfere with their dominions, for he had already obtained sufficient merit to raise him far above them all. Soon after Vishnu appeared and took him to the 14th heaven! and as the story closes, "Thus he who was not permitted to sit upon his father's knee was admitted to a seat in the 14th world."

Numerous stories of this kind are related in the Bhagabat, and are taught to children at a very early age. You cannot be at a loss to perceive what a baleful influence they must have upon the youthful mind. In the first place they serve to fan the worst passion of the human heart, envy. Out of envy a man goes to perform austerities, and out of envy all the gods engage to disturb him. Again when we warn them to forsake their evil ways and turn to the Lord, we can see in their very coun

tenances such language as this: "This is the temptation of some incarnate demon, to break my constancy, like the temptations to which Dhruba was exposed." A short time since a man said to me after listening to the gospel, "Ah! this is the way of the world's temptations. The Moguls first came to this country and after eating up the merit they had secured in a former birth, were succeeded by the Mahrattas, and their store of merit becoming exhausted they were succeeded by the Musalmáns, and when they had devoured all their merit, you English came in to take your turn; you will soon go the way of the world, and why should we renounce our faith for the creatures of a day." What a death-blow this sentiment strikes at the very root of all intellectual or spiritual improvement.

6. Not only those who perform tapusya find this kind of salvation, but those persons who even see them. Dhruba obtained a seat for his mother with himself, (6 Bk. 8, 10,)" With his mother he sat down in the northern sky, and even by beholding him the pain of three ages will be destroyed." (11 Bk. 2, 90.) "Whoever sees a devotee, will cross over the waves of this world."

These are the chief means for obtaining that salvation which consists in sensual enjoyment, and is the result of ceremonies. There are several other ways mentioned, but I think all are included under these heads, as marking the face, repeating the names of the gods, and pilgrimages, are included in bathing and in serving the gods.

O how different is such sensual indulgence from that salvation that consists in deliverance from sin, communion with God and eternal life; and how different are such vain ceremonies from serving God in spirit and in truth! I hope in my next to give some account of the means to be used to secure that kind of salvation which is said to consist in absorption into the Deity.

E. N.

V.-Geography of India.

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Holding as we do that all truth is worthy of being known, and that all sound knowledge is valuable, and that every advance that is made in science has in one way or other a bearing upon the state of mankind in their relation to God, we do not consider ourselves to be going a single step out of our territories when we notice any attempt that is made, either for the general improvement of the human mind, or for the promotion of the interests of any particular department of science. But while we hold that all science and all truth has a bearing more or less remote on the future and eternal destinies of man, in subserviency to that grand truth which is the foundation stone on which the eternal destinies of all must be reared, there are some departments of knowledge which have a peculiarly direct bearing upon that grand enterprise for the accomplishment of which the Christian Church is retained upon the earth; and among those none holds a more prominent place than the science of Geography. The field which

the Christian Church is commissioned to occupy, and to sow with the incorruptible seed of the word, is the WORLD; and comparing great things with small, a correct knowledge of the world is just as necessary to the Church, as is a correct acquaintance with his various fields, with their several soils, exposures and capabilities, to the agriculturist. Although this statement on the first blush of it will we believe command general assent, yet its importance is so great that we shall take the liberty to dwell a little further upon it.

In all works that are to be achieved by human agency of a mechanical or an intellectual kind, there is one principle whose application is requisite in order to attain the full and proper productiveness of that agency;-that principle is "the division of labour." The essence of this principle consists in this, that no man shall be employed to perform any work which may be performed by one of inferior skill or ability. Now from the nature of the missionary work it clearly appears that there is no department of human labour to which this principle is more strictly applicable, or to which there is more necessity for applying it. Every man whose heart is touched with the love of God, who has tasted and felt in any degree the preciousness of Christ the Saviour, is fit for some department or other of the Missionary work, but he is not necessarily fit for all the branches of it. Just as the stones and the beams of the temple were hewn and squared on the mountains, and prepared and fitted each one for its own place in the sacred edifice; and as each one was fitted for occupying its own place in the building and no other, so in the Christian temple the lively stones are all fitted for their several positions; if removed from these positions they will not occupy any others so efficiently or so well. To take some examples. What would Luther, the brightest luminary that has been raised above the horizon since the days of the apostles, what would he have been had he been placed in other circumstances than those in which by the good Providence of God he was placed. What would Bishop Butler have been as the pastor of an illiterate and unsophisticated congregation? or in our own day, and to take an example more closely in point, what would the lamented John Williams have been had he been planted among the subtle bráhmans of India, or what Henry Martyn among the savages of New Zealand? The simple common sense of the one would have been overwhelmed in the whirlpool of sophistry, the exquisite sensitiveness and sublimated taste of the other, which so grievously racked his frame amidst a refined people, would have paralyzed all his energies amidst a barbarous race. These are examples by which God

evidently shews that he does design his servants for particular stations, and assigns particular stations to particular classes of men. Now in order to follow the leadings of providence, and be free of the charge of working in opposition to the designs of God, the Church is bound to possess herself of all the knowledge she possibly can attain, regarding the different quarters of that field which her Divine Master has committed to her to be cultivated. She ought to possess such a knowledge of her whole territories, (for the world is all her own, as she is Christ's and Christ is God's) as to be in no danger of ever leaving any open door unentered, or sending a man to that portion of the vineyard for which he is not best fitted. Hence follows at once the importance of the science of Geography in its direct bearing upon the Missionary enterprise. Indirectly too, through the medium of its influence on trade and commerce, it must exercise a powerful bearing on the missionary work*.

And while the importance of Geography is so great, we believe there is not to be found in any language any work from which the church can gather more than most remote inferences for her guidance in the allocation of her various laborers. Take even India, which is like a world in itself, inhabited by different races of people, of all varieties of intellec

• We have been favored by the projector of the work with the following interesting and eloquently written extract of a letter, dated 26th February, 1840, to the Rev. D. A. “I was much struck with a train of thought strictly in accordance with the views I have brought before the Christian Public at home, and which I think have been sadly overlooked or under-estimated. In the instructions of the Prudential Committee of Missions in America to the brethren proceeding to Asia Minor I find the following admirable observations: The Imperial warrior who lately convulsed the civilized world with his ambitious schemes, always made himself thoroughly acquainted with the nations he designed to conquer; their geography, numbers, government, character and history he studied as means to his favorite end, with the characteristic ardor of his great but perverted mind. Facts were the lights by which he marched his armies through Europe, and none were unsought, or deemed unimportant, which might affect the issue of a campaign or a battle. And in this minuteness and accuracy of information, combined with a capacity to adapt the means at command to the end in view, lies the secret of practical wisdom.

"Remember that you also are soldiers engaged in a warfare, and in a war of conquest. And though the contest be spiritual, of mind with mind and heart with heart, and your weapons spiritual and rendered powerful by divine aid, yet is there the same demand for inquiry and information, the same scope and necessity for discretion and forethought, as there were in the military enterprises of Napoleon. Indeed to a very great extent your inquiries will relate to precisely the same classes of objects; though you will survey them from other points of view, associate them by different relations, and estimate them by another species of arithmetic and measure

ment.'

J.