remotest hope of establishing its system. He will determine whether such a downfall ought to constrain every Protestant missionary to flee from the field in complete despair; or whether, on the contrary, it ought not to be hailed as an animating "sign of the times," teeming with encouragement to every true missionary, to press on with redoubled ardour in the great and important undertaking.

But we must proceed to notice a particular feature in this part of the author's argument, on which, by the tenor of his book, he appears to lay especial stress, namely, his own personal failure in the great objects of his mission. His own want of success he thus reports, and bewails: "All this," he remarks (referring to his adoption of many of the Hindoo practices), "has proved of no avail to me to make proselytes. During the long period I have lived in India, in the capacity of a missionary, I have made, with the assistance of a native missionary, in all, between two and three hundred converts of both sexes. Of this number, two thirds were pariahs, or beggars; and the rest were composed of sudras, vagrants, and outcasts of several tribes; who, being without resource, turned Christians, in order to form new connections, chiefly for the purpose of marriage, or with some other interested views. Among them are to be found some, also, who

believed themselves to be possessed with the devil, and who turned Christians, after having been assured that, on their receiving baptism, the unclean spirits would leave them, never to return. And I will declare it, with shame and confusion, that I do not remember any one who may be said to have embraced Christianity from conviction, and through quite disinterested motives. Among these new converts, many apostatized and relapsed into paganism, finding that the Christian religion did not afford them the temporal advantages they had looked for in embracing it; and I am verily ashamed that the resolution I have taken to declare the whole truth on this subject forces me to make the humiliating avowal, that those who continued Christians are the very worst among my flock." (pp. 133-135.)

With respect to the Abbé's failure, which he thus avows and deplores, I would remark, that it is not at all to be wondered at; and that it in no wise leads to the inference, that no other missionary, be he ever so scriptural in the mode of his operations, can labour with well-grounded hope of success.

We have before seen, that the conversion of the heathen to Christianity is a work which cannot be accomplished without God's special blessing and co-operation. It consequently becomes an important question (as it

respects the inference from the Abbé's efforts having proved abortive), whether the course which he pursued was scriptural, and calculated to procure the approbation and blessing of God. For, if it shall appear to have been of a contrary nature, and adapted to provoke the frown of Heaven upon his efforts, then their fruitlessness is a necessary result, and forms no ground either of wonder or discouragement.

In prosecuting our inquiry into the principles by which the Abbé was guided in his missionary undertaking, let us commence by noticing the account he gives of the conduct pursued by his official predecessors: "They at their first outset," says he, "announced themselves as European Brahmins, come from a distance of five thousand leagues from the western parts of the Djamboody, for the double purpose of imparting to, and receiving knowledge from, their brother Brahmins in India."

After announcing themselves as Brahmins, they made it their study to imitate that tribe: they put on a Hindoo dress of cavy, or yellow colour, the same as that used by the Indian religious teachers and penitents; they made frequent ablutions; whenever they shewed themselves in public, they applied to their forehead paste, made of sandal wood, as used by the Brahmins. They scrupulously abstained from every kind of animal

food, as well as from intoxicating liquors, entirely faring like Brahmins on vegetables and milk; in a word, after the example of St. Paul (1 Cor. ix. 20, 21.) "Unto the Jews they became as Jews, that they might gain the Jews; to them that were without law, as without law. They were made all things to all men, that they might by all means save some." (pp. 5,

6.)

It appears, by the above representation, that the Jesuit missionaries, who preceded the Abbé Dubois in office, were guilty of positive falsehood and deception, avowing themselves to be European Brahmins, come to visit their brother Brahmins in India! and then subsequently adopting a variety of the usages of the Brahmins, the better to keep up the deception.

How far the Abbé has walked in the steps of his predecessors, is a question of importance, as bearing upon the title his book has to the attention of the Christian public.

To assist the reader in forming his judgment upon this point, the writer feels it his duty to remark, that the Abbé seems to approve the conduct of his predecessors, as above set forth, comparing it to the conduct even of St. Paul himself!

But we proceed to notice the Abbé's description of the mode he himself actually pursued :-"For my part," he states, "I cannot boast of

my successes in this holy career, during a period of twenty-five years that I have laboured to promote the interests of the Christian religion. The restraints and privations under which I have lived, by conforming myself to the usages of the country, embracing in many respects the prejudices of the natives, living like them, and becoming almost a Hindoo myself; in short, by 'being made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some,'-all this has proved of no avail to me to make proselytes." (pp. 133-4.)

The Abbé here plainly declares, that he became almost a Hindoo, and then introduces that same passage of Scripture, in vindication of his conduct, which he has employed for the purpose of justifying the conduct of his predecessors.

There is now a passage from the author's quarto work (entitled, 'A Description of the Character, Manners, and Customs of the People of India,') which may with propriety be introduced as throwing yet further light upon the question before us.

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"Having sometimes in my travels," he states, come up to a temple where a multitude of the people were assembled for the exercise of their worship, I have stopped for a while to look on; and the Brahmins, who direct the ceremonies, have come out; and, upon learning who I was, and my manner of living, have