import, and whose true meaning cannot be perfectly understood by us."

I anticipate that the Christian reader will prefer the plain import of the inspired volume to the mystical meaning of the Abbé, who himself acknowledges that the true meaning of the passages in question he has not yet been able to ascertain.

The objection that our Saviour himself has not foretold these extensive triumphs of the gospel, is also devoid of weight. It did not enter into our Lord's design to utter copious predictions. A plenary revelation of future events he left to be made by the prophets and apostles. At the same time his communications, so far as they were prophetic, do not in the slightest degree militate against the doctrine in question, but, on the contrary, are confirmatory of it.

Lastly, I may remark that the Abbé himself, in another part of his book, seems to discover a hope that the Hindoos may yet be converted to God, and thereby to give up the great point, for the sake of which he endeavours to annul the prophecies. "This, dear Sir," he "is an says, abridged sketch of the low and abject state of the Christian religion in India. In such discouraging circumstances, without any apparent human means to improve the cause of Christianity in this country, there only remains to the persons

of our profession to look up with calmness and resignation to Him who holds in his hands the hearts of men, changes them when he pleases, and is able even of stones to raise up children to Abraham, when the time appointed by him for the purpose arrives." (pp. 84, 85.)

CHAPTER XVII.

Recapitulation and Conclusion.

WE have now examined some of the principal features of the Abbé Dubois' work against Christian missions in India. It has appeared, in the course of the investigation, that the author, as is evinced by the general tenor of his book, has almost entirely lost sight of the concurrence of divine and human agency in the work of evangelizing the heathen. The consequence of which has been, that by exclusively meditating on the inability of the merely human agent, he has arrived at the exceedingly erroneous conclusion, that there is no possibility" of making real converts to Christianity among the natives in India.”

The author has argued that the Hindoos will not embrace the gospel, because of the persecutions to which a profession of Christianity would expose them; which argument is contrary, both

to scriptural views of God's all-supporting grace, and to fact; many Hindoos having been enabled actually to undergo the persecutions referred to.

He has represented the Hindoos as a people sui generis, and incapable of conversion, because of their peculiarities; which is a virtual denial of the sufficiency of God's blessing to render the labours of his servants successful, and proved to be untrue by the several conversions which have actually taken place.

He has ridiculed the proposed plan of the Rev. Mr. Ward, to impart instruction to Hindoo girls, comparing it to the follies of Don Quixote. This plan, we have seen, has actually succeeded; and there are already upwards of seven hundred Hindoo girls enrolled as scholars.

He has gone the fearful length of asserting, that there is hardly a chapter in the whole Bible, which, if presented to an unconverted Hindoo, would not prove to be calculated to impede his reception of the gospel; and, as it regards the Hindoos, virtually putting the Bible into the Index Expurgatorius, he has laboured to his utmost to discourage the circulation of the Sacred Scriptures in India.

He has condemned a number of translations of the Sacred Scriptures, which he has never read; he has made no allowances for the necessary imperfections attending versions in their early stages;

and has laid down the strange principle, that Indian versions of the Sacred Original ought to be written in "fine poetry, a flowery style, and a high stream of eloquence."

He has, in one part of his book, intimated that a missionary ought on no account to give up his professional undertaking, on account of any discouragement he might meet with, however formidable; notwithstanding which he himself has actually abandoned the work in which he was engaged; and, in other parts of his book, suggests that all other missionaries ought to copy his example.

He has asserted, as one of his fundamental positions, that there is no possibility of converting the Hindoos to any sect of Christianity, and then has pointed out, that above half a million of Hindoos have professed the Roman Catholic form of Christianity, and several thousands have professed the creed of Protestant Christians.

He has represented the interests of the Roman Catholic religion as quite desperate; and at the same time has pointed out one station, in which alone between three and four hundred Hindoos are yearly baptized into the Catholic communion; and stated that, with a suitable reinforcement of missionaries, this number might be increased.

He has stated, that the Jesuit missionaries, his official predecessors, upon their first arrival in the country, announced themselves as European