mighty works, and heard the heavenly discourses, of Jesus, said, "He hath a devil, and is mad :" (John x. 20.) They accused Him of "casting out devils, by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils:" (Matt. xii. 4.) This crime of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, our Lord did declare to be unpardonable: (Ib. 31, 32.) But no other sin whatever, not even the bitterest invectives or most malicious slanders uttered against Himself, nor the greatest cruelty inflicted upon His sacred person, did He exclude from the hope of pardon.

What facts, then, does the Abbé advance, in proof of the Hindoos having committed this unpardonable offence? "The Christian Religion," he says, "has been announced to the natives of India, without intermission, during the last three or four centuries; at the beginning with some faint hopes of success, but at present with no effect." p. 42.

Admitting, for the sake of argument only, that what he alludes to was the unadulterated Gospel, and that its rejection constituted the unpardonable offence; still he ought to know, that it has been preached to a comparatively small proportion of the hundred millions who inhabit the Indian Continent. How then, upon the principles of Scripture, or common

justice, or the feelings of humanity, can he reconcile to his conscience his sweeping condemnation of the whole, for the transgression of the few? Neither our Lord nor his Apostles acted thus towards the Jews. Though Jesus declared, that such as had blasphemed against the Holy Ghost could not be forgiven, yet did He continue to labour, and pray, and weep, and suffer for the rest. St. Paul expressly declares, that, as a nation, they were not rejected by God: (Rom. xi. 1, &c.) while he and the other Apostles continued to exert themselves, as already shewn, to promote the conversion of their brethren. Then, even though M. Dubois be correct in charging those Hindoos who have rejected the Roman-Catholic mode of faith with committing the unpardonable sin, yet, by what Scriptural authority or precedent does he turn his back upon all the other natives of India, and doom them to the irrevocable curse of Almighty God? A revelation from Heaven can alone justify such conduct! St. Paul required no less to divert him from his purpose, when he designed "to preach the word in Asia," and "assayed to go into Bithynia:" (Acts xvi. 6-8.) And I am persuaded that I utter the sentiment of every consistent Christian, when I declare, that nothing short

of a manifestation of the Divine Will, equally unquestionable, should induce Missionaries to abandon the vineyard which they occupy in the East.

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The Abbé Dubois seems to think that the instructions given by our Lord to His Disciples, when He sent them forth to preach, (Matt. x. Mark vi. Luke ix, and x.) are sufficient to vindicate his abandonment of the Hindoos. Happy would it be, indeed," he says, "had the divine instructions given by Christ to his immediate Disciples, in these chapters of his divine work, been followed by a great many of those styling themselves their successors." The instructions" to which he refers are, that they should immediately depart from all who returned not their salutation and rejected their word: (pp. 44, 45.) The Abbé assumes, that the modern Missionary has precisely the same duty to perform, and is placed in the same circumstances, as those Disciples of our Lord; for without this, his argument falls to the ground. But I protest against his assumption. In those chapters, our Lord is not (as the Abbé affirms) investing His Disciples "with full powers to preach His divine Religion to all people." He merely charges them with a temporary office; viz. To an

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nounce that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. This proclamation He expressly directs them to make to the Jews only; charging them not to go "into the way of the Gentiles," nor even to enter "into any city of the Samaritans ;" but to " go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel:” (Matt. x. 5, 6.) He also invests them with power to perform miracles, to prove that their commission was divine: (ver. 8.) Where they were not welcomed, they were forbidden to remain, only because they had not time then to stay in order to convince gainsayers. It was a hasty journey; and, therefore, it was not necessary to provide either gold, or silver, or brass, in their purses; nor scrip, nor two coats (a change of apparel), nor shoes, nor yet staves, (vv. 9, 10.) Their time was very limited: consequently, they were not to suffer themselves to be detained unnecessarily, but to move on with the greatest possible speed, in consistency with the fulfilment of their commission. "For verily I say unto you," their Master adds, " ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of Man be come:" (ver. 23.)

Should the Abbé refuse to admit this brief explanation of the circumstances under which the Seventy Disciples were sent forth

by our Lord, yet, before he can establish his point, he must prove that the cases are parallel that all the Missionary has to do in India, is, to proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is at hand-that he has ocular demonstration to produce of the divine authority by which he speaks and acts-and that circumstances are such as to require him to pass through the country in haste. And when he shall have succeeded thus far, (which he must for ever despair of doing,) still he will have to shew, that the Gospel has been actually preached, with fidelity, to the inhabitants of every town and village in the East-and that it has been pertinaciously rejected by every one of them-before the instructions of Jesus Christ to His Disciples will authorise him to shake off the dust of his feet against the whole race of Hindoos.

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He further quotes the example of the Apostles, and particularly that of St. Paul: (pp. 46, 47.) But, notwithstanding the obstinacy and cruelty with which they were driven from various places, we nowhere find that they deliberately abandoned the nation of Israel to their obduracy and unbelief. St. Paul, especially, returns again and again to persecuting cities, and even to Jerusalem, though it was testified to him, by