tation, that the Roman Catholic religion has failed to produce its effects, and that its interests are become quite desperate.

Supposing it, however, to be true, that the Roman Catholic cause in India has indeed been entirely lost, it would not be a difficult matter to shew, (to the conviction of every Protestant at least), that the declension and ruin of the cause of the Romish religion in India is a good omen to Protestant missionaries, and calculated to lead them to take courage, and press onward; for the annihilation of popery in India would be the removal of a stumbling-block out of the way, which has hitherto checked the conversion of the natives to Christianity.

The images and other modifications of idolatry adopted by the Roman Catholic church, have proved a real hindrance to the spread of Christianity in India. One day when I was preaching to a pagan congregation, a Hindoo told me that I was guilty of idolatry myself, and that I only wished to turn his countrymen from one idol to another. I asked him how he could prove what he asserted. He immediately referred to the images he had seen employed by Roman Catholics in the neighbourhood, at the same time putting himself ludicrously into the attitude of one of them; and it was not till I had fully explained my views as a Protestant, and disclaimed

such a practice as a violation of the command of God, that I could stand my ground, and prove the real difference between idolatry and Christianity. But of the real usages of the Romish Church in India, let the Abbé himself be adduced as a witness.

"Seeing then the empire of the senses over those people," he remarks," and that their imagination was only to be roused by strongly moving objects, the first missionaries among them judged that some advantage might result to the cause of religion, by accommodating themselves as far as possible to their dispositions. Agreeably to this idea, the ordinary pomp and pageantry which attend the Catholic worship, so objectionable to the Protestant communions in general, were not judged by them striking enough to make a sufficient impression on the gross minds of the Hindoos. They in consequence incumbered the Catholic worship with an additional superstructure of outward shew, unknown in Europe, which in many instances does not differ much from that prevailing among the Gentiles, and which is far from proving a subject of edification to many a good and sincere Roman Catholic.

"This Hindoo pageantry is chiefly seen in the festivals celebrated by the native Christians. Their processions in the streets, always performed

in the night time, have indeed been to me at all times a subject of shame. Accompanied with hundreds of tom-toms (small drums), trumpets, and all the discordant noisy music of the country, with numberless torches and fire-works: the statue of the saint placed on a car which is charged with garlands of flowers and other gaudy ornaments, according to the taste of the country,— the car slowly dragged by a multitude shouting all along the march the congregation surrounding the car all in confusion; several among them dancing, or playing with small sticks, or with naked swords: some wrestling, some playing the fool; all shouting, or conversing with each other, without any one exhibiting the least sign of respect or devotion. Such is the mode in which the Hindoo Christians in the inland country celebrate their festivals. They are celebrated, however, with a little more decency on the coast. They are all exceedingly pleased with such a mode of worship, and any thing short of such pageantry, such confusion and disorder, would not be liked by them." (pp. 68--70.)

The reader will now judge whether the termination of the Romish religion in India should be deemed such a total failure of Christianity, and such a bankruptcy of all Christian hope, as to justify the Abbé in drawing the inference, that no other sect can flatter itself even with the

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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