nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." (1 Cor. vi. 9-11. See also Eph. ii. 1—5. Coloss. iii. 5-7. &c.)

Then let us not despair of the Hindoo, bad as he confessedly is! The same Almighty Being, who shewed mercy to the depraved Corinthians, is able-and who dare say He is not willing?-to deliver "the natives of India" also from the bondage of corruption, and translate them "into the glorious liberty of the Children of God."

Easy were it to prove, that the Hindoos are less culpable before God, than the Israelites who were cotemporary with our Lord and His Apostles. They have as yet manifested little of that perverse temper which led the Jews, at one time, to take offence at the strictness of John the Baptist; and, at another, at the freedom of Christ: (Matt. xi. 16-19.) They have not yet resisted those incontrovertible evidences for the truth of Christianity which were vouchsafed to the

Jews, who had the testimonies of prophecy, of John the Baptist, of miracles, and of a voice from heaven. Consequently, the Hindoos, in rejecting the Gospel, could not be so culpable as the Israelites were, even though it had been stated to them in its purity, without any admixture of human error or device. Our Lord himself hath declared thus much: (Matt. xi. 20, 21.) Bad as the Hindoos are, they are not worse than the inhabitants of Sodom.-No (M. Dubois may rejoin); but these miserable people, with their city, were destroyed by fire and brimstone from heaven.-True: yet our Lord declares, that it shall be more tolerable for them, in the day of judgment, than for the inhabitants of Capernaum, and, consequently, for every other people who rejected Him, notwithstanding the evidence he gave them of His divine character and authority, by performing many mighty works in their presence: (vv. 23, 24.) The more numerous the religious privileges which we enjoy, or the opportunities that we may have for securing our salvation, in the event of our neglecting to avail ourselves of them, the more tremendous will be our doom!

I am, then, at a loss to divine how the Abbé Dubois can reconcile to his mind his

abandonment of a people under the circumstances of the present inhabitants of India -and from his avowed conviction, that they lie under the irrevocable curse of the Almighty, and are doomed to eternal reprobation! (p. 42.) The gracious Redeemer was much more merciful to the Children of Israel, though their offences were greater, and His own precious blood cried aloud from Calvary in judgment against them. In the prospect of their rejection of Him, and the mercies which he proffered them, He uttered a tender lamentation over their devoted city: (Matt. xxiii. 37.) Ere He bowed His head in death, He breathed forth this pathetic, this compassionate ejaculation, Father, forgive them! for they know not what they do:" (Luke xxiii. 34.) He commanded the Apostles to begin the preaching of repentance and remission of sins at Jerusalem : (Id.xxiv.47.) Accordingly, St. Peter, having reproved the men of Israel" for denying "the Holy One and the Just," and killing "the Prince of Life," exhorts them to "repent and be converted," that their "sins may be blotted out;" and encourages them to hope for mercy: (Acts iii. 13, &c.) St. Paul most feelingly lamented their state, with "great heaviness and continual sorrow

in his heart;" for "he could wish himself accursed (separated) from Christ for his brethren," &c. (Rom. ix .1, &c.) For some time after our Lord's resurrection, the other Apostles also confined their ministry to the Jews; and even when, upon the persecution which arose after the death of Stephen, they were scattered abroad, very few of the Disciples travelled beyond the land of Palestine (Acts xi. 19, 20); and wherever they went, they invariably addressed themselves, in the first instance, to the Israelites: (Acts xiii. 46, &c.) Nor did they abandon Jerusalem, notwithstanding all they suffered, and the partial success that attended their labours there, until the signal for their departure, which Christ had given them, appeared: (Matt. xxiv. 15, &c.) The destruction of their city and temple was suspended fortythree years after the Crucifixion; and during the whole of that period, they were admonished, again and again, to look on Him whom they had pierced, if haply the blood which they had shed might wash away their crime.

Such were the feelings of Jesus Christ and His Apostles towards the Israelites-a people, than whom no other nation has been, or can be, placed in a situation to commit the

greatest of pardonable crimes. To them alone has the Lord of Life and Glory been "manifest in the flesh;" and, consequently, none but they can have had the opportunity of shedding His precious blood.-Then, will any uninspired mortal be so presumptuous, as to pronounce any other nation under heaven to be irrevocably doomed to eternal misery, and that for crimes of inferior magnitude, and committed under less aggravating circumstances? Or, will he be so unfeeling as to act upon that presumption, by ceasing to labour, and by exerting his ability and influence to dissuade others from labouring, to bring them to the knowledge of "the only true God," and to the faith of the only "Mediator between God and Man?" (1 Tim. ii. 5.)

In

The Abbé Dubois is aware, that, in order to justify such a conclusion and such conduct, it is necessary to shew that the Hindoos have committed the unpardonable sin; which he, accordingly, endeavours to prove. what, I ask, does that sin consist? Is it not the attributing of that to the power of Satan, which the reason of every unprejudiced mind were sufficient to convince him that nothing short of Omnipotence could effect? Thus many of the Jews, when they beheld the