and hollow in themselves, but real wonders, wrought in support of falsehood and lies. And we think it far more rational to attribute some at least of the works of the Egyptian magicians to evil spiritual agency, than to attribute them all to legerdemain, or sleight of hand. Does not the devil aim perpetually to counterfeit the works of the Most High? Had he not his false apostles, as spurious imitations of the true? And has he not had from the beginning, and has he not stiil, his spurious Christians, in imitation of the genuine? Then it is quite credible that he will have his "lying wonders," as imitations of the true miracle, with a view to deceive the unwary, and to induce them to accept of falsehood for truth. Before we can allow, therefore, the "wonderful work" to be heard in attestation of the doctrine, we must first be satisfied that the doctrine which it professes to authenticate is good, and then only will the miracle properly authenticate it as Divine. A person delivers doctrine, which is good and useful; he professes to bring it as a message from God, and appeals to his miracles as his credentials. If the miracles are undoubted, they at once authenticate him as a messenger from heaven. For God would not stamp a lie with the seal of His approbation. A holy angel, if even the miracle were supposed to be within the limit of his power, would not accredit a liar; and an evil angel, if he even had the power to work the miracle, and were permitted to use it, would not do so to authenticate a doctrine true and good. So that we have every possible security against deception, and are warranted to receive the Christian miracles as indisputable evidences of the truth of Christian doctrine.

It has been said, however, that no testimony is sufficient to prove a miracle. If this were true, then, as we receive the miracles of Christ merely on the testimony of those who witnessed them, we should be obliged to abandon them as proofs of the truth of Christianity. Spinoza, already referred to, said that the miracle was impossible, that the very idea of it involved a contradiction, since God could not work a miracle without breaking His own laws. The futility of this objection we have just seen. Hume admitted the abstract possibility of miracles, but maintained that if they ever had been wrought, the facts were incapable of proof. He would have allowed a man to believe a miracle if he had seen it with his own eyes, but affirmed that it was impossible for any testimony to furnish satisfactory proof to one who had not witnessed it.

His argument has been so often refuted, that it will not be worth while to spend more than a very few words on it. He asserts that it is always more probable that the miracle itself is false, than that the testimony which affirms it is true; that, in balancing the probability, the evidence against the miracle will always preponderate. Or, to state the principle on which he founds his argument in the brief clear words of Paley: "It is contrary to experience that a miracle should be true, but not contrary to experience that testimony should be false." This argument, however, though so much lauded by infidelity at one time, is a transparent fallacy, as will appear on even a slight examination. "It is contrary to experience that a miracle

should be true:" the word "experience" must be understood either in its general or particular acceptation. If the latter, then the argument is irrelevant; it can prove nothing, either on the one side or the other. For to say that a miracle is contrary to my experience, that I have never witnessed one, and therefore that my experience can bear no testimony in the case, is to say nothing to the purpose; for it is quite possible that, though I have never witnessed a miracle, some one else may. Indeed, properly speaking, the miracle is not contrary to my experience; for my experience does not witness against it. It has simply nothing at all to say, either for or against. But if the word "experience" be taken in its widest sense, as referring to the experience of all men, in all ages, this is to assume the very point in dispute; to assert, without the slightest proof, that there never has been a miracle, in any age, or in any country. There is a similar ambiguity in the word "testimony," which must be taken to mean, either all testimony, the testimony of all persons, and under all circumstances, or some particular kind of testimony. If it be taken in the former sense, then it clearly begs the argument, taking for granted that all testimony is incredible. If it is to be taken in the latter sense, then, while we admit that some sorts of testimony are unworthy of credit, we maintain that in regard to others no reasonable and unprejudiced man could withhold his assent. Thus we are brought to the real gist of the matter,—whether the testimony which we have in proof of the Christian miracles is of a kind to give entire satisfaction, to command the assent of a thoughtful, unbiassed mind. And we affirm, most confidently, that it is.

We have said that there are some sorts of testimony which would compel the assent of an unprejudiced mind. For example, if a number of men of known probity, and without having the slightest motive from self-interest to deceive, there being a moral certainty that their testimony would damage their reputation and worldly interests,-should nevertheless affirm that they had seen with their own eyes a man covered all over with leprosy, perfectly cured in an instant, by a word or touch, who could hesitate to believe it on such testimony? Nay, so far is it from being the fact, as Hume assumes, that there is always a probability against the truth of the testimony, there is a sort of testimony which would compel, our assent, even though we knew that the witnesses, considered separately and singly, were altogether unworthy of credit. If a number of men were to assert that they had seen a leper instantly cured of his disease, and, without concert, were each to furnish a circumstantial account of the affair, not only agreeing in the main, but of such a nature that their separate and independent narratives could be dovetailed into a beautiful and harmonious whole, who could withhold his assent, even if he knew that the word of not one of them, taken by itself, was to be trusted? The ground on which we yield our assent in such a case is the substantial agreement of the testimony in the absence of all concert. For the only principle on which we could account for the uniformity of the testimony in such a case, would be the truth of the fact testified.

Our object has been simply to show that miracles are capable of proof from the evidence of testimony,-not to advance any formal proofs of the truth of the Christian miracles. This would involve an argument on the authenticity of the New Testament, which is beside our present object. (To be concluded.)

ZIEGENBALG AND BESCHI.*

NO. IV. LABOURS AND DEATH.

"THE venerable Ziegenbalg," as he has been reverently called in Mission history, did not live to be an old man. On the contrary, he died young. When he and Plutcho arrived in India, in the year 1706, he was twentytwo years of age. His labours and successes therefore were crowded into the short space of thirteen years; for he finished his course in the year 1719, at the age of thirty-five. By this brief career, and early death, one is reminded of other Missionary worthies, such as John Hunt in Fiji, and Henry Martyn in India, as indeed of many more. Such names are held in honoured remembrance, not because they laboured long, or bore titles of dignity, secular or ecclesiastical, but because of their devoted toil, and their Divine success, in the cause of Christ.

When the two companions landed in India, after a long and perilous voyage, the sight of the poor Indians, for whose sake they had left country and friends, deeply affected them. Their eyes filled with tears, and, lifting up their hearts to God in earnest prayer, they besought Him that He would enlighten these dark souls with the beams of eternal truth. They painfully appreciated the sinful and perilous state of the Heathen in the sight of God. The debasing idolatries of the Hindus excited their jealous concern for the honour of Jehovah. Under the conviction that there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we can be saved, they longed to proclaim the "faithful saying, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." By the study of the Acts of the Apostles, and by prayer, they braced up their minds to the task allotted to them, adopting for their motto, Adeo facti sumus Christiani, ut plus de futurà quam de hac vitâ laboremus.†

As there was work to be done among the Portuguese Romanists, as well as among the Tamil Heathen, the two friends cast lots for the division of labour. The result soon illustrated the folly of substituting hap-hazard in the place of calm and deliberate judgment. A short trial having proved

* The concluding paper on "Ziegenbalg and Beschi" has been delayed, not by carelessness, or oversight, but from its having been inadvertently misplaced before it was sent to the Editor. As this paper is complete in itself, it may be accepted as a section of early Mission history in India; or it will be at the option of the reader to turn to the articles under the same heading in last year's Magazine.

This motto, in Latin and in Tamil, written and signed by Ziegenbalg's own hand, is in the library of the Wesleyan Mission House,

that Plutcho had neither capacity nor perseverance for acquiring the language of the natives, he was content to take the easier department of labouring in Portuguese, and to yield up his lot-given task to the superior ability and energy of Ziegenbalg. Plutcho returned to Europe in 1711. In order to the acquisition of a perfect knowledge of the native tongue, Ziegenbalg read all the Tamil writings he could obtain over and over again. He endeavoured to acquaint himself with the meaning of every word, and to understand thoroughly every phrase. While thus engaged, he composed a copious vocabulary for his own use, and wrote out a Grammar of the language. He acquainted himself with the High Tamil also, and read the native classics, containing their histories, their ethics, and their mythology. He thus obtained a familiarity with native literature, which proved of the highest advantage in his discussions with the people. It enabled him to declare and confute their errors, as well as to set forth in clear contrast the doctrines and precepts of the Gospel.

In composing Tamil books for the instruction of the natives in Christian truth, Ziegenbalg purposely avoided the poetic style, which was much affected by Beschi, and which is common to nearly all Hindu writers. He avoided the introduction of Sanscrit words and phrases not commonly understood, and which give such an air of learning to the writings of Robertus de Nobili. He designed plain truths for plain people; and by his publications began a course of prose literature in the Tamil language which has gone on increasing, until it has reached the extent of a respectable library, invaluable to the Missionary and to the native Christians.

Little more than two years after his arrival, Ziegenbalg commenced the translation of the New Testament. This was the first attempt to give the uncorrupted word of God to the natives of India in their own language. The Romish Missionaries had been two hundred years in the country, and some of them had been very learned and able men; but they never seem to have thought the Bible necessary for their converts. They gave them "Lives of Saints," "Directions for Confession," "Catechisms," and "Comedies," or "Plays," to be acted in the churches at certain festivals; they invented and set up images for their adoration, in emulation of the surrounding Heathen idolatry; but the sacred Scriptures, the pure word of God, they did not give them. This honour was reserved for the first Protestant Missionary. The translation was completed in about two years and a half; but, in deference to advice from home, its publication, as a whole, was deferred for some years. Opportunity was thus afforded for frequent revision. It has been justly remarked that, as the first translator of the book of God into a vernacular, Ziegenbalg has a much better claim than Francis Xavier, or any other modern Missionary, to the honourable title of "the Apostle of India."

Ziegenbalg's reading ana studies had thus early prepared him for contending in argument with the most learned of the idolaters; and not the least interesting of his writings are the records which he has left of his discussions with Brahmans, and other eminent Hindus, on the subject of

religion. But it is a fact, worthy of observation, that the first converts to Christianity under his ministry were slaves, who, five in number, were received into the church by baptism, having been made partakers, as he hoped, of "that liberty" with which Christ makes His people “free." While the learned and powerful rejected the Gospel, the poor received it, and God was glorified. Slavery in all its forms is now abolished in India as far as the influence of the British Government extends, and the relation of master and servant is thus improved to the advantage of both.

The freedom of transit from one territory to another was not readily accorded in those days. In 1709 Ziegenbalg attempted to make a journey beyond the narrow bounds of the Danish territory; but he had not proceeded many miles before he was challenged by the officers of the Tanjore Rajah, stimulated, as it was supposed, by his fiercest opponent, the Jesuit Beschi. He was not allowed to proceed. His design of preaching the Gospel in "the regions beyond" was frustrated; whereas at the present day a Missionary may travel the whole country, and preach wherever he can find a people willing to hear him.

In the same year there occurred an amusing illustration of the dis trust entertained towards the natives by the British Government in India. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts sent a present of twenty pounds sterling in money, and a case of books, for the Missionaries in Tranquebar. This consignment arrived in Madras in the month of October; and two special messengers, natives in whom the Missionaries had confidence, were dispatched from Tranquebar to take charge of the property. The authorities in Madras declined to intrust the consignment to the care of Hindus; and M. Ziegenbalg in person had to undertake the journey, in order to secure the benevolence of his English friends! The journey and return would involve about three hundred and twenty miles of uncomfortable travelling, and would occupy at the least from eight to ten days.

From the Society just named the Danish Mission received very liberal supplies of money, and of materials for the press, both during the life of Ziegenbalg and at later periods.

But the Missionaries occasionally suffered great embarrassment from the want of adequate support. The first subsidy, sent from home, of two thousand imperial pieces, was lost in the sea near Tranquebar. The Mission family and agency were now so enlarged that forty or fifty imperial pieces were required to meet the expenditure of each month. But where to raise so large a sum the Missionaries could not divine. They were ready, in the spirit of sacrifice, to endure the greatest privation themselves; but they could not endure the thought of the orphan children and the domestics suffering want. While they were harassed with these painful apprehensions, they providentially obtained a supply of money. A person from whom they could have little expected it, offered them forty imperial pieces to keep in trust until the arrival of the ships from Europe; and when this was expended, others offered them two hundred imperial pieces on