tainty of the history of Muhammad-and of the Kuran-Im- Internal Evidence-Contradictions in the Kuran-Its false LETTER XIV. Brief recapitulation and application of the argument of the LETTER XV. EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE-This argument very important-- LETTER XVI. - Brief retrospect of the argument of the preceding Letters- ments, best appreciates her evidence-Indispensable necessity Old Testament-Its authority can be proved from that of Doctrine of the Resurrection-Confined to the Christian Re- velation and systems derived therefrom-Views of ancient phi- losophers-Egyptians-Pársís-Doctrine of the Resurrection LETTERS TO INDIAN YOUTH ON THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. LETTER I. INTRODUCTION. THE IMPORTANCE OF RELIGIOUS INQUIRY. MY DEAR YOUNG FRIEND, In compliance with your desire I take up my pen to express in the form of letters some thoughts on the truth of the Christian Religion. It is with very great pleasure I commence this correspondence. The state of things in Bombay in regard to religion fills my mind, as it fills the Education in mind of many others, with anxiety and sorBombay. row. We see in this city a large and continually increasing number of young Natives who are zealously engaged in the pursuit of learning, and many of whom have already made considerable progress in not a few of the branches of a liberal education. The attention devoted to the study of English is every day increasing. A large number of young Maráthí Bráhmans and of Pársís are studying our language, and a very considerable proportion of the other castes is following their example. Knowledge is rapidly spreading; European arts and sciences are extending themselves,-European ideas are rapidly supplanting opinions that have been handed down unquestioned for thousands of years. The tide is flowing; and the current of new thoughts that is setting in cannot be turned back, but will carry away all that attempts to arrest its progress. It is very pleasing to note the zeal with which many of the youth of India have entered on various branches of study; and the attainments which they have actually made are highly creditable to them. We may hope that a sincere love of knowledge is extensively diffused among Native youth. No feeling can be nobler than the love of truth; no occupation can be nobler than the search for truth, and the communication of truth to others. It is a pleasing thing, then, to hope that many of the youth of India are at present diligently engaged in the search after truth in the various branches of study which occupy their attention. But there is unquestionably one subject which enters far less into the consideration of Indian youth than its supreme importance demands. That subject is Religion. Diversity It has often been remarked that the island of Bombay exhibits an extraordinary diversity of races, of races in which are distinguished from each other by Bombay. their peculiar manners, and often by their peculiar complexions and costumes. What an exceedingly animated scene does the Esplanade present every evening about sunset, when it is crowded with people from almost every country of Asia and from various parts of Europe and Africa, clad, as they generally are, in garments of the most brilliant hues and picturesque forms which are striking in themselves and rendered doubly so by their mutual contrasts. A diversity of this kind is pleasing to the eye, nor does it in the least degree pain the reflecting mind. By all means, let the Arab and the Persian, the Malay and the Chinese, the Asiatic and the European, each retain, if he desires it, the peculiar dress and manners of his country; at all events, no harm is done by the variety. But there is another diversity, which affects us with very different feelings-I mean, the immense diversity in religious belief and religious practice which prevails around us. In the small island of Bombay itself, Diversity of Religions in we have the four great distinctions of ChrisBombay. tians, Musalmans, Hindus, and Pársís, besides others that are of less importance. The differences that obtain among the religious systems now mentioned are, if possible, still greater than the remarkable dissimilarities in complexion, costume and language, that exist among the various races congregated in our city. I have just said, my young friend, that such wide differences in religion are deeply to be lamented. You are a Hindu; still, I expect you will agree with me in the opinion. It is true the general belief of the Hindus is that Almighty God has allotted various religions to the various races of men, and that each race can best secure the Divine favour by practising its own system. But no well educated Hindu can entertain such a sentiment. The moral qualities of things in no degree depend on climate or locality; they are fixed and immutable, they are in India what they are in England. The attributes of the Supreme Being are eternally the same; His will remains unchanged yesterday, today, and for ever; the dispositions which He regards with complacency, and the worship which He accepts, are the same in all times and places. But the four grand religious systems which prevail in Western India, viz. Christianity. Hinduism, Muhammadanism and Pársíism, are, in many points, irreconcilably opposed to each other. What is permitted by one of these systems is often forbidden by the rest; what is enjoined by some as a means of securing the Divine approval, is condemned by others as fitted to cali down the Divine vengeance. It is wholly impossible that all these conflicting systems can be true. If some of us have embraced the truth, others must be trusting to falsehood and delusion. Now, it is a most melancholy thing that error should . |