I trust, my young friend, you feel the importance of all this. Do not fall into that practical Atheism of which I spoke in my first letter. One thing is certain,-unless

you do, both at the commencement and during the whole continuance of your religious inquiries, earnestly plead for the blessing of God, there is not the shadow of a reason to hope that you will ever come to the knowledge of the truth. Unless you are willing and anxious to implore Almighty God to give you His enlightening grace, you may spare yourself the trouble of reading these letters; they cannot possibly do you any good. I must own it is quite beyond my power to impart any spiritual benefit to a man who will not pray; and I tell you plainly beforehand, that, if you do not read these letters with prayer, you will only scoff at them. Again, then, I would earnestly entreat you, pray. God will assuredly hear you, if you do so. "Ask, and you shall receive; seek, and you shall find."

IS THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION A REVELATION FROM GOD? That is the important question which we must now deavour to answer.

defined.

en

We

Let us first attend to the meaning of the word RevelaRevelation tion. It originally signifies unveiling, uncovering, or making known. In this sense God might be said to reveal or make Himself known in various ways. He does so in the works of nature around us; He does so in the constitution of the human mind. cannot look, for example, on the sun, without being convinced that it must have had an intelligent and powerful author. We cannot contemplate truth or falsehood, without feeling that the one is pleasing, and the other displeasing, to God. I say, we might apply the word Revelation

to the intimations of the Divine existence, character and will, which are thus obtained; but, in fact, the word is seldom or never so used. When we speak of any religious system as being revealed by God, we do not refer to that manifestation of Himself which God makes in human

Reason and Conscience, and in the works of Creation. By Revelation we mean something beyond this. We mean by it that God, in some supernatural way, makes Himself known to His creatures. Every Hindu, Muhammadan and Pársí will readily comprehend this meaning of Revelation. The Muhammadan term ilhám has pretty nearly the same signification; and the Muhammadan believes that the Law, the Psalms, the Gospel, and the Kurán were all thus revealed by God. The Hindu holds that the Vedas and Shastras contain the Revelation which God has made to the Hindus. The Pársí believes the Zendavestá to be a Revelation. The book which is commonly known by the name of the Bible, the Christian believes to contain an infallible Revelation of the will of God.

Revelation.

Many writers have shewn at great length the necessity and the probability of a Divine Revelation Necessity and probability of being given. I shall not at present dwell on this subject; some thoughts as to the exceeding desirableness of the blessing may fall more naturally under consideration in a future letter. In the meantime, it will be a sufficient demonstration of the necessity of Divine instruction being imparted, if we point to the immense and melancholy differences on religion that exist even in our own city. Amid this endless diversity, and doubt, and conflict, how precious should be any authoritative declaration of God's will--how unspeakably welcome to all humble and teachable hearts! The best and greatest of the philosophers of Greece longed for such a message from above; and the aid which the gifted Plato sighed for, surely the youth of India may not reasonably or safely disregard.*

* There are several passages in Plato that speak of the need of a Divine Revelation. Sometimes he seems to refer to an original Revelation which had partly been handed down by tradition. Sometimes he expresses a desire for a Revelation still future. See most of these passages quoted in Clarke's Boyle Lectures on the Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion, Prop. VII. The following interesting

LET. H.]

REVELATION DEFINED.

11

On the subject of Revelation, it is of consequence to observe that Christians, Muhammadans, Hindus, and Pársís are all to a certain extent of one mind. All of them maintain the same opinion against the infidel or deist. "Man needs no Revelation from heaven," says the infidel. "He does need a Revelation from heaven," reply, with one voice, Christians, Muhammadans, Hindus, and Pársís, "God has actually given no Revelation," says the infidel. "He has given a Revelation," exclaim the followers of all these four religions. So far, then, they are agreed; and this agreement is exceedingly important. How earnestly is it to be desired that they might also be of one mind on a third point, viz. as to the volume which actually contains this greatly needed and ardently desired expression of the Divine will! Let Christians, Muhammadans, Hindus, and Pársís frankly, but kindly, state their mutual differences of sentiment, and see whether they cannot assist each othein the search after the true Revelation. There need, surely, be no quarrelling on such a matter. If we discuss it in a harsh polemical spirit, we shall greatly err. Let each man strive not to vanquish an enemy, but to help a brother. The arguments that may be brought forward to shew that the Bible contains a Divine Revelation, are exceedingly numerous. I do not wish passage is in Plato's Phædo. "To discover the certain truth about these things [i. e. the immortality of the soul &c.] is, in this life, either impossible or most difficult. Still, to fail of diligently inquiring into them, or to stop short before we have carried the inquiry as far as we can, would be the mark of a most ignoble spirit. We must then by all means do one or other of two things. Either, we must learn (from others), or find out, the truth; or, if that be impossible, then we must take the best and surest of human reasonings, and embarking on that, as on a frail raft, sail over life's perilous ocean; UN

Plan of this
Work.

LESS ONE WERE ABLE TO PERFORM THE VOYAGE WITH MORE CERTAINTY AND LESS PERIL UPON SOME SURER MODE OF TRANSPORT, SUCH AS A DIVINE REVELATION.

Nearly all the later Platonist and Pythagorean philosphers admitted the necessity of Divine Revelation. See on this subject Leland's Advantage and Necessity of the Christian Revelation, parti. chap. xxi.

Different

arguments.

to state the whole of these ;-I am desirous of making these letters present a satisfactory view of the argument, but at the same time a short and simple view. A mathematical proposition may frequently be demonstrated in five or six different ways, but the mathematician is satisfied with one complete demonstration. In like manner, I shall be satisfied if I can give you one convincing chain of reasoning in support of the truth of Christianity. My object is, not to let you see all that can be said on the subject, but to exhibit in a brief compass an argument that ought to command your assent. If you desire to have fuller and more elaborate statements you can afterwards turn to some of the many elaborate works in which the question is discussed. We may first attend to the different classes or kinds of argument which have been brought forward classes of to establish the truth of Christian Religion An illustration will make this matter plain. Suppose a young man in Bombay receives an important message, which purports to have come from his father in a distant village. In this case, the young man has two ways of judging whether the message has really come from his father or not. In the first place, he may examine the character of the men who have brought the message. He inquires whether they are honest, well-informed, acquainted with his father and the locality from which they say they have come, and so on; and from the decision which he forms as to the character of the messengers, he judges of the genuineness of the message. Or, in the second place, the young man may examine the message itself, and see whether it corresponds with what he already knows respecting his father, his character, employments, wishes, &c. Very probably, every young man in the circumstances which we have supposed, would carefully examine both the character of the messengers and the character of the message, before he finally decided as to the truth or falsehood of the information brought him. Suppose, for example, he

is told that his father is thought to be dying, and wishes him to give up his present employment in Bombay and return home. The young man, in that case, would doubtless ask whether any letter on the subject had arrived; and, if one was offered, he would carefully examine the hand-writing; he would observe whether the statements it contained regarding his family were correct. He would next, question the messengers to see whether they really were acquainted with his father, his family, his village, and so forth,and then, putting all these things together, he would decide whether he ought to go home or not.

We proceed in the same way, when we examine the evidences of a religion that professes to be a Revelation from God. Christianity is such a religion. Christianity is a message delivered to us by Jesus Christ and his Apostles; and the message purports to have come from heaven,-Jesus Christ and his Apostles declare they were sent by God. We may, therefore, either inquire into the character of the messengers, their opportunities of knowing, their honesty, and so on; or, we may ask whether the message which they deliver, is such a message as would probably come from God. From nature and our own mental constitution we already know something about God; consequently, we may compare the message brought to us by Christianity with the knowledge we already possess,—and see how far these two things correspond with each other,

If we proceed in the former way, we attend to the External Evidence; if in the latter, we attend to the Internal Evidence.*

External and

Both of these branches of Evidence are important, and both ought to be carefully studied; but young Internal Evi- inquirers should commence with the former, as being decidedly the less difficult of the two.

dence.

* The External Evidences may be subdivided into Historical,Miraculous, and Prophetical. There is also a third branch of the Evidence, viz. the Experimental.