mislead the judgment. Who has not heard of the prodigious power of prejudice in blinding the understanding?

Now there is no subject fitted to excite deeper or stronger feelings than the subject of Religion. Christianity is 'no sooner addressed to the Natives of India than it is intensely disliked. We need not now ask the reason of this; but that such is the fact you are well aware. What is the certain consequence? The native inquirer listens to the reasonings in favour of Christianity with a mind deeply prejudiced against it. He dislikes Christianity and wishes to think it false. In such circumstances nothing is

'easier than to convince himself that it is false. "The wish is father to the thought."

Perhaps you may reply that all this is true, but has no application to you. You say you are unprejudiced, and anxious calmly to examine the evidence. Recollect, my young friend, that the most dangerous prejudices are those of which we are unconscious; and that frequently they who boast most loudly of being free from bias are the most hopelessly biassed of any. Free from prejudice you are not. It is foolish to think you can discuss Christianity as coolly as you discuss a question in mechanics or chemistry. All your hopes and fears are alive, and eager to mix in the debate. Against Christianity you have prejudices as an individual-prejudices as a Hindu-and prejudices as a human being.

Be aware, then, of the danger. Cherish above all things a simple love of truth. Do not attend to Christianity, hoping to find it false; but with the earnest wish that you may find out whether it be true or false. Above all things, ask God to assist you in the inquiry. It is a matter of life or death; -seek your Maker's aid. Pray; pray earnestly; pray frequently., Beseech God to remove your ignorance and prejudice; beseech Him to reveal to you the truth.

My young friend, no one is forced to believe.

Enough

of evidence is given to command his assent, if he will only attend to it; but, if he do not attend to it, he cannot appreciate its power. Here, as in many things else, there is a similarity between Natural Religion and Christianity. As to the former,-God has given men conscience to be a director and ruler within the mind. If they faithfully listen to its voice, they will know their duty and be strengthened to perform it; but they may drown the voice of conscience and thus darken their understandings and harden their hearts. No man is forced to be moral.

No man is forced God has supplied

to believe even the existence of God. proofs not in such number as to compel a man's belief whether he will or not,-but in sufficient number to convince the sincere inquirer. Even so with Christianity. Her evidence is sufficient not excessive.-Religion, whether natural or revealed, never loses the character of a moral discipline. Whether we shall obey its commandments, depends on the moral state of the mind; and even so, whether we shall appreciate its evidence, greatly depends on the moral state of the mind. As long as men consciously and wilfully break the commandments, so long will they have doubts respecting the evidence. The ungodly and immoral-the worldly-minded and frivolous-cannot rightly believe.

Therefore, my dear friend, look well to the moral health of the spirit within you. Seek to be sincere, earnest, childlike. Continually remember how proue you are to error, how easily you fall under the power of prejudice. Lean simply on God. Oh that you could pray to Him. with tears for help!

Do you feel surprise that I bid you pray with tears? When the films of prejudice aud error obscure the mental eye the tears of penitence and love. will best purge them away and enable you to see the truth of God's holy word.

My dear young friend,-you cannot long remain a

Hindu. Education is fast dispelling your belief in the religion of your fathers. What then will you become? A Pársí? No. A Musalman? No. Will you become what is called a Deist-that is, one who maintains that God has not granted any Revelation of Himself-has not spoken to man? We are His children-weak, erring, ignorant, helpless; do you think He has not a father's heart-a father's compassion? Does He not pity us? What, will He coldly leave us to wander on, forlorn and despairing? Surely never! It is a base slander against His infinite tenderness to say so. Say it not; think it not.

Cheerless will be your lot if you end in mere Deism. All that is true in Deism, Christianity also holds; but she has many blessed and consolatory truths peculiar to herself -truths of which your heart stands in need to direct you in life-to support you in death.*

And death rapidly draws on. Soon you and I must give in our account to God-the just, heart-searching, awfully holy Judge. When summoned to His tribunal,. can you meet His piercing eye without trembling? Can you fearlessly look on those thunders which surround Him, and which in a moment may wake to blast you? Can you calmly await the sentence that seals your eternal doom?

My dear young friend, God is not to be trifled with. At His awful judgment-seat I must give account for the spirit in which I write these letters, and you for the spirit in which you read them.

And now, farewell. My earnest prayer to Almighty God is this, that you may be led to believe with all your heart on Christ Jesus, the Saviour of sinners; and that, believing on Him, you may have a peace which the world knoweth not a peace which the world cannot give-a peace which the world cannot take away.

I am,

Your sincere friend.

*See Appendix E.

189

APPENDIX.
A.

The Old Testament.

In the preceding Letters we have considered the evidences in support of the Divine origin of the New Testament. But the Bible consists of two parts, the Old Testament and the New. We shall, therefore, now direct our attention for a few moments to the arguments that can be adduced in support of the Divine origin of the Old Testament.

The Divine origin of the New Testament being proved, that of the Old follows by necessary and immediate consequence. For the writers of the New Testament very frequently quote the Old, and invariably quote it not as the word of man, but as the word of God. "All Scripture," says St. Paul, “is given by inspiration of God." "Holy men of God," says St. Peter, "spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Testimonies of this kind to the Divine authority of the Old Testament are thickly scattered over the pages of the New. Jesus Christ himself, in the most distinct and unequivocal manner, gives his sanction to the Old Testament. He very frequently quotes it as the infallible word of God. He says: "Heaven and Earth shall pass away; but one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled." Thus, we might commence with the inspiration of the New Testament, and employ its aid to demonstrate the inspiration of the Old,-and this is the order which has been recommended in these "Letters," as on the whole the simpler.

Or, on the other hand, we might commence with the Old Testament, and, from its demonstrated inspiration, establish that of the New. We may now briefly sketch an outline of the argument in support of the antiquity, genuineness and credibility of the Old Testament. But it must be kept in mind that the plan on which this work is written, entirely supersedes the necessity of any full and elaborate inquiry into this subject. Even if we had been so ignorant of the history of the Old Testament that we could not have proved its genuineness and cre