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" Such is a brief , but , as far as I know © r-ca . n judge , n correct view of the direct and indirect labours of Missionaries in this ^ quarter of India . Their exertions you will probably continue to think have been great , although it may appear that
they have not been always steady to their main design , prudent in the formation and execution of their plans , or rational and scriptural in the doctrines which they have taught . "—P . 38 .
The statements which follow are so very important , in reference to the great objects of the Correspondence , that we must give them at length . u Real success must consist , either in the spread of that general information
which will enable the natives to judge of Christianity when it is made known to them ; in the diffusion of a knowledge of what Christianity is ; in the gradual relinquishment of idolatry ; or in particular instances of conversion .
( C ( 1 . ) There can be no doubt that general information is gradually spreading throughout Bengal , particularly amongst the high and middling classes of natives , and I have as little doubt that
Missionaries have materially contributed to spread it , either by their own labours , or by exciting the efforts of others , or by calling forth the zeal of the natives to acquire and communicate it .
( 2 . ) They do not appear to me to have been successful in diffusing to any considerable extent a knowledge of Christiunity amongst the unconverted natives . This is true , even admitting that the religious system of the Missionaries is the religious system of the New Testament ; but their success has been still less when
we consider that ih * jse two systems are so much opposed to each other- The doctrines which they teach , with the exception of the incarnation of the Deity , which is an idea very readily admitted by the native mind , are very little known . When they are attended to , in so far as they agree with preconceived notions ,
they only produce the conviction of a community of faith ; in so far as they are understood to disagree , they chiefly call forth expressions of contempt and ridicule ; and in so far as they are either unintelligible or not understood , they excite only a feeling of blank and aimless wonderment . As far as I have been able
to observe and judge , high and low , rich and poor , learned and unlearned , are , with few exceptions , alike ignorant of ttie peculiar evidences and doctrines of Christianity , as well as the peculiar duties and expectations of Christians . An intelligent native will probably be found to receive few specific ideas respecting
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Christianity from the preaching of th « Missionaries . The general impression left on his mind will , I believe , be , that it is a system friendly tcrpolyUieism , but opposed to Idolatry ; representing the Deity as partial in his regards to his creatures , but inculcating a purer aud stricter morality than his own .
e ( 3 . ) Idolatry is , though very slowly , failing itito desuetude , at least among the natives in Calcutta . This , however * I do not attribute to the labours of the Missionaries ; as those who have relinquished it are , if we may credit the Missionaries themselves , more opposed to them than even idolaters . A native gentleman , or
whose authority I can rely , computes that about one-tenth of the reading native population of Calcutta have rejected idolatry ; and of these he supposes about one-third have rejected Revelation altogether , although few of them profess to do so ; and the remaining two-thirds are believers in the Divine Revelation of the
Veds . This latter class have derived their views from those spiritual portions of the Ved which have been recently translated and published in Bengallee . "Pp . 38—40 . As to the number of native converts .
the estimate given from the Correspondence , at the close of our last article on the subject , ( p . 108 , ) is sufficient for our present object . Respecting their intellectual and moral character , we have already seen some means of judgment . Jli the answers
to the third Inquiry , mt . Adam gives , as his opinion , ( p . 45 , ) that , with the very few advantages which the native converts have enjoyed , none , as far as his knowledge extends , have discovered any reach of intellect calculated to
excite the respect of their countrymen , or to promise future usefulness amoog them : and notwithstanding the testimonies borne to their moral character by a writer in the Friend of India ,
( who does not , however , appear always consistent with himself , ) he is not inclined to regard their moral improvement so great as to justify any high satisfaction ; and in this opinion he apprehends that he is borne out by the estimate of other Missionaries who
have had opportunities for persooal observation . This topic he concludes with the following remarks , which arc characterized by that sound , discriminating judgment which displays itself in his replies generally : " From what I have known of them personally , or have received on good au-
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178 Occasional Notices of American Publitationu
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1825, page 178, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2534/page/50/
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