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the representations of the able advocate of the cause among ourselves ^ the Theological Tutor at York , should become extensively known among the English Unitarians , it cannot , I think , be long before it will be generally acknowledged , that we are called upon to aid in the great work of diffusing the knowledge of the gospel in Hindostan . It is probable that , in America , liberal men , whose doctrinal views do not accord with our own , ( except indeed in those which are , after all , the essential ones , respecting the character
and requirements of our Heavenly Father , ) would unite with us in the sacFed cause . This may be the case * eventually , in our own country ; especially when it is seen , that our object is not to teach what we believe "the truth as it is in Jesus" controversially , but simply as those who are desirous to give those who have not yet received it that sanctifying knowledge by which they may " obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory . " And what is still more , the course pursued by those who act for us in India , may influence ministers of other denominations there who feel the
extreme obstacles which attend the communication of some of those doctrines which so many consider as essential to the gospel . " Christianity , could it be extended to India , " says the Author of the Appeal , " would accomplish an emancipation * from the most cruel bondage , and a rescue from the deepest degradation , of the females and the poor of a country containing a hundred and fifty millions of souls . It would not only annul the iniquitous laws of caste , and bring to nought the iniquitous power of
the Brahmins , but it would give a new character to society , and accomplish a new moral creation . It would give new , and most inestimable associations 3 with the sentiments of home . Tt would annually save thousands from premature death by the hand of violence . What changes indeed and what improvements , even if we look not beyond this life , would it bring to this people 1 "— " But more than all this in making : known to them the true God , and the true way to eternal life , would not Christianity , to say the least of it ,
be a means for preparing them for that life as they cannot now be preparing for it ? Admit that they are to be judged by the light which they have , and not by that which they have not : but was not this as true of the heathens in the time of Christ and his Apostles , as it is now of those Hindoos ? Certainly . And why then , I ask , should Christ and his Apostles have laboured and died in the cause of bringing men to a reception of the gospel * and to
the salvation which the gospel offers ? Show me a good which our religion was designed to extend to those heathens to whom it was first offered , and I will show you as great a good which it will now extend to all in the heathen world who shall receive it . Explain to me the motives by which Christ and his Apostles were actuated in this cause , and I will bring home , to your heart and conscience , as strong motives by which you and I , and by which every Christian , should be actuated in it . "
The diffusion of the gospel in India will , in all probability , be effected principally by means of education . And " what benevolent mind" ( I again quote from the Appeal ) " can look over that vast country with the thought that , by the united and persevering exertions of a few Christian Associations , against many difficulties , and amidst many embarrassments , not less than fifty thousand children are now receiving instruction ; that quite an equal number , who have been taught in the schools of those Societies , are now scattered over India , a very : large proportion of whom can read and do read the Jewish and Christian Scriptures ; and that more than fifty times the number of children , now under instruction , and whose parents are willing that they should receive Christian instruction , might be gathered into schools
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32 Q Reasons for mutual Encouragement and Co-operation ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1829, page 322, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2572/page/26/
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