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spiritual unity, have no room for consistent objection to the Christian doctrine. If Christ has adequately manifested the Divine Being incarnate, any speculative difficulty in reconciling such a manifestation with fundamental unity, belongs equally to many of our Indian systems. So again, whatever difficulty is found in predestination, cannot be charged exclusively on Christians, for it appears analogously in every attempt our own philosophers have made to reconcile freewill with fate, or human agency with divine forethought. The only question really is, whether Christians have introduced any fresh confusion in such speculations; and upon the stranger's shewing, they have not done so. Rather, I should say, from their stress upon conscience, that they magnify human responsibility to the utmost; though their doctrine of grace, or encouragement from the Holy Spirit, and their strong colouring of the perplexities of human nature, may be taken also as expressing the vast forces which surround (and, as we say, absorb,) the personality of man. Perhaps, then, if the entire scheme of Christian doctrine be wisely taught, it may be the absolute truth, as the expression of the human soul in its most devout attitude towards a higher power; and yet such doctrine may have come about by development and confluence, such as the Bauddhas and I myself should contend for. From such a point of view at least I am willing to consider the whole question; and I think the objections have been fairly answered. But very much depends upon the aspect and limits with which the doctrines objected to are taught. If the Fall of Man is made to cloud our conscience, it must be evil; if it expresses intensity of remorse, it may be relatively true. If the Atonement be made an external substitution, or a venal compensation, it is bad; but if it expresses the fixity of law, and teaches men through sympathy to consecrate themselves in self-dedication, it is very good. So, if by election is encouraged either pride, or a feeling of the Divine arbitrariness, it contradicts the conscience; but if we are thus taught only to ascribe whatever gift or capacity we have to the Divine goodness, it is then a wholesome lesson of humility.

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On the same principle, faith may either be a substitute of passionate egotism for moral sincerity, or it may be an earnest laying hold of things eternal, and an instrument of growth by trust in One who is able to deliver from evil to the uttermost. Faith, it seems truly said, must take its character from its object; and it is easy to conceive, that faith in God as He is declared to have revealed Himself in Christ, may be a most animating impulse to all holiness.

"Once more, the objection made to a certain narrowness of view in Christianity, as if it dwelt too much on persons and places, or on material and local imagery, instead of rising into a truly spiritual faith, seems to me fairly answered. For our wisest doctors have admitted, that the religious books, which we ourselves receive as sacred, contain many signs of partial and temporary knowledge. Probably spiritual things could never be expressed to any class of human beings, without something of imagery and parable drawn from the senses. Most certainly they cannot be so to the great mass of mankind. Nor is it any detriment to the truly religious knowledge, that it has an earthly accompaniment, which we may be trained to discriminate, and often go beyond. It is quite consistent with our own views, that the religion of the New Testament should, either by a fresh revelation, as the strangers think, or by steps of development, as we should imagine, go greatly beyond the more limited knowledge of the Old, and even discard the imperfect religious rites of early time. So far I feel compelled to assent to some such plea as the elder stranger has put forward.

"But yet there seems to me a great difficulty for Christians, involved in the fate of the Jews. It seems to be often said, that the Jews had their sacred city destroyed, and were scattered through many countries, as a punishment for infidelity. Whereas, it is clear, that if they had not clung faithfully to their ancient law, and trusted in their God that He would deliver them, they would have been spared by the Romans. So that in fact they suffered for their fidelity. No one can with any fairness say,

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that the system which the Jews uphold, is not literally truer to the Old Testament, than that which Christians force upon them. Only the younger stranger has attempted to obviate the difficulty thus arising, by his distinction between the letter and the spirit. Still, ought he not to acknowledge, that the Jewish view is not only most literally correct, but such as conscientious fidelity to the Mosaic law would naturally engender? How then can they be justly punished for cherishing a Divine law, or for a pertinacity of temper which that law was humanly certain to produce in any nation. A local temple, a written Bible, a round of sabbaths, and feasts, and slaughters of animals, and in short a rigid sacerdotalism, may be termed the characteristics of the Mosaic system. Grant that the Gospel of Christ does better in teaching a consecration of the world and of man's life and heart, a perception of holy truths by the conscience, and offering of ourselves heartily to the Divine service, with great freedom in drawing nigh to God, as Christ drew nigh, being a son; yet the Jewish fault seems a failure in rising with the development of their system, rather than a positive fall from it. They suffer by fidelity, not by infidelity. When then we add, that they have been cruelly persecuted, for what was the most natural, if not the most enlightened, course, and when the obvious sense of their Scriptures is often wrested (though it has not been so today,) by narrowminded bigots who want an excuse for heaping up accusations, what conclusion must we draw? Is not the fate of the poor Jews, not so much a standing argument for Christianity, as a very great difficulty in its way? That predestination of Christianity which has been spoken of, as involved in Judaism, at least does not lie upon the surface. I should be glad to hear the younger stranger endeavour to explain this difficulty. Nor can he well do so, without entering somewhat upon the question of letter and spirit, and explaining how far the Bible is the fixed rule of Christians in its letter, or how far there dwells in the Church or in mankind, a living spirit, and a power of discerning principles and modifying applications, by

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reason, or by religious instinct. He also promised in the outset to say something about Inspiration. Nor did I quite understand what his elder friend said about a Sacrament, and its connexion with the general sinfulness of mankind. I should be glad to hear these questions, and any closely bound up with them, more fully handled. Nor would it be amiss, if he would discuss some book of the Old Testament, so as to exemplify the real connexion of the Old with the New."

Thus far Sadananda; and Blancombe responded thus to his invitation: "I should have begun," he said, "with asking, whether you believe Divine Providence to proceed most by general laws, or by special interference in minute instances. For such a question might lead up to an explanation of your difficulty. But unfortunately your whole system seems to deny any truly ruling Providence, since you ascribe such a thing only to the Divine agencies which flow forth from nature for a transitory reign. Here then is a great gulf between us, which I know not how to bridge, unless it please the great Searcher of hearts Himself to give you such a conviction of His being and of His goodness as you seem to need. For it is by steadfast belief in Him as an Almighty Governor, that we on our own part hold more firmly the hope of a life to come. We think that He has not made us for naught, nor suffers the whole universe to be an ocean of transitoriness, and void of beings with His likeness, who may know both themselves and Him. By belief also in Him we interpret the world's course, and see in it a good design. Thus our belief in God gives substance to our belief in the evil of sin, and to our consciousness of falling into it, yet also to our persuasion of its not being intended for us, but being an evil from which we must pray to be delivered. Still more, when our conception of the Almighty Governor is raised and purified by what we see of His likeness in Christ, our moral instincts as it were are deepened, and we feel more strongly how far mankind are fallen, and our need of forgiveness, and of rising again into that which God intended us to be. Hence while I

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thank you for the fairness with which you have considered our answers to some objections, I am not sure that you feel the full force of our doctrines, unless you are able to see light thrown upon them in the light of God. You have rightly conceived, that our doctrines take their shape from the aspect and mood of men uttering the fervid accents in which they are embodied; but you must not forget, that these moods reflect a deeper law, and the accents are eloquent of a perpetual truth. Whatever is now doctrine, was once feeling, and the intellectual form may too often have warped the affectionate life. But it must not therefore be thought that the feeling was not a true one. Nay, it may even have been swollen to passion, and may have run coloured by imagination, but it does not follow that its source was not in a true perception of an eternal law, and in a consciousness of having wandered from it, and of needing return. For it is through our feelings and thoughts, as well as through our experiences of life, that our Maker seems to teach us. We become each a mirror to some portion of His law, and perhaps mankind to the whole of it. Our faith in Him also leads us to believe, that whatever special guidance He has given was for those to whom He gave it the best. If then He has put plain words or homely images in the mouths of His servants, we do not doubt that such conveyed the truth as men were able to receive it. Nor is our faith in this respect without warrant from the shortcoming of those amongst whom the imagery of Christian truth is not known or received. If any of you object to the parables of our Gospels, you have no way so efficient of communicating their truths; or if you blame our associations with names, and persons, and places, you yet justify the wisdom of God in so teaching us, by the far greater darkness into which your countrymen, without such helps, have fallen. But perhaps I have said enough to shew, how even your fair appreciation of some Christian doctrines must fall short of apprehending them fully, if you are yourself not convinced of the being of that God, who is their beginning and their end.