For the Christian Spectator.

SYSTEMATIC CHARITY.

THE apostle's direction is, "Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him."

There is no other mode so perfect as this. It is free, and yet regular. It allows every one to judge for himself, what proportion he ought to give, of that weekly increase with which "God hath prospered him." It only throws upon him the responsibility of giving till conscience is satisfied that it is not his duty to give any more. It requires every one to give something as God hath prospered him," so that his donations, from time to time, shall be an exact and honest measure of his prosperity. Every one is to contribute, when God gives him more, in the same proportion as when he gives him less. How effectually does this counteract the natural movements of a selfish heart, which always grasps the more eagerly, the more it pos

until they are prepared to acknowledge the obligation of this rule, and to practise according to it.

Let us see how these weekly charities might be distributed. There are fifty-two sabbaths in the year. The first in each month, from its proximity to the season of the monthly concert, should be consecrated to Foreign Missions. The second belongs to Domestic Missions, i. e. missions in our own country, from their equal importance. We have twenty-eight left. Let the avails of one sabbath in the spring be devoted to sabbath schools at home, and one in the fall to the American Sunday School Union, in order to extend the blessings of these institutions abroad more widely. One week should be for the Tract Society, and one for the Seamen's Society. Let the two spare weeks in April be given to the Bible cause, and the two in May to the Education Society, now falling into unmerited neglect. Let Christians give one week to assist feeble congregations in building houses of worship, and one for the ransom of captives. The two in July, the month of freedom, should be given to the cause of freedom, in our own, and other countries. Those in November,when we acknowledge the rich bounties of Providence, should go to make the deserving poor more comfortable and happy. The remaining twelve contributions should be reserved for occasional objects, such as the relief of those who are suffering from fire, flood, pestilence, war, loss of reason, and other calamities; or for the advancement of different objects of public utility connected with religion. But such an arrangement is still future. It is reserved for a generation which is to be brought up in habits of giving instead of hoarding, and will probably first be exemplified among some people newly converted, who will enter upon duty with the freshness of first love.

S. F. D.

Correspondence relative to the prospects of Christianity, and the means of promoting its reception in India. Cambridge University Press. 1824. 8vo. pp. 133. An appeal to Liberal Christians for the cause of Christianity in India. By a MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY for obtaining information respect ing the state of religion in India Boston: Office of the Christian Register. 1825. 8vo. pp. 63. For Missionaries after the Apostoli cal School: a Series of Orations. In four parts. (Part first.) By the Rev. EDWARD IRVING. A. M. New-York: E. Bliss & E White. 1825. 8vo. pp. 118. An Expostulatory Letter to the Rev. Edward Irving, A. M. occasioned by his Orations for Missionaries after the Apostolical School By WILLIAM ORME. London. 1825. Evo. pp. 76.

THE subject of Foreign Missions is evidently a very embarrassing subject to the leaders of Unitarianism. The command of Christ, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel unto every creature;" the character of Christianity as a religion of universal application, and as laying claim to universal dominion; the example of the primitive church es; the active and diffusive nature of Christian benevolence, all testify, more or less directly, against the Christian character of that man, or of that denomination of men, whose energies cannot be enlisted in the propagation of the gospel. And yet here is a denomination of men; not a weak, forlorn, forsaken sect; not an uninformed and unenlightened body of schismatics; not a feeble decaying remnant of a once powerful community, whose utmost efforts can but just maintain its standing; but a denomination of arrogant

claims and overweening preteusions; a denomination that stands. up against all others, and placing itself in opposition to what has heretofore been deemed Christianity, not only pretends to have revived the pure and long forgotten doctrines of the apostles, but claims also, a most uncommon share of the liberality and honourable feeling which remain on earth; a denomination possessing vast resources, and commanding the most powerful instruments of moral influence; a denomination, with all the energy and enthusiasm of its youth and rapid advancement; which has done nothing, is doing nothing, is attempting nothing for the conversion of the heathen. And this peculiarity in the character of the sect stands out with a prominence, so distinctive, as to attract the notice and the strong animadversions of all who attempt to scrutinize their claims.

For a long period they maintained a silence on this subject, as convenient as it was dignified. Or if they saw fit, at any time, to break that silence, it was only to utter their contempt of a project so chimerical as the conversion of the world, and of the "burlesque apostle," who went forth to mar the native simplicity, and to disturb the unsophisticated happiness of the heathen. But in an evil day for Unitarianism, Mr. Adam, an English Baptist Missionary at Calcutta, disavowed the doctrine of the Trinity, and after being excluded from the communion of his fellow-labourers, undertook with Rammohun Roy, a lindoo deistical philosopher, to propagate the doctrines of "liberal Christianity," among the idolaters of India. And in a day of still more inauspicious omen, his cry came over the waters, to his brethren in America. The temptation was too

strong to be resisted. The silence which Unitarian oracles had main tained on this subject, could be maintained no longer; for they could not refrain from attacking, on ground so favourable, the missions and the missionaries of the Orthodox. Here was a Unitarian missionary and a Unitarian heathen, who had met upon the common ground of their identical belief, and had joined hands in the cau-e of propagating the doctrine which united them; and the occasion was most opportune to discuss the superior facility with which Unitarianism might be propagated among the heathen.

Accordingly, column after column in their newspapers, and article after article in their magazines, were discharged against all existing missionary institutions. Not that they had any sympathy with those who can speak lightly of foreign missions.' Far from it. The conversion of the world to the truth as it is in Jesus, they saw to be the noblest object of Christian benevolence, and there was no anticipation which had equal power over their imaginations and their hearts. When a band of missionaries left the country of their birth, and of their attachments, for that of their unpromising labours, they supposed their feelings were as awake to the interest of the occasion, as those of many who have more flattering hopes of their success. But their predominant feeling was that of regret, that they do not carry a purer gospel.'

But having once departed from their system of silence and contempt, it was not easy to return. Beside convincing themselves, in the discussion, that the propagation of Unitarian Christianity in heathen countries is far more feasible, and far more important than the propaga tion of Christianity under any other form; they could not but feel that something more than discussion, would be expected of them. And

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therefore, they called on Unitarians very distinctly and very loudly, but we think. very incautiously, to engage in the work of Foreign lissions. They exhibited the causes by which they and their brethren had been heretofore kept back from a work of so much undeniable importance. They had been so absorbed in contemplating the future happiness of the heathen, that the intellectual darkness and the present misery of the nations unenlightened by the gospel, had never occurred to their minds. They had been disgusted and amazed, even unto lethargy, by the injudicious manner in which the missions of the Or thodox had been conducted. They had been engrossed by the paramount claims of domestic missionary establishments.' Their missionaries (it would seem) had been forth into all the waste places of our land, had lifted up their voice on the ridges of the Alleghanies, had been heard on the prairies of Missouri, had proclaimed the immortality of the soul and the unity of God to the slaves of the south, and to the hunters of the west; and all the strength of their denomination had been so occupied with apostolic enterprises for the propagation of Christianity at home, that a world lying in wickedness had been perforce shut out from their exertions. What was of still more importance, they had, till very recently, "been called to struggle for liberty of inqui ry and of opinion against hosts of opposers." But the time of inaction was past. These excuses could avail no longer. They were called upon to clear themselves and the doctrines which they professed, from the imputations which their enemies had cast upon them." Assured as we may be," said one of their own prophets, "that we have been justified in the course which we have pursued in regard to this object, the time, I think, has come, when self-justification in the neg

lect of it, if continued, will be sin. Let us then vindicate ourselves against the reproach, under which we have long laboured, not by words merely, but by DEEDS

Whatever effect this might have produced on individuals of ardent character, it occasioned no wide or deep sensation, no public movement in the community to which it was addressed. Something more must be done, or the charge of inactivity in the propagation of the gospel would stand forth against their party, unpalliated and undeniable. Accordingly, in August 1824, came forth the Correspondence relative to the prospects of Christianity in India, which was evidently designed at once to send consternation through the ranks of Orthodoxy, and to call forth the forces of Unitarianism. This pamphlet contains first a letter from Dr. Ware of Cambridge to Mr. Adam, with a catalogue of twenty questions respecting Christianity in India; secondly, Mr. Adam's replies to the questions of Dr. Ware, occupying one hundred and eighteen pages; thirdly, a letter from Dr. Ware to Rammohun Roy, which was accompanied by the same questions; and fourthly, Rammohun Roy's reply occupying sixteen pages. It is of course little more than an account, by Mr. Adam, of the state and prospects of Christianity in India, and of his views respecting the proper mode of extending the gospel in that empire.

What representations such a book would be likely to contain, our readers can easily conjecture. We know nothing respecting Mr. Adam beyond what his book exhibits, and what his own eulogists have uttered. We would insinuate nothing against his integrity; we would be far from charging him with a wilful perversion or even concealment of the truth; but who will say that this testimony is the testimony of a competent and impartial witness? The simple fact of his difference in

religious opinions from those whose character and undertakings he professes to describe, a difference be it remembered, not slight or circumstantial, would awaken suspicion and caution in the mind of ev ery candid inquirer. How well qualified is Dr. Ware, with all the acknowledged candour and liberality of his character, and in all the calmness and coolness of his age, to give a fair and complete account of the state and prospects of religion in the Orthodox churches of NewEngland, or of the character and qualifications of their ministers ? But suppose that instead of Dr. Ware to make out such a statement, we have a young man, a young man of feelings evidently quick and ardent; a young man who talks about the "malice," and the "evangelic slang" of those whom he opposes; and who interlards his statements with the threadbare cant about the "polytheism," and the repulsive features of Calvinism," and its "unutterable contradictions and absurdities." suppose furthermore that this young nan has had a personal controversy with Orthodox ministers and churches; suppose that after having had serious contention with them respecting matters unconnected with religious doctrine, contention so sharp that they depart asunder one from the other, he is finally excluded by a solemn act from their communion for a defection from their faith;-is the testimony of such a witness to be received with implicit credence by any thinking and inquiring reader? Yet such a witness is Mr. Adam. And such are some of the "singular marks of fairness and impartiality," by which "document" is distinguish

his

ed.*

And

* Lest it should be said that we have misunderstood or misinterpreted Mr. Adam's account of his difficulties with the Calcutta

Baptists, let him speak for himself.

"During the three years I laboured with the Calcutta Baptist Missionaries, I, in like

As for the testimony of Rammohun Roy, no man would think of making it the foundation of any ve ry important propositions. We give him credit for strength of intellect and boldness of inquiry. We give him credit for extensive research and great attainments. We will agree with his profoundest admirers that he is one of the most extraordinary men of this age; and seems designed by Providence for purposes of the highest interest to his countrymen, through all future time." But we are not prepared to believe; and we doubt whether any cautious inquirer can be found prepared to believe that a Hindoo philosopher, who at the best is no more than a Deist, who entertains all those strong partialities for the institutions of his country which it is possible for a patriot so enlightened to cherish, and who has been engaged in a public controversy with the preachers of Christianity, is ve

manner, devoted myself to native preaching, more than to any other department of Missionary labour; but before the end of the third year, they obliged me to separate my labours from theirs, because I could not approve of the plans which they prosecuted of preaching principally to the poor and illiterate, and because they could not approve of the plans which I proposed with a view to draw the wealthy and the learned to hear the gospel. I still continued, however, in comnunion with them, and ceased not to be a Missionary of the Baptist Society, until sometime after, when I was led to examine and finally to reject the doctrine of the Trinity, which induced them to expel me from the former, and me to renounce connexion

with the latter. I mention this more particularly because, besides being connected with the subject under discussion, it on the one hand corrects a mistake of my friends, and on the other refutes a calumny of my enemies. The separation of my labours from those of the Calcutta Baptist Missionaries, was solely and entirely owing to a difference of opinion between them and me, repecting the best mode of preaching to the natives. It was a separation, which, so far from having been promoted by me with any ulteri or views, was most earnestly opposed by all the reasonings and expostulations I could employ. It was in short a separation prior to, and unconnected with, my expulsion from their communion, and the relinquishment of my connexion with the Baptist Society, which were solely and entirely owing to the alteration of my views on the subject of the Trinity."-pp 16, 17.

ry peculiarly qualified to give either an impartial account of missionary labours and successes, or such an exhibition of the mode in which Christianity must be extended as reason and God will approve.

For these reasons we felt that there was no necessity laid upon us to take any special notice of this publication during the little day when it was talked about. We saw that it would be insufficient to shake the confidence. of the churches in their missionaries, or in any way to check the activity of their efforts in the missionary cause; because we were persuaded that to every candid and inquiring reader the book would carry with itself its own effectual antidote. Still less do we feel it to be necessary for us now to go through with an examination of Mr. Adam's statements, acknowledging what is correct in point of fact, contradicting what is incorrect, and expressing our hesitancy about what is dubious. We have only to say that the correspondence has failed of its purpose; it has neither dismayed the Orthodox nor roused the liberal to effort; and now after little more than a twelvemonth from the day of its meridian glory, it has gone to rest upon the shelves of pamphlet-mongers in a slumber which we have no intention to disturb.

How great is the authority of Mr. Adam with the writer of the Appeal, let the reader judge after comparing the two following extracts:

Mr. Adam describes the mode in which the business of translating the scriptures is conducted by Dr. Carey at Serampore, thus:

"The plan followed at Serampore in translating the scriptures is, I have been informed, in all important respects, the following: The copy for the first edition of the Bengallee New Testament is said to have been prepared with Dr. Carey's own hand, although not without the assistance of a pundit, and the corrections for success ive editions, reaching to the fourth,