The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-02-22 00:00:00

LECTURE ON INDIA.

On Friday evening, the Rev. P. Percival, M.A., mis-
sionary from India, delivered the first of his lectures on
India and Ceylon, at the Collegiate Institution. The
attendance was not large, but the utmost interest and at-
tention were manifested by those present, in the original
information supplied on subjects so eminently connected
with the promotion of the Gospel of Christ.
The lecturer stated that he first went out to India in
the beginning of 1826, under the auspices of the Wesleyan
Society, and he had been engaged since that time in the
work of a missionary, during a portion of the twenty-six
years under the British and Foreign Bible Society. In a
few months he intended to return to that country, there
to remain, lie trusted, till the conclusion of his days.
During his present visit to England he had been located
chiefly in London, and now he had come to the North,
fixing his head quarters at Manchester, in the hope that
he might be able to excite a more general interest in be-
half of the missions which are being conducted in India ;
and that when he had delineated the spiritual wants of that
country. he enuld not fail to secure a healthy response for
the great and glorious cause.
India is a theme of the greatest possible importance.
It has been and is an object of interest to the man of the
world, who simply views its extent, its productiveness,
and its immense population. To the philosopher and the
scholar, it presents an extensive literature, and a people
who have been civilized from the remotest ages. While
the Christian believer, in whom the Spirit of God formed
a lodgment, finds in the swarthy inhabitants of India an
object in which his sympathy must be warmly excited.
The country extends 1,900 miles in one direction, and
from 1,300 to 1,500 in another, and the number of its
inhabitants amounts, at the lowest computation, to
155,000,000. This shows the magnitude of the work the
missionary has to encounter.
But there are difficulties of another and a still more for-
midable nature. That the Hindoos are, in point of
civilisation, the most ancient people in the world ; that in
India there is a refined and extensive literature, and from
thirteen to eighteen polished languages ; that their litera-
ture is almost exclusively of a religious character • and
that the Brahmins arrogate to themselves the right to
teach, not only religious subjects, but physical truth, or
rather error,—all constituted difficulties of great magni-
tude. There is much that is imposing about their re-
ligion.; and in various appliances the priests have the
most powerful means of keeping together the people. So
that in every part of the country they may be said to exer-
cise an almost omnipotent power over them. Thus, the
Hindoo becomes confident in the faith of his ancestors.
He appeals to his temples, his priesthood, his literature,
his sacred books ; and while he is willing to admit that
the European is superior to him in mechanical skill, he
claims for himself and his own people the prerogative of
being much more recondite, and better acquainted with
the principles of things, especially things of a metaphysi-
cal character. The Hindoo has often the most subtle
arguments and questions to put in the Christian congre-
gation. Here are obstacles which never present them-
selves among barbarous tribes ; and which, of course. im-
pede vastly the progress of the Christian missionary's
labour. "You teach the Divine Unity," says the Hindoo ;
"so do we. You teach the necessity of an atonement ;so
do we. You place it on Christ ;we on the subjective
sinner himself." It is exceedingly difficult to propound
and make apparent and rational the truths of the Gospel
to minds so pre-occupied. And all this tends to show
that the Christian missionary can only expect to succeed
among a people like the Hindoos by preternatural
influence. While they speak the truth, they must not
depend on any mere rational process, or any application
of mere human arguments, for a lodgment for the truth of
the Gospel. In dependance upon that Spirit who dic-
tated the truth must they alone hope for success.
At the conclusion of this admirable lecture, Mr. PER-
CIVAL said he would show next night what had been done
for the general diffusion of truth among the people, not
only in the present, but in past time, and also the pros-
pects of the future.