Christian Reformer.

No. XXXVII.]

JANUARY, 1818.

[Vol. IV.

A Letter to the Unitarian Society of London, from William Roberts, a native Unitarian Christian of Madras.

[The following interesting letter is just published, with an introduction by the Rev. T. Belsham. It was addressed to the Unitarian Society, at Essex-Street Chapel, and received by the regular post from Madras, in July 1817. Mr. Belsham says:

"As Roberts's letter arrived in the month of July, when the Society had adjourned its meetings to the latter end of the year, I wrote a private letter to Roberts, accompanied with a parcel of books, among which was the new edition of the Improved Version. By the kindness of a friend who has high connexions in the India House, this parcel was sent by the next conveyance directly to Madras, and a mode of communication was opened for future correspondence. I assured him that our Society, which aspired to no higher title than that of respectable, would be glad at all times to receive intelligence from their brethren in India, and to hold correspondence with them; and that I did not doubt they would willingly send them over any books which they might want. I stated that it was not within the purview of our Society to send out missionaries, and that for my own part I did not see that they could be of any use. That Roberts himself appeared to me to be fully competent to instruct the native youth in the Christian doctrine; and that if he would select two or three young men of good talents and character, with proper instruction from him, they would be much better qualified to teach the Gospel to their countrymen than any missionaries we could send from England. I added, that to me it appeared that the most effectual way of assisting them under present circumstances would be by raising a sum of money to enable them to print, in the Tamul language, their Liturgy, Catechism, and other Tracts, which are now in manuscript, and which can therefore only be in possession of a few individuals. These works might certainly be printed at Serampore, if the Baptist missionaries would permit; and perhaps even at Madras: and I had no doubt that money enough might be raised in this country to defray the expense.

"At the last meeting of the Committee of the Unitarian Society the letter of William Roberts was read, and ordered to be printed verbatim, and distributed to the members of the Society. They likewise came to a resolution, through their secretary, to open a correspondence with William Roberts, and to order a present of books to the native Christians of Pursewaukum, this little flock of Christ in the wilderness.*

"It is very remarkable that while the great doctrine of the Unity and unrivalled supremacy of God is thus gradually working its way among the poorer classes of natives in the vicinity of Madras, it is at the same time making a triumphant progress among the higher castes of Hindoos in the great and populous city of Calcutta. Rammohun Roy,

Yet so con

"The notion of a God descending from heaven, assuming a human body, and expiring in agonies upon the cross, to expiate human guilt, is so overwhelming in itself, and so well calculated to seize and engross the imagination of an untutored mind, that the plain simple intelligible truth that God will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained, of which he hath given assurance to all men in that he hath raised him from the dead,' seems to stand no chance in the competition: and I have often thought, with Dr. Hartley, that in the present state of things a corrupt Christianity is necessary to prepare the mind of heathen nations for the true. And it is recorded, both by Moravian and other missionaries, that they have always succeeded best when they have begun' with the doctrine of atonement. genial is the simplicity of truth to the human mind, that gleams of light Occasionally break forth where they were least to be expected. A remarkable case of this kind occurs in the History of the Moravian Mission at the Cape of Good Hope. A Caffre girl, who had been lately received into the settlement at Gnadenthal, put the following question to Wilhelmina, a converted woman with whom she lived, How am I to understand what I hear? I hear in the discourses at church of a heavenly Father, of a Son who is our Saviour, of a Holy Ghost-and yet there is only one God?' Wilhelmina answered, My child, in Jesus Christ you will learn to know the God of your salvation, and he will reveal all things to you by his spirit.' How so?' replied the girl: 'If Jesus be God, then how did it happen that he exclaimed upon the cross, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' which difficult question sister Wilhelmina prudently replied, Dear child, first pray that you may know him as your Saviour, and find grace and the forgiveness of your sins with him and when you have obtained this great favour, then he will make known to you the subject of the holy Trinity; and that the Father, Son and Spirit are the only one God whom we adore.'. Whether the youthful querist was satisfied with this evasive answer of the pious matron does not appear. See the Periodical Accounts of the Missions of the United Brethren, No. 70. Caffraria joins to the land of the Hottentots, and the Caffres in general are reckoned superior in intellect to their Hottentot neighbours."

To

a learned, eloquent, and opulent Brahmun, having, by the proper exercise of his own understanding, discovered the folly and absurdity of the Hindoo mythology and of idolworship, was led by a conscientious sense of duty to proclaim this important discovery to his countrymen, and has publicly taught the doctrine of the divine Unity and perfection to the native Hindoos, and has entered his protest against their impious, barbarous and idolatrous rites. Such doctrine from a person of such exalted rank, at first excited great astonishment, and gave infinite offence. But by degrees the courage, eloquence, and perseverance of this extraordinary man prevailed over all opposition: and it is said that many hundreds of the native Hindoos, and especially of the young people, have embraced his doctrine. He does not profess to be a Christian. He told a worthy clergyman at Calcutta about a year ago, that he preferred Christianity to all other religions, and would certainly embrace it, if it were not for the doctrine of the Trinity. This was an insurmountable obstacle. At the beginning of this year, in January 1817, he informed the same respectable clergyman, that be was now in the way of ascertaining whether the doctrine of the Trinity is or is not the doctrine of the New Testament: for that he and twenty other learned Brahmuns had determined to sit down and study the Gospel with the greatest possible attention and impartiality, in order to discover their real meaning; and he did not think it possible that twenty serious and impartial inquirers, who sought after nothing but truth, and who earnestly implored divine illumination and direction, would be suffered to fall into an erroneous conclusion. The result of this inquiry has not yet reached England."

The Letter is inserted by permission in the Christian Reformer. EDITOR.]

To the London Unitarian Society for promoting Christian Knowledge and the Practice of Virtue by the Distribution of Books.

The humble Representation of WILLIAM ROBERTS, of Madras, British India,

-

Respectfully sheweth, That I am a native of the Carnatick, a descendant of Tamul or Malabar heathen parents, of very indigent circumstances, who taught me to read and write a little of my mother language.

Now, in the well-known great disturbances of Hyder

Ally, in the Carnatick, which began in 1780, both my father and mother died, which misfortune drove me to utmost want and distress.

For the want of livelihood, in the year 1784, I quitted my native soil, a village about fifty miles west of Madras, and came to Madras. Here a Mahometan Moor-man took me in his family, and about six months afterward artfully sold me as a slave on board a country ship called Hasting, [the Hastings,] to another Mahometan Tindal, named Dauhood or David. Dauhood shortly entered me in the service of an English European officer in the same ship, for his own benefit.

Thus situated in life as a slave, after several coasting voyages the ship came to Bombay, where my benefactor the officer, Mr. Robison, fell sick and died: but before his death, by his wisdom and justness of reasoning, released me from my slavery without any cost. After the death of my benefactor, Captain Alexander Jamison (commander of the said ship), agreeably to Mr. Robison's desire before his death, not only paid me my wages in full for all the time I served Mr. R., but also took me in his employ. With him I went a voyage to China, and from thence returned to Bombay, by which time I [had] then been better than three years among the Mahometan Lascars. Continually hearing the unhappiness of the Heathen religion of stock worship, and the superiority and superior privileges of the Mahometan religion, I became a convert to their religion, and was circumcised. After this I went to China again with my captain; from China he took his passage for Europe on Besebbraw [the Besborough] Indiaman, Captain Montgomery. Now, although my captain hired a Portuguese servant on purpose to go with him, contrary to all my views and my new religion, [he] persuaded me also to go with him after some hesitation I consented, and went with him to Europe. In Dunkirk and in Bologne I lived in his family about eighteen months, and by degrees, by the assistance of my good fellow-servants, I began to learn to read English a little, and had the opportunity also of hearing something about the Christian religion. On comparing it with my nominal Mahometanism, (I call it nominal, because I was not even instructed in the first article of the Koran, which first article is the doctrine of One God, though the Koran is not the original source of this most glorious doctrine,) yet, had I been tolerably well taught of the doctrine of One God from it, I think, from my present feeling, that I would never