The Missionary Herald Volume 31 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1835 Excerpt: ... said, "You are like the tame elephant which is used to allure and entrap the elephants of the forest" 24. I asked Tumbun, at Tamul evening prayers, how many persons he judged, from what he had seen among the people, were heathen from faith and principle. He replied that he could scarcely find any who believed upon evidence the Tamul religion. Why then do they so tenaciously adhere to it? "It is according to custom. Their forefathers did so and they must walk in their steps." How long has this state of things existed--is it since missionaries came? Payson replied, "Before they came no one thought whether it was true or not." Since that, inquiry has arisen. All who examine see that their religion is without evidence, yet they retain it because it has been their own. They have, indeed, such a word as faith, but they do not exercise it about their religion. They are heathen from habit. Each man counts the days from one boiling to another (festival in which rice' is boiled at the temple) and then performs the ceremonies, and so in other things. No one investigates. The Tamul mind is rusty, and no one uses it. Many men have never thought whether there be a soul, or a God, or not; their only concern being to get their beetle, areca-nut, and food. They do not know that there ia any thing else for them to do. One man was asked if he hud any thing else to look after but his garden, paddy, etc. He did not know of any thing else. They say to live, to eat, to chew beetle, etc.--that is heaven--other heaven there is none. They would be glad to live on earth forever, if they could but get a living. They do not, even when very old, want to die. This remark is a striking evidence of the influence of a system of false religion on the mind; for ...