g, if Hinduism was at once abandoned. Benares is a great commercial
as well as religious city. If it ceased to be Hindu, we cannot suppose
its commerce would be paralyzed; but as a considerable part of its
ordinary trade is dependent on the thousands of pilgrims who resort to
it, on the money they expend on food, on gifts to the priests, and on
the purchase of articles exposed for sale, great loss would be in the
first place incurred. The many artisans now employed in making images of
stone and brass, would find no purchasers for their goods. In addition
to the pecuniary loss which directly and indirectly would fall on all
classes, the whole community would feel the glory of Kasee, the Splendid
City, had departed, when, stripped of its sacredness, crowds of pilgrims
no longer filled its streets, frequented its temples, or bathed at its
ghats. They would feel as the Jews did in their dark and disastrous
days, when the ways to Zion were untrodden, and there was the silence of
desolation within its gates.

When the peculiarities of Benares are in any degree realized, the work
of making known the gospel to its inhabitants may appear formidable to
the extent of hopelessness.

It is formidable, very formidable, but it can appear hopeless only when
we forget the command of our Saviour to preach the Gospel to every
creature, when we forget the power of the truth, the adaptation of the
Gospel to the human heart, its past triumphs, and the promised aid of
the Holy Spirit. The very strength of this fortress of idolatry should
call forth the courage of Christ's soldiers by directing their eyes to
Him as their great and glorious Leader. Such was the courage of the
Apostles and their immediate successors, when instead of going to small
towns and villages, and working from them towards the cities where the
Gospel might be expected to meet with the most determined opposition,
they assailed at once with their spiritual weapons the high places of
idolatry, of power which claimed worship as well as homage, and of
learning which aimed in its own strength, and aimed unsuccessfully, at
the solution of the deepest questions which affect mankind. They went to
Ephesus, to Rome, and to Athens, and secured in them a measure of
success, which prepared the way for a mighty revolution throughout the
Roman Empire.

Towards the end of the last century, when there was a great awakening of
the missionary spirit, devoted Christians, animated by apostol