Page:Deplorable effects of heathen superstition.pdf/3

 When, for instance, we turn our attention to the East, and contemplate the degraded state of that portion of the human race who inhabit the country of Hindoostan, where upwards of of our fellow creatures, under the influence of a most debasing and cruel superstition, in a land which has been characterised as full of dead idols, heathen temples, priests innumerable, are practising abominable idolatries; their God a log of wood, or a monkey; no Saviour but the Ganges. Among these idolaters no bibles are found; no sabbaths; no congregation for religious instruction in any form ; no house for God. Under the influence of this awful fanaticism they undertake long pilgrimages to their favourite idol, frequently leaving the miserable remains of hundreds to feed the jackalls and vultures. Under this influence, too, natural affection is extinguished, and the son is but too often the instrument in kindling the fuel which is to consume his living mother with the remains of her deceased husband. Instigated by the demon of superstition, mothers have been seen casting their living offspring amongst a number of alligators, and standing to gaze at these monsters quarrelling for their prey, beholding the writhing infant in the jaws of the successful animal, and standing motionless while it was breaking the bones and sucking the blood of the poor innocent. How much, in such an instance, is the affecting language of Scripture outraged; “ Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on