Next week mean to have my first scriptural rout,
For the special discussion of matters devout;--
Like those _soirées_, at Powerscourt, so justly renowned,
For the zeal with which doctrine and negus went round;
Those theology-routs which the pious Lord Roden,
That pink of Christianity, first set the mode in;
Where, blessed down-pouring[5]from tea until nine,
The subjects lay all in the Prophecy line;--
Then, supper--and then, if for topics hard driven,
From thence until bed-time to Satan was given;
While Roden, deep read in each topic and tome,
On all subjects (especially the last) was _at home_.
[1] Of such relapses we find innumerable instances in the accounts of the
Missionaries.
[2] The god Krishna, one of the incarnations of the god Vishnu. "One day
[says the Bhagavata] Krishna's playfellows complained to Tasuda that he
had pilfered and ate their curds."
[3] "Roteen wants shaving; but the barber here will not do it. He is run
away lest he should be compelled. He says he will not shave Yesoo Kreest's
people."--_Bapt. Mission Society_, vol. ii., p. 498.
[4] In the Reports of the Missionaries, the Roman Catholics are almost
always classed along with the Heathen.
[5] "About eight o'clock the Lord began to pour down his spirit copiously
upon us--for they had all by this time assembled in my room for the
purpose of prayer. This down-pouring continued till about ten o'clock."--
Letter from Mary Campbell to the Rev. John Campbell, of Row, dated
Feruicary, April 4, 1830, giving an account of her "miraculous cure."