He then supposes an objector saying, 'but my idol is efficacious.' And says, in reply, that all our blessings come from the great God, while men erroneously suppose that they come from some corrupt devil. The associating with such, he continues, is not only an outrage against Heaven, but an offence against natural conscience, showing that the persons so acting are rebellious both against reason and religion. He then inculcates the duty of praying to the universal Father; and brings forward the promise of the Saviour, as an encouragement to its performance: quoting the well known passage contained in Matthew 7: 7. "ask and it shall be given you," &c: It is unworthy of observation, that in this quotation, the writer has copied almost exactly the version of Medhurst and Gutzlaff, published in 1835, the resemblances being nearly identical, as follows:—
After having exhorted his readers to pray to our heavenly Father, he points out the folly of addressing such applications to idols, quoting from Psalms 115:5, in which he imitates, in some degree, both Morrison's and Gutzlaff's version, with only a little transposition and omission, resulting probably from his having quoted from memory.
