DISCUSSIONS

BY THE

SEA-SIDE.

BOMBAY TRACT AND BOOK SOCIETY.

BOMBAY :

PRINTED BY THOMAS GRAHAM.

1857.

PREFACE.

Vishnu Bhikaji Gokhale, a Brahman, known generally as the Brahmachari Bawa, made his appearance in Bombay in 1856, and obtained no small degree of popularity, first as a defender of Hinduism and then as an assailant of Christianity. Great numbers of Hindus flocked to his meetings and admired the fluency of his discourse and the subtlety of his reasonings. He challenged all the world, missionaries especially, to meet him and discuss with him in public the relative merits of Hinduism and Christianity. I met him several times at the Purabhu Seminary, in September, 1856. At the commencement of the present year he held his meetings on the sea-shore, on the western side of the island of Bombay. I attended all these meetings from January 15th to the setting in of the Monsoon, and, with other Missionaries, availed myself of the opportunity given to show the divine origin, necessity and sufficiency of the Christian Scriptures. The report of each discussion was written down in English immediately, and published the 398