and analyzed, and its elements con- a unity. It is not one, but a congeries nected with the ideas of which they of faiths. The term "Hinduism is are the outcrop. All this demands misleading. Never during historic much time and care. Those who by times has there been one faith for the long residence have grown familiar two hundred million of Hindus, and with the outer aspects of Indian life there is not one faith now. If we continually need to guard against race think of Hinduism as consisting of the prejudice and religious bias in the Vedas and Shastras, and of repeated study of these faiths, and if to such privileges administered by a Brahmau this work be so difficult, it must be priesthood, these are a private mostill more so to students in the West nopoly. According to the Aryan laws, who would know their contents. which fixed the privileges and duties of the people, these privileges are not transferable. They could not be universalized and thrown open to all Hindus. There is no 66 whosoever ence. I have spent many of the best years of my life as a Christian missionary in India; and I wish especially in this paper to call attention to some of the truth contained in that country. In will." The castes termed "Sudras," addition to this, there are good ele-"Pariahs," and others could lay no ments in Hindu personal and social life claim to the heritage of truth or salvawhich well merit an extended refer- tion. If there be truth in the BrahSocial institutions, appearing to manical sacred books, these dare not us to deserve the severest censure, read them nor hear them read; if there have sometimes ideas underlying them, be sacred rites which save from sin, which, though they do not justify these the priests cannot teach what they are institutions, explain to us why they nor perform them for their salvation. exist, and these ideas should not be The conclusions to be gathered from overlooked — e.g., the idea underlying Brahmanical literature are that the the practice of child-marriage, with its gods cannot tolerate a religious Sudra, sad results, is, that Hindu female virtue and that for the Pariahs and others no should be scrupulously guarded. But way of salvation is known to the orthoI could not refer to these things within dox priesthood. "The heaven of Trithe limits of this paper. Lest any sanku" is a familiar Sanskrit proverb reader may hastily imagine that I am (Trisanku swarga rôhanam).1 anxious to portray the faiths of India in colors which are too fair, I may remark that nothing is further from my thought. I know as well as any Euglishman the dark and deplorable things connected with the popular idolatry of India, and far be it from me to whitewash these, or hold a brief for them. Evil things and evil doers must perish. Like many others, I have seen and thought of these with a sad heart. And I do not say that the evil and error in India have received too much attention; but I am sure that the truth and the elements of goodness that are there have received too little. I would call attention to these. I proceed, therefore, to speak of Hinduism, warning the reader that many details must be omitted from so brief a sketch. Men often write and speak of the Hindu faith as if it were Modern Hinduism consists of fragments of ancient non-Aryan cults which have survived conquest and coercion, and fragments of Aryanism - pieces of Vedic Vedic ritual and Brahmanical thought. The Aryan fragments are at the top, the others are below. It is to be regretted that the attempt has hardly yet been made to resolve modern Hinduism into its constituent elements, and show us where, in creed and worship, the Brahman elements end and the non-Brahman begin.2 Those peoples who are submissive to the Brahman priests receive from them little beyond mere patronage, and for this they pay by substantial offerings 1 Vide Longfellow's poem, King Trisanku. 2 E.g., as to gods, these are fair and dark, and fair gods. The dark races have dark gods. Yet the fair-skinned (Aryan) race should worship the Krishna is black, and is worshipped by Aryans. and abject homage. Anything like mere euphemism. The first thousand union with the Brahmanical section verses are in praise of Krishna. The would be resented. work is not Vedic, although held in If Hinduism be thought of as a series high repute. The larger Vaishnava of sects, Saivas, Vaishnavas, and Sak-sects, dating from the eleventh to the tis are the great divisions, and worship sixteenth century, have each their Siva, Vishnu, and the female deities. specially honored books. In Bengal, They have many subdivisions. Of Chaitanya's life (Chaitanya CharitámSaivas alone, Tattwa Linga Swami1 rita) is the gospel of the Vaishnava enumerates upwards of a hundred and Gauriyas. The Saivas have in Tamil, fifty sects. Of Vaishnavas, Wilson the Dêvâram, a collection of hymns enumerates twenty sects, but the num-written by Sambandhar, Appar, and ber far exceeds this. Ancestor wor-Sundarar, and speak of them as the ship is practised by all Hindus. The Tamil Veda. All these popular works great temples are originally tombs. encourage the worship of idols. Among the lowest classes worship is addressed to ruder deities, such as demons, animals, trees, stones, etc. If Hinduism be considered philosophically, from the standpoint of doctrine, we find (a) the dualistic (dwaita); (b) non-dualistic (adwaita); and (c) modified dualistic (visishtadwaita) systems. These are associated with the names of (a) Mâdhva, (b) Sankara, and (c) Râmânuja. The six philosophical systems (darshanas) have still their students. A considerable number of books are now printed in the leading vernaculars, and intelligent non-Aryan members of important sects know the categories (tattwa) they profess to venerate. But modern Hinduism is more strikingly ritual than doctrinal, and, speaking generally, the doctrinal knowledge of the people is inexact and often confused. As a system of worship, Hinduism rests not on the Vedas, but on the Puranas, though Vedic fragments are still in use. It is well known that its idol-worship, existing caste arrangements, and degradation of women have no Vedic sanction. In South India the Tamil poems of the eleven Alwars, who were famous devotees, constitute the sacred books of the Tamil Vaishnavas (Tenkaleis), and are printed under the name of the Dravida Veda. Nam Alwar is said to have put the essence of the Rig, Yajur, and Atharva Vedas into some two hundred verses of this work, but the statement is a 1 Vide Tattwa Nijanubhôga Sara, pp. 91 ff. The idolatry of India, at first sight, appears to leave no place for God and truth. A hundred and sixty years ago, when Schultze landed as a missionary in India, he wrote: Almost all heathens are as dull as the brutes. You may talk to them of God, or of virtue; they understand one as little as the other, and care nothing for either. Would you help these unreasonable people you must first preach their polytheism out of them, and annihilate the entire catalogue of their gods, before you can bring them to the One Eternal God. And this has been substantially the first impression of many another Christian teacher. For in India error is noisy and demonstrative, and whatever of truth may be in the land is hidden away in obscurity. I am bound to say, as a witness, that, having interrogated multitudes, I have never known any of them worship an idol for spiritual benefit, or with the thought, "I must become a better man." Two years later Schultze wrote: "It is known that the heathens in India for the most part believe in one God. That, besides God, they venerate and pray to so many little inferior deities arises from several causes." So, also, Sartorius writes: "All general truths, such as the being of God, creation, providence, that it is the duty of man to know and worship God, the heathens admit, as well as that their deities are stone, and cannot help them." This final testimony of these men is true; idolatry, all too prevalent, does not constitute the whole of India's religion. 99 1 Here is a brief summary of religious truth held by the Saiva Siddhantists : a. The existence of God and souls. g. That deliverance from sin may take place in this life. The soul, by its own power, cannot know God. God comes as teacher (guru) to in struct man. By grace, souls become united to We find much truth, both in books and | popular faith, poets have scattered men; so much as to surprise the stu- among the people fragments of spirdent and delight the wise Christian itual truth which still remain. Among teacher. But many, saddened by the Hindus, priest and prophet (i.e., poet) pantheism and polytheism of India, are at opposite poles. have concluded that there religion has shown nothing but a process of deterioration, that religious knowledge has gradually darkened from Vedic times b. Creation and providence. until now. We are told, for instance, c. The fact of sin. that " religious history in India, as d. elsewhere, is a history of declension," that "its evolution has all been down-e. ward, incoherency has ever been on the increase; lower and wider diver-f. sities of superstition have sprung out of the system from age to age." 2 It cannot be denied that corruption has been at work in heathendom; every-h. where evil elements are continually striving to mingle with the good. At the same time, statements like these are misleading and inaccurate, and I doubt whether any one can name a novelty in vice, or in low superstition, developed in India during the last eight hundred years, let us say, since Alberuni's time. In Christendom also, corruption has been at work; men and churches have departed from its primitive ideals of worship and life, and Christianity, a pure theism among the cultured, is often heresy and idolatry among the illiterate. Yet no one could say that the centuries of Christian history have resulted only in deterioration, and it is just as untrue to affirm this of religious history in India. In the South Indian vernaculars there are many books by Aryan and non-Aryan authors which contain a considerable amount of spiritual teaching. I do not say that the masses read them all, but many know them in part, and they are the real shastras of devoutminded Sudras. The philosophy of Greece was 66 one long protest against the popular mythology; 8 in India, also, poetry has often opposed idolatry. And besides denouncing errors of the : Christianity and the Science of Religion, Rev. J. S. Banks, p. 29. Rev. F. F. Ellinwood, D.D.: Centenary Conference Mission Report, vol, i., p. 53. Nisbet & Co. 1888. 3 Mark Pattison's Sermons, p. 160. Though united, the soul does not become equal to God. these doctrines from vernacular works I quote a few passages referring to in my possession: God exists as all the world, and yet is other than the world. He is perfectly mingled with the world, filling the whole, and yet is without the least weariness of these things. At His command, souls are born and die in accordance with their destiny (Karma). - Siva Gnana Potham. He is the first; He has no evil; He is spotless, and those who know Him by the teaching of His grace have Him in their - Nenjuvidututhu. hearts. The Lord took a sacred body and came hither as Teacher (guru), and destroyed evil (pása), and lovingly gave us His grace, which is true wisdom. - Irupâvirupahâtha. If in a precious stone there can be light apart from the sun, then without the help of the Teacher (guru) men can gain wisdom. and God; in the way where He is readily There is a great light between the soul found, there is nothing but light. — Tiru varutpayan. Forget not His grace, which transcends ignorance and knowledge. That grace indeed is here. Cast out sin. — Tiruvunthiar. The Guru removed my sin, and graciously made me His servant. He ever dwells in my thought. If my worship become perfect He will be my glory, and in all that I behold He will be there. - Tirukkalittruppadiyâr. He what they may, unless thou have a little However long man lives, death is certain; even Indru in the golden land is mortal. Before life pass, know (as a refuge) the True Teacher's (sat-guru) foot. | Vêmana. Vallalar Shastram. It was Nandi who said the Guru is God (Siva). That the Guru is God is plainly taught. The Guru is God and is the Lord. The Guru is the Lord, who makes us know the truth. The Guru and the Lord are one. His grace is one. He is the unspoken mantra, the form of the heavenly light; He is heaven; He is the substance of the sacred books; He is the altar of the firmament; those united to the Guru and Lord will Friends' hearts His home, to Him nor land nor name; The Cause of all, to cut false senses came. United to them, sin He did remove. know. - Pattanattar. The good works of him who knows not the obtain the blessed heavenly home. - Tiru- Are but earth propping a dead tree. — Tiru mantra. valluvar. I have referred to the doctrines of As blind men seek water when pained by the strong heat; as the calf seeks the cow; the " guru" and " grace." The docas men seek various things with strong trine of the Sat-Guru is found both desire, so seek the True Teacher (sat-guru) among Saivas and Vaishnavas; it is with a ripe and enlightened mind. Oli-well-nigh universal. It is a doctrine of viloddukkam. God manifest, and is quite apart from Those who have plunged in the sea of the ten incarnations. Among the Sidgrace Thou hast lovingly taken and em-dhantists, at its best, it is as follows: braced, and hast immersed them in the boundless ocean of knowledge, and given them heavenly nectar as food. And since Thou doest this, take even me, and let me not again enter the evil sea of births; and remove all my sin, and give me a true form, and cause me to worship Thy glorious foot. - Chithambara Swami. God is manifest as guru, or divine The teaching concerning "grace" is that it is illumination, knowledge. "It reveals God, the source from whence it springs, and causes the soul to love him, and unite with the divine feet." And again, "If thou thinkest the knowledge of God can be gained by reason, thine apprehension of it will make it a very different thing from what it really is. For he who has seen the reality (God) by the aid of the gracious glance of the Sat-Guru, will | us also remember that there are some understand God by his grace.” These Vaishuavas who venerate as well as quotations are from the Tamil of know the best things in their faith. Umapathi Sivâchariar. The idolatry and error of India have been published in every village of the West by missionary advocates, but little has been said of the best things in the life and thought of that country. For this silence, missionaries must not receive all blame; they have been anxious to deepen popular sympathy with missionary work, and have found this most practicable by depicting some of the hideous and pathetic aspects of Hinduism. They have not pretended to give to the churches a complete and carefully proportioned picture of Hindu life as a whole. Unfortunately, the churches The work entitled, "Sri Vaishnava Tattwa," by Râmânuja Nâvalar, published twenty years ago, illustrates this. Other truths present in India, e.g., the belief in a personal immortality, might have been referred to, but for my purpose the above will be sufficient. They show that there is much truth among Hindus, and that the estimates of Hindu religious knowledge formed by Hardwick, Trench, and others, should be revised and enlarged. To many men who have gone to India these truths have been a surprise, contradicting as they do the theory that not understood, or Christianity alone contains "saving" truth. I have known men thus startled, attempt to believe and teach that somehow these truths are not the "real thing," but empty though clever imitations of the truth. But these are not the conclusions of frank and clear discernment, but of a bias which thiuks the East God-forgotten, and we may doubt whether such men can clearly behold the truth anywhere. They cannot illustrate Christianity; but they injure it. always remembered this, hence the narrow and mistaken views of many good people. But if our curiosity be Christian, and not merely prurient, we shall desire to know the good as well as the evil. Others have reasoned thus: The truth in Christianity is divine. Its sacred books are inspired and authoriThe truth in Hinduism is If we give to the truths enumerated and illustrated above our careful consideration, we shall admit that they indicate a clear advance on the teaching of the Vedas, or the pantheism of the Upanishads. And we may do this without discussing their origin. But to estimate the progress of religious thought in India, the rise of sects must be noted as well as the appearance of tative. truths. The philosophical teaching of human and uninspired. God spake Râmânuja is surely an advance on that through Moses and the prophets, and of Sankara, if judged from the Chris- through Christ, but as for this truth we tian standpoint, and the doctrines of know not clearly whence it is. But "devotion " (bhakti), "grace and the Hindu answer is, that God spake the "guru " exhibit religious growth through his fathers also, that God of a definite and appreciable kind. So knows other languages besides Greek also the Vaishnava movement, and its and Hebrew. teaching that all truly devout souls (bhaktas) are brothers, and must be respected as such, which gives to us a spiritual brotherhood transcending the limits of family, caste, and race, must be regarded as a worthy development of religious thought. Let us by all means deplore the popular departure from the weightier matters of its teaching, and the unworthy wrangling of its two great sects in south India, but let What are we to say, then, of these truths in non-Christian faiths? Shall we say "There is more of God in our world than we supposed," and sing a doxology? First, I think we should insist on the cordial recognition of these truths, and cheerfully acknowledge their kinship to Christianity, for all truth is akin. The Hindu poet knows what to say of it. He says, "The heart is made pure by the |