“Jesus is to the world an example of what a human being should be, and not as a sacrifice to an offended God or to satisfy a broken law.
“Having escaped from the old theological dogmas, how was it possible for me to go back to them? How could I accept such a horrible statement as this, made by a very prominent divine, who wrote text books on theology still used in the divinity schools? ‘The saints in glory will be far more sensible how dreadful the wrath of God is, and will better understand how dreadful the sufferings of the damned are, yet this will be no occasion of grief to them, but rejoicing. They will not be sorry for the damned, it will cause no uneasiness or dissatisfaction to them, but, on the contrary, when they see this sight it will occasion rejoicing and excite them to joyful praise.’
“Another equally prominent divine writes: ‘The happiness of the elect in heaven will in part consist in witnessing the torments of the damned in hell, and among them it may be their own children, parents, husbands, wives, and friends on earth. One part of the business of the blessed is to celebrate the doctrine of reprobation. While the decree of reprobation is eternally executing on the vessels of wrath, the smoke of their torment will be eternally ascending in view of the vessels of mercy, who, instead of taking the part of these miserable objects, will say amen, hallelujah, praise the Lord. When the saints shall see how great the misery is from which our God hath saved them, and how great a difference He hath made between their state and the state of others who, by nature and perhaps by practice, no more sinful and ill-deserving than they, it will give them more a sense of the wonderfulness of God’s grace to them. Every time they look upon the damned, it will excite in them a lively and admiring sense of the grace of God in making them so to differ. The sight of hell torments will exalt the happiness of the saints forever.’
“I have candidly and truthfully given you, Mr. Japhet, my experience for what it may be worth to you, but my conclusions are all of life to me.”
CHAPTER XXVI.
Some business, as well as a desire for a change in the monotony of station life, took me to Calcutta. I was the guest of a well-to-do Eurasian family whom I had met. This gentleman, by inheriting some property and by profitable investments, was able to live quite independent and very comfortably. The family, on account of its wealth, was on the verge of society, sometimes inside, but oftener on the outside. “Society” has always been a puzzle to me. I can understand the Hindu caste system, for that is something well defined and natural. All the castes accept the position in which they are born. One caste is as proud of its place as another, and there is no trying to pass from one caste to another. There are strict rules for each, settled by immutable laws and recognized by government, even among the criminals in the jails. Everything is definite and satisfactory to everybody. As an instance, among Hindu fishermen there are these castes: those who fish from the rocks, those who fish from boats, those who catch turtle, those who cast nets, and those who fish with a rod. There is no chance here for mistakes, as each one knows where he is; but among Europeans everything is higgledy-piggledy, no one knows who’s who or what’s what. It is a sarcasm on western civilization to allow the heathen to be so far ahead in such an important matter.
From the high caste English Brahmins down to the lowest caste of English Shudras there seems to be no boundary lines or rules. No one knows where he is, and is forever in danger of being snubbed and humiliated, except, perhaps, the very high mucky-mucks, who assume a kind of divine air of superiority and immaculateness.
It appears that a man who acts as wholesale agent for a firm in England, occupying a little office only large enough to hold a table and chair, is in “society” because he is a wholesaler. Another whose business takes up a number of buildings, selling anything from a steam engine to a hairpin, giving employment to a thousand or more people, is not in society because he is a retailer. He is obliged to be a man of superior ability, while the wholesale agent may be but a popinjay. The one can draw cheques for lacs of rupees at a time, while the boarding-house keeper and dhoby of the other have to wait months for their pay.
I was told of a case where a clerk in a large firm fell in love with a daughter of his landlady, a bright, intelligent girl, the mother owning considerable property. They were married. The next day his fellow clerks, receiving each a couple hundred dibs a month, and often overdrawing their wages to get tennis suits and neckties, drew up a petition requesting the benedict to resign his clerkship, as they only associated with gentlemen.
This miserable, degrading notion about caste or labor often inflicts the greatest hardships. A Scotch lady, a neighbor of my hostess, called. She was of excellent family, formerly in good financial circumstances, but now greatly reduced by some misfortune. She had two grown up daughters, well educated and in society. She was lamenting over the impoverished condition of the family, and said, “I know how to take care of sick people, and would gladly go out as a nurse and so earn some money to help keep the pot boiling, but what would society say, and what would become of my daughters? Their prospects would be ruined, and they would always be spoken of as ‘the daughters of that old Scotch nurse.’ So I am obliged to sit idle at home, when we need a little money so badly.”