But the day of better things has dawned upon India. The ethical concept and the moral significance of life are beginning to grip India very thoroughly. And I believe that the day will soon come when sin will cease to be connected with intellectual delusion and ignorance, and also with ceremonial irregularity, and will be recognized in its true moral hideousness as a thing of will, and not of intellect, a thing of deepest life, and not of puerile ritual.
Thus, with the coming of Christ and the emphasis of western thought and western civilization upon moral integrity and nobility of character, there is growing also a vision of sin in its right colour and perspective. The gradual training of the people in British law and in the social ethics of the West, and in the true meaning of the righteousness of the Kingdom of God as promulgated by the Christian faith, will, erelong, drive out the old pantheistic idea proclaimed by Vivekananda, when he said that the only sin that man was capable of was the sin of regarding himself as a sinner! It will also make it impossible for murderers to excuse themselves, as one did recently to our knowledge, as he was led to be executed, by saying that it was not he, but the god within him, that slew the man!
India is really passing through a quiet, but, nevertheless, a mighty ethical revolution. Its fundamental principles of morality and of religion, as the interpreters of life, are being rapidly transformed. Christianity is sowing everywhere its seed of life and of character, as they are exemplified in the perfect life of Jesus, and are elaborated in the four Gospels, in comparison with which the message of the four Vedas and of all subsequent Hindu literature is but as the dark and feeble groping of the blind after light.
These, then, are the five fundamental aspects of our faith which are among the eternal verities and which have come to India smiling with the impress of universality, and which are finding gradual acceptance in all portions of the land. These represent what one has aptly called "Substantive Christianity," as distinct from "Adjectival Christianity," which men are prone to overemphasize and to exalt unto the heavens. This latter we may love and cherish and promote with all our hearts; but it is sectional, partial, and transitory. The former, on the other hand, is abiding, and will shine throughout the ages of eternity. It will grow in influence and increase in its prevalence throughout this land until we all can say, with the late Chunder Sen, and with much more assurance than he, "None but Jesus is worthy to wear this diadem, India; and He shall have it."
INDEX
- Abhedhânanda Swami, [431].
- Abul Fazli, [311].
- Agra, [42], [308].
- Akbar the Great, [50], [311].
- Aligharh College, [331].
- Allah Upanishad, [319].
- Almsgiving in Islam, [324].
- Altruism in Hinduism, [183].
- Amritsar, [61].
- Amritsar District, [335].
- Animism, [210].
- Arjuna and his Vision, [154], [161].
- Arnold, Sir Edwin, [49].
- Aryans and Caste, [94].
- Aryans of the East and the West, [23].
- Arya Somaj, [400-404].
- Asceticism, the Way of, [171], [215], [228].
- Asia, the Mother of Faiths, [344].
- Asoka's Pillar, [57].
- Astrologer, [251].
- Astrology, [217], [299].
- Âthi Somaj, [383].
- Âtma Doctrine, [167].
- Âtma Sabha, [380].
- Aurangzeeb, [307], [312].
- Auspicious Days, [218], [299].
- Avidia, [170], [223].
- Bande Mataram, [3].
- Baptist, Americans, [84].
- Barber's Wife, Midwife, [271].
- Barrows, Dr. J. H., [126].
- Beatitudes, the, [369].
- Beef Eating, [126].
- Benares, [66].
- Bengal, Partition of, [2].
- Bengalees and Caste, [145].
- Besant, Mrs., [406], [409].
- Bhagavad Gita, [152], [189].
- Bhagavad Gita and Bhakti, [182].
- Bhakti, [181].
- Blavatsky, Madame, [405].
- Boh Tree, the, [368].
- Bombay, [39].
- Boycott, [2].
- Brahma, [279].
- Brahma Gnana, [170], [223].
- Brahmo Somaj, [380-400].
- Buddha, [227].
- Buddha and "Saint Josaphat," [341].
- Buddhism, [69].
- Buddhism isolated, [375].
- Burma's Produce, [73].
- Burmese Women, [80].
- Calcutta University, [6].
- Caste and Commerce, [134].
- Caste and Contact, [109].
- Caste and Inter-dining, [107].
- Caste and Intermarriage, [105].
- Caste and its Results, [129].
- Caste and Totemism, [114].
- Caste and Occupation, [98], [112].
- Caste Decadence, [144].
- Caste Penalties, [115].
- Caste System, [17], [22], [91-151], [177], [199].
- Caste unknown in Burma, [84].
- Census, [313].
- Census on Caste, [96].
- Chaitanya, [377].
- Chakkerbutty, Professor, [259].
- Characterization of Caste, [102].
- Child Marriage, [214], [260].
- Chinese, [109], [284].
- Christ and Buddha, [338-373].
- Christ Ideal, [434-437].
- Christ Incarnation, [225], [437].
- Christ, the Cross of, [439].
- Christian College Magazine, [202].
- Christian Effort for Mohammedans, [333].
- Christianity and Caste, [149].
- Christianity—its Progress in India, [412-443].
- Chunder Sen, Keshub, [382].
- Civilization, Western, [7].
- Cleanliness of Hindus, [267].
- Clothing, Hindu, [268].
- Congress, National, [8].
- Contradictions in Bhagavad Gita, [187].
- Cooch Behar, Maharajah, [384].
- Crossing Theory of Caste, [100].
- Culinary Arrangements in Hindu Home, [268].
- Cycles of Hindu Time, [286].