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 VA \ ^ v va • 
 
 THE RELATION OF 
 
 CHRISTIANITY TO HINDUISM.’ 
 
 BY 
 
 R E V. DR. CALDWELL, 
 
 Missionary S.P.C., Ttnnevelly, India, Honorary Member of the Royal Asiatic 
 Society, Fellow of the Madras University. 
 
 
 
 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, 
 
 BREAD STREET HILL, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET. 
 
[ The following Paper “ On Foreign Missions, especially in 
 relation to the Oriental Systems of Religion was read at 
 the Brighton Congress in 1874 . The Appendix was added 
 subsequently .] 
 
THE RELATION OF 
 
 CHRISTIANITY TO HINDUISM. 
 
 It might perhaps be expected that I should avail myself of 
 this opportunity to supply some information respecting the 
 progress and prospects of Christian Missions in India, or to 
 discuss some questions that have arisen respecting their 
 organization and management ; and this would probably 
 have been my own opinion of what was desirable, had it 
 not been for the importance which certain more general 
 questions — affecting the relation of Christianity itself to the 
 religions of the world, and especially its relation to the 
 Oriental systems of religion — have lately assumed. The view 
 of this subject which seems to be prevailing more and more 
 amongst the literary and scientific classes, and to which 
 utterance appeared to me to be given a few weeks ago, at the 
 International Congress of Orientalists, by one of the most 
 distinguished scholars and men of letters of our time 1 — 
 that view would lead, I believe, either to the abandon- 
 ment of missions altogether, or to their being left exclu- 
 sively in the hands of persons who have “ a zeal for God, 
 but not according to knowledge.” Missions and missionaries 
 were, it is true,: spoken of on the occasion referred to with 
 the greatest respect ; a wish was expressed that where 
 
 1 See Appendix, p. 16. 
 
4 Christianity more Important than Missions. 
 
 there is one missionary now there should be ten ; and 
 a recommendation was made of a more thoroughgoing 
 character than anything that has yet been proposed, as far 
 as I am aware, even by the conductors of missionary 
 societies themselves, to the effect that a considerable 
 number of the non-resident fellowships at the universities 
 should be utilised for sending out missionaries to various 
 parts of the mission field. This being the case, and our 
 thanks being undoubtedly due to the learned professor for 
 his excellent proposition, it might seem ungracious and 
 unreasonable to express any dissatisfaction ; and yet I must 
 say I have found it impossible to feel altogether satisfied. 
 I have felt it impossible to refrain from availing myself of 
 the opportunity this Church Congress affords to avow my 
 conviction that what appeared to me to be abandoned was 
 of greater value than what was retained. As “ life is more 
 than meat, and the body than raiment,” so Christianity itself 
 is of greater value than missions. Christianity is of more 
 importance than the system of means instituted for the 
 purpose of propagating it in the world ; and this being so, 
 if Christianity should come to be regarded, not as a divine 
 gift to mankind, not as a divinely-ordained remedy for human 
 sin and sorrow, but virtually as a human invention, as spring- 
 ing, equally with all other religions, from what is termed “ the 
 sacred soil of the human heart” — if this idea should spread, if 
 it should dominate the minds of educated men, the result 
 would be, not merely that missionary zeal would decay — not 
 merely that where there are ten missionaries now in the field 
 we should scarcely be able to retain one, but that it would be 
 impossible for missionary zeal ever to revive ; seeing that 
 Christianity itself, or everything of importance we understand 
 when we speak of Christianity — everything that makes 
 Christianity precious to earnest, devout minds — everything 
 that makes Christianity a power in the world — everything 
 that makes it worthy of being retained, worthy of being 
 propagated — everything which makes it worth living for, 
 worth dying for — would have passed away. 
 
 In the remarks I am about to make, illustrative of this 
 view of the question, respecting the Oriental systems of 
 
Three Elements in Hinduism. 
 
 5 
 
 religion as contrasted with Christianity, I intend to restrict 
 myself to Hinduism or Brahmanism, the religion of the 
 people of India, though much that I have to say would apply 
 equally well mutatis mutandis, to Buddhism. 
 
 Very different estimates of Hinduism have been formed at 
 different times, and by different persons at the same time. 
 There was a time when persons who wrote about Hinduism 
 too generally fell into the error of indiscriminate depreciation. 
 That period has passed away, and the error into which people 
 at present, as it appears to me, are too apt to fall, is that of 
 indiscriminate laudation. The amount of what is good in 
 Hinduism, as in the character of the Indian people and the 
 structure of Indian society, is often at present exaggerated ; 
 and we are called upon, not only to respect that which is 
 good, which is perfectly fair and right, but also to ignore that 
 which is evil, or to forget that the evil is greatly in excess of 
 the good. We seem sometimes, also, to be called upon to 
 regard evil not as evil, but as goodness of a grotesque or 
 unusual type. A very misleading impression might be pro- 
 duced by a series of extracts taken skilfully from the sacred 
 books of the Hindus. It would be easy to select — say from 
 that great storehouse of Indian traditions, the Maha-Bharata 
 — a series of extracts which should contain moral and religious 
 teaching of a very high order ; but if it were desired that a 
 perfectly fair estimate should be formed, it would be necessary 
 to explain that such extracts represented only an exceedingly 
 small proportion of the contents of the book, and that much 
 that it contained was so bad — so deeply tinctured with low, 
 tricky morality and indecency — that it has been found to be 
 a practical difficulty — as is the case also with many other 
 similar books — to select any consecutive portions suitable in 
 length, and not morally unsuitable, for the Indian University 
 examinations. 
 
 I recognise in Hinduism three elements which have 
 contributed in various degrees to make it what it is. First, 
 there is the merely human element, which manifests itself in 
 principles, sentiments, and practices, which appear to be the 
 legitimate outcome of Indian human nature. Our estimate of 
 this, the preponderating element in Hinduism, will depend 
 
6 
 
 Human. — Divine. 
 
 very much on the estimate of human nature we are accus- 
 tomed to form. One estimate of the heart, man’s moral 
 nature, is that it is “ a sacred soil,” from which everything 
 that is good and lovely, including the Christian religion itself, 
 naturally springs. Another estimate of the heart is that “ it 
 is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked and 
 may I not add, that if we look around us and look within, this 
 is the estimate which we shall find to be correct ? As water, 
 therefore, cannot rise above the level of its source, so we may 
 reasonably conclude that the merely human element in 
 Hinduism will not be found to rise above the characteristics — 
 good in part, but evil in the main — of the source from which 
 it emanates. 
 
 I recognise also in Hinduism a higher element, an element 
 which I cannot but regard as divine, struggling with what is 
 earthly and evil in it, and frequently overborne, though never 
 entirely destroyed. I trace the operation of this divine 
 element in the religiousness — the habit of seeing God in all 
 things, and all things in God — which has formed so marked a 
 characteristic of the people of India during every period of 
 their history. I trace it in the conviction that there is a God, 
 however erroneously His attributes may be conceived, in or 
 through whom all things have their being; in the conviction 
 that a religion is possible, desirable, necessary ; in the con- 
 viction that men are somehow separated from God, and need 
 somehow to be united to Him ; but especially in the idea I 
 have found universally entertained, that a remedy for the ills 
 of life, an explanation of its difficulties and mysteries, and an 
 appointment of a system of means for seeking God’s favour 
 and rising to a higher life — that is, a revelation — is to be 
 expected ; nay, more, that such a revelation has been given, 
 the only doubt being as to which of the existing reve- 
 lations is the true one, or the more directly divine. Nor 
 need we hesitate to recognise in such ideas a divine origin, 
 seeing that in human society, and especially in the domain of 
 morals, we may always and everywhere see a Divine purpose 
 working itself into shape. But irrespective of such considera- 
 tions, I am persuaded that much of what I have referred to 
 may be traced to a distinctively Christian source. When I 
 
Diabolical. 
 
 7 
 
 look at some of the secondary developments of Hinduism, as, 
 for example, the doctrine of incarnations — the incarnation 
 especially of Krishna, which is so evidently founded on a 
 distorted version of the gospel history of Christ ; the doctrine 
 of faith, of grace, of the relation of faith to works, of the 
 relation of divine grace to the human will in salvation — it 
 appears to me in the highest degree probable that we have 
 before us a result of the contact of the Indian mind with the 
 Christianity of the West at some period prior to the com- 
 mencement of modern missions, though when and how this 
 contact took place is at present uncertain. 
 
 It is strange that it is at this point — not in connection with 
 the merely human element in Hinduism — that we are con- 
 fronted with the most remarkable evidence of the existence 
 in it of an element which can scarcely be described otherwise 
 than as diabolical. One of the worst things in modern India 
 is the sensual worship of Krishna, as practised by some of the 
 more enthusiastic sects ; and this appears to be mainly an 
 imitation of one of the highest developments of Christian 
 devoutness — the personal love of the soul to the Divine 
 Saviour of men. That which appeared to be most truly 
 divine in its origin ha? become earthly, sensual, if not actually 
 devilish, by contact with impure minds. Allied to this, though 
 still more detestable, is the worship of the sakti, or female 
 energy, by the left-hand division of one of the Saiva sects. 
 1 cannot do otherwise than place in this bad category that 
 element in Hinduism which, under the venerated name of 
 Religion, teaches immorality, either by precept or by repre- 
 senting divine personages as licentious, cruel, or otherwise 
 immoral, or by giving licentious, cruel, or otherwise immoral 
 practices a place in divine worship. There is hardly a virtue 
 that is not praised in some Indian book ; but, on the other 
 hand, there is hardly a crime that is not encouraged by the 
 example of some Indian divinity. I think I may safely also 
 assign a place in this category to the worship of devils or evil 
 spirits, which so extensively prevails in some parts of India, 
 and which, though independent of Brahmanism in its origin, 
 and probably anterior to it, has been amalgamated with it as 
 one of the authorised developments of Saivism. It is not 
 
'8 Testimony of Hinduism to Christianity. 
 
 my purpose at present to treat of Buddhism, but I cannot 
 avoid saying in passing that, whilst I respect the morality of 
 Buddhism, and admire its compassion for suffering humanity, 
 
 I regard as more deplorable than anything in Hinduism that 
 element in Buddhism which, under the name of supernatural 
 illumination, teaches atheism, nihilism, and despair. 
 
 If we wish to form a just estimate of Hinduism, we must 
 beware of founding our judgment on the Vedas, the system 
 of religion contained in which is at present of little more 
 than antiquarian interest. We must beware, also, of founding 
 our judgment on the Indian philosophies ; for though these 
 philosophies profess to be the innermost essence of the Indian 
 systems of religion, and though their influence on all classes, 
 down almost to the lowest, is greater than that of any other 
 systems of philosophy in any other part of the world, I 
 regard them as in reality independent of religion altogether. 
 Vedantism, for example, is simply the extremest development 
 of idealism, and a Vedantist might be either a Vaishnava or 
 a Saiva. It is not inconceivable even that he should be a 
 Mohammedan or a Christian. If we wish to form an accurate 
 estimate of Hinduism as a religion, we must found our 
 judgment on the forms in which it manifests itself in daily 
 life among the masses, and the tone of mind and style of 
 character it produces. We must judge it by its fruits. 
 Judging of Hinduism in this way, the conclusion to be deduced 
 from the actual facts of the case is, that it is the source of 
 many of the worst evils the country endures, and the chief 
 obstacle to its enlightenment and moral progress ; and hence, 
 that its disappearance from the stage, and the spread of 
 Christianity instead, would be as life from the dead. Chris- 
 tianity would be the best realization of the visions of its 
 seers, and the best fulfilment of the longings of its sages. It 
 would deliver that which is good in it from the bondage of cor- 
 ruption, it would enable it to cast out that which is evil, and it 
 would dissipate the clouds which hide from it the face of God. 
 
 “ Immortal East ! dear land of glorious lays ! 
 
 Sec here the ‘ Unknown God’ of thy unconscious praise.” 
 
 It would be an error to suppose that missionaries are now 
 
Good in it not to be Over-estimated. 9 
 
 for the first time learning to take up this attitude towards 
 Hinduism. They have long used extracts from Indian books 
 of authority, not merely for the purpose of showing that 
 those books in many important particulars contradict one 
 another, but also for the much higher purpose of showing that 
 Christianity is not, as Hindus are apt to fancy, an outlandish 
 novelty, but is in reality in accordance with the best senti- 
 ments of India’s best minds. They have avoided, however, 
 the error into which some men of letters, not missionaries, 
 have fallen — like the late author of an interesting book entitled 
 Dravidian Folk Songs — the error of over-estimating the 
 proportion of what is good in Hindu writings, and virtually 
 ignoring the existence of what is evil in them, though the 
 evil be ten times greater in amount than the good, and a 
 hundred times more popular and influential. 
 
 It appears to me that we miss the purpose Divine Provi- 
 dence has in view in giving us the position we have in India, 
 if we content ourselves with eulogising what we consider to 
 be good, without endeavouring to help the people to condemn 
 and reject what is evil. There are not a few of our native 
 fellow-subjects in India who have acquired sufficient enlighten- 
 ment to perceive and approve what is good ; but unhappily 
 we often find the same persons timid in carrying out what 
 they approve into practice, and far too tolerant of evil ; in 
 consequence of which, though there is much room for reform 
 in every department of things in India — in social usages, in 
 morals, and in religion — most Hindus gladly welcome any 
 excuse for letting things remain. as they are. 
 
 I fear this will be the result of the manner in which what 
 is termed the science of religion has recently been studied in 
 this country. The Indian mind will welcome anything which 
 seems to deprive Christianity of its authority ; and when 
 Christianity sinks in the scale, it is not the Brahma Samaj — 
 it is not the religion of nature — but Hinduism, with all its 
 absurdities and immoralities, that will rise. 
 
 I have no objection whatever to the application of the 
 comparative method to the study of religions. On the con- 
 trary, if only the comparison be fairly made, I am convinced 
 that whatever religion may suffer, Christianity will not suffer 
 
io Christianity to be Compared Fairly. 
 
 but will gain. What I think open to objection is a comparison 
 which attempts to prove the absence of essential differences 
 between the things compared, by the easy process of omitting 
 essential differences. I cannot think a comparison of religions 
 fairly conducted when the Christianity which is compared 
 with the religions of the world appears to be a Christianity 
 denuded of its most essential characteristics — a Christianity 
 without the Incarnation and the Resurrection, a Christianity 
 without the Cross, a Christianity without Christ. To omit, 
 whether directly or by implication, these characteristics of 
 historic Christianity would, as it appears to me, be as unscien- 
 tific as to omit the consideration of specific differences in the 
 classification of zoological or botanical species. Man’s position 
 in the world cannot fairly be determined if we describe him 
 only by those physical qualities which he possesses in common 
 with the rest of the animal creation, without taking into account 
 his conscious intelligence, his power of speech, his reason, his 
 sense of moral obligation, his capacity for religion ; in virtue 
 of which endowments he claims, and justly claims, to have 
 been made in the image of God. May I not carry out the 
 parallel by affirming, that as man is God’s interpreter to 
 nature, so Christianity is God’s interpreter to man ; and that 
 what man is amongst the birds and four-footed beasts and 
 creeping things, that, and a great deal more, is Christianity 
 amongst the religions and superstitions of mankind. Chris- 
 tianity possesses undoubtedly elements in common with other 
 religions; but if compared with others fairly, and in a truly 
 scientific spirit, it will be found that it occupies not only the 
 highest position, but a position perfectly unique. It will be 
 found that it testifies of itself that it is divine by teaching 
 men of their relation to God and of God’s relation to them, 
 and of sin and salvation, as no other religion does or ever did. 
 
 The essential differences between Christianity and other 
 religions, and the propriety of acquiring a firm grasp of those 
 differences, will appear, I think, in a clear light when I en- 
 deavour to show how we should have to proceed if we wished 
 to induce an intelligent Hindu, unacquainted with English, 
 not merely to think favourably of Christianity, but to become 
 a Christian. It is those very points in which Christianity 
 
Use of Knowing Hindu Philosophy. 1 1 
 
 differs from and excels every other religion which furnish us 
 with the line of argument which we shall find most effectual. 
 
 It used to be asserted some years ago, that the reason why 
 Christianity made so little progress amongst the higher classes 
 in India was because missionaries were generally unacquainted 
 with Hindu philosophy; and accordingly they were recom- 
 mended to apply themselves to the study of the principal 
 philosophical systems, in order that they might be enabled to 
 present Christianity to learned Hindus in a philosophical 
 dress. I do not consider that view of things correct. I have 
 always, it is true, advocated the study of the rudiments, at 
 least, of the Indian philosophies, but for a different and much 
 humbler reason — simply in order that missionaries might 
 understand the intellectual ground of the attachment of the 
 educated classes to their own religion, and their aversion to 
 Christianity, or at least that they might understand the mean- 
 ing of the hard words they were so fond of using, and in which 
 they appeared to think there was so much wisdom and weight. 
 To this extent I still think the study of the Hindu philosophies 
 desirable ; there are cases in which I think it necessary ; not, 
 however, for the purpose of providing the missionary with a 
 weapon in his spiritual warfare, for the best of all weapons is 
 in his hands already, but merely for the sake of self-defence. 
 Whatever he may know of philosophy, whether eastern or 
 western, the sooner he can succeed in setting philosophical 
 questions aside and grappling with the conscience the better ; 
 for it is always found that opposition to the Gospel, from 
 whatever quarter it may proceed, is best met by the Gospel 
 itself. 
 
 In dealing with Hindus ignorant of English — and the same 
 will hold good also with respect to most of those who know 
 English — what are called the external evidences of Christianity, 
 that is, evidences and arguments founded on history, or which 
 presuppose some knowledge of history, will be found to fall 
 flat on the ear. Something worthy of being called history 
 exists in Cashmere, in the extreme north, and Ceylon, in 
 the extreme south ; but in India proper not a single narrative 
 that can properly be called history has ever been written by 
 Hindus. History has always been discouraged in India by the 
 
12 
 
 External and Internal Evidences. 
 
 prevalence of idealistic philosophies. Why should people 
 care to record the events of a merely ideal world ? Hence the 
 history of the Bible, the history of Christianity, the history of 
 the Church, will rarely be found to impress the Hindu mind. 
 Miracles, to carry conviction, must be performed in the pre- 
 sence of the people ; prophecies must be uttered in their 
 hearing and fulfilled in their sight. For other reasons it is 
 obviously out of place to attempt to speak to persons who 
 liave not yet accepted the rudiments of the faith, of the Chris- 
 tian mysteries, of the means of grace, of the Christian life ; 
 and worse than out of place to speak to them of points which 
 are subjects of controversy amongst Christians. 
 
 It requires no acquaintance with Hindu philosophy on our 
 part, or of history on the part of the Hindus, to enable us to 
 make use of some of the internal evidences of Christianity. 
 It will be possible to show that Christianity is the most 
 reasonable religion in the world, the religion which is most 
 conducive to enlightenment, progress, order, and peace, the 
 religion which is professed by the most cultivated nations in 
 the world, so that civilization and Christianity are almost 
 conterminous. We get upon higher ground when we show 
 that Christianity is the only religion which is suited to every 
 country, race, and class ; that it aims at the peaceful conquest 
 of the whole earth ; and that now, nineteen centuries after its 
 first appearance in the world, it is as full of missionary zeal as 
 it was during any previous period of its history. We may 
 dwell with stilljjreater advantage on the high moral teaching 
 contained in the Holy Scriptures — the zeal for righteousness 
 which breathes and burns in every portion of the Old Testa- 
 ment ; and which, instead of waxing cold in the New, burns 
 therein with an intenser fervour, and with a radiance which is 
 all the lovelier because it seeks to save, not to destroy. Never 
 perhaps is the immense superiority of Christianity to Hinduism 
 more distinctly apparent than when we compare the Hindu in- 
 -carnations — the best of them incarnations of manly courage, the 
 worst of them incarnations of lasciviousness — with the incarna- 
 tion of moral goodness, the incarnation of truth and purity, the 
 incarnation of self-sacrificing love, exhibited to the world in 
 Christ. We are on safe ground also, as well as on high ground, 
 
Moral Evidences Convincing. 
 
 13 
 
 when we show that Christian teaching is the only moral and 
 religious teaching in the world which rises above the level of 
 ordinary human nature. It does not swim with the stream of 
 human ideas and inclinations, but firmly resists that stream. 
 It gives us a higher purpose of life and higher motives, and 
 sets itself thereby to raise us to a higher level. It is so much 
 higher than anything we suppose to be high in ourselves, and 
 so much better than anything we suppose to be good in our- 
 selves, that we cannot but conclude that it must have proceeded 
 from Him from whom we ourselves proceeded, and to whom 
 we have to prepare to return. 
 
 These considerations will be intelligible to all educated 
 Hindus, whether acquainted with English or not, and some of 
 them will be found to be intelligible even to the uneducated. 
 Each of them, I believe, is valid and sound as far as it goes, 
 though it is admitted that they are of different degrees of 
 value. Taking them altogether they ought to carry conviction ; 
 and yet it is often found that conviction produced by these 
 considerations does not necessitate conversion. The conside- 
 rations I have mentioned are regarded as hardly sufficient to 
 prove that it is absolutely necessary that every man should 
 become a Christian. The acceptance of Christianity as a 
 religion may, it is supposed, after all, be optional. It may 
 only be like the offer of a luxury of a high order, the accept- 
 ance of which may be left to a man’s own discretion. These 
 considerations hardly reach the conscience, in its dealings with 
 which it is that Christianity proves itself to be a moral necessity. 
 Hence, without excluding these considerations, but without 
 relying too much upon them, without allowing them to occupy 
 a disproportionate share of the attention, it is the missionary’s 
 chief aim — now, as in the earliest days of the Gospel — to bring 
 to bear upon the conscience all that is included in the doctrine 
 of Salvation by the Cross. His first work is to convince of 
 sin, to show that moral evil is not a legitimate acting out of 
 the law of our constitution, but is rebellion against the highest 
 element in our constitution — conscience, the voice of God 
 within — and therefore rebellion against God. He has then to 
 show that Christianity, the only religion that treats man as a 
 sinner, is also the only religion which brings man the good 
 
H 
 
 The Cross our best Evidence. 
 
 news of salvation from sin. In the Cross of Christ we see a 
 means whereby moral evil may be expiated — that is, so 
 forgiven that the forgiveness does not violate, but illustrates 
 and confirms the moral order of the world ; and in the com- 
 munication of the Spirit of Christ to all who lay hold of the 
 Cross we see a means whereby evil habits may be overcome, 
 the mind cleansed, and new love, new life obtained. Thus 
 Christianity sets itself first to produce an imperative sense of 
 want, and then to supply that want, and all wants, out of the 
 fulness that is in Christ. Hence, instead of being regarded 
 as one religion out of many, better than others, diviner than 
 others, but not on that account necessary to be adopted by 
 every man, Christianity claims to be regarded — as indeed it is 
 — as the only religion which fulfils the purposes for which a 
 religion is required — as the only religion which reconciles man 
 to God, as the only religion which produces not merely moral 
 amendment, but spiritual renovation, as the only religion which 
 brings salvation. It claims, therefore, to be a religion which 
 every man is bound to adopt in accordance with the good 
 purpose of the goodness of Him who tasted death for every 
 man. It asks admission into every human heart, not as a 
 suppliant, but on the authority of the highest law. 
 
 The sketch I have now given of the use that might be 
 made by a missionary, especially by a missionary to India, of 
 the particulars in which Christianity differs ftom all other 
 religions, may suffice to show what a grievous wrong is done 
 to it when other religions, whether avowedly or by implica- 
 tion, are placed on a level with this the best gift of God to 
 mankind, and also what an amount of damage would be 
 inflicted on the missionary cause if the Divine authority and 
 essential characteristics of Christianity were ignored. Better 
 that missionaries were left without the kind wishes for their 
 success that have been expressed, than that they should be 
 tempted to let go the principles that impel them to go forth 
 into the field, the banner under which they fight, and the 
 weapons with which their success is achieved. Deprive 
 Christianity of Christ’s divinity and atonement — let the Cross 
 of Christ cease to be the centre of the Christian system — and 
 the doctrines that remain will cease to have any power to 
 
Other Evidence Ineffectual. 
 
 1 5 
 
 attract. No heart will be stirred to devotion, no hand will be 
 nerved for missionary enterprise, by a Christianity without 
 Christ. Sceptics themselves cannot but admit that the only 
 strong, zealous Christianity — the only Christianity that pro- 
 pagates itself — is the Christianity of which a Divine saving 
 Christ is the sun and centre ; and when they look back with 
 regret, as their poems show that they sometimes do, on what 
 they have lost in losing faith in Christianity, it is the disap- 
 pearance from their minds and hearts of the Christ of the 
 Gospels that they always regard with keenest regret. 
 
 It was very gratifying to a missionary to hear so warm an 
 eulogy pronounced by so distinguished a scholar, both at the 
 Orientalists’ Congress, and last December at Westminster 
 Abbey, on the late martyred missionary bishop of Melanesia. 
 But methinks that the lessons that might be drawn from 
 Bishop Patteson’s career were not quite exhausted on either 
 of these occasions. Why was it that that devoted man loved 
 the islanders he laboured amongst so well that he would 
 not allow them to be called savages, but considered them 
 brethren, and that he was content, if it were God’s will, as it 
 proved to be, that he should die at their hands ? We know 
 the secret of his love, fie loved because he had been loved. 
 Take away his belief in the Cross — take away his belief in 
 Christ’s love to himself and the world — and he never would 
 have given up the delights of an English career to spend and 
 be spent for their welfare, as he did. If we appreciate the 
 result, should we not also appreciate the cause ? 
 
i6 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 (See pp. 3 and 15.) 
 
 Two Extracts from the Inaugural Address of Professor Max Muller, 
 to the Aryan Section of the International Congress of Orientalists, 
 assembled in London, in September , 1874. With remarks thereon. 
 
 FIRST EXTRACT. 
 
 “The second claim we prefer is on Missionary Societies. I have 
 incurred very severe obloquy for my supposed hostility to missionary 
 enterprise. All I can say is, I wish that there were ten missionaries 
 for every one we have now. I have always counted missionaries 
 among my best friends. I have again and again acknowledged how 
 much Oriental studies, and linguistic studies in general, owe to 
 them, and I am proud to say that, even now, while missionaries 
 at home have abused me in unmeasured language, missionaries 
 abroad, devoted, hard-working missionaries, have thanked me for what 
 I said of them and their work in my lay-sermon in Westminster 
 Abbey last December. 
 
 “ Now it seems to me that, first of all, our universities, and I think 
 again chiefly of Oxford, might do much more for missions than they 
 do at present. If we had a sufficient staff of professors for Eastern 
 languages, we could prepare young missionaries for this work, and 
 should be able to send out from time to time such men as Patteson, 
 the Bishop of Melanesia, who was every inch an Oxford man. And 
 in these missionaries we have not only apostles of religion and civili- 
 zation, but at the same time the most valuable pioneers of scientific 
 research. I kno\y there are some authorities at home who declare 
 that such a combination is impossible, or at least undesirable, that a 
 man cannot serve two masters, and that a missionary must do his 
 own work and nothing else. Nothing, I believe, can be more 
 mistaken. First of all, some of our most efficient missionaries have 
 been those who have done also the most excellent work as scholars; 
 and whenever I have conversed on the subject with missionaries who 
 have seen active service, they all agree that they cannot be converting 
 all day long, and that nothing is more refreshing and invigorating 
 to them than some literary or scientific work. Now what I should 
 like to see is this : I should like to see ten or twenty of our non- 
 resident fellowships, which at present are doing more harm than 
 good, assigned to missionary work, to be given to young men who 
 have taken their degree, and who, whether laymen or clergymen, 
 are willing to work as assistant missionaries on distant stations, with 
 the distinct understanding that they should devote some of their 
 
Professor Max Muller's Address. 
 
 1 7 
 
 time to scientific work, whether the study of languages, or flowers, or 
 stars, and that they should send home every year some account ot 
 their labours. These men would be like scientific consuls, to whom 
 students at home might apply for information and help. They would 
 have opportunities ot distinguishing themselves by really uselul work, 
 far more than in London, and after ten years they might either return 
 to Europe with a well established reputation, or if they find that 
 they have a real call for missionary work, devote all their life to 
 it. Though to my own mind there is no nobler work than that of 
 a missionary, yet I believe that some such connexion with the 
 universities and men of science would raise their position, would 
 call out more general interest, and secure to the missionary cause 
 the good will of those whose will is apt to become law.” 
 
 SECOND EXTRACT. 
 
 “ The same comparative method has been applied to the study of 
 religion also. All religions are Oriental, and with the exception of 
 the Christian, their sacred books are all written in Oriental languages. 
 The materials, therefore, of a comparative study of the religious 
 systems of the world had all to be supplied by Oriental scholars. 
 But far more important than those materials is the spirit in which 
 they have been treated. The sacred books of the principal religions 
 of mankind had to be placed side by side with perfect impartiality, 
 in order to discern the points which they shared in common, as 
 well as those that are peculiar to each. The results already ob- 
 tained by this simple juxtaposition are full of important lessons, and 
 the fact that the truths on which all religions agree .far excel those in 
 which they differ, has hardly been sufficiently appreciated. I feel 
 convinced, however, that the time will come when those who at 
 present profess to be most disquieted by our studies will be the 
 most grateful for our support ; for having shown by evidence which 
 cannot be controverted, that all religions spring from the same sacred 
 soil — the human heart 3 that all are quickened by the same divine 
 spirit, the still, small voice 3 and that, though the outward forms of 
 religion may change — may wither and decay, yet, as long as man is 
 what he is, and what he has been, he will postulate again and 
 again the Infinite as the very condition of the Finite — he will yearn 
 for something which the world cannot give 3 he will feel his weak- 
 ness and dependence, and in that weakness and dependence discover 
 the deepest sources of his hope and trust and strength. 
 
 “ A patient study of the sacred scriptures of the world is what is 
 wanted at present more than anything else, in order to clear our own 
 ideas of the origin, the nature, the purposes of religion. There can 
 be no science of one religion, but there can be a science of many. 
 We have learnt already one lesson, that behind the helpless ex- 
 pressions which language has devised, whether in the East or in the 
 
1 8 Real Sentiments of Missionaries. 
 
 West, for uttering the unutterable — be it Dyaushpita or Ahuramazda, 
 be it Jehovah or Allah , be it the All or the Nothing, be it the First 
 Cause or Our Father in Heaven — there is the same intention, the 
 same striving, the same stammering, the same faith. Other lessons 
 will follow, till in the end we shall be able to restore that ancient 
 bond which unites not only the East with the West, but all the 
 members of the human family, and may learn to understand what a 
 Persian poet meant when he wrote many centuries ago (I quote 
 from Mr. Conway’s ‘ Sacred Anthology ’) : ‘ Diversity of worship has 
 divided the human race into seventy-two nations. From among 
 all their dogmas I have selected one — the Love of God.’” 
 
 These extracts speak for themselves, and show that there 
 was ample reason both for the gratification I expressed, as a 
 humble representative of the missionary cause, respecting one 
 portion of the learned professor’s address, and also for 
 regarding another portion of it, both as a missionary and as 
 a Christian, with deep regret. 
 
 Perhaps it is hardly necessary to assure the reader, — 
 acquainted, as he must be, with the devices of controversial 
 rhetoric — that the “ very severe obloquy ” said to have been 
 incurred by the professor for his “ supposed hostility to 
 missionary enterprise',' is merely a figure of speech ; or that 
 when he says that “missionaries at home have abused him in 
 unmeasured language, &c., &c., for what he said of them 
 and their work,” he only means that if they had expressed 
 any opinion whatever — which they do not appear to have 
 done — they would probably have said, that whilst they 
 thanked him for his warm advocacy of their cause, they 
 would have considered a right appreciation of the origin, 
 nature, and claims of the religion they were commissioned 
 to teach preferable to praise of themselves or their work. 
 
 I admire, as much as the professor, the beauty of the 
 sentiment expressed by the Persian poet, but when I am asked 
 to set myself “ to learn to understand what he meant,” I 
 find myself met at the outset by a practical discouragement. 
 What the poet appears to have meant is not by any means 
 in accordance with historical facts. It is not a fact that the 
 love of God is a dogma common to all religions ; on the 
 contrary, it is a fact — whatever be the nature of the inference 
 
The Love of God . — The All. — The Nothing. 
 
 19 
 
 we choose to draw from it — that, apart from the teachings of 
 the Bible, and those systems of religion which have derived 
 what is best and highest in them, directly or indirectly from 
 the Bible, the love of God is a dogma which the world has 
 never known. “ The science of religion,” if it wishes to be 
 regarded, not as a poetical dream, but as a science, must take 
 care not to ignore facts like this. It is equally desirable that 
 it should be remembered that, when the love of God is spoken 
 of, the existence of a God who loves and who is capable of 
 being loved, must necessarily be presupposed. Whatever may 
 be the case in India, in these days, in Europe God’s only 
 rivals are “the All” and “the Nothing;” but surely it is 
 unscientific and misleading to class these abstract generaliza- 
 tions with “ Our Father in heaven,” as emanating from “ the 
 same intention, the same faith,” and as equally with Him to 
 be loved. “ The All ” is incapable either of loving or of being 
 loved. According to the representations of those who have 
 set it up in the place of God, it is not a loving Father, but 
 a mere unconscious machine, with dreadful teeth, partly 
 concealed by flowers, which grinds out good and evil, 
 happiness and misery, with impartial unconcern. As for the 
 alternative divinity mentioned by the professor with so much 
 apparent respect, “ the Nothing ” — whether the Nothing of 
 the Buddhists or the Nothing of the atheists — it differs in 
 nothing, as far as I can see, from nothing, except in being 
 dignified with a capital N ; and certainly whatever else may 
 be said in praise of Nothing by those who are believers in 
 Nothing, they will scarcely venture to say that it claims 
 their love. 
 
 Herein is Love ; not that we loved God, but 
 that God loved us, and gave His Son to be the 
 
 PROPITIATION FOR OUR SINS. 
 
 This is the true differentia of the Christian religion, and 
 the true foundation and justification of the missionary 
 enterprise. 
 
RECENT PUBLICATIONS ON MISSIONS. 
 
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