■■'■■■■'-'■■ 
 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 
 
 JM 
 
^ 
 
 • v tytfO^ 
 
 £ tto IHf otogiettt £ eitt . 
 
 
 'mitt 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 % 
 
 Shelf 
 
 BL 1031 .B3 1899 
 Barrows, John Henry, 1847- 
 1902. 
 
 The Christian conquest of 
 Asia 
 
THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST 
 
 OF ASIA 
 
tffcorse Xectures 
 
 1893— THE PLACE OF CHRIST IN MODERN 
 THEOLOGY. By Rev. A. M. Fairbairn, 
 D.D. 8vo, $2.50. 
 
 1894-THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN. By Rev. 
 William Elliot Griffis, D.D. 12mo, $2.00. 
 
 1895— THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF 
 MAN. By Professor John M. Tyler. 
 12mo, $1.75. 
 
 1898— THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA. 
 By Rev. John Henry Barrows, D.D. 
 12mo, $1.50. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST 
 
 OF ASIA 
 
 STUDIES AND PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS OF 
 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS 
 
 JQeiw the flsotee TLcctmee ol 1 80S 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN HENKY BAKKOWS, D.D. 
 
 PRESIDENT OF OBERLIN COLLEGE ; HASKELL LECTURER ON COMPARATIVE 
 RELIGION, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO; BARROWS LECTURER FOR 
 INDIA AND JAPAN, 189G-97 ; AUTHOR OF "CHRIS- 
 TIANITY, THE WORLD-RELIGION," ETC. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 1899 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 TROW DIRECTORY 
 
 PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
Go 
 
 Rev. K. S. MACDONALD, D.D. 
 
 OF CALCUTTA 
 
 THE EXPERIENCED MISSIONARY, TRUSTED COUNSELLOR 
 
 BROAD-MINDED CHRISTIAN AND FAITHFUL FRIEND 
 
 I DEDICATE THIS VOLUME WITH HArPY 
 
 AND GRATEFUL MEMORIES 
 
 OF INDIA 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The Christian Conquest of Asia began with tho com- 
 ing of Jesus Christ and the first proclamation of Bis 
 Gospel, but the great continent has not been tho chief 
 arena for the working of the Christian forces which the 
 world's Saviour set in motion. Christianity, which 
 made such rapid conquests in Asia Minor, becan 
 stereotyped dogmatically and ecclesiastically; its mis- 
 sionary energies were dried up, and after a few centuries 
 it came into conflict with the more aggressive monothe- 
 ism of Islam. The last hundred years have witnessed 
 the efforts of the purer and more life-giving Christian- 
 ity of Europe and America to re-enter the wide Asiatic 
 world. India, China and Japan had, at various times, 
 been fields for missionary activities, but those efforts 
 were sporadic, were often unspiritual, and sometimes 
 were almost completely stamped out. Since the fourth, 
 and possibly an earlier century, there has been a Chris- 
 tian church in India, but it never possessed the elements 
 needed to grapple with the various strong and ancient 
 systems of non-Christian faith. 
 
 Until Protestant missionary work, with its schools, 
 its hospitals, its purer ideals and its aggressive energy, 
 made its way into Western Asia, and into the lands of 
 the East and Far East, the Asiatic world may almost 1 
 said to have missed any accurate knowledge of that 
 apostolic type of the Christian religion which is pure 
 
X PREFACE 
 
 and vigorous enough to command the world's future. 
 The results already achieved, not only in the making of 
 converts, but particularly in the improvement of social 
 conditions, the lifting up of new ideals, the removal of 
 gross abominations, and the purifying and energizing 
 of the non- Christian systems, have been such that no 
 Christian, widely and accurately acquainted with these 
 early victories, is justified in a pessimistic outlook into 
 the Christian future of Asia. 
 
 The Christian literature which vindicates Christian 
 optimism in regard to Asia is encyclopedic, and should 
 enter into the minds of millions in Europe and America 
 who are now ignorant and indifferent. Asiatic Chris- 
 tians themselves are recognizing their opportunity and 
 responsibility, and are coming, through the agency of 
 daring Western enterprise like that represented by the 
 Students' Volunteer Movement, into a spiritual fed- 
 eration. What are yet to become national churches, 
 perhaps not in the European sense, but in a deeper 
 and truer sense, are beginning to emerge in India and 
 Japan. 
 
 The following lectures will make it plain that I do 
 not cherish any expectations of the swift evangelization 
 of countries where such proud and tough-fibred relig- 
 ions as Mohammedanism, Hinduism, Buddhism and 
 Confucianism have long held sway ; but there are many 
 evidences that the East is being penetrated by Western 
 thought, is coming into fellowship with the Western 
 Christian spirit of brotherhood, and, when Christendom 
 is more thoroughly unified and Christianized, and pur- 
 sues its aggressive missionary work with more wisdom 
 and sympathy, I have no doubt that the acceptance of 
 the Christian Gospel will be far more wide and rapid. 
 
PREFACE x i 
 
 National isolation lias given way in the last half cen- 
 tury to a commercial cosmopolitanism ; not only (it 
 Britain, but also Kussia, Germany, Franco and the 
 United States are compelled to have regard for the life 
 of distant peoples. America, perhaps the chief com- 
 mercial, political and moral power of the second half of 
 the twentieth century, has been providentially forced 
 out of its sluggish self-satisfaction into vitally intimate 
 connection with the world of Asia. The echoes of 
 Admiral Dewey's artillery from the harbor of Manila 
 have brought the Asiatic peoples seven thousand miles 
 nearer to many Americans than ever before. Tho 
 United States possesses at the present hour stepping- 
 stones for its commercial and moral pathway across tho 
 Pacific. The peoples of Asia, the Chinese and Japanese 
 and Hindus, with whom America will be brought into 
 closest relations, represent, not only half tho human 
 race, but also very much of the intellectual and mora] 
 possibilities of the future. If the Chinese Empire is to 
 undergo dismemberment American sympathies will go 
 out to those European nations participating therein, 
 which represent popular education, open commerce, 
 even-handed justice and a true toleration. 
 
 I deem it very fortunate that these lectures go to tli«" 
 public at a time when the American mind, I may add, 
 the Christian mind generally, is more open than ever 
 before to the vast possibilities of the Asiatic people. 
 One result of the international Religious Congress, held 
 in Chicago in 1893, has undoubtedly been that tho re- 
 ligious systems of the Orient are more real, less vague, 
 and remote to the minds of western peoples. We have 
 come to a truer appreciation of tho good, as well as of 
 the evil, inherent in those faiths; we realize that it 1. 
 
xii PREFACE 
 
 no holiday task to supplant them with something better ; 
 we perceive that one of the best missionary agencies in 
 the Orient, is the spirit of brotherhood and Christian 
 sympathy; we are learning that our western theologies 
 cannot be bodily transplanted into the soil of the Asiatic 
 mind ; we are discovering that our missionaries should 
 have the amplest possible equipment for their glorious 
 work, and we are seeing clearly that one of the chief 
 hinderances to Christian expansion in Asia, is the im- 
 perfect, and sometimes thoroughly evil character of 
 those nominal Christians, in the cities of Asia, from 
 whom India, China and Japan get their strongest im- 
 pressions of what Christianity really is. 
 
 Since my return from the East and Far East in May, 
 1897, 1 have delivered more than two hundred addresses 
 in various parts of the country, in which I have set 
 forth some of the impressions and conclusions which 
 are found in this volume. These lectures were on the 
 Morse Foundation of the Union Theological Seminary, 
 New York, and were delivered in the Adams Chapel in 
 the winter of 1898. I desire here, gratefully, to acknowl- 
 edge the very kind reception accorded me by President 
 Charles Cuthbert Hall and the other officers of the 
 Seminary. The present book is a supplement to my 
 previous works, " The History of the World's Parliament 
 of Keligions," " Christianity the World — Keligion," and 
 a volume of travels called " The World Pilgrimage." 
 My own spirit has been refreshed and I trust widened 
 by what I have seen and learned in the last five years, 
 and my own faith in the possibilities of the Gospel, as 
 interpreted by modern evangelical scholarship, has been 
 greatly strengthened. 
 
 This volume may be deemed the literary completion 
 
PREFACE nii 
 
 of my connection with the Parliament of Religion 
 connection which began in 1891, with my appointment 
 as Chairman of the General Committee on Religions 
 Congresses for the Columbian Exposition. This ap- 
 pointment was made by the Hon. Charles C. Bum 
 LL.D., the originator and president of the whole series 
 of world-meetings. It is a pleasure to close these pref- 
 atory words, with a renewed expression of my appre- 
 ciation of the great service which President Bounty 
 has rendered to human enlightenment, and of my d 
 admiration for the comprehensive wisdom and ability 
 with which he conceived and carried out the ineinoraUo 
 series of "World Congresses, which were the crowning 
 glory of the Exposition. 
 
 John Henry Barrows. 
 
 Oberlin, Ohio, January 7, 1899. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 FAOK 
 
 Beginning at Jerusalem; or, Christianity and 
 Judaism 1 
 
 Asia, the continent of diversities. — Christianity Asiatic. — Pounded on the 
 older Judaism. — Early Christian conquests carried forward by the Jews. — 
 Ubiquity of the Jew in Asia and in History. — Israel, the supreme Evidence 
 of Christianity. — Reasons for entering the Asiatic world by the gate of 
 Jerusalem. — Intimacies of Judaism and Christianity. — Four chief facts in 
 Jewish history: (1) A Chosen Nation ; (2) A Separated People; (3) A Suf- 
 fering People; (4) The Messianic People. — Contrasts of Judaism with 
 Christianity. — The Cross, a stumbling-block to the Jew, the symbol of a 
 world-conquering Faith. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 The Cross and the Crescent in Asia 27 
 
 Prevalence and dominance of Islam in the Orient. — The Turk and Isliim. 
 — Ameer Ali's defence of Turkish atrocities.— A wide survey of Moham- 
 medanism. — Connections with the Bible. — Pore Hyacinthe's eulogy of Is- 
 lam. — Rise of Mohammedanism. — Life and character of the Prophet. — De- 
 generacy of Mohammed's later years. — His fundamental truth. — Conquests 
 of the Crescent. — The Koran and the Bible. — Strength of Isliim. — Sins of 
 Christendom. — Jesus and Mohammed. — Perfection of the Christianity of 
 Christ. — Islamic reform impossible. — Methods of reaching Mohammedans. 
 — Future of Mohammedan Asia. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 Observations of Popular Hinduism 60 
 
 Travel and Christian work in India. — Some general features of Hinduism. 
 — National Indian Congress. — Religion external and universal. — Idolatry m 
 Benares. — Excuses for idolatry. — Conference in Madras. — A land of cuntra- 
 
 xv 
 
XVi TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 dictions. — The mania for Hinduizing truth. — Degradation of Womanhood. — 
 Hindu credulity. — Value of skepticism. — Caste. — Degeneration. — Modern 
 Hinduism a Dead Sea. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Philosophic Hinduism 92 
 
 Not a study of Hindu systems of Philosophy. — An attempt to understand 
 the Hindu mind. — Natural features of India. — The brilliant and varied 
 world of Hindustan. — Max Miiller on early Aryan ideas. — Central thought 
 of Hinduism. — Pantheism. — Ceremonialism. — Tolerance and intolerance. — 
 Philosophic Hinduism and the Popular Religion. — Noble elements. — Mission 
 of the Brahmam. — Sacredness of caste. — The Maharajah of Travancore. — 
 Contrasts with Christianity. — Hindu intellect over-praised. — Weakness of 
 will. — Incarnations. — Need of Christian education. — Value of discrimination 
 and kindness. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Some Difficulties in the Hindu Mind in Re- 
 gard to Christianity 122 
 
 Fundamental ideas in the Orient different from prevailing Western be- 
 liefs. — Importance of showing what Christianity is and is not. — Evasiveness 
 of the Hindu spirit. — Sophistical questions. — The historic Christ and Salva- 
 tion. — Why only one Saviour? — Hindu and American religiousness. — Is the 
 latest Faith the best? — Why a Mediator?— Origin of evil. — Karma. — Chris- 
 tianity and a sound Philosophy. — Progress of Buddhism and Christianity. — 
 The simple life of India. — Does Christianity provide for Salvation of all? — 
 Success and failure of the Brahmo Somaj. — Type of Christianity needed in 
 India. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 Christianity and Buddhism 150 
 
 Observations in Ceylon. — Buddhism cast out of India.— Dharmapala. — 
 Nature in Ceylon. — Variety and extent of Buddhism. — Meagre information 
 about Buddha. — The story of his life. — His enlightenment. — His success. — 
 Contrasts with Jesus. — Death of Buddha. — Contrasts of Buddhism and the 
 Christian Gospel. — God. — Forgiveness of sins. — Prayer. — The Law of Kar- 
 ma. — Nirvana and the Scriptures. — Strength and glory of Buddhism. — 
 Weakness. — Progress in Buddhist Lands. — Observations in Japan. — Fail- 
 ures of Buddhism. — The wise methods of Christian Missions. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS xvii 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 Confucianism and the Awakening of China . .182 
 
 TAOK 
 
 Skirting the coasts of China. — Entering the realms of Prose. — Contrasts 
 of China and Japan. — Greatness of the Celestial Empire. — Li Hung Chang 
 and official corruption. — Government based on education. — Stereotyped Civ- 
 ilization. — Endless imitation. — Hon. Pung Quang Yu at the Parliament of 
 Religions. — Story of Confucius. — Taoism. — Influence of Buddhism in China. 
 — Greatness of Confucius. — His ethics and ideals. — Defects. — Patriarchal 
 government a failure. — Cruelty. — Changes in China. — Christian Missions. — 
 Obstacles. — Need of knowing the true King of Heaven. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Success of Asiatic Missions; America's Respon- 
 sibility to the Orient 222 
 
 A World-trip and faith in Christ's universal mission. — Causes of skepti- 
 cism in America. — Observations in Japan. — Purposes of the Indian Lecture- 
 ship. — Experiences in India. — Variety and effectiveness of Christian Mis- 
 sions in Asia. — Spirit of the Missionaries. — Modern Heroes. Not Ascetics. 
 — American Christianity. — Resources of the Republic. — Argument for hope. 
 — Most beautiful sight in Asia. — America's responsibility to Asia. — Contrast 
 of America with European Powers. — Only a beginning. — New visions of the 
 glory and triumph of Christianity. 
 
 Index 253 
 
CHAPTEK I 
 
 BEGINNING AT JERUSALEM ; OR, CHRISTIANITY AND JU- 
 DAISM 
 
 Close by Lily Cottage, Calcutta, the home of Kes- 
 hub Chimder Sen, is his grave. The eclecticism of this 
 remarkable man, whose body was burned and buried, 
 is indicated not only by the four languages which are 
 written upon his marble monument, but also by the 
 symbol carved at the summit of this monumental stone. 
 It is a combination of the trident, the crescent and the 
 cross. As, a little more than a year ago, I stood by the 
 grave of this most famous of modern Hindu prophets, 
 I could not but realize anew that Asia is the mother and 
 home of many religions, and that the effort of Keshub 
 Chunder Sen to give to the term "Asiatic" definiteness 
 of meaning, was somewhat misleading. From Asia 
 have sprung not only Christianity, but also Parsiism, 
 Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Tauism, 
 Shintoism, Mohammedanism, Sikhism, and many of the 
 varieties of these multitudinous faiths. Some modern 
 Hindu reformers have contrasted Asiatic mysticism 
 with European science ; Asiatic mildness with Euro- 
 pean ferocity ; Asiatic unworldliness with European 
 impiety, and thus have made out for themselves and 
 others a misleading picture. Asia does not possess the 
 spiritual unity which belongs to the nations of west- 
 ern Christendom. These are in a measure unified by 
 
 1 
 
2 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 Christianity, the Graeco-Ronian civilization and modern 
 science. There is a common set of ideas belonging to 
 peoples as remote and diverse from one another as Rus- 
 sia and the United States. They all trace their spirit- 
 ual origin back through Rome and Greece to Palestine 
 and the ancient land of the Nile, and they all feel with 
 Bunsen that history was born on the night when Moses 
 led Israel out of Egypt. On them falls the splendor of 
 Sinai and Calvary. To them have come the poetry and 
 philosophy of ancient Athens, and with them Rome 
 and Constantinople are starting-points and turning- 
 points of historic development. But Asia is the con- 
 tinent of diversities and separations. The Moslem 
 world, which reaches from the Bosporus to the China 
 Sea, may be regarded as an offshoot either of Judaism 
 or of Christianity ; at least, it has no affiliations with 
 polytheistic Hinduism or agnostic Buddhism. The Jap- 
 anese are Asiatics, and are the most progressive of ori- 
 ental peoples, covetous of at least the external elements 
 of modern civilization. The Chinese are Asiatics, and 
 they are the most conservative and unspiritual of na- 
 tions. The Siberians are Asiatics, faintly European- 
 ized and Christianized. The Buddhists, scattered or con- 
 centrated in many lands of the East, are distinctively 
 Asiatic. The Hindus are Asiatics, and they are the 
 most religious and deeply fallen of nationalities. The 
 Jews are Asiatics, and they are found in almost every 
 part of the great continent, building their synagogues 
 and suffering persecution in Arabia, unrolling their sa- 
 cred scrolls in Peking, writing the vernaculars of Persia 
 in Hebrew characters, busy in the trading centres of 
 the eastern and western coasts of India, found here and 
 there in Asiatic Russia, gathering in rapidly increasing 
 
BEGINNING AT JERUSALEM 3 
 
 numbers in their ancient capital, Jerusalem. If the 
 most populous of continents ever attains even to the 
 measure of the spiritual unity which belongs to Western 
 Christendom, it can only be through the reception by 
 its millions of a common faith. That faith cannot be 
 Buddhism which India cast out ; it cannot be the na- 
 tional cults of China and Japan ; it cannot be the 
 Hinduism which is confined between the Himalava 
 Mountains, the Gulf of Bengal, and the Arabian Sea ; it 
 cannot be the Judaism which is not hungry to extend 
 itself into other races ; it can only be, as I am more 
 deeply convinced after the studies and observations of 
 the last two years, that Christianity, whose teaching of 
 divine Fatherhood and universal Brotherhood has been 
 made vigorous and victorious through Jesus Christ. 
 
 The title of this course of lectures, " The Christian 
 Conquest of Asia," suggests something of history and 
 more of confident expectation. The theme for the lect- 
 ure to-night, " Christianity and Judaism," has not been 
 chosen because of any remarkable recent conquests 
 made by the Gospel of Christ over the people of Israel 
 now dwelling in Asia, but for quite other reasons. 
 Christianity itself is, in origin, Asiatic. Its first dis- 
 ciples and its earliest victories were Asiatic, and it 
 seems appropriate that I should begin this series of ad- 
 dresses from the standpoint of Jerusalem, and that I 
 should recall the connection of Christianity with the 
 more ancient Judaism. The behavior of Christendom 
 toward the Jewish nationality is a striking illustration 
 of how Christianity should not proceed in its treat- 
 ment of other Asiatic peoples and faiths. But, although 
 the Gospel of Christ may be said to have made feeble 
 inroads into the ranks of Asiatic Israel, two things 
 
4 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 should not be forgotten. The first is this : That the 
 Jew, Christianized, conquered for the Gospel of the 
 Nazarene Prophet, the ancient world represented by 
 Athens and Rome and the cities of western Asia, a fact 
 which is surely not without significance to those who 
 believe in the ultimate conversion of the Jews and their 
 future importance to the growing kingdom of Christ- 
 But the second fact is this : That Israel furnishes the 
 Christian a main argument for his belief in Jesus Christ 
 — amain evidence of the special divine revelation con- 
 tained in the Scriptures, and a chief assurance that the 
 law and the Gospel which went forth from Jerusalem 
 are to have ultimate dominion, not only over Asia, but 
 over all the earth, that the mountain of the Lord's 
 house shall be exalted above the hills and all nations 
 shall flow into it. 
 
 In speaking at this time of Israel, I do not fail to re- 
 member that Judaism is Christianity in the bud. "We 
 may rightly speak of it as a plant of righteousness and 
 renown still lacking the bright, consummate flower. 
 Judaism is Christianity without its diadem, without 
 the world-conquering purpose, mission, energy, and re- 
 demptive power which Christ, the greatest of all Jews 
 and the glory of Israel, has given to His church. 
 
 I feel profoundly that we can properly enter the vast 
 world of Asia, so full of conflict and suffering and spirit- 
 ual possibilities most appropriately through the gate- 
 way, above which is emblazoned the name of the most 
 influential of Asiatic peoples, Israel. The late James 
 Darmsteter of Paris has said that " the historian's spe- 
 cial interest in the Jewish nation is due to its being the 
 only one that is met with at every turn of history." 
 (James Darmsteter, " Selected Essays," p. 241.) As 
 
BEGINNING AT JERUSALEM 5 
 
 one cannot go to India, to China, to Arabia — or even to 
 such remote countries or cities as Bokhara and Samar- 
 kand, without finding colonies of Jews, so one cannot 
 open the great volumes of history — Persian, Indian, 
 Arabian, Egyptian, Phoenician, Greek, Roman, or mod- 
 ern European without striking the Jew. But it is not 
 only the historical ubiquity of Israel which gives him 
 an especial interest, but also the fact that he has molded 
 history on its spiritual side. Of the Jewish people it 
 has been said : " Twice it remodelled the world — the 
 European world through Jesus ; the Oriental world 
 through Islam — not to speak of the influence, slower and 
 more hidden, but none the less powerful, nor perhaps 
 less lasting, that it exercised in the Middle Ages upon 
 the formation of modern thought." (James Darmsteter, 
 " Selected Essays," p. 243.) 
 
 We may have imagined that we understood the Jew 
 a generation ago, but the chief researches of later schol- 
 arship have been illumining with new light the three 
 great periods of his history; the first extending from the 
 origin of Judaism to the return from the Exile, the sec- 
 ond from the return from the Exile to the Dispersion, 
 and the third from the Dispersion to the French Revo- 
 lution. To understand the first period scholars are dil- 
 igently working at the Hebrew literature, which we call 
 the Old Testament, and at the new sciences, Assyriology, 
 Egyptology and Phoenician Epigraphy, which were 
 born but yesterday. To understand the second period 
 the Talmud is being explored, as scientists have ex- 
 plored the sea, and as travellers have pierced the inter- 
 minable wilds and recesses of Central Asia. To under- 
 stand the third period, men have been unearthing the 
 buried records in European libraries. 
 
6 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 The more we know of hini the more we are fascinated 
 and astonished by the Jew, from whose face we cannot 
 escape beneath the shadow of the mosques in Bombay, 
 or of the Temple of Heaven in Peking. He comes to 
 have for us the interest that he had in the seventeenth 
 century for Rembrandt in the streets of Amsterdam. 
 Yet he is far more than a picture. To the Christian he 
 is the ever-living evidence of God's power and directing 
 providence in the history of the world. The Jewish re- 
 ligion we have come to look upon as the preparation for 
 Christianity. " Wherever," it has been said, " the apos- 
 tles of Christ went they found that Judaism had pre- 
 pared the way. Usually in every place they first preached 
 to the Jews and made converts of them ; for Judaism, 
 though so narrow and so alien to the Greek and Latin 
 thought, had nevertheless pervaded all parts of the 
 Roman Empire. Despised and satirized by the philoso- 
 phers and poets, it had yet won its way by its strength 
 and conviction. It offered to men, not a philosophy, 
 but a religion ; not thought, but life. Too intolerant of 
 differences to convert the world to monotheism, it yet 
 made a preparation for its conversion. This was its 
 power, and thus it went before the face of the Master to 
 prepare his way." (Clark's " Ten Great Religions," 
 p. 447.) 
 
 The spirit and ideas of Judaism have, to a certain 
 extent, entered into the creed and practices of Islam, 
 one of the most widespread and powerful of all Asiatic 
 faiths, a rebuke, as we shall see, to the semi-idolatrous 
 Christianity of the early centuries of its history, and 
 to-day a strong obstacle, not only to the progress of 
 Christianity, but also to the hideous polytheisms of 
 India. The longer we ponder some of the mighty and 
 
BEGINNING AT JERUSALEM 7 
 
 stubborn facts of the religious world, the deeper may be 
 our conviction in a providential mission of some of the 
 less complete forms of spiritual faith. AYe are in the 
 midst of a divine evolution which is very slow and 
 patient. Our own religion has had a long history, and 
 when we consider its relations to Judaism, we get a 
 new sense of the truth that it is indeed historic and has 
 its roots in a remote past. 
 
 Our faith in the Christian Gospel, and our hope of 
 its universal supremacy, spring very largely out of its 
 connections with Judaism. We may not wisely forget 
 the words of the greatest of all Christian apostles, who 
 said of his kinsmen according to the flesh, the Israel- 
 ites, theirs " is the adoption, and the glory, and the cov- 
 enants, and the giving of the law and the service of 
 God, and the promises ; whose are the Fathers, and of 
 whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, 
 God blessed forever." In our study of the past, in our 
 survey of the present, in our clear and hopeful outlook 
 into the future, we should not fail to realize the vital 
 intimacies of Christianity and Judaism. He who was 
 the greatest of Christian preachers said : " I also am 
 an Israelite." And no Christian to-day absorbs the full 
 glory of his position before God, and the certainty of 
 the ultimate dominance of his faith, until he has learned 
 from the Scriptures, that he is the heir to the divine 
 promises made to the chosen nation, promises of the 
 universal dominion of the kingdom of righteousness, 
 and until he hears the voice of Him, who carried His 
 people all the days of old in His heart, speaking now to 
 his soul and saying : " Fear not, O Israel, for I have 
 redeemed thee." 
 
 After all. Israel is the name that binds together the 
 
8 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 Old Testament and the New. Our Saviour was the son 
 of David and the son of Abraham, and He came to ful- 
 fil the law of Moses. First of all, He sought after the 
 lost sheep of the house of Israel. His Beatitudes are a 
 chime of Hebrew bells, a sweet chime which is sounded 
 to-day in every church by the Hudson or the Mississippi, 
 in every Christian home by the Ganges or the shore 
 of the Yellow Sea. A Jewish Eabbi recently said : 
 " Jesus was in every respect a true son of the syna- 
 gogue. The law which He expounded was the law of 
 Moses." It was as dear to Him as to any Jew to-day, 
 and how dear it is, I never realized until I heard Eabbi 
 Gottheil, in the presence of the representatives of all 
 the religions of Asia and of Europe and America, say 
 of the Jewish people : " They take the law of Moses in 
 their hands. And oh, how often have I seen in my 
 youth, that scroll bedewed with the tears of poor suffer- 
 ing Jews, as they lift it up again and say : ' This is the 
 law that Moses laid before the people of Israel.' " 
 
 The earliest preachers of the Gospel were Jews, who 
 affirmed from their own Scriptures, that Jesus was the 
 Christ. On the rock of Judaism was built the Church. 
 From its strong roots has sprung the tree of our 
 civilization. He was right who said that every Chris- 
 tian Church on earth, and every mosque, is a monument 
 to Moses. For, as a matter of fact, to quote from Pro- 
 fessor Eobertson Smith, "it is not and cannot be denied 
 that the prophets found for themselves and their nation 
 a knowledge of God, and not a mere speculative knowl- 
 edge, but a practical fellowship of faith with Him, 
 which the seekers after truth among the Gentiles never 
 attained to. This at least is sufficiently proved by the 
 fact that the light which went forth in Christ Jesus to 
 
BEGIN NINO AT JERUSALEM 9 
 
 lighten the Gentiles, did proceed from the midst of the 
 Old Testament people." ("Prophets of Israel," p. 9.) 
 " There was no solid and continuous progress in spirit- 
 ual things under any heathen system, but the nob!, 
 religions outside of Christianity gradually decayed and 
 lost whatever moral power they once possessed. If the 
 religion of the Bible can be shown to have run a differ- 
 ent course, if it can be shown that in it truth once 
 attained was never lost and never thrust aside so as to 
 lose its influence, but that, in spite of all impediments, 
 the knowledge of God given to Israel, moved steadily 
 forward, until at last it emancipated itself from national 
 restrictions, and, without changing its consistency, or 
 denying its former history, merged in the perfect relig- 
 ion of Christ, which still satisfies the deepest spiritual 
 needs of mankind, then, I apprehend the distinctive 
 claims of the Bible and the religion of the Bible are set 
 upon a broad and safe basis, and the revelation of the 
 Old and New Testaments may fairly claim to be the 
 revelation of God to men in a special and absolute 
 sense." ("Prophets of Israel," p. 13.) 
 
 Judaism appears as a supreme, conspicuous, an ever- 
 present, and ever-startling evidence of the truth of the 
 Scriptures, old and new ; and the truth of the Scriptures 
 makes sure the ultimate world-wide establishment of the 
 kingdom of God, the predominance of Biblical truth in 
 the life, not only of Asia, but of all mankind. The evi- 
 dence is such that it seems to me morally irresistible. 
 Here is a people, having no home in any one land, but 
 whose ancient home is the Holy Land of Jew and 
 Christian alike. The traveller who visits the City of 
 David to-day and sees her discrowned and desolate, 
 opens his Bible and hears the prediction of Christ: 
 
10 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 " Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles until 
 the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled." Is not this 
 true? The Jews have been robbed of their capital city 
 and dispersed everywhere. God seems to have taken 
 up this handful of wheat and chaff and to have blown 
 upon it. What has been the result ? They are just as 
 distinct a people to-day as when Moses led them out 
 of Egypt. The black Jews of India, who have been 
 degraded by native alliances on the West Coast, are still 
 Jews. Back in the dawn of their history, as they were 
 entering their promised land, or, if we are forced to a 
 much later date, still long ages before the Christian era, 
 the prophets declared that if they forsook God's Com- 
 mandments, their land should be taken away from them. 
 I remember opening my Bible and reading the twenty- 
 eighth and thirty-first chapters of Deuteronomy one 
 March day in 1874, as I was riding over the desolate 
 hills of Judea. And as I read the curses announced 
 should Israel reject the counsel of the Lord, and looked 
 out upon the plagues and desolations of that land which 
 had once flowed with milk and honey, I realized that 
 the predictions had had a marvellous fulfilment. 
 
 Four great facts appear to cover the whole history 
 of Israel. They were a chosen nation ; they were a 
 separated people ; they have been a suffering people ; 
 and they are the Messianic people, and all these facts 
 were once divine prophecies. " The Lord hath chosen 
 Jacob for Himself, and Israel for His peculiar treas- 
 ure." These words are written on the forehead of the 
 Jew. It has been truly said that " a religion which has 
 endured every possible trial, which has outlived every 
 vicissitude of human fortune, and has never failed to 
 reassert its power unbroken in the collapse of its old 
 
BEGINNING AT JERUSALEM 11 
 
 environments, which has pursued a consistent and vic- 
 torious course through the lapse of eventful centuries, 
 declares itself by irresistible evidence to be a thing of 
 reality and power." (Smith, " Prophets of Israel," p. 
 16.) Through this people has come all the pure mono- 
 theism which exists to-day ; they have given us the 
 world's Bible and the world's Saviour, and our truest 
 freedom. The liberties of the English race were won 
 by Puritan warriors with Hebrew Psalms breaking from 
 their lips. Through this divinely appointed people 
 has come the knowledge of the true God. " The Lord 
 hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto Himself, 
 above all the nations that are upon the earth." They 
 still believe, both the orthodox and the liberal Jews 
 of to-day, that they are a chosen nation, destined to 
 bring about the happiness of the human race. Though 
 reformed Judaism affirms that the Jews do not consti- 
 tute a nation, but only a religious community ; that they 
 do not look for the coming of a personal Messiah who 
 will lead them back to Palestine, and that they have no 
 political hopes other than those of the nations among 
 whom they dwell, the orthodox Israelite says that the 
 course of historic Judaism is clear — it is to keep sepa- 
 rate, and all believe themselves to be witnesses to the 
 unity and the spirituality of God. No wonder this 
 people are proud, even in their sometimes affected hu- 
 mility. The humblest Jew to-day may exclaim : "My 
 fathers braved the power which built the Pyramids. 
 Ages before Lycurgus and Solon gave their laws, they 
 received from Moses a legislation so wise and merciful 
 that it enters to-dav as a benign influence over the 
 most civilized peoples. My ancestors built a city 
 which, though destroyed seventeen times, is still the 
 
12 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 sacred city of the world. When matched against the 
 kingly and priestly sceptres of Rome and Athens, of 
 Memphis and Babylon, of Antioch and Alexandria, of 
 Mecca and Delhi, Benares and Kyoto, and the later 
 capitals by the Bosporus and the Danube, the Seine 
 and the Thames, the Hudson and the Potomac, the 
 broken rod of Jerusalem swallows them all." 
 
 Now, why is the Jew possessed of this invincible con- 
 fidence in his divine mission ? Moral causes alone will 
 explain it. What infused into the Hebrew mind these 
 convictions and shaped this peculiar character? Is 
 there any explanation which really explains, except that 
 which is written out in the Hebrew Scriptures, in the 
 divine call of Abraham, in the deliverance from Egypt, 
 in the manifestations of God on Mount Sinai, in the 
 Exile, and in the sermons of the greater prophets, and in 
 those revelations which make the substance of their 
 recorded history? If the Jew has been exclusive and 
 haughty, has there not been reason for this spirit ? Is 
 he not the true aristocrat of our earth to-day with lin- 
 eage running back four thousand years, to that friend 
 of God who is the revered father of three religions ? 
 Though Israel was not chosen on account of his right- 
 eousness, and though no other nation has been so re- 
 buked for its corruption, it may be truly said that the 
 Hebrew genius is primarily the genius of religion, that 
 he is the "especial exponent of august and triumphant 
 theism," that his nation is truly called the " God-in- 
 toxicated race," and that, as Rabbi Mendes has said, 
 " While we march in the van of progress, our hand is 
 always raised, pointing to God." The most popular 
 poet to-day in America, in England, in Germany, is 
 not Homer or Shakespeare or Goethe, but David of 
 
BEGINNING AT JERUSALEM 13 
 
 Bethlehem, using that name to describe the various 
 singers of the Hebrew Psalms. No temples ever reared 
 have such an abiding interest as those of Solomon and 
 Herod, and the Jehovah therein worshipped is the God 
 of the conquering races of the world. The deities of 
 other nations are now only a dream, a whiff of ancient 
 mist gilding some far-off morning of the past. Varuna 
 and Indra are gone ; Osiris is gone, and Zeus and Mars, 
 and Apollo, Odin and Thor, but Jehovah, the God of 
 Israel, flames like a holy sun in the forehead of modern 
 civilization. 
 
 It was to be expected that a nation so chosen of 
 God would give us characters of great originality and 
 strength. Other men seem pigmies beside the greatest 
 of them, and even in fiction what personages have 
 made a deeper impression on the imagination than 
 Eliot's Deronda and Mordecai, Shakespeare's Shylock 
 and Lessing's Nathan the Wise? The chosen nation 
 has possessed the qualities becoming the divinely se- 
 lected people. The soldiers of Rome never met in 
 the forests of Gaul a desperate valor like that which 
 smote them from the walls of Jerusalem. No martyrs 
 in the Roman arena were ever braver than the children 
 of Israel in their later adversities, and no one who 
 studies the marvellous resurrection of the Jew in modern 
 times can fail to be impressed by his genius. " The 
 French Revolution," writes Miss Lazarus, "sounded a 
 note of freedom so loud and clamorous that it pierced 
 the Ghetto walls," and from the days of Napoleon, the 
 Jew has been springing to the chief places in the Euro- 
 pean world. No other equal number of people on the 
 continent has to-day an equal influence along the lines 
 of commerce and science. We are justified in this 
 
14 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 conclusion when we remember that one-fourth of the 
 railway system of Russia is owned by a Jew, that the 
 Bourse of Vienna is almost wholly in Jewish hands, 
 that six-sevenths of the Prussian bankers are of the 
 Jewish race, that Jews occupy seventy chairs in the uni- 
 versities of Germany, that the liberal press of the 
 German Empire is almost wholly in their hands, and 
 that jealous hatred of their predominance is disturbing 
 the stable foundations of the French Republic. The 
 Rothschilds are the bankers of the chief European na- 
 tions. A race that has given to modern statesmanship 
 Disraeli, Gambetta and Castelar, to modern poetry a 
 Heine and to modern music a Mendelssohn, is not un- 
 worthy of its past, and it is no wonder that many 
 Christians regard as a fulfilment of prophecy and as 
 a herald of Israel's latter-day glory and restoration to 
 the Holy Land, this marvellous uprising of Jewish in- 
 fluence in modern times. 
 
 But the second fact about Israel is this : it was not 
 only a chosen, but it was also a separated nation. " I 
 have separated you from the peoples." " I have sev- 
 ered you from the peoples." " Behold, this people shall 
 dwell alone." The Jew is still an Asiatic, though living 
 in all lands ; he is an exotic wherever transplanted. In 
 spite of the earnest efforts of the reformed Jews in our 
 country to become thoroughly Americanized, we all feel 
 that this twig from the terebinth of Abraham has not 
 been grafted into the northern oak or the southern palm. 
 " Under all persecutions," writes a Jewish woman, " the 
 Jews became more intensely national, more exclusive 
 and sectarian than they had ever been before." And 
 with peculiar haughtiness, they resent, as does no other 
 people, all efforts to induce them to accept the Christian 
 
BEGINNING AT JERUSALEM 15 
 
 faith. They say : " We do not want missions to con- 
 vert us; we cannot become Episcopalians, or Presby- 
 terians, or members of any dividing sect." Scattered, 
 hunted and hated, the Jew has not given up his sepa- 
 rateness, and as the features of the Jewish face are to- 
 day the same that stand out from the sculptures on the 
 palaces of Nineveh, so the moral features of the race of 
 Jacob, the bargainer, of David, the singer, of Isaiah, 
 the orator, and of Ezra, the scribe, have been marvel- 
 lously persistent. Spectral as a cloud, ho is unchanged 
 as adamant. A thousand years before Saxon and Celt 
 had any history, he was old on the earth. The messen- 
 gers of Judas Maccabeus stood before the Roman senate, 
 and then Rome saw for the first time that race which 
 she was to subdue, but which in Jesus conquered her. 
 In the year 70, Titus, the Roman Emperor, had his 
 coins stamped with the words, " Judea capta " ; but 
 that captured and enslaved province sent forth a people 
 that has outlived the Roman Empire. The temple was 
 destroyed, but for centuries the wailing Jews have thrust 
 their fingers into its broken foundations while they sang 
 the songs of their kingly poet. No Athenians are wont 
 to ascend the Acropolis and to sob over the shattered 
 marbles of the Parthenon, and chant the strophes of 
 the great tragic poets of Athens. No Egyptians in Kar- 
 nac throng the Hall of the Gods with worshipful hymns 
 to Orus and Osiris. No Syrian shepherds flock to Baal- 
 bec and moan over that fractured and colossal miracle 
 of stone which once greeted the envious eye of the day 
 as he glanced over the snowy crests of Mount Lebanon. 
 But for centuries the faithful Israelites, separated from 
 all other peoples, have gathered by the ruins of their 
 ancient sanctuary, and the songs which they there wail 
 
16 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 forth are the undying expressions of the greatness and 
 the faith of their peculiar race. Yv^ith no capital city, 
 with no land they can call their own, wandering every- 
 whither, like the blighted Jew of legendary fancy who 
 condemned the Messiah, but still holding in his hand 
 the Book, Israel has maintained himself. As we stand 
 beneath the arch of Titus, in Rome, and behold the bas- 
 relief which, represents the seven-branched, almond- 
 flowered golden candle-stick captured from the temple 
 in Jerusalem, which decked the triumph of the imperial 
 spoiler, we reach our hand backward through more than 
 thirty centuries to that chosen people, still separated 
 from others, who reared their tabernacle in the desert 
 and lit its holy place with the eternal lamp of God. 
 
 Girded in his ancient Canaan by hostile races, the 
 Israelite was not cut off. A slave in Egypt, in Nineveh, 
 in Babylon, in Rome, in Spain, smitten by Macedonian 
 sword and Roman spear, and Mohammedan scimitar, 
 and Christian battle-axe, and scorched by the infernal 
 fires of persecution, he has not been exterminated and 
 he has not been assimilated, and thus has been fulfilled 
 the prediction made in the desert — " Thy people shall 
 dwell alone, and shall not be numbered among the 
 nations." 
 
 In the third place, Israel has been a persecuted and 
 afflicted and a suffering nation, and their history was 
 written in advance. Prophets and apostles and the 
 Messiah foresaw it and foretold it. Out of what agon- 
 ies have they come ! The first Christian emperor, Con- 
 stantine, cut off their ears and made them vagabonds, 
 and Justinian, the law-giver, destroyed their syna- 
 gogues, denied them all civil rights, and would not per- 
 mit them to testify in court, bequeath their property to 
 
BEGINNING AT JERUSALEM 17 
 
 their children, or even enter a cave for worship. The 
 Church tried every perverse and wicked way to convert 
 the Jew, and, failing, used every form of slander, vio- 
 lence and S} 7 stematic outrage to exterminate him. In 
 Home, the Popes forced the Israelites to wear yellow 
 hats, denounced them as heretics, shut them up in the 
 Ghetto, the filthiest part of the city, and required them 
 to be in their quarters by eight o'clock in the evening, 
 and compelled them to hear monks preach on Friday, 
 They were charged with poisoning wells, with killing 
 Christian children and using their blood at the Pass- 
 over. And the Easter-time, which is to us a time of 
 joy and love, was to the Jew a time of terror and agony, 
 when his home might be burned and his body cut down 
 with the sword. The hate and prejudice which have 
 barred the path of the negro in America are nothing to 
 the hatred of the Jew in the Middle Ages. He could 
 not enter the trades, he could not own land, he was 
 forced to become a money lender. As he could not 
 handle new goods, he was compelled to become a dealer 
 m old clothes, and when you hear the Hebrew junk- 
 dealer crying through your alleys " Clothes and old 
 iron," you hear, as one has said — " a voice sounding 
 from the Dark Ages, a cry which was put into Jewish 
 lips by the cruelty of our Christian forefathers." On 
 the Jews was wreaked the demonism of the baptized 
 barbarians whom Torquemada marshalled in the dun- 
 geons of the Inquisition. Christian kings were harder 
 on the Jew than Nero and Domitian on the Christian. 
 The Crusaders strove to murder all Jews that had not 
 been baptized; the English populace plundered and 
 slaughtered them at the coronation of an English king, 
 and for four hundred years, up to the time of Cromwell, 
 2 
 
18 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 no Jew could set foot in England ; and when in our own 
 century the bill which repealed the civil disabilities of 
 the Jew was passed in the House of Commons, it was 
 more obnoxious to the Lords than the Home Rule Bill 
 of the last Liberal administration. Ten times it went 
 through the Lower House to be rejected as often by the 
 House of Peers. The German poet, Herder, has said 
 that the history of the Jew is the greatest poem of all 
 times. Yes, that poem is both a tragedy and an epic, a 
 tragedy compared with which Eschylus and Shake- 
 speare are tame, an epic matched with which the Iliad 
 is a record of boyish courage and adventure. O, how 
 superior Judaism seems in some of its aspects to the 
 corrupt Christianity which persecuted it ! How thor- 
 oughly our sympathies go out to the Jew and not to the 
 Christian Church as we read Grace Aguilar's story of the 
 " Yale of Cedars," a thrilling account of the sufferings 
 of the Jews in Spain ! We find our hearts with the 
 victims and not with the victors, and feel that the Jew 
 who trusted in the Torah and in the teachings of the 
 synagogue for the advancement of truth, might well 
 look down on the Christianity that trusted in persecu- 
 tion and the sword. We can but honor Israel's tenacious 
 loyalty to his convictions, unparalleled in history. Of- 
 fended by what the Jews deemed the worship of three 
 gods, by the idolatry which seemed to them practised 
 in Christian churches and by the crowned and mitred 
 barbarism in Church and State, all efforts to lead them 
 to forsake the old standards were vain. If Christianity 
 had only obeyed Christ and loved its enemies, how dif- 
 ferent its history would have been ! But for the Jew, 
 the follower of Jesus had nothing but curses and 
 cruelty. When we remember that eight hundred thou- 
 
BE INNING AT JERUSALEM 10 
 
 sand Jews were driven out of Spain, that they could 
 find no refuge in other lands that was safe and perma- 
 nent, that their children were stolen from them, that 
 they were sold as slaves, that they were slain by the 
 thousand by the followers of the Cross, we are not sur- 
 prised that Israel has felt little reason to be in love with 
 so-called Christian nations. The stream of modem 
 Jewish history starts from the destruction of Jerusa- 
 lem and was made lurid at the beginning by the fires of 
 an unequalled tragedy. All sorrows are colorless be- 
 fore the sorrows of Zion ; all persecution mild compared 
 with those which have come to 
 
 " These Ishmaels and Hagars of mankind 
 
 That lived in narrow streets and lane obscure, 
 Ghetto and Judenstrass, in mirk and mire ; 
 
 Taught in the school of patience to endure 
 The life of anguish and the death of fire. 
 
 " All their lives long, with the unleavened bread 
 And bitter herbs of exile and its fears, 
 The wasting famine of the heart they fed, 
 And slaked its thirst with Marah of their tears. 
 
 ' ' ' Anathema marantha ! ' was the cry 
 
 That rang from town to town, from street to street ; 
 At every gate the accursed Mordecai 
 Was mocked and jeered, and spurned by Christian feet. 
 
 " Pride and humiliation, hand in hand 
 
 Walked with them through the world where'er they 
 went ; 
 Trampled and beaten were they as the sand, 
 And yet unshaken as the continent. 
 
 " For in the background figures vague and vast 
 Of patriarchs and of prophets rose sublime, 
 And all the great traditions of the Past 
 They saw reflected in the coming time. 
 
20 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 ' ' And thus forever with reverted look 
 
 The mystic volume of the world they read, 
 Spelling it backward, like a Hebrew book, 
 Till life became a Legend of the Dead." 
 
 We may say that all this is in fulfilment of prophecy. 
 True ; but the crime and disgrace of it are none the 
 less. " Offences must come," said Jesus ; " but woe to 
 him by whom the offence cometh." Israel may surely 
 say, in words spoken many hundred years ago : " Is 
 there any sorrow like unto my sorrow ? " 
 
 ' ' The wild dove hath her nest, the fox his cave ; 
 Mankind their country ; Israel but the grave. " 
 
 But the Israelites have not only been a chosen and 
 a separated and a suffering nation, they have also been 
 the Messianic people, bearing in their hearts the living 
 hope of a coming One, who should be their deliverer, 
 and through whom, as Isaiah wrote — "the Gentiles 
 shall see thy light." The Messianic ideal ran through 
 the whole of Israel's ancient history. That history was 
 a prophecy. As Professor Briggs has said : " The great 
 mass of Hebrew prophecy exhibits a revelation of a 
 vastly higher character than the non-Hebrew prophecy. 
 It is not external, mechanical, or magical, but internal, 
 spiritual and intelligent. Hebrew prophecy is through 
 the enlightenment of the mind of the prophet, the stim- 
 ulation of his moral nature, the constraining of his 
 will under the most sublime motives, the assurance of 
 his soul that he is in possession of divine truth, and 
 that he is commissioned to declare it. (" Messianic 
 Prophecy," p. 14.) We need not be unwilling to recog- 
 nize the foreign elements incorporated into the religion 
 of Israel, if we recognize also its power of assimilation 
 
BEGINNING AT JERUSALEM 21 
 
 and transfiguration, for, as Professor Cornill has said, 
 " Israel resembles in spiritual things the fabulous King 
 Midas, who turned everything he touched into gold." 
 (" Prophets of Israel," p. 14.) 
 
 The revelation of God made to the Hebrew people 
 was a progressive revelation ; element after element was 
 added as the history advanced, but this revelation was 
 so lofty that the Jew, above all men, might claim that 
 he knew God. The greatest of all Hebrews said, " Sal- 
 vation is of the Jews," and their life, as Max Miiller has 
 written, " has been the one oasis in the vast desert of 
 ancient history." As in the Oberammergau Passion- 
 play, every great scene in the last days of Christ is pre- 
 ceded by a picture of some Old Testament scene which 
 is in harmony with its spirit and is typical of its events, 
 so the Christian finds the Hebrew Scriptures crowded 
 with intimations in type and symbol, in priestly and 
 kingly personages, and in prophetic words, of that won- 
 drous life which has actually become the renovating life 
 of humanity. Surely Christianity presents a marvel- 
 lous problem to those who do not see in Jesus the Mes- 
 siah of God. All must acknowledge that the Christian 
 Church, in its true spirit, shows some signs of univer- 
 sality. The Gospel which it preaches satisfies the hu- 
 man heart in its craving for forgiveness, in its need of 
 an atonement for sin, in its yearning for a knowledgo 
 of the Heavenly Father, in its quenchless desire for 
 immortality. Christianity, unlike Hinduism, Confuci- 
 anism, and Judaism, seeks to make itself universal ; it 
 reaches after every nation, it puts the Bible into all lan- 
 guages. The spirit of Judaism is the reverse of this. 
 " The religion of my fathers," said the great Moses 
 Mendelssohn, " does not wish to be extended." Except 
 
22 THE (J H HIST IAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 through Christianity, Judaism is not a conquering re- 
 ligion, and an intelligent world cannot see in it the cul- 
 mination of God's redeeming thought and purpose. In 
 America alone, in the last thirty years, the Christian 
 Church, free from the cruel spirit of the Middle Ages, 
 has added more persons to the number of its communi- 
 cants than there are Israelites in all the world to-day, 
 after four thousand years of history. The Christian ex- 
 pects the ultimate conversion of the Jews to Christian- 
 ity. I know the Church will have to be united, and 
 loving, and tolerant, and permeated with the Spirit of 
 Christ, before Israel is Christianized ; but that day is 
 coming. 
 
 What is needed to transform the pious Jew into a 
 Christian ? He holds most of our creed already ; all he 
 needs is to accept the supremacy and sufficiency of 
 Christ as his Saviour. The Cross was a stumbling- 
 block to him at the beginning. He looked for a tem- 
 poral Messiah, who should raise up the broken nation 
 and destroy its enemies, and was repelled from Jesus, 
 the patient sufferer, the teacher, the prophet of a spir- 
 itual kingdom, who died for His enemies. But the best 
 spirit of Judaism to-day cherishes not the old Messianic 
 idea, but this very Messianic thought which Jesus ac- 
 tualized. I believe that Christianity needs Judaism, 
 that it needs the mighty reinforcement which shall come 
 from Israel and hasten forward the consummation of all 
 things. The Jew will be in harmony with the better 
 Christianity of the future. He has not been a perse- 
 cutor ; he came to believe in intellectual freedom first 
 of all men. He was a scholar when Europe was bar- 
 barous and black with ignorance, and when scarcely one 
 priest out of a thousand could write his name. " Many 
 
BEGINNING AT JERUSALEM 23 
 
 a man, entering some squalid house of the Ghetto to 
 pawn his goods or to seek his horoscope, repairing there 
 to talk of the mysteries of the universe, emerges with a 
 disturbed soul, ripe for the stake. The Jew knows how 
 to unveil the vulnerable points of the Church, and in 
 order to do so, he has at his service, besides the knowl- 
 edge of the Holy Writ, the formidable sagacity charac- 
 teristic of the oppressed." (James Darmsteter, " Se- 
 lected Essays," p. 266.) It was the Jews who lifted the 
 torch of science in the Dark Ages ; it was they who 
 prepared the way for the Protestant Keformation, and 
 who knows but that they are to be the great leaders of 
 the Christian Church in the future ? Who knows but 
 that these greatest of Asiatics are to lead in the Chris- 
 tian conquest of Asia ? Did not Paul write, " If the 
 casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, 
 what shall the receiving of them be but life from the 
 dead ! " We may yet find a new meaning in those words 
 of Jesus : " Salvation is of the Jews." 
 
 It is no wonder the Israelite has not become Chris- 
 tian in the past ; he has a long, bitter memory, but we 
 are grateful that Christianity and Judaism in our own 
 time are getting closer together. When the two become 
 one, how much larger the good which they will together 
 accomplish! The Jew in Christ conquered the stub- 
 born and ruthless Boman conqueror. A crucified Jew 
 overturned the Roman paganism. The Aryan races 
 have received their religion from the Semites ; our 
 thoughts of God, of salvation, of eternity, have come 
 from the Jewish Carpenter. Under the mild reign of 
 the " blessed Jew " the chief nations bow to-day. The 
 cross on which He died breathing forgiveness, has 
 proved mightier than Caesar's throne. When Chris- 
 
24: THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 tianity came, then it was that Israel enlarged the place 
 of his tent and stretched forth the curtains of his habi- 
 tation. And surely the world's future gathers not 
 around the parchment scroll of the Hebrew Torah, but 
 around the Cross whereon were written those words of 
 stumbling which are yet to be words of glory : "Jesus 
 of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." He before whom 
 the Christian world bows to-day was called a " light to en- 
 lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of my people Israel." 
 The chosen nation has no other glory like this. " He 
 is the fairest flower," as Disraeli said, " and the eternal 
 pride of the Jewish race. Northern Europe worships 
 the Son of the Jewish mother, and gives Him a place 
 at the right hand of the Creator, and Southern Europe 
 worships besides, a Queen of Heaven, a Jewish Maiden/' 
 Can we doubt that to His Church is given a Prince and 
 a Saviour who is worthy of all men's homage and obedi- 
 ence, and that to us has come a revelation on which He 
 has stamped a divine seal, and that He whose life was 
 lived on the soil of Asia shall yet be the spiritual leader 
 of the greatest of continents ? 
 
 A well-known but rarely appreciated story is told of 
 Frederick the Great, that he said to his chaplain : "If 
 your religion is true, it ought to be capable of very 
 brief and simple proof. Will you give me the evidence 
 of its truth in one word ? " He answered, " Israel." 
 The chaplain might have answered, " Experience ; " 
 men have known and tested the Christian religion as 
 something personal, and it has astonished, delighted, 
 and satisfied them. Or he might have answered, " Con- 
 science." Here is a religion that reaches man's inmost 
 soul, where God dwelleth, and finds Him there as the 
 sun finds and floods all earthly darkness. Or he might 
 
BEGINNING AT JERUSALEM 25 
 
 have replied, " Christ," who is Himself the solution of 
 man's deepest problems; Christ the symbol of divine 
 wisdom, as Spinoza called Him, the incomparable One 
 whose peasant hand nailed to a malefactor's gibbet, 
 overturned the empire of Rome, and established for 
 Himself a golden monarchy within whose circuit lies 
 to-day the mastery of this earth. Or, he might have 
 said in reply to the king's question, " Prophecy;" here 
 is a religion whose Founder, whose apostles, whose 
 heralds were gifted with supernatural wisdom and in- 
 sight and thus perceived and foretold what was wrapped 
 up in the coming ages. Or he might have answered, 
 " History ; " here is a religion which vindicates its di- 
 vine origin by its historical effects over many nations, 
 and through many centuries, effects which become more 
 potent and divine the more closely men approach to 
 the spirit of its Founder. Or he might have answered, 
 " The Bible," the anomaly of all books, most ancient, 
 most modern ; the builder, the bulwark of order and 
 freedom, working its moral miracles wherever, in three 
 hundred languages, it tells to-day of the law that was 
 given by Moses and the grace and truth which came by 
 Jesus Christ. The wise chaplain said none of these 
 things, but uttered instead that word, the most musical, 
 the most fascinating, the most solemn, the most mo- 
 mentous, the most divine — " Israel." In that one word, 
 experience, conscience, Christ, prophecy, history, and 
 the Bible are all wrapped up. 
 
 I believe that Judaism and Christianity are yet to be 
 made one, not through any scheme of comprehensive 
 rationalism which shall sink both into mere societies of 
 ethical culture, but through the acceptance of the truth 
 which is written out in the Old Testament and the New, 
 
26 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 that God so loved the world as to interfere in its behalf ; 
 and that He who through miracles of creative might 
 has bridged the chasm between the non-existent and 
 the existent, has, by the miracles of redeeming love and 
 power made known His will unto men, giving authority 
 to His Word and conquering grace to His Gospel : that 
 He who spake in times past to the fathers by the He- 
 brew prophets, hath in later days spoken to us by His 
 Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by 
 whom He shall judge the world, and who shall reign 
 over the house of Jacob forever and forever. And when 
 men ask us why we cherish this faith, we point to Israel, 
 the witness to the truth of the Scriptures ; Israel the 
 back-slidden and suffering and persecuted and yet no- 
 ble and mighty, the chosen of God ; Israel, the ever- 
 lasting symbol of God's chastening and undying love to 
 His people ; Israel, of whom Jesus was the bright ter' 
 minal flower; Israel, the marvel and mystery of nations, 
 the ever-burning bush which has been subjected to 
 seven-fold fires through ages and has not yet been con- 
 sumed, the burning thorn-tree which flings its light 
 over all the past, and which shall be the bright torch 
 of humanity's greater future, and to the question why 
 this bush has not been burned up, we give the answer 
 which gladdens our hearts and fills us with a new sense 
 of the Divine Presence and love, and a new hope that 
 Asia and all the earth shall yet be redeemed, " Because 
 God is in it." 
 
CHAPTEE II 
 
 THE CROSS AND THE CRESCENT IN ASIA 
 
 The law and the Gospel went forth from Jerusalem, 
 but Jerusalem is to-day in Mohammedan hands, and 
 Turkish bayonets guard both the Cradle and the Sepul- 
 chre of Jesus. From a Christian school in Scutari, I 
 have looked across the Bosporus and seen that brilliant 
 panorama reaching from beyond Seraglio Point on the 
 south to the closely built European quarter of Constan- 
 tinople north of the Golden Horn, and I have felt my 
 heart sink, not only because of the recent horrors which 
 had reddened with Christian blood the streets of the 
 Turkish metropolis, but also because the old capital of 
 the first Christian empire had so long been held in the 
 cruel, unrelaxing grasp of Islam. Crossing the seas 
 which encompass the western and the southern coasts 
 of Asia, one meets not only the European travellers who 
 are compassing the globe for pleasure, but also the 
 dark-skinned representatives of many races who are 
 journeying to Mecca, or returning to distant isles from 
 that holy place. The Asiatic lands where the Cross 
 gained its earliest triumphs are now under the military 
 control of the followers of the Crescent. 
 
 In Western Asia we confront Judaism, Islam and 
 Christianity. " Judaism shows arrested development. 
 Islam shows perverted development. Christianity 
 shows corrupted development." ("Modern Missions 
 
 27 
 
28 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 in the East," p. 113.) In the middle of the fifteenth 
 century a war-like section of Islam gained a foothold in 
 Europe and at this hour, the seven-hilled city founded 
 by the sagacity of the first Christian emperor, is occu- 
 pied by the Caliph, the supreme representative of the 
 Mohammedan faith. For three years Islam has been 
 the object of a righteous indignation and intense loath- 
 ing, such as have rarely been visited upon any of the 
 great religions ; I mean of course, Islam, as represented 
 by the Turkish Government. Unfortunately, we cannot 
 altogether separate the Turk from his faith. It has 
 been truly said that " the whole fabric of the Turkish 
 Empire, rests on a religious foundation," and " the 
 status of the Christian before the law is that of an 
 alien in regard to his own rights, and of a slave, as far as 
 the interest of Mohammedans is concerned." (Greene, 
 " The Armenian Crisis in Turkey," p. 114.) The sol- 
 emn treaty of Berlin has been outrageously broken, and 
 the head of the Mohammedan faith was stigmatized 
 by the foremost of English statesmen as " The Great 
 Assassin." It is impossible to admit of any mitigation 
 of our condemnation on the ground that Christian peo- 
 ples are also sinners. It is simply impossible to match 
 the Armenian horrors with anything of modern date 
 outside the bounds of the Turkish Empire. It is doubt- 
 less true that the fourteen different sects of Christians 
 under Ottoman rule are very imperfect people, and that 
 they are hostile to each other ; but, if, instead of four- 
 teen, there were forty different Christian bodies in the 
 lands of the Turk, a hundred times more quarrelsome, 
 Christendom would not be justified in folding her arms 
 and quietly seeing them murdered. And whenever it is 
 said that Christians in the past have been as bad as 
 
THE CROSS AND THE CRESCENT IN ASIA 20 
 
 Turks, I am accustomed to let the English historian 
 Freeman reply : " The worst Christian government is 
 better now than it was one hundred years ago, or five 
 hundred years ago. The rule of the Turk is worse now 
 than it was one hundred years ago, or five hundred years 
 ago. That is to say, the worst Christian government 
 can reform, the Turk cannot." 
 
 I had great pleasure, when in Calcutta, in accepting 
 the hospitality of Mr. Justice Ameer Ali, the chief liter- 
 ary apologist of Mohammedanism, a member of the 
 sect of the Mutazils, a free-thinking body, who endeav- 
 ored vainly centuries ago to rationalize and liberalize 
 Islam. He has been accustomed to waive aside the 
 Christian condemnation of Turkish atrocities by parad- 
 ing the crimes of Christian governments ; but Canon 
 MacColl justly replies that " the Christian conscience 
 condemns the crimes committed in the name of Chris- 
 tianity and that no Mussulman writer of repute in any 
 Mussulman state has ever denounced any one of the 
 numberless massacres and other crimes which have 
 stained with indelible infamy the annals of the Ottoman 
 Empire." So long as the ninth Sura of the Koran 
 remains, such condemnation is impious and impossible. 
 
 I believe that what Mr. Gladstone said more than 
 twenty years ago, in reciting the Bulgarian horrors, is 
 good policy to-day. ' ' Let the Turks carry away their 
 abuses in the only possible manner, namely, by carry- 
 ing off themselves. This thorough riddance, this most 
 blessed deliverance, is the only reparation we can make 
 to the memory of those heaps on heaps of dead ; to the 
 violated purity alike of matron, of maiden and of child ; 
 to the civilization which has been affronted and shamed; 
 to the laws of God, or, if you like, of Allah ; to tho 
 
30 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 moral sense of mankind at large. There is not a 
 criminal in a European jail, there is not a cannibal in 
 the South Sea Islands, whose indignation would not 
 arise and overboil at the recital of that which has been 
 done." I agree with Mr. Gladstone that the Eastern 
 question " is not a question of Mohammedanism simply, 
 but of Mohammedanism compounded with the peculiar 
 character of a race. They are not the mild Moham- 
 medans of India, nor the chivalrous Saladins of Syria, 
 nor the cultured Moors of Spain. They were, upon 
 the whole, from the black day when they first entered 
 Europe, the one great anti-human specimen of human- 
 
 ity." 
 
 And, therefore, to gain a just and adequate idea or 
 estimate of Mohammedanism, we must, while not ex- 
 cluding Turkey from our survey, go outside of the 
 Ottoman Empire and back into that history which the 
 faith of Islam has for more than twelve centuries and 
 a half been making. Of Hagar's son, Ishmael, the 
 prophecy was uttered, " He will be a wild man ; his 
 hand will be against every man and every man's hand 
 against him, and he shall dwell in the presence of 
 all his brethren." This was the prediction made to 
 the Egyptian handmaid of Sarah, the wife of Abraham, 
 from whose son has sprung the Arab nation, out of 
 which rose Mohammedanism. The greatest son of 
 Ishmael, born about the year 570 of the Christian era, 
 was Mohammed. He, whom we have been wont to 
 style the false prophet of Islam is revered by nearly 
 two hundred millions of our race as the chosen prophet 
 of God, to give to the world its ultimate religion. 
 
 There are certain connections between the faith of 
 Islam and the faith of the Gospel which should lead 
 
THE GROSS AND THE CRESCENT IN ASIA 31 
 
 us to feel that they are not without some spiritual inter- 
 relationship. Both faiths go back to Abraham, though 
 by different channels. Mohammed and Jesus, if it 
 be not irreverent to bind their names together, taught 
 similar truths in regard to the Diyine unity, and there 
 are certain affiliations between the Koran and the Bible 
 which must be acknowledged by all. Arabia, the birth- 
 place of the prophet of Islam, is a part of sacred geog- 
 raphy. Within its northern limits is the scene of 
 the wanderings of Israel about Mount Sinai ; and 
 Paul, the Apostle, who was three years in Arabia, be- 
 fore he entered fully on his active work, represents the 
 covenant of the old law, under the image of the bond- 
 woman Hagar, for, he says, " This Hagar is Mount 
 Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to the Jerusalem which 
 now is and is in bondage with her children," a true and 
 vivid picture of the present Jerusalem, and also of the 
 spiritual bondage of those who, according to natural 
 descent, are the children of Hagar. 
 
 To-night we are to compare two of the foremost 
 faiths which claim the attention of mankind. Except- 
 ing Buddhism, they are the only missionary religions 
 now existing, and they are pushing their claims and 
 their conquests with far more energy and rapidity than 
 the disciples of the Indian sage. While Christianity 
 numbers among its nominal adherents four hundred 
 millions of men, and may be said to rule politically 
 over nearly all the world, excepting China and the 
 Turkish Empire ; still Mohammedanism is at present 
 winning some of the races of mankind more rapidly 
 than any of its rivals. Christianity is predominant 
 only in the Caucasian race, while Islam rules in the 
 Mongolian, the Malayan and the Negro. Christianity 
 
32 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 is supreme only in the Aryan stock, but Islam has 
 become predominant in the Semitic and Hamitic and 
 some branches of the Turanian. Few people are aware 
 how rapidly Islam is gaining both in Asia and in 
 Africa ; in India, where it numbers fifty-seven millions 
 of adherents; in Southern China, where it numbers 
 twenty millions ; in Java, where it numbered, more 
 than ten years ago, nearly seventeen thousand schools, 
 and a quarter of million pupils ; in the Malay Penin- 
 sula and adjacent islands, where thirty millions of Mos- 
 lems send fifteen thousand pilgrims to Mecca in a 
 single year ; in the Soudan, where paganism has been 
 nearly wiped out, and where more than fifty millions 
 of Moslems are found, an aggressive missionary force 
 in the heart of Africa ; in the Congo basin, where the 
 strongest power is Moslem ; in the great regions about 
 the Central African lakes, where Moslem fanaticism is 
 bringing native Christians to the stake ; and still far- 
 ther South, where some of the black tribes conduct 
 their funerals with Mohammedan rites, and where the 
 grave is always turned toward Mecca. 
 
 We are instructed on the best authority, that in the 
 northern half of Africa, the Arabian prophet is supreme, 
 and that all its roads lead toward the Arabian city : that 
 the Christianity, feeble and mechanical, which has long 
 prevailed in the Dark Continent, is no match for its 
 more aggressive rival, and that the purer faith which 
 modern missions have established has thus far but a 
 feeble hold compared with that of the disciples of the 
 Koran. Looking over the face of the world, we find 
 that the chief Mohammedan capital is still in Europe, 
 and that Constantinople, itself the Gordian knot of 
 human politics, is the symbol and memorial of the long 
 
THE CROSS AND THE CRESCENT IN ASIA 33 
 
 and bitter struggle between the Cross and the Crescent. 
 The Turk still dominates the city, above whose stately 
 dome of St. Sophia, built by Justinian, to rival the 
 temple of Solomon, now gleams for many miles over 
 the blue waters of the Marmora, the defiant symbol of 
 the Arabian prophet, the gold which covers it sufficient 
 for the ransom of a hundred slaves. As a political 
 power, Mohammedanism is declining. In the last two 
 centuries the Turk has lost, one after another, Hun- 
 gary, Transylvania, Croatia, Bessarabia, Servia, Greece, 
 Muldavia, Wallachia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Bumelia, Thes- 
 saly, Algeria, Tunis, Cyprus, Massoah, and Egypt. But 
 where the grasp of the Sultan has been lost or relaxed 
 Mohammedanism still flourishes. 
 
 When in Paris two years ago, I was greatly impressed 
 by the interest, I might almost say, the enthusiastic 
 interest, which Father Hyacinthe felt for the faith of 
 Islam as it appears in Northern Africa. Like our own 
 Dr. Henry M. Field, he had seen the brighter sides of 
 Mohammedan life among the Algerines and others, and 
 he contrasted the corrupted Christendom with which he 
 was familiar in Paris with the simpler faith of the men 
 of the desert. He described a scene which he had wit- 
 nessed, which made a great impression on his mind, 
 and which must impress us all. It was on Friday, the 
 Mussulman's Sabbath, that he was in a city in the em- 
 pire of Morocco, and he entered the great mosque, one 
 of the most beautiful which the art and faith of man 
 have built to God, and there were in it none of those 
 superfluous and often superstitious, not to say idolatrous 
 ornaments, which in many Christian temples wound at 
 the same time the sentiment of the beautiful, the senti- 
 ment of the true, and the more august sentiment of re- 
 3 
 
34 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 ligion; but the temple was full of worshippers. "In 
 our Christian churches in France," he said, " we ordi- 
 narily see only women, as if religion were not virile and 
 reasonable enough for others, but in that mosque I saw 
 two thousand men, two thousand warriors mingled to- 
 gether without distinction of rank. The red cloaks of 
 the chiefs touched the rags of the poor. There, in that 
 theocracy, which is at the same time a democracy, the 
 most absolute equality unites believers. The voice of 
 the Iman rose at the farther extremity of the mosque. 
 He was not a priest, for in this religion, so enthusias- 
 tic and such a mistress of souls, which has lived more 
 than twelve hundred years, there are no clergy. All 
 believers are priests. The assembly responded to the 
 appeal, sometimes prostrated on the earth, sometimes 
 with faces turned heavenward, but always in a sort of 
 ecstacy ; these children of the desert and of the Koran, 
 these Arabs, half monks and half soldiers, cried out 
 with one voice and with one heart, " Allah is Allah and 
 Mohammed is His prophet." This cry shook the mosque 
 as formerly it shook the world. " Yes, God is God," 
 said the eloquent preacher of France, " and woe be to 
 men who think themselves civilized and free and do not 
 know better than to blaspheme His great Name, or to 
 remand it to silence." Spiritual vision is still there, 
 with the children of the desert, and God will yet use it 
 for sublime purposes. Islam rebukes Christendom ; 
 that powerful discipline of souls, it has been said, " does 
 not count a single rebel among its disciples, that is to 
 say, not a single atheist." 
 
 Thus it is not hard to explain the fact that the Cres- 
 cent, rather than the Cross, rules to-day in the lands of 
 Western Asia, the mother-lands of civilization, and Mo- 
 
THE CROSS AND THE CRESCENT IN ASIA 35 
 
 liammedanism is by no reason confined to Western 
 Asia. At the hour of prayer, from the minarets of the 
 great cities of China, and of Benares and Delhi in Hin- 
 dostan, from the banks of the Nile, where Cairo lifts 
 her beautiful spires in the unclouded air, and through- 
 out the deserts and forests of Africa, and even from the 
 confines of Liberia, where boys but sixteen years of age 
 have been taught to repeat the whole Koran from mem- 
 ory, faces are turned, as they were turned four years 
 ago in the fragile mosques of the Columbian Fair, to- 
 ward the Holy Temple in Mecca ; and in any accurate 
 division of the faiths of the world, one-seventh of its 
 inhabitants must be enrolled among those who mingle 
 heavenly truth and something of human error in saying, 
 " There is but one God, and Mohammed is His proph- 
 et." The chief schools of Protestant Christianity in 
 Moslem lands are in Constantinople and Beirut, but 
 they seem small and feeble compared with the Moslem 
 university in Cairo, with its ten thousand students ready 
 to carry the faith of Islam to the ends of the earth. We 
 of America are deeply concerned in the great spiritual 
 conflict between the Cross and the Crescent, for in the 
 providence of God the only great Moslem empire now 
 left in the world is largely given over to the care of 
 American Christians, and a new crusade is in progress 
 in which the weapons are schools and preachers and 
 printing-presses, arms which, in the end, will be found 
 more effective than the swords and lances of English 
 and Burgundian knights, employed in the old Crusades. 
 What are the facts now known in regard to the founder 
 of Islam ? We have no legends to trouble us, and St. 
 Hilaire has said that " the French are far less acquaint- 
 ed with Charlemagne than the Moslems are with their 
 
36 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 prophet who came two centuries earlier." He was born, 
 as I have said, about five hundred and seventy years 
 after the appearance of the world's Saviour. As Jesus 
 was the great reformer of Judaism, calling men back to 
 spiritual worship, so Mohammed appeared at a time 
 when the Christian Church was torn with dissensions 
 and corrupted both in doctrine and life. He appeared, 
 therefore, as a prophet of, in some respects, a more spir- 
 itual faith. To a depraved Christianity he was a scourge. 
 Bishop Prideaux has expressed the belief that " the 
 new religion was raised up to punish the Church which 
 had wrangled away the substance of Christianity in ma- 
 licious and contemptible controversies." While Chris- 
 tendom was distracted with strife and given over to 
 superstition, Mohammed, " with the sword in one hand 
 and the Koran in the other, erected his throne on the 
 ruins of Christianity and of Rome." Mohammedans 
 say : "We have lived among Christians for twelve hun- 
 dred years, and we want no such religion as theirs." 
 And, when American Protestant missionaries first went 
 to Turkey, the Turks often said, " Why, these are true 
 Moslems ! " A missionary wrote from Cairo, " The 
 commonest Fellah feels himself far superior to the most 
 learned Christian from a religious and moral point of 
 view, for he considers the latter to be an idolater, wor- 
 shipping three Gods, and pretending that God was 
 born of a woman, while he, the Mohammedan, knows 
 that Allah is one, and Him alone he worships." While 
 I have no doubt that the Christian populations in the 
 Turkish Empire, with all their defects, are superior to 
 the average Turk, yet the evil specimens are so nu- 
 merous that one careful observer writes that " those 
 found in the deepest depths of drunkenness, deceit, 
 
TUB CROSS AND THE CRESCENT IN ASIA 37 
 
 irreverence, and corruption are oftener Christians than 
 Turks." 
 
 Mohammed was born in the city of Mecca. He was 
 the child of Arabia ; he came from the tribe of Koresh, 
 the family of Hasham, princes of Mecca. The holy city 
 which gave him birth, unlike Bethlehem or Nazareth, 
 was distinguished for its wealth and warlike spirit, and 
 had long been governed by the family of Koreshites, 
 from whom he himself sprang. The Arabians were then 
 a nation of idolaters, worshipping the sun and stars, and 
 all turning toward Mecca and her ancient temple, the 
 Kaaba, as to the shrine of the greatest sanctity, though 
 defiled by three hundred and sixty images of eagles, 
 men, antelopes and lions. Mohammed's mother was of 
 Jewish birth, and his father, Abdallah, has been called 
 the most beautiful and modest of Arabian youth. Both 
 parents died when Mohammed was in infancy, and the 
 orphan was placed under the guardianship of his uncle, 
 Abu Taleb. From boyhood he was given to heavenly 
 conversation, wandering the deserts in melancholy medi- 
 tations. Distinguished for his personal beauty, he was 
 polite, respectful, judicious, courageous in thought and 
 action, and, though he could neither read nor write, he 
 became a master of vigorous, though often perplexed 
 and halting Arabian speech. 
 
 In the birth of Mohammedanism we have, as Eenan 
 has said, " the strange spectacle of a religion coming 
 into being in the clear light of day." Wo behold its 
 founder both inheriting and creating those convictions 
 which he molded into the system bearing his name, 
 claiming that what he said was not new but old, and 
 yet receiving additional revelations for the guidance of 
 mankind. His nature was strongly religious and natu- 
 
38 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 rally high and pure, and we are not surprised that, when 
 he discovered the guardians of the sacred temple in 
 Mecca to be covetous deceivers, his heart turned from 
 their corrupt superstitions. Here and there he found 
 others who rejected the immoralities and idolatries of 
 Arabia ; these men were called Haniffs or penitents, 
 and the source of their faith or their movement may 
 have been Jewish Essenism or Christian asceticism. 
 Professor Wellhausen believes that the Christian anchor- 
 ites, " nameless witnesses of the Gospel, unmentioned 
 in Church history, scattered the seed from which sprang 
 the germ of Islam." The dependence of the Koran on 
 the Old and New Testaments has been discussed before 
 you by Henry Preserved Smith, with careful and schol- 
 arly discrimination. Professor Kuenen thinks that we 
 would not be far from the truth in saying that " Islam 
 is the kernel of Judaism transplanted to Arabian soil," 
 and yet he would emphasize the vast personal influence 
 which came from the prophet himself. There was no 
 general longing on the part of the Arabian people for 
 something higher in the matter of religion ; such a need 
 was felt by only a small circle in a very small measure. 
 " In one word," says Professor Kuenen, " remove Mo- 
 hammed, and neither Islam nor anything like it comes 
 into existence." ("The Hibbert Lectures," p. 21.) Mo- 
 hammed secured some knowledge, however imperfect, 
 of the Jewish and Christian faiths. In his mercantile 
 expeditions he came into contact with the disciples of 
 Moses and of Jesus. We know that his information 
 was often erroneous and, being himself no scholar, he 
 could not distinguish truth from error. He even gained 
 the idea that the Trinity consisted of the Father, the 
 Son and the Virgin Mary. But beyond all that he 
 
THE CROSS AND THE CRESCENT IN ASIA 39 
 
 learned was what he himself was — a Semite, with a strong, 
 high and pure spirit. We must feel that he, at least, if 
 not his race, was naturally monotheistic. God was to 
 him the greatest of facts, and from Nature, from prayer, 
 from special revelation, from the ever- moving and 
 quickening spirit of God, as well as from the imperfect 
 teachers whose lives touched and influenced his own, he 
 appears to have gained that enthusiasm for the one God 
 which was the heart of his religion and the master-pas- 
 sion of his better years. 
 
 There came a supreme crisis in his life. "He used to 
 wander about the hills alone, brooding over these things ; 
 he shunned the society of men ; and solitude became a 
 passion to him. At length came the crisis. He was 
 spending the sacred months at Mount Hira, a huge, 
 barren rock, torn by cleft and hollow ravine, standing 
 out solitary in the full white glare of the desert sun, 
 shadowless, flowerless, without well or rill. Here, in a 
 cave, Mohammed gave himself up to prayer and fasting. 
 Long months, or even years, of doubt had increased his 
 nervous excitability. He had had, they say, cataleptic 
 fits in his childhood, and was evidently more deli- 
 cately and finely constituted than those around him. 
 These were the circumstances in which, according to the 
 tradition of the cave, Mohammed heard a voice say, 
 ' Cry ! ' ' What shall I cry ? ' he answered. 
 
 * Cry ! In the name of thy Lord who created, 
 Created man froni blood, 
 Cry ! for thy Lord is the bountifullest, 
 Who taught the pen, 
 Taught man what he did not know. ' 
 
 Mohammed arose trembling and went to his wife, Kha- 
 dijeh, and told her what he had heard. She believed 
 
40 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 in him, soothed his terror, and bade him hope for the 
 future." 
 
 One day, when on the point of taking his own life in 
 a fit of despondency, he is said to have heard the voice 
 and to have seen the form of Gabriel, who assured him 
 that he was indeed a prophet of God to bring a message 
 of good tidings to Arabia. And, on his recovery, he re- 
 fused to doubt the angel had spoken the truth. At the 
 age of twenty-five he had entered the service of Khadi- 
 jeh, a rich widow of Mecca, who had given him her 
 hand in marriage. Mohammed was three years in mak- 
 ing fourteen converts to the new faith. Among them 
 were his wife, who desired the glory of her husband, his 
 slave, Zeyd, who was tempted by the hope of freedom, 
 his cousin Ali, and his friend and destined successor 
 Abu Bekr, people of his own household, unlike the fam- 
 ily of the Prophet of Nazareth, who believed Him not. 
 There is no doubt about the sincerity, however, of these 
 first converts. It was very hard for him to make any 
 impression on the idolatrous corruption around him. 
 But the infant congregation gradually increased, partly 
 by the conversion of strangers who flocked into Mecca. 
 For ten years he toiled in the spiritual capital of Ara- 
 bia, and, after five years of preaching, when persecution 
 from the fanaticism of the Koreshites arose, he sent 
 away fifteen of his flock into Abyssinia, and these were 
 followed by others. The Koresh demanded their extra- 
 dition. The Abyssinian king called the exiles together, 
 and inquired if there was any reason why they should 
 not be sent back. And they replied to him, in a full 
 assembly of the bishops, " O King ! we lived in igno- 
 rance, idolatry, and unchastity ; the strong oppressed 
 the weak ; we spoke untruth ; we violated the duties of 
 
THE GROSS AND THE CRESCENT IN ASIA 41 
 
 hospitality. Then a prophet arose, one whom we knew 
 from our youth, with whose descent, conduct, and good 
 faith and morality we were all well acquainted. He 
 taught us to worship one God, to speak truth, to keep 
 good faith, to assist our relations, to fulfil the rites of 
 hospitality, and to abstain from all thiugs impure, un- 
 godly, unrighteous ; and he ordered us to say our pray- 
 ers, to give alms, and to fast. AVe believed in him, and 
 followed him. But our countrymen persecuted us and 
 tortured us, and tried to cause us to forsake our relig- 
 ion. And now we throw ourselves upon thy protection. 
 Wilt thou not protect us? " Then a part of the Koran 
 was recited which spoke of Christ, and the king and 
 the bishops wept upon their beards, and the king refused 
 to send back the refugees. 
 
 But the persecution in Mecca grew hotter and hotter. 
 Mohammed's uncle, old Abu Taleb, withdrew his pro- 
 tection, and entreated him not to cast upon him too 
 heavy a burden. Mohammed would not, however, bo 
 false to the voice in his soul, which commanded him to 
 preach God to his countrymen. He turned to go away 
 from his uncle's house, where he thought he could no 
 longer find shelter, but Abu Taleb cried out, "Son of 
 my brother, come back. Say what thou wilt, I will 
 never deliver thee up." But the uncle died soon after, 
 and his wife died, and Mecca became too hostile for him 
 to remain. His life was in daily jeopardy, and he fled 
 from Mecca to Medina in the year 622, the Hegira, as 
 the Mussulmans call it, the era from which to-day time 
 is reckoned in all Mohammedan nations. If ho had 
 been put to death by the fanatical idolaters at this time, 
 Mohammed's figure, it has been truly said, "would have 
 stood out in history as that of a prophet and martyr 
 
42 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 absolutely without reproach." But from the time of his 
 reception in Medina appears to begin the retrograde 
 movement in Mohammed's mind. A new faith and a 
 new fanaticism gathered around the exiled Apostle of 
 God. His followers banded themselves together to 
 guard him against all, as they guarded their own wives 
 and children. For ten years from the time of the He- 
 gira Mohammed lived on, discharging the functions of 
 law-giver, statesman, general, judge, and king. In the 
 earlier period he had enjoined toleration ; he had said, 
 " Let there be no compulsion in religion." His spirit 
 was kindly, gentle and forbearing. " But so soon as he 
 gained power, he found himself supported by a host of 
 warriors ready at his call, and he saw it expedient to 
 turn aside from the paths of peace and moderation into 
 those of war, marauding and plunder." He modified 
 his high demands of justice, truth and mercy, and, far 
 worse than this, proved that possession of absolute 
 power was able to corrupt one of the bravest of all the 
 prophets. " Though restricting to four the number of 
 wives the faithful might possess, he himself had at one 
 time in his harem nine wives and two slave girls. He 
 invoked new revelation from God to sanction this 
 frailty." (Principal Grant, "Religions of the World," 
 p. 24.) 
 
 Even worse than this, he became a cruel persecutor 
 and a propagandist by the sword. "If we are killed 
 in your name," said the deputies from Medina, " what 
 will be the reward? " "Paradise," he replied. Estab- 
 lished in Medina, Mohammed assumed royal and priestly 
 offices. Arabs from every sandy plain flocked to his 
 standard, attracted in part by the hope of plunder and 
 excited by the Prophet's words to fanaticism. How dif- 
 
TEE CROSS AND THE CRESCENT IN ASIA 43 
 
 ferent the spirit with which Jesus preached in Galilee, 
 and with which his disciples, in the first century at 
 least, carried His Gospel into almost every land ! " The 
 sword," said Mohammed, " is the key to heaven and 
 hell. A drop of blood shed in the cause of God is of 
 more avail than two months of fasting and prayer." 
 He now declared war against the infidels ; he subdued 
 the Jews in Arabia, and, finally, received the submission 
 of Mecca ; so that after seven years of exile he was en- 
 throned as Prince and Prophet in his own country. 
 Beholding his former enemies at his feet, he treated 
 them with great cruelty. Many were assassinated by 
 his order. When one of his foes was brought before 
 him for execution, the man said : " Who will take care 
 of my little girl?" "Hell -fire! said Mohammed. 
 Seven or eight hundred Jewish prisoners, who had sur- 
 rendered at discretion, were by his order executed ; 
 their wives and children sold as slaves, Mohammed se- 
 lecting one of these wives for himself. In the midst of 
 his cruelty, Mohammed was faithful to one part of his 
 mission. The three hundred and sixty idols in the tem- 
 ple at Mecca were broken and the temple was purified. 
 In the eleventh year of the Hegira, Arabia was subdued 
 and Mohammed passed away. But he had planted his 
 spirit in the very heart of his nation, and his life is re- 
 peated and continued in its moral peculiarities down to 
 this age. I think Mohammedanism has been the per- 
 petuation of the virtues and vices of its founder. The 
 Bev. Edward Sell of the Church Missionary Society, 
 whom I had the pleasure of meeting in Madras, and 
 who is one of the ablest and best equipped controver- 
 salists on the subject of Islam, affirms that the sunnat 
 or law, that the words and deeds of Mohammed furnish 
 
44 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 an authoritative rule of life, is accepted by all sects of 
 Mohammedans. It is the condemnation of Islam that 
 " the life of Mohammed must be made a standard for all 
 men, all lands and all time." 
 
 The prophet of Islam was a man of great intellectual 
 vigor, of naturally sincere, devout and lofty mind, whom 
 opposition changed into a persecuting fanatic, not worse 
 however, than Torquemada, or the Duke of Alva and 
 many others who have borne the Christian name ; and 
 instead of growing better with age, he grew worse, and 
 he who had been in early manhood the faithful husband 
 of one wife, as he grew older, conformed more nearly to 
 the vicious habits prevailing among the Arabian polyg- 
 amists. He represented a higher type of morality than 
 the national Arabian thought had reached, and he ap- 
 peared as the prophet of a more spiritual religion, and 
 a reformer of abuses. " The restrictions of polygamy 
 and recommendation of monogamy ; the institution of 
 prohibited degrees against the horrible laxity of Ara- 
 bian marriages ; the limitations of divorce and strin- 
 gent rules as to the support of divorced women during 
 a certain period by their former husbands and as to the 
 maintenance of children ; the innovation of creating 
 women heirs-at-law, though only to half the value of 
 men ; the abolition of the custom which treated a man's 
 widow as a part of his heritable chattels ; " — these were 
 changes for the better as radical as he could then make. 
 
 But his chief power over men sprang from his pro- 
 phetic grasp of a great truth, his intense fiery conviction 
 of it, his whole-souled response to the reality of a per- 
 sonal God, the Sovereign of the world. " Islam," says 
 Carlyle, " means that we must submit to God . . . 
 to know and believe well, that the stern thing which 
 
THE CROSS AND THE CRESCENT IN ASIA 45 
 
 necessity has ordered, was the wisest, the best. . . . 
 This is the soul of Islam ; it is properly the soul of 
 Christianity, for Islam is definable as a confused form 
 of Christianity." We believe, however, that Christian- 
 ity means far more than this, and yet we must not fail 
 to recognize the deep spiritual significance of that 
 movement by which Mohammed created a nation and 
 turned its people into zealous propagandists of the 
 faith. Grafted into this spiritual stock were other 
 forces which soon corrupted what was originally pure ; 
 the forces that spring from the love of conquest, plunder 
 and pleasure. These spiritual and un spiritual powers 
 linked together made the disciples of Mohammed per- 
 haps the most terrific military host ever let loose upon 
 the world. Within a century and a half after the death 
 of the prophet, they had swept in desolating conquest 
 through Egypt, along the northern shores of Africa, 
 through Spain, and had pushed like a wedge of steel, or 
 a sword of fire, into the heart of France. Christendom 
 appeared about to succumb, and would have succumbed, 
 but for the iron arm of Charles Martel. More than 
 seven centuries, however, elapsed before the Moors were 
 driven from Spain, after they had filled that land with 
 traditions of intellectual glory and martial prowess and 
 artistic achievement, which are among the brightest in 
 the history of Islam. The greatest event of the Middle 
 Ages was the uprising of the Christian nations of Europe 
 to deliver the Holy Land from the followers of the 
 Arabian prophet, an attempted Christian conquest of 
 Asia, which was a woful relapse from the spirit and 
 aim of the apostles of Christ. Inspired by the perse- 
 cutions of Christians, by the fanaticism of monks, by 
 the ambition of popes and kings, crusade after crusade 
 
46 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 swept to the walls of Joppa and Jerusalem. History 
 lias few romances to equal that which clings to the 
 career of Richard of the Lion Heart, and to the heroic 
 defences of Malta and Rhodes by the Christian knights 
 against their Moslem assailants. There is a military 
 splendor in both the triumphs and the defeats of Islam, 
 fascinating to the imagination. The narrative of the 
 Mussulman arms leads us to the lands of classic 
 and sacred and far eastern storv. We leave Arabian 
 sands for the water-courses of the Euphrates, the Jor- 
 dan and the Nile. We see the fanatic hordes crossing 
 the Indus and conquering Hindostan ; we see the cres- 
 cent gleaming from the towers of Agra on the Jumna, 
 as well as of Bagdad on the Tigris. We see old Damas- 
 cus becoming the centre and capital of a Mohammedan 
 empire, reaching from the Ganges to the Rock of Gi- 
 braltar. And then we see the Ottomans crossing the 
 Dardanelles in the track of Xerxes. We see the isles 
 of Greece and the Attic mainland, with Athens and the 
 Acropolis, bowed and blasted beneath the Turkish con- 
 querors. We behold the Ottoman arms carried in 
 triumph westward to the walls of Vienna. Panic seizes 
 on Christian Europe, then in the turmoil of the Protest- 
 ant Reformation. The Anglican churches read from 
 their prayer-books to-day a collect which has in it a 
 mark of the terror which the sword of Islam once in- 
 spired : " Have mercy on all Jews, Turks, infidels, and 
 heretics, and take from them all ignorance, hardness of 
 heart and contempt of Thy Word." 
 
 Mohammed has made a deep mark on history. We 
 may agree with Renan and say : " Islamism, following as 
 it did on the ground that was not of the best, has, on the 
 whole, done as much harm as good to the human race. It 
 
THE GROSS AND THE CRESCENT IN ASIA 47 
 
 lias stifled everything by its dry and desolating sim- 
 plicity." We may agree, I said, with this judgment, but, 
 we do well to discover the good and permanent elements 
 in such a faith, if only for the purpose of satisfying the 
 mind and securing a rational explanation of so tremen- 
 dous a phenomenon. Mohammed's chief contribution 
 to the world is the Koran, which alone is sufficient to 
 prove his intellectual and moral greatness. Unlike the 
 Bible, it is the product of one mind. The Holy Script- 
 ures come to us from many inspired men in many ages, 
 reflecting all forms of human life ; but the Koran is the 
 work of one man and reflects his moods and passions, 
 and policies at different epochs of his career. We can 
 imagine what a different book the Christian Scriptures 
 would be had they been composed only by Jeremiah or 
 Ezekiel, Peter or James. Mohammed's maxims were 
 diligently recorded by his disciples on bones or palm- 
 leaves, and were thrown into a chest which was kept by 
 one of his wives. Two years after his death, these relics 
 were collected and published by Abu Bekr. Such is 
 the origin of the Koran, a book which, to many Western 
 minds, appears "an endless incoherent rhapsody of 
 fable, legend and declamation," but which shows un- 
 doubtedly frequent moral elevation and great spiritual 
 sublimity ; a book which the faithful adore, which they 
 believe possesses a magical charm and effect, curing 
 diseases when worn as an amulet ; a book too sacred to 
 be translated, and which the Moslem ignorantly deems 
 superior to all other sacred writings. 
 
 This volume contains all the theology of Islam and 
 also its civil and criminal jurisprudence. From it wo 
 learn that God has made six revelations to man, each 
 better than the former, and that the revelation to Mo- 
 
4:8 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 hammed is the final disclosure of God's will. He is 
 the prophet like unto Moses who was promised ; he is 
 the Holy Ghost, the Comforter ; he is the mouthpiece 
 of God, and hence the words of the Koran are fault- 
 lessly perfect. Containing many noble truths and 
 sentiments, this book makes a strong appeal to con- 
 science; it affirms the intimate communion of man and 
 God : it commends charity, truth, and patience and the 
 return of good for evil ; it emboldens the penitent to 
 cry out in faith to his Creator; it enjoins humility 
 and tenderness. From it might be gathered, by the 
 careful omission of unworthy portions, a noble system 
 of ethics, not complete but still exalted. The moral 
 code of Mohammedanism requires honesty, modesty, 
 benevolence, fraternity among Moslems ; it forbids 
 profanity, gambling, false oaths and the use of intoxi- 
 cating liquors. It expressly sanctions polygamy in the 
 fourth and twenty-third suras, and, while it gives to 
 women a position of inferiority, there is no truth what- 
 ever in the statement that, according to the Koran, 
 women have no souls, no rights and no hope of immor- 
 tality. 
 
 Mohammedanism has a vital centre of truth, the 
 highest truth, which heathenism did not know, and 
 Christianity, as it existed in the Orient, was in danger 
 of smothering; the doctrine of God's unity, the 
 truth which Moses, and Abraham, and David taught 
 and which Christ re-affirmed, " The Lord, our God is 
 one God." The Eastern Church and the Roman Church 
 had surrounded the throne of Jehovah with a crowd of 
 saints and angels that obscured the pure vision of the 
 one everlasting Jehovah. The sanctuaries were filled, 
 and are to-day filled with painted and graven images 
 
THE CROSS AND THE CRESCENT IN ASIA 49 
 
 which impaired true worship ; and in contrast with these 
 errors, Mohammed taught the spirituality and the unity 
 of God, and this truth has been the source of the deep, 
 inner life which has undoubtedly prevailed in Islam. 
 No wonder that Moslems have been wont to regard Asi- 
 atic Christianity as an inferior faith. Gibbon has said 
 that " if Peter and Paul could return to the Vatican 
 they would wonder what is the name of the deity there 
 worshipped, with such mysterious rites, in that magnifi- 
 cent temple ! " 
 
 The same impression of God which Mohammed 
 stamped on the Arabian mind is found to-day among 
 all the disciples of the Koran from the Congo to the 
 Ganges and the Yangtse, and seems embodied even in 
 Moslem architecture. It is this sincerity of faith in one 
 God, this consciousness of having the truth, combined 
 with reverence for Mohammed as a later teacher than 
 Christ, and coupled also with an age-long contempt and 
 hate of corrupt Christianity, that makes it almost im- 
 possible to bring a Mussulman over to the Christian 
 faith. Islam has had a providential mission already, 
 and so long as large sections of Christendom present 
 even the appearance of polytheism and idolatry, Mo- 
 hammedanism will be an impenetrable bulwark against 
 the subjugation of the world by these lower types of 
 Christianity. There may be a great providential mis- 
 sion yet reserved for Ishmael and Ishmael's greatest 
 son. The second best of religions is a mighty obstacle 
 to the second best forms of our Christian faith. It is 
 certainly impossible, I emphatically repeat, for the Ro- 
 man Church, with its apparent deification of Mary, and 
 with its varieties of semi-idolatry, ever to conquer the 
 
 globe, so long as Mohammedanism, with its teaching of 
 4 
 
50 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 the spirituality of God and its stern monotheism ob- 
 structs the way. 
 
 Bishop Southgate, long a missionary bishop of the 
 Episcopal Church of the United States, says : "I have 
 often met with Mussulmans who seem to possess deep 
 religious feeling, and with whom I could exercise some- 
 thing of a religious communion. I have sometimes had 
 my own mind quickened and benefited by the reverence 
 with which they spoke of the Deity, and have sometimes 
 mingled in harmonious converse with them on holy 
 things." The recorded experiences and ecstacies of Mo- 
 hammedan saints in the contemplation of God, remind us 
 now and then of the Christian mystics of the Middle Ages. 
 In Cairo I had long conversations with the chief of the 
 religious organization of Islam in Egypt, Es Seyd El- 
 Bakri, a lineal descendant of the first Caliph, Abu 
 Bekr, a learned and progressive Moslem of great court- 
 esy and modesty who appreciates the spiritual life 
 which he discovers in true Christians, because he evi- 
 dently has spiritual life in himself. Dr. Washburn, of 
 Bobert College, said to us at the Parliament of Relig- 
 ions, that many Moslems do attain some degree at least 
 of what Christians mean by spiritual life, and he quotes 
 the hymn of the Turkish Moslem lady at Constantinople : 
 
 " O Source of Kindness and of Love, 
 Who givest aid all hopes above, 
 Mid grief and guilt although I grope, 
 From thee I'll ne'er cut off my hope, 
 My Lord, O my Lord ! " 
 
 It is a strange world in which we find ourselves, with 
 truth and error, light and darkness so constantly inter- 
 mingled. Nothing will profit us but the truth. Wo 
 
THE CROSS AND TUB CRESCENT IN ASIA 51 
 
 cherish a purer form of Christianity, and do well to 
 carry it into the lands where the Arabian prophet is 
 revered. We know that we have the better, completer 
 conception and revelation of God, and the higher and 
 purer idea of manhood and womanhood which have 
 come through Jesus Christ. But we must not forget 
 that the average Christianity of the last fifteen hundred 
 years is not the Christianity which we lovingly cherish 
 and zealously proclaim. Why should the Mohamme- 
 dan look down on the Roman and Greek Churches as 
 inferior types of faith unless there were some elements 
 of inferiority in them ? Are we sure that the average 
 Christianity, which has met Islam with fire and sword, 
 has been any striking improvement on the faith of the 
 Moslem ? The Christian Churches of Egypt, Abys- 
 sinia and of Western Asia must rank in missionary zeal 
 and fervor lower than Mohammedanism. Christianity 
 has a higher creed with regard to woman, and with re- 
 gard to social virtues, but the practices which have pre- 
 vailed in the last thousand years have not contrasted 
 very favorably with the social ethics of Islam. And, 
 with the English and American disclosures of the last 
 decade fresh in our mind, we may not feel like hurling 
 any enormous pile of stones even at Mohammedan 
 homes, where the circle of licit relations is larger than 
 in Christendom. We justly talk about Christianity and 
 political liberty, but freedom is the achievement of the 
 last two or three centuries. " Taking all the Christian 
 acres together, from the days of barbarous Constant ine 
 to the days of the German emperors and the despotic 
 kings of France and England, remembering that Philip 
 the Second and Louis the Eleventh and Louis the Four- 
 teenth and Napoleon and the Czars of Russia have 
 
52 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 borne the Christian name, we are not so bold in identi- 
 fying political freedom with the long course of Chris- 
 tian history." 
 
 But you say that Islam was propagated by the sword. 
 True. If Christians and Jews submitted, they could 
 retain their religion by paying annual tribute, but if 
 they resisted, the men were to be killed and the women 
 and children sold as slaves. All this seems to us dev- 
 ilish, and, thank God, Christendom generally has out- 
 grown the persecuting and ferocious intolerance whose 
 record of late years has been so red and fiendish on Ar- 
 menian mountains cold. The present spirit and prac- 
 tice of Turkey are a horrible anachronism. In India a 
 Mohammedan may become a Christian and not lose his 
 life, for India is ruled by a Christian nation, which, 
 with all its faults, is the chief champion of toleration in 
 the world. During my visit in Calcutta, Moslems were 
 received into the London Mission Church. But in Tur- 
 key the Mohammedan who becomes a Christian is a 
 doomed man. Dr. Lawrence writes : "I have seen a 
 converted Moslem in Turkey ; it was a woman, who, 
 after great persecution was living in comparative free- 
 dom at Marsovan. There may be occasional instances 
 of the same kind. But, if the convert is a man, he sud- 
 denly disappears. He is drafted into the army and 
 sent to a distant part of the empire whence he never 
 returns." ("Modern Missions in the East," p. 119.) 
 The nineteenth century revolts against this, but so-called 
 Christians have a record which is dark enough. It has 
 been truly said that " Central Europe was converted by 
 the sword to Christianity as truly as Central Asia or 
 Africa has been to Islam." It took Charles the Great 
 thirty years to convert the Saxons with the sword. 
 
THE CROSS AND THE CRESCENT IN ASIA 53 
 
 Islam gives three alternatives : Islam, tribute or the 
 sword. Christianity gave but two: baptism or the 
 sword." " Teutons and Slavs were all brought to the 
 Cross at the point of the sword." 
 
 Again, one of the great tests of religion is its treat- 
 ment of inferior races. Here the records of these two 
 faiths are almost equally black. Christians once had 
 the monopoly of the slave trade in the w r est of Africa. 
 The Moslems have since followed in our footsteps. 
 Dutch Protestants in Southern Africa " for two hun- 
 dred years have ruthlessly ridden over every right of 
 the natives ; they have seized their territory, reduced 
 the people, when possible, to serfdom, when that was 
 impossible, they hunted them like wild beasts, and have 
 literally shot them on sight, like game." The Moham- 
 medan has been, in some respects, more merciful than 
 the nominal Christian, and more democratic. Horrible 
 as is the work of the Moslem slave-trader in Central 
 Africa, when the negro is converted he treats him like 
 a brother. " As soon as the negro is Islamized, every 
 position is open to him, in the home, in the mosque, and 
 in the state, not in theory alone, but in free, actual ac- 
 cepted fact." " In India, Africa and everywhere, with 
 Moslems there is but one caste, and that caste is Islam." 
 The most deadly foe to the future of Africa is not the 
 slave-trader, but rum, and this is given by Christians, 
 and not by Mohammedan hands. Moslems have held 
 an anti-rum congress at Khartoum, and it ought to flush 
 our cheeks with shame that they must make war against 
 a trade which Christian England and America have not 
 had the courage and manliness to stamp out. In the 
 matter of total abstinence, average Mohammedanism is 
 infinitely superior to average Christendom. 
 
54 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 But we do not reach the whole truth, until we con- 
 trast a pure Christianity, that is the doctrine of Jesus 
 Himself, with the original spirit and teachings of Islam. 
 The immeasurable superiority of the Prophet of Naza- 
 reth over the prophet of Arabia is not only shown by 
 the faultless life of the one, set off against the mixed 
 character of the other, but also in the fundamental 
 teachings regarding God and man, and duty and eternal 
 life. Mohammed and Christ both teach the doctrine 
 of one God, but Christ gives the pre-eminence to the 
 moral and not to the natural attributes of Jehovah. 
 Mohammed's God is an Eastern monarch, Christ's is 
 our Father in Heaven. Mohammed's God is far re- 
 moved from us, and our chief duty is Islam, or sub- 
 mission ; the Christian's God has become incarnate, 
 one with us, through His Son and His Spirit ; He is 
 sympathetic and friendly and open to our fellowship. 
 Though Allah is called the Compassionate and Merci- 
 ful, yet He is a God afar off. " The people know no 
 other than Him," says Kuenen, " and therefore observe 
 the religious duties imposed by Him, and appear at 
 the stated time at the House of Prayer ; but this does 
 not satisfy the wants of the heart, and the people there- 
 fore makes itself a new religion. At the graves of its 
 saints, it seeks compensation for the dryness of the of- 
 ficial doctrine and worship." (" The Hibbert Lectures," 
 p. 44.) 
 
 The God whom Jesus reveals gave a far wider area 
 to human freedom ; He dignifies man and sends his 
 soul heavenward in aspiration, while the Moslem idea 
 crushes him into submission. Christianity emphasizes 
 principles ; Mohammedanism rules, or laws. Christian- 
 ity is adapted to every stage of human civilization; 
 
THE GROSS AND THE GllESGENT IN ASIA 55 
 
 Mohammedanism to the middle stage, where it soon 
 becomes stereotyped and dead. It has been far better 
 than the systems which it has displaced, but it soon 
 reaches its limit, and the law of progress cannot be 
 truly said to belong to Islam. " In the opinion of 
 every orthodox Mohammedan, the Koran is a perfect 
 revelation of the will of God, sufficient and final, and 
 Islam is a separate, distinct and absolutely exclusive 
 religion," therefore, Islam cannot fully avail itself of 
 the vital forces of Christendom without abandoning its 
 fundamental principles. The reform of Islam is, ac- 
 cording to its own theory, not within the range of pos- 
 sibility. " Only by retreating from its Mohammedan- 
 ism, from its Koranolatry, from its violence, sensuality, 
 and debasement of woman, and by getting into the 
 stream of eternal life, can there be divine knowledge or 
 salvation for any of its peoples." (Lawrence, " Modern 
 Missions in the East," p. 118.) It has been truly said 
 that " Islam is in its essence stationary, and was framed 
 thus to remain. Sterile like its God, lifeless like its 
 First Principle and Supreme Original, in all that con- 
 stitutes true life, for life is love, participation and prog- 
 ress, and of these the Koranic Deity has none, it justly 
 repudiates all change, all advances, all development." 
 (Clark, " Ten Great Eeligions," p. 480.) 
 
 With the Mohammedan, right and wrong depend 
 on legal enactments, and moral acts have no inherent 
 quality. Mohammedans do not realize that sin itself 
 is corruption and death, and that salvation is some- 
 thing more than an escape from hell. The prophet of 
 Islam was a military commander, Christ, a spiritual 
 leader. In Islam the soul is to be saved by confession, 
 prayer, alms-giving, pilgrimage; that is by routine, 
 
56 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 ceremonial, submission to Islamic rules. In Christian- 
 ity the soul is saved through faith, through love, through 
 life, through inward holiness, through the Cross, which 
 is the great stumbling-block to Islam. It knows noth- 
 ing of a Divine Redeemer, suffering in our stead, rising 
 from the grave for our justification, filling us full with 
 His own Divine Life and binding us to Him by His 
 own Divine Love. I know the Christian Church has 
 exhibited in different ages every crime and enormity 
 which have stained the history of Islam, but there is 
 no justification to? these crimes in the character, teach- 
 ing, or example of Jesus. Back in the dawn of Chris- 
 tianity stands the spotless and radiant figure of the 
 Son of God. The fountain of the Christian religion is 
 the pure river of the Water of Life, and Christian his- 
 tory will be purified when that original stream is per- 
 mitted to flow on unstained by the corruptions of men. 
 Not so with Mohammedanism ; the more closely it 
 comes to its original spirit and method, the more hope- 
 lessly its spirit and virtue are mingled with error and 
 iniquity. The two religions are fighting to-day for the 
 conquest of Asia, and we may well lift up the old prayer, 
 the Collect of the Anglican Church — " Take from them 
 all ignorance and hardness of heart." 
 
 The question is asked, how shall we best commend 
 Christianity to Moslems, and Principal Grant has well 
 answered : " We must act along the lines of least resist- 
 ance. These are suggested to us by Mohammed's atti- 
 tude to the Old and New Testament Scriptures. He 
 held these to be of Divine authority." They are invari- 
 ably mentioned as from God. This is the door by 
 which we should enter in. " The Koran commands the 
 faithful to accept the testimony of these Scriptures. 
 
THE CROSS AND THE CRESCENT IN ASIA 57 
 
 Once they are brought to an intelligent study of them', 
 who can doubt the result ? All that they value in the 
 Koran, they will find more powerfully stated in the Old 
 and New Testaments ; and they will find more. The 
 Koran may thus be used to lead earnest seekers to the 
 Lord Jesus, whom Mohammed himself, we may well 
 believe, would have acknowledged as his Lord had he 
 only known Him as we know Him. By this method we 
 may hope to reach individuals. But organized Moham- 
 medanism will remain> until organized Christendom 
 reflects the spirit of Chlist, in peace and in war, in poli- 
 tical, social, industrial, economic, and domestic life, in 
 its art, science, press and literature, in its civil and crimi- 
 nal codes, in its international dealings, and in a Church 
 so filled with the Spirit that it shall rise above dead 
 issues, and do the work of to-day ; rise above the sec- 
 tarianisms that exhaust its strength, and go forward as 
 one body to make the kingdoms of this world the king- 
 dom of God and His Christ." 
 
 The future redemption of Mohammedan Asia is in 
 the power of those gentle and yet mighty influences, 
 springing from Christian America, which have made the 
 cities and villages of the Lebanon Mountains centres 
 of Christian education and evangelism. As such com- 
 munities multiply, and Islam confronts for the first time 
 a Christian civilization which shows the noblest tri- 
 umphs of learning and charity, of prosperity and good 
 morals, who doubts that the long-closed eyes of the 
 Mohammedan world will be finally, even if gradually, 
 opened, that the hard heart will be softened by Christian 
 love? As a Moslem whose wife had been trained by 
 Christians in Syria said to her teacher : " You have 
 trained my wife well ; I have been in all kinds of 
 
58 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 iniquity. When I married her, I expected to beat my 
 wife, and then divorce her, but this girl has won my 
 love and I have no other wife ; ' : so under the influence 
 of Christian civilization, women will more and more 
 emerge from the wretched seclusion and ignorance and 
 cruelty which have often been their lot under the Cres- 
 cent, into the freedom and light and hope, which have 
 been theirs beneath the Cross of Mary's Son. Not soon, 
 but ultimately, the Christian era shall touch Damascus 
 and Jerusalem, and Cairo and Teheran and Delhi and 
 Canton, as it has touched Beirut and the hill-towns of 
 Northern Syria. The long blight and agony of Moham- 
 medan rule will yet be mitigated, and the throne of the 
 Arabian prophet will be beaten to fragments by the 
 leaves of the New Testament, mighty through God to 
 the pulling down of strongholds, and the Redeemer, who 
 is the Son of God, will be exalted as King of kings and 
 Lord of lords. And, even the solitudes of Arabia shall 
 yet be penetrated, and Jesus, in the person of His dis- 
 ciples, shall enter the ancient shrine of Mecca, and 
 there, at last, the whole truth will be told. " This is 
 eternal life, to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus 
 Christ whom Thou hast sent." In Persia, which, after 
 the conquests of Omar, did not become thoroughly 
 Mohammedan in heart, reformed sects have risen up 
 like that which was called from its founder Babism, a sect 
 which has gained a wide following, in spite of persecu- 
 tion, and which in its eclecticism is tolerant and totally 
 different from the spirit of Islam. How prevalent it 
 may be in Persia we know not, because it is a generally 
 received tenet, in the dominant sect of orthodoxy, that 
 it is lawful to deny one's real faith in time of danger. 
 I see little to encourage the delusion and extra va- 
 
THE GROSS AND THE CRESCENT IN ASIA 59 
 
 gance sometimes found in missionary sermons, though 
 not often on the lips of missionaries themselves, to the 
 effect that by doubling our energy, devotion and gifts, 
 we shall in a few years evangelize the world. "We ought, 
 of course, to double our energy and quadruple our gifts, 
 but vast evolutions, difficult and slow, must go on in the 
 Christian and non-Christian realms before this result 
 is possible. Our duty is plain. It becomes us, as the 
 disciples of the Teacher of Nazareth, to reflect more 
 fully before men, that Light which can never cease to 
 be the Light of the World, to send everywhither His 
 Word, and more than all, rising above the letter which 
 killeth to the Spirit which is vital and immortal, to live 
 as He did, in whom we have hope, and who still marches 
 at the head of humanity. 
 
 " Mohammed's truth lay in a holy book, 
 Christ's in a sacred life. 
 
 " So while the world rolls on from change to change 
 And realms of thought expand, 
 The letter stands without expanse or range, 
 Stiff as a dead man's hand. 
 
 "While, as the life-blood fills the growing form, 
 The spirit Christ has shed, 
 Flows through the ripening ages fresh and warm 
 More felt than heard or read." 
 
CHAPTEK III 
 
 OBSERVATIONS OF POPULAR HINDUISM 
 
 We landed in Bombay on the fifteenth day of Decem- 
 ber, 1896, and I realized, on seeing the mosques of this 
 lordly city, that in reaching India I had not left the 
 world of Islam. Bombay,* which writes upon her 
 escutcheon "Urbs Prima in India," was also first in 
 suffering, and we were sent by our friends out of its 
 plague-infected and death-smitten streets, and were not 
 permitted to return. Two days and two nights of travel 
 carried us to the ancient and holy city on the Ganges, 
 the capital of Hinduism, the scene of Buddha's first 
 preaching, the city whose hoary idolatries were smitten 
 by the Moslem iconoclast, Aurangseb. Five days in 
 Benares did not enchant me with popular Hinduism ; 
 but even here, in the colleges, in the homes of the pun- 
 dits, and in public meetings in the town-hall, I met evi- 
 dences of enlightenment, and received tokens of kind- 
 ness, in which India was to me never lacking. Then 
 followed two weeks in Calcutta, the political and intel- 
 lectual chief city of Great Britain's Indian possessions, 
 a city created by English commerce and the necessities 
 
 * " Royal and dower-royal, I, the Queen, 
 
 Fronting thy richest sea with richer hands — 
 A thousand mills roar through me where I glean 
 All races from all lands." 
 — Rudyard Kipling, " The Song of the Cities." 
 
 GO 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF POPULAR HINDUISM 61 
 
 of that long struggle of arms and diplomacy by which, 
 as Hacaulajr has written: "English adventurers secured 
 an empire* greater and more lasting than that of Alexan- 
 der." The ^twenty-two addresses given in Calcutta were 
 delivered irAcolleges, churches, drawing-rooms, and vari- 
 ous halls, and brought me into contact with nearly all 
 the different forms of religious and intellectual life in 
 the city. ^ I 
 
 No one sees the land of the Vedas who does not look 
 upon the Himalayan Mountains, the home of the gods, 
 the inspiration of the early poets. After three days in 
 Darjeeling, where the golden horn of Kinchin junga and 
 the colossal white wall of his mountain-brothers lifted 
 their awful heights for a few hours before our vision, we 
 returned to Calcutta, and thence proceeded north, visit- 
 ing Lucknow, Cawnpore, Delhi, and Lahore. In these 
 places I delivered eleven addresses, and in Lahore I 
 first came in contact with the vigorous Sikh and Moslem 
 populations of Northern India. In the journey south 
 from this northernmost point my work carried me to 
 Amritsar, with its Golden Temple ; Agra, with the tomb 
 of Akbar, the palace-fort, and the pearly splendors of 
 the unmatched Taj Mahal ; Jeypore, pinkest and most 
 picturesque of cities ; Ajmere, Indore, and Ahmednagar. 
 During this part of my Indian work fourteen more ad- 
 dresses were given. Then followed eight busy and ex- 
 citing days in Poona, and, after this, we left Central and 
 "Western India for the more fertile and, in some respects, 
 more attractive regions of the south. During my three 
 days in Bangalore, two days in Vellore, two weeks in 
 Madras ; during the days that I spent in Salem and Co- 
 imbatore, which are very interesting centres of Christian 
 work ; during a visit made to Prince Nouri, until lately 
 
62 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 the Patriarch of the Syrian Christians on the Malabar 
 coast, and especially after a week spent in Madura and 
 Tinnevelly, where Christian evangelism and education 
 have shown some of their largest and choicest fruits, I 
 realized how much greater progress the Christian cause 
 had made in the south than in the north, and how much 
 more wide-spread and intense was the popular interest 
 in the affairs of religion. Furthermore, I almost felt 
 that my work as a Christian delegate to the Orient ended 
 on the fifth of March, when, under the presidency of a 
 Brahman judge, I delivered my last lecture in India in 
 a temporary tabernacle built by the native Christians of 
 Palamcottah. 
 
 There are essential features in the Hindu system of 
 thought and life, like the doctrine of transmigration or 
 re-birth, of which I shall not speak this evening. Fur- 
 thermore, in portraying some evils of Hinduism, I do 
 not mean to draw a severe indictment against all Hin- 
 dus. Their general gentleness of spirit and fineness of 
 mind command love and admiration. The evils on 
 which I dwell are partly corruptions traceable to the 
 Brahmanic priesthood, of ideas and usages which were 
 ethically and spiritually better. It is painful to me to 
 expose the dark side of the religion of a people and 
 country to which I owe so much gratitude. 
 
 It is not an inspiring and elevating spectacle, the sight 
 at close range of Hinduism and what it has effected in 
 a land where nearly one-half the people are imprisoned 
 for life, hidden from sight in the seclusion and social 
 starvation of the zenana ; in a country with three hun- 
 dred millions of people and three hundred and thirty- 
 three millions of gods, most of whose inhabitants are 
 half-naked, and one-fourth of whom have but a single 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF POPULAR HINDUISM 63 
 
 meal a day, even when famine has not swept away, as 
 during the last twelve months, its millions of victims ; a 
 country where idolatry in its most hideous forms spreads 
 its debasing influence, holding in childish enslavement 
 a people whom a pure Christianity is yet to reach, in- 
 structing them that God, who is spirit, must be wor- 
 shipped in spirit and in truth ; a country where lying is 
 an immemorial fine art, where English judges are in de- 
 spair of knowing what testimony in court is true, and 
 where American observers, predisposed, like Colonel 
 Olcott, to look favorably on all things Indian, feel the 
 hopelessness of raising the people out of bottomless 
 depths of moral rottenness ; a country where the pop- 
 ulation, separated by race, language, and religion, are 
 spread over a peninsula so vast that what is said in 
 Calcutta may appear to Lahore like an utterance from 
 another nation, and what is done in Bombay is of little 
 moment, unless it be in the matter of the plague, to those 
 who live in Madras ; a country into which Christian 
 civilization has introduced new life, extending its rail- 
 roads and telegraphs, its science and political ideals, its 
 schools and colleges, together with the language and 
 literature of England, so widely that the world of 
 Shakespeare and Cromwell and Darwin is perpetually 
 meeting and modifying the mental and spiritual world 
 represented by the laws of Menu and the false morality, 
 false history, false science, and false philosophy of an- 
 cient Hinduism ; a country where Christian missions 
 have entered with their divine influence, kindling points 
 of celestial light amid general darkness and degradation, 
 but which, on account of its national pride, and the 
 crimes and vices associated with Christendom in its 
 contacts, often cruel and debasing, with the world of 
 
64 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 India, has not fallen in love with the name Christian ; a 
 country made up of divided peoples, cleft horizontally 
 by caste and vertically by race and religion, where life 
 is disturbed and restless, where men of enlightenment 
 scarcely know what to believe, where the latest material- 
 ism and skepticism are studied and adopted, where the 
 eager, patriotic youth in the colleges take delight in dis- 
 covering the weak points in the history, manners, and 
 characters of their English masters and European teach- 
 ers, and who, in the recent revival of Hinduism, are 
 groping blindly baokward to find, if possible, in their 
 national scriptures, some light equalling the illumina- 
 tion which Christendom has received from Bethlehem 
 and Calvary. 
 
 During my visit in Calcutta, I attended the opening 
 session of the Indian National Congress, a body com- 
 posed of men, more or less representative, from all parts 
 of the continental peninsula, belonging to many races, 
 many religions, and speaking many tongues. Attired 
 in varied costumes, they presented a brilliant picture in 
 miniature of the gorgeous East. The President for that 
 year was a Mohammedan from Bombay, and before him 
 were men whose native languages were Bengali, Hindi, 
 Punjabi, Nepali, Marathi, Tamil, Kanarese, and but for 
 one circumstance these men could not have spoken to 
 each other intelligibly. That important circumstance 
 is the fact that they all had learned to speak the Eng- 
 lish language. This is one of the few bonds of unity 
 holding together a multitudinous and much-divided 
 population. The National Congress represents, accord- 
 ing to its friends, India's aspiration after national unity 
 and self-government. It represents her desire for a 
 larger share in the administration of Indian affairs, and 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF POPULAR HINDUISM 65 
 
 it represents also a national protest against some of 
 the immoralities of popular Hinduism. 
 
 Immediately following the National Congress, and 
 really an outgrowth of it, was the Indian Social Con- 
 gress, composed largely of the same members, and 
 among the evidences that this movement represents so- 
 cial reform were the declarations made in favor of the 
 remarriage of widows, of the prohibition of infant mar- 
 riage, of the agitation in behalf of what is called the 
 " Sea-voyage Movement," relaxing the caste-rules in 
 favor of travelled men, resolutions advocating efforts in 
 behalf of the lower castes, and also protesting against 
 the immoralities and abominations connected with the 
 temple worship. 
 
 In the present Lecture I desire to speak of my ob- 
 servations of popular Hinduism, and if what I shall say 
 shall seem to you quite in contrast with the rose-colored 
 views that have been presented before American audi- 
 ences, please remember that it is " popular Hinduism " 
 of which I speak, and do not forget that non- Christian 
 social reformers, such as gathered in these national con- 
 gresses, would themselves confirm what I am to say. 
 
 India is a land where religion can be observed and 
 where it cannot be escaped, and this for two reasons : 
 first, because religion is external ; and second, because 
 it is universal. A man's religion is often indicated by 
 the streaks of paint on his forehead. If they are hori- 
 zontal, you know he is a worshipper of Siva. If they 
 are vertical, or convergent toward the bridge of the nose, 
 you know that he is a worshipper of Vishnu. The use 
 of paint is one of the striking features of Hinduism. 
 Entering the bank in Bombay, you are surprised that 
 
 the accomplished, polite, English-speaking accountant 
 5 
 
66 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 has a red mark in the centre of his forehead, indicating 
 that he has done service that morning to his idol. This 
 is called doing one's " pooja." Little boys go to our 
 Christian schools proud of marks that have been painted 
 on their foreheads by the devoted Hindus of the house- 
 hold. Sometimes these are frightful disfigurements, 
 and I remember that when we visited the Syrian Chris- 
 tians of Trichur, on the Malabar coast, it was delightful 
 to be in a city where the inhabitants did not show on 
 their foreheads the signs of idolatry and polytheism. 
 The spot, or the stripes of paint, are extremely signifi- 
 cant. They show that religion is a matter of ceremony, 
 of custom, form. 
 
 One may observe accurately and fully the working of 
 religion in India because it is universal. Religion en- 
 ters into all life ; and in Benares, for example, it seems 
 to be the main business of life. Who that has seen it 
 can ever forget that picture which so many have at- 
 tempted vainly to describe — the morning scene on the 
 Ganges, below the long line of temples and tombs that 
 fringe the sacred shore, the men, women and children 
 by the thousand, and sometimes by the ten thousand, 
 who have come down for their ablutions, stretching 
 their arms and saying their prayers toward the sun, 
 calling upon the names of their gods, washing their 
 mouths and ears and arms and legs in the great river, 
 whose touch is so sacred and potential that it removes 
 all sin ! In the bewildering scene one becomes confused 
 and asks himself if he is visiting Bedlam. Is this the 
 nineteenth century ? Where is our boasted civilization ? 
 Are all men maniacs here? Is insanity the natural 
 condition of some portions of the human race ? There 
 is a temple to the goddess of small-pox ; here are idols 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF POPULAR HINDUISM 67 
 
 of almost inconceivable hideousness ; there are men 
 carrying a dead body to lay it in the sacred waters be- 
 fore it is burned ; here others are pounding the frag- 
 ments of a human form that has been only partly incin- 
 erated ; there hundreds of poor wretches are crowding 
 down toward a noisome well with copper coins in their 
 fingers and wreaths of yellow flowers, eager to dip their 
 feet and hands in its infected depths ; here are hideous 
 caricatures of humanity, shrivelled, clothed in rags and 
 vermin, deformed, mendicant, lying on the verge of the 
 stream, hoping that death will strike them there. This 
 is only one of the many pictures which might be drawn 
 to show that religion has become a series of ceremonies, 
 not without a meaning to the initiated, but offering 
 release and salvation — that is deliverance — in some re- 
 mote future from the bondage of re-births, on the con- 
 dition of the performance of certain external rites. One 
 walks through the crowds that press down to the 
 Ganges, crowds that have assembled from all parts of 
 India, with the feeling that here priestly tyranny has 
 achieved its most diabolical triumphs ; it has enslaved 
 and degraded and almost bestialized a proud and in- 
 telligent people. 
 
 You enter a temple at Benares — if the cows will per- 
 mit you, for the cows are here deified — and you see 
 loathsome wretches crawling through filth and touching 
 various parts of the sacred animal with their lips. 
 Here idolatry presents an aspect which robs it of its 
 last vestige of respectability. One may have some 
 aesthetic sympathy with those who gather on the 
 mountain-peak to watch the rising sun and to render 
 homage to the god of light as he peers over the Persian 
 mountain ; one may have some sympathy with the spirit 
 
68 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 of the Japanese pilgrim who climbs the sacred peak of 
 his own beautiful land. Many lovers of beauty discover 
 something lovable, not only in the Greek and Roman 
 mythologies, but also in the services rendered to 
 Phoebus Apollo, or Pallas Athene, or to Olympian Zeus ; 
 but in Hindu temples almost everything is dark and 
 ugly, and many things are morally and physically un- 
 clean. 
 
 Now I know, of course, what excuses are offered for 
 these idolatries. I once spent a whole morning in Ma- 
 dras in listening to excuses and palliations. My lect- 
 ures in that city, following immediately those of the 
 famous apostle of Hinduism, Swami Yivekananda, had 
 aroused a good deal of discussion, and naturally there 
 was an eager desire on the part of the Hindu Pundits 
 and the sharp-tongued Hindu lawyers to get even with 
 the Christian apologist, who was invited to attend a re- 
 ception to be given at eight o'clock and to speak on 
 America and the Columbian Fair. Arriving at the door, 
 I was met by the secretary of the club, who asked me if 
 I would have any objections to answering some ques- 
 tions. I said " No," but perceived at once that I had 
 been entrapped into what was to be a sort of inquisi- 
 tion. Perhaps a hundred and fifty lawyers, well edu- 
 cated and glib-tongued men, were present. They filled 
 the hall, and were evidently expecting no ordinary sport. 
 I was given a seat behind a table at the farther end of 
 the room, and by my side was one of my reception com- 
 mittee, a well-known and very learned ascetic and pun- 
 dit with whom I had been in correspondence. Several 
 volumes were open before him, and he had written out a 
 string of questions which, without ceremony, he desired 
 me to answer. One of these inquiries related to some 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF POPULAR HINDUISM 69 
 
 unfavorable remarks which I had published in regard to 
 the effect of idolatry. I was told that Lord Macaulay 
 had said that, when the images were swept out of the 
 temples in the early Christian centuries, they were not 
 also removed from the mind, and that it was impossible, 
 therefore, to rid the human soul of image-worship. I 
 replied that I knew very well that Macaulay in his essay 
 on Milton had made such a remark ; but he also had 
 said, before finishing his four years of observation in 
 India, that Hindu forms of idol worship were hideous 
 and degrading, and he made the prediction that Eng- 
 lish education in thirty years would banish idolatry 
 from Bengal. In this he was thoroughly mistaken, but 
 it did not seem to me appropriate to quote Lord Ma- 
 caulay as a defender or apologist for what we see in 
 popular Hinduism. One lawyer jumped to his feet and 
 asked what there was in popular Hinduism to which I 
 objected. I replied : " The debasing forms of idolatry 
 which one sees, for example, in Benares. It seemed to 
 me unworthy of an intellectual people, like the Hindus, 
 to defend such a degrading worship and to claim that 
 it was fitted to an unenlightened population. Even 
 granting, which I do not, that idolatry is fitted to na- 
 tional infancy ; granting, which I do not, that it is the 
 kindergarten of true worship, why should the Indian 
 populations have been kept in this debasing kinder- 
 garten for more than three thousand years ? Is not that 
 period of childish enslavement altogether too long? 
 Did not Christianity in about three centuries sweep 
 away, to a very large extent, the unworthy forms of 
 Greek and Roman polytheism ? Do you think it elevat- 
 ing to a human being to crawl through the filth of a 
 temple, as I have seen men and women doing in Be- 
 
70 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 nares, there to kiss with passionate reverence the tail of 
 a cow?" 
 
 Upon this, one of the lawyers jumped to his feet and 
 said : "I think it is better to kiss the tail of a cow than 
 to kill the cow and eat her." After joining in the langh 
 which followed this profound and witty remark, I said : 
 "It is not Christians alone who kill the cow and eat 
 her." I knew very well that many of the men before 
 me were eaters of beef on the sly. I knew how com- 
 mon it was in Calcutta for young Brahmans to go to 
 the Great Eastern Hotel and secretly indulge in a meat 
 dinner. And I knew, also, that the Hindus are accus- 
 tomed to kill the goat before the hideous idol of the 
 goddess Kali, and that no rational argument could be 
 offered which would make the goat less sacred than the 
 cow. There were several things I might have said like 
 this : It would be better in India if men worshipped the 
 cows less and fed them more ; for such poor, suffering, 
 half-starved creatures as we found these tiny givers of 
 poor milk to be, are not to be met with elsewhere. But 
 I had something to say more effective. About me were 
 the men who had been most enthusiastic in giving a 
 princely welcome to the lately returned Swami. Some 
 of them were on his Committee of Eeception ; some of 
 them had helped to drag his car beneath the flower- 
 covered arches which lined the streets of Madras, so I 
 quietly said : 
 
 " Other men besides Christians eat the flesh of the 
 cow. At the close of the first session of the Parliament 
 of Keligions, I invited the Swami Yivekanancla and other 
 Asiatics to go with me to the restaurant in the base- 
 ment of the Art Building, and I said to the Swami : 
 ' What shall I give you to eat ? ' and he answered : 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF POPULAR HINDUISM 71 
 
 'Give me beef.' " This simple remark was a thunder- 
 bolt out of a clear sky. It changed the aspect of the 
 whole meeting, and there were no further remarks about 
 meat-eating. 
 
 I said to these men later: "Some of you appear to 
 cherish high and noble ideas of God. Now Christianity 
 does not keep from the poorest and most ignorant the 
 most noble conceptions. It teaches that God is spirit, 
 and should be worshipped in spirit and in truth. Do 
 not tell me that I cannot worship God without an im- 
 age, either spiritual or material. If the image is spir- 
 itual, let it be of the noblest kind. Let it reveal God to 
 my heart and imagination in the person of Jesus Christ ; 
 but as for me, when I worship God most truly, I have 
 no image of a magnified man before my mind. He is 
 within my soul, the Spirit of Love pervading my whole 
 being." And thus I went on, endeavoring to present 
 the Christian ideal, urging upon them the truth so 
 familiar to us in Western Christendom, that the lowliest 
 and most ignorant are worthy of the best illumination, 
 and that the preaching of the Gospel to the poor, with 
 all its lofty conceptions of God, has wrought the chief 
 marvels of Christian history. Instead of palliating 
 idolatry, with all its terrible associations in India, the 
 educated Hindu might well strive to repeat, with better 
 accompaniments and without any surrender of faith in 
 the great God, the reformatory and ethical work which 
 even Buddhism wrought in Asia more than two thou- 
 sand years ago. 
 
 It is one peculiarity of the Hindu mind that it fails 
 to seize the main point of a discussion, and fastens it- 
 self on some minor detail, and so all my urgent argu- 
 ment was met by this question : " Is it not best to see 
 
72 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 some good in the religions of other people ? "We are 
 told in the Gospels that, when Jesus and His disciples 
 were walking down the street, they saw a dead dog that 
 had been lying there for several days, and the disciples 
 said : ' How horrible,' but Jesus replied : ' How beauti- 
 ful are his teeth.' " To this I answered : " The story is 
 an interesting one, not found in the Gospels, and I will 
 not seize the opportunity which you rather recklessly 
 open, and call Hinduism a dead and decaying dog in 
 which only the grinning teeth are beautiful ! It is a 
 strange inquiry to put to me, your question, if it is not 
 best to find good in other religions. The real ques- 
 tion is, how much good can be discovered in the system 
 advocated ? Does it contain moral soundness at its 
 core ? Is it able to give peace to the human soul ? 
 Would it not be better for educated Hindus, instead of 
 defending idolatry and the other abominations which 
 are degrading a mighty people, to devote their lives to 
 lifting the pall of darkness from the minds of millions 
 who are capable of better things ? " 
 
 At last I was given the opportunity of speaking at 
 length, uninterrupted by questions, and I told them 
 about America and the Christian foundations of our na- 
 tionality. I told them that we acknowledge the dignity 
 of human nature, and the higher possibilities of com- 
 mon men. I told them that we put responsibility upon 
 the people, and we give them the best. I described 
 the growth of this republic, and informed them how all 
 the higher things of civilization had rapidly gained 
 strength because a large number of men, instructed and 
 inspired by the Gospel of Christ, felt that their lives 
 were a failure unless they made other lives better. I 
 told them of the rise of this country ; of the building of 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF POPULAR HINDUISM 73 
 
 the "World's Columbian Exposition. I spoke of the 
 great gifts of rich men, their endowments of institu- 
 tions for the education and help of others. I told them 
 of the generous purposes which we had in view when 
 we invited all the nations to send of their best to the 
 Congresses of 1893, and when I finished, I will give 
 them the credit of saying that they rose and gave three 
 hearty cheers for America and its representative. 
 
 Perhaps this story of a personal experience, related 
 at length, will let more light into the subject of Hindu- 
 ism as it now is, than a narrative or descriptive chapter 
 written from a scientific stand-point. It may seem to 
 you incredible that educated men should stand up to- 
 day and defend idolatry. Has India learned nothing ? 
 Do Hindus continue their bloody sacrifices of sheep 
 and goats in the temples ? Do they still practise self- 
 torture ? Are they still blind to the mission and mes- 
 sage of Jesus Christ who " proposes to cancel all the 
 past by one God-like act of forgiveness, releasing men 
 from the incubus of earning divine favor by good works, 
 when only love is required ? " Yes, these things are 
 true. India is a land of contradictions. The most 
 metaphysical of races is still the most polytheistic and 
 the most idolatrous. In that city of Madras, where the 
 scene which I have described occurred, I saw in close 
 proximity to the Christian College and to the magnifi- 
 cent British law-courts a procession walking across the 
 electric car-tracks, carrying in the midst of its hundreds 
 of noisy worshippers the image of an ugly idol, before 
 which a mirror was placed that the stone deity might 
 enjoy his own beauty; and an idol which these worship- 
 pers were about to bathe in the waters of the Bay of 
 Bengal, giving him thus his annual ablution ! 
 
74 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 In Bangalore I made the acquaintance of a learned, 
 tolerant, delightful Brahman, who showed me the Pub- 
 lic Library which he had opened, wherein I saw some 
 of the latest books, like Mr. Gladstone's edition of the 
 works of Bishop Butler, in close proximity to which was 
 his own private temple, which I could not enter, where 
 the worship of images was carried on, unmindful both 
 of the decalogue and of modern enlightenment. I know 
 it is said that there is no idolatrous polytheism in the 
 popular worship, that the images are only symbols of 
 spiritual realities ; but this contradicts the testimony 
 of those who question the common people. It denies 
 what every Hindu reformer knows to be true. Did not 
 Chunder Sen say to his people : " Idolatry is the curse 
 of Hindostan, the deadly canker that has eaten into the 
 vitals of native society ? " Did he not exclaim, in the 
 presence of those who were partly ashamed of the pop- 
 ular ignorance : " It will be an insult to your superior 
 education to say that you have faith in idolatry, that 
 you still cherish in your hearts reverence for the gods 
 and goddesses of the Hindu pantheon, or that you be- 
 lieve in the thousand and one absurdities of your an- 
 cestral creed. You must hunt it out of your country. 
 For the sake of your souls, and for the sake of the souls 
 of the millions of your countrymen, come away from the 
 hateful idolatry and acknowledge the one supreme and 
 true God, our Maker, Preserver and Moral Governor." 
 
 And to the excuse so often urged that idols are neces- 
 sary for the common people, let the founder of the 
 Brahmos, Bam Mohun Boy, rej^ly : " Permit me in this 
 instance to ask whether every Mussulman in Turkey, 
 from the highest to the lowest, every Protestant Chris- 
 tian at least of Europe, and many followers of Cabeer 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF POPULAR HINDUISM 75 
 
 and Nanak, do not worship God without the assistance 
 of consecrated objects ? If so, how can we suppose 
 that the human race is not capable of adoring the Su- 
 preme Being without the puerile practice of having re- 
 course to visible objects. I will never hesitate to assert 
 that His adoration is not only possible and practicable, 
 but even incumbent upon every rational creature." 
 
 I reached the conclusion, that idolatry in India which 
 is so entrenched in habit, is, in one sense, another illus- 
 tration of that pervading and almost unlimited credulity 
 which characterizes the Hindu mind. He says of his 
 idol : " It is a god," and the uglier it is and the darker 
 and filthier the recess in which it is worshipped, the 
 better he seems pleased. The popular mind has credit- 
 ed absurdities for so many generations, that it appears 
 to take delight in what is extravagant, grotesque and 
 meaningless. The literature on which it feeds is large- 
 ly such legends as those contained in the Puranas, in 
 which a geography framed out of the imagination, and 
 incarnations whose grotesqueness exceeds the dreams 
 of the maniac, and chronologies that have nothing to 
 do with science or history, furnish food and falsehood 
 to the Indian mind. My host in Poona, the Rev. John 
 Small, of the Free Church of Scotland, informed me 
 that one of his scholars, a Hindu boy, was finally per- 
 suaded that the system of geography taught in European 
 schools was true, and Mr. Small said to him : " What 
 will you do now with the Hindu geography, with its 
 seven insular continents surrounded by seven great 
 seas, the sea of salt water, of sugar-cane juice, of wine, 
 of clarified butter, of curd, of milk, and of fresh water, 
 with its mountains tens of thousands of miles in height ? 
 Since European geography is true, what will you do 
 
76 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 with this Hindu geography ? " and the reply was not 
 astonishing : "I will believe them both ! " 
 
 One of the pernicious and monstrous results of the 
 Brahmanic training is that there is no apparent limit to 
 the credulity of the common people. It was generally 
 believed in the bazaars of Southern India that the 
 apostle of Hinduism who came to America was so suc- 
 cessful in his mission that most of our church doors 
 have been closed ! I saw a statement in a Madras news- 
 paper that Swami Yivekananda, by his lectures in Lon- 
 don, had converted to Hinduism several bishops, a 
 large number of English clergymen, and nearly all the 
 leading business men of that city ! These things were 
 believed by people who had swallowed the incredibili- 
 ties of the Yishnu Purana. The Rev. Dr. Pentecost, 
 who lived in 1896 within a short distance from the 
 hall where the Swami's lectures were given, told me in 
 October of that year, that he had never even heard of 
 the Swami's presence in London. But it occurred to 
 me that some rationalistic and imaginative critic might 
 have written for the Hindu newspaper, a statement 
 which would prove conclusively that Hinduism had 
 been generally accepted in Great Britain. It is well- 
 known that the sacred name often used in prayer is Om. 
 It is the name of glory. I have heard it repeated by 
 a Hinduized Buddhist at Darjeeling. You may re- 
 member that it occurs in the Buddhist prayer quoted 
 in the " Light of Asia : '' " Om padme mani." Om, that 
 mystic syllable, is the secret of secrets. Its repetition 
 gains great merit. Om is the bow, the soul is the arrow, 
 and Brahma is the aim. Great powers are ascribed to 
 this famous syllable which is said to denote the triad 
 of gods, Yishnu, Siva and Brahma. Now the critic 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF POPULAR HINDUISM 77 
 
 might have rendered conclusive testimony that Hindu 
 philosophy has become popularized in London simply 
 by relating how he went to a music hall in the eastern 
 part of the city, where only the common people as- 
 sembled, and there he actually heard a song in which 
 the refrain was " 'Om, sweet 'Om ! " This would be en- 
 tirely sufficient evidence to millions upon millions of 
 unenlightened Hindus. 
 
 Among the chief things which India now needs is 
 popular education, science, and, I may add, wholesome 
 skepticism. The people have been trained through 
 long centuries to believe the silly and incredible, and 
 one illustration of this is the system of caste, which ty- 
 rannically prevails throughout India. The people are 
 taught that the four chief castes actually came from the 
 mouth, the arms, the thighs, and the feet of Brahma, 
 and that the superiority of one class over another " is 
 as much a law of nature and a matter of divine appoint- 
 ment as the creation of separated classes of animals." 
 Thus, caste has become " a gigantic conspiracy against 
 the brotherhood of man." These people have been edu- 
 cated to believe that the race is divided into species 
 as distinct from one another as the lion is from the ox. 
 I have no doubt that Dr. Bhandarkar, one of the most 
 enlightened of Hindus, who presided at one of my lect- 
 ures at Poona, was right when he called the caste sys- 
 tem the root of the political slavery in India. I look 
 upon it with its sanctified artificialities so horribly 
 effective in blighting genius and originality, in dwarfing 
 manhood, and crushing natural rights and affections, as 
 one of the masterpieces of diabolical selfishness. Ac- 
 cording to the laws of Menu, the Sudra, the lowest of 
 the four chief castes, was created merely for the service 
 
78 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 of the Brahman, who may compel him to practise ser- 
 vitude while he robs him of his goods with perfect 
 peace of mind, for, says the law : " Since nothing at all 
 belongs to the Sudra as his own, his property may be 
 taken away by his master." But even below the Sudras 
 are the Pariahs who are outcasts, and especially in 
 Southern India are subject to constant oppression. 
 One of the bravest Brahmans that I know, Mr. N. K. 
 Bamasamaya, an earnest social reformer whom I met 
 both in Calcutta and Madras, speaking of the Pariahs 
 of India, informed me that the Hindus believed the 
 Pariah's lot to be what God created him for. He him- 
 self protests against these cruelties and rejoices in what 
 English education and the Christian missionaries have 
 done to lift up these submerged millions, and he thrilled 
 many hearts when at the National Social Congress he 
 exclaimed : " In spite of the tall talk of the Brahmans 
 and other Hindus, it is the missionaries who are the 
 friends of the poor and oppressed in this country." 
 
 It is impossible here to describe the intricacies or to 
 set forth one tithe of the abominations of Hindu caste, 
 and yet, when the apostle of Hinduism returned from 
 Great Britain and flatteringly told the people that caste 
 in England was something far worse than caste in India, 
 the wretched falsehood was greedily believed. Look 
 at some of the facts in the case. Caste in India is a 
 divine institution, and there are more than three hun- 
 dred special hereditary castes. The rope-dancers, ele- 
 phant-drivers, turban-winders, ear-piercers, sweepers, 
 beggars, must always adhere to the ancestral work and 
 position. If a Hindu is touched by one of the lower 
 castes while eating, he throws away the food he has 
 cooked. The rich and hospitable Maharajah of Cal- 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF POPULAR HINDUISM 79 
 
 cutta, who threw open his palace to give us a princely 
 reception last December, is himself a devout Hindu of 
 high standing, but his family lost caste several genera- 
 tions ago, because some of them are said to have eaten 
 or smelled of food which had been cooked by Moham- 
 medans. There was no kindness which he could render 
 to us and his other guests that was lacking, except that 
 he would not offer us food. There was not a Brahman 
 present that evening who would have eaten anything 
 with his wealthy and honorable host. Of course, the 
 exclusiveness is not only with the higher castes. It has 
 been said that no one in India is ashamed of his caste, 
 and the lowest Pariah is as anxious to preserve his own 
 caste, as the highest Brahman. Invite one of the lowest 
 orders of Sudras to eat with a European of the highest 
 rank and he averts his face with the most marked dis- 
 gust. At a station in Northern India, we offered some 
 cooked food to a starving little girl, but she turned away 
 from us as if we had been lepers. The British Govern- 
 ment cannot do all that it would like to stop the bu- 
 bonic plague in Bombay. It might forcibly carry off 
 to the hospital those who are infected, but the sick 
 Hindu " would prefer to die in his windowless, blood- 
 poisoning hut, rather than break his caste by going to a 
 hospital where a man of another caste had previously 
 taken refuge." 
 
 Now, even if Hinduism teaches the solidarity of man- 
 kind through their common connection with God, their 
 common emanation from the Supreme Spirit, it practi- 
 cally denies brotherhood and makes it impossible. 
 Chunder Sen describes it as a frightful social scourge 
 opposing all progress, wrecking social unity. "It is the 
 bulwark of Hindu idolatry and the safeguard of Brah- 
 
80 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 manical priesthoods. It makes social distinctions invio- 
 lable divine institutions and, in the name of the holy 
 God, sows perpetual discord and enmity among His 
 children." One becomes sick at heart, when he thinks 
 what caste has done and is doing. Even politically, it 
 is a curse. It goes on multiplying divisions. Men of 
 the same caste, if from different localities, will not eafc 
 with each other. 
 
 One of the results of caste is that it unites with the 
 baleful influences of pantheism and polytheism in de- 
 stroying the sense of sin, and hence of personal respon- 
 sibility. The one chief evil which a Hindu can possibly 
 commit, next to killing a Brahman, is the breaking of 
 caste. Moral conduct thus becomes a matter of rule, of 
 tradition, of custom. There was a caste of murderers 
 in India, who continued their bloody work, until sup- 
 pressed by the British Government and confined within 
 the prison at Jubelpore, with as much relish and indif- 
 ference as a child feels in killing flies and mosquitoes. 
 There is still a thief caste in India. I saw a village 
 near Madura occupied by these people. Every mid- 
 night some officer of the English Government calls the 
 roll of the male inhabitants of the community. Never- 
 theless, after they have reported to him, and he has dis- 
 appeared, they spread themselves for miles over the 
 surrounding country, carrying on their occupation until 
 the sun rises, when they are found quietly sleeping in 
 their own mud hovels. At the house of our host in 
 Palamcottah, the men in the hall outside of my room 
 who pulled the punkah over my bed through the night, 
 both belonged to the thief caste. I asked Mr. Schreeni- 
 vassa, the Christian Brahman who entertained us, why 
 he employed such men, and he said that they were under 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF POPULAR IIINDUISM 81 
 
 contract with him, to be responsible for all the stealing 
 that was done in his house. They were to see to it that 
 no robbery occurred here, but outside they probably 
 pursued their profession with commendable diligence ! 
 
 And there is the want of honesty, common truthfulness 
 and integrity which saddens one everywhere in India. 
 On our arrival in Madura, we were informed at the station 
 that by special order the jewels of the famous temple 
 would be opened for our inspection the next afternoon. 
 These precious gems are enclosed in a great iron box to 
 which there are six separate locks and keys. Each key 
 is entrusted to a different warden and without the con- 
 sent of these six men, who live in different places, it is 
 impossible to get at the treasures. So profound is the 
 distrust which the Hindus have of each other that some 
 of the treasures are guarded by more than twenty men 
 in this way, and in Madura one of our American mis- 
 sionaries was asked by the priests of the temple to take 
 charge of the jewels. He refused, and they said to 
 him : " How does it happen that when we have so many 
 gods, they do not make our people honest? You have 
 only one and He succeeds in your case. What we need 
 is to get a statue of your God Jesus, and put Him in 
 our temple by the side of our deities. Perhaps that will 
 succeed in making us honest ! " The lengths to which 
 the Hindu mind has gone in its faith that external rites 
 and something merely mechanical can produce sanctity, 
 are almost incredible. I have seen men staggering in 
 the hot sun, bearing on their shoulders buckets of water, 
 which they had carried three hundred miles from the 
 Ganges, in order to pour them into their own rivers, 
 thus to make them sacred. 
 
 Whatever truth the Hindu receives into his mind, he 
 6 
 
82 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 is in peril of degrading it, of Hinduizing it. He would 
 like to receive Jesus as he has received Buddha, and 
 enthrone Him as a Palestinian avatar of Yishnu. From 
 time to time mighty protests go up from the soil of 
 India against impurity and idolatry. A few centuries 
 ago there arose in the Punjab a reformer who was the 
 founder of the Sikhs, and gave them a noble literature, 
 a sacred book called the " Granth," full of high ethical 
 sentiment and spiritual teachings that protested against 
 idolatry. "What has been the result ? They have taken 
 this volume, an immense copy of it, and turned it into an 
 idol. They put it to sleep at night with reverent cere- 
 mony. They carry it in the morning to the Golden 
 Temple of Amritsar, and, there I saw it and the gor- 
 geous priest behind it, while a constant procession of 
 worshippers cast their flowers and shells and tiny coins 
 before it. A second copy of it was held in another part 
 of the temple, and relays of men were reading it through 
 without pause, from beginning to end, hoping thereby 
 to stop the terrible plague in Bombay. 
 
 If the Brahmanic priesthood has succeeded in en- 
 chaining the popular mind and the common life of India 
 in the prison-house of caste, of idolatry, and of ceremo- 
 nialism, it has succeeded equally in rendering all moral 
 progress impossible through the degradation of woman- 
 hood. When I was in Calcutta, I met a Christian Ben- 
 gali, a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who 
 remembers having in his childhood lighted the funeral 
 pyre on which his widowed mother was burned to death, 
 and he recalls the popular praise of his mother's good 
 behavior on this interesting occasion. In Benares I saw 
 the monuments which commemorate the places where 
 the burning of widows occurred in the good old times 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF POPULAR HINDUISM 83 
 
 before Lord William Bentinck did away with this cru- 
 elty. The President of the Bengali Christian Confer- 
 ence, an eminent barrister, a SAveet-hearted believer in 
 Jesus Christ, and one of the most eloquent speakers in 
 India, Mr. Kali Charn Banerjee told me that his father 
 was the husband of two wives, and his grandfather the 
 husband of sixty, each of whom lived in her father's 
 house. The frequency of his visits was determined 
 largely by the amount of money offered him at these dif- 
 ferent places. I had a strange feeling as I spoke in 
 more than a score of different Indian cities, in looking 
 usually at an audience wholly made up of men. Some- 
 times a few Christian women, or a few Brahmo ladies 
 sat on the platform or near it. England has provided 
 education quite amply for Hindu gentlemen, but very 
 meagrely for Hindu ladies, and what opportunity would 
 there be for education so long as early marriages cut 
 short the school-training in childhood ? What hope is 
 there for the physical vigor of the Hindu people, so 
 long as child marriages continue, and what hope is there 
 of removing one of the chief causes of human suffering 
 and degradation so long as the re-marriage of the child- 
 widows is prohibited ? 
 
 There is no man in India more respected, probably, 
 than the Hon. Mr. Justice Banade, of Bombay, whom I 
 had the pleasure of meeting at one of my lectures, and 
 he writes that " against the child-widows the rule pro- 
 hibiting re-marriage is enforced with inexorable rigor. 
 For them there is no relaxation of this law, no pity, no 
 sympathy ; but the old Hindu widower, who is shudder- 
 ing on the verge of the grave, may marry again and 
 again, as often as he likes. For him there is no restric- 
 tion. He is under no obligation to exercise self-re- 
 
84: THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 straint." I think there is no contrast between Hinduism 
 and Christianity that is greater than the cruelty shown 
 to widows on the one hand, and the compassion and 
 spirit of helpfulness enjoined by the New Testament on 
 the other. The widow is supposed to have been re- 
 sponsible for the death of her husband, and her subse- 
 quent life, now that she is not burned, is often one of 
 the greatest hardship, in which many forms of cruelty 
 and brutality are practiced upon her. If she has been 
 betrothed in babyhood or infancy, and her husband 
 dies, she is henceforth a widow and cannot marry. If, 
 at the age of twelve, she is married to a man of seventy 
 and he dies, all her life is blighted. At Poona I saw 
 the home for high-caste widows, established by that 
 noble Christian lady, the Pundita Bamabai, where more 
 than one hundred of these widows are cared for and edu- 
 cated. In one room I saw a group of children playing 
 on the floor, children from two to five years of age, and I 
 learned that all these were widows. Judge Ranade has 
 well said, " This tyranny of the strong over the weak, this 
 huge blot, must be wiped out. The curse of God must 
 rest upon a society which, from generation to generation, 
 observes a custom which involves a high injustice and 
 which is degrading to the better life of humanity." 
 
 But, worse than polygamy, which is practised in In- 
 dia usually according to the degree of a man's wealth ; 
 worse than child-marriage, and the prohibition of the 
 marriage of child- widows, is the fundamental disesteem 
 of womanhood, the failure to recognize in her a mind 
 and soul, having all the rights belonging to other minds 
 and souls. We of the Occident rejoice in the freedom, 
 equality, peace, happiness, and glory of our homes, the 
 gift to us of Judaism and Christianity, and we as yet 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF POPULAR HINDUISM 85 
 
 hardly realize that in Asia hundreds of millions of 
 women are practically in servitude to the selfishness and 
 passions of men. We may mourn over the child-widow 
 becoming the degraded drudge of a household, often 
 kicked and starved, and robbed of her jewels and shorn 
 of her hair, and treated for all her miserable existence 
 as a thing. We may also mourn the lot of the Hindu 
 wife, who sees little or nothing of God's world of beauty 
 except her own garden ; who is carried in a close pa- 
 lanquin to the river, and who, in the house, is not al- 
 lowed to eat with her husband, but must wait upon him 
 while he is eating, and eat what he has left. We may 
 mourn the prevalence of false ideas which place the 
 girls far below the boys in the privileges of the house- 
 hold, but our sorrow becomes flaming indignation when 
 we realize that religion has been called in to sanction 
 things infinitely worse. 
 
 I once said to Professor Max Muller that it had been 
 denied in America that certain immoralities were prac- 
 tised in the temples of India, but he shrugged his learn- 
 ed shoulders and said, " One has only to read the re- 
 ports of the British Government." The outrageous 
 indecency of some of the idols used in the worship 
 of Siva, and of sculptures and pictures in the temples of 
 Southern India, is not to be mentioned by the side of 
 the fact that girls are frequently consecrated by their 
 mothers to become the servants of the god or goddess 
 of some shrine, betrothed to the temple, as the expres- 
 sion is. I have a photograph of a girl of eight, a mem- 
 ber of a Christian school in India, whom I saw sur- 
 rounded by a score of other scholars, who had been set 
 apart by her own mother for the temple service, for 
 this life of shame, as an act of religion. This horrible 
 
86 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 custom of dedicating children to lives of infamy is by no 
 means uncommon, and one resolution, unanimously 
 passed by the Social Congress in Calcutta, petitioned 
 the English Government to assume the charge of the 
 administration of Hindu temples on account of this and 
 other abominations. It seems to us almost incredible 
 that evil should be deemed good, but remember that 
 back of this ethical perversion is a mythology which 
 glories in Krishna-worship ; Krishna, with his eight 
 queens and sixteen thousand one hundred wives, an 
 incarnation of passion rather than of holiness, and you 
 will not feel that Bishop Caldwell was wrong when he 
 said that " the stories related of Krishna's life do more 
 than anything else to destroy the morals and corrupt 
 the imaginations of Hindu youth." 
 
 But you ask me if these great splashes of darkness 
 make a true picture of Hinduism as it is. Is there 
 nothing good in it ? Are there no brighter sides to the 
 system which has prevailed so long, and which, except- 
 ing Mohammedanism, remains the greatest barrier to 
 Christian progress ? Is there no true spirituality in 
 India corresponding with the high and noble precepts 
 of the sacred books ? There certainly is this other 
 side, of which I will speak at more length in a subse- 
 quent lecture ; and I may say right here that many of 
 the worst things of popular Hinduism are degradations 
 and perversions of what was originally excellent and 
 useful. But I have desired this evening to stamp a few 
 things upon your minds, to remain there, I hope, for- 
 ever, which shall make you feel that, taken as a whole, 
 looked at in the large, Hinduism has been a deplorable 
 failure. I wish you to feel how thoroughly nonsensical 
 is the question put by a New York paper in its eulogy 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF POPULAR HINDUISM 87 
 
 of Swami Vivekananda when it inquired, " Shall we send 
 missionaries to a land which produces such men as he ? " 
 not knowing that all that was best in this orator's train- 
 ing came from Christian sources. I believe it is neces- 
 sary to study the better side of Hinduism. I believe 
 that Christianity and Hinduism have points of contact 
 which are not unimportant. Rev. Dr. J. P. Jones, of 
 the American Board, our host at Pasumalai, informed 
 me that the old theory that Hinduism was altogether 
 of the devil and must be denounced, root and branch, 
 as a thing purely Satanic, has now given way to a more 
 rational belief, and I am persuaded that one must un- 
 derstand the truths which lie back of gross delusions 
 and errors in order to accomplish the best results in 
 Christian propagandise . But listen for a moment to 
 what a non-Christian scholar, Mr. Moncure Conway, re- 
 ports after visiting the land of the Yedas, and tell me, 
 if you honestly can, that India does not need the Gos- 
 pel of Christ : " When I went to the great cities of In- 
 dia . . . the contrast between the real and the 
 ideal was heart-breaking. In all those teeming myriads 
 of worshippers, not one man, not even one woman, 
 seemed to entertain the shadow of a conception of any- 
 thing ideal or spiritual, or religious, or even mytholog- 
 ical, in their ancient creed. . . . To all of them the 
 false god which they had worshipped — a hulk of rough- 
 ly carved wood or stone — appeared to be the authentic 
 presentment of some terrible demon or invisible power, 
 who would treat them cruelly if they did not give him 
 some melted butter. Of religion in a spiritual sense 
 there is none. If you wish for religion, you will not 
 find it in Brahmanism." 
 
 Driving one morning about the city of Vellore with a 
 
88 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 Brahman judge of high character and kindly spirit, he 
 said to me : " Popular Hinduism cannot survive. We 
 must reform it. We must go back to the high and 
 spiritual teachings of the Vedas, and we must get rid of 
 caste, though this may take a hundred years." And 
 there are many others, not at all ready to accept Chris- 
 tianity, who feel with him that something must be done 
 to remove what they deem the excrescences of a noble 
 system. They take pleasure in quoting the fine sayings 
 of the Bhagavadgita, and reciting the noble prayers 
 which have been on the lips of Brahmans for three thou- 
 sand years. They insist that what we condemn and 
 they condemn is non-essential to the system ; but that 
 when all these abuses are removed, the noble spiritu- 
 ality of the Vedanta philosophy will be found sufficient 
 for the human soul. I had an hour's conversation with 
 a gentlemanly scholar, a wealthy Zemindar or land- 
 owner of Bengal, who said that, " true Hinduism is not 
 polytheistic or pantheistic." In this he revealed that 
 habit of the Hindu mind of missing facts and of imagin- 
 ing that what ought to be really is. He said : " You 
 have set forth the doctrine of God our Father. Our 
 Hindu conception of God is nobler still. God is 
 father, mother, husband and friend." I asked the Pro- 
 fessor of Sanskrit in the Queen's College at Benares : 
 " What are the fundamental principles of Hinduism? " 
 and he answered, " The reality of the soul ; the reality of 
 the world ; the reality and personality of God and the 
 necessity of the revelation of divine mercy in order that 
 men may come into union with God." I said to him : 
 " This is Christian," but he replied : " Why call it Chris- 
 tian ; it is Vedic." Furthermore, it must be said that 
 from the degrading popular Hinduism which I have de- 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF POPULAR HINDUISM 89 
 
 scribed, to the lofty heights of the Vedanta philosophy, 
 there is every degree of truth and half truth entertained 
 and cherished, and Hinduism, in spite of its varieties 
 and degradations, is held in something of unity by the 
 caste system and by the proud national spirit which re- 
 sents undue foreign interference. Christianity had 
 been preached a long while in India before the people 
 generally thought there was any good in it. At a recep- 
 tion given to us in the First Church in Ahmednagar, 
 Mr. Modak, a scholarly Christian Brahman, read us an 
 address in which he said that " sixty years ago the ma- 
 jority of Hindus probably considered Christianity as 
 something bad. Probably few think so now. Many 
 think it is as good as any other religion." Now, it has 
 long been plain to me that in our dealings with a ven- 
 erable intellectual system so mixed up of good and evil 
 as Hinduism, we are bound to acknowledge the good 
 while we condemn the evil. 
 
 I cannot sympathize with those who appear to feel 
 that God had confined His love, or at least His activity, 
 within the pale of Judaism and of Christendom. " Every 
 religion," it has been said, " even the most imperfect 
 and degraded, has something which ought to be sacred 
 to us, for there is in all religions a secret yearning after 
 the true, though unknown, God." (Max Miiller, " Chips 
 from a German Work-shop," I., p. xxx.) " The real 
 history of man is the history of religion, the wonderful 
 ways by which the families of the human race advance 
 toward a truer knowledge and a deeper love of God." 
 " This is the foundation that underlies all profane his- 
 tory ; it is the light, the soul, the life of history, and 
 without it all history would be profane." But the fam- 
 ilies of the human race have not always been advancing 
 
90 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 toward a truer knowledge of God, and India is a con- 
 spicuous example of retrogression and degradation. 
 The bright glimpses of truth that flash before us in the 
 Vedas, become darkened. Hindu civilization — that im- 
 mense and various life, which men have lived 
 
 ' ' Under the southward snows of Hiinalay ' ' 
 
 presents an example of evolution without progress, and 
 with its deviousness, its glooms, its storms, its vastness 
 and its languors, may be likened to the mystic and sin- 
 uous stream in Coleridge's " Kubla Khan " — 
 
 ' ' Meandering with a mazy motion 
 Through wood and dale the sacred river ran, 
 Then reached the caverns measureless to man, 
 And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean." 
 
 We remember how stagnant and dead and full of cor- 
 ruption was the sea of Hinduism until Christianity 
 touched it, and when we also remember that true or- 
 thodox Hinduism makes no profession of being a guide 
 to all men, but stands one side, contented to belong to 
 its own country ; when we remember that, however cor- 
 rupted Christianity may have become at times, it is 
 always renewed with divine life and reaches onward to 
 ampler conquests, taking the whole world for its field, 
 we may believe that, in order to find an adequate symbol 
 of Hinduism we should go to the Holy Land and, in 
 order to discover an adequate symbol of Christianity, 
 we should go to India ; and doing this, we say of Hin- 
 duism that it is like the Dead Sea which, though into 
 it the streams from many nations have poured in floods, 
 is made but little sweeter thereby, but stretches out its 
 acrid expanse, above which hang the mists of restless 
 
OBSERVATIONS OF POPULAR HINDUISM 91 
 
 discontent, while along its shores the driftwood of many 
 a weary and bitter century has been tossed. On the 
 other hand Christianity is like the sacred Ganges and 
 its great tributaries, coming down to the earth from the 
 highest heights, feeding the thirsty roots of grasses 
 along its banks, offering a tribute to the majestic palm 
 tree, and the blossoming shrub of the oleander, giving 
 a cup of water to Pariah and Prince, cooling the night 
 air for the infant's slumbers, and, under the moonlight, 
 showing a face of beauty to the lone watchers from the 
 walls of Delhi and the minarets of Benares until, made 
 doubly sacred by its countless benefactions, it rolls 
 through a hundred channels into the Indian Sea. 
 
CHAPTEE IV 
 
 PHILOSOPHIC HINDUISM 
 
 The Indian peninsula, separated from the rest of Asia 
 by the loftiest mountains in the world, is divided into 
 three great tracts : the first, that of the Himalaya heights ; 
 the second, that of the plains of the great rivers, sloping 
 down from the northern mountains ; and the third, that 
 of the triangular plateau bounded by the Yindhya 
 Mountains on the north and the Eastern and Western 
 Ghauts on the sea-coast. The first tract is the key to 
 the ethnology and history of India ; from it and beyond 
 it came the primitive peoples. The second tract formed 
 the chief theatre of the ancient race-movements that 
 shaped the history of India. The third tract has a dis- 
 tinct life of its own, and its people have long struggled 
 with the Aryan races along the Ganges. At Darjeeling, 
 in the northern tract, we may see at once a half-score of 
 peaks, each rising more than twenty thousand feet, and 
 two of them nearly twice the height of Mont Blanc. 
 Descending from these snowy altitudes, we pass through 
 nearly every variety of production : fir-trees at twelve 
 thousand feet ; oaks at eight thousand ; peaches at six 
 thousand ; rice at three thousand ; figs, dates, mangoes, 
 bamboos at one thousand ; and thus we descend into the 
 Ganges plain, which is a part of the second tract, con- 
 taining, with the other plains, a population of one hun- 
 dred and fifty millions of souls, and producing, under a 
 
 92 
 
PHiLOSormo Hinduism 93 
 
 sun of burning intensity, provided the rains do not fail, 
 two, and sometimes three, harvests every year. TVhere 
 nature is so wonderful, magnificent, and terrible as in 
 India, we are not surprised that the outer world pro- 
 duced a mighty impression on the young Aryan mind. 
 It saw in the life of Nature the perpetual and powerful 
 activity of God. " It is for this reason," as Mozoomdar 
 has said, " that the Yedic sages beheld in every force 
 and phenomenon of nature an inworking light of the 
 Divinity. There was God in the sun, God in the Him- 
 alayas, God in the all-investing sky, God in the expanse 
 of the round blue sea ; but all these gods merged into 
 one supreme Brahma, the meaning of which word is God 
 is great and makes everything great." 
 
 At the Inter-colonial Exhibition in London some of 
 you have seen an imposing and enchanting display of 
 the products and manufactures of Great Britain's Indian 
 Empire. You were dazzled by the vision. What you 
 beheld was not the work of a wholly barbarous and un- 
 educated people. You wandered through a wilderness 
 of economic, architectural, and artistic riches. You were 
 able to study, one by one, the eight provinces — Bengal, 
 Oudh, the Punjab, the Northwestern and the Central 
 Provinces, Burma, Assam, Madras, and Bombay. There 
 you could see an Indian jungle, with appropriate trees, 
 in the midst of which were the cheetah, or hunting 
 leopard, the bear, the boar, the buffalo, the alligator, 
 peacocks of brilliant plumage, while yonder was an ele- 
 phant, suddenly come upon a group of ferocious tigers. 
 Leaving the jungle, you wandered through courts adorned 
 with the ever-varying architectural forms of the most 
 famous Indian palaces and temples. The different cities 
 and provinces were marked off by screens of wood and 
 
94 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 tile and ivory, with a wealth of patterns and materials. 
 Strange names were meeting you, and forms which only 
 the poetry of Hafiz or Keats could describe ; shisham 
 wood, painted black and covered with gold-leaf ; screens 
 from Bombay, with bracketed capitals of teak; white- 
 f oliaged arches with intricate trellis-patterns ; screens 
 that reproduced the mosques of Ahmedebad ; screens 
 of carved birch - wood, with intertwined dragons ; 
 beautiful columns of shisham and deodar woods, sur- 
 mounted by delicate panels perforated with geometric 
 designs, the work of the Sikh carpenters of Northern 
 India; and thus on in infinite variety and splendor. 
 And in those long avenues, behind the gorgeous lattice- 
 work, were wares and treasures which might have taxed 
 the skill and power of the servants of Aladdin's lamp. 
 Enamels in gold and silver, elaborate works in wood and 
 metal, covered with the forms of grotesque Indian my- 
 thologies ; antique swords studded with jewels ; gold- 
 embroidered shawls and bodices ; carved cradles, cov- 
 ered with gold silk, for the swinging of Hindu gods ; 
 inlaid work of buffalo horn and mother-of-pearl and 
 ivory ; muslin stitched with gold and of a texture so fine 
 that a lady's dress could be packed into a pint cup ; 
 perforated flower-baskets of porcelain ; sandal-wood 
 boxes decorated with every metal ; head-dresses of dia- 
 monds, emeralds, and pearls set in silver ; engraved and 
 lacquered brass-ware ; damascene work, gold- wrought 
 cotton tissues ; coral and gold filigree necklaces ; gorgeous 
 carpets ; inlaid ebonies ; embroidered shoes ; vases ; 
 glass-ware ; tapestries, with dyes as brilliant as poetry 
 of Persian fancy ; sights bewitching, interminable : such 
 are the visions that led you on and on through the gor- 
 geous East, through splendors and bewilderments such 
 
PHILOSOPHIC HINDUISM 95 
 
 as belong to no other empire — an empire which attracted 
 the imagination and stirred the heart of Edmund Burke, 
 and whose intellectual riches have excited the eager 
 curiosity of Western scholars now for nearly a century. 
 What a picture this industrial display presents of the 
 strange, subtle, multiform, splendid, and bewildering 
 Oriental mind which has been at work through more 
 than two thousand years in elaborating, modifying, 
 adorning, and corrupting the rich legacies handed down 
 by the poets of the Yedas ! 
 
 Of all the lands with which Christendom has come 
 into contact, India, if not so important as China, is the 
 most variously interesting. The variety and greatness 
 of her intellectual and spiritual phenomena, her present 
 sufferings, and her racial kinship with ourselves, lend 
 to India a peculiar fascination. Professor Max Miiller 
 has made much of what he deems the most important 
 discovery of the nineteenth century with respect to the 
 ancient history of mankind, namely, the equivalence of 
 the Sanskrit, Greek, Latin and old Norse terms for 
 God as Father. Some other scholars may not have 
 been able fully to agree with all which he has written 
 in regard to this question of etymology and of religion, 
 but there appears to be no good reason to doubt that 
 the common ancestors of the Aryan nations in their 
 early Asiatic home had bright and noble glimpses of 
 divine truth. " Thousands of years have passed away 
 since the Aryan nations separated to travel to the North 
 and South, the West and East : they have each formed 
 their languages ; they have each founded empires and 
 philosophies ; they have each built temples and razed 
 them to the ground ; they have all grown older and, it 
 may be, wiser and better ; but when they search for a 
 
96 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 name for that which is most exalted, and yet most dear 
 to every one of us ; when they wish to express both 
 awe and love, the infinite and the finite, they can but 
 do what their old fathers did, when gazing up to the 
 eternal sky, and feeling the presence of a Being as far 
 as far, and as near as near can be ; they can but com- 
 bine the self-same words and utter once more the pri- 
 meval Aryan prayer, ' Heaven-Father,' in that form 
 which will endure forever, ' Our Father which art in 
 Heaven.' " 
 
 When we carry the Christian Gospel to India, we go 
 to our Aryan brothers and tell them of the treasures 
 which we have found since our fathers separated so 
 long ago, and we ask them what they have gained. We 
 soon discover how much they have lost, and realize 
 that in India we have a conspicuous illustration of the 
 truth of Sir Monier Williams's remark that " non-Chris- 
 tian Bibles are all developments in the wrong direction. 
 They all begin with some flashes of true light, and end 
 in darkness." The Scriptures, which the Hindus call 
 tradition, do not maintain the spiritual loftiness of the 
 Scriptures which they call revelation. As one has writ- 
 ten : " The liquid poetry has become a frozen prose ; 
 the old flaming fuel of genius is now slag and ashes. 
 We see Hindus doing exactty what Jewish rabbis, and, 
 after them, Christian school-men and dogma-makers 
 did, with the old Hebrew poems and prophecies. Con- 
 struing literally the prayers, songs and hopes of an 
 earlier age, they rebuild the letter of the text into 
 creeds and systems, and erect an amazing edifice of 
 steel-framed and stone-cased tradition, to challenge 
 which is taught to be heresy and impiety." (Griffis, 
 " The Keligions of Japan," p. 160.) But even in the 
 
PHILOSOPHIC HINDUISM 97 
 
 Vedas we find polytheism with an indistinct monothe- 
 ism behind it, and the most friendly of modern scholars 
 speaks of them as full of childish, silly, and even, to our 
 minds, monstrous conceptions. But explain it as we 
 may, the best in Hinduism came first, whereas, the 
 Christian believes in a Bible " in which the earlier part 
 is related to the later as the flower-bud to the expanded 
 flower." Even a few days' reading will make the scholar 
 feel most keenly that he is continually going down hill, 
 as he passes from the Yedic literature to the sacred 
 law-books bearing the name of Menu, into the great 
 legendary poems of the Bam ay ana and the Mahabha- 
 rata, the popular Bibles of the Hindus, and then into 
 the Bhakti-S'Astras, or Sacred Books of the Faith, the 
 eighteen Puranas and the Tantras, which latter give 
 prominence to the worship of the female energy of some 
 god. 
 
 I am not to offer you this evening a study of Hindu 
 systems of philosophy. These are various, complicated, 
 subtle, and almost interminable and may best be stud- 
 ied in books. I am rather to make an attempt to help 
 you understand the Hindu mind, as I came into contact 
 with it during three months of constant association with 
 scholarly men of all classes. I am to speak of some 
 elements of that system of religion, if it may be called a 
 system, which many patriotic and devoted Hindus be- 
 lieve to be better fitted to their needs than Christianity. 
 To one trained in Western modes of thought the first 
 peculiarity of the Hindu mind which he notices is this : 
 a tendency to over-value the native literature. The na- 
 tional pride estimates too highly the spiritual and intel- 
 lectual worth of the sacred writings. I remember that 
 
 at a reception given at Poona by the Brahmos, Mr. 
 
 7 
 
98 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 Bhandaker, the President, said that in shaping their 
 religious thought, they must give predominance to the 
 opinions of Hindu thinkers ; they must trace the stream 
 of Hindu speculation down the ages from point to point ; 
 discover how one thinker corrected the mistakes of 
 another, and thereby hope to arrive at perfect truth. 
 There was a complete ignoring of the supreme influence 
 of the divine revelation which we regard as the highest 
 source of authority in religion. I have seen the de- 
 voted students of Hinduism in the towers that overlook 
 the Ganges, in the ancient city of Benares, men who 
 for twenty years have been reading, under the guidance 
 of saintly, unclothed pundits, the interminable books 
 which they regard as the highest and purest source of 
 spiritual knowledge, unmindful of the degradation, ig- 
 norance and miseries of the huge mass of idolators 
 that creep and suffer and die about them. There they 
 spin their intellectual webs ; they follow the devious 
 track of former thinkers ; they endeavor to slake the 
 unslakable at fountains that can never satisfy the soul. 
 It is one of the most ghastly pictures of misapplied as- 
 siduity and ingenuity that the world presents to-day. 
 I said to these men : " Do you not familiarize yourselves 
 with the Christian Scriptures ? " and they replied : " Be- 
 fore one undertakes anything new, he asks, what pur- 
 pose will it serve ? " I replied : " It is worth your 
 while to know the Christian Bible, for it has shaped the 
 mightiest nations of the world." They answered : " We 
 have not yet finished our own scriptures. We find in 
 them more than we can absorb and appropriate. Why, 
 therefore, should we go elsewhere ? ' And there, in 
 their conceited loneliness and abstraction, they sat, and 
 there they will continue to spin the webs which may 
 
PHILOSOPHIC HINDUISM 99 
 
 catch many a fly and darken many a window. There 
 they will pursue the studies which may sharpen the 
 mind along certain narrow lines, but can never make 
 great souls, filled with the passion of righteousness 
 and the heroism of love. 
 
 I endeavored, when in Calcutta, to get a statement 
 from a dozen of the acknowledged leaders in Hinduism 
 as to what were the fundamental principles of their sys- 
 tem of religion, independent of its philosophy and inde- 
 pendent of its social relations. The replies were most 
 unsatisfactory. Some said that Hinduism was too vast 
 for them to give any account of it in a brief way. 
 Others referred me to other pundits. The only man 
 that elaborately replied, answered in a printed pamphlet 
 which recounted the praises that European scholars had 
 given to Hindu philosophy, but furnished nothing defi- 
 nite ; and he was the same man who, when I asked him 
 for a paper on Hinduism for the Congresses of 1893, a 
 paper containing not more than four thousand words, 
 sent me a communication containing more than forty 
 thousand words, another illustration of the profuseness 
 and endlessness of Hindu literature. As in the Hindu 
 temples, the effort to attain dignity and sublimity does 
 not express itself in lifting the structure high above the 
 earth, or in giving it symmetry and beauty, but in 
 stretching it out and on, adding part after part until it 
 becomes an interminable series of galleries, not one of 
 which is lofty, not one of which is inspiring, and few of 
 which are clean ; so it is in some degree with Hindu 
 speculation and Hindu literature. 
 
 On evening at Bangalore, I was given a reception by 
 fifty very courteous Hindus, who allowed me an hour in 
 which to ask them questions. The answers were given 
 
100 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 slowly and with great hesitancy. There was consider- 
 able want of harmony in the replies, but the effort was 
 to make Hinduism as beautiful and as Christian as pos- 
 sible. The one weak point, however, was the doctrine 
 of sin and redemption. These excellent men could not 
 tell of any experience such as the Christian knows, of 
 having been delivered by a gracious act of Almighty 
 God, from the sense of guilt and from the fear of just 
 retribution. They had no authority on which to base 
 their faith in God's goodness, and they were evidently 
 men that halted in some way-station on the path of life, 
 realizing that the journey in search of truth must begin 
 again. 
 
 If I were asked to state what are the general prin- 
 ciples of philosophic Hinduism, I should be compelled 
 to leave out any definite opinions in regard to God's 
 personality. I should be compelled to omit most of the 
 points on which Christian teaching is definite, and say 
 that Hinduism believes in the transmigration of the 
 soul, in the inviolability of caste, and in man's oneness 
 with God ; but this leaves the definition of God vague 
 and uncertain. The apostle who was the exponent of 
 Hindu philosophy in America, boasted that " from the 
 high spiritual flights of Vedantic philosophy, of which 
 the latest discoveries of science seem like the echoes ; 
 from the agnosticism of the Buddhists and the atheism of 
 the Jains and the low ideas of idolatry with the multi- 
 farious mythology, each and all have a place in the 
 Hindu's religion." (" History of the Parliament of Ee- 
 ligions," p. 968.) It is evident, therefore, that we are 
 entering a jungle ; we are stepping into a morass ; we 
 are losing ourselves in a maze ; we are in peril of find- 
 ing nothing that is definite, comprehensible and com- 
 
PHILOSOPHIC HINDUISM 101 
 
 parable with other faiths. And, in truth, he who enters 
 the world of Hindu thought enters a realm of endless 
 contradictions and perpetual bewilderment. 
 
 Yet, if we w T ish to strike at once at the centre of 
 Hindu speculation, we find it in this, the thought of 
 God being in all and over all, the life of life, itself at 
 one with all things. What is true and permanent in this 
 conception of God had expression in the life of Israel, 
 and the immanence of the Deity and His spirituality- 
 are taught in the New Testament and realized in 
 ample measure by the more intelligent thinking of to- 
 day. But nowhere else in the world have men ever 
 been so religious, so apt to refer everything in life and 
 in nature to a divinity or to divinities, as in India. 
 Discussing the place of Hinduism in the history of 
 man, Dr. William Miller, of Madras, remarks, that " the 
 strange plan of the world requires a separate growth 
 of thoughts, requires their predominance over other 
 thoughts, nay, their swallowing up of all other thoughts 
 for the time and within a narrow sphere, in order that 
 such thoughts may be made sufficiently impressive and, 
 therefore, available for the benefit of all mankind." 
 ("The Place of Hinduism," p. 15.) "Hinduism has 
 not elaborated the thoughts of the Fatherhood of God 
 and the brotherhood of man. These words have for 
 some years been widely current here ; but it is from 
 another source that the ideas come of which they are 
 the proper dress. Yet Hinduism has originated the 
 ideas which I suppose these words are used by Hin- 
 dus to express. It teaches the omnipenetrativeness 
 of God; it teaches the unitedness, the solidarity of 
 men." 
 
 But we cannot, without discrimination, eulogize either 
 
102 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 the spirit or the teaching of the Hindu in regard to the 
 Deity. We may acknowledge with another " that the 
 Hindu's recognition of the immanence of God in every 
 part of his universe will quicken the present movement 
 of western thought to recognize everywhere a present 
 and a living God ; that the Hindu's longing for unity 
 will help the Western mind not only to admit in theory, 
 hut, more to appreciate that, since there is hut one in- 
 finite Father, His universe must be a unit ; that from 
 the beginning forevermore there has been and will be 
 one plan and one Purposer, from the least atom to the 
 highest intelligence. From the testimony of Hindu 
 thought Christians will more appreciate the superior- 
 ity of the spiritual and invisible over the material and 
 seen, of the eternal over the evanescent." (Robert A. 
 Hume, D.D., " History of the Parliament of Religions," 
 p. 1275.) We may acknowledge that the man who 
 perceives in his own soul the supreme soul present in 
 all creatures, acquires equanimity toward them all. 
 We may acknowledge that the conviction that the uni- 
 verse is one, which is at the basis of Hinduism, inspires 
 in many a desire to escape from the multiplicity of the 
 deities to the sublime monotheism of Mohammedanism, 
 and that this argues well for the final triumph of Chris- 
 tianity. But the general, we may say the almost univer- 
 sal, conception of God presented by Hinduism is " a 
 cold, impersonal pantheism." The distinction between 
 God and nature and God and the human soul is practi- 
 cally denied. One of the ablest of modern Christian 
 Hindus, the late Ram Chandra Bose, has said : " Pan- 
 theism, in other lands, is the monopoly of a few gifted 
 but misguided minds, and its influence is scarcely felt 
 outside of very narrow and narrowing circles. In India, 
 
PIIILOSOPHIC HINDUISM 103 
 
 however, it is coextensive with social or national life, 
 being held both by the learned and the ignorant, the 
 rich and the poor, the high and the low. The miracle 
 Western scholars scarcely expect to see realized, or 
 transformed from the domain of possibility to the do- 
 main of fact, is a great nation of pantheists ; and this 
 miracle is presented in all its entireness in India ! Here 
 pantheism of a thoroughly spiritual type is preached 
 and advocated, riot only in temples of piety and halls 
 of learning, but in places of public resort, in streets 
 and thoroughfares ; not only in the seclusion of clois- 
 ters and cells, but amid the din and bustle of hives of 
 industry and marts of commerce." (" The Sources of 
 Hindu Philosophy," p. 8.) God as a person, God as 
 Creator, God as holy, God as Providence, possessed of 
 a perfect ethical disposition, working for righteousness 
 and love, is largely eliminated from Hindu philosophy 
 and religion. Now Pantheism may have its fascinations, 
 even for the Western mind. "The conception of one 
 universal substance," it has been said, " is true as far as 
 it goes, but it is not the whole truth ; the strand of dif- 
 ference runs through creation." And individual person- 
 ality, which has been eclipsed by Pantheism, is essential 
 to the highest character, or to any character at all, and 
 Christian philosophy, which builds on personality in man 
 and God, is allied with the soundest sense. As Dr. 
 George A. Gordon has written : " Character must be the 
 character of someone. . . . The classic illustration 
 of ' Alice in Wonderland ' must here be repeated. A cat 
 without a grin one can conceive, but a grin without a cat 
 is impossible. A personal being without exalted ethical 
 habit is possible enough, but an exalted ethical habit 
 without a personal being as the source of it is unthink- 
 
104 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 able." Now, races in which the sense of personality 
 and of responsibility has been quickened demand an 
 ethical god, and "the ethical character of God irojxlies 
 the personal reality of God." 
 
 But, while a pantheistic tendency is the most pecul- 
 iar and powerful trait of Hindu thought, we must not 
 look for any logical consistency in the Hindu religion. 
 It is split into six rival philosophies and divides its 
 worship among rival gods. It revels in contradictions. 
 It glories in sheltering the most opposite theories. It 
 is truly said that " with a belief so abstract that it al- 
 most escapes the grasp of the most speculative intellect, 
 is joined the notion that sin can be atoned for by bath- 
 ing in the Ganges or repeating a text of the Yedas. 
 "With an ideal pantheism resembling that of Hegel, is 
 united the opinion that Brahma and Siva can be driven 
 from the throne of the universe by anyone who will 
 sacrifice a sufficient number of wild horses. It is a 
 principle of Hindu religion not to kill a worm, not even 
 to tread on a blade of grass for fear of injuring life, but 
 the torments, cruelties and bloodshed inflicted by Ind- 
 ian tyrants would shock a Nero and a Borgia." (James 
 Freeman Clarke, "Ten Great Beligions," p. 82.) It is 
 difficult for the Western mind to follow with interest, 
 and sometimes it is not easy to comprehend, the sub- 
 tleties of the Brahman intelligence; but the modern 
 Brahmanical worship is incredibly childish, fantastic 
 and wearisome. It is hardly conceivable that men, who 
 are supposed to be at home in the Upanishads, should 
 enter the temple of the god Siva after bathing, then 
 bow to the god, anoint the image with clarified butter 
 or boiled oil, pour pure water over it, wipe it dry, grind 
 some white powder, mix it with water, dip the ends of 
 
PHILOSOPHIC HINDUISM 105 
 
 their forefingers in it, draw them across the image, sit 
 down, meditate, place rice and durwa grass on the 
 image, place a flower on their own heads, then on the 
 top of the image, then another flower on the image and 
 another and another, accompanying each act with a 
 recitation of sacred spells, place white-powder, flowers, 
 bilwa leaves, incense, meat-offerings, rice, plantains and 
 a lamp before the image ; repeat the name of Siva with 
 praises, then prostrate themselves before the image, and 
 so on and on. This is, however, one of the simpler of 
 the prescribed forms of worship. 
 
 But we must not be surprised at any meeting of ex- 
 tremes in Hinduism, for Hinduism is itself a receptacle 
 and reservoir of all possible contradictions, and its tol- 
 erance is so wide that it is not a religious organization, 
 and scarcely a religion. I had in Calcutta a conversa- 
 tion with Babu Guru Sen, who has written : " It is 
 perfectly optional with the Hindu to choose from any of 
 the different creeds with which the Shastras abound, or 
 any other creed, not a trace of which can be found in 
 the Shastras or any other book. He may choose to 
 have faith in a creed if he wants a creed, or to do with- 
 out one. He may be an atheist, a deist, a monotheist, 
 or a polytheist, a believer in the Vedas or Shastras, or 
 be a skeptic as regards their authority, and his position 
 as a Hindu cannot be questioned by anyone on account 
 of his beliefs or unbeliefs, so long as he conforms to 
 social rules." It was claimed at the Parliament of Re- 
 ligions, and the claim was often made in the journals of 
 India during my visit to that country, that Hinduism is 
 tolerant. A more accurate statement is that of Dr. 
 Murdock, the secretary of the Christian Literature So- 
 ciety of India, who says : " Hinduism is at once tho 
 
106 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 most tolerant and intolerant. It will allow a man to be 
 an atheist, theist, polytheist, pantheist ; he may wor- 
 ship anything in the heaven above or in the earth be- 
 neath, or nothing. He may charge God with the great- 
 est crimes or he may deny His existence. He may be 
 gnilty of lying, theft, adultery, murder ; but so long as 
 he observes the rules of his caste, he may live in his 
 own home unmolested, and have free admission to 
 Hindu temples. But let him visit England to study, 
 let him marry a widow, dine with a person of another 
 caste, or even take a glass of water from his hand, and, 
 according to Hinduism, he is excommunicated. Hindu- 
 ism, however, reserves its greatest intolerance for the 
 man who becomes a Christian. Hindus are then up in 
 arms and make the most intolerant speeches, and do 
 the most intolerant deeds. They are ready to call down 
 the curses of all the gods upon those who have been in- 
 strumental in the conversion. They invoke the aid of 
 the law, and employ all its machinery to crush him ; 
 they are even willing, in some cases, to do to death the 
 man who has dared to think for himself and then to act 
 up to his convictions. These things show that, under 
 the seeming toleration of the Hindu, lurks a spirit of 
 most bitter intolerance." 
 
 But, before condemning too severely this violent 
 spirit, we ought to understand its origin. The Brahman 
 is the proudest of mortals, and belongs to a caste which 
 has, to a great extent, moulded the life of India. In 
 the laws of Menu, we read the precepts : " Never shall 
 a king slay a Brahman, though convicted of all possible 
 crimes ; ' and again, " Whatever exists in the universe 
 is all the property of the Brahman." (Mitchell's "Hin- 
 duism," p. 200.) The Brahmans were a company of 
 
PHILOSOPHIC HINDUISM 107 
 
 men whose chief occupation, theoretically, was thought, 
 and who underwent almost every privation and austerity 
 that they might meditate most effectually. They were 
 the clergy, they were the educated class, and, it has been 
 said that, " they must guard the purity of their blood as 
 jealously as the Jews after Ezra's day guarded them- 
 selves by means of the law of Moses from the rilthiness 
 of the surrounding heathen, or as the Dutch Boers in 
 South Africa in our own time have kept aloof from the 
 Hottentots, Bushmen, and Kaffirs, regarding them as 
 Canaanites, and themselves as God's people." (Grant, 
 " Keligions of the World," p. 6.) " Thus the idea that 
 some classes are inherently noble and others inherently 
 polluted and abominable " has taken large possession of 
 the Hindu mind, although there is the least possible 
 trace of caste in the Vedas. The Brahman believed that 
 to him was given the capacity for beholding the unseen 
 being. Brahma, whose name was given to his votaries, 
 was the supreme intelligence — " thought rather than 
 will, one from whose meditation all worlds flowed out, 
 not one by whose will they had been created," and the 
 Brahman was the earthly representative of the infinite 
 mind. It is common to suppose that the Brahmans in- 
 vented caste for selfish reasons, that they might hedge 
 themselves about from the vulgar herd and live lives of 
 vainglory. But, it has been well said, "That is not the 
 way in which anything that has life comes into being, nor 
 is it the rock on which anything permanent is ever built. 
 That which lasts must have its roots in the nature of 
 things and not in the selfishness of an individual or a 
 class. The stern theory of duties which the Brahmans 
 worked out, the faithfulness with which they observed 
 them, and the reverence which they received for centu- 
 
108 TEE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 ries from all classes, are the best proofs that they were 
 actuated, not by love of ease, but by a high sense of ob- 
 ligation." (Grant, "Beligions of the World," p. 98.) 
 With his racial pride, with his profound belief that he 
 is a twice-born man, with the influence of thousands of 
 years of superiority coursing through his soul, the 
 Brahman has not taken kindly to the religion of the 
 war-like and intemperate nations, who offer him a sys- 
 tem of faith much younger than his own, whose first 
 command is repentance, and whose ethics are not the 
 nrinutise of ritual observance, but the broadest frater- 
 nity and the most unselfish love. 
 
 I have said that the system of caste is the frame- 
 work of Hindu society, and it might almost be said, the 
 substance of Hindu religion. During all the centuries 
 since the system was developed, the four chief castes 
 have held the same relative positions. No immorality 
 has caused the descent of the higher to the lower, and 
 no virtue has secured the ascent of the lower to the 
 higher. When I was on the West Coast, I learned that 
 an exception had been made of the Maharajah of Trav- 
 ancore. This princely Sudra is made a Brahman and 
 regenerated by the following method : his Highness is 
 weighed against gold, taken out of his own treasury, 
 and this gold is worked over into the form of a hollow 
 cow, and into this cow the Maharajah is laid. When 
 he is taken out of the sacred animal he is born again. 
 The cow is then turned into coins, which are distributed 
 among the Brahmans. This ceremony of regeneration 
 is postponed sometimes until the prince, through judi- 
 cious feeding, has been able to grow stout, in order that 
 the covetous priests may take as large a weight of gold 
 as possible out of the Maharajah's treasury. 
 
PHILOSOPHIC! HINDUISM 109 
 
 The religion of the Yedas knows no definite doctrine 
 of caste, no worship of idols, no widow-burning, no 
 authorized infanticide, no abominable tyranny imposed 
 upon woman, no pronounced pantheism even, and no 
 transmigration of souls. The chief abuses of Hindu- 
 ism belong to its later ages. In the Yedas we enter a 
 brighter world than we find to-day in India. And, as 
 the phenomena of light arrested most powerfully the 
 imagination of the early poets, we find their Devas, their 
 bright ones, far more fascinating than the gods who suc- 
 ceeded them. " Those simple hymns which, up to the 
 present day are regarded by the Brahmans," as Max 
 Miiller has said, " with the same feeling with which a Mo- 
 hammedan regards the Koran, a Jew the Old Testament, 
 a Christian his Gospel," those hymns of the true ancestors 
 of our race, in which we study the first beginnings of our 
 language, take us into a purer air than we can elsewhere 
 breathe in the temple of Hinduism. And I would again 
 mention as perhaps the most important contrast be- 
 tween the Jewish and Christian Scriptures on the one 
 hand and the Hindu on the other, that in the former we 
 have a continuous, or substantially continuous, growth 
 in doctrine, a development from the lower to the higher, 
 from the less perfect to the perfect ; while in the latter 
 there is woful and sometimes swift degeneracy, a de- 
 cline from the loftiness and purity of earlier thought 
 and aspiration. 
 
 I would not deny, I gratefully confess, that Hinduism 
 has been a reservoir which in all ages has contained a 
 variety of religious ideas, which are of supreme value. 
 It has given us profound teachings concerning the sin- 
 fulness and spiritual weakness of man, the necessity of 
 an Incarnation, the value of prayer and self-sacrifice, 
 
110 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 the immortality of tlie soul, the supremacy of a divine 
 intelligence. It has offered comforting words concern- 
 ing the divine goodness and sympathy. We find in it 
 promises of a better age, " which, no doubt, cheered 
 many a heart crushed with the load, or torn with the 
 contradictions of life." But how feeble, imperfect, 
 unauthoritative and meagre seems all this teaching com- 
 pared with what has come to us through the Biblical 
 history ! With the Hindu, all is speculation, dream ; 
 but with the Christian, truth has been disclosed in con- 
 nection with historic facts, and a divine and historic 
 Person. " Now the Yedas and the Upanishads contain 
 no history ; and the same thing holds of the philosophi- 
 cal books. They express thoughts, not facts. In the 
 Epic poems and Puranas, what is put forward as history 
 stands self-convicted as the lawless product of imagina- 
 tion. But how different is the Bible ! Dean Stanley 
 has justly said that ' Christianity alone of all religions 
 claims to be founded not on fancy or feeling, but on 
 fact and truth.' (Mitchell, " Hinduism Past and Pres- 
 ent," p. 259.) We who are spiritually the children of 
 the Hebrew and Christian history, sometimes feebly 
 realize our indebtedness to it. Facts are God's ideas 
 crystallized. Nations who believe in a divine history 
 have themselves the faculty of making history. India 
 has been without any orderly and progressive develop- 
 ment, such as could be dignified by the name of history. 
 Her people have been moulded by speculation, and have 
 been practically disabled from entering the world of 
 realities and of definite and progressive achievement, so 
 that I am disposed to respect this criticism made upon 
 the Hindu thinkers : " They are spoken of by those 
 who best know them as intellectually one of the most 
 
PHILOSOPHIC HINDUISM 111 
 
 gifted peoples on the globe. I cannot help the feeling 
 that this is a very great exaggeration. The Hindus 
 have no science, and do not even know what the word 
 means. They have achieved no fame in working out 
 a theory of government, and less in the institution of 
 one. Their gift lies in the direction of metaphysics, 
 and this subject they have conceived not as Plato or 
 Aristotle did, not as Kant and his great successors have 
 done. Their strength has never been in orderly and 
 valid thinking, even when turned upon the great cen- 
 tres of being. But they have a marvellous faculty and 
 fertility of spiritual imagination, and their power of 
 reflecting profound metaphysical truth through the 
 luminous haze of intellectual vision is indeed amazing." 
 (Dr. George A. Gordon.) 
 
 Conversing in Madras with a Hindu professor of phi- 
 losophy in one of the government colleges of India, I 
 learned from him that Hindu philosophy is not included 
 in the prescribed course of philosophic study. There 
 is in India to-day considerable enthusiasm for the so- 
 called Vedantic philosophy. It has indeed, become 
 the spiritual fad of the people, most of whom know 
 nothing whatever about it. Of the six Darsanas or ex- 
 hibitions of methodized philosophy, the Yedanta takes 
 its name from the Vedas, but agrees much more with the 
 Upanishads, a system said to have had its origin with 
 the sage Vyasa, and the most distinguished champion of 
 which was the sage Sankara, who flourished during the 
 eighth century of our era. This philosophy affirms the 
 oneness of the soul with God ; identifies the whole uni- 
 verse with Deity, which is the sole reality, so that all 
 outside of Him is appearance only, but is not. It 
 teaches that by a state of moral absorption or moral in- 
 
112 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 activity the soul is emancipated from delusions, and 
 knowing God, becomes God. " Meditation without dis- 
 tinction of subject and object is the highest form of 
 thought." " Success is achieved by impassibility, apa- 
 thy and abstraction by means of the soul, which does 
 not only withdraw itself from the outer world, but sup- 
 presses the clear consciousness which always separates 
 the subject and object, and sinks into a state of deep 
 sleep till finally the absorption of the individual self into 
 the general self is attained and consciousness is quite 
 extinguished." (De la Saussaye, " Science of Religion," 
 p. 540.) 
 
 What has weakened the Hindu spirit and exhausted 
 it has been the age-long separation of the intellect and 
 will, and the false identification of man with God, which 
 has lessened the sense of personal sinfulness, and re- 
 duced the human soul toward the level of a drop of 
 water, tossed forever on the bosom of an infinite ocean. 
 The Hindu has not been without a keen sense of ill de- 
 sert. This is God's witness of Himself in the human 
 soul, but over against this has been a polytheism which 
 filled the popular mind with pictures of deities to whom 
 sin was a pastime. And one born and brought up in 
 the midst of Hinduism has dared to write : " The vices 
 current in the country are, in nine instances out of ten, 
 facsimiles of the vices of the gods and goddesses adored 
 by our countrymen. The worshippers of Krishna be- 
 come as a rule licentious ; of Mahacleva, smokers of in- 
 toxicating drugs ; of Kali, bloodthirsty thugs. From 
 this law of assimilation, the philosopher is not excluded. 
 The object of his worship, or rather contemplation, is a 
 Being without power, without quality and relation, a 
 magnificent nothing ; and it is no wonder that he should, 
 
PniLOSOPHIO HINDUISM 113 
 
 by a painful process of mortification, endeavor to re- 
 duce himself to nothing, by extinguishing his conscious- 
 ness, thought, feeling and muscular energy." 
 
 When we ask what have been the effects of the higher 
 Hinduism over the millions who throng and suffer and 
 die on the burning plains of India, we are compelled to 
 deplore its feebleness for good. We find that multi- 
 tudes are cherishing a religion which is practically 
 demon worship ; a religion without philosophy and 
 without hope ; a religion allied to barbarous sacrifices 
 and savage superstitions. Macaulay may not have been 
 able to appreciate the better aspects of the Hindu faith, 
 but its practical results he has set forth with substan- 
 tial accuracy. It is not rhetorical exaggeration to af- 
 firm that " emblems of vice are objects of public wor- 
 ship, and acts of vice are acts of public worship ; " that 
 " crimes against life and property are not only permitted 
 but enjoined," and, " but for English interference, human 
 victims would still be offered to the Ganges, and the 
 widow would still be laid on the pile with the corpse of 
 her husband and burned alive by her own children." 
 The varieties and degeneracies of the human spirit in 
 its handling and use of divine truth appear to be inten- 
 sified in Hinduism. We have seen a thousand corrup- 
 tions of Christianity, perversions, lapses, the stereotyping 
 of poetry into dogma, the emphasizing of non-essentials, 
 the taking of a half-truth and exalting it to a supreme 
 dominion over life. But these things, these tendencies 
 of the human spirit, have run wild in Hinduism. Men 
 among all races, in all times, have felt the need of an 
 incarnation of God, a living evidence of a divine sym- 
 pathy with man. But think of an incarnation which has 
 
 its highest manifestations in the fantastic, monstrous, 
 8 
 
114 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 and degrading performances of Krishna ! The doctrine 
 of the Avatar is one of the important points in later 
 Hinduism, but it is almost a profanity to compare it 
 with the Incarnation of Christ. An " Avatar in which 
 the divinity successively takes the form of a fish, a tor- 
 toise, a boar, a man-lion, a dwarf, a destroyer, a licen- 
 tious cow-herd, and an arch-deceiver " is a horrible 
 contrast with the coming of Him who was the Word 
 made flesh and tabernacling among men, and show- 
 ing forth the glory of the Only-begotten, full of grace 
 and truth. 
 
 It may not be possible for Christianity to come into 
 any harmony or even mutual and self-respecting under- 
 standing with modern Hinduism ; but it is possible to 
 find points of contact and agreement by going back to 
 the earlier recorded life of the human spirit, as por- 
 trayed in the Vedas. There are some teachings funda- 
 mental to the Christian and Vedic systems, and one of 
 these relates to the Incarnation. The Incarnation is the 
 basis of the Christian Gospel, and incarnations came to 
 predominate in the later Hinduism, showing that the 
 Aryan mind has not been satisfied to think of God 
 as inaccessible and unknown, and that its temple of 
 thought and worship needed to be adorned with pict- 
 ures of endless emanations from the divine. And how- 
 ever grotesque and repulsive the incarnations of Hin- 
 duism, some of the widest and most accessible ap- 
 proaches to the Hindu mind of the future will be 
 along the line of this doctrine. "Christ is- none the 
 less, yea, the more welcome to this land," says a vener- 
 able missionary, " because the most popular god of the 
 Hindu pantheon to-day is also a leading incarnation of 
 Vishnu." 
 
PHILOSOPHIC HINDUISM 115 
 
 Nor is the doctrine of vicarious atonement absent 
 from Hinduism. The idea is there in the Rig Yeda, 
 and Professor Banerjea holds that it would not be easy 
 to account for the genesis of the idea except on the as- 
 sumption of some primitive tradition of the " Lamb 
 slain from the foundation of the world." Whether this 
 be true or not, and I am not much disposed to adhere 
 to the primitive tradition theory, preferring to think of 
 the human soul as the mother of tradition, and of God 
 as active by His Spirit in persuading men of truth in all 
 ages, still there is this glimpse of the Cross which was 
 given to Hindu poets long before Jerusalem slew her 
 King. Others have claimed that in the matter of spir- 
 ituality, there is a point of affinity between Hinduism 
 and the Christian Gospel. The Hindu is a mystic, and 
 the Yoga system of philosophy and life has certainly a 
 powerful hold upon many of the nobler minds. 
 
 The reader of the Sacred Books and the sympathetic 
 student of the better type of Hindu believers to-day 
 will realize that there is an ideal Hinduism, differing 
 widely from much that has been actualized, that aspires 
 toward the eternal God, like the Vedic poet who sang, 
 " Yearning for him, the far-seeing, my thoughts move 
 onward as kine move to their pastures." We are 
 stirred by the daily prayer of every Brahman, repeated 
 by millions of worshippers : " Let us meditate on the 
 adorable light of the Divine Creator ; may He rouse our 
 minds." There is no lack of nobility, and of at least ex- 
 ternal resemblance to some Christian teachings, in the 
 common Brahmanical creed which asserts the following 
 propositions : " The eternity of the soul ; the eternity 
 of the substance of which the universe has been evolved ; 
 the necessity of a soul being united to a body before 
 
116 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 there can be consciousness, will, or action ; the worth- 
 lessness of the body ; and a place of reward or punish- 
 ment where the working-out of the consequences of acts 
 takes place, which, however, is not final." Hinduism 
 was strong enough to expel Buddhism, which had re- 
 nounced the divinities and was essentially agnostic with 
 regard to the Supreme Spirit. It has a conception of 
 God which is very penetratiug and deep, although it 
 lacks the simple, sublime, personal monotheism em- 
 braced by the sixty millions of Hindu Moslems, and 
 the full-orbed conception of God as Father, Son, and 
 Holy Spirit which is the disclosure of Christianity. 
 Let us not fail to do justice to the brighter sides of this 
 wondrous faith, and to those slumbering possibilities of 
 spiritual power which will be evoked from the Hindu 
 spirit when he comes to feel with Mozoomdar that 
 Christianity " fulfilled not only the Hebrew prophecy 
 of God's Kingdom, but fulfilled also the promise of the 
 Hindu books," and " that men would be better Hindus — 
 that is, purer and more spiritual — if they had greater 
 reverence and appreciation of the message of the Son of 
 man." (" The Spirit of God," p. 305.) 
 
 But the best that we find in Hinduism is imperfect, 
 poor, and feeble compared with the pure doctrine of 
 Christ. When we contrast the Christian teaching of 
 God — holy, personal, loving, working ever for righteous- 
 ness, manifest in providence and grace ; the God of 
 Abraham, and of Moses, and Isaiah ; the God of Paul 
 and Athanasius, of Dante, of Luther, of Milton ; the 
 God who was the pole-star of the founders of America 
 and the inspiration of all that is highest in the life of 
 the Anglo-Saxon peoples — with the misty and confusing 
 abstractions of Hindu philosophy, and with the degrad- 
 
PHILOSOPHIC HINDUISM 117 
 
 ing idolatries of Hindu polytheism, Christianity may 
 well feel that she has a mission to perform in the world 
 of India. And when we contrast the Christ in whom 
 were the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and 
 the goodness of God, the Christ of Bethlehem, Caper- 
 naum and Calvary, with the immoral deities who, in 
 Hindu fancy, once fought and frolicked in the vales of 
 India, we ought to feel that we have a doctrine of the 
 Incarnation which is the correction and completion of 
 all that the Hindu mind has vainly dreamed or errone- 
 ously imagined. And when we contrast the holy men 
 and women of Christian lands with the strange, often 
 shocking, and always ascetic and distorted types of sanc- 
 tity, the Gurus and Mahunts of Hindu monasteries and 
 temples, we may well feel that Asia needs the regener- 
 ating life of the Man of Nazareth. Or, says Dr. Wash- 
 burn, of Madura, " if Christian womanhood does not 
 protest in righteous indignation, let us put side by side 
 the women dedicated to the service of God in the Hin- 
 du temple and the deaconesses and sisters of charity of 
 Protestant Christendom. Keligion would show its most 
 characteristic truths in its sincerest devotees ; and 
 whether you take the official classes I have mentioned 
 or the filthy devotees of the yellow cloth, and compare 
 them with the nearest approaching class in Christen- 
 dom, the antithesis is immeasurable." 
 
 In the last hundred years Christianity has gone to 
 India ; has gone not always in the most attractive form ; 
 has gone with the sword of the conqueror in its hand ; 
 has oftentimes been ignorant of what is best in Hindu- 
 ism, and very unskilful in its way of meeting it ; has 
 gone with a frown on its face, it may be ; has brought 
 to that ancient v T orld a variety of opposing representa- 
 
118 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 tives, disturbing the mind of heathendom by the jangle 
 of Christendom. There is a deep chasm existing now 
 between the educated Hindu and the average mission- 
 ary, and some of the stronger men in our missionary 
 force are doing what they are able to fill it up. All 
 honor to the evangelists who preach Christ in the vil- 
 lages ; but equal honor belongs to the scholarly mission- 
 aries who are opening the Scriptures and preaching 
 Christ in the colleges, and who confront the thoughtful 
 Hindus with an equal or a higher culture. Among the 
 best evangelizers of such a land as India are Truth, 
 Justice and Kindness ; and I sometimes feel that the 
 greatest of these is Kindness. The Indians are a proud, 
 appreciative and grateful people. The memory of their 
 kindly acts is a chief treasure in my life, and I met many 
 missionaries who feel very keenly that the Kingdom of 
 Christ has been retarded by failures in the past to touch 
 the Hindu spirit with that love whose magic is " potent 
 over sun and star." The Christian messenger does not 
 lose any of his immediate or permanent influence in 
 non-Christian lands by freely and gladly acknowledging 
 the presence of admirable elements in the theory and 
 system of the religion which he comes to supplant. He 
 loses nothing and gains much for the propagandism so 
 dear to his heart, by permitting love to infuse and sur- 
 round all his zeal — a love which recognizes good in per- 
 sons and systems, a love which finds expression in cour- 
 tesy, kindness, unpretentiousness and approachableness 
 of demeanor and the habit, as well as the temper, of 
 brotherliness. O the souls that have been lost to 
 Christ in India by roughness and violence of spirit, by 
 pompous, condescending and domineering ways toward 
 men of gentler tone and finer fibre, who sometimes think 
 
PHILOSOPHIC HINDUISM 119 
 
 they discover more of the meek and lowly Jesus in the 
 mild Buddha of the past or the humble ascetic of to- 
 day than in the bullying European Christians who have 
 come to teach the Beatitudes which they do not always 
 very well illustrate. 
 
 Christian missions have not been without enormous 
 effects in the inauguration of reform, in undermining 
 superstition, in abolishing cruel practices, and in giving 
 the nation higher ideals through Jesus Christ. John 
 Bright offered the highest praise ever given to English 
 literature when he expressed the opinion that its wide 
 diffusion among the intelligent people of India must oc- 
 casion the fall of the system of caste and the destruction 
 of debasing idolatry. "Christian ideas are in the air, 
 and are absorbed even by those who intend to resist 
 them ; and scientific ideas, which have done so much to 
 purify mediaeval Christianity, are taking hold of the 
 Indian mind. The Arya Somaj pays a high tribute to 
 Christianity by borrowing its ethics and some of its 
 doctrines, and promulgating them, as Dr. Ellin wood has 
 said, " under Yedic labels and upon Vedic authority." 
 The greatest of modern Hindus, Keshub Chunder Sen, 
 confessed that the object of his life was to lead his 
 countrymen to Christ. And although the hasty observ- 
 er may imagine that little progress has been made, 
 still in no other part of the world has the Christian 
 spirit made more signal triumphs during the last three 
 decades than in India. And Christian morality, accord- 
 ing to Sir Henry Maine, has penetrated even farther 
 than Christian belief, and affects the morality of the 
 modern indigenous literature. And he believes that 
 the English administration of justice has been a power- 
 ful unifying agency, affording a moral basis from which 
 
120 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 a new set of moral ideas has been diffused among the 
 people. 
 
 The wise interpreters of Christianity will strive to 
 show a proud and intelligent people that the Gospel 
 can give them what they have been blindly groping 
 after for centuries. The old Hinduism cannot regener- 
 ate itself. The divine force, the redeeming love, the 
 higher ethics, which went forth from Palestine in the 
 first century must work a similar miracle for India in 
 the twentieth. The power of Christian truth will be 
 felt in its fulness when Hindus themselves are inspired 
 to tell their own countrymen the message of Christ. A 
 vast revolution has been begun, and the strong fabric of 
 Hindu society, which Buddhism and Mohammedanism 
 could not destroy, is being undermined at many points ; 
 but the nobler Hindu ideas will survive the destruction 
 of the ignoble social system. India needs Christ to 
 fulfil her own loftiest ideals. And the wise missionary 
 will be inspired and instructed to show that in Christi- 
 anity, in the Person and teaching and Kingdom of Jesus 
 Christ, all that is best in Hinduism has been summed 
 up and set forth in transfigured splendor. Such has 
 been the method of the past. It has been truly said 
 by Dr. George A. Gordon : " Until the Jew saw his Juda- 
 ism transfigured in Christianity, he would not abandon 
 the old faith for the new ; until the Greek beheld the 
 vision of Plato under grander forms in the vision { 
 of Christ, he could not forsake the Academy for the 
 Church ; until the Boman discovered in the sign of the 
 Cross a diviner form of the victorious power after which 
 he thirsted, he could not change his allegiance ; and 
 until China shall see Confucius idealized and tran- 
 scended in our Master, and Japan her beggarly elements 
 
PHILOSOPHIC HINDUISM 121 
 
 glorified in the Christian inheritance, and India her 
 sublime names taken out of the region of imagination 
 and in our Lord made the equivalent of the moral order 
 of the universe, we cannot expect them to become His 
 disciples." 
 
CHAPTEE V 
 
 SOME DIFFICULTIES IN THE HINDU MIND IN REGAED TO 
 
 CHRISTIANITY 
 
 I am to speak this evening on some of the intellectual 
 difficulties — partly real and partly, I fear, pretended — 
 which I discovered among the Hindu questioners whom 
 I had the pleasure of meetiDg last winter. The hinder- 
 ances to the very rapid spread of Christianity in the 
 Orient are many and formidable. The average charac- 
 ter of the Anglo-Indian and of the Europeans found in 
 the ports and larger cities of Asia does not commend 
 Christianity to the proud and intellectual Orientals. 
 But besides all this, the Eastern world has differeDt 
 habits of thought and different fundamental ideas from 
 those prevailing in the West. One cannot converse ten 
 minutes with a bare-footed Hindu scholar without re- 
 alizing that different standards, different ideals of worth, 
 different aims predispose the Hindu friend to regard 
 with distrust or aversion the Christian thought of truth 
 and life. There is a vast ignorance even among edu- 
 cated men in regard to the great names in history, phil- 
 osophy, theology which have immense weight with the 
 Occidental Christian. Many of one's literary references 
 are entirely unfamiliar to an Oriental, so that a wise 
 Western speaker who adapts himself to the Hindus will 
 need to prune his discourses of much that would be 
 available and useful for Western audiences. Some 
 
 122 
 
DIFFICULTIES IN THE HINDU MIND 123 
 
 European evangelists have been surprised that their 
 quotations from the Christian Scriptures were not so 
 weighty, convincing and telling in their addresses to 
 Hindu congregations as they had expected. Often, in- 
 deed, their Bible quotations meaut nothing to the Ori- 
 ental auditors ; and one evangelist found that all his pa- 
 thetic references to father, mother and home, his stories 
 of the home-life, were entirely thrown away on compa- 
 nies of people whose knowledge of these sanctities was 
 extremely limited. 
 
 I deemed it very important at the outset of my mis- 
 sion to make clearly understood what is meant by 
 Christianity. I was careful not to identify it with any 
 form of ecclesiastical government or any special system 
 of Western theology. The Christianity which India 
 needs, and which the Western world in all its divisions 
 accepts, centres in the life, teachings and character of 
 Jesus Christ, as portrayed in the Gospels. It is not 
 merely the facts and truths which centre in Christ, but the 
 divine, loving spirit which pervades them all. Christi- 
 anity is a life shaped by Christian ideals, as well as a 
 truth which harmonizes with the mind of Jesus. It 
 was my effort to remove the thoughts of my hearers so 
 far as possible from things extraneous and things sec- 
 ondary, and to concentrate their minds on what is vital 
 and essential. It was my hope to make them feel that 
 the spirit of Christianity was one of utmost kindness, 
 of largest love, of the truest fraternity, as well as to be- 
 lieve the glorious Gospel of God's redeeming affection 
 for the race revealed in the historic incarnation through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. I did not deny the existence of 
 mystery in the universe. I did not claim that all intel- 
 lectual problems had been solved ; but I endeavored to 
 
124 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 show what are the weighty reasons for believing that 
 Christianity, by its revelation of God, by its disclosures 
 in Jesus Christ, by the clearness of its teachings in re- 
 gard to the life that now is and the life that is to come, 
 by the purity and elevation of its ethics, by the wonder- 
 ful adaptation to human need of the Man and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ, by its historical results, and by its present 
 world-wide aspects, was evidently adapted to all men's 
 needs and would become universal. 
 
 Now it is in accord with the subtle and evasive Hindu 
 spirit that such a presentation of Christianity should 
 be met by inquiries like the following : " How is the 
 salvation of tempted and fallen angels to be effected ? " 
 " What are the general laws of creation from the begin- 
 ning, and for all the intelligences and non-intelligences 
 of the universe ? " One would suppose that sincere 
 minds, seeing the distraction and distress and uncount- 
 able miseries and degradations of Hindu society, would 
 be willing to face directly the questions : "Is Christi- 
 anity true ? Are these claims which the lecturer has 
 made well-founded ? Is the Christian system now pre- 
 dominant in the world ? Do its effects surpass those 
 of other religions ? Are our Scriptures so well adapted 
 to human needs as the Bible ? Have we, after all, so 
 perfect a theism as that set forth in the New Testament ? 
 Is there any spiritual leader that we have produced 
 worthy to stand by the side of Jesus Christ ? Have we 
 any such evidences of a historic incarnation as those 
 which the speaker has brought forth in regard to the 
 historic character of the Christian's Saviour?" After 
 meeting hundreds of non-Christian scholars and reading 
 hundreds of columns criticising the addresses given, I 
 must confess that these inquiries were rarely if ever 
 
DIFFICULTIES IN TUB HINDU MIND 125 
 
 made. The Hindu faculty of missing the point was 
 illustrated on several occasions during my three months 
 of work as a Christian lecturer. The Hindu chairman, 
 at the close of one of my addresses in Poona, endeav- 
 ored to diminish the effectiveness of what I had said by 
 eulogizing, in the most indiscriminate way, the ethical 
 glories — not of Hinduism, his own religion — but of 
 Buddhism, asserting that that was the only faith which 
 had set forth the principle of universal love to all creat- 
 ures, that was the religion of compassion and kindness. 
 My lecture had been on the historical effects of Christi- 
 anity ; and the Hindu chairman, instead of acknowledg- 
 ing or denying the accuracy of my remarks, brings in 
 an irrelevant and unsupported assertion in regard to a 
 faith which Hinduism cast out. Buddhism, we were 
 told, alone taught universal compassion ; but we were 
 not informed what had been the historical success of 
 Buddhism in making men really kind and compassion- 
 ate. There was, of course, no reference to the assertion 
 which has been made that in Ceylon the people were 
 far from kind to dumb animals, and that in China, where 
 Buddhism claims its greatest conquests, human cruelty 
 has its most terrible manifestations. 
 
 My last lecture in India treated of the historic char- 
 acter of the Gospels. Twenty-five or thirty distinct 
 reasons were given for believing in the historic trust- 
 worthiness of the evangelic record. A vote of thanks 
 was moved ; and, in seconding the motion, a Brahman 
 lawyer took occasion to pour out, with extreme volubility, 
 his opposition to the Gospel, and, among other things, 
 he said : " What we want to know is whether Chris- 
 tianity is true. We want a lecturer who will come to 
 us and give us, not feelings and poetical rhapsodies, but 
 
126 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 real definite arguments ! " I will give proper credit to 
 the audience, and repeat that, since they had listened 
 for an hour and a half to my twenty-five or thirty rea- 
 sons for believing in the Gospel history, they greeted 
 with a general laugh the characteristic suggestion of the 
 Hindu speaker that I had been indulging only in poet- 
 ical rhapsodies. 
 
 But I wish to occupy the remainder of the hour in 
 giving some of the principal inquiries which one meets 
 in India, together with the spoken or written answers 
 with which they were met. The first question of which 
 I shall speak is the following : " Does not the Almighty 
 give to every man that religion which He sees is the 
 best fitted for him ? ' : The question is cunning and 
 sophistical ; and the questioner hoped to make a point 
 against Christianity, whatever way it was answered. If 
 the Almighty does give to every man that religion 
 which He sees is best fitted for him, what right have 
 you Christians to be bothering us here in India in your 
 efforts to make us surrender the faith which the good 
 God has seen to be best fitted to our needs. But if you 
 say that the Almighty has not given to every man that 
 religion which He sees to be best fitted for him, how 
 can you claim that God is good, benevolent, loving tow- 
 ard His creatures ? 
 
 The answer is this : " The Almighty does not give to 
 any man a religion. He gives him knowledge of relig- 
 ious truth, in different degrees, for men to use or misuse. 
 Religion is what man does with the elements of truth 
 which God spreads before him to use or misuse. Re- 
 ligion is man's devout attitude toward the environment 
 in which God places him. It is not something which 
 God fashions and thrusts into a man's hand and into his 
 
DIFFICULTIES IN THE HINDU MIND 127 
 
 life against his own will. It is a fact plain as the day 
 that God has given to men different degrees of illumina- 
 tion. "We may quarrel with the different allotments of 
 men in material and moral gifts and opportunities ; but 
 they are different, and our theology may not be able to 
 explain the diversity. But men will be judged by the 
 good or bad, the wise or unwise, use which they make 
 of these powers, illuminations and opportunities. Your 
 dogmatic and sophistical question : Does not the Al- 
 mighty give to every man that religion which He sees 
 is best fitted for him ? is meant to condemn the efforts 
 of those who have the more light to instruct and to 
 guide the multitudes who have less. God works through 
 human agencies to bring the best things to His children, 
 and so God is giving, through Christian apostles and 
 their successors, knowledge of the best religion to those 
 who have darkened the light already received. You 
 cannot stop the efforts of sensible and benevolent men 
 to help their fellows in distress by claiming that God 
 has already given to those distressed human beings what 
 is best for them. I find a man sick of malaria in an 
 Indian jungle. The air he breathes is poisonous and 
 fever-laden, and I say to him : ' Get upon my horse, and 
 go with me to yonder hills where the air is pure.' But 
 the Hindu sufferer from fever declines, and says : ' Does 
 not the Almighty give to every man that air which He 
 sees is best fitted for him ? ' The atmosphere which 
 God wants the sick man to breathe blows on yonder 
 hill-tops, and the man is an idiot and a sinner for not 
 accepting the help which will carry him to those pure 
 and breezy heights. I see a nation breathing moral 
 malaria in the Hindu jungle. That nation once had 
 purer air, but voluntarily it has descended to the pesti- 
 
128 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 lence-breeding morass. I go to it and say : ' Come and 
 dwell with us on Calvary and the Mount of Beatitudes ; ' 
 but the complacent and foolish response is made : ' The 
 Almighty has given to every man that religion which 
 He sees is best fitted for him ! ' And he is contented 
 with a religion which is fitted to his ethical inertia, his 
 dreamy mysticism, and his self-satisfied degradation." 
 
 A very common inquiry was the following : "Is faith 
 in the historic Christ essential to salvation ? If so, what 
 became of those who lived before the advent of Christ, 
 or who never heard of Him ? " Before a large company 
 of people in Palamcottah, I ventured the assertion that, 
 in view of the belief that the Old Testament saints were 
 saved, no missionary in India asserts that faith in the 
 historic Christ has always been essential to salvation ; 
 and there was an affirmative response from the mission- 
 aries present. The Hindus love to fling in the faces of 
 Christians difficulties which they themselves have made, 
 or which have been suggested to them by sceptical 
 writers from Europe or America, or which represent a 
 cruder theology than that which is taught to-day. They 
 love to make it appear that God left the world to perish, 
 without any provision for its salvation, for four thousand 
 or many more thousand years, until Jesus was born in 
 Bethlehem ; and that after that no provision was made 
 for the salvation of any who, from no fault of their own, 
 had not heard of the historic Christ, and accepted Him 
 and, as it is usually said, some particular doctrine con- 
 cerning Him, like the atonement. Of course, all this 
 is an immense and gross slander on the God of all grace, 
 the God of redemption. It is a complete ignoring of 
 the general principles of the divine administration and 
 of particular teachings in the Scriptures. 
 
DIFFICULTIES IN THE HINDU MIND 129 
 
 I inquired : " Where is the Christian teacher in 
 America, where is the missionary in India, who teaches 
 or ever taught that all that lived previous to the Chris- 
 tian era are lost ? " and to this question I never received 
 any reply. I then said : We are told that Christ is the 
 "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." He 
 Himself said, " Before Abraham was I am." We be- 
 lieve that He represents to men the wondrous grace and 
 mercy of God, and that eternal provision has been 
 made for human need. We who are orthodox Chris- 
 tians hold the theory that, on the ground of this eternal 
 provision made in God's nature, and which receives its 
 historic consummation in the Christ of Calvary, peni- 
 tent souls are saved. We do not believe that such 
 souls among God's chosen people, however dimly they 
 may have seen the Christ of history, were cast away ; 
 and the Scriptures give us glimpses of the working of 
 God's spirit and truth outside of Judaism. Tertullian 
 speaks of souls that are naturally Christian ; and stu- 
 dents of comparative religion are discovering that there 
 are elements of the Gospel in pagan lands, not always 
 clear, but still there are intimations of faith in God's 
 mercy and God's willingness to accept the penitent dis- 
 position. It is the teaching of Jesus that men are to 
 be judged according to their light. Paul speaks of the 
 law of God written on the heart, and of the human 
 conscience as " accusing or else excusing " the soul. 
 We have no mathematics to determine how many are 
 saved ; but we know that God is just and merciful, and 
 that His mercy has not been limited within the bounds 
 of Judaism and Christianity. You have sadly dimmed 
 the truth and perverted the truth which has come to 
 the loftiest minds, and touched also the common mind 
 
 9 
 
130 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 of the non-Christian world. Men everywhere need the 
 perfect historic disclosure of God's mercy made through 
 Jesus Christ. His is the only "name given under 
 heaven whereby we must be saved." On the ground 
 of what Christ was and what Christ did, according to 
 Biblical teaching, salvation has been provided, deliver- 
 ance from the love of sin and the guilt of sin, whether 
 men lived before or after the great historic manifesta- 
 tion. Whether they knew of it or not, Christ is God's 
 eternal provision for man's deliverance ; but do not be 
 so foolish as to say that because men have a little light 
 which they have sinfully darkened, therefore they do 
 not need more light. Every fact that is presented to 
 the eye in India, and almost every rumor that comes to 
 the ear, shows conclusively that men do sadly need the 
 illumination so gracious, so helpful, so transforming, 
 and which comes from the Christ of the Gospels. Out- 
 side the area touched by that light, I find that the 
 realms of darkness are grievously wide and dense. Do 
 not puzzle your minds with the problem of the salva- 
 tion of men living before the Christian era, and of men 
 who have not yet heard the Gospel which has come to 
 your ears, and by which you are to be judged ; but 
 rather do three things. First, believe that those prob- 
 lems have been solved, or will be solved, by a gracious 
 God, in accordance with principles of perfect equity. 
 Secondly, receive into your hearts the light which shines 
 from the face of Jesus Christ, and find peace and assur- 
 ance of eternal life through Him ; and, thirdly, make it 
 the business of your lives to carry that light to all who 
 grope in darkness. 
 
 Another question put to me by members of the 
 Brahmo Somaj indicates a misunderstanding of New 
 
DIFFICULTIES IN THE HINDU MIND 131 
 
 Testament teaching : "How can the sacrifice of Christ's 
 mere body atone for the sins of the soul ? " 
 
 I answered, " It does not, and the sacrifice of Christ 
 was not the sacrifice of merely His physical body. His 
 heart was wrung by the sight of human sin ; His affec- 
 tions were lacerated ; His sensitive and sympathetic 
 nature endured spiritual anguish ; and it was the total 
 sacrifice of the Son of God that indicated the depth of 
 the divine affection for men. It was by the total sacri- 
 fice of Himself that the reconciliation of God and man 
 was effected." 
 
 Another inquiry was the following : " Why should 
 there be only one Saviour ? " I replied : 
 
 " Because there is only one God. The Hindu and 
 Buddhist idea of a saviour may justify a faith in many 
 such beings. The Christian idea justifies a faith in but 
 one such. Only the divine can save the human, and 
 there is no more reason for multiplying divine Saviours 
 than for multiplying divine Creators. The Christian 
 revelation of ' God in Christ, reconciling the world unto 
 Himself,' is the all-sufficient answer to the inquiry here 
 made. The effort of Hindu and Buddhist speculation 
 to multiply saviours is simply another form of the effort 
 to bring Jesus Christ down to the level, not only of Soc- 
 rates and Buddha, but also of every prophet with a new 
 panacea for human salvation." 
 
 " Are Americans more religious than Hindus ? " The 
 reply was : 
 
 "The answer depends upon what is meant by re- 
 ligious. If by religion is meant religious ceremonials, 
 performed through the force of immemorial custom ; if 
 by religion is meant terror before unknown, supernatural 
 powers, and fear in the presence of threatening priests ; 
 
132 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 if by religion you mean bondage to superstitions which 
 educated Indians are rapidly casting off, then the Hin- 
 dus are more religious than the Americans. But if by 
 religion is meant, with the Apostle James, ' visiting the 
 widow and the fatherless in their affliction, and keep- 
 ing one's self unspotted from the world ; ' if by re- 
 ligion is meant, with Jesus Christ, supreme love to God 
 the Father and fraternal love to all men ; if by religion 
 is meant, with the Apostle Paul, the attainment of a 
 complete manhood under the inspiration of the highest 
 Christian ideals, then the Americans, with all their faults 
 and shortcomings, are, in my judgment, more religious 
 than the Hindus. Religious sentiment and conviction 
 have entered into our national life and institutions. 
 With us, because we are Christians, ethics is an essen- 
 tial part of religion, and religion must be realized eth- 
 ically. There is a national conscience, which is smiting 
 the chief evils which still afflict us. Men more and more 
 feel their obligation to show their love to God by gifts, 
 efforts and prayers in behalf of the destitute and dark- 
 ened and unfortunate in our land and in all lands. 
 Emerson calls Sunday " the core of our civilization." 
 It is a day dedicated to the higher things of the soul. 
 It is a day for intellectual and spiritual enlightenment, 
 and for benevolent service. Religion, with us, has its 
 expression in the building of hospitals as well as 
 churches, of universities as well as Sunday schools ; in 
 College settlements, for the advantage of the poor in 
 our great cities, as well as in the scores of millions of 
 dollars which have gone to the sending of Christian 
 missionaries, teachers and physicians into distant 
 lands." 
 
 "Of the accepted religions, Mohammedanism is the 
 
DIFFICULTIES IN THE HINDU MIND 133 
 
 latest faith ; and as such, does it not have the best claim 
 for general acceptance ? " 
 
 I said : " According to this logic, if a religion rises 
 in the twentieth century and is widely received, it 
 would have the best claim for general acceptance, even 
 if its ethical and spiritual plane were far lower than that 
 of Mohammedanism. No, it is manifestly absurd to de- 
 clare that the latest in anything is necessarily the best. 
 On this foolish supposition, one might claim that every 
 picture which is received and admired to-day in the 
 Salons of Paris is a better work of art than the Sistine 
 Madonna, or that the latest great poems which become 
 popular in our time must surpass the plays of Shake- 
 speare and the Iliad of Homer. According to this logic, 
 Mormonism and Sikhisin are — because later — superior 
 to Parseeism, Judaism, and Mohammedanism. But the 
 best claim to general acceptance belongs, of course, to 
 that religion whose disclosures of truth are the highest, 
 completest, most certain and most authoritative ; whose 
 fundamental and central teachings in regard to God 
 and man are the purest and most life-giving ; whose 
 ethical ideas and spiritual conceptions are the freest 
 from anything ignoble or merely transient ; whose spir- 
 itual dynamics, through which its ideals are realized, are 
 the most potent." 
 
 Another inquiry was this : " Do you believe that God 
 has revealed Himself in every country and in every 
 age ? " I answered : 
 
 " Certainly. The realm of revelation is world-wide. 
 This truth I assert over and over again in my lectures, 
 in various forms. This truth is asserted in the Chris- 
 tian Scriptures. Paul speaks of ' the law of God written 
 on the heart,' and declares that God hath not left Him- 
 
134 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 self without witness among the nations. The Fourth 
 Gospel speaks of the Logos as ' the original light en- 
 lightening every man.' These various revelations have 
 been much dimmed, distorted, and intermixed with 
 guess-work, error, and invention ; and I never feel more 
 profoundly the need of such a complete, final, and au- 
 thoritative revelation as has been given through Jesus 
 Christ than when I read the strange combinations of 
 truth and error which are found in the Sacred Books of 
 the East. I look upon the Biblical revelation, culmi- 
 nating in Jesus Christ, as the fulfilment of all the incom- 
 plete disclosures, mixed with so much that is irrelevant 
 and misleading and uncertain, which are found in the 
 non-Christian religions." 
 
 One inquiry was this : " Why should not man come 
 to God directly, without the intervention of a Medi- 
 ator ? " The reply was : 
 
 " Men do come directly to God through conscience, 
 through the touch of His Holy Spirit, and through Nat- 
 ure ; but there is a fuller knowledge of God which has 
 been disclosed through Jesus Christ. Men generally 
 have thought that a Mediator was necessary, for some 
 form of Mediatorship inheres in many religions. The 
 priesthoods of the world indicate the general human 
 conviction that men need some one or something, like a 
 sacrifice, to stand between them and God. Christianity 
 puts mediatorship in the very heart of God : ' God was 
 in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.' Christ, 
 the Mediator, is central in the Christian religion. He 
 was apparently conscious of perfect unity with God and 
 man. Knowing Him, we know the Father. He makes 
 God real to us by showing us the divine heart of God 
 in Himself. Hindus have sometimes said that Jesus 
 
DIFFICULTIES IN THE HINDU MIND 135 
 
 Christ added to their knowledge of God. I believe that 
 only through the medium of Christ's life and teaching 
 can men get their best apprehensions of the Divine Nat- 
 ure. I think that men should consider Christ's medi- 
 atorship in this broad sense. While I believe that, in 
 a stricter and more limited sense, He is a Mediator by 
 whom every obstacle to human salvation has been re- 
 moved, I would also have the world look at Him as the 
 Supreme Revealer of the Divine Love — that Love which, 
 in Him and through Him, takes from human hearts the 
 burden, the pollution, and the desire of sin. I have 
 found in India intellectual and religious unrest. Men 
 are not satisfied with their inherited creeds. They are 
 looking around, within, and above for something which 
 heals and contents the soul ; and I shall be grateful and 
 happy if my visit to India should induce some of its 
 open-minded and lovable people to consider attentively 
 and candidly the peerless Christianity of Christ." 
 
 " What is the origin of good and evil ? " The reply 
 was : 
 
 " Good has its origin in God. As to moral evil, so 
 far as our human life is concerned, it evidently entered 
 into the world at an early period of man's history, and 
 came from his preference of a lower over a higher good. 
 Man early chose to follow the animal in him, refusing to 
 obey the divine. Back of the earthly history of moral 
 evil, the Scriptures give us glimpses of diabolic forces 
 and personalities ; but of these we know little." 
 
 "Do you believe in the law of Karma?" 
 
 " Yes, in so far as it means that there is a law of mor- 
 al retribution in the universe. I stand on the Pauline 
 doctrine that ' whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he 
 also reap,' while I also accept the New Testament 
 
136 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 teaching that there is a divine regenerating and sancti- 
 fying power which is able to bring sinful men under the 
 dominion of a higher law." 
 
 One of the commonest questions put to me in India 
 related to my impressions of that country and its peo- 
 ple : " How do you like India ? " 
 
 I could only answer in the briefest way such compre- 
 hensive inquiries. "India is a land of wonders and 
 anomalies. My interest has been deepened and my af- 
 fection quickened during these months in which I have 
 had the pleasure of conversing with many of your most 
 enlightened people. My heart goes out to this country 
 in its present deep distress, and I pray that the terrible 
 afflictions of famine and plague may soon be removed. 
 It may take very much longer to remove the darkness of 
 superstition and ignorance covering most of the many 
 millions of the country. It appears to me that your en- 
 lightened leaders, instead of fostering the national, ex- 
 clusive spirit, which is unwilling to receive the best 
 things from whatever source they may come, would do 
 well to direct the mind of the educated youth and others 
 toward the main sources of India's present helplessness, 
 sorrow and distress. I am profoundly impressed with 
 the lack of unity prevailing in India. It is an aggrega- 
 tion of peoples, governments, religions, classes where 
 the divisions are woful indeed. It is perfectly evident 
 that, if the wise, restraining hand of British rule were 
 removed, chaos would prevail ; and the Hindus and Mo- 
 hammedans in some places would be flying at each 
 other's throats. There are few countries where religious 
 intolerance seems so general and cruel as here. India 
 is living in a state of society which, so far as religious 
 intolerance is concerned, appears to us Americans most 
 
DIFFICULTIES IN THE HINDU MIND 137 
 
 distressing. The alphabet of true toleration has yet to 
 be learned by great sections of the community. I know 
 that Hinduism is willing that men should hold a variety 
 of incongruous creeds, but religion is not merely a creed ; 
 it is also a life, where the conditions and environments 
 ought to be in harmony with the inner convictions. The 
 religions of India have been trying here, as at the Parlia- 
 ment of Religions, to make themselves as Christian as 
 possible ; but when members of the Hindu community, 
 convinced of the truth and rightful claims of Christian- 
 ity, prepare to confess Christ and enter into fellowship 
 with His people, these Christian disciples still meet 
 relentless and often cruel opposition. They are some- 
 times disowned, prohibited from seeing their own rela- 
 tions, deprived of just inheritances, assailed with false- 
 hood, with blows, and now and then tortured. Some of 
 the noblest specimens of human character and some of the 
 finest and most enlightened intellects which I have met 
 in any land are in the native Christian communities of 
 India." 
 
 Two questions that show the high opinion which 
 Hinduism has of itself were the following : " Has Chris- 
 tianity ever had to contend with a religion which had a 
 sound philosophy for its basis, and whose people were 
 highly civilized ? ' and " Hinduism is highly eclectic, 
 and will Christianity make a stand against such a re- 
 ligion ? " I replied to these questions : " With some 
 explanations and limitations, it may be truly said that 
 the Graeco-Ptoman world was a congeries of nations in 
 which a sound philosophy was not wanting, and some 
 of whose people were in a high state of civilization. 
 Christianity met this world and finally overcame it. 
 The early Christian fathers had, many of them, a great 
 
138 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 liking for the Greek philosophy, which they studied, 
 and which some of them regarded as a school-master 
 leading to Christ. Dr. Fairbairn of Oxford and others 
 have ably shown how Christianity, in a measure, ab- 
 sorbed into itself the philosophic systems of classical 
 antiquity, both utilizing and ennobling them. The civ- 
 ilization of the Boman Empire, into which Christianity 
 entered, was complicated, advanced, highly intellectual, 
 adorned with great cities, rich in luxury, starred with 
 philosophic schools, proud of a literature, some of it 
 inherited from the golden period of Greek learning, 
 which is the world's delight to-day, and ennobled with a 
 sculptural art which has not since been equalled. Out 
 of the Grseco-Eoman world Christianity built the mod- 
 ern world, or, rather, from the former the latter has 
 grown. It appears to me that the philosophy which 
 Christianity found in the first and second centuries had 
 a sounder constitution in some respects than the philos- 
 ophies of the Eastern thinkers. There was a more 
 definite recognition of the personal God and of the re- 
 sponsible human personality. A pantheistic blight did 
 not cover the speculations of Socrates, Plato, and Aris- 
 totle. There is a certain vigor and validity to the think- 
 ing of Greece and Rome which the modern mind must 
 highly respect. Surely the civilization of the Graeco- 
 Roraan world was, in important particulars, more ad- 
 vanced than any civilization which Christianity has 
 since met. 
 
 " The so-called paganism of ancient Greece and Rome 
 became very eclectic. The Neo-Platonism of Alexan- 
 dria was a marvellous eclecticism, and Christianity not 
 only made a stand against it, but overcame it. I prefer 
 to call Hinduism omnivorous rather than strictly eclec- 
 
DIFFICULTIES IN THE HINDU MIND 139 
 
 tic. It seems to me that it does not select truths and 
 parts of systems here and there, combining them into a 
 new and more perfect whole ; but it endeavors to absorb 
 everything indiscriminately, with the result that it be- 
 comes more vague and less distinct than ever. There 
 is a good deal of truth in the claims of certain Hindu 
 scholars that Hinduism is a social condition in which 
 any kind of religion — theism, polytheism, or pantheism 
 — may have a home. If this be true, then its downfall is 
 certain, and possibly not very distant ; for caste, or the 
 Hindu social system, is being undermined by a hundred 
 forces. It is being modified or utterly thrown away by the 
 Hindu reformers, who are sure to increase in numbers 
 and influence with the progress of enlightenment and 
 humanity. Of all the religions of the world, Hinduism 
 is the most unsystematic and ill-defined. Those who 
 have lived in India for years affirm that they can scarcely 
 find two Hindus who are agreed even as to fundamentals. 
 In my conversations with pundits, the friend with whom 
 I am talking always affirms that some other pundit's 
 Hinduism is not genuine. All this is in contrast with 
 Christianity. In spite of the divisions among Chris- 
 tians, the various churches at work in India are heartily 
 in accord as to the fundamental facts and truths which 
 are contained in the so-called Apostles' Creed." 
 
 Another question was this : " Do you not see any 
 similarity between the spread of Christianity to-day and 
 the spread of Buddhism in ancient times, when it was 
 supported by the State ? " I replied : 
 
 "There is a similarity in the progress of both re- 
 ligions. But I see a closer similarity between the spread 
 of Christianity to-day and the spread of ancient Buddh- 
 ism before it was supported by the State. Early 
 
140 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 Buddhism was diffused by the preaching of bands of 
 earnest men, who found the people tired of the formal- 
 ism and pettiness and bondage of the Brahmanic priest- 
 hood. With its teaching of brotherhood and its deliv- 
 erance for all through the eight-fold path, it must have 
 met some of the needs of the human soul. Unfortu- 
 nately, Gautama had no perception of man's chief need 
 — namely, a loving God. And therefore the moral prog- 
 ress possible to Buddhism was limited. Christianity, 
 with its perfect theism and its perfect ethics, meets all 
 spiritual needs. Its spread to-day is owing to the 
 power of truth and love, and not to any support from the 
 State. An increasing interest is felt in Christian lands 
 for the work in non-Christian. Thousands of lives and 
 many millions of rupees have been given to Christian 
 toil and effort outside the bounds of Christendom. 
 These offerings are free-will, voluntary and independent 
 of any help from the State." 
 
 " With the primitive means of communication, was 
 not the spread of early Buddhism marvellous ? " I said : 
 
 " The means of communication do not appear to me 
 a very important element in the early history of either 
 Buddhism, Christianity or Mohammedanism. Similar 
 means were open to all. The early progress of Buddh- 
 ism may be called ' marvellous,' in that it was rapid and 
 wide. But, in reality, it was not wonderful that men 
 should welcome almost anything as an escape from the 
 fearful Brahmanic tyranny. I prefer to apply the word 
 ' marvellous ' to the progress made by a faith like the 
 Christian, which encountered antagonisms immensely 
 stronger and more relentless than anything which the 
 followers of Buddha met. A system like Christianity, 
 demanding perfect loyalty to God and equal love to 
 
DIFFICULTIES IN THE HINDU MIND 141 
 
 men, and permitting no compromises like that of Buddh- 
 ism when it consented to be one of the three religions 
 in China, makes progress by overcoming the most ob- 
 durate pride and all the entrenched wickedness of man ; 
 and, therefore, I regard its early advance as one of 
 the chief wonders of history. Its real progress to-day 
 among non- Christian peoples is owing to the special 
 presence and power of the Holy Spirit, inspiring love, 
 creating purity, renewing the soul." 
 
 That men in India do not realize the abject condition 
 of the people as keenly as we do is evident from the 
 following questions : " If it were given to you, would 
 you like to live the simple life of India ? ' The answer 
 was : 
 
 " I am not sure that I understand what is meant by 
 1 the simple life of India.' If it means the half-clothed 
 distress, the pitiful hunger of the many millions who, not 
 merely in years of famine, but generally, live in mud 
 hovels without the comforts which are enjoyed by some 
 of the aboriginal tribes of North America, I should 
 neither like it for myself nor for the poorest and most 
 abject people of Europe and America. What Emerson 
 meant by plain living, coupled with high thinking, I 
 deem a note of the truest civilization. Enervating lux- 
 uries and the extravagances of fast living are not whole- 
 some in any part of the world. But I believe that the 
 body should be cared for — decently clothed, comfortably 
 housed, and properly fed — so that it may be the best 
 instrument of a vigorous mind and a pure heart. And 
 therefore I look upon the ' simple life ' of the naked 
 mendicant and the dirty fakir as neither an ornament 
 nor a credit to religion and humanity. Of course, there 
 have been ascetic developments here and there in Chris- 
 
142 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 tian history of which I would speak in a similar way ; 
 but they mostly belong to a remote period of the past. 
 The opportunity and the freedom which belong to the 
 British and American nationalities, a gift to them in a 
 large measure from Christianity, have delivered the vast 
 majority of the people from the material and, it seems 
 to me, debasing conditions which prevail almost every- 
 where in India. I know that there are inequalities in 
 Christendom, and there is much room for improvement 
 in the distribution of wealth ; but more than nine-tenths 
 of the people are advanced from that state of close ap- 
 proximation to mere animalism in physical conditions 
 which distresses me in my observations here. I am well 
 aware that under the just over-rule of Great Britain 
 material conditions have much improved. With peace 
 and justice, progress has been made. But far greater 
 progress is still demanded, in order that India may 
 escape from the curse of what is now a ' simple life ' — a 
 life which is utterly unfitted for a being like man, with 
 a soul capable of noble hungers, living in a world which 
 ought to meet his many material, intellectual and moral 
 wants. So long as agriculture is the all but universal 
 occupation of the people, their material advancement 
 will be retarded. Diversified industries and the growth 
 of manufactures are needed. The building up of indus- 
 trial and technical schools will doubtless be a help in 
 these directions." 
 
 A very common question which your representatives 
 meet, and which I met, is the following: "Do you not 
 believe in the ultimate salvation of all souls ; and, if not, 
 is not your Christianity inferior to Hinduism, which 
 provides for the salvation of all ? " I said in reply : 
 
 " In meeting such an inquiry, one must ask, what is 
 
DIFFICULTIES IN THE HINDU MIND 143 
 
 meant by salvation in either case ? With the Hindu, it 
 is not deliverance from the guilt and pollution of sin, 
 but final, unconscious absorption into the one immeas- 
 urable All. And even this is open only to Brahmans. 
 The other nineteen-twentieths of the people are with- 
 out saving worship or ceremonies. They must go on 
 following custom until 8,400,000 of re-births, with all 
 the horrors of animal and demonic existence, shall 
 finally bring them into a state to be born Brahmans. 
 Christianity promises an immediate transfer to a life of 
 perfect blessedness and endless growth, and makes this 
 promise to all who accept God's merciful provision. 
 The salvation which Hinduism offers, after measureless 
 and merciless cycles of sorrow, is really not worth hav- 
 ing ; its eternities are not equivalent to one moment of 
 the Christian's heaven. Hinduism robs salvation of all 
 moral value, and then hedges its worthless treasure 
 about with the thorns and briars of 8,400,000 miserable 
 reincarnations. Christianity does provide what is ade- 
 quate for the final salvation of all. There is no lack on 
 God's part, as He is revealed to us in the Christian 
 Scriptures. He would have all men saved ; and, if 
 they are not, the blame can never justly be laid at the 
 door of the loving God of Redemption. But while 
 Hinduism robs salvation of all worth, what evidence is 
 there that it will bring its theory or can bring its theory 
 into realization ? Is it anything more than a dream ? 
 Hinduism provides theoretically for stupendous results 
 in merging the many into the one, but what is it more 
 than a theory ? Hinduism providing for the final sal- 
 vation of all men is like a child offering to its playmates 
 the treasures of the moon. God only can give salvation, 
 and we believe that in His revealed Word He has set 
 
144 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 forth its conditions. Neither Hindu theorists nor 
 Christian theologians can determine the issues of the 
 future. We may echo what God says, but our specula- 
 tions about the mysteries of eternity are not of com- 
 manding and vital moment." 
 
 A few years ago a wide discussion occurred in the 
 Presbyterian Churches of America over a revision of 
 the Confession of Faith. One of the articles giving 
 offence was that which stated that elect infants, dying 
 in infancy, are saved, the implication being, as many 
 thought, that non-elect infants were lost. The reformers 
 desired a plain statement of w T hat is the universal faith 
 — namely, that all infants are immediately saved. This 
 matter was under discussion by the Preslyytery of 
 Chicago, and a vote favoring revision was, at last, carried. 
 Thereupon a reporter for one of the Chicago journals, 
 who had evidently been trained in the theory that the 
 Councils of the Church have an active influence, and, 
 possibly a retroactive influence, on the decisions of the 
 Almighty, came to me and said, very earnestly and sin- 
 cerely : " Now that your Presbytery has decided that 
 all infants are to be saved, I would like to put to 
 you this question, What becomes of those infants w r ho 
 died before this action of the Presbytery was taken ? " 
 I have a strong impression that neither the Chicago 
 Presbytery nor Hindu theorists determine the future 
 lot of other people. I have a strong feeling that the 
 assertions of my Hindu friends in regard to the univer- 
 sal salvation of men are of little consequence in the 
 world of religion to-day. It may be characteristic of 
 Hinduism and of some forms of Christianity to pay but 
 meagre attention to the life that now is, to the present 
 sins and sufferings of struggling humanity, and to dream 
 
DIFFICULTIES IN THE HINDU MIND 145 
 
 and to speculate and to theorize about a remote, a celes- 
 tial future ; but I believe that the real value of religions 
 is determined not so much along the lines of inquiry 
 that we are now pursuing, although even here Chris- 
 tianity infinitely transcends Hinduism, but along other 
 lines of investigation. If you wish to test your Hindu- 
 ism in comparison with Christianity, you may ask, as I 
 said of Mohammedanism, what are the fundamental and 
 spiritual ideas of each faith ; its incomplete and ignoble 
 teachings, if there be such; the spiritual dynamics of 
 each, through which its ideals become realized ; the best 
 effects that each can show ; and what I may call the 
 average results, its working through long ages on great 
 masses of people — in other words, its vital relations to 
 civilization, enlightenment, liberty, and progress. Chris- 
 tianity proves its value by saving men here and now, 
 not postponing its effects until another life. This power 
 Hinduism not only does not possess, but in India does 
 not claim to possess. Hindu lecturers are not endeav- 
 oring to win converts to Hinduism among the Ameri- 
 cans and Europeans who are living in India. It is 
 from among deluded Europeans and Americans who 
 have never seen India that a few Hindu teachers are 
 trying to make converts. 
 
 Judged by its power to save men from sin in this life, 
 the terrible failure of Hinduism is blazingly apparent. 
 I know the sins of Christendom, and I would that 
 Christendom were far better ; but, compared with the 
 non-Christian world as spread out in the Indian penin- 
 sula, it appears to me as noonday to midnight. After 
 what I have seen, I am almost persuaded that within 
 the area of a thousand square miles of America there 
 
 is more of uprightness, moral purity, and true self- 
 10 
 
146 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 respecting manhood and womanhood than can be found 
 in all Asia, leaving out the better elements that have 
 come from Christendom. The notion that Asia does 
 not need the Gospel of Christ because there are fine 
 and lofty sentiments in the Boohs of the East, or because 
 Oriental speakers, trained in Christian schools and 
 shaped by Christian environments, are able to make an 
 agreeable impression, expounding their faiths on Ameri- 
 can platforms, is born of ignorance. The famous apos- 
 tle of Hinduism to America, who, according to recent 
 reports, is doing very much to break down Hinduism in 
 India, and who has been driven from a Hindu temple 
 because he had polluted it by his presence, a man of 
 great eloquence and plausibility, was graduated from a 
 Presbyterian college in Calcutta, and infuses into his 
 so-called Hinduism many of the truths and sentiments 
 of the Christian Gospel. 
 
 Let me say, in closing, that I do not anticipate the re- 
 generation of India as the result of native reform move- 
 ments, founded on a comprehensive eclecticism, even 
 movements of the high ethical quality of the Brahmo 
 Somaj, represented in this country by Mr. Mozoomdar. 
 That movement, overvaluing the intellectual history of 
 India, naturally strives to offend and oppose the na- 
 tional spirit as little as possible. I thank God for all 
 its great work of enlightening and disprovincializing 
 India, but as a separate movement it appears to be 
 hopelessly inadequate. It is not so strong as it was 
 twenty years ago. It numbers at most but a few thou- 
 sands out of three hundred millions. It is breaking into 
 infinitesimal fragments, and Mr. Mozoomdar moans that 
 it appears to be on the point of dissolution. It seems 
 unable to cope with the present rising tide of Hinduism 
 
DIFFICULTIES IN THE HINDU MIND 147 
 
 — one of those periodic waves of revival which the dying 
 system throws upon the shore. It lacks courage, and 
 its greatest leader is one of the saddest as well as 
 sweetest of men. He is almost cast out in Calcutta by 
 those who should have gathered around him. He has 
 spirituality enough to be a Hindu Thomas a Kernpis, 
 but his people will not follow him toward Christ. Noble 
 theistic ideas are not adequate, unless they are in accord 
 with Christian theism, God in Christ. Eclecticism is 
 not life and power. Men need, in order to integrate 
 all truths into a living oneness, the personal Christ, 
 the ever-living Son of God and Son of man. When I 
 learned that one of the Brahmo leaders gave up an 
 evening to a lecture on the moral imperfections of 
 Jesus, I felt that this movement was doomed. I am 
 more convinced than ever that the message which the 
 missionary or Christian lecturer carries to India and 
 the Farther East should be the distinctively Gospel mes- 
 sage. It ought not to lack those elements of positiveness 
 which have always been the chief strength of Christian 
 testimony. It should centre in Him, the historic Christ, 
 who sums up all that is most blessed and most distinc- 
 tive in our faith. It should build on the intellectual and 
 spiritual foundations already laid in non-Christian lands, 
 and not disturb those foundations. It should seek to 
 better the edifice, but not to upturn or shatter the basis 
 of truth which all the churches have united in planting. 
 The messenger who goes to Asia to emphasize some- 
 thing else than the divine and ever-living Christ, who 
 goes there to air his doubts or speak with uncertain 
 sound before men who are already bothered with an ex- 
 cess of uncertainties, would better have stayed at home. 
 This may be true also of those who emphasize minor 
 
148 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 dogmas which do not belong to the catholic creed, those 
 who magnify non-essentials while confronting a pagan- 
 ism whose superstitions and horrors ought to melt the 
 church into unity ; and I would say the same thing of 
 those who are the bond-servants of a Christian ecclesi- 
 asticism which at some points is as mechanical in its 
 method of salvation as Hinduism itself. The evangel- 
 ization of India can be achieved only by proclaiming the 
 living Christ, and by an exemplification in brotherliness 
 and righteousness of apostolic Christianity. Preach- 
 ing the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the 
 truth, and preaching it in that love which is wise in dis- 
 tinguishing things that are great and essential from 
 those that are trivial and secondary, the church will 
 magnify the power of its testimony. 
 
 I have come to feel more strongly than ever that no 
 limp type of Christianity can grapple successfully with 
 such spiritual and moral problems as confront us in 
 Asia. No mechanical ecclesiasticism, playing with 
 lighted candles and clinging to exploded dogmas of ex- 
 clusive churchly authority, can regenerate India. The 
 Christianity needed must be wise and patient and sym- 
 pathetic ; hospitable to all truth, and friendly to all 
 goodness; and, first of all, it must have in it the life-blood 
 of the old evangel which Paul carried to Rome and the 
 Puritans brought to America. It must be able to pro- 
 duce Christians who have nerve and fibre to make sacri- 
 fices, to endure hardships ; and who, casting aside any 
 vain hopes of doing for Asia in a decade what sixteen 
 centuries of European civilization have scarcely accom- 
 plished, are determined to keep at it till the work is done. 
 This world of ours needs Christ — the whole Christ ; not 
 a partial Christ ; not a Saviour who has no almighty 
 
DIFFICULTIES IN THE HINDU MIND 149 
 
 power to save ; not a Teacher overcome by human fail- 
 ings, and Himself conquered by death ; but the Christ 
 of the Gospels — the one unique feature and element of 
 Christianity ; the Christ of the Throne and the Cradle ; 
 the Christ of the Cross and the broken Sepulchre ; the 
 loving, suffering, atoning, risen, and ever-living Son of 
 God, marching at the head of Christendom and of his- 
 tory, travailing in the greatness of His omnipotent 
 redeeming affection; the same yesterday, to-day, and 
 forever. 
 
CHAPTEE VI 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND BUDDHISM 
 
 India has been the theatre, as well as the cradle, of 
 other religions besides that strange amalgam which we 
 call Hinduism. India is now ruled by a Christian sov- 
 ereign. She was once ruled by Mohammedan emperors ; 
 and, long before the times of the Moguls, Buddhist 
 kings held sway over her broad domain. I find that 
 some people among us have not clearly distinguished 
 between Buddhism and the Hinduism out of which it 
 sprang. Buddhism to-day is practically non-existent in 
 India, although predominant in Ceylon and in Burma. 
 The Buddhist and the Hindu of to-day, while thev 
 have much in common, are apt to hold opposing opinions 
 in regard to the divine personality. While the Hindu 
 boasts his doctrine of God, the agnostic Buddhist ex- 
 ploits his doctrine of man. During the sessions of the 
 Parliament of Religions, even the omniscient newspapers 
 were all the while confusing the faiths of the world. 
 While that meeting was in progress, a Jew from the 
 City of New York, who for years had been a member of 
 the Committee of the Maha Bodhi Gaya Society, which 
 has for its object the purchase by the Buddhist world of 
 the temple of Gaya, where Gautama received his en- 
 lightenment, came to Chicago, and in a little company 
 of Theosophists was received by Mr. Dharmapala into 
 membership in the Buddhist community on the promise 
 
 150 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND BUDDHISM 151 
 
 of avoiding fleshly sins and leading a pure life. Imagine 
 the astonishment of Mr. Mozoomdar, of the Brahmo 
 Somaj, the society of the worshippers of God, as he 
 read in the papers the next morning that he, Mozoom- 
 dar, had received the night before a new convert to his 
 faith ! The distinctive feature of Mr. Mozoomdar's doc- 
 trine is his recognition of the spirit of a personal God 
 in all life, in all religions, in all nations. A distinctive 
 feature of most Buddhist philosophers of to-day, as of 
 their master at the beginning, is agnosticism with re- 
 gard to a personal deity. After the closing session of 
 the Parliament of B-eligions, when all hearts were lifted 
 and inspired as probably never before in their lives, I 
 was driven home in the carriage with Mr. Mozoomdar 
 and Mr. Dharmapala ; and Mozoomdar, all aglow with re- 
 ligious emotion, said to his Buddhist friend : " Didn't 
 you feel, didn't you realize in your own soul to-night 
 the presence and the power of God ? " And Dharma- 
 pala answered the inquiry with the Avords : "Why not 
 be satisfied with one's happy feelings without trying to 
 settle where they came from ? " 
 
 A list of the popular mistakes and journalistic errors 
 in regard to the fundamental facts and basal character- 
 istics of the world-leading faiths would make it plain 
 that America needs elemental and reiterated teaching 
 on these important themes. I have heard the question : 
 " Is not Mohammedanism the oldest of the world's 
 faiths?" and also the inquiry: "Which are the more 
 numerous, the Mohammedans or the Buddhists, in 
 India ? " And a leading journal of America described 
 the platform of the Parliament as a place where Chris- 
 tian divines sat side by side with learned Hindu Pun- 
 jabs ! Buddhism is now a stranger in the land of its 
 
152 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 birth ; and although it had a long and useful history in 
 India, the Brahinans succeeded finally in driving out 
 the followers of the gentle sage and saint, the greatest 
 and holiest man that ancient India ever gave to the 
 world. Buddha was retained as the ninth incarnation 
 of Vishnu ; but the old gods whom Gautama ignored 
 were not only restored to their former places in the 
 Hindu mind, but came back in time even to the popular 
 faith of the Buddhists themselves. 
 
 This evening, after halting a few minutes in Ceylon, 
 we pass from the East, which to the Englishman is 
 India, to the even more important Far East, which in- 
 cludes China and Japan. The mission which carried 
 me to the one sent me also to the other ; and although I 
 only skirted the great world of China, touching for 
 thirty-six hours at Saigon, for twenty hours at Hong- 
 kong, England's chief port in the Pacific, and twenty 
 hours at Shanghai, one of the main centres of eastern 
 trade, I had nineteen days in Japan, where my time, as 
 in India, was given not only to public speaking, but 
 also to the study of most interesting problems. I have 
 been accustomed to think of India as a great banyan- 
 tree, spreading out dark, wide, and gloomy, with many 
 of its trunks decayed, a resting-place of unclean birds, 
 and sombre with clouds that cover both the zenith and 
 the horizon ; but Japan is a wild-cherry blossom, 
 gleaming in the morning light of Western civilization. 
 Japan represents the present and the future, and her 
 brave, intelligent people abound with national hope and 
 self-confidence. India represents the past ; and she 
 moans with petulant melancholy over the splendors, 
 fabulous or real, of a remote antiquity. Between India 
 and Japan lies the hugest of nationalities, greatest and 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND BUDDHISM 153 
 
 most populous of all the world-empires, enslaved, 
 dwarfed, and brutalized, but still the most potential, 
 unused factor in the problem of the world's industrial 
 and religious future. 
 
 Ceylon was to us the halting-place and stepping-stone 
 in our voyage from the East to the Far East ; and in the 
 long journeys from Colombo to Yokohama we skirted 
 not only the continent of Asia, but also the world of 
 Buddhism, a system multiplex as Hinduism itself, which 
 rules, or at least prevails, in Ceylon, in British Burma, 
 in Java, in Si am and An am, in Nepaul, in Thibet, Ko- 
 rea, and Japan, in the Island of Formosa, over which 
 now floats the white and sun-bearing Japanese flag, and 
 throughout all China, where it is mingled with Confu- 
 cianism and Taoism. Of all the personal religions, 
 Buddhism has thus far touched the greatest number of 
 human souls ; although Buddhism has not the world- 
 wide aspects and has not produced the world-wide effects 
 of Christianity. Gautama was not only a teacher, but 
 a propagandist ; and his strength as a missionary came 
 not only from his order of preaching mendicant monks, 
 to which multitudes attached themselves as lay brethren 
 in order to attain Nirvana, but also from the attractive- 
 ness of his teaching of universal brotherhood, and, like 
 Luther and John Knox, he preached to the people in 
 their own language. 
 
 Gautama's system presents almost as great a variety 
 of forms as Hinduism. It is sometimes atheistic, and 
 then polytheistic ; now philanthropic, now philosophic ; 
 now monastic, now even demonic, and allied to witch- 
 craft and necromancy. It is well known that Buddhism 
 in Japan captured and made use of Shinto, or the prim- 
 itive national religion, for its own purposes ; just as it 
 
154 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 stands ready today, according to one writer, " to absorb 
 Christianity by making Jesus one of the Palestinian 
 avatars of the Buddha." Original Buddhism — whose 
 way of salvation has been called the little vessel or little 
 vehicle "Hinayana," whereby, on account of its philo- 
 sophic character, only a small number may cross the 
 river of earthliness to reach the calm and passionless 
 shores of Nirvana — has been succeeded or supplemented 
 with a larger vessel or vehicle of salvation, the " Maha- 
 yana," the " Great Eastern" or " Campania " of Buddhist 
 thought, in which the multitudes may find safe, if not 
 comfortable, quarters in their passage over a stormy sea 
 toward the same quiet harbor. "We must not expect to 
 find any uniformity in the teachings of Buddhists, for 
 northern Buddhism has broken away from the original 
 doctrine of Buddha in regard to Nirvana, " and glided 
 into a belief in immortality and in a heaven so sensuous 
 that it is hard to understand how its disciples can con- 
 sistently call themselves Buddhists." It may be said 
 that the Buddhism of the Shamans in the steppes of 
 Tartary is as different from the original doctrine as the 
 Christianity of the Abyssinians is from the teaching of 
 Christ. This system has absorbed the superstitions of 
 the lands where it now prevails, and has even become 
 a partner with devil-worship in Burma. There are at 
 least a dozen sects of Buddhists in Japan, some of 
 which certainly teach the doctrine of salvation by faith. 
 And Albert Beville has said of Buddhism in China that 
 "it looks on first view like a simple modification of 
 Taoism, which was its precursor and propagator. Its 
 doctrine, which was not Taoism, but resembled it, and 
 responded to the same needs in a more complete, mys- 
 terious, and imposing way, found a platform prepared 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND BUDDHISM 155 
 
 for it in many souls." (Albert Reville, " La Religion 
 Chinoise," p. 104.) This gives us the explanation of 
 the fact that Buddhism is the only doctrine of foreign 
 origin which ever made notable progress in the Celestial 
 Empire. And Professor Rhys Davids has written : 
 " Not one of the five hundred millions who offer flowers 
 now and then on Buddhist shrines, who are more or 
 less moulded by Buddhist teaching, is only or altogether 
 a Buddhist." And he adds that " to trace all the devel- 
 opments of Buddhism, from its rise in India in the fifth 
 century B.C., through its various fortunes there, and its 
 progress in the countries to which it spread down to 
 the present time, would be to write the history of nearly 
 half of the human race during the greater part of that 
 period within which anything worthy the name of his- 
 tory is possible at all." (Rhys Davids, " Buddhism," 
 
 p. a.) 
 
 Since my return to America I have received an in- 
 vitation to deliver an address, giving my " personal ob- 
 servations of the effects of Buddhism on the women of 
 India ! " Replying to this note, I said, among other 
 things, that only a few hundred Buddhists were left in 
 India. We must go outside of that land to study nine- 
 teenth century Buddhism. I met a few priests in Cal- 
 cutta ; and at Darjeeling I saw a Thibetan Buddhist, 
 who was also a worshipper of the Hindu gods, bowing 
 at a little shrine on Observatory Hill, in sight of the 
 sublimest mountains of the world. The usual forms of 
 Hindu idolatry were observed ; and on trees about the 
 altar were ten thousand paper prayers dangling from 
 strings, and designed to keep off the demons. In the 
 bazaars of Darjeeling we bought a Buddhist prayer- 
 wheel, but not till wo reached Ceylon did we meet any 
 
156 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 great numbers of the Buddhist faith. The system of 
 Gautama is dominant where the spicy breezes blow soft 
 o'er Ceylon's isle. In Colombo we had the pleasure of 
 a reception at the spacious and hospitable home of Don 
 Carolis, father of Mr. Dharmapala, the Buddhist speaker 
 who has been twice in America ; and we found the family 
 still grateful over the kindnesses which the son had re- 
 ceived in this country. I was also honored with a call 
 from the high priest of Buddhism in Ceylon, Samangala, 
 a world-famous scholar, seventy years of age, teacher of 
 Sanskrit and Pali in the Buddhist college, and an eccle- 
 siastic who lives on friendly terms with the English 
 bishop of Colombo, and with many of our chief mission- 
 aries. When I presented this courteous and yellow- 
 robed priest to Mrs. Barrows, he turned away and said 
 to his secretary : " Please tell them that I am not per- 
 mitted to speak to a woman." 
 
 The Island of Ceylon has been twice forcibly con- 
 verted to Christianity, once by the Portuguese and then 
 by the Dutch ; but this rapid, mechanical, military proc- 
 ess, while it ecclesiasticized the people in a superficial 
 way, did not win their hearts from the ancestral faith, 
 and did not represent the true spirit of Christianity, 
 which is now making slower, more important, and more 
 permanent conquests. Of the three million people in 
 Ceylon, the Buddhists represent sixty-two per cent., 
 the Hindus twenty-seven per cent., the Mohammedans 
 seven per cent., and the Christians more than ten per 
 cent. One is struck after a few hours in Ceylon by the 
 superiority of the civilization which Buddhism has cre- 
 ated over that of Hinduism. You feel at once that the 
 conditions of life are relatively better. Whatever may 
 be said in criticism of the effects of Buddhism in China, 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND BUDDHISM 157 
 
 Japan, and elsewhere, I must give it the credit of saying 
 that it has not plunged a people into quite such depths 
 of misery and despair as has the ancient Hinduism. 
 There are no tones of triumph and hope sounded by the 
 Buddhist faith, I well know — nearly all its chords are 
 minor, but something of its ethical humanity lingers 
 here and there ; and if it has not lifted nations out of 
 animalism, it has not plunged them into such abysses of 
 hopeless and universal misery. 
 
 In Wesley College, Colombo, I had my first oppor- 
 tunity of addressing a large number of Buddhists on the 
 claims of Christianity ; and while in Kandy I entered my 
 first Buddhist temple, the famous shrine containing the 
 sacred tooth of Gautama — a relic not one whit more im- 
 possible than many similar frauds exhibited in Chris- 
 tian cathedrals of Europe. This tooth — a piece of ivory 
 two inches long, and not quite an inch wide — may have 
 belonged to a crocodile ; and when I spoke of its extraor- 
 dinary size to the attendant, he informed me that the 
 books of their religion told them that Gautama Buddha 
 was eighteen feet in height ! Kandy, more than two 
 thousand feet above the sea, is perhaps the loveliest 
 spot that human eyes ever looked upon. The placid 
 lake, the flower-covered hill-sides, the gentle mountains, 
 the wonderful luxuriance of nature ! Who can forget 
 the ever-pleasing prospects of the region which tradition 
 claims to have been the scriptural paradise ? The force 
 of nature here exhibited in the vegetable world sur- 
 passes anything elsewhere to be found. In the world- 
 famous gardens one may look upon two hundred varie- 
 ties of the palm-tree, at all the more noteworthy 
 products of tropical lands, and may gaze with astonish- 
 ment and almost terror at the gigantic sheafs of Malacca 
 
158 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 bamboos, each a tree in itself — a cluster a hundred feet 
 in circumference, shooting into the air like a botanical 
 geyser, one hundred and one hundred and twenty feet, 
 indicating on the part of nature a vigor, a violence — I 
 almost feel like saying, a venomousness — of life which I 
 have not seen paralleled elsewhere. What the Himalaya 
 Mountains do to impress the mind with the power of 
 the Creator, is accomplished by these vegetable won- 
 ders of Ceylon, in astonishing the mind by the active 
 presence of creative life. Man's feebleness and help- 
 lessness in the presence of such a wondrous vitality may 
 have had a permanent influence over religious thought. 
 Nature is prodigious, prolific, all-powerful. The ever- 
 beating sea, the drenching storms, the unparalleled 
 fecundity of the soil — what is man after all, but a play 
 thing in the midst of scenes and forces like these ? But 
 there is a friendliness apparent in much that Nature 
 does in tropic seas quite in contrast with the apparent 
 hostility of northern cold and the forces which, while 
 they fight human comfort, call forth the active energies 
 of the hardy races of men. The presence in Ceylon of 
 men of northern energy has humanized and civilized the 
 tropic wildness of the island, and so the moral forces of 
 Christianity will yet energize the Singhalese and Tamil 
 races which make the bulk of that population. One 
 morning, waking from sleep in Kandy, I heard the 
 monotonous beating of drums at the neighboring tem- 
 ple, calling the early worshippers to prayer in a service 
 which recognizes no God. The music, so strange, and 
 weird, and sensational, stirred my heart with a feeling 
 of profound pity ; and yet it sent my imagination off in 
 a wide flight over many Eastern lands. I heard in it the 
 echoes of plaintive voices that have sounded over the 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND BUDDHISM 159 
 
 Indian plains down many weary and woful centuries ; 
 and I knew that such music, monotonous and mechani- 
 cal, but far from meaningless, then stirred hundreds of 
 millions of hearts in that far Eastern world to which my 
 steps were soon to be tending. 
 
 This evening we shall endeavor to bring into compar- 
 ison Buddhism and Christianity. Most of us are aware 
 that these religions are independent in their origin. 
 Scholarship asserts that there is no evidence that the 
 evangelists borrowed anything from Buddhism, or knew 
 anything about it. Professor Rhys Davids finds no 
 proof of any actual and direct communication of any of 
 the ideas common to Buddhism and Christianity from 
 the East to the West. Professor Kuenen expresses the 
 general scholarly conclusion in saying that "we must 
 abstain from assigning to Buddhism the smallest direct 
 influence on the origin of Christianity." We have lives 
 of Christ, we have four biographies of Jesus ; and the 
 ablest scholars are generally agreed in assigning at least 
 the first three, or synoptic, Gospels to the first century 
 of oar era. The life of Buddha which modern scholar- 
 ship has been able to extract from the legendary extrav- 
 agances gathered about the Indian sage is meagre, and 
 rich with uncertainties. The traditions current in the 
 northern and southern Buddhist churches contradict 
 each other. But even if we select onty those in which 
 they are agreed, and which were adopted as canonical 
 by the Council of Patna, about 240 B.C., as the basis of 
 his life, the facts are comparatively few — marvellously 
 so when compared with the abundance of our trustwor- 
 thy information regarding the life of Him who was not 
 merely the Light of Asia, but the Light of the World. 
 For hundreds of years after Buddha's death nothing 
 
160 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 was written down ; all was transmitted by word of mouth. 
 It has been said of the " Lalita Yistara " — the standard 
 Sanscrit work of the northern Buddhists on the life of 
 their master, or rather the early life of Gautama down to 
 the time when he began his public teaching — that this 
 extravagant fiction, or these wild fantasies, as Oldenberg 
 calls them, so far as real proof can be found, did not ex- 
 ist in the present form before the year 600 of our era. 
 Even those who are familiar with the Apocryphal Gos- 
 pels, with all their fantastic extravagances, can hardly 
 imagine, if they have not read them, how grotesque the 
 oriental mind has been in weaving its fictions about the 
 birth and temptations and achievements of Buddha. 
 Some of these have been deftly woven by Sir Edwin 
 Arnold into his popular poem, which is about as trust- 
 worthy as a life of Gautama, it has been said, " as would 
 be a history of our Lord that was compiled indiscrim- 
 inately from the New Testament, the Apocryphal Gos- 
 pels, and the myths of the Middle Ages." (T. Sterling 
 Berry, " Christianity and Buddhism," p. 29.) 
 
 " The Birth Stories of Ceylon " represent him as hav- 
 ing been born five hundred and thirty times after he 
 became a predestined Buddha. We read that he was 
 born eighty-three times as an ascetic, forty-eight times 
 as a monarch, forty-three times as a Deva, twenty-four 
 as a Brahman, eighteen as an ape ; as a deer, ten ; an 
 elephant, six ; a lion, ten ; at least once each as a thief, 
 gambler, a frog, a hare, and a snipe. He was also em- 
 bodied in a tree. But, as a predestined Buddha, he 
 could not be born in hell, nor as vermin, nor as a 
 woman. Spence Hardy has said : " He could descend 
 no lower than a snipe ! " The northern legends of his 
 births are far more fantastic than anything in the 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND BUDDHISM 161 
 
 Apocryphal Gospels. And at the time of his tempta- 
 tion under the Bo-tree, according to the Northern Script- 
 ures, Satan came to him mounted on an elephant six- 
 teen miles high, and surrounded by an encircling army 
 of demons twelve miles deep. " The later Singhalese 
 books make him do wonders with a bow which one 
 thousand men could not bend, and the twang of whose 
 string was heard for seven thousand miles ; and they 
 say : ' The prince also proved that he knew perfectly 
 the eighteen arts, though he never had a teacher, and 
 he was equally well acquainted with many other sci- 
 ences.' " (Rhys Davids, " Buddhism," p. 14.) 
 
 The date that used to be accepted for Buddha's death 
 is 543 B.C., but Rhys Davids makes it nearly a century 
 later ; while Sir Monier-Williams puts the year of his 
 birth at about 500, which would bring the year of his 
 death down to 420. But, since the Hindu mind has no 
 idea of chronology, and since we have nothing like con- 
 temporary or nearly contemporary accounts of his story, 
 we need not be surprised at this. We certainly must re- 
 'ject the theory which has been learnedly advanced that he 
 was only a myth. Furthermore, we ought to remember 
 that, whereas Christ Himself and His history are the 
 substance of the Gospel record, it is quite otherwise 
 with Buddha. " There are only fragmentary notices of 
 his personal story." The only exception which de- 
 serves to be made is this, that Buddha's words and deeds 
 in the last days of his life are minutely and lovingly re- 
 corded. And, later in the lecture, I shall give you an 
 account of his death, as described in the " Book of the 
 Great Decease," where we tread on fairly substantial 
 historic ground. 
 
 I shall now try to tell you the main facts in the life 
 11 
 
162 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 of this most illustrious son of India, remarking, however, 
 that in comparing the legends which gathered about 
 Buddha with the authentic and historic accounts of 
 Christ, we see mainly divergencies; and when "we are 
 confronted with the statement that in the Gospel his- 
 tory, as it has been handed down to us, legend has pre- 
 vailed over fact, it is important to be able to point to a 
 case in which such a process actually occurred ; for it 
 is by a comparison of this kind that we can most plainly 
 see how untenable the mythical theory becomes as an 
 explanation of the records of the New Testament." 
 (Berry, "Christianity and Buddhism," p. 51.) 
 
 Probably some time in the sixth century before the 
 shepherds were rejoicing in Bethlehem over the new- 
 born King of the Jews, there was born in India, 
 more than a hundred miles from sacred Benares, in the 
 town of Kapilavastu, a son who rejoiced the heart 
 of the Rajah who was his father and of the mother 
 Maia, beautiful as the water-lily and as pure in mind 
 as the lotus, who within a few days passed away from 
 the sorrows of life. His father was of the tribe of 
 the Sakyas ; and the name of the family was Gautama, 
 and the name of the son was Siddartha. And afterward, 
 when he became a monk, he was called Sakya-Muni, the 
 monk of the Sakyas. It was not until after his great 
 experience beneath the fig-tree that he became Buddha, 
 the enlightened one, the truly wise, or the awakened. 
 As Nazareth, where Jesus was brought up, was compar- 
 atively remote from the centre of Jewish civilization, so 
 Siddartha's early home was "far from the site of Yedic 
 culture." " In fact," says Professor Hopkins, " where 
 Gautama lived there was rather more respect paid to 
 the ascetic than to the priest. Gautama was most fort- 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND BUDDHISM 163 
 
 unate in his birth and birth-place. An aristocrat, he 
 became an ascetic in a land where priests were particu- 
 larly disregarded. He had no public opinion to contend 
 against when, later, he declared that Brahman birth and 
 Brahman wisdom had no value." (Hopkins, " Religions 
 of India," p. 303.) "When Siddartha was born, under the 
 lofty satin-tree in the garden of the Lumbini, according 
 to Buddhist legend, " all the worlds were flooded with 
 light. The blind received their sight, by longing to see 
 the coming glory of the Lord ; the deaf and dumb spoke 
 with one another of the good omens indicating the birth 
 of Buddha. The crooked became straight; the lame 
 walked. All prisoners were freed from their chains, and 
 the fires of all the hells were extinguished. No clouds 
 gathered in the skies, and the polluted streams became 
 clear, whilst celestial music rang through the air and 
 the angels rejoiced with gladness. With no selfish or 
 partial joy, but for the sake of the law, they rejoiced, for 
 creation engulfed in the ocean of pain was now to obtain 
 release. The cries of beasts were hushed ; all malevo- 
 lent beings received a loving heart, and peace reigned 
 on earth. Mara, the evil one, alone was grieved and 
 rejoiced not." (" Birth Stories," p. 64.) The accounts 
 agree that Siddartha was distinguished for purity of 
 life, for intellectual power, for bodily vigor, and that he 
 was happily married at an early age to the daughter of 
 a neighboring Rajah. He experienced life on its bright- 
 er and more beautiful sides, but was not satisfied. A 
 noble unrest took possession of his soul. He saw age, 
 sickness, death, and the myriad forms of sorrow about 
 him, and he began to ask the nineteenth-century ques- 
 tion : " Is life worth living ? " He was possessed with 
 the prevailing belief in reincarnation, and it was " in 
 
1G4 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 order to free himself from future returns of these ills, 
 that Gautama renounced his home." (Hopkins, p. 302.) 
 Even the birth of a son had not satisfied and contented 
 his heart. And, looking around him, he felt that only 
 the ascetic, the man who had given up human ties and 
 relationships, was superior to the depressing influences 
 of time and the degradation of the body. And, thus, at 
 the age of twenty-nine he made what has been called 
 the Great Renunciation. He left his home, his wife, his 
 princely dignities, and went off, not knowing whither he 
 went. This great act has touched the heart of mankind ; 
 and it finds its parallel in the lives of multitudes who, 
 in Christian and other lands, moved by the same unrest, 
 and faint with the "weary weight of all this unintelligi- 
 ble world," have looked to the desert, to monastic seclu- 
 sion, to the ascetic life for release, believing that the 
 Divine Spirit was summoning them out of the world to 
 save the soul. And there is a universal truth under- 
 lying this exaggeration, which Goethe has uttered most 
 impressively : 
 
 " Renounce, renounce, renunciation, 
 Such is the everlasting song 
 
 Which in the ears of all men rings, 
 Which every day our whole life long 
 
 In brazen accents hoarsely sings." 
 
 " That night at midnight," we are told, " Buddha sent 
 his charioteer for his horse, and whilst he was gone he 
 went to the threshold of his wife's chamber, and there, 
 by the light of the flickering lamp, he watched her 
 sleeping, surrounded by flowers, with one hand on the 
 head of their child. He had wished for the last time to 
 take the babe in his arms before he left, but he now saw 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND BUDDHISM 165 
 
 that lie could not do so without awaking the mother." 
 (lihys Davids, " Buddhism," p. 31.) Buddha was alert to 
 save his own soul ; and, taking the garments of a beggar, 
 he went to one famous teacher and then to another, to 
 learn what Brahmanism had to impart concerning the 
 way of escape from life and of union with the Universal 
 Spirit. How different from the discipline to which 
 Jesus voluntarily submitted Himself ! The Prophet of 
 Nazareth never withdrew from the relationships of hu- 
 man life and from human society in order to save his 
 own soul, or to discover wisdom whereby he might save 
 mankind. Buddha was disappointed in the search. 
 His six years of asceticism did not give him emancipa- 
 tion, and he afterward said : " If any other man thinks 
 that he may trust for salvation to the works of merit and 
 self-mortification, I more." He had attempted every- 
 thing which the Brahmans prescribed — concentration of 
 mind, Yoga-discipline, self-torture, and starving himself 
 nearly to death, until he reduced his daily allowance of 
 food to a single grain of rice ; all this was a failure, and 
 finally, in self-disgust, he began to eat like other men, 
 even though his five disciples abandoned him as an 
 apostate. He was now tempted to return to his family, 
 but he wrestled with the temptation and with other 
 spiritual trials. Abandoned by his friends, tempted by 
 the allurements of home, depressed by his failures, he 
 wandered out toward the banks of a river, and having 
 received his morning meal from the daughter of a neigh- 
 boring villager, he sat down under the shade of a great 
 fig-tree, which was thenceforth to be reverenced by all 
 his followers as the Bo-tree, or tree of enlightenment, of 
 divine wisdom, and to be deemed by them as holy as is 
 the Cross to the followers of Jesus. There he remained, 
 
166 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 doubting, debating, sorrowing. Was there no peace 
 anywhere ? Must he return defeated, and live the life 
 of other men ? Through all that day and through all 
 the night, and through many days and many nights, ac- 
 cording to some, he sat there till the great victory came, 
 till he beheld the open secret by which he was to move 
 the world, that not by works of penance and self- 
 mortification in which he had trusted (his pride in re- 
 gard to these was crucified), but that by the extinction 
 of desire not only through inward discipline, but through 
 love to others, were peace and salvation attainable. 
 " Before the simplicity and power of this way of salva- 
 tion, salvation from the lower self, especially from the 
 craving of continuous personal life, sacrifices and pen- 
 ances lost their efficacy and the Yeda its supernatural 
 authority." (Grant, " Religions of the World," p. 114.) 
 In that enlightenment which he had attained he saw the 
 artificiality of caste, and he thought he saw that God 
 was unnecessary. To him was given a partial truth 
 with which to move the minds of men away from the 
 errors inherent in Brahmanical worship and discipline ; 
 and from the moment of his enlightenment life became a 
 new thing. But though we may say " the desert rejoiced 
 and the wilderness became vocal with praise," Buddha 
 was wanting in just that support and exaltation which 
 a knowledge of God would have given him. He felt his 
 loneliness, his separation by a vast remove from the be- 
 liefs of his people ; and it appeared to him well-nigh 
 impossible at first to go to his fellow-countrymen with 
 teachings so incomprehensible and strange. 
 
 It was undoubtedly a great hour in the history of the 
 human soul when Buddha became enlightened by his 
 partial visions of truth. And what was the truth which 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND BUDDHISM 167 
 
 he came then to believe ? What was the wisdom which, 
 out of pity to mankind, he was later moved to declare ? 
 
 I. Birth is sorrow, age is sorrow, sickness is sorrow, 
 death is sorrow, clinging to earthly things is sorrow. 
 
 II. Birth and re-birth, the chain of re-incarnations, 
 result from the thirst for life, together with passion and 
 desire. 
 
 III. The only escape from this thirst is the annihila- 
 tion of desire. 
 
 IV. The only way of escape from this thirst is by fol- 
 lowing the Eightfold Path : Bight belief, right resolve, 
 right word, right act, right life, right effort, right think- 
 ing, right meditation. 
 
 Now men deny the complete originality of Buddha's 
 discovery, and may trace resemblances between his doc- 
 trine aud what had preceded him, and yet it must be 
 confessed that he rose away above Brahmanism as gen- 
 erally taught and practised by the discovery of his 
 method of emancipation through inward discipline and 
 love, rather than through asceticism and sacrifice. It 
 may seem to us strange that his teaching inspired any 
 joyful enthusiasm, and that it sent forth disciples to 
 preach the gospel of Buddha ; but it did. They found 
 comfort in his truth, and his progress was like that of a 
 king at whose approach prisoners escape from confine- 
 ment. He won back his five apostate disciples, and 
 called to him, unlike Jesus, many who were mighty and 
 noble and learned. " It is the rich youth of Benares 
 that flock about him, of whom sixty soon are counted, 
 and these are sent out to all lands to preach the gospel, 
 each to speak in his own tongue ; for religion was from 
 this time on no longer to be hid under the veil of an un- 
 intelligible language." " And, in their early zeal," as 
 
168 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 Dr. Kellogg has said, " the Buddhists put many Chris- 
 tians to shame." Men learn from him that neither 
 pleasure nor asceticism is the way that leads to salva- 
 tion, but the middle path which he had found between 
 those extremes. He organizes his church or society of 
 monks, who take upon them the ten vows — not to kill, 
 not to steal, to abstain from impurity, not to lie, to ab- 
 stain from intoxicating drinks, not to eat at forbidden 
 times ; to abstain from dancing, singing, music, and 
 stage-plays ; not to use garlands, scents, or ornaments ; 
 not to use a high or broad bed ; not to receive gold or 
 silver." And while these commands are not new, the 
 whole disci pline of life is taken out of the hands of the 
 Brahmans, and Buddha makes the lowest equal to the 
 highest. Though his own success depended largely on 
 his alliance with the mighty, he gave the people the op- 
 portunity of salvation, not through life-long torture, not 
 through ritual and unintelligible liturgies, but through 
 the humaner method of purity, compassion, and equality. 
 Buddha said : " He that is pure in heart is the true 
 priest, not he that knows the Yedas. Like unto one 
 that standeth where a king hath stood and spoken, and 
 standing and speaking there deems himself for this a 
 king, seems to me the man that repeateth the hymns 
 which the wise men of old have spoken, and standing in 
 their place and speaking deems himself for this a sage. 
 The Devas are nothing, the priests of no account, save 
 as they be morally of repute. Again, what use to mor- 
 tify the flesh ? Asceticism is of no value. Be pure, be 
 good; this is the foundation of wisdom — to restrain 
 desire, to be satisfied with little. He is a holy man 
 who doeth this. Knowledge follows this." (Hopkins, 
 " Hinduism," p. 319.) 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND BUDDHISM 169 
 
 Christ, the Saviour of the world, continued His minis- 
 try about three years ; Lord Buddha, as he is styled, 
 nearly fifty years. Jesus gathered about Him a few 
 hundred disciples ; Buddha, many thousands. The 
 ministry on the banks of the Ganges was more fruitful 
 apparently and successful than that on the banks of the 
 Jordan. He who prayed and toiled in sight of the snow- 
 peak of Hermon lived a sterner and more sorrowing life 
 than the mild Indian sage whose eyes rested on the 
 snow summits of the Himalayas. Jesus and His doc- 
 trine were beset by malignant and ceaseless antagon- 
 isms, while Buddha's ministry was scarcely opposed in 
 its constant triumph. The Prophet of Judea saw the 
 Cross before His eyes, and went resolutely up to Jeru- 
 salem to be crucified. The Prophet of Kapilavastu met 
 his earthly end through sickness, which the " Blessed 
 One," mindful and self-possessed, bore without com- 
 plaint. In his farewell address he said to his beloved 
 companions, Ananda and the rest, " Be ye lamps of your- 
 selves. Rely on yourselves. Hold fast to the truth as 
 a lamp. Seek salvation alone in the truth." And per- 
 ceiving that death was near, he said : " He who gives 
 away shall have real gain. He who subdues himself 
 shall be free of passion. The righteous man casts off 
 sin ; and by rooting out lust, bitterness, and delusion, do 
 we reach Nirvana." Weary and laying himself down 
 on his couch, between the twin shala trees, the Blessed 
 One reposed while heavenly songs came wafted from 
 the skies. And when his followers wept at his approach- 
 ing death, he said : " Why should I preserve this body 
 of flesh, when the body of the excellent law will endure ? " 
 And Ananda, suppressing his tears, said to the Blessed 
 One : " Who shall teach us when thou art gone? " And 
 
170 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 the Blessed One replied, " I am not the first Buddha 
 who came upon earth, nor shall I be the last. I came 
 to teach you the truth, and I have founded on earth the 
 kingdom of truth. Gautama Siddartha will die, but 
 Buddha will live ; for Buddha is the truth, and the truth 
 cannot die. He who believes in the truth and lives is 
 my disciple, and I shall teach him. The truth will be 
 propagated and the kingdom will increase for about five 
 hundred years ; then for awhile the clouds of error will 
 darken the light ; and in due time another Buddha will 
 arise and he will reveal to you the self-same eternal 
 truth which I have taught you." An an da said : " How 
 shall we know him?" The blessed One said: "The 
 Buddha that will come after me will be known as 
 Maitreya, which means, He whose name is kindness." 
 And later the Holy One said : ' ' I have first broken the 
 egg-shell of ignorance, and alone in the universe obtained 
 the most exalted universal Bucldhahood ; thus, O disci- 
 ples, I am the oldest, the noblest of these. Behold, now, 
 brethren, I exhort you, saying, Decay is inherent in all 
 component things, but the truth will remain forever. 
 Work out your salvation with diligence." (See Dr. Paul 
 Carus's " The Gospel of Buddha.") This was the last 
 word. He fell in deep meditation, and, having lost 
 consciousness, passed peacefully away. When the 
 Blessed One entered Nirvana there arose, at his passing 
 out of existence, a mighty earthquake, terrible and awe- 
 inspiring; and the thunders of heaven burst forth, 
 and of those of the brethren who were not free from 
 passions some stretched out their arms and wept, and 
 some fell headlong on the ground in anguish at the 
 thought : " Too soon has the Blessed One died ! Too 
 soon has the Happy One passed away from existence ! 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND BUDDHISM 171 
 
 Too soon lias the Light of the World gone out ! " To 
 find anything parallel with this, we must go to the dun- 
 geon and death-bed of Socrates. 
 
 Perhaps the fundamental distinction between Buddh- 
 ism and Christianity may be discerned in these char- 
 acteristic texts. Buddhism says : " Be a refuge to 
 yourselves." Christianity exclaims : " The eternal God 
 is thy refuge." Buddhism, as Principal Caird has writ- 
 ten, " may be taken as the reductio ad absurdum of sub- 
 jective religion." (" The Evolution of Beligion," Vol. 
 L, p. 366.) Thus, indeed, it shows its one-sidedness 
 and its fatal deficiency. It rendered a service, and a 
 great service, to religion ; but was it not after all largely a 
 negative service ? We may believe, with Dr. Fairbaim, 
 that, on account of its high ethical spirit, it was more 
 theistic than the Brahmanism which had driven God 
 out of morality into ritualism ; but it certainly divorced 
 two elements which Christianity binds indissolubly to- 
 gether. That he never gained the idea of a personal 
 and self-existent God ; that his spiritual genius did not 
 build on that truth the moral and rational evidences 
 for which have commanded the assent of the supreme 
 minds, and, it may almost be said, of the universal 
 mind of our race ; and that he trusted so completely to 
 certain philosophic abstractions and to certain theories 
 of the soul which have gained only a local acceptance, 
 reveals to us at once the limitation of this saintly sage 
 and of the system which grew out of his doctrine. The 
 Prophet who is also the Priest and the King of the 
 Christian faith brought into human life a new sense 
 and certainty that God is love. His foremost and fun- 
 damental teaching was of a sympathetic, all-compas- 
 sionate, divine Father, to whom every soul, however 
 
172 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 wayward, misguided, and sinful, may come with abso- 
 lute confidence. Men might have felt before the coming 
 of Christ the truth of Browning's logical inquiry : " He 
 that created Love, shall He not love ? " But Jesus fur- 
 nished to this truth new and overwhelming argument 
 and evidence in Himself, as the very disclosure of the 
 divine Fatherhood, and breathed the breath of life into 
 what otherwise would have been an unmeaning phrase. 
 He alone is responsible for persuading men to-day that 
 God is our Father, and far beyond the bounds of Chris- 
 tendom the faith has gone which is beginning to har- 
 monize the teachings of many races and religions. 
 There is no doubt among the extremest unbelievers and 
 wildest socialists of our time that Jesus Christ mani- 
 fested His love toward all men, and that His was the 
 spirit of the broadest and most impartial affection ; 
 and Jesus does not represent a different attitude of 
 mind or a different temper of heart from that of the 
 divine Father. The identity of the two is what He al- 
 ways teaches. Gautama's doctrine was fundamentally 
 ethical, and he founded a brotherhood which did service 
 in breaking down the barriers of caste ; but Christian- 
 ity's doctrine of brotherhood is made permanent and 
 rational as an essential part of a divine Fatherhood. 
 Destroy the Pater Noster as humanity's fundamental 
 creed, and brotherhood is gone, or, at best, we are a 
 fraternity of aliens, a community of exiles ; we are cer- 
 tainty beggars, who have no common heavenly bond 
 holding us together in reverent dutifulness. "We must 
 give up, as Buddhism did, the hope of human progress, 
 and expect our civilization, if not stagnant as has been 
 that of Asia, then to become like that of ancient Rome, 
 where class was arrayed against class, where selfish- 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND BUDDHISM 173 
 
 ness clashed against selfishness, and where, as faith in 
 the divine died out, men became more and more hope- 
 less and satanic. 
 
 Of course, in Buddhism there is absolutely no knowl- 
 edge of forgiveness of sins. Human life does not 
 breathe the atmosphere of divine Fatherhood, but 
 groans under the dominion of inexorable and implaca- 
 ble laws ; and it is no relief to look out upon the world 
 as a world of misfortune, rather than a world of sin. The 
 touch of divine pity is wanting. But Buddhism has never 
 remained for a long time faithful to the fundamental 
 agnosticism. The gods came back, and, with the return, 
 men prayed, and have accepted here and there some 
 substitute for God ; and what was in the beginning a 
 great ethical movement has had the most fantastic 
 developments of formalism in prayer and worship. 
 " Buddhism," it has been said, " is the only religion 
 that has invented praying by machinery, or what Car- 
 lyle calls ' the rotary calabash system ! ' Cranks, winds 
 and waters are enlisted in the service, the object being 
 to sfcore up merit by incessant repetition of prayer. A 
 rich harvest awaits the American or European trader 
 who first introduces dynamos into those countries ! " 
 (Grant, " Religions of the World," p. 132.) 
 
 Original Buddhism, without any doctrine of God, is 
 also without a true doctrine of the soul. The soul is 
 not an entity ; we are not being so much as becoming, 
 because we are never the same two consecutive instants. 
 The soul is the result of the combined action of material 
 properties, sense, abstract ideas, propensities. And 
 since, as Buddhism teaches, the inborn element of desire 
 has a tendency to lead men into evil, and since guilt 
 hangs upon the issues of a former life, there is a rest- 
 
174 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 less and uncontrolled force in the soul which must incar- 
 nate itself in other forms hereafter ; and what is left is 
 called Kharma — the act, the doing — man's record involv- 
 ing the consequences and liabilities of his deeds, his 
 score that must be settled. And it is Kharma, this 
 flame of the soul, that must enter some other being, 
 divine, human or beastly. Thus, Buddhism involves the 
 teaching that responsibility is transferred to this other. 
 The goal which made Buddha's teaching a dubious 
 gospel is Nirvana, which involves, according to the 
 usual interpretation, the extinction of love and life as 
 the going out of a flame which has nothing else to feed 
 upon. Whether Nirvana means the extinction of the 
 evil passions and of delusions which may be attained in 
 this life, as Buddha attained it under the Bo-tree at the 
 end of his spiritual struggle ; whether it means absorp- 
 tion into infinite Brahma ; or whether we agree with Rhys 
 Davids, that utter death with no life to follow is the 
 result of, but is not itself Nirvana, practical Buddhists 
 care little or nothing for the theory, or the various 
 theories, for what they hope is a better birth and an 
 improved transmigration, either in the heavens or on 
 earth. Buddhism insists on the essential evil of exist- 
 ence, Christianity on the essential good of life. Salva- 
 tion with the Buddhists is not to be. As Dr. Schroeder 
 has written : " Death in Buddhism is the wages of life, 
 but in Christianity it is the wages of sin. Buddha re- 
 deems from life, Christ from sin." 
 
 The subtleties of Buddhist metaphysics and the doc- 
 trines of the Buddhist ethics have had a most volumi- 
 nous expression in the scriptures which the disciples 
 of Gautama have heaped about the facts and legends 
 of his life. In the great council called by Asoka, often 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND BUDDHISM 175 
 
 named the Buddhist Constantine, but a better man than 
 the shrewd and savage Roman emperor, the Buddhist 
 canonical scriptures, or those of the southern church, 
 were settled ; but it was not until 88 B.C. that the three 
 Pitakas, the boxes or baskets, as the scriptures in Cey- 
 lon were called, were committed to writing in that ver- 
 nacular form of the Sanscrit which is known as the Pali. 
 They have since been translated into many languages, 
 such as Chinese, Tibetan and others. And " the copy 
 in nineteen volumes lately presented to the University 
 of Oxford by the King of Siam contains, as Max Miiller 
 has said, ' the Pali text written in Siamese letters,' but 
 the language is always the same ; it is the Pali, or the 
 vulgar tongue, as it was supposed to have been spoken 
 by Buddha himself about 500 B.C." (The Nineteenth 
 Century, September, 1895, p. 502.) A copy of the Buddh- 
 ist scriptures, which I had the pleasure of receiving a 
 few years ago, is in four hundred volumes. Professor 
 Max Miiller has recently described for us the Kutho- 
 Daw, " which is a Buddhist monument near Mandalay, in 
 Burma, consisting of about seven hundred temples, each 
 containing a slab of white marble, on which the whole 
 of this Buddhist bible, the whole of their eight millions 
 of syllables, have been carefully engraved. The alpha- 
 bet is Burmese, the language is Pali. "Well may the 
 Buddhists say that such a bible on white marble can- 
 not be matched in the whole world. I am glad it can- 
 not. Think of the expenditure of labor and money, and 
 what is the result ? A small copy of the New Testa- 
 ment our University Press turns out for a penny a 
 copy is more useful, has more power for good in it." 
 (The Nineteenth Century, September, 1895, p. 503.) 
 And surely the practical results of Christianity justify 
 
176 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 this eulogium. I am not in the least disposed to min- 
 imize the benefactions of any of the Oriental faiths. 
 " Surely we may trace," as Dr. Berry has said, " even 
 in this strange development of human thought, part of 
 the Divine discipline by which this race of men was 
 being tutored and trained for higher life and fuller 
 revelation. Nor need we doubt but what the Eternal 
 Father who created them, who determined their ap- 
 pointed seasons and the bounds of their habitation, so 
 that they might feel after Him and find Him, saw in 
 their creed and in their philosophy something more than 
 grotesque mistakes and irrational conceptions." (Berry 
 "Christianity and Buddhism," p. 25.) Buddhism 
 wrought much splendid work. It made great progress, 
 it breathed peace and good-will, it built hospitals for 
 men and beasts, it taught self-sacrifice and tolerance, it 
 deprecated war, favored compassion, and pronounced 
 against avarice. The strength and the glory of Buddh- 
 ism are its ethical system. Its philosophical creed 
 may be puerile and its discipline artificial, but its mor- 
 al code appeals to the conscience. It maps out the 
 middle path, the via media, and proclaims that the 
 way to perfect peace is the way that no unrighteous man 
 can enter and no unclean man can attain. Buddhism 
 preached a type of morality to which the old Brahman- 
 ism was a stranger. Ethical elements are universal 
 and enduring. There are many indestructible elements 
 in Buddhism. The substitution of real for ceremonial 
 righteousness was a great gain. But the end of all 
 Buddha's efforts was to avoid that which the Christian 
 aspires to — intense, conscious, personal blessedness. 
 Buddhism commends itself to many on account of its 
 marked individualism ; its magnifying of the human in- 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND BUDDHISM 177 
 
 tellect, and the powers of the human will ; its glorifying 
 the religion of humanity, and the relief of bodily dis- 
 tresses. But its weakness is the perverted judgment 
 which, failing to recognize or care for the anguish of 
 the human spirit when mastered by guilt, la} r s emphasis 
 on the importance of worms and reptiles and insects 
 and whatever possesses life. To the question of Christ : 
 " Are ye not of more value than many sparrows," Buddh- 
 ism, it has been said, would be compelled to give a 
 doubtful answer. While this system has given to large 
 areas of Asia gentleness of manner and kindness to 
 animals, it has never developed the stronger forms and 
 the completer types of manhood, and has conspicuously 
 lacked the power of continuous progress. Ferguson 
 has claimed that " no Aryan race, while existing in any- 
 thing like purity, was ever converted to Buddhism, or 
 could permanently adopt its doctrine," and the same as- 
 sertion has been made of it in regard to Semitic na- 
 tions. How could it be otherwise with a faith which 
 fails to link humanity with God ? Buddha himself 
 seemed to have only a faltering faith that his "gospel " 
 was to conquer the world. Nothing rings out like the 
 declaration of Jesus : " And I, if I be lifted up from 
 the earth, will draw all men unto Me." Buddha said : 
 " So long as the brethren shall exercise themselves in 
 the sevenfold higher wisdom, that is to say, in mental 
 activity, search after truth, energy, joy, peace, earnest 
 contemplation, and equanimity of mind, so long may 
 the brethren be expected not to decline, but to prosper." 
 (Maha-Parinibbana-Sutta.) But the Christian Gospel 
 strikes a higher and more hopeful note than saying, "Be 
 good, for it is good to be good." It identifies the prac- 
 tice of the most perfect ethics with love and loyalty to 
 12 
 
178 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 the most perfect Being, and binds the human soul to 
 the heart of God. No wonder that the progressive 
 power of Buddhism has waned and its spirit seems to 
 many of its disciples nearly exhausted. The Christian 
 message is far more and better than an ethical creed. 
 If the life-work of Jesus had ended with the Sermon on 
 the Mount, His career would have much more closely 
 resembled that of Buddha. But the Jesus who taught 
 us the perfect law, gave us also the Gospel which cen- 
 tres in divine love, forgiveness, and redeeming mercy. 
 The message of Buddha, which is a strange mingling of 
 humanitarianism and scepticism, is not able to fulfil the 
 brilliant promises of its beginning, and to render radi- 
 cal and permanent services to the human spirit, even as 
 the premium which it put upon mendicancy and celi- 
 bacy shows that it cannot work out the noblest fruitage 
 and the best results. Making all allowances in the re- 
 ports which come to us from careful Christian mission- 
 aries who have had years of observation, we may rightly 
 say with Dr. Marcus Dodds, " Buddhism has notori- 
 ously failed to make man moral, and it is not enough 
 that a religion provide healthful, moral teaching — it 
 must also furnish us with a most powerful moral energy." 
 "We are saved by hope, and surely it is not a hopeful 
 view of life which Buddhism in its best form and teach- 
 ing presents to mankind. And perhaps its gloomiest 
 presentation is that of one of the pictures which I have 
 examined in an interesting collection % in the Univer- 
 sity of Chicago. A great tree overhangs an abyss ; a 
 thread is tied to the giant limb ; attached to this cord, 
 half way down to the sea, is a man. He looks below 
 him and there is the howling abyss, with a sea-monster 
 
 * Made by Dr. Edmund Buckley. 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND BUDDHISM 179 
 
 ready to devour him ; he looks above him and an equally 
 ferocious monster crouches on the limb, while two mice, 
 one white and the other black, representing day and 
 night, are gnawing at the thread by which he is sus- 
 pended. 
 
 " In no religion," it has been truly said, " are we so 
 constantly reminded of our own as in Buddhism, and 
 yet in no religion has man been drawn away so far from 
 the truth as in the religion of Buddha." Many have 
 been impressed by St. Hilaire's eulogy of Prince Sid- 
 dartha : " His life had no taint ; his constant heroism 
 equals his convictions, and, if the theory which he pre- 
 conceived was false, the personal example which he 
 gave was irreproachable." And yet, since through the 
 early years of his life he lived in what, according to his 
 own teaching, was heinous sin, we have no historic 
 right to say, even of Buddha, that he takes rank with 
 Jesus in the perfection of his holiness. Gautama, after 
 his enlightenment, was at first undecided whether he 
 should keep his new faith to himself or proclaim it to 
 others. Not so Jesus. Buddha made discoveries ; the 
 Christ revealed what was from within. Buddha taught 
 the vileness of the human body ; Christ its sacredness. 
 The system of Buddhism tells man that there is no per- 
 fect peace or unalloyed happiness, and that he may live 
 millions of ages and not be free from fear unless he at- 
 tains to the fate of unconsciousness. We can explain 
 Buddha without the miracles which later legends ascribe 
 to him. We cannot explain Christ, either His Person, 
 or His influence, without granting the truth of His own 
 claim that He did the supernatural works of His Father. 
 Only His resurrection accounts for the rise and con- 
 tinued existence of His Church. The claims which He 
 
180 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 made, over-passing infinitely those of any former 
 prophet, could have been sustained only by a divine 
 Hand. Christianity has points of similarity with many 
 of the great faiths, but its points of divergency and in- 
 disputable, decisive superiorit}^ are those that indicate 
 its supernatural origin and accompaniments. "VVe must 
 go to Palestine and not to India to find a perfect Man, 
 a perfect Teacher, and the only Saviour. 
 
 My conviction of the woful failure of Buddhism, de- 
 rived from travel in Eastern lands, has not destroyed 
 my love and honor for the foremost reformer and sweet- 
 est saint in the non-Christian world; but his mistakes 
 and limitations have appeared to me more conspicuous 
 than ever, and his errors and his partial truths indicate 
 the need of someone who could reveal to us authori- 
 tatively both God and man and show in Himself the 
 perfect harmony of ethics and piety. The Prophet of 
 Nazareth rises unspeakably higher than the Prophet of 
 Kapilivastu. Multitudes in many lands, turning from 
 the formula for all Buddhist neophytes : "I take my 
 refuge in Buddha, in Dharma (the law), in Sangha (the 
 order)," are finding refuge in the Christ, are finding 
 anchorage in His love and victory through His cross 
 and resurrection. I deem it a great mistake for the 
 Christian missionary not to appreciate to the full all 
 that Buddha was and did. " Any fragment of truth 
 which lies in a heathen mind unacknowledged is an in- 
 superable barrier against conviction; recognized and 
 used, it might prove a help." (Ellinwood, " Oriental 
 Religions and Christianity," p. 101.) I go farther and 
 express the conviction that the Christian world must 
 fully learn and teach that God is the God of the whole 
 earth, and that He has not been unmindful of the peo- 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND BUDDHISM 181 
 
 pies who have wandered away from truth and knowl- 
 edge. "It would seem very hard," it has been said, 
 " to rid the minds of men of the old Jewish idea that 
 God is only a national deity ; national means in this 
 sense that He reserved all His favors for one nation and 
 all His judgments for the rest of humanity." (Dr. Ber- 
 ry, "Christianity and Buddhism," p. 9.) There have 
 been elements of the Gospel scattered and imperfect 
 in all the religions, and Buddha and his law, like Plato 
 and his philosophy, and Moses and his priesthood, may 
 all yet be seen to be school-masters leading to Christ. 
 I have come through recent knowledge and experience 
 to believe more firmly than ever that Christ is great 
 enough to gather up into Himself all that is best outside 
 of Christendom ; that He is the fulfilment as well as 
 the inspiration of the truth and goodness which, in im- 
 perfect forms, are yet discoverable there. And in the 
 last few years many have learned that the Christ whom 
 we have linked only with Bethlehem and Calvary, and 
 chiefly with the lives of church-members in English- 
 speaking nations, has been working everywhere by His 
 Spirit. Oh ! how this broadens our vision and makes it 
 our duty to freely recognize what we once were afraid 
 to see and proclaim, the universal, or all but univer- 
 sal, prevalence of certain generic ideas which, masked 
 under other names and mingled with much of error, 
 point to such realities as God, duty, sin, holiness, im- 
 mortality ! To acknowledge this we once thought would 
 dishonor and render comparatively useless the Christian 
 Gospel, but now we know far better, and we claim for Je- 
 sus our King all truth and goodness everywhere, and we 
 go to the nations and proclaim the larger Christ as the ful- 
 filment of the fondest hopes and ideals of the whole world 
 
CHAPTEK YII 
 
 CONFUCIANISM AND THE AWAKENING OF CHINA 
 
 In passing to-day from Hinduism to Confucianism, 
 we reach a new area in the Asiatic mind. Going from 
 the banks of the Ganges to the shores of the Yangtse- 
 Kiang, we leave the realms of imagination and enchant- 
 ment for those of commonplace and of prose ; we leave 
 a people who are profound in philosophy and affluent 
 in fancy, for a race which has a history and believes in 
 history, for a nation strong in social economics, in use- 
 ful inventions and the practical applications of knowl- 
 edge. In speaking of Confucianism, we are to speak 
 of a civilization which is inveterate in its ideas, plod- 
 ding, utilitarian, practical, immobile, persistent ; a civil- 
 ization that dwells in the past and worships the past, 
 which is rational and workaday, and gives us the most 
 remarkable illustrations in history of arrested develop- 
 ment. China may be properly described as "an old 
 man still lying in his cradle." 
 
 We are in the habit of eulogizing the Sunrise King- 
 dom of Japan, and of contrasting with it the sunset 
 splendors of the Celestial Empire ; but the Japanese, 
 with all their quickness and mobility, with their splendid 
 aptitudes for science and progress, are in many respects 
 inferior to the more intellectual, more persistent, and 
 more creative minds of their Chinese enemies. Con- 
 fucianism moulded to a degree the military literati of 
 
 182 
 
CONFUCIANISM 1S3 
 
 Japan, but it has been said that " while the Japanese 
 for a thousand years only repeated and recited, merely 
 talking aloud in their intellectual sleep, but not reflect- 
 ing, China was awake and thinking hard." 
 
 One cannot even skirt the coasts of China, touch for 
 a few hours at the great port cities, look into the mul- 
 titudinous streets and alleys of Shanghai, or see the 
 swarms who live and toil and die in the boats at Hong- 
 Kong without an impression of the vastness of that 
 greatest of empires which lies back of the iron-bound 
 sea-coast. The river Yangtse at its mouth is an Ama- 
 zon, and fifty miles from its mouth one cannot see the 
 shore on either hand as he sails toward Shanghai. This 
 river gives access to the homes of one hundred and 
 seventy-five millions of people, more than dwell in the 
 area of any other stream. And then the Chinese ap- 
 pear like a strong and busy people, industrious, frugal, 
 capable, and one marvels that such a nation should 
 have been overthrown in the recent war by the upstart 
 Japanese, until he realizes the condition of the Chinese 
 Government, the nature of the army that opposed the 
 trained riflemen of Japan, an army which fought its 
 battles, not with fire-arms, but with fire-works. The 
 Chinese idea of war is to beat the drum, wave flags and 
 umbrellas, send off rockets, shoot arrows, and scare the 
 enemy. It is a favorite expression on the part of some 
 Chinese officials to say, when accounting for Japan's 
 recent surprising victories, that the Dragon sleeps. It 
 is true indeed, and the dragon is no inapt symbol of 
 China. The huge monstrous and somnolent mass of 
 humanity has been plunged for ages into a sleep so 
 profound that only the trumpet of the Gospel can ever 
 thoroughly rouse the great Empire from its slumbers. 
 
184: THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 But when China finally does move, as Napoleon said, 
 " she will move the world." * 
 
 One of the pleasantest experiences of the world- 
 traveller is to escape from the Chinese ports and to 
 touch the Island Empire of Japan, the sanitarium of 
 Asia. After passing through the Inland Sea, which 
 General Grant pronounced the most beautiful sight in 
 the world, we entered the port of Kobe, and there 
 had our first sight of Japanese life. Hundreds of 
 travellers have described the novel sensations of this ex- 
 perience as they first see the tiny, picturesque, queer- 
 ly dressed people, busy, restless, energetic, and take 
 their first drive in the jinrikishas, an American inven- 
 tion, by the way, which has spread its dominion to the 
 cities of China, Singapore and to Ceylon. One's first 
 impressions are usually delightful, and surely when the 
 traveller sees, as I did in Kobe, a few hours after land- 
 ing, a great school of children exercising in an open 
 square, drilling in gymnastics, and realizes what pride 
 the modern Japanese entertains for the public-school 
 system, he feels, after his journey in India and China, 
 that he has touched the realm of civilization and prog- 
 ress. Japan is surely one of the most interesting of na- 
 tions, a delight to the studious traveller and a field of 
 profitable investigation to all who are interested in the 
 problems of religion. When one remembers how short 
 a time has passed since Commodore Perry broke open 
 to Western civilization the ports of the Mikado's Empire, 
 and begins to measure the progress already achieved, 
 he sympathizes to a large degree with the pride of the 
 Japanese people. There are those now living who have 
 
 * The Right Hon. Joseph Chamberlain has called China " the greatest 
 potential market of the world." 
 
CONFUCIANISM 185 
 
 passed through the rapid history of modern Japan, and 
 one of these has said that the experience makes him 
 feel preternaturally old, for here he is in modern times 
 with the air full of talk about Darwin, phonographs and 
 parliamentary institutions, and yet he himself distinctly 
 remembers the Middle Ages ! Old things have passed 
 away so rapidly that the Japanese sometimes believe 
 that they are in the very van of modern progress. 
 
 I wish to do full justice to a people from whom I 
 received much kindness. Their best representatives 
 know well how to capture one's heart. Seeing Japan 
 after a visit to China, one feels that he has escaped 
 from the mouth of hell. The Japanese people may be 
 imitative rather than creative ; it is true that they have 
 originated but little. Still they have had wisdom 
 enough to imitate many of the best things. China 
 has had no railroads of her own making till very re- 
 cently, and the one which Russia is pushing on toward 
 the sea is supposed by many Chinese to be the handi- 
 work of the devil ; but Japan has built thousands of 
 miles of roads, and is planning to gridiron her beautiful 
 islands. You can travel with comfort and something of 
 speed in Japan, but travelling in China, except on the 
 rivers, is practically impossible, except for the adventu- 
 rous, heroic and hardy few. Japan has a great university 
 at Tokio, with teachers trained in the best German 
 schools. The University in Peking has never succeeded 
 in rising to any high modern scientific position, and its 
 pupils have not been emancipated from slavery to the 
 Chinese classics.* Japan makes her own war-ships, 
 casts her own guns, and drills her own troops on Ger- 
 
 * Since these words were written, the Chinese Government is re- 
 ported to have decreed the building of a modern, scientific university. 
 
186 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 man methods. She has a parliament and parliamen- 
 tary forms of government. There is a national spirit 
 that pervades the whole archipelago, while China has 
 little or none of it, and is pronounced by some writers 
 a congeries of hostile provinces. 
 
 Furthermore, Japan is the most artistic of Eastern 
 nations, and one can but feel drawn out to a people who 
 have such an exquisite love of nature, and who divide 
 the seasons between the cherry-blossom, the wistaria, 
 the lotus, the iris, and the chrysanthemum. There is a 
 magnificent cherry-tree in Kyoto, the old capital, so 
 beautiful and so much admired that the people build 
 booths about it, and last April I saw it illumined with 
 electric lights and bonfires, and surrounded by a rejoic- 
 ing multitude. Who can watch the manufacture of 
 cloisonne ware in the workshops of Kyoto without the 
 keenest admiration of the artistic handiwork and the 
 artistic conceptions of the Japanese ? These beautiful 
 things they have done for centuries, and no other peo- 
 ple can do some of them so well. The Japanese De- 
 partment in the Columbian Exposition was a surprise to 
 many of our citizens, and a Wisconsin farmer, who saw 
 this exhibit and admired the beautiful silks and em- 
 broideries, inquired if the Japanese really had made 
 these things, and receiving an affirmative response, he 
 piously exclaimed : " See what the Gospel has done for 
 Japan ! " Better things than this, but not this, that 
 Gospel has wrought, though as yet it has reached di- 
 rectly only a small portion of her forty-four millions of 
 people. 
 
 You have read and heard many foolishly extravagant 
 things about the brave and ambitious people of Japan. 
 You may have been charmed by the rose-colored de- 
 
CONFUCIANISM 187 
 
 scriptions of Sir Edwin Arnold, abounding in inaccu- 
 racies. But the Japanese themselves are not much 
 pleased with such fulsome flatteries, partly because the 
 English poet does not flatter them in the things of which 
 they are proudest. The Japanese patriot to-day is not 
 wild over national art or national manners. His heart 
 has been given to the Japanese army and navy, and to 
 touch and tickle his vanity in the spot where he is most 
 sensitive, one must tell him that his government and 
 his military forces are the best in the world! The 
 President of the Doshisha University said to me : " We 
 intend to increase our navy at enormous cost until we 
 shall be able to punish Russia for her selfish interfer- 
 ence with our victory. We are ambitious to control the 
 China and the Yellow Seas ; we shall capture Peking 
 and gain a great foothold on the Continent." I finished 
 the prophecy for him, and said : " After that, you will 
 subdue Russia, and then Germany and then Great 
 Britain. Following these achievements, there will be 
 nothing left except to conquer the United States ! " 
 How extraordinary is the national conceit is well illus- 
 trated by the published remark of Rev. Mr. Yokoi, a 
 man of great intelligence, of noble rank, a student of 
 Yale University, who has seen much of European cities. 
 He tells us that our Western civilization, like that of 
 ancient Rome, has come to a stand-still, and will sink 
 into moral decadence unless it is saved by an infusion 
 of fresh life from Japan ! 
 
 China has been a phenomenon of picturesque interest 
 to the Western mind since Sir John Mandeville and 
 Marco Polo told their wonderful tales. Professor Albert 
 Reville believes that we can say without exaggeration 
 that there are only two civilizations in the world — ours 
 
188 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 and the Chinese — for lie thinks of India as still asleep, 
 and of Japan as a learner, going somewhither and per- 
 haps not knowing whither she is bound. He says : 
 " We find ourselves before an ancient people still exist- 
 ing, an immense nation, who make nearly one-fourth of 
 the race now existing, who were civilized long before us, 
 who already had cities, schools, monuments, artists, 
 thinkers, when our ancestors were still plunged in the 
 grossest savagery. This people has submitted to 
 numerous changes, it has been covered over by the 
 floods of more than one barbaric invasion, it has always 
 emerged, it has always survived, and been always like 
 itself. The civilizations whose antiquity rival it, those 
 of Egypt and Chaldea, were long since extinguished. 
 The Chinese civilization alone has remained standing 
 with a vitality, a tenacity, unparalleled in history." 
 (" La Religion Chinoise," p. 2.) Sir Charles Dilke 
 believes that the three great races of the future are the 
 English, the Russian, and the Chinese, and Dr. Lawrence, 
 in his "Modern Missions in the East," reports: "The 
 more I saw of this wonderful country, the more I was 
 astonished at its resources, delighted with its natural 
 scenery, awed at its past, dismayed at its present, thrilled 
 with hope for its future." These people have the plrysical 
 basis of a great nationality ; strong and hardy in body, 
 they can live in all climates, and, next to the English, 
 they have become the great colonizers of the globe. 
 They are flocking into Polynesia, and they are able to 
 redeem the great tropical islands of Borneo and Sumatra 
 and the Philippines. Calif ornians sometimes say : " We 
 must drive them out, or they will drive us out. They 
 have all of our virtues and none of our vices." Fleeing 
 from an over-populated land (it seems like a gigantic 
 
CONFUCIANISM 189 
 
 beaker spilling on every side), the Chinese are more 
 ready to swarm into other shores than to receive into 
 their own life what might prove vitalizing, even if alien 
 influences. 
 
 Protestant missionary w r ork struck China about ninety 
 years ago. The spirit of exclusiveness, like her Great 
 "Wall, was almost impenetrable, but since the English 
 gun-boats, in 1842, opened up the five treaty ports, these 
 walls have gradually crumbled, and yet foreign influ- 
 ences, and especially the ruling ideas of modern civiliza- 
 tion, have made but a feeble impression on the Man- 
 darin class. How little the Chinese Bismarck, Li Hung 
 Chang, has been able to accomplish for the vast mass 
 of yellow r -skinned humanity, is plain enough, from the 
 ineffectiveness of China's resistance to Japan. His 
 friends think of him as a colossal but pathetic figure 
 whose hopes have been dashed to the ground in miser- 
 able defeat. He has been compelled to fight an official 
 conservatism and provincialism which are almost worse 
 than the all-prevailing official corruption; for China 
 "seems one huge sponge where every man is equally 
 sure to be squeezed and to be bent on squeezing." But 
 Li Hung Chang has been regarded as too much of a 
 hero in the West. He has gained his ends by bribery 
 in a country where nothing can be done without money, 
 where political corruption is universal, where the people 
 are the servants and victims of a bureaucracy compared 
 with which the worst Common Council and the w r orst 
 American Legislature are models of integrity. Henry 
 Norman tells what everybody in China knows, when he 
 writes that " every Chinese official, with the possible 
 exception of one in a thousand, is a liar, a thief, and a 
 tyrant." Ho informs us that the larger part of the sums 
 
190 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 subscribed in England for the relief of the famine dis- 
 tricts of China was pocketed by Chinese officials. On 
 one occasion some turbulent Chinese of Canton attacked, 
 plundered, and destroyed the houses in the foreign set- 
 tlement of Shameen, and for this the Government of 
 China was compelled to pay an indemnity. They paid 
 it, however, out of the London Mansion House Famine 
 Belief Fund ! Famine districts are exempted from tax- 
 ation, but the Emperor's proclamation to this effect is 
 not posted until the taxes have been collected in full. 
 No business can be carried on without the improper use 
 of money, and we are told that it cost Li Hung Chang 
 six hundred thousand taels to get permission to visit 
 the Empress Dowager after one of his recent disgraces. 
 He himself is a man of great ability, with some patriotic 
 feeling, and quite unwilling that China should be for- 
 ever in the rear of human progress. But his enormous 
 riches have been obtained by means like those by which 
 old Boman generals and modern Turkish Pashas plun- 
 dered vast provinces. 
 
 General Grant, after his visit, said he realized that 
 while progress in the Mississippi Valley might be that of 
 the avalanche, in the Valley of the Yangtse, it could only 
 be that of a glacier. The first impression which China 
 makes upon the stranger is grotesqueness. Its people 
 are spoken of as morally and physically our antipodes. 
 " Their compass-needle points south instead of north, 
 their soldiers wear quilted petticoats, satin boots, and 
 bead necklaces, and go to a night attack with lanterns in 
 their hands, being more afraid of the dark than of expos- 
 ing themselves to the enemy. . . . Ladies ride in 
 wheelbarrows, and cows are driven in carriages. When 
 a man furnishes his house, instead of laying stress, as 
 
CONFUCIANISM 191 
 
 we do, on rosewood pianos and carved mahogany, his 
 first ambition is for a handsome camphor-wood cofhn, 
 which he keeps in the best place in his room." The Chi- 
 naman appears able even in his language to give a gro- 
 tesque look or sound to greatest things, so that the Latin 
 word for God, which in the Portuguese is Deos, has 
 been turned into " Joss." And yet it is easy to make 
 out a great story for the Chinese, and to say that they 
 were acquainted with the circulation of the blood before 
 Harvey, and inoculated for small-pox nine hundred 
 years before Jenner ; that they invented the printing- 
 press long before Gutenberg, and that through them the 
 mariner's compass and gunpowder were made known to 
 Europe. " Gradually you discover," as Dr. Lawrence 
 has said, " that back of these strange phenomena — for 
 a Chinaman is a phenomenon — there are strange laws 
 and forces at work, moulding all these elements to uni- 
 form results. Wonder grows into amazement, curiosity 
 to awe, when you leam that this is in many respects the 
 most remarkable civilization the world has known. Its 
 antiquity seems like that of the eternal hills. The be- 
 ginnings are lost in the darkness of early Accadian and 
 Egyptian days. It saw the empires of the ancient world 
 blaze up in all their brief brilliancy — Babylonia, Assy- 
 ria, Persia, Greece, Rome ; Israel saw them die out and 
 pass into oblivion, but it went its way unchanged. ' And 
 while the Britons still wore skins, the Chinese wore 
 silks.'" 
 
 In China we behold a government based on education 
 and the family, we see political institutions built on 
 literature, for the aristocracy is the literary class. We 
 gaze in wonder at a nation which is itself gazing into 
 antiquity and feeding itself exclusively on the wisdom 
 
192 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 which has been handed down to it. The religion of 
 this people in all of its forms appears to be without as- 
 piration. It knows not the ever-living and loving God. 
 Its peculiarity has been correctly defined as regressive- 
 ness. Its most general form of worship is the worship 
 of ancestors; the spirits of the past rule this nation 
 from their urns. The dead are the sceptred sovereigns. 
 The Chinese mind appears to have this constitutional 
 tendency. It drinks ever at the ancestral fountains, 
 and no other people are so devoted to the printed word. 
 Endless imitation, as with Wordsworth's child, is the 
 whole vocation of this nation of boys, imitation without 
 improvement. They do what they are told to do ; they 
 copy what is set before them without eliminating de- 
 fects. They might burn down houses to roast pigs, 
 according to Charles Lamb's fancy. The most remark- 
 able recent illustration of this, with which I am familiar, 
 occurred during the Parliament of Religions, in the case 
 of the Chinese Secretary, the honorable Pung Quang 
 Yu, the rotund, big-headed, and ever-smiling represent- 
 ative of the Celestial Empire. He was a man of very 
 capacious mind, as may be discovered from his treatise 
 on Confucianism which was read at that meeting, and 
 in which, an American scholar has said, there is more to 
 show what is going on in the brains of the educated Con- 
 fucian, than in anything of the same length he ever read. 
 I had invited him to respond for China to the addresses 
 of welcome on the opening day, that day when the rep- 
 resentatives of so many empires, nationalities, and re- 
 ligions spoke their words of kindness, and when thou- 
 sands of hearts were filled with a noble enthusiasm. 
 Mr. Pung accepted the invitation, but requested that I 
 give him an outline of what would be appropriate at 
 
CONFUCIANISM 193 
 
 such a time. The proprieties are all-important with 
 this people. He sent me word through his secretary 
 that he was not acquainted with our usages and there- 
 fore desired my assistance. Thereupon I dictated per- 
 haps two hundred words to my secretary, giving what 
 seemed to me to be appropriate in order to direct the 
 honorable Chinese Secretary's mind into the right chan- 
 nels. When this Imperial Commissioner from China 
 rose, on the afternoon of September 11, 1893, he was 
 greeted with such manifestations of welcome and honor 
 as came to no other speaker on the platform. Men and 
 women sprang to their feet and there was wild waving 
 of hats and handkerchiefs. Mr. Pung's secretary stood 
 by him, and began to read the address, since Mr. Pung's 
 knowledge of English was very limited. This secretary, 
 Mr. Kwai, is a graduate of Yale College, but, unlike Mr. 
 Chauncey M. Depew and most other graduates of that 
 institution, he could not make himself heard ! The 
 eager thousands called out my name, and commanded 
 me to read what they were so hungry to hear. As I 
 took the paper from Mr. Kwai's hand, I found to my 
 sad surprise that it was precisely the same sheet of 
 paper which had come from the fingers of my own type- 
 writer, without a single modification ! As I read my 
 own words, the people cheered and Mr. Pung bowed 
 low. They kept on cheering, as they listened to the 
 noble Christian sentiments which came from the heart 
 of this Confucian representative of the greatest of em- 
 pires ! When I had finished, the applause broke forth 
 again, and Mr. Pung bowed and bowed his gracious 
 thanks. Imagine my feelings as I read afterward in the 
 Christian journals of our land such words as these : 
 
 " The noble sentiments spoken by Mr. Pung at the Par- 
 13 
 
194 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 liament of Religions mark an era in the progress of hu- 
 manit}^. Such friendly and magnanimous words indi- 
 cate that China has been touched by the Christian 
 spirit, and is fast coming out into the brotherhood of 
 nations." But I have every reason to think that Mr. 
 Pung's opening address at the Parliament expressed his 
 real sentiments, and his closing address, seventeen days 
 later, couched in similar language and expressing simi- 
 lar ideas, was his own, and I must humbly say was an 
 improvement on his first speech ! 
 
 The religions of China — Confucianism, Taoism, and 
 Buddhism — coexist without destroying each other, and 
 appear to occupy different sections of the Chinese mind, 
 and to address themselves to different parts of human 
 nature. Confucianism was more a morality than a relig- 
 ion. It may have known God, but did not honor Him 
 as God. No worship of Him by the people was per- 
 mitted, and it was only by the Emperor, acting repre- 
 sentatively for the nation, that the King of Heaven was 
 adored. It was this defect in Confucianism which 
 opened the way for the idolatries and the polytheism 
 which came in with the Buddhists. 
 
 " The most holy ancient sage, Kong-Foo-Tsze," or in 
 the Latinized form which the Jesuits gave to this word, 
 Confucius, who is eulogized on the gates of China with 
 such inscriptions as this : " The Teacher and Example 
 for ten thousand generations," was born in Loo, a part 
 of what is now the province of Shan-tung, in the year 
 551 B.C., and he died at the age of seventy-three, that is 
 in the year 478 B.C. Unlike Buddha, he is no demi-god, 
 whose biography consists chiefly of fables. " No char- 
 acter in history is less mythological than his." He be- 
 longs to the earth, and has never been caught up into 
 
CONFUCIANISM 195 
 
 the seventh heaven of grotesque oriental fancy. To 
 know this man is to know China. " In his voice," it 
 has been said, " as through one of Nature's cunningly 
 constructed shells, we still hear the multitudinous throb- 
 biDgs of a sea of four hundred millions of human be- 
 ings. To this day, when a Chinaman wishes to pay the 
 highest possible compliment to the greatest benefactor 
 he has ever had, or the best person he has ever known, 
 he can go no further than say, ' That man is almost as 
 good as Confucius.' " (Grant, " Religions of the World," 
 p. 45.) It was in the sixth century before the Christian 
 era that Confucius appeared, the century of iEschylus 
 and Pythagoras in Greece, of Jeremiah and Ezekiel in 
 Palestine, and of Gautama Buddha in India. China 
 consisted of different races and states, with different 
 languages and laws, endlessly waging w T ar. Confucius 
 was a sort of intellectual King Alfred, who began to 
 bring order out of confusion. His father was a distin- 
 guished military officer of high lineage, and Confucius 
 was the son of his second wife. The Chinese sage grew 
 wise early ; he married at the age of nineteen and mar- 
 ried unhappily ; becoming an instructor of inquiring 
 young men, he grew to be famous, and his pupils were 
 numbered by the thousands, many of them superior 
 minds. Finding the land distracted, he undertook its ref- 
 ormation ; he studied and later annotated the old books. 
 It was his purpose to seek after and secure a peaceful 
 and stable society, and with this end he careful ty studied 
 the laws of human nature. He thought that he had found 
 in " reciprocity " the key to all proper rules of conduct. 
 Putting his principles to the test, not without success, 
 he became the favorite teacher at the court of Chow. 
 Visiting the capital to see its temple and palace, and to 
 
196 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 study the ceremonies of the Court, he became acquaint- 
 ed with the philosopher Lao-tse, the Keeper of the 
 Archives. The older, and in some things greater, sage 
 had little respect for the younger, not believing that 
 humanity could be reformed by rules and laws. In the 
 opinion of Lao-tse reformation must go deeper, and 
 the way of life must find an asylum in the bottom of 
 the heart. The older philosopher was, of course, right, 
 but he had not himself discovered the better way. The 
 fame of Confucius spread, his merits were widely recog- 
 nized, he was appointed by the Duke the chief magis- 
 trate of a town, and then, as the Minister of Crime, he 
 was permitted to carry out his ideas, and his theories 
 were found to work well. Protection to property was 
 increased, and crime almost disappeared. A reaction 
 came, however ; the prosperity of his province excited 
 jealousy in other provinces, and successful efforts were 
 made to alienate the Duke's heart from the sage and 
 moralist who had proved himself a statesman. 
 
 In his fifty-sixth year Confucius resigned his offices 
 and for thirteen years he wandered as an exile from his 
 own country. Received by different Courts with dis- 
 tinction, he was not intrusted with power. He would 
 not compromise his theories to please the great, al- 
 though he occasionally failed to be true to his principles 
 in personal life. I think we must deem him wiser than 
 Lao-tse from the fact that he was not pessimistic, and 
 would do something, would attempt the best possible.- 
 He carefully edited the ancient classics, and his disciples 
 compiled from notes of his conversation the Analects, 
 which every Chinese official to-day must master. The 
 literary monument which he has left is certainly unpar- 
 alleled. The idea of Confucius that social order is the 
 
CONFUCIANISM 197 
 
 one thing needful still pervades China. Like Bismarck, 
 lie was a nationalist ; be knew and believed in the his- 
 tory of his own people, and he was probably the greatest 
 conservative of all times. His services to China were 
 unspeakable, and though he had no sufficient gospel 
 wherewith to reform the individual, he made the most 
 successful effort ever attempted in Asia to reach and 
 mould the general organization. " His end was not un- 
 impressive, but it was melancholy. He sank behind a 
 cloud. Disappointed hopes made his soul bitter. The 
 great ones of the Empire had not received his teachings. 
 No wife nor child was by to do the kindly offices of af- 
 fection for him. Nor were the expectations of another 
 life present with him as he passed through the dark 
 valley. He uttered no prayer and he betrayed no ap- 
 prehensions. Deep-treasured in his own heart may 
 have been the thought that he had endeavored to serve 
 his generation by the will of God, but he gave no sign. 
 ' The mountain falling came to naught, and the rock 
 was removed out of his place. So death prevailed 
 against him and he passed ; his countenance was 
 changed, and he was sent away. ' ' (Legge, " Life and 
 Teachings of Confucius," p. 88.) 
 
 Mingled with Confucianism in China to-day is a sys- 
 tem called Taoism, which takes its name from Tao, the 
 Way, a system associated with the philosopher partly 
 contemporary with Confucius, to whom I have already 
 referred, a philosopher who had a deeper insight into 
 the beauty of virtue than his more famous rival, and 
 who even taught the New Testament precept " Recom- 
 pense evil with good," a maxim which Confucius could 
 not accept. Lao-tse meditated in a more philosophical 
 mood on the spiritual needs and capacities of the soul, 
 
198 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 and the practical Confucius did not comprehend him. 
 " His speculations recorded in the Tao-te-King have 
 but few points of contact," as De la Saussaye has said, 
 " with popular Taoism. The hidden sage and his shape- 
 less teaching have remained without great influence on 
 China." When he passed away, " the popular super- 
 stitions that had been growing up among the masses for 
 two thousand years, attached themselves to his name, 
 and Taoism then degenerated into a compound of 
 charms, incantations, magical arts, and elixirs, to pro- 
 pitiate supernatural beings, and into a gross idolatry 
 that often amounts to Shamanism or demon worship." 
 (Grant, " Keligions of the World," p. 70.) " Confucius is 
 occupied with the problem of social well-being ; Lao- 
 tse is concerned only with the peace of the individual. 
 Confucius is inspired by the pride of empire. Lao-tse 
 is desirous above all things to sink into humility — not 
 the humility of thinking lowly of one's self, but the 
 humility of not thinking at all." (Mathison, "Distinc- 
 tive Messages of the Old Keligions," p. 73.) " Let him 
 go back to the life of the vegetable, which lives without 
 knowing that it lives, and grows without considering its 
 growth. Let him become spontaneous, uncalculating, 
 aimless ; let him cease to map out a plan for his earthly 
 life or a means for his daily bread. His course is 
 mapped out already in a fixed and unalterable way." 
 But some of the things lacking, both in Confucianism 
 and Taoism, were supplied by Buddhism. The early 
 Buddhist missionaries pleased the Chinese mind with 
 splendid pictures of far-away worlds, flooded with light, 
 brilliant with flowers, rich with precious stones, and in- 
 habited by Buddhas and angels, and in this way the Chi- 
 nese were led into idolatry. While the Christian apostles 
 
CONFUCIANISM 199 
 
 were preaching in the Roman Empire of a God in Christ, 
 reconciling the world unto Himself, Buddhism entered 
 China from India. In obedience to a dream the Em- 
 peror had sent ambassadors to the West to bring back a 
 god, and they returned with an image of Buddha, and, 
 shortly after, the preaching monks from the banks of 
 the Ganges came to the court of China to propagate 
 their faith. Buddhism was acknowledged officially as 
 a religion in a.d. 65. To-day, those who have rank 
 and property in China usually join with the literary 
 classes in professing, at least, to despise all religions ex- 
 cept that of Confucius. There has always been a want 
 of cohesion between the multitudes who may be ad- 
 herents of Buddha and Tao and the literary rulers who 
 proudly assert that they have never worshipped images. 
 Buddhism and Taoism, however, even though they may 
 be stigmatized as heterodox, have secret adherents, even 
 in the official classes, or open adherents seeking that in- 
 tercourse with the spiritual world which Confucius did 
 not give them. Speaking of the early spread of Buddh- 
 ism, Dr. Edkins has said of Gautama that " His re- 
 mains were universally revered as eminently sacred, and 
 worthy of religious adoration. A hair, a tooth, a piece 
 of bone, a particle of hair in a transformed state, were 
 preserved in temples, or had costly tombs erected over 
 them, or near them. This was the origin of the pagodas 
 in China. A pagoda is an ornamental tomb, erected 
 over the remains of a Buddhist priest, or intended for 
 the safe-keeping of holy relics." (Edkins, "Religion in 
 China," p. 10.) 
 
 But to know China, to understand what are the char- 
 acteristics of her people and civilization, we must know 
 Confucianism and Confucius. I cannot agree with Dr. 
 
200 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 Legge, who, after his long study of the character and 
 opinions of the Chinese sage, refused to regard him as a 
 great man, because Confucius threw no new light on any 
 questions which had a world-wide interest, gave no im- 
 pulse to religion, and had no sympathy with progress. I 
 have been taught by Emerson to regard him as great 
 who represents in himself a great people, who absorbs 
 and remoulds what may belong to an age or a race. 
 And, surely, if to exert a wide and lasting influence is a 
 test of greatness, Confucius must have been one of the 
 chief minds of the race. This sage who devoted his 
 whole life to the moral elevation of his people was far 
 from faultless. Acts of insincerity are recorded of him, 
 and Dr. Legge is right in holding that these may be a 
 legitimate result of his failure to recognize the true God, 
 and to lend to morality the sanction of religion. Con- 
 fucius did not over-estimate himself ; he regarded his 
 work as that of a transmitter and not of a maker. " I 
 am not one who is born in the possession of knowledge, 
 I am one who is fond of antiquity and is earnest in 
 seeking it there. In letters I am, perhaps, equal to 
 other men ; but the character of the superior man, car- 
 rying out in his conduct what he professes, is what I 
 have not yet attained to." Confucius was wise with the 
 wisdom of prudence, and reverence for the past, and who 
 shall say that Western Christendom may not learn of 
 him ? He wrote : " The love of humanity, not tem- 
 pered with the love of study, is blind as to its foolish- 
 ness ; the love of knowledge, not tempered with the love 
 of study, is blind as to its capriciousness ; the love of 
 truth, not tempered with the love of study, is blind as to 
 its mischievousness ; the love of courage, not tempered 
 with the love of study, is blind as to its rebelliousness ; 
 
CONFUCIANISM 201 
 
 tlie love of firmness, not tempered with the love of study, 
 is blind as to its venturesomeness." 
 
 Confucius has moulded China, and his name is more 
 revered by the educated classes than any other, human 
 or divine. His thoughts are familiar to every official, 
 and his character is more or less reproduced by those in 
 authority. The magistrates of China are versed in all 
 that is recorded of the sage, and in the literature which 
 he preserved. " A people who have ceased to worship 
 God, worship him. His descendants are the only he- 
 reditary nobility in the land ; their honors, pensions, 
 and privileges have been respected in all the revolu- 
 tions that have swept over China since his day." " In 
 many school-rooms there is a tablet or inscription 
 on the wall, sacred to the sage, and every pupil is re- 
 quired, on coming to school on the morning of the first 
 and fifteenth of every month, to bow before it the first 
 thing, as an act of worship." (Legge, " Life and Teach- 
 ings of Confucius," p. 94.) At the vernal and autumnal 
 equinoxes, oxen and sheep are slain as sacrifices to 
 Confucius. " There are more than sixteen hundred 
 temples erected to his memory, one of them occupying 
 ten acres of land." 
 
 The ethics which Confucius made the practical relig- 
 ion of China are imbued with the idea that our nature 
 is a system wherein reason and conscience are supreme, 
 and that to fight against its laws is to rebel against the 
 heavenly order. De la Saussaye describes the founda- 
 tion of Chinese life and religion as reverence for the 
 "order of nature, of the state, and of the family." 
 " Filial piety, which consisted in first submitting one's 
 self to parents, then to rulers, and in forming one's 
 character, is only another name for this fundamental 
 
202 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 virtue." To attain the Confucian ideal, one must rightly 
 observe the great social relations. These five natural 
 relations are those of sovereign and subject, husband 
 aud wife, parent and child, elder and younger brother, 
 friend and friend. Confucius was once asked if there 
 was one word which would serve as a rule of conduct 
 for all life, and he replied, " Is not reciprocity such a 
 word ? What do you not want done to yourself, do not 
 do to others." Reciprocity has rightly been called the 
 characteristic word of the Confucian system, and a word 
 more easily explained than the Tao, which is the key to 
 the teachings of Lao-tse. The Golden Rule in its nega- 
 tive form is announced by Confucius two or three times. 
 And we cannot help rendering a tribute of admiration 
 to the man who, while others may have been pessimistic, 
 dared to undertake the regeneration and perpetuation of 
 an empire by a code of morals. The corner-stone of his 
 edifice was, of course, filial piety, and when we remem- 
 ber the unexampled and marvellous national longevity 
 of China, we cannot forget the command and the prom- 
 ise given on Sinai : " Honor thy father and thy mother, 
 that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord 
 thy God giveth thee." In fairness it ought to be said 
 that filial piety has become a one-sided and distorted 
 virtue with the Chinese. And one missionary reports 
 " that he never quoted Paul's words to the Corinthian 
 Church, ' the children ought not to lay up for the par- 
 ents, but the parents for the children,' without encoun- 
 tering a storm of opposition. And when I tried to show 
 that the sentiment was favorable to the progress of so- 
 ciety and would make each generation to start from a 
 higher stand-point, I found it difficult to obtain hearing." 
 (Grant, p. 76.) Mr. Pung told us at the Parliament that 
 
CONFUCIANISM 203 
 
 the chief reason why the Chinese people as a whole look 
 upon Christian converts in China as an element less de- 
 sirable than Buddhists, Taoists, and Mohammedans is 
 because Buddhists, Taoists, and Mohammedans make 
 no scruple in paying due homage to their parents and 
 in offering sacrifices to their ancestors, and Moham- 
 medans still have so much respect for public opinion as 
 to enforce the separation of the sexes wherever they go. 
 From the writings of Confucius there was evolved in 
 time and through successive sages a Confucian philoso- 
 phy, the real fashioner of which was a great mind in the 
 thirteenth century of our era. That philosophy to-day 
 is pervaded by these elements. " First, that example is 
 omnipotent ; secondly, that to secure the safety of the 
 empire you must secure the happiness of the people ; 
 thirdly, that by solitary persistent thought one may 
 penetrate at last to the knowledge of the essence of 
 things ; fourthly, that the object of all government is to 
 make the people virtuous and contented." (Clarke, 
 " Ten Great Religions," p. 53.) Confucius was a moralist 
 and an imperialist. Filial piety was to be the basis of 
 patriarchal institutions which were centred in the em- 
 peror, whose virtues were to his thought irresistible. 
 " If his desire be for what is good, the people will be 
 good, as grass bends before the wind ; if he is not cov- 
 etous, they will not even be hired to steal ; if he loves 
 right, they will obey without orders." (Johnson, "Ori- 
 ental Religions," p. 609.) The monarchical principle has 
 never been more glorified than by the sage of China. It 
 has been said that Hillel, Shammai, and their disciples, 
 the Scribes and Pharisees of our Lord's day, were not 
 more fully persuaded that men could be made virtuous 
 by law. This faith of his was criticised in his own time. 
 
204 TEE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 " You think," lie was in effect told, " that men can be 
 reformed by the imposition of laws, forms, and ceremo- 
 nies, and by holding up for their imitation the good ex- 
 amples of the ancient worthies. That shows what a 
 superficial knowledge of the human nature you have. 
 Why, the more you multiply laws, the more ingen- 
 ious will men become in evading them. Besides, you 
 do not dream that the living will walk forever in the 
 footsteps of the dead. A temporary success will be lit- 
 tle more than a cloak over deceit and corruption, and, 
 after a time, wickedness will burst out more violently 
 than ever." These were altogether new points of view 
 for Confucius. But law with him meant education and 
 moral discipline, and it is difficult to escape the convic- 
 tion that practical Confucianism would lead to some 
 improvement in the homes, schools, and politics of 
 Western Christendom. Let a missionary really master 
 a philosophy, like the Confucian, and, as one Dr. Ellin- 
 wood has written, " he will better illustrate the Christian 
 grace of humility and be so much the better prepared 
 for his work." (Ellinwood, " Oriental Religions," p. 13.) 
 The wisdom of Providence appears to have ordained 
 that certain nations should work out certain ideas and 
 follow certain ideals up to the time when all shall be 
 gathered into a cosmopolitan but various unity through 
 the fulness of power and truth in Jesus Christ. We 
 have not seriously put into practice very much of the 
 truth that is in Him, and China may teach us yet some 
 lessons. " To Confucius society was the great reality. 
 Civilization, with its material splendor, social order, and 
 settled government, was an unspeakable blessing. For 
 its preservation he trusted mainly to the combined influ- 
 ences of education, example, and rigid ceremonial ; and 
 
CONFUCIANISM 205 
 
 to him it is chiefly owing that the educational system 
 of China is so wonderfully complete." (Grant, p. 66.) 
 " All the world knows that the Chinese have a system 
 of morality which in theory is remarkably pure. They 
 may not be a peculiarly moral people compared with 
 the rest of mankind, but they have a better system of 
 human duty than almost any other heathen nation, an- 
 cient or modern." (Edkins, " Religion in China," p. 117.) 
 " There is only one recognized portal of office in China, 
 and that is the examination hall. Consequently the ad- 
 ministration is not in the hands of demagogues, nor of 
 persons selected more or less according to the accident 
 of birth or by haphazard methods, but of men who have 
 proved their fitness by submitting to the severe tests of 
 successive examinations. In no other country, accord- 
 ingly, is education so highly valued." 
 
 But Confucianism does not provide for all the needs 
 of human nature. The Chinese have no clear, sure 
 knowledge of God. And what we would deem religious 
 ideas, exercise but little influence over the national 
 mind. It is common to hear the Chinese say that the 
 heavens shall be worshipped only by the Emperor in 
 the name of the nation, and that the God of Heaven is 
 too majestic for a common man to approach Him as a 
 worshipper. Confucius said : " We cannot as yet per- 
 form our duties to men ; how can we perform our duties 
 to spirits ? We know not as yet about life ; how can we 
 know about death ? " " My prayers were offered up 
 long ago." As religion in India largely means observ- 
 ance of caste, so in China filial piety has largely ab- 
 sorbed every other form of piety. " A man may believe 
 what he likes, may practise what religious observances 
 he likes, but he is not allowed to dishonor his parents 
 
206 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 while they live, and still less when they are dead. The 
 state strictly enjoins filial piety on all, and public sen- 
 timent insists upon the observance of what is enjoined." 
 Theoretically, the Emperor, who is at the head of the 
 state, and has almost absolute control, is the father, as 
 well as the king, of the people. " If he is the greatest 
 man of the state, he is also the most burdened — strictly 
 speaking, the only burdened man. If a sacrifice has to 
 be presented to heaven, it is the Emperor alone who 
 presents it. It is not that the Emperor alone is allowed 
 to have his sins forgiven ; it is rather that all the sins 
 are sins of the Emperor. He alone sacrifices, because 
 only he has been the transgressor." (Mathison, " Dis- 
 tinctive Messages of the Old Eeligions,"p. 70.) But in a 
 nation where " power, masculine power, arbitrary power, 
 has become from the very outset the symbol and the goal 
 of the life of home," " instead of the kingdom being 
 built on the model of a household, the household has 
 been constructed after the model of a kingdom. In 
 such a society, by the very nature of the case woman can 
 have no ruling sphere " (p. 89). We are not amazed then 
 to discover that where the root idea is arbitrary power, 
 the tree of Chinese civilization has become synonymous 
 with tyranny and corrupt oppression. To-day Chinese 
 officials claim that they have a right to govern the 
 people in their own horrible and brutal way, and the 
 Rev. Mr. Candlin, of Tien Tsin, one of the sweetest and 
 greatest spirits among modern missionaries, than whom 
 China has no better friend, has told us how all political 
 rights have been withheld by the Chinese officials ; with 
 what cool indifference they see their subjects the victims 
 of famine, of pestilence, of flood, of drought ; how they 
 have studied only the art of riding safely on the back 
 
CONFUCIANISM 207 
 
 of this great, dumb, blinded monster, the nation, and 
 fattening on the luxuries they have taught the starving 
 creatures to procure for them. Patriarchal government 
 has been a failure. It has been described as the reign 
 of a father distinctively, that is to say, as distinguished 
 from the reign of a mother. " Wherever such a society 
 prevails there is one uniform result ; instead of mon- 
 archy being lost in fatherhood, fatherhood is lost in 
 monarchy " (p. 85). The rules of Confucius were adapted 
 to a primitive society, to small principalities ; and his 
 views, as Dr. Legge has said, " want the comprehension 
 which would make them of much service in a great em- 
 pire. 
 
 Furthermore, China was his world, and there is no 
 provision made for the intercourse of his nation with 
 other peoples. China was all " under heaven." ' ; The 
 Chinese national spirit deliberately placed itself in di- 
 rect hostility to the introduction of foreign customs and 
 ideas. The great wall that forms the northern boundary 
 of the Empire is the emphatic emblem of this national 
 exclusiveness. It is so, as much in its failure to attain 
 its object, as in the idea of its original construction. 
 Several times a Tartar race has broken through that 
 ineffectual barrier, and conquered the country it was in- 
 tended to defend." (Edkins, " Eeligion in China," p. 1.) 
 It is not a hopeful and brilliant picture of Chinese so- 
 ciety which the Christian Chinese minister, Rev. Y. K. 
 Yen, sent to the Parliament of Religions : " Take busi- 
 ness. Large corporations are impossible, for lack of 
 mutual confidence. They have been lately attempted, 
 in large numbers ; but, with few exceptions, have col- 
 lapsed through the corruption of directors or cashiers. 
 Why is it that the Government obtains its loans through 
 
208 TUB CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 foreign banks, and not directly from the people ? Why- 
 is it that hongs, stores, and shops find their greatest dif- 
 ficulty with the book-keepers ? Why is it that nearly 
 every man owes money to somebody ? Why is it that 
 to give the lie to another is no offence? Cruelty is 
 everywhere. Torture prevails in the administration of 
 justice. There is hard- hear tedness in families, in 
 schools, in workshops, and especially in the treatment 
 of girls bought for domestic services, or for impure pur- 
 poses, and of those adopted into families as future wives 
 for the sons." (" History of the Parliament of Relig- 
 ions," p. 1311.) We all know that China is the paradise 
 of cruelty and conservatism, that its rulers are mad'y 
 afraid of change and are callous to all misery excepting 
 their own. The Rev. Arthur Smith has told us why 
 the horrible public highways in North China are never 
 repaired, so that it is a proverb that an old road be- 
 comes a river, which in the summer rains is literally 
 the case. When the American missionary asks the 
 farmer to repair the road over against his own house, 
 he refuses on the ground that the track is no more his 
 to use than that of others ; he has no time to waste on 
 such work ; that is to say, he is unwilling to confer a 
 benefit on others even though he reaps a greater one 
 himself. China evidently needs the positive form of 
 the Golden Rule. 
 
 And what an immense relief to human misery would 
 spring from the reception of the Christly beatitude, 
 " Blessed are the merciful ! " Nearly everybody knows 
 of the pitiless and shocking custom of footbinding, a 
 barbarous and abominable affliction on many millions 
 of Chinese girls, who are continually weeping and 
 wringing their hands under the cruel torture. The 
 
CONFUCIANISM 209 
 
 Christian women of China have enlisted in a crusade to 
 release the victims from the thraldom of this needless 
 suffering. Not all of the Chinese are insensible to 
 physical torture, though multitudes among them are ap- 
 parently indifferent. " In those terrible massacres of 
 hundreds at a time, which they call executions, the 
 most cruel pains and the ghastliest anticipations seldom 
 extort a murmur or a groan. The readiness with which 
 whole multitudes resort to suicide, rather than fall into 
 the hands of the enemy or survive defeat and disgrace, 
 shows what insensibility to fears or sufferings this 
 force of endurance can attain." (Johnson, " Oriental 
 Religions," p. 39.) " The approbation of suicide under 
 depressing circumstances in China may be said to 
 amount to enthusiasm. Pagodas are erected to the 
 * beautiful suicide of love.' Honorary tablets are fre- 
 quent to widows who have betaken themselves to their 
 lost husbands. So fashionable became such suicides, 
 that in the early part of the last century an imperial 
 edict forbade this public reward " (p. 40). 
 
 We speak of this oldest of existing nations as the type 
 of conservatism, and yet the nineteenth century has 
 struck at the gates of China and we behold a process of 
 change. Great features may remain unmodified, but all 
 is not stagnation. Even without Christianity there 
 would have been some modification and movement. 
 Dr. Faber has contrasted the China of to-day with the 
 China of the sixth century before Christ. He imagined 
 Confucius and Mencius making a short visit to the Mid- 
 dle Kingdom, and when Mencius congratulated his mas- 
 ter on the success of his teachings, that master found 
 much to distress him. He learned that his doctrine 
 
 had been propagated by war, that temples were erected 
 14 
 
210 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 to gods he had never heard of, that multitudes lived in 
 famine-stricken poverty and were debased by opium- 
 smoking and gambling, that money given to the poor 
 found its way into the pockets of silk-robed misman- 
 agers. They were both distressed by the distorted feet 
 of the women, and the queues of the men. They were 
 troubled by the sacrifices offered at graves, and the wor- 
 ship paid to the genii of good luck. Confucius was dis- 
 tressed by the thousands of books which he discovered 
 on the book-shelves of the stores, and recalled the time 
 when he cleared the ancient literature of thousands of 
 useless books, retaining only a few that were worthy to 
 be transmitted to other ages. He was distressed by 
 the arches erected in honor of famous women, most of 
 whom had committed suicide, or who had cut flesh from 
 their bodies as medicine for sick parents. They dis- 
 proved of the sanction given to alien religions and were 
 shocked by the worship of animals, the dragon festival, 
 by infanticide, and a hundred corruptions. And when 
 they saw the progress of the West, the railroads and 
 the steam-engines, and steamboats — " Oh, my little chil- 
 dren," said Confucius, " all ye who honor my name, the 
 people of the West are in advance of you, as the an- 
 cients were in advance of the rest of the world. There- 
 fore, learn what they have of good, and correct their 
 evil by what you have better. This is my meaning for 
 the great principle of reciprocity." 
 
 One strong blow after another has fallen upon the 
 Celestial Empire, and its immemorial stolidity and ex- 
 clusiveness. What more remarkable event in recent 
 history than the Taeping insurrection, whose leader ap- 
 pears to have gotten his inspiration from the Bible, who 
 took lessons of a Christian missionary, who studied 
 
CONFUCIANISM 211 
 
 Christian books, and organized a society of God-wor- 
 shippers ! What was at first a religious, soon became a 
 political, movement, and then an insurrection against 
 bad government ; it abandoned idolatry and announced 
 that, if it succeeded, the Bible was to take the place of 
 Confucius in examinations for office. It had some of 
 the aspects of a Puritan revolt. By it the Tartar Dy- 
 nasty would have been expelled, but it was put down by 
 British troops, not, however, until after half a million 
 insurgents had been killed. 
 
 I am one of those who are looking out for points of 
 contact between Christianity and the faiths which it must 
 ultimately displace by fulfilling all their best ideals and 
 aspirations. Christianity finds in China reverence for 
 the past, but it adds to it hope for the future. It finds 
 in China faith in man, it adds to it faith in God. It 
 finds in China a spirit of commonplace and practical 
 devotion to the affairs of earth, it adds to it enthusiasm 
 and the hope of heaven. Who shall say that Confucius 
 has not rightly been described as a star in the East, 
 who will ultimately lead his people to Christ ? One of 
 the most authentic of his sayings is this : " In the West 
 the true Saint must be looked for and found." Dr. 
 Mathison has analyzed with much clearness and ex- 
 pounded with much force the universal spirit and habit 
 in the Celestial Empire of regarding the present with 
 dissatisfaction and of looking toward the past as the 
 desirable and the ideal state of society. Ancestral wor- 
 ship is explained by this spirit and habit. The doctrine 
 of Lao-tse is thus explained, for he proposed in effect 
 that man should retrace his steps in the life of the 
 plant. China regards modern society as a departure 
 from primitive simplicity and excellence. It has no 
 
212 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 hope from the increase of civilization and the develop- 
 ment of culture. Progress is decline. The disciples of 
 Confucius are out of sympathy with that watchword 
 which is the key to the history of Judaism and Christi- 
 anity : " Speak to the children of Israel that they go 
 forward." Now Christianity must have in it, if it is to 
 meet the wants of such a people, something which cor- 
 responds with their fundamental idea, and is it not this 
 declaration that " in order to inherit the kingdom, the 
 man must become a child? " " The initial command of 
 Christianity is the command to go back. The Christian 
 soldier receives at the outset the order to retreat. The 
 distinctive motto of this faith is the preliminary neces- 
 sity of regress : ' Except ye be turned back and become 
 as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom 
 of Heaven.' In these words there is a thoroughly 
 Chinese ring — a more distinctly Chinese ring than that 
 which is supposed to reverberate in Christ's Golden 
 Rule." (Mathison, " Distinctive Messages of Old Relig- 
 ions," p. 77.) " Now this cry is precisely what Christian- 
 ity professes to meet and satisfy. Its power over the 
 moral life lies mainly in the fact that it claims to lead 
 back that life to a fresh starting-point, or, to use its 
 own words, ' to pure fountains of living water ' " (p. 79). 
 " The Christian goes back in order that he may come 
 forward ; the Chinaman goes back that he may rest 
 under primeval shadows ; the Christian's paradise is al- 
 ways in the future ; the Chinaman's always in the past " 
 (p. 83). " Other systems might offer him incentives to 
 moral reformation ; other creeds might inspire him with 
 motives to abstain from old views ; Christianity alone 
 presents the hope of a buried past, the prospect of be- 
 coming a new creature by starting afresh and unencum- 
 
CONFUCIANISM 213 
 
 bered, with the heart of a little child and with a heredity 
 as pure as heaven " (p. 81). 
 
 I do not find in Confucianism either of what the 
 Bishop of Ripon has called the three permanent ele- 
 ments of religion — dependence, fellowship and progress. 
 The God ward side of human nature is not provided for 
 adequately. Fellowship is artificial and restricted, and 
 true progress made nearly impossible, for progress be- 
 longs to people " who believe that the God that inspired 
 holy men of old inspires men still, who believe that He 
 is a living God and the God of the living." Christian- 
 ity found its way through Nestorian missionaries into 
 China in the seventh and eighth centuries, and, after a 
 rapid extension of its conquests, it declined and disap- 
 peared, not, however, from any want of zeal in the first 
 missionaries. Has Christianity in this nineteenth cen- 
 tury entered the Chinese Empire to remain and be vic- 
 torious? I find every reason to hope that the fifty 
 thousand Protestant converts of to-day will yet be mul- 
 tiplied into millions, but Christendom must become 
 wiser and worthier before its conquests are rapid. 
 Principal Grant has well said : " No man is fitted to 
 present the Gospel to the Chinese till he has become 
 a Chinaman, as Paul became a Greek, a barbarian, or a 
 Jew. Injustice done to their nation by nations of 
 Christendom ; high-handed treatment of their kindred 
 when they come to our shores, contempt for their cus- 
 toms — these things will only provoke retaliation, which 
 will be all the more severe the longer it may be de- 
 layed " (p. 77). And he adds : " How shall we commend 
 Christianity to the Chinese? China will not be satis- 
 fied with a religion less historical than that of Confu- 
 cius, or less suited to her traditions and to her social 
 
214 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 and political ideals, but, at the same time, she needs a 
 religion that reveals the Eternal, presents higher ideals 
 of life, and inspires permanent motives to virtue and 
 holiness. Religion must be, in every soul and in every 
 nation, * a well of water, springing up into everlast- 
 ing life ' " (p. 77). The Chinese secretary who spoke 
 at the Parliament of Religions said of that American 
 scholar, Dr. William A. P. Martin, so long at the head 
 of the Imperial University at Peking, that he " is the 
 only missionary living that is accustomed to inter- 
 change visits with dukes, marquises, and eminent states- 
 men, and to mingle with scholars and officials on terms 
 of perfect equality. Since Schall's time he is the only 
 missionary that has enjoyed this unique distinction. 
 On this account all Confucianists hold him in great re- 
 spect. The best thing missionaries can do is to follow 
 such a worthy example." (" History of the Parliament 
 of Religions," p. 437.) And Mr. Pung adds : " At the 
 present time there is a tendency on the part of the na- 
 tions of the earth to draw closer to each other in peace 
 and amity. If the Pope and the Propaganda, on the one 
 hand, and the Protestant Missionary Societies, on the 
 other, really desire to confer some lasting benefits upon 
 the people of China, as well as to show the love they 
 bear Christ, I beg to suggest that such men be se- 
 lected for missionary work in China as shall combine 
 with their religious qualifications a proficiency in other ^ 
 branches of human knowledge, such as sociology, philos- 
 ophy, political economy, natural science, chemistry, in- 
 ternational law, astronomy, geology, mathematics, and 
 the like." (" History of the Parliament of Religions," p. 
 436.) The Rev. Gilbert Reed, and other missionaries, 
 working among the educated classes, sympathize with 
 
CONFUCIANISM 215 
 
 these views of the Chinese official, for they know that 
 in China the urns of empire have always been fixed near 
 the abodes of science and scholarship. 
 
 But a bookish people may be very conceited, ex- 
 tremely narrow, and violently hostile to improvement. 
 It is only by force that Western civilization has made 
 any entrance into China, and the mightiest obstacle in 
 the way of progress is the universal superstition in re- 
 gard to the brutality and cruelty of all foreigners. It is 
 a common belief that Chinese wives and children are 
 chopped up by foreign doctors to make medicine out of 
 their bones and eyes. The Chinese hate, despise and 
 fear all foreigners. They believe that Europeans can 
 cast spells over them and spoil their health and cause 
 the plague to pass by the Englishman's house, as it 
 always does, and to rest upon the house of the China- 
 man. It has been truly said that " no African savage is 
 more ground down by fetich than is the Chinaman by 
 superstition." 
 
 The Gospel of Jesus Christ must enter the hearts of 
 these people and fill them with nobler aspirations and 
 a diviner discontent before they will ever be willing to 
 believe in real goodness and humanity, and before they 
 will be ready to leave the filthy conditions in which all 
 Chinese life is lived in Chinese cities. I had a half 
 hour's stroll into Shanghai — I mean the native part — 
 away from the admirable settlements of the English and 
 Americans. In all of my experience of humanity I have 
 seen nothing so foul, so degrading, so unutterably filthy 
 as this Chinese quarter, and one would think, as clos- 
 ing his nostrils and hurrying back to the precincts of 
 civilization and decency, that even Chinese conceit 
 would be shamed and shocked, and would see in the 
 
216 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 approach and influence of the European and American 
 the transforming touch of something higher and better. 
 And there can be no more decisive evidence of the fail- 
 ure of Buddhism to make men humane than the hor- 
 rors of Chinese punishments in courts of justice. Exe- 
 cutions are terrible massacres ; tortures are constantly 
 practised which would almost shame the Spanish In- 
 quisition. It has been said there is enough legal cru- 
 elty in Canton to glut the Duke of Alva or a General 
 Weyler. And the people gather to enjoy the tortures of 
 those who are flogged with the bamboo in ways which I 
 will not harrow your sensibilities by describing. Wade 
 through the blood of the legal shambles in Canton, and 
 you will realize what a jest it is to speak of the human- 
 ities of Buddhism as illustrated in China. 
 
 I have heard and read much criticism of the work of 
 Protestant missionaries in the Celestial Empire, but it 
 is evident that the worst which can be said against them 
 can be said also against the representatives of Chris- 
 tianity in Great Britain and America. They are not 
 united ; they are not all of them thoroughly educated, 
 and they might accomplish a better work if there were 
 more union and greater wisdom among them. But this 
 is not a very severe indictment and does not distinguish 
 Christian work in China from Christian work in London 
 or Chicago, and when we are told that the Chinese hate 
 these representatives of our faith, the critic forgets that 
 the hostility is to all foreigners, and that the mission- 
 aries have more friends than the merchants. I know of 
 one case of an American missionary who, when he left 
 his work in Peking a few months ago for a much-needed 
 furlough in America, was accompanied on his way by 
 faithful and weeping Chinese friends, who felt that they 
 
CONFUCIANISM 217 
 
 were losing a spiritual father, and I am assured by mis- 
 sionaries that when the Gospel does get hold of the heart 
 of a Chinese, it makes a man of him. In spite of the 
 universal corruption of Chinese officials, the Chinese 
 clerks who have been trained in honest English methods 
 prove to be trustworthy men, and it was with surprise 
 that I learned and saw that in the leading banks of 
 Japan, Chinese, rather than Japanese, clerks are em- 
 ployed. 
 
 A main reason for the intense antipathy on the part 
 of this great people to the adoption of Christianity, has 
 been the introduction of opium by foreign merchants 
 and a Christian government. Why should we wonder 
 at the ill-name which this abominable traffic, which in- 
 jures the moral character of individuals, dissipates their 
 wealth, robs them of self-government, renders them in- 
 dolent and sensual, and sends them through wretched- 
 ness to an early grave, has given to Christian nations ? 
 We make it altogether too hard for men to fall in love 
 with Christ, the Saviour of the world. And yet some of 
 the noblest examples of Christian faith and consecra- 
 tion are found among this people in whose hands lies in 
 large measure the future of Asia. Christ only can unify 
 and pacify and purify that vast aggregate of humanity 
 which Confucius stamped with his moral impress. 
 What he left undone, Christianity must accomplish. 
 What he partially grasped and embodied, Christianity 
 must illustrate and fulfil. Above all, China needs the 
 upward look and the vision of the true King of Heaven, 
 " Our Father," whose Spirit and truth and love were re- 
 vealed in the Christ. The nation which has practised 
 the fifth commandment must not omit the first. After 
 all, the controlling and shaping thought of mankind is 
 
218 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 the thought of God. It is of greater moment what men 
 think of superior than of inferior things. That which 
 is from above is master. The thought which dominates 
 other thoughts concerns the supreme King of Heaven, 
 whom the individual soul needs to know as a personal 
 and loving Father. A wise man can tell the outline, 
 the external manifestation, and the direction of every in- 
 dividual life, provided first he knows that individual's 
 conception of God, and so, from this knowledge he can 
 tell the character of national life in the different forms 
 furnished us by Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, 
 and Islam. This central thought of the human soul 
 radiates outward, like the lights from sun, moon and 
 candle, into the far and minute crevices of life, and the 
 wise man is both spectroscope and photometer ; that is, 
 he pronounces upon the kind of light, whether solar, 
 lunar or earth-born, and he measures its intensity and 
 degree. The little light which China has had from the 
 heavens has been lunar, while most of its illumination 
 has been from the earth. Supreme wisdom will tell 
 from the ordering of the human household, from the 
 conduct of business, from the glance of the eye, from 
 the tone of the voice what men worship as supreme ; 
 and how strong or weak, how constant or capricious, is 
 that worship. If human wisdom were superangelic in 
 its vision, it might discover men's thoughts of God from 
 the particles of their blood and the beatings of their 
 heart ; for thought controls all things, the infinitesimal 
 as well as the infinite. Break to smallest fragments the 
 six-or eight-sided crystal, and each fragment possesses 
 every quality or power of the original jewel. And so 
 men's thoughts of God rule in every movement and 
 manifestation of their complex lives. When China 
 
CONFUCIANISM 219 
 
 learns to repeat the Lord's Prayer, when she lifts her 
 eyes to Our Father in Heaven, she will learn to say 
 " Thy Kingdom Come," and find it broader than her 
 own immense domain and more blessed than anything 
 of which Confucius dreamed, meditating on the sages 
 of old. 
 
 The foremost duty of the Western world is to give a 
 knowledge of the true God, manifested in Jesus Christ, 
 to China, the greatest nationality of the Eastern world. 
 The obstacles to the progress of Christianity in the 
 Celestial Empire are almost insurmountable. The 
 Chinese language is one of infinite difficulty. The 
 Chinese prejudice is almost invincible. Every form of 
 error is deeply lodged in the Chinese mind. Every 
 vice is ubiquitous. Dishonesty and impurity are om- 
 nipresent. Womanhood is enslaved. Science is un- 
 known, and the stubbornness of opposition to Christian 
 ideas is that of adamant. But on the other hand, the 
 Chinese material, when Christianized, is of the best. 
 The sufferings of China are a constant appeal to what- 
 ever exists among us of the Spirit of Christ, the spirit 
 of humanity, and there is no doubt that many of 
 the Chinese leaders have turned their thoughts, since 
 the Japanese war, to the great West, clothed in whose 
 panoply Japan conquered. From the highest official 
 classes men are stepping forth and saying to the West- 
 ern world : " Come over and help us." Rev. Timothy 
 Richard, of Shanghai, was requested by eminent officials 
 at Peking to secure from leaders of Western thought 
 their wisest suggestions as to what China needs for her 
 regeneration. And it was my privilege to secure from 
 American statesmen and scholars a number of important 
 communications, which have been submitted to the 
 
220 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 Chinese Government. Russia, Germany and France 
 are determined, it would sometimes seem, on the dis- 
 memberment of the most ancient of empires. And, 
 while we cannot doubt that this attempted dismember- 
 ment, if successful, might be an ultimate gain to the 
 race, we know perfectly well that, like the crimes of 
 England in India, and like the forcing of the opium 
 trade into China, it will be one of the horrible stains 
 upon Christendom which ages will not rub off ; it will 
 be one of the obstacles not easily overcome to the rapid 
 advance of the Kingdom of Truth, Brotherhood and 
 Love. Centuries of moral warfare, untold energies of 
 spiritual devotion, the sacrifice of countless lives gladly 
 given to the ministry of Christ in the Celestial Empire 
 — all this will be in the future. The conversion of 
 China will be no holiday task, and the consummation 
 will be delayed until Christendom itself has been Chris- 
 tianized. 
 
 In his great address at the Parliament of Religions 
 on Christian, or, rather, Religious Unity in its bear- 
 ing on the work of Missions, Mr. Candlin gave us a 
 parable from the political history of China, a parable 
 whose lessons are for us, as well as for the men of that 
 Empire, a parable which teaches that the reunion of 
 Christendom must precede the conversion of mankind. 
 He told us of the great and ancient China which has re- 
 mained slightly affected by the changes that have con- 
 vulsed the outer world. In reality, however, that Empire 
 has frequently been a loose aggregation of petty king- 
 doms and different languages, waging with one another 
 remorseless and cruel war. And yet, she has given the 
 world a phenomenon unique in history. Other nations 
 have fallen and been broken, never to rise again, but 
 
CONFUCIANISM 221 
 
 China, rent and torn at times, at the next turn of the wheel 
 of destiny coalesces and stands impregnable, the most 
 populous and the most homogeneous nation on earth ; 
 and the secret of this strange power, he said, " has been 
 an ideal." Down the long line of her rulers, through 
 every change of her dynasties, the ideal given by Con- 
 fucianism, the ideal of the united and peaceful Empire, 
 " to pacify all under heaven," was never for a moment 
 lost sight of. This has been the star of her darkest 
 night. (" History of the Parliament of Religions," pp. 
 1190-91.) 
 
 Like that is the infinitely greater ideal of Christian- 
 ity. In a holier and more blessed sense, it aspires to 
 give peace to all under heaven, but the peace which 
 Christ gives is more than external order. It comes 
 from rest of conscience and intimate communion through 
 a living Saviour with a Father God, and the world which 
 is to be pacified runs all round the Equator, and stretches 
 out to both the poles. It is our shame, our deep and 
 undying shame, that this programme is unaccomplished. 
 It is our shame, "if in our littleness or narrowness, or 
 love of forms and theologies and ecclesiasticisms and 
 rituals, the great ideal itself should be lost, which angels 
 sang that night when the starry spaces were glad and 
 did not know how to hold their exultation, because they 
 divined where the message came from : 'Peace on earth, 
 good- will toward men.' " 
 
CHAPTEK VIII 
 
 SUCCESS OF ASIATIC MISSIONS; AMERICA'S RESPONSIBILITY 
 
 TO THE ORIENT 
 
 The Christian religion is inherently expansive, and 
 the idea of a world-wide conquest entered its heart and 
 brain from the very beginning. The strongest argu- 
 ment for the truth of Christianity which I could bring 
 to bear upon many Hindu minds was this : its essen- 
 tial universality, not only because of its adaptation to 
 all men, and its claims upon all, but from its present 
 world-wide extension ; an argument which Christian 
 missions in the nineteenth century have put into our 
 hands. I have returned home from a voyage round the 
 world with a new and deeper sense of the Gospel's uni- 
 versal efficacy, after hearing the old Christian hymns 
 sung in Arabic and Marathi, in Hindu and Kanarase, in 
 Tamil and Bengali, and in the languages of China and 
 Japan. Many a time in the early morning hours the 
 voices of little children carrying old tunes in strange 
 tongues have floated to our ears across the Mission 
 Compound of some city in the Punjab, or on the spicy 
 and surf-beaten shores of Ceylon, and my heart beat 
 faster as I realized the oneness of Christian hope and 
 faith and love in the breasts of all disciples, and as I 
 felt anew the sweet glory of that Gospel which it is 
 your work and mine to carry to all those whom God 
 loves and for whom the Saviour died. 
 
 222 
 
SUCCESS OF ASIATIC MISSIONS 223 
 
 A few years ago there came to me in the providence of 
 God a deep invincible feeling that it was my mission to 
 preach Christ, not only in America, but also in the Far 
 East. It was the larger Christ which I was moved and 
 inspired to preach, the Christ who has not forgotten 
 nor forsaken any part of the world ; the Christ who has 
 illumined in some measure all hearts, but who blazes 
 forth in redemptive disclosure from Bethlehem's cradle, 
 from the Galilean Mount of Teaching, from the Tree of 
 Life on Calvary, from the opening Heavens, from the 
 Eternal Throne, and from the Pentecostal fires of the 
 Holy Spirit which gleam and flash wherever the his- 
 toric Christ is faithfully and lovingly presented. And 
 now that I have finished the work to which I was com- 
 missioned, now that I have been permitted to cany the 
 Christian message to the schools of India and Japan, I 
 shall be glad if any word of mine shall help, however 
 slightly, that sure and swift-coming revival of enthusi- 
 asm in America for the missionary cause, which, in its 
 origin, character and purpose, Dr. Wayland rightly 
 deemed the sublimest that ever awakened the hopes 
 and called forth the moral energies of mankind. 
 
 I find, and you also find, among some people in our 
 own country, a scepticism with regard to the wisdom 
 and success of all Christian effort in Asia, an unbelief 
 springing sometimes out of a lack of knowledge of the 
 real results of Christian missions, and occasionally from 
 the feeling that Christianity has nothing supremely im- 
 portant to give to the followers of Buddha Mohammed 
 and Confucius, and to those whom it is supposed have 
 been trained in the great philosophies of India. It is very 
 common for travellers and naval officers to circulate the 
 report that they have found nothing to praise and much 
 
224 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 to condemn in the work of the missionaries. Such 
 critics might learn something from the testimonies of 
 great British statesmen in India, one of whom, Sir Alex- 
 ander McKenzie, Governor-General of Bengal, a strong 
 friend of missions, said to me that he looked forward to 
 the time wben there would be a national turning of the 
 people of India to the Gospel of Christ ; when the work 
 already begun should go forward rapidly under the 
 leadership of native Christian prophets. These critics 
 of missions might learn much from Colonel Denby, for 
 twelve years our efficient Minister at Peking, or from 
 Consul-General Jernigan of Shanghai, or even from the 
 Indian Social Reformer, a non-Christian paper published 
 in Madras, which has recently said that " if you wish to 
 find examples of the noblest benevolence, you must go 
 to Christianity and not to Hinduism," and has also ex- 
 pressed the opinion that " the highest types of Chris- 
 tian character yet evolved by our race were found among 
 some of the Christian missionaries of India." 
 
 It might be well, however, to put to these critics a 
 few questions. Will you give to us the names of a score 
 out of the thousands of Christian missionaries in the 
 Orient whom you came to know personally, and to 
 know so well that you could form an accurate judgment 
 of them and of their work ? And then, since the mis- 
 sionaries are doing such a vast variety of things to help 
 the bodies and souls of men, will you tell us what work 
 you found ineffective or harmful ? Do you disapprove 
 of the translation of the Bible, the writing of Christian 
 literatures, the teaching of children in schools, of young 
 men in colleges, the preaching in the street, the visiting 
 of women in their homes, the work of the dispensary, or 
 the work of the hospital ? If you know not one mis- 
 
SUCCESS OF ASIATIC MISSIONS 225 
 
 sionary personally, if you have never studied the various 
 forms of work with your own eyes, where did you get 
 your opinions? Did you get them from the not-over- 
 moral European populations in the corrupt port-towns 
 of Japan, China, and India ? Are you reflecting the hos- 
 tility of unworthy representatives of Christian nations 
 who are doing so much to hinder the progress of Chris- 
 tianity in the Orient ? Is it becoming in anyone to en- 
 deavor to break down the work of men and women who, 
 leaving their own country from love of Christ and love 
 of humanity, are, at any rate, striving to enlighten, up- 
 lift, and save their fellow-men ? Those who mislead 
 American travellers in the Orient would be equally out 
 of sympathy with earnest and aggressive Christian work 
 carried on here in our American cities. 
 
 I have seen enough of Christian evangelism in Asia 
 to fill me with joyful hope. I never met a missionary 
 in India or Japan who was doubtful about the final re- 
 sult. And I have seen enough of the practical workings 
 of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam to crystallize into 
 adamantine firmness my previous strong conviction of 
 their futility to give the soul peace with God, to remove 
 the weight of guilt and grief, to lay the foundations of 
 a vigorous individual and national morality, and to 
 brighten earth with the light of a blessed immortality. 
 My conviction of the universal need of the Gospel of 
 Christ was not lessened but greatly augmented by the 
 observations made of the present condition of Japan, 
 the one non-Christian nation that can be called pro- 
 gressive. 
 
 The conclusions which I reached in regard to this 
 
 most interesting of Oriental countries, reflect, I believe, 
 
 the judgments of those careful Western and Christian 
 15 
 
226 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 students who have the most thorough acquaintance with 
 the facts. I believe that, while the Japanese are the 
 most intelligent and progressive people in the Asiatic 
 world, and that while Japan already possesses some of 
 the material and intellectual forces of civilization, she is 
 not yet strong in the moral elements. The people can 
 scarcely be said to have a conscience, outside of a very 
 limited circle of civil and patriotic duties. There are 
 elements of good-nature and of kindness about them 
 which mislead the superficial and hasty observer. 
 Those who have lived with them for many years tell you 
 that lying and dishonesty of all kinds are frightfully 
 prevalent, and that the sins of the flesh are practically 
 universal. The Christian idea of purity of heart and 
 life is almost unknown ; and it must be confessed that 
 many Europeans who live among them (I, of course, 
 except all earnest Christians), very speedily fall into the 
 common fleshly sins which, with the Japanese, are not 
 sins at all. Except in the cities where Western travel- 
 lers are seen, some of the ordinary decencies of behavior 
 observed in the Western world are practically unknown, 
 and it is simply impossible for me to do much more 
 than hint at the dissoluteness and gross animalism in 
 which the good-natured Japanese is perfectly at home. 
 
 Buddhism has been represented as the life, the 
 strength, and the light of this people, and Buddhism 
 wrought a great and beneficent history in its early days. 
 But it is a system out of which to-day in Japan the 
 moral vitality has largely departed. It builds great tem- 
 ples, the Eastern Hongwanji which I saw in Kyoto, very 
 recently completed, being the largest Buddhist shrine 
 in Japan, on which ten millions of yen have been ex- 
 pended, money raised by popular subscription. There 
 
SUCCESS OF ASIATIC 3IISSI0NS 227 
 
 is no lack of worshippers in its bronzed, matted, and 
 lacquered sanctuaries. But the scandals of its priest- 
 hood are notorious, and the barrenness of its services 
 equally so. They seem hardly worthy of children, and 
 the Buddhist sermons are largely stories of historic or 
 mythical heroes which may kindle the patriotic feeling, 
 but can do nothing to meet the deepest needs of the 
 soul. Buddhism in Japan is fighting Christianity with 
 its own weapons, but as sure as human nature remains 
 what it is, and growing enlightenment reveals to men 
 their need of God and redemption and immortality, 
 Christianity will continue its beneficent advance in the 
 Island Empire. 
 
 My observations and labors were largely given to 
 India. It was a lectureship founded by a devoted 
 member of a church in Michigan City, Mrs. Caroline 
 E. Haskell, which led me to the Orient, and the bright- 
 est visions which met my eyes in the dark continent of 
 Asia and elsewhere were the mission stations at which 
 your gifts and efforts have kindled points of celestial 
 light. The lectureship was fortunate in having an 
 American origin, and fortunate also in its connection 
 with a movement of religious fraternity and conciliation 
 which touched the heart of a proud people. It has been 
 our hope that this foundation would prove not only a 
 useful factor in the evangelization of India, but also a 
 bond of brotherhood and loving interest between East 
 and West. It is plain that Christian education must be 
 a main factor in the evangelization of a land where the 
 very foundations of rational theistic and Christian faith 
 are yet to be laid. I look upon the Christian colleges 
 of India as important elements in the national regenera- 
 tion, even though comparatively few of their students 
 
228 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 are brave enough to defy disinheritance, family persecu- 
 tion and relentless social ostracism, in order to declare, 
 in the face of the cruel intolerance that prevails, the faith 
 in Christianity, which thousands of them are secretly 
 cherishing. The lectureship is intended to supplement 
 the work of Christian literature and the Christian col- 
 leges. It was my mission, in speaking to the educated 
 classes, to lodge as firmly as possible in the Hindu mind 
 our conviction that Christianity is essentially a universal 
 religion ; to show that it must not be identified with 
 any Western nation, or with the faults and vices of any 
 one people. Flattered by the praises of European 
 scholars who unearthed for him his own sacred litera- 
 ture, the philosophic Hindu began to think that Hindu- 
 ism reformed and purified was good enough for his 
 people, and indeed possessed a glory which did not 
 belong to the Christian Gospel. It was my effort, there- 
 fore, to show that Christianity, judged by any tests 
 which bring out its true nature, is essentially universal. 
 It has the appearance which belongs to no other faith, 
 of compassing the globe, moulding more and more the 
 peoples who make the modern world. Its fruits, whether 
 in individual or social life, whether among barbarous or 
 civilized peoples, in past times or in the present, dwarf 
 and eclipse the best results which other faiths working 
 over limited areas can possibly produce. The literature 
 of Christianity, its sacred Book, judged by its form or 
 contents, has universal characteristics not discoverable 
 elsewhere. Its doctrine of God is so perfect and so 
 adapted to human need that enlightened men, living in 
 a world of suffering and sin, can never be permanently 
 contented with the agnosticism of Buddha, the panthe- 
 ism of the Hindu, or the stern monotheism of Islam. 
 
SUCCESS OF ASIATIC MISSIONS 229 
 
 Furthermore, Christianity presents an absolutely unique 
 phenomenon in the historic Christ, essentially universal 
 in His nature and teaching, Son of God, Son of man, 
 living for human example, dying for human redemption, 
 rising and ever living to be the inspiration of human 
 hope — a Christ who, from the very beginning, lodged in 
 His followers the ineradicable conviction that His relig- 
 ion was meant for all, was adapted to all, and would yet 
 be accepted everywhere. This earnest proclamation of 
 the essential universality of the Christian faith was, of 
 course, startling and not altogether acceptable to the 
 proud and isolated Hindu spirit. It has been the habit 
 of that mind in recent years to claim for Hinduism every 
 excellence which other religions bring to his attention. 
 My persistent advocacy of Christianity as a religion 
 seeking after the whole world with its message of love 
 and salvation, stirred up not a little antagonism, and at 
 the close of one of my lectures in Poona, a young Brah- 
 man, representing the omnivorousness of his nation, 
 which has swallowed almost everything in the world of 
 the spirit, came to me and said : " Dr. Barrows, you are 
 right in saying that Hinduism has not been a missionary 
 religion, but it is going to be ! " Of course, there is 
 nothing more preposterous than this bit of airy vanity. 
 The currents of four thousand years are not to be turned 
 in precisely the opposite direction. The swamp is 
 not to be transformed into a fountain, nor the Dead Sea 
 into the Amazon. The all-credulous Hindu mind may 
 believe that a few lecturers on Hindu philosophy, visit- 
 ing Western lands have reversed or will reverse the 
 spirit and attitude of cycles of centuries, but it still 
 remains true that Hinduism is a national religion, and 
 that, to enter its circle, is a question of geography as 
 
230 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 well as of race. The Brahman priest in the temple of 
 Parbati, to whom I put the question: "How can I 
 become a Hindu? " answered correctly : " It is impossi- 
 ble. To be a Hindu, one must be born a Hindu." How 
 difficult in some cases it is to lodge in the Brahman 
 mind the notion that there is a universal religion which 
 deserves acceptance by the Indus and the Ganges as 
 well as by the Hudson and the Thames, was illustrated 
 by the Chairman of my lecture in one of the cities of 
 Southern India. I had finished my address, whereinto 
 I had put every ounce and atom of my earnest convic- 
 tion in regard to the sovereign claims of Christianity 
 over every human mind and conscience, when the Chair- 
 man, after the usual complimentary remarks, said to 
 his Hindu hearers : " You see how thoroughly the 
 lecturer believes his religion. His whole heart is in it. 
 His earnestness has made him strong. What lesson 
 may we learn from him ? It is this : that we should be 
 as earnest and devoted to our religion as he is to his ! " 
 In setting forth the claims of Christianity, it was my 
 duty to use the comparative method. The comparative 
 method is certainly the fairest. It seeks for truth and 
 endeavors to determine where, at each point of the com- 
 parison, the greater, the purer, the completer, the more 
 effective truth is found. Now I wish to say, with the 
 greatest possible emphasis, that my conviction aris- 
 ing out of perhaps a unique experience in meeting large 
 numbers of non-Christian hearers — Hindu, Moslem, and 
 Buddhist — is clear and strong, that the comparative 
 method when faithfully applied by the Christian to other 
 religions, is not only the fairest, but is also the most en- 
 lightening, humiliating, and even exasperating method. 
 Comparisons are not always agreeable, even when they 
 
SUCCESS OF ASIATIC MISSIONS 231 
 
 serve to bring out the truth. Christian missionaries 
 may set forth the Gospel of Christ in what I may call 
 the usual method, that prevailing in Christian lands, 
 and awaken often only a sluggish interest and arouse 
 but little antagonism. I might have followed the 
 usual method, and probably would not have called for 
 so many columns of hostile criticisms as those with 
 which the native Indian press abounded. I must tes- 
 tify, however, to the general spirit of courtesy which 
 prevailed even in these criticisms, and I must also say 
 that the constant kindness which I received and the 
 patient and respectful hearing given to the lectures were 
 remarkable. Missionaries informed me that they would 
 scarcely have ventured before such audiences of edu- 
 cated men to have spoken with such frankness and ful- 
 ness of conviction. I believe there was no lack on my 
 part of appreciation of what is best in other religions. 
 There was general testimony that my lectures contained 
 no abuse of Hinduism, but at every point of compari- 
 son I indicated the immense superiority of Christianity. 
 While Hinduism is national, Christianity is universal. 
 While the effects of Hinduism are so mixed of good 
 and evil as to condemn it when judged by a lofty stand- 
 ard and seen through long periods of time, the results 
 of Christianity demand a favorable verdict for the 
 Gospel of Christ. While the polytheistic and panthe- 
 istic elements have led to degrading worship or pro- 
 duced moral paralysis, the holy, loving, redeeming God 
 of Christian theism has awakened and confirmed the 
 best possibilities of human nature. The superiority of 
 the Christian over the Hindu scriptures is dazzlingly 
 evident at every point of comparison, while to rank 
 Krishna with Christ is to put one's self out of the domain 
 
232 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 of scholarship as well as out of the precincts of moral- 
 ity. Furthermore, the philosophy which the Hindu 
 revivalists exploit as something more certain and per- 
 manent than the New Testament history, is after all a 
 jumble of fantastic speculations. One set of opinions is 
 ridiculed by the holders of rival theories, and while the 
 influence of their philosophies is revealed in the acute 
 minds and distorted and untrustworthy moral character 
 of the Brahmans, they have not benefited the Hindu 
 millions with their so-called sublime abstractions. What 
 has affected popular Hinduism has been the legendary 
 history, if I may so call it, of the Eamayana and the 
 Mahabharata, which seems like a barbarous, grotesque 
 caricature of the true supernaturalism of the Gospel. 
 
 I did not expect to find the work of Christian mis- 
 sions so varied, wise, faithful, and effective as I discov- 
 ered it to be. This discovery came in part from the 
 unusual opportunities enjoyed of seeing the work of so 
 many societies, European and American ; of seeing the 
 work in all parts of India ; of seeing all kinds of work 
 in schools, colleges, hospitals; bazaar-preaching, tract 
 and Bible distribution in villages and cities, and of see- 
 ing all this work under the eyes and with the expla- 
 nations of those Christians, native and foreign, whose 
 lives are most closely identified with it. The study of 
 missions was not with me something subordinate and 
 secondary. It was not put off until after I had seen 
 the tombs, the temples, the streets, and the shops, the 
 monuments and the palaces. It was a chief business 
 of my hours not devoted to public speaking. I learned 
 of missions from those who knew most about them, who 
 knew their failures and their successes ; from those 
 who had been benefited by them ; from those who were 
 
SUCCESS OF ASIATIC MISSIONS 233 
 
 opposed to tliem. Most of all, I relied on my own ob- 
 servations, constant, careful, repeated daily observations. 
 If men wish to learn of the trade of a country, or of its 
 colleges, or of its politics, they confer with traders, col- 
 lege men, politicians. They study on the spot and 
 under the guidance of experts. After three months in 
 India and nearly one month in Japan, wherein amplest 
 opportunities were mine for seeing and knowing the 
 labors of Christian propagandists in the Orient, I record 
 with deep conviction that Christian missions in the 
 East are more wonderful, more admirable, and better 
 worth studying than any other feature of the life of 
 Asia. 
 
 I am grateful that in the work of a score of missionary 
 societies, I could see so many evidences of the fruitful- 
 ness, hopefulness, and beneficent power of Christian 
 evangelism. Certainly the Bishop of Tinnevelly, who 
 between last March and the previous November was per- 
 mitted to confirm more than two thousand native con- 
 verts, does not despair of the evangelization of India. 
 Having conversed with Brahman-Christian preachers 
 and professors in colleges, having seen a Brahman in the 
 bazaars of Benares proclaiming Christ amid the hideous 
 idolatries of that city, having seen whole rows of Brah- 
 man converts in Christian churches, I not only repudi- 
 ate the mendacious story that no true Aryan is ever 
 converted, but I cherish a hope that in time to come 
 multitudes of the twice-born classes will be born again 
 by the Spirit of God. 
 
 Let one visit a hundred Christian schools in which I 
 have seen gathered the dark-eyed boys and girls of 
 Arcot, Bengal, and the Punjab ; let him see the native 
 congregations of Christians in Lucknow and Palamcotta, 
 
234: THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 in Ahmednagar and Madras, and contrast their homes 
 with the conditions out of which they came ; let him 
 visit the hospital work in Amritsar and Indore ; let him 
 study the various forms of organized Christian labor by 
 which the Church Missionary Society is ministering to 
 the ignorant, the blind, the deaf and dumb in Polam- 
 cottah ; let him see what the Pundita Bamabai is doing 
 in Poona for the relief and instruction of Hindu high- 
 caste widows ; let him mark the Biblical, literary, and 
 scientific instruction given to the eighteen hundred boys 
 aud young men in the Christian College, Madras, and to 
 the hundreds in Duff College, Calcutta ; Forinan College, 
 Lahore ; Reid College, Lucknow ; Wilson College, Bom- 
 bay ; Wesley College, Bangalore ; St. John's College, 
 Agra; St. Stephen's College, Delhi; let him follow the 
 Bible women in their diligent teaching of the Scriptures ; 
 let him hear the reports of the great army of Christian 
 women who are carrying light and cheer, comfort and 
 hope, into darkened zenanas ; let him note how millions 
 of printed Christian pages are spreading all abroad the 
 mighty Gospel of redemption ; let him study such huge 
 turnings to Christ as have followed the preaching of the 
 Baptists among the Telugus and of the Methodists in 
 Northern India ; let him renew his acquaintance with 
 the monstrous usages which prevailed eighty years ago, 
 and which Christian civilization in India has swept 
 away ; let him read the reports already published, which 
 show that the last year has been the most fruitful and 
 glorious year in the whole of the history of Indian mis- 
 sions ; let him note the hundred signs that the old Hin- 
 duism is decadent and doomed ; let him study the re- 
 formatory movements which the presence and power 
 of Christianity have started into life ; let him remember 
 
SUCCESS OF ASIATIC MISSIONS 235 
 
 that, with all the forces which keep people back from 
 open confession, the membership of native churches in 
 India has increased more rapidly during the last twenty 
 years than has the population, and he will be convinced 
 that, though only a good beginning has been made, and 
 generations of Christian effort are yet required to do for 
 the Empire of India what the Gospel wrought for the 
 regeneration of ancient Rome, still he has seen and 
 learned enough to dispel the error contained in the oft- 
 quoted remark that Christian missions in India are a 
 failure. 
 
 One morning, in a village six miles from Ahmednagar, 
 I was permitted, by Dr. Robert A. Hume, to baptize and 
 receive into the Church two young men, recent converts 
 to Christ. It was a very humble place where the vil- 
 lagers assembled, but I was never before so deeply 
 moved by such a service. Sitting and standing on the 
 floor of earth were true confessors of the old faith which 
 I had heard chanted in stately cathedrals by the Thames, 
 the Tiber, and the Rhine. Here were believers in that 
 Name before which emperors have bowed, and my hand 
 trembled as I touched their dusky foreheads with 
 the baptismal waters. It seemed to me that He who 
 stooped to the lowliness of Bethlehem and Nazareth 
 was almost sensibly present in the little meeting-house, 
 which the dark hands of these humble people had dec- 
 orated with fruits and flowers, out of regard to one of 
 Christ's ministers, who had come to them from the 
 other side of the sea. 
 
 A single glimpse of a congregation of Hindu Chris- 
 tians is a better argument for missions than any elo- 
 quence can elaborate. If the next annual meeting of 
 the Presbyterian General Assembly could be held in the 
 
236 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 heart of India, there would be no further need for Dr. 
 Ellinwood and your other secretaries to urge you to 
 keep out of debt. Things seen are greater than things 
 heard, and yet things heard by the heart of faith and 
 good-will and by minds of keen and sympathetic intel- 
 ligence ought to awaken such an interest as to sweep 
 Christian America into the very vanguard of the mis- 
 sionary battle. 
 
 It is almost an impertinence for me or anyone else 
 to eulogize the spirit of wisdom and courage and self- 
 denying devotion which has marked the lives of your 
 missionaries, those now living and those who have en- 
 tered into brighter spheres. The stars of the Southern 
 Cross look down through the palm-trees of India upon 
 the graves of many American Christians, graves as 
 sacred as any in Plymouth or Princeton, in Greenwood 
 or Gettysburg, and the voice which comes from these 
 heroic sepulchres is such an appeal to the Christian 
 heart of America that, mingled with the plaintive voices 
 of Asia's dying millions, it will not permit you to take 
 one step backward. 
 
 Christian missions are not above just criticism. They 
 are partly a reflex of our imperfect Christendom, but 
 they are not to be justly criticised by those who are 
 out of sympathy with all Christian evangelism. The 
 toil and self-sacrifice which have been put into this work 
 are prodigious, and the notion that missionaries live a 
 luxurious and self-indulgent life is the fabrication of 
 ignorance or malice. Having been for four months in 
 missionary homes, I know the sorrows, trials and daily 
 toils of these men and women, the anguish of separation 
 from children, the many discouragements by which 
 their work is accompanied, but by which they are never 
 
SUCCESS OF ASIATIC MISSIONS 237 
 
 discouraged, the many erroneous and undeserved criti- 
 cisms by which they are assailed. And I wish to affirm 
 before the Christian public of America, what you all 
 well know, that these men and women, true representa- 
 tives of the spirit and kingdom of Jesus Christ, are 
 worthy, not only of our confidence, but also of our 
 prayerful and self-sacrificing co-operation, tenfold more 
 than the churches have yet given. Christianity is not 
 asceticism, and asceticism of the Hindu sort is incom- 
 patible with Christian living. Our representatives in 
 the Orient require for their wearisome and nerve-de- 
 stroying lives the environments of a Christian home, 
 and I am glad that missionary homes reproduce in a 
 simple, unpretentious way the decencies and comforts 
 of English and American households, and I am glad 
 that the missionaries are few in India or China who try 
 to conform to the habits of life prevailing about them, 
 and thus diminish their strength, lessen their powers of 
 service, and cut short their years of usefulness. 
 
 I have come back from my observations of Asia with 
 a feeling that America does not yet begin to appreciate 
 the great part which she must play in the moral strug- 
 gles of the future, that lie outside of our national do- 
 main. Ours is the chief branch of the Anglo-Saxon race. 
 We are soon to become, as Lowell prophesied, " the 
 most powerful and prosperous community ever devised 
 and developed by man." The time of our moral and 
 political isolation has passed away. Those who, in the 
 beginning of the century, left our shores for the pioneer 
 missionary work in the Orient, have sown seeds more 
 potential than they dreamed. The type of Christianity 
 which America represents is more ethical, humane, pro- 
 gressive, life-giving than the types of Oriental churches, 
 
238 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 and of the national European establishments. America's 
 place in the Christianizing of the world is far ahead, in 
 the very foremost ranks. We have the greatest wealth 
 of all nations ; here Christianity has a free field for the 
 exercise of its divine energies ; here the sense of in- 
 dividual responsibility has been developed, and God 
 has placed us, like Israel of old, in the centre of the 
 nations, touching England's greatest colony on the 
 north, and the whole Spanish world, reaching from 
 the Rio Grande to Cape Horn, on the south, while to 
 the west of us is that Asiatic world of immeasurable 
 greatness which, when wakened out of sleep, will com- 
 bine with America to make the Pacific Ocean the chief 
 highway of the world's commerce. 
 
 And one does not feel that America grows less im- 
 portant as, after eighty days of voyaging in mid-ocean, 
 or skirting the shores of great continents, he comes to 
 realize the earth's bigness, and the multitude of interests 
 which lie outside of our own land. Before two centuries 
 have passed away, the English language will be the 
 vehicle of commerce, literature and civilization for the 
 majority of the human race. Many a time, in my con- 
 versations with English people, I have startled them 
 with a new fact ; and a new fact is usually disturbing to 
 the British mind — namely, that more than one-half of 
 those who now speak the English tongue live beneath 
 the Stars and Stripes. America represents to the Ori- 
 ent the higher aims and possibilities of men. There is 
 a patriotism which is foolish, absurd and ignorant. I 
 might tell you how Japan is now nourished on such a 
 patriotism; how the people are taught in the schools 
 that their history is more significant than the history of 
 other nations, and that their recent progress indicates 
 
SUCCESS OF ASTATIC MISSIONS 239 
 
 their immense superiority over other lands. Multitudes 
 of the Japanese people feel that their country is the 
 centre of the world, and I know a missionary lady who 
 believed that a lesson in geography might help to clar- 
 ify the mind of a Japanese woman who was affected 
 with this senseless patriotism. A map of the world 
 was spread out before her ; aud when she took it into 
 her vision, and beheld the little Japanese Islands off the 
 coast of Asia, she inquired, in her bitter disappoint- 
 ment : " Is that all ? " But an enlightened acquaintance 
 with mankind does not lessen our just estimate of the 
 strategic and perpetual importance of a land so vast, 
 rich and centrally situated as ours to the future de- 
 velopment of humanity. 
 
 To the Hindu, America has a very different sound 
 from England. Members of the National Indian Con- 
 gress informed me that they looked upon our constitu- 
 tion and our history and our prosperity as guides and 
 incentives in their work for that future India which 
 rises before their imaginations like a splendid dawn on 
 the far-off golden heights of Kinchinjunga. I remem- 
 ber how in Constantinople the English companions of 
 our voyage almost winced when they came to realize 
 what a shining record America, by her schools, churches, 
 and colleges, had made in the last sixty years in the 
 Ottoman Empire, set over against the measureless 
 shame and cruel diabolic selfishness of the European 
 powers, who have been plunging from one depth of in- 
 famy down into those lowest deeps where now all the 
 devils hiss and riot and applaud. And, if I were asked 
 to name that place which I have seen in all the world 
 where Christian civilization, as shown in general intelli- 
 gence and morality and good-will among different races ; 
 
240 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 in the abundance of schools, asylums, and churches; in 
 wide-spread material prosperity, and in zealous devotion 
 to the expansion of God's Kingdom on earth had reached 
 its brightest manifestations, I should mention, without 
 a moment's hesitancy, a tiny state in the Pacific which 
 American Missions lifted out of savagery, and which 
 I pray and hope may before long be linked to the 
 American Commonwealth, the Island Republic of Ha- 
 waii. 
 
 There is nothing fantastic or unreal in the missionary 
 purposes which fill your hearts. The century we live 
 in is illustrious as the time when the Church of Christ 
 so enlarged her tents as to present the appearance of a 
 universal faith. It is strange to me that any world- 
 traveller would be willing or able to miss from his view 
 the fruits of this wide-reaching Christian evangelism. 
 I have found them everywhere, beneath the infernal 
 gloom which broods over Constantinople, in schools and 
 churches which the Sultan ought never to have admitted 
 to his empire, if the Ottoman Government saw that a 
 pure Christianity would work out its inevitable results, 
 and make human beings dissatisfied with ignorance, 
 robbery, oppression and wholesale assassination. I 
 have seen the fruitage of Christian missionary work in 
 the cities and mud villages along the Nile, where the 
 impoverished remnants of populations whose ancestors 
 may have built the P} r ramids are coming out into a 
 spiritual liberty and independence for which Pharaohs 
 and Ptolemys, Caliphs and Khedives never made pro- 
 visions. I have seen Christian missions everywhere, in 
 more than a score of the crowded cities of India, touch- 
 ing with the light of the Gospel the minds of the 
 little children in the schools and of the restless youth 
 
SUCCESS OF ASIATIC MISSIONS 241 
 
 in the colleges ; sounding its message in the brilliant 
 and dusty bazaars, and bringing the hand of medical 
 skill and the voice of Christian consolation to the 
 wards of many a hospital. 
 
 Christian schools look out upon the eternal snows of 
 the Himalayas and the everlasting verdure of Ceylon. I 
 have found the Christian herald at work where the isl- 
 and of Singapore keeps watch between the Pacific and 
 Indian Seas, and where the mountain-island of Hong 
 Kong guards one of the chief harbors of China and the 
 fourth port of the world, and where the islands of Japan 
 are to become more beautiful with the leaves of the 
 Gospel than with the cherry-blossoms in the spring- 
 time. I have sailed beneath many flags — beneath the 
 white, black, and red of Germany ; the tricolor of the 
 French Eepublic ; the Union Jack of dear old England ; 
 the Stars and Stripes of America. I have seen the flag 
 of Italy in the harbor of Smyrna, the Star and Crescent 
 on the waters of the Bosporus, and the Dragon Flag of 
 China on the borders of the Yellow Sea. I have visited 
 shores over which floated no European flag, but I have 
 not seen the coast of any land on which had not been 
 planted the standard of the Cross. 
 
 I am sometimes asked, What is the most beautiful 
 
 sight in Asia ? In art, undoubtedly the Taj Mahal, the 
 
 palace -tomb in Agra, the pearl and crown of Moslem 
 
 architecture. Bathed in the moonlight, it is a dream 
 
 of the white domes of the Celestial City. He who has 
 
 seen the wonders of the world may contrast the Taj 
 
 Mahal, especially after he has gone away from it, with 
 
 the florid gorgeousness of St. Peter's ; he may feel his 
 
 soul drawn nearer to God in mighty aspiration and in 
 
 memory of the world's Christian past in the columned 
 16 
 
242 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 aisles of the Cologne Cathedral ; and, standing amid the 
 statues and sculptured flower-gardens on the roof of 
 many-spired Milan, beholding the sunlight breaking 
 through the clouds on the snowy peaks of St. Gothard, 
 he may have a keener sense of the grandeur of man and 
 of the greatness of God; but nowhere else, as in the 
 Taj Mahal, have I had such a sober certainty of the 
 waking bliss of beauty and of human love embodied in 
 architecture. 
 
 But if you inquire what is the noblest sight which 
 India can show the traveller in the world of nature, I 
 take you with me to the heights of Darjeeling, and bid 
 you look far above the clouds to the golden darlings of 
 the dawn cradled in mid- ether, those inaccessible and 
 incomparable peaks on which human foot has never 
 trod, the home of the Hindu gods, the inspiration of 
 the "Vedic poets — those mysterious Himalayan heights, 
 rising almost three miles above the loftiest summits of 
 Switzerland. But if you ask me what is the most won- 
 derful sight in the world of the spirit, I bid you walk 
 with reverent feet and uncovered head into some hum- 
 ble Christian meeting-house, hard by, it may be, to some 
 gorgeous or loathsome Hindu temple. I ask you to 
 look into the faces of these men, women and children, 
 from whose eyes there comes back to you the reflected 
 light of Bethlehem and Calvary and the glorious Mount 
 of Ascension. I have stood before companies of native 
 Christians in nearly all the chief cities of Hindostan, 
 from the northern mountains to the southern seas, and 
 I have felt that I saw something more beautiful than 
 the Taj Mahal, soaring like a white bubble of a dome 
 above the gardens on the banks of the Jumna ; and when 
 one considers the environments of such lives as these, 
 
SUCCESS OF ASIATIC MISSIONS 243 
 
 when one reflects on the darkness, superstition, degra- 
 dation, and persecution out of which they or their 
 fathers may have come, the Himalaya Mountains are 
 not so marvellous an exhibition of God's almighty pow- 
 er as these native Christian lives of His omnipotent, 
 redeeming grace. 
 
 the immeasurable privilege and commanding duty 
 of giving to men the Gospel of the Son of God ! It is 
 said that most of the money contributed by the British 
 Government to India for the relief of the starving is 
 stolen by native officials who have been appointed to 
 distribute it, and robbery in a case like this is certainly 
 murder. God gives us an abundance for ourselves, and 
 such an abundance that we can easilv send the bread of 
 life to the millions of the Dark Continent and the hun- 
 dreds of millions who are perishing in the twilight of 
 Asia ; and if our careless or covetous fingers clutch and 
 hold what God intended for others, do we not rob both 
 God and man? And he who robs a starving soul is 
 verily guilty of even a greater sin than he who robs a 
 starving bod}'. Let no one imagine that the Oriental 
 religions have life enough left in them to disprove man's 
 need of Christianity. I have seen the best and the 
 worst that these faiths can do for their followers ; and 
 I am more deeply convinced than ever that Christian- 
 ity, the religion of redemption, which shows us God 
 mercifully seeking after men, and not men blindly 
 groping after God — that Christianity, the religion of 
 reason and brotherhood, of civilization and of prog- 
 ress, is the best treasure which America has for dying 
 nations. 
 
 1 met numerous evidences that American mission- 
 aries have an especial advantage over their brethren 
 
244 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 from other nations, in that they represent this Western 
 Republic. I know that we have behaved badly at times 
 toward Chinese, and that the action of our government 
 in its exclusion of Chinese immigrants and its disregard 
 of solemn treaty obligations has given offence. Bat 
 we have the testimony of so experienced an observer as 
 Dr. Martin, of Peking, that the common people of China 
 are well disposed toward us and our Christian repre- 
 sentatives, until they are stirred up by members of the 
 official class. If you seek for the causes, and they are 
 many, of the dis-esteem in which representatives of 
 Western Christendom are held by the people of the East, 
 you cannot trace many of them that are important — I 
 might well say, any of them that are important — to the 
 doors of our American missionaries. I have come back 
 from a voyage around the world with a new feeling of 
 the moral glory which belongs to our beloved land. The 
 only other nation that can be compared with ours is, of 
 course, England. The Honorable Mr. Curzon dedicates 
 his valuable book on "Problems of the Ear East " to 
 those who believe that the British Empire is under 
 providence the greatest instrument for good that the 
 world has seen. I am not here to undervalue that Em- 
 pire. A voyage round the world does not lessen one's 
 sense of England's importance or of the general benef- 
 icence of her rule. She guards the portals of the Medi- 
 terranean, the Indian, and the Pacific Seas. She has 
 given the bodies of her children to the dark depths of 
 the ocean to widen a realm on which, as on our own, 
 the sun never sets; and no one can read " A Song of the 
 English," as sung by the true laureate of the Empire, 
 without entering into some sympathy with her world- 
 conquering spirit. 
 
SUCCESS OF ASIATIC MISSIONS 245 
 
 11 We have fed our sea for a thousand years, 
 And she calls us, still unfed, 
 Though there's never a wave of all her waves 
 But marks our English dead. 
 
 " We have strawed our best to the weed's unrest 
 To the shark and the sheering gull. 
 If blood be the price of admiralty, 
 Lord God, we ha' paid in full. 
 
 " There's never a flood goes shoreward now 
 But lifts a keel we manned ; 
 There's never an ebb goes seaward now 
 But drops our dead on the sand." 
 
 But, after all, there is a selfish look about much of 
 England's predominance in the Orient and in the South- 
 ern waters. England's dealings with subject popula- 
 tions, like our dealings with the Indians, have some- 
 times shocked the moral sense of mankind ; and never 
 have I heard such denunciations of England's lust for 
 land as in a great Christian demonstration in the City 
 Temple of London. I confess that I felt humiliated when 
 the American Senate rejected the Treaty of Arbitration, 
 but I know very well that the arguments for distrust of 
 England were then not few nor feeble. Her isolation 
 has not been altogether " splendid." Her want of tact, 
 her domineering ways, her fierce jingoism, have kept 
 from her the completer confidence which the better Eng- 
 land would surely have gained.* Indeed, many felt that 
 the true England, the England of missions, of liberty, 
 of justice, the England of Wilberforce and Shaftesbury, 
 
 * These words were spoken before the happy and extraordinary out- 
 burst of friendly English feeling toward America during the Spanish 
 war. 
 
246 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 of Bright and Gladstone, had been suppressed for a 
 time. Had the truer England been in power, the Arbi- 
 tration Treaty would never have been rejected. 
 
 The sins and shortcomings of America are, of course, 
 conspicuous enough, and are eagerly reported to the 
 ends of the world. Conversing with the Maharajah of 
 Indore, a native Prince who is naturally in love with 
 despotism, he asked if the railroad riots in Chicago 
 were not an indication that our American civilization 
 was weak. And, at a reception given by the Social Re- 
 formers in Madras, I found they had at their tongues' 
 end all the pessimistic reports of American corruption 
 in politics and in the family life ; and I had no easy task 
 in proving to them that the nobler and sounder ele- 
 ments of American civilization were still supreme. But 
 the one evidence that America is a land of goodness and 
 righteousness, an evidence that is stronger than rumor 
 and prejudice, is found in the character and work of our 
 American missionaries in all the wide realms of the 
 Orient. 
 
 While it is pleasant to find the sewing-machines, and 
 the bicycles, the clocks, and the oil of our country in 
 the shops of the Orient, it is more inspiring to feel the 
 presence of American teachers and missionaries, bent on 
 redeeming the human mind from error and on laying 
 the foundations of an ethical civilization. Other lands 
 are represented by the sword. In India Great Britain 
 stands for military power and commercial gain, as 
 well as for justice, education, progress, and civilization. 
 Germany is stretching out her strong military hand for 
 the subjugation of the Pacific Seas. Spain, Holland, 
 and Portugal have had their eyes and hands on the 
 Orient for centuries. Underneath the Dutch flag are 
 
SUCCESS OF ASIATIC MISSIONS 247 
 
 more tlian thirty millions of people in the great south- 
 eastern archipelago. France has planted herself on the 
 Island of Madagascar and on the fertile lands of Ton- 
 quin. The American voyager in the East does not see 
 the American flag in the harbors of the Orient as often 
 as he might wish. But I have found the American 
 name beloved and trusted where other names failed to 
 awaken any happy and affectionate feeling. The bright- 
 est light which shines on the Syrian coast beneath the 
 shadow of the Lebanon Mountains flashes from an 
 American college, and the darkness which broods over 
 the pyramids and the tombs of the sacred bulls would 
 be far deeper but for the American Presbyterian schools 
 and colleges stretching through the whole length of the 
 land of the Nile. And throughout India, from coast to 
 coast — and I crossed the Continent five times — while I 
 saw many things to depress the mind and bring before 
 me the shames of Christendom, my heart was filled with 
 pride over the good name which American Christians 
 have given to their country. Landing in Bombay, the 
 first song that broke upon our hearing was " America," 
 sung by the Christian Marathi children in the Com- 
 pound of the American Mission. I would not win the 
 hearts of these, and such as these, fromloyalty to India; 
 but India has little to give them except ignorance, su- 
 perstition, extreme poverty, and perhaps moral debase- 
 ment. These bright-eyed children could have no grati- 
 tude to India, and could not feel a very deep patriotic 
 pride in the present, or even in the past, of their own 
 nation. Their fathers and mothers were Christians ; 
 they had no practical knowledge of heathenism ; from 
 America had come the teachers and teaching that had 
 emancipated them ; America was really their Father- 
 
248 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 land, and through America they had become a part of 
 that commonwealth which is greater than any earthly 
 empire, which overleaps national boundaries and is 
 binding the nations into what is yet to be a cosmopoli- 
 tan brotherhood. In Calcutta and Lucknow I saw 
 something of the great work that the American Metho- 
 dists have accomplished ; in Madras we met those who 
 had had part in the wonderful successes among the 
 Telagus of the American Baptists ; in Ahmednagar and 
 Madura we gloried in the splendid achievements of the 
 American Board ; in the Arcot Mission we saw how 
 fruitful had been the toil of the Chamberlains and 
 Scudders. In Japan we saw all these blessed results 
 repeated. In our voyages we associated much with our 
 missionaries from Burma and China. Surely, it is a 
 hand of redemption and healing which Christian Amer- 
 ica has laid upon the Far East and the Islands of the 
 Sea. As we crossed the waters of the Bay of Bengal, 
 they seemed more sacred when I remembered that 
 Adoniram Judson was buried beneath them. The May- 
 flower, which brought to New England the pioneers of 
 Christian America, finally sank off Masulipitam in the 
 waters of the Arabian Sea, as if to indicate the ultimate 
 field for the working of those divine forces which she 
 first carried to the wild New England shore. 
 
 " Laws, freedom, truth, and faith in God 
 Go with our exiles o'er the waves ;" 
 
 and wherever on pagan shores the voice of the American 
 missionary and teacher is heard, there is fulfilled the 
 manifest destiny of the Christian Republic ; there are 
 realized beyond even their dreams the prayers of the 
 founders of our nation, one of whom, Samuel Adams, 
 
SUCCESS OF ASIATIC MISSIONS 249 
 
 said : " America will yet give laws to the Old World ; " 
 and some such place as Carver and Winthrop and Da- 
 venport and Witherspoon and Asbury occupy in our 
 annals may be the position of the names of Goodell, 
 Hamlin, Washburn, Jessup, Van Dyck, Post, Watson, 
 Judson, Foreman, Scudder, Newton, Hume, Fairbanks, 
 Thoburn, Ewing, Chamberlain, Chandler, Downie, Mar- 
 tin, Nevins, Happer, Davis, Gordon, Hepburn, Verbeck, 
 in the regenerated Asia that is to be. 
 
 Christian missions have made a magnificent and dif- 
 ficult beginning in the Oriental world, but Christianity 
 has gone to Asia to stay. It erects fortresses and not 
 hotels ; it builds of stone, and not of canvas. Its 
 motto is, " Evangelize the World, though it takes a 
 thousand years." Teachers in Indian Christian colleges 
 have said to me that, " if we can form a Christian con- 
 science in one out of a dozen of our pupils, we feel that 
 we are doing a great work." The best Christian mis- 
 sionaries in Japan have entirely recovered from the 
 folly that the Japanese churches can take care of them- 
 selves, and dispense in a very short time with Christian 
 guidance and reinforcement from the West. With such 
 loose ideas in regard to financial responsibility as de- 
 prived the American Board of its Christian College, the 
 Doshisha ; with the childishness and vanity which pre- 
 vail so largely among Japanese Christians ; with the 
 serious departures of so many misleaders from the Gos- 
 pel of the Divine Christ ; and with the prevalent absurd 
 patriotism which seeks rather to Japanize Christianity 
 than to Christianize Japan, there is need, as deep and 
 constraining as ever, that our American Churches main- 
 tain and enlarge their work in the Japanese Archipelago. 
 No, we must work and wait and expect that our children 
 
250 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 and children's children may very likely be called upon 
 to carry on our labors. I was urged by the missionaries 
 in Japan to tell the American churches that the Island 
 Empire will long continue to need the guiding hand, the 
 wise instructions, of those who have been trained in 
 Christian countries. And this is evident when you 
 remember that in some Japanese Presbyterian churches 
 in the administration of the Lord's Supper, while bread 
 and wine are furnished the communicants, cake and tea 
 are provided for others, and that the spirit of reverence 
 has hardly dawned upon the minds of the native Chris- 
 tians. I was told in Honolulu that the Hawaiian Chris- 
 tian, smitten with the small-pox and expecting to die, 
 used to mount his mule and ride around the village to say 
 " Good-by " to his friends and neighbors ! There may 
 be a politeness which is unwise, and there may be a 
 Christianity in the Orient which will need for genera- 
 tions the molding intelligence of Western churches. 
 Missionaries of experience understand how slow the 
 progress in some communities must be. They do not 
 believe that entering a house and calling out in broken 
 Chinese, with the finger raised toward heaven, " Jesus 
 loves you. God is righteous. Prepare for the day of 
 Judgment," is always carrying the Gospel to that house- 
 hold; for a vast preparatory educational work is required 
 to teach some men what God is, what righteousness is, 
 who Jesus is, and to bring home to the conscience the 
 claims of truth. Even the millenniun has not perfected 
 Western Christendom. Rudyard Kipling has pictured 
 the failure of the fool who tried to " hustle the East." 
 With the pressure of the whole world upon her benevo- 
 lence, the Christian part of Great Britain is utterly un- 
 able to meet the spiritual needs of India ; and America's 
 
SUCCESS OF ASIATIC MISSIONS 251 
 
 obligation to co-operate is as clear and dazzling as an 
 Indian noonday. God grant that our eyes may take in 
 the wider vision, and that our hearts may be enlarged, 
 and that, as we have freely received, we may freely give. 
 Christianity is the universal faith, and is the only hope 
 for individual and national regeneration in that Asiatic 
 world, vast with undeveloped possibilities. 
 
 Let no one dream that the Oriental faiths have life 
 and power enough to prove that our Gospel is not 
 needed. The failures of the Oriental religions is now 
 felt, even by some of their own disciples ; and I have 
 returned from seeing the best that the Oriental sys- 
 tems can do for their peoples with my old convictions 
 strengthened, that Christianity, the religion of redemp- 
 tion and enlightenment, of liberty, of progress and 
 brotherhood, the religion which alone gives peace to the 
 sin-sick heart and brightens with hope the future of in- 
 dividuals and of peoples, is the best possession which 
 America holds for herself and is commissioned to im- 
 part to others. Before my faith the Christian religion 
 looms up like a glorious mountain of heaven. One 
 morning, looking out from my room in Yokohama, I 
 saw not only Mississippi Bay and Treaty Point and 
 the ships of that harbor through which, a half-century 
 ago, the regenerating forces of the Western world began 
 to flow in upon Japan ; but, looking forty miles away, I 
 beheld the peerless beauty and majesty of the sacred 
 mountain, cleaving the blue sky like a snowy wedge. 
 And so Christianity rises before my imagination and my 
 reason as the bright and blessed mountain of God. 
 About its feet are fertile farms and prosperous homes, 
 such as are found only in the beneficent domain of Chris- 
 tian influence ; in its heart are the treasures of all wis- 
 
252 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 dom and all knowledge ; down its sides flow the streams 
 which have made European and American civilization 
 possible, and which are yet to turn the moral wilderness 
 of Asia into the garden of the Lord ; about its summit 
 play the golden splendors of millennial mornings, and it 
 dominates all other systems even as the snow-white and 
 spotless cone of Fuji-yama dominates the islands and 
 the seas, the rice-covered plains, and the forest-crowned 
 hills of beautiful Japan. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abdallah, 37 
 
 Abraham, 121 
 
 Abu Bekr, 40, 47, 50 
 
 Abu Taleb, 37, 41 
 
 Adams, Samuel, 248 
 
 Agnosticism, 151, 228 
 
 Agra, Gl, 234, 241 
 
 Aguilar, Grace, 18 
 
 Ahmednagar, 61, 234, 235 
 
 Ajmere, 61 
 
 Akbar, 61 
 
 Allah, 29 
 
 Alva, Duke of, 44, 216 
 
 Ameer Ali, Mr. Justice, 29 
 
 America, ix, xi, 35, 57, 72, 131, 141, 
 
 142, 145, 151, 184,215, 238 
 Amritsar, 61, 234 
 An am, 153 
 Ananda, 169 et seq. 
 Apocrypha, 160, 161 
 Apostles' Creed, The, 139 
 Arabia, 31 
 Arabic, 222 
 
 Arbitration Treaty, The, 245 
 Arcot, 233 
 Aristotle, 111, 138 
 Armenia, 28 
 
 Arnold, Sir Edwin, 160, 187 
 Asceticism, 141, 165, 168 
 Asoka, 175 
 Assam, 93 
 Assyria, 191 
 Aurangseb, 60 
 
 Berry, T. Sterling, 160, 162, 176, 181 
 Bethlehem, 37, 162, 181, 223, 242 
 Bhagavadgita, 88 
 Bhakti-S'Astras, 97 
 Bible, The, 25, 31, 96, 97, 98, 124, 
 
 224, 228 
 Birth Stories of Ceylon, The, 160, 
 
 163 
 "Bisnitirclc 1Q7 
 
 Bombay, 60, 65, 79, 93, 234, 247 
 Borneo, 188 
 Bo-Tree, The, 165 
 Brahma and Brahmanism, 62, 70, 
 
 76, 82, 87, 104, 106 et seq., 140, 
 
 142, 152, 160, 165, 166, 176, 230, 
 
 233 
 Brahmo Somaj, The, 130, 146, 151 
 Briggs, Professor Charles A., 20 
 British Empire, The, 244 et seq. 
 British Rule in India, 60, 61, 64, 
 
 136, 243, 246 
 Browning, Robert, 172 
 Buckley, Dr. Edmund, 178 
 Buddha, GO, 159. See also Gautama, 
 
 and Christ and Buddha 
 Buddha and Buddhism, x, 2, 3, 31, 
 
 100, 116, 120, 125, 131, 139, 140 et 
 
 seq., 150 et seq., 194, 203, 216, 218, 
 
 223, 224, 226-28 
 Bunsen, 2 
 Burke, Edmund, 95 
 Burma, 93, 150, 153 
 
 Babu Guru Sen, 105 
 
 Bangalore, 61, 74, 99, 234 
 
 Baptists, 234 
 
 Barrows, Mrs. J. H., 156 
 
 Beirut, 35 
 
 Benares, 60, 66-68, 162, 167, 233 
 
 Bengal, 93, 233 
 
 Bengali, 222 
 
 Bentinck, Lord William, 83 
 
 Cabeer, 74 
 
 Caird, Principal, 171 
 
 Cairo, 35 
 
 Calcutta, 1, 52, 60, 61, 70, 146, 155, 
 
 234, 238 
 California, 188 
 Calvary, 2, 117, 128, 181, 223 
 Canaan, 16 
 
 Candlin, Rev. Mr., 206 
 Canton, 190, 216 
 
 253 
 
254 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Cams, Dr. Paul, 170 
 
 Caste, 77 et seq. 
 
 Castelar, 14 
 
 Ceylon, 125, 152, 153, 156, 158, 175, 
 184, 222 
 
 Chaldea, 188 
 
 Charles the Great, 52 
 
 Chicago, 144, 216 
 
 Chicago, University of, 178 
 
 China, ix, xi, 141, 152, 182 et seq., 
 225, 249 
 
 Christ and Buddha, 150 et seq. 
 
 Christian College, 234 
 
 Christian Era, The, 129, 130 
 
 Christian Literature Society of In- 
 dia, 105 
 
 Christianity, ix, 21, 27, 32, 36, 52, 
 54, 56, 71, 87, 90, 117, 125, 129 et 
 seq., 137, 139, 140 et seq., 213, 217, 
 228 et seq., 243 
 
 Chunder Sen, 1, 74, 79, 119 
 
 Church Missionary Society, 43, 234 
 
 Clarke, James Freeman, 55, 104, 203 
 
 Coimbatore, 61 
 
 Colombo. 153, 156 et seq. 
 
 Columbian Fair, 35, 68, 70, 73, 186 
 
 Confession of Faith, 144 
 
 Confucianism, x, 21, 120, 182 et seq., 
 223 
 
 Confucius, 194 et seq. 
 
 Congo, The, 32 
 
 Congress, Indian Social, 65 
 
 Congress, National Indian, 64 
 
 Constantine, 16, 51, 175 
 
 Constantinople, 2, 239 
 
 Conversions, 233 
 
 Conway, Moncure, 87 
 
 Cornill, Professor, 21 
 
 Cross, The, 22, 115, 241 
 
 Crusaders, The, 17, 45 
 
 Curzon, Lord, 244 
 
 Damascus, 46 
 
 Daniel Deronda, 13 
 
 Darjeeling, 76, 92, 155 
 
 Darmsteter, James, 4, 23 
 
 Darsanas, 111 
 
 Darwin, Charles, 63, 185 
 
 David, 12, 48 
 
 Davids, Professor Rhys, 155, 159, 
 
 161, 165 
 De la Saussaye. See Saussaye 
 Delhi, 234 
 Den by, Colonel, U. S. Minister to 
 
 China, 224 
 Devas, 160, 168 
 
 Dewey, Admiral, x 
 Dharma, ISO 
 Dharmapala, 150, 156 
 Dilke, Sir Charles, 188 
 Dispersion, The, 15 
 Disraeli, 14, 24 
 Dodds, Dr. Marcus, 178 
 Don Carolis, 156 
 Doshisha University, 187, 249 
 Duff College, 234 
 Dutch Protestants, 53 
 Dutch, The, 156, 247 
 
 Eakins, Dr. J., 199, 205, 207 
 Eastern Church, The, 48 
 Eclecticism, 1, 137, 138, 147 
 Egypt, 188 
 
 Ellinwood, 180, 204, 236 
 Emerson, R. W., 132, 141 
 English, The, 215 
 EschyluB, 18, 195 
 Essenism, 38 
 Es Seyd El-Bakri, 50 
 Europe, ix, 141 
 Evangelism. See Missions 
 Ezekiel, 195 
 Ezra, 15 
 
 Faber, Dr. G. T., 209 
 Fairbairn, Dr., 171 
 Fakirs, 141 
 
 Fatherhood, The Divine, 172, 173 
 Ferguson, A., 177 
 Field, Dr. Henry M., 33 
 Forgiveness of sins, 173 
 Forman College, 234 
 France, 220, 247 
 Frederick the Great, 24 
 Freeman, E. A., 29 
 Fuji-yama, 252 
 
 Gabriel, 40 
 
 Galilee, 43, 223 
 
 Gambetta, 14 
 
 Ganges, The, 66, 92, 169, 199 
 
 Gautama, 140, 150, 153, 156, 157, 195, 
 
 199. See also Buddha 
 Germany, 187, 220 
 Gibbon, 49 
 Gladstone, 29, 34, 74 
 God, 54, 88, 95, 101, 129, 143, 166, 
 
 211 
 
INDEX 
 
 255 
 
 Goethe, 13, 164 
 
 Golden Rule, 202, 208 
 
 Good and Evil, 135 
 
 Gordon, Dr. George A., 103, 111, 120 
 
 Gospels, The, 7, 8, 21, 26, 72, 125, 
 
 130, 134, 146, 147, 175 et seq., 186, 
 
 215, 217, 222 et seq. 
 Gottheil, Rabbi, 8 
 Grant, General, 190 
 Grant, Principal, 42, 56, 108, 166, 
 
 173, 195, 198, 202, 205, 213 
 " Granth, The," 82 
 Great Britain, 187 
 Greek Church, The, 51 
 Green, Professor W. H., 28 
 Griffis, Dr. W. E., 96 
 
 Hagar, 19, 30, 31 
 
 Haniflfs, 38 
 
 Hardy, Spence, 160 
 
 Haskell Lectures, 237 
 
 Hawaii, 240, 250 
 
 Hebrew Prophecy, 20, 96 
 
 Hebrew Scriptures, 21 
 
 Hegel, 104 
 
 Hegira, The, 41 
 
 Heine, 14 
 
 Herder, 18 
 
 Hilaire, St., 179 
 
 Hillel, 203 
 
 Himalayas, 61, 158, 169, 242 
 
 Hindostan, 242 
 
 Hindu Christians, 235 
 
 Hinduism, x, 3, 21, 122 et seq., 131, 
 
 136 et seq., 143-44, 150, 157, 168, 
 
 218, 224, 225, 228-31, 242 
 Hinduism, Philosophic, 93 et seq. 
 Hinduism, Popular, 61 et seq. 
 Holland, 246 
 Holy Ghost, The, 48 
 Holy Land, The, 14, 45, 90 
 Homer, 133 
 Hong-Kong, 152, 183 
 Hongwanji, The Eastern, 226 
 Hopkins, Professor, 163, 164, 168 
 Hume, Dr. Robert A., 235 
 Hyacinthe, Pore, 3o 
 
 Idolatry, 18, 40, 49, 68, 79, 81, 
 
 155, 194, 211, 233 
 Iliad, The, 133 
 
 Incarnation, 109, 113, 114 et seq. 
 India, ix, 60 et seq., 136, 142, 146, 
 
 14S, 153, 155, 184, 188, 223, 224, 
 
 227 et seq. 
 
 Indian Social Reformer, The, 224 
 
 Indore, 61, 234 
 
 Indore, Maharajah of, 246 
 
 Inquisition, The, 17 
 
 Isaiah, 15 
 
 Ishmael, 30, 49 
 
 Islam, ix, 6, 27 et seq., 60, 218, 225, 
 
 228 
 Israel, 4, 8, 14, 24, 101 
 
 Jains, The, 100 
 
 James, St., 133 
 
 Japan and the Japanese, ix, 152, 
 153, 154, 157, 182 et seq., 217, 222, 
 225, 233, 238 et seq. 
 
 Japanese Presbyterians, 250 
 
 Java, 32, 153 
 
 Jehovah, 126 et seq. 
 
 Jeremiah, 195 
 
 Jernegan, Consul-General, 234 
 
 Jerusalem, 3, 19 
 
 Jesuits, 194 
 
 Jesus Christ, ix, 3, 7, 31, 36, 43, 58, 
 73, 114, 120, 133, 139, 130, 134, 
 147, 148, 154, 159, 161, 165, 167 et 
 seq., 177, 204, 219, 223, 225 et seq. t 
 229, 235 
 
 Jews, The, 5 et seq. 
 
 Jeypore, 61 
 
 Johnson, F., 203, 209 
 
 Jordan, The, 169 
 
 u Joss," 191 
 
 Judaism, 22 et seq. 
 
 Judas Maccabeus, 15 
 
 Judson, Adoniram, 248, 250 
 
 Jumna, 242 
 
 Justinian, 33 
 
 Kali, 112 
 
 Kali Cham Banerje, 33 
 
 Kanarese, 222 
 
 Kandy, 157 et seq. 
 
 Kapilavastu, 163, 169, 180 
 
 Karma, 135,174 
 
 Kasba, 37 
 
 Kellogg, Dr., 168 
 
 Keshub, Chunder Sen. See Chunder 
 
 Sen 
 Khadijeh, 40 
 Khartoum, 53 
 Kinchinjunga, 61, 339 
 Kingdom of Heaven, 217 
 Kipling, Rudyard, 60, 244, 250 
 Knox, John, 153 
 
256 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Kobe, 184 
 
 Kong-Foo-Tsze. See Confucius 
 
 Koran, The, 31, 35, 36, 38, 40, 47 et 
 
 seq., 55, 56, 57 
 Korea. 153 
 Koresh, 37, 40 
 Krishna, 86, 112, 231 
 Kubla Khan, 90 
 Kuenen, Professor, 38, 54, 159 
 Kutho Daw, The, 175 
 Kwai, Mr. Secretary, 193 
 Kyoto, 12, 186, 226 
 
 Lahore, 61, 63, 234 
 
 Lalita, Vistara, 160 
 
 Lamb, Charles, 192 
 
 Lao Tse, 196 et seq., 202, 211 
 
 Lawrence, Dr., 52, 55, 188, 191 
 
 Lazarus, Miss, 13 
 
 Legge, Dr. J., 197, 200, 201, 207 
 
 Liberia, 35 
 
 "Light of Asia, The," 76, 159, 160 
 
 Li Hung Chang, 189 
 
 London Mansion House Relief Fund, 
 
 190 
 Loo, 194 
 
 Lord's Prayer, The, 219 
 Louis XL, 50 
 Louis XIV., 51 
 Lowell, J. R, 237 
 Lucknow, 233, 234, 248 
 Luther, 153 
 
 Macattlay, Lord, 61, 69, 113 
 MacColl, Commodore, 29 
 McKenzie, Sir Alexander, 224 
 Madras, 43, 61, 63, 73, 93, 224, 234, 
 
 243 
 Madura, 62, 81 
 Mahabharata, 97 
 
 Maba Bod hi Gaya Society, The, 150 
 Mahadeva, 112 
 
 Maha-Parinibbana-Sutta, 177 
 Maia, 162 
 
 Maine, Sir Henry, 119 
 Malay Peninsula, 32 
 Mandalay, 175 
 Mandeville, Sir John, 187 
 Mara, 163 
 Marathi, 222, 247 
 Marco Polo, 187 
 M artel, Charles, 45 
 Martin, Dr. VV. A. P. , 214 
 Mathison, 198, 206, 211, 212 
 
 Mecca, 27, 32, 35, 40, 41, 43 
 
 Mediation, 134 
 
 Medina, 41, 42 
 
 Mendelssohn, Moses, 21 
 
 Mendes, 12 
 
 Menu, 63, 77, 97, 106 
 
 Messiah, 20, 22 
 
 Messianic Prophecy, 20 
 
 Methodists, 234, 248 
 
 Miller, Dr. William, 101 
 
 Miracles, 163 
 
 Mission and Missionaries, ix, 35, 36, 
 
 51, 52, 61, 62, 75, 81, 89, 118 et seq., 
 
 188, 202, 208, 214, 216 et seq., 222 
 
 etseq., 231 et &eq., 242, 249 J 
 Mississippi Bay, 251 
 Mohammed, 30, 36 et seq., 54 
 Mohammedanism, x, 30, 31, 33, 57, 
 
 74, 102, 120, 132, 136, 140, 145, 156, 
 
 203, 222. See also Islam 
 Monotheism, 228 
 Mormonism, 133 
 Moslem. See Mohammedanism and 
 
 Islam 
 Mount Hira, 39 
 
 Mozoomdar, 93, 116, 146 et seq., 150 
 Mailer, Max, 21, 85, 89, 95, 109, 175 
 Mussulmans, 29, 33. See Islam and 
 
 Mohammedanism 
 
 Nanak, 75 
 
 Napoleon, 51 
 
 " Nathan the Wise," 13 
 
 Nazareth, 37, 162, 180 
 
 Neo-Platonism, 138 
 
 Nepaul, 153 
 
 Nestorian Missions, 213 
 
 New Testament, 25, 38, 56, 84, 131, 
 
 136, 175, 197, 232 
 Nirvana, 154, 167, 169, 170, 174 
 Norman, Henry, 189 
 Nouri, Prince, 61 
 
 Oberammergau, 21 
 
 Olcutt, Colonel, 63 
 
 Oldenburg, 160 
 
 Old Testament, 21, 25, 38, 56 
 
 Om, 76 
 
 Or us, 15 
 
 Osiris, 15 
 
 Ottoman Empire, 28, 30 
 
 Oudh, 93 
 
 Oxford, 175 
 
INDEX 
 
 257 
 
 Palamcottah, G3, 80 
 
 Palestine, 180 
 
 Pali, 150, 175 
 
 Pariahs, ill 
 
 Parliament of Religions, xiii, 100, 
 
 103, 137, 193, 303, 308, 230 
 Parsiism, 1, 183 
 Patna, Council of, 159 
 Paul, St., 33, 129, 133, 135, 14-1, 303, 
 
 213 
 Peking, 187 
 
 Peking, University of, 185, 314 
 Perry, Commodore, 184 
 Persia, 5, 58 
 Philippine Islands, 188 
 Pitakas, 175 
 Plato, 111, 130, 138, 181 
 Polygamy, 44, 83, 83 
 Poona, 01, 135, 339 
 Portuguese, 156, 191, 246 
 Prayer Book, The, 46 
 Prayer Wheel, 155 
 Presbyterian General Assembly, 335 
 Presbyterians, 144, 146 
 Prideaux, 36 
 Pundits, 68, 98 
 Pung Quang Yu, 192, 202, 214 
 Punjab, 82, 93, 322, 233 
 Puranas, 97, 110 
 Pythagoras, 195 
 
 Ramabai the Pundita, 234 
 Ramayuna, 97, 333 
 Ram, Mohun Roy, 74 
 Ranade, Mr. Justice, 83 
 Redemption, 143, 145 
 Reed, Rev. Gilbert, 214 
 Reid College, 334 
 Reincarnation, 143, 160, 163, 167 
 Renan, 87, 46 
 Renunciation, 164 
 Revelation, 133, 134 
 Reville, Albert, 154, 187 
 Richards, Rev. Timothy, 219 
 Ripon, Bishop of, 213 
 liobert College, 50 
 Rome, 3, 6, 138, 148, 199 
 Rome, Church of, 48, 51 
 
 Sacred Books of the East, 146, 
 
 161, 175 et seq. 
 Saigon, 153 
 Sakyas, 163 
 Salvation, 33, 33, 121, 128, 131, 142 
 
 Samangala, 156 
 
 Sungha, 180 
 
 Sankara, 111 
 
 Sanskrit, 156, 160, 175 
 
 Saussaye, de la, 198, 201 
 
 Schall, 214 
 
 Schroeder, Dr., 174 
 
 Scriptures, The, 4, 47, 98, 109, 133, 
 
 139, 133. See also Old and New 
 
 Testament 
 " Sea Voyage Movement," 65 
 Self-torture, 1(55 
 Sell, Rev. Edward, 43 
 Shamai, 203 
 Shamanism, 154, 198 
 Shanghai, 152, 183, 315, 224 
 Shan-Tung, 194 
 Shastras, 105 
 Shinto, 1, 153 
 Siam, 153 
 Siberians, 2 
 
 Siddartha, 162 et seq., 179 
 Sikhism, 1, 61, 82, 94, 133 
 Sinai, 2, 12, 203 
 Singapore, 184, 341 
 Singhalese, 158, 161 
 Siva, 65, 76, 85, 104 
 Skepticism, 77 
 Smith, Rev. Arthur, 308 
 Smith, Henry Preserved, 38 
 Smith, Professor Robertson, 8 
 Socrates, 131, 138, 171 
 Southgate, Bishop, 50 
 Spinoza, 25 
 Stanley, Dean, 110 
 St. Steven's College, 234 
 Sudra, 77 
 Sumatra, 188 
 Sunday, 132 
 
 Swami Vivakananda, 68, 76, 87 
 Syrian Christians, 61, 66 
 
 Taj Mahal, 211 
 
 Tamil, 158, 223 
 
 Tantras, 97 
 
 Taoism, 1, 154, 194, 197 et seq. 
 
 Tartar Dynasty, 311 
 
 Tartary, 154 
 
 Telugus, The, 334, 248 
 
 Tertullian, 139 
 
 Theism, 140, 147 
 
 Theosophy, 150 
 
 Thibet, 158, 155 
 
 Tinnevelly, Bishop of, 233 
 
 Titus, 15, 16 
 
 Tolerance, 136 
 
258 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Torah, 24 
 
 Torquemada, 17, 44 
 
 Total Abstinence, 53 
 
 Transmigration, 62. See also Rein- 
 carnation 
 
 Travancore, Maharajah of, 108 et seq. 
 
 Treaty Point, 251 
 
 Turkish Empire. See Ottoman Em- 
 pire 
 
 Washburn, Du., 50 
 Way land, Dr. P., 223 
 Wellhausen, Professor, 38 
 Wesley College, 157, 234 
 Widows, 82 et seq. 
 Williams, Sir Monier, 96, 161 
 Wilson College, 234 
 Womanhood, 82, 117, 234 
 Wordsworth, 192 
 
 Upanishads, 104, 110, 111 
 
 Vatican, The, 49 
 
 Vedas, 61, 87, 88 et seq., 93. 107, 109, 
 
 166, 242 
 Vellore, 61 
 
 Vicarious Atonement, 115, 129, 131 
 Vishnu, 65, 76, 114, 152 
 Vyasa, 111 
 
 YANG-tSE, 183, 190 
 Yen, Rev. Mr. Y. K., 207 
 Yogas, 165 
 Yokohama, 251 
 Yokoi, Rev. Mr., 187 
 
 Zetd, 40 
 Zion, 19 
 
Zbc flDorse QLectures for 1898 
 THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF ASIA 
 
 Studies and Personal Observations of Oriental 
 
 Religions 
 
 By JOHN HENRY BARROWS, D.D. 
 
 12mo, $1 .50 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, PUBLISHERS 
 
 Contents : — I. Beginning at Jerusalem ; or Christianity and Juda- 
 ism, — n. The Cross and the Crescent in Asia. — III. Observations of 
 Popular Hinduism. — IV. Philosophic Hinduism. — V. Some Difficulties 
 in the Hindu Mind in Regard to Christianity. — VI. Christianity and 
 Buddhism. — VII. Confucianism, and the Awakening of China. — VIII. 
 Success of Asiatic Missions : America's Responsibility to the Orient. 
 
 Dr. Barrows's book gives an account of the results achieved by the 
 introduction of Christianity into Asia during this century. The exact 
 religious condition of the Asia of to-day is clearly detailed ; and a hope- 
 ful forecast is given with regard to the continuance of the work already 
 auspiciously begun in the Far East. 
 
 Uhc tfDorse ^Lectures for 1895 
 
 THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF 
 
 MAN 
 
 A Brief History of his Origin and Development, 
 through Conformity to Environment 
 
 By JOHN M. TYLER 
 
 Professor of Biology, Amherst College 
 1 2mo, 3 1 2 pp., $ 1 .75 
 
 Contents: — Introduction. — I. The Problem : The Mode of its Solu- 
 tion. — II. Protozoa to Worms : Cells, Tissues, and Organs. — III. Worms 
 to Vertebrates : Skeleton and Head. — IV. Vertebrates: Backbone and 
 Brain. — V. The History of Mental Development and its Sequence of 
 Functions. — VI. Natural Selection and Environment. — VII. Conformity 
 to Environment— VIII. Man.— IX. The Teachings of the Bible.— X. 
 Present Aspect of the Theory of Evolution. — Chart showing Sequence 
 of Attainments and of Dominant Functions. — Phylogenetic Chart of the 
 Animal Kingdom. — Index. 
 
 " It is thoroughly strong and able, and in a perspicuous way presents the doctrine 
 of evolution in its relation to man in his social, moral, and religious nature. To the 
 question 'Whence?' the author answers, as all evolutionists do, 'Protoplasm'; to 
 the question ' Whither' his reply is, ' Everything points to a spiritual end in animal 
 evolution.' The whole discussion is calm and evidently in the interest of truth 
 rather than of tradition." — The Outlook. 
 
Hbe /iDorse ^Lectures for 1S04 
 THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN 
 
 From the Dawn of History to the 
 Era of the Meiji 
 
 By WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS, D.D. 
 
 Formerly of the Imperial University of Tokio; Author of "The Mikado's Empire" 
 
 and " Corea, the Hermit Nation" 
 
 1 2mo, 4-57 pp., $2.00 
 
 Contents : — I. Primitive Faith : Religion before Books. — II. Shinto : 
 Myths and Ritual. — III. The Kojiki and its Teachings. — IV. The 
 Chinese Ethical System in Japan. — V. Confucianism in its Philosophical 
 Form. — VI. The Buddhism of" Northern Asia. — VII. Riyobu, or Mixed 
 Buddhism. — VIII. Northern Buddhism in its Doctrinal Evolutions. — 
 IX. The Buddhism of the Japanese. — X. Japanese Buddhism in its 
 Missionary Development. — XI. Roman Christianity in the Seventeenth 
 Century. — XII. Two Centuries of Silence. — Notes, Authorities, and 
 Illustrations. — Index. 
 
 "The book is excellent throughout, and indispensable to the religious student." — 
 The A tlantic Monthly. 
 
 "To any one desiring a knowledge of the development and ethical status of the 
 East, this book will prove of the utmost assistance, and Dr. Griffis may be thanked 
 for throwing a still greater charm about the Land of the Rising Sun." 
 
 — The Churchman. 
 
 Ufoe rt&orse lectures tor t893 
 
 THE PLACE OF CHRIST IN MODERN 
 
 THEOLOGY 
 
 By A. M. FAIRBAIRN, M.A., D.D. 
 
 Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford 
 Svo, 556 pp., $2.50 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 Introduction.— THE. RETURN TO CHRIST. 
 Book I. — Historical and Critical. 
 
 Division I. — The Law of Development in Theology and the 
 
 Church. 
 Division II. — Historical Criticism and the History of Christ. 
 Book II. — Theological and Constructive. 
 
 Division I. — The New Testament Interpretation of Christ. 
 Division II. — Christ the Interpretation of God. 
 Division III. — A. God as Interpreted by Christ the Determinative 
 
 Principle in Theology. 
 B. God as Interpreted by Christ the Determinative 
 Principle in the Church. 
 
 " One of the most valuable and comprehensive contributions to theology that has 
 been made during this generation." — London Spectator. 
 
 " Suggestive, stimulating, and a harbinger of the future catholic theology." 
 
 — Boston Literary World. 
 "An important contribution to theological literature." — London Times. 
 
tlfoe JElg Xectures for 1897 
 THE BIBLE AND ISLAM! OR, 
 
 The Influence of the Old and New Testaments on 
 the Religion of Mohammed 
 
 By HENRY PRESERVED SMITH, D.D. 
 
 1 2mo, 319 pp., $1.50 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 I. The Apostle of Allah. VI. Revelation and Prophecy. 
 
 II. The Common Basis in Heathenism. VII. Sin and Salvation. 
 
 III. The Koran Narratives. VIII. The Service of God. 
 
 IV. The Doctrine of God. IX. The Future Life. 
 V. The Divine Government. X. Church and State. 
 
 "We should be inclined to regard this volume as perhaps the very 
 best for one who desired to get a clear understanding of the doctrines 
 rather than of the practical workings of Mohammedanism." 
 
 — The Outlook. 
 
 " The general reader will not meet with a more complete compendium 
 of the religious teachings of the Prophet of Arabia." 
 
 — New York Commercial Advertiser. 
 
 Zbe Elg ^Lectures for 1891 
 
 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND 
 CHRISTIANITY 
 
 A Course of Lectures Delivered Before the Students of 
 Union Theological Seminary, New York 
 
 By FRANK F. ELLINWOOD, D.D. 
 
 Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions. 
 1 2mo, 384 pp., $1 .75 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 I. The Need of Understanding the False Religions. 
 II. The Methods of the Early Christian Church in Dealing with 
 Heathenism. 
 
 III. The Successive Developments of Hinduism. 
 
 IV. The Bhagavad Gita and the New Testament. 
 V. Buddhism and Christianity. 
 
 VI. Mohammedanism Past and Present. 
 VII. The Traces of a Primitive Monotheism. 
 
 VIII. Indirect Tributes of Heathen Systems to the Doctrines of the 
 Bible. 
 IX. Ethical Tendencies of the Eastern and the Western Philosophies. 
 X. The Divine Supremacy of the Christian Faith. 
 
THE ELY LECTURES 
 
 " The special value of this volume is in its careful differentiation of the 
 schools of religionists in the East, and the distinct points of antagonism 
 of the very fundamental ideas of Oriental religions toward the religion 
 of Jesus. " — Outlook. 
 
 " A more instructive book has not been issued for years." 
 
 — New York Observer. 
 
 " The author has read widely, reflected carefully, and written ably." 
 
 — Congregationalist. 
 
 ''It is a book which we can most heartily commend to every pastor 
 and to every intelligent student, of the work which the Church is called 
 to do in the world." — The Missionary. 
 
 Xlbe JElv Xectures for 1890 
 
 THE EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIAN 
 
 EXPERIENCE 
 
 By LEWIS FRENCH STEARNS, D.D. 
 
 I2mo, 473 pp., $2.00 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 I. The Evidences of To-day. 
 II. Philosophical Presuppositions — Theistic. 
 
 III. Philosophical Presuppositions — Anthropological. 
 
 IV. The Genesis of the Evidence. 
 V. The Growth of the Evidence. 
 
 VI. The Verification of the Evidence. 
 VII. Philosophical Objections. 
 VIII. Theological Objections. 
 IX. Relation to other Evidences. 
 X. Relation to other Evidences — Conclusion. 
 
 " His presentation of the certainty, reality, and scientific character of 
 the facts in a Christian consciousness is very strong." — The Lutheran. 
 
 " An important contribution to the library of apologetics." 
 
 — Living Church. 
 
 '* A good and useful work." — The Churchman. 
 
 " The tone and spirit which pervade them are worthy of the theme, 
 and the style is excellent. There is nothing of either cant or pedantry 
 in the treatment. There is simplicity, directness, and freshness of 
 manner which strongly win and hold the reader." — Chicago Advance. 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 153-157 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 
 
Date Due 
 
 1 
 
 ' - -j - - 
 
 jjAI 
 
 «*—»*. -* ml 
 
 »#*■■• 
 
BW7003 .B27 
 
 The Christian conquest of Asia; 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 
 
 1 1012 00018 6447 
 
 
 SMS! >S 
 
 £:Sfl I 
 
 mm 
 
 I