{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_16996/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_16996","id":"gutenberg_16996","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16996","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Religious","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christianity and other religions -- Hinduism","Hinduism","Islam"],"text":"Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Stacy Brown Thellend\nand the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at\nhttps://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Note:\n\nThe footnotes marked with lower-case letters were originally sidenotes\nwhich referred to sentences within the paragraph. I placed them at the\nend of chapters to avoid confusion with the footnotes marked with numbers,\nwhich were footnotes in the original and are at the end of the text.\n\n\n\n\nTWO OLD FAITHS\n\nESSAYS ON THE RELIGIONS OF THE HINDUS AND THE MOHAMMEDANS\n\nBY\n\nJ. MURRAY MITCHELL, M.A., LL.D.\n\nAND\n\nSIR WILLIAM MUIR, LL.D., D.C.L.\n\n\nNEW YORK CHAUTAUQUA PRESS C.L.S.C. Department, 150 Fifth Avenue 1891\n\n     The required books of the C.L.S.C. are recommended by a Council of\n     Six. It must, however, be understood that recommendation does not\n     involve an approval by the Council, or by any member of it, of\n     every principle or doctrine contained in the book recommended.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n     These essays have been selected from the admirable series of\n     _Present Day Tracts_, published by the Religious Tract Society,\n     London, and are reprinted with permission.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\nTHE HINDU RELIGION.                                   PAGE\n\nOutline of the Essay                                     7\n\nIntroduction                                             9\n\nThe Vedas                                               12\n\nPhilosophy, and Ritualism                               31\n\nReconstruction--Modern Hinduism                         43\n\nContrast with Christianity                              58\n\nHinduism in Contact with Christianity                   68\n\n\nTHE RISE AND DECLINE OF ISLAM.\n\nOutline of the Essay                                    83\n\nIntroduction                                            85\n\nThe Rapid Spread of Islam                               87\n\nWhy the Spread of Islam was Stayed                     125\n\nLow Position of Islam in the Scale of Civilization     129\n\n\n\n\nTHE HINDU RELIGION.\n\n\n\n\nOUTLINE OF THE ESSAY.\n\n\nThe place of Hinduism--which is professed by about a hundred and ninety\nmillions in India--among the religions of the world, and its great\nantiquity, are pointed out.\n\nThe comparative simplicity of the system contained in the Vedas, the\noldest sacred books of the Hindus, its almost entire freedom from the\nuse of images, its gradual deterioration in the later hymns, its gradual\nmultiplication of gods, the advance of sacerdotalism, and the increasing\ncomplexity of its religious rites are set forth.\n\nThe philosophical speculation that was carried on, the different\nphilosophical schools, the Buddhist reaction, its conflict with\nBrahmanism, its final defeat, and its influence on the victorious system\nare discussed.\n\nThe religious reconstruction represented by the Puranas, their\ntheological character, the modern ritual, the introduction and rise of\ncaste, and the treatment of women are then considered.\n\nA contrast is drawn between the leading characteristics of Hinduism and\nthose of Christianity, and the effect of Christian ideas on modern\nHinduism is exhibited. The history of the Brahmo Somaj under Keshub\nChunder Sen is given at some length.\n\n\n\n\nTHE HINDU RELIGION.\n\nINTRODUCTION.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Hinduism deserving of study.\nIts antiquity.]\nThe system of religious belief which is generally called Hinduism is, on\nmany accounts, eminently deserving of study. If we desire to trace the\nhistory of the ancient religions of the widely extended Aryan or\nIndo-European race, to which we ourselves belong, we shall find in the\nearlier writings of the Hindus an exhibition of it decidedly more\narchaic even than that which is presented in the Homeric poems. Then,\nthe growth--the historical development--of Hinduism is not less worthy\nof attention than its earlier phases. It has endured for upward of three\nthousand years, no doubt undergoing very important changes, yet in many\nthings retaining its original spirit. The progress of the system has not\nbeen lawless; and it is exceedingly instructive to note the development,\nand, if possible, explain it.\n\nWe are, then, to endeavor to study Hinduism chronologically. Unless he\ndoes so almost every man who tries to comprehend it is, at first,\noverwhelmed with a feeling of utter confusion and bewilderment. Hinduism\nspreads out before him as a vast river, or even what seems at first\n\n            \"a dark\n    Illimitable ocean, without bound,\n    Without dimension, where length, breadth, and height,\n    And time, and place are lost.\"\n\n[Sidenote: The discussion chronological.]\nBut matters begin to clear up when he begins at the beginning, and notes\nhow one thing succeeded another. It may not be possible as yet to trace\nall the windings of the stream or to show at what precise points in its\nlong course it was joined by such and such a tributary; yet much is\nknown regarding the mighty river which every intelligent man will find\nit profitable to note and understand.\n\n[Sidenote: The Christian's duty in relation to the subject.]\nThe Christian ought not to rest satisfied with the vague general idea\nthat Hinduism is a form of heathenism with which he has nothing to do,\nsave to help in destroying it. Let him try to realize the ideas of the\nHindu regarding God, and the soul, and sin, and salvation, and heaven,\nand hell, and the many sore trials of this mortal life. He will then\ncertainly have a much more vivid perception of the divine origin and\ntranscendent importance of his own religion. Farther, he will then\nextend a helping hand to his Eastern brother with far more of\nsensibility and tenderness; and in proportion to the measure of his\nloving sympathy will doubtless be the measure of his success. A yearning\nheart will accomplish more than the most cogent argument.\n\n[Sidenote: The purpose of the Tract.]\nIn this Tract we confine ourselves to the laying down of great leading\nfacts and principles; but these will be dwelt upon at sufficient length\nto give the reader, we trust, an accurate conception of the general\ncharacter and history of Hinduism. We shall also briefly contrast the\nsystem with Christianity.\n\nThe history of Hinduism may be divided into three great periods, each\nembracing, in round numbers, about a thousand years.\n\n\n\n\nI.\n\nTHE VEDAS.\n\n\n[Sidenote: The most ancient writings of India.]\nRegarding the earliest form of Hinduism we must draw our conceptions\nfrom the Veda, or, to speak more accurately, the four Vedas. The most\nimportant of these is the Rig Veda; and internal evidence proves it to\nbe the most ancient. It contains above a thousand hymns; the earliest of\nwhich may date from about the year 1500 B.C. The Hindus, or, as they\ncall themselves, the Aryas, had by that time entered India, and were\ndwelling in the north-western portion, the Panjab. The hymns, we may\nsay, are racy of the soil. There is no reference to the life led by the\npeople before they crossed the Himalaya Mountains or entered by some of\nthe passes of Afghanistan.\n\nIt would be very interesting if we could discover the pre-Vedic form of\nthe religion. Inferentially this may, to some extent, be done by\ncomparing the teachings of the Vedas with those contained in the books\nof other branches of the great Aryan family--such as the Greeks, the\nRomans, and, above all, the Iranians (ancient Persians).\n\nThe ancient Hindus were a highly gifted, energetic race; civilized to a\nconsiderable extent; not nomadic; chiefly shepherds and herdsmen, but\nalso acquainted with agriculture. Commerce was not unknown; the river\nIndus formed a highway to the Indian Ocean, and at least the Phenicians\navailed themselves of it from perhaps the seventeenth century B.C., or\neven earlier.\n\n[Sidenote: The hymns are strongly religious.\nThey are a selection.\nPre-eminently sacerdotal.\nPresent the religious thought of the ancient Hindus.]\nAs soon as we begin to study the hymns of the Veda we are struck by\ntheir strongly religious character. Tacitly assuming that the book\ncontains the whole of the early literature of India, many writers have\nexpressed themselves in strong terms regarding the primitive Hindus as\nreligious above all other races. But as we read on we become convinced\nthat these poems are a selection, rather than a collection, of the\nliterature; and the conviction grows that the selection has been made by\npriestly hands for priestly purposes. An acute critic has affirmed that\nthe Vedic poems are \"pre-eminently sacerdotal, and in no sense\npopular.\"[1] We can thus explain a pervading characteristic of the book\nwhich has taken most readers by surprise. There is a want of simplicity\nin the Veda. It is often most elaborate, artificial, overrefined--one\nmight even say, affected. How could these be the thoughts, or those the\nexpressions, of the imperfectly civilized shepherds of the Panjab? But\nif it be only a hymn-book, with its materials arranged for liturgical\npurposes, the difficulty vanishes.[2] We shall accordingly take it for\ngranted that the Veda presents only the religious thought of the ancient\nHindus--and not the whole of the religious thought, but only that of a\nvery influential portion of the race. With all the qualifications now\nstated, the Veda must retain a position of high importance for all who\nstudy Indian thought and life. The religious stamp which the compilers\nof the Veda impressed so widely and so deeply has not been obliterated\nin the course of thirty centuries.\n\n[Sidenote: Their religion is Nature-worship.]\nThe prevailing aspect of the religion presented in the Vedic hymns may\nbe broadly designated as Nature-worship.\n\n[Sidenote: Physical phenomena in India.\nTheir effect on the religion.]\nAll physical phenomena in India are invested with a grandeur which they\ndo not possess in northern or even southern Europe. Sunlight, moonlight,\nstarlight, the clouds purpled with the beam of morning or flaming in the\nwest like fiery chariots of heaven; to behold these things in their full\nmagnificence one ought to see them in the East. Even so the sterner\nphenomena of nature--whirlwind and tempest, lightning and thunder, flood\nand storm-wave, plague, pestilence, and famine; all of these oftentimes\nassume in the East a character of awful majesty before which man cowers\nin helplessness and despair. The conceptions and feelings hence arising\nhave from the beginning powerfully affected the religion of the Hindus.\nEvery-where we can trace the impress of the grander manifestations of\nnature--the impress of their beneficence, their beauty, their might,\ntheir mystery, or their terribleness.\n\n[Sidenote: The deities are \"the bright ones,\" according to the language\nof the sacred books of India.]\nThe Sanskrit word for god is _deva_, which means _bright, shining_. Of\nphysical phenomena it was especially those connected with light that\nenkindled feelings of reverence. The black thunder-cloud that enshrouded\nnature, in which the demon had bound the life-giving waters, passed\naway; for the glittering thunder-bolt was launched, and the streams\nrushed down, exulting in their freedom; and then the heaven shone out\nagain, pure and peaceful as before. But such a wonder as the dawn--with\nfar-streaming radiance, returning from the land of mystery, fresh in\neternal youth, and scattering the terrors of the night before her--who\ncould sufficiently admire? And let it be remembered that in the Hindu\nmind the interval between admiration and adoration is exceedingly small.\nYet, while it is the dawn which has evoked the truest poetry, she has\nnot retained the highest place in worship.\n\n[Sidenote: Fire much worshiped.]\nNo divinity has fuller worship paid him than Agni, the Fire (_Ignis_).\nMore hymns are dedicated to him than to any other being. Astonishment at\nthe properties of fire; a sense of his condescension in that he, a\nmighty god, resides in their dwellings; his importance as the messenger\nbetween heaven and earth, bearing the offerings aloft; his kindness at\nnight in repelling the darkness and the demons which it hides--all these\nthings raised Agni to an exalted place. He is fed with pure clarified\nbutter, and so rises heavenward in his brightness. The physical\nconception of fire, however, adheres to him, and he never quite ceases\nto be the earthly flame; yet mystical conceptions thickly gather round\nthis root-idea; he is fire pervading all nature; and he often becomes\nsupreme, a god of gods.\n\n[Sidenote: Soma highly exalted.\nSoma becomes a very mighty god.]\nAll this seems natural enough; but one is hardly prepared for the high\nexaltation to which Soma is raised. Soma is properly the juice of a\nmilky plant (_asclepias acida_, or _sarcostemma viminale_), which, when\nfermented, is intoxicating. The simple-minded Aryas were both astonished\nand delighted at its effects; they liked it themselves; and they knew\nnothing more precious to present to their gods. Accordingly, all of\nthese rejoice in it. Indra in particular quaffs it \"like a thirsty\nstag;\" and under its exhilarating effects he strides victoriously to\nbattle. Soma itself becomes a god, and a very mighty one; he is even the\ncreator and father of the gods;[3] the king of gods and men;[4] all\ncreatures are in his hand. It is surely extraordinary that the Aryas\ncould apply such hyperbolical laudations to the liquor which they had\nmade to trickle into the vat, and which they knew to be the juice of a\nplant they had cut down on the mountains and pounded in a mortar; and\nthat intoxication should be confounded with inspiration. Yet of such\naberrations we know the human mind is perfectly capable.\n\n[Sidenote: Connection with Persian, Greek, and Roman systems.\nVaruna, the god of heaven.\nThe sublimity of the Vedic description of him.]\nWe have first referred to Agni and Soma, as being the only divinities of\nhighest rank which still retain their physical character. The worship\npaid to them was of great antiquity; for it is also prescribed in the\nPersian Avesta, and must have been common to the Indo-Iranian branch of\nthe Aryan race before the Hindus entered India. But we can inferentially\ngo still further back and speak of a deity common to the Greeks, Romans,\nPersians, and Hindus. This deity is Varuna, the most remarkable\npersonality in the Veda. The name, which is etymologically connected\nwith [Greek: Ouranos], signifies \"the encompasser,\" and is applied to\nheaven--especially the all-encompassing, extreme vault of heaven--not\nthe nearer sky, which is the region of cloud and storm. It is in\ndescribing Varuna that the Veda rises to the greatest sublimity which it\never reaches. A mysterious presence, a mysterious power, a mysterious\nknowledge amounting almost to omniscience, are ascribed to Varuna. The\nwinkings of men's eyes are numbered by him. He upholds order, both\nphysical and moral, throughout the universe.\n\n[Sidenote: Contrast with the laudations of Agni and Soma.\nThe loftier conceptions of divinity the earlier.]\nThe winds are his breath, the sun his eye, the sky his garment. He\nrewards the good and punishes the wicked. Yet to the truly penitent he\nis merciful. It is absolutely confounding to pass from a hymn that\ncelebrates the serene majesty and awful purity of Varuna to one filled\nwith measureless laudations of Soma or Agni. Could conceptions of\ndivinity so incongruous co-exist? That they could not spring up in the\nsame mind, or even in the same age, is abundantly manifest. And, as we\nhave mentioned, the loftier conceptions of divinity are unquestionably\nthe earlier. It is vain to speak, as certain writers do, of religion\ngradually refining itself, as a muddy stream can run itself pure;\nHinduism resembles the Ganges, which, when it breaks forth from its\nmountain cradle at Hardwar, is comparatively pellucid, but, as it rolls\non, becomes more and more muddy, discolored, and unclean.[5]\n\n[Sidenote: Indra.\nHis achievements.]\nVarious scholars affirm that Varuna, in more ancient pre-Vedic times,\nheld a position still higher than the very high one which he still\nretains. This is probable; indeed, it is certain that, before later\ndivinities had intruded, he held a place of unrivaled majesty. But, in\nthe Vedas, Indra is a more conspicuous figure. He corresponds to the\nJupiter Pluvius of the Romans. In north-western India, after the burning\nheat, the annual return of the rains was hailed with unspeakable joy; it\nwas like life succeeding death. The clouds that floated up from the\nocean were at first thin and light; ah! a hostile demon was in them,\ncarrying off the healing waters and not permitting them to fall; but the\nthunder-bolt of Indra flashed; the demon was driven away howling, and\nthe emancipated streams refreshed the thirsty earth. Varuna was not\nindeed dethroned, but he was obscured, by the achievements of the\nwarlike Indra; and the supersensuous, moral conceptions that were\nconnected with the former gradually faded from the minds of the people,\nand Varuna erelong became quite a subordinate figure in the Pantheon.\n\n[Sidenote: Number and relations of deities uncertain.]\nThe deities are generally said in the Veda to be \"thrice eleven\" in\nnumber. We also hear of three thousand three hundred and thirty-nine.\nThere is no _system_, no fixed order in the hierarchy; a deity who in\none hymn is quite subordinate becomes in another supreme; almost every\ngod becomes supreme in turn; in one hymn he is the son of some deity and\nin another that deity's father, and so (if logic ruled) his own\ngrandfather. Every poet exalts his favorite god, till the mind becomes\nutterly bewildered in tracing the relationships.\n\nWe have already spoken of Agni, Varuna, and Indra, as well as Soma. Next\nto these in importance may come the deities of light, namely, the sun,\nthe dawn, and the two Asvina or beams that accompany the dawn. The winds\ncome next. The earth is a goddess. The waters are goddesses. It is\nremarkable that the stars are very little mentioned; and the moon holds\nno distinguished place.\n\n[Sidenote: Hardly any fetichism in the Rig Veda.]\nIn the religion of the Rig Veda we hardly see fetichism--if by fetichism\nwe mean the worship of small physical objects, such as stones, shells,\nplants, etc., which are believed to be charged (so to speak) with\ndivinity, though this appears in the fourth Veda--the Atharva. But even\nin the Rig Veda almost any object that is grand, beneficent, or terrible\nmay be adored; and implements associated with worship are themselves\nworshiped. Thus, the war-chariot, the plow, the furrow, etc., are\nprayed to.\n\n[Sidenote: Early tendency toward pantheism.]\nA pantheistic conception of nature was also present in the Indian mind\nfrom very early times, although its development was later. Even in the\nearliest hymns any portion of nature with which man is brought into\nclose relation may be adored.[6]\n\n[Sidenote: Reverence of the dead.]\nWe must on no account overlook the reverence paid to the dead. The\n_pitris_ (_patres_) or fathers are frequently referred to in the Veda.\nThey are clearly distinguished from the _devas_ or gods. In later\nwritings they are also distinguished from men, as having been created\nseparately from them; but this idea does not appear in the Veda. Yama,\nthe first mortal, traveled the road by which none returns, and now\ndrinks the Soma in the innermost of heaven, surrounded by the other\nfathers. These come also, along with the gods, to the banquets prepared\nfor them on earth, and, sitting on the sacred grass, rejoice in the\nexhilarating draught.\n\n[Sidenote: The subjects of the hymns of the Rig Veda.]\nThe hymns of the Rig Veda celebrate the power, exploits, or generosity\nof the deity invoked, and sometimes his personal beauty. The praises\nlavished on the god not only secured his favor but increased his power\nto help the worshiper.\n\n[Sidenote: The holiest prayer.]\nThere is one prayer (so called) which is esteemed pre-eminently holy;\ngenerally called--from the meter in which it is composed--the\nGayatri.[7] It may be rendered thus:\n\n     \"Let us meditate on that excellent glory of the Divine Son (or\n     Vivifier); may he enlighten our understandings!\"\n\nIt has always been frequently repeated in important rites.\n\n[Sidenote: Atharva Veda.\nInferior morally and spiritually to the Rig Veda.\nExplanation of deterioration.]\nSo far we have referred almost exclusively to the Rig Veda. The next in\nimportance is the Atharva, sometimes termed the Brahma Veda; which we\nmay render the Veda of incantations. It contains six hundred and seventy\nhymns. Of these a few are equal to those in the Rig Veda; but, as a\nwhole, the Atharva is far inferior to the other in a moral and spiritual\npoint of view. It abounds in imprecations, charms for the destruction of\nenemies, and so forth. Talismans, plants, or gems are invoked, as\npossessed of irresistible might to kill or heal. The deities are often\ndifferent from those of the Rig Veda. The Atharva manifests a great\ndread of malignant beings, whose wrath it deprecates. We have thus\nsimple demon-worship. How is this great falling-off to be explained? In\none of two ways. Either a considerable time intervened between the\ncomposition of the two books, during which the original faith had\nrapidly degenerated, probably through contact with aboriginal races who\nworshiped dark and sanguinary deities; or else there had existed from\nthe beginning two forms of the religion--the higher of which is embodied\nin the hymns of the Rig Veda, and the lower in the Atharva. We believe\nthe latter explanation to be correct, although doubtless the\nsuperstitions of the aborigines must all along have exerted an influence\non the faith of the invaders.\n\n[Sidenote: The offerings.]\nThe offerings presented to the gods consisted chiefly of clarified\nbutter, curdled milk, rice-cakes, and fermented Soma juice, which was\ngenerally mixed with water or milk. All was thrown into the fire, which\nbore them or their essences to the gods. The Soma was also sprinkled on\nthe sacred grass, which was strewn on the floor, and on which the gods\nand fathers were invited to come and seat themselves that they might\nenjoy the cheering beverage. The remainder was drunk by the officiating\npriests. The offerings were understood to nourish and gratify the gods\nas corporeal beings.\n\n[Sidenote: Animal victims.]\nAnimal victims are also offered up. We hear of sheep, goats, bulls,\ncows, and buffaloes being sacrificed, and sometimes in large numbers.\nBut the great offering was the Asvamedha, or sacrifice of the horse. The\nbody of the horse was hacked to pieces; the fragments were dressed--part\nwas boiled, part roasted; some of the flesh was then eaten by the\npersons present, and the rest was offered to the gods. Tremendous was\nthe potency--at least as stated in later times--of a hundred such\nsacrifices; it rendered the offerer equal or superior to the gods; even\nthe mighty Indra trembled for his sovereignty and strove to hinder the\nconsummation of the awful rite.\n\n[Sidenote: Human sacrifice.]\nHuman sacrifice was not unknown, though there are very few allusions to\nit in the earlier hymns.\n\n[Sidenote: Sacrifice deemed of very high importance.]\nEven from the first, however, the rite of sacrifice occupies a very high\nplace, and allusions to it are exceedingly frequent. The observances\nconnected with it are said to be the \"first religious rites.\" Sacrifice\nwas early believed to be expiatory; it removed sin. It was\nsubstitutionary; the victim stood in place of the offerer. All order in\nthe universe depends upon it; it is \"the nave of the world-wheel.\"\nSometimes Vishnu is said to be the sacrifice; sometimes even the Supreme\nBeing himself is so. Elaborated ideas and a complex ritual, which we\ncould have expected to grow up only in the course of ages, appear from\nvery early times. We seem compelled to draw the inference that sacrifice\nformed an essential and very important part of the pre-Vedic faith.[8]\n\nIn the Veda worship is a kind of barter. In exchange for praises and\nofferings the deity is asked to bestow favors. Temporal blessings are\nimplored, such as food, wealth, life, children, cows, horses, success in\nbattle, the destruction of enemies, and so forth. Not much is said\nregarding sin and the need of forgiveness. A distinguished scholar[9]\nhas said that \"the religious notion of sin is wanting altogether;\" but\nthis affirmation is decidedly too sweeping.\n\n[Sidenote: No image-worship.\nNo public worship.]\nThe worship exemplified in the Veda is not image-worship. Images of the\nfire, or the winds, or the waters could hardly be required, and while\nthe original nature-worship lasted, idols must have been nearly unknown.\nYet the description of various deities is so precise and full that it\nseems to be probably drawn from visible representations of them. Worship\nwas personal and domestic, not in any way public. Indeed, two men\npraying at the same time had to pray quite apart, so that neither might\ndisturb the other. Each dealt with heaven, so to speak, solely on his\nown behalf.\n\n[Sidenote: No temples.]\nWe hear of no places set apart as temples in Vedic times.\n\n[Sidenote: The treatises on ritual.]\nA Veda consists of two parts called _Mantra_ or _Sanhita_, and\n_Brahmana_. The first is composed of hymns. The second is a statement of\nritual, and is generally in prose. The existing Brahmanas are several\ncenturies later than the great body of the hymns, and were probably\ncomposed when the Hindus had crossed the Indus, and were advancing along\nthe Gangetic valley. The oldest may be about the date of 800 or 700 B.C.\n\n[Sidenote: Growth of priestly power.\nSchools for the study of sacred books, rites, and\ntraditions.]\nThe Brahmanas are very poor, both in thought and expression. They have\nhardly their match in any literature for \"pedantry and downright\nabsurdity.\"[10] Poetical feeling and even religious feeling seem gone;\nall is dead and dry as dust. By this time the Sanskrit language had\nceased to be generally understood. The original texts could hardly\nreceive accessions; the most learned man could do little more than\ninterpret, or perhaps misinterpret, them. The worshiper looked on; he\nworshiped now by proxy. Thus the priest had risen greatly in importance.\nHe alone knew the sacred verses and the sacred rites. An error in the\npronunciation of the mystic text might bring destruction on the\nworshiper; what could he do but lean upon the priest? The latter could\nsay the prayers if he could not pray. All this worked powerfully for the\nelevation of the Brahmans, the \"men of prayer;\" they steadily grew into\na class, a caste; and into this no one could enter who was not of\npriestly descent. Schools were now found necessary for the study of the\nsacred books, rites, and traditions. The importance which these attach\nto theology--doctrine--is very small; the externals of religion are all\nin all. The rites, in fact, now threw the very gods into the shade;\nevery thing depended on their due performance. And thus the Hindu ritual\ngradually grew up into a stupendous system, the most elaborate, complex,\nand burdensome which the earth has seen.\n\n[Sidenote: Moral character of the Veda.]\nIt is time, however, to give a brief estimate of the moral character of\nthe Veda. The first thing that strikes us is its inconsistency. Some\nhymns--especially those addressed to Varuna--rise as high as Gentile\nconceptions regarding deity ever rose; others--even in the Rig\nVeda--sink miserably low; and in the Atharva we find, \"even in the\nlowest depth, a lower still.\"\n\n[Sidenote: Indra supersedes Varuna.]\nThe character of Indra--who has displaced or overshadowed\nVaruna[11]--has no high attributes. He is \"voracious;\" his \"inebriety is\nmost intense;\" he \"dances with delight in battle.\" His worshipers supply\nhim abundantly with the drink he loves; and he supports them against\ntheir foes, ninety and more of whose cities he has destroyed. We do not\nknow that these foes, the Dasyus, were morally worse than the intrusive\nAryas, but the feelings of the latter toward the former were of\nunexampled ferocity. Here is one passage out of multitudes similar:\n\n     \"Hurl thy hottest thunder-bolt upon them! Uproot them! Cleave them\n     asunder! O, Indra, overpower, subdue, slay the demon! Pluck him up!\n     Cut him through the middle! Crush his head!\"\n\n[Sidenote: Deterioration begins early.]\nIndra, if provided with Soma, is always indulgent to his votaries; he\nsupports them _per fas et nefas_. Varuna, on the other hand, is grave,\njust, and to wicked men severe.[12] The supersession of Varuna by Indra,\nthen, is easily understood. We see the principle on which it rests\nstated in the Old Testament. \"Ye cannot serve the Lord,\" said Joshua to\nthe elders of Israel; \"for he is a holy God.\" Even so Jeremiah points\nsorrowfully to the fact that the pagan nations clung to their false\ngods, while Israel was faithless to the true. As St. Paul expresses it,\n\"they did not like to retain God in their knowledge.\" Unless this\nprinciple is fully taken into account we cannot understand the\nhistorical development of Hinduism.\n\n[Sidenote: Varuna the only divinity possessed of pure and elevated\nattributes.]\nThe Veda frequently ascribes to the gods, to use the language of Max\nMueller, \"sentiments and passions unworthy of deity.\" In truth, except in\nthe case of Varuna, there is not one divinity that is possessed of pure\nand elevated attributes.\n\n\n\n\nII.\n\nPHILOSOPHY, AND RITUALISM.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Speculation begins.\nRise of asceticism.\nUpanishads.\nThey are pantheistic.]\nDuring the Vedic period--certainly toward its conclusion--a tendency to\nspeculation had begun to appear. Probably it had all along existed in\nthe Hindu mind, but had remained latent during the stirring period when\nthe people were engaged in incessant wars. Climate, also, must have\naffected the temperament of the race; and, as the Hindus steadily\npressed down the valley of the Ganges into warmer regions, their love of\nrepose and contemplative quietism would continually deepen. And when the\nBrahmans became a fully developed hierarchy, lavishly endowed, with no\nemployment except the performance of religious ceremonies, their minds\ncould avoid stagnation only by having recourse to speculative thought.\nAgain, asceticism has a deep root in human nature; earnest souls,\nconscious of their own weakness, will fly from the temptations of the\nworld. Various causes thus led numbers of men to seek a life of\nseclusion; they dwelt chiefly in forests, and there they revolved the\neverlasting problems of existence, creation, the soul, and God. The\nlively Greeks, for whom, with all their high intellectual endowments, a\nhappy sensuous existence was nearly all in all, were amazed at the\nnumbers in northern India who appeared weary of the world and\nindifferent to life itself. By and for these recluses were gradually\ncomposed the Aranyakas, or forest treatises; and out of these grew a\nseries of more regular works, called Upanishads.[13] At least two\nhundred and fifty of these are known to exist. They have been called\n\"guesses at truth;\" they are more so than formal solutions of great\nquestions. Many of them are unintelligible rhapsodies; others rise\nalmost to sublimity. They frequently contradict each other; the same\nwriter sometimes contradicts himself. One prevailing characteristic is\nall-important; their doctrine is pantheism. The pantheism is sometimes\nnot so much a coldly reasoned system as an aspiration, a yearning, a\ndeep-felt need of something better than the mob of gods who came in the\ntrain of Indra, and the darker deities who were still crowding in. Even\nin spite of the counteracting power of the Gospel mysticism has run\neasily into pantheism in Europe, and orthodox Christians sometimes slide\nunconsciously into it, or at least into its language.[14] But, as has\nbeen already noted, a strain of pantheism existed in the Hindu mind from\nearly times.\n\nAccordingly, these hermit sages, these mystic dreamers, soon came to\nidentify the human soul with God. And the chief end of man was to seek\nthat the stream derived from God should return to its source, and,\nceasing to wander through the wilderness of this world, should find\nrepose in the bosom of the illimitable deep, the One, the All. The\nBrahmans attached the Upanishads to the Veda proper, and they soon came\nto be regarded as its most sacred part. In this way the influence these\ntreatises have exercised has been immense; more than any other portion\nof the earlier Hindu writings they have molded the thoughts of\nsucceeding generations. Philosophy had thus begun.\n\n[Sidenote: Six philosophic schools.]\nThe speculations of which we see the commencement and progress in the\nUpanishads were finally developed and classified in a series of writings\ncalled the six Sastras or _darsanas_. These constitute the regular\nofficial philosophy of India. They are without much difficulty reducible\nto three leading schools of thought--the Nyaya, the Sankhya, and the\nVedanta.\n\nRoundly, and speaking generally, we may characterize these systems as\ntheistic, atheistic, and pantheistic respectively.\n\n[Sidenote: The Nyaya.]\nIt is doubtful, however, whether the earlier form of the Nyaya was\ntheistic or not. The later form is so, but it says nothing of the moral\nattributes of God, nor of his government. The chief end of man,\naccording to the Nyaya, is deliverance from pain; and this is to be\nattained by cessation from all action, whether good or bad.\n\n[Sidenote: The Sankhya.]\nThe Sankhya declares matter to be self-existent and eternal. Soul is\ndistinct from matter, and also eternal. When it attains true knowledge\nit is liberated from matter and from pain. The Sankhya holds the\nexistence of God to be without proof.\n\n[Sidenote: The Vedanta.]\nBut the leading philosophy of India is unquestionably the Vedanta. The\nname means \"the end or scope of the Veda;\" and if the Upanishads were\nthe Veda, instead of treatises tacked on to it, the name would be\ncorrect; for the Vedanta, like the Upanishads, inculcates pantheism.\n\nThe form which this philosophy ultimately assumed is well represented in\nthe treatise called the Vedanta Sara, or essence of the Vedanta. A few\nextracts will suffice to exhibit its character. \"The unity of the soul\nand God--this is the scope of all Vedanta treatises.\" We have frequent\nreferences made to the \"great saying,\" _Tat twam_--that is, That art\nthou, or Thou art God; and _Aham Brahma_, that is, I am God. Again it is\nsaid, \"The whole universe is God.\" God is \"existence (or more exactly an\nexistent thing[15]), knowledge, and joy.\" Knowledge, not a knower; joy,\nnot one who rejoices.\n\n[Sidenote: It teaches absolute idealism.]\nEvery thing else has only a seeming existence, which is in consequence\nof ignorance (or illusion). Ignorance makes the soul think itself\ndifferent from God; and it also \"projects\" the appearance of an external\nworld.\n\n\"He who knows God becomes God.\" \"When He, the first and last, is\ndiscerned, one's own acts are annihilated.\"\n\nMeditation, without distinction of subject and object, is the highest\nform of thought. It is a high attainment to say, \"I am God;\" but the\nconsummation is when thought exists without an object.\n\nThere are four states of the soul--waking, dreaming, dreamless sleep,\nand the \"fourth state,\" or pure intelligence. The working-man is in\ndense ignorance; in sleep he is freed from part of this ignorance; in\ndreamless sleep he is freed from still more; but the consummation is\nwhen he attains something beyond this, which it seems cannot be\nexplained, and is therefore called the fourth state.\n\n[Sidenote: Doctrine of \"the Self.\"\nInconsistent statements.]\nThe name, which in later writings is most frequently given to the \"one\nwithout a second,\"[16] is Atman, which properly means self. Much is said\nof the way in which the self in each man is to recover, or discover, its\nunity with the supreme or real self. For as the one sun shining in the\nheavens is reflected, often in distorted images, in multitudes of\nvessels filled with water, so the one self is present in all human\nminds.[17] There is not--perhaps there could not be--consistency in the\nstatements of the relation of the seeming to the real. In most of the\nolder books a practical or conventional existence is admitted of the\nself in each man, but not a real existence. But when the conception is\nfully formulated the finite world is not admitted to exist save as a\nmere illusion. All phenomena are a play--a play without plot or purpose,\nwhich the absolute plays with itself.[18] This is surely transcendent\ntranscendentalism. One regrets that speculation did not take one step\nmore, and declare that the illusion was itself illusory. Then we should\nhave gone round the circle, and returned to _sensus communis_. We must\nbe pardoned if we seem to speak disrespectfully of such fantastic\nspeculations; we desire rather to speak regretfully of the many\ngenerations of men which successively occupied themselves with such\nunprofitable dreams; for this kind of thought is traceable even from\nVedic days. It is more fully developed in the Upanishads. In them occurs\nthe classical sentence so frequently quoted in later literature, which\ndeclares that the absolute being is the \"one [thing] without a\nsecond.\"[19]\n\n[Sidenote: The Gita.]\nThe book which perhaps above all others has molded the mind of India in\nmore recent days is the Bhagavad Gita, or Song of the Holy One. It is\nwritten in stately and harmonious verse, and has achieved the same task\nfor Indian philosophy as Lucretius did for ancient Epicureanism.[20] It\nis eclectic, and succeeds, in a sort of way, in forcing the leading\nsystems of Indian thought into seeming harmony.\n\n[Sidenote: Intellectual pride.]\nSome have thought they could discern in these daring speculations\nindications of souls groping after God, and saddened because of the\ndifficulty of finding him. Were it so, all our sympathies would at once\nbe called forth. But no; we see in these writings far more of\nintellectual pride than of spiritual sadness. Those ancient dreamers\nnever learned their own ignorance. They scarcely recognized the\nlimitations of the human mind. And when reason could take them no\nfarther they supplemented it by dreams and ecstasy until, in the Yoga\nphilosophy, they rushed into systematized mysticisms and magic far more\nextravagant than the wildest _theurgy_ of the degraded Neoplatonism of\nthe Roman Empire.\n\nA learned writer thus expresses himself:\n\n     \"The only one of the six schools that seem to recognize the\n     doctrine of divine providence is the Yoga. It thus seems that the\n     consistent followers of these systems can have, in their perfected\n     state, no religion, no action, and no moral character.\"[21]\n\n[Sidenote: Indian philosophy a sad failure.]\nAnd now to take a brief review of the whole subject. The Hindu sages\nwere men of acute and patient thought; but their attempt to solve the\nproblem of the divine and human natures, of human destiny and duty, has\nended in total failure. Each system baseless, and all mutually\nconflicting; systems cold and cheerless, that frown on love and virtuous\nexertion, and speak of annihilation or its equivalent, absorption, as\nour highest hope: such is the poor result of infinite speculation. \"The\nworld by wisdom knew not God.\" O, that India would learn the much-needed\nlesson of humility which the experience of ages ought to teach her!\n\n[Sidenote: Sacerdotalism.\nThe tyranny of sacerdotalism.]\nWhile speculation was thus busy Sacerdotalism was also continually\nextending its influence. The Brahman, the man of prayer, had made\nhimself indispensable in all sacred rites. He alone--as we have\nseen--knew the holy text; he alone could rightly pronounce the words of\nawful mystery and power on which depended all weal or woe. On all\nreligions occasions the priest must be called in, and, on all occasions,\nimplicitly obeyed. For a considerable time the princes straggled against\nthe encroachments of the priests; but in the end they were completely\nvanquished. Never was sacerdotal tyranny more absolute; the proudest\npope in mediaeval times never lorded it over Western Christendom with\nsuch unrelenting rigor as the Brahmans exercised over both princes and\npeople. The feeling of the priests is expressed in a well-known stanza:\n\n     \"All the world is subject to the gods; the gods are subject to the\n     holy texts; the holy texts are subject to the Brahman; therefore\n     the Brahman is my god.\"\n\nYes, the sacred man could breathe the spell which made earth and hell\nand heaven itself to tremble. He therefore logically called himself an\nearthly god. Indeed, the Brahman is always logical. He draws conclusions\nfrom premises with iron rigor of reasoning; and with side-issues he has\nnothing to do. He stands upon his rights. Woe to the being--god or\nman--who comes in conflict with him!\n\n[Sidenote: Ritual becomes extravagant.]\nThe priests naturally multiplied religious ceremonies, and made ritual\nthe soul of worship. Sacrifice especially assumed still more and more\nexaggerated forms--becoming more protracted, more expensive, more\nbloody. A hecatomb of victims was but a small offering. More and more\nawful powers were ascribed to the rite.\n\n[Sidenote: Reaction.]\nBut the tension was too great, and the bow snapped. Buddhism arose. We\nmay call this remarkable system the product of the age--an inevitable\nrebellion against intolerable sacerdotalism; and yet we must not\noverlook the importance of the very distinct and lofty personality of\nBuddha (Sakya Muni) as a power molding it into shape.\n\n[Sidenote: Buddhism.\nMoral elements of this system.\nConflict with Brahmanism.\nVictory of Brahmanism.]\nWherever it extended it effected a vast revolution in Indian thought.\nThus in regard to the institution of caste, Buddha did not attack it; he\ndid not, it would appear, even formally renounce it; as a mere social\ninstitution he seems to have acknowledged it; but then he held that all\nthe _religious_ were freed from its restrictions. \"My law,\" said he, \"is\na law of mercy for all;\" and forthwith he proceeded to admit men of\nevery caste into the closest fellowship with himself and his followers.\nThen, he preached--he, though not a Brahman--in the vernacular\nlanguages--an immense innovation, which made his teachings popular. He\nput in the forefront of his system certain great fundamental principles\nof morality. He made religion consist in duty, not rites. He reduced\nduty mainly to mercy or kindness toward all living beings--a marvelous\ngeneralization. This set aside all slaughter of animals. The mind of the\nprinces and people was weary of priestcraft and ritualism; and the\nteaching of the great reformer was most timely. Accordingly his doctrine\nspread with great rapidity, and for a long time it seemed likely to\nprevail over Brahmanism. But various causes gradually combined against\nit. Partly, it was overwhelmed by its own luxuriance of growth; partly,\nBrahmanism, which had all along maintained an intellectual superiority,\nadopted, either from conviction or policy, most of the principles of\nBuddhism, and skillfully supplied some of its main deficiencies. Thus\nthe Brahmans retained their position; and, at least nominally, their\nreligion won the day.\n\n\n\n\nIII.\n\nRECONSTRUCTION--MODERN HINDUISM.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Revival, in an altered form, of Hinduism.\nOnly the position of the Brahman and the restrictions of\ncaste retained.]\nBut the Hinduism that grew up, as Buddhism faded from Indian soil, was\nwidely different from the system with which early Buddhism had\ncontended. Hinduism, as it has been developed during the last thousand\nor twelve hundred years, resembles a stupendous far-extended building,\nor series of buildings, which is still receiving additions, while\nportions have crumbled and are crumbling into ruin. Every conceivable\nstyle of architecture, from that of the stately palace to the meanest\nhut, is comprehended in it. On a portion of the structure here or there\nthe eye may rest with pleasure; but as a whole it is an unsightly,\nalmost monstrous, pile. Or, dismissing figures, we must describe it as\nthe most extraordinary creation which the world has seen. A jumble of\nall things; polytheistic pantheism; much of Buddhism; something\napparently of Christianity, but terribly disfigured; a science wholly\noutrageous; shreds of history twisted into wild mythology; the bold\npoetry of the older books understood as literal prose; any local deity,\nany demon of the aborigines, however hideous, identified with some\naccredited Hindu divinity; any custom, however repugnant to common sense\nor common decency, accepted and explained--in a word, later Hinduism has\nbeen omnivorous; it has partially absorbed and assimilated every system\nof belief, every form of worship, with which it has come in contact.\nOnly to one or two things has it remained inflexibly true. It has\nsteadily upheld the proudest pretensions of the Brahman; and it has\nnever relaxed the sternest restrictions of caste. We cannot wonder at\nthe severe judgment pronounced on Hinduism by nearly every Western\nauthor. According to Macaulay, \"all is hideous and grotesque and\nignoble;\" and the calmer De Tocqueville maintains that \"Hinduism is\nperhaps the only system of belief that is worse than having no religion\nat all.\"[22]\n\nWhen a modern Hindu is asked what are the sacred books of his religion\nhe generally answers: \"The Vedas, the Sastras (that is, philosophical\nsystems), and the Puranas.\" Some authorities add the Tantras.\n\nThe modern form of Hinduism is exhibited chiefly in the eighteen\nPuranas, and an equal number of Upapuranas (minor Puranas).[23]\n\n[Sidenote: The Puranas.]\nWhen we compare the religion embodied in the Puranas with that of Vedic\ntimes we are startled at the magnitude of the change. The Pantheon is\nlargely new; old deities have been superseded; other deities have taken\ntheir place. There has been both accretion from without and evolution\nfrom within. The thirty-three gods of the Vedas have been fantastically\nraised to three hundred and thirty millions. Siva, Durga, Rama, Krishna,\nKali--unknown in ancient days--are now mighty divinities; Indra is\nalmost entirely overlooked, and Varuna has been degraded from his lofty\nthrone and turned into a regent of the waters.\n\n[Sidenote: New deities, rites, and customs.]\nThe worship of the Linga (phallus) has been introduced. So has the great\ndogma of Transmigration, which has stamped a deeper impress on later\nHindu mind than almost any other doctrine. Caste is fully established,\nthough in Vedic days scarcely, if at all, recognized. The dreadful\npractice of widow-burning has been brought in, and this by a most\ndaring perversion of the Vedic texts. Woman, in fact, has fallen far\nbelow the position assigned her in early days.\n\n[Sidenote: The Trimurtti, a triad of gods.]\nOne of the notable things in connection with the reconstruction of\nHinduism is the position it gives to the Trimurtti, or triad of\ngods--Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. Something like an anticipation of this\nhas been presented in the later Vedic times: fire, air, and the sun\n(Agni, Vayu, and Surya) being regarded by the commentator[24] as summing\nup the divine energies. But in the Vedas the deities often go in pairs;\nand little stress should be laid on the idea of a Vedic triad. That\nidea, however, came prominently forward in later days. The worship both\nof Vishnu and Siva may have existed, from ancient times, as popular\nrites not acknowledged by the Brahmans; but both of these deities were\nnow fully recognized. The god Brahma was an invention of the Brahmans;\nhe was no real divinity of the people, and had hardly ever been actually\nworshiped. It is visual to designate Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva as\nCreator, Preserver, and Destroyer respectively; but the generalization\nis by no means well maintained in the Hindu books.\n\n[Sidenote: The Avatara.]\nThe Puranas are in general violently sectarian; some being Vishnuite,\nothers Sivite. It is in connection with Vishnu, especially, that the\nidea of incarnation becomes prominent. The Hindu term is _Avatara_,\nliterally, _descent_; the deity is represented as descending from heaven\nto earth, for vindication of the truth and righteousness, or, to use the\nwords ascribed to Krishna,\n\n     For the preservation of the good, and the destruction of the wicked,\n     For the establishment of religion, I am born from age to age.\n\n[Sidenote: The \"descents\" of Vishnu.]\nThe \"descents\" of Vishnu are usually reckoned ten. Of these by far the\nmost celebrated are those of Rama and Krishna. The great importance\nattached to these two deities has been traced to the influence of\nBuddhism. That system had exerted immense power in consequence of the\ngentle and attractive character ascribed to Buddha. The older gods were\ndim, distant, and often stern; some near, intelligible, and loving\ndivinity was longed for. Buddha was a brother-man, and yet a\nquasi-deity; and hearts longing for sympathy and succor were strongly\nattracted by such a personality.\n\n[Sidenote: The god Rama.]\nThe character of Rama--or Ramachandra--is possessed of some high\nqualities. The great poem in which it is described at fullest\nlength--the Ramayana of Valmiki--seems to have been an alteration, made\nin the interests of Hinduism, of early Buddhist legends; and the\nBuddhist quality of gentleness has not disappeared in the history.[25]\nRama, however, is far from a perfect character. His wife Sita is\npossessed of much womanly grace and every wifely virtue; and the\nsorrowful story of the warrior-god and his faithful spouse has appealed\nto deep sympathies in the human breast. The worship of Rama has seldom,\nif ever, degenerated into lasciviousness. In spite, however, of the\ncharm thrown around the life of Rama and Sita by the genius of Valmiki\nand Tulsida,[26] it is Krishna, not Rama, that has attained the greatest\npopularity among the \"descents\" of Vishnu.\n\n[Sidenote: Krishna.\nHis early life a travesty of the life of Christ, according to\nthe Gospel of the Infancy.]\nVery different morally from that of Rama is the character of Krishna.\nWhile Rama is but a partial manifestation of divinity Krishna is a full\nmanifestation; yet what a manifestation! He is represented as full of\nnaughty tricks in his youth, although exercising the highest powers of\ndeity; and, when he grows up, his conduct is grossly immoral and\ndisgusting. It is most startling to think that this being is by grave\nwriters--like the authors of the Bhagavad Gita and the Bhagavata\nPurana--made the highest of the gods, or, indeed, the only real God.\nStranger still, if possible, is the probability that the early life of\nKrishna--in part, at least--is a dreadful travesty of the early life of\nChrist, as given in the apocryphal gospels, especially the Gospel of the\nInfancy. The falling off in the apocryphal gospels, when compared with\nthe canonical, is truly sad; but the falling off even from the\napocryphal ones, in the Hindu books, is altogether sickening.[27]\n\nA very striking characteristic of modern Hinduism is what is termed\n_bhakti_, or devotion. There are three great ways of attaining to\nsalvation: _karma marga_, or the way of ceremonial works; _jnana\nmarga_, or the way of knowledge, and _bhakti marga_, or the way of\ndevotion.\n\n[Sidenote: Doctrine of _bhakti_ introduced.\nInfluence of the system.\nMixed with Buddhist elements.\nExaltation of the _guru_.]\nThe notion of trust in the gods was familiar to the mind of India from\nVedic days, but the deity was indistinct and unsympathetic, and there\ncould hardly be love and attachment to him. But there now arose the\ndoctrine of _bhakti_ (devotion), which resolved religion into emotion.\nIt came into the Hindu system rather abruptly; and many learned men have\ntraced its origin to the influence of Christianity. This is quite\npossible; but perhaps the fact is hardly proved. Contact with\nChristianity, however, probably accelerated a process which had\npreviously begun. At all events, the system of _bhakti_ has had, and\nstill has, great sway in India, particularly in Bengal, among the\nfollowers of Chaitanya, and the large body of people in western India\nwho style themselves _Vaishnavas_ or _Bhaktas_ (devotees). The popular\npoetry of Maharashtra, as exemplified in such poets as Tukarama, is an\nimpassioned inculcation of devotion to Vithoba of Pandharpur, who is a\nmanifestation of Krishna. Into the _bhakti_ system of western India\nBuddhist elements have entered; and the school of devotees is often\ndenominated Bauddha-Vaishnava. Along with extravagant idolatry it\ninculcates generally, at least in the Maratha country, a pure morality;\nand the latter it apparently owes to Buddhism. Yet there are many sad\nlapses from purity. Almost of necessity the worship of Krishna led to\ncorruption. The hymns became erotic; and movements hopeful at their\ncommencement--like that of Chaitanya of Bengal, in the sixteenth\ncentury--soon grievously fell off in character. The attempt to make\nreligion consist of emotion without thought, of _bhakti_ without\n_jnana_, had disastrous issues. Coincident with the development of\n_bhakti_ was the exaltation of the _guru_, or religious teacher, which\nsoon amounted to deification--a change traceable from about the twelfth\ncentury A.D.\n\n[Sidenote: Explanations of Krishna's evil deeds.]\nWhen pressed on the subject of Krishna's evil deeds many are anxious to\nexplain them as allegorical representations of the union between the\ndivinity and true worshipers; but some interpret them in the most\nliteral way possible. This is done especially by the followers of\nVallabha Acharya.[28] These men attained a most unenviable notoriety\nabout twenty years ago, when a case was tried in the Supreme Court of\nBombay, which revealed the practice of the most shameful licentiousness\nby the religious teachers and their female followers, and this as a part\nof worship! The disgust excited was so great and general that it was\nbelieved the influence of the sect was at an end; but this hope\nunhappily has not been realized.\n\n[Sidenote: Reforms attempted.\nKabir.\nNanak.\nFailure of all reforms.]\nReformers have arisen from time to time in India; men who saw the\ndeplorable corruption of religion, and strove to restore it to what they\nconsidered purity. Next to Buddha we may mention Kabir, to whom are\nascribed many verses still popular. Probably the doctrine of the unity\nof God, as maintained by the Mohammedans, had impressed him. He opposed\nidolatry, caste, and Brahmanical assumption. Yet his monotheism was a\nkind of pantheism. His date may be the beginning of the fifteenth\ncentury. Nanak followed and founded the religion of the Sikhs. His\nsacred book, the _Granth_, is mainly pantheistic; it dwells earnestly on\ndevotion, especially devotion to the _guru_. The Sikhs now seem slowly\nrelapsing into idolatry. In truth, the history of all attempts at\nreformation in India has been most discouraging. Sect after sect has\nsuccessively risen to some elevation above the prevalent idolatry; and\nthen gradually, as by some irresistible gravitation, it has sunk back\ninto the _mare magnum_ of Hinduism. If we regard experience,\npurification from within is hopeless; the struggle for it is only a\nrepetition of the toil of Sisyphus, and always with the same sad issue.\nDeliverance must come from without--from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.\n\n[Sidenote: Influence of the Tantras.\nWorship of the Sakti.]\nWe mentioned the Tantras as exerting great influence in later days.[29]\nIn these the worship of Siva, and, still more, that of his wife, is\npredominant. The deity is now supposed to possess a double nature--one\nquiescent, one active; the latter being regarded as the _Sakti_ or\nenergy of the god, otherwise called his wife. The origin of the system\nis not fully explained; nor is the date of its rise ascertained. The\nworship assumes wild, extravagant forms, generally obscene, sometimes\nbloody. It is divided into two schools--that of the right hand and that\nof the left. The former runs into mysticism and magic in complicated\nobservances, and the latter into the most appalling licentiousness. The\nworship of the Sakti, or female principle, has become a most elaborate\nsystem. The beings adored are \"the most outrageous divinities which man\nhas ever conceived.\"[30] Sorcery began early in India; but it is in\nconnection with this system that it attains to full development. Human\nsacrifices are a normal part of the worship when fully performed. We\ncannot go farther into detail. It is profoundly saddening to think that\nsuch abominations are committed; it is still more saddening to think\nthat they are performed as a part of divine worship. Conscience,\nhowever, is so far alive that these detestable rites are practiced only\nin secret, and few, if any, are willing to confess that they have been\ninitiated as worshipers.\n\n[Sidenote: Modern ritual.]\nWe have not yet said much about the ritual of modern days. It is\nexceedingly complicated. In the case of the god Siva the rites are as\nfollows, when performed by a priest in the temple:\n\n     [Sidenote: Worship of Siva.]\n     The Brahman first bathes, then enters the temple and bows to the\n     god. He anoints the image with clarified butter or boiled oil;\n     pours pure water over it; and then wipes it dry. He grinds some\n     white powder, mixing it with water; dips the ends of his three\n     forefingers in it and draws them across the image. He sits down;\n     meditates; places rice and _durwa_ grass on the image--places a\n     flower on his own head, and then on the top of the image; then\n     another flower on the image, and another, and another--accompanying\n     each act with the recitation of sacred spells; places white powder,\n     flowers, bilva-leaves, incense, meat-offerings, rice, plantains,\n     and a lamp before the image; repeats the name of Siva, with\n     praises, then prostrates himself before the image. In the evening\n     he returns, washes his feet, prostrates himself before the door,\n     opens the door, places a lamp within, offers milk, sweet-meats, and\n     fruits to the image, prostrates himself before it, locks the door,\n     and departs.\n\nVery similar is the worship paid to Vishnu:\n\n     [Sidenote: Worship of Vishnu.]\n     The priest bathes, and then awakes the sleeping god by blowing a\n     shell and ringing a bell. More abundant offerings are made than to\n     Siva. About noon, fruits, roots, soaked peas, sweet-meats, etc.,\n     are presented. Then, later, boiled rice, fried herbs, and spices;\n     but no flesh, fish, nor fowl. After dinner, betel-nut. The god is\n     then left to sleep, and the temple is shut up for some hours.\n     Toward evening curds, butter, sweet-meats, fruits, are presented.\n     At sunset a lamp is brought, and fresh offerings made. Lights are\n     waved before the image; a small bell is rung; water is presented\n     for washing the mouth, face, and feet, with a towel to dry them. In\n     a few minutes the offerings and the lamp are removed; and the god\n     is left to sleep in the dark.\n\nThe prescribed worship is not always fully performed. Still, sixteen\nthings are essential, of which the following are the most important:\n\n     \"Preparing a seat for the god; invoking his presence; bathing the\n     image; clothing it; putting the string round it; offering perfumes;\n     flowers; incense; lamps; offerings of fruits and prepared eatables;\n     betel-nut; prayers; circumambulation. An ordinary worshiper\n     presents some of the offerings, mutters a short prayer or two,\n     when circumambulating the image, the rest being done by the\n     priest.\"[31]\n\nWe give one additional specimen of the ritual:\n\n     \"As an atonement for unwarily eating or drinking what is forbidden\n     eight hundred repetitions of the Gayatri prayer should be preceded\n     by three suppressions of the breath, water being touched during the\n     recital of the following text: 'The bull roars; he has four horns,\n     three feet, two heads, seven hands, and is bound by a three-fold\n     cord; he is the mighty, resplendent being, and pervades mortal\n     men.'\"[32]\n\nThe bull is understood to be justice personified. All Brahmanical\nceremonies exhibit, we may say, ritualism and symbolism run mad.\n\n[Sidenote: Caste.]\nThe most prominent and characteristic institution of Hinduism is caste.\nThe power of caste is as irrational as it is unbounded; and it works\nalmost unmixed evil. The touch--even the shadow--of a low caste man\npollutes. The scriptural precept, \"Honor all men,\" appears to a true\nHindu infinitely absurd. He honors and worships a cow; but he shrinks\nwith horror from the touch of a Mhar or Mang. Even Brahmans, if they\ncome from different provinces, will not eat together. Thus Hinduism\nseparates man from man; it goes on dividing and still dividing; and new\nfences to guard imaginary purity are continually added.\n\n[Sidenote: Treatment of women.\nWidows.]\nThe whole treatment of women has gradually become most tyrannical and\nunjust. In very ancient days they were held in considerable respect;\nbut, for ages past, the idea of woman has been steadily sinking lower\nand lower, and her rights have been more and more assailed. The burning\nof widows has been prohibited by enactment; but the awful rite would in\nmany places be restored were it not for the strong hand of the British\ngovernment. The practice of marrying women in childhood is still\ngenerally--all but universally--prevalent; and when, owing to the zeal\nof reformers, a case of widow-marriage occurs, its rarity makes it be\nhailed as a signal triumph. Multitudes of the so-called widows were\nnever really wives, their husbands (so-called) having died in childhood.\nWidows are subjected to treatment which they deem worse than death; and\nyet their number, it is calculated, amounts to about twenty-one\nmillions! More cruel and demoralizing customs than exist in India in\nregard to women can hardly be found among the lowest barbarians. We are\nglad to escape from dwelling on points so exceedingly painful.\n\n\n\n\nIV.\n\nCONTRAST WITH CHRISTIANITY.\n\n\nThe immense difference between the Hindu and Christian religions has\ndoubtless already frequently suggested itself to the reader. It will not\nbe necessary, therefore, to dwell on this topic at very great length.\nThe contrast forces itself upon us at every point.\n\n[Sidenote: The Aryas and Israelites--their probable future, about 1500 B.C.\nContrast of their after-history.]\nWhen, about fifteen centuries B.C., the Aryas were victoriously\noccupying the Panjab, and the Israelites were escaping from the \"iron\nfurnace\" of Egypt, if one had been asked which of the two races would\nprobably rise to the highest conception of the divine, and contribute\nmost largely to the well-being of mankind, the answer, quite possibly,\nmight have been, the Aryas. Egypt, with its brutish idolatries, had\ncorrupted the faith of the Israelites, and slavery had crushed all\nmanliness out of them. Yet how wonderful has been their after-history!\nAmong ancient religions that of the Old Testament stands absolutely\nunique, and in the fullness of time it blossomed into Christianity. How\nis the marvel to be explained? We cannot account for it except by\nascribing it to a divine election of the Israelites and a providential\ntraining intended to fit them to become the teachers of the world.\n\"Salvation is of the Jews.\"\n\nThe contrast between the teachings of the Bible and those of the Hindu\nbooks is simply infinite.\n\n[Sidenote: Hindu theology compared with Christian.]\nThe conception of a purely immaterial Being, infinite, eternal, and\nunchangeable, which is that of the Bible regarding God, is entirely\nforeign to the Hindu books. Their doctrine is various, but, in every\ncase, erroneous. It is absolute pantheism, or polytheism, or an\ninconsistent blending of polytheism and pantheism, or atheism.\n\nEqually striking is the contrast between Christianity and Hinduism as to\nthe attributes of God. According to the former, he is omnipresent;\nomnipotent; possessed of every excellence--holiness, justice, goodness,\ntruth. According to the chief Hindu philosophy, the Supreme is devoid of\nattributes--devoid of consciousness. According to the popular\nconception, when the Supreme becomes conscious he is developed into\nthree gods, who possess respectively the qualities of truth, passion,\nand darkness.\n\n[Sidenote: Conception of God.]\n\"God is a Spirit.\" \"God is light.\" \"God is love.\" These sublime\ndeclarations have no counterparts in Hindustan.\n\nHe is \"the Father of spirits,\" according to the Bible. According to\nHinduism, the individual spirit is a portion of the divine. Even the\ncommon people firmly believe this.\n\nEvery thing is referred by Hinduism to God as its immediate cause. A\nChristian is continually shocked by the Hindus ascribing all sin to God\nas its source.\n\n[Sidenote: The object of worship.]\nThe adoration of God as a Being possessed of every glorious excellence\nis earnestly commanded in the Bible. \"Thou shalt worship the Lord thy\nGod; and him only shalt thou serve.\" In India the Supreme is never\nworshiped; but any one of the multitudinous gods may be so; and, in\nfact, every thing can be worshiped _except_ God. A maxim in the mouth of\nevery Hindu is the following: \"Where there is faith, there is God.\"\nBelieve the stone a god and it is so.\n\n[Sidenote: The sense of sin.]\nEvery sin being traced to God as its ultimate source, the sense of\npersonal guilt is very slight among Hindus. Where it exists it is\ngenerally connected with ceremonial defilement or the breach of some one\nof the innumerable and meaningless rites of the religion. How unlike in\nall this is the Gospel! The Bible dwells with all possible earnestness\non the evil of sin, not of ceremonial but moral defilement--the\ntransgression of the divine law, the eternal law of right.\n\n[Sidenote: Atonement.]\nHow important a place in the Christian system is held by atonement, the\ngreat atonement made by Christ, it is unnecessary to say. Nor need we\nenlarge on the extraordinary power it exercises over the human heart, at\nonce filling it with contrition, hatred of sin, and overflowing joy. We\nturn to Hinduism. Alas! we find that the earnest questionings and higher\nviews of the ancient thinkers have in a great degree been ignored in\nlater times. Sacrifice in its original form has passed away. Atonement\nis often spoken of; but it is only some paltry device or other, such as\neating the five products of the cow, going on pilgrimage to some sacred\nshrine, paying money to the priests, or, it may be, some form of bodily\npenance. Such expedients leave no impression on the heart as to the true\nnature and essential evil of sin.\n\n[Sidenote: Salvation.\nSanctification.]\nSalvation, in the Christian system, denotes deliverance, not only from\nthe punishment of sin, but from its power, implying a renovation of the\nmoral nature. The entire man is to be rectified in heart, speech, and\nbehavior. The perfection of the individual, and, through that, the\nperfection of society, are the objects aimed at; and the consummation\ndesired is the doing of the will of God on earth as it is done in\nheaven. Now, of all this, surely a magnificent ideal, we find in\nHinduism no trace whatever.\n\n[Sidenote: Views of life.\nThe great tenet of Hinduism.]\nChristianity is emphatically a religion of hope; Hinduism may be\ndesignated a religion of despair. The trials of life are many and great.\nChristianity bids us regard them as discipline from a Father's hand, and\ntells us that affliction rightly borne yields \"the peaceable fruits of\nrighteousness.\" To death the Christian looks forward without fear; to\nhim it is a quiet sleep, and the resurrection draws nigh. Then comes the\nbeatific vision of God. Glorified in soul and body, the companion of\nangels and saints, strong in immortal youth, he will serve without let\nor hinderance the God and Saviour whom he loves. To the Hindu the trials\nof life are penal, not remedial. At death his soul passes into another\nbody. Rightly, every human soul animates in succession eighty-four lacs\n(8,400,000) of bodies--the body of a human being, or a beast, or a bird,\nor a fish, or a plant, or a stone, according to desert. This weary, all\nbut endless, round of births fills the mind of a Hindu with the greatest\nhorror. At last the soul is lost in God as a drop mingles with the\nocean. Individual existence and consciousness then cease. The thought is\nprofoundly sorrowful that this is the cheerless faith of countless\nmultitudes. No wonder, though, the great tenet of Hinduism is\nthis--_Existence is misery._\n\n[Sidenote: The future of the race.\nThe struggle between good and evil.]\nSo much for the future of the individual. Regarding the future of the\nrace Hinduism speaks in equally cheerless terms. Its golden age lies in\nthe immeasurably distant past; and the further we recede from it the\ndeeper must we plunge into sin and wretchedness. True, ages and ages\nhence the \"age of truth\" returns, but it returns only to pass away again\nand torment us with the memory of lost purity and joy. The experience of\nthe universe is thus an eternal renovation of hope and disappointment.\nIn the struggle between good and evil there is no final triumph for the\ngood. We tread a fated, eternal round from which there is no escape; and\nalike the hero fights and the martyr dies in vain.\n\nIt is remarkable that acute intellectual men, as many of the Hindu\npoets were, should never have grappled with the problem of the divine\ngovernment of the world.\n\n[Sidenote: The future of the Aryan race.]\nEqually notable is the unconcern of the Veda as to the welfare and the\nfuture of even the Aryan race. But how sublime is the promise given to\nAbraham that in him and his seed all nations of the earth should be\nblessed! Renan has pointed with admiration to the confidence entertained\nat all times by the Jew in a brilliant and happy future for mankind. The\nancient Hindu cared not about the future of his neighbors, and doubtless\neven the expression \"human race\" would have been unintelligible to him.\nNor is there any pathos in the Veda. There is no deep sense of the\nsorrows of life. Max Mueller has affixed the epithet \"transcendent\" to\nthe Hindu mind. Its bent was much more toward the metaphysical, the\nmystical, the incomprehensible than toward the moral and the practical.\nHence endless subtleties, more meaningless and unprofitable than ever\noccupied the mind of Talmudist or schoolman of the Middle Ages.\n\n[Sidenote: The words of St. Paul illustrated by Hinduism.]\nBut finally, on this part of the subject, the development of Indian\nreligion supplies a striking comment on the words of St. Paul:\n\n     \"The invisible things of God are clearly seen, being understood\n     from the things that are made. But when they knew God they\n     glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in\n     their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.\"\n\n[Sidenote: Moral power.]\nHinduism is deplorably deficient in power to raise and purify the human\nsoul, from having no high example of moral excellence. Its renowned\nsages were noted for irritability and selfishness--great men at cursing;\nand the gods for the most part were worse. Need we say how gloriously\nrich the Gospel is in having in the character of Christ the realized\nideal of every possible excellence?\n\n[Sidenote: Ethical effect of Hinduism.\nThe people better than their religion.]\n_Summa religionis est imitari quem colis_: \"It is the sum of religion to\nimitate the being worshiped;\"[33] or, as the Hindus express it: \"As is\nthe deity such is the devotee.\" Worship the God revealed in the Bible,\nand you become god-like. The soul strives, with divine aid, to \"purify\nitself even as God is pure.\" But apply the principle to Hinduism. Alas!\nthe Pantheon is almost a pandemonium. Krishna, who in these days is the\nchief deity to at least a hundred millions of people, does not possess\none elevated attribute. If, in the circumstances, society does not\nbecome a moral pesthouse it is only because the people continue better\nthan their religion. The human heart, though fallen, is not fiendish. It\nhas still its purer instincts; and, when the legends about abominable\ngods and goddesses are falling like mildew, these are still to some\nextent kept alive by the sweet influences of earth and sky and by the\ncharities of family life. When the heart of woman is about to be swept\ninto the abyss her infant's smile restores her to her better self. Thus\nfamily life does not go to ruin; and so long as that anchor holds\nsociety will not drift on the rocks that stand so perilously near.\nStill, the state of things is deplorably distressing.\n\n[Sidenote: The doctrine of incarnation.]\nThe doctrine of the incarnation is of fundamental importance in\nChristianity. It seems almost profanation to compare it with the Hindu\nteaching regarding the Avataras, or descents of Vishnu. It is difficult\nto extract any meaning out of the three first manifestations, when the\ngod became in succession a fish, a boar, and a tortoise. Of the great\n\"descents\" in Rama and Krishna we have already spoken. The ninth Avatara\nwas that of Buddha, in which the deity descended for the purpose of\ndeceiving men, making them deny the gods, and leading them to\ndestruction. So blasphemous an idea may seem hardly possible, even for\nthe bewildered mind of India; but this is doubtless the Brahmanical\nexplanation of the rise and progress of Buddhism. It was fatal error,\nbut inculcated by a divine being. Even the sickening tales of Krishna\nand his amours are less shocking than this. When we turn from such\nrepresentations of divinity to \"the Word made flesh\" we seem to have\nescaped from the pestilential air of a charnel-house to the sweet, pure\nbreath of heaven.\n\n\n\n\nV.\n\nHINDUISM IN CONTACT WITH CHRISTIANITY.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Attempted reforms.]\nWe have used the word _reformer_ in this Tract. We formerly noted that,\nin India, there have arisen from time to time men who saw and sorrowed\nover the erroneous doctrines and degrading rites of the popular system.\n\nIn quite recent times they have had successors. Some account of their\nwork may form a fitting conclusion to our discussion.\n\n[Sidenote: Advance of Christianity in India.]\nWith the large influx into India of Christian ideas it was to be\nexpected that some impression would be made on Hinduism. We do not refer\nto conversion--the full acceptance of the Christian faith. Christianity\nhas advanced and is advancing in India more rapidly than is generally\nsupposed; but far beyond the circle of those who \"come out and are\nseparate\" its mighty power is telling on Hinduism. The great fundamental\ntruths of the Gospel, when once uttered and understood, can hardly be\nforgotten. Disliked and denied they may be; but forgotten? No. Thus\nthey gradually win their way, and multitudes who have no thought of\nbecoming Christians are ready to admit that they are beautiful and true;\nfor belief and practice are often widely separated in Hindu minds.\n\n[Sidenote: The Brahma Samaj.]\nBut it was to be expected that the new ideas pouring into India--and\namong these we include not only distinctively Christian ideas, but\nWestern thought generally--would manifest their presence and activity in\nconcrete forms, in attempted reconstructions of religion. The most\nremarkable example of such a reconstruction is exhibited in the Brahmo\nSomaj (more correctly Brahma Samaj)--which may be rendered the \"Church\nof God.\"\n\n[Sidenote: Rammohun Roy.\nEffect of Christianity upon him.]\nIt is traceable to the efforts of a truly distinguished man, Rammohun\nRoy. He was a person of studious habits, intelligent, acute, and deeply\nin earnest on the subject of religion. He studied not only Hinduism in\nits various forms, but Buddhism, Mohammedanism, and Christianity. He was\nnaturally an eclectic, gathering truth from all quarters where he\nthought he could find it. A specially deep impression was made on his\nmind by Christianity; and in 1820 he published a book with the\nremarkable title, _The Precepts of Jesus the Guide to Peace and\nHappiness_. Very frequently he gave expression to the sentiment that the\nteachings of Christ were the truest and deepest that he knew. Still, he\ndid not believe in Christ's divinity.\n\n[Sidenote: Debendernath Tagore.\nKeshub Chunder Sen.\nFormation of a new Samaj.]\nIn January, 1830, a place of worship was opened by Rammohun Roy and his\nfriends. It was intended for the worship of one God, without idolatrous\nrites of any kind. This was undoubtedly a very important event, and\ngreat was the interest aroused in connection with it. Rammohun Roy,\nhowever, visited Britain in 1831, and died at Bristol in 1833; and the\ncause for which he had so earnestly labored in India languished for a\ntime. But in the year 1841 Debendernath Tagore, a man of character and\nwealth, joined the Brahmo Somaj, and gave a kind of constitution to it.\nIt was fully organized by 1844. No definite declaration, however, had\nbeen made as to the authority of the Vedas; but, after a lengthened\nperiod of inquiry and discussion, a majority of the Somaj rejected the\ndoctrine of their infallibility by 1850. \"The rock of intuition\" now\nbegan to be spoken of; man's reason was his sufficient guide. Still,\ngreat respect was cherished for the ancient belief and customs of the\nland. But in 1858 a new champion appeared on the scene, in the\nwell-known Keshub Chunder Sen. Ardent, impetuous, ambitions--full of\nideas derived from Christian sources[34]--he could not brook the slow\nmovements of the Somaj in the path of reform. Important changes, both\nreligious and social, were pressed by him; and the more conservative\nDebendernath somewhat reluctantly consented to their introduction.\nMatters were, however, brought to a crisis by the marriage of two\npersons of different castes in 1864. In February, 1865, the progressive\nparty formally severed their connection with the original Somaj; and in\nAugust, 1869, they opened a new place of worship of their own. Since\nthis time the original or Adi Somaj has been little heard of, and its\nmovement--if it has moved at all--has been retrogressive. The new\nSomaj--the Brahmo Somaj of India, as it called itself--under the\nguidance of Mr. Sen became very active. A missionary institute was set\nup, and preachers were sent over a great part of India. Much was\naccomplished on behalf of women; and in 1872 a Marriage Act for members\nof the Somaj was passed by the Indian legislature, which legalized union\nbetween people of different castes, and fixed on fourteen as the lowest\nage for the marriage of females. These were important reforms.\n\nMr. Sen's influence was naturally and necessarily great; but in opposing\nthe venerable leader of the original Somaj he had set an example which\nothers were quite willing to copy.\n\n[Sidenote: Discontent growing.]\nSeveral of his followers began to demand more radical reforms than he\nwas willing to grant. The autocracy exercised by Mr. Sen was strongly\nobjected to, and a constitution of the Somaj was demanded. Mr. Sen\nopenly maintained that heaven from time to time raises up men endowed\nwith special powers, and commissioned to introduce new forms or\n\"dispensations\" of religion; and his conduct fully proved that he\nregarded himself as far above his followers. Complaints became louder;\nand although the eloquence and genius of Keshub were able to keep the\nrebellious elements from exploding it was evident, as early as 1873,\nthat a crisis was approaching. This came in 1878, when Mr. Sen's\ndaughter was married to the Maharaja of Kuch Behar. The bride was not\nfourteen, and the bridegroom was sixteen. Now, Mr. Sen had been earnest\nand successful in getting the Brahmo Marriage Act passed, which ruled\nthat the lowest marriageable age for a woman was fourteen, and for a man\neighteen. Here was gross inconsistency. What could explain it?\n\"Ambition,\" exclaimed great numbers; \"the wish to exalt himself and his\ndaughter by alliance with a prince.\" But Mr. Sen declared that he had\nconsented to the marriage in consequence of an express intimation that\nsuch was the will of heaven. Mr. Sen denied miracles, but believed in\ninspiration; and of his own inspiration he seems to have entertained no\ndoubt. We thus obtain a glimpse into the peculiar working of his mind.\nEvery full conviction, every strong wish of his own he ascribed to\ndivine suggestion. This put him in a position of extreme peril. It was\nclear that an enthusiastic, imaginative, self-reliant nature like his\nmight thus be borne on to any extent of fanaticism.\n\n[Sidenote: Revolt; a third Samaj.\n\"New Dispensation.\"]\nA great revolt from Mr. Sen's authority now took place, and the Sadharan\nSamaj was organized in May, 1878. An appeal had been made to the members\ngenerally, and no fewer than twenty-one provincial Samajes, with more\nthan four hundred members, male and female, joined the new society.\nThis number amounted to about two thirds of the whole body. Keshub and\nhis friends denounced the rebels in very bitter language; and yet, in\none point of view, their secession was a relief. Men of abilities equal,\nand education superior, to his own had hitherto acted as a drag on his\nmovements; he was now delivered from their interference and could deal\nwith the admiring and submissive remnant as he pleased. Ideas that had\nbeen working in his mind now attained rapid development. Within two\nyears the flag of the \"New Dispensation\" was raised; and of that\ndispensation Mr. Sen was the undoubted head. Very daring was the\nlanguage Mr. Sen used in a public lecture regarding this new creation.\nHe claimed equality for it with the Jewish and Christian dispensations,\nand for himself \"singular\" authority and a divine commission.\n\n[Sidenote: Its creed.]\nIn the Creed of the New Dispensation the name of Christ does not occur.\nThe articles were as follows:\n\n     _a._ One God, one Scripture, one Church. _b._ Eternal progress of\n     the soul. _c._ Communion of prophets and saints. _d._ Fatherhood\n     and motherhood of God. _e._ Brotherhood of man and sisterhood of\n     woman. _f._ Harmony of knowledge and holiness, love and work, yoga\n     and asceticism in their highest development. _g._ Loyalty to\n     sovereign.\n\n[Sidenote: Omission of Christ's name.]\nThe omission of Christ's name is the more remarkable because Mr. Sen\nspoke much of him in his public lectures. He had said in May, 1879,\n\"None but Jesus, none but Jesus, none but Jesus ever deserved this\nprecious diadem, India; and Jesus shall have it.\" But he clearly\nindicated that the Christ he sought was an Indian Christ; one who was \"a\nHindu in faith,\" and who would help the Hindus to \"realize their\nnational idea of a yogi\" (ascetic).\n\n[Sidenote: \"Motherhood of God.\"]\nLet it be noted that, from the beginning of his career, Mr. Sen had\nspoken earnestly of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of\nman--though, these great conceptions are not of Hindu origin. It is\ndifficult to see why, in later days, he insisted so much on the\n\"motherhood of God.\" Perhaps it was a repetition--he probably would have\ncalled it an exaltation--of the old Hindu idea, prevalent especially\namong the worshipers of Siva, that there is a female counterpart--a\nSakti--of every divinity. Or, possibly, it may have been to conciliate\nthe worshipers of Durga and Kali, those great goddesses of Bengal.\n\n[Sidenote: Public proclamation said to be from God.]\nA public proclamation was soon issued, purporting to be from God\nhimself, as India's mother. The whole thing was very startling; many,\neven of Keshub's friends, declared it blasphemous. Next, in the \"Flag\nCeremony,\" the flag or banner of the New Dispensation received a homage\nscarcely distinguishable from worship. Then--as if in strict imitation\nof the ancient adoration of Agni, or Fire--a pile of wood was lighted,\nclarified butter poured on it, and prayers addressed to it, ending\nthus--\"O, brilliant Fire! in thee we behold our resplendent Lord.\" This\nwas, at least, symbolism run wild; and every one, except those who were\nprepared to follow their leader to all lengths, saw that in a land like\nIndia, wedded to idolatry, it was fearfully perilous.\n\n[Sidenote: \"Apostolic Durbar.\"]\nIn March, 1881, Mr. Sen and his friends introduced celebrations which,\nto Christian minds, seemed a distressing caricature of the Christian\nsacraments. Other institutions followed; an Apostolic Durbar (Court of\nApostles), for instance, was established. There was no end to Mr. Sen's\ninventiveness.\n\nIn a public lecture delivered in January, 1883, on \"Asia's message to\nEurope,\" he elaborately expounded the idea that all the great religions\nare of Asiatic origin, and that all of them are true, and that the one\nthing required to constitute the faith of the future--the religion of\nhumanity--is the blending of all these varied Oriental systems into one.\n\n[Sidenote: Inconsistencies between Mr. Sen's public and private\nutterances.\nMr. Sen's policy of reserve.]\nIt was not easy to reconcile Mr. Sen's public utterances with his\nprivate ones--though far be it from us to tax him with insincerity.\nThus, in an interview extending over two hours, which the writer and two\nmissionary friends had with him a week or so before the lecture now\nreferred to, he said he accepted as true and vital all the leading\ndoctrines of the Christian faith, with the exception of the resurrection\nof Christ. But another fundamental difference remained--he avowedly\ndissented from the orthodox creed in rejecting the miraculous element in\nScripture. At an interview I had with him some time before he earnestly\ndisclaimed all intention to put Christ on a level with Buddha or\nMohammed. \"I am educating my friends,\" he said, \"to understand and\napprove of Christianity; I have not yet said my last word about Christ.\"\nIt is a solemn question, Had he said it when his career was ended? If\nso, it was far from a satisfactory word. His policy of reserve and\nadaptation had probably kept him from uttering all that was in his\nheart; but it was a sorely mistaken policy. Had he temporized less he\nwould have accomplished more.\n\nSince the death of Mr. Sen there has been a violent dispute between his\nfamily and the \"Apostolic Durbar,\" on one side, and one of his ablest\nfollowers, on the other; and the New Dispensation will probably split in\ntwo, if it does not perish altogether.\n\n[Sidenote: The Sadharan Samaj.]\nIn the meantime, the Sadharan Samaj, which broke off from Keshub's party\nin 1878, has been going on with no small vigor. Vagaries, either in\ndoctrine or rites, have been carefully shunned; its partisans profess a\npure Theistic creed and labor diligently in the cause of social reform.\nTheir position is nearly that of Unitarian Christianity, and we fear\nthey are not at present approximating to the full belief of the Church\nCatholic.\n\n[Sidenote: Movements in western India.\nTenets of the Prarthana Sabha.]\nVery similar in character to the Brahmo Somaj is the Prarthana Somaj in\nwestern India. As far back as 1850, or a little earlier, there was\nformed a society called the Prarthana Sabha (Prayer-meeting). Its\nleading tenets were as follows:\n\n     1. I believe in one God. 2. I renounce idol-worship. 3. I will do\n     my best to lead a moral life. 4. If I commit any sin through the\n     weakness of my moral nature I will repent of it and ask the pardon\n     of God.\n\nThe society, after some time, began to languish; but in 1867 it was\nrevived under the name of Prarthana Somaj. Its chief branches are in\nBombay, Poona, Ahmedabad, and Surat.\n\n[Sidenote: Arya Samaj.]\nAn interesting movement called the Arya Samaj was commenced a few years\nago by a Pandit--Dayanand Sarasvati. He received the Vedas as fully\ninspired, but maintained that they taught monotheism--Agni, Indra, and\nall the rest being merely different names of God. It was a desperate\neffort to save the reputation of the ancient books; but, as all Sanskrit\nscholars saw at a glance, the whole idea was a delusion. The Pandit is\nnow dead; and the Arya Samaj may not long survive him.\n\nAt the time we write we hear of an attempt to defend idolatry and caste\nmade by men of considerable education.\n\n[Sidenote: Theosophists.]\nThe so-called \"Theosophists\" have, for several years, been active in\nIndia. Of existing religions, Buddhism is their natural ally. They are\natheists. A combination which they formed with the Arya Samaj speedily\ncame to an end.\n\nLastly, the followers of Mr. Bradlaugh are diligent in supplying their\nbooks to Indian students.\n\nPoor India! No wonder if her mind is bewildered as she listens to such\na Babel of voices. The state of things in India now strikingly resembles\nthat which existed in the Roman Empire at the rise of Christianity; when\nEast and West were brought into the closest contact, and a great\nconflict of systems of thought took place in consequence.\n\nBut even as one hostile form of gnostic belief rose after another, and\nrose only to fall--and as the greatest and best-disciplined foe of early\nChristianity--the later Platonism--gave way before the steady,\nirresistible march of gospel truth, so--we have every reason to hope--it\nwill be yet again. The Christian feels his heart swell in his breast as\nhe thinks what, in all human probability, India will be a century, or\neven half a century, hence. O what a new life to that fairest of Eastern\nlands when she casts herself in sorrow and supplication at the feet of\nthe living God, and then rises to proclaim to a listening world\n\n    \"Her deep repentance and her new-found joy!\"\n\nMay God hasten the advent of that happy day!\n\n\n\n\nTHE RISE AND DECLINE OF ISLAM.\n\n\n\n\nOUTLINE OF THE ESSAY.\n\n\nThe progress of Islam was slow until Mohammed cast aside the precepts of\ntoleration and adopted an aggressive, militant policy. Then it became\nrapid. The motives which animated the armies of Islam were\nmixed--material and spiritual. Without the truths contained in the\nsystem success would have been impossible, but neither without the sword\nwould the religion have been planted in Arabia, nor beyond. The\nalternatives offered to conquered peoples were Islam, the sword, or\ntribute. The drawbacks and attractions of the system are examined. The\nformer were not such as to deter men of the world from embracing the\nfaith. The sexual indulgences sanctioned by it are such as to make Islam\n\"the Easy way.\"\n\nThe spread of Islam was stayed whenever military success was checked.\nThe Faith was meant for Arabia and not for the world, hence it is\nconstitutionally incapable of change or development. The degradation of\nwoman hinders the growth of freedom and civilization under it.\n\nChristianity is contrasted in the means used for its propagation, the\nmethods it employed in grappling with and overcoming the evils that it\nfound existing in the world, in the relations it established between the\nsexes, in its teaching with regard to the respective duties of the civil\nand spiritual powers, and, above all, in its redeeming character, and\nthen the conclusion come to that Christianity is divine in its origin.\n\n\n\n\nTHE\n\nRISE AND DECLINE OF ISLAM.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Islam pre-eminent in its rapid spread.]\nAmong the religions of the earth Islam must take the precedence in the\nrapidity and force with which it spread. Within a very short time from\nits planting in Arabia the new faith had subdued great and populous\nprovinces. In half a dozen years, counting from the death of the\nfounder, the religion prevailed throughout Arabia, Syria, Persia, and\nEgypt, and before the close of the century it ruled supreme over the\ngreater part of the vast populations from Gibraltar to the Oxus, from\nthe Black Sea to the river Indus.\n\n[Sidenote: Propagation far quicker than of Christianity.]\nIn comparison with this grand outburst the first efforts of Christianity\nwere, to the outward eye, faint and feeble, and its extension so gradual\nthat what the Mohammedan religion achieved in ten or twenty years it\ntook the faith of Jesus long centuries to accomplish.\n\n[Sidenote: Object of the Tract.]\nThe object of these few pages is, _first_, to inquire briefly into the\ncauses which led to the marvelous rapidity of the first movement of\nIslam: _secondly_, to consider the reasons which eventually stayed its\nadvance; and, _lastly_, to ascertain why Mohammedan countries have kept\nso far in the rear of other lands in respect of intellectual and social\nprogress. In short, the question is how it was that, Pallas-like, the\nfaith sprang ready-armed from the ground, conquering and to conquer, and\nwhy, the weapons dropping from its grasp, Islam began to lose its\npristine vigor, and finally relapsed into inactivity.\n\n\n\n\nI.\n\nTHE RAPID SPREAD OF ISLAM.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Two periods in the mission of Mohammed.]\nThe personal ministry of Mohammed divides itself into two distinct\nperiods: first, his life at Mecca as a preacher and a prophet; second,\nhis life at Medina as a prophet and a king.\n\n[Sidenote: I. Ministry at Mecca, A.D. 609-622.\nSuccess at Mecca limited.]\nIt is only in the first of these periods that Islam at all runs parallel\nwith Christianity. The great body of his fellow-citizens rejected the\nministry of Mohammed and bitterly opposed his claims. His efforts at\nMecca were, therefore, confined to teaching and preaching and to the\npublishing of the earlier \"Suras,\" or chapters of his \"Revelation.\"\nAfter some thirteen years spent thus his converts, to the number of\nabout a hundred and fifty men and women, were forced by the persecution\nof the Coreish (the ruling tribe at Mecca, from which Mohammed was\ndescended) to quit their native city and emigrate to Medina.[35] A\nhundred more had previously fled from Mecca for the same cause, and\nfound refuge at the court of the Negus, or king of Abyssinia; and there\nwas already a small company of followers among the citizens of Medina.\nAt the utmost, therefore, the number of disciples gained over by the\nsimple resort to teaching and preaching did not, during the first twelve\nyears of Mohammed's ministry, exceed a few hundreds. It is true that the\nsoil of Mecca was stubborn and (unlike that of Judea) wholly unprepared.\nThe cause also, at times, became the object of sustained and violent\nopposition. Even so much of success was consequently, under the peculiar\ncircumstances, remarkable. But it was by no means singular. The progress\nfell far short of that made by Christianity during the corresponding\nperiod of its existence,[36] and indeed by many reformers who have been\nthe preachers of a new faith. It gave no promise whatever of the\nmarvelous spectacle that was about to follow.\n\n[Sidenote: II. Change of policy at Medina, A.D. 622-632.\nArabia converted from Medina at the point of the sword.]\nHaving escaped from Mecca and found a new and congenial home in Medina,\nMohammed was not long in changing his front. At Mecca, surrounded by\nenemies, he taught toleration. He was simply the preacher commissioned\nto deliver a message, and bidden to leave the responsibility with his\nMaster and his hearers. He might argue with the disputants, but it must\nbe \"in a way most mild and gracious;\" for \"in religion\" (such was his\nteaching before he reached Medina) \"there should be neither violence nor\nconstraint.\"[37] At Medina the precepts of toleration were quickly cast\naside and his whole policy reversed. No sooner did Mohammed begin to be\nrecognized and obeyed as the chief of Medina than he proceeded to attack\nthe Jewish tribes settled in the neighborhood because they refused to\nacknowledge his claims and believe in him as a prophet foretold in their\nScriptures; two of these tribes were exiled, and the third exterminated\nin cold blood. In the second year after the Hegira[a], or flight from Mecca\n(the period from which the Mohammedan era dates), he began to plunder\nthe caravans of the Coreish, which passed near to Medina on their\nmercantile journeys between Arabia and Syria. So popular did the cause\nof the now militant and marauding prophet speedily become among the\ncitizens of Medina and the tribes around that, after many battles fought\nwith varying success, he was able, in the eighth year of the Hegira[b] to\nre-enter his native city at the head of ten thousand armed followers.\nThenceforward success was assured. None dared to oppose his pretensions.\nAnd before his death, in the eleventh year of the Hegira[c], all Arabia,\nfrom Bab-el-Mandeb and Oman to the confines of the Syrian desert, was\nforced to submit to the supreme authority of the now kingly prophet and\nto recognize the faith and obligations of Islam.[38]\n\n[Sidenote: Religion of Mohammed described.]\nThis _Islam_, so called from its demanding the entire \"surrender\" of the\nbeliever to the will and service of God, is based on the recognition of\nMohammed as a prophet foretold in the Jewish and Christian\nScriptures--the last and greatest of the prophets. On him descended the\nKoran from time to time, an immediate revelation from the Almighty.\nIdolatry and polytheism are with iconoclastic zeal denounced as sins of\nthe deepest dye; while the unity of the Deity is proclaimed as the grand\nand cardinal doctrine of the faith. Divine providence pervades the\nminutest concerns of life, and predestination is taught in its most\nnaked form. Yet prayer is enjoined as both meritorious and effective;\nand at five stated times every day must it be specially performed. The\nduties generally of the moral law are enforced, though an evil laxity is\ngiven in the matter of polygamy and divorce. Tithes are demanded as alms\nfor the poor. A fast during the month of Ramzan must be kept throughout\nthe whole of every day; and the yearly pilgrimage to Mecca--an ancient\ninstitution, the rites of which were now divested of their heathenish\naccompaniments--maintained. The existence of angels and devils is\ntaught, and heaven and hell are depicted in material colors--the one of\nsensuous pleasure, the other of bodily torment. Finally, the\nresurrection, judgment, and retribution of good and evil are set forth\nin great detail. Such was the creed--\"_There is no god but the_\nLord, _and_ Mohammed _is his prophet_\"--to which Arabia now became\nobedient.\n\n[Sidenote: Arabia apostatizes; but is speedily reconquered and\nreclaimed, A.D. 633.]\nBut immediately on the death of Mohammed the entire peninsula relapsed\ninto apostasy. Medina and Mecca remained faithful; but every-where else\nthe land seethed with rebellion. Some tribes joined the \"false\nprophets,\" of whom four had arisen in different parts of Arabia; some\nrelapsed into their ancient heathenism; while others proposed a\ncompromise--they would observe the stated times of prayer, but would be\nexcused the tithe. Every-where was rampant anarchy. The apostate tribes\nattacked Medina, but were repulsed by the brave old Caliph Abu Bekr, who\nrefused to abate one jot or tittle, as the successor of Mohammed, of the\nobligations of Islam. Eleven columns were sent forth under as many\nleaders, trained in the warlike school of Mohammed. These fought their\nway, step by step, successfully; and thus, mainly through the wisdom and\nfirmness of Abu Bekr and the valor and genius of Khalid, \"the Sword of\nGod,\" the Arab tribes, one by one, were overcome and forced back into\ntheir allegiance and the profession of Islam. The reconquest of Arabia\nand re-imposition of Mohammedanism as the national faith, which it took\na whole year to accomplish, is thus described by an Arabian author, who\nwrote at the close of the second century of the Mohammedan era:\n\n     After his decease there remained not one of the followers of the\n     prophet that did not apostatize, saving only a small company of his\n     \"Companions\" and kinsfolk, who hoped thus to secure the government\n     to themselves. Hereupon Abu Bekr displayed marvelous skill, energy,\n     and address, so that the power passed into his hands.... And thus\n     he persevered until the apostate tribes were all brought back to\n     their allegiance, some by kindly treatment, persuasion, and craft;\n     some through terror and fear of the sword; and others by the\n     prospect of power and wealth as well as by the lusts and pleasures\n     of this life. And so it came to pass that all the Bedouin tribes\n     were in the end converted outwardly, but not from inward\n     conviction.[39]\n\n[Sidenote: The Arabs thus reclaimed were, at the first, sullen.]\nThe temper of the tribes thus reclaimed by force of arms was at the\nfirst strained and sullen. But the scene soon changed. Suddenly the\nwhole peninsula was shaken, and the people, seized with a burning zeal,\nissued forth to plant the new faith in other lands. It happened on this\nwise:\n\n[Sidenote: Roused by war-cry, they issue from the peninsula, A.D. 634,\n_et. seq._\nThe opposing forces.\nArab enthusiasm.]\nThe columns sent from Medina to reduce the rebellious tribes to the\nnorth-west on the Gulf of Ayla, and to the north-east on the Persian\nGulf, came at once into collision with the Christian Bedouins of Syria\non the one hand and with those of Mesopotamia on the other. These again\nwere immediately supported by the neighboring forces of the Roman and\nPersian empires, whose vassals respectively they were. And so, before\nmany months, Abu Bekr found his generals opposed by great and imposing\narmies on either side. He was, in fact, waging mortal combat at one and\nthe same moment with the Kaiser and the Chosroes, the Byzantine emperor\nand the great king of Persia. The risk was imminent, and an appeal went\nforth for help to meet the danger. The battle-cry resounded from one end\nof Arabia to the other, and electrified the land. Levy after levy, _en\nmasse_, started up at the call from every quarter of the peninsula, and\nthe Bedouin tribes, as bees from their hive, streamed forth in swarms,\nanimated by the prospect of conquest, plunder, and captive damsels, or,\nif slain in battle, by the still more coveted prize of the \"martyr\" in\nthe material paradise of Mohammed. With a military ardor and new-born\nzeal in which carnal and spiritual aspirations were strangely blended,\nthe Arabs rushed forth to the field, like the war-horse of Job, \"that\nsmelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains and the\nshouting.\" Sullen constraint was in a moment transformed into an\nabsolute devotion and fiery resolve to spread the faith. The Arab\nwarrior became the missionary of Islam.\n\n[Sidenote: Arabs, a military body, subsidized and mobilized by Omar.]\nIt was now the care of Omar, the second caliph or ruler of the new-born\nempire, to establish a system whereby the spirit militant, called into\nexistence with such force and fervor, might be rendered permanent. The\nentire Arabian people was subsidized. The surplus revenues which in\nrapidly increasing volume began to flow from the conquered lands into\nthe Moslem treasuries were to the last farthing distributed among the\nsoldiers of Arabian descent. The whole nation was enrolled, and the name\nof every warrior entered upon the roster of Islam. Forbidden to settle\nanywhere, and relieved from all other work, the Arab hordes became, in\nfact, a standing army threatening the world. Great bodies of armed men\nwere kept thus ever mobilized, separate and in readiness for new\nenterprise.\n\n[Sidenote: Mission of Islam described by Fairbairn.]\nThe change which came over the policy of the Founder of the Faith at\nMedina, and paved the way for this marvelous system of world-wide rapine\nand conversion to Islam, is thus described by a thoughtful and sagacious\nwriter:\n\n     Medina was fatal to the higher capabilities of Islam. Mohammed\n     became then a king; his religion was incorporated in a State that\n     had to struggle for its life in the fashion familiar to the\n     rough-handed sons of the desert. The prophet was turned into the\n     legislator and commander; his revelations were now laws, and now\n     military orders and manifestoes. The mission of Islam became one\n     that only the sword could accomplish, robbery of the infidel became\n     meritorious, and conquest the supreme duty it owed to the world....\n\n     The religion which lived an unprospering and precarious life, so\n     long as it depended on the prophetic word alone, became an\n     aggressive and victorious power so soon as it was embodied in a\n     State.[40]\n\n[Sidenote: And by von Kremer.]\nAnother learned and impartial authority tells us:\n\n     The Mussulman power under the first four caliphs was nothing but a\n     grand religio-political association of Arab tribes for universal\n     plunder and conquest under the holy banner of Islam, and the\n     watch-word, \"There is no god but the Lord, and Mohammed is\n     his apostle.\" On pretext of spreading the only true religion the\n     Arabs swallowed up fair provinces lying all around, and, driving a\n     profitable business, enriched themselves simultaneously in a\n     worldly sense.[41]\n\n[Sidenote: Religious merit of \"fighting in the ways of the Lord.\"]\nThe motives which nerved the armies of Islam were a strange combination\nof the lower instincts of nature with the higher aspirations of the\nspirit. To engage in the Holy War was the rarest and most blessed of all\nreligious virtues, and conferred on the combatant a special merit; and\nside by side with it lay the bright prospect of spoil and female slaves,\nconquest and glory. \"Mount thy horse,\" said Osama ibn Zeid to Abu Bekr\nas he accompanied the Syrian army a little way on its march, out of\nMedina. \"Nay,\" replied the caliph, \"I will not ride, but I will walk and\nsoil my feet a little space in the ways of the Lord. Verily, every\nfootstep in the ways of the Lord is equal in merit to manifold good\nworks, and wipeth away a multitude of sins.\"[42] And of the \"martyrs,\"\nthose who fell in these crusading campaigns, Mohammed thus described the\nblessed state:\n\n     Think not, in any wise, of those killed in the ways of the Lord, as\n     if they were dead. Yea, they are alive, and are nourished with\n     their Lord, exulting in that which God hath given them of his\n     favor, and rejoicing in behalf of those who have not yet joined\n     them, but are following after. No terror afflicteth them, neither\n     are they grieved.--Sura iii.\n\n[Sidenote: Material fruits of Moslem crusade.]\nThe material fruits of their victories raised the Arabs at once from\nbeing the needy inhabitants of a stony, sterile soil, where, with\ndifficulty, they eked out a hardy subsistence, to be the masters of rich\nand luxuriant lands flowing with milk and honey. After one of his great\nvictories on the plains of Chaldea, Khalid called together his troops,\nflushed with conquest, and lost in wonder at the exuberance around them,\nand thus addressed them: \"Ye see the riches of the land. Its paths drop\nfatness and plenty, so that the fruits of the earth are scattered abroad\neven as stones are in Arabia. If but as a provision for this present\nlife, it were worth our while to fight for these fair fields and banish\ncare and penury forever from us.\" Such were the aspirations dear to the\nheart of every Arab warrior. Again, after the battle of Jalola, a few\nyears later, the treasure and spoil of the Persian monarch, captured by\nthe victors, was valued at thirty million of dirhems (about a million\nsterling). The royal fifth (the crown share of the booty) was sent as\nusual to Medina under charge of Ziad, who, in the presence of the Caliph\nOmar, harangued the citizens in a glowing description of what had been\nwon in Persia, fertile lands, rich cities, and endless spoil, besides\ncaptive maids and princesses.\n\n[Sidenote: Rich booty taken in the capital of Persia, A.D. 637.]\nIn relating the capture of Medain (the ancient Ctesiphon) tradition\nrevels in the untold wealth which fell into the hands of Sad, the\nconqueror, and his followers. Besides millions of treasure, there was\nendless store of gold and silver vessels, rich vestments, and rare and\nprecious things. The Arabs gazed bewildered at the tiara, brocaded\nvestments, jeweled armor, and splendid surroundings of the throne. They\ntell of a camel of silver, life-size, with a rider of gold, and of a\ngolden horse with emeralds for teeth, the neck set with rubies, the\ntrappings of gold. And we may read in Gibbon of the marvelous banqueting\ncarpet, representing a garden, the ground of wrought gold, the walks of\nsilver, the meadows of emeralds, rivulets of pearls, and flowers and\nfruits of diamonds, rubies, and rare gems. The precious metals lost\ntheir conventional value, gold was parted with for its weight in silver;\nand so on.[43]\n\n[Sidenote: Success in battle ascribed to divine aid.]\nIt is the virtue of Islam that it recognizes a special providence,\nseeing the hand of God, as in every thing, so pre-eminently also in\nvictory. When Sad, therefore, had established himself in the palace of\nthe Chosroes he was not forgetful to render thanks in a service of\npraise. One of the princely mansions was turned for the moment into a\ntemple, and there, followed by his troops, he ascribed the victory to\nthe Lord of Hosts. The lesson accompanying the prayers was taken from a\nSura (or chapter of the Koran) which speaks of Pharaoh and his riders\nbeing overwhelmed in the Red Sea, and contains this passage, held to be\npeculiarly appropriate to the occasion:\n\n    \"How many gardens and fountains did they leave behind,\n      And fields of corn, and fair dwelling-places,\n    And pleasant things which they enjoyed!\n      Even thus have We made another people to inherit the same.\"[44]\n\n[Sidenote: \"Martyrdom\" in the field coveted by Moslem crusaders.\nThe Moslem crown of martyrdom.]\nSuch as fell in the conflict were called martyrs; a halo of glory\nsurrounded them, and special joys awaited them even on the battlefield.\nAnd so it came to pass that the warriors of Islam had an unearthly\nlonging for the crown of martyrdom. The Caliph Omar was inconsolable at\nthe loss of his brother, Zeid, who fell in the fatal \"Garden of Death,\"\nat the battle of Yemama: \"Thou art returned home,\" he said to his son,\nAbdallah, \"safe and sound, and Zeid is dead. Wherefore wast not thou\nslain before him? I wish not to see thy face.\" \"Father,\" answered\nAbdallah, \"he asked for the crown of martyrdom, and the Lord granted it.\nI strove after the same, but it was not given unto me.\"[45] It was the\nproud boast of the Saracens in their summons to the craven Greeks and\nPersians that \"they loved death more than their foes loved life.\"\nFamiliar with the pictures drawn in the Koran of the beautiful\n\"houries\" of Paradise,[46] the Saracens believed that immediate fruition\non the field of battle was the martyr's special prize. We are told of a\nMoslem soldier, four-score years of age, who, seeing a comrade fall by\nhis side, cried out, \"O Paradise! how close art thou beneath the arrow's\npoint and the falchion's flash! O Hashim! even now I see heaven opened,\nand black-eyed maidens all bridally attired, clasping thee in their fond\nembrace.\" And shouting thus the aged warrior, fired again with the ardor\nof youth, rushed upon the enemy and met the envied fate. For those who\nsurvived there was the less ethereal but closer prospect of Persian,\nGreek, or Coptic women, both maids and matrons, who, on \"being taken\ncaptive by their right hand,\" were forthwith, according to the Koran,\nwithout stint of number, at the conqueror's will and pleasure. These,\nimmediately they were made prisoners, might (according to the example\nof Mohammed himself at Kheibar) be carried off without further ceremony\nto the victor's tent; and in this respect the Saracens certainly were\nnothing loath to execute upon the heathen the judgment written in their\nlaw. So strangely was religious fanaticism fed and fostered in the\nMoslem camp by incentives irresistible to the Arab--fight and foray, the\nspoil of war and captive charms.\n\n[Sidenote: Martial passages from Koran recited on field of battle.]\nThe courage of the troops was stimulated by the divine promises of\nvictory, which were read (and on like occasions still are read) at the\nhead of each column drawn up for battle. Thus, on the field of Cadesiya[d],\nwhich decided the fate of Persia, the Sura _Jehad_, with the stirring\ntale of the thousand angels that fought on the Prophet's side at Bedr\nwas recited, and such texts as these:\n\n_Stir up the faithful unto battle. If there be twenty steadfast among\nyou they shall put two hundred to flight of the unbelievers, and a\nhundred shall put to flight a thousand. Victory is from the Lord. He is\nmighty and wise. I the Lord will cast terror into the hearts of the\ninfidels. Strike off their heads and their fingers' ends. Beware lest ye\nturn your back in battle. Verily, he that turneth his back shall draw\ndown upon himself the wrath of God. His abode shall be hell fire; an\nevil journey thither._\n\nAnd we are told that on the recital of these verses \"the heart of the\npeople was refreshed and their eyes lightened, and they felt the\ntranquillity that ensueth thereupon.\" Three days they fought, and on the\nmorning of the fourth, returning with unabated vigor to the charge, they\nscattered to the winds the vast host of Persia.[47]\n\n[Sidenote: Defeat of Byzantine army on the Yermuk, A.D. 634.]\nNor was it otherwise in the great battle of the Yermuk, which laid Syria\nat the feet of the Arabs. The virgin vigor of the Saracens was fired by\na wild fanatical zeal \"to fight in the ways of the Lord,\" obtaining thus\nheavenly merit and a worldly prize--the spoil of Syria and its fair\nmaidens ravished from their homes; or should they fall by the sword, the\nblack-eyed houries waiting for them on the field of battle. \"Of warriors\nnerved by this strange combination of earth and heaven, of the flesh and\nof the spirit, of the incentives at once of faith and rapine, of\nfanatical devotion to the prophet and deathless passion for the sex, ten\nmight chase a hundred half-hearted Romans. The forty thousand Moslems\nwere stronger far than the two hundred and forty thousand of the enemy.\"\nThe combat lasted for weeks; but at the last the Byzantine force was\nutterly routed, and thousands hurled in wild confusion over the beetling\ncliffs of the Yermuk into the yawning chasm of Wacusa.[48]\n\n[Sidenote: Islam planted by aid of material force.]\nSuch, then, was the nature of the Moslem propaganda, such the agency by\nwhich the faith was spread, and such the motives at once material and\nspiritual by which its martial missionaries were inspired. No wonder\nthat the effete empires of Rome and Persia recoiled and quivered at the\nshock, and that province after province quickly fell under the sway of\nIslam. It is far from my intention to imply that the truths set forth by\nthe new faith had nothing to do with its success. On the contrary, it\nmay well be admitted that but for those truths success might have been\nimpossible. The grand enunciation of the Divine Unity, and the duty of\nan absolute submission to the same; the recognition of a special\nprovidence reaching to the minutest details of life; the inculcation of\nprayer and other religious duties; the establishment of a code in which\nthe leading principles of morality are enforced, and the acknowledgment\nof previous revelations in the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, told\nnot only on the idolaters of Arabia and the fire-worshipers of Persia,\nbut on Jews and Samaritans and the followers of a debased and\npriest-ridden Christianity. All this is true; but it is still not the\nless true that without the sword Islam would never have been planted\neven in Arabia, much less ever have spread to the countries beyond. The\nweapons of its warfare were \"carnal,\" material, and earthly; and by them\nit conquered.\n\n[Sidenote: Alternatives offered to the conquered nations: Islam, the\nSword, or Tribute.]\nThe pressure brought to bear on the inhabitants of the countries overrun\nby Saracen arms was of the most stringent character. They were offered\nthe triple alternative--Islam, the Sword, or Tribute. The first brought\nimmediate relief. Acceptance of the faith not only stayed the enemy's\nhand, and conferred immunity from the perils of war, but associated the\nconvert with his conquerors in the common brotherhood and in all the\nprivileges of Islam.\n\n[Sidenote: Acceptance of Islam, immediate relief from the sword.]\nReading the story of the spread of Islam, we are constantly told of this\nand that enemy, that \"being beaten, he _believed_ and embraced the\nfaith.\" Take as an example of an every-day occurrence the story of\nHormuzan. A Persian prince of high rank long maintained a border\nwarfare against the Moslems. At last he was taken prisoner and sent in\nchains to Medina. As he was conducted into the Great Mosque, Omar\nexclaimed, \"Blessed be the Lord, that hath humbled this man and the like\nof him!\" He bade them disrobe the prisoner and clothe him in sackcloth.\nThen, whip in hand, he upbraided him for his oft-repeated attacks and\ntreachery. Hormuzan made as if fain to reply; then gasping, like one\nfaint from thirst, he begged for water to drink. \"Give it him,\" said the\ncaliph, \"and let him drink in peace.\" \"Nay,\" cried the wretched captive,\ntrembling, \"I fear to drink, lest some one slay me unawares.\" \"Thy life\nis safe,\" said Omar, \"until thou hast drunk the water up.\" The words\nwere no sooner said than Hormuzan emptied the vessel on the ground. \"I\nwanted not the water,\" he said, \"but quarter, and thou hast given it\nme.\" \"Liar!\" cried Omar, angrily, \"thy life is forfeit.\" \"But not,\"\ninterposed the by-standers, \"until he drink the water up.\" \"Strange,\"\nsaid Omar, \"the fellow hath deceived me; and yet I cannot spare the life\nof one who hath slain so many noble Moslems. I swear that thou shalt not\ngain by thy deceit unless thou wilt forthwith embrace Islam.\" Upon\nthat, \"_believing_, he made profession of the true faith upon the spot;\"\nand thenceforth, residing at Medina, he received a pension of the\nhighest grade.[49]\n\n[Sidenote: Tribute and humiliation.\nDisabilities imposed on Jews and Christians.]\nOn the other hand, for those who held to their ancestral faith there was\nno escape from the second or the third alternative. If they would avoid\nthe sword, or, having wielded it, were beaten, they must become\ntributary. Moreover, the payment of tribute is not the only condition\nenjoined by the Koran. \"Fight against them (the Jews and Christians)\nuntil they pay tribute with the hand, _and are humbled_.\"[50] The\ncommand fell on willing ears. An ample interpretation was given to it.\nAnd so it came to pass that, though Jews and Christians were, on the\npayment of tribute, tolerated in the profession of their ancestral\nfaith, they were yet subjected (and still are subjected) to severe\nhumiliation. The nature and extent of the degradation to which they were\nbrought down, and the strength of the inducement to purchase exemption\nand the equality of civil rights, by surrendering their religion, may be\nlearned from the provisions which were embodied in the code named _The\nOrdinance of Omar_, which has been more or less enforced from the\nearliest times. Besides the tribute and various other imposts levied\nfrom the \"People of the Book,\"[51] and the duty of receiving Moslem\ntravelers quartered upon them, the dress of both sexes must be\ndistinguished by broad stripes of yellow. They are forbidden to appear\non horseback, and if mounted on a mule or ass their stirrups must be of\nwood, and their saddles known by knobs of the same material. Their\ngraves must not rise above the level of the soil, and the devil's mark\nis placed upon the lintel of their doors. Their children must be taught\nby Moslem masters, and the race, however able or well qualified,\nproscribed from any office of high emolument or trust. Besides the\nchurches spared at the time of conquest no new buildings can be erected\nfor the purposes of worship; nor can free entrance into their holy\nplaces at pleasure be refused to the Moslem. No cross must remain in\nview outside, nor any church-bells be rung. They must refrain from\nprocessions in the street at Easter, and other solemnities; and from any\nthing, in short, whether by outward symbol, word, or deed, which could\nbe construed into rivalry, or competition with the ruling faith. Such\nwas the so-called _Code of Omar_. Enforced with less or greater\nstringency, according to the intolerance and caprice of the day, by\ndifferent dynasties, it was, and (however much relaxed in certain\ncountries) it still remains, the law of Islam. One must admire the rare\ntenacity of the Christian faith, which, with but scanty light and hope,\nheld its ground through weary ages of insult and depression, and still\nsurvives to see the dawning of a brighter day.[52]\n\n[Sidenote: Continuing inducements in times of peace.]\nSuch, then, was the hostile attitude of Islam militant in its early\ndays; such the pressure brought to bear on conquered lands for its\nacceptance; and such the disabilities imposed upon recusant Jews and\nChristians. On the one hand, rapine, plunder, slavery, tribute, civil\ndisability; on the other, security, peace, and honor. We need not be\nsurprised that, under such constraint, conquered peoples succumbed\nbefore Islam. Nor were the temporal inducements to conversion confined\nto the period during which the Saracens were engaged in spreading Islam\nby force of arms. Let us come down a couple of centuries from the time\nof Mohammed, and take the reign of the tolerant and liberal-minded\nsovereign, Al Mamun.\n\n[Sidenote: Evidence of Al Kindy in second century of Hegira, A.D. 830.\nSpeech of Al Mamun.]\nAmong the philosophers of all creeds whom that great caliph gathered\naround him at Bagdad was a noble Arab of the Nestorian faith, descended\nfrom the kingly tribe of the Beni Kinda, and hence called _Al Kindy_. A\nfriend of this Eastern Christian, himself a member of the royal family,\ninvited Al Kindy to embrace Islam in an epistle enlarging on the\ndistinguished rank which, in virtue of his descent, he would (if a true\nbeliever) occupy at court, and the other privileges, spiritual and\nmaterial, social and conjugal, which he would enjoy. In reply the\nChristian wrote an apology of singular eloquence and power, throwing a\nflood of light on the worldly inducements which, even at that\ncomparatively late period, abounded in a Moslem state to promote\nconversion to Islam. Thus Al Mamun himself, in a speech delivered before\nhis council, characterizes certain of his courtiers accused as secret\nadherents of the Zoroastrian faith:\n\n     \"Though professing Islam, they are free from the same. This they do\n     to be seen of me, while their convictions, I am well aware, are\n     just the opposite of that which they profess. They belong to a\n     class which embrace Islam, not from any love of this our faith, but\n     thinking thereby to gain access to our court, and share in the\n     honor, wealth, and power of the realm. They have no inward\n     persuasion of that which they outwardly profess.\"[53]\n\n[Sidenote: Converts from sordid motives.]\nAgain, speaking of the various classes brought over to Islam by sordid\nand unworthy motives, Al Kindy says:\n\n     Moreover, there are the idolatrous races--Magians and Jews--low\n     people aspiring by the profession of Islam to raise themselves to\n     riches and power and to form alliances with the families of the\n     learned and honorable. There are, besides, hypocritical men of the\n     world, who in this way obtain indulgences in the matter of marriage\n     and concubinage which are forbidden to them by the Christian faith.\n     Then we have the dissolute class given over wholly to the lusts of\n     the flesh. And lastly there are those who by this means obtain a\n     more secure and easy livelihood.[54]\n\n[Sidenote: Al Kindy contrasts the Christian confessor with the Moslem\n\"martyr.\"\nThe Christian confessor and the Moslem martyr.]\nBefore leaving this part of our subject it may be opportune to quote a\nfew more passages from Al Kindy, in which he contrasts the inducements\nthat, under the military and political predominance of Islam, promoted\nits rapid spread, and the opposite conditions under which Christianity\nmade progress, slow, indeed, comparatively, but sure and steady. First,\nhe compares the Christian confessor with the Moslem \"martyr:\"\n\n     I marvel much, he says, that ye call those _martyrs_ that fall in\n     war. Thou hast read, no doubt, in history of the followers of\n     Christ put to death in the persecutions of the kings of Persia and\n     elsewhere. Say, now, which are the more worthy to be called\n     martyrs, these, or thy fellows that fall fighting for the world and\n     the power thereof? How diverse were the barbarities and kinds of\n     death inflicted on the Christian confessors! The more they were\n     slain the more rapidly spread the faith; in place of one sprang up\n     a hundred. On a certain occasion, when a great multitude had been\n     put to death, one at court said to the king, \"The number of them\n     increaseth instead of, as thou thinkest, diminishing.\" \"How can\n     that be?\" exclaimed the king. \"But yesterday,\" replied the\n     courtier, \"thou didst put such and such a one to death, and lo,\n     there were converted double that number; and the people say that a\n     man appeared to the confessors from heaven strengthening them in\n     their last moments.\" Whereupon the king himself was converted. In\n     those days men thought not their lives dear unto them. Some were\n     transfixed while yet alive; others had their limbs cut off one\n     after another; some were cast to the wild beasts and others burned\n     in the fire. Such continued long to be the fate of the Christian\n     confessors. No parallel is found thereto in any other religion; and\n     all was endured with constancy and even with joy. One smiled in the\n     midst of his great suffering. \"Was it cold water,\" they asked,\n     \"that was brought unto thee?\" \"No,\" answered the sufferer, \"it was\n     one like a youth that stood by me and anointed my wounds; and that\n     made me smile, for the pain forthwith departed.\"\n\n     Now tell me seriously, my friend, which of the two hath the best\n     claim to be called a _martyr_, \"slain in the ways of the Lord:\" he\n     who surrendereth his life rather than renounce his faith; who, when\n     it is said, Fall down and worship the sun and moon, or the idols of\n     silver and gold, work of men's hands, instead of the true God,\n     refuseth, choosing rather to give up life, abandon wealth, and\n     forego even wife and family; or he that goeth forth, ravaging and\n     laying waste, plundering and spoiling, slaying the men, carrying\n     away their children into captivity, and ravishing their wives and\n     maidens in his unlawful embrace, and then shall call it \"Jehad in\n     the ways of the Lord!\" ... And not content therewith, instead of\n     humbling thyself before the Lord, and seeking pardon for the crime,\n     thou sayest of such a one slain in the war that \"he hath earned\n     paradise,\" and thou namest him \"a martyr in the ways of the\n     Lord!\"[55]\n\nAnd again, contrasting the spread of Islam, \"its rattling quiver and its\nglittering sword,\" with the silent progress of Christianity, our\napologist, after dwelling on the teaching and the miracles of the\napostles, writes:\n\n     They published their message by means of these miracles; and thus\n     great and powerful kings and philosophers and learned men and\n     judges of the earth hearkened unto them, without lash or rod, with\n     neither sword nor spear, nor the advantages of birth or\n     \"Helpers;\"[56] with no wisdom of this world, or eloquence or power\n     of language, or subtlety of reason; with no worldly inducement, nor\n     yet again with any relaxation of the moral law, but simply at the\n     voice of truth enforced by miracles beyond the power of man to\n     show. And so there came over to them the kings and great ones of\n     the earth. And the philosophers abandoned their systems, with all\n     their wisdom and learning, and betook them to a saintly life,\n     giving up the delights of this world together with their\n     old-established usages, and became followers of a company of poor\n     men, fishers and publicans, who had neither name nor rank nor any\n     claim other than that they were obedient to the command of the\n     Messiah--he that gave them power to do such wonderful works.[57]\n\n[Sidenote: The apostles compared with the chiefs of Islam.]\nAnd yet once more, comparing the apostles with the military chiefs of\nIslam, Al Kindy proceeds:\n\n     After the descent of the Holy Ghost and the gift of tongues the\n     apostles separated each to the country to which he was called. They\n     wrote out in every tongue the holy Gospel, and the story and\n     teaching of Christ, at the dictation of the Holy Ghost. So the\n     nations drew near unto them, believing their testimony; and, giving\n     up the world and their false beliefs, they embraced the Christian\n     faith as soon as ever the dawn of truth and the light of the good\n     tidings broke in upon them. Distinguishing the true from the false,\n     and error from the right direction, they embraced the Gospel and\n     held it fast without doubt or wavering, when they saw the wonderful\n     works and signs of the apostles, and their lives and conversation\n     set after the holy and beautiful example of our Saviour, the traces\n     whereof remain even unto the present day.... How different this\n     from the life of thy Master (Mohammed) and his companions, who\n     ceased not to go forth in battle and rapine, to smite with the\n     sword, to seize the little ones, and ravish the wives and maidens,\n     plundering and laying waste, and carrying the people into\n     captivity. And thus they continue unto this present day, inciting\n     men to these evil deeds, even as it is told of Omar the Caliph. \"If\n     one among you,\" said he, \"hath a heathen neighbor and is in need,\n     let him seize and sell him.\" And many such things they say and\n     teach. Look now at the lives of Simon and Paul, who went about\n     healing the sick and raising the dead, by the name of Christ our\n     Lord; and mark the contrast.[58]\n\n[Sidenote: Such are the conclusions of a native of Chaldea.]\nSuch are the reflections of one who lived at a Mohammedan court, and\nwho, moreover, flourishing as he did a thousand years ago, was\nsufficiently near the early spread of Islam to be able to contrast what\nhe saw and heard and read of the causes of its success with those of the\nGospel, and had the courage to confess the same.\n\n[Sidenote: Hinderances or inducements inherent in the faith itself.]\nApart, now, from the outward and extraneous aids given to Islam by the\nsword and by the civil arm I will inquire for a moment what natural\neffect the teaching of Islam itself had in attracting or repelling\nmankind. I do not now speak of any power contained in the truths it\ninculcated to convert to Islam by the rousing and quickening of\nspiritual impulses; for that lies beyond my present purpose, which is to\ninquire whether there is not in material causes and secular motives\nenough in themselves to account for success. I speak rather of the\neffect of the indulgences granted by Islam, on the one hand, as\ncalculated to attract; and of the restraints imposed and sacrifices\nrequired, on the other, as calculated to repel. How far, in fact, did\nthere exist inducements or hinderances to its adoption inherent in the\nreligion itself?\n\n[Sidenote: Requirements of Islam: prayer.\nProhibition of wine, games of chance, and usury.\nFast of Ramzan.]\nWhat may be regarded as the most constant and irksome of the obligations\nof Islam is the duty of prayer, which must be observed at stated\nintervals, five times every day, with the contingent ceremony of\nlustration. The rite consists of certain forms and passages to be\nrepeated with prescribed series of prostrations and genuflexions. These\nmust be repeated at the right times--but anywhere, in the house or by\nthe wayside, as well as in the mosque; and the ordinance is obligatory\nin whatever state of mind the worshiper may be, or however occupied. As\nthe appointed hour comes round the Moslem is bound to turn aside to\npray--so much so that in Central Asia we read of the police driving the\nbackward worshiper by the lash to discharge the duty. Thus, with the\nmass of Mussulmans, the obligation becomes a mere formal ceremony, and\none sees it performed anywhere and every-where by the whole people, like\nany social custom, as a matter of course. No doubt there are exceptions;\nbut with the multitude it does not involve the irksomeness of a\nspiritual service, and so it sits lightly on high and low. The Friday\nprayers should as a rule be attended in the mosque; but neither need\nthere be much devotion there; and, once performed, the rest of the day\nis free for pleasure or for business.[59] The prohibition of wine is a\nrestriction which was severely felt in the early days of the faith; but\nit was not long before the universal sentiment (though eluded in some\nquarters) supported it. The embargo upon games of chance was certainly\nunpopular; and the prohibition of the receipt of interest was also an\nimportant limitation, tending as it did to shackle the freedom of\nmercantile speculation; but they have been partially evaded on various\npretexts. The fast throughout the month of Ramzan was a severer test;\nbut even this lasts only during the day; and at night, from sunset till\ndawn, all restrictions are withdrawn, not only in respect of food, but\nof all otherwise lawful gratifications.[60]\n\n[Sidenote: Little that is unpopular in these ordinances.]\nThere is nothing, therefore, in the requirements and ordinances of\nIslam, excepting the fast, that is very irksome to humanity, or which,\nas involving any material sacrifice, or the renunciation of the\npleasures or indulgences of life, should lead a man of the world to\nhesitate in embracing the new faith.\n\n[Sidenote: Indulgences allowed in the matter of wives and concubines.]\nOn the other hand, the license allowed by the Koran between the\nsexes--at least in favor of the male sex--is so wide that for such as\nhave the means and the desire to take advantage of it there need be no\nlimit whatever to sexual indulgence. It is true that adultery is\npunishable by death and fornication with stripes. But then the Koran\ngives the believer permission to have four wives at a time. And he may\nexchange them--that is, he may divorce them at pleasure, taking others\nin their stead.[61] And, as if this were not license enough, the divine\nlaw permits the believer to consort with all female slaves whom he may\nbe the master of--such, namely, as have been taken in war, or have been\nacquired by gift or purchase. These he may receive into his harem\ninstead of wives, or in addition to them; and without any limit of\nnumber or restraint whatever he is at liberty to cohabit with them.\n\n[Sidenote: Polygamy, concubinage, and divorce. Practice at the rise of\nIslam.]\nA few instances taken at random will enable the reader to judge how the\nindulgences thus allowed by the religion were taken advantage of in the\nearly days of Islam. In the great plague which devastated Syria seven\nyears after the prophet's death Khalid, the Sword of God, lost _forty_\nsons. Abdal Rahman, one of the \"companions\" of Mohammed, had issue by\nsixteen wives, not counting slave-girls.[62] Moghira ibn Shoba, another\n\"companion,\" and governor of Kufa and Bussorah, had in his harem eighty\nconsorts, free and servile. Coming closer to the Prophet's household, we\nfind that Mohammed himself at one period had in his harem no fewer than\nnine wives and two slave-girls. Of his grandson Hasan we read that his\nvagrant passion gained for him the unenviable sobriquet of _The\nDivorcer_; for it was only by continually divorcing his consorts that he\ncould harmonize his craving for fresh nuptials with the requirements of\nthe divine law, which limited the number of his free wives to four. We\nare told that, as a matter of simple caprice, he exercised the power of\ndivorce seventy (according to other traditions ninety) times. When the\nleading men complained to Aly of the licentious practice of his son his\nonly reply was that the remedy lay in their own hands, of refusing Hasan\ntheir daughters altogether.[63] Such are the material inducements, the\n\"works of the flesh,\" which Islam makes lawful to its votaries, and\nwhich promoted thus its early spread.\n\n[Sidenote: Practice in modern times.\nThe Malays of Penang.\nLane's testimony concerning Egypt.\nThe princess of Bhopal's account of Mecca.]\nDescending now to modern times, we still find that this sexual license\nis taken advantage of more or less in different countries and conditions\nof society. The following examples are simply meant as showing to what\nexcess it is possible for the believer to carry these indulgences,\n_under the sanction of his religion_. Of the Malays in Penang it was\nwritten not very long ago: \"Young men of thirty to thirty-five years of\nage may be met with who have had from fifteen to twenty wives, and\nchildren by several of them. These women have been divorced, married\nothers, and had children by them.\" Regarding Egypt, Lane tells us: \"I\nhave heard of men who have been in the habit of marrying a new wife\nalmost every month.\"[64] Burkhardt speaks of an Arab forty-five years\nold who had had fifty wives, \"so that he must have divorced two wives\nand married two fresh ones on the average every year.\" And not to go\nfurther than the sacred city of Mecca, the late reigning princess of\nBhopal, in central India, herself an orthodox follower of the Prophet,\nafter making the pilgrimage of the holy places, writes thus:\n\n     Women frequently contract as many as ten marriages, and those who\n     have only been married twice are few in number. If a woman sees her\n     husband growing old, or if she happen to admire any one else, she\n     goes to the Shereef (the spiritual and civil head of the holy\n     city), and after having settled the matter with him she puts away\n     her husband and takes to herself another, who is, perhaps,\n     good-looking and rich. In this way a marriage seldom lasts more\n     than a year or two.\n\nAnd of slave-girls the same high and impartial authority, still writing\nof the holy city and of her fellow-Moslems, tells us:\n\n     Some of the women (African and Georgian girls) are taken in\n     marriage; and after that, on being sold again, they receive from\n     their masters a divorce, and are sold in their houses--that is to\n     say, they are sent to the purchaser from their master's house on\n     receipt of payment, and are not exposed for sale in the\n     slave-market. They are only _married_ when purchased for the first\n     time.... When the poorer people buy (female) slaves they keep them\n     for themselves, and change them every year as one would replace old\n     things by new; but the women who have children are not sold.[65]\n\n[Sidenote: Islam sanctions a license between the sexes which\nChristianity forbids.\nThe laws of Christianity deter men from carnal indulgences.\nIslam the \"Easy Way.\"]\nWhat I desire to make clear is the fact that such things may be\npracticed _with the sanction_ of the Scripture which the Moslem holds to\nbe divine, and that these same indulgences have from the first existed\nas inducements which helped materially to forward the spread of the\nfaith. I am very far, indeed, from implying that excessive indulgence in\npolygamy is the universal state of Moslem society. Happily this is not\nthe case. There are not only individuals, but tribes and districts,\nwhich, either from custom or preference, voluntarily restrict the\nlicense given them in the Koran; while the natural influence of the\nfamily, even in Moslem countries, has an antiseptic tendency that often\nitself tends greatly to neutralize the evil.[66] Nor am I seeking to\ninstitute any contrast between the morals at large of Moslem countries\nand the rest of the world. If Christian nations are (as with shame it\nmust be confessed) in some strata of society immoral, it is in the teeth\nof their divine law. And the restrictions of that law are calculated,\nand in the early days of Christianity did tend, in point of fact, _to\ndeter men_ devoted to the indulgences of the flesh from embracing the\nfaith.[67] The religion of Mohammed, on the other hand, gives direct\nsanction to the sexual indulgences we have been speaking of. Thus it\npanders to the lower instincts of humanity and makes its spread the\neasier. In direct opposition to the precepts of Christianity it \"makes\nprovision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.\" Hence Islam has\nbeen well called by its own votaries the _Easy Way_. Once more, to quote\nAl Kindy:\n\n     Thou invitest me (says our apologist to his friend) into the \"Easy\n     way of faith and practice.\" Alas, alas! for our Saviour in the\n     Gospel telleth us, \"When ye have done all that ye are commanded,\n     say, We are unprofitable servants; we have but done that which was\n     commanded us.\" Where then is our merit? The same Lord Jesus saith,\n     \"How strait is the road which leadeth unto life, and how few they\n     be that walk therein! How wide the gate that leadeth to\n     destruction, and how many there be that go in thereat!\" Different\n     this, my friend, from the comforts of thy wide and easy gate, and\n     the facilities for enjoying, as thou wouldst have me, the pleasures\n     offered by thy faith in wives and damsels![68]\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[a] A.D. 623.\n\n[b] A.D. 630.\n\n[c] A.D. 632.\n\n[d] A.D. 635.\n\n\n\n\nII.\n\nWHY THE SPREAD OF ISLAM WAS STAYED.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Islam stationary in area, and in civilization retrograde.]\nHaving thus traced the rapid early spread of Islam to its proper source,\nI proceed to the remaining topics, namely, the causes which have checked\nits further extension, and those likewise which have depressed the\nfollowers of this religion in the scale of civilization. I shall take\nthe former first--just remarking here, in respect of the latter, that\nthe depression of Islam is itself one of the causes which retard the\nexpansion of the faith.\n\n[Sidenote: The Arabs ceased, in second century, to be a crusading\nforce.]\nAs the first spread of Islam was due to the sword, so when the sword was\nsheathed Islam ceased to spread. The apostles and missionaries of Islam\nwere, as we have seen, the martial tribes of Arabia--that is to say, the\ngrand military force organized by Omar, and by him launched upon the\nsurrounding nations. Gorged with the plunder of the world, these began,\nafter a time, to settle on their lees and to mingle with the ordinary\npopulation. So soon as this came to pass they lost the fiery zeal which\nat the first had made them irresistible. By the second and third\ncenturies the Arabs had disappeared as the standing army of the\ncaliphate, or, in other words, as a body set apart for the dissemination\nof the faith. The crusading spirit, indeed, ever and anon burst\nforth--and it still bursts forth, as opportunity offers--simply for the\nreason that this spirit pervades the Koran, and is ingrained in the\ncreed. But with the special agency created and maintained during the\nfirst ages for the spread of Islam the incentive of crusade ceased as a\ndistinctive missionary spring of action, and degenerated into the common\nlust of conquest which we meet with in the world at large.\n\n[Sidenote: With cessation of conquest, Islam ceased to spread.]\nThe extension of Islam, depending upon military success, stopped\nwherever that was checked. The religion advanced or retired, speaking\nbroadly, as the armed predominance made head or retroceded. Thus the\ntide of Moslem victory, rushing along the coast of Africa, extinguished\nthe seats of European civilization on the Mediterranean, overwhelmed\nSpain, and was rapidly advancing north, when the onward wave was stemmed\nat Tours; and as with the arms, the faith also of Islam was driven back\ninto Spain and bounded by the Pyrenees. So, likewise, the hold which\nthe religion seized both of Spain and Sicily came to an end with\nMussulman defeat. It is true that when once long and firmly rooted, as\nin India and China, Islam may survive the loss of military power, and\neven flourish. But it is equally true that in no single country has\nIslam been planted, nor has it anywhere materially spread, saving under\nthe banner of the Crescent or the political ascendency of some\nneighboring State. Accordingly, we find that, excepting some barbarous\nzones in Africa which have been raised thereby a step above the\ngroveling level of fetichism, the faith has in modern times made no\nadvance worth mentioning.[69]\n\nFrom the Jewish and Christian religions there has (again speaking\nbroadly) been no secession whatever to Islam since the wave of Saracen\nvictory was stayed, excepting by the force of arms. Even in the palmy\ndays of the Abbasside caliphs, our apologist could challenge his\nadversary to produce a single conversion otherwise than by reason of\nsome powerful material inducement. Here is his testimony:\n\n     [Sidenote: Al Kindy's challenge to produce a Christian convert to\n     Islam apart from material inducements.]\n     Now tell me, hast thou ever seen, my Friend, (the Lord be gracious\n     unto thee!) or ever heard of a single person of sound mind--any one\n     of learning and experience, and acquainted with the Scriptures,\n     renouncing Christianity otherwise than for some worldly object to\n     be reached only through thy religion, or for some gratification\n     withheld by the faith of Jesus? Thou wilt find none. For, excepting\n     the tempted ones, all continue steadfast in their faith, secure\n     under our most gracious sovereign, in the profession of their own\n     religion.[70]\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIII.\n\nLOW POSITION OF ISLAM IN THE SCALE OF CIVILIZATION.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Social and intellectual depression.]\nI pass on to consider why Mohammedan nations occupy so low a position,\nhalting as almost every-where they do, in the march of social and\nintellectual development.\n\n[Sidenote: Islam intended for the Arabs.\nWants the faculty of adaptation.]\nThe reason is not far to find. Islam was meant for Arabia, not for the\nworld; for the Arabs of the seventh century, not for the Arabs of all\ntime; and being such, and nothing more, its claim of divine origin\nrenders change or development impossible. It has within itself neither\nthe germ of natural growth nor the lively spring of adaptation. Mohammed\ndeclared himself a prophet to the Arabs;[71] and however much in his\nlater days he may have contemplated the reformation of other religions\nbeyond the Peninsula, or the further spread of his own (which is\ndoubtful), still the rites and ceremonies, the customs and the laws\nenjoined upon his people, were suitable (if suitable at all) for the\nArabs of that day, and in many respects for them alone. Again, the code\ncontaining these injunctions, social and ceremonial, as well as\ndoctrinal and didactic, is embodied with every particularity of detail,\nas part of the divine law, in the Koran; and so defying, as sacrilege,\nall human touch, it stands unalterable forever. From the stiff and rigid\nshroud in which it is thus swathed the religion of Mohammed cannot\nemerge. It has no plastic power beyond that exercised in its earliest\ndays. Hardened now and inelastic, it can neither adapt itself nor yet\nshape its votaries, nor even suffer them to shape themselves to the\nvarying circumstances, the wants and developments, of mankind.\n\n[Sidenote: Local ceremonies: pilgrimage.\nFast of Ramzan.]\nWe may judge of the local and inflexible character of the faith from one\nor two of its ceremonies. To perform the pilgrimage to Mecca and Mount\nArafat, with the slaying of victims at Mina, and the worship of the\nKaaba, is an ordinance obligatory (with the condition only that they\nhave the means) on all believers, who are bound to make the journey even\nfrom the furthest ends of the earth--an ordinance intelligible enough in\na local worship, but unmeaning and impracticable when required of a\nworld-wide religion. The same may be said of the fast of Ramzan. It is\nprescribed in the Koran to be observed by all with undeviating\nstrictness during the whole day, from earliest dawn till sunset\nthroughout the month, with specified exemptions for the sick and\npenalties for every occasion on which it is broken. The command, imposed\nthus with an iron rule on male and female, young and old, operates with\nexcessive inequality in different seasons, lands, and climates. However\nsuitable to countries near the equator, where the variations of day and\nnight are immaterial, the fast becomes intolerable to those who are far\nremoved either toward the north or the south; and still closer to the\npoles, where night merges into day and day into night, impracticable.\nAgain, with the lunar year (itself an institution divinely imposed), the\nmonth of Ramzan travels in the third of a century from month to month\nover the whole cycle of a year. The fast was established at a time when\nRamzan fell in winter, and the change of season was probably not\nforeseen by the Prophet. But the result is one which, under some\nconditions of time and place, involves the greatest hardship. For when\nthe fast comes round to summer the trial in a sultry climate, like that\nof the burning Indian plains, of passing the whole day without a morsel\nof bread or a drop of water becomes to many the occasion of intense\nsuffering. Such is the effect of the Arabian legislator's attempt at\ncircumstantial legislation in matters of religious ceremonial.\n\n[Sidenote: Political and social depression owing to relations between\nthe sexes.]\nNearly the same is the case with all the religions obligations of Islam,\nprayer, lustration, etc. But although the minuteness of detail with\nwhich these are enjoined tends toward that jejune and formal worship\nwhich we witness every-where in Moslem lands, still there is nothing in\nthese observances themselves which (religion apart) should lower the\nsocial condition of Mohammedan populations and prevent their emerging\nfrom that normal state of semi-barbarism and uncivilized depression in\nwhich we find all Moslem peoples. For the cause of this we must look\nelsewhere; and it may be recognized, without doubt, in the relations\nestablished by the Koran between the sexes. Polygamy, divorce, servile\nconcubinage, and the veil are at the root of Moslem decadence.\n\n[Sidenote: Depression of the female sex.\nDivorce.]\nIn respect of married life the condition allotted by the Koran to woman\nis that of an inferior dependent creature, destined only for the\nservice of her master, liable to be cast adrift without the assignment\nof a single reason or the notice of a single hour. While the husband\npossesses the power of a divorce--absolute, immediate, unquestioned--no\nprivilege of a corresponding nature has been reserved for the wife. She\nhangs on, however unwilling, neglected, or superseded, the perpetual\nslave of her lord, if such be his will. When actually divorced she can,\nindeed, claim her dower--her _hire_, as it is called in the too plain\nlanguage of the Koran; but the knowledge that the wife can make this\nclaim is at the best a miserable security against capricious taste; and\nin the case of bondmaids even that imperfect check is wanting. The power\nof divorce is not the only power that may be exercised by the tyrannical\nhusband. Authority to _confine_ and to _beat_ his wives is distinctly\nvested in his discretion.[72] \"Thus restrained, secluded, degraded, the\nmere minister of enjoyment, liable at the caprice or passion of the\nmoment to be turned adrift, it would be hard to say that the position of\na wife was improved by the code of Mohammed.\"[73] Even if the privilege\nof divorce and marital tyranny be not exercised, the knowledge of its\nexistence as a potential right must tend to abate the self-respect, and\nin like degree to weaken the influence of the sex, impairing thus the\nameliorating and civilizing power which she was meant to exercise upon\nmankind. And the evil has been stereotyped by the Koran for all time.\n\n[Sidenote: Principal Fairbairn on home-life under Islam.]\nI must quote one more passage from Principal Fairbairn on the lowering\ninfluence of Moslem domestic life:\n\n     The God of Mohammed ... \"spares the sins the Arab loves. A religion\n     that does not purify the home cannot regenerate the race; one that\n     depraves the home is certain to deprave humanity. Motherhood is to\n     be sacred if manhood is to be honorable. Spoil the wife of sanctity\n     and for the man the sanctities of life have perished. And so it has\n     been with Islam. It has reformed and lifted savage tribes; it has\n     depraved and barbarized civilized nations. At the root of its\n     fairest culture a worm has ever lived that has caused its blossoms\n     soon to wither and die. Were Mohammed the hope of man, then his\n     state were hopeless; before him could only be retrogression,\n     tyranny, and despair.\"[74]\n\n[Sidenote: Demoralizing influence of servile concubinage.]\nStill worse is the influence of servile concubinage. The following is\nthe evidence of a shrewd and able observer in the East:\n\n     All zenana life must be bad for men at all stages of their\n     existence.... In youth it must be ruin to be petted and spoiled by\n     a company of submissive slave-girls. In manhood it is no less an\n     evil that when a man enters into private life his affections should\n     be put up to auction among foolish, fond competitors full of\n     mutual jealousies and slanders. We are not left entirely to\n     conjecture as to the effect of female influence on home-life when\n     it is exerted under these unenlightened and demoralizing\n     conditions. That is plainly an element _lying at the root of all\n     the most important features that differentiate progress from\n     stagnation_.[75]\n\n[Sidenote: Deteriorating influence of relations established between the\nsexes.]\nSuch are the institutions which gnaw at the root of Islam and prevent\nthe growth of freedom and civilization. \"By these the unity of the\nhousehold is fatally broken and the purity and virtue of the family tie\nweakened; the vigor of the dominant classes is sapped; the body politic\nbecomes weak and languid, excepting for intrigues, and the throne itself\nliable to fall a prey to a doubtful or contested\nsuccession\"[76]--contested by the progeny of the various rivals crowded\ninto the royal harem. From the palace downward polygamy and servile\nconcubinage lower the moral tone, loosen the ties of domestic life, and\nhopelessly depress the people.\n\n[Sidenote: The veil.]\nNor is the veil, albeit under the circumstances a necessary precaution,\nless detrimental, though in a different way, to the interests of Moslem\nsociety. This strange custom owes its origin to the Prophet's jealous\ntemperament. It is forbidden in the Koran for women to appear unveiled\nbefore any member of the other sex with the exception of certain near\nrelatives of specified propinquity.[77] And this law, coupled with other\nrestrictions of the kind, has led to the imposition of the _boorka_ or\n_purdah_ (the dress which conceals the person and the veil) and to the\ngreater or less seclusion of the harem and zenana.\n\n[Sidenote: Society vitiated by the withdrawal of the female sex.\nMohammedan society, thus truncated, incapable of progress.\nThe defects of Mohammedan society.]\nThis ordinance and the practices flowing from it must survive, more or\nless, so long as the Koran remains the rule of faith. It may appear at\nfirst sight a mere negative evil, a social custom comparatively\nharmless; but in truth it has a more debilitating effect upon the Moslem\nrace perhaps than any thing else, for by it _woman is totally withdrawn\nfrom her proper place in the social circle_. She may, indeed, in the\ncomparatively laxer license of some lands be seen flitting along the\nstreets or driving in her carriage; but even so it is like one belonging\nto another world, veiled, shrouded, and cut off from intercourse with\nthose around her. Free only in the retirement of her own secluded\napartments, she is altogether shut out from her legitimate sphere in the\nduties and enjoyments of life. But the blight on the sex itself from\nthis unnatural regulation, sad as it is, must be regarded as a minor\nevil. The mischief extends beyond her. The tone and framework of society\nas it came from the Maker's hands are altered, damaged, and\ndeteriorated. From the veil there flows this double injury. The bright,\nrefining, softening influence of woman is withdrawn from the outer\nworld, and social life, wanting the gracious influences of the female\nsex, becomes, as we see throughout Moslem lands, forced, hard,\nunnatural, and morose. Moreover, the Mohammedan nations, for all\npurposes of common elevation and for all efforts of philanthropy and\nliberty, are (as they live in public and beyond the inner recesses of\ntheir homes) but a truncated and imperfect exhibition of humanity. They\nare wanting in one of its constituent parts, the better half, the\nhumanizing and the softening element. And it would be against the nature\nof things to suppose that the body, thus shorn and mutilated, can\npossess in itself the virtue and power of progress, reform, and\nelevation. The link connecting the family with social and public life is\ndetached, and so neither is _en rapport_, as it should be, with the\nother. Reforms fail to find entrance into the family or to penetrate the\ndomestic soil where alone they could take root, grow into the national\nmind, live, and be perpetuated. Under such conditions the seeds of\ncivilization refuse to germinate. No real growth is possible in free and\nuseful institutions, nor any permanent and healthy force in those great\nmovements which elsewhere tend to uplift the masses and elevate mankind.\nThere may, it is true, be some advance, from time to time, in science\nand in material prosperity; but the social groundwork for the same is\nwanting, and the people surely relapse into the semi-barbarism forced\nupon them by an ordinance which is opposed to the best instincts of\nhumanity. Sustained progress becomes impossible. Such is the outcome of\nan attempt to improve upon nature and banish woman, the help-meet of\nman, from the position assigned by God to her in the world.\n\n[Sidenote: Yet the veil necessary under existing circumstances.]\nAt the same time I am not prepared to say that in view of the laxity of\nthe conjugal relations inherent in the institutions of Islam some such\nsocial check as that of the veil (apart from the power to confine and\ncastigate) is not needed for the repression of license and the\nmaintenance of outward decency. There is too much reason to apprehend\nthat free social intercourse might otherwise be dangerous to morality\nunder the code of Mohammed, and with the example before men and women of\nthe early worthies of Islam. So long as the sentiments and habits of the\nMoslem world remain as they are some remedial or preventive measure of\nthe kind seems indispensable. But the peculiarity of the Mussulman\npolity, as we have seen, is such that the sexual laws and institutions\nwhich call for restrictions of the kind as founded on the Koran are\nincapable of change; they must co-exist with the faith itself, and last\nwhile it lasts. So long, then, as this polity prevails the depression of\nwoman, as well as her exclusion from the social circle, must injure the\nhealth and vitality of the body politic, impair its purity and grace,\nparalyze vigor, retard progress in the direction of freedom,\nphilanthropy, and moral elevation, and generally perpetuate the normal\nstate of Mohammedan peoples, as one of semi-barbarism.\n\nTo recapitulate, we have seen:\n\n[Sidenote: Recapitulation.]\n_First._ That Islam was propagated mainly by the sword. With the tide of\nconquest the religion went forward; where conquest was arrested made no\nadvance beyond; and at the withdrawal of the Moslem arms the faith also\ncommonly retired.\n\n_Second._ The inducements, whether material or spiritual, to embrace\nIslam have proved insufficient of themselves (speaking broadly) to\nspread the faith, in the absence of the sword, and without the influence\nof the political or secular arm.\n\n_Third._ The ordinances of Islam, those especially having respect to the\nfemale sex, have induced an inherent weakness, which depresses the\nsocial system and retards its progress.\n\n[Sidenote: Contrast with Christianity.]\nIf the reader should have followed me in the argument by which these\nconclusions have been reached the contrast with the Christian faith has\nno doubt been suggesting itself at each successive step.\n\n[Sidenote: Christianity not propagated by force.]\nChristianity, as Al Kindy has so forcibly put it, gained a firm footing\nin the world without the sword, and without any aid whatever from the\nsecular arm. So far from having the countenance of the State it\ntriumphed in spite of opposition, persecution, and discouragement. \"My\nkingdom,\" said Jesus, \"is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this\nworld, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to\nthe Jews; but now is my kingdom not from hence.... For this end came I\ninto the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Every one that\nis of the truth, heareth my voice.\"[78]\n\n[Sidenote: Nor by worldly inducements.]\nThe religion itself, in its early days, offered no worldly attractions\nor indulgences. It was not, like Islam, an \"easy way.\" Whether in\nwithdrawal from social observances deeply tainted with idolatry, the\nrefusal to participate in sacrificial ceremonies insisted on by the\nrulers, or in the renunciation of indulgences inconsistent with a\nsaintly life, the Christian profession required self-denial at every\nstep.\n\n[Sidenote: Adaptive principles and plastic faculty of Christianity.]\nBut otherwise the teaching of Christianity nowhere interfered with the\ncivil institutions of the countries into which it penetrated or with any\nsocial customs or practices that were not in themselves immoral or\nidolatrous. It did not, indeed, neglect to guide the Christian life. But\nit did so by the enunciation of principles and rules of wide and\nfar-reaching application. These, no less than the injunctions of the\nKoran, served amply for the exigencies of the day. But they have done a\nvast deal more. They have proved themselves capable of adaptation to the\nmost advanced stages of social development and intellectual elevation.\nAnd, what is infinitely more, it may be claimed for the lessons embodied\nin the Gospel that they have been themselves promotive, if indeed they\nhave not been the immediate cause, of all the most important reforms and\nphilanthropies that now prevail in Christendom. The principles thus laid\ndown contained germs endowed with the power of life and growth which,\nexpanding and flourishing, slowly it may be, but surely, have at the\nlast borne the fruits we see.\n\n[Sidenote: Examples: slavery.\nRelations between the sexes.]\nTake, for example, the institution of slavery. It prevailed in the Roman\nEmpire at the introduction of Christianity, as it did in Arabia at the\nrise of Islam. In the Moslem code, as we have seen, the practice has\nbeen perpetuated. Slavery must be held permissible so long as the Koran\nis taken to be the rule of faith. The divine sanction thus impressed\nupon the institution, and the closeness with which by law and custom it\nintermingles with social and domestic life, make it impossible for any\nMohammedan people to impugn slavery as contrary to sound morality or for\nany body of loyal believers to advocate its abolition upon the ground\nof principle. There are, moreover, so many privileges and gratifications\naccruing to the higher classes from its maintenance that (excepting\nunder the strong pressure of European diplomacy) no sincere and hearty\neffort can be expected from the Moslem race in the suppression of the\ninhuman traffic, the horrors of which, as pursued by Moslem\nslave-traders, their Prophet would have been the first to denounce. Look\nnow at the wisdom with which the Gospel treats the institution. It is\nnowhere in so many words proscribed, for that would, under the\ncircumstances, have led to the abnegation of relative duties and the\ndisruption of society. It is accepted as a prevailing institution\nrecognized by the civil powers. However desirable freedom might be,\nslavery was not inconsistent with the Christian profession: \"Art thou\ncalled being a servant? care not for it: but if thou mayest be made\nfree, use it rather.\"[e] The duty of obedience to his master is enjoined\nupon the slave, and the duty of mildness and urbanity toward his slave\nis enjoined upon the master. But with all this was laid the seed which\ngrew into emancipation. \"_Our Father_,\" gave the key-note of freedom.\n\"Ye are _all_ the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.\" \"There is\nneither bond nor free, ... for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.\"[f] \"He that\nis called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freeman.\"[g] The\nconverted slave is to be received \"not now as a servant, but above a\nservant, a brother beloved.\"[h] The seed has borne its proper harvest. Late\nin time, no doubt, but by a sure and certain development, the grand\ntruth of the equality of the human race, and the right of every man and\nwoman to freedom of thought and (within reasonable limit of law) to\nfreedom of action, has triumphed; and it has triumphed through the\nSpirit and the precepts inculcated by the Gospel eighteen hundred years\nago. Nor is it otherwise with the relations established between the\nsexes. Polygamy, divorce, and concubinage with bondmaid's have been\nperpetuated, as we have seen, by Islam for all time; and the ordinances\nconnected therewith have given rise, in the laborious task of defining\nthe conditions and limits of what is lawful, to a mass of prurient\ncasuistry defiling the books of Mohammedan law. Contrast with this our\nSaviour's words, \"_He which made them at the beginning made them male\nand female.... What therefore God hath joined together let not man put\nasunder_.\"[i] From which simple utterance have resulted monogamy and (in\nthe absence of adultery) the indissolubility of the marriage bond. While\nin respect of conjugal duties we have such large, but sufficiently\nintelligible, commands as \"to render due benevolence,\"[j] whereby, while\nthe obligations of the marriage state are maintained, Christianity is\nsaved from the impurities which, in expounding the ordinances of\nMohammed, surround the sexual ethics of Islam, and cast so foul a stain\nupon its literature.\n\n[Sidenote: Elevation of woman.]\nTake, again, the place of woman in the world. We need no injunction of\nthe veil or the harem. As the temples of the Holy Ghost, the body is to\nbe kept undefiled, and every one is \"to possess his vessel in\nsanctification and honor.\"[k] Men are to treat \"the elder women as mothers;\nthe younger as sisters, with all purity.\"[l] Women are to \"adorn themselves\nin modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety.\"[m] These, and such\nlike maxims embrace the whole moral fitness of the several relations and\nduties which they define. They are adapted for all ages of time and for\nall conditions of men. They are capable of being taken by every\nindividual for personal guidance, according to his own sense of\npropriety, and they can be accommodated by society at large with a due\nreference to the habits and customs of the day. The attempt of Mohammed\nto lay down, with circumstantial minuteness, the position of the female\nsex, the veiling of her person, and her withdrawal from the gaze of man,\nhas resulted in seclusion and degradation; while the spirit of the\nGospel, and injunctions like that of \"giving honor to the wife as to the\nweaker vessel,\"[n] have borne the fruit of woman's elevation, and have\nraised her to the position of influence, honor, and equality which\n(notwithstanding the marital superiority of the husband in the ideal of\na Christian family) she now occupies in the social scale.\n\n[Sidenote: Relations with the State.\nChristianity leaves humanity free to expand.]\nIn the type of Mussulman government which (though not laid down in the\nKoran) is founded upon the spirit of the faith and the precedent of the\nProphet the civil is indissolubly blended with the spiritual authority,\nto the detriment of religious liberty and political progress. The\n_Ameer_, or commander of the faithful, should, as in the early times, so\nalso in all ages, be the _Imam_, or religious chief; and as such he\nshould preside at the weekly cathedral service. It is not a case of the\nChurch being subject to the State, or the State being subject to the\nChurch. Here (as we used to see in the papal domains) the Church is the\nState, and the State the Church. They both are one. And in this we have\nanother cause of the backwardness and depression of Mohammedan society.\nSince the abolition of the temporal power in Italy we have nowhere in\nChristian lands any such theocratic union of Caesar and the Church, so\nthat secular and religious advance is left more or less unhampered;\nwhereas in Islam the hierarchico-political constitution has hopelessly\nwelded the secular arm with the spiritual in one common scepter, to the\nfurthering of despotism, and elimination of the popular voice from its\nproper place in the concerns of State.\n\n[Sidenote: The Koran checks progress.]\nAnd so, throughout the whole range of political, religious, social, and\ndomestic relations, the attempt made by the founder of Islam to provide\nfor all contingencies, and to fix every thing aforehand by rigid rule\nand scale, has availed to cramp and benumb the free activities of life\nand to paralyze the natural efforts of society at healthy growth,\nexpansion, and reform. As an author already quoted has so well put it,\n\"_The Koran has frozen Mohammedan thought; to obey it is to abandon\nprogress_.\"[79]\n\n[Sidenote: Is Islam suitable for any nation?]\nWriters have indeed been found who, dwelling upon the benefits conferred\nby Islam on idolatrous and savage nations, have gone so far as to hold\nthat the religion of Mohammed may in consequence be suited to certain\nportions of mankind--as if the faith of Jesus might peaceably divide\nwith it the world. But surely to acquiesce in a system which reduces the\npeople to a dead level of social depression, despotism, and\nsemi-barbarism would be abhorrent from the first principles of\nphilanthropy. With the believer, who holds the Gospel to be \"good\ntidings of great joy, _which shall be to all people_,\"[o] such a notion is\non higher grounds untenable; but even in view of purely secular\nconsiderations it is not only untenable, but altogether unintelligible.\nAs I have said elsewhere:\n\n     The eclipse in the East, which still sheds its blight on the\n     ancient seats of Jerome and Chrysostom, and shrouds in darkness the\n     once bright and famous sees of Cyprian and Augustine, has been\n     disastrous every-where to liberty and progress, equally as it has\n     been to Christianity. And it is only as that eclipse shall pass\n     away and the Sun of righteousness again shine forth that we can\n     look to the nations now dominated by Islam sharing with us those\n     secondary but precious fruits of divine teaching. Then with the\n     higher and enduring blessings which our faith bestows, but not till\n     then, we may hope that there will follow likewise in their wake\n     freedom and progress, and all that tends to elevate the human\n     race.[80]\n\n[Sidenote: No sacrifice for sin or redemptive grace.]\nAlthough with the view of placing the argument on independent ground I\nhave refrained from touching the peculiar doctrines of Christianity, and\nthe inestimable benefits which flow to mankind therefrom, I may be\nexcused, before I conclude, if I add a word regarding them. The\nfollowers of Mohammed have no knowledge of God as a _Father_; still less\nhave they knowledge of him as \"_Our_ Father\"--the God and Father of the\nLord Jesus Christ. They acknowledge, indeed, that Jesus was a true\nprophet sent of God; but they deny his crucifixion and death, and they\nknow nothing of the power of his resurrection. To those who have found\nredemption and peace in these the grand and distinctive truths of the\nChristian faith, it may be allowed to mourn over the lands in which the\nlight of the Gospel has been quenched, and these blessings blotted out,\nby the material forces of Islam; where, together with civilization and\nliberty, Christianity has given place to gross darkness, and it is as if\nnow \"there were no more sacrifice for sins.\" We may, and we do, look\nforward with earnest expectation to the day when knowledge of salvation\nshall be given to these nations \"by the remission of their sins, through\nthe tender mercy of our God, whereby the Dayspring from on high hath\nvisited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow\nof death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.\"[p]\n\n[Sidenote: Contrast between divine and human work.]\nBut even apart from these, the special blessings of Christianity, I ask,\nwhich now of the two faiths bears, in its birth and growth, the mark of\na divine hand and which the human stamp? Which looks likest the\nhandiwork of the God of nature, who \"hath laid the measures of the\nearth,\" and \"hath stretched the line upon it,\"[q] but not the less with an\never-varying adaptation to time and place? and which the artificial\nimitation?\n\n     [Sidenote: Islam.]\n     \"As a reformer, Mohammed did indeed advance his people to a certain\n     point, but as a prophet he left them fixed immovably at that point\n     for all time to come. As there can be no return, so neither can\n     there be any progress. The tree is of artificial planting. Instead\n     of containing within itself the germ of growth and adaptation to\n     the various requirements of time, and clime, and circumstance,\n     expanding with the genial sunshine and the rain from heaven, it\n     remains the same forced and stunted thing as when first planted\n     twelve centuries ago.\"[81]\n\n[Sidenote: Christianity compared by Christ to the works of nature.]\nSuch is Islam. Now what is Christianity? Listen to the prophetic words\nof the Founder himself, who compares it to the works of nature:\n\n     \"_So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the\n     ground;_\n\n     \"_And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should\n     spring and grow up, he knoweth not how._\n\n     \"_For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself: first the blade,\n     then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear._\"[r]\n\nAnd again:\n\n     \"_Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God, or with what\n     comparison shall we compare it?_\n\n     \"_It is like a grain of mustard-seed, which, when it is sown in the\n     earth, is less than all seeds that be in the earth;_\n\n     \"_But when it is sown, it groweth up and becometh greater than all\n     herbs, and shooteth out great branches, so that the fowls of the\n     air may lodge under the shadow of it._\"[s]\n\n[Sidenote: Islam the work of man; Christianity the work of God.]\nWhich is _nature_, and which is _art_, let the reader judge. Which bears\nthe impress of man's hand, and which that of Him who \"is wonderful in\ncounsel, and excellent in working?\"\n\nIn fine, of the Arabian it may be said:\n\n     \"_Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further, and here shall thy\n     proud waves be stayed._\"\n\nBut of Christ:\n\n     \"_His name shall endure forever: his name shall be continued as\n     long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall\n     call him blessed._\n\n     \"_He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river\n     unto the ends of the earth._\n\n     \"_Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth\n     wondrous things. And blessed be his glorious name forever: and let\n     the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen, and Amen._\"[t]\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[e] 1 Cor. vii, 21.\n\n[f] Gal. iii, 26, 28.\n\n[g] 1 Cor. vii, 22.\n\n[h] Philemon 16.\n\n[i] Matt. xix, 4.\n\n[j] 1 Cor. vii, 3.\n\n[k] 1 Thess. iv, 4.\n\n[l] 1 Tim. v, 2.\n\n[m] 1 Tim. ii, 9.\n\n[n] 1 Pet. iii, 7.\n\n[o] Luke ii, 10.\n\n[p] Luke i, 77-79.\n\n[q] Job xxxviii, 5.\n\n[r] Mark iv, 26-28.\n\n[s] Mark iv, 30-32.\n\n[t] Psa. lxxii, 17, 8, 18, 19.\n\n\n     THE END.\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] Barth.\n\n[2] Bergaigne, in his able treatise, _La Religion Vedique_,\ninsists earnestly on what he calls the \"liturgical contamination of the\nmyths.\" See vol. iii, p. 320.\n\n[3] R.V., ix, 42, 4.\n\n[4] R.V., ix, 97, 24.\n\n[5] The religion of the Indo-European race, while still united,\n\"recognized a supreme God; an organizing God; almighty, omniscient,\nmoral.... This conception was a heritage of the past.... The supreme God\nwas originally the God of heaven.\" So Darmesteter, _Contemporary\nReview_, October, 1879. Roth had previously written with much learning\nand acuteness to the same effect.\n\n[6] Muir's _Sanskrit Texts_, v, 412.\n\n[7] R.V., iii, 62, 10.\n\n[8] The rites, says Haug, \"must have existed from times\nimmemorial.\"--_Aitareya Brahmana_, pp. 7, 9.\n\n[9] Weber, _History of Indian Literature_, p. 38.\n\n[10] Max Mueller, _Ancient Sanskrit Literature_, p. 389.\n\n[11] \"The haughty Indra takes precedence of all gods.\" R.V., 1,\n55.\n\n[12] \"These two personages [Indra and Varuna] sum up the two\nconceptions of divinity, between which the religious consciousness of\nthe Vedic Aryans seems to oscillate.\"--Bergaigne, _La Religion Vedique_,\nvol. iii, p. 149.\n\n[13] The meaning of the term is not quite certain. _Sessions_,\nor _Instructions_, may perhaps be the rendering. So Monier Williams.\n\n[14] For example, Wordsworth:\n\n                       \"Thou, Thou alone\n    Art everlasting, and the blessed Spirits\n    Which Thou includest, as the sea her waves.\"\n                    --_Excursion_, book iv.\n\n[15] Or, the thing that really is--the [Greek: ontos on].\n\n[16] _Ekamadvitiyam._\n\n[17] This illustration is in the mouth of every Hindu disputant\nat the present day.\n\n[18] Barth, p. 75.\n\n[19] _Ekamadvitiyam._\n\n[20]\n            Volui tibi suaviloquenti\n    Carmine Pierio rationem exponere nostram\n    Et quasi Musaeo dulci contingere melle.\n\n[21] Dr. J. Muir, in _North British Review_, No. xlix, p. 224.\n\n[22] _Miscellaneous Writings_ (Macmillan, 1861), vol. i, p.\n77.\n\n[23] But the truth is that every man is accounted a good Hindu\nwho keeps the rules of caste and pays due respect to the Brahmans. What\nhe believes, or disbelieves, is of little or no consequence.\n\n[24] Yaska, probably in the fifth century B.C.\n\n[25] Weber thinks that Christian elements may have been\nintroduced, in course of time, into the representation.\n\n[26] His Ramayana was written in Hindi verse in the sixteenth\ncentury.\n\n[27] When Jhansi was captured in the times of the great mutiny\nEnglish officers were disgusted to see the walls of the queen's palace\ncovered with what they described as \"grossly obscene\" pictures. There is\nlittle or no doubt that these were simply representations of the acts of\nKrishna. Therefore to the Hindu queen they were religious pictures. When\nquestioned about such things the Brahmans reply that deeds which would\nbe wicked in men were quite right in Krishna, who, being God, could do\nwhatever he pleased.\n\n[28] Born probably in 1649.\n\n[29] Raja Narayan Basu (Bose), in enumerating the sacred books\nof Hinduism, excluded the philosophical systems and included the\nTantras. He was and, we believe, is a leading man in the Adi Brahma\nSomaj.\n\n[30] Barth, as above, p. 202.\n\n[31] So writes Vans Kennedy, a good authority. The rites,\nhowever, vary with varying places.\n\n[32] _Asiatic Researches_, v, p. 356.\n\n[33] Cicero.\n\n[34] We learned from his own lips that among the books which\nmost deeply impressed him were the Bible and the writings of Dr.\nChalmers.\n\n[35] See _Life of Mohammed_, p. 138. Smith & Elder.\n\n[36] _Life of Mohammed_, p. 172, where the results are\ncompared.\n\n[37] _Life of Mohammed_, p. 341; Sura ii, 257; xxix, 46.\n\n[38] The only exceptions were the Jews of Kheibar and the\nChristians of Najran, who were permitted to continue in the profession\nof their faith. They were, however, forced by Omar to quit the\npeninsula, which thenceforward remained exclusively Mohammedan.\n\n\"Islam\" is a synonym for the Mussulman faith. Its original meaning is\n\"surrender\" of one's self to God.\n\n[39] _Apology of Al Kindy, the Christian_, p. 18. Smith &\nElder, 1882. This remarkable apologist will be noticed further below.\n\n[40] Principal Fairbairn: \"The Primitive Polity of Islam,\"\n_Contemporary Review_, December, 1882, pp. 866, 867.\n\n[41] Herr von Kremer, _Culturgeschichte des Orients_, unter den\nChalifen, vol. i, p. 383.\n\n[42] _Annals of the Early Caliphate_, p. 9. Smith & Elder,\n1883.\n\n[43] Gibbon's _Decline and Fall_, chapter li, and _Annals of\nthe Early Caliphate_, p. 184.\n\n[44] _Ibid._; and Sura xliv, v. 25. _We_--that is, the Lord.\n\n[45] _Annals of the Early Caliphate_, p. 46.\n\n[46] See, for example, Sura lxxviii: \"Verily for the pious\nthere is a blissful abode: gardens and vineyards; and damsels with\nswelling bosoms, of a fitting age; and a full cup. Lovely large-eyed\ngirls, like pearls hidden in their shells, a reward for that which the\nfaithful shall have wrought. Verily We have created them of a rare\ncreation, virgins, young and fascinating.... Modest damsels averting\ntheir eyes, whom no man shall have known before, nor any Jinn,\" etc.\n\nThe reader will not fail to be struck by the materialistic character of\nMohammed's paradise.\n\n[47] See Sura _Jehad_; also _Annals of the Early Caliphate_, p.\n167, _et. seq._\n\n[48] _Annals of the Early Caliphate_, p. 105, _et. seq._\n\n[49] See _Annals_, etc., p. 253.\n\n[50] Sura ix, v. 30.\n\n[51] So Jews and Christians as possessing the Bible are named\nin the Koran.\n\n[52] See _Annals_, etc., p. 213.\n\n[53] _The Apology of Al Kindy_, written at the court of Al\nMamun A.H. 215 (A.D. 830), with an essay on its age and authorship, p.\n12. Smith & Elder, 1882.\n\n[54] _Ibid._, p. 34.\n\n[55] _Apology_, p. 47, _et. seq._\n\n[56] Alluding to the \"_Ansar_,\" or mortal \"Helpers\" of Mohammed\nat Medina. Throughout, the apologist, it will be observed, is drawing a\ncontrast with the means used for the spread of Islam.\n\n[57] _Apology_, p. 16.\n\n[58] _Apology_, p. 57.\n\n[59] I am not here comparing the value of these observances\nwith those of other religions. I am inquiring only how far the\nobligations of Islam may be held to involve hardship or sacrifice such\nas might have retarded the progress of Islam by rendering it on its\nfirst introduction unpopular.\n\n[60] See Sura ii, v. 88.\n\n[61] Sura iv, 18. \"Exchange\" is the word used in the Koran.\n\n[62] Each of his widows had 100,000 golden pieces left her.\n_Life of Mohammed_, p. 171.\n\n[63] \"These divorced wives were irrespective of his concubines\nor slave-girls, upon the number and variety of whom there was no limit\nor check whatever.\"--_Annals_, p. 418.\n\n[64] Lane adds: \"There are many men in this country who, in the\ncourse of ten years, have married as many as twenty, thirty, or more\nwives; and women not far advanced in age have been wives to a dozen or\nmore husbands successively.\" Note that all this is entirely within the\nreligious sanction.\n\n[65] _Pilgrimage to Mecca_, by her highness the reigning Begum\nof Bhopal, translated by Mrs. W. Osborne (1870), pp. 82, 88. Slave-girls\ncannot be _married_ until freed by their masters. What her highness\ntells of women _divorcing_ their husbands is of course entirely _ultra\nvires_, and shows how the laxity of conjugal relations allowed to the\nmale sex has extended itself to the female also, and that in a city\nwhere, if anywhere, we should have expected to find the law observed.\n\n[66] In India, for example, there are Mohammedan races among\nwhom monogamy, as a rule, prevails by custom, and individuals exercising\ntheir right of polygamy are looked upon with disfavor. On the other\nhand, we meet occasionally with men who aver that rather against their\nwill (as they will sometimes rather amusingly say) they have been forced\nby custom or family influence to add by polygamy to their domestic\nburdens. In Mohammedan countries, however, when we hear of a man\nconfining himself to _one wife_, it does not necessarily follow that he\nhas no slaves to consort with in his harem. I may remark that\nslave-girls have by Mohammedan laws no conjugal rights whatever, but are\nlike playthings, at the absolute discretion of their master.\n\n[67] The case of the Corinthian offender is much in point, as\nshowing how the strict discipline of the Church must have availed to\nmake Christianity unpopular with the mere worldling.\n\n[68] [Sidenote: Laxity among nominal Christians.]\n_Apology_, p. 51. I repeat, that in the remarks I have made under this\nhead, no comparison is sought to be drawn betwixt the morality of\nnominally Christian and Moslem peoples. On this subject I may be allowed\nto quote from what I have said elsewhere: \"The Moslem advocate will urge\n... the social evil as the necessary result of inexorable monogamy. The\nKoran not only denounces any illicit laxity between the sexes in the\nseverest terms, but exposes the transgressor to condign punishment. For\nthis reason, and because the conditions of what is licit are so\naccommodating and wide, a certain negative virtue (it can hardly be\ncalled continence or chastity) pervades Mohammedan society, in contrast\nwith which the gross and systematic immorality in certain parts of every\nEuropean community may be regarded by the Christian with shame and\nconfusion. In a purely Mohammedan land, however low may be the general\nlevel of moral feeling, the still lower depths of fallen humanity are\nunknown. The 'social evil' and intemperance, prevalent in Christian\nlands, are the strongest weapons in the armory of Islam. We point, and\njustly, to the higher morality and civilization of those who do observe\nthe precepts of the Gospel, to the stricter unity and virtue which\ncement the family, and to the elevation of the sex; but in vain, while\nthe example of our great cities, and too often of our representatives\nabroad, belies the argument. And yet the argument is sound. For, in\nproportion as Christianity exercises her legitimate influence, vice and\nintemperance will wane and vanish, and the higher morality pervade the\nwhole body; whereas in Islam the deteriorating influences of polygamy,\ndivorce, and concubinage have been stereotyped for all time.\"--_The\nKoran: its Composition and Teaching, and the Testimony it bears to the\nHoly Scriptures_, p. 60.\n\n[69] [Sidenote: Alleged progress of Islam in Africa.]\nMuch loose assertion has been made regarding the progress of Islam in\nAfrica; but I have found no proof of it apart from armed, political, or\ntrading influence, dogged too often by the slave-trade; to a great\nextent a social rather than a religious movement, and raising the fetich\ntribes (haply without intemperance) into a somewhat higher stage of\nsemi-barbarism. I have met nothing which would touch the argument in the\ntext. The following is the testimony of Dr. Koelle, the best possible\nwitness on the subject:\n\n\"It is true the Mohammedan nations in the interior of Africa, namely,\nthe Bornuese, Mandengas, Pulas, etc., invited by the weak and\ndefenseless condition of the surrounding negro tribes, still\noccasionally make conquests, and after subduing a tribe of pagans, by\nalmost exterminating its male population and committing the most\nhorrible atrocities, impose upon those that remain the creed of Islam;\nbut keeping in view the whole of the Mohammedan world this fitful\nactivity reminds one only of these green branches sometimes seen on\ntrees, already, and for long, decayed at the core from age.\"--_Food for\nReflection_, p. 37.\n\n[70] _Apology_, p. 34.\n\n[71] _Annals_, pp. 61, 224.\n\n[72] Sura iv, v. 33.\n\n[73] _Life of Mohammed_, p. 348.\n\n[74] _The City of God_, p, 91. Hodder & Stoughton, 1883.\n\n[75] _The Turks in India_, by H.G. Keene, C.S.I. Allen & Co.,\n1879.\n\n[76] _Annals_, etc., p. 457.\n\n[77] See Sura xxxiv, v. 32. The excepted relations are:\n\"Husbands, fathers, husbands' fathers, sons, husbands' sons, brothers,\nbrothers' sons, sisters' sons, the captives which their right hands\npossess, such men as attend them and have no need of women, or children\nbelow the age of puberty.\"\n\n[78] John xviii, 36, 37.\n\n[79] Dr. Fairbairn, _Contemporary Review_, p. 865.\n\n[80] _The Early Caliphate and Rise of Islam_, being the Rede\nLecture for 1881, delivered before the University of Cambridge, p. 28.\n\n[81] _The Koran_, etc., p. 65.\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Note: The following section was originally at the\nbeginning of the text.\n\n\nThe Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle.\n\nSTUDIES FOR 1891-92.\n\n\nLeading Facts of American History. Montgomery,          $1 00\n\nSocial Institutions of the United States. Bryce,         1 00\n\nInitial Studies in American Letters. Beers,              1 00\n\nStory of the Constitution of the United States. Thorpe,    60\n\nClassic German Course in English. Wilkinson,             1 00\n\nTwo Old Faiths. Mitchell and Muir,                         40","title":"Two old faiths : $b essays on the religions of the Hindus and the Mohammedans","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":31203}