15 OJ ESSAYS IN NATIONAL IDEALISM.

" The missionary is the representative of a society, a polity, a

•social system, a religion and a code of morality which are totally

•different from our own. He comes as a belligerent and attacks
our time-honoured customs and institutions, our sacred literature

• and traditions, our historical memories and associations. He
wishes to give us a new name, a new place of worship, a new
set of; social laws. He has declared war to the knife against

-everything Hindu. He hates all that we hold dear. Our religion
is to him a foolish superstition ; our customs are the relic of
barbarism ; our forefathers are to him black heathens con-
demned to burn in the fires of hell for ever. He wishes to destroy

•our society, history, and civilization. Oar Shasfcras, Darsanas and
Vedas are for him so much waste paper. He regards them as

•monstrous machines devised by misguided priests to prepare
millions for damnation in the next world. He condemns our manners,
pooh-poohs our holy lore, laughs at our heroes and heroines and
paints us as black as the devil to the whole civilised world. He is
the great enemy of the Hindu people—the Principle of Anti-
Hinduism Incarnate—the Eavana of to-day who hates nil that we
cherish, despises all that we revere, all that we are prepared to

^defend with our very lives.........

" He looks forward to the time when the Srnritis shall be
unknown to the descendants of present-day Hindus, and the
"Ram Lila shall have become a meaningless word in their ears.
He shall cover India with acres of burial-grounds ; cremation
is anathema fco him. He is the arch enemy who appears in many
guises, the great foe of whatever bears the name of Hindu, the
ever-watchful, ever-active, irreconcilable Destroyer of the work
-of the Rishis and Maha Rishls, of that marvel of moral, intellectual
and civic achievement which is known as Hindu civilisation.
Let us labour under no delusions on this point You may forget
your own name; you may forget your mother. But do not
for a moment forget the great, all-important, outstanding fact
that the missionary is the most dreadful adversary you have to
meet....the greatest enemy of dharma and Hindu national life in
the present age."

In these words there may be exaggeration—-they do
not apply throughout to the work of every missionary ;
"but there is neverthelss essential truth ; and it is resistance
in this spirit which missionaries must expect in the future,
if they persist in their mistaken aims and methods.

Is there to be no salvation then for the Christian,
missionary, no place found for him in our ideal ? Not
quite so, perhaps, ISTo church or sect can presume to say