Clouds on the Horizon: An Essay on the Various Forms of Error, which Stand in the Way of the ...

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CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON

R. N. cusr.

Presented to

University of Michigan

Ann Arbor.* Micb

TOitfj tfje autfjot'g domplimentg.

(A^(^, J^^^' Ji, /^^

63, Elm Park Gardens,
London, S.W.

1 ?R(

CLOUDS ON THE HORIZOl^.

CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

ESSAY

i'mi

S THE VARIOUS FORMS OF ERROR, WHICH STAND IN THE

WAY OF THE ACCEPTANCE OF REAL CHRISTIAN FAITH

BY THE EDUCATED NATIVES OF ASIA, AFRICA,

AMERICA, AND OCEASIA.

EGBERT NEEDHAM CU8T, ll.d.,

Sfconb ant EnlaTgit) Eliftfon.

Mf/i/D/pi^t S'ejTEiTa I

lOIfBON:
EILIOT BTOCK, 62, PATEESOSTEE EOW.

HERTFORD:

PRINTED BY STBPUBN AUSTIN AND SONS.

h

It pains me to witnesB two very strong tendencies on the part of
good men of the present epoch, which I cannot hut with all
humility pronounce to be erroneous.

I. The ■wholesale, and inconsiderate, condemnation of Non-
Christian forms of Belief, and of the adherents of such Belief,
theologically, morally, intellectually, without any exception,
palliation, or excuse, I hare only to allude to the common-
form description of Mahometaniam, and Mahometans.

II. The idea, which aeems to prevail, that we have no sooner
got rid of these Non-Christian Beliefs, than some form of real
Christianity will occupy the vacuum, and the customs, traditions,
and familiar notions, of millions of men will be washed off the
slate of the minds of men, and there will be a new creature
morally, materially, and intellectually, as well as, what we all
hope, spiritually.

A poor Zulu girl, who had been really converted, and was a
consistent Christian, remarked, that she never saw a great splash
of red paint on a rock, without a momentary — only a momentary
— heart-feeling, that she was neglecting the worship of the gods
of her forefathers : so deep an impression had the pagan cust{)ms
of her childhood made upon her. In this sense all the Non-
Christian world are in a state of childhood, or partial slumber,
or spiritual torpor. Still they are all children of the one great
Father, and Christ died on the Cross for all without exception,
if they will but accept His message. It would be a great
advance in Truth, and Good Taste, and Christian Charity, if
the practice of brutally caricaturing our adversaries were to
se, and we could strive to see through the incrustations of

Error, IgnorancG, and Spiritual deadness, into tho kernel of
Good, which is ta be found in every human heart, if wa look
properly for it. I write as one, who lived long years £
the midst of Hindu and Mahometans, and teamt to love them.
I studied their languages, and could hold free intercourse with
them. I studied their literature, and sacred books and under-
stood them. I was not blind to their faults, but I had an eye
for their good qualities. I have since studied the religious books
of other Non-Christian people. For nearly fifty years I have
been devoted to tho snbjcct of Christian Missions, but I denounce
the evil method of wholesale abuse, and ignorant detraction.

There are grievous errors in our own midst, whether we
look to the right to the more than half -Papistical tendencies of
ritual and dogma, and to the left, to tho Korybantic sensational
excitement and advertising self- glorifying methods ia use. We
must reconstitute and remodel our battalions before we shall
conquer tbe world. The want of self-consecration, the will-
worship, and the exaltation of self-imposed domestic duties over
their duty to the Lord who bought them is deplorable in some
Protestant Miasionariea. The Missionaries of the Churoh of Rome
put us to shame. Evil as are their methods, their self-consecration,
and devotion, are examples to all.

I have tried to bring home to thoughtful minds the awful
problem of the next half century. In Misaionuxy periodicals
uud Reports all the dark side of the shield is suppressed, yet
there is a dark side. The time for iadepeadent Christian Churches
in Asia, and Africa, is approaching : their first and natural step
will bo to got rid of every European Agent with his domineering
practices, and to manage their own affairs, temporal and spiritual.
How will they succeed ? Have we prepared them for their free-
dom, and taught thorn to run alone ?

London, Die. 1890.

J

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Chapter 1. Prefatory Remarks « 1

»»

>»

»>

2. The old Systems purified, refined, and adapted to

the environment of a clyilized society ^ ^ 7

3. Modern conceptions formed from the blending of

THE OLD Systems with Christian Doctrine, either
consciously, or unconsciously ..... « „ «„. 26

4. Departures from the Type of Christian Faith

ACCEPTED BY PrOTESTANT ChURCHES 34

»»

5. Concluding Remarks 45

Appendix. Schedule of References 70

CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

ESSAY.
a farms of Error, whiuh. stand in thn way of the acceptant

of

"Oa the .._.. . _ ..

" real Chrirtiaa Faith bj the. tdtaatid HatJTes of Asia, Africa,
" and Oceania."

TEXT.
■' But the unclean apicit, when it ib gone out of the man,

(t) passeth through uiaterleii placea, seeking rest, and ilndelh. it not.

(2) then he saith : ' I will return inlo mj lionae, whence I cftrae out.'

(3] and when he is come, hefindethitenfplj/,>ii'(ji(, aai garaiihed {axo>tdC'>'^'t

(N.B. : Luke omits " empty.")

(4) then goeth he, and taketh with himaelf BeyBO other spirits mote evil thin
bimself, and they enter in and dwell there.

(5) and the last stale of thai man beeomtth worte than theflrit.

(6) Etbd eo shall it be to (his geneiation."

(N.B. : Luku omits the last clause.)
Revised Version of Matlhe\e sii. 43.

[ Chapter 1. PEEFAioHr Eeuaeks.
I Chaptsr 2. The old Systems pit

I Chapter 4. DEPASTintEa fbom the type of Chsistiah' FiHH

ACCEPTED BY PeOTE3IAHT CHUBCHEa.

I'Ckifeeb 5. Closdjg Remaeks.
f Appendix, Schedule

CHAPTER I.— PREFATOKY EEMAEKS.

The work of tlio uinctcenth. century is nearly done : at the close
o£ another half centurj- we BhuH be able to say, that the Gospel
'ias been preached in some form or another in nearly every part
erf the world, la the company of, or following, the Goapel, has
come a certain amount of religious or Heonlar Education ; of
Inatraction, moral, material, or spiritual ; of Commerce, and so-
called Civilization. By the end of the twentieth century, idolatry,
and local forms of worship, will be entirely diBcredited, and the

CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON,

Becond stage of Missions will be catered upon. It is not likely,
that any race or nation, touched however lightly with the electric
current of Civilization, will linger in the prison of old-world ideas.
The heart of man, made after God's image, turns Godwards ; but
the mode, in which it feels after God, varies according to its envi-
ronment, opportunity, and elevation of thought. The wonderful con-
ceptions of Greek and Koman mythology expired unregretted in a
sunset of their own beauty. Homer ennobled, but did not, except in
the case of the Goddess Athen^, spiritualize his Divinities ; Tirgil
lowered them in their moral standard below the level of self-
controlled mortals ; Horace, following Lucretius, laughed at them ;
a century later they had disappeared. The Gods of Greece and
Kome went, as it were, into exile, and some of them returned,
in the eyes of Christians degraded into evil spirits, or promoted
under new names to be Boman Catholic Saints, In Southern
Europe the same temples, and the same statues, have done duty
on both occasions. Here we have an instance of the house empty,
swept, and garnished. The young Hindu or Mahometan, fresh
from the State-Colleges of British India, is passing through a
similar transfonnation of ideas. We have in the case of Justin
Martyr, who lived loo-iio A.n., an exact parallel. He was a
Greek, who lived at Nablus (the ancient Sichem) in Paleatiiie;
he found hia neighbours under the evil influence of Simon MagoB
little better than idolaters ; he himself sought truth in the schools
of Greek philosophy, Stoic, Peripatetic, Pythagorean, all leaterUss
places, where he did not find what he desired. A better hope
was dawning upon him in the teaching of Socrates Eind Plato,
when by a mere chance he met an aged Christian, who summed up
his advice in the following words ; " The truths, which you seek,
" are not comprehensible to the eye or mind of man, unless God
" and His Christ give him underBtanding." Justin Martyr took
the advice, and found Christianity the only true philosophy.

In trustworthy reports we read, that Paganism in its old insensate
form is gone. Great Pan is dead ; if among the aged, or the
inhabitants of remote districts, some trace of the old poison
remains, it is but the flickering of an expiring lamp. But the
same reports tell us, that the connection of the people with Chris-
tianity is to a large extent of the most nominal kind even in settled
congregations ; the idols are abandoned, but the Neo-Christians are
in gross ignorance, and a very low state of morality. If any one
dreams, that we are approaching within reach of a Chnstian
euthanasia, he is mistaken. Here again the state of the Christian
Church in the second and third centuries supplies analogies, for
human tendencies have not changed with the lapse of centuries.
My object is to review one by one the phantoms, which in the
guise of religion get power over the awakening human soul, and
come between it and what the Protestant Christians of Europe and

CLOUDS OH THE HORIZON. 3.

Iforth America feel to be " Christianity," based upon the dogma of
aa iacarEate, crucified, and riften Saviour. As for as I know, it is a
new study from my point of view. I have weighed iu the balance,
and r.aat oat aO forms of religion, in which I found no signs of
future vitality, such as Taouiam, Shintoiam, ShamaniKm, and all
old-world fonnH of so-called "animistic" beliefs. I have quoted
freely, and without acknowledgment, from the scores of authors,
whom I have consulted. Let not any reader he unsioua as to my
personal convictions, hut I do not consider that the fact of having
accepted Christ " ex animo " would justify the absence of a judieiul
mind in the consideration of the wonderful phenomena, which it
is proposed to exhibit. Haying lived a quarter of a century with
the Hindu and Mahometan in closest friendship, I cannot restrict
human moral excellence to members of Christian Churches, and a
wide study of the history of religion at all times, and in all parts
of the world, has confirmed to me the truth of Peter's words,
Acts 5. 34-35. The eyes of many missionaries in the field, and
many of their supporters at home, are darkened by an imperfect
graap of the subject, and by prejudice : they cannot appreciate the
phenomena at their proper values ; they can only abuse and mis-
represent. It seems to us, who were bom Christians, so easy
to accept the doctrine, but it is not so. We have, by the slow
discipline of centuries, had our intellects cleared of such fogs as
(j) the existence of ghosts, fairies, witches, and spirits; (z) the
presence ef the voice of the Creator in thunder, or the elements ;

(3) the idea of temporal ponishment of sins, or reward of virtue ;

(4) the possibility of miracles in the present day, or of prophetic
utterances; (5) the belief in dreams of the night, or visions of the
day. On the other hand, our reasoning powers have been disciplined
by logic and criticism. The people, whom we have to deal with
in our Missions, are stiU subject to the fi.ve above -described weak-
nesses, and totally devoid of the intellectual discipline alluded to.

There is another consideration : Europe was blessed by an early,
and uninterrupted, Christianity. "We have no knowledge of the
feelings of our ancestors, who were not Christians ; we do not even
know for certain what they were, before they became Christians.
But if we could ima^pne, that tie Gospel preached in Palestine bad
never incorporated the wisdom of the Greek, and the strength
of the Latin races, had never found its way into Europe, and had
been stamped out of Asia by the Mahometans, and suddenly in
these days, under the spade of the exeavater, tbe Old and Sew
Testaments had been revealed to us, it would have been just as true
under those circumstances as it is now, but we should have been
brought face to face with the mighty Revelation without prepara-
D, and the message would have had to work its way by its own
late force, and those, who were constitutionally slow of heart to
ieve, wouhi have cried out, " Why have we been left so loany

^^H-srou
^^^^nai

4 CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON

** centuries in darkness ? If this doctrine is the only way of Salva-
" tion, why have our ancestors been debarred of a knowledge, which
" actually existed, but which was mysteriously shrouded from us ? "

This is just what the poor non-Christian races do feel, though
incapable of expressing their sense of the deep injury done to their
ancestors, and yet some of them do say : the power of the Holy
Spirit does indeed fall on them, but they are totally unprepared
to receive it, or make a good use of it, and are exposed to the risk
of errors, of which we can have no conception. What we call
"heresy," or " a«/>€<r«9," in fact " choice of principles," is produced
by the contact of the new belief, directly, or by indirect reflexion,
with the remnants, the decaying and fading elements, of the old.
How much controlling Grace is required to keep alive the flame in
an ignorant, poor, despised Church in the midst of hostile Paganism,
or persecuting Islam ! It is a marvel how the Coptic, Abyssinian,
Syrian, and Nestorian, Churches kept themselves alive during the
dreary centuries of neglect and oppression. But the newly-formed
Churches are liable to the influence of more powerful and subtle
enemies, an infidel Press worked with all the science and daring
of Europe, and in every language ; false missionaries sent out for the
purpose of seducing; conflicting offers of rival Churches, some
bound in the chains of mediaeval error, some led away by spirits,
which they have never proved ; the examples of evil men, calling
themselves Christians ; the attractions of cunningly devised systems ;
and in some countries, like India and China, the solemn call of
members of their own ancestral and venerable religion, which has
cleared away the moss of centuries, and tries to present itself,
as the divinely preserved and reformed representative of primeval
Truth as communicated to their ancestors. Here ^Nationality is
an important factor.

We must look at the subject from a philosophical point of view,
and we then become aware, that all the ancient religions of the
world sprang from the fear of something unknown, not necessarily
a supernatural unknown, for the savage knows no difference
between the natural and supernatural, but in the fear of some
unexpected event, which will result in evil.

" Primus in orbe Deos fecit timor.'*
Hence spring the early cults of gods, evil gods, for the only
formula, which men knew, was that " God is the evil." Thus
the first form of religion is Fetishism, the cult of elements and
objects. This leads on to the cult of spirits, and of the manes
of ancestors, supposed still to haunt the place of their earthly
sojourn, and the dim belief of a future fife beyond the grave,
something of the type of their life on this side, with the same
wants, pleasures, and sufferings.

** They deem admitted to that equal sky

'* Their faithful dogs will bear them company.*'

Then Polytheism oomea into existence, or natural objects, sneh
as the sun, the mountain, the river, become foncifuJly personified,
and illustrious men become deified. As the education oS the ■world
advances, a proceaa of elimination takes place, with the result of
Monotheism, or blank Atheism. Unless at this epoch of human
advancement a divine revelation operates on the hearts and under-
standings of men, the proud human intellect sets itself free of all
theological and eschatological conceptions, and arrives at Materialism,
and the assertion, that beyond the actual body, and the surrounding
elements, and the ordinary environment of that body, space and time,
life and death, nothing exists. In this sad and hopeless snare many
great intellects and noble natures in modern times in Europe have
been entrapped, and nothing, but the Grace of God, can save the
young and proud educated heirs of all the ages, and of all the
accumulated wisdom of Asia, now supplemeated by the Science
of Europe, who are floating down the fatal rapid. They may
from time to time be arrested, as for a moment, by a rock in the
stream, representing one or other of the forms of illusion described
in this Eaaay ; but such a poor device as Theosophism, or
Agnosticism, or Positivism, would hardly arrest the downgrade
impetus beyond a few short hours.

It ia of no use denying, that the Religions of the Heathen worid
were evolved by unassisted men out of their own imaginations,
and by their own natiiral faculties, and that the existence of a
constant struggle betwixt Good and Evil, Eight and Wronfj, Truth
and Error, Knowledge and Ignorance, is recognized in all Religious
Systems, and is no speciality of Christian Doctrine, aa some narrow-
minded DiTines would have it. And aa regards the existence of
a Deity, there has been and always will be felt, by persons in a
low state of culture, a necessity for some one to ahelter them
in time of trouble, guide them in doubt, console them in affliction :
thia feeling underlies the Egyptian Conceptions of the Divine, the
Avatara of the Hindu, the Grteco-Roman Pantheon, the Saint-
worship of the Roman Catholic Church, the Genii of the Mahometan,
the Bodhi Satwa of the Buddhist. False as they are all, they are
true to the instincta of poor Humanity, an efiort wrung out of man in
the hour of fear, doubt, woe, and death. And with the good spirits,
who were invoked, was begot the idea of eiil ones to be appeased.
The Small Pox and Cholera were great facts : could they be warded
off by prayer and sacrifice ?

There may be a new birth of feelers after God, like Mani and
Mahomet ; new great moral atheists, like Koung-fu-tse (Confucius)
and Gautama (Buddha) ; new schools of philosophy, like those
of Socrates and Plato, of the Vedanta, and Xy%a and Sankya of
the Hindu, wondering by whom man was made, whither men
go after life's little struggle, what was the object of existence,
foi the human race are brothers for all time, and man, after all, is

a religionB animal. Augustine haa nohly Raid, " Ees ipHs, quae
" nunc Beligio Christiana nuncupatur, erat iipud antiquoa, nee
" defuit ab initio generis humani, quousque Christus veniret in
" camem, unde vera Eeligio, quiE jum erat, ccepit appellari
" Christiana."

It is as well to recollect the elements of religion, which uncon-
Bciously operate oa the intellect and aonl of man, till choked bj-
the self-sufficiency of human reason: (i) Intuition of God; (i)
sense of human weakness and dependence; {3) belief in divine
government of the world ; (4) distinction between good and evil ;
(s) hope of a better life. And, if religion exists, it must be built,
if it 19 to enduro, ujKin. foundations such as the following : ( ( ) Belief
in a divine power of some kind; (z) acknowledgment of sin in some
way; (3) habit of prayer in some form; (+) desire to make some
kind of atonement for sin, and thus escape from punishment ;
(s) something beyond the grave, liut it is o tremendous error,
though a common one, to measure other nations or races, who are
in a different environment, on a different platform of civilization
or barbftTousneBB, by ourselves ; to judge of past ages by contrasting
them with the nineteenth century ; to weigh other forms of civiliza-
tion in the same scales with our own ; to limit the varied aspect
ot a great truth by the capacity of our own narrow vision. The
Old Testament givea us an illustration of the absence of such,
blemishes in a divine work, where there is unity, but not
nniformity. The only difficulty, which presses on my min d, is this:
It is so otten stated by the apologists of the divine plan of dealing
with"man," that itwas progressive according to the ever-increasing
capacity of man to receive the truth. But the " man " alluded to
in the Old Testament ia the small nation of the Jews only, a meie
drop in the ocean of the great races of Asia; and in the New
Testament, the subjects of the Roman Empire, a mere handful
compared to the teeming inhabitants of the world. As regards
the races, to whom the old and new covenant came, they had
indeed passed through the different stages of man's civilization,
and touched ground absolutely ; but, when we come to deal with
the barbarous races of Asia, Africa, Oceania, and America, we find
that they are still in a lower stage of comparative civilization
than that of Abraham, and that we are trying to apply to them
in their intellectual childhood those rules of life, which had only
been gradually enforced upon God's chosen people, and for which
we, by the discipline of the growth of ages, have become fitted.
If Israel was not fitted in the time of its kings and prophets I0
receive the full Gospel, how can the educated classes of Asia and
the barbarous inhabitants of Africa, America, and Oceania be
expected to be able to comprehend and to bear it ? In weighing
their shortcomings, and their tendency to go after other gods, such
gods as the nineteenth century suppUes, we must not judge them

J

CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

I oiirselveB have done under similar

' harshly. What should
circumstances ?

I now proceed to notice each form of religious developmeut,
briefly, but I hope faithfully, trying to see the good featureu, and
unflinchingly pointing out the dangers, not from, the point of view
of abstract moral or Chriatiau excellence, but with reference to the
danger, to which the exiatence of such phenomena in the nineteenth
century, a period of intellectual, material, and Hpiritaa], development,
exposes individuals, who have cast off the fetters of their old
religion, and weak and infant Churches.

^

CHAPTEE II.— THE OLD SYSTEMS PURIFIED, REFINED AND
ADAFIED TO THE ENVIRONMENT OF A CIVILIZED SOCIETY.

A. Neo-Islam (Sufi, BiJbi).

B. Neo-Judaism.

C. Neo-Hinduism (Jain, Sikh, Satnami, Arya Samaj).

D. Neo-Zoroastrianism,

E. Keo -Buddhism.

F. mo-Confueianisia.

Atheist

(a) Neo-Islam, with its satellites: (t) Siifl-ism, (z) Babi-ism.
TJnijnestionably this is the most dettrmincd and dangerous foe ;
the youngest of all the great propagandist religions, with its roots
deep in the Jewish and Christian Faiths. I have not placed it in
Chapter III., as its contact with Christianity was neither with a
pure form, nor with an open Bible. It is more dangerous, owing to
its resemblance : Corruptio optimi pessima. It is of no use painting
it with dark colours beyond its deserts. Slavery and slave-trade
are no more necessary features of Islam than drunkenness and
sexual profligacy are of Christianity, Of the fifty millions of
Mahometans in British India not one has a slave ; nur is polygamy
either a peculiarity, or a necessity, of their system. In Britiah
India the practice is rare, though by the law it is legal. The
great doctrines of one God, all-powerful, all-wise, and aH-merciful ;
the immortality of the soul ; the certainty of a day of judgment ;
the necessity ol personal prayer; the absence of any priesthood;
the abolition of all old-world practices, except circumcision, are
such as must ever recommend it to favour. Mahomet's description
of Paradise is false, because he was himself false, and knew nothing
about the subject; but he knew what kind of Paradise would
attract his countrymen. Had he been addressing a London Evan-
gelical congregation, or converted Eskimo, he would have expressed
himself difierently, hut would be equally far from the truth, which
eye has not seen, ear beard, nor heart conceived. Islam wins its
way by peaceful means everywhere ; patronized by the Kusaians in

I

8 CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

Siberia, by tte Dutch in Batayia, tolerated by the English in
British India and the Cape Colony, and commencing the work of
propagandiHiu by TniBHionaries. All over Africa it ia afrgresBiye,
Bad appears to advantage, as suppressing cannibalism and human
sacrifices, and discouraging the import of liquors. It is still a
living form of belief. Fatalism bos a powerful effect upon the
Oriental sluggish character, and the time is at hand, when trans-
lations of the Koran, and other religious hooka, will, b^ widely
circulated in the different Temacnlara. At the Colleges of British
India the Hindu learns to be ashamed of the religion of his family;
hut the Mahometan has nothing to be ashamed, of. His dogma is
superior to his practice. From our own point of view the Koi-an is
false and worthless, and conversion to Islam means only formal
profession of faith, the rite of circumcision, and certain praetices,
and nothing more. There ia no conversion of the soul, no change,
or even pretended change, of the heart, no confession of sin, no
conviction of the need of a Saviour, no desire for holiness. But
from the point of view of the idolatrous and barbarous tribes, it has
another appearance ; it does not demand too much of its neophytes,
and it is indulgent to the vices of its followers. ITnder the
influence of the contact of Christian civilization a silent reformation
is going on among Mahometans. The moral impurities, which had
been contracted by dwelling among idolaters and from ignoriince, are
being removed, not by the violent bands of Wahabi fanatics, but by
the prudent counsels and esample of educated leaders, and it ia
irapoBKible to imagine what may he the results. The work of
Saiyad Ahmad Khan in North India is a notable instance.

The character of the doctrine of Islam is too exact a refleetflr
of the race, time, place, and climate of the people, among whom
the Prophet lived, to admit of its adapting itself to the universal
wants of mankind in every region.

It may, however, be questioned, whether it really is itself
worthy of the name of a universal religion, for the pilgrimage to
the black stone at Mecca localizes it to Arabia. The teaching of
Christ and of Buddha appeal to the human soul, wherever it is.
Islfim has a want of power to devdope, and thus satisfy the varying
cravings of the whole human race, and is rcstricled by the initial
rigidity of its central doctrine, and the narrow walls of the so-called
"uncreated" Koran, which has stereotyped an unalterable and
unsympathetic form of worship. One cannot imagine a European
of rtie nineteenth century submitting to circumcision, as a test of
belief and becoming a bond fide Mahometan, however much he may
subscribe to the doctrines. One can, on the contrary, imagine a
Mahometan becoming a Christian citizen of the world. Siifl-ism
and Babi-ism are popular, because they supply that spiritual
warmth, which a worshipper seeks in vain in the cold formality
of the Koran, -where God is so very far off.

CLOUDS ON TffS HORIZON.

The Siifi is a strango and persistent vagary of the human mind :
the wurd ia either derived from "iro0o'»," "wise,"or"Suf," "wool,"
in allusion to the dress of the order. It is prohably a relic of Keo-
Platoniaia, the union of the human intellect with nmiyorsal reason,
and treated as a mysticism. It is a revival of ancient hahits of
thought and feeling among a people, who have adopted lal^m by
compulsion. We know by experience in India, that many thousands
of Mahometan Bajputs are still Hindu, except in a few outward
ceremonials. Siifi-ism developed itself in the form of an ardent
Pantheism, a mystic apprehension of the unity and divinity of all
things, generally narrowed down in literature to women and wine,
though by a mystic interpretation, analogous to that applied to the
Song of Solomon, the wine and the mistress are supposed to re-
present the Eoran and the Deity, the harem is made to symbolize
the oratory, and intoxication shadows forth the bewilderment of
eense before the Di\ine vision. The desire of the soul to escape and
rest with God is often clearly exprossed in unequivocal Pantiieistic
terms. This strange heresy still exists within the Mahometan
system in Persia, it is the especial tendency of dreamy and tender
spirits, as the doctrine issimply the theory of Divine love, A woman
is said to have led the way, and taught, that God must he loved
above all things, because He alone is worthy of love, and everything
here below is to be sacrificed in the hope of one day attaining unity
with God. ITnder the colour of Sufi-ism opinions entirely sub-
versive of Islam can he entertained, for it began by expressing
contempt of life, exclusive love of God, and asceticism, during
which the soul could contemplate the Supreme Being face to face,
and, as would be expected, such views led the devotee down an
inclined plane into raik Pantheism, and hideous immorality under
the gnise of religion. This moral abyss is always open for the
Oriental freethinker, and must be reckoned with as one of the most
dangerous, because the most specious, of the seven devils, which
Vait for tlie soul of a man.

The sect known as the Babi is a new one, but it represents a very
'old tendency. In 1 844., a young Mahometan Persian gave out,

it God was manifested in his person, and drew men after him,

9 name was Miiza Ali Mohammed ; he was put to death by order
lof the Shah in ( 850. He had assumed the title of " Bah," or the
Door," through which men must approach the Imam, and the
[irfiannel. whereby the latter reveals to the faithful the true meaning
._ the Koran. His followers were men of learning, reasonable, and
(humane, with boundless devotion to their creed, and the spiritnal
'diief of what they deemed t« be a universal religion ; they were
always resting on Divine guidance, and have been cruelly persecuted.
The teaching of the " Bab " was that ( 1 ) God baa existed from all
eternity ; (z) He had manifested Himself to man from time to time;
(3) He spoke by Moses and the Prophets, by Jesus, and Mahomet,

I

CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

and now hy the "Bab"; (4) tliat His coming iad been long
expected, that the Christians blamed the Jews for not listening to
Jesufl, the Mahometans hlamed the ChriBtians for not listening to
Mahomet, and that now they will not listen to the "Bab "; (5) that
his hook, the Beyan, was a greater miracle than, and would enper-
sede, the Koran; (6) that the manifestation in him was not final,
that he, whom God should manifest, would aoon appear.

Even in the hour of his martyrdom, this simple, gentle young
man wrote, that all men should know the degree of his patience,
and contentment, and sacrifice in the way of God. He had an
assurance of the ultimate triumph of his religion ; he preached
tolerance, and begged, that no one should be "iHin for unbelief, for
flaying of a soul is outside the religion of God. On his death another
manifestation was made evident in the person of Beta, who was
alive at St. Jean d'Acre, in Palestine, 18S9. His followers were
numerous and devoted ; by letter he reproved sovereigns. The
literature of this sect in the Persian and Arahio languages ia
extensive. It is important as indicating a religious revival of an
exalted stamp, and it tells against the character of our friend and
ally the Shah of Persia, that he should have sentenced many of the
sect, male and female, ta cruel tortures and death, and alain by
a cruel death the holy and harmless founder.

In the ninth chapter of the Gospel of John, the seventh verse
is rendered in Arahio, " Ana hua al hab,'" and in Persian " manam
al bah," "I am the door." At any rate these poor spiritual
worshippers have trod the path of suffering, which must sooner or
later lead them to Salvation : they have borne the Cross, may (Sod
in His own time grant them the Crown, and may they find a door
ajar for them to enter! During i8qo, news has come of another
terrible persecution of these innocent sectaries at the hands of the
Mahometan religious leaders ; and the Protestant missionaries have
extended their sympathy and protection to them. The diplomatic
representative of Great Britain has successfully remonstrated with
the Shah in their favour ; their number is increasing greatly, they
are crying out for copies of the Bihle, and opportunities to get their
children educated ; and a greater step in consequence of this wicked
persecution has been made towards religious toleration in Persia
than hy anything that ever happened before.

The letter of the Sultan of Turkey to a Mahometan Congre-
gation in Liverpool, dated Pec, 7, 1 8qo, illustrates in a marvellous
monner the change, which has come over the professors of Islam, and
and the so-called Khalff himself. His Majesty congTatnlates his
fellow religionists on the sueeeBsfol efforts made to prevent the
representation of the play of Mahomet on an English stage, so
calculated to shock and outrage the feeliuRs of all devout Ma-
hometans. How about the centuries of carnage, and insidt, and
intolerant persecution ai Jew, ChiistiaiL, Pagan, and Sectarian ! Hia

CLOLDS ON THE H0RIZ0t7. ji

Majesty IB grateful to the British Government for the perfect
'"aerty and freedom accorded to the Mahometan Religion.
'.8 tnlerit Gracchos de seditione quereates !

Who can deny that the world is advancing ?

Should not the ill-informed Ministers of the Prot«Btant Churches
"accept the increased toleration, twt laxity, of the heliefa of the tiaio,
and speak truth from the Pulpit oven ahout their enemies, the
Mahometan, and the Roman Catholic ?

1 quote Mr. Jephaoa, one of Henry Stanley's companions, a« an
important witness of the- Faith, and constancy even unto death of
some of the Dervish followers of the Mahdi, who were defeated
and put to death by the troops of Emin Pasha.

" The Derrialies draped out a miaerable eiiateDce for several weela, tdeyTere
" hRlf-stacTed asil constantly ill-uiwd b; tha soldiers, but in spite of their long
" Bufferings they could nsTec be induced to ^Te the smallest infonnation Bgainat
" their UDmradcH. Tlieir Kor&a, the sole eomfort they had, was taken from them,
" and I used often in passing to see them prostrate in prayer with a rapt eipresaion
' ' on their faces, which showed that though their bodies were chained, lacerated, and
" starved, their faith in God aud His Prophet enabled them to rise above their
" earthly sufferiuffa. Finally, when the Maiidi's forcsa were before Dnffle, it was
" decided by the oHiuers to kill them. Tkey were taken down to the river and
" beatea to death with clubs, and their bodies were thruwn to the crocodiles.
" Death must bate come like a relief to them. In all our caleudara of the men,
" who have suffered for their reh^on, no one could have better deserved to ba
" called martyrs than these three brave Dervishes."

Let mo add one more anecdote : In the Journal of the French
Asiatic Society I read the translation of an Arabic tale of the time
of the Crusades and Saladin. During the siege of Acre a Ma-
hometan warrior saw the European wife of a Crusader, and in the
fight on taking tha city he killed the Crusader, and got possession
of the woman. He then described how he treated his captive with
the greatest respect and kindness, taught her the blessed truths of
Islam, and, when she had been thoroughly conrinced of the errors
of the Religion of her nation, and had freely repeated the profession
of the true Faith of Islam, he had the indescribable pleasure of
making her his lawful wife. This from, our point of view may
seem ridiculous^ but from their's it does not. We have to take
facts and beliefs as they are, not as we choose to think them to be.

(i) !feo-JitdaUm. It would be impossible, while philosophically
considering the spiritual prospects of the coming generation, to
omit notice of the important factor represented by God's ancient
people, the Hebrews. Tliey number at the least seven millions,
which is far in excess of the population of Palestine in the days of
David and Solomon, who were merely petty Rajas, dependent upon
Egypt and Assyria, and for beyond what the smtdl province of Pales-
tine could ever have supported, for the Promised Land, the whole
of which I have surveyed from the height of Mount Geriziui, is
not large enough to make up two good-sized districts in British

12

CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

Iniiia. They are scattered everywhere in Europe and Asia, and
the nortli of Africa, in some placca in positionB of wealth, dignity
Bud power, in others in humiliation, and moral and material
degradation, but clinging to the great central truths of their
Covenant. From the earliest time they have avowedly admitted
proselytes, aad no doubt have abaorlied inferior races. The
Eunuch of Eandake must have belonged to a community of prose-
lytes of aa alien race. In Abyssinia the Jews at the preBent
moment are of Hamitic race, and Bpeak a Hamitic language, and
still are Jews. In India some of the Eeui-Isroel are dark as
Indians, and both white and black have a special ritual for the
circumcision of strangers and slaves, indicating clearly how their
numbers were recruited. In the pages of Philo of Alexandria,
in the first century of the Christian era, we read how anxions
he was to win over Gentile Greeks to his faith. The Jews supply
soldiers tfl the Eussian, French, and Anglo-Indian armies ; they
have the testimony of centuries to their laeing endowed wili
abilities far above the average of their times. We, at least, can
throw no stones at the snored book, which they reverently cherish,
nor can they be charged with any attempt at any part of their
history to ajter the great features of their story, the promises,
the sins, the denunciations of the Prophets, and the catastrophe.
They have been cruelly treated by Chrifitians in every country of
Europe ; if such unworthy conduct has ceased in some countries,
like Great Britain and France, it continues still in Germany and
Russia, to the disgrace of those nations. A portion of the Hebrew
race are reported to have sunk into a cold atheistical form of
ritualistic worship ; but there is another side of the picture.
I quote a portion of the address of Dr. Adler, delivered in i8go
in the Great Synagogue in Aldgate in the presence of the Lord
Mayor, himseM a Jew :

"k pDrtionot the triamph that had been achieved naa due to the benigD inSDencs
" exercised hy the Great Syaago^ue and its maQBgera. Many a soul-etimng^
" Berries had been witnesstd within its venerable walla. Whatevfr the event
"that moved the heart of England's sons {when a great victory evoked national
" rejoicing, when a Bovereign had been stricken down by illaesa, and when it
" pleased tbe Lord to send him healing, when a joyous jubilee waa kept, and when
" death had entered the palace), every eveat was commemoriited m the Great
" Synagogue with tbe voice of prayer aud supplication, of praise and thanksgiving,
" proving that the Israelite, then, as always, was 'steeped (o the very lipe' la
" loyalty. Nor irere the administrators of the Synagogue unmiDdtul of the needs
" of their fellow-men, thimgh of another land and creed. Whether the appeal
" came to relieve a famine in Sweden or to diminish the sufferinge of English
" priaonera in France, or a plaint reached these shores from tbe hunger -Btncken
" children of Ireland, the anthorities of tbe Grent Synagngne were over ready
" to aid and to snceonr." A fervent prayer for tbe oimtinued prosperity of the
Svnagogue aud for tbe welfare of tbe City and its Cliief Magistrate concluded
the sermoa.

As a member of the Committee of the London Society for

CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

13

romotmR CiiriBtianity ttmongst the Jews, Bud a reailor of the
Reports of other miaBionary Bocieties to God's chosen people, I tonfess
to a feeling of deapair as to results, hut not to any doubt as to
the duty of Christians. " How can a man be justified ia the sight
of God ? " that ia the question. The great doctrines of the Divinity
of JesuB, and the Trinity, are the Btiunbling-bloeks. Still, there
are devout Jews, like Zachariah, and Simeon, and Nicodemus,
waiting for the consolation of Israel, full of purity, prayer, faith,
hope, and charity. There is a hiding of power, an antiquity of
history, a aimpUcity of doctrine, and, as far as it goes, a truthful-
ness, that seems to find a reating-place for the weary spirit of the
Gentile, who cannot bear the scandal of the Cross. Up to a late
date there was a difficulty for a Gentile in this country being intro-
duced into the Jewish faith ; they bad to go to UoUand, Belgium,
and France for the puq>ose ; tut l)r. Adler has removed this
difficulty, and, as in the United States, the ceremony is a pahlio
one. The Chief Eahbi declared from the pulpit, that his people
had been the greatest proaelyters in the world, and something like
a Jewish Missionary Society was projected. In these days no form
of religion can expect to maintain its hold on the hearts of man,
unless it be propagandist, and in this wonderful age we may expect
the appearance of some Hebrew prophet.

It must however be admitted, that the Talmud is distinctly
opposed to Pioselytism, considering it to be dangerous to the
Commonweal, for there was no occasion to convert to Judaism, as
n fulfilled the seven fundamental laws. Every man, who
did so, was regarded aa a believer to all intents and purposes.
Every righteous mwi was an Israelite. Proselytes were to be dis-
~j5uraged, and warned off, and told, that the miseries, privations,

d persecutions, whichtheywouldhave to accept, were unnecessary,

asmuch as all men were God's children, and might inherit the

mfter : but if they persisted, they were to be received, and ever

ir treated tenderly.

I Another eonsideration BUggcrta itself : in self-defence against

and crime the Hebrew community must encourage

location, and in self-defence against the argument of the Christian
teisaionary they must study their Scriptures, and consider their
■ isition ; and the surest form of self-defence, if convinced of the
fijostice of a cause, is to carry the war into the enemy's camp, and
■not allow their flocks to be invaded. Propagandism is in the very
air, when sects like Mormons, and Theosopbists, send out missionaries
and preachers of Atheism and Agnosticism send out supplies of
pamphlets to find converts. The appearance of the promised
Messiah is still expected. One Christian missionary reports, as
illustrative of their condition; "llemove Christ's Divinity, and
they will at once become Christians." As a proof, thut Judaism
had at one time, or was deemed to have, a propagandist force, I

14 CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

allude to the legend, that at one time little was required to have
induced the pagan Russians to accept the Jewish rather than the
Christian faith. This may he legend, biit laws are iacta; and,
A.D. 315, Constantine made oonveTsion from Christianity to Judaism
a penal oftenoe, and prohibited Jews, under pain of death, from
cireumeiaing their Christian slaves. It is clear, that the Mahometans
in. their ictolerance of later centuries only carried out the practice
of Jew and Chrirtian at an earlier date.

The careful and critical study of the Old Testament, to which so
many Jews are now devoted; the annual reading of the Book of
Psalins, which is their rule ; the reading every Sabbath and ex-
planation of portions of their Scriptures by intelligent men to
intelligent hearers ; the teaching in their Sahbath-schools ; the din
of controversy which surrounds them, cannot be without result.
The Lord haa not deserted His people ; materially Ho has greatly
blessed them. Their wealth far osceeda that of any Jewish
monarch. The ■wisdom of their wise men has far exceeded the
wisdom of Solomon. Their numbers, as a peculiar people, in race,
customs, and religion, though scattered amidst the Gentiles, far
exceeds the population of the Holy Land in its most proaperoua
period- They cannot aland still now, as they did in the days of
theii' undeserved persecution, and their unenviable seclusion from
their fellow-citizens. They must feel that, if they arc inheritors
of the Promises, which no Christian can deny, and if they cannot
accept the Christian development, they must show cause why. If
they are sincere Jews, they must expect a Messiah ; if they are
indifferentista, they are no longer Jews, but common Agnostics.

(c) Neo-HinAuitm. The phenomena deacrihed here are restricted
to those which arise from the spiritual energies of the people of
India, independtnt of CkrUtian itijtuence. Throughout his long
career the Hindu baa always been tolerant of other religions,
patient of the expression of the widest free-thought, donbta, and
Bpeculattona, and always ready to absorb the lower non-Hindu
races into its system on the easiest tenaa. An apostate Hindu can
be restored to his former position by the prescribed atonement ;
and I have before me an advertisement, in the English language,
in an Indian newspaper, notifjTiig that " Chunder Mohira Tagora
"had, at Calcutta on September i6th, 1854, after baptism, re-
" embraced Hinduism by the ceremony known as Prayaschitri, ^er-
" formed on Sunday/ last," Like the Eoman Catholic, the educated
Hindu denies, that he is an idolater, if by idolatry is meant a system
of worship which confines the idea of Divinity to a mere image of
clay or stone, and which prevents the heart's being elevated with
lofty notions of the attributes of God. If this is what is called
idolatry, he disclaims it, he abhors it, and deplores the ignorauc^
and uncharitableness of those, who charge him with this grovelling
Bin. Ah a corollary to this, it may be recorded, that an image of

CLOUDS Olf THE HORIZON.

tS

o an English traveller to be
w, on image of the Virgin in
md, on inquiry, it transpired

L Hindu temple seemed t
Kiy like, from an artistic point of v'
an adjacent Roman Catholic chapel, u
that ths same Hindu had carved bath.

There were three stages in the Hindu system : (i) Vedisra, (i)
Brahmanism, (3) Hinduism proper. Between the latter two
developments, in chronological order, came Duddhistn, Now
Hinduism proper is not likely to survive the fierce light of education
and civilization, though the wonderful Bpiritual conception of
" bhakti," or faith towards Vishnu, may appear in ever-rhanging
forms. The conservative Hindu, jealous of hia nationality, must
fall bock upon the Veda, and the vast literature, that succeeded
them, and he will he comforted in finding, that his ancestral religion
has had, throughout aU its history, the power of adapting itself to
the needs of each age, by an internal process of incorporation and
adjustment, or hy an external process of throwing off new develop-
ments. By appealing from the later books to the Veda they obtain
freedom from many ceremonial observances. The deep introspection
of the Hindu intellect is always capable of evoking new Bpiritual
conceptions, reasserting the unity of God, a kind of spiritual
Pantheism, "one only being, no second;" for nothing really
exista but the one Self-esiatent Spirit called Brahma ; all else is
Maya or deception. Nothing exists bat God j and therefore every-
thing existing is God. It has thrown off new sects, tilted against
Caste century after century, and touched hy the Ithuriel-spear of
European education and civilization, it will do so again. And to
many educated minda it will be sufficient, and the Neo-Hindu,
porged of the grossness of the national worship, will maintain, tbat
he in reality maintains the same views as the Christian. The
Yogi devotee seeks a mystic union of his own spirit with the One
eternal Soul. Is not this what is taught in such evangelical hooka
BB the Imitation of Christ or Uniott with Christ ? The "Ocean of
Love " of the Poet Kohle is but the Prema Sagara of the Hindu.
He seeks to subdue all passions, all impurity of thought, all love of
earthly things. Is not this part of the Cliristian aystora ? He
gives his mind to abstract meditations and his body to mortifications.
"What does the Christian do more ? Patriotism and Conservatism,
and hatred for things foreign and new, will induce him to dip into
the editions and translationH, now to bo purchased in any shop, of
his own sacred hooks, venerable, full of marvellous interest and
some incontestable truth, and he will hesitate to throw them over.
In different comers of the vast Empire he will hear of the spiritual
writings of the Sikh, the Kabirpanthi, the Jain, the Satnami ;
and the Hindu intellect will not he true to itself, if new and en-
lightened forms of religion do not spring up, defended by argument
in schools of philosophy, and spread broadcast in the vernacular

n p™3»-

16

There is no doubt that uninspired religious, and eschatological,
conceptions are the outcome of Race, Climate, and relative Social
EaTironment. Giant Pagan in his gross form has peceived his
Death-thrust : Jupiter, Odia, Siva, and Vishnu, have had their
day ; they were the vulgar outcome of a backward age. But there
are worse things, infinitely worae, behind. An enemy has sown
tares. The questions of human existence have been opened out,
which will trouble the quiet oi mankind, bo long as the heart has
passions, so long as the Soul has the fatal gift of introspection.
Throughout the whole catena of Indian Wisdom there is a seeking
after tiod, and a seeking for Personal HolinesB. Nearly half a
century ago, just when I left Eton, I read with surprise the charac-
teristic of a great Indian hero, Naia, that he was 'jitendriya,'
" one that had his passions in subjection : " this was spoken of
as a virtue, a virtue not probably tfl be ascribed to a Bussian,
German, Italian, or British King, though nominally Clristian.
The Ancient Hindu sages sought after 'H dyia Soifiia ; ttey did
not find it, because nothing but the Grace of God can open the
hearts of men to receive it : but they sought it from generation to
generation.

Dayananda SarSswati, of Bombay, who died at Ajmi'r, aged fifty-
nine, in 1883, was the determined champion of the literal interpre-
tation of the Veda, and he founded the Arya or orthodox Samaj.
He never came under the influence of Christian written or oral
teaching. He was a Brahman by birth, of the Province of Ka-
thiawar, aad from his earliest youth a profound Sanskrit and Vedio
scholar. His father belonged to the Siva sect, and was in easy
eireumstances. The son left his father's home, and wandered to
all the great religious resorts in India for the purpose of study,
and he made use of the editions of the text and commentary of the
Veda published in Europe. He was opposed to idol-worship, he
repudiated Caste, advocated female education and re-marriage of
widows, but he had an unwavering belief in the truth and inspira-
tion of the Veda. To him they were not only inspired in the
Christian sense of that word, but were prehistoric and prehuman,
breathed by God, and eoaveyed to man without the intermediate
aid of human acquirements by the ministration of angels. The
Veda were not only to him truth, bat all knowledge, divine and
human, and in them could be found in the germ all subsequent dis-
coveries of the human race. On his death, it was determined by
his followers to establish an Anglo-Vedic College, with the object
of the revival of the knowledge of the ancient Scriptures of the
Hindu. The sharp contrast of this movement with that of Brah-
moism, which will be described in Chapter IV., will not escape
observation. This last does not fear contact with the "West and
Christianity, and maintains a constant controversy with these re-
presentatives of pure, undiluted lleo-Hiaduifim. Two remarkable

J

CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

17

facta are recorded in iBqo : (1) the Arya Samaj declares the Veda
not to admit of accurate translation, hut only of commentary ; oa
the other hand, they declare their desire, that the Veda shoiild be
in the hands of the devout in the cheapest possihle form. Here is
a dilemma. If it be the Word of God, it is essential, that it should
be intelligible to the human race, and it is incredible, that a reve-
lation should have been made in a form which is not intelligible.
It is remarked by one capable of forming an opinion, that a ■wave
of philosophical discussion is passing over the educated Hindu
classes; but, in his opinion, the more of philosophy the less of
religion, for the great teachers of niBnfcin.d were not philosophers.
In India the danger is great, that metaphysics will take the place
of religion in the minda of educated Natives, who stand aloof from
Christiim influences.

All the distinctive doctrines of the Arya Samaj consist in nega-
tives, or oppositions to Hinduism, Mahometanism, and Christianity.
The Hindu says, that it leads to Atheism and not to a reformed
Hinduism. Their professed rejection of every authority hut the
Teda is yet accompanied by an eclecticism, especially in insisting
upon the non-Vedic doctrine of transmigration, a doctrine which is
due to the later influence of Buddhism, and is flrst found in the
Upanishad. A celleetion of hymns compiled for the use of the
London members of the Arya Samaj consists chiefly of Christian
hjTnns, including, "0 God, our Help in Ages past," "My God,
my Father, while 1 Stray," " Death bHghts not," with the
few poems like "The Boy stood on the Burning

addition of
Deck.

The secret of the
a specious way of rejecting
which

I uie reL

tie Arya Sam^j lies in its offering
ly of the customs of the Hindu,
felt by a large cIbss to be a disgrace, without accepting
a new religion &om the foreigners : also in its being generally an
agency for mutual help and self -improvement. One writer thinks
that the Arya are not accessible to argument either from Christian,
Hindu, or Mahometan, and that missionaries should content them-
selves with delivering their messBges without attempting to destroy
or uproot opinions, which are based on such extravagant assumptions,
as scarcely to call for refutation.

A native correspondent of the " True Light " maintains, that the
Arya Samdj movement was based from the flrst on hypocrisy, and
not on reaUy honest convictions. The secret belief of its founder,
Pandit Bayananda Saraswati, and his leading followers, was in-
consistent with the claims made by the SamSj for the acceptance
of the authority of the Veda. The movement might have been
simply staited for educational purposes, or for the reform of certain
bad social customs in the Hindu commimity, without a profession
of faith in the Veda : but by making this pretence, it has injured
the religious and moral regeneration of India. The inconsistent

CLOUDS Off THE hORlZOM.

action of the leaders in regard to their declared principlos about
Caste and the marriage system show that they are utilitarians of the
worst character, with no thought of the higher life of the soul or of
the world to come.

The editor of the 7>«b Light, whilst deprecating the extreme
aeTerity of the Btrictures of the Pandit given ahove, caDs attention
to the arbitrary manner, in which the Arya have treated their
Scriptures, rejecting the greater part, and making the Mantra, or
hymns of the four Voda, the sole original depository of the Hindu
revelation. But the Brahmana and the TJpanishad have always
been considered an integral part of the Vedic Scriptures, the
writers asserting their own inHpiratJon.

" AnothEC frround for bpDeviog, thfkt tha Arya Sam6j is not deatined to kpep
" or Btrengthen ils hold on the allee^Bnce of «lucHted Indians b tho abseoce Of
" any recogniijon of the doctrine of sin nA moral Ruil' in the writinga of its
" loaders. On the otbor hand there is ia the earlier byrona of Ihe Eig Veda a
" profound GooscioneneBa of ein, and a longing demre to be freed from it. In
" the treatise on Uukti in the Satyartha Frakasli, there ie scarcely a single
" reference to the word ' sin ' : and no hint of confession of sin is to be found in
" ttaeit lilanic«, which are based on the Vediu teits."

The Sidkaniddi, which has on several oceasions severely criticized
the Arya Saradj on account of its adhering to long-exploded
doctrines, and its hackwardness in solid reforms, has more recently
Bpoken in high commendation of some of its members. The
JBidkarthddi refers to their Theistic worship attended week after
week by some 500 Arya disciples at their temple in Labor: also
to their eiertions in promoting education, and putting down the
evils of intemperance, superstition, priestcraft, and idolatry. The
£idhanhddi also notices a change in the attitude of Christian
missionaries towards the Arya,

Here we see some analogy with what happened in the third
Century of the Christian Era, Under the Emperor Julian, who
at least had the merit of true Tolerance, an attempt was made to
restore and reintroduce Paganism ; but it was not the old Paganism
of the degraded Koman, who only cared for orgies, theatrical
display, revelries, and foul deeds of darkness ; Julian was a philo-
sopher, and he desired to re-introduee the worship of the Great
Gods of Greece and Borne with something of the reality of
Christian worship, and the purity of Christian life. He was lulled
in battle, and the experiment fell with him.

{d) Keo-ZoroastrianUm. This ancient faith, under the influence
of the great Mahometan revival in Asia, dwindled down to the
narrow limits of the small Parsi congregation at Bombay, and else-
where in India, numbering 100,000. It was once the dominant
religion in "Western Asia, in the time of Cyrus and Darius, and in
later generations the Koman eagle fell before it. 'Whatever may
have been the rule in the time of its greatness, in the time of its

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CLOUDS O.V THE ffORIZON.

19 1

■decadence it is not a proselj^ing religion, and no one not bom
a Parsi can be a member of the community. However, many close
corporations have opened their doors in tluB age. The Parsi com-
mimitj" ia eminently wealthy, respectable, and educated. There
are two Beetiona : the sdvanced party, who are ready to reform the
abuses of centurieB in their cnstoms ; and the conservative. The
vhole energy of a religious Parsi at the present day is concentrated
on the endeavonr to make himself (so to speak) demon -proof, and
this can only be accomplished by absolute purity, symbolized by
whiteaeaa. He ia on hia guard against bodily defilement, and never
goes out to hia daily occupation without putting on a sacred white
Bhirt and sacred white girdle. Though highly educated, enlightened,
and AngKoized, he rigoroualy observes this custom. The real creed
has probably little in common with the teaching of Zoroaster, now
for the first time revealed to them in the translation of the Avesta
and Pahlavi books by European scholars. As light from the outside
burst upon them, they did not like to be told, that their ancient
faith was dwindling, and moribund, and that thia was owing to the
absence of a missionary spirit. In 1874 there was a discussion
among them, whether it was contrary to tho now understood law
of Zoroaster to seek converts, and whether it was not expedient to
anticipate extinction by numerical addition to their persuasion.

The tenets of thia religion are Tery clearly and completely ex-
plained in a lecture in the English language delivered in the Town.
Hall of Bombay, in the presence of tho Govemor, in 1885, by
Jivanii Jamshedi Modi, an accomplished scholar and agreeable
gentleman. 1 met him in 1 889 at the Oriental Congress at Stock-
holm, to which he was a delegate from British India, and where he
took his place on full equality with the scholars of Europe. I con-
versed with him on the subject of his customs and religious tenets,
and found that, in spite of all his learning and eulightcument, he
was proud of them, and on his return to Bombay he forwarded me
a copy of his lecture. His religion is Monotheistic, and there never'
have been images, temples, or altars. Herodotus mentions this in
the fifth century B.C., and it is true to this day. They reverence
Fire, as the refulgent symbol of God ; but are incorrectly called
" Fiie-uiin-tAippers." It is a mistake to suppose, that Zoroaster
preached a dualism of two iadependent powers of Good and Evil.
The Zoroastrian idea of the evil spirit is identical with the doctrine
of Christians with regard to the Devil, neither more nor less.
Zoroaster preached a life to come, the immortality of the soul, and
a place of reward and punishment. This moral system ia described
in the following ; " Good words, good thoughts, good deeds ; think
nothing but the truth, speak nothing but the truth, and do nothiag
bat w^t is proper."

distinctly asserted by some writers, thot the post-exile
rndaism was more or less affected by the impress of the religion of

i

20

CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

Zoroaster, with which thoy had come into contact iluring their
captivity under a Persian sovereign, and that the Jewish conception
of Cosmogony was modified hy this contact, and later on a con-
nexion is traced betwixt these ideas, and the Gnostic speculations,
in the second century after ChiiBt. Cyrus, Borius, and his de-
scendants were all Zoroastrians, and their letters and words are
recorded in the Books of Ezra, Nohemiah, and Daniel : they are
presumed to be actual quotations of State-Documents, and faithful
records, and have therefore distinct evidential value tfl the religious
conceptions of those Monarchs. I only allude to this to show, that
this form of faith, and the practice of this Belief, are free from
idolatry, ritual, impurity, and ignorance, and try to be spiritual
and holy, and the Parsi population has ever enjoyed the highest
character for honesty and enlightenment. It may attract some poor
wandering souls, seeking rest, and finding none.

{«) Neo-Buddkism. Hitherto I have alluded to ancient religions
based upon the conception of a God. I now proceed to notice those,
which are purely atheistical in principle, hut have in practice, from
contact with local Paganism, become as degraded as fetish -worship.
Buddhism is defined as a system, which is not only free from the
conception of a God, but from any belief in a soul or a future state.
The duty of man is limited to this world, and all speculations as to
the future are excluded. Again Biiddliism adopts the pessimist
view of life, and sums up the worth of life in the apophthegm :
"Wherever there are conditions of individuality, there are the
conditions of sorrow," and the refrain, '' The noble eight-fold path
leads to the destruction of sorrow." The precepts of Biiddha were
launched on the world ia a fine miBsionary spirit, 600 b.o. Expelled
from India, the place of hirth, they have found an asylum in
Ceylon, Barma, Siam, Tibet, Mongolia, China, and Japan ; hut it
cannot be said, that in any one of these countries it is to the least
degree propagandist at the present moment ; hut none the less there
is a possibility of adherents joining them, of which we have a notable
instance recorded in the TimeK, September z8th, 1889, of an
American named Powell being received with due ceremony into the
Buddhist community by the spiritual head at Colombo. It may
with equal truth bo said, that Buddhism has in practice been
grossly degraded by idolatry and nature- worship. Such have been
the features of all religions, even of Christiflnity ; hut the Reformer
may be near at hand. Tho marked partiality for Buddhism ex-
hibited in Europe and America cannot but react upon tho Native
communities, as education extends to them, and notices of revivals
are chronicled in the newspapers. Biiddhiat associations are formed
to counteract the Christian missionary ; opposition-schools are
opened. In Japan we hear of a reformed Buddhism being preached
by a Japanese fresh from Oxford. But Buddhism has lost its hold
ahnost altogether of the class of old warriors, who are to-day the

J

CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

21 *

r back-bone of that nation. Though it will die harf, and take a long
time about it, in Japan it is doomed. Then we read of a reformed
Biiddhiam in China, the followers of which exhibit more depth and
reality in their convictions. They continue their ordinary avoca-
tions, wear the ordinary dress, hut manifest their strong faith in
I their new creed.

What is Biiddhism in reality, and in what light does the eult
Jappear to the passing traveller ? Here are two queations and two
"replies:

(i) True Buddhism is Kumanitarianiam, something very like the
lospet of Humanity, which I shall notice in Chapter III. under
he head of Positivism, the essence of which is the elevation of

■ Uan hy Human Intellect, Intuition, Teaching, Experience, and
I Effort, to the highest degree of Perfection : and yet something very
E'-different, for the Buddhist Ideal is the renunciation of all personal
lexistence : the perfection of the Buddhist is Annihilation, and to
Ethe uuchastened intellect the notion of Extinction by becoming

JBnddha has a weird attraction, and the Doctrine of Transmigration

^plains, and is the only intelligible explanation to minds not

Dlightened by the teaching of the Spirit, of the undeserved

Baiaterial prosperity of the Wicked, and the undesen-ed sutferings

Kof the Good. I fear that the world has not got rid of either

■ .ftt these two Doetriues.

(2) In answer to the second q^ueation, I quote portions of a
■fleacription made by a visitor to Barma in j B90 :

" The worahippere weta serioua and intent enough ; theee were mostlj ■women,
and whatsTer the theory of the creed, which acknowledges no God or Superior
Power, to whom to address prayers with a hope of heating or response, it would
" Gertoinly seeia from the tea^ul eyes and earnest prayers of those poor creatures,
" that they had wants and wishes, which they had carried in foolish hope to the
" nnaympatlietic shrine: the dying child or faithless lover; some trouble or
" hm^che, for the alleviation of which they sought a Power outside and beyond
" themaelvGS. Humanity is always weaker than its creed, and one could not but
reflect that, in spite of the inherent consistency of Bdddhiat theory, there was
■till in other creeds a better provision for the unhappy and desolate, who
yearned for a belief in a Divine pity and heneScence. The images of Buddha
Oaatama, and his iraraediale followers, were in hundreds in the temples all
around, of every size and material, plaster, wood, and alabaster, crowded
together without artistic airansement as they had been set up by the piety of
individuals, hoping thu9 to obtain merit after death. The Grolden Temple,
wliiah strikes the traveller's eje. when he lirst lands at Kangoon, and which
dominates town and country, la the emblem of the creed. Evei^here rises a
pagoda in memory of the great preacher, or his friends and disciples, contain-
Ug some pretended relic of the Sliddha, or the model of such a rehc, or
extracU from some of his works. In the silent forest, hehiod the tiny pali-
saded vill^i in elaborate groups near the lai^r towns, ou every high hill,
sometimes to be reached by a weary climb of 1000 slaps, Boow-white or
blazing with gilding in the sunshine, stands the inevitable pagoda, the ever-
present memorial of the master and his teaching. They are seen in every
stage of disrepair, fur the original merit of the constriiction having been
aoqnired, and placed to the biuldar's spiritual accoHnt, n- — ^a__..,_.. ..

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■ CLOUDS OfT THE HORIZON.

propriety or afftxtjon induces Urn to keep them in tepair. He regarda and
treats liis pagodu, aa a child an old and diatnided di)ll, and aa these buildings
are badlj tonatcuctod of sun-dried bricka, and the work probably a good deal

deit^ hungry for pmiee and sacrifice is looking
a pagoda is ordinarily biii a short one, and the country is
with broken-down, mouldering expressions of past piety, vhich have

the life of a

corered

relation to the builder's pres^it religious state than a snalco is concerned with
its cast-oS akin. One large shed amused me much. The ancient teak roof
had fallen into decay, and in its place had been erected a braad-new corrugated
iron roof, unpainted, and in the crude form suggestive of railway-stations,
and the Department of Puhlic 'Works, Beneath were assembled a crowd of
gigantic stone and marble Bi^ddha, impassive and impenetrable, sitting together
Iikfi a tea-party of the gods. The incongruity of the corrugated iron from a
Birmingham manufactory, protecting from the elements these august repre-
s<>ntatives of an ancient creed, had is it something whimsical and at the same
time pathetic. It seemed, cocpled with the steam-tramway ruuning to the
very Htepa of the pagoda, to saggsat that conflict between the beliefc of the
Eart and the Weat which in India is threatening a repetition of the Scandi-
navian Twilight of the gods. But this feeling is probably unfounded. L
creed like Bdddhism, which is purely ethical, and unweighted with impossible
dogma, is not likely to yield lo any attack from without.

We have only now to estimate whether this godless moral machine
will form u nucleus for the reeeptioa of educated and thoughtful
men, aeeking to follow what to them aeems the right way. We
aje hardly fair judges, for to our apprehension there exists in the
human mind from the very beginning of consciousness, a something,
whether we call it a Buapicion or an innate idea, or an intuition, or
a Bense, of a Power greater than ourselves. The animal-creation,
except man, feels it not ; but we have an ineradicable and congenital
feeling of dependence and reliance on a higher power, not necessarily
a benevolent power, a coasciouBness of control by it, which our
word " religion " suggests. " It is He, that hath made ub, not we
ourselves." Buddhism is the absolute negation of this feeling.
The great founder of Buddhism under-estimated the power of this
feeling in the human breast. Let me say a word on the other side.
Buddha claimed only to be the ideal of that self-subjugation, which
man might attain. This ideal is not far from Christian perfection.
"What did Buddha leave behind him when he died 600 years before
the coming of Christ? No God, no heaven, no future state, but
the spirit of Tmiversfll charity and benevolence, mercy and pity,
till then totJiUy unknown ; self-denial, self-consecration, simplicity
of ceremonial, equaHty of all men, religious tolerance, and the
absence of all the frightful disfigurements, which cling to the skirts
of every other religion ; priestcraft, ritual, formality, pride, self-
hypocrisy.

There is another consideration ; Buddhism has now come into
such a coatact with European Civilization and Christianity, as will
never be relaxed. One or other must give way. Buddhism will
never co-exist with Civilization : will it with p uie Christianity ?
When MM. Q-abet and Hue vi^itfld Tibet half a century ago, the^

CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

'ere Btrupk by the form of worship and monastic life, which that. '

'luded kingdom exhibited, and fondly fancied, that some Eoman

'atholie Priert must have ponotrot«d here at BOme forgotten Epoch,

nd left the impress of Eomaa Ititual upon the Religion of the

*eople of Tihet. They detected the likeness of their own to this

' igan worship, hut it did not occur to PricKts, trained np in Papist

' lariea, that the likeness was owing to their common Parentage,

ie both were streams from the same common fount of human

ideney to Idolatrous Ritual- Worship, and Ascetic torture of the

body : the Romish Church drew theirs from the Paganism of

lUrope : the Biiddhiet drew theirs from the Hinduism of India :

iiropc and India were inheritors of the heirlnmus of their common

ido-European stock of lanjiaage and relisioua conceptions, if not

and blood. In a description which 1 wrote of the Monastery

fof Troitska near Moscow in 1 1*76, I remarked, that in the worship,

jjthat was going on in this centre of the Eusso-Glreek Religion before

eyes, a good Hindu would be qnite at home, because the

^mbols represented tendencies existing in both Religious coacep-

|iions, while a Protestant could not imagine what the Priest was

doing.

I quote also a report of a Protestant Missionary in Japan, 1 8go :

" In 1579, Fmnci9 Xaviei landed. He left in about two years. Eia soc-

cessois came, saw, and conquered ; in thirly years they had 150,000 conTerts

and zoo churcliea. Jesuit prtesta gavi> the Japanese all that the Bdddhut priest

had given them, gorgeuuB alldis, imposing prouessions, dazxling vestments,

and ^1 tbe aeenie mspTay of a soDsual worship : but added to these a fri-shneas

and fervonr, that guitkly captivated the imagiDstive and imprenaionablo people.

There waa little in the Bfiddhistio parapheruBlia that neried to be changitd,

mnoh less abandnned. The images of Bdddlia, with a slight application of tbe

chisel, served for images of Christ. Each Bdddhiat nnint foand bi» counterpart

in Komish Christianity, and the road-^ide shrines of Euwan-on, tbe goddeea

of mercy, became centres of Mariolatry. Temples, altars, bells, holy-watei

vessels, censers, rosaries, all were ready,' and were merely transferred from one

religion Xa the other. Those, who have seen both rituals, marvel whether

B&ddhism is a child of Bomeniam, or Romaniam of Btiddhism, or whether

'^ both mu9l not have some LOmmon ori^n. Rome in Japan took tbe sword and

" perished by the sword. The Cbiistianity, which Rome bad pcesanted ta the

" Japanese, did not leave the Bible hehind. Christianity was banished, and for

" 2 jo years the following inscription appeared on the public notice-boards along

" with prohibitions against crimes and breaches of the law, at every roadside,

I' at every city gal«, m every village throughout the Empire ; ' So long as the

' sun shall warm the earth let no Chiiatian be so bold as to come to Japan ;

' and let all know that the King of Spain himself, or the Christian's God, or

'the great god {i.e. the Pope) of all, if he violate this command, shall pay for

'it vrith his bead. ' "

Cenlniries have passed by, and Japan has recalled its Edicts, and
granted Toleration, and exhibits a wonderful reoeptivenesH of new
ideas. In Barma different phenomena are exhibited: in Ireland
the Religion of Rome is found in an unexpected alliance with
miinioiptj liberty; so in Banna, if we are to believe late reports,
Buddhism under the most tolerant of tolerant Oovemments, tha.t

J

CLOUDS ON TOE HORIZON.

of Britisli India, is forming an alliance with PatriotiBin, and we
find an analogy betwixt the Buddhist Monts, and Roman Catholic
Clergy in France, in their taking the side of incapable, discredited,
dethroned, anil esiled Dynasties : the loaves and flsbes, the Kent-
free lands, and Chureh-Endowmenta are the motive power in both
cases, and will probably meet the same amount of non-auccess.

■ ' A general tegilding and redecarstion of pagodas is proceeding' throughout
" Barma, and especially in the Upper Prorince, whitli is attracting much atten-
" tion. It is not conflned speciaJly to sacred pagodHS, and recognized places of
' ' pilgrimage, but eilenda to the minor pagodas. This undoubtedly bIiowb, that
" some unusual inf uencen are at work amongst the people, and that thej are in a
" state of great excitement and fertnent.

" The Rangoon Jimea stales, that this movement indicates a general belief
"amongst the people that the Uiugflon Prince, who is now the undoubted
, ' repreeentativa of Alompra, is aboat to invade the province. To whatever
" cause the movement is due, it is aetiveig encouraged ay the Biddhisi mimiit.
" The ioumal adds that, in the event of any inBurrectionary movement in favour
' ' of the Burmese Prince, the Bdddhist priesthood would now be almost
" unanimouslj against theSritieh."

{/) Neo-CoHfueiamam. The nature of the teaching of Konng-
Pu-Tse is we!l known, or can be ascertained from mimerous
excellent works. The system is imposed by the State, and it must
be recollected, that the Great Sage was chiefly a compiler of the
ancient traditions of the Middle Kingdom, as well as an independent
author. It may weD be expected, that the contact with the
foreigner, and the publicity of the press, and the advance of ednoa-
tion, will clear away much, that has degraded the Confucian
teachings in times, subsequent to the death of the founder.

The strange notion, which underlies ancestral worship is not
peculiar to China, as in the system of Koman Pagan worship, the
lamice and lemures were tjelieved to wauder about as ghosts, not
having yet come to their rest, and at a later period were regarded
definitely as evil spirits, f^uch antiquated delusions die hard, but
they disappear under the influence of education.

The subject of Ancestral Worship was discussed at the Missionary
Conference at Shang-Hai in 1 890 : the features of that worship are

(j) Divine attributes are ascribed to the Dead.

(i) The real motive is Fear of evil from evil Ghosts.

(3) The Manes of those, who have no descendants, are pro-

pitiated out of mere abject Cowardice.

(4) Every individual is supposed to have three souls ; ( r ) the
which goes to Heaven; (i) the one, which sticks to the Tablet

" (3) the one, which remains in the grave.

in the

AH this may be true, but the conception is so contrary to Eeaaon,
that it would appear possible to disentangle the Chinese mind:
this however cannot be effected by mere abuse of the custom, but
by calm reasoning. There were but few Missionaries at the

J

CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

I Conference of sufficiently enlarged Tiews as to detect the good

inasmucii it indicated filial piety, and tended

) preserve purity and morality in the Family. Unfortunately

[issionaries, as a class, have with many compensating excellent

iqualitiea very contracted visions, and, as on the Opium-Trade-

Qnestion, bo oa this they seem to have lost all power ot forming

F an independent judgment ; remarkahle as this Chinese Cultus

[ Ib, the inability of reasoning men to understand things reasonably

L is equally remarkable. Reckless abuse cures no evils.

It is not very long ago in Europe that bowls of milk and dishes
*A food were placed outside the houses of farmers to conciliate the
jliiBehievous spirits, who wandered about and hamstrung the cattle :
7 simple is the conception of religious duty thus evidenced ia
rproved by the fact, that lamps are placed on the pavement round
Fthe tomb of Lord Comwallis, the Governor-General of India, who
I is buried at Ghazipiir : how ridiculous, poinfally ridiculous, is the
manifestation of this craven fear is shown hy the fact, that on the
grave of a certain drunken Military Officer, who in the paroxysms
of his delirium tremens used to beat and illuse the natives, offeringa
■were made for many years of brandy and cigars laid upon his grave,
BO as to appease his unquiet spiiit, and induce him to leave the
poor humble-minded natives alone. I doubt not that in Central
Equatorial Africa on the track of some of our }^eat Explorers, who
passed with an army of fiends through an astJoniahed country, ihe
barbarous races by timely oflerings try to anticipate another snch
bloody invasion, and soothe the Manes of the Europeans, who left
their bodies in the soil. Education and Civilization alone will
root out such ignorant delusions, and it must be recollected, that
those, who in Europe provided food for the Eobiu GoodfellowB,
rere Christians.

The doctrines of Confucius are based on the consciousness of

ight and wrong, either innate in man or bestowed by what is

taven " on man. Vague as may he the Chinese term

'' heaven," it is better than the avowed Atheism of the

Iddhist, or the confused Polytheism of corrupted Taouism. The

rofessor of the latter two forms of belief is indebted for his convic-

iiona of duty to his education in thii teachings of Confucius, just as

1 of European culture, who deny the Divinity of Christ, have

jneonsciously, yet immutably, their sense of duty based on the

► Christian standard. The conversion of the Chinese thus presents a

problem uneciualled in difliculty and grandeur in any part of the

world. I am informed by B missionary, labouring in the China

field, that purified or Seo-Confucianiam is a very possible danger,

for baptized Chinese still seem to think, that Christianity is only an

improved form of Confucian morality. Perhaps the use of the term

Shjuig-Ti for God contributes to this idea.

IL

CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

1

CHAPTER III. — MODERN CONCEPTIOSS FORMED FROM THE
BLEMDING OF OLD SYSTEMS WITH CBRISTIAS DOCTRIKE,
EITHER CONSCIOUSLY, OR UNCONSCIOUSLY.

A. BrahmoiBm

Adi-S

Braliino-SimiAj.

B. Theosophy.

C. Hau-Hou, Te-Wliiti, Te-Kooti, of Hew Zealand.

D. MorraoniEin.

E. Positivism or Comtism.

F. ChiTBtian Buddhism.

G. Scepticism and Agnoaticism.
H. Unitarianism.

I PASS under review ench phenomenon :

(a) Srafimoism. This is essentiaJIv different from Neo-Hinduism,
aa the influence of Christian books and practice is admitted. In
past eentories a Eomish priest, Eoberto de Hobili, coaceived the
idea of an assimilation of Hindu and Christian elements ; but two
things were clear, that the Church of Home would not tolerate
it, and that the great Indian people would not willingly accept a
reform brought to them from Europe, In the course of time the
Hative development manifested itself. The Calcutta Brahmo-
Samaj was founded by a Bnihmiii of learning and position, Kaja
Kammohun Boy, who died in London in 1 833. Ho drew attention
to the fact, that there was a purer form of religion to be found in
the Veda. He tried to lead a Reformation, and failed. No doubt
there is much religious truth in the Veda, which in his time was
imperfectly known ; but, when it became fully known, faith in
its inspiration was shaken. He was succeeded by Dehendranath
Tagor. When the disruption took place from the more radical
retorraets, the old assembly asBerted to themselves the name of Adi
Brahmo-Samaj, in 1840. In 1S70 Rammohun Roy had published
the Preo»pU of Jesus and the Guide to Peace and Mappinea» : he had
studied the New Testament.

Keshah Chander Sen broke away from the old conservative party,
and went further in his zeal for religious purity ; ho was ready to
give up Caste, to select the best from all the sacred Codes of the
world, and fonn a Sacred Code. Socially he condemned polygamy,
and child-marriages. He laid down, that there was one true God,
that we must love Him, and do the works which He loves; that
His only temple is in our hearts ; that the only ceremonies are
good works, the only sacrifice self-renuneiation, the only pilgrimage
the company of the good, the only Veda Divine Knowledge ; the
most sacred formula, " Do good and be good ; " the only true
Brahmin was he who knew Brahma. All founders of religion thus

J

CLOUDS Of/ THE BORIZOy.

Beat with authority about the existence of God, aud the Bpiritaal

Tuths, which are eaaentiul to human Salvation. There is pleaty of

PChriBtianity also on the lips of professing Christians : the real

I interpretation of the !N'ew Torment can be offered by those alone,

J^\o whom it has come aa a revelation. In one of his speeches he

^QB states his case :

" The Bmhnio-Samfij was origiaallf established far the propagation of Theistio
^' vorehip, and, after a time, the movement spread throneh the length and
" breadth of BaW&l. WlierevcF there wa^ an English echool, a Brshmo-Sambj
*' waa eetahliahed, as a necessary consequence of Eaglish education. After
f twenty years it wbh found, that there was a defect in the foundation, for the
f Veda, upon which their faith was based, taught, alone with some truth, many
such as Nature -Worship, Transmigratioa, aad absurd rites and cere-
Abandoning the iufaiiibility of the Veda, the Brahmo appealed to
t' Honlanity, to their own hearts, to their own religions intuitjona, m order to
^ establish themselves upon a pnrely Thcislic basis. But the Soeiety, though it

16s he started the Brahmo-Sauiai of India, and proclaimed

^ Jfew Dispensation in 1880. He had visited England in 1870,

>nd he died in 1884. Now the real tost of hia sincerity was not

Bthe eloquent expounding of theistic opinions, as that is compatible

I with being a thorough-going Hindu, hut the ahandoning of idol-

I atroua domestia ceremonies and Caste -customs. Any one, who does

Liiot do that, is not a real theistic reformer; and £eshah Chander

f actually permitted his daughter under fourteen to be betrothed to

\ the Eaja of Kuch Bahar, aged sixteen, who was not one of their

L.Society ; and the marriage was solemnized with idolatrous ritea to

lake it legal. This led, in 1 87S, to a further disruption, and the

mding of the Sadharan (or tlniversal) Braimo-Saraaj by the

clear from the above, that Brahmoism is a place of refuge,

mporary or permanent, for the educated Hindu. The movement

IB lasted seventy years, has advanced in the right direction

iciaHy and spiritually, is in consonance with the spirit of tho age,

' with the tendency of the Hindu intellect to spoculate on

jtheism, is free from all social defilement, and all spiritual

iscendcntalism, and is one of the most dangerous enemii;a of the

faith.

In Exeter Hull, 1800, in my presence, an ex-Lieutenant-
Northern India, who had full knowledge of the subject,
1U8 expressed himself :

There was being rapidly raised up a class of men in India as educated and
cultured as those, who left the schools and colleges of England. It was a
small but verv influential class, for ther were the men of the press and nf
litemturo, and had the control of the destinies of the many Id thi; fature.
They had no difficulty in procuring hooks to read, for all the resources of
English literature were open to them ; but the great queatioa wiUi them was

CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

^

" that o£ choice r what should they read P He thought, that the Brahmo-Samdj
" wna doing a Bplendid service in this direction. He regretted, that that syatem
" stopped short of Chrietianity, hut it was opposed to infidelity, raBtBriohsm, and
" immorality. He knew that dilForen(^ea of opinioii edsted amnugat Chriatiiui
"people as to that system, many regBidiug it as a hindrance to the spread
' ' of Christianity ; but he beheved it to be a help, in that it was preparing the
" way for a great Chriatiau work iu India."

In 1882 P. C. Moozumdar published in Calcutta a book intended
fa) give a tolerably complete idea of the principles of the movement,
colled the Faith and Progreee of the Brahmo-Samdj. It appears that
it sent out missionaries, who had travelled tar and wide. In 1884
there were 1 5 o branches all over India ; and missionary work was a
part of their system. They had prevailed on the Legislature of
British India to pass an Act to legalize eiyil marriages, bo as to
save them from oven a formal conformity to idolatrous ceremonies.
There are two or three bookstalls, well furnished with vernacular
literature, the only article of Western origin being a Buddhistic
catechism of English and Burmese, by Colonel Olcott of Theo-
Bophical fame. There are other interesting features of this new
development, recalling the so-called heresy of Gnosticism in the
second century of the Christian era, which was, in fact, of purely
Pagan origin, assimilating certain conceptions from Christiaaity.
This gave it its vital force, and procured it an interest long after
it had died away. We must not be surprised to witness similar
combinations, where the life-giving touch of even imperfect Chiis-
tian development comes into contact with the decaying embers of
moribund Pagan ideas. A combination of Neo-Buddhism and the
Romish degradation of Christian worship is not impossible, and
the uncontrolled transcendentalism of the Salvation Army might
possibly incorporate elements of Neo-Hinduism. The questions,
on which the Gnostics speculated, were precisely those, which
at all times, and in all ages, have agitated the hearts of men, viz.
the origin of Life, the origin of Evil, and the hopeless corruption
of the world, though created by a God perfectly wise, holy, and
powerful. The Hindu intellect revels in such subtle and profitless

(i) TheosopMsm. This phenomenon could not be passed by, yet
in fact it seems to amount to nothing, and by some is called
an imposture. It has no connection whatsoever, in its modem
shape, with the Theosophy spoken of by early writers. It is an
entirely modem development, and chiefly confined to India ;
the persons connected with it being an American, Colonel Olcott,
and a Russian, Madame Blavatsky. Colonel Olcott defines the word
Theosophy as "Divine wisdom," "an all-pervading eternal principle
in Nature, with which the interior intuitive faculty in man is
akin." The objects of the Society are :

(r) To form a nucleus of a universal brotiierbood of humanity
without distinction of race, creed, and colour.

CLOUDS ON THE BORIZOJ^.

29

l(i) To promote the study of Eastern literature, religions, and

nencoB, and indicate their importaace.

r (3) To investigate the hidden mysteriea of Nature, and the
ycMcal power in man.

* These are hold words. The Society has been in existence since
1875, and its headquarters are chiefly at MadroB. It has a
periodical literature of its own, and the whole of India, Ceylon,
and Japan have heen visited. I can only record, that tho results
are little or nothing, and that very hard judgmentB have been openly
passed on those concerned with the movement. Truth, however,
can only triumph after thoughts have been stirred. We may rejoice
at any wind, which breaks the hopeless calm of ignorant Paganism,
One extraordinary feature is the introduction on the stage of
Sages, supposed to he hidden awav somewhere on the Slopes of the
Himalaya, who have conquered all knowledge, and appear in visions
to their votaries. This looks like an attempt to introduce the fairy
stories of childhood, or the legends of Mediffival Saints, and at once
covers tho movement with ridicule. To those, who have lived many
years in India, the Hindu Sap:, whether appearing in the form of
a naked Fakir, or a respectable well-dressed Mahant seated in his
cozy temple, is a very realistic object ; with tho latter a visitor can
have very pleasant conversation, mid, if he oarea to look into hia
Manuscript books, he can gather linguistic and religious information.
To those who have lived many months in the summer-retreate of the
Himalaya, about 7000 feet above the level of the sea, these Moun-
tains become very realistic also, and all idea of finding white-
bearded wise sages dwelling in caverns beyond the the reach of
men, fed somehow or other, and endowed with the accumulated
wisdom of centuries, has to bo abandoned : but the TheosophistB
conjure up the existence of Mahatma or Saints (" high-souled,
magnanimous men " according to the Sanskrit Dictionary). In
" Isis Unveiled," 1877, appearsthefollowingpassage ; "Instructors
" in the East have showed us, that by combining Science with.
" Keligion, the existence of God, and the immortality of man's
" spirit, may be demonstrated like a problem in Euclid," Those

accommodating Mahatma, 1
going to the Mountains, s
plains in a miraculous manner.

North American Bcview, August, 1890, Madame

! the trouble of their disciples
i able to transport themselves to the

Blavatsky claims for the movement a
of the onginators. She tells us that it r

(1) The Brotherhood of Men.

(z) The Study of Oriental Theories.

(3) The investigation of hidden force
She enumerates thirty-eight Chartered Branches in America,
twelve in Great Britain, and one hundred and fifty elsewhere :
there are seven centres of publiaation, with two Magazines in

beyond the dreams
based on three principles :

1 Nature and in Man.

i

30 CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

Trance, one in America, and one in London : their aim and desire
is to lielp in some degree the formation of correct scientific viewa
ol the nature of man, for for many a long year Humanity has been
ciying out in the dark for Light and Guidance : only the Masters
of Eastern Wisdom {the Mahatma, the imaginary wise old men
«f the mountain) can set the foundntion, on which the new edifice
can he buillj, so as to satisfy the inteDect and the spirit, and guide
Humanity through the night into clearer day.

So long as Philosophers draw on the imaginary spirits coined
by their Own fertile and excited brains, I can bear with them :
such was it ever: but, when I am called upon to look for
Spiritual enlightenment to the utterance of Indian bagea, such as the
Sanyasi, the Vanaprastha, or the cave-dweller, whom no one ever
met, or heard of, but are supposed to be lurking out of touch with
humanity, living apparently upon nothing, a line must he drawn :
and, wben these worthies appear in a marvellous way, and reveal
Truth to an American and a Russian, totally ignorant of any Indian
language, I cannot suspend my judgment.

(tf) Raii-Hau, Te Whiti, Te KooH. This is a religious develop-
ment among the Maori in New Zealand. In 186+ they rebelled
against the British Government; a party of the 57th Regiment
fell inte their hands, were killed, and their heads cut off. In their
hatred to the British Government they invented a new religion,
and made the head of the British officer, who commanded the party
killed, the symbol and centre of the system. They had been
nominal Christiana. Their new religion was called Pai Marfre,
and a high priest was appointed, who professed to receive inspiration
from the Angel Gabriel through the medium of the Captain's head.
They believed themselves to be under the protection of this Angel,
and of the Virgin Mary, that the Christian religion was false, that
all Scriptures ought to be burnt, no Sundays to be kept, the sexes
to Eve promiscuously so as to secure increase at population. Their
priest claimed to have superhuman powers, and could secure victory
by shouting " Hau-Hau ! " Hence their name.

Te Whiti was a chief in the Northern Island at Parihaka, near
Mount Egmont. He rebelled, and was defeated and imprisoned
at Christ Church and Nelson, and has since been allowed to return
to his home. He called himself a prophet, but was really only
a patriot. He read the Bible, and no other book ; he pretended to
have divine power, but his real object was to save his lands from
the white settlers. He secured an infiuence over his countrymen
in this way, preaching passive resistance ; but when things became
extreme, he declared, that he had a divine message (Atua) put into
his mouth, ordering his people te fight for their land.

Te Kooti was another of the insurgent chiefs, who, after rebellion
and murder, assumed the r6le of a teacher, and founded a religious
system, which attracted many followers, including Native Christians.

CtOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

31

Cb

If ml

With an outward show of reverence for spiritual thinga, it aerved
03 a cloak for licentiousness. Most of the pervert Christians
returned to their old faith. Of late years a chaage han come over
Te Eooti'a followers, and the cause of temperance has rapidly
inureased, and a few have heconie Chrintians. Mief^ion-work is
carried out among thorn ; the majority still retain their aepamte

[d) Mormonum: "The Church of Jesus of Latter-day Saints."
In all the reports from New Zealand I rood of the Mormons being
very active amon^ the Maori. Their miasionaries go about among
the ignorant people, and the Eook of Mormon has been translated
into Maori, and printed and put into circulation. Thoy have also
appeared in India. The history of this aect is well known. It was
only in 1830, that the prophet Joseph Smith produced the book,
and made known the new dispensation, communicated to bim by
Angels. The Christian Scriptures are accepted, but the Book
of Mormon was added. The Mormons cannot claim to be a Christian
sect any more than the Mahometans. The form of government
is a strict theocracy nwintaincd by the elders. A kind of polytheism
has come into existence, including Adam, Christ, Joseph Smith,
and Brigham Young. They are total abstainers from the use of
liquors or tobacco, and practise total immersion. They prosecute
their misBionary work with great zeal all over Earope, in America,
and in Oceania. Their numbers are small, still they represent
a disturbing agency, which has to be reckoned with. The custom
of polygamy has been authoritatively abolished, and was not part
of file original Revelation.

A Christian Minister, 1 Bqo, thus states the case of the Mormons :
that the Mormon Missionaries are not wholly false-hearted, and
deceitful, but possessed of a large measure of sincerity and zejjl:
that the Latter Day Saints send out more Missionaries, and make
more converts in proportion to the number of their adherents than
any other Church ; that a world-wide dominion is their object :
that they not only capture their prey, but they deliver it at the
Church-door : 90,000 converts made the long journey from Europe
■ Utah.

Among their good features are

No Saint lives for himself, but for the Kingdom.
Salvation was longed for for the sake of Service.

(3) All persona! and family-coasideratioua must be kopt in strict
Bubordiniition. (Oh ! that Christian Missionaries would consider
this and be wise 1)

(4) An adherent must go where the Church sends him.

(5) They go without saliiry, and serve at their own charges,
for in their opinion to pay salaries would be to imitate the ways
of the false (i.e. Christian) Churches, and the hireling (Christian)
der^.

32

On the other side let ub consider their folly, and fulsuhood.

ii) They pretend to heo! their sick with prayer (ind oil : 416
ering from smallpox were cured by simply laying on of himds.
(i) They cast out devile, 309 in Wales all in one day, the work
of onn older, and in parties of from 3 to 37 at one time.

(3) If not received, they deuotmce woe and malediction. New
York was well nigh destroyed by tire two years after one malediction.

(4) No Jesuit is more ready to lie for his Church than they are :
they used to deny that Polygamy esisted, though notoriously it
was practised.

( 5 ) Piety is not roquirod of a Saint, nor even Morality.

It 18 asserted that the recent Circular ( 1 8qo) forbidding Polygamy
is merely a formal submission to the Law of the Lund, not on
ez aninw condemnation of an immoral custom : in fact, Polygamy
will be replaced by Profligacy.

This very year (Dec. a) it is reported that John Young, eldest
son of the late Brigham Young, has ormnged for possession of
more than a million acres of land in New Mexico : Mr, Young will
conduct ten thousand Mormons to colonize this grant. Since the
Gentiles have obtained practical control of Salt Lake City, the
Mormons have been quietly seeking a new location, where they
may practise their peculiar customs, Polygamy included.

(t) PoniUvUm. Forty jyears ago Auguste Comte, a Frenchman,
developed a system of Positive Plulosophy, which, for a time, had
a wide influence, as indeed there were certain incontestable truths
in his method. He had a school which followed him, and Mr,
Frederick Harrison is now the representative teacher, who propounds
his views on the first day in each year, called the Day of Humanity.
A few weeks ago there was a function of the Positivist community
in London on the occasion of the death of a respected oitizca.
Before he was cremated his friends assembled round his coffin,
covered with white flowers and surrounded by palms. Mr.
Harrison n'mindcd the mourners "that there was no open grave,
no religious service of any kind, but merely an expression of personal
affection and farewell, and he claimed for the deceased that immor-
tality, which comcB of well-doing and good example. Of immortality-
beyond this Mr. Harrison knew nothing and asserted nothing.
This form of worship, accompanied by his familiar cremation, may
be an acceptable retreat for the devout and educated Hindu. At
an^ rate it has the great recommendation of tolerance, respect for
the religious views of others, and morality.

(/) Christian Bkddhiim. This combination might bo expected,
and instances are reported in Barma among the Kar^n. The
initiatory rite consists of swallowing a portion of rice, paying a fee
to the spiritual chief, keeping the Christian Bahbutli, and having
a service in imitation of Christians. The adbercuta of this new
form of worship are said to number thousands. No information itt

CLOUDS ON TEE HORIZON. 33

given as to the doctrine taught, but the facta stated show the
readiness of ignorant people to accept new teachings.

(j;) Seeptieism and Agnosticism. There is no necessity to do
more than write the two words,' which represent so much in the
present ago. Those, who profess thom, have not concealed their
light under a bushel, and their tenets are as old as the Book of Job,
" Oh ! that I knew where I might find TTim ! " They represent a
resting-place, or rather a place of unrest, which must be taken
account of in considering the subject, which I am now discussing.
The enlightened ones, the Buddha of the school, know, or at least
have tried to fathom, the depths of their system, as beautifully
described by a modem English poet with regard to Lucretius :

Finitig

i, who denied
^^p Bivioefy the Divine, and died

^H Cluef poet by the Tiber's side."

But for the poor sheep, who have followed them in the wilderness,
Bcientiflc Scepticism resolrea itself into mere doubt, and intellectual
Agnosticism into an ignorance as deep as that of the South Kea
Islander. The last state of the Hindu and Chinese, when they
have left their ancient moorings, which at least gave some guarantee
to morality, will he worse than the first. The tendency of the
works of one of the greatest of the school is to display Humanity
passing through one after the other of the world's historic religions,
the conception of the Deity, and of Divine Government, becoming at
each step more and more abstract and indefinite. The ultimate
goal is philosophic Atheism, for, though the existence of a First
Cause is not denied, it is declared, and proved, to he unknowable.
The Hindu is better off with his Brahma, the Buddhist with his
Biiddha, the Chinese with his Confucius, than the hapless heir of
aU the ages, who has followed the will of a wisp of a god, till
it finally disappears.

(A) Unitarianism. A Unitarian magazine has been started in
Japan. The Christian missionary thinks fondly, that by the end of
the nineteenth century the progressive Japanese will have cast off
their old faith, hut what ^11 they have adopted from Europe ?
Some think, that Unitariunisui will do for the common people, and
may meet the perplexity of the educated Asiatic mind. When Miss
Carpenter visited India, no difficulty was found in securing her a,
platform. It is aa well to know what TJnitarianism is, and one
distingishcd leader has lately, at the age of eighty-five, after an
honoured and holy life, put forth his final manifesto :

" A conclusion is forced upon me, on which I EOHnnt dwell without pnin and
'' Ti that' ChriatiaQiCj', aa deEned and understood hj «W the Cliurii hen, which

i„.- 1. 1.... 1 — .--T- -yn],ed from what 19 transient and periahaljle in its

' ' 'ti tiaditiona, mjthDlogicat in ita preoonoep-

34

. CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

tinne, and misappretieDded in the oracles of its prophets. From ths fable of Edm
ti> the imagination of the last trainpet. the vhole atory of clivinB ordei of the
world is dislocated and deformed. Tns blight of birth-sin, with its invDluntai7
peidition ; the scheme of expiator]' redemption, with its yicaiiniu aalTation ; the
incarnation, with ita low postuktea of the relation between God and man ; and
ila unnorkable doctrine ot two natures in one person ; the official transmieaion of
grace throngh material elemenla in the keeping of a consecrated corporation ; the
Becond coming of Christ to summon the dead, and part the sheep from the goats
at the general judgment ; alt are the growth of a mythical literature, or Meseiaiiio
dreams, or Pharisaic theology, or sacramental literature, or popular apotheosis.
And BO nearlj do these vain imaginations pre-occupj the creeds, that not a moral
or spiritual element finds entrance there escegt 'the forgiveness of sins.' To
consecrate and diffuse, under the name of ' Chnslianity,' a theory of the wurld'a
economy thus made up of illuaioDB from obsolete stages of civilization, immensa
resources, material ana moral, are expended, with effects no less deplorable in the
pir^ieES of religion than would be in that of Science's hierarchit^s, and missions
lor propagating the Ptolemaic astronomy, and inculcating the rules of necromancy
and exorcism. The spreading alienatjon of the intellectual classes of European
society from Christendom, and the detention of the rest in their spiritual cultura
at a level not much ahove that of the Salvation -Army, are social phenomena,
which onght to bnng home a very solemn appeal to the conscience of; stationarjr
Churches. For their long arrear of debt to the intelligence of mankind, they
adroitly seek in make amends by elaborale hmuly nf Situal Art. The spology
Boothes for a tiine, but it will not last for ever." [Seat of Authority in Riligteu,
p. 650, Longmans, 1890.]

This will go out to India, Japan, China, Africa, and the lalea of
the Sea, and be gladly circulated hy an infidel press in all the
languages of the world; it will do infinite mischief to the young
and inquiring soul, j'uat budding into a perception of Chriatian.
Truth. But what of the author ? "We dare not sit in judgment on
a fellow-creature soon about to stand with this roll of writing in
his hand before the white tlirone. Unless indeed the Gospel of
our Salvation be really false, it will be better in the Day of Judgment
for the ignorant Pagan, who felt after God, if haply he could find
him, than for the great wise learned philoTOpbcr, who deliberately
rejected Him.

CHAPTER IV.— DEPAETTJEES FROM THE TYPE OF CHRISTIAN
FAITH ACCEPTED BY PE0TE3TANT CHURCHES.

A. Conditional Immortality.

B. Future Probation.

C. Mistaken Views as to the Second Coming of Christ.

D. Faith-healing.

E. The Pagan Elements in the Papal System.

F. Plymouthitiam.

G. Ifonjinul Christianity and IndifEeronce,
I HOW pass to " Departures from the typo of Christian Paith " as
aeeepfed by the Protestant Churches of all denominatiuns, I quote
the words of othere from printed matter before me.

CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

35

(a) Conditio/tal ImmortaKt}/, called otherwise, " Life in Christ."
Wo have the recorded opinions of (i) a missionary in Japan, who
had tho strength o£ his convictions: (i) a missionary in China;
(l) a missionary in Calcutta ; and (4) a missionary among the non-
Hindu races of India. It so happens, that they all helong to different
denorainatioas of Protestant Churches. One of them writes, repre-
senting the opinion of all :

" It is Hatonisliing, how the riew of divine truth set forth in the ' Life in
" Christ' L'ummends itself to the almost instant appreheoAioa and apprmsCion
'' of the unprejudiced Native Christian mind. I never tlunist it to the bunt, bnt
" ntcertheleat it it litattly and rapidiy apreadinj.

It is the last sentence on which I lay stress. I quote a passage
from the writings of a most distinguished layman :

" Man was not created an immortal being', thougli deeiened for and endowed
powers adaptdng Mm for an endless eiistonce. Hia actual posaession of
irtalit]' was ooutingotit un his obedience. When he fell from innocence,
ie toil from immortalitj. He was driven from the Tree of Life, lest he should
be immortal, though a siuner. That there should be a future lite at all doss
not depend on aurthing innate in man's original nature, bnt ia part and parcBl
of the plan of redemption. Through the Incarnation, Atonement, and Besur-
lection, proviaion wm made for man's ultimate reetomtion to a state of
innocence, and a restitution to him of his forfeited immortality. Not to all
will he a reaurrection to eternal life. To the wiclied the reaurrectiou will onlj
be to ludgment ; they will be pumahed teith everlaaUng dtalrMtim /rem the
pretaiee of the Lord.

This is the doctrine. It is supposed to he a comfort to nationa,
who havo instilled in them an exaggerated reverence for parents
and ancestors, and who, na shown above, under the head Neo-
Confucianiam, Chapter II., have a fear of their ancestors taking
offence at their descendants adopting a religion, which, under
frightfully raiataten views of die Gospel, condemns aU non-
Christiana to everlasting torture. This terrible alternative is no
new dogma; it is fully developed in a volume called John Ward,
Preacher, 18S9. I quote his words:

" Why do I lay such stress upon this doctrine, instead of some other doctrines
nf the Church F It is because I do believe, that Salvation and Eternal Life
depend upon holding this doctrine of reprobation in its truth and entirety.
For if you deny the eternity of punishment, the scheme of Salvation is futile,
Ohriat need not hate died, a man need not repent, and the whole motive of the
G-ospel is false; ruvelatiou is denied, and we are without God and hope.
Orant the eternity of punishment, and the beauty and order of the moral
universe buret upon us ; man is a sinntr, and deaorvus death, and Jnstice is
satisfied, for the mercy ia ofiered ; it is becaUBe Christ has died: and Hia
atonement is not cheapened by being forced upon men, who do not want it:
they must ac(«pt it or be punished. Foreign Missions were inevitable, wherever
the sentiment of pity found room in a bnman heart, becan'W the guilt of those
in the darkness of unbelief without God, uilhoat hope, would certainly drag
down others ta eternal misery : and this was a thought so awfnl, that men could
not go (heii way, and leave them to perish."

i

IJUDS ON THE HORIZON.

No one of the congrogation disputed the Preacher's statcraent,
that the wrath of God rested on all uncoQverted souls, and that it
would, unk-sa they hurst from their darkness into the glorious light
of revealed truth, sink them to Hell.

" The poBsibility," he added, " of being saved vrithout a knowledge of Christ.
" reraained after iSoo years a possibility illustrated by no esample ; he ehowal
" bow blaaphemoua was the cry, that men must be saved, if for lack of o/^orla-
" nity tbey knew not Christ : that God would not damn the soul, that had no
" chance of Saltation. It bad had the chance in Adam, and had loil it, and tea>
" Iher^ere condemned,"

To the Preacher this punishment of the helpless heathen seemed
onlyjust : he could not realize the cruelty, with which he credited
the Deity.

I quote somewhat similar words from a well-known Theological
author, whose book is used at the present moment by Bishops ia
their examiuations ;

" I have nothing more to do with him: he haa passed to the bar of his
" SovereigD -Judge. I humbly truat, that that Sovereign -Judge baa reserved to
" bimseU' the right to make allowances. I have no power to make reservations.
" He that believeth not shall he damued."

There is a story of Radhod, the Pagan Duke of Friesland, 730
A.E., who had been persuaded to receive baptism, because his walk
•was holy, and his soul noble and righteous. As he was stepping
down into the baptistery, he asked the English Missionary Willibrod,
where were the souls of his heathen ancestors. "In hell," was
tike reply. He drew back at once from the baptismal waters,
and preferred to remain with his own people, and die unbaptized.
This aptly illustrates the mistaken view of Christian theology,
which has induced this equally mistaken departure from Christian
practice to relieve the feelings of converts. A missionary was
lately withdrawn from Japan for entertaining such views.

(i) ^lure Probation, or the dogma of a probation between death
and the general judgment. Those, who put forth this doctrine
maintain, "that the present life is not the decisive test for the
" heathen, and that the decisions of the final judgment are not t«
" be made in view of the deeds done in the body ; " or, in other
words, " An offer can be made in the place of departed spirits of
" Christ to all, who have had no adequate presentation of Him in
"this life." The subject has been brought to ray notice in the
Eeports of Missionary Committees in the United Stntes. It is
obvious how, in countries where worship of ancestors has been part
of the life of the people, such doctrines would be very soothing to
converts. It looks like a revival of a modified Purgatory.

(d) Mistakmt Views an to the Second Coming of Christ. In the
year 18S1 the Native Christians in South India conceived the idea,
that the world was coming to an end on September igth, 1881.
It was in vain, that Hishop Caldwell and hie clei^, libigHah aud

HE HORIZON.

37

^atire, remonatratod with them ; false prophets roae up in their

idat and encouraged them. They were trcutod with great kind-

as and judgment, hut a considerable number, male Bud female,

t their homes, aad gathered together at a Holitary seaside-place to

■ait for the coming of the Lord. They paased their time in fasting,

■'1 exhortation, and prayer. They had aold all things, and

■n common. Some of the leaders lost their balance, and

retended to administer the Lord's Supper, though laymen ; but

was no immorality. When the day passed by, and aU went

i usual, they returned to their homes greatly humbled, and

raved forgiveness of the Bishop, and there were no evil conse-

Still, this is on instance of the excitable character of the

asses in India, and such detuaioas may end in lamentable

. We may hear of such things again. The heart goes out

I pity to such poor, loving, uninstrueted souls. To those,

.ve loved much, much will he forgiven, Paul seems

fully to warn against this. In I. Thess. iv. ti, iz, we are told

e quiet, do our own business, and work with our own hands and

k honestly : thus pointing out the proper mode of passing the

3 of our mortal career : in the very next verse of the same

er he passes at once to tho description of the Lord's second

ig, when those who are alive, employed as commanded by him

', will be caught up, meet him in the air, and he ever with the

The poor natives of India were thoroughly wrong in dis-

mtinuing their ordinary lawful occupation under vain, and vague,

d fanciful, and mistaken teaching,

(rf) Faith-hetding. This may prove a formidable phenomenon in
^Native Church, whether educated or not. It is distinctly reoom-
ed by one writer, us an instrument of the conversion of the
en by missionaries. Among races in a low state of civilization
jht cause trouble, and herald the return into power of the old
line-man, rain-maker, magician, and sorcerer. If Elijah by
r restored life, by prayer also he brought rain,
e case of a Protestant minister in Switzerland ia sometimes
t upon with satisfaction, but I have visited the Eoman Catholic
) at Lourdes in the Pyrenees, where the Virgin is credited
ii innumerable cures, and on the walls of the cave, where she is
i to have manifested herself, are hung up in great numbers the
IS of the poor sufferers who came to her shrine and left her
ig. Across the Spanish frontier, I visited the shrine of the
k Virgin of the Pilar at Saragossa, where the same marvellous
s are told and believed. In one case a man, who had his leg
f by a scythe while mowing, had it fastened on again under
! influence of prayer, leaving only a red line round the Umb
) record the miracle. In India I am familiar with many such
2les, vouchsafed to the devout Hindu bathing at the Gsnges,
e Mahometan pilgrim to the ehriae of saints, faith-healing is

I

f Vbr

■k

CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON'.

stflck of the credulous of every country and religion.
Convulaiona have been cured by toucli of the true oroas, and the
king's evil by the t«uch of a long or queen. We let down Faith
to its lowest level, when we put it to material tests, such as curing
a disease or restoring a lost !imb, and it is not easy to draw the
line and allow Faith to medical cases, and exclude it from surgical
of the character above described. In the case, moreover, of tbe
healing of an infant, the Faith is vicarious.

The Hindu rolls up bits of paper with Nagari letters inscribed,
and makes the patient swallow it ; the Mahometan swallows a line
of the Koran in Arabic : here there is the action of Faith, but I
recollect how years ago, when one of my Hindu companions was
down with fever, one of the sympathizing MahoBietan soldiers
brought me an amulet with a verse of the Kor^ in it, to tie round
the patient's acck ; this was pure fetishism, though kindly meant.

I quote a case of a pious French Priest, who died about thirty
years ago, and whose biography has a great sale at this moment,
1 890. It is firmly believed, that during the long years of M.
Viauney's ministry cases were constantly occurring, in which either
the deaf heard, the blind saw, and the lame walked; at least a vast
number of people were deceived into believing as much. If every
one of them were proved false, there would, however, remain this
one miracle, that of the man himseli, exercising during these
decades of years his prodigious ministry, existing, one might say,
almost without food, rest or sleep ; a man who, though foDowed by
an amotmt of homage amounting almost to adoration, never swerved
from the line of humility and self-abnegation, to which he had
committed himself.

But let UB lift up the subject to a higher level. Those, who have
studied the words of the sages of the ancient world, Confucius,
Buddha, Solomon, Socrates, and One greater than all, must have
profited little, if they have not discovered, that here on earth is not
our rest, and that this life is not all that we desire, but is only a
portico leading into the temple of the next world, only a caravan-
serai, in which the soul rests for the watches o( the night, and Witt
the morning's dawn the camp moves on one march nearer home.
"Why are life, and health, and freedom from pain desired, for He
giveth TTia beloved sleep, and, whom He loveth, He chaateneth?
How many have found their way per crucem ad lucem ? and of those,
who have lived long lives without sickaesa or pain, whose eyes
swell with fatness, is it well with their souls at the last ?

To seek cures of human ills by human remedies, by all that art
and science can supply, is right, and our bounden duty ; but we
can only ask the Lord in prayer to give us a happy issue out of all
our afftiction. If our lives are prolonged for a little span, lot it bo
to serve Him a little longer. If our course be nm. to be with
Christ is far better. Faith-healing seems to be a fond delusion of

CLOUDS OJV THE HORIZON.

39

[ Teak souls, nnd a tempting of the Lord ; for we know not what we
go beyond asking for submission to what He is pleased
iH the very best for each one of ua.
DsilT there Eurges upwards to the throne
The bnming wave of passioaiite appeal :
Ye bring jour bleeding hearts, jonr bmina that reel.
And rasp your prayers in ea?er feverish tone ;
The kind Coatroller luoka mth pitying eyes
On the wild upturned faces, and deniii.

This is not tho place to discuss how many wonderful cores in
Mahometan, and Homan Catholic countries for more than
thousand years have occurred, do occur, and, no doubt, ever
IT. Faith may have something to do with it, but it is not
faith ; and more depends upon the receptireneHs of the
ierer than on the gift or prayer of the performer. Those, who
able to awaken a patient's faith, actually use a potent natural
It is faith which heals, but not the obj'eet of faith outside
tct of faith.

inful event has recently happened in the history of the new

Mission to the Siid^n, the deaths of Mrs. Kingman and of

Gates and Harris, from African fever at Sierra Leone,

they had only recently arrived. The circamstances of the

are peculiarly sad, because these devoted young workers had

led to believe it a Christian duty to refrain from the tue of

ine, and to expect healing in answer to prayer and Faith.

died, humanly speaking, because they rejected medical advice,

medicine, though these are assuredly among the "all things,"

oh God has given us richly to enjoy and to employ. These

e bright and hopeful young lives were thus lost to the mission

poor dark Africa, not because, constrained by the love of

they had exposed themselves to this deadly climate, but

, misled by erroneous teaching, they neglected the proper

ions against malaria, which experience has taught mankind.

)ther form of this delusion appears in the expressions used in

Missionary report.
One paiticolarly interesting case a! the son of a chief o! the place I muat
flnlJoa. J found him very ill with inflammation of the lungs, following on
dysentery. Tho father and mother, being ChriatiHn adherenla, were being
(aanted by the hestben with the questioii, 'Cao your God heal him?'' X
took this as a direct challenge to God's power, and after using the obubI means,
claimed his healing from Gad. In a week's time the lung trouble was
'.' completely gone ; and though he is still unwell, through improper feeding,
" he has recovered, and is a standing proof that our God does bear prayer."

" Claimed him of God." What did thoughtless young men
and women think, when they used such expressions ? The dirty
little ignorant boy, whose life they claimed, went back to his dirt
and ignorance, and yet they presume, that this life was saved
by their arrogant prayer. How many great, wise, good men, the
centres of usefulness, wisdom, and philanthropy, have been called

i

40 CLOUDS ON THE HQRIZOM.

away, each in hia own appointed time, laving worked out the plan
of Ule ordained, and filled the little apace of time allo'wed ! Why
did no one intercede for Bishop Hannington, and Mackay f What
were their colleagues doing; that they did not elaim these valuable
lives ? Why was Lord Shaftesbury allowed to die ? Is the Ruler of
the Universe to be blamed, and His Power to be staked on such a
blasphemous challenge by a young Doctor? We do not find that
experienced ordained Missionaries act thus : it is only the modern
type of Salvation Army-enthusiasts, that venture on such indecent
familiaritv with the counsels of God. Surely it was not the part
of a humble Christian to write thus. "Is it well with the child?"
asked the Prophet. " It is well," replied the Mother, for he had
been taken away ; how many a Parent in after-life has doubted,
whether it would not have been better, if the prayer for a sick
child had not been heard : better for the child, who grew up to be
a sinning man ; better for the Parents, who lived to see their
offspring bloom into madness, or blossom into sin.

Besides it might have happened that the child died, what opinion
would have been thought then of God's power? The pious
physician, while he is applying the proper remedies, no doubt lays
the case before God, imploring a blessing on hia endeavour, and a
Grace to his skill, but he loaves the issue with One, who knows
best. If children were able to claim of God their holy and aged
Parents, there would be no more dying in the world. X read of a
Missionary this very year, who had a slight attack of typhoid, and
be was anointed with oil by hia coUeaguea in accoidance with
James v. 14, 15. The Eomaa Catholics are always logical, and
they go a step further : the French Priest offers Mass for the
recovery of a farmer's cow. If the farmer is a Protestant, and
pays fie money for the Mass, it is allowed, if the intentian of the
Ifatta he kept gtrietly private.

The Missionary is commissioned to preach the Gospel, not to
work miracles, or pretend to do so : he is not warranted in counting
on miraculous support, or supernatural endowment, and it cannot
be right to introduce the Divine Name so constantly, and to affect
an acquaintance with God's Secrets. Tor a young man after a few
months' work in a Miasion-Piold te place on paper, that bis labours
are " owned of God " seems little short of blasphemy, if he knew
what he was writing, or folly, if it was only a canting expression.
Let the Faith-healer reflect on the end of the lives of the King
Josiflh of Judah, and King Oswald of Northumbria. Both served
the Lord with all their hearts, and He took them away by a bitter
death in the midst of their apparent nsefulness ia His service, as
a token that their service was not required :

'■ Lord, what is this f " I trembling cried,

" Wilt thon pursue Thj vorm to deHtb ? "
" This is the way," the Lord replied,
" I answer prajeta foi Grace and Faith."

I

i

CLOUDS ON THE HORIZOK.

41

[i) Pagan eUmsnti in the Papal S'jttsm. I could have wished to
.ve kept clear from discusBing the merits of Christian Churches,
it there are features in the Bomish system, which caimot be passed
Nature-Worship conHistn in the belief in the existence of
Ipirits, who are objects of worship, move through the air, either of
" eir own aceonl or conjured by some spell. The apparitions of
e Vii^n and Saints, which are vouched by the Komiah Church,
elong to this category. Such spirits take np their abode in some
bject, lifeless or living, and are deemed to possess power and

deserve worship. Such are the relics, and images, and pictures
1 Romish churches. Priests of every kind arrogate power to
ropitiate and control these spirits, and to work miracles by pre-

"ng to change the substances of ordinary articles of food. This
B the practice of the Soman Church : the use of beads, crosses,
d other fetishes are of Pagan origin. Already, both in India and
1, in former centuries, dangerous blendings have taken place
if Native and Komiah usages, and it is impossible not to anticipate
their recurrence, when the Native priesthood becomes numerous,
and the Churches assert their independence of foreign control. No
doubt these practices in the Church of Rome are survivals of old
I Italian Paganism, and unconsciously were grafted ux>on the Christian
^stem, and it is a mournful prospect for the nascent Christdim
(hurches in Asia and Africa to be exposed to the identical forma of
' m, which troubled them, while they were Pagans, after they
e entered the Christian fold. This is no idle fear : the Romish
in Kongo were utterly destroyed, hut to this day the
are found with the crosses and beads of the old Romish
aith, reconverted to analogous Pagan uses. So little is required of

1 convert to the Church of Rome ; a repetition of prayers in a
luguage not understood ; the attendance at services, in which the

^ rorshippera only take the part of a spectator at a theatre ; the
jceeping oi certain days ; and a credulous belief in visions, miracles,
SWid relics. Thus a soil is prepared for the fabrication of new
■idoctrines, the admission into the churches of images of heathen
leities, and the maintenance of local heathen worships, and
I pilgrimages to their old high-places and tombs of deceased ancestors,
as the early Christians of the fourth century were reported to have
done, until it was made penal, which is impossible now.

The Roman Catholic missionaries make no secret in East Africa
, of their possessing the Almighty power of God to change bread
L into flesh and wine into blood. In their printed Reports sold in
I the shops, I read the following :

Id prdnoneaut it I'ftutel lea divines paroles, (jnj traaBBubBtantiejit le piun et le
L carps et au sang du Chriat, a ce monieat iDeffable U prilre participe d la

\ And again—

" Je lenr si doiui£ le bi

L Dien a domicOe."

d

CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

To be credited with the possession of such awful powers in the
midst of a population in a low state of civilization is a great UaDger
to the Native priest. Ah a rule, the French or Spanish priests never
clear out of a country, though entirely Christian in name, but it
must happen soon, that weak Churches will he left to themselves.

The kissing of images is another Pagan custoni, imported into
the Eoman Church. Cicero writes of having seen an image of
Hercules at Agrigentum, the mouth and beard of which were worn
away hy the kissing of worshippers. We all know the statue of
the Jew Peter, which was the identical statue of Jupiter in the
Cupitoi, whose feet of brass arc worn away hy the kissing : the
threshold of Churches, the drapery of the AllJir, and the hands
of the Priest, are kissed also.

On the mode of conversion of the simple people of China, by the
French Prieafa of the Paris Mission we have an instance in the
weekly number of the Lyons Missionary Organ dated zotb Sept.
(890. To aay one, who desires to possess a rosary, or other
Papish fetish, the reply is :

" TrouTB-raoi ana oa dem famillea, qni se conyertdssent, et tu rauras."

" On eat sur d'etre pris au mot."

Lately the head man of the Papist congregation was looking
with admiration at a great Image just arrived from Prance.
" Father," said he, " we have a new church, hut not a single image
" to excite a fervour 0/ depot ion : eould you give us this Image at
"the Sacre-Coeur ? " (a figure of the Saviour with a great red
heart exposed to view on the left side). The Priest answered:
" I give nothing: I sell." " Wbat is your figure?" he said. The
Priest replied :

" La coaversion de qainze fainillea."

" Accept^,"
'Ihe Priest goes on to tell us, that the greater part of the price was
already paid, that the Image would be made over to the poor
deluded natives, " tandisque quinze families passeront du camp du
demon sous I'etendard du Seigneur Jesus." Possibly some of
these poor creatures were baptized Protestants; the majority were
totaDy ignorant of the existence even of the Deity. It mattered
not to this nineteenth century Judas, so that he swelled the number
of his Baptisms.

A Eoman Catholic once in conversation with me dwelt upon the
consolation given to sufferers hy pilgrimage to shrines of the Virgin :
they believed, and they had the comfort of their belief. In vain I
argued, that it was of impori;anee that they should have faith in e.
true thing. "Hot at all," said he; "what right have we to judge
them ? " In that case the Hindu and Mahometan, ftiU of liia
ancient faith, though nominally a Christian, will go on a pilgrimage
tfl the Ganges, or a shrine, and the change of religion will be but
in name.

' i

J

I rcioil in the sume Mifisioimry Orgim aa above quoted, the
lUowing story : One of the Freneh Priests of the Mission at
'_ 0, on the main land of East .Eijuntoriol Africa, opposite
^ Zanzibdr, gcMid and eatimable people, was on a tour in the
iterior, desirous to open a branch -station. None of the Chiefs
'ould admit him, eo he tumod round on Joseph, the husband
' the Virgin Mary, who has been appointed by the Pope to the
of Putron of the African Missions, " It is your buainesB,
bscph : you must do it." Next morning he called on a Chief,
■ho told him, that an aged man, with a long white beard, had
)peared to him ia a dream, and oi-dered him to give the French
locality for their Mission, which he was most happy

do. This story ia published in France with a view of getting

loney ; it would seem as if the world was falling into inecond

ihildhood.

At the same time that the Romish Church thus grovels in

e dust of Pagan ideas, and Pagan methods, what are its ideas

Toleration? "Take, for instance, a tract entitled ' Liberty of
Conaeience,' circiUated by Eoman Catholics. In this tract Priest
Bobinfion was asked, ' Did a Catholic State allow political liberty
of conscience ? ' To this question his reply is as follows :
" ' Wb answec plainly, No. And why ngtP Wo reply, Conaidermg what
' m have laid dowa as the meaning ia its fall length and brendth of the term
' Catholic State, how could it do so P Heresy is the most griovoua of all sins
■ against the spirituttl order, which the State was bound to maintain; and
' against Che politicBl orderin its inevitable result of disturbance and bloodshed.
' And the liberty of conscience demanded by the question means the right
' of every citizen to believe what he litea, or to eiyog Art aicn cpiniim, and,
' if that opinion be in conEicC with l/ie Itathing oE the Church, then tchat it
' Uii but Mn.y, or rerelt agaimt CAumh and Sieli? How could the Catholic
' State allow this ao-cnlled liberty of conscience? As viell might you ask
' a person to allow poison to be introduoed into his body. Da jou eay : What
' a cruel and bigoted thing for the Catholic Chnrvb and State to put down
' heresy? We only ask yoa to allow the Catholic State the rij^ht no man will
' deny to himself or his neighbour lo reject poiaoufmm Kii ij/item.' (E^e 22.)
" By his own admission the Uet. Walter Croke Robinson would Dmsh liberty
of conscience oat of the body pidilic. as be would reject poison from his system.
And this very teacher asks for liberty to destroy the hberty of other people.
Why, he insults liberty by intuking ite sacred name. He has shown as clearly
as words can describe his meaning whet the Uoman Cathoba Church would
do, if it had the power. But it has not the power ; and, what is better, it
is not likely to got it. How unwise &ea to uplift a paralyzed hand without
ability to crush or even to strike ! "

(/) Plymoutkitism. Ia 1830, at Plymouth, in England, came
into existence a new sect, called Plymouth-Brothers. They object
to all churches, all ministers set apart, all forms of worship, all
instructors in Sunday-schools ; and, taluug a literal interpretation
of the word of Scripture, would seek each man his own Salvation,
and leave the less fortunate to take care of themselves. I have
found in one field of foreign Mission, that this principle was

i

working tie saddest consequenceB; and in the case, to which I allude,
the miasionnjies were Preahytorian, wittoat any imputation of beijig
appointed by an outaide influence. This Tagary of the poor human
intellect is the precise contrary to that of the Eomish astern,
where all arc reduced to slavish obedience to a divinoly appointed
priest, and, like all extremes, lends to results as lamentable, as
those which it was intended to correct. Individualism must
be the ruin of any form of Church.

(y) Nominal Christianity and Indifferewe. This requires no
remark ; the nature of the evil will he understood by all, and
may probably, as in Europe, so in every other part of the world,
be the refuge of the indi\*iduals or tribes, whipli have outgrown
their national or local form of worship, in which they did to
a certain extent believe. Where there is no State-Church, and
entire toleration, it may happen that the religious instinct may
cease to exist altogether; the domestic ev»Lts of birth, marriage,
and sepulture being recorded by a purely civil, non-religious
ceremony. The secular eduoatiiMi of the young has necessarily in
all civilized countries passed away from under the control of religion
into the hands of the State, which ia impartial to all. There are
no idols now to break, but there is phUosophy, uncontrolled
literature, and an overweening pride in human intellect. Thought-
less souls put out to sea withtiut a pilot, without a knowledge
of the dangers of the navigatiwi, withont a chart or compass,
to seek the unknown way of SalTation, Quotations from every
class of writer, ancient or modem, flow glibly from the lips of
those, who have not the remotest conception of the lines of thought,
along which the utterer of the opinions quoted was led gradually
from point to point. Not that a word can be said against a calm,
thoughtful, humble, consideration of anch awful topics ; but it
requires a variety of gifts and a long period of study to come
to a conclusion. The conduct of many is like that of a gamester
playing at dice with the knuckle-bones of saints. Let us shut
our eyea for a moment, and imagine, if it were possible, that the
story of Jesus had vanished away into the category of the legends
of King Arthur, and the tale of Troy, that there was no great
Hereafter, no precious Promises, no Fatherhood of God. and that
the only certain facts were pain, sickness, and death, and that the
choice lay betwixt nominal belief or total indifferentneas. Let us
open our eyes again, and be thankful that it is not so.

CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

CHAPTER V,— CONCLODING REMAKK3.

■A YEvr words in conclusion. In considering tlie snliject-matters,

^I hflTe had to exclude certain forms of religion existing at the

resent moment with a certain reputation, becanse I consider they

»ve not, in themselves, the elementa of vitality, when once the

d hones of a nation are stirred.

(i.) Tamkm. "A congeries of superstitions, begotten by Bdd-

Dusm out of the ojd Chinese superstitionB ; " so it is described by

■IrofesBor Legge. " Every trace of philosophy had disappeared,

■ " Instead of the keen search after the Infinite, to which Laou-tze

IJ*' devoted himaeU, the highest ambition of his followers is to learn

P"how heat to impose on their countrymen;" so says Professor

iDouglas.

■ (ii ) Shintoism. The State-religion of Japan is a remnant of the

■*riinitive worship of the rude trihesof Japan ; it contains no subtle

BldeaB ol morality, or elaborate aystein cif philosophy ; in the Japanese

[tapers you will find official proclamations conferring on dead

persona divine titles, or promoting the rank of those, who are

Iready in the number of the Shinto deities.

(iii.) Shdmanitm,, a debased form of Buddhism practised in Central
'aia.
(iv.) Religion of the Druse and Nasairuyeh tribes. They have
mething in common with 8ufi-ism, and a decided element ol
icient heathenism, such as the secret worahip of Yenus and the
The Druse are 50,000 in nnmber; a moiety dwell on the
ipes of Mount Lebanon, the remainder in the Hauran : they are
li Mahometan. In the eleventh century a.d. El Hakim, the sisXk
' "" )f the Fatimite Dynasty, under the guidance of a: Persian
iystic, El Dorazi, founded a new system of Religion, combining
iroastrianiam and Islam : the Khalif himself claimed to he aa
loamation of God r when EI Dorazi fied, another Persian mystic
, who was the real founder of this sect. Just as Moni-
sm, and Grnosticism, had centuries before appeared, bo this also
,. _ _- a combination of similar elements. Among their doctrines is
[i^Branamigratioii of Souls, and an Incarnation of the Deity. They
desire to convert others : they are satisfied, that their own
locttinesare true, and that thoee of all the reet of tJte world are fake :
they li*e entirely isolated : they have sacred boots, but their nature
has not transpired : a few converts have been made. The Nasaimyeh
inhabit the extreme North of Syria : very little is known of them;
and no one has divulged their mysteries; probably, like that of
!Freemasonry, there is nothing to divulge ; it is possible, that the
■haais is the old Phcenician Eeligion, with loan-conceptions from
Zoroastrianism, Islam, the Druse Mysticism above described, and a
^debased Christianity. I have sat down in a ChrietiBn Maronite

i

46 CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

Church, in Lebanon and oonyersed with a dear old Maronite -Priest :
his dogma, and his eschatology, were ■worthy of a good Hindn.
The Nasairuyeh believe ia Transmigration and an Incarnation : they
live quite isolated, and refusing all contact of civilization, doom
themselves to destruction.

It may be diBheartening to witaesB bo many new forma of error
exiBting, or springing np ; hut such was it ever. When Chris-
tianity had to grapple with the dying religions of Greece and Rarne,
we find the sam '

" The philoaophers of tlie age of Trajan, when thef groped itbont to find a
" real faith, their uwn having melted rwr]', and the intelligence of the countr;^
" bein^ diTDTCed from the nntionid religions, little thought, that theii hands nere
" barniog, when thej touched the new faith of the Christians; tbet wholly
" failed to appreciated the great elements pf disturbance ; they were blind just
" when the day was dawning."

No doubt the monopoly of human excellence, which had been fondly
attached by Christians to the Jews, is now for ever taken away.
God in sundry times and in divers manners has spoken to our
fathera, and we cannot but recognize His goodness in what in these
weak efforts is really good. Koung-fu-tze and Buddha lived blame-
less lives, and taught true morality ; we have had the blessing of
something greater and higher than mere morality. In the study
of these forms of worship above described, we remark how strangely
the variety of errors has been adapted to catch particular classes of
intellect, and pander to particular national weaknesses. In one
we find downright superstition ; in another most free and enlight-
ened reason ; in one pure hard morality ; in another romantic senti-
mental mysticism, not free from immorahty ; in one there is such.
humility aa scarcely dares to lift the eye to the object of worship ;
in another the proud haughty worshipper so many times a day
bandies words with his great Creator ; in one the worshipper creates
out of his own superstition interceders and helpers ; in another he
must pile up his salvation by hia own works, and that alone. It
seems, as if our own marvellous dispensation had been fashioned so
as to meet all possible human requirements.

Many forms of error, which have diBappeared now, arc chronicled
in the annnls of the early centuries. At the close of the third
century, an epoch of the world much resembling the present
century, three great religious ayatems strove for possession of the
Roman Empire : (i) Neo-Platonism, (2) Manichseism, {3) Christi-
anity. Augustine passed from the first, through the second, into
the third ; this shows how narrow were the confines, which sepa-
rated them in practice, though the ideas of them were as far apart
as the poles. They resembled each other in being world-religions
with univcrBal tendencies, and in being a system, which aimed at
being a Divine philosophy with a definite code of ethics and ritual.
They had each absorbed the essence of older and widely-different

^^_ -poa

CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON. 47

religions. la all these the ideas of revelation, redemption, asteti-
fliani, virtue, auil immortal it y, oanie into the foreground.

Christianity conquered; let us consider the nature of the two
vanquished conceptions.

Manichieism was in no wise a reformed movement of the Zoro-
astrian Cult under the influence of Christianity ; its origin and
practice lie as totally out of the orbit of Christian iaflueaces aa
Ueo-Hinduiam, Neo-Zoroastrianism, and Neo-Biiddhism ; and more
ao, as there was no poaaihle contact hy means of the public preas,
and social contact. Mani founded it, and gave it his name, he was
crucified in Persia, 176-77, for hia opposition to the priests and
the Mop ; he claimed to be the last and highest prophet. Has
ayatem was uncompromising Bualiam, to ■which he united an
ancient mythology, an exceedingly aimple spiritual worship, and
a strict morality, aboUshing all the eensuous Semitic ideas. He was
thus able to satisfy the wants of the world, and appropriate foreign
elements. He felt no need of a Redeemer, but only of the physical
process of Eedemption. Mani declared himself to bo the supreme
prophet of God, and gained an enormoua influence, and his system
lasted to the thirteenth century i.n.

Neo-Platonism came into existence 245 A.n., at Alexandria.
Origcn was one of its early disciples ; the murder of Hypatia hy
fanatic Christiana was the death of the school in Alexandria, though
it lingered on in Athena, tUl it was finally closed hy Justinian in
519 A.B. It hod endeavoured to create an ethical mood of the
lughest and purest ever reached by antiquity; when it perished,
the last survival of ancient philosophy perished also. Augustine
records, how much he owed to the perusal of ITeo-Platonic works
on all the cardinal doctrines of God, mutter, the relation of God to
the world, freedom, and evil. Augustine stamped the impress of
Neo-Platonism upon Chri.stianity, and gave it the foundation of a
religious society, which Neo-Platonism never had. The way, by
which the masses could attain the highest good, was a secret un-
known to Neo-PIatonism ; when the Emperor Julian tried to enlist
tiie sympathies of working men for the doctrine and worship of that
school, he failed; then went up the despairing cry, "Galilean,
Thou hast conquered."

In the second and third centuries after Christ the Cult of
Mithras, a Persian god, spread over the Koman world. We find in
Horthumherland, along the Roman wall, inscriptions on tombs of
legionaries, who died in Britain, dedicated to this god. He was an
Arian god, identified with the sun hy Semitic adhesions, a god of
light, purity, moral goodness, and knowledge. Mithras was sup-
-posed to be engaged in the perpetual struggle betwixt good and
ifivil, which perplexes each human life. He thus seemed to unite
[fwme of the attributes of the two great Pagan gods, Apollo and
iMhen§. Tictory can only be gained hy sacrifice and probation,

w

48 CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

and Mithras is conceiTed as always performing the myntic eacrifice,
through which the good will triumph. The human soul can by
his aid reasoend, and attain unioa with God; hut there was a
terrihle ordeal to go through. In 178 these mysteries were pro-
hihited, and the central place of worship destroyed. The ChristianB,
who cried out against persecution in the second century, had hecome
persecutors in the third. Mithras ia well known in the Art-galleriea
of Europe us a young man grasping the head of a huU, and plunging
his sword in the neck.

Attempts were thus made by one or other of the dying forms of
Paganism, or by the sparks, that were struck off by their dying
embers, to amalgamate with the new and TiTacious development of
young Christianity. The priests of Mithras, who on paper looked
BO very near Christ, copied, or seemed to copy, the rites and cere-
monies of Christianity, or possibly both drew from the same Pagan,
source, that Augustine exclaimed, " Mithra Christianus est ; " hot
it was of no use. The Gnostics may have consented, but the Greek
Christians were wonderfully preserved, at that time at least, from
absorbing Pagan elements, though as time went on the corrupt
Greek and Romish Churches, as already shown, became gradually
half-pagan in the objects, and modes, of their worship. It ia
startling to find in the ttimbs of the legionaries along the great
wall, who had made their homes in Britain, allusions, not only to
Mithras, but Serdpis, Astarte, the Phcenician Hercules, the ancient
gods, the Genius of the Wall, eternal Rome, divinity of the Em-
peror, the standard of the camp, and the Divine Mother beyond
the seas. Amidst such a wealth of Pagan inscriptions, there is not
one single trace of the Christian.

We may well ask whether Buddhism and Confucianism will fare
better than Neo-Platonism in this practical, sceptical, emotional,
and jjBeurfo-scientifie age. WiU Islam, when reformed, and deprived
of the power of the sword, have greater vitality than Manichffiiem ?

He must he nftrrow-minded and ignorant, who ridicules, or de-
epises, the modes, in which any portion of God's children worship
their Creator, or who laughs at the idols, and fetishes, statues and
pictures, which were, or are, the funnels, through which they
convey their worship, or who vilifies, or hates, or despises any of
his fellow-creatures, who difior from him in their conception of the
Deity. The more sure a man is of his own reasonable belief, the
more calmly and pityingly he regards the vagaries of his brother.
We know what Atheism and -A gnosticism mean. The feeling after
God ennobles our race. One writer remarks :

" Tha intention of religion, wherever we meet it, ia hnly. However imperfett
" Bud ebililish it maf seem, it always pkces before us tbe conception of <jod,
" it idwaya repressota the big-best ideal of perfection, wbicb tbe bumsn bduI at
" tbe time being nitb reference to its environment CFin rench or grasp. It plaees
"the human soul in the pTesence of its bigkest ideal, it lifla it shove tbe level
" nf ordinflry goodness, and produce! at least a jeaioiag ftf ter a bighei and better
" life, a life in the light of Qod."

CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

JTor at the time of the break up of an ancient religious conception,
Kvhioh a nation Eidvoncing in knowledge has outgrown, is the

B without procodBnt o( a great aage, who

EluB coatemporarieB vith a sense of his power and wisdom, that

{.bie statue was plaoed amoug those of the elder gods. What has

lappeaed to Buddha and Confucius in Asia, happened centuries
tago to ApoUonius of Tyana. His life includes tiie whole of the
\ jteriod, during which our Lord appeared on earth, and dwelt among
I men. Ho was not an impostor, nor did he make use of artifices
K^md pretensions unworthy of a great philosopher. He had in him
■'.^ the evidences of a great moral and religious reformer, living
■:& blameless life, and attempting in vain to animate the expiring
l>PBgaiiiBm of the first century after the Christian era into a new
I, and purer life. That he should have been by the next generation
Iplaced on a higher pedestal of greatness than was warranted, was
' ' 's fault, but his misfortune. The greatness oi Socrates stands
1 a clearer light, because no one ever attempted to pay him

divine honours, and so he never sank to the undeserved degradation,

which has fallen on the wisest of sages, Confucius, or the blameloss

moralist, Buddha.

In the Grffico-Koraan world every one was accustomed to the
t introduction of new deities, for they were the outward and concrete

■ 'expression of a new dogma. In Boman Catholic Europe to this
I'day no new dogma can be floated without the necessity of a new
I "vision. The Immaculate Conception was not safe as a dogma
[■■without the concrete form of the Virgin at Lourdes; "Je suis

J'lmmacul^e Conception," and the priests of neighbouring shrines
1^ the Virgin in the Pyrenees are outspoken in their feelings of
l.jealousy ot the new manifestation, which has robbed them of their
tiofferings. Small-pox is stifiened in India into a shapeless idol,
t 'Which has to be appeased by lamps. Agnosticism and Faith-healing
I Toold in the ancient world have been represented by a god with
B hopelessly thoughtful face in the one case, and a female figure
'n a compassionate attitude in the other.

Some incidental touches may interest. It is reported this year

I ty a missionary, that an educated Native of Calcutta asked bi'm

to take him through a course of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Maho-

metanism, then through the works of Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer,

and Kenan, and, finally, through works of standard Christianity,

remarkittg naively, that at the completion of the course he would

1 position to decide, just as a man sits down before a map

Vio settle his route among Messrs. Cook's alternative circular tours.

lAs a fact, the Hindu did not go through this course, and he is but

Lfi type of the indecision, want of independence, and grip of a

■ subject, which is characteristic of a nation enslaved for generations,
f .snd not yet accustomed to wield seriously the arms of criticism and

logic, which it has leamt to play with in the Anglo-Indian State

JO CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

ScliMla. Coelebs in search of a wife, Japhet in search o( a father,
are mere nothings compared to a Hindu in search of a
More honour to those brSTe men, who have burst through the cloud
and dared, rightly or ■wrougly, for Christ or against Christ, to think
for themselTeB.

The Calcutta Englishman, deacribing a ca^ whicli recently
before the High Court of C^cutta, says, that it eadubits in a
striking manner the difference between Hindu and Mahometan con-
ceptions. The Hindu holds, that every aupematural being is a god,
that is, an incarnation or manifestation of the Supreme Being, and
entitled, therefore, to homage and propitiatery offerings. This idea
is an aboniination to the followers of the Prophet, the first article of
whose terse creed is, that there is but one God. Islam, however,
permits ef the belief in an unlimited number of ghosts and goblins,
who are all to be treated as enemies, to be anathematized and re-
pulsed, but on no account to be compoimded with or conciliated.
The case in question was this ; There was a desirable piece of land
lying waste, because it was reputed to be haunted by a goddess,
who resented interference with her domain. The Hindu did all
they could to propitiate her, setting apart a tree for her abode,
under which they erected an idol in her honour, to which they
made offerings of fruit and flowers. Still, the goddess continued
implacable, and on one man venturing to cultivate some of the
land, she caused him and his children to be carried off by death.
EventuaDy, some Mahometan neighbours, laughing to scorn the
Hindu superstition, undertook to reclaim the land, but the goddess
presented herself before one of them aa a frightful ogre, and
although be religiously set her down as a hobgoblin, that only in-
creased his terror. £ut another Mahometan argued, that a Hin du
goddess ought to have no chance in fair fight witb the followers
of the Prophet. So the Mahometans, under his leadership, pro-
ceeded with a cow to the goddess's tree, and killed it there, placing
parts of the carcase among the branches, and evea smearing the
idol with its blood. As the result of this defiant outrage the
goddess was completely routed. Indeed, she would never have
been heard of again, but that her devotees were inconsolable, and
set the penal Code in operation against her oppressors, so that
five of the Mahometans were sentenced to imprisonment for '' out-
raging religious susceptibilitieB," as impartial British law puts it.
From the Hindu point of view all this is as it should be ; but («
the Mahometans it will appear that the Government has taken the
part of the hobgoblin, when they were defending themselves
against its unprovoked and malicious hostility.

The Jain sect of Gwalior have addressed a petition to Lord Lana-
downe, asking him to instruct the Governor-General's Agent in
Central India to bring pressure to bear on the Gwalior Government
to allow their "immage," known as Euth Biman, to be converted

J

CLOUDS ON TBE UOSIZOfr.

SI

god. The pctitio
f'imnjage," and they explaL
" tmlesa it is taken with p

3 nay, that at present it ia only an
n that it " cannot he considered a pod,
n into the strectB, and sccnmpftnied
'* by sevoral immages which come from other stations, and these
" inimages take the new immage to the temple," when by virtue of
' Is public proeesaion it becomes a god, for, " until the procession w
K." performed, a new immage is not considered a god according to our
**' religion," It appears tbat the temple of the petitioners was broken
K'lnto by some Brahmin zealots, and the image therein destroyed, and
tin their own estimation they are without a god. For four years
I &e Gwalior Government has refused permission for the procession,
y by which alone this loss can be replaced. The reasons for the
I Tefusal do not appear, but the consequences are disastrous to the Jains,
Uor in the mean time the ceremony of marriage cannot be performed,
■and their daughters aro growing up unmarried. It is suggested,
"liat the Gwalior authorities are afraid of t!io disturbances, that
■might be caused during the procession, in consequence of Brahmin
• hostility, but the petitioners offer to pay for the extra police force
1 needed to maintain the public peace on that occasion. The reply
I »f the GoTemment of India is not yet known, but it is obviously
La delicate matter to interfere between two hostile reHgious parties,
I.Bnd the Govemraent of a ufrtive State.

The " Illustrated Catholic Missions" of December, 1890, gives

ViQie story of a Brahmin in tiie Bombay Presidency, who, while

T^Tging on the British GEovemment the duty of encouraging Higher

'Education among the better classes, himself did all he could to

thwart the^jn'mory Education of the Peasantry. His reason being

ftvaked, he explained, that it was to the advantage of the respectable

jersona in the village, that the lower classes should remain un-

Kedueated and superstitious: "At proaent," said he, "I have no

' I to keep watchmen to protect my fields, because the

I'" Village-God ' Grama Deo ' does the duty for me without any

1' remuneration, except the annual cost of a fowl or coeoanut. But,

" if the Peasantry were educated, they would find out, that the

'' Village-God was only a block of stone, and they would commence

" thieving in my fields."

No doubt such is the case, but the strangest thing is, that the

f Editor of the Roman Catholic organ did not see, that his remarks

K{LppIied equally to the images of his own debased Christianity.

Ill know the ways of the Hindu well from long residence alone in

I their midst, but it ao happens, that I have repeatedly and carefully

I observed the village-life in Roman Catholic countries in Southern

[Europe, and I can detect no distinction betwixt the external form,

P.iud inward conception, of the images idolatrously worshipped,

Bknelt to, prayed to, and venerated, in either country.

■ A Chinese Missionary comes to the Bible-House, and objects

■rto tabulated forms, because, according to him, the Native Chuieae

character is inaccurate, and does not see the grave errors of a false
or deceitful entry, and ttua many a gross lie, many a transparent
esaggeration, ia accepted by the Native as Truth itself, because
the hearer thinks tliat it is Truth. His desire ia to please his
European hearer, if there is anything to get from him r this ia
his weakness : the European weakness ia to helieve, and accept
as true, what he wiahei to be true, what hia previoua conceptions
lead him honestly, and ateadfaatly, to believe as true. Some idol-
worahippers declare, that they do not worship the image itself, but
only the god represented by the image ; but the following atones
will show that some do helieye, that the iilols can hear, and aee,
and feel :

A man in China bought a lottery -ticket, and prayed to his god
to make it lucky ; it did not win the priKe, and the man became
so angry with the idol, that he teok a knife and out off its head.
After a few days he seemed to think, that he had been teo hard
upon his god, and fastened its head on again ; then he went on
worahipping it as before.

At Fuh-Chow a military officer died suddenly, and the idea
got abroad, that he had been slain by the wooden idols in one
of the temples. The governor of the province, hearing this, gave
orders that the idols were to be arrested and punishoti. This waa
done, and fifteen wooden idola were brought up before the Prefect.
Their eyes were put out so that they should not see who was their
judge ; they were then beheaded, their bodies thrown inte a pond,
and their temple shut up for ever. This might seem improbable,
if we did not know, that the Homan Catholics sometimes flog the
images of their Saints, if they do not get what they want : the
images of St. Martin on board Spanish vessels often have bud
quarters of an hour, when the wind blows too much, or teo little.

The story of the man who humt hia idol can hear being repeated.
He waa baptized, having been well prepared beforehand. He
would have cooked and eaten hia food without any one being the
wiser, had not a woman blazed it abroad, that he waa using hia gods
as firewood ! Then a great number ran together to the sight, and
affectiid the greatest alarm on account of this act of daring impiety.
They looked, and have scarcely ceased looking out for the man's
death, as a result of the anger of the gods ; but he is still hale
and hearty, and his place has never been vacant in the church.

Such notices in the Indian papers as, "A new Deity ]
appeared on the Afghan frontier; the police are after him,"
full of suggestions ; ao also the letter of the sick Bangali in his o'
dialect of English, " I could give much information on the atatistics
" of this great and downfelling disease, but I am earnestly working
" the oracle with the gods te minimiee the malady, by giving alms,
" and all things, to poor helpless beggars." This murks a deep
degradation of the religious element : the beggars are te be relieved,

CLOUDS ON THE BORTZON.

53

e gods humbugged, aod the aick man cured. This is Faith-heal-
tag with a vengeance ! A commuaioatioQ from au unquestionable
f JTative source in Japan is still more diecouragiug :

" The Japan Wiekly Mail, in B recent issue, aummarkw a discuaBinn noir
\* being carried on in Jupaa bv several emineat pabliciatfl, reapecting tbe advisu--
" hilitf oj the people of tbat country embraoinif the Christian religion. 'A
" ' moTemeat, supported by some very proraiaent men, is on font to givs an
" ' impetus to the epiead of Christianity by laying etresa on tKe secondary
^ ' benefits its aoceptaace insures.' Those coanected with ths mavemenC >a.j,

K" that Christian dogma is a bitter pHl to sirallow, but advisi! tbat it be iwallowBd
'*' promptly for tbe sake of the after-iiSecCa. Mr. Fukuiawa. a well-known writer,
" nrjfes this coiu-Ee, although he takes ao personal interest whatever in religion,
" and knoVB nothing of the teaching of ChriatiDnilT : but be sees that it ia the

1 " creed of the raoat highly- civil iied nations. To bim rpligion \a only a garment,
*" to be pnt on or taken oil at pleasure ; bnt he thinks it prudent, that Japan
^ sbould wear the same dress as her neighbours, with whom she desires to etund
Professor Toyama, of tbe Imperial Uriiversity, has published a work
(' to support this view. He holds that .Cbinese ethics must be replaced by

_ f ' Christian ethics, and that the benefits to be derived from the introduction

^' of Christinnity are: (i) the improTement of music; (j) unioii of sentiment
1 feeling, leading to harmonious co-operation ; and (3) tbe furnishing a
■■Diedinia of intercourse between men and womtn, Mr. Sub', the lata President
f of the Imperial Uniyendty, says that religion is not Deeded for the educated,
f and confeases his dislike to all religions equally, urges the introduction o(
'-' iBligioua teaching iato the Governraeiit scbonls, on the ground that tbq
^ unlearned in Japan have bad their faith in old moral standards shaken, and
^' that there is now a serious lack of mora! sentiment among the maaaes. Among
i" the replies to this is one by a Mr. ^ugiura, who is described as ' a diligent
Patudent of Western philosophy for many years.' He speaks of the specially
>* marked lack of religioae feeling and sentiment in his countrymen ; the
J' Japanese, he says, have no taste for religion whatever, and it is impossible, that
" they should ever become a religious people, 'fhe joath of Japan, he argues,
J* being itee from the thraldom of creeds, and free to act according to reason,
" are so far in advance of Europeans ; and. Instead of talking about adopting
a foreign religion, Jupsnese should go abroad and preach their religion 01
reason to foreign countries. Other writers urge the same views. The writer
" in the Yokobsma newspaper says that those, who urge the teaching of
" Obristiauity, represent an m6uential section of educated Japanese opinion ;
" tbey are the signs of tbe times. ' To Japan, in aa empbetically agnostic mood,
' eame Western science with all its marvellous rerelalions and attractions.
' At the shrine of that science she is worshipping now.' "

I give an extract of another kind from a Missionary Report
i this year :

g ago I got a letter from a former pupU, a BangUi, who is now in
'' tbe railway olSce, asking me to preside at a lecture, wliich he wished to deliver

" subject

young St

" that he who is

if our school and the Government school, and that his
IB Christ ! ' I consenttd, of course, most williuely, and
a know what a Hindu geofleman wanld say about Christ, thuiking
it against is for Him. Printed notices were issued, and on
d I took the chair, and was very much pleased to And over
1 young men present, and still more pleased and gratified at tbe
" lecture. My young friend gave a very good account of the me of Christ, in
" English, speaking for nearly an hour. He took great care, however, to say
' ' that no one should suspect bim of being sccnHlj a Christian, but was bold
" enough to afflrni, that he must accept the truth wherever it is foimd. Ha

inmsted on tlie fact thai Christjauity had been a bleeding' to the world in
general, and that Christian niUaionariiH had proved a. gcent blessing to India in.
particnlar. What struck hini must in Christ as diiine was His meeknew and
tergiring spirit, Hie patience and long-suffering under provocalion, a» wfiU as
His perfect Bel£-6acciflce. In coneiusion he eihorted bis yonng friends, most
eamesUj and vehemently, to study the life ef Christ, and he took occasion to
say, that the Mission school in which he had stndied had been, and still was,
a shining light in QorakhpHr."

It is sad to think of the wonderful story of the life of the SaYiour
of the world being thus given in the cold form of a lecture, with
the cautiouH caveat that it was not believed. A pamphlet has lately
appeared in Calcutta, by a Hindu of the old school, entitled, " Are
we really awake ? an Appeal to the Hindu Community." It is
interesting to read the story of the other side. The writer complains
that "the Ufe-hlood of society is ebbing away, and irreligion eating
into its vitals." Ho no doubt copied those phrases from some
Christian publication, possibly a denunciation of the opium-trade
by a Chinese missionary. He attributed the evil to the influence
of Christianity ; so no doubt the elder generations, in the first
and second centuries of the Christian era, felt at Rome and Corinth.
He finde that " the Christian Missions are slowly and imperceptibly
■■' changing our ideas with regard to our social, moral, and domestic
'life." He regrets that to the "same cause mnst he attributed
'the evidence of the absence of that domestic simplicity and
'^iritual integrity, that marked the ways of our women only
' a decade and a half ago." He has evidently borrowed these
high-flown expressions from sonit missionaiy report, and turned
their use round, without stating, whether the change was for the
worse, whether the females of his family were becoming termagant,
or licentious, or extravagant. The idea of spiritual integrity in
a Hindu female in the old days reads like a joke. Many were
no doubt good mothers and faithful wives, or patient co-wivea
of the same husband, but it is difficult to define the meaning of
spiritual integrity as applied to the inmate of a Hindu zanana.
I give a quotation from a Mahometan source :

" The Rias-iSind, a Mohametan paper published in Amritnar, laments the
" decline of the iocal Anjuman, or society for the defence of Islam, as it is im-
" psratiTely needed in this city, where in every lane and conrt, hole and corner,
" Christian missionaries have their nel« ready spread. The efforts of the Anjn-
" m&n have hampered them somewhat in their work. Girls' schools have been
" eatabUahed to supplant Missinn-ftgenciee. and an orphanage is proposed. Ua-
" lees our energetic Mobometnns look to it, Islam In this city will never again
" have B chance of escaping from the missionarr flood whiub is sweeping over.
" This is the only society, which has entered the neld in defence of Mohametan-
" ism ; bnt alas ! our educated youth stand aside and see the fun ! We implore
" bur brethren to show forth their zeal for the faith. God forbid that a fruilfiU
" tree shonld, becaose of want of interest wither, and for want of watering, its
" fruit instead of ripening should dry up and drop ofi unripe. Now is yoor
" chance ! Awake ! rally to the help of the faith '. Give some of your tune.
" God is ready to help you. We see indications, that lethargy iecomiiig over the
"isr^^of tiiefreet ondhonouTahle onM, who form the Council of the Society.

J

CLOUDS ON TffE HORIZON.

" Their present ei

I as cumpared ia the past are as the efForli
tho sDcietj Buf crs fruiu j'our lack of w
le da^ appear ant! have tu answer to the

B fatiguuL

e and glori

re expect to meet

" Being for yoar deeds."
I give another quotation from a Missionary report ;

' ' Prejudiw and misrepresentatiun, if not open antag\>niBm, i

" with among the noii-ChristiBn population of all classes, and in tonos and

'' Tillages alike. Organized opposition is almost confined lo large stations, and

'■ is generally hronght about by the imperfectly educated young men of the place.

" But the moat notieeahle is the work of the Hindu Tract Society through its

P" puhlicitions and its preachers. The staple of the Hinda preachers' addreeses

'' *' IS abuse of missionaries and their religion. They are also strongly coloured bj

" the anti-£nglisli feeling which prevails in certain circles. The people are

** incited \a oppose ns in eiery possible way, to keep away from our semces, to

" withdraw their children from oar schools, to t^ our books and tracts to

"luring the day the preacbfra visit the houses, and work upon the

le women. This persecution has been home with patience, eten

I " when pain and loss have resulted, and we have observed with satisfaction the

[f" eieellent effect it has had on the Native Christians."

" The conditions of aggressive Christian work in the circuit have not materi-
" ally changed during tae past year. Men everywhere are becoming aware of
" the power, that is in Christianity, and for the present the attitude of the higher
' ' Castes is that of armed and vigilant resistanco. On the principal stations,
" especially, we have dailv to face the nnacmpulous persecntion and lying mis-
" representation of members of the Hindu Tract Society or the Prohandha
" " ' ' In the presence of such orgBniied opposition we have found it at

ise to change our modes of work ; but never once have we deeisted from .
" labour, that bad become hard, or swerved from one main purpose."

Among the first tracts of the Hindu Tract Society is a leaflet
f iour pages, entitled :

" Is Jesus God?"

KTwenty t«ita from the Gospel are quot«^ to disprove this. There

B evidenced a hitter hostility to Christianity, for the teaching of

e Bible is instinctively felt to be a power difficult to withstand.

A Hindu writes in a recent tract :

" Missionaries come from Britain at a great cost, and tell ns, that we are in
" heathen darkness, and that a bundle of fables, called the Bible, is the tma
" ■ Ved&nta,' whicb alone can ealighten as. They have cast their net over onr
" children W leaching them in tbeic schools, and they have already made thou-
<■ sands of Christians, and are continuiDg to do so. They bave penetrated into
" the most out-of-the-way villages, and built churches there. If we continue to
" sleep, as we have done in the past, not one will be found worshipping in our
" temples in a very short time ; why, the temples themselves will be converted
" into Christian churches ! . . . We must not fear the missionaries, because they
'' have white faces, oi because they belong to the ruling class. There is no
" comieetion between the Government and Christianity, for the Oueen-Empresa
" proclaimed neutrality in all religious raatters in IBSS. We must, therefora,
" oppose the missionaries with all our might. Whenever they stand up to preach,
" let Hindu preachers stand up. and start rival preaching at a distance of forty
" feet from them, and they will soon flee away. Let Caste, and sectarian differ-
es, be forgotten, and let all the people join as one man \a banish Christianity
m our land. All passible eKorts should be made to win hack those, who have
?■ embraced Christifliiity, and all children should be withdrawn from Mission

5(5 CLOUDS ON THE HORIZOH.

And this advice is being carried out.

A missionarj- from China writes, that tKere ia danger in young
Ctnrehea of errora of doctrine creeping in ; that he lias had to deal
orer and over again with the germs of heresies which, if not
eradicated, in time might have caused serious injury to the
Native Church.

I give some specimens of the anti-Christian placards used by the
promotera of the lat« agitation in Wu-Chang in China and else-
where, placards and posters in prose and verse, with such headings
as " Do not become devils," " The false religion must die," " Es-
terminate the devUs," "The worship of the hog spirit." The
consuls and others, who have seen these cartoons, say, that they
surpass in vileness anything, that has come down to us from heathen
antiquity. Prompt measures were taken hy the concerted action
of the foreign Consuls, and as soon as the people knew, that the
matter was in the Viceroy's hands, the excitement subsided, and
the placards disappeared from the waUs.

And sometimes there are deeds as well as words, I quote from
the Times of this year (i8go):

" The latest ndvicea from Chung- King report that the tronbles at Tai-Cha-

" Esin nioee &am the maeaiicre of Bomo Chiniae ChriBtians at Jong-Tuy-Teis hj

" "" memberB of the Lee-Huy-Sos Society during a celebration of that associa-

's patron deity. After the celebration bad usted BeTl^raI daje, the eouiety

ulted their god, whether it vonld be eafe to plnnder the gooda nf the

" Christians. The gad attsvicrvng m Ihe affinitat^e, R raid was inrniEdistely

" conunenced, when a number of Christians were captured and much booty

" secured.

' ' A few days later the society made another attack and massacred over 20

Chrietisns. Nineteen dead bodies were counted in the streete, and several more

are known to have been eut to pieces and thrown into the river. The misaion-

bonae and other buiJdioBS were set on fire, and the bodies thrown into the

flames. The foUowing day the society visited aaotber market town, intending

to perpetrate a further massacre, but the Christians Sed, one only being

" killed. *■

And during the transition period there must be the bitter trial
of converts falling away, back to the old mire of Paganism and
Mahometanism, or into some new-fangled heresy. Suiji has ever
been the case, and ever will be. As a set-off must be considered
the number of those, who in heart are convinced, and would come
out, if oonversion could he effected on the easy terms of a Christian
country, but who are held back by fear of social persecution or
domestic impedimentB. We most not be hard in our judgment.
How few in our midst would have the strength to take up the
cross, and give up all for Christ ! And as the battle goes on,
we must expect an apparent recrudescence ol non-Ciiristian beliefs.
When first the missionary appeared, they did not care much about
bim and his preachings, but now that it is found, that conversions
are made, the conservative party will stand on their defence, and
there will appear to be a revival. Now this ia just what happened

57

Wia the Beoond century of oiir era. As the Christian party grew
1 Btronger, 'there was a. Pagan revival of tlie worship of Artemis
I at Ephesus to oppose them. The miesionary must expect hla work
I to hecome more diffloult in projwrtion aa he is partially successful.
b Little things indicate a change passing over the heathen world.
t The Indian papers tell us suggestive anecdotes :

A civil Biiit has been lodged in the Suraidpur Court, near Caloutta (1890),
.gainst the Maliant, or Hi^h Prieat of Tarkeahwiir : the Plaintifi aoes for a
I decree declariog that

(l) The templs be opea at all timea to Toturies to worship,
(zj The pil^ime he protected from eitortioD.
(3) Filgnnu be alluved tu make free-will offerings.
Idolatry will hardly survive such a practical mode of viewing
affairs. Again :

" The Hnditu Croremment has refused hi release the Mohnnt, or Hi^h

" Priest, of Tripati, who waa lat«lf conricted of embezzling the temple-fun^.

" NomarouB petitions in his favour were presented, hut Lord Gonnemara held,

" that the sontenee as reduced by the High Court on appeal was not too seTHre.

A Christian, governor places honesty in the administration of trust

[ funds above all religious considerations ; the eternal laws of

[ Toleration cannot be evaded in any of their consequences. On the

I other hand, in the Province of Bombay, when a priest, himself

I a reputed incarnation of Vishnu, was tried before a Christian court

E «n a charge of gross immorality with female worshippers, the

I sentence rang through India : " Nothing can be tlieologiijally right

[ which is wrong morally." Progress is marked in another way.

I In different parts of Asia there are caves emitting naphtha-flames,

I which are naturally the object of worship, I stood by one in the

[ IHimalaya, and watched the flame being fed with wax candles

I Jjy a Hindu from a far-otf province, who turned to me and remarked,

I that it was unpossible to deny that here at least God was manifeist.

liSome years later I visited the Hindu places of worship on tho

I Caspian Sea, where numberless inscriptions on the rock record

r the faith of worshippers, who had come from a distance to worship

I the naphtha-flames, but I found, that the priust had sold the sacred

I founts of flemes to a Eussian speculator in petroleum, hud

pocketed the roubles, and was gone. I thought of Delphi, when

the last oracle was delivered, and the Demetrius of the period,

when he sold his last silver shrine of the temple of Artemis, and

migrated. At Dehli this year (1890) a party of Mahometans,

carrying the Taziuh at the Moharram Festival, which ought not

to pass under anything, requested that the Telephone-wires, which

crossed the street, might be removed : it is scarcely necessary

to state, that this absurd request was not complied with : it marks,

however, that Islam has entered into a wholly uncongenial

environment. On the other hand some Hindu residents on the

rout* displayed complimentary illuminations, and there was good

feeling among all sects, religions, and races; the hospital was,

J

w

CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

58

however, full of patients tnth bioten heads next day. An Indian
Misfdonary writes :

■' Last yeitr tbere was at Adar a grand tempi B-consecnitioD. A temple of
■' MahaLiiigawsedeeirojed by lightning three years ago. The KaJB of Mavapadi
" bad it rebuilt at a gieat cost, fiy favour vre had a shed pieced at oni du<pDaal
" Tery near the feetire grounds. Here we were able to preach the Uospel not
*^ only dann^ the day^ but till late on in the night. ] was iutereeted to bear,
"how the people explained to tbemaelyes the destniclion of this temple by
" lightning. Some were of opinion, that theii gud had done it to obtain a nev
" dwelling-place. Others said, that the greatness and pnwer of their god could
" be seen in that be was able t« destroy such a large building covered with a
" copper ruof and raze it to the ground '.

From a totally different quarter, and amidst an expiring Nation-
ality in North America, we hear the cry of " Lo here ! Lo there ! "
('l^ou Sile 6 Xpiarof, ^ lele), and in the tribe of the Sioux Eedskina
West of the Mississippi, stands forth a man, who claims the sacred
name of Messiah, and is credited with the power of speaking to each
tribe in their own language. There ia a short shrift to a Prophet
in this geaeration. A cynic remarked some years hack that the
Apostles would have no chance against the " Tiroes " Newspaper,
which would have exposed their weaknesses, and called for an
examination of Jndas's accounts, and that a Coroner's Inquest
would have returned an ngly verdict in the case of Ananias and
Sapphira's death. A distinguished British Ambassador, who had to
cope with the Pope, remarked drily, that it was a difficult matter to
deal diploroatically with the Holy Spirit. The nineteenth century
is carnal and material. The Messiah by one story was a hairoleas
fanatic, named Hopkins, from Nassau, Iowa : by another story he
was John Johnson, an intelligent, though uneducated, Eedskiii of
the Pah Ute tribe : he had an apostle named Porcupine, who made
a long jonmey to see the Messiah, and found him near the Pyramid
Lake in "West Nevdda, and made the following report :

" The Fishesters near Pyramid Lake told me, that Christ had appeared on earth
" again. They eaid Chriat knew he was coming: that eleten of his children
" fere also coming from a far land. It appeared that Christ had sent for me to
■0 there, and that was why, unconsciously, I took my journey. It had been
ore-ordained. They told me when I got there that my Great Father waa
here also, but I did not know who he was. The people assembled called a
" council, and the chiefs sons went to see the Great Father, who sent word to us
" to remain fourteen days in that camp, asd that then be would come and see qb.
" At the end of two days, on the tbird moraing, hundreds of people gathered at
" this place. They cleared a place Dear the agency in the form of a circua ring and
" we all gathered there. Just before sundown I saw a great many people, mostly
" Indians, coming dressed in white men's clothes. The Christ was with them.
' ' They all formed in this ring and around it ; they put up sheele all around the
" circle, as they had no tents. Just after dark some of the Indians told me, that
" Christ had arrived. I looked around to find him, end finally saw him sitting
" on one side of the ring. He was dressed in a wtiito coat with stripes. The
" rest of bis dress was a white man's, except that he had on a pair of moccasins.
" Then we began our dance, everjbodv Joming in, the Cbriat singing while we
" danced. We danced till late in ite night, when he told us that we bad
^* danced enouglk.

adian {

CLOUDS OH THE HOI

" Thatai

ig he told UB that he was going away that day, hnt would ba
niing and talk lu an. 1 lieaid that Christ had been emeified

a be the mim ; I could ant see his fet^t. Re would talk to ue all day.

aning'

mdepart. When we were BSBerabled,

L

^ n tremble all o»cr violently for awhile, e
" thenaat down. We danced all that night, the Christ lying down beeide us,
" apMreutly dead.

" The foUowiug morning the Chriat was back with ua, and wanted to talk to
" us. He said, 'I am the maa who made everythuig you see around you. I am
" ' not lying to yon, my cliildren. I made this earth and ererything on it. I
" ' have been to heaven and seen your dead friends, and haie seen my own father
" ' and mother.' He spoke to ug about Ggbting, and said that it was bad and
" that we lanst keen from it ; the ourtb was to be all good hereafter ; that we
" must he iriends with one another. Ha said that if any man diaubeyed what he
" ordered, bis tribe would be wiped from the face of the earth.

" Eyer since the Chriat I speak of talked to me, I have thought what he aud
" was good. I have seen nothing bad in it. When I got back I knew my
" people were bad and had heard nothing of all this, so I ^l them together and
" t«lil them of it, and warned them to listen to it for their own good. I told
" them just what I haTe Icld you here to-day."

"Unfortunately it occurred to political intrigaers to make use of
this religiouB moTemunt for seditious purposes : desijirning redskin
politicans inisiiit«rpreted the religion of the " Messiah " to make it a,
crusade against the wiiites. But, whether or not, they or the apostle
Porcupine preach true a faith among them, the frontier has been
stirred up to an extent unknown for many years. At the Arrapahoe
Agency the Indians excitedly dance the " Ghost Dance," and have
destroyed many of their fences, some even tearing down their log
houses, the Government Agent having lost all control over them.
At Pine Kidge Agenc^ in South Dakota, there is much excitement
among the Sioux, the dances having wrought the trihe to so high a
pitch that the Agent has reported the uneasiness, and troops in
large force are now heing concentrated.

It is curious to note the various versions of the "Messiah"
doctrine of extermination of the whites, as interpreted at different
Indian settlements. Thus, at the Standing Beck Agency, on the
Cannon Ball River, the Sioux are mainly farmers and cattle-raisers,
and live in huts and houses. They say that the " Messiah " indicates
that the whites are to be destroyed, but not hy the active aid of
the red men. " A mnd wave is to engiilE the pale-faces, but the
Indians are to be lifted high above it, until it passes over." With
them, the " Ghost Dance " is said t« be a preparatory ceremony or
sort of communion, hy which the Indians aim "to perfect them-
selves before the coming of the Master. " The dance was a test of
endurance, and a prolonged state of religious excitement sometimes
ended in Catalepsy, reminding ns of the Dervish-Dances at Constan-
tinople, and Corybantic excitement everywhere. It is sad to think,
that the movement will probably end in the total extermination
the Eedskins. They veritably believed, that a temporal King and

ik, I

of I

ind J

6o

CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

^

Saviour had arrived to deliver them from their bondage, and restore
to them their ancient poBaesaions. And it is remarkable, that the
conception of the " Messiah " is borrowed from, an imperfect know-
ledge of Bible -History, taught by the Missionariea.

It IB quite clear that the knell of the old-world forms of grosa
material idolatry has sounded, and that the plan of campaign will
have to be altered. The late Archbishop of York remarked in Exeter
Hall this year(i8go), that " what he feared for the future was, that
" through the want of Christian diligence we should see bastard
" aystems taking the place of the old systems, that were strong
" in their day, but are now confesaed to be decaying," This Ib just
what I fear, and why I have written these words of warning.

Gross infidelity ia spreading itself all over Jax>an ; Materialiats,
Agnostics, and infidel teachera have found their way into the
educational institutions of the land, the students of which are only,
alaa ! too eager to adopt the views of their instructora. The works
of Tom Paine, Ingersol, Husky, Spencer, and others, are tfanslated,
and freely circulated. On the other hand a Christian has been
returned as a Member of the Japanese Pariiament. Aa no Hindu,
Mahometan, or Buddhist, has as yet got into the British ParHament,
the East ia in advance of the West in liberality of views.

A. very competent obaerver remarks ;

" Is it possible for anj man ncqnainted iritli these facts to dnubt, that tbe
" Native taitliB are dooiaedf The eherJBbed inetitntjonfl of a ^at people are
" not qoicMy overtlirown, but, when tbey are incompatible witb progress, if
" tbe]' fall elowlj, they fall ineiitably. Tbere are men in India, who are
" endeavouring tu reconcile Hinduii^m tvitb modem coltnre. Thej can sift oat its
" nbsnnlities. they can revise its philosophjr, the; uaa cleanse its literature; but
" when the; huve done all this, when the; hsTe separated from the errors, that
" invest thera, those principles and tiutha, which their ancealois found in Nature,
" anil which are common to all faiths and to all ages, they have not aav*d
" Hinduism, for HiuduUin is a rejigian. They may satisfy the thinWs, but
" they lesTe nothii^ for the people, who do not think, who consign the task of
" thinking to their priests, and leave with them also the responsibility of their
" salvation. If too demolish the credit of the prirsthood, the nuChority of the
" priests must fah with it, and Hinduism as a religion perishes."

The " Hindu Mation " rephes to this in the foDowing extract :

" Tired of their passive position in the matter of conversion, they have deler-
" mined to organize a mission for the propagation of Brahminism anions the be-
" nij^bted Bntiah Christians of Anatraha. Suradschi, the new apostle, is an
" eminent Brahmin, of Banliras, who, while recently visiting the Austmhan
" Colonies, was struck by the fearful prevalence of dninkenne^ among the in-
" habitants. Retnming to his native coniitry, ha called together a meeting of
" Hrahmins at Ban^as, the holy city of the Hindn, and laid before thi
" details of the miserable and degraded condition of their fellow-suhjects
" Australia. It was unanimously agreed, that the only lasting remedy would be
" the conversion of the AustrHlian Christians to a better and a purer faith. A
" large sum of money has been subscrihcd. and several Brahmins have placed
" themselves at the dispcieal of Surod'chi, who is busily engaged in tr^ubl
" ]iortions of the Veda into the English tongue tor the use of missionaries,"

The volume of "Darkest London," when translated into the

CLOUDS ON

Tematulars of India, will have a ti'irible effect on the progTL-sa of
Conversions, as it shows tliat iii tlie very citadel of Chriatiunity
the reality of the Christian haa fallen so hopelessly below the litM
preached "to the Heathen and Mahometan by the Missionary.

la there, then, any remedy ? None but the Grace of God, who
orders the wills ani affections of men according to His good
pleasure. Is there any palliative ? One certainly, to preach a full
Gospel, the whole counsel of God, not one comer only of the roll
of the Gospel. To those within the nominal Church (Chapter IV.)
it is not well to dwell too eamostiy on the predestination of Paul,
the preaching of Christ to the spirits in prison of Petor, the Faith-
healing of James, or the miUenmum of John. The Faith-healer,
and "claimers" of their dying friends from God, must recollect, that
if their theory becomes actual practice, there is an end to the noble
Army of Martyrs, who counted not their lives dear to thomselves,
BO that they might finish their course with joy, and the relatives
of those, who do go the way of all flesh, will have just cause
of complaint of the want of Saving Faith, and urgent Claim, on
the part of the comrades of their dead. Indeed, if the Faith-healer
is allowed \a have his head, we may dispense with Medical Mis-
sionaries, and Medicine- Chests. " Non tali auiilio." Against the
Pagan element of the Itoniish system, the individualism of the
Plymouthite, and the nominal Christian, there is no specific except
a full Gospel. Against the strange errors of Chapter III. we
shall find Time an ally, always remembering, that in those days
we neither have, «or dttin io have, the Arm of the Flesh to
extinguish Pagan worship, and stifle theological discusaions, nor
the curse of the persecuting priest to bum out so-called heresies.
"When we consider Chapf^ir II., wo can ask the Neo-Mahometan
more clearly to prove the authority of his prophet; and to the
pioas Jew, waiting like old Simeon for the fulfilment of tbe
promises, we can more particularly explain, that we have found
the Messiah. To the Nee-Hindu, and Neo-Zoroastrian, we can
argue, OS Peter did to ComeUus at Joppa, that the epoch of national
religion is past, and that God is no respecter of persons. To the
Atheistical Meo-Buddhiat and Neo-Confacianist we can bring the
numberless proofs, that there is a God, and that human codes
of morality by themselves are worthless, unless a power be sup-
plied by Ono mightier than ourselves to comply with them.
From the stores of the Gospel there seems to be a palliative for
all these human weaknesses, if only Dogmatism, Sacerdotalism,
Kitualism, Extravagances, Transcendentalism, and Intolerance, be
excluded.

So long as nations and tribes remain in the same level of social
and spiritual development as their neighbours, their national
religions will last, for they are good enough for their wants, and
there is no opportunity of contrast. There is a dead calm, because

w

62 CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

no one has preached a new idea. But in an age, when there is no
possible iaolation, and all things are becoming new, when there is a
new birth of conceptions and ideas, of enviroiuncnts and possibilities,
OUT confidence is, that in the Christian doctrine and fundamental
principles there is an nniq^ue power of life. The only other really
universal religion, that of Bi'tddha, has no Kingdom of God as its
recommendation, the object of all aspiration, and the dream of the
faithful. Buddhism ia only a code of morals with no power to
enforce it. Those who identify the great upheaving power of
Christianity with the miserable compound of their own narrow
forms, and dogmas, and rituals, will scarcely be satisfied. The
Kingdom comes not by observation, hut it eomea. The Universalism
of Christianity is the sheet-anchor of Christian hope.

At the bottjim. of all belief, true or false, or at least at the bottom
of the outward form, in which it is presented to us, and of all
customs, there is often found something, which is neither Semitic
nor Arian, nor Hamitio, nor belonging to any of the ordinary
technical divisions, but simply human ; in fact, the natural ten-
dencies of the hiunan race, coloured by the climate, the natural
features of the soil, and the circumstances of the early settlers,
among whom it came into existence. And more than this : Chris-
tianity is presented to the Natives of Asia, Africa, America, and
Oceania, in a very complicated European form, but it is out of
reason to suppose that it will continue so. There will no doubt
be created a setting of its own for the precious pearl of Gospel
Truth. God grant that the pearl itself may not be tampered with,
that the Trinity may not disappear before the idea of Monotheism,
or the conception of the Divine Saviour shrink into .the human
teacher !

Christians in Europe are too apt to look at human affairs from
their own point of view ; shall 1 say, the point of view of the
Pidpjt of the Church, which they attend, or of the Idols of the
Market, or of the School of Thought, which they worship. They
talk of the Hindu, Mahometan, and the Pagan world with a pitying
sneer, though knowing very iittlo about them. This feoliug, and
line of thought, are heartily reciprocated by the Non-Christian
world ; they do not consider themselves objects of pity, or con-
tempt, but on the contrary, if they thought of the subject at all,
they would pity the Christian, The great antagonist, which ia to
be contended against everywhere, is the profound indifierence of
worldly men, whether in London, Banaras, Pekin, or Tokyo, to all
spiritual matters whatsoever. The representatives of the Christian
Faith, who force themselves on the notice of the non-Christian com-
munity in the streets, the places of commerce, the Sea Ports, the
Military Cantonments, or the Camp on the March, are objects of
pity and even of scorn : drunken, libidinous, and violent men.
The people of India and China are as entirely ignorant of the quiet

J

beauty of the Christian homo raid conmninity in Europe and North
America, as the people of those conntricB are of the quiet, respeot-
ttble, and moral life of the residents of the thoueands of Tillagen,
occupied by Hindu, Buddhist, and Mahometan, where the domestia
Tirtues flourish without remark, except by those few, who, like
myself, have lived for months alone in their midst. I remember
once conversing with a Hindu about religion, and he remarked
■with a feeling of quiet pride, that he at pleasure could become a
Christian, but nothing could give me a high Caste-position aa a
Hindu. Over a liquor-shop at Amritear, soon after the annexation
of the Fanjab, I saw a sign to encourage topers of a fat English-
man smoking and drinking. The Mahometan, proud of the fact,
that millions who were once Christians in Asia and Africa, accepted
IslBm, baa no doubt of the superiority of bis tenets. He would
approach the subject with the same pitying smile, with which a,
Christian approaches the Jew ; the latest manifestation of the Divine
Spirit must be the right one. I had a surprise for me in store a few
years ago at Oxford ; a most accomplished, and charming young
Brahmoiafc, well read in Sanskrit lore, took his degree, and for some
time assisted some young Christian Missionaries preparing for work in
India in the study of the languages. I asked him whether the contact
■with so much learning, zeal, and self-conaeeration did not affect
his view as to the truth of the Gospel. "Not at all," was the
reply, " but I have some hopes, that I have made an impression on
raie of the Missionaries in favour of Brahmoism."

I now quote a passage from a sermon preached by Bishop
Lightfoot of Durham on the day of bis enthronement. The text
■was, "And they shall see His face," Eev. xsii. 4. The Bishop
remarked that his predecessor Joseph Butler, as he was dying, " ox-
pressed it as an awful thing to appear before the Moral Governor
of the world." " Let the same prayer ascend from us all to the
throne of Heaven. In all the manifold trials, and mean vexations
of life, this Presence will bo your strength and your stay. What-
ever is beautiful, whatever is real, whatever is abiding in your
lives, if there be any antidote to sin, if there be any anodyne for
grief, it there be any consolation, and if there be any Grace, you
will find it here and here alone, in the ever-present consciousness,
that you aro living face to face with the Eternal God. Not by
fitful gusts of religious passion, not by fervid outbursts of senti-
mental devotion, not by acquiescence in orthodox beliefs, but by
the calm, steady, persistent concentration of the soul on this
Truth, by the intent fixing of the inward eye on the Righteous-
ness, and Grace, of the Eternal Being, before whom you stand,
will you redeem your spirits, and sanctify your lives. So will
your minds be conformed to His mind : so will your face reflect the
brightness of His face : so will you go on from strength to strength,
till, life's pilgrimage ended, you appear in the Celestial City."

64 CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

r

^^^H Now if these ■wonderful, yet sober, words were read carefully to

^^^" an assembly couHisting of thoughtful representatives of the different
P religious conceptions described above, at least of those, where the

I professors were serioua, and in earnest, and knew what they were

L about, I doubt not that the Mahometan, the Jew, the Hindu, the

^^^_ 7am, the Erahmoist, and Unitarian, would at once acquiesce in the
^^^L sentiment expressed ; but the Bdddhist, Confucianist, Comtist, and
^^^H Agnostic, would dissent from the terms, in which the sentiment is
^^^P expressed, as they know of no Moral Governor of "the world, and
^^^V no Celestial City, but they would all in some terms or other, with
^^^H some reservations or other, concur in the theory of seeking Holiness,
^^^1 however in their viewa inaccurately described as " seeing God
^^^B face to face."

^^^1 The decline of ancient prejudice, and the feeling, that a volcanic

^^^H disturbance has destroyed all the old landmarks of faith, exposes a
^^^H Tery numerous portion of the human race, who do not think deeply,
^^■^ and have limited intellectual gifts, to a painful and comfortless
I position. A stato of Scepticism may interest a few unquiet minds,

but the enjoyment of superstition is so congenial to the multitude,
that if they are thoroughly assured, they seem to regret the loss of
^^^ their pleasing errors.

^^^^ " Et demptns per vim tnentia gmtisainiue error."

^^^1 The necessity to the multitude of believing something is so urgent,

^^^1 that the fall of one system of mythology will possibly be succeeded
^^^H by some other system more sui^ble to the Epoch, and intellectual
^^^H standard. Thus at the time of the fall of the Eoman Empire, and its
^^^H religious conceptions, deities under the new name of " Saints " of a
^^^B more recent and fashionable type, were evoked to occupy the empty
^^^V temples and vacant pedestals, and not only the stones and wood
^^^B were thus appropriated to kindred uses, but the Idea, and Method,
^^^1 Attributes, and Terminology, were gratefully adopted by the Church
^^^f of Bome, though unquestionably with a higher tone of Morality.
^^^ Thus the conceptions and statues of Apollo, Diana, Lucina, and
r others, under new names still exercise religious influence in Europe,

I and the great fear is, lest the same phenomena should exhibit

themselves in India, China, and Japan. Mahometanism in its day
of superb absolutism swept all clean with iconoclastic fury, but
in these days of Codes of Law, and civilized Ghivemments, the
operation of transformation must be left to the people themselves,
and it will be an interesting and instructive spectacle.

Heligion is sometimes in advance of the intellectual capacity of
a people : It is then superstition (^SfiaiSai/ioi/ia) : sometimes, as in
Europe and N. America, the religious tenets, as outwardly exhibited,
appear to have fallen in the rear of the intellectual development
of the people : then follows Agnosticism, and Atheism. This fact
shows, that the outward appearance of every Religion must gradu-
ally change to suit the clmnging of the popular conception and

md J

CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

\ practice ; otherwise, as ia the Eoman Cntholic, and Greet, and
I the faUen Churches of Western Asia, it hecomea intoIeraMe, as a
I Buhterfuge, a mere machine, and a deception, or pitiable, as a
I delirium, or a auTvival of a past Epoch of human development.
But the process of change haa ita peculiar danger. In the Gospel
and Epistles of John we come upon the Christian doctrine in. an
Hellenic dress of ideas, as well as of sentence-moulds ; we detect the
Hellenic influence, though in a less degree, in the Epistles of Paul :
dare we say, that the Judaism of the Master himself was a form
of Judaism not of the pre-Captivity type, but a form tempered
and broadened hy Hellenic contact? 80 the Protestant Theology
of Europe is tempered by the prevailing sentiments of the time,
Teutonized as opposed t» Latin influences, less dogmatism, more
toleration, more breadth of view, more allowance for opinion of
others, and a wider capacity for reflection. We must expect, that
the nascent Churches of India, China, and Japan, and Asia, of
North, East, West, and South Africa, of North and South America,
of Oceania, will not receive the Christian doctrine in the exact
form that we do : the gold will fall into a matrix of difiereot
material : their preconception of fitness, their logical powers, their
public opinion, their constitutional traditions, call it if you please
the idols of their market, and of their schools of thought, differ
from each other, and from ua toio eah. We must be prepared
for a great divergence of Christian practice. In a Diocesan Con-
ference of the West African Church held in 1888 at Sierra Leone
in the presence of the Bishop, the legality and necessity of Poly-
gamy was urged by a respectable member, and not at once ruled
out of things possible.

More latitude of doctrine as well as of practice may be claimed
by these new Churches : the Hellenistic tendencies of the early
centuries have left a " damnoM kereditaa " to the Western
Churches, dogmatic hardness, and splitting of hairs of doctrine,
instead of leaving open questions ; we do not give Christianity a
chance, if we present it to Orientals in a Latin- Anglo-Saxon dress.
The Neo-Chriatians (jf Asia may possibly feel, that to love their
God and their neighbours is not only better tian burnt offerings
and sacrifice, but also than reputed orthodoxy, and nice ter-

It is difficult to say in which form the appearance of Christianity
is more dangerous in India, whether in the ascetic environment
of ceHbate Priests and Sisters, decorated Cinrches, with a constant
prayer-wheel of inttined litanies, processions, and music, or in the
Corybantic mobs, obstructing the traffic of lie streets, and making
the neighbourhood hideous with the noise of drums and wind instm-
ments, degrading the Church religion below the level of the Hindu
Mela, and the Mahometan Taziuh -procession. The motives of both
parties may be good, but, as a certain Bishop lately remarked, the

66 CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

time of the wise ia occupied in controverting and correcting the
■work of the so-called good. The phraseology of both parties,
which is only just tolerated in the English Language, becomea
ridiculona in the Vemaoular, and the indecent frequency of the use
of the Divine name, in spite of the Third Commandinent, in
Heligious publications, is harely exceeded hy the Mahometan and
Hindu. There are Clouds ou the Horizon both within our own
camp as well as without in the camp of the non-Christian world,
with whom we are wa§;ing a Holy War for the Salvation of Souls.

The unjustifiable way, in which the Divine name is introduced
into the speeches and publications and resolutions of the Evangelical
section of the Church, is one of the sins of the age. Nothing
happens without not only the permission, hut the command of the
Suler of the Universe ; but under what authority does General
Booth writo in his letter of this year, " See what increased power
God has given to the (Salvation) Army"? And in the ordinary
written or printed matter of Evangelical Societies we come upon,
" The Committee praises God." " God has enabled." " What has
God wrought ? " " Tt pleased God." " Favour of God." " Thank
God." " God's blessing." " Seal of God's approval." " Owned of
God." " Claimed of God." " la God's night." " God has chosen."
" God 80 willed." " Do the Lord's will," " God means me to stay."
"If God wants you." "Godhasbeentherefuge." "God's protecting
care." "God able to deliver." "God's side." "God's time."
" Providence of God." " God opened the heart." " God's mercy."
" God's presence." " Command of his God " " Bleas the name of
God." " God has gone forth." " Only true God." " God gave him
Grace!" "Godknowa." " Dealings of God." " Comforted by God."
" God's Mercy." " God baa ordered." "God forbid." "Under God."
"Entirely in God's hands." " If God permits." " God's strength."
" God overrules." " Possible with God." " May God incline," etc.

All these espreBsiona occur in Reports, which could be read in
a forenoon. Some of the expressions occur repeatedly : in fact
they are stock-phrases : the othera are introduced out of deference
to supposed requirements of Piety. Of oonrse in addition the three
Divine Names oecur repeatedly in their proper place in the narra-
tive, and the Bible is alluded to aa " God's Word." Our Heavenly
rather moves in a myaterioua way to perform Hia Wonders : some-
times He grants, and sometimes denies ; but His poor weak children
presume to be familiar with his dealings with themselves and their
work, or else allow theraselvea to u.se common-form phraseology.
It is this, which makes Missionary Exports bo distasteful to the
general public. '^Tiy cannot noble work done by noble men he
described in ordinary phraseology ? Get rid of cant.

The Mahometan is not a wbit behind the Cbristian : in their
appeal (see page 54) they tell their fellow-roligionista, that " God
is ready to help yon." From their point of view they ore quit* as

T|

J

CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

munh entitled to use heavenly weapons as the Cliristian. The 1
Hindu makes a sad misuse of the Divine Name, only equalled by
the undergraduates of the English Universities, who think nothing
of ahoutins out at tho hoat-racea "Well done, Trinity! Bump
Jesus ! " Not very long ago a Brahmini-Bull lay down upon the
Bailway line near Bandras : the pious Hindu always talks of these
beasts as incarnations of the Great Deity. The Native Station
Master, unable or unwilling to disturb the sacred animal, tele-
• graphed in English to the next station t« warn coming trains :
' "Look out: there is a God Almighty lying on the line." He
m.eant nothing improper, but the anecdote illustrates the necessity
of restraint in this pMticular.

The educated noa-Christian of the nineteenth century, dis-
illusioned of hia previous gross and degraded beliefs and customa, is
in a much more difficult position than tho Bflman contemporaries
of Juvenal, Seneca, Epictetua, and the Emperor Marcus Aurelius.
They indeed saw their beautiful legends, and the poetic fanciea of
their own people and their Greek cousins, disappear under the
scorching light of civilizatioE and Nco-Platonisin, %.». common
sense and reason. It looks very much, as if Marcus Aurelius
wished to introduce Christianity without the personality of Christ.
They and their successors had, however, the advantage of coming
into contact with tho pure, undefiled light of virgin Christianity,
set forth by earnest and simple men of the second and third
century after the Saviour. There was no blind confusiou of
different Churches, no spectocle of degrailed nominal Christians, no
monstrous aBsertioa of a monopoly of divine things by a Romish
priesthood, no downgrade paring away of belief in Christ by
half-Pagan reasoners, so that the despairing believer, looking across
the deep ditch betwixt the old and new theology, cries out, " They
"have taken away the Lord, and we know not where they have
" placed Him."

Taken away tho Lord ! Can a great character he effaced from
history ? Let the Theologian, and the Divine, stand aside, and let
the Man of Science, the Historian, and the Linguist, argue out thia
matter. The Books of the Old Testament have come down to us
beyond the suspicion of being fabricated at a later date than the
Septuagint translation, first in a dead language, the Hebrew;
portions in a kindred language, the Samaritan ; and the whole
in the Tai^am of the contemporary Vernacular, the Aramaic;
jealously controlled by the Greek Translation made by the
Hebrew settlers at Alexandria zjo years before the Advent.

For one thousand years tho hands of the writers of these hooka
point in language, tiie purport of which was not understood by
them, to a Tune, a Place, and a Personage : peering into a dim and
remote future, they announce with confidence the restoration of
Israel's greatness, the exceeding glory of the latter House, tho

J

L

68 CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

tulvBEt of a Prince, that should restore all things : and somcthinf;
more they tell of a Light, which shall lighten the Gentiles, whoso
Law Bhoiild be obeyed by the Isles of the Sea : " Ask of me, and I
" shall give you the Heathen for your inheritance." " Out of Zion
" shall go forth the Law."

For five hundred veftra the voice of Prophecy was still, but in
the fullness of time there came a Personage, the like of whom the
World had never seen before, nor has seen since, and He and Hia
Apostles were ever raisinj^ a hand to point back to those old books,
the language of which was dead, the purport of which was mia-
underatood. The Sceptre had departed from Judah, the Hebrew
race was dispersed among the Gentiles, and yet the time had come,
when all was to be fulfilled. The Old Testament is worthless
without the New ; the Now is unintelligible without the Old.

Is there any parallel in History? Are we dealing with facts?
We have little now to add to our store of knowledge of the
ancient World by gleanings from the Past : the Papyri of the
Egyptians have heen deciphered; the clay-tablets of the Meao-
potamian librariea have been spelt out: the sacred books of
India and China have been translated. Cemeteries, and Shrines,
and Ancient Monuments, have given up their dead, their deities,
and their inacriptions.

Many things, once fondly believed in, have given way. The
Garden of Eden, Oh ! the Garden, which filled so large a portion in
our childhood's dreams, has lost its geographical and histurical
expression : the limits of the Deluge have been circumscribed : the
Confusion of Tongaea at the Tower of Babel can no longer bear
its usual explanation. The Hebrew Kingdom and Temple have
fallen from the pre-eminent position above other Kingdoms and
Temples, which bad been too hastily attributed to thorn. But is
there any such plan of Salvation to be found elsewhere, ao con-
tiauona, so universal, so wise, bo uncompromising, so tender, so full
of Love ? Did the Veda point to the coming of Buddha, and of the
new Hinduism ? Did the aayinga of the great Sage Koimg-Futz-zee
point to the coming of a Personage at a particular date, and did He
come ? In the fullness of Time the Messiah came, fulfilling in an
unexpected way all that was foretold, and doing a work for the
Western World, which is still undone for the Eastern, levelling
the barriers of Nations, and Tribes, and Languages, and making
one out of many, because God is Father of all, Christ is Saviour
of aU, and the Holy "Spirit consents to dwell with all without
reapeet of race and nationality.

The sum of the matter is this :

I. There ia no longer isolation of notions and tribes. The
Hindu, the Buddhist, the fetish-worshipper, the cannibal, and the
sacrificer of human victims, can no longer plead, that they know no
better.

CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

n one country of the religious
There is a power of

L

II. Tkere is no longer ignoranee ii
tenets professed by their neighbou
comporiBOQ.

III. The civil government has put down - abominable crimes
committed in the name of religion, and a public Consdenco has

' been formed.

IV. The independent opinions of mankind have been evoked,
and no educated man will in the twentieth century assert,

(o) That an act morally wrong can be theologically right. Only
those, familiar with Paf,^!!! prncticea, and the Koman Catholic
Inquisition, know what that means.

(i) That auch a thing as divinely-inspired inveracity can exist,
or that a lie in the name of religion can profit the human race.

[e ) That religious toleration is not an essential of all religions.

(rf) That the mummery of priests, dead ritual, modem miracles,
or vicarious worship, can bo of any profit whatever to the soul.

It cornea to this, therefore, that that form of reUgion will
most probably triumph in the end, which

(i) la moat tolerant of, and compassionate towards, the errors
of others.

(i) Eeflecta most the life of its founder, and is evidenced by the
lives of its professors.

(3) Is most apiritud, and least dependent on material aid and
worldly anrroundings.

(4) Is moat lofty in its conception, moat disinterested in its
method, most simple in its expression, most sympathetic 'with
the weakness of men, moat stemly condemnatory of ain in every
fonn under every circumstance, yet most merciful to the repentant
sinner,

(s) Most suggestive of a way of Salvation, and of a Personage,
who can be the object of love, for love casteth out the craven fear
of the Deity, whidi man in his natural state feels (see page 4) j
and most full of Hope in a Pnture State.

(6) Moat independent of national, ot racial, or local, prejudices,
and therefore most universal and comprehenaive.

Let each person humbly consider the features of the different
phenomena here described or allnded to, and decide whether, in
the possession of Evangelical Truth, he has not all that the heart
of man can desire, and more than the wisdom of the moralist
can supply.

"Arcis diviuEB super muros humilis speculator cccH priesagia
prospicit, et fldeliter denimUat."
Zondon, 1890.

CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

APPENDIX; SCHEDULE OF EEFEEENCE8.

General Subject

Ifoo-Mahometaii

I

The Gospel imd Modem Substitutes. E«v. A.

Scott Mathesoa, i8go.
La Science des Religions. EmQo Bumouf.

Paris. 1S85.
Science of Eeligion. Mils Miiller.
Tiele. HeligionH, Xeyden.
Kevue dea Iteligions, a Serial. Paria.
Euenea. Hihbert Lecturea.
Modem Messialis. Oxley. iSSg.
Keligious Syateme of the World. 1890. (Swan

Sonnenschcin.)

Eoelle, Life of Mahomet,
Muir, do, do.

Sprenger, do. do.
Stobart, do. do,
Encyclopsedia Brits

Do.

do.

9fch ed, " Mahomet."

(Mahomotan). do.

Do.

do.

do.
do.

Mysticif

Omar Kheiyam.

Journal of Boyal Asiatic Society. iS

(Brown.)
C. M. 8. Intelligencer, June, 1890. (Brui
Journal of SociSt^ Asiatiquo. 1866.

eeries, vol. yiii. (Kaaim Beg).
Enoyelopffidia Britenniea. gli. ed. Babi.

Eacyclopcedia Britannica. 9th Ed. Israel.

(Wollhausen).

Do. do. do. Philo.

Jewish Quarterly Beview.
Deutsch: Posthumous Works, Lecturea on

Talmud.

i

CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON.

Neo-Hinduism . .

Max Miiller. Biograpliical Essays, 1884.

Dayananda Saras\'ati.
Monier-Wiliiams. Religious Thought and Life
in India.

Do. Indian "Wisdom.
Do. Modern India.
E«v. H. Fonnan. The AryaSomaj, ita Teach-
ing and an Estimate of "it. AUahahad Mis-
sion Press. 1887.

Neo-ZoroastrianiBm

Lecture of Jivanji .Tainshedii Modi. Bomhay,

1885.
Monier- Williams. Victoria Institute, 1890.

Do. Modem India.
Max MiiUor. Chips, vol. iv. 169, 330.

Neo-Buddhisni . .

Monior-Williama. Buddhism.

Chinese Buddhism.
Edkins. Religion in China.
Beal. Dhammapada.
Ehys Davids. Buddhism.

Keo-Confudanism .

Beligions of China. Edkins.
Confucianism and Taouism. Douglas.
Legge. Sacred Boolca of China.
Do. Religion of China.

Sroiutioisni , , *

The Ne-w Dispensation and the Sadharan

Brahmo Somaj, by Pandit Siva Nath Sastri.

Madras, 1881.
India; "What It can Teach Us? Max Miiller.

Lecture at Cambridge.
Faith and Progress of the Brahmo Somaj, by

P. C. Mozumdar. Calcutta, i88z.
Keshab Chandra. Lectures on India.
Essaya Theological and Ethical. Calcutta,

1874.
Monier-'Williams. Eeligioua Thought and

Life in India,
MaxMuUor. Chips.
Brahmo Tracts.