motive which allured strangers to that great metropolis. Commerce had as many pilgrims as religion. All along the shores of the venerable stream lay great fleets of vessels laden with rich merchandize. From the looms of Benares went forth the most delicate silks that adorned the balls of St. James's and of Versailles; and in the bazaars, the muslins of Bengal and the sabres of Oude were mingled with the jewels of Golconda and the shawls of Cashmere."* In the opinion of the people, every part of the city is holy-so holy, that whoever dies there, be he a high caste Brahmin or an outcast Pariah or Dom; be he Mohammedan or Christian; be he pure or impure; be he even a profligate, a robber, or a murderer, is believed to be delivered from his sins and to go straight to paradise. For the sanctity of its inhabitants-of its temples and priests-of its wells and streams-of its roads and stairs-of the very soil that is trodden-of the very air that is breathed-and of everything in it and around itBenares has been famed throughout her long career. The Hindu ever beholds the city in one peculiar aspect, as a place of spotless holiness and of heavenly beauty, where the spiritual eye may be delighted and the heart may be purified; and his imagination has been kept fervid from age to age by the continued presentation of this glowing picture. Believing all he has read and heard concerning this ideal seat of blessedness, he has been possessed with the same longing to visit it as the Mohammedan has to visit Mecca, or the Christian enthusiast to visit Jerusalem; and, * Macaulay's "Warren Hastings," p. 55. having gratified his desire, has left the memory of his enterprise to his children, for their example, to incite them to undertake the same pilgrimage, faithfully transmitting to them the high ambition which he himself received from his fathers. The poor deluded sensualist, whose life has been passed in abominable practices, or the covetous mahajan, or native banker, who has made himself rich by a long course of hard-fisted extortion, or the fanatical devotee, more simple than a babe, yet sometimes guilty of foul and bloody crimes, still comes, as of old, from the remotest corners of India, as the sands of time are slowly ebbing away; and, fearful lest the last golden grains should escape before his long journey is ended, makes desperate efforts to hold on his course, till, at length, arriving at the sacred city and touching its hallowed soil, his anxious spirit becomes suddenly calm, a strange sense of relief comes over him, and he is at once cheered and comforted with the treacherous lie, that his sins are forgiven and his soul is saved. The form of religion prevailing amongst the Hindus of Benares is based mainly upon the Puranas, or latest sacred writings; and is especially devoted to the worship of the god Shiva, the third person in the Hindu triad. It originated in the country, for the most part, at the time when Buddhism began to lose its hold upon the people. Pantheism more or less tinctures the philosophical creed of many; but the staple religion of the masses is the lowest and grossest species of idolatry-is the veneration of uncouth idols, of monsters, of the lingam and other indecent figures, and of a multitude of grotesque, ill shapen, and barbarous objects. Some of them are wild parodies on the animal kingdom, representing imaginary creatures made up in a variety of ways. There is no city in India in which the reverence paid to images is more absolute and complete. Upwards of thirty years ago, an official at Benares made a computation of the number of temples and mosques existing in it. At that time, there were in the city proper, exclusive of the suburbs, one thousand Hindu temples and three hundred and thirty-three Mohammedan mosques. But this number of temples did not, I imagine, include the small shrines, the niches in the walls, the cavities inside and outside many of the houses, and the spaces on the river stairs, in which images in immense multitudes were and are still deposited. These secondary shrines, each occupied by one or more idols, are, in some parts of the city, exceedingly numerous. Figures of every form, from a plain stone to the most fantastic shape, whole and mutilated, painted and unpainted, some unadorned, others decorated with garlands, or wet with sacred water, meet the eye in every direction. These remarks refer especially to the neighbourhood of the bathing-stairs and of the principal temples; yet, everywhere, idols and fanes are so abundant, that they give to the city a singularly picturesque and, I would add, repellent appear ance. Benares, like Athens in the time of Paul, is a city "wholly given to idolatry." The Hindu, it should always be remembered, is, according to his own fashion, a religious man of very great earnestness; but his religion, alas! takes the form of idolatry. Idolatry enters into all the associations and concerns of his life. He can take no step without it. He carries. his offerings publicly in the streets, on his way to his temple in the morning; and receives upon his forehead, from the priest, the peculiar mark of his god, as the symbol of the worship he has paid him, which he wears all the day long. As he walks about, you may hear him muttering the names and sounding the praises of his gods. In greeting a friend, he accosts him in the name of a deity. In writing a letter on business, or on any other matter, the first word he invariably writes is the name of a god. Should he make an engagement of importance, he first inquires the pleasure of the idol, and the lucky day for the transaction. At his birth, his horoscope is cast; when he is sick, the gods must be propitiated; when he is bereaved, the idol must be remembered; at his death, his funeral rites are performed in the name of one or more deities. It is the In short, idolatry is a charm, a fascination to the Hindu. It is, so to speak, the air he breathes. food of his soul. It is the foundation of his hopes, both for this world and for another. He is subdued, enslaved, and befooled by it. He is, however, a willing slave—a willing devotee— for he loves it, together with its superstitions and ceremonies, with all the ardour of religious frenzy. Moreover, it is of great importance to bear in mind, that the nature of the Hindu partakes of the supposed nature of the gods whom he worships. And what is that nature ? It is vile and abominable to the last degree; so that the poor idolater, under its influence, is brought to a level with the brute. Virtue, truth, holiness, civilization, enlightenment, human progress, all that conduces to individual happiness and to a nation's prosperity, cannot be properly appreciated by him. He is lost. His soul is ruined. Its best affections are blighted-its conscience is perverted. Idolatry is a word denoting all that is wicked in imagination and impure in practice. There are two kinds of processes affecting Hinduism visible in Benares; the one of a destructive, the other of a constructive character. These I shall speak of unitedly, because, in point of fact, they can hardly be separated. One of the principal reasons that Benares is so famous is, that it was formerly the resort of large numbers of Brahmins who, divided into schools and colleges, pursued the study of the ancient Sanskrit writings. At one time, there were hundreds of such establishments, in which thousands of students were taught the philosophical tenets of Hinduism; and princes and nobles, in all parts of India, vied with each other in the support they rendered to them. Enormous sums were annually given for this purpose; so that learned pundits who taught in their colleges, together with the young men whom they instructed, were alike nourished and cared for. Such munificence to teachers and pupils naturally attracted to Benares aspiring young Brahmins from every province of India; who, receiving a thorough education in certain branches of philosophy during their long and severe course of study, returned at length to their native villages and towns, and became great local authorities on all religious topics, and the defenders and expounders of the national creed. For the most part, such support was rendered annually. Of late years, especially since the mutiny, it has very greatly diminished. The consequence is, that not a few of the pundits have abandoned the close study of Sanskrit, and with it the instruction of their pupils; and, on the other hand, for the same reason, the influx of students has greatly fallen off. I have been given to understand, that at the present moment not twenty families of Brahmins in all Benares are devoted to the study of the Vedas, the most primitive Hindu writings. Not only are the most ancient sacred books being neglected in the city, but, with the exception of a few favoured works, the interest in Sanskrit literature is rapidly decaying; and it is almost certain that in a few years Sanskrit will be scarcely studied at all. There is another reason operating to the decline of Sanskrit, namely, that both pundits and their pupils are beginning to see that various situations are open to them under British rule which they can fill with honour and comfort to themselves; and, as they are just as desirous for worldly ease and distinction as other people, they do not hesitate to apply for them, even at the risk of abandoning their favourite study. DEAN ALFORD ON THE RELATIONS OF CONFORMISTS AND NONCONFORMISTS. [THE Dean of Canterbury has done himself high honour by his recent papers on matters affecting the relations of Episcopalians and Dissenters. It is difficult for us to appreciate duly the moral courage which was necessary to say to the world and to his own Church what these papers contain. But we reciprocate with all our hearts the spirit of a true and enlightened Christian charity with which the Dean approaches those who are not of his own ecclesiastical fold. We will not now discuss some points to which we might take exception, but prefer to present his views to our readers without note or comment, and to leave them to produce their own impression.-ED. Christian Witness.] I. THE CHRISTIAN CONSCIENCE IN REGARD TO ECCLESIASTICAL RELATIONS. LET us raise our eyes from secular to religious life. Let us ask whether in the practice of the churches of this land the Christian conscience speaks clearly and is obeyed. What is the state of things among us in England? I am asking the question not with any view of passing a criticism on existing arrangements. I take them as accomplished fact— as the basis of what I have to remark. We have in England one form of Church established, and in connection with the State. We have many other forms existing as voluntarily associated bodies; existing by recognized right of the Christian conscience. This recognition has, historically, not been arrived at without considerable difficulty, and a struggle which has lasted for ages. Though a legitimate and necessary corollary from the principles of our Reformation, it was not seen to be such by the dominant party, till the course of Providence proved too strong for the self-will of men. We began by persecuting in order to enforce conformity; we advanced to a meagre and ungracious toleration; and, notwithstanding that our nonconforming brethren have now, thank God, acquired equality of civil rights, at this point of ungracious toleration we for the most part remain still. The State has been more recognisant of, more loyal to, the Christian conscience, than the Church, which ought to have been its most jealous and watchful guardian. Nothing is more strongly impressed on my mind, when I look over the religious state of England, than that we, who are members of her Established Church, have need to face the whole important question of our relations to Nonconformists, with a view to a re-adjustment, in the light of the Christian conscience, of our words and our acts respecting them. There is a very wide basis of doctrine, there is a still wider basis of Christian morality, on which we are absolutely at one. As far as those bases extend, our aim is identical. We may not be able to work together; our instruments may be different; our tastes may be incompatible. Allow the utmost force to these considerations; and the utmost force also to the consideration, that our very differences are themselves points of conscience, and that we are bound to stand up for them, and not to merge nor compromise them. Still, allowing all this, it seems to me that there is no justification for the present alienation of affection, the present virtual suspension of inter course, the present depreciating tone and manner, which prevail on the part of English Churchmen towards Dissenters, and towards Churches which differ from ourselves in organization. That such a tone does prevail, needs, I suppose, no proof; but how far it is carried can hardly be imagined but by help of illustration. In the last number but one of a weekly Church newspaper, occurred the following sentence, forming part of a review of a work by Dr. Preuss, a Lutheran divine holding a distinguished academical office in Berlin: "His position, as a member of a body of religionists without the pale of the Catholic Church, naturally places him without the range of the Church's sympathies." It would be difficult to say whether the insolence, or the ignorance, of this sentence be the greater, or whether both be not surpassed by its utter opposition to the whole spirit of our Blessed Lord and his Apostles. The confession implied in the words "without the sympathies of the Church" is, I need hardly say, a sign that he who makes it has yet to learn his first lesson in the nature and attributes of that Church of Christ of which he speaks so flippantly. If her sympathies be not with all whom Christ died to save, she has deserted the office to which He appointed her— that of being His body, and the habitation of His Spirit. There lies at the root of all this arrogance a most mischievous, but I grieve to say a widely prevalent fallacy. We of the Church of England have absolutely no right to assume our own form of church government to be the only lawful one, and to look askance upon other forms, whether in England or elsewhere. We have not this right, because we distinctly proclaim, as to all things required of necessity to be believed, an appeal to Holy Scripture; and in Scripture as much, or as little, is found for one form as for another. If depreciation of Nonconformists is excused on the ground of our possessing superior means of education and endowment, then the plea itself involves a violation of the dictates of the Christian conscience; for, if the fact be as stated, it is mainly owing to our having excluded our brethren from the national advantages which we ourselves possess; and it is high time that such exclusion should come to an end. We have, I conceive, a curious example of the perversion of conscience in the English Church, in the fact that a large and increasing party of her members are at this time agitating for union and intercommunion with the Roman and Eastern Churches, from both of which we are separated by important doctrinal differences— that this desire for union is justified by them on the most solemn grounds, as furnished by the words of our Lord's own intercessory prayer, and yet that no mention whatever is made of any desire for union, on the basis of mutual allowance of differences, with our Christian brethren in the British Islands.-Good Words, Jan., 1868. II. ON THE UNION OF CHRISTENDOM IN ITS HOME ASPECT. WHAT is union? The answer generally given is, that it is that state of mutual recognition which is symbolized by intercommunion-a word itself, we fancy, coined to serve the of purpose this union movement. But it may be |