mind and purpose to act in accordance with their convictions of duty and to endure all its consequences. * There is another large and important class who regard Christianity and indeed all religion in a different light, and who are actuated by a different spirit. Many causes besides the means used to introduce and propagate Christianity, have been in operation for many years to undermine Hinduism. Some of the measures of the English government necessarily, though indirectly, have this influence. Foreign commerce, personal intercourse with foreigners, and the knowledge of foreign countries which the Hindus are acquiring in various ways, have a strong reflex influence upon their views of their own country, its government, religion, usages, and customs. Prominent among the causes which are coöperating to change the religious opinions and character of the Hindus, must be reckoned education in modern science and literature. It has been already stated that Christianity is excluded from the numerous colleges, seminaries, high schools and vernacular schools connected with the government." But the Hindu sacred books are of such a character that education in modern science and literature must inevitably destroy all confidence in them and all respect for them.† There are now some hundreds of young men in Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, and other large cities, amounting probably to some thousands in all India, who through the influence of education and other causes have lost all confidence in Hinduism as the system was formerly taught and believed by the learned and is still practised by the mass of the people. It is not too much to say that hundreds of this class are as well educated for professions (were any professions open before them) and for social influence in India, as young men generally are for the professions and for social influence in this country when they graduate at our colleges. Their education has been of a different character. Few of them have learned Latin or Greek, but they generally understand and can fluently use 2 or 3 of the modern languages of India, and they have acquired a knowledge of the English language and its literature, or of Sanscrit, or of Persian, or of Arabic. The religious opinions of this class are generally deistical and are very freely and fearlessly avowed among themselves. * Page 319. Page 320, 321. This class of persons have clubs, associations, and societies for debates, discussions, and lectures, and among the subjects which engage their attention at such times, religion in some of its forms and claims has a prominent place. Christianity, as being the religion of the English (now the governing power of their country) and also of Europe, now containing the most highly civilized and powerful nations in the world, would naturally excite their curiosity, while its aggressive spirit and progressive state in their country excites feelings of opposition. Their libraries are well furnished with infidel and deistical works which have been procured from Europe and America. The historical facts and doctrines of the Bible, the ordinances of the Gospel, and certain parts and periods of the history of Christianity are made the subjects of inquiry, discussions, and lectures. At such times Christianity and all connected with it, the Scripture doctrines and characters, as well as parts of its history, are often treated with levity, scurrility, reviling, and blasphemy. To counteract the influence of such meetings where no one can speak for Christianity, missionaries appoint meetings for delivering lectures upon the facts, doctrines, and duties of the Scriptures, which they invite all the natives to attend, and also meetings for discussion in which they invite all to take a part. These meetings are often well attended. In some instances they have been continued once or twice a week for months and years, and the natives have often exhibited interest, zeal, and ability in the discussions. On such occasions they make a free use of the works of infidel writers, and the sneers, cavils, and arguments of deists in Europe and America are reproduced in India, to be there again answered and refuted. The same class has also to a great extent the management and control of the native press in India. In their journals much appears of an infidel and scurrilous nature against Christianity, in perverted and distorted statements of its doctrines and duties, of its principles and its precepts, of the conduct and character of its professors, and of the ways and means used for propagating it. To counteract the influence of such attacks and statements, missionaries and friends of the missionary cause publish and support journals containing correct statements of Christian doctrines, expositions of Scripture, religious intelligence, etc. The following facts show the state of the native mind in India. The proprietor and editor of one of the oldest, best supported, and most ably managed newspapers in Bombay, some time ago expressed his views of the state of religion among all classes, and suggested what course should be pursued. After inserting two or three articles in his paper to prepare the minds of his readers, he said it was obvious to all that the state of religion was very sad and becoming worse, that all classes of people appeared to have lost all confidence in their sacred books; that Christians do not believe in their Bible, for they do not keep the Sabbath, many of them are intemperate, etc.; that the Jews, the Mohammedans, the Hindus, and the Zoroastrians do not believe in their respective sacred books, because if they do, they would not do so many things which are forbidden, and neglect to do so many that are commanded. He then proceeded to say that the sacred books of all these different classes of people may have been of divine origin, and when first given they may have been adapted to the then state and circumstances of the people, and have been very useful, but that they had become unsuitable to the present advanced state of knowledge and improved state of society, and that none of these sacred books could ever again have the confidence of their people, and become the rule of their faith and practice, and that if people should continue as they are, without any system of religion or standard of moral conduct, they would become worse and worse, and at length become depraved beyond recovery or endurance. He then suggested that a religious convention be held in Bombay, and that each class of people send a delegation of their learned and devout men with copies of their sacred books, and that the men of this convention should prepare from all these sacred books a shastra suited to the present state of the world, and adapted to all classes of people, and he expressed his belief that a shastra thus prepared and recommended would soon be generally adopted. In his next paper he proceeded to mention some of the doctrines which such a shastra should contain, and among these he said it should inculcate the existence of only one God, and the worship of him without any kind of idol or material symbol; and then he would have no distinctions of caste, which he thought was one of the great evils and absurd things in the Hindu religion. Now these opinions and suggestions are chiefly remarkable, as exhibiting the state of the native mind. It is unnecessary to say that they are entirely subversive of Hinduism, involving the rejection of its sacred books as well as of its peculiar rites and its most cherished practices. The writer of these articles for the public was a respectable and well-educated Hindu, who had not renounced the principles or the practices of his hereditary faith, nor the rules of caste, and yet we see what a system of religion he was prepared to profess, if all the community would do the same. He was proprietor as well as editor of his paper, and so he had much interest in sustaining its popularity and increasing its circulation. Indeed, I was told that he had but little property besides his paper, and that he relied chiefly upon it for his support. He knew the state of religious opinion among the Hindus, and he was well assured that such opinions and suggestions would not be to the prejudice of his character, nor to the injury of his paper. Now this man, the readers of his paper and the circle of his acquaintance show the state of hundreds and thousands in India, who are dissatisfied with the Hindu religion, and having no confidence in it would gladly embrace something more reasonable, more easily practised, and which they hope would exert a better influence upon society and the state and character of their nation. But they are not prepared to incur the reproach, the family and social troubles, and in some cases the loss of property, which would follow a renunciation of their ancestral faith and the rules of caste. And so they continue to be Hindus in name and profession, but sceptics in heart and libertines in practice, so far as they can be without reproach, persecution, loss of character and property. It is now some years since a spirit of infidelity and scepticism began to take strong hold of the educated native mind in India. This spirit was first manifested in Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, and it is making progress in all the large cities. Some persons when first awakened and enlightened to see the falsehood and absurdity of Hinduism, have continued their inquiries with more or less earnestness till they embraced Christianity in the full conviction of its being the only system of divine revelation. But many others have passed from a conviction of this falsehood of the Hindu religion into a state of scepticism and indifference to all religion, unless when the progress of Christianity now and then rouses them to oppose it. There is yet another class of the native population which owes its origin to the influence of Christianity and other causes coöperating with it to change the religion of the country. They profess a system of reformed Hinduism. This class or sect originated many years ago, and for a while there were strong expectations that it would spread and have great influence upon the moral and intellectual character of the Hindus. Ram Mohun Roy, whose opinions and writings once excited much interest in America, was the principal agent in originating this Society, and in sustaining it while he lived. After his decease (which occurred in England in 1831), the Society declined, and for some years was apparently extinct. It was however resuscitated in 1839, and has been continued. The sect or denomination is not large, but it consists generally of men of intelligence, influence, and wealth. How far their efforts to reform the Hindu religion will succeed, and what form they will assume, remains to be In the brief history and description of India, contained in this work, we have seen that the inhabitants for many centuries professed various forms of heathenism, as demonolatry, brahminism, and budhism. That while professing these forms of religion, though they made progress in civilization, and their country became populous and wealthy, they yet made no progress in the knowledge of the true God, nor in any reasonable way of worshipping Him, "but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened; professing themselves to be wise they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and to four-footed beasts, and to creeping things."t-That the Mohammedans with the avowed object of converting the Hindus to their faith, invaded and overran the country, sub *For a more particular account of this Society, see Appendix D. |