wickedness is carried on. Daily the lust of sin increases; daily the sense of sin diminishes. Casting away all regard for what is good and honourable, pleasure runs riot without restraint. Vice no longer hides itself, it stalks full before all eyes. So public has iniquity become, so mightily does it flame up in all hearts, that innocence is no longer rare: it has ceased to exist."

Matthew Arnold has truly said:

"On that hard Pagan world disgust
And secret loathing fell;

Deep weariness and sated lust
Made human life a hell.

"In his cool hall, with haggard eyes,
The Roman noble lay;

He drove abroad, in furious guise,

Along the Appian way;

"He made a feast, drank fierce and fast,
And crown'd his hair with flowers-

No easier nor no quicker pass'd

The impracticable hours."

Such was the result in ancient Europe. Have the most gifted minds either in that continent or in America since been able to discover the "fundamental truths" of religion apart from Revelation? The remarks in Section III. of the preceding Essay show the state of the case. Lewes, in his "Biographical History of Philosophy," makes the following confession: "Centuries of thought had not advanced the mind one step nearer to the solution of the problems with which, child-like, it began. It began with a child-like question; it ended with an aged doubt. Not only did it doubt the solution of the great problem which others had attempted; it even doubted the possibility of any solution. It was not the doubt which begins, but the doubt which ends enquiry; it had no illusions." is also admitted as a "saddening contemplation" that the "failures of the philosophy of the ancient world were only repeated with parallel experience by the modern."

It

EXAMINATION OF SOME PROFESSED REVELATIONS.

A celebrated South Indian poet says justly, "All lights are not true lights." The revelation needed is a a true revelation. As there are several books claiming to be revelations which are irreconcilably opposed to each other, they cannot all be true. It is our duty to examine them carefully, with earnest prayer to God for His guidance. In general, we may speedily arrive at a conclusion.

I. HINDUISM.-Max Müller says, "Though we look for a book-revelation in vain in the literature of Greece and Rome, we find the literature of India saturated with this idea from beginning to end. In no country I believe has the theory of revelation been so minutely elaborated as in India. The name for revelation in Sanskrit is Sruti, which means hearing; and this title distinguishes the Vedic hymns, as, at a later time, the Brahmanas also, from all other works, which, however sacred and authoritative to the Hindu mind, are admitted to have been composed by human authors. The Laws of Manu, for instance, according to the Brahmanic theology, are not revelations; they are not Sruti, but only Smriti, which means recollection or tradition."

In answer to the question, What is Hinduism? Monier Williams, the Oxford Professor of Sanskrit, makes the following reply:

"It presents for our investigation a complex congeries of creeds and doctrines which in its gradual accumulation may be compared to the gathering together of the mighty volume of the Ganges; swollen by a continual influx of tributary rivers and rivulets, spreading itself over an ever-increasing area of country, and finally resolving itself into an intricate delta of tortuous streams and jungly marshes.

"Nor is it difficult to account for this complexity. The Hindu religion is a reflection of the composite character of the Hindus, who are not one people but many. It is based on the idea of universal receptiv

ity. It has ever aimed at accommodating itself to circumstances, and has carried on the process of adaptation through more than three thousand years. It has first borne with and then, so to speak, swallowed, digested, and assimilated something from all creeds. Or, like a vast hospitable mansion, it has opened its doors to all comers; it has not refused a welcome to applicants of every grade from the highest to the lowest, if only willing to acknowledge the spiritual headship of the Brahmans and adopt caste rules.

"In this manner it has held out the right hand of brotherhood to the fetish-worshipping aborigines of India; it has stooped to the demonolatry of various savage tribes; it has not scrupled to encourage the adoration of the fish, the boar, the serpent, trees, plants, stones, and devils; it has permitted a descent to the most degrading cults of the Dravidian races; while at the same time it has ventured to rise from the most grovelling practices to the loftiest heights of philosophical speculation; it has not hesitated to drink in thoughts from the very fountain of Truth, and owes not a little to Christianity itself."* As the result of this, "Hinduism bristles on all sides with contradictions, inconsistencies, and surprises.". This admission is made by Hindu books themselves. The Mahábhárat says of Hinduism :

"Contradictory are the Vedas; contradictory are the Shastras; contradictory all the doctrines of the holy sages."

The claims of a revelation "bristling with contradictions" are soon settled, but the subject may be considered a little in detail.

Williams says, "The capacity of an uneducated Hindu for believing the grossest absurdities, and accepting the most monstrous fictions as realities, is apparently unlimited." It would be insult to the understanding of the reader to suppose that he considers the Puranas to be inspired. The only questions can be about the Vedas and the Philosophical systems. * Religious Thought in India, pp. 57, 58,

The Vedas.-There is a Latin proverb, "Every thing of which we are ignorant is taken for something magnificent." Until recently, the Vedas were almost entirely unknown. The East India Company enabled Max Müller to print the Rig Veda with the commentary of Sáyana. About half the work has also been translated into English, and there is French translation.

Max Müller is one of the ablest Sanskrit scholars now living, and he has given many years to Vedic study. There is no disposition on his part to depreciate what is true or beautiful in Hindu literaturerather the reverse. He says, "Scholars who have devoted their life either to the editing of the original texts or to the careful interpretation of some of the sacred books, are more inclined, after they have disinterred from a heap of rubbish some solitary fragments of pure gold to exhibit these treasures only, than to display all the refuse from which they had to extract them."*

The Vedas are claimed to be "eternal." Max Müller says, 66 According to the orthodox views of Indian theologians, not a single line of the Veda was the work of human authors. .As the Veda is held to have existed in the mind of the Deity before the beginning of time, every allusion to historical events, of which there are not a few, is explained away with a zeal and ingenuity worthy of a better cause.'

"But let me state at once that there is nothing in the hymns themselves to warrant such extravagant theories. In many a hymn the author says plainly that he or his friends made it to please the gods; that he made it, as a carpenter makes a chariot (Rv. I., 130,6; V. 2. 11), or like a beautiful vesture (Rv. V. 29,15); that he fashioned it in his heart and kept it in his mind (Rv. I. 171,2); that he expects as his reward, the favour of the god whom he celebrates (Rv. IV. 6,21)."

* Preface to Sacred Books of the East.

The religion of the Vedas is a worship of the powers and forces of nature, with some beautiful poetic fancies.

Dyaus and Prithivi, heaven and earth, were very ancient Aryan deities, and are described as the parents of the other gods. The number of divinities is repeatedly said to be thrice-eleven. Their relationship is not settled. The god who, in one hymn, is the father, is in another the son; the same goddess is sometimes the mother, sometimes the wife. Almost every god becomes supreme in turn.

More hymns are addressed to Agni, Fire, than to any other deity. Indra comes next. He is so fond of the intoxicating soma juice that "his inebriety is most intense." Another characteristic is that "he dances with delight in battle." The early Aryans had long contests with the Dasyus, the original inhabitants whom they ousted from their lands. After inviting Indra to quaff the soma juice abundantly," he is thus urged to destroy their enemies: "Hurl thy hottest thunderbolt upon them! Uproot them! Cleave them asunder! O Indra, overpower, subdue, slay the demon! Pluck him up! Cut him through the middle! Crush his head !"

Ghee, curdled milk, rice cakes, and the soma juice were presented. A whole Mandala, containing 114 hymns, is devoted to the praise of Soma, exalted as a god. The Ashwamedha was the most celebrated sacrifice. They sacrificed besides to Indra and Agni bulls, buffaloes, cows, and rams. In one passage Púshan has a hundred buffaloes roasted for Indra, for whom Agni again roasts as many as three hundred. Rig Veda, v. 27, 5; x. 86, 14; 91, 14. Cows were slaughtered at nuptial ceremonies. Rig-Veda, x. 85, 13.**

Buddhism led to the cessation of sacrifices. The edict of the Buddhist Asoka against taking animal life is still preserved in some of the rock inscriptions

*Barth, Religions of India, p. 35.