The record-union., 1893-08-02
MIXED RELIGIONS.
Miracle Workers Alleged to be Com
mon in the East.
Feople Who Worship the sun and
Earth, Snakes, Rivers ana Other
Unconventional Gods.

Unconventional Gods.
We are apt to be very proud of our re-
AgIous liberation, forgetting that this is
quite new idea among ourselves, AS
the religious statistics of the Puniab seem
to show, it must be a very old idea in the
Last. Only 40 years have passed since
the mild sect of Episcopalians We're per-
secuted in Scotland. Only go years have
gone by since James Guthrie peutioned
hlng Charles to persecute everyone who
dld not agree with him, Mr.. Guthrie.
Whereupon they hanged Mr.. Guthrie.
pour encourager les autres." Now. in
the dusky Orient, liberation must have
been more prevalent, or the Puniab
could scarcely rejoice in so many reIig-
ions. Sir Alfred Lyall has shown that
almost any man who can preach and
work miracles may found a new sect.
ana these gifts are. or are esteemed to be,
very common in the East. Thus. in Mr..
McLagan's estimate he reckons about
$4,000 believers in Yogism. Their tenets
are very contrary to those with which
the BAD Squire informed the mind of
Robert Elsmere. I'm the miracles Of tho
New Testament they see nothing Won
deriul," as being persuaded that miracles
are matters OF common occurrence.
Outside the circle Of contributors to the
J0H17tdl Of PSychical Research this doe
trlne IS not held by 10000 English people.
II the ogIs are SO accomplished as thew
declare, 1t IS to be regretted that they do
not come over and work q few miracles
under test conditions. If a Y Yogi, sealed
up III bag, with MIR. Myers eve upoD
RnD ~ fut.1 l.
room, then we are prepared to admit that
there IS something III GOgism. 4 miracle
VIII be all the more miraculous if per-
formed IN unhappy climatic conditions.
Beside, even If the Iogls find it too cold
for miracles, mediums do not De Foe
remarks, with misplaced confidence that
I'VE won't find our houses disturbed as
they used to be, and the stools and chairs
walking about out OF one room into an
other, as formerly" But we do find all
this occurring, in printed books. which
ought to be great encouragement to
y ogis.
Compared with Yogis, river worship
ers are only small sect. In this country
they would be beating the rivers with iron
chains, like NerXes, because the rivers in
thls dry spring are very provoking to
their adorers. Not a trout can be in
duced to rise while the barometer does
nothing else, and salmon streams are
mere collections Of dry boulders at 100
gulueas month. The man who has paid
Ihat sum, and whose sole occupation is
WhlStnng Tor south wind and rain.
would be rather apt to burn a few river
Worshlpers If liberation had not obtained
such hold on our manners. Most Of
the river Worshipers belong to the cd
sect" The Ods always wear a black
blanket, not to save washing in the sa-
cred rivers but to put them in mind Of
NaFn1N. tanr rTfars an L i
must go III mourning till a flood in the
Ganges, which at present seems ex-
tremeIy unlikely to occur. They might
get their friends, the Yogis, to cause a
flood by the occult power of the viii. and
If Yogi really can do this, then Suther-
land is the county where a Yogi would
be simply adored. But if he cannot do il
i'll the Ganges he is not likely to succeed
III the Oykel or the Helmsdale. There is
something very provoking in the con-
traSt between what the NOgis say thew
can do and what they actually perform.
Snake Wor3hipers are more numerous
than river worshipers. They have al
ways been large denomination in hea-
then countries. Why thew wor.hin
snakes is a problem that has been fire.
quenty discussed to no particular pur-
pose. But people who worship owls.
bats, Holsters, rats and mice will worsbin
anything, and perhaps snake worsbiuers
are SO common merely because snakes
are so widely distributed, and so far from
exclusive i'll their habits. If a man wor
ships an OpOSsum, or an Ornithorhvn-
Gus, he must 60 to Australia to do so. but
serpents are everywhere. So is the
earth tPrithi), and the earth, as Hertba.
Demeter, and under many other names
has never wanted adOrers. Even the nm
tutored Pawnees are earth worshipers
and bury objects by way of sacrifice,
which is more economical than BURNING
them, as they can be dug up again. The
ancestral mound is good deal adored in
the Punjab. In Scotland it became the
fairy hill. as at Aberfoyle, and was treated
with conspicuous respect i'll times com
paratively modern. The church was
usually built as near il as possible. per-
haps TO counteract the influence of the
ancestral mound or to acquire any local
sacredness that might be going
There are said to be thirty-three crores
OF gods IN the Hindoo Pantheon. and
putting the crore at a million, even al
lowing for the depreciation of the rllnee
this is large supply. In the British
Punjab there are said to be only , .OOO
sun worshippers-a statement painful to
believers in the solar theory or mvth
For it is plain that serpents, rivers. the
earth and ancestors, not to speak of Yogis
must supply more mythology than the
sun, if the figures be correct. At iii
events. all these denominations live verv
peacefully together, and DO not burn
each other for their very striking differ
ences OF theological opinion. This proves
that they are wiser than our recent an
cestors. No Cd would put a fellow
creature to the torture Gike Archbisno,
Spottiswoode with Father Ogilyiel for
being a Sweep. Yet Sweeps differ az
from DDS as Episcopalians from Jesnite
-Loudon News. %