St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-11-23
THE ELOQUENT NkGARKAR.
VOICE FROM FA9-0FF BOMBAY EX
POUNDING CHRIST.
THE ORIENT THE FOUNTAIN.

The Hindoo Orator Says That rho
People of the West Patron1ze
Their Brothers Of the East
Buddha stood to Brah minism
as Luther Centuries l. alter DID
to Catholicism.
At Unity church last night Mr.. Nag
arkar, the distinguished Hlndoo scholar
and orator, again treated a large audi
ence TO feast of eloquence. On Sun
day evening he gave an address which
dealt with the doctrines of the Branma-
Somaj, while last night he traced the
progress of religious thought from the
time when one branch of the great
Aryan family settled down in India up
to the present. Mr.. Nagarkar INDUCED i'll
some scatning remarks OH the way i'll
which we of the Occident proudly
patroniZe our brothers of the Orient. at
the same time reminding his hearers
that every religious faith had had its
origin on the Eastern continent. He
said in brief:
lone of the greatest writer's of France
once said: For every new thought in
the political world we look to Rome, and
in the same way everything new in the
world of art and philosophy emanateS
from France; but in the progress of
religious thought, back to prehistoric
times, we look TO India, and to this fact
history bears evidence, and while the
faith OF the Hebrews, nor yet of Moham-
ta
graphical boundaries of that country.
still from the Orient i'll general, and
India in particular, we have all OF our
great religious thought The story of
development is we'll worth our study.
When part of that great branch of the
Aryan race entered India they were
children of nature in the truest sense of
the word. Stretched before them lay
this beautiful country, and they natur-
ally concluded that all these wonders of
nature might have some message that
would give them light and heat mentally
as well as physically. They worshiped
the sun and moon, and were in conSe-
quence called pantheists, or nature
worshipers. Thus we have the first
revelation, the records of which we still
have.
Then they learned to rise from nature
to natures God. The student will find
that Hindoo scriptures are full of eX-
plantations of the relations and attrib-
utes of God, the be-all and end-all of
everything.
"Then in the third stage we find in
their scriptures the attributes of God
dWelt upon in way that they are in
no other Christian writings. There are
times when man Is too weak and feeble
10 be able to express tine highest feelings
in words, and their own Aryan ances-
tors resorted to the use of signs and
symbols. These have their value, eX-
pressing very often what words fail to-.
The BrahminS gave to the world a
mighty ceremonial. but the trouble then
was that too much stress came to be laid
OH the letter and not enough on the
spirit. A revolt against doctrine that
was all ceremonial, and where moral
and character were things of the past.
came in the shape of the rise of the
| great Buddha. This prophet made more
| protest against BrahminiSm than did
| Luther in the sixteenth century against
| Catholicism. The basis of his creed
| I'D
/ doctrine, however, was purely philO-
sophie, and lacked warmth. There was
nothing that satisfied the natural desire
of man for something to woI ship, and
in times of trouble man Is brought into
! touch with divinity i'll spite of himself.
After the time OF Buddha. devotional
movements did Il great deal to make the
religion more satisfying, and now as a
race they are noted for their devotion"
MIR. Nagarkar considered briefly a
few phases of religious thought outside
of India, dwelling OH that of Persia anC
| Palestine, which, said he, gave us the
great prophet Christ Jesus, who put new
life into the people, and by his death OF
Calvary furnished us with an example
or symbol of great significance only
and that he was not redeemer. Ht
spoke of the position of Jesus in thu
scale of prophets, and of how the
multifarious doctrines crept into thu
church. He said that should the Chris
come again in the natural way ht
would stand aghast at the way in which
his followers have misunderstood ant
misnterpreted Him. He attributed tit
loss of purity of the teachings of tn
Galllean teacher to their coming in con
tact with Greek and Roman paganism
The duty of those who live in the nine
teenth century he defined very clearly
1--WE must" he said, ''be faithful in tn
work of unifying all these faiths, an
we are unworthy the civilization w
boast of if we are impatient of any on
of these prophets, for every one wa
sent by our Divine Mother, and full al
legiance TO all truth must be the idef
of the nineteenth century,"