The Press., 1894-11-01

ter ms experience In America he came t India, and used his abilities to bette purpose in establishing the English rul in India. After his death statue of hir f was erected in Bombay. The Hindus oi
 ten used to go there and perform cere
 monies and worship the statue.
 Animals also are worshipped. The COW especially, is sacred animal, and on
 way of obtaining purification from sin to eat the five products of the COW. (
 leave my readers to guess what these are It is great sin to kill COW, and mus
 be atoned for by elaborate ceremonies A few days ago the annual day for tn worship of cattle took place, and we say many processions in which there wer cattle with their horns painted in brigh colo1s and decorated with ribbons, ant sometimes carrying big gaudy canop, over their heads. It is wrong to take life and there is hospital in Bombay wher
 sick cows, sick dogs, sick cats, etc., al cared for. At this place, also, the loves vermin are cared for, and full-bloodet man is often hired for the night to let tn,
 bugs feed on him!
 It is people that have such ideas as
 these that we have to work among As
 go out and walk through the streets O.
 Ahmednagar I meet scarcely one persor
 in hundred that is christian. Most o the Hindus have mark on their forehead
 indicating that they worship a certain
 god. As a matter of fact, however, most
 of them are not satisfied with worship
 ping one god, but they try one after an
 other to see which will help them the
 most.
 Near my bungalow there is a temple
 where l often see men prostrating them
 selves before horrid image of Maruti,
 the monkey god. Another god which is
 very much worshipped is Gunputti god
 with an elephants head on mans body.
 He is worshipped by the Hindus as the god of wisdom!
 When see all this idolatry my soul is stirred within me, and often feel as Paul did at Athens. Besides the Hindus, about one-quarter of the people here are Mo- hammedans. They do not worship idols nor wear mark on their foreheads, but their worship is purely formal, and their religion does not put any moral restraints on them. They pray five times a day.
 There is 8 mosque in the compound next to ours from which we can hear the call to prayer at dawn, at midday, two hours before sunset, at sunset, and two hours after sunset. These mosques are all open on the east side. Every devout Mussul- man prays with his face toward Mecca
 His devotions consist of standing up, bending over, kneeling down, and bending his body till his face touches the ground, at the same time repeating some passages from the Koran. He goes through with this again and again, thinking that the more he repeats it the more merit he will gain. Then he goes away and thinks he can commit almost any kind of sin. The moral condition of the Mussulmans is even lower than that of the Hindus.
 1 think that this brief description which l have given will afford my readers some idea of the religious condition of the great mass of people in this country. Add to this the strong caste prejudices and the terrible persecution which convert to christianity has to endure, and it will be seen with what difficulties christianity has to contend in becoming established in the country. But yet christianity shows it's divine power by the effect which it has produced and is producing, even among such superstitious and idolatrous race as the Hindus. It is true that the num- Der of converts is still sYall, as compared with the whole population But the re- suits of missionary labor are not to be measured simply by the number of con- converts. Still more important, perhaps, is the introduction of christian ideas, which are pervading the whole communi ty, and are slowly but surely undermin- ing the whole structure of Hinduism. The influence of the western education which has been introduced into the coun- try is in the same direction. Thousands of young men all over the country are eagerly studying western science, litera- ture, etc. The effect of this is to make them see the folly and absurdity of the old heather practices and ideas. A great many of them become "reformers," that is they try to improve their old religion by patching up with some christian ideas. They advocate that the more burdensome caste Jules be given up, and that widows be allowed to marry again. Some of them join the various Samajes, such as the Brahmo Samaj and the Prathana Samaj, which are sects of reformed Hin- dus, They are sort of halfway steps to christianity. These Samajes are proving to be failures, however, because their members still try to retain their caste, and hence they constantly involved in incon- sistencies. They talk loudly about re- form, but when it comes to practical &C., tion they are afraid to take it. Scarcely one of the Samajists, for instance, would dare to arouse the opposition of the Hin- du community by re-marrying daughter who had become widow.
 A short time ago several of these re- formers, including a prominent judge, ventured to drink tea with European, to whose house they were invited. Their caste brethren found it out, and raised great outcry that these men had defiled themselves and broken their caste. The | reformers, instead of meeting this op- position like men, c,wardly submitted
 0s~s>-XSS