Sunday morning globe., 1901-09-15
A dead failure.
Why Christianity Makes No Impress
sion on a Braham.
AN ABLE PAGAN EDITOR
Tells Us Of Tho Cause and Of The AbsurdIB
Inconsistency and Intolerance Of Our
Relgon-Whal Rival Sects Hare Accom-
pIIshed Good Reading Of What TranspIros
In PARKWAY Lands.

An East Indian CMadras) editor Of
the Brahman faith, thus puts the ques-
tion and the answer to the same, why
both Christianity and Islamlsm have
both failed to make any serious impress
sion on peoples who have come under
the influence Of Brahmanism and Budd-
hism. The Globe commends the ed
itorial as good Sunday morning read
ing.
The East Indian pagan says:
ITO our mind the reason of this fail
ure Of Islam, and Of Christianity also,
as it is becoming patent to-day in
China and the other parts Of eastern
Asia, appears to be in the deep-rooted
spirit Of positive toleration in religious
matters which forms one Of the firm
foundations both OF Brahmanism and
Buddhism. To the Brahman, as we'll
as the Buddhist, there is nothing more
strange than the belief that any one
form Of religion comprises the whole
Of religious truth which God has vouch.
safed to man for time and eternity,
and that all other forms Of religion
are so wrong and corrupt as TO be
merely the work of the devil The
militant and aggressive work Of prose.
lytism known TO the Christians and the
Mohammedans strikes the tolerant
Hindu and the Buddhist as irreligious,
unwise, and even barbaric To those
who are actuated by such a spirit Of
federation, the attempt to supplant one
religion and substitute another in its
stead appears vain and impotent, and
not even in the least calculated to sub.
serve social happines and individual
purity 1t may give rise to bigotry and
fanaticism, but as an agency calcu-
lated to bring forth and spread abroad
in human life the light Of sweet rea-
sonableness, il is destined to prove a
thorough failure. Neither the wave of
aggressive Islam nor that Of the more
insidious Christianity can, under these
circumstances, undermine the citadel
of Brahmanism or Buddhism, the foun,
dations of which are laid so we'll and
truly on the rock of vigilant philos-
Ophy and a wonderful insight into
man social and religious progress.
When the proposition that the new re-
ligion offered by the new missionary,
lslamiC or Christian, Is better or truer
than the old one, appears to the COM
mOuest of Hindu minds to be ridicu-
lous and absurd what chance is there
for these militant religions to win vic
tories I'm these new lands unless it be
through positive as well as negative
inducements which are altogether 9th.
ar than religious?
The natural development Of pagan.
ism. If 1t had been left to grow accord
ing to its own laws unmolested by
Christian persecution and Christian IA
naticism, would in all probability have
left Europe in possession Of larger
amount of toleration and a smaller
amount Of selfishness; and the present
day work Of the Christian missionary
in foreign lands, leading to the de-
struction of all humanity under the
influence Of the animal in man, as well
as of the excitement due TO the display
of the power which is in gunpowder,
as exhibited in China quite recently,
would have remained unaccomplished
and perhaps wholly unthOught Of.
That the BrahmaniCal method Of pro
curing religious growth and evolution
is truly the more natural one is
brought out clearly from a study Of
the effects of the Christianity which is
newly imposed upon the heather. The
heather rarely rises to the level Of
conceivlng the ideal Christ Of Chris
tianity. and the ideal conduct taught
by Jesus is noted for the rarity with
which it is followed in Christendom,
which has reverenced Him as the
greatest teacher known to man for
nearly 1000 years. Is Christendom to-
day prepared to follow fully the pre-
cepts contained I'm the Sermon on the
Mount? Modern politics and social
movements in Europe give the melan-
choly answer that Christianity has
there proved a failure, and that Chris
tian ideals are not fit for immediate
adoption by the rival nations Of Chris
tendon