be an apostle.]

The third movement is that of the Chet Ramis, or sect of Chet Ram, whose
strange history may be found in _East and West_ for July 1905. Chet Ram
was an illiterate Hindu, a water-carrier and then a steward in the
Indian army that took part in the war with China in 1859-1860. Returning
to his native district not far from Lahore, Chet Ram, the Hindu, came
under the spell of a Mahomedan ascetic Mahbub Sh[=a]h, left all and
followed him as his "familiar" disciple. How this relationship between
Hindu and Mahomedanism is quite possible in India, we have already
explained on pages 163-4; Mahbub Sh[=a]h's strange combination of
religious asceticism with the consumption of opium and wine, it takes
some years' residence in India to understand. Then Mahbub Sh[=a]h died,
and the disciple succeeded the master. According to one account, Chet
Ram made his bed on the grave in which his master lay; according to
another, for three years his sleeping place was the vault within which
his master was buried. It was at this time that he had the vision of
"Jesus God," already referred to, between the years 1860 and 1865. Like
Caedmon, he has described his vision in verse--

"Upon the grave of Master Mahbub Shah
Slept Sain Chet Earn.

A man came in a glorious form,
Showing a face of mercy.

Sweet was his speech and simple his face,
Appearing entirely as the image of God.

He called aloud, 'Who sleeps there?
Awake, if thou art sleeping.
Thou art distinctly fortunate,
Thou art needed in the Master's presence.'

'Build a church on this very spot,
Place the Bible therein.'

Then said that luminous form,
Jesus, the image of Mary:

'I shall do justice in earth and heaven,
And reveal the hidden mysteries.'

Astonished there alone I stood,
As if a parrot had flown out of my hands.

Then my soul realised
That Jesus came to give salvation.

I realised that it was Jesus God
Who appeared in a bodily form."[103]

[Sidenote: The Followers of Chet Ram.]

[Sidenote: Their indefinite composite theology.]

Whence came the Christian seed of Chet Ram's vision? His master Mahbub
Shah was a Mahomedan, and Jesus Christ is reckoned one of the Mahomedan
prophets. But it is the Christ of Christianity, not of Mahomedanism,
that Chet Ram saw in his vision of the glorious form showing the face of
mercy, at once the dispenser of justice, the revealer of mysteries, and
the giver of salvation