ersal sanctification. This one and triune God
completes by omnipotent power the great work of creation which, when it
has come forth from His hands, proceeds in obedience to the laws which He
has given it, governed with certain order by His infinite providence.

"The immense difference between the Trimurti of India and the Christian
Trinity is found again between the _avatars_ of Vishnu and the Incarnation
of Christ. The _avatar_ was effected altogether externally to the Being
who is in India regarded as the true God. The manifestation of one
essentially cosmogonical divinity wrought for the most part only material
and cosmogonical prodigies. At one time it takes the form of the gigantic
tortoise which sustains Mount Mandar from sinking in the ocean; at another
of the fish which raises the lost Veda from the bottom of the sea, and
saves mankind from the waters. When these _avatars_ are not cosmogonical
they consist in some protection accorded to men or Gods, a protection
which is neither universal nor permanent. The very manner in which the
_avatar_ is effected corresponds to its material nature, for instance the
mysterious vase and the magic liquor by means of which the _avatar_ here
spoken of takes place. What are the forms which Vishnu takes in his
descents? They are the simple forms of life; he becomes a tortoise, a
boar, a fish, but he is not obliged to take the form of intelligence and
liberty, that is to say, the form of man. In the _avatar_ of Vishnu is
discovered the inpress of pantheistic ideas which have always more or less
prevailed in India. Does the _avatar_ produce a permanent and definitive
result in the world? By no means. It is renewed at every catastrophe
either of nature or man, and its effects are only transitory.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} To sum up
then, the Indian _avatar_ is effected externally to the true God of India,
to Brahma; it has only a cosmogonical or historical mission which is
neither lasting nor decisive; it is accomplished by means of strange
prodigies and magic transformations; it may assume promiscuously all the
forms of life; it may be repeated indefinitely. Now let the whole of this
Indian idea taken from primitive tradition be compared with the
Incarnation of Christ and it will be seen that there is between the two an
irreconcilable difference. According to the doctrines of Christianity the
Everlasting Word, Infinite Love, the Son of God, and equal to Him, assumed
a human body, and b