quently, are
permitted to witness in their books. In evidence of this we need only to
refer to the powerful hold which the _yoga_ system of philosophy and life
has upon them. An intense meditativeness, a devotional ecstasy and an
insight of true heavenly wisdom is the ideal of life to which the Hindu
has been called from time very remote.

(_d_) Eschatology.

In Hinduism, as in Christianity, man is directed to look to a
judgment-seat and a system of rewards and punishments in the world to
come. While this doctrine again, in its development and detail, differs
essentially from that of the Christian faith, it is well to call attention
to it as a point of contact. It breathes the spirit of _karma_, which, in
its retributive power, has been compared by some to the doctrine of
heredity, and by others, to that of fate. _Karma_ demands the full future
fruition of every act done in the body; and many re-births, with intervals
of keener suffering and bliss in numerous hells and heavens, are the
countless steps in the doleful fugue of emancipation--a process which is
enough to appall any but the patient, stolid soul of a Hindu. And yet this
weary detail of a very long and sisyphean effort to shake off this mortal
coil and to enter into rest is worthy of the missionary's attention, as it
represents, perhaps, the most elaborate system of eschatology outside of
the New Testament. It is also ethical in its character, and in its
fundamental principles has chords which harmonize with those of the
Christian doctrine.

(_e_) The Doctrine of Faith.

This doctrine maintains that, by devotion to a personal god, salvation is
achieved. This idea separates this doctrine from, and apparently
antagonizes, the prevailing philosophy of the land--Vedantism. This cult of
_Bhakti_ is connected with Krishnaolatry, which is the worship of the most
unworthy and licentious god of the Hindu pantheon.

Of Vaishnavism, or the worship of Vishnu, in which the _bhakti_, or faith,
doctrine prevails, Sir Monier Williams remarks:--"Notwithstanding the gross
polytheistic superstitions and hideous idolatry to which it gives rise, it
is the only Hindu system worthy of being called a religion. At all events
it must be admitted that it has more common ground with Christianity than
any other form of non-Christian faiths." The basal truth of _bhakti_--that
of supreme attachment to, or faith in, a personal god--could not fail of
rousing within the devout