And they apparently have large satisfaction in them. The old
Hindu idea of the supreme value of asceticism is largely yielding to a
Christian altruism which abandons self-centred, self-seeking, activity in
favour of loving sympathy for, and an endeavour to do good to, men.

We also notice that among them the idea of the efficacy of certain forms
and ceremonies is lessening in favour of a conviction of the power of the
inner life of faith.

And yet it should be constantly kept in mind that ceremony and ritual must
always find a larger place in the religious life of India than in that of
the United States. The inhabitant of India is tropical and poetic in
temperament. He beholds things, and appreciates and appropriates spiritual
blessings, more through the help of forms and ceremonies than does the man
of the West. A rite appeals to his nature more strongly and lends to him
greater facility in getting at its underlying truth and antitype than it
does to us. Indeed it is his nature to look at Christian truth through the
eyes of a poet; and ceremonies consequently convey to him the largest
significance and are more revealing of the spirit within. We seek divine
truth and spiritual blessings more directly than he. It would be therefore
a mistake for us to expect that practical, unpoetic mind of ours in the
Oriental, or to present religious truth to him in its nakedness, unadorned
and unenforced by rite and ritual. It has been, and, to some extent,
continues to be the fault of our Congregational Missions in India that
they try to lift the native Christian to those dry, unadorned, simple
forms of religious service which indeed satisfy the missionaries, but
which ignore the great difference of nature and temperament between
themselves and the converts. It should be remembered that in India people
think vocally. Even as they must and do read aloud in order to read
intelligently, so must they worship aloud in order to worship feelingly
and thoughtfully. Hence the wisdom and urgency for them of a ritual and a
responsive service.

(_d_) _Spiritually_, the Indian Christian is slowly and surely developing
on definite lines of his own.

The simplicity of his faith is beautiful. He has none of those questions
of doubt or misgivings of unbelief which are so prevalent in the West. He
takes the Bible in all fullness of acceptance. His prayers are not crossed
and frustrated by any rationalistic theories, but have the simplicity of
child