ilosophers,
must spring from the same source of light as the Gospel
itself; but it may reasonably be questioned whether there
could have been any actual contact of the Hindoo systems with
Christianity without a more satisfactory result in the
modification of pantheistic and anti-Christian ideas."[288:1]

Again he says:

"It should not be forgotten that although the nations of
Europe have changed their religions during the past eighteen
centuries, _the Hindu has not done so, except very partially_.
Islam converted a certain number by force of arms in the
eighth and following centuries, and Christian truth is at last
slowly creeping onwards and winning its way by its own
inherent energy in the nineteenth; _but the religious creeds,
rites, customs, and habits of thought of the Hindus generally,
have altered little since the days of Manu, five hundred years
B. C._"[288:2]

These words are conclusive; comments, therefore, are unnecessary.

Geo. W. Cox, in his "Aryan Mythology," speaking on this subject says:

"It is true that these myths have been crystallized around the
name of Crishna in ages subsequent to the period during which
the earliest _vedic_ literature came into existence; _but the
myths themselves are found in this older literature associated
with other gods_, and not always only in germ. _There is no
more room for inferring foreign influence in the growth of any
of these myths than, as Bunsen rightly insists, there is room
for tracing Christian influence in the earlier epical
literature of the Teutonic tribes._ Practically the myths of
Crishna seems to have been fully developed in the days of
Megasthenes (fourth century B. C.) who identifies him with the
Greek Hercules."[288:3]

It should be remembered, in connection with this, that Dr. Parkhurst and
others have considered _Hercules_ a type of Christ Jesus.

In the ancient epics Crishna is made to say:

"I am Vishnu, Brahma, Indra, and the source as well as the
destruction of things, the creator and the annihilator of the
whole aggregate of existences. While all men live in
unrighteousness, I, the unfailing, build up the bulwark of
righteousness, as the ages pass away."[288:4]

These words are almost identical with what we find in the
_Bhagavad-gita_. In the _Maha-bharata_, Vishnu is associate