ave been handed down to him.

It is an interesting question how much of this difference is of the
essence of the two religions, and how much is the product of the
mental and spiritual make-up of the tropical East, on the one hand,
and of the more northern West, on the other. The climatic and national
idiosyncrasies are more potential in the complexion of the two faiths
than we are wont to think.

But whether these different ideals are, or are not, essentially
characteristic of the two faiths, is not a question quite germane to
my present purpose. It is enough to remember that the western
conception of Christianity, which the missionary has inherited and
which he is eagerly presenting, and can hardly avoid presenting, to
the people of this land, is far removed from what the Hindu has always
been taught to believe that a religion should bring into a man's life
and possession.

It is easy enough to prove to the man of ordinary intelligence the
debasing influence of idolatry, the accursed slavery of the caste
system, the gross immorality of the Hindu pantheon, and the dwarfing
and degrading character of the ceremonialism of modern Hinduism.

But behind and above all these, the Hindu has inherited a number of
ideals which allure and command him. They are his ultimate criteria
and resort, and they conflict with those which the supplanting faith
presents as the _summum bonum_ of life. It is not until the Christian
teacher can show to him, in a way that will move him, the excellence
of the supreme ideals of Christianity above those of the old faith,
that his work can be said to have achieved a triumph in his life.

Hence the great--I might almost say the transcendent--importance of
mission schools of all grades through which are sown the seed of a new
philosophy of life. Herein also lies the even more valued service
which a sane and a strong Christian literature in English and in all
the vernaculars of the land can render, and is rendering, to the cause
of Christ in India. For the fight in India is, more than it is or has
been in any other land, one that gathers around basal conceptions and
fundamental postulates about God and man and life; and Christianity
can never seem attractive to an intelligent Hindu until it has
conquered his assent at these points of vital importance.

Let us consider a few of these ideals which everywhere and always
obtrude themselves upon us in India.

I

_The Divine Ideal_

In the conce