nd the most
heavenly sentiments--because they are a fetter which bind him to the
world. He indeed calls a good deed, or a holy thought, a "golden
fetter," but it is, just the same, regarded by him as an evil which
prolongs his human existence; and these human conditions must be ended
as soon as possible.

The Christian, on the other hand, suppresses his passions in order
that his holy desires may prevail; the Hindu struggles equally against
the worst passions and the noblest sentiments of his heart; for they
all delay that calm equilibrium of the _self_ which is the doorway
into _sayutchia_ (absorption). Thus character, or the prevalence of
the nobler sentiments of our nature above the meaner, is not, and
never has been, the aim of Hindu asceticism. And in consonance with
this fact is the other, namely, that nine-tenths of the five and a
half million ascetics, sadhus, and fakhirs of India are universally
recognized as pestilential in their morals, and as distinguished
examples of what the laity of the land should avoid being or becoming.

The Christian seeks, as his ideal, the perfect blending of the ethical
and the spiritual in his life; in Hinduism, faith has always been
divorced from morality, and there has never seemed to be any
incongruity, in their minds, in the act of ascribing true saintliness
and spiritual excellence to those who are known daily to trample under
foot every command of the Decalogue.

Thus the ideal life which has captivated India from time immemorial,
and which at this present wields a mighty influence over the people,
is not the generous, the upright, and morally spotless life, so much
as the wandering, the monastic, or the secluded forest life of the
ascetic, regardless of its spiritual character. In other words, it is
not a stern and noble victory over sin and worldliness in the common
relationships of life, but a fleeing from the sin and duties and
responsibilities of life into the _mutt_, or wilderness, which has
fascinated the inhabitants of this peninsula as the best type of life
possible.

Now, in view of all this, what shall the Christian teacher do in this
land? Shall he also exalt this ideal and temper it with Christian
wisdom and chasten it with Christian meaning? Doubtless the wise
missionary will consider well the amount of emphasis which this aspect
of life requires in India, in view of the ideal which Hinduism has
presented to the popular mind. He will also, I think, hesitat