l about him, he acquired irresistible charm and power with
his followers, and his words became their undisputed law; and his
deliverances were surcharged with what they regarded as divine
inspiration. And there is no doubt that he soon came to believe
himself to be a direct vehicle of God in the communication of his
message of truth and of life to the world.

Under the influence of this conviction or delusion (whichever one may
choose to call it), he was swept on, and carried with him most of his
followers, into startling novelties of ritual and of organization.

Finally, however, he became so extreme and radical that some of his
principal followers became frightened and grew restless. The occasion
of another split was found in the marriage of Chunder Sen's daughter
to the young Maharaja of Cooch Behar, in 1876. Chunder Sen had worked
heroically for the enactment of a new marriage law for the members of
the Brahmo Somaj, whereby no bride should be married before fourteen
and no bridegroom under eighteen years of age. Yet, in the marriage of
his own daughter, he ignored this law, which was passed chiefly
through his own energy. Notwithstanding the fact that the leader
claimed divine guidance in this affair, his leading followers
attributed the marriage to his weakness and pride.

This led to another secession, in May, 1878, whereby the majority of
the societies and their members broke away from the Sen party and
established the _Sadharna Somaj_--"The Universal Somaj." This schism
was a terrible blow to Mr. Sen; and yet it released him from the
trammels which the dissatisfied had hitherto thrust upon him, and gave
him, among the remnant, an opportunity to launch out on new projects,
and to introduce many religious vagaries, which to most men were
striking and, to many, were shocking. Under the banner of the "New
Dispensation," he practised a varied liturgy and cultivated an unique
ceremonial which seemed to be a close imitation, and almost a mockery,
of some of the most sacred institutions of Christianity and of other
religions.

The schismatic weakness of the theistic movement did not reach its
consummation in this last division. It was almost immediately upon the
death of Keshub Chunder Sen, at the beginning of 1884, that his
immediate family and a few of his followers proclaimed that his spirit
still abode in the Mandir, where he so often spoke, and that no one
should succeed him or speak from the Mandir hereafter!