in India
was largely, if not entirely, due to its foreign ecclesiastical forms
and its shibboleths pronounced in foreign tongues. The Christianity of
the future in India must breathe of the spirit, and speak forth in the
language and life, of the people.

I am inclined to believe that the battle cry of the Christian Church
will soon be lost in the ever swelling tide of enthusiasm for the
Kingdom of God. Christians will seek less to promote this or that
denomination, and more and more to cause to come in power the Kingdom
of Heaven. And India is a land which will lend itself very readily to
this transfer of emphasis. There is much in the mystical type of the
Hindu mind that leads us to anticipate preeminence for India in this
change of emphasis from outward organization to deep-working spiritual
forces and realities.

India, which has been the most prolific land in giving birth to
religions, and in being at present the asylum of all the great faiths
of the world, will not be slow to give to Christianity that form and
aspect which will most please her.

It is therefore important that all the Christian leaders of India
should not only take note of these facts, but should also do their
utmost to help in the desired consummation, and make Christianity in
India a faith that will appeal to every man and woman in the land.

III

The conquest of our faith in India will be not the less, but the more,
thorough, because it will be not only of the letter but also and
chiefly of the spirit.

There are a few things which are fundamental to our faith, and which
will become the universal and permanent possession of India.

1. The spirit and principles of Christianity will prevail and will
dominate the land. Christian, as distinct from Hindu, principles are
already making wonderful headway in the country. Many new institutions
have been organized in the land, whose principles are those of Christ,
and not of Manu. Even the oldest institutions of the country are
becoming affected by the desire to appear modern, which really means
an ambition to introduce Christian methods and principles. Educated
Hindus, especially, add to this the peculiar weakness of interpreting
things Hindu by a Christian terminology. The philosophy which they
have imbibed and the standpoint to which they have been accustomed are
western and, chiefly, Christian. So that when they study their own
faith they do so with these Christian prepossessions; and even