hstanding his immoralities; and
Rama may be extolled and even loved for his limited virtue; Yudhistra
may be called "Dharman," notwithstanding his unrighteous passion for
the dice. But Christ only, in the eyes of modern educated India,
stands the perfect test of character. All over the land, Hindus of
culture, of serious thought, and of ambition to reach after high
ethical standards see in Jesus Christ the only inspiration and
immaculate example of life that all history, myth, and legend present.
And there is not a town in India to-day where there are not found
these men of power and influence who are studying eagerly the life of
Jesus, are pondering over the Gospel narratives; and are reading such
books of Christian devotion as Thomas a Kempis's "Imitation of
Christ." This last-named book is now being translated by a Brahman
gentleman, a friend of the writer, and published by a Hindu firm for
its Hindu readers! I have known such men for many years, and am
assured that their tribe is increasing; they are men who for the first
time have found the deepest yearnings of their soul answered in the
example of Jesus.

Ask any of them for their reason, and they will tell you that Christ
is of the East, like themselves, and that His example appeals to them
with unique power.

In India, the ideal of life has been one of restraint. Starting with
the conviction that human life is an unmixed evil, the restraint of
passion and the elimination of every human emotion (the best as well
as the worst) has been to the Hindu the goal and consummation of life.
Nothing can be more inadequate than this; and the Hindu is beginning
to feel it. Jesus represents Culture _and_ Restraint. With him the
restraint of the lower passions is with a view to the culture of the
higher. The man of sin must die, that the man of God may live and
prosper. This is the Christ ideal, as opposed to the Brahmanic. And
the leaven of this ideal of life is spreading all over India and is
transforming the aspirations of millions. There is nothing more
inspiring or comforting than the assurance which we have that the
Christ life is becoming the dominant ideal among the classes of India,
as it is to a less degree among the masses.

A Brahman gentleman had the presumption to say to me, recently, that
he and his fellow-Brahmans and other Hindus were able to understand
the Christ much better than we of the West. He also claimed that they
could understand the deep signific