ite passion and seeking them even
unto death,--that is the message of the Christian Incarnation. And
how strangely does it contrast with the moral obliquity and selfish
indifference to human interest which characterize Hindu incarnations!
In Christ do we find that God is the ever present, personal, loving
Father, seeking to bring home again His lost children. He is supremely
just and holy as Ruler and Provider; but His justice and holiness are
illumined and transfused by His love. And as the Eternal Spirit He is
striving in the hearts of men to bring them to Himself. This is the
incarnation which is gaining ever increasing power in this land and
whose worship is spreading from Cape Comorin to the Himalayas.

4. The cross of Christ will be accepted in India as the highest
expression of God's love to man.

It is true that, among many Hindus to-day, as among the Greeks and
Jews of old, the cross of Christ is an offence and a stumbling-block.
The idea of vicarious atonement runs counter to the long-cherished
doctrine of _Karma_. And it is possible that the universal prevalence
of the _Karma_ doctrine in the land will give to the doctrine of
atonement the same one-sided aspect which it has obtained among many
Christians of the West, in the present day, whereby the element of
vicariousness, or its God-ward efficiency, has been considerably
eliminated. They may remain content to consider the cross merely as a
supreme manifestation of love, as that part of the divine example
which has infinite power to attract men toward the highest life of
lowest service and self-effacement. However this may be, at present,
the cross in India has more significance than the trident to the
Hindu. And the language of the cross appeals with increasing force to
all men of thought. And I am encouraged to think that the modern
commendable habit, among educated Hindus, of harking back to the
oldest and the best of their religious writings, may carry India away
again from its emphasis upon _Karma_ to the original, pre-Buddhistic
idea of vicariousness, when, for instance, in the _Purusha Suktha_ of
the Rig Veda, the _Purusha_ is represented as being sacrificed by the
gods. In the _Brahmanas_, also, it is said that the _Prajabathi_
sacrificed himself in behalf of the gods.

Indeed, it has been well said that the doctrine of _Karma_ itself, as
connected with the doctrine of transmigration, carries within itself a
strong element of vicariousness; since