nt--the
transgression of the divine law, the eternal law of right.

[Sidenote: Atonement.]
How important a place in the Christian system is held by atonement, the
great atonement made by Christ, it is unnecessary to say. Nor need we
enlarge on the extraordinary power it exercises over the human heart, at
once filling it with contrition, hatred of sin, and overflowing joy. We
turn to Hinduism. Alas! we find that the earnest questionings and higher
views of the ancient thinkers have in a great degree been ignored in
later times. Sacrifice in its original form has passed away. Atonement
is often spoken of; but it is only some paltry device or other, such as
eating the five products of the cow, going on pilgrimage to some sacred
shrine, paying money to the priests, or, it may be, some form of bodily
penance. Such expedients leave no impression on the heart as to the true
nature and essential evil of sin.

[Sidenote: Salvation.
Sanctification.]
Salvation, in the Christian system, denotes deliverance, not only from
the punishment of sin, but from its power, implying a renovation of the
moral nature. The entire man is to be rectified in heart, speech, and
behavior. The perfection of the individual, and, through that, the
perfection of society, are the objects aimed at; and the consummation
desired is the doing of the will of God on earth as it is done in
heaven. Now, of all this, surely a magnificent ideal, we find in
Hinduism no trace whatever.

[Sidenote: Views of life.
The great tenet of Hinduism.]
Christianity is emphatically a religion of hope; Hinduism may be
designated a religion of despair. The trials of life are many and great.
Christianity bids us regard them as discipline from a Father's hand, and
tells us that affliction rightly borne yields "the peaceable fruits of
righteousness." To death the Christian looks forward without fear; to
him it is a quiet sleep, and the resurrection draws nigh. Then comes the
beatific vision of God. Glorified in soul and body, the companion of
angels and saints, strong in immortal youth, he will serve without let
or hinderance the God and Saviour whom he loves. To the Hindu the trials
of life are penal, not remedial. At death his soul passes into another
body. Rightly, every human soul animates in succession eighty-four lacs
(8,400,000) of bodies--the body of a human being, or a beast, or a bird,
or a fish, or a plant, or a stone, according to desert. This weary, all
but endless