the state of mind we are describing.
Looking back as far as to 1820, we see in _The Precepts of Jesus_,
published by the founder of the Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j, that standpoint of
homage to Christ and dissent from accepted views regarding Him.
Illustrative of that Br[=a]hma standpoint, we have also the more recent
book, _The Oriental Christ_, by the late Mr. P.C. Mozumdar, the
successor of Keshub Chunder Sen. But the attitude is by no means limited
to Brahmas. "Without Christian dogmas, cannot a man equally love and
revere Christ?" was a representative question put by a senior Hindu
student in Bengal to his missionary professor. In South India,
Mahomedans sometimes actually describe themselves as better Christians
than ourselves, holding as they do such faith in Jesus and His mother
Mary and His Gospel. The case of Mahomedans is not, of course, on all
fours with that of Hindus, since Mahomedans reckon Christ as one of the
four prophets along with their own Mahomed. In Bombay province, on the
other side of India from Bengal, we find Mr. Malabari, the famous
Parsee, pupil of a Mission School, doubting if it is possible for the
Englishman to be a Christian in the sense of _Christ's Christianity_,
the implication being that an Indian may. What element of truth is there
in the idea, we may well ask? From Indian Christians, be it said, we may
indeed look for a fervency of loyalty to Christ that does not enter into
our calculating moderate souls; and from India, equally, we may look for
that mystically profound commentary on St. John's Gospel which Bishop
Westcott declared he looked for from Japan. But to return. About Mr.
Malabar! himself, his biographer writes: "If he could not accept the
dogmas of Christianity, he had imbibed its true spirit," meaning the
spirit of Christ Himself. "The cult of the Asiatic life" is the latest
definition of Christianity given by a recent apologist of Hinduism, one
of a small company of Europeans in India officering the Hindu revival.
Crossing India again and going south, we find the late Dr. John Murdoch,
of Madras, an eminent observer, adding his testimony regarding the
homage paid to the Founder of Christianity. "The most hopeful sign," he
writes, "is the increasing reverence for our Lord, although His divinity
is not yet acknowledged."[98] And of new India generally, again, we may
quote Mr. Bose, the Indian historian. "The Christianity [of
North-western Europe] is no more like Christianity as pr