it gives a new and a most direct way of approach to the Hindu
heart, and a fresh and all-potent argument with them in behalf of
Christianity.

This process also best illustrates the method and Spirit of Christ. Dr.
Robson aptly remarks that "while no religion has done more to overthrow
other religions than Christianity, no religious teacher has said less
against other religions than Christ. We have from Him only one short
saying condemning the Gentiles' aim in life, but not even one reflecting
on the gods they believed in, or the worship they paid them. Was not this
because He came not to destroy but to fulfill?"

I can refer to only a few of these common points and belief in the two
faiths.

(_a_) Incarnation.

These are the only two faiths which have exalted, to primal importance,
this doctrine. In Christianity it is basal, and in later Brahmanism, or
Hinduism, it has overshadowed nearly every other teaching. In a sense the
all-pervasive pantheism of Brahmanism made a certain form of incarnation a
necessity from the earliest days. The ancient Aryans could not rest
satisfied with the Unknown and the Absolute of their Vedantism; so they
speedily began to erect for their evergrowing pantheon an endless
procession of emanations. But it was, probably, the phenomenal success of
Gautama, and especially the posthumous influence of his life and example,
that opened the eyes of the Brahmans and suggested to them the supreme
need of an _avatar_ ("descent"), for the popularizing of their faith. And
thus originated that vast system of descents, or incarnations, which have
multiplied so greatly and developed so grotesquely all over the land. The
common ground furnished by this doctrine to the two faiths is not
adequately appreciated. This truth of incarnation, in its fundamental
doctrinal bearing upon Hinduism, and in the strengthening of its hold,
even until the present, upon the popular imagination and affection, should
not go for nought in the mind of Christian critics, because of the content
of the multitudinous descents, which is mostly grotesque, debasing and
repulsive. They forget that the Christian doctrine of incarnation
furnishes, perhaps, the best leverage with which the Christian missionary
is to overturn the faith of that people, simply because the doctrine
itself has been so popularized, even if debased, in India for many
centuries. Christ should be none the less, yea the more, welcome to that
land because