moral evil and proposed
philosophy as a remedy for the malady. The Vedantin differs from the Greek
philosopher only in his more absolute condemnation of (_avidya_) ignorance
as the mother of all human ills. Remove this--let a man attain unto a true
knowledge of self, of the fact that he has no _real_ separate existence
and is one with the Supreme Soul--and he becomes thereby qualified for his
emancipation and ends his long cycle of births. Moreover, in the
polytheism of the Puranas and in the laws and customs of Manu sin
generally means only ceremonial defilement and the violation of customs
and usages.

Hinduism, therefore, has never addressed itself to the task of helping man
as a _sinner_--of regenerating his heart, of establishing within him that
beautiful thing known in Christian lands and philosophies as a well
rounded, symmetrical and perfect character. For many reasons and in many
ways it has aimed at a very different consummation in man from that
consistently sought by Christ and His religion.

3. The Agency and Means Recognized and Appealed to by those Faiths
Respectively.

By what power and instrumentality are the above ends to be sought and
attained? They will be, doubtless, quite as divergent as the aims
themselves were found to be.

In Christianity God Himself is the agent who works out its scheme of
salvation. He entered, through infinite condescension, into human life and
relations in the Incarnation. He wrought, in the days of His flesh, the
redemption of our race--a work which finds its climax in His atoning death.
In the person of the Holy Spirit He is working and bringing to full
fruition, in the hearts and lives of men, the redemption which He wrought.

Into this, man enters not as an efficient cause of his own redemption. He
cannot atone for his past, nor has he the assurance within himself for the
future. Hence the atoning sacrifice of Christ and the indwelling of the
Spirit of God which becomes in him a source of peace, of power and of
hope. Yet, in this divine work, man is neither passive nor apathetic. In
the exercise of saving faith he not only appropriates the works and gifts
of God but also enters into full and active harmony and cooeperation with
God in his own regeneration and salvation. So that the Apostle Paul aptly
urges the Philippian Christians (Phil. 2:12) to "work out your own
salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God which worketh in you both
to will and to work