the former "mental seclusion of
India," so unduly emphasized by Mr. Townsend, is rapidly yielding and must
utterly pass away. It will, however, not pass away simply because of the
influence of the West upon the East, but rather because of the mutual
action and reaction of East and West. The East will approach the West
because, to a large extent, the West will have learned to appreciate, and
to draw in sympathy towards, the East. Herein lies the secret of the
future oneness, or at least of the communion, of the two great
hemispheres.

India is, therefore, in this matter, facing today such conditions as never
before existed there; and these are to further considerably the work of
revolution which our religion is bringing to pass in that land, and which
such pessimists as Mr. Townsend are wont to ignore.

That keen philosopher and high authority upon India, Sir Alfred Lyall, is
right in his anticipation when he claims that India "will be carried
swiftly through phases which have occupied long stages in the lifetime of
other nations."

Considering, then, the leavening influences and the general results of our
faith in that land we shall see them in many institutions and departments
of life.

(_a_) In laws which the government of India has enacted during the last
century.

There has been a steady conflict between the enlightened government of the
white man and the inhuman customs of the people of that land. The
Christian sentiment of the members of the government, and of other
Christians outside of that circle, has ever rebelled against and sought to
put down the grossest evils which obtain there.

And the fact which we need to emphasize here is that these evils have been
directed and protected by Hinduism itself and are an integral part of its
ceremonies and teachings. Whenever the government has sought, by
legislation, to do away with these inhuman rites and customs it has been
bitterly opposed by Hinduism and has been met by a general uprising of its
followers against what they have called religious interference and
persecution. Thus the suppression of Thuggism was a definite attack upon a
religious institution, for the Thuggs never committed a murder, save as a
part of their worship of the goddess Bhowanee to whose service they had
dedicated themselves and to which the blood of the innocent traveller (as
they thought) was the most welcome sacrifice its devotee could offer.
Hence the difficulty which faced the gove