ideas such as that all deities are forms and
passing shapes of one essence; that all have their proper places and
that gods, creeds and ceremonies are necessary helps in the lower stages
of the religious life but immaterial to the adept.

It does not follow from this that Hindus are lukewarm or insincere in
their convictions. On the contrary, faith is more intense and more
widely spread among them than in Europe. Nor can it be said that their
religion is something detachable from ordinary life: the burden of daily
observances prescribed and duly borne seems to us intolerable. But
Buddhism and many forms of Hinduism present themselves as methods of
salvation with a simplicity and singleness of aim which may be
paralleled in the Gospels but only rarely in the national churches of
Europe. The pious Buddhist is one who moulds his life and thoughts
according to a certain law: he is not much concerned with worshipping
the gods of the state or city, but has nothing against such worship: his
aims and procedure have nothing to do with spirits who give wealth and
children or avert misfortune. But since such matters are of great
interest to mankind, he is naturally brought into contact with them and
he has no more objection to a religious service for procuring rain than
to a scientific experiment for the same purpose. Similarly Confucians
follow a system of ethics which is sufficient for a gentleman and
accords a decorous recognition to a Supreme Being and ancestral spirits.
Much concession to superstition would be reprehensible according to this
code but if a Confucian honours some deity either for his private
objects or because it is part of his duties as a magistrate, he is not
offending Confucius. He is simply engaging in an act which has nothing
to do with Confucianism. The same distinction often applies in Indian
religion but is less clear there, because both the higher doctrine as
well as ordinary ceremonial and mythology are described under one name
as Hinduism. But if a native of southern India occasionally sacrifices a
buffalo to placate some village spirit, it does not follow that all his
religious notions are of this barbarous type.

Asiatic ideas as to the relations between religions are illustrated by
an anecdote related to me in Assam. Christianity has made many converts
among the Khasis, a non-Hindu tribe of that region, and a successful
revival meeting extending over a week was once held in a district of
professi