English
Thus if men refuse to see God's design in nature, they may become blind to it in history: or again this process of doubt may be inverted, and pass from life into nature. But if we feel our own lives under guidance, and subject them to obedience, or if in almost any part of our thought or action, beginning with whatever is nearest to us at any time, we seek light practically from the Divine Enlightcner, we are then led on to find reasons for acknowledging Him in all His world, and in the history of mankind, and in our own destiny. Thus in the history of the Hebrews, we find the same good Providence which has everywhere governed the world, exemplifying itself in a wonderful manner, and with more significance of revelation, yet remaining the same. Signs of growth, or of alteration, or of human infirmity, do not hinder our recognition of one Mind forecasting the whole, and at length bringing its work to head, by revealing itself in Christ, as the Word made man, and as the Redeemer of mankind. Let either the Vedic literature, or the history of India, bring you to the same result, and I will not dispute by what steps you were led there. All that we have noticed of change and development might then perhaps be dis- covered to have been so many steps. But if the very religion of early India implied certain divinities, whom you degrade, and SCEPTICISM HAS NO PBOGKESS. 535 prescribed religious duties answering to feelings of conscience, which you ignore, there is no unity in your drama; and by ending in a blank, you prove that either you began wrong, or went wrong by the way: whereas in the sacred literature of the Hebrews we have evidently a great drama played out before our eyes, and one in which we are infinitely concerned, as it both comes to a good end, and gives us deliverance for our own souls. There is one eternal God from the beginning ; and though He may permit temporariness in things of earth, yet in what most concerns our souls He gives glimpses all along, and at length brings us to the fullest outshewing, of eternal truth. Accidents may seem to play, but yet a law encompasses them. Nor can a law on so vast a scale be less than the ruling idea of God. We rise then in thought, (to borrow your own metaphor,) from the drama to the poet. He who creates and sustains, and gives life, works out an eternal purpose of order in nature, and of providence in mankind, and of a better life in the fellowship of living souls with Himself; and then shews us in His own Son, or embodied likeness, the Mind by which all things have been and are, and then fulfils in Him for our redemption and comfort, whatever war we have to wage against evil, whatever consecration of ourselves we are to offer, and the victory which, by partaking of His Holy Spirit, we may win over death and the grave. Here is a drama, and here is progress, such as I would gladly have you enter into; but such progress as you have suggested, from faith to doubt, instead of to greater clear- ness, and from religious worship into a sort of naturalism, and from a lively conscience into an obliteration of human responsi- bility, is a series of downward steps, or a progress in degradation. Thus you end in leaving man nearer to the brutes, or to mere physical agencies ; while we, beginning in humility, would lead him up through the faith and spirit of Jesus to the likeness and life of God. So that I think there is little room for doubt, whether the religion of Christ, or that of the Hindds, if inter- preted according to the S^nkhya philosophy, has most real 536 VED-A^NTINE CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANITY. progress. What do you say, my friend?" here asked Blan- combe, turning to Vidy^hdrya, who had appeared for some time lost in meditation. " I am very thankful," replied the Ach&rya, " for your vin- dication of the Divine thinking, so far as you conceive it yourself to be everywhere present. Especially in your rejection of what has been said about making religion an arbitrary product of the human mind, I am entirely agreed with you. I felt great satis- faction, too, in hearing you disprove the claims of Sdkya Muni to any Divine authority, and in your demonstration of the irreli- gious character of the Bauddha doctrines, which end, as Sancara had argued, in * total perishableness.' But the Sankhya philo- sophy, if it may be so called, has so much in common with the Bauddhas, that a refutation of the one must be fatal to the other; while the S&nkhyasts have special inconsistencies of their own, in professing allegiance to our sacred books, yet departing so widely from their true sense. I shall not quarrel, therefore, with your reply to Saddnanda. Again, in your positive doctrine there are many things which have my entire sympathy. "When you admit that there is only One Creator of the world, and of all that it contains, whether apparent good or apparent evil, you seem so far not to reject our doctrine of non-duality. Your defence of what always appeared to me the unphilosophical localisation, or of the narrow limitations of place and other tem- porary accidents, which seem ordinarily involved in the Christian doctrines of heaven and earth, and the resurrection, and judg- ment, and hell, might be accepted by me as satisfactory, in virtue of your comparison of imperfections, which prevail amongst our simpler people, if I was sure that what you call parables, or the imperfections of your doctrine, were not more essential parts of it, than idolatry and other such things with us are of our essentially spiritual faith. But you should be aware, that while we permit (of necessity) to persons ftiU of passion and darkness things which they might imlearn, if they had more of goodness, we open an unbounded field of spiritual speculation to those VEDA'NTINE CLAIM TO REVELATION. 537 capable of clearer views of Deity. We are led to this course by our own sacred books, which recognise distinctions among men as divinely ordered. But as to the hope, which you hold out as the gift of Christ, of a better life, beginning with the Holy Spirit here, and going on into eternity, consider, whether such a hope is not already ours rather than yours to give. Christianity is, as you acknowledge, the child of Judaism : but it would be difficult to shew that many of the ancient Hebrews had any clear expectation of life beyond this earth ; and I have heard that such a hope is not universally allowed to have prevailed among them at all. Whereas with Hindiis, not only is an ab- sorbing sense of other worlds and future existences one of the ruling influences of our life, but, according to some strangers, it makes its presentiments too deeply felt by us. Was not then such a presentiment, or a hope, taken by Christians from us, rather than from the Jews ? But supposing us to agree with all else that has been said, sufficiently to share your hope of immor- tality, without nicely appropriating it to a local heaven, or to successive stages of existence, or to a purely spiritual conception, and supposing that in such a hope we were to co-operate together in raising the spiritual and intellectual tone of men by educa- tion,— yet to give up the faith of our fathers, and all the reve- lation which they have handed down, seems a hard thing to ask. It is acknowledged between you both, that the Giver of true knowledge must be Deity. Therefore knowledge is Divinely revealed : and it seems to me safer to hold fast the sacred books, which even our enemies acknowledge as among the most venera- ble in the world, and which we believe given us by the Supreme Being as oracles of religion. In them we find the framework of society divinely instituted, and a way of escape from passion and darkness laid down for our souls. It may be that in this wretched age many things in the Divine plan have become confused ; but we retain as much of the original fabric as we can. Nor again do we deny the secular wisdom of your coun- tr}rmen ; nor woidd we refuse large concessions to please them. 538 THE a'cha'rya's repugnance to change. But even if many of you understand our higher speculations, (which I have often doubted,) yet your authority in religion is inferior to the Divine. While then we are willing to learn from you, and to co-operate in what is good, without denying that perhaps Christianity may be better for you, we still should not feel justified in surrendering our own religion.