The Pilgrim

The Quarterly Bulletin of the Christian Society for the Study of Hinduism

The Christian Society for the Study of Hinduism

Patrons: The Metropolitan of India, Calcutta Bishop BRENTON T. BADLEY, Delhi.

† President: Bishop CLEMENT D. ROCKEY, Lucknow.

† Secretary: Dr. J.E. McELDOWNEY, Leonard Theological College, Jabalpur

† Treasurer: Dr. C.H. HAZLETT, A. P. Mission, Mainpuri, U.P.

Convener, Benares Institute: Rev. R.C. DAS, M.A., Ramkatora, Benares Cantonment.

† Editor of the Pilgrim: Rev. J.S. MOON, M.A., Ramkatora, Benares

Special Representatives:

Church of India, Burma and Ceylon:

• The Lord Bishop of Lucknow, Allahabad.
• Dr. A.J. Appasamy, Palamcottah.

Church of Scotland Mission:

• Rev. Alexander McLeish, Church House, Nasirabad (Raj.)

Kellogg Memorial Church:

• Rev. J.V. Dibben, 87, Banaras Cantonment

Serampore College: † Prof. V.E. Dutt, M.A., B.D. Leonard Theological College: The Secretary. Evangelism: † Mr. M.C. Dharmaraj, Y.M.C.A. Women’s Work: † Mrs. W. Stanley Gould, Ewing Christian College, Allahabad The Tract Societies: Rev. Paul Das, B.A., 19, Clive Road, Allahabad South India, Special Representative: † Mr. S.J. Daurisami, N.M.S. House, Royapettah, Madras National Christian Council: Dr. M.T. Titus, Nelson Square, Nagpur Henry Martyn School of Islamics: Dr. R. Donaldson, Aligarh, U.P.

† Denotes member of Executive

The objects of the Christian Society for the Study of Hinduism are,

1. To create and maintain adequate interest in the study of Hinduism by Christians
2. To carry on the study in a sympathetic, constructive and critical way for the purpose of effective evangelism and
3. To achieve the above objects in co-operation with Church and Mission bodies.

The activities of the Society are,

1. To conduct in Benares (and if possible in a South Indian centre) an Institute of Hinduism stressing its popular aspects
2. Publish The Pilgrim, a quarterly bulletin, bearing on Hinduism, its relation To Christianity and work among Hindus and
3. To encourage the organisation of a permanent School of Hinduism.

The minimum annual subscription is Rs. 2/-. Membership fees and gifts may be sent to the treasurer, Dr. C.H. Hazlett, A.P. Mission, Mainpuri, U.P.

Every member will receive The Pilgrim free.

Editorial Board: Bishop Clement D. Rockey, Dr. A.J. Appasamy Mrs. W.S. Gould Rev. C.G. Diehl (Madras) Dr. J.E. McEldowney Prof. V.E. Dutt Rev. A.M. Ward (Bangalore) Mr. R.C. Das Rev. J.S. Moon (Editor)

The Secretary points out that the views expressed in the Minutes represent the Executive’s opinion so far as he has been able to ascertain it.

Editor.

The Passion for Release

By THE LATE Dr. J.N. FARQUHAR

The seriousness and reality of Hindu religious thought in the sixth century B.C. becomes manifest in the search for a satisfactory theory of moral reward and punishment.

Hindus, originally, seem to have had a loose belief that, in this life, the gods reward and punish men for their good and evil deeds respectively with proportionate amounts of pleasure and prosperity and of suffering and disaster. Theories of this type were prevalent in early times.

But careful observation makes this belief incredible; and a new theory of retribution had to be found. Then some Hindu, noting primitive tribes who believed in reincarnation, suggested that each soul lives many lives, and that the acts of each life are rewarded or punished in the next and the theory was accepted. The living of many lives is called Transmigration, the force which brings requital Karma, literally ‘action’.

The doctrine may be most simply expressed if we put it in this way. Experience makes it impossible to believe that a man is always rewarded for good conduct and punished for bad conduct in this life: but, if we believe that every soul lives a series of lives, then we may conclude that, for his good conduct in this life the good man will be rewarded in the next life, while the bad man will be punished for his evil behaviour. The whole doctrine of Transmigration and Karma, as it exists in the Hindu mind, may be thus expounded: -

1. All souls, whether of god, angel, devil, man, animal, plant or thing, are the same.
2. Each soul is eternal, has had no beginning and will have no end; and each passes through an unending series of lives.
3. Every act done, whether good or bad, inevitably produces for the doer, its own recompense in his next life, each good act creating health, wealth, success and happiness, every evil act resulting in disease, poverty, misery and disaster.
4. Thus, all the circumstances of each new life, are either reward for good deeds, or punishment for evil deeds, done in a previous life.
5. A soul that is living as a god may, through very evil conduct, fall to the condition of a man; and, if the soul continues to live evil lives, it may be born as a bug or a flea, or may fall to the condition of a plant or a stone. Similarly, the upward path is open to every single soul.
6. The word ‘Karma’ means “action working itself out in retribution.”

Thus, every soul is destined to go on eternally, in each life receiving reward for his good deeds and punishment for his evil deeds done in the previous life, and sowing at the same time in his actions seeds which will spring up as joy or sorrow in his next existence. Every piece of human experience, whether active or passive, whether joyous or sorrowful, thus became retribution. There is no piece of suffering that is not punishment there is no piece of joy that is not reward.

This new moral conception gradually spread all over India, where it still dominates two-thirds of the whole population; and it was carried by Buddhism over the whole of central and eastern Asia, where it is still held by millions of our fellow-men. It has never spread, outside Asia to any extent.

The Passion for Release. We now come to one of the noblest elements in Hinduism, yet one which is so far removed from our own religious aspiration and experience that it requires considerable imagination, penetration and thought to enable us to sympathise with it.

The ordinary Hindu, Buddhist and Jain have usually accepted the doctrine of transmigration with equanimity, quite pleased to look forward to another life; but the effect on all the best minds of India has been very different. The prospect of never-ending reincarnation has always produced in them an intolerable loathing. The idea of being forever whirled round on the wheel of birth, life and death has filled them with disgust. As Paul cries aloud “Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me?” so, in ancient India those men of intellect and character said “We must find Release from the necessity of being reborn. We cannot endure the prospect of being forever bound to this miserable, unsatisfactory, fleeting world”, Who will doubt the sincerity of their cry?

Now one of the most noticeable facts of the situation is this, that no one at that time thought of appealing to the Vedic gods for help to win Release. What is the reason for this? The truth is that men appealed to the gods for worldly boons only. A sacrifice was held in order to obtain a victory in war, to bring the sacrificer wealth or position, to secure abundant crops or to make successful some other venture. Hence, to ask the gods to confer Release from all the ties of the world would have seemed utterly absurd.

Thus, the men of those early days distinguished clearly between their prayers to the gods for the good things of this life and the new passion which had laid hold of them, the eager desire to win release from all earthly bonds. The old gods were thus openly branded as worldly. They could not be the source of Release from the world as such.

The earliest mode of Release from Transmigration which found favour among the Hindus arose about 550 B. C. from the conception of the Atman. This idea had appeared in Hindu thought rather earlier, but had not been much noticed. Thinkers had said, “Behind the whole universe, behind all the gods, behind men and all their powers, there is the great incomprehensible Atman, i.e., the Self. He is the soul of the universe, the source of all things.”. He was also called ‘the Brahman’.

The passionate desire for Release from the world, then flung some thinker back on the Atman: “The great incomprehensible Atman, the source of the whole vast universe, must be absolutely free from every earthly bond. He cannot be the slave of worldly passions. Now, I too am an Atman, a ‘self’, closely akin to the great Atman; for the single name covers both. Thus, there is no reason why an Atman should remain in bondage. If I can realise my close kinship, my identity with the universal Atman, I shall stand absolutely released from the chains, which have hitherto bound me. I am free! I have realised my Release! I am no longer bound by lust and pleasure, ease and wealth, comfort and pride. I stand released!” This pioneer then began to teach others what he had experienced himself. He taught each pupil to realise his own identity with the great Self of the universe, doubtless leading him by simple analysis of the human consciousness of selfhood to the idea, that the supreme Self is of the same build and character as the human self, and that this radical change from bondage to absolute freedom was his birthright as being identical with the great Atman. To our minds identity with God seems a very big thing to be claimed by a man; but we can sympathise with the idea; for man, unquestionably, is closely related to God.

Further, we are assured that the man who thus realised his identity with the Atman and saw in that the path to Release actually experienced the great moral change, of Release as a result of this realisation. The world and all its charms and pleasures and honours, we are assured, lost their fascination for him; and, uplifted far above them, he experienced the joys of complete renunciation and utter freedom from passion.

This piece of religious experience also is surely comprehensible to us, at least, in some degree. We are accustomed to sudden conversions. Under religious conviction, a man yields himself utterly to God, and, in consequence, finds his character utterly changed; his old temptations, whether drink lust or money, suddenly lose all powers over him; he stands released from his old enemies.

This identification of self with God necessarily gave the man a great uplift. He felt all his fetters broken. He no longer belonged to this world of matter, pleasure, lust, cupidity and pride He was far uplifted above all these things. His life was a divine life.

Hence, in their great exaltation of mind, and in their fear, lest the old worldly life should rob them of their new-found treasure, each man gave up wife, children, home, caste, wealth, profession and his ordinary clothing, and went out, either stark naked or clothed in a few rags, begged his bread and slept in a cave or at the foot of a tree. The village council took his children and brought them up, while his wife lived as a widow. This process of giving up all things was called sannyasa, “complete renunciation”, and the man was, called a sannyasi, “renouncer”. He was also called parivrajaka, “wanderer” and bhikshu, “beggar”, because he wandered about and begged his bread.

Thus, every man who felt he had won Release, or who desired to win Release, became an ascetic, giving up completely the comforts and joys of home life, and living as a homeless beggar, dependent upon others. It was believed that this discipline would help to uproot all the ordinary desires for rich food of various kinds and enjoyable drink for the pleasures of marriage, fatherhood and home life, for the joy of possessing wealth, land and houses and for the honours which success in learning, teaching, government or war produces. The aim was to banish completely all worldly instincts and longings from the man’s personality. They thus found a life that was a fitting expression of their new experience in a complete renunciation of the world and of all the rules, of society. They wandered about, giving, their time to, meditation, discussion and teaching, sleeping at the foot of a tree, getting their food by begging. In numerous episodes we see them conversing and discussing, in the woods, in the villages, at kings courts and at sacrifices. Many of them also practised self-torture, austerities, tapas, as the practice is named in Sanskrit.

These men gave up the old worship entirely. The sacrifices were meant to induce the gods to give their worshippers earthly boons of what value then were they to sannyasis? But the Atman was beyond the appeal of prayer or sacrifice; he was impersonal, unapproachable, accepted no sacrifice, heard no prayer. Hence, it was impossible to worship Him. The sannyasis therefore gave up worship altogether.

On the other hand, each sannyasi spent much time in meditation, realising to the full the changeless supremacy of the Atman and His complete severance from the world. Two phrases were much used then, and still are used as watchwords to keep the sannyasi’s conviction strong and clear. These are, Tat tvam asi, “Thou art that!” and Aham Brahma asmi, “I am the Brahman.”

The sannyasi made a very great impression on all classes of the population: their influence was exceedingly great. To this day they are the finest body of ascetics in Hinduism.

Clear proof of the great influence exercised by their teaching is found in this, that the leading Brahmans of the day introduced the whole subject of the Atman and the way to Release into the priestly schools. It was taught as a second subject, after the whole course of instruction for priests. The teachers had firmly grasped the most valuable elements in the thought of the sannyasi, and each school gradually built up a body of oral instruction which was given to their pupils. The teachers of each school carried, each in his memory, the whole collection of pieces of instruction on the subject of Karma, Transmigration, the way to Release, the peace and joy of Release, which were traditional in the school; and the finest young men took this course before their initiation as sannyasi. They were therefore well-trained before they went to the forest to live as monks seeking Release. Many other young men who had no intention of becoming sannyasi took the course, because they wished to know what the teaching was; and many of them looked forward to their later years, as a time of meditation, when they also might so realise the truth as to attain Release.

This educational policy also secured the survival of the whole philosophy of the Atman. The body of teaching given in each school on the subject of Bondage and Release was called Upanishad¹; and the Upanishads of the chief schools have been preserved as one of the main elements of Vedic literature.

They are unquestionably the most precious of all the forms of literature which have come from the Brahmanic schools, We here give in tabular form -

The Vedic Schools and Their Upanishads

The above are the eleven original Upanishads. Scholars believe that, by 500 B.C., the vedic schools were already teaching all these Upanishads. They were called the Vedanta, or “final end of the Vedas”, as being the expression of their supreme teaching.

At later dates, numbers of fresh Upanishads were composed, many of them for use in the various sects or for ascetic groups, each with a philosophic doctrine of its own. The total number of Upanishads known is about 130.

We next give a few quotations from the early Upanishads, in order to show the depth, dignity and worth of their utterances.

Here is a prayer, expressing the spirit of the seeker:

    From the unreal lead me to the real;
    From darkness lead me to light;
    From death lead me to immortality.

— Brihadaranyaka Upanishad I. iii; 28.

The Atman is the source of the whole world:

    The Inner Soul (antaratman) of all things,
    Who makes his one form manifold.

— Katha Upanishad V. 12. H. 37

    All this existing universe
    Moves in the Life from which it sprang.
    A mighty terror is, a thunderbolt upraised!
    The men who know it they become immortal.

— Katha Upanishad VI. 2.

The Atman is incomprehensible:

    He, however the Atman, is not so, not so. He is
    incomprehensible; for he is not comprehended;
    indestructible, for he is not destroyed; unaffected, for
    nothing affects him, he is not fettered, he is not
    disturbed, he suffers no harm.

— Brihadaranyaka Upanishad IV. 2, 4.

    Not above, not across,
    Not in the middle has one grasped Him.
    There is no likeness of Him whose name is Great Glory,

— Svetasvatara Upanishad IV. 19, H. 40

The World is illusion²:

    This whole world the illusion-maker projects out of this (Brahma).
    And in it by illusion the other is confined.
    Now, one should know that nature is illusion,
    And that the Mighty Lord is the illusion-maker.

— Svetasvatara Upanishad IV. 9-10 H. 38.

The Atman is a unity:

    As a unity only is it to be looked upon
    - ThisThis indemonstrable enduring Being.

— Brihadaranyaka Upanishad IV, 4, 20, H. 39.

The Atman is unethical:

    Distinct from right, distinct from wrong,
    Distinct from causes and effects,
    Distinct from past and future too
    - WhatWhat seems to thee like that, declare.

— Katha Upanishad II, 14.

Identity with the Atman:

    When a seer sees the brilliant
    Maker, Potentate, Person, the Brahma source,
    Then, being a knower, shaking off good and evil
    Stainless, he attains supreme identity (with Him)

— Mundaka Upanishad III. i. 3.

The Atman is inexpressibly dear:

    This, which is nearer to us than anything, this Self,
    is dearer than a son, than wealth, dearer than all else.

— Brihadaranyaka Upanishad I. iv. 8

The Atman is the final goal:

    Brahma is knowledge, is bliss,
    The final goal of the giver of offerings,
    Of him, too, who stands still and knows It.

— Brihadaranyaka Upanishad III. ix. 28. H. 126.

The Atman brings Release:

    He who beholds that Loftiest and Deepest,
    For him the fetters of the heart break asunder.

— Mundaka Upanishad II, 2, 8.

Immortality and Peace:

    When man forgoes all those desires
    That lie within his heart,
    The mortal then becomes immortal,
    And here and now gains Brahman.

— Katha Upanishad VI. 14.

Desire conquered:

    What can he desire who has all?

— Mandukya Karika, i. 16

The sannyasi made a tremendous impression on all classes of the population; their influence was exceedingly great. To this day they are the finest body of ascetics in Hinduism. Soon a number of other theories were being preached by philosophic leaders in N. India, each teacher accompanied by a great group of monks; for every movement copied the sannyasis.

2. One of the earliest of these systems was what is now called Jainism. The founder was called Mahavira, “great hero” and also Jina, ‘conqueror’. Hence, his followers were called Jaina, Jains and the system is known as Jainism. He began to teach about 540 B.C.

The founder wandered about absolutely naked, calling men to accept his teaching and discipline, and promising that they would thereby obtain Release. His fundamental beliefs may be summed up as follows: -

1. The Hindu gods, exist, but the Atman does not exist
2. There are jiva, i.e., lives, souls, in every particle of earth, air, water and fire.
3. For the attainment of Release the practise of severe tapas, i.e., austerities, is necessary the strictest abstinence from the destruction of life in any form, and the keeping of a number of serious moral rules. These rules, then, were laid on his monks and nuns.

Mahavira and his ascetics also made a great impression wherever they went, and many recruits were won.

But Mahavira also called the ordinary people round him, preached to them in simple terms and won the confidence of many of them. Hence, he organised them regularly, gave them simple rites to practise and thus formed a self-supporting religion; for the Jain laity supported the monks. Thus, Jainism actually became a rival to Hinduism.

Mahavira acknowledged the existence of the Hindu gods, but declared them useless for the winning of Release, precisely as Hindu sannyasis did. But he also denied absolutely the existence of the Atman. Hence, he taught a system of Release which did not depend on any divinity but sprang altogether from his own teaching. He taught that the life of Renunciation was necessary for the winning of Release, but he also insisted that ahimsa, harmlessness, and tapas, self-torture, were necessary. His monks were of two distinct orders.

1. Svetambaras, robed in white.
2. Digambaras, robed in atmosphere, i.e., naked

He himself was a digambara, going about stark naked. He had also women disciples who were nuns. They belonged to the White-robed order. All had to practise tapas. The monks and nuns had no dwelling-places then. They now have monasteries and nunneries.

Mahavira conceived karma as inhering in the man, and he talks as if it were an element in the body. Since Release is not possible until all karma has disappeared, the aim set before the Jain is to exhaust all existing karma and to make as little, fresh karma as possible. He has also an elaborate doctrine of living beings and their powers. These points we mention simply to show the strangeness of his system. One of the more curious elements is the doctrine of lives. In addition to gods, men, animals and plants, Mahavira said that there were jiva, souls, lives, in every particle of earth, air, water, and fire.

Since every Jain ascetic is, like the Vanaprasthas, forbidden to take life, he has to take special precautions to avoid killing these four types of lives. He must sweep his path with a small broom to save, earth lives, he must do without a bath, and must drink no water that has not been boiled by a layman; and he cannot cook food; for he would thereby destroy fire-lives. The ascetic thus goes to the house of a layman and begs for boiled water, and also for food. The layman has to kill many lives in preparing the water and the food, but the sin is not so serious in his case. All Jains are vegetarians.

Every year each ascetic must pull out all his hair, taking each single hair by itself. The nun must do likewise. This is one form of Tapas.

Jain ascetics are strongly, advised to practise fasting or partial fasting. They are also taught to deny themselves favourite kinds of food. Every form of renunciation impedes the formation of fresh karma.

Mahavira taught a good ethic and laid great stress upon it. Every monk and nun is expected to make confession daily to a superior and privately, each ascetic repeats frequently a formula of confession, in order that he may realise his own transgressions, repent and avoid them hereafter.

Mahavira had also quite a clear doctrine of the future life of the released person. The monk who finds release and dies becomes a siddha, i.e., a perfect being, who will live forever, but is beyond the reach of ordinary, feelings and perceptions. They have all divine powers but live in complete peace; doing absolutely nothing.

About the Christian era, Jains adopted temple-and-image worship in imitation of Hinduism. They have many beautiful, temples in India today.

The Jains have also built up a great literature, but, like their teaching, it strikes one as stiff, formal and dry.

3. The most interesting of the other schemes of Release is, the system which we now call Buddhism. Gautama, the Buddha, i.e., The Enlightened One, began to teach about 530 B.C., probably ten years later than Mahavira; and his system was a very different one. Mahavira’s ideas were in part very old-fashioned, while the Buddha’s were of a more advanced type than the philosophy of the Atman.

There are several noteworthy elements to be noted in the foundations of his system. He denied the existence of the supreme Atman, as Mahavira did. But he also took up a very critical position with reference to human personality. He denied that there was any permanent self or soul in man. His conception of man’s psychical life was not unlike certain modern theories. He recognised man’s intellectual, moral and emotional life, and distinguished it from the body, but he recognised in it only the fleeting sensations, thoughts, feelings, and volitions; he saw no permanent psychical faculty behind.

1. We take next his theory of bondage and release. The very first idea of his system is this, LIFE IS MISERY. As Professor Keith puts it, “He believed that life in whatever form was a striving which inevitably involved pain.” What then is the only right conclusion to draw from such a premise. Clearly, we must get rid of life! We must discover a way whereby we may be released from it. The Buddha and the other great teachers of his time all agreed that the wise man would seek Release; he differed from all others in giving this very striking statement, LIFE IS MISERY, as the one true and sufficient reason for seeking Release. The modern man can sympathise to some extent at least, with the Buddha’s position. Even at its best, life is never completely satisfactory; everything earthly is imperfect.

If you ask the Buddha what makes life miserable, his reply is - “All things are perishing, impermanent.” Like, Heraclitus and Plato, he was impressed with the constant flux of the phenomena of this world. We may find a parallel idea in the New Testament. “The world passeth away and the lust thereof”. We all agree that everything in this world is impermanent, and we can also subscribe to the idea that only the eternal is worthy of our heart’s love.

2. The Buddha’s second proposition is, THE CAUSE OF MISERY IS DESIRE, desire which leads to re-birth. The doctrine of transmigration and karma is the source of this thought. A man naturally forms desires, and acts in order to obtain them; and the result is that he is born once more, to receive requital for his deeds, and is thus brought again into this world of misery.

3. The third proposition is that MISERY CEASES THROUGH THE EXTINCTION OF DESIRE; and that needs no exposition.

4. The fourth and last proposition deals with THE PATH TO RELEASE. In India at that time, the mass of men had their profession and lived at home with wife and family. There were then ascetics, who had given up home and marriage, and who lived in the forest and tried to purge their minds and souls by many forms of self-inflicted torture. The Buddha said that neither of these ways of life would lead to Release. He therefore prescribed a middle path between the pleasures of home life and the self-inflicted tortures of the woods. The middle path consists of eight elements, right belief, right resolve, right speech, right behaviour, right occupation, right effort, right watchfulness, right concentration of thought.

The deeply moral character of the Buddha’s outlook stands out clear. It was a life marked by all those noble and serious modes of conduct which he prescribed as the means whereby desire could be uprooted from the man’s life. But, in order to understand the Buddha fully, one must realise in the concrete, what the Buddha’s method actually was.

The ascetic life would not, of itself, bring men Release rites and ceremonies would not bring Release; self-torture would not bring Release only the uprooting of Desire would produce the desired change. Since married life, in his opinion, cultivated and strengthened desire, it had to be given up entirely. In addition to that they, required a transformed mind and character, and that could be got only by long-continued intellectual and moral discipline.

He therefore got rich friends to build monasteries for him. In these he placed his monks and told them that, if they submitted to his rules, they would in time be able to uproot desire. The chief requirement was that each monk should spend long hours alone in the monastery, recalling to mind and repeating in detail the teaching of the Buddha, to imprint it indelibly on his memory and to weave it into his character. If they continued this practise, their character would slowly change; peace would slowly grow while the fires of desire would die down; and each would in time become an Arhat, i.e., a Saint, who has conquered desire and who will therefore not be born again. Surely a very remarkable system.

Women also wished to win Release; and, towards the end of his life, the Buddha agreed. His friends then built convents and in them thousands of women took up their residence and lived as nuns under the teaching and discipline of senior nuns who had been trained by the Buddha.

During the leader’s own life-time the movement spread widely in North India, so that, when he passed away, about 480 B.C., he had already a vast following.

It is most necessary to realise that the Buddha did not form any organisation for the laity. Men and women who were living the household life, could not win Release; and he left them where they were. They came frequently to see him and hear him and to ask him questions; but he gave them no new religion; he left them in Hinduism. He was a prophet of Release, and he offered a new life only to those who were ready to live as monks or nuns.

Mahavira, the Jain was, in this matter, wiser than the Buddha. He organised the laity as well as the monks and the nuns; and he had his reward. In spite of the strange and old world character of his teaching, his religion laid a firm hold of ancient India.

Some time after the death of the Buddha, the leading monks decided to organise the laity. In the vicinity of each monastery they built a hall, in which they met the laity and gave them teaching, Soon they created a form of worship for these Chaityas, as they were called. Henceforward, Buddhism was a fully organised religion.

The Epistle of Pilgrimage

(Concluded)

BY THE EDITOR

Our justification for considering the Epistle to the Hebrews in these pages has been that in that book appears a dialectic not unlike that which to a great extent must influence Christian apologetics in India. The Epistle is the meeting place of two arguments, one strictly, in accord with the Jewish-Christian historical outlook, the other implying a point of view for which history is largely irrelevant. On the one hand the author speaks of the world of the senses as a realm of shadows, on the other hand it constitutes the historical stage upon which are acted events fraught with significance for humanity.

We see the same tension when we consider his references to ‘the world to come’. He shares the hope of a coming intervention by God in the outer world, but along with that is his hope for an inner transformation which can take place here and now. This second hope echoes Jeremiah’s prophecy: ‘After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws on their heart, and upon their minds also will I write them.’ Take the two together, and we certainly have the thought of the world to come as standing over against this age and overshadowing it, but in a redemptive rather than in a hostile or annihilating sense. Even now the world to come is breaking into this world pre-emptively. Already the shadow of that which is to come falls upon us. “God is coming, seeking, saving, - coming as it were out of the future rather than out of the past - Jesus turns the thought of Time upside down. For him the divine reality of the future, or rather of the eternal, is drawing into itself all that has been called past, and that which gives value to the present is the consciousness of belonging to the future.”³ With this thought in mind we can also press the point that God’s presence, whilst it does mean judgement, does not mean the absorption or obliteration of the creature. As Oman says: “The leading interest of religion is in God’s dealings with Abraham’s actual children, such as they are.”⁴ Or one, last quotation, this time from Von Hugel: “And note further that this poor little shelter of reeds, with the absolute ever burning down upon it; this poor little paper boat, on the sea of the infinite, God took pity upon them, quite apart from sin and the Fall, God wanted to give their relative independence a quite absolute worth. He took sides as it were with his own handiwork against himself and gave us the rampart of his tender strong humanity, against the crushing opposition of the pure time - and space - less Eternal and absolute of Himself.”⁵

We may be straying far from the thought of the author of Hebrews in quoting from these modern writers, yet there remains that author’s constant emphasis upon the will of God, and the God who wills, who chooses and makes promises, is the God who limits Himself deliberately, - and for the succour of those whose being He has willed. And that the light of reality is shed sparingly, mercifully is a constant thought of the writer’s, nothing is disposed of, nothing is ‘nigh unto vanishing away’, until it has fully served its purpose. Then in the fuller light it is seen for the partial, imperfect thing that it was.

A going forward towards perfection along the newly opened living Way, that is a leading challenge of the Epistle, and we may well dwell upon it for a moment in conclusion. Yogi, Buddhist, Sufi - the Path is of cardinal importance for each one of them. And Christians were first known as those ‘of the Way’.

Some time back a saintly minister introduced the writer to a Hindu enquirer saying that we might enjoy talking over things philosophical. When the minister had gone the enquirer said, “After all it is not philosophy which brought me to Mr. -, it was the example of his life. I felt that he took seriously Christ’s command, Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

Hebrews echoes the summons to seek such perfection. Along with that individual quest it combines another Seek the City of God. His preference for the phrase City of God argues something social. He is the writer who warns Christians not to “forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the custom of some is.” And just as the quest for individual perfection appealed to the Hindu enquirer, so beneath the sordidness of modern political strife, in this as in other lands, we must needs look for that spark of idealism, the quest for the City of God.

The Christian Way then means in the first place going out; there must be the pilgrim element in the Christian life. The famous chapter eleven of Hebrews has much to say on this. It is interesting to note that Philo wrote a book, ‘Concerning Migration’ and Origen seems to have this in mind when he suggested that the word Hebrew indicates a traveller, i.e., one who had emigrated from Egypt. The title, “The Epistle to the Hebrews” is a problem in itself, one into which we need not enter. But the writer certainly does exhort his readers to be Hebrews in Origen’s sense, i.e., pilgrims.

Throughout there is that sense of ‘Exodus’, culminating in the great challenge. Let us therefore go forth unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have not here an abiding city, but we seek after the city which is to come.

That is one side of the teaching, and doubtless there must be an ‘Exodus’ in all true religious experience. But there is another side, just as there are two kinds of asceticism. One regards the world as something to be shunned, the flesh as something to be denied, the other regards the flesh as something to be disciplined. This latter is the discipline of the athlete, and at once we are reminded that the athletic metaphor makes a strong appeal to the writer of Hebrews. He likens the Christian life to a relay race; each generation in turn receives the torch and must run its course, Looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith. Those who have run their course look on. As in a relay race it is the team that matters primarily, so the efforts of the earlier runners are bound up with that of their successors. “Apart from us, they should not be made perfect.” It is interesting to note that the author’s view of perfection has this social content. Perfection is not just a flight of the alone to the alone. The writer, as we have just seen uses the term “City of God” rather than “Kingdom of God”. So the great passage in chapter XII (vv, 22-3). With regard to this passage Glover⁶ reminds us that only the reference to angels is essentially Hebrew, the rest is Greek inspired and in the reference to the ‘general assembly’ (panegyrics) we are back on the racecourse, at the Olympian games.

“The mystery of His will” - the phrase is Pauline, but it indicates a subject very dear to the author of Hebrews. There is the thought of one generation inspired by ideals - often mistakenly - and dying ‘not having received the promises’. Their experience is a light, or we might say, a stepping-stone, for succeeding generations, and so God’s purpose is revealed. So we have a chain of prayer, of testimony, of endeavour throughout the ages, and that ‘relay race’ is the true meaning of history. Take any one life, and it may well seem to be mocked by hope, ‘saluting the promises from afar’, as the writer says. The true meaning of the individual life can never be found here below. Yet when the whole course has been completed this life in time is seen to be significant enough.

The completion of the course; - the two thoughts of perfection and of death (and suffering) are never far apart for the writer of Hebrews. Which brings us back once more to the ‘exodus’ and also to the fact that the “living way” has been opened for us through the death of Jesus Christ. To preach the Way simply as man’s effort is to misunderstand the gospel; we are however bidden to follow where the Pioneer has led. Such a preaching of the Way is doubtless needed in this land, and not just an approach to the non-Christian, but also, as a salutary reminder to the preacher that he himself must go to Christ outside the camp; in some way he too must go out, must gird himself for pilgrimage.

It is the way of the cross. Last year it was the privilege of the present writer to share in the work of the Fyzabad Leper Home. In the assembly hall of the Home there is a window of red glass in the shape of a cross. The cross is there, the symbol of pain and death, but it is transparent. The light comes flooding in. It is like the ‘Veil’ and the ‘way’ through which the glory of the world to come can break and cheer our struggling souls.

Notes

More Apologies. Once more we have to apologise for delay and for having reduced the size of the number. We would point out however that the editor’s address, has once more been changed, and whilst such frequent changes may illuminate one aspect of pilgrimage, it is not really conducive to steady literary effort. Perhaps we need not overdo the apology. It should be remembered that all the officers of this Society do this work in addition to a full-time job. We say this by way of plea to all who can help in any way contributing to the journal. When as we hope will soon be the case, a permanent editor has been appointed he will require - whoever he may be - all such help if the journal is to fulfil its proper role.

Boundaries. One result of delay is that as we go to press Indian independence is becoming a fact. We shall not at the moment prophesy of the things to come. There are others better equipped to do so. But the question of the defining of boundaries is one not unrelated to our subject. ‘Bengal finish’ said the newspaper boy rather sadly as he handed in a paper on June 21st. And we must all feel a certain regret when new boundaries are drawn, quite apart from any misgivings we may have about the practicability of those boundaries. What was previously only a possibility or a threat becomes hardened into a fact and a certain degree of disunity is proclaimed. There is a loss, there is also a gain. The fact of disunity has to be faced, and there is at least a chance of reunion at a more conscious and deliberate level. In his book ‘Three Russian Prophets’ Nicolas Zernov makes the interesting remark: ‘The Western mind has been pre-occupied with drawing boundaries, the Russian mind with looking for the core of things.’ Well firstly we may say that that is not entirely to the West’s disadvantage, and secondly that we can only with reservations substitute ‘India for Russia’ in the quotation. It can be argued fairly truthfully that Islam represents the Western temper in India, and so may share an interest in boundary drawing. Yet Sufis as well as Hindu mystics have been concerned with ‘the core of things’. And on the Hindu side what shall we say about caste? Surely that is boundary drawing with a vengeance, though the boundary is not geographical.

What is the future of our various boundaries? What is the future of caste in the new India? What is the future of many of our Christian boundaries? Of boundaries, we can say, as we have argued with regard to certain institutions in our study of the Epistle to the Hebrews, that they have their day. Divisions and barriers at a lower level, they can be stepping stones to unity at a higher, deliberate level. And to many of us it would seem plain enough that now is the time for reaching to that higher level if the Christian Church is to fulfil its function in the new India. In the South indeed a great step forward is about to be made. We need such a step just as much in the North. All higher educational enterprise, theological, university, technical, and apologetic task like that with which this Society is concerned, all these call for united effort. And if out of reverence to great missionary pioneers we wish to preserve their work in just the mould or place which was theirs, then we might well pause and ask ourselves what would be the attitude of those pioneers were they with us in the flesh today. Would it not be forward-looking?

Our Theological Task. We refer to Rev. Marcus Ward’s book, ‘Our Theological Task’ not so much by way of review, for many of our readers must already have profited from reading it, but because we believe that what we have just been saying about boundaries is not unconnected with Mr. Ward’s theme. In passing, to those who have not read the book, we would unstintingly recommend it. I know one old pupil of Mr. Ward’s who meditates translating the book into his own language, And for those who require further guidance there is a wonderful bibliography.

The framework of Mr. Ward’s argument is that indicated by the Findings of the Poona Theological Conference when it distinguishes in theology two elements namely Dogma - the absolute element, and Doctrine - the relative element. The permanent absolute element can and must be restated from age to age in language and argument which the particular age or culture can understand? That thought underlies the work of our Society. Our criticism of Mr. Ward’s book is in one sense not a criticism, for it is asking more than one man can be, expected to do, but at any rate it is to suggest that a book for India entitled ‘Our Theological Task’ should be balanced by some other book on our philosophical task, though doubtless it would be better not, to give it that title. The theological task is only one end of the stick, and we require both ends.⁷ So the slogan ‘dogmatise or perish’ needs to be balanced by another - Experiment or perish.

It is largely a question of whether the Christian preaching, which is certainly a proclamation of good news, and to that extent a monologue, can yet also enter into dialogue with Hinduism, as Father Lev. Gillet suggests it can with Judaism.⁸ In speaking of the Church’s conflict with Hellenism (always an important analogy for the Indian situation). Mr. Ward says: “Again and again doctrinal expression has proved inadequate just because theologians have begun with their own ideas of what ought to be and have therefore failed to do justice to the actual given revelation of God in Christ by which He both completed and corrected the imperfect knowledge of God gained in other ways. For God has nowhere left Himself without witness.”⁹ Our hesitation is about the word ‘completed’. When all of us have to confess that whole tracts of our life are veiled in darkness and mystery it would seem that we must yet turn to the Light that lightened every man coming into the world, or as those of us who acknowledge the fact of the incarnation would prefer to say, to the Holy Spirit who leads into all truth. It is when we are prepared to admit that there is so much of which we are ignorant that we shall draw our dogmatic in boundaries not as prison walls, but as the boundaries of all organisms which safeguard the life of the organism whilst permitting of intercourse with the world outside. There must be dialogue.

We said much the same in our first editorial two years ago. “The Church is meant to grow, and not only in a numerical sense. And to grow it’s necessary to take a risk and go outside ourselves. There is a risk …” We can emphasise, as Mr. Ward does ‘the thrill of tradition’ (Moffat’s Words) provided there is plenty of room for expansion and growth. It is generally accepted that Jeremiah in his well-known metaphor (Jeremiah 6:16) emphasises two essentials - to consider the old paths and also to consider what is to be the best path for the future. The traveller cannot shirk his own responsibility.

We obviously stand at the prophet’s cross-roads. A new age is dawning in India, an era of the melting-pot, to change the metaphor. It is making no profound prophecy to say that socialism and communism are going to have a large share of people’s thought. It will be an empirical age more concerned with day-today change than with eternal changelessness. And the Christian Church must be prepared for this day-today life; in living experimentally she need not let go her hold on the eternal verities. It may be that it is precisely in a melting pot era that we shall find new approaches to non-Christians. We can sympathise with all movements that seek to uphold the essential dignity of men and women. For it is in personal life that the problem of boundaries is solved.

Edited and published by J.S. Moon, Barrackpore

Printed by The Oriental Art Press, 1 Newul Rishere Road (Hazratgani), Lucknow