ABSTRACT
But the process of undermining is in full progress, which in time must lead to their downfall, though we may not be able as yet to tell when that time will come. The axe of the gospel with a handle out of the tree of Hindooism itself, wielded by native agencies, will bring about this fall, as the thoughtful Hindoos now already perceive and openly confess. “After all, what did the Mohammedans do?” said a Hindoo to Mr. Leupolt. “They broke down a few bricks from the top of the house: these men (the missionaries) undermine its foundation by preaching and teaching, and, when once a great rain comes, the whole building will come down with a crash.” The power which holds it together has long ceased to be the religious system itself with its inward wanderings; nor yet are the old and new literatures as such, with their many-colored compounds of old pious prayers, fantastical speculations, absurd and often terrible injunctions, composed of pantheistic, polytheistic, and even theistic elements, the power of heathen faith and thought; but the castesystem. As a system, Hindooism is becoming more and more a relic. It loses daily more of its influence over the spirit of the people. Polytheistic superstition is already overcome in the minds of the educated, although it has still many tenacious roots in the minds of the common people. The youth of India are withdrawing continually from its influences. But caste holds the old building
fast together: even liberals seldom have courage to break with it. “You know,” said an accomplished Hindoo to Mr. Leupolt, “that, properly speaking, we have now no religious belief. Any one can believe what he likes, so long as he retains caste.” In fact, Hindooism only clings to caste still, because caste in turn supports it. So much the more decisively must this caste be fought; for, if this be undermined, the whole religious edifice will fall in. That this great social fetter of the Hindoos must be broken off, there is no dispute among the evangelical missionary societies. But whether it is only to be continually restricted by those who are converted, and left to die out through the freeing activity of the evangelical spirit, or whether it is to be directly attacked, and a complete separation be demanded from the beginning of every one baptized, is the question.
