Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/192

164 the old heroes of Indian story; and, above all, he may retain his caste. To become a Christian, he must renounce all these. So great is the passion of the people for an external religion, that of a truth unto them “Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” The priest Bartolomeo remarks, that “The native Christians (i. e. Roman Catholics) are fond of the images of the saints, processions, and in general of the ceremonies of the Catholic Church; and, as the Protestants lack all these things, it may naturally be conceived that their simple religion can have very few attractions for the Indians.” Yet, blessed be God! this "simple religion” of Jesus Christ, so unattractive to the natural man, debased by idolatry and sin, is to fill the earth, for God has given to him the heathen for an inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for a possession. Even the Roman Catholics of India have in many places turned from these vanities, cast down their idols, and are now serving the living God.