Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/206

178 infinitely glorious, the eternally omnipotent Lord God, the Creator of all things, whom no man can see and live !"

“True! true! This is the iron age. But thus our fathers did before us. It is custom. Your religion is good for you—ours is good for us. There are many roads leading to one city; there are many paths to the heavenly shore."

The Hindu now is in his stronghold; custom, the custom of their fathers, is to them immutable law; but from this you drive him, and force him to acknowledge that the example of his ancestors is no excuse for wrong-doing, and then you seek to make him feel the weight of sin, that he may turn to Christ as a Saviour of sinners. But this is of all things the most unpalatable to the depraved heart of man. Ridicule their idols, and they will laugh with you; lash the Brahmins, and they are delighted; tell them that there is but one true God, and they agree with you; but bid them receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour and king, and they turn from him with anger and blasphemy. Salvation, not by good works, but by the confession of vileness, with faith in Christ, is offensive to the carnal heart. By the Spirit of God only can depraved men in India