Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/303

Rh having accused us of the crime of taking the life of animals, the accusation was returned upon himself; he was told that he slew multitudes of living creatures every day. This he denied, asserting that he took the life of no living thing. “Do you not drink water?” he was asked; “if you do, you slay your thousands.” “No! no!” answered the Shastiri, “I always have my water strained before I drink it, so as to remove any insects that may be in it.” When he was told of the wonders revealed by the microscope, and of the myriads of creatures sporting in a cup of water, too small to be seen or arrested by strainers, he knew not what to say.

It will be evident at a glance, that their system, by making it as sinful to kill a chicken as to rob a house, confounds the distinction of right and wrong. Watchful of the lives of cockroaches and scorpions, they lie without shame or sense of sin. Their religion makes them self-righteous and proud, without ennobling their motives or cleansing their hearts. Christianity alone goes deeper, and, by providing a propitiation for sin, and basing favour with God on true holiness of heart, shows the burdened conscience how it may find peace, and