Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/470

410 another form of idolatry. This false view of the religion of the Bible raises an additional barrier to the spread of the truth; for how is the ignorant Hindu to know that the first comer has not a right to the title of “the only true church of Christ?” In a morning walk through the neighbouring villages, when passing through some vegetable-gardens, I took occasion to converse with a man, from whom I inquired my way, on the subject of religion. While speaking to him of the folly. and sinfulness of idolatry, I happened to say, “Wood is not God, and, therefore, should not be worshipped.” Immediately, a man whom I had not observed, as he stood at some distance in a neighbouring field, cried out, in a triumphant and insulting tone, “What is your God but a wooden god?” at the same time, with a sneering air and gesture, holding up the forefinger of his right hand, hooked into that of his left, in the form of the cross. Supposing that I was a Roman Catholic, since I was a Christian, he was intimating that my worship of a wooden cross was no better than their worship of a wooden idol. The Roman Catholics have extensive institutions and many priests in Bangalore, and they are very bitter