Page:Monier Monier-Williams - Indian Wisdom.djvu/38

 Christian truth (Acts xvii. 28); and who, writing1 to Christians, directed them not to shut their eyes to anything true, honest, just, pure, lovely, or of good report, wherever it might be found, and exhorted them, that if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, they were to think on these things (Phil. iv. 8). Surely it is time we ceased to speak and act as if truth among Gentiles and truth among Christians were two wholly different things. Surely we ought to acknowledge and accept with gratitude whatever is true and noble in the Hindu character, or in Hindu writings, while we reflect with shame on our own shortcomings under far greater advantages.

Nor ought we to forget the words of St.Peter, when—looking down from our undoubted pre-eminence on the adherents of false systems, such as Brahmans, Buddhists, ParsTs, Fetish-worshippers, and Muslims, wholly distinct from one another and separated by vast chasms though they be—we are accustomed to bracket them all together as if they were equally far from the kingdom of God. To continue to label them all, or even the first four, with the common label Heathenl, as if they were all to be placed in the same category as

1 I lately read an able article, written by a Christian and a man of high culture, in which the term ' heathen' was applied to murderers and villains—I presume from the fact that the inhabitants of heaths and outlying districts are often lawless and benighted. Another author, speaking of certain ignorant vagabonds, says, 'These heathen,' &c. In point of fact, I believe that this is not an unusual application of the term, and such phrases as 'heathenish conduct,' 'heathenish ideas,'are commonly current amongst us as opprobrious epithets. Are we, then, justified in still using this single term as a common label for all unbelievers in Christianity, however God-fearing and righteous (like Cornelius of old) they may be. \Ve make an exception in favour of Muhammadans, forgetting that corruptio optimi pessima. True, the translators of the Bible generally use 'heathen' as an equivalent for ra e6vrj, 'Gentile nations;' but this rests on a false notion of some etymological affinity between the two words. The Greeks and Romans who called the rest of the world ' Barbarians,' the Hindus who call all other persons ' Mlecchas,' and the Muslims who call all unbelievers in Muhammad 'Kafirs and Gabrs,' never have, so far as I know, applied these expressions to villains and criminals. It becomes a question whether, if we are to follow the example of the Founder of Christianity, we ought not to substitute some such term as ' Gentiles' or ' Unbelievers' or ' Non-Christian nations' for an epithet now become somewhat too opprobrious.