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76 the Albert College in Calcutta. Early in his career he had learnt to reject the worship of idols, and had by degrees come to believe in one God; he then joined the Brahmo-Somaj, and before long became the head of a reforming party in that society. It seemed to him that even the Vedas contained teaching which it was impossible to accept as of divine authority, and he finally decided to reject them and to maintain the theory that no special revelation was needed to teach men about God, and that as a consequence no such revelation had ever been made. He adopted the doctrine of a divine guidance of the faithful believing soul, and held that prayer, meditation and spiritual worship were necessary to the maintenance of the spiritual life; while gentleness, self-denial and purity were requisite in order to bring men into union with the Divine Spirit.

Like other theistic teachers, he was ready to acknowledge the beauty of the life and example of Christ, and the moral value of His teaching, but he regarded Him as a mere man. Speaking of the Bible, Keshub Chunder Sen said, "However proud we may be of our own religious books, however great the value which we may attach to those ancient books inculcating the principles of pure theism bequeathed by our fathers as a precious legacy, it is a fact which must be admitted by all candid men, that India cannot do without the Bible. India must read