Functions of the Gods. 47 



area of their working, how general their functions, 

 for no subject perhaps is more often made a subject 

 for attack by those who desire to injure the ancient 

 religion of India, than the actions of the Gods as 

 detailed in the sacred books. You will continually 

 find that those actions are being misunderstood or 

 mis-represented. The mis-representation, one may 

 always hope, is not deliberate and conscious. It 

 is due to the general materialism of the age. It is 

 due to the fact that men who believe in a religion 

 nominally do not realise the effect of that religion in 

 their consciousness. So that while a man may say 

 that he believes in Angels and Archangels and so 

 on, he leads his life as though they did not exist. 

 Among our Christian brothers there is considerable 

 difference of opinion with regard to these Angels. In 

 the different sections of the great Christian commu- 

 nity, the vast majority of those that profess Christian- 

 ity making up the old Greek Church, sometimes 

 called the Eastern Christian Church, and those who 

 are numbered in the Roman Communion, the 

 Roman Catholic Church, the two ancient Churches 

 which have preserved an unbroken antiquity and 

 an unbroken tradition from the time of Christ and 

 His Apostles have maintained and maintain, 

 uninjured and complete, the ancient belief in the 

 ministry of angels. They really lead their lives as 



