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THE REV. H. D. GRISWOLD^ M.A.^ PH.D., ON 



religious excellence. It is, no doubt, an interesting historical 

 experiment to see how far you can introduce western civilization 

 without introducing western religion. 



I cannot regard Mul Shankar as, in the highest sense, a great 

 reformer. His idea that " the bases of the Aryan faith are the 

 revelation of God in the Vedas and the revelation of God in nature, 

 and the first practical element in this belief is the interpretation of 

 the Vedas in conformity with the proved results of natural science," 

 is not, I think, so very absurd from his particular point of view. 

 He regarded the Vedas as the divine revelation. If they had been 

 the divine revelation it is quite evident that the proved results of 

 science must agree with that divine revelatioa ; but where his 

 argument fails is in his enormous assumption that the Vedas are the 

 divine revelation — that they are the Word of God, and when he 

 searched these Vedas and found, as one would think he must have 

 found, that they were not in accord with science, it is, perhaps, 

 surprising that he did not begin to doubt whether these Vedas 

 might not be rather the reverse of knowledge. 



With regard to the visionary character of his doctrine, I read, 

 " As regards the freedom of the will, the Arya Samaj holds that we 

 are not free to will an act if we were created by some one else. 

 . . . In order to be free we must be believed to be eternally 

 acting as we thought best." So he holds that man was not created 

 if he has free will. If he has been created, argues Mul Shankar, 

 he cannot be free in his will ; but that he is free in his will and, 

 therefore, eternal — that there was no time when he did not exist. 

 Having affirmed that he is free, that is contradictory. 



As to whether the system will survive long, I apprehend that 

 is much a question whether in fact the missionary effort in 

 spreading the religion of Jesus Christ the Lord does, or does 

 not, keep pace with mere secular civilization. 



Mr. Martin Eouse. — I should like to ask General Eobinson 

 what has become of the Brahm Samaj. When I was a boy I 

 heard something of it, and I heard of a certain Chunder Sund 

 being received here in a very friendly way by Dean Stanley. 

 He appeared to be a kind of Unitarian who had given up idolatry 

 in his worship, and the Dean hoped he would be led on into 

 Christianity. Whether it has faded away I do not know, but I 

 have not heard of it since. 



