aroundworldortra00peebiala-1

258 ABOUND THE WORLD.
At this critical hour there came upon the stage a caste
Hindoo, and graduate from the Presidency College, Baboo
Keshub Chunder Sen. This religiously inclined scholar,
reading and admiring English literature, and the works of
Theodore Parker, soon shook off every vestige of idolatrous
superstition, becoming a stanch theist. Connecting himself
with the Brahmo-Somaj, he quite unconsciously found
himself in a short time a leader in their ranks. Expressed
in a sentence, these Brahmo-Somaj worshipers are simply
radical Unitarians, practicing the same order of Sunday
\7orship, only engaging in more singing. Among their innovations
are the equality of women, the ignoring of caste, the
rejection of the " sacred thread," and the performance of
the marriage ceremony without absurd Hindoo rites.
When proud Brahmanical Hindoos found that these iconoclastic
Brahmos not only denied the infallibility of the
Vedas, but did not respect the custom of child-marriage, nor
cherish faith in Hindoo theology generally, they reproached
them as heretics. On the other hand, " when Christians
find," says Keshub Chunder Sen, " that Brahmos call in
question the authority of the Bible, dispute the divinity of
Jesus, and freely criticise Christian doctrines held in reverence
by the best and wisest of Europe, an utter contempt is
felt for the poor, misguided, presumptuous theists
of India,
whom the Rev. Dr. Duff styled as ' striplings on the banks
of the River Ganges.' "
Here are sketches from their articles of belief :
—
" God is spirit, not matter. He is perfect, infinite, and eternal. He
is omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, all-merciful, all-blissful, and
holy. He is our Father.
" The soul is immortal. Death is only the dissolution of the body
the soul lives everlastingly in God. There is no new bii'th after death :
the life hereafter is only the continuation and development of the present
life. Each soul departs from this world with its virtues and sins, and
gradually advances in the path of eternal progress while realizing their
effects.
" Brahmoism is distinct from all other systems of religion
;
yet it is