RIV
Lizh position in the world which is th» roel of thal mental aes tivity, with the mental indelens, produced by the religions of India, and the low position in ithe world which that mental indolence has produced. The difference between Christians and 1lindfs, in so far as this point 1s concerned, cannot be the result of chance. It is owing mainly to the dif: ference between their relivions. The teachers of Christianity are accustomed to urge their people to reflect, to inquire and to compare, with reference to every thing that comes before them, and thus they hold up a light to those that were in darkness; whereas, the teachers of Hind{ism assert it to be the duty of all men to think and to act exactly as their forefathers did, without inquiring whether they were richt or wrong, and thus they have put men’s intellect in fetters and imprisoned it in darkness.
2. Civilisation.— Civilisation also is greatly promoted by Christianity.~~ Wherever Christianity is established, there personal cleanliness and the cleanliness of towns, courtesy and decency, and all the refined customs of civilised hfe
will be found to prevail.
Though Christians have rejected the heathen notion that the touch of such and such castes conveys pollution, yet knowing that the body is the temple of God, they are very careful about bodily cleanliness, and also about courtesy
and the decencies pertaining to the married state.
There are many customs prevalent in this country which are opposed to domestic propriety, such as polygamy, or one man marrying many wives; polyandry, or one woman having many husbands,(+ custom which prevails among certain castes); the marriage of mere infants; and the
prohibition of the re-marriage of widows, which causes many