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9. The charch, or temple in which Christians worship God, 1s likewise common to all.
The Tamil word Kévil, or temple, is derived from Ké. God” and $l,* a house.” Kdvil therefore means** the house of God.”
God being the common Father and king of all men, His house
also must be common to all. All God’s children, without exception, are entitled to regard 1lis house as their own, and have a right to enter it and to seek and worship Godin it at all times.
On the other hand, all indus are not permitted to enter the temples of their religion. All the people in common have contributed to the erection and repair of those temples and to the maintenance of the temple services. What are the mdriams also, or revenues which go to the support of the Brilhmans and other officials connected with the temple, but a portion of the land tax which all the people in common are bound to pay to the government, and which was made over to the temple by the governments of former times? Notwithstanding this, only half the people arc permitted to enter those temples? The rest of the people, however devoted to the worship they may be, are refused permission to enter on the ground that they are of low caste. It may be concluded from this mark alone that these temples are not the temples of the true God, and that Hinduism is not fitted to be the universal religion.
If they were the temple of the universal Father, this partiality would not be permitted. Our Tather in IHeaven would never prohibit any of his children, however poor and nean, from entering 1lis house.
Those of the Shiniirs of Southern India who are heathens are guilty of an extraordinary piece of folly. They call Bhadra Kili their“mother” in a literal sense and the divinity of their caste,
and erect temples to her honor; yet no Shéndir is allowed to enter
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