The Hindu Lawyer by Percy C. Poley

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 25, 1912

The Hindu Lawyer

By Percy C. Poley

PERCY C. POLEY

During my residence in this land of Hindu temples and Mohammedan mosques, it has been one of my objects to discover how far the religious beliefs of the Indian people have been translated into their deeper and inner life. I have been careful to observe what real sincerity of religious purpose lay behind this display, these customs, and the support given to their Systems of worship.

It is easy to learn this. Educated Indians frankly tell you that only a small proportion of the people are earnest seekers after that good which they suppose they will find in the religious system to which they adhere. The rest go no farther than to observe the customs it imposes. Many would neglect even the latter were it not that they would lose standing in their community.

How our hearts are moved when we meet and talk with some Hindu who by his devotion to a heathen philosophy, thinks to obtain that reward which it promises! How gladly would we see him resting upon a better hope!

I have in mind a certain Hindu lawyer who used to visit me evenings for Bible study. His interest had been awakened by the writings of Hindu sages, in which Jesus is described as a spiritual man. The Hindus affirm that Jesus is ranked with others who were spiritual from their birth, and could act as guides to those choosing to learn of them the art of attaining to the spiritual life.

It will come as a surprise to many that Hindu philosophers have written of Christ in this way. Need I say, however, that the Christ of the Hindu writers is not the Christ of the Holy Scriptures? Only as Christ is presented in a correct doctrinal setting, does he become life to us. When the gospel of atonement is preached, the wonder-working power of God is revealed.

CATTLE AT NYASSALAND MISSION (BROTHER ELLINGWORTH IN THE REAR)

Among the religious Hindus the words salvation and spirituality are used often; but not in the Christian sense. Salvation to them means the end of the cycles of transmigration in absorption into the Godhead. The spirit is said to survive the

body at death, and to pass into another state of life in this world; the spirit of man has lived in the body of the insect and other inferior beings. These errors appear again in the meaning they give to the word spirituality. It is the attribute of the man who desires and seeks the highest attainment of the spirit,—to lose his individuality by becoming one with the spirit of the Hindu god.

These beliefs and many others were held by the lawyer who came to me to learn what the Bible reveals of the teachings of Jesus. Unhappily he had never read the Bible for himself, and I could see that many of the things I read to him in answer to his questions were fatal to his preconceived views.

He believed that if he had lived in the time of Christ, he would have found in him a guide. Jesus, I told him, was more than a guide. He was a Saviour from sin. Now, to a Hindu, trained in a peculiar philosophy, such a distinction has little importance. “That means the same thing,” suggested my companion in the Bible study. He had little conception of the real nature of evil, and the presentation of the necessity of salvation from sin through the work of Christ, was full of difficulty.

One part of the conversation has written itself indelibly upon my mind, because it revealed something of the strength of his inner desire to obtain salvation, that salvation which accorded with his own view. He practised certain “manners” daily for one-half hour. The word was his own, and I inferred that he meant religious exercises. I asked him to explain what these “manners” were, but he was disinclined to do so. He lamented that the claims of his business calling did not allow him to devote a longer period to these exercises. When I asked if he hoped to obtain salvation by the employment of that half-hour, a sad, hungry look came into his eyes, and he said “No!” so quietly and solemnly; this was followed by silence. It was evident that retirement from business life was, in his opinion, the only thing favorable to the spiritual life of the Hindu.

How joyous to the Christian is the realization that, by the grace of God, he is able to serve Jesus faithfully and acceptably while living the busy life to which he is called. Indeed, diligence in business according to the Bible rule, is the only thing consistent with the holy life. Even Jesus himself served the Father faithfully while working at the carpenter’s trade.

Before I left his city, this lawyer had expressed a determination to obtain a copy of the Scriptures. I hope to learn some day, provided this earnest intention is followed up, that a precious soul has been born into God’s kingdom of grace.

These lines may reveal a little of the struggles that are passed through by those who, in their unsatisfied longings, are searching for truth. May they enlist our more earnest sympathies and prayers on their behalf.