The Brahmin on the Bible.
By Dr. Jacob Chamberlain
WHAT do our enemies say of the Bible? Those keen-witted Brahmins, who know their own Vedas, with all their beauties, are capable of judging of what they read. What do those our enemies say of this book? I will tell you what they say; I will give you the testimony of one of their Brahmins, not a Christian. I had been delivering a series of lectures to the educated men in my region on their Vedas and the Christian Scriptures, compared and contrasted. I had shown them by quotations from their Vedas and Shastras that their Scriptures pointed out one God, pure and holy and good; the creator, preserver, and controller of all things; that their Scriptures pointed out man in a state of sin and rebellion against that holy God. I had shown them that their Vedas pointed out the fact that sinful man could not be at peace with holy God until that sin was in some way expurgated. I had shown them that their Scriptures brought man up to the edge of the gulf that yawned between sinful man and sinless God, and left him there yearning on the brink, anxious to get over but with no means of crossing; that the Christian Scriptures pointing out God as a God of purity and holiness, and man in a state of sin, had brought man to the edge of the same chasm, but that they, in and through Jesus Christ, the God-man, had bridged that gulf; that Jesus Christ in his human nature resting on man's side, in his divine nature on God's side, bridged the gulf, and that we could all pass over, dropping our sins into the chasm as we went, and be at peace with holy God. There had been in that concluding lecture a most profound silence. The room was packed, and the windows, all open, reaching down low, were filled with the heads of those standing outside who were anxious to hear. There were no Christians present except my singing band; they were all heathen. When I had finished, offering a short prayer to the God of truth to bring us all to understand the truth, whatever it might be, and rose; taking my book to leave, a Brahmin in the audience asked permission to say a few words. I said to myself: "Now there will be a tough discussion, for that man is the most learned man in the audience and the best reasoner in all this region." But I had determined to stand my ground, for I had reserve ammunition that I had not yet used. I xpected him to attack the ground I had taken, for I had taken strong ground that night as to the insufficiency of their Vedas; ut instead of that he gave one of the most beautiful addresses that I ever listened to in any language. It was so graphic, so beautiful, that I went home and wrote it out in the English language, part of it, preserving his phraseology and idiom as far as I could, and I wish to quote a few sentences to show you what he thought of the Christian Scriptures. He said:— "Behold that mango tree on yonder roadside! Its fruit is approaching to ripeness. Bears it that fruit for itself or for its own profit? From the moment the first ripe fruits turn their yellow sides towards the morning sun until the last mango is pelted off, it is assailed with showers of sticks and stones from boys and men, and every passerby, until it stands bereft of leaves, with branches knocked off, bleeding from many a broken twig; and piles of stone underneath, and clubs and sticks lodged in its boughs, are the only trophies of its joyous crop of fruit. Is it discouraged? Does it cease to bear fruit? Does it say, 'If I am barren no one will pelt me, and I shall live in peace?' Not at all. The next season the budding leaves, the beauteous flowers, the tender fruit, again appear. Again it is pelted, and broken and wounded, but goes on bearing, and children's children pelt its branches and enjoy its fruit." "That is a type of these missionaries. I have watched them well, and have seen what they are. What do they come to this country for? What tempts them to leave their parents, friends, and country, and come to this, to them unhealthy, climate? Is it for gain or for profit that they come? Some of us country clerks in government offices receive more salary than they. Is it for the sake of an easy life? See how they work, and then tell me. No; they seek, like the mango tree, to bear fruit for the benefit of others, and that, too, though treated with contumely and abuse from those they are benefiting." "Now, what is it makes them do all this for us? It is their Bible. I have looked into it a good deal at one time and another, in the different languages I chance to know. It is just the same in all languages. The Bible—there is nothing to compare with it in all our sacred books for goodness, and purity, and holiness, and love, and for motives of action." "Where did the English-speaking people get all their intelligence, and energy, and cleverness, and power? It is their Bible that gives it to them. And now they bring it to us and say, 'This is what raised us; take it and raise yourselves!' They do not force it upon us, as the Mohammedans did with their Koran, but they bring it in love, and translate it into our languages and lay it before us, and say: 'Look at it; read it; examine it, and see if it is not good.' Of one thing I am convinced: do what we will, oppose it as we may, it is the Christian's Bible that will, sooner or later, work the regeneration of this land." Verily, "their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges."
—Dr. Jacob Chamberlain.