THE ORIENTAL CHRIST



p. C. lMOZOOMDAR



BOSTON

GEO. H. ELLIS, 141 FRANKLIN STREET

1883



COPYRIGHT,

BY GEORGE K. ELLIS,

1883.



30 -i



itsl^uh CIjHitb^r Bm,



THE BELOVED COMPANION OF MY EARLY BOYHOOD, THE

GUIDE OF MY YOUTH, THE FRIEND AND LEADER OF

MY MANHOOD, TO WHOM MY SOUL HAS CLUNG

AMID MANY TRANSITIONS AND TRIALS,



je fbllobing pages are inscnhtti,



WITH THE SERVICE OF SIMPLE AFFECTION, AND FAITHFUL LOYALTY.



CONTENTS

Preface, 7

Introduction, 15

1. The Bathing Christ, 47

II. The Fasting Christ, 57

III. The Praying Christ, 74

IV. The Teaching Christ, 86

V. The Rebuking Christ, 98

VI. The Weeping Christ, iii

VII. The Pilgriming Christ, 126

VIII. The Trusting Christ, 137

IX. The Healing Christ, 146

X. The Feasting Christ, 155

XI. The Parting Christ, 170

XII. The Dying Christ, 181

XIII. The Reigning Christ, 188



PREFACE

T HAVE often asked myself what right I have to
handle the life of Christ. The answer has been
uniform. My spirit craves to utter itself on that
endless theme. I anticipate the disapproval of
authoritative ecclesiastics. I foresee the surprise
of one-sided theists. I have a clear prevision of
the sarcasm and reproach of clear-headed combative
scholars. But my line of speculation scarcely coin-
cides with theirs. Mine are but human prayerful
endeavors to realize the character and spirit of the
Son of God. Mine are but attempts to accept,
assimilate, and embody ideal humanity. The Bible
has been my guide ; and devout thinkers, both living
and dead, have been my companions. I pretend not
to criticise, far less to teach ! In my long wander-
ings and solitudes, in my dark isolations and seasons
of spiritual exile, I have labored to seek, and rejoiced
to find, pure, simple, glorious manhood in the Son of



8 THE ORIENTAL CHRIST

Man. And I feel constrained to speak on the sub-
ject to the spirit of the living, and the dead, and the
unborn. If I stand before the tribunal of the times,
it is not as a man assuming superiority, teachership,
or wisdom over any, but simply as one uttering
aloud his own thoughts.

Nearly twenty years ago, my troubles, studies,
and circumstances forced upon me the question of
personal relationship to Christ. Though for a short
time taught in a government college in Calcutta,
where no moral or religious instruction is ever
given, and where, on the contrary, a good deal of the
opposite influence is directly and indirectly imbibed,
I was early awakened to a sense of deep inner un-
worthiness. Placed in youth by the side of a very
pure, and powerful character, whose external condi-
tions were similar to my own, I was helped to feel
— in the freshness of my susceptibilities, by the law
of contrast — that I was painfully imperfect, and
needed very much the grace of a saving God. In
the Brahmo Somaj, this consciousness of imperfec-
tion soon developed into a strong sense of sin. The
doctrine of original corruption never preoccupied



PREFACE 9

my boyhood or youth, the fear of eternal punishment
never biassed my thought or aspiration. I was
never taught to feel any undue leaning toward the
Christian Scriptures, or the Christian religion. Mine
was a strong unforced consciousness of natural
and acquired unworthiness. Keshub Chunder Sen's
early melancholy had, perhaps, an effect on me.
No doubt, his severe morality affected and partly
moulded my character. The influence of Christian
doctrines might perhaps be diffused in the moral
atmosphere of the land of my birth. Definite recol-
lection, or conscious analysis does not give me any
clue into how or why it was. But this I do very
clearly remember that as the sense of sin grew
on me, and with it a deep miserable restlessness,,
a necessity of reconciliation between aspiration and.
practice, I was mysteriously led to feel a personall
affinity to the spirit of Christ. The whole subject
of the life and death of Christ had for me a marvel-
lous sweetness and fascination. I repeat, I can
never account for this. Untaught by any one, not
sympathized with even by the very best of my
friends, often discouraged and ridiculed, I persisted



lO THE ORIENTAL CHRIST

in according to Christ a tenderness of honor which
arose in my heart unbidden. I prayed, I fasted at
Christmas and Easter times. I secretly hunted the
book-shops of Calcutta to gather the so-called like-
nesses of Christ. I did not know, I cared not to
think, whither all this would lead.

About the year 1867, a very painful period of
spiritual isolation overtook me. I have repeatedly
during such seasons lost the sympathy of friends,
and sought my God alone. But one of the severest
trials was at the time to which I make allusion. I
was almost alone in Calcutta. My inward trials and
travails had really reached a crisis. It was a week-
day evening, I forget the date now. The gloomy and
haunted shades of the summer evening had suddenly
thickened into darkness; and all things, both far and
near, had assumed an unearthly mysteriousness. I
sat near the large lake in the Hindu College com-
pound. Above me rose in a sombre mass the giant,
grim, old seesum tree, under the far-spreading foliage
of which I have played so often, and my father
played before me. A sobbing, gusty wind swam over
the water's surface, the ripples sounded on the



PREFACE I I

grassy bank, the breeze rustled in the highest regions
of the great tree. My eyes, nearly closed, were yet
dreamily conscious of the gloomy calmness of the
scenery. I was meditating on the state of my soul,
on the cure of all spiritual wretchedness, the bright-
ness and peace unknown to me, which was the lot of
God's children. I prayed and besought heaven. I
cried, and shed hot tears. It might be said I was
almost in a state of trance. Suddenly, it seemed to
me, let me own it was revealed to me, that close to
me there was a holier, more blessed, most loving
personality upon which I might repose my troubled
head. Jesus lay discovered in my heart as a strange,
human, kindred love, as a repose, a sympathetic con-
solation, an unpurchased treasure to which I was
freely invited. The response of my nature was
unhesitating and immediate. Jesus, from that day,
to me became a reality whereon I might lean. It
was an impulse then, a flood of light, love, and con-
solation. It is no longer an impulse now. It is a
faith and principle ; it is an experience verified by a
thousand trials. It was not a bodily Christ then ; it
is much less a bodily emanation now. A character.



12 THE ORIENTAL CHRIST

a spirit, a holy, sacrificed, exalted self, whom I recog-
nize as the true Son of God. According to my
humble light, I have always tried to be faithful to this
inspiration. I have been aided, confirmed, encour-
aged by many, and most of all by one. My aspira-
tion has been not to speculate on Christ, but to be
what Jesus tells us all to be. That labor, I know,
will not end in this life ; and the goal as well as the
prize is elsewhere. But it is still a great privilege
and a great reward to be able to say something on
what so many look up to with longing and fond aspi-
ration. I can, with perfect truth, declare that it is
the grace and activity of the indwelling presence of
God alone whereto I am indebted for these experi-
ences. But, such as they are, I set them down.

I shall be content, if what I say in these pages
at all tend to give completeness to any man's ideas
of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. I have set
down these views without any pretension to schol-
arship. They are but the meditations of a heart
which, without any human, stimulus or guidance,
long ago recognized its personal relationship to the
soul and sympathy of Christ. In the midst of these



PREFACE 13

crumbling systems of Hindu error and superstition,
in the midst of this self-righteous dogmatism and
acrimonious controversy, in the midst of these cold,
spectral, shadows of transition, secularism, and agnos-
tic doubt, to me Christ has been like the meat and
drink of my soul. His influences have woven round
me for the last twenty years or more, and, outside
the fold of Christianity as I am, have formed a new
fold, wherein I find many besides myself. I repeat
that what I say of Christ is only derived from my
own humble experiences, fanned by the guardian
spirit of a beloved teacher. And this is my sole
justification in venturing to publish anything on the
subject. If my sentiments be found to correspond
with those of others more advanced in the heavenly
kingdom ; if they strengthen and help any yet behind
on the forward way ; if they call forth more thought,
higher aspiration, clearer faith, and purer character
in any man, I shall consider that as a grace and
blessing of God upon this my work of many long
and anxious days.

Boston, October, 1883.



INTRODUCTION

" I ^HE estimates of character vary, if viewed from
different stand-points. Particularly when the
singularity of a nature happens to lie in its many-
sidedness, representations of it may be conflicting,
but quite genuine a.nd correct. It never formed part
of the principles of the Brahmo Somaj to maintain
that its ideas respecting the life and teachings of
great prophets admitted of no correction or improve-
ment. In fact its absolute teachableness on such
subjects is its only spiritual peculiarity. The Brah-
mos have therefore, in a uniform spirit of humility,
criticised other men's notions, trusting that, like
themselves, their neighbors will not be ashamed to
learn from them. The utterances of the Brahmo
Somaj of India at different times on the founder of
Christianity, and some of its doctrines have created
a good deal of agitation in the Christian communities
of other countries. A principal point of difference
between the Christians and the Brahmos on such
matters is this. The latter maintain that the life
and teachings of Jesus have been presented by



l6 THE ORIENTAL CHRIST

Christian missionaries through the colored medium
of European ideals and European theology, and have
therefore failed to attract those spiritual instincts
and national sympathies for which the Hindus, as
a primitive Eastern race, are distinguished. It is
held that the celestial figure of the sweet Prophet
of Nazareth is illumined with strange and unknown
radiance, when the light of oriental faith and mystic
devotion is allowed to fall upon it. It is a fact that
the greatest religions of the world have sprung from
Asia. It has, with some accuracy, been said, there-
fore, that it is an Asiatic only who can teach religion
to Asiatics. Not that Europeans are of no use here.
On the contrary, Christian missionaries, Christian
men, and Christian literature, above all, have roused
the dormant nature of Eastern people, — pre-emi-
nently of our own people, — suggested inquiries and
stimulated thought, the natural results of which show
themselves in that religious activity which more or
less characterizes every part of India. But the
efforts of European agencies, suggestive and helpful
as they are, do not go far enough, do not go deep
enough, but still float on the surface, and affect the
merest externals of human life. It is a national
ideal only that can touch the undercurrents of na-
tional trust and aspiration. And let us assure our



INTRODUCTION 1/

European friends that, in religion at least, Hindus
have a powerful national life, which remains all but
utterly uninfluenced by foreign preaching. What
we say is tantamount to a criticism of evangelical
conceptions of Christ's character, and is therefore
likely to provoke controversy. Nay, it has already
done so. What truth there is in such controversy
it behoves all faithful Christians to try to find out.
And for non-Christians, too, the discussion has a
practical importance ; because, the greater the depth
and variety of spiritual estimate which an indepen-
dent and enlightened appreciation of Christ's exist-
ence may indicate, the greater the gain to humanity.
And, even if any unintentional misconception on the
part of foreign propagandists, perfectly sincere and
natural, has to be exposed and admitted, is it not
much better that the misrepresentation be at once
acknowledged, rather than that Christ should fail to
find wide acceptance among the children of men ?
Be it a Hindu, or a Mohammedan, or a Christian,
who undertakes to offer higher and correcter inter-
pretations of the Messiah's being and ministry, it
only concerns us to examine whether the interpre-
tation be really high and correct; and,. if so, we
feci bound to accept it. Let Christ's character and
dominion increase, let him be made recognizable and



16 THE ORIENTAL CHRIST

acceptable to all ; and if, in consequence, his wit-
nesses and servants should suffer a decrease in their
reputation for wisdom and insight, that decline itself
is an honor, and that decrease a glory.

The argument generally put forward in vindica-
tion of the evangelical views of Christ's life —
namely, that Christ is universal — does require a
moment's consideration. No doubt every great
religious genius is universal. Human nature is very
much the same everywhere ; and the greatest repre-
sentatives of it are sure to be recognized by man-
kind, wherever born and however brought up. This
applies certainly more to Christ than to any other
prophet. But, nevertheless, each prophet has his
personal surroundings, his peculiarities of time and
circumstance. These give a peculiar significance to
his life and ministry. There is about him the local,
the personal, the historical, as well as the universal.
There are the conditions of birth, climate, national-
ity, education, and the thousand transmitted pecu-
liarities of the age. Those who leave these out of
consideration can never understand the true char-
acter of the man whom they view as their exemplar.
But men arc often apt to forget this truth. Some-
times, it is impossible to act up to this truth. We
shall give one familiar instance. For modern Eng-



INTRODUCTION IQ

lishmen, whose education and dispositions might be
said to be ahnost the very opposite of what we ori-
entals are, who, after staying in our country for
scores of years together, at last declare that it is
impossible for them to understand the native char-
acter, it is all but hopeless to enter into the in-
stinctive and hidden peculiarities of Eastern life and
feeling. So much truth there is in this statement
that the reader will at once bear out the statement
that, with many Europeans, the expression "oriental
character " means a mental organization essentially
and generically different from anything that goes
by the name of character in the Western world.
But there are exceptions to this rule. For in-
stance, the estimate of Brahmo views of the mission
and character of Jesus Christ by such men as the
late Dean Stanley, is most sympathetic and appre-
ciative. It shows that there are at least some influ-
ential Christian men, who do not necessarily construe
difference of opinion into personal hostility.

We shall try to point out here the main views
of Christ's mission and character, as laid down by
Keshub Chunder Sen, the Brahmo leader. He has
made three public and authoritative statements of
his principles on this subject. The first time he
spoke was in his lecture on "Jesus Christ, Europe



20 THE ORIENTAL CHRIST

and Asia," in March, 1866, immediately after his
secession from the Adi Brahmo Somaj at Jorasanko,
Calcutta. With all the light of his genius and elo-
quence, he held forth Christ as the great man and
the mighty reformer. Christ's influence, "but a
small rivulet at first, increased in depth and breadth
as it flowed along, and swept away in its irresistible
tide the impregnable strongholds of ancient error
and superstition and the accumulated corruptions of
centuries." He described Christ's mission thus :
" Sent by Providence to reform and regenerate man-
kind, he received from Providence power and wisdom
for that great work." But Keshub gave utterance
to views which, in their capability of development,
produced intense expectancy among all classes. Set-
ting forth in glowing sentences the moral greatness
of Christ, "his tenderness and humility, lamb-like
meekness and simplicity, his heart full of mercy
and forgiving kindness, and set on the other hand
his firm, resolute, unyielding adherence to truth,"
Keshub declared, in a breathless climax, "Verily,
Jesus was above ordinary humanity." Well-mean-
ing Trinitarian missionaries at once concluded that
the Brahmo Somaj was now " not far from the king-
dom of heaven." But few at that time took suffi-
cient heed of a line of sentiment which the Brahmo



INTRODUCTION 21

leader struck out for himself, while expatiating on
the more than human excellences of the character
and precepts of Jesus. "Was not Jesus Christ," he
asked, "an Asiatic ? I rejoice — yea, I am proud —
that I am an Asiatic. He and his disciples were
Asiatics, and all the agencies primarily employed for
the propagation of the gospel were Asiatic. In fact,
Christianity was founded and developed by Asiatics
in Asia. When I reflect on this, my love for Jesus
becomes a hundred-fold intensified. I feel him nearer
my heart and deeper in my national sympathies.
Shall I not rather say he is more congenial and
akin to my oriental nature, more agreeable to my
oriental habits of tJwught and feeling? And is it
not true that an Asiatic can read the imageries and
allegories of the gospel and its descriptions of nat-
ural sceneries, of customs and manners, with greater
interest and a fuller perception of their force and
beauty than Europeans } In Christ, we see not
only the exaltedness of humanity, but also the grand-
eur of which Asiatic nature is susceptible. To us
Asiatics, therefore, Christ is doubly interesting; and
his religion is entitled to our peculiar regard as an
altogether oriental affair. The more this great fact
is pondered, the less I hope will be the antipathy
and hatred of European Christians against oriental



22 THE ORIENTAL CHRIST

nationalities, and the greater the interest of the
Asiatics in the teachings of Christ."

The long interval of apparent silence which
Keshub preserved on this subject, and the diverse
channels of thought and development into which he
proceeded during that time, allayed the premature
anticipations of his speedy conversion to evangelical
Christianity. Many of his quondam admirers were
so far discouraged as to circulate the report that
he had recanted his previously expressed views.
Keshub's lectures and orations in England, in 1870,
sufficiently showed that he had recanted nothing,
withdrawn nothing, but that, on the contrary, his
ideas and principles with regard to Christ and Chris-
tianity had, during the last four years, greatly gained
in maturity and soundness. The high encomiums
bestowed upon him by such men as Dr. Pusey,
Dean Stanley, Lord Lawrence, and bodies of clergy-
men in different parts of England, amply testified
that the position of the Brahmo Somaj, in regard to
Christ and Christianity, had not receded, but ad-
vanced considerably. The extent of this advance,
however, no one had any means or opportunity to
measure until nine years later. In April, 1879,
Keshub delivered his lecture on " India asks who is
Christ ? " It was exactly thirteen years after his



INTRODUCTION 23

preliminary utterances on "Jesus Christ, Europe,
and Asia." The line of original thought indicated
in his last great public enunciation had now led him
to form a perfectly unique estimate of the character
and mission of Jesus Christ. " England," said he,
after a few opening sentences, " has sent to us, after
all, a Western Christ."

It seems that the Christ that has come to us is an English-
man, with English manners and customs about him, and with the
temper and spirit of an Englishman in him. Hence is it that
the Hindu people shrink back and say, Who is this revolu-
tionary reformer who is trying to sap the very foundations of
native society, and bring about an outlandish faith and civili-
zation quite incompatible with oriental instincts and ideas .-*
Why must we submit to one who is of a different nationality.''
Why must we bow before a foreign prophet ? It is a fact
which cannot be gainsaid that hundreds upon hundreds, thou-
sands upon thousands, even among the most intelligent in the
land, stand back in moral recoil from this picture of a foreign
Christianity trying to invade and subvert Hindu society ; and
this repugnance unquestionably hinders the progress of the
true spirit of Christianity in this country. When they feel
that Christ means nothing but denationalization, the whole
nation must certainly, as one man, stand up to repudiate and
banish this acknowledged evil. But why should you Hindus
go to England to learn Jesus Christ .'' Is not Christ's native
land nearer to India than England ? Are not Jesus and his
apostles and immediate followers more akin to Indian nation-



24 THE ORIENTAL CHRIST

ality than Englishmen ? Are not the scenes enacted in the
drama of the Christian dispensation altogether homely to us
Indians? When we hear of the lily, and the sparrow, and the
well, and a hundred other things of Eastern countries, do we
not feel we are quite at home in the Holy Land ? Why should
we, then, travel to a distant country like England, in order to
gather truths which are to be found much nearer our homes?
Go to the rising sun in the East, not to the setting sun in the
West, if you wish to see Christ in the plenitude of his glory
and in the fulness and freshness of the primitive dispensation.
Why do I speak of Christ in England and Europe as the
setting sun? Because there we find apostolical Christianity
almost gone ; there we find the life of Christ formulated
into lifeless forms and antiquated symbols. But, if you go
to the true Christ in the East and his apostles, you are seized
with inspiration. You find the truths of Christianity all fresh
and resplendent.

So much for the moral and spiritual advantages
which our oriental nature confers upon us by ena-
bling us to gain a full and clear insight into the
nature of Christ. In 1866, Keshub had asked, "Is
not Christ above ordinary humanity ? " and he had
answered his own query with the exclamation,
"Verily, Jesus is above ordinary humanity." The
recurrence of the same adjective both in the ques-
tion and the answer suggests the thought that
Christ's humanity then was extraordijiary. Keshub



INTRODUCTION 2$

substitutes the word "divine" for "extraordinary,"
after a decade of meditation and culture. His state-
ment in the year 1879 he commences with these
words, " I desire to discourse on the great subject
of the divinity of Jesus." He asks: "Is Christ
altogether human ? Are we satisfied that there is
nothing but earthly humanity in him ? " It appears
that Christ believed earnestly and consistently in
what should be called the doctrine of divine hu-
manity. Christ is said to have struck the key-note
of this doctrine in the formula, " I and my Father
are one." This was an announcement of "identity
with the godhead." In analyzing this announce-
ment, Keshub says he finds " nothing but the philo-
sophical principle underlying the popular doctrine
of self-abnegation in a very lofty spiritual sense,
Christ destroyed self. And, as self ebbed away,,
heaven came pouring into the soul. For nature
abhors a vacuum ; and hence, as soon as nature is
emptied of self, divinity fills the void. The nature
of the Lord filled him, and everything was divine
in him."

He always felt that the root of his being was God him-
self, — a fact of which we are not always conscious. He had
his life rooted in divinity. He felt always that the Lord was
underlying his whole existence. And, therefore, without



26 THE ORIENTAL CHRIST

equivocation, and with all the boldness and candor of con-
scious simplicity, he proclaimed unto the world the fact that
he was one with God.

According to oriental custom, Jesus had renounced
friends and family, home, country, and possession,
and had nothing in or about him that could indicate
an individuality. The foxes have their holes, and
the birds of the air their places of shelter, but the
Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. Who
was his mother, and who were his brethren ? Who-
soever doeth the will of his Father in heaven, the
same shall be his brother, sister, and mother. "This
unique character of self-surrender is the most strik-
ing miracle in the world's history." The Brahmo
Somaj has been represented as holding the personal