It must be acknowledged that this has not been the mood of most of our hearers where we are well known. Many are eager to defend their own position as Hindus, and to attack Christianity because it wages war with their religion. Heathenism in ancient times, heathenism now as we see it in India, was and is very liberal. It is ready to let Christianity alone, if Christianity will let it alone. It is the exclusiveness of Christianity which is so offensive. We are continually told that Christianity is excellent for us; we are most welcome to maintain our adherence to it; and it is surely fair to let them alone in the enjoyment of their religion. Because they are not let alone, because we contend that their religion is dishonouring to the living God and hurtful to themselves, because we affirm that Christ is the one Saviour and the rightful Lord, they are eager to find something in our books and views which they can assail, and by which they can show our position to be untenable. There is nothing we hear more frequently than that all religions lead to the same goal, as all the roads of a country lead to its capital. To this we reply that those who wish to go to Calcutta in the east are not likely to reach it soon if they set out on the road to Lahore in the west. The east and west are opposite, and yet they are not opposed; but good and evil, righteousness and unrighteousness, are essentially opposed, their fruits are opposed, and those who practise them are sure to find themselves at last in places as distinct from each other as light is from darkness, as happiness is from misery. [Sidenote: THE STRENGTH OF TRADITIONAL RELIGION.] Traditional religion is strong, except in peculiar seasons when the tide of public opinion runs in the channel of religious revolt. From the lips of Hindus we hear continually, "We must walk in the ways of our fathers. What our fathers believed we believe. What our fathers practised we practise. No good son leaves his father and mother. No good wife leaves her husband for another." To this objection we have various replies. We tell them they do not walk in the ways of their ancient fathers, for they did many things, such as eating the flesh of cows, which they abhor, knew nothing of the gods they worship, and were not fettered by caste as they are. What we say about these Hindu ancestors gets little credit, as the people generally know nothing about them. We remind them that among themselves there have been tribes that have from generation to generation lived by thuggery and dacoity (murder and robbery). Ought the children of these murderers and robbers to walk in the ways of _their_ fathers?