"What shall we believe and do in order to be saved?" is an all-important query, and one which daily occupies the minds of millions of earth's inhabitants of all countries and all climes. There are ten thousand answers to this question, and they are as conflicting as the confusion of tongues at the Tower of Babel No two religious orders, and scarcely any two religious believers agree with respect to the all-important answer to be rendered to this all-important question. To prove this, we will interrogate the disciples of all the leading religious orders who have found a place in the world's history, and compare their answers, and observe the result. Commencing in the order of time, the disciples of the Vedas will be the first we will interrogate, as they represent the oldest religious faith that has ever been promulgated in the world. I. HINDOO'S ANSWER TO THE QUESTION. Well, brother Hindoo, will you be so good as to answer this question, "What shall we do and believe in order to be saved?" "Oh, yes!" responds the devout worshiper of Brahma, pointing to a stone arched pagoda. "Go and prostrate yourself in that holy building, made venerable by a thousand years' devotion, and offer up prayer and praise to Brahma, and, if you have committed any sins, implore his forgiveness. You must also believe in his Holy Book, the Vedas, and obey its precepts, which enjoin virtue and holiness, and forbid theft, robbery, murder, lying, dishonesty, adultery, and other crimes; and you must not only believe in the Holy Book as God's revealed will to mankind, but you must believe _it is all true,--every word of it_. You must believe, also, that it existed in the mind of the great God Brahma _from all eternity_; and some nine thousand years ago was revealed by him to certain holy men, known as rishis, or prophets, who recorded it in a book for the instruction and salvation of the world; and that this divinely revealed and perfect book contains all knowledge, past, present, and future, and _all the religion necessary to save the whole human race_. And, if you would become a true-born saint [i.e., in Christian language, "regenerated and born again"], you must read the Holy Book through upon your bended knees. [And thousands of its most pious and devout disciples have performed this humble and laborious task.] And if you would advance still farther in soul-purification and true sanctity, so as to become a thrice-born saint [for they hold that the oftener you are born the better], then you must commit the divine volume all to memory. [And many of them, we are assured, have accomplished this herculean task.] But you can not attain to complete and perfect holiness as a Hindoo saint, unless you forsake the busy scenes of life, retire to lonely places, and devote yourselves to a life of religious contemplation." By leading this austere, self-denying life, they hold that men and women can attain to complete holiness, and draw near to the spirit of God, and