[Sidenote: The Religions.] The chief religion of India is thus described by Doctor Warneck. “Two hundred and eight millions have been won by Brahmanical Hinduism, which combines the most varied forms from the sublimest philosophy to the coarsest idolatry, profound speculations and the wildest fantasies, even childish absurdities, moral truths and immoral myths in wonderful mixture.” The Indian believes in so many gods that it is difficult for him to conceive of one God. Next to Brahmanism in number of adherents comes Mohammedanism and below it the demon worship of the mountain tribes. [Sidenote: The Caste System.] In addition to the many perpendicular divisions of the people into religious sects, there are the horizontal divisions of caste. This strange institution from which emancipation is almost impossible is an immeasurable hindrance to Christian missions. We have been taught that there are four castes, (1) priests, (2) warriors, (3) merchants and _sudra_, including peasants, artisans and servants, and (4) outcastes. But these are only general divisions. In South India there are said to be nineteen thousand caste divisions. Every trade becomes a caste, and even the Christian Church is regarded as a caste. [Illustration: CHAPEL OF LEPER ASYLUM, KODUR, INDIA. (JOINT SYNOD OF OHIO)] [Illustration: INMATES OF LEPER ASYLUM.] [Sidenote: The Moral Condition of India.] [5]“The moral condition of the people should be described as one of apathy or even deadness rather than as one of violent and malignant opposition to virtue. Their lives are destitute of stimulus and incentive. Their religion furnishes no motive for the present and incites no aspiration for the future. The thought of bettering their own condition or of doing aught to benefit another’s is foreign to their minds. The Oriental doctrine of fate is ever present to quench all upward endeavor. It is their destiny to be what and as they are, and who are they to contend with destiny? Their chief faults are licentiousness and lack of truthfulness. Intemperance is not usually a vice of the Hindu people, though in recent years the introduction of cheap foreign liquors, and the course of the government in licensing drinking-places, has stimulated the use of intoxicating liquor among all classes. The disposition of the people is mild, and crimes are no more common among them than among the people of other races.” Footnote 5: _Encyclopedia of Missions_: “India”. Of the evils of child marriage and the wrongs of widowhood we need take no space to tell. To him who does not believe in missions, who holds that for India its native religions are best, its own thought sufficient, it is only necessary to point to the two million wives under ten years of age or to the evils of the temple system. India still requires help from without and from above.