Things as they are : $b Mission work in Southern IndiaCarmichael, Amy
Religion
Things as they are : $b Mission work in Southern India
Carmichael, Amy
India -- Social life and customs; Missions -- India
The door was open, and they were sentry, for their Guru was resting,
they said. "Then he is very human, just like yourselves?" But the
strong, sensible faces looked almost frightened at the words. "Hush,"
they answered all in a breath, "no such thoughts may be even thought
here. He is not just like us." And as if to divert us from the
expression of such sentiments, they moved a little from the door, and
said, "You may look, if you do not speak," and knowing such looks are
not often allowed, I looked with interest, and saw all there was to see.
The Guru was in the far corner resting; a rich purple silk, with gold
interwoven in borders and bands, was flung over his ascetic's dress. At
the far end, too, was a sort of altar, covered with red cloth, and on it
were numerous brass candlesticks and vessels, and on a little shelf
above, a row of little divinities, some brass ornaments, and flowers.
To the left of this altar there was a high-backed chair covered by a
deer skin; there were pictures of gods and goddesses round the room,
especially near the altar, and there were the usual censers, rosaries,
and musical instruments, and there was the parrot.
The Government official pointed in, and said, with an air of pride in
the whole, and a certainty of sympathy too, "There, you see how closely
it resembles your churches; there is not so much difference between you
and us after all!"
Not so much difference! There is a very great difference, I told him;
and I asked him where he had seen a Christian church like this. He
mentioned two. One was a Roman Catholic chapel, the other an English
church.
What could I say? They bear our name; how could he understand the
divisions that rend us asunder?--Romanists, Ritualists, and
Protestants--are we not all called Christians?
I looked again, and I could not help being struck with the resemblance.
The altar with its brasses and flowers and candlesticks, and the little
shelf above; the pictures on the walls; the chair, so like a Bishop's
chair of state; the whole air of the place heavy with incense, was
redolent of Rome.
He went on to explain, while I stood there ashamed. "Look, have you not
got that?" and he pointed to the altar-like erection, with the red cloth
and the flowers.
"We have nothing of the sort in our church. Come and see; we have only a
table," I said; but he laughed and declared he had seen it in other
churches, and it was just like ours, "only yours has a cross above it,
and ours has images; but you bow to your cross, so it must represent a
divinity," and, without waiting for any reply, he pointed next to the
pictures.
"They are very like yours, I think," he said, only yours show your God
on a cross, stretched out and dying--so"--And he stretched out his
arms, and dropped his head, and said something which cannot be
translated; and I could not look or listen, but broke in earnestly:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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