[Sidenote:  The future of the Aryan race.] Equally notable is the unconcern of the Veda as to the welfare and the future of even the Aryan race.  But how sublime is the promise given to Abraham that in him and his seed all nations of the earth should be blessed!  Renan has pointed with admiration to the confidence entertained at all times by the Jew in a brilliant and happy future for mankind.  The ancient Hindu cared not about the future of his neighbors, and doubtless even the expression “human race” would have been unintelligible to him.  Nor is there any pathos in the Veda.  There is no deep sense of the sorrows of life.  Max Mueller has affixed the epithet “transcendent” to the Hindu mind.  Its bent was much more toward the metaphysical, the mystical, the incomprehensible than toward the moral and the practical.  Hence endless subtleties, more meaningless and unprofitable than ever occupied the mind of Talmudist or schoolman of the Middle Ages.

[Sidenote:  The words of St. Paul illustrated by Hinduism.] But finally, on this part of the subject, the development of Indian religion supplies a striking comment on the words of St. Paul: 

“The invisible things of God are clearly seen, being understood from the things that are made.  But when they knew God they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”

[Sidenote:  Moral power.] Hinduism is deplorably deficient in power to raise and purify the human soul, from having no high example of moral excellence.  Its renowned sages were noted for irritability and selfishness—­great men at cursing; and the gods for the most part were worse.  Need we say how gloriously rich the Gospel is in having in the character of Christ the realized ideal of every possible excellence?

[Sidenote:  Ethical effect of Hinduism.  The people better than their religion.] Summa religionis est imitari quem colis:  “It is the sum of religion to imitate the being worshiped;"[33] or, as the Hindus express it:  “As is the deity such is the devotee.”  Worship the God revealed in the Bible, and you become god-like.  The soul strives, with divine aid, to “purify itself even as God is pure.”  But apply the principle to Hinduism.  Alas! the Pantheon is almost a pandemonium.  Krishna, who in these days is the chief deity to at least a hundred millions of people, does not possess one elevated attribute.  If, in the circumstances, society does not become a moral pesthouse it is only because the people continue better than their religion.  The human heart, though fallen, is not fiendish.  It has still its purer instincts; and, when the legends about abominable gods and goddesses are falling like mildew, these are still to some extent kept alive by the sweet influences of earth and sky and by the charities of family life.  When the heart of woman is about to be swept into the abyss her infant’s smile restores her to her better self.  Thus family life does not go to ruin; and so long as that anchor holds society will not drift on the rocks that stand so perilously near.  Still, the state of things is deplorably distressing.