gcls_WFP_403

India.

India has about one-fifth of the world's population. It has British provinces and native states. It has many religions including Hinduism, Mohammedanism, and Buddhism. It has elephants, rhinoceros, camel, tiger, wolf, leopard, bear, hyena, jackal, and snakes including the deadly cobra.

India also has in the Taj Mahal what some consider the most beautiful piece of architecture in the world. Of course India has the caste system, the population is ignorant, it has much which we would not care to imitate. Yet India can teach us many lessons.

India has an appreciation of the things of the soul which we, in America, are in danger of losing. The life of the average American is a strenuous rush mostly dealing with material things. The people of the East have a mystical sense which leads them to emphasize the things of the spirit. "For that deep quiet resting upon the Eternal; for the experience of the immediacy of God in the processes of the human spirit we must look to the Orient."

India also has in Mahatma Gandhi perhaps the most remarkable man living to-day. Gandhi has shown the uselessness of war. He has shown that if we are sacrificial enough we may secure our rights without the use of arms. He has been seeking the freedom of India by non-violence. He may succeed for seldom will any men kill and batter helpless people who will not fight in return but merely turn the other cheek.

Gandhi has shown that boycott and non-cooperation are even more effective than war. It would be well for every boy in United States to study the life and principles of Gandhi. He is actually living a fundamental principle of Jesus that few of His followers have been willing to attempt.

When asked one day what Christianity should do to win India Gandhi said:

"1st. That all you Christians must begin to live more like Christ.
2nd. I would sugguest that you rpactice your religion without toning it down.
3rd. I would suggest that you put your emphasis on love, for love is a central thing in Christianity.
4th. I would sugguest that you study the non-Christian religions more sympathetically to find out the good that is ine them, in order to have a more sympathic approach to their peoples."

What a lesson we should learn from those four points! What a rebuke they should be to us when coming from a non-Christian!