[Sidenote: The object of worship.]
The adoration of God as a Being possessed of every glorious excellence
is earnestly commanded in the Bible. "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy
God; and him only shalt thou serve." In India the Supreme is never
worshiped; but any one of the multitudinous gods may be so; and, in
fact, every thing can be worshiped _except_ God. A maxim in the mouth of
every Hindu is the following: "Where there is faith, there is God."
Believe the stone a god and it is so.

[Sidenote: The sense of sin.]
Every sin being traced to God as its ultimate source, the sense of
personal guilt is very slight among Hindus. Where it exists it is
generally connected with ceremonial defilement or the breach of some one
of the innumerable and meaningless rites of the religion. How unlike in
all this is the Gospel! The Bible dwells with all possible earnestness
on the evil of sin, not of ceremonial but moral defilement--the
transgression of the divine law, the eternal law of right.

[Sidenote: Atonement.]
How important a place in the Christian system is held by atonement, the
great atonement made by Christ, it is unnecessary to say. Nor need we
enlarge on the extraordinary power it exercises over the human heart, at
once filling it with contrition, hatred of sin, and overflowing joy. We
turn to Hinduism. Alas! we find that the earnest questionings and higher
views of the ancient thinkers have in a great degree been ignored in
later times. Sacrifice in its original form has passed away. Atonement
is often spoken of; but it is only some paltry device or other, such as
eating the five products of the cow, going on pilgrimage to some sacred
shrine, paying money to the priests, or, it may be, some form of bodily