NOTHING can be more opposed to the Most High and blessed God than idolatry. The existence of idols, and the worship of them, rob God of His place and glory, for it is written, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.”
In India, where numerous cities are wholly given to idolatry, it is intensely sad to behold it. A lifeless block of wood, or stone, or metal, is considered as possessing vital energy. It cannot eat, yet food is presented to it; it cannot hear, yet music and singing are addressed to it. It cannot smell, yet sweet-smelling flowers are brought to it, with an idea of gratifying it; it cannot see, but lighted candles and other things are waved before it. Lest in the cold season it should suffer, the benighted heathen cover it with winter clothing. In the warm weather they fan it; and for fear the mosquitoes should bite it, the idol is shrouded in a curtain at night.
To Brahma, Vishnu, and Sheva, the Hindu triad, all manner of hideous representations are formed, as well as the myriad of other deities of their imaginative creation.
A friend of ours, in his zeal for God, and abhorrence of idolatry, not unfrequently assaulted these ugly images, and would capsize and smash them when passing through lonely villages; and where noticed by the people — as on a certain occasion when an idol of their goddess Kali was the subject of his wrath — he would turn the block over, and then address the audience somewhat in the style and language of Elijah in regard to Baal. Such treatment of their idols, however, is in general fruitless as to good result, for the enmity of the false worshippers is stirred up to rage, and finer images are supplemented for the demolished ones. The safer and surer method is to expose and displace the error by the exposition and establishment of truth. Truly unwavering faith and plodding patience is required for the giving out of “precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little;” but when God by His Spirit works through the proclamation of the gospel, men are turned from their idols to serve the living and true God; and blessed is the fruitfulness of this work.
The preaching of Christ in the cities of India is often attended with interruption. The missionary has to meet and lament the vanity and the love of wrangling of not a few. In the villages the work is comparatively easier. Now and then an exclamation of simple astonishment may be heard as the good news of God’s salvation is being drunk in, perhaps for the first time. Still, whether we consider the controversial character of discourse in the cities, or the conversational mode in the districts, Christ is preached.
To enter a village, and squat in native fashion on the ground and sing to native airs descriptive narratives of gospel truth, was no small joy to us. One hymn would picture the gospel net thrown out, catching all sort: of fish; then the assortment of good and bad as referring to the time of discriminating judgment; followed by the rejection of the vile, and the reception of the good. Another would exhort them to place no confidence in their “mud houses,” i.e., their earthly tabernacles, because of the searching storm of judgment that was corning; and then it would show how Christ alone could be a sufficient and satisfying Refuge for the soul. The tunes were generally familiar to the mass of the hearers, and the wards of these hymns are extremely simple, being composed and compiled by a converted devotee.
Are there not many in this enlightened country ready to deplore the awful darkness of heathen lands, themselves subject to bondage of as gross a nature — being slaves to the flesh, the world, and the devil— and bound in fetters of sins? Oh, friends, we beseech you to heed this solemn word of Holy Writ — “ The times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: because He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead.”