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HPB-SB-8-34: Difference between revisions
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But hard as the work now is, and expensive as it has always been, it seems it is hereafter to be made more arduous and more costly. The heathens are about to gain recruits from the West, who, instead of conducting a defensive warfare, will at once throw their columns against the walls of Christianity itself! We are informed that Hierophant {{Style S-Small capitals|Olcott}} and Mme. {{Style S-Small capitals|Blavatsky}}, the Theosophists, are now packing their trunks preparatory to a pilgrimage to India, there to challenge the Christian missionaries to debate the respective merits of Brahmanism and Christianity! | But hard as the work now is, and expensive as it has always been, it seems it is hereafter to be made more arduous and more costly. The heathens are about to gain recruits from the West, who, instead of conducting a defensive warfare, will at once throw their columns against the walls of Christianity itself! We are informed that Hierophant {{Style S-Small capitals|Olcott}} and Mme. {{Style S-Small capitals|Blavatsky}}, the Theosophists, are now packing their trunks preparatory to a pilgrimage to India, there to challenge the Christian missionaries to debate the respective merits of Brahmanism and Christianity! | ||
The intelligence is the more startling because the Hierophant has lately been received into the Brahmanical sect, and is now Pandit of New York, and Madame {{Style S-Small capitals|Blavatsky}}, who has long been known as an out-and-out Brahmanist, with a contemptuous opinion of Christianity, has set her heart on overthrowing the Bible and substituting the Vedas in the United States. The Pandit {{Style S-Small capitals|Olcott}} has all the fire and zeal of a new convert, and Mme. {{Style S-Small capitals|Blavatsky}}’s mind is an arsenal of arguments which can | The intelligence is the more startling because the Hierophant has lately been received into the Brahmanical sect, and is now Pandit of New York, and Madame {{Style S-Small capitals|Blavatsky}}, who has long been known as an out-and-out Brahmanist, with a contemptuous opinion of Christianity, has set her heart on overthrowing the Bible and substituting the Vedas in the United States. The Pandit {{Style S-Small capitals|Olcott}} has all the fire and zeal of a new convert, and Mme. {{Style S-Small capitals|Blavatsky}}’s mind is an arsenal of arguments which can be used against our religion. Their plan of operations is a bold one. Their intention, evidently, is first to meet and conquer the missionaries in the home of the ancient faith to which they have been converted, and then, flushed with victory, to plant the standard of Brahmanism in America, and go forth exhorting the people to return to the old Aryan religion, with its mystical doctrines of metempsychosis and the rest and peace of annihilation. | ||
This is a plan of assault not contemplated by our foreign missionary societies. They have been wont to regard the Brahmanical as a quiescent faith, against which they could bring to bear the forces of Christianity—a faith on the defensive merely. But now, inspired by the zeal of Hierophant {{Style S-Small capitals|Olcott}}, the Pandit, and Mme. {{Style S-Small capitals|Blavatsky}}, the seeress, the Brahmans are about to begin an aggressive warfare against Christianity, and establish a propaganda of their own in the West to offset that which has been so long carried on by Christians in the East. | |||
We are not informed as to the exact plan of campaign of the Pandit, nor do we know the means he intends to use to get the missionaries into a defensive position; but both he and Mme. {{Style S-Small capitals|Blavatsky}} are full of resources, and we doubt not they have carefully considered their strategy. Nor do we hear from India that there is yet any great excitement among the Brahmans over the prospect of their arrival. They ought to be received with great pomp, however, for they are the first allies the United States have sent out to the heathens, and Hierophant {{Style S-Small capitals|Olcott}} is the first and only American Pandit. It would be a pity if both he and Mme. {{Style S-Small capitals|Blavatsky}} should land in India to be received without honor, and nothing would give them such a start as a rousing ovation at Calcutta and throughout Hindostan. The Pandit will probably early make a trip to the furthest fastnesses of the Himalayas, where, he says, the only true and ancient doctrines are kept locked up, and perhaps spend a year or two in mastering them ere he sets out on his campaign against the missionaries. We certainly advise him to do that, for the work he has taken in hand is great, and no man can find out all about the ancient Aryan faith in a day. | |||
As to the Christian missionaries, we advise them to let the Pandit alone and to avoid all argument with Mme. {{Style S-Small capitals|Blavatsky}}. Hierophant {{Style S-Small capitals|Olcott}} is one of those men who enjoy an argument, but let the missionaries leave him to debate with the Brahmans, who know very well how to {{Style S-HPB SB. HPB underlined|chop logic}}, and who can teach him many things about his new religion of which he is now as ignorant as of the history of the Aryan race. And as for Mme. {{Style S-Small capitals|Blavatsky}}, why never dispute with a lady. | |||
We trust the Pandit will keep us advised as to the progress of his warfare against the missionaries, and let us know in due time when he proposes to begin operations at home, so that we shall be prepared to report his discourses with the necessary learning and eloquence. | |||
{{Style S-HPB SB. HPB note|1. Col. quotes “chop logic” as a phrase of Prof. Corson’s. Perhaps Corson wrote the above. M.K.N.}} | |||
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