Five times a day the Mussulman kneels in
open adoration of his Maker, and, doffing his slippers, repeats, with
forehead to the ground, the formula laid down for him by the only
Prophet he has learnt to believe in. The Buddhist, too, mutters his
"Um mani panee" at every turn, and keeps his praying wheel in endless
motion, with entire confidence in its mystic virtues, and fullest
faith in the efficacy of those forms which he has thus been taught
to follow from his cradle.
Each worships after the fashion of his fathers before him, and each,
by the dim illumination of his own particular light, fancies himself
upon the true path, and is able plainly to perceive his neighbour
groping in the outer darkness.
Seeing all this, and turning in imagination to other lands, it is
curious to consider that the Church which possesses the only Lamp
of Truth, and who by the help of its light pronounces all these
zealous worshippers alike, to be but "Infidels and Turks," and
says to all, in language not quite so polite as that of Touchstone,
"Truly, shepherds, ye are in a parlous state," herself makes no such
public demonstration of her faith.
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