Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/252

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hide herself, while a lad hurried to close the temple-gate. Going to a stone-built portico, erected for the accommodation of strangers by some pious Hindu of past ages, we seated ourselves upon the top step, and soon were surrounded by a group of Brahmins. They were very ready for argument; one of them, indeed, became quite violent, asserting that we were invading the peace of the land, and taking the bread from their mouths; that in former days the East India Company had supported and countenanced their religion; but that within a few years past, the padrés, (missionaries,) coming and going through the land, had broken up this happy state of things, so that the Brahmins were losing their sustenance and the temples were going to decay. He had many objections to make to our doctrine. The first was, that of the heathen of old, “Where is your God?" With the Psalmist (in the 115th Psalm) we could reply—

“Our God is in the heavens; he hath done whatsoever he pleased,

“Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.

“They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not:

“They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: