Book Title: Gandhi Before Gandhi
Author(s): Bipin Doshi, Priti Shah
Publisher: Jain Academy Educational Research Center Promotion Trust Mumbai

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Page 9
________________ C GANDHI BEFORE GANDHI ABOUT MISSION AND MISSIONARIES camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom." Thus really spoke Jesus Christ. His so-called followers measure their moral progress by their material possessions! By Mahatma Gandhi You, the missionaries, come to India thinking that you come to a land of the heathens, of idolaters, of men who do not know God. One of the greatest of Christian divines, Bishop Heber, wrote these two lines which have always left a sting with me: "Where every prospect pleases, and only man is vile." Young India, September 8, 1920 "But I do not apologize for saying that the frightful outrage that is just going on in Europe perhaps shows that the message of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Peace, has been little understood in Europe and that Light upon it may have to be thrown from the East." From speeches and writings of M. K. Gandhi, pp. 242-44 I consider Western Christianity in its practical working is a negation of Christ's Christianity. I cannot conceive Jesus, if he was living in flesh in our midst, approving of modern Christian organizations, public worship, or modern ministry. If Indian Christians will simply cling to the Sermon on the Mount, which was delivered not merely to the peaceful disciples but a groaning world, they would not go wrong, and they would find that no religion is false; and that if all live according to their lights and in the fear of God, they would not need to worry about organizations, forms of worship, and ministry. Cooperation with forces of Good and noncooperation with forces of Evil are the two things we need for a good and pure life, whether it is called Hindu, Muslim or Christian Almost similar thoughts were expressed by Virchand Gandhi, 27 years before these writings of Mahatma Gandhi Yes, there was a Young India, September 8, 1920 It is my firm opinion that Europe today represents not the spirit of God or Christianity but the spirit of Satan. And Satan's successes are the greatest when he appears with the name of God on his lips. Europe is today only nominally Christian. It is really worshiping Mammon. "It is easier for a Gandhi before Gandhi 8

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