The Arya Somaj is a movement somewhat kindred to the Brahmo Somaj, in so far as it is a definite protest against modern Hinduism and is theistic in its teaching. The Theism of this Somaj, however, is quite different in character from that of the Brahmos.

Dayanand Saraswati was a Brahman, born in the Gujarati country about 1825. He developed into a man of keen intellect and of deep convictions. He also studied the Christian Scriptures and was slightly versed in the Hindu Shastras. He became dissatisfied with the Pantheism of his mother faith; the caste system grated upon his nerves, and the idolatry and the superstitions of the land, and especially the gross immorality of the people, roused him to deep thought and activity. He appealed to the Pandits, but found no sympathy or help from them. He found his Theism in the Vedas themselves, and ever after proclaimed, with great vehemence, that the God of the Vedas was one and was a personal God; and he found an easy way of interpreting those ancient books in harmony with his convictions!

Jesus Christ did not appeal to him in the least. Indeed, he indulges in very cheap and gross criticism of the life of our Lord. His attitude toward Christianity was not at all kindly; indeed, the movement, up to the present, has been distinguished for nothing more than its hostility to the Christian religion. Nevertheless, it is doubtless true that some of the best ideas that Dayanand possessed were gleaned from the Bible; and the Arya Somaj has learned and inculcates some of the important lessons of our faith.

When Dayanand found no encouragement in his appeal to the Pandits, he turned ultimately to the people and founded, in 1875, the Arya Somaj at Bombay. And from the first the movement has been a popular one, addressing itself to the masses and seeking to bring them over to its way of thinking and living. In this it has been, as we have seen, entirely removed from the Brahmo Somaj, which has been too content to remain a religion of the classes. Like the other movement, however, it has been largely local in its spread and influence. Of its one hundred thousand members at the present time, more than 70 per cent are in the United Provinces, and nearly all the remainder are in the Panjaub.

Moreover, it has recently gathered its recruits mainly from the educated classes, among whom the higher castes largely prevail; nearly four-fifths of the Aryas are said to be of the twice-born castes, which is a very significant fact. So that both in its popular character and methods, as well as in the high social position and educational training of its members and in its rapidly growing numbers, the Arya Somaj is a movement of considerable importance.

The principles of this Somaj, as enunciated in its creed, are not such as to grip men with power. They emphasize the unity of God, the infallibility of the Vedas; and the general aim of the Somaj is "to do good to the world by improving the physical, social, intellectual, moral, and spiritual condition of mankind." Its moral code is of a high order.

It is thoroughly national in its spirit, and makes much capital out of the present spirit of racial antagonism. It is a significant fact that during the recent season of "Unrest" the government regarded the Arya Somaj as a hotbed of sedition and a nourisher of hostility to the West and to western things.

The Arya Somaj is awake to the importance of training men as messengers of its Gospel of Theism. It has established a Guru Kula at the foot of the Himalayas, where quite a number of young men are being trained in its doctrines and supplied with its enthusiasms. From this theological seminary many have already gone forth, in the orthodox style of religious mendicancy, to impart their teaching and spread their movement far and wide, without any expense to the society.

There is to-day, in North India, no enemy to the Christian cause so wide awake and so bitter as the Arya Somaj. It is so thoroughly national in its spirit, is so compactly organized, and lends itself so easily to the racial and political agitation of the day, that Christianity finds in it its greatest foe in those regions.

Let it not be thought, however, that we do not appreciate the living spark of theistic truth which this movement represents, combined, as it is, with hostility to the caste system, which is India's greatest curse, and its antagonism to many of the superstitions and unworthy ceremonials of the ancestral faith.

That movement must not be condemned too severely which is a bulwark against drink, caste, idolatry, early marriages, and which vigorously promotes female education, the remarriage of widows, and various philanthropic institutions.