ANIMAL SACRIFICES BEFORE DEITIES. What a divine charm.surrounds that mysterious word Religion 1 Whenever we are in trouble we seek shelter in that word Divine. It promises us peace everlasting and all pervading. It soothes our troubled hearts and inspires hope in dejected minds. It gives life to the dying, vigour to the languid, and warmth to the cold frigid sceptic. Such divinely inspiring, such great soother of all our woes and troubles,, how can it countenance the deprivation of the joy and life of poor innocent dumb creatures ? Yet there it is. Most men of religious persuasions have, for ages past, been destroying hundreds of creatures that live and feel like themselves, that love, serve and protect them, in the vain hope of gaining heaven, of atoning for their sins and of appeasing the wrath of that Merciful Father who has endowed both men and animals with life, These gentlemen justify their doings on the authority of their sacred scriptures. A Mahomedan holds that his Ida is not celebrated in accordance ith the injunctions of the Holy Kuran, unless a cow or a goat is killed on the sacred altar. A Christian and a Jew refer to the sacrifices described in the Old Testament they speak of the attempted immolation of Abrahams son by his own father. The Hindu seeks justification in the AshwaMedha horse sacrifice, Gomedha cow sacrifice., Nar Medha human sacrifice, Aja Medha goat sacrifice and several others mentioned in his scriptures. They of the other religions, they, that spill the blood of the members of lower creation to save themselves from the fire of hell, have their own traditions to support them in this fiendish practice. To assert that the prevalent custom of killing Gods creatures in B?is name is irreligious is to wage war against the vested interests of certain priests and their followers against ignorance, superstition, misinterpretation and interpolation. Yet one who has faith in the Merciful Nature of the Lord, one who holds that the Divine commands breathe peace to all from the amoeba to man, from the corpuscles to the innumerable universes that are eternally evolving and devolving, may boldly, though humbly, make an attempt in this direction. MY RELIGIOUS SCRIPTURES. Before attempting to break down this great superstructure of superstition and sin, it will be well to define scriptures, as they Constitute the greatest authority in the matter of religion. The writer holds that the Veda is the scripture par excellence., that it is the word of God to and that it is the scripture of the whole world. For tinder, standing, interpreting and explaining the Veda several books have been written. Of these the Brahmanas occupy a position of great honour in the Veclic literature. They contain the details of the Mantra ceremonies with long exposition and meaning and they abound in dramatic parables., human and divine,, and in illustration. Beside8 these, there are the books on Kalpa science of the dramatic display of the Mantras such are the Shroula and other Sutras epigramatical sayings.
