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APP. VTTT
NANAK'S PHILOSOPHICAL, ALLUSIONS
^JJ
and have our being' (Acts, xvii. 28) and 'Of him, and to him, and through him are all things' (Romans xi. 36), might be used to declare the prophet and the ,
apostle to bo Pantheists or Materialists; but it nevertheless seems plain that Jeremiah and Paul, and likewise Nanak, had another object in view than scholastic dogmatism, and that they simply desired to impress mankind with exalted notions of the greatness and goodness of God, by a vague employment of general
language which they knew would never mislead the multitude. Professor Wilson (As. Res., xvii. 233, 237, 238) and Muhsin Fani (Dahistan, ii. 269, 270, 285, 286) may be compared together, and the Siar ul Mutakharin (i. 110) may be compared with both, with reference to the contradictory views taken of the similarity or difference respectively between Sikhism and Brahmanism. Each is right, the one with regard to the imperfect faith or the corrupt practices, especially of the Sikhs in the Gangetic provinces, and the other with regard to the admitted doctrines of Nanak, as they will always be explained by any qualified person. It is to be remembered that the Sikhs regard the mission of Nanak and Gobind as the consummation of other dispensations, including that of Muhammad; and their talk, therefore, of Brahma
and Vishnu and vari-
ous heavenly powers is no more unreasonable than the deference of Christians to Moses and Abraham and to Such allusions the archangels Michael and Gabriel. are perhaps, indeed, more excusable in the Sikhs than 'that singular polytheism' of our mediaeval divines, which they 'grafted on the language rather (indeed) than on the principles of Christianity'. (Hallam, Middle Ages. iii. 346.) For an instance of the moral application which Nanak was wont to give to mythological stories see Ward, Hindus, iii. 465. Nanak, indeed, refers continually to Hindu notions, but he was not therefore an idolater; and it should further be borne in mind that as St. John could draw illustrations from Greek philosophy, so could St. Paul make an advantageous use of the Greek poets, as was long ago observed upon in a right spirit by Milton (Speech for the Liberty of unlicensed Printing). In the early ages of Christianity, moreover, the Sibylline leaves were referred to as foretelling the mission of Jesus; but although the spuriousness of the passages is How admitted, the fathers are not accused of polytheism, or of holding Amalthaea,
NANAK'S PHILOSOPHICAL, ALLUSIONS
^JJ
and have our being' (Acts, xvii. 28) and 'Of him, and to him, and through him are all things' (Romans xi. 36), might be used to declare the prophet and the ,
apostle to bo Pantheists or Materialists; but it nevertheless seems plain that Jeremiah and Paul, and likewise Nanak, had another object in view than scholastic dogmatism, and that they simply desired to impress mankind with exalted notions of the greatness and goodness of God, by a vague employment of general
language which they knew would never mislead the multitude. Professor Wilson (As. Res., xvii. 233, 237, 238) and Muhsin Fani (Dahistan, ii. 269, 270, 285, 286) may be compared together, and the Siar ul Mutakharin (i. 110) may be compared with both, with reference to the contradictory views taken of the similarity or difference respectively between Sikhism and Brahmanism. Each is right, the one with regard to the imperfect faith or the corrupt practices, especially of the Sikhs in the Gangetic provinces, and the other with regard to the admitted doctrines of Nanak, as they will always be explained by any qualified person. It is to be remembered that the Sikhs regard the mission of Nanak and Gobind as the consummation of other dispensations, including that of Muhammad; and their talk, therefore, of Brahma
and Vishnu and vari-
ous heavenly powers is no more unreasonable than the deference of Christians to Moses and Abraham and to Such allusions the archangels Michael and Gabriel. are perhaps, indeed, more excusable in the Sikhs than 'that singular polytheism' of our mediaeval divines, which they 'grafted on the language rather (indeed) than on the principles of Christianity'. (Hallam, Middle Ages. iii. 346.) For an instance of the moral application which Nanak was wont to give to mythological stories see Ward, Hindus, iii. 465. Nanak, indeed, refers continually to Hindu notions, but he was not therefore an idolater; and it should further be borne in mind that as St. John could draw illustrations from Greek philosophy, so could St. Paul make an advantageous use of the Greek poets, as was long ago observed upon in a right spirit by Milton (Speech for the Liberty of unlicensed Printing). In the early ages of Christianity, moreover, the Sibylline leaves were referred to as foretelling the mission of Jesus; but although the spuriousness of the passages is How admitted, the fathers are not accused of polytheism, or of holding Amalthaea,
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