The Oriental Christ by Protap Chunder Mozoomdar first published in 1883. I HAVE often asked myself what right I have to handle the life of Christ.

The answer has been uniform. My spirit craves to utter itself on that endless theme.

I anticipate the disapproval of authoritative ecclesiastics. I foresee the surprise of one-sided theists.

I have a clear prevision of the sarcasm and reproach of clear-headed combative scholars. But my line of speculation scarcely coincides with theirs.

Mine are but human prayerful endeavors to realize the character and spirit of the Son of God. Mine are but attempts to accept, assimilate, and embody ideal humanity.

The Bible has been my guide; and devout thinkers, both living and dead, have been my companions. I pretend not to criticize, far less to teach ! In my long wanderings and solitudes, in my dark isolations and seasons of spiritual exile, I have labored to seek, and rejoiced to find, pure, simple, glorious manhood in the Son of Man.

And I feel constrained to speak on the subject to the spirit of the living, and the dead, and the unborn. If I stand before the tribunal of the times, it is not as a man assuming superiority, teachership, or wisdom over any, but simply as one uttering aloud his own thoughts.

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