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diff --git a/old/67171-0.txt b/old/67171-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 46deb5b..0000000 --- a/old/67171-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,10378 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Buddhism and Christianity, by -Archibald Scott - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Buddhism and Christianity - A Parallel and a Contrast - -Author: Archibald Scott - -Release Date: January 15, 2022 [eBook #67171] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Heiko Evermann, David King, and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. (This book was - produced from scanned images of public domain material from - the Google Books project.) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BUDDHISM AND -CHRISTIANITY *** - - - - - - BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY - A PARALLEL AND A CONTRAST - - - - - BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY - - A PARALLEL AND A CONTRAST - - BEING - - THE CROALL LECTURE FOR 1889-90 - - BY - - ARCHIBALD SCOTT, D.D. - - MINISTER OF ST. GEORGE’S PARISH, EDINBURGH - - - EDINBURGH: DAVID DOUGLAS - - MDCCCXC - - [_All rights reserved._] - - - - - PREFACE - - -In endeavouring to sketch in so limited a space even the most salient -features of the many-sided religion of Buddhism it is possible that here -and there I may have misrepresented it. - -If so, I hope the fault will be attributed to inadvertence, or rather to -disadvantages under which I have worked. The sacred beliefs of any -section of mankind are entitled to receive at our hands not only justice -but kindly consideration, and a religion so vast and in some respects so -wonderful as Buddhism ought to have much to commend it to our sympathy. -Long and patient study of it has indeed greatly modified opinions -originally formed concerning it, but it has only tended to increase -respect for so earnest an effort of the intellect to solve the mystery -of human life and destiny. Even Christians may have something to learn -from Buddhists. The divers and seemingly antagonistic Churches of -Christendom help to educate and reform each other, and non-Christian -religions may perform a similar office to Christianity in bringing into -prominence some universal truths which its creeds have allowed to slip -into forgetfulness. Our perception and apprehension of what Christianity -really is will be all the clearer and firmer for an impartial study of -the system formulated so long ago by Gotama the Buddha. - -The aim of the Lecture has not been to use the extravagances of Buddhism -as a foil to set off the excellencies of Christianity. That Christianity -as a religion is immensely superior to Buddhism goes without saying, -unless in the case of a very small and conceited and purblind minority. -I have tried by a fair exposition of what is best and highest in this -religion to discover its feeling after something better and higher -still, and to suggest rather than indicate the place which it occupies -in the religious education of humanity. As - - “Man hath all which nature hath, but more, - And in that more lie all his hopes of good,” - -so Christianity, while having in it in fuller measure and clearer form -every truth that has vivified any other religion, has in it, as the new -creation to which the long travail of the soul under every form of faith -has from the first been pointing, something peculiar and -contrasted—which is the Divine answer to all their aspirations. This we -do not need to demonstrate: indeed it may be a verity, as incapable of -demonstration as is that of the existence of Deity or the immortality of -the soul. It is sure eventually to be almost universally recognised, and -meanwhile, whether accepted or denied, we may say—_E pur si muove_. - - * * * * * - -Very gratefully would I acknowledge my profound obligations to all who -have instructed me in this subject. Though we no longer regard the -Saddharma-Pundarika and Lalita Vistara as good specimens of Buddhism, we -still venerate the great scholars who first introduced them to our -notice. The splendid productions of Burnouf, Foucaux, Köppen, Stanislas -Julien, Hodgson and Turnour; the excellent works of Spence Hardy, -Gogerly, Bigandet and H. H. Wilson, and, among the best of all, the -laborious and faithful Dictionary of Professor Childers, though several -of them are unfortunately out of print, are not likely to be soon out of -date. It is with pleasure that we find them so frequently quoted or -referred to by our latest and best authorities. Still, ever since -Professor Max Müller organised his truly catholic enterprise of the -translation of the Sacred Books of the East, he has brought us very -considerably nearer to real Buddhist teachers themselves. To praise the -scholarship of himself, and Oldenberg, and Rhys Davids, and Kern, and -Fausböll, and others of his _collaborateurs_, would be unwarrantable -presumption on my part; but as a humble disciple very willing to learn, -I am glad to have this opportunity of publicly expressing my -appreciation of the great services which in their editions of old -Eastern texts, and in these series of translations, they are rendering -to the cause of religion. - -The lectures were drafted and in great part written before I read the -very valuable works of Sir Monier Williams on _Buddhism_ and of Dr. -Kellogg on the _Light of Asia and the Light of the World_. I specially -mention these books as likely to prove very useful guides to any one -desirous of prosecuting the subject of the present Lecture. In the notes -I have marked my indebtedness to them, and to many authors of what has -already become a great literature. Many others whose works have been of -service to me in a course of reading extending over many years are not -noted, simply because in the caprices of memory my peculiar obligations -to them could not at the time be recalled. - -For in regard to Buddhism I do not profess to add any original -information to the stock already acquired. Others have extracted the ore -from these old and interesting fields, and minted it into gold and -silver. What has thus been rendered available many like myself can only -reduce into copper or bronze, but if only our work be faithfully done, -we may thus help in increasing the currency and in extending its -circulation. With this in view I accepted the honour which the Croall -Trustees conferred upon me in calling me to undertake this Lecture, and -if the only effect of my efforts be to stimulate other ministers of the -Church more advantageously situated to prosecute their researches to -much better purpose, no one will be more pleased than myself. - -ARCHIBALD SCOTT. - -EDINBURGH, _25th December 1889_. - - - - - CONTENTS - - -LECTURE I. - -INTRODUCTORY: NECESSITY FOR A PROPER COMPARISON OF BUDDHISM AND -CHRISTIANITY. - -Schopenhauer’s prediction as to the influence of Oriental studies upon -European religion and philosophy—New science of Comparative Theology—Its -value to the expounders of Christianity—Study of all religions binding -upon Christians—Special claims of Buddhism—Its duration and wide-spread -diffusion—The quality of its doctrinal and ethical system—The -correspondences between it and Christianity—Instructive parallels of -historical development—Resemblances, if granted or assumed, not to be -accounted for by theory of derivation—Renan—E. Burnouf—Ernest de -Bunsen—Both religions independent in origin, though analogous in -development—What the significance of this—True answer to be found, not -by examining alleged resemblances between the religions, but their -points of contradiction and contrast—Unity of humanity involves organic -unity of language and of religion—What is meant by organic unity and -development of religion—Declarations of Scripture—Christianity as the -universal religion has much in common with all—has something peculiar to -itself which it possesses in contrast—In this will be found not only its -superiority to all the rest, but the answer to all their cravings and -aspirations, _Pages 1-58_ - - -LECTURE II. - -THE HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS OF BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY, AND THE -EVIDENTIAL VALUE OF THEIR RESPECTIVE SCRIPTURES. - -Both religions inherited and produced scriptures—Christian scriptures -criticised for eighteen centuries—Buddhist scriptures as yet only in -part available for examination—Admissions made by translators in regard -to them—Strong contrasts between two sets of scriptures, in respect of -authenticity and genuineness—Impossible to regard the two as of similar -canonical or authoritative value—In Buddhism only oral traditions for -centuries—Effect of the lack of a real canon in primitive -Buddhism—Effect of a fixed and written canon in the development of -Christianity—Antecedents of Buddhism—Vedic India—Brahmanic -India—Development of Brahmanic speculation—Its highest reach in -philosophical Brahmanism—The Upanishads—Pursuit of Atman—Antecedents of -Christianity—Patriarchal belief in Deity—Mosaic stage of religious -belief—The religion of Moses and the prophets too pure for the people -under the kings—Destruction of the kingdom—Effect of Captivity on the -prophets—on the people—Difference between the beliefs and hopes of the -Diaspora and those of the returned Palestinian Jews—Preparation of the -Empire and world beyond it for the dawn of Christianity, _Pages 59-125_ - - -LECTURE III. - -THE BUDDHA OF THE PITAKAS: THE CHRIST OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. - -Palestine at the birth of Christ—India at the birth of Gotama—Like, yet -unlike—Analogies in development of previous beliefs and -speculation—Contrasts—Gotama’s life and ministry contrasted with the -life and ministry of Jesus—The difference between their personal -relations to the religions which they founded—“I take refuge -in Buddha”—“I believe in Christ”—The supernatural in both -religions—Pre-existence, incarnation, and miracles ascribed to -Buddha—Sources of information as to these beliefs examined and compared -with the Gospel accounts—Relation of the miracles to each -religion—Nature of the miracles themselves—Growth of Buddhist legends -described by T. W. Rhys Davids—Implied growth of the Christian legends -examined—Essential contrasts manifest all through—Buddha can be -accounted for, but Christ is the Miracle of History, _Pages 126-191_ - - -LECTURE IV. - -THE DHARMA OF BUDDHA: THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. - -Gotama’s discovery at Bohimanda—The Four Sacred Verities—The noble -Eightfold Way—His theory of life different from but not wholly -antagonistic to that of speculative Brahmanism—Existence not illusion, -but essentially evil—Transmigration—“Modern Buddhists’” defence of the -dogma—Contrast between it and Christian doctrine of the -Fall—Christianity in its sorest struggle with evil hopeful—Buddhism -hopeless—atheistic—materialistic, yet has its own way, not of victory, -but of retreat and escape—Doctrine of Karma analogous to Christian -doctrine of Heredity, yet really contrasted—Goal of all Buddhist -aspiration and effort—Nirvana, point-blank contradiction to Christian -goal, yet way to it analogous—Arhatship as essential in Buddhism as -holiness is in Christianity—Noble quality of Buddhist ethical code—Its -approach to the Christian rule—A law not for all—Its degrees or paths of -perfection—Uprightness—Meditation—Enlightenment—Christ’s way of -salvation and sanctification by the Holy Spirit through the -truth—Essential defects of Buddhist scheme, _Pages 192-252_ - - -LECTURE V. - -THE BUDDHIST SANGHA: THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. - -The Church the fruit of Christianity, the Sangha the root out of which -Buddhism sprang—The Sangha not a Church but an Order—Different from the -many Orders then existing, yet with a likeness to them which it never -lost—Renunciation of secular life an indispensable qualification for -membership—Analogous to yet essentially different from Monachism in -Christianity, and in utter contrast to the idea and reality of the -Christian Church—The Sangha as theoretically open to all, and -propagandist in its purpose, a precursor of the Church—Actual -disqualifications for membership—Ceremonial of admission—The “outgoing” -from the world—Ceremonial of Confirmation—The “arrival”—The novitiate or -tutelage—The rule of the Sangha—No vows of obedience to -superiors—Stringent vows of poverty and chastity—Difference between a -Buddhist Vihara and a Christian monastery—Favourable features of -Buddhist monastic life—The Uposatha gathering—The Pâtimokkha -catechising—The Pavârâna invitation—Relation of women to the -Sangha—Institution of Order of Bikkhuni—The relation of the laity to the -Sangha—The Buddhist layman’s only possible “merit,” and his only hope, -_Pages 253-313_ - - -LECTURE VI. - -THE RELIGIONS IN HISTORY. - -External diffusion—Both religions missionary—Vastly different in respect -of their messages—Buddhist endeavour to perpetuate a system—Christian -endeavour to set forth and interpret the facts of a miraculous -life—Effect of belief in Christ’s continued presence upon the -Church—Rapid diffusion of Christianity during the first four -centuries—Condition of Buddhism during a similar period—Spread of -Christianity after Constantine—Spread of Buddhism after Asoka—Difference -in the peoples affected by both religions—Inferences—Internal -history—Buddhism and Brahmanism—Christianity and Judaism—In Buddhism an -early abandonment of fundamental principles manifest—Recoil of human -nature from its Atheism into Polytheism and Tantrism—Degradation of -Southern and Northern Buddhism—Buddhism in Tibet—Christianity in -Abyssinia—History of Chinese Buddhism from fourth century A.D. analogous -to that of Christianity in Europe from same date—Deterioration of both -religions similarly indicated—Bôdiharma—Modern Neo-Buddhism—The -T’ien-t’ai School—Reformed Buddhism in China—in Japan—Its most modern -attitude—Difference between Buddhism and Christianity—Alike in -their tendency to deteriorate—Christianity alone manifests a -reforming and progressive power—Resources of Buddhism manifestly -exhausted—Christianity apparently in only an initial stage of -development, _Pages 314-386_ - - -POSTSCRIPT, _Pages 387-391_ - - - - - LECTURE I. - NECESSITY FOR A PROPER COMPARISON OF THE TWO RELIGIONS. - - -Early in this century Schopenhauer, fascinated by the contents of the -Upanishads, which had been translated from the Persian into Latin by the -illustrious discoverer of the Zend-Avesta, ventured to predict that the -influence of the newly-found Sanskrit literature upon the philosophy of -the future would not be less profound than was that of the revival of -Greek upon the religion of the fourteenth century.[1] That century was -marked by the close of the mediæval age, and the beginning of the times -of Reformation in which we are privileged to live. The Reformation was -not an event, but the inauguration of a period. Its significance was far -deeper than that of a revolt from ecclesiastical superstition and -corruption. It meant a quickening of the human spirit, and a consequent -awakening of the human intellect, to which many forces other than the -leading religious ones, contributed; and its effects are visible not -simply in the changes which it immediately produced, but in the -revolution which is still actively progressing in all our social, -political, and religious relations. The movement designated by the -Reformation is manifestly far from having exhausted itself, and there -can be no question that its course has been greatly accelerated by the -studies to which Schopenhauer referred. - -The re-discovery of India, lost to Europe for centuries after the -beginning of the Christian era, almost as completely as America was -hidden from it, was a fact of even greater import than the resurrection -of Greece. It was no wilderness of ruins which was thus disclosed, from -which only the shards of a long-buried civilisation could be exhumed, -but a living and cultured world, whose institutions were rooted in an -antiquity more profound than Greece could claim, and whose language and -manners and religion were separated from the West by far more than a -hemisphere. So totally unlike to the Western world was it, that the -labours and sacrifices of several generations of the finest intellects -of Europe were required before a key could be found to interpret its -significance. Since the days when Anquetil Duperron, after many -adventures and hardships, succeeded in breaking through the tangled -thicket which guarded its treasures, the scholars of all nations have -pressed into it, each one announcing, as he emerged, the dawn or the -progress of another Renaissance, whose meaning and direction and -ultimate issues only the rash will venture to predict or pretend to -foresee. - -One of the first-fruits of their combined or independent researches is -the new science of Religion. By a careful collection, analysis, and -comparison of all the beliefs of mankind available, with the view of -eliciting what is peculiar to each, and what they all share in common, -its professors aim at discovering what may be the real nature and origin -and purpose of all religion.[2] As yet it should hardly be designated a -science, for though the elements for it undoubtedly exist, they are too -widely scattered to be of service for immediate induction. The materials -already collected have not been sufficiently sifted, and moreover, it -requires the assistance of other sciences, as yet too immature, to -render it effective support. The title may not be a “misnomer,”[3] but -only a somewhat inflated expression by which an age, rather wise in its -own conceit, proclaims the discovery of a new field of learning which it -means assiduously to cultivate. The discovery however is a solid one, -and the assiduity of those who would improve it is unmistakable; year by -year their numbers increase, their implements improve in quality, and -this generation may not pass away before an abundant harvest has been -reaped. - -Another indication of the change that is coming over the world is the -attitude which Christian divines now assume toward other religions. -Fifty years ago the attempt to compare our Bible and our Creed with the -scriptures of other religions would have been regarded as a sacrilegious -surrender of what was holy to the dogs. This was due not so much to -prejudice on the part of the expounders of Christianity as to aversion -to the avowedly anti-christian spirit in which these researches were -prosecuted. The Comparative method was then frequently employed, as it -had been by the Encyclopædists of last century, for the purpose of -discrediting and degrading Christianity. The conclusion was often -foregone before the process began; and so it was natural that reverent -but timid minds jealous for their religion, and anxious to guard it from -insult, should decline such encounters. Now, however, orthodox -theologians are quite aware that in this matter they have to reckon with -other than the professed enemies of Christianity. The ablest advocates -of Comparative Theology are not only free from antichristian prejudice, -but they protest against it as inimical to the science itself.[4] It is -not infidelity, but Providence, that is forcing us to investigate the -origin of our religion, and to search its scriptures in the fuller light -which we now enjoy. We are being divinely taught that we cease to revere -a heavenly gift the moment we begin to idolise it; that the disposition -most fatal to ourselves, most dishonouring to our religion, is that -which would regard its scriptures as charmed relics too sacred to be -examined, and only to be brought by an undevout and apostate Church, in -the moment of its extreme peril, into the field of battle with the -Philistines. To shrink from the comparison of our Faith with the -religious beliefs of those whom we acknowledge to be bone of our bone, -and flesh of our flesh, is to manifest a cowardly lack of confidence in -its Author. It is at the judgment-bar of all the ages that He means to -make good His claim to be the Judge of all mankind. The more He is -tried, the more will His authority be confessed to be divine. He -certainly invited inspection and comparison, and He may have had other -than Hebrew scriptures in His view when He instructed us to “search -them, for they testify of Me.”[5] - -The comparative study of other religions, so far from being prejudicial -to the claims of Christianity, will be helpful in establishing its -sublime pre-eminence among them, and in enabling us to discharge to -their adherents the duty which its Founder has imposed upon us. It may -modify considerably our theology, but it will strengthen our fundamental -beliefs. As a general rule, we may assert that the strength of a man’s -faith will be found to be in direct proportion to his knowledge of the -everlasting and unchangeable laws by which the universe is governed. It -is our theology alone that is assailed, and we are learning that -theology, as a system of reasoning upon materials furnished not only by -religion itself, but also by some other “ologies,” must be based on -other and higher authority than that of an infallible Council, or that -of a chapter whose significance was supposed to be unalterably fixed two -or three thousand years ago. The religion which revolted against the -assumption of the Scribe in our Lord’s day, and which disallowed the -claim of the Pope some three centuries ago to be the sole interpreters -of revelation, is not only testing the authenticity of the texts to -which the appeal was then made, but is inquiring into their actual -significance by collating them with the truths of another revelation as -divine. It is not that men want to get rid of dogma, for dogma of some -kind there must ever be. There will always be a vast deal which we must -believe, because there is much that can only thus be known; but a -satisfactory dogmatic foundation must henceforth be sought in facts -anterior to any scriptures, or to any church that would interpret them, -viz., in the elemental necessities and aspirations of our common human -nature. It has been wisely said that “the theology which fails to meet -the demands of the whole man is simply doomed.”[6] What is wanted -therefore for theology is some broad and solid basis, to be laid by -analysing, comparing, and co-ordinating all religious beliefs within our -reach. In each of them we may hope to find some truth—it may be very -feebly and very partially expressed—of no more value by itself than a -flake of gold found in an immense drift of sand or mass of quartz, but -yet of immense value as indicating the source from which it came and the -substance to which it claims affinity. All separate and imperfect truths -point towards some higher truth which will unite and fulfil and -interpret them. And so every religion, however erroneous it may be, is -prophetic—because found in a humanity that is essentially one—of a -universal religion, a faith which is not just one of the faiths of the -nations, but is the divine answer, unchanged and inexhaustible, to all -the aspirations of mankind. The study of other religions therefore, even -of those of the most degraded peoples, and of those most contradictory -of our own, is as binding upon us as is the study of our Bibles. For us -“history” has been truly said “to stand in the place of prophecy,”[7] -and it is only by gathering up and considering its testimony that we can -appreciate the worth of the treasure which has been given to us, that we -may communicate it to all the world. - -Prominent among the religions that challenge our consideration is the -one which, following authorities acknowledged to be the best, we will -endeavour briefly to sketch and to expound. It is not an obsolete -system, appealing only to the poetic sentiment from a vanished past, -like the religion of Greece, but one which confronts us with vitality -sufficient to overshadow a considerable portion of the populous East. -Two thousand four hundred years have passed since it was first -proclaimed, and though it disappeared long ago from the land of its -birth, it still reigns in many kingdoms, and continues to spread its -influence in several directions in Central and Northern Asia. To tell -its story completely would be to write the history of nearly the whole -of China, India, and the countries that lie around or between them. Till -very recently it was generally computed that quite one-third of the -human family, though widely separated geographically and otherwise, -professed to find in Buddhism consolation sufficient to strengthen them -to do the work and endure the sufferings of life, and to confront with -calmness the necessity of death. - -Were this computation correct, Buddhism would have to be accounted by -far the most widely accepted of all the religions of mankind. It has -however been seriously challenged by those whose experience and candour -are beyond question. According to their enumeration, Buddhism must rank -only fourth in the scale of numerical comparison among the great faiths -of the world, for instead of there being five hundred millions of -adherents, as we were previously led to believe, probably not more than -one hundred millions of professing Buddhists can be found in all the -world.[8] The question in dispute after all is one of only secondary -importance, for we can hardly conceive of any one other than some -democratic fanatic who would propose to settle the truth of a religion -by a reckoning of the suffrages which it could command. Numerical -statistics of religious adherence furnish only an indirect test even of -influence. It is impossible to indicate even geographically the range of -a religion. We are very properly reminded that “the influence of -Buddhism in India may be immense, though not a single Buddhist temple -exists in it, while its influence in China and Ceylon may be vastly -over-stated in figures, for many Chinese Buddhists may be called -Confucianists and Taoists, and many Singhalese worshippers at Buddha’s -shrines are far from being only or altogether Buddhists.”[9] Indeed -everywhere, though chiefly in Thibet, Nepaul, and Mongolia, the religion -which is called Buddhism is no more Buddhist than the survivals of Pagan -worship and belief which are found in some extreme forms of Romanism can -be called Christian. - -The rapidity with which and the extent to which a religion has spread is -no certain indication of its capability to meet and satisfy the real -spiritual necessities of mankind. A religion may rapidly gain, and -retain for long, an ascendency over many men, without possessing any of -the qualities essential to its being recognised as the one religion of -all men. The catholicity of a faith is indicated not by the extent of -the supremacy which it has acquired, but by the quality of its contents. -Universal truths are not necessarily the truths which have won the -consent of the greatest numbers. The test of _quod ubique, semper, et ab -omnibus_, if thoroughly applied, would have established the truth of -many a degrading superstition in former times. “It is not that which is -common to barbarism and civilisation which is most truly human, but -precisely that in which civilisation differs from barbarism.”[10] The -divinity of a religion, instead of being attested by the readiness with -which it is accepted, may be indicated by the antagonism which it at -first evokes. Truth at no time depends upon majorities, at least in this -world, for here truth of any kind, when first proclaimed, instead of -meeting a generally friendly reception, has to win its victory by -conflict and lay in martyrdom the foundation of its throne.[11] - -It is not on account of its adherents, however, nor of the superficial -extent of its supremacy—though such facts have indeed a very pathetic -significance—but it is in respect of the quality of its original faith, -that Buddhism is considered worthy of comparison with Christianity. We -must not be repelled by the childish superstitions and gross absurdities -with which it is incrusted, for in a religion so ancient and extensive -this is just what we might expect to find; nor should we be surprised at -the marvellous and grotesque legends which profess to relate its origin -and early history, for these, as Professor Müller has very properly -reminded us, “are the clouds, not alway rosy, that gather round the -sunrise of any religion.”[12] In the estimation of its severest critics, -Buddhism must occupy a grand and exalted place in the general history of -religions.[13] Among the various systems of the non-Christian world, -ancient or modern, none can compare with it in respect of its ethical -code, its spirit of toleration and gentleness, and its beneficent -influence upon many wild populations that have embraced it. Neither Zeno -nor Marcus Aurelius conceived a higher theory of morals, in which -justice and temperance were infused by kindness, than that which the -founder of Buddhism successfully reduced to practice. It was the most -natural of all things therefore, that it had only to be introduced to -the notice of Christendom to win for itself a degree of admiration -accorded to no other heathen faith. - -We would be understating its claims, however, if we referred to it as -appealing only to our Christian consideration and sympathy. It has been -brought into the lists of criticism as the rival of Christianity. Modern -unbelief is forcing it upon our notice as a much truer philosophy of -existence and a more satisfactory theory of the universe than that -furnished by Christianity. We cannot let it alone, were it for no other -reason that it will not let us alone. In the civilised and -semi-civilised portions of the East its disciples have long ago ceased -to propagate it, and as a form of belief it may be said that there not -only has it reached the limits of its extension, but that its present -condition is one of “increasing disintegration and decay.”[14] Even in -the East, however, among the classes who have most come under the -influence of Western culture, the spirit of Buddhism shows considerable -vitality, and there its spirit is coming into constant and active -collision with Christianity every day. The educated or intelligent -Buddhist of Burmah or Siam tells us plainly that he will not give up his -ancient faith for Christianity; for notwithstanding the manifold and -manifest absurdities of his ancestral religion, he professes to find the -same in the forms in which Christianity has been presented to him. By -the light of our science we have helped him to weed out his old -superstitions, and he will not accept from us any new ones. In language -marvellously akin to that of the founder of Buddhism, he discards every -religion as involving the worship of deity, and he professes to find in -Suttas more ancient than our Gospels a morality as sublime, a charity as -comprehensive, and a system of faith sufficient to bear the strain of -all his necessities, whether present or future.[15] In short, Buddhism -as professed by a modern Oriental with any pretension to culture, is -almost identical with that paradoxical condition of thought or belief -which maintains, and indeed professes to be spreading in Christendom as -modern Agnosticism. - -But it is not in an attitude of resistance only that Buddhism confronts -Christianity even in the East. In Ceylon, if we are to trust the _Times -of India_,[16] it numbers among its typical gains “a young highly -educated European lady and a clergyman of the English Church,” and -these, it is averred, “are not the first, and are not likely to be the -last of its direct converts from the Christian churches.” In Europe and -America also, not among the lower and less educated, but among the -higher ranks of society, among people affecting culture and new light, -are to be found not a few professing admirers, if not practical -followers, of Buddha and his law. The admiration of many of these -dilettanti may sometimes be found to be in exact proportion to their -ignorance of Buddhism. Their information is drawn almost exclusively -from such sources as are supplied by the romance of Sir Edwin Arnold and -works like those produced by Mr. Sinnett and Colonel Olcott;[17] but -even when we discount all these, we must own that here and there we find -some thoughtful and earnest people who profess to have come out from -bondage to the beggarly elements of the Church’s faith to gentle -Buddha’s better gospel of liberty. Mr. Alabaster’s _Modern Buddhist_ -finds a co-religionist not only in the disciples of Feuerbach and Von -Hartmann, but in every “fervent atheist” who, acknowledging nothing in -the universe save man, and a system of unbending law in which he is -involved, and with which he is sometimes confounded, has been compelled -to deify humanity and to demand for its idol a service worthy of a -divine object of faith. - -So another prediction of Schopenhauer’s, uttered in the beginning of the -century, seems to be repeated in many publications at its close. “In -India,” he affirmed, “our religion will never strike root; the primitive -wisdom of the human race will never be pushed aside by any incidents in -Galilee. On the contrary, Indian wisdom will flow back upon Europe, and -produce a thorough change in our knowing and thinking.”[18] He certainly -laboured hard to bring about the fulfilment of his prophecy, preaching -Nirvana as the goal of moral effort, though confessing that his own -animal propensities allowed him no hope of attaining it. In his lifetime -his strenuous endeavours were unsuccessful, and he died in 1860 in -comparative neglect. Since then, and especially since the publication of -his book _Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung_, the doctrine painfully -planted, has taken root in the congenial soil prepared for it by Comte -and his disciples. Spiritualism again—which, though originating only in -1848, in circumstances almost ludicrous, has spread so rapidly and -extensively that it now claims to count its converts by millions all -over the world—has obviously contributed to the dissemination and growth -of pseudo-Buddhist ideas. With a literature of over five hundred -psychological works—many of them voluminous and very costly—and with -forty-six periodicals regularly published in Europe and America, it not -only assails Christianity, but supports the doctrine that “the Reign of -Law has supplanted the Reign of God; that just as we have ceased to -embody the conception of the State in a person, it is time we should -cease similarly to embody the conception of the universe, for loyalty to -a personal ruler is an anachronism in the nineteenth century, and will -some day become extinct.”[19] Its apostles profess to find in the -Christian faith many signs of disintegration, and they look “to the -bloodless and innocent record of Buddhism for the reconstruction of true -religious faith upon a permanent basis.”[20] This they expound in a -so-called theosophy in phraseology largely borrowed from the New -Testament, but descriptive of a curious amalgam of later Buddhist and -Hindu doctrines utterly contradictory to the essential teaching of -Christianity. - -Occultism, Esoteric Buddhism, which professes to supplant the religion -of Jesus, and to prepare the way of the twelfth of the Messiahs, whose -mission is to harmonise the perverted teaching of his predecessors,[21] -and thus establish the universal religion of humanity, is not likely to -occasion serious concern. It is just another of those instances in which -the diseases of a lower civilisation are communicated to one superior -and more robust. Just as plagues originating in the ruined or degraded -populations of the East have repeatedly desolated large portions of -Europe, where they found physical conditions favourable to their spread, -so there are mental and moral epidemics which, generated among inferior -religions, propagate themselves in the very highest, for reasons almost -similar. There are modern conditions which present very close affinities -to those out of which Buddhism arose. It has been truly called the -religion of despair, and it seems suited to that intellectual _ennui_ in -which many profess to live who find themselves confronted by problems -which they are unable to solve. The enervating agnosticism and -sentimental pessimism of our generation furnish the very soil in which -the germs of Buddhism are most likely to mature; but the spiritual life -of Christendom is too robust to succumb to its heresy of inertion and -moral defeat. The system of Buddha, even as laid out by himself, is not -at all likely to entrap any considerable number of Western -nineteenth-century thinkers; and this mongrel system of Neo-Buddhism, -though professing to be founded on that ancient creed, will only find -adherents among peculiar people. There is always a tendency in the most -advanced civilisation, on the part of some who are freed from the -necessity of industry, so essential to man’s mental and moral as well as -to his physical health, to revert to beliefs and customs peculiar to -earlier and inferior stages of culture. It is a curious and significant -fact,[22] that not among the working and professional classes, but among -the upper and fashionable ranks of modern society, such survivals of -ancient superstition as intercourse with spirits and palmistry are -chiefly now to be found. For such unstable souls as have been or may be -tempted to be drawn into these practices by an appeal to the authority -of the beautiful character limned for our generation in the _Light of -Asia_, I know no better restorative than a plain exposition of primitive -Buddhism. It will be seen then that this modern fungus is a growth -almost as foreign in its nature to real Buddhism as it is to true -Christianity. The degenerate Buddhism from which it borrows its largest -stock of ideas bears the same relation to the actual teaching of Buddha -that the Cabbala bear to the prophecies of the Old Testament, and the -doctrines which it counts upon as most popular and attractive are -precisely those which Buddha would have treated with his most withering -scorn. - -There is yet another characteristic of this religion which has commended -it more to the unbelief than the belief of our age. Many agreements are -alleged to subsist between the contents of the New Testament and those -of the sacred books which profess to record the life and express the -teaching of Buddha. Its ancient Pitakas are said to be filled with -stories resembling the narratives of the Evangelists, with sayings which -recall the parables, and miracles reflecting the signs and wonders which -signalised the ministry of Jesus. It is averred that with the single -exception of the Crucifixion—and how immense is the significance of that -exception I shall endeavour in a subsequent lecture to show,—it would be -easy to find in them a parallel to almost every incident related in the -Gospel. Most startling of all are said to be the resemblances between -the central figures in both sets of scriptures. For Buddhism, as truly -as Christianity, has its ideal of a perfect human life, illustrated in -one who, like unto the Son of Man, went about doing good, and enforcing -by his example the pure morality which he preached, but who, most unlike -the Son of Man, without any sustaining belief in deity, or hope of -sympathy or help from any divine being, professed to have made good his -own salvation, and to teach all whom he could reach the way to work out -theirs. - -When we come to examine its history, we find that it has followed a line -of development strikingly parallel to that of Christianity, and the -parallels thus furnished by its antecedents and progress, and by the -external and foreign influences which encountered and modified it, are -those which have the most interest and instruction for the student of -Religion. In order, however, to ascertain their significance, we must -examine these alleged correspondences of story and of doctrine; for -these have powerfully influenced a certain class of thinkers, as -supplying confirmation of a charge brought against our religion in -almost the beginning of its history, that after all there was nothing -original in Christ, and nothing new in His teaching. That resemblances -do exist, not only between the forms in which Buddhism confronts us in -some quarters of the world and the ritual and organisation of a large -section of the Christian Church, but between the contents of the -Buddhist scriptures as we have them now, and those of the New Testament, -all must admit. As we cast a hasty and general glance over them we see -how natural and how pardonable was the old rough and ready method of -accounting for them by the supposition of direct transference of the -various lineaments from the one to the other. The early Jesuit -missionaries did not hesitate to assert that the Buddhists, by -assimilating and incorporating the rites and doctrines of the primitive -missionaries, had succeeded in producing a caricature of Christianity. -In like manner, when in Central America—till then as independent of -Europe as if it had been separated not by untraversed oceans, but by the -immensities that divide the planets—the Spaniards found to their -amazement a most complex religion, with priests, and monasteries, and -temples adorned with the cross and statues of a goddess with an infant -in her arms, they could only explain the mystery by averring that it was -a gigantic mimetic ruse of the devil to lead the unhappy nations astray. -The suppositions in both cases are not likely to be seriously supported -now. Indeed, it is far more likely, as the author of _Ancient -Christianity_ and Dr. Prinsep and others have attempted to show, that in -the East we have to seek for the origin of several institutions and -rites once considered the peculiar growth of Greek or Latin -Christianity. There can be little doubt that as these religions spread -they would come in contact with and react upon each other.[23] It is -difficult in the present state of our knowledge to indicate their first -conjunction, or to trace their various intercommunications, but that -they have been mutually indebted to each other is sufficiently attested -by their histories. In later Hinduism and Buddhism and Lamaism there are -plain indications of the action of the Western upon the Eastern -religions. Romanism, on the other hand, has set its official seal upon -the relationship, by incorporating a legend of Buddha among its “Lives -of the Saints,” by canonising the founder of this most antichristian of -all religions, and by consecrating the 27th November as a day on which -he may be invoked for intercession.[24] - -Though as yet the field is only opening out, and its exploration is only -beginning, there can be little doubt that it will be found that in their -advanced stages Buddhism and Greek and Latin Christianity have -contributed to each other’s resources; but it is quite another matter to -assert that the existence of the one religion accounts for the origin of -the other, and that Christianity, as the junior of the two, is simply “a -product of India spoiled in its route to Palestine.”[25] Those who -allege that the sources of Christianity may be discovered in Buddhism -are bound not to assume but clearly to trace and demonstrate the medium -of communication between the two. As yet the allegation, though -frequently made, appears to be incapable of proof. Renan’s picture of -“wandering Buddhist monks who overran the whole world, and converted on -the banks of the Jordan, by their garb and manners, people who did not -understand their language, like the Franciscan monks in later days,” is -only a pious imagination.[26] And so are the theories elaborated by M. -Emile Burnouf in the _Science of Religions_ and by M. Ernest de Bunsen -in his _Angel Messiah of the Buddhists_. Both these authors have -explained to their own satisfaction the derivation of Christianity from -old Indian or Aryan beliefs, which, transmitted through Parthia to the -Babylonian Jews, by them communicated to the Essenes John Baptist and -Jesus of Nazareth, and from them again passed on to the Therapeut -Stephen, were formulated in the plastic mind of Paul of Tarsus into the -Christian dogmas which we now revere. The scheme is devised with -thoroughly French precision, and the treatises in which it is -elaborated, full as they are of indications of great ingenuity and -laborious research, are interesting as any romance. For scientific -purposes, however, they have hardly more historic worth than a romance. -Based upon assumptions, they are constructed almost entirely of -hypotheses: when a difficulty emerges, it is solved by a supposition -which further on is confirmed by a “reasonable expectation” of something -else, so that by and by the supposition meets us as an established -result. They abound in analogies, some of which transgress as flagrantly -the laws of time as the theory once advanced that the story of Christ is -only a reflection of the legend of Krishna, seeing that belief in -Krishna did not arise in India till centuries after Christianity had -reached its shores. “The laws of language[27] are also violated as -openly as they were by the discovery that the mysterious word ‘Om’ of -the Upanishads is the equivalent of the ‘Amen’ in ancient Hebrew -worship.” It may be as possible by this method to prove the connection -between the Vedic and Levitical institutions, as it is possible to -establish the conclusion that the old Aryan symbol of the fire sticks is -the fontal idea of the Cross, or that the Vedic word “Agni” is -equivalent to the Latin “Agnus Dei.” Dr. J. Estlin Carpenter[28] and -Professor Kuenen[29] have most exhaustively and decisively exposed the -vanity of such speculations, which, on the whole, may be regarded as a -good confirmation of a saying uttered by Professor H. H. Wilson some -thirty years ago, in reference to those who would derive Christianity -from Indian sources, that “the disposition to draw impossible analogies -is not yet wholly extinct.” - -As far as the history of Buddhism can be traced it presents no actual -point of contact with either Syria or Egypt or Europe. Even after it -became a missionary religion its progress was never westwards, and at no -period did it reach further in this direction than the region now known -as Afghanistan. The civilisation of the West offered no opportunity for -its enthusiasm, and none of the great Western cities appear in its -records. In the few scattered extracts which survive of the writings of -those Greeks who visited India during or subsequent to the period of -Alexander’s invasion, there is no indication of a knowledge of Buddhism, -nor any allusion to Buddha by name. We have to come down to the times of -Clement of Alexandria[30] and of Bardesanes the Syrian before we have -any tangible evidence of the slightest acquaintance on the part of the -West with Buddhism. The first writer mentions Buddha by name, the second -distinguishes his monks from the Brahmans, and gives some details as to -their customs, but it is impossible from their statements to conjecture -how much they knew of the faith to which they alluded, and most absurd -to infer from them that they were affected with the slightest admiration -for it.[31] - -If Christianity be the offspring of Buddhism, or even if Buddhism -exercised any direct influence upon its earliest development, some -indications of that influence should be traceable in the Jewish and -Greek literature of that period. Yet in spite of the most searching -examination none have as yet been found, and it is not at all likely -that they ever will be found.[32] Our religion was well advanced in its -course before we find in the works of its defenders any sign of -acquaintance with the Buddhist legend, or any expression of suspicion, -as on the part of Cyril and Ephraim of Jerusalem in the fourth century, -that the taint of some of the heresies which had infected the Church -might be traced to its contagion. Then, unfortunately for the -ingeniously constructed theory that the doctrines were secretly -transmitted by the channel already indicated till they reached St. Paul -through Stephen the Therapeut, the only passage on which the existence -of Therapeuts in Apostolic times could be founded has been recently -proved to be a spurious interpolation in the writings of Philo of a -treatise forged several centuries after his death.[33] Research can find -no trace of Therapeuts in Alexandria nor anywhere else till Monachism -had become the fashion in the Christian Church. Bishop Lightfoot has -convincingly proved that the theory of the transmission of Christian -doctrine from the Buddhists of India through the Babylonian Jews to the -Essenes has not the slightest trace of evidence to support it, but that, -on the contrary, the weight of evidence and probability is all against -it.[34] Again, any one who compares the Gospel account of the life of -the Baptist with the description given in Josephus[35] of the manners -and tenets of the Essenes will find that just as the Essenes owed -nothing to Buddha, so Christ, and even John Baptist, owed nothing to -them. Though similar in a few external points, the Baptist’s preaching -and manner of living were essentially antagonistic to those of the -little Jewish sect which had severed itself not only from Jewish society -but from Jewish hopes. The teaching of Christ, again, whose manner of -life, notoriously in contrast to that of His herald, was throughout a -powerful though silent contradiction to every doctrine which the Essenes -held, and it would be extravagant to assert that He owed to it even an -illustration of His own.[36] It may be safely asserted that the theory -of the derivation of Christianity from Buddhism breaks down at every -point at which it is tested. We may dismiss it in the words of Professor -Kuenen, that the “so-called connection between Essenism and Christianity -cannot bear serious inquiry for a moment,” and in those of the learned -Bishop,[37] “that though the Essenes may have had some connection with -Persia, their system was antagonistic to that of Buddhism in everything -save the spirit of despair which called both into existence.” - -The whole supposition of Burnouf and De Bunsen, and writers of the -school to which they belong, is based upon a most exaggerated and indeed -fictitious estimate of the Indian contribution to the sum of human -knowledge. It assumes that India was the cradle of all wisdom, and that -from that favoured land of primeval light went forth from time to time -the apostles of religion and the expounders of all philosophy. Yet -history reveals not the slightest trace of any such propaganda westward -before the coming of Christ, and though centuries after we have slight -notices of Indian travellers to the West, we do not find a missionary -among them. We have historic evidence, however, of the Western races -reaching India certainly before the coming of Christ, and probably long -before the birth of the founder of Buddhism, and we can hardly suppose -that races with enterprise and intelligence sufficient to discover and -conquer the Hindus would appear only before them as beggars to receive -their alms. We forget that the wave of Aryan humanity that poured -downward into India really deflected from the path of progress, and that -under climatic and other unfavourable conditions, and through -intermixture with inferior races, it stagnated, while that which -proceeded westward improved the more the farther it advanced. We have a -tolerably clear idea of the civilisation of Western Asia in the time of -Solomon, whose navy is supposed to have traded with India. It -comprehended capitals with magnificent buildings, public works, and -well-guarded highways; commerce protected and encouraged; law -administered; religion observed, and learning cultivated. What Indian -civilisation meant at the same period we can only conjecturally infer -from the literature that is extant, but we have clearer glimpses of it -five centuries later as the home of a mixed race, geographically severed -from the rest of the world, living in village settlements, which only -here and there were large enough to be called towns, divided into clans -whose wealth consisted chiefly in pasture and tillage lands, and flocks -and herds.[38] A kingdom in the sense in which Solomon would have used -the word did not exist. In respect of civilisation Palestine was far -ahead of India, and in respect of religious development, its theology, -though greatly tainted with heathen superstitions, was sufficiently pure -and strong to save the Hebrew from requiring instruction at the wattle -huts of a race that confounded God with His works. If Ophir be the name -of an Indian port, then Solomon’s navy brought back from it gold, and -ivory, and curious things indicated by Sanskrit words for which the -Hebrew chronicler could find no equivalent. The sailors may have picked -up a few fables and riddles and proverbs, but surely in regard to -religion and philosophy, the superior and stronger race would be more -likely to impart of their abundance to the lower and weaker than to -enrich themselves out of their poverty. - -When we come to the Greek invasion we move on more solid ground, and we -can handle events which have left permanent and very traceable effects; -but in the historic notices that remain, we have no trace of Hindu -influence upon Greek civilisation. Instead of Greek religion and -philosophy being enriched by the Indian, the opposite is more likely to -have been the case. The invasion of Alexander must have originated a -host of new thoughts in India, which may yet be traced in the works of -the prolific Buddhist scholars, who are said to have lived in the Punjab -during the period of the Greek domination.[39] It is alleged with fair -show of reason to have given rise to some new products, such as the art -of writing, a currency in coin, stone sculpture, none of which have as -yet been traced in India in any previous period.[40] The appearance in -India of the drama, the epic, of new views of mathematics, astronomy, -physics, are all said to be subsequent to and consequences of the Greek -invasion. And this is what we might expect, for all through the -historical ages the Hindu, instead of enriching Western nations, has -been a needy borrower from them. He has always been more ready to absorb -than impart, ever greedy of foreign ideas, and ever ready to be modified -by external culture. The beneficent influence of India is indeed -traceable in China, whose science it undoubtedly improved, and whose -literature it has greatly enriched; but with the exception of the cipher -so useful in our arithmetical notation, it is questionable whether India -has contributed to the stock of Western wisdom one single religious or -philosophic or scientific truth.[41] - -The wealthy are more likely to lend to than to borrow from the poor; the -wise more likely to teach, though they do sometimes learn from the less -instructed. The strong may be infected by the diseases of the feeble, -but generally the contagion of health radiates from the more robust to -the weaker vitalities. The “power” which the touch of the East has “made -to go forth from us”[42] no doubt flows back in quickened life upon -ourselves. As these Oriental studies proceed, the tables will perhaps be -turned upon the school that would derive all our philosophy and religion -from old Indian sources. We have seen that two successive waves of -Western life flowed eastwards upon the shores of India. Another rich -stream of Semitic thought in pre-Buddhistic times, represented by such -religious teachers as the second Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, -reached the Tigris, and we may ask, Was the Indus unknown to them? We do -not assert that they knew it, but surely it was just as easy for a Jew -to reach India as for Burnouf or de Bunsen’s Buddhists to reach Babylon. -It was just as probable that a Jewish pedlar found his way eastward -through Parthia to India, with other and more precious goods in his -possession than the Babylonian wares in his pack, as it was that Renan’s -wandering Buddhist monk found his way to the Jordan. Later on there is a -tradition—and though it is only a tradition, what a find to Messieurs -Renan, Burnouf, and de Bunsen would one similar Buddhist tradition -be!—that one of the original twelve apostles of Jesus evangelised a -portion of the western shores of India. So, founding on all these data, -only assuming—as we are entitled to assume—that the East was well -connected with the West by the sea routes from Arabia and by the land -route through Persia, and remembering that there is nothing so volatile -and permeating as thought, is the speculation so very extravagant that -old Indian philosophy and religion, though following their own course, -may have been modified and purified by contact with the thoughts of the -West? What if the conjecture be hazarded that from the West a thousand -years B.C. was communicated the theistic impulse which produced what is -best in the Upanishads—the truth, viz., of the unity which is behind and -above all variety, the One Absolute into which all thought and all being -is resolved?[43] What if it be some day asserted that the teaching of -the Hebrew prophets before the Diaspora, as to the worthlessness of -sacrifice to put away sin and to promote communion with God, may have -insinuated itself into the reveries of Indian ascetics in their forest -retreats, and made the teaching of reformers like Buddha possible? And -what if to St. Thomas may be indirectly traced that influence which made -later Buddhism differ so materially from the primitive, and approach in -the similarities of its legends so close to the Gospel narratives? Dr. -Kellogg already proclaims that “it may be affirmed with certainty that -no man can show that the legend of Buddha, in a form containing any -coincidence which could be held to argue a borrowing from it by -Christians, was in existence before the Christian era”; “that all the -various versions of the legend in any language date from a time later -than the Christian era”; “that the chief Sanskrit authority for it -cannot be proved in the judgment of the most competent critics to have -existed in its present form nearly as far back as the Christian era”; -and though he does not allege any actual transference from the Gospel to -the Buddha legend, he avers with justifiable confidence that the -opportunity for “such a transference before the Sanskrit version assumed -its present form is an indubitable fact.”[44] - -These suggestions, though just as worthy of consideration and support as -the theory that Christianity is either an offshoot of Vedic Brahminism -or a direct product of Buddhist speculation, need not be discussed at -present. We may content ourselves with the conclusions formed by our -most reliable authorities, that Buddhism and Christianity in their -origin and earliest development were perfectly independent of each -other. The births of their founders were separated by centuries, and the -spheres of their ministry by almost the whole extent of Asia. While thus -sundered by the conditions of both time and space, they were still more -so by their intellectual peculiarities and antecedents. The Indian -differed very widely from the Jew in his way of looking at and reasoning -about things. He would be very differently impressed by the same or -similar phenomena, and he would communicate his impressions by a very -different method. Geographically India was shut up from the rest of the -world, and the Aryans who went down into it were left in a manner hardly -paralleled by other peoples to develop their own life out of itself, and -according to its own laws. In far less favourable circumstances, and far -removed from the educational stimulus of contact with alien or cognate -nations, they came to stand alone as a people scarcely intelligible by -others. The Jews, on the other hand, were early brought into the stream -of human movement. Mingled with many peoples, sent from land to land, -they became in spite of their passionate love for their own country the -cosmopolitans of the world. Consequently when the two races came in -contact, the circles of thought and feeling in which they moved could -hardly be said to touch. Solomon’s sailors, as regards religious or -philosophical treasures, could neither give nor take away. They had -almost nothing in common with the strange people whom they met. The -Sanskrit words which they took home to designate the peculiar products -obtained in Ophir indicated how helpless they would have been to -understand the metaphysics of India even had they inquired about them. -The natives of Western India a thousand years before Christ were as -helpless to understand the Jew. You have only to compare a prophecy of -Israel of the eighth century B.C. with the earliest of the Upanishads to -find how widely separated at that date was the Semite from the Aryan of -India. Even when their own kinsmen visited them, when the descendants of -sires who had occupied the same cradle and had heard the same stories -told over them in the one primeval home, met for deadly strife in the -wars of Alexander on the plains of the Punjab, they were aliens in -almost everything. Later on, when Christian missionaries, anxious to -teach them better ways, succeeded in influencing their religious -conceptions, the Hindus always modified what of our faith they adopted. -The question how far the early proclamation of the Gospel in India -influenced the development of Hinduism is by the best of judges -considered not yet settled,[45] but even those who affirm the reality of -this influence admit that Hinduism did not so much incorporate the -doctrines as assimilate the ideas of Christianity. The ultimate decision -of this question, however, does not in any way affect the one before us. -We may be almost certain that the great mass of Indian speculation on -man and his relations to the infinite, for many centuries before our -era, was developed originally from the resources of the Indian mind -quite apart from foreign influences. The same assertion will hold good -as to the rise of Greek philosophy and of the Christian religion. Not -one of the three can be understood without careful reference to their -particular antecedents, but they can never be accounted for by any -theory of derivation of the one from the other. - -It is the fact of this complete independence of each other in origin, -coupled with their analogous development, and the many supposed -agreements in their systems, which makes the study of Buddhism so -interesting. What does this signify? What important law in providence -does it indicate or illustrate? Our best guides content themselves with -calling attention to the analogies, and they are chary as yet of drawing -inferences from them. The wisdom of such caution is apparent when we -find that the supposed coincidences require to be examined and -discussed. Most of them have been found to be superficial and -accidental, and, when probed, very essential and fundamental contrasts -are discovered beneath them. Now to judge correctly concerning these -religions we must try not their analogies but their contradictions. The -analogies may be only seeming, and the contrasts may be very real and -profound. On every point that is truly characteristic the two religions -may be separated as widely as the zenith is from the nadir. All -religions are parallel in their tendencies, and every approach to truth -must inevitably produce resemblances in religious belief. The -resemblances may indicate the aspirations of a moral and religious -nature common to all men; and in what is peculiar to Christianity, what -it possesses in contrast, may be found the divine answer to these -aspirations. The two religions may proceed in parallel lines, but on -very different planes, and from quite opposite directions. Thus the -morality of Buddhism so deservedly admired is in no sense peculiar to -Buddhism, for much of it was taught in India before Buddha appeared, and -in China before his law was proclaimed in it. It is the natural -outgrowth of the moral sense of mankind where circumstances are -favourable to its development. But high as the law of Buddha is, it only -“approaches, swings toward,” as Oldenberg tells us, but never reaches or -touches the law of Christ.[46] There is in the Christian Gospel -something which the Buddhist system plainly lacks, and which Buddhism -out of any evolution of its own inherent energy could never produce. -Christianity seems to be superior to it, not in the sense that the -infant is superior to the embryo, but as man is superior to the animal, -which yet may be said of very necessity to precede him. The lower -organism in creation, though not accounting for the higher, may reach -out after and indicate the necessity for it, and the higher by -fulfilling the lower will interpret it. Just as the mineral, vegetable, -and animal world all point to some higher creative fact, which in man is -to sum up and perfect them, so the many lower religions of the human -race all point to a higher, which is to annul and fulfil them. No theory -of evolution has yet accounted for man. He appears in the universe as a -new creature while part of a very old system of creation, and related to -all its inferior forms. So Christianity, in one sense as old as human -history, and related to every form of religion by which man has tried to -satisfy his spiritual cravings, may not be elaborated out of any of them -as their products, but confronts us as a new fact of history to satisfy -and complete them. - -This conclusion is one which many students of the science of religion -are not prepared to accept. To them Christianity is simply one of the -natural religions, and at best their highest but necessary outgrowth. -Just as they allege that the origin of man is to be found in the lowest -type of the savage, so they seek for the genesis of his religious -consciousness in his lowest animal wants and fears, and they profess to -trace the development of that consciousness from its first almost -shapeless forms, through the monstrosities of Fetichism, then of -Animism, Polytheism, Monotheism, till it finds its ultimate culmination -in Christ. Now Christianity is indeed a natural religion; were it -otherwise, it would cease to be divine. It supplies all man’s natural -wants, and it satisfies and educates all man’s natural aspirations. -While, however, there is nothing _un_natural in it, we aver that there -is something supranatural in its ideal, fitting it to answer the -necessities of a being who has in him all that nature has, and a great -deal more. Man is a being akin on one side of his nature to both the ape -and the worm, but he is also what they are not. “The pressure of the -infinite on his senses” awakens feelings, and originates a train of -thought in which he soon becomes conscious of relations to a higher than -nature his inferior, and to other than men his equals. There is that in -him which once it is aroused refuses to believe that what he sees or -handles or tastes is all, and that there can be no higher being than -himself. If his own most perfect machine does not express all his -intelligence, he cannot believe that all possible intelligence is -comprehended and expressed in the world of nature. Behind and beyond all -these physical arrangements of the world, which seem fully to meet the -lower wants of his being, he feels that there must be higher -arrangements corresponding to his peculiar wants. Just because he finds -every appetite has its corresponding object, and every organ implies an -element for which it is fitted,—so that if there be an eye there must be -light, and if lungs there must be air,—so this feeling or instinct which -impels him to seek the unknown Power, “for whose sake he feels -constrained to do what he does not like to do, or to abstain from what -he would like to do,”[47] is the pledge not only that He exists, but -that he has already and always been found by Him, as One who understands -perfectly his thoughts and wants, and is freely communicating with him. - -It is not in the anthropoid ape that we may hope to find the origin of -man, and it is not in the terror of the savage cowering before the -majesty and mystery of nature that we are likely to find the genesis of -his religion. Even if anthropology succeeded in proving that savagery -was the first type in which humanity was expressed, and that its bestial -rites inspired by terror was the first form of human religion, it would -not then have accounted for their origin. The gulf between the religious -savage and the non-religious speechless ape would remain as vast as -ever. The first manifested beginning of a work may be rude enough, “as -is the rough block which receives the first stroke of the sculptor who -has designed to produce a statue; but the real beginning,” as we have -been eloquently reminded, “is in the plan of the artist, and to perceive -his ideal we have to wait for the final result.”[48] It is in the end -therefore that we may be said to find and understand the author. So the -origin of man, and the genesis of his religion, is more likely to be -indicated by that divine fiat which one of the ancient authors of -Genesis has dared to formulate, “Let us make man in our image, and after -our likeness.” According to that conception, man is a creature, neither -equal with, nor perfect as the Being who conceived him, but having -affinity with his Creator, and from the very first manifesting capacity -and potentiality of indefinite progress to be gained by the divine -education to which he is everlastingly subjected. - -It is not in the plan of our lecture to discuss these momentous -questions, or to enter the lists against the representatives of the -sciences of Anthropology or Religion. Anthropology is not sufficiently -advanced to scatter the mystery that surrounds the cradle of the human -race: and it would be rash for the apostles of the other science to -maintain that they have succeeded in tracing the lines of that process, -out of which Christianity or even Buddhism is alleged to have evolved -from the shapeless superstitions of the primitive savage, before they -confront us as facts in the history of human thought. Observation and -experience alike seem to counsel greater caution in making our -deductions and drawing our inferences. Indeed there seems to be almost -as much evidence in favour of the theory of degradation as there is in -favour of that of evolution. There is no inherent tendency in human -society to pass ever on and ever up to something better and nobler. No -race, by its own inherent strength, seems to have raised itself from -barbarism into anything that can be called true civilisation; but we -have abundant proof in the Aztecs of former generations, and the negroes -of the Black Republic in the present day, that races can terribly -decline. A state of civilisation is very difficult to keep, as well as -difficult to gain.[49] And so far as observation goes, savage life and -religion appear to be “not the dawning of a society about to rise, but -the fading remains of one sinking in storms, overthrown and shattered by -overwhelming catastrophes.” Humboldt and Niebuhr, quoted by Whately in -his lecture on the Origin of Civilisation, both protest as strongly as -he did himself against those who profess to find in the wreck of the -civilised and religious man his original representative,[50] and our -best authority in the science of religion assures us that Fetichism, far -from being the initial of an upward course, marks the very last stage in -the downward course of religion.[51] It should content us, in the -present state of our knowledge, to find that humanity is capable both of -development and degradation. Savagery and civilisation are not separated -from each other by impassable barriers: savagery is at least a -possibility to a civilised race;[52] civilisation is not beyond the -reach of the savage. On the surface of the very highest civilisation -many things appear which are also to be seen in the lowest: and just as -in the lowest organisms certain rudimentary traces are found of members -which are perfected in organisms above them, so the very lowest savagery -seems to exhibit an upward tendency. In the same way the very purest -religions have clinging to them traces of the lowest superstitions. Not -in Buddhism only, but even in Christianity, we find forms of Animism and -Fetichism; but the question whether both religions first manifested -themselves in these lower forms, with which they are still partly -incrusted, must not be held to be settled in the affirmative because -these traces of them exist. Instead of being survivals which they have -not yet sloughed off or outgrown, they may be parasitical growths -indicating degradation and disease. - -Though the researches hitherto prosecuted have not resulted in the -discovery of a law regulating the development of religion,[53] they all -point to a common religious faculty peculiar to man, and indicate that -the religious instinct is co-extensive with the human race. Nothing, it -is true, in the nature of things forbids the discovery of tribes -absolutely without religion; but as matter of fact, no such have been -found. And as Tylor remarks, “those who assert the contrary disprove -their theories by the facts which they allege in support of them.”[54] -Now, if we find in all sections of humanity, even far apart from each -other, the same groping after an Author and Governor of our being, and -the same forecasting of our destiny, though in most contradictory, and, -alas! often fearfully perverted ways, we may safely infer as a -fundamental truth that humanity, though broken up into many fragments, -is really an organic unity, and that the Christian dogma simply -expresses a scientific fact, “that God hath made of one all nations on -the face of the earth.” - -If the organic unity of humanity be granted, the organic unity of -language and of religion too would seem to be deducible from it as -simple corollaries. But we must be careful in defining wherein this -organic unity consists. We may assume that in regard to language it does -not consist in a perfect primitive speech, broken up at later times into -numberless forms to be used richly and copiously by some civilised, but -scantily by barbarous peoples.[55] In regard to religion it does not -mean a complete compendium of truth supernaturally given to the fathers -of the human race, from which, while all men have erred more or less, -some have fearfully fallen away. Such a view, though held generally -once, would be condemned by Christian theologians now as irreligious in -principle, for it would seek for the roots of religion not in the nature -of man, but in some external enactment, and would make religion, which -is essentially spontaneous, to be something mechanical or compulsory in -action.[56] The unity of language does not consist in a common -vocabulary, but in a common faculty which all men have of expressing -their feelings and their thoughts; and the unity of religion does not -consist in a number of fundamental beliefs which all men have in common; -but in the universal instinct to believe in, and reverence and obey, a -power higher and better than ourselves. The faculty, the instinct in -each case is one; yet it has been developed, if we are to use that word, -in very different degrees. In some tribes the faculty of reckoning is so -weak, that they have numerals only to five, and their vocabulary is so -poor as to express only objects around them or their own sensuous wants. -In the same way in some peoples the religious faculty is so stunted as -almost to be amorphous. It exists as it were in embryo; in other peoples -it perplexes us by the monstrosities in which it is expressed, but the -monstrosity, as we are reminded,[57] may mark a further growth which -also points onward to something more complete, and may be in itself a -type of things not seen as yet. Observation therefore seems to detect a -religious tendency in process of evolution, and if so, the only question -is as to whether that tendency develops by its own inherent power, or by -a process of education intelligently conducted; in other words, whether -man grows into his religion, or whether he is instructed in it by the -revelation of a mind higher than his own. - -The New Testament writers, while proclaiming the organic unity of -humanity, proclaim as clearly that the organic development of religion -proceeds under Divine control. The phrase “organic development of -religion” may only be a modern way of designating that long continuous -process by which God reveals His mind and will for the education of the -human race, which culminated when He “who at sundry times and in divers -manners,” in various ways and in different measures, “spake unto the -fathers by the prophets,” spoke unto us by His Son. Holy Scripture from -first to last is consistent in its teaching as to this. It tells of a -Divine Spirit not operative only in one race or in one part of the world -during a few centuries of its history, but striving with human souls -always and everywhere. It tells us that God never left the world without -a witness of Himself; it reminds us of prophets—certainly not all of the -one nation—who, trained to grasp and to proclaim moral and spiritual -truths, were sent to lead among their fellow-men lives so pure and -unselfish as profoundly to affect the moral progress of the whole human -race. In a word, it reveals Deity not as apart from man and uninterested -in him, but as an everlasting agent in human history,—working out an -eternal purpose hid as a mystery from all ages, but now manifested in -the last times to us; the purpose of gathering together not only the -scattered and alienated nations, but “all things which are in heaven and -which are on earth in One,” even in Christ. - -The proclamation of this universality of the Divine purpose is one of -the chief distinctive characteristics of Christianity. Its canonical -Scriptures from beginning to end contradict the Jewish heresy, that God, -though He has made of one all nations, has only taken one or two under -His protection, and has no care for the rest. They tell us that God -cares for the sparrow that flits over the heads of the most degraded of -the human race, and for the worm that crawls under their feet; and by -implication they warn us that to assert that He who has provided for the -wants of the reptile and the bird has made no provision for the -spiritual wants of those whom He is said to have made in His image, is -blasphemy more heinous than ever heathen or atheist has uttered. “The -same Lord over all is rich in mercy unto all,” and “He is not far from -any one” of them. He has left none “without a witness.” Though He has -given some more than others, He has left no one without something. The -religious instinct in some He has specially trained and illuminated, not -because He regards them as favourites—for He is no respecter of -persons—but because through them He would work out His beneficent plan -for all. A few are indeed chosen, but that many may be called, and when -one individual or one people is selected and peculiarised, it is that -through them all nations may be blessed. - -St. Paul, quoting to the Athenians from one of their own poets, reminded -them that “we are all His offspring,” and as such we are all divinely -cared for. It is true that He does not deal with all after the same -fashion, and His dealings will always be perplexing if we apply to them -only the standard of man and the measures of time; but if we remember -that “He is God, and not man,” that “His years are throughout all -generations,” and that we “can see only a portion of His ways,” we may -trust that by-and-by He will show that He has wasted neither His own -patience nor His creatures’ strength. For though He may not be dealing -with us after the same fashion, He is dealing with all toward the same -blessed end, the end which He has revealed in Christ, through whom, and -by whom, and in whom, all men and things are to be reconciled. - -We can only judge of His purpose by what of it has been disclosed. -Humanity, essentially and fundamentally one, exhibits most manifold -variety. While the unity of the race secures its sympathy with all its -members, in its variety there is secured its indefinite expansion and -progress. No family could always keep together in one spot: the -differences of disposition and character among its members demand their -separation as the condition of harmony. The family of man is a scattered -one, not merely to prevent jealousy and hostility between its members, -but to promote their education. The training of the race seems to -proceed on principles somewhat analogous to those which we ourselves -have adopted in the education of our children. We never could hope to -educate a large number of children of various ages and mental -capacities, by keeping them all in one class; so we break them up, and -isolate, and grade them, and train some of them specially for the sake -of all, that they may be their leaders and teachers. Even so, we find -nations widely separated by natural barriers, that the characteristic -energies of each may be developed, till the time comes when one or other -of them is needed for the elevation or reformation of the rest. That the -division of nations and the separate training of nations entered deeply -into the counsels of Providence, may be learned by a glance at the -configuration of the world, and the influences which are exercised by -soil and climate and circumstance upon any single nation. The blessed -effect of this division may be seen by the slightest survey of history -in the corrective, educative, redemptive influence which they have -exercised upon each other.[58] And yet a survey of the history of the -last eighteen centuries will just as plainly indicate a Divine purpose -of drawing the nations toward unity. Babel may mark the Divine purpose -of the primeval economy, and Pentecost may be the sign of the present. -The wonder in the plain of Shinar was, that through diversity of speech -men were ceasing to understand each other. The wonder in Jerusalem was, -that men of the most widely separate nationalities heard, each in their -own tongue, Christian evangelists proclaim the marvellous works of God. -Religion, which up till the coming of Christ, had proved a repellent and -divisive force, began at that time to prove an attractive, harmonising, -and transforming power. A new spring-tide dawned upon man’s religious -conceptions, and truths after which all had been groping, but which none -had attained to, emerged grandly into prominence. The Fatherhood of the -One living and eternal God, the Divine Son, in whom all men are -brethren, and the Holy Spirit, dealing with every man, working upon him -and in him to conform him to the likeness of the highest and best, began -to be revealed; and the more that revelation is accepted the more the -reconciliation of the race advances. - -It is not our interest, therefore, to sever Christianity from all -connection with the manifold forms in which the religious instinct and -faculty of man has found expression. If it could be proved that our -religion stands in no relation to anything which men in other religions -thought or believed, it would be discovered defective, and we would have -to abandon the claim that it is the universal religion of humanity. To -assert that all previous religious ideas must be expunged as erroneous -or false, so that an entirely new message might be written, is to -contradict the evangelical doctrine as to the nature of Christ and the -purpose of His mission to the world. The New Testament writers assert -that Christ is the source of all the truth that was ever uttered, the -inspirer of all the goodness that was ever seen, and that He is the -stimulator and educator of man’s every reaching out after God. The -noblest thinkers, it is true, failed to comprehend the truth, and their -highest religion failed to satisfy them; but we must not think of them -as divinely permitted to fail to teach us the glory of Christ as the -ultimate revelation of God. Here, as in all similar cases, failure was -rather a partial success; for by the effort to reach it the mind was -trained to receive and grasp the reality when it was disclosed. Some one -has said that all pre-Christian religions are just Christ partially—very -very partially—realised. Certainly they all point to Him, and but for -Him they would have been abortive. They all suggest Him, in respect that -they each claim something to satisfy and unite them. Christianity thus -proves itself Divine, not in being absolutely different from, nor even -in being vastly superior to, but in the fact that it harmonises and -completes them. Instead, therefore, of being scared by the resemblances -to Christianity which we meet in other religions, we should be thankful -for their discovery. The early Apologists were not frightened when -Celsus,[59] in the second century, submitted his alleged parallels to -Christian doctrine and ethics, in order to prove that what Christians -called revelation had already been attained by the unassisted efforts of -heathen minds. Anticipating the language of the eighteenth century -Deists, he proclaimed that “Christianity was as old as creation.” His -parallels were often found to be defective, and many of them had only to -be looked at to show the immense superiority of the Christian -quotations. Augustine turned them against himself, when he showed that -to claim entire originality for Christianity, to deny the existence of -any light before Christ came, and the possibility of any silent -universal revelation through reason and conscience, was to contradict -His Messiahship. To ignore what God had done before, would have cut Him -off from God and man. We would expect the Son of Man to confirm the -deepest convictions of the human race. We would expect the Son of God to -claim and utilise all the truth God’s Spirit had spoken in ages past. -“Siquis vera loquitur, prior est quam ipse veritas? O Homo, attende -Christum, non quando ad te venerit, sed quando te fecerit.”[60] - -The more of Christian doctrine and ethics we find in other religions, -the more Divine will Christianity appear. There is not a truth which has -verified and sustained any other religion which is not found in -Christianity, in fuller amount and in clearer form. Christianity differs -from all other religions, not because it is a purer system of moral -truth, but because it is the manifestation of a Divine life, and because -in that life it reveals the _power_ which alone can reconcile the -knowing with the doing of duty. It professes only to have one original, -one distinctive element; but how much is involved in that profession? -for this original is Christ Himself, and all its doctrines and precepts -are vital only because of their connection with Christ. Whole libraries -of moral and doctrinal anthologies would not make up for the -obliteration of His likeness from the religious consciousness of the -world: “It would be like consoling ourselves for the loss of the sun by -the kindling of ten thousand artificial lamps.”[61] He confronts the -ages, as the One to whom all religions point, of whom all true prophets -of the human race have unconsciously testified. They, like the Founder -of this great religion, whose alleged resemblances will be found, as we -examine them, to be rather point-blank contradictions and contrasts to -the Christian doctrines and story, may have indeed been burning and -shining lights, and men were willing for a season to rejoice in their -light. They were “not that Light,” but as voices crying in the night for -its arising they came to “bear witness of it”: the Light not of Asia -only, nor yet only of Europe, but the “Light which lighteth every man -that cometh into the world.” - -Footnote 1: - - _Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung_, Pref. xiii. - -Footnote 2: - - Professor Max Müller, Gifford Lectures for 1888, on _Natural - Religion_, p. 11. - -Footnote 3: - - T. W. Rhys Davids, Hibbert Lectures, 1881, “On the Origin and Growth - of Religion as illustrated by some points in the History of Indian - Buddhism,” p. 10. - -Footnote 4: - - Max Müller, _Introduction to the Science of Religion_, p. 38. - -Footnote 5: - - John v. 39. - -Footnote 6: - - Baring Gould, _Origin and Development of Religious Belief_, vol. i. p. - 121. - -Footnote 7: - - Westcott, _Victory of the Cross_, pp. 3, 6. - -Footnote 8: - - T. W. Rhys Davids estimates the number at five hundred millions - (_Handbook of Buddhism_, p. 6). The previous general estimate was - about four hundred millions; but Dr. A. J. Happer, missionary at - Canton for forty-five years, reduces this number to seventy-three - millions. Sir Monier Williams, in his recent book on Buddhism, quoting - Professor Legge’s introduction to _Travels of Fa-Hian_, calculates the - number at one hundred millions, and claims for Christianity, with its - four hundred and thirty millions of adherents, the numerical - preponderance over all others. - -Footnote 9: - - T. W. Rhys Davids, _Buddhism_, pp. 4, 7; Sir Monier Williams, - _Buddhism_, p. 171. - -Footnote 10: - - Dr. Caird, _Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion_, Croall - Lectures, 1878-9, pp. 82 _seq._; T. W. Rhys Davids, Hibbert Lectures, - 1881, _On the Origin and Growth of Religion as illustrated by - Buddhism_, p. 7. - -Footnote 11: - - To draw proper inferences from statistics of the spread and supremacy - of a religion, we must first investigate the circumstances in which it - was propagated, and the intellectual and moral conditions of the - peoples whom it has converted. If it has gained only the belief of - _one_ section of the human race, it is evidently not entitled to rank - with another which proves itself influential among _all_ sections. A - religion dominant only over _inferior_ races is manifestly of less - value than another which, while satisfying the wants of the lowest and - most degraded peoples, is yet fulfilling the spiritual aspirations of - the _highest_. The first, if in any way related to the second, can - only be so as preparatory and prophetic of the mission which the - second alone can accomplish. - -Footnote 12: - - _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. i. Introd. - -Footnote 13: - - Köppen, _Die Religion des Buddha_, s. 231; J. Barthelemy - Saint-Hilaire, _Le Bouddha_, etc., pp. 78, 144, 181; Spence Hardy, - _Manual of Buddhism_, p. 358. - -Footnote 14: - - Sir Monier Williams, _Buddhism_, p. xv, Introd. - -Footnote 15: - - Alabaster, _Modern Buddhist; in the Wheel of the Law_, p. 73; Trübner - and Co., 1871. - -Footnote 16: - - 5th April 1885. In the Madras _Times_ for October 29, 1886, a meeting - of the Society for the Propagation of True Religion is advertised, for - reading and exposition of the Bhagavad-Gita. - -Footnote 17: - - _The Light of Asia_; _The Occult World_; _Esoteric Buddhism_; - _Theosophy of Archaic Religions_. - -Footnote 18: - - _Parerga_, 3d ed. i. 59. - -Footnote 19: - - _Westminster Review_, New Series, vol. xlviii. p. 469. - -Footnote 20: - - Gerald Massey, _Light_, 16th June 1883. - -Footnote 21: - - Among these are reckoned Adam, Fohi, Laotze, Jesus, Mohammed, and - Jenghiz Khān.—Kinnealy, _Commentary on the Apocalypse_, p. 685. - -Footnote 22: - - Pember, _Earth’s Earlier Ages_, p. 326. - -Footnote 23: - - H. H. Wilson, _Essays_, vol. ii. p. 376; Huc and Gabet, _Travel in - Tartary and Thibet_; translated by Mrs. p. Sinnett and W. Hazlitt. - -Footnote 24: - - _Buddhist Birth Stories_, translated by T. W. Rhys Davids, vol. i - Introd. p. xli. - -Footnote 25: - - Foucher de Careil, _Hegel et Schopenhauer_, p. 306. - -Footnote 26: - - _Vie de Jésus_, p. 98, 4th ed.; Paris, 1863. - -Footnote 27: - - The Buddhists, as Professor Kuenen remarks, do not believe in angels, - and they have no _Messiah_. Tathagata, which Mr. de Bunsen translates - “The Coming One,” _i.e._ Messiah, means “One _who has gone_” or “has - arrived at” (Nirvana), like his predecessors. So Oldenberg, Rhys - Davids, Bigandet, Edkins, Rajendralal Mitra: see too Dr. Kellogg, - _Light of Asia and the Light of the World_, pp. 106, 107. - -Footnote 28: - - See for these and other curious instances his article on “The - Obligations of the New Testament to Buddhism,” _Nineteenth Century_, - Dec. 1880. - -Footnote 29: - - _Natural and Universal Religions_, Hibbert Lectures, 1882. - -Footnote 30: - - _Strom._ i. 15; Porphyry, _de Abstin._ iv. 17. - -Footnote 31: - - Schwanbeck, _Megasthenes Indica_, p. 20; Lassen, _Ind. - Alterthumskunde_, 209; H. H. Wilson, _Essays_, ii. p. 314 _seq._; - Reinaud, _Relations Politiques et Commerciales de l’Empire Romain avec - l’Asie Central_, Paris, 1863; Priaulx, _Travels of Apollonius and the - Indian Embassies to Rome_, Paris, 1873. - -Footnote 32: - - The question of the disciples in John ix. 2, concerning the man who - was born blind, “Who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was - born blind?” is alleged by Professor Seydel (_Das Evangelium von Jesu - in seinen Verhältnissen zu Buddha-Sage und Buddha-Lehre_) to indicate - an idea introduced into the Gospel from a foreign source, as the - doctrine of the pre-existence of souls was then unknown among the - Jews. Meyer in his critical and exegetical Handbook to St. John’s - Gospel has shown that no one required to go outside the sphere of - Jewish thought for an explanation of this part of the disciples’ - question. In addition to his quotations from the Rabbinical books - illustrating this Jewish belief, Kuenen in his brief criticism of - Seydel adduces another from the Wisdom of Solomon viii. 20, as also - rendering the Buddhist derivation of this “thought quite superfluous” - (Hibbert Lectures, 1882, Appendix). Many instances of agreement in - thought and phraseology with the Gospels in passages in Buddhist works - are adduced by Dr. Kellogg, _Light of Asia, etc._, p. 137 _seq._, and - are satisfactorily accounted for by the similarity of circumstances - under which Buddha and the Saviour taught and the condition of men - which they both perceived and described. - -Footnote 33: - - Lucius, _Die Therapeuten und ihre Stellung in der Geschichte der - Askese_, Strassburg, 1880; also _Der Essenismus in seinem Verhältniss - zum Judenthum_, Strassburg, 1881. - -Footnote 34: - - Dissertation in Commentary on _Colossians_, pp. 119, 157. - -Footnote 35: - - _Jewish Wars_, ii. 8. 2-13; _Antiq._ xiii. 5. 9; xv. 10. 4, 5; xviii. - 1. 2-6. - -Footnote 36: - - Edersheim, _Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah_, vol. i. p. 325. - -Footnote 37: - - Hibbert Lectures, 1882, p. 203. - -Footnote 38: - - Oldenberg, _Buddha, sein Leben, seine Lehre, seine Gemeinde_, - translated by W. Hoey, 1882, p. 6; Williams and Norgate. - -Footnote 39: - - Dr. Joseph Edkins, _Chinese Buddhism_, pp. 250, 343; Trübner, 1880. - -Footnote 40: - - Fergusson, _Tree and Serpent Worship_, Introduction, p. 77. - -Footnote 41: - - This must be read in the light of Professor Max Müller’s _What can - India teach us?_ - -Footnote 42: - - Luke viii. 46. - -Footnote 43: - - Even Kuenen and Wellhausen assume as established that Monotheism shows - itself with unmistakable distinctness in Hebrew prophecies of the - eighth century B.C. (Hibbert Lectures, 1882, p. 119; _Theological - Review_, 1874, pp. 329, 336; _Encyc. Brit._, art. ISRAEL). Professor - H. Schultz maintains that Monotheism was established in Israel from - the time of Moses downward, among the leaders of thought at least. - (_Alttest. Theolog._, 2d ed., 1878, pp. 440, 457.) - -Footnote 44: - - _Light of Asia and Light of the World_, pp. 40, 102, 161. - -Footnote 45: - - Weber, _Indische Studien_, vol. i. p. 400; J. Muir, _Sanskrit Texts_, - p. xxxiv; Lorinser, _Bhagavadgitâ_, Appendix, translated by Muir in - _Ind. Antiq._ vol. ii. p. 283. - -Footnote 46: - - _Buddha, sein Leben, seine Lehre, seine Gemeinde_, translated by Wm. - Hoey, 1882, p. 292. - -Footnote 47: - - Müller, Gifford Lectures, _Natural Religion_, p. 169. - -Footnote 48: - - Dr. Caird, _Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion_, p. 343 _seq._ - -Footnote 49: - - Sir A. Mitchell, Rhind Lectures for 1876 and 1878, _The Past in the - Present_, pp. 207, 214; Edinburgh, Douglas, 1880. - -Footnote 50: - - Whately, _Political Economy_, p. 68. - -Footnote 51: - - Max Müller, Gifford Lectures, _Natural Religion_, p. 54. - -Footnote 52: - - The savagery of a great city is in some aspects more awful than that - of Africa. - -Footnote 53: - - T. W. Rhys Davids, Hibbert Lectures, p. 10. - -Footnote 54: - - Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, vol. i. p. 380. - -Footnote 55: - - Müller, _Introduction to the Science of Religion_, p. 41; _Chips from - a German Workshop_, vol. ii. p. 254. - -Footnote 56: - - Fairbairn, _Studies in Religion and Philosophy_, p. 13. - -Footnote 57: - - Baring Gould, _Origin and Development of Religious Belief_, vol. i. p. - 109. - -Footnote 58: - - “Nations,” says Professor Goldwin Smith, “redeem each other. They - preserve for each other principles, truths, and hopes, and aspirations - which, committed to the keeping of one, might become extinct for ever. - They thus not only raise each other again when fallen, but they - prevent each other from falling.”—_Lectures on the Study of History_, - delivered in Oxford 1859-61, p. 71. - -Footnote 59: - - Celsus, quoting our Lord’s saying, Matt. xix. 24, and the exhortation - to forgive our enemies, Matt. v. 43, 45, alleged they were transferred - and coarsely perverted from Plato, _de Legibus_, and _Crito_.—Origen, - _contra Celsum_, Book vi. chaps. 15, 16, and Book vii. chap. 61. - -Footnote 60: - - _Enarr. in Psalm._ cxl. 6. Clement of Alexandria regarded Greek - philosophy as a προπαιδεία or preparatory discipline for the reception - of Christian truth, _Strom._ vi. chap. 8, and as a step to something - higher, ὑποβάθραν οὖσαν τῆς κατὰ Χριστὸν φιλοσοφίας, _Strom._ vi. - chap. 17. - -Footnote 61: - - Trench, Hulsean Lectures for 1846, p. 153. - - - - - LECTURE II. - THE HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS OF BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY, AND THE - EVIDENTIAL VALUE OF THEIR RESPECTIVE SCRIPTURES. - - -It should be an advantage to the study of Buddhism that even in its -origin it confronts us as the religion of a people sufficiently advanced -in civilisation to be able to formulate their metaphysical conceptions -and present us with their religious beliefs organised in a system. Like -Christianity it not only inherited but also produced a considerable and -very miscellaneous literature, whose contents throw valuable light upon -the past from which it emerged and upon the course which it followed, -and like Christianity it has left its stamp on most of the institutions -of the peoples among whom it was successfully propagated. When all these -sources of information have been properly investigated, we may hope that -the story of the rise and progress of Buddhism in the East will be -revealed with something at least of the clearness with which the history -of Christianity is disclosed by the literature and art of the West. - -To trace, however, the dawn and spread of Buddhism with anything like -historical accuracy for the first six or seven hundred years of its -course, is a task as yet beyond the literary ability of the times. It is -doubtful whether the materials for such a work have as yet been -collected, and he would be a bold man who would claim for the task of -sifting what has already been furnished more than an earnest beginning. -Not even Saint-Hilaire would now repeat the assertion so confidently -made thirty years ago,[62] that “no new discoveries can change our -conclusions regarding it”; for during the past generation the effect of -fuller information has been not only to modify, but in several instances -to revolutionise the theories formed concerning it. Discoveries are -multiplying every year; and, though the knowledge thus acquired serves -often more to reveal difficulties than to solve them, we may be thankful -that the examination of them is engaging the attention of the highest -order of scholarship, and hopeful, yea, even confident that since so -many of the ablest and most patient minds are turned in this direction, -the aggregate of progress will speedily be immense. - -All that we know of Buddhism, and all that we are likely to know of it, -is to be gathered from its own Scriptures; and a comparison of these -with the Christian Scriptures reveals at the very outset a difference -amounting to a vast contrast between them. The original Scriptures of -Christianity have been before the tribunal of the world’s keenest and -most hostile criticism for 1800 years; but we are only now beginning to -make the acquaintance of the Scriptures of Buddhism, which have hardly -been subjected to any cross-questioning worthy of the name. Those who -have ventured to assail have only published their inability to -understand them, and those most competent to criticise may be pardoned -if they handle tenderly the fragments which they are collecting and -translating for our use. The services which they are thus rendering to -religion as well as to science are very great. Previously we had only -anthologies extracted often without reference to date or authorship or -connection to judge from, but now these learned pundits are furnishing -us with books containing not only the wisdom and beauties of Eastern -literature, but its follies and blemishes as well. Omitting only what is -obscene and offensive to the moral sense,[63] they are giving us -specimens of several strata of Oriental thought and belief, vertically -and thoroughly cut, from which a correct understanding of the essential -features of this very peculiar religion may with considerable -probability be ascertained. - -Only a portion of the Buddhist Scriptures are as yet available, and -these we are certainly not at liberty to place side by side as of equal -evidential value with the contents of the New Testament. It is said that -two thousand manuscripts of the New Testament, or of portions of it, -have been discovered, several of which are of great antiquity, and -notwithstanding the immense number of various readings on points of -detail, the text of the oldest corresponds substantially with that of -the books as we have them to-day. We are informed, however, on the best -authority, that “all Indian manuscripts are comparatively modern, that -no manuscript written one thousand years ago is now existent in India, -and that it is almost impossible to find one written five hundred years -ago; for most manuscripts which claim to be of that date are merely -copies of old ones, the dates of which are repeated by the -copyists.”[64] It is admitted, moreover, that the literary honesty of -these Indian translators and copyists is very questionable, that the -books of the Buddhists have undergone wholesale textual alterations, -that none of the Sanskrit works as yet known to us are unadulterated -specimens of transmitted doctrines, that the oldest and most reliable -authorities for the life of Buddha exaggerate greatly events which are -said to have happened, and ascribe to him long discourses of which the -writers themselves were the composers.[65] In respect, therefore, of -literary accuracy and faithfulness of purpose, these old compilers and -re-editors of the Buddhist books are far below the standard which -criticism has inexorably applied to the versionists of the Christian -Scriptures. - -The faithfulness of our English versions is vouched for by the names of -the translators, and yet they admit that their translations are only -approximations.[66] From the very nature of the case they must be so. -The East is very far distant from the West; its ways are not our ways; -its thoughts are not our thoughts. Some one has said that “the _Iliad_ -is separated from the _Rig Veda_ by an interval of several -civilisations”; and if so, how vast must be the gulf separating Vedic -and even Buddhist metaphysicians from the British philosopher of to-day! -It is simply impossible for the most impartial translator to put himself -in the place of the ancient Indian sage, and to prevent his own -preconceptions from insinuating themselves among the data with which he -has to deal. He has to express, as we have been reminded, “a lower order -of ideas in a higher order of terms, and use words suggesting a wealth -of analysis and association quite foreign to the thought to be -reproduced. Translation from a lower to a higher language is thus a -process of elevation.”[67] In reading these translations and the books -founded upon them, we have constantly to guard against giving to such -terms as “sin,” “lust,” “salvation,” “law,” “church,” and many others, -our Christian conceptions of them. We are often perplexed whether the -phrases employed, and even the very titles of the treatises, be really -the equivalents of the ancient texts and titles, or nineteenth century -conceptions of what they may be made to mean. A European scholar -inheriting the results of ages of Christian culture may be more likely -to interpret the reach of an old Buddhist expression than the monk who -first used it; but he is always in danger of confounding that reach with -his own firm grasp of truth, and of expressing his conceptions by -phraseology which, if it could be explained to the ancient, would be -rejected by him as inconsistent with his original meaning. - -Another strong contrast between the two sets of scriptures emerges when -we attempt to fix the dates at which the earliest Buddhist works were -produced. The New Testament is admitted by authorities who cannot be -accused of prejudice in favour of Christianity and even by antichristian -critics, to contain the actual writings of some of the original -disciples of Jesus. The very latest of the books which compose it was in -circulation within a century after His death, while the great bulk of -them were accepted before half a century had passed as the testimonies -of those who were eye-witnesses of the rise of our religion.[68] M. -Renan admits that the three Synoptical Gospels are the “tender -remembrances and simple narratives of the first and second generations -of Christians, written in substantially their present form by the men -whose names they bear.”[69] The epistle of St. James and several of the -epistles of St. Paul are almost now unanimously accepted as the products -of the first generation. Mons. E. Burnouf therefore may safely aver that -“the history of Christian doctrine and worship bears the crown over all -others in respect that its records are complete.”[70] What of these -records are comprised in the New Testament, though tried by the severest -of tests, continues to-day as they were eighteen centuries ago delivered -to the Church. Though the various readings in the mss. are said to be -counted by 200,000, hardly one of them can be said to affect a -fundamental doctrinal or historical statement; and so outstanding and -distinct is their canonical character that it requires no external -authority, but only comparison with them, to disclose what of early -Christian literature is to be regarded as apocryphal. - -The evidence on which Orientalists have to rely in fixing the date of -the Buddhist scriptures is confessedly such “that we must not be -surprised if those who are accustomed to test historical and -chronological evidence in reference to Greece and Rome declined to be -convinced by it.”[71] For centuries after the death of Buddha his -followers assure us that they had no written books constituting their -rules of faith and manners. The earliest written collection of which in -their own records we have any historical trace is that of Ceylon, and -all that can be said of it is “that there is nothing improbable” that -part of it may have been reduced to writing about the first century -B.C., but the whole was only fixed about 420 A.D. The Nepaulese -collection is said to date only from the first Christian century; but it -is not alleged that the whole of the works now in it were even then in -existence. According to their own tradition, they had no written -biography of Buddha till about the first century of our era, and no one -who has examined that narrative or read the opinions expressed by -Orientalists as to the date when it was produced—opinions so divergent -as to indicate a difference of several centuries—would ever dream of -employing it as evidence of what is alleged in it to have happened. It -is simply impossible, therefore, to regard the Buddhist’s Pitakas as if -they were of similar authoritative value with the New Testament, for, in -fact, in respect of canonical worth they do not deserve to be ranked -with much of our later patristic literature. - -A very high antiquity, however, is claimed by Buddhists for these -collections. According to the Dipavanso, their earliest available -chronicle, dating only from the fifth century A.D., the doctrines orally -communicated by Buddha to his disciples were by them immediately after -his death revised and classified under the three divisions of Vinaya, -Abhidharma, and Sutta, in which they have always since then been -preserved. This collection having passed through the crucible of a -council held at Vaisali a hundred years later, was fixed as canonical at -another held in the reign of Asoka about 242 B.C. It is urged that a -canon, to be authoritative, does not require to be written, and that -Indians claim for one orally transmitted higher authority than for one -transcribed. The art of writing was probably unknown in India in -Buddha’s time, and so, thrown back upon their resources, memory was by -the Indians cultivated to an extent which enabled them to dispense with -methods deemed by nearly all other peoples to be essential to accuracy. -Eminent Orientalists therefore, while regarding the account of the first -council as apocryphal, are yet inclined to admit—from the identity of -the threefold division in all the schools that have been tested, from -the similarity of the titles of the contents of all the various -collections, and especially from the quality of the writings -themselves—that the tradition recorded in the Dipavanso is well founded, -and that considerable portions of the Vinaya and Sutta literature may -date from a hundred years after the death of Buddha. - -In assuming so much, however, these scholars by no means believe that -they have found in these texts the actual teaching of Buddha in an -unadulterated condition. While not thinking it possible to impugn the -substantial accuracy of the Vinaya texts, though given in Pali -translations of the lost dialect in which they were originally preached, -they tell us that the oldest of the Sutta texts are “not his teachings -nor the teachings of his immediate disciples, who could not have spoken -of him in the manner in which he is there described. They are only -founded on his teachings, and record existing beliefs as to the -doctrines which he actually taught.”[72] For “the fundamental and -original doctrines they may be accepted as fairly trustworthy -authorities,” but for the facts of his life they are even at the best -very questionable guides. Nearer to the origin of Buddhism and of the -person of its founder we are not likely to get than in the book entitled -by its translator the Sutta of the Great Decease; but he confesses that -even in it we are standing on anything but solid ground, and that we are -only able to catch a distant and most uncertain glimpse of the figure of -the great Teacher as he comes out at rare intervals from the mist of -legends which, designed to adorn and magnify, have in reality diminished -and obscured his real personality. - -For our knowledge of Buddhism, therefore, we have for centuries only -oral traditions to rely upon. Of these traditions only a portion may be -traced approximately to the times of Buddha, and of the fragments which -can possibly be traced not one contains a narrative nor any historical -reference to passing events. On the contrary, our knowledge of the -origin of Christianity is derived not from fragments of oral tradition, -but from a set of canonical writings, many of them traceable close to -the generation that witnessed Christ’s death, in which the story of His -ministry is set in historical relation to the age in which He appeared, -and His peculiar doctrines are so fixed that any addition to them is at -once recognised as spurious. Between the extremes of criticism as to the -period covered by the life of Christ there is a difference of only half -a dozen years; but there is a difference in Buddhist traditions of more -than a thousand years as to the date of Buddha’s birth, and even -European scholars, after carefully sifting traditions and writings, have -only been able approximately to fix dates for his death ranging over a -period of 175 years.[73] - -For historical accuracy, therefore, the traditions are as worthless as -they are for any photographic presentation of the various persons who -figure in them. In truth we have in them neither chronology nor -biography. Events and actors are equally indistinct; we have only a -background without any perspective, and pasteboard puppets projected -against it which might be designated by any name whatever. Even in -respect of transmission of doctrine, oral tradition was found very early -to have failed. The reason given in their chronicles for resorting to -writing is confession sufficient that they considered that method of -preserving the deposit of the faith a safer one.[74] So divergent had -the renderings and so corrupt had the texts become—“for even the monks -of the great council were blamed for turning the religion upside down, -for distorting the sense and teaching of the five Nikayas, for casting -aside that Sutta and Vinaya, and making imitations of them changing this -to that[75]—that the profoundly wise priests, foreseeing the perdition -of the people (from the perversion of the doctrines), and in order that -the religion might endure for ages, wrote the same in books.”[76] Before -this time the many schisms which had arisen were powerful illustrations -of the evils which the “profoundly wise” transcribers deplored, and of -that falling away from the original creed which this religion had -already suffered for lack of a secured basis of faith.[77] - -For the want of an authoritative standard told very severely against the -early history of Buddhism. Its rapid and widespread extension was due, -not so much to the natural development of its own principles as to its -assimilation of the external and foreign influences with which it came -in contact. Its advance was the result more of compromise than of -conquest.[78] It welcomed or tolerated, at least it could not or did not -defend itself against the introduction of many parasitical germs which -were destined to arrest its growth and pass into its life. As the ivy -covers and adorns the oak only to suck away with its million mouths its -strength, so the popular beliefs which Buddhism incorporated from -without, as well as the defections from the original teaching which took -place within it, produced very soon upon it alterations so extensive -that its founder would have disclaimed or would have been really unable -to recognise it as his own. - -No temptation happened to Buddhism, however, but such as is common to -all the higher religions. As far as observation and experience go, the -lower types of religion continue unchanged; but those that confront us -upon a higher level are in a perpetual flux, in which change does not -always indicate progress. Instead of tracing their path by the -superstitions which they have outgrown, their course may be indicated by -those which they have incorporated. Man, in his exodus of faith, is -always tempted to go back to the condition from which he has emerged, or -to fall away to the religions by which he is surrounded. Mosaism and -Christianity had to pass through this trial, and certainly they did not -pass through it unscathed. They suffered from the corruption of popular -superstitions and of Pagan rites, all of which, as in the case of -Buddhism, were defended by an appeal to tradition. Just as every -Buddhist innovator was ready with some forgotten saying or Sutta alleged -to have been delivered by the “Blessed One,” sometimes miraculously -preserved through the ages till the necessity for the revelation arose, -so the Popes and the Fathers of Christendom were never at a loss for -authorities when, professing to develop and define, they in reality were -adding to the faith and the worship and the claims of the Church. - -But Christianity from the very earliest possessed what Buddhism for a -long period lacked. In its canonical writings it conserved not only a -check upon this apostasy, but a security for reformation. Mechanical -though it seems, there was a providence in the early committal to -writing of such books as compose our Bibles. In the fact that their -successive disclosures of truth were thus registered there is more -significance than at first appears. It is admitted by all that man’s -progress depends in no small degree on his ability to secure and hand -down the treasures of his wisdom and experience. The art of writing is -thus recognised to be one of the most moving powers in the world. The -nations that have depended upon it for the transmission of knowledge -inherited or acquired, have certainly made more progress in religion and -civilisation than those that have neglected or despised it. It is -significant that the writers of the Bible have all recognised this -condition of human progress, and that many of them have represented -themselves as instructed by the Divine authority, from whom they profess -to have received their communications, to make them permanent in popular -language and in plain written form.[79] - -In the history of the Hebrews there is not a single recorded instance of -religious reformation in which the law and the testimony, or the scrolls -of the prophets, did not play an important part. In like manner the New -Testament, which embodies the ideals and perpetuates the standard which -is to regulate its course, not only saved Christianity from the perils -which threatened its earliest spread, but has often rescued it from the -degradation into which it has fallen. Canonical books may only give, as -it has been said, “the reflected image of the real doctrines of the -founder of a religion, an image always blurred and distorted by the -medium through which it has to pass”;[80] but in the case of the New -Testament the Church has never developed, or thought it possible to -develop, a purer reflection. Advance as it may, the Church never can -outgrow the ideals of its youth, and change what it pleases, it never -can improve them. Whenever the Church assumed supremacy over its law, -and whenever tradition superseded its testimony, it yielded to the -disintegrating influences of heathenism. It was rapidly lapsing into -polytheism when Mohammed rose with a spurious and mutilated version of -the Scriptures to recall it to the witness of true Scriptures to the -unity and sovereignty of God. Later on, when sinking through formalism -into superstition and sorcery almost as degrading as any Indian, Luther, -by the re-discovery of the Greek Testament, brought about a reformation -which not only saved Europe, but has created a new Western and Southern -world. In every revival and every advance which has taken place since -then there may be traced, directly or indirectly, the regenerative -influences of the Christian originals. On its human side the Christian -Church will always be in danger of losing its pure conceptions and noble -aims in grosser forms of belief and in lower ambitions; but high over -all its degradation towers in its early Scriptures the majesty and -spirituality of its Divine authority, and we have only to look up to be -first convicted, then attracted and redeemed. The purest sections of the -Christian Church, the surest and the first to outgrow all unworthy -expressions of Christianity, are those which adhere most closely to the -original rule of faith and worship. It is quite possible that we “may be -only too apt to make a fetich of our sacred books”;[81] but somehow the -Christian communities that most revere their sacred books show that they -are least likely to fall into this danger. The more we obey the -Scriptures, the less likely are we to idolise them. The New Testament, -so far from attaching any mystical or talismanic value to its contents, -tells us that the letter killeth, and the spirit alone giveth life. It -is otherwise with the Buddhist Tripitaka. Its authors claim meritorious -efficacy not only for the repetition of its sentences, but for the very -sound of its words, “as if they were capable of elevating every one who -hears them to heavenly abodes in future existence.” Sir Monier Williams -has illustrated this by a legend long current, not in northern Buddhist -countries, but in Ceylon, where a purer Buddhism prevails. According to -it, two monks were heard by five hundred bats reciting in a cave the law -of Buddha, and they by merely hearing gained such merit that in death -they were re-born as men, and ultimately through successive re-births -were raised to the fellowship of the gods.[82] Of course this is simply -a legend, a thing of hay or straw that has got mixed with the purer -primitive faith; but it indicates that the course of the current flows -in quite an opposite direction from the faith which allows itself to be -dominated and guided by the canon of Holy Scriptures. - -The quality of the contents of the two sets of writings is not under -discussion, but we cannot help remarking one characteristic of the -Christian Scriptures which is not likely to emerge in our longest -acquaintance with the Buddhist books. No one ever expects that the -genuineness of the contents of the Tripitaka will ever be discussed with -anything like the intensity and acerbity with which we have discussed -the genuineness of the books of the Bible. The long and fierce -contendings that have been waged over each portion of the Gospels will -never take place over any of the Suttas. We have been working for five -centuries to secure a proper English translation of the Holy Bible, and -we are not satisfied with it yet: does any one expect a similar -expenditure of labour to secure a proper version of the Tripitaka? It is -possible that scholarship will by and by exhaust this particular field -of Oriental research, and “having catalogued its discoveries will put -them aside and proceed to more interesting studies”; but though men have -quarrelled about and questioned the Holy Scriptures for eighteen -centuries they are not likely to come to a term of their hostility or -curiosity. The ceaseless endeavour to disprove, refute, shows that we -cannot get rid of them. There must be something either in the history of -their production or the quality of their contents, or the range of their -influence, which separates them from all sacred books of the type of the -Buddhist Tripitaka. Certainly we cannot conceive it possible that any of -these so-called Bibles of other religions will ever among any civilised -people supplant the Christian Bible. “One chapter of Isaiah,” says -Quinet,[83] “has more in it than a whole Republic of Plato.” One Psalm -of David will outweigh all the religious lore of the Vedas. One sentence -of Moses, “The Lord our God is one Lord: I the Lord am holy,” is worth -all the speculations of the devout and learned authors of the -Upanishads. Not that the Republic, the Vedas, the Upanishads are to be -despised. On the contrary, the more they are studied the more likely is -the Bible to be revered, for the truth that is in them is only prophetic -of truth which could not then be revealed and received. We may outlive -and outgrow the teaching of these wise ancients, but we have not yet -transcended the originals of Christianity, and it is not at all likely -that we ever shall. There is an end to the perfection of all other -systems, but here is “a commandment exceeding broad,” “whose line has -gone through all the earth, and its word to the end of the world.” - -From this slight notice of the literature which Buddhism has produced -let us proceed to glance at the literature which it inherited, with the -view of catching a glimpse of the conditions out of which it arose. As -with man’s language, so is it with his other distinctive birthright: we -can only understand a religion when we have ascertained its antecedents. -Christianity emerged from a previous religion of which it professed to -be the complement. Our Lord appeared among a people whose spiritual -history extended over several thousand years. They had a sacred canon, -professing to register the successive Divine revelations made to their -ancestors, which was fixed as we have it now at least two, and perhaps -more, centuries before He came. Instead of breaking with the past He -acknowledged and appropriated it; instead of abrogating their law, He -fulfilled it; instead of disowning their prophets He claimed them as His -witnesses. In prosecuting His mission He brought upon Himself the fierce -antagonism of the existing Church, whose leaders in less than three -years succeeded in having Him crucified; but His constant appeal was to -their ever-venerated Scriptures. His apostles again record and expound -the incidents of His ministry and His death as realising the -pre-intimations of their ancient rites, and as fulfilling all their -prophecies; and all along faith in the Divine origin of Christianity is -never supposed to be weakened but to be greatly confirmed by an appeal -to the religion which it annulled and supplanted. - -Now Buddhism grew out of Brahmanism, but however divergent their -relations eventually became, it was originally accepted as a natural -consequence of it. Unlike Christianity and Judaism, there was for long -no trace of serious antagonism between the Brahmans and many generations -of the successors of Buddha. Brahmans formed a considerable portion of -his followers, and in regard to his teaching, his doctrines, where not -identical, were not likely to offend them. St. Paul scandalised the -Pharisees by preaching that outward Jewish connection marked by the seal -of circumcision profited nothing, but long before Buddha’s time Brahman -teachers had declared, as he did, to that most exclusive of the Indian -elect, that the true Brahman was not a person born within the sacred -caste, but only the thoughtful and self-controlled man:[84] that a bad -mind and wicked deeds are what defile a man, and that no outward -observances can purify him.[85] Buddha has been designated as the best -and wisest and greatest of Hindus; “a reformer of Hinduism who ignored -its superstitions and follies, and sought to elevate and refine its -dogmas.”[86] It is now considered very questionable whether the -difference between the two systems ever grew into hostility involving -persecution of the new religion by the old. The two streams of Hindu -belief seem for long in their course in India to have flowed peaceably -side by side, and if Buddhism eventually disappeared from India as a -separate and distinct system, it was not altogether because it was -crushed by persecution, but because it returned to enrich and modify the -religion from which it originally parted.[87] - -Buddhism was thus an offspring of Brahmanism, but Brahmanism was itself -the product of a religion older still. Behind Buddhism lies a great and -undefined past, a past with no history in the proper sense of the word, -and absolutely without chronology; but out of this vast and nebulous era -there has been extracted a rich traditional literature, and Oriental -scholars working on principles similar to those by which geologic -periods are determined,[88] are endeavouring by an examination of the -various civilisations reflected in that literature to establish the -leading stages in the growth of prehistoric Indian thought. The sacred -books of India disclose sufficiently in outline the social and religious -progress of the people from a period of great antiquity. No one can tell -when the oldest fragments of them were originally composed, but some of -them are said to have been in circulation among the Aryans when one -immigrant contingent of them had arrived at the confluence of Jumna with -the Ganges,[89] and if so, they image for us the life and beliefs of a -people who must have been contemporaries with Moses some fifteen -centuries at latest before the coming of Christ. - -It is now asserted that this Aryan immigration had been preceded from -the same quarter by an earlier one, in a past so very remote that the -Indians had lost completely the memory of it, and that by the time this -second wave had reached the north-west Gangetic tracts, the first had -pushed its way as far east as the delta, where first vanquishing it -finally amalgamated with the aboriginal tribes. It is supposed that from -out of this earliest section arose the natural ancestors of Buddha, -while in the second and intellectually superior section we must look for -the religious teachers from whom his spiritual lineage is to be -traced.[90] For with them were introduced the Vedas, revealing the -earliest forms of civilisation and religion in that great section of the -human family to which we ourselves belong. We see pictured in the -Rig-Veda a people who, in complexion, manner, and rites, were at first -as distinct from the native Indian races as were the Israelites from -those of Canaan. Patriarchal in their institutions, pastoral or -agricultural in their pursuits, they confront us as a primitive but -certainly not a barbarous folk. Nurtured by the invigorating climate and -magnificent scenery of an ancestral home “on the very roof of the -world,” they had reached a social condition in which, in a language -fitly called “polished,” or “carefully made” (Sanskrita), they were as -fitly called “Aryan” or “noble.” They practised the arts of Jabal and -Jubal, venerated their sages and poets, and called their wives and -daughters by names of beauty and grace like that of Naamah. Their -religion, though polytheistic, was not inspired by dread of evil spirits -or awe of ancestral shades, but by wonder of the world around them and -their own awakening instincts. Man in these ancient fragments, as in the -first pages of our Bible, is evidently a creature transcending the -savage, and made in a diviner image than the type from which it is -maintained he must have sprung. Instead of consorting with or -worshipping the animals, he exercises dominion over them; he questions -himself and the heavens and the earth concerning their origin and -author, and with some divine authentic instinct which he has never lost, -he seems to be growing into the feeling that not only the trinity of -supernatural powers which he worshipped, but his very self, are the -children of some primordial and eternal Dyaus, the father of all. - -While the earliest light that falls upon our ancestors reveals them as a -religious people, whose worship, simple and rudimentary as it was, -indicated a sense of inferiority, and also, as one who ought to know -informs us, “some sense of flaw in the relationship, some concept of sin -and guilt,”[91] to the deities worshipped, it is to be noted that gods -and men were felt to be too much akin to allow of spiritual aspiration, -or of high moral significance in man’s religious acts. The ethical or -rather spiritual elements so vital to the Biblical conceptions of -religion may not be quite foreign to the earliest Veda, but they are -scantily, if at all, represented in it. No prayer can be said to have -ever been directed to obtain forgiveness, or growth in goodness, in the -Bible sense. The sinner was for the most part only a defaulter in -respect of offerings, and his guilt was that of a person who refused to -render homage. That the gods might be able to watch over and enrich -mankind, they had to be fed and sustained. The worshipper was thus in a -certain degree necessary to the worshipped. The sense of submissive -gratitude to the Deity which meets us in the earliest fragments of the -Bible is not expressed, for religion was conceived of as a kind of -exchange in which men purchased a right to divine help by service -rendered, and “each man satisfied his higher instinct according to his -own conception of the character of the being on whose favour his welfare -was thought to depend.”[92] - -Centuries later, in another strata of sacred literature, composed in -prose, dogmatic and liturgic in character, and designated Brahmanas,[93] -we behold the same branch of the Aryan family in a further stage of -their history. Their patriarchal age has vanished, and their heroic -seems passing into the aristocratic and hierarchic. Caste has appeared -as the invariable attendant upon conquest, when the victor is separated -from the vanquished by language, complexion, and religion. It is not so -much caste, however, in the ordinary sense of the word, as class, -sternly prohibiting marriage not only with the aboriginal tribes, but -between persons of unequal rank, and anticipating the organisation of -European society in the middle ages. In the nobles, who were subordinate -only to the Church, the burghers or merchants socially distinct from and -inferior to the nobles, and in the villeins or serfs of the conquered -territories, we have an exact parallel to the old Indian system, in -which Sudra, Vaisya, Kshatrya, all formed steps in a social pyramid, on -the top of which the Brahman was throned.[94] - -Thus early in the history of the Indian people emerged that sacerdotal -institution which was to exercise so powerful and eventually so sinister -an influence upon their religious progress. In Vedic times the father of -the family and the rajah of the clan were the celebrants of the -religious rites, but as life became more complicated ceremonies became -more laborious, and men who had preserved the knowledge of the old -hymns, and the religious formularies which had died out from the common -people, gradually took the rajah’s place. As thought widened, men -refused to be satisfied with guardian deities that could be fed with -rice and butter. The sense of human law reflected itself in the -conception of divine rulers governing men, and penalties inflicted by -man for wrong-doing suggested expiation for the infringed laws of deity. -This idea of sacrifice, of which there is said to be no trace in the -flesh feasts of earlier times, becomes prominent in the offerings of the -period. “The shedding of blood, the burning of a limb of the victim in -the fire, by some at least was believed to atone for transgression, and -it is probable that at one time the religious instinct expressed itself -in human sacrifice.[95]” In any case, the development of the idea of the -great efficacy of sacrifice as a means of compelling the gods to do the -will of the worshipper—yea, of elevating the worshipper to their -privileges and rank,—must soon have had the effect of making a -priesthood, at first only helpful, to be necessary as the sole agents -between man and deity. By preserving the memory of what had faded from -the vulgar, by transmitting to their families a lore which became the -more sacred the more it was forgotten, the professional liturgists or -sacrificers, at first satirised by the poets as was the Romish friar by -the minstrel in the middle ages, imperceptibly grew into an order whose -privileges were more exclusive and whose pretensions were higher than -were ever asserted in Israel by the descendants of Aaron. Among the -Hebrews the priesthood was never allowed to gain complete ascendency. -Its representatives were subordinated to the king, who was the fountain -of all law, and they were kept in check by the prophets as the ministers -of Divine revelation; but the Brahmans came to be regarded as not only -the guardians of religion, but the teachers of all knowledge and the -source of all authority. They owned no superior, were subject to no law -in the state: each one was a pope in himself, more independent of the -crown and the commonwealth than a Christian pope ever pretended to be, -and had a faith in his personal infallibility which no Christian pope -affected to have. In India there resulted from the ascendency all the -evils that were manifested in Judaism and in Latin Christianity; and in -India far worse results were produced. For, left to themselves as -superior beings apart from the actual world, who never could err, they -gave their minds that licence which too often in the history of thought -has been confounded with liberty, and, as always happens when -self-restraint is disregarded, the result in this instance was the -production, not of a system of philosophy, but a crude conglomerate of -incongruous phantasies more resembling a chaos than a cosmos.[96] - -Let us not suppose that the Brahmans were originally, or even -eventually, the vain and greedy and self-seeking bigots which the name -unfortunately suggests to a European. They gained the ascendency because -they cultivated the power to rise; they represent what many are inclined -to revere as the ideal aristocracy, that of Intellect. They were not -ignorant priests, but learned philosophers, from whom sprung again and -again the reformers who headed the revolt from an overdone ritual, and -from a faith which expressed itself wholly in metaphysical speculations. -By them were excogitated the Upanishads and the laws of Manu, two of the -most wonderful literary productions of mankind. From there too came the -great epic poems of the Rāmāyana and the Mahābhārata, poems in some -respects equal to the Homeric, and in cleverness of purpose, which is -said to be that of arresting the progress of Buddhism, equalling -anything which the Society of Jesus ever produced to counteract the -Reformation. In its complexity and adaptability and many-sidedness -Brahmanism is unrivalled by any human system, and the men who first gave -it expression and directed its earliest movements must rank among the -most original and daring of thinkers. - -But they were Indians living in the period beginning about the tenth -century B.C., in a land as completely cut off from the rest of the world -as they were severed from the practical life of their countrymen. They -had the same earnest and inquisitive mind which their westward-moving -kinsmen had inherited with them from their trans-Himalayan ancestors, -but in them it had to work out its advances in more adverse conditions. -The tribes that went westward marched along the uplands, in zones of -climate and through scenery and conditions stimulating effort, both -mental and physical. Consequently they went on improving their beliefs, -till they apprehended the truth which lies at the base of all true -systems of faith, the immortality of the soul, and developed a -philosophy which represents man’s most successful attempt to grasp that -divine unity after which man in his polytheism is ever feeling. It was -otherwise with the branch that went southwards. They had to live under -physical conditions not conducive to energy, under burning skies which -repressed, and on soils which rendered industry unnecessary. As they -gained ascendency over the aborigines the vices of the vanquished race -told fatally upon them. Their sensual worship, customs like polygamy and -sutteeism, ascetic practices and sorcerous rites, took possession of -them; and, most marked of all, a belief very widely spread among the -lower tribes of mankind so terribly bewitched them that to this day the -Indian mind has never been able to break away from its fascination. - -This belief in transmigration, with the pessimism which is its -inevitable concomitant, was wholly absent from their ancient Vedic -faith. At intervals from the times of Pythagoras it has infected the -religion and philosophy of the Western Aryans, but never to any extent -or with any serious result. Its true habitat and breeding-place, like -that of the cholera, is among the degraded and broken-down populations -of the East. It was communicated from the native Indian races to the -Hindus, who unfortunately were prepared to receive it through the -depressing and degenerating influences of tropical life on a -northern-born family. Anyway, while their more fortunate brethren were -eagerly groping after, in their westward progress, the truth of -immortality, and thirsting for more life and fuller, they in their fat -Gangetic plains, wearied of life as something not worth having, yet -dreading death because it was appointed unto man not once but many times -to die, were seeking some way of deliverance from this inherited curse. -And the Brahmans professed to point to it. Their earliest popular -conception of deliverance was simply that of re-birth in a happier -world, perchance secured by sacrificial rites and religious acts, but -such a conception could not long satisfy, and eventually it gave way in -the higher class of minds to nobler views. In India, as elsewhere, men -soon became conscious of the more solid security of merit procured by a -life of justice and mercy. Man’s future was in his own and not in the -hands of a priest: its happiness or misery would be no accident, but the -sure result of good or evil done here and now. Therefore the wise man -endeavoured laboriously and continuously to collect merit by good deeds, -“as the white ant builds her house, for with these as his guide he could -hope to traverse a gloom hard to be crossed.” - -But by and by even this belief ceased to satisfy them, for how could man -hope to liberate himself from the bondage of endless change as long as, -seeking only a happier existence, he was content to be a citizen of the -changeable? Let him seek reunion with Brahma, of which he is an -emanation. So here again, while the Westerns were finding the path which -would lead them from polytheism to theism, and were growing into nobler -conceptions of what the individual self should be, the speculative -ascetics of the East, in a life of meditation far apart, were trying to -subside rather than rise into Brahma the Absolute as a river reunites -with the ocean. In their earlier Brahmanas their fathers knew nothing of -Brahma as deity, and at no time did Brahma mean to the Indian what deity -meant to the Western Aryan. Polytheism in India never became theism in -the old Greek sense, nor even Pantheism in our nineteenth-century sense. -The mysterious all-pervading Presence was indeed early detected by the -Indians as the “Breath” of all things, but the name employed by them to -distinguish it signified only the universal self. In no sense was it the -conscious author, but only the irrepressible source of things because -reflected upon by illusion. Brahma Atman was neither the infinitely -intelligent nor the perfectly blessed, in our sense of the word. It was -simply thought without cognition, beatitude without consciousness. “The -Hindu never thinks of asserting that Brahma knows or even has -consciousness, but always that Brahma is knowledge.” “It is simply -impersonal being, absolute unity contrasted with disruption, from which -existence, as an emanation wholly and only evil, because originating in -a mistake, must move through endless cycles of change, until the way of -escape be discovered and followed by which the erratic spark may be -absorbed in the central fire.”[97] - -Such a speculation was manifestly an advance upon Vedic materialism, -which sought to bring down the gods to the side of man as useful -guardians, and upon early Brahmanism which sought by sacrifice to force -them to do man’s will, and by and by to elevate man to their level. In -endeavouring, however, to abstract its disciples from the superstitions -of the priests, it tampered with the foundations of religion. It never -attempted to propitiate the gods—for, even if superior to man, they were -as much involved in the labyrinth of transmigration as he was -himself,—but it professed in a universe of illusion to have discovered -the only real. It dared to name the Absolute; so, withdrawing from the -world, it practiced austerities for the sake of illumination, gave -itself up to meditation to reduce the personal self to an abstraction, -and endeavoured thus to escape from the necessity of existence in time -and space into “passionless, characterless being.” - -All this is expounded in the Upanishads, the special scriptures of -philosophical Brahmanism.[98] Though translated by Professor Max Müller, -and lucidly interpreted by Professor Gough, readers of ordinary -philosophical culture find them very hard to understand, and in spite of -the high commendation of them by Rammohun Roy and Schopenhauer, they -will be inclined to question whether these “beginnings of thought,” -“conceptions hardly formed,” though essential to a proper knowledge of -Indian philosophy, “should be ranked among the outstanding productions -of the human mind.”[99] Throughout their long and most tedious verbiage, -however, one dominant idea is ever discoverable—that the chief end of -the wise man is to know, not the forms of things, but the great self of -all things, and seek his deliverance not by practice of religion but by -pursuit of Gnosis.[100] Religion would indeed secure rewards, but they -would only be transient; religion might regulate and modify the course -of migration, but only Gnosis could break its adamantine chain. “The -vision of Atman is the only deliverance, for by it all ties are -loosened”; “the vision of the self is the light of the world, to which -only the purest minds attain.” To reach it not only the bonds of desire -must be broken, but of ignorance too. “For Atman is highly exalted above -all reverence and effort, above holiness and unholiness.” “It, the -uncreated, is beyond all good and evil,” and upon rewards and -punishments, upon both good and evil, the sage must turn his back, for -he alone who knows the Universal is free, from Karman and from Kâma -(action and desire) which hold captive the self in the net of the -impermanent.[101] - -This is said to be the last outcome of Brahmanic belief, and “indeed the -highest point reached by Indian philosophy.”[102] Manifestly, it can -never be designated a gospel. It was a deliverance impossible for the -many, and possible only for the few; a promise not to the suffering -millions, but to the mystic and the sage, and to them it came not with -the hope of a nobler character to be attained, and of a purer, higher -life to be reached, but only with that of a dreamless repose—“the sleep -eternal in an eternal night”—when the soul ceases to be soul, merged -“like the weariest river” in a shoreless and waveless sea. And this was -the system in which the wisest and saintliest in Buddha’s days were -nurtured. He was no Brahman by caste, but as pure Kshatrya he would be -instructed in his youth by Brahmans, and in early manhood he for long -consorted with them. He had mental capacity, and spiritual energy, more -than adequate to the task of comprehending as fully as they did their -very abstruse theosophies. From their speculation he derived much of his -terminology, like Karma and Nirvana; and even Buddha, words which, till -recently, it was considered he had to coin. Many doctrines which were -once regarded as peculiarly his own were taught in their jungle schools -by learned Brahmans centuries before he was born. Without the Brahmans -he could not have been produced, and yet his system will be found to be -original and distinct. They furnished the phraseology in which he -expressed himself, the methods by which he wrought, the institutions -like that of the wandering Bikkhu, by which his system was spread; but -in essentials we will find that his teaching was not only different from -but antagonistic to theirs, and that, had the principles which he -enunciated been truly accepted and consistently carried out, this -noblest of the Reformers of Hinduism would have reformed it out of -existence. - -During this pre-Buddhistic era, much longer, perhaps, than is generally -supposed, another process of development was going on among one section -of the Semitic stock, in a small handbreadth of a land on the eastern -shore of the Mediterranean. The several stages of that development have -also been unconsciously recorded in a literature so peculiar in its -motive, and method, and character, as to separate it from the national -literatures of all the world. It is not that it claims to be inspired, -for the same claim is advanced by the Indian, and indeed by or for every -collection of religious writings extant; but while in the literature of -India we see represented the struggles of man to reach the Deity, that -of Palestine professes to represent the endeavour of Deity to reach and -to communicate with men. Intensely patriotic as a people, the sacred -literature of the Hebrews is essentially religious. Their historians are -not permitted to record, and the poets are not allowed to sing their own -national achievements, but only the mighty works and the praises of -Jehovah their God. The shame of their many defeats, and of their final -destruction, is ascribed always to their own sin, but any national -success or prosperity is due to the Divine favour. Alike through all -their victories and disasters, an Almighty Hand is acknowledged to be -shaping their destiny, and to be working out a purpose which, often -entirely hidden, and at best only very imperfectly understood by them, -is seen toward the close of their sad and eventful history, to -comprehend the larger destinies of mankind in a salvation of God which -“all the ends of the earth” were to see. - -The relative antiquity of the Hebrew and Indian scriptures is not a -matter which we are called upon to discuss. It is possible that some -hymns in the Rig-Veda may be older than anything which we possess in the -Bible, but it is almost absolutely certain that most of the books of the -Hebrew Bible were in circulation as scriptures, and that the whole of it -was in the shape in which we have it now, before any ancient Indian -sacred book was reduced to writing. The Pentateuch, in the form in which -we have it now, is probably not the most ancient of the Hebrew writings. -It appears to be a very composite production, containing works of -different authors, written originally at different places and at -different times. The most destructive criticism, however, admits that it -embodies very ancient traditions—many of them not peculiar to the -Hebrews,—which were open to a succession of very talented narrators. -These traditions may indicate their derivation from a once common -ancestral home, or acquirement by later contact with foreign nations, -but they are in nowise incorporations; for in the Hebrew books they are -not only presented in forms far more refined, but they are employed to -suggest or to unfold a spiritual teaching quite beyond the capacity of -the peoples among whom it is alleged they originated. No one denies that -we have in the Pentateuch writings as old as the time of Moses, and -probably fragments of writings much older still. Ewald[103] ascribes an -important portion of it to the times of the later judges, another still -more important section to a priest of Solomon’s reign, and the Book of -Deuteronomy to the time of Hezekiah. Even if we are compelled to accept -later dates than these, it follows that they are older than any -Upanishad, or even any of the Brahmanas. There was a Law, a Book of the -Covenant, a Book of Origins, in currency probably before the authors of -any of the Brahmanas was born; and even if we are to regard the contents -of these works as only traditional, we may surely assume that the Hebrew -traditions are as credible as the Indian. It is quite true “that -religion exists long before it is expressed in a canon, and that law -runs and rules long before it is written in a code,”[104] but in regard -to accuracy neither suffers from being so definitely registered. -Hitherto the maxim affecting such matters has been, and for a long time -henceforth we may be certain it will be, not _litera locuta_, but -_litera scripta manet_. - -Again, we are not called upon to maintain in this lecture the -chronological exactness or the historical faithfulness of the sacred -annals of Israel; all that is asserted is that in them we have as -faithful a mirror of the ages which they profess to reflect as we have -in the Indian. The characters in the scenes which they produce are -neither puppets nor shadows, but very living and substantial realities. -The personages at least are men whose idiosyncrasies are sharply but -naturally defined, and whose speech, and manners, and conduct, and -beliefs, accord wonderfully well with the places and the periods in -which they meet us. We have to examine the Hebrew annals however, not to -verify the details of ancient transactions which they record, but simply -to ascertain the beliefs which they contain and illustrate. The truth or -the error of these beliefs we need not discuss, for the beliefs -themselves are facts of great importance, and so are the consequences -that flowed from them; and when we compare these beliefs with those -which we have been considering, we will find a development parallel -indeed, but of an entirely different class of ideas or religious -thoughts. - -In the Rig-Veda we have reflected the immigration of a higher race into -what has been called the Holy Land of India. The Rig-Veda dates from -about the times of the Exodus or the invasion of the Holy Land of -Palestine. The Hebrew traditions, like the Indian, tell of an earlier -immigration of their fathers into the same Palestine some five centuries -previous. When we examine the narratives in which this earlier -immigration is recorded, we find the patriarchs moving along among -similar conditions, but representing a much higher level of religious -thought than the Aryans when they reached the Ganges. Though everywhere -living among nature-worshippers, and though showing the taint of that -worship in their own conduct, their religion is neither that of -physiolatry nor idolatry.[105] Abraham was not a polytheist; he came out -of Ur of the Chaldees—whether that be a designation of a geographical -region or a description of a religious state—not as one who trembled -before the forces of Nature, afraid to inquire what they meant or whence -they came; not as one who had discovered behind them the Infinite Self, -out of which, because of ignorance or illusion, he and they had -emanated, but as a man who believed in a Personal Deity who had created -and continued to control them, and who, though El-Elion and Shaddai, yet -watched over and communicated with Abraham as his best of friends. We -need not ascribe to the patriarch an intelligence which he did not -possess. God may have been in his thought too much the almighty -Protector of himself and of his descendants—for in that age the family -of the chief would be all-important, and the idea even of the nation had -not yet germinated,—but that he apprehended God under a strictly moral -aspect is vouched for by his life, as the founder of a new epoch to -which his latest descendant looked back with thankfulness.[106] We may -not be able to prove that Abraham’s conception of Deity was monotheistic -in our conception of the word. It lacked the sublimity of Isaiah’s -conception and the definiteness of that of Moses. There was naturally a -great deal of darkness clinging about it, but his ideas of duty and -religion and worship were far higher than entered the thoughts of a -Vedic or Brahmanic sage. The rite of Blood Covenant, universal in the -Semitic tribes, he felt divinely impelled to offer Godward; and the same -impulse is said to have led him to offer in proof of his allegiance to -his unseen and almighty Friend the sacrifice of his only son. But there -was unmistakably imparted by Abraham to the ancient rite of circumcision -a far higher and more spiritual idea, and it is noteworthy that while -the spiritual part of his awful sacrifice was accepted, the slaying of -the son was rejected, with the effect of stamping, in the very morning -of Hebrew history, the Divine abhorrence upon that form of propitiation -to which the unrestrained instinct of man has everywhere been prone. His -worship, his sacrifice, his whole service, instead of being regarded as -a means of making Deity serviceable to man, or of raising man to the -comfortable condition of Deity, meant the surrender of the heart and of -the whole life to His will, not as only mightier, but juster and more -merciful than he was himself, and therefore perfectly worthy of trust -and love. And so it is plain that whether the patriarchs represent a -race fallen because of sin, from purer knowledge and more intimate -communion with God, or one providentially educated from the very lowest -animalism, they indicate a religious stage to which the greatest things -became possible. They are stammering at least the glorious Name, -comprised in three letters, whose significance millennial ages of study -can never exhaust. They believe in God, who, behind and beyond Nature, -and greater than it, is revealing Himself as one infinitely worthy of -their allegiance and adoration, and their faith becomes righteousness. - -When we reach the Mosaic period we find that though clouds and darkness -are round the throne of the Eternal, the light that streams from it into -the minds of men reveals, just more clearly, the same one living and -true God. According to the Book of Origins, a period of four hundred and -eighty years separated the patriarchal from the Mosaic age, and during -that period the Hebrew tribes had first been sheltered, and then for -long enslaved, by the most civilised of all peoples in the ancient -world. Astonished by the grandeur of Egypt, they at last succumbed to -its religion; and while oppression in the pent-up Egyptian cities -deteriorated fearfully their physical condition, slavery and idolatry -wrought with terrible effect upon their character. They came out of -Egypt a cowardly horde, leprous in body, childish and brutish in their -disposition. Their children however entered Palestine, more than a -generation after, a powerful and consolidated and victorious force, -whose fear was upon all the surrounding tribes; and their annals ascribe -all this to revival and reformation due to Divine revelation and -training under the plastic genius of one of Egypt’s wisest men, and one -of the greatest prophets of the human race. - -The oldest Hebrew historian states that Moses wrote two tables of the -Covenant, and one entire, though small, Book of Laws besides; and though -it were proved to universal satisfaction that he never wrote anything -else than the Ten Words, and the preface[107]: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord -our God is one,” it will be admitted that no one in all the old world -has ever contributed more than he did to man’s stock of the highest of -all knowledge. The truth communicated by the patriarchs in the word -Creator was of supreme moment and promise for the human race, for by it -man was saved from the sin and folly of confounding the Deity with His -works. The idea of a Creator occurs indeed in the Vedas,[108] but not as -an idea that ever got hold of the popular mind, or ever ripened into the -conception of Creator which we have in the Bible. The Brahman expounders -of Vedic thought made deity the sum of all that is, a being that is ever -becoming, a universe that is never completed. The Hebrew, on the -contrary, conceived of the universe as God’s work—not God. It was but a -part of His ways, and as nothing before Him. In the Indian creed -emanation continues indefinitely, and their sacred books record a -never-ending genesis. In the Hebrew Bible two pages suffice to relate -the genesis of the world and man. Between the deities of the Vedas and -the Jehovah of Moses there is no natural progression, and we never in -any series, however prolonged, can reach from the one to the other. The -Indian deities are simply one with Nature, and like its forces they are -multitudinous, capricious, evanescent; but the Deity of Moses is One, -Supreme, Invisible, not to be likened to anything we can see or -hear—eternal as One who alone is, and causes to be: “I Am that I Am!” -The effect of such a belief was to raise all men who learned of Moses -above the worship and tyranny of Nature, before which so many of the -tribes of mankind have prostrated themselves. It made them regard the -animal creation especially as existing not for their adoration but for -their use; and Nature itself and all its forces as powers to be studied, -subdued, and governed. The germs of man’s faith in his own -imperishableness, implanted from the first, began to sprout the moment -he found himself capable of knowing and serving this Eternal and -Invisible One as the Author and Controller of his being. - -Comparisons are often instituted between the Mosaic ethical code and -that of other religions, with the view of showing that there is nothing -peculiar in it, and that instead of being fuller it appears to be even -defective when placed side by side with some of them. The peculiarity of -the Mosaic code is in its first table, which nearly all the others lack. -The Mosaic is an interpretation of the law written in men’s hearts by -the light of religion: it is the manifestation of religious truth as the -real foundation of ethics. Morality has so long been associated with -religion in our thought that we speak at times as if it had been always -so; but among no ancient people, save among the Hebrews, did any -worshipper expect morality from their deities. On the contrary, they -conceived of them as having all their own appetites and passions and -vices, so that as civilisation advanced men were often far nobler and -purer than the gods which they worshipped. When we remember that -physiolatry, from its lowest to its highest form, tolerates and even -consecrates the vilest impurities by its worship, we can realise what a -new and creative power was communicated when the conviction had laid -hold of man that Deity is one who is Himself all that man ought to be, -one who can only be propitiated by righteousness and appeased by truth. -Human progress became not only possible then, but it was secured. So -pure an idea of God meant a loftier idea of man. It involved the poorest -and the humblest of men in vast responsibilities, and therefore it -implied for them rights and dignities equal to those of the highest of -men; for the supreme all-holy Lord God was no respecter of persons, and -the beggar on the dunghill was in His eyes as precious as the prince -upon the throne.[109] - -From the period when Vedic speculation first began its course to that in -which it produced its earliest Upanishad, these moral and spiritual -truths were not kept secret among the philosophic few, but were -prophesied in the gates and streets of every Hebrew city. No one can say -that they were thankfully received and loyally obeyed by the people of -Israel; on the contrary, their whole history represents the struggle of -a stubborn and rebellious race against a revelation too pure and -spiritual to be acceptable to them. Their religion was always higher -than themselves, but while towering above them, it perpetually hovered -round them, contradicting their most cherished inclinations, and -condemning their most deeply rooted habits. The invisible God, of whom -no likeness was to be tolerated, who was not to be worshipped even in -the greatest of His works, was too far removed from their sympathies. It -took centuries of severe handling to uproot their strong tendency to -Nature-worship; yea, the Divine detestation of it had to be branded in -the national conscience by their final overthrow. Eventually, however, -the truth got rooted in the mind of a “remnant” of them that God is not -to be worshipped under any symbol, and cannot be enshrined in temples -made with hands; that the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him; that in -gifts and offerings He takes no pleasure, but that He dwells with the -meek and lowly, and finds a pleasing sacrifice in the contrite spirit -and broken heart. The divinity of the revelation seems attested by the -fact that it continued all throughout their history above them, rebuking -and condemning, but never suffering them altogether to fall away from -it. And this is still its relation to ourselves: it is a creed -contradicting our life, a Divine law in direct opposition to all that -claims to be popular; for where even yet is the Christian who can be -said fully to realise all that is summed up in the truth, “God is not to -be worshipped by man as though He needed anything;” “God is a spirit, -and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth”? - -The universality as well as the purity and spirituality of this -fundamental article of the Hebrew faith separates it from and elevates -it above the Indian beliefs. Nature-worship has always been local and -ethnic in its range; the gods of the hills are not the gods of the -valleys, and the deities of Assyria command no reverence in Egypt. To -the Hebrew was first communicated the catholic faith that the one Lord -over all is rich in mercy unto all. The treasure was received, it is -true, in an earthen vessel, by a people who could only apprehend as -children what we are expected to hold in the comprehensions of men.[110] -In patriarchal times by the people generally the One Lord was conceived -of too much as just the protector of the family. In Mosaic times the -great and terrible God who avenged Himself on Egypt was thought of too -much as the champion of the tribes. Under David and the kings He was too -much the sovereign of the nation and of the Holy Land; and so it was -down to the times of the Captivity. All throughout this period, however, -there were perpetual protests against this attempt to ethnicise a faith -essentially catholic. They were reminded that the Holy One was Lord over -all the earth; that though they were a peculiar people, they were not -His only people. The prophets of other nations were brought to testify -to them; their own prophets were sent to warn the heathen that they -should not die. All through their history they were admonished that -their gift was too large for their little nation to contain; that it was -theirs only in proportion as it was imparted or shared, and that as a -nation they could only exist if all nations were blessed in them. - -Alas however for them, all this seemed in vain in its effect upon the -nation at large; the treasure was forgotten in their estimate of the -vessel; their own destiny loomed largest in their conceptions of -Providence. It was not the holy Lord God who was to have universal -dominion, but they His favourites, and therefore their king would reign -over all lands and keep his feet on the neck of their foes. Out of this -fatal error, and out of the childish superstition akin to it, that -material prosperity was the sole or chief reward of devotion, came all -their unbelief and apostasy, and so when the succession of prophets had -in vain testified to them that the Lord alone was to be exalted—that -before Him, not before them, must all peoples bow,—the threatenings long -uttered were fulfilled: the nation was shattered, its palladium, the -temple, was destroyed, and they were driven beyond the Euphrates. - -Then however ensued a course of events which must be regarded as among -the greatest surprises of history; for just when they and their religion -might have been expected to vanish as completely as the ten tribes -previously deported had vanished, they are found to be preserved; and -the worship of Jehovah, instead of being extinguished by the dominant -worship of Babylon, is seen to emerge in the course of two generations -more vigorous and considerably purer than ever it had been before. It -was during the Exile that the real nature of the religion of Israel, as -one adapted and destined to enlighten and sanctify far more than a -single people, began to be truly discerned.[111] The Jewish people had a -great deal to learn from Babylon and Persia, and they returned to their -own land with clearer conceptions of immortality, the resurrection, the -spiritual world and judgment to come, than any of their forefathers had -gained. Scholars, however, who enlarge upon their indebtedness to their -conquerors, seem to forget how much they had to communicate to them. In -the psalms of the pre-Exilian period, and in the doctrines of Moses and -the prophets, they carried with them a treasure richer than the whole -wisdom of the East. So though they learned much from Babylon, they also -learned in it to appreciate the gifts which they had previously -despised. Sorrow and penitence helped to clear their spiritual vision, -and prepared them for the prophecies of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Isaiah. -They learned that though banished from the Holy Land they were not -thereby cast out—as their fathers imagined—from the presence of Jehovah; -that, though the temple had been destroyed and sacrifice had been -suspended, God could still be worshipped with sincerity and truth. The -teachings of their prophets brought home with conviction to them the -oracles of their earlier seers, that obedience was better than -sacrifice, and contrition than sin-offering,—“that he that doeth -repentance, it is imputed to him as if he went to Jerusalem, built a -temple and altar, and wrought all the sacrifices of the law.”[112] - -With the destruction of the temple there arose the synagogue, which, -with its reading of the Law and the Prophets, its chanting of the -Psalms, its offering of prayer, and the giving heed to the voices of the -elders, represented a far higher and more spiritual service than temple -courts reeking with sacrifices and steaming with incense. It is true -that they were still fascinated by the material splendours of the former -days; for after their return they restored Jerusalem, rebuilt the -temple, and re-appointed its services. A revival led to a reformation, -which, following the old lines as closely as possible, assumed the form -of a retrogression rather than advance. The new energies of the nation -were repressed by a Levitical domination as rigid and intolerant as -Brahmanism ever was in India. It was not the spirit of the Living God -but the hand of the long dead Moses that was to rule their conscience -and mould their history. The consequence was just what might have been -anticipated. Human nature revolted from subjugation to a system which -had served its day. Religion, where it was earnest, stiffened into -formalism, and formalism in many cases congealed into hypocrisy, and, as -inevitably happens, intellect raised its protest against this -irreligious religion in many anti-religious and even atheistic forms. -Meanwhile synagogues rose all over the land, promoting doctrine rather -than ritual, stimulating rather than repressing discussion, and thus -conserving and propagating the truths that prepared the ways of the -Lord. Only a handful however, had returned; the majority of the exiles -prospered and multiplied, and, unlike the ten tribes, were not absorbed -among the Gentiles. At the beginning of the Christian era, for one Jew -living in Palestine there would be a hundred living beyond it, not only -in Babylonia, but in Greece, and Egypt, and Italy, and all over the -Empire. There were many Jews in Spain, in Britain, and in the dark -territories beyond the Danube; and though they adapted themselves to -foreign ways, and became all things to all men, in regard to their -religion and their intimate connection with Jerusalem they still -continued to be Jews.[113] As their nationality declined their faith -arose. By and by, not content with the heathen toleration for their -religion as only one of the many in the world, they began to spread it -abroad. Judaism, with the temple and the Levitical law, would in -Palestine eventually have petrified, but the Diaspora, with the -Synagogue and the Septuagint, enabled Israel to play their proper parts -as the religious teachers of mankind. Proselytism gradually became very -vigorous and successful; devout men and women everywhere, unable to find -peace of conscience in the intoxicating and demoralising rites of Pagan -temples, turned from them to take hold of the skirts of the man who was -a Jew. In a manner and to an extent which even the youthful Isaiah never -could have dreamed, Jerusalem began to attract out of every nation under -heaven the kind of people who were found in its streets at -Pentecost,—Parthians and Medes, and dwellers in Pontus and Arabia, and -the eunuch of far distant Ethiopia.[114] - -As we have noticed the highest outcome of Vedic thought in pursuit of -Atman, let us also notice the highest development of Hebrew belief in -their hope of Messiah, whose germs are traceable in their faith from the -first. For example, one of the earliest and most lasting effects of -their conception of Deity was the conviction of their own unworthiness -and inability to live in the presence of the holy God. Though they were -to be a kingdom of priests for other nations, they dared not enter into -the relationship which priest implied. They required a mediator like -Moses, who could speak to the Holy One for them, and receive for them -His message. Their whole worship was based on this feeling, and the -purer and higher rose their conceptions of God, the more intense became -their self-abasement. Between Him and the noblest of His creatures there -was an impassable gulf. Though He was far, far off from them, He was far -too near—so near that they could not go anywhither from His presence, -and yet in their dread there was a yearning to come near to Him and to -see Him face to face. The Brahman aspired to lose himself in the -Absolute, in the pure light of characterless knowledge; the Hebrew, -mastered by the personality of God, longed to see Him as He is. And -never more earnest was this longing in the Hebrew to behold the beauty -of the Lord, and to be satisfied with His likeness, than in the times of -his deepest self-humiliation and keenest contrition. “I pray Thee, -pardon the _iniquity_ of Thy people;” “I beseech Thee, show us Thy -_glory_;” “and these two pangs so counter and so keen,” shame and -reverence akin to dread, aspiring love, were to prove not only the -purification of their own faith, but the birth-throe of a better hope -for the world. - -For their dread and shame sprang from their consciousness of their own -evil, and their aspiration from an instinct which whispered that evil, -though deeply ingrained in, was not essential to the being of man. Their -sense of sin was very poignant, more so than in the case of any other -people. The Hindus had a conception of merit, but a very poor and weak -conception of sin. They were more impressed by life’s suffering than by -the taint of which it was only the consequence. But the Hebrews felt the -shame and the curse of that taint as no people ever felt it. They had -quite a vocabulary to express the many shades and degrees of the feeling -of it; yet in their speculations they were led to believe that this -taint was not inherent in their nature nor ineradicable from it. There -was a time when sin was not; there might be a time when it would not be. -The dominion of evil was an interlude, and though terribly prolonged in -human experience, it might have an end. That was the central ideal of -the Fall which they pictured on the first page of their Bible, and -conserved in their seventh-day Sabbath.[115] In the fact of man’s -creation they felt that his redemption was involved, and so the Hebrew -dread of and longing for God were reconciled by a hope that though to -man belongeth shame, to God belongeth mercy as the God of salvation. -There was another and a better covenant than that which had been -concluded with their ancestors at Sinai, or with the first father of -their tribes long before. It was made not with Moses or Abraham for -Israel, but for all nations with a Divine Mediator, who, behind all that -was of man, though yet the seed of the woman, would, in a way that -neither Moses nor any of the prophets could understand, eventually make -an end of sin. - -The history and the literature of the Hebrews would be a perplexing -enigma without this hope. Like their faith, it was too pure and -spiritual for them to receive, and to the very latest it always appears -with something of the defilement of their religious condition clinging -to it. During the Exile, however, this hope became purer and stronger, -and the imagery in which they embodied it became more evangelical and -spiritual than that employed by earlier poets and prophets. The section -of the Hebrews that returned to Palestine held it in increased strength, -but with the old national taint upon it. Their own restoration and the -favour of Persia kindled anew the foolish dreams of their ancestors, -and, alas! when Persia disappointed them, and its favour was supplanted -by oppression, and the kingdom, instead of rising Phœnix-like out of its -ashes, became the battlefield or the gage of foreign nations, there -broke out in Palestine the bitterest plague of unbelief and apostasy -that had ever assailed the nation. For idolatry, for overlaying or -corrupting the worship of Jehovah, their forefathers had often been -severely chastised, but no prophet had as yet complained of a temple -deserted and an altar defiled by unworthy offerings. And this was -because men professed to have discovered in the destruction of their -national hopes that after all religion was vain, and there was no profit -in serving God. - -Any one who has intelligently read Malachi, or the sayings of Agur the -proverb-collector,[116] or the Book of Ecclesiastes, will see to what a -depth of scepticism, if not indeed of atheism, their perverted Messianic -hopes had brought the Jews of Palestine. We appreciate the criticism -which regards Coheleth, so alien to the healthy and joyous spirit of the -Hebrew religion, as the natural outgrowth of this period.[117] When -faith in Israel’s imperishable kingdom seemed to be completely wrecked, -when ministers of religion led the revolt from it, and unrighteous -rulers and corrupt society made life in Palestine, as in Rome in Nero’s -day, not worth the living, it is not to be wondered that this one which -has survived, but that “many books”[118] should have been written to -echo the cry, “All is vanity.” We may listen to it as a note of despair -from a pessimist in whose people religion had died, because disappointed -political ambition had shown them that “no earthly good” came of serving -God; or we may read it as the protest of some healthy-minded Jew against -that orthodox asceticism which after the Captivity invaded religion, and -led to the rise of Pharisaism and Essenism. In any case, it seems to -mark the proper close in Palestine of an age of national perverted faith -and hope. The Essenes like the Indian ascetics had hope neither for the -nation’s recovery nor for the establishment anywhere of a kingdom of -God. The Pharisees, on the contrary, had hope, but it was the old -political hope, and in them, though Egyptian and Syrian and Greek and -Roman had trodden the nation under foot, and though the Maccabees had -suffered and poured out their blood in vain, it seemed to grow stronger -and stronger. Ready to believe any impostor, and to rise at the faintest -call, their fanaticism more than once betrayed the people into -ineffectual and most sanguinary revolts; but it had one result that was -not wholly evil, for they drew after them the multitudes to the desert, -when the thunder of the Baptist’s cry reached Jerusalem, “The kingdom of -God is at hand.”[119] - -So was it in Palestine; but among the Diaspora all over the Empire the -hope of Messiah assumed a purer and more catholic form. Everywhere it -was strong, but the broader horizons by which they were surrounded saved -them from the delusions which intoxicated the Palestinian Jew. In -classical literature there are tokens that it had filtered into Gentile -minds. It was undoubtedly vague and shadowy even at its brightest, but -in the Sibyl and Pollio its fulfilment signified something more -important than a successful revolution in Palestine. It meant mighty -changes impending that would bring good to all the world, the augury of -a star that would soon glimmer in the eastern horizon, and grow and -brighten till it would be seen to be not a light for Asia only, but the -Sun of Righteousness with healing in His beams for every nation under -heaven. - -We have thus been following two lines of religious movement, perfectly -independent of each other, far apart geographically, still further apart -in the beliefs which inspired them. We have seen how the melody of joy -and health which the Indians brought with them from our common primeval -home ended in a sigh of despair. Individual existence, at first so full -of wonder and delight, lost soon its freshness and glory, and came to be -felt to be such a burden that emancipation from it by absorption into -the Absolute was hailed as a boon. The human mind, leaving its childhood -behind it, and advancing to question itself and the universe, after a -season of movement and sense of freedom and power, somehow lost or -missed the way. Oppressed in the toils of the jungle, and wandering ever -further from practical life as it proceeded, it lay down vanquished, -longing only to be at rest and in quiet as infants that never saw the -light. - -The other line of development marks not the course of a speculation, but -the growth of a faith laying hold of mankind with creative and -transforming power. This faith, never dissociated from, but seeking to -dominate and reform actual life, condemned inertion, and fostered hope -for a race working out its salvation, because convinced that God is -working in them both to will and to do. We see a light streaming from -above into the darkness of man, paining and blinding at first the organs -which it seeks to purify. We see a struggle on the part of the creatures -to bring the Most High down to their level, and make Him their servant, -and a striving of the Divine Spirit to train them as children. We see a -mighty Hand laid ever on a peculiar people, at times so softly that they -hardly felt it, at times with conscious guiding and sustaining power; at -times chastising them sorely by the sword of the enemy and the -heart-hunger of exile, but never giving them over unto death. Not for -forty years, but for twice forty generations we see Him leading and -humbling and proving them, till in the souls of the aptest—though only -“a remnant” of them—He had rooted ideals of human destiny which never -can perish. Then, that all might be ready in the fulness of time, He -scattered them among the nations, and lo! when required they are -everywhere, crying in the crowded capitals of the East and of the West, -in the darkness of the North and the brightness of the South, “Prepare -ye in the desert an highway for the Lord.” - -Footnote 62: - - Introduction to _Le Bouddha et sa Religion_; Paris, 1858. - -Footnote 63: - - Müller, Introd. to _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. i. p. xxi. - -Footnote 64: - - A. Burnell, _Indian Antiq._, 1880, p. 223, quoted by Prof. Max Müller - in Introduction to vol. x. of _Sacred Books of the East_, p. xi. - -Footnote 65: - - Frankfurter, Appendix to Wordsworth’s Bampton Lectures for 1881; _The - One Religion_, p. 340; Eitel _Lectures on Buddhism_, p. 44; Edkins, - _Chinese Buddhism_, p. 232. - -Footnote 66: - - Prof. Max Müller, Introduction to vol. i. of _Sacred Books of the - East_, p. xxvii. - -Footnote 67: - - A. E. Gough, _Philosophy of the Upanishads, etc._, p. 5; Trübner’s - Oriental Series. - -Footnote 68: - - This statement is hazarded, notwithstanding the recent reply of the - author of _Supernatural Religion_ to Bishop Lightfoot’s Essays. It - will be generally conceded that he has adopted an untenable position, - and that, though his rejoinder to the learned Bishop may be a vigorous - assault, it is weak criticism. Sanday’s work on _The Gospels in the - Second Century_ is on the whole a better reply than the Bishop’s to - the allegations of the author of _Supernatural Religion_, whose - extreme scepticism of literary evidence is quite equalled by his - dogmatic extravagance of statement. - -Footnote 69: - - _Vie de Jésus_, Introd. pp. xv, xvii, 4th ed.; Paris, 1863. - -Footnote 70: - - _Science de Religions_, pp. 12, 20. - -Footnote 71: - - Professor Max Müller, Introd. to Dhammapada, _Sacred Books of the - East_, vol. x. p. x. - -Footnote 72: - - _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xiii. p. 37; Introd., vol. xi. p. xx. - -Footnote 73: - - Oldenberg, _Buddha, etc._, p. 27. - -Footnote 74: - - Mahavansa, by Turnour; Dipavansa, xx. 20, quoted by Professor Max - Müller in _Sacred Books of the East_, vols. x. p. xxiv, and xiii. p. - xxxv. - -Footnote 75: - - _Buddhist Birth Stories_, vol. i. p. lvii; Trübner’s Oriental Series. - -Footnote 76: - - Weber, _Indian Literature_, p. 294; _ibid._ - -Footnote 77: - - We may safely assert that in the mass of Buddhist literature already - available nothing has been found, nor is anything at all likely to be - found, corresponding in character and evidential value to the - Christian Scriptures. What would the New Testament have been, asks - Professor Müller, “if the spurious Gospels, the pseudo-apostolic and - post-apostolic productions, the debates of the Councils, the - commentaries of the Fathers, and the lives of the saints, had all been - bound and mixed up with it”? (_Sacred Books of the East_, vol. i., - Introd., pp. xv, xvi.) And yet this is a parallel to the confusion - represented by the so-called Buddhist Bible. In truth, it is not a - Bible, but a library, containing not only the earliest treatises, but - the commentaries upon them made in later ages, and extracts and - repetitions from itself so extensive and numerous that were they - omitted this portentous collection—four times as voluminous as our - Christian Bible—would be found to be much shorter than it. When the - original Bible of Buddhism has been disinterred from this pile it will - be found to resemble almost in nothing our New Testament, but it may - present many analogies to the Talmud and Targums, and perhaps some - very interesting resemblances to isolated portions of the Old - Testament. As far as it has been translated to us, the Tripitaka - contain neither prophecy nor history; but one division of it presents - suggestive coincidences with portions of the apocryphal Scriptures; - and scholars may find a comparison of some of the texts of Job, - Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes with those of the Dhammapada and some of - the Suttas an agreeable and not unprofitable study, without in the - least being tempted to transfer their allegiance from the Hebrew to - the Indian sages. - -Footnote 78: - - Eitel, _Lectures on Buddhism_, p. 6; Hunter, “Historical Aspects of - Indian Geography,” _Scot. Geog. Mag._, Dec. 1888. - -Footnote 79: - - Rogers, _Superhuman Origin of the Bible_, Lecture v. - -Footnote 80: - - Professor Max Müller, _Introduction to the Science of Religion_, p. - 103. - -Footnote 81: - - Professor Müller, Gifford Lectures, _Natural Religion_, p. 564. - -Footnote 82: - - _Record of Missionary Conference in London_, 1888, vol. i. p. 39; also - his _Buddhism_, p. 558. - -Footnote 83: - - _Le Génie des Religions._ - -Footnote 84: - - Sutta Nipata, translated by Fausböll in vol. x. of _Sacred Books of - the East_, Part ii. pp. 23, 76, 109, 113. - -Footnote 85: - - _Ibid._ vol. x., _ibid._ Part ii. p. 40. We are also reminded that a - man is not a Bikkhu because he puts on yellow robes, unless he has - cleansed himself from evil (Dhammapada, i. 9, 10). - -Footnote 86: - - T. W. Rhys Davids, _Buddhism_, pp. 5, 145. - -Footnote 87: - - Sir Monier Williams, _Buddhism_, pp. 162, 163. - -Footnote 88: - - Émile Burnouf, _Science de Religions_, p. 24. - -Footnote 89: - - M. Vivien de St. Martin, _Mémoires sur les contrées occidentales_. - -Footnote 90: - - Oldenberg, _Buddha, etc._, p. 10. - -Footnote 91: - - _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. i. p. xxii. - -Footnote 92: - - Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, vol. ii. p. 338; Weber, _Indian - Literature_, p. 38; Sir Monier Williams, _Religious Thought and Life - in India_, p. 18. - -Footnote 93: - - See Satapatha-Brâhmana, translated by Professor Eggeling in vols. xii. - and xxvi. of _Sacred Books of the East_. Max Müller places the age of - these books within the ninth and seventh centuries B.C. - -Footnote 94: - - E. Quinet, _Le Génie des Religions_, p. 185; Paris, 1857. - -Footnote 95: - - Sir Monier Williams, _Religious Thought and Life in India_, p. 24, - referring to the Aitareya-Brahmana, vii. 13. - -Footnote 96: - - Oldenberg, _Buddha, etc._, p. 15; T. W. Rhys Davids, Hibbert Lectures, - p. 25. - -Footnote 97: - - Gough, _Philosophy of the Upanishads_, pp. 41, 42. - -Footnote 98: - - _Sacred Books of the East_, vols. i. and xv. No one has dated any of - the Upanishads earlier than 600 B.C., and some of them are very late. - -Footnote 99: - - _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. i. p. lxvi. - -Footnote 100: - - Svetâsvatara-Upanishad, iii. 7, iv. 14, 16, v. 13, vi. 7, 9, _Sacred - Books of the East_, vol. xv. - -Footnote 101: - - Oldenberg, _Buddha, etc._, pp. 47, 48; Gough, _Phil. Upan._ pp. 61, - 67. - -Footnote 102: - - T. W. Rhys Davids, Hibbert Lectures, p. 28. - -Footnote 103: - - _History of Israel_, vol. i. pp. 41, 47. - -Footnote 104: - - Gifford Lectures, _Natural Religion_, p. 563. - -Footnote 105: - - It is significant that in the beginning of the Bible Nature-worship - seems stamped as accursed in its symbol, the serpent, and that the - whole Bible from beginning to end is a Divine protest against that - worship in all its forms. Mankind in all ages is tempted to become as - the gods, and in a low condition he has almost everywhere succumbed to - the temptation. He feasts his gods, compels them to serve him, is - really higher than they, and thus he degrades himself or falls from - the ideal of one made in the image and after the likeness of God. - -Footnote 106: - - Ewald, _History of Israel_, vol. i. pp. 320-322. - -Footnote 107: - - Some ascribe it to the Deuteronomist, ch. vi. 4. - -Footnote 108: - - Professor Müller finds the first traces of a Maker or Creator in the - Vedic deity Tvashtar, the carpenter—the clever workman, even smith, - forging bolts for Indra therein, Rig-Ved. iii. 55. 19. “Tvashtar, the - enlivener, endowed with many forms, has nourished the creatures and - produced them in many ways; all these worlds are his.” Of another god, - latterly called Pragâpati, he quotes Rig-Ved. x. 81. 2, as one who, - “creating the earth, disclosed the sky by his power.” Very - significantly, however, he reminds us that the same poet loses the - idea, and speaks of the secret of creation as undiscoverable.—Müller’s - _Natural Religion_, p. 245. Also Introd. to Upanishads, _Sacred Books - of the East_, vol. xv. p. xxiv. - -Footnote 109: - - Fairbairn, _Religion in History and in the Life of To-day_, pp. 39-51. - -Footnote 110: - - It was only by their very highest and greatest souls that the Godhead - was conceived in anything of its spiritual glory. To Abraham God was - the Creator, distinct from and greater than the earth and heavens - which He had made; to Moses He was a righteous Lawgiver, training upon - eagle-wings a peculiar people; to David He was a tender and wise - Shepherd of a foolish and helpless flock; to Isaiah and the later - prophets a Father dealing with rebellious people, whom He pities, - knowing whereof they were made. These conceptions, however, cannot be - said to have been those of the mass of the people. - -Footnote 111: - - Kuenen, _National Religions and Universal Religion_, Hibbert Lectures, - 1882, p. 187. - -Footnote 112: - - Edersheim, _Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah_, vol. i. p. 275. - -Footnote 113: - - Jos. _Contra Ap._ ii. 30. 32; _Antiq._ xviii. 1. 1; _Jewish Wars_, ii. - 8. - -Footnote 114: - - Uhlhorn, _Conflict of Christianity_, chaps. i. ii.; Jos. _Antiq._ - xiii. 9. 1, and 11. 3, and _Contra Ap._ ii. 10. 39; Kuenen, _Religion - of Israel_, iii. 273 _seq._; Renan, _Les Apôtres_, pp. 253, 260. - -Footnote 115: - - The truth on which the Sabbath is founded is the majestic truth of a - completed creation, and one conform to the latest discoveries of - science. During the whole course of human observation no new creative - effort has been displayed in the production of a new type. The animal - and vegetable worlds stand to-day as man first beheld them. The - creative spirit has passed into the soul of man, in whose world is the - progress which nature has long ceased to manifest, and under whose - handling nature itself improves. But God, though resting from His - works of creation, is not in Scripture said to be resting from His - works of mercy: “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” - -Footnote 116: - - “The words of Agur the son of Jakeh,” Proverbs xxxi. 1. - -Footnote 117: - - Hüber, _Der Pessimismus_, 1876, p. 8; Holdheim, Preface to vol. iii. - of _Predigten_, quoted by Cheyne, _Job and Solomon_, pp. 250-253. - -Footnote 118: - - Eccles. xii. 12. - -Footnote 119: - - Edersheim, _Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah_, vol. i. p. 276; - Keim, _Jesus of Nazara_, vol. i. pp. 316-325; Kuenen, _Religion of - Israel_, vol. iii. p. 177. - - - - - LECTURE III. - THE BUDDHA OF THE PITAKAS: THE CHRIST OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. - - -The condition of Palestine and the progress of events in it at the -beginning of the Christian era, are set in the clear light of history, -and defined by an accurate chronology. To the superficial observer it -appeared to be a prosperous land, for it was fertile and carefully -tilled, populous, and, in the northern regions especially, teeming with -the fruits of industry. It had reached the commercial stage of -civilisation, and everywhere, in well-built cities adorned with palatial -buildings, many of them the abodes of merchants who rivalled the Italian -nobles and Herodian princes in the costliness of their manner of living, -it yielded indications of the luxury which successful commerce brings in -its train. But as always happens when wealth abounds in a land, there -was a corresponding amount of poverty. While the rich were lavishing -fortunes upon selfish and gigantic follies, an increasing multitude, -born and bred in squalor, were struggling for very existence. In the -days of the Son of Man their numbers were vastly increased by political -troubles which disturbed trade and depressed agriculture. So to an eye -that looked beneath the surface this seemingly prosperous Palestine was -diseased and in a dangerous condition, for pauperism and discontent were -rapidly maturing the seeds of anarchy, and preparing for the successive -revolutions in which so many perished before the Roman eagles swept down -upon the carcass of a State politically dead, because morally and -socially corrupt. - -Under the Herodian dominion, secured as it had been by the destruction -of an illustrious royal house and the sacrifice of their bravest -patriots, the sympathies of the people revolted from the throne to -cluster for a time around the temple; but just as the dignity of the -office of the high priest was rising in their estimation, successive -nominations to it by the king and procurator of men odious to the good -turned the tide in a different direction. The hierarchy was represented -by the Sadducees, a party small in number and far from popular. Though -wearing names of ancient and honoured families, they were obviously -careless alike of the sanctuary and of the interests of the nation. -Strict observers of the law of their Davidic ancestor, they rejected the -prevalent interpretations of it, and all the new-fangled doctrines -concerning angels and spirits, and the resurrection of the just, which -had been formulated since the Exile. Especially opposed to the belief -that the keeping of the law would procure for a man recompence in a -future state, they held that the law must be kept to the letter just -because it was God’s will, even though the soul died with the body. -Their wealth and position as the aristocracy brought them into -connection with the representatives of the great foreign powers of the -times, whose manners and fashions they copied; but the nearer they drew -to the Roman and Asmonean nobility the further they drew apart from the -people whom they never pretended to love, and who, equally alienated, -regarded them with similar dislike. - -Withdrawn from the temple, the affections of people were freely given to -the synagogue leaders as the representatives and fosterers of the -national ideals and hopes. In these days every small town had its -synagogue, while in Jerusalem alone there were said to be four hundred -and eighty. These were not only places of worship, but schools in which -the Law was made the common possession of all without distinction, and -also arenas for exciting discussion, in which was nursed that love of -dialectics to which so many striking analogies exist both in India and -Greece. They were dominated by the Scribes, the sole copiers for the -ever increasing synagogues of the ancient Scriptures, and the true -interpreters of the law. Pedantic and self-important though they -generally were, they were revered so by the people for their piety and -gifts that from them were chiefly selected the members of the court of -the Sanhedrim, which represented all that was left to the nation of -executive power. Their Cabbala, revealing the secret doctrines to be -found in names, of which we have specimens in the writings of St. -Paul,[120] and the mystic significance of numbers, of which we have -traces in the Apocalypse, may be only interesting now as curiosities, -but we must never forget that they rendered undying service to the world -in preserving from corruption, by many arts carefully studied and -applied, the texts of Holy Scripture.[121] - -The Pharisees, the Nazarites of the nation as their name implies, the -democratic antagonists of the aristocratic Sadducees, the staunch -opponents of the Gentile, the believers in the coming kingdom of the -just, were deservedly the most popular of all the religious sects in -Palestine. More liberal than the Sadducees in their interpretation of -the law in its bearing upon the people, they never thought of exacting -for faults or transgressions the ancient penalties; but they were far -more severe in their personal observance of it.[122] To the mass of them -it was a ladder by which they might climb into the kingdom of heaven; -and out of it, to make sure of this end, they evolved a most -comprehensive system of bye-laws, as sacred to them as the original -precepts by which every action and word and relation of life was -regulated. Pharisaism was just Brahmanism, and though more ethically -applied it was in its spirit and aim as selfish. Bent only upon -accumulating merit, in character it became eventually as morally impure. -Forgetting in their attention to petty details the weightier obligations -of life, disregarding their neighbours that they might provide for their -own recompence, the Pharisees became as a class so corrupt as to draw -upon them the most scathing of all the denunciations of our Lord. - -More Pharisaic than the Pharisees, said to be an offshoot or secession -from them, the Essenes in their desert communities sought by the worship -of Jehovah in the spirit of the prophets, and yet apparently by prayers -to the sun, and by an ascetic and celibate life, to deliver the immortal -soul from material impurity, to educate it to enjoy the beatific vision, -and to prophesy the secret things of the future. In these communities of -pious people, the very flower of Judaism,[123] the only ray of light in -the deepening darkness, some may be pardoned in professing to find the -dawn of Christianity—not in its external arrangements, but its inward -dispositions and beliefs. In its avowal that morality was superior to -legal observance, in its endeavour to prepare the mind by calm to -receive the Divine instruction, in its sabbatic sanctification of all -days of the week, in its estimate of all work as religious, and of every -meal as sacramental, it pre-intimated the teaching of the coming gospel; -but while its arrangements may have suggested the monastic institutions -of Christendom, we can never regard it as the matrix of Christianity. -Its life was just the last flickering ray of Judaism, a bright gleam -irradiating the features of a moribund age, but not that of a new birth -with promise of a mighty future. It was not the rush of a new force into -the battle of the redemption of humanity, but the _sauve qui peut_ of a -rout which it believed to be universal. As pessimist as Brahmanism in -its views of life, though more Buddhist than Brahman in its methods, its -aim was the same—that of rescuing the individual from a world nigh unto -perdition and really not worth the saving.[124] - -In the virtuous Pharisee and the pious Essene Judaism found its best -representatives;[125] but at most there were only six thousand -Pharisees[126] and four thousand Essenes[127] in all the nation, and, -alas! the majority of the Pharisees were not sincere; and the Essenes, -though really in earnest, had abandoned the nation to its fate. Among -the religious classes piety and morality had become so dissociated that -a man who in the matter of belief or of worship would strain at a gnat, -might in practice without condemnation swallow a camel. The result of -this fatal divorce between creed and conduct was seen in a social -corruption which augured everywhere the gathering of the storm-clouds of -retribution. At that time Greece was dead, and what was best in its -spirit had passed into Alexandria. There, blending with the more robust -spirit of the Hebrew religion, it was forming that Hellenism which, -though it never could account for the origin, was yet powerfully to -influence the unfolding of our religion. In Hellenism we have the -natural resultant of the conflux of Eastern and Western thought, which, -according to some, will explain the birth of Christianity. In it -certainly the Aryan and the Semite were seen contributing their very -best thoughts, and the product was—Philo; but Philo-Judæus is neither -St. Paul nor St. John, and the Christ of the Gospels is further beyond -him than the heavens are above the earth. - -In Alexandria Greece might be said to live, but Rome was hopelessly -dying. Drunk with the cup of the sorceries of all nations, embruted with -every lust, it was staggering to a doom which neither law, even the best -conceived and most thoroughly administered, nor philosophy, even the -wisest and most consistently illustrated, could avert. The civilisation -of the Western world was marvellous: it was a world not only of poets -and artists, of brave soldiers and subtle statesmen, but of sound -moralists too; but civilisation, powerless to save, could only cover -with broidered robes the leprous body, or adorn with golden trappings -its bier, and morality could not restore what was sick unto death. When -Rome and Palestine were alike corrupt, there was no hope for the world -in man; yet when all help in man faileth, there never lacketh help in -God, and so, just when the night was blackest, and despair had seized on -all save a few aged people in the courts of Zion, and a few thoughtful -Magi in the distant East, lo! over a Babe in the cattle-crib of a leewan -in Bethlehem was descried the shining of the Star of Hope. - -When we turn from Palestine to the holy land of Magadha, the cradle of -Buddhism in the sixth century B.C., we find no light of history -streaming upon it. All is dim and shadowy, with no chronology to define -events, and no incidents to distinguish personalities. It is like a land -of dreams to our modern conception, but it is not a chaos. We can trace -to a certain extent movements in it, and as we follow them there emerges -in outline sufficiently clear a real civilisation, which, though lacking -the stir and endeavour, the commerce and the art of the West, and really -inferior to it, is yet most interesting in its pathetic resemblances, -and all the more instructive that its beliefs and institutions were -formed out of antecedents and predispositions very different from any of -which the Western world had experience. - -It is evident from the very cursory survey already made that religious -belief in India and in the West must have passed through phases -significantly similar. In both it proceeded from faith in a revealed -system of truth—in India in the inspired Vedas, in Palestine in the -inspired oracles. Human speculation in both cases was begotten, and for -long it was educated in faith in revelation, then beginning to -rationalise; in both cases it unintentionally undermined what at first -it only endeavoured to explain. Turning from ancient scrolls to the -study of the book of human nature, whose pages, though often tattered -and defiled, are always fascinating, it was staggered by the -contradiction between man’s ideals of goodness and justice and the -realities of human history. Out of this collision arose the Promethean -demand that the divine powers that govern life “should either explain or -abdicate.” In Palestine this wrestle with the inequalities of providence -originated early, and continued all along; but it was confined within -limits by faith in the personality of Deity as one so infinitely greater -than man that only a part of His ways could be understood. Indian -speculation never reached the approaches to this idea of God: it -wandered into a Pantheism of a grosser type than ever the West was -acquainted with, and once it reached that stage it could not stop. Just -as in Greece pantheism ripened into the materialism of the Epicurean and -the atheism of the Stoic, so in India, even before the days of Gotama, -may have begun that open revolt against Deity, in the perilous attempt -of reason to explain by itself the universe, with which his name has -since then been most closely associated. - -The religious world in India in the times preceding his birth, like the -religious world of Palestine, had a hierarchy represented by the -Brahmans, the indispensable functionaries in all sacrificial services. -Corresponding to the Scribes were the Teviggi, the reciters and -expounders of the sacred and still unwritten books. The Rabbin had their -analogies in reforming Brahmans, who alone or in communities that had -gathered round them professed to teach the higher discipline which could -secure deliverance. If a multitude of sects be an indication of -intellectual movement, there was as much stir in Brahmanism as in -Judaism. In the Pali books there are mentioned as contemporaries of -Buddha six noted teachers of great schools, the most formidable of whom, -or at least the most hated of his soul, was the head of an ascetic sect -which, like the Essenes, had renounced the world to make good their own -salvation. This Niggantha sect, still represented in India by close upon -half a million of adherents in the district of Rajputana, claims not -only to have preceded the founder of Buddhism by two hundred and fifty -years, but to have anticipated the essentials of his system.[128] Its -philosophical and ethical doctrines are almost in accord with his, while -its cosmogony and ritual incline more towards those of Hinduism. Its -adherents apply to their founder the titles “Victor” or Jina, and -“Enlightened One” or Buddha, which many imagine were ascribed solely to -Gotama; but whether Buddhism sprang from it or gave birth to Jainism is -a question still undecided. The only solid fact as yet ascertained is -that from the earliest traceable period their mutual relations are -marked by that pronounced intolerance[129] which prevails when kinsfolk -quarrel. - -Collision and antagonism between sects in India was neither so sharp nor -so fierce as in Palestine, and Buddha ministered in conditions much more -favourable to the propagation of his system than did Jesus Christ. The -Sadducean opponents of Christ represented a powerful hierarchy, the -Pharisees a popular democracy, and the Scribes an influential Sanhedrim, -with power of inflicting a sentence of death. The Essenes never mingle -in the scenes of the Gospel, and it is questionable if they are ever -referred to in them. Over all and dominating all was a most jealous and -vigilant Roman despotism, ever ready to turn even a religious quarrel to -its own account, so that it was the most natural of things that an -opposition thus represented should nip, as it were, Christianity in the -very bud by crucifying its Founder. In Magadha, however, it was -otherwise. The broad distinction was between Brahmans and Sramans,[130] -the latter a general title covering many secessions from Brahmanism, and -the popular favour was equally bestowed on both. The Brahmans, though -dominant, had not the power, and to their credit do not seem to have had -the will, to persecute. It was not from them, but from the scholastic -and conceited Teviggi and from the ascetic sects that Buddha encountered -most formidable opposition; and yet even in these cases opposition was -not rigid. It was a war not of blows, but of words, in which an appeal -to the secular arm or to force was out of the question. A new sect, -therefore, especially one that had donned the yellow robes and alms-bowl -of the mendicant, protesting against the debasing belief in the efficacy -of Brahmanic rites, or the virtue gained by extravagant Yogi -austerities, would obtain from the people at large more favour than -resistance or disdain. - -The intellectual movement in India appears thus to have been extensive -and many-sided. In the multitude of sects there is a guarantee for -freedom,[131] and competition in the proclamation of truth is better -than monopoly; but in religion, as in trade, the competition of -over-multiplying sects tends to increase adulteration. So in early -Buddhist literature, while there is incontestable evidence of the -existence of honest instructors, there is also unquestionable evidence -of the abundance of quacks, who trifled with truth simply to make a gain -of it, and of shallow but clever professionals, who dealt with gravest -themes in the spirit of the mere debater.[132] So there, as in Palestine -in the days of Coheleth, through over-discussion the old faith was -rapidly evaporating. In the Brahmans, religion had degenerated into -formalism; in the Teviggi, into traditionalism. In the philosophic -Sramans it was in many instances passing into blank atheism; and among -the ascetics, into despair. While this was the condition of the learned -and of the few, the masses everywhere, like the Ammé Ha-árets in -Palestine, were wandering—no man caring for them—further and further -into the idolatries and sensualities of Hinduism. Morality was -perishing, the writing on the heart was getting more indistinct, and -conscience becoming more confused. Then, just as five centuries later, -when faith was almost gone, Christ came to restore it by communicating -new life, so when divine law was in danger of fading from the -consciousness of men, there arose one to assert its eternal supremacy; -preaching the creed of Coheleth without his fear of God, and enforcing -the keeping of the commandments, not as expressed in Vedas or -interpreted in Brahmanas, but as written in every fibre of the body and -every faculty of the being, as the only way to safety. - -Who was he? Like the Author of Christianity, he has had to contend, as -it were, for the recognition of his personal existence. Even to-day it -is maintained that neither Christ nor Buddha ever existed, that they -were merely incarnations of popular conceptions, and that all the -legends concerning them can be reduced to a combination of anterior -mythological elements. These mythical theories, however, in regard to -the origin of Christianity, may be considered among the curiosities of -criticism;[133] and in regard to the origin of Buddhism, though more -justified by the confessed uncertainty as to dates, they have been -satisfactorily dispelled as another instance of refining overdone.[134] -Brahmanism and the successive phases of Hinduism can be traced to no -individual founder, but in investigating the origin of Buddhism we -breathe a very different atmosphere. There is a human and moral -character about it which the other Indian religions lack: something real -as in Mosaism, and palpable as in Islam.[135] We may rest assured that -Buddhism had for its founder a real person, and though our best -authorities have had to search for their facts through a vast amount of -fabulous materials, we may accept the dates which they have -approximately fixed for his birth and death, and the outlines which they -have sketched of his life and ministry. - -Gotama, a name still found among the Rajput chiefs of Nagara, was born -in the north-eastern region of India, about a hundred miles from -Benares, about the year B.C. 557. His father, a Sakya, a name unknown in -any native Indian family, and said to indicate descent from a race of -northern nomad immigrants, was rajah of Kapila, and his mother was a -daughter of the family of Koli.[136] His principalities, of very limited -extent, seem to have been eventually swallowed up by the greater Indian -monarchies, for when Fa-Hian visited the country Kapila had become a -vast solitude, and there for ages its very name has perished from the -living speech of men. Even though his royal pedigree be an embellishment -of the later legends, there seems no reason to doubt that his father was -noble and rich according to the standard of the time, and sufficiently -independent of Brahman domination to train his son in his own way. It -seems not to have been in their studies, but in the exercises befitting -a warrior prince, that Gotama was educated, though a disposition -thoughtful and melancholy, and strongly sympathetic, appears to have -disinclined him from such a mode of life. Even as a youth the darker -sides of existence threw a shadow over him; the sufferings of mankind -were among his earliest impressions, and he brooded over them till his -mind, poisoned by the contemplation of them, threw its gloom over -everything around him, and made the very air hang heavy with the weight -of woe. - -To one driven as he was to the conclusion that existence was a burden -rather than a blessing, death, according to the belief in which he had -been nurtured, could afford no relief; but hope seemed to dawn for him -as he thought of the happy yellow-robed sages who, freed from his -horror, were tranquil and dignified, abstracted alike from pleasure and -pain. So after a period of irresolution and struggle, in the very prime -of his manhood, he stole away from his wife and his new-born child, and -cast in his lot with the forest recluses. Having lived some time with -them, and having found that their ascetic discipline failed to satisfy -his aspirations, he left them, and joined two philosophic Brahmans, who -taught him the science of meditation in its lower and higher degrees. -Though he had profited so much by their instruction and discipline that -he rose in six years from being a disciple to a teacher, he confessed -that he had not found by their methods the imperishable and permanent -quietude which he coveted. So, abandoning all his disciples, he withdrew -into solitude, and plunged into fasting so rigorous that he nearly -destroyed himself; then, finding that the secret of deliverance was not -thus to be obtained, he returned, amid the contempt of his former -companions, to a more genial mode of life. Then, all alone in the -jungle, its manifold discomforts, the memories of home, and the -fruitlessness of all his endeavours, assailed him with the force of a -temptation to desist from the quest; but rallying all his powers for one -supreme effort, he eventually, under a banyan-tree at Bohimanda, -triumphed—awoke as one before whom all illusion had vanished, and who by -no divine illumination, but by his own personal energy, had attained to -knowledge of the causes of all things, and had at last become the -Buddha, the Enlightened One. - -We need have no difficulty in accepting this outline of the man’s -spiritual history as substantially correct; and assuming it to be so, we -see at once that it is contrasted in every point with the early history -of Jesus of Nazareth. In the Indian narrative, _e.g._, we have long and -prolix details of the youth and manhood of Gotama; in the Christian -Gospels very few incidents, one pregnant saying, two or three words of -description, sum up the whole record of Christ’s biography till He -appeared before the Baptist. This silence is surely suggestive, for it -could not have been the result of ignorance or forgetfulness. “It is -silence, where, to a moral certainty,” as is indicated alike by the -apocryphal Gospels and the Buddhist legends, “men left to themselves -would have used much speech.” In the Gospels the things which we are -naturally curious to know are concealed from us, and there is disclosed -only the spiritual reality in which Christianity consists. Where He was, -how He looked, what He did during these long years of waiting and -preparation, the Evangelists have not told us; but they have revealed -enough to show what He was. Scenery and circumstances are as nothing, -because the life that was revealing itself in them was everything; and -of the unfolding of that life, the few and slight but most suggestive -touches of the Gospels enable us to form clearer conceptions than we are -ever likely to form of Gotama’s from the abundant incidents of the -Buddhist story. - -Thus while the son of the Indian rajah did not require to keep from -himself anything that his heart desired, Jesus of Nazareth in the home -of Galilee had to deny Himself, and to endure in the commonest kind of -labour a hardness which the Indian youth, in the inertion of his class -and race, regarded as part of the curse of existence. Still, Jesus had -meat to eat which the other knew not of; He had bread enough and to -spare, while the other was perishing of hunger. Rich in poverty, while -Gotama was poor in his abundance, Jesus the carpenter appears highly -exalted in what the other would have called humiliation. There, while -Gotama, having everything which he could desire at his call, had -discovered that human life was worse than vanity, Jesus, -self-surrendered in faithful service of others, was learning how full of -blessedness and how rich in power of blessing the life of any man might -be. The angels of nature and providence, by the lilies of the field and -the children in the market-place, instructed him in a wisdom which no -Indian sage ever dreamed of; and though He saw the wretchedness of this -evil world as Gotama never saw it, and felt for the misery of men as -Gotama never could feel, He saw what even Buddha the Enlightened never -could descry, the face of a Father in Heaven not frowning in wrath but -yearning in pity over all. So, instead of repelling, the suffering and -evil of the world drew Jesus closer to it, till, finding His grace, not -as Gotama found His wisdom, in desire to be delivered from it, but in -the depth of His longing to save it, He gave Himself to it and for it, -as for a joy that was set before Him. - -Again, the enlightenment of Gotama was the result of a painful struggle, -first between inclination and duty, and then with great perplexities of -duty, but in Christ it was painless and natural, like the growing of the -dawn into the day. His pure and at first joyous life unfolded itself -like a beautiful morning under the animating impulse of love to God and -to all His creatures. As He grew in consciousness of the heaven within, -He became more conscious of the disorder without, and more sensible of -His isolation in regard to it. As year by year the sense not of the -world’s misery but of its guilt increased within Him, there would also -increase the longing that it should be taken away. Very early the -conviction took possession of Him, that He was not here to win His own -way to deliverance, but to be about His Father’s business. Gradually the -Father’s business was revealed to Him, and when the preaching of the -Baptist had made it clear, without any wrestle like Gotama’s, Christ, -ever close to His Father, and ever clear in His duty, set Himself at -once to fulfil it. - -It is often alleged that the temptation in the wilderness, which marked -the close of our Lord’s long period of silent preparation, is an exact -parallel to the fasting and temptation which preceded Gotama’s -enlightenment at Bohimanda. There is doubtless an external similarity -sufficient to arrest our attention, but the internal contrasts disclose -experiences of quite different characters. In the light of their -respective histories, these occurrences, though often referred to as -miraculous, were in reality most natural. They represent experiences of -which there could be no witnesses, and which, indescribable in plain -words, could only be suggested by a kind of parable. The temptations are -recorded not as they were presented to the persons tried, but in the -character which they assumed when their drift was discovered and their -aim was detected. Both were assailed by suggestions, raising in them a -tumult of emotion, which, if unresisted or yielded to, would in Gotama’s -case have been equivalent to abandonment of his quest for deliverance -for the sake of sensual indulgence offered by Mâra and his daughters, -and in the case of Christ, to refusal to live by obedience, to tempting -the Holy One of Israel, and to worshipping the splendid majesty of -wrong. The temptations were real, assailing the will, seeking to -paralyse or to change it; and their force in each case would be in -proportion to the depth and purity of the natures assailed. Gotama, -though unmistakably a man of high spiritual aspiration, was attacked by -sensual visions,[137] which could not possibly have been a temptation to -a nature like Christ’s. He had “to repel as evil what to other men would -have appeared as ideals of good, and had to turn away from what the -noblest of men would have cherished as innocent dreams or splendid -chances,”[138] because to His pure eyes they were Satanic temptations. -He suffered, being tempted, but His trouble and suffering were caused -neither by irresolution, nor vanity, nor fear, but by His own lowly -humility and to the sense of the exceeding greatness of His mission. - -Gotama, sorely concerned about himself, went apart to fast and meditate -and wrestle for his own deliverance, but Christ went apart not to -fast—fasting was an unheeded incident in and not the aim of His -retirement, and in no perplexity about His own salvation, for that was -assured and made the basis of assault,—but that in quiet meditation He -might see more clearly the way by which the salvation of God could be -brought to mankind. Christ was forced to acknowledge that absolute -surrender to His Father’s will in His mission meant absolute antagonism -to the world, and He was tried by suggestions as to the mode of -prosecuting His mission, all the more seductive that they were confessed -to be natural. Might He not, as the Beloved of Heaven, to carry the -world along with Him, and to save multitudes from suffering, swerve just -a little from His high ideal, and accommodate His ways to suit their -prejudices? These temptations in the beginning continued His temptations -to the very close of His ministry. Not once, but all His life, as He -hungered for the sympathy and trust of those whom He sought to save, was -He tempted, as in Capernaum, when many fell away from Him, to “change -the stones into bread.” Not once only did He stand on “the battlements -of the temple,” nor once only was He offered “all the kingdoms of the -world and the glory of them.” Again and again was He in peril when He -stood high in the opinion of the crowds, and heard them in their Hosanna -entreating Him, through His very sympathy with and love for them, to -gratify their wishes; yet in every case the temptation was rejected -without the slightest wavering the moment it was understood. “Get thee -behind me, Satan.” “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” “The cup -which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” - -For again, Christ conquered because from the beginning to the closing -agony He stood firm rooted in obedience and in submission to the will of -a Higher than self; but the Buddhist writers want to impress the very -opposite of this upon us in regard to Gotama’s victory. He is said to -have conquered Mâra by the force of his own will, and won his way to -light by his individual energy alone. After he became Buddha he -hesitated whether he would preach the way of deliverance to men, not -because, like Moses and the Hebrew prophets, he had no confidence in -himself and required the assurance of a divine strength not his own. He -had perfect assurance in himself, but he had no confidence at first in -the ability of others to comprehend and to follow him in a way so -difficult to find and so hard to tread.[139] He asked no deity to help -him, for he was greater and wiser than all the gods. In the legends -Brahma is said in intercession to have pressed him to preach the way, -and moved eventually by no intercession, but simply by his own pity for -men lost in the vortices of miserable existence, he went forth in no -strength but his own to preach and to teach in a ministry, not of shame -and humiliation and death, but one of great exaltation and honour. - -This conception colours the narrative of his whole career. In the later -scriptures he is designated the Tathâgata (He who has gone or arrived at -Nirvana), the very reverse and point-blank contradiction of Christ the -Messiah, He who was sent. There was no higher to send him, no wiser to -teach. He came in his own name; but Jesus, as one sent by Him into the -world, went forth in the name of His Father. Though He made demands upon -the faith of the world compared with which the pretensions of Gotama are -trivial—for at the highest he only claimed to be Buddha the Enlightened, -while Christ spake of Himself as the “Light of the world,”—yet in -Christ’s claim there was ever a sense of dependence expressed or -implied, as of one who of His own self could do nothing, and who only -taught what His Father had showed Him. Both spake with authority, and -not as the scribes; both superseded the traditional domination of what -was said by men of old times with the emphatic “I say unto you”; but -there is a vast difference in the quality of this authority in the two -cases. The authority of Buddha sprang from his acknowledged intellectual -superiority, but the authority of Jesus sprang from spiritual insight. -The deliverances of Buddha were given after the manner of a Socratic -dialogue, and he won his converts and vanquished opponents by his -dialectic skill.[140] But in all the encounters of Christ with His -enemies there was no forcing of their reason to gain His end. His -replies and counter questions were brief and direct and incisive; they -were like the fiat of a king or the sentence of an unchallengeable -judge, from which reason and conscience alike confessed that there could -be no appeal. - -Certainly in the two ministries was fulfilled a saying of Christ, “I am -come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not; if another shall come -in his own name, him will ye receive,” for after a very short period of -imperfect success the public career of Gotama became a continuous -victorious progress. Disciples, drawn mostly from the highest -classes—the Brahmans, the nobles, and the wealthy merchants—flocked -round him wherever he appeared. He journeyed followed by admiring -crowds, he had only to show himself to impress, and he had only to -preach to convince. The most stubborn resistance became fluid under his -spell, and those who approached to confute were sure to succumb to his -sweet reasonableness. He was supported by powerful rajahs, and those who -did not show him proper reverence were punished according to their -edicts. He was lodged in parks and gardens and palaces, several of which -were gifted to him for the use of his Order. Accessible always to people -of all castes, and of every condition, and of both sexes, he received -the attention of the courtesan, and shared her feast and accepted her -offering,[141] but he always maintained the nobility and purity of an -irreproachable character, and wherever he was found it was as the -prophet of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come. Rejoicing -through his long and honourable ministry, sometimes loath to die, as -foreseeing the troubles which would befall his Order after his decease, -he at last, when over fourscore years, in a sickness alleged to have -been induced by partaking too freely of some rich food, with the quiet -dignity and composure of a saint, fell asleep, and was buried with the -funeral obsequies which Indians then bestowed on the bodies of their -greatest kings.[142] - -It would be impossible, in every respect, to find a more absolute -contrast to all this than the story of Jesus of Nazareth. If He was -popular, it was only for a little, and then only with the masses. The -aristocracy and the religious classes stood aloof, and soon entered into -a conspiracy to get rid of Him. He had a few disciples among them, like -Joseph of Arimathæa, and Nicodemus, and the family at Bethany, but the -words of the prophet accurately sum up the narratives of the Gospel, -that He was “despised and rejected of men.” To follow Him meant joining -in no triumphal procession, but in a struggle against storm and tide -which was sure to end in death. Suspected from the first, and speedily -denounced, He was watched and tracked and driven from place to place, -till at last the toils of the hunters closed successfully around Him, -and at the age of thirty-three He was crucified as a malefactor between -two robbers on Calvary. - -But the grand and crowning distinction between the import and effect of -the two ministries emerged at the close. After Gotama died and his body -was burned, and his relics had been reverently gathered, and -distributed, and enshrined in costly dagobas erected in the various -scenes of his labours, there was an end of him. He had gone out into the -void, according to his own theory of the hereafter, and, no longer -capable of being of use to his disciples, he exhorted them to be “their -own refuge, their own law, and to work diligently out their -salvation.”[143] But when Jesus had been crucified there was manifestly -not an end, but rather a new beginning of His personal influence, a -rising in fuller power, a coming again with greater authority. From the -very morning of His ministry He took His death into His plan, as the -consummation of one stage of His mission, without which His plan would -have been a failure. All His teaching centred in His death, as a moral -and spiritual necessity in Divine providence. Instead of complaining of -it, He pointed to it as the seal of His Messiahship, “the cause for -which He was born, the end for which He came into the world,” “the hour” -of His glorification. The very setting of crime and passion which His -enemies sought to give to the manner of it only made it in His -estimation more divine. Instead of evading it He went straight to meet -it, when the time had come, as one who had a purpose to fulfil by it. -That purpose He announced to be the development of His personal -resources, the liberation of the creative energies of His being. As -uncrucified He might be weak, as crucified He would be so mighty as to -“draw all men unto Him.” The event amply fulfilled the prediction, for -shortly after the crucifixion Christ again confronted the world in -another form and in far greater power. The followers of Buddha went -forth testifying to his law, and they prefaced their preaching by the -invariable formula, “Thus have I heard, when the Blessed One lived in -——.” Their mission was simply to recall and declare and expound the -system of a master who had been absolutely lost to them, but the -apostles of Christ from the very first testified not of a doctrine, but -of Christ Himself, as one who having died still lived, was reigning in -mightier power, and would be with them always, even to the end of the -æon. - -For we must bear in mind that Buddha and Christ stand in very contrasted -relations to the systems of belief which they each founded. Soon after -Buddha’s death, if not before it, the formula of admission into his -order began with the phrase, “I take refuge in Buddha,” which -consequently has been described by some as the “first article in the -Buddhist creed.” We must not for a moment however suppose that this -expression is of equal or even of similar significance to our -confession, “I believe in Christ.” Gotama in the whole course of his -preaching never asked his hearers for faith in himself as essential to -their emancipation. All that he demanded was obedience to the law, -disposition to enter, and determination to follow the paths which he had -discovered. He could not give them Nirvana, nor even bring them to it; -he could only tell them the way to it, which he had found, and as he had -succeeded so might they by their own individual energy.[144] We are thus -not free to explain Buddhism from and by the person of its founder; it -is perfectly explicable apart from him, as if he had never lived; but -apart from Christ, and without the light thrown upon it by His person, -Christianity would be an enigma. Christ from the first demanded faith in -Himself as essential to salvation.[145] Belief in what He taught was -always subordinated to trust in Himself. Consequently the apostles never -said, ‘Observe the precepts; follow the paths, and you will find the way -of escape,’ but always “Believe in (_or_ on) the Lord Jesus Christ and -thou shalt be saved.” They pointed to Him as the sole object of faith -and worship, as the only rule and example and inspiration. Their creed, -their theology, their ethical code, were not elaborated in systems; they -were all comprehended in a Person who required neither apologists nor -defenders, but only witnesses who would manifest and declare Him. - -This must be borne in mind when we consider the miraculous elements -which are common to the presentation, given in both religions, of their -respective Authors. The story of Buddha, as we have hitherto followed -it, tells of a great renunciation, but of one that can hardly be called -unparalleled in the history of religion. He was probably neither the -first nor the last noble Indian youth who “for the sake of that supreme -goal of the higher life went out from all and every household gain and -comfort, to become a houseless wanderer.”[146] But the story as we have -it in the Buddhist books is very different.[147] Had any one asked a -yellow-robed missionary, about the time when the last Gospel was being -written, what he meant by the Buddha, he would have begun by telling of -one who, thousands of ages back, in the shining world of the gods, out -of pity for the miseries of men, resolved to become a Buddha that he -might teach them the way of deliverance, and who through many -transformations—in which he was baptized into all experiences, even -those of rat and a clod of earth—at last reached the point when, coming -down from heaven, and entering, in the form of a white elephant, the -side of the wedded wife[148] of a great king,[149] was born as Buddha. -He would tell of a mysterious baptism, when two full streams of perfumed -water fell from heaven upon him, while all the gods in all the worlds -raised in responsive harmony the heavenly song; of a holy sage who -descended from heaven to greet him with predictions of his glorious -career;[150] of many prodigies displayed by him in his illustrious -youth; of his mighty struggle with and victory over Mâra, Lord of all -Desires, and of his going forth as a great king, at the urgent request -of the great god Brahma, to preach Nirvana and deliver the world. - -Then he would tell how when he set “a-rolling the wheel” of the “kingdom -of righteousness,”[151] he did so with such effect that not only -multitudes of men, but eighty thousand gods and angels, “hearing, each -in their own tongue, though the language was that of Magadha,”[152] were -by one sermon imbued with saving knowledge and converted; how during his -long and holy ministry, by discourses and parables and miracles, he -brought countless millions of men and women, and gods and sprites and -fairies, to find the right way; how the great devas came to worship or -to ask counsel from him;[153] how, inviolable and invincible, there -could not be found, either in this world or in the world of the devas, -Mâras, Brahmans, “any who could either scatter his thoughts or cleave -his heart”;[154] how he was transfigured,[155] and at last, when the -time was come, accompanied by a disciple very dear to him, how he lay -down like a king between two trees. Then when winds were hushed, and -streamlets silenced, and flowers from heaven shed their blossoms over -him like rain-drops, and a great earthquake rumbled, and the sun and -moon hid their faces, and the great Brahma lamented, rising through -light to light he achieved the full Nirvana.[156] - -It is not wonderful that Christians who have only read or heard of the -statements current as to the remarkable coincidences between the -miraculous incidents recorded in the Buddhist legends and the Christian -Gospels should be perplexed, and that not a few of those who are -anti-Christian in their attitude should have almost jumped to the -conclusion that the biographers of the two lives must have known of each -other’s works and borrowed each other’s traditions. Examination of the -alleged coincidences, however, reveals that there is no occasion for the -perplexity in the one case, and no ground for the jubilation in the -other. By no honest process of manipulation can we turn the supposed -similarities into even probable identities. The incidents illustrate -very widely contrasted lives, and enforce dogmas utterly contradictory -to each other. If any one is desirous of ascertaining the coincidences -which are stated to exist, he will find them clearly set forth and -classified by Professor Seydel in his so-called Buddhist Harmony;[157] -and if he require any more than his own common sense to guide him to an -opinion concerning them, he had better consult the Appendix to Professor -Kuenen’s Hibbert Lectures on _National Religions and Universal -Religions_, Dr. Kellogg’s _Light of Asia and Light of the World_, and -Dr. J. Estlin Carpenter’s article in the _Nineteenth Century_, December -1880, “On the Obligations of the New Testament to Buddhism.” These -authorities will confirm the judgment which any unbiassed and -intelligent juryman would form, from considering the evidence adduced in -support of the theory of borrowing, and from a simple comparison of the -alleged parallels themselves, that Buddhism had not the smallest direct -influence on the origin of Christianity. So fundamentally unlike are the -alleged “similarities” that the hypothesis of the derivation of the -contents of the Gospels from Buddhist sources is as ridiculous as would -be the supposition that the Venus of Milo was copied from the rude idol -or hideous fetich of an aboriginal tribe.[158] - -When the missionaries of the two religions first came into actual -contact has not yet been ascertained, and the influence of the Christian -ideals of self-oblivion upon the most essentially selfish system of -salvation ever promulgated to the world has yet to be traced. The -conception of self-renunciation which is set forth in the legends may -have originated in the memory of the kindness and gentleness and -goodness of one whose life was far nobler than his creed, and it may -have assumed greater strength and clearness when the teaching of the -Gospels came to be reflected upon it. It may or it may not, but of this -we may be positively certain, that the writers of the New Testament and -the composers of the earliest Buddhist traditions knew positively -nothing of each other’s productions. This is a conclusion accepted by -the very best authorities on the subject, and it is maintained with the -greatest firmness by those of them who discount the miraculous -occurrences found in the scriptures of both religions as only the fond -fancies which their affectionate disciples gradually wove around the -memories of their respective teachers. They hold that working -independently of each other, but under similar influences and in similar -conditions, it was simply natural that they should have come to adorn -with wonders somewhat alike in character the story of two lives so pure -and beneficial. - -The learned author of the Hibbert Lectures for 1881 has made some very -interesting and important suggestions as to the rise of the Buddhist -legends, and as he seems to imply a similar growth of the “Christian -legend,” it may be advisable to consider both accounts in their relation -to the literary sources which profess to authenticate them. Let us -assume, therefore, that the Lalita Vistara was actually in circulation -about the beginning of the Christian era,[159] and let us take for -granted that one of the oldest Suttas,[160] professing to relate a -portion of Buddha’s ministry, was extant in the form in which we have -it, some three centuries earlier, or a century after Buddha’s death. A -comparison of these two productions reveals at once the fact that in the -earliest there is no reference to the divinity, pre-existence, or -supernatural birth of Buddha, and making allowance for the usual -exaggeration of language, that there are very few miraculous incidents -recorded in it. It has been asserted that Buddha never professed to work -a miracle. Certainly the fragments of his original teaching which -survive indicate that he would be the first to repudiate all such as -have been ascribed to him. Be that as it may, it is a literary fact that -in the supposed earliest books only a few miracles are recorded. We may -infer therefore that by the time they were composed his orthodox -disciples had not formed those conceptions of his person and mission -which their pious descendants later on learned to believe and to -proclaim.[161] - -The Gospels are not the earliest Christian writings, and not several, -but many, “narratives concerning those matters which had been fulfilled -or established among” Christians, even as they “delivered them who were -eye-witnesses and ministers of the word,”[162] were probably in -circulation before the Gospels were written. Some of the Epistles of St. -Paul also, in all probability, preceded those collections of “the words -and deeds of the Lord”; but the substance of the three first Gospels was -very early produced, and we may be morally certain that they contain the -beliefs which the very first generation of Christians entertained -concerning Him. The truth of these beliefs is not now under discussion, -but only the fact of them, and the kind of people who were influenced by -them. It is averred “that the outward conditions in which Buddhism and -Christianity arose were similar, and so were the mental qualities of the -disciples of both religions”;[163] but the conditions were most -dissimilar in this respect, that Buddhism originated in the dimness of -an unhistoric age, and Christianity in an age and land so irradiated by -the light of history that we know more clearly what was happening then -and there than we do of what occurred in Europe a thousand years after. -The mental qualities of the disciples of both religions again seem to -have been most unlike. About Ananda and his companions we know really -nothing but the names, for they meet us in the Buddhist records as mere -lay figures, completely resembling one another, and with no -individuality to distinguish them.[164] We may assume, however, that -they belonged to one or other of the many sects of Brahmans or Sramans, -and if so, that they were dreamy and contemplative men, withdrawn from -practical life, and finding in the life of meditation a sphere more -congenial to them than the actual world of which they were parts. They -appear to have been directly and thoroughly unlike to the very marked -personalities represented by the Evangelists and the other apostles of -Christ, who were all drawn from practical life to be His followers. They -were the very reverse of speculative; they had little imagination and -almost no poetry in them; they were very dull of comprehension in regard -to truths higher than the few which they inherited, and very incredulous -about any unwonted occurrence said to have taken place outside the -little circle of their own observation. In their conscientious, -matter-of-fact way of looking at things they were the very last men to -dream dreams or weave legends around the memory of one whom they -revered; and we have their own confession, not of their slowness of -apprehension merely, but of their unbelief at first in regard to all -supernatural manifestations. - -Now while the supernatural only rarely meets us in the most ancient -Buddhist productions, where we would naturally have expected it to have -predominated, it meets us in the very earliest writings of Christianity, -where we would not have expected it at all. Christ to His first -disciples and apostles was a miraculous being. The claim formulated in -St. John’s Gospel, which is probably the latest book in the New -Testament, is that advanced for Christ by St. Paul in his earliest -extant letter to the churches. The Christ of St. John is not a new -Person, but the same Divine Being of whom St. Paul says, “He being in -the form of God” was “found on earth in fashion as a man.” He may have -been all wrong as to the ground of his belief; he may have been an -epileptic, a visionary, a man subject to trances, whose intense -spiritual affinities disqualified him from judging calmly of matters of -history; but there is no mistake as to his own belief and that of the -other evangelists and writers of the New Testament. The teaching of St. -Paul and St. John concerning Christ is set forth in St. Matthew with a -clearness which no language can improve upon.[165] St. Mark dwells -primarily upon the humanity of Jesus, a most important fact, presenting -a historic basis without which Christian truth would have been little -more than a mystic speculation; but even in St. Mark that humanity is -not described as unfolding under conditions which are merely -normal.[166] The life to which he testifies is not just that of Jesus of -Nazareth, but of the Christ of God, who speaks with more than human -authority. The development which is traceable in the theology of the -Epistles is the expansion of the significance of the events recorded in -the Gospels. The latest writings may more fully interpret the teaching -of the earlier ones, but in them we find no other Gospels, but only -anathemas pronounced on those who pretend to have them. In them a larger -domain is seen expanding beneath our gaze, but it is visible only in the -light of the central figure that meets us in the first. Plainly, -therefore, while the earliest Buddhist witnesses account for their -master and his teaching in the ordinary ways, and while their successors -much later on in their attempts to embellish his portrait have produced -quite a different person from the man of whom they first testified, the -very earliest Christian writers could not account for Christ in any -other way than by regarding Him as a supernatural being, who did not -come into the world and did not leave it in the way of all other men. It -is possible that they may all have been deluded, but if so, they vouched -for their sincerity by their martyrdoms. The delusion, moreover, was at -least universally and most consistently maintained, and it is the first -instance in the history of mankind where a delusion has produced -intellectual activity and expansion so wonderful as to have changed the -current of history, and originated the great throbbing ever-enlarging -world of Christendom which confronts us now. - -Another significant contrast between the two sets of writings is found -in the fact that while we can dissociate the miraculous elements from -the Buddhist Pitakas without detriment to their other contents, we find -it impossible to apply the same process with the like results to the New -Testament. No one questions that primitive Buddhism is improved by being -freed from the portents which subsequently gathered around it, for -primitive Buddhism is an intellectual and moral system, a theory of the -universe more likely to be obscured than elucidated by an appeal to the -supernatural. Christianity, however, while appealing both to intellect -and conscience, does so as the revelation of a life which, as a new -thing, might break through all men’s conceptions of what was ordinary or -necessary. The first appearance of life on this planet as an unwonted -phenomenon would be accompanied by manifestations miraculous to all who -only judged by experience of what had already been. So would be the -first appearance of man to those who judged of things by what was -possible to the actual animal world. That the manifestation of One who -had come that men might have life, and have it more abundantly, should -be accompanied with phenomena new and strange to mankind might have been -expected. Christ, as revealing an ideal of excellence to which things as -they are in nature, and men as they now are in society, do not conform, -will in truth contradict the present working of both. This at least is -the impression inevitably produced by the reading of the New Testament. -Its teaching is throughout founded upon, and it would be quite -unintelligible without reference to, the supernatural. To dissociate the -miraculous portions from the rest of its contents would be not only to -mutilate but to destroy it.[167] Not the theological and metaphysical -elements only, but even “the ethical, are so interwoven into one fibre -with the supernatural in the New Testament that it is impossible to -detach them without destroying the whole fabric.”[168] Verily a Gospel -without the miracles and all that accounts for them would be a very -strange book. - -Another very distinctive feature in the New Testament accounts is -displayed in the character of the wonders there recorded. Indeed, this -distinguishing element is found in all the miraculous narratives of the -Bible. If it be true that the ancient writers or redactors of Scripture -have employed the legends of other nations to illustrate their works, it -must be conceded that they have immensely improved, and made a much -better use of them. The story of the creation of the world, of the -primeval paradise, and of the deluge, may be only myths common to -several nations, but somehow, while all other writers just lose -themselves in these myths, the Hebrews alone have laid hold of them to -enforce the sublimest views ever formulated in human speech concerning -the origin of the world and of man. The narratives of the Old Testament -are evidently not constructed to startle the reader with portents, but -to disclose the providential dealings of a holy and merciful God with -man to enlighten and save him. The Gospels in like manner are not -written to record miraculous occurrences, nor are miracles introduced to -glorify Christ: they are simply referred to as incidents in His -ministry. When we compare the prodigies ascribed to Buddha during the -many changes of his pre-existence, or during his ministry, with the -miracles of the Gospels, they are like the rough casts in clay or wood -made by a rude or childish people contrasted with the perfect -productions of nature in the world of animals or of men. They may endure -comparison with the portents found in the Apocryphal books, or in the -Lives of the Saints, but placed side by side with the Gospel miracles -they serve only to illustrate the difference between what is artificial -and grotesque, and what is original and natural. There is a marked -sobriety in the Gospel accounts totally lacking in the Buddhist legends. -The latter serve no other end but to exalt and magnify Buddha,[169] but -the Gospel miracles are all founded in some great human necessity which -they are intended to supply. The Buddhist marvels are simply produced to -startle us, the Christian are recorded as signs to instruct us. What a -gulf separates the conception of Buddha leaping high in air amid the -sounding of the bells of the heavens and the plaudits of all the gods, -just to prove that he was Buddha, from the account of Christ’s refusal -to work a miracle to win the adherence of the crowd, or give the sign -from heaven to vanquish Sadducean unbelief! The Gospel miracles are few -after all, but they all flow from and are in harmony with the original -idea of Christ as Messiah which is assumed in all the Gospels. The -mighty works done by Him are all such as might be expected to be done in -a world like this by the Son of a heavenly Father. The cure of all -manner of disease, the exorcism of all the evil spirits that have -afflicted humanity, the victory over death, the control of all the -forces of nature, were all in the scope of one who came hither to -establish the kingdom of God. Christ’s miracles were all signs of man’s -present and prophecies of his future relations to all the evils that -afflict him. They all remind us of the Divine original ideal that man, -perfectly obedient to God, must exercise dominion over His creatures in -this world. Man’s present antagonism to nature, and the disorder seen in -his own social relations, are alike due to his refusal to merge his will -in God’s, and the miracles of our Saviour are all prophecies that when -through obedience to or faith in God he shall be restored to holiness, -he will find his social and external relations improved, and will regain -over nature that spiritual authority which even already the winds and -the waves in part recognise and obey.[170] - -Again, the New Testament writers claim for Christ what the early -disciples of Buddha never dreamed of claiming for their master, and they -insist upon their claim, though it is associated with the meanest and -apparently most contradictory of elements. It is not the glorification -but the humiliation of Christ which constitutes the marvel in the -Gospels. It was very natural that the Evangelists should imagine that -the angels should sing over the birth of a Saviour, but it was not -natural that they should conceive of them singing over a babe in a -manger. It was not wonderful, again, for Jews to believe that the coming -of their Messiah was divinely announced, but it is very wonderful that -they should believe that this annunciation was made to unknown -shepherds. It was certainly not in that way their Messiah was expected -to come. Had He come in the way they expected, the miracles might -naturally have been accounted for which they associated with His coming; -but, as matter of fact, it requires the miracle to account for their -belief in Him. And so it is all through in the Gospels. That the Messiah -should be discovered to be the Son of God need not surprise us, but that -the Son of God should be recognised by Jews in the form of a servant, -enduring patiently the contradiction of sinners, submitting to trial, to -torture, to death on the cross, is one of the greatest marvels in the -whole history of religion. This combination of glory and shame was a -difficulty in the way of faith, not a help or support of it. The claim, -we must remember, was not advanced for Christ by the Evangelists after -He died; it was formulated by Himself, and by Him it was asserted more -conspicuously, and with greater frequency and emphasis toward the close -of His earthly life. It was the only charge on which He was condemned; -all other accusations brought against Him broke down; but this one He -admitted—that He called Himself the Son of God. Questioned upon it, He -would not retract. “Thou sayest,” was all His reply, and for the saying -He was ordered to the cross. Yet upon the cross His assertion was -strengthened. Had He been a pretender, He would never have so comported -Himself before Pilate and Herod; had He been self-deluded, He never -would have said to His fellow-sufferer on Calvary: “To-day shalt thou be -with me in paradise.” The torture of crucifixion was sufficient to expel -the hallucinations of the maddest brain, but the Evangelists show that -while faith in His Messiahship was, during His crucifixion, fading even -from His disciples, in Himself it was stronger than ever, and at the -very last it was communicated to a dying robber, who trusted that He had -power to absolve him, and to open to him the gates of a better life. -Now, all this surely never could naturally have occurred to Jewish men -to conceive, and if their records be only fictions, the devout creations -of over fond imaginations, then their legends are miracles themselves. - -Some one has said that it is possible to find in the Buddhist books a -parallel to every incident in the Gospels; if so, these parallels will -be found to be very far apart; but to the incident of the Crucifixion -there can be no parallel. That one historical event separates not only -the two systems of thought and belief, but marks off Christianity from -all other religions in the world. Till the crucifixion of Jesus was -accomplished, the idea of associating with Deity humiliation, and of -conceiving of God as dying the death of a slave upon the cross, would -have been regarded as the grossest impiety. The fundamental idea of the -Incarnation was not wholly foreign to the mind either of India or of -Greece; to the Jew it was not a natural thought, but one so anti-Semitic -that Jew and Moslem alike have rejected Christianity because of it;[171] -but the incarnation of Deity represented in the Gospels, the humiliation -of the Godhead implied in the Crucifixion, is an idea which never could -have originated in the mind of either Gentile or Jew. It is one of the -things of God which the natural man cannot conceive, a mystery hid from -all ages until it was revealed, and apparently, unless we admit the -reality of the revelation, we never can account for the faith. - -The miraculous personality of Christ is thus the outstanding and -distinctive feature of the Christian writings. As the mists clear away -in the East, Buddha emerges more and more in the stature of a good and -great man, but Christ rises upon us as one who cannot be accounted for -according to the measure of any man, nor even that of an angel. It is -not as a teacher, a guide out of the difficulties of life, that He meets -us, but as a Revealer and Saviour. It is thus He has been accepted by -His disciples, and upon their faith He has reared His Church. It is thus -He conceived of Himself, and His conception is not more astounding than -are the simplicity and lowliness and meekness of His character. He is -Himself thus the miracle of miracles, wholly inexplicable on any human -theory devised to account for Him; and till that one miracle is solved, -all questions as to the miracles which are ascribed to Him can afford to -wait for their solution. - -We have no desire to exaggerate the value of the miraculous elements in -Christianity, but it does not appear to be true wisdom that would -depreciate them or ignore them altogether. Miracles by many have been -wrongly considered, and they have been often expounded by the advocates -of Christianity in such a way as to create instead of removing -difficulties connected with the faith. On the other hand, many who -reject or refuse to consider them seem afflicted by a kind of mental -semeiophobia which in its own way may be as dangerous an affliction as -hydrophobia is. The proper way is to consider them in relation to the -nature and purpose of the Revelation with which they are associated. The -miracle may sometimes be found only in the form of the narrative, as a -hieroglyph whose purpose we are too lazy to search for, whose meaning we -are too stupid to elucidate. The theory that miracles are only -figurative expressions of spiritual truth is not true, as it is -generally expounded; but it has a truth in it which must never be -overlooked. Every miracle is a parable, and every parable is a miracle. -It is the spiritual reality revealed by both which gives them value, and -not the wonder in them by which we are at first arrested. Yet without -the wonder to arrest us we might never have received the revelation. -“What did the apostle mean,” asks Robert Elsmere,[172] “by death to sin -and self? what the precise idea attached by him to being risen with -Christ? Are this death and resurrection necessarily dependent upon -certain alleged historical events, or are they not primarily, and were -there not, even in Paul’s mind, two aspects of a spiritual process -perpetually re-enacted in the soul of man, and constituting the -veritable revelation of God? Which is the stable and lasting witness of -the Father? the spiritual history of the individual and of the world, or -the envelope of miracle to which hitherto mankind has attached such -importance?” The envelope certainly would be as worthless without the -message which it carries as a husk from which the kernel has dropped. -Would St. Paul, however, ever have conceived the spiritual truths -referred to, if they had not been suggested by historical facts? Could -he ever have conceived of a death to sin had the world never witnessed -the death of the Holy Christ upon the cross? Could he ever have dreamed -of rising again in the power of a new life if the tomb in the garden -nigh Golgotha had never been found empty of its crucified occupant? Is -he not just suggesting the significance of very exceptional historical -events? He may be wrong in his interpretation, but there can be no -mistake that the interpretation is founded upon the history, that it was -the event which originated his theory, and not his theory that produced -the story of the event. Christian theology, instead of giving this -miraculous character to the tragic story of the life and death of -Christ, has been called into existence by man’s endeavours to account -for it as a fact not only marvellous, but simply unique in the -experience of mankind. - -It is not likely that the miraculous elements in the Christian religion -will be found to be “the produce of its primitive theology, which will -fade out of the conception of men as theology advances and becomes -purified.” The demonstration of this must not be assumed to be complete -because the miraculous is also found in other religions. We must be able -to account for it in all of them. It is, indeed, the natural tendency of -humanity to magnify and eventually to deify its heroes, to embellish -their careers with similar marvels, to apply to them figurative language -very liable to be misunderstood, which in later generations hardens into -erroneous beliefs. That Christians as well as Buddhists have done so is -sufficiently attested by the apocryphal Gospels, but we must not -conclude that because there are so many fictitious and counterfeit -wonders in currency there can be no real miracles. We must examine each -religion on its merits, and its miraculous elements in the light of -their purpose and of their actual genesis; and if we do so in the case -of Christianity, we will probably discover the one supernatural reality -from which the shadows in all other religions are reflected, and to -which they all point.[173] - -Dr. Rhys Davids, in the Hibbert Lectures, informs us that the early -Buddhist conception of Gotama was dominated and transformed by two -ideals, neither of which had any necessary connection with the man -himself. One of them, due to political experience, made him finally -assume in the popular imagination the office of a Universal King; while -the other, due to philosophic speculation, invested him with the -attribute of Perfect Wisdom. The implied parallel between this -conception, coloured as it grew by the sun myths which it incorporated, -and the Christian conception of Jesus, suggested by the titles King of -Glory and Divine Word, is obvious to everybody. Yet examination of the -supposed similarities only reveals essential contrasts between the two -sets of beliefs. The political experiences in India which are referred -to occurred about two centuries after the death of Buddha. The victories -of Chandragupta, resulting in the consolidation of a kingdom such as -Indians had never before witnessed, combined with his patronage of the -Buddhist monks, may have suggested the idea of the universal monarch. -“His achievements recalled the nearly forgotten poetry of the Vedic -legends, while the new and popular ethics of Buddha invested him with a -righteousness which made him a worthy Lord of the Four Quarters (of the -Globe).” So in one of the Suttas, said to be early, and which may have -been assuming shape at this time, words like these are put in the mouth -of Buddha:—“I am a king, O Sela, an incomparable, religious king; with -justice I roll the wheel, the wheel that is irresistible.”[174] With -this conception of Cakka-vatti, a glorious king, was connected, avers -Dr. Rhys Davids, that of an age in which plenty and peace were to abound -as the fruits of righteousness.[175] The idea of a golden age is common -to most religions, and as the Western Aryans always preserved it, we may -conclude that the branch which reached India carried it thither with -them. Soon, however, as the belief in transmigration took possession of -them, they seem to have lost it. Their book of the generations of man -did not mount higher than the Fall; existence was essentially evil in -their thought, and belief in a golden age on earth, either in the past -or in the future, was quite inconsistent with the creed which Buddhists -inherited or created. The other branch of the Aryan stock so cherished -it that it adorns their most beautiful mythologies; but even with them -the golden age was always placed in the past, and the world, fallen from -good, was supposed to be degenerating from bad to worse. And so it is -that the fondest glances of even the happy Greek are not forward but -backward cast, and that sadness mingles with his most mirthful music. - -It is possible at least that changes so favourable to the fortunes of -the new religion, and the social reforms which followed its extension, -may have awakened in the pious the memories of old Vedic faith; and that -the victories of Chandragupta may have suggested to the authors of the -Suttas the idea of the invincible Buddha advancing through the ages, as -the chariot-wheel of the sun disperses the clouds in the heavens. It is -certain, however, that neither Buddha nor his earliest disciples ever -dreamed of applying the title of Cakka-vatti to or of associating the -promise of a better time with himself. To old Vedic faith as supporting -his teaching or predicting his mission he never appealed; he ignored all -previous teaching: and indeed in ancient Indian teaching, uninspired by -either promise or hope, there is nothing prophetic. In the case of -Christianity it is quite the contrary. The conception of the Messiah as -the righteous and glorious King, under whose reign all the world would -be blessed, was not suggested by political experience two centuries -after the dawn of Christianity. It was formulated and predicted many -centuries before the coming of Christ. The Hebrew, like the Aryan, never -lost the memory of a happy past, but, unlike the Aryan, he placed his -paradise not only in the past but in the future. With far richer -materials at his command than the Aryan seems to have possessed for -painting a vanished golden age, the Hebrew poets made very sparing use -of them. A few paragraphs exhaust all they have to say as to the -traditions of a paradise that had been lost, but their whole Bible is -full of the hope of the good time which is coming to all the world. This -hope, centred as it was in their Messiah, Christianity from the very -first took up and promised to fulfil. The ministry of Jesus was scarcely -begun before it was associated with Him. Among the first questions asked -concerning Him was, “Is not this Messias?” Among the earliest -declarations made was, “We have found the Messias.” Very soon in His -career He confessed, “I that speak unto thee am He!” The Gospels and -Epistles would be unintelligible without this perpetual reference to -Messianic prediction; it is the golden thread which runs through all the -Old Testament and unites it with the New. In its Messianic hope, Old -Testament prophecy reached its highest and purest development, and the -New Testament claims that in Christ it is finding its fulfilment. It may -be alleged of course that the prophecy and the claim are alike -delusions, but the prophecy at least was a fact, and its application to -Christ was no legendary growth of a later generation, but the original -and essential testimony of the earliest Christian teachers. - -The other conception of Perfect Wisdom represented by Buddha the -Awakened or Enlightened One is also confessedly an aftergrowth. The -earliest traces which we have of Gotama after his death disclose him as -a man who gained his knowledge by severe struggle, and who therefore, in -the estimation of his followers, was a “Jina” or conqueror. As time went -on, and his memory rose in the estimation of later generations, the -faithful, guided by their belief in transmigration, projected this -struggle for Buddhahood further and further into former stages of -existence, till at last the idea was conceived that he was only one of a -long series of Buddhas, of whom he was not to be the last. The -development of this interesting speculation, with its distinctions into -Buddhas who only save themselves—Paccekabuddhas—and the Sammâsambuddhas, -who appear at very rare intervals, able and willing to save to the -uttermost, need not here be traced. It is sufficient to note how unlike -and contradictory is this belief to that which dominates in our -religion. In Christ we have the _only_ Messiah, and He, having once -come, we do not look for another. The hope of the Christian is fixed -upon His coming again in glory; but it is the coming again of the _same_ -Jesus. The unity of Deity colours and pervades all our thoughts of -Divine communications with mankind; “there is one God, and one Mediator -between God and man.” Consequently the doctrine of the Divine Word -formulated in connection with Christ in St. John’s Gospel represents a -very different set of ideas from the conception of Buddha as the Perfect -Wisdom, to whom all worlds and all times were open. That conception of -Buddha was probably an incorporation into the Buddhist creed from -foreign sources, but the idea of Christ as the Son, “unto whom all -things have been delivered by the Father,” so that “no one knoweth the -Son save the Father, neither doth any know the Father save the Son, and -he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal Him,” was a common one among -the very earliest Christians of whom we have any trace. St. Matthew, St. -Mark, St. Paul, St. Luke all preach Christ, “unto whom has been -committed all knowledge and judgment,” “who is before all things, and in -whom all things consist,” “the image of the invisible God, in whom it -pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell.”[176] - -And so it is not in the latest Gospel but in the earliest Scriptures -that we have the first indications of this doctrine as Christ the Word, -though in the latest, as we might expect, it is more clearly formulated -and more fully expounded. Written after the fall of Jerusalem, the -destruction of the ancient Church, and the recognition of the Gentiles -as fellow-heirs, by one who was quite conscious of the new intellectual -position which Christianity occupied in relation to the speculations of -Syria and Egypt, and of the dangers which thereby accrued to the faith, -its author took up a term very current at the time in theosophic and -metaphysical writings, and specially those of Philo, to set forth the -truth of the Life whose manifestation he had witnessed. That St. John -did not borrow the term from Philo is evident from the very different -use which he has made of it, and the very different purpose which he had -in view. By it Philo expressed the conception of Divine intelligence in -the abstract, while St. John employed it to suggest the concrete idea of -God’s personal action. Both found it in the Septuagint and the Hebrew -traditional lore;[177] but while Philo gave it a Greek, St. John adhered -to its Hebrew significance. The first chapter of St. John compared with -a page of Philo[178] will reveal at once the difference between them, -and convince us that the teaching of Philo concerning the Logos leads -further and further away from the idea of the incarnation which is the -foundation-truth of the teaching of St. John. His doctrine would be -quite unintelligible as an application or continuation of the doctrine -of Philo, but it is intelligible and consistent as the final -co-ordination of truths concerning the Divine Being disclosed in the Old -Testament viewed by a man whose antecedents and modes of thought were -very different from those of the Alexandrian sage.[179] - -The ideas suggested by the “Angel of the Presence” in the historic and -prophetic books, by the “Word of the Lord” in the Psalms, and by -“Wisdom” in the Books of Wisdom, indicate the rays which converge in St. -John’s doctrine of the Christ. As one who tarried long after the first -generation of Christians had gone to their rest, as one who had not only -pondered longer, and in deeper silence, the Life he had seen manifested, -but who had found its interpretation in such providences as the -spreading of the Churches and the destruction of the State, he was abler -to meet the necessities of a wider age, by setting the truth in rounder -form and clearer light; but while he expands and expounds the teaching -of the first generation, he adds and introduces not a single element. -His testimony is identical with that proclaimed at the Resurrection, -that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, and that Christ is the only -begotten Son of God. - -It is not as one who has acquired truth by long struggle, not as one who -has fought or forced His way to light, that Christ presents Himself in -the Gospels, but as one who can say: “I am the way, the truth, the -life,” “the light of the world.” Yet along with this stupendous demand -upon the faith of humanity there is a humility and simplicity -undiscoverable in the Buddha of the Pitakas. Self-consciousness, -self-reliance, self-culture—these are the phrases most suggestive of the -system and of the life of the great Indian sage, while not -self-abasement, but self-oblivion, characterises the teaching and life -of Jesus of Nazareth. Identity with the Highest, manifested by absolute -surrender to Him, is the essence of the Revelation of Christ. Always is -the Father confessed to be the source of all grace and truth, and if the -Son asks to be glorified, it is that the Father may be glorified in Him. -We are certainly not contemplating similarities when we look at the -Buddha of the Suttas and the Christ of the Gospels, but contrasts more -widely separated than the soul is from the body. In Buddha we have a -historical personage, who can be thoroughly accounted for as the product -and outgrowth of his past, and of his environment; in Christ we have one -whom no philosophy of history has ever explained. Alone and -unapproachable, He meets us as one who is really human, because He has -become man, one who has arisen among men to save them, but because He -has come through and to them. He is not just one of the many, a son of -men, the product of a divinely-trained humanity, but the Son of Man, who -as Son of God, incarnated in the nature of all men, has become the Head -and Creator of a new humanity. Correct, improve, embellish as we may, -the portrait left us of the gentle teacher of Magadha, we never can lift -him up to that level which would justify his being worshipped or being -addressed, as Jesus of Nazareth has been by the consensus of all the -Christian ages, “Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ. Thou art the -everlasting Son of the Father.” - -Footnote 120: - - _E.g._ Sinai = Hagar (Gal. iv. 24-31); also Claudius = ὁ κατέχων (2 - Thess. ii. 6, 7); Hausrath, _Life and Times of Jesus_, vol. i. p. 77. - -Footnote 121: - - Derenbourg, _Hist. de la Palestine d’après les Talmuds_, pp. 159, 202. - -Footnote 122: - - Wellhausen, _The Pharisees and Sadducees_, pp. 8, 26-43; Greifswald, - 1874. - -Footnote 123: - - Jos. _Antiq._ xiii. 5. 9, xv. 10. 4, 5; _Bell. Jud._ ii. 8. 2, 14. - -Footnote 124: - - Keim, _Jesus of Nazara_, vol. i. p. 392. - -Footnote 125: - - Delitzsch, _Jesus and Hillel_, pp. 31 _seq._; Pirké Abôth, Cambridge, - 1877, _passim_. - -Footnote 126: - - Jos. _Antiq._ xvii. 4. - -Footnote 127: - - Philo, _Quod omnis Probus Liber_, p. 12. - -Footnote 128: - - Bühler, _Ind. Ant._ vol. vii. p. 143; Jacobi, “Mahâvira and his - Predecessors,” _Ind. Ant._ vol. viii. pp. 311-314; Kern, _History of - Buddhism in India_, vol. i. p. 143; Colebrooke’s _Essays_, vol. i. p. - 380. - -Footnote 129: - - See “Jainism,” by Dr. Shoolbred—Report of the Missionary Conference, - 1888, vol. i. p. 41; Wilson’s _Essays_, vol. i. p. 427 _seq._ - -Footnote 130: - - “Sramana,” in Brahman speech, was a man who performed hard penances, - from _sram_, to work hard. There is another Sanscrit root, _sam_, to - quiet, and from it afterwards the popular etymology derived the word. - See Professor Max Müller’s translation of the Dhammapada in _Sacred - Books of the East_, vol. x. p. 65 _note_. - -Footnote 131: - - There seems to have been four great divisions of Sramanas, with as - many as sixty-three philosophical systems represented by them. The - Brahmanas were also similarly divided. See Sutta Nipâta, _Sacred Books - of the East_, vol. xi. Part ii. pp. 15, 16, 88, 93. - -Footnote 132: - - Oldenberg, _Buddha, etc._, p. 71. - -Footnote 133: - - See _Year-Book of Protestant Theology_ for 1883 for an account of the - views of Professor Loman of Amsterdam. - -Footnote 134: - - M. Senart, _Legend of Buddha_, Paris, 1875; Kern, _History of Buddhism - in India_: Schoebel. _Buddh. Actes de la Soc. Philol._; Paris, 1874, - vol iv. pp. 160 _seq._ - -Footnote 135: - - Annual Report of the Asiatic Society; Paris, July 1875. - -Footnote 136: - - Cunningham, _Ancient Geog. of India_, vol. i. p. 147; Oldenberg, - _Buddha, etc._, p. 95; Beal, _Chinese Buddhism_, p. 67. - -Footnote 137: - - “Mâra eat le démon de l’amour, du péché et de la mort,” says Burnouf - in his _Introduction to the Study of Indian Buddism_, p. 76; see also - Sutta Nipâta, _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. x. Part ii. p. 159, for - the popular conception of Buddha’s temptation; the arrows of Mâra are - “flower-pointed,” like Kama’s, the Hindu god of love. See Dhammapada, - _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. x. Part i. p. 17. - -Footnote 138: - - Geikie, _Life of Christ_, vol. i. p. 449. - -Footnote 139: - - Mahavagga, i. 5. 2; _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xvii. - -Footnote 140: - - This is not the place to discuss the substance of their respective - teachings. Their aims seemed to be similar, for both proclaimed - freedom to be gained by the Truth, or saving knowledge, but their - conceptions of the knowledge that saves are as widely contrasted as - are their ideas of salvation. If we put the Sermon on the Mount side - by side with Buddha’s first sermon (translated in vol. xi. p. 146 of - _Sacred Books of the East_) we find contradiction in almost every - sentence. “Blessed are the poor in spirit” is an utterance not only - foreign to but in direct antithesis to the preaching of Buddha. He has - no sympathy with the “poor in spirit,” if we take the phrase in the - light of the old Hebrew concept of it. His benediction is reserved for - the self-conscious and self-reliant, who are bent upon self-culture - and self-development. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy - heart, etc., and thy neighbour as thyself.” Buddha found no higher to - adore, and no other than self to consider. The moral precepts in his - law are based on no appeal to conscience, and are inspired by no sense - of duty. Others were regarded as the occasion for winning merit, and - kindness done to them was not done for their sake, but with the view - of securing the safety of the doer. - -Footnote 141: - - Dr. Oldenberg (_Buddha, etc._, p. 148) very properly remarks that - Ambapali the courtesan was no Mary Magdalene, and that she was not - regarded by Buddha as the woman that was a sinner was regarded by - Christ. Buddha had not Christ’s horror of sin, and therefore felt none - of His boundless pity for the frailty of its victims; of hatred of sin - in the Christian sense Buddhism knows nothing. Its highest virtue is - imperturbability, a serenity that is apathetic in regard to the most - outrageous wrong or the most heinous wickedness. Cariya Pitaka, iii. - 15; also _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. x. Part ii. p. 151. - -Footnote 142: - - Bishop Bigandet, _Life of Gaudama_, p. 287; Professor H. Wilson, - _Essays_, vol. ii. p. 243; Wheeler, _History of India_, vol. iii. p. - 139; Oldenberg, _Buddha, etc._, p. 148; Mahâparanibhâna Sutta, in - _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xi. pp. 71, 72. - -Footnote 143: - - Mahâparanibhâna Sutta, vi. 10, _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xi. p. - 114. Dr. Edkins, in _Chinese Buddhism_, p. 57, gives a version of an - appearance of Buddha after cremation to his mother, Máya, who came - down from heaven to see his coffin. Professor Childers finds no trace - in any Pali earliest literature of any belief in Buddha’s existence - after death (_Dictionary of Pali Language_, p. 472, note 1). - -Footnote 144: - - Oldenberg, _Buddha, etc._, pp. 322, 323; Kuenen, Hibbert Lectures, p. - 264. - -Footnote 145: - - In the Bhagavadgitá loving devotion for Krishna is demanded as the - only means of salvation; but Krishna-worship began very considerably - later than the origin of Christianity. Professor Müller admits - (Gifford Lectures, p. 99) that Christian influences were possible - then, but says that there is no necessity for admitting them. He cites - the passage from Bhagavad. ix. 29 (_Sacred Books of the East_, vol. - viii. p. 34), “They who worship me with devotion or love, they are in - me, and I in them,” as an interesting parallel to John vi. 7 and xvii. - 23, but we must remember that St. John’s words were circulating all - over the world for generations before these were penned. - -Footnote 146: - - Mahavagga, v. 1. 18. - -Footnote 147: - - The Lalita Vistara, of which there are many versions, is the chief - authority for the legends. In the _Buddhist Birth-Stories_, translated - by T. W. Rhys Davids, in Bigandet’s _Life of Gaudama_, and Spence - Hardy’s Manual (_Legends of the Buddhists_), in the _Romantic Legend_ - of Sakya Buddha, translated by Professor S. Beal, will be found a - large and interesting miscellany of the prodigies connected with the - coming of Buddha. - -Footnote 148: - - A wife, not a virgin; _Romantic Legend_, pp. 32, 36, 37, 41. - -Footnote 149: - - Lalita Vistara, p. 63, Calcutta edition; _Buddhist Birth-Stories_, pp. - 62, 68. - -Footnote 150: - - Nalaka Sutta, Sutta Nipâta, xi. 1. 20, 21; _Sacred Books of the East_, - vol. x. Asita, the aged ascetic, is said to have ascended to heaven - after his daily repast, and upon finding the gods in joyful commotion - he at length returned to see the new-born wonder (_Birth-Stories_, p. - 69). - -Footnote 151: - - Title given by the translator of the Dhanima-Kakka-ppavatana Sutta, in - vol. xi. of _Sacred Books of the East_. - -Footnote 152: - - Spence Hardy, _Manual of Buddhism_, p. 187, quoting the Pujáwaliya, - said to be later than the thirteenth century A.D. - -Footnote 153: - - Sutta Nipâta, _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. x. Part ii. p. 17. - -Footnote 154: - - _Ibid._ vol. x. Part ii. pp. 31, 45. - -Footnote 155: - - Mahâparanibhâna Sutta, iv. 49, 50, _ibid._ vol. xi. p. 81. - -Footnote 156: - - Bigandet, _op. cit._ p. 323; Spence Hardy, _Manual_, p. 347; - Mahâparinibhâna Sutta, vi. 11-16. - -Footnote 157: - - _Das Evangelium von Jesu in seinen Verhältnissen zur Buddha-Sage und - Buddha-Lehre_; Leipzig, 1882. - -Footnote 158: - - Let any one compare the prediction of the so-called Indian Simeon, the - Nalaka Sutta, in vol. x. p. 125 of _Sacred Books of the East_, with - Luke ii. 25; the account of the Temptation by Mara, in the _Romantic - Legend_, pp. 204, 224, or in Hardy’s _Manual of Buddhism_, p. 183, - with Matt. iv. 1; the so-called Transfiguration in Mahâparinibhâna, - iv. 49, vol. xi. _Sacred Books of the East_, p. 81, with Matt. xvii. - 1-8; the feast of the courtesan Ambopali, in Mahâparinibhâna Sutta, - ii. 16. 25, _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xi. p. 30, with Christ’s - treatment of the Magdalene in Luke vii. 36, and he will see at once - how improbable and even absurd is the theory that the Evangelists - borrowed from the Buddhist compilers. That we are dealing with quite - an inferior order of facts is apparent when we compare one of the most - touching coincidences, Buddha’s last discourse to the Beloved Ananda - in Mahâparinibhâna Sutta, v. 34. 35, “Let not yourself be troubled,” - with John xiv. 1-6. In some of the miracles accompanying the birth and - temptations of Buddha, there are not only gross absurdities but - positive indecencies, which by the simplicity and modesty and - reticence of the Gospel narratives are powerfully condemned. See - _Lalita Vistara_, chaps. vi. and vii., and _Buddhist Birth-Stories_, - vol. i. pp. 58, 68. - -Footnote 159: - - This is a very great assumption indeed. Foucaux, its translator, - assigns it to the first century B.C., but T. W. Rhys Davids assigns it - to some Nepaulese poet “who lived between six hundred and a thousand - years after Buddha’s death” (Hibbert Lectures, pp. 197, 204). A - Chinese version is said to have been in existence about 70 A.D. - Rajendralal Mitra, its English translator, admits this in his - Introduction, p. 48, but whether that was a version, or another book - altogether, or how far it corresponded with the _Lalita Vistara_, no - scholar has been confident to say. Dr. Beal also mentions a life of - Buddha by Asvaghosha as probably in circulation about the middle of - the Christian era (_Chinese Buddhism_, p. 73). - -Footnote 160: - - Mahâparinibhâna Sutta, translated by T. W. Rhys Davids, _Sacred Books - of the East_, vol. xi. - -Footnote 161: - - The blessed Buddha rebuked Pindola Bhâradvâga (for having won a bowl - of sandalwood by performing a miracle), saying, “This is improper, not - according to rule, unsuitable, unworthy of a Samana, unbecoming, and - ought not to be done. How can you for the sake of a miserable wooden - pot display before the laity the superhuman quality of your miraculous - power of Iddhi?... This will not conduce either to the conversion of - the unconverted or to the increase of the converted” (Kullavagga, v. - 8. 2). The danger of performing a miracle by power of Iddhi, for - self-glorification, is exemplified in the story of Devadatta in - Kullavagga, vii. 1. 2, 3. In the Mahavagga, Kullavagga, Sutta Nipâta, - and similar books, however, miracles are ascribed to Buddha, and - conversions attributed to their performance. - -Footnote 162: - - Luke i. 1. - -Footnote 163: - - T. W. Rhys Davids, Hibbert Lectures, p. 128. - -Footnote 164: - - Oldenberg, _Buddha, etc._, p. 190. - -Footnote 165: - - Matthew xi. 27; xxviii. 16-20. - -Footnote 166: - - Mark i. 7-11; ii. 10-28; viii. 38; xii. 35-37. - -Footnote 167: - - Pressensé, _Vie de Jésus_, p. 373. - -Footnote 168: - - Cox, _Commentary on Job_, p. 19. - -Footnote 169: - - See Mahavagga, i. pp. 15-20, for specimens of the “three thousand five - hundred” wonders of Buddha. “The marvellous in the Gospels is but - sober good sense compared with what we find in ... the Hindu European - mythologies” (Renan, _Études d’histoire Relig._ pp. 177, 203). - -Footnote 170: - - Godet, _Lectures in Defence of the Christian Faith_, pp. 118-161. - -Footnote 171: - - Dr. Dods, _Mohammed, Buddha, and Christ_, p. 201; Dr. Fairbairn, - _Studies in Religion as a Philosophy_, p. 36. - -Footnote 172: - - p. 58, one-vol. edition. - -Footnote 173: - - Trench, Hulsean Lectures, p. 150. - -Footnote 174: - - Sutta Nipâta, translated by Fausböll in vol. x. p. 102; parallel - suggested to John xviii. 37. - -Footnote 175: - - Hibbert Lectures, pp. 144-147. - -Footnote 176: - - Dorner, _Doctrine of the Person of Christ_, Introd. pp. 56-60, 64-70; - Liddon, Bampton Lectures, 1866, pp. 364-380; Lange, _Life of Christ_, - vol. i. pp. 121-124. - -Footnote 177: - - _E.g._ the Targums. - -Footnote 178: - - _E.g._ _De Opific. Mund._ i. 4; _De Mundi incor._ § 16, 17. - -Footnote 179: - - Sears, _Fourth Gospel_, pp. 220 _seq._; Westcott, _Introduction to St. - John_, pp. xvi, xvii; Dorner, _op. cit._ vol. i. pp. 327-332. - - - - - LECTURE IV. - THE DHARMA OF BUDDHA:[180] THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST. - - -What was the discovery that rewarded Gotama’s long travail and conflict -under the Bo-tree at Bohimanda, and gained for him the title of Buddha, -the Awakened or Enlightened One? and what was the message of “glad -tidings” which since then has made so many millions of the human race -regard him as their Deliverer? We shall never obtain the answer to these -questions if we follow the legends and the later scriptures, although -they profess to give all the steps of the process by which he wrought -out his deliverance. These all date from a time when the seeds which he -had sown among the thorns of uncleansed superstitions, had grown up into -as gigantic and tangled a jungle of speculation as the world has ever -seen. Had he confronted his day and generation proclaiming as the result -of his laborious and painful inquiries the complicated metaphysical -system formulated in these books, he would have made few converts. He -might have become the head of another sect, the founder of another -school, but he never would have established a religion so extensive as -that which for so many centuries, and among so many peoples, has been -known by his name. - -Following the Southern scriptures, and guided by the eminent Oriental -scholars who have made them available by translations, we may be able to -trace, in the wild growth of fancy which has grown up around them, the -leading lines of the original teaching. The real doctrine of Buddha did -not profess to be a philosophy inquiring into the ultimate ground of -things. He is represented as having despised philosophisings, and as -having inveighed against profitless questionings as earnestly as did St. -Paul against vain babblings and oppositions of science falsely so -called.[181] His object was avowedly practical, and he kept silent when -asked concerning themes whose discussion did not tend to “illumination -and quiet.” Notwithstanding this, there must have been from the first, -even in the earliest forms of his teaching, ideas and thoughts beyond -the comprehension of the simple. For a while he hesitated, as we have -seen, to proclaim his discovery, because “the way” was too hidden for -men to know, and too hard, even when known, for them to follow. Like the -Jewish Scribe, he conceived that to the wise alone, and not to the -ignorant, belonged the law, and to the wise alone was reserved the hope -of final deliverance. To children, and to the uninstructed struggling -classes, the preaching was not made fully known, as really beyond them. -Unlike Christ, whose preaching was for all without exception, whose -gospel, though full of mystery, confers illumination even on babes, the -law of Buddha was in its entirety for the sages only, and instead of -conferring knowledge on those who obeyed it, it made knowledge a -condition of obtaining deliverance. Nevertheless, though the deductions -were within the grasp only of the few, his popularity proves that his -fundamental and principal dogmas must have been such as all could -understand, and they seem to have been published, as Saint-Hilaire -observes, in a language so “simple and vernacular” as to induce even the -children and the ignorant to enter the paths that lead to -deliverance.[182] - -He entered upon his travail, in order to find a way of escape from the -endless cycles of unsatisfying change, and he believed that he had -discovered it. Leavening every part of his system is his impression of -the universality of suffering; and suffering, its origin, its -extinction, and the path or method that leads to its extinction, are the -so-called “four noble truths” which constitute in Buddhism the “Law of -the Wheel.” In Buddhism the wheel is the dominant symbol, corresponding -to the cross in Christianity, and he who would preach or roll onward the -wheel must present to the affectionate consideration of the hearers -these “four sacred verities”—the verity of suffering, the verity that -concupiscence is the cause of suffering, the verity that concupiscence -can be quenched in Nirvana, and the verity that the way that leads to -Nirvana is the sublime eightfold path of Buddha’s law. From his first -public discourse at Benares—corresponding to our Lord’s Sermon on the -Mount—on to his last words on the night on which he died, this, with -manifold amplifications, but ever as the one pathetic refrain, is the -substance of his teaching, “through not understanding and grasping -which, O monks, we have had to run and wander so long in weary paths, -both you and I.”[183] - -The primitive creed of Buddhism was different from, though not wholly -antagonistic to, the popular creed or theory of life of Brahmanism. -Weighed by Brahmanism, existence was found wanting, as only illusion, a -specious something which truly was a mere nothing, and identity of the -personal with the universal self was the only reality. By Buddhism -existence was condemned, not as an illusion, but as wholly and solely -suffering.[184] “What think ye, O disciples: whether is more, the water -that is in the four great oceans, or the tears which have flown from -you, and have been shed by you, while ye strayed and wandered in this -long pilgrimage, and sorrowed and wept, because that which ye abhorred -was your portion, and that which ye loved was not your portion?”[185] It -was not “vanity of vanities!” but “misery of miseries! all is misery!” -Life was misery, because governed by the immeasurable and wretched past; -death was misery, because opening up an equally immeasurable and -wretched future. As long as man exists he must be miserable, unable to -“cease his wanderings,” and “still from one sorrow to another thrown.” -The only deliverance conceivable from this interminable evil would be to -break the bands of existence altogether. “Surely ’twere better not to -be.” And how “not to be” seems to have been the problem which Buddha -professed to solve. - -May we not conclude with Saint-Hilaire that this, “his first dogma, was -his first fatal error”?[186] With all his intellectual ability he never -sought to emancipate himself from the superstition and nightmare of -transmigration. Though he had cast off all faith in the government of a -divine power, he never questioned the belief with which the lower -aboriginal races had infected the thought of his ancestors, that life -was governed by this law. It is averred that he found it necessary to -solve the conflict between his ideas of justice and the actual order of -things, which has exercised the human mind always and everywhere. A -modern Buddhist, fortunate in having Mr. Alabaster to introduce him to -the notice of an English-reading public, so propounds this belief, and, -purged from some of its errors, tries to vindicate it. “For the law of -perfect justice,” he says, “demands that human conditions should be -equalised, and that good and bad luck should be balanced sometime and -somewhere. If a good man be poor and wretched now, he must be reaping -the fruits of what he had sown in a previous stage of existence.”[187] -Yet surely this is a very superficial theory for an Oriental professing -Western culture to formulate. It is judging of life as children and -savages judge of it, by the evidence of the senses, and according to a -very inferior and inaccurate standard of good and evil. Poverty and -suffering, though confessedly painful, may not be regarded by a good man -as wholly evil in this world. Circumstances which the savage and the -child would covet as realising their dreams of paradise may be the -reverse of desirable to the mature and thoughtful man. The believers in -transmigration make no distinction between what is evil and what is -simply painful. Evil is not that which pains, but that which defiles and -degrades and destroys, and good is not just that which pleases, but that -which elevates and ennobles and purifies. The law of absolute justice -does not require, as the modern Buddhist demands, that human conditions -should be equalised, and that all men should be treated alike; for no -two human beings all the world over are absolutely alike; but it demands -that each should receive the treatment most conducive to his healthy -growth as a moral being, and what appears to sense as the harder lot may -commend itself to reason as the better portion of the man to whom it has -been assigned, because most suited to his need. - -The dogma of transmigration is said to occupy in the Buddhist system a -position analogous to that of the Fall in our Christian theology; but in -reality the two are diametrically opposed, both in their essential ideas -and the consequences which flow from them. They are analogous only in -respect that they each profess to account for the conflict between man’s -ideal of himself and his actual condition. The existence of evil is -admitted by both, but the Buddhist believes that evil belongs to the -very essence of man, and therefore he can find no prospect of relief -from it, here or hereafter. For as long as the stream of existence -continues it will always fall below its source, and evil, according to -the inexorable rule of nature, will propagate only evil. The Hebrew, -however, did not conceive of it as essential to or as always in the -nature of man. His ancestral beliefs carry him beyond the Fall; his -pedigree starts with the most sublime of all theories of human origin -that has ever been formulated in human speech: “Let us make man in our -image and after our likeness, and let him have dominion over” the -creature. Dominion over nature man has not, for he is too much under its -dominion, and to this subjection much of his suffering is directly -traceable. The Hebrew professed to have the origin of this condition -revealed to him in a breach between man and his Maker, consequent upon -man’s self-assertion and selfish withdrawal of his life from the source -of life, which must involve suffering and death. So through all the -weary generations there is the same invariable sequence of sin entering -the world, and death by sin. And yet at his very worst the Hebrew -believed that it was once far better with the human race, and on this -belief he dared to rear the structure of his magnificent hope, that -mankind shall be restored to the original close relationship with God, -and therefore to a grander dominion over nature, and to a happier and -even more prosperous life than that of which his ancestors had dreamed -as their primeval state. - -Whatever may be said of the doctrine of the Fall, belief in it is indeed -“a condition of hope,”[188] and the belief and the hope both spring from -their faith in God as Creator and Governor of the race, which -characterised the Hebrew prophets. Wherever that faith is lively, it not -only sustains man amid the sufferings of life, but it nerves him to -struggle with physical and moral evil to vanquish it. The purer the -faith the more resolute is the struggle; the holier the Deity becomes to -the thought of man the stronger becomes his conviction that life is a -blessing, and that all its struggles may conduce to peace. There is an -instinct which seems to suggest that there are worse things than -troubles, and that they may be blessings of no mean quality after all. -Christianity has made the startling revelation that suffering is not -peculiar to man, as the consequence of his perversity in traversing the -Divine order; for not only is Christ presented to us as the greatest -sufferer, but in Him God the highest and the holiest is disclosed as -involved in it, and as taking upon Himself the responsibilities and the -sufferings which our sin and need entail. But if in Christ there is -revealed the greatest sufferer, it is as one whose suffering is not in -vain. By suffering He conquers that which has produced it; by enduring -suffering He ends it; and He reigns and finds His blessedness in making -us partakers of His victory over it. So again Christianity, unlike other -religions which promise salvation _from_ suffering, offers salvation -_through_ suffering. It alone asserts the utility of suffering; others -regard it as evil, Christianity as evil overruled for good. Others -reckon it as a mere loss or waste, Christianity as something that may be -turned to profit as the condition and preparation for joy. Joy in the -Christian conception is not the reward of suffering, nor compensation -for suffering, but the fruit and issue of suffering which leads to it, -as travail leads to birth. So instead of evading or ignoring it, Christ -would have us recognise and acquiesce in it, and even be thankful for -it, as necessary not for our personal profit, but for the gain of -mankind. By His sufferings we are healed, and through our sufferings we -fill up what remains of His for the redemption of the world. Only -through “the long travail of ages yet to be” will there be born in the -evolution of God’s redemptive purpose that better race from which all -suffering shall have passed away, because disobedience will have had an -end. Fellowship in Christ’s sufferings has thus transfigured the -afflictions of all who believe in Him. Unlike the Indian, tortured by -endless change, without any evolution from low to higher, from evil or -imperfect to what is good and perfect, the Christian can endure -suffering not only patiently but also cheerfully, knowing that he is -suffering not just for his own sake, but that in ways mysterious he is -lightening the load of many, and helping to bring to an end the long -anguish of the whole creation. - -But of this consolation which comes from faith in God the Creator, and -therefore the Redeemer of man from destruction, Buddha had deprived -himself. Unlike the Brahman who sought escape from the evils of -transmigration by a process of subsidence into the universal Self, he -professed to find no trace of this Absolute Self. The Brahman postulated -the Infinite and reasoned from it, but Buddha started from quite the -opposite pole. He professed to deal with life as he found it, and so -reasoning from man outward, he asserted that the necessity for -transmigration was involved, not in the illusion of Brahma, but in man’s -own character. Instead of being a natural or divine necessity, it was a -moral necessity created by man, which having its cause in his own action -could also by him be destroyed. - -And so Pantheistic speculation, in this instance at least, ripened into -its proper fruit. The passage from conceiving Deity as characterless -passionless self, to discarding Deity altogether from human thought, is -a sure and generally a very rapid one. When we come to think of Deity as -of being diffused and dispersed, we will soon omit the thought -altogether in the recognition only of physical force. Brahmanic -speculation had resolved the deities of the ancient books into -abstractions, and Buddha recognised no such abstractions in the -government of human life. His creed was fundamentally atheistic, as -directly contradicting belief in a supreme ruler of the universe.[189] -Not that he denied the existence of the gods believed in by his -countrymen. On the contrary, he allowed them to continue in the popular -thought and speech, and even encouraged disciples who had not yet -reached the highest knowledge to try to acquire merit by virtue, so as -to secure after death a re-birth into their society. Similarly he -admitted the existence of devils or demons, and their influence for evil -upon man. All through his career he was beset by Mara, the sensual king -of all who submit to him; but Buddha was superior not only to Mara, but -to all the gods in the popular pantheon, for they, alike with the lowest -and the weakest of things, were subject to the law of transmigration. -Man might rise to a higher heaven than what they occupied; they might -fall to the lowest hell. “Their worlds must perish like that of man, and -if ever they attained to final salvation, it could only be by the same -way in which a worm might hope to reach it.”[190] Throwing his “plummet -down the broad deep universe,” he cried, “Gods many,” but no god able to -save. All alike with men were bound in fetters, because ignorant of the -truth he knew. Naturally, therefore, they are represented in the legends -as profiting by his preaching and as seeking unto him for instruction, -while those of them who refused, or could not walk in his ways, came to -be regarded with pity.[191] - -In like manner his creed was as essentially materialistic. Man was no -spiritual being, but a bundle of Sankharas—a term, it is said, very -difficult to translate, but implying that person meant a mass of “forms” -or material qualities so changing as to be never the same for two -consecutive moments. Belief in a soul he regarded as a heresy, which he -distinctly classed with sensuality and belief in the efficacy of -sacrificial rites.[192] To the heart as the sixth sense he ascribed the -power of conceiving ideas without form, as the eye had the power of -perceiving objects; but this disappeared in dissolution as completely as -did the others, and what was re-born was not the soul but the quality, -the merit or demerit acquired. This startling assertion of Bishop -Bigandet’s[193] has been confirmed and amplified by others, specially by -Rhys Davids, and so the question at once suggests itself, now that the -governing ideas of Deity and the separate existence of the soul were -expelled from the human mind,—What was there left to give vitality and -coherence to his system as a religion? A kind of religion is conceivable -when something eternal and self-dependent is recognised, if not without -and above a man, at least within him; but here is a religion vast and -comprehensive springing from the determination to annihilate all -religion, asserting not simply that man is independent of all superior -beings, but that as the sum-total of groups of sensations, abstract -ideas, tendencies, and potentialities, nothing of his personality can -survive dissolution, and how are we to account for it?[194] - -The answer is to be sought for in the working of that great moral -instinct which is at the root of the belief in transmigration. Though -there was no person, no soul to emigrate from the body, though the man -perished, there was something which he called the Karma—a word coined by -old Brahman sages long before him, though used by them in a different -sense—that survived.[195] The aggregate of the good and evil in the life -that had come to an end formed the seed of another existence, so that -each new individual and generation became the exact and inevitable -results of those that had preceded them. It was evidently a theory of -continuity as unscientific as it was unphilosophic. It could not be -called an evolution in any sense of the word, seeing it meant the -appearance in a new individual of the mental and physical acts of -another who had ceased to be. The assertion, again, that though there -was no “continuing consciousness,” no transience of soul in any sense -from one person to the other, the two persons are one, has been very -properly stigmatised as a “psychological absurdity.”[196] From the -first, though one of their stablest dogmas, this one was a difficulty to -the Buddhists themselves. Their learned men never professed to justify -it to reason, but accepted it as a mystery, in open contradiction to -their principle that everything was to be rejected which could not be -comprehended or explained. The common people again simply ignored it, -and adhered to the belief of their fathers in continuity of life and -personal identity for man in the future. The sages might refine, but the -moral sense of the masses could not escape from the conviction that the -evil which they had done must follow them, and the good which they would -do could not be interred with their bones. Even the speculation of the -sages was a telling confirmation of the truth that man cannot get rid of -himself. He may make a mock at God, may demand, If a man die can he live -again? or how differs the life of a man from the life of a beast? but he -cannot refine away his moral sense and the instinct of retribution which -is inwoven in his inmost being. Buddha acknowledged no moral government -of Deity, discarded the old belief that the same soul must receive the -reward of the deeds done in the body; he denied even to the soul a -separate existence from the perishable body; but he was haunted by the -ghost of personal identity. He felt absolutely certain that there was a -real connection of cause and effect between past and present and future, -and that each act of the soul must work out its full effect to the -bitter end.[197] So it was only by profession that God was mocked; men -were witnesses to themselves of a Sovereign Power forcing Himself upon -them, even when they tried to forsake Him, compelling them to receive -His thoughts when they would not think for themselves. So in primitive -Buddhism we have the strange paradox that out of Atheism there arose a -religion, with a demand upon conscience almost Christian, and asserting -as Christianity does the eternal necessity of righteousness and -truth.[198] - -The analogy which has been suggested between the Buddhist dogma of Karma -and the Christian doctrine of heredity is a very interesting one. It is -strange that the law of heredity, so clearly indicated in the Bible, -should be proclaimed in our age as a modern discovery. Infidelity -formerly denounced the Bible for teaching that sin and its penalty were -transmitted from generation to generation, forgetting that but for -transgression the law of heredity could only and always entail good. -Laws are to be judged by their intention, and this one, designed to -secure and transmit the increment of good in each generation, is -manifestly perverted by conditions for which it is not responsible. The -law, however, which asserts itself in humanity by entailing on the -generations the blessing of good as well as the curse of evil, is now -being proclaimed and interpreted, not by divines, but by men of science -and philosophy. The twin truth of the unity of humanity, elemental in -the Hebrew and Christian religions, though formerly strangely forgotten -or denounced by infidelity, is also adopted as a professed discovery of -our century. We are all agreed that humanity is one, that each life is -part of a larger life, and so the injury of the part is the injury of -the whole. Sin could not enter humanity without dragging it down, and -holiness could not enter and conquer without lifting it up. If one could -appear in humanity without sin, not a link in the diseased chain, but -perfectly free from all taint of disease, is the supposition incredible -that he would have the effect upon humanity of a new creation? His -coming would imply the reversal of the drift toward evil and the -weakening of the inherited and accumulated tendency to depravity. It -would be a bringing under Divine influence of this mysterious principle -of heredity, with results for good which no human intellect can measure, -and establish a once greatly derided assertion, that as in one Adam, -that is, one kind of humanity, all die, even so in Christ shall all be -made alive. - -Buddha had a clear apprehension of the truth of heredity, but he had not -the faintest conception of the unity of humanity. His theory of life was -essentially atomic. Humanity was not to him one whole, but a congeries -of individuals, each one an end to himself, and living just to himself. -The injury done to self by wrong-doing was always present to a -Buddhist’s thought, but the suffering thus caused to others was never -taken into account. He had no idea of the whole suffering in the one, -and consequently no sense of duty to mankind. Though believing in the -propagative power of good and evil, he did not work for the good of -coming generations, but solely for the rescue of the individual from the -whirlpool of suffering existence. It has been charitably suggested that -his aim finds its analogue in the offset to personal extinction so -winningly presented by “George Eliot” and Mr. John Morley, whereby -though dead and gone for ever in ourselves, we may “live again in minds -made better by our presence,” and “in pulses stirred to -generosity.”[199] Buddhism had no such hope; the age, the system itself, -were alike incapable of conceiving it. The time for that kind of -Positivism had not come. The human mind had to undergo long centuries of -Christian culture before it was possible for the nineteenth-century -agnostic poetess and philosopher thus to expound their creed, for modern -Positivism has been powerfully though indirectly influenced by the faith -which it contradicts, and, like many of the assailants of Christianity, -it owes to it the most of its strength and the best of its weapons. - -Christianity, starting from the conception of man as no outgrowth of -nature, but a new creation in it, a being within and distinct from his -body as the driver is from the chariot,[200] has a theory of human -destiny contrasted utterly with that of Buddhism. Man’s teeth have been -set on edge because his fathers have eaten a sour grape, but the brand -of pain upon past transgressions helps him to conquer the taint -transmitted in the blood. Though he finds heavy temptation in inherited -tendencies, he finds in every temptation a way of escape in a call to -yield to other tendencies which are ever drawing his soul to goodness. -Sharing a confessedly sinful humanity, he may be partaker of a sinless -one, and thus, if evil reigns over him unto death, the law of the spirit -of life in Christ Jesus can free him from it. - -Buddhism had no such hope and goal for man; indeed, we may well wonder -that a pessimism more thorough than that of Brahmanism did not deprive -it of all hope and sink it into fatalism. Left alone to fight his way -through the universe, struggling in a maelstrom of forces with no help -for him in man, no hope of sympathy in God, a Buddhist would surely -despair. On the contrary, unlike the Moslem cowering under the thought -of relentless will, he accepted the situation with Christian -determination to improve it.[201] He could hope for deliverance, for -suffering had an origin, and if the cause could be removed then -suffering would end. The coils of misery could be unwound, the curse of -humanity could be abolished, if only man could procure for himself -emancipation from the necessity of Karma. Now this the true Buddhist -believed he could gain by the extinction of all desire. Plato adopting -the Pythagorean doctrine of transmigration, taught that the future -organism of the soul would depend upon the cravings which it had -fostered here.[202] Somewhat similarly Christians believe that the -future of the man will depend upon his most dominant present habits, and -that, disembodied, the spirit will gravitate unerringly to the society -which it has made of its kind. Buddhism, believing in no soul, -maintained that in the dying creature a particular thirst or cleaving to -existence caused the birth of another creature; and so he who would -escape from the chain of existence must endeavour, by vigorous -prosecution of the eightfold way, and the four paths or degrees of -perfection to which it led, to attain a state in which all craving for -continuity had ceased. Karma then would have no terror to him; he would -have reached a point whence he could look onwards without anxiety, -because he would be treading a path from which he never would stray. He -might still be a man, liable to suffering and subject to death, but one -purified and emancipated from all inheritance of evil, and fully assured -of Nirvana. - -And what was Nirvana, the final refuge of the emancipated Buddhist? Ever -since the religion was known in Europe great diversity of opinion has -prevailed as to the meaning of this word. It was employed by the -Brahmans many centuries before Buddha’s day, and used by them and by -himself and his disciples in so great a variety of senses that even the -learned Rajendralala Mitra, in enumerating the sects into which orthodox -Buddhists are divided in regard to it, confessed some years ago that he -had given up in despair the attempt to ascertain its meaning.[203] The -researches and discoveries of later years have enabled the translators -of the texts to write with less hesitation as to its significance, and -we are entitled to accept as solid the results of their patient -investigations. To begin with, they tell us that it means the peace -which ensues when all passion has been subdued, and all selfish craving -has been extinguished. Though practically no Buddhist hopes to attain to -it here, but only to enter the paths leading to it, it may be reached, -not in anticipation only, but in fruition.[204] Buddha may be said to -have been in Nirvana forty years, for he entered it, not in the moment -of dying, but when he attained perfection. This first conception of it, -therefore, seems a marvellous anticipation of the faith of the -Christian, who finds his heaven and enters into his rest when he is -delivered from the φρόνημα τῆς σάρκος, from all selfish clutching at the -means of existence. In both religions, taken at their highest, the goal -of aspiration was not extinction of sorrow, but extinction of self-love: -in Buddhism the quenching of _trishna_, or _upádána_, “thirst,” in -Christianity the quenching of ἐπιθυμία, “lust,” “inordinate desire.” In -both religions the goal meant finality, a state in which there was an -end of death; and in both, moreover, it meant a change which no language -could define, and to which no known standard could apply. The Christian -believer tells us that he is passing from the visible to the invisible, -from the temporal to the eternal, and in like manner the Buddhist Arahat -would only be able to allude to the great change by negations, and as -the very opposite of all we know or at present conceive. The Christian -believes in the perseverance of the saints, and the Buddhist who has -really entered the path must sooner or later reach his prize. - -But there the analogies end, while the contrasts between the two beliefs -are as irreconcilable as are their postulates. The postulates of -Christianity are the spiritual nature of man, and that his present evil -condition is not his normal one. Sin has gone extensively and deeply -into his being, for it is no mere superficial excrescence, a fault which -can be corrected, a smirch that can be washed away, but a leprosy in the -blood, which is the life. Cleansing is required and provided, but it is -the cleansing out of the whole corrupt nature by the transfusion into -the soul of a Divine life so pure, and so strong because of purity, that -it could not be holden of death. Life is the essential idea of Christian -salvation; it is the Divine gift bestowed by Christ, who came that we -might have life, and have it more abundantly. So while in the body we -groan, being burdened by a suffering flesh, it is not that we may be -unclothed, but clothed upon; not that the gift of life may be recalled, -but that it may be secured in its completeness. It is “more life and -fuller that we want.” Sanctification in the Christian conception means a -process of healing, and salvation means perfect health—the condition of -a creature freed from all inordinate desire, or desire for anything -forbidden, which is the root of all sin, and rejoicing in the untainted -bliss of being. Deathless, sinless life, the life of eternal -incorruption, “the perfect life of love, the rest of immortality,” that -is the Christian Nirvana. - -Buddhism, on the contrary, postulating the material nature of all -existence controlled by the universal law of transmigration, had no such -conception of final blessedness. Nirvana in its thought meant, indeed, -extinction in the first instance of all fleshly and selfish -dispositions; but the thirst, the “cleaving” (_tanhā_) which was to be -quenched, was not lust in the Christian sense, but the natural innocent -love of life, and Nirvana involved the extinction of that love, and of -life as the going out of a flame which had nothing else to feed upon. -Deliverance from this instinctive thirst for life is a specific germ of -which annihilation is the outcome. That Buddha so expounded it was long -questioned, and by many denied, but Dr. Oldenberg has sufficiently made -clear his attitude toward this dogma. He seems to have contented himself -with its first significance, to have evaded the necessity of deciding -the many discussions which were waged concerning the second as -profitless, and not tending to quietude and wisdom, and to have exhorted -his disciples to strive rather to enter the paths.[205] By the time, -however, the canonical books were produced, his disciples had not shrunk -from pushing his fundamental principles to their only logical -conclusion. The most ancient expositions of his doctrine disclose one -long theory of Nihilism as its only legitimate inference. If misery was -inseparable from existence, it followed that non-existence was a -blessing, and consequently man’s chief end was to aspire and strive to -reach that state in which the “very seed of existence has withered, the -lamp of life has burnt out for ever, and man can no more be born -again.”[206] - -While this was the doctrine of the philosophers, the overwhelming -majority of Buddhists in every age and country have put a very different -meaning upon the word. Just as human nature has proved too strong in -them to accept their atheistic creed, so in popular estimation from the -first, Nirvana has meant not annihilation of existence, but extinction -of suffering. They did not comprehend its metaphysical significance, but -they longed, as all men do, for release from sorrow, and a happier life -when this is over, and they took refuge in Buddha, because his law -promised to convey them over the troubles of life into a blessed -hereafter. There might be higher things for the wise to gain, but the -simple were contented with this inferior portion, and indeed they chose -the better part. For surely the conception of deliverance from -suffering, involving extinction of the being that suffers, was as -childish as that of getting rid of a toothache by cutting off the -head.[207] Rightly were they led by the infallible instincts of our -moral being to believe that the end of righteousness must be rest, but -they wandered fearfully in conceiving of rest as nothingness, for the -“end of righteousness is peace, and the fruit of peace, quietness and -assurance for ever.”[208] - -The great question with Buddha and his immediate disciples was not how -Nirvana, the goal of human aspiration, was to be defined, but how it was -to be attained. It was for him sufficiently expressed as the final -extinction of all the roots of sorrow, and he taught that this -consummation could only be reached by knowledge. Ignorance was the -ultimate ground of all suffering existence, but, as in Christianity, men -could know the truth, and the truth would set them free. According to -both religions, this knowledge could neither be transmitted by tradition -nor learned by a simple intellectual process. It implied a moral and -spiritual training, and was the fruit of obedience; but there again the -analogy ends, for the Buddhist’s idea of knowledge is as widely -contrasted with the Christian idea as is its idea of the Truth to be -known. In Christianity knowledge means Divine illumination or -revelation, the result of trustful surrender to Christ, the revealer of -the Father, and Himself the Truth. In Buddhism it meant a knowledge -gained by man himself, through a process of moral culture and -self-control.[209] In Christianity it was a grace that came through -obedience to a better Will; in Buddhism it meant simply obedience to a -Law. That law, moreover, had no commanding power to enforce it, and -involved no moral obligation in the Christian sense to obey it. It was -not a law like the law of Moses or the law of Christ, for it implied no -Lawgiver to make it binding. It was simply a rule, a method, discovered -by man, and followed because he found it expedient to follow it. -Adopting this method, observing this rule, persevering in this course, a -man would attain to knowledge of the truth of things, but this supposed -truth is the very contradiction of the truth as it is in Jesus, the -truth by which we are sanctified, and made wise unto salvation.[210] - -This should be borne in mind when in translations of Buddhist books we -find such words as “holiness,” “saints,” “paths or degrees of -sanctification,” “righteousness,” and such like. The original words -represent conceptions different from and antagonistic to those suggested -by these words to us. But keeping this in view, we may well admire and -be thankful for the high purpose and clear moral insight which enabled -Buddha to discover and set forth his way to Nirvana. The strength and -glory of Buddhism, the secret of its original attractiveness, and of its -long continuance, is its ethical system. Its metaphysical creed may -represent a very puerile philosophy, its discipline of artificial -restraint may have been the reverse of emancipation, but its moral code, -in its simple and direct and powerful appeal to the conscience, is a far -nearer approach to the Gospel than that of Gentile Stoics or of Jewish -Scribes. Avoiding sensuality on the one hand as degrading, and -asceticism on the other as unprofitable, it mapped out a _via media_ -that led far above that projected by any ancient school. It entered into -every domain of life, of thought and word and deed;[211] laid its -control, as Christianity does, on feeling and motive, and proclaimed -that the way to perfect peace was a way which no unrighteous man could -enter and no unclean man could tread. - -It is very interesting to catch, behind all its superstitions and -idolatries, and crude and childish speculations, this glimpse of an -ideal like unto that of the Son of Man, calling and leading men to -righteousness, purity, and kindness, as their only refuge. To the old -Vedic religion, and to all the class of religions of which it is the -type, morality, as we have seen, was a stranger. It was the philosopher, -and not the priest, who in old times argued of righteousness, -temperance, and judgment to come. The Hebrew, as we have seen, was the -first and only ancient religion that demanded holiness of life as -indispensable to the worship of God, and Christianity, as was natural, -recognised this old law which men had from the beginning. But Buddhism -was the first system in which morality was substituted for religion. It -had neither priests, nor temples, nor prayers, but taught men to depend -for safety solely upon a life of virtue and wisdom and goodness. Though -it implied a change of heart amounting to conversion, this was due to -the operation of no regenerating spirit, but to perseverance in courses -within the reach of any one. Anticipating, therefore, theories of life -broached now-a-days as if they were new discoveries, its endeavour to -dissociate the human from the supernatural, and to substitute the -ethical for the religious, deserves very earnest study. - -It meant man’s earnest resolve to work out his salvation with fear and -trembling, for there is no God within him working both to will and to do -of His good pleasure. It was an attempt to conceive of a morally -governed universe without a Governor. Professedly atheistic compared -with the religion out of which it arose, it has been properly described -to be “more theistic at its core than Brahmanism has ever been.”[212] It -did not trouble itself about the origin of man as an emanation from the -universal self, but it asserted the dignity of his nature as resting on -really a sounder basis. It refused to believe with the Hebrew that the -Creator had written the law on the tables of the heart, but it found the -law there written somehow, and read it almost as correctly. Like the -Christian apostle, its founder asserted that each man was a law unto -himself, the judge of his own action, and the arbiter of his fate. And -thus it came to pass that, without any conscious purpose of doing so, he -inaugurated a moral revolution which lasted for ages. It swept away an -enormous mass of superstitions from the Indian mind for centuries, -abolished many abuses, and modified more which it failed to overcome. It -has tended to civilise many barbarous races; and if among them Buddhism -has been able to bear the encumbrance of their hideous idolatries which -it assumed, it is because of the strong ethical foundation upon which it -rests. It is the ethical element in religion that is universal and -enduring, and there is a completeness and force and persuasiveness of -ethical teaching in Buddhism which all non-Christian religions lack; -there is a comprehensiveness of duty and gentleness which pre-intimate -clearly that universal Christian rule which makes it imperative that we -should not only duly consider all brethren who are human, but should say -to the worm, as within the scope of our benevolence, “Thou art my mother -and sister.” - -Let us now examine more closely this way to Nirvana as expounded in the -Suttas of Buddha, and in relation to Christ’s way of salvation. The -Christian is very simple, but as it proceeds from a much deeper -conception of human need, its method of meeting it is very different. It -was not the suffering and misdirection of men that most deeply impressed -and most powerfully affected our Lord. He came to a race made in the -image of God, that had confessedly fallen from or had failed to realise -its ideal. It was lost, as sheep are lost, by inherent tendency to -wander; as coins are lost, by the neglect of others; as prodigals are -lost, by sensuality; and as Pharisees are lost, by self-righteousness. -It was diseased and perishing, struggling not in the coils of changeful -suffering, but in the clutch of an evil power which had taken possession -of it. Sorely needing, though not seeking redemption, unable to help -itself, He had come in the name of His Father, who willed not that any -should perish, to seek and save it. His formula of salvation was plain -enough for even babes to apprehend, for all He asked was that men should -turn to and believe in Him. They could not raise themselves, but they -could look toward Him, and find deliverance in the look, for by trust in -Him as the supreme object of love and worship, they would be lifted up -out of their evil state. The deepest tides of man’s being are those -which are swayed by his faith in and love of persons, and it was upon -faith, the commonest of all powers in our nature, that Christ relied for -the deliverance of mankind from the dominion of evil. He offered Himself -to man and for man, was lifted up for them on the cross in the beauty of -suffering holiness; and as love always attracts love, and as goodness -becomes a creative power in those who appreciate it, so all who believed -Him, trusted Him, clung to Him as the weak cling to the strong, were -uplifted, and changed, and transfigured. Love not only has a dominating -but an assimilating power. We become like those whom we fervently admire -and implicitly obey. Obedience in such a case is not an obligation, but -an inspiration; so though in Christianity we speak of the Law of Christ, -it is not as an external code to which we must conform, but as a power -communicated to and operative in us. It is a law of the _spirit of -life_, a grace and blessedness of disposition, which, springing from -gratitude, will manifest itself in holiness far exceeding the -righteousness of a law, because vivified by a charity and mercy as -boundless as that which it adores. - -So when our Lord inaugurated His kingdom, He may be said to have -proclaimed in the Beatitudes His Law, for He then declared the -dispositions of those who would receive Him, and who as sons of men -trusting and following Him, would be saved and sanctified and glorified -by the Son of God. Now, though from his first sermon to the last Buddha -is represented as “instructing his disciples, inciting them, rousing -them, and gladdening them” by discoursing of blessedness, it was not of -blessedness in the gospel sense. It was the blessedness of the Old -Covenant, not of the New—the blessedness, not of them who love much -because they have been forgiven much, but of them who keep the law, and -tread “the path which opens the eyes, bestows understanding, leads to -peace of mind and full enlightenment”—the blessedness all who, walking -in the Noble Eightfold Way, must eventually reach Nirvana.[213] - -It is almost impossible to explain all that is meant by the Noble -Eightfold Way, for translators differ very greatly as to the real -meaning of the terms employed, and even when they agree, they warn us -that the words, though similar to our own, do not suggest the same -realities. The word “righteousness” and even “morality” never can have -on the lips of a true Buddhist the same signification which they have on -ours; for righteousness, apart from the fear and love of God, is an -impossible conception to us, and so would unrighteousness, unless as a -sin or an offence against Him. Buddhism has no word for ‘sin’ in our -sense, and therefore no words for ‘holiness’ or ‘saint.’ “Sin is simply -pain, demerit, and a saint is one freed from what causes pain.” “A -righteous act is one accumulating merit, an unrighteous act one -producing suffering.”[214] The Eightfold Way, interpreted by the -legends, presents us with the Buddhist conception of the perfect man, -and were we to take its constituents as equivalents to the Christian -qualities suggested by the words, we should find outlined a character -which here or anywhere must be its own beatitude, but whose blessedness -is as completely beyond the reach of sinful man as flying is beyond the -power of a bird whose pinions are broken. - -But Right Views or Belief, Right Resolve, Right Speech, Right Work, -Right Livelihood, Right Exercise, Right Mindfulness, and Right -Tranquillity, must be taken, not as we accept, but as Buddhists -understand, the phrases. By right belief they unquestionably meant -belief in Buddha and the Four Verities; right resolve included -abandonment of all domestic and social duties; right speech was the -recitation or publication of the dharma; right work was specially that -of a monk; right livelihood that of living on alms; right exercise -tended to the suppression of all individuality; right mindfulness was -habitual contemplation upon the impurity and impermanence of human -nature; and right tranquillity was ecstasy.[215] To have substituted -even this in the Hindu mind for a righteousness only ceremonial and -superstitious was indeed reformation; but as an idea of Perfection it is -manifestly not only different from, but greatly inferior to, the -Christian ideal. Perfection in the case of Buddhism meant extinction of -feeling and consciousness; in Christianity it meant harmonious and full -development of being and character. In Christianity perfection meant -conformity to an Exemplar outside and above it, the likeness of a child -to a Father in heaven; but Buddhism could conceive of no exemplar, and -the man who would be perfect must strive in entire self-dependence to be -so. In Buddhism the standard is purely human; in Christianity, while the -measure required is relative, the standard is divine. So in Buddhism the -Arhat is content, and we never hear from him the confession, “I count -not myself to have attained!” but in Christianity the more saintly the -life, the greater the discontent with it. The higher we rise the more -urgent is the desire to press on. Christianity therefore opens up the -avenue to perpetual improvement, and inspiring us with a motive to -progress which can never lose its power, it provides for the soul the -only rest that will satisfy it. “In life,” says Pascal, “we are ever -believing, we seek repose, but what we really crave is agitation.” “It -is the contest that pleases us, and not the victory; the pursuit and not -the possession.”[216] Absolute truth and goodness is the perfection of -divine blessedness; the never-ceasing pursuit of it is human -blessedness. The goal we can never reach, but the watchword, “Nearer, my -God, to Thee!” seems to solve for us the problem of human destiny, for -by directing us to the life of perpetual achievement, it assures us of a -never-ending blessedness. - -The Buddhist goal of perfection and the law or way that led to it, was -by Buddha himself or his earliest disciples considered to be beyond the -power of many to attain to. His followers were soon ranged into classes -according to their ability to tread the paths which led to liberty. His -law, therefore, unlike the Ten Commandments of the Bible, which are -binding on all without distinction, was not a law for all men. Each one -was at liberty to take on him as many or as few obligations as he -pleased, according to his resolve to continue in the world, or to -abandon it, and having abandoned it according to his resolve to seek -after Arhatship and aspire to Nirvana.[217] Upon those who, conforming -outwardly, yet remained in their secular callings, was enjoined -abstinence from the five gross sins, of killing, theft, adultery, -falsehood, taking intoxicating drinks—already, with the exception of the -last, made binding on them by the Hindu religion. By refraining from -these, and by serving and maintaining the monks, even the laity could -win for themselves a happy re-birth into some world hereafter. Those -wiser ones, again,[218] who, convinced of the evil and danger of secular -life, had abandoned their homes, and entered the Order that by -meditation and abstraction they might further work out their -deliverance, bound themselves, in addition to observance of these five -commands, to eat only at stated times, to use neither perfume nor -ornament, to sleep only on mats on the ground, to abstain from dancing, -music, and worldly shows, to own and accept neither silver nor gold, and -to be perfectly chaste. For those wisest of all, who had not only -abandoned the world in order to lead the better life of the religious, -but who had strenuously resolved, in following the religious life, to -attain to Arhatship and Nirvana, there remained the much more severe -observance of what was called the “Seven Jewels of the Law,”[219] the -last and most important use to which the Noble Eightfold Way could be -put. For by earnestly struggling, meditating, mastering their precepts, -the “Ten Fetters” of Delusion, Doubt, Dependence on Ceremonial Rites, -Sensuality, Hatred, Love of life on Earth, Craving for life in Heaven, -Pride, Self-Righteousness, and Ignorance, would one by one be broken, -and long self-abnegation involved in the process would work out its full -reward. - -It is to be observed that in all these classes or stages the practice of -virtue and the cultivation of purity were considered fundamental. In the -preaching ascribed to Buddha great stress is laid on Enlightenment, and -on Meditation, which leads to it; but at the base of all this system, as -the first indispensable factor in securing perfection, was Uprightness. -In the Suttas this formula constantly recurs: “Great is the advantage, -great the fruit of earnest contemplation when set round with upright -conduct. Great is the fruit, great the advantage of intelligence when -set round with earnest contemplation. The mind set round with -intelligence is free from the greatest evils, that is to say, from -sensuality, from individuality, from delusion, and from ignorance.“ -Again, “Righteousness, earnest thought, wisdom and freedom sublime: -these are the truths realised by Gotama far-renowned.”[220] The -uprightness, or righteousness required, presents, as the Moral Law of -Scripture does, a much broader range of influence than the words would -indicate. In prohibiting lying, Buddha enjoined avoidance of all -offensive language, and of every word that could sever men. He also -instructed his disciples not only to avoid showing enmity to those who -hated them, but to overcome evil with good. Purity again in his regard -meant purity not of word and deed alone, but of thought and feeling. In -some respects his precepts go beyond the Moral Law. The command not to -kill included respect not for human beings only, but for every creature -that had life. He not only condemned drunkenness, but demanded total -abstinence as essential. The precept “Do not commit adultery” was -understood in our sense of it only by the laity; for the religious, -marriage was not an honourable estate, but one polluted and polluting. -Unlike the Moral Law, which recognises everything that is natural and -sanctifies it, the rule of Buddha in these respects was unnatural in its -restrictions. It pronounced common and unclean what God Himself has -cleansed; and, as always happens when men add to the commandments of God -in one direction, they are sure to take away from them in another. So -Buddha’s rule, though excellent in that it lays its control not on -conduct only, but on thought and feeling, is essentially negative and -defective. It does not cover man’s whole nature, nor provide for his -every possible relation. Ignoring God, it is therefore interpreted by no -positive and active principle of goodness. It is inspired by no sense of -duty, for it recognises in the universe no superior to whom anything is -due, and, unconscious of any benefit, it owns no gratitude. Consequently -unrighteousness, as an offence to or an outrage upon a better or kinder -being than self, is not in all its range of view. Unrighteousness is -only a calamity to be avoided or an imprudence not to be repeated. -Struggling to get out of the meshes of an evil net, the Buddhist might -bewail his mistake, his folly, or his feeble or ill-directed effort, but -he was totally unconscious of rebellion or ingratitude.[221] - -Moreover, in a universe where Moi-même is the only god, and a man’s own -Nirvana his only goal, the primary motive of action can rise no higher -than fear or self-interest. Apparently strong, it is really essentially -weak in regard to the maintenance of proper relations to others demanded -by the second table of the Moral Law. The suffering caused to others -through his failure to fulfil the law, or by conscious transgression of -it, makes no impression on the Buddhist, except in as far as it -interferes with his pursuit of perfection. Others are regarded only as -occasions of acquiring merit. Instead of serving them as Christ enjoins -us to do, the Buddhist serves himself of them. It is a religion of every -man for himself. It has been likened to Positivism, but it falls far -short of it, as lacking the altruism which Positivism has borrowed from -Christianity.[222] Positivism refuses to do anything for the glory of -God, but it lays great stress upon the duty of living for humanity. It -makes the great mistake of supposing that the claims of God must be -distinct from or antagonistic to the interests of humanity. It does not -recognise that they are identical—that the more the life is reserved for -God, the more of it is communicated to our fellow-men, and that we must -love the Lord our God with all our hearts, before we can love our -neighbour as ourselves. The Positivist scheme of morals, however, is -vastly superior to that of Buddhism, for in it the goal is Nirvana, -without any reference to the good of any other, and the decided -advantage of any action consists wholly and solely in the consequences -to the actor himself. - -Dr. Oldenberg has pointed out to us that the much-vaunted charity of -Buddhism, illustrated in the legends by the self-immolation of Buddha to -satisfy the hunger of a wild beast, though it “sways toward does not -even touch the law of Christian charity.”[223] Buddha’s Rule, though -benevolent to the extent that it would harm no one, and beneficent in -respect of doing good, knew nothing of Christianity’s enthusiastic -passionate desire to help and work for others.[224] It was the interest -of the true Buddhist to forgive his enemies and not to hate them,[225] -but he never considered himself bound to love them. It was good policy -for one pressing on to Arhatship to do good works, and he would go far -out of his way to do them; but he never went about doing good as one who -found his reward in the opportunity and power to do it. He was among men -not as one who ministers and gives his life to ransom others. His very -self-abnegation had egoism at its core. Between the Christian surrender -of self to God for the sake of others, and the Buddhist surrender to -others for the sake of self, there is a great gulf fixed. The first -springs from a sense of indebtedness, a consciousness of mercy -unmerited, but freely bestowed; but the other, having no sense of -forgiveness received, has no real mercy to show. The mercy of God is the -spring of all true human compassion, for he who truly receives it finds -it impossible to withhold it. It is, alas! bestowed upon many who are -too full of themselves to take it in, and in all such cases it is lost, -but in every heart that is conscious of it, it becomes a disposition to -show kindness that cannot be counted by acts, and that never will ask, -“How oft shall my brother offend me and I forgive him?” Buddhism was -friendly in its benevolence, but it never was actively charitable, in -taking upon it the infirmities and bearing the sicknesses of others. It -has no passionate desire to gather the wrecked and blighted of humanity -and to bind up their bleeding wounds and sores. On the contrary, in its -pursuit of Nirvana it passed by all such in the path of life, precisely -as the priest and Levite passed the wounded man on their way to Jericho. -It not only was selfish, but even cruel in this pursuit, for a woman in -difficulty or in distress was not to be helped by a passing monk. The -poor and the diseased and the lost were not to be considered, for they -were simply suffering the due reward of their deeds; but the -yellow-robed monks, healthy and shining-faced, were to be the recipients -of the bounty of the charitable and the proper objects of their -attention. One of its beatitudes runs thus: “Not to serve the foolish, -but to serve the wise; to honour those worthy of honour. This is the -greatest blessing.”[226] Almsgiving was indeed encouraged; but alms were -only to be bestowed upon the worthy—on the monk and Arhat—not on the -outcast and the leper, whose miserable condition indicated their -unworthiness. If the animal creation profited by their charity, which -they refused to their suffering fellow-men, it was from a selfish -motive: for the parent, or wife, or child, whom by Buddha’s rule they -were obliged to help, might be looking at them, for all they knew, out -of the eyes of the beast, and not to fulfil the precept would bring to -themselves both harm and loss.[227] Tested even socially, therefore, the -Rule of Buddha is defective, and this because it is not founded on -religion. The cause of God is eternally the cause of man. In the -Fatherhood of God is essentially involved the universal brotherhood of -man. Christ is before us as the representative of humanity, because He -is the representative of Deity. Refusal to acknowledge His supremacy -will disturb all human relationships and throw them into disorder. We -learn to do to others as Christ hath done to us; the sense of our -indebtedness will be the measure of our charity. For this end He has -chosen the poorest and the most wretched as His memorials, and He has -said, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, -ye have done it unto Me.” - -To do justice to Buddha’s way, however, we must remember that the path -of uprightness (_sila_) was only the first part of it. Without external -rectitude, inward integrity would be impossible; but external rectitude, -without self-concentration, would be a foundation without a structure. -“A man must endeavour to keep constant watch over his thoughts, for our -whole existence depends upon our thinking,”[228] was one of the noble -maxims of Buddhism. It is to its credit as a religion that it recognised -that only a small part of our real life can be expressed in words and -deeds, that the true sphere of morality and human temptation was within, -and that it instructed men to keep the heart with all diligence, for out -of it are the issues of life. Buddha seems to have felt, and to have in -part at least expressed, the contrast and conflict between the seen and -the unseen in our life. He recognised, it is true, no soul, and the -warfare between the flesh and the spirit was not found in his -philosophy, but he had to account for the antagonism which every one -feels between our animality and our humanity, between what is pressing -or dragging us down, and what in us struggles to be free. The mental and -moral qualities were of far more value than the physical; the invisible -was of more consequence, because more real, than the visible. The -“mindful and thoughtful man” was the man who “looked within and not -without,” and so Buddha’s insistence upon the “noble earnestness of -meditation” as indispensable to deliverance is a grand testimony to the -truth, which no philosophy of materialism can falsify, that we are far -more concerned with what we think and feel and imagine than with what we -touch and we taste, and that our thoughts and feelings go far more into -the weaving of our character than do our words and works. - -It is alleged that in Pali literature the word for meditation -(_samadhi_), by which alone inner purity can be attained, bears to the -word for “uprightness” the same relation as that which faith in the New -Testament bears to works.[229] By uprightness, delusion is cleared away, -and by pondering constantly the five principal kinds of -meditations—Love, Pity, Joy, the Impurity of the Body, and the state of -Serene Indifference to what men think bad or good—the man was supposed -to be redeemed from all attachment.[230] It is very pathetic to note -this approach toward and yet rebound from the Christian conception of -the function of faith: for faith is the victory that overcometh the -world, with its lust of the flesh, its lust of the eye, and its pride of -life. It is that too which, because it looks to the unseen and eternal, -quenches all sordid or inordinate cleaving to life, which is the root of -so much evil and the cause of so much suffering. The apostles, -instructed of Christ, have taught us that God’s precious gift of life is -ours to use: that to keep it, to will to save and to find it, as if it -were an end and not a means, is to miss and to lose it; while to use it, -be willing to lose it for some higher good, is to keep it unto life -eternal. Now Buddha had a glimpse of this truth, that lust of existence -was the root of bitterness in humanity. He condemned as heresies the -worldly lust which says, “Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die,” -and the lust of other-worldliness which dreams that the life beyond will -yield as good, or better pleasures than this one;[231] but the two last -of his five principal meditations show how far apart and far short of -the victory of faith was his idea of the victory of samadhi. The -apostles’ aim was to get rid of lust; but his aim was to get rid of -life. The apostles mortified the members which are upon the earth, -anger, wrath, malice, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, just that -the higher life, the life hid with Christ in God, might grow and -brighten; but Buddha, in “cleansing himself from all impurity, little by -little, moment by moment, piece by piece,”[232] sought to escape from -the last shadow of personal existence into the blessedness of absolute -unconsciousness, if not of utter extinction. - -For this seems clearly revealed in the last or highest stage to which -the paths of uprightness and meditation were supposed to conduct, that -of enlightenment (_panna_) or spiritual abstraction, alleged to be -equivalent to prayer in other religions. The highest Christian -conception of prayer is that of communion with God; the highest Buddhist -conception of _panna_ is of a state of clairvoyance or ecstatic insight -in which “men hear with clear and heavenly ear, surpassing that of men,” -and “comprehend by their own hearts the hearts of other men,” and -“recall their own various states in former existences,” and “see with -pure and heavenly vision the procession of other beings as they pass -from life to life.”[233] Buddha evidently was believed by his disciples -to have possessed this power, and probably his own long fasting and -severe austerities, practised in the beginning of his career, acting -upon a highly nervous system, made him a believer in the reality of this -perfect insight and ecstasy of contemplation, and that it might be -acquired by all who were sufficiently persevering in pursuit of -Arhatship.[234] It must be observed, however, that he does not appear to -have regarded this as an experience to be enjoyed by the Arhat in -perpetuity; on the contrary, it was the condition preceding final and -eternal deliverance, and so it may be taken as the Buddhist conception -of Euthanasia. - -The Christian in the highest and supreme moment of life aspires, if -conscious, after the beatific vision. It is no Brahmanic absorption into -the absolute that he desires, but likeness to and communion with God. -The consciousness of personality was never more intense, the conviction -was never stronger that he has been divinely created and trained as a -separate character. By long and prayerful use of the means of grace he -has sought to bring, and to keep himself under the control of the Holy -Spirit; and he hopes that the next change will completely free him from -every trace of “sensuality, delusion, and ignorance,” and purge away -from the soul the last taint of selfishness. By long and sore -experiences he has learned that selfishness is the evil root whence -spring all the suffering and sorrow that poison life. He can therefore -understand and sympathise with the Buddhist anathema upon -“individuality,” if by that is meant the endeavour to abstract our life -from the solidarity of humanity, to use it for our own ends, and to -grudge what of it God uses for the rest of His family. This is the -Christian conception of the cause of death and all its woe, and from -this a Christian saint ever prays and struggles to be free; but it is -not from “individuality” in this sense that the Buddhist Arhat seeks -deliverance. He is bent upon the very thing from which the Christian is -anxious to escape. He wants to isolate and withdraw his portion of life -from the sum of humanity, to abstract himself from the mass, to save his -own soul; and now that he nears the goal, his whole energies are -directed, not to purify and strengthen and ennoble the personal self for -better service, by minding what is pure and lovely, and by striving -unceasingly after what is right and true, but by crushing out every -feeling into apathy, every thought into vacuity, so as to get rid of -personality, identity, and the very faintest germ of life.[235] - -And this is the goal of a race that has extended not only over the whole -range of the present, but over that of many existences; this is the -victory which crowns a fight that has continued throughout untold ages. -Truly there is something very pathetic in the conception of a struggle -after sainthood so prolonged, by one who, now a god, now an animal, now -a man, has never lost sight of his mark, and has ever pressed onwards to -it.[236] Probably we may have something to learn from it, by way of -correcting the idea that true moral and spiritual excellence, -perfection, saintliness, is the growth of a single life; but when the -goal is understood in its bare reality, as implying not destruction of -selfishness, but extinction of being, surely the reproachful question is -justified, “To what purpose is this waste?” After millennia of -transformation the nebula has formed into a star, and just at the point -when it can illumine an immensity, it disappears for ever from the -firmament. Unreckonable energy and thought have been expended upon the -production of a man, and just when he has reached the highest point of -perfection, and is most serviceable to the universe, he becomes of less -value than a vapour that vanishes away. Truly - - “the crown of our life as it closes - Is darkness; the fruit thereof dust,” - -and man walketh in a vain show, he disquieteth himself in vain, if -Buddha’s way be the only path of deliverance from evil, and Nirvana his -only goal. - -And so while we ought to be profoundly thankful for the intellectual -culture and moral earnestness that made Buddha, in spite of himself, the -reformer of Eastern Asia, it is manifest that even his best doctrines -represent very partial and one-sided truths, “dwelt upon with morbid -intensity, to the exclusion of every fact which might have modified -them.”[237] His fundamental error was his wild attempt to explain the -life of man independently of Divine control, and to guide man safely -through the perils and temptations of existence by an ethical system -founded on no appeal to an eternal principle of goodness without, but -solely to self-interest. The result, which has been to identify the -nature of man with that of the animals,[238] surely shows conclusively -that religion and morality can never be dissociated without damage to -both. A religion without morality must degrade. A system of morality -apart from religion will never upraise. Religion is for man simply -indispensable. Deity is a necessity to him, and deity he must have, -though he finds his god in a tree or makes it out of a stone. Man lives -by faith, faith in his higher self, faith in a higher than himself, who -alone can explain the conflict between his actual condition and the -ideals which he conceives. The modern Buddhist assumes that “religion is -the science of man, not the revelation of God, and he considers that -comprehensions of deity are of far less consequence than just ideas of a -man’s own self,”[239] but how can a man have a just idea of himself -apart from some idea of God? According to his idea of God will be his -estimate of himself. Buddhism, by ignoring God and preaching morality, -has certainly failed to make its adherents moral, and it has imparted to -what is noble in their morality the melancholy of despair.[240] - -Ignoring God, it could only form, or could not emancipate itself from, a -false conception of man, as part of a material system of things; but -man, though considerably involved in a material system, never can be -interpreted by it. On the contrary, nature can only be interpreted or -properly understood in man as the lower in the higher. Man is an -antagonist of nature; he is for ever condemning its ways, coming into -collision with its laws, refusing to live its life. Out of this -collision emerges his religion, while his morality originates in the -conflict between his own sense of duty and its life of animal -instinct.[241] To conform to nature, he must become a brute, but he has -in him ideals and capacities transcending it, and by exercising these -capacities in pursuit of his ideals he finds his life. Buddha confessed -to an ideal, and wrought hard to realise it, but alas for humanity when -it finds no higher than self to reverence! Buddha’s theories of -self-culture and self-deliverance reduced to practice have proved most -miserable failures. It could not be otherwise; no man is likely to move -the ship in which he sits by puffing away at the sails, or to lift -himself out of the mire by simply pulling away at his boots; and no -philosophy of self-culture, self-control, or self-rescue, can succeed, -which ignores or refuses to acknowledge man’s instinct of worship. What -he most needs is not law, not a system of morality, not even an example -or model to copy, but inspiration. He knows already enough to condemn -himself, and he has examples which, though far from perfect, quite -suffice to confound him. The command to be perfect mocks him as truly as -a command to see would mock a man stone-blind. What he does want is a -powerful moral energy within him, for lack of which he has to confess -that he cannot do the good he would, but is ever doing the evil which he -would not. His real wretchedness is not his suffering and death, not -even his ignorance, as Buddha thought, but the continual and seemingly -ineffectual struggle between the animal and the man, the flesh and the -spirit. And Buddhism was powerless to help him here. It lacked the -steady support of the sense of duty to the highest and best, the -inspiration that comes from the faith that the highest and best is for -us, and is with us, and in us. Belief in God, as Bacon reminds us, is -“essential to the consciousness of our nobility and dignity, for -certainly man is of kin to the beasts by his body, and if he be not of -kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature.” So -Buddhism in unduly exalting man to the level of deity has in reality -degraded him. It has indeed lifted wild races out of barbarism, but it -has failed to civilise them. It has certainly not destroyed ignorance, -and the worship of intelligence has not tended to its development and -diffusion among the peoples whom it has swayed. Judged even by an -ordinary standard, the monks of either Southern or Northern Buddhism are -rarely found to be enlightened men, while the vast portion of the -peoples among whom these monks are found are about the most ignorant of -all. And just as certainly has it failed to make men free; for religion -is the guarantee of freedom. “Where there is no place left in human -thought for deity, there will soon be none found for human -liberty.”[242] The basis of individual right is the recognition of a -divine and purely moral government of man. If there be no higher than -the highest man regarding us, we have only the right to live under the -power of the strongest, and the reign of terror must succeed to that of -order and law. The history of Buddhism and the miserable governments -associated with it are telling comments upon and confirmation of the -truth that belief in God is necessary to secure the rights of man.[243] - -The progress of the human race will ever be in proportion to the -strength of its conviction that it is governed and considered and -sustained by a Power of infinite goodness ever making for righteousness. -Such a conviction means inspiration, stimulating endurance and hope, and -resolute struggle with evil in all its forms. In it is implied the -assurance that resistance can never be in vain, that failure at the very -worst is only partial success, and that all things work together for -good. The time for this gospel had not come when Buddha called upon the -people of India to “save themselves from this condition of -wretchedness,” and the result of his mighty and benevolent efforts shows -convincingly how urgent in human nature is the demand for a Faith which -will not only enlighten but enliven, which, recognising fully not only -the sufferings but the whole necessities of man, and creating strong -discontent with the world as we find it, and even disgust of human life -as it is, will quicken in us persevering and deathless efforts to reform -the one and to improve the other. Such a faith it is our privilege and -awful responsibility to communicate. Our religion is higher than our -grasp, for it is always above us. Alas! in too many cases it is higher -than our aim, for we are too inclined to let it slip, and drift on the -tides of things as they are; but mankind will never be satisfied with a -lower. “Après l’invention du blé ils ne veulent pas encore vivre du -gland.” “We needs must love the highest when we see it,” and we needs -must strive to become like the highest when we love it. The gospel -preaches consolation and hope to a suffering world, and promises grace -upon grace to every endeavour to heal and amend its condition. Christ -purifies and improves the life which we have by destroying only what is -evil, and by preserving and training and ennobling all that is truly -natural. Inexorably He demands the extinction of selfishness in all its -forms, and He will not even permit us in our prayers to think and ask -for ourselves. He reminds us that God is our Father in heaven, and what -He gives is for all His family. Sternly He denounces as sinful the -attempt to secure our own happiness here or in a better world hereafter; -but He offers the heaven and Nirvana which He found in assuming the -burdens of others, and in bearing their cross. So He assures us that it -is worth our while to live, even in a world groaning and travailing with -suffering, and that it will be worth our while, even in agony if we -must, to die. It is indeed a very evil world, but as long as we draw our -inspiration from Him we can live in it not only without damage but with -great profit. When we offer ourselves in His strength for its salvation -we will be saved from its sins. In the times of our deepest distress we -will have the peace which He left us, and when most severely beset and -cast down with sorrow because of what seems baffled endeavours, we have -only to think of that hope of ultimate victory which made Him to endure -to the end, to rise into - - “that last large joy of all, - Trust in the goodness and the love of Him - Who, making so much well, will end all well.” - -Footnote 180: - - _Dharma_, an ancient Brahman term, meaning law or order; what holds - things as they are, or ought to be. In later Sanskrit it also means - duty and virtue, _i.e._ law performed.—Gifford Lectures, _Natural - Religion_, pp. 94, 95. _Buddha_ is also an ancient Brahman term - applied to one who has attained a perfect knowledge of the - Self.—Satapatha-brahmana, xiv. 7. 2. 17. In Buddhism Dharma means - Buddha’s doctrines, “bodhi,” _i.e._ knowledge self-acquired, as - distinguished from “Veda,” _i.e._ revelation obtainable only through - the Brahmans.—Sir Monier Williams’ _Buddhism_, p. 97. - -Footnote 181: - - Oldenberg, _Buddha, etc._, pp. 205-208; Rhys Davids, _Buddhism_, p. - 87; Spence Hardy, _Manual of Buddhism_, p. 375. His relation to the - philosophical systems of his day is illustrated in several Suttas; see - Sutta Nipâta, in vol. x. Part ii. of _Sacred Books of the East_, pp. - 148-152. Evidently he regarded them with aversion, and even contempt. - -Footnote 182: - - _Le Bouddha, etc._, p. 79. The legends indicate that his use of the - vernacular was matter of principle. Two Brahmans, “excelling in - speech, excelling in pronunciation,” complained that the monks - corrupted the word of the Buddhas by repeating it in their own - dialect, and asked permission to put it into classical or polished - verse. “How can you, O foolish ones, speak thus?... You are not, O - monks, to put the words of the Buddhas into polished (Sanskrit) verse. - Whosoever does so shall be guilty of a dukkata.”—Kullavagga, v. 33. 1; - _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xx. - -Footnote 183: - - Mahâparanibhâna Sutta, ii. 1. 2; _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xi.; - Mahavagga, i. 6. 18, 27; _ibid._ vol. xiii. - -Footnote 184: - - Not as the Nothing, as Wuttke tries to show in _Geschichte des - Heidenthums_, ii. § 166. Oldenberg, _Buddha, etc._, p. 212. - -Footnote 185: - - Samyutta-ka-Nikâya, quoted by Oldenberg, _Buddha, etc._, p. 217. - -Footnote 186: - - _Bouddha et sa Religion_, p. iii, Introduction. - -Footnote 187: - - “The Modern Buddhist,” published in the volume called _The Wheel of - the Law: Buddhism illustrated from Siamese Sources_, by H. Alabaster; - London, 1876. - -Footnote 188: - - Dr. Westcott, _Social Aspects of Christianity_, p. 12; Aristotle, - _Ethic._, i. 1; iv. 3. - -Footnote 189: - - “The Modern Buddhist,” Alabaster, _Wheel of the Law_, p. 73; Spence - Hardy, _Eastern Monachism_, pp. 5, 339; Gogerly’s translation of the - Brahmajala Sutta in Digha Nikâya, _Journal of Ceylon Asiatic Society_, - 1846. - -Footnote 190: - - Preface to Müller’s Dhammapada, p. xxx, old ed. - -Footnote 191: - - Note at pp. 31, 32 of Dhammapada in vol. x. of _Sacred Books of the - East_. Frankfurter, App. _Bamp. Lect._ 1881, p. 349. - -Footnote 192: - - Rhys Davids, _Buddhism_, p. 95; Spence Hardy, _Manual of Buddhism_, p. - 388; Oldenberg, _Buddha, etc._, quoting Bhikkuni Samyutta, p. 258; - Colebrooke’s _Essays_, vol. i. p. 417, Cowell’s edition; Sabbasava - Sutta, 10, 11, 12: _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xi. - -Footnote 193: - - _Life of Gaudama_, first ed., p. 321 note; Rangoon, 1866. - -Footnote 194: - - Max Müller, introd. to Buddagosha’s Parables, p. xxx, ed. 1870. - -Footnote 195: - - The first traces of this belief are found, it is said, in the - Upanishads, Brihadáranyaka, iii. 2. 1, _Sacred Books of the East_, - vol. xv. p. 126; Dhammapada, v. 1. 127, _ibid._ vol. x. Part i. 3. 35. - -Footnote 196: - - Rhys Davids, Hibbert Lectures, p. 94; also his _Manual of Buddhism_, - pp. 100, 106. - -Footnote 197: - - “All that we are is the result of what we have thought; it is founded - on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or - acts with an evil thought (or polluted mind), suffering follows him as - the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the wain” (Dhammapada, - 1). “Not in the sky, not in the midst of the sea, not if we enter the - cleft of the mountains, is there known a spot in the whole world where - a man might be freed from an evil deed” (Dhammapada, 127; _Sacred - Books of the East_, vol. x.). - -Footnote 198: - - “L’athéisme devenu religion et recouvert du manteau des vertus - chrétiennes.”—Wassilief, _Buddhism_, introd. by E. Laboulaye, p. viii. - -Footnote 199: - - Professor Dods, _Mohammed, Buddha, and Christ_, p. 171. - -Footnote 200: - - Nagasēna’s figure used in controverting the idea of the separate - existence of the soul.—Milindapanha, p. 25, quoted by Oldenberg, - _Buddha_, p. 254; Hardy, _Manual_, p. 425; Rhys Davids, _Buddhism_, p. - 96. - -Footnote 201: - - Oldenberg, _op. cit._, 221. - -Footnote 202: - - _Phaedo_, Jowett’s Introd., i. 407, ed. 1875. - -Footnote 203: - - Preface to English translation of the Lalita Vistara; Calcutta. - -Footnote 204: - - Sutta Nipâta; _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. x. pp. 33, 80. - -Footnote 205: - - _Buddha, etc._, pp. 274-284; Rhys Davids, _Buddhism_, pp. 111-123. - -Footnote 206: - - Childers, _Pali Dictionary_, Art. NIRVANA. - -Footnote 207: - - Dr. Kellogg, in his _Light of Asia and Light of the World_, pp. 223, - 252, protests very forcibly against the use by translators of the word - “immortality” as the equivalent of Nirvana. It meant, as he reminds - us, “the end of death indeed, but not because life had triumphed, but - because, life having ceased, death had nothing to feed on.” - Immortality, endless bliss, and kindred phrases, applied to it, are - only justifiable by the popular but really un-Buddhistic use of the - word Nirvana. - -Footnote 208: - - Isaiah xxxii. 11; James iii. 18. - -Footnote 209: - - Sir Monier Williams, _Buddhism_, pp. 97, 223. - -Footnote 210: - - “Not to know suffering, not to know the cause of suffering, not to - know the path that leads to the cessation of suffering—this is called - Ignorance.” Consequently knowledge of these things is saving - knowledge.—Mahavagga, _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xiii. p. 75, - note 2. - -Footnote 211: - - This threefold division or “doorway” (Hardy, _Manual_, p. 491), once - considered by Weber to be peculiar to Buddhism, has been proved to be - common to Brahmans, Persians, Jews, and Greeks, as well as Christians. - See interesting note at pp. 28, 29, of vol. x. of _Sacred Books of the - East_, Part i. - -Footnote 212: - - Dr. Fairbairn, _Studies in Religion and Philosophy_, p. 161. - -Footnote 213: - - Dhamma. Sutta, 2-4; _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xi. pp. 146, 147; - Mahavagga, i. 6. 17-20; _ibid._ vol. xiii. pp. 94, 95. - -Footnote 214: - - Sir Monier Williams, _Buddhism_, p. 124. - -Footnote 215: - - Frankfurter, App. to Wordsworth’s Bampton Lectures on _The One - Religion_, p. 348; Sutta Nipâta, _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. x. - p. 69. - -Footnote 216: - - _Pensées_, vol. ii. p. 34; vol. i. p. 205; ed. Faugère. - -Footnote 217: - - Spence Hardy, _Manual of Buddhism_, p. 506. - -Footnote 218: - - Sutta Nipâta, _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. x. pp. 33, 46, 67; - Dhammapada, 284. - -Footnote 219: - - _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xi. pp. 60, 61. - -Footnote 220: - - Mahâparanibhâna Sutta, cap. iv. 4; _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. - xi. - -Footnote 221: - - Saint-Hilaire, _Le Bouddha, etc._, pp. 149, 153, 161. - -Footnote 222: - - Wordsworth, Bampton Lectures on _The One Religion_, p. 91. - -Footnote 223: - - Oldenberg, _Buddha, etc._, p. 289. - -Footnote 224: - - Meta Sutta, _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. x. p. 25. - -Footnote 225: - - See the story given in Mahavagga, x. 2. 3-20; also the story of - Kunala, Asoka’s son—this latter said by Burnouf, in his Introduction, - to be of modern origin. Quoted by Oldenberg, p. 290. - -Footnote 226: - - So Dr. Rhys Davids, _Buddhism_, p. 126. Fausböll translates, “Not - cultivating the society of,” etc. (Sutta Nipâta, _Sacred Books of the - East_, vol. x. pp. 43, 44.) - -Footnote 227: - - Dr. Edkins, _Chinese Buddhism_, p. 204. - -Footnote 228: - - Dhammapada, 157-8-9, 379-80; _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. i. - -Footnote 229: - - T. W. Rhys Davids, in the Introduction to his translation of the Keto - Khila Sutta (Barrenness and Bondage), _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. - xi. p. 222, says that in reading it he was irresistibly reminded of 2 - Peter i. 5-9. The barrenness referred to in the Sutta is lack of - successful effort to be free from “the Ten Fetters” which bind man to - existence, chief of which is hankering after immortality in any form, - or without form. How contrasted is this to St. Peter’s thought! “Give - diligence to provide in your faith earnestness,” that it may be an - overcoming faith; but as faith without knowledge is superstition, and - earnestness misdirected will do harm, provide in earnestness - “knowledge”; and as knowledge ungoverned will degenerate into conceit, - provide in it “temperance”; but temperance must be inspired with - “patience,” bent on God’s glory, not personal gain; “godliness” thus - attained, “brotherly kindness” will manifest itself, and then - “charity” toward every creature—that is the grace of our Lord Jesus - Christ, the _summum bonum_, the knowledge in which we are neither to - be barren nor unfruitful. No more forcible illustration of the utter - contradiction between the two religions could be found than this - verbal analogy of “barrenness and bondage.” - -Footnote 230: - - Compare St. Paul, Phil. iv. 8: “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things - are true, whatsoever things are honourable, whatsoever things are - just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, - whatsoever things are gracious; if there be any virtue, if there be - any praise, think on these things.” - -Footnote 231: - - Dhamma-Kakka-ppavattana Sutta, 6, note; _Sacred Books of the East_, - vol. xi. p. 148. - -Footnote 232: - - Dhammapada, 239; _ibid._ vol. x. p. 1. - -Footnote 233: - - Akankheya Sutta; _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xi. p. 210. - -Footnote 234: - - If the legends are to be followed, he believed in the miraculous power - which resulted from it (see Mahâparanibhâna Sutta, i. 33, and iii. 22; - also Mahavagga, i. 20. 24), but he condemned the exercise of that - power for self-glorification or for paltry gain (Kullavagga, v. 8. 2; - also vii. 1, 2, 3; _Sacred Books of the East_, vols. xi. xii. xiii.). - -Footnote 235: - - See Gough, _Philosophy of the Upanishads_, pp. 267, 268. - -Footnote 236: - - Oldenberg, _Buddha, etc._, p. 314. - -Footnote 237: - - Sir Monier Williams, _Buddhism_, p. 35. - -Footnote 238: - - Saint-Hilaire, _Le Bouddha, etc._, p. 162. - -Footnote 239: - - Mr. Alabaster, _Wheel of the Law_, preface, p. xvi. - -Footnote 240: - - Eitel, _Lectures on Buddhism_, pp. 59-70; Saint-Hilaire, _Le Bouddha_, - p. 156. - -Footnote 241: - - Jackson’s Bampton Lectures, _The Doctrine of Retribution_, p. 284; - Caird’s _Philosophy of Religion_, Croall Lectures, pp. 259 _seq._ - -Footnote 242: - - Saint-Hilaire, _Le Bouddha_, p. xxiii; Hardy’s _Eastern Monachism_, p. - 312. - -Footnote 243: - - “Prefix the name of God to this Declaration” (of the Rights of Man), - said Abbé Grégoire to the National Assembly in 1789, “or you leave it - without foundation, and make right the equivalent of force.” The - Assembly refused, but events soon confirmed his judgment.—Baring - Gould, _Development of Belief_, vol. ii. p. 88. - - - - - LECTURE V. - THE BUDDHIST SANGHA[244]: THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. - - -The designation “Church,” never wholly applicable to Buddhism in the -sense in which Christians employ it, was totally inapplicable to the -primitive Buddhist communities. The institution of the Church is -peculiar to Christianity, for though we speak of the worship of Krishna, -or the religion of Baal, we never speak of the church of the one or the -other. Christianity is the only religion which has created a society -which no political revolution can destroy, and no civilisation, however -advanced, can outlive. It may change its form, or express itself in -several co-existent forms; but it is so adapted to the nature and -necessities of man that it is properly described, in its relation to his -present condition, as divine and everlasting. - -Though the Church is the creation of Christ and the fruit of His -mission, the idea of it had been suggested to the world long ages before -He came. “Ecclesia” is peculiarly a New Testament word, but there are -found in the Old Testament Scriptures plain foreshadowings of the -reality represented by it. In Abraham, “called” out from his country and -kindred, that he might be separated unto the worship of Jehovah, we have -the first pre-intimation of the Church. In relation to other nations, -his descendants were the “peculiar people” and Ecclesia of Jehovah, and -when as a nation they failed to embody and express the universal truths, -which it is the Church’s function to communicate for the blessing of all -the world, there was called out from them, or rather there was formed -within them, “the remnant,” so often referred to by Isaiah and the -subsequent prophets; and in this spiritual community and fellowship, -dissociated from the national religion,[245] were conserved and -perpetuated the truths and ideals from which they had fallen away. After -the Captivity, in the rise of the synagogue system of worship, there was -provided an organisation, whose essential details Christ and His -apostles in instituting the Church could either adopt or copy; and there -can be no question that from out this synagogue system the Christian -Church emerged, and that even to-day it reflects some of its peculiar -features. - -The Church was the fruit of Christianity, but the Sangha was the root -out of which Buddhism sprang. In a Sangha its founder lived and learned -and taught, till as Buddha he founded his own; but just as he gave a new -significance to the doctrines in which he had been instructed, so he -gave the Sangha an application which accounts for, though it does not -justify, the designation often accorded to it of a church. As an order -without worship, a brotherhood without any recognition of the uniting -Fatherhood in heaven, a confraternity in which seniority was assigned -only to age,[246] and whose leaders never pretended to hold any priestly -office or to exercise any hierarchical authority, the Sangha at first -and for long was not a church; yet when we examine its constitution and -aims we need not wonder that the religious instincts of Buddhists, -proving stronger than their creed, should have developed their Sangha -into something like a church, with a cult which, at first consisting -only of veneration for his images and relics, for long has been almost -second to none in the world for solemnity and dignity and pomp.[247] - -We have seen that philosophic schools and religious sects originating -in secessions from the national religion abounded in India long before -Buddha’s day. In the Gangetic valley, as in Greece, the new sages -attracted their disciples by the fame of their teaching, but there, -not as in Greece, the disciples lived with their masters apart, and -distinguished from the world by peculiar dress and manners. Of -Monachism, an early outgrowth of Hindu religion, and indeed its -essential adjunct, as being the state which marked the maturity and -completion of a good man’s earthly life, there were already many -forms, all held in high respect by the people. Celibacy and mendicancy -were common to all Sanghas, but in regard to vows of silence, and -fasting, and self-torture, they differed greatly from one another. The -majority of them were Brahman in their constitution and in their -recognition of caste: but long before the rise of Buddhism the Sraman -fraternities, founded on the non-recognition of caste, were quite -equal to the purest Brahman ones in public esteem. Now in organising -the Sakya-putta-Samanas, the designation by which his disciples were -first known by the people, Buddha adopted many features and details of -discipline common to all these fraternities, while yet the peculiarity -of his doctrines gave to the community of his own disciples a -character quite distinctive. - -The Brahman Orders believed that Brahmans only could be finally saved, -and Brahman reformers could only encourage inferior castes that came to -them for enlightenment by the hope of possibly securing a higher birth -in a future state. Buddha, however, considered all men alike in respect -of need, so, knowing of only one way of deliverance, he proclaimed it -without distinction, and, like the Sramans, he opened his Sangha to all -who were willing to submit to his discipline. Unlike many of the Sraman -fraternities, he discouraged the life of solitude, and prohibited the -practice of self-torture and severe austerities. In opposition to the -hated Nigganthas, who, aiming at perfection, went about with only the -light and air for their clothing, he insisted that his disciples should -be decently clad.[248] In respect that he required obedience from -disciples only as long as they continued to be so, and would not permit -irrevocable vows—indeed, exacted from them no vow at all—his Sangha was -more like some Anglican guild than any monastic institution with which -we are acquainted. - -Still more widely did it differ, not only from many, but from all the -existing fraternities in the purpose for which he instituted it. -Hitherto India had never witnessed a religious sect that could be called -propagandist. Brahmanism was essentially exclusive, for no man could -become a Brahman by conversion. The Sraman sages again, left the masses -to ripen in evil ways for worse lives in more degraded spheres of future -existence, in order to deliver themselves by ascetic practices and -meditation. At best they taught those who resorted to them, and were -prepared to consort with them. Buddha, however, by laying upon the -brethren the obligation of extending the knowledge of the law, -inaugurated a revolution in the monastic system which anticipated that -of the great Mendicant Orders of Christendom. Just as St. Francis -emptied the monasteries and sent forth their inmates to find their own -in seeking the salvation of others, so Buddha broke down the barriers -between the Indian recluses and the world, by ordaining the members of -his Sangha to teach their fellow-men the way to liberty. “Therefore, O -brethren, to whom the truths which I have perceived have been made known -by me, having thoroughly mastered them, meditate upon them, practise -them, spread them abroad, in order that the pure Dhamma may last long -and be perpetuated, in order that it may continue to be for the good and -happiness of the great multitude, out of pity for the world, to the -good, and gain, and weal of gods and men.”[249] - -This was the original element[250] in his conception, and while one of -its effects was to save the members of the Sangha from some of the evils -besetting the life of the recluse by balancing the duty of contemplation -by that of active itineration, its chief and immediate result was to -give Buddhism an expansive power marvellous to Indians. Religious -fraternities depended upon the presence of their teachers, and -consequently the members were few, but Buddha commanded the brethren to -go forth. “Let not two of you go the same way” was the original -instruction, and preach the doctrine “which is glorious in the -beginning, glorious in the middle, glorious in the end, in the spirit -and in the letter, for the pure and perfect life, for the complete -cessation of sorrow.”[251] By and by these missionaries were authorised -to receive those who desired admission into the Sangha, and after a due -novitiate to ordain them;[252] and so we need not wonder that this -itineracy, which in the earliest days was the very essence of a good -Buddhist’s duty, should have had the effect of spreading the doctrines -and gathering converts so rapidly that in some of the earliest extant -scriptures the Sangha was known as “the Brotherhood of the Four -Quarters”[253] of what to Indian thought was the world. - -Thus far the Sangha was different from the institutions that preceded -it, but, unlike the Christian Church, which finally emerged from Judaism -as the one holy Church of all nations and of both sexes, and of all -classes of men, the Buddhist Sangha bore with it, and never lost, -several marks of its Hindu origin. One relic of its extraction it most -zealously conserved as essential to the moral restraint which it -encouraged; for though later on it attracted associates whom it -recognised as in the ways of deliverance, it was from the very first an -exclusively monastic order. Indeed, Monachism, or the life of -retirement, privation, and chastity, had in Buddhism a place quite -different from that which it occupied in Brahmanism.[254] The meditative -Brahman anchorite was not considered the only man who was in the way to -deliverance, for every believer in Brahman ascendency was free to choose -one of three ways of securing salvation,[255] but in Buddhism -renunciation of the world represented the highest form of religion, and -the indispensable condition of reaching Nirvana. So, though in opening -the Sangha to all classes, and proclaiming, in opposition to Brahmanism, -that every man was capable of the highest enlightenment, Buddha sapped -the foundation of caste, it was only to replace it in another form.[256] -The mendicant monk, as has been truly observed, took the Brahman’s -place, and for him alone Nirvana was reserved. So sharply defined were -the lines which divided the Sangha from the rest of mankind, that no one -who had not come out from the world was regarded as in it and of it. - -This was quite in keeping with the Buddhist conception of deliverance. -The Sangha simply was an attempt to realise the idea and purpose of the -creed. Salvation according to Christ meant rescue from the power of -evil, but not withdrawal from the world as so incurably evil that the -sooner man got out of it the better. Instead of making His Church an -asylum and refuge from the world, He organised it for the redemption of -the world. Instead of attempting to destroy civil society, He aimed at -its purification by the leavening influence of the new society which He -was creating. The Church was to be Christ’s witness when He was no -longer visible, the instrument by which His own power would bear upon -the wants of mankind. The slavery and the degradation of society, the -destruction of the world, was never meant to be the condition of the -existence or of the liberty and dignity of the Church. It was but a -means to an end, a means so essential that without it the end could not -be reached, but, once the end has been reached, the Church will be -superseded, or rather will be merged in the kingdom of God. So the very -symbol of it is not found in the apocalyptic visions of the new heaven -and the new earth. In the civitas of the new Jerusalem St. John saw -families and nations and kingdoms, but he could see no temple therein, -for the instrumentality of which the temple was the symbol had done its -work in the emancipation and education of the human race, and had -vanished into the more glorious and eternal realities of the throne of -God and of the Lamb. - -In Buddhism we find a set of ideas quite contradictory to all these. The -Sangha was the vehicle of rescue from out the world, not the bringer of -salvation to it; it worked not for the regeneration of society, but for -its disintegration and destruction. It considered the world to be so -hopelessly incurable, and even existence to be so weighted with misery, -that wisdom would move men to abandon the one to its fate, and goodness -impel them to strive to bring the other to an end. The monastery, -therefore, was naturally its loftiest conception of the Civitas Dei, and -into that it endeavoured to transform as large a section of humanity as -was inclined to accept its law. - -This unnatural theory of life indicates the essential weakness of -Buddhism, and makes its history very instructive to Christians. In the -Church, perhaps, room may be accorded to the monastery and convent, as -long as they are sanctified by the Christian idea of self-abnegation in -the service of others, but the attempt to transform the Church into a -monastery, dominated by the Buddhist idea of abnegation of the world for -the sake of self, can only create unmitigated evil. The effect of it in -primitive Buddhism was not only to withdraw good men from the world at -the very time when its diseased condition most required the help of -their preserving salt, but the salt itself, not being used for its -natural and proper purpose, soon lost its savour. The substitution of an -artificial for a natural standard of excellence inevitably tends to -destroy even virtue. Very soon in the Sanghas active itineracy and -devout contemplation gave way to listless indolence and enervating -reverie, and there emerged a mode of life from which the great mass of -healthy men will ever revolt, as sanctioning the idea that the more -useless we become in this world the more fitted for a better we may -safely consider ourselves to be. - -The Buddhist Sangha, therefore, though in no sense resembling the -Christian Church, does resemble some of its after-growths. These, -however, must be regarded as parasitical in their nature, for though fed -by its life, they do not spring from its root. In Christianity, -Monachism represents a tendency of human nature incidental to its -development rather than the essential fruit of Christian principle; but -the Buddhist idea of a true society is one essentially and completely -monastic. This one fact is sufficient to show that the similarities -discoverable between the Buddhist and Christian institutions are more -apparent than real, while the contrasts between them are found to be -deeper and more substantial the more they are examined. - -The monachism of Christianity originated, it is said, in the endeavour -to reproduce the ideal of excellence represented in the life of Jesus. -In the life of Jesus there was nothing monastic. Though He appeared in -the land of the Essenes, though heralded by a solitary ascetic, though -the age was one of universal defection, when because of its corruption -it seemed impossible to live a man’s life in society, Jesus lived freely -in the world as He found it, and laid His blessing on all of it that was -natural, and on all of it that was necessary. He did not refuse to enjoy -any of the good gifts of God; He warned us against despising or throwing -them away, though He asked us to be ready, when love calls, to let them -go, or relinquish them for the good of others. He gave Himself wholly to -His mission, and He took no thought for the morrow. If He called His -apostles from their secular callings, it was not because such callings -hindered their own salvation, but because, withdrawn from them for love -of God and man, they would be freer to serve the world. We have -interpreted the Apostolate as expressing His desire that in the Church -there will always be an order devoted specially to the service of -religion, but this form of service was never meant to be regarded as the -only religious service. If one calling is consecrated, it is as one day -is consecrated, that all may be sanctified thereby. The world was never -renounced by the apostles that they might work out their own salvation; -and if they “exercised” themselves it was because self-control fitted -them to render more valuable service for man’s redemption. The -missionary zeal which drove the members of the Primitive Church all over -the world to sow the seeds of truth and love made them take no thought -of what they should eat or what they should drink; and missionary zeal -all through the Christian ages has manifested the same indifference to -the Βιωτικά of existence; but those who have been most inspired by it, -and who have found nothing impracticable in following the manner of life -which our Lord Himself led, have never deemed it the only way, or even -the highest way, of Christian service. It was that to which they felt -inwardly moved and called by the Holy Ghost, and, like the apostles, -they exhorted all others to abide in the callings wherein they were -called. - -Primitive Christianity, like any other religion, was susceptible to -morbid affections, and the germs of disease with which the atmosphere -around it was charged found early a lodgment within it, and soon matured -into portentous fertility. The persecutions of the Church, the terrible -corruption of the world, the troubles and temptations consequent on the -first junction of Christianity with the Imperial Power, the mistaken -idea that the world which the Church had manifestly failed to transform, -or even preserve, was doomed, and that Christ was speedily coming in His -glory to judge it, strengthened the ascetic tendency to come out and be -separate from it.[257] By the end of the third century the deserts of -Egypt and Arabia, and the mountains of Asia Minor, were so peopled with -recluses that in one spot alone there were ten thousand men and twenty -thousand women. At the close of another century Monachism had a home in -every province of the Oriental Church, and monks and nuns formed “a -nation,” as distinct from the clergy as the clergy were from the common -believers, and in many instances they were hated and persecuted by -clergy and laity alike.[258] - -The original purpose of the founders of the new institution, however, -was not to shelter mystics and visionaries, but to train soldiers and -martyrs. Solitude was not intended to be an asylum for the weak, or an -infirmary for the diseased, but an arena for the training and testing of -athletes. “Come,” says Chrysostom,[259] “and see the tents of the -soldiers of Christ. Come, behold their order of battle.” Augustine also -refers to them as “milites Christi,” even as later on they were -designated as “the chivalry of the Church” and “the paladins of God.” -Though not of the world, and being above its ways, they were yet in it -and for it. So these retreats were not only technical schools, -representing the industries essential to the well-being of man; they -were also academies for sacred studies, from which went forth champions -like Athanasius to defend the faith against the heretic, and like Basil -to defend the Church against the Empire. They were also brotherhoods of -charity, in which in self-imposed austerities men grew tender in respect -for the miseries of others, and anticipated in much more unfavourable -times the hospitals for “sick children” and “lepers” and “incurables,” -which we are inclined to regard as the peculiar products of the latest -Christian centuries.[260] Of course, early Christian Monachism had its -ridiculous extravagances, in types like the Stylites and Browsers; and -of course even its soberer types soon degenerated through over -cultivation, till it became a greater hindrance to the spread of -Christianity than all external opposition and persecution. The spirit of -piety which it originated was speedily poisoned by superstition; -theological discussion supplanted the love of earnest study; the spirit -of obedience and loyalty was superseded by that of intrigue and revolt. -So though it spread, it was not as a contagion of health, but as an -infectious disease, whose evil effects are traceable in the decrepitude -which the Oriental Church has never been able to throw off. - -In the Western Church, Monachism, though less brilliant in its -beginnings than its Eastern precursor, has had a longer and healthier -course. It is not within the scope of this lecture even to sketch it, or -to analyse and tabulate its results. We live in an age which has -certainly little sympathy with the ideal of Christianity which it sought -to realise, but that is not sufficient reason that we should affect to -despise it, or imagine that we have outgrown the necessity for it. The -life of the recluse may be beyond our attainment, for we may be so -afraid to be alone, and so unable to endure “conversation with -ourselves,” that we have to take refuge in perpetual society. The -“weakness” of the old asceticism many of us have not the strength to -practise, for we are too much under the dominion of the flesh, which -they at least could master, and we are far too inclined to treat with -unnecessary tenderness what they chastised and immolated. The vows of -poverty and obedience and chastity may be the very medicine we require, -in a condition of public sentiment so unhealthy that a man’s standing, -and worth, and even life, seems to consist in the abundance of his -goods, and his freedom in licence to despise all authority and indulge -all his likings. No doubt, in the West as in the East, Monachism -eventually became an impediment to Christian civilisation, but not until -it had considerably regenerated and uplifted it. It kept before the -Church the dignity of manual labour, it wiped out the discredit -attaching to honest poverty, it proclaimed the equality of men by -treating rich and poor alike, and it proved the defender of the -oppressed, the mediator between the strong and the feeble. “We are the -poor of Christ,” says Bernard, “and the friendship of the poor makes us -the equals of kings.” Then just as unquestionably it was the pioneer of -learning and of enterprise, the guardian of law and the fosterer of -charity. There is hardly a city or populous centre in Europe which does -not owe its churches, universities, hospitals, charitable institutions, -either in their origin or growth, to the cœnobites and celibates of -former ages; and whether we acknowledge or repudiate our debt to them, -“its magnitude confronts us more imposingly the more we honestly -consider it.” - -But like all unnatural segregations of human beings from society, for -which man was made, Monachism everywhere became eventually an excuse for -indolence and misanthropy; a refuge for the melancholy, and for all who -had become unfit to serve either the world or the Church. Its whole -history in the Christian Church has justified the warning of St. Paul -against artificial methods of attaining to saintliness. The vices which -beset society never lost any of their power over the recluses of the -desert or the inmates of the monastery, while many other vices were -added to the host that assailed the solitary, undefended by his -fellows.[261] “Woe to him that is alone, for when he falls there is not -another to raise him up! Woe to him that is alone, for there is no one -to keep him from falling!” are the lessons of this long mistaken attempt -to realise an undemanded standard of excellence; and yet, just because -of the consistency of its ideal with one side of Christian service, -modern Christendom, though in altered and modified forms, has not parted -with Monachism yet. - -“The ideal of the Christian monk,” says Montalembert, “is that of -manhood in its purest and most energetic form—manhood intellectually and -morally superior, devoting itself to efforts greater and more sustained -than are exacted in a worldly career; and this not to make earthly -service a stepping-stone to heaven, but of life a long series of -victories for man.”[262] Surely this is the ideal of every Christian -minister truly consecrated to the service of man; yea, the ideal of -every brother or sister who, married or single, in business or society, -is trying to reach forward to the mark of our high calling. There is no -code of disabilities in the service of Christ, and the way to the -highest honours is open to all who wish to enter it, of whatever -condition or rank or mental capacity they may be. When this common ideal -was fallen from in the monastic orders, it was being realised by many -private members of the Church; when the professional Church had -falsified it, it was being upheld by so-called “men of the world”; and -therefore, as a natural consequence, when the monastic orders of -Christendom became corrupt, society, true to its better instincts, rose -up and reformed them or swept them away. There was always a large volume -of life outside the particular channel which these orders filled, to -purify it when it became foul, or to force it onward, when stagnant, -into the life of the Church. - -But it was not so in Buddhism. Its lay associates, however numerous, -were but the fringes of religious communities essentially and wholly -monastic. When, therefore, deterioration or degradation in the Order set -in, reformation of it by the people was hopeless. In the Order this -deterioration showed itself earlier that its dominant ideal was lower -than the Christian. In early Christian Monachism, fortitude and devotion -all sprang from the immolation of self for the universal good. In -Buddha’s Sangha, however, though there was both devotion and fortitude -displayed, the goal to be reached was simply self-rescue. Its course of -beneficence therefore was not only shorter but shallower. -Unintentionally it wrought out social reforms, and perhaps political -revolution. It restrained luxury, and checked the unbounded sensuality -to which Indians are prone; it rebuked the earthly-minded, and witnessed -nobly of the higher interests of life to peoples that sorely needed the -testimony. It not only propagated morality, but promoted learning, and a -love of the beautiful in nature and art, but its force was eventually -exhausted. Very early it sank into the stagnation in which it has -existed for centuries, and any advance registered by the nations among -whom the institution has existed has been due, for more than a thousand -years, to the influx of Christian ideas and sentiments. - -Its own methods hastened its decay. Like all Eastern religious growths, -it represented the piety of inertion. Manual labour of all kinds was -placed under the ban, and beyond attending to the cleanliness of his -person and of his lodging the Buddhist monk was not allowed to do -anything save itinerate for his maintenance and the preaching of the -law. He was instructed that every moment abstracted from meditation was -serious loss. This was in direct contradiction to the very first rule of -Christian solitary life, which even in the stifling heat of the desert -demanded manual tasks, which fasting might be said to have doubled, -continued through the long day till vespers summoned the labourers to -worship. The Buddhist monk knew neither the healthy life of physical -exertion nor the spiritual refreshment of worship. He might vindicate -his idleness against the reproaches of the industrious by the assertion -that he too in his quiet life was also “ploughing and sowing” to much -better purpose,[263] but then the effect of his ploughing and the fruit -of his sowing were all confined to himself, who alone was freed by it -from suffering. He could not answer, as the Nicæan monk and quondam -courtier replied to Valens, when challenged as to whither he was going, -“I go to pray for your empire.”[264] Augustine has indeed assured us -that “the less a monk labours in anything but prayer the more -serviceable he is to men”; but the prayer which he had in view was not -selfish. On the contrary, the tears and penitential exercises of men who -had become strangers to all personal desires “were mighty to drown sin -and purify the world.”[265] As long as monks were truly prayerful, and -nuns, like vestals, kept alive the sacred fire for every hearth, they -represented that side of the Church’s mediation which is most important -and effective; for no one can be really effective in the service of man -who is not frequent in the service of waiting upon God. The heroes of -the Christian Church, who have evangelised and civilised the wild waste -places of the world, who, like the apostle, laid aside every encumbrance -to run their race, were, like the apostle, men of much meditation and -prayer. We have no such examples in Buddhism, for it lacked the -provision which alone could nurture them. In the life of the Buddhist -monk there was probably more, and more intense meditation than in that -of the Christian, but there was a vast difference in their respective -themes of meditation. The Christian could draw his inspiration from a -source far higher and purer than himself, and in communion with the -Father, Redeemer, Sanctifier of his spirit gather a strength which -astonished the world; but what possible inspiration for endeavour could -come to a poor Buddhist monk who was chiefly occupied in contemplating -the impurity of his perishable body, and whose very highest theme of -meditation was simply “nothing whatever”?[266] - -Another essential distinction between the two modes of life is disclosed -in their relation to charity. We have seen that Buddhism had no -conception of charity in the Christian sense, and that practical charity -in it was represented from a pole quite opposite to that of -Christianity. As if conscious of its defects, later Buddhism originated -faith in and hope of Maitreya, the Buddha who is next to come, and who, -as the son of love, will realise its unconscious prophecies, fulfil its -longings, and perfect all things; but notwithstanding this the Buddhist -monk continued to be the receiver, not the dispenser, of charity. His -whole merit consisted in taking what it was the merit of the layman to -offer him:[267] and the taking was all for himself and for his Order. He -had no conception of the life suggested in the saying, “As poor, yet -making many rich,” and he never could have said of his monastery that it -was “l’infirmière des pauvres.” To offer charity to others was the last -conception which he could form of his duty: yea, to clothe the naked, -take the leper from the dunghill, and help the outcast, was the very -reverse of his duty. His creed as to misery in this being the fruit of -evil done in a former existence, cut him off from that service of the -lost and fallen which in Christendom has been accounted glorious, and -for the rendering of which, several of its monastic institutions have -been spared the penalty of their corruption. - -The charity which the Buddhist monk practised was in his preaching and -exposition of the law for the deliverance of the multitudes. And that -this may be the very highest form in which benevolence can express -itself all Christians must admit, for the greatest gift which any man -can bestow is the truth which makes one free. Buddhist monk and -Christian missionary alike proclaimed a gospel for the redemption of -men; and as the gospel of Christ’s salvation brings ever many blessings -in its train, so the preaching of the mendicant Buddhist was attended -with material beneficial results to those who heard and believed it. The -Buddhist, however, while expounding the law for the rescue of the -individual, never laboured, like the Christian missionary, for his -temporal and social improvement. His message had no promise for the life -that now is, and consequently he never seems to have played the part so -nobly sustained by many of the monks of Christendom—that of defending -the oppressed and befriending the helpless. He never, so far as can be -gathered from the texts, proclaimed the equality of men in the same way -and for the same purpose as a Christian reformer would preach it. -Theoretically, he maintained the right of all classes to be admitted to -the brotherhood, but Dr. Oldenberg has asserted that “in the composition -of the Order a marked leaning to the existing aristocracy was -observable.”[268] Buddha never had occasion to confess with the -Christian apostle “that not many noble, not many mighty, were called,” -nor had his Order ever to bear the reproach of the Church, that its -members were recruited from the lowest strata of society. The references -to his disciples from the first all indicate people of rank and wealth -and education. It is not implied that persons of humble origin would -have been rejected had they come, only that “the scriptures afford no -evidence that they did come”; and yet they yield unmistakable evidence -that, as the Order prospered, all lepers, cripples, blind, or one-eyed -persons, all who were deaf and dumb, all who were consumptive or subject -to fits, were rejected.[269] The Order was for the reputable, the noble, -and especially for the religious, for the Brahman votary, and Sraman -seeker after truth. These again were all attracted to it; they were not -sought out as by the Christian Church. Not for one moment would Christ -allow the Church to become select. He not only welcomed all -penitents—for all men needed salvation, and the poorest and the -guiltiest were most in need of it,—but He sent forth His apostles to -seek and gather them, and in order to reason down all natural fears, -based on the personal unworthiness of these outcasts of society, they -were instructed to “compel them to come in.”[270] - -Of propagandism in this sense the Buddhist Sangha knew nothing. It was -moved by no enthusiasm of humanity; it felt nothing of that earnestness -which from the days of the apostles has characterised the true -propagators of the gospel. In no discourse that has come down to us is -there any impassioned entreaty of men to repent and believe. There is no -sorrow over the unbelieving who refuse their salvation, no burning -indignation against those who despise or who scoff at the truth. In -Buddha’s last view of the world there is no weeping as over Jerusalem, -reprobate because of its wickedness, and in none of his successors do we -find any trace of the apostle’s willingness to be anathema for the sake -of his brethren. - -This tolerant spirit of Buddhism, however, has been contrasted, as -greatly in its favour, with that alleged intolerance which Christianity -is supposed to have inherited from Judaism. We must remember that -Christianity must be judged as it is presented in Christ, and not by His -professing followers, who have often misrepresented Him. Of hypocrisy, -cruelty, deceit, Christ was indeed intolerant, but toward error and -misbelief, because of ignorance, He was very compassionate. Christianity -would make no compromise, again, with false systems of heathendom. It -would have no peace save through victory; it would not accept a place in -the Pantheon for its Lord, and it was content to be persecuted till He -was allowed to rule from the throne of the world. The alleged -intolerance of Christianity, therefore, is simply its conviction of the -infinite importance and value to all men of the truth which compels it -to be propagandist. Now if Buddhism tolerates everything, it is because -it is not sure about anything, but, on the contrary, is in doubt about -everything. It is essentially sceptical, “raising the rejection of every -affirmation to the rank of a principle.”[271] Earnestness in a preacher -of sceptical quietism was an impossibility. He had no heart touched with -the feeling of heavenly love, wounded by sin, impelling him to proclaim -forgiveness, and he had no such hearts to appeal to. The Christian -missionary appeals to soul and conscience in name of a Saviour crucified -for sin; the Buddhist missionary only appealed through the intellect to -self-interest. His preaching was purely didactic, expository, and -advisory in character. He was at best a theologian or moral philosopher -teaching the ignorant, and not a preacher aiming at the conviction of -sinners, endeavouring, with his whole heart and strength and mind, to -sway them to conversion.[272] He never experienced the almost consuming -glow and fervour of inspiration which made the apostles agonise in their -mission. “Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.” “I -pray you, in Christ’s stead, Be ye reconciled to God.” As might have -been expected, the early enthusiasm of Buddhists for the enlightenment -of others soon died out, and its missionary spirit, once spent, has -never undergone a true revival. It can boast of many ecclesiastics and -philosophers, but for hundreds of years it cannot point in its -honour-roll to either a Xavier or a Livingstone. It has long ago ceased -to be aggressive. At this day no Oriental Buddhist seriously -contemplates becoming a missionary. Paris may add to its attractions and -curiosities a real Buddhist temple,[273] but the priests who officiate -in it, however devoted they may be to their cult, will certainly never -dream of taking the trouble of preaching it in the streets. - -In the Church of the middle ages, supposed to consist only of pope and -bishops and clergy and monks and nuns, of which mediævalism a remnant -survives in those who speak of “entering the Church,” not when as -children they are baptized into its communion, but when they are to be -ordained to service in it, we must look for any resemblance to the -Buddhist Sangha. In ancient India, a church, meaning the fellowship of -the faithful in its totality, was an impossibility. Brahmanism had no -church, and never attempted a conversion, but Buddha in seeking to -rescue others from evil, and in offering a place of escape which they -were free to accept or reject, created not a church but a precursor of -one.[274] Admission into his Brotherhood was at first open to all who -requested it, but as disciples crowded around him, and parents -complained that they were bereaved of their children, and masters that -they were robbed of their slaves, and creditors that they were deprived -of what was owing by their debtors, and even the judges that criminals -escaped the prison; and when accusations grew frequent and loud that the -new movement would ruin households, injure the State, and depopulate the -country, restrictions were devised. Gradually conditions were imposed by -which all who were diseased, or criminals, or soldiers, or debtors, or -slaves, or children under fifteen years of age, or youths under twenty -who had not received their parents’ consent, were disqualified.[275] At -first the disciple was admitted without any ceremony, beyond that of -shaving the whole head, and putting on the yellow robes which -distinguished the ascetic and the recluse, but eventually a rite of -initiation was adopted, which in Ceylon has continued substantially -unaltered to this day. - -It consisted of two stages;[276] the first that of the novitiate into -which a candidate could be received by any fully accredited monk. The -ceremony was called the Pabbagga, or “outgoing,” a word used from old -time to describe the last act of a pious Brahman, when, warned by -approaching age, he gave up his possessions to his family, and left them -to enter upon the hermit life of meditation. The Buddhists naturally -adopted it to mark the first step by which a layman at any age exchanged -the secular for the religious life. It was a confession that he desired -to be done with the world, to put off the old man with his deeds and to -put on the new. So with head and face completely shaven, and holding -three lengths of yellow cotton cloth, first torn to render them -valueless, and then sewed together, he presented his petition three -times, that “the reverend monks would take pity on him, and invest him -with the robes, that, like them, he might escape sorrow.” The presiding -monk then tied the clothes around his neck, repeating sentences -regarding the perishable nature of the body, and the petitioner retired. -When he reappeared he had laid aside the loin-cloth, generally the only -article of raiment in tropical lands, and had assumed the new -investiture of the two under-garments and the loose robe, which covered -the whole body, except the right shoulder, of a Buddhist mendicant. -Three times, thus clothed, in “robes of humility and religion,” in -reverential salaam to the monk or monks present, he made public -confession that he took refuge in Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, and receiving -instructions as to conduct and duty, he became a Sramanera, a bachelor -as it were, a monk of lower degree. - -When the novice who had thus “gone forth” from the world, or from the -membership of another fraternity, had “seen the truth, mastered the -truth, understood the truth, penetrated the truth; when he had overcome -uncertainty, dispelled all doubts, was dependent on nobody else for his -knowledge of the doctrines of the Teacher,”[277] he presented himself -before the Order, of whom ten members at least had to be in session, and -reverentially cowering on the ground with his hands clasped on his -forehead, he three times entreated them “to take pity upon him and draw -him out of the evil world by granting him Upasampada” or the “arrival” -initiation rite.[278] Then followed his examination as to whether he was -qualified[279] in his person, his health, his social and civil -relations, whether he had provided an alms-bowl and the yellow robes, -what was his own name, and that of the teacher with whom he was to -consort, and whom he was to serve during a course of five years’ -instruction in the whole doctrine and discipline of the system. If the -answers to all these questions were satisfactory, the resolution to -receive him was formally put by the presiding monk, and thrice repeated: -“Whosoever of the venerable is for granting Upasampada to this novice, -with brother So-and-so for his teacher, let him be silent.” When no -dissent was intimated the resolution was passed. “The Sangha is in -favour of it, therefore it is silent—thus I understand,” said the -president, and the novice became a Samana, a fully accredited member of -the Order of Bikkhus. - -There was certainly nothing of the Church in all this ceremony, and Sir -Monier Williams very properly guards us from applying to it the sacred -word of ordination.[280] Any one who cares to read the texts in which -the proceedings are described will be inclined to think that the -questions put to the novice, in their childishness and absurdity, seem -diabolically framed to caricature the solemn and soul-searching -questions addressed to candidates for the Holy Ministry. Yet in the -instruction given to the newly admitted member, concerning the “four -chief forbidden acts” from which he must abstain, and “the four -resources”[281] in which he was to trust, there was a touch of the -solemnity which belongs to the charge which follows Christian -ordination. The monk was reminded that in regard to what was pleasant -and permissible to other men he had subjected himself to self-denial and -a yoke. He might receive from the pious, without offence, offerings of -food and clothing, and medicine and shelter, but he must be prepared for -the hard life of one whose food might only be scraps and refuse put into -his bowl, whose clothing might have to be made of cast-off rags, whose -shelter might often be the tree in the jungle or the cave in the rock, -and whose medicine might be only the foul deposit of the cattle-pen. He -was warned that any breach of the four cardinal precepts—against -unchastity, which to him meant what to others was the lawful estate of -marriage, against theft, even of a blade of grass, against murder, even -to the crushing of a flea, against assumption of virtues not really -possessed,—would necessitate expulsion from the Order. “For even as a -man whose head is cut off cannot live with the trunk; ... as a dry leaf -separate from the stalk can never again become green; ... as a stone -split in two cannot be made into one; ... as a palm whose top is -destroyed cannot again grow, so the monk who breaks the least of these -laws is no longer a Samana, no longer a follower of the -Sakya-putta.”[282] - -To the credit of Buddha, however, it must be observed, that a monk who -had entered the Order was at any time free to withdraw from it. If he -had a hankering after home, or the pleasures of the old life which he -had forsaken, he was exhorted to confess his weakness and renounce a -vocation which he had found too high for him. He had simply to declare -before a witness that he renounced Buddha, Dharma, Sangha—yea, he could -go forth without making any declaration at all. Freely as he had joined, -as freely could he abandon the brethren; no anger was expressed or even -felt; no discredit attached to him, for the working out of his -deliverance was his own concern. Yea, if at any time he repented of his -action, and desired to renew with the companions of wiser days the -relation of votary or novice, he was not subjected to any discipline, -such as a lapsed member of the Church might be expected to undergo when -seeking re-communion. He was treated upon his confession as though his -past had not been remembered, and as if his folly or fault had never -been committed.[283] Such facility of withdrawal and readmission seemed -to tend to laxity, and may have occasioned very great abuses, but on the -very face of it, it appears calculated to preserve monastic life in -India in a much healthier condition than has always prevailed in the -recluse institutions of Christendom. In how many cases has the monastery -become worse than a prison, and the convent become a very chamber of -tortures, because occupied by reluctant tenants, who have been cruelly -immured in them against their will, or have thoughtlessly devoted -themselves to a vocation for which they were totally unfit. The Eastern -sage may even have shown greater wisdom than the Western bishops and -presbyters, who have bound over for life those admitted to a sacred -profession, so that freedom from it can only be got by ignominious -expulsion, and by degradation for a fault or a crime. - -The Sangha from the first was an order of Cœnobites, not Solitaries, and -it was an exception for a mendicant to be alone; for with his practical -insight Buddha seems to have discovered that the life of solitude has -more disadvantages and dangers than that of fellowship. So he ordained -that the newly admitted monk must attach himself for five years to a -tutor and teacher,[284] one of whom must have been ten years in the -Order, rendering to them such personal offices as Elisha rendered to -Elijah, and receiving such parental instruction as St. Paul bestowed -upon his son in the faith. No vow of obedience, so essential to the -monastic rule of Christendom, unless in regard to the laws of the Order, -was exacted. No man could be called Rabbi among them, for the knowledge -which brought deliverance could be and must be acquired by each man for -himself.[285] A monk was expected to reverence his superior in age and -knowledge, but his obedience was to be rendered not to his brother, who -was simply his equal in respect of need and capability of deliverance, -but only to _The Law_ which alone could secure it. - -While obedience to a superior was not exacted, the law of poverty and -chastity was as obligatory upon the Buddhist monk as on the members of -the Christian Orders. Francis of Assisi could not more highly have -eulogised poverty as “the way to salvation, the nurse of humility, the -root of perfection,” than did the Indian monks who compiled the Buddhist -scriptures. “In supreme felicity live we, though we call nothing our -own. Feeding on happiness, we are like the gods in the regions of -light.”[286] Food a monk could receive, but not ask for, and of what he -so received he could only have one meal a day. Gold or silver he could -on no account accept, though he might accept its equivalents in food or -medicine. If like Achan’s wedge it was found to have been secreted by -any covetous member, one of the brethren had to hide it away in the -jungle, in a place which could not again be recognised. Bitter -controversies regarding this prohibition seem to have exercised the -primitive Sanghas, and though it was successfully maintained for long, -concessions in relation to it were eventually agreed upon. These however -proved as fatal to the prosperity of the Buddhist, as similar -concessions proved to that of the Western monastic establishments. They -were seeds of evil which speedily grew up into thickets of trouble. The -individual member professed to observe the original law and maintain the -principle that “a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of his -goods,” but the several fraternities came speedily to abound in lands -and property of every kind, so that in the East as in the West it may be -said the monasteries fell, because crushed with their weight of wealth. - -Even while the primitive rule was observed the mendicants could easily -procure what of the necessaries of food and shelter and clothing they -required; the jungle gave them all the shelter they needed, though it -exposed them to frequent perils of being poisoned by snake-bites, and -devoured by beasts. The rains put an end periodically to their -peregrinations, and gathered the twos and threes who had been -associating together into common retreat in the viharas. These -originally were intended to be only temporary shelters from the annual -floods, but as by degrees the system extended into distant regions, they -became permanent institutions, each one a centre of influence in its own -territory, like the abbeys in the original dioceses of mediæval Europe. - -Life in a Buddhist vihara two thousand years ago must however have been -very different from life in a monastic establishment in the middle ages. -Labour, as we have seen, of no kind was allowed, either among them or -for them. “A monk who digs the earth or causes it to be dug is liable to -punishment.”[287] Scant time was allowed for sleep, and when there were -no books to read or transcribe, the studies or literary occupations of -the West were out of the question. All the intellectual energies were -claimed for the repetition of such sacred works as they knew, and for -the committing to memory of others which they had only acquired. -Examination of self, meditation on the five principal themes which -occupied the place of prayer or devotion in their system, was expected -to absorb the most of the day. Notwithstanding its intervals of -instruction and discussion, it must have been a very vacant life indeed, -lacking entirely the worship, and most of the duties, which rendered -monastic life in Christendom, if not always profitable, at least -supportable. - -Two outstanding features of it, however, compare very favourably with -some forms of the ascetic life both in India and Europe. In the Buddhist -Sanghas would be witnessed neither the slovenliness nor the dirtiness -which has often been associated with the life of those who have -renounced the world and have professed to despise its pleasant things. -Around them, - - “Besmeared with mud and ashes, crouching foul, - In rags of dead men, wrapped about their loins,”[288] - -were many solitaries endeavouring to gain perfection or exhibit it, in -types more conform to Nebuchadnezzar in his madness or the demoniacs who -had their dwellings in the tombs. Buddha condemned uncleanliness in all -its forms. The robes which he enjoined his monks to wear may have been -made up of rags picked up from a dunghill or from a cemetery, but they -were scrupulously washed, properly dyed, and carefully mended. The -ground all round the vihara, as well as its floors within, had to be -swept every day, and its every item of furniture had to be punctually -dusted and garnished. His monks were Pharisees in regard to the washing -of hands and bowls and other utensils, and they anticipated our modern -demand for proper ventilation.[289] A Buddhist mendicant of the days of -King Asoka might prove a good model of personal neatness and domestic -tidiness for many a Christian minister in these days of Queen Victoria. -He belonged to an Order originally founded by a man who was in every -sense a gentleman, and which for long numbered among its members many -noble and even princely men. Inheriting their instincts, he stoutly -maintained their traditions, that “neither plaited hair, nor dirt, nor -lying on the earth, nor rubbing with dust, can purify a mortal who has -not overcome desires”; “that he who, though well dressed, exercises -tranquillity, is quiet, subdued, restrained, chaste, and has ceased to -find fault with all other beings, he is indeed a Brahmana, a Sramana, a -Bikkhu.”[290] - -Again, in these old pictures of Buddhist Sangha life, there is no -reflection of that insane passion for suffering which marked the gaunt -and self-mutilated Yogis around them, and which also distinguished many -of the ascetics of Christendom. The flagellations, and lacerations, and -macerations which at one time became popular in European monasteries, -and which made even a man like the founder of the Franciscan Order -refuse food and sleep for days together, spend whole nights in winter up -to the neck in snow or water, put ashes in the meals which had been -cooked for him, would not for an hour have been tolerated; yea, they -would have been laughed out of the world by Buddha and his monks. -Wherever they went, they encountered grievous companies of - - “Eyeless and tongueless, sexless, crippled, deaf: - The body by the mind being thus stripped - For glory of much suffering, and the bliss - Which they shall win,”[291] - -but they never seem to have been tempted to give way to this -intoxication which was supposed to make men gods. Self-denial was -essential, but severe austerities and bodily penance were strongly -discouraged. “Blooming, well-fed, with healthy colour and skin,” is the -description often given in the old texts of a model Bikkhu. Buddha, when -first met by the Brahman sages after his illumination, surprised them by -the serenity of his countenance, the purity and brightness of his -complexion. Among the first salutations addressed to the brethren on -their return from their wanderings was the question whether they had -been well fed.[292] It is true some Buddhist saints might be found -sitting for days in the burning sun, oblivious to its fiery torments, -but these must have been exceptions, for there is no mistaking either -the teaching or the life of Buddha himself. All these extravagant -cruelties, by which men have abused or sought to destroy the most -beautiful organism and the most perfect instrument which has ever been -produced in this world, were by him regarded as foolish and dangerous, -and as debasing as the sensualism which they sought to avoid. - -Though we have hitherto referred to the Buddhist Order, it is hardly -correct to think of it as just one community. Though theoretically the -Sangha of Buddha was the ideal unit, practically it never became so. -After his decease there was no central governing power to direct and -inspire the whole organisation. The patriarchs, of whom a long -succession is given, were not hierarchs in the Greek or Latin -sense.[293] They were simply outstanding Arhats, the heroic defenders -and apostles of the system. Primitive Buddhism was represented not by -one but by many Sanghas, for each brother as he went forth became the -centre of a new fraternity. Its original cultus was based on the idea -that community of aim would suffice to gather the knots of people who -lived near each other for mutual confession and instruction and -discipline. So they continued a custom which had come down from their -Vedic ancestors, who, in the four days of the lunar month, when the moon -is new, or full, or half-way between the two, celebrated the fast -preparatory to the offering of the intoxicating Soma. The Buddhists had -neither fast, nor sacrifice, nor offering, nor any form of religious -worship whatever, but in these days they gathered for careful -examination of themselves in the light of the Prohibitions, for public -confession one to another, and for discipline. For these weekly -gatherings the manual of the Pâtimokkha or Disburdenment was composed, -it is averred, by Buddha himself.[294] To this public catechising and -purgation of the Roll all the brethren had to come; even a sick man was -only excused when he could assure the assembly, through a sponsor, that -he was clean of fault, and if no brother was available for this office -the assembly had to adjourn to meet at his couch. Its president, who -also summoned the brethren, was the monk of the longest standing among -them. So far it seemed to anticipate our principle of Presbyterian -parity, but, like Convocation, it was an exclusively ecclesiastical -gathering, for neither nun, nor novice, nor layman was allowed to be -present. Like our presbyteries when applying their privy censures, they -expected to be “alone.” Then, when all were reverentially placed, in -presence of no heart-searching God, but before one another, there was -recited by the president the order of confessional, according to the -rule that if there was no transgression there was no interruption, and -silence indicated innocence. - -First came the recitation of the gravest offences: the four Pârâgikâ -renounced upon their admission, commission of any one of which involved -expulsion from the Order. Then came the list of the less serious -transgressions—Samghâdisesas, involving temporary degradation, and -lastly that of the Pâkittya, or venial faults, which were atoned for by -simple confession. It was a lengthy, minute, ill-arranged form of -inquisition, more comprehensive and rigid than any catechism of the -confessional which Romanism ever devised.[295] It out-phariseed the -Pharisees in its trivialities and repetitions and straining out of -gnats, and no manual of the cloister ever discovered, could equal its -disgusting details of every conceivable form of unnatural vice supposed -to be perpetrable by the brethren.[296] It reads more like a suggestion -to sin than a defence against temptation. We can understand from it -alone, how impossible it was for Buddhism to live up to its true -principles, how incapable it was of urging on the steady moral progress -of the race, and of even realising the example of its founder. Life’s -whole strength was wasted in watching against petty and artificial -transgressions, so that none was available for the prosecution of real -duty. Yet if deliverance was to come by the law, the most trivial -details of action had to be tried; but here, as elsewhere, by the law -was only the knowledge of sin, and that not as an offence against an -infinitely Holy One, but only as a misfortune, or at worst an -imprudence, a stumbling-block placed by man himself in the way of -advancing his interest. - -At the close of the rainy season, when the brethren were making ready -for their wanderings, another solemn conference for self-purgation was -held. In this exercise of the Pâvârana or Invitation no one known to be -under the burden of scandal could take part, but all who were -consciously clean, from the oldest to the youngest, invited the brethren -to name any offence which during their common retreat they might have -noted in their conduct. “I invite, venerable ones, the Order; if ye have -seen anything offensive on my part, or have heard anything, or have any -suspicion about me, have pity upon me, and name it. If I see it, I will -make amends.”[297] It may be asked whether such an institution as this -could ever have flourished in Christendom, although the purest of our -Churches might adopt it with profit. These Buddhist brethren could not -pray the one for the other, but they could confess their faults one to -another by a simpler and more effective method than has ever been -attempted by the confessional. That institution in Christendom has -tended more to corrupt and degrade than to purify and elevate society, -for it has interfered with the divinely instituted and much more ancient -confessional of home. In its secrecy, sealed by affection to father or -mother, or brother or sister, can be told out the things that burn -within; and no priest or ecclesiastic can usurp this parental or -brotherly function without injuring what they must earnestly desire to -protect. This confessional, however, of the one to the whole little -brotherhood, making them watch for and consider one another, must have -tended to mutual edification. It seems of all the observances of the -Sangha to have most nearly realised one great purpose of the Church, -that of being helpful to each other’s salvation. St. Paul and St. James -would have felt at home in such a conference. They would probably have -warned the brethren against judging one another, and they would have -instructed them that only One whose knowledge is perfect, because His -love is infinite, could try the lives of men; but they would have -commended them for this honest endeavour to fulfil one of the precepts -of the perfect law of liberty: “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a -fault, ye who are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of -meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” - -The part played by woman in the early history of Buddhism was analogous -to that assumed by woman in relation to primitive Christianity. Women -were among the most zealous supporters of Buddha, ministering to him of -their substance. Subsequently, as in the case of the Christian Church, -the largest proportion of the wealth which was lavished in such -marvellous munificence upon the Order came from female votaries. -Evidently in those days in India the position of woman was not so -degraded and helpless as it afterwards became. Women in old Indian -literature are seen to be much more on an equality with men; they are -not only represented as receiving scholastic instruction, but even to -them as authoresses some of the Vedic hymns were ascribed.[298] At any -rate, women appear in almost every Buddhist episode, and they move about -with a freedom which contrasts strangely with the seclusion and -restraint in which in India they have lived for ages. In the character -of Buddha there seems to have been much that was peculiarly attractive -to the best type of women, and at least one of these stands forth with -very clearly marked individuality.[299] His mother is only a shadow in -the legends, and we can only conjecture what the parent of so good and -gentle a man must have been. But his wife confronts us with so much that -is womanly in the picture that we feel she must have been drawn from -life. Very pathetic and tender is the graphic account of her first -interview with him, upon his return as the illustrious Buddha to his -father’s house.[300] When all came to do him honour, Yasodhara did not -come, for she said, “If I am of any value in his eyes, he will come -himself, and I can welcome him better here.” Buddha, noting her absence, -went attended by two of his disciples to the place where she was, and he -warned his companions not to prevent her should she seek to embrace him, -although no member of the Order could touch or be touched by a woman. -And when she saw him, a mendicant in yellow robes, with shaven head and -face—though she knew it would be so—she could not contain herself, but -fell at his feet, which she held, passionately weeping. Then remembering -the great and impassable gulf which he had fixed between them, she rose -and stood at his side. His father sought to apologise for her, telling -how in the greatness of her love she mourned and afflicted her soul for -loss of him, and refused to be comforted. She became his disciple; and -when afterwards, much against his inclination, he admitted women into a -separate branch of the Order, the poor wife, whom he had not only -widowed, but had bereft of her only child, “passed into the silent -life,” as one of the first of Buddhist nuns. - -All candid readers of the early Buddhist scriptures will admit that -Buddha must not only have been gentle in disposition but pure in -character. From male and female disciples alike he demanded chastity, in -the Christian conception of the virtue. In the reported discourses of -Buddha there is the same absence of direct denunciation of the vices -that corrupt society which is observable in the Gospels; but the -impression made by the reading of both narratives, is that of characters -so far removed from such vices, that people in their presence or under -their influence could not even think of them. In both narratives we have -presentations of “women who were sinners” in relation to Buddha and -Christ, but it will be confessed that the effect produced upon us is -very different in each case. The Indian episodes lack the stirrings of -the depths of spiritual feeling, the creative word of command exorcising -the lust, and unsealing the long congealed fountains of penitence, which -confront us so prominently in the scenes of the gospel. Buddha was a -pure man, demanding purity from all who would be saved, but demanding it -only as moralists have demanded it all along. There did not radiate from -him that blending of horror of sin and of pity for sinners which makes -the influence of Christ upon the wickedness and infirmities of men to be -unique in its regenerative power. Had Christ insisted upon purity just -as Buddha did, the world would have profited little by the teaching. -Unquestionably the mission of Buddha, though intended to make for -chastity, has not purified Eastern Asia from the gross and unnatural -vices to which all along it has been prone. - -For Buddha’s conception and estimate of woman was very inferior to that -of Christ.[301] She was regarded by him through the medium of the -traditional prejudice of her inferiority to man in every respect. To -him, as to Plato, women, of all snares which the tempter spreads for -man, were the most dangerous. Not only was the very smallest love for -them to be destroyed, but they were to be avoided, not to be spoken to, -not looked upon,[302] not to be helped even when in distress. Of their -future as women in the life hereafter he had no hope,[303] and the only -reward which he could hold out to them for obedience or benevolent -service, the very highest object of aspiration which he could present, -was that they might be re-born as men in another stage of existence. His -disciple Ananda did good service when he wrung from him permission to -form the order of Nuns,[304] for a nun might hope for salvation; but -alas for woman and for the progress of society if she had no other -gospel to trust in than that which Buddha preached! - -His ideal of purity was from the first vitiated by his celibate views of -life, and from these views human nature has always revolted in -proportion to the honesty with which men have striven to realise them. -Celibacy, when dominant or prevalent, has only produced a more vicious -and unnatural condition of society than that from which it attempted to -escape. The Son of Man represented nobler traditions, and taught far -sublimer doctrine. Woman, though different from, and in some respects -weaker, is in others higher and purer than man, and altogether his -consort. The pure love of the man for the woman was recognised by Christ -as one of the most sanctifying influences in life; and marriage, the -most sacred of all Divine institutions, as the bond which more than any -other keeps society together, obtained His special benediction, and was -committed by Him to His Church to guard as the palladium of social -freedom and dignity. Notwithstanding its many defections, the Church has -never been permitted to lose sight of the Lord’s ideal. Even in the days -of corrupted faith, when its laudation of virginity was most -extravagant, its unmistakable tendency was to acknowledge the true -dignity of the wife.[305] A recent writer professes to be unable “to see -that Christianity has had any favourable effect on the position of -women—on the contrary, it tended rather to lower their character and -contract the range of their activities.”[306] It is noticeable that his -facts or quotations are drawn from a period when asceticism had deeply -tainted the Church, and that they cannot be held to represent the -tendency of the teaching of Christ. The unmistakable influence of His -religion has been to ennoble family relations, and to secure woman in -her true position as the companion and helpmeet of man. It has been -stated by one who cannot be regarded as a special pleader, that what -most differentiates the European from the Hindu branch of the Aryan -race, is that the first has steadily carried forward, for the elevation -of woman, the series of reforms[307] from which the other, though going -a little way, recoiled. No one need fear to assert that the chief factor -in these reforms, sometimes carried against the resistance and -opposition of the Church, was the spirit of Christianity. In proportion -as the example of Christ has been honoured, and His teaching has been -accepted and obeyed, the emancipation of woman and the recognition of -her real rights have been secured. In any case it is certain that the -religion of Buddha, though probably not intended to perpetuate the -inferior position characteristic of woman in the East, has succeeded -neither in lifting her out of it, nor in preventing her from lapsing -more deeply into it. - -The time for discovering the worth of woman had not come in Buddha’s -age, and we must remember his antecedents and surroundings before we -condemn his estimate of or his relations to her. If the tradition be -reliable, he prophesied, upon yielding to Ananda’s intercession, that -because of women holy living would not long be preserved. They would -prove in the fair field of his Order what “the disease of mildew proved -to be in a field of rice.”[308] So though he admitted them to a separate -branch of the Order, he placed them under very stringent regulations, -and thoroughly under the tutelage of the monks. “A nun, though admitted -a nun a hundred years ago, must bow reverentially before a monk, though -only admitted to-day.” She must not pass the rainy season in a district -in which monks were not residing; she must report herself twice a month -to the Sangha for confession and instruction; she must give the Pavâranâ -invitation, and she must, if guilty of offence, atone for it before both -monks and nuns. She could only be admitted after a two years’ novitiate; -under no circumstances must she revile or rebuke a monk; yea, on no -occasion whatever must she charge him with any offence.[309] Between -them and the superior sex the strictest separation was maintained from -the first. The brother who was to teach and exhort them was never -allowed to enter their nunnery, unless a sister was very ill. For a monk -to journey alone with a nun, to cross a river in the same boat with one, -to sit alone with a nun, with or without witnesses, was a very grave -offence.[310] In short, in the Buddhist Sangha women were only tolerated -at the best, and they were very severely guarded and restrained, as -creatures not at all calculated to influence any one for good, and who -could only be prevented or tamed from doing mischief or harm.[311] - -The Sangha, as a brotherhood and sisterhood leading a celibate life, -coupled with abstinence from labour and from active services of charity, -was simply vicious in its tendency, and it proved one of the most -obstinate hindrances to the realisation of Buddha’s best ideas, and one -of the most powerful factors in the degradation of his religion. Human -nature was too strong to submit to such artificial restrictions; so very -early there gathered around him and his monks many who would not abandon -their families and their callings, though they took refuge in Buddha, -and proved the reality of their devotion by faithful service of the -Order and practice of the Law. These were the votaries, “upasaka” -(masc.), “upasika” (fem.), corresponding with the lay associates of the -great Mendicant Orders of Christendom. Converted to the observance of -the precepts, they could only, as long as they continued in the world, -be sustained by a very faint and far-off hope of deliverance. -Theoretically they might attain to sainthood, and from “this shore” of -common life, in most exceptional cases they might “pass across the -dominion of death,” and reach to the other shore.[312] The father of -Buddha is said to have done so on his deathbed, and another is recorded -in the legends as having gained Nirvana.[313] As a rule, however, it was -reckoned impossible for them to gain what was considered as so barely -possible for the Order of Mendicants, that only one or two even of them -did actually gain it here. Pious votaries, however, could hope for a -happy re-birth, and for strength of merit to be acquired; in some -hereafter sufficient to enable them eventually to pluck the fruit of -Nirvana. For such lay associates no ceremony of initiation was required; -only in presence of a monk the candidates made profession that they took -refuge in Buddha and Dharma and Sangha. They had to observe certain -precepts and prohibitions; had to renounce any trade involving the -making or selling of arms, or the killing of animals; they had to -abstain from all traffic in and use of intoxicating drinks, and to put -far away from them all falsehood, and theft, and unchastity. To seal -this, however, no formal vow was demanded of the votary, and to maintain -them in their obedience no pastoral supervision was accorded. When they -transgressed, even in the matter of scandalous living, there was neither -censure nor discipline, and when they offended by injuring the Order or -insulting one of its members, the only penalty inflicted was the refusal -of their invitations to dine, and the withdrawal from them of the -alms-bowl.[314] Into the Uposatha assemblies they dared not intrude, and -from the very slightest share of the business of the Order they were -strictly excluded.[315] They could only listen to the preaching of the -monks, whom they could feed, and lodge, and endow with houses and lands; -and all the reward they could hope for, was the prospect of acquiring in -some future life merit sufficient to enable them to renounce the world -and become mendicants like them. For the present they were not inside, -but only about, the circle of the Sakkya-putta-Samanas; he was not a -member of the family, but only a servitor and a slave.[316] The elect, -the disciples in deed and in truth, the heirs of salvation, were -exclusively the monks; and the Upâsaka at the best was one for whom it -was good “continuously to dispense rice milk, and honey lumps, if he had -a longing for joy, whether he desired heavenly joy or coveted only human -prosperity,”[317] His merit was most likely to be acquired by being -useful to the good, who served him by accepting his offerings,[318] and -taught him—though to a purpose undreamed of by St. Paul when he quoted -his Saviour’s saying—that in his case, at least, it was “more blessed to -give than to receive.” - -It is to the lasting honour of Buddha that he converted the Sangha into -a propaganda for preaching to all his way of salvation. He did not, for -he could not, conceive of that better society which our Lord has created -in the Holy Catholic Church. It is true, alas! that the actual or -visible Church has often caricatured, and has never yet properly -represented, its Lord’s ideal; but it has never been permitted wholly to -lose sight of that Kingdom whose citizenship is free to all who believe -and repent, and of that royal priesthood of which all are members who -trust in the one sacrifice and prevailing intercession of the Great High -Priest of our profession. If the visible Church has failed to convert, -or even to attract, the members of the Buddhist Sanghas, it is because -of something wrong in its methods, or false in its presentation; for -notwithstanding its failure, it possesses in the great gospel of the -Divine Fatherhood intrusted to its keeping, potentialities for gathering -all mankind into the only brotherhood which will satisfy their -heaven-born aspirations. The manifestation of it may still be a far-off -Divine event, and to bring it about God may employ many agencies other -than those which the Church as at present organised may be willing to -recognise or to use; but once that holy brotherhood is manifested, He -alone will be found at the head of it, who on His way to His agony, and -to the cross on which He was to reveal to the uttermost the love of the -Creator for the human race, paused by the brook Kedron, and made this -supplication mingle with the ripple of its waters and the whispers of -the olives of Gethsemane, “I pray ... that they all may be one, even as -thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us.” - -Footnote 244: - - _Sangha_, originally an assembly (of disciples gathered around a Hindu - sage). In Buddhism, the entire fraternity (like the Order of Francis - or Dominic).—Sir Monier Williams, _Buddhism_, p. 176. - -Footnote 245: - - Robertson Smith, _Prophets of Israel_, p. 275. - -Footnote 246: - - Kullavagga, vi. 2, 3, 4; _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xx.. - -Footnote 247: - - Weber, _Indian Literature_, p. 306. - -Footnote 248: - - Dhammapadda, 141; _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. x. Part i.; - Pâtimokkha Sekhiyá Dhammâ, 1, 2, 3, 4; _ibid._ vol. xiii. p. 59. - -Footnote 249: - - Mahâparanibhâna Sutta, iii. 65; _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xi. - -Footnote 250: - - Kuenen, Hibbert Lectures, p. 279. - -Footnote 251: - - Mahavagga, i. 11; _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xiii. - -Footnote 252: - - _Ibid._ i. 12; _ibid._ vol. xiii. - -Footnote 253: - - _Ibid._ viii. 27. 5; _ibid._ vol. xvii.; Kullavagga, vi. 1. 3; _ibid._ - vi. 9. 2; _ibid._ vol. xx. - -Footnote 254: - - Kuenen, Hibbert Lectures, pp. 251 _seq._ The doctrine that it bore - nobler fruit is expressly contradicted by some. See Âpastamba, pres. - ii. pat. ix. khan. 23; also pres. ii. pat. ix. k. 24. 15; _Sacred - Books of the East_, vol. ii. pp. 156, 159. - -Footnote 255: - - The way of “Works”—ceremonial and sacrificial religion; the way of - “Faith”—devotion (heart) to the deities without works; the way of - “Knowledge,” or true enlightenment.—Sir Monier Williams, _Buddhism_, - p. 95. - -Footnote 256: - - Saint-Hilaire, _Le Bouddha, etc._, p. 152. - -Footnote 257: - - Not without protest, however, by fathers and doctors of the Church. - See Hermas, _Simil._ v.; Clem. _Strom._ iii.; Tertullian, _De - Jejunio_, p. 123 _seq._; _De Pallio_, p. 181 _seq._ - -Footnote 258: - - Gieseler, _Eccles. Hist._ vol. i. pp. 289 _seq._; Neander’s _Church - Hist._ vol. iii. pp. 305 _seq._ - -Footnote 259: - - Hom. on St. Matth. 69, 70. - -Footnote 260: - - Montalembert, _Monks of the West_, vol. i. p. 319; Neander’s _Church - History_, vol. iii. pp. 338, 339. - -Footnote 261: - - Cassian, _Collationes_, ii. 5-8; _De Instit. Monachi_, x.; _De - capitalibus vitiis_, quoted by Farrar, _Lives of the Fathers_, vol. - ii. p. 224; Burton, _Anatomy of Melancholy_, ii. 510. - -Footnote 262: - - _Monks of the West_, vol. i. p. 27. - -Footnote 263: - - Sutta Nipâta, 75-81; _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. x. p. ii. - -Footnote 264: - - Theod. _Eccles. Hist._ lib. iv. cap. 26. - -Footnote 265: - - “They prayed for the whole world.”—Chrysost. H. 78, _In Johannem_. - -Footnote 266: - - Oldenberg, _Buddha, etc._, pp. 317, 318. - -Footnote 267: - - Mahavagga, viii. 15; _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xvii. - -Footnote 268: - - “I am not aware of any instances in which the pariah of the age is - mentioned as a member of the Order.” “According to Buddhist dogmatics, - a good Sudra or Vaisya could only hope to be re-born as a Kshatrya, - and this clearly indicates that the distinctions of castes had by no - means vanished or become worthless in Buddha’s consciousness” - (_Buddha, etc._, p. 156). - -Footnote 269: - - Mahavagga, i. 39. 76; _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xiii. - -Footnote 270: - - Christianity does not, as Goethe averred, “prefer what is despised and - feeble,” but as in God’s eyes nothing is despised and abject, so, in - fellowship with the Father, Christ cherished the maimed and lame and - blind, though hated of the soul of the natural man, and this - disposition will ever be a “mark” or “note” of the true Church of - Christ. - -Footnote 271: - - Kuenen, Hibbert Lectures, 1882, p. 284; Rhys Davids, Hibbert Lectures, - 1881, p. 155. - -Footnote 272: - - Oldenberg, _Buddha, etc._, pp. 181, 182. - -Footnote 273: - - _The Scotsman_, August 17th, 1889. - -Footnote 274: - - E. Burnouf, _Science des Religions_, p. 94. - -Footnote 275: - - Mahavagga, i. 49. 6. - -Footnote 276: - - _Ibid._ i. 54. 5; _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xiii. - -Footnote 277: - - Mahavagga, i. 7. 10-15; _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xiii. - -Footnote 278: - - Mahavagga, i. 29. - -Footnote 279: - - _Ibid._ i. 76. 1-10. - -Footnote 280: - - _Buddhism_, p. 80; Dr. Rhys Davids states that a new or cloister name - was given on admission, in exchange for the family one (Hibbert - Lectures, p. 39), but Professor Oldenberg alleges that this is - supported only by solitary cases (_Buddha, etc._, p. 353 note). - -Footnote 281: - - Mahavagga, i. 30. 1-4; also _ibid._ vi. 14. 6; and Kullavagga, vi. - 1-2. - -Footnote 282: - - Mahavagga, i. 78. 1-5. - -Footnote 283: - - Mahavagga, i. 79. 1-3. - -Footnote 284: - - Mahavagga, i. 25. 1-24, for the duties of novice to his Upagghâya; - _ibid._ i. 32, Kullavagga, viii. 13, 14, for his duties to his - Âkariya. The duties to both are the same, but the Upagghâya seems to - have been the more important of the two tutors. - -Footnote 285: - - Dr. Rhys Davids, _Handbook of Buddhism_, p. 169. - -Footnote 286: - - Dhammapada, 200; _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. x. Part i. - -Footnote 287: - - Pâtimokkha; Pakittiyá Dhammâ, 10; said to be because he might kill or - harm some living creature. - -Footnote 288: - - Sir Edwin Arnold, _Light of Asia_, p. 95. - -Footnote 289: - - Kullavagga, v. vi. viii. _passim_; Mahavagga, i. 25. 15. - -Footnote 290: - - Dhammapada, 141, 142; _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. x. Part i. - -Footnote 291: - - Sir Edwin Arnold, _Light of Asia_, pp. 95, 96. - -Footnote 292: - - Mahavagga, i. 31. 4. - -Footnote 293: - - Introduction to Dhammapada, _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. x. p. - xliv: a long list quoted from the _Northern Scripture_ by Dr. Edkins - in _Chinese Buddhism_. - -Footnote 294: - - The question was thrice put, “Are ye pure?” Mahavagga, ii. 1-36. - -Footnote 295: - - See for a specimen the Kullavaga, v. 21; _Sacred Books of the East_, - vol. xx. - -Footnote 296: - - Bishop of Colombo, in _Nineteenth Century_, July 1888. - -Footnote 297: - - Mahavagga, iv. 1. 18; _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xiii. - -Footnote 298: - - Weber, _Indische Studien_, x. 118; Metrical translations by Dr. John - Muir, p. 250, where Professor Eggeling is quoted. - -Footnote 299: - - Mahâ-pagâpati the Gotami, his aunt and nurse (Kullavaga, x. 1) whose - entreaty, through Ananda, led him to found the Order of Bikkhuni, - seems more than a name. Visâkhâ, “the rich and bountiful,” is another - type of votary (Mahavagga, viii. 15). - -Footnote 300: - - _Buddhist Jataka Stories_, translated by Rhys Davids, pp. 87, 90; - Bigandet, _Life of Gaudama_, old ed., pp. 156, 168. - -Footnote 301: - - Dhammapada, 284; _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. x. - -Footnote 302: - - Book of the Great Decease, v. 23; _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xi. - -Footnote 303: - - Eitel, _Lectures on Buddhism_, p. 10. - -Footnote 304: - - Kullavagga, x. 1. 3, 4; _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xx. - -Footnote 305: - - Clement of Alexandria gives prominence to the value of marriage and of - the family life, _Strom._ vii., _Paedag._ iii. So Tertullian, _Ad - Uxorem_, ii. c. 8. - -Footnote 306: - - Principal Donaldson, _Contemporary Review_, Sept. 1889. - -Footnote 307: - - Sir Henry S. Maine, _Early History of Institutions_, p. 341. - -Footnote 308: - - Kullavagga, x. 1. 6. - -Footnote 309: - - Kullavagga, x. 1. 27. - -Footnote 310: - - Pâtimokkha; Pakittiyâ Dhammâ, 6, 7, 27, 66, 67. - -Footnote 311: - - “You are not, O monks, to bow down before women, to rise up in their - presence, to stretch out your joined hands towards them, nor to - perform towards them those duties that are proper to them (from an - inferior to a superior).”—Kullavagga, x. 3. 1. “Giving honour unto the - wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the - grace of God.”—1 Peter iii. 1-7. - -Footnote 312: - - Dhammapada, 85, 86; _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. x. - -Footnote 313: - - T. W. Rhys Davids, _Handbook of Buddhism_, p. 125; Spence Hardy, - _Eastern Monachism_, p. 199. - -Footnote 314: - - The bowl was “turned down” in relation to him, and his house became an - unlawful resort.—Kullavagga, v. 20. 3; _Sacred Books of the East_, - vol. xx. - -Footnote 315: - - Sir Monier Williams states that though votaries did not confess to - monks, the four days were observed by them.—_Buddhism_, p. 84. - -Footnote 316: - - Oldenberg, _Buddha, etc._, p. 162 note. - -Footnote 317: - - Mahavagga, vi. 24. 1-6. - -Footnote 318: - - Kullavagga, vi. 1-5; _ibid._ vi. 4. 10. - - - - - LECTURE VI. - THE TWO RELIGIONS IN HISTORY. - - - I.—External Diffusion. - - -In His apostles, and the disciples who gathered round them, endowed with -the memory of His words and deeds, two simple sacraments, and a promise -that He would be with them to the end of the æon, while they fulfilled -His commission to evangelise and baptize all nations in the name of the -Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, the continuance of the -Church which our Lord had founded was secured. Buddha left behind him -neither sacrament to signify and seal the benefits which he had -conferred, nor any promise of personal fellowship with or interest in -his followers; but he was survived by the Monastic Order which he had -founded, by a law containing the essentials of his system, and a form of -discipline containing the customs to be observed in their assemblies, -and the rules to which all the brethren were to be subject. Though the -personal guide to Nirvana was lost to them, they still in the law -possessed his way to it, and by observing the law, and following his -way, they would fulfil his last stirring exhortation,[319] “Be ye lamps -unto yourselves, be ye a refuge to yourselves, O monks.” - -So much importance being attached to the law, his disciples, immediately -after his decease, according to the tradition, set about collecting the -materials of it, in his remembered discourses, decisions, and in all -that he said; and this labour of recalling, determining, and -perpetuating his teaching seems to have occupied them for several -generations. There is no trace of any corresponding anxiety on the part -of the Christian Church to collect the words of the Lord Jesus. The -Gospels are not the earliest of our scriptures, and they were produced -more for the edification of Jewish and Gentile converts, than to secure -for the Church a standard of belief and of discipline. The function of -the Church was not so much to recall and perpetuate the teaching of its -Lord as to interpret the significance of His life, and death, and -resurrection. No written or remembered instructions were required, for -the apostles believed that they had Himself to tell them on every -occasion what they should do and teach. From the very first they prayed -to Him in full assurance that He heard and answered them. They believed -that He had shown Himself to some of them, and that He was witnessed for -in all of them by a new possession. The Gentile world had been familiar -with the μανία of the medium through whom a Divine oracle was supposed -to be given, and with the _rabies_ of the howling priests of the goddess -Cybele, but the Christians professed to be inspired by the πνεῦμα ἅγιον. -In some instances this inspiration manifested itself in extravagant -forms and in mysterious utterances,[320] but those who were most under -its control had complete possession of themselves; their speech was -intelligible, and sober, and most convincing, making “manifest the -secrets of the heart.” - -Unquestionably this belief in the presence of Christ in the -Spirit—whether truly founded or not—was universal in the Church. All -the utterances of primitive Christianity, the scriptures of its -apostles, the treatises of its fathers and doctors, and all the -monuments of the first ages, bear witness not to a Christ who once -lived and had died, but who was living triumphant and glorified, -reigning for them, and in them to reign. Unquestionably also in this -belief was the hiding of that power which enabled the Church to -confront the whole world, endure the full weight of its persecutions, -and finally win the victory over it. It also explains the appearance -in the Church, from the first, of that succession of persons who, -because of their strongly marked individualities, gave both direction -and impetus to its progress. Buddhism, though both its southern and -northern scriptures record a patriarchal succession, and though -probably not deficient in highly cultured disciples, seems to have -lacked from the very first men who had genius to organise or intellect -to command its forces. Its own early writings disclose a movement -which very speedily congealed, because ruled only by a remembered law, -interpreted by very adulterated traditions. Christianity represents -quite a different movement; it was not the perpetuation of a system, -but the development of a new inspiration, of a life manifested in -Christ and communicated to all who believed on Him. Consequently it -never was without its heroes, whom it had the power to produce; and -consequently also it never could stiffen into a tradition, for where -its leaders attempted to fix it, in either confession or in ritual, it -was sure to evade them. It has been appropriately described as “the -most changeable of religions,”[321]—mutable in its forms, immutable in -its essence. For Christianity is not a system either of philosophy or -theology; it is a perpetually reforming spirit, fed by faith in One -who is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. - -Both religions entered the world as missionaries bent upon its -conversion, and though Buddhism was afterwards to eclipse Christianity -in the superficial extent of its conquests, the annals of the primitive -Church record a much more rapid extension. The early development of -Christianity, even taking into account the circumstances which helped or -facilitated its progress, remains one of the marvels of history. In the -New Testament the Church is seen to have gained a footing almost -wherever the waves of the Diaspora had reached. St. Paul found -Christians not only in Rome, but in little Puteoli, and his letters -imply that there were churches in Spain and in southern Gaul. St. Peter -wrote from Babylon to a wide circle of Christian communities gathered -out of the regions of Asia Minor.[322] There seem to have been even then -churches in most of the chief cities, and in a multitude of minor towns -all over the Empire; and there is no reason to distrust the tradition, -that before the last of the apostles fell asleep, the gospel had called -multitudes living far beyond the bounds of the Empire to make good their -citizenship in the kingdom of God. - -The churches may have been small in respect of membership, for the rapid -diffusion of Christianity by no means involved the conversion _en masse_ -of the people. Facts will hardly bear out the glowing testimony of -Gregory Thaumaturgus, who found in the populous metropolis of a large -province only seventeen Christians, and in twenty-five years reported -that he could find only seventeen heathens.[323] With Gibbon we may have -to discount as “splendid exaggeration” the testimony of Tertullian, -“Hesterni sumus, et vestra omnia implevimus.” Still the direct testimony -of Tacitus as to the multitude of Christians in Rome, the evidence of -the Catacombs, and many other indications, point to the conclusion that -the rapid numerical increase of Christians was as singular as was the -territorial diffusion of their religion. The whole Empire must have been -sensibly leavened, and the converts must for long have been gathered -from other than the lower classes of society, before the conversion of -Constantine became possible. Emperors—even Roman ones—follow in such -matters, and do not lead their subjects; and so we may be sure what had -at first been glad tidings to the slaves and the poor must for some time -have become the consolation of many a noble Pudens and Linus, and of -many a Claudia of royal descent, before it could be recognised as the -religion of the State.[324] - -Many circumstances undoubtedly contributed to this result. A -consolidated empire, with nearly all the representative nations fused -into a union, comprising all the existing elements of culture and forces -of civilisation; the great Roman highways, with means of easy -communication so abundant as to be surprising to us; the widespread -understanding of the two leading languages, making virtually of one -speech a great section of the most important part of the world; the -innumerable communities of Jews, everywhere tolerated, and “cutting -channels through the adamantine mass of heathen society,”[325] immensely -aided the missionary activities of the apostles and their followers. -Moreover, the moral and religious condition of the Empire, the -bankruptcy of the old faith, the despair and confusion and perplexity of -people, everywhere seeking mightier or better deities than they knew, -everywhere trembling “between the two immensities of terror,” rendered -possible the victory of Christianity. Multitudes were thus prepared to -welcome a Deliverer who had come in the name, not of Jupiter Maximus -Tonans, but of the Father in heaven, to give peace in this world’s -tribulations, and sure hope of joy in the world beyond it.[326] And yet -all this, even when added to Gibbon’s five causes, will not account for -the historical puzzle, that a faith, originating in a manger in a Syrian -cattle-shed, brooded over for thirty years of a life of poverty and -toil, preached for three, with the result of being almost universally -rejected, and quenched to all appearance in the blood of crucifixion, -should immediately after the death of its Founder have broken out all -over the Roman world. Converting its agents from farms, and harbours, -and prisons, it called them to martyrdom; for it sent them—poor -“weavers, and shoe-makers, and fullers, and illiterate clowns”—to -proclaim “barbarous dogmas,” and “extravagant hopes,” “universally -detested” by Jew and Gentile, and to bear the full weight of a prolonged -series of persecutions involving indescribable tortures and -disgrace.[327] Yet somehow it never paused for a moment, never abated -one iota of its claim, till in the course of a few generations it was -found upon the throne. We never will explain this wonder by showing how, -as a system of ethics, or as a new theory of life, it found the -condition of the world favourable to its reception. The correlation of -the state of the world to the new faith has been claimed as -providential,—an indication of a Divine purpose making all things work -together, for this manifestation of a new power or principle of life in -society, which as yet has had no historical counterpart.[328] - -The early scriptures of Buddhism, though preserving a tradition that in -twelve years from the time in which the doctrine was first preached it -had spread over sixteen kingdoms, disclose no such rapidity of -diffusion. The kingdoms referred to are not to be regarded as kingdoms -in our sense of the word, for in extent and influence they would not -equal a German principality, and were probably only tribal communities. -After the death of Buddha the many Sanghas that had arisen seem to have -suffered for lack of a central governing power. If his Order is to be -called a Church, it had manifestly no church-government. It had synods, -and assemblies, and councils, but not one with the authority of an -Œcumenical as representative of the whole. It was more Congregational -than Presbyterian in its constitution, and for this very reason it was -weak when compared with the compact organisation of Brahmanism, with -which it competed for supremacy. Disorder and dissension are traceable -in it from the first, and the early texts, though containing many -admonitions against schism, warnings that offences must come, and woes -upon those who would cause them, record no practical steps to prevent or -remedy them.[329] Vigorous expansion was consequently not to be looked -for, and for two centuries we may safely infer that Buddhism represented -only a struggling sect, which, beyond the limits in which it was first -preached, had made little, if indeed any, progress. - -At the close of this period, when its literature was reaching a -canonical form, and its manuals of discipline and common order were -generally in use, it found its Constantine in the conqueror -Chandragupta. In opposition to the Brahmans, who despised him for his -low-caste origin, he seems to have lifted it from obscurity into the -sunshine of really imperial favour. His grandson Asoka, who consolidated -his conquests, proved its Theodosius, in not only greatly endowing it, -but in establishing its supremacy. There were no quarrels between him -and the Sanghas as to their independence, as afterwards between the -Emperors and the Popes, for, like a true son of the Church, he -acknowledged their authority. By obeying in appearance, he in reality -became, what Buddhism since the death of its founder sorely needed, the -head of the system, and under his wise and energetic rule, the religion -emerged into a vigour which it was to maintain for centuries. - -An earnest Buddhist, he seems to have been something better. He called -himself Pryadarsi,[330] the “beloved of the gods,” and a Daniel indeed -he appears to have been, raised up for the blessing of millions. His -edicts—stone inscriptions found all over India—the first written -testimonies which Buddhism left of itself,[331] all breathe a lofty -spirit of righteousness and kindness and toleration, appealing to both -Brahman and Buddhist, and commending themselves at this day, “to Jew and -Christian and Moslem alike, as part of the universal religion of -humanity.”[332] One of them refers to a council which he assembled at -Patna, for the pacification and reformation of the Order. During its -session the ancient collections of rules and dogmas were rehearsed, and -as the list is considerably shorter than the contents of the Tripitaka, -we may be sure that the Southern tradition that Buddha himself was the -author of all the books comprising that collection has no foundation in -fact.[333] A far more momentous act of this ancient council than the -recension of the canon, was that of establishing the first great -Buddhist missions. To a revived and reformed Order the suggestion of the -pious king, that they should go forth and fulfil their great teacher’s -original commission, was welcome. Their dissensions, as has often -happened in Christendom, were due to their living to themselves. An army -inactive in quarters, is more likely to quarrel or mutiny than one in -service in the field. These good Buddhists wisely determined to carry -the war of deliverance beyond them, and so into the Punjab, Kashmir, the -Central Himalayan regions, over into the Malay Peninsula, went the -missionaries, armed only with the words of the Law or the legends which -had been floating round the memory of their master, and supported only -by the offerings put into their alms-dish, to gain whatever victories -they could in the fair conflict of reason with reason.[334] - -In India they would of course be supported by imperial influence, and -indeed the mission to Ceylon, headed by Mahinda, the son of Asoka, seems -to have been accredited by royal embassy; but nowhere was Buddhism -propagated as Islam subsequently was by Mohammed, or as Christianity was -by Charlemagne, with an army at its back. Races ever ready to credit the -supernatural would probably be more easily won by the wonders which were -then being formulated in reference to Buddha; but whatever be the -explanation of it, the success of these missionaries anticipated that of -the apostles. In Ceylon there was founded a Sangha, which was destined -to nurse and preserve the original creed in somewhat of its purity, when -all the others betrayed and corrupted it. Surviving several changes of -dynasty, that Sangha, 330 years after Buddha’s decease, is said to have -reduced its canon to writing. The result has been somewhat contradictory -to the theory, that it matters very little whether a canon be oral or -written, for Southern Buddhism, having an authority to which it was thus -earlier anchored, has held more closely to the original system, from -which, having no such check for long, every section of Northern Buddhism -has irrecoverably fallen away. - -After the death of Asoka, the empire which he sought to consolidate by -the preaching of the Law fell to pieces, and Buddhism was destined to be -tested by more than one rude shock. A Brahman reaction took place, which -is even supposed to have resulted in the persecution of all Buddhists -living in India. If so, it was the first which the religion -encountered—so unlike Christianity, which had to endure for three -centuries the fierce assaults of its enemies. Persecution by a religion -so tolerant as Brahmanism is hard to conceive, but if it took place at -this period, it only tended, as in the early Christian trials, to the -wider expansion of the persecuted faith. “They that were scattered -abroad went everywhere preaching” the Law. Some of them pushed through -Afghanistan into the regions of Central Asia, and there, just as -Ulphilas and Severinus, centuries later, gained a hold over the wild -races that conquered the moribund Empire, so Buddhist missionaries -succeeded in sowing the seeds of their Law among the rude Scythian -tribes, who were then in great commotion in their vast inland steppes. -Driven from their ancestral homes, a branch of the great tribe of Huns -about 160 B.C. overthrow the Bactrian kingdom, and after generations of -struggle they conquered Kashmir, the Punjab, and a considerable part of -India. Then just as the Goths and Huns, in the moment of their conquest -of Rome, tendered their submission to Christianity, so the conversion of -Kaniska, the greatest of the Indo-Scythian kings, a contemporary with -Augustus and Antony, enabled Buddhism to enter with fresh vigour upon a -second period of very brilliant supremacy.[335] - -Though the difference between the Northern and Southern Buddhists was -already showing itself, and though soon after it manifested itself in a -divergence as complete as that which sundered the Greek Orthodox from -the Latin Catholic Churches, monumental evidence, harmonising with that -derived from its own literary relics, indicates that for four or five -centuries after this Buddhism was most successfully propagated almost -everywhere save in India. In the land of its origin it was gradually -declining, because drawing nearer to the Brahmanism from which it had -seceded. Fa-Hian in the end of the fourth century, though describing it -as dominant everywhere, found the place of its nativity only a -wilderness.[336] Later on, the viharas were deserted, the dagobas in -ruins, “the monks were few, the heretics many,” and by the seventh -century the process of assimilation with and absorption into Hinduism -was in India, save in widely separated and remote localities, almost -complete. What it lost in India, however, it was to gain in other -directions. Its greatest conquest was in China. In the days of Asoka -eighteen missionaries are said to have reached China, where they are -held in reverence to this day, their images occupying a conspicuous -place in every temple. The faith which they introduced seemed to have -struggled with very little success to gain a footing till about A.D. -68.[337] Thirteen years before this date, in obedience to a vision which -appeared to him at Troas, St. Paul brought Christianity from Asia to -Europe. On the thirtieth day of the twelfth Chinese month in A.D. 68, -the Emperor Mingti, in consequence of a dream, sent ambassadors to the -distant West for Buddhist monks and manuscripts.[338] Travelling in -almost royal state, the invited missionaries were accorded in China a -welcome in marvellous contrast to the reception of the Christian apostle -in the first colonial city he had reached. From this time onwards a -perpetual succession of monks and manuscripts entered China; yet, though -tolerated from the first, and often royally patronised, centuries -elapsed before it succeeded in winning a place as one of the three -religions of China, while Christianity, persecuted from the first, -succeeded after a fierce struggle in conquering the Empire of Rome, and -then by a long process in evangelising Europe. - -The conversion of the most of Eastern Asia was the work of the Northern -or more corrupt Buddhism. Southern Buddhism, like the orthodox Eastern -Church, which contented itself with its evangelistic achievements among -the Goths, and its Nestorian missions, soon exhausted its propagative -force. The introduction of the religion into Burma, Siam, and the -adjacent kingdoms, may be said to sum up its triumphs. Northern -Buddhism, on the other hand, ran from the beginning of our era a course -of unchecked triumphs. In the close of the fourth century it spread from -China to Corea, and in the sixth it reached Japan. Previous to this it -entered the isolated regions of Tibet, more welcomed than resisted by -the demonolatrous inhabitants on account of the adulterated form in -which it presented itself. There, after a struggle for some two -centuries, it succeeded, about the period when Islam was beginning its -conquests elsewhere, in securing strong royal support. After -experiencing for many generations the vicissitudes of popularity and -persecution, the conquests of Genghiz, and the strong favour of Kublai, -his greatest successor, established its hierarchy as supreme, and in -spite of changes of dynasty, it has there dominated the whole relations -of life in a manner like unto, but to an extent far beyond, the wildest -dreams of Rome’s most ambitious Pope.[339] - -It thus appears that Buddhism in the second period of its history, and -after it had succeeded in winning the support of powerful kings, reached -its furthest extension and achieved its grandest conquests. -Christianity, on the other hand, was more rapidly diffused in the -primitive than in the subsequent ages. Tested by its intensive hold upon -the nations, it had only nominally converted the Roman Empire by the end -of the fourth century. Gibbon’s estimate of the number of Christians -within it, is acknowledged by friendly authorities,[340] like Bishop -Lightfoot, to err if at all on the side of excess. During the reign of -Constantine, probably not a twentieth of the whole population of the -Empire were Christians, even by profession. After this period, no doubt, -the proportion must have greatly increased, for the barbarous hordes -that poured downwards in successive deluges over the South were -converted so suddenly and so silently that “scarce a legend remains to -tell the tale.” In regard, however, to the conversion of heathen Europe, -it is a mistake to suppose that the missionaries had only to come, and -see, and conquer. The conversion of England by the Roman monks, and of -Ireland, Scotland, and Wales by Oriental and, it is said, Arian -missionaries, cannot be said to have been accomplished before the close -of the seventh century. Afterwards, the conversion of Central and -Northern Germany occupied the Celtic and British missionaries for two -centuries. The conversion of the Scandinavians, beginning in the ninth, -could not be said to have been effected till the middle of the eleventh -century, while that of Slavonia, undertaken in the tenth, did not -terminate, if indeed even then, before the sixteenth century. The -conquest of Europe was the result of a prolonged and often desultory -warfare, in which, while the advance was slow, Christianity sometimes -failed to hold the ground which it had gained. The powerful Churches in -Asia, the seats of its great Councils and the capitals of its rule, -either died or were swept away; Antioch and Constantinople, once its -citadels, became the strongholds of an alien and hostile faith; the -mighty Churches of Egypt and Abyssinia dwindled into a condition of -immedicable disease, and the flourishing Church of Africa, with its more -than six hundred bishoprics, was simply, because ripe for destruction, -obliterated by the forces of Islam. Toward the latter half of the tenth -century it seemed as if Christianity in Europe was surely following the -fate of Buddhism before its disappearance from India. On all sides it -was pressed in the deadly grip of Pagan and Moslem alike, while its -bishops, and priests, and nobles, oblivious of the danger, were living -in sinful self-indulgence. It seemed as if Christendom was being surely -blotted out from the geography of the world; and yet as by a miracle it -survived, or was preserved, till came the Renaissance, and that -marvellous emergence of missionary zeal, which sent Christianity, -Reformed and Unreformed, to the very ends of the earth, and which, -increasing in every generation since then, was never more abundant nor -more fervent than now.[341] - -Christianity, unlike Buddhism, came very early into collision with the -most advanced civilisation and highest culture of the world, while -Buddhism for centuries encountered only the religions of inferior -peoples. The only equal or superior civilisation which it met was that -of China, and there, though tolerated and even patronised from the -first, it seems for centuries to have been regarded as an exotic. -Natives of India, like the Jews in the Roman Empire, were allowed to -build Buddhist temples, but only in the fourth century A.D. did Chinese -people begin extensively to be converted to the Buddhist religion. As it -rose into favour its conflicts with the Confucianists began, and the -issue of its varied fortunes has been, that though indirectly it has -greatly influenced, it has only subdued a section of the Chinese -people.[342] While other inferior races came quickly under its -influence, the most civilised of Eastern peoples resisted it, and have -at most only been leavened by it.[343] Christianity had also its easy -conquests, as when some northern tribes were converted in a day by the -baptism of their chiefs; but its principal struggle with the historic -Paganism of aristocratic Rome was fierce and obdurate. There the -position, as in the case of Hinduism to-day, was not carried by assault, -but by slow and almost imperceptible approaches. The Church at Rome for -two centuries was more a Greek than a Latin one. The names of its -bishops were Greek, and the Catacomb inscriptions sufficiently indicate -that Greek was the language of its members. Slowly and indirectly, -however, it gained the hold upon ancient thought and custom, operating -like an alterative in the system, supplanting what was good, by simply -taking possession of it and inspiring it with a new life, while that -which was decaying and waxing old gradually vanished away. - -In this respect, therefore, there is a significant difference between -the two religions. Christianity, with all the world against it, and in -spite of three centuries of unparalleled persecutions, succeeded in -vanquishing the highest, while yet approving itself as a gospel to the -lowest civilisation. Buddhism, with the greatest powers of the Eastern -world in its favour, and never, perhaps, save in China, called to bear -the shock of a single persecution, has only succeeded in being accepted -by inferior branches of the human race. The Hindu Aryans, assimilating -what of it they approved, rejected what of it was peculiar and -distinctive. The Semitic followers of Islam simply crushed it under -foot, and it never rose high enough even to touch the Western -Aryans.[344] Very early it withdrew itself entirely within the circles -of the Turanian peoples; and if to-day in Mongolia, Manchuria, among the -Kalmucs on the Wolga, and the Bunjads on the shores of the Baikal Sea, -it may be said to be advancing, the most competent authorities assure us -that everywhere else its progress is arrested, and that, even where it -is most upheld by local governments, in the regions of its most dominant -supremacy, it yields manifest signs of decay.[345] - -Another and even more significant contrast is found in the fact that the -advance of Christianity has ever been farthest and most rapid when its -faith was purely taught and most consistently illustrated. It never -sought peace with other religions without being defeated, and never -allied itself with superstition without bringing shame and disaster on -all concerned. It has had its periods of deterioration and defection, -but somehow it has always survived them. Indeed, its vitality is as -truly indicated by the corruptions which it has outlived, as by the -external opposition which it has vanquished. Its real conquests are due -to the expansive power of its inherent and original principles. The very -opposite is the case with Buddhism. Its fundamental principles being -unnatural and repugnant to the essential instincts of mankind, it was -from the very first a morbid growth, having in it the seeds of decay. It -never could have lived in the strength of its own principles, and so the -story of its advance is one of perpetual compromise with every popular -superstition that it met. The more it assimilated itself to them, the -more it seemed to grow; but as foreign influences took possession of it, -its own life oozed out of it, till very early it represented a system so -perverted that its founder would have repudiated and abhorred it. The -Church has often travestied Christianity, but it never fell from the -faith so fearfully as Buddhism has everywhere fallen from the original -doctrine of Buddha. Religion, worship, even the purest, he intended by -his system to supersede, and now his name is employed to support the -grossest of all superstitions,[346] a religion with more idols in it -than that of the most idolatrous of peoples, a worship founded on the -efficacy of magical incantations, and of prayers rendered by machines. -Just for this very reason its - - - II.—Internal History - - -is very instructive, and we shall now proceed to consider a few of its -most salient points. - -Buddhism, in a quiet land and tranquil age, was launched upon the world -as a new theory of life—a system so rounded off and completed that its -disciples had no other duty than that of believing, obeying, and -propagating it. Christianity, on the other hand, began its career amid -the convulsions of political revolution, and for three centuries of -conflict it had to fight every inch of its way. It was not, however, as -a new system that it appeared in history, but as a new principle of -life, round which all the moral, and spiritual, and intellectual -energies which it found in mankind, and all which itself might awaken, -might form and gather strength. It was impossible, therefore, that it -ever could remain stationary. Its apostles were commissioned to carry on -all that their Lord had “begun both to do and to teach.” He distinctly -promised them increase of knowledge and power from on high, and all the -changes which increase or growth implies. To-day His religion could no -more be made to return to the form in which it was manifested eighteen -centuries ago than man could be made to put on the clothes of his -childhood. Its development, however, is that of its inherent life, -manifesting all the continuity and identity of the sapling with the -tree, of the boy with the man. Like all growing things, it has been -subject to disease by contagion and infection, but it has always -preserved life in sufficient volume to slough off its impurities and to -pass onward through reformation to health. Now, the history of Buddhism, -on the contrary, reveals only a long process of degradation, without -having manifested any power as yet to recover and to reform itself -according to its original and essential principles.[347] - -The offspring of Brahmanism, from which it differed more in degree than -in substance, at no period of its history did it succeed in completely -disentangling itself from it. Not only did the forms of the old religion -cling to it; its very life was continued in the new. While Buddha -rejected all the sacrificial rites and religious observances of -Brahmanism, and preached a law subversive of all its faith in -revelation, he accepted and continued its ascetism and its hope of -deliverance by a process of meditation and of abstraction. It was by -himself, therefore, and not by his cousin Dêvadatta,[348] that the -heretic leaven was introduced into the lump. Dêvadatta’s attempted -changes were not innovations, but a return to the primitive rule, a -logical deduction from a law which Gotama never wholly rejected. Just as -to the patriarchs of the Greek, the Western or Romish Church “is the -chief heresy of latter days,” just as the Pope was branded in their -Encyclical of 1848 “as the first founder of German Rationalism,”[349] so -the successive advances and orthodox decisions of the Buddhist Councils -were denounced as apostasies by men like Dêvadatta. Still these changes -were due in great measure to the beliefs which Buddhism had inherited, -for when in the inevitable rebound from its unnatural Nihilism the -theistic movement set in, the spirit of Brahmanism, which had passed -into it at the first, began to assert itself, and, interpenetrating it -more and more, prepared it for that issue in which, blending with the -popular forms in which Brahmanism was then expressing itself, Buddhism -merged into the composite system of Hinduism which confronts us in India -to-day. - -In Christianity, as in nature, the grafting of the good stock upon the -wild conquered the wild. Christ took nothing from Judaism but the -universalism of its prophets, its faith in one living and true God, the -Heavenly Father of multitudes whom Abraham was ignorant of, and Israel -did not acknowledge. His apostles, judged by the literature which they -have bequeathed, seem faithfully to have carried out His principles; but -many of their converts were strict Jews, who insisted upon some visible -connection with the old religion. Just as Dêvadatta, their prototype, -held that a true Buddhist must first be a good Brahman in respect of -asceticism, so they insisted that Christians were debtors to keep what -of the old law was expressed in circumcision, and the observance of -certain other commandments and ordinances. The danger of Christianity -being reduced to the bondage of the old was serious, but the inspiration -of St. Paul, the providential destruction of the nation, and the -marvellous spread of the religion among the Gentiles, eventually -overcame it. The spirit of Judaism, it is true, has never been wholly -cast out from the Christian Church. All through its history it is -traceable in one form or another of the ritualism and asceticism which, -like Brahmanism, it may be held to represent. There have been times when -it has attained to portentous and pernicious influence, and such times -may happen again; but from the early days there has always been in -Christianity vitality sufficient to detect and try and condemn it; and -so though Judaism, and even Paganism, to some extent, still taint the -theology and worship of the Church, we need have no fear that the genius -of the old religion will ever gain, as it did in the case of Buddhism, -permanent ascendency over the new. - -The opposite of Ritualism and Asceticism, represented by Judaism and -Brahmanism, is the Rationalism which such reforming religions may be -said to beget of themselves; and if its spirit of inquiry be -uncontrolled, it will certainly dissipate their energy. As early as St. -Paul’s day we see Rationalism working upon the development of -Christianity, and necessitating the rise of a theology, which, perhaps -inevitably, has often been confounded with, and, in the estimation of -many, has supplanted the Christian religion. The many sects which -Rationalism produced in the first centuries do not so much indicate -hostility to the new faith, as the mighty ferment through which the -minds of men were passing in regard to it. Now though Buddhist -scriptures manifest rationalistic movements in the Sanghas from the -first, they seem to have proceeded in quite a different direction. Of -conflict as to fundamentals of creed there appears to be very little -trace, but there are abundant indications of considerable controversy as -to practice. The first quarrel traceable in the Christian Church arose -over the peculiar institution of community of goods; and though the -Sanghas avoided that mistake, their earliest troubles were concerning -the possession of property. The original rule enjoined upon the brethren -absolute poverty, and the regulations in regard to food and shelter were -equally stringent. Very soon after Buddha’s decease a reaction set in, -and a feeling began to prevail that his standard of morality and his -ideal of the Order were too lofty for all but exceptional men to -realise. He may have succeeded as the fully Enlightened One, but common -men could not hope to “wind themselves so high;” so out of consideration -for human infirmity there commenced a constant and increasing relaxation -in their interpretation of his precepts of perfection.[350] The law of -absolute poverty was modified to the extent that property might be held -in common, and the laws regulating diet, dress, and even meditation, -were soon subjected to the same treatment. The wealth which poured in -upon them, and the consequent improvement of their position, was not -followed by corresponding spiritual growth. The more they prospered, the -more the fundamental principles of the Order were neglected, evaded, or -explained away. The friendly conferences of the rainy season gave place -to controversy, and controversy proved so fruitful of schism, that very -early in its career Buddhism is said to have produced eighteen different -sects, ranged in four great divisions. Yet in no one schism seemed there -a great principle to be involved; they were but Pharisee quarrels at -best, in which though they strained out the gnat they swallowed the -camel.[351] - -Side by side with this relaxation of the law advanced the growth of the -legends concerning him who first preached it. The further they removed -from his decease, the higher, as was natural, he rose in their esteem. -As one by one the fathers fell asleep, and the early enthusiasm died, -and the law was felt to be more and more burdensome, the less he seemed -to be a man of like passions with themselves, till eventually they came -to regard him as “omniscient and absolutely sinless.”[352] He had taken -away their gods, and disowned their religious cravings. He professed to -find no proper divine being to whom any instinct should attach -itself—yea, in his dissection and analysis of human nature he found no -religious faculty to be relied upon; but he could not unmake his -fellow-men, whose religious instinct education can neither originate nor -eradicate; and so, defrauded of its natural gratification, it inevitably -turned to illegitimate methods of appeasing itself. In the first -instance, it found the objects of its reverence in the relics which -survived him, the law which he preached, and the Order which he founded. -Originally it could not be called worship; it was more an expression of -affectionate homage.[353] But so strong is man’s impulse to worship, -that very early they expressed it in images of Buddha everywhere, though -the images of the Law and of the Order have only been found in the lands -where the Northern Buddhism reigns. - -This earliest triad of personalities, called “triratna,” the three gems -or three holies, seems to have been suggested by, and certainly -corresponds with, the primitive triad of deities in the old Indian -Pantheon.[354] It was the first indication of the bankruptcy of -Buddhism, of its failure out of its own resources to meet the religious -wants of its disciples, and it marked only the beginning of a revolt, -which was to issue in complete disavowal of every doctrine essential to -original Buddhism. The religious conscience and common sense which -rebelled against its unnatural atheism, would not long be satisfied with -the worship of the memory of a completely vanished Buddha, or of the -idea of an impersonal Law, or of a miscellaneous Order. So pious -Buddhists turned readily to a doctrine said to be taught by the Master, -and formulated before the settlement of the Southern canon in its -present form, according to which Buddha is not a distinctive name of -just one person, but a title descriptive of a long series of Enlightened -Ones, who, leaving, as he was supposed to have done, the estate of a -Bôdhisatva[355] in the Tushita heavens, appeared at distant intervals to -proclaim the same truth for the deliverance of men and gods. The names -of twenty-four of these Buddhas who preceded Gotama have been handed -down, and the name of his successor, to whom, upon the attainment of -Buddhahood, he transferred his Bôdhisatvaship, and who is to appear -after five thousand years for the rediscovery of the truth, was -announced as Mâitrêya. To this coming one, the Buddha of “kindness and -mercy”—thought to be a personification by some imaginative poet of the -gentle spirit of Buddhism—the thoughts and the hopes of the disciples -turned, and out of this hope arose a doctrinal system, which, expanding -and enlarging by manifold additions as the time went on, showed that -however atheistic the original creed might be, the religion itself had -become polytheistic.[356] To Mâitrêya, in his glorious heavens, the -deliverer of distant generations, prayers ascended, and worship was -rendered by all Buddhists everywhere alike; and out of this cult by far -the largest section of them began to evolve deity after deity, till the -heavens, in which Buddha could find no superior to himself, were crowded -with objects of idolatrous regard. - -In this polytheistic development a very great distinction emerged -between the Northern or Mahāyāna and the Southern or Hināyāna system of -Buddhism. How the divergence originated has not been clearly -ascertained, but about the beginning of the Christian era it seems to -have been very manifest, and at that time, when sectarian controversy -and philosophical speculation threatened to rend the system into -fragments, Nâgârdjuna,[357] a monk of Nâlanda, is said to have done for -Northern Buddhism what Gregory and Benedict did for the Western Church. -Under him, and certainly after him, Northern Buddhism, both in respect -of expansive power and of dogmatic and ritualistic development, left -Southern Buddhism far behind it. The Hināyāna, or the “little way” of -deliverance, is believed to have been applied by the Northern, not -without contempt for the Southern school’s arrestment. They did not -profess to contradict the Southern faith: they simply included it, and -advanced in their “great way” beyond it. To the Southern the _summum -bonum_ of life meant Arhatship, for that once attained there would be no -more re-birth. They acknowledged and worshipped only one Bôdhisatva, the -coming Mâitrêya; but the doctors of the North, properly conceiving the -estate of the Bôdhisatva to be nobler than that of Arhat, propounded it -as the goal of aspiration. Arhatship would indeed secure one’s own -deliverance; but Bôdhisatvahood would enable them, as possible coming -Buddhas, to confer the blessings of deliverance upon countless -multitudes. Along with Mâitrêya they discovered many persons who, like -Buddha’s great disciples and their successors, had through merit, -acquired in a long series of lives, taken his Tushita heavens by -violence; but who, unlike him, were under no obligation to quit their -celestial abodes, and proceed through Buddhahood to Nirvana. They might -enjoy their blessedness to the full, and sit beside their nectar without -concern, for they fulfilled every function expected of them in being -objects of worship, to whom mortals could appeal for comfort in sorrow -and help in time of need. - -In India, as early as Fa-Hian’s time, and probably earlier in -China,[358] out of these happy gods a new triad was formulated, -receiving such worship as Hindus would render to their later triad of -deities, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva. The title of one of these, Mandjus-ri, -was said to have been the name of the monk who, two hundred and fifty -years after Buddha, introduced the religion into Nepaul, and founded the -system which Nâgârdjuna consolidated.[359] He in this connection is -believed to be the personification of that “wisdom” or “spiritual -insight” which the Northern school valued so highly. Another deity, -Avalôkitês’vara, “the lord who sees from on high,” is supposed to be the -mythical term for that “kindly providence” which watched over the whole -Buddhist world. And Vajra-dhara, “the thunderer,” represented the power -which protected the faithful from the malice of demons. How such a -worship, so contradictory to the doctrines of primitive Buddhism, came -to be introduced and recognised, is a puzzle to all our scholars. Rhys -Davids and Sir Monier Williams are inclined to regard it as suggested by -the second Hindu triad of deities already referred to. Professor Max -Müller[360] considers it to be a graft from the superstitions of some -northern Scythian or Turanian race, while Dr. Beal advances the theory -that it was in all probability introduced from a western monotheistic -religion, either landward through Persia, or by sea from Arabia. However -it came, from this date and onwards, all over the wide extent of -territory covered by it, Buddhism rapidly deteriorated. While the -Southern system was everywhere yielding to the influence of the popular -mythology, and that so unmistakably that it became, wherever it reached, -“the unconscious propagator of Hindu doctrine,” the Northern became a -heterogeneous mixture of all the superstitions which it met. From this -second triad of deities it went on discovering or inventing its five -triads of Dhyâni-Buddhas, among whom Gotama was the emanation of -Avalôkitês’vara, who again was the æon of Amitâbha, “immeasurable -light.” Behind all these again, they professed to find the Adi-Buddha, -the primordial Buddha, who, out of himself, by the exercise of five -meditations, evolved the Five Dhyâni.[361] Each of these again by -“insight” evolved their corresponding æons, who in their turn from out -of their immaterial essence produced a material world. It is as if the -Gnosticism which had broken out in the West long before this time had -also invaded the distant East,[362] and as if its dreams, more -restrained by Western sobriety, were in the East free to produce a -phantasmagoria more confused still. Certainly it is a convincing proof -that, notwithstanding its rich ethical sources, the essential principles -of Buddhism had no inherent propagative power. For just as it had to -return from its atheism to the deities which it had discarded, so it had -to substitute for its Nihilism the Western Paradise, where, beyond the -confines of the world, the pious Buddhist at last hopes to join the one -Supreme Amitâbha, and millions of blessed Buddhas discoursing upon all -things good, in a state in which there is no sorrow, and, “strangest to -say, no Nirvana.”[363] - -The more these imaginary deities increased, the more must the earnest -moral teachings of Buddha have been obscured. The discovery of the -Bôdhisatvas opened the way to a rapid declension from primitive -self-culture to a system of “voluntary humility.” Discipleship became -easier in proportion as the worship of these shadowy creations extended. -It is much easier to idolise than obey, to say, “Lord, Lord,” than to do -the thing which he commands. This falling away from the high Buddhist -rule of self-control, proceeding step by step with the growth of the -legends, is just an illustration of the tendency in every religion to -allow the ethical and metaphysical elements so to drift asunder, that -instead of being one in holy wedlock they become thoroughly and -irreconcilably opposed. - -It was inevitable in Buddhism that morality, considered essential to -self-rescue, should be supplanted by that debasing belief in the -efficacy of rites which the system was launched to destroy. Its founder -went to the unnatural extreme of ignoring man’s craving for -reconciliation. He had no faith in Divine forgiveness, or in the grace -of repentance, and he never wearied of pouring contempt upon sacrifice -and prayer. No Hebrew prophet could be more severe in his scorn of -useless rites; but then the Hebrew believed in the efficacy of one -sacrifice, a “heart broken by sorrow,” for sin not as a misfortune or a -folly, but as an offence to a Holy Being who was ready to forgive, and -to be pleased with the worship of a will surrendered in gratitude and in -love. Very early in his history man has indicated his sense of -alienation from God in his endeavours to discover an atonement. The -instinctive sense of wrong relations to the powers that govern life has -been liable to fearful perversion, but Buddha, with all his -denunciation, could not destroy it, nor reason men out of it. He could -induce some to withdraw their imploring cries and glances from the gods, -but he could not sweep the heavens clean of them. Belief in the -existence[364] of gods, and demons, and fairies, and charms against -ill-luck, was strong in his disciples from the first; and when an object -of worship was recognised and allowed, an elaborate ritual of worship, -and latterly of propitiation, was rapidly developed. In Northern -Buddhism this recoil was most extreme, for there, especially in Nepāl -and Tibet, belief in the efficacy of rites deteriorated into belief in -spells and incantations, till it issued in the Tantra system—a mixture -of magic and sorcery whose abominable doctrines, Burnouf, out of very -loathing, refused to translate to us.[365] Christianity has had many -corrupters, who have never scrupled to propose or to accept any -compromise with heathenism at all calculated to strengthen the power of -the priesthood, but it never had its Âsanga,[366] who cleverly succeeded -in reconciling the demonolatry of the people of Nepāl and Tibet with the -acceptance of the Buddhist system. This he did by placing their male and -female devils in the inferior heavens as worshippers of Buddha and -Avalôkitês’vara, and by thus making it possible for the half-savage -tribes to bring their sacrifices, even of blood, to their congenial -shrines, and under cover of allegiance to the priests of the new to -continue the old hideous idolatry. - -This discovery of Âsanga’s is said to have secured the rapid extension -of the Buddhist hierarchy in these half-barbarous regions; but the -hierarchy itself indicated a complete reversal of the primitive -constitution of the Order. Buddha endeavoured to emancipate his -fellow-men from faith in the efficacy of a priesthood to mediate between -men and Deity, or to secure deliverance. He never dreamed that either -temple or priest would arise in his system; but the temple grew -naturally out of the dagoba and the relics which it enshrined, and the -priesthood as naturally was evolved from the Sthavira or senior Bikkhu. -In Southern Buddhism the priest is more like a Protestant minister of -religion than like a priest in the Romish sense of the word; but in -Northern Buddhism, and especially in that form of it dominant in Tibet, -the people from the seventh century have been completely under the power -of the Lamas who alone can work out their salvation. With the exception -of a short interval of neglect and persecution, a hierarchy marvellously -similar to, and no doubt in some respects suggested by, that of Romish -Christianity, has completely controlled all the relations of life,[367] -with the terrible result that cruelty and immorality most abhorrent to -the good and gentle Buddha have been permitted to assert themselves -unopposed, though a devotee who slaughters his fellow-men in cold blood -will shudder with horror if by accident he should tread upon a worm or -crush an over-irritating flea.[368] - -Only once in that region has it experienced any attempt at reform. In -the fourteenth century, when the policy of the Ming dynasty in reducing -the predominance of any one sect had prepared the way for him, -Tsong-Kapa, “the Tibetan Luther,” endeavoured to effect a revival of the -primitive rules of the Order, and succeeded in restoring something of -the ancient simplicity in dress, the celibacy of the priests, the -fortnightly confession, the season of yearly retreat, and the invitation -ceremony at its close. He set his face also against the Shamanism of the -Tantra system, adhered to the purer forms of the earlier Mahāyāna -school, and succeeded in creating a new sect, whose leaders in the -fifteenth century were by the Chinese Emperor recognised as titular -lords over the Church and tributary rulers over the State, under the -titles of Dalai Lāma and Pantshen Lāma. The dream of Hildebrand or Leo -for the Papacy was for centuries more than realised in the Lāmaism of -Tibet, for the Lamas are more than Popes, being re-incarnations of -Avalôkitês’vara and of his father Amitabha, who never die, but at the -act of dying transfer themselves into another body, born at that very -moment, to be found in it in due time through a procedure, according to -lot, never yet known to fail. When discovered, he has, however, to be -accepted after the Erastian fashion by the Chinese Government or its -representative, who, with the Desi or Regent, must also be present when -the final lot is drawn.[369] - -Never under the Papacy, even in the times when its pretensions were most -extravagant, and its power was most unchecked, has Christianity -deteriorated so fearfully as Buddhism has done in Nepāl and Tibet. Not -even in the Abyssinian—the most degraded of all the Churches that have -worn the name of Christ, in respect of its incorporation of old Jewish -rites and Egyptian superstitions—can we find the contrivance of the -prayer-wheel, or the poles with their silken flags blazoned with the six -sacred syllables, “om mani padme hum,”[370] fluttering their supposed -incantations to the heavens. Buddhism’s ages of worship have been only a -long sad history of degradation, of perpetual falling from bad to -worse.[371] The higher the worship of Buddhists for the founder of their -system has risen, the more have they fallen from his virtue; but in -Christianity the ages of strongest devotion to Christ have ever been the -periods of progress. The more intense man’s reverence for Christ has -been, the loftier has been the standard of virtue attained. Worship and -pursuit of holiness have gone hand in hand, and we cannot conceive of a -life truly offered up in adoration of Christ ever proving immoral or -impure. - -The story of Buddhism in India, where without much resistance it yielded -to the seductions of Vishnaism and Sivaism, the record of its conquests -in the surrounding countries, and especially in those just referred to, -present few and slight analogies to the history of Christianity; but the -story of Buddhism in China as related by those most competent to testify -of the changing forms which it assumed from the fourth century onwards, -is significantly akin to that of Christianity after it became the -religion of the Empire. China, unlike India, had before the Christian -era a very ancient history, marked by distinct epochs. Its annals, even -of the eighth century B.C., seem to reflect a civilisation similar to -that of Europe in the thirteenth century A.D. Two thousand years B.C. -the Chinese are said to have attained to an idea of Deity somewhat -equivalent to the El Elion of Melchizedek.[372] Shangti, the highest of -all spirits to whom the people sacrificed, was the Creator, Preserver, -and Governor of the world, unapproachable by the sinner, but merciful to -all penitents; and in this idea of God, and in the morality which sprang -from it, we have the secret of that social and political progress whose -arrestment and decay Confucius lamented. Living in a degenerate age, he -laboured earnestly as a reformer of personal morality and social order; -but, departing himself from the ancestral faith in a Supreme Ruler of -nature and man, “respecting, but keeping aloof, as he said, from all -spiritual beings,” expressively silent as to the future, and refusing to -present motives of conduct drawn from consideration of it, his vigorous -ministry, conducted for many years in many of the States, could only -have the effect of preparing the way for a real regeneration of society. -He had great faith in man, as born good, with an innate moral faculty -which only contact with the world and the delusion of the senses prevent -from making him virtuous. Man was made for society, and the five -relations of which society consists—that of ruler and subject, husband -and wife, parent and child, elder brother and younger, and friend and -friend—were Divine ordinances. His standard of personal righteousness -and social purity, his strong faith in the power of example, his golden -rule, “_What you would not like to have done to yourself, do not to any -other_,”[373] his demand, as urgent as was that of Isaiah or -Socrates,[374] that language should be used ever with scrupulous care to -express only the thing that is, have gone far to form, with beneficial -ethical results, the ordinary Chinese character. His ignoring of -personal Deity, only referred to under the vague term Heaven, and of the -future of man, could not long arrest the degeneracy of society or purge -out the secret vices burrowing beneath its surface. If Buddha is to be -regarded in his bold metaphysical speculations as the first of Gnostics, -Confucius in his pure secularism may be designated the first Agnostic, -and the monotonous and stagnant type of humanity which his teaching has -produced may be a warning of the kind of civilisation which the world -may expect should ever philanthropic secularism supplant or supersede -the religion of Christ.[375] - -Contemporary with Confucius, though much older in years, was Lao-tsze -the Venerable, the author of the celebrated Tâo-teh-King, in which not -only Romish missionaries but scholars like Montucci of Berlin (1808) and -Remusat[376] (1823) professed to find the mystery of the Holy Trinity -and the name of Jehovah phonetically expressed. Twenty years later -Stanislas Julien[377] dispelled these illusions, and showed that the -treatise was as agnostic in its essential teachings as were the Analects -of Confucius. A poet and a mystic, he gave his whole strength to enforce -the virtue of Tao—the _way_[378] of man’s return to that spontaneity of -action without motive which prevails in nature, and which will manifest -itself in man, in humility, gentleness, refusal to take precedence in -the world, in accounting the great as the small, the small as the great, -and _in recompensing injury with kindness_.[379] He does not affirm the -existence of God, but he does not deny it, and his language seems to -imply it. Certainly there is not a word which savours of superstition, -and yet he is the reputed founder of a most idolatrous religion, which -is found in shape five centuries after his death. The works of his -earliest followers are said to be full of the most grotesque and absurd -beliefs. As early as 221 B.C. some of them were in search of the Eastern -Hesperides, where grew the herb of immortality. In the first century -A.D. another professor of Taoism invented a pill containing the elixir -of life, and spells which could tame and destroy by the touch of a -pencil millions of demons. All through its history it has been a -conglomerate of superstitions so base, and so contrasted with the -teaching of the Tâo-teh-King, that to make the author of that literary -relic bear the obloquy of even the slightest connection with Taoism, -appears to be one of the grossest wrongs of history.[380] - -These sages preceded Buddha by a century, whose religion, though it came -into contact with China shortly after the reign of Asoka, did not -seriously begin to influence it till about the fourth century A.D. The -Buddhism of that period was the religion of the Northern school, well -advanced in its second stage of degeneracy. Wherever it was encouraged, -or allowed to maintain itself, it reared monasteries and nunneries, -temples and shrines of idols and relics, and established the worship of -saints and images, which sometimes, like winking Madonnas, opened their -eyes and otherwise worked miracles. Its effect upon Taoism was simply to -absorb it; for before then that religion had neither monasteries nor -temples, nor any system of worship. All these it borrowed from Buddhism, -whose Triratna and endless pantheon of deities it greedily accepted, -with the effect that though Taoism has existed nominally distinct from -Buddhism in China, it has simply been as Buddhism in a native dress, and -thus far the Hindu mind can be truly said to have powerfully influenced -Chinese thought. - -By the Confucians the reception of Buddhism was very different. They -might have laughed at its idolatrous system budding vigorously into -life, but they could not endure its full-blown anti-social Monasticism. -Its morality they could appreciate, though it seemed inferior to their -own; for though its teaching as to future rewards commended itself to -the moral instincts of the masses, the Confucians, more logical than -Buddhists, averred that to avoid wrong-doing for fear of future -punishment was not doing right for its own sake; while to labour for -happiness hereafter led to neglect of the present, and promoted lazy -inactivity. Such a scheme of religion was by them judged inimical to -virtue, which was its own reward, and the manner of life by which it was -illustrated was condemned as particularly immoral. The State, the -Family, Society, were Divine institutions which ought to be maintained -and perfected. Industry, public and private, was essential to their -ideal of propriety; and Buddhism, with its religion of inaction, its -celibate rule, and abandonment of all secular business, was simply -odious to the instincts of a practical and kindly people. There could -only be war between two such contradictory systems—a war not of words, -but, on the Chinese side at least, of very hard blows. Their hostility -manifested itself in repeated and prolonged persecutions. In one of -these 250,000 monks and nuns were forced to return to social life, while -their property was confiscated, and the copper of their images and bells -was minted into coin. The Confucians have long ceased to persecute, but -they have never withdrawn their first indictment against the Buddhists -for teaching what to them is criminal because disloyal, and immoral[381] -because anti-social. - -To the ethical system of China, as represented by Confucians, Mahāyāna -Buddhism could not add much, if indeed anything, of value; but its -speculative philosophy seems peculiarly to have fascinated them, and it -produced remarkable and permanent changes in their thinking. The -literature and the art of China reflect not Chinese but Indian scenes -and manners. Its grammatical and arithmetical sciences owe much to -Indian tutelage. An educated Chinaman, while avowing himself Confucian -in respect of ethics, will in all metaphysical problems reason according -to Buddhist methods and enunciate Buddhist ideas. To this extent, -therefore, it affected the Confucians, but not with beneficial results. -It aided Confucius in his evil work of shaking the faith of “the -classes” in the personal Ruler of the Universe, while its effect upon -“the masses” was even more injurious, for it dragged them down to a -polytheism from which for centuries they had been free, and put in place -of the impersonal principle with which Confucius had supplanted their -ancestral faith, those shadowy crowds of Buddhas and Bôdhisatvas, to -lead them still further away from the purer works and ways of more -reverential ages.[382] - -The episodes in the history of Chinese Buddhism from the fourth century -onward were marvellously similar to the scenes and incidents witnessed -in Europe during the same period in connection with the Christian -Church. Cardinal Newman has somewhere said that in “professing to write -the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Gibbon has reluctantly, but -actually, written the Rise and Progress of Christianity.” The most -zealous defender of the faith, however, must admit that the Christianity -which maintained in Europe from the fourth century onward had grievously -declined from that of the primitive ages. It is the fashion in some -quarters to attribute this degradation to the alliance of the Church -with the State, and to aver that had it kept apart from the embraces of -the Emperors it would have preserved itself from corruption. -Unquestionably Constantine was a “sair sanct” to the Church; a convert -more from expedience than conviction, he and his successors endeavoured -to utilise the Christian hierarchy to buttress their own throne. -Unquestionably, too, the Church suffered more indignity and harm from -the Christian Emperors who patronised it, than ever it did from the -heathen Emperors who persecuted it. Candid inquiries will, however, -convince most people that the alliance with the Empire was more an -incident in than the cause of the Church’s degradation. The transfer of -the seat of rule to the Bosporus left the Western Church free from the -Imperial influence to regulate its own affairs, and yet it became not -less but even more corrupt than its Oriental neighbour. The truth seems -to be that the corruption of the Church was due more to its external or -material prosperity than to anything else. To churches and to nations -that is the real ordeal by fire. In the poverty and struggles they have -higher hopes, but when difficulties are surmounted, and they dwell at -ease, they mistake or forget their vocation. The adversity and terrible -persecution of the Church, coincident with its primitive enthusiasm, did -a very great deal to preserve its health and purity; and it was simply -natural, and to be expected, that when it emerged into prosperity and -popular favour, like Jeshurun in his fatness, it should have rebelled, -and instead of serving as it was ordained to do, should have usurped the -power to rule. - -The iconography of early Christianity reflects even more clearly than -its literature the various stages of its deterioration. As long as the -world was against it, and it was compelled to use such places as the -Catacombs for its shelter and worship, its faith was pure, and its life -was full of exhilaration and brightness. Its symbolism was thoroughly -ideal and spiritual, in sharp and instructive contrast with every Pagan -specimen that has been discovered, and with its own subsequently -paganised art. It was a symbolism, moreover, only of its hopes, and not -of its one object of faith or of worship. It tolerated no symbol in -worship save the water of Baptism and the bread and the wine of the -Eucharist. It needed, as yet, no crucifix, not even a cross,[383] and it -would not allow any image to reveal to the imagination the present but -invisible Christ, or to suggest the profound meaning of His atonement. -But when it went forth, the admired of the world, into the sunshine, and -began to rear the grand basilicas, and people them with the tombs of the -martyrs and the enshrined relics of the saints, the very desire to rise -led it to fight heathenism with its own weapons, and to copy its -splendours.[384] Even before this it was falling back from the simple -service of the synagogue to that of the destroyed temple, but now it was -found adopting the heathen festivals, or accommodating its own to their -dates, and incorporating with its own the more imposing rites of still -popular heathen fanes. To “offer the new law’s new oblation” it invented -a new ritual and priesthood; and seeing a priesthood must have somewhat -to offer, it discovered a new sacrifice in the very sacrament which was -the Divine pledge and human thanksgiving for the abrogation of all -external sacrifice.[385] Then the government of the Empire became the -model of its organisation, and soon it was crowned in a Papacy -professing to dominate, as vicegerent for Christ, a world which -confessedly it has not yet been able to convert. - -It is not necessary to trace the sickening degradation of Christianity -through all its encounters and compromises with heathenism, till in the -gathering gloom its degenerate art reached a point where it dared to -portray to the eye of sense the death-pangs of the Son of God, and its -worship touched a depth of idolatry in which it symbolised the mystery -of the Holy Trinity by a three-headed figure quite after the model of -the Hindu Trimurti. It is sufficient to say that it appears to have -proceeded on parallel lines, and at as rapid a pace as the degeneracy of -Buddhism in the East. It too has its iconography as well as its -literature, and it is interesting to trace its passage from its earliest -graffiti—the stone edicts of Asoka, where we have the religion without -even the name of the founder—through the carvings of the Sanchi gateway, -where there is alteration, though to no considerable extent, on to those -at Amravati, where we have the full-blown Buddhism to which China to a -considerable extent succumbed.[386] Through all this period everywhere -in Chinese Buddhist temples were seen the idols of the saints, -everywhere were found their worshipped relics. A bone, a tooth, a single -hair, would be purchased by the revenue of a State and welcomed with -imperial honours. The rationalists of the West might protest as loudly -and as scoffingly as they pleased that there was as much wood of the -true cross and as many veritable nails of it in Europe as would suffice -to build a navy. The Confucian mandarins at the court of a -relic-worshipping Emperor might indignantly denounce the desecration and -pollution of the royal palace by the introduction of part of the carrion -of a monk who had died long ago.[387] With the father of Gideon, -deriding the wonder-working powers of these relics, they might insist -that they, and even Buddha himself, should plead, Baal-like, for -themselves against their iconoclastic ire; but at that time neither law, -nor persecution, nor common sense could prevail to cure this perverted -disposition. Belief in the virtue of a fetich marks both the infancy and -decay of most religions. In Chinese Buddhism to-day this belief is as -vigorous as ever, and notwithstanding the influence of the Reformation, -and the spread of scientific discovery, this belief marks an extreme of -thought from which neither Romanism nor Protestantism as yet can be said -to be free. - -The Buddhism of the earliest traditions was concerned chiefly with -morality as essential to deliverance, and the Christianity of the New -Testament is a faith and hope and love, dominating and fusing and -moulding life after a nobler type. In China, as elsewhere, the Buddhism -of morality gave way to the Buddhism of mystic contemplation. Yielding -to the same tendency which afterwards made so many Christians abandon -the paths of obedience and practice of righteousness for the cultivation -of the inner life, Buddhism as early as 520 A.D. was prepared to follow -eagerly Bôdiharma,[388] who came from Southern India to sweep away the -alien growth of all book-instruction, and to establish the truth that -“out of mind there is no Buddha, out of Buddha there is no mind; that -virtue is not to be sought, and vice is not to be shunned; that nothing -is to be looked upon as pure or polluted, for all that is needed is to -avoid both good and evil, and he that can do this is a truly religious -man.”[389] - -In proclaiming that ethical distinctions mark an inferior stage of -discipleship, for a “good man, though never against, is always above -them,” Bôdiharma, the nominal founder of Esoteric Buddhism, simply -formulated more clearly the teaching of Nâgârdjuna, the reputed founder -of the Mahāyāna system. It was only another expression of that -indefinable phase of thought, found in all religions as mysticism, and -which, though commonly identified only with its extravagant outbursts, -is really of the very essence of religion. The dominating thought in a -religious man is that of a Supreme One in whom we live and move and have -our being, and there are times in his worship when the balance of -consciousness is disturbed, and self is lost in consciousness of the -Divine. Man without the aid of prayer or sacramental grace finds in -himself the revelation, and alas! as his consciousness is always -imperfect, and very often confused, the revelation is too often -distorted and the reverse of Divine.[390] - -Mysticism, as was natural in a religion quickening both thought and -emotion, appeared early in Christianity, and from the days of St. John -it has never lacked a representative. In its manifold varieties and -aberrations it presents many similarities to the mysticism of the East, -but in reality it is as different from it in its nature as it is distant -from it in its source. Eastern mysticism has always been more -speculative than practical in character. Pantheistic in its origin, it -assumes that all things are as divine as it is their nature to be, and -aspires to get at the unity of being. Western mysticism, on the other -hand, starts always from a sense of the disorder and alienation of -things, and endeavours to get at man’s true life. The Eastern finds its -object within, the Western generally without; the Eastern considers -identity with Deity a natural state, the Western regards perfect -fellowship with Deity as a goal of spiritual attainment. In Christianity -mysticism has been occasional in its manifestations, and has always been -regarded as an innovation; but in the East it is the normal deduction -from Hindu Pantheism and Buddhist Nihilism.[391] Nâgârdjuna and -Bôdiharma were the natural outcome of Gotama’s teaching. In Christianity -it has often shown itself to be marvellously practical, and generally in -revolt from some stereotyped system of dogma or form of worship. Though -associated in our thoughts more with the sentimental than the -intellectual aspects of religion,[392] it has manifested frequently a -decidedly rationalistic tendency. Refusing to be dominated by authority -or to be bound by antiquity, it has questioned fearlessly the dicta of -Scripture, avowing that reason is not superseded, but divinely inspired -and controlled as the organ of revelation. In Christianity its -extravagances may be forgiven in consideration of the benefits which -have flowed from it. It powerfully helped to bring about the -Reformation, and since then, in the Churches, whether reformed or -unreformed, it has tended to sweeten and intensify devotion. It has kept -them mindful of their common lineage by insisting upon those essential -and universal truths which are confessed to be vital in all religions, -and especially by proclaiming the supremacy of the Holy Spirit as the -fountain of all enlightenment and activity. - -As manifested in St. Paul and St. John, mysticism is the recognition of -the Holy Spirit as the Witness of Christ, and therefore the supreme lord -over all man’s emotions and reasonings and purposes. Consequently the -asceticism with which mysticism has always been associated has been in -Christianity more kept under control. Occasionally it has lapsed into -frightful excesses; indeed, the extravagances practised in the East to -attain to insight have been equalled by the devices resorted to by many -in the West to gain the vision of the Divine. In ingenious methods of -self-torture the West certainly vied with the East, but at self-torture -perverted Christianity stopped, while degenerate Buddhism went on to -invent and put in practice most revolting methods of self-destruction as -well. The law of Buddha prohibited this, and forbade even the mention of -the advantages of death. It was an offence of the gravest kind, punished -by the severest penalty which the Order could inflict,[393] for a monk -to procure a weapon for the purpose of taking away his life, or to teach -how death may be procured. Still, in India before Fa-Hian’s time, -self-murder was practised, and in China Imperial edicts against -self-mutilation and self-immolation were required to prevent fanatics -evading the primitive law by the quibble, that while prohibiting -suicide, Buddha enjoined the destruction of anger and lust, and that it -was against these alone that they raised their hand, in order to -complete their deliverance.[394] - -Christianity demands that an ἄσκησις shall be practised by all who -desire the illumination of the Spirit, for all that is vile must be -purged out of life, and all that is animal in it must be subdued. The -discipline, however, is always moral as well as religious, and it aims -only at controlling, never, like Stoicism or Cynicism, at stifling or -violating natural affection. Unlike Plato, who regarded matter as evil, -Christ and His apostles recognised it as the creature of God, and taught -us to seek the seat of evil, not in the body, but in the perverted will. -In the spirit is the true _fons et origo mali_; but as the occasion of -sin directly or indirectly often originates in some desire for bodily -indulgence or some dread of bodily pain, temperance and fortitude demand -that the body, if not inured to hardness, should be at least kept under -control. So bodily exercise,[395] though in itself profiting little, -profiteth much as moral discipline, a means to a spiritual end. -Consequently the fast in its literal sense has its place in the -Christian system as an expedient generally most required in the times -when we are inclined to despise it. The fanaticism which would destroy -or injure what is natural is condemned by Christianity as severely as is -the sensuality which would unduly strengthen it. What it demands is that -the whole nature be educated and ennobled by loving surrender to the -control of an infinitely holy Will. Enjoyment of the vision beatific, -communion with the Divine Being, is the _summum bonum_ of Christianity, -and that is the portion only of the sanctified. “Blessed are the pure in -heart: for they shall see God.” - -Bôdiharma’s mystic or esoteric Buddhism had no such influences to steady -and sober it, and its aberrations were wilder than the fancies of our -delirium. The supernatural pretensions of mysticism have always been -disallowed or condemned in Christianity by overwhelming healthy-minded -majorities, but the consequence of the practice of Esoteric Buddhism was -believed by all to be supernatural power. An adept in it professed to -see through all ages and worlds, and move through space by a sheer -exercise of will. All the phenomena of modern spiritualism may have been -witnessed in India and China two thousand years ago—yea, centuries -perhaps before Buddha appeared. The first pretenders to these mysteries -were the Indian Yogis and the medicine-men of savage and barbarous -races.[396] The “Neo-Buddhism” and “Theosophy” of to-day simply confront -us in the cast-off yellow rags of these pitiful superstitions. Their -disciples attempt to warm themselves and to walk in the light of the -unhallowed flames which the deluded followers of Bôdiharma believed they -could kindle. In whatever way the phenomena of spiritualism are to be -explained—and one cannot say what phenomena may emerge when the human -mind is abandoned to vacuity, and the human will to an ungoverned -fancy—we may be certain that investigation of them will never disclose -the reality of benign supernatural power. What capabilities may be -dormant in humanity no one can tell. Christ who redeemed us is the -prophecy of what He can make us. He had supernatural power because His -being accorded perfectly with the Heavenly Father’s will; but -supernatural power as manifested by Christ is very different indeed from -the ludicrous exhibitions of the “spiritualists.” Christ’s supernatural -power was not manifested just in their ways, and certainly not by their -methods; will it ever be acquired?[397] - -It is not compatible with our space to trace the parallels between -Esoteric Buddhism and some nineteenth-century forms of speculation in -which the finite is again seen to be going back to the absolute, and the -reality of everything but the self is denied. On the religious side, -however, it is interesting to notice a later stage of it in a system -which, originating not long after Bôdiharma, took some four centuries to -establish itself. The T’ien-t’ai or Chi-Che school differed from -Bôiharma’s theory of pure mental abstraction to be gained through -complete withdrawal from all sensible surroundings, in that it sought to -aid contemplation by sensuous exercises. Worship of gay idols, music of -many persons chanting in unison, postures of kneeling and standing, -exercises of continued and loud recitation, with intervals of profound -silence and intense meditation, were supposed to produce the desired -illumination. It seemed to be the first recognition of feeling in the -Buddhist religion, and the first attempt to employ it to produce -ecstasy. The same attempt has often been repeated in the history of -Christianity, sometimes in very grotesque and extravagant forms. In -every outburst of religious enthusiasm we may see rude examples of it, -but it is also the principle on which æsthetic worship is generally -defended. It is a reminder, therefore, to some very superior people, of -our common human nature, and a warning that when left to itself, or -indulged, even the æsthetic, like all other instincts, will just run the -same round of extravagance in manifold and ever-recurring variety. - -The tendency in human nature to pervert a religion is as strongly -manifested in Christianity as in Buddhism; but there is this outstanding -distinction between them, that while a survey of Buddhism shows that -everywhere it has run its course, and has exhausted its intellectual and -moral and spiritual resources, Christianity upon examination appears to -be only in an early stage of development. In spite of the perversions of -the Church, and its repeated resistance to Christian movements, -Christianity has always produced what has condemned and corrected and -vanquished them. It is the recuperative power of Christianity which most -distinguishes it. There is nothing in the history of Buddhism which at -all corresponds with the Reformation. To-day all over the world it is -stereotyped and unprogressive, whereas everywhere in Christendom there -is ferment of thought and stirring of life, plainly indicating that -whatever power may claim the past, Christianity has the sure promise of -the future. - -In China, two hundred and seventy years ago, originated a sect whose -adherents, scattered through the villages of the Eastern Provinces, and -belonging principally to the lower classes of society, may be called -Protestant or Reformed Buddhists. They are described by Dr. Edkins[398] -as opposed to idolatry in all its forms, as having no temple, but only -plain meeting-houses, signalised with only the common tablet to heaven, -earth, king, parents, and teachers, as their symbol of reverence. Their -worship consists not in ceremonies, but in quiet meditation, and inner -adoration of the all-pervading Buddha. They are called the “Do-Nothing -Sect,” not because they are idle, like the ignorant inmates of the -monasteries—for they are really industrious and virtuous,—but because -they hold that the highest virtue is never intentional, but wholly -unconscious of self. Like M. Aurelius,[399] they consider that to ask to -be “paid for virtue is as if the eye demanded a recompence for seeing.” -In thinking of them, the words of the Lord Jesus recur to us: “Do good, -and lend, hoping for nothing again.” George Fox, and the quiet and -charitable Society which he founded, and which still continues in formal -garb his protest against all formalism in worshipping God, not by -clamouring to Him, but in silently waiting till He speaks, seems to be -the realisation of what these good Wu-wei-Kiau aspire to in their -religion. They have not been able to free themselves from Buddhism or -Taoism. Buddha, though not worshipped, is believed in by them, and they -have found an object of adoration in Kîn-mu, the Golden Mother of the -soul, who can protect and deliver from calamity, and even save those -that have died from misery. They have four principal festivals, two of -which celebrate the birth and death of Lo-tsu, their founder. On these -occasions three small cups of tea and nine tiny loaves of bread are -placed on the tables, according to the appointment of Lo-tsu himself. On -this account they are nicknamed “the Tea and Bread Sect.” They are -strict vegetarians, but in no other sense ascetics, honouring marriage -and family life, and having no monastic institute among them. They aver -that one of their leaders during a persecution was crucified, and their -great hope is that the world will soon come to an end, and that the -Golden Mother will appear, to take all her children—all who believe in -her as they do—home to her beautiful heaven. - -This can hardly be called a reformation of Buddhism according either to -its original form or its fundamental principles. It is a departure from, -and an immense improvement upon it, which is manifestly due to foreign -and probably Christian influence. The Nestorians entered China in the -seventh, and the Jesuits in the sixteenth century, while Reformed -Christianity only came in contact with China in the present generation. -If it be denied that Christianity helped to produce the Do-Nothing Sect, -it will be difficult to disprove the claim that, directly or indirectly, -it has done much to produce the latest forms in which, in China and -Japan, Buddhism is now presented to the world. In both countries -Reformed Buddhists are found differing in much from one another, but -generally agreeing in rejecting polytheism for the worship of one -divinity: in China, Kwan-yin, who for long has changed sexes, and is now -the goddess of mercy; in Japan, Buddha, whose attribute is Amita, the -infinite. One sect, called the “Salvation without Works Sect,” has -progressed greatly in Japan, under the title of Shin-Shin, “the true -religion.” The worshipper renounces all merit, and trusts for salvation -in nothing but the mercy of Amita.[400] The soul is brought into a state -of salvation by an act of faith, and though sure of salvation, the -faithful must not abandon the struggle with evil, for holiness is not -the beginning, but the result of salvation. In Kioti, a Buddhist sect -has a college quite Western in its curriculum and arrangements. There -too the Japanese newspapers not only record the successes of able -Buddhist preachers in spreading their doctrine, and in founding schools, -they advertise a Buddhist propaganda for the conversion of Europe and -America. Its only organ as yet is a little magazine called the _Bijou of -Asia_, but it is printed in English for the enlightenment of all who -believe in the moribund creeds of the West, and for the rescue -especially of souls from the snare of that Christian superstition which -“happily all over the world is rapidly declining in power”! - -If this be not impure Christianity, no one will dare to call it pure -Buddhism. Surely it is a hopeful indication for the future of Japan, as -being evidently a movement somewhat similar to that inaugurated in India -by Rammohun Roy, and greatly furthered in our days by Chunder Sen. The -first professed to trace his reform to the Upanishads rediscovered, and -expounded, and applied; and the second to the Vedas as the primitive -fountains of the faith. Both reformers and their work would have been -impossible two thousand years ago; yea, they would have been equally -impossible to-day, had not the West given of its thoughts to the East, -and Christendom communicated to it something of its better life. It is -one thing to read the Vedas and Upanishads, as the Rishis recited or the -Brahmans expounded them long ago, and quite another to have them -interpreted by natives of India, around whose forefathers for several -generations all the influences of Christian civilisation have been -playing. So is it with the reforming Buddhists of China and Japan, who -have enterprise to send their sons to study at our British Universities. -They are reading their old literature—even when rejecting our systems of -belief—with minds unconsciously saturated with Christian intelligence, -and no doubt they often find there what the Gospel has put in -themselves. - -We may rest assured that the reform of the Oriental religions will only -be effected by the infusion into them of the spirit of Christianity. A -higher religion meeting them as Christianity does, may not supplant or -destroy them, but it will revive and transform them. It will destroy -much that is false, correct much that is wrong, supply all they lack, -and so in the end annul them. The product will not likely be a facsimile -of any of the Churches of Christendom. It may be a religion in which -Buddha and the great teachers of his system will be lifted to their -places among the prophets who, “since the world began,” unconsciously -testified, by their errors as well as by their truths, by their failures -as well as by their successes, to the Mystery to be revealed. The fact -that in Buddhism the object of worship is not the Buddha that was, but -Mâitrêya who is to be, is a pathetic confession that its Messiah has yet -to come. Though Buddha did not proclaim His coming, the result of his -mission bears witness to the need of Him. So he was a lawgiver preparing -the way for Moses, even as Moses prepared the way for the Baptist, and -as the Baptist heralded the Christ of God. Could his voice reach down -to-day from “the quiet shore” to the millions who have taken hold of him -in hope of finding deliverance from the miseries and perplexities of -this sinful world, it would be to repeat a testimony once heard on -Jordan’s banks from him than whom no one born of woman was greater: -“There standeth One among you whom ye know not, the latchet of whose -shoes I am not worthy to unloose.” - -Footnote 319: - - Mahâparanibhâna Sutta, ii. 33. 35. - -Footnote 320: - - 1 Corinthians xiv. - -Footnote 321: - - “Das Christenthum ist das allerveränderlichste; das ist sein - besonderer Ruhm.”—Rothe, _Stille Stunden_, p. 357. - -Footnote 322: - - Acts xxviii. 13; Rom. xv. 24; 2 Tim. iv. 10; 1 Peter i. 1. - -Footnote 323: - - Greg. Nyss. _Op._ iii. 574. - -Footnote 324: - - Keim, _Rom und Christenthum_, p. 417. - -Footnote 325: - - Uhlhorn, _Conflict of Christianity_, pp. 54, 90. - -Footnote 326: - - Neander, _Church History_, vol. i. pp. 10, 40. - -Footnote 327: - - Orig. _cont. Cels._ iii. 44-54; Tatian, c. 33; Minut. Felix, _Octav._ - 8. 12; Tertull. _Apolog._ 37 _et passim_. - -Footnote 328: - - Newman, _Grammar of Assent_, pp. 460 _seq._ - -Footnote 329: - - Kullavagga, iv. 14. 25; also _ibid._ vii. 1. 5; _Sacred Books of the - East_, vol. xx. - -Footnote 330: - - E. Burnouf, _Science of Religions_, p. 288, notes the analogy between - Pryadarsi and “a man greatly beloved” in Daniel ix. 23. - -Footnote 331: - - See _Lotus de la bonne Loi_, App. x. p. 659 _seq._: Prinsep’s trans., - _Jour. Asiat. Soc. Beng._ vol. vii. pp. 219 _seq._; Prof. H. H. - Wilson’s, vol. xii. of _Jour. Asiat. Soc. Beng._ pp. 153 _seq._ - -Footnote 332: - - Wheeler, _History of India_, vol. iii. p. 214. - -Footnote 333: - - T. W. Rhys Davids, _Handbook of Buddhism_, p. 225. - -Footnote 334: - - Dipavamso, chap. viii. - -Footnote 335: - - T. W. Rhys Davids, _Handbook of Buddhism_, p. 259. - -Footnote 336: - - _Buddhist Records of the Western World_, trans. by Prof. Beal, vol. - i.; Fo-Kwo-ki, chap. xxii. p. xlix, vol. ii; Hiuen Tsiang, B. vi. pp. - 13, 14. - -Footnote 337: - - Lassen, _Indische Alterth._ vol. ii. p. 1078; vol. iv. p. 741. - -Footnote 338: - - Dr. Beal, _Buddhism in China_, p. 61; Dr. Edkins, _Chinese Buddhism_, - Preface, p. i. - -Footnote 339: - - _Buddhism in Tibet_, E. Schlagintweit, pp. 61-75. - -Footnote 340: - - _Comparative Progress of Ancient and Modern Missions._ - -Footnote 341: - - Dr. Maclear, _Gradual Conversion of Europe_, pp. 6-12. - -Footnote 342: - - _Nouveau Journ. Asiat._ pp. 106, 137, 139. - -Footnote 343: - - Dr. Edkins, _Chinese Buddhism_, pp. 84, 207. - -Footnote 344: - - “It may be safely asserted that no Aryan race, while existing in - anything like purity, was ever converted to Buddhism, or could - permanently adopt its doctrines.”—Fergusson, _Tree and Serpent - Worship_, p. 67. The old Turanian race, far from being savage, or even - barbarous, not only laid the basis of Chinese civilisation, but seems - to have been also the first civiliser of Western Asia, and the first - to spread art and science along the southern coasts of Europe. The - Iberian, Etruscan, Phœnician, Hittite, even Egyptian monuments, are - now acknowledged to be relics of this mighty race, which must have - sent horde after horde over Asia and Europe long before the historic - advance westwards in the thirteenth century A.D.; its latest invasion - of India may have been represented, not by Scythian ancestors of - Buddha, but the Sikhs.—Conder, “Early Races of Western Asia,” _Journ. - Anthrop. Inst._ August 1889, pp. 30-43. - -Footnote 345: - - Sir Monier Williams, _Buddhism_, Introduction; Eitel, _Lectures on - Buddhism_. - -Footnote 346: - - Sir Monier Williams, _Buddhism_, pp. 114, 156. - -Footnote 347: - - Wassilief, _Le Bouddhisme_, etc., pp. 14, 18. - -Footnote 348: - - Dêvadatta’s Five Points (Kullavagga, vii. 3. 14, 15) all insist upon a - more ascetic rule than the Sangha practised. - -Footnote 349: - - Stanley, _Eastern Church_, pp. 45, 50. - -Footnote 350: - - Turnour, “Pali Bud. Annals,” _Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng._ vol. vi. p. - 729; Wassilief, _Le Bouddhisme, etc._, p. 18. - -Footnote 351: - - The beginning of the dissensions is related in Kullavagga vii. with - much legendary adornment. There too, in vii. 5, and in Mahavagga, x. - 1. 6, the distinction is drawn between “dissension” and “schism,” and - the woe predicted for the breaker-up of the Sangha when it was at - peace: “He is boiled for a kalpa in Niraya, doomed for so long to a - penance of misery.” The reconciler of a divided Sangha was made happy - for a kalpa in heaven. - -Footnote 352: - - T. W. Rhys Davids, _Handbook of Buddhism_, p. 182. - -Footnote 353: - - Beal, _Chinese Buddhism_, p. 101: “a worship of association and - memory.” - -Footnote 354: - - Agni. Indra, Sūrya; Kern, _Buddhismus_, vol. ii. p. 156; Sir Monier - Williams, _Buddhism_, p. 175. - -Footnote 355: - - “A being whose essence (sattva) has become intelligence (bodhu) - derived from _self-enlightening_ intellect, and who has only once more - to pass through human existence before attaining Buddhahood.”—Eitel, - _Sanskrit-Chinese Dict._, p. 26; Sir Monier Williams’ _Buddhism_, p. - 98. - -Footnote 356: - - Wassilief, _Le Bouddhisme, etc._, pp. 124 _seq._; Burnouf, _Le Lotus - de la bonne Loi_, p. 302. - -Footnote 357: - - Nâgârdjuna, the Nagasēna of the Milindipanha, was the chief - representative, if not founder, of one of the Mahāyāna Schools. He has - been regarded as a mythical personage, and the name has been supposed - to be the generic one of various authors and doctors of the system. - For an account of Hināyāna and Mahāyāna doctrine, with its - subdivisions, see Wassilief, _Le Bouddhisme, etc._, pp. 9 _seq._, 118 - _seq._; Schlagintweit, _Buddhism in Tibet_, pp. 19-57. Nâlanda must - have been a very important centre in Buddhist times.—Fergusson, _Tree - and Serpent Worship_, p. 79. - -Footnote 358: - - Dr. Edkins says about 190 A.D. - -Footnote 359: - - Burnouf, _Introd. à l’histoire du Bud. Ind._ vol. i. pp. 220, 224 - (Paris, 1844); also Burnouf, _Le Lotus de la bonne Loi_, chap. xxiv. - pp. 261-268; also Appendix III. pp. 498-511 (Paris, 1852). - -Footnote 360: - - Müller, Gifford Lectures, _Natural Religion_, p. 543; Dr. Beal, - _Buddhism in China_, p. 123; Sir Monier Williams, _Buddhism_, p. 195. - -Footnote 361: - - Hodgson, _Illustrations of the Literature and Religion of the - Buddhists_, p. 30; Burnouf, _Introduction, etc._, pp. 116-121; also in - note at p. 118, quoting Hodgson. - -Footnote 362: - - Though strong affinities exist between Gnosticism and Buddhism, which - may indicate later connection, in their origin they appear to have - been quite distinct. The methods, aims, and terminology of Gnosticism, - all betoken derivation from purely Western sources. It is quite - possible that Gnosticism may have given Adi-Buddha to the East, but - the question of their relations is still undetermined. See Weber, - _Hist. Ind. Lit._ p. 309; Obry’s _Nirvana, etc._, p. 161; Bishop - Lightfoot, Essay on the Essenes (_Epistle to Colossians_), p. 157; - _Home and Foreign Review_, vol. iii. pp. 143 _seq._ (1863). - -Footnote 363: - - Sir Monier Williams, _Buddhism_, p. 203; Dr. Beal, _Chinese Buddhism_, - p. 128; Dr. Eitel, _Lectures_, p. 98. - -Footnote 364: - - Kullavagga, v. 21. 4; _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xx. - -Footnote 365: - - _Introd._ § vi. p. 558: “La plume se refuse à transcrire des doctrines - aussi misérables quant à la forme, qu’odieuses et dégradantes pour le - fond.” - -Footnote 366: - - Âryasanga, founder of the Yôgacharya or contemplative system of - Mahāyāna (_circa_ 400 A.D.). For an account of his doctrine, see - Wassilief, _Le Boudd._ pp. 288 _seq._, and Schlagintweit, _Bud. in - Tibet_, pp. 39 _seq._, 46 _seq._; Rhys Davids, _Buddhism_, p. 207 - _seq._ - -Footnote 367: - - A writer in the _Nineteenth Century_, October 1889, professes to - describe the testimony of the only reporter who has written of Lhása - since Huc and Gabet were expelled from it forty-five years ago. - According to this witness, the Church is now actually in grip of the - State, though nominally dominant. Of five members of the Council of - the Grand Lama four are laymen, superior military officers, with the - Regent at their head. Till the Grand Lama is eighteen years of age, - the Regent is supreme, and for sixty years, not a single Grand Lama, - chosen as an infant, has survived his eighteenth birthday!! - -Footnote 368: - - Buddhism, however, introduced into Tibet the benefits of the art of - writing, the reduction of its language to an alphabet, and grammar; - and not only the sacred literature represented by the collection of - the Kandjur, but the very miscellaneous literature of the Tandjur. - Several of its Buddhist missionaries and the kings who favoured them - were really great men. Kublai Khan and the first Lamistic Pope - Phags-pa, 1259-94, rendered lasting service to the cause of - civilisation. See Köppen’s _Die Lamaische Hierarchie und Kirche_, - being vol. ii. of his celebrated and most laborious work, _Die - Religion des Buddha_; T. W. Rhys Davids, Art. LAMAISM, _Encyc. Brit._ - vol. xiv.; Sir Monier Williams, _Buddhism_, pp. 262-302. - -Footnote 369: - - The most recent and reliable information as to this perverted form of - Buddhism—if it is to be called Buddhism, for it seems to be no more - Buddhism than Vandoux worship can be called Christianity—will be found - in the works of T. W. Rhys Davids; Sir Monier Williams, _Buddhism_; - Babu Sarat Chunder Das, “Religious Hist. of Thibet,” _Journ. Asiat. - Soc. Beng._ 1881; _Life and Works of Alex. Csoma de Koros_, Th. Duka, - Lond. 1885; E. Colborne Baber, _Travels and Researches in Western - China_; Bushell’s “Hist. of Thibet,” _Journ. R.A.S._ vol. xii. - 1878-79. - -Footnote 370: - - An invocation of Avalôkitês’vara, who is believed to have delivered it - to the Tibetans.—Klaproth, _Fragments Bouddhiques_, p. 27; Hodgson, - _Illustrations_, p. 171; Charles Loring Brace, _Gesta Christi_, p. - 455. - -Footnote 371: - - Schlagintweit, _Buddhism in Tibet_, pp. 227-272. - -Footnote 372: - - _Chinese Review_, vol. xi. p. 162; Beal, _Buddhism in China_, p. 233. - -Footnote 373: - - Once when a heathen asked Hillel to show him the whole Jewish religion - in a few words, he replied, “_Do not unto others what thou wouldst not - should be done unto thee_.” Kuenen’s _Religion of Israel_, p. 243 - (quotes Talmud, Sabbath, 31 a.) - -Footnote 374: - - See Isaiah xxxii. 5, 6. Socrates says in _Phaedo_, “to use words - wrongly and indefinitely is not merely an error in itself; it also - creates evil in the soul.” A vast amount of mischief is done by the - misapplication of good adjectives to bad subjects. All true reformers, - with Confucius, labour for a rectification of names. - -Footnote 375: - - Shu King, Shi King, Pref. and Introd. pp. 1-27, by Dr. Legge; _Sacred - Books of the East_, vol. iii. - -Footnote 376: - - _Mémoire sur la Vie et les Opinions de Lao-tsze._ - -Footnote 377: - - Translation of the Tâo-teh-King, under the title, _Le Livre de la Voie - et de la Vertu_. - -Footnote 378: - - μέθοδος, Prof. Douglas, _Confucianism and Taoism_, p. 189. - -Footnote 379: - - It is very interesting to find, so long before Christianity, and so - far from its cradle, this fundamental rule in Christian morals. In the - Book of Proverbs its enunciation may have preceded that in the - Tao-teh-King in point of time; but its being uttered at the end of the - world, along with the “golden rule” of Confucius, prove how - essentially one are the moral instincts of humanity. - -Footnote 380: - - Dr. Legge’s Preface to vol. iii. of _Sacred Books of the East_, p. - xxi; also Art. LAO-TSZE, _Encyc. Brit._ vol. xiv. - -Footnote 381: - - Dr. Edkins, _Chinese Buddhism_, pp. 128, 202; Beal, _Introduction to - Fa-Hian_, p. 27. - -Footnote 382: - - Douglas, _Confucianism_, p. 84; Beal, _Buddhism in China_, p. 235; - Edkins, _Chinese Buddhism_, p. 333. - -Footnote 383: - - In the whole range of the Catacombs no crucifix, and only very few - crosses have been found, and these generally in a disguised form. The - communion of the early Church was with Christ risen and triumphant; it - was only when the spirit and fervour of worship declined that it made - so much of the crucifixion.—Northcote and Brownlow’s Abridgment of De - Rossi’s _Roma Sotterranea_; Smith and Cheetham, _Dict. of Christian - Antiq._, Art. CATACOMBS, pp. 294 _seq._; Witherow, _Catacombs_, pp. - 260, 281. - -Footnote 384: - - The efficiency of _relic-worship_ may be said to have been established - as early as the fourth century. Julian compares the churches to whited - sepulchres, full of dead men’s bones. Development of _image-worship_ - proceeded _pari passu_ with the erection of fine churches and their - adornment with painting and sculpture. There were all along strong - protests from individual bishops, and even prohibitions by Councils, - but the fashion was too strong for their fulminations. Even in the - eighth century the iconoclastic reformation of Leo the Isaurian was - too late. His zeal, moreover, was wrongly directed. He assailed high - art, and condemned only the truly fine paintings, sparing the ruder - and more ancient productions, and leaving untouched the worship of and - disgraceful traffic in relics, real and spurious. It is not to be - wondered at that in opposition to all this Gregory in the West became - the champion of art as an aid to devotion.—Milman, _Lat. - Christianity_, vol. ii. p. 152. - -Footnote 385: - - In protesting against the Mass, the Reformed Churches maintain the - universal priesthood, and therefore perpetual sacrifice, of the - visible Church. As Christ’s witness on earth, the Church must be - always offering itself, in thanksgiving for its own redemption, for - the salvation of the world. - -Footnote 386: - - Fergusson, _Tree and Serpent Worship_, p. 67; Cunningham, _Bhilsa - Topes_, p. 130. - -Footnote 387: - - Dr. Edkins, _Chinese Buddhism_, p. 126; Judges vi. 31. - -Footnote 388: - - Originally called Bódhitara, but renamed by his teacher Payantara, in - token of his religious “insight.” He is said to have brought to China - the famous alms-bowl, which all the Buddhas of the Kalpa have used, - and will use, and whose final disappearance will indicate that the - religion is about to perish. Thus Buddhism has also its San Greal. - Bôdiharma is called the “wall-gazing Brahman,” though a Kshatrya, - because on his arrival in China he spent nine years in silent - meditation.—Eitel, _Sanskrit Chinese Dict._ p. 24. - -Footnote 389: - - Dr. Edkins, _Chinese Buddhism_, p. 130. - -Footnote 390: - - Men who have in vain sought God without have happily found Him in the - witness of their own conscience and affection, but generally they who - conceitedly reject the revelation without them only obscure the seeing - faculty within. “When mysticism threw off external authority it went - mad, as in the revolutionary pantheism of the Middle Ages. When it - incorporated itself more and more in revealed truth, it became a - benign power—as on the eve of the Reformation.”—Vaughan, _Hours with - the Mystics_, vol. ii. p. 356. - -Footnote 391: - - “Mysticism,” A. Seth, _Encyc. Brit._ vol. xvii. pp. 129-136. - -Footnote 392: - - Correctly so, if we are to judge of Mysticism even from its purest - phases and its best representatives, _e.g._ the Quietism of Madame - Guyon, the Spiritualism of Swedenborg, the Romanticism of F. von - Hardenberg, better known as Novalis. Even on its speculative or - philosophical side, it would not be difficult to cull from the - writings of the Cambridge Platonists, and the Idealists of Europe and - America, extracts equivalent to the aphorisms of Novalis, that “action - is morbid,” “to dream is to overcome,” that “the soul must abandon the - actual world if it would discover in the recesses of the mystic night - the Queen of Heaven, Eternal Beauty.”—_Hymns to Night_, Schriften, - vol. ii. p. 158. - -Footnote 393: - - Pâtimokkha; Pârâgikâ Dhammâ, 3; _Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xiii. - -Footnote 394: - - Beal, Introduction to _Fa-Hian_, p. 42. In an important aspect the - perversion of Christianity was worse than that of Buddhism. The - Buddhist ascetics, though merciless to themselves, never tortured - their vanquished opponents. There is no parallel to the Romish - Inquisition and some Protestant atrocities in any of the annals of - Buddhism. - -Footnote 395: - - ἡ σωματικὴ γυμνασία, 1 Tim. iv. 8. - -Footnote 396: - - Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, vol. i. p. 440. - -Footnote 397: - - “Vient enfin le mysticisme de la dernière époque, qui, de même que - tous les mysticismes, finit de la manière la plus misérable, et - enfante une idolâtrie grossière, ainsi que les stupides pratiques de - la sorcellerie” (Laboulaye, Introd. to La Comme’s transl. of - Wassilief’s _Buddhism_, p. xlv). This has often been verified in the - religious history of the West, and the fate of many former “spiritual” - aspirants to enter or to peer into the Invisible and Unutterable - should be a powerful warning to all who are now aiming at surpassing - the natural conditions of existence. In endeavouring to transcend - humanity, we are likely to fall miserably below it. - -Footnote 398: - - _Chinese Buddhism_, pp. 370-379. - -Footnote 399: - - Also Seneca: “We do not love virtue because it gives us pleasure, but - it gives us pleasure because we love it.”—_De Vit. Beat._ c. ix. “In - doing good man should be like the vine, producing grapes, and asking - for nothing in having done so.”—M. Aurel. v. 6 and ix. 42. - -Footnote 400: - - Herzog, _Encyclop._ (Schaff), vol. i. p. 334. - - - - - POSTSCRIPT. - - -In endeavouring to perform the very honourable task assigned to me, I -have had to contend all along with the difficulty of comprising in six -what would require many more lectures properly to relate. Much which was -actually prepared I have been forced to omit, consoling myself with the -thought that, after all, I had simply to lecture and not to write a -compendious treatise, and that it was my business to sketch as -truthfully as I could what it was simply impossible, within the limits -prescribed, adequately to depict. It was originally my intention to give -in parallel quotations the alleged similarities between the contents of -the Pitakas and the New Testament, but the conditions of time and space -compelled me to be content with references to specimens of them in the -_Sacred Books of the East_, from which any ordinary English reader may -be able to form a judgment concerning them. Moreover, when well on with -the work, I discovered that a much more thorough examination of -Professor Seydel’s _Buddhist-Christian Harmony_ than I could profess to -make had already been published by Professor Kellogg of Allegheny, U.S., -in his book on the _Light of Asia and the Light of the World_. An Indian -missionary of eleven years’ experience, and the author of an excellent -Grammar of the Hindi language, can write upon this subject, not only -with greater authority, but to much better purpose, than one who only -knows Indian books through the medium of European translations, and who -has not seldom been compelled to take on trust what he felt strongly -inclined to question. If Dr. Kellogg’s book is not extensively read in -this country, it certainly deserves to be. - -Our sketch has been confined to Buddhism as a religion and as an ethical -system. The philosophy which has grown out of it, and especially the -psychology which lies at the base of its original dogmas, would require -a large volume to expound. A great field is open here for those who have -the ability and the leisure to cultivate it; and though good work has -already been done in it, we may be convinced that, until this psychology -has been more thoroughly investigated, we must continue in uncertainty -as to what original Buddhism was. Though much has been written upon the -origin and growth of Buddhism, the first authoritative words are only -now beginning to be spoken by the learned translators of the Pali texts; -and though they have dispelled illusions and corrected false impressions -not a few, we cannot affirm that there is a strong consensus of opinion -among them as to the life and teaching of the founder of Buddhism. One -is greatly impressed by the modest hesitation with which they have -presented their views, but this very diffidence makes one fear that we -may be attributing to Buddha sayings which he never uttered, or that we -have drawn from them inferences which he would have disowned. - -In working out a sketch like this, the temptation constantly besetting -one is to compare or contrast actual Buddhism with ideal Christianity. - -I have endeavoured to bear in mind that our modern religion may in many -features grossly misrepresent that of its Divine Author, and, indeed, -that “Christianity has all along been much embarrassed in being obliged -to apologise for Christendom.”[401] In like manner I have tried to make -plain the great distinction between the original system of Buddha and -that which very soon came to be known by his name. An Oriental will -certainly misjudge Christianity if he derives his knowledge of it from -mediæval theology or from some nineteenth-century sermons; and we may -unconsciously commit the same mistake in ascribing to the primitive -dogmas the interpretation put upon them by its later schools.[402] I -have read several books in which this mistake was flagrant, and I should -be extremely sorry to follow their bad example. In the present state of -our knowledge, however, and until the earliest texts have been -accurately ascertained, and sifted, and classified, this, to a certain -extent, is inevitable, and therefore excusable. If I have failed in my -attempt to portray accurately even the salient features of this great -religion, it has been from no desire to caricature it. The days have -surely passed when it could be said that we were “too infatuated by a -sense of the superiority of our own to make a fair survey of other -religions.”[403] It is our duty, and it will be for our interest, to do -justice to them, and, instead of being content with the schoolboy’s -endeavour to prove them false, we should seek carefully among the ruins -of the most degraded of them for all the elements of truth we can -discover. It is in this direction that we must proceed if we would find -solid foundations for a true Christian theology, and the more we address -ourselves to the work the more likely shall we be to convince the Church -of the proper value of the Faith deposited in its keeping, and to rouse -it to realise its destiny and fulfil its glorious mission to the world. - -In correcting these sheets for the press, I have often been sensible of -my great obligations to a very highly valued personal friend, whose -goodness was as remarkable as his learning. May I be forgiven if, in -gratitude for his kind and generous help in these very studies, given -now long ago, I desire to keep alive the memory of this justly esteemed -Sanskrit scholar, by adding this little stone to his cairn, and adorning -my book with the name of Dr. John Muir. - -Footnote 401: - - _Eternal Atonement_, by Dr. R. D. Hitchcock, p. 157. - -Footnote 402: - - T. W. Rhys Davids, Hibbert Lectures, p. 196. - -Footnote 403: - - Quinet, _Le Génie des Religions_, p. 13. - -Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to Her Majesty, _at the -Edinburgh University Press_. - - - - - ● Transcriber’s Notes: - ○ Text that was in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_). - ○ Footnotes have been moved to follow the lectures in which they are - referenced. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. 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