CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 mssimsssssssiisssisiss^ 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
 ALFRED C. BARNES 
 
 1899 
 
Cornell University Library 
 BR12S.06 E46 
 
 Oriental religions and christiani' 
 
 olin 
 
 3 1924 031 025 137 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 924031 0251 37 
 
ELY LECTURES, 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY IN THE NINE- 
 TEENTH CENTURY. By Rev. Albert Barnes, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND POSITIVISM. By Rev. James McCosh, 
 D.D., LL.D. 
 
 COMPARATIVE EVIDENCES OF SCIENCE AND CHRIS- 
 TIANITY, By Rev. A. P. Peabody, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 THE DIVINE ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY INDICATED BY 
 ITS HISTORICAL EFFECTS. By Rev Richard S. Storrs, 
 D.D., LL.D. 
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND CHRISTIANITY. By Professor George 
 S. Morris, Ph.D. 
 
 THE MIRACULOUS ELEMENT IN THE GOSPELS. By 
 Professor A. W. Bruce, D.D, 
 
 THE EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. By Rev. 
 Lev^is F. Stearns, D.D. 
 
 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY. By Rev. 
 Frank F. Ellinwood, D.D. 
 
ORIENTAL RELIGIONS 
 
 AND 
 
 CHRISTIANITY 
 
ORIENTAL RELIGIONS 
 
 AND 
 
 CHRISTIANITY 
 
 COURSE OF LECTURES DELIVERED ON THE ELY FOUNDATION 
 
 BEFORE THE STUDENTS OF UNION THEOLOGICAL 
 SEMINARY, NEW YORK, I891 
 
 BY 
 
 FRANK F. JLLINWOOD, D.D. 
 
 SECRETARY OF THE BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
 
 U, S, A.; LECTURER ON COMPARATIVE RELIGION IN THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S S9NS/ /^ 
 
 1892 ^^<!A 
 
Copyright, 1892, by 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 TROW DIRECTORY 
 
 PRINTINQ AND BOOKBINDINQ COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The following lectures, prepared amid many cares 
 and duties, have aimed to deal only with practical 
 questions which are demanding attention in our 
 time. They do not claim to constitute a treatise 
 with close connections and a logical order. Each 
 presets a distinct topic, or a particular phase of 
 the present conflict of Christian truth with the er- 
 rors of the non-Christian religions. This indepen- 
 dent treatment must constitute my apology for an 
 occasional repetition of important facts or opinions 
 which have a common bearing on different discus- 
 sions. No claim is made to scholarship in the 
 Oriental languages. The ability to compare origi- 
 nal sources and determine dates and intricate mean- 
 ings of terms, or settle points in dispute by a wide 
 research in Sanscrit or Pali literatures, can only be 
 obtained by those who spend years in study along 
 these special lines. But so many specialists have 
 now made known the results of their prolonged lin- 
 guistic studies in the form of approved English 
 ^ translations, that, as Professor Max Miiller has well 
 said in his introduction to "The Sacred Books of 
 
vi PBEFAOB 
 
 the Bast," " there is no longer any excuse for ignor- 
 ance of the rich treasures of Oriental Literature. 
 
 Two considerations lend special importance to the 
 topics here discussed. First, that the false systems 
 in question belong not merely to the past, but to our 
 own time. And second, that the increased inter- 
 communication of this age brings us into closer con- 
 tact with them. They are no longer afar off and 
 unheard of, nor are they any longer lying in passive 
 slumber. Having received quickening influences 
 from our Western civilization, and various degrees 
 of sympathy from certain types of Western thought, 
 they have become aggressive and are at our doors. 
 
 On controverted points I have made frequent quo- 
 tations, for the reason that the testimonies or 
 opinions of writers of acknowledged competency are 
 best given in their own words. 
 
 I have labored under a profound conviction that, 
 whatever may be the merit and success of these 
 modest efforts, the general class of subjects treated 
 is destined to receive increased attention in the near 
 future ; that the Christian Church will not long be 
 content to miscalculate the great conquest which she 
 is attempting against the heathen systems of the 
 East and their many alliances with the infidelity of 
 the West. And I am cheered with a belief that, in 
 proportion to the intelligent discrimination which 
 
PREFAOE Vll 
 
 shall be exercised in judging of the non-Christian 
 religions, and the skill which shall be shown in pre- 
 senting the immensely superior truths of the Chris- 
 tian faith, will the success of the great work of 
 Missions be increased. 
 
 It scarcely needs to be said that I have not even 
 attempted to give anything like a complete view of 
 the various systems of which I have spoken. Only 
 a few salient points have been touched upon, as 
 some practical end has required. But if the mere 
 outline here given shall lead any to a fuller investi- 
 gation of the subjects discussed, I shall be content. 
 I am satisfied that the more thoroughly the Gospel 
 of Eedemption is compared with the futile systems 
 of self-righteousness which man has devised, the 
 more wonderful it will appear. 
 
 F. F. BLLINWOOD, 
 New York, January 30, 1893. 
 
TEE ELY LECTUBES—lBn. 
 
 The lectures contained in this volume were deliv- 
 ered to the students of Union Theological Seminary 
 in the year 1891, as one of the courses established in 
 the Seminary by Mr. Zebulon Stiles Ely, in the fol- 
 lowing terms : 
 
 " The undersigned gives the sum of ten thousand dollars to 
 the Union Theological Seminaiy of the city of New York, to 
 found a lectureship in the same, the title of which shall be 
 ' The Elias P. Ely Lectures on the Evidences of Christianity.' 
 
 " The course of lectures given on this foundation is to com- 
 prise any topics that serve to establish the proposition that 
 Christianity is a religion from God, or that it is the perfect 
 and final form of religion for man. 
 
 " Among the subjects discussed may be : 
 
 " The Nature and Need of a Eevelation ; 
 
 " The Character and Influence of Christ and his Apostles ; 
 
 " The Authenticity and Credibility of the Scriptures, Mira- 
 cles, and Prophecy ; 
 
 " The Diffusion and Benefits of Christianity ; and 
 
 " The Philosophy of Religion in its Eelation to the Chris- 
 tian System. 
 
 " Upon one or more of such subjects a coui'se of ten public 
 lectures shall be given, at least once in two or three years. 
 The appointment of the lecturer is to be by the concurrent 
 action of the directors and faculty of said Seminaiy and the 
 undersigned ; and it shall ordinarily be made two yeai-s in ad- 
 vance." 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 LEOTUKE I. 
 
 PAOE 
 
 The Need of Undebstandinq the False Eeligions . , 1 
 
 The New " Soieace of Eeligion " to be Viewed with Discrim- 
 ination — The Study of the Oriental Systems too Long a 
 Monopoly of Anti-Christian Scholars — The Changed 
 Aspects of the Missionary Work — The Significant Ex- 
 perience of Ziegenbalz— Fears Entertained in Reference 
 to this Subject by Timid Believers — The Different View 
 taken of the Old Heathen Systems of Greece and Borne 
 — The Subject Considered from the Standpoint of Mis- 
 sionary Candidates — The Testimony of Intelligent and 
 Experienced Missionaries — Reasons for Studying Orien- 
 tal Systems Found in the Increased Intercourse of the 
 Nations; in the Intellectual Quickening of Oriental 
 Minds by Education ; in the Resistance and even Aggres- 
 siveness of Heathen Systems ; in the Diversities of the 
 Buddhist Faith in Different Lands — False Systems to 
 be Studied with a Candid Spirit — The Distinction to be 
 Drawn between Religion and Ethics — Reasons why a 
 Missionary should Pursue these Studies before Arriving 
 on his Field — Reasons why the Ministry at Home Should 
 Acquaint Themselves with Heathen Systems — Their Ac- 
 tive Alliance with Various Forms of Western Infidelity — 
 Intellectual -Advantages to be Derived from such Studies 
 — A Broader and Warmer Sympathy with Universal Hu- 
 manity to be Gained — A Better Understanding of the 
 Unique Supremacy of the Gospel as the Only Hope of 
 the World — Pastors at Home are also Missionaries to the 
 Heathen — They are Sharers in the Conflict through the 
 Press. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 LEOTUKB n. 
 
 FAOE 
 
 The Methods op the Early Chkistian Chttech in 
 Dealing with Heathenism 
 
 The Coincidences of the Present Struggle with that of the 
 First Christian Centuries — The Medieval Missionary 
 Work of a Simple Character— That of India, Japan, 
 China, and the Turkish Empire a Severe Intellectual 
 Struggle as well as a Spiritual Conquest— Hinduism, 
 Buddhism, Confucianism, and Islam, present Obstacles 
 and Resistances Similar to those of Ancient Greece and 
 Rome — How far Contrasts Appear between the Early 
 and the Present Conquests — The Methods of Paul— His 
 Tact in Recognizing Truth wherever Found, and Using 
 it for his Purpose — The Attitude of the Early Christian 
 Fathers toward the Heathen — Augustine's Acknowledg- 
 ment of the Good which he Received from Cicero and 
 Plato — The Important Elements which Platonism 
 Lacked, and which were Found Only in the Gospel of 
 Christ — The Great Secret of Power in the Early Church 
 Found in its Moral Earnestness, as Shown by Simplicity 
 of Life, and especially by Constancy even Unto a Mar- 
 tyr's Death— The Contrast between the Frugality of the 
 Early Church and the Luxury and Vice of Roman Socie- 
 ty — The Great Need of this Element of Success at the 
 Present Time — The Observance of a Wise Discrimination 
 in the Estimate of Heathen Philosophy by the Great 
 Leaders of the Early Church — The Generality with 
 which Classical Studies were Pursued by the Sons of the 
 more Enlightened Christian Fathers — Method Among 
 the Leaders — The Necessity for a thorough Knowledge 
 
 of the Systems to be Met, as it was then Recognized 
 
 The thorough Preparation of Augustine, Ambrose, Irse- 
 neus, and Others for their Work— Origen's Masterly and 
 Successful Reply to Celsus-^The Use Made by the Early 
 Fathers and by the Churches of a Later Day of the 
 Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle — Heathenism thus 
 Conquered with its Own Weapons. 
 
 39 
 
CONTENTB xi 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 PAOE 
 
 The Successive Developments op HmDuisM 73 
 
 The Great Variety in India's Religious Systems — The Early 
 Monotheistic Nature Worship and its Gradual Lapse 
 Into Polytheism — The Influence of Buvironmeut 
 on the Development of Systems — The Distinction te- 
 tweeii Aryanism and Brahmanism, and the Ahuses of 
 the Latter in its Doctrines of Sacriiice and Caste — The 
 Causes which Led to the Overthrow of this System of 
 Sacerdotalism — The Upanishads and the Beginnings 
 of Philosophy — The Rise of Buddhism and the Six 
 Schools of Philosophy — Points in Common between 
 them — The Code of Manu and its Countercheck to 
 Rationalism — Its Development and its Scope, its Merits 
 and Demerits — The Meaning of the Word Hinduism as 
 here Used and the Means by which it Gained Ascendency 
 — The Place and Influence of the Two Great Hindu 
 Epics, their Origin, the Compromise which they 
 Wrought, and the New and Important Doctrines which 
 They Developed — The Trimurti and the Incarnations of 
 Vishnu — The Deterioratioil of the Literature and the 
 Faith of India — The Puranas and the Tantras — The 
 Parallels between Hinduism and Christianity. 
 
 LECTURE rv. 
 
 The Bhagavad Gita and the New Testament Ill 
 
 The Great Interest Felt in this Poem by a Certain Class of 
 Readers — Its Alleged Parallels to the Scriptures— The 
 Plausibility of the Recent Translation by Mr. Mohini M. 
 Chatterji— Its Patronizing Catholicity — The Same Claim 
 to Broad Charity by Chander Sen and Others — Panthe- 
 ism Sacrifices nothing to Charity, because God is in All 
 Things — All Moral Responsibility Ceases since God Acts 
 in Us— Mr. Chatterji's Broad Knowledge of Our Script- 
 
xii 00NTENT8 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ures, and his Skill in Selecting Passages for His Pur- 
 pose—His Pleasing Style— The Story of Krishna and 
 Arjuna Told iu the Interest of Caste and Pantheism— 
 The Growth of the Krishna Cult from Popular Legends 
 —The Origin of the Bhagavad Gita and its Place in the 
 Mahabharata— Its Use of the Six Philosophies— Krish- 
 na's Exhortation- The Issue of the Battle in which Ar- 
 juna is TTrged to Engage— The "Resemblances" Ex- 
 plained by their Pantheistic Interpretation — Fancied 
 Resemblances which are only in the Sound of Words — 
 Coincidences Springing from Similar Causes — The To- 
 tally Different Meaning which Pantheism gives them — 
 Difference between Union with Christ and the Pantheis- 
 tic Pervasion of the Infinite— The Differentials of Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 BtTDDHISM AND CHEISTIANITT 140 
 
 New Interest in Old Controversies Concerning Buddhism — 
 Max Miiller's Reply to the Alleged Influence of the Sys- 
 tem on Christianity — The Distinction to be made between 
 the Credible History of Gautama and Later Legends — 
 The Legends of the Pre-existent States and the Wonders 
 Attending the Earthly Life — The Northern and the 
 Southern Buddhism — The Sources of the Principal 
 Legends — The Four Principal Doctrines of Buddhism, 
 Skandas, Trishna, Kharma, and Nirvana — Difficulties in 
 the Doctrines of Kharma and Nirvana — Various Opin- 
 ions of Scholars in Regard to the Nature of Nirvana — 
 Buddha's Final Reticence on the Subject — The Real 
 Goal at which the Average Buddhist Aims — The Need 
 of a Careful Estimate of the Merits and Demerits of 
 Buddhism, and of the Hold which it is likely to have 
 on Western Minds — Its Points of Contact with Western 
 Errors — The Fact that Modern Buddhism, like many 
 other False Systems, Claims Christ as a Believer in its 
 Principles— The Theory that the Life of Christ is Mod- 
 
CONTENTS xiii 
 
 PAGE 
 
 elled after that of the Buddha— The Superior Authen- 
 ticity of the Life of Christ— The Unreliable Character of 
 Buddhist Legends— The Intrinsic Improbability that a 
 Religion claiming a Distinct Derivation from Jewish 
 Sources would Borrow from a far-off Heathen System — 
 The Contrast of Christ's Loving Eecognition of the 
 Father in Heaven with the Avowed Atheism of Bud- 
 dhism—The General Spirit of the System Forbids all 
 Thought of Borrowing from it— Points of Contrast. 
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 Mohammedanism Past ajsd Pbesbht 178 
 
 Posthumous Legends of Mohammed ; how they were Pro- 
 duced — Ancient Arabia and its Religious Systems — The 
 Vale of Mecca and its Former Uses — The Birth of Mo- 
 hammed, and his Religious Associations — His Tempera- 
 ment and Character — The Beginnings of his Prophetic 
 Mission — Jews and Christians in Arabia and their Influ- 
 ence on Mohammedanism — Their Errors and Shortcom- 
 ings a Help to the Reformer — Strange Doctrines of the 
 Christian Church in Ai-abia — The Lost Opportunity of the 
 Early Christian Sects and the Fatal Neglect of the Sur- 
 rounding Nations — The Nomads of Arabia specially Pre- 
 pared for Conquest by their Manner of Life and their 
 Enlistment as Mercenary Soldiers — The Question of Mo- 
 hammed's Real Character — The Growth of his Ambition 
 and his Increasing Sensuality and Cruelty — Blasphemous 
 Revelations in Behalf of the Prophet's Own Lust — Dis- 
 criminating Judgment Required on his Career as a Whole 
 — Mohammedan Schools — Noble Characters the Excep- 
 tion — General Corrupting Influence of the System — 
 Its Conquests in Northern Africa and in the Soudan — 
 The Early Races of Northern Africa, and the General 
 Deterioration of the Country — The Piracies of the Bar- 
 bary States — Civilization in Modern Egypt Due to For- 
 pigners —The Bloody Ravages of El Mahdi in the Bast 
 
xiv CONTENTS 
 
 FAGS 
 
 and the Panatio Samadu in the West— The Testimony of 
 a Secular Newspaper Correspondent— Professor Dmm- 
 mond and Henry M. Stanley on the Slave Traffic and 
 Mohammedan Civilization — The Alleged Missionary 
 Operations of Mohammedans in West Soudan— The Ac- 
 count Given of Them by Bishop Crowther, Schwein- 
 furth, and Others — Canon Taylor and the Egyptian 
 Pashas— The Effects of European Education- Palgrave 
 on Mohammedan Intolerance of To-day— Mohammedan- 
 ism and Temperance; Exaggerated Accounts of it; 
 Proofs to the Contrary— E. Bosworth Smith's Protest 
 against Canon Taylor's Extravagant Glorification of Islam 
 — His Plea for Missions. 
 
 LECTURE Vn. 
 
 The Teaces of a PsiMiTrrE Monotheism 323 
 
 Two Conflicting Theories on the History of Religion — That of 
 the Old and New Testaments— That of Modern Evolution 
 — The Importance of this Question — Professor Henry B. 
 Smith's Estimate of Ehrard's Discussion of it — Bbrard's 
 Summing-up of the Argument — Professor Naville's View 
 of the Subject- Conclusions of Rev. W. A. P. Martin, 
 D.D., and Max Miiller— How far May we Attempt to Es- 
 tablish the Fact of an Early Monotheism from Heathen 
 Traditions ? — Conceptions Differing in Different Nations 
 — Evidences of Monotheism in the Vedas — Professor 
 Banergea's Testimony — The Views Held hy the Modern 
 Somajes — Monotheism in China— Monotheistic Worship 
 in the Days of Yao and Shun, 3300 B.C.— The Prayer of 
 an Emperor of the Ming Dynasty Quoted by Professor 
 Legge — Remarkable Monument of Monotheism in the 
 Temple of Heaven — A Taonist Prayer — Zoroaster a Mon- 
 otheistic Reformer — The Inscription at Behistun — Testi- 
 mony of the Modern Parsee Catechism — No Nation with- 
 out some Notion of a God Supreme over All — Buddhists 
 in Thibet — Egyptian Monotheism — The Greek Poets . 
 
OONTENTS XV 
 
 Old Monotheism in Mexico and Peru — Evidences of 
 Ramification and Decline in Polytheism — Egypt and In- 
 dia Give Abundant Proofs— Hinduism, Buddhism, and 
 Taouism all Show Degeneration — Mohammedan Corrup- 
 tion since the Days of the Early Caliphs — The Religions 
 of Greece and Rome Became Effete — Even Israel, in 
 Spite of Instruction and Reproof, Lapsed into Idolatry 
 again and again — Even the Christian Church has Shown 
 Similar Tendencies. 
 
 LECTURE VIIL 
 
 INDIBBCT Tributes of Heathen Systems to the Doc- 
 trines OF THE Bible 366 
 
 The TTniversality and Similarity of Race Traditions — Their 
 General Support of the Old Testament History — Tradi- 
 tions of the Creation Pound in India, China, among the 
 Northern Turanians and some African Tribes — The Fall 
 of Man as Traced in Assyria and among the Hindus — 
 The Buddhists of Ceylon, Mongolians, Africans and 
 Tahitans had Similar Traditions — The Flood — Traditions 
 of the Chinese, the Iranians, Greeks, Assyrians, Chal- 
 deans, and Peruvians — The Prevalence of Piaonlar Sac- 
 rifice and Tokens of a Sense of Guilt — Traditions or 
 Traces of Substitution Found in the Vedas — Paint Traces 
 in the Religion of the Egyptians — Traditions of the Iro- 
 quois— Prophecies Looking to Divine Deliverers — The 
 Tenth Avatar of Vishnu yet to Come as a Restorer of 
 Righteousness — The Influence of the Tradition as Util- 
 ized by a Missionary — A Norse Deliverer and Millennium 
 — The Prediction of the Cumaean Sibyl Forty Tears be- 
 fore the Birth of Christ— Prevailing Conceptions of some 
 Mediator between God and Man — The Hindu Krishna as 
 an Example — Changes in Buddhism from the Old Athe- 
 ism to Theism, and even to a Doctrine of Salvation by 
 Faith — A Trinity and at last a Saviour — All the False 
 Systems Claiming the Teachings and the Character of 
 Christ. 
 
294 
 
 xvi O0NTSNT8 
 
 LBCTTJEE IX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Ethical Tendencies op the Eastern and the West- 
 EHN Philosophies 
 
 The Prevalence of Speculatiou in all Ages in Regard to the 
 Great Questions of Man's Origin and Destiny, and His Re- 
 lations to God— The Various Schemes which have Seem- 
 ingly Dispensed with the Necessity for a Creator in Ac- 
 counting for the Existence of the Visible World— The 
 Ancient Atomic Theories and Modern Evolution — Kan- 
 ada, Lucretius, Herbert Spencer — Darwin's Theory of 
 the Development of Species — Similar Theories Ascribed 
 to the Chinese — The Ethical Difficulties Attending Many 
 Philosophic Speculations, Ancient and Modern — Hindu 
 Pantheism and Moral Responsibility — In the Advance 
 from Instinct to Conscience and Religion, where does 
 Moral Sentiment Begin ? — If It was Right for Primeval 
 Man to Maraud, why Might not Robbery again Become 
 His Duty in Case of Extreme Deterioration ? — Mr. Spen- 
 cer's Theory of the Origin of Moral Intuition — The 
 Nobler Origin which the Scriptures Assign to Man's 
 Moral Nature — The Demonstrated Possibility of the Most 
 Radical and Sudden Moral Changes Produced by the 
 Christian Faith — Tendency of Ancient and Modern The- 
 ories to Lower the General Estimate of Man — The Dig- 
 nity with which the New Testament Invests Him — The 
 Ethical Tendency of the Doctrine of Evolution— The 
 Opinion Expressed on the Subject by Goldwin Smith — 
 Peschel's Prank Admission — The Pessimistic Tendency 
 of all Anti-Biblical Theories of Man's Origin, Life, and 
 Destiny — Buddha, Schopenhauer, and the Agnostics — 
 The more Hopeful Influence of the Bible — The Ten- 
 dency of all Heathen Religions and all Anti - Christian 
 Philosophies toward Fatalism — Pantheism and the 
 Philosophy of Spinoza Agreeing in this Respect with 
 the Hindu Vedantism — The Late Samuel Johnson's 
 "Piety of Pantheism," and His Definition of Fatal- 
 
CONTENTS xvii 
 
 PASE 
 
 ism — What Saves the Scriptural Doctrine of Fore-or- 
 dination from Fatalism — The Province of Faith and of 
 Trust. 
 
 LECTURE X. 
 
 The DrviNB Supebmacy of the OHKiSTiAisr Faith 388 
 
 The Claim that Christianity is the only True Religion — The 
 Peculiar Tendencies of Modern Times to Deny this Su- 
 premacy and Monopoly — It is not Enough in Such 
 Times to Simply Ignore the Challenge— The Unique 
 Claim must be Defended — First : Christianity Is Dif- 
 ferentiated from all Other Religions by the Fact of a 
 Divine Sacrifice for Sin — Mohammedanism, though 
 Founded on a Belief in the True God and Partly on the 
 Old Testament Teachings, Offers no Saviour — No Idea 
 of Fatherhood is Pound in any Non-Christian Faith — 
 The Gloom of Buddhism and the Terror of Savage 
 Tribes — Hinduism a System of Self-Help Merely — The 
 Recognized Grandeur of the Principle of Self -Sacrifice as 
 Reflected from Christ — Augustine Found a Way of Life 
 only in His Divine Sacrifice — Second : No Other Faith 
 than Christianity is Made Effectual by the Power of a 
 Divine and Omnipotent Spirit — The Well- Attested Pact 
 of Radical Transformations of Character — Other Systems 
 have Made Converts only by Warlike Conquest or by 
 Such Motives as might Appeal to the Natural Heart — 
 Christianity Rises above all Other Systems in the Divine 
 Personality of Christ— The Contrast in this Respect be- 
 tween Him and the Authors of the Non-Christian Systems 
 — His Attractions and His Power Acknowledged by all 
 Classes of Men — The Inferiority of Socrates as Compared 
 with Christ — Bushnell's Tribute to the Perfection of this 
 Divine Personality — Its Power Attested in the Life of Paul 
 — The Adaptation of Christianity to all the Circumstances 
 and Conditions of Life — Abraham and the Vedic Patri- 
 archs, Moses and Manu, David's Joy and Gratitude, and 
 the Gloom of Hindu or Buddhist Philosophy — Only 
 
xviii CONTENTS 
 
 Txev 
 Christianity Brings Man to True Penitence and Humility 
 — The Eeoognized Beauty and the Convincing Lesson of 
 the Prodigal Son— The Contrast between Mohammed's 
 Blasphemous Suras, which Justify his Lust, and the Deep 
 Contrition of David in the Fifty-first Psalm— Tlie Moral 
 Purity of the Old and New Testaments as Contrasted with 
 all Other Sacred Books — The Scriptures Pure though 
 Written in Ages of Corruption and Surrounded by Im- 
 moral Influences — Ciirist Belongs to no Land or Age — 
 The Gospel Alone is Adapted to all Races and all Time as 
 the Universal Beligfion of Mankind — Onl."- Christianity 
 Recognizes the True Relation between Divine Help and 
 Human Effort — It Encourages by Omnipotent Co- opera- 
 tion — The All-Comprehensive Presentation of the Gos- 
 pel. 
 
 Appendix 381 
 
ORIENTAL RELIGIONS 
 
 AND 
 
 CHRISTIANITY 
 
 LEOTUEE I. 
 
 THE NEED OF UNDERSTANDING THE FALSE RELIGIONS 
 
 It is said that the very latest among the sciences is 
 the Science of Eeligion. Without pausing to inquire 
 how far it admits of scientific treatment, certain rea- 
 sons which may be urged for the study of the exist- 
 ing religions of the world will be considered in this 
 lecture. It must be admitted in the outset that 
 those who have been the pioneers in this field of re- 
 search have not, as a rule, been advocates of the 
 Christian faith. The anti-Christian theory that all 
 rehgions may be traced to common causes, that com- 
 mon wants and aspirations of mankind have led to 
 the development of various systems according to en- 
 vironment, has imtil recently been the chief spur to 
 this class of studies. Accordingly, the religions of 
 the world have been submitte'd to some preconceived 
 philosophy of language, or ethnology, or evolution, 
 
2 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 with the emphasis placed upon such facts as seemed 
 to comport with this theory. Meanwhile there has 
 been an air of broad-minded charity in the manner 
 in which the apologists of Oriental systems have 
 treated the subject. They have included Christ in 
 the same category with Plato and Confucius, and 
 have generally placed Him at the head; and this 
 supposed breadth of sentiment has given them a de- 
 gree of influence with dubious and wavering Chris- 
 tians, as well as with multitudes who are without 
 faith of any kind. 
 
 In this country the study of comparative religion 
 has been almost entirely in the hands of non-evan- 
 gelical writers. We have had "The Ten Great Re- 
 ligions," from the pen of Kev. James Freeman 
 Clarke ; "The Oriental Religions," written with great 
 labor by the late Samuel Johnson ; and Mr. Moncure 
 D. Conway's " Anthology," with its flowers, gathered 
 from the sacred books of all systems, and so chosen 
 as to carry the implication that they all are equally 
 inspired. Many other works designed to show that 
 Christianity was developed from ancient sun myths, 
 or was only a plagiarism upon the old mythologies 
 of India, have been current among us. But strange- 
 ly enough, the Christian Church has seemed to re- 
 gard this subject as scarcely worthy of serious con- 
 sideration. With the exception of a very able work 
 on Buddhism,* and several review articles on Hin- 
 duism, written by Professor S. H. Kellogg, very 
 little has been published from the Christian stand- 
 
 * The Light of Ada and the Light of the World. Maomillan & 
 Co. 
 
TEE STUDY OF THE FALSE BELIOIONS 3 
 
 point.* The tenn " heathenism " has been used as 
 an expression of contempt, and has been applied 
 with too little discrimination. 
 
 There is a reason, perhaps, why these systems 
 have been underestimated. It so happened that the 
 races among whom the modern missionary enterprise 
 has carried on its earlier work were mostly simple 
 types of pagans, found in the wilds of America, in 
 Greenland and Labrador, in the West Indies, on the 
 African coast, or in the islands of the Pacific ; and 
 these worshippers of nature or of spirits gave a very 
 different impression from that which the Apostles 
 and the Early Church gained from their intercourse 
 with the conquering Romans or the polished and 
 philosophic Greeks. Our missionary work has been 
 symbolized, as Sir William W. Hunter puts it, by a 
 band of half-naked savages listening to a missionary 
 seated imder a palm-tree, and receiving his message 
 with child- like and unquestioning faith. 
 
 But in the opening of free access to the great 
 Asiatic nations, higher grades of men have been 
 found, and with these we now have chiefly to do. The 
 pioneer of India's missions, the devoted Ziegenbalg, 
 had not been long in his field before he learned the 
 mistake which the churches in Europe had made in 
 regard to the religion and philosophy of the Hindus. 
 He laid aside all his old notions when he came to 
 encounter the metaphysical subtleties of Hindu 
 thought, when he learned something of the immense 
 
 * The late Professor Moffat, of Princeton Theological Seminary, 
 published a Comparatwe History of Bdigions, but its field was 
 too broad for a thorough treatment. 
 
4 ORIENTAL BELIGIONS AND 0SBI8TIANIT7 
 
 Hindu literature, the voluminous ethics, the mysti- 
 cal and weird mythologies, the tremendous power of 
 tradition and social customs — when, in short, he 
 found his way hedged up by habits of thought 
 wholly different from his own ; and he resolved to 
 know something of the religion which the people of 
 India already possessed. 
 
 For the benefit of others who might follow him he 
 wrote a book on Hinduism and its relations to Chris- 
 tianity, and sent it to Europe for publication. But 
 so strong were the preconceived notions which pre- 
 vailed among his brethren at home, that his manu- 
 script, instead of being published, was suppressed. 
 " Tou were not sent to India to study Hinduism," 
 wrote Franke, " but to preach the Gospel." But 
 Ziegenbalg certainly was not wanting in his estimate 
 of the chief end in view, and his success was un- 
 doubtedly far greater for the intelligent plan upon 
 which he labored. The time came when a change 
 had passed over the society which had sent him 
 forth. Others, less friendly than he to the Gospel 
 of Christ, had studied Hinduism, and had paraded 
 it as a rival of Christianity ; and in self-defence 
 against this flank movement, the long-neglected 
 work of Ziegenbalg was brought forth from obscu- 
 rity and published. 
 
 It is partly in self-defence against similar influ- 
 ences, that the Christian Church everywhere is now 
 turning increased attention to the study of Compara- 
 tive Eeligion. In Great Britain a wider interest has 
 been felt in the subject than in this coxmtry. And 
 yet, even there the Church has been far behind the 
 
THE STUDY OF THE FALSE BELI9I0NS 5 
 
 enemies of evangelical truth in comparing Christian- 
 ity with false systems. Dr. James Stalker, of Glas- 
 gow, said a few months since that, whereas it might 
 be expected that the advocates of the true faith 
 would be the first to compare and contrast it with 
 the false systems of the world, the work had been 
 left rather to those who were chiefly interested in 
 disparaging the truth and exalting error. Yet some- 
 thing has been done. Such men as Sir Monier 
 WiUiams, Sir William Muir, Professors Eawlinson, 
 Fairbaim, and Legge, Bishop Carpenter, Canon 
 Hardwick, Doctors Caird, Dodds, Mitchell, and 
 others, have given the false systems of the East a 
 thorough and candid treatment from the Christian 
 standpoint. The Church Missionary Society holds 
 a lectureship devoted to the study of the non-Chris- 
 tian religions as a preparation for missionary work. 
 And the representatives of that Society in the Pun- 
 jab have instituted a course of study on these lines 
 for missionaries recently arrived, and have offered 
 prizes for the best attainments therein. Though we 
 are later in this field of investigation, yet here also 
 there is springing up a new interest, and it is safe 
 to predict that within another decade the real char- 
 acter of the false religions will be more generally 
 imderstood. 
 
 The prejudice which has existed in regard to this 
 subject has taken two different forms : First, there 
 has been the broad assumption upon which Pranke 
 wrote to Ziegenbalg, that all knowledge of heathen- 
 ism is worse than useless. Good men are asking, 
 " Is not such a study a waste of energy, when we are 
 
6 ORIENTAL BELiaiONB AND OHBIBTIANITT 
 
 charged with proclaiming the only saving truth? Is 
 not downright earnestness better than any possible 
 knowledge of philosophies and superstitions ? " And 
 we answer, " Yes : by aU means, if only the one is 
 possible." Another view of the subject is more seri- 
 ous. May there not, after all, be danger in the 
 study of false systems? WiU there not be found 
 perplexing parallels which will shake our trust in 
 the positive and exclusive supremacy of the Chris- 
 tian faith ? 
 
 Now, even if there were at first some risks to a 
 simple, child-like confidence, yet a timid attitude in- 
 volves far greater risks : it amounts to a half sur- 
 render, and it is wholly out of place in this age of 
 fearless and aggressive discussion, when aU truth is 
 challenged, and every form of error must be met. 
 Moreover, in a thorough study there is no danger. Sir 
 Monier Williams tells us that at first he was surprised 
 and a little troubled, but in the end he was more 
 than ever impressed with the transcendent truths of 
 the Christian faith. Professor S. H. Kellogg assures 
 us that the result of his careful researches in the 
 Oriental systems is a profounder conviction of the 
 great truths of the Gospel as divine. And even 
 Max Miiller testifies that, while making every allow- 
 ance for whatever is good in the ethnic faiths, he 
 has been the more fully convinced of the great supe- 
 riority of Christianity. Really, those are in danger 
 who receive only the superficial and misleading rep- 
 resentations of heathenism which one is sure to meet 
 in our magazine literature, or iu works like " Robert 
 Elsmere " and " The Light of Asia." 
 
THE STJJDT OF THE FALSE BELIOI0N8 7 
 
 One cannot fail to mark the different light in 
 which we view the mythologies of the Greeks and 
 Eomans. If their religious beliefs and speculations 
 had remained a secret until our time, if the high 
 ethical precepts of Seneca and Marcus Aurelius had 
 only now been proclaimed, and Socrates had just 
 been celebrated in glowing verse as the " Light of 
 Greece," there would be no little commotion in the 
 religious world, and thousands with only weak and 
 troubled faith might be disturbed. But simply be- 
 cause we thoroughly understand the mythology of 
 Greece and Rome, we have no fear. We welcome all 
 that it can teach us. We cordially acknowledge the 
 virtues of Socrates and assign him his true place. 
 We enrich the fancy and awaken the intellectual en- 
 ergies of our youth by classical studies, and Christi- 
 anity shines forth with new lustre by contrast with 
 the heathen systems which it encountered in the 
 Roman Empire ages ago. 
 
 And yet that was no easy conquest. The early 
 church, when brought face to face with the culture of 
 Greece and the self-assertion of Eoman power, when 
 confronted with profound philosophies like those of 
 Plato and Aristotle, with the subtleties of the Sto- 
 ics, and with countless admixtures of Persian mys- 
 ticism, had, humanly speaking, quite as formidable a 
 task as those that are presented in the heathen sys- 
 tems of to-day. Very few of the champions of mod- 
 em heathenism can compare with Celsus, and there 
 are no more subtle philosophies than those of ancient 
 Greece. Evidently, the one thing needed to disen- 
 chant the false systems of our time is a clear and ac- 
 
8 OBIENTAL BELWIONS AND OBBIBTIANTTT 
 
 curate knowledge of their merits and demerits, and 
 of their true relation to Christianity. 
 
 It will be of advantage, for one thing, if we learn 
 to give credit to the ■ non-Christian religions for the 
 good which they may fairly claim. There has existed 
 a feehng that they had no rights which Christian 
 men were bound to respect. They have been looked 
 upon as systems of unmixed evil, whose enormities 
 it were impossible to exaggerate. And all such mis- 
 conceptions and exaggerations have only led to seri- 
 ous reactions. Anti-Christian writers have made 
 great capital of the alleged misrepresentations which 
 zealous friends of missions have put upon heathen- 
 ism ; and there is always great force in any appeal 
 for fair play, on whichever side the truth may lie. 
 Where the popular Christian idea has presented a 
 low view of some system, scarcely rising above the 
 grade of fetichism, the apologists have triumphantly 
 displayed a profound philosophy. Where the masses 
 of Christian people have credited whole nations with 
 no higher notions of worship than a supreme trust 
 in senseless stocks and stones, some skiKul defender 
 has claimed that the idols were only the outward 
 synibols of an indwelling conception of deity, and 
 has proceeded with keen relish to point out a similar 
 use of symbols in the pictures and images of the 
 Christian Church. 
 
 From one extreme many people have passed to 
 another, and in the end have credited heathen sys- 
 tems with greater merit than they possess. A 
 marked illustration of this fact is found in the influ- 
 ence which was produced by Sir Edwin Arnold's 
 
THE BTUDY OF THE FALSE RELIGIONS 9 
 
 "Light of Asia." Sentimental readers, passing from 
 surprise to credulity, were ready to invest the " gen- 
 tle Indian Saint " with Christian conceptions which 
 no real Buddhist ever thought of. Mr. Arnold him- 
 self is said to have expressed surprise that people 
 should have given to his poem so serious an inter- 
 pretation, or should have imagined for a moment 
 that he intended to compare Buddhism with the 
 higher and purer teachings of the New Testament. 
 
 In considering some of the reasons which may be 
 urged for the study of false systems, we will first 
 proceed from the standpoint of the candidate for the 
 work of missions. And here there is a broad and 
 general reason which seems too obvious to require 
 much argument. The skilful general or the civil 
 engineer is supposed, of course, to survey the field of 
 contemplated operations ere he enters upon his work. 
 The late Dr. Duff, in urging the importance of a 
 thorough understanding of the systems which a mis- 
 sionary expects to encounter, illustrated his point by 
 a reference to the great Akbar, who before entering 
 upon the conquest of India, twice visited the country 
 in disguise, that he might gain a complete knowledge 
 of its topography, its strongholds, and its points of 
 weakness, and the best methods of attack. 
 
 While all religious teachers must understand their 
 tasks, the need of special preparation is particularly 
 urgent in the foreign missionary, owing to his change 
 of environment. Many ideas and methods to which 
 he has been trained, and which would serve him well 
 among a people of his own race, might be wholly out 
 of place in India or Chiaa. Earn Chandra Bose, M. A. 
 
10 OBIBNTAL RELIGIONS AND OHBIBTIANITT 
 
 — himself a converted Brahman — ^has treated with 
 great discrimination the argument frequently used, 
 that the missionary " need only to proclaim the Glad 
 Tidings." He says : " That the simple story of Christ 
 and him crucified is, after all, the truth on which the 
 regeneration of the Christian and the non-Christiaa 
 lands must hang, no one will deny. This story, ever 
 fresh, is inherently fitted to touch the dead heart into 
 life, and to infuse vitality into effete nationalities aiid 
 dead civilizations. But a great deal of rubbish has 
 to be removed in heathen lands, ere its legitimate 
 consequences can be realized. And a patient, persist- 
 ent study of the false religions, and the complicated 
 systems of philosophy associated with them, enables 
 the missionary to throw out of the way those heaps 
 of prejudices and errors which make it impossible 
 for the story of the cross to reach and influence the 
 heart." * It has been very wisely said that " any frag- 
 ment of truth which lies in a heathen mind un- 
 acknowledged is an insuperable barrier against con- 
 viction : recognized and used, it might prove a help ; 
 neglected and ignored, it is insurmountable." f 
 
 The late Dr. Mullens learned by careful observa- 
 tion, that the intellectual power of the Hindus had 
 been so warped by false reasoning, that " they could 
 scarcely imderstand how, when two principles are 
 contradictory, one must be given up as false. They 
 are prepared to receive both sides of a contradiction 
 as true, and they feel at liberty to adopt that which 
 seems the most comfortable. And nothing but a 
 full exposure of evil, with a clear statement of the 
 * Methoclist Quarterly, f Quoted in Manual of India Missions. 
 
THE STUDY OF THE FALSE BELIOI0N8 11 
 
 antagonistic truth, will sufSce to awaken so pervert- 
 ed an intellect." * 
 
 The missionary has often been surprised to find 
 that the idea which he supposed was clearly under- 
 stood, was wholly warped by the medium of Hindu 
 thought, as a rod is apparently warped when plunged 
 into a stream, or as a beautiful countenance is dis- 
 torted by the waves and irregularities of an imperfect 
 mirror. To the preacher, sin, for example, is an 
 enormity in the sight of God ; but to his Hindu 
 listener it may be only a breach of custom, or a 
 ceremonial uncleanness. The indwelling of the Holy 
 Spirit, as it is set forth in Paul's Epistles, is to the 
 missionary a union in which his personality is still 
 maintained in blest fellowship with God, while to his 
 audience it may be only that out and out pantheism 
 in which the deity within us supplants all individual 
 personality, and not only excludes all joy, but aU re- 
 sponsibility. 
 
 Professor W. G. T. Shedd has clearly pointed out 
 the fact that the modern missionary has a harder 
 task in dealing with the perversions of the heathen 
 mind than that to which the Apostles of the Early 
 Church were called, owing to the prevalence in India 
 and elsewhere of that pantheism which destroys 
 the sense of moral responsibility. He says : " The 
 Greek and Eoman theism left the human will free 
 and responsible, and thus the doctrine of sin could 
 be taught. But the pantheistic systems of the East 
 destroy free will, by identifying God and man ; and 
 hence it is impossible to construct the doctrine of 
 * Manual of India Missions. 
 
12 OBtENTAL BBLIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 sin and atonement except by first refuting the pan- 
 theistic ethics. The missionary can get no help 
 from conscience in his preaching, when this theory oi 
 God and the world has the groimd. But St. Paul 
 appealed confidently ' to every man's conscience in 
 the sight of God,' and called upon the ethics and ^ 
 theology of the Greek and Eoman philosophers for * 
 a corroboration. The early Apologists, Tertullian 
 and others, did the same thing." 
 
 The testimonies which have been given withia the 
 last few years, by the most intelligent and observing 
 missionaries in Eastern lands, are of such peculiar 
 significance and force, that I shall be justified in 
 quoting a few at some length. Eev. George William 
 Knox, D.D., of Tokio, Japan, in accepting an elec- 
 tion to an honorary membership of the American 
 Society of Comparative Eehgion, wrote, December 
 17, 1890 : " I am deeply in sympathy with the ob- 
 jects of the Society, as ind.eed every missionary must 
 be. We have practical demonstrations of the value 
 of research into the ethnic religions. Even at home 
 the value of such research has already been great,- 
 but in these non-Christian lands it is indispensa- 
 ble. It is true that non-Christian systems, as found 
 among the people, rarely exhibit the forms or the 
 doctrines which we learn from books, but I presume 
 the same would be said by an intelligent Asiatic, 
 were he to study our sacred books and then compare 
 results with much of the religion which calls itself 
 Christian in the West. And yet for the study even 
 of the most debased forms of Christianity in South 
 America or Mexico, let us say, we must needs begin 
 
TEE STUDY OP THE FALSE RELIGIONS 13 
 
 with our sacred books. And so it is with debased 
 Buddhism in Japan. The Buddhism of Ceylon and 
 of the books is unknown to this people, and when it 
 is used as the basis of argument or exposition we do 
 not hit the mark. Yet, after all, our debt is immeas- 
 urable to the societies and scholars that have made 
 accessible the sources that ha^e yielded at last such 
 systems as are dominant here. 
 
 '• The study of non-Christian systems is essential 
 to the missionary, even though he does not refer to 
 them ia his preaching, but contents himself with de- 
 liYering the Gospel message. And that is the rule 
 with missionaries, so far as I know. But a knowl- 
 edge of the native systems is imperative, that we 
 may properly present our own. Otherwise we waste 
 time in teaching over again that which is already 
 fully known, or we so speak that our truth takes on 
 the form of error, or we so underestimate the thought 
 of those whom we address, that the preaching of the 
 wisdom of God sounds in their ears the preaching of 
 foolishness. The adaptation of preaching to the 
 hearers of Asiatic lands is a task that may well make 
 us thankful for every help that may be furnished 
 us. . . . The missionary is far too apt to come 
 from the West with exalted notions of his own su- 
 periority, and with a feeling of condescending pity 
 for men who, perhaps, have pondered the deep 
 things of the universe far more than he. Let him 
 really master a philosophy like the Confucian, and 
 he will better illustrate the Christian grace of hu- 
 mility, and be so much the better prepared for his 
 work. His study will show him how astonishing is 
 
14: ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND OHRISTIANITT 
 
 the light that has shone upon those men whom he 
 has thought of as wholly in darkness. It will thus 
 show him the true way of approach, and enable him 
 to follow the lines of least resistance. It will also 
 reveal to him what is the essential character of the 
 divine message which he himself bears. He wiU 
 separate that peculiar and spiritual truth which is 
 the Word of Life, and vidll bring it as glad tidings of 
 great joy. Surely no man can study these ethnic 
 faiths, no matter with what appreciation of their 
 measure of truth, and rejoicing in it, without a con- 
 stantly growing conviction that the one power that 
 converts men and establishes God's kingdom on earth 
 is the Word that is eternal, the Son of God. He 
 gathers in Himself all the truth of all the religions, 
 and He adds that divine Salvation and Life for 
 which all the nations have waited, and without 
 which the highest and deepest thought remains un- 
 able to bring men into Hving communion vnth the 
 God and Father of us aU." 
 
 Eev. Martyn Clark, D.D., Missionary of the Church 
 Missionary Society at Umritsur, India, has given 
 thorough study to the Sanscrit, and has thereby been 
 enabled to expose the fallacies and misrepresentations 
 which the Arya Somaj, in its bitter controversy 
 with the Gospel, has put forth as to the real charac- 
 ter of the Vedic literature. No man is better able to 
 judge of the importance of a correct imderstanding 
 of the errors of the non-Christian systems than he. 
 In a letter accepting an honorary membership of the 
 above-named Society he says : " The object of the 
 Society is one in which I am deeply interested, and 
 
THB 8TUDT OF THE FALSE RELIGIONS 15 
 
 I shall at all times do what I can to further its 
 aims. I am convinced that there is much that is 
 helpful to the cause of Christ to be learned in this 
 field of research." 
 
 Rev. H. Blodgett, D.D., veteran Missionary of the 
 American Board in Peking, in accepting a similar 
 honor, says : "■ My interest in these studies has been 
 deep and growing. It is high time that such a so- 
 ciety as you represent should be formed. The study 
 of Comparative Religion has long enough been in 
 the hands of those who hold all religions to be the 
 outcome of the natural powers of the human mind, 
 unaided by a revelation from God. It is time that 
 those who believe in the revelation from God in the 
 Old Testament, and in the New Testament founded 
 upon the Old, should study the great ethnic relig- 
 ions in the light derived from the Bible." 
 
 Rev. James S. Dennis, D.D., long a Missionary of 
 the Presbyterian Mission in Beyrout, Syria, says in 
 the same connection : " The great missionary move- 
 ment of our age has brought us face to face with 
 problems and conflicts which are far more deep and 
 serious than those which confront evangelistic efforts 
 in our own land, and it is of the highest importance 
 that the Church at home should know as fully as pos- 
 sible the peculiar and profound difficulties of work in 
 foreign fields. These ancient religions of the East 
 are behind intrenchments, and they are prepared to 
 make a desperate resistance. Those who have never 
 come into close contact with their adherents, and dis- 
 covered by experience the difficulty of dislodging 
 them and convincing them of the truth of the Gos- 
 
16 ORIENTAL RELiaiONS AND OHMISTIANITT 
 
 pel, may very properly misunderstand the work oi 
 the foreign missionary and wonder at his apparent 
 failure, or at least his slow progress. But I wonder 
 at the success attained in the foreign field, and con- 
 sider it far more glorious and remarkable than it is 
 generally accounted to be. A fuller acquaiatance 
 with the strength, and resources, and local eclat, and 
 worldly advantages of these false religions, will give 
 the Church at home greater p9,tience and faith in 
 the great work of evangelizing the nations." * 
 
 A specific reason for the study of the non-Ohris- 
 tian religions is f oimd in the changes which our in- 
 tercourse with Eastern nations has already wrought. 
 "With our present means of intercommunication we 
 are brought face to face with them, and the contact 
 of our higher vitality has aroused them from the com- 
 parative slumber of ages. Even our missionary ef- 
 forts have given new vigor to the resistance which 
 must be encoimtered. We have trained up a gener- 
 ation of men to a higher iatellectual activity, and to 
 a more earnest spirit of inquiry, and they are by no 
 means all won over to the Christian faith. And 
 there are thousands in India whom a Government 
 
 * Similar views, thoxigh in briefer terms, have been presented by 
 Rev. William A. P. Martin, D.D., of Peking ; Eev. JohnL. Nevins, 
 D.D,, of Chefou ; Rev. A. P. Happer, D.D., and Rev. B. C. Henry, 
 D.D., of Canton ; Professor John Wortabet, M.D., of Beyrout; 
 Rev. Jacob Chamberlain, D.D., Missionajy of the Reformed 
 Church in Madras; Rev. Z. J. Jones, D.D., Missionary of the 
 American M. B. Church at Bareilly, India ; Rev. K. C. Chatter- 
 gee and Ram Chandra Bose, both converts from high caste 
 Hinduism and both eminent ministers of the Gospel in India; 
 and Rev. E. W. Blyden, D.D., the accomplished African scholar 
 of Liberia. 
 
TEE STUDY OF THE FALSE BELIOIOITS 17 
 
 education has left with no real faith of any kind, 
 but whose pride of race and venerable customs is 
 raised to a higher degree than ever. They have 
 learned something of Christianity; they have also 
 studied their own national systems; they have be- 
 come especially familiar with aU. that our own sceptics 
 have written against Christianity ; still further, they 
 have added to their intellectual equipment all that 
 Western apologists have said of the superiority of the 
 Oriental faiths. They are thus armed at every point, 
 and they are using our own English tongue and all 
 our facilities for publication. How is the young 
 missionary, who knows nothing of their systems or 
 the real points of comparison, to deal with such men ? 
 It is very true that not aU ranks of Hindus are edu- 
 cated ; there are millions who know nothing of any 
 religion beyond the lowest forms of superstition, and 
 to these we owe the duty of a simple and plain pre- 
 sentation of Christ and Him crucified ; but in every 
 community where the missionary is likely to live 
 there are men of the higher class juet named ; and 
 besides, professional critics and opposers are now em- 
 ployed to harass the bazaar preacher with perplex- 
 ing questions, which are soon heard from the Hps of 
 the common people. A young missionary recently 
 wrote of the surprise which he felt when a low caste 
 man, almost without clothing, met him with argu- 
 ments from Professor Huxley. 
 
 Missionary Boards have sometimes sent out a 
 
 specialist, and in some sense a champion, who should 
 
 deal with the more intelligent classes of the heathen. 
 
 But such a plan is fraught with disadvantages. What 
 
 2 
 
18 ORIENTAL BELiaiONS AND OHBISTIANITT 
 
 is needed is a thorough preparation in all mission- 
 aries, and that involves an indispensable knov?ledge of 
 the forces to be met. The power of the press is no 
 longer a monopoly of Christian lands. The Arya 
 Somaj, of India, is now using it, both in the vernac- 
 ular and in the English, in its bitter and often scur- 
 rilous attacks. One of its tracts recently sent to me 
 contained an English epitome of the arguments of 
 Thomas Paine. The secular papers of Japan present 
 in almost every issue some discussion on the com- 
 parative merits of Christianity, Buddhism, Evolution, 
 and Theosophy, and many of the young native min- 
 istry who at first received the truth unquestioningly 
 as a child receives it from his mother, are now call- 
 ing for men whom they can follow as leaders in their 
 struggle with manifold error.* 
 
 Even Mohammedans are at last employing the 
 press instead of the sword. Newspapers in Con- 
 stantinople are exhorting the faithful to send forth 
 missionaries to " fortify Africa against the whiskey 
 and gunpowder of Christian commerce, by proclaim- 
 
 * The Japan Mail of September 30, 1 891 , in reviewing the prog- 
 ress of religious and philosophic discussion as carried on by the 
 native press of the Empire, says : ' ' The Buddhist literature of the 
 season shows plainly the extent to which the educated members 
 of the (Buddhist) priesthood are seeking to enlarge their grasp 
 by contact with Western philosophy and religiouB thought. We 
 happen to know that a prominent priest of the Shinsu sect is 
 deeply immersed in Comte's humanitariauism. In Kyogaku- 
 rovsliu (a native paper) are published instalments of Spencer's 
 philosophy. Another paper, the Hauseikwai, has an article urging 
 the desirability of a general union of all the (Buddhist) sects, such 
 as Colonel Oloott brought about in India between the northern 
 and the southern Buddhists." 
 
THE STUDY OF THE FALSE RELIGIONS 19 
 
 ing the higher ethical principles of the Koran." 
 Great institutions of learning are also maintained 
 as the special propaganda of the Oriental religions. 
 El Azar, established at Cairo centuries ago, now num- 
 bers ten thousand students, and these when trained 
 go forth to all Arabic speaking countries.* The San- 
 skrit colleges and monasteries of Benares number 
 scarcely less than four thousand students,f who are 
 being trained in the Sankhyan or the Vedanta philo- 
 sophy, that they may go back to their different prov- 
 inces an.d maintain with new vigor the old faiths 
 against the aggressions of Christianity. And in 
 Kioto, the great religious centre of Japan, we find 
 over against the Christian college of the American 
 Board of Missions, a Buddhist university with a 
 Japanese graduate of Oxford as its president. In a 
 great school at Tokio, also, Buddhist teachers, aided 
 by New England Unitarians, are maintaining the 
 superiority of Buddhism over Western Christianity 
 as a religion for Japan. J 
 
 Another reason why the missionary should study 
 the false systems is found in the greatly diversified 
 forms which these systems present in different lands 
 and different ages. And just here it will be seen 
 that a partial knowledge will not meet the demand. 
 It might be even misleading. Buddhism, for exam- 
 ple, has assumed an endless variety of forms — now 
 
 * Leaves from an Egyptian Note-hook. 
 
 f Papers of Rev. Mr. Hewlett in the Indian Eeangelieal Review. 
 
 X In an address given in Tokio, by Eev. Mr. Knapp, of Boston, 
 Buddhists in Japan were advised to build their religion of the 
 future upon their own foundations, and not upon the teachings of 
 Western propagandists. 
 
20 ORIENTAL BELIGIONS AND OERISTIANITY 
 
 appearing as a system of the baldest atheism, and 
 now presenting an approximate theism. Gautama 
 was certainly atheistic, and he virtually denied the 
 existence of the human soul. But in the northern 
 development of his system, theistic conceptions 
 sprang up. A sort of trinity had appeared by the 
 seventh century a.d., and by the tenth century a 
 supreme and celestial Buddha had been discovered, 
 from whom all other Buddhas were emanations. 
 To-day there are at least twelve Buddhist sects in 
 Japan, of which some are mystical, others pantheis- 
 tic, while two hold a veritable doctrine of salvation 
 by faith.* 
 
 China has several types of Buddhism, and Mon- 
 golia, Thibet, Nepaul, Ceylon, Burmah, and Siam 
 present each some special features of the system. 
 How important that one should understand these 
 differences in order to avoid blundering, and to wisely 
 adapt his efforts ! In India, tmder the common ge- 
 neric name of Hinduism, there are also many sects : 
 worshippers of Vishnu, worshippers of Siva, wor- 
 shippers of Krishna. There are Sikhs, and Jains, 
 and devil worshippers ; among the Dravidian and 
 other pre-Axyan tribes there axe victims of every 
 conceivable superstition. 
 
 Now, a missionary must know something of these 
 faiths if he would fight with " weapons of precision." 
 Paul, in becoming all things to all men, knew at 
 least the differences between them. He preached 
 the gospel with a studied adaptation. He tells us 
 that he so strove as to win, and " not as those who 
 
 * Tlie Twdve Buddhist Sects of Japan, by Bunylu Nanjio, Oxoa. 
 
THE STUDY OF THE FALSE BELIQIONB 21 
 
 beat the air." How alert were the combatants in the 
 arena from which his simile is borrowed! How 
 closely each athlete scanned his man, watched his 
 every motion, knew if possible his every thought 
 and impulse ! Much more, in winning the souls of 
 darkened and misguided men, should we learn the 
 inmost workings of their minds, their habits of 
 thought, and the nature of the errors which are to 
 be dislodged. 
 
 But how shaU the false systems of religions be 
 studied? First, there should be a spirit of entire 
 candor. Truth is to be sought always, and at any 
 cost ; but in this case there is everything to be gained 
 and nothing to be lost by the Christian teacher, and 
 he can well afford to be just. Our divine Exemplar 
 never hesitated to acknowledge that which was good 
 ia men of whatever nationality or creed. He could 
 appreciate the faith of Roman or Syro-Phoenician. 
 He could see merit in a Samaritan as well as ia a 
 Jew, and coidd raise even a penitent publican to the 
 place of honor. It was only the Pharisees who hesi- 
 tated to admit the truth, imtil they could calculate 
 the probable effect of their admissions. 
 
 The very best experience of missionaries has been 
 found in the line of Christ's example. " The surest 
 way to bring a man to acknowledge his errors," says 
 Bishop Bloomfield, "is to give him full credit for 
 whatever he had learned of the truth." * " Vliat 
 • should we think," says a keen observer of the work 
 of missions — "what should we think of an engineer 
 who, in attempting to rear a light-house on a sand- 
 * Quoted in Manual of India Missions. 
 
22 ORIENTAL MBLWIONS AND OHBISTIANITT 
 
 bar, should fail to acknowledge as a godsend any 
 chance outcropping of solid rock to which he might 
 fasten his stays ? " * 
 
 But in urging the duty of candor, I assume that 
 an absolute freedom from bias is impossible on 
 either side. It is sometimes amusing to witness the 
 assurance with' which professed agnostics assume 
 that they, and they alone, look upon questions of 
 comparative religion with an unbiased and judicial 
 mind. They have no belief, they say, in any religion, 
 and are therefore entirely without prejudice. But 
 are they ? Has the man who has forsaken the faith 
 of his fathers and is deeply sensible of an antagonism 
 between him and the great majority of those about 
 him — has he no interest in trying to substantiate his 
 position, and justify his hostility to the popular 
 faith ? Of all men he is generally the most prejudiced 
 and the most bitter. We freely admit that we set 
 out with a decided preference for one religious sys- 
 tem aboTe all others, but we insist that candor is 
 possible, though an absolutely indifferent judgment 
 is out of the question. Paul, who quoted to the 
 Athenians their own poet, was fair-minded, and yet 
 no man ever arraigned heathenism so terribly as he, 
 and none was so intensely interested in the faith 
 which he preached. 
 
 Archbishop Trench, in discussing the exaggerations 
 from which a careful study of the Oriental religions 
 would doubtless save us, says, " There is one against 
 which we are almost unwilling to say a word. I 
 mean the exaggeration of those who, in a deep devo- 
 * Quoted in Manual of India Missions. 
 
THE STUDY OF TEE FALSE RELIGIONS 23 
 
 tion to the truth as it is in Christ Jesus, count 
 themselves bound, by their allegiance to Him, to 
 take up a hostile attitude to everything not dis- 
 tinctly and avowedly Christian, as though any other 
 position were a treachery to his cause, and a sur- 
 render of his exclusive right to the authorship of all 
 the good which is in the world. In this temper we 
 may dwell only on the guilt and misery and defile- 
 ments, the wounds and bruises and putrefying sores 
 of the heathen world ; or if aught better is brought 
 under our eye, we may look askant and suspiciously 
 upon it, as though all recognition of it were a dis- 
 paragement of something better. And so we may 
 come to regard the fairest deeds of unbaptized men 
 as only more splendid sins. We may have a short 
 but decisive formula by which to try and by which 
 to condemn them. These deeds, we may say, were 
 not of faith, and therefore they coiild not please 
 God ; the men that wrought them knew not Christ, 
 and therefore theiT work was worthless — hay, straw, 
 and stubble, to be utterly burned up in the day of 
 the trial of every man's work. 
 
 " Yet there is indeed a certain narrowness of view, 
 out of which alone the language of so sweeping a 
 condemnation could proceed. Our allegiance to 
 Christ, as the one fountain of light and life for the 
 world, demands that we affirm none to be good but 
 Him, allow no goodness save that which has pro- 
 ceeded from Him ; but it does not demand that we 
 deny goodness, because of the place where we find it, 
 because we meet it, a garden tree, in the wilderness. 
 It only requires that we claim this for Him who 
 
24 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 planted, and was willing that it should grow there ; 
 whom it would itself have gladly owned as its author, 
 if, belonging to a happier time, it could have known 
 Him by his name, whom in part it knew by his power. 
 
 "We do not make much of a light of nature 
 when we admit a righteousness in those to whom in 
 the days of their flesh the Gospel had not come. 
 We only aJSrm that the Word, though not as yet 
 dwelling among us, yet being the ' light which light- 
 eth every man that cometh into the world,' had also 
 lighted them. Some glimpses of Ms beams gilded 
 their coimtenances, and gave to these whatever 
 brightness they wore; and in recogni2dng this 
 brightness we are ascribing honor to Him, and not 
 to them ; glorifying the grace of God, and not the 
 virtues of man." * 
 
 In marked contrast with this, and tending to an 
 extreme, is the following, from the pen of Bishop 
 Beveridge. It is quoted by Max Miiller, in the open- 
 ing volume of " The Sacred Books of the East,'' as a 
 model of candor. 
 
 " The general inclinations which are naturally im- 
 planted in my soul to some religion, it is impossible 
 for me to shift off; but there being such a multi- 
 plicity of religions in the world, I desire now seri- 
 ously to consider with myself which of them all to 
 restrain these my general inclinations to. And the 
 reason of this my inquiry is not, that I am in the 
 least dissatisfied with that religion I have already 
 embraced; but because 'tis natural for all men to 
 have an overbearing opinion and esteem for that 
 * HuUean Leotures, \^Q. 
 
THE STUDY OF THE FALSE BELMIONS 25 
 
 particular religion they are bom and bred-up in. 
 That, therefore, I may not seem biased by the preju- 
 dice of education, I am resolved to prove and exam- 
 ine them all ; that I may see and hold fast to that 
 which is best. . . . Indeed, there was never any 
 religion so barbarous and diabolical, but it was pre- 
 ferred above all other religions whatsoever by them 
 that did profess it ; otherwise they would not have 
 professed it. . . . And why, say they, may you 
 not be mistaken as well as we? Especially when 
 there are, at least, six to one against your Christian 
 religion ; all of which think they serve God aright ; 
 and expect happiness thereby as well as you. . . . 
 And hence it is that in my looking out for the truest 
 religion, being conscious to myself how great an as- 
 cendancy Christianity holds over me beyond the 
 rest, as being that religion whereunto I was born 
 and baptized; that the supreme authority has en- 
 joined and my parents educated me in ; that which 
 everyone I meet withal highly approves of, and 
 which I myself have, by a long-continued profes- 
 sion, made almost natural to me ; I am resolved to 
 be more jealous and suspicious of this religion than 
 of the rest, and be sure not to entertain it any 
 longer without being convinced by solid and sub- 
 stantial argiunents of the truth and certainty of it. 
 That, therefore, I may make diligent and impartial 
 inquiry into all religions and so be sure to find 
 out the best, I shall for a time look upon myself 
 as one not at aU interested ia any particular religion 
 whatsoever, much less in the Christian religion ; but 
 only as one who desires, in general, to serve and 
 
26 OBIENTAL BBLIGHONS AND CSBISTIANITT 
 
 obey Him that made me in a right maimer, and 
 thereby to be made partaker of that happiness my 
 nature is capable of." * 
 
 Second, in studying the false systems it is im- 
 portant to distinguish between religion and ethics. 
 In the sphere of ethics the different faiths of men 
 may find much common ground, while in their relig- 
 ious elements they may be entirely true or utterly 
 false. The teachings of Confucius, though agnostic, 
 presented a moral code which places the relations of 
 the family and state "on a very firm basis. And the 
 very highest precepts of Buddhisnj belong to the 
 period in which it was yirtually atheistic. Many 
 great and noble truths have been revealed to man- 
 kind through the conscience and the understanding, 
 and these truths have found expression in the prov- 
 erbs or ethical maxims of all races. To this extent 
 God has nowhere left himself without witness. 
 But all this is quite apart from a divinely revealed 
 religion which may be cherished or be wholly lost. 
 The golden rule is found not only in the New Tes- 
 tament, but negatively at least in the Confucian clas- 
 sics ; f and the Shastras of the Hindus present it in 
 both the positive and the negative form. And the 
 still higher grace of doing good to those who injure 
 us, was proclaimed by Laotze, five hundred years 
 before Christ preached the Sermon on the Mount. 
 
 * Private ThougMs on Religion, Part I., Article 3. 
 
 f Confucius not only taught that men should not do to others 
 what they would not have done to them, but when one of his dis- 
 ciples asked him to name one word which should represent the 
 whole duty of man, he replied " Reciprocity." 
 
TBE 8TUDT OF TEE FALSE RELIGIONS 27 
 
 The immense superiority of the ethical standard 
 in Christianity, lies in its harmony and complete- 
 ness. Confucius taught the active virtues of life, 
 Laotze those of a passive kind ; Christianity incul- 
 cates both. In heathenism ethical truths exist in 
 fragments — mere half truths, like the broken and 
 scattered remains of a temple once beautiful but now 
 destroyed. They hold no relation to any high re- 
 ligious purpose, because they have no intelligent 
 relation to God. Christian ethics begin with our 
 relations to God as supreme, and they embrace the 
 present life and the world to come. The symmetry 
 of the divine precept, " Thou shalt love the Lord 
 thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thy- 
 self," finds no counterpart in the false religions of 
 the world. Nowhere else, not even in Buddhism, is 
 found the perfect law of love. The great secret of 
 power in Christianity is God's imspeakable love to 
 men in Christ ; and the reflex of that love is the 
 highest and purest ever realized in human hearts. 
 
 Thirdly, the false systems should be studied by 
 the Christian missionary, not for their own sakes so 
 much as for an ulterior purpose, and they should be 
 studied in constant comparison with the religion 
 which it is his business to proclaim. His aim is not 
 that of a savant. Let us not disguise it : he is 
 mainly endeavoring to gain a more thorough prep- 
 aration for his own great work. The professional 
 scholar at Oxford or Leipsic might condemn this 
 acknowledged bias — this pursuit of truth as a means 
 and not as an end — but if he would be entirely 
 frank, he would often find himself working in the 
 
28 ORIENTAL BELiaiONS AND OHBISTIANITT 
 
 interest of a linguistic theory, or a pet hypotliesis 
 of social science. It was in this spirit that Spen- 
 cer and Darwin have searched the world for facts to 
 support their systems. * 
 
 I repeat, it is enough for the missionary that he 
 shall be thoroughly candid. He may exercise the 
 burning zeal of Paul for the Gospel which he pro- 
 claims, if he will also exercise his clear discrimina- 
 tion, his scrupulous fairness, his courtesy, and his 
 tact. Let him not forget that he is studying religions 
 comparatively ; he should proceed with the Bible in 
 one hand, and should examine the true and the false 
 together. Contrasts wiU appear step by step as he 
 advances, and the great truths of Christianity wiU 
 stand out in brighter radiance, for the shadows of the 
 background. If the question be asked, when and 
 where shall the missionary candidate study the false 
 systems, I answer at once ; before he leaves his native 
 land ; and I assign three principal reasons. First : 
 The study of a new and difficult language should en- 
 gross his attention when he reaches his field. This 
 will prove one of the most formidable tasks of his 
 life, and it will demand resolute, concentrated, and 
 prolonged effort. Second : In gaining access to the 
 people, studying their ways and winning their confi- 
 
 * Whoever will read the Preface of Mr. Spencer's work on So- 
 ciology will be surprised at the means which have been used in 
 collecting and verifying supposed facts ; a careful perusal of 
 the book will show that all classes of testimony have been ac- 
 cepted, so far as they were favorable. Adventurers, reporters, 
 sailors, and that upon the briefest and most casual observation, 
 have been deemed capable of interpreting the religious beliefs of 
 men. Even Pesohel doubts many of their conclusions. 
 
THE STUDY OF TEE FALSE BELIGIORS 29 
 
 dence, the missionary will find great advantage in 
 having gained some previous knowledge of their 
 habits of thought and the intricacies of their beliefs. 
 Third : The means and appliances of study are far 
 greater here at home than on the mission fields. A 
 very serious diificulty with most missionaries is the 
 want of books on special topics ; they have no access 
 to libraries, and if one has imagined that he can 
 best understand the faiths of the people by personal 
 contact with them, he will soon learn with surprise 
 how little he can gain from them, and how little they 
 themselves know of their own systems. Those who 
 do know have learned for the purpose of baffling 
 the missionary instead of helping him. The ac- 
 cumulation and the arrangement of anything like a 
 systematic knowledge of heathen systems has cost 
 the combined effort of many missionaries and many 
 Oriental scholars ; and now, after three generations 
 have pursued these studies, it is stiU felt that very 
 much is to be learned from literatures yet to be 
 translated. Such as there are, are best found in the 
 home libraries. 
 
 Let us for a few moments consider the question 
 how far those who are not to become missionaries 
 may be profited by a study of false systems. To a 
 large extent, the considerations already urged wiU ap- 
 ply to them also; but there are still others which are 
 specially important to public teachers here at home. 
 Dean Murray, in an able article published in the 
 "Homiletic Eeview" of September, 1890, recom- 
 mended to active and careworn pastors a continued 
 study of the Greek classics, as calculated to refresh 
 
30 OBIENTAL BELiaiONS AND GHBISTIANITT 
 
 and invigorate the mind, and increase its capacity for 
 the duties of whatever sphere. All that he said of the 
 Greek may also be said of the Hindu classics, with 
 the added consideration that in the latter we are 
 dealing with the living issues of the day. Sir Mo- 
 nier Williams, in comparing the two great Epics of 
 the Hindus with those of Homer, names many points 
 of superiority in the former.* It is safe to say that 
 no poems of any other land have ever exercised so 
 great a spell over so many millions of mankind as 
 the Eamayana and the Mahabharata, of India, and 
 no other production is listened to with such delight 
 as the story of Eama as it is still publicly read at the 
 Hiadu festivals. 
 
 Of philosophies, no system of India has ap- 
 proached so near to veritable divine revelation as 
 that of Plato, but in variety and subtlety, and in 
 their far-reaching influence upon human life, the 
 Indian schools, especially the Vedanta, are scai'cely 
 excelled to this day. And they are applied philos- 
 ophies ; they constitute the religion of the people. 
 Max Miiller has said truly that no other line of 
 investigation is so fascinating as that which deals 
 with the long and universal struggle of mankind to 
 find out God, and to solve the mystery of their rela- 
 tions to him. Unfortunately, human history has 
 dealt mainly with wars and intrigues, and the rise 
 and fall of dynasties ; but compared with these coarse 
 and superficial elements, how much more interest- 
 ing and instructive to trace in all races of men the 
 common and ceaseless yearnings after some solution 
 * See Indian Wisdom. 
 
THE STUDY OF THE FALSE BELiaiONS 31 
 
 of life's mysteries ! One is stirred witli a deeper, 
 broader sympathy for mankind when he witnesses 
 this tmiversal sense of dependence, this fear and 
 trembUng before the powers of an unseen world, this 
 pitiful procession of unblest millions ever trooping 
 on toward the goal, of death and oblivion. And 
 from this standpoint, as from no other, may one 
 measure the greatness and glory of the Gospel of 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 To my mind there is nothing more pathetic than 
 the spectacle of world-wide fetichism. It is not to 
 be contemplated with derision, but with profoundest 
 sympathy. We all remember the pathos of Scott's 
 picture of his Highland heroine, with brain disor- 
 dered by unspeakable grief, beguiling her woes with 
 childish ornaments of " gaudy broom " and plumes 
 from the eagle's wing. But sadder far is the specta- 
 cle of millions of men made for fellowship with God, 
 building their hopes on the divinity dwelling in an 
 amulet of tiger's teeth or serpent's fangs or curious 
 shells. And it ought to enlarge our natures with a 
 Christ-like sympathy when we contemplate those 
 dark and desperate faiths which are but nightmares 
 of the soul, which see in aU the universe only 
 malevolent spirits to be appeased, which, looking 
 heavenward for a father's face, see, as Richter ex- 
 pressed it, "only a death's head with bottomless, 
 empty sockets " instead of a loving smile.* 
 
 * Archbishop Trench, after speaking iu his Hulsean lectures of 
 the advantages which we may gain from an earnest study of the 
 struggles of thoughtful men, who amid heathen darkness have 
 groped after a knowledge of the true God, and of the gratitude 
 
32 ORIENTAL BELiaiONS AND OBBISTIANITT 
 
 And what a field do the greater but equally false 
 systems present for the study of the human mind 
 and heart ! How was it that the simple nature wor- 
 ship of the Indo- Aryans grew into the vast deposit 
 of modem Hinduism, and developed those social 
 customs which have become walls of adamant ? How 
 could Buddhism grow out of such a soil and finally 
 cast its spell over so many peoples ? What were the 
 elements of power which enabled the great sage of 
 China to rear a social and political fabric which has 
 survived for so many centuries ? How Was it that 
 Islam gained its conquests, and what is the secret of 
 that dominion which it still holds ? These surely 
 are questions worthy of those who are called to deal 
 with human thought and human destiny. And when 
 by comparison we find the grand differentials which 
 raise Christianity infinitely above them aU, we shall 
 have gained the power of presenting its tniths more 
 clearly and more convincingly to the minds and 
 hearts of men. 
 
 There are some specific advantages flowing froiii 
 the study of other religions of which I wiU give 
 little more than an enumeration. 
 
 whioli we ought to feel who have received a more sure word of 
 prophecy, adds in words of rare beauty : " And perhaps it shall 
 seem to us as if that star in the natural heavens which guided 
 those Eastern sages from their distant home, was but the symbol 
 of many a star which, in the world's mystical night, such as, be- 
 ing faithfully followed, availed to lead humble and devout hearts 
 from far-off regions of superstition and error, till they knelt be- 
 side the cradle of the Babe of Bethlehem, and saw all their weary 
 wanderings repaid in a, moment, and all their desires finding a 
 perfect fulfilment in Him." 
 
THE STUDY OF THE FALSE RELIGIONS 33 
 
 1. It impresses us with the uniTersahty of some 
 more or less distinct conception of God. I am aware 
 that from time to time explorers imagine that they 
 have found a race of men who have no notion of God, 
 but in almost every instance subsequent investigation 
 has found a religious belief. Such mistakes were 
 
 •made concerning the aborigines of Australia, the 
 Dyaks of Borneo, the Papuans, the Patagonians, and 
 even the American Indians. The unity of the race 
 finds a new and striking proof in the imiversality of 
 reUgion. 
 
 2. -The study of false systems brings to light an 
 almost unanimous testimony for the existence of a 
 vague primeval monotheism, and thus affords a strong 
 presumptive corroboration of the Scriptural doctrine 
 of man's apostasy from the worship of the true God. 
 
 3. The clearest vindication of the severities of the 
 Old Testament Theocracy, in its wars of extermina- 
 tion against the Canaanites and Phoenician.s, is to be 
 found in a careful study of the foul and cruel types 
 of heathenism which those nations carried with them 
 wherever their colonies extended. A religion which 
 enjoined universal prostitution, and led thus to sod- 
 omy and the burning of young children in the fires 
 of Moloch, far exceeded the worst heathenism of 
 Africa or the islands of the Pacific. The Phcenician 
 settlements on the Mediterranean have not even yet 
 recovered from the moral bKght of that religion ; and 
 had such a eultus been allowed to spread over all 
 Europe and the world, not even a second Deluge 
 could have cleansed the earth of its defilement. The 
 extermination of the Canaanites, when considered as 
 
 3 
 
34 OBIENTAL RELIGIONS AND OEBISTIANITT 
 
 a part of one great sclieme for establishing in that 
 same Palestine a purer and nobler faith, and sending 
 forth thence, not Phoenician corruption, but the Gos- 
 pel of Peace to aU lands, becomes a work of mercy to 
 the human race. ■ ' 
 
 4 The ethics of the heathen will be found to vin-. ^ 
 dicate the doctrines of the Bible. This is a poiat^ 
 which should be more thoroughly understood. It ? 
 has been common to parade the high moral maxims 
 of heathen systems as proofs against the exclusive 
 claims of Christianity. But when carefully consid- 
 ered, the lofty ethical truths found in all sacred 
 books and traditions, corroborate the doctrines of 
 the Scriptures. They condemn the nations " who 
 hold the truth' in unrighteousness." They enforce 
 the great doctrine that by their own consciences all 
 mankind are convicted of sin, and are in need of a 
 vicarious righteousness, — a fuU and free salvation by 
 a divine power. My own experience has been, and 
 it is corroborated by that of many others, that 
 very many truths of the Gospel, when seen from the 
 stand-point of heathenism, stand out with a clearness 
 never seen before. 
 
 Many prudential reasons like those which we 
 have given for the study of false systems by mis- 
 sionaries, pertain also to those who remain at home. 
 Both are concerned in the same cause, and both en- 
 coimter the same assailments of our common faith. 
 We are all missionaries in an important sense : we 
 watch the conflict from afar, but we are concerned in 
 all its issues. The bulletins of its battle-fields are 
 no longer confined to missionary literat\ire j they are 
 
THB STUDY OF THE FAL8E BMLI&I0N8 35 
 
 foimd in tlie daily secular press, and they are dis- 
 cussed with favorable or unfavorable comments in 
 the monthly magazines. The missionary enterprise 
 has come to attract great attention: it has many 
 friends, and also many foes, here at home ; it is mis- 
 represented by scoffers at our doors. The high 
 merits of heathen systems, set forth with every de- 
 gree of exaggeration, pass into the hands of Chris- 
 tian families, in books and magazines and secular 
 papers. Apostles of infidelity are sent out to 
 heathen countries to gather weapons against the 
 truth. Natives of various Oriental lands, once 
 taught in our mission schools perhaps, but still 
 heathen, are paraded on our lecture platforms, where 
 they entertain us with English and American argu- 
 ments in support of their heathen systems and 
 against Christianity. Young pastors, in the literary 
 clubs of their various communities, are surprised by 
 being called to discuss plausible , papers on Bud- 
 dhism, which some fellow-member has contributed, 
 and they are expected to defend the truth. Or 
 some young parishioner has been fascinated by a 
 plausible Theosophist, or has learned from Robert 
 Elsmere that there are other religions quite as pure 
 and sacred as our own. Or some chance lecturer 
 has disturbed the community with a discourse on 
 the history of religious myths. And when some anx- 
 ious member of a church learns that his religious 
 instructor has no help for him on such subjects, that 
 they lie wholly outside of his range, there is apt to 
 be something more than disappointment : there is a 
 loss of confidence. 
 
36 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND 0HRI8TIANITT 
 
 It is an -unfortmiate element in tlie case that error 
 is more welcome in some of our professedly neutral 
 papers tlian the truth : an article designed to show 
 that Christianity was borrowed from Buddhism or 
 was developed from fetichism will sometimes be wel- 
 comed as new sensation, while a reply of half the 
 length may be rejected. 
 
 There is something ominous in these facts. 
 Whether the secular press (not all papers are thus 
 unfair) are influenced by partisan hatred of the truth 
 or simply by a reckless regard for whatever is most 
 popular, the facts are equally portentous. And if it 
 be true that such publications are what the people 
 most desire, the outlook for our country is dark in- 
 deed. The saddest consideration is that the power 
 of the secular press is so vast and far reaching. 
 When Celsus wrote, books were few. When Vol- 
 taire, Hume, and Thomas Paine made their assail- 
 ments on the Christian faith, the means of spreading 
 the blight of error were comparatively few. But now 
 the accumulated arguments of German infidels for 
 the last half-century may be thrown into a five-cent 
 Sunday paper, whose issue will reach a quarter of 
 a million of copies, which perhaps a million of men 
 and women may read. These articles are copied 
 into a hundred other papers, and they are read in 
 the villages and hamlets ; they are read on the 
 ranches and in the mining camps where no sermon 
 is ever heard. 
 
 It is perfectly evident that in an age like this we 
 cannot propagate Christianity under glass. It must 
 grow in the open field where the free winds of heaven 
 
THE STUDY OF THE FALSE BELIGIONS 37 
 
 shall smite and dissipate every cloud of error that 
 may pass over it, and where its roots shall only 
 strike the deeper for the questionings and conflicts 
 that may often befall it. Error cannot be overcome 
 either by ignoring it or by the cheap but imbecile 
 scolding of an ignorant pulpit. 
 
 I caimot express the truth on this point more 
 forcibly than by quoting the trenchant words of Pro- 
 fessor Ernest Naville, in his lectures on "Modem 
 Atheism." After having admitted that one, who can 
 keep himself far from the strifes and struggles of 
 modem thought, will find solitude, prayer, and calm 
 activity, pursued under the guidance of conscience, 
 most conducive to unquestioning faith and religious 
 peace, he says : " But we are not masters of our own 
 ways, and the circumstances of the present times im- 
 pose on us special duties. The barriers which sepa- 
 rate the school and the world are everywhere thrown 
 down; everywhere shreds of philosophy, and very 
 often of very bad philosophy, scattered fragments of 
 theological science, and very often of a deplorable 
 theological science, are iasinuatiiig themselves into 
 the current literature. There is not a literary re- 
 view, there is scarcely a political journal, which does 
 not speak on occasion, or without occasion, of the 
 problems relating to our eternal interests. The 
 most sacred beliefs are attacked every day in the or- 
 gans of public opinion. At such a juncture can men, 
 who preserve faith in their own souls, remain like 
 dumb dogs, or keep themselves shut up in the nar- 
 row limits of the schools? Assuredly not. "We 
 must descend to the common groimd and fight with 
 
38 ORIENTAL BELiaiONa AND 0HRI8TIANIT7 
 
 equal weapons the great battles of thought. Por 
 this purpose it is necessary to state questions which 
 run the risk of startling sincerely religious persons. 
 But there is no help for it if we are to combat the 
 adversaries on their own ground ; and because it is 
 thus only that we can prove to aU that the torrent of 
 negations is but a passing rush of waters, which, fret 
 as they may in their channels, shall be found to have 
 left not so much as a trace of their passage upon the 
 Eock of Ages." The fact that Professor Naville's 
 lectures were delivered in Geneva and Lausanne, to 
 audiences which together numbered over two thou- 
 sand five hundred people, affords abundant proof 
 that the people are prepared to welcome the relief 
 afforded by a clear and really able discussion of 
 these burning questions. In the ordinary teaching 
 of the pulpit they would be out of place, but every 
 public teacher should be able to deal with them on 
 suitable occasions. 
 
 In a single concluding word, the struggle of truth 
 and error has become world-wide. There are no 
 ethnic religions now. There is Christianity in Cal- 
 cutta, and there is Buddhism in Boston. The line of 
 battle is the parallel that belts the globe. It is not 
 a time for slumber or for mere pious denunciation. 
 There must be no blundering : the warfare must be 
 waged with weapons of precision, and then victory is 
 sure. It is well if our missionary effort of a century 
 has drawn the fire of the enemy ; it is well if the 
 time has come to hold up the truth face to face with 
 error, and to fight out and over again the conflict of 
 Elijah and the Priests of Baal. 
 
LECTURE II. 
 
 THE METHODS OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHCRCH IN 
 DEALING WITH HEATHENISM 
 
 The coincidences of our present conquest of the 
 non-Christian races with that to which the Apostolic 
 Church was called are numerous and striking. Not 
 even one hundred years ago was the struggle with 
 heathen error so similar to that of the early Church. 
 
 To a great extent the missionary efforts of the 
 mediaeval centuries encountered only crude systems, 
 which it was comparatively easy to overcome. The 
 rude tribes of Northern Europe were converted by 
 the Christianity of the later Roman Empire, even 
 though they were conquerors. Their gods of war 
 and brute force did not meet all the demands of life. 
 As a source of hope and comfort, their religion had 
 little to be compared with the Christian faith, and as 
 to philosophy they had none. They had inherited 
 the simple nature worship which was common to all 
 branches of the Aryan race, and they had expanded 
 it into various ramifications of polytheism ; but they 
 had not fortified it with subtle speculations like 
 those of the Indo- Aryans, nor had their mythologies 
 become intrenched in inveterate custom, and the na- 
 tional pride which attends an advanced civilization. 
 
 At a later day Christian missionaries ia Britain 
 
40 ORIENTAL BELiaiONB AND OHBIBTIANITT 
 
 found the Norse religion of the Saxons, Jutes, and 
 Angles, scarcely holding the confidence of either 
 nilers or subjects.' They had valued their gods 
 chiefly for the purposes of war, and they had not 
 always proTed reliable. The king of Northumbria, 
 like Clovis of France, had vowed to exchange his 
 deities for the God of the Christians if victory 
 should be given him on a certain battle-field ; and 
 when he had assembled his thanes to listen to a dis- 
 cussion between the missionary Paulinus and the 
 priests of Woden on the comparative merits of their 
 respective faiths, the high priest franMy admitted 
 his dissatisfaction with a religion which he had found 
 utterly disappointing and useless ; and when other 
 chief counsellors had given the same testimony, and 
 a unanimous vote had been taken to adopt the Chris- 
 tian faith, he was the first to commence the destruc- 
 tion of the idols.* 
 
 The still earlier missionaries among the Druid 
 Celts of BritaiQ and France, though they found in 
 Draidism a more elaborate faith than that of the 
 Norsemen, encountered no such resistance as we find 
 in the great religious systems of our day. Where 
 can we point to so easy a conquest as that of Patrick 
 in Ireland, or that of the Monks of lona among the 
 Picts and Scots ? 
 
 The Druids claimed that they already had many 
 things in common with the Christian doctrines,f and 
 what was a still stronger element in the case, they 
 
 * The Norsemen, Maolear. 
 
 f The Druid bard Taliesen says: " Christ, the Word from the 
 beginning, was from the heginning our teacher, and we never 
 
METHODS Off TUE EABLT OHTlBOIt 41 
 
 made common cause with the Christians against the 
 wrongs inflicted on both by pagan Eome. The Eo- 
 man emperors were not more determined to extir- 
 pate the hated and, as they thought, dangerous in- 
 fluences of Christianity, than they were to destroy 
 every vestige of Druidism as their only hope of con- 
 quering the invincible armies of Boadicea. And thus 
 the mutual experience of common sufferings opened 
 a wide door for the advancement of Christian truth. 
 
 The conquests of "Welsh and Irish missionaries in 
 Burgundy, Switzerland, and Germany, encountered no 
 elaborate book religions, and no profound philoso- 
 phies. They had to deal with races of men who 
 were formidable only with weapons of warfare, and 
 who, intent chiefly on conquest and migration, had 
 few institutions and no written historic records. 
 The peaceful sceptre of the truth was a new force in 
 their experience, and the sympathetic and self-deny- 
 ing labors of a few missionaries tamed the fierce 
 Vikings to whom Britain had become a prey, and 
 whose incursions even the armies of Charlemagne 
 could not resist. 
 
 How different is our struggle with the races now 
 under the sceptre of Islam, for example — ^inflated as 
 they are with the pride of wide conquest, and look- 
 ing contemptuously upon that Christian faith which 
 it was their early mission to sweep away as a form 
 of idolatry ! How different is our task in India, 
 which boasts the antiquity of the noble Sanskrit and 
 
 lost Histeaching. Christianity was a new thing in Asia, but there 
 never was a time when the Druids of Britain held not its doc- 
 trines."— ;8<. Paul in Britain, p. 86. 
 
42 ORIENTAL BELWIONS AND OHBISTIANITT 
 
 its sacred literature, and claims, as the true represent- 
 ative of the Aryan race, to have given to western 
 nations their philosophy, their religion, and their 
 civilization! How much more difficult is our en- 
 counter with Confucianism, which claims to have laid 
 the foundations of the most stable structure of social 
 and political institutions that the world has ever 
 known, and which to-day, after twenty-five centuries 
 of trial, appeals to the intellectual pride of all intel- 
 ligent classes in a great empire of four hundred 
 millions ! And finally, how different is our task with 
 Buddhism, so mystical and abstruse, so lofty in many 
 of its precepts, and yet so cold and thin, so flexible 
 and easily adapted, and therefore so varied and many 
 sided! The religious systems with which we are 
 now confronted find their counterparts only in the 
 heathenism with which the early Church had to deal 
 many centuries ago ; and for this reason the history 
 of those early struggles is full of practical instruction 
 for us now. How did the early Church succeed in 
 its great conquest ? What methods were adopted, 
 and with what measures of success? 
 
 In one respect there is a wide difference in the two 
 cases. The Apostles were attempting to convert their 
 conquerors. They belonged to the vanquished race ; 
 they were of a despised nationality. The early 
 fathers also were subjects' of Pagan powers. Inso- 
 much as the Roman emperors claimed divine honors, 
 there was an element of treason in their propagan- 
 dism. The terrible persecutions which so long de- 
 vastated the early Church found their supposed 
 justification in the plea of self-defence against a 
 
METHOna OF THE EARLY OHUBGH 43 
 
 system wMch threatened to subvert cherished and 
 time -honored institutions. Candid writers, like 
 Archdeacon Farrar, admit that Christianity did 
 hasten the OYerthrow of the Roman Empire. 
 
 But we find no conquering powers in our pathway. 
 Christianity and Christian civilization have become 
 dominant in the earth. The weakness of the Chris- 
 tian Church in its conquests now is not in being baf- 
 fled and crippled by tyranny and persecution, but 
 rather in the temptation to arrogance and the abuse 
 of superior power, in the overbearing spirit shown 
 in the diplomacy of Christian nations and the un- 
 scrupulous aggressions of their commerce. There 
 is also a further contrast in the fact that in the early 
 days the advantages of frugality and simple habits 
 of life were on the side of the missionaries. Roman 
 society especially was begiiming to suffer that decay 
 which is the inevitable consequence of long-contin- 
 ued luxury, while the Church observed temperance 
 in all things and excelled in the virtues which al- 
 ways tend to moral and social victory.* 
 
 On the other hand, we who are the ambassadors to 
 the heathen of to-day, are ourselves exposed to the 
 dangers which result from wealth and excessive lux- 
 ury. Our grade of life, our scale of expenditure, 
 even the style in which our missionaries live, excites 
 the amazement of the frugal heathen to whom they 
 preach. And as for the Church at home, it is hardly 
 safe for a Persian or a Chinaman to see it. Every- 
 one who visits this wonderful eldorado carries back 
 such romantic impressions as excite in others, not so 
 * "Ulilhorn's Conflict of Christianity with Hmihenism. 
 
44: ORIENTAL BELIGI0N8 AND OHBiaTIANITY 
 
 much the love of the Gospel as the love of mammon. 
 When the Church went forth in comparative pov- 
 erty, and with an intense moral earnestness, to preach 
 righteousness, temperance, and the judgment to 
 come ; when those who were wealthy gave aU to the 
 poor — ^hke Anthony of Egypt, Jerome, Ambrose, 
 and Francis of Assisi — and in simple garments bore 
 the Gospel to those who were surfeited with luxu- 
 ries and pleasures, and were sick of a life of mere 
 indulgence, then the truth of the Gospel conquered 
 heathenism with all that the world could give. 
 But whether a Church in the advanced civilization 
 of our land and time, possessed of enormous wealth, 
 enjoying every luxury, and ever anxious to gain more 
 and more of this present world, can convert heathen 
 races who deem themselves more frugal, more tem- 
 perate, and less worldly than we, is a problem which 
 remains to be solved. We have rare facilities, but 
 we have great drawbacks. God's grace can over- 
 come even our defects, and He has promised suc- 
 cess. 
 
 But in the proud intellectual character of the sys- 
 tems encountered respectively by the ancient and by 
 the modern Church, there are remarkable parallels. 
 The supercilious pride of Brahminism, or the lofty 
 scorn of Mohammedanism, is quite equal to that self- 
 sufficient Greek philosophy in whose eyes the Gos- 
 pel was the merest foolishness. And the immovable 
 self - righteousness of the Stoics has its counter- 
 part in the Confucianism of the Chinese literati. 
 A careful comparison of the six schools of Hindu 
 philosophy with the various systems of Greece and 
 
METH0D8 OF THE BABLT OHUBGH 45 
 
 Eome, will fill the mind witli surprise at tlie numer- 
 ous correspondences — one might almost say iden- 
 tities. And that surprise is the greater from the 
 fact that no proof exists that either has been bor- 
 rowed from the other. 
 
 The atomic theory of creation advanced by Lucre- 
 tius is found also ia the Nyaya philosophy of the 
 Hiadus. The pessimism of Pliny and Marcus Au- 
 relius was much more elaborately worked out by 
 Gautama. The Hindus had their categories and 
 their syllogisms as well as Aristotle. The concep- 
 tion of a dual principle in deity which the early 
 Church traced in all the religious systems of Egypt, 
 PhcBnicia, and Assyria, and whose influence poisoned 
 the life of the Phoenician colonies, and was so cor- 
 rupting to the morals of Greece and Bome, was 
 also elaborated by the Sankhya philosophy of Ka- 
 pila, and it has plunged Hindu society into as deep 
 a degi-adation as could be foimd ia Pompeii or Her- 
 culaneum.* The Indian philosophy partook far 
 more of the pantheistic element than that of Greece. 
 Plato and Aristotle had clearer conceptions of the 
 personality of the deity and of the distinct and re- 
 sponsible character of the human soul than any 
 school of Hindu philosophers — certainly clearer than 
 the Vedantists, and their ethics inTolved a stronger 
 sense of sin. 
 
 German philosophy has borrowed its pantheism 
 from India rather than from Greece, and in its most 
 
 * The same dualism of the male and the female principle is 
 found in the Shinto of Japan. See Chamberlain's translation of 
 the Kojiki. 
 
46 ORIBNTAL BELIGIONa AND CHBISTIANITT 
 
 shado-ivy developments it has never transcended the 
 ancient Yedantism of Vyasa. 
 
 As in the early centuries, so in our time, different 
 systems of religion have been commingled and inter- 
 woven into protean forms of error more difficult to 
 understand and dislodge than any one of the faiths 
 and philosophies of which they were combined. As 
 the Alexandi'ian Jews intertwined the teachings of 
 Judaism and Platonism ; as Manichaaans and Gnos- 
 tics corrupted the truths of the Old and New Testa- 
 ments with ideas borrowed from Persian mysticism ; 
 as various eclectic systems gathered up aU types of 
 thought which the wide conquests of the Eoman Em- 
 pire brought together, and miagled them with Chris- 
 tian teachings ; so now the increased, intercommuni- 
 cation, and the quickened intellectual activity of our 
 age have led to the fusion of different systems, an- 
 cient and modem, in a negative and nerveless reli- 
 gion of humanity. We now have in the East not 
 only Indian, but Anglo-Indian, speculations. The 
 imbelieving Calcutta graduate has Hegel and Spi- 
 noza interwoven with his Vedantism, and the eclectic 
 leader of the Brahmo Somaj, while placing Christ at 
 the head of the prophets and recognizing the au- 
 thority of aU sacred bibles of the races, called on 
 Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and Mohammedans to 
 unite in one theistic church of the New Dispensation 
 in India. Not even the old Gnostics could present 
 so striking an admixture as that of the Arya Somaj. 
 It has appropriated many of those Christian ethics 
 which have been learned from a century of contact 
 with missionaries and other Christian residents. It 
 
METHODS OF THE EARLY OHURGH 47 
 
 has approved the more humane customs and reforms 
 of Christendom, denouncing caste, and the degra- 
 dation of woman. It has repudiated the corrupt 
 rites and the degrading superstitions of Hinduism. 
 At the same time its hatred of the Christian faith is 
 most bitter and intense. 
 
 And there are other alliances, not a few, between 
 the East and the West. In India and Japan the 
 old Buddhism is compounded with American Spirit- 
 ualism and with modern Evolution, under a new ap- 
 plication of the ancient name of Theosophy. In 
 Japan representatives of advanced Unitarianism are 
 exhorting the Japanese Buddhists to build the re- 
 ligion of the future on their old foundations, and to 
 avoid the propagandists of western Christianity. 
 
 The bland and easy-going catholicity which pro- 
 fesses so much in our day, which embraces all faiths 
 and unfaiths in one sweet emulsion of meaningless 
 negations, which patronizes the Christ and His doc- 
 trines, and applies the nomenclature of Christianity 
 to doctrines the very opposite of its teachings, finds 
 a counterpart in the smooth and vapid compromises 
 of the old Gnostics. " Gnosticism," says Uhlhorn, 
 "combined Greek philosophies, Jewish theology, 
 and ancient Oriental theosophy, thus forming great 
 systems of speculative thought, all with the object of 
 displaying the world's development. From a panthe- 
 istic First Cause, Gnosticism traced the emanation 
 of a series of aeons — beings of Light. The source 
 of evil was supposed to be matter, which in this 
 material world holds light in captivity. To liberate 
 the light and thus redeem the world, Christ came. 
 
48 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 and tliTis Ohristianity was added as the crowning 
 and -victorious element in this many-sided system of 
 spectdation. But Christ was regarded not so much 
 as a Sayiour of individual souls as an emancipator 
 of a disordered kosmos, and the system which seemed 
 to accord great honor to Christianity threatened to 
 destroy its life and power." So, according to some 
 of our Modem Systems, men are to find their future 
 salvation in the grander future of the race.* 
 
 Not only do we encounter mixtures of truth and 
 error, but we witness similar attempts to prove that 
 whatever is best in Christianity was borrowed from 
 heathenism. Porphyry and others maintained that 
 Pythagoras and Theosebius had anticipated many of 
 the attributes and deeds of Christ, and Philostratus 
 was prompted by the wife of Severus to write a his- 
 tory of Appolonius of Tyana which should match 
 the life of Christ. And in precisely the same way 
 it has been variously claimed in our time that the 
 story of Christ's birth, childhood, and ministry were 
 borrowed from Buddha and from Krishna, and that 
 the whole conception of his vicarious suffering for 
 the good of men is a clever imitation of Prometheus 
 Bound. Now, in the earlier conflict it was important 
 to know the facts on both sides in order to meet 
 these allegations of Porphyry, Marinus, and others, 
 and it is equally important to understand the pre- 
 cise ground on which similar charges are made with 
 
 * The late George Eliot has given expression to this grim sol- 
 ace, and Mr. John Fiske, in his Destiny of Man, claims that the 
 goal of all life, from the first development of the primordial cell, 
 is the perfected future man. 
 
METHODS OF THE EARLY OHUBOH 49 
 
 equal assurance now.* The very same old battles 
 are to be fought over again, both with philosophy 
 and with legend. 
 
 And it is very evident that, with so many points 
 of similarity between the early struggle of Chris- 
 tianity with heathenism and that of our OAva time, 
 it is quite worth our labor to inquire what were 
 the general methods then pursued. Then victory 
 crowned the efforts of the Church. That which hu- 
 manly speaking seemed impossible, was actually ac- 
 complished. From our finite standpoint, no more 
 preposterous command was ever given than that 
 which Christ gave to his little company of disciples 
 gathered in the mountaius of Galilee, or that last 
 word before his ascension on Mt. Olivet, in which 
 He placed under their responsible stewardship, not 
 only Jerusalem, but all Judea and Samaria, and 
 the " uttermost parts of the earth." The disciples 
 were without learning or social influence, or political 
 power. They had no wealth and few facilities, and 
 so far as they knew there were no open doors. They 
 were hated by their Jewish countrymen, ridiculed by 
 the ubiquitous and cultured Greeks, and frowned 
 upon by the conquering powers of Eome. How 
 then did they succeed ? How was it that ia three 
 or four centuries they had virtually emptied the 
 
 * Voltaire found great delight in tlie so-called Ezour Veda, a 
 work which claimed to be an ancient Veda containing the essen- 
 tial truths of the Bible. The distinguished French infidel was 
 humbled, however, when it turned out that the book was the 
 pious fraud of a Jesuit missionary who has hoped thus to win 
 the Hindus to Christianity. 
 4 
 
60 ORIENTAL BELIGI0N8 AND OHBISTIANITT 
 
 Eoman Pantheon of its heathen deities, and had 
 gained the sceptre of the empire and the world ? 
 
 It is easy to misapprehend the forces which won 
 the victory. The disciples first chosen to f omid the 
 Church were fishermen, but that affords no warrant 
 for the belief that only untutored men were em- 
 ployed in the early Church, or for the inference that 
 the Salvation Army are to gain the conquest now. 
 They were inspired ; these are not ; and a few only 
 were chosen, with the very aim of setting at naught 
 the intolerant wisdom of the Pharisees. But when 
 the Gospel was to be borne to heathen races, to the 
 great nations whose arrogance was proportionate to 
 their learning and their power, a very different man 
 was selected. Saul of Tarsus had almost every 
 needed qualification seen from a human point of 
 view. Standing, as he must, between the stiff big- 
 otry of Judaism and the subtleties of Greek philos- 
 ophy, he was fortunately familiar with both. He 
 was a man of rare courtesy, and yet of matchless 
 courage. Whether addressing a Jewish governor 
 or the assembled philosophers and counsellors of 
 Athens, he evinced an unfailing tact. He knew how 
 to conciliate even a common mob of heathen idola- 
 ters and when to defy a high priest, or plead the 
 immunities of his Eoman citizenship before a Ro- 
 man proconsul. 
 
 In tracing the methods of the early Church in 
 deahng with heathenism, we begin, therefore, with 
 Paul ; for although he was differentiated from all 
 modem parallels by the fact that he was inspired 
 and endowed with miraculous power, yet that does 
 
METHODS OF THE EARLY OHUBOH 51 
 
 not invalidate the force of those general principles of 
 action which he illustrated. He was the first and 
 greatest of all missionaries, and through all time it 
 will be safe and profitable to study his characteris- 
 tics and his methods. He showed the value of 
 thorough training in his own faith, and of a full un- 
 derstanding of all the errors he was to contend with. 
 He could reason with Jews out of their own Scrip- 
 tures, or substantiate his position with Greeks by 
 citing their own poets. He was certainly uncom- 
 promising in maintaining the sovereignty of the one 
 God, Jehovah, but he was not afraid to admit that 
 in their bHnd way the heathen were also groping 
 after the same supreme Father of all. The un- 
 known God at Athens he accepted as an adumbra- 
 tion of Him whom he proclaimed, and every candid 
 reader must admit that in quoting the words of 
 Aratus, which represent Zeus as the supreme creator 
 whose offspring we are, he conveys the impression 
 of a real resemblance, if not a partial and obscured 
 identity. 
 
 The essential principle here is that Paul frankly 
 acknowledged whatever glimpses of truth he found in 
 heathen systems, and made free use of them in 
 presenting the fuller and clearer knowledge revealed 
 in the Gospel. No man ever presented a more terri- 
 ble arraignment of heathenism than that which he 
 makes in the first chapter of his epistle to the Eo- 
 mans, and yet, with marvellous discrimination he 
 proceeds, in the second chapter, to show how much 
 of truth God has imparted to the imderstandings 
 and the consciences of all men. And he seems to 
 
52 ORIENTAL EELIGTONS AND 0BRI8TIANITT 
 
 imply the Holy Spirit's regenerative work through 
 Christ's atonement, when he maintains that whoever 
 shall, "by patient continuance in well doing, seek 
 glory and immortality," to him shall " eternal life " 
 be given; but "tribulation and anguish upon every 
 soul of man that doeth evil, to the Jew first, and also 
 to the Gentile." Peter was not prepared to be a 
 missionary tiU he had been divested of his Jewish 
 narrowness by witnessing the power of grace in the 
 Eoman centurion at Cesarea. That widened out his 
 horizon immensely. He saw that God in his ulti- 
 mate plan was no respecter of persons or of races. 
 
 There has been great difference of opinion as to 
 whether the aimual worship of the supreme God of 
 Heaven in the great imperial temple at Peking is in 
 any degree a relic of the worship of the true God 
 once revealed to mankind. Such Chinese scholars as 
 Martin and Legge and Douglass think that it is ; 
 others deny it. Some men raise a question whether 
 the Allah of the Mohammedan faith is identical with 
 the Jehovah of the Old Testament. Sales, the pro- 
 f oundest expositor of Islam, considers him the same. 
 Moslems themselves have no doubt of it : the intent 
 of the Koran is that and nothing else ; Old Testament 
 teachings are interwoven with almost every sura of 
 its pages. I think that Paul would have conceded 
 this point at once, and would the more successfully 
 have urged the claims of Jesus, whom the Koran 
 presents as the only sinless prophet. Of course Mo- 
 hammedans do not recognize the Triune God as we 
 now apprehend Him, from the New Testament stand- 
 point; neither did ancient believers of Israel fully 
 
METHODS OP THE EAMLT OSUMOS 53 
 
 conceive of Grod as He has since been more fully re- 
 vealed in the person and the sacrifice of his Son — 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 Both the teachings and the example of Paul seem 
 to recognize the fact that conceptions of God, some- 
 times clear and sometimes dim, may exist among 
 heathen nations ; and many of the great Christian 
 fathers evidently took the same view. They admitted 
 that Plato's noble teachings were calculated to draw 
 the soul toward God, though they revealed no real 
 access to Him such as is found in Christ. Arch- 
 bishop Trench, in his Hulsean lectures on " Christ 
 the Desire of the Nations," dwells approvingly upon 
 Augustine's well-known statement, that he had been 
 turned from vice to an inspiring conception of God 
 by reading the " Hortensius " of Cicero. Augustine's 
 own reference to the fact is found in the fourth book 
 of his "Confessions," where he says: "In the ordi- 
 nary course of study I fell upon a certain book of 
 Cicero whose speech almost all admire — not so his 
 heart. This book contains an exhortation to philos- 
 ophy, and is called " Hortensius." But this book al- 
 tered my affections and turned my prayers to Thy- 
 self, O Lord, and made me have other purposes and 
 desires. Every vain hope at once became worth- 
 less to me, and I longed with an incredible burning 
 desire for an immortality of wisdom, and began now 
 to arise that I might return to Thee. For not to 
 sharpen my tongue did I employ that book : nor did 
 it infuse into me its style, but its matter." 
 
 The " Hortensius " of Cicero has not survived till 
 our time, and we know not what it contained ; but 
 
64: ORIENTAL BELIQI0N8 AND OHBISTIANITT 
 
 we cannot fail to notice this testimony of a mature 
 and eminent saint to the spiritual benefit which he 
 had received at the age of thirty-one, from reading 
 the works of a heathen philosopher. And a most 
 interesting proof is here furnished for the freedom 
 with which the Spirit of God works upon the 
 hearts of men, and the great variety of means aad 
 agencies which He employs, — and that beyond the 
 pale of the Christian Church, and even beyond the 
 actual knowledge of the historic Christ. It would 
 be interesting to know whether the regeneration of 
 Augustine occurred just then, when he says in such 
 strong language, that this book altered his affections 
 and turned his prayers imto God, and made him 
 " long with an indescribable burning desire for an 
 immortality of wisdom." All men are saved, if at 
 all, by the blood of Christ throttgh the renewing of 
 the Holy Ghost ; but what was the position of such 
 men as Augustine and Cornelius of Cesarea before 
 they fidly and clearly saw Jesus as the actual Mes- 
 siah, and as the personal representative of that 
 Grace of God in which they had already reposed a 
 general faith, is at least an interesting question. 
 
 Not less positive is the acknowledgment which 
 Augustine makes of the benefits which he had re- 
 ceived from Plato. And he mentions many others, 
 as Virgininus, Lactantius, Hilary, and Cyprian, who, 
 like himself, having once been heathen and students 
 of heathen philosophy, had, as he expresses it, 
 "spoiled the Egyptians, bringing away with them 
 rich treasures from the land of bondage, that they 
 might adorn therewith the true tabernacle of the 
 
METHODS OF THE EARLY OHUBOH 55 
 
 Christian faith." Augustine seems to have been fond 
 of repeating both this argument and this his favorite 
 illustration. In his "Doetriae of Christ " he expands 
 it more fully than in his " Confessions." He says : 
 " Whatever those called philosophers, and especially 
 the Platonists, may have said conformable to our 
 faith, is not only not to be dreaded, but is to be 
 claimed from them as unlawful possessors, to our use. 
 For, as the Egyptians not only had idols and heavy 
 burdens which the people of Israel were to abhor 
 and avoid, but also vessels and ornaments of gold 
 and silver and apparel which that people at its de- 
 parture from Egypt privily assumed for a better 
 use, not on its own authority but at the command of 
 God, the very Egyptians unwittingly furnishing the 
 things which themselves used not weU ; so all the 
 teaching of the GentUes not only hath feigned and 
 superstitious devices, and heavy burdens of a useless 
 toil, which we severally, as imder the leading of 
 Christ we go forth out of the fellowship of the Gen- 
 tiles, ought to abhor and avoid, but it also containeth 
 liberal arts, fitter for the service of truth, and some 
 most useftd moral precepts ; as also there are found 
 among them some truths concerning the worship of 
 the One God Himself, as it were their gold and sil- 
 ver which they did not themselves form, but drew 
 from certain veins of Divine Providence running 
 throughout, and which they perversely and wrong- 
 fully abuse to the service of demons. These, the 
 Christian, when he severs himself from their wretched 
 fellowship, ought to take from them for the right use 
 of preaching of the Gospel. For what else have 
 
66 ORIENTAL BBLIQI0N8 AND OHRISTIANITY 
 
 many excellent members of our faith done ? See we 
 not how richly laden with gold and silver and ap- 
 parel that most persuasive teacher and most blessed 
 martyr, Cyprian, departed out of Egypt? Or Lac- 
 tantius, or Victorinus, Optatus, Hilary, not to speak 
 of the living, and Greeks innumerable ? And this, 
 Moses himself, that most faithful servant of God, 
 first did, of whom it is written, that ' he was learned 
 ia all the wisdom of the Egyptians.' " 
 
 Let us for a moment pause and see of what these 
 treasures of Egypt consisted, and especially what 
 Plato taught concemiag God. Like Socrates, he 
 ridiculed the absurd but popular notion that the 
 gods could be full of human imperfections, could 
 make war upon each other, could engage in intrigues, 
 and be guilty of base passions. And he earnestly 
 maintained that it was demoralizing to children and 
 youth to hold up such beings as objects of worship. 
 Such was his condemnation of what he considered 
 false gods. He was equally opposed to the idea that 
 there is no God. " All things," he says, " are from 
 God, and not from some spontaneous and unintelli- 
 gent cause." " Now, that which is created," he adds, 
 " must of necessity be created by some cause — but 
 how can we find out the Father and maker of all 
 this universe ? If the world indeed be fair, and the 
 artificer good, then He must have looked to that 
 which is external — for the world is the fairest of 
 creatures, as He is the best of causes." 
 
 Plato's representation of the mercy of God, of his 
 providential care, of his unmixed goodness, of his 
 eternal beauty and holiness — are well-nigh up to the 
 
METHODS OF THE EARLY CRXIRG3 57 
 
 New Testament standard. So is also his doctrine 
 of the immortality of the soul. The fatal deficiency 
 is that he does not hnoxo. He hag received no 
 divine revelation. " "We will wait," he said in another 
 passage, " for one, be it a god or a god-inspired man, 
 to teach us our religious duties, and as Athene in 
 Homer says to Diomede, to take away the darkness 
 from our eyes." And in still another place he adds : 
 " We must lay hold of the best human opinion in 
 order that, borne by it as on a raft,, we may sail over 
 the dangerous sea of life, unless we can find a stronger 
 boat, or some word of God which will more surely 
 and safely carry us." * 
 
 There is a deep pathos in the question which I 
 have just quoted, " How can we find out the Father 
 and maker of all this universe? " And in the last 
 sentence quoted, Plato seems to have felt his way to 
 the very threshold of the revelation of Christf 
 
 * Quoted by Uhlhoru in The Conflict of Ohrisiianity with Heath- 
 enism, p. 70. He also quotes Seneca as saying: "Oh, if one 
 only might have a guide to truth 1 " 
 
 f Plato showed by his writings and his whole life that he was a 
 true seeker after the knowledge of God, whom he identified 
 with the highest good. Though he believed in an efficient 
 creatorship, he held that matter is eternal. Ideas are also eternal, 
 but the world is generated. He was not a Pantheist, as he clear- 
 ly placed God outside of, or above, the universe. He regarded 
 the soul of man as possessed of reason, moral sensibility, and appe- 
 tite. 
 
 On the doctrine of future immortality Plato was most emphatic. 
 
 He also believed that the soul in a previous state had been 
 pure and sinless, but had fallen. He taught that recovery from 
 this fallen condition is to be accomplished by the pursuit of phi- 
 losophy and the practice of virtue (not as merit but as discipline), 
 by contemplating the highest ideal which is the character of God, 
 
58 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND OHBISTIANITT 
 
 Augustine shows a discrimination on this subject 
 too important to be overlooked, when he declares 
 that while the noble philosophy of the Platonists 
 turned his thoughts away from his low gratifications 
 to the contemplation of an infinite God, it left him 
 helpless. He was profited both by what philos- 
 ophy taught him and by what it could not teach : 
 it created wants which it could not satisfy. In 
 short, he was prepared by its very deficiencies to see 
 in stronger contrast the all-satisfying fulness of the 
 Gospel of Eternal Life. Plato could tell him noth- 
 ing of any real plan of redemption, and he confesses 
 
 and by thinking of eternity. Plato regarded suffering as disci- 
 plinary wlien properly improved. True philosophy may raise 
 the soul above the fear of death. This was proved by Socrates. 
 Both Socrates and Plato seemed to believe in a good demon (spirit) 
 whose voice was a salutary and beneficent guide. As to esohatol- 
 ogy, Plato looked forward to a heaven where the virtuous soul 
 shall dwell in the presence of God, and in the enjoyment of pure 
 delights. 
 
 Aristotle's idea of God was scarcely less exalted than that of 
 Plato. He expressed it thus : " The principle of life is in God ; 
 for energy of mind constitutes life, and God is this energy. 
 He, the first mover, imparts motion and pursues the work of 
 creation as something that is loved. His course of life must be 
 similar to what is most excellent in our own short career. But 
 he exists forever in this excellence, whereas this is impossible for 
 us. His pleasure consists in the exercise of his essential energy, 
 and on this account vigilance, wakefulness, and perception are 
 most agreeable to him. Again, the more we examine God's nature 
 the more wonderful does it appear to us. He is an eternal and 
 most excellent being. He is indivisible, devoid of parts, and 
 having no magnitude, for God imparts motion through infinite 
 time, and nothing finite, as magnitude is, can have an infinite 
 capacity. He is a being devoid of passions and unalterable.'' 
 — Quoted in Indian Wisdom, p. 135. 
 
METHODS 01' THEEARLT OSUROH 69 
 
 with, tender pathos that he found no Eevealer, no 
 diYine sacrifice for sin, no uplifted Cross, no gift of 
 the transforming Spirit, no invitation to the weary, 
 no light of the Eesurrection.* Now, just here is the 
 exact truth ; and Augustine has conferred a lasting 
 benefit upon the Christian Church by this grand les- 
 son of just discrimination. He and other Christian 
 fathers knew where to draw the lines carefully and 
 wisely with respect to heathen errors. 
 
 We often have occasion to coinplain of the sharp- 
 ness of the controversies of the early Church, but it 
 could scarcely be otherwise in an age like that. It 
 was a period of transitions and of rude convulsions. 
 The foundations of the great deep of human error 
 were being broken up. It was no time for flabby, 
 
 * " Those pages present not the image of this piety, the tears 
 of confession, Thy sacrifice, a troubled spirit, a broken and a 
 contrite heart, the salvation of the people, the Bridal city, the 
 earnest of the Holy Ghost, tVie oup of our redemption. No man 
 sings there, ' Shall not my soul be submitted unto God ? for of 
 Him Cometh my salvation, for He is my God and my salvation, 
 my guardian, I shall no more be grieved. ' No one there hears 
 Him call ' Come unto me all ye that labor.' " — Confessions, Bk. 
 vii. , xxi. "But having then read those books of the Platonists, 
 and thence being taught to search for incorporeal truth, I saw 
 Thy invisible things, understood by the things which are made ; 
 and though cast back, I perceived what that was which, through 
 the darkness of my mind, I was hindered from contemplating, 
 being assured ' that Thou wert and wert infinite, and yet not 
 diffused in space, finite or infinite, and that Thou truly art who 
 art the same ever, in no part nor motion varying ; and that all 
 other things are from Thee. ... Of these things I was as- 
 sured, yet too insecure to enjoy Thee. I prated as one skilled, 
 but I had not sought Thy way in Christ our Saviour ; I had proved 
 to be not skilled but killed." — Confessions, Bk. vii., xx. 
 
60 OBIBNTAL BELiaiONS AND CBBISTIANITT 
 
 jelly-fisli convictions. The training wMcli the great 
 leaders had received in philosophy and rhetoric had 
 made them keen dialectics. They had something of 
 Paul's abhorrence of heathen abominations, for they 
 saw them on every hand. They saw also the spe- 
 cious admixtures of Gnosticism, and they met them 
 squarely. Tertullian's controversy with Marcion, 
 Augustine's sharp issue with Pelasgius, Ambrose's 
 bold and uncompromising resistance to Arianism, 
 Origen's able reply to Celsus, all show that the great 
 leaders of the Church were not men of weak opinions. 
 The discriminating concessions which they made, 
 therefore, were not bom of an easy-going indifferent- 
 ism and the soft and nerveless charity that regards 
 all religions alike. They found a medium between 
 this pretentious extreme and the opposite evil of ig- 
 norant and narrow prejudgment ; and nothing is more 
 needed in the missionary work of our day than that 
 intelligent and well-poised wisdom which considers 
 all the facts and then draws just distinctions ; which 
 will not compensate for conscious ignorance with 
 cheap misrepresentation or wholesale denunciation. 
 
 1. Now, first of all, in considering the methods of 
 the early Church and its secret of power in overcom- 
 ing the errors of heathenism, it must be borne La 
 mind that the victory was mainly due to the mor- 
 al earnestness which characterized that period. In 
 this category we must place the influence which 
 sprang from the martyrdom of thousands who sur- 
 rendered life rather than relinquish their faith. That 
 this martyr spirit did not always produce a true 
 symmetry of Christian character cannot be denied. 
 
METHODS OF THE EARLT CHUBOH 61 
 
 The tide of fanaticism swept in, sometimes, with the 
 current of true religious zeal, and inconsistencies 
 and blemishes marred eyen the saintliest self-sacri- 
 fice ; but there was no resisting the mighty logic of 
 the spirit of martyrdom as a whole. The high and 
 the low, the wise and the unlettered, the rich and the 
 poor, the old and the yoimg, strong men and deli- 
 cate women, surrendered themselves to the most 
 cruel tortures for the love of Christ. This spectacle, 
 while it may have served only to enrage a Nero and 
 urge him on to even more Satanic cruelty, could not 
 be wholly lost upon the more thoughtful Marcus 
 Aurelius and others like him. It was impossible to 
 resist the moral force of so calm and resolute a sur- 
 render unto torture and death. Moreover, an age 
 which produced such relinquishment of earthly pos- 
 sessions as was shown by men like Anthony and Am- 
 brose, who were ready to lay down the emoluments of 
 high political position and distribute their large for- 
 tunes for the relief of the poor ; and such women as 
 Paula and others of high position, who were ready 
 to sacrifice all for Christ and retire into seclusion 
 and voluntary poverty — an age which could produce 
 such characters and could show their steady perse- 
 verance unto the end, could not fail to be an age of 
 resistless moral power ; and it would be safe to say 
 that no heathen system could long stand against the 
 sustained and persistent force of such influences. 
 Were the Christian Church of to-day moved by even 
 a tithe of that high self-renunciation, to say noth- 
 ing of braviug the fires of martyrdom, if it possessed 
 in even partial degree the same sacrifice of luxury 
 
62 ORIENTAL BELiaiONS AND OHBISTIANITT 
 
 and ease, and the same consecration of effort and of 
 influence, the conquest of benighted nations would 
 be easy and rapid. 
 
 The frugality of the earlj' Christians, the simplic- 
 ity of life which the great body of the Church ob- 
 served, and to which even wealthy converts more 
 or less conformed, was also, doubtless, a strong fac- 
 tor in the great problem of winning the heathen 
 to Christ. Probably ia no age could Christian sim- 
 plicity find stronger contrasts than were presented 
 by the luxury and extravagance, the unbridled indul- 
 gence and profligacy, which characterized the later 
 periods of the Roman Empire. Universal conquest 
 of surrounding nations had brought untold wealth. 
 The Government had hastened the process of de- 
 cay by lavish distribution to the people of those re- 
 sources which obviated the necessity of imremittiag 
 toil. It had devoted large expenditures to popular 
 amusements, and demagogues had squandered the 
 public funds for the purpose of securing their own 
 preferment. Over against the moral earnestness of 
 the persecuted Christian Church, there was in the 
 nation itself and the heathenism which belonged to 
 it, an utter want of character or conviction. These 
 conditions of the conquest, as I have already indi- 
 cated, do not find an exact counterpart with us now. 
 There is more of refined Christian culture than ex- 
 isted in the early Church ; probably there is also 
 more of organized Christian effort. In many points 
 the comparison is in our favor, but earnestness, and 
 the spiritual power which attends it, are on a lower 
 grade. There is no escape from the conviction that 
 
METHODS OF THE EARLY CHURCH 63 
 
 just here lies the reason why the Christian Church, 
 with all her numbers, her vast material resources, 
 and her unlimited opportunities, cannot achieve a 
 greater success. 
 
 2. But, on the intellectual side, and as relating to 
 the methods of direct effort, there are many points 
 in which imitation of the early example is entire- 
 ly practicable. And first, the wise discrimination 
 which was exercised by Augustiue and other Chris- 
 tian leaders is entirely practicable now. There has 
 prevailed in our time an indiscriminate carelessness 
 iu the use of terms in dealing with this subject. 
 The strong language which the Old Testament em- 
 ployed against the abominations of Baalism, we 
 have seemed to regard as having equal force against 
 the ethics of Confucius or Gautama. " Heathenism " 
 is the one brand which we have put upon all the 
 non-Christian religions. I wish it were possible to 
 exchange the term for a better.* Baalism was un- 
 doubtedly the most besotted, cruel, and diaboUcal 
 religion that has ever existed on the earth. When 
 we carefully study it we are not surprised at the 
 strong language of denunciation which the Old Tes- 
 tament employs. But as I have already shown, we 
 find in the New Testament a different spirit exer- 
 cised toward the types of error which our Saviour 
 
 * We may judge of the bearing of the common term heathen as 
 applied to non-Christian nations, when we consider that the 
 Greeks and Romans characterized all foreigners as "barbarians," 
 that Mohammedans call all Christians " infidels, " andthe Chinese 
 greet them as "foreign devils." The missionary enterprise as a 
 work of conciliation should illustrate a broader spirit. 
 
64 ORIENTAL BELiaiONS AND OEBISTIANITY 
 
 and his disciples were called to meet. There is 
 only gentleness in our Lord's dealings with those 
 who were without the Jewish Church. His strong- 
 est denunciations were reserved for hypocrites who 
 knew the truth and obeyed it not. He declared 
 that the men of Nineveh would rise up in judg- 
 ment against those who rejected the clear message 
 of God's own Son. The man who goes forth to the 
 great mission fields with the feeling that it is his 
 province to assail as strongly as possible the deeply- 
 rooted convictions of men, instead of winning them 
 to a more excellent way, is worse than one who 
 beats the air ; he is doing positive harm ; he is 
 trifling with precious souls. He does not Olustrate 
 the spirit of Christ. 
 
 The wisest of the early Fathers sometimes dif- 
 fered widely from each other in their methods ; 
 some were denunciatory, others were even too ready 
 to excuse. The great African controversialist, Ter- 
 tullian, was unsparing in his anathemas, not only 
 against heathen customs, which were vile indeed, 
 but against the teachings of the noblest philosophy. 
 He had witnessed the former ; he had not candidly 
 studied the latter. With a bliad zeal, which has too 
 often been witnessed in the history of good causes, 
 he denounced Plato, Aristotle, and even Socrates 
 with a violence which marred the character of so 
 great a man. On the other hand, Justin Martyr 
 and Clement of Alexandria were perhaps excessive- 
 ly broad. Of two noted Alexandrines, Archdeacon 
 Farrar says : " They were philosophers in spirit ; 
 they could enforce respect by their learning and 
 
METHODS OF THE EABLT CHUBGH 65 
 
 their large, rounded sympathy, where rhetorical de- 
 nimciation and ecclesiastical anathemas would only 
 have been listened to with a frown of anger, or a 
 look of disdain. Pagan youths would have listened 
 to Clement when he spoke of Plato as ' the truly no- 
 ble and half-inspired,' while they would have looked 
 on Tertullian as an ignorant railer, who could say 
 nothing better of Socrates than to call him the ' At- 
 tic buffoon,' and of Aristotle than to characterize 
 him as the ' miserable Aristotle.' " 
 
 Tatian and Hermes also looked upon Greek phi- 
 losophy as an invention of the devil. Irenseus was 
 more discrimiaating. He opposed the broad and 
 lax charity of the Alexandrines, but he read the 
 Greek philosophy, and when called to the bishopric 
 of Lyons, he set himself to the study of the Gallic 
 Druidism, believing that a special adaptation would 
 be called for in that remote mission field.* Basil 
 was an earnest advocate of the Greek philosophy as 
 giving a broader character to Christian education. 
 
 There were among the Fathers many different 
 types of men, some philosophically inclined, others 
 better able to use practical arguments. Some were 
 more suecessftd in appealing to the signs of the 
 times, the clear evidences of that corruption and de- 
 cay to which heathenism had led. They pointed to 
 the degradation of women, the prevalence of vice, 
 the inordinate indulgence in pleasures, the love 
 of excitement, the cruel frenzy of the gladiatorial 
 shows, the unrest and pessimism and despair of all 
 society. One of the most remarkable appeals of 
 * The Odts, Maclear. 
 
66 ORIENTAL BELIGIONa AND aEBISTIANITT 
 
 this kind isfoimd in a letter of Cyprian to his friend 
 Donatus. " He bids him seat himself in fancy on 
 some mountain top and gaze down upon what he 
 has abandoned (for he is a Christian), on the roads 
 blocked by brigands, the sea beset by pirates, the 
 camps desolated by the horrors of many wars, on 
 the world reekiag with bloodshed, and the guilt 
 which, in proportion to its magnitude, was extolled 
 as a glory. Then, if he would turn his gaze to the 
 cities, he would behold a sight more gloomy than 
 all solitudes. In the gladiatorial games men were 
 fattened for mutual slaughter, and publicly murder- 
 ed to delight the mob. Even innocent men were 
 urged to fight in public with wild beasts, while their 
 mothers and sisters paid large sums to witness the 
 spectacle. In the theatres parricide and infanticide 
 were dealt with before mixed audiences, and aU 
 pollution and crimes were made to claim reverence 
 because presented under the guise of religious my- 
 thology. In the homes was equal corruption ; ia 
 the forum bribery and intrigue ran rife ; justice was 
 subverted, and innocence was condemned to prison, 
 torture, and death. Luxury destroyed character, and 
 wealth became an idol and a curse." * Arguments 
 of this kind were ready enough to hand whenever 
 Christian teachers were disposed to use them, and 
 their descriptions found a real corroboration in soci- 
 ety as it actually appeared on every hand. None 
 could question the coimts in the indictment. 
 
 3. While the Christian Fathers and the mission- 
 aries differed in their estimates of heathenism, and 
 * Lives of the Fathers, Farrar, 
 
METHODS OF THE EABLT OHUBOH 67 
 
 in their metliods of dealing -with, it, one thing was 
 recognized by all whom we designate as the great 
 leaders, namely, the imperative necessity of a thor- 
 ough knowledge of it. They understood both the 
 low superstition of the masses and the loftier teach- 
 ing of the philosophers. On the other hand, they 
 had the same estimate of the incomparable Gospel 
 of Christ that we have ; they realized that it was the 
 wisdom of God and the power of God imto salvation 
 as clearly as the best of us, but they did not claim 
 that it was to be preached blindly and without adap- 
 tation. The verities of the New Testament teach- 
 ings, the transforming power of the Holy Ghost, 
 the necessity for a new birth and for the preternat- 
 ural influence of grace, both in regeneration and in 
 sanctification, were as strongly maintained as they 
 have ever been in any age of the Chm-ch ; but the 
 Fathers were careful to know whether they were 
 casting the good seed upon stony places, or into 
 good ground where it would spring up and bear fruit. 
 The .liberal education of that day was, in fact, an 
 education along the old lines of heathen philosophy, 
 poetry, history, and rhetoric ; and a broad training- 
 was valued as highly as it has been in any subsequent 
 period. It was thoroughly understood that disci- 
 plined intellect, other things being equal, may ex- 
 pect a degree of influence which can never fall to the 
 lot of ignorance, however sanctified its spirit. There 
 has never been a stronger type of men than the 
 Christian Fathers. They were learned men, for 
 the age in which they lived, and their learning 
 had special adaptations to the work assigned them. 
 
68 ORIENTAL BELIGIONa AND OHBiaTIANITT 
 
 Many of them, like Cyprian, Clement, Hilary, Mar- 
 tin of Tours, had been bom and educated in hea- 
 thenism; while others, like Basil, Gregory, Origen, 
 Athanasius, Jerome, and Augustine, though bom 
 under Gospel influences, studied heathen philosophy 
 and poetry at the instance of their Christian parents. 
 4. Some of the leaders familiarized themselves 
 with the speculations of the day, not merely for the 
 sake of a wider range of knowledge, but that they 
 might the more successfully refute the assailants of 
 the faith, many of whom were men of great power. 
 They were fully aware that it behooved them to know 
 their ground, for their opponents studied the points 
 of comparison carefully. The infidel Celsus studied 
 Christianity and its relation to the Old Testament 
 histories and prophecies, and he armed himself with 
 equal assiduity with all the choicest weapons drawn 
 from Greek philosophy. How was such a man to 
 be met ? His able attack on Christianity remained 
 fifty years imanswered. To reply adequately was 
 not an easy task. Doubtless there were many, then 
 as now, who thought that the most comfortable way 
 of dealing with such things was to let them alone. 
 But a wiser policy prevailed. Origen was re- 
 quested to prepare an answer, and, although such 
 work was not congenial to him, he did so because he 
 felt that the cause of the truth demanded it. His 
 reply outlived the attack which it was designed to 
 meet, and in aU subsequent ages it has been a bul- 
 wark of defence.* 
 
 * "Christianity," says Max Miiller, "enjoyed no privileges and 
 claimed no immunities when it boldly confronted and confounded 
 
METHODS OF THE EABLT OHUBOH 69 
 
 Origen was not of a pugnacious spirit — it was well 
 that lie was not — ^but with wide and thorough prepa- 
 ration he summoned all his energies to meet the foe. 
 Archdeacon Farrar says of him, that he had been 
 trained in the whole circle of science. He could 
 argue with the pupils of Plato, or those of Zeno, on 
 equal terms, and he deems it fortunate that one who 
 was called, as he was, to be a teacher at Alexandria, 
 where men of all nations and all creeds met, had a 
 cosmopolitan trainiag and a cosmopolitan spirit. 
 
 No less resolute was the effort of Ambrose in re- 
 sisting the errors of Arianism, and he also adapted 
 himself to the work in hand. He had not been 
 afraid of Platonism. On the other hand, we are told 
 that Plato, next to his Bible, constituted a part of 
 Ms daily reading, and that, too, in the period of his 
 ripest Christian experience, and when he carried his 
 studies and his prayers far into the hours of the 
 night. But in dealing with Arianism he needed a 
 special understanding of aU its intricacies, and when 
 among its advocates and supporters he encountered 
 a powerful empress as well as her ablest advocates, 
 he had need of all the powers vdthin him — that power 
 of moral earnestness which had led him to give all 
 his property to the poor — that power of strong 
 
 the most ancient and the most powerful religions of the world. 
 Even at present it craves no mercy and it receives no mercy from 
 those whom our missionaries have to meet face to face in every 
 part of the world ; and unless our religion has ceased to he what 
 it was, its defenders should not shrink from this new trial of its 
 strength, but should encourrge rather than depreciate the study 
 of comparative theology." — Science of Beligion, p. 33. 
 
70 ORIENTAL BELiaiONS AND 0HRI8TIANITT 
 
 faith, wMch prepared Mm, if need be, to lay down 
 his life— the power of a disciplined intellect, and a 
 thorough knowledge of the whole issue. 
 
 5. The early Fathers not only studied the heathen 
 philosophies of Plato and Aristotle, but they learned 
 to employ them, and their successors continued to 
 employ them, even to the Middle Ages, and the 
 period of the Eeformation. As an iuteUectual 
 framework, under which truth should be presented 
 in logical order, it became a strong resource of the 
 early Christian teachers. Let me refer you on this 
 point to the clear statements of Professor Shedd.* 
 He has well said that " when Christianity was re- 
 vealed in its last and beautiful form by the in- 
 carnation of the Eternal World, it found the human 
 mind already occupied by human philosophy. Edu- 
 cated men were Platonists, or Stoics, or Epicureans. 
 Dinging the age of Apologetics, which extended from 
 the end of the apostolic age to the death of Origen, 
 the Church was called to grapple with these systems, 
 to know as far as possible what they contained, and 
 to diseriminately treat their contents, rejecting some 
 things, utilizing others." " We shall see," he con- 
 tinues, " that Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero exerted 
 more influence than all other philosophic minds 
 united upon the greatest of Christian Fathers, upon 
 the greatest of the School men, and upon the great- 
 est of the theologians of the Reformation, Calviu 
 and Melancthon; and if we look at European philos- 
 ophy, as it has been unfolded in England, Germany, 
 and France, we can perceiye that all the modem 
 * History of Christian Theology, Vol. I., p. 53. 
 
METHODS OF THE EARLY OHUBOH 71 
 
 philosophic schools have discussed the principles of 
 human reason in very much the same manner in 
 which Plato and Aristotle discussed them twenty- 
 two centuries ago." 
 
 I need hardly say, in closing, that it is not neces- 
 sary to borrow from the heathen systems of to-day 
 as extensively as the Fathers did from the systems of 
 Greece and Rome, and it would be discordant with 
 good taste to illustrate our sermons with quotations 
 from the Hindu poets as lavishly as good Jeremy 
 Taylor graced his discourses with gems from the 
 poets of Greece. But I think that we may so far 
 heed the wise examples furnished by Church history 
 as to face the false systems of our time with a can- 
 did and discriminating spirit, and by a more ade- 
 quate Imowledge to disenchant the bugbears with 
 which their apologists would alarm the Church. 
 
 We are entering upon the broadest and most mo- 
 mentous struggle with heathen error that the world 
 has ever witnessed. Agaia, in this later age, philos- 
 ophy and multiform speculation are becoming the 
 handmaids of Hiudu pantheism and Buddhist oc- 
 cultism, as well as of Christian truth. The resources 
 of the East and the West are combined and subsidized 
 by the enemy as well as by the Church. As in old 
 Eome and Alexandria, so now in London and Calcutta 
 all currents of human thought flow together, and 
 truth is in full grapple with error. It is no time to 
 be idle or to take refuge in pious ignorance, much 
 less to fear heathen systems as so many haunted 
 houses which superstitious people dare not enter — 
 as if the Gospel were not as potent a talisman now 
 
72 ORIENTAL RBLIGlONS AND OHBtSTIANITT 
 
 as it was ages ago. Let us fearlessly enter tliese 
 abodes of darkness, throw open tlie shutters, and let 
 in the light of day, and the hobgoblins will flee. 
 Let us explore every dark recess, winnow out the 
 miasma and the mildew with the pure air of heaven, 
 and the Sun of Bighteousness shall fill the world. 
 
LEOTUEE III. 
 
 THE SUCCESSIVE DEVELOPMENTS OF HINDUISM 
 
 The religious systems of India, like its flora, 
 display luxuriant variety and confusion. Hinduism 
 is only another banyan-tree whose branches have 
 become trunks, and whose trunks have produced 
 new branches, until the whole has become an in- 
 tellectual and moral jungle of vast extent. The 
 original stock was a monotheistic nature worship, 
 which the Hindu ancestors held in common with 
 other branches of the Aryan family when dwelling 
 together on the high table-lands of Central Asia, 
 or, as some are now claiming, in Eastern Eussia. 
 Wherever may have been that historic " cradle " in 
 which the infancy of our race was passed, it seems 
 certain, from similarities of language, that this Aryan 
 family once dwelt together, and had a common wor- 
 ship, and caUed the supreme deity by a common 
 name. It was a worship of the sky, and at length of 
 various powers of nature, Surya, the sun : Agni, fire : 
 Indra, rain, etc. It is maiotained by many authors, 
 in India as well as in Europe, that these designa- 
 tions were only applied as names of one and the 
 same potential deity. This is the ground held by 
 the various branches of the modern Somaj of India. 
 Yet we must not suppose that the monotheism of 
 
74 ORIENTAL MELiaiONB AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 the early Aryans was all that we understand by 
 that term ; it is enough that the power addressed 
 was one and personal. Even henotheism, the last 
 name which Professor Max Miiller applies to the 
 early Aryan faith, denotes oneness in this sense. 
 The process of differentiation and corruption ad- 
 vanced more rapidly among the Indo-Aryans than 
 in the Iranian branch of the same race, and in all 
 lands changes were wrought to some extent by dif- 
 ferences of climate and by environment.* The Norse- 
 men, for example, struggling .with the wilder and 
 sterner forces of storm and wintry tempest, would 
 naturally differ in custom, and finally in faith, from 
 the gentle Hindu imder his Indian sty ; yet there 
 were common elements traceable in the earliest tra- 
 ditions of these races, and the fact that religions are 
 not wholly dependent upon local conditions is shown 
 by both Christianity and Buddhism, which have 
 flourished most conspicuously and permanently in 
 lands where they were not indigenous. 
 
 " In the Vedas," says Sir Monier Williams, " imity 
 in the conception of deity soon diverged into various 
 ramifications. Only a few of the hymns appear to 
 contain the simple conception of one divine, self-ex- 
 istent, omnipresent Being, and even in these, the idea 
 of one God, present in all nature, is somewhat nebu- 
 lous and undefined." One of the earliest deifications 
 that we can trace was that of Varuna, who represented 
 the overhanging sky. The hymns addressed to Va- 
 
 * The fact that environment has to a certain extent affected the 
 religions of mauliind is entirely overworked, when men like 
 Buckle make it formative and controlling. 
 
SU00E8SIVE DEVELOPMENTa OF HINDUISM 75 
 
 runa are not only the earliest, but they are the lofti- 
 est and most spiritual in their aspirations. They 
 find in him an element of holiness before which sin 
 is an offence ; and in some vague sense he is the 
 father of all things, like the Zeus whom Paul recog- 
 nized in the poetry of Greece. 
 
 But, as already stated, this vague conception of God 
 as one, was already in a transition toward separate 
 impressions of the different powers of nature. If 
 the idea of God was without any very clear person- 
 ality and more or less obscure, it is not strange that 
 it should come to be thus specialized as men thought 
 of objects having a manifestly benign influence— as 
 the life-quickening sun or the reviving rain. It is 
 not strange that, without a knowledge of the true 
 God, they should have been filled with awe when 
 gaziag upon the dark vault of night, and should have 
 rendered adoration to the moon and her countless 
 retinue of stars. If there must be idolatry, let it be 
 that sublime nature worship of the early Aryans, 
 though even that was sure to degenerate into baser 
 forms. One might suppose that the worship of the 
 heavenly bodies would remain the purest and no- 
 blest ; and yet the sun-worship of the Assyrians and 
 the Phoenicians became unspeakably vile in its sen- 
 suousness, and finally the most wicked and abomi- 
 nable of all heathen systems. India in her darkest 
 days never sank so low, and when her degradation 
 came it was through other conceptions than those of 
 nature worship. 
 
 In the early Vedic hymns are to be found many 
 sublime passages which seem to suggest traces of 
 
76 ORIENTAL BMLmiONS AND OH&taTlANlTT 
 
 those common traditions concerning the creation — 
 the Fall of man and the Deluge, which we believe to 
 have been the earliest religious heritage of mankind. 
 They contrast strongly with the later and degrading 
 cosmogonies of degenerate heathen systems, and 
 especially with the grotesque fancies of the subse- 
 quent Hindu mythology. In the Xth Mandala of 
 the Eig Veda we find the following account of pri- 
 meval chaos, which reminds one of the Mosaic Gene- 
 sis: 
 
 " In the beginning there was neither aught nor naught, 
 There was neither sky nor atmosphere above. 
 What then enshrouded all the teeming universe ? 
 In the receptacle of what was it contained? 
 Was it enveloped in the gulph profound of water ? 
 There was then neither death nor immortality. 
 There was then neither day nor night, nor light nor dark- 
 ness. 
 Only the Existing One breathed calmly self-contained, 
 Naught else but him there was, naught else above, beyond ; 
 Then first came darkness hid in darkness, gloom in gloom, 
 Next all was water, chaos indiscreet 
 In which the One lay void, shrouded in nothingness, 
 Then turning inward by self-developed force 
 Of inner fervor and intense abstraction grew." 
 
 In the early Vedic period many of the corruptions 
 of later times were unknown. There was no distinct 
 doctrine of caste, no transmigration, no mist of pan- 
 theism, no idol-worship, no widow-burning, and no 
 authorized infanticide. The abominable tyranny 
 which was subsequently imposed upon woman was 
 unlmown; the low superstitions of the aboriginal 
 tribes had not been adopted ; nor, on the other hand. 
 
8U00E88IVE DEVELOPMENTS OF HINDUISM 11 
 
 had philosophy and speculation taken possession of 
 the Hindu mind. The doctrine of the Trimurti and 
 the incarnations had not appeared.* 
 
 The faith of the Hindus in that early period may 
 be called Aryanism, or Vedism. It bore sway from 
 the Aryan migration, somewhere about one thousand 
 five hundred, or two thousand, years before Christ, 
 to about eight hundred years before Christ, f By 
 that time the priestly class had gained great power 
 over all other ranks. They had begun to work over 
 the Vedas to suit their own purposes, selecting from 
 them such portions as could be framed into an elab- 
 orate ritual — ^known as the Brahmanas. The period 
 during which they continued this ritualistic develop- 
 ment is known as the Brahmana period. This ex- 
 tended from about eight hundred to five hundred 
 B.c.t These, however, are only the approximate 
 estimates of modern scholarship : such a thing as 
 ancient history is unknown to the Hindu race. 
 This Brahmana period was marked by the intense 
 and overbearing sacerdotalism of the Brahmans, and 
 by an extreme development of the doctrine of caste. 
 Never was priestly tyranny carried to greater length 
 than by these lordly Brahmans of India. One of 
 the chief abuses of their system was their depravation 
 of sacrifice. 
 
 The earliest conception of sacrifice represented in 
 the Vedas is that of a vicarious offering of Parusha, a 
 
 • Instead of the later and universal pessimism, there was in the 
 Vedio religion a simple but ioyoas sense of life, 
 t Hinduism, p. 31. 
 X Chips from a German Workshop, vol. i. , p. 15. 
 
78 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 Divine being. Very obscure references to this are 
 found in the oldest of the four Vedas, dating prob- 
 ably not later than 1200 B.C. It is brought out still 
 more clearly in a Brahmana which was probably 
 composed in the seventh century B.C. It is there said 
 that the " Lord of creatures offered himseK a sacri- 
 fice for the Gods." Principal Fairbairn finds Vedic 
 authority for the idea that the creation of the world 
 was accomplished by the self-sacrifice of deity ; and 
 Manu ascribes the creation of mankind to the aus- 
 terities of the gods. Sir Monier Williams, the late 
 Professor Banergea, and many others, have regarded 
 these references to a Divine sacrifice for the benefit 
 of gods and men as dim traces of a revelation once 
 made to mankind of a promised atonement for the 
 sins of the world.* 
 
 But so far as the actual observances of the early 
 Hindus were concerned, they seem to have made 
 their offerings rather in the spirit of Cain than in 
 the faith of Abel. They simply fed the gods with 
 their gifts, and regaled them with soma juice, poured 
 forth in libations ; the savor of melted butter also 
 was supposed to be specially grateful. Still there is 
 reason to believe that the piacular idea of sacrifice 
 was never wholly lost, but that the Hindus, in com- 
 mon with all other races, foimd occasion — especially 
 when great calamities befell them — to appease the 
 gods with the blood of sacrifice. In the early days 
 human sacrifices were offered, and occasionally at 
 least down to a late period, f It was a convenient 
 
 * Aryan Witness, p. 204 ; also Hinduism, p. 86. 
 t Ibid., p. 87. 
 
SUGGESSIVE DEVELOPMENTB OF HINDUISM 79 
 
 policy of tlie priesthood, however, to hypothecate 
 the claim for a human victim by accepting the sub- 
 stitution of a goodly number of horses or cows. 
 A famous tradition is given, in the Aitareya Brah- 
 mana, of a prince * who had been doomed to sacrifice 
 by a vow of his father, but who bought as a substi- 
 tute the son of a holy Brahman — paying the price of 
 a hundred cows. When none could be found to 
 bind the lad on the altar, the pious father offered to 
 perform the task for another hundred cows. Then 
 there was no one found to slay the victim, and the 
 father offered for still another hundred to do even 
 that. As the victim was of high caste the gods in- 
 terposed, and the Brahman was still the possessor of 
 a son plus the cattle. The incident will illustrate 
 the greed of the priesthood and the depravation of 
 sacrifice. It had become a system of bargaining and 
 extortion. The sacrifices fed the priesthood more 
 substantially than the gods. There was great ad- 
 vantage in starting with the human victim as the 
 tmit of value, and it is easy to see how substitution 
 of animals became immensely profitable. The peo- 
 ple were taught that it was possible, if one were rich 
 enough in victims, even to bankrupt heaven. Even 
 demons by the value of their offerings might de- 
 mand the sceptre of Indra.f 
 
 Hand in hand with this growth of the sacrificial 
 system was the development of caste ; the former 
 
 * A son of Harisoandra. Hinduism, p. 37. 
 
 f This is in strong contrast witli the Old Testament precepts, 
 which everywhere had greater respect to the heart of the ofEerer. 
 than to the gifts. 
 
80 OBIEFTAL RSLIGIONa AWD OHBISTIAmTY 
 
 was done away by the subsequent protest of Budd- 
 hism and the philosophic schools ; but the latter has 
 remained through all the stages of Hindu history.* 
 Such was Brahmanism. Its thraldom has never 
 been equalled. The land was deluged with the blood 
 o£ slain beasts. All industries were paralyzed with 
 discouragement. Social aspiration was blighted, 
 patriotism and national spirit were weakened, and 
 India was prepared for those disastrous invasions 
 which made her the prey of all northern races. 
 
 It was in protest against these evils that Gautama 
 and many able philosophers arose about 500 B.C. Al- 
 ready the intellectual classes had matched the Brah- 
 mans by drawing upon Vedic authority for their 
 philosophy. As the Brahmans had produced a rit- 
 
 * The Brahmans had found certain grades of population marked 
 by color lines, shaded off from the negroid aboi^gines to the Dra- 
 vidiana, and from them to the more recent and nobler Aryans, 
 and they were prompt also to seize upon a mere poetic and fan- 
 ciful expression found in the Rig Veda, which seemed to give 
 countenance to their fourfold caste distinction by representing 
 one class as having sprung from the head of Brahma, another 
 from the shoulders, the third from his thighs, and a fourth 
 from his feet. Altogether they founded a social system which 
 has been the wonder of the ages, and which has given to the 
 Brahmans the prestige of celestial descent. The Kshatreyeh or 
 soldier caste stands next, and as it has furnished many military 
 leaders and monarohs who disputed the arrogant claims of the 
 Brahmans, conflicts of the upper castes have not been infrequent. 
 
 The Vuiahya^ or farmer caste, has furnished the principal 
 groundwork of many admixtures and subdivisions, until at the 
 present time there are endless subcastes, to each of which a par- 
 ticular kind of employment is assigned. The Sudras are still the 
 menials, but there are difEerent grades of degradation even 
 among them. 
 
aUOOESSIVE DEVELOPMENTS OF HINDUISM 81 
 
 ual from tlie Vedas, so the philosophers framed a 
 sort of philosophic Veda in the Upanishads. Men 
 had begun to ask themselYes the great questions of 
 human life and destiny, "Whence am I? What is 
 this mysterious being of which I am conscious ? " 
 They had begun to reason about nature, the origin 
 of matter, the relation of mortals to the Infinite. 
 The school of the Upanishads regarded themselves 
 as an aristocracy of intellect, and held philosophy 
 as their esoteric and peculiar prerogative. It was 
 maiatained that two distinct kinds of revelation 
 had been made to men. First, that simple kind 
 which was designed for priests and the common 
 masses, for all those who regarded only effects and 
 were satisfied with sacerdotal assumption and merit- 
 making. But, secondly, there was a higher knowl- 
 edge which concerned itself with the origin of the 
 world and the hidden causes of things. Even to this 
 day the Upanishads are the Vedas of the thinkiag 
 classes of India.* 
 
 As the Brahmanas gave first expression to the doc- 
 trine of caste, so in the Upanishads we find the 
 first development of pantheism and the doctrine of 
 transmigration. The conclusion had already been 
 reached that " There is only one Being who exists : 
 He is within this universe and yet outside this uni- 
 verse : whoe'er beholds all living creatures as in 
 Him, and Him the universal spirit, as in all, thence- 
 forth regards no creature with contempt." 
 
 The language of Hindu speculation exhausts its 
 resources in similes by which to represent personal 
 * Hindu Philosophy, Bose, p. 47. 
 
83 ORIENTAL BELiaiONS AND OEBISTIANITY 
 
 amuhilation. Man's origin and relations are ac- 
 counted for very tersely by such illustrations as 
 these : " As the web issues from the spider, as little 
 sparks proceed from fire, so from the One Soul pro- 
 ceed all breathing animals, all worlds, all the gods, 
 aU beings." Then as to destiny : " These rivers pro- 
 ceed from the east toward the west, thence from the 
 ocean they rise in the form of vapor, and dropping 
 agaia, they flow toward the south and merge into the 
 ocean. And as the flowing rivers are merged into 
 the sea, losing their names and forms, so the wise, 
 freed from name and form, pass into the Divine spirit, 
 which is greater than the great." * Another favorite 
 illustration is that of the moon's reflection in the 
 water-jar, which disappears the moment the moon 
 itself is hidden. " If the image in the water has no 
 existence separate from that of the moon," says the 
 Hindu, " how can it be shown that the human soul 
 exists apart from God ? " 
 
 The Mundaka Upanishad, based upon the Atharva 
 Veda (one of the latest, — the Upanishad being later 
 still), contains this account of the universe: "As 
 the spider spins and gathers back (its thread) ; as 
 plants sprout on the earth ; as hairs grow on a living 
 person ; so is this universe here produced from the 
 imperishable nature. By contemplation the vast one 
 germinates ; from him food (or body) is produced ; 
 and thence successively, breath, mind, real (elements) 
 worlds, and immortality resulting from (good) deeds. 
 
 " The Omniscient is profound contemplation con- 
 
 * Indian Witdom on the Bralimanas and TJpanisliads. Also 
 Hindu Philosophy, Bose. 
 
8UO0ES8IVE DEVELOPMENTS OF HINDUISM 83 
 
 sisting in the knowledge of Mm who knows all; 
 and from that, the (manifested) vast one, as well 
 as names, forms, and food proceed; and this is 
 truth."* 
 
 It is a great blemish npon the Upanishads, that 
 while there are subtle, and in some respects subHme, 
 utterances to be found here and there, the great mass 
 is fanciful and often puerile, and in many instances 
 too low and prurient to bear translation into the 
 English language. This is clearly alleged by Mr. 
 Bose, and frankly admitted by Max MiiUer-f 
 
 In the common protest which finally broke down 
 the system of Brahmanical sacrifice, and for a time 
 relaxed the rigors of caste tyranny, Buddhism then 
 just appearing (say 500 B.C.), joined hand in hand 
 with the philosophies. Men were tired of priest- 
 craft, and by a natural reaction they went to an 
 opposite extreme ; they were tired of religion itself. 
 Buddha became an undoubted atheist or agnostic, 
 and six distinct schools of philosophy arose on the 
 basis of the Upanishads — some of which were purely 
 rationalistic, some were conservative, others radical. 
 Some resembled the Greek " Atomists " in their 
 theory,^ and others fought for the authority, and even 
 the supreme divinity, of the Vedas. § All believed in 
 the eternity of matter, and the past eternity of the 
 soul; all accepted the doctrine of transmigration, 
 and maintained that the spiritual nature can only act 
 
 * GoMrook's Essays, foot-note, p. 85. 
 
 f See Introduction to the Sacred Books of the East, vol.*i. 
 
 t Taiseshika Philosopliy, in Indian Wisdom. 
 
 § Mimansa Philosophy. Ibid. 
 
84 ORIENTAL BELiaiONS AND CHBISTIANITT 
 
 through a material body. All were pessimistic, and 
 looked for relief only in absorption. 
 
 But the progress of Hindu thought was marked 
 by checks and counter-checks. As the tyranny of 
 the priesthood had led to the protest of philoso- 
 phy, so the extreme and conflicting speculations of 
 philosophic rationalism probably gave rise to the 
 conservatism of the Code of Manu. No adequate 
 idea of the drift of Hindu thought can be gained 
 without assigning due influence to this all-important 
 body of laws. They accomplished more in holding 
 fast the power of the Brahmans, and enabling them 
 to stem the tide of intellectual rebellion, and finally 
 to regain the sceptre from the hand of Buddhism, 
 than all other literatures combined. Their date can- 
 not be definitely known. They were composed by 
 different men and at different times. They probably 
 followed the Upanishads, but antedated the fuU de- 
 velopment of the philosophic schools. 
 
 Many of the principles of Manu's Code had prob- 
 ably been uttered as early as the seventh century 
 B.C.* The ferment of rationalistic thought was even 
 then active, and demanded restraint. The one phrase 
 which expresses the whole spirit of the laws of 
 Manu is intense conservatism. They stand for the 
 definite authority of dogma ; they re-assert in strong 
 terms the authority of the Vedas ; they establish 
 and fortify by all possible influences, the institution 
 of caste. They enclose as in an iron framework, all 
 
 * Sir Monier Williams assigns tlie Code of Manu in its present 
 form to the sixth century B.C. Indian Wisdom, p, 315. Other 
 Oriental scholars consider it older. 
 
SlTOGBSSIVE DEVELOPMENTS OF ElNDUIBM 85 
 
 domestic, social, civil, and religious institutions. 
 They embrace not only the destiny of men upon the 
 earth, but also the rewards and punishments of the 
 future life. Whatever they touched was petrified. 
 Abuses which had crept in through the natural de- 
 velopment of human depravity — for example, the 
 oppression of woman — the laws of Manu stamped 
 with inflexible and irreversible authority. The evils 
 which grow up in savage tribes are bad enough, the 
 tyranny of mere brute force is to be deplored, but 
 worst of all is that which is sanctioned by statute, 
 and made the very comer -stone of a great civil- 
 ization. Probably no other system of laws ever 
 did so much to rivet the chains of domestic tyr- 
 anny.* 
 
 The Code of Manu has been classified as, 1st, sa- 
 cred knowledge and religion; 2d, philosophy; 3d, 
 social' rules and caste organization ; 4th, criminal 
 and civil laws ; 5th, systems of penance ; 6th, escha- 
 tology, or the doctrine of future rewards. No unin- 
 spired or non-Vedic production has equal authority 
 in India. We can only judge of its date by its rela- 
 tive place among other books. It appHes Vedic 
 names to the gods, though it mentions Brahma and 
 Vishnu, but it makes no reference to the Trimurti. 
 Pantheism was evidently in existence and was made 
 prominent in the code. The influence of Manu over 
 the jurisprudence of India was a matter of growth. 
 At fijst the code appears to have been a guide ia 
 
 * These tendencies were more intensely emphasized iu some of 
 the later codes, which, however, were only variations of the greater 
 one of Manu. 
 
86 OBIElffAL BSLIGIOM AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 customs and observances, but as it gained currency 
 it acquired the force of law, and extended its sway 
 over all the tribes of India. It was not, however, 
 maintained as a uniform code throughout the land, 
 but its principles were found underlying the laws of 
 all the provinces. Its very merits were finally fruit- 
 ful of evil. Human weal was sacrificed to the over- 
 shadowing power of a system of customs cunningly 
 wrought and established by Brahmanical influence. 
 The author was evidently a Brahman, and the whole 
 work was prepared and promulgated in the interests 
 of Brahmanism as against all freedom of thought. 
 Its support of the Vedas was fanatical. Thus : " A 
 Brahman by retaining the Rig Veda iu his memory 
 incurs no guilt, though he should destroy the three 
 worlds." Again : " When there is contradiction of 
 two precepts in the Yeda, both are declared to be 
 law ; both have been justly promulgated by known 
 sages as valid law." 
 
 The laws of Manu make no mention of the doc- 
 trine of Bakti or faith, and there is no reference to 
 the worship of the Sakti ; both of these were of later 
 date. The doctrine of transmigration, however, is 
 fully stated, and as a consequence of this the hells 
 described in the code, though places of torture, re- 
 solve themselves into merely temporary purgatories, 
 while the heavens become only the steps on the road 
 to a union with deity. There is reason to believe 
 that the practice of employing idols to represent de- 
 ity was unknown at the time the code was compiled. 
 There is no allusion to public services or to teaching 
 in the temples, the chief rites of religion were of a 
 
SUCGESSIYE DEVELOPMENra OF HINDUISM 87 
 
 domestic kind, and the priests of that age were noth- 
 ing more than domestic chaplains. 
 
 Mann's theory of creation was this : " The Self- 
 Existent, having willed to produce various beiugs 
 from his own substance, first with a thought created 
 the waters and placed on -them a productive seed or 
 egg. Then he himself was born in that egg in the 
 form of Brahma. Next he caused the egg to divide 
 itself, and out of its two divisions there came the 
 heaven above and the earth beneath. Afterward, 
 having divided his own substance he became half 
 male, half female. Erom that female was produced 
 Viraj, from whom was created the secondary progen- 
 itor of all beings. Then from the Supreme Soid he 
 drew forth Manu's intellect." This mixed cosmogony 
 is supposed to indicate a, diversity of authorship. 
 
 It will be seen that this is much less philosophi- 
 cal than the theory of creation quoted above from 
 the Mundaka Upanishad.* If we compare Manu's 
 account with the description of the " Beginning " 
 found in one of the hymns of the Eig Veda,-j- we 
 shall see that there has been a downward trend of 
 Hinduism from the simple and sublime conceptions 
 of the early poets to that which is grotesque, and 
 which has probably been worked over to suit the 
 purposes of the Brahmans. No mythological legend 
 was too absurd if it promoted the notion of the di- 
 vine origin of the Manus (sages) and the Brahmans. 
 
 Manu makes much of the Vedic passage which 
 refers to the origin of caste. | He maintained that 
 this distinction of caste was as much a law of nature 
 * See p. 83. t Quoted on p. 76. t See note, p. 80. 
 
88 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND 0HRI8TIANITT 
 
 and divine appointment as the separation of differ- 
 ent classes of animals. The prominence accorded to 
 the Brahmans was nothing short of divine. " Even 
 when Brahmans employ themselves in all sorts of 
 inferior occupations (as poverty often compels them 
 to do) they must under all circumstances be hon- 
 ored, for they are to be regarded as supreme divini- 
 ties." " A Brahman's own power is stronger than the 
 power of the king, therefore by his own might he may 
 chastise his foes." " He who merely assails a Brah- 
 man with intent to kill him, will continue in hell for 
 a hundred years, and he who actually strikes him 
 must endure a thousand years." 
 
 It is always the truth that is mingled with the 
 errors of any system which constitutes its life and 
 gives it perpetuity, and there is much in the Code of 
 Manu to be admired. Like the Confucian ethics, it 
 laid its foundations in the respect due from child- 
 hood to parents, and in guarding the sanctities of 
 the home. It aimed at fairness between ruler and 
 subject, in an age when over most of the Asiatic con- 
 tiuent the wildest caprice of rulers was the law of 
 their respective realms. Manu taught the duty of 
 kings toward their subjects in most emphatic terms. 
 They were to regard themselves as servants, or 
 rather as fathers, of the people ; and rules were pre- 
 scribed for their entire conduct. They were the 
 representatives of deity in administering the affairs 
 of mortals, and must realize their solemn responsi- 
 bility.* It must ever be acknowledged that the Hindu 
 
 * Sir Monier Williams declares that some of Manu's precepts 
 are worthy of Christianity. Indian Wisdom, p. 313. 
 
SUG0E88IYE DEVELOPMENTS OE EINDVISM 89 
 
 laws respecting property were characterized by wis- 
 dom and equity. Taxation was not subject to caprice 
 or injustice ; where discriminations occurred they 
 were in favor of the poor, and the heaviest burdens 
 were laid where they should be laid, upon the rich. 
 There were wise adaptations, calciilated to develop 
 the industry and self-help of the weakest classes, 
 and care was takeh that they never should become 
 oppressive. No political or civic tyranny could be 
 allowed ; but that of the priesthood in its relations 
 to all ranks, and that of the householder toward his 
 wife and toward all women, were quite sufficient. 
 In this last regard we scarcely know which was the 
 greater — the heartless wickedness of the Code, or 
 its blind and bigoted folly. How it was that laws 
 could be framed which indicated such rare sagacity, 
 which in many other respects were calculated to 
 build up the very highest civilization, and which, at 
 the same time, failed to foresee that this oppression 
 of woman must result in the inevitable degeneracy 
 of succeeding generations of men, must ever remain 
 a mystery.* 
 
 * It should be set down to the credit of the Code of Mauu that 
 with all its relentless cruelty toward woman it nowhere gives 
 oonntenanoe to the atrocious custom of widow-burning which 
 soon afterward became an important factor in the Hindu system 
 and desolated the homes of India for more than two thousand 
 years. 
 
 There would seem to be some dispute as to whether or not 
 widow-burning is sanctioned in the Eig Veda. Colebrooke, in his 
 Essays (Vol. I., p. 135), quotes one or two passages which author- 
 ize the rite, but Sir Monier Williams [Indian Wisdom, p. 259, 
 note) has shown that changes were made in this text at a much 
 later day for the purpose of gaining Vedio authority for a cruel 
 
90 OMENTAL BELIGIONS AND GHRISriANITY 
 
 We have glanced at the purer and simpler Aiyan- 
 ism of the early period, at the bigoted, tyrannical 
 Brahmanism, with its ritual, its sacrifices, its caste. 
 "We have merely alluded to the rationalistic reaction 
 of the philosophers and the Buddhists. We shall 
 now see that the Brahman power is not broken, but 
 that it will regain all and more than it has lost, that 
 it will prove elastic enough to embrace all that has 
 gone before ; that while Buddhism will be banished, 
 many of its elements will be retained, and the whole 
 woven into one marvellous texture which we will call 
 Hinduism* Even during the period of Buddhism's 
 greatest triumphs, say, two or three centuries before 
 Christ, changes of great moment were going on in 
 the Brahmanical faith. The old sacrificial system 
 had lost its power, but the flexible and inexhaustible 
 resources of Brahmanical cunning were by no means 
 dormant. In the border wars of the Aryans, with 
 rival invaders on the one hand, and with the con- 
 quered but ever restless aborigines on the other, 
 great and popular heroes had sprung up. The ex- 
 ploits of these heroes had been celebrated in two 
 great epics, the Kamayana and the Mahabharata, 
 and the popularity of these poems was immense. 
 The heroes were of the soldier caste, and gave to 
 
 system, of which even so late a work as the Code of Manu makes 
 no mention, and (page 205 Ibid. ) he quotes another passage from 
 the Rig Veda which directs a widow to ascend the pyre of her 
 husband as a token of attachment, but to leave it before the burn- 
 ing is begun. 
 
 * As the spread of Buddhism had owed much to the political 
 triumph of King Ashoka, so the revival of Hinduism was greatly 
 indebted to the influence of a new dynasty about a century B. c. 
 
SUCOESatVE DEVELOPMENTS OF -HINDUISM 91 
 
 that caste a prestige which seemed to the Brah- 
 mans formidable and dangerous.* The di-vine pre- 
 rogatiTes of their order were all in jeopardy. 
 
 The remedy chosen by the Brahmans was a bold 
 and desperate one. These heroes must be raised 
 out of the soldier caste by making them divine. As 
 such they would hold a nearer relation to the divine 
 Brahmans than to the soldiers. The legends were 
 therefore worked over — Brahmanized — so to speak, f 
 Eama, who had overcome certain chieftains of Cey- 
 lon, and Krishna, who had won great battles in Eaj- 
 putana, were raised to the rank of gods and demi- 
 gods. By an equal exaggeration the hostile chiefs 
 of rival invaders were transformed to demons, and 
 the black, repulsive lull tribes, who were involved as 
 allies in these conflicts, were represented as apes. 
 As a part of this same Brahmaniziug process, the 
 doctrine of the Trimurti was developed, and also the 
 doctrine of incarnation. Most conspicuous were the 
 incarnations of Vishnu ; Eama and Krishna were 
 finally placed among the ten incarnations of that 
 deity. This was a skiKul stroke of policy, for it was 
 now no longer the heroes of the soldier caste who 
 had won victory for the Aryans ; it was Vishnu, the 
 preserver, the care-taker, and sympathizer with all 
 the interests of mankind. The development of the 
 doctrines of the Trimurti and of incarnation un- 
 doubtedly followed both the rise of Buddhism and 
 the promulgation of the Laws of Manu. 
 
 Meanwhile the Brahmans were shrewd enough to 
 adapt themselves to certain other necessities. The 
 * Indian WMom, p. 314. flbid., p. 317. 
 
92 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 influence of Buddhism was still a force whicli was 
 not to be disregarded. It had demonstrated one 
 tiling whicli had never been recognized before, and 
 that was the need of a more human and sympathetic 
 element in the diyine objects of worship. Men were 
 weary of worshipping gods who had no kindly in- 
 terest in humanity. They were weary of a religion 
 which had no other element than that of fear or of 
 bargaining with costly sacrifices. They longed for 
 something which had the quality of mercy. Buddha 
 had demonstrated the value of this element, and by 
 an adroit stroke of policy the Brahmans adopted 
 Gautama as the ninth avatar of Yishnu. Meanwhile 
 they adopted the heroic Krishna as the god of sym- 
 pathy — the favorite of the lower masses who were 
 not too critical toward his vices. 
 
 We have now reached the fully developed form of 
 Hinduism* The Brahmans had embraced every 
 element that could give strength to their broad, eclec- 
 tic, and all-embracing system.f The doctrine of the 
 Trimurti had become a strong factor, as it furnished 
 a sort of framework, and gave stability. As com- 
 pared with the early Aryanism, it removed the idea 
 of deity from merely natural forces to that of ab- 
 stract thoughts, principles, and emotions, as active 
 and potent in the world. At the same time it re- 
 tained the old Vedic deities under new names and 
 
 * Bralimanism and Hinduism are often used interohaugeaWy, 
 but all confusion will be avoided by confining the former to tbat 
 intense sacerdotalism which prevailed during the Brahmana pe- 
 riod, while the latter is used more comprehensively, or is referred 
 particularly to the later and fully developed system. 
 
 \ Hinduism, pp. 12, 18. 
 
aUOOESSIVE DEVELOPMENTS OF HINDUISM 93 
 
 with new functions, and it did not abate its professed 
 regard for Vedic authority. The Brahmans had ren- 
 dered their system popular in a sense with the in- 
 tellectual classes by adopting all the philosophies. 
 They had stopped the mouth of Buddhist protest by 
 embracing the Buddha among their incarnations. 
 They had shown an advance in the succession of 
 incarnations from the early embodiments of brute 
 force, the fish, the tortoise, the boar, up to heroes, 
 and from these to the ninth avatar, the Buddha, as 
 a moralist and philosopher.* They left on record 
 the prediction that a tenth should come — and he 
 is yet to come — ^who, in a still higher range of 
 moral and spiritual power, should redeem and reno- 
 vate the earth, and establish a kingdom of righteous- 
 ness. 
 
 Meanwhile, in this renaissance of the Hindu 
 faith, this wide, politic, self -adapting system, we 
 find not only Buddhism, Philosophy, the early krj- 
 anism, and the stiff cultus of Brahmanism, but 
 there is also a large infusion of the original supersti- 
 tions of the Dravidians, Kohls, Santals, and other 
 nature worshippers of the hill tribes. Much of the 
 polytheism of the modem Hindus — the worship of 
 hills, trees, apes, cattle, the sun, the moon, unseen 
 spirits, serpents, etc. — has been adopted from these 
 simple tribes, so that the present system embraces 
 
 * The Brahmans were careful, however, to brand the Buddha, 
 while admitting him as an avatar. Their theory was that Vishnu 
 appeared in Gautama for the purpose of deluding certain de- 
 mons into despising the worship of the gods, and thus securing 
 their destruction. This affords an incidental proof that Gautama 
 was regarded as an atheist. — See Indian Wisdom, p. 335. 
 
94 OBIENTAL BELIOIONS AND OHBISTIANITT 
 
 all that has ever appeared on the soil of India — 
 even Mohammedanism to some extent ; and as some 
 contend, very much also has been incorporated from 
 the early teachings of the so-called St. Thomas 
 Christians of Malabar. Such is the immense com- 
 posite which is called Hinduism. It continued its 
 development through the early centuries of the 
 Christian era, and down even to the Middle Ages. 
 Since then there has been disintegration instead of 
 growth. The Brahmans have not only retained the 
 Aryan deities, and extended Vishnu's incarnate nat- 
 ure over the epic heroes, but in the Puranas they 
 have woven into the alleged lives of the incarnate 
 gods the most grotesque mythologies and many re- 
 volting vices. 
 
 It may be interesting to trace for a moment the 
 influence of the different lines of Hindu literature 
 upon the general development of national charac- 
 ter. Of course, the early Vedic literature has never 
 lost its influence as the holy and inspired source 
 of all knowledge to the Hindu race ; but we have 
 seen how much more potential were the Brahmamas 
 and the Upanishad philosophy drawn from the Ve- 
 das, than were those sacred oracles themselves ; how 
 the Brahmanas riveted the chains of priestcraft and 
 caste, and how the philosophies invigorated the intel- 
 lect of the people at a time when they were most in 
 danger of sinking into the torpor of ignorance and 
 base subserviency to ritual and sacrifice ; how it gave 
 to the better classes the courage to rise up in rebel- 
 lion and throw off every yoke, and think for them- 
 selves. We have seen how Buddhism by its protest 
 
8U00ES8IVE DBVELOPMENTS OF HINDJIISM 95 
 
 against sacerdotalism crippled for a time tlie power 
 of the Brahmans and raised a representative of the 
 soldier caste to the chief place as a teacher of men ; 
 how its inculcation of pity to man and beast ban- 
 ished the slaughter and cruelty of wholesale and 
 meaningless sacrifice, and how its example of sym- 
 pathy changed Hinduism itself, and brought it into 
 nearer relations with humanity. Driven from India, 
 though it was, it left an immense deposit of influ- 
 ence and of power. We have seen how, as a coun- 
 ter-check to philosophy and Buddhism, the Code 
 of Manu reasserted the authority of the Vedas, and 
 riveted anew the chains of caste, and how it compen- 
 sated for its oppressiveness by many wholesome and 
 benign regulations — accomplishing more, perhaps, 
 than aU other literatures combined to maintain the 
 stability of Hinduism, through its many vicissi- 
 tudes, and in spite of the heterogeneous elements 
 which it received and incorporated. 
 
 Scarcely less important was the influence of the 
 great epics — the Eamayana and the Mahabharata — 
 with their doctrine of Trimurti and the incarnations 
 of Vishnu in the national heroes. This conciliated 
 the soldier caste, subsidized the most popular char- 
 acters in Hindu tradition, at the same time that it 
 made them tenfold more glorious than before. The 
 Epics widened out the field of Hindu mythology 
 immensely. Never before had there been such a 
 boundless range for the imagination. The early 
 Brahmans had cramped aU intellectual growth, and 
 held mankind by the leash of priestly ritual. The 
 philosophies had been too strait and lofty for any 
 
96 ORIENTAL BELiaiONS AND OHBISTIANITT 
 
 but the higher class ; Manu's laws had been a stem 
 school-master to keep the people under curbs and 
 restraints ; even the Brahmans themselyes were the 
 slaves of their own ritual. But all the people could 
 imderstand and admire Eama's wonderful victories 
 over the demon Eavana. All could appreciate the de- 
 votion of the lovely Sita, and weep when she was kid- 
 napped and borne away, like Grecian Helen, to the 
 demon court in Ceylon ; and they could be thrilled 
 with unbounded joy when she was restored — the 
 truest and loveliest of wives — to be the sharer of a 
 throne. 
 
 The Epics took such hold of the popular heart 
 that any fact, any theory, any myth that could be 
 attached to them found ready credence. The Ma- 
 habharata especially became a general texture upon 
 which any philosophy, or all the philosophies, might 
 be woven at will. And for a long period, extend- 
 ing from three or four centuries B.C. onward far into 
 the Christian era, it was ever ready to receive modi- 
 fications from the fertile brain and skilful hand of 
 any devout Brahman. A striking example of this was 
 the introduction of the Bhagavad Gita. When this 
 was composed, somewhere about the second or third 
 century of our era, there was no little conflict be- 
 tween the different schools of philosophy ; and its un- 
 known author attempted to unite them all in a poem 
 which should harmonize their contradictions and 
 exalt the virtues of each, and at the same time reiter- 
 ate all the best maxims of Hinduism. Some cen- 
 turies later, the pronounced Vedantist Sancarakarya 
 revamped the poem and gave its philosophy a more 
 
aUCOESSIVE DEVELOPMENTS OF HINDUISM 97 
 
 pantheistic character ; later still the demigod Krish- 
 na was raised to Ml rank as the supreme Vishnu — 
 the Creator and Upholder of all things.* 
 
 It is important to notice that in the trend of 
 Hindu literature through so many ages there has. 
 been no upward movement, but rather a decline. 
 Nowhere do we find hymns of so pure and lofty a 
 tone as in the early Vedas. No philosophy of the 
 later times has equalled that of the Upanishads and 
 the six Darsanas. No law-giver like Manu has ap- 
 peared for twenty-four centuries. No Sanskrit scho- 
 larship has equalled that of the great grammarian 
 Panini, who lived in the fourth century B.C. And 
 although no end of poetry has succeeded the great 
 Epics, it has shown deterioration. The Puranas, 
 written at a later day, reveal only a reckless zeal 
 to exalt the incarnate deities. They may properly 
 be called histories of the incarnations of Brahma, 
 Vishnu, Siva, and glorifications of Krishna. And 
 the very nature of the subjects with which they deal 
 gives free scope to an unbridled imagination and to 
 the most reckless exaggeration. 
 
 If anything more were wanting to insure their ex- 
 travagance, it may be found in the fact that they 
 were inspired by the rivalry of the respective wor- 
 shippers of different gods. The Puranas mark the 
 development of separate sects, each of which re- 
 garded its particular deity as the supreme and only 
 god. The worshippers of Vishnu and the worship- 
 pers of Siva were in sharp rivalry, and they have 
 
 * See Aryan Witness, closing chapter ; also Chrkt and Other 
 Masters, p. 198, notes 1, 3, and 3. 
 
 7 
 
98 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND GHRISTIANITT 
 
 continued their separation to this day.* Those who 
 carae to worship Vishnu as incarnate in Krishna, 
 gained an advantage in the popular element associ- 
 ated with a favorite hero. Yet this was matched by 
 the influence of the Sankhya philosophy, which as- 
 signed to Siva a male and female dualism, a doctrine 
 which finally plunged Hinduism into deepest degra- 
 dation. It brought about a new development known 
 as Saktism, and the still later and grosser literature 
 of the Tantras. In these, Hinduism reached its low- 
 est depths. The modem " Aryas " discard both the 
 Tantras and the Puranas, and assert that the popu- 
 lar incarnations of Vishnu were only good men. They 
 take refuge from the corruptions of modem Hindu- 
 ism in the purer teachings of the early Vedas. 
 
 Tlie Contrasts of Hinduism atid Christianity. 
 
 Hinduism has some elements in common with 
 Christianity which it is well to recognize. It is 
 theistic ; it is a religion, as distinguished from the 
 agnostic and ethical systems of India and China.f 
 Hinduism always recognized a direct divine revela- 
 tion which it regards with profound reverence; and 
 through all its variations and corruptions it has in- 
 culcated in the minds of the Indian races a deeply 
 religious feeling. It has been claimed that it has 
 
 * See Brahmanism and Hinduism, Monier Williams. 
 
 f Hardwick traces similarities between Hindu traditions and 
 Christianity in suolx points as 'tliese : 1, Tlie primitive state of 
 man ; 2, his fall by transgression ; 3, his punishment in the Del- 
 uge ; 4, the rite of sacrifice ; 5, the primitive hope of restora- 
 tion.— C%m« and Other Masters, p. 209, 
 
SUOOESSIVE DEVBLOPMENTS OF niNDUISM 99 
 
 made tlie Hindus the most devotional people in tlie 
 •world. Like Christianity, Hinduism appeals to 
 man's intellectual nature, and it is inwrought -with 
 profound philosophy. It does not, however, like 
 some modem systems, teach that divine truth has 
 been revealed to man by natural processes ; rather it 
 regards the early revelation as having suffered obscu- 
 ration.* It also has its trinity, its incarnations, and 
 its predictions of a Messiah who shall restore the 
 truth and establish righteousness. The Hindu tra- 
 ditions maintain that mankind descended from a 
 single pair ; f that the first estate of the race was one 
 of innocence ; that man was one of the last products 
 of creation ; that in the first ages he was upright, and 
 consequently happy. " The beings who were thus 
 created by Brahma are said to have been endowed 
 with righteousness and perfect faith; they abode 
 wherever they pleased, unchecked by any impedi- 
 ment ; their hearts were free from guile ; they were 
 pure, made exempt from toil by observance of sacred 
 institutes. In their sanctified minds Hari dwelt; 
 they were filled with perfect wisdom by which they 
 contemplated the glory of Vishnu." Hartwell has 
 pointed out the fact that the early Hindu traditions 
 here unite with the Scriptural account in virtually 
 denying all those theories of evolution which trace 
 the development of man from lower animals.J 
 
 * The Hindus hold that " truth was originally deposited with 
 men, hut gradually slnmhered and was forgotten ; the knowledge 
 of it returns like a recollection. "—ITMmJoMf* Kosmos, ii., p. 113. 
 
 t Professor Wilson's Lectures, p. 53, 
 
 X Yishnv, Puranas, p. 45, note 4. 
 
100 OBIENTAL BELiaiONS AND GHmSTIANITT 
 
 But compared witli Ohristianity, its contrasts are 
 far greater than its resemblances. First, as to the 
 nature of God, there is an infinite difference between 
 the cold and unconscious Brahman, slumbering for 
 ages without thought or emotion or any moral attri- 
 bute, and the God of Israel, whose power and wis- 
 dom and goodness, whose mercy and truth and ten- 
 der compassion, are so constantly set forth in the 
 Bible. The latter compares Himself to a Father 
 who cares for his children, and who has redeemed 
 the world by an infinite sacrifice. Even in the most 
 popular emanation of Brahman — even in Vishnu — 
 there is nothing of a fatherly spirit, no appeal as to 
 children, no kindly remonstrance against sin, no 
 moral instruction, or effort to encourage and establish 
 character, no promise of reward, no enkindling of 
 immortal hope. 
 
 Second, there is a striking contrast in the com- 
 parative estimates which Hinduism and Christian- 
 ity place upon the human soul. Unlike Buddhism, 
 Hinduism does recognize the existence of a soul, 
 but it is only a temporary emanation, like the moon's 
 reflection in the water. It resembles its source as 
 does the moon's image, but coldly and in a most un- 
 satisfactory sense ; there is no capacity for fellow- 
 ship, and the end is absorption.* On the other hand, 
 Christianity teaches us that we are created lq God's 
 
 * Buddhism is still more disheartening, since it denies the sepa- 
 rate conscious existence of the ego. There cannot be divine fel- 
 lowship, therefore, but only the current of thoughts and emotions 
 like the continuous flame of a burning caudle. Not our souls 
 will survive, but our Karma. 
 
SUOOESaiVE DEVELOPMENTS OF HINDUISM 101 
 
 image, but not that we are his image. We are sep- 
 arate, though dependent, and if reunited to him 
 through Christ we shall dwell in his presence for- 
 ever. 
 
 Third, the two systems are in strong contrast in 
 the comparative hopes which they hold out for the 
 future. The doctrine of transmigration casts a 
 gloom over aU conscious being ; it presents an out- 
 look so depressing as to make life a burden, and the 
 acme of all possible attainment is individual extinc- 
 tion, or what amounts to the same thing, absorption 
 into deity. The logic of it is that it would be bet- 
 ter still not to have been bom at all. Christianity 
 promises an immediate transfer to a life of unalloyed 
 blessedness, and an endless growth of all our powers 
 and capacities ; but why should Hiuduism urge the 
 cultivation of that whose real destiny is "efface- 
 ment ? " Hiuduism finds the explanation of life's 
 mysteries and inscrutable trials in the theory of sins 
 committed in a previous existence. Christianity, 
 while recognizing the same trials, relieves them with 
 the hope of solutions in a future life of compensating 
 joy. The one turns to that which is past, unchange- 
 able and hopeless, and finds only sullen despair; 
 the other anticipates an inheritance richer than eye 
 hath seen, or ear heard, or heart conceived. 
 
 Fourth, Hinduism has no Saviour and no salva- 
 tion. It is not a religion in the highest sense of 
 rescue and reconciliation. It avails us of no saving 
 power higher than our own unaided effort. It im- 
 plies the ruin of sin, but provides no remedy. It 
 presents no omnipotent arm stretched forth to save. 
 
102 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 Its fatalism places man mider endless disabilities, 
 and then bids him to escape from the nexus if he 
 can ; but it reveals no divine helper, no sacrifice, no 
 mediator, no regenerating Spirit. It has no glad 
 tidings to proclaim, no comfort in sorrow, no victory 
 over the sting of death, no resurrection unto Life. 
 Though at a period subsequent to the preaching of 
 the Gospel in India — perhaps the seventh or eighth 
 century a.d. — a doctrine of faith {BaMi) was en- 
 grafted upon Hinduism, yet it had no hint of a 
 Saviour from sin and death.* 
 
 Fifth, in Hinduism there is no liberty for the free 
 action of the human spirit. Though the life of a 
 Brahman is intensely religious, yet it is cramped 
 with exactions which are not only abortive but posi- 
 tively belittling. The code of Brahmanism never 
 deals with general principles in the regulation of 
 conduct, but fills the whole course of life with 
 punctilious minutiae of observances. Instead of pre- 
 scribing, as Christ did, an ^11 - comprehensive law 
 of supreme love to God and love to our neighbor 
 as ourselves, it loads the mind with petty exac- 
 tions, puerile precepts, inane prohibitions. " Unlike 
 Christianity, which is all spirit and life," says Dr. 
 Duff, " Hinduism is all letter and death." Repres- 
 sion takes the place of inspiration and the encour- 
 agement of hope. 
 
 There are a thousand subtle principles in Hindu- 
 ism whose influence is felt in society and in the 
 state, and to which the faith and power of the Gospel 
 present the very strongest contrasts. For example, 
 * Christ and Other Masters, p. 183. 
 
8U00E88IVE DEVELOPMENTS OF HINDUISM 103 
 
 while Christianity has raised woman to a position 
 of respect and honor, and made her influence felt as 
 something sacred and potential in the family and in 
 all society, Hinduism has brought her down even 
 from the place which she occupied among the primi- 
 tive Aryans, to an ever-deepening degradation. It 
 has made her life a burden and a curse. Pundita 
 Eamabai, in her plea for high-caste Hindu women, 
 quotes a prayer of a child widow in which she asks, 
 " Father of the world, hast ThoU not created us ? 
 or has perchance some other God made us ? Dost 
 Thou only care for men? O Almighty One, hast 
 Thou not power to make us other than we are, that 
 we too may have some part in the blessings of life ? " 
 Even in this last decade of the nineteenth century 
 the priesthood of Bengal are defending against all 
 humane legislation those old customs which render 
 the girlhood of Hindu women a living death.* 
 In its broad influence Christianity has raised the 
 
 * Tet in spite of Manu and the inveteracy of old custom, 
 there gleams here and there in Hindu literature and history a 
 bright ideal of woman's character and rank ; while the Ramayana 
 has its model Sita, the MahabJiarata, i.,3038, has this peerless 
 sketch : 
 
 " A wife is half the man, his truest friend ; 
 
 A loving wife is a perpetual spring 
 
 Of virtue, pleasure, wealth ; a faithful wife 
 
 Is his best aid in seeking heavenly bliss ; 
 
 A sweetly-speaking wife is a companion 
 
 In solitude ; a father in advice ; 
 
 A mother in all seasons of distress ; 
 
 A rest in passing through life's wilderness." 
 
 This, however, is a pathetic outburst : the tyranny of the ages 
 remains. 
 
104 onmNTAL BMLIGIONS AND OBBISttANtTY 
 
 once savage tribes of Europe to tlie highest degree 
 of culture, and made them leaders and rulers of the 
 world ; but Hinduism has so weakened and hum- 
 bled the once conquering Aryans that they have long 
 been an easy prey to every invading race. Chris- 
 tianity shows in its sacred Book a manifest prog- 
 ress from lower to higher moral standards — ^from 
 the letter to the spirit, from the former sins that 
 were wiuked at to the perfect example of Christ, 
 from the narrow exclusiveness of Judaism to the 
 broad and all-embracing spirit of the Gospel, from 
 prophecy to fulfilment, from types and shadows to 
 the full light of Redemption ; the sacred books of 
 Hinduism have degenerated from the lofty aspira- 
 tions of the Vedic nature-worship to the vileness of 
 Saktism, from the noble praises of Varuna to the 
 low sensuality of the Tantras, from Vedic concep- 
 tions of the creation, sublime as the opening of St. 
 John's Gospel, to the myths of the divine turtle or 
 the boar, or the escapades of the supreme and 
 " adorable Krishna." * 
 
 Christianity breaks down all barriers which divide 
 and ahenate mankind, and establishes a universal 
 brotherhood in Christ; Hinduism has raised the 
 most insurmountable barriers and developed the 
 most inexorable social tyranny ever inflicted on the 
 human race. The Hebrew economy also recogiiized 
 a priestly class, but they were chosen from among 
 
 * Even in tlie later development of the doctrine of faitli (Eakti) 
 Hinduism fails to connect with it any moral purification or ele- 
 vation. See quotations from Blphinstone and Wilson in Christ 
 and Other Masters, p. 334. 
 
SlTGOBSStVM DEYBLOPMENtS OP mNDtflSM 105 
 
 their brethren and were on]y a distinct family ; they 
 made no claim to divine lineage, and they were guilt- 
 less of social tyranny. 
 
 Christianity enjoins a higher and purer ethic than 
 it has ever found in the natural moral standards of 
 any people ; it aims at perfection ; it treats the least 
 infraction as a violation of the whole law ; it regards 
 even corrupt thoughts as sins ; it bids us be holy 
 even as He is holy in whose sight the heavens are 
 unclean. Hinduism, on the other hand, is below the 
 ethical standard of respectable Hindu society. The 
 better classes are compelled to apologize for it by 
 asserting that that which is debasing in men may be 
 sinless in the gods. The offences of Krishna and 
 Arjuna would not be condoned in mortals ; the vile 
 orgies of the " left-handed worshippers " of Siva 
 would not be tolerated but for their religious char- 
 acter. The murders committed by the Thugs in 
 honor of Kali were winked at only because a goddess 
 demanded them. The naked processions of Gliai- 
 tanya's followers would be dispersed by the police 
 anywhere but in India. 
 
 It is the peculiar distinction of India that it has 
 been the theatre of nearly all the great religions. 
 Brahmanism, Buddhism, and Mohammedanism have 
 aU made trial of their social and political power and 
 have failed. Last of all came Christianity. The 
 systems which preceded it had had centuries of op- 
 portunity ; and yet Christianity has done more for 
 the elevation of Hindu society in the last fifty years 
 than they had accomplished in all the ages of their 
 dominion. Neither Buddhism nor Mohammedanism 
 
106 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND OHBISTIANITY 
 
 had made any serious impression on caste ; neither 
 had been able to mitigate the wrongs which Brah- 
 manism had heaped upon woman — Mohammedanism 
 had rather increased them. The horrors of the satti 
 and the murder of female infants — those bitterest 
 fruits of priestly tyranny — were left unchecked until 
 the British Government, inspired by missionary in- 
 fluence and a general Christian sentiment, branded 
 them as infamous and made them crimes. But now 
 even the native sentiment of the better classes in 
 India is greatly changed by these higher influences, 
 and the conventional morality is rising above the 
 teachings of the national religion. Widow-burn- 
 ing and infanticide belong almost wholly to the 
 past. Child-marriage is coming into disrepute, and 
 caste, though not destroyed, is crippled, and its pre- 
 posterous assumptions are falling before the march 
 of social progress. 
 
 Perhaps the very highest tribute which Hinduism 
 has paid to Christianity is seen in the fact that the 
 modem Arya Somaj has borrowed its ethics and 
 some of its religious doctrines, and is promulgating 
 them under Vedie labels and upon Vedic authority.* 
 It has renounced those corruptions of Hinduism 
 which can no longer bear the light — such as enforced 
 widowhood and the general oppression of woman. 
 It denounces the incarnations of Vishnu as mere in- 
 ventions, and therefore cuts up by the roots the 
 whole Krishna cult and dissipates the glory of the 
 Bhagavad Gita. It abhors polytheism, and not only 
 proclaims the supremacy of one only true God, self- 
 * See a recent Catechism published by the Arya Somaj. 
 
suooESSira developmen'ts of hinduibm 107 
 
 existent, the creator and upholder of all things, but 
 it maintains that such was the teaching of the Vedas. 
 But although this modem eclectic system adopts 
 the whole ethical outcome of Christian civilization 
 in India for its own purposes, it shows a most un- 
 compromising hostility to Christianity. Though it 
 claims to be positively theistic, it seems ready to en- 
 ter into alliance with any form of atheism or agnos- 
 ticism. Eastern or "Western, against the spread of 
 Christian influence in India. 
 
 In speaking of the movement of revived Aryanism 
 I assume that with the more intelligent and progres- 
 sive classes of India the old Hinduism is dead. Of 
 course, millions of men still adhere to the old cor- 
 ruptions. Millions in the remoter districts would 
 retain the festival of Juggernaut, the hook -swing- 
 ing, even infanticide and widow-burning, if they 
 dared. The revolting orgies of Kali and Doorga, 
 and the vilest forms of Siva worship, even the mur- 
 derous rites of the Thugs, might be revived by the 
 fanatical, if foreign influence were withdrawn ; but, 
 taking India as a whole, these things are coming to 
 be discarded. The people are ashamed of them ; 
 they dare not undertake to defend them in the open 
 day of the present civilization. All intelligent Hin- 
 dus are persuaded to accept the situation, and look 
 to the future instead of the past. The country is 
 full of new influences which must be counted as 
 factors. British rule is there, and is there to stay. 
 Education has come — good, bad, and indifferent. 
 English University training is bringing forward a 
 host of acute thinkers of native blood. But the 
 
108 OBIBNTAL RELtalons AND 0HMI8TIANITT 
 
 forces of Western infidelity are also there, grappling 
 witli Western Christianity on Indian soil, and before 
 the eyes of the conquered and still sullen people. 
 The vilest of English books and the worst of French 
 novels in English translations are in the markets. 
 All the worst phases of European commerce are ex- 
 hibited. The opium monopoly, the liquor traffic, 
 and all the means and methods of unscrupulous 
 money - getting, with the wide -spread example of 
 drinking habits, and imbounded luxury and extra- 
 vagance. 
 
 And, in opinions, the war of aggression is no 
 longer on one side only. While the foreigner speaks 
 and writes of superstition, of heathenism, of abom- 
 inable rites now passing away, the native Hindu 
 press is equally emphatic in its condemnation of 
 what it calls the swinish indulgence of the Anglo- 
 Saxon, his beer-drinking and his gluttony, his ci-aze 
 for money and material power, his disgust at philos- 
 ophy and all intellectual aspiration, his half-savage 
 love for the chase and the destruction of animal life. 
 Educated Hindus throw back against the charge of 
 idolatry our idolatry of pelf, which, as they claim, 
 eclipses every other thought and aspiration, leads to 
 dishonesty, over-reaching, and manifold crime, and 
 sinks noble ethics to the low level of expediency or 
 self-interest ; the conquest is not yet won. 
 
 A hundred varieties of creed have sprung up be- 
 neath this banyan-tree which I have called Hindu- 
 ism. There are worshippers of Yishnu, of Siva, of 
 Kali, of Krishna as Bacchus, and of Krishna as the 
 supreme and adorable God. There are Sikhs, and 
 
SUOOESSIVE DEVELOPMENTa OF HINDUmM 109 
 
 Jains, and Buddhists ; Theosophists, Vedantic Phi- 
 iQSopliers, Mohammedans, Brahmos, Parsees, Evolu- 
 tionists, and Agnostics ; Devil-worsMppers, and wor- 
 shippers of ghosts and serpents ; but in considering 
 these as forces to be met by Christian influence, we 
 must regard them all as in virtual alliance with each 
 other. They are all one in pride of race and of ven- 
 erable custom. They are all one in their hatred of 
 foreign dominion, and of the arrogance and over- 
 bearing assumption of the European.* 
 
 The Hindu religions, therefore, however divided, 
 and however weak and moribund they may be taken 
 singly, find a real vitality in the union of common 
 interests, in the sentiments of patriotism, in the 
 pride of their philosophy, in the glory of their an- 
 cient history as the true and original Aryans, com- 
 pared with whom Western nations are mere offshoots. 
 
 * The following hymn, quoted from the Arya Gatechism, reveals 
 the proud spirit of revived Aryanism : 
 
 " We are the sons of brave Aryas of yore, 
 Those sages in learning, those heroes in war. 
 They were the lights of great nations before, 
 And shone in that darkness like morning's bright star, 
 A beacon of warning, a herald from far. 
 Have we forgotten our Eama and Arjuu, 
 Yudistar or Bishma or Drona the Wise ? 
 Are not we sons of the mighty Duryodani ? 
 Where did Shankar and great Dayanauda arise ? 
 ' In India, in India !' the echo replies. 
 Ours the glory of giving the world 
 Its science, religion, its poetry and art. 
 We were the first of the men who unfurled 
 The banner of freedom on earth's every part, 
 Brought tidings of peace and of love to each heart." 
 
110 ORIENTAL BELIGI0N8 AND OHBISTIANITT 
 
 Their religious faith is mixed and involved with 
 patriotism, politics, and race prejudice, and on the 
 other hand Christianity in India is handicapped by- 
 political and commercial interest and a hated domi- 
 nation. On both sides these combined influences 
 must be considered in estimating the future issues of 
 the great conflict. The question is not how Chris- 
 tianity and Hinduism would fare in a conflict pure 
 and simple, unembarrassed by complications, but 
 how Christianity with its drawbacks is likely to suc- 
 ceed against Hinduism with its manifold intrench- 
 ments. 
 
 But, while weighing well the obstacles, how great 
 are the encouragements ! What an auspicious fact 
 that even a hostile organization has appropriated 
 the Christian cultus bodily, and can find no better 
 weapons than its blessed truths. Christianity is felt 
 as a silent power, even though under other names. 
 It is, after all, the leaven that is working all-power- 
 fully in India to-day. 
 
 There was a period in the process of creation when 
 light beamed dimly upon the earth, though the sun, 
 its source, had not yet appeared. So through the 
 present Hinduism there is a haze of Christian truth, 
 though the Sun of Righteousness is not yet acknowl- 
 edged as its source. 
 
 But the Spirit of God broods over the waters, and 
 the true Light of the world will break on India. 
 
LECTUEE IV. 
 
 THE BHAGAVAD GITA AND THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 No other portion of Hindu literature has made 
 so great an impression on Western minds as the 
 BhagaYad Gita, " The Lord's Lay," or the " Song of 
 the Adorable." It has derived its special impor- 
 tance from its supposed resemblance to the New 
 Testament. And as it claims to be much older than 
 the oldest of the Gospels or the Epistles, it carries 
 the inference that the latter may have borrowed 
 somethiug from it. 
 
 A plausible translation has been published in 
 Boston by Mr. Mohini M. Chatterji, who devoutly 
 believes this to be the revealed word of the Supreme 
 Creator and Upholder of the universe.* He admits 
 that at a later day " the same God, worshipped alike 
 by Hindus and Christians, appeared again in the 
 person of Jesus Christ," and that " in the Bible He 
 revealed Himself to Western nations, as the Bhag- 
 avad Gita had proclaimed Him to the people of the 
 East." And he draws the inference that " If the 
 Scriptures of the Brahmans and the Scriptures of 
 the Jews and Christians, widely separated as they 
 are by age and nationality, are but different names 
 
 * Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1889. 
 
112 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND OHRISTIANITY 
 
 for one and the same truth, who can then say that 
 the Scriptures contradict each other ? A careful and 
 reverent collation of the two sets of Scriptures will 
 show forth the conscious and intelligent design of 
 revelation." The fact that the Bhagavad Gita is 
 thoroughly pantheistic, while the Bible emphasizes 
 the personality of God in fellowship with the dis- 
 tinct personality of human souls, seems to interpose 
 no serious difSculty in Mr. Chatterji's view, since he 
 says " ' The Lord's Lay ' is for philosophic minds, 
 and therefore deals more at length with the myste- 
 ries of the being of God." " Li the Bhagavad Gita," 
 he says, " consisting of seven hundred and seventy 
 verses, the principal topic is the being of God, 
 while scarcely the same amount of exposition is 
 given to it in the whole Bible ; " and he adds, " The 
 explanation of this remarkable fact is found in the 
 difference between the genius of the Hebrew and the 
 Brahman race, and also in the fact that the teach- 
 ings of Jesus Christ were addressed to ' the common 
 people.' " * 
 
 The air of intellectual superiority which is couched 
 in these words is conspicuous. Mr. Chatterji also 
 finds an inner satisfaction in what he considers the 
 broad charity of the Brahmanical Scriptures. He 
 quotes a passage from the Narada Pancharata which 
 speaks of the Buddha as "the preserver of revela- 
 tion for those outside of the Vedic authority." And 
 he concludes that when one such revealer is ad- 
 mitted there can be no reason for excluding others ; 
 
 * The author seems to overlook tlie fact that the chief excellence 
 of an evangel to lost men is that it appeals to the masses. 
 
BE AG AV AD GIT A AND NEW TEBTAMENT 113 
 
 therefore Christianity also shotild be allowed a 
 place. He declares on Vedic authority that whoso- 
 ever receives the true knowledge of God, however 
 revealed, attains eternal Hfe. And for a parallel 
 to tliis he quotes the saying of Christ, that " this ' 
 is eternal life that they might know Thee the only 
 true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." 
 "The Brahmanical Scriptures," he says, "are of 
 one accord in teaching that when the heart is pu- 
 rified God is seen; so also Jesus Christ declares 
 that the pure in heart are blessed, for they shall see 
 God." 
 
 Our translator discards the often-repeated theory 
 that the Christian Scriptures have copied the wise 
 sayings of Krishna ; and it is very significant that an 
 argument to which superficial apologists constantly 
 resort is discarded by this real Hindu, as he sup- 
 ports the theory that as both were direct revelations 
 from Vishnu, there was in his view no need of bor- 
 rowing. His contention is that God, who " at sun- 
 dry times and in divers manners" has spoken to 
 men in different ages, made known his truth, and 
 essentially the same truth, both on the plains of 
 India and in Judea. And he reminds Hindus and 
 Christians aUke, that this knowledge of truth carries 
 with itself an increased responsibility. . He says : 
 " The man who sees the wonderful workings of the 
 Spirit among the nations of the earth, bringing each 
 people to God by ways unknown to others, is 
 thereby charged with a duty. To him with terrible 
 precision applies the warning given by Gamaliel to 
 the Pharisees, ' Take heed to yourselves what ye in- 
 8 
 
114 ORIENTAL BELiaiOm AND 0HBI8TIANITT 
 
 tend to do . . . lest ye be found to fight even 
 against God.' If one be a Brahman, let him reflect 
 when opposing the religion of Jesus what it is that 
 he fights. The truths of Christianity are the same 
 ■ as those on which his own salvation depends. How 
 can he be a lover of truth, which is God, if he knows 
 not his beloved tmder such a disguise ? And if he 
 penetrates behind the veil, which should tend only 
 to increase the ardor of his love, he cannot hate 
 those who in obedience to the same truth are preach- 
 ing the Gospel of Christ to aU nations. Indeed 
 he ought to rejoice at his brothers' devotion to the 
 self-same God, and to see that he is rendering ser- 
 vice to Him by helping others to carry out the be- 
 hests given to them by the Divine Master. If, on 
 the other hand, he be a Christian, let him remem- 
 ber that while he is commanded to preach repent- 
 ance and remission of sins in the Saviour Jesus, he 
 is also warned against 'teaching for doctrines the 
 commandments of men.' " AH this seems like charity, 
 but really it is laxity. 
 
 And here is the very essence of Hinduism. Its 
 chief characteristic, that which renders it so hard to 
 combat, is its easy indifference to all distinctions. 
 To reason with it is like grasping a jelly-fish. Its 
 pantheism, which embraces all things, covers all 
 sides of all questions. It sees no difficulties even 
 between things which are morally opposites. Con- 
 tradictions are not obstacles, and both sides of a di- 
 lemma may be harmonized. And to a great extent 
 this same vagueness of conviction characterizes all 
 the heathen systems of the East. The Buddhists 
 
BHAGAVAD GITA AND NEW TESTAMENT 115 
 
 and the Shintoists in Japan justify their easy-going 
 partnership by the favorite maxim that, while " there 
 are many paths by which men climb the sides of 
 Fusyama, yet upon reaching the summit they all be- 
 hold the same glorious moon." The question wheth- 
 er all do in fact reach the summit is one which does 
 not occur to an Oriental to ask. 
 
 This same pantheistic charity is seen in the well- 
 known appeal of the late Ohunder Sen, which as an 
 illustration is worth repeating here : " Oheshub Ohun- 
 der Sen, servant of God, called to be an apostle of 
 the Church of the New Dispensation, which is in the 
 holy city of Calcutta ; to all the great nations of the 
 world and to the chief religious sects in the East and 
 West, to the followers of Moses and of Jesus, of 
 Buddha, Confucius, Zoroaster, Mohammed, Nanak, 
 and of the various Hindu sects ; grace be to you and 
 peace everlasting. Whereas sects, discords, and 
 strange schisms prevail in our father's family ; and 
 whereas this setting of brother against brother has 
 proved the prolific source of evil, it has pleased God 
 to send into the world a message of peace and recon- 
 cihation. This New Dispensation He has vouch- 
 safed to us in the East, and we have been commanded 
 to bear witness to the nations of the earth. . . . 
 Thus'saith the Lord: 'I abomihate sects and desire 
 love and concord. ... I have at sxmdry times 
 spoken through my prophets and my many dis- 
 pensations. There is unity. There is one music 
 but many instruments, one body but many members, 
 one spirit but many gifts, one blood but many na- 
 tions, one Church but many churches. Let Asia and 
 
116 ORIENTAL BELiaiONS AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 Etirope and America and all nations prove this New 
 Dispensation and tlie true fatherhood of God and the 
 brotherhood of men.' " 
 
 This remarkable production — so Pauline in style 
 and so far from Paul in doctrine — seems to possess 
 eTerything except definite and robust conyiction. 
 And its limp philosophy was not sufficient to with- 
 hold even Chunder Sen himself from the abandon- 
 ment of his principles not long afterward. This 
 sweet perfume of false charity, with which he thus 
 gently sprayed the sects and nations of mankind, lost 
 its flavor ere the ink of his message was fairly dry ; 
 while he who in similar language announced his call 
 to an Apostleship eighteen centuries ago, is still turn- 
 ing the world upside down. 
 
 "Charity" is the watchword of indifferentism in 
 the West as well as in the East ; and the East and 
 the West are joining hands in their effort to soothe 
 the world into slumber with all its sins and woes un- 
 healed. Some months ago an advanced Unitarian 
 from Boston delivered a farewell address to the 
 Buddhists of Japan, in which he presented three 
 great Unitarians of New England — Channing, Emer- 
 son, and Parker — in a sort of transfiguration of gen- 
 tleness and charity. He maintained that the lives 
 of these men had been an unconscious prophecy of 
 that mild and gentle Buddhism which he had found 
 in Japan, but of which they had died without the 
 sight.* 
 
 Thus the transcendentalism of New England joins 
 hands with the Buddhism and the Shintoism of Ja- 
 * Address published in tlis Japan Mail, 1890. 
 
BHAGAVAD GIT A AND NEW TESTAMENT 111 
 
 pan, and the Bralimanism of Calcutta, and all are in 
 accord with Mr. Chatterji and the Bhagavad Gita. 
 Even the Theosophists profess their sympathy with 
 the Sermon on the Mount, and claim Christ as an 
 earlier prophet. The one refrain of all is " Charity." 
 AH great teachers are avatars of Vishnu. The globe 
 is belted with this multiform indifferentism, and I 
 am sorry to say that it is largely the gospel of the 
 current literature and of the daily press. In it all 
 there is no Saviour and no salvation. Eeligions are 
 all ethnic and local, while the ignis fatuus of a mystic 
 pantheism pervades the world. 
 
 Mr. Ohatterji's preface closes with a prayer to 
 the " merciful Father of humanity to remove from all 
 races of men every unbrotherly feeling in the sacred 
 name of religion, which is but one." The prayer 
 were touching and beautiful on the assumption that 
 there were no differences between truth and error. 
 And there are thousands, even among us, who are 
 asking, " Why may not Christians respond to this 
 broad charity, and admit this Hindu eclectic poem 
 to an equal place with the New Testament ? " More 
 or less indifferent to aU religions, and failing to 
 understand the real principles on which they sever- 
 ally rest, they are ready to applaud a challenge like 
 that which we are considering, and to contrast it 
 with the alleged narrowness and iutolerance of 
 Christian Theism. 
 
 I have dwelt thus at length upon Mr. Chatterji's 
 introduction, and have illustrated it by references to 
 similar specious claims of other faiths, in order that 
 I might bring into clearer view the main issue which 
 
118 omUNTAL RELIGIONS AND GHBISTIANITY 
 
 this book now presents to tlie American public. It 
 is tlie softest, sweetest voice yet given to that gospel 
 of false charity which is the fashion of otir times. 
 Emerson and others caught it from afar and dis- 
 coursed to a generation now mostly gone of the 
 gentle maxims of Confixcius, Krishna, and Gautama. 
 But now Krishna is among us in the person of his 
 most devout apostle, and a strange hand of fellow- 
 ship is stretched out toward us from the land of the 
 Vedas. 
 
 It behooves us to inquire, first, into the pantheistic 
 philosophy which underlies these sayings, and to 
 ask for their meaning as applied in real hfe; and 
 second, we shall need to know something of Krishna, 
 and whether he speaks as one having authority. 
 It should be borne in mind that pantheism sacri- 
 fices nothing whatever by embracing all religions, 
 since even false religions are a worship of Yishnu in 
 their way, while Christianity by its very nature would 
 sacrifice everything. According to pantheism all 
 things that ^st, and all events that transpire, are 
 expressions of the Divine will. The one only ex- 
 istent Being embraces all causes and all effects, all 
 truth and all falsehood. He is no more the source of 
 good than of evil. " I am immortality," says Krishna. 
 " I am also death." Man with all his thoughts and 
 acts is but the shadow of God, and moves as he is 
 moved upon. Arjuna's divine counsellor says to 
 him : " The soul, existing from eternity, devoid of 
 qualities, imperishable, abiding in the body, yet su- 
 preme, acts not nor is by any act polluted. He who 
 perceives that actions are performed by Prakriti 
 
BE AG A V AD GIT A AND NEW TESTAMENT 119 
 
 alone, and that the soul is not an actor, sees the 
 truth aright." 
 
 "Now, if this reasoning be correct, it is not we that 
 sin ; not we that worship ; and in the last analysis 
 all religions are alike ; they are only the varied ex- 
 pressions of the thought of God. As He manifests 
 his power in nature in a thousand forms, producing 
 some objects that are beautiful to the eye and others 
 that are repulsive, so in his spiritual manifestations 
 He displays a like variety. The ignorance and deg- 
 radation of fetichism are His, as well as the highest 
 revelations of spiritual truth. A certain class of 
 evolutionists tell us that God contrived the serpent's 
 poison-fang and the mother's tender instinct with 
 "the same creative indifference." And the broad 
 pantheism which overrides the distinctions of eter- 
 nal right and wrong, and divests God of all moral 
 discrimiuations, puts Vedantism and Fetichism, 
 Christianity and Witchcraft, upon the same basis. 
 The Bhagavad Gita and the Gospel both enjoin 
 the brotherhood of men, but what are the meanings 
 which they give to this term ? What are their aims, 
 respectively? One is endeavoring to enforce the 
 rigid and insurmountable barriers of caste ; the 
 other commends a mission of love which shall regard 
 neither Jew nor Greek, Barbarian, Scythian, bond 
 nor free. It wiU become apparent, I think, that there 
 may be parallels or similarities which relate to mere 
 phrases while their meanings are wide apart. 
 
 Judging from Mr. Chatterji's own stand-point, his 
 work has been well done. He has shown a careful 
 study not only of his own literatures and philoso- 
 
120 ORIENTAL BBLWIONS AND 0HBI8TIANITY 
 
 phies, but also of the scriptures of the Old and New 
 Testament — in this respect setting us an example 
 worthy to be followed by Christian scholars. Such 
 a man has in the outset an immense advantage over 
 those who know nothing of the enemies' positions, 
 but regard them only with disdain. Before -the high 
 court of public opinion, as represented by our current 
 literature, mere ex-parte assumption wiU go to the 
 wall, even though it has the better cause, while adroit 
 error, intelligently put and courteously commended, 
 will win the day. This is a lesson which the Chris- 
 tian Church greatly needs to learn. Mr. Chatterji's 
 work is the more formidable for its charming graces 
 of style. He has that same facility and elegance in 
 the use of the English language for which so many 
 of his countrymen, Sheshadri, Bose, Banergea, Chim- 
 der Sen, Mozoomdar, and others have been distiu- 
 guished. He is a model of courtesy, and he seems 
 sincere. 
 
 But turning from the translator to the book itself, 
 we shall now inquire who was Krishna, Arjuna's 
 friend, what was the origin of the "Lord's Lay," and 
 what are its real merits as compared with the New 
 Testament ? Krishna and Arjuna — like Eama Chan- 
 dra — were real human heroes who distinguished 
 themselves in the wars of the Indo- Aryans with rival 
 tribes who contested the dominion of Northern India. 
 They did not live three thousajid years before Christ, 
 as our translator declares, for they belonged to the 
 soldier caste, and according to the consensus of Ori- 
 ental scholarship the system of caste did not exist 
 till about the beginning of the Brahmanic period — 
 
BRAGAVAD GIT A AND NBW TESTAMENT 121 
 
 say eight hundred years before Christ. Krishna was 
 born in the Punjab, near Merut, and it was near there 
 that his chief exploits were performed. The legends 
 represent him as a genial but a reckless forester, 
 brave on the battle-field, but leading a life of low in- 
 dulgence. The secret of his power lay in his sym- 
 pathy. His worship, even as a heroic demi-god, 
 brought a new and welcome element into Hinduism 
 as contrasted with the remorselessness of Siva or 
 the cold indifference of Brahma. It was the dawn 
 of a doctrine of faith, and in this character it was 
 probably of later date than the rise of Buddhism. 
 Indeed, the Brahmans learned this lesson of the 
 value of Divine sympathy from the Buddha. The 
 supernatural element ascribed to Krishna, as well as 
 to Eama, was a growth, and had its origin in the 
 jealousy of the Brahmans toward the warrior caste. 
 His exaltation as the Supreme was an after-thought 
 of the inventive Brahmans. As stated in a former 
 lecture, these heroes had acquired great renown ; and 
 their exploits were the glory and deUght of the daz- 
 zled populace. In raising them to the rank of deities, 
 and as such appropriating them as kindred to the di- 
 vine Brahmans, the shrewd priesthood saved the pres- 
 tige of their caste and aggrandized their system by a 
 fuUy developed doctrine of incarnations. Thus, by a 
 growth of centuries, the Krishna cult finally crowned 
 the Hindu system. 
 
 The Mahabharata, in which the Bhagavad Gita 
 was incorporated by some author whose name is un- 
 known, is an immense literary mosaic of two hun- 
 dred and twenty thousand lines. It is heterogene- 
 
122 ORIENTAL S.ELIQI0N8 AND OHBISTIANITT 
 
 ous, grotesque, inoonsisteiit, and often contradictory 
 — qualities which are scarcely considered blemishes 
 in Hindu literature. 
 
 The Bhagavad Gita was incorporated as a part 
 of this great epic probably as late as the second or 
 third century of our era, and by that time Krishna 
 had come to be regarded as divine, though his full 
 and extravagant deification as the " Adorable One " 
 probably did not appear tiU the author of " Narada 
 Pancharata" of the eighth century had added what- 
 ever he thought the original author should have said 
 five centuries before. As it now stands the poem 
 very cleverly weaves into one fabric many lofty 
 aphorisms borrowed from the Upanishads and the 
 later philosophic schools, upon the groundwork of a 
 popular story of which Arjuna is the hero. Arjuna 
 and his four brothers are about to engage in a great 
 battle with their cousins for the possession of an he- 
 reditary throne. The divine Krishna, once himseH 
 a hero, becomes Arjuna's charioteer, that m that ca- 
 pacity he may act as his counsellor. As the battle 
 array is formed, Arjuna is seized with misgivings at 
 the thought of slaughtering his kindred for the glory 
 of a sceptre. " I cannot — will not fight," he says ; 
 " I seek not victory, I seek no kingdom ; what shall 
 we do with regal pomp and power? what with enjoy- 
 ments, or with life itself, when we have slaughtered 
 all our kiadred here ? " 
 
 Krishna then enters upon a long discourse upon 
 the duties of caste and the indwelling of the Infin- 
 ite, showing that the soul, which is a part of deity, 
 cannot be slain though the body may be hewn to 
 
BHAGAVAD GITA AND NEW TESTAMENT 123 
 
 pieces. " The wise," he says, " grieye not for the 
 departed nor for those who yet survive. Never was 
 the time when I was not, nor thou, nor yonder 
 chiefs, and never shall be the time when all of us 
 shall not be. As the embodied soul in this corpo- 
 real frame moves swiftly on through boyhood, youth, 
 and age, so wiU it pass through other forms hereaf- 
 ter ; be not grieved thereat. ... As men aban- 
 don old and threadbare clothes to put on others new, 
 so casts the embodied soid its worn-out frame to en- 
 ter other forms. No dart can pierce it ; flame can- 
 not consume it, water wet it not, nor scorching 
 breezes dry it — indestructible, eternal, aU-pervading, 
 deathless." * 
 
 It may seem absurd to Western minds that a long 
 discourse, which constitutes a volume of intricate pan- 
 theistic philosophy, should be given to a great com- 
 mander just at the moment when he is planning his 
 attack and is absorbed with the most momentous re- 
 sponsibilities ; it seems to us strangely inconsistent 
 also to expatiate elaborately upon the merits of the 
 Yoga philosophy, with its asceticism and its holy 
 torpor, when the real aim is to arouse the soul to 
 ardor for the hour of battle. But these infelicities 
 are no obstacle to the Hindu mind, and the consist- 
 ency of the plot is entirely secondary to the doctrine 
 of caste and of philosophy which the author makes 
 Krishna proclaim. Gentle as many of its precepts 
 are, the Bhagavad Gita, or the " Lord's Lay," is a 
 
 * There is soaroelj another passage in all Hindu literature which 
 is so full of half-truths as this, or whicli turns the sublime powers 
 of the human soul to so unworthy a purpose. 
 
124 ORIENTAL RMLIGIom AND OHBiaTIANITY 
 
 battle-song uttered by the Supreme Being while the 
 contending hosts awaited the signal for fratricidal 
 carnage. 
 
 The grotesqueness which characterizes all Hindu 
 literature is not wanting in this story of Krishna 
 and Arjuna, as given in the great poem of which the 
 Bhagavad Gita forms a part. The five sons of 
 Pandu are representatives of the principle of right- 
 eousness, while the hundred brothers of the rival 
 branch are embodiments of evil. Yet, when the 
 victory had beto gained and the sceptre was given 
 to the sons of Pandu, they despised it and courted 
 death, though the " Adorable One " had urged them 
 on to strife. 
 
 Bishma, the leader of the hostile force, in a per- 
 sonal encounter with Arjuna, had been filled so full 
 of darts that he could neither stand nor lie down. 
 Every part of his body was bristling with arrows, 
 and for fifty-eight days he lingered, leaning on their 
 sharp points. Meanwhile the eldest of the victors, 
 finding his throne only a " delusion and a snare," and 
 being filled with remorse, was urged by Krishna to 
 visit his unfortunate adversary and receive instruc- 
 tion and comfort. Bishma, lying upon his bed of 
 spikes, edified him with a series of long and tedious 
 discourses on pantheistic philosophy, after which he 
 asked the tender-hearted Krishna for permission to 
 depart. He is no longer the embodiment of evil : the 
 cruel arrows with which the ideal of goodness had 
 pierced him fall away, the top of his head opens, and 
 his spirit soars to heaven shining like a meteor. 
 How strange a reversal is here ! How strange that 
 
BHAOArAI) OITA AND NEW TESTAMENT 125 
 
 he who had been the representative of all evil should 
 have been transformed by his suffering, and should 
 have been made to instruct and comfort the man of 
 success. 
 
 Mr. Chatterji falls into a fatal inconsistency when, 
 in spite of his assumption that this poem is the very 
 word of Krishna spoken at a particular time, in a par- 
 ticular place, he informs us that " all Indian authori- 
 ties agree in pronouncing it to be the essence of all 
 sacred writings. They caill it an Upanishad — a term 
 applied to the wisdom, as distinguished from the 
 ceremonial, part of the Yedas, and to no book less 
 sacred." More accurately he might have said that 
 it is a compend of all Hindu literatures, the tradi- 
 tional as well as the inspired, and"with a much larger 
 share of the former than of the latter. Pantheism, 
 which is its quintessence, did not exist in the early 
 Vedic times. Krishna was not known as a god even 
 in the period of the Buddha.* And the Epics, which 
 are so largely drawn upon, are later still. And it is 
 upon the basis of the Epics, and the stiU later Pura- 
 nas, that the common people of India still worship 
 him as the god of good-fellowship and of lust. The 
 masses longed for a god of human sympathies, even 
 though he were a Bacchus. 
 
 In the Bhagavad Gita as we now have it, with its 
 many changes, Krishna has become the supreme God, 
 though according to Lassen his actual worship as 
 such was not rendered earlier than the sixth century ; 
 and Professor Banergea claims that it " was not at 
 
 * In an enumeration of Hindu gods made in Buddha's time 
 Krishna does not appear. 
 
126 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND OHBISTIANITT 
 
 its zenith till the eighth century, and that it then 
 borrowed much from Christian, or at least Hebrew, 
 sources." Webber and LorinSer have maintained a 
 similar view. Krishna as the Supreme and Ador- 
 able One has never found favor except with the 
 pantheists, and to this day the worship of the real 
 Krishna as a Bacchus is the most popular of all 
 Hindu festivals, and naturally it is the most demor- 
 alizing. 
 
 We are now prepared to assume that the panthe- 
 istic groundwork of the poem on the one hand, and 
 its borrowed Christian conceptions aiid Christian no- 
 menclature on the other, will explain its principal al- 
 leged parallels with the New Testament. With his 
 great familiarity with our Bible, and his rare ability 
 in adjusting shades of thought and expression, Mr. 
 Chatterji has presented no less than two hundred and 
 fourteen passages which he matches with texts from 
 the Bible. Many of these are so adroitly worded 
 that one not familiar with the peculiarities of Hindu 
 philosophy might be stumbled by the comparisons. 
 Mr. E. C. Bose tells us that this poem has wrought 
 much evil among the foreign population of India; 
 and in this country there are thousands of even cul- 
 tivated people with whom this new translation wiU 
 have great influence. Men with unsettled minds 
 who have turned away with contempt from the cru- 
 dities of spiritualism, who are disgusted with the 
 rough assailments of IngersoU, and who fin d only 
 homesickness and desolation on the bleak and win- 
 try moor of agnostic science, may yet be attracted 
 by a book which is so elevated and often sublime in 
 
BHAGAVAD QITA AND NEW TESTAMENT 127 
 
 its philosophy, and so chaste in its ethical precepts, 
 and which, like Christianity, has bridged the awful 
 chasm between unapproachable deity and our human 
 conditions and wants by gi\dng to the world a God- 
 man. 
 
 If the original author and the various expositors 
 of the Bhagavad Gita have not borrowed from the 
 Christian revelation, they have rendered an unde- 
 signed tribute to the great Christian doctrine of a 
 divine and human mediator : they have given strik- 
 ing evidence of a felt want ia all humanity of a God 
 with men. If it was a deeply conscious want of the 
 human heart which led the heathen of distant In- 
 dia to grope their way from the cheerless service of 
 remorseless deities to one who could be touched 
 with a feeling of their infirmities, and could walk 
 these earthly paths as a counsellor by their side, 
 how striking is the analogy to essential Christian 
 truth ! 
 
 Let us examine some of the alleged parallels. 
 They may be divided into three classes : 
 
 1. Those which are merely fanciful. Nine-tenths 
 of the whole number are of this class. They are 
 such as would never occur to a Hindu on hearing 
 the gospel truth. Only one who had examined the 
 two records in the keen search for parallels, and 
 whose wish had been the father of his thought, would 
 have seen any resemblance. I shaU not occupy much 
 time with these. 
 
 2. Those resemblances which are only accidental. 
 It may be an accident of similar circumstances or 
 similar causes ; it may be a chance resemblance in 
 
128 OBIBNTAL BELIOIONS AND OHBiaTIANITT 
 
 tlie words employed, while there is no resemblance 
 in the thoughts expressed. 
 
 3. Those coincidences which spring from natural 
 causes. For an example of these, the closing chap- 
 ter of the Apocalypse speaks of Christ as " the Alpha 
 and the Omega, the Beginning and the End." It is 
 a natural expression to indicate his supreme power 
 and glory as Creator and final Judge of all things. 
 In a similar manner Krishna is made to say, " I am 
 Beginnuig, Middle, End, Eternal Time, the Birth 
 and the Death of all. I am the symbol A among 
 the characters. I haye created aU things out of one 
 portion of myself." There are two meanings in 
 Krishna's words. He is in all things pantheistieally, 
 and he is the first and best of all things. In the 
 tenth chapter he names with great particularity sixty- 
 six classes of things in which he is always the first : 
 the first of elephants, horses, trees, kings, heroes, 
 etc. " Among letters I am the vowel A." " Among 
 seasons I am spring." " Of the deceitful I am the 
 dice." 
 
 The late Dr. Mullens calls attention to the fact 
 that the Orphic Hymns declare "Zeus to be the first 
 and Zeus the last. Zeus is the head and Zeus the 
 centre." In these three similar forms of description 
 one common principle of supremacy rules. The dif- 
 ference is that in the Christian revelation and in the 
 Orphic Hymns there is dignity, while in Krishna's 
 discourse there is frivolous and vulgar particularity. 
 Let us notice a few examples of the alleged paral- 
 lels more particularly. 
 
 In Chapter IX. Krishna says : " Whatever thou 
 
BEAGAVAD GITA AND NEW TESTAMENT 129 
 
 doest, whatever thou eatest, whatever thou offerest in 
 sacrifice, etc., commit that to me." This is compared 
 with 1 Corinthians x. 31 : "Whether therefore ye eat 
 or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of 
 God." Also to Colossians x. 17 : " Wliatsoever ye do 
 in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus." 
 Even if there were no pantheistic differential at 
 the foundation of these utterances, it would not be 
 at all strange if exhortations to an all-embracing de- 
 votion should thus in each case be made to cover all 
 the daily acts of life. But aside from this there is a 
 wide difference in the fundamental ideas which these 
 passages express. Paul's thought is that of loving 
 devotion to an infinite Friend and Saviour; it is 
 such an offering of loyalty and love as one conscious 
 being can make to another and a higher. But Krish- 
 na identifies the giver with the receiver, and Arjuna 
 is taught to regard the gift itself as an act of God. 
 The phrase " commit that to me " is equivalent to 
 " ascribe that to me." In the context we read : " Of 
 those men, who thinking of me in identity (with 
 themselves), worship me, for them always resting in 
 me, I bear the burden of acquisition and preservation 
 of possessions. Even those the devotees of other 
 gods, who worship in faith, they worship me in ig- 
 norance." In other words, the worshipper is to make 
 no difference between himself and the Infinite. He 
 is to refer all his daily acts to the Infinite as the real 
 actor, his own personal ego being ignored. This is 
 not Paul's idea ; it is the very reverse of it. It could 
 give comfort only to the evil-doer who desired to 
 shift his personal responsibility. 
 
130 ORIENTAL BBLIGIONS AND GHSiaTIANITT 
 
 Let US consider another alleged resemblance. In 
 the fifth chapter Krishna declares that whoever 
 knows him "attains rest." This is presented as a 
 parallel to the words in Christ's prayer : " This is 
 life eternal that they might know Thee the only true 
 God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." 
 
 In both passages the knowledge of God is made 
 the chief blessing to be sought, but in the one case 
 knowledge means only a recognition of the Infimite 
 Ego as existing in one's personal ego : it is a mere ac- 
 ceptance of that philosophic theory of life. Thus one 
 of the Upanishads declares that " whoever sees all 
 things in God, and God in all things, sees the truth 
 aright;" his philosophy is correct. On the other 
 hand, what Christ meant was not the recognition of 
 a pantheistic theory, but a real heart-knowledge of 
 the Father's character, a loving experience of his 
 divine mercy, his fatherly love, his ineffable glory. 
 The one was cold philosophy, the other was expe- 
 rience, fellowship, gratitude, filial love. 
 
 "What pantheism taught was that God cannot be 
 known practically — that He is without limitations or 
 conditions — that we can distinguish Him from our 
 finiteness only by divesting our conception of Him 
 of all that we are wont to predicate of ourselves. 
 He is subject to no such limitations as good or evil. 
 In Chapter IX., Krishna says ; " As air existing in 
 space goes everywhere and is unlimited, so are all 
 things in me. ... I am the Vedic rite, I am 
 the sacrifice, I am food, I am sacred formula, I am 
 immortality, I am also death ; also the latent cause 
 and the manifest effect." To know the God of the 
 
SHAQAVAD GITA AND NEW TESTAMENT 131 
 
 Bhagavad Gita is to know that he cannot be known. 
 " God is infinite in attributes," says Mr. Chatterji, 
 "and yet devoid of attributes. This is the God 
 whom the Bhagavad Gita proclaims." 
 
 By a similar contradiction the more the devout wor- 
 shipper knows of God the less he knows, because the 
 process of knowledge is a process of " effacement; " 
 the closer the gradual union becomes the fainter is 
 the self-personality, till at length it fades away en- 
 tirely, and is merged and lost as a drop in the il- 
 limitable sea. This is the so-called " rest " which 
 Krishna promises as the reward of knowing him. 
 It is rest in the sense of extinction ; it is death ; 
 while that which Christ promises is eternal Life with 
 unending and rapturous activity, with ever-growing 
 powers of fellowship and of love. 
 
 Take another aEeged parallel. Chapter VI. com- 
 mends the man who has reached moh. a measure of 
 indifference that "his heart is even, in regard to 
 friends and to foes, to the righteous and to evil- 
 doers ; " and this is held up as a parallel to the Ser- 
 mon on the Mount, which commends love to ene- 
 mies that we may be children of the heavenly Father 
 who sendeth rain upon the just and upon the unjust. 
 In the one case the apathy of the ascetic, the extinc- 
 tion of susceptibility, the ignoring of moral distinc- 
 tions, the crippling and deadening of our noblest 
 powers ; in the other the use of these powers in all 
 ways of beneficence toward those who injure us, even 
 as God, though his heart is by no means " even " 
 as between the righteous and the wicked, stills shows 
 kindness to both. Now, in view of the great plausi- 
 
132 ORIENTAL BSLiaiONS AND OHBISTIANITY 
 
 bility of the parallels whicli are thus presented to 
 the public — parallels whose subtle fallacy the mass 
 of readers are almost sure to overlook — one can 
 hardly exaggerate the importance of thoroughly sift- 
 ing the philosophy that underlies them, and espe- 
 cially on the part of those who are, or are to become, 
 the defenders of the truth.* 
 
 But turning from particular parallels to a broader 
 comparison, there is a general use of expressions in 
 the New Testament in regard to which every Chris- 
 tian teacher should aim at clear views and careful 
 discriminations ; for example, when we are said to 
 be " temples of the Holy Ghost," or when Christ is 
 said to be " formed in us the hope of glory," or it is 
 " no longer we that live, but Christ that liveth in us." 
 It cannot be denied that defenders of the Bhaga- 
 vad Gita, and of the whole Indo-pantheistie philoso- 
 phy, might make out a somewhat plausible case 
 along these lines. I recall an instance in which an 
 honored pastor had made such extravagant use of 
 these New Testament expressions that some of his 
 co-presbyters raised the question of a trial for pan- 
 theism. But it is one thing to employ strong terms 
 of devotional feeling, as is often done, especially in 
 prayer, and quite another to frame theories and phi- 
 losophies, and present them as accurate statements of 
 
 * Never before has there been ao mnoh danger as now that the 
 lines of truth will be washed out by the flood-tides of sentimental 
 and semi -Christian substitutes and makeshifts. As with com- 
 modities, so with religion, dilution and adulteration are the order 
 of the day. and a little Christianity is made to flavor a thousand 
 shams. 
 
BSAGAVAD GITA AND NBW TESTAMENT 133 
 
 tnith. The New Testament nowhere speaks of the 
 indwelling Spirit in such a sense as implies an ob- 
 literation or absorption of the conscious indi-vidual 
 ego, while "effacement" instead of fellowship is a 
 favorite expression in the Bhagavad Gita. Paul in 
 his most ecstatic language never gives any hint of 
 extinction, but, on the contrary, he magnifies the con- 
 ception of a separate, conscious, ever-growing per- 
 sonality, living and rejoicing in Divine fellowship 
 for evermore. 
 
 In the New Testament the expressions of our 
 union with Christ are often reversed: instead of 
 speaking of Christ as abiding in the hearts and lives 
 of his people, they are sometimes said to abide in 
 Him, and that not in the sense of absorption. Paul 
 speaks of the " saints in Christ," of his own " bonds 
 in Christ,'' of being " baptized in Christ," of becom- 
 ing "a new creature in Christ," of true Christians as 
 being one body in Christ, of their lives being " hid 
 with Christ in God." Believers are spoken of as 
 being "buried with Christ," "dead with Christ." 
 Every form of expression is used to represent fel- 
 lowship, intimacy, spiritual union with Him, but al- 
 ways in a rational and practical sense, and with full 
 implication of our distinct and separate personal- 
 ity. The essential hope of the Gospel is that those 
 who believe in Christ shall never die, -that even their 
 mortal bodies shall be raised iu his image, and that 
 they shall be like Him and shall abide in his pres- 
 ence. On the other hand, " The essence of this pan- 
 theistic system," says Mr. Chatterji, " is the denial 
 of real existence to the individual spirit, and the in- 
 
134 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 sistance upon its true identity with God" (Chap- 
 ter IV.). 
 
 It only remains to be said that, whatever may be 
 the similarities of expression between this Bible of 
 pantheism and that of Christianity, however they 
 may agree iu the utterance of worthy ethicfil maxims, 
 that which most broadly differentiates the Christian 
 faith from Hindu philosophy is the salient presen- 
 tation of great fundamental truths which are found 
 in the Word of God alone. 
 
 1. The doctrine that God in Christ is " made sin " 
 for the redemption of sinful man — that He is " the 
 end of the law for righteousness " for them that be- 
 lieve ; this is indeed Divine help : this is salvation. 
 Divinity does not here become the mere charioteer of 
 human effort, for the purpose of coaching it in the 
 duties of caste and prompting it to fight out its 
 destiny by its own valor. Christ is our expiation, 
 takes our place, for our sakes becomes poor that we 
 through his poverty may become rich. What a boon 
 to all fakirs and merit-makers of the world if they 
 could feel that that law of righteousness which they 
 are striving to work out by mortifications and self- 
 tortures had been achieved for them by the Son of 
 God, and that salvation is a free gift ! This is some- 
 thing that can be apprehended alike by the philoso- 
 pher and by the unlettered masses of men. 
 
 2. Another great truth found in our Scriptures is 
 that the pathway by which the human soul returns 
 to God is not the way of knowledge in the sense of 
 philosophy, but the way of intelligent confidence and 
 loving trust. " With the heart man believeth unto 
 
BHAGAVAD QITA AND NEW TESTAMENT 135 
 
 righteousness, and witli the mouth confession is 
 made." Man by wisdom has never known God. 
 This has been the vain effort of Hindu speculation 
 for ages. The author of the Nyaya philosophy as- 
 sumed that all evil springs from misapprehension, 
 and that the remedy is to be found in correct meth- 
 ods of investigation, guided by skilfully arranged 
 syllogisms. This has been in all ages the chief 
 characteristic of speculative Hinduism. And the 
 Bhagavad Gita furnishes one of its very best illus- 
 trations. Of its eighteen chapters, fifteen are de- 
 voted to "Eight Knowledge." And by knowledge 
 is meant abstract speculation. It is a reaching after 
 oneness with the deity by introspection and meta- 
 physical analysis. 
 
 " Even if thou wert the greatest evil-doer among 
 all the unrighteous," says Krishna, " thou shalt cross 
 over all sins even by the ark of knowledge." " Oh, 
 Arj'xma, as blazing fire reduces fuel to ashes, so the 
 fire of knowledge turns all action into ashes." But 
 in the first place a knowledge of the infinite within 
 us is unattainable, and in the second place it could 
 not avail us even if attainable. It is not practical 
 knowledge ; it is not a belief unto righteousness. 
 Faith is not an act of the brain merely, but of the 
 whole moral nature. The wisdom of self must be 
 laid aside, self -righteousness cast into the dust, the 
 pride and rebellion of the will surrendered, and the 
 whole man become as a little child. This is the way 
 of knowledge that can be made experimental ; this 
 is the knowledge that is unto eternal life. 
 
 3. Another great differential of the New Testa- 
 
136 OMENTAL RELIGIONS AND OHBISTIANITT 
 
 ment is found in its trae doctrine of divine co-oper- 
 ation with the human will. Our personality is not 
 destroyed that the absolute may take its place, but 
 the two act together. " For men of renunciation," 
 says the Bhagavad Gita, " whose hearts are at rest 
 from desire and anger, and knowing the only self, 
 there is on both sides of death effacement (of the 
 individual) in the supreme spirit." In such a per- 
 son, therefore, even on this side of death, there is a 
 cessation of the individual iu the supreme. Over 
 agaiast this the Gospel presents the doctrine of co- 
 operative grace, which instead of crippling our hu- 
 man energies arouses them to their highest and best 
 exertion. " Work out your own salvation with fear 
 and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you 
 both to will and to do of his good pleasure." The 
 divine acts with and through the human, but does 
 not destroy it. It imparts the greatest encourage- 
 ment, the truest inspiration. 
 
 4. We notice but one more out of many points of 
 contrast between the doctrines of the Hindu and 
 the Christian Bibles, viz., the difference between as- 
 cetic inaction and the life of Christian activity as 
 means of religious growth. I am aware that in the 
 earlier chapters of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna 
 urges Arjuna to valiant acti'sdty on the battle-field, 
 but that is for a special purpose, viz., the establish- 
 ment of caste distinctions. It is wholly foreign to 
 Hindu philosophy ; it is even contradictory. The 
 author of the poem, who seems to be aware of the 
 inconsistency of arousing Arjuna to the mighty ac- 
 tivities of the battle-field, and at the same time in- 
 
SHAGfAVAD GtTA AND NEW TEStAMENT 137 
 
 doctrinating him in the spirit of a dead and nerveless 
 asceticism, struggles hard with the awkward task of 
 bridging the illogical chasm with three chapters of 
 mystification. 
 
 But we take the different chapters as they stand, 
 and in their obYious meaning. " The man of medi- 
 tation is superior to the man of action," says Chapter 
 I., 46, " therefore, Arjima, become a man of medi- 
 tation." How the man of meditation is to proceed is 
 told in Chapter YI., 10-14. " Let him who has at- 
 tained to meditation always strive to reduce his 
 heart to rest in the Supreme, dwelling in a secret 
 place alone, with body and mind under control, de- 
 void of expectation as well as of acceptance. Hav- 
 ing placed in a clean spot one's seat, firm, not very 
 high nor very low, formed of the skins of animals, 
 placed upon cloth and cusa grass upon that, sitting 
 on that seat, strive for meditation, for the purifica- 
 tion of the heart, making the mind one-pointed, and 
 reducing to rest the action of the thinking principle 
 as well as that of the senses and organs. Holding 
 the body, neck, and head straight and unmoved, per- 
 fectly determined, and not working in any direction, 
 but as if beholding the end of his own nose, with his 
 heart in supreme peace, devoid of fear, with thought 
 controlled and heart in me as the supreme goal, he 
 remains." 
 
 How different from all this is that prayer of 
 Christ, "I pray not that Thou shouldst take them out 
 of the world, but that Thou shouldst keep them from 
 the evil." Or those various words spoken to his 
 disciples : " Let your light so shine before men that 
 
138 ORIENTAL BELIQIONS AND OHRISTIANirT 
 
 others seeing your good works shall glorify your 
 Father which is in heaven." " Work while the day 
 lasts, for the night cometh in which no man can work." 
 
 Who can imagine Paul spending all those years of 
 opportunity in sittiag on a leopard skin, watching the 
 end of his nose instead of turning the world upside 
 down ! In that true sense in which Christ lived with- 
 in him, He filled every avenue of his being with the 
 aggressive spirit of God's own love for dying men. 
 The same spirit which brought Christ from heaven to 
 earth sent Paul out over the earth. He was not even 
 content to work on old foundations, but regarding 
 himself as under sentence of death he longed to make 
 the most of his votive life, to bear the torch of the 
 truth into all realms of darkness. He was none the 
 less a philosopher because he preferred the simple 
 logic of God's love, nor did he hesitate to confront 
 the philosophy of Athens or the threatenings of 
 Boman tyrants. He was ready for chains and im- 
 prisonment, for perils of tempests or shipwreck, or 
 robbers, or infuriate mobs, or death itself. 
 
 No Hindu fakir was ever more conscious of the 
 struggle with inward corruption than he, and at times 
 he could cry out, " Oh, wretched man that I am, who 
 shall deliver me from the body of this death ? " but 
 he did not seek relief in idleness and inanity, but in 
 what Dr. Chalmers called " the expulsive power of 
 new affections," in new measures of Christlike de- 
 votion to the cause of truth and humanity. In a 
 word, Christ and his kingdom displaced the power 
 of evil. He could do all things through Christ who 
 strengthened him. 
 
BHAGAVAD GITA AND NEW TESTAMENT 139 
 
 Nor was the peace which, he felt and which he 
 commended to others the peace of mere negative 
 placidity and indifference. It was loving confidence 
 and trust. " Be careful for nothing " — we hear him 
 saying to his friends at Philippi — "be careful for 
 nothing ; but in all things by prayer and supplica- 
 tion, with thanksgiving, make known your requests 
 unto God: and the peace of God, which passeth 
 understanding, shall keep your minds and hearts 
 through Christ Jesus." And yet to show how this 
 consists with devout activity, he commends, in imme- 
 diate connection with it, the cultivation of every ac- 
 tive virtue known to men. Thus, " Whatsoever things 
 are true, whatsoever things are honest, tvJiatsoever things 
 are just, lohatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things 
 are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if 
 there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on 
 these things." 
 
LECTUEE V. 
 
 BUDDHISM AND CHEISTIANITY 
 
 New interest has recently been awakened in old 
 controversies concerning tlie relations of Christianity 
 and Buddhism. The so-called Theosophists and Eso- 
 teric Buddhists are reviving exploded arguments 
 against Christianity as means of supporting their 
 crude theories. The charge of German sceptics, that 
 Christianity borrowed largely from Buddhism, is 
 made once more the special stock in trade of these 
 new and fanatical organizations. To this end books, 
 tracts, and leaflets are scattered broadcast, and espe- 
 cially ia the United States and Great Britain. 
 
 Professor Max Miiller says, in a recent article 
 published in Longman's New Bevieiu : " Who has 
 not suffered lately from Theosophy and Esoteric 
 Buddhism ? Journals are full of it, novels overflow 
 with it, and one is flooded with private and confiden- 
 tial letters to ask what it all really means. Many 
 people, no doubt, are much distressed in their minds 
 when they are told that Christianity is but a second 
 edition of Buddhism. ' Is it really true ? ' they ask. 
 ' Why did you not tell us all this before ? Surely, 
 you must have known it, and were only afraid to tell 
 it.' Then follow other questions : ' Does Buddhism 
 
BUDDHISM AND OHBISTIANITT 141 
 
 really count more believers tkan any otlier relig- 
 ion ? ' ' Is Buddhism really older than Christianity, 
 and does it really contain many things which are 
 found in the Bible ? ' " And the learned professor 
 proceeds to show that there is no evidence that 
 Christianity has borrowed from Buddhism. In this 
 country these same ideas are perhaps more widely 
 circulated than in England. They are subsidizing 
 the powerful agency of the secular press, particularly 
 the Sunday newspapers, and thousands of the peo- 
 ple are confronting these puzzliag questions. There 
 is occasion, therefore, for a careful and candid review 
 of Buddhism by all leaders of thought and defenders 
 of truth. 
 
 In the brief time allotted me, I can only call atten- 
 tion to a few salient points of a general character. 
 In the outset, a distinction should be drawn between 
 Buddhist history and Buddhist legend, for just at 
 this point the danger of misrepresentation lies. It 
 is true that the Buddha lived before the time of 
 Christ, and therefore anything of the nature of real 
 biography must be of an earlier date than the teach- 
 ings of Jesus ; but whether the legends antedate His 
 Kfe and doctrines is quite another question. The 
 Buddhist apologists all assume that they do, and it 
 is upon the legends that most of the alleged parallel- 
 isms in the two records are based. How, then, shall 
 we draw the line between history and legend ? The 
 concensus of the best scholarship accepts those tradi- 
 tions in which the northern and southern Buddhist 
 records agree, which the Council of Patna, e.g. 242, 
 adopted as canonical, and which are ia themselves 
 
142 OBIENTAL RBLI&I0N8 AND OHBISTIANITT 
 
 credible and consistent with the teacMags of Gauta- 
 ma himseli. According to this standard of authority 
 Gautama was bom about the sixth century B.C., as the 
 son and heir of a rajah of the Sakya tribe of Aryans, 
 li-ving about eighty miles north by northwest of 
 Benares. His mother, the principal wife of Eajah 
 Suddhodana, had Uved many years without offspring, 
 and she died not long after the birth of this her only 
 son, Siddartha. In his youth he was married and 
 surrounded by all the allurements and pleasures of 
 an Oriental court. He, too, appears to have remained 
 without an heir till he was twenty-nine years of age, 
 when, upon the birth of a son, certain morbid ten- 
 dencies came to a climax, and he left his palace 
 secretly and sought true comfort in a life of asceti- 
 cism. For six years he tried diligently the resources 
 of Hindu self-mortification, but becoming exhausted 
 by his austerities, almost unto death, he abandoned 
 that mode of life, having apparently become atheistic. 
 He renoimced the idea of merit-making as a means 
 of spiritual attainment, and he was sorely tempted, 
 no doubt, to return to his former life of ease. But 
 he withstood the temptation and resolved to forego 
 earthly pleasure, and teach mankind what he con- 
 ceived to be the way of hfe, through seK-oontrol. He 
 had tried pleasure ; next he had tried extreme ascet- 
 icism ; he now struck out what he called " The Mid- 
 dle Path," as between self-indulgence on the one 
 hand, and extreme bodily mortification as a thing of 
 merit on the other. This middle ground still de- 
 manded abstinence as favorable to the highest men- 
 tal and moral conditions, but it was not carried to 
 
BUDDHISM AND OHBISTIANITT 143 
 
 such extremes as to weaken the body or the mind, or 
 impair the fullest operation of every faculty.* 
 
 There can be no doubt that Gautama's relinquish- 
 ment of Hinduism marked a great and most trying 
 crisis. It involved the loss of all confidence in him 
 on the part of his disciples, for when he began again 
 to take necessary food they all forsook him as a 
 failure. It was while sitting under the shade of an 
 Indian fig-tree (Boddhi-tree) that this struggle oc- 
 curred and his victory was gained. There his future 
 course was resolved upon ; there was the real birth- 
 place of Buddhism as a system. He thenceforth be- 
 gan to preach the law, or what he regarded as the way 
 of self-emancipation, and therefore the way of life. 
 He first sought his five followers,^ who had aban- 
 doned him, and succeeded in winning them back. He 
 gathered at length a company of about sixty disci- 
 ples, whom he trained and sent forth as teachers of 
 his new docti'ines. Yet, stiU influenced by the old 
 Hindu notions of the religious life, he formed his 
 disciples into an order of mendicants, and in due 
 time he established an order of nuns. 
 
 It was when Gautama rose up from his meditation 
 and his high resolve under the Bo-tree, that he be- 
 gan his career as " The Enlightened." He was now 
 a Buddha, and claimed to have attained Nirvana. 
 All that has been written of his having left his 
 palace with the purpose of becoming a saviour of 
 
 * It is by no means certain that Buddha's followers, in carrying 
 out his system, have not lapsed into the old notions of merit-mak- 
 ing asceticism to greater or less extent, and have become virtually 
 ysry much like the torpid and useless fakirs of the old Hinduism. 
 
14:4: ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND GHRISTIANITY 
 
 mankind, is the sheer assumption of the later le- 
 gends and their apologists. Buddhism was an after- 
 thought, only reached after six years of bootless as- 
 ceticism. There is no evidence that when Siddartha 
 left his palace he had any thought of benefiting any- 
 body but himself. He entered upon the life of the 
 recluse with the same motives and aims that have in- 
 fluenced thousands of other monks and anchorets of 
 all lands and ages — some of them princes like him- 
 self. Nevertheless, for the noble decision which was 
 finally reached we give him high credit. It seems 
 to have been one of the noblest victories ever gained 
 by man over lower impulses and desires. The pas- 
 sions of youth were not yet dead within him ; 
 worldly ambition may be supposed to have been 
 stiU in force ; but he chose the part of a missionary 
 to his feUow-men, and there is no evidence that he 
 ever swerved from his purpose. He had won a 
 great victory over himself, and that fact constituted 
 a secret of great power. Gautama was about thirty- 
 five years of age when he became a Buddha, and for 
 forty-five years after that he lived to preach his doc- 
 trines and to establish the monastic institution which 
 has survived to our time. He died a natural death 
 from indigestion at the age of eighty — greatly vener- 
 ated by his disciples, and the centre of what had al- 
 ready become a wide-spread system in a large district 
 of India. 
 
 The legends of Buddhism are a very different 
 thing from the brief sketch which I have given, and 
 which is based upon the earlier Buddhist literature. 
 These sprang up after Gautama's death, and their 
 
BUDDHISM AND CHBISTIANITT 145 
 
 growth extended through many centuries — many 
 centuries even of the Christian era. JjChe legends 
 divide the life of the Buddha into three periods: 
 1. That of his pre-existent states. 2. That part of 
 his life which extended from his birth to his en- 
 lightenment under the Bo-tree. 3. The forty-five 
 years of his Buddhaship. The legends have no more 
 difficulty in dealing with the particular experiences 
 of the pre - existent states than in enriching and 
 adorning the incidents of his -earthly life ; and both 
 are doubtless about equally authentic' 
 
 Buautama discarded the idea of a divine revelation ; 
 he rejected the authority of the Vedas totally. He 
 denied that he was divine, but distinctly claimed to 
 be a plain and earnest man. All that he knew, he 
 had discovered by insight and self-conquest. To 
 assume that he was pre - existently divine and om- 
 niscient subverts the whole theory of his so-called 
 "discovery," and is at variance with the idea of a 
 personal conquest. The chief emphasis and force of 
 his teachings lay in the assumption that he did simply 
 what other men might do ; for his mission was that of 
 a teacher and exempler merely. He was a saviour 
 only in that he taught men how to save themselves.) 
 The pre-existent states are set forth in the " Jata- 
 kas," or Birth Stories of Ceylon, which represent him 
 as having been born five hundred and thirty times 
 after he became a Bodisat (a predestined Buddha). 
 As a specimen of his varied experience while be- 
 coming fitted for Buddaship, we read that he was 
 born eighty-three times as an ascetic, fifty-eight as 
 a monarch, forty-three as a deva, twenty-four as a 
 10 
 
146 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND 0HBI8TIANITT 
 
 Brahman, eighteen as an ape ; as a deer ten, an ele- 
 phant six, a lion ten ; at least once each as a thief, a 
 gambler, a frog, a hare, a snipe. He was also em- 
 bodied in a tree. But as a Bodisat he could not be 
 bom in hell, nor as vermin, nor as a woman ! Says 
 Spence Hardy, with a touch of irony: "He could 
 descend no lower than a snipe." 
 
 Northern legends represent Buddha as haying 
 " incarnated " for the purpose of bringing relief to a 
 distressed world. He was miraculously conceived — 
 entering his mother's side in the form of a white 
 elephant. All nature manifested its joy on the oc- 
 casion. The ocean bloomed with flowers ; all beings 
 from many worlds showed their wonder and sympa- 
 thy. Many miracles were wrought even during his 
 childhood, and every part of his career was Med with 
 marvels. At his temptation under the Bo-tree, Mara 
 (Satan) came to him mounted on an elephant sixteen 
 miles high and surrounded by an encircling army of 
 demons eleven miles deep.* Finding him proof 
 against his blandishments, he hurled moimtains of 
 rocks against him, and assailed him with fire and 
 smoke and ashes and filth — all of which became as 
 zephyrs on his cheek or as presents of fragrant 
 flowers. Last of all, he sent his three daughters to 
 seduce him. Their blandishments are set forth at 
 great length in the " Romantic Legend." I 
 
 * The Jataka legends of Ceylon, dating in tlieir present form 
 about 1500 a.d., greatly enlarge the proportions of this Northern 
 legend, making the elephant over seven thousand miles high, and 
 ■widening out the surrounding army to one hundred and sixty- 
 four miles. 
 
BTTDBSISM AND OEBiaTIANITT 147 
 
 In the Northern BnddMst literatures-embracing 
 both, the " Eomantic Legend " * and the " Lalita Vis- 
 tara"J-many incidents of Buddha's childhood are 
 given which show a seeming coincidence with the life 
 of Christ. It is claimed that his birth was heralded 
 by angelic hosts, that an aged sage received him into 
 his arms and blessed him, that he was taken to the 
 temple for consecration, that a jealous ruler sought 
 to destroy him, that in his boyhood he astonished the 
 doctors by his wisdom, that he was baptized, or at 
 least took a bath, that he was tempted, transfigured, 
 and finally received up into heaven. These will be 
 noticed farther on ; it is only necessary to say here 
 that the legends giving these details are first at vari- 
 ance with the early canonical history, and second, that 
 they are of such later dates as to place most of them 
 probably within the Christian era. 
 
 The Four Peculiar and Characteristic Doctrines of 
 Buddhism. 
 
 1. Its peculiar conception of the soul. 2. Its doc- 
 trine of Trishna and Upadana. 3. Its theory of 
 Kharma. 4. Its doctrine of Nirvana. 
 
 1. The Skandas, five in number, constitute in their 
 interaction what all others than Buddhists regard as 
 the soul. They consist of material properties ; the 
 senses; abstract ideas; tendencies or propensities; 
 and the mental powers. The soul is the result of 
 the combined action of these, as the flame of a candle 
 proceeds from the combustion of its constituent ele- 
 
 * Of the Bomantio Legend found in Nepaul, Beall's translation 
 is-probably tlie best. 
 
148 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND OHBISTIANITY 
 
 ments. The flame is never tlie same for two con- 
 secutive moments. It seems to have a perpetuated 
 identity, but that is only an illusion, and the same 
 unreality pertains to the soul. It is only a succes- 
 sion of thoughts, emotions, and conscious experiences. 
 We are not the same that we were an hour ago. In 
 fact, there is no such thing as being — there is only a 
 constant hecoming. We are ever passing from one 
 point to another throughout our life ; and this is true 
 of all beings and all things in the universe. How it 
 is that the succession of experiences is treasured up 
 in memory is not made clear. This is a most subtle 
 doctrine, and it has many points of contact with 
 various speculations of modern times. It has also a 
 plausible side when viewed in the light of experi- 
 ence, but its gaps and inconsistencies are fatal, as 
 must be seen when it is thoroughly examined. 
 
 2. The second of the cardinal doctrines is that of 
 Trishna. Trishna is that inborn element of desire 
 whose tendency is to lead men into evil. So far, 
 it is a misfortune or a form of original sin. What- 
 ever it may have of the nature of guilt hangs upon 
 the issiies of a previous hfe. Upadana is a further 
 stage in the same development. It is Trishna 
 ripened into intense craving by our own choice and 
 our own action. It then becomes uncontrollable and 
 is clearly a matter of guilt. Now, the momentum of 
 this Upadana is such that it cannot be arrested by 
 death. Like the demons of Gadara it must again 
 become incarnate, even though it should enter the 
 body of a brute. And this transitional something, 
 this restless moral or immoral force which must work 
 
BUDDHISM AND OSBISTIANITT 149 
 
 out its natural results somehow and somewhere, and 
 that in embodied form projects into future being a 
 residuum which is known as Kharma. 
 
 3. What, then, is Kharma? Literally it means 
 "the doing." It is a man's record, involving the 
 consequences and liabilities of his acts. It is a score 
 which must be settled. A question naturally arises, 
 how the record of a soul can survive when the soul 
 itself has been " blown out.'' The illustration of the 
 candle does not quite meet the case. If the flame 
 were something which when blown out immediately 
 seized upon some other substance in which the work 
 of combustion proceeded, it would come nearer to 
 a parallel. One candle may light another before 
 itself is extinguished, but it does not do it by an in- 
 herent necessity. But this flame of the soul, this 
 Kharma, must enter some other body of god, or man, 
 or beast. 
 
 Again, the question arises. How can responsibility 
 be transferred from one to another ? How can the 
 heavy load of a man's sin be laid upon some new- 
 born infant, while the departing sinner has himself 
 no further concern in his evil Kharma, but sinks into 
 non-existence the moment his " conformations " are 
 touched with dissolution ? Buddhism acknowledges 
 a mystery here ; no real explanation can be given, 
 and none seems to have been attempted by Buddhist . 
 writers. To be consistent, Gautama, in denying the 
 existence of God and of the soul as an entity, should 
 have taught the materialistic doctrine of annihilation. 
 This, however, he could not do in the face of that 
 deep-rooted idea of transmigration which had taken 
 
150 ORIENTAL BBLIGI0N8 AND CHBISTIANITr 
 
 entire possession of the Hindu mind. Gautama was 
 compelled therefore to bridge a most illogical chasm 
 as best he could. Kharma without a soul to cling to 
 is something in the air. It alights like some winged 
 seed upon a new-bom set of Skandas with its luckless 
 boon of ill desert, and it involves the fatal inconsist- 
 ency of investing with permanent character that 
 which is itself impermanent. 
 
 But the question may be asked, "Do we not admit 
 a similar principle when we speak of a man's influ- 
 ence as something that survives him ? " We answer, 
 " No." Influence is a simple radiation of impres- 
 sions. A man may leave an influence which men are 
 free to accept or not, but it is quite a different thing 
 if he leaves upon a successor the moral liabilities of 
 a bankrupt character. Gautama's own Kharma, for 
 example, ceased to exist upon his entering Nirvana ; 
 there was no re-birth ; but his influence lives forever, 
 and has extended to millions of his fellow-men. 
 
 The injustice involved in the doctrine of Kharma 
 is startling. The new-born soul that inherits its un- 
 settled score has no memory or consciousness that 
 connects it with himself ; it is not heredity ; it is 
 not his father's character that invests him. This 
 Kharma may have crossed the ocean from the death- 
 bed of some unknown man of another race. The 
 doctrine is the more astonishing when we consider 
 that no Supreme Being is recognized as claiming 
 this retribution. There is no God ; it is a vague i 
 law of eternal justice, a law without a law-giver or a ! 
 judge. There can therefore be no pardon, no com- 
 mutation of sentence, no such thing as divine pity or 
 
BUDDHISM AND OHBISTIANITT 151 
 
 help. The only way in which one can disentangle 
 himself is by breaking forever the connection be- 
 tween spirit and matter which binds him with the 
 shackles of conscious being. 
 
 4. Nirvana. No doctrine of Buddhism has been 
 so much in dispute as this. It has been widely 
 maintained that Nirvana means extinction. But T. 
 W. Ehys Davids and others have held that it is "the 
 destruction of malice, passion, and delusion," and 
 that it may be attained m this life. The definition 
 is quoted from comparatively recent Pali transla- 
 tions.* Gautama, therefore, reached Nirvana forty- 
 five years before his death. It is claimed, however, 
 that insomuch as it cuts off Kharma, or re-birth, it in- 
 volves entire extinction of being upon the dissolution 
 of the body.f It is held by still others that Nirvana 
 is a return to the original and aU-pervading Boddhi- 
 essence. This theory, which is really a concession to 
 the Brahmanical doctrine of absorption into the in- 
 finite Brahma, has a wide following among the mod- 
 em Buddhists in China and Japan. It is a form of 
 Buddhist pantheism, j 
 
 As to the teaching of Gautama on this subject. 
 Professor Max Miiller, while admittiag that the meta- 
 physicians who followed the great teacher plainly 
 taught that the entire personal entity of an arhat (an 
 enlightened one) would become extinct upon the death 
 of the body, yet reasons, iu his lecture on Buddhistic 
 Nihilism, that the Buddha himself could not have 
 
 * See Appendix of Origin and Qrowth of Bdigion as illustrated 
 in, Buddhism. 
 
 fSee Buddhism, pp 110-115. 
 
153 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND OHRISTIANITT 
 
 taught a doctrine so disheartening. At the same 
 time he quotes the learned and judicial Bishop Big- 
 andet as declaring, after years of study and observa- 
 tion in Burmah, that such is the doctrine ascribed to 
 the great teacher by Ms own disciples. Gautama is 
 quoted as closing one of his sermons in these words : 
 " Mendicants, that which binds the teacher to exist- 
 ence is cut oif, but his body still remains. While 
 his body still remains he shall be seen by gods and 
 men, but after the termination of life, upon the dis- 
 solution of the body, neither gods nor men shall see 
 him." T. W. Ehys Davids expresses the doctrine of 
 Nirvana tersely and correctly when he says : " Utter 
 death, with no new life to follow, is, then, a result of, 
 but it is not, Nirvana."* Professor 'Oldenberg sug- 
 gests, with much plausibility, that the Buddha was 
 more reticent in regard to the doctrine of final ex- 
 tinction in the later periods of his life ; that the de- 
 pressing doctrine had been found a stumbling-block, 
 and that he came to assume an agnostic position on the 
 question. In his "Buddha, "+ Professor Oldenberg, 
 partly in answer to the grounds taken by Professor 
 Max MiiUer in his lecture on Buddhistic Nihilism, 
 has very fully discussed the question whether the 
 ego survives in Nirvana in any sense. He claims 
 that certain new translations of Pali texts have given 
 important evidence on the subject, and he sums up 
 with the apparent conclusion that the Buddha, 
 moved by the depressing influence which the grim 
 doctrine of Nirvana, in the sense of extinction, was 
 producing upon his disciples, assumed a position of 
 p. 114. fPp. 265-285. 
 
BVDDBI8M AND OHBISTlAMTr 153 
 
 reticence as to whether the ego survives or not. 
 The venerable Malukya (see p. 275) is said to have 
 plied the Master with questions. " Does the perfect 
 Buddha live on beyond death, or does he not ? It 
 pleases me not that all this should remain unan- 
 swered, and I do not think it right. May it please 
 the Master to answer me if he can. But when any- 
 one does not understand a matter, then a straightfor- 
 ward man says, ' I do not know that.' " The Buddha 
 replies somewhat evasively that he has not under- 
 taken to decide such questions, because they are not 
 for spiritual edification. 
 
 The question, What is Nirvana ? has been the ob- 
 ject of more extensive discussion than its importance 
 demands. Practically, the millions of Buddhists are 
 not concerned with the question. They find no at- 
 traction in either view. They desire neither extinc- 
 tion nor unconscious absorption into the Boddhi 
 essence (or Brahm). What they anticipate is an 
 improved transmigration, a better birth. The more 
 devout may indulge the hope that their next life wiQ 
 be spent in one of the Buddhist heavens ; others 
 may aspire to be men of high position and influence. 
 The real heaven to which the average Buddhist looks 
 forward is apt to be something very much after his 
 own heart, or at least something indicated by the 
 estimate which he himself places upon his own char- 
 acter and life. There may be many transmigrations 
 awaiting him, but he is chiefly concerned for the 
 next in order. The very last object to excite his in- 
 terest is that far-off shadow called Nirvana. 
 
 In estimating the conflict of Christianity with 
 
154 ORIENTAL BELIQIONS AND OHBISTIANITT 
 
 Buddhism we must not take counsel merely of our 
 own sense of the absurdity of Gautama's teachings ; 
 we are to remember that in Christian lands society 
 is made up of all kinds of people ; that outside of 
 the Christian Church there are thousands, and even 
 millions, who, with respect to faith, are in utter chaos 
 and darkness. The Church therefore cannot view 
 this subject from its own stand-point merely. Let 
 us glance at certain features of Buddhism which ren- 
 der it welcome to various classes of men who dwell 
 among us in Western lands. First of all, the system 
 commends itself to many by its intense individual- 
 ism. Paul's figure of the various parts of the hu- 
 man frame as illustrating the body of Christ, mu- 
 tual in the interdependence of all its members, 
 would be wholly out of place in Buddhism. Even 
 the Buddhist monks are so many units of intro- 
 verted self-righteousness. And individualism differ- 
 ently applied is the characteristic of our age, and 
 therefore a bond of sympathy is supplied. " Every 
 man for himself," appeals to modem society in many 
 ways. 
 
 Again, Gautama magnified the human intellect and' 
 "the power of the human will. " Ananda," he said, 
 " be lamps unto yoiurselves ; depend upon no other." 
 He claimed to have thought out, and thought through 
 every problem of existence, to have penetrated every 
 secret of human nature in the present, and in the life 
 to come, and his example was commended to all, that 
 they might follow in their measure. So also our 
 transcendental philosophers have glorified the pow- 
 ers and possibilities of humanity, and have made 
 
BUDDHISM AND OHBIBTIANITT 156 
 
 genius superior to saintliness.* There are tens of 
 thousands who in this respect belieye in a religion of 
 humanity, and who worship, if they worship at all, 
 the goddess of reason. All such have a natural af- 
 finity for Buddhism. 
 
 Another point in common between this system and 
 the spirit of a\}x age is its broad humanitarianism — 
 beneficence to the lower grades of Hfe. When love 
 transcends the bounds of the human family it does 
 not rise up toward God, it descends toward the 
 lower orders of the animal world. " Show pity to- 
 ward everything that exists," is its motto, and the in- 
 sect and the worm hold a larger relative place in the 
 Buddhist than in the Christian view. The question 
 "Axe ye not of more value than many sparrows?" 
 might be doubtful in the Buddhist estimate, for the 
 teacher himself, in his pre-existent states, had often 
 been incarnate in inferior creatures. It is by no 
 means conceded that Jesus, in asking his disciples 
 this question, had less pity for the sparrows than the 
 Buddha, or that his beneficence was less thoughtful 
 of the meanest thing that gHdes through the air or 
 creeps upon the earth ; but the spirit of Christianity 
 is more discriminating, and its love rises up to heaven, 
 where, beginning with God, it descends through every 
 grade of being. 
 
 Yet it is quite in accordance with the spirit and 
 aim of thousands to magnify the charity that confines 
 
 * It is the boast of the author of Esoteric Buddhism, that strange 
 mixture of Western spiritualism with Oriental mysticism, that his 
 system despises the tame " goody, goody " spirit of Christianity, 
 and deals with the endless growth of mind. 
 
156 ORIENTAL RBLIQIOM AND GHBISTIANITT 
 
 itself to bodily wants and distresses, to sneer at the 
 relief which religion may bring to the far greater an- 
 guish of the spirit, and to look upon love and loyalty 
 to God as superstition. Is it any wonder that such 
 persons have a warm side toward Buddhism ? Again, 
 this system has certain points in common with our 
 modem eTolution theories. It is rmscientific enough 
 certainly in its speculations, but it gets on without 
 creatorship or divine superintendence, and believes 
 in the inflexible reign of law, though without a law- 
 giver. It assigns long ages to the process of creation, 
 if we may caU it creation, and in development through 
 cycles it sees little necessity for the work of God. 
 
 It can also join hands cordially with many social 
 theories of the day. The pessimism of Buddhists, an- 
 cient or modern, finds great sympathy in the crowded 
 populations of the Western as well as the East- 
 em world. And, almost as a rule. Esoteric Buddh- 
 ism, American Buddhism, Neo-Buddhism, or what- 
 ever we may call it, is a cave of Adullam to which 
 all types of religious apostates and social malcon- 
 tents resort. The thousands who have made ship- 
 wreck of faith, who have become soured at the un- 
 equal allotments of Providence, who have learned to 
 hate all who are above them and more prosperous 
 than they, are just in the state of mind to take de- 
 light in Buddha's sermon at Kapilavastu, as rehearsed 
 by Sir Edwin Arnold. There all beings met — gods, 
 devas, men, beasts of the field, and fowls of the air 
 — to make common cause against the relentless fate 
 that rules the world, and to bewail the sufferings and 
 death which fill the great charnel-house of existence, 
 
BUDDHISM AND CHBISTIANITT 157 
 
 while Buddha voiced their common complaint and 
 stood before them as the only pitying friend that the 
 universe had found. It was the first great Commu- 
 nist meeting of which we have any record.* The 
 wronged and suffering imiverse was there, and aU 
 
 "took the promise of his piteous speech, 
 So that their lives, prisoned in the shape of ape. 
 Tiger or deer, shagged bear, jackal or wolf, 
 Foul-feeding kite, pearled dove or peacock gemmed. 
 Squat toad or speckled serpent, lizard, bat. 
 Yea, or fish fanning the river waves. 
 Touched meekly at the skirts of brotherhood 
 With man, who hath less innocence than these : 
 And in mute gladness knew their bondage broke 
 Whilst Buddha spoke these things before the king." 
 
 There was no mention of sin, but only of universal 
 misfortune ! 
 
 In contrast with the deep shadows of a brooding 
 . and all-embracing pessimism like this, we need only 
 to hint at that glow of hope and joy with which the 
 Sun of Righteousness has flooded the world, and the 
 fatherly love and compassion with which the Old Tes- 
 tament and the New are replete, the divine plan of 
 redemption, the psalms of praise and thanksgiving, 
 the pity of Christ's words and .acts, and his invita- 
 tions to the weary and heavy-laden. In one view it 
 is strange that pessimism should have comfort in the 
 fellowship of pessimism, but so it is ; there is luxury 
 even in the sympathy of hate, and so Buddhist pes- 
 simism is a welcome guest among us, though our 
 Communistic querulousness is more bitter. 
 * Idglit of Asia. 
 
158 ORIENTAL BELIQIONB AND 0HBI8TIANITT 
 
 Once more, Buddhist occultism has found con- 
 genial fellowship in American spiritualism. Of late 
 we hear less of spirit-rappings and far more of The- 
 osophy. But this is only the same crude system 
 with other names, and rendered more respectable 
 by the cast-off garments of old Indian philosophy. 
 There is a disposition in the more intellectual circles 
 to assume a degree of disdain toward the crudeness 
 of spiritualism and its vulgar familiarity with de- 
 parted spirits, who must ever be disturbed by its 
 beck and call ; but it is confidently expected that the 
 thousands, nay, as some say, millions, of American 
 spiritualists will gladly welcome the name and the 
 creed of Buddha.* It will be idle therefore to assume 
 that the old sleepy system of Gautama has no chance 
 in this wide-awake republic of the West.f 
 
 I have already called attention to the special tac- 
 tics of Buddhists just now in claiming that Christi- 
 anity, having been of later origin, has borrowed its 
 principal facts and its teachings. Let us examine 
 the charge. It is a real tribute to the character of 
 Christ that so many sects of false religionists have 
 in all ages claimed Him either as a follower or as an 
 incarnation of their respective deities. Others have 
 acknowledged his teachings as belonging to their 
 particular style and grade. The bitter and scathing 
 
 * Mr. Sinnett, in his Esoteric SuddJdstn, expressed the idea 
 that it was high time that the crudities of spiritualism should be 
 corrected by the more philosophic occultism of the Bast. 
 
 f The points of contact between Buddhism and certain forms 
 of Western thought have been ably treated by Professor S. H. 
 Kellogg, in the Light of Asia and Light of the World. 
 
BUDDHISM AND OHRISTIANITT 159 
 
 calumny of Oelsus, in the first centuries of our era, 
 did not prevent numerous attempts to prove the 
 identity of Christ's teachings with some of the most 
 popular philosophies of the heathen world. Por- 
 phyry claimed that many of Christ's virtues were 
 copied from Pythagoras. "With like concession Mo- 
 hammedanism included Jesus as one of the six great 
 prophets, and confessedly the only sinless one among 
 them all. Many a fanatic in the successive centuries 
 has claimed to be a new iucarnation of the Son of 
 God. Hindus have named Him as an incarnation of 
 Vishnu for the Western, as was Krishna for the East- 
 ern World. As was indicated in the opening of this 
 lecture, the Theospphists are making special claim to 
 Him,* and are reviving the threadbare theory that 
 He was a follower of Buddha. 
 
 So strong an effort is made to prove that Christi- 
 anity has borrowed both its divine leader and its 
 essential doctrines from India, that a moment's at- 
 ' tention may well be given to the question here. One 
 allegation is that the Evangehsts copied the Buddhist 
 history and legends in their account of Christ's early 
 life. Another is that the leaders of the Alexandrian 
 Church worked over the gospel story at a later day, 
 having felt more fully the influence of India at that 
 great commercial centre. The two theories are in- 
 consistent with each other, and both are inconsistent 
 with the assumption that Christ Himself was a Bud- 
 dhist, and taught the Buddhist doctrines, since this 
 
 * A recent tract has appeared, entitled Theosopliy the Religion 
 of Jesus. 
 
160 ORIENTAL BELI0I0N8 AND OSBISTIANITT 
 
 supposition would have obviated tlie need of any 
 manipulation or fraud at any point. 
 
 In replying as briefly as possible I shall endeayor 
 to cover both allegations. In strong contrast with 
 these cheap assertions of Alexandrian corruption 
 and plagiarism is the frank admission of such keen 
 critics as Eenan, Weiss, Yolkmar, Schenkel, and Hit- 
 zig,* that the gospel record as we have it, was writ- 
 ten during a generation in which some of the com- 
 panions of Jesus still lived. Kenan says of Mark's 
 Gospel that " it is fuU of minute observations, com- 
 ing doubtless from an eye-witness," and he asserts 
 that Matthew, Mark, and Luke were written " in 
 substantially their present form by the men whose 
 names they bear." These Gospels were the work 
 of men who knew Jesus. Matthew was one of the 
 Twelve ; John in his Epistle speaks of himself as an 
 eye-witness. They were written in a historic age 
 and were open to challenge. They were nowhere 
 contradicted in contemporary history. They fit 
 their environment. 
 
 How is it with the authenticity of Buddhist liter- 
 ature ? Oldenberg says, " For the when of things, 
 men of India have never had a proper organ," and 
 Max Miiller declares to the same effect, that "the 
 idea of a faithful, literal translation seems altogether 
 foreign to Oriental minds." He also informs us 
 that there is not a single manuscript in India which 
 is a thousand years old, and scarcely one that can 
 claim five hundred years. For centuries after Gau- 
 tama's time nothing was written ; all was trans- 
 * Cited by Professor Kellogg. 
 
BUDDHISM AND 0HBI8TIANITT 161 
 
 mitted by word of mouth. Buddhists themselves 
 say that the Pali canonical texts were written about 
 88 B.C.* 
 Any fair comparison of the two histories should 
 
 * Professor T. W. Ehys Davids, in his Introduction to Buddh- 
 ism, enumerates the following sources of knowledge concerning 
 the early Buddhism : 
 
 1. The Lalita Visiara, a Sanscrit work of the Northern Buddh- 
 ists " full of extravagant fictions" concerning the early portion 
 of Gautama's life. Davids compares it to Milton's Paradise 
 Regained, as a source of history, and claims that although parts 
 of it were translated into Chinese in the first century of our era, 
 there is no proof of its existence in its present form earlier than 
 the sixth century A.D. 
 
 2. Two Thibetan versions, based chiefly on the Lalita Vistara. 
 
 3. The Momantic Legend, from the Sanscrit of the Northern 
 Buddhists, translated into Chinese in the sixth century A.D.; 
 English version by Beal published in 1875. This also is an ex- 
 travagant poem. This and the Lalita Vistara embrace most of 
 the alleged parallels to the Life of Christ. 
 
 4. The original Pali text of the Oommentary on tlie Jatakas, 
 written in Ceylon probably about the fifth century of our era. 
 Davids considers its account down, to the time of Gautama's re- 
 turn to Kapilavastu, " the best authority we have. " It contains 
 word for word almost the whole of the life of Gautama given by 
 Tumour, from a oommentary on the Buddhweansa, " which is the 
 account of the Buddhas contained in the second Pitaka. '' 
 
 5. An account taken by Spence Hardy from Cingalese books of 
 a comparatively modern date. 
 
 6. An English translation by Bigandet of a Burmese account, 
 which was itself a translation of unknown date made from a Pali 
 version. 
 
 7. An account of the death of Gautama, given in Pali and said 
 to be the oldest of all Ihe sources. It is full of wonders created 
 by the fancy of the unknown author, but differs widely from the 
 fancy sketches of the Lalita Vistara of the North. 
 
 8. A translation by Mr. Alabaster of a, Siamese account. It 
 does not claim to be exact. 
 
 11 
 
162 OBIENTAL BELiaiONB AND GEBI8TIANITT 
 
 oonfine itself to the writings which are regarded as 
 canonical respectively, and whose dates can be fixed. 
 No more importance should be attached to the later 
 Buddhist legends than to the "Apocryphal Gos- 
 pels," or to the absurd " Christian Legends " which 
 appeared in the middle ages. The Buddhist Canon 
 was adopted by the Council of Patna 242 B.C. The 
 legends which are generally compared with the canon- 
 ical story of Christ are not included in that Canon, or 
 at most very few of them. They are drawn from cer- 
 tain poetical books written much later, and holding 
 about the same relation to the Buddhist Canon that 
 the "Paradise Lost" and "Paradise Eegained" of 
 Milton bear to the scriptures of the Old and New 
 Testaments. Who would think of quoting " Paradise 
 Lost " in any sober comparison of Biblical truth with 
 the teachings of other religions ? * 
 
 * T. W. Ehys Davids illustrates the worthlessness of poetic nar- 
 rations as grounds of argument by quoting from Milton's Para- 
 dise Regained tliis mere fancy sketcli of the accompaniments of 
 Christ's temptation : 
 
 "And either tropic now 
 'Gan thunder and both ends of heaven ; the clouds 
 Prom many a horrid rift abortive poured 
 Fierce rain with lightning mixed, water with Are 
 In ruin reconciled ; nor slept the winds 
 Within their stony caves, but rush'd abroad 
 From the four hinges of the world, and fell 
 On the vex'd wilderness ; whose tallest pines 
 Tho' rooted deep as high and sturdiest oaks, 
 Bowed their stiff necks, loaden with stormy blasts 
 Or torn up sheer. Ill wast Thou shrouded then, 
 O patient Son of God, yet stood'st alone 
 Unshaken ! nor yet staid the terror there ; 
 
BUDDHISM AND OHBISTIANITT 163 
 
 Even tlie canonical literature, that whicli is sup- 
 posed to contain the true history and teachings of 
 Buddha, is far from authoritative, owing to the 
 ackaowledged habit — acknowledged even by the au- 
 thor of the " Dhammapada "of adding commentaries, 
 notes, etc., to original teachings. Not only was this 
 common among Buddhist writers, but even more sur- 
 prising Uberties were taken with the narrative. For 
 example : The legend describing Buddha's leave- 
 taking of his harem is clearly borrowed from an 
 earlier story of Yasa, a wealthy young householder 
 of Benares, who, becoming disgusted with his harem, 
 left his sleeping dancing girls and fled to the Buddha 
 for instruction. Davids a,nd Oldenberg, in translat- 
 ing this legend from the " Mahavagga," say in a note, . 
 " A well-known incident in the life of Buddha has 
 evidently been shaped after the model of this story ; " 
 and they declare that " nowhere in the ' Pali Pitakas ' 
 is this scene of Buddha's leave-taking mentioned." 
 
 As another evidence of the way in which fact and 
 fiction have been mixed and manipulated for a pur- 
 pose, one of the legends, which has often been pre- 
 sented as a parallel to the story of Christ, represents 
 the Buddha as repelling the temptation of Mara by 
 quoting texts of "scripture," and the scripture re- 
 ferred to was the " Dhammapada." But the "Dham- 
 mapada " was compiled hundreds of years after Bud- 
 
 Infernal ghosts and hellish furies round 
 
 Environed Thee ; some howl'd, some yell'd, some shriek' d, 
 
 Some bent at Thee their fiery darts, while Thou 
 
 Sat'st unappall'd in calm and sinless peace." 
 
 Book iv. ^ 
 
164 ORIENTAL BELIQIONS AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 dha's death. Besides, there were no " scriptures" of 
 any kind in his day, for nothing was written till two 
 or three centuries later ; and worse still, Buddha is 
 made to quote his own subsequent teachings ; for the 
 "Dhammapada" claims to consist of the sacred words 
 of the " enlightened one." Most of the legends of 
 Buddhism were wholly written after the beginning 
 of the Christian era, and it cannot be shown that any 
 were written in their present form until two or three 
 centuries of that era had elapsed. T. W. Ehys Davids 
 says of the "Lalita Yistara" which contains a very 
 large proportion of them, and one form of which is 
 said to have been translated into Chinese in the first 
 century a.d., " that there is no real proof that it existed 
 in its present form before the year 600 a.d." The 
 " Eomantic Legend " cannot be traced farther back 
 than the third century a.d. Oldenberg says : " No 
 biography of Buddha has come down to us from an- 
 cient times, from the age of the Pali texts, and we 
 can safely say that no such biography was in existence 
 then." Beal declares that the Buddhist legend, as 
 found in the various Epics of Nepaul, Thibet, and 
 China, " is not framed after any Indian model of any 
 date, but is to be found worked out, so to speak, among 
 northern peoples, who were ignorant of, or indifferent 
 to, the pedantic stories of the Brahmans. In the 
 southern and primitive records the terms of the legend 
 are wanting. Buddha is not horn of a royal family ; 
 lie is not tempted before his enlightenment ; he works 
 no miracles, and he is not a Universal Saviour." 
 
 The chances are decidedly that if any borrowing 
 has been done it was on the side of Buddhism. It 
 
BUDDHISM AND OHBISTIANITY 165 
 
 has been asserted that thirty thousand Buddhist 
 monks from Alexandria once yisited Ceylon on the 
 occasion of a great festival. This is absurd on the 
 face of it; but that a Christian colony settled in 
 Malabar at a very early period is attested by the 
 presence of thousands of their followers even to this 
 day. 
 
 In discussing the specific charge of copying Buddh- 
 ist legends in the gospel narratives, we are met at 
 the threshold by insurmountable improbabilities. 
 To some of these I ask a moment's attention. I 
 shall not take the time to discuss in detail the al- 
 leged parallels which are paraded as proofs. To 
 anyone who understands the spirit of Judaism and 
 its attitude toward heathenism of all kinds, it is 
 simply inconceivable that the Christian disciples, 
 whose aim it was to propagate the faith of their Mas- 
 ter in a Jewish community, should have borrowed 
 old Indian legends, which, by the terms of the sup- 
 position, must have been widely known as such. 
 And Buddhist apologists must admit that it is a lit- 
 tle strange that the Scribes and Pharisees, who were 
 intelligent, and as alert as they were bitter, should 
 never have exposed this transparent plagiarism. The 
 great concern of the Apostles was to prove to Jews 
 and Gentiles that Jesus was the Christ of Old Tes- 
 tament prophecy. The whole drift of their preach- 
 ing and their epistles went to show that the gospel 
 history rested squarely and imcompromisingly on a 
 Jewish basis. Peter and John, Stephen and Paul, 
 constantly "reasoned with the Jews out of their own 
 Scriptures." How unspeakably absurd is the notion 
 
166 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 that they were trying to palm off on those keen 
 Pharisees a Messiah who, though in the outset at 
 Nazareth he publicly traced his commission to Old 
 Testament prophecy, was aU the while copying an 
 atheistic philosopher of India ! 
 
 It is equally inconceivable that the Christian fa- 
 thers should have copied Buddhism. They resisted 
 Persian mysticism as the work of the Devil, and it 
 was in that mysticism, if anywhere, that Buddhist 
 influence existed m the Levant. Whoever has read 
 Tertullian's withering condemnation of Marcion may 
 judge how far the fathers of the Church favored the 
 heresies of the East. Augustiae had himself been 
 a Manichean mystic, and when after his conversion 
 he became the great theologian of the Church, he 
 must have known whether the teachings of the 
 Buddlia were being palmed off on the Christian 
 world. The great leaders of that age were men of 
 thorough scholarship and of the deepest moral ear- 
 nestness. Many of them gave up their possessions 
 and devoted their lives to the promotion of the 
 truths which they professed. Scores of them sealed 
 their faith by martyr deaths. 
 
 But even if we were to accept the flippant allega- 
 tion that they were all impostors, yet we should be 
 met by an equally insurmountable difficulty in the 
 utter silence of the able and bitter assailants of 
 Christianity in the first two or three centuries. 
 Celsus prepared himself for his well-known attack on 
 Christianity with the utmost care, searching history, 
 philosophy, and every known religion from which he 
 could derive an argument against the Christian faith. 
 
BUDDHISM AND OHBiaTIANITT 167 
 
 Why did he not strike at the very root of the matter 
 by exposing those stupid plagiarists who were at- 
 tempting to play off upon the intelligence of the 
 Roman world a clumsy imitation of the far-famed 
 Buddha ? It was the very kind of thing that the ene- 
 mies of Christianity wanted. Why should the adroit 
 Porphyry attempt to work up a few mere scraps of 
 resemblance from the- life of Pythagoras, when all he 
 had to do was to lay his hand upon familiar legends 
 which afforded an abundance of the very thing in 
 demand ? 
 
 Again, it is to be remembered that Christianity 
 has always been restrictive and opposed to admixt- 
 ures with other systems. It repelled the Neo-Pla- 
 tonism of Alexandria, and it fought for two or three 
 centuries against Gnosticism, Manichseism, and simi- 
 lar heresies : and the assumption, in the face of all 
 this, that the Christian Church went out of its way 
 to copy Indian Buddhism, must be due either to 
 gross ignorance or to reckless misrepresentation. 
 On the other hand, it is in accordance with the 
 very genius of Buddhism to borrow. It has absorbed 
 every indigenous superstition and entered into part- 
 nership with every local religious system, from the 
 Devil Worship of Burmah and Ceylon to the Taou- 
 ism of Chiaa and the Shinto of Japan. In its 
 long - continued contact with Christianity it has 
 changed from the original atheism of Gautama to 
 various forms of theism, and in some of its sects, 
 at least, from a stanch insistance on self-help alone 
 to an out - and - out doctrine of salvation by faith. 
 This is true of the Shin and Todo sects of Japan. 
 
168 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND OHBISTIANITY 
 
 From recognizing no God at all at first, Buddhism 
 had, by the seyenth century A.D., a veritable Trinity, 
 with attributes resembliag those of the Triune God 
 of the Christians, and by the tenth century it had five 
 trinities with One Supreme Adi-Buddha over them 
 all. Everyone may judge for himself whether these 
 later interpolations of the system were borrowed 
 from the New Testament Trinity, which had been 
 proclaimed through all the East ten centuries be- 
 fore. Buddhism is still absorbing foreign elements 
 through the aid of its various apologists. Sir Ed- 
 win Arnold has greatly added to the force of its le- 
 gend by the Christian phrases and Christian concep- 
 tions which he has read into it. Toward the close 
 of the " Light of Asia " he also introduces into the 
 Buddha's sermon at Kapilavastu the teachings of 
 Herbert Spencer and others of our own time. 
 
 But altogether the most stupendous improbabihty 
 lies against the whole assumption that Christ and 
 his followers based their " essential doctrines " on 
 the teachings of the Buddha. The early Buddhism 
 was atheistic : this is the common verdict of Da- 
 vids, Childers, Sir Monier Williams, Kellogg, and 
 many others. The Buddha declared that " without 
 cause and unknown is the life of man in this world," 
 and he recognized no higher being to whom he owed 
 reverence. "The Buddhist Catechism," by Subha- 
 dra, shows that modem Buddhism has no recogni- 
 tion of God. 
 
 It says (page 58): "Buddhism teaches the reign 
 of perfect goodness and wisdom ivithout a personal 
 God, continuance of individuality witJiout an immor- 
 
BUDDHI8M AND 0HBI8TIANITT 169 
 
 tal soul, eternal happiness without a local heaven, 
 the way of salvation without a vicarious saviour, re- 
 demption worked out by each one himself without 
 any prayers, sacrifioes, and penances, without the 
 ministry of ordained priests, without the interces- 
 sion of saints, ^vitJwut divine mercy." And then, by 
 way of authentication, it adds : " These, and many 
 others which have become the fundamental doctrines 
 of the Buddhist religion, were recognized by the 
 Buddha in the night of his enlightenment under the 
 Boddhi-tree." And .yet we are told that this is the 
 system which Christ and his followers copied. Com- 
 pare this passage with the Lord's Prayer, or with 
 the discourse upon the lilies, and its lesson of trust 
 in God the Father of all ! I appeal not merely to 
 Christian men, but to any man who has brains and 
 common-sense, was there ever so preposterous an at- 
 tempt to establish an identity of doctrines ? 
 
 But what is the evidence found in the legends 
 themselves ? Several leading Oriental scholars, and 
 men not at all biased in favor of Christianity, have 
 carefully examined the subject, and have decided 
 that there is no connection whatever. - Professor 
 Seydel, of Leipsic, who has given the most scien- 
 tific plea for the so-called coincidences, of which he 
 claims there are fifty-one, has classified them as : 
 1, Those which may have been merely accidental, 
 having arisen from similar causes, and not neces- 
 sarily implying any borrowing on either side; 2, 
 those which seem to have been borrowed from the 
 one narrative or the other; and 3, those which he 
 thinks were clearly copied by the Christian writ- 
 
170 ORIENTAL BBLIOIONS AND OHBISriANITY 
 
 ers. In this last class he names but five out of 
 fifty-one. 
 
 Kuenen, who has little bias in favor of Christi- 
 anity, and who has made a very thorough examina- 
 tion of Seydel's parallels, has completely refuted 
 these five.* And speaking of the whole question he 
 says : "I think we may safely affirm that we must ab- 
 stain from assigning to Buddhism the smallest di- 
 rect influence on the origin of Christianity." He 
 also says of similar theories of de Bunsen : " A single 
 instance is enough to teach us that inventive fancy 
 plays the chief part in them."f 
 
 Ehys Davids, whom Subhadra's " Buddhist Cate- 
 chism " approves as the chief exponent of Buddhism, 
 says on the same subject : "I can find no evidence 
 of any actual or direct communication of these ideas 
 common to Buddhism and Christianity from the East 
 to the West." Oldenberg denies their early date, 
 and Beal denies them an Indian origin of any date. 
 
 Contrasts hetioeen Buddhism mid Christianity. 
 
 Rhys Davids has pointed out the fact that, while 
 Buddhism in some points is more nearly aUied to 
 Christianity than any other system, yet in others it is 
 the farthest possible from it in its spirit and its ten- 
 dency. If we strike out those ethical principles which, 
 to a large extent, are the common heritage of mankind, 
 revealed in the understanding and the conscience, we 
 shall find in what remains an almost total contrariety 
 to the Christian faith. To give a few examples only. 
 
 * See National Religion and Vhiversal Religion, p. 363. 
 t Hmett Lectures, 1883. 
 
BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY 171 
 
 1. Christ taught the existence and glory of God 
 as Supreme, the Creator and Father, the righteous 
 Judge. His supreme mission to reconcile all men 
 to Grod was the key-note of all His ministry. By 
 His teaching the hearts of men are lifted up aboTe 
 all earthly conceptions to the -worship of infinite 
 purity, and to the comforting assurance of more 
 than a father's care and love. Buddhism, on the 
 contrary, knows nothing of God, offers no heav- 
 enly iacentive, no divine help. Leading scholars 
 are agreed that, whatever it may be now, the origi- 
 nal orthodox Buddhism was essentially atheistic. It 
 despised the idea of divine help, and taught men to 
 rely upon themselves. While, therefore, Buddhism 
 never rose above the level of earthly resources, and 
 contemplated only lower orders of being, Christi- 
 anity begins with God as supreme, to be worshipped 
 and loved with all the .heart, mind, and strength, 
 while our neighbors are to be loved as ourselves. 
 
 2. Christ represented Himself as having pre- 
 existed from the foundation of the world, as having 
 been equal with God ia the glory of heaven, aU of 
 which He resigned that He might enter upon the 
 humiliation of our earthly state, and raise us up 
 to eternal life. He distinctly claimed oneness and 
 equality with the Father. Buddha claimed no such 
 antecedent glory; he spoke of himself as a man 
 merely ; the whole aim of his teaching was to show 
 in himself what every man might accomplish. Later 
 legends ascribe to him a sort of pre-existence, in 
 which five hundred and thirty successive lives were 
 passed, sometimes as a man, sometimes as a god, 
 
172 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND 0HBI8TIANITT 
 
 many times as an animal. But even these claims 
 were not made by Buddha himself — except so far as 
 was implied by the common doctrine of transmigra- 
 tion. 
 
 Furthermore, in relation to the alleged pre-exist- 
 ences, according to strict Buddhist doctrine it was 
 not really he who had gone before, it was only a 
 Kharma or character that had exchanged hands many 
 times before it could be taken up by the real and con- 
 scious Buddta bom upon the earth. StUl further, 
 even after the beginning of his earthly life he lived 
 for many years in what, according to his own teach- 
 ing, was heinous sin, all of which is fatal to the 
 theory of pre-existent holiness. 
 
 3. Christ is a real Saviour ; His atonement cl9,imed 
 to be a complete ransom from the penalty of sin, and 
 by His teaching and example, and by the power of 
 the Holy Spirit, He overcomes the power of sin itself, 
 transforming the soul into His own image. Buddha, 
 on the other hand, did not claim to achieve salva- 
 tion for any except himself, though Mr. Arnold and 
 others constantly use such terms as "help" and 
 "salvation." Nothing of the kind is claimed by the 
 early Buddhist doctrines ; they plainly declare that 
 purity and impurity belong to one's self, and that 
 no one can purify another. 
 
 4. Christ emphatically declared Himself a helper, 
 even in this life : " Come unto me, all ye that labor 
 and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." He 
 promised also to send his Spirit as a comforter, as a 
 supporter of his disciples' faith, as a guide and teach- 
 er, at all times caring for their need; in whatever 
 
BUDDHISM AND OHBISTIANITT 173 
 
 exigency his grace would be sufficient for them. On 
 the contrary, Buddha taught his followers that no 
 power in heaven or earth could help them ; the vic- 
 tory must be their own. " How can we hope to amend 
 a life," says Bishop Carpenter, " which is radically 
 bad, by the aid of a system which teaches that man's 
 highest aim should be to escape from life ? All that 
 has been said against the ascetic and non-worldly at- 
 titude of Christianity might be urged with additional 
 force against Buddhism. It is full of the strong, 
 sweet, pathetic compassion which looks upon life 
 with eyes full of tears, but only to turn them away 
 from it again, as from an unsolved and insoluble rid- 
 dle." And he substantiates his position by quoting 
 EeviUe and Oldenberg. B^ville reaches this simi- 
 lar conclusion : " Buddhism, bom on the domain of 
 polytheism, has fought against it, not by rising 
 above nature in subordinating it to a single sover- 
 eign spirit, but by reproving nature in principle, and 
 condemning life itself as an evil and a misfortune. 
 Buddhism does not measure itself against this or 
 that abuse, does not further the development or 
 reformation of society, either directly or indirectly, 
 for the very simple reason that it turns away from 
 the world on principle." 
 
 Oldenberg, one of the most thorough of Pali schol- 
 ars, says : " For the lower order of the people, for 
 those bom to toil in manual labor, hardened by the 
 struggle for existence, the announcement of the con- 
 nection of misery with all forms of existence was not 
 made, nor was the dialectic of the law of the painful 
 concatenation of causes and effects calculated to sat- 
 
174 ORIENTAL BELiaiONS ANB OEBISTIANITY 
 
 isfy 'the poor in spirit.' ' To the wise belongeth this 
 law,' it is said, ' not to the foolish.' Very unlike the 
 work of that Man who ' suffered little children to come 
 unto Him, for of such is the kingdom of God.' For 
 children, and those who are like children, the arms 
 of Buddha are not opened." 
 
 5. Christ and his disciples set before men the 
 highest motives of life. The great end of man was 
 to love God supremely, and one's neighbor as him- 
 self. Every true disciple was to consider himself an 
 almoner and dispenser of the divine goodness to 
 his race. It was this that inspired the sublime de- 
 votion of Paul and of thousands since his time. It 
 is the secret principle of all the noblest deeds of 
 men. Gautama had no such high and unselfish aim. 
 He found no inspiring motive above the level of 
 \ humanity. His system concentrates all thought and 
 effort on one's own life — virtually on the attainment 
 of utter indifference to all things else. The early 
 zeal of Gautama and his followers in preaching tc 
 their fellow-men was inconsistent with the plain doc- 
 trines taught at a later day. If in any case there 
 were those who, like Paul, burned with desire tc 
 save their fellow-men, all we can say is, they were bet- 
 ter than their creed. Such was the spirit of the Gos 
 pel, rather than the idle and useless torpor of the 
 Buddhist order. "Here, according to Buddhists,' 
 says Spence Hardy, " is a mere code of proprieties 
 an occasional opiate, a plan for being free from dis- 
 comfort, a system for personal profit." Buddhisn 
 certainly taught the repression of human activity and 
 influence. Instead of saying, "Let your light sc 
 
BUDDHISM AND OHBISTIANITT 175 
 
 shine before men that they, seeing your good works, 
 may glorify your Father who is in heaven," or "Work 
 ^hile the day lasts," it said, " If thou keepest thy- 
 self silent as a broken gong, thou hast attained Nir- 
 vana." " To wander about like the rhinoceros alone," 
 was enjoined as the pathway of true wisdom, 
 
 6. Christ taught that life, though attended with 
 fearful alternatives, is a glorious birthright, with 
 boundless possibilities and promise of good to our- 
 selves and others. Buddhism makes life an evil 
 which it is the supreme end of man to conquer and 
 cut off from the disaster of re-birth. Christianity 
 opens a path of usefulness, holiness, and happiness 
 in this life, and a career of triumph and glory in the 
 endless ages to come. Both Buddhism and Hindu- 
 ism are worse than other pessimistic systems in their 
 fearful law of entailment through countless transmi- 
 grations, each of which must be a struggle. ^ 
 
 1. Christ, according to the New Testament, " ever 
 liveth to make intercession for us," and the Holy 
 Spirit represents Him constantly as an ever-living 
 power in the world, to regenerate, save, and bless. 
 But Buddha is dead, and his very existence is a thing 
 of the past. Only traditions and the influence of his 
 example can help men in the struggle of life. Said 
 Buddha to his disciples : " As a flame blown by vio- 
 lence goes out and cannot be reckoned, even so a 
 Buddha delivered from name and body disappears 
 and cannot be reckoned as existing." Again, he 
 said to his Order, "Mendicants, that which binds 
 the Teacher (himself) is cut off, but his body still 
 remains. While this body shall remain he will be 
 
176 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND OHRiaTIANITT 
 
 seen by gods and men, but after tlie termination of 
 life, upon the dissolution of the body, neither gods 
 nor men shall see him." 
 
 8. Christ taught the sacredness of the human 
 body. "Know ye not that your body is the temple 
 of the Holy Ghost which is in you ? " said His great 
 Apostle. But Buddhism says : " As men deposit 
 filth upon a dungheap and depart regretting nothing, 
 wanting nothing, so wiU I depart leaving this body 
 filled with vile vapors." Christ and His disciples 
 taught the triumphant resurrection of the body in 
 spiritual form and purity after His own image. 
 The Buddhist forsakes utterly and forever the de- 
 serted, cast-off mortality, while still he looks only for 
 another habitation equally mortal and corruptible, 
 and possibly that of a lower animal. Thus, through 
 all these lines of contrast, and many others that 
 might be named, there appear light and life and 
 blessedness on the one hand, and gloom and desola- 
 tion on the other. 
 
 The gloomy nature of Buddhism is well expressed 
 in Hardy's " Legends and Theories of Buddhism" 
 as follows : " The system of Buddhism is humiliat- 
 ing, cheerless, man-marring, soul-crushing. It tells 
 me that I am not a reality, that I have no soul. It 
 teUs me that there is no unalloyed happiness, no 
 plenitude of enjoyment, no perfect unbroken peace 
 in the possession of any being whatever, from the 
 highest to the longest, in any world. It tells me that 
 I may live myriads of millions of ages, and that not 
 in any of those ages, nor in any portion of any age, 
 can I be free from apprehension as to the future, mx- 
 
BUDDHISM AND CHBISTIANITT 111 
 
 til I attain to a state of unconsciotisness ; and that in 
 order to arrive at this consummation I must turn 
 away from all that is pleasant, or lovely, or instruc- 
 tive, or elevating, or sublime. It teUs me by voices 
 ever repeated, like the ceaseless sound of the sea- 
 wave on the shore, that I shall be subject to sorrow, 
 impermanence, and unreality so long as I exist, and 
 yet that I cannot cease to exist, nor for countless 
 ages to come, as I can only attain nirvana in the 
 time of a Supreme Buddha. In my distress I ask 
 for the sympathy of an all-wise and all-powerful 
 friend. But I am mocked instead by the semblance 
 of relief, and am told to look to Buddha, who has 
 ceased to exist ; to the Dharma that never was in 
 existence, and to the Sangha, the members of which 
 are real existences, but like myself are partakers of 
 sorrow and sin." 
 
 How shall we measure the contrast between all 
 this and the ecstacies of Christian hope, which in 
 various forms are expressed in the Epistles of Paul ; 
 the expected crown of righteousness, the eternal 
 weight of glory ; heirship with Christ in an endless 
 inheritance ; the house not made with hands ; the 
 G-eneral Assembly of the first bom ? Even in the 
 midst of earthly sorrows and persecutions he could 
 say, "Nay, in all things we are more than conquer- 
 ors through Him that loved us. Eor I am per- 
 suaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor 
 principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor 
 things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other 
 creature, shall be able to separate us from the love 
 of God which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord." 
 n 
 
LEOTUEE VI. 
 
 MOHAMMEDANISM PAST AND PKESBNT 
 
 It has been the fate of every great religious teacher 
 to have his memory enveloped in a haze of posthu- 
 mous myths. Even the Gospel history was embel- 
 lished with marvellous apocryphal legends of the 
 childhood of Christ. Buddhism very soon began to 
 be overgrown with a truly Indian luxuriance of fables, 
 miracles, and pre-existent histories extending through 
 five hundred past transmigrations. In like manner, 
 tihe followers of Mohammed traced the history of their 
 prophet and of their sacred city back to the time of 
 Adam. And Mohammedan legends were not a slow 
 and natural growth, as in the case of most other faiths. 
 There was a set purpose ia producing them without 
 much delay. The conquests of Islam over the East- 
 em empires had been very rapid. 'The success of 
 Mohammed's cause and creed had exceeded the ex- 
 pectations of his most sanguine followers. In the 
 first half of the seventh century — nay, between the 
 years 630 and 638 a.d. — Jerusalem, Damascus, and 
 Aleppo had fallen before the arms of Omar and his 
 lieutenant " Khaled the Invincible," and in 639 Egypt 
 was added to the realm of the Ehalifs. Persia was 
 conquered in a.d. 640. 
 
 It seemed scarcely possible that achievements so 
 
MOHAMMEDANISM PAST AND PRESENT 179 
 
 brilliant could have been the work of a mere unlet- 
 tered Arab and his brave but unpretentious successors. 
 The personnel of the prophet must be raised to an 
 adequate proportion to such a history. Special re- 
 quisition was made therefore for incidents. The 
 devout fancy of the faithful was taxed for the pictur- 
 esque and marvellous ; and the system which Mo- 
 hammed taught, and the very place in which he was 
 born, must needs be raised to a supernatural dignity 
 and importance. Accordingly, the history of the 
 prophet was traced back to the creation of the world, 
 when God was said to have imparted to a certain 
 small portion of earthy dust a mysterious spark of 
 light. When Adam was formed this particular lu- 
 minous dust appeared in his forehead, and from him 
 it passed in a direct line to Abraham. From Abra- 
 ham it descended, not to Isaac, but to Ishmael ; and 
 this was the cause of Sarah's jealousy and the secret 
 of aU Abraham's domestic troubles. Of course, this 
 bright spark of heavenly effulgence reappearing on 
 the brow of each lineal progenitor, was designed ulti- 
 mately for Mohammed, in whom it shone forth with 
 tenfold brightness. 
 
 There is real historic evidence of the fact that the 
 Vale of Mecca had for a long time been regarded as 
 sacred ground. It was a sort of forest or extensive 
 grove, a place for holding treaties among the tribes, 
 a common ground of truce and a refuge from the 
 avenger. It was also a place for holding annual fairs, 
 for public harangues, and the competitive recitation 
 of ballads and other poems. But aU this, however 
 creditable to the culture of the Arab tribes, was not 
 
180 ORIENTAL BELIOIONS AND 0HBI8TIANITT 
 
 sufficient for the purposes of Islam. The Kaaba, 
 which had been a rude heathen temple, was raised 
 to the dignity of a shrine of the true God, or rather 
 it was restored, for it was said to have been built by 
 Adam after a divine pattern. The story was this : At 
 the time of the Fall, Adam and Eve had somehow 
 become separated. Adam had wandered away to 
 Ceylon, where a mountain peak still bears his name. 
 But having been divinely summoned to Mecca to 
 erect this first of earthly temples, he unexpectedly 
 found Eve residing upon a hiU near the city, and 
 thenceforward the Valley of Mecca became their para- 
 dise regained. At the time of the Deluge the Kaaba 
 was buried in mud, and for centuries afterward it was 
 overgrown with trees. 
 
 When Hagar and her son Ishmael were driven out 
 from the household of Abraham, they wandered by 
 chance to this very spot, desolate and forsaken. 
 While Hagar was diligently searching for water, 
 more anxious to save the life of her son than her 
 own, Ishmael, boy-like, sat poking the sand with his 
 heel ; when, behold, a spring of water bubbled up in 
 his footprint. And this was none other than the 
 sacred well Zemzem, whose brackish waters are 
 stm eagerly sought by every Moslem pilgrim. As 
 Ishmael grew to manhood and established his home 
 m the sacred city, Abraham was summoned to join 
 him, that they together might rebuild the Kaaba. 
 But in the succeeding generations apostacy agaia 
 brought ruin upon the place, although the heathen 
 Koreish still performed sacred rites there — especially 
 that of sevenfold processions around the sacred stone. 
 
M0HAMMEBANI8M PAST AND PBE8ENT 181 
 
 This blackened object, supposed to be an aerolite 
 wliicli fell ages ago, is still regarded as sacred, and 
 the sevenfold circuits of Mohammedan pilgrims take 
 the place of the ancient heathen rites. 
 
 Laying aside these crude legends, and confining 
 our attention to probable history, I can only hope, ia 
 the compass of a single lecture, to barely touch upon 
 a series of prominent points without any very careful 
 regard to logical order. This will perhaps insure the 
 greatest clearness as well as the best economy of time. 
 And first, we will glance at the personal history of 
 Mohammed — a history, it should be remembered, 
 which was not committed to writing till two hundred 
 years after the prophet's death, and which depends 
 wholly on the enthusiastic traditions of his follow- 
 ers. Bom in the year 561 A.D., of a recently widowed 
 mother, he appears to have been from . the first a 
 victim of epilepsy, or some kindred affection whose 
 paroxysms had much to do with his subsequent ex- 
 periences and his success. The various tribes of 
 Arabia were mostly given to a form of polytheistic 
 idolatry in which, however, the conception of a mono- 
 theistic supremacy was stiU. recognized. Most schol- 
 ars, including Eenan, insist on ascribing to the Ara- 
 bians, in common with all other Shemitic races, a 
 worship of one God as Supreme, though the Arabian 
 Allah, like the Baal of Canaan and Phoenicia, was 
 supposed to belattended by numerous inferior deities. 
 Though Islam undoubtedly borrowed the staple of 
 its truths from the Old Testament, .yet there was a 
 short confession strikingly resembling the modem 
 creed of to-day, which had been upon the lips of 
 
182 ORIENTAL BELIQI0N8 AND 0HBI8TIANITT 
 
 many generations of Arabians before Mohammed's 
 time. Thus it ran: "I dedicate myself to thy ser- 
 vice, O Allah. Thou hast no companion except the 
 companion of whom thou art master and of whatever 
 is his." 
 
 A society known as the " Hanifs " existed at the 
 time of Mohammed's early manhood, and we know 
 not how long before, whose aim was to bring back 
 their countrymen from the degrading worship and 
 cruel practices of heathenism to the purity of mono- 
 theistic worship. The old faith had been reinforced 
 in the minds of the more intelligent Arabs by the 
 truths learned from Jewish exiles, who, as early as 
 the Babylonish captivity, had found refuge in Arabia ; 
 and it is a striking fact that the four Hanif leaders 
 whom the young Mohammed found on joining their 
 society, were pleading for the restoration of the faith 
 of Abraham. All these leaders refused to follow his 
 standard when he began to claim supremacy as a 
 prophet ; three of them were finally led to Christian- 
 ity, and the f ovirth died in a sort of quandary between 
 the Christian faith and Islam. The first two, Waraka 
 and Othman, were cousins of Mohammed's wife, and 
 the third, Obadulla, was his own cousin. Zaid, the 
 last of the four, presents to us a very pathetic pict- 
 ure. He lived and died in perplexity. Banished 
 from Mecca by those who feared his conscientious 
 censorship, he lived by himself on a neighboring hill- 
 side, an earnest seeker after truth to the last; and 
 he died with the prayer on his lips,^ " O God, if I 
 knew what form of worship is most pleasing to thee, 
 so would I serve thee, but I know it not." It is to 
 
MOHAMMEDANISM PAST AND PRESENT 183 
 
 the credit of Mohammed that he cherished a pro- 
 found respect for this man. "I will pray for him," 
 he said ; " in the Eesurrection he also will gather a 
 church around him."* 
 
 In spite of his maladies and the general delicacy 
 of his nervous organization, Mohammed evinced in 
 early youth a degree of energy and intellectual ca- 
 pacity which augured well for his future success in 
 some important sphere. Fortune also favored him 
 in many ways. His success as manager of the com- 
 mercial caravans of a wealthy widow led to his accept- 
 ance as her husband. She was fourteen years his 
 senior, but she seems to have entirely won his affec- 
 tions and to have proved indispensable, not only as 
 a patroness, but as a wise and faithful counsellor. 
 So long as she lived she was the good spirit who 
 called forth his better nature, and kept him from 
 those low impulses which subsequently wrought the 
 ruin of his character, even ia the midst of his suc- 
 cesses. On the one hand, it is an argument in favor 
 of the sincerity of Mohammed's prophetic claims, that 
 this good and true woman was the first to believe in 
 him as a prophet of God ; but, on the other hand, we 
 must remember that she was a loving wife, and that 
 that charity which thinketh no evil is sometimes ut- 
 terly blind to evil when found in this tender relation. 
 
 We have no reason to doubt that Mohammed was 
 a sincere "Hanif." Having means and leisure for 
 study, and being of a bright and thoughtful mind, he 
 doubtless entered with enthusiasm into the work of 
 reforming the idolatrous customs of his coimtrymen. 
 * Sprenger's Life of Mohammed, pp. 40, 41. 
 
184 ORIENTAL RELiaiONS AND OHBISTIANITT 
 
 From this high standpoiat, and free from supersti- 
 tious fear of a heathen priesthood, he was prepared 
 to estimate in their true enormity the degrading 
 rites which he everywhere witnessed under the 
 abused name of religion. That hatred of idolatry 
 which became the main spring of his subsequent 
 success, was thus nourished and strengthened as an 
 honest and abiding sentiment. He was, moreover, of 
 a contemplative — we may say, of a religious — turn of 
 mind. His maladies gave him a tinge of melan- 
 choly, and, like the Buddha, he showed a characteris- 
 tic thoughtf ulness bordering upon the morbid. Be- 
 coming more and more a reformer, he followed the 
 example of many other reformers by withdrawing at 
 stated times to a place of solitude for meditation ; at 
 least such is the statement of his followers, though 
 there are evidences that he took his family with him, 
 and that he may have been seeking refuge from the 
 heat. However this may have been, the place chosen 
 was a neighboring cave, in whose cool shade he not 
 only spent the heated hours of the day, but sometimes 
 a succession of days and nights. 
 
 Perhaps the confinement increased the violence of 
 Ms convulsions, and the vividness and power of the 
 strange phantasmagorias which during his parox- 
 ysms passed through his mind. It was from one of 
 these terrible attacks that his alleged call to the 
 prophetic office was dated. The prevailing theories 
 of his time ascribed all such experiences to the 
 influence of supernatural spirits, either good or evil, 
 and the sufferer was left to the alternative of as- 
 suming either that he had received messages from 
 
MOHAMMEDANISM PAST AND PBE8MNT 185 
 
 heaven, or that he had been a Tictim of the devil. 
 After a night of greater suffering and more thrill- 
 ing visions than he had ever experienced before, 
 Mohammed chose the more favorable interpretation, 
 and announced to his sympathizing wife Kadijah that 
 he had received from Gabriel a solemn call to become 
 the Prophet of God. 
 
 There has been endless discussion as to how far 
 he may have been self-deceived in making this claim, 
 and how far he may have been guilty of conscious 
 imposture. Speculation is useless, since on the one 
 hand we cannot judge a man of that age and that 
 race by the rigid standards of our own times ; and on 
 the other, we are forbidden to form a too favorable 
 judgment by the subsequent developments of Mo- 
 hammed's character and Ufe, in regard to which no 
 other interpretation than that of conscious fraud 
 seems possible.* 
 
 Aside from the previous development and influ- 
 ence of a monotheistic reform, and the favoring cir- 
 cumstance of a fortunate marriage, he found his way 
 prepared by the truths which had been made known 
 in Arabia by both Jews and Christians. The Jews 
 had fled to the Arabian Peninsula from the various 
 conquerors who had laid waste Jerusalem and over- 
 run the territories of the Ten Tribes. At a later day, 
 jnany Christians had also fotmd an asylum there 
 
 * It is a suspicious fact that the first chapter of the Koran be- 
 gins with protestations that it is a true revelation, and with most 
 terrible anathemas against all who doubt it. This seems signifi- 
 cant, and contrasts strongly with the conscious truthfulness and 
 simplicity of the Gospel narrators. 
 
186 ORIENTAL BEUGIONS AND CHR18TIANIT7 
 
 from the persecutions of hostile bishops and em- 
 perors. Sir William Muir has shown how largely 
 the teachings of the Koran are grounded upon those 
 of the Old and New Testaments.* All that is best 
 in Mohammedanism is clearly borrowed from Juda- 
 ism and Christianity. Mohammed was illiterate and 
 never claimed originality. Indeed, he plead his il- 
 literacy as a proof of direct inspiration. A far bet- 
 ter explanation would be found in the knowledge 
 derived from inspired records, penned long before 
 and under different names. 
 
 The prophet was fortunate not only in the posses- 
 sion of truths thus indirectly received, but in the 
 fact that both Jews and Christians had lapsed from 
 a fair representation of the creeds which they pro- 
 fessed. The Jews in Arabia had lost the true spirit 
 of their sacred scriptures, and were following their 
 own perverted traditions rather than the oracles of 
 God. They had lost the vitality and power of the 
 truths revealed to their fathers, and were destitute of 
 moral earnestness and all spiritual life. On the 
 other hand, the Christian sects had fallen into low 
 
 * Nor have later defenders of the system failed to derive al- 
 leged proofs of their system from Bihlioal sources. Mohammedan 
 controversialists have urged some very specious and plausihle ar- 
 guments ; for example, Deut. xviii. 15-18, promises that the Lord 
 shall raise up unto Israel a prophet from among their brethren. 
 But Israel had no brethren hut the sons of Ishmael. There was 
 also promised a prophet like unto Moses ; but Deut. xxxiv. de- 
 clares that " There arose no Prophet in Israel like unto Moses." 
 
 When John the Baptist was asked whether he were the Christ, 
 or Elijah, or "that prophet," no other than Mohammed could 
 have been meant by " that prophet." 
 
MOHAMMEDANISM PAST AND PRESENT 187 
 
 superstitions and virtual idolatry. The Trinity, as 
 they represented it, gave to Mohammed the impres- 
 sion that the Virgin Mary, "Mother of God," was 
 one of the three persons of the Trinity, and that the 
 promise of the coming Paraclete might very plausibly 
 be appropriated by himself.* The prevailing worship 
 of pictures, images, and relics appeared in his vision 
 as truly idolatrous as the polytheism of the heathen 
 Koreish. It was clear to him that there was a call 
 for some zealous iconoclast to rise up and deliver his 
 country from idolatry. The whole situation seemed 
 auspicious. Arabia was ripe for a sweeping refor- 
 mation. It appears strange to us, at this late day, 
 that the churches of Christendom, even down to the 
 seventh century, should have failed to christianize 
 Arabia, though they had carried the Gospel even to 
 Spain and to Britain on the west, and to India and 
 China on the east. If they had imagined that the 
 deserts of the Peninsula were not sufficiently impor- 
 tant to demand attention, they certainly learned 
 their mistake ; for now the sad day of reckoning had 
 come, when swarms of fanatics should issue from 
 those deserts like locusts, and overrun their Chris- 
 tian communities, humble their bishops, appropriate 
 their sacred temples, and reduce their despairing 
 people to the alternatives of apostacy, tribute, slav- 
 ery, or the sword. 
 
 It seems equally strange that the great empires 
 which had carried their conquests so far on every 
 
 * Eev. Mr. Bruce, missionary in Persia, states that pictures of 
 the Father, the Son, and Mary are still seen in Eastern churches. 
 — Church Missionary Intelligencer, January, 1883. 
 
188 ORIENTAL BBLIGIONS AND CERI8TIANITT 
 
 hand had neglected to conquer Arabia. It was, in- 
 deed, comparatively isolated ; it certainly did not lie 
 in the common paths of the conquerors ; doubtless 
 it appeared barren, and by no means a tempting 
 prize ; and withal it was a difficult field for a success- 
 ful campaign. But from whatever reason, the tribes 
 of Arabia had never been conquered. Various expe- 
 ditions had won temporary successes, but the proud 
 Arab could boast that his country had never been 
 brought into permanent subjection.* Meanwhile the 
 heredity of a thousand years had strengthened the 
 valor of the Arab warrior. He was accustomed to 
 the saddle from his very infancy ; he was almost a 
 part of his horse. He was trained to the use of 
 arms as a robber, when not engaged in tribal wars. 
 His whole activity, his all-absorbing interest, was in 
 hostile forays. He knew no fear ; he had no scru- 
 ples.' He had been taught to feel that, as a son of 
 Ishmael every man's hand was turned against him, 
 and of simple right his hand might be turned against 
 every man. 
 
 Nor was this all. The surrounding nations, east 
 and west, had long been accustomed to employ these 
 sons of the desert as mercenary soldiers. They had 
 all had a hand in training them for their terrible 
 work, by imparting to them a knowledge of their re- 
 spective countries, their resources, their modes of 
 warfare, and their points of weakness. How many 
 
 * Sales, in his Preliminary Discourse, Section Ist, enumerates the 
 great nations which have vainly attempted the conquest of Arabia, 
 from the Assyrians down to the Romans, and he asserts that even 
 the Turks have held only a nominal sway. 
 
MOHAMMEDANISM PAST AND PBBSENT 189 
 
 nations have thus paved the way to their own de- 
 struction by calling in allies, who finally became 
 their masters ! * 
 
 On Mohammed's part, there is no evidence that at 
 the outset he contemplated a military career. At 
 first a reformer, then a prophet, he was driven to 
 arms in self-defence against his persecutors, and he 
 was fortunate in being able to profit by a certain 
 jealousy which existed between the rival cities of 
 Mecca and Medina. Fleeing from Mecca with only 
 one follower, Abu Bekr, leaving the faithful Ali to 
 arrange his affairs while he and his companion were 
 hidden in a cave, he found on reaching Medina a 
 more favorable reception. He soon gathered a fol- 
 lowing, which enabled him to gain a truce from the 
 Meccans for ten years ; and when they on their part 
 violated the truce, he was able to march upon their 
 city with a force which defied all possible resistance, 
 and he entered Mecca in triumph. Medina had 
 been won partly by the supposed credentials of the 
 prophet, but mainly by jealousy of the rival city. 
 Mecca yielded to a superior force of arms, but in the 
 end became the honored capital and shrine of Islam. 
 
 From this time the career of Mohammed was 
 wholly changed. He was now an ambitious conquer- 
 or, and here as before, the question how far he may 
 have sincerely interpreted his remarkable fortune as 
 a call of Grod to subdue the idolatrous nations, must 
 remain for the present unsettled. Possibly further 
 light may be thrown upon it as we proceed. Let us 
 
 * China owes her prersent dynasty to the fact that the hardy 
 Maachus were called in as mercenaries or as allies. 
 
190 OBIENTAL BMLIOIONS AND 0HBI8TIANITT 
 
 consider some of the changes which appear in the 
 development of this man's character. If we set out 
 with that high ideal which would seem to be de- 
 manded as a characteristic of a great religious 
 teacher, and certainly of one claiming to be a 
 prophet of God, we ought to expect that his char- 
 acter would steadily improve in all purity, humanity, 
 truthfulness, charity, and godlikeness. The test of 
 character lies in its trend. If the founder of a 
 religion has not grown nobler and better under the 
 operation of his own system, that fact is the strong- 
 est possible condemnation of the system. A good 
 man generally feels that he can afford to be mag- 
 nanimous and pitiful in proportion to his victories 
 and his success. But Mohammed became relent- 
 less as his power increased. He had at first endeav- 
 ored to win the Arabian Jews to his standard. He 
 had adopted their prophets and much of the Old Testa- 
 ment teachings ; he had insisted upon the virtual iden- 
 tity of the two religions. But having failed in his over- 
 tures, and meanwhile having gained superior power, 
 he waged against them the most savage persecution. 
 On one occasion he ordered the massacre of a sur- 
 rendered garrison of six hundred Jewish soldiers. 
 At another time he put to the most inhuman torture 
 a leader who had opposed his cause ; in repeated in- 
 stances he instigated the crime of assassination.* 
 In early life he had been engaged in a peaceful 
 caravan trade, and all his influence had been cast in 
 favor of tmiversal security as against the predatory 
 habits of the heathen Arabs ;. but on coming to 
 * Dr. Koelle : quoted in Church Mismnary InteUigeneer. 
 
MOHAMMEDANISM PAST AND PBESENT 191 
 
 power he Hmself resorted to robbery to enrich his 
 exchequer. Sales mentions twenty-seven of these 
 predatory expeditions against caravans, in which 
 Mohammed was personally present.* 
 
 The biographers of his early life represent him as 
 a man of a natural kindness of disposition, and a 
 sensitive temperament almost bordering on timidity. 
 Though not particularly genial, he was fond of chil- 
 dren, and had at first, as his recorded utterances show, 
 frequent impulses of pity and magnanimity. But 
 he became hardened as success crowned his career. 
 The temperateness which characterized his early 
 pleadings and remonstrances with those who dif- 
 fered from him, gave place to bitter anathemas ; and 
 there was rooted in his personal character that re- 
 lentless bigotry which has been the key-note of the 
 most intolerant system known upon the earth, 
 
 A still more marked change occurred in the in- 
 creasing sensuality of Mohammed. Such lenient 
 apologists as E. Bosworth Smith and Canon Taylor 
 have applied their most skilful upholstery to the de- 
 fects of his scandalous morals. Mr. Smith has even 
 undertaken to palliate his appropriation of another 
 man's wife, and the blasphemy of his pretended re- 
 velation in which he made God justify his passion.f 
 These authors base their chief apologies upon com- 
 
 * Sales : Koran and Preliminary Discourse, Wherry's edition, p. 
 89. One of the chief religious duties under the Koran was the 
 giving of alms (Zakat), and under this euphonious name was in- 
 cluded the tax by which Mohammed maintained the force that 
 enabled him to keep up his predatory raids on the caravans of his 
 enemies. 
 
 f Mohammed and Mohaminedanism, p. 123. 
 
192 ORIENTAL BELIQIONB AND 0HB18TIANITT 
 
 parisons between Mohammed and the worse deprav- 
 ity of the heathen Ajrabs, or they balance accoimts 
 with some of his acknowledged "virtues. 
 
 But the case baffles all such advocacy. The real 
 question is, what was the drift of the prophet's char- 
 acter? What was the influence of his professed 
 principles on his own life? It cannot be denied 
 that his moral trend was downward. If we credit 
 the traditions of his own followers, he had lived a 
 virtuous life as the husband of one wife,* and that for 
 many years. But after the death of Kadijah he en- 
 tered upon a career of polygamy in violation of his 
 own law. He had fixed the limit for all Moslems at 
 four lawful wives ; and in spite of the arguments of E. 
 Bosworth Smith, we must regard it as a most damn- 
 ing after-thought that made the first and only excep- 
 tion to accommodate his own weakness. By that 
 act he placed himself beyond the help of all sophis- 
 try, and took his true place in the sober judgment 
 of mankind. And by a law which is as unerring as 
 the law of gravitation, he became more and more 
 sensual as age advanced. At the time of his death 
 he was the husband of eleven wives. We are not 
 favored with a list of his concubines : f we only know 
 
 * Dr. Koelle gravely questions this. 
 
 f One of the most wicked and disastrous of all Mohammed's 
 laws was that which allowed the free practice of capturing wom- 
 en and girls in war, and retaining them as lawful chattels in the 
 capacity of concubines. It has been in all ages a base stimulus 
 to the raids of the slave-hnnter. Sir William Muir has justly 
 said, that so long as a free sanction to this great evil stands record- 
 ed on the pages of the Koran, Mohammedans "will [never of their 
 own accord cease to prosecute the slave-trade. 
 
MOHAMMEDAmSM PABT AND PRESENT 193 
 
 that his system placed no limit upon the number.* 
 Now, if a prophet claiming direct inspiration could 
 break his own inspired laws for his personal accom- 
 modation ; if, when found guilty of adultery, he 
 could compel his friend and follower to divorce his 
 wife that he might take her ; if upon each violation of 
 purity and decency he did not shrink frorn the blas- 
 phemy of claiming a special revelation which made 
 God the abettor of his vices, and even represented 
 Him as reproving and threatening his wives for their 
 just complaints — if aU this does not stamp a man as 
 a reckless impostor, what further turpitude is re- 
 quired? 
 
 At the same time it is evident that constant dis- 
 crimination is demanded in judging of the character 
 of Mohammed. It is not necessary to assume that 
 he was wholly depraved at first, or to deny that for 
 a time he was the good husband that he is represent- 
 ed to have been, or that he was a sincere and enthu- 
 siastic reformer, or even that he may have interpret- 
 ed some of his early hallucinations as mysterious 
 messages from heaven. At various times in his life 
 he doubtless displayed noble sentiments and per- 
 formed generous acts. But when we find him dictat- 
 ing divine communications with deliberate purpose 
 for the most villainous objects, when we find the 
 messages of Gabriel timed and graded to suit the 
 exigencies of his growing ambition, or the demands 
 of his worst passions, we are forced to a prepon- 
 
 * According to Dr. Koelle, the number of women and children 
 who fell to the prophet's share of captives at the time of his great 
 slaughter of the surrendered Jewish soldiers, was two hundred. 
 13 
 
194 ORIENTAL BELIGIONa AND 0HSI8TIANITT 
 
 derating condemnation. The Mohammed of the 
 later years is a remorseless tyrant when occasion re- 
 quires, and at all times the slave of unbridled lust. 
 Eefined and cultivated Mohammedan ladies— I speak 
 from testimony that is very direct — do not hesitate 
 to condemn the degrading morals of their prophet, 
 and to contrast him with the spotless purity of Jesus ; 
 "but then," they add, " God used him for a great pur- 
 pose, and gave him the most exalted honor among 
 men." Alas! it is the old argument so often em- 
 ployed in many lands. Success, great intellect, grand 
 achievements gild all moral deformity, and win the 
 connivance of dazzled minds. In this case, how- 
 ever, it is not a hero or a statesman, but an alleged 
 prophet of God, that is on trial. 
 
 It is a question difficult to decide, how far Mo- 
 hammed made Mohammedanism, and how far the 
 system moulded him. The action of cause and effect 
 was mutual, and under this interaction both the 
 character and the system were slow growths. The 
 Koran was composed in detached fragments suited 
 to different stages of development, different degrees 
 and kinds of success, different demands of personal 
 impulse or changes of conduct. The Suras, without 
 any claim to logical coimeetion, were written down 
 by an amanuensis on bits of parchment, or pieces of 
 wood or leather, and even on the shoulder-bones of 
 sheep. And they were each the expression of Mo- 
 hammed's particular mood at the time, and each en- 
 tered in some degree into his character from that 
 time forth. The man and the book grew together, 
 and the system, through all its history, fairly repre- 
 
M0HAMMBDANI8M PAST AND PRESENT 195 
 
 sents the example of the man and the teaching of the 
 book. 
 
 Let us next consider the historic character and 
 influence of the system of Islam. In forming just 
 conclusions as to the real influence of Mohammedan- 
 ism, a judicial fairness is necessary. In the first place, 
 we must guard against the hasty and sweeping judg- 
 ments which are too often indulged in by zealous 
 Christians ; and on the other hand, we must certainly 
 challenge the exaggerated statements of enthusiastic 
 apologists. It is erroneous to assert that Islam has 
 never encouraged education, that it has invariably 
 been adverse to all progress, that it knows nothing 
 but the Koran, or that Omar, in ordering the destruc- 
 tion of the Alexandrian library, is the only historical 
 exponent of the system. Such statements are full of 
 partial truths, but they are also mingled with patent 
 errors. 
 
 The Arab races in their original home were natur- 
 ally inclined to the encouragement of letters, partic- 
 ularly of poetry, and Mohammed himself, though 
 he had never been taught even to read, much less 
 to write, took special pains to encourage learning. 
 " Teach your children poetry," he said ; " it opens 
 the mind, lends grace to wisdom, and makes the he- 
 roic virtues hereditary." * According to Sprenger, he 
 gave liberty to every prisoner who taught twelve 
 boys of Mecca to write. The Abbasside princes 
 of a later day offered most generous prizes for su- 
 perior excellence in poetry, and Bagdad, Damascus, 
 Alexandria, BasBora, and Samarcand were noted for 
 * Mohammed, BvMha, arid Ohrist, p. 113. 
 
196 OMENTAL BELIGIONS AND 0HBI8TIANITY 
 
 their universities.* Cordova and Seville were able to 
 lend their light to the infant university of Oxford, 
 The fine arts of sculpttire and painting were con- 
 demned by the early caliphs, doubtless on account of 
 the idolatrous tendencies which they were supposed 
 to foster; but medicine, philosophy, mathematics, 
 chemistry, and astronomy were especially developed, 
 and that at a time when the nations of Europe were 
 mostly in darkness.f Yet it cannot be denied that 
 on the whole the influence of Islam has been hostile 
 to learning and to civilization. I The world will never 
 forget that by the burning of the great library of 
 Alexandria the rich legacy which the old world had 
 
 * Mohammed, Buddha, and Ghrist. f Ibid, p. 113. 
 
 I Says Sir "William Muir : " Three radical evils flow from tie 
 faith, in all ages and in every country, and must continue to flow 
 so long as the Koran is the standard of belief. First, polygamy, 
 divorce, and slavery are maintained and perpetuated, striking at 
 the root of public morals, poisoning domestic life, and disorganiz- 
 ing society. Second, freedom of thought and private judgment 
 in religion is crushed and annihilated. The sword still is, and 
 must remain, the inevitable penalty for the denial of Islam. 
 Toleration is unknown. Tliird, a barrier has been interposed 
 against the reception of Christianity. They labor under a miser- 
 able delusion who suppose that Mohammedanism paves the way 
 for a purer faith. No system could have been devised with more 
 consummate skill for shutting out the nations over which it has 
 sway from the light of truth. Idolatrous Arabia (judging from 
 the analogy of other nations) might have been aroused to spiritual 
 life and to the adoption of the faith of Jesus. Moliammedan Ara- 
 bia is to the human eye sealed against the benign influences of the 
 Gospel. . . . The sword of Mohammed and the Koran are the 
 most stubborn enemies of civilization, liberty, and truth which 
 the world has yet known."— C%'M7'cft. Missionary Jntdligencer,'So- 
 vember, 1885. 
 
MOHAMMEDANISM' PAST AND PnESENT 197 
 
 bequeathed to the new was destroyed. By its occu- 
 pation of Egypt and Constantinople, and thus cutting 
 off the most important channels of communication, 
 the Mohammedan power became largely responsible 
 for the long eclipse of Europe during the Middle 
 Ages. 
 
 Moreover, when zealous advocates of the system 
 contrast the barbarism of Eichard Coeur de Lion 
 with the culture and humanity of Saladin, they seem 
 to forget that the race of Richard had but just 
 emerged from the savagery of the Northmen, while 
 Saladin and his race had not only inherited the high 
 moral culture of Judaism and Christianity, but had 
 virtually monopolized it. It was chiefly by the wars 
 of the Crusaders that Western Europe became ac- 
 quainted with the civilization of the Orient. 
 
 Instead of ignoring the advantages which the East 
 had over the West at that period, it would be more 
 just to inquire what comparative improvements of 
 their respective opportunities have been made by 
 Western Chr-istianity and Eastern Mohammedanism 
 since that time. It would be an interesting task, for 
 example, to start with the period of Saladin and 
 Cceur de Lion, and impartially trace on the one hand 
 the influence of Christianity as it moulded the savage 
 conquerors of the Eoman Empire, and from such 
 rude materials built up the great Christian nations 
 of the nineteenth century ; and on the other hand, fol- 
 low the banner of the Crescent through aU the lands 
 where it has borne sway : Persia, Arabia, Northern 
 India, Egypt, the Barbary States, East Africa, and 
 the Soudan, and then draw an unbiased conclusion 
 
L98 OBIENTAL RELIGIONS AND GHBISTIANITT 
 
 IS to whicli system, as a system, has done more to 
 spread general enlightenment, foster the sentiments 
 )f kindness and philanthropy, promote human lib- 
 )rty, advance civilization, increase and elevate popu- 
 ations, promote the purity and happiness of the 
 'amily and the home, and raise the standards of 
 jthics and true religion among mankind.* 
 
 One of the brilliant dynasties of Mohammedan 
 listory was that of the Moors of Spain. We can 
 lever cease to admire their encouragement of arts 
 md their beautiful architecture, but is it quite cer- 
 ;ain that all this was a direct fruit of Islam ? The 
 suggestion that it may have been partly due to con- 
 act with the Gothic elements which the Moors van- 
 
 * Osborne, in his Islam under the Arabs, and Marcus Dodds, in 
 Molmmmed, Buddha, and Christ, have emphasized the fact that 
 islam, however favorably it might compare with the Arabian hea- 
 henism which it overthrew, was wholly out of place in forcing 
 ts semi-barbarous cultus upon civilizations which were far above 
 t. It might be an advance upon the rudeness and cruelty of the 
 ioreish, but the misfortune was that it stamped its stereotyped 
 md unchanging principles and customs upon nations which were 
 n advance of it even then, and which, but for its deadening in- 
 luenoe, might have made far greater progress in the centuries 
 vhich followed. 
 
 Its bigoted founder gave the Koran as the snficient guide for 
 ill time. It arrested the world's progress as far as its power ex- 
 ended. Very different was the spirit of Judaism. ' ' It distinctly 
 lisolaimed both finality and completeness. Every part of the 
 ffiosaio religion had a forward look, and was designed to leave 
 he mind in an attitude of expectation." 
 
 Mohammedanism, in claiming to be the one religion for all 
 nen and all time, is convicted of absurdity and imposture by its 
 'ailures; by the retrograde which marks its whole history in 
 iVestern Asia. As a universal religion it has been tried and 
 lound wanting. 
 
MOHAMMEDANISM PAST AND PRESENT 199 
 
 quished, finds support in the fact that notliing of 
 the kind appeared on the opposite coast of Africa. 
 And while the Mohammedan Empire in India has 
 left the most exquisite architectural structures in the 
 world, it is well known that they were the work of 
 European architects. 
 
 But in considering the influence which Islam has 
 exerted on the whole, lack of time compels me to 
 limit our survey to Africa, except as other lands may 
 be referred to incidentally. * That the first African 
 
 • It has been claimed that the spread of Mohammedanism In 
 India is far more rapid than that of Christianity. If this were 
 true in point of fact, it would he significant ; for India under 
 British rule furnishes a fair field for such a contest. But It so 
 happens that there, where Islam holds no sword of conquest, and 
 no arbitrary power to compel the faith of men, its growth is very 
 slow, it only keeps pace with the general increase of the popula- 
 tion. It cannot compare with the advancement of Christianity. 
 I subjoin an extract from Sir W. Hunter's paper in the Nine- 
 teenth Geiiiury for July, 1888 : 
 
 "The official census, notwithstanding its obscurities of classifi- 
 cation and the disturbing effects of the famine 'of 1877, attests the 
 rapid increase of the Christian population. So far as these dis- 
 turbing influences allow of an inference for all British India, the 
 normal rate of increase among the general population was about 
 8 per cent, from 1873 to 1881, while the actual rate of the Chris- 
 tian population was over 30 per cent. But, taking the lieutenant- 
 governorship of Bengal as the greatest province outside the famine 
 area of 1877, and for whose population, amounting to one-third 
 of the whole of British India, really comparable statistics exist, 
 the census results are clear. The general population Increased in 
 the nine years preceding 1881 at the rate of 10. 89 per cent. , the 
 Mohammedans at the rate of 10.96 per cent., the Hindus at some 
 undetermined rate below 13.64 per cent., Christians of all races 
 at the rate of 40.71 per cent., and the native Christians at the 
 rate of 64.07 per cent," 
 
200 OBIENTAL RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 conquests, extending from Egypt to Morocco, were 
 simple warlike invasions in which the sword was the 
 only instrument of propagandism, no one will deny. 
 But it is contended that in later centuries a great 
 work has been accomplished in Western Soudan, and 
 is still being accomplished, by missionary effort and 
 the general advance of a wholesome civilization. 
 
 Any fair estimate of Mohammedan influence must 
 take account of the elements which it found in 
 Northern Africa at the time of its conquests. The 
 states which border on the Mediterranean had once 
 been powerful and comparatively enlightened. They 
 had been populous and prosperous. The Phoenician 
 colony in Carthage had grown to be no mean rival 
 of Eome's military power. Egypt had been a great 
 centre of learning, not only in the most ancient 
 times, but especially after the building of Alexandria. 
 More western lands, like Numidia and Mauritania, 
 had been peopled by noble races. 
 
 After the introduction of Christianity, Alexandria 
 became the bright focus into which the religions and 
 philosophies of the world poured their concentrated 
 light. Some of the greatest of the Christian fathers, 
 like Augustine, Tertullian, and Cyprian, were Afri- 
 cans. The foundations of Latin Chiistianity were 
 laid by these men. The Bishopric of Hippo was a 
 model for all time in deep and intelligent devotion. 
 The grace and strength, the sublime and all-conquer- 
 ing faith of Monica, and others like her, furnished a 
 pattern for all Christian womanhood and motherhood. 
 
 I do not forget that before the time of the Mo- 
 hammedan invasion the Vandals had done their work 
 
MOHAMMEDANISM PAST AND PRESENT 201 
 
 of devastation, or that the African Church had been 
 woefully weakened and rent by wild heresies and 
 schisms, or that the defection of the Monophysite or 
 Coptic Church of Egypt was one of the influences 
 which facilitated the Mohammedan success. But 
 making due allowance for all this, vandalism and 
 schism could not have destroyed so soon the an- 
 cient civilization or sapped the strength of the North 
 African races. The process which has permanently 
 reduced so many once populous cities and villages to 
 deserts, and left large portions of the Barbary States 
 with only the moldering ruins of their former great- 
 ness, has been a gradual one. For centuries after 
 the Arab conquest those states were virtually shut 
 off from communication with Europe, and for at 
 least three centuries more, say from 1500 down to 
 the generation which immediately preceded our own, 
 they were known chiefly by the piracies which they 
 carried on against the commerce of all maritime na- 
 tions. Even the Government of the United States 
 was compelled to pay a million of dollars for the 
 ransom of captiu:ed American seamen, and it paid it 
 not to private corsairs, but to the Mohammedan 
 governments by which those piracies were subsi- 
 dized, as a means of supplying the public exchequer. 
 These large amormts were recovered only when our 
 navy, in co-operation with that of England, extirpated 
 the Eiff piracies by bombarding the Moslem ports. 
 The vaunted civilizations of the North African states 
 would have been supported by wholesale marauding 
 to this day, had not their piratical fleets been thus 
 summarily swept from the seas by other powers. 
 
202 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND 0HRI8TIANITT 
 
 If Egypt has shown a higher degree of advance- 
 ment it has been due to her peculiar geographical 
 position, to the inexhaustible fertility of the Delta, 
 and, most of all, to the infusion of foreign life and 
 energy into the management of her affairs. Ambi- 
 tious adventurers, like the Albanian Mehamet Ali, 
 have risen to power and have made Egypt what she 
 is, or rather what she was before the more recent in- 
 tervention of the European powers. Even Canon 
 Taylor admits that for centuries it has been neces- 
 sary to import more vigorous foreign blood for the 
 administration of Egyptian affairs.* 
 
 It will be admitted that Mohammedan conquests 
 have been made in mediaeval times, and down to our 
 own age, in Central Africa, and that along the south- 
 ern borders of Sahara a cordon of more or less pros- 
 perous states has been established ; also, that the 
 civilization of those states contrasts favorably with 
 the savagery of the cannibal tribes with which they 
 have come in contact. Probably the best — that is 
 to say, the least objectionable — exemplifications of 
 Islam now to be found in the world are seen in some 
 of the older states of Western Soudan. The Man- 
 dingo of the central uplands furnished a better ma- 
 terial than the " unspeakable Turk," and it would 
 not be quite fair to ascribe all his present virtues to 
 the Moslem rule. 
 
 But Jioio have these conquests in Central Africa 
 
 been made ? The contention of the apologists for 
 
 Islam is that recently, at least, and probably more or 
 
 less in the past, a quiet missionary work has greatly 
 
 * Leaves frcym, an Egyptian Note-hook. 
 
MOHAMMEDAmSM PAST. AND PRESENT 203 
 
 extended monotheism, temperance, education, and 
 general comfort, and that it has done more than all 
 other influences for the permanent extinction of the 
 slave trade ! Dr. E. W. Blyden, in answer to the 
 charge that Mohammedan Arabs are now, and long 
 have been, chiefij' responsible for the horrors of that 
 trade, and that even when Americans bought slaves 
 for their plantations, Moslem raiders in the interior 
 instigated the tribal quarrels which supplied the 
 markets on the coast, contends that the Moslem 
 conquests do most effectually destroy the trade, since 
 tribes which have become Moslem can no longer be 
 enslaved by Moslems.* It is a curious argument, 
 especially as it seems to ignore the fact that at the 
 present time both the supply and the demand de- 
 pend on Mohammedan influence. 
 
 As to the means by which the Soudanese States 
 are now extending their power we may content our- 
 selves with a mere reference to the operations of the 
 late "El Mahdi" in the East and the notorious Sam- 
 adu in the West. Their methods may be accepted 
 as illustrations of a kind of tactics which have been 
 employed for ages. The career of El Mahdi is al- 
 ready well known. Samadu was originally a pris- 
 oner, captured while yet a boy in one of the tribal 
 wars near the headwaters of the Niger. Partly by 
 intrigue and partly by the aid of his religious fana- 
 ticism he at length became sufficiently powerful to 
 enslave his master. Soon afterward he proclaimed 
 his divine mission, and declared a Jehad or holy war 
 against aU infidels. Thousands flocked to his ban- 
 * Christianity, Islam, and the Negro Pace, p. 341. 
 
204 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 ner, influenced largely by the hope of booty ; and ere 
 long, to quote the language of a lay correspondent of 
 the London Standard, written in Sierra Leone Sep- 
 tember 18, 1888, " he became the scourge of all the 
 peaceable states on the right bank of the Upper 
 Niger." Since 1882 he has attempted to dispute the 
 territorial claims of the French on the upper, and 
 of the English on the lower Niger, though without 
 success. But he has seemed to avenge his disap- 
 pointment the more terribly on the native tribes. 
 
 The letter published in the Standard gives an 
 account of an official commission sent by the Gov- 
 ernor of Sierra Leone to the headquarters of Sam- 
 adu in 1888, and in describing the track of this 
 Western Mahdi in his approaches to the French ter- 
 ritories it says : " The messengers report that every 
 town and village through which they passed was in 
 ruins, and that the road, from the borders of Suli- 
 mania to Herimakono, was lined with human skele- 
 tons, the remains of unfortunates who had been slain 
 by Samadu's fanatical soldiery, or had perished from 
 starvation through the devastation of the surround- 
 ing country. Some of these poor wretches, to judge 
 from the horrible contortions of the skeletons, had 
 been attacked by vultures and beasts of prey while 
 yet alive, and when too near their lingering death to 
 have sufficient strength to beat them oS. Around 
 the ruined towns were himdreds of doubled-up skele- 
 tons, the remains of prisoners who, bound hand and 
 foot, had been forced upon their knees, and their 
 heads struck off. Keba, the heroic Bambara king, 
 is still resisting bravely, but he has only one strong- 
 
MOHAMMEDANISM PAST AND PRESENT 205 
 
 hold (Siaso) left, and the end cannot now be far 
 off." 
 
 Samadu's career in this direction having been ar- 
 rested, he next turned his attention toward the tribes 
 under English protection on the southeast, " where, 
 unfortunately, there was no power to take up the 
 cause of humanity and arrest his progress. Before 
 long he entirely overran and subjected Kouranto, 
 Limbah, Sulimania, Kono, and Kissi. The most 
 horrible atrocities were committed; peaceable agri- 
 culturists were slaughted in thousands, and their 
 women and children carried off into slavery. Falaba, 
 the celebrated capital of Sulimania, and the great 
 emporium for trade between Sierra Leone and the 
 Niger, was captured and destroyed ; and all the in- 
 habitants of that district, whom every traveller, from 
 Winwood Eeade down to Dr. Blyden, has mentioned 
 with praise for their industry and docility, have been 
 exterminated or carried off. Sulimania, which was 
 the garden of West Africa, has now become a howl- 
 ing wilderness." 
 
 And the writer adds : " The people of the States 
 to the south of FutaDjaUon are pagans, and Samadu 
 makes their religion a pretext for his outrages. He 
 is desirous, he says, of converting them to the ' True 
 Faith,' and his modes of persuasion are murder 
 and slavery. What could be more horrible than the 
 story just brought down by the messengers who 
 were with Major Festkig? Miles of road strewn 
 with human bones ; blackened ruins where were 
 peaceful hamlets ; desolation and emptiness where 
 were smiUng plantations. What has become of the 
 
206 ORIENTAL BELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 tens of thousands of peaceful agriculturists, their 
 wives and their innocent children ? Gone ; converted, 
 after Samadu's manner, to the 'True Faith.' And 
 thus the conversion of West Africa to Islamism goes 
 merrily on, while dilettante scholars at home com- 
 placently discuss the question as to whether that 
 faith or Christianity is the more suitable for the 
 Negro; and the British people, dead to their gen- 
 erous instincts of old, make no demand that such 
 deeds of cruelty and horror shall be arrested with a 
 strong hand." * 
 
 Similar accounts of the Airicaia. propagandism of 
 Islam might be given in the very words of numerous 
 travellers and explorers, but one or two witnesses 
 only shall be summoned to speak of the Moham- 
 medan dominion and civilization in East Africa. 
 Professor Drummond, in giving his impressions of 
 Zanzibar, says : " Oriental in its appearance, Mo- 
 hammedan in its religion, Arabian in its morals, a 
 cesspool of wickedness, it is a fit capital to the Dark 
 Continent." And it is the great emporium — not an 
 obscure settlement, but the consummate flower of 
 East African civilization and boasting in the late 
 Sultan Bargash, an unusually enlightened Moslem 
 ruler. Of the interior and the ivory-slave trade pur- 
 sued under the auspices of Arab dominion the same 
 author says : " Arab encampments for carrying on a 
 wholesale trade in this terrible commodity are now 
 established all over the heart of Africa. They are 
 usually connected with wealthy Arab traders at Zan- 
 
 * For the full text of the letter to the Standard, see Ohurch 
 Missionary InteUigenae, December, 1888. 
 
MOHAMMEDANIBM PAST AND PRESENT 207 
 
 zibar and other places on the coast, and communica- 
 tion is kept up by caravans, which pass at long in- 
 tervals from one to the other. Being always large 
 and well-supplied with the material of war, these 
 caravans have at their mercy the feeble and divided 
 native tribes through which they pass, and their 
 trail across the continent is darkened with every 
 aggravation of tyranny and crime. They come upon 
 the scene suddenly ; they stay only long enough to 
 secure their end, and disappear only to return when 
 a new crop has arisen which is worth the reaping. 
 Sometimes these Arab traders will actually settle for 
 a year or two in the heart of some quiet community 
 in the remote interior. They pretend perfect friend- 
 ship; they molest no one; they barter honestly. 
 They plant the seeds of their favorite vegetables and 
 fruits — the Arab always carries seeds with him — as 
 if they meant to stay forever. Meantime they buy 
 ivory, tusk after tusk, until great piles of it are buried 
 beneath their huts, and all their barter goods are 
 gone. Then one day suddenly the inevitable quarrel 
 is picked. And then follows a wholesale massacre. 
 Enough only are spared from the slaughter to carry 
 the ivory to the coast ; the grass huts of the village 
 are set on fire ; the Airabs strike camp ; and the slave 
 march, worse than death, begins. The last act in 
 the drama, the slave march, is the aspect of slavery 
 which in the past has chiefly aroused the passions 
 and the sympathy of the outside world, but the 
 greater evil is the demoralization and disintegration 
 of communities by which it is necessarily preceded. 
 Jt is essential to the traffic that the region drained 
 
208 OBIENTAL BELICH0N8 AND OHBISTIAmTT 
 
 by the slaver should be kept in perpetual political 
 ferment ; that, in order to prevent combination, chief 
 should be pitted against chief, and that the moment 
 any tribe threatens to assume a dominating strength 
 it should either be broken up by the instigation of 
 rebellion among its dependencies or made a tool of 
 at their expense. The inter-relation of tribes is so 
 intricate that it is impossible to exaggerate the effect 
 of disturbiag the equilibrium at even a single centre. 
 But, like a river, a slave caravan has to be fed by 
 innumerable tributaries all along its course, at first 
 in order to gather a sufficient volume of human 
 bodies for the start, and afterward to replace the 
 frightful loss by desertion, disablement, and death." 
 
 Next to Livingstone, whose last pathetic appeal to 
 the civilized world to "heal the open sore of Africa" 
 stands engraved in marble in Westminster Abbey, no 
 better witness can be summoned in regard to the 
 slave trade and the influence of Islam generally in 
 Eastern and Central Africa than Henry M. Stanley. 
 From the time when he encountered the Mohamme- 
 dan propagandists at the Court of Uganda he has 
 seen how intimately and vitally the faith and the 
 traffic are everywhere united. I give but a single 
 passage from his " Congo Free State," page 144. 
 
 " We discovered that this horde of banditti — for 
 in reality and without disguise they were nothing 
 else — was under the leadership of several chiefs, but 
 principally under Karema and Kibunga. They had 
 started sixteen months previously from Wane-Ki- 
 rundu, about thirty miles below Vinya Njara. For 
 eleven months the band had been raiding success- 
 
MOHAMMEDANISM PAST AND PJRESENT 209 
 
 fully between the Congo and the Lubiranzi, on the 
 left bank. They had then undertaken to perform 
 the same cruel work between the Biyerre and Wane- 
 Kinmdu. On looking at my map I find that such a 
 territory within the area described would cover su- 
 perficially 16,200 square geographical miles on the 
 left bank, and 10,500 miles on the right, all of 
 which in statute mileage would be equal to 34,700 
 square miles, just 2,000 square miles greater than 
 the island of Ireland, inhabited by about 1,000,000 
 people. 
 
 " The band when it set out from Kirundu num- 
 bered 300 fighting men, armed with flint-locks, 
 double-barrelled percussion guns, and a few breech- 
 loaders ; their followers, or domestic slaves and 
 women, doubled this force. . . . Within the en- 
 closure was a series of low sheds extending many 
 lines deep from the immediate edge of the clay bank 
 inland, 100 yards ; in length the camp was about 300 
 yards. At the landing-place below were 54 long ca- 
 noes, varying in carrying capacity. Each might con- 
 vey from 10 to 100 people. . . . The first gen- 
 eral impressions are that the camp is much too 
 densely peopled for comfort. There are rows upon 
 rows of dark nakedness, relieved here and there by 
 the white dresses of the captors. There are lines or 
 groups of naked forms — upright, standing, or moving 
 about listlessly; naked bodies are stretched under 
 the sheds in all positions ; naked legs innumerable 
 are seen in the perspective of prostrate sleepers; 
 there are countless naked children — many mere in- 
 fants — forms of boyhood and girlhood, and occasion- 
 14 
 
210 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 ally a drove of absolutely naked old women bending 
 under a basket of fuel, or cassava tubers, or bananas, 
 who are driven through the moving groups by two 
 or three musketeers. On paying more attention to 
 details, I observe that mostly all are fettered ; youths 
 with iron rings around their necks, through which a 
 chain, like one of our boat anchor-chains, is rove, se- 
 curing the captives by twenties. ' The children over 
 ten are secured by these copper rings, each ringed 
 leg brought together by the central ring." 
 
 By a careful examinatipn of statistics Mr. Stanley 
 estimates that counting the men killed in the raids 
 and those who perish on the march or are slain be- 
 cause supposed to be worthless, every 5,000 slaves 
 actually sold cost over 30,000 lives. 
 
 But there are Arabs and Arabs we are told. The 
 slave-dealers of Bast Africa and the barbarous chief- 
 tains who push their bloody conquests in Western 
 Soudan are bad enough, it is admitted, but they are 
 " exceptions." Yet we insist that they illustrate the 
 very spirit of Mohammed himself, who authorized 
 the taking of prisoners of war as slaves. Their plea 
 is that they save the souls of those they capture ; 
 many of these traders are MoUahs — ^Pharisees of the 
 Pharisees. Canon Taylor, Dr. Blyden, and others 
 have given us glowing accounts of " Arab mission- 
 aries going about without purse or scrip, and dis- 
 seminating their religion by quietly teaching the 
 Koran;" but the venerable Bishop Crowther, who 
 has spent his whole life in that part of Africa where 
 these conquests are supposed to be made, declares 
 that the real vocation of the quiet apostles of the 
 
M0HAMMEDANI8M PAST AND PBESBNT 211 
 
 Koran is that of fetish peddlers.* If it be objected 
 that this is the biased testimony of a Christian mis- 
 sionary, it may be backed by the explorer Lander, 
 who, in speaking of this same class of men, says : 
 " These MoUahs procure an easy subsistence by 
 making fetishes or writing charms on bits of wood 
 which are washed off carefully into a basin of water, 
 and drank with avidity by the credulous multitude." 
 And he adds : " Those who profess the Mohamme- 
 dan faith among the negroes are as ignorant and 
 superstitious as their idolatrous brethren ; nor does 
 it appear that, their having adopted a new creed has 
 either improved their manners or bettered their con- 
 dition in life." Dr. Schweinfurth also describes the 
 Mohammedan missionaries whom he found at Khar- 
 toum as " polluted with every abominable vice which 
 the imagination of maji can conceive of." In an- 
 swer to various statements which had been published 
 in regard to the rapid missionary progress made 
 by Mohammedans in West Central Africa, Bishop 
 Crowther wrote a letter to the Church Missionary 
 Society at the beginning of 1888, giving the results 
 oi his own prolonged observation. He describes the 
 methods used as : 
 
 1. War upon the heathen tribes. " If the Chief of 
 a heathen tribe accepts the Koran his people are at 
 once counted as converts and he is received into 
 favor, and is thus prepared to become an instru- 
 ment in conquering other tribes. But on the refusal 
 to accept the Koran war is declared, the destruction 
 of their country is the consequence, and horrible 
 * Ghwrch Missionary Intelligencer, 1887, p. 653. 
 
212 ORIENTAL BELIQIONS AND CHBiaTIANITT 
 
 bloodshed. The aged, male and female, are mas- 
 sacred, while the salable are led away as slaves. One 
 half of the slaves are reserved by the chief, the other 
 haK is divided among the soldiers to encourage them 
 to future raids." 
 
 2. Another cause of large increase is polygamy. 
 " For although but four lawful wives are allowed, 
 there is unlimited license for concubinage." 
 
 3. The sale of charms is so conducted as to prove 
 not only a means of profit but a shrewd propaganda. 
 "When childless women are furnished with these, 
 they are pledged, if successful, to dedicate their chil- 
 dren to Islam." 
 
 And Bishop Crowther verifies the statement made 
 by others in reference to East Africa, that the priests 
 " besides being charm-makers are traders both in 
 general articles and more largely in slaves."* 
 
 We have only time to consider one question more, 
 viz., What is the character of Islam as we find it to- 
 day, and what are its prospects of development? 
 It is a characteristic of our age that no religion 
 stands wholly alone and uninfluenced by others. It 
 is especially true that the systems of the East are all 
 deeply affected by the higher ethics and purer relig- 
 ious conceptions borrowed from Christianity. Thus 
 many Mohammedans of our day, and especially those 
 living in close contact with our Christian civilization, 
 are rising to higher conceptions of God and of relig- 
 ious truth than have been entertained by Moslems 
 hitherto. Canon Taylor, in a little volume entitled 
 " Leaves from an Egyptian Note-Book," has drawn a 
 * See OMrdh Missionary IntelMgencer, April, 1888, 
 
MOHAMMEDANISM PAST AND PBESENT 213 
 
 picture of Islam which Omar and Othman would 
 hardly have recognized. In the first place it should 
 be remembered that, as he confesses, his reputation 
 as a defender of Mohammed and his system had 
 gone before him to Cairo, and that he was understood 
 to be a seeker after facts favorable to his known views. 
 This opened the hearts of friendly Pashas and served 
 to bring out aU the praises that they could bestow 
 upon their own faith. It appears accordingly that 
 he was assured by them that polygamy is widely dis- 
 carded and condemned by prominent Moslems in such 
 cities as Cairo and Alexandria, that many leading 
 men are highly intelligent and widely read, that they 
 profess belief in most of the doctrines held by the 
 Christian Church, that they receive the inspired testi- 
 mony of the Old and New Testaments — except in so 
 far as they have been corrupted by Christian mani- 
 pulation. This exception, however, includes all that 
 is at variance with the Koran. They advocate tem- 
 perance and condemn the slave trade. They encour- 
 age the general promotion of education, and what 
 seems to the credulous Canon most remarkable of 
 all is that they express deep regret that Christians 
 do not feel the same charity and fellowship toward 
 Moslems that they feel toward Christians ! 
 
 Now, making all due abatement for the couleur de 
 rose which these easy-going and poUtic Pashas may 
 have employed with their English champion, it is 
 undoubtedly true that a class of Mohammedans are 
 found in the great cosmopolitan cities of the Levant 
 who have come to recognize the spirit of the age in 
 which they live. Many of them have been educated 
 
214 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 in Europe ; they speak several languages ; they read 
 the current literature ; they are ashamed of the old 
 fanatical Mohammedanism. Though they cherish a 
 partisan interest in the recognized religion of their 
 country, their faith is really eclectic ; it comes not from 
 Old Mecca, but is in part a product of the awakened 
 thought of the nineteenth century. But Canon Tay- 
 lor's great fallacy lies in trying to persuade himself 
 and an intelligent Christian public that this is Is- 
 lam. He wearies himself in his attempts to square 
 the modem Cairo with the old, and to trace the 
 modern gentlemanly Pasha, whose faith at least sits 
 lightly upon his soul, as a legitimate descendant of 
 the fanatical and licentious prophet of Arabia. When 
 he strives to convince the world that because these 
 courteous Pashas feel kindly enough toward the 
 Canon of York and others like him, therefore Islam 
 is and always has been a charitable and highly toler- 
 ant system, he simply stultifies the whole testimony 
 of history. He tells us that his Egyptian friends 
 complain that " whereas they regard us as brother- 
 believers and accept our scriptures, they are never- 
 theless denounced as infidels. And they ask why 
 should an eternal coldness reign in our hearts." 
 
 Probably they are not acquainted with Samadu of 
 Western Soudan and his methods of propagandism. 
 They have forgotten the career of El Mahdi ; they are 
 not familiar with the terrible oppression of the Jews 
 in Morocco — with which even that in Russia cannot 
 compare; they have not read the dark accounts of 
 the extortion practised by the Wahabees of Arabia, 
 even upon Moslems of another sect on their pilgrim- 
 
MOHAMMEDANISM PAST AND PRESENT 215 
 
 ages to Mecca,* nor do they seem to know that Syrian 
 converts from Islam are now hiding in Egypt from 
 the bloodthirsty Moslems of Beyrut. Finally, he 
 forgets that the very " children are taught formulas 
 of prayer in which they may compendiously curse 
 Jews and Christians and all unbelievers." f 
 
 A more plausible case is made out by Canon Tay- 
 lor, Dr. Blyden, and others on the question of temper- 
 ance. It is true that Moslems, as a rule, are not hard 
 drinkers. Men and races of men have their besetting 
 sins. Drinking was not the special vice of the Arabs. 
 Their country was too arid ; but they had another 
 vice of which Mohammed was the chief exemplar. 
 Canon Taylor is doubtless correct also in the state- 
 ment that the English protectorate in Egypt has 
 
 * Over against Canon Taylor's glowing accounts of this broad and 
 gentle charity we may place the testimony of Palgrave in regard 
 to the remorseless rapacity practised by the Wahdbees upon the 
 Sliiyaees of Persia wliile passing through their territory in their 
 pilgrimages to a common shrine. He tells us that " forty gold 
 tomans were fixed as the claim of the Wahahee treasury on every 
 Persian pilgrim for his passage through R'ad, and forty more for a 
 safe conduct through the rest of the empire — eighty in all. . . . 
 
 " Every local governor on the way would naturally enough take 
 the hint, and strive not to let the 'enemies of God' (for this is 
 the sole title given by Wahabees to all except themselves) go by 
 without spoiling them more or less. . . . 
 
 ' ' So that, all counted up, the legal and necessary dues levied on 
 every Persian Shiyaee while traversing Central Arabia, and under 
 Wahabee guidance and protection, amounted, I found, to about 
 one hundred and fifty gold tom&ns, equalling nearly sixty pounds 
 sterling, English, no light expenditure for a Persian, and no de- 
 spicable gain to an Arab." — Palgrave's Central and Eastern Africa, 
 p. 161. 
 
 f Dodds : Moliammed, Buddha, and Chnst, p. 118. 
 
216 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 greatly increased the degree of intemperance, and 
 that in this respect the presence of European races 
 generally has been a curse. Certainly too much 
 cannot be said in condemnation of the wholesale 
 liquor trade carried on in Africa by unscrupulous 
 subjects of Christian nations. But it should be re- 
 membered that the whiskey of Cairo and of the West 
 Coast does not represent Christianity any more than 
 the Greek assassin or the Italian pickpocket in Cairo 
 represents Islam. Christian philanthropists in Eu- 
 rope and America are seeking to suppress the e-vil. 
 If Christian missionaries in West Africa were selling 
 rum as Moslem Mollahs are buying and selUng slaves 
 in Uganda, if the Bible authorized the system as the 
 Koran encourages slavery and concubinage, as means 
 of propagandism, a parallel might be presented ; but 
 the very reverse is true. 
 
 As a rule Nomadic races are not as greatly inclined 
 to the use of ardent spirits as are the descendants of 
 the ancient tribes of Northern Europe. The differ- 
 ence is due to climate, temperament, heredity, and 
 the amount of supply. The Koran discourages in- 
 temperance and so does the Bible ; both are disre- 
 garded when the means of gratification are abun- 
 dant. 
 
 The Moguls of India were sots almost as a rule. 
 Wealthy Persian Moslems are the chief purchasers of 
 the native wines. Lander, Schw^einfurth, and even 
 Mungo Parke all speak of communities in Central 
 Africa as wholly given to intemperance.* Egyptians 
 even, according to Canon Taylor, find the abundant 
 * Ohurcli Mmionary InteUigencer, November, 1887. 
 
MOHAMMEDANISM PAST AND PRESENT 217 
 
 supplies afforded by Europeans too tempting for 
 the restraints of the Koran. 
 
 One of the most significant indications that the 
 sober judgment of all enlightened men favors the 
 immense superiority of the Christian faith over all 
 ethnic systems is the fact that even those zealous 
 apologists who have most plausibly defended the 
 non-Christian religions have subsequently evinced 
 some misgivings and have even become advocates of 
 the superior light of Christianity. Sir Edwin Ar- 
 nold, seeing how seriously some ill-grounded Chris- 
 tian people had interpreted " The Light of Asia," 
 has since made amends by writing " The Light of 
 the World." And K. Bosworth Smith, on reading 
 the extravagant glorification given to Islam by Canon 
 Isaac Taylor, whom he accuses of plagiarism and 
 absurd exaggeration, has come to the stand as a wit- 
 ness against his extreme views. Without acknowl- 
 edging any important modification of his own for- 
 mer views he has greatly changed the place of em- 
 phasis. He has not only recorded his condemnation 
 of Canon Taylor's extravagance but he has made a 
 strong appeal for the transcendent superiority of the 
 Christian faith as that alone which must finally re- 
 generate Africa and the world. He has called public 
 attention to the following pointed criticism of Canon 
 Taylor's plea for Islam, made by a gentleman long 
 resident in Algeria, and he has given it his own en- 
 dorsement : " Canon Isaac Taylor," says the writer, 
 "has constructed at the expense of Christianity a 
 rose-colored picture of Islam, by a process of com- 
 parison in which Christianity is arraigned for fail- 
 
218 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 ures in practice, of wMcli Christendom is deeply 
 and penitently conscious, no accoimt being taken of 
 Christian precept ; while Islam is judged by its bet- 
 ter precepts only, no account being taken of the 
 frightful shortcomings in Mohammedam practice, 
 even from the standard of the Koran."* No in- 
 dictment ever carried its proofs more conspicuously 
 on its face than this. 
 
 E. Bosworth Smith's subsequent tribute to the 
 relative superiority of the Christian faith was given 
 in an address before the Fellows of Zion's College, 
 February 21, 1888, I give his closing comparison 
 entire ; also his eloquent appeal for Christian Mis- 
 sions in Africa. " The resemblances between the two 
 Creeds are indeed many and striking, as I have im- 
 plied throughout ; but, if I may, once more, quote a 
 few words which I have used elsewhere in dealing with 
 this question, the contrasts are even more striking than 
 the resemblances. The religion of Christ contains 
 whole fields of morality and whole realms of thought 
 which are all but outside the religion of Mohammed. 
 It opens humility, purity of heart, forgiveness of in- 
 juries, sacrifice of self, to man's moral natmre ; it 
 gives scope for toleration, development, boundless 
 progress to his mind ; its motive power is stronger 
 even as a friend is better than a king, and love 
 higher than obedience. Its realized ideals in the 
 various paths of human greatness have been more 
 commanding, more many-sided, more holy, as Aver- 
 roes is below Newton, Harun below Alfred, and All 
 below St. Paul. Finally, the ideal life of all is far 
 * Church Missionary Intelligencer, February, 1888, p. 66. 
 
 K^^'juSTj^ *5T 
 
MOHAMMEDAmSM PAST AND PRESENT 219 
 
 more elevating, far more majestic, far more inspir- 
 ing, even as the life of the foimder of Mohammedan- 
 ism is below the life of the Founder of Christianity. 
 " If, then, we believe Christianity to be truer and 
 purer in itself than Islam, and than any other re- 
 ligion, we must needs wish others to be partakers of 
 it ; and the effort to propagate it is thrice blessed — 
 it blesses him that offers, no less than him who ac- 
 cepts it; nay, it often blesses him who accepts it 
 not. The last words of a dying friend are apt to 
 linger in the chambers of the heart till the heart it- 
 seK has ceased to beat ; and the last recorded words 
 of the Founder of Christianity are not likely to pass 
 from the memory of His Church till that Church has 
 done its work. They are the marching orders of the 
 Christian army ; the consolation for every past and 
 present failure ; the earnest and the warrant, in some 
 shape or other, of ultimate success. The value of a 
 Christian mission is not, therefore, to be measured 
 by the number of its converts. The presence in a 
 heathen or a Mushm district of a single man who, 
 filled with the missionary spirit, exhibits in his 
 preaching and, so far as may be, in his life, the seK- 
 denying and the Christian virtues, who is charged 
 with sympathy for those among whom his lot is cast, 
 who is patient of disappointment and of failure, and 
 of the sneers of the ignorant or the irreligious, and 
 who works steadily on with a single eye to the glory 
 of God and the good of his feUow-men, is, of itself, 
 an influence for good, and a centre from which it 
 radiates, wholly independent of the number of con- 
 verts he is able to enlist. There is a vast number of 
 
220 OBIBNTAL RELIGIONS AND GERISTIANITT 
 
 sucli men engaged in mission work all over the 
 world, and our best Indian statesmen, some of whom, 
 for obvious reasons, have been hostile to direct pros- 
 elytizing efforts, are unanimous as to the quantity 
 and quality of the services they render. 
 
 " Nothing, therefore, can be more shallow, or more 
 disingenuous, or more misleading, than to attempt to 
 disparage Christian missions by pitting the bare num- 
 ber of converts whom they claim against the number 
 of converts claimed by Islam. The numbers are, of 
 course, enormously in favor of Islam. But does 
 conversion mean the same, or anything like the 
 same, thing in each ? Is it in pari materia, and if 
 not, is the comparison worth the paper on which it 
 is written ? The stibmission to the rite of circum- 
 cision and the repetition of a confession of faith, 
 however noble and however elevating in its ultimate 
 effect, do not necessitate, they do not even necessar- 
 ily tend toward what a Christian means by a change 
 of heart. It is the characteristic of Mohammedan- 
 ism to deal with batches and with masses. It is the 
 characteristic of Christianity to speak straight to the 
 individual conscience. 
 
 " The conversion of a whole Pagan community to 
 Islam need not imply more effort, more sincerity, or 
 more vital chaaige, than the conversion of a single in- 
 dividual to Christianity. The Christianity accepted 
 wholesale by Clovis and his fierce warriors, in the 
 flush of victory, on the field of battle, or by the Eus- 
 sian peasants, when they were driven by the Cossack 
 whips into the Dnieper, and baptized there by force 
 — these are truer parallels to the tribal conversions 
 
MOHAMMEDANISM PAST AND PRESENT 221 
 
 to Mohammedanism in Africa at the present day. 
 And, whatever may have been their beneficial effects 
 in the march of the centuries, they are not the Chris- 
 tianity of Christ, nor are they the methods or the ob- 
 jects at which a Christian missionary of the present 
 day would dream of aiming. 
 
 " A Christian missionary could not thus bring over 
 a Pagan or a Muslim tribe to Christianity, even if he 
 would ; he ought not to try thus to bring them over, 
 even if he could. ' Missionary work,' as remarked by 
 an able writer in the Spectator the other day, ' is sow- 
 ing, not reaping, and the sowing of a plant which 
 is slow to bear.' At times, the difficulties and dis- 
 couragements may daunt the stoutest heart and the 
 most living faith. But God is greater than our 
 hearts and wider than our thoughts, and, if we are 
 able to believe in Him at all, we must also believe 
 that the ultimate triumph of Christianity — and by 
 Christianity I mean not the comparatively narrow 
 creed of this or that particular Church, but the Di- 
 vine Spirit of its Founder, that Spirit which, exactly 
 in proportion as they are true to their name, in- 
 forms, and animates, and underlies, and overlies them 
 all — is not problematical, but certain, and in His good 
 time, across the lapse of ages, will prove to be, not 
 local but universal, not partial but complete, not 
 evanescent but eternal." * 
 
 * Church Missionary InteHigencer, April, 1888. 
 
LECTUEE Vn. 
 
 THE TBACBS OF A PEIMITITE MONOTHEISM 
 
 There are two conflicting theories now in vogue 
 in regard to the origin of religion. The first is that 
 of Christian theists as taught in the Old and New 
 Testapaent Scriptures, viz., that the human race ia 
 its first ancestry, and again in the few survivors of 
 the Deluge, possessed the knowledge of the true 
 God. It is not necessary to suppose that they had a 
 full and mature conception of Him, or that that con- 
 ception excluded the idea of other gods. No one 
 would maintain that Adam or Noah comprehended 
 the nature of the Infinite as it has been revealed in 
 the history of God's dealings with men in later times. 
 But from their simple worship of one God their de- 
 scendants came gradually to worship various visible 
 objects with which they associated their blessings — 
 the sun as the source of warmth and vitahty, the 
 rain as imparting a quickening power to the earth, 
 the spirits of ancestors to whom they looked with a 
 special awe, and finally a great variety of created 
 things instead of the invisible Creator. The other 
 theory is that man, as we now behold him, has been 
 developed from lower forms of animal life, rising 
 first to the state of a mere human animal, but gradu- 
 
TRACES OF A PBIMITIVB MONOTHEISM 223 
 
 ally acquiring intellect, conscience, and finally a soul ; 
 — that ethics and religion have been developed from 
 instinct by social contact, especially by ties of family 
 and the tribal relation; that altruism which began 
 with the instinctive care of parents for their off- 
 spring, rose to the higher domain of religion and be- 
 gan to recognize the claims of deity; that God, if 
 there be a God, never revealed himself to man by 
 any preternatural means, but that great souls, like 
 Moses, Isaiah, and Plato, by their higher and clear- 
 er insight, have gained loftier views of deity than 
 others, and as prophets and teachers have made 
 known their inspirations to their fellow-men. Gradu- 
 ally they have formed rituals and elaborated phil- 
 osophies, adding such supernatural elements as the 
 ignorant fancy of the masses was supposed to de- 
 mand. 
 
 According to this theory, religions, like everything 
 else, have grown up from simple germs : and it is 
 only in the later stages of his development that man 
 can be said to be a religious being. While an animal 
 merely, and for a time even after he had attained to 
 a rude and savage manhood, a life of selfish passion 
 and marauding was justifiable, since only thus could 
 the survival of the fittest be secured and the advance- 
 ment of the race attained.* It is fair to say that 
 there are various shades of the theory here presented 
 — some materialistic, some theistic, others having a 
 qualified theism, and still others practically agnostic. 
 Some even who claim to be Christians regard the va- 
 rious religions of men as so many stages in the divine 
 ♦Fiske: The Destiny of Man, pp. 78-80. 
 
224 OBIENTAL RELIGIONS AND 0EBI8TIANITT 
 
 education of the race — all being under the direct guid- 
 ance of God, and all designed to lead ultimately to 
 Christianity which is the goal. 
 
 That God has overruled all things, even the errors 
 and wickedness of men, for some wise object will not 
 be denied ; that He has implanted in the human un- 
 derstanding many correct conceptions of ethical truth, 
 so that noble principles are found in the teachings of 
 all religious systems ; that God is the author of all 
 truth and all right impulses, even in heathen minds, 
 is readily admitted. But that He has directly plaamed 
 and chosen the non-Christian religions on the prin- 
 ciple that half - truths and perverted truths and the 
 direct opposites of the tnith, were best adapted to 
 certain stages of development — in other words, that 
 He has causatively led any nation into error and 
 consequent destruction as a means of preparing for 
 subsequent generations something higher and bet- 
 ter, we cannot admit. The logic of such a conclusion 
 would lead to a remorseless fatalism. Everything 
 would depend on the age and the environment in 
 which one's lot were cast. We cannot believe that 
 fetishism and idolatry have been God's kindergar- 
 ten method of training the human race for the higher 
 and more spiritual service of His kingdom. 
 
 Turning from the testimony of the Scriptures on 
 the one hand and the ch priori assumptions of evo- 
 lution on the other, what is the witness of the actual 
 history of religions ? Have they shown an upward 
 or a downward development ? Do they appear to 
 have risen from polytheism toward simpler and more 
 spiritual forms, or have simple forms been ramified 
 
TBAOES OF A PRIMITIVE MONOTHEISM 225 
 
 into polytheism ? * If we shall be able to estabHsh 
 clear evidence that monotheistic or even henotheistic 
 types of faith existed among all, or nearly aU, the 
 races at the dawn of history, a very important point 
 will have been gained. The late Dr. Henry B. 
 Smith, after a careful perusal of Ebrard's elaborate 
 presentation of the religions of the ancient and the 
 modem world, and his clear proofs that they had 
 at first been invariably monotheistic and had grad- 
 ually lapsed into ramified forms of polytheism, says 
 in his review of Ebrard's work : " We do not know 
 where to fimd a more weighty reply to the assump- 
 tions and theories of those writers who persist in 
 claiming, according to the approved hypothesis of 
 a merely naturalistic evolution, that the primitive 
 state of mankind was the lowest and most debased 
 form of polytheistic idolatry, and that the higher 
 religions have been developed out of these base rudi- 
 ments. Dr. Ebrard shows conclusively that the 
 facts all lead to another conclusion, that gross idol- 
 atry is a degeneration of mankind from antecedent 
 and purer forms of religious worship. . . . He 
 first treats of the civilized nations of antiquity, the 
 Aryan and Indian religions, the Vedas, the Indra 
 period of Brahmanism and Buddhism ; then of the 
 religion of the Iranians, the Avesta of the Parsees ; 
 next of the Greeks and Romans, the Egyptians, the 
 Canaanites, and the heathen Semitic forms of wor- 
 
 * We do not care to enter the field of pre-historic speculation 
 where the evolution of religion f rom totemism or fetishism claims 
 to find its chief support. We are considering only the traditionaj 
 development of the ancient faiths of man, 
 15 
 
226 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND GHRISTIANITT 
 
 sMp, including the Phoenicians, Assyrians, and Baby- 
 lonians. His second division is devoted to the half- 
 civilized and savage races in the North and West of 
 Europe, in Asia and Polynesia (Tartars, Mongols, 
 Malays, and Cushites) ; then the races of America, 
 including a minute examination of the relations of 
 the different races here to the Mongols, Japanese, and 
 old Chinese immigrations." * 
 
 Ebrard himself, in summing up the results of these 
 prolonged investigations, says : " We have nowhere 
 been able to discover the least trace of any forward 
 and upward movement from fetichism to polytheism, 
 and from that again to a gradually advancing knowl- 
 edge of the one God ; but, on the contrary, we have 
 found among all the peoples of the heathen world a 
 most decided tendency to sink from an earlier and 
 relatively purer knowledge of God toward something 
 lower, f 
 
 If these conclusions, reached by Ebrard and en- 
 dorsed by the scholarly Dr. Henry B. Smith, are 
 correct, they are of great importance ; they bring to 
 the stand the witness of the false religions them- 
 selves upon an issue in which historic testimony as 
 distinguished from mere theories is in special de- 
 mand in our time. Of similar import are the well- 
 considered words of Professor Naville, in the first 
 of his lectxires on modem atheism. | He says : 
 " Almost all pagans seem to have had a glimpse of 
 the divine unity over the multiplicity of their idols, 
 
 * IntroiliKtion to Christian Theology, Appendix, pp. 166, 167. 
 f Ebrard's Apologetics, vols. ii. and iii. 
 \ Modern Ailieiim, p. 13. 
 
TMAOBa OF A PRIMITIVE MONOTHEISM 227 
 
 and of tlie rays of the divine toliness across the sat- 
 urnalia of their Olympi. It was a Greek (Gleanthus) 
 who wrote these words: 'Nothing is accomplished 
 on the earth without Thee, O God, saye the deeds 
 which the wicked perpetrate in their folly.' It was 
 in a theatre at Athens, that the chorus of a tragedy 
 sang, more than two thousand years ago : ' May des- 
 tiny aid me to preserve, unsullied, the purity of my 
 words, and of all my actions, according to those 
 sublime laws which, brought forth in the celestial 
 heights, have the raven alone for their father, to 
 which the race of mortals did not give birth and 
 which oblivion shall never entomb. In them is a 
 supreme God, and one who waxes not old.' It would 
 be easy to multiply quotations of this order and to 
 show, in the documents of Grecian and Roman civil- 
 ization, numerous traces of the knowledge of the only 
 and holy God." 
 
 With much careful discrimination, Dr. William A. 
 P. Martin, of the Peking University, has said : " It is 
 customary with a certain school to represent religion 
 as altogether the fruit of an intellectual process. It 
 had its birth, say they, in ignorance, is modified by 
 every stage in the progress of knowledge, and ex- 
 pires when the light of philosophy reaches its noon- 
 day. The fetish gives place to a personification of 
 the powers of nature, and this poetic pantheon is, in 
 time, superseded by the high idea of unity in nature 
 expressed by monotheism. This theory has the 
 merit of verisimilitude. It indicates what might be 
 the process if man were left to make his own relig- 
 ion ; but it has the misfortune to be at variance with 
 
228 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 facts. A wide survey of the history of civilized na- 
 tions (and the history of others is beyond reach) 
 shows that the actual process undergone by the hu- 
 man mind in its religious development is precisely 
 opposite to that which this theory supposes; in a 
 word, that man was not left to construct his own 
 creed, but that his blundering logic has always been 
 active in its attempts to corrupt and obscure a divine 
 original. The connection subsisting between the re- 
 ligious systems of ancient and distant countries pre- 
 sents many a problem difficult of solution. Indeed, 
 their mythologies and religious rites are generally so 
 distinct as to admit the hypothesis of an indepen- 
 dent origin ; but the simplicity of their earliest be- 
 liefs exhibits an unmistakable resemblance, sugges- 
 tive of a common source. 
 
 " China, India, Egypt, and Greece all agree in the 
 monotheistic type of their eai'ly religion. The Or- 
 phic hymns, long before the advent of the popular 
 divinities, celebrated the Pantheos, the Universal 
 God. The odes compUed by Confucius testify to 
 the early worship of Shaagte, the Supreme Ruler. 
 The Vedas speak of 'one unknown true Being, all- 
 present, all-powerful; the Creator, Preserver, and 
 Destroyer of the imiverse.' And in Egypt, as late 
 as the time of Plutarch, there were still vestiges of a 
 monotheistic worship. 'The other Egyptians,' he 
 says, ' all made offerings at the tombs of the sacred 
 beasts; but the inhabitants of the Thebaid stood 
 alone in making no such offerings, not regarding as 
 a god anything that can die, and acknowledging no 
 god but one, whom they call Kneph, who had no 
 
TBAOBS OF A PRIMITIVE MONOTHEISM 229 
 
 birth, and can have no death. Abraham, in his 
 wanderings, found the God of his fathers known and 
 honored in Salem, in Gerar, and in Memphis ; while 
 at a later day Jethro, in Midian, and Balaam, in 
 Mesopotamia, were witnesses that the knowledge of 
 Jehovah was not yet extinct in those countries.' " * 
 
 Professor Max Miiller speaks in a similar strain of 
 the lapse of mankind from earlier and simpler types 
 of faith to low and manifold superstitions : " When- 
 ever we can trace back a religion to its first begin- 
 ning," says the distinguished Oxford professor, " we 
 find it free from many of the blemishes that offend 
 us in its later phases. The founders of the an- 
 cient religions of the world, as far as we can judge, 
 were minds of a high stamp, full of noble aspira- 
 tions, yearning for truth, devoted to the welfare of 
 their neighbors, examples of purity and unselfish- 
 ness. What they desired to found upon earth was 
 but seldom realized, and their sayings, if preserved 
 in their original form, offered often a strange contrast 
 to the practice of those who profess to be their dis- 
 ciples. As soon as a religion is established, and 
 more particularly when it has become the religion of 
 a powerful state, the foreign and worldly elements 
 encroach more and more on the original foundation, 
 and human interests mar the simplicity and purity 
 of the plan which the founder had conceived in his 
 own heart and matured in his communings with his 
 God." t 
 
 But in pursuing our subject we should clearly de- 
 
 * The Ohineae, pp. 163, 164. 
 
 f Chips from a Oerman Workshop, vol. i. , p. 23. 
 
230 OBIBNTAL BBLmiONS AND CHRISTIANITT 
 
 termine the real question before us. How much may 
 we expect to prove from the early history of the non- 
 Christian systems? Not certainly that all nations 
 once received a knowledge of the Old Testament 
 revelation, as some have claimed, nor that all races 
 possessed at the beginning of their several historic 
 periods one and the same monotheistic faith. We 
 cannot prove from non-scriptural sources that their 
 varying monotheistic conceptions sprang from a 
 common belief. We cannot prove either the super- 
 natural revelation which Professor Max Miiller em- 
 phatically rejects, nor the identity of the well-nigh 
 xmiversal henotheisms which he professes to be- 
 lieve. We cannot prove that the worship of one 
 God as supreme did not coexist with a sort of wor- 
 ship of inferior deities or ministering spirits. Al- 
 most as a rule, the worship of ancestors, or spirits, 
 or rulers, or the powers of nature, or even totems and 
 fetishes has been rendered as subordinate to the wor- 
 ship of the one supreme deity who created and up- 
 holds all things. Even the monotheism of Judaism 
 and of Christianity has been attended with the be- 
 lief in angels and the worship of intercessory saints, 
 to say nothing of the many superstitions which pre- 
 vail among the more ignorant classes. We shall only 
 attempt to show that monotheism, in the sense of 
 worshipping one God as supreme., is found in nearly 
 all the early teachings of the world. That these crude 
 faiths are one in the origin is only presumable, if we 
 leave the testimony of the Bible out of the account. 
 
 When on a summer afternoon we see great shafts 
 of light arising and spreading fan-shaped from behind 
 
TRAOES OF A PRIMITIVE MONOTHEISM 231 
 
 a cloud -whioh lies along the western horizon, we have 
 a strong presumption that they all spring from one 
 great luminary toward which they conyerge, although 
 that luminary is hidden from our view. So tracing 
 the convergence of heathen faiths with respect to one 
 original monotheism, back to the point where the 
 prehistoric obscurity begins, we may on the same 
 principle say that all the evidence in the case, and it 
 is not small, points toward a common origin for the 
 early religious conceptions of mankind. 
 'Professor Eobert Flint, in his scholarly article on 
 theism in "The Britannica," seems to discard the 
 idea that the first religion of mankind was monothe- 
 ism ; but a careful study of his position will show 
 that he has in view those conceptions of monothe- 
 ism which are common to us, or, as he expresses it, 
 " monotheism in the ordinary or proper sense of the 
 term," "monotheism properly so called," "mono- 
 theism which excludes polytheism, etc.'' Moreover, 
 he maintains that we cannot, from historical sources, 
 learn what conceptions men first had of God. Even 
 when speaking of the Old Testament record, he says : 
 " These chapters (of Genesis), although they plainly 
 teach monotheism and represent the God whose 
 words and acts are recorded in the Bible as no mere 
 national God, but the only true God, they do not 
 teach what is alone in the question — that there was 
 a primitive" monotheism, a monotheism revealed 
 and known from the beginning. They give no war- 
 rant to the common assumption that God revealed 
 monotheism to Adam, Noah, and others before the 
 Flood, and that the traces of monotheistic beliefs 
 
232 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 and tendencies in heathendom are derivable from the 
 tradition of this primitive and antediluvian mono- 
 theism. The one true God is represented as making 
 himself kno^vn by particular words and in particular 
 ways to Adam, but is nowhere said to have taught 
 him that He only was God." It is plain that Pro- 
 fessor Elint is here dealing with a conception of 
 monotheism which is exclusive of all other gods. 
 And his view is undoubtedly correct, so far as Adam 
 was concerned. There was no more need of teach- 
 ing him that his God was the only God, than thsft 
 Eve was the only woman. With Noah the case is 
 not so plain. He doubtless worshipped God amid 
 the surrormdings of polytheistic heathenism. Enoch 
 probably had a similar environment, and there is no 
 good reason for supposing that their monotheism 
 may not have been as exclusive as that of Abraham. 
 But with respect to the Gentile nations, the dim 
 traces of this monism or henotheism which Professor 
 Flint seems to accord to Adam and to Noah, is all 
 that we are contending for, and all that is necessary 
 to the argument of this lecture. We may even ad- 
 mit that heathen deities may sometimes have been 
 called by different names while the one source of 
 power was intended. Different names seem to have 
 been employed to represent different manifestations 
 of the one God of the Old Testament according to 
 His varied relations toward His people. There are 
 those who deny this polyonomy, as Max MiiUer has 
 called it, and who maintain that the names in the 
 earliest Veda represented distinct deities ; but, by 
 similar reasoning. Professor Tiele and others insist 
 
TBAOES OF A PRIMITIVE MONOTHEISM 233 
 
 that three different Hebrew Gods, according to 
 their respective names, were worshipped in succes- 
 sive periods of the Jewish history. It seems quite 
 possible, therefore, that a too restrictive definition of 
 monotheism may prove too much, by opening the 
 way for a claim that even the Jewish and Chris- 
 tian faith, with its old Testament names of God, its 
 angels, its theophanies, and its fully developed trin- 
 ity, is not strictly monotheistic. For our present 
 purpose, traces of the worship of one supreme God 
 — call it monotheism or henotheism — is all that is re- 
 quired. 
 
 With these limitations and qualifications ia view, 
 let us turn to the history of some of the leading non- 
 Christian faiths. Looking first to India, we find in 
 the 129th hymn of the Eig Veda, a passage which 
 not only presents the conception of one only su- 
 preme and seLf-existing Being, but at the same time 
 bears significant resemblance to our own accomit of 
 the creation from chaos. It reads thus : 
 
 " In the beginning there was neither naught nor aught, 
 Then there was neither atmosphere nor sky above, 
 There was neither death nor immortality, 
 There was neither day nor night, nor light, nor darkness, 
 Only the EXISTENT ONE breathed calmly self-contained. 
 Naught else but He was there, naught else above, beyond. 
 Then first came darkness hid in darkness, gloom in gloom; 
 Next all was water, chaos indiscrete, 
 In which ONE lay void, shrouded in nothingness."* 
 
 * Professor Banergea (see Indian Antiquary, February, 1875) 
 thinks that this Hindu account of creation shows traces of the 
 common revelation made to mankind. 
 
234 ORIENTAL BELIQIONS AND GHBTSTIANITT 
 
 In the 121st hymn of the same Veda occurs a 
 passage which seems to resemble the opening of the 
 Gospel of St. John. It reads thus, as translated by 
 Sir Monier WiUiams : 
 
 "Him let us praise, the golden child that was 
 In the beginning, who was born the Lord, 
 Who made the earth and formed the sky." 
 
 " The one born Lord " reminds us of the New Tes- 
 tament expression, "the only begotten Son." Both 
 were "in the beginning ; " both were the creators of 
 the world. While there is much that is mysterious in 
 these references, the idea of oneness and supremacy is 
 too plain to be mistaken. Professor Max Miiller has 
 well expressed this fact when he said : " There is a 
 monotheism which precedes polytheism in the Veda ; 
 and even in the invocation of their (inferior) gods, the 
 remembrance of a God, one and infinite, breaks 
 through the mist of an idolatrous phraseology like 
 the blue sky that is hidden by passing clouds."* 
 These monotheistic conceptions appear to have been 
 common to the Aryans before their remoTal from 
 their early home near the sources of the Oxus, and 
 we shall see further on that in one form or another 
 they survived among all branches of the migrating 
 race. The same distinguished scholar traces the 
 early existence of monotheism in a series of brief 
 and rapid references to nearly all the scattered Ary- 
 ans not only, but also to the Turanians on the North 
 and East, to the Tungusic, Mongolio, Tartaric, and 
 Finnic tribes. " Everywhere," he says, " we find a 
 * Beience of BMigion, p. 99. 
 
TMAOES OF A PBIMITIVE MONOTHEIBM 235 
 
 worship of nature, and the spirits of the departed, 
 but behind it all there rises a belief in some higher 
 power called by different names, who is Maker and 
 Protector of the world, and who always resides in 
 heaven."* He also speaks of an ancient African faith 
 which, together with its worship of reptiles and of 
 ancestors, showed a vague hope of a future life, " and a 
 not altogether faded reminiscence of a supreme God," 
 which certainly implies a previous knowledge, f 
 
 The same prevalence of one supreme worship 
 rising above all idolatry he traces among the various 
 tribes of the Pacific Islands. His generalizations 
 are only second to those of Ebrard. Although he 
 rejects the theory of a supernatural revelation, yet 
 stronger language could hardly be used than that 
 which he employs in proof of a universal monotheis- 
 tic faith. X " Nowhere," he says, " do we find stronger 
 arguments against idolatry, nowhere has the unity 
 
 * Science of Religion, p. 88. 
 
 f ' ' Tlie ancient relics of African faith are rapidly disappearing at 
 tlie approaoli of Mohammedan and Christian missionaries ; hut 
 what has been preserved of it, chiefly through the exertions of 
 learned missionaries, is full of interest to the student of religion, 
 with its strange worship of snakes and ancestors, its vague hope 
 of a future life, and its not altogether faded reminiscence of a 
 Supreme God, the Father of the hlaok as well as of the white 
 man." — Science of Religion, p. 39. 
 
 X While he maintains that the idea of God must have preceded 
 that of gods, as the plural always implies the singular, he yet 
 claims very justly that the exclusive conception of monotheism 
 as against polytheism could hardly have existed. BJen simply 
 thought of God as God, as a child thinks of its father, and does 
 not even raise the question of a second. — See Chips from a Ger- 
 man Workshop, vol. i. , p. 349. 
 
236 ORIENTAL BEHGI0N8 AND 0HSI8TIANIT7 
 
 of God been upheld more strenuously against the- 
 errors of polytheism, than by some of the ancient 
 sages of India. Even in the oldest of the sacred 
 books, the Rig Veda, composed three or four thou- 
 sand years ago, where we find hymns addressed to 
 the different deities of the sky, the air, the earth, 
 the rivers, the protest of the human heart against 
 many gods breaks forth from time to time with no 
 uncertain sound." Professor Miiller's whole position 
 is pretty clearly stated in his first lecture on " The 
 Science of Religion," in which he protests against 
 the idea that God once gave to man " a preternatvr 
 ral revelation " concerning Himself ; and yet he gives 
 in this same lecture this striking testimony to the doc- 
 trine of an early and prevailing monotheistic faith : 
 
 " Is it not something worth knowing," he says, 
 " worth knowing even to us after the lapse of four or 
 five thousand years, that before the separation of the 
 Aryan race, before the existence of Sanskrit, Greek, 
 or Latin, before the gods of the Veda had been wor- 
 shipped, and before there was a sanctuary of Zeus 
 among the sacred oaks of Dodona, one Supreme de- 
 ity had been found, had been named, had been in- 
 voked by the ancestors of our race, and had been in- 
 voked by a name which has never been excelled by 
 any other name ?" And again, on the same subject, 
 he says : " If a critical examination of the ancient 
 language of the Jews leads to no worse results than 
 those which have followed from a careful interpreta- 
 tion of the petrified language of ancient India and 
 Greece, we need not fear ; we shall be gainers, not 
 losers. Like an old precious medal, the ancient re- 
 
TBAOES OF A PBIMITIVW MONOTHEISM 237 
 
 ligion, after the rust of ages has been removed, will 
 come out in all its purity and brightness ; and 
 the image which it discloses will be the image of the 
 Father, the Father of all the nations upon earth ; 
 and the superscription, when we can read it again, 
 will be, not only in Judea, but in the languages of 
 all the races of the world, the Word of God, revealed 
 where alone it can be revealed — revealed in the heart 
 of man." * 
 
 The late Professor Banergea, of Calcutta, in a pub- 
 lication entitled " The Aryan Witness," not only 
 maintained the existence of monotheism in the early 
 Vedas, but Avith his rare knowledge of Sanskrit and 
 kindred tongues, he gathered from Iranian as well as 
 Hindu sources many evidences of a monotheism com- 
 mon to aU Aryans. His conclusions derive special 
 value from the fact that he was a high caste Hindu, 
 and was not only well versed in the sacred language, 
 but was perfectly familiar with Hindu traditions and 
 modes of thought. He was as well qualified to judge 
 of early Hiaduism as Paul was of Judaism, and for 
 the same reason. And from his Hindu standpoint, 
 as a Pharisee of the Pharisees, though afterward a 
 Christian convert, he did not hesitate to declare his 
 
 • St. Augustine, in quoting Cj'prian, shows that the fathers of 
 the Church looked upon Plato as a monotheist. The passage is as 
 follows ; " For when he (Cyprian) speaks of the Magians, he 
 says that the chief among them, Hostanes, maintains that the 
 true God is invisible, and that true angels sit at His throne ; and 
 that Plato agrees with this and believes in one God, considering 
 the others to be demons; and that Hermes Trismegistus also 
 speaks of one God, and confesses that He is incomprehensible." 
 Angus., De Baptmrm contra Donat, Lib. VI., Cap. XLIV. 
 
238 OBIBNTAL RELIGIONS AND OHBISTIANITT 
 
 belief, not only that the early Vedic faith was mono- 
 theistic, but that it contained traces of that true 
 revelation, once made to men.* 
 
 In the same line we find the testimony of the vari- 
 ous types of revived Aryanism of our o'^vn times. 
 The Brahmo Somaj, the Arya Somaj, and other simi- 
 lar organizations, are not only all monotheistic, but 
 they declare that monotheism was the religion of the 
 early Vedas. And many other Hiudu reforms, some 
 of them going as far back as the twelfth century, have 
 been so many returns to monotheism. A recent Arya 
 catechism published by Ganeshi, asserts in its first 
 article that there is one only God, omnipotent, infi- 
 nite, and eternal. It proceeds to show that the Vedas 
 present but one, and that when hymns were addressed 
 to Agni, Vayu, Indra, etc., it was only a use of differ- 
 ent names for one and the same Being.f 
 
 It represents God as having all the attributes of 
 supreme Deity. He created the world by His direct 
 power and for the revelation of His glory to His creat- 
 ures. Man, according to the Aryas, came not by evo- 
 lution nor by any of the processes known to Hindu 
 philosophy, but by direct creation from existing atoms. 
 
 In aU this it is easy to see that much has been 
 borrowed from the Christian conception of God's 
 character and attributes, but the value of this Aryan 
 testimony lies in the fact that it claims for the ancient 
 Vedas a clear and positive monotheism. 
 
 * The Aryan Witness, passim. 
 
 f Aristotle said, " God, though He is one, has many names, be- 
 cause He is called according to the states into which He alwayi 
 enters anew." 
 
TRA0E8 OF A PBIMITIVE MONOTHEISM 239 
 
 If we consult the sacred books of China, we shall 
 find there also many traces of an ancient faith which 
 antedates both Confucianism and Taouism. The 
 golden age of the past to which all Chinese sages 
 look with reverence, was the dynasty of Yao and 
 Shun, which was eighteen centuries earlier than the 
 period of Confucius and Laotze. The records of the 
 Shu-king which Confucius compiled, and from which 
 unfortunately his agnosticism excluded nearly all its 
 original references to religion, nevertheless retain a 
 full account of certain sacred rites performed by 
 Shun on his accession to the full imperial power. In 
 those rites the worship of One God as supreme is 
 distinctly set forth as a " customary service," there- 
 by implying that it was already long established. 
 Separate mention is also made of offerings to inferior 
 deities, as if these were honored at his own special 
 instance. It is imquestionably true that in China, 
 and indeed in all lands, there sprang up almost from 
 the first a tendency to worship, or at least to fear, 
 imseen spirits. This tendency has coexisted with 
 all religions of the world — even with the Old Testa- 
 ment cult — even with Christianity. To the excited 
 imaginations of men, especially the ignorant classes, 
 the world has always been a haunted world, and just 
 in proportion as the light of true religion has become 
 dim, countless hordes of ghosts and demons have 
 appeared. When Confucius arose this gross anim- 
 ism had almost monopolized the worship of his 
 countrymen, and universal corruption bore sway. 
 He was not an original thinker, but only a compiler 
 pf the ancient wisdom, and in his selections from the 
 
240 OMENTAL RELIGIONS AND OHBISTIANITT 
 
 traditions of the ancients, lie compiled those things 
 only which served his great purpose of building up, 
 from the relations of family and kindred, the complete 
 pyramid of a well-ordered state in which the Em- 
 peror should hold to his subjects the place of deity. 
 If such honor to a mortal seemed extravagant, yet in 
 his view a wise emperor was far worthier of rever- 
 ence than the imaginary ghosts of the popular super- 
 stitions. Yet, even Confucius could not quite suc- 
 ceed in banishing the idea of divine help, nor could 
 he destroy that higher and most venerable worship 
 which has ever survived amid all the corruptions of 
 polytheism. Professor Legge, of Oxford, has claimed, 
 from what he regards as valid linguistic proofs, that 
 at a stiU earlier period than the dynasty of Tao and 
 Shun there existed in China the worship of one God. 
 He says : " Five thousand years ago the Chinese 
 were monotheists — not henotheists, but monothe- 
 ists " — though he adds that even then there was a 
 constant struggle with nature-worship and divina- 
 tion.* 
 
 The same high authority cites a remarkable prayer 
 of an Emperor of the Ming dynasty (1538 A.D.) to 
 show that in spite of the agnosticism and reticence 
 of Confucius, Shangte has been worshipped in the 
 centuries which have followed his time. The prayer 
 is very significant as showing how the One Supreme 
 God stands related to the subordinate gods which 
 polytheism has introduced. The Emperor was about 
 to decree a slight change in the name of Shangte to 
 be used in the imperial worship. He first addressed 
 * The Beligions of China, p. 16. 
 
TBA0E8 OF A PRIMITIVE MONOTHEISM 241 
 
 the spirits of tlie hills, the rivers, aad the seas, ask- 
 ing them to intercede for him with Shangte. " We 
 will trouble you," said he, " on our behalf to exert 
 your spiritual power and to display your Tigorous 
 efficacy, communicating our poor desires to Shangte, 
 and praying him graciously to grant us his accept- 
 ance and regard, and to be pleased with the title 
 which we shall reverently present." But very dif- 
 ferent was the language used when he came to ad- 
 dress Shangte himself. " Of old, in the beginning," 
 he began, — " Of old in the beginning, there was the 
 great chaos without form, and dark. The five ele- 
 ments had not begun to revolve nor the sun and 
 moon to shine. In the midst thereof there presented 
 itself neither form nor sound. Thou, O spiritual 
 Sovereign ! camest forth in thy presidency, and first 
 didst divide the grosser parts from the purer. Thou 
 madest heaven : Thou madest earth : Thou madest 
 man. All things got their being with their producing 
 power. O Te ! when Thou hadst opened the course 
 for the inactive and active forces of matter to operate, 
 thy making work went on. Thou didst produce, O 
 Spirit ! the sun and moon and five planets, and pure 
 and beautiful was their light. The vault of heaven 
 was spread out like a curtain, and the square earth 
 supported aU on it, and all creatures were happy. I, 
 thy servant, presume reverently to thank Thee." 
 Farther on he says : " All the numerous tribes of 
 animated beings are indebted to Thy favor for their 
 being. Men and creatures are emparadised in Thy 
 love. All living things are indebted to Thy good- 
 ness. But who knows whence his blessings come to 
 10 
 
242 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND OHBiaTlANITY 
 
 him ? It is Thou, O Lord ! who art the parent of all 
 things." * 
 
 Surely this prayer humbly offered by a monarch 
 would not be greatly out of place among the Psalms 
 of David. Its description of the primeval chaos 
 strikingly resembles that which I have quoted from 
 the Eig Veda, and both resemble that of the Mosaic 
 record. If the language used does not present the 
 clear conception of one God, the Creator and the Up- 
 holder of all things, and a supreme and personal 
 Sovereign over kings and even " gods," then language 
 has no meaning. The monotheistic conception of 
 the second petition is as distinct from the polytheism 
 of the first, as any prayer to Jehovah is from a 
 Eoman Catholic's prayer for the intercession of the 
 saints ; and there is no stronger argument in the one 
 case against monotheism than in the other. Dr. 
 Legge asserts that both in the Shu-king and in the 
 Shiking, " Te," or " Shangte," appears as a personal 
 being ruling in heaven and in earth, the author of 
 man's moral nature, the governor among the nations, 
 the rewarder of the good and the punisher of the 
 eviLf There are proofs that Confucius, though in 
 his position with respect to God he fell short of the 
 doctrine of the ancient sages, yet believed in the ex- 
 istence of Shangte as a personal being. When in 
 old age he had finished his writings, he laid them on 
 an altar upon a certaiu hill-top, and kneeling before 
 
 * The Religions of China, p, 49. 
 
 t " 111 the year 1600 the Emperor of China declared in an edict 
 that the Chinese should adore, not the material heavens, but the 
 Master of heaven."— Cardinal Gibbons: Our Ohristian Heniage. 
 
TBA0E8 OF A PRIMITIVE MONOTHEISM 243 
 
 the altar he returned thanks that he had been spared 
 to complete his work.* Max Miiller says of. him : 
 " It is clear from many passages that with Confucius, 
 Tien, or the Spirit of Heaven, was the supreme 
 deity, and that he looked upon the other gods of the 
 people — the spirits of the air, the mountains, and the 
 rivers, f and the spirits of the departed, very much 
 with the same feeling with which Socrates regarded 
 the mythological deities of Greece." % 
 
 But there remains to this day a remarkable evi- 
 dence of the worship of the supreme God, Shangte, 
 as he was worshipped in the days of the Emperor 
 Shun, 2356 B.C. It is found in the great Temple of 
 Heaven at Peking. Dr. Martin and Professors 
 Legge and Douglas all insist that the sacrifices there 
 celebrated are relics of the ancient worship of a su- 
 preme God. China is full of the traces of polythe- 
 ism; the land swarms with Taouist deities of all 
 names and functions, with Confucian and ancestral 
 tablets, and with Buddhist temples and dagobas; 
 but within the sacred enclosure of this temple no 
 symbol of heathenism appears. Of the August Im- 
 perial service Dr. Martin thus eloquently speaks : § 
 " Within the gates of the southern division of the 
 
 * Martin : TJie OMnese, p. 106. 
 
 ■f It has been related by Eev. Hudson Taylor that the fishermen 
 of the Fuklen Province, when a storm arises, pray to the goddess 
 of the sea ; but when that does not avail they throw all the idols 
 aside and pray to the " Great-grandfather in Heaven." Father ia 
 a great conception to the Chinese mind. Great-grandfather is 
 higher still, and stands to them for the Supreme. 
 
 X Seienee of Beligion, p. 86. 
 
 § The OMnese, p. 99. 
 
244 ORIENTAL BELIBIONS AND OHBISTIANITY 
 
 capital, and surrounded by a sacred grove so exten- 
 siye that the silence of its deep shades is never bro- 
 ken by the noise of the busy world around it, stands 
 the Temple of Heaven. It consists of a single 
 tower, whose tiling of resplendent azure is intended 
 to represent the form and color of the aerial vault. 
 It contains no image ; but on a marble altar a bul- 
 lock is offered once a year as a burnt sacrifice, while 
 the monarch of the empire prostrates himself in 
 adoration of the Spirit of the Universe. This is the 
 high place of Chinese devotion, and the thoughtful 
 visitor feels that he ought to tread its courts with 
 vmsandalled feet, for no vulgar idolatry has entered 
 here. This mormtain-top still stands above the 
 waves of corruption, and on this solitary altar there 
 still rests a faint ray of its primeval faith. The tab- 
 let which represents the invisible deity is inscribed 
 with the name Shangte, the Supreme Euler, and as 
 we contemplate the Majesty of the Empire before 
 it, while the smoke ascends from his burning sacri- 
 fice, our thoughts are irresistably carried back to the 
 time when the King of Salem officiated as priest of 
 the Most High God. There is," he adds, " no need 
 of extended argument to establish the fact that the 
 early Chinese were by no means destitute of the 
 knowledge of the true God." Dr. Legge, the learned 
 translator of the Chinese classics, shares so fully the 
 views here expressed, that he actually put his shoes 
 from off his feet before ascending the great altar, 
 feeling that amidst all the mists and darkness of the 
 national superstition, a trace of the glory of the In- 
 finite Jehovah still lingered there. And in many a 
 
TBAOBS OF A PRIMITIVE MONOTHEIBM 245 
 
 discussion since he has firmly maintained that that 
 is in a dim way an altar of the true and living God. 
 
 Laotze, like Confucius, was agnostic ; yet he could 
 not wholly rid himself of the influence of the ancient 
 faith. His conception of Taou, or Eeason, was ra- 
 tionalistic, certainly, yet he invested it with all the 
 attributes of personality, as the word " Wisdom " is 
 sometimes used in the Old Testament. He spoke 
 of it as "The Infinite Supreme," "The First Be- 
 ginning," and " The Great Original." Dr. Medhurst 
 has translated from the " Taou Teh King " this strik- 
 ing Taouist prayer : " O thou perfectly honored One 
 of heaven and earth, the rock, the origin of myriad 
 energies, the great manager of boundless kalpas, do 
 Thou enlighten my spiritual conceptions. Within 
 and without the three worlds, the Logos, or divine 
 Taou, is alone honorable, embodying in himself a 
 golden light. May' he overspread and illumine my 
 person. He whom we cannot see with the eye, or 
 hear with the ear, who embraces and includes heav- 
 en and earth, may he nourish and support the mul- 
 titudes of living beings." _ - 
 
 If we turn to the religion of the Iranian or Per- 
 sian branch of the Axyan family, we find among 
 them also the traces of a primitive monotheism ; and 
 that it was not borrowed from Semitic sources, 
 through the descendants of Abraham or others, 
 Ebrard has shown clearly in the second volume of 
 his " Apologetics." Max Miiller also maintains the 
 identity of the Iranian faith with that of the Indo- 
 Aryans. The very first notices of the religion of the 
 Avesta represent it as monotheistic. Ahura Mazda, 
 
846 OMIBNTAL BELIQIONS AND 0HRI8TIANITT 
 
 sven when opposed by Ahriman, is supreme, and in 
 he oldest hymns or gathas of the Tasna, Ahriman 
 Ices not appear ; there are references to evil beings, 
 rat they have no formidable head ; Persian dualism, 
 herefore, was of later growth. Zoroaster, whom 
 Monier Williams assigns to the close of the sixth 
 ientury B.C.,* speaks of himself as a reformer sent 
 o re-establish the pure worship of Ahura, and Haug 
 lonsiders the conception of Ahura identical with that 
 )f Jehovah. High on a rocky precipice at Behds- 
 un, Eawlinson has deciphered an inscription claim- 
 ng to have been ordered by Darius Hystaspes, 
 srho lived 500 B.C., which is as clearly monotheis- 
 ic as the Song of Moses. The Vendidad, which 
 iawlinson supposes to have been composed 800 
 rears B.C., is full of references to minor gods, but 
 Uiura is always supreme. The modem Parsees of 
 3ombay claim to be monotheistic, and declare that 
 uch has been the faith of their fathers from the be- 
 finning. 
 
 A Parsee catechism published in Bombay twenty- 
 ive years ago reads thus : " We beKeve in only .one 
 xod, and do not believe in any besides Him. . . . 
 le is the God who created the heavens, the earth, 
 he angels, the stars, the sim, the moon, the fire, the 
 i'ater, . . . and all things of the worlds ; that 
 Tod we believe in. Him we invoke. Him we adore." 
 Lnd lest this should be supposed to be a modem 
 aith, the confession further declares that " This is 
 
 * other writers contend that he was probably contemporaneous 
 dth Abraham. Still others think Zoroaster a general name for 
 reat prophets. Darmestetter inclines to this view. 
 
TBA0M8 OF A PRIMITIVE MONOTHEISM 247 
 
 the religion which the true prophet Zurthust, or Zo- 
 roaster, brought from God." <^>^^ 
 
 The Shintoists of Japan, according to their sacred 
 book, the " Kojiki," believe in one self-existent and 
 supreme God, from whom others emanated. From 
 two of these, male and female, sprang the Goddess of 
 the Sun, and from her the royal line of the Mikados. 
 There was no creation, but the two active emanations 
 stirred up the eternally existing chaos, till from it 
 cafiae forth the teemiug world of animal and vegeta- 
 ble life. 
 
 It has often been asserted that tribes of men are 
 found who have no conception of God. The author 
 of " Two Years in the Jungle " declares that the HiU 
 Dyaks of Borneo are without the slightest notion of 
 a divine being. But a Government officer, who for 
 two years was the guest of Eajah Brooke, succeeded 
 after long delay in gaiuing a key to the religion of 
 these Dyaks. He gives the name of one Supreme 
 being among subordinate gods, and describes mi- 
 nutely the forms of worship. Professor Max Miiller, 
 while referring to this same often-repeated allega- 
 tion as having been applied to the aborigines of 
 Australia, cites one of Sir Hercules Robinson's Re- 
 ports on New South Wales, which contains this de- 
 scription of the singular faith of one of the lowest of 
 the interior tribes : * First a being is mentioned 
 who is supreme and whose name signifies the 
 "maker or cutter-out," and who is therefore wor- 
 shipped as the great author of all things. But as 
 this supreme god is supposed to be inscrutable and 
 * Ohvps from a Qermmi Worhshop. 
 
248 ORIENTAL BELIQIONS AND OHBISTIANITY 
 
 far removed, a second deity is named, who is tlie re- 
 vealer of the first and his mediator in all the affairs 
 of men.* 
 
 EeT. A. 0. Good, now a missionary among the 
 cannibal tribes of West Africa, stated in the Pres- 
 byterian General Assembly at Saratoga in May, 
 1890, that with all the fetishes and superstitions 
 known among the tribes on the Ogovie, if a man is 
 asked who made him, he points to the sky and ut- 
 ters the name of an unknown being who created all 
 things.f When Tschoop, the stalwart Mohican 
 chief, came to the- Moravians to ask that a mission- 
 ary might be sent to his people, he said : " Do not 
 send us a man to teU us that there is a God — we all 
 know that; or that we are sinners — we all know 
 that ; but send one to tell us about salvation." % 
 Even Buddhism has not remained true to the athe- 
 
 * Archbishop Vaughn, of Sydney, emphatically declares that 
 the aborigines of Australia believe in a Supreme Being. 
 
 f Rev. Mr. Johnson, of Lagos, has expressed a belief that the 
 pagan tribes of West Africa were monotheists before the incur- 
 sion of the Mohammedans. Bev. Alfred Marling, of Gaboon, 
 bears the same testimony of the Fans. 
 
 % Kev. A. C. Thompson, D.D. The Moramans. 
 
 One of the early converts from among the Ojibwas, said to the 
 missionary, Eev. S. G. Wright : "A great deal of your preaching 
 I readily understand, especially what you say about our real 
 characters. We Indians all know that it is wrong to lie, to steal, 
 to be dishonest, to slander, to be covetous, and we always know 
 that the Great Spirit hates all these things. All this we knew 
 before we ever saw the white man. I knew these things when I 
 was a little boy. We did not, however, know the way of pardon 
 for these sins. In our religion there is nothing said by the wise 
 men about pardon. We knew nothing of the Lord Jesus Christ 
 as a Saviour." 
 
TRACES OF A PBIMITIVS MONOTHEISM 249 
 
 ism of its founder. A Thibetan Lama said to Abbe 
 Hue : " You must not confound religious truths 
 with the superstitions of the vulgar. The Tar- 
 tars prostrate themselves before whatever they see, 
 but there is one only Sovereign of the universe, 
 the creator of aU things, alike without beginning 
 and without end." 
 
 But what is the testimony of the great dead relig- 
 ions of the past with respect to a primitive mono- 
 theism? It is admitted that the later develop- 
 ments of the old Egyptian faith were polytheistic. 
 But it has generally been conceded that as we ap- 
 proach the earliest notices of that faith, monotheistic 
 features more and more prevail. This position is 
 contested by Miss Amelia B. Edwards and others, 
 who lean toward the development theory. Miss 
 Edwards declares that the earliest faith of Egypt 
 was mere, totemism, while on the other hand Eb- 
 rard, gathering up the results of the researches of 
 Lepsius, Ebers, Brugsch, and Emanuel de Eouge, de- 
 duces what seem to be clear evidences of an early 
 Egyptian monotheism. He quotes Manetho, who 
 declares that " for the first nine thousand years 
 the god Ptah ruled alone; there was no other." 
 According to inscriptions quoted by De Eouge, the 
 Egyptians in the primitive period worshipped " the 
 one being who truly Lives, who has made all things, 
 and who alone has not been made." This one God 
 was known in different parts of Egypt under differ- 
 ent names, which only in later times came to stand 
 for distinct beings. A text which belongs to a 
 period fifteen hundred years before Moses says: 
 
250 ORIENTAL BELIQIONS AND OHBIBTIANITY 
 
 " He has made all that is ; thou alone art, the mill- 
 ions owe their being to thee ; he is the Lord of all 
 that which is, and of that which is not." A papyrus 
 now in Paris, dating 2300 B.C., contains quotations 
 from two much older records, one a writing of the 
 time of King Suffern, about 3500 B.C., which says : 
 " The operation of God is a thing which cannot be 
 understood." The other, from a writing of Ptah 
 Hotep, about 3000 B.C., reads : " This is the com- 
 mand of the God of creation, the peaceable may 
 come and issue orders. . . . The eating of bread 
 is in conformity with the ordinance of God ; can one 
 forget that his blessing rests thereupon ? ... If 
 thou art a prudent man teach thy son the loTe of 
 God." * 
 
 Professor Ernest Naville, in speaking of this same 
 subject in a course of popular lectures in Geneva, 
 
 •Professor Tiele, of Leyden, asserts that "It is altogether 
 erroneous to regard the Egyptian religion as the polytheistic 
 degeneration of a prehistoric monotheism. • It was polytheistic 
 from the beginning." But on one of the oldest of Egyptian 
 monuments is found this hymn, which is quoted by Cardinal 
 Gibbons in Our Christian InJieritance : 
 
 "Hail to thee, say all creatures ; . . . 
 The gods adore thy majesty, 
 The spirits thou has made exalt thee, 
 Bejoioing before the feet of their begetter. 
 They cry out welcome to thee, 
 Father of the fathers of all the gods, 
 Who raises the heavens, who fixes the earth ; 
 We worship thy spirit who alone hast made us, 
 We whom thou hast made thank thee that thou hast given us 
 
 birth, 
 We give to thee praises for thy mercy toward us." 
 
TBA0E8 OF A PRIMltlVB MONOTHEISM 251 
 
 said : " Listen now to a voice whicli has come forth 
 actually from the recesses of the sepulchre : it reaches 
 us from ancient Egypt. 
 
 "In Egypt, as you know, the degradation of the re- 
 ligious idea was in popular practice complete. But 
 imder the confused accents of superstition the science 
 of our age is succeeding in catching from afar the 
 vibrations of a sublime utterance. In the coi3Sns of a 
 large number of mummies have been discovered rolls 
 of papyrus containing a sacred text which is called 
 ' The Book of the Dead.' Here is the translation of 
 some fragments which appear to date from a very 
 remote epoch. It is God who speaks thus : ' I am 
 the Most Holy, the Creator of all that replenishes 
 the earth, and of the earth itself, the habitation of 
 mortals. I am the Prince of the iafinite ages. I 
 am the Great and Mighty God, the Most High, shin- 
 ing in the midst of the careering stars and of the 
 armies which praise me above thy head. . . . 
 It is I who chastise the evil-doers and the perse- 
 cutors of Godly men. I discover and confound the 
 liars. I am the all - seeing Avenger, . . . the 
 Guardian of my laws in the land of the righteous.' 
 These words are found mingled in the text, from 
 which I extract them, with allusions to inferior 
 deities ; and it must be acknowledged that the trans- 
 lation of the ancient documents of Egypt is uncer- 
 tain enough ; still this uncertainty does not appear 
 to extend to the general sense and bearing of the re- 
 cent discoveries of our savans." * 
 
 Professor Flint as agaiust Cudworth, Ebrard, Glad- 
 * Modem Atheism, p. 13, 
 
252 ORIENTAL BELIQI0N8 AND OHBISTIANITY 
 
 stone, and others, maintains that the Egyptian relig- 
 ion at the very dawn of its history had " certain great 
 gods," though he adds that " there were not so many 
 as in later times." "Ancestor worship, bnt not so 
 developed as in later times, and animal worship, but 
 very little of it compared with later times." On the 
 other hand, as against Professor Tiele, Miss Amelia B. 
 Edwards, and others, he says : " Eor the opinion that 
 its lower elements were older than the higher there 
 is not a particle of properly historical evidence, not 
 a trace in the inscriptions of mere propitiation of an- 
 cestors or of belief in the absolute divinity of kings or 
 animals ; on the contrary ancestors are always found 
 propitiated through prayer to some of the great gods ; 
 kings worshipped as emanations and images of the 
 sun god and the divine animals adored as divine 
 symbols and incarnations." 
 
 Among the Greeks there are few traces of mono- 
 theism, but we have reason for this in the fact that 
 their earliest literature dates from so late a period. 
 It began with Homer not earlier than 600 B.C., and 
 direct accounts of the religion of the Greeks are not 
 traced beyond 660 b.c. But Welcker, whose exami- 
 nations have been exhaustive, has, in the opinion of 
 Max Miiller, fairly established the primitive mono- 
 theism of the Greeks. Miiller says : " When we as- 
 cend with him to the most distant heights of Greek 
 history the idea of God as the supreme being stands 
 before us as a simple fact. Next to this adoration 
 of One God the father of men we find ia Greece a 
 worship of nature. The powers of nature, originally 
 worshipped as such, were afterward changed into a 
 
TRACES OF A PBIMITIVB MONOTHEISM 253 
 
 family of gods, of which Zeus became the king and 
 father. The third phase is what is generally called 
 Greek mythology ; but it was preceded m time, or at 
 least rendered possible in thought, by the two prior 
 conceptions, a belief in a supreme God and a worship 
 of the powers of nature. . . . The diriae charac- 
 ter of Zeus, as distinguished from his mythological 
 character, is most caref;illy brought out by Welcker. 
 He avails himself of all the discoveries of compara- 
 tive philology in order to show more clearly how the 
 same idea which found expression in the ancient re- 
 ligions of the Brahmans, the Sclavs, and the Germans 
 had been preserved under the same simple, clear, and 
 sublime name by the original settlers of Hellas." * 
 
 The same high authority traces in his own linguis- 
 tic studies the important fact that all branches of 
 the Aryan race preserve the same name for the 
 Supreme Being, while they show great ramification 
 and variation iu the names of their subordinate gods. 
 If, therefore, the Indo- Aryans give evidence of a 
 monotheistic faith at the time of their dispersion, 
 there is an a priori presumption for the monotheism 
 of the Greeks. " Herodotus," says Professor Eaw- 
 linson, " speaks of God as if he had never heard of 
 polytheism.". The testimony of the Greek poets 
 shows that beneath the prevailing polytheism there 
 remained an underlying conception of monotheistic 
 supremacy. Professor Eawhnson quotes from an 
 Orphic poem the words : 
 
 "Ares is war, peace 
 Soft Aphrodite, wine that God has made 
 
 t from a German Workshop, vol. ii., pp. 146, 147. 
 
254 OBIENTAL RELIGIONS AND GHBISTIANITT 
 
 Is Dionysius, Themis is the right 
 
 Men render to each. Apollo, too, 
 
 And Phcebus and ^sohlepius, who doth heal 
 
 Diseases, are the sun. All these are one." 
 
 Max Miiller traces to this same element of mono- 
 tlieisin the real greatness and power of the Hellenic 
 race when he says : " What was it, then, that pre- 
 served in their hearts (the Greeks), in spite even of 
 the feuds of tribes and the jealousies of states, the 
 deep feeKng of that ideal unity which constitutes a 
 people ? It was their primitive religion ; it was a 
 dim recollection of the common allegiance they owed 
 from time immemorial to the great father of gods 
 and men ; it was their belief in the old Zeus of Do- 
 dona in the Pan-Hellenic Zeus."* " There is, in 
 truth, but one," says Sophocles, " one only God, 
 who made both heaven and long-extended earth 
 and bright-faced swell of seas and force of winds." 
 Xenophanes says : " 'Mongst gods and men there 
 is one mightiest God not mortal or in form or 
 thought. Entire he sees and understands, and with- 
 out labor governs all by mind." Aratus, whom Paul 
 quotes,f says : " With Zeus began we ; let no mortal 
 voice of men leave Zeus unpraised. Zeus fiUs the 
 heavens, the streets, the marts. Everywhere we live 
 in Zeus. Zeus fills the sea, the shores, the harbors. 
 We are his offspring, too." The reference made by 
 Paul evidently implies that this Zeus was a dim con- 
 ception of the one true God. 
 
 That all branches of the Semitic race were mono- 
 
 * Saienee of Religion, Lecture III. , p. 57. 
 f Acts xvii. 38. 
 
TBAOES OF A PRIMITIVE MONOTHEISM 255 
 
 theistic we may call not only Ebrard and Miiller, but 
 Eenan, to witness. According to Kenan, evidences 
 tliat the monotheism of the Semitic races was of a 
 very early origin, appears in the fact that all their 
 names for deity — El, Elohim, Ilu, Baal, Bel, Adonai, 
 Shaddai, and Allah — denote one being and that su- 
 preme. These names have resisted all changes, and 
 doubtless extend as far back as the Semitic language 
 or the Semitic race. Max Miiller, in speaking of the 
 early faith of the Arabs, says : " Long before Mo- 
 hammed the primitive intuition of God made itseK 
 felt in Arabia ; " and he quotes this ancient Arabian 
 prayer : " I dedicate myself to thy service, O Allah^ 
 Thou hast no companion, except the companion of 
 whom thou art master absolute, and of whatever is 
 his." The book of Job and the story of Balaam indi- 
 cate the prevalence of an early monotheism beyond 
 the pale of the Abrahamic church. In the records 
 of the kings of Assyria and Babylonia there is a 
 conspicuous polytheism, yet it is significant that 
 each kiag worshipped one God only. And this fact 
 suggests, as a wide generalization, that political and 
 dynastic jealousies had their influence in multiply- 
 ing the names and differentiating the attributes of 
 ancient deities. This was notably the case in an- 
 cient Egypt, where each invasion and each change of 
 dynasty led to a new adjustment of the Egyptian 
 Pantheon. 
 
 Rome had many gods, but Jupiter was supreme, 
 Herodotus says of the Scythians, that they had eight 
 gods, but one was supreme, like Zeus. The North- 
 men, according to Dr. Dascent, had one supreme 
 
256 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND 0HBI8TIANITT 
 
 god known as tlie " AH-fader." Tlie Draids, though 
 worshipping various subordinate deities, believed in 
 One who was supreme — the creator of all things and 
 the soul of all things. Though conceived of in a 
 Pantheistic sense, He was personal and exerted a 
 moral control, as is shown by the famous triad : 
 " Fear God ; be just to all men ; die for jour coun- 
 try." In the highest and purest period of the old 
 Mexican faith we read of the Tezcucan monarch Ne- 
 zahualcoyotl, who said : " These idols of wood and 
 stone can neither hear nor feel ; much less could 
 they make the heavens and the earth, and man who 
 is the lord of it. These must be the work of the 
 all-powerful unknown God, the Creator of the uni- 
 verse, on whom alone I must rely for consolation and 
 support." * The Incas of Peru also, though sun- 
 worshippers, believed in a supreme creator who made 
 the sun. The oldest of their temples was reared to 
 the supreme god " Virachoea." And one of the great- 
 est Incas has left his declared belief that "there 
 must be above the sun a greater and more powerful 
 ruler, at whose behest the sun pursues his daily and 
 untiring round." f 
 
 It has been assumed throughout this lecture, that 
 instead of an advance in the religions of men, there 
 has everywhere been decline. Our proofs of this are 
 not theoretic but historic. As an example, all writers 
 are agreed, I believe, that during the historic period 
 
 * Prescott's Conquest of Mexico. 
 
 f Reville in his Hibbert Ijectwes on Mexican and Peruvian re- 
 ligions asserts that polytheism existed from the beginning, but 
 our contention is that One God was supreme and created the sun. 
 
TBAOES OF A PRIMITIVE MONOTHEISM 257 
 
 the religion of the Egyptians steadily deteriorated 
 until Christianity and Mohammedanism superseded 
 it. In strong contrast with the lofty and ennobling 
 prayer which we have quoted from an ancient Egyp- 
 tian record, is the degradation of the later worship. 
 On a column at Heliopolis, belonging to the fourth 
 century before Christ, is inscribed this petition : " O 
 thou white cat, thy head is the head of the sun god, 
 thy nose is the nose of Thoth, of the exceeding great 
 love of Hemopolis." The whole prayer is on this 
 low level. Clement, of Alexandria, after describing 
 the great beauty of an Egyptian temple, proceeds 
 to say : " The innermost sanctuary is concealed by a 
 curtain wrought in gold, which the priest draws aside, 
 and there is seen a cat, or a crocodile, or a serpent, 
 which wriggles on a purple cover." * 
 
 That the religions of India have degenerated is 
 equally clear. The fact that all the medieval and 
 modem reforms look back for their ideals to the 
 earlier and purer Aryan faith, might of itself afford 
 suiScient proof of this, but we have also abundant 
 evidence which is direct. In the Big Veda there is lit- 
 tle polytheism, and no idolatry. There is no doctrine 
 of caste, no base worship of Siva with the foul enor- 
 mities of Saktism.f In the most ancient times there 
 was no doctrine of transmigration, nor any notion 
 that human life is an evil to be overcome by self- 
 mortification. Woman was comparatively free from 
 the oppressions which she suffered in the later peri- 
 
 * De Pressense : T?ie Ancient World and Ohristiamf/y. 
 f Bonrnouf found the Tantras so obscene that he refused to 
 translate them. 
 17 
 
258 ORIENTAL BBLIQIONS AND OHRISTIANITT 
 
 ods. Infanticide had not then been sanctioned and 
 enjoiaed by religious authority, and widow burning 
 and the religious murders of the Thugs were un- 
 known. And yet so deeply were these eyils rooted 
 at the beginning of the British rule in India, that the 
 joint influence of Christian instruction and Govern- 
 mental authority for a whole century has not been 
 sufficient to overcome them. 
 
 Buddhism in the first two or three centuries had 
 much to commend it. King Ashoka left monuments 
 of practical beneficence and philanthropy which have 
 survived to this day. But countless legends soon 
 sprang up to mar the simplicity of Gautama's ethics. 
 Corruptions crept in. Compromises were made with 
 popular superstitions and vdth Hindu Saktism.* The 
 monastic orders sank into corruption, and by the 
 ninth century of our era the system had been wholly 
 swept from India. The Buddhism of Ceylon was 
 planted first by the devout son and daughter of a 
 king, and for a time was characterized by great purity 
 and devotion. But now it exists only in name, and 
 a prominent missionary of the countiy declared, in 
 the London Missionary Conference of 1888, that 
 nine-tenths of the Cingalese were worshippers of 
 serpents or of spirits.f The prevailing Buddiism in 
 Thibet, from the eighth to the tenth century, was an 
 admixture with Saktism and superstition. Where 
 the system has survived ia any good degree of 
 strength, it has been due either to government sup- 
 port or to an alliance with other religions. The his- 
 
 * T. Ehys Davids : Buddhum, p. 308. 
 
 ^Report of Missionary Conference, vol. i., p. 70. 
 
TBAGES OF A PBIMITI7B MONOTHEISM 259 
 
 tory of Taouism has shown a still worse deteriora- 
 tion. Laotze, though impracticable as a reformer, 
 was a profound philosopher. His teachings set 
 forth a lofty moral code. Superstition he abomin- 
 ated. His ideas of deity were cold and rational- 
 istic, but they were pure and lofty. But the mod- 
 em Taouism is a medley of wild and degrading 
 superstitions. According to its theodicy all nature 
 is haunted. The ignorant masses are enthralled by 
 the fear of ghosts, and all progress is paralyzed by 
 the nightmare of " fung shuay.'' Had not Taouism 
 been balanced by the sturdy common-sense ethics 
 of Confucianism, the Chinese might have become a 
 race of savages.* 
 
 The decline of Mohammedanism from the sublime 
 fanaticism of Abu Bekr and the intellectual aspira- 
 tions of Haroun Al Baschid, to the senseless imbe- 
 cility of the modem Turk, is too patent to need argu- 
 ment. The worm of destruction was left in the 
 system by the vices of Mohammed himself; and 
 from the higher level of his early followers it has 
 not only deteriorated, but it has dragged down every- 
 thing else with it. It has destroyed the family, be- 
 cause it has degraded woman. It has separated her 
 immeasurably from the status of dignity and honor 
 which she enjoyed under the influence of the early 
 Christian church, and it has robbed her of even that 
 freedom which was accorded to her by heathen 
 Eome. One need only look at Northern Africa, 
 the land of Cyprian and Origen, of Augustine and 
 the saintly Monica, to see what Islam has done. 
 * Buddhism, in the Britannka. 
 
260 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND GHBISTIANITT 
 
 And even the later centuries have brouglit no relief. 
 Prosperous lands have been rendered desolate and 
 sterile, and all progress has been paralyzed. 
 
 In the history of the Greek religion it is granted 
 that there were periods of advancement. The times 
 of the fully developed ApoUo worship showed vast 
 improvement over previous periods, but even Profes- 
 sor Tiele virtually admits that this was owing to the 
 importation of foreign influences. It was not due to 
 any natural process of evolution ; and it was followed 
 by hopeless corruption and decline. The last days of 
 both Greece and Eome were degenerate and full of 
 depression and despair. 
 
 It is not contended that no revivals or reforms are 
 possible in heathenism. There have been many of 
 these, but with all allowance for spasmodic efforts, the 
 general drift has been always downward.* There is 
 a natural disposition among men to multiply objects 
 
 * Rev. S. 6. Wright, long a missionary among the American 
 Indians, says : " During the forty-six years in which I have heen 
 laboring among the Ojibway Indians, I have been more and more 
 impressed with the evidence, showing itself in their language, 
 that at some former time they have been in possession of much 
 higher ideas of God's attributes, and of what constitutes true hap- 
 piness, immortality, and virtue, as well as of the nature of the 
 Devil and his influence in the world, than those which they now 
 possess. The thing which early in our experience surprised us, 
 and which has not ceased to impress us, is, that, with their pres- 
 ent low conceptions of spiritual things, they could have chosen 
 so lofty and spiritual a word for the Deity. The only satisfactory 
 explanation seems to be that, at an early period of their history, 
 they had higher and more correct ideas concerning God than 
 those which they now possess, and that these have become, as the 
 geologists would say, fossilised in their forms of speech, and so 
 preserved." — BU/lioikeea iSaora, October, 1889. 
 
TRACES OF A PBIMITIVE MONOTHEISM 261 
 
 of worship. Herbert Spencer's principle, that de- 
 velopment proceeds from the homogeneous to the 
 heterogeneous, is certainly true of the religions of 
 the world ; but his other principle, that development 
 proceeds from the incoherent to the coherent, does 
 not apply. Incoherency and moral chaos mark the 
 trend of all man-made faiths. The universal ten- 
 dency to deterioration is well summed up as follows 
 by Professor NaviUe : 
 
 " Traces are found almost everywhere in the midst 
 of idolatrous superstitions, of a religion comparatively 
 pure and often stamped with a lofty morality. Pa- 
 ganism is not a simple fact ; it offers to view in the 
 same bed two currents (like the Arve and the Aivei- 
 ron) — the one pure, the other impure. What is the 
 relation between these two currents ? . . . Did 
 humanity begin with a coarse fetishism, and thence 
 rise by slow degrees to higher conceptions ? Do the 
 traces of a comparatively pure monotheism first show 
 themselves in the recent periods of idolatry ? Con- 
 temporary science inclines more and more to answer 
 in the negative. It is in the most ancient historical 
 ground that the laborious investigators of the past 
 meet with the most elevated ideas of religion. Cut 
 to the ground a young and vigorous beech-tree, and 
 come back a few years afterward. In place of the 
 tree cut down you wiU find coppice-wood ; the sap 
 which nourished a single trunk has been divided 
 among a multitude of shoots. This comparison ex- 
 presses well enough the opinion which tends to pre- 
 vail among our savants on the subject of the histori- 
 cal development of religions. The idea of one God 
 
262 ORIENTAL BELIGI0N8 AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 is at the roots — it is primitive ; polytheism is deriva- 
 tive." * 
 
 We have thus far drawn our proofs of man's poly- 
 theistic tendencies from the history of the non- 
 Christian religions. In proof of the same general 
 tendency we now turn to the history of the Israelites, 
 the chosen people of God. We may properly appeal 
 to the Bible as history, especially when showing 
 idolatrous tendencies even under the full blaze of the 
 truth. In spite of the supernatural revelation which 
 they claimed to possess — notwithstanding all their 
 instructions, warnings, promises, deliverances, divine- 
 ly aided conquests — they relapsed into idolatry again 
 and again. Ere they had reached the land of prom- 
 ise they had begun to make images of the gods of 
 Egypt. They made constant compromises and alli- 
 ances with the Canaanites, and not even severe 
 judgments could withhold them from this downward 
 drift. Their wisest king was demoralized by heathen 
 marriages, and his successors openly patronized the 
 heathen shrines. The abominations of Baal wor- 
 ship and the nameless vices of Sodom were practised 
 under the very shadow of the Temple.f Judgments 
 followed upon this miserable degeneracy. Prophets 
 were sent with repeated warnings, and many were 
 slain for their faithful messages. Tribe after tribe 
 was borne into captivity, the Temple was destroyed, 
 and at last the nation was virtually broken up and 
 scattered abroad. 
 
 There was indeed a tnie development in the 
 
 * Modern Atheism, p. 10. 
 
 f I. Kings, xiv. , and 11. Kings, xxiii. 
 
TBAOES OF A PRIMITIVE MONOTHMSM 263 
 
 church of God from the Abrahamic period to the 
 Apostolic day. There was a rising from a narrow 
 national spirit to one which embraced the whole 
 brotherhood of man, from type and prophecy to ful- 
 filment, from the sins that were winked at, to a purer 
 ethic and the perfect law of love ; but these results 
 came not by natural evolution — far enough from it. 
 They were wrought out not by man, but we might 
 almost say, in spite of man. Divine interpositions 
 were all that saved Judaism from a total wreck, even 
 as the national unity was destroyed. A new Dispen- 
 sation was introduced, a Divine Bedeemer and an 
 Omnipotent Spirit were the forces which saved the 
 world from a second universal apostasy. 
 
 We come nearer stUl to the church of God for 
 proofs of man's inherent tendency to polytheism. 
 Even under the new Dispensation we have seen the 
 church sink into virtual idolatry. Within six cen- 
 turies from the time of Christ and His apostles there 
 had been a sad lapse into what seemed the worship 
 of images, pictures, and relics, and a faith in holy 
 places and the bones of saints. What Mohammed 
 saw, or thought he saw, was a Christian idolatry 
 scarcely better than that of the Arabian Koreish. 
 And, as if by the judgment of God, the churches of 
 the East were swept with a destruction like that 
 which had been visited upon the Ten Tribes. In 
 the Christianity of to-day, viewed as a whole, how 
 strong is the tendency to turn from the pure spirit- 
 ual conception of God to some more objective trust — 
 a saint, a relic, a ritual, an ordinance. In the old 
 churches of the Bast or on the Continent of Europe, 
 
264 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND OHRISTIANITr 
 
 how much of virtual idolatry is there even now ? It 
 is only another ioxva. of the tendency in' man to seek 
 out many devices — to find visible objects of trust — 
 to try new panaceas for the ailments of the soul — to 
 multiply unto himself gods to help his weakness. 
 This is just what has been done in all ages and 
 among all races of the world. This explains poly- 
 theism. Man's religious nature is a vine, and God 
 is its only proper support. Once fallen from that 
 support, it creeps and grovels in all directions and 
 over all false supports. 
 
 We have not resorted to Divine revelation for 
 proofs except as history. But our conclusions 
 drawn from heathen sources bring us directly, as 
 one face answereth to another face in a glass, to the 
 plain teachings of Paul and other inspired writers, 
 who tell us that the human race was once possessed 
 of the knowledge of One Supreme God, but that 
 men apostatized from Him, preferring to worship 
 the creature rather than the Creator. There are no 
 traces of an upward evolution toward clearer knowl- 
 edge and piirer lives, except by the operation of out- 
 ward causes, but there are many proofs that men's 
 hearts have become darkened and their moral nature 
 more and more depraved. In all lands there have 
 been those who seemed to gain some glimpses of 
 truth, and whose teachings were far above the aver- 
 age sentiment and character of their times, but they 
 have either been discarded like Socrates and the 
 prophets of Israel, or they have obtained a following 
 only for a time and their precepts have fallen into 
 neglect. It has been well said that no race of men 
 
TSAOES OF A PBIMITIVE MONOTHEISM 265 
 
 live up to their religion, however imperfect it may 
 be. They first disregard it, and then at length de- 
 grade it, to suit their apostate character. 
 
 Paul's estimate of heathen character was that of a 
 man who, aside from his direct inspiration, spoke 
 from a wide range of observation. He was a philos- 
 opher by education, and he lived in an age and amid 
 national surroundings which afforded the broadest 
 knowledge of men, of customs, of religious faiths, 
 of institutions. Trained as a Jew, dealing constantly 
 with the most enlightened heathen, persecuting the 
 Christians, and then espousing their cause, his prep- 
 aration for a broad, calm, and unerring judgment of 
 the character of the Gentile nations was complete ; 
 and his one emphatic verdict was apostasy. 
 
LECTURE Tin. 
 
 INDIRECT TRIBUTES OF HEATHEN SYSTEMS TO THE 
 DOCTRINES OF THE BffiLB 
 
 I AM to speak of certain indirect tributes borne 
 by the non-Christian religions to the doctriaes of 
 Christianity. One such tribute of great value we 
 have already considered in the prevalence of early 
 monotheism, so far corroborating the scriptural ac- 
 count of man's first estate, and affording many proofs 
 which corroborate the scriptural doctrine of human 
 apostasy. Others of the same general bearing wiU 
 now be considered. The history of man's origin, the 
 strange traditions of his fall by transgression and his 
 banishment from Eden, of the conflict of good with 
 evil represented by a serpent, of the Deluge and the 
 dispersion of the human race, have all been the sub- 
 jects of ridicule by anti-Christian writers : — though 
 by turns they have recognized these same facts and 
 have used them as proofs that Christianity had bor- 
 rowed them from old myths. The idea of sacri- 
 fice, or atonement, of Divine incarnation, of a trinity, 
 of mediation, of a salvation by faith instead of one's 
 own merits, have been represented as unphilosophi- 
 cal, and therefore improbable in the nature of the 
 case. 
 
 It becomes an important question, therefore, 
 
INDIBEOT TRIBUTES OF HEATHEN SYSTEMS 267 
 
 whether other religions of mankind show similar 
 traditions, however widely they have dwelt apart, 
 and however diversified their languages, literatures, 
 and institutions may have been in other respects. 
 And it is also an important question, whether even 
 under heathen systems, the consciousness of sin and 
 the deepest moral yearnings of men have found ex- 
 pression along the very lines which are represented 
 by the Christian doctrines of grace. To these 
 questions we now address ourselves. What are the 
 lessons of the various ethnic traditions ? And how 
 are we to account for their striking similarities? 
 The most obvious theory is, that a common origin 
 must be assigned to them, that they are dim reminis- 
 cences of a real knowledge once clear and distinct. 
 The fact that with their essential unity they differ 
 from each other and differ from our Scriptural 
 record, seems to rather strengthen the theory that 
 all — our own included — have been handed down from 
 the pre-Mosaic times — ours being divinely edited by 
 an inspired and infallible author. Their differences 
 are such as might have been expected from separate 
 transmissions, independently made. 
 
 We have, first of all, the various traditions of the 
 Creation. In most heathen races there have appeared, 
 in their later stages, grave and grotesque cosmogo- 
 nies ; and a too common impression is, that these 
 represent the real teachings of their sacred books or 
 their earliest traditions. But when one enters upon 
 a careful study of the non-Christian religions, and 
 traces them back to their sources, he finds more ra- 
 tional accounts of the Creation and the order of nat- 
 
268 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND 0HBISTIANIT7 
 
 lire, and sees striking points of resemblance to the 
 Mosaic record. The story of Genesis represents the 
 " Beginning " as formless, chaotic, and dark. The 
 Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 
 The heavens and the earth were separated. Light 
 appeared long before the snn and moon were visible, 
 and the day and night were clearly defined. Crea- 
 tion proceeded in a certain order from vegetable to 
 animal life, and from lower animals to higher, and 
 last of all man appeared. In heathen systems we 
 find fragments of this traditional account, and, as a 
 rule, they are more or less clear in proportion to 
 their nearness to, or departure from, the great cra- 
 dle of the human race.* Thus Professor Bawlinson 
 quotes from an Assyrian account of the creation, as 
 foimd upon the clay tablets discovered in the pal- 
 ace of Assur-bani-pal, a description of formlessness, 
 emptiness, and. darkness on the deep — of a separa- 
 tion between the earth and sky — and of the light as 
 preceding the appearance of the sun. That account 
 also places the creation of animals before that of 
 man, whom it represents as being formed of the 
 dust of the earth, and as receiving a divine effluence 
 from the Creator.f According to an Etruscan saga 
 quoted by Suidas, God created the world in six 
 periods of 1,000 years each. In the first, the heav- 
 ens and the earth ; in the second, the firmament ; in 
 the third, the seas; in the fourth, the sun, moon, 
 
 * It is worthy of note that both the Pentateuch and most heathen 
 traditions agree, as to the order orstages of creation, with the geo- 
 logical record of modern science. 
 
 ■)■ Rawlinson : Ancient Monarchies. 
 
INDIBEOT TRIBUTES OV HBATHBN SYSTEMS 269 
 
 and stars ; in the fifth, the beasts of the land, the 
 air, and the sea ; in the sixth, man. According to a 
 passage in the Persian Avesta, the supreme Ormazd 
 created the visible world by his word in six periods 
 or thousands of years : in the first, the heavens with 
 the stars ; in the second, the water and the clouds ; 
 in the third, the earth and the mountains ; in the 
 fourth, the trees and the plants ; in the fifth, the 
 beasts which sprang from the primeval beast ; in the 
 sixth, man.* 
 
 As we get farther away from the supposed early 
 home of the race, the traditions become more frag- 
 mentary and indistinct. The Kig Veda, Mandala, 
 X., 129, tells us that : 
 
 '•' In the beginning there was neither naught nor aught ; 
 There was neither day nor night nor light nor darkness ; 
 Only the EXISTENT ONE breathed calmly. 
 Next came darkness, gloom on gloom. 
 Next all was water — chaos indiscrete." f 
 
 Strikingly similar is the language quoted in a 
 former lecture from the prayer of a Chinese empe- 
 ror of the Ming Dynasty. It runs thus : " Of old, 
 in the beginning, there was the great chaos without 
 form and dark. The five elements had not begun to 
 revolve, nor the sun and moon to shine. In the 
 midst thereof there presented itself neither form nor 
 sound. Thou, O Spiritual Sovereign, didst divide 
 the grosser parts from the purer. Thou madest 
 heaven : Thou madest earth : Thou madest man," 
 
 * Bbrard : Apologetics, vol. ii. 
 
 f Williams : Indian Wisdom, p. 23. 
 
270 ORIENTAL BELiaiONS AND GHBISTIANITT 
 
 There is a possibility that these conceptions may 
 have come from Christian sources instead of primi- 
 tive Chinese traditions, possibly from early Nestorian 
 missionaries, though this is scarcely probable, as 
 Chinese emperors have been slow to introduce for- 
 eign conceptions into their august temple service to 
 Shangte ; its chief glory lies in its antiquity and its 
 purely national character. Buddhism had already 
 been in China more than a thousand years, and these 
 prayers are far enough from its teachings. May we 
 not believe that the ideas here expressed had always 
 existed in the minds of the more devout rulers of 
 the empire ? In similar language, the Edda of the 
 Icelandic Northmen describes the primeval chaos. 
 
 Thus : 
 
 " 'Twas the morniBg of time 
 When yet naught was, 
 Nor sand nor sea was there, 
 Nor cooling streams. 
 Earth was not formed 
 Nor heaven above. 
 A yawning gap was there 
 And grass nowhere." 
 
 Not unlike these conceptions of the " Beginning " 
 is that which Morenhout found in a song of the Ta- 
 hitans, and which ran thus : 
 
 " He was ; Toaroa was his name, 
 He existed in space ; no earth, no heaven, no men." 
 
 M. Goussin adds the further translation : " Toaroa, 
 the Great Orderer, is, the origin of the earth : he has 
 no father, no posterity." * The tradition of the Od- 
 • De Quatrefages : The Human Species, p. 490. 
 
INDIBEGT TBIBUTE8 OF HEATHEN SYSTEMS 271 
 
 shis, a negro tribe on the Airican Gold Coast, repre- 
 sents the creation as having been completed in six 
 days. God created first the woman ; then the man ; 
 then the animals ; then the trees and plants ; and 
 lastly the rocks. God created nothing on the seventh 
 day. He only gave men His commandments. The 
 reversal of the order here only confirms the suppo- 
 sition that it is an original tradition. We find every- 
 where on the Western Hemisphere, north and south, 
 plain recognition of the creation of the world by one 
 Supreme God, though the order is not given. How 
 shall we accoimt for the similarities above indicated, 
 except on the supposition of a common and a very 
 ancient source ? 
 
 Still more striking are the various traditions of 
 the Fall of man by sin. In the British Museum 
 there is a very old Babylonian seal which bears the 
 figures of a man and a woman stretching out their 
 hands toward a fruit-tree, while behind the woman 
 lurks a serpent. A fragment bearing an inscription 
 represents a tree of life as guarded on all sides by a 
 sword. Another inscription describes a delectable 
 region surrounded by four rivers. Professors Baw- 
 linson and Dehtzsch both regard this as a reference 
 to the Garden of Eden. 
 
 " The Hindu legends," says Hardwick, " are 
 agreed in representing man as one of the last prod- 
 ucts of creative wisdom, as the master-work of God ; 
 and also in extolling the first race of men as pure 
 and upright, innocent and happy. The beings who 
 were thus created by Brahma are all said to have 
 been endowed with righteousness and perfect faith ; 
 
272 OBIENTAL BELIQIONS AND OHBISTIANITT 
 
 they abode wherever they pleased, unchecked by 
 any impediment ; their hearts were free from guile ; 
 they were pure, made free from toil by observance 
 of sacred institutes. In their sanctified minds 
 Hari dwelt ; and they were fiUed with perfect wis- 
 dom by which they contemplated the glory of 
 Vishnu. 
 
 " The first men were, accordingly, the best. The 
 Krita age, the ' age of truth,' the reign of purity, ia 
 which mankind, as it came forth from the Creator, 
 was not divided iato numerous conflicting orders, 
 and in which the different faculties of man all 
 worked harmoniously together, was a thought that 
 lay too near the human heart to be uprooted by the 
 ills and inequalities of actual life. In this the Hin- 
 du sided altogether with the Hebrew, and as flatly 
 contradicted the unworthy speculations of the mod- 
 em philosopher, who would fain persuade us that 
 human beings have not issued from one single pair, 
 and also, that the primitive type of men is scarcely 
 separable from that of ordinary animals. . . ." * 
 
 Spence Hardy, in speaking on this subject, de- 
 scribes a Buddhist legend of Ceylon which repre- 
 sents the original inhabitants of the world as having 
 been once spotlessly pure, and as dwelling in ethe- 
 real bodies which moved a;t will through space. 
 They had no need of sun or moon. They lived in 
 perfect happiness and peace till, at last, one of their 
 number tasted of a strange substance which he found 
 lying on the surface of the earth. He induced others 
 to eat also, whereupon all knew good and evil, and 
 * Ohrist and Other Masters, p. 381. 
 
INDIBEOT TRIBUTES OF HEATHEN SYSTEMS 273 
 
 their high estate was lost. They now had perpetual 
 need of food, which only made them more gross and 
 earthly. Wickedness abounded, and they were in 
 darkness. Assembhng together, they fashioned for 
 themselves a sun, but after a few hours it fell below 
 the horizon, and they were compelled to create a 
 moon.* An old Mongolian legend represents the 
 first man as having transgressed by eating a pistache 
 nut. As a punishment, he and all his posterity 
 came imder the power of sia and death, and were 
 subjected to toil and suffering, f A tradition of the 
 African Odshis, already named, relates that for- 
 merly Grod was very near to men. But a woman, 
 who had been pounding banana fruit in a mortar, 
 inadvertently entering His presence with a pestle 
 in her hands, aroused His anger, and He with- 
 drew into the high heavens and listened to men 
 no more. Six rainless years brought famine and 
 distress, whereupon they besought Him to send one 
 of His counsellors who should be their daysman, 
 and should undertake their cause and care for them. 
 God sent his chief minister, with a promise that He 
 would give rain and sunshine, and He directed that 
 His rainbow should appear in the sky.f The inhab- 
 itants of Tahiti have a tradition of a fall which is 
 very striking ; and Humboldt, after careful study, 
 reached the conclusion that it had not been derived 
 through any communication with Christian lands, 
 but was an old native legend. The Karens of 
 Burmah had a story of an early temptation of their 
 
 * Manual of Buddhism, p. 66. 
 
 f Ebrard : Apologetics, vol. ii. t Ibid. 
 
 18 
 
274 ORIENTAL RELIGION'S AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 ancestors by an evil being and their consequent 
 apostasy. Many other races who have no definite 
 tradition of this kind have still some vague notion 
 of a golden age in the past. There has been every- 
 where a mournful and pathetic sense of something 
 lost, of degeneracy from better days gone by, of Di- 
 vine displeasure and forfeited favor. The baffled 
 gropings of all false religions seem to have been so 
 many devices to regain some squandered heritage of 
 the past. AH this is strikingly true of China. 
 
 Still more clear and wellnigh universal are the tra- 
 ditions of a flood. The Hindu Brahmanas and the 
 Mahabharata of a later age present legends of a del- 
 uge which strikingly resemble the story of Genesis. 
 Yishnu incarnate in a fish warned a great sage of acom- 
 ing flood and directed him to build an ark. A ship 
 was built and the sage with seven others entered. 
 Attached to the horn of the fish the ship was towed 
 over the waters to a high mountain top.* The Chi- 
 nese also have a story of a flood, though it is not 
 given in much detail. The Iranian tradition is very 
 fragmentary and seems to oonfoimd the survivor 
 with the first man of the creation. Tima, the Noah 
 of the story, was warned by the beginning of a great 
 winter rain, by which the waters were raised 19,000 
 feet. Yima was commanded to prepare a place of 
 safety for a number of chosen men, birds, and beasts. 
 It was to be three stories high, and to be fur- 
 nished with a high door and window, but whether 
 it was a ship or a refuge on the mountain top does 
 not appear. The same tradition speaks of Eden 
 * Indian Wisdom, pp. 33, 393. 
 
INDIBEOT TBIBUTES OF HEATHEN SYSTEMS 275 
 
 and of a serpent, but the account is suddenly cut 
 short.* 
 
 The Greek traditions of a flood varied according 
 to the different branches of the Greek nation. The 
 Ajcadians traced their origin to Dardanus, who was 
 preserved from the great flood in a skin-covered 
 boat. The Pelasgians held the tradition of Deuca- 
 lion and his wife, who were saved in a ship which 
 was grounded on the summit of Pindus. As the 
 water receded they sent out a dove to search for 
 land. The Assyrian account, which was found a few 
 years ago on a tablet in the palace of Assur-bani-pal, 
 claims to have been related as a matter of personal 
 experience by Sisit, the Chaldean Noah, who was 
 commanded to construct a ship 600 cubits long, into 
 which he should enter with his family and his goods. 
 At the time appointed the earth became a waste. The 
 very gods in heaven fled from the fury of the tem- 
 pest and " huddled down in their refuge hke affright- 
 ed dogs." The race of men was swept away. On the 
 seventh day Sisit opened a window and saw that the 
 rain was stayed, but the water was covered with 
 floating corpses ; all men had become as clay. The 
 ship rested on a mountain top, and Sisit sent forth a 
 dove, a swallow, and a raven. The dove and the 
 swallow returned, but the raven was satisfied with 
 the floating carcasses. Sisit went forth and of- 
 ' fered sacrifice, around which "the gods hovered like 
 flies." 
 
 Professor EawHnson thinks that these accounts 
 and those given in Genesis were both derived from 
 *Ebrard: Apologetics, vol. ii. 
 
276 ORIENTAL BELiaiONS AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 tlie earlier traditions, the Assyrian version having 
 been greatly corrupted. The Chaldean tradition is 
 slightly different. The Noah of the Chaldeans was 
 commanded in a dream not only to build a ship, but 
 to bury all important documents and so preserve the 
 antediluvian history. As the flood subsided he, his 
 family, and his pilot were transferred to heaven, but 
 certain friends who were saved with them remained 
 and peopled the earth. Among the ancient Peru- 
 vians we find a tradition of a great deluge which 
 swept the earth. After it had passed, the aged man 
 Wiracotscha rose out of Lake Titicaca and his three 
 sons issued from a cave and peopled the earth.* 
 Hugh MUler and others have named maUy similar 
 traditions. 
 
 The fact that in nearly every case those who were 
 rescued from the flood immediately offered piacular 
 sacrifices suggests the recognition in aU human his- 
 tory of still another fundamental doctrine of Chris- 
 tianity, the universal sense of sin. This conviction 
 was especially strong when the survivors of a Divine 
 judgment beheld the spectacle of a race swept away 
 for their transgressions ; but there are abundant 
 traces of it in all ages of the world. The exceptions 
 are found in those instances where false systems of 
 philosophy have sophisticated the natural sense of 
 guilt by destroying the consciousness of personality. 
 All races of men have shown a feeling of moral delin- 
 quency and a corresponding fear. The late C. Lor- 
 ing Brace, in his work entitled " The Unknown 
 God," quotes some striking penitential psalms or 
 * Ebrard : Apologetics, vol. iii. 
 
INDIRECT TRIBUTES OF HEATHEN SYSTEMS 217 
 
 prayers offered by the Akkadians of Northern Assy- 
 ria four thousand years ago. 
 
 The deep-seated conTiction of guilt which is indi- 
 cated by the old religion of the Egyptians is well 
 set forth by Dr. John Wortabet, of Beyrut, in a 
 pamphlet entitled " The Temples and Tombs of 
 Thebes." He says : " The immortality of the soul, its 
 rewards and punishments in the next world, and its 
 final salvation and return into the essence of the di- 
 vinity were among the most cherished articles of 
 the Egyptian creed. Here (iu the tombs), as on 
 the papyri which contain the ' Ritual of the Dead,' 
 are represented the passage of the soul through the 
 nether world and its introduction into the Judgment 
 Hall, where Osiris, the god of benevolence, sits on a 
 throne, and with the assistance of forty-two assessors 
 proceeds to examine the deceased. His actions are 
 weighed in a balance against truth in the presence 
 of Thoth, the ibis-headed god of wisdom, and if 
 found wanting he is hounded out in the shape of an 
 unclean animal by Anubis, the jackal-headed god 
 of the infernal regions. The soul then proceeds in 
 a series of transmigrations into the bodies of ani- 
 mals and human beings and thus passes through a 
 purgatorial process which entitles it to appear again 
 before the judgment-seat of Osiris. If found pure 
 it is conveyed to Aalu, the Elysian fields, or the 
 ' Pools of Peace.' After three thousand years of sow- 
 ing and reaping by cool waters it returns to its old 
 body (the preserved mummy), suffers another period 
 of probation, and is ultimately absorbed into the 
 godhead. One of the most impressive scenes in the 
 
278 ORIENTAL RELIGION'S AND OHRISTIANITT 
 
 whole series is that where the soul, in the form of a 
 mummified body, stands before Osiris and the forty- 
 two judges to be examtaed on the forty-two com- 
 mandments of the Egyptian religion. Bearing on 
 its face the signs of solemnity and fear, and carrying 
 in its hand a feather, the symbol of veracity, it says 
 among other things : ' I haye not blasphemed the 
 gods, I have defrauded no man, I have not changed 
 the measures of Egypt, I have not prevaricated at 
 the courts of justice, I have not lied, I have not 
 stolen, I have not committed adultery, I have done 
 no murder, I have not been idle, I have not been 
 drunk, I have not been cruel, I have not famished 
 my family, I have not been a hypocrite, I have 
 not defiled my conscience for the sake of my supe- 
 riors, I have not smitten privily, I have lived on 
 truth, I have made it my delight to do what men 
 command and the gods approve, I have given bread 
 to the hungry and drink to the thirsty and clothes 
 to the naked, my mouth and hands are pure.' 
 Now what strikes one with great force in this re- 
 markable passage from the walls of the old sand- 
 covered tombs is the wonderful scope and fulness 
 with which the laws of right and wrong were 
 stamped upon the Egyptian conscience. There is 
 here a recognition, not only of the gxeat evils which 
 man shall not commit, but also of many of those posi- 
 tive duties which his moral nature requires. It 
 matters not that these words are wholly exculpatory ; 
 they nevertheless recognize sin." 
 
 But perhaps no one has depicted man's sense of 
 guilt and fear more eloquently than Dean Stanley 
 
INDIRECT TRIBUTES OF HEATHEN ST8TEM8 279 
 
 when speaking of tlie Egyptian Sphinx. Proceed- 
 ing upon the theory that that time-worn and mys- 
 terious relic is a couchant lion whose projecting 
 paws were long since buried in the desert sands, and 
 following the tradition that an altar once stood be- 
 fore that mighty embodiment of power, he graphi- 
 cally pictures the transient generations of men, in all 
 the sin and weakness of their frail humanity, coming 
 lip with their offerings and their prayers " between 
 the paws of deity." It is a grim spectacle, but it 
 emphasizes the sense of human guilt. Only the 
 Eevealed Word of God affords a complete and satis- 
 factory explanation of the remarkable fact that the 
 human race universally stand self-convicted of sin. 
 
 There is also a tribute to the truth of Christianity 
 in certain traces of a conception of Divine sacrifice 
 for sin found in some of the early religious faiths of 
 men. All are familiar with the difference between 
 the offerings of Abel and those of Cain — the former 
 disclosing a faith in a higher expiation. In like 
 manner there appear mysterious references to a di- 
 vine and vicarious sacrifice in the early Vedas of 
 India. In the Parusha Sukta of the Eig Veda oc- 
 curs this passage: "From him called Parusha was 
 bom Viraj, and from Yiraj was Parusha produced, 
 whom gods made their oblation. With Parusha as 
 a victim they performed a sacrifice.'' Manu says 
 that Parusha, " the first man," was called Brahma, 
 and was produced by emanation from the " self -exist- 
 ent spirit." Brahma thus emanating, was " the first 
 male," or, as elsewhere called, " the bom lord." By 
 him the world was made. The idea is brought out 
 
280 OBISNTAL BBLIQI0N8 AND OEBISTIANITY 
 
 still more strikingly in one of the Brahmanas wliere 
 the sacrifice is represented as voluntary and all 
 availing. " Surely," says Sir Monier Williams, " in 
 these mysterious allusions to the sacrifice of a repre- 
 sentative man we may perceive traces of the original 
 institution of sacrifice as a divinely appointed ordi- 
 nance, typical of the one great offering of the Son of 
 God for the sins of the world." The late Professor 
 Banergea, of Calcutta, reaching the same conclusion, 
 says : " It is not easy to account for the genesis of 
 these ideas in the Veda, of ' one bom in the begin- 
 ning Lord of creatures,' offering himself a sacrifice 
 for the benefit of deified mortals, except on the as- 
 sumption that it is based upon the tradition of the 
 ' Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.' " 
 
 No doubt modem scepticism might be slow to ac- 
 knowledge any such inference as this ; but as Pro- 
 fessor Banergea was a high-caste Hindu of great 
 learning, and was well acquainted with the subtleties 
 of Hindu thought, his opinion should have great 
 weight. And when we remember how easily scien- 
 tific scepticism is satisfied with the faintest traces of 
 whatever strengthens its theories — how thin are 
 some of the generalizations of Herbert Spencer — 
 how very slight and fanciful are the resemblances of 
 words which philologists often accept as indisputable 
 proofs — how far-fetched are the inferences some- 
 times drawn from the appearance of half-decayed 
 fossils as proofs and even demonstrations of the law 
 of evolution — we need not be over-modest in setting 
 forth these traces of an original divine element in 
 the institution of typical sacrifices among men. 
 
INDISEOi' TRIBUTES OP HEATHEN SYSTEMS 281 
 
 It is never safe to assume positively this or that 
 meaning for a mysterious passage found in the sacred 
 books of non-Christian systems, but there are many 
 things which seem at least to illustrate important 
 precepts of the Christian faith. Thus the slain 
 Osiris of the Egyptians was said to enter into the 
 sufferings of mortals. "Having suffered the great 
 wound," so the record runs, " he was wounded m 
 every other wound." And we read in " The Book 
 of the Dead" that " when the Lord of truth cleanses 
 away defilement, evil is joined to the deity that the 
 truth may expel the evil." * This seems to denote an 
 idea of vicarious righteousness. 
 
 The Onondaga Indians had a tradition that the 
 celestial Hiawatha descended from heaven and dwelt 
 among their ancestors, and that upon the establish- 
 ment of the League of the Iroquois he was called by 
 the Great Spirit to sanctify that League by self- 
 sacrifice. As the Indian council was about to open, 
 Hiawatha was bowed with intense suffering, which 
 faintly reminds one of Christ's agony in Gethsemane. 
 He foresaw that his innocent and only child would be 
 taken from him. Soon after a messenger from heav- 
 en smote her to tha earth by his side. Then, having 
 drank this cup of sorrow, he entered the coimcil and 
 guided its deliberations with superhuman wisdom, f 
 In citing this incident nothing more is intended 
 than to call attention to some of the mysterious con- 
 ceptions which seem to float dimly through the 
 minds of the most savage races, and which show at 
 
 * De Pressense : TJie Ancient World and Chmtiamtg, p. 87. 
 f Schoolcraft : Notes on the Iroquois. 
 
282 OBIENTAL BELIQI0N8 AND OHRISTIANITT 
 
 the very least that the idea of vicarious sacrifice is 
 not strange to mankind, but is often mysteriously 
 connected with their greatest blessiugs. The legend 
 of "Prometheus Bound," as we find it in the tragedies 
 of iEschylus, is so graphic in its picture of vicarious 
 suffering for the good of men that infidel writers 
 have charged the story of the Cross with plagiarism, 
 and have applied to Prometheus some of the expres- 
 sions used in the fifty-third chapter of the Prophecy 
 of Isaiah. We are often told that there is injustice 
 in the very idea of vicarious suffering, as involved in 
 the Christian doctrine of salvation, or that the best 
 iastiacts of a reasonable humanity revolt against it. 
 But such criticisms are sufficiently met by these 
 analogies which we find among all nations. 
 
 Let me next call attention to some of the pre- 
 dicted deliverers for whom the nations have been 
 looking. Nothing found in the study of the relig- 
 ious history of mankind is more striking than the 
 universality of a vague expectation of coming mes- 
 siahs. According to the teachings of Hinduism there 
 have been nine incarnations of Vishnu, of whom 
 Buddha was admitted to be one. But there is to be 
 a tenth avatar who shall yet come at a time of great 
 and universal wickedness, and shall establish a king- 
 dom of righteousness on the earth. Some years ago 
 the Eev. Dr. John Newton, of Lahore, took advantage 
 of this prediction and wrote a tract showuig that the 
 true deliverer and king of righteousness had already 
 come in the person of Jesus Christ. So striking 
 seemed the fulfilment viewed from the Hindu stand- 
 point, that some hundreds in the city of Bam- 
 
INDIREOT TRIBUTES OF HEATHEN SYSTEMS 283 
 
 pore were led to a faith in Christ as an ayatar of 
 Vishnu. 
 
 A remarkable illustration of a felt want of some- 
 thing brighter and more hopeful is seen in the le- 
 gends and predictions of the Teutonic and Norse 
 religions. The faiths of all the Teutonic races were 
 of the sternest character, and it was such a cultus that 
 made them the terror of Europe. They worshipped 
 their grim deities in the congenial darkness of deep 
 forest shades. There was no joy, no sense of divine 
 pity, no peace. They were conscious of deep and 
 unutterable wants which were never met. They 
 yearned for a golden age and the coming of a deliv- 
 erer. Baldr, one of the sons of Woden, had passed 
 away, but prophecy promised that he should return 
 to deliver mankind from sorrow and from death. 
 " When the twilight of the gods should have passed 
 away, then amid prodigies and the crash and decay 
 of a wicked world, in glory and joy he should return, 
 and a glorious kingdom should be renewed." Or, in 
 the words of one of their own poets : 
 
 " Then unsown the swath shall flourish and back come 
 
 Baldr ; 
 "With him Hoder shall dwell in Hropter's palace, 
 Shrines of gods the great and holy, 
 There the just shall joy forever, 
 
 And in pleasure pass the ages." 
 
 The weU-known prediction of the Sibyl of OumsB 
 bears testimony to the same expectation of mankind. 
 The genuine Sibylline Oracles were in existence an- 
 terior to the birth of Christ. Virgil died forty years 
 
284 ORIENTAL BELIGIONB AND GHBISTIANITT 
 
 before tliat event, and the well-known eclogue Pol- 
 lio is stated by him to be a transcript of the pro- 
 phetic carmen of the Sibyl of Cumse. But for the 
 fact that it has a Roman instead of a Jewish color- 
 ing, it might almost seem Messianic. The oracle 
 speaks thus : " The last era, the subject of the Sibyl 
 song of Cumse, has now arrived; the great series of 
 ages begins anew. The virgin returns — returns the 
 reign of Saturn. The progeny from heaven now de- 
 scends. Be thou propitious to the Infant Boy by 
 whom first the Iron Age shall expire, and the Golden 
 Age over the whole world shall commence. Whilst 
 thou, O Pollio, art consul, this glory of our age shall 
 be made manifest, and the celestial months begin their 
 revolutions. Under thy auspices whatever vestiges 
 of our guilt remain, shall, by being atoned for, re- 
 deem the earth from fear forever. He shall partake 
 of the life of the gods. He shall reign over a world 
 in peace with his father's virtues. The earth, sweet 
 boy, as her first-fruits, shall pour thee forth sponta- 
 neous flowers. The serpent shall die : the poison- 
 ous and deceptive tree shall die. All things, heavens 
 and earth and the regions of the sea, rejoice at the 
 advent of this age. The time is now at hand."* 
 Forty years later the Christ appeared. Whether Yir- 
 gil had been influenced by Hebrew prophecy it is 
 impossible to say. It may be that the so-called Sibyl 
 had caught something of the same hope which led the 
 Magi of the East to the cradle of the infant Messiah, 
 but in any case the eclogue voiced a vague expecta- 
 tion which prevailed throughout the Roman Empire. 
 • Quoted by Morgan in 8t. Paul in Britain, p. 23. 
 
INDIBEOT TRIBUTES OF HEATHEN SYSTEMS 285 
 
 In modem as well as in ancient times nations and 
 races have looked for deliverers or for some brighter 
 hope. Missionaries found the Hawaiians dissatisfied 
 and hopeless ; their idols had been thrown away. 
 The Karens were waiting for the arrival of the mes- 
 sengers of the truth. The Mexicans, at the time of 
 the Spanish conquest, were looking for a celestial 
 benefactor. The very last instance of an anxious 
 looking for a deliverer is that which quite recently 
 has so sadly misled our Sioux Indians. 
 
 Mankind have longed not only for deliverers, but 
 also for mediators. The central truth of the Christ- 
 ian faith is its divine sympathy and help brought 
 down into our human nature. In other words, me- 
 diation — God with man. The faith of the Hindus, 
 lacking this element, was cold and remorseless. 
 Siva, the god of destruction, and his hideous and 
 blood-thirsty wives, had become chief objects of 
 worship, only because destruction and death led to 
 life again. But there was no divine help. The 
 gods were plied with sharp bargains in sacrifice and 
 merit ; they were appeased ; they were cajoled ; but 
 there was no love. But the time came when the felt 
 want of men for something nearer and more sympa- 
 thetic led to the doctrine of "Vishnu's incarnations : 
 first grotesque deliverers in animal shapes, but at 
 length the genial and sympathetic Krishna. He 
 was not the highest model of character, but he was 
 human. He had associated with the nistics and 
 frolicked around their camp-fires. He became Ar- 
 juna's charioteer and rendered him counsel and help 
 in that low disguise. He was a sharer of burdens — 
 
286 ORIENTAL BELIGIONB AND 0HRI8TIANIT7 
 
 a counsellor and friend. And lie became the most 
 popular of all Hindu deities. 
 
 The important point in all this is that this old 
 system, so self-sufficient and self-satisfied, should 
 have groped its way toward a divine sympathizer in 
 human form, a living and helpful god among men. 
 Hinduism had not been wanting in anthropomor- 
 phisms : it had imagined the presence of God in a 
 thousand visible objects which rude men could ap- 
 preciate. Trees, apes, cattle, crocodiles, and serpents 
 had been invested with an in-dwelling spirit, but it 
 had found no mediator. Men had been trying by all 
 manner of devices to sublimate their souls, and climb 
 Godward by their own self-mortification ; but they 
 had realized no divine help. To meet this want 
 they developed a veritable doctrine of faith. They 
 had learned from Buddhism the great influence and 
 power of one who could instruct and counsel and en- 
 courage. Some Oriental scholars think that they had 
 also learned many things from Christian sources.* 
 
 However that may be — from whatever source they 
 had gained this suggestion — they found it to accord 
 with the deepest wants of the human heart. And 
 the splendid tribute which that peculiar development 
 bears to the great fundamental principles of the Chris- 
 tian faith, is all the more striking for the fact that it 
 grew up in spite of the adamantine convervatism of 
 a system, all of whose teachings had been in a pre- 
 cisely opposite direction. It was old Hinduism 
 
 * The fall derelopment of the doctrine was not reached till 
 far on in the Christian centuries. Hardwiok : Christ and Other 
 Masters, p. 304. 
 
IlfDIMEGT TRIBUTES OF HEATHEN SYSTEMS 28T 
 
 coming out of its intrenclimeiits to pay honor to the 
 true way of eternal life. Probably the doctrine first 
 sprang from a felt want, but was subsequently reiu- 
 forced by Christian influences. 
 
 The late Professor Banergea, in his " Aryan Wit- 
 ness," gives what must be regarded as at least a very 
 plausible account of the last development of the so- 
 called Krishna cult, and of this doctrine of faith. 
 He thinks that it borrowed very much from western 
 monotheists. He quotes a passage from the Narada 
 Pancharata, which represents a pious Brahman of the 
 eighth century a.d., as having been sent to the fai* 
 northwest, where "white-faced monotheists" would 
 teach him a pm-e faith in the Supreme Vishnu or 
 Krishna. He quotes also, from another and later 
 authority, a dialogue in which this same Brahman re- 
 proved Vyasa for not having celebrated the praises 
 of Krishna as supreme. This Professor Banergea 
 regarded as proof that previously to the eighth cen- 
 tury Krishna has been worshipped only as a demi- 
 god. But the whole drift of the old Brahmanical 
 doctrines had been toward sacrifice as a debt and 
 credit system, and that plan had failed. It had im- 
 poverished the land and rained the people, and had 
 brought no spiritual comfort. Men had found that 
 they could not buy salvation. 
 
 Moreover, Buddhism and other forms of ration- 
 alistic philosophy, after prolonged and thorough 
 experiment, had also failed. The Hindu race had 
 found that as salvation could not be pui-chased 
 with sacrifices, neither could it be reasoned out by 
 philosophy, nor worked out by austerities. It must 
 
288 OBIBNTAL BELIOIONS AND OHRISTIANITT 
 
 come from a Divine helper. Thus, when Narada 
 had wearied himself with austerities — so we read 
 in the Narada Pancharata — he heard a voice from 
 heaven saying: "If Krishna is worshipped, what 
 is the use of austerities? If Krishna is not wor- 
 shipped, what is the use of austerities? If Krishna 
 is withia and without, what is the use of austerities ? 
 If Krishna is not within and without, what is the use 
 of austerities ? Stop, O Brahman ; why do you en- 
 gage in austerities? Go quickly and get matured 
 faith ia Krishna, as described by the sect of Yishnu 
 who snaps the fetters of the world." " We are thus 
 led," says Professor Banergea, " to the very genesis 
 of the doctrine of faith in connection with Hinduism. 
 And it was admittedly not an excogitation of the 
 Brahmanical mind itself. Narada had brought it 
 from the land of ' the whites,' where he got an insight 
 into Vishnu as the Saviour which was not attainable 
 elsewhere." And he then persuaded the author of 
 one of the Puranas to recount the " Lord's acts " — in 
 other words, the history of Krishna, with the enforce- 
 ment of faith in his divinity : " Change the name," 
 says Banergea, " and it is almost Christian doctrine."* 
 It is an interesting fact that Buddhism, in its prog- 
 ress through the centuries, has also wrought out a 
 doctrine of faith by a similar process. It began as a 
 form of atheistic rationalism. Its most salient feat- 
 ure was staunch and avowed independence of all 
 help from gods or men. It emphasized in every 
 way the self-sufficiency of one's own mind and will 
 to work out emancipation. But when Buddha died 
 * Aryan Witness, closing chapter. 
 
INDIBEOT TSIBUTBS OF HEATHEN SYSTEMS 289 
 
 no enlightened counsellor was left, and another 
 Buddha could not be expected for four thousand 
 years. The multitudes of his disciples felt that, 
 theory or no theory, there was an awful Yoid. The 
 baJd and bleak system could not stand on such a 
 basis. The human heart cried out for some divine 
 helper, some one to whom man could pray. Fortun- 
 ately there were supposed to be predestined Buddhas 
 — " Bodisats " — then li^dng in some of the heavens, 
 aud as they were preparing themselves to become 
 incarnate Buddhas, they must already be interested 
 in human affairs, and especially the Maitreyeh, who 
 would appear on earth next in order. 
 
 So Buddhism, in spite of its own most pronounced 
 dogmas, began to pray to an unseen being, began to 
 depend and trust, began to lay hold on divine sym- 
 pathy, and look to heaven for help. By the seventh 
 century of our era the northern Buddhists, whether 
 influenced in part by the contact of Christianity, or 
 not, had subsidized more than one of these coming 
 Buddhas. They had a complete Trinity. One per- 
 son of this Trinity, the everywhere present Avolo- 
 kitesvara, became the chief object of worship, the 
 divine helper on whom all dependence was placed. 
 This mythical being was really the God of northern 
 Buddhism in the Middle Ages, and is the popular 
 sympathizer of all Mongolian races to the present 
 day. In Thibet he is supposed to be incarnate in 
 the Grand Lama. In China he is incarnate in Quan- 
 yen, the goddess of mercy. With sailors she is the 
 goddess of the sea. In many temples she is invoked 
 by the sick, the halt, the blind, the impoverished, 
 19 
 
290 OBIENTAL BELI0I0N8 AND 0HRI8TIANITT 
 
 Her images are sometimes represented with, a hun- 
 dred arms to symbolize her omnipotence to save. 
 Beal says of this, as Banergea says of the faith ele- 
 ment of the Krishna cult, that it is wholly alien to 
 the religion whose name it bears : it is not Budd- 
 hism. He thinks that it has been greatly affected 
 by Christian influences. 
 
 Another mythical being who is worshipped as God 
 in China and Japan, is Amitabba, a Dhyana or celes- 
 tial Buddha, who in long kalpas of Time has ac- 
 quired merit enough for the whole world. Two of 
 the twelve Buddhist sects of Japan have abandoned 
 every principle taught by Gautama, except his ethics, 
 and have cast themselves upon the free grace of Ami- 
 tabba. They have exchanged the old atheism for 
 theism. They have given up all dependence on 
 merit-making and self-help ; they now rely wholly 
 on the infinite merit of another. Their religious 
 duties are performed out of gratitude for a free sal- 
 vation wrought out for them, and no longer as the 
 means of gaining heaven. They live by a faith 
 which works by love. They expect at death an im- 
 mediate transfer to a permanent heaven, instead of 
 a series of transmigrations. Their Buddha is not 
 dead, but he ever Uveth to receive into his heavenly 
 realm all who accept his grace, and to admit them to 
 his divine fellowship forever. By a direct and com- 
 plete imputation they are made sharers in his right- 
 eousness, and become joint heirs in his heavenly 
 inheritance. Whatever the genesis of these strange 
 cults which now prevail as the chief religious beliefs 
 among the Mongolian races, they are marvellously 
 
INDIBEGT TBIBUTB8 OF HEATHEN SYSTEMS 291 
 
 significant. They have come almost to the very 
 threshold of Christianity. What they need is the 
 true Saviour and not a myth, a living faith and not 
 an empty delusion. Nevertheless, they prove that 
 faith in a divine salvation is the only religion that 
 can meet the wants of the human soul. 
 
 There is something very encouraging in these 
 approaches toward the great doctrines of salvation. 
 I do not believe that these sects have come so near 
 to the true Messiah without the iufluenee of the 
 Spirit of God, and without more or less light from 
 Christian sources. But partly they have been moved 
 by those wants which Hinduism and Buddhism 
 could not satisfy. The principle of their faith is 
 worthy of recognition, and the missionary should 
 say as Paul said : " Whom ye ignorantly worship, 
 Him declare I unto you." 
 
 It is a very significant fact that most of the 
 Brahmo Somajes of India have adopted Jesus Christ 
 as the greatest of the world's prophets. Chunder 
 Sen sometimes spoke of him as a devout Christian 
 would speak. The Arya Somaj would not own His 
 name, but it has graced its Hindu creed with many of 
 His essential doctrines. Quite recently a new organ 
 of the Brahmo Somaj, published at Hyderabad, has 
 announced as its leading object, " to harmonize pure 
 Hinduism and pure Christianity, with Christ as the 
 chief comer-stone." In the exact words of this paper, 
 called The Harmony, its aim is " to preach Christ 
 as the eternal Son of God, as the Logos in all proph- 
 ets and saints before and after the incarnation, as 
 the incarnate, perfect righteousness by whose obe- 
 
392 OBIBNTAL RELIGIONS AND OHBiaTIANITT 
 
 dience man is made righteous. . . . Christ is 
 the reconciliation of man with man, and of all men 
 with God, the harmony of humanity with humanity, 
 and of all humanity with Divinity." This prospec- 
 tus condemns the average Christianity of foreigners 
 in India — the over-reaching, " beef-eatiug, beer- 
 drinking" Anglo-Saxon type, "which despises the 
 Hindu Scriptures and yet belies its own ; " but it ex- 
 alts the spotless and exalted Christ and builds aU 
 the hopes of humanity upon Him. How will the 
 mere philosopher explain this wonderful power of 
 personality over men of all races, if it be not Di- 
 vine? 
 
 But perhaps the most remarkable tribute to the 
 transcendent character of Christ is seen in the fact 
 that all sects of religionists, the most fanatical and 
 irrational, seem to claim Him as in some sense their 
 own. Mormonism, even when plunging into the 
 lowest depths gf degradation, has always claimed to 
 rest on the redemption of Jesus Christ. Mohamme- 
 danism — even the Koran itself — has always acknowl- 
 edged Christ as the only sinless prophet. All the 
 others, from Adam to Mohammed, stand convicted of 
 heinous offences, and they will not reappear on 
 earth ; while He who knew no sin shall, according to 
 Mohammedan prophecy, yet come again to judge 
 the earth. The worshippers of Krishna, some of 
 whom are found among us in this land, claim Christ 
 as one of the true avatars of Vishnu, and heartily 
 commend His character and His teachings. Our 
 western Buddhists are just now emphasizing the idea 
 that Christ was the sacred Buddha of Paleatiae, that 
 
INDIRECT TRIBUTES OF HEATHEN SYSTEMS 293 
 
 he studied and taught " the eight-fold path," became 
 an arahat, and attained Nirvana, and that the Chris- 
 tian Church has only misrepresented His transcen- 
 dent wisdom and purity. The ablest tract on The- 
 osophy that I have yet seen is entitled " Theosophy 
 the Eeligion of Jesus." 
 
 How marvellous is all this — that Theosophists, 
 Aryas, Brahmos, Buddhists, Moslems, though they 
 hate Christianity and fight it to the death— still bow 
 before the mild sceptre of Christ. As the central 
 light of the diamond shines alike through every facet 
 and angle, so His doctrine and character are claimed 
 as the glory of every creed. Many types of heathen 
 faiths honor Him, and many schools of philosophic 
 scepticism. Some of the noblest tributes to His im- 
 earthly purity have been given by men who rejected 
 His divinity. In spite of itself the most earnest 
 thought of many races, many systems, many creeds, 
 has crystallized aroimd Him. History has made Him 
 its moral centre, the calendar of the nations begins 
 with Him, and the anniversary of His birth is the 
 festival of the civilized world. The prediction that 
 aU. nations should call Him blessed is already ful- 
 fiUed. 
 
LECTTJEE IX. 
 
 BTmCAIi TENDENCIES OF THE EASTERN ASD THE 
 WESTERN PHILOSOPHIES 
 
 It is not my purpose to discuss the comparative 
 merits of philosophic systems, but only to consider 
 some practical bearings of philosophy, ancient and 
 modem, upon vital questions of morals and relig- 
 ion. There has been no lack of speculation in the 
 world. For ages the most gifted minds have la- 
 bored and struggled to solve the mysteries of the 
 Universe and of its Author. But they have missed 
 the all-important fact that with the heart, as weU as 
 with the intellect, men are to be learners of the high- 
 est wisdom, and that they are to listen to the voice 
 of God not only in nature, but in the soul. 
 
 So the old questions, still unsolved, are ever asked 
 anew. The same wearying researches and the same 
 confident assertions, to be replaced by others equal- 
 ly confident, are found both in the ancient and in 
 the modem history of mankind. By wisdom the 
 present generation has come no nearer to finding out 
 God than men of the remotest times. The cheerless 
 conclusion of agnosticism was reached in India 
 twenty-four centuries ago, and Confucius expressed 
 it exactly when he said, with reference to the future, 
 " We do not know life j how can we know death ? " 
 
EASTEBN AND WE8TBBN PHIL080PHIM3 395 
 
 This same dubious negation probably has the larg- 
 est following of all types of unbelief in our time. It 
 is not atheism : that, to the great mass of men, is un- 
 thinkable ; it is easier to assume simply that " we do 
 not know." Yet almost every form of agnosticism, 
 ancient or modem, claims to possess a vast amount 
 of very positive knowledge. Speculative hypothesis 
 never employed the language of dogmatic assurance 
 so confidently as now. Even theosophic occultism 
 speaks of itself as " science." 
 
 That which strikes one first of all in the history 
 of philosophy is the similarity between ancient and 
 modem speculations upon the great mysteries of the 
 world. 
 
 1. Notice with what accord various earlier and 
 later theories dispense with real and personal crea- 
 torship in the origin of the universe. The atomic 
 theory of creation is by no means a modem inven- 
 tion, and so far as evolution is connected with that 
 hypothesis, evolution is very old. Mr. Herbert 
 Spencer states his theory thus : " First in the 
 order of evolution is the formation of simple me- 
 chanical aggregates of atoms, e.g., molecules, spheres, 
 systems ; then the evolution of more complex ag- 
 gregations or organisms : then the evolution of the 
 highest product of organization, thought ; and last- 
 ly, the evolution of the complex relations which 
 exist between thinking organisms, or society with 
 its regulative laws, both civil and moral." Be- 
 tween these stages, he tells us, " there is no fixed 
 
 line of demarcation The passage from 
 
 one to the other is continuous, the transition from 
 
296 ORIENTAL BBLI&IONa AND 0EBI8TIANITT 
 
 organization to thought being mediated by the nerve- 
 system, in the molecular changes of which are to be 
 found the mechanical correlates and equivalents of 
 aU conscious processes." It will be seen that this 
 comprehensive statement is designed to cover, if not 
 the creation, at least the creative processes of all 
 things in the imiverse of matter and in the universe 
 of thought. 
 
 Mr. Spencer does not allude here to the question 
 of a First Cause back of the molecules and their 
 movements, though he is generally understood to 
 admit that such a Cause may exist. He does not 
 in express terms deny that at some stage in this 
 development there may have been introduced a di- 
 viae spark of immortal hfe direct from the Crea- 
 tor's hand. He even maintains that " the conscious 
 soul is not the product of a collocation of material 
 particles, but is in the deepest sense a Divine efflu- 
 ence." * Yet he seems to get on without any very 
 necessary reliance upon such an intervention, since 
 the development from the atom to the civilized man 
 is " a continuous process," and throughout the whole 
 course from molecule to thought and moral and so- 
 cial law, " there are no lines of demarcation." He 
 leaves it for the believer in theistic evolution to 
 show when and where and how the Divine effluence 
 is iatroduced. 
 
 Similar to this was the theory which the Hindu 
 
 Kanada propounded more than two thousand years 
 
 ago. As translated and interpreted by Colebrook, 
 
 Kanada taught that " two earthly atoms concurring 
 
 ♦ Quoted in Fiske's Deatiny of Man, p. 117. 
 
BASTEBir AND WESTEBN PHILOSOPHIES 297 
 
 by an unseen and peculiar virtue called " adrislita," 
 or by the will of God, or by time, or by competent 
 cause, constitute a double atom of earth ; and by 
 concourse of three binary atoms a tertiary atom is 
 produced, and by concourse of four triple atoms a 
 quaternary, and so on.* Thus the great earth is 
 produced. The system of Lucretius was much the 
 same, though neither Lucretius nor Spencer has 
 recognized any such force as adrishta.f 
 
 What seems to distinguish Mr. Spencer's theory is 
 the extension of this evolutionary process to mind 
 and spirit in the development of thought and feeling. 
 He does not say that mind resides in the molecules, 
 but that their movements attend (if they do not 
 originate and control) the operation of the mind. 
 Professor Leconte seems to go farther when he 
 says that " in animals brain-changes are in all eases 
 the cause of psychical phenomena ; in man alone, 
 and only in his higher activities, psychic changes 
 precede and determine brain changes." % We shall 
 see farther on that Mr. Spencer, in his theory of 
 intuition, admits this same principle by logical in- 
 ference, and traces even man's highest faculties to 
 brain or nerve changes in our ancestors. Kanada 
 also held that mind, instead of being a purely spir- 
 itual power, is atomic or molecular, and by logical 
 
 * See Indian Wisdom, p. 83. 
 
 f What Kanada meant hy adrishta was a sort of habit of mat- 
 ter derived from its past combinations in a previous cosmos, one 
 or more. The rod which has been bent will bend again, and so 
 matter which has once been combined will unite again. 
 
 ^: Evolution and its Belation to Religious Thought, p. 337. 
 
298 OBIENTAL BELiaiONS AND OHBiaTIANITT 
 
 deduction the mental activities must depend on the 
 condition of the molecules. 
 
 Earn Chandra Bose, in expounding Kanada's 
 theory, says : " The general idea of mind is that 
 luliich is subordinate to substance, being also found 
 in iatimate relations in an atom, and it is itself 
 material." The early Buddhist philosophers also 
 taught that physical elements are among the five 
 "skandas" which constitute the phenomenal soul. 
 Demooritus and Lucretius regarded the mind as 
 atomic, and the primal " monad " of Leibnitz was the 
 living germ — smallest of things — which enters into all 
 visible and invisible creations, and which is itself all- 
 potential ; it is a living microcosm ; it is an immortal 
 soul. These various theories are not parallels, but 
 they have striking similarities. And I believe that 
 Professor Tyndall, in his famous Belfast Address, 
 virtually acknowledges Lucretius as the father of the 
 modern atomic theories. Whether Lucretius bor- 
 rowed them from India, we shall not stop to inquire, 
 but we may safely assert that modem philosophers, 
 German, French or English, have borrowed them 
 from one or both. 
 
 It is not my purpose to discuss the truth or 
 falsity of the atomic theory, or the relation of mind 
 to the movements of molecules in the brain ; I 
 simply point out the fact that this is virtually an old 
 hypothesis; and I leave each one to judge how 
 great a degree of light it has shed upon the path of 
 human life in the ages of the past, how far it 
 availed to check the decline of Greece and Rome, 
 and how much of real moral or intellectual force it 
 
EASTEBN AND WESTERN PHILOaOPHIES 299 
 
 has imparted to the Hindu race. The credulous 
 masses of men should not be left to suppose that 
 these are new speculations, nor to imagine that that 
 which has been so barren in the past can become ia 
 gospel of hope in the present and the future. 
 
 The constant tendency with young students of 
 philosophy, is to conclude that the hypotheses 
 which they espouse with so much enthusiasm are 
 new revelations in metaphysics and ethics as well 
 as in physical science — compared with which the 
 Christian cultus of eighteen centuries is now effete* 
 and doomed. It is well, therefore, to know that so 
 far from these speculations haying risen upon the 
 ruins of Christianity, Christianity rose upon the 
 ruins of these speculations as, in modified forms, 
 they had been profoundly elaborated in the philos- 
 ophies of Greece and Eome. Lucretius was bom a 
 century before the Christian era, and Democritus, 
 whose disciple he became, lived earlier still. Kan- 
 ada, the atomist philosopher of India, lived three cen- 
 turies before Democritus. The early Christian fa- 
 thers were perfectly familiar with the theories of 
 Lucretius. We are indebted to Jerome for many 
 of the facts which we possess concerning him. Near- 
 ly all the great leaders of the church, from Origen 
 to Ambrose, had studied Greek philosophy, some 
 of them had been its devotees before their conversion 
 to the Christian faith. There is at least incident- 
 al evidence that the Apostle Paul was versed in 
 the current philosophy as well as in the poetry of 
 Greece. 
 
 These great men — great in natural powers and in 
 
300 ORIENTAL nBLIQIOM AND OHBISTIANITT 
 
 philosopMc training — had seen just what the specu- 
 lations of Democritus, Lucretius, Zeno, Socrates, 
 Plato, and Aristotle could do ; they had indeed un- 
 iermined the low superstitions of their time, but they 
 bad proved powerless to regenerate society, or even 
 relieve the individual pessimism and despair of men 
 like Seneca, Pliny, or Marcus Aurelius. Lucretius, 
 wholly or partially insane, died by his own hand. 
 The light of philosophy left the Eoman Empire, as 
 Uhlhom and others have clearly shown, under the 
 shadow of a general despair. And it was in the 
 midst of that gloom that the light of Christianity 
 shone forth. Augustine, who had fathomed various 
 systems and believed in them, tells us that it was 
 the philosophy which appeared in the writings and 
 in the hfe of the Apostle Paul which finally wrought 
 the great change in his career. Plato had done 
 much; Paul and the Cross of Christ did infinitely 
 more. 
 
 The development of higher forms of life from 
 lower by natural selection, as set forth by the late 
 Charles Darwin, has been supposed to be an entirely 
 new system. Yet the Chinese claim to have held a 
 theory of development which represents the moun- 
 tains as having once been covered by the sea. 
 When the waters subsided small herbs sprang up, 
 which in the course of ages developed into trees. 
 Worms and insects also appeared spontaneously, like 
 lice upon a living body ; and these after a long 
 period became larger animals — beetles became tor- 
 toises ; worms, serpents. The mantis was developed 
 into an ape, and certain apes became at length hair- 
 
EASTERN AND WESTERN PHILOSOPHIES 301 
 
 less. One of these by accident struck fire with a 
 flint. The cooking of food at length followed the 
 use of fire, and the apes, by being better nourished, 
 were finally changed into men. Whether this theory 
 is ancient or modern, it is eminently Chinese, and 
 it shows the natural tendency of men to ascribe the 
 germs of life to spontaneous generation, because they 
 fail to see the Great First Cause who produces them. 
 The one thing which is noticeable in nearly all 
 human systems of religion and philosophy, is that 
 they have no clear and distinct idea of creatorship. 
 They are systems of evolution ; in one way or 
 another they represent the world as having grown. 
 Generally they assume the eternity of matter, and 
 often they are found to regard the present cosmos as 
 only a certain stage in an endless circle of changes 
 from life to death and from death to life. The 
 world rebuilds itself from the wreck and debris of 
 former worlds. It is quite consistent with many of 
 these systems that there should be gods, but as a 
 rule they recognize no God. While all races of men 
 have shown traces of a belief in a Supreme Creator 
 and Buler far above their inferior deities, yet their 
 philosophers, if they had any, have sooner or later 
 bowed Him out. 
 
 2. Most systems of philosophic speculation, an- 
 cient and modem, tend to weaken the sense of moral 
 accountability. First, the atomic theory, which we 
 have just considered, leads to this result by the mo- 
 lecular, and therefore purely physical, origin which 
 it assigns to moral acts and conditions. We have 
 already aUuded to Herbert Spencer's theory of intu- 
 
302 ORIENTAL BELIGI0N8 AND OHBISTIANITT 
 
 ition. In tlie "Data of Ethics," page 123, he says: 
 " I believe that the experiences of utility, organized 
 and consolidated through all past generations of the' 
 human race, have been producing corresponding ner- 
 vous modifications, which by continued transmission 
 and accumulation have become in us certain faculties 
 of moral intuition, certain emotions corresponding to 
 right and wrong conduct which have no apparent 
 basis in the individual experiences of utility." 
 
 It appears from this statement that, so far as we 
 are concerned, our moral intuitions are the results of 
 " nervous modifications," if not in ourselves, at least 
 in our ancestors, so that the controlling influence 
 which rules, and which ought to rule, our conduct is a 
 nervous, and therefore a physical, condition which we 
 have inherited. It follows, therefore, that every 
 man's conscience or inherited moral sense is bound 
 by a necessity of his physical constitution. And if 
 this be so, why is there not a wide door here opened 
 for theories of moral insanity, which might come at 
 length to cast their shield over all forms and grades 
 of crime ? It is easy to see that, whatever theory of 
 creation may be admitted as to the origin of the hu- 
 man soul, this hypothesis rules out the idea of an 
 original moral likeness of the human spirit to a Su- 
 preme Moral Ruler of the universe, in whom right- 
 eousness dwells as an eternal principle ; and it finds 
 no higher source for what we call conscience than the 
 accumulated experience of our ancestors. 
 
 The materialistic view recently presented by Dr. 
 Henry Maudsley, in an article entitled, " The Physi- 
 cal Basis of Mind " — an article which seems to fol-s 
 
EASTERN AND WESTEBN PHILOSOPHIES 303 
 
 low Mr. Spencer very closely — would break down all 
 moral responsibility. His theory that true character 
 depends upon what he calls the reflex action of the 
 nerve-cells ; that acts of reason or conscience which 
 have been put forth so many times that, in a sense, 
 they perform themselves without any exercise of 
 consciousness, are the best ; that a man is an instinc- 
 tive thief or liar, or a born poet, because the proper 
 nervous structure has been fixed in his constitution 
 by his ancestors ; that any moral act, so long as it is 
 conscious, is not ingrained in character, and the more 
 conscious it is, the more dubious it is ; and that 
 "virtue itself is not safely lodged imtil it has be- 
 come a habit " — in other words, tUl it has become an 
 automatic and unconscious operation of the nerve- 
 cells, such a doctrine, in its extreme logical results, 
 destroys aU volimtary and conscious loyalty to prin- 
 ciple, and renders man a mere automatic machine. 
 
 On the other hand Mr. A. R. Wallace, in combat- 
 ing the theory that the moral sense in man is based 
 on the utility experienced by our ancestors, re- 
 lates the following incident : "A number of prison- 
 ers taken during the Santal insurrection were al- 
 lowed to go free on parole, to work at a certain spot 
 for wages. After some time cholera attacked them 
 and they were obliged to leave, but everyone of them 
 returned and gave up his earnings to the guard. 
 Two hundred savages with money in their girdles 
 walked thirty miles back to prison rather than break 
 their word. My own experience with savages has 
 furnished me with similar, although less severely 
 tested; instances ; and we cannot avoid asking how it 
 
304 ORIENTAL RELI0I0N8 AND OHBIBTIANITT 
 
 is that, in these few cases " experience of utility " 
 have left such an overpowering impression, while in 
 others they have left none. . . . The intuitional 
 theory which I am now advocating explains this by 
 the supposition that there is a feeling — a sense of 
 right and wrong — in our nature antecedent to, and 
 independent of, experiences of utility." * 
 
 3. Theories which confound the origin of man 
 with that of brutes, whether in the old doctrine of 
 transmigration or in at least some of the theories of 
 evolution, involve a contradiction in man's ethical his- 
 tory. The confusion shown in the Buddhist Jatakas, 
 wherein Buddha, in the previous existences which 
 prepared him for his great and holy mission, was 
 sometimes a saint and sometimes a gambler and a 
 thief, is scarcely greater, from an ethical point of 
 view, than that which evolution encounters in bridg- 
 ing the chasm between brute instinct and the lofty 
 ethics of the perfected man. 
 
 The lower grades of animal life know no other law 
 than the instinct which prompts them to devour the 
 types which are lower still. This destruction of the 
 weaker by the stronger pervades the whole brute 
 creation ; it is a life of violence throughout. On the 
 other hand, aU weaker creatures, exposed to such 
 ravages, protect themselves universally by deception. 
 The grouse shields her young from hawks or other 
 camivora by running in the opposite direction, with 
 the assumed appearance of a broken wing. The flat 
 fish, to escape its mortal enemies, lies upon the bot- 
 tom of the stream, scarcely distinguishable in color 
 * On Ifatural Selection, p. 353. 
 
EASTERN AND WE8TEBN PHILOSOPHIES 305 
 
 or appearance from the sand which constitutes its 
 bed. Nature seems to aid and abet its falsehood by 
 the Tery form which has been assigned to it. And 
 so also the gift of transparency helps the chameleon 
 in seeming to be a part of the green plant, or the 
 brown bark, upon which it lies. And Professor 
 Drummond, in his interesting account of his Afri- 
 caa travels, describes certain insects which render 
 themselves indistinguishable either in color or in 
 form from the branchings and exfoliation of certain 
 grasses upon which they feed. Deception therefore 
 becomes a chief resource of the weak, while violence 
 is that of the strong. And those which are in the 
 middle of the scale practise both. There are still 
 other animals which are invested with attributes of 
 all that is meanest and most contemptible in charac- 
 ter. The sly and insinuating snake gliding noise- 
 lessly toward the victim of its envenomed sting — the 
 spider which spreads forth its beautiful and alluring 
 net, sparkh'ng with morning dew, while it lurks in a 
 secret comer, ready to faU upon its luckless prey — ■ 
 the sneaking and repulsive hyena, too cowardly to 
 attack the strong and vigorous, but waiting for the 
 crippled, the helpless, the sick, and dying — if all these 
 are in the school of preparation for that noble stage 
 of manhood when truth and righteousness shall be 
 its crown of glory, then, where is the turning-point ? 
 Where do violence, meanness, and deception gradu- 
 ally beam forth into benevolence and truth ? 
 
 " The spider kills the fly. The wiser sphinx 
 Stings the poor spider in the centre nerve, 
 Which paralyzes only ; lays her eggs, 
 20 
 
306 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND OHRISTIANITT 
 
 And buries with them with a loving care 
 
 The spider, powerless but still alive, 
 
 To warm them unto life, and afterward 
 
 To serve as food among the little ones. 
 
 This is the lesson nature has to teach, 
 
 ' Woe to the conquered, victory to the strong.' 
 
 And so through all the ages, step by step, 
 
 The stronger and the craftier replaced 
 
 The weaker, and increased and multiplied. 
 
 And in the end the outcome of the strife 
 
 Was man, who had dominion over all. 
 
 And preyed on all things, and the stronger man 
 
 Trampled his weaker brother under foot.'' 
 
 Mr. John Fiske maintains that mankind, during 
 the previous bestial period, were compelled like all 
 other animals to maraud and destroy, as a part of 
 the plan of natural selection in securing the survival 
 of the fittest ; the victories of the strong over the 
 weak were the steps and stages of the animal creation 
 in its general advancement. And he further states 
 that, even after man had entered upon the heritage 
 of his manhood, it was still for a time the true end of 
 his being to maraud as before and to despoil all men 
 whose weakness placed them in his power. It was only 
 thus that the steady improvement of the race could be 
 secured ; and in that view it was man's duty to con- 
 sult the dictates of selfishness and cruelty rather than 
 those of kindness. To use Mr. Eiske's own words, "If 
 we could put a moral interpretation upon events which 
 antedated morality as we understand it, we should say 
 it was their duty to fight ; and the reverence accorded 
 to the chieftaia who murdered most successfully in 
 behalf of his clansmen was well deserved." * 
 * 77ie Destiny of Man, p. 80. 
 
EASTERN AND WESTERN PHILOSOPHIES 307 
 
 Much to the same effect writes Professor Leconte. 
 " In organic evolution the weak, the sick, the help- 
 less, the unfit in anyway, perish, a-nd ought to perish, 
 because this is the most efficient way of strengthening 
 the hlood or physical nature of the species, and thus 
 of carrying forward evolution. In human evolution 
 (which occurs at an advanced stage) the weak, the help- 
 less, the sick, the old, the unfit in anyway, are sus- 
 tained, and ought to be sustained, because sympathy, 
 love, pity, strengthen the spirit and moral nature of 
 the race."* There is this difference, however, be- 
 tween this statement and that of Mr. Fiske, that it 
 does not indicate at what point " human evolution " 
 begins ; it does not expressly declare that the sub- 
 ject of evolution, even after he has become a man, is 
 still for a time in duty bound to fight in the interest 
 of selfishness and natural selection. Still he reverses 
 the " ought " as he advances from organic to human 
 evolution. 
 
 According to both authors, when, in view of new 
 environments and new social requirements, it became 
 more advantageous to each individual man that he 
 should cease to maraud, should learn to regard the 
 rights of others, should respect the family relation, 
 and subordinate his selfish interest to the general 
 good ; then altruism dawned upon the world, moral 
 principle appeared, and the angel of benevolence and 
 love became enshrined in the human breast. Step by 
 step this favored being, the ideal of natural selection 
 in all her plans, advanced to a stage in which it be- 
 came incumbent to even Subordinate self to the good 
 * Evolution and its Relation to Rdigious Thought, p. 88. 
 
308 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 of others, not only to spare the weak but to tenderly 
 care for them, and even to love those who have 
 treated him with tuikindness and abuse. While in 
 the early stages the law of life and progress had 
 been the sacrifice of others for selfish good ; now the 
 crowning glory consists in self-sacrifice for the good 
 of all but self. 
 
 The logical result of this reasoning cannot escape 
 the notice of any who carefully consider it. If, for 
 any reason, any community of human beings should 
 decline in moral and iutellectual character until they 
 should finally reach the original state of savagery, it 
 would again become their duty to lay aside all high 
 ethical claims as no longer suited to their condition. 
 The extraneous complications which had grown out 
 of mere social order having passed away, rectitude 
 also would pass away; benevolence, philanthropy, 
 humanity, would be wholly out of place, and how- 
 ever lovely Christian charity might appear from a 
 sentimental point of view, it would be ill adapted to 
 that condition of society. In such a state of things 
 the strong and vigorous, if sacrificing themselves to 
 the weak, would only perpetuate weakness, and it 
 would be their duty rather to extirpate them, and by 
 the survival only of the fittest to regain the higher 
 civilization. I state the case in all its naked deform- 
 ity, because it shows the confusion and darkness of a 
 world in which God is not the moral centre. 
 
 And here, as already stated, modem speculation 
 joins hands with the old heathen systems. Accord- 
 ing to Hindu as well as Buddhist philosophy, this 
 retrograde process might not only carry civilized 
 
EASTERN AND WESTERN PHILOSOPHIES 309 
 
 man back to savagery, but might place him again 
 in the category of brutes. If tendencies control all 
 things and have no limit, why might they not re- 
 mand the human being to lower and lower forms, 
 until he should reach again the status of the mol- 
 lusk? 
 
 Now, over against all the systems which make 
 mind either a product or a phenomenon of matter, 
 we have the Scriptural doctrine that man was created 
 in the image of God. This fact explains the differ- 
 ences which distinguish him from the beasts of the 
 field ; for even in his lowest estate he is amenable 
 to the principle of right and wrong. Paul taught, in 
 the first chapter of his Epistle to the Romans, that 
 when men descend to the grade of beasts — and he 
 shows that they may descend even below the dignity 
 of beasts — so far from becoming exempt from moral 
 claims, they fall under increased condemnation. The 
 old Hindu systems taught that there can be no re- 
 lease from the consequences of evil acts. They 
 traced them from one rebirth to another in kharma, 
 as modem speculation traces them physically in he- 
 redity. The one saw no relief except in the changes 
 of endless transmigrations, the other finds it only in 
 the gradual readjustment of the nerve-cells. But 
 we know by observation and experience that the 
 spiritual power of the Holy Ghost can transform 
 character at once. No fact in the history of Chris- 
 tianity is more firmly or more widely established 
 than this. The nerve-tissues to the contrary not- 
 withstanding, the human soul may be bom again. 
 The persecuting Saul may become at once a chief 
 
310 OniENTAL RELIGIONS AND CHBISTIANITY 
 
 apostle. Tlie blasphemer, the sot, the debauchee, 
 the murderer, may be transformed to a meek and 
 sincere Christian. Millions of the heathen, with 
 thousands of years of saYage and bestial heredity 
 behind them, have become pure and loyal disciples 
 of the spotless Eedeemer. The fierce heathen Afri- 
 caner, as well as the dissolute Jerry McCauley, have 
 illustrated this transforming power. 
 
 Professor Huxley and others, in our time, are try- 
 ing to elaborate some basis of ethics independently 
 of religion. But, as a matter of fact, these very men 
 are living on conventional moral promptings and re- 
 straints derived from the Bible. The best basis of 
 morals yet known is that of Christianity, and it is from 
 its high and ennobling cultus that even the enemies of 
 the truth are deriving their highest inspiration. Mr. 
 Goldwin Smith, in an able article published in the 
 Forum of April, 1891, on the question, " Will Mo- 
 rality Survive Faith ? " shows at least that the best 
 ethics which the world now has are the outcome of 
 religious belief and of Christian belief, and he leads 
 the minds of his readers to gravely doubt whether a 
 gospel of agnostic evolution could ever produce those 
 forces of moral prompting and restraint which the 
 centuries of Christianity have developed. He does 
 not hesitate to assert that those who hold and advo- 
 cate the modem anti-theistic speculations are them- 
 selves living upon the influence of a Christian cultus 
 which has survived their faith. A true test of their 
 principles could only be made when a generation 
 should appear upon which no influence of Christian 
 parents still remained, and in a society in which 
 
EASTERN AND WESTERN PHIL0B0PHIE8 311 
 
 Christian sentiment no longer survived.* It may be 
 said that the truth must be received without regard 
 to the results which may follow. This is admitted, 
 but the same cannot be said of theories. If there is 
 
 * Some of Gold win Smitli's utterances are such as these : "If 
 morality lias been based on religion there must be reason to fear 
 that the foundation being removed the superstructure will fall. 
 That it has rested on religion so far as the great majority are con- 
 cerned will hardly be doubted. " . . . " The presence of this 
 theistio sanction has been especially apparent in all acts and lives 
 of all heroic self-sacrifice and self-devotion." ... " All 
 moral philosophers whose philosophy has been practically efEeo- 
 tive, from Socrates down, have been religious. Many have tried 
 to find an independent basis hut have not been successful — at 
 least have not arrived at any agreement." . . . " Thucydides 
 ascribed the fall of Greece to the fall of religion. Maohiavelian- 
 ism followed the fall of the Catholic faith." . . . " Into the 
 void left by religion came spiritual charlatanry and physical su- 
 perstition, such as the arts of the hierophant of Isis, the sooth- 
 sayer, the astrologer — significant precursors of our modern me- 
 diums." . . " Conscience as a mere evolution of tribal 
 experience may have importance, but it can have no authority, 
 and ' Nature ' is an unmeaning word without an Author of nat- 
 ure — or rather it is a philosophic name for God." 
 " Evolution is not moral, nor can morality be educed from it. It 
 proclaims as its law the surviva,! of the fittest, and the only proof 
 of fitness is survival. " . . . " We must remember that what- 
 ever may be our philosophic school we are still living under the 
 influence of theism, and most of us under Christianity. There is 
 no saying how much of Christianity still lingers in the theories 
 of agnostics." . . . "The generation after the next may 
 perhaps see agnosticism, moral as well as religious, tried on a 
 clear field." These utterances are weighty, though detached. 
 We only raise a doubt whether "the generation after the next" 
 will see agnosticism tried on a clear field. On the contrary, it 
 will be surrounded as now, and more and more, by Christian in- 
 fluences, and will still depend on those influences to save it from 
 the sad results of its own teachings. 
 
312 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND OHRISTIANITT 
 
 perfect harmony between all truths in the physical 
 and the moral world, then all these should hare their 
 influence in reaching final conclusions. 
 
 4 The philosophies, ancient and modem, have 
 agreed in lowering the common estimate of man as 
 man ; they have exerted an influence the opposite of 
 that in which the New Testament pleads for a com- 
 mon and an exalted brotherhood of the race. 
 
 Hinduism raised the Brahman almost to the dig- 
 nity of the gods, and debased the Sudra to a grade 
 but a little higher than the brute. Buddha declared 
 that his teachings were for the wise, and not for the 
 simple. The philosophers of Greece and Kome, even 
 the best of them, regarded the helot and the slave 
 as of an inferior grade of beings — even though occa- 
 sionally a slave by his superior force rose to a high 
 degree. In like manner the whole tendency of mod- 
 em evolution is to degrade the dignity and sacred- 
 ness of humanity. It is searching for ''missing 
 links ; " it measures the skulls of degraded races for 
 proofs of its theories. It has travellers and adven- 
 turers on the lookout for tribes who have no concep- 
 tion of God, and no religious rites ; it searches caves 
 and dredges lakes for historical traces of man when 
 he had but recently learned to " stand upright upon 
 his hind legs." The lower the types that can be 
 found, the more valuable are they for the pur- 
 poses required. All this tends to the dishonoring 
 of the inferior types of men. Wherever Christianity 
 had changed the old estimates of the philosophers, 
 and had led to the nobler sentiment that God had 
 made of one blood aU nations and races, and ha^ 
 
EASTERN AND WESTERN PHILOSOPHIES 313 
 
 stamped His own image on them all, and even re- 
 deemed them all by the sacrifice of His Son, the 
 speculations of sceptical biology have in a measure 
 counteracted its benign influence. They have fos- 
 tered the contempt of various classes for a dark skin 
 or an inferior civilization. They indirectly encour- 
 age those who, with little merit of their own, speak 
 contemptuously of the "Buck Indian," "the Nig- 
 ger," the "Heathen Chinee." They encourage the 
 " hoodlum," and so far as they have any influence, 
 give an implied sanction to much unrighteous legis* 
 lation. 
 
 Even Peschel, who will not be suspected of any 
 bias toward Christianity, has said on this subject : 
 " This dark side of the life of uncivilized nations has 
 induced barbarous and inhuman settlers in trans- 
 oceanic regions to assume as their own a right to 
 cultivate as their own the inheritance of the aborig- 
 ines, and to extol the murder of races as a triumph 
 pf civilization. Other writers, led siwaj by Dar- 
 winian dogmas, fancied that they had discovered 
 populations which had, as it were, remained in a 
 former animal condition for the instruction of our 
 times." And he adds : " Thus in the words of a 
 'History of Creation,' in the taste now prevalent, ' in 
 Southern Asia and the East of Africa men live in 
 hordes, mostly climbing trees and eating fruit, unac- 
 quainted with fire, and using no weapons but stones 
 and clubs, after the manner of the higher apes,' 
 It' can be shown," he continues, " that these state- 
 ments are derived from the writings of a learned 
 scholar of Bonn on the condition of savage nations, 
 
314 ORIENTAL BBLiaiONS AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 the facts of which are based either on the depo- 
 sitions of an African slave of the Doko tribe, a 
 dwarfish people in the south of Shoa, or on the as- 
 sertions of Bengalese planters, or perhaps on the 
 observations of a sporting adventurer, that a mother 
 and daughter, and at another time a man and woman, 
 were found in India in a semi-animal condition. On 
 the other hand, not only have neither nations, nor 
 even hordes, in an ape-like condition ever been en- 
 countered by any trustworthy traveller of modem 
 times, but even those races which in the first super- 
 ficial descriptions were ranked far below our grade 
 of civilization have, on nearer acquaintance, been 
 placed much nearer the civilized nations. No por- 
 tion of the human race has yet been discovered 
 which does not possess a more or less rich vocabu- 
 lary, rules of language, artificially pointed weapons, 
 and various implements, as well as the art of kind- 
 ling fire.* " 
 
 The assertion has been made again and again that 
 races are found which are possessed of no knowledge 
 or conception of Deity, but this assumption has been 
 thoroughly refuted by Max Miiller and many others. 
 
 There is a very general assumption abroad in the 
 world that bigotry and even bias of judgment belong 
 exclusively to the advocates of religious truth, and 
 that the teachers of agnostic science are, in the 
 nature of the case, impartial and therefore authori- 
 tative. But the generalizations which have been 
 massed by non-Christian anthropologists and socio- 
 logists are often gleaned and culled under the strong- 
 * Tlie Races of Man, pp. 137, 138. 
 
EASTERN AND WESTERN PHILOSOPHIES 315 
 
 est subserviency to some favorite hypothesis, and 
 that on the most superficial observation and from 
 the most unreliable authorities. De Quatrefages, an 
 anthropologist of profound learning, and certainly 
 with no predilections for Christian theism, in speak- 
 ing of the alleged evidences given by Sir John Lub- 
 bock and Saint-Hilaire to show that many races of 
 men have been found destitute of any conception of 
 Deity, says : " When the writers against whom I am 
 now arguing have to choose between two evidences, 
 the one attesting, and the other denying, the exist- 
 ence of religious belief in a population, it is always 
 the latter which they seem to think should be ac- 
 cepted. More often than not, they do not even men- 
 tion the contrary evidences, however definite, how- 
 ever authentic they may be. Now, it is evidently 
 much easier not to see than to discover that which 
 may be in so many ways rendered inappreciable to 
 our eyes. When a traveller states that he has proved 
 the existence of religious sentiments in a population 
 which by others has been declared destitute of them, 
 when he gives precise details upon such a delicate 
 question, he has unquestionably at least probability 
 in his favor. I see nothing to authorize this rejec- 
 tion of positive evidence and unconditional acceptance 
 of negative evidence. This, however, is too often the 
 case. I might justify this imputation by taking one 
 by one almost all the examples of so-called atheist 
 populations pointed out by different authors." * De 
 Quatrefages then proceeds to show how, with respect 
 to American tribes, Eobertson is quoted while D'Or- 
 * The Human Species, -p. 478. 
 
316 ORIENTAL BELIGIONB AND OHBISTIANITT 
 
 bigny is passed in silence, even though he has by the 
 testimony of many authors disproved the statements 
 of Eobertson ; how Baegert's negative and sweeping 
 statements in regard to the Califomia tribes are ac- 
 cepted, while the very specific testimony of De Mofras 
 in regard both to the fact and to the nature of their 
 worship is rejected. In relation to the Mincopies, 
 Mouat (negative) is adopted against Symes and Day. 
 The Hottentots are adjudged atheistic on the testi- 
 mony of Le VaUlant, in spite of the united witness of 
 Kolben, Saar, Tachard, Boeving, and Campbell. The 
 Kaffirs are declared to be destitute of religion on the 
 statements of Burchel, while Livingstone and Caza- 
 lis have given clear accounts of the religion of the 
 different Kaffir tribes. 
 
 In a similar manner Professor Flint, of Edinburgh, 
 arraigns Sir John Lubbock and certain other advo- 
 cates of the atheistic theory concerning savage tribes, 
 for the partiality of their selection of testimony and 
 for the superficial evidence which they accept when 
 favorable to their theories. After reviewing Lub- 
 bock's wholesale quotations concerning the Indian 
 tribes of Brazil, he says, " These are Sir John Lub- 
 bock's instances from South American tribes. But 
 I find that they are all either erroneous or insuffi- 
 ciently established." And he gives many counter^ 
 proofs. " It will never do," he says, " to believe such 
 sweeping statements — sweeping negatives — merely 
 because they happen to be printed." Farther on he 
 adds : " But I think that he (Lubbock) might have 
 •told, us .that Humboldt, whose travels in South 
 America were so extensive, whose explorations were 
 
EASTERN AND WEBTEBN PHILOSOPHIES 317 
 
 SO varied, scientific, and successful, and wlio certainly 
 was uninfluenced, by traditional theological beliefs, 
 ■found no tribes and peoples without a religion ; and 
 that Prince Max von Neuwied tells us that in all his 
 many and "wide wanderings in BrazU he had found 
 no tribes the members of which did not give mani- 
 fest signs of religious feelings." 
 
 In the appendix of the book from which these 
 extracts are made. Professor Flint says: "No one, I 
 ihink, who has not a theory to maintain can consider 
 the circumstances in which most of the Brazilian In- 
 dian tribes are placed without coming to the conclu- 
 sion that they must have sunk from a higher intel- 
 lectual and religious level." 
 
 I have dwelt at length upon these arraignments of 
 the careless and biased utterances of supposed sci- 
 entists, because it is so much the fashion of our 
 times to support certain theories of anthropology 
 by massing the supposed evidences of man's degra- 
 dation found, even now, in the environments of sav- 
 age Hfe. Many readers, apparently dazed by the vast 
 accumulation of indiscriminate and heterogeneous 
 statements which they have no time to examine, 
 yield an easy and blind assent, based either on the 
 supposed wisdom of the writer or upon the fact that 
 so many others believe, and they imagine that no 
 little courage is required on their part to risk the 
 loss of intellectual caste. A vast amount of the 
 thinking of our age, although it claims to be scientific, 
 is reaUy a matter of simple faith — faith in the opin- 
 ions and dicta of distinguished leaders. And under 
 such circumstances, is it not our privilege and our 
 
318 ORIENTAL BELIGI0N8 AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 duty as Christian men to at least challenge and cross- 
 question those theories which depress and dishonor 
 our common humanity before we yield them our as- 
 sent? 
 
 The majority of scientists now so confidently as- 
 sume the certain derivation of man from lower orders 
 of life, that, as Max Miiller has expressed it, their 
 intolerance greets " with a perfect howl of derision a 
 man like Yirchow," who dares to declare that proof 
 of man's derivation from animals is still wanting. 
 Nevertheless Virchow, himself an evolutionist, main- 
 tains his ground, as the following passage quoted 
 some months since from The London Tablet will 
 show : 
 
 " Some sensation has been caused at the recent 
 Anthropological Congress in Vienna by the speech 
 of the great Berlin biologist. Professor Virchow. 
 About a year ago Virchow, on a similar occgision, 
 made a severe attack on the Darwinian position, and 
 this year he is similarly outspoken. We make the 
 f oUowiug extracts from his long address to the Con- 
 gress: 
 
 " ' Twenty years ago, when we met at Innspruck, it 
 was precisely the moment when the Darwinian the- 
 ory had made its first victorious mark throughout 
 the world. My friend Vogt at once rushed into the 
 ranks of the champions of this doctrine. We have 
 since sought in vain for the intermediate stages 
 which were supposed to connect man with the apes ; 
 the proto-man, the pro-anthropos is not yet discov- 
 ered. For anthropological science the pro-anthropos 
 is not even a subject of discussion. The anthropol- 
 
EASTERN AND WESTERN PHILOSOPHIES 319 
 
 ogist may, perhaps, see him in a dream, but as soon 
 as he awakes he cannot say that he has made any ap- 
 proach toward him. At that time in Innspruck the 
 prospect was, apparently, that the course of descent 
 from ape to man would be reconstructed all at once, 
 but now we cannot even prove the descent of the 
 separate races from one another.* At this moment 
 we are able to say that among the peoples of antiq- 
 uity no single one was any nearer to the apes than 
 we are. At this moment I can affirm that there is 
 not upon earth any absolutely unknown race of men. 
 The least known of all are the peoples of the central 
 mountainous districts of the Malay peninsula, but 
 otherwise we know the people of Terra del Fuego 
 quite as well as the Eskimo, Bashkirs, Polynesians, 
 and Lapps. Nay ! we know more of many of these 
 races than we do of certain European tribes. I need 
 only mention the Albanians. Every living race is 
 stUl human ; no single one has yet been found that 
 we can designate as Simian or quasi-Simian. Even 
 when in certain ones phenomena appear which are 
 characteristic of the apes — e.g., the peculiar ape-like 
 projections of the skull in certain races — still we can- 
 not on that account alone say that these men are 
 ape-like. As regards the Lake dwellings, I have 
 been able to submit to comparative examination 
 nearly every single skull that has been found. The 
 * Mr. John Fiske declares that man is descended from the 
 oatarrhine apes. — Destiny of Man, p. 19. Professor Le Conte 
 maintains that no existing animal could ever be developed into ■ 
 man. He traces all existing species up from a common stock, of 
 which man is the head. The common line of ancestors are all 
 extinct. — Evolution in Relation to Religious TJwught, p. 90. 
 
320 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 result has been that we have certainly met with op- 
 posite characteristics among various races ; but of 
 all these there is not one that lies outside of the 
 boundaries of our present population. It can thus 
 be positively demonstrated that in the course of five 
 thousand years no change of type worthy of mention 
 has taken place. If you ask me whether the first 
 man were white or black, I can only say I don't 
 know.' 
 
 " Professor Virchow thus summed up the question 
 as to what anthropological science during the last 
 forty years has gained, and whether, as many con- 
 tend, it has gone forward or backward. 
 
 " ' Twenty years ago the leaders of our science as- 
 serted that they knew many things which, as a mat- 
 ter of fact, they did not know. Nowadays we know 
 what we know. I can only reckon up our account 
 in so far as to say that we have made no debts ; that 
 is, we have made no loan from hypotheses ; we are 
 in no danger of seeing that which we know over- 
 turned in the course of the next moment. We have 
 levelled the ground so that the coming generation 
 may make abundant use of the material at their dis- 
 position. As an attainable objective of the next 
 twenty years, we must look to the anthropology of 
 the European nationalities.' " 
 
 5. Another demoralizing type of speculation which 
 has exerted a wide influence in many ages and on 
 many nations is pantheism. By abdicating the place 
 and function of the conscious ego, by making all 
 things mere specialized expressions of infinite De- 
 ity, and y^t failing to grasp any clear conception 
 
EASTERN AND WESTERN PHILOSOPHIES 321 
 
 of what is meant by Deity, men have gradually de- 
 stroyed that sense of moral responsibility which the 
 most savage show to have been a common heritage. 
 It is not among the lowest and most simple races 
 that missionaries find the greatest degree of obtuse- 
 ness and insensibility with respect to sin; it is 
 among poptdations like those of India, where the 
 natural promptings of conscience have been sophis- 
 ticated by philosophic theories. The old Vedantism, 
 by representing all things as mere phenomenal ex- 
 pressions of infinite Brahm, tended necessarily to 
 destroy all sense of personal responsibility. The 
 abdication of the personal ego is an easy way of 
 shiftiag the burden of guilt. The late Naryan She- 
 shadri declared that one thing which led him to re- 
 nounce Hinduism was the fact that, when he came 
 to trace its underlying principles to their last logical 
 result he saw no groimd of moral responsibility left. 
 It plunged him into an abyss of intellectual and 
 moral darkness without chart or compass. It para- 
 lyzed conscience and moral sensibility. 
 
 It is equally impossible to reason . ourselves into 
 any consciousness of merit or demerit, if we are 
 moved only by some vague law of nature whose be- 
 hest, as described by Mr. Buckle, we cannot resist, 
 whose operations within us we cannot discern, and 
 whose drift or tendency we cannot foresee. It makes 
 little difference whether we build our faith upon the 
 god of pantheism or upon the imknowable but im- 
 personal force which is supposed to move the world, 
 which operates in the same ways upon all grades of 
 existence from the archangel to the mote in the sun- 
 31 
 
322 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS' AND GHRISTIANITT 
 
 beam, whicli moves the molecules of the human brain 
 only as it stirs the globules of sap in the tree or plant. 
 It is difficult to see how, upon any such hypothesis, 
 we are any more responsible for our volitions and 
 affections than we are for our heart-beats or respira- 
 tions. And yet we are conscious of responsibility in 
 the one case and not in the other. Consciousness 
 comes in with tremendous force at just this point, all 
 theories and speculations to the contrary notwith- 
 standing. And we dare not disregard its testimony 
 or its claims. We know that we are morally respon- 
 sible. 
 
 6. Many philosophic systems, ancient and mod- 
 ern, have tended to fill the world with gloomy pessi- 
 mism. Pessimism is very old and very widespread. 
 Schopenhauer acknowledges his indebtedness to Gau- 
 tama for much of the philosophy which is known by 
 his name. In Huiduism and Buddhism, as well as 
 in the teachings of the German pessimists, the nat- 
 ural complainings of the human heart are organized 
 into philosophical systems. There is in all human 
 nature quite enough of querulousness against the un- 
 equal allotments of Providence, but all these systems 
 inculcate and foster that discontent by the sanctions 
 of philosophy. The whole assumption of " The 
 Light of Asia " is that the power that upholds and 
 governs the world is a hard master, from whose leash 
 we should escape if we can by annihilating our pow- 
 ers and faculties, and abdicating our conscious being ; 
 that the world and the entire constitution of things 
 are all wrong ; that misery is everywhere in the as- 
 cendant, and that man and beast can only make com- 
 
EASTERN AND WESTERN PHILOSOPHIES 323 
 
 mon cause against the tyranny of a reckless fate, and 
 cry out with common voice for some sympathizing 
 benefactor who can pity and deliver. There is no 
 hint that sin has wrought the evil. Man is not 
 so much a sinner as the victim of a hard lot; he 
 is unfortunate, and it is the world that is wrong. 
 Therefore the true end of life is to get rid of the re- 
 currence of life. 
 
 In much of our modern agnosticism there is the 
 same dark outlook, and agnosticism naturally joins 
 hands with pessimism. Dr. Noah Porter, in one of 
 the series of " Present-Day Tracts," has shown it to 
 be a doctrine of despair. A well-known lecturer who 
 has loudly declaimed against what he considers the 
 remorseless character of the Old Testament, has ac- 
 knowledged that it is not more cruel than nature; 
 that in the actual world about us we find the same 
 dark mystery, the weak perishing before the strong, 
 the wicked prosperous, the just oppressed, and the 
 innocent given as a prey to the guilty ; and his con- 
 clusion is that deism is no more defensible than 
 Christianity. His pessimistic estimate of the actual 
 world drives him to a disbelief in a personal God. 
 
 We do not ignore the sad facts of life ; even the 
 Christian is often saddened by the mysteries which 
 he cannot explain. Bishop J. Boyd Carpenter, in 
 speaking of the sad and cheerless spirit of Buddhism, 
 has said : " There are moments in which we are all 
 Buddhists ; when hfe has disappointed us, when 
 weariness is upon us, when the keen anguish born of 
 the sight of human suffering appals and benumbs 
 us, when we are frozen to terror, and our man- 
 
324 ORIENTAL BELIQI0N8 AND OHBISTIANITY 
 
 hood flies at the sight of the Medusa-like head of 
 the world's imappeased and imappeasable agony; 
 then we too are torn by the paroxysm of anguish ; 
 we would flee to the Nirvana of oblivion and uncon- 
 sciousness, turning our back upon what we cannot 
 alleviate, and longing to lay down the burden of life, 
 and to escape from that which has become insup- 
 portable." * But these are only the dark and seem- 
 ingly forsaken hours in which men sit in despair 
 beneath the juniper-tree and imagine that all the 
 world has gone wrong. The juniper-tree in Chris- 
 tianity is the exception ; the Bo-tree of Buddhism, 
 with the same despondent estimate, is the rule. No 
 divine message came to show the Buddha a brighter 
 side. And the agnostic stops his eaxs that no voice 
 of cheer may be heard. The whole philosophy of 
 Buddhism and of modem agnosticism is pessimistic. 
 The word and Spirit of God do not deny the sad 
 facts of human life in a world of sin, but they ena- 
 ble the Christian to triumph over them, and even to 
 rejoice in tribulation. 
 
 7. And this leads to one more common feature of 
 all false systems, their fatalism. Among the exag- 
 gerated claims which are made for heathen religions 
 in our day, it is alleged that they rest upon a more 
 humane philosophy than appears in the grim fatal- 
 ism of our Christian theology, especially that of the 
 Calvinistic type. Without entering upon any de- 
 fence of Christian doctrines of one type or another, 
 it would be easy to show that fatalism, complete and 
 immitigated, is at the foundation of all Oriental re- 
 * Tlw Pernwn^nt Moments in Beligion, p. 154 
 
EASTERN AND WESTERN PHILOSOPHIES 325 
 
 ligion aud philosophy, all ancient or modem panthe- 
 ism, and most of the various types of agnosticism. 
 While this has been the point at which all infidel sys- 
 tems have assailed the Christian faith, it has never- 
 theless been the goal which they have all reached by 
 their own speculations. They have differed from 
 Christianity in that their predestinating, determin- 
 ing force, instead of being qualified by any play of 
 free-will, or any feasible plan of ultimate and super- 
 abounding good, has been a real fatalism, changeless, 
 hopeless, remorseless. That the distaff of the Fates, 
 and the ruthless sceptre of the Erinnys, entered in 
 full force into aU the religions of the Greeks and 
 Romans, scarcely needs to be affirmed. They con- 
 trolled all human affairs, and even the gods were 
 subject to them. The Sagas of the Northmen also 
 were full of fatalism, and that principle still survives 
 in the folk-lore and common superstitions of all 
 Scandinavian, Teutonic, and Celtic races. 
 
 The fatalism of the Hindus is plainly stated in the 
 " Code of Manu," which declares that, " in order to 
 distinguish actions, he (the creator) separated merit 
 from demerit. To whatever course of action the 
 Lord appointed each kind of being, that alone it has 
 spontaneously adopted in each succeeding creation. 
 Whatever he has assigned to each at the first crea- 
 tion, noxiousness or harmlessness, gentleness or fe- 
 rocity, virtue or sin, tsruth or falsehood, that clings 
 to it." * The same doctrine is put m still more of- 
 fensive form when it is declared that " Manu (here 
 used in the sense of creator) allotted to woman a 
 •Book II., 13. 
 
326 OBIENTAL BELIQIONS AND OHRISTIANITT 
 
 love of her bed, of her seat, of ornament, also impure 
 desires, wrath, dishonesty, and bad conduct." * There 
 would be some relief from this horrible doctrine if 
 in subsequent chapters of Manu there were kindly- 
 tokens of grace, or sympathy for woman, or any light 
 of hope here or hereafter ; but the whole teaching 
 and spirit of the " Code " rests as an iron yoke upon 
 womanhood, and it is largely a result of this high 
 authority that the female sex has for ages been sub- 
 jected to the most cruel tyranny and degradation. 
 It might well be said that, in spite of the horrors of 
 infanticide, the most merciful element of Hinduism 
 with respect to woman is the custom by which so 
 large a proportion of female children have been de- 
 stroyed at birth. The same fatalistic principles af- 
 fect all ranks and conditions of Hindu society. The 
 poor Sudra is not only low-bom and degraded, but 
 he is immovably fixed in his degradation. He is cut 
 off from all hope or aspiration ; he cannot rise from 
 the thraldom of his fate. In the Bhagavad Gita, 
 KJrishna declares to Arjuna that it is 
 
 " Better to do the duty of one's caste 
 Though bad or ill performed, and fraught with evil, 
 Than undertake the business of another, 
 However good it be." 
 
 Thus even the laws of right and wrong are subordi- 
 nate to the fatality of caste, and all aspiration is para- 
 lyzed. 
 
 On the other hand, it has been acknowledged re- 
 peatedly that the sternest type of Puritan theology, 
 * Book IX., 17. 
 
EASTERN AND WESTERN PHILOSOPHIES 327 
 
 as a moral and political force, is full of inspiration ; 
 it does not deaden the soul ; it stimulates the action 
 of free-will ; its moral earnestness has been a great 
 power in molding national destinies. Mr. Bancroft 
 has not hesitated to declare that the great charters 
 of human liberty are largely due to its strong con- 
 ception of a divine and all-controlling purpose. 
 Even Matthew Arnold admitted that its stem " He- 
 braic " culture, as he called it, had wrought some of 
 the grandest achievements of history. But Hindu 
 fatalists, noble Aryans as they were at first, have 
 been conquered by every race of invaders that has 
 chosen to assail them. And no better result could 
 have been expected from a philosophy whose sutw- 
 raum bonum is the renunciation of life as not worth 
 living, and the loss of all personality by absorption 
 into the One supreme existence. 
 
 Buddhism does not present the same fatalistic the- 
 ory of creation as Brahminism, but it introduces even 
 a more aggravated fatalism into human life. Both 
 alike load down the newly-born with burdens of guilt 
 and consequent suffering transmitted from previous 
 existences. But in the case of Buddhism there is no 
 identity between the sinner, who incurred the guilt, 
 and the recipient of the evil kharma, which demands 
 punishment. Every man comes into the world en- 
 tangled in the moral bankruptcy of some one who 
 has gone before, he knows not who nor where. There 
 is no consciousness of identity, no remembrance, no 
 possible sense of guilt, or notion of responsibility. 
 It is not the same soul that suffers, for in either case 
 there is no soul ; there is only a bundle of so-caUed 
 
328 OBIENTAL RELIGIONS AND 0EBI8TIANITT 
 
 skandhas — certain faculties of mind and body newly 
 combined whose interaction produces thought and 
 emotion. Yet there is conscious suffering. Scoffers 
 have long pointed with indignation at the Christian 
 doctrine that a child inherits a moral bias from his ' 
 parents, but nowadays evolutionists carry the lawl 
 of heredity to an extreme which no hyper-Calvinist 
 ever thought of, and many cavillers at " original sin " 
 have become eloquent in their praises of Buddhism, 
 which handicaps each child with the accumulated 
 demerit of pre-existent beings with whom he had no 
 connection whatever.* The Christian doctrine im- 
 putes punishable guilt only so far as each one's free 
 choice makes the sin his own : the dying iofant who 
 has no choice is saved by grace ; but upon every 
 Buddhist, however short-lived, there rests an heir- 
 loom of destiny which countless transmigrations can- 
 not discharge. 
 
 In Mohammedanism the doctrine of fate — clear, ex- 
 press, and emphatic — is fully set forth. The Koran 
 resorts to no euphemism or circumlocution in declar- 
 ing it. Thus, in Sura Ixxiv. 3, 4, we read : " Thus 
 doth God cause to err whom he pleases, and direct- 
 eth whom he pleases." Again, Sura xx. 4, says : " The 
 fate of every man have we bound roimd his neck." 
 As is well known, fatalism as a practical doctrine of 
 life has passed into all Mohammedan society. "Kis- 
 
 * Development by "heredity" and the Buddhist doctrine of 
 transmigration, though both fatalistic, reach that result in differ- 
 ent ways ; they are, in fact, contradictory. Character, according 
 to Buddhism, is inherited not from parents : it follows the line of 
 affinity. 
 
EA8TEBN AND WESTERN PEIL080PEIES 329 
 
 met " (it is fated) is the exclamation of despair with 
 which a Moslem succumbs to adversity and often^ 
 dies without an effort to recover. In times of pesti- 
 lence missionaries in Syria have sometimes found 
 whole villages paralyzed with despair. Yielding to 
 the fatalism of their creed, the poor mountaineers 
 have abandoned all means of cure and resigned 
 themselves to their fate. The same fatal paralysis 
 has affected all liberty of thought, all inventiveness 
 and enterprise, all reform of evils, all higher aspira- 
 tion of the oppressed people. 
 
 With the lower forms of religious belief, fetishism, 
 animism, serpent worship, demon worship, the case 
 is still worse. The only deities that are practically 
 recognized in these rude faiths are generally sup- 
 posed to be malevolent beings, who have not only 
 fixed an evil fate upon men, but whose active and 
 continued function it is to torment them. Though 
 there is a lingering belief iu a Supreme Being who 
 created all things, yet he is far off and incomprehen- 
 sible. He has left his creatures in the hands of in- 
 ferior deities, at whose mercy they pass a miserable 
 existence. Looking at the dark facts of life and hav- 
 ing no revelation of a merciful God they form their 
 estimates of Deity from their trials, hardships, fears, 
 and they are filled with dread; all their religious 
 rites have been devised for appeasing the powers 
 that dominate and distress the world. And yet a 
 pronounced agnostic has asked us to believe that even 
 this wide-spread horror, this universal nightmare of 
 heathen superstition, is more humane than the Oal- 
 vinistic creed. 
 
330 ORIENTAL BELI&IONS AND OHBiaTIANIir 
 
 If we inquire into the tendency of all types of an- 
 cient or modem pantheism in this particular phase, 
 we shall find them, without exception, fatalistic. 
 They not merely make God the author of sin — they 
 make Him the sinner. Our misdeeds are not our 
 acts, but God's. Thus the vaunted Bhagavad Gita, 
 uniting the Sankhyan and the Vedanta philosophies, 
 makes Krishna say to Arjuna : " AH actions are in- 
 cessantly performed by operation of the qualities of 
 Prakriti (the seK - existiug Essence). Deluded by 
 the thought of individuality, the soul vainly believes 
 itself to be the doer. The soul, existing from eter- 
 nity, devoid of qualities, imperishable, abiding in 
 the body, acts not, nor is by any act polluted. He 
 who sees that actions are performed by Prakriti 
 alone, and that the soul is not an actor, perceives 
 the truth." * Such is Hindu pantheism. Yet this 
 most inconsistent system charges man with guilt. 
 It represents his inexorable fate as pursuing him 
 through endless transmigrations, holding over him 
 the lash of retribution, while it exacts the very last 
 farthing. Still, from first to last, it is not he that 
 acts, but some fractional part of the One only Exist- 
 ence which fills all space. 
 
 The philosophy of Spinoza was quite as fatalistic 
 as the Hindu Vedanta. He taught, according to 
 Schwegler, that " The finite has no independent ex- 
 istence in itself : it exists because the unrestrained 
 productive energy of the (infinite) Substance spon- 
 taneously produced an infinite variety of particular 
 forms. It has, however, no proper reality ; it exists 
 * Indian Wisdom, p. 153. 
 
EASTERN AND WESTERN PHILOSOPHIES 831 
 
 only in and through the Substance. Finite things 
 are the most external, the last, the most subordinate 
 forms of existence into which the universal life is 
 specialized, and they manifest their finitude in that 
 they are without resistance, subject to the infinite 
 chain of causality which binds the world. The di- 
 vine Substance works freely according to the inner 
 essence of its own nature ; individuals, however, are 
 not free, but are subject to the influence of those 
 things with which they come into contact. It fol- 
 lows from these metaphysical grounds," Schwegler 
 continues, " that what is called free-will cannot be 
 admitted. For, since man is only a mode, he, like 
 any other mode, stands in an endless series of con- 
 ditioning causes, and no free-will can, therefore, be 
 predicated of him." Further on he adds : " Evil, or 
 sin, is, therefore, only relative and not positive, for 
 nothing happens against God's will. It is only a 
 simple negation or deprivation, which only seems to 
 be a reality in our representation." * The late Sam- 
 uel Johnson, in his chapter on " The Morality and 
 Piety of Pantheism," undertakes to defend both the 
 Vedantic and the Spinozan philosophy by pointing 
 out a distinction between an " external compulsion 
 and an inner force which merges us in the Infinite. 
 Though both are equally efficient as to the result, 
 and both are inconsistent with individual freedom, 
 yet real fate is only that which is external. . . . 
 While destiny or fate in the sense of absolute exter- 
 nal compulsion would certainly be destructive, not 
 only of moral responsibility but of personality itself, 
 * History of PhUosopliy, pp. 220, 321. 
 
332 ORIENTAL BELiaiONS AND OHRISTIANITT 
 
 yet religion or science without fate is radically xm- 
 sound." Again he adds : "We cannot separate per- 
 fection and fate. Deity whose sway is not destiny 
 is not venerable, nor even reliable. It would be a 
 purpose that did not round the universe, a love that 
 could not preserve it. Theism without fate is a 
 kind of atheism, and a self-dominated atheism. But 
 holding justice to be the true necessity or fate, is 
 properly theism, though it refuses the name." * 
 
 The reasoning here reminds one of the conclusions 
 of a still more recent writer, who while condemning 
 what he considers the fatalism of Calvinistic theo- 
 logy, stin asserts that its logic leaves no alterna- 
 tive but the denial of a personal God. And an 
 early Buddhist philosopher has left a fragment which 
 gives the very same reason for agnosticism. Thus he 
 says : " If the world was made by God (Isvara) there 
 should be no such thing as sorrow or calamity, nor 
 doing wrong, nor doing right ; for aU, both pure and 
 impure, deeds must come from Isvara. ... If 
 he makes without a purpose he is like a suckhng 
 child, or with a purpose, he is not complete. Sorrow 
 and joy spring up in all that lives ; these, at least, 
 are not alike the works of Isvara, for if he causes 
 love and joy he must himself have love and hate. 
 But if he loves and hates, he is not rightly called 
 self-existent. 'Twere equal, then, the doing right or 
 doing wrong. There should be no reward of works ; 
 the works themselves beiug his, then all things are 
 the same to him, the maker." 
 
 This was a Buddhist's answer to the Hindu pan- 
 ' Oriental Religions — India. Part 11., p. 44. 
 
EASTERN AND WE8TEBN PHILOSOPHIES 333 
 
 theism, and there follows a reply also to the Oriental 
 dualism which attempted to solve the difficulty by 
 assigning two great first causes, one good and the 
 other evil. " Nay," says this Buddhist philosopher, 
 " if you say there is another cause beside this Isvara, 
 then he is not the end or sum of all, and therefore 
 all that lives may, after all, be uncreated, and so you 
 see the thought of Isvara is overthrown." * Thus the 
 same problems of existence have taxed human specu- 
 lation in all lands and all ages. The same perplex- 
 ities have arisen, and the same cavils and complaints. 
 There is an important sense in which all forms of 
 materialism are fatalistic in their relation to moral 
 responsibility. James Biichner assures us that " what 
 is called man's soul or mind is now almost univer- 
 sally conceded as equivalent to a function of the sub- 
 stance of the brain." Walter Bagehot, like Maudsley, 
 suggests that the newly born child has his destiny 
 inscribed on his nervous tissues.f Mr. Buckle as- 
 sures us that certain underlying but indefinable laws 
 of society, as indicated by statistics, control human 
 action irrespective of choice or moral responsibility. 
 Even accidents, the averages of forgetfulness or neg- 
 lect, are the subjects of computation. To support 
 his position he cites the averages of suicides, or the 
 number of letters deposited yearly in a given post- 
 office, the superscription of which has been forgotten. 
 Thus, underlying all human activity there is an un- 
 known force, a vague something — call it Deity, or call 
 it Fate — which controls human affairs irresistibly. 
 
 * Beal, Buddhism in China, p. 180. 
 f Physics and Polities. 
 
334 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND OHRISTIANITT 
 
 It would be amusing, if it were not sad, to see what 
 de-vices and wliat names have been resorted to in 
 order to- get rid of a personal God. The Hindu 
 Sankhyans ascribed all things to the "Eternally 
 Existing Essence." The Greek Atomists called it 
 an " Inconceivable Necessity ; " Anaxagoras, " The 
 World-forming Intelligence ; " Hegel, " Absolute 
 Idea ; " Spinoza, " Absolute Substance ; " Schopen- 
 hauer, " Unconscious Will." Spencer finds only 
 " The Unknowable ; " Darwin's virtual Creator is 
 " Natural Selection ; " Matthew Arnold recognize a 
 " Stream of Tendency not our own .which makes for 
 righteousness." Nothing can be more melancholy 
 than this dreary waste of human speculation, this 
 weary and bootless search after the secret of the uni- 
 verse. At the same time a deaf ear is turned to 
 those voices of nature and revelation which speak of 
 a benevolent Creator. But the point to which I call 
 particular attention in this connection is, that these 
 vague terms, whatever else they may mean, imply in 
 each case some law of necessity which moulds the 
 world. They are only the names of the Fates whom 
 all philosophies have set over us. If we have been 
 correct in tracing an element of fatalism through all 
 the heathen faiths, and all ancient and modern phi- 
 losophies, how is it that the whole army of unbelief 
 concentrate their assailments against divine sover- 
 eignty in the Word of God, and yet are ready to laud 
 and approve these systems which exhibit the same 
 things in greater degree and without mitigation ? 
 
 That which differentiates Christianity is the fact 
 that, while it does represent God as the originator 
 
EASTERN AWD WESTESN PRIL080PHIE8 335 
 
 and controller of all things, it yet respects the free- 
 dom of the human will, which Mohammedanism does 
 not, which Hinduism does not, which ancient or 
 modem Buddhism does not, which Materialism does 
 not. Not only the "Word of God but our own reason 
 tells us that the Creator of this world must hare pro- 
 ceeded upon a definite and all-embracing plan ; and 
 yet at the same time, not only the Word of God, 
 but our own consciousness, tells us that we are free 
 to act according to our own will. How these things 
 are to be reconciled we know not, simply because we 
 are finite and God is infinite. I once stood before 
 the great snowy range of the Himalayas, whose lofty 
 peaks rose twenty-five thousand feet above the sea. 
 None could see how those gigantic masses stood re- 
 lated to each other, simply because no mortal ever 
 has explored, or ever can explore, their awful and 
 unapproachable recesses. 
 
 So with many great truths concerning the being, 
 attributes, and works of God. One may say that 
 God predetermined and then foresaw what He had 
 ordained; another that He foresaw and then re- 
 solved to effect what he had foreseen. Neither is cor- 
 rect, or at least neither can know that he is correct. 
 God is not subject to our conditions of time and 
 space. It is impossible that He, whose knowledge 
 and will encompass all things, should be affected by 
 our notions of order and sequence ; there is with 
 Him no before and after. The whole universe, with 
 all its farthest extended history, stood before Him 
 from all eternity as one conception and as one pur- 
 pose ; and the conception and the purpose were one. 
 
336 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 The too frequent mistake of human formulas is 
 that they undertake to reason out infinite mysteries 
 on our low anthropomorphic lines, one in one ex- 
 treme and another, in another. We cannot fit the 
 ways of God to the measure of our logic or our 
 metaphysics. What we have to do with many things 
 is simply to believe and trust and wait.* On the 
 other hand, there are many things of a practical nat- 
 ure which God has made very plain. He has brought 
 them down to us. The whole scheme of grace is an 
 adaptation of the mysteries of the Godhead to our 
 knowledge, faith, obedience, and love. 
 
 And this leads directly to the chief differential 
 which Christianity presents in contrast with the 
 fatalisms of false systems, viz., that while sin and 
 death abound, as all must see, the Gospel .alone re- 
 veals a superabounding grace. It is enough for us 
 that the whole scheme is one of Redemption, that 
 the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the 
 world — nay, that He made the world, and made it for 
 an infinitely benevolent purpose. If dark mysteries 
 appear in the Word or in the world, we are to view 
 them in the light of Calvary, and wait till we can 
 see as we are seen ; for this world is Christ's, and will 
 surely subserve His ends, which are those of infinite 
 compassion. 
 
 Our position, therefore, as before the abettors of 
 
 * "Probably no more significant change awaits the theologj of 
 the future than the recognition of this province of the unknown, 
 and the cessation of controversy as to matters that come within 
 it, and therefore admit of no dogmatic settlement." — TuUoch's 
 Rdigious Thought in Britain, p. 24. 
 
EASTERN AND WESTERN PHILOSOPHIES 337 
 
 heathen or agnostic philosophy, is impregnable : the 
 fatalism is all theirs, the union of sovereign power 
 ■with infinite love is ours. We have reason as well 
 as they. We realize the facts and mysteries of life 
 as fully as they, but are not embittered by them. 
 We see nothing to be gained by putting out the light 
 we have. We prefer faith to pessimism, incarnate 
 love to the tyranny of " unconscious wiU." 
 
LECTURE X. 
 
 THE DIVINE SUPBBMACY OP THE CHBISTIAN FAITH. 
 
 We have in previous lectures instituted brief and 
 partial comparisons between Christianity and par- 
 ticular faiths of the East, but I now propose a gen- 
 eral comparative survey. 
 
 Never before has the Christian Faith been so 
 boldly challenged to show cause for its supreme and 
 exclusive claims as in our time. The early Chris- 
 tians encountered something of the same kind : it 
 seemed very preposterous to the proud Roman that 
 an obscure sect, coming out of despised Nazareth, 
 should refuse to place a statue of its deified Founder 
 within the Pantheon, in the goodly company of re- 
 nowned gods from every part of the Roman Empire ; 
 but it did so refuse and gave its reasons, and it ulti- 
 mately carried its point. It gained the Pantheon 
 and Rome. itself for Christ alone. He was pro- 
 claimed as the One Redeemer of the world, and this 
 claim has been maintained from that day to this. 
 " There can be no diversity," said His followers, 
 " for there is no other name given under heaven 
 among men whereby we must be saved. The very 
 genius of Christianity means supremacy and mo- 
 nopoly, for the reason that it is divine and God can- 
 not be divided against Himself." But in our time 
 
DIVINE 8UPBEMA0Y OF CHRISTIAN FAITH 339 
 
 the whole world is brought very closely together. 
 The religions of men, like their social customs and 
 political institutions, are placed in contact and com- 
 parison. The enemies of the Christian faith here, 
 in "Western lands, naturally make the most of any 
 possible alliances with other systems supposed to 
 antagonize Christianity ; while a multitude of others, 
 having no particular interest in any religion, and 
 rather priding themselves upon a broad charity which 
 is but a courteous name for indifference, are demand- 
 ing with a superior air that fail' play shall be shown 
 to all religions alike. The Church is therefore 
 called upon to defend her unique position and the 
 promulgation of her message to mankind. Why 
 does she refuse to admit the validity of other re- 
 ligions, and why send her missionaries over the 
 earth to turn the non-Christian races from those 
 faiths which are their heritage by birth, and in which 
 they honestly put their trust? Why not respect 
 everywhere that noblest of all man's instincts which 
 prompts him to inquire after God, who hath made 
 of one blood all nations that dwell upon the earth ? 
 If the old Hindu pantheism of the Bhagavad Gita 
 taught that the worshippers of other gods were only 
 worshipping the One Supreme Vishnu unawares ; if 
 Buddhism forbids its followers to assert that theirs 
 is the only religion, or even that it is the best re- 
 ligion ; * is it not time that Christians should emu- 
 late this noble charity ? 
 
 This plausible plea is urged with such force and 
 voliune, it is so backed by the current literature and 
 * Ho1/y Bible and Sacred Books of the East, p. 13. 
 
340 ORIENTAL BBLIGIONS AND GHBI8TIANITY 
 
 the secular newspaper press that it cannot be ignored. 
 The time has come when the Church must not only 
 be able to give a reason for the faith she professes, 
 but must assign reasons why her faith should sup- 
 plant every other. I am aware that many are insist- 
 ing that her true course is to be found in an inten- 
 sive zeal in the promulgation of her own doctrines 
 without regard to any other. " Preach the Gospel," 
 it is said, " whether men wiU hear or whether they 
 forbear." But it must be borne in mind that Paul's 
 more intelligent method was to strive as one who 
 would win, and not as they who beat the air. The 
 Salvation Army will reach a certain class with their 
 mere unlettered zeal. The men who purposely read 
 only One Book, but read that on their knees, doubt- 
 less have an important work to do, but the Church 
 as a whole cannot go back to the time when devout 
 zealots sneered at the idea of an educated ministry. 
 The conflict of truth and error must be waged intel- 
 ligently. There are sufficient reasons for claiming a 
 divine supremacy for the Gospel over all heathen 
 faiths, and the sooner we thoroughly understand the 
 difference, the more wisely and successfully shall we 
 accomplish our work. 
 
 Wherein, then, consists the unique supremacy of 
 the Christian faith ? 
 
 1. It alone offers a real salvation. We axe not 
 speaking of ethics, or conceptions of God, or meth- 
 ods of race culture, but of that one element which 
 heals the wounds of acknowledged sin and reconciles 
 men to God. And this is found in Christianity 
 alone. There is no divine help in any other. Sys- 
 
DIVINE SUPBEMAOT OF 0HRI8TIAN FAITH 341 
 
 terns of spectilation, theories of the universe, and of 
 our relation to the Infinite are found in all sacred 
 books of the East. There are lofty ethical teach- 
 ings gathered from the lips of many masters, and rec- 
 ords of patient research, cheerful endurance of as- 
 cetic rigors, and the voluntary encounter of martyrs' 
 deaths. And one cannot but be impressed by this 
 spectacle of earnest struggles in men of every land 
 and every age to find some way of peace. But in 
 none of the ethnic religions has there been revealed 
 a divine and heaven-wrought salvation. They have 
 all begun and ended with human merit and human 
 effort. Broken cisterns have everywhere taken the 
 place of the One Fountain of Eternal Life. Though 
 all these systems recognize the sin and misery of the 
 world, and carry their estimate of them to the length 
 of downright pessimism, they have discovered no 
 eye that could pity and no arm that could bring sal- 
 vation. In the silence and gloom of the world's his- 
 tory only one voice has said, " Lo, I come ! in the vol- 
 ume of the Book it is written of me." An.d although 
 men have in all ages striven to rid themselves of sin 
 by self-mortification, and even mutilation, yet the 
 ever-recurring question, " Who shall deliver me from 
 the body of this death ? " was never answered till 
 Paul answered it in his rapturous acknowledgment 
 of victory through the righteousness of Christ Mo- 
 hammed never claimed to be a saviour or even an 
 intercessor. He was the sword of God against ido- 
 lators, and the ambassador of Grod to believers ; but 
 beyond the promise of a sensuous heaven, he offered 
 no salvation. He had no remedy for sin — except 
 
342 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND OHRISTIANITT 
 
 that in his own case he claimed a special revelation 
 of clemency and indtdgence. Many a wholesome 
 truth derived from the Old Testament scriptures was 
 promulgated to the faithful, but self-righteousness, 
 and especially valor in Mohammedan conquest, was 
 offered as the key to paradise.* 
 
 Doubtless we should view the false systems with 
 discrimination. Like the sublime philosophy of 
 Plato, Mohammedanism does teach an exalted idea 
 of God, and there is, accordingly, a dignity and rev- 
 erence in its forms of worship. I once witnessed a 
 very imposing spectacle in the great mosque at Del- 
 hi, on the Moslem Sabbath. Several hundred In- 
 dian Mohammedans were repeating their prayers in 
 concert. They were in their best attire, and fresh 
 from their ablutions, and their concerted genuflec- 
 tions, the subdued murmur of their many voices, 
 and the general solemnity of their demeanor, ren- 
 dered the whole service most impressive. It con- 
 trasted strongly with the spectacle which I witnessed 
 a little later in the temple of Siva, in Benares. The 
 unspeakable worship of the linga, the scattering of 
 rice and flowers and the pouring of libations before 
 this symbol; the hanging of garlands on the horns of 
 sacred bulls, and that by women ; the rushing to and 
 fro, tracking the filth of the sacred stables into the 
 trodden ooze of rice and flowers which covered the 
 temple pavements ; the drawing and sipping of water 
 
 * Mohammed was once asked whether he trusted in his own 
 merit or in the mercy of God, and he answered, " The mercy of 
 God." But the whole drift of his teaching belied this one pious 
 utterance. 
 
DIVINE SUPREMACY OF OHBISTIAN FAITH 343 
 
 from the adjacent cesspool, known as tlie sacred well ; 
 the shouting and striking of bells, and the general 
 frenzy of the people — all this could be considered as 
 nothing short of wild and depraved orgies. If we 
 must choose, give us Islam, whether in contrast with 
 the Siva worship of India or with the tyranny of 
 the witch doctors of interior Africa. 
 
 Yet, I repeat, Islam has no salvation, no scheme 
 of grace, no great Physician. In visiting any Mo- 
 hammedan country one is impressed with this one 
 defect, the want of a Mediator. I once stood in the 
 central hall of an imposing mansion in Damas- 
 cus, around the frieze of which were described, in 
 Arabic letters of gold, " The Hundred Names of Al- 
 lah." They were interpreted to me by a friend as 
 setting forth the lofty attributes of Grod — for exam- 
 ple, "The Infinite," "The Eternal," " The Creator," 
 " The AH-Seeing," " The Merciful," "The Just." No 
 one could help being impressed by these inspiriug 
 names. They were the common heritage of Juda- 
 ism and Christianity before Islam adopted them, and 
 they are well calculated to fill the soul with rever- 
 ence and awe. But there is another class of names 
 which were predicted by Judaism and rejoiced in by 
 Christianity, but which Islam rejects ; for example, 
 " Messiah," " Immanuel," or God with us, " The Son 
 of God," "The Son of Man," " The Eedeemer," "The 
 Elder Brother." In a word, Islam has nothing to fill 
 the breach between a holy and just God and the con- 
 science-smitten souls of men. These honored names 
 of Allah are as sublime as the snow-peaks of the 
 Himalayas and as inaccessible. How can we attain 
 
344 ORIENTAL BBLIGI0N8 AND OMBISTIANITT 
 
 unto them? Without a Daysman how shall we 
 bridge the abyss that lies between? Even Israel 
 plead for Moses to speak to them in place of the In- 
 finite, and they voiced a felt want of aU human 
 hearts. 
 
 Yet no religious system but Christianity reveals a 
 Mediator. There is in other faiths no such concep- 
 tion as the fatherhood of God. Though such names 
 as Dyauspater, Zeuspiter or Jupiter, and others 
 bearing the import of father are sometimes found, 
 yet they imply only a common source, as the sun is 
 the source of life. They lack the elements of love 
 and fostering care. There can be no real father- 
 hood and no spirit of adoption except through union 
 with the Son of God. The idea that re-birth and 
 remission of sin inay be followed by adoption and 
 heirship, and joint heirship with the Son of the In- 
 finite, belongs to the Christian faith alone ; and the 
 hope and inspiration of such a heritage, seen in con- 
 trast with the endless and disheartening prospects 
 of countless transmigrations, are beyond the power 
 of language to describe. It was with infinite reason 
 that Paul was taught to regard his work among the 
 Gentiles as a rescue or a deliverance "from dark- 
 ness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto 
 God," and it was a priceless boon which enabled 
 Tn'm to offer at once the full remission of sins and a 
 part in the glorious inheritance revealed through 
 faith in Christ. 
 
 Mere ethical knowledge cannot comfort the human 
 soul. Contrast the gloom of Marcus Aurelius with 
 the joy of David in Psalm cxix. ; and Seneca, also, 
 
DIYINB STIPSEMAOY OF OHBISTIAN FAITH 345 
 
 with all his discernment, and his eloquent presenta- 
 tion of beautiful precepts, was one of the saddest, 
 darkest characters of Boman history. He was the 
 man who schemed with Catiline, and who at the 
 same time that he wrote epigrams urged Nero on- 
 ward with flattery and encouragement to his most 
 infamous vices and his boldest crimes. Knowledge 
 of ethical maxims and the power of expressing them, 
 therefore, is one thing, religion is another. Beligion 
 is a device, human or divine, for raising up men by 
 a real or a supposed supernatural aid. It ought to 
 reveal God as a helper and a Saviour. It ought to 
 be a provision of grace by which the Just can yet 
 be a justifier of them that are weak and wounded by 
 sia. The ethical systems of the heathen world cor- 
 roborate the Scriptural diagnosis of man's character 
 and condition, but they fail as prescriptions. So far 
 as divine help and regenerative power are, concerned, 
 they leave the race helpless still. 
 
 Christianity is a system of faith in a moral as well 
 as in an intellectual sense. It inculcates a spirit of 
 loving, filial trust instead of a querulous self -right- 
 eousness which virtually chides the unknown Ruler 
 of the universe. According to " The Light of Asia " 
 when the Buddha preached at Kapilavastu there 
 were assembled men and devils, beasts and birds, all 
 victims alike of the cruel fate that ruled the world. 
 Existence was an evil and only the Buddha could be 
 found to pity. But that pity offered no hope except 
 in the destruction of hope, and the destruction of all 
 desire, all aspiration, even all feeling ; while Chris- 
 tianity offers a hope which maketh not ashamed, 
 
346 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 even an immortal inheritance.* Hinduism also, like 
 Islam and Buddhism, lacks every element of divine 
 salvation. It is wholly a thing of merit. The in- 
 finite Brahm is said to be void of attributes of all 
 kinds. No anthropomorphic conception can be pred- 
 icated of him. The three Gods of the Trimurti are 
 cold and distant — though for Vishnu in his alleged 
 incaination of Krishna, a sympathetic nature was 
 claimed at a later day — borrowed, some say, from 
 
 * Of the terrible darkness and bewilderment into which be- 
 nighted races are often found Schoolcraft furnishes this graphic 
 and painful picture in the condition of the Iroquois : 
 
 ' ' Their notions of a deity, founded apparently on some dreamy 
 tradition of original truth, are so subtile and divisible, and estab- 
 lish so heterogeneous a connection between spirit and matter of 
 all imaginable forms, that popular belief seems to have wholly 
 confounded the possible with the impossible, the natural with the 
 supernatural. Action, so far as respects cause and effect, takes 
 the widest and wildest range, through the agency of good or evil 
 influences, which are put in motion alike for noble or ignoble 
 ends — alike by men, beasts, devils, or gods. Seeing something 
 mysterious and wonderful, he believes all things mysterious and 
 wonderful; and he is afloat without shore or compass, on the 
 wildest sea of superstition and necromancy. He sees a god in 
 every phenomenon, and fears a sorcerer in every enemy. Life, 
 under such a system of polytheism and wild belief, is a constant 
 scene of fears and alarms. Fear is the predominating passion, 
 and he is ready, wherever he goes, to sacrifice at any altar, be the 
 supposed deity ever so grotesque. He relates just what he be- 
 lieves, and unluckily he believes everything that can possibly be 
 told. A beast, or a bird, or a man, or a god, or a devil, a stone, 
 a serpent, or a wizard, a wind, or a sound, or a ray of light — 
 these are so many causes of action, which the meanest and lowest 
 of the series may put in motion, but which shall in his theology 
 and philosophy vibrate along the mysterious chain through the 
 uppermost, and life or death may at any moment be the reward 
 or the penalty." — Notes on tlie Iroquois, p. 263. 
 
DIVINE SUPREMAOT OF OHRISTIAN FAITH 347 
 
 Buddhism, or, according to others, from Christianity. 
 In the Hindu saint all spiritual power in this life is 
 the merit power of ascetic austerities, all hope for 
 the future world lies in the cleansing efBeacy of end- 
 less transmigrations of which the goal is absorption 
 into deity. 
 
 But the difficulty with both Buddhism and Hindu- 
 ism is that transmigration cannot regenerate. It is 
 only a vague postponement of the moral issues of 
 the soul. There is recognized no future intervention 
 that can effect a change in the downward drift, and 
 why should a thousand existences prove better than 
 one ? According to a law of physics known as the 
 persistence of force, a body once set in motion will 
 never stop unless through the intervention of some 
 other resisting force. And this is strikingly true of 
 moral character and the well-known power and mo- 
 mentum of habit. Who shall change the leopard's 
 spots or deflect the fatal drift of a human soul? 
 Kemorselessly these Oriental systems exact from 
 Kharma the uttermost farthing. They emphasize the 
 fact that according to the sowing shall be the reap- 
 ing, and that in no part of the universe can iU desert 
 escape its awards. Even if change were possible, 
 therefore, how shall the old score be settled ? What 
 help, what rescue can mere infinitude of time afford, 
 though the transmigrations should number tens of 
 thousands ? There is no hint that any pitying eye 
 of God or devil looks upon the struggle, or any 
 arm is stretched forth 4;o raise up the crippled and 
 helpless soul. Time is the only Saviour — time so 
 vast, so vague, so distant, that the mind cannot fol- 
 
348 OBIENTAL RELIGIONS AND GHRI8TIANITT 
 
 low its cycles or trace tlie relations of cause and 
 effect. 
 
 In contrast with aU this, Christianity bids the 
 Hindu ascetic cease from his self -mortification and 
 become himself a herald of Glad Tidings. It invites 
 the hook-swinger to renounce his useless torture and 
 accept the availing sacrifice of Him who hung upon 
 the Cross. It relieves woman from the power of 
 Satan, as exercised in those cruel disabilities which 
 false systems have imposed upon her, and assigns 
 her a place of honor in the kingdom of God. The 
 world has not done scoffing at the idea of a vicari- 
 ous sacrifice for the sins of men, and yet it has ad- 
 vanced so far that its best thinkers, even without 
 any religious bias, are agreed that the principle of 
 self-sacrifice is the very highest element of character 
 that man can aspire to. And this is tantamount to 
 an acknowledgment that the great principle which 
 the Cross illustrates, and on which the salvation of 
 the race is made to rest, is the crowniag glory of all 
 ethics and must be therefore the germinal principle 
 of all true religion. 
 
 Christianity with its doctrine of voluntary Divine 
 Sacrifice was no after-thought. Paul speaks of it as 
 " the mystery which hath been hid from ages and 
 from generations but now is made manifest." It was 
 the one great mystery which angels had desired to 
 look into and for which the whole world had waited 
 in travail and expectation. Christ was " the Lamb 
 slain from the foundation of the world," and the en- 
 tire world-history has proceeded under an economy 
 of grace. And I repeat, its fundamental principle 
 
DIVINE SUPBEMAOT OF CMBISTIAN FAITH 349 
 
 of sacrifice, exemplified as it has been tlirougla the 
 Christian centuries, has won the recognition even of 
 those who were not themselves the followers of Christ. 
 "The history of self-sacrifice duruig the last eighteen 
 hundred years," says Lecky, "has been mainly the 
 history of the action of Christianity upon the world. 
 Ignorance and error have no doubt often directed the 
 heroic spirit into wrong channels, and sometimes 
 even made it a cause of great etil to mankind ; but 
 it is the moral type and beauty, the enlarged con- 
 ception and persuasive power of the Christian faith 
 that have chiefly called it into beiag ; and it is by 
 their influence alone that it can be permanently 
 maintained." * Speaking of the same principle Car- 
 lyle says : "It is only with renunciation that life, 
 properly speaking, can be said to begin. ... In 
 a valiant suffering for others, not in a slothful mak- 
 ing others suffer for us, did nobleness ever lie." And 
 George Sand in still stronger terms has said, " There 
 is but one sole virtue in the world — the Eternal Sac- 
 rifice of self." 
 
 While we ponder these testimonies eomiug from 
 such witnesses we remember how the Great Apostle 
 traces this wonder-working principle back to its Di- 
 vine Source, and from that Source down into all the 
 commonest walks of life when he says, "Let this 
 mind be in you which was also in Christ, who, beiag 
 in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be 
 equal with God ; but made himself of no reputation, 
 and took on Him the form of a servant, and was made 
 in the likeness of men : and being found in fashion 
 * History of nationalism. 
 
360 ORIENTAL BELIGI0N8 AND 0HBI8TIANITT 
 
 as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient 
 unto death, even the death of the Cross." Or when 
 he reminds the Corinthians that, though Christ was 
 rich, yet for their sake He became poor, that they 
 through His poverty might be rich. 
 
 In all the Oriental systems there is nothing like 
 this, either as a divine source of all-availing help and 
 rescue, or as a celestial spring of human action. It 
 is through this communicable grace that Christ be- 
 comes the Way, the Truth, the Life. Well might 
 Augustine say that while the philosophy of Plato 
 led him to lofty conceptions of God, it could not 
 show him how to approach Him or be reconciled im- 
 to Him. " For it is one thing," he says, " from the 
 mountain's shaggy top to see the land of peace and 
 to find no way thither ; and in vain to essay through 
 ways impossible, opposed and beset by fugitives and 
 deserters, under their captain the lion and the drag- 
 on ; and another to keep on the way that leads 
 thither guarded by the host of the heavenly General, 
 where they spoil not that have deserted the heaven- 
 ly army ; for they avoid it as very torment. These 
 things did wonderfully sink into my bowels when I 
 read that least of Thy Apostles, and had meditated 
 upon Thy works and trembled exceedingly.'' While 
 Christianity is wholly unique in providing an ob- 
 jective Salvation instead of attempting to work out 
 perfection from " beggarly elements " within the soul 
 itself, as all heathen systems do, and as all our 
 modem schemes of mere ethical culture do, it at the 
 same time implants in the heart the most fruitful 
 germs of subjective spiritual life. Its superior trans- 
 
DIVINE 8UPBEMA0Y OF OHBISTIAN FAITH 351 
 
 formation of human character, as compared with all 
 other cults, is not only a matter of doctrine but also 
 a matter of history. It is acknowledged that Chris- 
 tianity has wrought most powerfully of all faiths in 
 taming savage races as well as individual men, in 
 moulding higher civilizations and inspiring senti- 
 ments of humanity and brotherly love. " Christ," 
 says one of the Bampton Lecturers, "is the Light 
 that broods over all history. . . . All that there 
 is upon earth of beauty, truth, and goodness, all that 
 distinguishes the civilized man from the savage is 
 this gift." And if it be asked how the leaven of 
 Christ's influence has pervaded all society, the an- 
 swer is that the work is presided over by a divine and 
 omnipotent Spirit who represents Christ, who carries 
 out what He began, who by a direct and transforming 
 power renews and enlightens and prompts the soul. 
 
 Christianity, then, is not a record, a history of 
 what was said and done eighteen centuries ago : it is 
 not a body of doctrines and precepts : it is the hv- 
 ing power of God in the soul of man. The written 
 Word is the sword of this Divine Spirit. The re- 
 newed soul is begotten of the Spirit and it is instinct 
 with the indwelling of the Spirit. No other system 
 makes any claim to such an influence as that of the 
 Holy Ghost. Sacred books, written systems of law 
 or ethics would all prove a dead letter — the Bible it- 
 self, as well as the Veda, would be a dead letter but 
 for the co-operation of this Divine Spirit. Sacred 
 Scriptures might be venerated, they would not be 
 obeyed. The dead heart must be quickened and re- 
 newed and only Christianity reveals the Transform- 
 
352 ORIENTAL BELiaiONS AND OHBISTIANITT 
 
 ing Power. Verily, verily, I say unto thee. Except a 
 man he horn again he cannot see the Kingdom of Qod. 
 
 Instantaneous renewal of tlie character and the 
 life is not even claimed by other faiths ; there is in 
 them nothing like the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, 
 or that of thousands of others well kaown in the his- 
 tory of Christian experience. There are no such 
 changes in men who, from having led lives of prof- 
 ligacy and irreligion, have turned at once into paths 
 of righteousness — have tamed their wild propensities 
 and submitted themselves to the gentle law of love. 
 But under Christian influence we have seen Africaner 
 the savage transformed to a tractable, humane, and 
 loving disciple. We have seen the wild and blood- 
 thirsty Koord subdued and made as a little chUd. 
 We have seen the cannibal King Thotambo, of Fiji, 
 turned from his cruelty to a simple, childlike faith, 
 and made to prefer the good of his people to the 
 glory of a powerless sceptre. Whole races, like the 
 Northmen, have been tamed from savagery and made 
 peaceable and earnest followers of Christ. In our 
 own time it has been said of a missionary in the 
 South Pacific Islands, " that when he arrived on his 
 field there were no Christians, and when he closed 
 his labors there were no heathen." 
 
 The religion of Gautama has won whole tribes of 
 men, Hinduism and Mohammedanism are even now 
 winning converts from fetish-worshipping races, but, 
 so far as I know, none of these faiths have ever 
 made converts except either by war or by the pres- 
 entation of such motives as might appeal to the nat- 
 ural heart of man ; there has been no spiritual trans- 
 
DIVINE aUPBBMAOT OF OHBISTIAN FAITH 3q3 
 
 formation. If it be said that the Buddhist Nirvana 
 and the Hindu doctrine of final absorption cannot 
 attract the natural heart, the ready answer is that 
 Nirvana and absorption are not the real inspiration 
 of their respective systems. They are so far re- 
 moved into the dim future as to exert no practical 
 influence on the great mass of men. The future es- 
 tate that is really expected and desired is a happy 
 ideal transmigration, and perhaps many of them ; and 
 the chief felicity of the Hindu is that no particular 
 estate is prescribed. While the Christian is prom- 
 ised a heaven to which the natural heart does not 
 aspire, the Hindu may imagine and prefigure his 
 own heaven. His next life may be as carnal as the 
 celestial hunting-ground of the Indian or the proln- 
 ised paradise of the Moslem. It may be only the 
 air-castle of a day-dreamer. There is no moral trans- 
 formation. There is no expulsive power of a new 
 and higher aspiration. Old things have not passed 
 away ; nothing has become new. 
 
 But the grace of God in Christ claims to work an 
 entire change in the desires and aspirations of the 
 heart by the power of the Holy Ghost. Paul found 
 the men of Ephesus highly civilized in a sense, but 
 " dead in trespasses and sins," " walking accordiag 
 to the course of this world, and having their conver- 
 sation in the lusts of the flesh." But God by His 
 Spirit so " quickened " them that they were able to 
 understand and appreciate one of the most spiritual 
 of all his Epistles. He addressed them as "new 
 creatures," as God's "workmanship," "created in 
 Christ Jesus unto good works." 
 33 
 
354: ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 As has already been noticed, all theories of moral 
 transformation fotmd in heathen systems require 
 time. The process is carried on by intensive and 
 long-continued thought, or by gradual accumulations 
 of merit. Only the* Buddha was enlightened per 
 saltum* so to speaJi. And quite in accord with this 
 view are those modem forms of materialism which 
 maintain that mental and moral habits consist in 
 gradual impressions made in the molecules of the 
 nerve-tissues — that these impressions come at length 
 to determine our acts without the necessity of either 
 purpose or conscious recognition, and that only when 
 right action becomes thus involuntary can character 
 strictly be said to exist, f But such theories cer- 
 taCinly do not harmonize with the known facts of 
 Christian conversion already alluded to. We do not 
 refuse to recognize a certain degree of truth hidden 
 in these speculations. We axe aware that continued 
 thought or emotion promotes a certain habit, and 
 that ia the Christian life such habit becomes an ele- 
 ment of strength. We also admit that high and pure 
 thought and emotion stamp themselves at length 
 upon our physical nature, and appear in the very ex- 
 pression of the countenance, but when we look for 
 the transforming impulse that can begin and sustain 
 such habitual exercises in spite of the natural sinful- 
 ness and corruption which all systems admit, we find 
 it only in the Christian doctrine of the new birth by 
 the power of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 * And even the Buddha had spent six years in self-mortification 
 and in the diligent search for what he regarded as the true wisdom. 
 I Henry Maudsley, in The Arena of April, 1891. 
 
DIVINE 8UPBEMA0T OF CHRISTIAN FAITH 855 
 
 On these two doctrines of a Divine Yicarious 
 Sacrifice and of the transforming power of a Di- 
 vine Spirit we might rest onr case. It should be 
 sufficient to show, first, that Christianity alone pro- 
 vides a divine salvation in which God is made sin 
 for us ; and second, that its power alone, though 
 objective, works in us the only effectual subjective 
 transformation by a direct influence from on high. 
 But there are many other points of contrast in 
 which the transcendent character of Christianity ap- 
 pears. 
 
 First, an important differential Kes in the com- 
 pleteness of the Divine personality of Jesus. Bud- 
 dhism, Confucianism, and Mohammedanism, were 
 strongly supported by the personality of their found- 
 ers. We also cheerfully accord to such men as Soc- 
 rates and Plato great personal influence. They have 
 impressed themselves upon the millions of mankind 
 more deeply than statesmen, or potentates, or con- 
 querors ; but not one of these presents to us a com- 
 plete and rounded character, judged even from a hu- 
 man stand-point. Mohammed utterly failed on the 
 ethical side.* His life was so marred by coarse 
 sensuality, weak effeminacy, heartless cruelty, un- 
 blushing hypocrisy, and heaven-defying blasphemy, 
 that but for his stupendous achievements, and his 
 sublime and persistent self-assertion, he would long 
 since have been buried beneath the contempt of man- 
 
 * " Barren Mohammedanism has been in all the higher and 
 more tender virtues, because its noble morality and Its pure the- 
 ism have been united with no living example." — Lecky, History 
 of Mcn-als, vol. ii. , p. 10. 
 
356 ORIENTAL BELIGIONS AND OHBIBTIAmTT 
 
 kind.* Confucius appears to have been above re- 
 proach in morals, and that amid universal profligacy ; 
 but he was cold in temperament, unsympathetic, and 
 slavishly utilitarian in his teachings. His ethics 
 lacked symmetry and just proportion. The five re- 
 lations which constituted his ethico-pblitical system 
 were everything. They were made the basis of in- 
 exorable social customs which sacrificed some of the 
 tenderest and noblest promptings of the himian 
 heart. Confucius mourned the death of his mother, 
 for filial respect was a part of his system, but for his 
 dying wife there is no evidence of grief or regret, and 
 when his son mourned the death of his wife the phi- 
 losopher reproved him. In all things he reasoned 
 upward toward the throne; his grand aim was to 
 build up an ideal state. He therefore magnified 
 reverence for parents and all ancestors even to the 
 verge of idolatry, but he utterly failed in that sym- 
 metry in which Paul makes the duties of parents 
 and children mutual. Under his system a father 
 might exercise his caprice almost to the power of 
 life or death, and a Chinese mother-in-law is prover- 
 bially a tyrant. The beautiful sympathy of Christ, 
 shown in blessing little children and in drawing les- 
 sons from their simple trust, would have been utterly 
 out of place in the great sage of China. Confucius 
 
 * The most intelligent Mohammedans, as we have shown in a 
 former lecture, admit the moral blemishes of his character as 
 compared with the purity of Jesus, and only revere him as the in- 
 strument of a great Divine purpose. His only element of great- 
 ness was success. Even the Koran convicts him of what the 
 world must regard a? heJnoBS sin, and presents Jesus as the only 
 sinless prophet. 
 
DIVINE 8UPBBMA0T OF 0HBI8TIAN FAITH 357 
 
 seems to have troubled himself but slightly, if at aU, 
 about the wants of the poor and the suffering ; he 
 taught no doctrine of self-sacrifice for the ignorant 
 and the unworthy. His ideal of the " superior man " 
 would have been tarnished by that contact with the 
 lowly and degraded which was the glory of the 
 Christ. And when his cotemporary, Laotze, taught 
 the duty of doing good, even to enemies, he repudi- 
 ated the principle as uncalled for in the relative 
 duties which should govern mankind.* 
 
 With respect to personality, probably a higher 
 claim has been made for Gautama than for either of 
 the characters who have been named. Sir Edwin 
 Arnold, in his preface to the " Light of Asia," has as- 
 signed to him a virtual sinlessness, and such is doubt- 
 less the character which his followers wotdd claim for 
 him. But as a model for the great masses of men Gau- 
 tama was very far from perfection. He had little of 
 the genial sunlight- of humanity ; in every fibre of his 
 nature he was a recluse ; his views of life were pessi- 
 mistic ; he had no glad tidings for the sorrowing ; no 
 encouragement for the weary and the heavy laden, f 
 His agnosticism was ill adapted to the irrepressible 
 wants of mankind, for they must place their trust in 
 
 * Bouglass, Confucianism and T(tonism.. 
 
 f Tlie apologists of BuddMsm have made much of the story of 
 a distressed young mother who came to the "Master" bearing in 
 her arms the dead body of her first-born— hoping for some com- 
 fort or help. He bade her bring him some mustard-seed found 
 in a home where no child had died. After a wearisome but vain 
 search he only reminded her of the universality of death. No 
 hope of a future life and a glad recovery of the lost was given. 
 As an illustration of Buddhism the example is a good one. 
 
358 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND OHRISTIANITT 
 
 a higher power, real or imagined.* But while he cast 
 a cloud oyer the being of God he drove his despair- 
 ing countrymen to the worship of serpents and evil 
 spirits. In Ceylon, which is ^ar eminence an orthodox 
 Buddhist country, ninety per cent, of the population 
 are said to be devil worshippers, and the devil jug- 
 glers are patronized even by the Buddhist monks.f 
 As the philosophy of Gautama was above the com- 
 prehension of the common people, so his example 
 was also above their reach. It utterly lacked the 
 element of trust, and involved the very destruction 
 of society. To " wander apart like a rhinoceros " 
 and " be silent as a broken gong '' might be practi- 
 cable for a chosen few, if only self were to be consid- 
 ered, but silence and isolation are not worthy ideals 
 in a world of mutual dependence and where all life's 
 blessings are enhanced by the ministries of the 
 strong to the necessities of the weak. Infinitely 
 higher was the example of Him who said, "My 
 Father worketh hitherto, and I work ; " and who ac- 
 cordingly exhorted his disciples to work while the 
 day lasts. Christ prayed not that they should be 
 taken out of the world, but that they should be kept 
 from the evil. 
 
 * "Men wanted a Father in heaven, who should take account of 
 their efforts and assure them a recompense. Men wanted a future 
 of righteousness, in which the earth should belong to the feeble 
 and the poor ; they wanted the assurance that human sufEering 
 is not all loss, but that beyond this sad horizon, dimmed by tears, 
 are happy plains where sorrow shall one day find its consola- 
 tion." — Kenan, Hibbert Lectures, p. 42. 
 
 f See report of Missionary Conference, London, 1888, vol. i., 
 p. 70. 
 
DIVINE 8UPREMA0T OF OHBiaTIAHif FAITH 359 
 
 Again the Buddha's life furnished but a poor ex- 
 ample in the domestic duties. His abandonment of 
 his wife and child cannot be justified upon any sound 
 theory of life. Whatever may be said of the merits 
 of celibacy in those who are under no marriage vows, 
 the abandonment of sacred relations once formed 
 must be considered a crime against all society. As 
 Mohammed's example of impurity.has cast a blight 
 over all Moslem lands, so Gautama's withdrawal from 
 his home has borne, and is still bearing, its evil fruit. 
 In Burmah it is common for a Buddhist who desires 
 a change of wives to abandon his family for the sa- 
 cred life of a monastery, where, if he remains but a 
 single month, he simders the old relation and is at 
 liberty to form a new one. Good men are disgusted, 
 but there is the example of " the Blessed One ! " It 
 will be admitted that in comparison with Hinduism 
 the Buddhist ethics advanced woman to a higher 
 social condition, but when modem apologists com- 
 pare Gautama with Christ there are many contrasts 
 which cannot be disguised. 
 
 In some respects Socrates stands highest among 
 great philosophers. Mohammed's career cost him 
 nothing but gained for him everything that man's 
 earthly nature could desire. Gautama made only a 
 temporary sacrifice; he changed lower indulgences 
 for honor and renown, and died at a ripe old age sur- 
 rounded by loving friends. But Socrates resolutely 
 and calmly suffered martyrdom for his principles. 
 The sublime dignity and self-control of his dying 
 hours will never cease to win the admiration of man- 
 kind ; yet Socrates was by no means a complete char- 
 
360 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND CHBISTIANITT 
 
 acter. He died unto himself merely. He left no 
 gospel of peace to humanity. His influence, how- 
 ever pure, could not, and in fact did not, become a 
 diffusive and transforming leaven, either in his own 
 or in any subsequent generation. The late Matthew 
 Arnold has said, " The radical difference between 
 Jesus and Socrates is that such a conception as 
 Paul's (conception of faith) would, if applied to 
 Socrates, be out of place and ineffective. Socrates 
 inspired boundless friendship and esteem, but the 
 inspiration of reason and conscience is the one in- 
 spiration which comes from him and which impels 
 us to live righteously as he did. A penetrating en- 
 thusiasm of love, sympathy, pity, adoration, rein- 
 forcing the inspiration of reason and duty does not 
 belong to Socrates. With Jesus it is different. 
 On this point it is needless to argue : history has 
 proved. In the midst of errors the most prosaic, 
 the most immoral, the most unscriptural, concern- 
 ing God, Christ, and righteousness, the immense 
 emotion of love and sympathy inspired by the per- 
 son and character of Jesus has had to work almost 
 by itself alone for righteousness, but it has worked 
 wonders." * 
 
 This tribute to the completeness and power of 
 Christ's personality is calculated to remind one of a 
 memorable chapter in the weU-known work of the 
 late Dr. Horace Bushnell, entitled, " Nature and the 
 Supernatural." "With a wonderful power it por- 
 trays Christ as rising above the plane of merely 
 human characters — as belonging to no age or race 
 * 8t. PavX and ProteBtantism, p. 79, quoted by Bishop Carpenter. 
 
DIVINE 8UPBEMA0T OF OHBISTIAN FAITH 361 
 
 or stage of civilization — as transcendent not in 
 some of the virtues, but in them all — as never sub- 
 ject to prejudice, or the impulse of passion, never 
 losing that perfect poise which it has been impossi- 
 ble for the greatest of men to achieve — as possessed 
 of a mysterious magnetism which carried conviction 
 to His hearers even when claiming to be one with the 
 Infinite — as inspiring thousands with a love which 
 has led them to give their lives for His cause.* 
 
 I have often thought that one of the most striking 
 evidences of the divine reality of the Christian faith 
 is found in the reflection of Christ's personality in 
 the character and life of the apostle Paul.f No one 
 can doubt that Paul was a real historic personage, 
 that from having been a strict and influential Jew he 
 became a follower of Jesus and gave himself to His 
 service with a sublime devotion ; that he sealed the 
 sincerity of his belief by a life of marvellous self- 
 
 *It is hardly necessary to remind the reader of the well-known 
 tribute which Napoleon, in his conversations with his friends on 
 the island of St. Helena, paid to the transcendent personality 
 of Christ. He drew a graphic contrast between the so-called 
 glory which had been won by great conquerors like Alexander, 
 C»sar, and himself, and that mysterions and all-mastering power 
 which in all lands and all ages continues to attach itself to the 
 person, the name, the memory of Christ, for whom, after eigh- 
 teen centuries of time, millions of men would sacrifice their 
 lives. 
 
 f Augustine appears to have been greatly moved by the life as 
 well as by the writings of Paul. In an account given of his con- 
 version to' his friend Komanianus, he says, " So then stumbling, 
 hurrying, hesitating, I seized the apostle Paul, ' for never,' said I, 
 ' could they have wrought such things, or lived as it is plain they 
 did live, if their writings and arguments were opposed to this so 
 high a good.' " — Confessions, Bk. vii., xxi., note. 
 
62 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND OEBiaTIANITY 
 
 enial. He had no motive for acting a false part at 
 acli cost ; on the contrary, an unmistakable gennine- 
 ess is stamped upon his whole career. How shall 
 'e explain that career ? Where else in the world's 
 istory have we seen a gifted and experienced man, 
 ill of strong and repellant prejudices, so stamped 
 ad penetrated by the personality of another ? 
 
 On what theory can we account for such a change 
 1 such a life, except that his own story of his con- 
 ersion was strictly true, that he had felt in his 
 amost soul a power so overwhelming as to sweep 
 way his prejudices, humble his pride, arm him 
 gainst the derision of his former friends, and pre- 
 are him for inevitable persecution and for the mar- 
 pr death of which he was forewarned? So vivid 
 'ere his impressions of this divine personality that 
 ; seemed almost to absorb his o'mi. Christ, though 
 [e had ascended, was still with him as a living pres- 
 ace. All his inspiration, all his strength came from 
 [im. His plans and purposes centred in his Divine 
 taster, and his only ambition was to be found well- 
 leasing in his sight. He saw all types and prophe- 
 ies fulfilled in Him as the Son of God, the fulness 
 f His glory, and the express image of His person, 
 'aul never indulged in any similes by which to ex- 
 ress the glory of heaven ; it was enough that we 
 tiould be like Christ and be with Him where He is. 
 
 The writings of all the apostles differ from the books 
 f other religions in the fact that their doctrines, pre- 
 3pts, and exhortations are so centred in their divine 
 'eacher and Saviour. Buddha's disciples continued 
 ) quote their Master, but Buddha was dead. Theo- 
 
DIVINE SUPBEMAGT OF OHBiaTIAN FAITH 363 
 
 retically not even his immortal soul survived. He 
 had declared that when his bodily life should cease 
 there would be nothing left of which it could be said 
 "I am." 
 
 But to the vivid and realizing faith of Christ's fol- 
 lowers- He is stiU their living Head, their Interces- 
 sor, their Guide. His resurrection is the warrant of 
 their future life. He has gone before and will come 
 again to receive His own. Christianity is Christ : 
 all believers are members of His mystic body : the 
 Church is His bride. He is the Alpha and the 
 Omega of the world's history. In the contemplation 
 of His personality as the chief among ten thousand 
 His people are changed into His image as from glory 
 to glory. The ground of salvation in Christianity is 
 not in a church, nor a body of doctrines, not even in 
 the teachings of the Master : it is in Christ Himself 
 as a humiliated sacrifice and a triumphant Saviour, 
 
 Second, the religion of the Bible differs from every 
 other in its completeness and scope — its adaptation 
 to all the duties and experiences of life and to all 
 races and all conditions of men. It alone is able to 
 meet all the deep and manifold wants of mankind. 
 Hardwick has very aptly pointed out a contrast in 
 this respect between the faith of Abraham and that 
 of the early Indo- Aryan chiefs as portrayed in the 
 Big Veda. The pressing wants of humanity neces- 
 sitate a faith that is of the nature of a heartfelt trust. 
 No other can be regarded as strictly religious. Now 
 Abraham's faith was something more than a specu- 
 lation or a creed. It was an all-embracing confidence 
 in God. He had an abiding sense of His presence and 
 
364 ORIENTAL RBLiaiONS AND 0HBI8TIANITY 
 
 lie confided in Him as his constant guide, defender, 
 and friend. His family, his flocks, his relations to 
 the hostile tribes who surrounded him, the promised 
 possession of the land to which he journeyed — all 
 these were matters which he left in the hands of an 
 unseen but ever-faithful friend. His was a practical 
 faith — a real and complete venture, and it involved 
 gratitude and loyalty and love. Abraham's child- 
 hood had been spent in the home of an idolatrous 
 father ; for Shemite as well as Aryan had departed 
 from the worship of the true God. In Chaldea, as 
 in India, men had come to worship the sun and 
 moon and the forces of nature. But while the Hindu 
 wandered ever farther away from Jehovah, Abraham 
 restored the faith which his ancestors had lost. He 
 had no recourse to Indra or Varuna, he sought no 
 help from devas or departed spirits. He looked to 
 God alone, for he had heard a voice saying, "I am the 
 Almighty God, walk before me and be thou perfect." * 
 Under the inspiration of such a summons Abraham 
 became " the father of the faithful." He was the rep- 
 resentative and exemplar of real and practical faith, 
 not only to the Hebrew race but to all manldnd. 
 He staked his all upon a promise which he regarded 
 as divine and therefore sure. He believed in the 
 Lord and He counted it to him for righteousness. 
 He left home and cotmtry and ventured among hos- 
 tile tribes in an assured confidence that he should 
 gain a possession, though empty-handed, and a count- 
 less posterity, though yet childless, and that all this 
 would be granted him not for his own glory, but that 
 * Genesis, xvii. 1. 
 
BIVINB 8JIPBEMA0T OF OHRISTIAN FAITH 365 
 
 all nations might be blest in Mm. And this subordi- 
 nation of self and this uplifting of his soul to a sublime 
 hope rendered him patient when fulfilment seemed 
 postponed, and strong against temptation when spoils 
 and emoluments were offered him ; for in some sense, 
 vague perhaps, he foresaw a Messiah and a Kingdom 
 of Righteousness, and he was girded with confidence 
 to the last, though he died without the sight. 
 
 We look in vain for anything to be compared vsdth 
 this in the Vedic literature, still less in that of the 
 period of Brahmanical sacerdotalism, or in the still 
 later speculations of the philosophic schools. Real 
 Hinduism is wanting in the element of trust. Its 
 only faith is a belief, a theory, a speculation. It re- 
 ceives nothing and expects nothing as a free gift of 
 God. Sacrificial rites survived in the early Vedio 
 period, but they had lost all prophetic significance. 
 They terminated in themselves and rested upon their 
 own value. There was no remembered promise and 
 no expectation of any specific fulfilment. The Hindu 
 gained simply what he bought with his merit or his 
 offerings, and he had no greater sense of gratitude 
 to deity than to the tradesman of whom he made a 
 purchase in the bazaar. There are, indeed, traces in 
 some of the earliest Vedic hymns of a feeling of de- 
 pendence upon superior powers, yet the Brahmanical 
 priesthood taught men that he who was rich enough 
 to offer a sacrifice of a hundred horses might bank- 
 rupt heaven, and by his simple right of purchase even 
 rob Indra of his throne.* As stated in a previous 
 
 * The doctrine of human merit-making was carried to such an 
 extreme under the Brahmanical system that the gods became 
 
366 OniENTAL BELWIONS AND OHBISTIANITY 
 
 lecture, so far was this system from "the faith which 
 works by love " that even demons, by costly sacrifices 
 might dispute the supremacy of the universe. 
 
 There is an equally significant contrast between 
 the legislation of Moses and that of Manu. The life 
 and experience of the former are interwoven with his 
 statutes. They are illustrated with references to 
 actual events in the history of the people. The 
 blessings, the trials, the pimishments, the victories, 
 the defeats of Israel enter into the texture of the 
 whole Mosaic record : it is full of sympathetic feel- 
 ing ; it takes hold on the actual life of men and there- 
 fore is able to reform and elevate them. It brings 
 not only Moses, but Jehovah Himself into personal 
 sympathy with the people. But Manu presents stat- 
 utes only. Many of these are wholesome as laws, 
 but they are destitute of tenderness or compassion. 
 No indication is given of the author's own experience, 
 and we are left in doubt whether there were not 
 many authors to whom the general name of Manu 
 was applied. There is no inculcation of gratitude 
 and love to God, or any hint of His love to men. No 
 prayer, no song, no confession of dependence, no 
 tribute of praise, no record of trembliug, yet trust- 
 ful, experience. It is all cold, lifeless precept and 
 prohibition, with threats of punishment here and 
 hereafter. Eeligious exaction is most strict, but 
 there are few religious privileges except for Brah- 
 
 afraid of its power. They sometimes found it necessary to send 
 apsaras (nymphs), wives of genii, to tempt the most holy ascetics, 
 lest their austerities and their merit should proceed too far. — See 
 ArUde Brahmaniam, in the Britanniea. 
 
mVINE SUFMEMAOr OF 0HBI8TIAN FAITH 367 
 
 mans, and these they possess by divine birthright. 
 No particular favor is asked from any being in 
 heaven or on earth. 
 
 "With respect to this same element of personal 
 trust, and real, heartfelt experience, contrast David 
 also with any author whose name is given in Hiadu 
 literature. He was full of humanity, large-hearted, 
 loving, grateful, and though stained by sin, yet he 
 was so penitent and humble and tender that he was 
 said to be a man after Grod's own heart. He was a 
 successful warrior and a great king, but he held all 
 his honor and his power as a divine gift and for the 
 Divine glory. Compare the 119th Psalm with the 
 Upanishads, or with any of the six schools of philos- 
 ophy. The one deals with moral precepts and spir- 
 itual aspirations, all the others vdth subtle theories 
 of creation or problems of the universe. The one is 
 the outflowing of joyous experience found in obe- 
 dience to God's moral law, and only out of the heart 
 could such a psahn have been written. The law of 
 God had become not a barrier or a hamper, but a de- 
 light. Evidently David had found a religion which 
 filled every avenue and met every want of his whole 
 being. 
 
 Again, only the religion of Christ brings man into 
 his proper relation of penitence and humility before 
 God. It is necessary to the very conception of recon- 
 ciliation to a higher and purer being that wrong-do- 
 ing shall be confessed. All the leading faiths of the 
 world have traditions of the fall of man from a high- 
 er and holier estate, and most of them — notably Hin- 
 diiism. Buddhism, ancient Druidism, and the Druse 
 
368 ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND OHBISTIANITY 
 
 religion of Mount Lebanon — declare that the fall was 
 the result of pride and rebellion of spirit. And of 
 necessity the -wrong, it it cannot be undone, must at 
 least be confessed. Self-justification is perpetuation. 
 The offender must lay aside his false estimate of self 
 and admit the justice whose claims he has "violated. 
 Even in the ordinary intercourse of men this prin- 
 ciple is universally recognized. There can be no 
 reconciliation without either actual reparation or at 
 least a frank acknowledgment. Governmental par- 
 don always implies repentance ^nd promised reform, 
 and between individuals a due concession to violated 
 principle is deemed the dictate of the truest honor. 
 How can there be reconciliation to God, then, with- 
 out repentance and humiliation ? Of what value can 
 heathen asceticism and merit-making be while the 
 heart is still barred and buttressed with self -right- 
 eousness ? The longer a man approaches the Holi- 
 ness of Deity with the offerings of his own self- 
 consequence the greater does the enormity of his 
 offence become and the wider the breach which he 
 attempts to close. 
 
 Even if he could render a perfect obedience and 
 service for the future, he could never overtake the 
 old unsettled score. The prodigal cannot recover 
 the squandered estate or wipe out the record of f oUy 
 and sin, and if there be no resource of free remission 
 on the one hand, and no deep and genuine repentance 
 on the other, there can be no possible adjustment. 
 The universal judgment and conscience of men so 
 decide. Philosophers may present this method and 
 that of moral culture and assimilation to the char- 
 
DIVINE SUPBEMAOT OF 0HBI8TIAN FAITH 369 
 
 acter of the Infinite, but practically all men wiU ap- 
 prove the philosophy taught in Christ's touching 
 parable of the Prodigal Son. The beauty, the force, 
 the propriety of its principles strike the human un- 
 derstanding, whether of the sage or of the savage, like 
 a flash of sunlight, and no human heart can fail to 
 be touched by its lessons. Yet where in all the wide 
 waste of heathen faiths or philosophies is there any- 
 thing which even remotely resembles the story of 
 the Prodigal? Where is the system in which such 
 an incident and such a lesson would not be wholly 
 out of place ? 
 
 In that ancient book of the Egyptian religion 
 known as " The Book of the Dead," the souls of the 
 departed when arraigned before the throne of Osiris 
 are represented as all joining in one refrain of self- 
 exculpation, uttering such pleas as these: "I have 
 not offended or caused others to offend." " I have 
 not snared ducks illegally on the Nile." " I have not 
 used false weights or measures." "I have not de- 
 frauded TQj neighbor by unjustly opening the sluices 
 upon my own land ! " Any sense of the iuward char- 
 acter of sin or any conception of wrong attitudes of 
 mind or heart toward God is utterly wanting. It is 
 simply the plea of " not guilty," which even the most 
 hardened culprit may make in court. In one of the 
 Vedic hymns to Varuna there is something which 
 looks like confession of sin, but it really ends in 
 palliation. "It was not our doing, O Varuna, it was 
 necessity; an intoxicating draught, passion, dice, 
 thoughtlessness. The old is there to mislead the 
 young. Even sleep brings unrighteousness." And 
 34 
 
370 ORIENTAL BBLIOIONB AND 0HSI8TIAWITT 
 
 the remission sotiglit for is not one involving a change 
 of character but only release from an external bond. 
 " Absolve us from the sins of our fathers and from 
 those which we committed with our own bodies. 
 Eelease Vasishtha, O King, like a thief who has 
 feasted on stolen oxen. Eelease him hke a calf fi'om 
 the rope."* 
 
 In the Penitential Psalms of the ancient Alikadi- 
 ans, who inhabited Northern Assyria in the times 
 of Abraham, and who may have retained something 
 of that true faith from which Abraham's father had 
 declined, we find a nearer approach to true penitence, 
 but that also lacks the inner sense of sin and seeks 
 merely an exemption from punishments. 
 
 Only in the Old and New Testaments is sin recog- 
 nized as of the nature of personal guilt. Accord- 
 ingly, Christianity alone recognizes the fact that right 
 thoughts and motives and a worthy character are 
 the gifts of God. Cicero has truly remarked f that 
 men justly thank God for external blessings, but 
 never for virtue, or talent, or character. All that is 
 regarded as their own. And such is the conceit of 
 human self-righteousness in all man-made religions, 
 whether Hindu or Greek, ancient or modem. Philos- 
 ophy is in its very nature haughty and aristocratic. 
 Even Plato betrays this element. It is only the 
 Christian apostle that is heard to say, with heartfelt 
 emotion, " By the grace of God I am what I am." 
 The Buddha declared that he recognized no being in 
 any world to whom he owed any special reverence ; 
 
 * Miiller, Chips from a Oerman WorJcshop, vol. i., p. 40. 
 f De Nat. Deorum, iii., 36. 
 
DIVINE 8UPBEMAGY OF OHBISTIAN FAITH 371 
 
 and especially in his later years, when his disciples 
 had come to look upon him as in a sense divine, he 
 regarded himself as the highest of all intelligences on 
 the earth or in the various heavens. Such assump- 
 tions in both Buddha and Confucius will explain the 
 fact that for ages both have been virtually worshipped. 
 " At fifteen," said Confucius, " I had my mind bent 
 on learning. At thirty I stood firm. At forty I had 
 no doubt. At fifty I knew the decrees of Heaven. 
 At sixty my ear was an obedient organ for the recep- 
 tion of truth. At seventy I could follow what my 
 heart desired without transgressing what was right." * 
 Yet neither of these great teachers claimed to be a 
 divine Saviour. They were simply exemplars ; their 
 self - righteousness was supposed to be attainable 
 by all. 
 
 I cannot do better in this connection than point 
 out a striking contrast in the recorded experiences 
 of two well-known historic characters. Islam honors 
 David, King of Israel, and accords him a place among 
 its accredited prophets. Both David and Moham- 
 med were guilty of adultery under circumstances of 
 peculiar aggravation. Mohammed covered his offence 
 by a blasphemous pretence of special revelations 
 from God, justifying his crime and chiding him for 
 such qualms of conscience as he had. David lay in 
 dust and ashes while he bemoaned not only the con- 
 sequences of his sin and the breach of justice toward 
 his neighbor, but also the deep spiritual offence of his 
 act. " Against Thee, and Thee only, O God, have I 
 sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight." Profound- 
 * Chips from a Oerman Workslwp, p. 304. 
 
372 OBIBNTAL BELIGIONS AND aHBI8TIANITT 
 
 est penitence on tlie one hand and HeaTen-daring 
 blasphemy on the other, the Bible and the Koran 
 being witnesses ! 
 
 Another marked distinction is seen in the moral 
 purity of the Christian Scriptures as contrasted with 
 the so-called sacred books of all other religions. 
 That which is simply human will naturally be ex- 
 pected to show the moral taint of lapsed humanity. 
 The waters cannot rise higher than the fountain-head, 
 nor can one gather figs from thistles. In our social 
 intercourse with men we sooner or later find out 
 their true moral level. And so in what is written, 
 the exact grade of the author will surely appear. 
 And it is by this very test that we can with tolerable 
 accuracy distinguish the human from the divine in 
 religious records. It is not difficult to determine 
 what is from heaven and what is of the earth. 
 
 No enlightened reader of Greek mythology can 
 proceed far without discovering that he is dealing 
 with the prurient and often lascivious imaginings of 
 semi-barbarous poets. He finds the poetry and the 
 art of Greece both reflecting the character of a pas- 
 sionate people, bred under a southern sun and in an 
 extremely sensuous age. If he ventures iuto the 
 lowest depths of the popular religious literature of 
 Greece or Home, or ancient Egypt or Phoenicia, he 
 finds unspeakable vice enshrined among the myster- 
 ies of religion, and corruptions which an age of re- 
 finement refuses to translate or depict abound on 
 every hand. Or apply the same test to the literature 
 of Hinduism, even in its earliest and purest stages. 
 The sacred Yedas, which are supposed to have been 
 
DIVINE 8UPBEMA0T OF 0HBI8TIAN FAITE 373 
 
 breathed into the souls of ancient rishis by direct di- 
 vine effluence, are tainted here and there by debasing 
 human elements, and that not incidentally but as the 
 very soul of the Hindu system. For example, when 
 the Vedic hymns promise as future rewards the low- 
 est sensual indulgences * none can doubt the earthly 
 source of their inspiration. As for the Upanishads, 
 which are regarded as Sruti or inspired, Professor 
 Max MuUer, in his Introduction to the first volume 
 of " The Sacred Books of the East," virtually admits 
 the impropriety of traaislating them for English 
 readers without expurgation. Mr. Ram Chandra 
 Bose, of Lucknow, declares himseK unable, for the 
 same reason, to give a full and unabridged account 
 of the ancient Hindu sacrifices.f The later litera- 
 tures of the Puranas and the Tantras are lower 
 still. Anti-Christian Orientalists have so generally 
 conveyed the popular impression that their culled 
 and expurgated translations were fair representations 
 of Hindu literature that Wilson finally felt called 
 upon in the interest of truth and honesty to lift the 
 veil from some of the later revelations of the Puranas, 
 and it is sufficient to say that the Greek mythology 
 is fairly outdone by the alleged and repeated esca- 
 pades of the chief Hindu deities. 
 
 The traditions of aU ancient religions found on 
 either hemisphere, and the usages observed among 
 savage tribes of to-day all conform to the same low 
 moral gauge. All are as deplorably human as the 
 degraded peoples who devised them. In Mexico and 
 Peru, as well as in Egypt and in Babylonia, base hu- 
 
 * See Mnrdock's Vedh Bdigion, p. 57. \ Hindu PhUosopliy. 
 
374 ORIENTAL BELIQI0N8 AND OHBISTIANITT 
 
 man passion was mingled with the highest teachings 
 of religion.* Buddhism has generally been consid- 
 ered an exception to this general rule, and it will be 
 confessed that its influence has been vastly higher 
 than that of the old Hinduism, or the religions of 
 Canaan, or Greece, or Eome, and immeasurably 
 higher in morals than that of Islam ; yet even Buddh- 
 ism has been colored by its European advocates 
 with far too roseate a hue. Sir Edwin Arnold was 
 not the first biographer of Gautama to glorify inci- 
 dentally the seductive influences of his Indian harem, 
 and to leave on too many minds the impression that, 
 after all, the luxurious palace of Sidartha was more 
 attractive than the beggars' bowl of the enlightened 
 " Tathagata." The Bishop of Colombo, in an able 
 article on Buddhism, arraigns the apologetic trans- 
 lators of Buddhistic literature for having given to the 
 world an altogether erroneous impression of the 
 moral purity of the Sacred Books of Oeylon.f 
 
 The varmted claim that the early Buddhist records, 
 and especially the early rock inscriptions found in 
 caves, are pure, whatever corruptions may have crept 
 into more modem manuscripts, is well met by let- 
 ters from a recent traveller, which speak of certain 
 Buddhist inscriptions so questionable in character 
 that they cannot be translated or described.:}: 
 
 It is scarcely necessary for me to speak of the base 
 appeal to man's low passions found in the Koran. 
 
 * The most saored of human victims offered by the Aztecs were 
 prepared by a month of unbridled lust. See Prescott's Conquest, 
 t Nineteenth Oentui-y, July, 1888. 
 % Letters of Kev. Pentecost in The Christian at Work, 1891. 
 
DIVINE 8UPBBMA0T OF OHBISTIAN FAITH 375 
 
 It is only necessary to trace' its unmistakable influ- 
 ence in tlie moral degeneracy of Mohammedan pop- 
 ' ulations in all laaids and all ages — destroying the sa- 
 credness of the home, degrading woman, engendering 
 unnatural vices, and poisoning all society from gen- 
 eration to generation. It is indeed a hard task for 
 its apologists, by any kind of literary veneering to 
 cover the moral deformity and the blasphemous 
 wickedness which, side by side with acknowledged 
 excellences, mar the pages of the Koran. The soiled 
 finger-marks of the sensual Arab everywhere defile 
 them. Like the blood of Banquo, they defy all 
 ocean's waters to wash them out. It was easy 
 enough for Mohammed to copy many exalted truths 
 from Judaism and Christianity, and no candid mind 
 will deny that there are many noble precepts in the 
 Koran ; but after all has been said, its ruling spirit 
 is base. Even its promised heaven is demoralizing. 
 It is characteristically a human book, and very low 
 in the ethical scale at that. 
 
 Let us now turn to the Bible ; let us remember 
 that the Old Testament represents those early cen- 
 turies when the people of Israel were surrounded by 
 the corruptions of Baal worship, which transcended 
 the grovelling wickedness of 'all other heathen sys- 
 tems, ancient or modem. Let us bear in mind the 
 kind of training which the nation had received amid 
 the corruptions of Egypt, all rendered more effec- 
 tive for evil by their degrading bondage; and with 
 all these disadvantages in view, let us search every- 
 where, from Genesis to Malachi, and see if there be 
 one prurient utterance, one sanction for, or even con- 
 
376 ORIENTAL BELIGIONS AND 0HBI8TIANITT 
 
 nivaoice at, impurity in all tliose records, written by 
 men in different lands and ages, men representiag 
 all social grades, all vocations in life, and cliosen 
 from among all varieties of association. Who will 
 deny that these men appeax to have been raised by 
 some unaccoimtable power to a common level of 
 moral purity which was above their age, their social 
 standards, their natural impulses, or any of the high- 
 est hmnan influences which could have been exerted 
 upon them ? 
 
 They were often called to deal plainly with moral 
 evils. They record instances of grievous dereliction, 
 in some cases the writers were themselves the offend- 
 ers. But there is always reproof. The story always 
 has a salutary moral. Sin is always shown to be a los- 
 ing game, a sowing to the wind and a reaping of the 
 whirlwind. It is either followed by severe judg- 
 ments, or it is repented of with a contrition which 
 bows even a great monarch in dust and ashes. 
 
 The books of the New Testament were also 
 written in an age of great moral corruption. Juda- 
 ism was virtually dead ; the current religion in the 
 Holy City was " a sad perversion of the truth." Hy- 
 pocrisy sat in high places when John Baptist came 
 with his protest and his rebukes. The Herods, who 
 held the sceptres of provincial authority, were either 
 base time-servers, or worse, they were monsters of 
 lust and. depravity. In the far-off capitals of the 
 domiaant heathen races vice had attained its full 
 fruitage and was already going to seed and conse- 
 quent decay. Athens, Corinth, Ephesus, and An- 
 tioch were steeped in iniquity, while the emperors 
 
DIVINB SUPBEMAOT OP CHRISTIAN FAITH 377 
 
 who wielded the sceptre of the Roman empire were 
 hastening the ruin of the existing civilization. It 
 was in such an age and amid such surroundings that 
 the Gospels and the Epistles came forth as the lotus 
 springs, pure and radiant from the foul and fetid 
 quagmire. What could have produced them ? The 
 widely accepted rule that religions are the products 
 of their environments is surely at fault here. Neither 
 in the natural impulses of a dozen Judean fishermen 
 and peasants, nor in the bigoted breast of Saul of 
 Tarsus, could these unique and sublime conceptions 
 have found their genesis. They are manifestly di- 
 vine. How exalted is the portraiture of the Christ ! 
 "What human skiU could have depicted a character 
 which no ideal of our best modem culture can equal ? 
 In all the New Testament there are none but the 
 highest and purest ethical teachings, and even the 
 most poetical descriptions of heaven are free from any 
 faintest tinge of human folly. The Apocalypse is full 
 of images which appeal to the senses, but there is 
 nothing which does not minister to the most rigid pu- 
 rity ; while the representations which Paul makes of 
 eternal felicity are strictly and conspicuously spiritual 
 and elevating. Everywhere, from Matthew to Reve- 
 lations, it is the pure in heart who shall see God, and 
 the inducement held out is to be pure because He is 
 pure. And although the gift of eternal life is a free 
 gift, yet it affords no excuse for laxity. The sixth ' 
 chapter of the Epistle to the Romans is a remon- 
 strance against all presumption in those that are 
 "under grace." " Reckon ye yourselves to be dead 
 indeed unto sin, but alive imto God through our Lord 
 
378 OMBNTAL BBLIGIONS AND OHBISTIANITT 
 
 Jesus Christ. Let not sin therefore rule in your 
 mortal body that ye should obey it in the lusts there- 
 of. Neither yield ye your members as instruments 
 of imrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto 
 God as those that are alive from the dead."* The 
 religion of the New Testament is a spiritual religion, 
 the resurrection body is a spiritual body ; heaven is 
 not an Indian hunting-groimd, nor a Vikings Val- 
 halla of shield-clad warriors, nor a Moslem harem. It 
 is a spiritual abode, and its companionships are with 
 God and the Lamb, with the church of the first-born 
 and of saints made perfect. Now, all that we can say 
 of these lofty and pure conceptions is that flesh and 
 blood never revealed them. They are divine. They 
 are out of the range of our native humanity; they 
 are not the things that human nature desires, and it 
 is only by the high culture of transforming grace 
 that human aspirations are raised to their level. 
 
 In conclusion, there are many points in which 
 Christianity asserts its imique supremacy over all 
 other systems of which there is time but for the brief- 
 est mention. It presents to man the only cultus 
 which can have universal adaptation. Christ only, 
 belongs to aU ages and all races. Buddha is but an 
 Asiatic, Mohammed is an Arab and belongs only to 
 the East. The religion or philosophy of Confucius 
 has never found adaj)tation to any but Mongolian 
 races ; his social and political pyramid would crum- 
 ble in contact with republican institutions. On the 
 other hand, the religion of Christ is not only adapted 
 
 * The same principles are set forth with great emphasis in 
 Isaiah, Chap. lit. 
 
DIVINE BUPBEMAOT OF 0HBI8TI AN FAITH 379 
 
 to all races, but it aims at their union in one great 
 brotherhood. Agaia, Christianity alone presents the 
 true relation between Divine help and human effort. 
 It does not invest marred and crippled human nat- 
 ure with a false and impossible independence, neither 
 does it crush it. Whenever heathen systems have 
 taught a salvation by faith they have lost sight of 
 moral obligation. Weitbreeht and others state this 
 as a fact with the Hindu doctrine of Bakti (faith) 
 adopted in the later centuries; De Quatrefages as- 
 serts the same of the Tahitans. But the faith of the 
 New Testament everywhere supposes a Divine and ef- 
 fectual co-operation. " Work out your own salvation 
 with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in 
 you to will and to do of His good pleasure." It bids 
 men serve not as hirelings, but as sons and heirs ; it 
 stimulates hope without engendering pride ; it ad- 
 ministers discipline, but with a father's love; it 
 teaches that trials are not judgments, but wholesome 
 lessons. Of all rehgions it alone inculcates a rational 
 and consoling doctrine of Providence. It declares 
 that to the righteous death is not destruction, but a 
 sleep in peace and hope. It bids the Christian lay 
 off his cares and worries — in all things making his 
 requests known unto God with thanksgivings ; and yet 
 it enjoins him not to rest in sloth, but to aspire after 
 all that is pure and true and honorable and lovely 
 and of good report in human life and conduct. It 
 saves him from sin not by the stifliag and atrophy 
 of any God-given power, but by the expulsive influ- 
 ence of new affections ; it bids him be pure even as 
 God is pure. 
 
380 ORIENTAL BELIGIONS AND OHBISTIANITY 
 
 There is in the brief epistle of Paul to Titus a pas- 
 sage which in a single sentence sets forth the way of 
 salvation iu its fulness. It traces redemption to the 
 grace of God, and it makes it a free provision for all 
 men; yet it insists upon carefulness and sobriety. 
 Salvation is shown to begin now in the laying aside 
 of all sin and the living of a godly life. Meanwhile 
 it cheers the soul with expectation that Christ shall 
 dwell with the redeemed in triumph, as He once 
 came in humUiation, and it keeps ever in mind the 
 great truth that His mission is not merely to secure 
 for man future exemptions and possessions, but to 
 build up character — character that shall continue to 
 rise and expand forever. 
 
 For the grace of God that bringetJi salvation hath 
 appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodli- 
 ness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, right- 
 eously, and godly, in this present world ; looking for 
 that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the 
 great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ ; who gave 
 Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniq- 
 uity, and purify unto Himself apeculiar people zealous 
 of good works. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 BOOKS OP KEFEEENCE 
 
 The books relating directly or indirectly to the wide range 
 of topics discussed in the following lectures are too numer- 
 ous for citation here ; but there are some which are so es- 
 sential to a thorough knowledge of comparative religion and 
 comparative philosophy, that a special acknowledgment is 
 due. 
 
 '.' The Sacred Books of the East " are indispensable to one 
 who would catch the real spirit of the Oriental religions. 
 The translations from Hindu, Buddhist, Mohammedan, Con- 
 fucian, and Zoroastrian literatures, by Max Miiller, Rhys 
 Davids, Oldenberg, Fausb611, Palmer, Darmesteter, Mills, 
 Legge, Buhler, West, Beal, and other able scholars, are in- 
 valuable. The various other works of Max Miiller, "The 
 Science of Eeligion," " Chips from a German Workshop,'' 
 " The Origin and Growth of Religion," " Physical Religion," 
 etc., fill an important place in all study of these subjects. 
 
 "Indian Wisdom," by Sir Monier Williams, is the most 
 comprehensive, and in many ways the best, of all compends 
 of Hindu religion and philosophy. His abridged work, 
 " Hinduism," and the larger volume entitled " Brahmanism 
 and Hinduism," are also valuable. E. G. Bose has given to 
 the public an able treatise entitled "Hindu Philosophy." 
 Other books on Hinduism to which more or less reference is 
 made, are: "The Vedic Religion," by McDonald; "India 
 and the Indians," by Duflf; "The Life and Letters of Col- 
 brooke ; " "The Bhagavad Gita," as translated by Ohatterji ; 
 "The Vishnu Puranas," by Wilson; "The Ramayana," by 
 
382 APPENDIX 
 
 Griffiths ; " Brahmoism," by Bose ; " The Oriental Christ," 
 by Mozoomdar ; " Christianity and Hindu Philosophy," by 
 Ballantyne. 
 
 Among the ablest books on Buddhism are : "Buddhism ; " 
 "The Growth of Eeligion as illustrated by Buddhism," and 
 the able article on the same subject in the "Britannica "—all 
 'byEhys Davids. "Buddha: His Life, Character, and Or- 
 der," by Professor Oldenberg, is a scarcely less important 
 contribution to Buddhist literature. " The Light of Asia," 
 by Sir Edwin Arnold, has done more than any other work to 
 interest Western nations in the legends of Gautama ; per- 
 haps no other Oriental character has been more successfully 
 popularized. Of the many efforts to correct the misleading 
 impressions given by this fanciful but really poetic story, 
 " The Light of Asia and the Light of the World," by Dr. S. 
 H. Kellogg, is probably the ablest. Dr. Edkins, in "Chi- 
 nese Buddhism," and Professor Beal, in " Buddhism in 
 China," have very successfully shown the characteristics of 
 the Chinese types of the system. Spence Hardy, in his 
 "Manual of Buddhism," has rendered a similar service in 
 relation to the Buddhism of Ceylon, while Bigandet has 
 set forth that of Burmah, and Alabaster that of Siam. Sir 
 Monier Williams, in his more recent work, "Buddhism," 
 has done much to counteract the fashionable tendency of 
 most Orientalists to idealize the Buddhist system. 
 
 Other works relating to Buddhism are, "Mohammed, 
 Buddha, and Christ," by Dodds ; " Buddhism (Modem)," by 
 Subhadra ; and "Esoteric Buddhism," by Sinnett. Maur- 
 ice, Bishop Carpenter, Brace, the Bishop of Colombo, Mar- 
 tin, and many others have ably disctissed the subject. 
 
 Of all works on Mohammedanism, Sale's translation of 
 the Koran, with a "Preliminary Discourse," is the most 
 comprehensive and important. Sprenger's "Life of Mo- 
 hammed, from Original Sources," is perhaps next in rank, 
 "Islam and Mahomet," by Samuel Johnson ; "Mohammed 
 and Mohammedanism," by E. Bosworth Smith ; " Christian- 
 ity, Islam, and the Negro Eace," by E. W. Blyden; and 
 " Leaves from an Egyptian Note-book," by Canon Isaac Tay- 
 
APPENDIX 383 
 
 lor, are among the principal apologies for Islam. Gibbon's 
 fifth volume of the "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire " 
 has at least done ample justice to the glory of the Moham- 
 medan conquest. 
 
 Of those who have ably controverted the claims of Islam, 
 the late Dr. Pfander, of Northern India, will perhaps hold 
 the first rank. Of the three Moulvies who were selected to 
 meet him in public discussion, two are said to have been 
 converted to Christianity by his arguments. The conces- 
 sions of the Koran to the truths of the Old and New Testa- 
 ments have been ably pointed out by Sir William Muir in 
 " The Koran," and Dr. E. M. Wherry, in his "Commentary," 
 has established the striking fact, that of all the prophets 
 named in the Koran, including Mohammed, Jesus alone is 
 represented as sinless. The modern apologists of Moham- 
 med and his system have been well answered by Knox in 
 current numbers of the Church Missionary Intelligencer. 
 Other works upon the subject are "Islam," by Stobart; 
 "Islam as a Missionary Keligion," by Haines; "Essays on 
 Eastern Questions," by Palgrave. Sir William Muir's ' ' His- 
 tory of the Caliphate " is an important and recent work. 
 
 Confucianism and Taouism may be fairly understood, even 
 by those who have not the time for a careful study of Legge's 
 translations of the Chinese classics, by reference to the fol- 
 lowing works : ' ' China and the Chinese," by Medhurst ; 
 "The Eeligions of China," by Legge ; " The Chinese," by 
 Martin; " Confucianism and Taouism," by Douglass ; " Ee- 
 ligion in China," by Edkins. The late Samuel Johnson, in 
 his " Oriental Beligions," has devoted a large volume to the 
 religions of China, principally to the ethics and political 
 economy of the Confucian system ; and James Freeman Clark 
 has given considerable attention to Confucianism as one of 
 " The Ten Great Beligions." ._ 
 
 Zoroastrianism is ably treated by Darmesteter in the In- 
 troduction to his translation of the " Zend Avesta.'' Instruc- 
 tive lectures on the religion and literature of Persia may be 
 found in the first volume of Max Miiller's " Chips from a 
 German Workshop ; " also in " The Eeligion of the Iranians," 
 
384 APPENDIX 
 
 found in Ebrard's " Apologetics," vol. ii. West's and Dar- 
 mesteter's translations of "PaUavi Texts," in the " Sacred 
 Books of the East," are also suggestive. 
 
 In the following discussions, relating broadly to the an- 
 cient as well as the modern religions and philosophies of the 
 world, and their contrasts to Christian truth, reference is 
 made directly or indirectly to the following works : " Christ 
 and Other Masters," by Hardwick ; "The Ancient World 
 and Christianity," by Edward de Pressensg; " The Eelig- 
 ions of the World," by Maurice ; " The Aryan Witness," by 
 Banergea; " The Unknown God," by Brace ; " The Perma- 
 nent Elements in Religion," by Boyd Carpenter ; " Oriental 
 and Linguistic Studies," by A. D. Whitney; "The Doomed 
 Eeligions," by Eeid ; "The Idea of God," by Fiske ; "The 
 Destiny of Man," by Fiske; "The Eaces of Man," by 
 Peschel ; " Introduction to the Philosophy of Eeligion," by 
 Caird; "National Eeligions and Universal Eeligions," by 
 Kuenen ; " Some Elements of Eeligion," by Liddon ; " Out- 
 lines of the History of Ancient Eeligions, by Tiele ; " The 
 Philosophy of Eeligion," by Pfleiderer ; " Our Christian 
 Heritage," by Cardinal Gibbons ; " Hulsean Lectures, 
 1845-6," by Trench ; " Hibbert Lectures, 1880," by Eenan ; 
 "Origins of English History," by Elton ; " St. Paul in Brit- 
 ain" (Druidism), by Morgan ; " Fossil Men and their Mod- 
 ern Eepresentatives," by Dawson; "Modern Ideas of Evo- 
 lution," by Dawson; "Marcus Anrelius," by Eenan; 
 "Epictetus," Bohn's Library; "Confessions," by St. Au- 
 gustine; "History of the Egyptian Eeligion," by Tiele; 
 "Lucretius," Bohn's Library; " Lives of the Fathers," by 
 Farrar ; " The Vikings of Western Christendom," by Eeary ; 
 "Principles of Sociology," by Spencer; "The Descent of 
 Man," by Darwin ; " Evolution and Its Eelation to Christian 
 Thought," by Le Conte ; " History of European Morals," by 
 Lecky ; " The Kojiki " (Sacred Books of Shinto), Chamber- 
 lain's translation ; " The Witness of History to Christ," by 
 Farrar ; " Anti-Theistio Theories," by Flint; " The Human 
 Species," by De Quatrefages. 
 
THE EVIDENCE OF 
 CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 
 
 BV 
 
 Professor LEWIS F. STEARNS, D.D. 
 
 Ely Lectures— 1890 
 
 One Volume, iimo, ^2.00 
 
 DR. STEARNS claims for the evidence of Christian experi- 
 ence — that is, the manifestation to the Christian believer 
 in his own spiritual life of the presence and power of God and 
 the Christian realities — the chief place in the argument for 
 the truth of Christianity. The first lecture is devoted to a 
 general survey of the apologetics of recent times, brought 
 forward by the necessity of meeting the prevailing systems of 
 sceptical philosophy. Next are treated the philosophical 
 presuppositions of the evidence of Christian experience, the 
 evidence in its beginning and growth, and its philosophical 
 verification. In the last two chapters the relation of the evi- 
 dence of Christian experience to the other Christian evidences 
 is pointed out, and it is shown that the former is the great and 
 chief proof for the reality and divinity of Christianity. 
 
 The style and method of these lectures are unusually fine. 
 The evidence of an intimate acquaintance with philosophical 
 systems. Christian and sceptical, and a penetrating insight 
 into them abound on every page, but there is no parade of 
 learning, and the discussion is pre-eminently earnest and 
 candid. Their chief aim is to be practically useful to minis- 
 ters of the Gospel and Christians generally. 
 
 "The book takes rank in the very first class of modern defences of the 
 Christian faith, and should be read by all students of theology whether they are 
 young or old. . , . The author has put his best thought into the work, so 
 that it is original and characteristic throughout, while the touch of reality and 
 feeling at every point shows that he has dealt, not with the theory of experience, 
 but with the experience itself." 
 
 — Prof. Harris, of Andover, in Magazine of Christian Literature, 
 
ELY LECTURES— i.%(^o 
 
 "This bookis an important contribution to theological science. It is decid- 
 edly the most valuable work on Christian Apologetics which has appeared in this 
 country or in England during the last decade. It is the first clear and thorough- 
 going product of that reconstruction of the argument for Christianity which has 
 been going on in recent years.*' — Andover Review. 
 
 "The book is one of the noteworthy issues of the year and must meet with 
 a warm reception, for it is both interesting and thoughtful, _ The style is a 
 model of clearness, even where the reasoning js deep. There is hardly @ dull 
 paragraph in the book."' — The Christian Inquirer. 
 
 *• His presentation of the certainty, reality, and scientific character of the 
 facts in a Christian consciousness, entirely apart from any unreliable subjective 
 feeling, is very strong, and his close grasping oi spiritual realities, rather than 
 of merely spiritual truths, cannot fail to be blessed in its spiritual influence on 
 ministers." — The Lutheran. 
 
 " They form one of the ablest series which it has been our privilege to read, 
 and we warmly commend it to all, especially to pastors and students of theology. 
 It deals in a manner as thorough and logical as it is spiritual with a department 
 of Christian truth which sometimes has not been emphasized sufficiently and 
 which always ought to be made prominent. . . . Professor Stearns also pos- 
 sesses a somewhat rare power of expressing in a few sentences the substance of a 
 whole system of philosophy or theology, and he has used it to great advantage." 
 
 — The Congregationalist. 
 
 "We hope that what we have said will indicate enough of his argument to 
 lead our readers to study it for themselves. We promise them a rich reward if 
 they do." — Independsni, 
 
 " We have read them with a growing admiration for their ability, strength, 
 and completeness displayed in the argument. It is a book which should be 
 circulated not merely in theological circles, but among young men of reflective 
 disposition who are beset by the so-called * scientific ' attacks upon the founda- 
 tions of the Christian faith." — Christian Intelligencer. 
 
 " It shows how the common experience of a believing soul becomes a truly 
 scientific defence of Christianity. Against such an argument as is here set forth 
 no amount of pretentious learning avails. . . . It is pleasant to be able to 
 say that Professor Stearns by such an adequate treatment, has added to our 
 apologetic literature a volume of permanent value," — Sunday School Timeu 
 
 " This is one of the noblest contributions to the department of apologetics. 
 , . . The whole subject is treated in a practical, scientific, and comprehensive 
 manner, with abundant learning and admirable candor. There is earnestness of 
 purpose and spiritual depth ; the thoughts are fresh and suggestive, and find an 
 energetic and attractive expression. The book should be read by every minister, 
 and will be found of interest to the ordinary Christian reader." 
 
 — The Canadian Methodist Quarterly. 
 
 "This handsome treatise consists of a series of lectures given by Professor 
 Stearns, of Bangor, Me., on the Ely foundation in Union Seminary, New York 
 City. With a great theme, an able thinker, a ripe scholar, and a fine writer, we 
 are prepared to find these lectures of much interest and great practical value. 
 After reading them, we are better able to understand why Union Seminary 
 called Professor Stearns to succeed Dr. Shedd, in its chair of Theology, and why 
 Bangor Seminary should rejoice that Dr. Stearns did not accept the call. A more 
 stimulating book we have not read for some \\yx\t.^'* —Presbyterian Quarterly. 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, PUBLISHERS 
 743-745 Broadway, New York 
 
CHURCH HISTORY. 
 
 THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY. With a View of tlis 
 State of the Roman World at the Birth of Christ. Bji 
 GEORGE P. FISHER, D.D,, LL.D., Professor of Church 
 History in Yale College. 8vo, $2.50. 
 
 THE BOSTON ADVERTISER — "Prof. Planer haa fflsplayed IntWa, as InUla 
 previous publlaliea TTrltlaga, that cathollolty and tliat calm judicial quality ol 
 mind wlilcli are ao indispenaable to a true blatorical critic." 
 
 THE EXAMINER — "Tlie volume ia not a dry repetition of well-known facta. 
 It beara tlie marSa of original research. Every page glows with freslmes3 of 
 material and cholceness of diction." 
 
 THE EVANGELIST.— "The volume containa an amount of information that 
 makes It one of the moat useful of treatiaea for a student in philosophy and 
 theology, and must aeoure lor it a place in his Ubrary as a standard authority." 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. By GEORGE P. 
 FISHER, D.D., LL.D., Professor of Ecclesiastical History in 
 Yale University. 8vo, with numerous maps, $3.50. 
 
 This work is in several respects notable. It gives an able presenta- 
 tion of the subject in a single volume, thus supplying the need of a 
 complete and at the same time condensed survey of Church History. 
 It will also be found much broader and more comprehensive than other 
 books of the kind. 
 
 HON. GEORGE BANCROFT.— "I have to tell you of the pride and delight 
 with wlilch I have examined your rich and most instructive volume. As an 
 American, let me thank you for producing a work so honorable to the country." 
 
 REV. R. S. STORRS, D.D.— "I am surprised that the author has been able to 
 put aueh multitudes of facta, with analysis of opinions, definitions of tendencies, 
 and concise personal sketches, into a narrative at once so graceful, graphic, and 
 compact." 
 
 PROF. ALEXANDER V. G. ALLEN, Epismpal Divinity School, CarrOyriOtit, 
 Jfoss.— "It has the merit of being eminently readable, its conclusions rest on the 
 widest research and the latest and best scholarslilp, it keeps a just sense of pro- 
 portion in the treatment of topics. It is written In the Interest of Christianity as a 
 whole and not of any sect or church, it Is so entirely Impartial that It is not easy 
 to discern the author'a aympathies or his denominational attitude, and it has the 
 great advantage of dwelling at due length upon English and American Church 
 history. In short, it is a work which no one but a long and successful teacher oi 
 Church History could have produced." 
 
STANDARD TEXT BOOKS. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. By PHILIP SCHAFF, 
 D.D. New Edition, re-written and enlarged. Vol. I.— Apos" 
 tolio Christianity, A.D, 1—100. Vol. II.— Ante-Nicene Chrir 
 tianity, A.D. 100—325. Vol. 111.— Nioene and Post-Nioene 
 Christianity, A.D. 311-600. Vol. IV.— Mediaeval Christianity, 
 A.D. 590-1073. 8vo, price per vol., S4.00. 
 
 This work is extremely comprehensive. All subjeota that properly 
 belong to a complete sketch are treated, including the history of Chrig- 
 tian art, hymnology, accounts of the lives and chief works of the 
 Fathers of the Church, etc. The great theological, christologioal, and 
 anthropological controversies of the period are duly sketohed ; and in 
 all the details of history the organizing hand of a master is distinctly 
 seen, shaping the mass of materials into order and system. 
 
 PROF. GEO. P. FISHER, Of Yale College.— "Dv. ScliafE has thorongMy and 
 BnocessliiUy acoompllslied Ms task. The volumes are replete wltli evidences oJa 
 carelul stuay ol tlie original sources and ot an extraordinary and, we mlgM say, 
 unsurpassed ao(iualntance wltli tlie modem literature— German, Frencli, and 
 English— m tlie department ol ecclesiastical history. They are equally marked by 
 a fair-minded, conscientious spirit, as well as hy a lucid, animated mode o£ 
 
 PROF. ROSWELL D. HITCHCOCK, D.D.— "In no other stogie work of 
 its Mnd with which I am acquainted wUl students and general readers find so 
 much to Instruct and Interest them." 
 
 DR. JUL. MULLER, of Halle.— "It la the only history of the first six cen- 
 turies which truly satlafles the wants ol the present age. It Is rich to results ot 
 original Investigation." 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST, IN CHRONOLOGI- 
 CAL TABLES. A Synchronistic View of the EventSi Charac- 
 teristics, and Culture of each period, including the History ot 
 Polity, Worship, Literature, and Doctrines, together with two 
 Supplementary Tables upon the Church in America; and an 
 Appendix, containing the series of Councils, Popes, Patri- 
 archs, and other Bishops, and a full Index. By the late 
 HENRY B. SMITH, D.D., Professor in the Union Theologi- 
 cal Seminary of the City of New York. Revised Edition. 
 Folio, $5,00. 
 
 t!EV. DR. W. G. T. SHEDD.— "Prot Smith's Hlatorleal Tables are wi: beat 
 Ihat I know ol in any language. In preparing such a work, with so much oare and 
 research, Prol. Smith has lumished to the student an apparatus that will be ol 
 Ule-long service to htm" 
 
 REV. DR. WILLIAM ADAWS,— "The labor expended upon such a work la 
 Immense, and its accuracy and completeness do honor to the research and 
 (cholarshlp of Its author, and are dn invaluable acquisition to our literature." 
 
CHARLES SGRIBNEB'8 SONS' 
 
 LECTURES ON THE HISTORY OF THE JEWISH CHURCH. By 
 ARTHUR PENRHYN STANLEY, D.D. With Maps and Plans. 
 New Edition from New Plates, with the author's latest revis* 
 ion. Part I.— From Abraham to Samuel. Part II.— From 
 Samuel to the Captivity. Part III.— From the Captivity to 
 the Christian Era. Three vols., 12mo (sold separately), each 
 $2.00. 
 
 The same— Westminster Edition. Three vols., 8vo (sold, in sets 
 only), per set, S9.00. 
 
 LECTURES ON THE HISTORY OF THE EASTERN CHURCH. 
 
 With an introduction on the Study of Ecclesiastical History. 
 By ARTHUR PENRHYN STANLEY, D.D. New Edition from 
 New Plates. 12mo, S2.00. 
 
 LECTURES ON THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SCOT- 
 LAND. By ARTHUR PENRHYN STANLEY, D.D. 8vo, $1.50. 
 
 In all that concerns the external characteristics of the scenes and 
 persons described, Dr. Stanley is entirely at home. His books are not 
 dry records of liistoric events, but animated pictures of historic scenes 
 and of the actors in them, while the human motives and aspects of 
 events are brought out in bold and full relief. 
 
 THE LONDON CRITIC— "Earnest, eloquent, leamed. wltli a style that la 
 never monotonous, but luring tlirougli Its eloquence, tie lectures will maintain 
 Ills fame as auttior, scbolar, and divine. We could point out many passages tliat 
 gJOTT wltli a true poetic Are, but taere are Imndreda piotorlally rlott and poetically 
 true. The reader experiences no weariness, for In every page and paragrapli 
 there is something to engage the mind and refresh the soul." 
 
 THE NEW ENGLANDER.—" We have first to express our admiration of the 
 grace and graphic beauty of his style. The felicitous discrimination In the use 
 of language which appears on every page Is especially required on these topics, 
 where the author's position might so easily be mlstaten through an unguarded 
 statement. Dr. Stanley is possessed of the prime quality of an historical student 
 and writer— namely, the historical feeling, or sense, by which conditions of life 
 and types of character, remote from our present experience, are vividly con- 
 ceived of and truly appreciated." 
 
 THE N. Y. TIMES.— "The Old Testament History is here presented as It 
 never was presented before ; with so much clearness, elegance of style, and his- 
 toric and literary Illustration, not to speaE of learning and calmness of judgment, 
 that not theologians alone, but also cultivated readers generally, are drawn to its 
 pages. In point of style It takes rank with Jlacaulay's History and the beat- 
 chapters of Froude." 
 
CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES AND 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 MANUAL OF CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES. By Prof. GEORGE 
 PARK FISHER, D.D., UU.D., Professor of Ecclesiastical 
 History in Yale College. 16mo, 75 cents. 
 
 The aim of tlie book ia to present the Evidences of ChiiBtianity in 
 a concise, lucid form, for the benefit of those who have not the leisure 
 to study extended treatises on the subject. It is intended both for 
 private reading and for the use of classes in public institutions. Al- 
 though brief, it includes a distinct statement of both the internal and 
 external proofs. The arguments are shaped to meet objections and 
 ftifliculties which are felt at the present time, and the historic evidence 
 is carefully confined to the present state of scholarship and learning. 
 
 THE EXAMINER.— "It ia worth Its weight in gold. It la by all odds the best 
 treatise on the Evldenoea of Christianity for general use that we Imow. It la 
 Bonad, judlolons, clear, and scholarly." 
 
 THE N. Y. SUN.— "Compact, thorough, and learned, Its simplicity of styla 
 and brevity ought to commend It to a wide circle of readers." 
 
 THE GROUNDS OF THEISTIC AND CHRISTIAN BELIEF. By 
 Prof. GEORGE P. FISHER, D.D., LL.D. Crown 8vo, $2.50. 
 
 FROM THE PREFACE.—" This volume embraces a dlaouasion of the evldencea 
 of both natural and revealed religion. Prominence is given to topics having 
 special interest at present from their connection with modem theories and diffl- 
 calties. The argument of dealgn, and the hearing of evolutionary doctrines on 
 its validity, are ftiUy considered." 
 
 JULIUS H. SEELYE, prestOent of Arnherst College "I find it as I shonld 
 
 expect it to be, wise and candid, and convincing to an honest mind." 
 
 PROF. JAMES O. MURRAY, 0/ Princeton College " It is eminently fitted to 
 
 meet the honest doubts of some of our best young men. Its fairness and candor, 
 its learning and ability in argument, its thorough handling of modem objections 
 —all these qualities fit It for such a service, and a great service it is." 
 
 ESSAYS ON THE SUPERNATURAL ORIGIN OF CHRISTIAN' 
 ITY. By Prof. GEORGE P. FISHER, D.D., LL.D. 8vo, 
 
 new and enlarged edition, $2.50. 
 
 THE NEW YORK TRIBUNE.— "His volume evinces rare versatility of intellect, 
 «7lth a scholarship no less soxmd and judicious In Its tone and extensive in its 
 attainments than it is modest In its pretensions." 
 
 THE BRITISH QUARTERLY REVIEW.— "We know not Where the studentwill 
 find a more satisfactory guide in relation to the great (juestlons which have grown 
 up between the friends of the Christian revelation and the most able Of its assail' 
 ants, within the memory of the present generation." 
 
GHABLES SGBIBNER'S SONS' 
 
 fHE PHILOSOPHIC BASIS OF THEISM. An Examination of the 
 Personality of Man, to Ascertain his Capacity to Know and 
 Serve Cod, and the Validity of the Principle Underlyingthe 
 Defense of Theism. By SAMUEL HARRIS, D.D., LL.D., Pro- 
 fessor of Systematic Theology in Yale College. 8vo, $3.50. 
 
 Dr. Harris embodies in his work the results of his long meditation 
 on the highest themes, and his long discussion and presentation of 
 these truths in the class-room. His fundamental positions are thor- 
 oughly in harmony with soundest modem thought and most trust- 
 worthy modem knowledge. 
 
 THE INDEPENDENT.— "It ia rare tbat a work, which la of necessity, so 
 eeverely metapliyslcal In both topics and treatment, Is so enlivened by tlie 
 varied contrlbntions of a, widely cultivated mind from a liberal course of 
 reading. His passionate and candid argument cannot fail to command tbe 
 respect of any antagonist of tbe Atbelstio or Agnostic sobools, wbo will take 
 tbe pains to read Ms criticisms or to review Us argument. In respect to coolness 
 and dignity and self-possession, bis worK is an excellent model for scientists, 
 metaphysicians, and tbeologlans of every complexion." 
 
 THE HARTFORD COURANT.—" Professor Harris' horizon-lines are uncon- 
 tracted. His survey of the entire realm be traverses Is accurate, patient, and 
 considerate. No objections are evaded. No conclusions are reached by saltatory 
 movements. The utmost fairness and candor characterize bis discussions. Ho 
 more thoroughly scleutiflo work In plan or method or spirit has been done In our 
 time. On almost every page one meets with evidences of a wide and reflec- 
 tive reading, not only of philosophy, but of poetry and fiction as well, whlon 
 •nrlches and Illumines the whole course of thought." 
 
 THE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD. By SAMUEL HARRIS, 
 D.D., LL.D., Professor of Systematic Theology in Yale Col- 
 lege. 8vo, $3.50. 
 
 In this volume Dr. Harris presents a statement of the evidence of 
 4he existence of God, and of the reality of His revelation of Himself 
 in the experience or consciousness of men, and the verification of the 
 same by His further revelation of Himself ia the constitution and 
 ongoing of the universe, and in Christ. 
 
 PROF. WM. G. T. SHEDD, D.D., in TJte JPresVyterian ReiJiew. —"Sach a 
 work is not brought out In a day, but is the growth of years of professional study 
 and reflection. Few books on apologetics have been recently produced that will 
 be more Influential and formative upon the mind of the theological or philosophi- 
 cal student, or more useful. It la calculated to Influence opinions, and to infiaence 
 them truthfully, seriously, and strongly." 
 
 BISHOP HURST, In The Northwestern Christian Advocate.— -'We do hot inoyr 
 a better work among recent publications than this one for building up old hopes 
 and giving a new strength to one's faith. The book Is thoroughly evangelic, 
 fresh, and well wrought out. It Is a valuable contribution to our Amer<c&p 
 Bwology." 
 
STANDARD TEXT BOOKS. 
 
 tHE THEORY OF PREACHING; or, Lectures on Homitetios. 
 By Professor AUSTIN PHELPS. 8vo, S2.50. 
 
 This work is the growth of more than thirty years' practical ex- 
 perience in teaching. The writings of a master of style, of broad and 
 catholic mind are always fascinating ; in the present case the wealth 
 of appropriate and pointed illustration renders this doubly the case- 
 
 THE NEW YORK CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE.—" Ministers of all aenominationa 
 and of all degrees of experienoe win rejoice In It as a veritable mine of wisdoni." 
 
 THE INDEPENDENT.—" The volnme Is to be conunenaea to young men as a 
 inperb example of tlie art In wMoli It alms to Instract taem." 
 
 THE WATCHMAN.— "The reading of it Ig a mental tonic. Tlie preaclier 
 cannot but feel often Us beart burning wltMn Mm mider Its Influence. We conM 
 wlsb It mlgbt be hi tbe bands of every theological student ana of every pastor." 
 
 MEN AND BOOKS; OR, STUDIES IN HOMILETICS. Lectures 
 Introductory to the "Theory of Preaching." By Professor 
 AUSTIN PHELPS, D.D. Crown 8vo, $2.00. 
 
 Professor Phelps' second volume of lectures is devoted to a dis- 
 cussion of the sources of culture and power in the profession of the 
 pulpit, its power to absorb and appropriate to its own uses the world 
 of real life in the present, and the world of the past, as it lives in 
 books. 
 
 PROFESSOR GEORGE P. FISHER.— "It Is a live booK, animated as well aa 
 sound and Instructive, in which conventionalities are brushed aside, and the 
 author goes straight to the marrow of the subject. No minister can read It 
 without being waied up to a higher conception of the posaibiUtles of his oalltog." 
 
 BOSTON WATCHMAN.—" We are sure that no minister or candidate for the 
 ministry can read it vrtthout profit. It is a tonic for one's mlad to read a book so 
 laden with thought and suggestion, and written In a style so fresh, strong, ana 
 bracing." 
 
 A TREATISE ON HOMILETICS AND PASTORAL THEOLOGY, 
 By W. G. T. SHEDD, D.D. Crown 8vo, $2.50. 
 
 In this work, treating of the main points of Homiletics and Pastora} 
 Theology, the author handles his subject in a masterly manner, an^ 
 displays much original and highly suggestive thought. The HomUeti 
 cal part is especially valuable to ministers aud those in training for th( 
 ministry. Dr. Shedd's style is a model of purity, simpUoity an^ 
 strength. 
 
 THE NEW YORK EVANGELIST.— "We cannot but regard It as, on the whole 
 the very beat production of the kind with which we are acquainted. The toplcf 
 discussed are of the first Importance to every minister of Christ engaged in aotlv< 
 servioe, and their dlscnaslon is conducted by earnestness as well as ability, and J j 
 » style which for clear, vigorous, and unexceptionable EngUsh, is itself a model." 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN INTELLIGENCER.— "The ablest booK on the snbjest whloS 
 ttw generation has produced," 
 
BIBLICAL STUDY. 
 
 BIBLICAL STUDY. Its Principles, Methods, and History. Bj 
 CHARLES A. BRIGGS, D.D., Professor of Hebrew and 
 Cognate Languages in Union Tiieological Seminary. Crown 
 8vo, $2.50. 
 
 Tlie author has aimed to present a guide to Biblical Study for the 
 jntelligent layman as well as the theological student and minister of 
 the Gospel. At the same time a sketch of the entire history of each 
 department of Biblical Study has been given, the stages of its develop- 
 ment are traced, the normal is discriminated from the abnormal, and 
 the whole is rooted in the methods of Christ and His Apostles. 
 
 THE BOSTON ADVERTISER.— "The principles, methoas, and Wstory of 
 BIWioal study are very fully oonsidered, and it is one of tlie best works of its kind 
 In tlie language, if not tlie only book wherein the modem methods of the study 
 of the Bible are entered into, apart from direct theological teaching." 
 
 THE LONDON SPECTATOR.— "Dr. Briggs' book is one of much value, not the 
 less to be esteemed because of the moderate compass into which Its mass of in- 
 formation has been compressed." 
 
 iVlESSIANIC PROPHECY. Tlie Prediction of the Fulfilment of 
 Redemption through the Messiah. A Critical Study of the 
 Messianic Passages of the Old Testament in the Order of 
 their Development. By CHARLES A. BRIGGS, D.D., Pro- 
 fessor of Hebrew and the Cognate Languages in the Union 
 Theological Seminary. Crown 8vo, S2.50. 
 In this work the author develops and traces "the prediction of 
 the fulfilment of redemption through the Messiah " through the whole 
 series of Messianic passages and prophecies in the Old Testament. 
 Beginning with the first vague intimations of the great central thought 
 of redemption he arrays one prophecy after another ; indicating clearly 
 the general condition, mental and spiritual, out of which each prophecy 
 arises ; noting, the gradual widening, deepening, and clarification of 
 the prophecy as it is developed from one prophet to another to the 
 end of the Old Testament canon. 
 
 THE LONDON ACADEMY.— "His new book on Messianic Prophecy is a 
 worthy companion to his indispensable text-book on Biblical study. He has pro- 
 duced the first English text-book on the subject of Messianic Prophecy which a 
 iDodern teacher can use." , 
 
 THE EVANGELIST.— "Messianic Prophecy is a subject of no common inter- 
 est, and this book is no ordinary book. It la, on the contrary, a work of the very 
 first order ; the ripe product of years of study upon the highest themes. It Is 
 exegesis lu a master-hand." i 
 
8TANDABD TEXT BOOKS. 
 
 THE BEGINNINGS OF HISTORY. According to the Bible and 
 the Traditions of the Oriental Peoples. From the Creation 
 of Man to the Deluge. By FRANCOIS LENORMANT, Pro* 
 fessor of Archaeology at the National Library of France, etc, 
 (Translated from the Second French Edition). With an in- 
 troduction by Francis Brown, Associate Professor in Biblical 
 Philology, Union Theological Seminary. 12mo, S2.50. 
 
 THE NEW ENGLANDER.— "Mr. Lenormant Is not onJy a believer In reve- 
 latlon, but a devont confessor ol what came by Moses ; as well as of what came 
 by Christ. In this explanation of Chalflean, Babylonian, Assyrian and Phenlcian 
 tradition, he discloses a prodigality of thonght and skill alllefl to great variety of 
 pursuit, and diligent manipulation of what he has secured." 
 
 THE NEW YORK TRIBUNE.— "The worfc Is one that deserves to be studied 
 by all students of ancient history, and In particular by ministers of the Gospel, 
 whose office requires them to Interpret the Scriptures, and who oaght not to be 
 ignorant of the latest and most Interesting contribution of science to the eludda- 
 tton of the sacred volume." 
 
 QUOTATIONS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. By C. H. TOY, 
 D.D., Professor of Hebrew in Harvard University. 8vo, $3.50, 
 
 THE CONGREQATIONALIST.— "Textual points are considered carefully, and 
 ample and accurate indexes complete the worK. The mtnnte and patient 
 thoroughness of his examination of passages and the clear and compact arrange- 
 ment of his views render his book remarkable. The difficulties of his task were 
 great and he has shown rare skill and has attained noteworthy success In meeting 
 them," 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN EVANGELIST.— "Prof. Toy's collection and comparison of 
 the passages quoted In the New and Old Testament is a flue, scholarly piece of 
 work. It surpasses anything that has been done by European scholarship in this 
 field." 
 
 THE CHALDEAN ACCOUNT OF GENESIS. By GEORGE 
 SMITH, of the Department of Oriental Antiquities, British 
 Museum. A New Edition, revised and corrected (with addi' 
 tions), by A. H. Sayce. 8vo, S3. 00. 
 
 THE N. Y. GUARDIAN.— "It Is Impossible In few words to give any adequate 
 Impression of the exceeding value of this work. This volume Is sure to And its 
 ■ way Into the public libraries of the country, and the Important facts which It 
 contains should be scattered everywhere among the people." 
 
 TJSE CHRISTIAN INTELLIGENCER.— "The accomplished Assyrlologlat Prof. 
 Sayce has gone over the whole with the advantage of a large number of additional 
 texts, and has oaref nUy brought the book up to the level of the present knowl- 
 edge of the subject. The book as It stands Is a very Important verification ol 
 the early Hebrew records." 
 
MENTAL AND MORAL SCIENCE, 
 
 AN OUTLINE STUDY OF MAN; or, the Body and Mind in On« 
 System. Witli iliustrative diagrams. Revised edition. By 
 MARK HOPKINS, D.D., LL.D., late President of Williams 
 College. 12mo, S1.75. 
 
 This is a model of the developing method as applied to intellectual 
 science. The work is on ati entirely new plan. It presents man in 
 his unity, and his several faculties and their relations are so presented 
 to the eye in Ulostrative diagrams as to be readily apprehended. 
 The work has come into very general use in this country as a man 
 ual for instruction, and the demand for it is increasing every year. 
 
 GENERAL S. C. ARMSTRONG, Prind'Dal of Bampton Instilmte.—"la,m 
 glad ol the opportunity to express my Mgli appreciation of Dr. HopKlns' OutUne 
 StMy of man. It has done more for me personally tlian any hoot besides the 
 Bible. More tlian anyotlient teao&ea tlie greatest of lessons, Jmow thyself. For 
 over ten years, I liave made it a text book in the Senior Class ol this scbool. It 
 is, I tUnk, tke greatest and most useful of tke booKs of tbe greatest of our Am- 
 erican educators, Eev. Dr. Hopkins, and Is destined to do a great work in forming 
 not only tbe Ideas but tbe cbaraoter of youtb in America and in otber parts of tbe 
 world." 
 
 PROF. ADDISON BALLARD, of Lafayette College.—"! bare for years vsei 
 Dr. Hopldus' Outline Study of Man, In connection wltb bis Lavj of Lave, as a text 
 booS for our Senior Classes. I have done tbls wltb unfailing success and wltli 
 increasing satisfaction. It Is of bicaloulable advantage to tbe student to come 
 under tbe influence, tbrougb bis booKs, of tbls great master of tbougbt and of style 
 I cannot speak of Outline Study in terms of too bearty commendation." 
 
 THE LAW OF LOVE, AND LOVE AS A LAW; or. Christian 
 Ethics. By MARK HOPKINS, D.D., LL.D., late President 
 of Williams College. 12mo, SI,75. 
 
 This work is designed to follow the author's Outline Stiidy of Mem. 
 As its title indicates it is entirely an exposition of the cardinal precept 
 of Christian philosophy in harmony with nature and on the basis of 
 reason. Like the treatise on mental philosophy it is adapted with 
 unusual skill to educational uses. 
 
 It appears in a new edition, which has been in part re-written in 
 order to bring it into closer relation to his Outline Study of Mem, of 
 which work it is really a continuation. More prominence has been 
 given to the idea of Eights, but the fundamental doctrines of th«" 
 treatise have not been changed. 
 
CHARLES SGRIBNEE8 SONS' 
 
 ELEMENTS OF MORAL SCIENCE, Theoretical and Practical. 
 
 By NOAH PORTER, D.D., LL.D., late President of Yale 
 
 College. 8vo, $3.00, 
 GEORGE s. fAORWS, Professor Of Mhics, VniversOyof MicMgan.—"IJmV. 
 read the worK wltU great interest, and parts oX It with entlmslasm. It Is a vast 
 Improvement on any ot the current text books ol ethics. It Is tolerant ana 
 catSoUe in tone ; not saperflclaUy, bat soundly, Indnotlve In method and ten- 
 dency, and rich in practical snggestion." 
 
 JULIUS H. SEELYE, President Arnherst College.— "It Is copious and clear, 
 vrtth ample soholaralUp and remarkable insight, and I am sore that all teachers 
 of Moral Science yrVl and It a valuable aid In their instruotiona." 
 
 OUTLINES OF MORAL SCIENCE. By ARCHIBALD ALEX- 
 ANDER, D.D., LL.D. 12mo, $1.50. 
 
 This book is elementary in its character, and is marked by great 
 clearness and simplicity of style. It is intended to lay the foundations 
 and elucidate the principles of the Philosophy of Morals. It is vridely 
 used in colleges and other institutions of learning, and is specially 
 adapted for students whose age, or the time at whose disposal, does 
 not permit the use of the more extended and abstruse works on ethics. 
 
 THE THEORY OF MORALS. By PAUL JANET, Member of the 
 French Academy. Translated under the supervision of 
 President Noah Porter. 8vo, $2.50. 
 
 Prof. Janet in this hook gives us not only a clear and concise exam- 
 ination of the whole study of moral science, but he has introduced into 
 the discussion many elements which have hitherto been too mnoh 
 neglected. The first principles of moral science and the fundamental 
 idea of morals the author describes with much precision, and presents 
 an interesting and systematic exposition of them. 
 
 SCIENCE " The book has lucidity and is fuU of learning. It is hardly extrav- 
 agant to say that so clear and picturesque a treatise, in the bands of an alert 
 teacher, might save the study of etldos from its almost Inevitable fate of being 
 very dull." 
 
 A THEORY OF CONDUCT. By ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER. 
 12mo, $1.00. 
 
 Contents : The Theory of Right— The Theory of Duty— The 
 Nature of Character — The Motive to Morality. 
 
 Professor Alexander's book is an essay in that department of 
 metaphysics in which of recent years perhaps the most interest has 
 been awakened. Rarely has the essence of so vast a problem been 
 stated in such suocint form. The work contains a very complete and 
 searching examination of the various ethical theories and systems; 
 together with the positive statement of the author's »wn dootrine, 
 which finds the ethical impulse essentially religious. 
 
iii