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 Tjje [ji'eat Religion^ of Iqdia 
 
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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2016 
 
 https://archive.org/details/hinduismbrahmaniOOhand 
 
REV. JOHN HANDLEY, A. B. 
 
HINDUISM, 
 
 Brahmanism and Buddhism, 
 
 fpfye ♦ @reat ♦ I^eli^ions • of - India. 
 
 Hy REV. JOHN HANDLEY, A. B, 
 
 Pastor Central Methodist Episcopal Church, Bridoeton, N. J. 
 
 CAMDEN, n. j. : 
 
 TEMPERANCE GAZETTE PRINTING HOUSE, 
 
 131 FEDERAI. STREET. 
 
 1S91. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 7T HE papers included in this little volume were origin- 
 
 Afly' ally prepared under the scholarly and inspiring in- 
 struction of Professor F. F. KUinwood, U.D., in a course 
 taken in the University of the City of New York, in Com- 
 parative Religion. 
 
 Afterward, by the request of the Rev. J. B. Graw, D.D., 
 the excellent Editor of the “ Epworth Advocate,” o<f the 
 New Jersey Conference, they were prepared for and pub- 
 lished in that paper, and very kindly commended by him. 
 
 The researches in Comparative Religions undertaken by 
 the writer, have been of incomparable interest and lasting 
 good to him. . 
 
 It is his only intent to impress upon the reader the truth 
 that God is mysteriously, but surely, working out the 
 redemption of the human race. 
 
 February 2j. } iSgi . 
 
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 ie J\^ 
 
 LtplUi 
 
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 (Ini 
 
 I Cv. 
 
 India % Sreat Battlefield of I^eli^ions. 
 
 ^FPVO the casual observer and superficial reader in 
 ancient history, India is a land of mysticism. It 
 holds about the same relation to the modern world 
 that Egypt held to the Grecians — a land of superstition, of 
 weird spectres ; a land of the blackness of darkness and 
 of the abomination of desolation, from whence can come 
 nothing but fear, terror, injury, and the lowest kind of 
 heathenism. But to the real Christian student, India 
 stands forth as the monument of religious thought en- 
 lightening the whole world. As the fog of ignorance is 
 dissolved by the light of history, so through the study of 
 comparative religion India is revealed as the common and 
 greatest battlefield of religions. From all accounts the 
 Indo-Aryan people, like the primitive nations of pre- 
 historic times, held to Monotheism, or a belief in the ex- 
 istence and personality of but one God. But through 
 wars, famines and divisions, the people were degraded into 
 Polytheism and idolatry; then they wandered far away 
 
10 
 
 in the wilderness of Pantheism, losing all sight of God 
 above them, the land of promise before them, and of the 
 golden age of their ancestors behind them. The history 
 of the children of Israel going from their home land 
 into captivity, then out of bondage into the wilderness, 
 and then moving towards the land of Canaan, is a 
 picture of the human heart in its fall and struggle out 
 of sin, and of the moral fall and rise of nations. No 
 better proof of the truthfulness of this statement need 
 or could be presented than the struggle of these Indo- 
 Aryans after God’s spirituality and a correct system 
 of religious truth. This is the reason why India is the 
 arena of such a fearful religious and ecclesiastical battle. 
 All the isms of the Orient have conflicted and combatted 
 with each other here upon the fertile plain of the Ganges. 
 
 We first find Hinduism, whose system of religion is de- 
 rived from a poetical work — “The Veda,” a book of 
 poems which is older than the “Iliad” of Homer, and from 
 which Arnold largely received his inspiration to write his 
 “ Light of Asia.” The next is Brahmanism, whose cold- 
 hearted caste system crushed the moral life out of the 
 masses. Then came Buddhism, with its dark belief of 
 Atheism, and of the final annihilation of the soul, and of 
 the futility of prayer. The doctrine of Zoroaster, which is 
 a spiritual idealism, something like the tenets held by the 
 Esscnes, intermingled itself among these religions. Mo- 
 hammedanism, with its strange sensualistic features, was 
 
introduced in the early part of the Christian Era. To-day, 
 all of these religions are contending with each other for 
 the ascendency, so that India, as no other country, has 
 had to submit to heterodoxy, orthodoxy, and the darkest 
 of heathenism. Great interest is now being manifested in 
 the hope that Christianity, the last to come upon the field 
 of battle, will slowly but surely subjugate these inimical 
 systems. 
 
 Gai'ty Hinduism. 
 
 >■ 4 HE Persians not being able to pronounce the word 
 
 I Aryan, called the Aryans Hindus; then the Greeks 
 dropped the letter H and called these Aryans Indoi ; 
 from the latter we get the term India. 
 
 Comparatively speaking, very little was known about the 
 Hindus before the year 327 B. C., when Alexander invaded 
 this country, marching as far as the Indus river. A 
 Grecian by the name of Magasthenes collected the infor- 
 mation, of which ancient and modern writers availed 
 themselves. 
 
 India is cut up into a great many little provinces 01- 
 states, with no unity between them ; this diisunity has cre- 
 ated over five hundred and thirty-nine different languages 
 and dialects. The missionary has to master these various 
 tongues before he can communicate with the inhabitants. 
 
All the information that we have touching the condition, 
 character and intelligence of the earliest Hindus we derive 
 from their traditions, from philology, and from their Vedas. 
 These inform us that they began life on a very high plane 
 of civilization, and that a system somewhat similar to the 
 Patriarchal was in vogue, and that they were capable of 
 solving philosophical problems (for which India has always 
 been noted), and dealing with the highest ideas of Mono- 
 theism. Rut the Hindus soon lost their first estate and 
 wandered off into weakness and awful ignorance. It is 
 from the Vedas, which are their Scriptures, that we gain 
 an idea of the character of their religion. These Vedas 
 are four in number: the Yagust, the Rig, the Saman, and 
 the Atharvan. The term Veda means science or law. 
 They are supposed to be a divine revelation. The Rig is 
 the oldest, and is made up of hymns ; the others are 
 liturgical and dogmatical. The Vedas arc not a spontane- 
 ous outgrowth of thought, nor are they an evolution of 
 thought, for they were composed at distant and isolated 
 periods of time, in different ways and by different men. 
 As they reflect the ideal domestic, civil and religious life 
 of the primitive life of the Hindus before the Caste system 
 was introduced, it looks as if they were a revision of very 
 early beliefs, modified by many an interpolation. It is 
 difficult to state the creed of the Vedas, as features and 
 characteristics are to be found in them of all Oriental 
 
«3 
 
 beliefs. These books have had a powerful influence over 
 the people of India. 
 
 The Vedas say: “There is in truth but one deity and 
 one supreme spirit, the Lord of the Universe, whose work 
 is the universe; the God above all gods, who created the 
 heavens, the earth and the waters.” But soon after we see 
 that this pure doctrine is enveloped in the mystic shroud of 
 Pantheism, Absorbtion and Fatalism. 
 
 There arc five kinds of sacrifices referred to in Hindu- 
 ism : the offering of the plant, of clarified butter, of fire, of 
 animals, and the offering of human beings. The juices of 
 the soma plant were the promises of renewed life and the 
 quickening of immortal life, for as by the death of the 
 plant the fires of the universe that had gathered in it were 
 set free to wing their flight through a resurrected life, so 
 would man, by death, be liberated and elevated. The 
 offering of clarified butter was as the first fruit offering, 
 originating in their simple consciousness of dependence on 
 a Supreme Being. They offered fire as the purest element 
 of the life of man and the light of nature. The fire sym- 
 bolized the ascendant character and struggle of man's aspi- 
 rations. Thousands of animals were sacrificed daily. We 
 are hardiy able to account for the origin and cause of 
 human sacrifice; possibly it originated in the Veda, which 
 stated that the Creator (Varuna) offered as a sacrifice for 
 humanity his first-born son. Who' knows but that the 
 “ light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world” 
 
H 
 
 impressed upon the Hindu mind the doctrine of the Lamb 
 slain from the foundation of the world ? 
 
 It is strange to find that these Hindus who had no 
 special revelation, had the idea of expiatory sacrifice ; has 
 this doctrine by the fall been inwrought into the soul of 
 man’s being? Their offerings were made to appease the 
 anger of the gods and to gain their favor. The one who 
 offered became identified with his sacrifice, as if he himself 
 was being offered up, and his immortal part, which fire 
 could only purify and not consume, ascended with the 
 flame to the regions above, to enjoy companionship with 
 the gods. The Hindu thought that the majority of the 
 gods secured their immortality through sacrifice and 
 suffering. 
 
 From what we learn of sacrifice, in India, in contempora 
 neous nations and in modern history, we notice that this 
 _ idea is inherent in man, originating in a sense of worship, 
 weakness, dependence, and also of guilt that must be 
 atoned for. The human victim considered it an honor to 
 be sacrificed ; lie looked upon it as a golden opportunity to 
 consecrate himself to his supreme thought, that he might 
 attain to the character of his ideal. It afforded the means 
 of reaching immediately the departed blessed, of securing 
 a noble destiny in the celestial world. Only the choicest 
 and best were allowed to be sacrificed. Truly we must 
 admire the purpose of these Hindus, while we deprecate 
 the method used to gain heaven. 
 
i5 
 
 May the day be not far distant when these so-called 
 heathens, who have some idea of the doctrines of the fall 
 of man, of the immortality of the soul, the reality of 
 heaven, and the need of a divine sacrifice to atone for sin, 
 shall accept the Christ who, having been lifted up upon 
 the cross, is drawing all men unto Him. 
 
 (^aste System. 
 
 M O subject has been brought more prominently before 
 the church than the Caste System of India, which 
 T system has been considered by very many mission- 
 aries, the greatest obstacle to the progress of Christianity 
 among the Hindus. 
 
 Christian scholars are trying to discover the nature of 
 the Caste System, that it may be overcome. The follow- 
 ing facts and features relating to this subject are of vital 
 interest to those who are anxious to see the church suc- 
 ceed. 
 
 We cannot find any trace of cast in the earliest Veda ; 
 from this the conclusion is reached that before the Aryans 
 migrated from Central Asia into India, the system did not 
 exist. 
 
 It appears that at one time India was without inhabit- 
 ants; its first inhabitants came down from the high plains 
 
i6 
 
 of Asia; the enervating climate of India and its peculiar 
 environment weakened the Aryans, morally and mentally, 
 and darkened their fair complexion (the term Aryan means 
 fairest, noblest), and the long lapse of ages continued this 
 process of deterioration, so that those who were in India 
 the longest, were the most degraded ; hence a distinction 
 and a discrimination would be developed between the 
 earlier and the later comers ; and as the word caste meant 
 color, this difference of gradation may have been the 
 origin of the Caste System. 
 
 Tradition makes it quite evident that the white Aryan 
 invaders of India were deeply prejudiced against these 
 swarthy aborigines, and treated them with the utmost 
 contempt. But there came a time when migration ceased, 
 and the longer the invaders remained in India the more 
 they became like the people who had preceded them and 
 - whom they had conquered. 
 
 Some sort of government had to be worked out, while 
 society was most naturally forming itself into different 
 classes according to the peculiarities, affinities and tenden- 
 cies of each and all ; and as this principle of classification, 
 contraction and separation continued, a spirit of disinclina- 
 tion of one class to associate with the other classes would 
 be developed; therefore, it was only a question of time 
 when the principle of separatism would cause an impassa- 
 ble gulf to exist between the different classes which ulti- 
 mately produced the Caste System. 
 
*7 
 
 Others think that the natural division of the Hindus 
 into farmers, servants, priests and soldiers, originated this 
 system. All Oriental governments favored castes, because 
 the democratic ideas of civil and religious liberty and of 
 the equality of men were absolutely foreign to all their 
 national polity. Greece was the pioneer nation in giving 
 expression to this great thought, which has revolutionized 
 European governments. 
 
 I think the abominable hierarchical system of Brahman- 
 ism brought it to its present state of awful perfection. 
 
 It would not be fair to impress you with the idea that 
 everything said about the Caste System is said in condem- 
 nation of it, as the following will show that it has its 
 friends : 
 
 Robertson, Dubois and Dr. Colebrook declare that it 
 was possible to go from the lowest to the highest caste, or 
 from that to the lowest; the system was like that of the 
 British army, which was formed by drawing from all other 
 classes. Heeren and Klaproth contend that it is founded 
 on the original diversity of the human race. Others go so 
 far as to say that the arts and industries were aided by this 
 system. 
 
 Without a dissenting voice our Christian missionaries 
 declare that it has created an impassable gulf between the 
 higher and lower classes ; that the system has put a heavy 
 yoke upon the ignorant, the weak and upon the less fair, 
 and that all opportunity for self-improvement, and for lui- 
 
jS 
 
 mane and general progress has been removed. They also> 
 assert that until this nefarious system is removed there is 
 but little hope for the emancipation and conversion of the 
 people. 
 
 If our missionaries open schools for the lowest caste and 
 the outcast, then the higher castes will not come near them ; 
 if they should open for the higher caste, and one of the 
 low caste children should enter the school and the Chris- 
 tian teacher should invite him to remain as a scholar, all of 
 the others would leave immediately. There are, I am 
 glad to say, some exceptions to this rule. While the 
 Methodist church is doing much to reach and save the 
 higher castes, as is seen in the conversion of men like Ram 
 Chandra Bose, still true to her noble mission and great 
 destiny, she is doing much to save the lowest castes and 
 the outcasts. Like the Saviour she is seeking the wander- 
 ing and the lost sheep. Christ’s method of building up 
 the kingdom of God on earth is from the bottom up to the 
 top, from the lowest to the highest, from the least to the 
 greatest, from the poorest to the richest; any other method 
 than this will fail to accomplish the will of God on earth. 
 
 The time will come when the light of the Occident will 
 chase away the gloom and the darkness of the Orient. 
 The day is not far distant when the Wise Men of the Wes 
 will return the generosity of the Wise Men of the East by- 
 taking their gold, frankincense and myrrh to brighten, 
 cheer and save these Hindu caste-cursed people. 
 
>9 
 
 Bt'afymanism. 
 
 I k RAH MAN ISM grew out of early Hinduism, just as 
 Roman Catholicism grew out of early Christianity. 
 Dr. F. F. Ellinwood states that “ from the <Sth cen- 
 tury till about 500 B. C., a strict and oppressive sacerdotal- 
 ism was enforced by the Brahmans aided by the power of 
 caste, which might be termed Brahmanism.” This is one 
 of the very few systems of religion that did not originate 
 in the mind of any particular man; therefore it is unlike 
 in this respect Confucianism, Zoroasterism, Buddhism, 
 Mohammedanism, and Christianity, each of which came 
 through the teachings of one man from whom each re- 
 ceived its name. 
 
 THE MATERIAL THAT MADE BRAHMANISM. 
 
 India was inhabited by these thinkers at least 1500 years 
 before this religion was named. It is supposed that the 
 immediate ancestors of the Grecians and the Romans left 
 Asia about the same time that these, their brothers, 
 migrated into India; and we cannot think that one part of 
 this family went to the southwest to Europe, and the other 
 to the southeast to India by mere chance, any more than 
 we believe that the Israelites journeyed into Egypt without 
 
20 
 
 the guidance of Providence. Abraham's ancestors were 
 Indo- Aryans or Hindus. The Aryans who migrated to 
 Europe were fighters, those who went to India were men 
 of peace and men of deep thought. While ancient Europe 
 is a continuous history of war and destruction, ancient 
 India spends its time in quietly developing thought, schools 
 of philosophy and systems of religion, and it will be dis- 
 covered in the years to come that Pythagoras, the first 
 Grecian philosopher, derived his ideas from Egypt, and 
 that the Egyptians and Ishmaelites received their knowl- 
 edge, as they did Joseph, from Asia. While the Grecians 
 and Romans were putting their religious ideas into the 
 concrete form of temple and dome, the early Hindus were 
 becoming more subtle and abstract. “The conflict of the 
 good and evil principles in nature rather than in history, 
 is the prominent feature in the religion of the Aryans in 
 India.” 
 
 It was this tendency towards metaphysical speculation 
 that led them into an infinitude of cloudy vagueness, 
 rather than into the infinite God. lvverything that could 
 be wTOught out by thought was produced by them. All 
 the human religious systems of the world find their origin 
 among the Himalayas. They worshiped the sun, and all 
 their wealth of poetic imagery is employed to show forth 
 his resplendent glory. Then followed their sidereal deities, 
 and, Job- like, they pictured the beauties of Orion and 
 Pleiades. They deified the calm, the storm, the day, the 
 
21 
 
 night; then all the elements of nature became deities, till 
 they blended into each other, and the universe became 
 God, and God the universe. This is Pantheism. 
 
 After awhile they grew weary of such utter confusion 
 and selected the most prominent features in nature, as the 
 highest mountain, the largest forest ; these they also 
 deified, and thus was Polytheism developed. 
 
 Unlike the Mohammedans and Romans, no sensuality 
 existed between their gods and goddesses. 
 
 “To the Aryans of India, nature is a chaste goddess, 
 with star-crowned brow, of grave majesty and radiant 
 smile, full of grace and grandeur in her changing mani- 
 festations. One feels the spell she weaves around him in 
 the high and shining heavens, in the rapid rivers, in the 
 vast plains and forest sanctuaries.” 
 
 At first they had no priests or temples ; the head of each 
 family and tribe led in the worship and sacrifice. The 
 priesthood had its origin in a number of men who, like the 
 men of Homer's day, went up and down the country sing- 
 ing the religious doctrines and rites of the people. It is 
 very easy to see how these singers became the priests. 
 Men who had a talent for singing, and at the same time 
 good verbal memory, would naturally learn the hymns of 
 the Rig Veda, and as it was a popular profession, it be- 
 came lucrative. After a time, as the other classes were 
 more interested in business, politics and philosophy, these 
 singers would be more and more depended upon, and 
 
22 
 
 finally they took possession of all the religious rites, thus 
 developing their accursed hierarchical system. In order 
 that their profession might be more secure to them, they 
 made everything appertaining to religion ambiguous, that 
 the rank and file of the people would become dependent 
 upon them for religious information and interpretation. 
 They introduced dark legends, mysterious myths, strange 
 traditions, and equivocal aphorisms. They wrote com- 
 mentaries, built schools, and employed vain philosophies 
 to bewilder and delude the people. We cannot help per- 
 ceiving how this complicated and oppressive ecclesiastical 
 system resembles Roman Catholicism. 
 
 Max Muller gives the following metrical translation of 
 their account of creation: 
 
 Nor Aught nor Naught existed ; yon bright sky was not, 
 Nor heaven’s broad roof outstretched above. 
 
 What covered all? what sheltered? what concealed? 
 
 Was it the water’s fathomless abyss? 
 
 There was no death — yet there was naught immortal ; 
 There was no confine betwixt day and night ; 
 
 The Only One breathed breathless by itself; 
 
 Other than It there nothing since has been. 
 
 Darkness there was, and all at first was veiled 
 In gloom profound — an ocean without light — 
 
 The germ that still lay covered in the husk 
 Burst forth, one nature, from the fervent heat. 
 
 Then first came love upon it, the new spring 
 Of mind— yet poets in their heart discerned, 
 
 Pondering, this bond between created things 
 And uncreated. Comes this spark from earth 
 Piercing and all-pervading, or from heaven? 
 
Then seeds were sown and mighty powers arose, 
 
 Nature below, and power and will above ; 
 
 Who knows the secret? who proclaimed it here? 
 
 Whence, whence this manifold creation sprang? 
 
 The gods themselves came later into being — 
 
 Who knows from whence this great creation sprang? 
 
 He from whom all this great creation came, 
 
 Whether his will created or was mute, 
 
 The most High Seer that is in highest heaven, 
 
 He knows it — or perchance even he knows not. 
 
 The priestly families to attract attention dressed their 
 hair in a peculiar way; to gain influence they associated 
 with the princes and rulers. When these Brahmans se- 
 cured the desired power they worked out the distribution 
 of castes. Then they destroyed the religion of their ances- 
 tors, and reduced the early gods of action to demons. In 
 this, nature aided them. As the change of climate affected 
 the Indo-Aryans, “ their minds became dull and torpid 
 under the burning sky, all militant thought disappeared,” 
 the war gods were forgotten, and the god of prayer, be- 
 cause he demanded no struggle or special exertion, became 
 their favorite god, whom they called Brahma. Because of 
 this deterioration the Vedic tongue became a dead lan- 
 guage, the muse of poetry vanished, the brilliancy of 
 thought and the purity of diction were unknown. Then 
 followed the dark age of India. 
 
 The priests taught and the people believed that their 
 i-eligious ceremonies, rites and sacrifices, controlled the 
 rising and setting of the sun, the prevailing of the winds, 
 
24 
 
 seed time and harvest, life and death. To slight or neglect 
 this worship would bring on disaster, sickness, pestilence, 
 war and a horrible death. In this way were the minds and 
 hearts and bodies of the people enslaved. 
 
 The Brahmans divided the literature into two parts, viz: 
 the S’ruti, or revealed ; the Smriti, or unrevealed. Both 
 were intermingled and sub-divided into the Mantra, the 
 Brahmana, and the Upanishad. To these, the laws of 
 Manu have been appended. They burdened the mind with 
 the following rules : The Kalpaor, the rules of the Mantra, 
 and the Brahmana, the Siksha, or the rules of pronuncia- 
 tion, the C’handas, or the science of metre, the Nirukta, or 
 the exposition of the Veda, the Vyakarana, or the rules of 
 grammar. Scores, if not hundreds, of other formula: 
 could be mentioned. The Mantra related to the Vedic 
 metre and hymnology. The Brahmanas were books show- 
 ' ing the origin, cause, manner, method and object of sacri- 
 fices. Thousands of animals were sacrificed daily; the 
 people were weary and sick of this ceremony ; the day 
 of re-action was not far distant. Buddha was coming to 
 deliver them. 
 
 The Brahmanas encouraged the growth of a supersti- 
 tious belief in the efficacy of sacrifices, and fostered 
 increasing dependence upon the mediatorial castes of 
 priests, supposed to be the constituted medium of com- 
 munication between men and gods. But the Kshatrias, or 
 soldier class, did not altogether submit to priestly tyranny. 
 
Momentous questions were agitating the mind. No rest, 
 no satisfaction, and no solution could be found in mere 
 external rites; each thinker by the aid of reason was try- 
 ing to solve the great problems of life. This led to the 
 composing of the Upanishads. This work means the 
 hidden, or what is read between the lines. It divides re- 
 ligion into two parts, that of works, and that of knowl- 
 edge. The ignorant are saved by prayers, sacrifices, and 
 austerities. The few are saved because of their intelli- 
 gence they have discovered the secrets of the gods, of 
 nature, and of man. The Upanishads are of them and 
 for them. The books deal with the origin of the uni- 
 verse, the nature of the deity, the nature of the human 
 soul, and the reciprocal connection of spirit and matter. 
 
 The Upanishads stated that the soul considered retro- 
 spectively and prospectively is eternal. Matter out of 
 which the universe was evolved is eternal. The soul must 
 be united to a body in order to exercise consciousness, 
 sensation, cognition and action. The union of soul and 
 body is productive of bondage and misery. To meet the 
 consequences and maturity of acts the soul will be re- 
 moved to a place of reward and punishment, which is not 
 full, effectual or final. The transmigration of the soul 
 caused the existence of evil. 
 
 While this free thought antagonized Brahmanism, still 
 the priests being anxious to retain the patronage of the 
 Kshatrias made this philosophy part of their religion. 
 
26 
 
 Brahmanism thus contained two opposing forces, the one 
 trammeling, the other emancipating the mind. Later on 
 it fused Buddhism into itself, although this new religion 
 was a protest against every rite and ceremony. Such is 
 the mongrel character of Brahmanism as it now exists. 
 
 The laws of Manu relate to the usages of the home, of 
 the relation of one caste to another, and to social customs. 
 They teach that women have no rights, she is man’s slave. 
 Manu says there is as much difference between the four 
 castes as exists between the lion, bear, tiger and the ele- 
 phant. The first three castes were twice born. Iheir 
 second birth takes place between the eighth and twelfth 
 year. A religious ceremony is performed; they are then 
 invested with the sacred cord, which is a coil of threads 
 worn over the left shoulder, hanging down diagonally 
 across the body to the right hip. The sacred cord of the 
 'Brahman is cotton; of the Kshatrias, hemp; of the 
 Vaisyas, wool, and the Sudas have none, to show that they 
 are accursed. 
 
 When death takes place the body is burned, and it is 
 thought that the soul goes into a material form no larger 
 than the thumb and hovers around the funeral pyre. If 
 the body is not cremated the soul becomes a wandering 
 ghost or ghoul. Rosaries containing scores of beads arc 
 used in prayer. Manu forbids the eating of flesh and fish 
 and the drinking of spirituous liquors, except on solemn 
 
 occasions. 
 
27 
 
 History repeats itself: “ What we t lie spirit of the ages 
 call, is nothing but the spirit of us all.” Wherein the ages 
 are reflected, India has had its Huss, its Wickliff and its 
 Luther. Buddha was India’s great reformer. 
 
 Buddha and Buddhism. 
 
 f I 'V HE term Buddhism is from the word Buddha, which 
 
 f-l means the wise, the enlightened, originating in the 
 
 A 
 
 intelligence and wisdom of the founder of this sys- 
 tem of religion. There are over fifty ways of spelling this 
 name. Among the more common are Bud, Bod, Budh, 
 Boodh, Budo, Buddow, Boutta, Poota, Poth, Pot, etc. The 
 Chinese sound it like Fo, Foe, Foki. This indicates 
 the cause of the various modes of different translators and 
 commentators in spelling the name. Not until the middle 
 of this century was much known about Buddhism. 
 
 Great credit is due to Mr. B. H. Hodgson the British 
 resident to Nepaul, one of the strongholds of Buddhism. 
 He it was who discovered the canonical books written in 
 Sanskrit. Since then it has been revealed that the Bud- 
 dhist scriptures of Thibet, Mongolia and China are transla- 
 tions from those apparent original Sanskrit writings ; also 
 the books or scriptures of the Buddhists of Ceylon which 
 are written in the Pali language agree in substance with 
 
28 
 
 those Nepaulese standards. Translations from these books 
 in the Pali language are used in Siam and Burmah. 
 
 Mr. B. H. Hodgson sent copies of the Nepaulese stan- 
 dards to the Asiatic Societies of London and Paris, and 
 in 1884 the Oriental scholar, Eugene Burnouf, translated, 
 published and gave them to the western world. We learn 
 through this channel and others that Buddhism, like other 
 Oriental religions, has had its day of myth, mystery and 
 legend, with many a miracle to prove its supernatural 
 origin. In fact these influences were at one time so potent 
 as to lead so great a scholar as Prof. Wilson, of Oxford, 
 to read a paper before the Royal Asiatic Society of Lon- 
 don, in which he maintained that the supposed life of 
 Buddha was a myth, and Buddha himself merely an 
 imaginary being; but research and scholarship have 
 placed Buddha on a historic and authentic foundation. 
 
 Buddhism originated in the northern part of Hindustan 
 in the beginning of the Sixth century, B. C. It has now 
 at least four hundred million adherents, and judging by 
 this following, it is the greatest religion of the world. 
 
 This system arose out of the ethical and philosophical 
 teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, who was raja in Kapi- 
 lavastu and chief of the tribe of the Sakyas, seated on the 
 banks of the Kohana, about one hundred miles north of 
 the city of Benares, and about fifty miles south of the foot 
 of the Himalaya mountains. Gautama was of the Kshat- 
 riya class. It was noticed that in his childhood he was very 
 
-9 
 
 unlike this soldier class. He possessed a gentle nature, 
 sensitive, if not morbid in spirit. Still nothing out of the 
 ordinary was observed in this formative period of his life. 
 His father, Suddhodana, fearing lest he might forsake the 
 Kshatriya, through his morbid tendencies, encouraged his 
 marriage to a princess at the age of sixteen years, that 
 his mind might be withdrawn from himself, through the 
 possibilities of home, social and civil life. Thirteen years 
 after his marriage a son was born to brighten his domestic 
 and heart life. But all the influences that could be brought 
 to bear upon him could not divert his mind, or change 
 the trend of his thought and life. His light could not 
 be hid under a bushel. Fate, destiny and providence had 
 carved out a road in which he was to travel, and, as all 
 roads once led to the Roman city, so all influences seemed 
 to lead him back to his life work. 
 
 As Dr. Ellinwood has truly said, “ Though cribbed, 
 cabined and confined," he saw enough of the world life — 
 saw enough of suffering to sadden him, and he left the 
 harem never to return. While it is true that there are 
 many things said in the way of legend touching the causes 
 which constrained Gautama to lead a new life, wholly 
 unlike and antagonistic to the epicurean life which he so 
 greatly relished as prince, which should be rejected as 
 untrustworthy; still we are to remember that there were 
 real causes, and that there is history in the midst of all 
 this mystery, which it is the duty of the student to trace, 
 
30 
 
 discover and expose, until its bare outline appears at least 
 as evident as the pyramids on a clear day. Admitting that 
 Gautama is an historic character, three things must have 
 been present to him. 
 
 First, Gautama possessed a peculiarly sensitive, superior, 
 sympathetic, ennobled and inspiring nature, as high above 
 that of the ordinary Aryanas, the Himalay as were above 
 the valley of the Ganges; and this lofty character, of 
 necessity, made him, in the estimation of his inferiors, 
 solitary and attractive. 
 
 In the second place there must have been something in 
 the outside world to affect and draw out the inner man, 
 the inner world; that is, there must have been objective 
 reality as well as subjective impressions. Something like 
 the following must have transpired: It is related that in 
 his twenty-ninth year, while driving to his pleasure 
 grounds one day, lie was struck by the sight of a man 
 utterly broken down by age ; on another occasion by 
 seeing a man suffering from a loathsome disease, and some 
 months later by the horrible appearance of a decompos- 
 ing corpse. Each time his charioteer, whose name was 
 Chauna, told him such was the fate of all liv ing beings. 
 Soon after he saw an ascetic walking in a calm and digni- 
 fied manner. Asking who that was he was again told by 
 his charioteer the character and aims of ascetics. His 
 mind and heart were deeply stirred by these sights with- 
 out, and the vision they wrought up within. Gautama 
 
3 * 
 
 doubtless saw that life was filled with vanity anc! 
 vexation. 
 
 In the third place, the clash of these two worlds always 
 leads to solitude and meditation, out of which men rise to 
 be leaders and reformers, or sink into the dead levels of 
 humanity, accepting all things as coming from the hand of 
 fate to be acquiesced in, but not surmounted. The mind 
 of this young Rajput took the higher course, and let us 
 now follow him in his vicissitudes and struggles until he 
 emancipates himself by herculean effort and Jacob-like 
 wrestling. 
 
 On the banks of the Anoma, not far from the Koliyan 
 provinces, he disrobed himself of the habiliments of his 
 princely position, even to the cutting of his long, (lowing 
 hair, and spends seven days in grave communion with 
 himself and nature. Then he visited Bimbisara, ruler of 
 Magadha, who, pleased with Gautama’s appearance and 
 aims, invited him to become a teacher, but he hesitates, 
 because of his unfitness. He afterward became the pupil 
 of a Brahman philosopher by the name of Alara. Then 
 he joined himself to the wise Udraka. From these and 
 other teachers he learned all that could be taught him of 
 the higher doctrines and ethics of the Hindu philosophy. 
 
 He, with his disciples and associates, retired to the 
 jungle of Uruvela, on the northern spur of the Vindhya 
 range of mountains, where for six long years he gave 
 himself over to a life of the severest kind of austerity 
 
32 
 
 till his fame as an ascetic of the ascetics spread far and 
 wide; as stated in the Burmese chronicle, “ his name was 
 like the sound of a bell hung in the canopy of the skies.’, 
 Through great physical weakness, caused by his self- 
 torture and fasting, he fainted and fell to the ground, and 
 by many was considered dead. This weak physical condi- 
 tion was a true indicator and exhibition of the inner state 
 of his mind and spirit. As Tasting had robbed him of 
 his strength, so had this life of a recluse not only failed to 
 furnish him with what he sought, but had deprived him 
 of his faith, hope and aspiration. The aching void was 
 within still, and life seemed an utter failure. He was 
 further away from the end of his journey than when he 
 commenced it. This state of unconsciousness seems to 
 have transformed him into a new being, for from this 
 moment his mode of life changed and he pursued a course 
 ■diametrically opposite to that which had been pursued by 
 him and others up to this time. He gave up his life of 
 austerity and reversed his ideas of living to such an extent 
 that his disciples considered him untrue to the doctrines 
 of Brahmanism ; capricious and exacting, they forsook 
 him as unworthy of their company and counsel. 
 
 At this juncture came the great crisis of his life. As a 
 great writer on Buddhism has well said: “There now 
 ensued in Gautama’s mind a second struggle, described in 
 both southern and northern accounts with all the wealth 
 of poetry and imagination of which the Indian |mind is 
 
master.” While this account is too luxuriantly colored, 
 still between the lines we see the real struggles of the man. 
 
 The simple history of that event is somewhat like the 
 following: When he came to himself, consciousness having- 
 returned, feeling ahungered, he sought the banks of the 
 Nairanjara, and as a mendicant begged his meal of Sujata, 
 who lived in one of the villages near by. Leaving the. 
 maiden he found shelter beneath the umbiage of a large 
 tree: which became noted in history as the sacred Bo-tree, 
 or tree of wisdom. As a tree of the forest is exposed to 
 the severe inclemency of the weather and climate when all 
 other trees have been felled, so felt Gautama as he rested 
 beneath this Bo-tree. In this moment of dire need, when 
 the solace and consolation of friendship were so much 
 to be desired, he was absolutely friendless and forsaken 
 For some unaccountable reason all had gone wrong, and 
 yet he realized that he had lived up to the best light 
 within and without him. To make sure that he had put 
 forth his highest effort, he retraced, step by step, his past 
 life of self-sacrifice and self-denial, and as the happy life 
 of youth, of princely power and domestic felicity, in pano- 
 ramic beauty passed before him, contrasting themselves 
 with his present solitary and sad state, his strong imagina- 
 tion played upon them until they became intensely real. 
 He was living over again his former happy life. It seems 
 that these felicitous scenes had for the time elicited all his 
 thoughts and affections, and the temptation was great to 
 
34 
 
 give up his search for wisdom, purity and rest and go back 
 and enjoy life ; but finally his higher moral nature con- 
 quered, and as calm followed the storm, and light succeeds 
 the night, so peace followed this internal tempest, and light 
 and enlightenment overcame the doubts and ignorance of 
 his being. He entered into the temptation a forsaken man 
 and a bewildered Gautama, he emerged from the struggle 
 enjoying Nirvana as the wise Buddha. 
 
 This made Buddha one of the greatest religious leaders 
 the world has ever known. Great interest and ingenuity 
 have been manifested by many scholars and philosophers 
 in attempting to discover the different steps or stages by 
 which he ascended out of his lower self to the pinnacle 
 of an almost perfect deified human being. We will briefly 
 consider them. T. W. Rhys Davis states Gautama’s dis- 
 covery and formula as follows : 
 
 ‘‘ Everything coporeal is material, and therefore imper- 
 manent for it contains within itself the germs of dissolu- 
 tion. So long as man is bound up in bodily existence 
 with the material world, he is liable to sorrow, death and 
 decay. So long as he allows unholy desires to reign with- 
 in him, there will be unsatisfied longings, useless weariness 
 and care. To attempt to purify himself by oppressing 
 the body would be only wasted effort. It is the moral 
 evil of a man’s heart which keeps him chained down in 
 the degraded state of bodily life, of union with the material 
 world. It is of little avail to add virtue to his badness, for 
 
so long as there is evil, his goodness will only insure him 
 for a time and in another birth a' higher form of material 
 life. Only the complete eradication of all evil will set him 
 free from the chains of existence.” 
 
 The foundations of his creed have been summed up in 
 the following, which are called the Four Great Truths: 
 
 1st. That misery always accompanies existence. 
 
 2d. That all modes of existence result from passion or 
 desire. 
 
 3d. That there is no escape from existence except by 
 the destruction of desire. 
 
 4th. That this may be accomplished by following the 
 fourfold way to Nirvana. 
 
 Of these four stages called the paths, the first is an 
 awakening of the heart. When this is followed by the 
 removing of all impure desires and all revengeful feelings, 
 he has reached the second stage. In the third he succes- 
 sively becomes free from all desires, from all ignorance, 
 from all heresy and from all unkindliness. 
 
 E. De Presscnse, D.D., states the Buddhist formula and 
 creed as follows. The four noble truths are : 
 
 1st. Suffering or sorrow. Birth causes sorrow ; growth, 
 decay, illness, death, all cause sorrow. Separation from 
 objects we love, hating what cannot be avoided and craving 
 what cannot be obtained, cause sorrow. Such states of 
 mind as co-exist with the consciousness of individuality, 
 with the sense of separate existence, are states of suffering 
 and sorrow. 
 
3^ 
 
 2d. The cause of suffering. The action of the outward 
 world on the senses excites a craving thirst for something 
 to satisfy them ; or a delight in the objects presenting 
 themselves, either of which is accompanied by the lust of 
 life. These are the causes of sorrow. 
 
 3d. Cessation of sorrow. The complete conquest over, 
 and destruction of this eager thirst, this lust of life, is that 
 by which sorrow ceases. 
 
 4th. The path leading to the cessation of sorrow is the 
 noble eight-fold path briefly summed up in the description 
 of a virtuous life. At the head of the way of deliverance 
 stands the middle path with its eight steps: (1) right belief, 
 (2) right feelings, (3) right speech, (4) right actions, (5) 
 right means of livelihood, (6) right endeavor, (7) . right 
 memory, (8) right meditation, by which man enters upon 
 the noble path of deliverance which terminates in his ex- 
 emption from all delusion. 
 
 He reaches this end by slow growth in passing through 
 four stages or four phases of the spirit. The first is con- 
 version ; the second, the removal of doubts; the third, 
 disbelief in the efficacy of rites and ceremonies. To be 
 the recipient of these threefold blessings is considered a 
 higher honor than the conquest of a city. The second is 
 the path of those who will return but once to this world. 
 The third is the path of those who will never return to 
 this world. The fourth is the path of the holy and worthy 
 ones, Arahats. This, the superlative state of life, leads 
 directly to Nirvana. Gautama had passed while under 
 
the Bo-tree through all these different graded states, climb- 
 ing as it were from the lowest to the highest round of the 
 ladder of human experience. Unaided by any supernat- 
 ural power he rises by the force of self-reliance and aspir- 
 ing efforts to that excellence of semi-divine perfection 
 which has made him one of the finest and purest char- 
 acters of profane or religious history. 
 
 It was certainly a glorious consummation, to attain to 
 such a high elevation of human thinking. It is difficult 
 for us to understand how a man without the aid of revela- 
 tion could evolve such pure spiritual thought ; and how 
 a man like Gautama, so pessimistic over the sorrowful, 
 degraded state of the world, could be so sympathetic and 
 charitable, lenient and willing to sacrifice himself for the 
 betterment of man’s condition. It is certainly true that 
 the genius of his heart was greater than the genius of his 
 head. Legends and myths are as unnecessary and useless 
 in ornamenting the brow of such a philanthropist, as pearls 
 are to ornament the perfectly set diamond. We are in- 
 formed that the moral perfection to which Gautama at- 
 tained was due partly to the many transmigrations under- 
 gone by him. It is said he was born eighty-three times an 
 ascetic, fifty-eight times a monarch, forty-three time a 
 demi-god, twenty-four a Brahman, twenty-three a scholar, 
 eighteen an ape, ten times a deer, ten a lion, six an ele- 
 phant, six times born a snipe, five a colt, four a bull, once a 
 tiger, once a thief, once a gambler, and once a frog. He 
 
could not be born below a certain point of degradation. 
 It was impossible to transmigrate through hell, through 
 vermin, or to be born a woman. 
 
 If the Jattakes are true, we do not wonder that he ex- 
 celled, for he passed through great tribulation in reaching 
 Nirvana. He now became a man of marked decision of 
 character and energetic action. The world was open to 
 his sight ; he heard the cry of the sorrowing, and felt he 
 must enter upon his mission immediately. He desired to 
 deliver the new gospel of self-help and triumph to his 
 early teachers, Alara and Udraka, but they had ceased to 
 live. Disappointed, he journeyed on to the deer forest 
 near Benares, where he found those disciples who had 
 formerly forsaken him. At first they received him haugh- 
 ti y and treated him coldly, but as he anticipated their 
 actions, he bided his time. Finally, by his persistent 
 patience and superior enlightenment, lie not only won back 
 their friendship, but converted them over to the new faith. 
 They were inspired with his enthusiasm and spirit, and 
 became like Buddha, itinerants, proclaiming the doctrines 
 of Buddhism, till over two hundred embraced the princi- 
 ples of Gautama. The most ardent and capable among 
 them was a young man of great wealth by the name 
 of Lasa, who, next to his master, was the most efficient 
 worker. He was the means of the conversion of his 
 family and relatives, the effect of which was to give great 
 prestige to the new religion. It was Gautama’s custom to 
 
39 
 
 send out his disciples two by two to instruct the sorrow- 
 ing in the way of the middle path, by which they could 
 become free from the “ five passions, which like an im- 
 mense net, held men and angels in their power.” In the 
 beginning of each rainy season they again collected them- 
 selves to sit at the feet of Gautama, to learn more of this 
 new way of life, the highway to Nirvana. Not long after, 
 he visited King Binibisara, who yielded to Gautama’s 
 teachings and embraced his creed. Finally, Gautama 
 entered his own native city as a mendicant. His Father 
 Suddhodana received from his son the bowl and was con- 
 verted. Then his wife, whom he had left long years be- 
 fore, with their first-born son nestling in her bosom, at 
 their first meeting accepted his teachings, and against 
 Gautama’s will urged him to erect an edifice similar to the 
 modern nunnery, of which she became the first nun. 
 
 Though he met with opposition, and though he endured 
 much adversity, still his course in life during the forty-five 
 years in which he preached his gospel of self help, seemed 
 to be one grand triumphal march to almost universal 
 victory. Besides his charming doctrines, there were per- 
 sonal properties that endeared him to the people and aided 
 him in his successful campaign. He was a man of com- 
 manding presence, possessing a deep, rich voice. He was 
 convinced of the truth of his doctrines, and had the cour- 
 age of his convictions, and earnestly and affectionately 
 sought the conversion of the common people. Gautama 
 
40 
 
 died at the age of eighty-one, an ordinary human death. 
 The following account of his death is tolerably clear and 
 trustworthy. In a grove at Parva, between Kusingara and 
 Kapilavastu, Benares, Gautama died. He had eaten some 
 indigestible food, which hastened his death. His conver- 
 sation during his last lingering hours suggests to us the 
 philosophical thoughts of Socrates, and also reminding us, 
 too, of the last words of Jesus Christ to His disciples on 
 the nature and necessity of the possession and practice of 
 love and charity. 
 
 Gautama dies, not like a god, but like a man, who is 
 conscious that he has done what he could in the ennobling 
 of his character, through his active sympathy for his 
 fellow-man, in fitting himself for this supreme moment of 
 his life. Death became the stepping-stone into Nirvana, 
 the goal of his existence and continued struggle. 
 
 Buddhism and (^ristianity. 
 
 '"O better modern authority can be cited as to the 
 origin of Buddhism than Dr. F. F. Ellimvood, who 
 states that about 5 1 1, B. C., there arose a general 
 protest of various philosophical or rationalistic schools, 
 against the priestly tyranny of Brahmanism, over the in- 
 tellectual and moral life of the nation- Buddhism was 
 
4 > 
 
 found among these systems. It placed against the Brah- 
 minical caste .distinctions, the doctrine of the equality of 
 all men. It placed against the doctrine of animal sacrifice, 
 which had been so rife in India, over which the priests had 
 gone mad, slaying thousands of animals daily, the thought 
 that the penalty of sin could not be transferred to another. 
 The actor must suffer or enjoy the consequences flowing 
 from his every action. There was no such thing as vicari- 
 ous suffering. There was no place for prayer in Bud- 
 dhism. Self-mortification and abstract meditation led to 
 Nirvana. The Buddhist ignored the existence of the soul- 
 spirit as separate from the material organism, hence there 
 was no such thing as a supreme spirit. The gods were 
 merely orders of beings. 
 
 The smnmuvi bonum of Buddhism is the suppression of 
 all action in order to avoid the consequences of actions 
 which cause sorrow. A state of absolute quietude to a 
 large extent is the Nirvana of the Buddhist. The destruc- 
 tion of sorrow through asceticism and not by priestly 
 tyranny and servile obedience, met the condition and 
 demand of the age. It was a timely protest and reforma- 
 tion, and for that reason became exceedingly popular with 
 the common people of India. There were many valuable 
 and somewhat practical precepts, prohibitions and doc- 
 trines for the daily conduct. 
 
 Sorrow, the common heritage of all, the galling yoke 
 and burden of life, was to be destroyed by the eight 
 
42 
 
 methods, right perception, thinking, words, acts, regimen, 
 study, memory and meditation. Murder, theft, lying, adul- 
 tery and drunkenness were strictly prohibited. The mem- 
 bers of the Sangha were not to offend in diet, not to in- 
 dulge in amusements, not to wear ornaments or use per- 
 fumes, not to sleep on soft,- luxurious beds, and not to 
 amass silver or gold. Whatever anti-Christian apologists 
 of the West may say as to the origin and unique intrinsic 
 merits of this so-called decalogue, scholarly men have con- 
 clusively shown that they bear no comparison to the divine 
 excellence of the ten commandments. They possess no 
 spirituality ; they recognize no Deity, or future relation of 
 man to his Creator. They give out as little heat as do the 
 cold stars on a winter night. Whatever light they have 
 is as the dim reflection of the distant rays of a sun that 
 has sunk far below the horizon. The exceeding darkness 
 of the age gives their pale glow a strange brilliancy. As 
 the drowning man will grasp and endeavor to cling to 
 the slightest thing, which he imagines will keep him from 
 sinking so did these Hindus cleave to these maxims which 
 in their time were the very best that were available, and 
 from a human point of view were meritorious and en- 
 nobling. 
 
 The doctrines of Buddhism spread rapidly over India 
 and the adjacent isles, until hundreds of thousands pro- 
 fessed themselves followers of Buddha. The Brahmans in- 
 stead of persevering in their antagonism, true to their cun- 
 
43 
 
 ning character, created a fusion by which, to all appearance, 
 Buddhism, which was a protest against Brahmanism, be- 
 came identified with it, and from that time the history of 
 the one is largely the history of the other. It is mar- 
 vellous how the doctrines of this dualistic Buddhism have 
 been promulgated in the Eastern and even in the Western 
 world. Not only can Buddhists be found in the entire 
 Orient, but in most, if not all, the great cities of the 
 west may be found large circles of people who claim to 
 be Buddhists. 
 
 Through all its changes and stages Buddhism has over- 
 looked the existence of God ; has ignored the efficacy 
 of prayer, denied the reality of disembodied spirits and 
 shows no conception of the character and demerit of sin. 
 Therefore there is no room in their system for a Saviour. 
 The trend is toward fatalism and pessimism. Buddhism is 
 not the twilight of the morning leading to the greater light 
 of day, but it is as the evening twilight which deepens into 
 darkness. 
 
 The Nirvana of Buddhism has never been satisfactorily 
 defined. Each school of philosophy and each nation of 
 Buddhists hold to some idea or doctrine, which is not 
 only unlike the tenets held by all the other followers, but 
 directly in antagonism. Translators differ in their con- 
 clusions as to what is meant by Nirvana. Buddha him- 
 self, being an atheist and much of a fatalist, could not have 
 considered Nirvana as a place where the immortal good 
 
44 
 
 dwell in conscious peace. Then again the people who 
 became Buddhists always held to the ideas taught in the 
 systems of religious truths regarding monotheism, im- 
 mortality and the efficacy of prayer, as found in the differ- 
 ent provinces and nations. Apparently there was no doc- 
 trine common to all Buddhists. 
 
 The term Nirvana means “ to blowout.” If we follow 
 this etymology, everything which produces existence or 
 sensation would be destroyed. In Nirvana there is no 
 wish either to live or to die, as all desire is extinguished. 
 It is not absorbtion but cessation of being. If we follow 
 the metaphysics of the earliest scholarly Buddhists, includ- 
 ing Gautama, Nirvana is a place or state of such absolute 
 passiveness, repose and unconsciousness as could only 
 be produced by annihilation. 
 
 If we follow the beliefs of the different people, it is a 
 sort of semi-heaven, originating in the native longing of 
 the human soul after some better condition beyond the 
 grave than that endured here. It is surprising with what 
 rapidity this system spread. We are astonished to learn 
 that Buddhism was the first missionary religion known in 
 history. All others excluded the missionary idea. Says 
 Muller: “ No Jew, no Greek, no Roman, no Brahman, ever 
 thought of converting people to his own national form of 
 worship. Religion was looked upon as a private and 
 national property. It was to be guarded against strangers. 
 The most sacred names of the gods, the prayers by which 
 
45 
 
 their favors could be gained, were kept secret. Not even 
 the lowest caste Brahmans, the Sudras, would open their 
 ranks to a stranger. Buddha addressed both caste and 
 outcaste ; he promised salvation to all. The doctrine of 
 the brotherhood of humanity was first pronounced in India 
 by this Raja. In the year 308, Ik C, missionaries were 
 sent to the chief countries beyond India. 
 
 The spirit of humanity and toleration exhibited by King 
 Asoka years before the Christian era is not only worthy 
 of mention but also of emulation. He said, "A man ought 
 to honor his own faith only, but he should never abuse the 
 faith of others. It is thus that he will do no harm to 
 anyone. There are even circumstances where the religion 
 of others ought to be honored, and in acting thus a man 
 fortifies his own faith and assists the faith of others. He 
 who acts otherwise diminishes his own faith and hurts the 
 faith of others.” How admirable are such noble senti- 
 ments, uttered over two thousand years ago by a heathen 
 king. Mrs. Speir, in her work, “ Life in Ancient India,” 
 states : “ Buddhism spread in the south to Ceylon, in the 
 north to Kashmir, the Himalayan countries, Thibet and 
 China. One Buddhist missionary is mentioned in the 
 Chinese annals as early as the year 217 B. C.” 
 
 Buddhism, in A. D. 66, was officially recognized by 
 Ming-ti as a state religion, and placed on an equal footing 
 with the religion of Confucius and Lao-tse. This mission- 
 ary spirit doubtless hastened the spread of Buddhism, and 
 
46 
 
 also accounts for its wonderful success and permanence. 
 This faith has over four hundred millions of converts, 
 while Protestant Christianity, including all who hold a 
 nominal relation to the church, claims less than one hun- 
 dred and fifty millions. This numerical increase of Bud- 
 dhism over Christianity is the more remarkable when we 
 take into account that its author was merely a human 
 being, while the author of Christianity is divine. We 
 devoutly believe that in the not far-distant future the fig- 
 ures and the material strength of each of these will be 
 more than merely reversed. As these two systems are 
 progressive and aggressive and as Christianity is now being 
 pushed into the domains and strongholds of Buddhism, 
 the day will surely come when both will meet as do oppos- 
 ing fires in a burning forest. Which will consume and sur- 
 vive the other, from our enthusiastic point of view, is easy 
 to predict, and yet the followers of Gautama are just as 
 sanguine of success as are the disciples of Christ. Their 
 hopefulness is pardonable and well founded, since during 
 the long past they have so triumphantly withstood all the 
 advances of Christian missions and the progress of Chris- 
 tian and modern civilization. But as in the fullness of time 
 Gautama reached out after something superior to Brah- 
 manism to satisfy his unsatisfied moral nature, so in the 
 progress of events when a greater fullness of time shall 
 come, these noble but benighted minds, through a con- 
 sciousness of the insufficiency of their religion, will long 
 
47 
 
 for something higher. Then will they accept the Christ. 
 Since the Aryan mind is monotheistic by nature, there must 
 be a re-action against Buddhism and a favoring of a belief 
 in one supreme being. 
 
 It is the duty of the church to advance, to contribute, to 
 preach, to work and then to wait for that notable day to 
 come when the Lord shall gather his ransomed into his 
 fold. It needs no miracle to bring to pass such a reforma- 
 tion. For who can read the history of the life of Buddha, 
 the rise, success and wide spread of his religion, without 
 feeling that if the church and the times will furnish a man 
 equal to him in intellect, purity of heart, aspiration of soul, 
 with equal sincerity and sympathy, who receives not en- 
 lightenment under the fig tree but by the power of the 
 Holy Ghost, that such a man would more than meet the 
 emergency of the hour by transforming, through conver- 
 sion, the creed of the Buddhist into a saving belief in the 
 Gospel of the New Testament. Why this man of destiny 
 has not as yet come forth is difficult to answer. The delay 
 can hardly be providential, since nozo is God's accepted 
 time and day of salvation. He is willing nozv to give the 
 kingdom to his little flock. What the church and times 
 need is a great heroic spirit like a Hannibal who considers 
 no Alpine difficulty insurmountable; one who can smile 
 at impossibilities and cry, it shall be done ; one who, like 
 Joshua, filled to overflowing with the zeal of optimism, 
 will take possession of the enemy’s country. 
 
Too many ministers and members of the Christian 
 church who hear of the success and progress of missions 
 in distant lands are like the ten spies who came laden 
 down with the fruit of Eshcol, but v'ith hearts barren of 
 faith in God and hope for the future. All such retard 
 the day of glorious consummation when the kingdoms 
 of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God. 
 We cannot help perceiving through these Oriental leaders 
 of religious thought, that God has never forsaken these 
 so-called heathen, and it is evident that He has never en- 
 tirely withdrawn His spirit from them. The Heavenly 
 Father is moving upon the hearts of his children to go 
 and seek these prodigal races. 
 
 May the day soon come when these Buddhists shall 
 know for a surety that there is a God, that there is efficacy 
 in prayer, that disembodied spirits exist beyond this world 
 of death, that the penalty of sin can be transferred, the 
 consciousness of guilt removed, and that the Son of God 
 sacrificed Himself once for all, to redeem all who call 
 by faith upon His name. Then, when this is realized, will 
 the brightest and greatest light that has ever shone upon 
 India brighten the valleys, plains and mountains of this 
 pre-historic country.