ship till afterward. Christianity is neither this dogma nor that; Christianity is Jesus Christ. THE BUDDHIST SPECTRE. And then as to this gigantic brocken-spectre of Buddhism, which casts its chilling shadow over many an inquiring mind. What are we to say to that? Was Christ better than Buddha? Is Christianity better than Buddhism? asks my correspondent. We know whence these ideas come. During the last few years Buddhism has become a study, and its noblest elements have been again and again put before English readers. The story of Buddha's great renunciation has been told with matchless skill by Sir Edwin Arnold in "The Light of Asia;" the psalms of Buddha have been translated into faultless cadence by Max Müller, and other Oriental scholars. And next to the story of Jesus there is none nobler, and next to the Psalms of David there are none more loftily devout. Jesus said of John, he was "a burning and a shining light;" and I find no difficulty in saying as much of Buddha. The very spirit of Jesus breathes in such words as these: "Never will I seek or receive private salvation; never will I enter into final peace alone, but for ever and everywhere will I live and strive for the universal redemption of every creature." These are the words of Buddha, and self-sacrifice as noble as that of the Galilean inspired the life of Gautama. The "light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world" shone in him; and we can venerate and love him if we will, 3 moves but not with that species of faith which daily "forests of flowers on his stainless shrines," and countless millions of lips to repeat the for 'I take refuge in Buddha.'" And why? Becau have known a greater, even Him who is the Lig the world. Buddhism preaches pessimism and e tion; Jesus brought life and immortality to lig the Gospel. Buddha claims no deity; he claims to be an erring man, who tried, by the practice of virtues, to free himself from the tyranny of desire in return to gain, not the boon of life, but of to be extinguished and annihilated, as the bub extinguished in the ocean. The one point in Buddhism touches Christianity is in its teachi austere purity and self-sacrificing love. Buddha self regarded his religion as elementary; he s might last five thousand years, and then a new B would appear. The Nirvana, or heaven, of Buddh simply painless annihilation, the complete destruct identity and personality. Its promise is, Whoso fo eth me shall die for evermore. The promise of Chr "Whoso believeth in Me shall never die." In Budd strictly speaking, there is no God; in Christianity is the ever-present sense of " our Father who a heaven." Buddhism is one great truth, the truth of sacrifice, caught up and illuminated by a great exa it is the star hung upon the threshold of the day Christianity is that day in which it is swallowe Christ fulfils its hope; He completes the circle of it is a segment. Buddhism, Mohammedanism, and tianity are the three great historical religions; and, says Max Müller, Christianity absorbs the best elements of both, and adds the Diviner elements which they lack. As for me, so far from Buddhism being a difficulty, I rejoice in it as a glorious evidence that God has never forgotten His creatures, but in every age has nourished the human heart with those instincts and impulses of worship out of which all religion and virtue spring. A little more patience, a little more insight, a little more breadth of view, is what is needed for the dissipation of difficulties like these; and the same remark applies to the philosophical difficulties suggested by my correspondent in regard to the existence of pain and suffering. Pain is the sentinel of life, the stern guardian angel who shields us from destruction. If pain did not teach us that fire burned, we should be devoured by the cruel splendour; if the gash of the knife caused no agony, there would be nothing to remind us of our peril or save us from it. Every law of nature is founded on some unalterable necessity, and that which bears most hardly upon the individual is often the most beneficial for the race. But, while natural law cares for the race, spiritual law atones for its defect by caring for the individual, and reminds us that the very hairs of our head are all numbered. Once let us grasp the great truth of a living God, of God who is our Father, and in the light of that truth all the others become clear; the impenetrable darkness of the world lifts, and leaves us face to face with One who loves, who pities, who saves. "I say to thee, do thou repeat To the first man thou mayest meet As broad as the blue sky above; "That weary deserts we may tread, "Yet, if we will our Guide obey THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE. One last question remains then: "How are w find this knowledge?" This text is the answer: any man willeth to do the will of the Father, he s know of the doctrine." Man's mode of religion is begin with the head; Christ's is to begin with the and the heart. To the question, "What is truth man's reply is enlightenment; Christ's is surren Man says, "Prove me these things by a logic so k that I cannot resist, and I submit;" Christ ignores demand of the intellect, and addresses Himself to spirit. And Christ is right, because mere enlightenm does not change the heart or transform the life. drunkard and the profligate are well enough enlighte as to their folly, but the knowledge of the effects alcohol on the body does not deter the drunkard fi his vice, and the knowledge of the penalties of impu does not convince the profligate of his fatal madn The way of reform is not in mastering the theory right, but in practising just as much of the right we know. The doubter will never gain the light by analysing the qualities of darkness, but by resolutely following just such faint and feeble glimpses of the light as he may have. There are some things every man knows to be right and good; let him cleave to these, and the horizon will broaden to him. Into this Apollyon valley of doubt the truest and bravest spirits may come; but it is never so dark but that the will of the Father can be discerned, like a Divinely luminous path, threading the gloom and leading upward. Says Robertson of this very experience in his own life, "But in all that struggle I am thankful to say the bewilderment never told upon my conduct." Mark that, young man. "In the thickest darkness I tried to keep my eye on nobleness and goodness, even when I suspected they were only will-o'-the-wisps." The question is, Are you ready to be taught? Will you renounce your own will and do the will of the Father as far as you know it? Will you act up to the fragment of conviction that is still yours, and if you have not the ten talents, be faithful to the solitary one? The boy at school learns grammar without knowing its uses, and works out the tedious problems of Euclid without discerning their application. It is not till long afterwards the use is seen; and in a sudden flush of triumph the youth realises that a language is unlocked to him, and a literature is his. So it is for you to learn what God wants to teach you now. Be true to that. Will with all your strength to do the will of God. If He humbles your intellect, submit; and then when you inquire |