But if, after making all these concessions, I am told that Christianity is a kind of development of Buddhism, I must ask you to bear with me while 1 point out certain other contrasts which ought to make it clear to every reasoning man how vast and impassable is the gulf separating the true religion from a system based upon a form of pessimistic philosophy.
Let us note that Christ was God-sent, whereas Buddha was self-sent. Then Christ had all the treasures of knowledge hidden in Himself, and He was, and is, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Buddha declared that enlightenment and wis dom was to be obtained by men through them selves after long and painful discipline in count less bodily existences.
Then, when we come to compare the death of each. the contrast reaches its climax. Christ was put violently to death by wicked men, and died in an agony of atoning death, suffering for the sins of the world at the age of thirty-three after a short ministry of three years. Buddha died peace fully among his friends, suffering from an attack of indigestion, brought on by eating too freely of pork, at the age of eighty.
Christ the Holy One saw no corruption, but rose again in His present glorified body, and is alive forevermore.
Buddha is dead and gone forever. Even ac cording to his own declaration he now lives only in the doctrine which he left behind him. Then Buddha must be followed by countless succeeding Buddhas. whereas there is only one Christ, who can have no successor, for He is still alive and ever present with his people. 'Lo. I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.' There are many other contrasts. According to the Christian Bible we must regulate and sanctify the heart's desires and affections; according to the Buddhist, suppress and utterly destroy them.
Christianity teaches that in the highest form of life love is intensified. Buddhism teaches that in the highest state of existence all love is extin guished. Christianity teaches a man to earn his bread and support his family. Christ himself honored a wedding with His presence and took little children in his arms and blessed them. Bud
dhism, on the other hand, says: 'Avoid married life; shun it as if it were a burning pit of live coals ; or, having entered upon it, abandon wife, children and home, and go about as celibate monks, engaging in nothing hut meditation, and begging your bread from door to door.' No Chris tian trusts to his own good works as the sole meritorious cause of salvation, whereas Buddhism teaches that every man must trust to his own merits only. Fitly do the rags worn by the monks symbolize the miserable patchwork of its own self-righteousness. Not that Christianity ignores the necessity of good works (no other system in sists so strongly upon lofty morality). but it is a thank-offering—the outcome and evidence of faith—never as the meritorious instrument of sal vation.
Christianity regards personal life as a sacred possession, and teaches us that we are to thirst for the living God Himself, and for a conformity to His likeness, while Buddhism sets forth as the highest of all aims the utter extinction of per sonal identity—the utter annihilation of the Ego —of all existence in any form whatever, and pro claims as the only true creed the ultimate resolu tion of everything into nothing.
The Christian asks: 'What shall I do to in herit eternal life?' The Buddhist asks: 'What shall I do to in herit eternal extinction of life?' Whom shall we choose as our guide, our hope, our salvation— the 'Light of Asia' or 'the Light of the World ?'—the dead Buddha or the ever living Christ? It seems mere mockery to put this question to rational men in the twentieth century. Which book shall we clasp to our hearts in the hour of death—the book which tells us of the extinct man Buddha, or the Bible that reveals to us the living Christ, the Redeemer of the world? See Sir Monier Monier-Williams, K. C. I. E.. D. C. L., LL. D., Ph. D., Boden Professor of Sanskrit in the University of Oxford. (Trans. Vic. Inst. vol 33, No. 89. P. 37.)