Chapter I: Part 1

ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY

A COURSE OF LECTURES DELIVERED ON THE ELY FOUNDATION BEFORE THE STUDENTS OF UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, NEW YORK, 1891

BY FRANK F. ELLINWOOD, 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 SONS 1892

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 presents a distinct topic, or a particular phase of the present conflict of Christian truth with the errors of the non-Christian religions. This independent treatment must constitute my apology for an occasional repetition of important facts or opinions which have a common bearing on different discussions. No claim is made to scholarship in the Oriental languages. The ability to compare original sources and determine dates and intricate meanings 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 linguistic studies in the form of approved English translations, that, as Professor Max Mueller has well said in his introduction to "The Sacred Books of the East," "there is no longer any excuse for ignorance 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 intercommunication of this age brings us into closer contact 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 quotations, 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 shall be exercised in judging of the non-Christian religions, and the skill which shall be shown in presenting the immensely superior truths of the Christian 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 investigation of the subjects discussed, I shall be content. I am satisfied that the more thoroughly the Gospel of Redemption is compared with the futile systems of self-righteousness which man has devised, the more wonderful it will appear.

F.F. ELLINWOOD.

NEW YORK, January 20, 1892.

_THE ELY LECTURES_--1891.

The lectures contained in this volume were delivered 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 following terms:

"The undersigned gives the sum of ten thousand dollars to the Union
Theological Seminary 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 comprise 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 Revelation;

"The Character and Influence of Christ and his Apostles;

"The Authenticity and Credibility of the Scriptures, Miracles, and
Prophecy;

"The Diffusion and Benefits of Christianity; and

"The Philosophy of Religion in its Relation to the Christian
System.

"Upon one or more of such subjects a course 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 Seminary and the undersigned; and
it shall ordinarily be made two years in advance."

CONTENTS

LECTURE I.

THE NEED OF UNDERSTANDING THE FALSE RELIGIONS 1

The New "Science of Religion" to be Viewed with Discrimination--The
Study of the Oriental Systems too Long a Monopoly of Anti-Christian
Scholars--The Changed Aspects of the Missionary Work--The
Significant Experience of Ziegenbalz--Fears Entertained in
Reference to this Subject by Timid Believers--The Different View
taken of the Old Heathen Systems of Greece and Rome--The Subject
Considered from the Standpoint of Missionary Candidates--The
Testimony of Intelligent and Experienced Missionaries--Reasons for
Studying Oriental Systems Found in the Increased Intercourse of the
Nations; in the Intellectual Quickening of Oriental Minds by
Education; in the Resistance and even Aggressiveness 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 Active Alliance with Various Forms of
Western Infidelity--Intellectual Advantages to be Derived from such
Studies--A Broader and Warmer Sympathy with Universal Humanity 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.

LECTURE II.

THE METHODS OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN DEALING
WITH HEATHENISM 39

The Coincidences of the Present Struggle with that of the First
Christian Centuries--The Mediaeval 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
Acknowledgment 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
Martyr's Death--The Contrast between the Frugality of the Early
Church and the Luxury and Vice of Roman Society--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,
Iraeneus, 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.

LECTURE III.

THE SUCCESSIVE DEVELOPMENTS OF HINDUISM 73

The Great Variety in India's Religious Systems--The Early
Monotheistic Nature Worship and its Gradual Lapse Into
Polytheism--The Influence of Environment on the Development of
Systems--The Distinction between Aryanism and Brahmanism, and the
Abuses of the Latter in its Doctrines of Sacrifice 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
Deterioration of the Literature and the Faith of India--The Puranas
and the Tantras--The Parallels between Hinduism and Christianity.

LECTURE IV.

THE BHAGAVAD GITA AND THE NEW TESTAMENT 111

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 Chunder
Sen and Others--Pantheism 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 Scriptures, and
his Skill in Selecting Passages for His Purpose--His Pleasing
Style--The Story of Krishna and Arjuna Told in 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--Krishna's
Exhortation--The Issue of the Battle in which Arjuna is Urged to
Engage--The "Resemblances" Explained by their Pantheistic
Interpretation--Fancied Resemblances which are only in the Sound of
Words--Coincidences Springing from Similar Causes--The Totally
Different Meaning which Pantheism gives them--Difference between
Union with Christ and the Pantheistic Pervasion of the
Infinite--The Differentials of Christianity.

LECTURE V.

BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY 140

New Interest in Old Controversies Concerning Buddhism--Max Mueller's
Reply to the Alleged Influence of the System 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 Opinions 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 Modelled after that of the Buddha--The
Superior Authenticity 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 Recognition of the Father in Heaven with the Avowed Atheism
of Buddhism--The General Spirit of the System Forbids all Thought
of Borrowing from it--Points of Contrast.

LECTURE VI.

MOHAMMEDANISM PAST AND PRESENT 178

Posthumous Legends of Mohammed; how they were Produced--Ancient
Arabia and its Religious Systems--The Vale of Mecca and its Former
Uses--The Birth of Mohammed, and his Religious Associations--His
Temperament and Character--The Beginnings of his Prophetic
Mission--Jews and Christians in Arabia and their Influence on
Mohammedanism--Their Errors and Shortcomings a Help to the
Reformer--Strange Doctrines of the Christian Church in Arabia--The
Lost Opportunity of the Early Christian Sects and the Fatal Neglect
of the Surrounding Nations--The Nomads of Arabia specially Prepared
for Conquest by their Manner of Life and their Enlistment as
Mercenary Soldiers--The Question of Mohammed's Real Character--The
Growth of his Ambition and his Increasing Sensuality and
Cruelty--Blasphemous Revelations in Behalf of the Prophet's Own
Lust--Discriminating Judgment Required on his Career as a
Whole--Mohammedan Schools--Noble Characters the Exception--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
Barbary States--Civilization in Modern Egypt Due to Foreigners--The
Bloody Ravages of El Mahdi in the East and the Fanatic Samadu in
the West--The Testimony of a Secular Newspaper
Correspondent--Professor Drummond and Henry M. Stanley on the Slave
Traffic and Mohammedan Civilization--The Alleged Missionary
Operations of Mohammedans in West Soudan--The Account Given of Them
by Bishop Crowther, Schweinfurth, and Others--Canon Taylor and the
Egyptian Pashas--The Effects of European Education--Palgrave on
Mohammedan Intolerance of To-day--Mohammedanism and Temperance;
Exaggerated Accounts of it; Proofs to the Contrary--R. Bosworth
Smith's Protest against Canon Taylor's Extravagant Glorification of
Islam--His Plea for Missions.

LECTURE VII.

THE TRACES OF A PRIMITIVE MONOTHEISM 222

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 Ebrard's
Discussion of it--Ebrard's Summing-up of the Argument--Professor
Naville's View of the Subject--Conclusions of Rev. W.A.P. Martin,
D.D., and Max Mueller--How far May we Attempt to Establish 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 by the Modern
Somajes--Monotheism in China--Monotheistic Worship in the Days of
Yao and Shun, 2300 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 Taouist Prayer--Zoroaster a
Monotheistic Reformer--The Inscription at Behistun--Testimony of
the Modern Parsee Catechism--No Nation without some Notion of a God
Supreme over All--Buddhists in Thibet--Egyptian Monotheism--The
Greek Poets--Old Monotheism in Mexico and Peru--Evidences of
Ramification and Decline in Polytheism--Egypt and India Give
Abundant Proofs--Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taouism all Show
Degeneration--Mohammedan Corruption 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 VIII.

INDIRECT TRIBUTES OF HEATHEN SYSTEMS TO THE DOCTRINES
OF THE BIBLE 266

The Universality and Similarity of Race Traditions--Their General
Support of the Old Testament History--Traditions of the Creation
Found 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, Chaldeans, and Peruvians--The
Prevalence of Piacular Sacrifice and Tokens of a Sense of
Guilt--Traditions or Traces of Substitution Found in the
Vedas--Faint Traces in the Religion of the Egyptians--Traditions of
the Iroquois--Prophecies Looking to Divine Deliverers--The Tenth
Avatar of Vishnu yet to Come as a Restorer of Righteousness--The
Influence of the Tradition as Utilized by a Missionary--A Norse
Deliverer and Millennium--The Prediction of the Cumaean Sibyl Forty
Years before 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 Atheism 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.

LECTURE IX.

ETHICAL TENDENCIES OF THE EASTERN AND THE WESTERN
PHILOSOPHIES 294

The Prevalence of Speculation in all Ages in Regard to the Great
Questions of Man's Origin and Destiny, and His Relations to
God--The Various Schemes which have Seemingly Dispensed with the
Necessity for a Creator in Accounting for the Existence of the
Visible World--The Ancient Atomic Theories and Modern
Evolution--Kanada, 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. Spencer'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 Theories to Lower the General
Estimate of Man--The Dignity 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 Frank
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 Tendency 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 Fatalism--What Saves the
Scriptural Doctrine of Fore-ordination from Fatalism--The Province
of Faith and of Trust.

LECTURE X.

THE DIVINE SUPREMACY OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 338

The Claim that Christianity is the only True Religion--The Peculiar
Tendencies of Modern Times to Deny this Supremacy and Monopoly--It
is not Enough in Such Times to Simply Ignore the Challenge--The
Unique Claim must be Defended--First: Christianity is
Differentiated 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 Found 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 Fact 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 between 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 Patriarchs, Moses and Manu, David's Joy
and Gratitude, and the Gloom of Hindu or Buddhist Philosophy--Only
Christianity Brings Man to True Penitence and Humility--The
Recognized 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--The 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 Immoral
Influences--Christ Belongs to no Land or Age--The Gospel Alone is
Adapted to all Races and all Time as the Universal Religion of
Mankind--Only Christianity Recognizes the True Relation between
Divine Help and Human Effort--It Encourages by Omnipotent
Co-operation--The All-Comprehensive Presentation of the Gospel.

APPENDIX 381

ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY

LECTURE I.

THE NEED OF UNDERSTANDING THE FALSE RELIGIONS

It is said that the very latest among the sciences is the Science of Religion. Without pausing to inquire how far it admits of scientific treatment, certain reasons which may be urged for the study of the existing 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 research have not, as a rule, been advocates of the Christian faith. The anti-Christian theory that all religions may be traced to common causes, that common wants and aspirations of mankind have led to the development of various systems according to environment, has until recently been the chief spur to this class of studies. Accordingly, the religions of the world have been submitted to some preconceived philosophy of language, or ethnology, or evolution, 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 degree of influence with dubious and wavering Christians, 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-evangelical writers. We have had "The Ten Great Religions," from the pen of Rev. 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 strangely enough, the Christian Church has seemed to regard this subject as scarcely worthy of serious consideration. With the exception of a very able work on Buddhism,[1] and several review articles on Hinduism, written by Professor S.H. Kellogg, very little has been published from the Christian standpoint.[2] The term "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 under 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 Hindu literature, the voluminous ethics, the mystical 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 Christianity, and sent it to Europe for publication. But so strong were the preconceived notions which prevailed among his brethren at home, that his manuscript, instead of being published, was suppressed. "You 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 undoubtedly 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 obscurity and published.

It is partly in self-defence against similar influences, that the Christian Church everywhere is now turning increased attention to the study of Comparative Religion. In Great Britain a wider interest has been felt in the subject than in this country. And yet, even there the Church has been far behind the enemies of evangelical truth in comparing Christianity with false systems. Dr. James Stalker, of Glasgow, 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 something has been done. Such men as Sir Monier Williams, Sir William Muir, Professors Rawlinson, Fairbairn, 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-Christian religions as a preparation for missionary work. And the representatives of that Society in the Punjab 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 character of the false religions will be more generally understood.

The prejudice which has existed in regard to this subject has taken two different forms: First, there has been the broad assumption upon which Franke wrote to Ziegenbalg, that all knowledge of heathenism is worse than useless. Good men are asking, "Is not such a study a waste of energy, when we are 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 all means, if only the one is possible." Another view of the subject is more serious. May there not, after all, be danger in the study of false systems? Will there not be found perplexing parallels which will shake our trust in the positive and exclusive supremacy of the Christian faith?

Now, even if there were at first some risks to a simple, child-like confidence, yet a timid attitude involves far greater risks: it amounts to a half surrender, and it is wholly out of place in this age of fearless and aggressive discussion, when all 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 Mueller testifies that, while making every allowance for whatever is good in the ethnic faiths, he has been the more fully convinced of the great superiority of Christianity. Really, those are in danger who receive only the superficial and misleading representations of heathenism which one is sure to meet in our magazine literature, or in works like "Robert Elsmere" and "The Light of Asia."

One cannot fail to mark the different light in which we view the mythologies of the Greeks and Romans. 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 because 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 energies of our youth by classical studies, and Christianity 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 Roman power, when confronted with profound philosophies like those of Plato and Aristotle, with the subtleties of the Stoics, and with countless admixtures of Persian mysticism, had, humanly speaking, quite as formidable a task as those that are presented in the heathen systems of to-day. Very few of the champions of modern heathenism can compare with Celsus, and there are no more subtle philosophies than those of ancient Greece. Evidently, the one thing needed to disenchant the false systems of our time is a clear and accurate 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 feeling 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 misconceptions and exaggerations have only led to serious reactions. Anti-Christian writers have made great capital of the alleged misrepresentations which zealous friends of missions have put upon heathenism; 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 skilful defender has claimed that the idols were only the outward symbols 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 systems with greater merit than they possess. A marked illustration of this fact is found in the influence which was produced by Sir Edwin Arnold's "Light of Asia." Sentimental readers, passing from surprise to credulity, were ready to invest the "gentle Indian Saint" with Christian conceptions which no real Buddhist ever thought of. Mr. Arnold himself is said to have expressed surprise that people should have given to his poem so serious an interpretation, 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 missionary 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 China, Ram Chandra Bose, M.A.--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-Christian 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 and 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, persistent 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."[3] It has been very wisely said that "any fragment of truth which lies in a heathen mind unacknowledged is an insuperable barrier against conviction: recognized and used, it might prove a help; neglected and ignored, it is insurmountable."[4]

The late Dr. Mullens learned by careful observation, that the intellectual power of the Hindus had been so warped by false reasoning, that "they could scarcely understand 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 antagonistic truth, will suffice to awaken so perverted an intellect."[5]

The missionary has often been surprised to find that the idea which he supposed was clearly understood, 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 distorted 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 all responsibility.

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 Roman 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 sin and atonement except by first refuting the pantheistic ethics. The missionary can get no help from _conscience_ in his preaching, when this theory of God and the world has the ground. 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 Roman philosophers for a corroboration. The early Apologists, Tertullian and others, did the same thing."

The testimonies which have been given within 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. Rev. George William Knox, D.D., of Tokio, Japan, in accepting an election to an honorary membership of the American Society of Comparative Religion, wrote, December 17, 1890: "I am deeply in sympathy with the objects of the Society, as indeed 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 indispensable. 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 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 immeasurable to the societies and scholars that have made accessible the sources that have 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 in his preaching, but contents himself with delivering the Gospel message. And that is the rule with missionaries, so far as I know. But a knowledge 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 superiority, 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 humility, and be so much the better prepared for his work. His study will show him how astonishing is 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 will separate that peculiar and spiritual truth which is the Word of Life, and will 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 constantly 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 unable to bring men into living communion with the God and Father of us all."

Rev. 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 character of the Vedic literature. No man is better able to judge of the importance of a correct understanding 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 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 society 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 religions 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 movement 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 possible 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 discovered by experience the difficulty of dislodging them and convincing them of the truth of the Gospel, may very properly misunderstand the work of 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 consider it far more glorious and remarkable than it is generally accounted to be. A fuller acquaintance with the strength, and resources, and local eclat, and worldly advantages of these false religions, will give the Church at home greater patience and faith in the great work of evangelizing the nations."[6]

A specific reason for the study of the non-Christian religions is found in the changes which our intercourse 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 comparative slumber of ages. Even our missionary efforts have given new vigor to the resistance which must be encountered. We have trained up a generation of men to a higher intellectual 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 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 become especially familiar with all 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 all ranks of Hindus are educated; 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 presentation of Christ and Him crucified; but in every community where the missionary is likely to live there are men of the higher class just named; and besides, professional critics and opposers are now employed to harass the bazaar preacher with perplexing questions, which are soon heard from the lips 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 arguments 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 is needed is a thorough preparation in all missionaries, and that involves an indispensable knowledge 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 vernacular and in the English, in its bitter and often scurrilous 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 comparative merits of Christianity, Buddhism, Evolution, and Theosophy, and many of the young native ministry who at first received the truth unquestioningly as a child receives it from his mother, are now calling for men whom they can follow as leaders in their struggle with manifold error.[7]

Even Mohammedans are at last employing the press instead of the sword. Newspapers in Constantinople are exhorting the faithful to send forth missionaries to "fortify Africa against the whiskey and gunpowder of Christian commerce, by proclaiming 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 numbers ten thousand students, and these when trained go forth to all Arabic speaking countries.[8] The Sanskrit colleges and monasteries of Benares number scarcely less than four thousand students,[9] who are being trained in the Sankhyan or the Vedanta philosophy, that they may go back to their different provinces and 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.[10]

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 example, has assumed an endless variety of forms--now 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 pantheistic, while two hold a veritable doctrine of salvation by faith.[11]

China has several types of Buddhism, and Mongolia, 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, under the common generic name of Hinduism, there are also many sects: worshippers of Vishnu, worshippers of Siva, worshippers of Krishna. There are Sikhs, and Jains, and devil worshippers; among the Dravidian and other pre-Aryan tribes there are 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 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 shall 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 in 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 in a Jew, and could raise even a penitent publican to the place of honor. It was only the Pharisees who hesitated to admit the truth, until 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."[12] "What 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 sandbar, should fail to acknowledge as a godsend any chance outcropping of solid rock to which he might fasten his stays?"[13]

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 system above 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 devotion 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 distinctly and avowedly Christian, as though any other position were a treachery to his cause, and a surrender 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 defilements, 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 disparagement 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 could not please God; the men that wrought them knew not Christ, and therefore their 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 proceeded 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 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.