The Light of Asia and the Light of the World; a Comparison of the Legend

— — THE LIGHT OF ASIA AND THE LIGHT OF THE WOKLD A COMPARISON OF THE LEGEND, THE DOCTRINE, & THE ETHICS OF THE BUDDHA WITH THE STORY, THE DOCTRINE, & THE ETHICS OF CHRIST / S. H; KELLOGG, D.D. PROFESSOR IN THE WESTEHN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARV, ALLEGHENY, PA., U.S.A. ELEVEN YEARS MISSIONARY TO INDIA CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY AUTHOR OF 'a GRAMMAR OF THE HINDI LANGUAGE, AND DIALECTS,' ETC. ' Woe unto them that putjb*kness Ibr J^htT darkness !' Isaiah. If the light that is in you b^iatkniosB, how'] kness ! ' Jesus Christ. MACMILLAN AND CO. 1885 COPYRIGHT BY S. H. KELLOGG 1885 THE LIGHT OF ASIA THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD — — PEEFACE. There is reason to believe that a large class even of Christian people have a most exaggerated idea of the excellence of the great non-Christian religions, and the extent to which their teachings agree with those of the Gospel of Christ. This remark applies with special force at present to the case of Buddhism, in which, for various reasons, very many intelligent people, of every variety of religious opinion, have of late years come to feel a very special interest. Such erroneous impressions in the case of many are doubtless due to a very pardonable ignorance or mis- apprehension of the real facts which bear upon the question. The data upon which one might base an intelligent judgment have not been as accessible to the general reading public as were to be desired. Even the valuable translations of the sacred books of the I)uddhists, which have lately appeared from various sources, reach but a class of readers comparatively VI PREFACE. small. The strangeness of the conceptions which they express, the frequent obscurity to Western minds of their mode of expression, and their often tedious repeti- tions, combine to repel most readers from their careful study. And, again, even those who have surmounted these difficulties, and have gained a certain familiarity with the literature of the subject, are, in most cases, at a great disadvantage in having no personal acquaintance with the practical working of the non-Christian religions. Unfortunately, often in this case " distance lends enchantment to the view," and impressions are formed with regard to the merits of Buddhism and other heathen religions, which a more intimate acquaintance with their actual working in human life would in the case of most be sure to dispel. However admirable many things in the Buddhist and other ethnic religions may seem to some, the writer himself has seen too much of the practical working of these heathen systems to be deeply in love with them. Again, erroneous impressions as to the relations between Buddhism and Christianity are the more extended and deepened that, very naturally, many unconsciously import into the most pregnant and character- istic Buddliist words and phrases, conceptions purely and exclusively Christian. How serious and influential PREFACE. Vll is this source of error will be abundantly manifest in the course of the followincj chapters. For the present it will suffice to call attention to the fact that, for example, such words and phrases as " lust," " sin," " salvation," " law," " new birth," etc. etc., as used by the Buddhist, denote conceptions totally different from the Christian sense of the same terms. From this illustration alone it will be easy to see that those who are not aware of the nature and extent of this Buddhist divergence from the Christian meaning of such terms are sure to derive, even from what they may imagine to be a careful study of Buddhism, an impression concerning the extent of agreement between the two religions which is not in the least justified by the actual facts of the case. And there is reason to believe that sometimes another influence works in the same direction. Too many study this subject with certain preconceived and unsupported notions as to what the relations of the various religions of mankind to God, to man, and to each other ourjlit to be, and, despite their intention to be fair and candid, their judgment, it is to be feared, is often warped in consequence There can be no doubt that sometimes men who mean to be honest are thus unconsciously led to exaggerate and lay undue stress upon those points in F.uddliism in wliich they vm PREFACE. think that they discover agreement, while they fail to direct equal attention to other points of greater consequence, wherein appears the most unqualified and direct antagonism to the Gospel. Howsoever, in any case, erroneous opinions on this subject may be formed, it is plain that error in such a matter cannot but be a very serious thing in its effect on our belief and practice. It will inevitably affect our views of the nature and extent of Divine revela- tion and inspiration, and the conditions of human salvation ; it will no less certainly determine our judgment as to the practical duty of Christians toward the adherents of the Buddhist and other religions. That such mistaken notions as to the relations between Christianity and Buddhism widely prevail, is often forced upon our attention, and that errors on this subject are at present doing no little mischief in unsettling faith and misdirecting practice is scarcely less evident. Observation of these facts, and frequent conversa- tions with men in different parts of the world who have had special opportunity to form a judgment in the matter, have led the writer to feel that there might be room for a book which should, in a more thorough and systematic way than any which has been presented to our notice, deal with the various questions which have been raised with regard to the relations between PREFACE. IX Buddhism and Christianity. He would, however, by this remark, on no account seem to ignore or depreciate tlie many valuable helps toward a correct understand- ing of the subject which have already been prepared by highly competent men on both sides of the Atlantic. To many of these he feels himself to be under deep obligation. Such books, however, have not commonly professed to deal with tlie subject in more than a partial way. Some have dealt with the legend, some with the doctrine or the ethics, but none that have come under our notice, in any formal and extended way, with all of these. Moreover, owing to the very small number of original Buddhist authorities which until recently has been accessible, the writers of such works have not been able to make such extensive reference to the Buddhist scriptures as, in such a comparison as this, is so important. "We need to hear the apostles of Buddhism state their own case. Now, however, thanks to the invaluable labours of savants like Pro- fessors Max Miiller, Oldenberg, FausboU, Rhys Davids, and many others, the student of Buddhism is no longer hindered by such a scarcity of material as has embar- rassed previous writers on the subject. From the original works which these eminent scholars have made accessible to the general public, as the following pages will show, the writer has drawn extensively. PREFACE. Throughout the following pages he has endeavoured, as regards every point involved in the discussion, to let the Buddhist authorities speak for themselves, and state their belief in their own words. He believes that he will be found to have made no statement of any importance regarding Buddhist belief for which he has not given distinct Buddhist authority. As for the English form of such citations, he has uniformly followed the translations of well-known eminent Oriental scholars, such as Professors Max Miiller, Oldenberg, FausboU, Messrs. Ehys Davids, Hardy, Koppen, and others, whose names, to all who are acquainted with the literature of the subject, will be an abundant guarantee of the essential trustworthiness of their translations. Where diverse interpretations of the Buddhist teaching have obtained, the writer has endeavoured candidly to state the fact, with the reasons given j9?'o and con, and indicate the bearing of each in- terpretation on the argument. This book, it is frankly confessed, is not written from the standpoint of religious indifference. Those who, with some eminent scholars who have spoken on this subject, believe that only from such a position is it possible to treat the claims of another religion with fairness, will, we fear, find little satisfaction in these pages. The author made up his mind long ago, on PREFACE. XI what has seemed to him abundant evidence, that the records of the New Testament are deserving of credit, and that hence, by necessary consequence, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the crucified and the risen Lord, is, in a sole and exclusive sense, the saving truth of God. He confesses himself unable to see that in order to be able to criticise error with impartiality, it is necessary that a man shall not have received the correspondent truth. He does not believe that even the most rigid claims of science require, for example, that a man shall ignore the ascertained facts concerning the system of the heavens, before he can be a competent and im- partial judge of the truth or falsity of any astronomi- cal theory, new or old. That this is so, indeed, no one believes. And if such a position of absolute in- tellectual neutrality is not a qualification essential to the critic in the field of physical science, he cannot see wliy it should be so in the field of research in religion. In point of fact, that absolute equipoise of mind on the subject of religion which some writers seem to make the sine qua non of candid and fair discussion of religious differences, is a practical impossibility.

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