The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-05-17
BUDDHISM IN AMERICA.

Much interest is awakened in New
York by the establishment of a Bud
dhist Temple .here, where regular re-
ligious services will be held under the
management of learned priest from
China, who has mastered the English
language, and proposes to devote his
energies to the missionary work of
teaching his 'sublime faith" to the
American people. This is not a chin
erical undertaking. The conditions
that produced Buddhism re-appear
as the product of our civilization.
History repeats itself. His venerable
faith grew out Of belief that the evils
Of civilization were incurable. Thus
SakyamunI, son of king as he was,
saw the millions, the centuries Of mil
lions, OF his fellowmsn, prone beneath
the burdens Of their hapless fate, and
taught new religion to ASa-taught
them how, with dignity, to accept the
inevitable, to renounce hope, to be-
come extinct.
Young Europe already begins to
change its features, growing aged,
becoming Asistic. The masses who
build London, OF labor in New York,
wear the stolid, Indifferent look that
was seen OF old in the crowds who
toiled in the erection of the Pyramids.
Whenever the problems Of the age be-
como insoluble, and the masses are
crushed beneath the overweight of
priesthoods, pauperIsms, demagogisms,
classeIactions, overweight of diseases
and vices and despairs, then are found
the conditions that make Buddhism
possible.
The votaries of this venerable creed
number nearly one-third of the human
race. In its spirit it resembles Protest
antism, IN its forms RomanIsm. Its
traditions go back to the founder Bud
dha, the son OF the Virgin Maia or
Mary, who conceived him by ray of
light. His birth occurs on the twenty
fifth Of December. He works miracles
Of benevolence, and is subject to dire
temptations and grievous labors. He
is the mediator between God and man.
He descends into Hades to teach souls
in bondage, and abrldge their tor
ments; and he then comes forth into
glorifed resurrection clothed with
divine power to rule the universe.
Students of ecclesiastical history have
long known that the facts of the con-
ception and birth, with most of
the incidents and miracles re-
lated of the divine founder of
Christianity, are found to be the same
as those told of Asiatic Buddha, long
ages prior to the Advent. Theolo-
gians have not known what to make
OF it. One Of the old fathers of the
church CTertullian) pronounced this re-
semblance to lie an invention of the
devil, who, knowing what would be
miraculous incidents attending the es-
tablishment of the new faith, infused
into the minds OF the trainers of Bud
dhism the same ideas in order to dis
credit the Christian church. The Jes-
uit Father Ripa thought that Satan had
created the Buddhist faith on purpose
to confound Christianity, and the early
missionaries in China were aghast at
thus finding, in the mythology of that
country the somewhat inexact counter
part of the Christian narrative. A Port
ugusse missionary in the East, noting
this resemblance, wrote, "There is not
a piece of dress, not sacerdotal func-
ton, not q ceremonial, which the devil
has not copied in this country" 1t has
the doctrine OF the real presence, the
Madonna and child, the invocation of
the dead. the worship of the saints,
monasteries and pilgrimages, baptism,
penance, confession and exorcism, eel
ibacy and tonsure, the cross, the mi
ire, and the censer, relics, rosaries and
holy water. Father Hue, in the narra-
tive of bis travels, mentions these re-
ssmblances and that in the high Llama
the Buddhists had also an infallible
pope. Mr.. Medhurst speaks of seeing
in temple in China the image of a
virgin, designated as the Queen of
Heaven, holding cross in her hands
and an infant in her arms. Scepticsl
writers have used these resemblsnces
as prsof that Christianity was founded
ON "stolen myth" Others have at
tempted to account for these things on
the supposition that they had been
copied from HISTORIAN missionaries.
Yet Buddhism is several centuries old
er than the Christian era, and many
Of these striking resemblsnces belong
to its earliest period. There is doubt
less a satisfactory explanation Of this
mystery, to which we may refer again.
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