Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-04-04
BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY,

At the last large meeting held in Febru.
airy, by the Victoria (PhilosophicaD Insti-
tute, 7, Adelphi Terrace, London, paper
was read by the Rev. r. c. Collins, NJ. A.,
on Buddhism in relation to Christianity.
Referring to the parallels between the per-
sons and characters of Buddha and Jesus
Christ, he said Take, as a prominent in
stance the birth stories. need not here
give details, which are to be found in any
modern work on Buddhism. The supposed
miraculous conception the bringing down
of Buddha from the Tusita heaven the
Devas acknowledging his supremacy the
presentation in the temple, when the
images of Indra and other gods threw
themselves at his feet the temptation by
Mara-which legends are embellished by
the modern writer have already quoted,
under such phrases as Conceived by the
Holy Ghost" Born of the Virgin Maya"
Song of the heavenly host" g Presenta.
ton in the temple and temptation in the
wilderness none Of these is found in the
early Pail texts. The simple story of an
cient Buddhism is that an ascetic, whose
family name was Gautsma, preached a new
doctrine of human suffering, and a new
way of deliverance from it. There is no
thought in the early Buddhism, of
which we read in the Pail texts,
OF deliverarce at the hands
of god bat the man Gautama Buddha
stands alone in his striving after the true
emancipation from sorrow and ignorance.
The accounts of his descending from
heaven, and being conceived in the world
of men, when a prenatural light shone
over tine worlds, the blind received sight,
the dumb sang, the lame danced, the sick
were cured, together with all such embel.
lishments, are certainly added by later
hands; and If here We Recognize some
rather remarkable ikenesses in thought or
expression to things familiar to us in our
Bibles we need not be astonighed, when we
reflect how great must have been the in.
fiuence, as | have before limited, of the
Christian story in India, in the early Gen.
turtles Of the Christian era, and, perhaps,
long subsequently,. This is a point which
has been much overlooked out il is abund-
antly evident from, among other proofs,
the story of the good Krishna, which is
a manifest parody of the history of Christ.
The BhdrGJ1t GHu theosophical poem
put into the mouth of Krishns, is some
thing unique among the productions of the
East, containing many gems Of what we
should call Christian truth wrested from
their proper setting, to adorn this creation
OF the Brahman poet and indicating as
plainly their origin as do the stories of his
life in the MGh0. BhHrGta so that it has
not unreasonsbly been concluded that the
story of Krishna was inserted in the MGka-
BharatG TO furnish divine sanction to
the Bhagarat- GaG. If, then, as there is
the strongest reason to believe, the Chris
tian story, somewhere between the first
and tenth centuries of the Christian era,
forced itself into the great Hindu epic, and
was at the foundation of the most remark.
able poem that ever saw the light in India,
can we be surprised if we find similarly
borrowed and initiated wonders in the later
Buddhist stories also ? Several Home and
Colonial applications to Join the Institute
az guinea subscribers were received, and
Is object being to investigate all philo-
sophical and scientific questions, especially
any said to initiate against the truth of the
Bib!e,-a discussion ensued, in which Hor-
mud Rassam, Professor Lsitner, from La.
hore, Mr. Coles, an earnest student of the
question during twenty-five years resi-.
dence in CeYlon, Professor Rbys Davids
and others took part, all agreeing in and
confirming the statements of Mr.. Collins
paper. Dr. Leitner brought large mum.
Der Of photographs OF early Indian and
Tartar sculptures, showing the first intro.
duction OF the Christian story into those
monuments between about the second and
tenth centuries, and he pointed out the
value OF such additional confirmation of
Mr.. Collins statements.