St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-03-01
THE UNIYERSALITY OF LIGHT AND
GRACE

GkACE.
In the March number of the North Ameri-
can Review MAX MULLER has an interesting
article on Buddhist Charity" He quotes his
friend, the late DEAN STANLEY, as saying:
81 remember the time when the name of
Gautama. the BUDDHA was scarcely known except
to few scholars and not always we'll spoken of
by those who knew it; and now-he is second to
One onlyr
As broad thinker as DEAN STANLEY might
have told MAX MULLER how it was that the
name of the worlds religious teacher, who
was second only to Christ, was not "always
spoken well of by those who knew it." espec-
tally when the knowledge of it was so rare and
difficult an attainment; but we may chart
tably conclude that the reason was not that
the character ana theology of the Oriental
vice Christ are really open to doubt, but that,
like so many Christians who depreciate
Christ, those who were best acquainted with
the BUDDHA thought it best to make light
weight of him. However that may be, MAX
MULLER, in his article in the Review, goes on
to say:
'sIt was almost an article of faith that you
could not be true believer in your own religion
were false and false not on certain points only,
but altogether false, altogether mischieyous, the
very work of the devil
He then proceeds to rejoice that those dark
days are past and that, thanks to the twenty
four large octave volumes'' which he has
completed, and the second series which he
has begun of translations of the ''Sacred
Books of the East Christian may now see
that the charity and beneficence inculcated
in the New Testament are found in the
Koran, the Vedas, the Avestas, the Tripitoka
and the Kings of the Chinese.
The Oxford professor, like the whole
school of eclectic theologians, talks as if the
Savior had laid claim to an originality of
characterized ministry which did not belong
to Him, and as if the four evangelists were
so many plagiarists who had stolen their
thunder from the Eastern sky. JOHN DAvI-
son, in his famous work on prophecy, denies
that there is any novelty in the prophets. for,
says he, they saw the things they foretold not
in the future tense, ''but according to that
presentiality which things have in eternity
1t was no Jess than SOLOMON who said,
''there is nothing new under the sum- If
there was nothing new in CHRIsT's teaching
neither was there anything new in BUDDHA's.
So we fail to see the point made by the
adopted Germanc son of Oxford that the
Christian religion is an invasion on some
oriental patent. If 1t was, then We might re-
sign our Christianity and offer our faith to
the highest bidder at public auction, or to the
particular BUDDHA, or MoHAMMED, or Ell
MAHDI who shows US the original article in
theology.
| We cannot see why it has not occurred to
the MAX MULLER school of theologians that the
| Christian religion, as expounded in both Ro-
man and Protestant churches, acknowledges
the universally of the light of reason and the
grace of COP. Throughout st. Pauls epistles
we read a universal creed. We read that
COP is no respecter of persons, but that in ev-
cry nation ''whoso feareth COP and worketh
righteousness, is accepted of Him." We
hear the voice of JESUS speaking to the woman
and telling her the time was coming when
neither in the mountain of Samaria nor at
Jerusalem shall men worship the Father, but
that true worshippers shall worship him in
spirit and in truth. The entire Bible teaches
us that the true religion is not limited to one
race or one creed. So we do not want to hear
from the dervishes of universal plagiarism
that the precepts of JESUS are only the re-
Elections of the superior but unknown lights
of heathendom. We can take no stock in a
theory that teaches that all religious ground
has been squatted on by BUDDHA and NOLAN
MED, and that the JESUS whom we esteem
''the bright and morning starr is a penny
rushlight which was lit at heather gas lamps.
| He has as good claim as any to be the
Word of COP, the Desire of all Nations, the
Messiah of DAvID's line, and He both "kDew
what was In man. and lived all that is great
est in man better than the young prince of
Kapilavesta. The New Testament of CHRIST
contains sufficient quantity of the bread of
! hfe for this part Of the country without Dor
rowing from the Three Baskets" of South.
ern Buddhism. Whenever our children get
to coming home from Sunday school talking
about the charity of the Vedas, the dogmas of
the Ayesta, the inspired teaching Of the
Koran, and instead of speaking of JESUS as
"Prophet, Priest and King" get to telling us
about finding salvation and comfort in the
king OF the Chinese, then we are going to
take our children from Sunday school. That's
all.