The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-12-08
CHRIST AND BUDDHA.
Discussion as to Which Comes
First Continued.
FROM ORTHODOX STANDPOINT.
Rev. George A. Tewksbury Answers
Baron Hickey's Arguments-The
Unitarian Church.

Baron Hickey's Arguments-The
Unitarian Church.
schrist and Buddha-which was frsty' ives
the question answered by Rev. George A. Tewks-
cary 81 the Plymouth congregational cnuren
lat night The reverend gentlen an tooE as n s
text: Col. iii: 2-"Christ Is All aud in AN
ana controverted the arguments of a article
Wnicn appeared in the PosT-ISTELLrgEscaR
t tuesday under the same caption that
CHOSEN for mis- subject. The speaker SAID:
An argument by Baron Harden Hi key hss
recently appeared in the New York Herald, and
mas been copied IN one of our local papers,
Claiming from num rous analyses and resem-
Dlances between Buddhism aud Christianity
that Buddha was frst, Lot Only as 10 .le. Tut
az 70 originality OF thought and tea hing, ana
taat Christ ives mere copyist from him. and
tnss the iour eospes are little more than four
foid mass OF plagiarism, drawn from BuGd aist. c
sources The argum mt has been answered by
writer whose name is not given. also ia ore OF
our local papers. The an .wer well cos IS BY
saying that, II Baron Hickey's theory is correct,
humanitys need IL still for a Divine Savior
whose hand can grasp boti God and man at
0nce ana bring them tose, her in harmony AID
mutual love-. Yet this answer, while well
drawn, does not rise to the full privilege Of the
occasion. and present as definitely az can and
should be done the christiaa or Biblical theory
Of Christ
1t IL admitted that there are resembiances in
the personal histories OF Buddha and Christ IN
their modes OF teaching and in the doctrines
taught This IL no new knowledge No great
surprise has been sprung upon tine world-upon
mat part OF IL closely conversant with religious
hissory-oy Baron Hckey's announcement 1t
- sol4 newe." We make no issue OF the fact
with him In the general view presented. IL is
UNDERWOOD that. so far as external dates are
concerned. Buddna appeared on the earth 500
years before Christ
But what OF IL? Everything depends upon the
theory Of Christ which 10 entertained. Is the
Ola Testament completely severed from the New
~ the view2 Indeed. are the full statements of
the New Testament concerning the person of
Christ taken into the account II q parallel is
TO be drawn between Christ and Buddha, we in
aist that the evidence shall all be brought in
and no selective exclusion made in favor of a
preccncelved idea: that the Christian side of
the case--the side of the thousands woo believe
IN Christ - having and meriting "a name that
II above every nams"-shaIi have its full show
ing according TO the record. In the elaborate
parallel OF Baron Hickey, the vital part of toe
case - regards Christ has not been touched.
4 That vital part concerns or consists in the
doctrine OF the pre-existence of Christ, as
taught both In the Old Testament and the New;
the acceptance OF which 10 essential to the in
tegFity Of ones belief In the Bible Five
hundred years before Christ. Buddha iived-is
that allf But this doctrine puts Christ back
$4,000. 600 years before Buddha! 1t gives Him
IN eternity past
We have the first section OF this teaching in
sfatsments which present Christ as figure in
Old Testament history. We refer no; to the
types and prophecies Of HIM in the Cd Tssta-
Meut, but 70 teachings which snow Him 10 be
actnal and historic within the period covered
by these ancient writings You may remember
that our Lord said: "Your father Abraham re-
joiccd to SEQ my day: and he saw 1t and was
glad" They were well acquainted with each
ether. 1t 10 said OF Moses that ne esteemed 'sihe
reproach OF Christ greater riches than the treas
uros OF Egypt" And OF the Israelites that
'they drank OF that spiritual rock that followed
them; and that rock was Christ. He was
personal aud sustaining presence with them.
but these statements might perhaps have
some other meaning than that of the actual pre-
existence OF Christ were IL not for the other and
larger section Of teaching which except in this
view can have no consistent explanation. There
are declarations which go far back of the eari-
est Old Testament history. "Before Abraham
eSTap~ said our Lord How long before7 Let
Micahs4 prophetic statement answer: "But
thou, Pethieham Ephratah, though thou be
little aynonx the thousands OF judah, yet out OF
thee sh&ll He come forth unto me that is to be
ruler ih Israel: whose goings forth have been
Nom oflold from everlasting" Isaiah prophe.
siee Of h}m 40 THE everlasting father" Johns
gospel OPENS with the statement: I'm the be-
ginning tsas the word. and the word was with
God. auf the word was God" And it adds
"Ail things were made by Him; and without
Him WIS not anything made tina. was
made" While Paul echoes: "By Him
were all things created that are in heaven
and that are in earth. Ali
things were created by Him and for Him. ana
He Is before ali things. and by Him ali things
consist"
We make no argument with any who may not
accept these statements as meaning what they
plainly suggest: or who, by methods OF moe
ern rationalism and destructive criticism, may
seek to vacate them OF their own bsious mean
Ing. The System of evangelical Christianity
accepts them nj their 'fsce value" not wish
ing TO read draft written for q thousand dol.
lars as meaning no more than hundred IL
claims the right to be taken its own ground
when IL takes and states its position by the
quotation of these passages. Ii insists upon
them ~ essential Ii Christ did not live be-
fore he was born rs well as after he died
IN eternity past and an eternity future balanced
upon the pivotal point of His visible earlh
history; the line OF His eternal being without
beginning a. we'll as without end, coming into
earthly view for three and thirty years-then
IL our preaching vain, and your faith is also
vain. And what are those three and thirty
years compared with those two eternities, be-
hind and before?
But Of that past and that future 1t does not
appear that the paralleism of Baron Hickey
takes any account He sees the earthly life OF
Buddha: he sees the earthly life of Christ aud
he sees thus viewed certain correspondent ,es
between the two: and since, externally viewed
Buddha lived 500 years before Christ did. there
fore Christ was q plagisrist from him WHIT
specifically. Has he read the New Testsmen,9
Has he noticed the citations we have ma e. Is
IL that he finds no resemblance to it In the
records OF Baddna. that he so silently passes
over ell these claims of the pre-exIstence of
Christ?
fore Abraham" Here we come to our next
point that He Is thus the inspiration. the per.
vssiye, motive genius Of ali true moral precep;s
and religious doctrines developed in the history
OF the race. He is before all things" that is
behind ali things; pashing them forward into
heiug, the primal animaung principle OF the
moral aud religious evolution OF the world In ali
its true forms "By HIM are all things"
As he existed from eternity, aud in a certain
.incognito" disclosure Of himself to the ancient
Jewish world. he is the spring of ali the types
and symbols Of the Ola Ttstiment; wal ''the
testimony OF Jesus Is the spirit Of prophecy
'.The Lamb slain from the foundation OF the
world" moving in the scenes OF early Hebrew
history inspires and projects forward into view
those types that tell OF .she Lamb of God that
taketh away the sin of the world" whiea John
beheid on the banks oil the Jordan; and the two
Lambs are one. Those types are thrown by
himself on the screen Of time. as the shadows
of his visible appearing, ages after. in the fiesh
So too. all the preeepts OF the Old testament.
- a.. sf, IL.