Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1911-03-20
BUDDHISM CROWS
DR.. G. A. Blomgren Finds Cult
Is Spreading Rapidly in
Civilized Countries.
is IN DIFFERENT FORMS
AuguStana College Professor Holds
That Christian Science Is One
of These.

/ Christian Science is a form OF Bud
dhism is the statement made by DR.. c.
/ A Blomgren professor of Hebrew at Au-
, gustana college and theological sem
mary. In a lecture before the mis-
sion study class yesterday afternoon
at the college on Buddhism and Chris
tianity DR.. Blomgren said that Bud
dhism is spreading rapidly in the diff
ferent civilized countries of the world
/ in various forms.
The votaries Of Buddha are num-
erous and are scattered all over the
world, said DR.. Blomgren. Most of
them, however. live in Asia. They are
now invading Germany, the original
home of professionalism. In Leipsic
there is a Buddhistic missionary in
stitute with II itinerant preachers. In
/ Munich a circle of members of the no
biltty gather on the evening of every
/ Lords day to engage in the heather
worship of Buddha. II is a terrible
/ fact that among the noble and cultur
/ ed this heathenish religion has its
:
sums for its spread. We can hardly
/ believe the statement that there are
about 100000 Buddhists in Germany
alone. and that the majority of them
/ belong to the so-called cultured class
/ es. In this country Buddhism has
many followers. 1t is served up to the
American people in the Christian Sci
enCe cult Christian Science is mere
ly form of Buddhism.
Is CEASELESS MOVEMENT.
/ The wheel is the sign of Buddhism
/ as the cross is the sign of the Chris
/ tian religion To the Buddhist things
/ have no progressively endless repetl-
/ ton. The universe is full of vast
world systems. each system having
gradually evolved itself out of the
ruins of its predecessor, becoming
fairer and better till it reaches its full
splendor; then gradually decaying,
getting worse and worse, till at last
lit becomes a chaotic ruin, out of
which another world system just like
! the old one springs out again. The
universe is a great wheel ever reVOlV-
ing, ever changing, vet ever the same.
Life, too, is a wheel. 1t passes
/ ceaseIessly from one form to another.
Now an insect; now a man, and now
god-and having reached the high
! est it descends downward again.
1T has been seriously doubted
whether Buddhism could really be call
I ed religion when it has no god, there
being no seIf-existent, external or per
sonal cause to the Buddhist. To him
SC
death and eternity are nothing ex
cept a perpetually revolving circle of
causes and effects-the ever-revolving
wheel of the universe.
! TIME DIVIDED INTO AGES.
AS our God is the creator, it fol
lows that he has created this vast
universe. AS the Buddhist has no
God, he can not conceive of a Crea-
ton; to him there is only one eternal
round of destruction and renovation
/ According to Buddha all time is divid-
ed into worlds or ages, each of which
has four periods. This is again di-
vided into 81 cycles, and each of
these 64 divisions cover periods meas
ured by one followed by 40 ciphers.
He surely outdOes some of the great
modern scientists in their calculations
of the existence of the earth When
ii comes to the age of mother earth,
she keeps that a secret as other lad
les do. and keeps men busy in all
ages guessing. Whether you guess in
40 ciphers as Buddha did or eight or
nine as modern scientists do, it
amounts 10 the same thing.
christianity takes fallen, sin-trod-
den man and leads him out into a new
. life of holiness, through faith in the
/ Redeemer, who came into the world
+ that men might have life and have it
abundantly. Christianity is brightly
optimistic Unceasing progress and
eternal expansion are held out before
the Christian. The central character
istic of Christianity is Divine love.
In Buddhism salvation is escape from
the misery of existence School the
flesh and mind until all desire ceas-
es. Our bodies and minds being es-
sentially and necessarily evil they
must be destroyed.
ATTAINMENT OF NIRVANA.
only the monk and the hermit viii
be able to attain Nirvana and all that
the laymsn can hope for is To climb
just one rung higher on the long lad
der that reaches up 10 it If in any
given existence you accumulate suffi-
cient merit by austerities. offerings OF
meditations you are likely TO be born
again. Immediately after death. into
a better form Of existence than you
enjoyed before
SAVE COSTS.