THE HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS OF BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY, AND THE EVIDENTIAL VALUE OF THEIR RESPECTIVE SCRIPTURES.
Both religions inherited and produced scriptures—Christian scriptures criticised for eighteen centuries—Buddhist scriptures as yet only in part available for examination—Admissions made by translators in regard to them—Strong contrasts between two sets of scriptures, in respect of authenticity and genuineness—Impossible to regard the two as of similar canonical or authoritative value—In Buddhism only oral traditions for centuries—Effect of the lack of a real canon in primitive Buddhism—Effect of a fixed and written canon in the development of Christianity—Antecedents of Buddhism—Vedic India—Brahmanic India—Development of Brahmanic speculation—Its highest reach in philosophical Brahmanism—The Upanishads—Pursuit of Atman—Antecedents of Christianity—Patriarchal belief in Deity—Mosaic stage of religious belief—The religion of Moses and the prophets too pure for the people under the kings—Destruction of the kingdom—Effect of Captivity on the prophets—on the people—Difference between the beliefs and hopes of the Diaspora and those of the returned Palestinian Jews—Preparation of the Empire and world beyond it for the dawn of Christianity, Pages [59]-125
THE BUDDHA OF THE PITAKAS: THE CHRIST OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.
Palestine at the birth of Christ—India at the birth of Gotama—Like, yet unlike—Analogies in development of previous beliefs and speculation—Contrasts—Gotama’s life and ministry contrasted with the life and ministry of Jesus—The difference between their personal relations to the religions which they founded—“I take refuge in Buddha”—“I believe in Christ”—The supernatural in both religions—Pre-existence, incarnation, and miracles ascribed to Buddha—Sources of information as to these beliefs examined and compared with the Gospel accounts—Relation of the miracles to each religion—Nature of the miracles themselves—Growth of Buddhist legends described by T. W. Rhys Davids—Implied growth of the Christian legends examined—Essential contrasts manifest all through—Buddha can be accounted for, but Christ is the Miracle of History, Pages [126]-191
THE DHARMA OF BUDDHA: THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST.
Gotama’s discovery at Bohimanda—The Four Sacred Verities—The noble Eightfold Way—His theory of life different from but not wholly antagonistic to that of speculative Brahmanism—Existence not illusion, but essentially evil—Transmigration—“Modern Buddhists’” defence of the dogma—Contrast between it and Christian doctrine of the Fall—Christianity in its sorest struggle with evil hopeful—Buddhism hopeless—atheistic—materialistic, yet has its own way, not of victory, but of retreat and escape—Doctrine of Karma analogous to Christian doctrine of Heredity, yet really contrasted—Goal of all Buddhist aspiration and effort—Nirvana, point-blank contradiction to Christian goal, yet way to it analogous—Arhatship as essential in Buddhism as holiness is in Christianity—Noble quality of Buddhist ethical code—Its approach to the Christian rule—A law not for all—Its degrees or paths of perfection—Uprightness—Meditation—Enlightenment—Christ’s way of salvation and sanctification by the Holy Spirit through the truth—Essential defects of Buddhist scheme, Pages [192]-252
THE BUDDHIST SANGHA: THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.