"Buddhists believe that every act, word, or thought, has its consequence, which will appear sooner or later in the present, or in some future state. Evil acts will produce evil consequences, i.e., may cause a man misfortune in this world, or an evil birth in hell, or as an animal in some future existence. Good acts, etc., will produce good consequences; prosperity in this world, or birth in heaven, or in a high position in the world in some future state" (p. 57).
We will only add, that if the value of Buddhism, like Christianity, is to be known by its fruits, it is clear, that the former, as practised generally in Siam, is decidedly superior to the latter as practised in Great Britain, America, and Christendom, generally.
CHAPTER V.
Priority of Buddhism to Christianity. Strange assumptions.
When was India first known to Christians? Thomas the
Apostle, When Asceticism was introduced into Christianity.
Results of inquiry into the introduction of Christianity
into India. Tarshish and Ceylon. Peacocks known as the
Persian birds to the Greeks, temp. Aristophanes. Indian
elephants in army of Darius. Roman traffic with India, b.c.
30. Buddhist missionaries. The gift of tongues. Rise of
Asceticism in Western Asia. Essenes again. Collection of
Buddhist writings, 450 b.c. Degeneracy of original Faith.
Missionaries from China to Hindostan in search of Buddhist
works and knowledge. Travels of Fah Hian, their experience
and remarks. Quotations from their writings. Footprints of
Buddha and Peter. Immaculate conception of Sakya. Old
Simeon—a repetition. Wise men from the East. St. Ursula.
Three Buddhist councils to compile scriptures. Buddhism
lapsed into image-worship and processions. Progress of the
pilgrims. Return by sea. Deductions. Developments of
Christianity and Asceticism. Observations about travelling.
Conclusions.
With the usual pertinacity of Englishmen, there are many devout individuals who, on finding that Buddhism and Christianity very closely resemble each other, asseverate, with all the vehemence of an assumed orthodoxy, that the first has proceeded from the second. Nor can the absurdity of attempting to prove that the future must precede the past deter them from declaring that Buddhism was promulgated originally by Christian missionaries from Judea, and then became deteriorated by Brahminical and other fancies! It is really difficult, sometimes, to discover what are the real tenets of the obstinate orthodox to whom we refer; but, so far as we can learn from the character of their opposition, it would appear that they do not deny the existence of such a man as Sakya Muni, to whom his followers gave the name of Buddha. Just in the same way, we may add, as his followers gave the name of Jesus Christ to Ben Panther. Whilst allowing that Siddartha founded a new religion, the orthodox assert that all its bad parts are human, whilst all its good parts consist of doctrines tacked on to the original, after Christianity had been introduced into India, by one or more of Jesus' apostles or disciples.
If, for the sake of argument, we accord to such cavillers the position of reasonable beings, and ask them to give us some proof of the assertion, that early Christian people went to Hindostan and preached the gospel there; or even to point out, in history, valid proofs that India was known to a single apostle, we find that they have nothing to say beyond the vaguest gossip.
What the testimony is we may find by turning to the article Thomas, in Kitto's Cyclopoedia of Biblical Literature, which was written by a learned professor of Gottingen. Therein we see, and the statement is amply vouched by quotation from authorities, that the Apostle in question is said to have preached the gospel in Parthia and in Persia, and to have been buried in Edessa; and that, according to a later tradition, Thomas went to India, and suffered martyrdom there. Then follows a statement that this account has been assailed, &c. Similar traditions are mentioned by Dean Stanley in Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible" with the addition that it is now believed that the Thomas of Malabar Christian fame was a Nestorian missionary.
Eusebius writes, book v., ch. 10, speaking of Pantaenus, about a.d. 190—"He is said to have displayed such ardour... that he was constituted a herald of the gospel of Christ to the nations of the East, and advanced even as far as India; and the report is, that he there found his own arrival anticipated by some who were acquainted with the gospel of Matthew, to whom Bartholomew, one of the Apostles, had preached, and had left them the gospel of Matthew in the Hebrew, which was also preserved unto this time. Pantænus became finally the head of the Alexandrian school." Such a piece of gossip no historian can trust for a moment.
Socrates, in his Ecclesiastical History, about a.d. 420, writes, "We must now mention by what means the profession of Christianity was extended in Constantine's reign, for it was in his time that the nations, both of the Indians in the interior, and the Iberians, first embraced the Christian faith. But it may be needful briefly to explain why the expression in the interior is appended. When the apostles went forth by lot amongst the nations, Thomas received the apostleship of the Parthians. Matthew was allotted Ethiopia, and Bartholomew the part of India contiguous to that country; but the interior of India, which was inhabited by many barbarous nations, using different languages, was not enlightened by Christian doctrine before the time of Constantine," about 320 A.D. Then follows a story of a Tynan philosopher, who, with two youths, took ship, and arrived somewhere in India, just after the violation of a treaty between that country and the Romans. Everyone in the ship was killed but the two lads, who, being young, were sent as a present to the Indian king. One became a cupbearer, the other the royal recorder. The king died, freeing the youths, and the queen, left with a young son, made the strangers his tutors, or regents. One, who was the highest, then began to inquire whether, amongst the Roman merchants trafficking with that country, there were any Christians to be found. Having discovered some, he induced them to select a place for worship, and he subsequently built a church, into which he admitted some Indians, after previous instruction. The other youth comes back to Tyre, and then the regent comes to Alexandria, talks to Athanasius, and begs him to send a bishop and clergy to the place he has left, to which no name is given. To the latter youth Frumentius, ordination is given, and he returns to India to preach, to perform miracles, and build oratories, [—Greek—]. The historian, adds Rufinus, assures us that he heard these facts from the former king's cupbearer, Edesius, who was afterwards inducted into the sacred office at Tyre.