To these considerations we must add the fact that the Jews have never been, from the earliest to the latest times, a missionary nation,—indeed, their laws and precepts forced them to be so peculiarly reserved, that even if they had known about India they would not have sent their emissaries there, inasmuch as the Mosaic law obliged them to present themselves at the Temple at Jerusalem thrice a-year, which was wholly incompatible with distant travel. Moreover, there are many extant histories to show that intelligent westerns went to India for knowledge and religion, and never seemed to think of carrying their own faith thither. The whole course of history points to religion and civilization coming westerly from India or Central Asia.
The dates above given will clearly show that Sakya Muni could not have derived his ideas from the teaching of Jesus, or of the Talmudists, neither of whom were in existence when he flourished. Whatever similarity, therefore, we find in the doctrines, &c., of the two, cannot be accounted for by supposing that Christian missionaries carried the New Testament to India. The reverse is far more probable, as we have demonstrated in a preceding chapter.
Some inquirers into the history of the sons of Maya Deva and of Mary are so convinced of the priority of the first, and of the close resemblance of the incidents in the lives and in the teaching of the two, that they have found themselves forced, reluctantly, to consider the question—whether Christianity is not Buddhism altered in some respects by Judaism. This point having been elsewhere spoken of, we will not pursue it. But a far more important, and, for many Christians, a more momentous inquiry, is, whether we can speak of the Son of Mary as the offspring of Jehovah, and yet affirm that the child of Maya Deva was nothing but a common man. So deeply have some been moved by this consideration, that I have positively heard the opinion broached, that the Indian sage was the very same as he who subsequently was put to death in Jerusalem. Wild though the allegation is, there is quite as great an amount of probability in it as in the assertion that Jesus went and preached unto those spirits which were sometime disobedient, i.e., in the time of Noah (1 Pet. iii. 19, 20), and were, consequently, then in prison, or that Buddha went to his dead mother, and converted her to his own faith. About supernatural births we shall treat in a succeeding part.
Without incumbering our pages with all the precepts of the Dhammapada, we will copy a few in detail to show the reader their style, and then we will only quote those which are most appropriate to our subject. The opening paragraphs singularly resemble those in Bacon's Novum Organon, and run thus—"All that we are, is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of him who draws the carriage (lv.)."
2. "All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him" (lvi. et. seq.).
3. "He abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me—hatred in those who harbour such thoughts will never cease."**
4. "He abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me—hatred in those who do not harbour such thoughts will cease."
5. "For hatred does not cease by hatred at any time; hatred ceases by love"—this is an old rule.
* The figures refer to the separate precepts, which are
given in numerical order.
** With this and the following saying we may compare the
words of the Psalms—"Do not I hate those, O Lord, that hate
thee? and am I not grieved with those that rise up against
thee? I hate them with a perfect hatred; I count them mine
enemies" (Ps. cxxxix. 21, 22). The words of David, said to
be a man after God's own heart, are equally opposed to the
law of love, viz., "Thou hast given me the necks of my
enemies, that I might destroy them that hate me" (2 Sam.
xxii. 41; Ps. xviii. 40); I shall see my desire on them that
hate me" (Ps. cxviii. 7). In Deuteronomy we find, moreover,
that indulgence in hatred is attributed to the Almighty,
"who repayeth them that hate Him to their face to destroy
them: He (God) will not be slack to him that hateth Him, he
will repay him to his face" (chap. vii. 10). Hatred of their
enemies is, indeed, everywhere encouraged in the Jewish
Scriptures, called sacred, and the Hebrew Jehovah is
described as one with whom the power to hate and revenge
Himself is a favourite luxury.
6. "And some do not know that we must come to an end here; but others know it, and hence their quarrels cease."