  Archdeacon Wilson gives two reasons for accepting the doctrines of Christ's divinity and Resurrection as true. The first of these reasons is, the success of the Christian religion; the second is, the evolution of the Christlike type of character. If the success of the Christian religion proves that Christ was God, what does the success of the Buddhist religion prove? What does the success of the Mohammedan religion prove? Was Buddha God? Was Mahomet God? The archdeacon does not believe in any miracles but those of his own religion. But if the spread of a faith proves its miracles to be true, what can be said about the spread of the Buddhist and Mohammedan religions? Islam spread faster and farther than Christianity. So did Buddhism. To-day the numbers of these religions are somewhat as follows: Buddhist: 450 millions. Christians: 375 millions, of which only 180 millions are Protestants. Hindus: 200 millions. Mohammedans: 160 millions. It will be seen that the Buddhist religion is older than Christianity, and has more followers. What does that prove? But as to the reasons for the great growth of these two religions I will say more by and by. At present I merely repeat that the Buddhist faith owed a great deal to the fact that King Asoka made it the State religion of a great kingdom, and that Christianity owes a great deal to the fact that Constantine adopted it as the State religion of the Roman Empire. We come now to the archdeacon's second argument: that the divinity of Christ is proved by the evolution of the Christlike type of character. And here the archdeacon makes a most surprising statement, for he says that type of character was unknown on this globe until Christ came. Then how are we to account for King Asoka? The King Asoka of the Rock Edicts was as spiritual, as gentle, as pure, and as loving as the Christ of the Gospels. The King Asoka of the Rock Edicts was wiser, more tolerant, more humane than the Christ of the Gospels. Nowhere did Christ or the Fathers of His Church forbid slavery; nowhere did they forbid religious intolerance; nowhere did they forbid cruelty to animals. The type of character displayed by the rock inscriptions of King Asoka was a higher and sweeter type than the type of character displayed by the Jesus of the Gospels. Does this prove that King Asoka or his teacher, Buddha, was divine? Does it prove that the Buddhist faith is the only true faith? I shall treat this question more fully in another chapter. Another Christian argument is the claim that the faithfulness of the Christian martyrs proves Christianity to be true. A most amazing argument. The fact that a man dies for a faith does not prove the faith to be true; it proves that he believes it to be true—a very different thing. The Jews denied the Christian faith, and died for their own. Does that prove that Christianity was not true? Did the Protestant martyrs prove Protestantism true? Then the Catholic martyrs proved the reverse. The Christians martyred or murdered millions, many millions, of innocent men and women. Does that prove that Christ was divine? No: it only proves that Christians could be fanatical, intolerant, bloody, and cruel. And now, will you ponder these words of Arthur Lillie, M.A., the author of Buddha and Buddhism? Speaking of the astonishing success of the Buddhist missionaries, Mr. Lillie says: This success was effected by moral means alone, for Buddhism is the one religion guiltless of coercion. Christians are always boasting of the wonderful good works wrought by their religion. They are silent about the horrors, infamies, and shames of which it has been guilty. Buddhism is the only religion with no blood upon its hands. I submit another very significant quotation from Mr. Lillie: I will write down a few of the achievements of this inactive Buddha and the army of Bhikshus that he directed: 1. The most formidable priestly tyranny that the world had ever seen crumbled away before his attack, and the followers of Buddha were paramount in India for a thousand years. 2. The institution of caste was assailed and overthrown. 3. Polygamy was for the first time assailed and overturned. 4. Woman, from being considered a chattel and a beast of burden, was for the first time considered man's equal, and allowed to develop her spiritual life. 5. All bloodshed, whether with the knife of the priest or the sword of the conqueror, was rigidly forbidden. 6. Also, for the first time in the religious history of mankind, the awakening of the spiritual life of the individual was substituted for religion by body corporate. 7. The principle of religious propagandism was for the first time introduced with its two great instruments, the missionary and the preacher. To that list we may add that Buddhism abolished slavery and religious persecution; taught temperance, chastity, and humanity; and invented the higher morality and the idea of the brotherhood of the entire human race. What does that prove? It seems to me to prove that Archdeacon Wilson is mistaken. |
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