lifornia onal ity RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS AS VIEWED BY PROTESTANT MISSIONARIES RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS AS VIEWED BY PROTESTANT MISSIONARIES re e evos trav $vos KO.TOIKUV ir iraj/Tos TrpocrwTrov TT}S yv;s, opuras TrpocrTfTayfjievov? xatpotis KO.I ras opo^ecrtas r^s /caTot/ct'cts avroJv, ^rjreiv TOV ^eov ci a/aa ye avrov KO.I evpoicv, KOL ye ov U.TTO evos eKacrrov rjfAwv inrdp^ovra. ACTS xvii. 26, 27. STUDENT VOLUNTEEE MOVEMENT FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS 1905 Copyright, 1905, by STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS PREFACE THIS text-book has been prepared to supplement two others upon non-Christian religions previously used in the classes of the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions. One of these, written by Prin- cipal Grant, is descriptive in character; the other, by the late Dr. Kellogg of India, is comparative in its treatment of the ethnic faiths. As will be seen, most of the writers in the present volume have kept con- stantly in view the needs of that large body of stu- dents who are either planning to enter foreign mis- sionary service, or who wish to look through the eyes of experienced workers upon the religions of the vari- ous mission fields. Practical points have more value for such persons than theoretical views, and the writers from their long and familiar acquaintance with be- lievers in the religions which they discuss have aimed to minister to their desires. Every text-book of the series, of which this is the thirty-first, labors under the limitations of space, be- ing intended for voluntary study by very busy students ; and the present book must be regarded only as intro- ductory to a much wider study of other volumes treat- ing of these religions individually. Study classes are advised to make liberal use of such additional literature, both in order to supplement a necessarily fragmentary treatment of the various religions, and also that the class sessions may furnish fresh facts in amplification of those which the text-book supplies. Preceding each VI PREFACE chapter of this volume are a number of references to suitable books for additional reading. The list might have been indefinitely increased, and as it now stands the specialist will question the introduction of certain volumes and the omission of others. German, French, and Dutch works upon non-Christian religions, which are so numerous and valuable, have been but sparingly referred to, since they are rarely found in average college libraries. On the other hand, there are many references to books by men who are not specialists upon religions. These have been included for the reason that many small institutions have student mis- sionary libraries containing such volumes but are with- out standard works upon the ethnic religions, and their needs have been kept constantly in mind. The inclusion of Judaism and Roman Catholicism, especially the latter, among the religions here pre- sented may raise the question, Why should two re- ligions of so exalted a character be discussed upon the same plane with the so-called heathen, or pagan, re- ligions ? While freely granting the wide gulf between them and the other faiths here treated, it should be remembered that the volume is intended for prospec- tive missionaries very largely, and that the aim sug- gested by the title of the book would be disregarded, if we omitted Judaism, for whose adherents over one hundred societies are working, and Roman Catholi- cism, in whose behalf some fourscore Protestant mis- sionary boards now labor. In fact, the inclusion of Roman Catholicism was decided upon only after strong representations urging this course by gentlemen officially responsible for the prosecution of work in certain Papal countries. CONTENTS PAGE. I. THE RELIGION OF THE AFRICAN .... ,. : ... i By Erwin H. Richards, D.D. Bibliography, 2. I. The African Man, 36. II. Ele- ments of African Religion, 613. III. Weaknesses of African Religion, 13, 14. IV. Strength of this Re- ligion, 14, 15. V. Approaching the Native with the Teaching of Christ, 1519. VI. Preparation of the Mis- sionary for His Field, 1921. VII. A Word as to the African Field, 2123. II. SKINTS, THE WAY OF THE GODS 25 By J. H. De Forest, D.D. Bibliography, 26. I. Shinto Torii and Shrines, 2729. II. Definition of Shinto, 29, 30. III. Imperial Relation- ships, 3032. IV. The Ancestor Worship of Shintoism, 32, 33. V. Hero Worship, 33, 34. VI. Ceremonies of Shinto Worship, 34. VII. Shinto and Patriotism, 34 36. VIII. Shokon of Shintoism, 36, 37. IX. Shinto- ism's Use of Pictures, 37, 38. X. Nature Worship, 38, 39. XI. Consequent Superstitions, 39, 40. XII. Shinto and the Government, 40-42. XIII. New Sects of Shinto, 42, 43. XIV. Shinto a Form of Pantheism, 43, 44. XV. The Good and Evil of Shinto, 44-46. XVI. The Future of Shinto, 46, 47. XVII. How Should Mis- sionaries Approach Shintoists? 4749. III. HINDUISM. By Rev. C. A. R. Janvier ... 51 Bibliography, 52. I. Ancient Hinduism, S3 59- II. Modern Hinduism, 59-65. III. Reform Movements, 65 67. IV. The Strength and the Weakness of Hinduism, 6771. V. How Best Approach the People in Presenting the Truth? 71-74. VI. How shall Objections be Met and Weaknesses Pointed out? 7478. VII. How Follow up the Work? 78, 79. IV. BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA ...... 81 By Josiah Nelson Gushing, D.D. Bibliography, 82. I. Introductory, 83-88. II. Life of Gautama, 88-96. HI. Doctrine of God, 96-98. IV. Buddhism's Doctrine of the World, 98, 99. V. Doc- trine of Man, 99102. VI. Doctrine of Sin, 102107. VII. The Doctrine of Karma, 107109. VIII. Salvation, vii Vlll CONTENTS 109-113. IX. Nirvaa, 113, 114. X. Buddhist Ethics, 114120. XI. Outward Religious Forms, 120123. XII. Sects of Southern Buddhism, 123. XIII. Weaknesses of Buddhism, 123-128. XIV. Benefits Conferred by Bud- dhism, 128, 129. XV. The Missionary's Attitude Toward Buddhism, 129131. V. BUDDHISM IN JAPAN 133 By Rev. A. D. Gring, M. A., B. D. Bibliography, 134. I. Shintoism Insufficient, 135. II. Korean Introduction of Buddhism, 135137. IIT. Bud- dhist Influences from China, 137, 138. IV. Centuries of Prosperity, 138140. V. Explanation of Japan's Ready Ac- ceptance of Buddhism, I4o- : i43 / VI. The Buddhism_ of Japan, 143150. VII. Organization of Japanese Buddhism, 150, 151. Vlir. Temples and the Devout Buddhist, 151- 155. IX. Buddhism Wanting, 155-159. VI. TAOISM. By Hampden C. Du Bose, D.D. . . 161 Bibliography, 162. I. Taoism Historically Considered, 163165. IF. Taoism's Founder, 165, 166. III. Taoism's Foundations, 166169. IV. Taoism's Theology, Pantheon, and Worship, 169176. V. Taoism's Demonology, 176181. VII. CONFUCIANISM. By Devello Z. Sheffield, D.D. . 183 Bibliography, 184. I. Introductory, 185-187. II". Con- fucius and Later Chinese History, 187-192. III. Con- fucianism as a System of Worship, 192208. FV. Con- fucianism as a System of Political and Social Ethics, 208211. VIII. JUDAISM. By Rev. Louis Meyer 213 Bibliography, 214. I. Summary of Chief Points of Doc- trine, 215-218. II. The Popular Religion in Its Public and Private Forms, 218-220. III. Weaknesses and Evils of Judaism, 220227. IV. Strength of Judaism, 227230. V. Best Methods of Missionary Approach, 230, 231. VI. Objections Urged Against Christianity, 231, 232. VII. Es- sentials of Christianity to be Urged, 232, 233. VIII. Fol- lowing up Interviews or Discussions, 233. IX. MOHAMMEDANISM 235 By Samuel M. Zwemer, D.D., F.R.G.S. Bibliography. 236. I. Introductory, 237, 238. II. Iman, or what a Moslem Believes, 238-245. in. Din, or the Religion of Good Works, 245-254. IV. Strength of Islam, 254256. V. The Weakness of Islam, 256259. VI. Best Methods of Reaching Moslems, 259-264. CONTENTS IX PAGE X. ROMAN CATHOLICISM 265 By George B. Winton, D.D. Bibliography, 266. I. Catholicism's Sacerdotal System, 267271. II. Effects of Sacerdotalism upon the Priest- hood, 271275. III. Evils Affecting the People, 275278. IV. Catholicism and Idolatry, 278281. V. Divorce Be- tween Religion and Morality, 281-286. VI. Missions to Papal Lands, 286290. INDEX 291 L THE RELIGION OF THE AFRICAN BY ERWIN H. RICHARDS, D.D. For Twenty-four Years a Missionary to East Africa BIBLIOGRAPHY BASTIAN, A. Der Fetisch an der Kiiste Guineas (1884). BENTLEY, W. H. Pioneering on the Congo (1000). Ch. VIII. BETTANY, G. T. The World's Religions (1891). Pp. 43-60. ELLIS, A. B. Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast (1887). ELMSLIE, W. A. Among the Wild Ngoni (1899). Ch. III. Encyclopsedias under " Fetishism," " Animism," " Africa." FLICKINGER, D. K. Ethiopia, or Twenty Years of Missionary Life in Western Africa (1877). Chs. XXII I-XX VII. [HARRISON, MRS. J. W.] Mackay of Uganda (1890). Ch. V. HOTCHKISS, W. H. Sketches from the Dark Continent (1901). Ch. VII. JACK, J. W. Daybreak in Livingstonia (1900). Ch. XV. JEVONS, F. B. Introduction to the History of Religion (1902). See index under " Fetishism." MCALLISTER, A. A Lone Woman in Africa (1896). Chs. VI, VII. MACDONALD, D. Africana, the Heart of Heathen Africa (1882). MULLER, F. M. Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion (1878). Lect. II. *NASSAU, R. H. Fetichism in West Africa (1904). NOBLE, F. P. The Redemption of Africa (1899). Pp. 198-202. ORELLI, C. VON. Allgemeine Religionsgeschichte (1899). Ss. 738-769. RATZEL, F. The History of Mankind (1898). Consult index under " Africa " and " Fetishism," and see especially Vol. II, pp. 352-369- SCHNEIDER, W. Die Religion der afrikanischen Naturvolker (1891). *SCHULTZE, F. Der Fetichismus (1871). TYLER, J. Forty Years Among the Zulus (1891). Chs. XI, XII. TYLOR, E. B. Primitive Culture (1891). See index under "Fetishism." VERNER, S. P. Pioneering in Central Africa (1903). Chs. XXV, XL. *WILSON, J. L. Western Africa : Its History, Condition, and Prospects (1856). See especially Pt. II, ch. XII, and Pt. III, ch. XII. * Indicates works of special value or authority. 2 THE RELIGION OF THE AFRICAN I. The African Man. i. He is Religious. It would be a most difficult task to prove that the lowest African was not a man. Hence we assume that he is a man, even though he finds his rating near the foot of the race. Having spent two decades among this low class of the human race and at the same time hav- ing lived among the highest types of the animal king- dom, we believe it reasonable to affirm that this low type of man is possessed of a religious nature as firm- ly imbedded in his breast as his teeth are in his jaw, and that it is quite as noticeable in his routine life as is the nose on his face. Sudden and unaccountable pheno- mena readily cause him to wonder whether other lives are not angry with him, or whether some great Power does not need attention. But we have not yet ob- served one of the highest species of the ape family so startled by a crash of thunder, or a rumbling of the earth, as to set him thinking at all seriously over his departed grandmother and questioning as to whether he ought not to sacrifice a peanut or two in an effort to get again on good terms with the departed. This lowest man and this highest ape may have the same fear of physical death, but after the fear has passed, the man manifests " works meet for repentance," as if he were certain that there were living powers over 3 4 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS which he had no control and which he ought to ap- pease through such little sacrifices as he is able to offer. This is an important point to be considered ; for there are hundreds and probably thousands of people, some of whom we have met in America, some in England, and some in Africa, who hold that the African has no soul, and that therefore he has no religious nature and of course no religion. Hundreds of thousands of converted, saintly natives of the Dark Continent, scat- tered over its every corner, under every church ban- ner, many of whom have sealed their testimony with their blood, are arguments in the flesh against such a. proposition. 2. Sense in Which the Term Religion is Used. It is well to note what is meant by religion in Africa, for ideas of religion vary in different countries and in the mind of individuals in those countries. If by religion we mean knowledge of the Creator, belief in the writ- ten Word of God, and possession of eternal life through Jesus Christ, we must admit that the average native has none of it, nor is there any trace of his ever having had it. If by the term we mean that he has gorgeously bedecked temples, as have the Japanese and Hindus, with definite forms or any distinct castes, like the Hindus, or that the whole country, so to speak, follows the teachings of any one person, like Confu- cius in China, or Mohammed in Arabia, then we af- firm again that there is none of it, nor any trace of the African's ever having had it. But if under the term religion we may include a gorgeous array of purest superstition, a misty belief in transmigration of life, a befogged fear of the mystical with inbred nat- ural fear without reverence of Powers great and THE RELIGION OF THE AFRICAN 5 mighty beyond the ken of man, then the African may be said to have a religion. Whenever his religion is spoken of, it should be recognized only as of this lowest type, faithless, hopeless, loveless, in this world and with no expectation of imperishable life in the world to come. 3. Fruits of the African's Religion. From the crea- tion of the continent down to the advent of the white man, the African man has had full sway, doing what- ever his ambitions suggested, so far as his own nearest neighbors would allow. During the same period other continents have become civilized and have made prodi- gious progress in the science of living, and those pos- sessing the Word of God have so outstripped all others that it may well be said that there are no seconds to them. During all these centuries it appears that the African has been steadily progressing, but only in such directions as tend to unfit him for human brother- hood and to render him more malignantly ferocious than the beasts of the field, who often overpower him and drive him from their haunts. Early missionaries and explorers are a unit in declaring that he is un- commonly inhuman, bloodthirsty, and drunken, fre- quently selling his wife for cash, and universally slay- ing his captives in war, while many tribes deliberately feast on the same. In later years, after the advent of the Arab, captives were diligently sought for the slave- markets of the world. 4. Changes. The white man with a Bible under his arm, with a Bible-loving ruler supporting him, has so curbed this wild inhuman African that over nearly the whole expanse of the vast continent the original native is no longer able to murder at will, and tribal 6 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS wars are mostly abolished and slavery practically an- nihilated. To be sure wine came to some extent, and rum came, they were here before also, but the Bible likewise came till vaster regions by far are ruled by the white man's Bible than by his rum. This orig- inal man-stealing, head-splitting, sensuous African is fast giving way to the semi-civilized men and the Christians who are rapidly filling his place. What sort of religion could have come to his knowledge that should have wrought such fruits as these! II. Elements of African Religion. I. Lacks Knowl- edge of the Creator. There is no name for Him. The African has been acquainted with Islam in the North and East for more than 400 years, and he has known Christianity for over a hundred years in the South. It is reasonable to suppose that the idea of a Supreme Being should have become known exten- sively over the continent from the passing of innu- merable caravans of the Arabs and from the many visitations of white men throughout the southern por- tion. But after repeatedly searching in vain for a purely native term for the Deity, or even for some term for a power greater than man's, we doubt very much if there can be found any term which will apply inter- tribally to anything like such an extent as the common words for father, mother, meat, chicken, and some others. The prolonged efforts of most missionaries to discover such a word is manifest in their revisions of translations. Some of the Zulu missionaries first used " uDio," others " uTixo," and later they changed to " nKulunkulu," " The Great Great." In other tribes south of the equator appear similar efforts to discover something which apparently does not exist Hence THE RELIGION OF THE AFRICAN 7 we may affirm that at least in large sections of the continent the natives have no name for the Supreme Being, certainly none for the God of the Bible. 2. There is No Knowledge of His Attributes. Many will doubtless affirm that if he has not the name for Deity, the African possesses the idea, even though he is unable to express it in words. It should be re- membered, however, that his language is abundantly adequate for expressing whatever he will ; and fur- thermore, he has endless varieties of gesture, so that it would be hardly possible to misunderstand any idea of the Creator that he may have had. But even if he possessed the idea without the name, it would advance him but little ; for it is universally admitted that all of the native names yet discovered fail utterly to express His attributes. His own god may be feared with a fear sufficient to suit the sternest Calvinist, but he is no more lovable than death and no more to be desired than an earthquake. In respect to his attributes, he is hardly equal to the usual pagan deities. He is rigidly out of mind unless something happens. A native lying at the point of death sent to the writer to have him come and " pray away " the Great-Great who was sitting on his breast so that he could get no breath. With this brief glance at the negative elements in the African's religion, let us turn to what he affirms that he possesses. 3. The Witch Doctor. Medicine, naturally obscure to the learned, a thousand times more so to the un- learned and ignorant, figures so prominently in the native mind, that the witch doctor has become the connecting link between the known and the great un- known. He is said to be able to work wonders, either 8 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS by means of his visible " medicines," or by his con- nivance with " departed lives." In personal appear- ance he out-Herods hideousness itself, and herein con- sists much of his power over the susceptible native. His word is supreme ; and if it is not instantly obeyed, he may report the offender to the next higher order of tormentors, and this one to the next above, and so on until misery is bound to ensue. He works by means of fear, and avarice is his chief incentive. He is undesirable to natives in every way, and they are greatly afraid of him. He is supposed to have direct communication with the following class of beings. 4. The Mandiki. This term is common in the vi- cinity of Inhambane, and because it is as good as any similar term among other tribes, we make use of it. The system of " powers " which it represents is com- mon over much, if not all, of the continent. Exactly what they are, or where they are, or what they do while " off duty," is as little clear as is any other essential to superstition. They appear to have their habitation somewhere in the realm of " departed lives," and they partake largely of the nature of a last century ghost. If a person has fits, becomes insane, or faints, he is said to be possessed by the Mandiki. So if one is drowned he is said to have been allured into the water by the Mandiki. Accidental death is accounted for in the same manner. If a person is sick, he may, by calling the witch doctor, be able to either appease or scare away the Mandiki, when he will recover. If he does not recover, the fee paid his physician could not have been sufficient. People possessed by the Mandiki are said to perform wonders. They have been known to eat live coals of fire with relish. The THE RELIGION OF THE AFRICAN 9 writer has seen a lady of the bush dance over a bed of live coals. They will often speak correctly the language of some far-away tribe, of whose tongue they have never spoken or heard so much as a word. These and other marvelous achievements the Mandiki are wont to assist people to perform. Still they are not vicious or harmful, unless sent by the class named in the next paragraph, when they appear to be obliged to carry out their orders, the fulfilling of which they immensely enjoy. Almost every sort of sickness is attributed to them, as well as many of the common ills of life. They are always unwelcome visitors. 5. The Jindoyi. This is a less definite class of beings than the Mandiki, and they are unique in con- ception and authority. They may assume the human or ghostly form as occasion requires. They often ap- pear in the shape of wild beasts and even of birds. They have control of " the departed lives " and can enter them and return to human form at will. Should one chance accidentally to see one of the Jindoyi, he would immediately fall down dead. This accounts in a satisfactory manner for heart-failure, apoplexy, and the like. They are not accredited with the giving of life; but whenever they will, they can remove life from those living, or they may change the relations of " departed lives." These Jindoyi are influenced by most mercenary motives as well as by anger, but never by love. They arrange the daily routine for every beast and bird, but only incidentally for man. They can send beasts to destroy by night or by day, but never to restore. A man may through his witch doctor and his Mandiki make some satisfactory ar- rangement with the Jindoyi, so that his enemy's crops IO RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS will all be eaten by the locusts, or rains will fall every- where save on his garden, or the enemy himself may be quickly removed to the realms of the " departed lives." The Jindoyi are also in turn finally overcome by other more powerful beings mentioned below. The Jindoyi are also unwelcome visitors and are greatly dreaded. 6. The Jingulube. (a) Relation to Preceding. None of the preceding beings or powers are wor- shipped. None of them are spoken of in the singular number, but always in the plural. Jingulube is also a plural term, but it has evidently a singular form and a singular meaning. It is the first approach to a per- sonality. This class is more powerful than all the preceding combined, in that it has the ordering of all the others. Without doubt there is a very hazy dis- tinction between this and the preceding class in the minds of most natives, but the more intelligent will distinguish clearly between them. This class is also approached without the aid of the witch doctor. Gen- eral famine, general distress, wars, and unforeseeable calamity are all the direct result of the planning of the Jingulube. There is here a strong suggestion of superior beings and possibly of a Supreme Being. Still, from the fact that there are a host of Jingulube with no hint that they have any head or prime com- mander, and further, because different people, or the same people at different times or for different pur- poses, are wont to call upon a plural company of them, it proves quite conclusively that while they have superior " powers," there is no known Supreme Power. Their " unknowable " is in the plural. (b) Worship. They are worshipped by the gen- THE RELIGION OF THE AFRICAN II eral tribe collectively, by sections of a tribe, by fam- ilies, and by the individual. The form of worship is the same whether performed by the many or the unit. It consists of an offering, always of food, and- in the selection of a spot for performing the offering. These " altars to the Unknown " are scattered all over the country, tribes, families, and individuals each hav- ing their own particular " altar." The offering may be of any sort of edible. Commonly it is a handful of mush, but if the evil to be removed is dire, then a meat offering is considered more to the point. Blood is not unusually offered. The " altar," if for a tribe, is some well known large tree, or other recognizable spot. For the individual, some little stump or mound of earth, usually near a path, is sought for. There is no real " altar," however, nor is there paraphernalia of any sort. The kind of offering and the place for offering it signify very little. When the tribe offers they gather about the accustomed place, having brought the offering with them. The chief head- man, or some chosen one, arises and " prays ;" that is, he tells the Jingulube why they offer, how they are distressed, and begs the power to remove the distress. He also states that they have brought their food and bestow the same upon him. He then lays the food at the foot of the tree, or on the grass or ground as it may happen, and then tells the children first of all to arise and eat what has been dedicated to the " power." This they hasten to do, often assisted by their elders. So far as known, this constitutes the form of worship for these parts. For the individual the form is the same, only the food may be eaten by the individual or left for the beasts of the field; the 12 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS request is made and the food offered, which is the worship intended. This individual worship is very common all over the land, but only in times of dis- tress. Whatever of worship appears is in the way of appeasing the " power " with a gift, under the impres- sion that it is angry with the devotee. So long as there is no distress, no evil to be averted or other ill to befall, there is no offering. These highest powers, like the foregoing, are never welcome. They are to be avoided as far as possible. The African is doubt- less as religious as any of the nations who are " with- out God in the world," and we are inclined to think him above most of them in that he has neither idol nor temple and affords less resistance to the Kingdom of God than any of them. 7. Superstitions. There must be added to this list of " powers" a large number of items pertaining to superstition pure and simple. These differ greatly all over the land, but they have such a hold upon the peo- ple that it is quite as difficult to rid them of their su- perstitions as of their beliefs. They hardly come un- der the class of religious belief, however, as they are mostly tribal, and consist of lacerations of the flesh till some are nearly flayed, circumcision, doubtless taught them by the Arab, and the wearing of various " charms," human, inhuman, and beastly, all supposed to be efficacious against disease and other enemies. The individual also has his own individual charms in which he is supposed to put considerable faith, but only the most ignorant place much confidence in these. Charms, tattooing, and other " medicines " are doubt- less more in the line of fashion than of faith. Custom has much to do with these faiths and practices. Many THE RELIGION OF THE AFRICAN 13 doubtless conform to public opinion without a thought as to whether it avails aught, quite the same as if they were in happier lands. The African is not a philosopher, and of the uncanny things of life, such as trouble and death, he thinks the least possible. What he can comprehend without revelation through the Word fails to account for the sudden and inscruta- ble things of life. The superstition which he cannot understand may perchance contain the solution of the problem ; hence the more indefinite or even ridiculous the deception may be, the more he sees a possibility of the incomprehensible. He seems satisfied with his superstition, and that he cannot understand it is no fault of the system. If he cannot explain it, he firmly believes that there are others who can. While his stu- pidity is immeasurable and painful for us to contem- plate, our failure to see things as he sees them appears equally stupid to him. But when God's Word is brought to him and he perceives the reasonableness of it, then superstition must go to return no more. III. Weaknesses of African Religion. The weakness of this religion compared with that of revela- tion is apparent at every point. It fails utterly to explain either the origin or the destiny of man. It omits every mention of sin and has nothing of for- giveness for transgressions. In most of the Bantu dialects there is no word for sin. There is no hint of a Creator as such, and there is no name for " the greatest thing in the world." The term for love, most strange to state, does not occur in many of these languages. One " loves " his breakfast with the same word with which he " loves " his wife. A sort of want is all that he has to express this most 14 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS precious of all terms. His religion leaves man as it finds him. He is born by nature and not by the will of the Creator. When his end comes, nature again puts him aside. Many tribes, if not all of them, be- lieve more or less in transmigration of souls, but that transmigrated soul does not exist after the death of its immediate living successor. The ghost of a father may annoy a son, but the grandfather's does not. A book could be written made up of interesting details and illustrations of the points in his religion which are merely hinted at in this chapter; but were they given they would fail altogether to prove that the religion of the African, as compared with that of revelation, is possessed of any knowledge of the Creator and of His plan for eternal life to all who may find Him. There is no continuance of joy for those who rejoice, nor is there any hope for those who mourn. His only inheritance is hopeless darkness. IV. Strength of this Religion. i. Worship. It may appear useless to look for strength in a religion like that of the African, but it has one relatively strong point. It is not his superstition nor the forms above mentioned, all of which exclude worship. It is the fact that as a nation, as a tribe, and as an indi- vidual, there is the worship of something, even if very indefinite, which shows precisely what we wish to find in him ; that is, he has a human soul that gropes about in the dark, seeking for satisfaction and for that light which come to all men only through a divine revela- tion, which for some reason has not yet been made known to him. That he worships at all proves that he is neither an ape nor an ass, but that he is a man, made in the image of the Son of Man, and has a right THE RELIGION OF THE AFRICAN 1$ to know the possibilities and destiny of man. The fact that he worships what is to him in his lack of knowledge the unknown and the undiscoverable sug- gests a strong probability that he would worship the true and only wise God if He were made known to him. Over half a million converted natives on the continent of Africa prove by faithful Christian living that this probability is also a certainty. Hence the reasonableness of the welcome command, " Go ye . . . make disciples of all nations. Lo, I am with you alway even unto the end of the world." 2. A Religious Nature. Not only has the African a capacity for comprehending religion, but he also has a religious nature that is in a state of active starvation, striving to subsist on superstition instead of upon re- ligion of the Cross of Christ, which he was intended to live upon. This capacity for better things and his religious nature constitute for him what we may term his religion. He has no other worthy of the name. V. Approaching the Native with the Teaching of Christ. I. The Point of View. The African baby is the most un-spanked of all babies of the race. The African boy or girl from the age of five to fifteen is the least corrected of all who live upon the earth and the most unreasonably corrected whenever the at- tempt at discipline is made. The young man and young lady of Africa are altogether egotistic, haughty, and quite sure that they are incomparably the greatest thing in black, and there is no other color to be compared with black. From this age onward they only become more doggedly perverse in their own con- ceit until they are certain that they are the only ones with whom wisdom is associated and that all others, 1 6 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS of whatever color or nationality, are as nothing. The lady fresh from London or New York who chances to visit some internal community may marvel at their lack of clothing, their dirt, and their opaque ignorance. But the native will marvel back again quite as as- suredly at her unheard of costume, her feebleness, and her useless daintiness. The one is quite as sincere and in earnest as is the other, nor will the one be able suddenly to modify the other to any great extent. Civ- ilized ladies may lift their skirts and walk out of the vicinity declaring the lady in black to be incompetent and untameable; but the lady in black will at the same time hold reciprocal opinions concerning the de- parting friends, wondering the while at their immense helplessness. The native holds nothing more firmly than his superstition, but that he holds. 2. The Unprofitable Method. When the new mis- sionary arrives, fresh from the schools with his com- plete and newest harness all on, he naturally sup- poses that he possesses the best that the world affords and that there is no other land but his, be it America or Europe. But the average native has all there is in his own land, and to him there is no other. Each will most naturally proceed to discount the other, and each will equally ignore all previous advantages and conditions of the other. Each will naturally despise the knowledge of the other. Each will as surely mis- understand previous as well as present conditions of the other. The raw recruit oftentimes fights terrifically with the first symptom that greets his scrutinizing eye ; it may perchance be a pinch of snuff, or a less harm- less string of glass beads, over which he will make direst lamentation, if the rtjative does not immediately THE RELIGION OF THE AFRICAN I/ agree with him and desist from further use forever. The native has used these items for years and his nation for ages with no perceptible harm to any one, and he quite righteously concludes that the recruit is really raw. Or he may at the first blush tackle polygamy, or the selling of daughters, and manifest marvelous symptoms of madness over matters which he will comprehend far more rationally ten years later if he remains on the field so long. He does not seriously disturb the native, nor does he furnish him oftentimes any new information on the subject. But he does lose much moral force in combating and tear- ing down, or trying to do the same, in the place of searching out points of common agreement and build- ing up from these. The best way not to do it is to be- gin combating everything in sight. The native cannot be made to accept new ideas until he is convinced of the reasonableness of them ; neither can the missionary. The new missionary ought not to argue at all seri- ously until he can speak the language intelligently. Mendelssohn wrote music without words successfully, for he understood music; but a missionary cannot speak words without sense, in an African dialect at least, to any great profit, though many new-comers try it. 3. A More Excellent Way. Without controversy it is true that a person cannot teach unless, in addi- tion to his subject-matter and his qualifications, he has the confidence of his pupil. He will teach all the more efficiently, if he also knows his pupil as well as be known of him. Hence with these most ignorant peoples how important it becomes that the teacher should know his pupil. So far as possible he should enter into the 18 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS heart of the pupil and feel as he feels ; he should enter into his brain and see as he sees. He should study to comprehend the idea of the native and to look through his very eyes. In this manner only will he become reasonably prepared to teach ef- fectively. Sympathy with the native as a lost man who may be redeemed is most helpful. A native will know quite well within four paces of a person whether that person is afraid of black people or dis- dains them. One cannot teach a native at all well by holding his nose with one hand and proffering the Gospel with the other. With such a knowledge of his pupil, with such a sympathy for him, and with such a Gospel it will be indeed a very lost specimen of humanity upon whom the missionary cannot make important impressions for good, perhaps for everlast- ing good. Still with all these preparations in the way of teaching, the real teaching is only half done at this point. 4. The Greater Part of Teaching is Living. " By their fruits shall ye know them." Let the teaching be all that it may, the living is equal to it; and very often it is greatly superior to it in its effects on the general community. The missionary of all men is a living epistle, known and read of all men. He may never teach a man to read a book, but he will assuredly teach him to read himself, and he is therefore greater than many books, for vast multitudes will read him. Many a saintly man lives Christianity into the natives round about him who is otherwise poorly equipped for teaching them. Language is very useful when one is permitted the gift ; but the living of Christianity is also most effective, and all can live it. Holy teach- THE RELIGION OF THE AFRICAN IQ ing is excellent, but coupled with holy living it is doubly effective. The preaching teaches in its way, but the living teaches in a more indisputable manner. Precept is good, but practice is better. Without doubt more pure religion is transferred into the life of the native through the living of his missionary than through his teaching. Quite as surely much excellent intention is equally spoiled by the inconsistent doing of the missionary. All missionaries are mortal ; some are especially so. VI. Preparation of the Missionary for His Field. i. Preparation and Its Lack. To be most effective in his presentation of the Gospel the missionary must be well prepared for his work. From what has oc- curred within our own knowledge it seems imperative to state some of the facts in order to deter as far as possible the inefficient from trying to enter the work. Some years since there had been over forty non-col- lege-bred missionaries on the field. Positively they were sound in the faith with the best of intentions and most of them were hard workers. They were full of enthusiasm and were ready for their sort of stake at any time. They were of several denominations, our own included. Negatively they had little or no edu- cation, believed that they alone were right and that every one else was awry. They had not attained suc- cess in any work at home for the most part, and those who had remained longest with us. They cost just as much as any missionaries for traveling expenses and for their living on the field ; and because they most- ly disappeared as suddenly as they came and left no work accomplished on the field, they cost relatively ten times the amount of money necessary for the ef- 2O RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS fective missionary. Not one of them ever translated a Gospel, not one ever wrote any text-books, though they purchased of those who were able to make them. More than one-half of them disappeared from the field during the first six months, and of the whole number only two remained longer than two years. During the same period covering over twenty years there have been nearly half as many college-bred and seminary-trained men and women on the field. Of six who came out in 1880 all are alive and on the field save one who died after thirteen years of active service. A second six who came a year later are to- day all of them with us. Others of this class came later, but none of them have retired from the field save one couple who went because of a total change of base requiring new language, which they thought it unwise to undertake at their age. Not one of the others has died in twenty years. They are all active to-day. They are all on the picket line, far out in the midst of native populations. They have had few of the comforts of life, but they have reduced languages to writing and printed the Gospel in them. They have written and published hymnbooks, text-books, and papers in these native languages. They return to the home-land for health reasons very rarely. They cost the Church the least money and accomplish the only permanent results. Surely in such a field as this a candidate should consider himself uncalled unless he is willing to go through the preparation which renders one effective on the field. 2. College Training. It is not at all that college training imparts so much mere knowledge; but the fact is that a student who will stick to a Greek root THE RELIGION OF THE AFRICAN 21 year after year, when he knows that there is little use in so doing, will stick to his job later on. It is the mental discipline that is essential to success. The student also learns in an effective fashion that the other man is liable to have opinions as well as him- self. The undisciplined seldom make such a discov- ery. A college may not be the only thing that will give one this mental discipline, but it is certainly the best thing. These remarks pertain only to Portu- guese East Africa; other fields have not been con- sidered, but reason suggests that if one is to remodel a continent of men he ought surely to understand men. VII. A Word as to the African Field. I. Not a Graveyard. Africa is not the white man's grave- yard. This idea had its day in the beginning, but that beginning is ended so far as the main section of the continent is concerned. Some portions of the West Coast are still regarded as unhealthy, yet several have resided there and have done excellent work for twenty years. In the South we see the finest of the countries of the earth with half a million whites now and more coming every year. In the Transvaal, in Central and in East British Africa, all reports indi- cate healthful conditions for the European. Uganda is proving to be quite fit for the white man's residence. Consumptives and invalids from all over the world come to our shores for health and find it. The grave- yard idea is past. It is the time of resurrection now, and it will be Heaven as soon as a hundred million human beings who have as yet never heard the Name shall have heard it intelligently. 2. A Great Opportunity. With such a magnificent 22 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS country, with such a magnificent population, how ex- ceeding grand it is to present to them the magnificence of the only Great-One, who as yet is unknown to them ! He is with His Church always even " to the end of the world." He was with His own in Cape Colony more than a hundred years ago. He was with them in Natal all through the dark days of the fierce and bloody Zulu Chiefs, and He has given the land and the entire people into their hands forever. He was with His missionaries in the Transvaal and in Mata- beleland through the dark and trying times of Moffat and Livingstone. He was with them through the early days of Nyasa and of Tanganyika, and especially so in Uganda, where the blood o'f His martyrs has become the seed of the Church. Yes, and more. All of this vast territory with all its great population He has already placed under the protection of the flag of Great Britain, which, more than any other flag on earth, guarantees peace to the native and protection to the missionary. It is high time to cease praying the Lord to " open the doors of Africa," for they are already open. Railways are built and transit is cheap and rapid into the heart of the continent. England no doubt will do her duty by the African. Will not America see to it that she performs her part as well. To-day half a million native worshippers sing the songs of Zion with rejoicing and great joy. Three hundred other half-millions are waiting in darkness for the same light and life to come to them. Is it possible that there can be a greater joy granted to a human soul than is found in writing for a native in his own tongue for the first time it was ever writ- ten, " Our Father which are in heaven" ? Is there THE RELIGION OF THE AFRICAN 23 any sweeter earthly music than " Rock of Ages, cleft for me," " Nearer my God to Thee," sung intelligently by half a million human voices who had never heard it before? We have listened to excellent choruses in America and in England and have often heard large congregations sing, and it was thrilling. We have also been permitted through the grace of God to translate the New Testament and to hear it read with the understanding in a tongue in which it was never heard before, and we have under the same guiding hand been allowed to translate a hundred of the commonest church hymns and tunes and have heard them sung by rousing audiences of those who had never heard a note of praise in any language. Un- til we join the innumerable chorus in the New Jerusa- lem we do not expect to thrill with any pleasure that is at all commensurate with this. In the name of our faith and of our Father we invite the members of Student Volunteers Bands and Young People's So- cieties to so rich a continent, to so needy a people, and to so glorious a work. II. SHINTO, THE WAY OF THE GODS BY JOHN H. DE FOREST, D.D. For Thirty-one Years a Missionary to Japan BIBLIOGRAPHY ASTON, W. G. A History of Japanese Literature (1899). Pp. 9-22. *BARROWS, J. H., editor. The World's Parliament of Re- ligions (1893). See index under " Shintoism." Japanese viewpoint. BETTANY, G. T. The World's Religions (1891). Pp. 167-175. Popular. BRINKLEY, F. Japan Described and Illustrated by the Jap- anese (1897). Especially Section One, chs. VIII, IX. *CHAMBERLAIN, B. H. In Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan (1882). Vol. X, Supplement. Translation of the Kojiki. CHAMBERLAIN, B. H. Things Japanese (1902). See under " Shinto." CLEMENT, E. W. A Handbook of Modern Japan (1903). Ch. XVII. COBBOLD, G. A. Religion in Japan (1894). Ch. I. DIXON, W. G. The Land of the Morning (1882). Ch. X. Encyclopaedias, especially " The Encyclopedia of Missions," under " Shinto," " Shintoism," " Japan." GRIFFIS, W. E. The Mikado's Empire (1898). Bk. I, ch. X. Also see index. *GRIFFIS, W. E. The Religions of Japan (1895). See especially chs. II, III. GULICK, S. L. Evolution of the Japanese (1905). See index under " Shinto." HEARN, L. Japan, an Attempt at Interpretation (1904). Chs. Ill, XVII. KNAPP, A. M. Feudal and Modern Japan (1896). Vol. I, ch. VI. REIN, J. Japan: Travels and Researches (1884). Pp. 442-447. *SATOW, E. M. In Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan: "Revival of Pure Shinto"; "Shinto Rituals"; "The Shinto Temples of Tse." *SATOW AND HAWES. Murray's Handbook for Travellers in Central and Northern Japan (1884). Pp. [6i]-[7o]. Brief but authoritative. *SAUSSAYE, P. D. CHANTEPIE DE LA. Lehrbuch der Relig- ionsgeschichte (1905). Bd. I, Ss. 141-171. * Indicates works of special value or authority. 26 II SHINTO, THE WAY OF THE GODS 1. Shinto Torii and Shrines. i. The Torii. Among the first things that catch the attention of a foreigner in Japan are the beautiful torii that are seen in crowded cities, in farming regions, on the edges of bays and inlets, in groves, and far up the mountain-sides, even on Fuji's peak. Sometimes it is a huge bronze or granite torii placed before an avenue that leads to the shrine or erected at the foot of a hundred or more steps of stone at the top of which is the shrine. Its form is remarkably artistic, and the ladies of the West have not been slow to adopt it in jewelry and house decoration. The word means " bird-perch," and such explana- tions as I have heard refer to a primitive roost from which the fowls announce the morning at the sacred shrine. If you enter an ordinary Japanese house, you will see the tiny torii conspicuous on the god- shelf before the diminutive shrine. Sometimes as you pass a large torii in the city you will see its ridge covered with stones, which passers by, who have a prayer to offer or who hope for good luck, have suc- cessfully tossed up there. 2. The Shrine. The word shrine is exclusively used for Shinto places of worship, just as temple re- fers only to those of the Buddhists. The shrine is 27 28 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS a double structure, both portions of which are very small. The front section is approached by the wor- shipper, who never enters, but stands without and, ringing the bell and reverently clapping his hands, performs his act of worship. The smaller one in the rear is the holy of holies, where the sacred emblem, the mirror, is generally kept. None but the god- keeper enters there. There is no preaching and so no hall in which the people assemble. At the festivals the people gather in the court or grove, where they enjoy the flowers, drink tea and sake, and worship singly at their convenience. The plan of this double shrine is very much like that of the ancient temple at Jerusalem, with its court of worship for the people and its sacred place into which no one save the high priest could enter. The style of architecture is primi- tive, the cross-pieces on the roof showing the ancient method of binding the logs together long before nails were heard of. The wood is never painted, its clean natural color typifying purity, which is the central religious idea of this cult. The roof is never tiled, but is either thatched or shingled. 3. Three Divine Utensils. The only object visible within is a metal mirror on the altar, and this repre- sents one of the three original " utensils of the gods," the others being a sword and a crystal, which are never seen. (a). There is much that excites thought in the choice of these three divine emblems. The signifi- cance of the mirror, so far as the earliest tradition gives it, is found in the words of the Sun goddess, " Look upon this mirror as my spirit, keep it in the same house and on the same floor with yourself, and SHINTO, THE WAY OF THE GODS 2Q worship it as though you were worshiping my actual presence." The statement is sometimes heard that the deity dwells in man. In that case, the one who worships with pure heart before the mirror will realize that he sees a reflection of the deity. (b) The sword was a divine blade, and its use was for divine purposes. As the nation progressed, it became associated with the highest type of noble man- hood, reverent loyalty, and righteousness. " The sword is the soul of the Samurai," is an old saying. The great makers of swords always solemnly dedicated their work to the gods and made each blade with prayer. They seemed to feel as Isaiah's words ex- press it, " My sword is bathed in heaven." Patriotism and religion are thus the closest of allies. The sword and righteousness are intimately related. (c) The crystal signifies sincerity and purity. The great prayer of Shinto is, " Cleanse me." One of their eminent priests has said, " If Shinto has a dogma, it is purity." Only one shrine in Japan is said to contain these three emblems in its holy of holies. In all the rest of the 58,070 shrines, either no object is visible, or only a mirror. It certainly is surprising to find neither graven image nor idolatrous worship in pure Shinto shrines. II. Definition of Shinto. Literally translated, Shinto means " Way of the Gods." It is sometimes defined as " a combination of the worship of nature and of ancestors." Other nations have been, and still are, worshippers of nature and of ancestors, yet there is something about Shinto that limits it to Japan. Dr. Griffis comes nearer the truth when he says, " Mikado- 3O RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS ism is the heart of Shinto," for it is a remarkable amalgam of political and religious forces. Yet other nations have had their sun-goddesses and deified em- perors and did not have Shinto. We must add, there- fore, that natural spirit of the people which makes the products of the Japanese mind different from those of other peoples. The emperor worship of Japan is different from, and better than, that of old Rome. Nature worship in an island empire of volcanic beauty must be different from that of a people on a continent. So the mixture of the various elements of pantheism here gives to the " Way of the Gods " characteristics only found in Japan. What have been the practical bearings of this re- ligion on the evolution of the people? In what ways has it been helpful and harmful? Are its fruits ap- parent in modern Japan? Has it a future, or will it perish from off the earth? I will try to answer these and similar questions. III. Imperial Relationships. I. Relation to the Imperial House. Shinto has very intimate historical relations with the Throne. Most readers know that the Imperial line in Japan is regarded as unbroken from the beginning. The proud claim is that it stretches across 2,565 years. There is no other reign- ing line in history that compares with this. It was the aim of ancient dynasties everywhere to continue their lines to endless ages, but for one reason or another all failed except Japan. Undoubtedly Shinto has been a most powerful aid in this unique result. Belief in the divine origin of the Imperial family and in the essential deity of the individual emperor could not fail to be a potent factor in the perpetuity of the House. SHINTO, THE WAY OF THE GODS 3! Concubinage, which all religions but Christianity virtually permit, the spirit of loyalty that became an unusual political power, and geographical advantage of a group of fruitful islands of rare beauty are other ele- ments that conserved the line, but the religious force is the principal one. No matter what disorders and periods of anarchy nor what prolonged wars of rival daimyos there might be, the life and person of the Emperor were sacred; and the party that had posses- sion of him and that could put the Imperial Seal to its orders was the rightful party, while all opposers were traitors worthy only of death. In the evolution of a tribe from barbarism into a nation, belief in the divine descent of the Imperial line is a most potent factor making for order, per- manence, and progress. The earliest writings of the Japanese, the Kojiki, tell of the mythological age, the period of the Gods, in which Izanagi and Izanami raised the islands of Japan out of chaos, and when Amaterasu, the Sun goddess, becomes the progeni- tress of the present line of rulers. This religious faith is one of the strongest forces that have successfully carried Japan onward and upward through ignorance and anarchy and despotism, until it was ripe for the higher and wider social and political life of to-day. And this faith also accounts largely for that quality of loyalty for which the people are noted, a reverent and devoted loyalty fearless of death. 2. The Present Emperor. There is a deep truth in " the divine right of kings." Men need a master. And a faith that can help to evolve a line of emperors with absolute powers, yet who rule on the whole so mildly and use the sword so righteously as to gain from 32 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS their subjects through successive ages only deep rev- erence and passionate loyalty, is something that the whole race may rejoice over. Even under the new constitutional government, whenever the Emperor has interfered, and that is of rare occurrence, it was on behalf of the people, rather than in the interest of his cabinet officers. " We have had only one or two really bad emperors," said a scholarly official to me recently. " The present Emperor is one of the ablest and best of living rulers," said our late Minister, Colonel A. E. Buck. " He is the ablest and best," said an American missionary who recently had the honor of an audience with His Majesty and was graciously decorated for his interest in Japanese youths studying in the United States. I once asked a high official, " How do you intelligent men regard your Emperor ? " The prompt reply was, " He is a man, not a god." That is, with the new order of things, the old myth is exploded, but none the less the Japanese, high and low alike, are justly proud of their Imperial line, and their judgment must be taken as correct, " There is not an- other like it in all history." IV. The Ancestor Worship of Shintoism. i. Ef- fect on the Family. Ancient man almost everywhere worshipped his ancestors. It is one of the steps, a beautiful one, too, by which he at last rose to the worship of the One Great Ancestor of all men. An- cestor worship plays an important part in Shinto. When we inquire in the light of modern knowledge what were the advantages of this kind of religion, it is plain for one thing that it helped to build up the family and greatly enriched domestic life. It tended to monogamy, and it is interesting to notice that the SHINTO, THE WAY OF THE GODS 33 first couple mentioned in the mythology of Japan are the deities Izanagi and Izanami, with nothing of polyg- amy or concubinage. Later on concubinage was per- mitted under regulations, but polygamy was never legally allowed. 2. A Restraining and Protective Force. Ancestor worship was a strong restraining force, for riotous conduct on the part of a son might be fatal to the household interests and even to the family line. When numerous family lines combined, they gave solidity to the growing society and strength to the ruling au- thority. Even the new civil codes, especially the sec- tion on The Family, show the power for good that in a certain stage of progress inheres in ancestor wor- ship. How deep its hold is may be seen from the words of a modern ancestor worshipper, Professor Y. Hozumi, of the Imperial University, who beautifully expresses the reason for this worship : " We firmly believe that our ancestors, other than their bodies, do not die. They are immortal. The spirits of the fathers and mothers .who loved their children, even though their bodies have perished, still in the other world live and watch over their descendants." V. Hero Worship. In Japan heroes take their place among the gods, and shrines are built in their honor. With the incoming of rationalistic thought the educated classes are saying : " We honor our great men just as you do, only you build monuments while we erect shrines. You take off your hat before Wash- ington's grave, we take off ours and clap our hands and burn incense. The forms are different, but at bottom the spirit of reverence for the great dead is the same." Indeed, hero worship, as Carlyle has 34 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS shown, is one of the formative instincts of the human race and nothing will ever happen to drive it out of the human heart. VI. Ceremonies of Shinto Worship. i. In the Family. In the home this is done by offerings of rice and sake set before the ancestral tablets on which are inscribed the names of the dead. Lighted candles, or even kerosene lamps, are kept on the god-shelf. Pho- tography, too, is introduced, and the photographs of the departed are sometimes seen instead of tablets. Death days are commemorated by meetings of the family who make new offerings and partake of a feast before the tablets. Graves are visited religiously and are kept in order. Thus the spirit of reverence and gratitude is fostered. 2. At the Shrines. Here the ceremonies are more elaborate. It is this ceremonial worship, with its in- cense and prayer, as if the recipients were divine be- ings, that the Protestant mind and heart find it hard to witness. But we may well remember that the word worship in pantheistic lands does not have the deep meaning it has in monotheism. Even in the Roman Catholic Church it has a lower meaning for the saints and a higher one for God. VII. Shinto and Patriotism. I. Before Japan's Opening. Loyalty to an emperor of divine descent will of necessity yield a patriotism different from that which flourishes in a republic. Before Commodore Perry came, enthusiastic preachers of Shinto were saying that Japan was the land of the gods, and was, therefore, far above any other land in privilege and glory. The people who are blessed with such an Em- peror ought to render him unquestioning obedience, 35 which is the sum and substance of all duty. Such teachings of course increased the dislike of foreign in- tercourse and deepened the spirit of seclusion and of contempt for peoples of other lands. In its extreme form it was claimed that the soil of Japan was so sacred that no alien could step on shore without defiling it. Moreover, no enemy had ever succeeded in getting foothold here, and the history of Japan records no defeat in battle before a foreign foe. 2. Subsequent Change of Views. With traditions of such tremendous political power, it is no wonder that the first treaties made by the Shogun aroused the deep anger of the multitudes, and that the Emperor Komei, in his seclusion at Kyoto, on hearing of this step, ordered the treaties canceled, the barbarians ex- pelled, and prayers offered at the Ise Shrine for their complete destruction. But when the present Emperor, on the death of his father, opened his empire to the commerce of the world, granted a constitution based on the rights of man, welcomed knowledge from the whole world, and stepped forward into political equal- ity with the great nations, the old and narrow con- ception of patriotism broadened out without any loss of intensity. 3. In the War with Russia. This spirit shows itself in the war with Russia by absolute fearlessness of death. A single soldier, or a band of soldiers, can always be found eager to attempt any desperate deed at the call of a superior. Kesshi-tai, " Resolved-to-die Band," is a common expression, and the entire army and navy is virtually made up of Kesshi-tai, such as those who died in blocking Port Arthur, and those who stormed the trenches and wire nets of Nan-shan 36 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS again and again until their dead bodies were piled high enough for the reserves standing on them to victoriously scale the defenses. A general recently drew up a regiment of his troops and asked each one, " What is your purpose in going to the front ? " All but one replied in substance, " I go to die for Japan." And the generals, in the reports of their victories, al- ways ascribe their successes to " the virtues of the Emperor." It would be too much to claim all this patriotism as the product solely of Shinto, for cer- tainly Buddhism and Confucianism have made valuable contributions to the grand result. But the beginnings are deepest in Shinto, and it is unnecessary to separate the threads that have been woven into the whole. VIII. Shokon of Shintoism. i. The Monuments Described. The bodies of the vast mass of soldiers who die on the battle-field have to be buried where they fall, but their souls are called back to their native land and are reverenced in worshipful ceremonies. Corresponding to our soldiers' monuments in the United States, they have here their Shokon-hi, the monument that calls together their spirits. These monuments take all sorts of artistic forms, from a great slab of stone to an expensive monument of granite or of bronze, and the Emperor graciously aids in the construction of these memorials. 2. The Worship. But there is this difference. Here there is also a Shokon-sha, or shrine behind the monument, where services are held in honor of the dead, and offerings of fruits, fish, vegetables, rice, and sake are piled up for the dead in the presence of gen- erals and the highest civil authorities, of relatives of the dead, of victorious troops, and of the assembled SHINTO", THE WAY OF THE GODS 37 people, all of whom salute the dead with bows, music, military salutes; and Shinto officials in archaic robes intone their service. If you ask one of these officials or generals, " Is this a religious service ?" he will promptly reply, " No, it is our way of paying respect to the dead, of honoring our patriots, and of deepening the spirit of patriotism in the living." It is with this open understanding that Christian officers and soldiers take part. There is perfect liberty in construing the service as a religious one or not. Of course, in the minds of the common people it is a part of their re- ligion. IX. Shintoism's Use of Pictures. i. Picture Gal- leries. Sometimes a shrine dedicated to a hero has a picture-gallery within the court, in which are rough paintings of celebrated warriors and their battles. This is one way of teaching the people national his- tory. The sight of glorious deeds portrayed arouses a new inspiration to live and act in a manner worthy of Dai Nippon. 2. Cheap Prints and Paintings. But in most shrines there is no separate picture-hall. The small coarse pictures, generally not a foot square, are hung on the latticed doors of the shrine. There is nothing historic or ennobling in them. In early times a white horse was offered at the shrine of a deified hero, just as food and sake were. Even now there can occa- sionally be seen a white horse, kept in a stall near a shrine, but generally a picture of one is substituted. This custom gradually broadened out, so that cheap daubs of all kinds literally cover the doors and sides of some shrines. There are snakes, foxes, centipedes, eels, chickens, cows, fish, the style depending on the 38 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS kind of god worshipped at a given shrine. A better thought is seen in rough pictures of persons praying, or making a vow, or expressing thanks for good luck and for good health. A ruined gambler sketches him- self with his dice before the shrine imploring aid to escape from his evil course. A drunkard with his vow of abstinence " for five years" is another subject. A dream of a huge snake crawling over the sleeper is gratefully painted as a promise of good luck from the resident god. X. Nature Worship. i. The Sun. Of all objects in nature the sun is the noblest, and its worship is doubtless the most elevating. In Japan, where Ama- terasu Omikami, the Heaven Illuminating August Goddess, is the first ancestor of the Imperial line, the worship of the sun is most intimately connected with that of the Emperor and his ancestors. Modern as- tronomical and geographical knowledge has almost ruined the morning worship of the sun which, thirty years ago, was well-nigh universal. But pilgrimages to the Ise Shrine are still in order, the railroads making it easy and rapid. " What impressed you the most there?" I asked a wealthy merchant who had made the pilgrimage of a thousand miles in four days. " The moss covered rocks and the giant cryptomerias, em- blems of the endlessness of the Imperial line," was his earnest reply. There is no doubt of the deep grati- tude of the people to Amaterasu for their Ruling House. I once heard an aged pilgrim, as he reverently kneeled at the porch of the great shrine, say in tearful voice, " Thanks ! Thanks !" That was his sole prayer. 2. " Eight Millions of Gods." Next comes the moon, then earthly objects of every kind, until you SHINTO, THE WAY OF THE GODS 39 get the phrase, " Eight millions of gods," meaning that- everything is divine. A strange looking rock seems to conceal some spirit, and is therefore set apart as a god. Great trees, inspiring awe in the beholder, are Shimboku, god-trees, and are decorated with the Shinto emblems of straw rope and white paper. Waterfalls are embodiments of divine life, as are rivers and oceans. Mountains little and large are the abodes of the gods, and shrines are on them all. Among animals the fox and white snake seem to have the pre-eminence, and special shrines are dedicated to them, the fox having red torii at the entrance. In- deed, all nature is alive with gods and goddesses and with many evil imps, too. Every trade has its god- patron. The making of a sword was especially a religious act. The beautiful creations of Japanese art were done with vows and prayers. XL Consequent Superstitions. i. Cases Enu- merated. With this, as is inevitable in all nature worship, came all sorts of superstition and trances and incarnations. The worship of the principle of life, that ended in such gross degradations around the Mediterranean Sea, flourished in Japan without, how- ever, reaching such a stage of moral collapse. This was legally abolished in the early Meiji days. The power of charms is still an article of common faith among the people. A soldier can buy for a cent or two a charm that tends to save him from Russian bullets. You can go to a shrine where snakes are divine, and by paying a few cash can draw lots that will reveal your future. If you draw bad-luck at first, you can try, try again until you are favored with good- luck. The health-giving hot springs of Japan, of 4O RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS which there are over a thousand, all have their patron god to whom prayers and a slight offering may be made for the sake of being cured of bad eyes, head- ache, stomach troubles, barrenness, rheumatism, and leprosy. The seven gods of luck are popular through- out the whole land, the two most common being Daikoku, the god of wealth, and Ebisu, the god of fish. Their forms are carved in wood, and cast in iron, brass, and even gold. 2. Not Fully Believed in. It is astonishing that a people so bright and gifted can be so overloaded with superstition. But it must be remembered that they have set limits and are not the slaves of superstition, as are the Koreans. Superstition sits lightly upon the people here, and they freely laugh at themselves when asked to explain this nonsense. It is very much like our nailing a horseshoe over the door for good luck, without leaving the issue to the horseshoe. XII. Shinto and the Government. i. Relation in Ancient Times. From what has been said under the head of Patriotism it will easily be inferred that in the distant past Shinto and the government were one and the same thing, as close a union of church and state as history affords. With a line of emperors rep- resenting the supreme gods and the Ise Shrine in that magnificent grove of god-trees where Amaterasu, " the First Ancestor " of the Imperial line, is worshipped, the government and religion of Japan were one and the same. To obey the Tenshi, " Son of Heaven," was the chief end of man. 2. Ryobu, the Next Period. When Buddhism first came, it could gain no strength until its advo- cates pretended to discover that the gods of Japan SHINTO, THE WAY OF THE GODS 4! were incarnations of various Buddhas. This led to what is called Ryobu, a mixture of the two religions, that lasted for nearly a thousand years. This move- ment checked the development of Shintoism, while Buddhism gained the ascendency, both of course being state religions, as is forever the case in every panthe- istic land. 3. Revival of Pure Shinto. But about a hundred years ago there was a revival of Shintoism, having as its object the recognition of the Emperor as the actual ruler of Japan, instead of the Shogun usurpers. The movement gained such wide acceptance that when the Restoration took place in 1868, Shinto alone was made the state religion, much to the grief of Bud- dhists. The exalted place thus regained was speedily lost in the rapid growth of political science; so that when the constitution was promulgated in 1889, with its celebrated 28th Article granting religious liberty to the people, Shinto was virtually thrown back upon its own resources. Japan now has no state religion. 4. Government Favor To-day. Still, Shinto has made too deep a mark upon the history of Japan to be wholly cast aside by the government. So the step has been taken of giving government aid to certain shrines of national importance, that they may be per- petuated as monuments of a past age. Their religious character is on the wane. So when the budget con- tains an item of a few housand yen for this and that shrine, it is not because of their religious character, but because they are historic monuments worthy of being maintained as silent teachers of the past. I re- cently visited a shrine splendidly rebuilt by the govern- ment in honor of Izanagi and Izanami, the mythical 42 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS parents of Amaterasu. I asked the shrine keeper how he regarded this ancient couple, whether as gods to be worshipped, or as ancient heroes who laid the foun- dations of the empire, and so were worthy of patriotic reverence. His unhesitating reply suggested purely patriotic grounds. 5. Even Ise Secularized. One signal evidence of this loss of religious status is the surprising step taken by the most powerful and central Ise Shrine, which is most closely related to the Imperial House. In Sep- tember, 1899, this shrine announced that it was no longer to be regarded as a religious corporation, but had become a secular body, registered for the preserva- tion of the ancient and historic cult. This act aroused bitter opposition among the various Shinto sects that have hoped to be restored to the position of some kind of state religion. XIII. New Sects of Shinto. I. Reasons for Their Rise. The new knowledge which the Emperor cor- dially welcomed by his famous Ascension Rescript, " Search for knowledge throughout the whole world," has profoundly modified all the religious traditions of Japan. We have noted the abolition of one claim of Shintoism that the civilized world will not endure. Its central shrine has voluntarily abdicated its claim to be a religion. Worship of the sun has almost wholly disappeared. Ancestor worship has been modi- fied by the new family laws that weaken the power of parents and that recognize the rights of children. 2. Three Prominent Sects. With religious liberty in the air, sects have multiplied, with the usual result that the orthodox and the heretics say some pretty hard things of one another. The three new sects of SHINTO, THE WAY OF THE GODS 43 prominence are the Kurozumi, the Remmon, and the Tenri. They are frequently called immoral by the or- thodox, and in some cases the police have been ordered to watch their meetings. The Tenri, " Heavenly Rea- son," sect has had phenomenal success, its adherents rapidly increasing to more than a million. It was founded by a woman in Nara who taught the doctrine of ten gods and the worship of sun and moon. An attempt at universalism was made by teaching that the ten gods are the divine parents of the human race, loving them and longing to do them good. And, though the Japanese are nearest the gods, the truth is for the whole human family. XIV. Shinto a Form of Pantheism. i. Evolu- tion of Gods. In this religion 1 there is no creator, but rather the gods are evolved from previously exist- ing matter, and then they take a hand in shaping things. The universe is peopled with gods under all sorts of forms. Something like this is a necessary step in the evolution and education of the race. The ruler, being a god, unites religion and government. 1 In this chapter I have spoken of Shinto as a religion and also as a cult. I have stated that the chief shrine authorities deny that Shinto is a religion. It is well to bear in mind that it is common now for their authorities to say unqualifiedly that Shinto is not a religion, that it has no preaching, nor priests, nor worship, nor prayers. And yet celebrated Shin- toists attended the Parliament of Religions at Chicago, and recently in Tokyo, they took part in the great religious meeting of Buddhists and Christians. Probably this denial of religion is for the purpose of utilizing the powerful religious sentiment of the past in the support of loyalty and patriotism, so that every Japanese may be a Shintoist, that is a patriot, and at the same time may be a believer in Christ or Buddha. Within a few years, Japan will have a Religions Law, and- by that time we shall know whether to call Shinto a religion or not. 44 RELIGIONS O* MISSION FIELDS The government is always a despotism. Men have no rights save those granted by the divine ruler. Lib- erty is an unknown word, or if known, its use is for- bidden. 2. Worship. Worship in all pantheistic systems has a lower sense than in monotheism. When the term is applied to stones, trees, mountains, the sun, heroes, ancestors, and rulers, it cannot have the depth of meaning that monotheism yields. Just as soon as theistic faith began to have currency here the word worship, reihai, gained a new meaning exactly as it did in Europe. Several years ago two or three Chris- tians refused to worship the Emperor's picture, which caused great excitement all through the empire. But thoughtful Japanese at once began to see that endless internal and even international friction would be for- ever arising unless this question were settled on his- torical lines, true to the evolution of civilization. So the authorities did not press for the use of the old word reihai, but permitted keirei, reverential saluta- tion. It is a mighty advance when no one is forced to worship the Emperor as a god. Religious liberty is one of the glories of New Japan. XV. The Good and Evil of Shinto. i. The Good. In the infancy of the race, everything that lifts man even one little step upward is of value. It is argued by many that the race had to pass through pantheism in order to reach theism. Worship of the sun and moon is vastly more elevating than the wor- ship of a fetish. The worship of ancestors is an all important step in the formaton of the permanent fam- ily line. It also deepens faith in a personal future life. The worship of the emperors as gods aids in establish- SHINTO, THE WAY OF THE GODS 45 ing the social order and is a necessity in the early formation of powerful political combination. With- out these stages of religious belief it is certain that Japan could never have become the great empire she now is. God has never been far from this people, leading them by means of the religious spirit into family life and permanent society until, in the fulness of time, He is revealing himself as the First Great Ancestor, the Father of all men through Jesus Christ His Son. His Holy Spirit was here ages before Christian missionaries came, guiding the people to- ward the truth. Their faith that they are the chil- dren of the gods, and their land Shinkoku, the " land of the gods," is a stepping-stone to the larger faith that all men are children of God and that all lands will become the Kingdom of God, whose will will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 2. The Evil. As for the superstitions and de- grading customs and even licentiousness that have found shelter under Shintoism, we know that it is a universal law that all these tend to appear whenever a religion crystalizes into forms and empty cere- monies. The thing to remember is that the religious spirit in man has a power to resist degradation and to break through superstitions, especially if brought in contact with a higher religious influence. The lower is a preparation for the higher. While writing this, the daily papers contain in every issue paragraphs on Shinto prayers. On the other hand, some of the great scholars in Tokyo are ridicul- ing those who pray, on the ground that it is sheer superstition, since the victory of course will go to the strongest side. It would be a pity indeed if the schol- 46 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS ars should succeed in killing this spirit of prayer a basis for rational prayer. The following are samples of these newspaper items : " On July 27th, at the Eight-Cloud Shrine, prayers were offered for victory, and charms were given to each of the relatives of soldiers." " At Tajiri village, two women started subscrip- tions for the erection of a great stone torii before the village shrine. Prayers were offered there for victory on the part of the Imperial Army, and the one in charge distributed charms to the relatives of soldiers." " All the young men of Takasago village went to Atago Shrine and prayed all night. Then they went to Hachiman to pray for the downfall of Port Arthur." XVI. The Future of Shinto. History shows that as nations advance and knowledge increases, polytheism gives way to monotheism, local gods retire before the coming of the One Universal Spirit God. Ancestor worship is of necessity a local, or tribal, or at best a national affair. It changes and gives way to a higher worship, whenever nations advance toward political equality and free intercourse. No Shintoist expects that his faith will become universal. Contact with a religion that has given priceless liberties to man, that has purified the home, and that brings the human fam- ily into brotherhood will irresistibly modify this an- cient religion. We need not seek to learn whether the number of shrines is diminishing or not, the law of the survival of the fittest will surely sooner or later show the great change. The beautiful torii will doubt- less remain; the national shrines will be preserved as historic monuments ; Daikoku and Ebisu with their smiling faces will continue to be symbols of good luck. SHINTO, THE WAY OF THE GODS 47 But all the same, the grander and universal motives of Christianity will fulfil and perfect the reverence for ancestors, the devotion to Emperor and duty, and the hope of blessed immortality through the risen Savior. XVII. How Should Missionaries Approach Shin- toists? Naturally the question will arise in the minds of many readers as to how the missionary deals with a Shintoist. What has been said in the preceding pages will suggest the lines on which the Christian preacher will try to do his work. 1. The Christian Idea of True Worship. For one thing, we have seen that the word worship in panthe- ism has a lower meaning than in monotheism. By sympathetically teaching that the supreme object of worship is the Divine Spirit universally present in and above all creation and that He is our Father and the Ancestor of all men, those whose hearts tend to open to this great truth will gradually, and sometimes suddenly, find that the act of worship has a far deeper and more cleansing force than they had ever exper- ienced. The new and more illuminating meaning will surely subvert the lower. More than that, it will up- root the wrong and belittling and superstitious aspects that have hitherto held the ground unchallenged. 2. A Christian's Advice. While writing this, I asked a ripe Christian leader how to go to work to convert a Shintoist. His instant reply was : " So far as Shintoism is an embodiment of loyalty to the Im- perial Line, we are all Shintoists. But so far as there are superstitions and erroneous worship, why, the best way is to do as I have done in making my lawn which was full of all sorts of weeds. I put in here and there a few tufts of clover, and that clover has spread and 48 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS conquered the weeds, so that now I have a clean lawn of clover only." 3. Trust in the Power of Truth. The main thing for us missionaries to do is to have splendid confidence in the power of truth to make men free. The method of denunciation, based on the second commandment or on any other, from foreigners who have not studied from living and earnest Shinto scholars so as to know sympathetically the moral and spiritual value of this religious force, will be likely to do more harm than good. Destructive methods directed against gross idolatry, brazen formality, lust, ignorance, and oppres- sion, are of great value as an expression of righteous indignation, and from the days of the fearless prophets, such work has told in the uplifting of peoples and na- tions. But none the less, the Great Teacher has given us His divine method of fulfilling rather than of de- stroying. To enrich the content of the old and pre- paratory religions, to displace error with truth, this is the best way in which to meet those whose history and religious heredity differ from ours. 4. Illustrations. Many illustrations are at the hand of every missionary of experience. I once found an old gentleman of high station cutting out the beauti- fully painted heads of his ancestors from their silk mountings. Astonished at his destructive work I asked, " Why are you doing this ?" His reply was, " Why, you yourself have taught me that it is wrong to worship any but God, and so I am going to burn up these things that I used to worship." I checked his vandalism by means of a fuller teaching. But there you have it. The deeper and soul satisfying truth sometimes produces quick and destructive hatred SHINTO, THE WAY OF THE GODS 49 of things heretofore held as sacred. Our beloved Joseph Neesima no sooner reached the home of his Shinto father than he persuaded him to burn the whole god-shelf apparatus, save what he kept to send Mr. Hardy. A Japanese graduate of Harvard, now an ex- cabinet officer of baronial rank, on his return to Japan kindly explained to his widowed mother the worthless- ness of her Shinto god-shelf. She firmly resisted, but he patiently and gently taught her as opportunity oc- curred. She burned her god-shelf and said, " I now know that God is everywhere." 5. The Main Point. The missionary's business is humbly to keep his mind open to see God's methods of educating these Eastern peoples, until he reaches the 1 point where He trusts him to become fellow teacher with Him, and then to exhaust the resources of sac- rificing love in helping to open the minds of those around him to see and to welcome the truth. III. HINDUISM BY REV. C. A. R. JANVIER For .Fourteen Years- a Missionary to India BIBLIOGRAPHY *BARROWS, J. H., editor. The World's Parliament of Re- ligions (1893). See index under "Hindu," " Brahman- ism," " Brahmo-Somaj." Hindu viewpoint. *BARTH, A. The Religions of India (1882). Chs. II, V. BOSE, R. C. Brahmoism, or History of Reformed Hinduism (1884). DUBOIS, J. A. (Beauchamp's edition). Hindu Manners, Cus- toms and Ceremonies (1897). Especially Part III. DUTT, R. C. Ancient India (1893). Pp. 26-36, 64-72, 153-162. ELLINWOOD, F. F. Oriental Religions and Christianity (1892). Lects. Ill, IV. Encyclopaedias, especially " The Encyclopedia of Missions," under " Hinduism," " Brahmanism," " India." HARDWICK, C. Christ and Other Masters (1858). Pt. II. *HOPKINS, E. W. The Religions of India (1895). Chs. III-XI, XIV-XVII. HUME, R. A. Missions from the Modern View (1905). Chs. II, V. HUNTER, W. W. The Indian Empire (1892). Especially chs. IV, VIII. HURST, J. F. Indika (1891). Especially chs. XLVI, LIV, LV, LXI, LXII. *JONES, J. P. India's Problem, Krishna or Christ (1903). Pp. 62-142. Practical. MATHESON, G. The Distinctive Messages of the Old Re- ligions (1894). Chs. IV, V. MENZIES, A. History of Religion (1895). Chs. XVIII, XIX. *MITCHELL, J. M. Hinduism, Past and Present (1885). Gear and usable. *MONIER- WILLIAMS, M. Brahmanism and Hinduism (1891). MULLER, F. M. Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Re- ligion as Illustrated by the Religions of India (1878). ROBSON, J. Hinduism and Christianity (1905). *Sacred Books of the East. Vols. I, II, VII, VIII, XII, XIV, XV, XXV, XXVI, XXIX, XXX, XXXII-XXXIV, XXXVIII, XLI-XLIV, XLVI, XLVIII. *SAUSSAYE, P. D. CHANTEPIE DE LA. Manual of the Science of Religion (1891). Chs. 78-83. *SLATER, T. E. The Higher Hinduism in Relation to Chris- tianity (1903). Chs. I, II, XV. Missionary viewpoint. THOBURN, J. M. India and Malaysia (1892). Chs. VI, X. TISDALL, W. ST. CLAIR-. India: Its History, Darkness, and Dawn (1901). Pp. 52-66. VAUGHAN T. The Trident, the Crescent, and the Cross (1876). Chs. Ill, VII. *WILKINS, W. J. Modern Hinduism (1887). Pp. 193-321, 395-436. * Indicates works of special value or authority. 52 Ill HINDUISM I. Ancient Hinduism. i. Hinduism's Claim on the Student's Interest. Whatever be the religion on which the thoughtful student focuses his attention, its claim on his interest will assume superlative propor- tions. Hinduism is far from being an exception. Its adherents are numbered not by the million, but by the hundred million. Its age is measured not by centuries, but by millenniums. Brought into peculiarly intimate contact with other great religions, Mohammedanism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and Christianity, it affords rare opportunity for the comparative study of its doc- trines. It is in more intimate alliance with philosophy not necessarily true philosophy than any other belief. It is the most tolerant, in theory, of all re- ligions; it has room under its aegis for any doctrine under heaven, provided certain simple conditions be complied with. Its very elusiveness attracts interest. The baffled student returns again and again to his task with new determination to perfectly analyze its subtle thought and fully define its complex system. He is not likely to succeed. No one has yet. But his quest is still worth while. He will be getting the nearer to the heart of two hundred millions of his fellow men ; he will be fitting himself to present to them more wise- ly and sympathetically that truth which has been found S3 54 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS to meet man's deepest need, all man's need, everywhere and always. 2. To be Studied Historically. Hinduism has no central figure whom to know would be to know ap- proximately the religion itself. It has not now, nor ever has had, any generally accepted exponent. Not only is it in no sense the product of a single mind, even in its earliest traceable phases, but it is not to be fully learned from any sacred book or library of sacred books, partly because there is no final authority to de- cide what is sacred, and partly because there is so much of it, in its practical aspects, that is to be found in no book. It is a religio-philosophical congeries to which many peoples with many creeds have through many centuries contributed their varying parts. In order to understand it at all, therefore, some knowl- edge of the stages through which it has passed is essen- tial. 3. Its Sacred Books. These stages being marked in part by the successive sacred books, it is well to take time at this point for a brief enumeration and descrip- tion of these books. They are divided into two classes, the more authoritative called Sruti (" that which has been heard," i. e., from the Divine voice) and the less authoritative, called Smriti (" that which is remem- bered"). (a) The Sruti. To the former or higher class belong the Vedas alone. They are four in number: Rig-veda, Sama-veda, Yajur-veda and Atharva-veda ; and their composition probably covers a thousand years or more, beginning with the period not earlier than 2000 B. C. when the Aryans first invaded and over- spread the plains of the Indus. The four Vedas are HINDUISM 55 not contemporaneous of course, nor yet are they strict- ly successive; for the earlier portions of one are in most cases more ancient than the later portions of its predecessor. Each Veda consists of three divisions : Hymns, Samhita, or Mantra; Ritual, Brahmana; and Philosophical Treatises, Upanishad, included with Aranyaka, or " Forest Treatises." The Samhitas are the oldest portion of each Veda and consist of versified prayers and praises ; the Brahmanas come next and are commentaries, mostly in prose, explaining how the Samhitas are to be used in the performance of religious rites; and last come the Aranyakas and Upanishads, consisting of philosophical inquiries on religious themes, ostensibly based on the Samhitas. The term Veda is sometimes applied exclusively to the Hymns ; and yet, as Dr. Murdoch well says, " Letter to Ma- haraja of Darbhangah," p. 19, " Not only are the Brahmanas and Upanishads as much Sruti as the Mantras (Samhita), but the Upanishads are prac- tically the only Veda studied by thoughtful Hindus of the present day." (b) The Smriti. This term is more elastic, its con- tent varying with the viewpoint of the individual sect of Hindus, but it may be said to include among other books the following : The Darsanas, or systematized " exhibitions " of the philosophy of the Upanishads. These are six in num- ber, each serving as the basis of a separate philosophi- cal sect : Nyaya, Vaiseshika, Sankhya, Yoga, Miman- sa, and Vedanta. Their date it is impossible to fix with exactness, further than to say that probably they originally belong to the period immediately preceding and including the rise of Buddhism, but did not take their present form much before the Christian era. The Sankhya, Yoga, and Vedanta have been the three most influential schools of thought, the last the most influ- ential of all. The Laws of Manu, or Manava Dharma Sastra, a treatise on religious jurisprudence, bearing somewhat the same relation to the Brahmana as the Darsana do to the Upanishad, and belonging probably to the period between 500 and 300 B. C. The Epic poems Ramayana and Mahabharata, which include legends of a remote age, but may in their present form safely be placed in the early centuries of the Christian era. The eighteen Puranas, a kind of versified encyclo- pedia of religion, philosophy, science, and history, be- longing in their collated form to the period between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries, A. D. The Tantras, somewhat similar to the Puranas, but belonging probably to a slightly later period, and set- ting forth the principles of the obscene Sakti worship. 4. Successive Stages of Progress of Hinduism. Following in general the lines indicated in the above enumeration of Hinduism's sacred books, its initial stage, as reflected in the Samhita of the Rig-veda, is by common consent named, (a) Vedic Hinduism. There are to be found in this period suggestive traces of an original monotheism l as, for instance, in the name of 1 The fourth and sixth lines of the following extract from the Rig-veda (X. 129, Muir's translation) give a hint of monotheistic thought already passing into pantheism : " Then there was neither aught nor naught, no air nor sky beyond. What covered all ? Where rested all ? In watery gulf profound ? HINDUISM 57 one of the gods of the Rig-veda, Dyaus-pitar, in con- nection with whom Max Miiller says : " If I were asked what I consider the most important discovery which has been made during the nineteenth century with respect to the ancient history of mankind, I should answer by the following short line: Sanskrit, Dyaitsh Pitar = Greek, Zeus Pater = Latin, Jupiter = Old Norse, Tyr. Think what this equation implies ! It implies not only that our own ancestors and the an- cestors of Homer and Cicero spoke the same language as the people of India, this is a discovery which, however incredible it sounded at first, has long ceased to cause any surprise, but it implies and proves that they all had once the same faith, and worshipped for a time the same supreme Deity under exactly the same name name which meant Heaven-Father." The actual religion of the period itself may, how- ever, be described as polytheistic nature worship. Sacrifice and offering were common. Some of the more prominent of the " thrice eleven " deities in Rig-veda 3d, 9, 9 we have a much larger number were Varuna, (Oupavos) "Encompassing Firmament," Indra, the Rain-god, Agni, the Fire-god, Surya, the Sun-god, etc. (b) Brahmanic, or Ritualistic Hinduism. As the centuries passed the number of the gods steadily in- creased. Bloody sacrifices were enormously multi- Nor death was then, nor deathlessness, nor change of night nor day ; That one breathed calmly, self-sustained ; naught else be- yond it lay. Gloom hid in gloom existed first one sea, eluding view ; That one, a void in chaos wrapt by inward fervor grew." 58 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS plied. Under the influence, probably of the grosser re- ligious ideas of the aborigines with whom the Aryans mingled, the element of fear became more conspicuous. Religion began to be stereotyped. Success in dealing with supernatural powers depended upon the proper se- lection of Mantras and absolute accuracy in their repe- tition. Formulas superseded worship, and the influ- ence of those who learned and repeated them increased proportionately. The thought of this period is mir- rored in the Brahmanas of the Vedas and in its later phases in the Code of Manu ; and its most marked fruit was the development of the caste system, with the priest class, or Brahmans, at its head. (c) Philosophic Hinduism came as the inevitable reaction from all this formalism. Men sought relief from empty ritual, endless sacrifices, and priestly pre- tensions in the philosophic speculations which pro- duced first the Upanishads of the Vedas, and then the six Darsanas professedly based on them. Atheism, polytheism, and even monotheism may be traced in these writings, though the prevailing thought of the period was pantheistic. 1 One religious feature of this time deserves special attention. In the Brahmanic period the way of deliverance had been the karma- marg or " path of works, or ritual ; " in the philosophic it was the jnana-marg or " way of knowledge." To 1 Whether pantheism precedes or follows polytheism is a question of no small interest. Hinduism's history would seem to give pantheism the later place, and it seems fair to ask whether pantheism is not the philosopher's protest against, and explanation of, polytheism man's blundering attempt to get back to that from which polytheism has fallen. Is not Plato a case in point? HINDUISM 59 know one's identity 1 with the true, infinite, and eternal self, this was salvation. Transmigration of souls had come now to.be an essential feature of Hindu thought, 2 and the one idea of salvation was that of deliverance from endless re-births 8,400,000 is the popular con- ception. The six systems professing to set forth this way of deliverance, though all appealing to the Vedas and all accepted to this day as wholly orthodox, were utterly opposed one to another. The Bhagavad-gita, that remarkable production which comes as an obvious interpolation in the great epic, the Mahabharata, is an attempt to harmonize three of these systems, and be- longs properly to Philosophic Hinduism, though in a later stage of development. It is to the early part of this same period that the rise of Buddhism belongs. It was the logical outcome of certain phases of the thought of the time, as ex- hibited especially in the Sankhya school, and like philo- sophic Hinduism in general, it was a protest against the preceding empty formalism and the arrogant pre- tensions of the priesthood. II. Modern Hinduism. It would possibly be more accurate to interpose another division, Puranic Hinduism, between the Philosophic and the Modern, but for the purposes of this sketch it is safe to date back modern Hinduism to the early centuries of the 1 The two " great sentences " were Brahmasmi, " I am Brahma," and Tattwam asi, " It thou art." * There can be little or no question that this doctrine was taken by Buddha from Hinduism, not by the latter from Bud- dhism, as is sometimes stated. See " Hinduism, Past and Present," pp. 50, 132 ; De la Fosse's " History of India," p. 28 ; Tisdall's " India : Its History, Darkness and Dawn." 60 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS Christian era, from the time when it began to recover from what had promised to be its death-blow and to gain the mastery over its lusty child, Buddhism. Dur- ing the half millennium of Buddhist supremacy, the Hinduism of the masses, partly under the increased in- fluence of the Dravidian cults of southern India, partly perhaps through the deliberate purpose of the Brah- mans to offset the power of the dominant religion by popularizing Hinduism along evil lines, made rapid progress in the direction of a grosser polytheism, and at the same time adapted itself to Buddhistic thought by putting sacrifice into the background and incul- cating a great regard for animal life. I. Religious Thought of the Modern Period. As reflected in and molded by the two great Epics, the eighteen Puranas, and the Tantras, this presents, among others, the following salient features : (a) Overtopping the reputed 330,000,000 divinities there comes into prominence the triad of Gods, or Tri- murti, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, the manifestation of Brahm, the great original IT. The sacred monosyl- lable Om, whose proper utterance is supposed to bring incalculable benefits, is made up of the letters repre- senting these three names. Brahma somehow fell into disrepute, and Vishnu soon became more popular than Siva, especially in the North. (b) Another new and conspicuous feature is the doctrine of incarnation. Ten incarnations, all of Vish- nu, are usually accepted. The seventh, eighth, and ninth were respectively Rama-chandra, the hero of the Ramayana, Krishna, the hero of the Mahabharata, in- cluding the Bhagavad-glta, and Buddha, cunningly HINDUISM 6l adopted as a sop to his followers. The tenth, it is said, is yet to come. (c) A third feature is the introduction of bhakti, i. e., adoring worship of divinity, as an alternative " path " to deliverance from re-births, thus adding the bhakti-marg to the jfiana of the Philosophic and the karma of the Brahmanic period. The most popular ob- ject of this bhakti was Krishna; it is in the Bhagavad- gita that bhakti first appears, and it was partly at least owing to the evil character of that incarnation that a thought so true soon became low and gross. (d) A fourth feature of this period is the idea which Dr. Mitchell traces to 200 B. C. of sacred places, especially rivers, and of pilgrimages thereto. First the Indus, then the Sarasvati, then the Ganges; among cities, Prayaga (Allahabad), Kasi (Benares), Dvarika, Bindraban. These are a few of the hundreds of tirthas sacred places which gradually came into prominence as merit-bestowing points of pilgrimage. (e) One other characteristic demands reluctant notice, the Sakti-worship of the Tantras. Sakti means power, the power of the gods, personalized as the wives of the gods, especially of the great Triad. The rites connected with this worship, especially among the " left-hand " devotees, are obscene and horrible beyond belief. 2. Hinduism's Lack of Unity. It must not, of course, be understood that all these features of modern Hinduism are to be found in all parts of the country, nor all of them in any one part of the country. All that can be said is that these are points of Hinduism that are conspicuous in some part or other of the coun- try to-day. The fact is that there is no unity of faith 62 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS and practice, not even uniformity. Dr. Mitchell well says (" Hinduism," p. 166) : " As to belief, Hinduism includes a quasi-monothe- ism, pantheism, polytheism, polydemonism, and athe- ism, or at least agnosticism. As to worship, it in- cludes meditation on Brahm, the One, the All without external rites or mental homage image- worship, fetich-worship, ghost-worship, and demon- worship. But, again, a man may be a good Hindu, who avows no belief at all, provided he pays respect to Brahmans, does no injury to cows, and observes with scrupulous care the rules and customs of his caste." This may well be supplemented by a quotation from Guru Prasad Sen's " Introduction to the Study of Hin- duism," pp. 2, 3 : " Hinduism is not, and has never been, a religious organization. It is a pure social sys- tem, imposing on those who are Hindus the observance of certain social forms, and not the profession of par- ticular religious beliefs. It is perfectly optional with a Hindu to choose from any one of the different religious creeds with which the Sastras abound; he may choose to have a faith and a creed, if he wants a creed, or to do without one. He may be an atheist, a deist, a mon- otheist, or a polytheist, a believer in the Vedas or Sas- tras, or a sceptic as regards their authority; and his position as a Hindu cannot be questioned by anybody because of his beliefs or unbeliefs, so long as he con- forms to social rules." 3. Pantheism, Idolatry, Caste. It is difficult to find any two authorities, especially any two Hindu authori- ties, who agree in their statement of the essential fea- tures of Hinduism. Not only has it been constantly changing through the centuries, as already indicated, HINDUISM 63 but at no time has it been the same in different parts of India, nor even self-consistent in any one part. Yet two general trends of religious thought not infre- quently found, strangely enough, in the same person may be traced. Among the more intelligent, on the one hand, the pantheistic philosophy of the Upani- shads, especially the Vedanta philosophy, is uppermost, with a constant tendency to develop in one of three directions, toward pantheism, toward agnosticism, or toward theism. Among the ignorant masses, on the other hand, polytheism is uppermost, with an invari- able pantheistic background. Pantheism, with its corollary in the transmigration of souls, is thus com- mon to all. As common is idolatry, at least the ten- dency toward it and apology for it. Pantheism then as a creed, grossest idolatry as the commonest expres- sion of the religious instinct, and caste as a social sys- tem, constitute the real triad of Hinduism today. On the last number of this triad, namely caste, a few additional words are necessary. This was beyond doubt primarily a matter of race as hinted at in the original word for caste, varna, color. The Aryans, after their invasion of India, separated themselves from the despised non-Aryans and from those of mixed parentage. At the same time they divided themselves according to their occupations, which naturally all tended to become hereditary. Priests or Brahmans, warriors or Kshatriyas, and traders and agriculturists, or Vaisyas, formed each their own caste. To the non- Aryans, who made up the Sudra caste, were left all the forms of menial service. Beneath all these are the casteless, called variously in different parts of the coun- try, Pariahs, Mihtars, Chuhras, etc. Not only their 64 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS touch, but even contact with their shadow, is counted a pollution by those in caste. They have no social or religious rights that anybody is bound to respect, and their degradation is almost worse than slavery. 1 All of the four castes are formed into many subdivisions. There are said to be 1,866 sub-castes among the Brah- mans alone, and the lower castes are still more com- plex and even the Outcastes have their own distinc- tions, as binding among themselves as those in the higher classes. 4. Hinduistn a Religion of Fear. No one can fail to be impressed with the omnipresence of the religious touch, not only in the endless intricacies of caste rules, but in almost every detail of the daily life of the peo- ple. They eat religiously, bathe religiously, dress re- ligiously, and often even sin religiously. In every as- pect of the religious life two elements are rarely lacking, the first that of fear. Hinduism is conspicu- ously a religion of fear rather than of hope. An ever- present thought is that of keeping the gods from work- ing one harm, physical rather than spiritual. They are capricious, vindictive, often malevolent; the one great thing is to keep on the right side of them, even by trick- ery. A girl was found studying in a boys' school one day. Remonstrated with, the teacher replied in a sub- dued tone : " That is not a girl, Sahib ! The first boy in that home was taken by the small-pox goddess, so the parents have dressed this one in girl's clothes and call 1 The writer heard not long ago of a man in the slums who had sunk so low that he " had to reach up to touch bottom " ! A more accurate description of the situation of the non-caste people can hardly be conceived! HINDUISM 65 him by a girl's name to deceive the goddess. She will never think it worth while to carry off a girl!" 5. Power of Custom. Almost as potent as fear in the religious life is the regard for custom, " dastur." For the existence of a thousand practices the only rea- son which one can extract from the average man is that they have come down through the ages. " Every- body has always done it, and " with a shrug of the shoulders " why should not we? " 6. Merit-making. One other tremendously effec- tive motive of action must receive passing notice, the desire to make merit, " punya." Brahmans are feasted, pilgrimages are undertaken, beggars are fed, all to amass merit. It is hoped that the fund may be drawn upon in this life, if not, in those to come; and finally in the cutting off of the dreaded re-births. III. Reform Movements. No outline of present- day Hinduism would be complete without some men- tion of reform movements, of which three are espe- cially worthy of note. i. Brahma Sarnaj. Its founder was Ram Mohan Roy, a Brahman of Bengal, who largely through con- tact with Christianity reached a definitely theistic be- lief, and in 1830 opened the first Hindu Theistic Church. The most prominent of his associates or suc- cessors have been Debendra Nath Tagore, Keshab Chandar Sen,. and P. C. Mozumdar. It is not easy to state accurately the features of the Brahma faith, part- ly because it is broken up into various sub-divisions op- posed to one another, and partly because the state- ments of its leaders have been far from definite. In general it may be said that it is a theistic eclecticism, assuming the truth of all religions, though giving the 66 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS highest place to Christianity and Christ. It has com- paratively few adherents, only 4,000 in the census of 1901, but among them have been a number of men of large influence, who have done much for the social and moral advancement of their countrymen. 2. The Arya Samaf. This is radically different from the preceding, being a movement started in 1863 and formally organized in 1875 by Dayanand Saras- vatl, a Brahman from Kathiawar, whose main activi- ties, however, were confined to northern India. The leading tenets of the sect are: (a) Only the Samhita and the four Vedas are inspired; (b) there are three eternal substances, God, Spirit, and Matter; (c) a soul is incorporeally and always perfectly distinct from God; (d) the soul is subject to re-birth in human or animal or vegetable form; (e) " Salvation is the state of emancipation from pain and from subjection to birth and death, and of life, liberty, and happiness in the immensity of God." The Arya Samaj is theoreti- cally opposed to the caste system, to idolatry, to child- marriage, and to pilgrimages. Unfortunately, the op- position in most cases is theoretical only. Its positive weaknesses are that it is deistic rather than theistic ; it is utterly illogical and vulnerable in its interpretation of the Vedas ; and the spirit of its adherents has been narrow, bigoted, and bitter in the last degree. They have devoted themselves to attacks upon Christianity rather than upon the errors of the Hinduism which they profess to reform, appealing to the national and religious pride of the Hindu and requiring no real sur- render of caste and of religious custom, while yet mak- ing a show of reform and enlightenment. The move- HINDUISM 67 ment has attracted many followers and is one of the forces to be reckoned with in India to-day. 3. Theoso'phy. This may perhaps be best described as Hindu pantheism up-to-date. Its prototype is the Yoga system, which differs from the Vedanta mainly in this, that the latter rejects the external universe as illusion (maya), while the former regards it as the manifestation of the universal soul, just as the body is the manifestation of the individual soul. The goal of the theosophist is the apprehension of the identity of the individual self with the World-Self. Transmi- gration of souls is one of its corollaries. To its modi- fied Yoga system it has added a curious combination of the theory of evolution and an adaptation of the Chris- tian doctrines of the fatherhood of God and brother- hood of man. Doubt as to the reality or permanence of this reform, if reform it can be called, is deepened by the fact that the writings of the discredited Madame Blavatsky are accepted as a part of the authoritative basis of its creed. IV. The Strength and the Weakness of Hindu- ism. i. Strength. The fair-minded student is anx- ious to find out the good points in Hinduism. His task is not altogether an easy one. A friendly writer of prominence has stated that the two great contribu- tions of Hinduism to the body of universal truth are the solidarity of man and the " omni-penetrativeness " of God, both being the fruit of pantheistic thought. Man is one because he is really one with God. God is " omni-penetrative " because all that is is God. While it may be true that there is something suggestive in these thoughts, yet practically the effectiveness of the one has been destroyed by the tyrannical exclusiveness 68 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS of the caste system, and the other has found its logical outcome in idolatry of grossest form. Perhaps a fairer statement of the best points in Hinduism would empha- size the following: (a) Its teaching concerning the sanctity of life; (b) its fruitfulness in the line of the passive virtues of patience, gentleness, submissiveness ; (c) its introduction of religion into the common things of life. A large part of its strength lies in its hoary antiquity; in its tremendous hold upon the people, through priestly domination and the caste system ; and in the laxness of its moral standards, which make it possible for a man to conform to religious standards and yet be personally evil in thought and life. It is hardly necessary to say that these very points of strength are its real weakness. 2. Its Weaknesses. The great evils lying in the system seem to call for a little more definite statement. Pantheism is responsible for most of them, (a) It has robbed man of a personal God. Since God is the all and all is God, there is no possibility of a personal God who can be approached and trusted and loved. (b) It has robbed man of conscience. Sin, like all other phenomena, must, if God is all, be either a mode of the Divine manifestation or else illusion. In either case it is nothing to be troubled about. The very dis- tinction between right and wrong is obliterated. (c) It has robbed man of all true sense of the free- dom of the will. One of its corollaries is the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, with the inexorable out- working of Karma, the deeds of previous existences. Practical fatalism is its result. Man ceases to be a free moral agent, because he is in the remorseless grasp of Karma. He is what he is because he was what he was. HINDUISM 69 He was what he was because he had been what he had been. His Karma is his fate. (d) It has led him into grossest idolatry. Idolatry is an even more necessary corollary of pantheism than is the transmigration of souls. Since all is God, man is perfectly right in worshipping anything. Apologists have tried to prove that Hindus do not worship the in- animate objects but only God through them. Practical experience does not warrant this notion. Unfortunate- ly even the most advanced Hindus are disposed to apologize for idolatry as a sort of religious kindergar- ten. The obvious answer to this is that idolatry has never elevated itself or its devotees ; it has always de- generated ; it has always carried its worshippers to low- er depths. (e) Whether pantheism, with its identification of even the grossest evil with God, be responsible, or whether the present situation be a legacy from aborigi- nal cults, the fact is that in many phases of Hinduism lust is enthroned. The gods themselves are immoral ; so are the incarnations, Krishna especially. There is no need to descend to Tantric worship, the publication of the details of which would be rendered impossible by the laws for the suppression of obscene literature. A few of the most notorious facts may in passing be alluded to : such as the religious prostitution connected with many holy places ; the little girls married to the god Kandhoba and devoted to evil lives ; the unspeak- able foulnesses connected with the Holi, the most popular of Hindu religious festivals, and the all but universal worship of the linga. 1 1 Membrum virile. J7O RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS (f) The caste system has been too often spoken of to need anything but passing mention. It destroys social life. It cramps industry. It makes broad sym- pathy impossible, and it engenders a spirit of pride and tyranny which is almost inconceivable. In a recent address the Gaekwar of Baroda, himself of course a Hindu, says of caste, among other things : " Its evils cover the whole range of social life. ... It in- tensifies local dissensions and renders the country dis- united and incapable of improving its defects. It robs us of our humanity by insisting on the degrada- tion of some of our fellowmen, who are separated from us by no more than accident of birth. It prevents noble and charitable impulses ; it is a steady enemy to all reform." The not uncommon suggestion that social distinctions in other lands are not unlike caste distinc- tions is simply preposterous. (g) Hinduism has placed woman in a position of litter degradation. Whatever she may have been in Vedic times, she is now the slave or the toy of man. Pandita Ramabai 1 thus sums up the duty of the Hindu married woman : " To look upon her husband as a god, to hope for salvation only through him, to be obedient to him in all things, never to covet independ- ence, never to do anything but that which is approved by law and custom." And she well quotes in proof from the great law-giver, Manu (Manu, v. 154), " Though destitute of virtue, or seeking pleasure else- where, or devoid of all good qualities, yet a husband must be constantly worshipped as a god by a faithful wife." Of Hindu widowhood little need be said. The 1 " The High-Caste Hindu Woman," p. 58. HINDUISM 71 wife's condition, however low, is a paradise in com- parison, unless indeed the widow be the mother of sons. Says the Gaekwar in the address already allud- ed to : " We suppress our feelings of humanity and affection and inflict severities on widows to keep their vitality low and make them less attractive. In spite of our harsh measures we fail to preserve even the ordi- nary standard of morality in this much ill-treated class." V. How Best Approach the People in Present- ing the Truth? It is but a truism to say that the spirit of the missionary must above all be the spirit of love. He is not on the field for the purpose of gaining the mastery, but in order to win men to Christ. He is the messenger of the God who is love, and any spirit inconsistent with such a mission must inevitably bring disaster. It would seem scarcely necessary to say this, were it not that practically it is exceedingly difficult to be gentle and loving and tender, and at the same time be firm and true. i. Conciliation without Compromise. The first difficulty is to present the truth forcefully and ade- quately, and yet to present it in such a way as to avoid arousing prejudice. In this regard the position to be taken by the missionary may perhaps best be stated as that of conciliation without compromise. The salient features of the truth must be presented. None of the cardinal doctrines of our faith must be obscured. There can be no compromise, for compromise always means weakness. Yet, on the other hand, those as- pects of the truth which arouse antagonism may well be kept to the last; and all truth must be presented, as far as possible, from a favorable viewpoint. An 72 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS admirable illustration of the wisest method is to be found in St. Peter's speech on the day of Pentecost when he begins by speaking of our Lord as a " man approved of God " and yet so carries his argument through, that he is able to close his address with these words, "Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God hath made him both Lord and Christ." There are so many points of contact between Hinduism and Christianity that it is comparatively easy to start from that which the Hindu admits. For in- stance, sacrifice, and even vicarious sacrifice, is to him a perfectly familiar idea. It is no uncommon thing in case of serious illness for the friends of the sick one to offer a goat as a sacrifice, beseeching the divinity re- garded as the cause of that particular disease to accept this offering in place of the intended victim. An illustration of that sort leads naturally by way of Old Testament ritual up to the cross of the Lord Jesus. Incarnation is a familiar doctrine. It is not a difficult matter, starting with Krishna or Ram, to lead up to the true incarnation. Indeed, no preacher could ask for a better text than that found in the expected tenth incarnation of Vishnu, of whom the Puranas say that he is to be a sinless incarnation, in significant distinc- tion from all who have preceded him, is to be born of a virgin, and is to come riding on a white horse to destroy all the wicked with the great sword which he wields. Many a time has the writer of this chapter, starting with this story, told a Hindu audience how true was their prophecy and yet how confusing; as- suring them that the Sinless Incarnation had already come, born of the virgin in Bethlehem almost 2,000 years ago; that He was indeed to come again on the HINDUISM 73 white horse, wielding the sword that was to destroy the wicked ; but that His first coming had been for the salvation and not for the destruction of sinners and that all who believe in Him might be saved from the judgment which was to follow His second coming. The fact is that with the many-sidedness and vague- ness of Hinduism, the difficulty is not more to avoid arousing antagonism than to avoid securing a super- ficial and meaningless assent. One great point is to catch and hold attention by means of familiar illustra- tions. These, however, must be used with caution; because the Oriental mind seems to regard an illus- tration as an argument, and if your illustration can be turned against you, your opponent feels that he has practically answered your argument. Starting then with accepted doctrine and using illus- trations taken from things familiar, the preacher's great purpose is to show how the truth as it is in Jesus includes the doctrine that was made a starting point, and not only meets man's uttermost need, but squares with the character of a holy God. 2. Christian Self-control. The second difficulty is a personal and practical one. How is the missionary to keep his own spirit gentle and winsome under the attacks of interrupting opponents ? He will be met by blasphemous reflections upon the character of Christ and gross perversions of whatever truth he is trying to present, and often by absolutely irrelevant objec- tions, introduced purely for the purpose of destroying the effect of the address. The missionary needs to be constantly on his guard, constantly in prayer, con- stantly reminding himself that it is more important to win men than to confute them. In spite of all his 74 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS efforts he will often fail, and the best thing he can do is frankly to acknowledge the wrong. The writer re- members one of not a few such experiences when hav- ing lost his temper at a preaching station in the great religious fair at Allahabad, he stopped his address and to the astonishment of the crowd and the all but consternation of the Arya objector apologized to him for his lack of the Master's spirit. The young Arya was so impressed by this experience that the very next evening he was found in the church in the city and became a regular attendant at the nightly services. No one who has not passed through the experience can understand how severe the provocation often is, and how great is the need for constant prayer that the spirit of Christ may be exemplified in our preaching and in our lives. VI. How shall Objections be Met and Weak- nesses Pointed out? i. Polite Insincerity. When we come to the question of objections urged against Christianity the situation is a somewhat difficult one, because the commonest attitude is, as already hinted, one of easy-going acquiescence. It is hard to know what to say when the audience cordially approves of everything that one says and is outspoken in its as- sent; but when this only means that there is a will- ingness to add Christ to the endless list in the Hindu pantheon, or else means merely the polite insin- cerity of the Oriental, the missionary is compelled to meet the situation by urging the exclusiveness of the claims of Christ. He must quote, " No man cometh unto the Father but by me," and " There is none other name under heaven given among men." HINDUISM /5 2. Christianity Regarded as Illiberal. These texts are apt to bring a plausible arraignment of Christiani- ty as being so much more narrow and illiberal than Hinduism. This situation can only be met by urging, on the one hand, that loyalty to the truth is more im- portant than liberality, and, on the other, by using some illustration which will appeal to the spirit of cau- tion and self-preservation. You may, for instance, say that if a passenger starting for Rangoon from Calcutta were to find two lines of boats professedly sailing for that point and were to hear from the agents of one that it really did not make any difference which line you took, each was good in its way, and from the agent of the other that the one line was absolutely unseaworthy and the other was the only one that could reach Rangoon, the thoughtful, cautious passenger would throw his spirit of liberality to the winds and inevitably select the line which on either testimony was safe and sure. Hinduism says that all religions are sure and lead to a safe haven. Christ claims to be the only way. The mere spirit of self-preservation ought to lead to Christ. 3. A Mediator Needless. Another difficulty that is sometimes raised, though obviously illogical from the standpoint of the worshippers of myriads of lesser gods and godlings, is that when there is a God to whom we can go direct, there is no need of an inter- mediary, or mediator. An objector once put it thus : " When we can get at a tree itself, what is the use of introducing branches ? " To which the answer imme- diately suggested itself, moving along the line of the Oriental's attitude toward illustrations already alluded to, that if the tree were tall and its trunk smooth the 76 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS best way to climb it would be by the help of a down- reaching branch. The turning of the illustration would of course need to be followed by a simple pre- sentation of the truth that if we were sinless there would be no necessity for a mediator; but that sin having come between us and God there was needed one who would undertake the great work of reconcilia- tion. In much the same line is the common objection that, assuming the need of intermediaries, each nation has its own, and that while Christ is obviously the right instrumentality for European lands, yet Ram or Krish- na is clearly the Savior for the East. Two lines of response suggests themselves. God is one; to which even the Hindu will give his consent, not from mere politeness, but from a significant and rarely absent un- derlying conviction of a supreme God. Not only is God one, but the situation raised by sin is an unspeak- ably awful one. The very law of economy demands that the supreme instrumentality for the relief of men's need shall be one only, and that that one shall be such a person as God's own Son. On the other hand, it is always good to remind the objector that Christ was neither English nor American. He was a true Orien- tal, living and dying within the limits of the same continent as the Hindu himself. 4. The Atonement. The most serious objection of all is to the doctrine of atonement. Stated in its bold- est form, the objection is that it is wholly unjust and inconceivable that the innocent should suffer instead of, or even in behalf of, the guilty. It is scarcely neces- sary to say that this is not to be met by a qualifying or paring down of that doctrine. The method of HINDUISM 77 meeting the objection must of course depend in some measure upon the character of the objector and the surrounding circumstances. In general the following lines may be helpful. The idea of sacrifice is practi- cally universal, and almost everywhere the element of vicarious suffering is included in it. Hinduism itself, as already intimated, has not a few illustrations of this expiatory idea. The fact that such a method is not unjust may be deduced from the laws of suretyship and of the obligation of bondsmen, matters perfectly familiar under British rule and wholly accepted by the people. The undeniable fact is to be adduced that in nature, which is another name for what God does, suffering for one another is the commonest thing in the world, suffering which is vicarious, the innocent suffering not only with, but to the advantage and even relief of the guilty. The divinity of Christ, with the exalted value that it gives to His sufferings in our be- half, is to be urged. The illustration of the large number of copper coins balanced by a silver coin is a crude one, to be sure, but may often serve to catch the attention and relieve the difficulty of the street group that refuses to believe that the atonement of Christ could avail for the whole world. Finally, it may be shown that while on the one hand the sacrifice of the Lamb of God makes atonement for the sins of the world, on the other hand it meets man's moral need by both attracting him to God and giving him the highest motive for obedience and holiness. It need hardly be added that with the constantly varying aspect of the objection, constant wisdom is needed which can be pro- vided by no skill or suggestions of men. It is a blessed relief to be able to fall back upon the promise, 78 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS " It shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak." 5. Presenting Weaknesses. How to present most wisely the weaknesses and evils of Hinduism is a scarcely less important question. In general, this line of approach is to be avoided in public address, and even in private interviews it is to be used with caution. To attack Hinduism is to put the Hindu on the defen- sive. You can hardly fail to repel him. The ex- perienced missionary often has to curb at this point the zeal of native preachers, especially if they be com- paratively recent converts. The proclamation of the positive doctrines of Christianity, of the sinfulness of sin, of the love of God for sinners, always a new thought to the Hindu, of the vicarious atonement, and of a future life of personal fellowship with God, will of itself suggest the weaknesses of the old faith. Tirade and invective are never in place. Even in pri- vate conversation, the exposure of the evils of Hindu- ism must be made in a spirit of sympathy and love, and ever as wholly secondary to the positive presenta- tion of the truth. VII. How Follow up the Work? I. Private In- terviews. The allowing of discussion at the time of an address is rarely wise. It almost invariably leads to confusion, if not to bitterness. It may be pos- sible to talk immediately afterward with a few who are obviously interested and who linger to ask questions. More often the best course is to invite anyone inter- ested to visit you and question you next day at your own house, or offer to visit him at his house. If he comes, press the matter above all of personal need and of Christ's power to supply that need. Try to get HINDUISM 79 him to let you pray with him. If possible, get him to pray himself with you. The one thing is to bring him into personal contact with the Lord Jesus. 2. Literature. If the man interested can read, use literature freely, above all, the Bible. It is never well to give away either tracts except cheap hand-bills or Scripture portions in public ; but when a man is in- terested enough to come and see you, this rule may safely be relaxed. Be familiar not only with the most effective Scripture passages, but with the most useful books and tracts. The printed page will say over and over again to the man what you can say only once; and it can say it to his family and friends as well. The writer never went home happier from an evening's preaching than when he had given away hundreds of effective hand-bills, or sold a goodly number of tracts and Gospels. 3. Prayer. One other point need hardly be em- phasized. Interviews are to be followed up by prayer. God can follow where you cannot. Results are in His hands. Pray before the interview, pray as you talk, follow it up with prayer. If there is anything that the missionary supremely needs, it is the sense of being in partnership with God. IV. BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA BY JOSIAH NELSON GUSHING, D.D. For Forty Years a Missionary to Burma 81 BIBLIOGRAPHY *BARROWS, J. H., editor. The World's Parliament of Re- ligions (1893). See index under "Buddha," "Buddhism." BERRY, T. S. Christianity and Buddhism (1890). *BHIKSHU, S. A Buddhist Catechism (1895). Brief sum- mary from Buddhist view-point. BIGANDET, P. The Life or Legend of Gaudama (1880). COCHRANE, H. P. Among the Burmans (1904). Ch. V. CORT. M. L. Siam, or The Heart of Farther India (1886). Chs. XIII-XVIII. * DAVIDS, T. W. RHYS. Buddhism: Being a Sketch of the Life and Teachings of Gautama, the Buddha (1894). DAVIDS, T. W. RHYS. Buddhism, Its History and Literature (1806). DODS, M. Mohammed, Buddha, and Christ (1878). Lect. III. ELLINWOOD, F. F. Oriental Religions and Christianity (1892). Lect. V. Encyclopaedias, especially " The Encyclopedia of Missions," under " Buddhism," " Buddha." *HARDY, R. S. Manual of Budhism in Its Modern Develop- ment (1880). Especially chs. IX, X. HOPKINS, E. W. The Religions of India (1895). Ch. XIII; see also " Buddhism " in index. HUNTER, W. W. The Indian Empire (1892). Ch. V. *KELLOGG, S. H. The Light of Asia and the Light of the World (1885). LILLIE, A. Buddha and Buddhism (1900). MATHESON, G. The Distinctive Messages of the Old Religions (1894). Ch. VI. MENZIES, A. History of Religion (1895). Ch. XX. *MoNiER-WiLLiAMS, M. Buddhism in Its Connexion with Brahmanism and Hinduism (1890). Especially Lects. II- VI, XVIII. Non-Biblical Systems of Religion (1893). Ch. VIII. OLDENBERG, H. Buddha, sein Leben, seine Lehre, seine Gemeinde (1881). REED, E. A. Primitive Buddhism, Its Origin and Teachings (1896). *Sacred Books of the East. Vols. X, XI, XIII, XVII, XX, XXI, XXXV, XXXVI, XLIX. *SAUSSAYE, P. D. CHANTEPIE DE LA. Lehrbuch der Religions- geschichte (1897). Bd. I, 68-115. SCOTT, A. Buddhism and Christianity (1890). Siam and Laos as Seen by Our American Missionaries (1884). Ch. XVII. *TITCOMB, J. H. Short Chapters on Buddhism (1885). In- teresting summary. *WARREN, H. C. Buddhism in Translations (1896). * Indicate* works of special value or authority. Ba IV BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA 1. Introductory. i. Importance of the Study.- The importance of the study of Buddhism is evident in the fact that for more than twenty centuries it ha? swayed the destiny of uncounted millions of men. Having its origin in that portion of the famous and fertile plain of the Ganges still occupied by the ancient cities of Patna (Pataliputra), Benares (Kasi), and Oudh (Ayothia), it has spread in varying form over vast regions of Southern, Central, and Eastern Asia and their adjoining islands. A part of this Gangetic territory belonged to Magadha, so celebrated in Buddhist annals, now known as Behar, a corruption of Vihara Land, which was so named on account of the great number of sacred buildings (vihara) erected for monks and for Buddhist observances. 2. Two Great Schools of Buddhism. The different phases which Buddhism has assumed naturally ar- range themselves in two great divisions, the Southern School, also called the Hlna-yana, " Little Vehicle," and the Northern School, also called the Maha-yana, " Great Vehicle." The Southern School prevails in Ceylon, Burma, and Siam and is undoubtedly a much older and purer form of Buddhism. It was intro- duced into Ceylon in the third century B. C. by Mahinda, the son of the great Buddhist King Asoka, 83 84 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS probably before any essential differences began to mar the uniformity of Buddhist doctrine and practice. This view is sustained by the fact that sacred buildings and records in Ceylon vary little from what is pre- sented in the Pitakas. 3. Buddhism and Ancient Cults. It may here be noted that although Buddhism of the Southern School has established itself in Ceylon, Burma, and Siam, it has never succeeded in driving out the most ancient cults of serpent worship and spirit worship. While the people of these countries regard Buddhism as their religion, the elder cults are intimately mixed with it in the belief and daily practices of the common peo- ple. So true is this that the English government of- ficer in Burma, detailed to be the compiler of the census of 1891, took the position in his chapter on Buddhism that animism under a veneering of Bud- dhism was really the practical religion of the masses. It must, however, be acknowledged that the people of Burma, Ceylon, and Siam regard Buddhism as their religion notwithstanding the power which demon worship and other local superstitions exert over them. Centuries of Buddhism have accustomed the people to talk of Buddha and his doctrine, to observe the re- ligious festivals, to maintain the Order of the Yellow Robe, and thereby to conceal from the eyes of the un- initiated the network of heterodox ideas and practices which lie beneath the surface of Buddhist forms and observances. Many of the educated monks and laity are devout students of the sacred books of the South- ern School and strongly deprecate these popular cults as heterodox. 4. Is Buddhism a Religion? In the consideration BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA 85 of Buddhism the question arises whether it is strictly a religion. Writers are accustomed to treat it as such, but in its primitive form it lacks important notes of a religion and is really a pessimistic system of philoso- phy. It has moral teaching, but morality is not re- ligion. In all its efforts to solve the problem of human existence and devise a way of deliverance from phy- sical ills and moral evils, it has no idea of a supreme, infinitely holy, eternal God and of man as a sinful being whose duty is to bring his moral nature into harmony with that God. Without a God, without any supernatural revelation, without a Savior to make pos- sible a real, pure, blissful, eternal deliverance from sin, without prayer, without real worship, without duties essentially religious, it must be denied the name of religion. Yet as millions regard it as a religion, it is desirable to consider carefully its author, and its principles and doctrines. 5. Relation of Buddhism to Brahmanism. At the time of Gautama's birth, Magadha and the adjacent countries were under the sway of Brahmanism. It was formerly thought that Gautama's main purpose was to be a great reformer and to found a religious system which would be a protest against Brahmanism. But studious investigation shows that there is no real evidence that he ever intended to protest against and antagonize Brahmanism by the establishment of a new religion. He did indeed reject the supernatural reve- lation, sacerdotalism, priestly claims, and minute ritual of Brahmanism; but he accepted many of its pre-ex- isting opinions and embodied them in his system, with some modifications. The Brahmans believed that all personal existence is an unreality due to ignorance 86 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS and illusion. By dispelling these the soul ended its sufferings and sorrow and was re-absorbed in Brahm, the impersonal universe. Gautama adopted ignorance and illusion as the ground of human existence. By grasping thoroughly the fact of ignorance and illusion as the cause of existence, escape was made into the unconscious calm of Nirvana. The Brahmans held the doctrine of metempsychosis, which was founded on the principle that punishment or reward must in- evitably follow every act of a man and that his present condition is due to the result of the good or evil done in previous existences. Gautama rejected the idea of a soul whose identity continued through successive re- births, but he otherwise adopted this principle in his doctrine of transmigration with its numberless exist- ences of evil and suffering. Gautama accepted the Brahmanical doctrine of asceticism, shorn of self-in- flicted penances and tortures, and made its principle, that renunciation of the world as evil is the true basis of life, the foundation of his principle of his Order of Monks, or Mendicants. In all this Gautama stands forth in the role of a quiet reformer whose separation from his ancestral faith gradually widened as time passed. 6. Sources of Information. The sources of in- formation are the Three Pitakas, or Baskets, accepted as authentic and authoritative Scriptures by the Southern School. There is not space for a critical dis- cussion of the formation of the Pitakas. However, it may be stated that there is no evidence that Gautama ever wrote down any of his precepts, much less any one of the books of the canon. The forty-five years of his ministry were given to the oral statement of BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA 87 his doctrine. It is not certain how the present books of the Three Baskets, or Collections, the Sutta Pitaka, the Vinaya Pitaka, and the Abhidhamma Pitaka were collected. The common Buddhist statement is that the canon was settled at the First Council at Rajagriha in the was, or Lenten period, immediately following the death of Gautama. After having been handed down orally for about one hundred years, divisions arose among the monks on account of relaxation in the rules, and the Second Council assembled at Vesall where the rules of the Sangha were again set forth and confirmed. Afterward schismatic schools arose and the great Buddhist king Asoka convened the Third Council at Pataliputra (Patna), about B. C. 242, at which the canon was again rehearsed and es- tablished in its present form. This statement involves too much of myth to be accepted in its entirety. It is exceedingly doubtful whether the First Council ever had any existence. If it ever convened, it could not have been more than a mere local gathering to con- sider some arrangement for carrying on the teaching of Gautama and does not deserve the name of a San- giti. The Second Council also was a purely local one and bears a very uncertain relation to the canon. When, however, we come to Asoka's Council we stand on firm historical ground. There is every appearance that up to the time of this Council there had been a gradual growth in the Buddhist canon and that finality of form and content was given to it at Pataliputra (Patna), B. C. 242. The argument sustaining this statement requires too much space to be given here. It is impossible to say just how much of this mass of sacred writings sets forth the actual life and doctrine 88 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS of Gautama, but there is little doubt that the funda- mental teachings, like the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, the Nidana or Twelve-linked Chain of Causality, and Nirvana belong to Gautama. The myth and fable which gathered about Gautama through the glowing imagination of fervid disciples is seen in the 550 Jatakas, Birth-stories, many of which are modifications of Indian folk-lore and are undoubt- edly of late growth. However, in examining Bud- dhism of the Southern School the canon must be taken as accepted by its disciples. In the midst of all that is doubtful, salient events of Gautama's life rise into a clear certainty, like the Great Renunciation, the En- lightenment, and the First Sermon, which are essen- tial to the understanding of Buddhism itself. II. Life of Gautama. i. His Birth. From the sacred books we learn that Gautama was born as the son of a Sakyan chief, Suddhodana, of purest Kshat- riya race at Kapilavastu in Kosala (modern Oudh). The traditional date of his birth, about B. C. 542, is doubtless too early by at least half a century. Gau- tama was a family name, for the child was called Siddhartha, " the one who has accomplished his pur- pose." The myth of his incarnation was devised to enhance his glory. When the time for birth came he is represented as descending from the Tushita Heaven in the form of a white elephant regarded by the Buddhists as an exceedingly precious and auspicious object and entering the womb of his mother Maya. The hermit Asita, informed concerning the child by rejoicing divinities, repaired to the palace, and seeing him' surrounded by heavenly beings, predicted his future arrival at the glorious state of Buddhahood. BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA 89 These stories are too crude and material to be com- pared in any way with those which attend the birth of Christ. 2. Youth and Marriage. Gautama grew up in the midst of the wealth, display, and pleasures of a royal palace. He married his cousin Yasodhara, and in his twenty-ninth year he became the father of a son, Rahula. For a long time his mind had been pondering on the ills and sufferings of human life and the duty of renouncing the world and entering upon the pov- erty, loneliness, and wandering of a mendicant life. The legend of the four visions, under the forms of a man decrepit with old age, of a man emaciated through sickness, of a decaying corpse, and of a lonely hermit, might naturally grow up through the insistent teaching of Gautama in regard to the impermanence of human existence as shown by old age, sickness, and death, .and the only escape through the solitary path of worldly renunciation by entering the mendicant's life. The Great Renunciation must rest upon a solid basis of fact. Buddhists regard it as one of the three great central events of Gautama's life. In it he personally embodies his full conviction of the necessity of com- plete rupture with all that gives pleasure in earthly existence. Doubtless words of the Khaggavisana- sutta embody his thought : " He who has compas- sion on his friends and confidential companions loses his own advantage, having a fettered mind; seeing this danger in friendship, let one wander alone like a rhinoceros." In his child he saw the strongest fetter that bound him to the world. Further delay would be fatal. With graphic power the story tells of the last yearning look at wife and child, the crushing go RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS down of intense desire for one final clasping of his son in his arms, and the almost mad haste with which he goes forth from the palace to mount his horse and hasten beyond the reach of father and friends, and, divesting himself of his princely apparel, to enter upon the life of a wandering mendicant. 3. Gives up Austerities. For a time he became the disciple of two philosophers, Alara and Uddaka, at Rajagriha, but their teaching failed to convince him that there was salvation in philosophy. He turned to extreme physical austerities and mortified the body till even, as the story runs, he ate only one kernel of grain a day. After having fallen one day in a swoon to the ground, he discarded physical austerities as useless and sought out a place of undisturbed solitude. There is no reason to doubt the general historical truth of this statement. 4. Attains Enlightenment and Buddliahood. In his solitude he reached a great epoch in his life. Seating himself under a banyan tree (ficus relig- iosa), for forty-nine days, he gave himself up to profound meditation, and at last attained by it a full knowledge of the way of salvation. He passed through the stages of Jhana in spite of the assaults of the tempter Mara, who sought to deter him by awakening the memories of home, picturing the carnal delight of life, and presenting visions of an environment of hor- rible demons and monsters. Quelling their tempta- tions, he rose through the successive stages of the re- maining four " attainments." Blinding illusions of ignorance and error disappeared, and the brilliant il- lumination of the Great Enlightenment filled his mind. He had attained Buddhahood. He had become a BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA 9] Buddha (budh, to know), an Enlightened One. Self- wrought virtue through countless transmigrations had achieved deliverance from the whirlpool of suf- fering existences, and the goal of Nirvana was at hand. 5. Proclaims His Buddhahood. The attainment of Buddhahood involved the proclamation of the Enlight- enment. Gautama at first shrank from this. Mara, the Tempter, was the author of the evil suggestion to avoid preaching the doctrine; but Great Brahma is represented as descending from the heavens and earn- estly exhorting the hesitant Gautama, saying : " Rise up, O Spotless One, and unclose the gates of Nirvana. Rise up and look upon the world lost in suffering. Rise up, go forth and proclaim the doctrine." This fervid exhortation decided the mind of Gautama, and he unwaveringly pursued his ministry from the age of thirty-five years until his death, when he was eighty years old. 6. Wins His First Five Disciples. He started forth to find his first two teachers, but they had died. Hear- ing that the five hermits with whom he associated in his ascetic life at Uruvela were in the Deer Park at Benares, he hastened to meet them. On the way he encountered Upaka, an ascetic, who, seeing the radiant face of Gautama, inquired what doctrine he had dis- covered through which his countenance beamed with such happiness. Gautama answered with confident joy : " I follow no Teacher ; I have overcome all foes and all stains ; I am superior to all men and all gods ; I am the absolute Buddha; I am going now to Benares to set in motion the Wheel of the Law as a king the triumphant wheel of his kingdom. I am the Con- 92 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS queror." Continuing his journey he met the five as- cetics, who, notwithstanding their predetermined op- position and chilly civility, were soon converted, and with himself formed the first Sangha (Order of Monks) of six members. In the Deer Park at Benares Gautama delivered to these five disciples his first and renowned sermon, called " The Discourse Setting in Revolution the Wheel of the Law." He announced his fundamental doctrines of the Four Noble Truths, and the Noble Eightfold Path, which will be considered later. There are only brief personal notices of Gaut- ama in his forty-five years' ministry. He was accus- tomed to itinerate for about eight months of the year, but the months of the rainy season were spent in retire- ment, meditation, and the instruction of his disciples. On a hill, Gayasisa, he preached the famous Fire Ser- mon, in which he declared that " everything is burn- ing," and with many illustrations represented all life to be flame. Early in his ministry his great disciples, Sariputra, Moggallana, Ananda, Upali, and Kasapa gathered about him. His disciples came largely from rich and prosperous families. 7. Closing Period of His Ministry. As Gautama's ministry draws to a close the records become full and graphic in their statements, especially in " The Book of the Great Decease." On his last journey to Kusi- nagara, where he died, his zeal to enlighten his dis- ciples in the truth became intensely fervid. There is something profoundly pathetic as the last months of his long life are ebbing away in the re-iteration of his gloomy pessimistic doctrines of the only solution of the problem of existence. Near Vesali he became seriously ill, and the favorite disciple Ananda, in BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA 93 view of Buddha's not distant demise, begged that final instructions should be given about the Sangha. Gently, yet with a tone of astonishment at the ap- parent failure of Ananda to grasp the fullness of the doctrine, he answers : " What, then, Ananda, does the Order expect of me ? I have preached the truth with- out making any distinction between exoteric and esoteric doctrine ; for in respect of the truth, the Tathagata has no such thing as the closed fist of a teacher who keeps something back. Surely, should there be any one who harbors the thought, ' It is I who will lead the Brotherhood ' ; or ' The Order is de- pendent on me,' it is he who should lay down instruc- tions in any matter concerning the Order. Now the Tathagata harbors no such thoughts. Why then should he leave instructions in any manner concerning the Order ? I, too, O Ananda, am now grown old and full of years, my journey is drawing to a close. I have reached my sum of days. I am turning eighty years of age. And just as a worn out cart can only with much additional care be made to move along, so, methinks, the body of Tathagata can only be kept going with much additional care. . . . There- fore, be ye lamps unto yourselves. Betake yourselves to no external refuge. Hold fast to the truth as a lamp. Hold as a refuge to the truth. Look not for refuge to any one besides yourselves." Later he an- nounced to a great assembly of monks at Vesali that his life would close at the end of three months, and concluded his discourse with these words : " Behold now, monks, I impress it upon you ; all things are subject to the law of dissolution ; press on earnestly to perfection ; soon the Tathagata's final extinction will 94 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS take place; at the end of three months the Tathagata will enter on extinction." 8. Gautama's Last Days and Death. He then bade farewell to Vesall with a long, parting look, and jour- neying on, gave instruction wherever he stopped for rest. At Pava a goldsmith named Chunda prepared and offered a rich meal of rice and pork, which pro- duced a violent dysentery. Notwithstanding his ill- ness he started for Kusinagara, and after resting many hours by the river Kukushta, half way on his journey, he at last reached a grove of trees outside that city. The hand of death was upon him. He lay down on a couch placed between two sal trees. He dispatched a comforting message to Chunda, begging him to feel no regret at the result of his offering, soothed the grief-stricken Ananda with words of love and ap- proval, entered into a discussion with the Brahman Subhadra and converted him, proclaimed that after his death the Law would be in his place as teacher, and asking that anyone who was still troubled by doubts would mention them that he might remove them and receiving no answer, declared that all present had entered into The Path, beyond danger of return, which would lead to Nirvana. A brief silence followed, and then the last words of this Great Teacfier fell on their ears : " Behold, now, mendicants, I say to you, everything that exists must pass away; work out your own perfection with diligence." The crema- tion of the body followed; and, notwithstanding the extravagance of statements which the growth of legend has gathered about the account, it- was doubtless at- tended with great pageantry. 9. His Character. In this brief outline of the prin- BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA 95 cipal events of the life of Gautama there is the portrait of a man of high thought, lofty morality, arid virtuous conduct, who was intensely honest in his pursuit of truth, and fearless and patient in the preaching of his doctrine. But beautiful as his life and character ap- pear, they fall far short of the divine beauty which shines forth in the life and character of the Perfect Man, whose sinlessness, lofty self-sacrifice, full knowledge of God and men, apprehension 01 infinite truth, and revelation of that truth, are faultless and complete. Gautama groped after the truth and thought that he had found it in a one-sided system of worldly philosophy. Christ knew the truth, and His revelation of it reached all the needs and conditions of men's natures and became a Gospel to them. Gautama preached a doctrine of a self-wrought righteousness, difficult of attainment, but most pleasing to the pride of the human heart. Christ preached the doctrine of a righteousness which comes not by works, but by the gracious assistance of God through faith on our part, a doctrine distasteful to the pride and self-love of men. Both led lives of self-denial and self-abnega- tion, but in very different ways. One decried human life itself as valueless and sought its extinction by the severance of all social ties in the seclusion of a recluse ; the other exalted human life as the precious gift of God, whose value was enhancd by the service of God in a busy helpfulness of men. One preached the vir- tual extinction of life as the only salvation worth seeking; the other opened the glory of the endless, heavenly life, as the crown of man's salvation. Such is the unescapable difference when the portrait of 96 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS Gautama in the Pitakas is placed beside the portrait of Christ in the Gospels. III. Doctrine of God. i. Gautama Denied a Su- preme Being. The doctrinal system of Guatama pre- sents many things which are unique. There is no recognition of a personal, Supreme Being; Buddhism is unquestionably at least passively atheistic. Once when Buddha was asked about a Supreme Being, he declined to discuss the matter as something beyond man's cognizance, which should confine itself to the absorbing needs of this present evil world. In con- versation with Alara, a wise Brahman, who asserted that the Great Brahma was a Supreme God, Gautama declared that at the destruction of this universe at the end of a Kalpa, such a Being could not exist ; and that had all things been created by such a Being, there could have been no possibility of evil and suffering, for all things must have been good. Further discus- sion was declined as a profitless inquiry. Guatama had no place in his system for a Supreme God. His teaching began and ended with man. Man himself worked out his destiny by his own power. 2. Substitutes for Deity. Yet man's need of an ob- ject of reverence and worship and his tendency to seek external, supernatural aid, led to the elevation of Gautama into a kind of semi-deification as an object of worship. The divine attributes of infinite power, wisdom, and omniscience were attributed to him dur- ing his Buddhahood. Since he no longer exists, he is represented by countless images wrought in wood, in marble, and in precious metals before which his fol- lowers bow in adoration. This semi-deification also shows itself in the acceptance of Buddha's teaching as BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA 97 infallible, and the consequent worship of his Law as an embodiment of him after his entrance by death into Parinirvana. Whether intentionally or not, Gautama gave his influence to this end. When death was drawing near he said to Ananda, " The truths and rules of the Order which I have taught and preached, let these be your Teacher, when I am gone." Again, the Safigha or Order, the entire monastic fra- ternity, comprising all monks on earth and holy men in all parts of the universe who have not yet attained perfection, came to be looked upon as a collective unity or personification of the body of true disciples and was accorded a place of reverence. In this way the Buddhist Triad, Buddha, the Law, and the Sangha, became objects of adoration, and in the absence of a Supreme God they were made to occupy his place. These are the three refuges in which the Buddhist places his trust and are expressed in the three univer- sally used formulae: Buddham saranam gacchami, " I take refuge in Buddha." Dharmam saranam gacchami, " I take refuge in the Law." Sangham saranam gacchami, " I take refuge in the Order." The atheistic character of Buddhism brought about the dethronement of Brahma and Indra from the su- preme seats which they occupied in Brahmanism. With a host of deities (devas) they were placed in a position inferior to Buddha. In all their communica- tions with Buddha, they acknowledge him to be the most superlatively excellent being among all beings in this or other worlds. 98 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS 3. Substitutes for True Prayer. Naturally there is no place for prayer in Buddhism. There is no living God to whom man's aspirations can rise and from whom divine assistance can be asked. The operation of material laws is inexorable and is presided over by no Supreme Being. Yet men crave some form for the expression of the soul's desires. To meet this craving, prayer formulae, expressions of wishes rather than prayers, have been composed and are heard at every Buddhist shrine. Though there is no person to answer, it is fondly hoped that there is some subtle law that may be effective in its operation and produce the desired result. Many times the question has been put to worshippers on the spacious platform of the great Shwe Dagon pagoda, " Are you praying to Gautama, or to the pagoda ? " The answer always is, " I am praying to no one." " Then what are you praying for ?" " For nothing," the reply comes ; " but I hope in some way, I know not how, to get benefit." IV. Buddhism's Doctrine of the World. i. No Creator. As there is no Supreme God, so there is no idea of an omnipotent Creator. The Buddhist Scriptures have nothing like the sublime sentence which opens the Hebrew Scriptures, " In the beginning God created the heavens- and the earth." Sir M. Monier- Williams says concisely : " Buddhism has no Creator, creation, no original germ of things, no soul of the world, no personal, no impersonal, no supra- mundane, no antemundane principle." Gautama re- fused to discuss the eternity of the existing universe. When Malunka asked Buddha whether the existence of the world is eternal or not eternal, he made no reply because he thought that the inquiry tended to no profit. BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA 99 His method is illustrated in questions addressed to him in Vacchagotta's Fire Sutta, " Do you hold the view that the world is eternal?" "No." " That the world is not eternal ?" " No." " That it has an end ?" " No." " That it has not an end ?" " No." 2. Buddhist Cosmology. Yet Buddhism has its cosmology. As Rhys Davids says, " Buddhism takes as its ultimate fact the existence of the material world and of conscious beings living in it." A universe comes from nothing and will resolve itself into nothing. Pre- vious universes, each with its myriad cycles of years, have ended in a great cataclysm of destruction. This universe, with its central mountain, Meru, and its strange concentric seas, its ten thousand worlds with their attendant heavens, continents of earth, hells, and ruling deities, after immense cycles of time will dis- appear in a complete dissolution. A new universe will succeed it, not made from its materals, which will have ceased to exist, but rising from nothing, under the compelling force of Karma, that mysterious potent energy, accumulated in the existence of the preceding universe which brings an entirely new universe into existence. V. Doctrine of Man. i. Man Soulless; Skand- has, Karma. The teaching of Buddhism in regard to man is perfectly consistent with its doctrine of the world. As there is no Divine Self, or Supreme Pre- siding Spirit in the universe, so there is no soul (Atma) in man. It is his awful ignorance (Avijja) which makes a man think, " I am." This idea is re- garded as one of the worst forms of heresy and oc- cupies the first place in the Three Great Delusions. It also has its place among the four Upadanas, which IOO RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS are the cause of birth and all the evils of existence re- sulting from it. Instead of a permanent, individual self, Gautama declared that all sentient beings were a combination or assemblage of certain constituent ele- ments or faculties which do not constitute a soul or self. The elements are called Skandhas, and cease to exist with death. They combine at each birth, dissolve at each death. In re-birth there is the appearance of fresh Skandhas. The five Skandhas aare: i. Rupa, " form ; " 2. Vedana, " sensation," arising from the contact of the five senses and the mind with external objects; 3. Sanna, "perception," or ideas springing from the six kinds of sensation ; 4. Sankara, " mental properties," or tendencies of sentient beings; 5. Vifi- nana, the " thought faculty," combining consciousness and thinking. The last is the nearest to our idea of soul that exists in the Pitakas; but like the other Skandhas, it ceases to exist when the body dies. Though the Skandhas dissolve at death, Karma, the potent energy which is the resultant of the merits and demerits of the person deceased, brings into existence a new set of Skandhas in a new being. Thus there is theoretically no continuity of personal identity, no re- birth of the same soul. It must be stated, however, that many of the uneducated common people do not understand this doctrine of the sacred books ; and hence they fear the future, believing that they them- selves will be reborn. Occasionally there is a per- son who professes to remember events in his preced- ing existence. 2. Buddhism's View of the Body. In Buddhism the body is regarded with loathing as a mass of corrup- tion, the abode of evil, the prison-house of man. The BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA IOI Dhammapada says : " Look at this dressed up lump, covered with wounds, joined together, sickly, full of many thoughts, which has no strength, no hold. This body is wasted, full of sickness and frail; this heap of corruption breaks to pieces, life ends in death." The novice, when invested with the yellow robe, enumerates the thirty-two impurities of the body. The worthless- ness of the body is detailed with sickening minuteness in the Vijayasutta. It is considered a hindrance to advancement in the path of sanctification, and must be sternly repressed. In the Sucilomasutta, Buddha says : " Passion and hatred have their origin from the body; disgust, delight, and horror arise from the body; arising from the body, doubts vex the mind, as boys vex a crow." The action of each sense must be watched and unflinchingly crushed. 3. The Consequent Ascetic Life. This principle of the evil character of the body and the exercise of the senses underlies the establishment of a monastic com- munity in the Sangha. An ascetic life, with its com- plete separation from the world, is the only path for a sure advance in that virtue which insures Nirvana. The Dhammapada says : " A wise man should leave the dark state [of ordinary life] and follow the bright state [of the monk]. After going from his home to a homeless state, he should, in his retirement, look for enjoyment where there seemed to be no enjoyment. Leaving all pleasures behind and calling nothing his own, the wise man should purge himself from all the troubles of the mind." So important is the repression of the body that the Vinaya gives minute directions in regard to the minimum of what is necessary in dwelling, dress, food, and condiments. The only road IO2 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS to Nirvana leads through monkhood, for the monk is the only man in a position to shun the world and to seek self-conquest with the least hindrance. VI. Doctrine of Sin. I. What Sin Is. The Buddhist conception of sin is of a thought or act which causes suffering and demerit. There is no true idea of sin as an offense against a Supreme Being by the transgression of His holy will. So Buddhist morality knows nothing of motive based on the love or fear of god. The opposite of the wicked thought or act which brings suffering and demerit is the good thought or act which emancipates from suffering and obtains merit. Every exhortation to good deeds and purity of thought lies along the plane of self-interest. It is because this is forgotten that men who look at Buddhist ethics superficially find so much seemingly in common between Buddhism and Christianity and fail to note the radically different bases on which the two systems of ethics are founded. 2. The Ten Fetters. All forms of existence are under the sway of Kilesa, depravity, and its accom- panying evil of demerit. There are several classifica- tions of the evil tendencies which unite or bind one to the round of existences. The Ten Fetters furnish an illustration. They are: I. The heresy of individ- uality, that is, the delusion of believing in a personal self; 2. doubt, that is, of the truth of Buddha's doc- trine; 3. dependence on ritual practices; 4. lust, bodily passions ; 5. anger, ill feeling ; 6. desire for life [in this or higher worlds] ; 7. desire for life in immaterial form [in the highest heavens]; 8. pride; 9. exalted judgment of self; 10. ignorance. Chained by such powerful evil principles one has no prospect of BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA IO3 any immediate deliverance from their control. Such a deliverance could not be expected until the ocean of existences had been crossed innumerable times; while beyond these existences, like an ignis fatuus, flickers the illusory light of Nirvana. 3. The Four Noble Truths. In his sermon in the Deer Park at Benares Guatama gives the funda- mental principles of his system, which involve his doctrine of sin as an act which causes suffering. He states that the Four Noble Truths are: I. Suffer- ing, the fact that existence in this or any other world inevitably involves pain and sorrow; 2. The cause of suffering, the fact that lust (Raga), or desire (Tanha), is seen in the thirst or craving for sensual pleasures, for worldly prosperity, and for existence; 3. The cessation of suffering, the fact that suffering disap- pears with the conquest and extinction of lust and desire in all their forms ; 4. The path leading to the cessation of suffering, perseverance in this path pro- ducing a virtuous life, whose consummation is the de- struction of all causes of suffering. Thus suffering ceases because the evil principles whose obedience in sinful acts produces it, are overcome by crushing them out of a man's life. The Dhammapada says : " There is no suffering for him who has finished his journey and abandoned grief, who has freed himself on all sides and thrown off all fetters." Suffering as the principle of all life is thus explained : " Birth is suf- fering (being an action of an evil Karma, caused by an evil pre-existence), decay is sufferng; clinging to the five constituent parts of existence is suffering; perfect cessation of thirst and desires is the cessation of suffering. This is the Noble Truth of Suffering." IO4 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS Back of all this are the thoughts and acts of life deemed sinful and productive of suffering because they bind to this life and keep men from the Middle Path by which they can reach the final emancipation and be free from suffering. 4. The Eightfold Path. " The Middle Path," so called because it avoids the indulgence in the pleas- ures of sense on the one hand and self-mortification and torture on the other hand, is eightfold in nature. It is the only true way to advance in a virtuous life to- wards the goal of Nirvana. It consists of : I. Right belief or views ; 2. right feelings or aims ; 3. right speech; 4. right action; 5. right livelihood; 6. right endeavor, or training; 7. right memory, or mindfulness; 8. right meditation, or concentration of mind. It must be remembered that these expressions do not possess the broad ethical sense applicable to the daily life of ordinary man. They belong only to the solitary life of a Buddhist monk, and must be inter- preted in a narrow sense in connection with the frames of mind and modes of action expected in one who has cut himself off from the society of his fellows and has retired into the seclusion of the monastic life. Society with one's fellows is so conducive to sinful thought and action that it is hardly possible for any one to enter the Eightfold Path unless he becomes a monk. 5. Ignorance. Among the evil principles, yielding to which is productive of sin, demerit, and suffering, none occupy so prominent a place as ignorance (Avijja), thirst or desire (Tanha), and clinging to ex- istence (Upadana). Ignorance consists in not know- ing that all life is suffering, and that suffering is the BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA 10$ result of indulging in lusts and desires and will only cease when all lusts and desires are completely con- quered and destroyed. The Dhammapada says: " But there is a taint worse than all taints ; ignorance is the greatest taint. O Mendicants, throw off that taint and become taintless." Men naturally forget that impermanence and change are inherent elements of existence. " He who knows," says the Dhamma- pada, " that this body is like froth, and has learnt that it is as unsubstantial as a mirage, will break the flower- tinted arrow of Mara and never see the King of Death." " All created things perish ; he who knows and sees this becomes passive in pain; this is the way to purity." The Maghasutta says : " For there is not any means by which those who have been born can avoid dying ; after reaching old age there is death ; of such a nature are living beings." 6. Thirst or Desire. Another prominent evil prin- ciple in the production of sinful acts is Tanha, thirst, or desire. Its importance is seen from the place which it occupies in the Four Noble Truths. The fol- lowing passages point out its power over men : " Men driven on by thirst run about like a snared hare ; held in fetters and bonds they undergo pain for a long time again and again. Men driven on by thirst run about like a snared hare; let, therefore, the Mendicant drive out thirst by striving after passionlessness for himself." ; ' Those whose wishes are their motives, who are linked to the pleasures of the world, they are difficult to liberate, for they cannot be liberated by others." The persistence of the power and development of Tanha is compared to the Birana grass, a terrible pest to the tiller of the soil, which spreads rapidly and shoots IO6 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS down deep roots, so that when the tiller thinks that he has rooted it up, it suddenly springs up again with a rapid growth. " Whomsoever this fierce thirst over- comes, full of poison in this world, his sufferings in- crease like the abounding Birana grass." " This salutary word I tell you; do ye, as many as are as- sembled, dig up the root of thirst, as he who wants the sweet scented Usira root must dig up the Birana grass, that Mara [the tempter] may not crush you again and again, as the stream crushes the reeds." 7. Clinging to Existence. Tanha is not only the desire for sensuous pleasures, the craving of the senses, but it is also Upadana, the clinging to existence. Far below the sensuous desires at the root of being are innate longings for existence, often held uncon- sciously. The explanation is this. The Second Noble Truth declares that all desire leads to existence. It perpetuates birth after birth. If there was no contact of the senses with external things, there would be no grasping after external things, and so there would be no desire for personal existence in this or other worlds ; and one basis of sin, one source of sorrow would cease. " I see in this world this trembling race given to desire for existences. "He is a wise and accom- plished man in this world; having abandoned this cleaving to reiterated existence he is without desire, free from woe, free from longing; he has crossed over birth and old age." The man who has con- quered Ignorance, Desire, and Clinging to Existence can say : " I have conquered all, I know all, in all con- ditions of life I am free from taint ; I have left all, and through the destruction of thirst, I am free; having learnt myself, whom shall I teach ?" Sin is thus in the BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA IO/ Buddhist sense, the thought or act which produces suffering; it has no reference to the breaking of the law of a supremely Holy Being. VII. The Doctrine of Karma. i. What Trans- migration Explains. Ignorance with its outcome of sin entails, as we have seen, a series of numberless successive lives in some form until by the acquirement of the Four Noble Truths the Deliverance of Nirvana is reached. The doctrine of transmigration is the theory which attempts the solution of the problem of evil. Present evil existence is the result of evil in a preceding existence. Future existence will be full of happiness or sorrow according to the character of this present life. Here is the explanation of the anomalies, wrongs, and evils, as well as the happiness, prosperity, and blessings so unequally distributed among men. But at last, with ignorance dispelled, the mind becomes " knowledge-freed " and grasps the principle that suf- fering is the inevitable attribute of all existence. The impossibility of escape is thus graphically described: " Not in the sky, not in the midst of the sea, not if we enter into the clefts of the mountains, is there known a spot in the whole world where a man might be freed from an evil deed." 2. Karma Defined. The great cause of transmigra- tion is Karma. Karma primarily means act, but as a Buddhist term it means act-force. Rhys Davids calls it " the conservation of moral energy." The idea is that when a sentient being dies Karma, the resultant force of all his past actions, brings into existence a new being whose state is happy or miserable according" to the desert, good or evil, embodied in that resultant force. In an interview with Gautama, a young IO8 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS Brahman said : " From some cause or other mankind receive existence ; but there are some persons who are exalted, others are mean; some who die young, others who live to a great age ; some who suffer from various diseases, others who have no sickness until they die; some who are of mean birth, others who belong to the highest castes. What is the cause of these dif- ferences? What is it that appoints or controls these discrepancies ? " To which Buddha replied : " All sentient beings have their own individual Karma; the most essential property of all beings is their Karma; Karma comes by inheritance, not from parentage, but from previous births ; Karma is the cause of all good and evil. It is the difference in Karma that causes the difference in the lot of man, so that some are mean and others are exalted, some are miserable and others are happy." Thus there is no law of heredity in Buddhism, but in figure all action of a sentient being may be looked upon as seed sown from which a partial fruitage is reaped in the world, but much of the seed, made up of good or bad elements, has re- mained to spring forth after his death and bear fruit in the existence of a new being whose character, con- dition, and place of living are determined by it. The being who dies is not reborn. Another person is born, bearing the results, good or evil, of the life of the being who died. The Skandhas of one being dis- solve and new Skandhas appear in the new being de- termined by the Karma of the former being. In other words, there is no continuity of identity. Here is a difficulty, for one would naturally expect that every moral idea would demand the continuity of personal identity, when such a moral act-force was to de- BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA ICX) termine the character of another existence. But there is no soul in the Buddhist system, and there is no actual identity of any kind between the two sentient beings that the action of Karma connects, except per- haps the relation which the seed has between the plant which produced it and the plant which it pro- duces. Yet sometimes Gautama seems to imply a very intimate connection between the two beings joined by Karma. The Dhammapada says: "The virtuous man delights in this world, and he delights in the next; he delights in both. The evil doer suf- fers in this world, and he suffers in the next; he suffers in both." The sacred books, however, clearly teach non-identity in the absence of a soul in man. VIII. Salvation. i. Buddhist Idea of Salvation and Sin. In Buddhism salvation means an es- cape from existence which is regarded as in- herently and only evil and full of suffering. There is no place for the forgiveness of sins ; for there is no God of infinite power and love, no all-powerful Sav- ior like Christ to redeem from the power of sin and death and to restore to a life of everlasting harmony with God. Sins arise out of the evil condition be- longing to the body, and their punishment follows with unerring certainty. " All that we are is the result of what we have thought ; it is founded on our own thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the carriage." Inexorable law occupies the place of God in Gautama's system and rules the lives and destinies of men. Forgiveness is an impossibility, for there is no one who can forgive. Retribution in IIO RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS oneself is set forth in ghastly pictures of torments in hells, which have only a partial and temporary part in the punishment of evil deeds, successive rebirths for ages being necessary to complete the expiation. 2. Salvation an Intellectual Act. Salvation is a purely intellectual attainment, as is. indicated by the derivation of the name Buddha from budh, to know. Gautama reached salvation by attaining the Great Enlightenment, a mental, not a spiritual condition. It is by a perfect mental apprehension of the Four Noble Truths that a man reaches emancipation and passes beyond the ocean of Sarhsara (transmigration) and the unconscious calm or non-existence of Nirvana. " He who takes refuge in Buddha, the Law, and the Sangha, he who with clear understanding sees the Four Noble Truths, namely, suffering, the origin of suffering, the destruction of suffering, and the Eight- fold Path that leads to the quieting of suffering that is the safe refuge, that is the best refuge ; having gone to that refuge, a man is delivered from all pain." 3. Salvation Self -wrought. In Buddhism salvation is a self-wrought thing. " By oneself the evil is done, by oneself one suffers ; by oneself evil is left undone, by oneself one is purified. Purity and impurity belong to oneself ; no one can purify another." " Those who are ever watchful, who study day and night, and who strive after Nirvana, their passions will come to an end." " Self is lord of self ; who else could be lord ? With self well subdued, a man finds a lord such as few can find." In the event of Gautama's attainment of Buddhahood under the Bo Tree he claimed to have arrived unaided at perfect insight into the nature and BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA III cause of sorrow and the method by which it might be destroyed. Man is his own savior. 4. Underlying Principle of Salvation. One great principle is laid down for the working out of salvation. A man abandoning home from homelessness must enter the solitary life of a monk and, pursuing only " right action," must abandon himself to intense self- concentration and profound abstract meditation until the Great Enlightenment breaks upon him. While he keeps the Ten Precepts which pertain to external things, he must strenuously tread the Eightfold Path. The Dhammapada says : " The best of ways is the eightfold ; the best of truths, the four words ; the best of virtues, passionlessness ; the best of men, he who has eyes to see. This is the way there is no other that leads to the purifying of intelligence." 5. Stages of Solidification. The steps of the Eightfold Path have been already mentioned, but the eighth step is more complex than the others and needs some explanation. It has several stages. The first stage is complete emancipation from the first three fetters delusion of self, doubt about Buddha and his doctrines, and belief in the efficacy of external rites. A man who has gained this stage of sanctifica- tion is called a Sotapanno, " one who has entered the stream." This stream will carry him along to the tranquil sea of Nirvana, whatever existences may re- main to him. He cannot be reborn in the lower worlds but only in the world of man, or in one of the higher worlds. In the first stage of Jhana by which this first stage of sanctification is reached, a man se- cludes himself and, full of the spirit of reflection, fixes his thinking faculties on some particular object until 112 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS a state of ecstatic joy and serenity are produced. The second state of sanctification is such an emanci- pation from the power of sensuality and hatred that the person will be reborn in this world only once more. He is called a Sakadagami, " one returning once [to this world]." In the second stage of Jhana by which this second stage of sanctification is attained, a man has such a profound concentration of mind that the action of the thinking faculties cease and only ecstatic joy and serenity remain. The third stage of sanctification is entire emancipaton from the first five fetters, not a trace of low desire for self or toward others remaining. He is called Anagami, " one who will not return [to this world]." In the third stage of Jhana by which this end is reached, only perfect serenity remains and only one existence in a Rupa- brahma world lies before him. The fourth stage of sanctification is complete emancipation, Arhatship, in which the mind, purified, exalted, is without any emo- tion of pain or pleasure. The ten fetters are com- pletely broken. No bond attaches the man to exist- ence any longer. Freed from the power of Karma, he would experience no re-birth after death. He is an Arhat, or " worthy one." In the fourth stage of Jhana by which Arhatship is reached, serenity ceases to exist. The Arhat becomes completely indifferent to all things good or evil and dwells in a rapt, trance- like ecstasy. These are the processes by which a man, through ages of re-birth, slowly drops off the evils and impurities of existence, becomes more and more freed from all illusion about its phenomena, advances in moral holiness, reaches at last a complete disentan- glement of the web of Karma, enters upon a state of BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA 113 supernatural ecstatic tranquillity which is undisturbed by any of the attributes which we consider a necessary part of existence, and at the death of the body attains the longed for goal of complete Nirvana. IX. Nirvana. I. Two Senses of the Term. The highest attainment, the summum bonum which Bud- dhism holds out to its followers is Nirvana. The term is derived from nir, not, and va, to blow, and has been the source of earnest discussion among the students of Buddhism. The term was borrowed from Brahman- ism, where it meant the cessation of the individual soul-life by its re-absorption into Brahm, the World- Spirit. Gautama, however, rejected the idea of a soul and a supreme World-Spirit. In the sacred books Nirvana is used to cover two sets of expressions. In one it means a blissful freedom from human desire and passion ; in the other it implies the actual cessa- tion of existence or, at least, virtual annihilation. In the former case, as in the Dhammapada, it applies to Arhats and denotes a state of complete calm which belongs to the final stage of sanctification. In the latter case it denotes not only the Nirvana which the Arhat attains but the complete end of the series of conscious bodily organizations which takes place at the death of an Arhat, or a Buddha, and is an utter extinction of being. The first meaning is seen in the " Joyful Utterance " of Gautama when he reached the calm of the conquest of Arhatship under the Bo Tree. " I ran through many birth transmigrations, seeking the builder of this house, but did not find him; re- peated births are miserable. O, housebuilder, thou hast been seen ; thou shalt not build the house again ; all thy rafters are broken ; the ridgepole is destroyed ; 114 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS the mind is destroyed ; it has attained the extinction of desires." This was Nirvana in its first sense. Ignor- ance, depravity, desire, clinging to existence had been destroyed and the action of Karma brought to an end. But Gautama lived for many years in the Nirvana. The Skandhanirvana, the destruction of the elements of physical being, could come only at his death. 2. Parinirvana. In the case of Gautama this final and complete Nirvana is called Parinirvana; and, notwithstanding those who, under the influence of Western feeling which shrinks from the idea of an- nihilation, seek to define it as a calm, passionless, un- conscious existence, it means extinction of all exist- ence. The metaphysical distinction between the two ideas is so tenuous as to amount to nothing. The Brahma jalasutta gives the idea of extinction. " When the stalk to which a bunch of mangoes is united is cut off, all the mangoes united to that stalk accompany it ; even so, monks, the body of Tathagata, whose stalk of existence is entirely cut off, still remains ; and so long as the body remains, he will be seen by gods and men ; but upon the termination of life, when the body is broken up, gods and men shall not see him." X. Buddhist Ethics. The ethical teaching of Buddhism is lofty and noble. By some it has been ranked not only next to, but above that of Christianity among the great religions of the world. There are, indeed, many real similarities, but there are also many which are only superficial. Radically different funda- mental principles underlie the two systems of teaching which it will be necessary to refer to later. i. Object of Ethics. The moral tone of the Bud- dhist precepts is intensely earnest. The object is not BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA 1 15 simply external morality, but an inward morality of the mind. To follow the precepts outwardly is not enough. There must be the sincere desire of the mind to embody the precepts in daily life. Without inward sincerity as a possession, even a monk is one only in name. 2. Requirements Differ for Monks and Laity. While the moral precepts are deemed applicable to all Buddhists, yet only the members of the celibate San- gha, by following the special rules of monastic life to- gether with the moral precepts, could possibly attain the highest good, Nirvana. In view of the necessary conditions of ordinary life of those who could not enter the Saiigha, Gautama established a secondary way for the laity, or householders (gahapati), as they were styled, and in a certain degree associated them with his Sangha as a recognized religious class of men. Such might, through the observance of the precepts, attain a heavenly state (Sugati), but could never escape from the grip of Karma and existence. To reach the end of sorrow in Nirvana, the householder must enter the mendicant ranks. The Khaggavisanasutta says of the householder, " Removing the characteristics of a householder like a Parikhatta tree whose leaves are cut off, clothed in a yellow robe after wandering away [from his house] let him wander alone like a rhino- ceros." 3. Five Precepts. Perhaps none of the rules of moral conduct are more prominent in the Buddhist system and more frequently on the lips of its followers, than the five fundamental rules, called the Pancaslla. They are : (i) One should not take life. Il6 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS (2) One should not steal. (3) One should not commit adultery. (4) One should not lie. (5) One should not drink intoxicating liquor. These Five Precepts are binding on all Buddhists, and are a part of the Ten Precepts binding on all monks. The five additional precepts for monks con- cern external practice and have no moral element in them except the cultivation of humility and soberness of life. The third of the Five Precepts needs farther explanation. Entire abstinence from sexual inter- course was obligatory on the monk. Without this abstinence no one could enter upon the direct path to Arhatship and Nirvana. " A wise man should avoid married life as if it were a pit of burning coals." The Munisutta says : " From acquaintanceship arises fear, from household life arises defilement; the houseless state, freedom from acquaintanceship, this is indeed the view of the Muni." The idea that marriage or a happy home life was evil was a direct antagonism to human nature. A recoil naturally arose from the uni- versal application of this doctrine of celibacy. As Gautama won a large number of disciples, the people complained, "Gautama is breaking up family life." They saw that the perpetuation of the race would give place to childlessness and the extinction of the family. Gautama found a relaxation of his rule a necessity. Marriage was allowed to the " householder," and its upright moral character was assured to him by the approval of Gautama ; but the " householder," could never enter the Eightfold Path, the Path of Salvation, unless he adopted the celibacy of a monk. It is a curious case of yielding apparently to the popular will, BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA while Gautama still maintained that desire in any form was one of the great evils of human existence. 4. Miscellaneous Precepts. A quotation of some of the moral precepts from different parts of the sacred books will convey a good conception of their character. Anger. " He who holds back rising anger like a rolling chariot, him I call a real driver ; other people are but holding the reins." " Him I call indeed a Brah- mana who is tolerant with the intolerant, mild with faultfinders, and free from passion among the passion- ate. Him I call indeed a Brahmana from whom anger and hatred, pride and envy have dropped like a mustard seed from the point of a needle." Hatred. " For hatred does not cease by hatred at any time. Hatred ceases by love ; this is an old rule." Pride. " The person who, without being asked, praises his own virtue and [holy] works to others, him the good call ignoble, one who praises himself." Hyprocrisy. " Many men whose shoulders are cov- ered with the yellow robe are ill-conditioned and unre- strained ; such evil doers by their evil deeds go to hell." " What is the use of platted hair, O fools [referring to the Hindu ascetics] ! What of the raiment of goat- skins ! Within thee there is ravening, but the outside, thou makest clean." Love of Evil Company. " He who walks in the company of fools suffers a long way. Company with fools, as with an enemy, is always painful; company with the wise is pleasure, like meeting with kinsfolk." Love of Riches. " ' These sons belong to me.' With such, a fool is tormented. He himself does not belong to himself ; how much less sons and wealth." The Ten Perfections. The Perfections are an un- Ii8 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS scientifically arranged set of transcendent virtues, the perfect exercise of which belongs only to those who are in the path of Arhatship and are a preliminary condi- tion to the attainment of Nirvana. Underlying them are fundamental virtuous principles which are recog- nized and inculcated as a desirable attainment by all. Love, or Loving-kindness, (Metta) is much dwelt upon. It is an attitude of kindly compassionate feeling, and is not necessarily a motive of action. It seeks concord with others. " Let us cultivate goodwill toward all the world, a boundless [friendly] mind, above and below and across, unobstructed, without hatred, without enmity." It also abstains from doing injury to others, "Whosoever in this world harms living beings, whether once or twice born, and in whom there is no compassion for living beings, let one know him as an outcast." The conception is a narrow one compared with the outgoing force of Christian love. Self-control. "As rain does not break through a well-thatched house, passion will not break through a well reflecting mind." " If one man conquer in bat- tle a thousand times thousand men, and if another con quer himself, he is the greatest of conquerors." Forbearance. " Silently shall I endure abuse as the elephant in battle endures the arrow sent from the bow, for the world is ill-natured." Recognition of Equality. " I do not call a man a Brahmana because of his origin or of his mother. He is indeed arrogant and he is wealthy ; but the poor who is free from all attachments, him I call indeed a Brah- mana." Filial Love. " The gift of the whole world with BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA all its wealth would be no adequate return to parents for all that they have done." Reverence for Age. " He who always greets and constantly reveres the aged, four things will increase to him, viz., life, beauty, happiness, power." Liberality is enforced, but it is not a generous giving to others. The word danarh, gift, is used generally in the special Buddhist sense of giving to the monks. The object of this giving is not philanthropic, but for the simple purpose of securing the merit which follows as a reward. The result is, that while the devout Budd- hist will build zayats, or rest houses, dig wells, and do other things of more or less public utility, these things are not primarily for the good of others, but for the attainment of personal merit. 5. The Basis of Buddhist and of Christian Ethics. These quotations show that the Buddhist ethical sys- tem has much that is very beautiful and noble, and that it furnishes a high ideal of personal kindness, moral earnestness, and purity. Examination of the basis on which the system rests and the object which it seeks shows at once that there is a radical difference of basis from that on which the Christian system rests. The foundation of Buddhist morality, as well as its end, is self-interest. It seeks to direct self-repression for the express benefit of self; and that benefit, when it cul- minates, is the release of self from existence and the extinction of self in Nirvana. It starts with the as- sumption that all existence is evil through suffering and impermanence, and it uses its principles as a means by which the personal individuality of a man may be utterly destroyed by himself. The basis of Christian ethics is an unselfishness by which life is purified and I2O RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS made a beautiful ministry to others as a service of God. As Buddhist ethics center in self in their application, they are naturally comparatively passive in form ; while Christian ethics, without stopping at the benefit of self, flow out in strenuous influence to make man an ardent lover of his fellow and a reverent servant of God. XI. Outward Religious Forms. i. Pagodas and Worship Days. Buddhist piety covers the land with pagodas, in which sacred relics are supposed to be en- shrined, and with monasteries for the residence of the monks. The desire to obtain merit is the moving prin- ciple in the building cf these shrines and retreats for monastic life. Whenever it is possible, the pagoda oc- cupies the summit of a hill or some other sightly place and gives picturesqueness to the view. On wor- ship days, and especially at great feasts, the people visit the pagodas and monasteries with their offerings and recite their religious formulae, sure of increasing their stock of merit. There are four worship days in each lunar month, the crescent, the full moon, the eighth day of the waning, and the change, or " dark- moon." Devout Buddhists observe the four days. They are careful to visit the pagodas, and, after having worshipped, they spend the day in neighboring zayats or resthouses built near by, where they repeat their rosaries, talk of the Law or of the topics of the day, and, if opportunity offers, gather about monks, who recite passages from the sacred books. Though there is no power but public opinion to condemn absence, the worldly minded do not miss very many of these ap- pointed days, because of the opportunities for gay social intercourse and the outside amusements which are furnished for the occasion. BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA 121 2. Lent in Burma. Lent, from the full moon of July to the full moon of October, differs from the rest of the year in that all laymen are expected to make special effort in the observance of the weekly worship days. Lent arose from the custom of the Buddha and his disciples to cease to itinerate during the rainy sea- son and to retire to some monastery to mediate on the sacred law and to expound it to any who might wish to listen. No theatricals, no marriages are allowed in Lent. Taking place in the rainy season, as it is the time for preparing the land for the crop, so it is the time for special religious effort for the future. The congregations on the worship days are much more crowded than at other times of the year. The scene at the great Shwe Dagon pagoda in Rangoon on the festi- val days at the end of Lent is wonderfully fine and im- pressive. People alone or in groups, gayly clad and in holiday spirit, wind up the stone steps under the richly carved roofs of the long line of porticoes by which the lofty platform of the pagoda is approached. Stalls for the sale of flowers and candles to worshippers, and of thin sheets of goldleaf for overlaying the surface of the pagoda, and stalls for the sale of marvelous toys, jewelry, Burmese literature, and many other things fully occupy either side of the ascent. When one has once arrived on the platform, the great golden cone of Shwe Dagon rises in magnificent symmetry, over 360 feet in height, surmounted by the great umbrella, with its gold and silver bells, whence every passing breeze elicits music of wonderful sweetness, and the finial flag of solid gold set with precious gems of every de- scription. On the crowded platform, pious worship- pers, singly or in groups, with hands holding lighted 122 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS candles or bright colored flowers, kneel on the bare flagging, while endless streams of people, eager to see and to talk, move to and fro. The blending of wor- ship and festivity seems in no way to jar on the public sense. Popular worship is the same on all worship days and at all great festivals of the year. 3. Home Worship of Spirits. Private worship in the home does not exist very generally. Some earnest men read the sacred books, or tell the 108 beads of their rosary in the wearisome repetition, Aneiksa, doka, anatta " Impermanence, suffering, unreality." The worship of the pagoda is only thought of once in seven days ; in the home there is constant recognition of the presence of the spirits who have an intimate connec- tion with men from birth to death. These spirits must be propitiated lest they act with malevolence. When a house is built, the tops of the post* are covered with white hoods of cotton cloth for the comfortable abode of the house nat. Sometimes a hollow cocoanut is hung from the eaves in front of the house. A small flat piece of wood, fastened at the end of a short pole which is placed upright in the ground, is used for a nat altar, and a handful of cooked rice is laid upon it as an offering to the house nat. The preparation of the fields for the crops and the gathering of the harvest are preceded by offerings to the nats. Villages have their nats, for whom little shrines are erected just out- side of their limits, where tiny lamps, water-pots, flowers, and morsels of food are reverently placed. While the educated monks denounce this nat worship as heretical, it continues to maintain its hold on the people and conveys a feeling of comfort and assurance to them. All this shows how imperfect the hold of BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA 123 Buddhism is on the real life of the people. Still men who practice these customs would indignantly deny that they were not Buddhists. XII. Sects of Southern Buddhism. Buddhism is not free from sects. The divisions arise more in re- gard to the following of monkish discipline as taught in the Vinaya than in any broad difference of doctrine. In Burma the principal sects are two : the Mahagandi, who discard many of the strict rules of discipline,, wear silk robes, use sandals in walking, cover the head from the sun with an umbrella, and even have food cooked for themselves in their monastery enclosures ; and the Sulagandi sect, the Puritan party, which de- nounces the luxurious tendencies that have come in with the increase of wealth under the English gov- ernment. These, as well as the smaller sects, are very hostile to one another, refusing common worship and attendance at funerals of those of another sect, and even avoiding daily intercourse. XIII. Weaknesses of Buddhism. I. Without God. It is a colossal weakness of Buddhist belief that it has no supreme, eternal, perfect Being who rises above all other beings in the inherent perfection of His character, controls all things, and presents His own holy will as the unchanging rule of life. Buddha, who rises to such prominence like a meteor in the sky, is only a temporarily deified man. One of the first ef- forts of the Christian missionary must be to establish the doctrine of the eternal God as Creator and Moral Ruler of the world, by whose wisdom and power the universe exists. Down deep in the hearts of many of the common people is a latent, responsive feeling of the reasonableness of the existence of such a God. This 124 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS latent idea in many minds is an undoubted help to the missionary in trying to establish the fact of the being of God, for such often listen readily to arguments in favor of the doctrine. Some educated men have gone so far as to say that, as the marble or wooden image of Gautama represents him, so Gautama represents an unknown Supreme Being, but such cases are exceed- ingly rare. 2. No Basis for Conscience. With the absence of the belief in the existence of an eternal, omnipotent God who makes obedience to His perfect moral will the law of daily life, there is no basis for conscience in its best sense and for the stimulation of its exercise. The nearest approach to conscience in the Buddhist terminology is Ottapa, the mental state of fearing hell. Many ignorant people might not even know the word, which is of Pali origin; but the principle exists, for one of the most common excuses for not doing a wrong thing is, " I fear hell." It is from the lack of a keen conscience that lying and theft are regarded as trivial matters, from which very few would abstain if they thought circumstances were favorable to themselves. Though sensuality, earthly pleasure, and clinging to the objects of sense are forbidden, and purity, gentle- ness, and kindliness to others are inculcated, whatever of conscience may exist, its power is too weak to lead to the avoidance of the evil and the pursuit of the good. But when the idea of a holy God is accepted, con- science is developed with life and power. There comes a keen and correct discrimination of what is right and what is wrong in all thought and action as related to God's holy will, and likewise the incentive to obedience to that will, or the sweeping condemnation of dis- BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA obedience with consequent results of happiness or suf- fering. 3. Absence of True View of Sin. With the estab- lishment of a true conscience, the true doctrine of sin finds a foundation. Sin becomes the transgression of God's will, a great pervading evil in life. No such idea of sin exists in Buddhism. There are sins, the transgression of the moral precepts as the Buddhists know them, but there is no acknowledgment of a sin- ful state through the separation from God which the Christian religion teaches. 4. False Doctrine of Salvation. With the establish- ment of the existence of God, the awakening of con- science, and the recognition of man as a sinner against God through disobedience to His will, men are ready to understand the Christian doctrine of salvation. Here, as in the case of many religious terms, great care is necessary to insure a clear understanding of the meaning of the word. Otherwise a missionary and a Buddhist may talk at cross purposes. The Christian and the Buddhist ideas of salvation are opposites. The Buddhist conceives of salvation as the personal de- liverance of self by the efforts and actions of self cul- minating after numberless existences in the attainment of Nirvana. He denies absolutely that one can be in any way saved by another. Distant and almost im- practicable as his self-wrought salvation seems, he re- jects vigorously the possibility of a divine Savior. When Gautama is called the savior, it is simply be- cause he has made known the path of deliverance from evil, and not because he is in any way active in the deliverance of a person. Yet at the moment that God and sin become facts to the Buddhist, he realizes the 126 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS impotence of his own attempts at working out salvation and is ready to see the infinite grace and love which provides a Redeemer who not only opens a way of sal- vation, but is active in effecting the deliverance of the individual soul from the power of sin and death. 5. Doctrine of Merit, The doctrine of Kusala, or merit, which is so "intimately interwoven with the Buddhist idea of salvation, is a source of moral weak- ness. It caters to man's love of self-righteousness. This doctrine exerts a very powerful influence in the life of the people and often overshadows the moral in- fluence of the ethical system. The Dhammapada says, " He whose evil deeds are covered by good deeds brightens up this world like the moon when freed from clouds." These good deeds do not necessarily involve any moral principle. They may be mere external acts according to the law, like the offering of flowers at a pagoda, whose sole purpose is to accumulate merit by the gift. Theoretically the principle of "good-inten- tion " should underlie the gifts, but practically it is lost sight of by a large number of people who act on the idea that the mere act of making offerings secures merit. More than this, men deliberately do evil and console themselves by making offerings whose merit will offset their demerit. They thus deliberately bal- ance Kusala and Akusala, and the moral quality of action is completely ignored. The effect on personal life is to minimize whatever moral force exists in the popular religion. Men spend much, according to their means, in the erection of pagodas, monasteries, and rest-houses, in the support of monks and the great variety of offerings in worship, without being con- BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA 127 scious of the movement of any moral feeling or ,of any resultant moral benefit. 6. A Religion of the Intellect Only. Another point of weakness has already been alluded to in the fact that Buddhism is a religion of the intellect. Man has no soul, and there can be no appeal to spiritual de- velopment. Enlightenment of the mind by meditation, so that the mind may gain that clear and complete un- derstanding of all things which dispels ignorance and ends the voyage across the crossing waves of the ocean of existence, was the great object sought by Gautama. Moral perfection, as a soul life, is not stimulated, though moral principles are inculcated; hence the moral forces in Buddhism are weakened and the ex- ternal life takes an undue prominence. Men seek to follow the prohibitions of their religion, but the moral quality is not the determining power of the action. The Christian missionary is often tried by the intellec- tual assent to the truths which he preaches, because there is no corresponding heart assent which changes the life. The convert often looks at Christianity with the same mental attitude which he has hitherto held toward his ancestral religion. The lack of the need of a heart assent, as demanded by Christianity, has gone far to produce a low moral plane of popular life. 7. Effects of Belief in Karma. One effect of the doctrine of Karma in the life of the common people has been to make man accept life in an almost fatalistic sense. The events, the joys, and the sorrows of every day are not regarded as altogether the result of one's individual action. They are often attributed to the force of Karma acting upon them. The man who meets with trouble soothes himself with the remark, 128 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS " My Karma is evil." The man who has prosperity re- joices in the idea that his Karma is good. The feeling of responsibility for action with reference to its results and the consequent stimulant to high attainments are impaired. The popular mind often manifests a subtle indifference to misfortune and to success, whose secret is the idea that much in life is due to the overshadow- ing influence of Karma. Casual travelers have said that the Burmans are a very cheerful race. This is true in outward appearance at least; but, after all, it is not always due to a happy frame of mind, but rather to the acceptance of things as they come, as matters of course which nothing could hinder. Lam- entation over past evil is useless, and enjoyment should be extracted from the present moment, so far as pos- sible. XIV. Benefits Conferred by Buddhism. i. Civic and Social. Buddhism has conferred benefits on the peoples who have come under its influence. It pro- claims the equality of civil rights and social freedom. Men of the poorest families may rise to the highest positions. Caste is foreign to its spirit, and through its absence daily intercourse is easy and unrestricted. Women are accorded full independence of action. Un- trammeled by any repression, they take an active and prominent part in all forms of the business of daily life. 2. Education, Literature, and Art. These have been fostered under its influences, especially in the earlier centuries of its history. Great schools of Bud- dhist learning existed in India and Ceylon, and a large and varied literature was produced. Education has been perpetuated through the monastic schools BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA 129 which have continued to exist in every Buddhist coun- try. The remains of the sumptuous rock temples of India, the elaborate shrines of Anuradhapura and Pol- lonarua in Ceylon, and the massive pagodas of Pagan in Burma are monuments of the artistic culture which found a home among Buddhists of widely different regions. 3. Buddhist Ethics. The ethical system of Bud- dhism, notwithstanding other more or less antagonistic principles, has been a force for good in social and individual life. Whatever the egoistic object for which the system was preached, the common people could not help recognizing the excellence of the principles taught and being more or less influenced by them. These principles appealed with great force to the mind. Moral purity of thought, word, and action, though cultivated for personal merit, kept a lofty ideal before the mind. Men were constantly reminded that avarice was forbidden and generosity, charity, tolerance, and kindly feeling toward all sentient beings were in- culcated. War was condemned. The taking of life, even the life of any animal, was stringently forbidden. All this excellent moral system inevitably exercised a general influence for good, while individual minds susceptible to the truth have responded with personal effort to embody these virtues in life. XV. The Missionary's Attitude Toward Bud- dhism. i. Wisdom, Courtesy, Candor. The Chris- tian missionary who deals with Buddhists needs great wisdom and patience. It is an ancestral religion and is interwoven with the thought and life of the people from their earliest days. To expect a rapid ascendency of Christian truth over a mind thus pre-empted would 130 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS be foolish. The citadel must be taken by the slow ap- proaches of a siege. The fundamental doctrines of Buddhism are so opposite to those of Christianity, that one after another the truths of Christianity must be patiently established before a full and final acceptance of the Christian religion can be brought about. Wis- dom is required in finding the opportunity and in se- lecting the special truth that may be most suitable for the time and occasion. Local circumstances often de- cide these things. A courteous and candid spirit should always be maintained even in most trying con- ditions. The Buddhist respects the man who has self-control, as it is one of the strong points of his moral system. The great points of difference, God, the world, the nature of man, sin, the possibility of salvation, future existence, are liable to produce much friction of feeling, if not strong antagonism in thought and action. The great points of opposition cannot be avoided, but they can be often gradually approached through the use of the ethical system. Every true missionary will candidly acknowledge the excellence of the moral precepts and use them and any other form of truth in the Buddhist faith. They form a common basis of opinion whose acknowledge- ment pleases the Buddhist and predisposes him to give a more favorable hearing to doctrines which are not only strange and have no place in his religious sys.tem, but are fundamentally hostile to that system. 2. Meeting Objections. Objections urged against Christianity should be frankly discussed. There are many natural objections which inevitably arise, con- nected with the nature of God, the origin of evil, the possibility of salvation, the virgin birth of Christ, and BUDDHISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA the right to take animal life even for food. Unfortu- nately among the Buddhists who have come under the influence of Western education, books like those of Haeckel have strengthened natural objections in many minds. While discussions cannot be always avoided, the simple presentation of the truth and its wonderful adaptability to our highest wants is generally the most effective way of reaching the heart. A good knowl- edge of the Buddhist sacred books is a powerful aid. Not only does familiarity with these books insure re- spect and attention, but sometimes statements from them can be used with great force and effect on the side of truth. 3. Preaching and Private Conversations. Public preaching in chapel or by the wayside is a very im- portant means of evangelization, but successive private visits with those who seem ready to listen thoughtfully are of equal importance. Much of the former is like the seed sown by the wayside, while repeated visits give opportunity to nurse the fruitful seed when it springs up. I was once very much impressed by the remark of a scholarly native who assisted me in the translation of the Scriptures and after a year's service was baptized. When I said that I could not under- stand how so few of his people became Christians, he replied that he had heard much preaching in the bazaar before he came to me, but it was fragmentary and he did not understand. When he began to work on the New Testament day by day, however, the truth grew in his mind until he was ready to receive it as the message of God to man. V. BUDDHISM IN JAPAN BY REV. A. D. GRING, M.A., B.D. For Twenty-six Years a Missionary to Japan 133 BIBLIOGRAPHY See in addition works named in the Bibliography of ch. IV. *ATKINSON, J. L. Prince Siddartha, the Japanese Buddha (1893). *BEAL, S. Buddhism in China (1884). CLEMENT, E. W. A Handbook of Modern Japan (1903). Pp. 252-259. *DAVIDS, T. W. RHYS. Buddhism : Being a Sketch of the Life and Teachings of Gautama, the Buddha (1894). Chs. VIII, IX. DuBosE, H. C. The Dragon, Image, and Demon (1886). Chs. X-XVIII. EDKINS, J. Chinese Buddhism (1880). Especially chs. V- VII. GIBSON, J. C. Mission Problems and Mission Methods in South China (1901). Pp. 99-118. GILMOUR, J. Among the Mongols (1883). Chs. XVII, XVIII. GRAY, J. H. China : A History of the Laws, Manners, and Customs of the People (1878). Vol. I, pp. 105-137. *GRIFFIS, W. E. The Religions of Japan (1895). Chs. VI-X. GULICK, S. L. Evolution of the Japanese (1905). See index under " Buddhism." HEARN, L. Japan, an Attempt at Interpretation (1904). Chs. X XI HENRY, B. C. The Cross and the Dragon (1885). Ch. V. LLOYD, A. A. " Development of Japanese Buddhism " in Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Jo-pan, vols. XXI, XXII. MONIER- WILLIAMS, M. Buddhism and Its Connexion with Brahmanism and Hinduism (1890). Especially Lects. VII, XI. *NEVIUS, J. L. China and the Chinese (1882). Chs. VII, VIII. Popular. REIN, J. Japan: Travels and Researches (1884). Pp. 448- 463- RIJNHART, S. C. With the Tibetans in Tent and Temple (1901). Especially chs. VI, VII. ROCKHILL, W. W. The Life of the Buddha (1884). *Sacred Books of the East. Vol. XIX. *SATOW AND HAWES. Murray's Handbook for Travellers in Central and Northern Japan (1884). Pp. [7o]-[92]. *SAUSSAYE, P. D. CHANTEPIE DE LA. Lehrbuch der Reli- gionsgeschichte (1005). Bd. I, Ss. 104-114, 118-141. SCHLAGINTWEIT, E. Buddhism in Thibet (1882). .WADDELL, L. A. Lhasa and Its Mysteries (1905). Chs. II, XVII, XIX. Descriptive. * Indicates works of special value or authority. 134 BUDDHISM IN JAPAN 1. Shintoism Insufficient. After more than a thousand years of undisputed sway, Shintoism, " God- way," the indigenous cult of Japan and a modifica- tion of the ancestral worship of China, was found to be unsatisfying to the deeper instincts of the people. It was in reality no religion at all. It lacked in all the essentials of religion, having no creed, sanctions, nor vetoes, while every one seemed a law unto himself. It taught nothing concerning another life, and of definitive and positive rules for correct living in this life it was also silent. The consequent failure of Shin- toism to meet the spiritual aspirations of the people resulted in a deeply felt need of a new religion, and Buddhism came to supply this need. But how im- perfectly it succeeded in this, Buddhism's subsequent history in Japan abundantly shows. II. Korean Introduction of Buddhism. i. In- formal Efforts. The formal introduction of Buddhism in Japan was made in the year 522 A. D. Previous to this date, however, informal efforts were made by zealous missionaries to spread the alien faith, with ap- parently little success. The first Buddhist temple was erected in the little village of Sakatahara, in the Province Yamato, by Shiba Tatsu. 2. First Two Korean Embassies. In the year 552 J3S 136 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS an ambassador from the King of Kudara in Korea brought to the Court of Kimmei, the then reigning Em- peror of Japan, a golden image of Sakya-muni, to- gether with several Buddhist Sutras. The ambassa- dor was received respectfully and with marked favor by the Emperor and his Prime Minister, Soga-no- Iname, who converted one of his mansions into a tem- ple for the image of Buddha and the Sutras. The Emperor and other members of the Court, however, opposed the introduction of foreign gods, especially the worship of images. The result was that when an epidemic broke out it was attributed to the anger of the gods ; whereupon the Emperor caused the image to be thrown into the sea and the temple built for it to be rased. The principal men who stoutly opposed the introduction of Buddhism were Okoshi and Kumako, both of whom perished in the flames that consumed the Emperor's palace. Another delegation of nine priests came from Korea to take the place of those previously driven away. 3. Third Korean Mission. After the expiration of eighteen years, in 572 A. D., during the reign of Bi- datsu, son of the Emperor Kimmei Sama, a third mis- sion from Kudara was received. Its members were quartered near a temple in the neighborhood of Osaka. Umaka, the Prime Minister, together with high of- ficials who were formerly ambassadors to the Court of Korea and were converts of Buddhism, gave this mis- sion much assistance. Its personnel consisted of priests, nuns, carpenters, image-makers, and diviners ; a practical and complete mission, we should say. 4. Imperial Favor. In the year 585 the Emperor Yomei did much to advance the interests of this new BUDDHISM IN JAPAN 137 religion, despite the feeling against it on the part of many of the ruling classes, who feared the increase of Korean influence in Japan through it. At his death the conflict between Shintoism and Buddhism resulted in an open rebellion, in which Shintoism was defeated. In the year 588, through the Emperor Shujun's favor, Buddhism dominated at the Court, and five years there- after the Empress Suiko also gave what influence she wielded to the cause of Buddhism. 5. Japanese Buddhism's Constantine. Her great Prime Minister, Shotoku Taishi (572-621), also gave to it the influence of his learning and position. He was to Buddhism in Japan what Asoka was to Indian Buddhism and what Constantine was to Christianity in Europe. To Shotoku Taishi, more than to any other single individual, must be given the credit of the complete establishment of Buddhism in Japan. With him also ends the Korean period of Japanese Bud- dhism. III. Buddhist Influences from China. i. Chi- nese Sects. From this time onward the influence of China shows itself. The Japanese turned from Korea to study Buddhism at its Chinese centers. They brought back during the next century a number of Chinese Buddhist sects, all based upon the imperfect expositions of the Hina-yana or " Little Vehicle." These sects must be looked upon as so many schools of thought, or interpretations reflecting the mind of students of Buddhism in China. It is a fact worthy of note that while Buddhism in Japan remained in the hands and control of Korean and Chinese priests, a period of about 400 years, Buddhism did not take definite shape as a native institution in Japan. 138 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS 2. Japan's Two Famous Prelates. Buddhism did not begin to lay hold of the national life of Japan, until the famous Japanese prelates and saints, Kobo Daishi and Dengyo Daishi, returned (805-816) from China, whither they were sent to study Buddhism at Chinese sources. The former founded the great Shingon sect, the latter the equally great Tendai sect. These great preachers and teachers of Buddhism were the first to weld the alien faith and the indige- ous cult into one by cleverly devised interpretations of both, and Ryobu, " Two Departments," was the result. Shintoism and Buddhism from this time forth dropped their opposition and differences and went on their way together, feeling that both had a mission in Japan, differing only in their interpretations of one and the same great truth, namely, that Ame- terasu no Mi Kami, the .supreme Shinto deity, together with other lesser Shinto gods, were in reality incar- nations of Buddha. From this time forth Buddhism took firm hold upon the people at large and retained its grip with greater or less tenacity until within recent years. IV. Centuries of Prosperity. i. Court Favor. Never was a faith introduced into a foreign country with brighter prospects of success. Nowhere did Buddhism receive such a hearty and sustained support from the Court of any land to which it went as it did in that of Japan, especially in the seventh and eighth centuries. These two, together with the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when the four principal Japanese sects arose, may be called very fittingly the period of greatest religious fervor in the history of Japan. 2. Temple Building Era. During the first of these BUDDHISM IN JAPAN 139 two periods, viz., the seventh and eighth centuries, many of the most magnificent temples were erected at an enormous expense and were richly endowed. Great quantities of gold, silver, and bronze were used in the decorations of these temples, and in the making of images. The Emperor Temmu (673-686) ordered a Butsu-dan, " Buddha place," to be placed in every house, and on every Butsu-dan was to be found an image of Buddha. A few of the great temples and shrines, built during the above mentioned period of religious fervor, are still in evidence, as the great tem- ple at Nara, and the celebrated colossal Dai-butsu, " Great Buddha," which the Emperor Shomu caused to be erected as a memorial of the reconciliation of Shinto- ism and Buddhism in Japan. The copper used in the construction of this magnificent image of Buddha was to represent Shintoism, while the gold was intended to represent Buddhism. 3. Image-makers Encouraged. Not only were the rank and file of the people called upon to set apart in their homes and dwellings what might be called ora- tories for the worship of Buddha, but princes of the blood and ministers of state were also obliged to set apart a portion of their mansions for the same pur- pose. For the encouragement of image-makers, rank and rewards were settled upon them. This fact may account for the high position of the artisan in Japan and the many beautiful specimens of his work in this country. 4. Women Propagators of Buddhism. It will be interesting to note the large part which the women of Japan had in the propagation and establishment of Buddhism. Here, as in other spheres, they have as- I4O RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS sumed an honorable role. The six Empresses who held sway during the period between 591-759 were all ardent and devoted Buddhists and did very much to give the religion a position of eminence. The Em- press Dowager Koken (749-758), went so far as to organize a religious government distinct from the " secular, and issued orders for the ruling of the pub- lic and private lives of her subjects. Priests were ad- mitted to a share in the administration of the govern- ment. To be a Buddhist was to have entree to society. An inspiring incident in the life of the Empress Komyo, a. devoted Buddhist, will not be out of place here. " In obedience to a voice audible to herself alone she made a vow to wash with her own hands the bodies of a thousand beggars. The task had been completed as far as 999, when there presented himself a loath- some leper covered with revolting sores. The coura- geous woman did not hesitate. She proceeded to wash the leper; and when he told her that if there were found in all the world any woman sufficiently merciful to draw the venom from his sores with her mouth, he should be healed, she did him that service. Thereupon the place was filled with dazzling effulgence ; an ex- quisite aroma diffused itself around, and the leper de- claring himself the Buddha disappeared." (Brinkley.) V. Explanation of Japan's Ready Acceptance of Buddhism. We come now to ask two very important questions, and to partially answer them. i. Open-mindedness and Love of Learning. First: What characteristic attitude of mind was there in the people of Japan that led both the Court, and later the people at large, to give this alien Indian creed such a warm and genuine reception? What peculiar charm BUDDHISM IN JAPAN 14! enabled Buddhism to put even the Court of Japan to school, as it were, as eager and ardent students under foreign teachers, and their priests to study a foreign re- ligion which in its essence could leave no room for Shintoism? Never in the history of education do we meet with a school similar to that of the Court of Yamato, where the instructors were foreign priests and the pupils emperors and empresses, princes and prin- cesses of the blood-royal. We might answer this question by suggesting a number of reasons, but we will confine ourselves to two only. First, the open- mindedness of the people; second, an innate and ever present desire to learn and progress. The open charac- ter of their island empire, looking from all sides out into the open sea, seems in some mysterious way to have imparted the same characteristic to the people who inhabit it. From the earliest dawn of their his- tory, while living through long periods of seclusion and isolation, they have nevertheless kept their minds ever alert to new and outside impressions. They have an insatiate thirst for knowledge and a laudable ambition to stand shoulder to shoulder with the foreigner, what- ever his name or color. When Buddhism entered from the great Empire of China, her learned priests found the attitude of the Court to be that of a polite, modest, and willing student, possessed of an open and inquiring mind. 2. Buddhism's Hopes and Aspirations. Second, What did the Court of Japan, and later the people at large, see in Buddhism that appealed to them so strongly? Whatever else the Court saw in Buddhism they did not fail to see in it a splendid organization and a richly laden vehicle of a civilization, literature, arts, 142 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS and philosophy far superior to their own. The peo- ple saw in Buddhism a divine tolerance, a gorgeous ritual, definitive moral vetoes and sanctions, and glow- ing promises of a future happy life as the possible aim of all. They saw in its wide tolerance spiritual libera- tion, since Buddhism opened the way for every person, irrespective of rank and social position, to reach the highest stage of spiritual development. It not only made it possible for every one to become a Buddha, but, indeed, urged upon all to make this their sole aim. The Imperial family, patricians, and plebeians could alike aspire to reach the same goal. None could re- ceive more, and no one should be content with less. It invited all without distinction to the society of the gods. This divine charity for all men came as a great spiritual relief, especially to the lower classes, who, in the eyes of Shintoism, were excluded from all hope of ever being admitted to the society of their deities, or yet to the society of the Imperial and patrician classes. Shintoism taught that the distinctions which exist on earth will also exist in the future world, and there- fore for them there was little hope, either here or here- after, of passing beyond the narrow confines which their birth imposed upon them. They saw in Bud- dHfsm what we see in Christianity, an unbounded sym- pathy and tolerance for all persons. Righteousness was the only standard to which kings and subjects alike might aspire. The gorgeous ritual, the impos- ing architecture, the reverential worship, and the glow- ing and inspiring hopes of a future life all appealed powerfully to the humble classes especially whose life was full of toil and sorrows, but in whose hearts BUDDHISM IN JAPAN 143 nevertheless burns the fire of discontent and noble aspirations. 3. Buddhism the Source of Japan's Civilisation. We may safely say, therefore, that of all the many helpful and elevating inspirations which Japan for centuries received from her great neighbor on the west, there are none that can begin to compare in point of influence and uplift with those received through Buddhism. It would be impossible to specify what these benefits were, since it would be tantamount to writing the history of Japan with almost infinite de- tail for more than twelve centuries, so thoroughly and completely did this Indian creed, especially in its modi- fied forms, encircle and permeate every department of her private and national life. While it would be in- correct to say that Buddhism brought only good to Japan, nevertheless the good it brought far outweighed the evil. VI. The Buddhism of Japan. I. Adapted to National Needs. As in various parts of India and China, so in Japan Buddhism underwent many modifi- cations. It was always ready to compromise, always ready to adapt itself to existing beliefs and super- stitions. In no country were these compromises greater and more frequent than in Japan. The buoy- ant, nervous, practical, and resourceful Japanese, ever desirous for quick results, found in Buddhism much that did not appeal to them; consequently, with that peculiar genius for eclecticism which especially distinguishes them from all other peoples, they began to adapt it to their needs. The interminable fastings, sacrifices, penances, prayers, seclusions were distasteful ind irritating to the peculiar temperament of the peo- 144 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS pie. The endless aeons through which the soul was obliged to pass before it reached the point of absorp- tion into Nirvana (Nihan) were made to give place to the general doctrine that the soul of man immediately after the death of the body enters upon its final state, the society of the gods. 2. What Gautama Thought of Himself. In speak- ing to his disciples on one occasion, he made these claims for himself : " Those only who do not believe, call me Gautama Siddartha; but you call me Buddha, the Blessed One, and Teacher. This is right, for I have even in this life entered Nirvana, and the life of Gautama Siddartha has been extinguished. Self has disappeared and the truth has taken its abode in me. This body of mine is Gautama's body, which will be dissolved in due time; and after its dissolu- tion, no one, neither God nor man, will see Gautama Siddartha again. But Buddha will not die; Buddha will continue to live in the holy body of the law. " The extinction of the Blessed One will be by that passing away in which nothing remains that could tend to the formation of another self. Nor will it be possible to point out the Blessed One as being here or there. But it will be like a great body of flaming fire. That flame has ceased; it has vanished, and it cannot be said that it is here or there. In the body of the dharma [the original, natural condition of things or beings, the law of their existence], the Blessed One, however, can be pointed out; for the dharma has been preached by the Blessed One. '' Ye are my children, I am your father ; through me ye have been released from your sufferings. I myself, having reached the other shore, help others BUDDHISM IN JAPAN 145 to cross the stream. I myself, having attained salva- tion, am a Savior of others; being comforted, I com- fort others and lead others to the place of refuge. I shall fill with joy all the beings whose limbs languish ; I shall give happiness to those who are dying from distress ; I shall extend to them succor and deliver- ance. I was born into the world as the King of Truth for the Salvation of the world. The Subject on which I meditate is truth. The practice to which I devote myself is truth. The topic of my con- versation is truth. My thoughts are always in the truth. For lo! myself has become the truth. I am the truth. Whosoever comprehendeth the truth, he will see the Blessed One, for the truth has been preached by the Blessed One." (Per Paul Carus). 3. Four Favors and their Obligations. The three great " Vehicles " of Buddhist teachings, viz., Hina- yana, " Little Vehicle," the Maha-yana, " Great Vehicle,", and the Eka-yana, " One Vehicle," all well- nigh endless, were summarized for practical purposes, particularly for the common people, into what are called the " Four Favors," Shi On, and the " Ten Commandments," Ju Zen. By the " Four Favors " are meant the benefits which men have received from four principal sources, viz., favor received from our parents and the favors received from mankind and all creation. The obligations which we owe to all man- kind and to creation are four-fold : The obligations to abstain from selfishness and covetousness ; the ob- ligation to speak kind words ; the duty of giving prac- tical aid when possible ; the duty of dealing impartially with all men. These obligations assume that the whole of sentient life stands related to man as his mother, sis- 146 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS ter, and brother. As the Japanese have beautifully ex- pressed it : " All males are my father ; all females are my mother; all creatures are my parents and my masters." 4. Commandments and Prohibitions. The ten pro- hibitions, or commandments, are divided into three groups according to the sources from which the sin proceeds, viz., three from the body, four from the mouth, three from the will. Group i: I. Prohibition against taking life ; II. Prohibition against theft ; III. Prohibition against adultery and impurity. Group 2: IV. Prohibition against lying ; V. Prohibition against equivocation, or jesting; VI. Prohibition against abusive language; VII. Prohibition against back- biting and a double tongue. Group j: VIII. Prohibi- tion against covetousness ; IX. Prohibition against an- ger; X. Prohibition against harboring depraved thoughts. In common thought, however, those most empha- sized are the five negative prohibitory precepts, (Gokai), viz., do not take life; do not steal, or be dishonest; do not be lewd; do not lie; do not drink intoxicants. 5. Karma, or Ingwa. Through lust men are sup- posed to be involved in an endless chain of cause and effect, Karma, Japanese Ingwa. Every effect here has its cause in some previous state, and every act here will culminate in the future state. It is this law that causes all men to be born in either one of the six paths, or worlds, by which men pass on to Nirvana. These paths are as follows: The path of hell; the path, or world, of torment, where spirits are punished with hunger; the path, or world, of beasts; the path, or BUDDHISM IN JAPAN 147 world, of disembodied spirits, filled with fightings and slaughter; the path, or world, of men; the path, or world, of heaven. 6. The Way of Life. In order to successfully pass through these six worlds, three precious things, viz., Buddha, the Law, and the Church, must ever be kept in mind. Moreover, it is necessary for the disciple to put away from him women, royal palaces, beautiful things, and riches, and ever keep with him the spirit of wisdom, the love of truth, patience and firmness, and a retired life. The Rev. Mr. Unsho informs us that the disciples of Buddhism in the practice of its injunc- tions must acquire certain attitudes of mind, such as the investing mind, the decided mind, and the con- fessed mind. In addition to the above injunctions, we have what is known as the intellectual ladder, which we omit. 7. Resultant Desires. After the faithful practice of the six paths the faithful disciple experiences certain laudable desires. He desires to save others, as well as himself. Though living creatures are innumerable, yet he has a desire to save them all, if he can. Though passions and lusts are endless, he has a desire to con- quer them all. Though the doctrines of Buddhism are infinite in number, he has a desire to learn them all. Though final salvation is far removed from him, he desires by the faithful practice of the six paths to final- ly attain unto it. 8. Changes Introduced by Japanese. The above summary is but a small part of the almost interminable philosophic speculations and dissertations of later scholars, superimposed upon the once simple and original creed of Gautama, the Buddha. It was this 148 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS overloading of the simple creed of Buddha with end- less injunctions and traditions of scholars that made it so burdensome and impracticable to the energetic, buoyant, enterprising Japanese. Their demand was for a work-a-day religion, and their priests were equal to the occasion. They transformed the chrysalis of Indian and Chinese Buddhism, as presented to them, into a highly colored butterfly. Death was no longer annihilation of all personality, but it was made the very gate of an eternal, actual beatitude. The con- templating and selfish life of the recluse was no longer encouraged ; on the contrary, men were urged to enter upon a life of active charity among the people. Ingwa, the endless chain of cause and effect, was re- duced to a single link. Nihan (Nirvana) practically ceased to be taught to the people, for the very simple reason that no one could explain it. The essence of a thousand Sutras was couched in a phrase like the fol- lowing : " Abstain from evil practice ; practice thou the good, Cleansing the heart, for this is Buduhahood." And in place of the long and numerous prayers, the Namu Amida Butsu, " We pray thee, eternal Bud- dha," and the Namu ame Horen-ge-kyo, " We pray thee, Sutra of the Lotus of the wonderful law," etc., are used. 9. The Sects. While Chinese Buddhism was in- finitely more complete than Shintoism, except in the matter of simplicity of worship, still it came limping into Japan, weakened by its many sects and the low moral standard of its priesthood. In Japan the num- ber of these divisions necessarily grew ; and the moral fct 7 DDHISM IN JAPAN 149 and intellectual standards of the Japanese priests, with a few notable exceptions, rose no higher than the standards of the Chinese and Korean priests who pre- ceded them. The founders of the principal Japanese sects, the Jodp, Shinshu, the Zen, and the Nichiren sects, were great men in their way; but the rank and file of the priesthood never attained, as a class, to a high standing among the people, either for morality or learning. 10. Sects a Revelation of the Japanese Mind. We regret very much that we cannot enter upon a study of these Japanese sects of Buddhism. In no department of Japanese history can the student get a more inter- esting and clear insight into the working of the mind of Japan than in the study of the differences of these sects; since through the transformations and modifica- tions to which Buddhism was subjected, we catch glimpses of the Japanese instinct and genius for eclec- ticism. Japan's national stomach is much like that of America. Its digestive and assimilative powers are enormous ; for whatever is taken into it from whatever outside source, it matters not what its nature may be, is readily digested and assimilated, enriching the life- blood of the nation. Every new thought, every new invention, indeed everything that reaches Japan from abroad, is made to pass through the same process. Buddhism proved no exception to the rule. Its transcendental and philosophical subtleties and myster- ies subjected the practical mind of the Japanese to too excessive a strain. It wearied and oppressed, rather than buoyed up the already tired and depressed strug- glers with life's burdens ; and the result was that they set about to adapt it to the peculiar genius of their I5O RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS people. The doctrine of the immortality of the soul, however, and a future world where dwell the souls of their departed, was never suffered to die out. VII. Organization of Japanese Buddhism. i. The Hierarchy. The organization of Buddhism is much like that of the Church of Rome. In the capital resides the high priest, called Zako, having virtually the same prerogatives accorded to the Pope of Rome. He has the power of canonization of saints. He stands at the head of the Buddhist hierarchy. He elevates and consecrates to offices similar to those of bishops and abbots. The Buddhist clergy are on a par with monks and friars and live together in monaster- ies under their superiors. They were divided into a number of orders no more nor less hostile to each other, than were the Dominicans to the Franciscans, or both to the Jesuits. 2. Vagabond Priests. Besides the priests in regu- lar orders there were enthusiasts, impostors and vaga- bonds who made their living by begging and exploit- ing the ignorant and superstitious. They pretended to be able to drive away evil spirits ; to find things that were lost; to discover robbers; to determine the guilt or innocence of accused parties; to interpret dreams and predict the future; to heal desperate marriages; and to perform astonishing feats through the medium of a child, instead of through a table. This was done by causing a spirit to enter the child who was able to answer any question that might be asked. 3. Church and State. Church and State were kept distinct. The priests possessed no direct power by law. There could be no appeal to the secular arm. There were no civil punishments for heresy. BUDDHISM IN JAPAN" l$l There were no religious laws perpetually binding. Every one, as far as the civil law was concerned, could enter or leave the monasteries at pleasure. The Buddhist priests of to-day also have no rank, and their temples are not graded. The priests lived on what their parishioners contributed and on the in- come of grants of land of great value made to temples in old times, but which at the Restoration in 1868 were greatly reduced. Buddhism was finally, and we venture to say, forever, disestablished in Japan in 1884. Whereupon a striking and suggestive fact was revealed, viz., that while Shintoism and Bud- dhism, under the name Ryobu, for more than seven centuries were one, to the people at least, yet when the time came for the disestablishment of Buddhism, they fell apart, and Shintoism, the indigenous faith of the land, remained essentially intact as it was from the beginning. VIII. Temples and the Devout Buddhist. i. Temples and Shrines. Buddhism filled Japan with magnificent and stately temples and shrines. There is scarcely a beautiful spot to be found which has not been associated with it in some way. Seemingly from everywhere come the peals of their deep-toned bells. There is no landscape, nor seascape, but owes much of its attractiveness and beauty to its tem- ples and shrines. No city, town, or village com- munity is complete without the presence of its pic- turesque priests. Buddhism has been at work in Japan for more than 1,200 years and has virtually filled the land and taken possession of it with her 108,- ooo temples and her 54,000 priests. In every home almost, not Christian, is an oratory for the wor- ship of Buddha. In every such oratory is a Butsudan. 152 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS 2. Home Religion. Every home, however hum- ble, is, in a way, but a miniature temple; and here in some form, as in the temple, daily service is said. Before every Butsu-dan, at some time during the day or evening, is heard the pathetic Namu Amida Butsu, or the Namu Ame H6ren-ge-kyo. Japan, though out- wardly so buoyant and happy, is full of sorrowing hearts, and to these Buddhism addressed itself with great acceptance. Shintoism, on the contrary, taught that persons in sorrow and distress were unfit subjects for the worship of the gods. 3. The Devout Buddhist at Home. With the daum of day the devout Buddhist, immediately on waking, rises from his bed of futons cotton-lined quilts spread on the mats at night for sleeping purposes and begins to fold them up for the purpose of replac- ing them in the closet prepared for them. While do- ing so he repeats a four-lined metrical prayer, in which is expressed the hope that, just as he now folds up his futons to be placed in their proper place for the day, so also may all the various relations of his life be raised from their sleep of delusion and be rele- gated to their proper spheres. Again, when he washes his hands and face, he accompanies this act with the prayer that all his relationships included in the Shi On, Four Favors, may be purified, even as now his face and hands are being purified by water. He then re- pairs to the household shrine, the Butsu-dan, in his house for worship. First, there is an act of thanks- giving for mercies received through the Buddhas. Then follows a prayer for grace that he may imitate them in all pure and virtuous living. Then follows a confession of sins. By sins he means not only his BUDDHISM IN JAPAN 153 misdoings in this life, but those also of his long pre- vious existence which have kept him so inextricably entangled in the cycle of life and death. Following the confession comes the reciting of his creed, in which he looks for salvation alone to the Trinity of Refuges, viz., the Buddhas, the Law, and the Church. Next in order come the Ten Commandments, the Ju Zen, which he repeats and makes an act of obe- dience to. Then he repeats three or four mantras or Shin-gon, hymns, or incantations. Then, if he belongs to the Shin-gon Sect of Buddhism, he will repeat a verse in honor of the great founder of his Sect, Kobo Daishi, and following it with a recitation of the hymnary of the Decalogue and a mass for the dead. An act of reverence to the gods of the country and also a memorial to his parents brings his morning wor- ship before the household shrine to a close. He now proceeds to the dining hall, or refectory. Here, while arranging the table or preparing the meal, he keeps repeating fomularies. Preparation being completed, of the things prepared he makes his of- ferings, one spoonful in honor of all the Buddhas, one in honor of all the saints, one in honor of all sen- tient beings within the Six Spheres of Existence. These sacrifices made and before beginning his meal, he directs his attention to the danger and temptation to which he may be subjecting his soul should he for- get to exercise self-restraint in partaking of his food and drink. By the practice of self-examinations he must recall his own past failings, a very necessary and important exercise. Having finished all the prescribed preliminary de- votions and duties, he is now ready to begin his meal. 154 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS Taking up the chop-stick with his right hand and his bowl of broth or rice with his left, he proceeds to eat in silence and ends his meal with an act of thanksgiv- ing, which is continued during the cleansing of the vessels used in the meal. He is now ready for his day's work, which he again begins and sanctifies by a short ejaculatory prayer. The noon-day meal is again accompanied by acts of prayer and thanksgiving similar to those of the morn- ing meal; so also with the evening meal. At sunset, or thereabout, he again repairs to the household shrine to worship as he did in the morn- ing. At bedtime a compline, consisting of two other short prayers, is said, and the day ends as it began and was continued, m prayer, and the devout Bud- dhist, lies down on a bed of futons on his matted floor, at peace with himself and with all the world so far as he knows it. 4. The Devout Buddhist in the Temple. To the devout Buddhist, his home and his city or village tem- ple are both places for worship. The one is private for the family and himself, while the other is public and for the community. To the prelate, of course, the service and worship in the public temple is quite an- other thing from that in the home, being more formal and ornate. To the nominal Buddhist layman, however, the relations between the village or city temple and his home are not very close. There are certain things that he can do only at the village or city temple. He will repair thither with the family to celebrate the an- niversary of their departed relatives. He will go to the temple to listen to practical and clever sermons by the priests. In some temples he may hear preaching BUDDHISM IN JAPAN 155 every day, in others once or twice in every ten days, and in still others only once or twice in two or three months. He is a member of the temple. He pays and subscribes money for its support, which gives him a voice in the appointment of the priest in charge. On the door or doorpost of his house he has posted a notice to indicate to what sect he belongs, which serves many useful purposes and is especially convenient to beggar friars, who go about the streets asking alms and repeating prayers. 5. His Funeral. When he changes worlds, it is the pious duty of his family and friends to give his body a suitable burial. At the conclusion of a short service by the priest at the home, the body is reverently borne to the temple, where the service at the house is completed in a more formal manner. There the priest gives him a new name, which is inscribed upon his tombstone or tablet, and by this name he is known in the spirit world. Thus ends all that is mortal in the life of a Buddhist in Japan. IX. Buddhism Wanting. I. Japan Realizes It. In nothing, perhaps, have the Japanese been so misunderstood as in their religion. Some have in- formed us that they are a highly irreligious people and wholly given over to rationalism; but their his- tory, their art, their customs, their literature, and their daily life show them to be quite the reverse. Their gods are numbered by the millions, while their su- perstitions have led them into the most extravagant forms of worship. Every one who has deeply studied this great cult must have realized its impractical and unsatisfying character and seen how illy adapted it is to become the religion of an enlightened world, 156 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS notwithstanding the fact that to-day hundreds of mil- lions of Asiatics call themselves Buddhists. No one for a moment questions both the organizing and civilizing mission of Buddhism in the East. No one doubts that Christianity itself will yet acknowledge its debt of gratitude to Buddhism as its great fore- runner in the Orient. But that the East will always be satisfied with Buddhism for its religion, no one who has studied its many radical changes and modifica- tions can for a moment believe. 2. Buddha and Jesus. Sakya-muni will ever loom large and be honored and revered as long as the memory of man traverses the great past. He will be loved for his divine tolerance and charity for all men. He will be admired for what he attempted to do for mankind more than for what he actually did for them. He will ever be looked upon as a great benefactor, but never will he continue to hold and command the faith of the East, even as he cannot, and does not now, hold that of the West. Of man, of the soul, of the present and future life, the burn- ing questions of mankind in every age and in every clime, he thought deeply; but he fails to satisfy men, although the world has reverently sat at his feet for centuries to learn what he had to say on these sub- jects which so deeply and so continually stirred it. It will yet turn reverently away from this great per- sonality and teacher to stand beside the open sepul- cher on that first Easter morn in Jerusalem, and it will see more in that empty tomb of the risen Jesus than in all of Gautama's philosophy and dreams. It is there that it will find the answers to its inquiries. So, too, the East, unfilled and unsatisfied, will turn from BUDDHISM IN JAPAN 157 the creed of Buddha and the endless subtleties and philosophical theories imposed upon it, to the simple narrative of the divine life of Jesus among men for its reassurances as to the future world. Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man, alone has given us the answer which best satisfies mankind to the great ques- tion, What is man's true nature and destiny ? Buddha spoke on this question to men of his time on the author- ity of his manhood and his own experience ; Jesus spoke as one having the authority of God and of His own di- vinity and experience. Men of all climes and of all creeds will yet turn to Him as the one personality in all history who best understands them and who helps them most. 3. Christianity and Japan. In the light which history sheds upon Buddhism, in view of its lack of power to impart sustained uplift and initiative, together with its unsatisfactory answers to the world's great questions wherever it has gone, it is impossible to be- lieve that the people of Japan will be satisfied with Shintoism, Confucianism, or Buddhism. What ! a peo- ple who have advanced to the position that they rightly hold in the estimation of the world to-day; a people whose present Emperor proclaimed on oath, at his ac- cession to the throne that " all purposeless precedents and useless customs were discarded, and that justice and righteousness shall be the guide of all action ; also that knowledge and learning shall be sought after throughout the whole world, in order that the status of the Empire of Japan may rise ever higher and higher ;" a people with such noble aims and aspira- tions, such qualities of mind and heart, such discipline, patriotism, and loyalty, as were displayed in the past, 158 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS and recently again before Port Arthur, Liao-yang, Mukden, and in the straits of Korea, will such a nation be satisfied with Shintoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism? Most certainly they will search for a re- ligion, which will not only take up and emphasize the strong and best points of their own cults, but which in addition to this, will give better and more satisfac- tory answers to their hitherto unanswered questions. That religion is the religion of God and of His Son, Jesus, the Christ. 4. Japan and Western Comity. Moreover, it is impossible for the thoughtful man to believe that Japan, which has shown such keen appre- ciation of all that is best in the civilizations of the world, will not sooner or later realize, however some men may shut their eyes to the fact, that religion in the West is still a subject of far more universal in- terest than its art, science, or political institutions, which Japan has more or less adopted. The Japanese will also realize more and more, as many do already, that the strongest bond of union in the West is their common religion and that nothing divides a people and nations so completely as do differences in religion. Japan will realize, also, that, as she has entered into the comity of nations on the ground of her new civili- zation, in order to make that comity effective and lasting, she must also enter the comity of our religion. Her God must be our God; her Savior, our Savior; her Holy Land, our Holy Land. And then, and then only, will the comity be complete and a great gain for Christianity and humanity be attained; for Christian- ity, a more Catholic because a truer interpretation of Christ and His teaching; and for humanity at large, BUDDHISM IN JAPAN 159 a long stride made in the direction of that long and devoutly wished for consummation to which prophets and seers in all ages and among all peoples have pointed, viz., the organization of the world. For the perfecting of this, both Orient and Occident, both Christian and pagan, both civilized and uncivilized, both enlightened and unenlightened, will make their contribution of wisdom gained in their various schools of discipline. And in return, in the sweet and widely tolerant spirit of that royal command, " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," and of that still more royal Master of Men, Jesus the Christ, equal rights and equal blessings will be meted out to all. VI. TAOISM BY HAMPDEN C. Du BOSE, D.D. Missionary in Central China for Thirty-three Years 161 BIBLIOGRAPHY *BALFOUR, F. H. Taoist Texts, Ethical, Political, and Spec- ulative (1884). BALL, J. D. Things Chinese (1892). Article " Taouism and Its Founder." BETTANY, G. T. The World's Religions (1891). Pp. 144-166. *CARUS, P. Lao-Tze's Tao-Teh-King (1898). CHALMERS, J. The Speculations on Metaphysics, Polity, and Morality of "The Old Philosopher," Lau-tse (1868). *DOUGLAS, R. K. Confucianism and Taouism (1889). Pp. 173-287. Popular but scholarly. *DuBosE, H. C. The Dragon, Image, and Demon (1886). Chs. XXII-XXX. Popular. DVORAK, R. Chinas Religionen Lao-tsi und seine Lehre (1903). Especially Ss. 1-32. EDKINS, J. Religion in China (1878). Especially ch. IX. GILES, H. A. A History of Chinese Literature (1901). Pp. 56-74. *GILES, H. A. Chuang Tzu, Mystic, Moralist, and Social Reformer (1889). GRAY, J. H. China: A History of the Laws, Manners, and Customs of the People (1878). Vol. I, pp. 94-105. HARDWICK, C. Christ and Other Masters (1858). Pt. Ill, pp. 55-76. HENRY, B. C. The Cross and the Dragon (1885). Ch. VI. JOHNSON, S. Oriental Religions and Their Relation to Uni- versal Religions China (1877). Pt. V, pp. 859-904. JULIEN, S. A. Lao Tseu Tao Te King. Le Livre de la Voie et de la Vertu (1859). JULIEN, S. A. Le Livre des Recompenses et des Peines, en Chinois et en Frangais (1828). *LEGGE, J. The Religions of China (1881). Lect. III. NEVIUS, J. L. China and the Chinese (1882). Ch. IX. Records of the General Conference of the Protestant Mission- aries of China (1878). Pp. 62-75. *Sacred Books of the East. Vols. XXXIX, XL. SAUSSAYE, P. D. CHANTEPIE DE LA. Lehrbuch der Religions- geschichte (1897). Bd. I, Ss. 69-74. VON STRAUSS, V. Lao Tsi's Tao Te King (1870). WILLIAMS, S. W. The Middle Kingdom (1882). See "Tao- ism " in index. * Indicates works of special value or authority. 162 VI TAOISM 1. Taoism Generally Considered. i. Kindred Religious Systems. The Chinese speak of Con- fucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism as the three re- ligions of the Middle Kingdom. Its more than four hundred millions are not, however, to be divided among the three systems. The Confucianists belong exclusively to the literary class, but they worship in Buddhist temples and use the Taoist ritual. The priests of Buddhism and Taoism are the only real Buddhists and Taoists, as the people do not consider that they themselves belong to either of these faiths, though they regularly burn incense at their shrines and contribute systematically to their support. The religions stand more in the relation of friendly denom- inations in Christian lands than of contending idola- trous systems. China is the only country in the world where three such religions could stand side by side without one expelling or superseding the other. 2. Its Native Land. Taoism exists in Cathay alone. Here it had its birth; this people beheld its progressive growth, and throughout the eighteen provinces during successive centuries it gradually spread. In this respect it is unlike Buddhism, the " Oriental Banyan," which starting in India went northward to Tibet, southward to Ceylon, eastward 163 164 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS to Burma, Siam, and Annam, and from thence con- quered China and Japan ; so that the history of East- ern Asia is largely the history of Buddhism. It is the principal religion of one-half of Asia ; Confucian- ism is the state religion of China and influences the scholars of Japan as well, while Taoism belongs to China only. The dual form of its Mandarin theology forbids its being acceptable to any other people. 3. Religious Piracy, Most religions spring into existence created by the genius of some great leader, but Taoism was the growth of one thousand years; and in its gradual evolution, it bears a striking analogy to Rome. Future researches must reveal the rise and progress of this mighty system ; how a band of scholars became adepts in metallurgy, and by degrees were developed into a priestly craft. Ancient China was obscured by countless wild beliefs, which like scat- tering clouds overshadowed the land; these Taoism gathered together, clasped them to her bosom, and thus became a congeries of superstitions. The priests pander in every way to the foolish beliefs of the peo- ple, and creeping into their houses " lead captive silly women." Taoism is more purely native than Buddhism and is an attempt to adapt the Indian religion to Chinese civilization, yet the sacred books show to what an ex- tent Taoism is guilty of plagiarism. The Sutras in form, in matter, in style, in the incidents, in the nar- rative, in the invocations, in the prayers leaving out the Sanscrit are almost exact copies of Buddhist prayerbooks. This goes to prove the power of Bud- dhism, and also that Taoism did not exchange the phi- TAOISM 165 losopher's gown for the priest's robe till after it coun- terfeited the Indian coin. II. Taoism's Founder. i. Leading Facts. Lao- tzu, the founder of philosophic Taoism, was born 604 B. C, in the province of Ho-nan in Central China. The details of his life are quite meager. In this re- spect the first Taoist stands in striking contrast with Confucius and Buddha, about whom so much is known. The historical facts are few in number, and of the legends many are so evidently Buddhistic that it would be useless to mention them. The name Lao- tzu means literally " Old Boy," but his official title is " The Great Supreme Venerable Prince." He was ap- pointed librarian by the Emperor, and diligently ap- plied himself to the study of the ancient books, becom- ing acquainted with all the rites and histories of former times. He became famous as a teacher of philosophy, had a large number of students, retired from the haunts of man, and devoted himself to speculation. 2. Confucius Meets the Philosopher. It is on rec- ord that China's sage, when thirty-five years of age, sought an interview with the octogenarian. Lao-tzu, said : " Those whom you talk about are dead, and their bones are moldered into dust; only their words are left. Moreover, when the superior man gets his time, he mounts aloft ; but, when the time is against him, he moves as if his feet were entangled." The young teacher said to the venerable philosopher that he had sought for the Tao for twenty years. Lao-tzu replied : " If the Tao could be offered to men, there is no one who would not willingly offer it to his prince; if it could be presented, to men, everybody would like to present it to his parents; if it could be announced to l66 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS men, each man would gladly announce it to his broth- ers; if it could be handed down to men, who would not wish to transmit it to his children? Why, then, can you not obtain it? This is the reason. You are incapable of giving it an asylum in your heart." On his return, Confucius said to his disciples : " I know how birds can fly, fishes swim, and animals run. But there is the dragon; I cannot tell how he mounts on the wind through the clouds and rises to heaven. To- day I have seen Lao-tzu, and I can only compare him to the dragon." This is perhaps an appropriate sym- bol for the Chinese Diogenes. 3. Lao-tzu's Old Age. The founder of Taoism gives a lonely picture of advancing years : " The world is joyful and merry as on a day of sacrifice. I alone prefer solitude and quiet and prefer not to pry into futurity. I am like an infant ere it has grown to be a child; listless I roam hither and thither, as though I had no home to go to. Confused and dim, while the vulgar are enlightened, I alone am in the dark, tossed to and fro like the sea, roaming without ces- sation." 4. His Deification. Lao-tzu is now the third per- son in the Taoist triad, known as the " Three Pure Ones," who are majestically enshrined in the large temples. These deities are not regarded as exercising any special power or jurisdiction, but they simply sit on their lofty pedestals, serene and quiet, while the affairs of Heaven and Earth are directed by the Jade Emperor. They are, however, considered by an idolatrous people as among the chief gods of China, and before their shrine incense is constantly burning. III. Taoism's Foundations. i. The Tao. It is TAOISM 167 from this that Taoism is named. Tao is variously rendered as " Reason," " Wisdom," " The Way," <( The Method," " Nature," " The Principle of Nature," or " The Cosmic Process." Perhaps the nearest con- ception is The Logos. The pagan philosopher, whose far-seeing mind was striving to clothe a vague concep- tion in the habiliments of immortality, summed up his teaching in this comprehensive word. 2. The Tao Te Ching. This is the great work of Lao-tzu and consists of S.ooo 1 characters, or nearly twice the length of the Sermon on the Mount, as given by Matthew. It is a very brief discussion. The style is meager and laconic ; much of it is puzzling and ob- scure, and not a little is puerile and misanthropic. Written in the days of Israel's Major Prophets, with- out the light of revelation, it has the stamp of a master mind, and much of it will place its author in the ranks of great and good men. The following extracts descriptive of Tao are given : ' The Tao may be discussed, but it is not the ordi- nary Tao [of ethics] . Its name may be named, but it is not an ordinary name. Its nameless period was at the beginning of heaven and earth; when it received a name it was the progenetrix of all things." "It is the ancestress of the Universe." " Heaven is the Tao, and the Tao is enduring." " There was something formed from chaos, which came into being before heaven and earth. Silent and boundless, it stands alone and never changes. It pervades every place. It may be called the mother of the universe. I know not its name, but its designation is Tao." " The Great Tao is all-per- J The number of characters varies in the different texts from 5,350 to 5,720. l68 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS vasive; it may be seen on the right hand and on the left. All things depend upon it and are produced." " The Tao of heaven never strives, yet it excels in victory." " The Tao of heaven resembles a drawn bow. It brings down the high and exalts the lowly." " The Tao of heaven confers benefits and injures not." Other extracts show that Tao is mystical. " These two conditions, the active and the quiescent, alike pro- ceed from Tao ; it is only in name that they differ. Both may be called profundities, and the depth of pro- fundity is the gate of every mystery." " I know not whose offspring it is. Its form existed before God was." " Tao, considered as an entity, is obscure and vague. Vague and obscure! Yet within it there is form. Obscure and vague! Yet within it there is substance. Vacuous and unfathomable! Yet within it there is energy." 3. Alchemy. The ancient Taoists sought to trans- mute the baser metals into gold and silver and to dis- cover the elixir of immortality. Their writings abound in allusions to spiritual medicines, pearly food, and fountains of nectar. They took several hundred ounces of gold or silver, with red coloring matter, lead and mercury, put them in a crucible with steady fire, and on the forty-ninth day they amalgamated; then dipping it out with a ladle and rolling it around in a mortar, it becomes pills. One of these pills put into lead or mercury was said to transmute the whole into gold or silver. This is to give wealth. There is also the "internal eli.rir" that the Taoist philosophers presented to those who desired length of days. Instead of the Western Paradise of the Buddhists, Taoism offered immortality to its followers. TAOISM 169 They could be numbered among the host of genii that peopled the beautiful mountains of the Celestial Em- pire. IV. Taoism's Theology, Pantheon, and Wor- ship. i. Dualism. The essential doctrine of the Cos- mic order in China is dualistic. The philosophers do not speak of creation but of generation. There is not one living eternal Being who made all things, but two immaterial principles that produced all things. The common mode of expression is that Heaven and Earth are the great Father and Mother of the universe. Those who speak in mere philosophical terms ascribe to Li, abstract right, and Ch'i, the vital breath, the power to permeate nature and bring into being all that hath life. 2. Yin and Yang. These are the male and female principles of nature. The world is Yang and Hades is Yin ; Yang is positive and Yin is negative ; Yang is hard and Yin is soft; Yang is light and Yin is dark- ness ; Yang is motion and Yin is repose. This is similar to the Manichaan doctrine. Manes taught that there are two principles from which all things proceed : the one is a pure and subtle matter, called Light; and the other a gross and corrupt sub- stance called Darkness. These two beings have pro- duced an immense multitude of creatures resembling themselves and distributed them through their re- spective provinces. The first parents of the human race consisted of bodies formed out of the corrupt matter of the kingdom of darkness, and of two souls, one of which is sensuous and lustful, the other rational and immortal. The Chinese and Persian thought are cast, as is readily seen, into the same moulds. I/O RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS 3. The Apotheosis. Nothing more fully proves the materialistic views of the Chinese than their arrange- ment of the invisible world. The land of spirits is an exact counterpart of the Chinese Empire. China has eighteen provinces, so has Hades ; each province has eight or nine prefectures or departments, so each province in Hades has eight or nine departments ; every prefecture or department averages ten counties, and the same is true in Hades. In our provincial capitals, the governor, the provincial treasurer, the chief justice, the superintendent of silk, the prefect or departmental governor, and the district magistrates or county gov- ernors, each have temples, with their apotheose: in the other world. So the military mandarins have i. simi- lar gradation for the armies of Hades, whoc 2 captains are gods and whose battalions are devils. The framers of this wonderful scheme for the spirits of the dead, having no higher standard, transferred to the authorities of that world the etiquette, tastes, and venality of their correlate officials in the Chinese gov- ernment, thus making it necessary to use similar means to appease the one which are found necessary to move the other. All the gods of Cathay have their as- sistants, attendants, doorkeepers, runners, horses, horsemen, detectives, and executioners, corresponding in every particular to Chinese officials of the same rank. This host of state gods are cared for by the priests of Taoism. 4. Appointing Gods. Distinguished statesmen, noted generals, faithful ministers, royal princes, and high mandarins, a great host of worthies, numbering ten thousand times ten thousand, are the recipients of posthumous honors. The hope of appointment to high TAOISM 171 office in Hades acts as a stimulus to noble deeds on earth. The State gods are continually increasing; for as the graves of earth are rilling, so are the palaces of the gods. Yet the number decreases, since many gods rise, flourish, and fade away, "neither have they any more a reward, for the memory of them is forgot- ten." The power of appointment rests nominally with the Ancient Original, the highest of the " Three Pure Ones," but actually with the Emperor in connection with Pope Chang, the "Heavenly Teacher," who fur- nishes the credentials and assigns the temple; for whenever a change is made in the occupant of the city ya-men, a similar change is made in the tutelary divinity in the governmental temple. What a claim for the Emperor of the Celestials ! Not only is he the sovereign of four hundred millions but he is also king of the gods ; yea, gods Chinese are constituted by him and derive their power from him. As far as the dei- fication of gods is concerned, Taoism is the state re- ligion of China. 5. The Jade Emperor. A prominent fact in pagan systems is that a secondary divinity in the estimation of the people gradually usurps the first place, as is seen in the goddesses of mercy of Buddhism and Roman- ism. " The Three Pure Ones " have a higher rank, but to the Jade Emperor is entrusted the superintend- ence of the world. He is the correlative of heaven, the Jupiter of the Middle Kingdom. In the highest story of the great temples, he, the Lord of Heaven, has his shrine, while on the lower floor Juno, his be- loved consort, the Queen of Earth, sits enthroned. To 172 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS dethrone the Chinese appointed ruler of the universe is to demolish image worship. The legends of the Jade Emperor are copies of Buddhistic traditions and are unworthy of notice. As a matter of history, in the Sung Dynasty, about a thousand years ago, the Emperor conferred upon a magician of the Han Dynasty by the name of Chang Yi, the title of Shang Ti, the Jade Emperor j 1 and the people, finding the concept of one deity so much simpler than an abstract triumvirate, accepted him as their Optimus Maximus and thus adore him. 6. The City Gods. The Jade Emperor is too far away from the millions on the plains of Eastern Asia ; hence the common people frequent the city temples, which are found in the 1,553 walled cities in the Em- pire. Also the one hundred great market towns each claim a local god, and not a few of the million villages have their rural deities ; so these gods are a " multi- tude which no man can number.'" The mandarins of the world of night are Chinese; consequently the gentry are not only aspirants for tem- poral power, but they also seek for divine honors ; and the generous sovereigns of the eighteen provinces, who continue to preside over their departed subjects, gen- erally try to gratify their ambition. The city gov- ernor acts as judge, magistrate, tax-collector, and cor- oner; hence the duties of the city gods are likewise multifarious. 7. The Star Gods. "Look now toward heaven and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them," 1 " Jade Emperor " is not the equivalent of Shang Ti which means " Supreme Ruler or Emperor," but of two Chinese characters translated as above, or as " Pearlv Em- peror." TAOISM 173 and reflect that each star has its god; the reader will then have a bird's-eye view of Taoism. The goddess of the pole-star, or " Bushel Mother," is the star of hope to the followers of Lao-tzu. Many of the gentry in homes of anluence have private chapels where she is regularly adored. She opens the books of life and death, and all who wish to prolong their days worship at her shrine. The picture of The Three Stars, Happiness, Office, and Age, is worshipped more than ?ny other, and it hangs in 100,000 homes. Other objects of worship are The Cycle Gods. There are sixty years in a cycle, and over each of these presides a special star deity. The devotee lights candles and incense on his birthday before the god that reigns over the year of his birth ; so if he lives three score years he completes the cycle circle of prayer. Around the wall, in life size, stand these sixty gro- tesque images, and the skill of the image-makers was put to the test to devise such a large number of dif- ferent-looking idols, white, black, yellow, and red ; fe- rocious gods with vindictive eyeballs popping out and gentle faces as expressive as a lump of putty. From their occipital hiding-places, cocks and rabbits spring forth, Minerva-like, and snakes come coiling from the brain of the gods. They " changed the glory of the uncorruptible god into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things." Sacrifices are offered to the twenty-eight constella- tions by the Emperor at the marble altar of Heaven and by the mandarins throughout the provinces of China. The star deities are adored by parents in behalf of 174 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS their children; they control courtship and marriage, bring prosperity or adversity in business, send pesti- lence and war, regulate rainfall and drought, and com- mand angels and demons. Every event in life is de- termined by the "star ruler," who from the shining firmament manages the destinies of men and nations. Astrology spreads its dread pall over night-cursed China. From the worship of the gods of the host of heaven the Taoist obtains a fine revenue. 8. Evil Gods. In the parable of the Unjust Judge it is said, " There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man." According to Tao- ism, in the heavens there are unjust gods not a few. If there are bad officials in China, why should there not be bad divinities in the skies? is the argument used. The principal charge against this class so earnestly worshipped is kidnapping, principally of pretty young women, who sicken and die, and whose spirits are united in marriage to the gods in Hades, Dreadful are the tenets of Taoism. 9. Special Services for the Living. It is fre- quently termed, " The Great Peace Service." A num- ber of country villages will send up deputies to join the priests in solemn worship during several days in, order to secure tranquillity and abundant harvests, the expenses being defrayed by subscription. Again it may be a sacrifice to the god of thunder to protect the waving fields of grain. Most frequently it is to the god of fire, the constable of the ward presiding over the worship. After a conflagration, those who have escaped the devouring element join in a " protecting peace service." Families often have a special private TAOISM 175 service conducted by seven or nine priests and pre- sided over by a couple of abbots. 10. The Immortals. It is pleasant to leave disgust- ing scenes of idol worship and turn to the fairy land of Oriental religion. It is in dealing with the Im- mortals that the Chinese religious faith comes in touch with the beauties of Grecian mythology, where every spring and headland, grove and mossy dell, were by poets made the abode of nymphs and genii. The tales of these semi-celestial, semi-terrestrial beings found in Chinese books satisfy the national craving for " divine fiction." It also enables the writer to be graphic, as he is not hampered by natural laws. In an instant he can divest his characters of mortality and let them, invisible and immaterial, soar through space, so that in the descriptions there is a decided air of the marvelous. Let the characters of some noted Occidental novelist be canonized, and let men adore and pray to them, and we have what Taoist romance has given to a people longing for something more intangible than flesh and blood. This state of ter- restrial immortality the writers of this religion sub- stitute for the Buddhist Paradise, and to the attain- ment of endless life on the earth they invite their devotees. With the Buddhists the star of happiness westward moves ; the Taoists call on men to go to the P'cng Lai Islands in the Eastern Sea opposite the coast of China. These are inhabited by genii, whose lustrous forms are nourished upon the gems which lie scattered upon their shores, or with the fountain of life which flows perennially for their enjoyment. The K'un Lun Mountains, happily situated in the 1/6 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS western portion of the dependencies of China and comparatively inaccessible to travellers, is far-famed as the abode of the Immortals. The towering peaks and lofty summits of these sacred mountains are crowned with temples, and the beautiful valleys are the dwelling places of those who once were men but who now possess supernatural powers. These demi-gods and minor goddesses are adored by the herded masses on the rice-field plains. ii. The Mediator. Quite near the great temple of the Jade Emperor is a small temple where the Mediator is enshrined. The pilgrim first repairs to the Medi- ator's shrine, and, by making an offering in the cur- rency of China, obtains a permit to appear before His Heavenly Majesty. Among the thousand obnoxious features of Taoism, the appointment of an interme- diary between the inhabitants of earth and the highest god in the Pantheon as a symbol of The Way, proves that there is a gleam of truth amidst stupendous errors. V. Taoism's Demonology. This section brings us to the center of Taoism as a religious system. i. The Taoist Pope. The first Taoist Pope was Chang Tao-ling, who flourished in the first century of the Christian era. Retiring for seclusion to the moun- tain fastnesses of Western China, he persevered in the study of alchemy and in cultivating the virtues of purity and mental abstraction. His search for the elixir of life was successful, thanks to the instruc- tion conveyed in a mystic treatise supernaturally re- ceived from the hands of Lao-tzu himself. The later years of the mystic's earthly experience were spent on the Dragon-Tiger Mountain, and it was here, at the TAOISM 177 age of 123, after compounding and swallowing the grand elixir, he ascended to the heavens to enjoy the bliss of immortality. The name of Chang, The Heavenly Teacher, is on every lip in China. He is on earth the Vicegerent of the Jade Emperor in Heaven, and the Commander- in-Chief of the hosts of Taoism. Whatever doubts there may be of Peter's apostolic successors, the pres- ent Pope, Chang LXI, boasts of an unbroken line of three-score and one generations. He, " the ideal man," as he is termed, wields an immense spiritual power through the land. The family obtained pos- session of the Dragon-Tiger Mountain in the Chiang- hsi province about A.D. 1000, and the scenery around Pope Chang's rural palace is most enchanting. He confers buttons, indicative of rank, like an emperor. Priests come to him from various cities and temples to receive promotion, whom he invests with titles and presents with seals of office. He controls the invisible hosts of demons and is often summoned by the em- perors and men of vast wealth to rid their houses of these troublesome intruders. To expel demons, he wields the double-edged sword, which is said to have come down, a priceless heirloom, from his ancestors of the Han Dynasty. On the first of the month Pope Chang holds a levee of the gods. From the heights of Heaven, from the depths of Hades, from across the wide ocean and the distant palaces of the stars, come an invisible host of deified beings, gods and goddesses, to present their compliments to the great magician. During 1904 on a Peter's Pence visit to Shanghai, Su-chou, and Hang-chou, Pope Chang recieved every 1/8 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS mark of courtesy and esteem from the families of wealth and rank. Taking a prominent seat in the temple, charms, three inches square, to be carried on the person, which in the belief of the crowd were drawn by his sacred hand, sold rapidly for $6.00, and large ones went at a corresponding rate. It is popu- larly estimated that he returned with tens of thou- sands of dollars. 2. Demons and Dread of Them. China is the land of demons, and devil worship has taken firm possession of this ancient people. They believe that evil spirits flit hither and thither; consequently, before the outer doors there are protection walls to shield the living from the intrusion of the dead. The house walls are built high, and the windows open in the courts only, in order to prevent the ingress of spirits. There are no straight passages as a rule ; for, as spirits travel in right lines, in order to intercept their progress the passages are zigzag or curved. There is a succession of screen-doors which meet you at every turn; the object being to make the residence demon-proof. The Chinese have been taught to consider themselves as constantly surrounded by spiritual beings, invisible indeed and inaccessible to touch or handling, but none the less real, none the less influential. They look upon all spirits, demons, devils as the souls of dead men; and when they view the dense population of these vast plains and consider that each Chinese has three souls, it is no wonder that they think, " Seeing we are com- passed about with so great a cloud " of demons. This is the authorized version of Taoism. The system seems to dog their steps and let loose billions of malevolent, malignant, and ruthless spirits TAOISM 179 to trouble them, so that to the fanciful mind of a Chinese, a numberless host of invisible beings are about him, concealed at every corner, or wandering through the air; and their sounds, weird and eerie, are heard in the darkness of the night as the wind howls about the roofs. The dread of spirits is the nightmare of the Chinaman's life. Here is a minis- tration of demons, not of angels. 3. Exorcists. Just at this point come in the priests and abbots of Taoism with their claim to exorcise demons; and they wield a powerful influence both among the gentry and the common people, who have implicit confidence in their unseen power. 4. Witches. In some sections of the land the in- fluence of witches is so demoralizing that the man- darins have had to issue proclamations against them. They are to be seen calling up spirits from Hades, which descend on the smoke of an incense stick and take possession of the witch's body. Her words are supposed to be those of the departed ; and there she sits, tossing her head backward from side to side and rolling her eyes wildly as she rants a jargon, partly inarticulate. Almost every village in China has one or more spirit mediums, each having his or her fa- miliar spirit. The people sit " in the region and shadow of death." 5. Superstitions. Taoism is the ancestor of super- stition. It is a system fraught with danger to the nation for the reason that it generates, nourishes, and develops superstition. It makes the Chinese mind as tinder for the spark, just as an August sun prepares a prairie for the wild-fire. In 1877 there occurred the paper-men mania, when parties mysteriously lost ISO RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS their queue as they walked along the street. The peasants forsook their houses and slept in the fields, or under the trees. Gongs were imported, as the local stock was exhausted, and processions with lan- terns and torches passed from village to village. This excitement extended from the Yang-tzu to the Hang- chou Bay and continued for a month amidst the wild- est scenes. 6. Services for the Dead. In these, Buddhists and Taoists form a lucrative partnership. In the great West one funeral is considered sufficient for a single person, but in China it is the " seven-sevens," or a funeral each seventh day to the forty-ninth day. Be- sides these are several extra services, and in wealthy families the priests chant every day for seven weeks; or, in all, forty-nine funerals are held, so to speak. The four post-mortem ceremonies are lighting the lamps, bathing the soul, crossing the bridge, and scat- tering the cash, in which the priests of Taoism take a prominent part. At the close of the services the Taoists exhibit their skill in tossing up bronze cym- bals and in keeping a number in the air at one time, which is a pleasant diversion in the midst of sad scenes. 7. The Devil's Procession. Mara, the god of sin, lust, and death, has a green complexion, long tusks, and a frightful face. On the thirtieth of the seventh moon, with two smaller devils, one white and the other black, who as the ya-men runners of Hades receive the souls of the dying, Mara leads the great procession with horses, retainers, musicians, and gongs. He comes, not as the " prince of this world " or as " an angel of light," but clad in the habiliments of the TAOISM l8l prison of the lost. He is worshipped and honored by a great people; and as he triumphantly marches through the streets the rejoicing multitudes that go before and that follow after praise the son of dark- ness, and in this climax of devil-worship, when Mara is assigned the highest place in the pantheon of Tar- tarus, an adoring nation bows before him as their high ruler, their accursed guardian, and their faith- less guide. On this same night, it is supposed that all the spirits in prison, all the devils in hell are turned loose; count- less myriads coming as swarms of locusts from the unseen abyss, black, hungry, and naked, whose motto is, " Your money or your life." In front of every door piles of paper-tinsel are burned, and it is esti- mated that at one temple in Hang-chou during two weeks 300 daily are expended in paper sycee. 8. A Degrading System. The above is merely an outline of Taoism. It can almost be said that there is nothing good in it. Leaving aside its idolatry, the adoration of the creature more than the great Creator, it is a mixture of spirit-worship, superstition, charms, witchcraft, and demonology. It is degrading to the intellect and debasing to the soul. A very large pro- portion of its priesthood are miserable opium-smokers. There is little hope for China, politically, morally, or religiously, until Taoism is swept from the face of the land. It is evil and only evil. The duty of the mis- sionary is simply to say, " Sirs, why do ye these things? We . . . preach unto you that ye should turn from those vanities unto the living God, which made heaven and earth, and the sea % and all things that are therein." VII. CONFUCIANISM BY DEVELLO Z. SHEFFIELD, D.D. Missionary in North China for Thirty-six Year* 183 BIBLIOGRAPHY *BALLER, F. W. The Sacred Edict (1892). *BARROWS. J. H., editor. The World's Parliament of Reli gions (1893). Pp. 374-439, 596-604. China Mission Handbook, The (1896). Pt. I, pp. i-u. ^Chinese Recorder. Files of this periodical contain much val- uable information on all phases of Confucianism. CLARKE, J. F. Ten Great Religions (1899). Vol. I, ch. II. DOOLITTLE, J. English-Chinese Vocabulary and Handbook. Vol. II, pp. 490-499. Selections with translations. * DOUGLAS, R. K. Confucianism and Taouism (1889). Pp. 9-170. DuBosE, H. C. The Dragon, Image, and Demon (1886). Es- pecially chs. VII-IX. DVORAK, R. Chinas Religionen Confucius und seine Lehre (1895). Especially Ss. 79-118. EDKINS, J. Religion in China (1878). Especially chs. II, Encyclopaedias, especially " The Encyclopedia of Missions," under "Confucianism," " China." *FABER, E. A Systematical Digest of the Doctrines of Con- fucius (1875). *FABER, E. The Mind of Mencius (1897). Digest of Con- fucian teaching. GIBSON, J. C. Mission Problems and Mission Methods in South China (1901). Ch. III. GILES, H. A. A History of Chinese Literature (1901). Bk. I, chs. II, III. GRAY, J. H. China : A History of the Laws, Manners, and Customs of the People (1878). Vol. I, pp. 75-94. Great Religions of the World (1901). Prof. Giles's "Confu- cianism in the Nineteenth Century." GRIFFIS, W. E. The Religions of Japan (1895). Chs. IV, V. HENRY, B. C. The Cross and the Dragon (1885). Ch. IV. *LECGE, J. The Chinese Classics (1893). Vol. I, Proleg- mena, especially pp. 56-111. *LEGGE, J. The Religions of China (1881). Lects. I, II, IV. MATHESON, G. The Distinctive Messages of the Old Re- ligions (1894). Ch. III. NEVIUS, J. L. China and the Chinese (1882). Ch. III. REVILLE, A. La Religion Chinoise (1889). *Sacred Books of the East. Vols. Ill, XVI, XXVII, XXVIII. *SAUSSAYE, P. D. CHANTEPIE DE LA. Manual of the Science of Religion (1891). Chs. 37-40, 42. Varieties Sinologiques. N. 6 S. LeGall's " Le Philosophe Tchou Hi, sa Doctrine, son Influence." WILLIAMS, S. W. The Middle Kingdom (1882). See index under " Confucius." * Indicates works of special value or authority 184 VII CONFUCIANISM 1. Introductory. i. Definition. Confucianism is that system of religious and ethical teaching which is the essential souice of Chinese civilization. The near- est equivalent to this term in Chinese is Ju Chiao, > Ju, scholars, Chiao, teachings, The Teachings of Scholars ; that is, from extreme antiquity there has been a body of literature accepted by the great majori- ty of China's scholars as being the source of wisdom and virtue. 2. " Middle " and " Early Antiquity." Confucius lived and taught five centuries before the beginning of the Christian era. This general period is known in Chinese history as " middle antiquity," the period stretching back from ten to twenty and more centuries before being called " early antiquity." Confucius pro- fessed his work to be that of a transmitter and not of a producer. He found an already ancient literature which he studied and revised, and in the form in which he left this literature it has been transmitted without radical alteration to later ages. 3. General Character of Confucian Writings. These writings preserve a broken and imperfect pic- ture of the civilization of China in remote antiquity. They largely wipe out the darker lines which, if they had been preserved, would have given a more correct 185 1 86 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS picture of a rude but vigorous race in its early stages of political and social evolution. What remains is an unreliable idealization of the virtues of a few of the sage-rulers of China, to which the people responded as iron to the magnet, producing a golden age of po- litical order and family fidelity, which is held up by Confucius and his disciples for imitation by all subse- quent ages. In those times princes ruled with pure benevolence, and the people responded to such rule as grass growing upon housetops responds to the blowing of the winds. 4. "Book of History" and Its Picture of Early Chinese Life. This golden age, closing over twenty centuries before the beginning of the Christian era, lies well on the other side of the line which Western scholars would draw to separate between reliable and unreliable Chinese history. The " Book of History," which contains a fragmentary account of this period, has undoubtedly imbedded in its record very much of fact, but fact that is overlaid with fancy, until it is not an easy task to reconstruct in thought the condi- tion of society in the Middle Kingdom 4,000 years ago. Princes and scholars who were distinguished for political and social virtues were represented as pos- sessing these virtues in the highest perfection. Thus they became ideals for the imitation of coming genera- tions ; and because these ideals were the outgrowth of an ancient order of society, the lines of life and con- duct, of national government, of social intercourse, of family requirements, became fixed and unalterable. The result has been that while in other countries men's faces have been largely turned toward the fu- ture with hope and endeavor, in China they have been CONFUCIANISM i/ turned toward the past in admiration of a national glory that has departed. II. Confucius and Later Chinese History. i. His Own Evil Tim-es. Confucius born B. C. 551, died B. C. 478 appeared in China as a great politi- cal and ethical teacher five centuries before the Chris- tian era. The learning of his times consisted of the study of the literature that had come down from earlier ages, and in this learning Confucius first became a de- voted pupil and later a distinguished master. The times were radically out of joint. The throne of the Chou Dynasty for a long period had been occupied by a succession of weaklings. Subordinate feudal princes were warring one with another for precedence and power. There was confusion in government and distress in society. The principles of justice and benevolence were being disregarded, and selfishness, greed, love of pleasure were filling men's minds from the highest of the rulers to the lowest of the people. 2. His Theory as to the Remedy. Confucius looked upon the existing order of social life as a sad de- generacy from the ideals which he found in the records of past ages, and he set himself with courage and devotion to contribute his part to the work of po- litical and social reconstruction. In his study of the problems of government and general order Confucius failed to apprehend the vital truth that the institu- tions of a later age cannot be rigidly patterned after the ideals of a former time, that human growth means change from earlier conditions, that new conditions demand new adjustments. From this study of ancient literature his memory was filled and his imagination was kindled with the pictures of a past order of 1 88 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS society, when princes and ministers, parents and chil- dren fulfilled the duties of their stations, and rulers only needed to sit correctly on their throne and all the af- fairs of government would move in order, as the North Star rests in its place and the universe of stars re- volves about it in their orbits. 3. His Conception of Reform. The mind of Con- fucius being thus saturated with the things of the past, his conception of reform was not that of progress toward new things in the evolving and constantly modifying conditions of society, but of return to old things, insisting that the institutions of government and worship, the manner of regulating human inter- course in the family and society that prevailed in the primitive period of Chinese civilization should with little modification be perpetuated for generations to come. A disciple once inquired of the Master wheth- er the affairs of ten generations to come could be fore- told. The Master replied that the affairs of even a hundred generations to come could be foretold, since the institutions of one generation are patterned after those of the preceding. This language of the Sage has proved true to a surprising degree in the history of China. 4. Causes and Results of China's Uniformity. From age to age there has been a monotonous uniform- ity in the forms of government and in the regulations of family and social life that, with the possible excep- tion of ancient Egypt, has had no parallel in the world's history. The reasons for the phenomenon are to be partly found in the racial character of the Chinese people, but chiefly in the lofty place accorded to Confucius and Confucian teachings in the thought CONFUCIANISM 189 of the myriads of the " black-haired race." These teachings have not only formed the center but circum- ference of Chinese thought. The highest good of each succeeding generation is best attained by taking heed to the watch-word, " back to antiquity." The result has been that since the times of Confucius if the date should not be fixed long before his birth there has been no progressive thought in China; or, if here and there a man has dared to think outside of the circle already prescribed, his thoughts have been con- demned and rejected by a jealous orthodoxy. Thus from age to age Chinese civilization may be likened to the pictures in a revolving kaleidoscope. There is change in relations, but always after a fixed law, and the same forms and colors continue to reappear with- out variation. Confucianism has produced a petrified civilization; and, judging from the results of twenty- five centuries, we may safely conclude that there is no latent power hidden in this system that can break up the existing order and carry China forward to higher things. 5. Confucius' Influence Upon the Chinese. Foreign students of Chinese literature find it difficult to dis- cover, either in the character, or in the teachings of Confucius, the source of his supreme influence upon the political and social life of China. He gathered about him a company of the choice youth of his time, not a few being scions of powerful families. These students seemed to have absorbed the teachings of the Master with unquestioning devotion ; and while he failed to accomplish in his lifetime those reforms in government and society to which he devoted his ener- gies, he founded a school of thought that has domi- RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS nated the minds of Chinese scholars from age to age. They in turn have exalted the name of their great Teacher, until he is honored above the long line of Emperors and has accorded to him a seat only a little below that of Supreme Heaven, since he has been a companion of Heaven in its transformations. Upon his tablet is written, " The Divine Seat of the Great Harmonizer, the Most Holy Ancient Teacher Con- fucius." This tablet is set up in every official resi- dence throughout China, and worship is offered before it in Spring and Autumn. The Emperor must partici- pate in this worship, or else send a prince of high rank as his representative. 6. Secret of His Influence. The true account of the unique place and influence of Confucius in the thought of China is doubtless to be found in his en- thusiastic interpretation of the institutions of antiquity to the scholars of his time. To them it appeared that a new light of the first magnitude had arisen in their midst, a light revealing the things of the past as a guide and pattern for the future. Reverence for an- tiquity found in Confucius a new and powerful im- pulse, and along with this reverence was a fresh ideal- ization of the Sage Teacher, perfect in wisdom and virtue. Confucius had himself said, " The Sage knows things from birth," that is, spontaneously, with- out the effort of study or research. This language was taken up by scholars and applied to the Master in its extremest interpretation. In spite of the Sage's own denial, Confucianists teach that he had a complete vision of truth in the varied human relations, and that what he did not choose to teach was of self-limitation, and not by reason of lacking knowledge. Thus Con- CONFUCIANISM IQI fucius in the thought of the scholars of China stands as the Oracle of Heaven, the fountain-source of the highest wisdom. Not that he is thought to be in- spired of Heaven, but that the Law of Heaven, oper- ating in the lives of all men, finds its perfect expres- sion in the life of Confucius. His teachings compass all human relations and supply the regulative princi- ples in government, in the family, and in society. 7. China's Arrested Development Due to Con- fucius. That the ideals of a race of men in the early stages of their movement toward a higher civilization should have had their re-embodiment in a Sage of later times and in him should have found the fixed standard of a social organism, furnishes an adequate explanation of the phenomena of arrested development which is everywhere seen in the institutions of China. The government is an overgrown and badly regulated family, and the family is bound under requirements that were formulated for a primitive order of society. The rights of man as man were never apprehended in Confucian thought and so were never embodied in lan- guage. The teacher in Western political and ethical science is compelled to create or adapt a word to this new meaning. The conception of individual liberty, closely related to that of individual rights, has very imperfect recognition in Confucian thought. To com- pass the ends of Confucian teaching, little is required beyond the attainment of rightly regulated authority above, properly manifested obedience below, with due regard for the various orders in age and rank. The results of such teachings have been to cause a cold formalism to dominate all social relations. The seeds of the finer sentiments that lie hidden in human nature 192 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS have failed, except in a limited measure, to spring up and bear fruit in the sterile soil and chilling climate which Confucianism has produced. Confucianism can, perhaps, be best studied under the heads, first, as a system of religion, or worship, and second as a system of political and social ethics. III. Confucianism as a System of Worship. In Confucianism as a system of worship, we distinguish three separate and yet closely related elements, viz., nature worship, Sage and hero worship, and ancestral worship. i. Nature Worship. (a) The Law of Heaven. Far back in the twilight of Chinese civilization the leaders of Chinese thought had discovered the unity of nature, had perceived the order that exists in the revolution of the heavenly bodies, in the succession of seasons, in the processes of growth and decay in animal life, and had concluded that man, the highest being in nature lives under the law of order, which is regulative of all his relationships. This law of order was named the Law of Heaven, and was thought to be a spontaneous force always moving on right lines and to right ends. The law that pro- duces transformations in the lower orders of nature was not distinguished from the law that operates in the realm of spirit, that determines the principles of right, truth, duty. But though failing to distinguish between the lower and the higher law, the Chinese have never questioned the witness of their conscious- ness as to personal responsibility for their thoughts and choices. They have always found in their own nature, in their power of self-will, the source of good and evil, and have never excused their wrong con- CONFUCIANISM 193 duct because they were under the power of an in- exorable law. Thus in practical thought the Law of Heaven has become a law of necessity in the lower order of nature, and a law of ought, of right action from choice in human relations. , (b) Pantheistic Dualism. Although the unity of nature was thus early discovered, the ancient Chinese in attempting to interpret this unity fell into the error of conceiving of the universe as self-evolved, the Law of Heaven operating in primordial matter in harmony with its nature and producing the existing order of things. The system thus developed was a dualistic pantheism, with Heaven as the Supreme Father and Earth the Supreme Mother. In " The Book of Changes " we read, " All things have their source in Heaven, and all things have their birth from the Earth." If a Confucian scholar is asked as to the origin of this conception, he is only able to say that the ancient worthies discovered this fundamental fact in the order of nature, and in harmony with this fact they instituted the family with father and mother set in their places as representatives of Heaven and Earth before their children. (c) The "Son of Heaven" and Nature Wor- ship. From ancient times the supreme ruler of China has been addressed as the " Son of Heaven." He rules by the will of Heaven and exercises his authority under the direction of Heaven. This rela- tionship to Heaven and Earth is further extended to Sun and Moon. The Sun is elder-brother to the Emperor and the Moon is elder-sister. Right govern- ment consists in directing affairs of state in harmony with the Law of Heaven. In ceremonies of nature- 194 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS worship the Emperor appears as high priest and is assisted by princes and ministers according to their rank. In the present dynasty the Altar of Heaven is placed in the southern city, Peking consists of two separate cities, the Altar of Earth outside the walls of the northern city, the Altar of the Sun in the eastern suburb, and the Altar of the Moon in the western suburb. At the winter solstice the Emperor worships with elaborate ceremonies on the High Altar of Heaven, and at the summer solstice on the High Altar of Earth. He rarely goes in person to wor- ship at the altars of Sun and Moon, but he is repre- sented by princes and ministers. Worship chiefly consists in prescribed prostrations before appropriate tablets, with offerings of meat, wine, and silk. Upon the tablet of Heaven a small slab of wood is written, " The Divine Seat of Imperial Heaven, the Ruler Above." Upon the tablet of Earth is written, "The Divine Seat of the Gods of Imperial Earth." (d) Personality in this Nature Worship. -It is important to note the conception of personality that inheres in this system of nature worship. Man as a rational being with powers of reflection and choice, in offering worship to the various powers of nature, per- sonifies those powers as a necessity of thought. He asks for help, protection, forgiveness, guidance, and his asking involves the element of faith that there is an eye to see, a heart to sympathize, a hand to direct. In Chinese dualism Heaven is the supreme object of worship, and relatively little is said of Earth. In many passages in the Chinese Classics relating to the activities of Heaven the element of personality is im- plied. The wicked kings of antiquity were over- CONFUCIANISM 195 thrown by the will of Heaven. " Heaven has no in- timates ; he gives help to the virtuous." " Heaven sees through the seeing of the people, and hears through the hearing of the people," that is, the will of Heaven finds expression in the choices of the peo- ple. In " The Great Learning" we are told, " Man's nature is the decree of Heaven," that is, man's nature is the gift of Heaven by definite decree or purpose. While it is important to note the conception of per- sonality in this system of worship, it is equally im- portant not to exaggerate that conception. At best it is a vague and shadowy thought, and but a remote suggestion of the Christian thought of the personality of God, the living spirit, the Heavenly Father. The personification of the powers of nature was more def- inite and clear in the ancient classical writings than in the writings of later ages. The more sages and scholars reflected on the orderly ongoing of nature, the more they were filled with the idea of its spon- taneity. Nature by its necessary and unchanging laws seemed to be self-evolved, self-sustained, and self-determined in its ends. Nature comes to con- sciousness in man, and the Sage is its oracle through whom the unconscious mind of nature finds articu- lation. (e) Fellowship Its Central Idea. TKe central thought in this system of worship is not that of pro- pitiation, so common in other religions, but rather of fellowship. Man is a child of nature, and his highest interests are involved in the transformations of nature. He therefore seeks by appropriate forms of worship to draw nigh to the great mother-heart, to give expression to the spirit of dependence, rever- IQ6 RELIGIONS OP MISSION FIELDS ence, thanksgiving, contrition, and thus by rightly ad- justing himself to his environment to keep the springs of beneficient nature pouring forth their waters rich and full to gladden the lives of men. (f) Nature Worship and Government. It should be noticed that this worship is an organic part of government, and it is thus an imperial obligation of the first order of importance. By appropriate cere- monies of worship the Ruler of " All under Heaven " puts himself in harmony with the powers of nature, and thus secures the cooperation of these powers in the administration of government. So vital is this nature worship conceived to be in its relations to gov- ernment, that one of the first acts in the overthrow of a dynasty and the setting up of a new govern- ment is the formal worship of Heaven by the new aspirant to the imperial dignity. This act is the final expression of rejection of the old order of things, and the starting point in the establishing of a fresh order. (g) Moral Element in Nature Worship. It re- mains to note the moral element that inheres in this system of worship. Physical order in the processes of nature becomes moral order in the relations of men. Necessary results through the operation of law under physical conditions become results of choice, of volition, through the operation of the same law in human relations; and thus order among men ap- pears as goodness or virtue, and disorder as evil or vice. Nature moves spontaneously, without fault or deflection, toward right ends. Man in his Heaven- given nature is equally spontaneous in moving toward right ends; but his nature has been confused CONFUCIANISM 197 by unbalanced passions, and deflected by evil ex- amples, and hence the necessity of self-regulation through proper forms of worship to bring human re- lations into harmony with the right order of nature. Morality has always proved itself to be built on inse- cure foundations when divorced from religion. In Confucianism worship has rightly been placed as the foundation for morality. The defect in the system is not one of relation, but of the object of worship. Creation has been substituted for the Creator, the self- activities of nature for the free activities of the Divine Spirit. And thus men under this system have lost the sense of the urgency of duty, that conviction of the unfailing reward of righteousness and punish- ment of evil that in the Christian system of ethics gives strength and urgency to moral motives. 2. Sage and Hero Worship. (a) Worship of Sages. According to the conception of Confucian- ism, the Sage has received from Heaven a perfect nature, so that the expression of that nature in words and life is always in harmony with the Heaven-deter- mined order. He is therefore the interpreter of the mind of nature, and his teachings are the embodiment of the Law of Heaven and are to be received as ulti- mate truth. There is an extravagant passage from the teachings of Confucius, recorded in " The Doc- trine of the Mean," which is believed by Chinese scholars to apply in its fullest sense to the great Mas- ter himself : " He who is able to give full develop- ment to his nature will be able to give full develop- ment to the nature of other men; he who is able to give full development to the nature of other men will be able to give full development to the nature of 198 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS things [whatever this may mean] ; he who is able to give full development to the nature of things will be able to assist Heaven and Earth in their work of trans- formation and nourishment and is thus a co-worker with Heaven and Earth." It is interesting to note in this passage and in other kindred teachings the place and office of the Sage in relation to Heaven and Earth. The Sage is set in his place to establish and preserve moral order in the relations of man ; and, with Heaven and Earth and the other powers of nature, he is a proper object of worship in formal expressions of reverence, dependence, thanksgiving. The ancient Sages are reverenced as the Sons of Heaven, as the uncrowned princes of China, and among them Confucius is accorded a supreme place of honor. Sage worship, along with nature and ances- tral worship, is an essential function of government with a common idea pervading the three forms of worship, that of establishing and preserving harmony between the people and the powers that rule over their destinies. In the Imperial ritual, the ruler must in person or by representatives offer worship in the tem- ple of the Sages in spring and autumn with prostra- tions and presentations of wines, fruits, meats, silks, etc. This spring and autumn worship is further ob- served by all ranks of civil and military officials ; and in addition at the beginning and middle of each month civil officials must visit the temple of Confucius and perform the prescribed prostrations, with the burning of incense before the tablet of the Sage. Confucius is further worshipped in schools through- out China as the patron of learning. His tablet is placed in each school-room inscribed with the char- CONFUCIANISM 1O/J acters as above given, " The Divine Seat of the Great Harmonizer, the Most Holy Ancient Teacher Con- fucius." Students on entering the school-room and on departing morning and evening are required to make their bows to this tablet. At the opening and close of school and on the day observed as the birth- day of the Sage, the teacher or teachers lead the stu- dents in performing " The Great Ceremony " of three prostrations and nine knockings of the head at each prostration. These ceremonies are deeply intrenched, both in the customs and in the laws of China, and are observed with increasing rigidness as they come un- der official control. Christian students find in these requirements a serious hindrance to participation in the benefits of learning as provided by the government. (b) Hero Worship. Hero worship is also a direct outgrowth of the Confucian cult. Its object is to keep vividly before the minds of the people the supreme virtues of certain great historical characters, of men distinguished for patriotism, filial piety, purity of life, and fidelity to duty under conditions of special trial. Of these heroes relatively few have received national honors, while most of them are remembered in the special regions where their virtuous deeds were per- formed. Temples are erected to their names and forms of worship are observed from generation to generation. Chieh Chih-ts'ui, who lived a little before the time of Confucius, refused to accept office under a corrupt prince and hid himself in the mountains. The prince determined to force his servant to continue in office and ordered the mountain to be set on fire to drive him from his hiding-place, with the result that he chose 20O RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS rather to perish in the flames than to serve an evil master. This protest to the death against corrupt gov- ernment has resulted in the national tribute of honor to the name of the hero. An annual memorial feast- day is observed, in which fires are not lighted and cold food is eaten by the people. This day is more elabor- ately observed in Shan-hsi, the native province of the hero, than in other parts of China. A little later than Confucius Ch'u Yuan gave wise counsel to Prince Hui of the kingdom of Ch'u, result- ing in good government and benefits to the people. Later the prince listened to the schemes of corrupt counselors, removed Ch'u .Yuan from office, and brought confusion into the affairs of government. In grief and disappointment he threw himself into a river and perished. For this act of devotion to the inter- ests of the people temples have been erected to his name throughout China, and in many places special food is eaten on his memorial day, a portion being, thrown into neighboring water to feed his spirit. Yiieh Fei is a distinguished modern hero of the Sung Dynasty in the twelfth century. He was a faithful and successful general in the wars with the northern Tatars. In the midst of his victories the prime minister, Ch'in Ts'ui, jealous of the reputation of Yiieh Fei, persuaded the Emperor to make a dis- advantageous peace, throwing Yiieh Fei into prison on false charges, and causing his death by poison. Many temples to the memory of Yiieh Fei are now scattered throughout China. In some of these the wicked prime minister and his wife appear before the image of Yiieh Fei in a bowed posture, and the wor- CONFUCIANISM 2OI shippers accompany the act of worship with a few strokes on the back of the minister. The celebrated " Chinese " Gordon was preceded by the American Ward in leading a body of foreign mer- cenaries to assist in putting down the T'ai P'ing Re- bellion. Ward died of wounds in the service of the Chinese government, and is honored with a memorial tablet before which appropriate ceremonies of worship are performed. When in China a high official of dis- tinguished merit dies, it is the custom to memorialize the Throne, setting forth the merits of the deceased and asking permission to erect a public memorial hall. Imperial permission is often accompanied with a pres- ent of a tablet or writing to be preserved in the hall in honor of the departed. Such halls should be distin- guished from family ancestral halls, as it becomes the duty of the local official to observe at prescribed times the proper ceremonies of worship. This wor- ship, though local, has the characteristics of hero wor- ship and is inspired by the public sense of admiration for the virtues that have been illustrated in the life of the deceased. Li Hung-chang has several public halls erected to his memory in the various places where he has held office. The list of such honored names in China is a long one, but usually after a few centuries worship is neglected, and the memorial hall crumbles into ruins. 3. Ancestral Worship. (a) The history of ances- tral worship in China, if it could be completely written, would be found to constitute an integral and important part of the history of Chinese civilization. Its origin and early evolution are hidden from view in the buried records of prehistoric times. More than two thousand 2O2 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS years before the Christian era, in the early dawn of Chinese history, this cult was already well developed, and was organic with the life of the family and the state. If a Confucian scholar were inquired of con- cerning its central thought, he would reply that it was " to requite the source and pursue the distant," which means, when interpreted into Western speech, that the object of ancestral worship is to properly acknowledge and honor the human source of our being, and when that source is separated from us by the multiplying years to keep it in memory by appropriate ceremonies of worship. Considerable variations have taken place in the ceremonies of ancestral worship in the long sue cession of centuries, but the vitalizing thought has con- tinued the same throughout, to preserve in the minds of the living the memories of the personalties and virtues of their ancestors. Much is said in Chinese writings as to the duties of sons to carry out the life-purposes of their parents. For a son to be thus guided by the thought and wish of departed parents is of the highest order of filial piety. (b) Place and Times of Worship. From antiquity, among families of wealth and rank, a special room or hall has been devoted to the ceremonies of ancestral worship. This worship is performed before memorial tablets arranged in the order of the generations of the deceased. In this worship wives have their place by the side of their husbands and receive equal honors. Among the common people, too poor to set aside a special room for their worship, the family tablets are preserved in a shrine placed in a room occupied by the living, where worship is performed in accordance with traditional requirements. The time of the New Year CONFUCIANISM 2O3 festival and the day of the death of the ancestor are the fixed occasions for the observance of worship. (c) A Scholar's View of this Worship. A Confu- cian scholar would speak on the subject of ancestral worship something after the following 1 manner : " As the water has its source in the fountain and the tree in the root, so we have our source in our ancestors. In our childhood we were cherished in the bosoms of our parents, were fed and clothed and instructed by them, and were directed in the path of right living. Their virtues were daily manifested before our eyes, and the noble characters of our ancestors have shed their luster down the generations. In our desire to give expression to our loving veneration we not only set delicate food and wine before them, but we delight to make prostra- tions in their honored presence and thus give expres- sion to our humble gratitude for the gift and the bless- ings of life. In these ceremonies we act out the deep feelings of our hearts in our desire to serve the dead as we serve the living. The ancient Sages observed these rites, and posterity has imitated them. By this sacred custom families have been preserved in order, and government has been continued in its stability. This worship has its source in the ordinance of Heaven, and is the spontaneous expression of the right affections of the human heart. To observe this wor- ship is the supreme act of filial duty, and to fail in its observance is to sin against the Law of Heaven and to disregard the most sacred of the moral affections." (d) Modern Regulations and their Significance. It was noted above that nature worship in the Con- fucian system is an Imperial obligation in which the people do not participate. On the other hand, ances- 2O4 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS tral worship is a universal obligation, rarely neglected except by reason of poverty or ignorance. Among the people ancestral worship occupies a first place in giv- ing expression to the feelings and convictions of the religious nature. The worship of multitudes of spirit- ual powers, though pervasive in China, is secondary in importance to worship before the tablets of the family ancestors, and is optional with the individual to do or to neglect to do. Ancestral worship is observed by the people independently of nature worship, but the two are interblended in the Imperial ritual. In the present capital of China, to the front and left of the extensive grounds occupied by the Imperial Palace are the grounds upon which is built the great Ances- tral Hall. On similar grounds to the front and right of the Palace is erected the Altar to the Gods of the Earth and Grain. The order of arrangement is not of accident. The first place is accorded to the an- cestors, from whom the gift of life is received and the second place to the Earth and Grain Deities, who nourish and sustain life. In the great ceremony of worship before the tablet of Heaven, it has already been observed that the tablets to the Imperial Ances- tors have their place to the right and left. In this there is not only symbolized the dependence of the living upon the Supreme Power in nature, but upon the human sources from whom life is derived. Prop- er ceremonies of worship before the symbols of the ancestral presence are an essential condition in preserv- ing harmonious relations with Heaven, the ultimate source of life and its attendant blessings. (e) Ancient Ceremonies Explained. At the open- ing of the semi-historical period in the records of CONFUCIANISM 2C5 China the system of ancestral worship had taken on the essential form which it has preserved down to the present time. There was already developed the an- cestral hall where worship was performed, the me- morial tumulus over the remains of the departed, and the prescribed ceremonies of worship to be performed before the tumulus at definite periods. It seems to have been the custom in ancient times a custom not generally followed in later centuries for a family to prepare a feast which was first set before the presence of the departed and then eaten by the living. There was another occasional practice which did not develop into a general custom, that of selecting a child from the family of the deceased and placing it in the seat of honor as the ancestral representative, to whom worship was offered. In ancient times and occasionally since the Christian era, at the death of a prince his wives, family servants, and subordinate officials would de- stroy themselves as a proof of attachment to their lord, and their bodies would be buried near to that of their master. This custom is stigmatized by Chi- nese historians as derived from the outside barbarians and has been discontinued in modern times. Along side of this custom, and probably more ancient in its origin, was that of burying with the deceased an image of wood or other material to symbolize the con- tinued presence with the deceased of his wonted at- tendants. The custom now pervasive in China at the time of a funeral to publicly burn life-like figures of men, women, horses, and representations of sedan- chairs, carts, houses, is probably an evolution of the idea expressed in the use of the ancient image buried with the deceased. 2O6 RELIGIONS- OF MISSION FIELDS (f) Ancestral Tablets and their Meaning. The custom of symbolizing the presence of ancestors by memorial tablets set up in the ancestral hall does not seem to have existed in ancient times, but for many centuries it has been pervasive in China. At the death of the head of a household, male or female, a tab- let is set up in connection with the burial service, which is carefully preserved from this time forth until de- stroyed by fire, or lost in some convulsion. The tablet consists of two narrow pieces of wood, usually less than a foot in length, the one placed in front of the other and set into a common base. They are together placed in a shrine of appropriate size. The name and age of the deceased is written on the face of one sec- tion of the tablet, with the added characters Shen Chu ; upon the other section is recorded the date of the birth and death, with the added characters Shen Wei. That is, one slab represents the deceased, who is called the Divine Lord, while the other represents the resting place of the deceased which is called the Divine Seat. There is an interesting feature in the ceremony of set- ting up the tablet which is deserving of notice. The character which signifies Lord is the same as that for Prince, with the addition of a dot above. At the death of a parent or grandparent a tablet is prepared as above with the writing in the usual black ink. The character for Lord is not completed, lacking the dot above that distinguishes it from Prince. A scholar is invited who appears in his full ceremonial costume, if an officer, in a costume that indicates his rank. He seats himself at a table facing the casket of the de- ceased and with a vermilion pen completes the charac- ter for Lord by adding the dot. The tablet is then CONFUCIANISM 2O/ placed in front of the casket, the officiating scholar first offering a cup of wine with three bows, after which the family of the deceased in order of seniority prostrate themselves before the tablet. The tablet is carried before the casket in the funeral procession to the place of interment, and after completion of cere-- monies it is returned to the ancestral hall to take its place among other tablets in all future ceremonies of worship. Doubtless in popular thought the tablet becomes a family god in the sense that the spiritual presence of the ancestor is conceived to be in the tablet ; but from ancient times Confucian scholars have been careful to emphasize the thought that the object of ancestral worship is to preserve the reverential memory of the departed, and not to bring the living into their real presence. In this connection a passage from Confucius is often quoted : " Worship [the an- cestors], as if present; worship the gods, as if pres- ent ; " that is, worship with sincerity as if in the pres- ence of the beings worshipped. (g) Western View of Ancestral Worship. West- ern writers on Chinese matters occasionally give ex- pression to the thought that ancestral worship is not worship in the fullest sense of the term, that it is only extending to the departed by appropriate ceremonies the reverence which is offered to the living. The fact that this worship is strictly a memorial service, not carrying with it the necessary belief in the presence of the spirits of the ancestors to accept the worship, may be pointed to in confirmation of the above posi- tion. But it should not be forgotten that nature wor- ship and ancestral worship are closely interrelated and form an essential unity. Ancestral worship does not 2C)8 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS stand by itself and upon a lower plane than the other forms of worship; rather, it is the form that is the most pervasive and urgent. Though in strict Confu- cianism the spirits of the ancestors are not believed to be present in the tablet, such worship is in harmony with the Law of Heaven, and to neglect it is to throw all human relations into confusion. This worship has been excluded from the Roman Catholic church in China, though from early times that Church has ad- mitted the worship of saints and angels into its ritual. In the Protestant Church the deeper spiritual intui- tions of the native converts uniformly declare against this practice. IV. Confucianism as a System of Political and Social Ethics. i. Its Central Idea. This subject which deserves a chapter must be treated in a few paragraphs. The central ethical thought in the Con- fucian system lies partly revealed in what has been written above concerning Confucianism as a system of worship. The two great dual powers, Heaven and Earth, have produced the ordered cosmos. The efficient force in this evolution has been the self-active Law of Heaven. Human nature is the incarnation of this law, and so is essentially good. In the nature of the Sage the affections and passions find their expres- sion in perfect harmony with this law; but in the masses of human beings the affections and passions are not held in proper subjection to law, and hence the confusion and evil of society. The end of the operation of the Law of Heaven in human relations is to establish order, and order is established when every class of men perform the Heaven-decreed duties of their rank and station. CONFUCIANISM 2O>9 2. The ''Five Relations." Chinese writers talk of the " Three Bonds," and the " Five Constants." The "Bonds " are the subordination of the minister to the prince, the son to the father, and the wife to the hus- band. The " Constants " are Benevolence, Righteous- ness, propriety, wisdom, fidelity. These "Bonds" and " Constants " find their expression in the " Five Relations," that of prince to minister, parent to child, husband to wife, older to younger brother, and friend to friend. In the above order of relations, with the exception of the last, the superior is set over against the inferior, with the result that the family and social life in China is largely dominated with a type of re- pressive formalism. Dignity, seniority, authority are correlated with subordination, dependence, servility; and the spirit of freedom, self-initiative, and spon- taneity find little scope for exercise. Society does not find its end in expanding and perfecting the individual. Rather is the individual cut and pared that he may be fitted into his prescribed place in a stereotyped society, that for the sake of mechanical order has sac- rificed the sparkle and zest of a natural and abounding life. 3. Virtue. The goal of the Law of Heaven, or ab- stract right, in its activity is virtue, which may be de- fined as active goodness. Confucius says : " The virtuous man wishing to be established [in right prin- ciples], seeks to establish others; wishing to be en- larged [in knowledge of right principles], he seeks to enlarge others." The excellence of this ethical con- ception consists in its active interest in the well-being of others. The defect of the term is not in the capacity of the word, but in the content placed by Con- 2IO RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS fucianism in it. Confucian benevolence and Chris- tian benevolence are conceptions that move on differ- ent planes of thought. The one has its end in order, in the right regulation of society, in the proper dis- charge of duty in the varied relations of life. The other has its end in heart purification, in mutual fel- lowship under the inspiration of the law of love, in lives that face Godward in their highest hopes and richest aspirations. 4. Strength and Weakness of Confucian Ethics. The ethical teachings of Confucianism will bear hon- orable comparison with the best ethical teachings of other ethnic civilizations. Chinese civilization has perpetuated itself for more than four thousand years in spite of social upheavals and dynastic changes less because of unity of race than because of the char- acter of its ethical teachings, crystalized into the laws of government and the institutions of society. But while this is true, Confucian ethical teachings, rein- forced by the system of worship, have always lacked in moral dynamics to make them more than partially realized in social life. Government and society have been held together, not so much by the general con- victions of right, as by the general instincts of self- preservation. Men have used their knowledge of : principles of right both as weapons of attack and shields of defense. Right conduct has been less from glad conformity to inner law, than from compulsion of outer circumstances. Thus practical ethics has been widely divorced from theoretical ethics ; and while the ideal of order has always been pointed to as the final end of the family, society, and the state, the wheels of the social machinery have creaked and CONFUCIANISM 211 groaned in their revolution because of the friction of a pervasive selfishness. 5. Confucianism Wanting. Confucianism in what it has accomplished for a fourth of the human race testifies to the perennial ethical and spiritual aspira- tions of the heart of man ; but it witnesses also to the need of a light clearer and steadier than that kindled by the .hands of the Sages of China, and that quality of strength which is not generated by unaided human impulses, which gives to men the knowledge, the will, and the power to live consistently toward the highest life-ideals, and so to attain to that order which is only realized under the operation of the Law of Love that law of spiritual gravitation, which holds the moral universe in place, and guides it in its course VIII. JUDAISM BY REV. Louis MEYER 213 BIBLIOGRAPHY ADAMS, H. C. History of the Jews (1887). *BARROWS, J. H., editor. The World's Parliament of Re- ligions (1893). Pp. 291-295, 527-535, 705-7I5- BEACH, H. P. Geography and Atlas of Protestant Missions (1901-03). Vol. I, ch. XX. BEAULIEU, A. L. Israel Among the Nations (1895). BETTANY, G. T. The World's Religions (1891). Book VI. Popular. DA COSTA, I. Israel and the Gentiles (1850). DE LE Roi, J. F. A. Die evangelische Christenheit und die Juden. EDERSHEIM, A. History of the Jewish Nation (1896). Encyclopaedias, especially " The Encyclopedia of Missions," under " Jews," " Judaism," " Israel," " Talmud." FRIEDLANDER, M. The Jewish Religion (1891). GIDNEY, W. T. Missions to Jews (1899). GIDNEY, W. T. The Jews and Their Evangelization (1899). *GRAETZ, H. History of the Jews (1891-95). Especially vol. V. GRANT, G. M. The Religions of the World (1895). Ch. IX. Great Religions of the World (1901). Dr. Caster's "Jews and Judaism in the Nineteenth Century." HASTINGS AND SELBIE. A Dictionary of the Bible. Extra volume (1904). Article "Talmud." JOST, J. M. Geschichte des Judenthums und seiner Sekten. *Judaism at the World's Parliament of Religions (1894). KELLOGG, S. H. The Jews, or Prediction and Fulfilment (1887). Ch. V. *KOHLER, K. A. Guide to Instruction in Judaism (1899). McCAUL, A. The Old Paths (1846). Ch. I. MILMAN, H. H. History of the Jews (1829, 1866). *Nathanael. Zeitschrift fur die Arbeit der evangelischen Kirche an Israel. Berlin. Saat auf Hoffnung. Zeitschrift fur die Mission der Kirche an Israel. Leipzig. The Glory of Israel. Bi-monthly periodical. Pittsburg. *The Jewish Encyclopedia (1901-). Every phase of Judaism. The Jewish Era. A Christian quarterly in behalf of Israel. Chicago. THOMPSON, A. E. A Century of Jewish Missions (1902). Especially chs. Ill, V, VIII, XXIII. WILKINSON, J. "Israel My Glory" (1892). Especially chs. XI, XII. WISE, I. M. Judaism and Christianity, Their Agreements and Disagreements. WISE, I. M. Judaism, Its Doctrines and Duties. * Indicates works of special value or authority. VIII JUDAISM 1. Summary of Chief Points of Doctrine. i. Two Great Sections. Judaism to-day consists of two great sections, the Orthodox and the Reformed. Both have their minor subdivisions, such as the Chasidim in Galicia, Poland, Southern Russia, and European Tur- key, the Karaites in the Crimea and the Caucasus, the Falashas in Abyssinia, and others, too numerous to be considered here. 2. Fundamental Principles in which all Jews Be- liez'e. All believers in Judaism agree on the follow- ing articles t 1 I. " We believe that there is one God, an only Being, eternal, spiritual, and most holy, who created heaven and earth and ruleth the world with perfect wisdom, with infinite justice, and everlasting love. He is one God and none besides Him. Him we are bidden to love with all our heart, and all our soul, and all our might, exclaiming : ' Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.' II. (a) We believe that all men are children of God, endowed with an immortal spirit, destined to share in the eternal hap- piness by following His ways of righteousness, (b) We also believe that Israel, having been the first to 1 Kohler, " Guide for Instruction in Judaism," p. 47. 215 2l6 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS recognize God, hath received a special revelation of His will with the mission of being His chosen priest among the nations to lead them to truth and salvation. III. We believe that God ruleth and judgeth all men and nations in righteousness and love. By reward and punishments, by joys and sufferings, He educateth and leadeth them to ever higher aims, until at last they shall arrive at the end of all time, when truth, justice, and peace shall unite mankind in the life of divine love and eternal salvation, and God will be King and Father of all. This is the Kingdom of God for which we all hope and wait, and for which we work with all the strength of body and soul." 3. The Thirteen Articles of Faith of the Orthodox Jews. The Orthodox Jews accept the thirteen articles of faith which Maimonides formulated at the close of the twelfth century, and which read as follows : * God and His Attributes. I. I firmly believe that God is the Creator and Ruler of all creatures, and that He alone was, is, and will be the Maker of every- thing. 2. I firmly believe that the Creator is One ; that there is no Unity like unto His in any way ; and that He alone was, is, and will be our God. 3. I firmly believe that God is Incorporeal, that He has not any corporeal qualities, and that nothing can be com- pared unto Him. 4. I firmly believe that God was the first, and will be the last. 5. I firmly believe that it is God alone to whom we ought to pray, and that no other being ought to be addressed in prayer. Revelation and Prophecy. 6. I firmly believe that all the words of the prophets are true. 7. I firmly 1 Friedlaender, " Text-book of the Jewish Religion," pp. 37-52. JUDAISM 217 believe that the prophecy of our Teacher, Moses, was a prophecy in the truest sense of the word, and that he was the chief of all prophets, both of those before him and those after him. 8. I firmly believe that the Torah, at present in our hand, is the same that was given to our Teacher, Moses, peace be with him. 9. I firmly believe that this Law will not be changed, and that no other Law will be revealed by the Creator, blessed be His name. God's Providence and Justice. 10. I firmly be- lieve that God knows all the deeds of the sons of men, and ' all their thoughts ; as it is said, He who hath formed their hearts altogether, He knoweth all their deeds, n. I firmly believe that God rewards those who keep His commandments, and punishes those who transgress His commandments. The Messiah. 12. I firmly believe that the Anoint- ed (the Messiah) will come; and although He tarries, I wait nevertheless every day for His coming. 1 Future Life. 13. I firmly believe that there will be a resurrection of the dead at the time when it shall please the Creator, blessed be His name. 4. The Talmud. The Orthodox Jews further be- lieve that on Mount Sinai Moses received two revela- tions; that one found body in the written law, and that the other was handed down orally from gen- eration to generation. The oral tradition was reduced 1 M. Friedlaender, in his " Text-Book of the Jewish Re- ligion," p. 49, remarks here : " By the Messianic time or ' the days of the Anointed,' the chief of our national hopes, we mean: (i) the days of the restoration of Israel to the Holy Land, the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem, the resump- tion of the Divine Service therein, and the Divine Glory to Zion; (2) the days of universal cessation of warfare, and the highest development of all human virtues and happiness." 2l8 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS to writing and called Mishna. The comments, criti- cisms, explanations, and discussions of the learned rabbis were also collected and called Gemara. Mishna and Gemara together are called Talmud, and obedience is due its prescriptions. " The Chief Rabbi has re- solved not to permit a single infraction of the Oral Law, but to have the whole Talmud received and ac- knowledged as divine," were the words of the Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, when he confirmed the ban of excommunication against minister and congregation of the Reformed Synagogue in London in 1845. 5. Beliefs of Reformed Judaism. The Reformed Jews are now agreed in their dissent from Orthodoxy, but are divided in principle some entirely ignoring the Divinity of the Old Testament, some accepting so much of it as Divine as suits their own tastes, and some retaining a little of both Scripture and Talmud. They have given up hope of the coming of a personal Messiah, but they wait for the coming of the Mes- sianic age, " when justice will reign supreme and love will bind man unto man." They do not desire to go back to Palestine and have abandoned the use of the Hebrew language in prayer. All sacrificial prayers are omitted, and laws and statutes are set down ac- cording to the present time. Thus the creed of the Reformed Jews is a mixture of Unitarianism, indif- ferentism, and intellectual rationalism which elevates philosophy above religion. II. The Popular Religion in Its Public and Pri- vate Forms. I. Reformed Judaism. Modern Juda- ism is vastly different from the religion inculcated by the Law of Moses. Reformed Judaism is more and more conforming its services to those of the JUDAISM 219 Christian Church. Sabbath-schools, Young Men's Hebrew Associations, and Ladies' Societies, together with the use of the organ and hymns and choirs, are proofs of this rapidly progressing, external conforma- tion. In a few cases the Jewish Sabbath has been changed to the first day of the week, the Lord's Day. There is thus no need of discussing Reformed Ju- daism, except to remark that Reformed Judaism still clings, at least outwardly, to the great Jewish Holy Seasons, to the name Jew, and in the majority of its followers to circumcision. 2. Orthodox Judaism. Orthodox Judaism holds tenaciously, like the Pharisee of our Lord's day, to the letter of the Law. But, alas, the Scriptures of the Old Testament are an almost unknown book to the great mass of its followers. The Old Testament is formally read in the synagogues every Sabbath, a chapter at a time, but it is not often found in their dwellings, and the Jews are generally ignorant of its contents. They do not know the prophecies about the Messiah, and to those who do know of them, it is a very superficial knowledge. The Bible is crowded out by the Talmud. And the Talmud is but the tra- dition of the fathers, such as our Savior accused the Jews of using to pervert the Scriptures. Thus Ortho- dox Judaism, it has been well said, wastes its strength in laborious triflings and unprofitable acuteness, for which the Talmud alone is responsible. Six hundred and thirteen precepts are contained in this immense work, which controls and governs the life of the Or- thodox Jew and decides even questions of the highest moment for him. Religious Rites and Customs. Circumcision, the re- 22O RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS demption of the first-born, and the bar-mitzvah (son of the commandment) are the three ceremonies in the religious life of the Orthodox Jew which are directly traceable to ancient times. The wearing of the phy- lacteries and the fringes, and the putting of the nvzuzah (sign) upon the doorpost are based upon Scripture passages, as they were interpreted by the rabbis, who contributed to the Talmud. Eighty days of the year have to be sacrificed to religious duties and observances. Twenty-one services every week are held in the synagogue all the year round. The grace after every meal takes up about ten minutes. No water should be drunk, no food be eaten, no flower be smelled, yea, no thunder be heard, without the offer- ing of the prescribed prayers. Birth or death, joy or sorrow, all require special prayers and religious exer- cises. The festivals of biblical times are still kept, but, alas, are buried under a mass of liturgical and ceremonial prescriptions of the Talmud. In brief, Tal- mudism is a slavery of the mind, unparalleled, except perhaps by the Popery of the dark ages of Christen- dom. III. Weaknesses and Evils of Judaism. The weaknesses and evils of both Orthodox and Reformed Judaism are caused by the fact that in neither section does the Word of God pure and simple hold sway. The Orthodox Jew has added to the Word of God ; the Reformed has taken away from it. i. Prayer-book of Orthodox Jews. The weak- nesses of Orthodox Judaism are made very apparent by the eight volumes of its Prayer-book. " It is the product of many ages and varied talents. It is a compendium of ritual in which symbol and ceremony JUDAISM 221 are blended, types and shadows substituted for scrip- ture realities. Fasting and prayer take the place of sac- rifices. A lamb bone and a consecrated passover cake is the substitute for the paschal lamb, and wherever Scripture puts repentance, the word fasting is substi- tuted; and for the word righteousness, almsgiving is used. In this liturgy, every usage both for the social, domestic, and religious circle is provided for, and most of the ten thousand rabbinic ordinances regulating Judaism find an echo in this liturgy. The Psalms are classified as charms and amulets for all the events and vicissitudes of life. The angelic host is invoked, and a mystic name is assigned each angel. Dreams are elevated to the position of divine revelation, for which a repertoire of interpretation exists, and a very pathetic prayer for dreams is inserted in the solemn service of the synagogue on high festivals. In the liturgy the Jew has his directorium from the cradle to the grave; it is his oracle and guide to the numerous superstitions by which the doctrines of purgatory, prayers for the dead, resurrection, eternal life, etc., are hemmed in " (Krcenig, " The Religious Condition of the Jews," p. 9). 2. Zionism. Another weakness of Orthodox Juda- ism is made apparent by Zionism. The desires of a homeless people for its rightful home, the longings of a suffering and persecuted nation for liberty and hap- piness, for safety and peace, find expression in this movement. It speaks to us of the expectation of a coming Messiah and of a return to Palestine; but it shows most clearly that the expected Messiah is to be " a descendant of the house of David, a human being, and not any more of divine descent than any other 222 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS man." He will be anointed to be at the head of the Jewish nation and a source of peace and happiness to all mankind. 3. Weakness of Reformed Judaism. This consists in its giving up the hope of the coming of a personal Messiah and the faith in the Scriptures of the Old Testament as the inspired Word of God, and its more and more apparent drift toward intellectual ration- alism. 4. Jewish Doctrine of Sin. The chief weakness of Judaism, Orthodox and Reformed, is its ignorance of the scriptural teaching concerning sin and atonement. M. Friedlaender, in his book, " The Jewish Religion," mentions neither " iniquity," nor " wickedness," nor " sin." The punishment of the wicked is mentioned in the eleventh principle of Judaism, but who the wicked are we are not told. Isaac M. Wise, in " Ju- daism : Its Doctrines and Duties," says : " Any person neglecting or refusing to obey the laws of God is a sinner." " God being all-just and most merciful, pro- vided a remedy for the sinner in bestowing on man the ability to stop sinning and to return to the path of righteousness." " The sinner, having become aware of his sins and repenting cordially, feels that remorse and self-contempt which sin produces. Then he must manfully struggle to overcome the cause and effect of sin." " The cause of sin is the enslaved will of the sinner. Therefore, in order to remove this cause, he must make his will free from the power of vice, by humbling himself before God, practicing char- ity and goodness, and learning to despise wickedness and to love goodness." K. Kohler, in his " Guide for Instruction in Judaism," says : " Sin is a power of JUDAISM 223 evil, dwelling in no other being but man. . . . Sin is the power which induces man to do wrong, but does not compel him to do so, and man's god-like nature consists in his mastery over sin. . . . The man who has sinned still remains God's child and may ob- tain His forgiveness if he repents, forsakes his ways, and turns to the right path. Repentance is a feeling of sorrow and pain for having done wrong, mingled with shame and self-reproach. And this will lead to a change of heart, if we, amidst deep self-humiliation [fasting] and prayer, invoke God's pardon and prom- ise to improve our ways. We are, then, no longer the same sin-laden creatures with hearts torn by bitter remorse. We try to undo our sins. Repentance works reconciliation, atonement, which means at-one- ment, setting ourselves at one with God, our Heavenly Father." We thus see that Judaism does not think of sin as the state of sin but as the act of sin. Rev. Mr. Banning has well said : " Now surely the state of sin bears the same relation to the act of sin that symp- toms do to disease. We are very sorry to see the symptoms, but far more terrible is the state of which these symptoms are the sign. But a Jew loses sight of this altogether and thinks of sin as an act, which has to be acknowledged and then will be forgiven." This Jewish view of sin is not scriptural. There is no reference in it to the sin of ignorance, nor to the sin of infirmity, nor to original sin. Sin, Judaism teaches, is disobedience to the law of God which must be confessed to God and atoned for to our fellow-men, and then it will be forgiven. 5. The Doctrine of the Atonement. This doctrine is also entirely lost to Judaism. The difference be- 224 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS tween the Talmudic and the scriptural view of atone- ment is vast. The doctrine of the Bible speaks of the essential sacrifice by which alone man has reconcilia- tion with God, the Father; that of the Talmud speaks of man as " offering himself in order to make his peace with God and of the efforts by which he strives to be reconciled to his neighbor when he has offended against him." Thus we find K. Kohler, in the " Guide for Instruction in Judaism," saying : " Man is a child of God and is, therefore, ever certain of the forgiving mercy of God, who will receive him in favor as soon as he returns penitently to Him. No priest or any other mediator is necessary to work atonement for man's sin ; he himself can make himself at one with his Maker by casting his sinful past into the sea, to begin a new life of virtue, goodness, and rectitude. . . . In order to feel the real shame and grief of sin and at the same time realize the glorious privilege of be- ing allowed to implore God's pardon, we are bidden to humble ourselves before God in prayer and peni- tence, in fasting, and in abstinence from all worldly care and pleasure, and by continual devotion and sol- emn praise of the Most High during the whole day [and the previous evening], to rise to the highest perception of the divine love and holiness and thus at- tain heavenly peace." Isaac M. Wise, in " Judaism : Its Doctrines and Duties," teaches : " The Yom-Kip- pur (Day of Atonement) conveys these lessons: i. He who falls may stand erect and straight after he has risen again. He who deserts the straight path and chooses crooked by-ways may return to the level path and walk in it. So may the sinner return to the path of righteousness and be pious. 2. By our JUDAISM 225 sins we cause not God to desert us, but ourselves to desert God; therefore we must return to God, and whenever we return we are deserted no longer. 3. Our pride, vanity, haughtiness, sinfulness, and wickedness will not offend the immutable Deity, but benight our souls, lead us to forget our duties, and wrong our neighbor. If the darkness of sin be re- moved and our neighbor appeased by our own re- pentance, we must behold again the light of truth and virtue. 4. God punishes only for the sake of cor- rection, for He is most gracious. If we punish our- selves for our misdeeds, and remorse and repentance are the worst punishment, God would not punish us again, for He is infinitely just." The Catechism pre- pared for the Jewish Consistorial Schools in Paris contains the following questions and answers : " Q. By what means can the sinner be absolved from his sins and obtain pardon from God? A. By penitence. Q. What do you mean by penitence? A. The expres- sion of a sincere repentance for the sin committed, regret in having offended God, and a firm resolution to avoid committing sin and to confess our errors before the Eternal. Penitence is the most important favor from the God of Mercy, who, knowing our weakness, has given us the means of obtaining pardon for our sins, and to regain divine grace." No other proofs are needed to show that modern Judaism, both Orthodox and Reformed, has lost all conception of the scriptural idea of sin and atonement, and that the doctrine of human merit has been enthroned by it. 6. Other Evils of Orthodox Judaism. There are some other evils and weaknesses which belong to 226 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS .Orthodox Judaism almost exclusively, and which are so numerous that we can only touch upon them here. Selfishness. The accusation has often been brought against the Talmud that it causes its strict adherents to become utterly selfish. The charity of the Talmud is indeed limited to its Jewish kinsmen in the flesh. Alms, as well as the common courtesies and kindnesses of domestic and social life, are reserved for Jews only. No helping hand should be given to idolaters, which term includes Christians. Fables of the Talmud. A great weakness of the system is further found in the many fables which the Talmud brings before its devotees. Space does not permit us to give examples. Loosening of Moral Sense. A graver weakness is the fact that the requirements of the Talmud are so strict and exacting that its adherents search with greatest ingenuity for ways of evading them. Thus the obligations of morality are loosened. Degradation of Women. Wherever the prescrip- tions of the Talmud are strictly enforced, there we find Jewish women in a painfully degraded condition. Di- vorce is granted on the most frivolous pretexts. Fe- male evidence is declared incompetent in any matter of dispute. Women are excluded from the public worship of God, having to be satisfied with a gallery in the house of God without being able to take part in the honorable and meritorious acts of worship. And women are not required any more than slaves to learn the revealed will of their Maker. One should not forget, however, that the great majority of these weak- nesses and evils of Orthodox Judaism appear only where the people are still under the iron scepter of JUDAISM 227 the rabbis and the blighting influence of the traditions of the fathers, the Talmud. IV. Strength of Judaism. i. Its Teachings. Judaism, though just as far removed from the re- ligion of the Old Testament as Popery is from that of the New, has as its basis divine revelation. It teaches monotheism as it taught it to the world in the times of greatest spiritual darkness. It holds forth a future state of rewards and punishments and pre- scribes the duty of charity, almsgiving, and hospital- ity. Judaism in its purity is the root of Christianity; and salvation is of the Jews, because Jesus Christ him- self was a Jew. A true Jew, therefore, freed from the fetters of tradition and superstition, is a believer in the true God, though, alas, he does not know the full truth, nor is he a believer in the moral law as God gave it to Moses. Thus he is moral, honest, dili- gent, charitable, and patriotic. But one thing is lack- ing, the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. 2. Its Influence on Life. Judaism is rightly called a strong religion, not so much on account of the large measure of truth contained in it, but rather on account of the deep hold which it has on the minds of its followers. The dreams of future greatness, the pride of natural descent from Abraham, and the safeguards placed by the rabbis around the religion combine to make its rule so secure, that only the hand of God can break the iron bonds. 3. The Fence of the Law. The safeguards which the ancient rabbis erected with great forethought are called Geder Hatorah, or " The Fence of the Law." We follow the description which Kroenig gives of them in " The Religious Condition of the Jews." 228 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS Rabbinical Injunctions. Every injunction of the rabbis is armed with divine authority and an ipse dixit for it is found from the written word by straining some passage of Scripture. This will best be illus- trated by a few short quotations from the Talmud: " He who contradicts his rabbi, it is the same as if he had contradicted the Divine Majesty, as it is written ( Num. 26 : 9) , ' They strove against the Lord.' " " He who transgresses the words of the rabbis is worthy of death." " It is more criminal to teach anything con- trary to the ordinances of the scribes than against the written law." Insistence on Observing Customs. All Chukath Hagoyim, i. e., " customs and usages," adopted by the Gentiles, either domestic, religious, or social, are forbidden. Kneeling in private or ^public worship is thus forbidden, although it is not denied by the rabbis that kneeling is the most proper attitude in devotion, and they have made a concession in the matter of kneeling in the most solemn part of the service on the Day of Atonement. Prayer with uncovered head is forbidden for the same reason; and a multitude of similar prohibitions serve as means of preventing any intercourse with Gentiles, which expression includes Christians. Excommunication. Anyone who shall in any way, by word or deed, transgress against the injunction of the rabbis or call in question their divine authority, is amenable to the Cherem, or the ban of excommuni- cation. This holds good either in the case of an in- dividual or a community, and is enforced with the utmost severity. It is a favorite means of fighting JUDAISM 229 Christian missions among the Orthodox Jews and has great influence. 4. Literary and Intellectual Power of the Jews. It has been well said that " every one really acquainted with the character of the Jewish people, in their more favorable circumstances, will pronounce them to be a literary and highly intellectual race, who, at every period of a long and calamitous history, have given birth to authors of distinguished name, and who at present can boast of an extensive literature." At four years of age, the Orthodox Jew's son begins to learn the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. As soon as he can pronounce tolerably well, he is taught to remember the meanings of the words. He knows no grammar and no dictionary, as he thus reads the Pentateuch. Soon, however, he goes over it all again with the as- sistance of the rabbinical commentary. The work of one rabbi after another is perused, until at last the study of the Talmud is commenced. At the age of thirteen he becomes " a son of the commandment," and is considered responsible for himself and for his sins. If at that time he is considered hopeful and talented, the men of means among the Orthodox Jews " vie with each other in anxiety to form an alliance of marriage with him." In this anxiety, which is caused by a hope of Messiah's being born in the fam- ily, is found one of the strongest motives for the ac- quisition and patronage of the Talmud. Thus the talented Jew studies on during his whole life, and thus the literary and intellectual character of the race is perpetuated. Even those Orthodox Jews who are occupied in the pursuits of the world, fill up their leisure hours with the reading of the Talmud and rab- 230 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS binical literature. Why? Because they have been taught that the whole law may be fulfilled by means of the attainment of a certain quantity of knowledge. V. Best Methods of Missionary x Approach. i. Demeanor. More perhaps than in any other Chris- tian work the missionary to the Jews ought to be filled with love; not merely with love for the Master and His cause, but specifically with love for the Jews and a desire for their evangelization. The Jews have been persecuted for so many centuries and have been so continually exposed to the antipathy of nom- inal Christians that they are very quick to detect whether the missionary loves them and their souls, or not. The missionary to the Jews against whom the cry, " Antisemite ! " is raised with the faintest appear- ance of truth, has at best only the possibility of over- coming this prejudice by years of patient labor. Therefore love, love to Christ, love to the despised and neglected brethren of our divine Master, must be written with letters of fire upon the life and words and acts and deeds of the missionary to the Jews. 2. Points of Antagonism to be Avoided at First. We would warn the missionary against all vain dis- putations based upon the Talmud. They lead to noth- ing and may make the missionary ridiculous in the eyes of his hearers, because it is almost impossible for him to become as familiar with its teachings as is the Jew who has studied it from early youth. Person- ally we do not believe that any missionary should waste his time thus, but he should rather build upon the points of agreement between Judaism and Chris- 1 By missionary we understand exclusively Christians of Gen- tile birth. JUDAIS1I 231 tianity, without putting too much stress upon the fact that Christianity is the glorious, full-orbed day and Judaism the daybreak of the true religion. 3. Points of Agreement Bet-ween Judaism and Chris- tianity. These points of agreement are quite numer- ous, and can be only touched upon in this brief dis- cussion. There is first of all the unity of God. The Christian does not believe in three gods, but in three persons in one God. He is first of all a believer in the unity of God, like the Jew. Then there is the common Bible. Adolph Saphir, referring to the pro- cess by which he became a Christian, said, " I made the discovery that the New Testament was an inspired appendix to the Old." That is a very good way of putting it to the Jew. Again there is the fact of a consciousness of sin and of a longing after a true atonement. Deep underneath the rubbish which mod- ern Judaism has heaped upon the teaching of the Old Testament concerning these two things, . there is in very many Jewish hearts the real, deep consciousness of spiritual need and helplessness. Then there is the promise and the hope of a Messiah, and we might quote other points of agreement between Judaism and Christianity. But enough has been said. VI. Objections Urged Against Christianity. I. The Person of Christ. The objections against Jesus Christ are, I think, quite familiar to every reader. He is called the son of Joseph, or worse still, a " bastard." His divinity is denied. His miracles are declared to have been done by the help of the unspeakable name of God, or of the devil. He did not rise from the dead. His death was simply that of a martyr. And so on. We would call especial attention to the great 232 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS objection against the divinity of Jesus Christ which hides itself under fulsome praise of Jesus the Jew, or the prophet, and which robs him of his highest honor, making him a man even as we are. 2. Four Common Objections. The missionary should be prepared to answer the following four ob- jections, which are very common: It is objected, 1 (a) that the Christian religion is not the religion of love, because Christians have been, and are, perse- cuting the Jews ; (b) that it is impossible to say which one of the many denominations is the right one ; (c) that the truth of the Christian religion cannot be proved by its progress, because Mohammedanism has progressed far more rapidly; (d) that the dignity of the person of Jesus and His death can have no funda- mental value, because so many children of Christian parents, who call themselves Christians, speak in an irreverent manner of his person, work, and death. VII. Essentials of Christianity to be Urged. i. Five Essentials. More necessary, however, than the answering of objections is the urging of the fol- lowing essentials of Christianity : (a) The fact of original sin; (b) the inability of man to save himself; (c) the promise of the Redeemer; (d) the birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus; (e) the offices of Christ. 2. Christ's Divinity. But let the missionary be very careful to point out the divinity of Christ and also the fulfilment of the Old Testament prophecies in Him. This line of discussion will naturally lead to 1 See Nathaniel, 1888, p. 83. JUDAISM 233 a presentation of all the weaknesses and evils of Juda- ism, Orthodox and Reformed. VIII. Following up Interviews or Discussions. In Jewish work, far more than in any other missionary effort, the printed page is necessary to follow up pos- sible impressions made by personal interview and dis- cussion. In the great majority of cases, the inquirer will prefer to call upon the missionary, in order that the ire of his Jewish brethren may not be aroused. We believe that in the work among the Jews the In- quirer's Home is a necessity in order that an oppor- tunity may be given for quiet searching of the Word of God without interference from rabbis and Jewish friends and without temporal cares. But whether the missionary invites the inquiring Jew into the Home, or has him come to his own home, or to the mis- sionary headquarters, or calls upon him at regular intervals, a New Testament and an Old Testament, if necessary, too, should be provided in a language which the inquirer thoroughly understands. Tracts or books bearing upon the difficulties which arise, should also be put into his hands. For the Orthodox Jew we would recommend McCaul's " Old Paths," while for the Reformed Jew the missionary can easily select mate- rial from the large Christian literature for unbelievers. Above all, the missionary should carefully instruct the inquirer in the truth as it is in Jesus. Step by step he should lead him on, prayerfully trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. If he thus honors God's methods and fully avails himself of the means provided, there can be no question as to the result. IX. MOHAMMEDANISM BY SAMUEL M. ZWEMER, D.D., F.R.G.S. Missionary to Arabia for Fifteen Years 235 BIBLIOGRAPHY *ALi, S. A. The Life and Teachings of Mohammed (1891). A Mohammedan apology. ARNOLD, T. W. The Preaching of Islam (1896). A Moslem apology. . BARROWS, J. H., editor. The World's Parliament of Reli- gions (1893). See index under "Mohammedanism." DODS, M. Mohammed, Buddha, and Christ (1878). Lects. I, II. ELLIN WOOD, F. F. Oriental Religions and Christianity (1892). Lect. VI. Encyclopaedias, especially " The Encyclopedia of Missions," and the " Britannica," under " Mohammed," " Moham- medanism." HAINES, C. R. Islam as a Missionary Religion (1889). Espe- cially chs. II, III, V, IX, XI. "HUGHES, T. P. A Dictionary of Islam (1885). -Especially articles " Muhammad " and " Muhammadanism." JOHNSTONE, P. DEL. Muhammad and His Power (1901). Chs. IV-XI, XIV, XV. *KOELLE, S. W. Mohammed and Mohammedanism (1889). Books I, III. KUENEN, A. National Religions and Universal Religions (1882). Lect. I. *MuiR, W. Life of Mahomet (1894). MUIR, W. The Apology of Al Kindy (1887). MUIR, W. The Coran, Its Composition and Teaching (1878). *PALMER, E. H. The Qur'an. (1880). Sacred Books of the East, vols. VI, IX. *SALE, G. The Koran. Especially the Preliminary Discourse. *SAUSSAYE, P. D. CHANTEPIE DE LA. Lehrbuch der Religions- geschichte (1897). Bd. I, 326-396. SELL, E. The Faith of Islam (1896). Chs. I, IV, V. SELL, E. Essays on Islam (1901). SPRENGER, A. Das Leben, und die Lehre des Mohammed (1869). Especially Kap. I-III, XI. STOBART, J. W. H. Islam and Its Founder (1876). Especially chs. X, XI. *TISDALL, W. ST. CLAIR-. A manual of the Leading Muham- madan Objections to Christianity (1904). TISDALL, W. ST. CLAIR-. The Religion of the Crescent (1895). Lects. I, II, IV. VAUGHAN, J. The Trident, the Crescent, and the Cross. (1876). Ch. VI. WHERRY, E. M. A Comprehensive Commentary on the Quran (1882). Based on Sale's Koran. *ZWEMER, S. M. Arabia, the Cradle of Islam (1900). Chs. XVI-XIX, XXX-XXXVI. ZWEMER, S. M. The Moslem Doctrine of God (1905). * Indicates works of special valu or authority. IX MOHAMMEDANISM 1. Introductory. i. Number and Distribution. The faith of Islam, or Mohammedanism, is believed by nearly 2oo,ooo,ooo 1 nominal adherents and is thirteen centuries old. It extends over three continents, from Peking in China to Sierra Leone in West Africa. Two and a half million Russian Moslems spread their prayer-carpets toward Mecca; from Zanzibar and South Africa the Moslems pray toward the north ; more than 20,000,000 Chinese Moslems look toward the west; and from darkest Morocco they pray east- ward to the Kaaba. Mohammed's word has been ful- filled, " So we have made you the center of the nations that you should bear witness to men." Among these millions of Moslems there is great diversity of lan- guage, race, education, and civilization, but all have one book and imitate one prophet. 2. Moslem Sects. Islam is divided into many sects and schools of thought. The vast majority of Mos- lems belong to the Sunm Sect, which has four orthodox 1 Estimates vary and census reports are lacking except for Moslems under Christian rulers. The new " Encyclopedia of Missions" gives 193,550,000; Hubert Jansen's statistics of the Moslem world (Berlin, 1897), 259,680,672; others put the num- ber as high as 300,000,000 (William E. Curtis) ; but see the Missionary Review of the World for October, 1898. The esti-- mates for Africa and China are generally too high. 337 238 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS schools of theology and jurisprudence. These agree in essentials but differ in their interpretation of cere- monial laws and are more or less rigid. Central Asia, Northern India, and the Turks everywhere, are Hanlflte; Lower Egypt, southern India, and the Malay Archipelago are Shaflte; upper Egypt and North Africa are Malikite; while the sect of Hanbalites ex- ists only in central and eastern Arabia. The heterodox Shiah Sect exists chiefly in Persia and India, and num- bers less than ten millions. This chapter treats only of the orthodox, or Sunni, belief. 3. Some Moslem Terms. Islam means passive res- ignation to the will of God, and it fitly designates the religion from a philosophical standpoint. Moham- medanism is its proper name from the practical side, because Mohammed is to all Moslems the ideal of character and the model of conduct. Moslems describe their religion under two heads, Iman and Dm, what it is necessary to believe and what it is necessary to do for salvation. This resembles the division of the Westminster " Shorter Catechism." II. Iman, or What a Moslem Believes. It is in- cumbent to have a firm faith in six articles ; God, His books, His prophets, the Day of Judgment, and predestination. The sources of Moslem teaching on these topics are apparent to the student of history. Islam is not an invention but a concoction. The genius of Mohammed mixed old ingredients into a new panacea for humanity, sugar-coated it with an easy- going morality, and forced it down by means of the sword. At a time when many religions existed in Arabia and the Kaaba was a pantheon, the heteroge- neous elements of Islam were molded into one sys- MOHAMMEDANISM 239 tern. These elements were partly heathen (Arabian), partly Christian (Abyssinian), but for the most part they were borrowed from Talmudic Judaism. In the following summary of Islam's creed and practice one may read between the lines the sources of Mohammed's teaching. 1. The Moslem Idea of God, "La ildha ilia 'llahu." " There is no God but God " is the first clause in the Moslem creed. Gibbon calls it an eternal truth, but Palgrave, Noble, Osborne, Hauri, and other stu- dents of Islam have questioned whether the monothe- ism of Islam is worthy to be compared with that of Judaism, or of Christianity. Islam reduces God to the category of the will. The Koran shows that Mo- hammed had a measureably correct idea of the physical attributes of God but an absolutely false conception of His moral attributes. The conception of God is nega- tive. Absolute sovereignty and ruthless omnipotence are His chief attributes, while His character is imper- sonal, that of a Monad. The Christian truth that " God is love " is to the learned Moslem blasphemy and to the ignorant an enigma. Islam is " the Pan- theism of Force." 2. Angels. Under this head we group the Moslem belief in three species of spiritual beings, viz., angels, jinn, and devils. This belief is not theoretical but is intensely practical. (a) Angels were created out of light and are en- dowed with life, speech, and reason. Of the four archangels, Gabriel reveals truth, Michael is patron of the Jews, Israfil will sound the last trump, and Azrail is the angel of death. Angels are inferior to the prophets (Surah 2:32). There are two recording 240 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS angels for each person, who write down his good and his ill. Munkar and Naklr are two black angels with blue eyes who interrogate men after burial in the grave and mete out terrible blows to those whose replies prove them not Moslems. Therefore, at a funeral parting instructions are given the deceased in the grave. The Koran seems to teach that angels inter- cede for men (Surah 42:3). The names of guardian angels are used in exorcism; eight special angels sup- port Allah's throne; and nineteen have charge of hell-fires. (b) Jinn, or genii, are either good or evil. They were created from fire, are of diverse shapes, marry and propagate, and are mortal. The Koran and ortho- dox Moslem theology are full of teachings about their origin, office, power, and destiny. Read the " Arabian Nights " to get an idea of the effect of this belief on life and morals. No pious Moslem to-day doubts that they exist, nor that Solomon sealed some of them up in brass bottles. The chief abode of jinn is in the moun- tains of Kaf, which encompass the world; they also frequent baths, wells, ruined houses, etc. For fear of jinn millions of the ignorant in Moslem lands are all their lifetime subject to bondage. This article of their creed is the mother of a thousand foolish and degrad- ing superstitions, yet it can never be abandoned with- out doing violence to the Koran. (c) The devil (Sheitan, or Iblls) has a proper name, Azazll. He was expelled from Eden for refusal to prostrate before Adam when God commanded it (Surah 7:10-17). His demonic host is numerous and terrible. Noteworthy among them are Harut and MOHAMMEDANISM 24! Marut, two evil spirits that teach men sorcery at Babylon. 3. The Books of God. Islam is decidedly a book- ish religion, for Moslems believe that God "sent down " 104 sacred books. Their doctrine of inspiration is mechanical. Adam received ten books, Seth, fifty, Enoch, thirty, and Abraham, ten; all of these are utterly lost. The four books that remain are the Torah (Law), which came to Moses, the Zabur (Psalms), which David received, the Injil (Gospel), of Jesus, and the Koran. The Koran is uncreated and eternal; to deny this is rank heresy. And while the three other books are highly spoken of in the Koran, they now exist, Moslems say, only in a corrupted form, and their precepts have been abrogated by the final book to the last prophet, Mohammed. The Koran is a little smaller than the New Testa- ment in extent; it has 114 chapters bearing fanciful titles borrowed from some word or phrase in the chap- ter. The book has no chronological order, logical sequence, or rhetorical climax. Its jumbled verses throw together piecemeal fact and fancy, laws and legends, prayers and imprecations. It is unintelligible without a commentary, even for a Moslem. Moslems regard it as supreme in beauty of style and language, and miraculous in its origin, contents, and authority. From the Arab's literary standpoint it is indeed a re- markable book. Its musical jingle and cadence are charming, and, at times, highly poetical ideas are clothed in sublime language. But the Koran is re- markable most of all, not because of its contents, but for its omissions not because of what it reveals, but for what it conceals of " former revelations." 242 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS The defects of its teaching are many : (a) It is full of historical errors; (b) it contains monstrous fables; (c) it teaches a false cosmogony; (d) it is full of su- perstitions; (e) it perpetuates slavery, polygamy, di- vorce, religious intolerance, the seclusion and degrada- tion of women, and petrifies social life. All this, however, is of minor importance compared with the fact that the Koran ever keeps the supreme question of salvation from sin in the background and offers no doctrine of redemption by sacrifice. In this respect the Koran is inferior to the sacred books of Ancient Egypt, India, and China, though unlike them it is monotheistic. 4. The Major and Minor Prophets. Mohammed is related to have said that there were 124,000 prophets (anbiya) and 315 apostles (rusul). Six of the latter are designated by special titles and are the major prophets of Islam. They are as follows: Adam is the chosen of God ; Noah, the preacher of God ; Abra- ham, the friend of God; Moses, the spokesman of God; Jesus, the word of God; and Mohammed, the apostle of God. In addition to this common title Mo- hammed has 201 other names and titles of honor by which he is known ! Only twenty-two others minor pro'phets are mentioned in the Koran beside these six, although the host of prophets is so large. They are: Idrls (Enoch), Hud (Heber), Salih (Methusaleh or Paul), Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Lot, Aaron, Shuaib (Jethro), Zacharias, John the Baptist, David, Solomon, Elias, Elijah, Job, Jonah, Ezra, Lokman (Aesop. Balaam?) Zu '1-Kifl (Isaiah or Obadiah?), and Zu '1 Karnain (Alexander the Great). The account MOHAMMEDANISM 243 of these prophets is confused, yet we must give credit to some Moslem commentators lor doubting whether Lokman and Alexander were really prophets. Mos- lems say that they make no distinction between the prophets but love and reverence them all. Moham- med, however, supersedes all, supplants all in the hearts and lives of his followers. The Mohammed of history and the Mohammed of Moslem tradition are two different persons. In the Koran, Mohammed is thoroughly human and liable to error. He is now considered to have had a pre-exist- ence before creation, to have been perfectly sinless, and is the only powerful intercessor on the Day of Judg- ment. He is the standard of character and the model of conduct. Every detail of his early life is sur- rounded with fantastical miracles which prove his divine commission. Even the evil in his life is at- tributed to God's permission or command, so that his very faults of character become his endless glory and the signs of his superiority, e. g., his polygamy and cruel wars. He dwells in the highest heaven and is several degrees above Jesus, our Savior, in honor and station. His name is never uttered or written without the addition of a prayer. Yet a calm and critical study of his life proves him to have been an ambitious and sensual enthusiast, who did not scruple to break nearly every precept of the moral law to further his ends. (See Muir, Koelle, Sprenger, and Weil; but also the earliest Moslem biography by Ibn Hisham). 5. The Day of Judgment. This occupies a large place in the Koran. It is called the Day of Resur- rection, of Separation, of Reckoning, or simply the Hour. Most graphic and terrible descriptions portray 244 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS the terror of that day. Moslems believe in a literal resurrection of the body from a living principle which resides in the os sacrum: This bone will be impreg- nated by a forty days' rain before the resurrection takes place. Moslems believe also in an everlasting life of physical joys, or physical tortures. The Mos- lem paradise in the words of the Koran is " a garden of delight, . . . with couches and ewers and a cup of flowing wine ; their brows ache not from it nor fails the sense; theirs shall be the Houris . . . ever virgins." What commentators say on these texts is often unfit for translation. The orthodox interpreta- tion is literal, and so was that of Mohammed ; because the traditions give minute particulars of the sanitary laws of heaven, as well as of its sexual delights. The Moslem hell is sevenfold, and " each portal has its party." All the wealth of Arabic vocabulary is ex- hausted in describing the terrors of the lost, and Dante's Inferno is a summer-garden compared with the Jehennom of Islam. Connected with the Day of Judgment are the signs of its approach, viz., the com- ing of an Anti-Christ, Dajjal, the return of Jesus as a Moslem prince, the rising of the sun in the west, the war of Gog and Magog, etc. 6. Predestination. This last article is the keystone in the arch of Moslem faith. It is the only philosophy of Islam, and the most fertile article of the creed in its effects on everyday life. As in the Christian Church, this doctrine has been fiercely discussed, and what might be called ultra-Calvinism has carried the day. The terminology of their teaching is Calvinistic, but its practical effect is pure fatalism. Most Moslem sects " deny all free-agency in man and say that man MOHAMMEDANISM 24$ is necessarily constrained by the force of God's eternal and immutable decree to act as he does." God wills both good and evil; there is no escaping from the ca- price of His decree. Religion is Islam, i. e., resigna- tion. Fatalism has paralyzed progress ; hope perishes under the weight of this iron bondage; injustice and social decay are stoically accepted; no man bears the burden of another. Hauri and Osborne show in their study of this subject how its blasting and deadening influence are felt in every Moslem land. III. Din, or the Religion of Good Works. While Islam, in general means resignation to the will of God, Mohammed stated that it was, especially, to be sub- missive to His will in the observance of five duties. These five duties merit reward and are called " the pillars," or foundation, of religion. Their pious ob- servance is the mark of a true Moslem ; to break loose from any one of them is to be in peril of damnation. Mohammed said : " A Moslem is one who is resigned and obedient to God's will, and bears witness that there is no God but God and that Mohammed is His Apostle ; and is steadfast in prayer, and gives zakat, and fasts in the month of Ramazan, and makes a pil- grimage to Mecca, if he have the means." We give only a summary of these five duties. i. The Confession of the Creed. It is the shortest creed in the world, has been oftener repeated, and has had more power over those that uttered it than any other. The cree*d is so brief that it has needed no re- vision for thirteen centuries. It is taught to infants and whispered in the ears of the dying. Five times a day it rings out as the call to prayer in the whole Moslem world. " La ilaha ilia 'llahu : Muhammadun 246 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS Rasulu 'llah." There is no God but God, that is the whole of theology; Mohammed is the apostle of God, that is the sum and substance of ethics. It is related that the prophet said, " Whosoever recites this creed shall receive rewards equal to the emanci- pating of ten slaves and shall have 100 good deeds put to his account and 100 of his sins shall be blotted out, and the words shall be a protection from the devil." On every occasion this creed is repeated by the believer. It is the key to every door of difficulty ; one hears it in the bazaar and the street and the mosque ; sailors sing it as they raise their sails ; ham- mals groan it to raise a heavy burden; it is a battle- cry and a cradle-song, an exclamation of delight and a funeral dirge. There is no doubt that this con- tinual, public repetition of a creed has been a source of strength to Islam for ages, as well as a stimulus to fanaticism; witness the use of this creed by the Dar- wish orders. 2. Prayer. The fact that Moslems pray often, early, and earnestly has elicited the admiration of many travelers, who, ignorant of the real character and con- tent of Moslem prayer, judge it from a Christian stand- point. What the Bible calls prayer and what the Mos- lem means by the same name are, however, to a degree distinct conceptions. One who was for many years a missionary in India, and who is an authority on Islam says : " Prayer is reduced to a mechanical act ; and, in judging of the spiritual character of Mohammedan- ism, we must take into careful consideration the pre- cise character of these devotional services five times daily. The devotions of Islam are essentially vain repetitions, for they must be said in the Arabic Ian- MOHAMMEDANISM 247 guage [by all Moslems] and admit of no change or variety." A necessary preliminary to every Moslem prayer is legal purification. Whole books have been written on this subject describing the occasions, method, variety, and effect of ablution by water or, in its absence, by sand. The ritual of purification is one of the chief shibboleths of the many Moslem sects. In Mohamme- dan works of theology there are chapters on the proper use of the toothpick, on the different kinds of water al- lowed for ablution, and on all the varieties of un- cleanness. After washing various parts of the body three times according to fourteen rules, the Moslem is ready to begin prayer. The five proper times for prayer are at dawn, just after high noon, two hours before sunset, at sunset, and again two hours after. It is forbidden to say morning prayers after the sun is risen. Posture is of prime importance, and includes facing the Kibla, i. e., Mecca, as well as a series of prostra- tions and genuflections more easily imitated than de- scribed. The words repeated during this physical exercise consist of Koranic phrases and short chapters, which include praise, confession, and a prayer for guidance. Often the chapters chosen have no connection with the topic of prayer. Personal private petitions are allowed after the liturgical prayers, but they are not common. The least departure from the rule in purification, pos- ture, or method of prayer nullifies its effect, and the worshipper must begin over again. Special prayer is obligatory at an eclipse of the sun or moon and on the two Moslem festivals. 248 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS 3. The Month of Fasting. This was probably borrowed by Moslems from the Christian Lent. There are many traditions that tell how important fasting is. Let one suffice : " Every good act that a man does shall receive from ten to 700 rewards; but re- wards of fasting are beyond bounds, for fasting is for God alone and He will give its rewards." The chief Moslem fast is that of the month of Ramazan. Yet it is a fact that Mohammedans, rich and poor, spend more on food in that month than in any other month of the year; and it is also true that physicians have a run of patients with troubles from indigestion at the close of this religious fast. The explanation is simple. Although the fast extends over one lunar month, it only begins at dawn and ends at sunset each day. During the whole night it is usual to indulge in pleas- ure, feasting, and dinner parties. This makes clear what Mohammed meant when he said that " God would make the fast an ease and not a difficulty." On the other hand, the fast is extremely hard upon the laboring classes when, by the changes of the lunar calendar, it falls in the heat of summer when the days are long. Even then it is forbidden to drink a drop of water or take a morsel of food. 4. Zakat, or Legal Alms. This pillar of the pious, like all the others, rests rather upon the authority of tradition than upon the precepts of the Koran, since every detail in its observance is borrowed from the example of the prophet himself. In its primitive sense the word zakat means purification, and it was applied to legal alms, or the poor rate, since the gift of a portion of one's gain or property would purify, or sanctify, the remainder. These compulsory alms were in the early MOHAMMEDANISM 249 days of Islam collected by the religious tax-gatherer, as they still are in some Mohammedan countries. Where Moslems are under Christian rule, the rate is paid out by each Mohammedan according to his own conscience. The rate varies greatly, and the different sects disagree as to what was the practice of the prophet. Moreover, it is difficult to find a precedent in ihe customs of pastoral Arabia for the present methods of acquiring and holding property in lands touched by civilization. The greatest details are given, e. g., regarding zakat on camels, but there is no precedent for zakat on railway bonds ! One fortieth of the total income is about the usual rate. The tithe of the Old Testament was a much larger portion and was supple- mented by many free-will offerings. Charitable offer- ings are also common in Islam, but generally speaking, the Moslem who gives his zakat is satisfied that he has fulfilled all righteousness. There are seven classes to whom this legal alms may be given, viz., the poor, the homeless, the tax-collector, slaves, debtors, those engaged in fighting for Islam, and wayfaring travellers. 5. The Pilgrimage. The pilgrimage (Hajj) to Mecca is not only one of the pillars of the religion of Islam, but it has proved one of the strongest bonds of union and has always exercised a tremendous influence as a missionary agency. Even to-day the pilgrims who return from Mecca to their native villages in Java, India, and West Africa are fanatical ambassa- dors of the greatness and glory of Islam. From an ethical standpoint, the Mecca pilgrimage, with its superstitious and childish ritual, is a blot upon Moham- medan monotheism. But as a clever device to unite 25O RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS the Moslem world and awaken an annual and ever- widening esprit de corps the Mecca pilgrimage is with- out a rival. The number of pilgrims that come to Mecca varies from year to year; although a Moslem tradition says that it is always 72,000, the angels com- pleting any deficiency in the number of earthly pil- grims. The vast majority arrive by sea from Egypt, India, and the Malay Archipelago. The pilgrim cara- van from Syria and Arabia by land is growing smaller every year. All told, from sixty to ninety thousand pilgrims reach Mecca at the time of the Hajj. For the details of the pilgrimage one must read Burckhardt, Burton, or other travellers who have risked their lives in visiting the forbidden cities of Islam. In brief, the ceremonies are as follows : After donning the garb of a pilgrim and performing the legal ablutions, the Hajji visits the sacred mosque and kisses the Black Stone. He then runs around the Kaaba seven times thrice very rapidly and four times slowly in imitation of the motions of the planets. Next, he offers a prayer : " O Allah, Lord of the Ancient House, free my neck from hell-fire and preserve me from every evil deed ; make me contented with the daily food Thou givest me, and bless me in all Thou hast granted." At " the place of Abraham " he also prays ; he drinks water from the sacred well of Zemzem and again kisses the Black Stone. Then the pilgrim runs between the hills of Safa and Marwa. He visits Mina and Arafat, a few miles from Mecca, and at the latter place listens to a sermon. On his return he stops at Mina and stones three pillars of masonry known as the " Great Devil," the middle pil- lar, and the " first one " with seven small pebbles. MOHAMMEDANISM 2$I Finally there is the sacrifice of a sheep or other animal as the climax of the pilgrim's task. Snouck Hur- gronje and Dozy have given us the philosophical origin of these strange ceremonies in their monographs. 1 The whole pilgrimage is, in the words of Kuenen, " a fragment of incomprehensible heathenism taken up undigested into Islam." And as regards the venera- tion for the Black Stone, there is a tradition that the Caliph Omar remarked : " By God, I know that thou art only a stone and canst grant no benefit or do no harm. And had I not known that the Prophet kissed thee I would not have done it." The Mecca pilgrimage is incumbent on every free Moslem who is of age and has sufficient means for the journey. Many of them, unwilling to undergo the hardships of the journey, engage a substitute, and thus purchase the merit for themselves. Most Moslems also visit the tomb of Mohammed at Medina and claim the prophet's authority for this added merit. The Shiah Moslems visit Karbala and Meshad All, where their martyr-saints are buried. Pilgrimages to tombs of local saints and ancient prophets, to " foot-prints " of the Apostle, or to graves of his companions are ex- ceedingly common. But none of these pilgrimages equal in merit that to the House of God in Mecca. In conclusion it is necessary to state that the two sacred cities of Islam are hotbeds of every form of immoral- ity and, by the witness of Moslems themselves, sink- holes of iniquity and dens of robbers. 6. Other Practices and Privileges. In addition to 1 Het Mekkaansche Feest, by Snouck Hurgronje, Leiden, 1880. De Israeliten te Mekka van Davids tijd enz., Dozy, Haarlem, 1864. 252 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS the above " five pillars " of the faith a word is neces- sary regarding certain other Moslem practices, if we are to complete the sketch of every-day religion and desire to see what effect their beliefs have on social life and thought. (a) Circumcision, although not once alluded to in the Koran, is the initiative rite among all Moslems, and in that respect it corresponds somewhat to baptism. Its performance is attended with religious festivities and its omission is equivalent to a denial of the faith. Its observance is founded upon tradition, i. e., the cus- tom of Mohammed. The abominable practice of female circumcision (mutilation) is common in many Moslem lands and is also said to be founded on the custom of Mohammed. (b) Polygamy, Divorce, and Slavery. These three evils are so closely intertwined with the Moham- medan religion, its book and its prophet, that they can never be wholly abandoned without doing violence to the teaching of the Koran and the example of Mo- hammed. In Moslem books of theology, jurispru- dence, and ethics, there are long chapters on each of these subjects. Nor can there be the least doubt that polygamy and slavery have had a tremendous power in the spread and grasp of Islam. It is the testimony of history that the slave-traders of Zanzibar were also the missionaries of Islam in darkest Africa; and the last census report of Bengal states that the increase of the Mohammedan population there is due, not to conver- sions from Hinduism, but to polygamy and concu- binage as open doors into a higher caste for sub- merged womanhood. We must also remember that the loose moral code of Islam is ever an attraction to MOHAMMEDANISM 253 the unregenerate. It is impossible to give here, even in outline, the true character, extent, and effect of these three " religious institutions " of Islam. A Moslem who lives up to his privileges and who follows the ex- ample of " the saints" in his calendar can have four wives and any number of slave-concubines ; can di- vorce at his pleasure; he can remarry his divorced wives by a special arrangement ; and, in addition to all this, if he belong to the Shiah sect he can contract marriages for fun (Metaa') which are temporary. Arabia, the cradle of Islam, is still the center of the slave-trade, and according to the Koran slavery and the slave-trade are divine institutions. Some Moslem apologists of the present day contend that Mohammed looked upon the custom as temporary in its nature; but slavery is so interwoven with the laws of mar- riage, of sale, of inheritance, and with the whole so- cial fabric, that its abolition strikes at the foundations of their legal code. Whenever and wherever Moslem rulers have agreed to the abolition or suppression of the slave-trade, they have acted contrary to the priv- ileges of their religion in consenting to obey the laws of humanity. 1 (c) Jihad. It is unaccountable why this greatest force in Islam, religious warfare, or Jihad, is not men- tioned as a pillar of religion. A religious war against infidels is a duty plainly taught by the Koran and by tradition. Some apologists for Islam T. W. Arnold, Saiyad Amir AH, and others attempt to avoid the offense of the sword by interpreting these passages in a semi-spiritual way, and they even try to 1 See Missionary Review of the World for June, 1899. 254 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS make Jihad mean a sort of Christian Endeavor Society for propagating Islam. To this Dods replies : " The man must shut his eyes to the broadest and most con- spicuous facts of the history of Islam who denies that the sword has been the great means of propagating this religion. Until Mohammed appealed to the sword, his faith made very little way." The history of the Wahhabis in the nineteenth century, the Arme- nian massacres, the Mahdls of the Sudan and of Somali-land, and the almost universal hope that Islam will again use the power of the sword all these are proofs that Jihad is one of the religious forces of Mohammedanism which Christendom cannot afford to ignore. The sword is in its sheath, but the giant still wears it at his side and it has never been rusty. IV. Strength of Islam. Some points of strength are self-evident from the above outline. Others are worthy of special attention. Among the elements of real strength in Islam are the following truths and methods. Violence and falsehood are never elements of strength in any religion, although they may account for its rapid spread and apparent success. I. Islam is a Religion Without Caste. It extin- guishes all distinctions founded upon race, color, or nationality. All believers belong to the highest caste and all unbelievers are out-castes. The Hindu who turns Mohammedan loses his caste but becomes a mem- ber of the great brotherhood of Islam. Slaves have held thrones and founded dynasties. The first one who led the call to prayer was Bilal, a negro of Me- dina. There is no sacerdotal class of ministers in Islam. Each man offers prayer to God himself; the MOHAMMEDANISM 255 leader of prayers in a mosque has no spiritual author- ity. 1 2. Its Creed Contains Much Fundamental Truth. This is very strikingly exhibited, if we write out the Apostles Creed, the universal symbol of Christendom, in such form as a Moslem would accept : " I believe in God . . . Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ . . . conceived [mirac- ulously] and born of the Virgin Mary. . . . He ascended into heaven, . . . and from thence He shall come. ... I believe ... in the for- giveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting." Although the heart of the creed is omitted, namely the Trinity and the Atonement, how much remains that is common to Christianity and Islam. What a contrast to heathen religions and even to Judaism. 3. Intolerance of Error. This is also an element of strength. It is the Puritan spirit of Islam; and al- though iconoclastic and often violent to the point of fanaticism, it is a praiseworthy trait in any religion. Islam has in it the stuff that martyrs and reformers are made of ; its professors are " valiant for the truth " and have the spinal column of conviction. 4. Desire for Conquest. Islam is one of the few missionary religions of the world. It began with the Saracen conquest and continued for thirteen centuries until the Wahhabi revival and the Pan-Islamic move- ment of to-day. In the words of the Koran the Mos- lem must " fight against infidels till strife be at an 1 See Dr. Blyden's " Christianity, Islam, and the Negro Race," second edition, London, 1888. 256 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS end and the religion be all of God." And Mohammed said, " He who dies and has not fought for the religion of Islam, nor has even said in his heart, ' Would to God I were a champion that could die in the road of God,' is even as a hypocrite." And again, still more forcibly, " The fire of hell shall not touch the legs of him who is covered with the dust of battle in the road of God." In spite of cruelty, bloodshed, dissension, and deceit the story of the Moslem missionary conquest as given by Haines and Arnold * is full of hero- ism and inspiration. If so much was done in the name of Mohammed what should we not dare do in the name of Jesus Christ! 5. Respect for the Authority of God's Word. The Koran is not the word of God, but the Moslem believes it is, and believes it with his whole heart. While their belief is unreasoning and though the Koran is anything but divine, it is no small matter to realize that in these days of universal doubt and irreverence, there are millions of Moslems who believe that God has spoken to man by the prophets; that His word con- tains neither errors nor untruths; and that the end of all disputation is a " Thus saith the Lord." Con- verts from Islam love the Bible with a passionate love and respect its authority. V. The Weakness of Islam. The great weakness is in its foundations. It is rotten at the core. False /religions may wear the garment of health and gird the sword of strength, but they are one and all dying of heart-disease, and their end is only a matter of time. 1 Islam as a Missionary Religion C. R. Haines, S. P. C. K., London, 1889. The Preaching of Islam T. W. Arnold, London, 1896, MOHAMMEDANISM 257 In addition to those already alluded to, the following are weak points in Islam. 1. Its Distorted Theology. Islam is a retrogression and a caricature, as regards its idea of God, when com- pared with Judaism or Christianity. James Freeman Clarke acknowledges this in the following words'. " Mohammedanism is a relapse ; the worst form of monotheism and a retarding element in civilization. Mohammed teaches a God above us; Moses teaches a God above us and yet with us ; Jesus teaches God above us, God with us, and God in us." x 2. It 1ms No Incarnation and No Atonement for Sin. This fatal omission in Mohammed's idea of re- ligion is contrary to universal religion. The idea of an incarnation and an offering for sin is prominent in many heathen religions, and traces of it appear in all other religions, save in Islam. The cross of Christ is the missing link in the Moslem's creed. The portrait of Jesus Christ as given in the Koran and in tradition is a caricature. It is folly to reckon it one of the good points of Islam that the Koran speaks highly of Jesus our Savior. No; Islam is of all religions most false in this respect that it betrays the Son of Man with a kiss. Recent study of this subject has led me to the conviction that what Mohammed left unsaid regarding Jesus Christ was not due to ignorance on his part, but to a delicate suppression of the truth. 3. Its Low Ideal of Character. " By their fruits ye shall know them." And, as we have seen that among Moslems the ideal of character and the model of con- '"Ten Great Religions," vol. I., pages 481-488; also vol. II., page 380. 258 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS duct is Mohammed, we need not be surprised that the ethical standard is so low. Raymund Lull, the first missionary to Moslems, used to show in his bold preaching that Mohammed had none of the seven car- dinal virtues and was guilty of the seven deadly sins. It would not be difficult to show that pride, lust, envy, and anger were prominent traits in the prophet's char- acter. To read the pages of Muir or Weil or Spreng- er is convincing. But to take another example, what did Mohammed teach regarding truthfulness? There are two authenticated sayings of his given in the tra- ditions on the subject of lying : " When a servant of God tells a lie, his guardian angels move away to the distance of a mile because of the badness of its smell." " Verily a lie is allowable in three cases, to women, to reconcile friends, and in war." " The dastardly assassination," says Muir, " of his political and relig- ious opponents, countenanced and frequently directed as they were in all their cruel and perfidious details by Mohammed himself, leaves a dark and indelible blot upon his character." With such a prophet it is no wonder that among his followers and imitators " truth- telling is one of the lost arts," and that perjury is too common to be noticed. Since Mohammed gathered ideas and stories from the Jews of Medina and palmed them off as a new revelation from God, it is no won- der that Arabian literature teems with all sorts of plagiarisms, or that one of the early authorities of Islam laid down the canon that it is justifiable to lie in praise of the prophet. 4. Its Deep-rooted Sensuality. On this topic it is not possible to speak plainly nor to be wholly silent. One must live among Moslems to feel the blasting in- MOHAMMEDANISM fluence of this side of Islam on its followers. Moslems have changed the truth of God in their consciences for a lie, and for this cause they are given up to vile af- fections from the day their prophet married Zainab until now. Many of the masses are past feeling and " have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness." In conse- quence the majority seem to have " consciences seared with a hot iron " and minds too full of the sensual to admit of a spiritual conception. There is no mental soporific like the Koran, and there is nothing so well designed to hush all heart-questioning as a religion that denies the need of an atonement. There is no spiritual aspiration even in the Moslem who longs for heaven, for he can only picture the " houris " of para- dise and the goblets of wine and rivers of milk. " To be carnally-minded is death." Islam proves it by the effect of its teaching on the lives of Moslems. See Hauri for proof of this statement. VI. Best Methods of Reaching Moslems. " Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead?" The Mohamme- dan missionary problem is a challenge to our faith, and there are opinions current to the effect that missions to Moslems are fruitless, if not hopeless. Back of all methods and means, therefore, we need faith. Such faith as dwelt in the pioneer heroes who led the attack against this citadel of error Lull, Petrus Vener- abilis, Henry Martyn, Pfander, and Keith-Falconer. Such is the faith which a lady missionary in Algiers, Miss I. Lilias Trotter, describes : " Take it at its very worst. They are dead lands and dead souls, blind and cold and stiff in death as no heathen are ; but we who 260 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS love them see the possibilities of sacrifice, of endurance, of enthusiasm, of life not yet effaced. Does not the Son of God who died for them see these possibilities too? Do you think He says of the Mohammedan, ' There is no hope or help for him in his God ' ? Has He not a challenge top for your faith, the challenge that rolled away the stone from the grave where "Laza- rus lay ? ' Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? Then took they away the stone/ " To raise the spiritually dead is the work of the Son of God. But we are to believe and take away the stone from the place where the dead lay. i. By Distribution of God's Word. This is the method par excellence in all Moslem lands. It is near- ly everywhere permitted. It is simple and unoff ensive. It strikes at the root of Islam by placing the Bible over against the Koran, and the sublime story of the life of Jesus, the Christ, over against the artificial halo that surrounds the biographies of Mohammed. In this method of work we have immense advantage over Islam. Translations of the Koran into other Moslem languages exist and are tolerated, but they are rare, ex- pensive, and are necessarily far inferior to the original in style and force. But the Bible has been translated into nearly every Mohammedan tongue, and is the cheapest and best printed book in the Orient; nor has it lost its beauty and power in any translation. The Arabic Koran is a sealed book to all non-Arabic-speak- ing races, but the Bible speaks the language of the cradle and the marketplace. Every missionary to Mos- lems should be a colporteur, and every colporteur in Moslem lands should be a missionary. Distribution MOHAMMEDANISM 26l should be by sale, not, generally, by free gift. Among Moslems there are portions of Scripture which are especially acceptable and therefore effective, viz., Gene- sis, Matthew's Gospel, John's Gospel, and the Psalms. 2. By Medical Missions. These break up the fal- low ground of prejudice and fanaticism, are possible nearly everywhere, and, when conducted with evange- listic zeal, have proved fruitful in results as has no other agency. The Punjab, Persia, and Egypt are examples. Hospitals and dispensary clinics reach the crowded centers, but medical missionary touring is es- sential for village work and in sparsely settled coun- tries, like Arabia and Persia. 3. Educational Institutions. " To make wrong right, let in the light." From the kindergarten on the veranda of a mission house to the well equipped uni- versity of India, all educational forces, great and small, help to undermine that stupendous rock of ignorance and superstition, Moslem tradition. But the work of education is only preparatory. The New Islam of In- dia and Egypt is the revolt of the educated mind against traditionalism. We must reach the heart and conscience, or fail. 4. By Preaching. There are many ways and means of doing this that are more suitable to Moslems and the Orient than the pulpit or the platform with a large, quiet audience. Preaching in this larger sense in- cludes talking with men by the wayside, or in the cof- fee-shop, with a group of sailors on deck, or to the Mohammedan postman who brings your letters. The glorious liberty of bazaar preaching is not found in many Moslem lands, nor do Moslems generally come to Christian churches; but that does not mean that 262 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS there is no call for preachers and preaching. It is well to remember the resolution of the Church Missionary Society, passed as early as 1888: " While the difficul- ties in the way of missionary work in lands under Mo- hammedan rule may well appear to the eye of sense most formidable, this meeting is firmly persuaded, that, so long as the door of access to individual Mohamme- dans is open, so long it is the clear and bounden duty of the Church of Christ to make use of its opportunities for delivering the Gospel message to them, in full ex- pectation that the power of the Holy Spirit will, in God's good time, have a signal manifestation in the triumph of Christiantiy in those lands." There is no question about the door of access to individual Mos- lems being open. It is wide open everywhere. What single lady missionaries have done and are doing in North Africa and Persia among fanatical villagers proves that there is a loud call for women to preach to women the unsearchable riches of Christ. Islam itself was not spread solely by the sword but by preachers. Study their zeal and methods ; there is something for us to learn from them. For illustrations of this, see Arnold's " Preaching of Islam." Preach- ing must have for its subject the essentials of Christi- anity. Preach Christ crucified. Show the reasonable- ness of the mysteries of revelation, of the Incarnation, and of the Holy Trinity ; but never try to explain them by philosophy or argument. The problem is to reach, not the intellect, but the conscience, to arouse it from stupor, to show the grandeur of moral courage to the man who is intellectually convinced of the truth. In trying to convince the will that citadel of man-soul we must follow the line of least resistance. The MOHAMMEDANISM 263 history of Moslem theology, e. g., shows that hetero- doxy has nearly always been connected with a desire for a mediator. This natural longing for an interces- sor and an atonement is fully supplied in Christ, the Savior. Again, when Moslems object to the eternal pre-existence of the Word of God as a form of poly- theism, point out that orthodox Islam holds the Koran to be eternal and uncreated simply because it is the word of God. Preach to the Moslem, not as a Mos- lem, but as to a man as a sinner in need of a Savior. There is no use in arousing the picket-guard by firing blank cartridges before the attack. 5. The Place of Controversy. That it has a place and an important one, in reaching Moslems is evident from the whole history of Mohammedan missions. But the subject is a large one and, to the beginner, per- plexing, because it is hard to look at things from the Moslem viewpoint. Read Dr. Tisdall's " Manual of the Leading Mohammedan Objections to Christianity," which is the best summary of arguments and objec- tions. Prayerful contact with the Moslem mind will teach one how to use this keen weapon to the best ad- vantage in every special case. 6. Dealing with Inquirers. It is helpful to remem- ber three facts and three texts which apply to such cases. (a) There are many secret believers in all Moslem lands of whom the missionary will perhaps never know. Pray for them. " Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him." (b) It is exceedingly difficult, even in countries un- 264. RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS der Christian rulers, for a Moslem to break away from Islam and confess Christ. Be tender and patient. " A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory." (c) In every possible way encourage public confes- sion of Christ. Living apostles who, freed from the yoke of Islam, preach the gospel with all boldness and are ready to die for Christ, such and such alone, will vanquish the religion of Islam. " Whosoever there- fore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But who- soever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven." For a fuller and better account of the points given in summary in this chapter, the missionary candidate should study, not read, the books on Mohammedanism given in the Bibliography. X. ROMAN CATHOLICISM BY GEORGE B. WINTON, D.D. Editor of the Nashville Christian Advocate; formerly Mis- sionary among the Mexicans 265 BIBLIOGRAPHY BARROWS, J. H., editor. The World's Parliament of Religions (1893). Pp. 485-493; also see index for further papers. Romanist's viewpoint. BEACH, H. P., and others. Protestant Missions in South America (1900). Especially ch. X. BETTANY, G. T. The World's Religions (1891). Pp. 813- 864. *BROWN, H. W. Latin America (1901). Lects. II, IV, V. BUTLER, W. Mexico in Transition (1892). Especially chs. II, III, X. Encyclopaedias, especially " The Encyclopedia of Missions," under " Roman Catholic Church," " Roman Catholic Mis- sions." *GIBBONS, J. The Faith of Our Fathers ... a Vindica- tion of the Church (1879). Great Religions of the World (1901). Cardinal Gibbons' " Catholic Christianity." MANNING, H. E. Internal Mission of the Holy Ghost (1875). NEWMAN, J. H. Essay on Development of Doctrine. TUCKER, H. C. The Bible in Brazil (1902). Especially chs. V, VI. WISEMAN, N. P. The Doctrines of the Catholic Church (1836). * Indicates works of special value or authority. 266 X, ROMAN CATHOLICISM I. Catholicism's Sacerdotal System. A study of Roman Catholicism, which dwells on the defects of that system, may seem to some out of line with the Christian tolerance and good will of our day. But it is the defective and distorted Christianity taught by the Roman Catholic Church which has made Catholic countries legitimate fields for evangelical missions. It is to the interest of truth and of a true presentation of Christanity that those defects and their source be pointed out. Christian tolerance should never reach the point of tolerating error, in particular error which strikes at the root of the Gospel and which, if allowed, will cheat men of the Gospel's benefit. The failure of Roman Catholicism may be traced back to fundamental errors in its doctrine. Kindlier relations between Catholics and Protestants existing to-day, especially in the United States and Great Britain, do not mean that Protestantism has given up any of her hostility to error. Both doctrinally and practically, where vital matters are concerned, no yielding is possible. The radical doctrinal defect of Catholicism is its teaching that Christianity is a sacer- dotal system, and that therefore its ministers are priests. There is scarcely a pretension of the papacy or a stupid superstition of the most ignorant Romanist 267 268 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS which cannot be traced back to this false doctrine, and which does not exhibit its corrupting touch upon the evil nature of humanity. 1. Its Old Testament Origin. It must be allowed that, humanly speaking, this error is neither a strange nor a surprising one. The old dispensation, providen- tially inaugurated among God's chosen people, was a priestly dispensation. Its terminology and many of its concepts passed into the revelation of the New Tes- tament. That many readers of that book should re- main unaware of the vital transition of which it is the monument is not to be wondered at. That many should even carry the concepts of this outwardly sym- bolized and elaborately ritualistic religion of the Hebrews over into that dispensation which God cut clear of all this trammeling ceremony, in order to fit it for both Jew and Greek, is but an instance of the un- intelligent way in which men in every age deal with both Scriptures and providence. 2. Sacerdotalism Widely Diffused. Indeed, the sacerdotal conception of religion is not limited to the horizon of the Old Testament. Sacrifices and inter- ceding priests are the stock elements in a hundred other religious systems, systems often whose origin is obscured by the mists of a distant past. The adap- tation of this mode of worship to human needs must have made it a well-nigh essential element in the train- ing of humanity for the priesthood and redemptive ministry of Jesus Christ. Where the Gospel is not yet known, some sort of a propitiatory system may, even now, be better than no religion. For, unless it is pure fetichism or devil-worship, it brings home to man two ROMAN CATHOLICISM ^69 fundamental moral conceptions, his own sinfulness and the displeasure therewith of his Deity. 3. The Gospel and Sacerdotalism. Yet it would seem that a knowledge of the Gospel, of the finality of the work of Christ, ought to make clear the absurdity of any additional sacrificial scheme. Paul was shocked that the Galatians were unable to see the folly of becoming ceremonial Jews after they had been made citizens of God's kingdom. It seemed to him that even a child ought to see that this would be to cheapen, even to abandon, the Gospel itself. " If ye be circum- cised, Christ shall profit you nothing." 4. A Curse in the Christian Dispensation. And, as though by some retributive providence, this substi- tuting of a ceremonial law for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, once that Gospel is known, instead of prov- ing a fair and fairly edifying form of religion, as such systems have proved in other epochs of human history, has been a devastating curse. Is this because God thus vindicates his Son, exacting a price from those who while seeming to worship really scorn him? Certainly it can be no light thing to slight Christ, to set up a cheap ceremonialism in the stead of that vital work of grace that he is ready to do in men's hearts. But God is not usually concerned with paying off slights, with avenging Himself on scorners. Such a conception of Him belongs to a childlike stage of hu- man understanding. 5. " Christian Sacerdotalism " a Contradiction. As a matter of fact, we do not have to penetrate to the secrets of divine motives and providence to find an ex- planation of the failure of Christian sacerdotalism. We need only to know men. To begin with, these RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS two words are mutually exclusive. They are not far from self-contradictory. If men persist in elaborating a scheme of priestly sacrifices and intervention under the name of Christianity, without perceiving the illogi- cal and absurd quality of their act, the impossibility of such a scheme will nevertheless emerge in practice. Nothing is more hopeless than the attempt to put a naturally absurd system into use. The mind of every new adept is in its turn shocked and outraged by the contradiction. Was there ever a Catholic, for ex- ample, who, if he knew anything at all of Christ, did not ask himself, " How is it that the priest makes sacrifices for our sins when Christ has already done so ? " There is no answer. 6. The System Stultifying. Again, in addition to this flying in the face of unsophisticated reason, the promoters of a sacerdotal scheme of Christianity are under the necessity of inventing the scheme. They must not only persuade themselves against reason that it is necessary, but that, when once they have in- vented it, it is efficacious, even divine. By the time a man has deceived his own instinctive good judgment in this way once or twice, he is ready for anything. He will be able to affirm that black is white, that evil is good, and may set himself to give ingenious reasons in proof of it. 7. Conclusion. In these considerations, it seems to me, is to be sought the reason that while sacerdotal- ism may be in general a very good form of religion, was indeed once divinely ordained, yet as an inter- pretation of Christianity it is evil and corrupting and that continually. Its adepts must be ever persuading themselves and others against their own better judg- ROMAN CATHOLICISM 2/1 ment. Whereas there is no place in the Christian con- ception of salvation for a hierarchy of priests with their sacrificial functions, they are under the neces- sity of creating such a place. Whereas Christ offered Himself once for all, they interpose the Mass between sinners and God. II. Effects of Sacerdotalism Upon Priesthood. It is a simple matter to show that the destructive in- fection of this one false conception has worked up- ward among the priests and downward among the people till the trail of it is over all Romanism. No Christian can afford to approve a system which derogates from Christ his honor of having " made by the oblation of himself once offered, a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world." Any mere man, who assumes now to sup- plement that work of redemption is, whether con- scious of it or not, a presumptuous intermeddler between God and his wayward children. i. Grants Undite Spiritual Power. First of all, let us see what are the evil effects of the priestly theory on the priests themselves. The first of these is in that it confers upon them too much power. That is an insidious and intoxicating draught. Men drink of it at their peril. The ramifications of this evil among the Catholic hierarchy are interminable. It has led to the slow elaboration of the hierarchy itself as a graduated system of ecclesiastical dignities, a system which has now become highly artificial and superfluous. There is as little spiritual ground for the pope as vicegerent of Christ, and supreme over priest, bishop, and archbishop, as there is for the priest in his self-ordained function of intermediary 272 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS between God and man and final arbiter of the spiritual destiny of his flock. The misinterpretation of the texts concerning Peter, with the wholly gratuitous assumption that the bishop of Rome suc- ceeded to Peter's special prerogatives, and concern- ing binding and loosing, has not merely been a curse to the thousands of men and women who have lived all their lives in bondage to the whim of priests, be- lieving them able to save or destroy, but has cursed even worse, if possible, the priests themselves. Hav- ing juggled with their own consciences in order to ac- cept as scriptural and right their position as media- torial sacrificers authorized to forgive the sins of men, they have naturally been unable to think clearly con- cerning their own sins. They have invested them- selves with a peculiar, official sanctity, often making this square with actual impurity of life by the fallacy that the man and the priest are not the same. A priest may sin as a man, but as a priest he is always holy. 2. Unwarranted Secular Influence. There is no place at which to check this kind of jugglery. It serves, for example, to justify the transfer of the authority of the priest from the purely spiritual direc- tion of his flock to their domestic and social concerns. The priest who is able to mold his people to his mind can easily persuade himself that he is doing no wrong in becoming the actual dictator in matters financial, political, and domestic, as well as in affairs spiritual, of the congregation over which he is placed. To foretell disaster to the morals of a mere man under pressure like this, needs no prophet. 3. Evils of Celibacy. But by a sort of fatuous in- ROMAN CATHOLICISM 273 genuity the Roman Catholic Church has piled this Pelion of opportunity upon an Ossa of temptation. After having persuaded a man that being a holy priest he can really do no wrong, and after putting into his hands, like clay for the potter, the wills and money and virtue of his flock, the Church places this same priest under the artificial restraints of celibacy and poverty. To the clamor of his animal passions and of his human concupiscence he now applies the spe- cious reasoning which he has already learned, namely, that so long as he is a holy priest his conduct as a man does not matter. There can be but one result. In countries where a powerful and evangelically trained public sentiment does not restrain them, Catholic priests are the embodiment of venality and sexual corruption. They are in this largely the vic- tims of a system. Having little recourse for personal religion except that of artificial absolution at the hands of another man, as sinful perhaps as them- selves, an absolution which can by no sort of means satisfy the human conscience, they are, on the other hand, beset by temptations and opportunities to which not even the purest and most robust of Chris- tians could safely be exposed. 4. The Confessional and Impurity. The emphasis on sexual impurity, which is the inevitable concomi- tant of that theory which underlies the celibate priest- hood, is carried still further in the practical workings of Catholicism by the degrading intimacies and treacherous suggestions of the confessional. A mor- bid morality has thrown into powerful relief this particular weakness of the flesh, until, by the very reaction of human nature against the over-refinements 274 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS of a theology which offers no efficient remedy for the evil which it augments by so constantly condemning it, Catholic populations have become notorious as among the most corrupt in the world. 5. Missions in Papal Lands Justified. This con- nection between the tenets of the Catholic faith and the condition of the priests and people in Catholic countries will serve to explain the statement made above, that the defects of Catholicism are radical; they inhere in her fundamental doctrines. Given the power, the temptations, and the moral bias which are the lot of a man trained to be a priest, and the chances are so favorable for his downfall that virtually his only hope is in a bracing atmosphere of public senti- ment. That, however, he cannot have if surrounded by an ignorant and subservient people. The countries where Catholicism is predominant should be culti- vated by the evangelical Churches as mission fields, not merely that many people may receive a clearer conception and experience of Christianity than that given by Catholicism, but also that Catholicism itself, which has there grown stagnant by uninterrupted power, may be toned up by the wholesome pressure which will come upon it through popular enlighten- ment. Catholicism, as scarely need be said, has many elements of Christian truth, and when raised to its best estate through competition with Protestantism amid an intelligent and moral population, may prove a valuable agency for developing the religious life among men. But those who have to deal with it, from without or from within, should never forget that it has at its very center a gnawing worm of error. The minister of the Gospel is a prophet, not a priest. ROMAN CATHOLICISM 275 He cannot forgive sins. He cannot offer a propitia- tion. He cannot open or close the gate of heaven. Christ's people are all priests a kingdom of priests in the sense that each can for himself plead the merits of the one great Sacrifice and offer the in- cense of a holy life, itself a living sacrifice. But in the sense of mediation, since Christ there are no priests. III. Evils Affecting the People. i. Free Thought Discouraged. Besides these deplorable ef- fects of the sacerdotal conception upon the priests, there are others which concern both priests and peo- ple, and which are not less disastrous. A corollary of the theory that the priest's authority in religious mat- ters is absolute is that the people should not think too much for themselves. The exact definition of how much they shall think becomes, of course, a flex- ible matter, which must be left to the priest. To keep intact the integrity of his somewhat artificial sys- tem, he is sure to find it desirable for them to think as little as possible. It is especially trying to him for them to think on the basis of Scripture. The most ignorant man, with the Bible in his hands, can ask questions that will shake the Catholic fabric of doc- trine to its center. 2. Bible and Schools. The result of all this has been that wherever Catholicism is in the ascendant, the Bible is a prohibited book and schools are at a dis- count. These are two great crimes against humanity. It is, unfortunately, no more necessary to adduce facts in illustration of them than it is to quote testimony to prove the corruption of the priests. The facts are universally known. They cry to heaven. Under the 276 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS pretext of protesting against godless education, Catholicism is the enemy of the public school in every nation, openly when it is safe, covertly otherwise, but implacable always. If this attitude were really sin- cere, it would be a position worthy of respect. The best thought of the world holds that religious train- ing should be an integral part of education. But there are only too many instances to prove that Rome does not merely oppose secular education; the thing she is really fighting is the enlightenment of the peo- ple, and the very simple reason for this is that once they are enlightened the priests can no longer assert over them their authority. 3. Effect on the Priests. The ramifications of this evil are wide. It damages the priests themselves, first of all. No man can preserve a high ideal of in- tellectual training for himself while urging others to remain in ignorance. A man who associates with and ministers to a sluggish and dull people will find his own power of thought atrophied. It is like people like priest. He may even become known as the apostle and advocate of ignorance, the champion of obscurantism. He will in time set himself against every ray of popular illumination, every advance step of popular progress. Precisely this is the attitude and the reputation of the priests in Spain, in Italy, in the Spanish colonies, and even in France. 4. Their Ignorance of the Bible. These protagon- ists of ignorance illustrate their doctrine by their own dullness even in matters of religion. To my certain knowledge comparatively few of the priests in Mexico own a Bible, and those who do are usually so ignorant of its contents and so inept in its use that ROMAN CATHOLICISM 2/7 in controversy the most unskilled evangelical preacher is more than a match for one of them. If by accident they are drawn into such a controversy, they soon take refuge in a forced or real indignation at the presump- tion of the irreverent Protestant, whereupon their noisy demonstrations quickly arouse popular sym- pathy for the " poor padre ! " The controversialist of the second part must then look to it that he does not get a shower of stones or a pistol shot as a reward of his victory. 5. Disastrous Effects on the People. The effects of this advocacy of ignorance by the great and Holy Mother Church upon a humble and docile people are necessarily disastrous. This is what has cost Spain her supremacy in the politics and intellectual life of the world. A professor in the university at Sala- manca is responsible for the statement that one of the most popular and widely used catechisms in that country contains this answer to a certain question: " Do not ask that question of me, who am an ignorant man ; the Holy Mother, the Catholic Church, has doc- tors who will be able to answer." It is no wonder that he adds that, as a consequence of such religious training, " the immense majority of the nation, com- posed of illiterates or little better than that, does not think for itself and has no opinions on religion, edu- cation, or politics." What this means to national prestige was brought home to Spain with a shock when in one hundred days of war she suffered an un- interrupted series of defeats, culminating in the loss of all her remaining island colonies. 6. Resulting Skepticism. If these direct results on priest and people of the reactionary attitude of 278 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS Rome concerning popular education are deplorable, not less so are certain indirect but equally inevitable effects. An incalculable injury to all concerned is done when Christianity is made to appear as the enemy of enlightenment. Wherever a retrograde Catholicism is the only form of Christianity known, the thoughtful and the educated are sure to become skeptics, more or less hostile to the Christian re- ligion. A double injury is thus done, an injury to these men and an injury to the cause of Christ. While it is true that the rigid orthodoxy of Catholi- cism concerning certain fundamental doctrines has made a deep and abiding impression on the minds of the simple and submissive, it is also true that the superstitions and the pretensions of that faith have been among the thoughtful a most fruitful source of unbelief. In Mexico so stubborn has been the fight between the Church and all progress, intellectual and political, that a man who is a liberal considers him- self of necessity an unbeliever. Even the young women graduates of state normal schools, having come under the ban of the Church by attending a State school, usually cut the knot of their difficulties by renouncing altogether their faith in Christianity. It will probably never be known to what extent the skepticism of France is to be traced to the powerful hold of Catholicism on that country. Through nearly a century the Concordat which Napoleon foisted upon an otherwise progressive people has enabled the Catholic hierarchy to strangle Protestantism, and has bred infidelity till religiously France has been well- nigh ruined. IV. Catholicism and Idolatry. As the evil effects ROMAN CATHOLICISM 279 of the wrong teaching and practices of Catholicism already outlined gradually work themselves out, they assume other and still grosser forms. 1. Image Worship. One of these, sure to manifest itself since it appears to appeal to some inherent weakness of humanity, is idolatry. It is customary for defenders of Catholicism to decry this charge, denying outright the tendency and the facts. But both are so well known that the denial can only weigh with those who are not informed. The tend- ency of a priestly system toward materialistic forms, and even toward material objects of worship, is oddly illustrated by the Greek Church. That Church, lay- ing an exaggerated emphasis on the second command- ment, long forbade the setting up of any kind of an image. Only objects simply suggestive of the saint or deity were allowed, mere ikons, signs. But little by little this rigidity was relaxed till now the Russian Church will allow as an ikon anything in the way of an image that has a flat surface; it merely must not be carved or in relief. Aside from this finical dis- tinction, image worship is quite as gross in the mod- ern Greek Church as in Roman Catholicism itself. 2. Worship of the Virgin. But, it will be pro- tested, Catholics do not really worship images and saints, nor even the Virgin Mother. Unfortunately this is not true. The worship of the Virgin is so common and so open even in our own country that it is surprising that any one should have the hardi- hood to deny it. Indeed, it may well be suspected that it is one of the chief elements of that charm for the feminine mind which Roman Catholicism un- doubtedly possesses. 280 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS 3. Catholic Explanation Refuted. As for the ex- planation that the saints and their images, as well as the images of Christ, in a strictly Catholic country they do not balk at representations even of the Father and of the Holy Spirit, are appealed to merely as intercessors, the images simply helping a weak imagination, this is very well for those whose minds are acute enough to make such distinctions. But the intellectual status of the average Catholic in the representative Catholic country must not be left out of the account. He is both incapable of such a refinement and indisposed to it. 4. Idolatry Emphasises the Material. The truth is, the idolatry which mars Catholicism is not merely to be dealt with as a stubborn and well-attested fact. It is a fact which answers to manifest tendencies. We must hark back again to the root defect in doc- trine. By substituting a priestly and materialistic form of sacrifice and atonement for that spiritual re- generation which the Gospel contemplates, the em- phasis of religion is removed from the spiritual to the material. All the various elements of concomitants of this substituted worship then take on an atmos- phere of sacredness. The church house is holy, the soil of the cemetry is consecrated, the priest's robes, the priest himself, the cup of the sacrament, the wafer, now a Host, the crucifix before which burn con- secrated candles and the kneeling penitents worship, all these are invested with a fictitious and communi- cated sanctity which but serves to confuse the wor- shipper's mind. It is not easy for him to say what he is reverencing. He worships it all in a blind way, and carrying away an amulet, or a blessed image, sets ROMAN CATHOLICISM up a shrine to the Virgin, or to St. James or St. John, in his own house. That image he worships as cer- tainly and as blindly as does the African his fetich, and quite as unprofitably. If you question him you will find that when he speaks of his " saint " he is talking about the image. If it happens to be "a Christ," such is the current phrase, he is confused and puzzled when you call his attention to the fact that there is but one Christ. The barren and hope- less spiritual life resulting from such worship is a moving spectacle. It is the atrophy of the human soul, the degradation of the spiritual to the level of the material. The aesthetic accompaniments of their worship costly temples, delicious music, gorgeous ritual only throw into stronger relief the irrepar- able loss which men suffer whose spirits are not drawn into communion through holy adoration and prayer with the Infinite God. V. Divorce Between Religion and Morality. I. Tendency of Ritualism. The last estate of all in the development of Catholicism's erroneous preaching of Christ is the divorce between religion and morality. This has ever been the curse of ritualism, the pitfall of ritualistic religions. Men, if they can find any ex- cuse for it or any encouragement in it, are always prone to tithe the mint and the anise as a pretext for neglecting justice and mercy. A highly elabor- ated ritual unfortunately seems always to furnish such an excuse. The Old Testament prophets thundered against the ritual-hardened Jews, who had so far for- gotten the law of their God as to bring him offerings in hands that were full of blood, and to trample his courts like an evil and cruel herd of beasts, covering 282 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS his altar with vain oblations. Yet the Old Testament, from beginning to end, even in its ritualistic portions, never ceases to insist that God prefers mercy to sacri- fice. Equally unreasonable with this perversion of the old dispensation would seem any system of formal worship built up on the teachings of Christ which should by some hocus-pocus divorce religion so called from purity of heart and life. Yet just that thing has been done. By making the sanctions of the Church depend on compliance with purely ceremonial requirements, acts which do not take hold upon the moral consciousness nor involve any inward change, Catholicism has come to exhibit the surprising phenomenon of bad men and women who are, as they believe and have been taught, good Christians. Like the self-deception of the priests, this is bad both for these dupes and for Christianity. It makes the task of those who preach a pure gospel seem harder at times among such a people than it would be among heathen men completely ignorant of Christianity. 2. Religion in Catholic Lands. The Christian re- ligion, as I have already pointed out, has but a poor reputation among the thoughtful in those countries where the Catholic Church, unchallenged and un- checked, is its only representative. And no wonder. The highwayman and the thief are there often reck- oned good Christians. The bull-fighter and the low cheat may be loyal sons of the Church. Men by pay- ing to the priests not only get pardon for their past sins, but for those which they intend to commit. The priest will also for a price, paid in advance en- gage to interfere with the disposal of affairs in the ROMAN CATHOLICISM 283 spirit world and to lighten the penalties of those who were hurried thither without due preparation. 3. Prevents Moral Development. So it comes to pass that one's welfare, present and eternal, depends upon how he stands with the priest, who, having charge of these things, kindly reduces it all to a financial schedule, so that he may know just how to dispose of it. The principle of absolution, of dele- gating all moral responsibility, is thus firmly estab- lished. The people will not think, because the priest thinks for them. They need not heed their con- sciences, for he is the conscience of them all. Thus are they robbed of that moral development without which there can be no true religion, and still less any true morality. Religion, which should develop the moral nature and be a tonic and a stimulant to the spiritual man, has became merely an objective spectacle, moving indeed and highly respected, but ex- ternal nevertheless, and unmoral. The unfortunate but inevitable tendency to venality on the part of the priests only makes matters worse. Men lose respect for a salvation that can be bought, and even more for a religious teacher who professes to sell it. 4. Priestly Avarice. The open avarice of the priests is the most shocking and deplorable thing about Romanism in the countries where it has had un- checked development. They charge a fee for every- thing, for baptisms, marriages, masses, funerals, all, insist on payment in advance, and instead of a fixed schedule vary the fee, demanding always as much as they think they can get. So exorbitant is their usual price for marriage that thousands of 284 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS couples in every Catholic country live together and rear their children without having been married. 5. Enforcing Christian Morality Difficult. As a consequence of these conditions, long continued in many instances, it is with the utmost difficulty that Christian morality can be enforced after the Gospel is introduced and accepted. Religion has had im- posed upon it the double task of enforcing a genuine spiritual regeneration and a purified life among its converts and of establishing a place for itself in the esteem of thoughtful observers, already strongly prejudiced against it. Upon both missionaries and converts in Roman Catholic countries is laid thereby a great weight of responsibility. 6. Corroboration of Travelers. Such in outline are some of the aspects in which the Roman Catholic presentation of Christianity is defective. The pic- ture is really much darker when the outlines are filled in. Facts in illustration of the points here made, for which there is but little space, may be found in any traveler's account of the Catholic countries of Europe or of the Spanish colonies in America and the islands of the sea. Many such books are by Catholic writers. Two that I happen to know something of treat of Mexico. One is the letters of Madame Cal- deron de la Barca to her daughters, printed in two volumes under the title " Life in Mexico," and the other, " Le Mexique tel qu'il est," by Abbe Domenech. The latter has not been translated into English, so far as I know, but it is summarized and extensively quoted in the Hon. Gorham D. Abbott's " Mexico and the United States." This is itself a valuable book ROMAN CATHOLICISM 285 on the general question I have been treating, though somewhat scattering and disconnected. 7. Pleasing Traits. It is but fair to add to what has been already said, that kindly observers see much to like in the peoples who have for generations been trained in Catholicism. These peoples are usually de- vout in their belief in God and reverent in their de- meanor. Their freedom from responsibility has in- duced an easy lightness of temper that is pleasing to the casual observer, and the habit of implicit obe- dience to their superiors makes them humble, patient, and deferential. They are usually kindly and sym- pathetic with each other. Such traits are character- istic of the humble and indigent masses. That they have their charm is not to be denied. Yet they but seem to set in higher relief the spiritual bankruptcy which I have been describing. These people do believe in God, yet it is with a faith so blind and unknowing that they can give no account of it to an unbeliever. They are outwardly devout, and indeed mean to be reverent. Yet they will call a street " Holy Ghost Street," they will name a saloon " Paradise," and a boy " Jesus " or " Savior," and they constantly use as exclamations of surprise or anger the most sacred phrases of their religion. They are care-free and cheerful, but it is the cheer of vacuous and childish minds. Their contentment is contentment with igno- rance, with squalor, with actual want, a contentment which springs not from philosophic acceptance, but from utter hopelessness of anything better. They are deferential to superiors, too deferential. Noth- ing but slavery and tyranny could have taught this trait so perfectly. And by reason of their contented 286 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS ignorance, their submissive spirit, and lack of indi- vidual initiative, they become the prey of designing priests and unscrupulous politicians. The political and religious atmosphere of Catholic countries is thick with revolutions and disturbances. It will never clear till a pure Gospel has had time to develop there a robust and self-respecting citizenship. The motive for sending missionaries to such countries is not therefore merely religious, it is also social and phil- anthropic. VI. Missions to Papal Lands. i. Not Hope- less. The missionary to a Roman Catholic country is frequently asked if he does not find the people so devoted to that Church after all these centuries that it is almost a hopeless undertaking to try to convert them to another view of Christianity. This is con- stantly assumed to be true by the ordinary traveler and newspaper correspondent. First of all, in reply, it is to be said that the length of time a man's fore- fathers may have held a certain belief has little to do with his own acceptance of it. In practical matters we are not usually much influenced by the opinions and the preferences of the past. This is especially true among the illiterate, whose hold upon the past is purely through hearsay, its literature being to them a terra incognita. 2. Attachment to Catholicism Largely Sentimental. As a matter of fact, the attachment of the people of Catholic countries to the Church of their fathers is more a sentimental than an intellectual bond. They like to think that they are true to the faith of their land, and the notion that there is any distinction to be drawn between Catholicism and Christianity never ROMAN CATHOLICISM 287 occurs to them. Yet they are not as a rule satisfied with their religion. They have never been instructed in the tenets of their faith. They hear few sermons, sing no hymns, attend no Sunday-schools. Their minds, their spiritual life, remain unfed. Meantime doubt often assails them, and discontent, through the channel of their own moral instincts. Their ideas of sanctity may be crude, but they are nevertheless such as the Church does not satisfy. The avarice of the priests, especially, is a source of almost daily irrita- tion, growing not seldom into smoldering resentment. 3. Attractions of the Bible. They are not there- fore by any means inaccessible. Their minds are avid; they are full of spiritual cravings. The Bible recommends itself to them at sight by its agreement with their own beliefs as to God, the Savior, heaven, and other fundamentals. But no sooner do they be- gin to read it than they are at once amused and shocked to discover why it is that the priests have al- ways opposed their seeing this book. There is noth- ing in it about the Mass, the confessional, purgatory, the worship of the Virgin, nor even about priests, ex- cept those whom our Lord sharply condemned for the very things the Catholic priests are guilty of. All this makes the way of the missionary easy. .The Catholic Church will have to change its manner of dealing with its people, or it will lose them. A senti- mental attachment to " the religion of the fathers " will not stand before the enlightening and soothing appeal of a pure Gospel. 4. Real Task of Missions. The real task of evangelical missions is not to detach the people from Rome. That is comparatively easy, once they are 288 RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS reached. The Bible alone may be trusted to do most that is required. But the rejection of what they have hitherto believed is not enough. They must be made to understand that religion is not a mere theory, but a manner of life. It is easier to get adherents in a crusade against a false system of belief than it is to add to the number of genuine and spiritual Christians. Those who as Catholics have been religious without being moral will wish so to continue as Protestants. 5. Anti-clericalism. Converts in this sense may be obtained the more readily because hostility to " the clergy," to use a phrase current in all Catholic coun- tries, is far more widespread than appears on the surface. The women are usually devout Catholics and, by consequence, devoted to the priests. The men, however, even among the ignorant and humble, not seldom entertain a deep-seated resentment against these religious leaders, individually or collectively or both, that is all the more bitter because concealed. When one gets at their real sentiments the heat of this enmity is often most surprising. Such men will often ally themselves with an evangelical Church for the sole purpose of favoring something which the priests condemn and hate. They thus become at once a help and a trial to the missionary. 6. Attitude of Lay Leaders. This " anti-clerical- ism," cherished in secret by the men of the middle and lower classes, is openly avowed by the educated and progressive. The intelligent leaders of every Roman Catholic country welcome Protestantism because they know that Catholicism needs a religious competitor. They themselves are skeptical, often atheistic. They care nothing for religion, and so do not ally them- ROMAN CATHOLICISM 289 selves with Protestantism. Yet their attitude to it is kindly, and they pass and enforce laws guaranteeing religious liberty. To be sure there is somewhat of make-belief in their reasons for steering clear them- selves of Protestantism. They are in many instances not such resolute skeptics that they would not really like to look into its claims. But their wives are Catholics, their business relations are subject to con- stant pressure from the priests and bishops, and only too often their lives are such as would not stand the test of any sort of a religious society. So they affect to ignore the whole subject. This is an attitude which cannot be permanently maintained. Sooner or later the claims of evangelical truth must force them- selves upon these open minds. The enlightened classes are also constantly growing by the addition of men and women from among the illiterate educated in the improved schools of the present era of schools. When it ceases to be unfashionable to be a Protestant, as well as dangerous alike to one's business and social standing, a notable advance will be made by the evangelical Churches. 7. Remaining Obstacles to Mission Work. In the early days of evangelical missions open persecution was often resorted to by the priests. Mexico has a bead-roll of about sixty martyrs to the faith. In most Catholic countries, this is not now allowed. Petty and indirect persecution still goes on, of course, but it is not a factor of special importance among the mis- sionary's difficulties. The chief obstacles which he will encounter are the stubborn misconceptions of the people as to the meaning of religion, of the sacra- ments, the Church, etc., and the intrenched immorality RELIGIONS OF MISSION FIELDS which will meet him at every turn. Minor difficul- ties are those of obtaining access to the people, of overcoming their fear of social and business ostra- cism, their attachment to idle and often sinful customs, and of infusing into native teachers and preachers the proper Christian spirit of humility and sincerity. The people have been tyrannized over so long that their very submissiveness is a snare to the religious teacher. And they have been so long con- tent with a religion of externals that any clear con- ception of spiritual things is far from them. There awaits him also somewhat of discouragement in find- ing that he must deal almost exclusively with the igno j rant and uninfluential elements in the population. The time of access to the better classes has not yet come. He will console himself, however, by the re- flection that education and the Gospel will soon change for the better the status of the lowest and most ignorant, the more so since in Catholic countries the poorer classes are usually of a more robust type, physically as well as morally, than are the wealthy. Meantime he will be content that " the poor have the Gospel preached unto them," INDEX Abhidhamma Pi^aka, 87. Africa as a mission field, f 21 23. African, see ch. I: religious, 3, 4, 12, 14, 15; other character- istics, 5, 6, 15, 16; how taught, 1519; extent to which Afri- 22. For their religion, see ch. I. African religion, see ch. I. Age, reverence for, 119. Agni, Fire god, 57. Alchemy of Taoism, 168, 169. Alms of Islam, 248, 249. Altar of Heaven at Peking, 194. Altars to the African Jingulube, n. Amaterasu, see Sun goddess. Ananda, Buddha's favorite disci- ple, 92, 93, 94, 97. Ancestor worship: Of Shintoism, 32, 33; advantages of, 32, 33, 44; modified in Japan, 42, 43; in China, 201208. Ancient China, 164. Ancient Hinduism, 5359. Angels: Called by mystic names, 221; Moslem beliefs concern- ing, 239, 240. Anger: of African deities, 12; Buddhist precept concerning, 117. Animal worship in Japan, 39. Antagonism to be avoided in Jewish work, 230. Anti-clericalism, 288. Antiquity in China, Early and Middle, 185. Apes vastly below the lowest Af- rican, 3. Apologists for Islam, 253. Apologizing to those wronged, 74. Apotheosis in Taoism, 170. , Arabian Nights and Islam, 240. Aranyakas of Hinduism, 55. Architecture: of Shintoism, 28; aided by Buddhism, 129. Arhats, 113, 116. Art in Japan religious, 39; en- couraged by Buddhism, 139. Artisans in Japan, 139. Arya Samaj, 66. Ascension Rescript of Japanese emperor, 42, 157. 291 Ascetic life of Buddhism, 101. Asceticism, Buddha's view of, 86. Asita, a hermit, 88. Asoka, Buddhist king, 83, 137. Aspirations due to Buddhism, 141, 142. Assimilative power of Japan, 149. Atharva-veda, 54. Atheistic character of Buddhism, _ 96, 97, 123, 124. Atma, soul, 99, 109. Atonement: In India, 72, 75-77; Jewish doctrine of, 223225; lacking in Islam, 257. Attributes of God in Judaism, 216. Austerities given up by Buddha, 90; other view, 101. Avarice of African witch doctor, _ 8; of priesthood, 283. Avijja, ignorance, 99, 104, 105. Azazil, proper name of devil, 240. Banning quoted, 223. Banyan, sacred tree of Buddhists, 90. Bar-mitzvah, 220. Beliefs of Moslems, 238245. Bells of Buddhism, 151. Benares, 83, 91. Benefits conferred by non-Chris- tian religions, see Strength, etc. Benevolence Confucian and Chris- tian, 210. Bhagayad-gita, ^59, 60, 61. Bhakti, "adoring worship," 61; bhakti-marg, 61. Bible: and schools, 275, 276; Ro- manist ignorance of Bible, 276, 277; attractive to Romanists, 287; in Mohammedan work, 260, 261. Bibliographies: on African reli- gion, 2; on Shintoism, 26; on Hinduism, 52; on Buddhism in Southern Asia, 82; on Buddhism in Japan, 134; on Taoism, 162; on Confucianism, 184; on Ju- daism, 214; on Mohammedan- ism, 236; on Roman Catholi- cism, 266. BIrana grass, 105, 106. 292 INDEX Birth of Buddha, 88. Black Stone of Moslems, 250, 251. Blavatsky, Madame, 67. Bo Tree of Buddhism, go. Body, Buddhism's view of, 100, 101. Book of Changes quoted, 193. Book of History, 186. Books of God, Moslem, 241, 242. Brahma, 60, 97; Great Brahma, 9i Brahma jalasutta quoted, 114. Brahma Samaj, 65, 66. Brahmanas of Hinduism, 57, 58. Brahmanic Hinduism, 57, 58. Brahmanism and its relation to Buddhism, 85, 86. Brahmans, 63. Brinkley quoted, 140. British flag and missions, 22. Buck, Col. A. E. quoted, 32. Buddha: An Indian incarnation, 60, 61; chs. IV, V; origin of name, 91; Great Renunciation, 89, 90; enlightenment, 90; last days, 94; character, 95. See chs. IV, V. Buddha and Jesus, 89, 95. 156, 157; what he thought of himself, 144, 145; his extinction, 144. Buddhism: For main topics see Contents of chs. IV, V: for minor subdivisions, see head- ings and italicised words in chs. IV, V: rise of, 59; spread in Asia, 163, 164; number of ad- herents, 164. Buddhist: Described, devout Jap- anese, 152155; in China, 163. Bushel Mother, pole star, 173. Butsu-dan, Buddha place, 139, 152. Carus quoted, Paul, 145. Caste, 63, 64, 68, 69. Catechism quoted, Jewish, 225. Catholicism, see Roman Catholi- cism, ch. X. Celibacy of Roman priesthood, 273. Census of Mohammedans, 237 note. Ceremonies of religion: In Afri- ca, ii, 12; of Shintoism, 34; of ancestral worship explained, 204, 205; of Orthodox Jews, 219, 220. Chang, Taoism's Pope, 171. Chang Tao-ling, 176, 177. Character not idealized in Islam, 257. 258. Character of Buddha, 95. Charity for all men, 142. Charms in Africa, 12. Ch'i, vital breath, 169. Chieh Chih-ts'ui, Chinese hero, 199, 200. China, Buddhist influences from, 137, 138. " Chinese Gordon " a hero in China, 201. Chou Dynasty in China, 187. Christ, person of, 231. Christian ethics, 119, 120; idea of worship, 47. Christian sacerdotalism, 269. Christianity to be urged, essen- tials of, 232. Ch'u Yuan, Chinese counselor, 200. Chunda, Buddha's last host, 94. Church and State in Japan, 150, 151. Church Missionary Society reso- lution, 262. Cjrcumcision of Moslems, 252. Cities of India, sacred, 61. City _gods of Taoism, 172. Civilization: and Japanese Bud- dhism, 143; of China and Con- fucius, 189. College-bred missionaries desired, 1921. Comity between Japan and the Occident, 158, 159. Commentary needed to make Ko- ran intelligible, 241. Comparison between Buddha and Jesus, 89, 95, 156, 157. Compromise: of Buddhism, 143; to be avoided by missionary, 71. Conciliation of religious oppo- nents, 71-73. Concubinage: partly accounts for unbroken line of Japanese em- perors, 31; of Islam, 252. Confessing Christ, Moslems, 264. Confessional and impurity, 273, ~ 2 74- . Confucianism: For main sub-top- ics see Contents of ch. VII, for minor topics see italicized words and phrases of same chapter. Confucianists, 163, 164. Confucius: Meets Lao-tzH, 165, 1 66; life and influence, 187 191; worshipped, 198, 199. Conquest, Moslem desire for, 255, 256. Conscience: seared by Buddhism, 68; inactive in Buddhism, 124. Constantine, Japanese Buddhism's, 137- Constellations of Taoism, 173. Controversy with Moslems, 263. INDEX 293 Conversations with Buddhists, 131. Cosmology, see World. Councils of Buddhism, 87. Court favor of Buddhism, 138. Courtesy of missionary, 130. Creator lacking in Buddhism, 98. Creed: of Orthodox Jews, 216, 217; Islam's short, 239; confes- sion, 245, 246, 255. Cryptomerias of Japan, 38. Crystal of Shintoism, 29. Customs: In India powerful, 65; of Judaism, 228. Cycle gods of Taoism, 173. Dai-butsu, 139. Darsanas of the Upanishads, 55, 58. Davids, Rhys, quoted, 107. Day of Atonement, lessons of, 224, 225, 228. Dayanand Sarasvati, 66. Dealing with Moslem inquirers, 263, 264. Death accounted for, sudden, 8, 9. Death of Buddha, 94. Debendra Nath Tagore, reformer of India, 65. Decease, Book of the Great, 92. Deer Park at Benares, 91, 92. Defects of Koranic teaching, 242. Definition of Confucianism, 185. Degradation of Taoism, 181. Deification of Lao-tzu, 166. Delusions, Three Great, 99. Demonology of Taoism, 176181. Dengyo Daishi, Buddhist prelate, 138- " Departed lives " 8, 9, 10, 14. Desire, see Tanha. Desires which are fostered in Bud- dhism, 147. Destructive methods of mission- aries: In Africa, 16, 17; in Japan, 48. Development, arrested, see Im- mobility. Devil: _ Procession of Taoism, 1 80; in Moslem thought, 240. Dhammapada quoted, 101, 103, 105, 109, 126. Difficulties of Papal missions, 287, 288, 289, 290. Din, or good works, 245254. Dining room worship of Bud- dhists, 153, 154. Disciples won by Buddha, 91, 92. Distribution of Mohammedans, 237- Divine descent of Japan's em- perors, 31, 32. Divorce between religion and morality, 281286. Doctrines of Judaism, 215218. Doctrine of the Mean quoted, 197, 198. Dods on Moslem wars, 254. Dotting the ancestral tablet, 206. Downward tendencies of religion in Africa, 5, 14. Dragon, Lao-tzfi like the, 166. Dragon-Tiger Mountains, 177. Dravidian cults, influence of, on modern Hinduism, 60. Dread of spirits in China, 179. Drunkard's vow of abstinence, 38. Dualism: of Taoism, 169; of Confucianism, pantheistic, 193, 194, 208. Dyaus-pitar and its equivalents, 57- Earth and Grain, altars to gods of, 204. Eclecticism of the Japanese, 143, 149. Education: fostered by Bud- dhism, 128; of Jewish boys, 229. Educational missions for Mos- lems, 261. Effects of sacerdotalism, 271278. Eka-yana, summarized, 145. Elephant, Buddha's incarnation and a white, 88. Elixir of life, 168, 169. Embassies to Japan, Korean, 135, 136. Emperor, Chinese: appoints Taoist gods, 171; China's high priest, 194. Emperor of Japan, present, 31, 32, 35- Empresses of Japan and Buddhism, 140. Energy, conservation of moral, 107. "'Enlightenment" attained by Buddha, 90, no. Environment, influences of, 141. Epic poems of Hinduism, 56. Equality, recognition of, 118. Ethics: of Buddhism, 114-120, 129; of Confucianism, 208211. Evil company, love of, 117. Evil gods of Taoism, 174. Evolution in religion, 44, 45, 46. Excommunication in Judaism, 228, 229. Exorcists of Taoism, 179. Fables of the Talmud, 226. Fasts of Islam, 248. Fear in religion: Of Africans, 3. 4, 7; in India, 58, 64. Fellowship central in Chinese na- ture worship, 195, 196. Fence of the Law as described by Kroenig, 227. 294 INDEX Fetters, the Ten, of Buddhism, 102, 103. Filial love, 118, 119. Fire Sermon of Buddha, 92. Fire-eaters of Africa, 8. Fires and Taoist worship, 174. Five Constants of Confucianism, 209; Five Relations, 209. Five Precepts of Buddhism, 115, 116. Following up missionary work, 78, 79- Foibearance, 118. Forest Treatises of Hinduism, 55. Foretelling a nation's future, 188. Forms of Buddhism, 120-123. Four Favors of Buddhism, 145, 152. Four Noble Truths, 92, 103, 104, 107, no. Four Vedas of Hinduism, 54, Foxes worshipped in Japan, 39. Free thought and Roman Catholi- cism, 275. Funeral of devout Buddhists, 155. Funeral services of Taoism, 180. Futons, Japanese sleeping quilts, 152, 154- Gambler's praying for deliver- ance, 38. Gautama, see Buddha. Gifts in Buddhism, 119. Girls despised in India, 65. God, Buddha's view as to, 96. God of revelation, the: Name for Him lacking in Africa, 6; attributes unknown in Africa, 7; with missionaries, 22; Moslem idea of, 239. Gods: Of India, 57, 60, 69; of Japan 155; of Taoism 170174. God-trees of Japan, 39. Gokai, prohibitory precepts, 146. Golden age of China, 186. Good works of Islam, 245-254. Gospel and sacerdotalism, 269. Gotama, Pali for Gautama. See under Buddha. Government and nature worship, 196. Government of Hades, 170. Grace at Jewish meals, 220. Graves visited by Shintoists, 34. Graveyard, Africa wrongly thought to be a, 21. Great Great, name of African deity, 6, 7. Great Learning quoted, 195. Great Renunciation of Buddha, 89, 90. Great sentences of Hinduism, two, 59 note. Great Vehicle of Buddhism, 83, 145. Hades of Taoism, 170. Hajj, pilgrimage to Mecca, 249 251- Hanifite Moslems, 238. Harut, a Moslem demon, 240. Harvard graduate winning his Japanese mother, 49. Hgtred, Buddha on, 117. Heaven and Earth, 193, 198, 208. Heaven as China's ruler, 195. Heaven of Confucianism, Law of, 191, 192, 193. Heaven, Son of, in Japan, 40. Heaven-Father the equivalent of deity names, 57. Heavenly Teacher, Taoism's Pope, 171. Hell, Moslem, 244. Hells of Buddhism, no; fear of, 124. Hero worship: In Japan, 33, 34; of emperors, 44, 45; of Con- fucianism, 199201. Hierarchy of Japanese Buddhism, 15. Hina-yana, Little Vehicle of Bud- dhism, 83, 137, 145- Hinduism: For main sub-topics, see Contents of ch. Ill; for minor points, see italicised headings and words of ch. III. History of Hinduism must be studies, 54. Holi, impure Hindu festival, 69. Home religions of Buddhism, 152- 154- Hope: lacking in African religion, 14; inspired by Buddhism, 141, 142. Horse at Shinto shrines, white, 37- Hot springs of Japan, 40. Houris of paradise, 259. House building and spirits, 122. Householder of Buddhism, 115, 116. Hczumi quoted, Prof., 33. Hymns of Hinduism, 55. Hypocrisy, Buddha on, 117. Iblls, Moslem name of devil, 240. Idolatry: in Hinduism, 63, 68, 69; encouraged by Roman Ca- tholicism, 270281. Illiberality of Christianity denied, Illustration desirable, 75, 77- Image-makers encouraged by Bud- dhism, 139. Image worship and Roman Ca- tholicism, 279. INDEX 295 Images of Buddha, 06. Iman, Moslem belief, 238245. Immobility of China explained, 186, 188, 189, 191. Immorality of Hindu gods, 69. Immortality not wanting in Buddhism, 149, 150. Immortals of Taoism, the, 175, 176. Imperial favor shown Buddhists, 136, 137, 138, 139- Imperial relationships of Shinto- ism, 3032, 40, 41. Impurity and the confessional, 273, 274. Incarnation: Hindu, 60, 72; lacking in Islam, 257. Indra, Rain-god, 57. Influence: of Confucius, 190; of Judaism, 227. Ingwa, Japanese for Karma, 146. Injil, Moslem name for Gospel, Moslem, 241. Inquirers, dealing with 263, 264. Insincerity of opponents in India, 74- Inspiration, Moslem doctrine of, 241. Intellect; Exalted in Buddhism, 127; intellectual power of Jews, 229. Interviews with inquirers, 78, 79, 131 ; with Jews, 233. Intolerance of error, Moslem, 255. Ise Shrine of Shintoism, 38, 40, 42- Islam defined, 238. Izanagi and Izanami, 31, 33, 41, 42. Jade Emperor, 166, 171, 172 and note, 176. Japan's Imperial Line, 30. Jatakas, Birth-stories of Bud- dhism, 88. Jesus: and Buddha compared, 89, 95, 156, 157; in the Koran, 257. }hana, exalted mental states, 90. ihad, religious warfare, 253, 254- Jindoyi of Africa, 9, 10. Tingulube, African, 1012. Jinn, or genii. 240. Jnana-marg, ' way of Knowledge," 58. Ju Chiao, Confucianism, 185. Judaism: For main sub-topics, see Contents of ch. VIII; for minor points, see italicised words and phrases of that chapter. Judgment, Day of, 243, 244. Jupiter and Aryan equivalent, 57. Ju Zen, Ten Commandments, 143, 146. Kaaba prayed toward, 237. Kaf, mountains of, 240. Karma: In Hinduism, 68; in Buddhism, 100, 103, 107-109, 127, 128, 146. Karma-marg, " path of works," 58. Khagg-avisanasutta quoted, 89, US- Kobo Daishi, Buddhist prelate, 138. Kohler quoted, 222, 223, 224. Kojiki, contents, 31. Kc ken, Empress of Japan, 140. Komyo and the beggars, Empress, 140. Koran referred to, 239, 240, 241, 242, 259, 260. Korean introduction of Buddhism into Japan, 135, 136. Krishna, 60, 61, 69, 72. Kfoenig quoted, 221. Kshatriyas, 63. K'un Lun Mountains of Taoism, 175, 176. Kurozumi sect in Japan, 43. Kusala, see Merit-making. Lack of preparation injures mis- sionaries, 19, 20. Language: Possibilities of African, 7; dialects spoken by the pos- sessed, 9; should be learned be- fore entering into controversies, 17- Lao-tzfi, facts concerning, 165, 1 66. Law: In place of God, inexorable, 109; of Heaven, Confucian, 191, 192, 193, 208. Lay leaders, attitude of Romanist, 288, 289. Learning, love of, among Japanese, 141. Lent in Burma, 121, 122. Levee of the gods of Taoism, 177. Li. abstract right, 169. Li Hung-chang, a hero in China, 201. Liberality, 119. Liberty in China, individual, 191. Liberty in Japan, religious, 41. Licentiousness: in Shintoism, 39, 45 ; encouraged in Hinduism, 69. Liquor in Africa, 6. Literary abilities of Jews, 229; literary value of Koran, 241. Literature: Used with inquirers, 79; for Jews, 233. 296 INDEX Little Vehicle of Buddhism, 83, 137, 145- Liturgy important for Orthodox Jew, 221. Living essential as teaching, 18, 19. Love: In African religion, 9, 13; loving-kindness, 118; necessary in Jewish missionary, 230. Luck, gods of, 40, 46. Lull, Raymond, 258. Lust, See Raga. Lying permitted by Mohammed, 258. Maghasutta quoted, 105. Mahabharata, Indian epic, 56, 59, 60. Mahagandi, Burmese sect, 123. Maha-yana, Great Vehicle of Bud- dhism, 83, 145. Maimonides' creed, 216. Malikite Moslems, 238. Man, Buddhism's doctrine of, 99 102. Manava Dharma Sastra, 56. Mandarins of Hades, 172. Mandiki of Africa, 8, 9. Manes, " departed lives," 8, 9, 10, 14. Manichaean parallels in Taoism, 169. Mantra of Hinduism, 55, 58. Manu, Laws of, 56, 58, 70. Mara, Buddhist Tempter and god of lust, 90, 91, 105; proces- sion in honor of, 180, 181. Marriage: In Buddhism, 116; " for fun," 253. Marfit, a Moslem demon, 241. Maya, Buddha's mother, 88. Mecca pilgrimage, 249251. Mediator needless, urged in In- dia, 75. Mediator of Taoism, 176. Medical missions for Moslems, 261. Medicine and religion in Africa, 7, .8. Medina, 251. Mediums: In Japan, child, 150; in China, 179. Merit-making, 65; Buddhist doc- trine of, 126. Meru, central mountain of world, 99- Messiah, Orthodox Jews' view of the, _2i7. Messianic time defined, 217 note. Metallurgy of Taoism, 164, 168. Millions of gods, eight, 38, 39. Mimansa school of philosophy in India, 55. Mind, attitudes of, to be acquired by Buddhists, 147. Mirror of Shintoism, 28, 29. Missionaries to Moslems, 258, 259. Missionary dealings with reli- gions: In Africa, 1519; in Japan, 4749; in India, 71- 79; in Buddhist lands, 129, 131; with Jews, 230. Missionary qualifications: Sym- pathy, 16 18; godly living, 18, 19; thorough training, 1921; * conciliatory spirit, 71-73; self- control, 73, 74; prayerfulness, 73> 79; patience, 129, 130; love, 230. Missions to Papal lands, 274, 275, 286290. Misunderstandings between native and missionary, 16, 17. Mitchell, Murray, quoted, 62. Modern Hinduism, 50 65. See headings for subtopics. Mohammed, 243, 258; quoted, 245, 246, 256, 258. Mohammedanism: For main sub- topics, see Contents of ch. IX; for minor points, see italicised words and phrases of that chap- ter. Monks of Buddhism, 104. Monotheism in India, traces of, 56, 57- Monuments to Japanese soldiers, 36. Moon, Altar of, at Peking, 194. Moral development hindered, 283; moral element in nature wor- ship, 196, 197. Morality of Buddhism, basis of, 102. Moslem described, ideal, 245. Mountains of Taoism, sacred, 176. Mozumdar, C., religious reformer 65. Muir quoted, 258. Muller on Dyaus-pitar, 57. Munisutta quoted, 116. Munkar black angel of Moslems, 240. Murdoch on the Vedas, 55. M'zuzah, sign on doorpost, 220. Nakir, black angel of Moslems, 240. Name given dead Buddhists, new, 155- Names of God in Africa, 6, 7. National needs of Japan, Bud- dhism adapted to, 143. Nats of Burma, 122. INDEX Nature and its phenomena, effects of: on Africans, 3; in Japan, 38, 141. Nature religions, see ch. I. Nature worship: In Japan, 38, 39, 44; of Confucianism, 192197. Neesima winning his father, 49. Negro, see African. New Islam, 261. Nidana, chain of causality, 88. Nirvana of Buddhism, 86, 88, 91, 101, 102, 103, 107, no, 113, 114, no, 125, 144, 148. nKulunkulu, Zulu name for God, 6. Noble Eightfold Path, 92, 104. Northern School of Buddhism, 83. Number of Mohammedans, 237 and note. Nyaya school in India, 55. Objections to Christianity: In In- dia, 74-78; Buddhist, 130, 131; Jewish, 231, 232. Offerings: to deities in Africa, 3, ii, 12; to Japanese heroes, 36; to Buddhist deities, 153. Old age, Lao-tzfi upon, 166. Old Boy, translation of Lao-tzu, 165. Old Testament and sacerdotalism, 268. Om, mystic syllable of Hinduism, 60. Omar quoted, 251. Open-mindedness of the Japan- ese, 140, 141. Opponents of Buddhism, Japan- ese, 136. Opportunity for missionaries in Africa, 2123. Organization of Japanese Bud- dhism, 150, 151. Oriental Banyan, Buddhism the, 163. Origin of sacerdotalism, 268. Orthodox Jews, beliefs of, 216 220, 229. Ottapa, fear of hell, 124. Outcastes, 63, 64. Pagodas of Buddhism, 120, 121, 122. Paint lacking in Shinto shrines, 28. Pancasila, Five Precepts, which see. Pantheism : Shintoism a form of, 43, 44; and polytheism, 58 note, 62, 63. Pspal lands proper mission fields, 274, 275. Paper-men mama in China, 179, i So. Paradise, Moslem, 244. 1'ariniryaija of Buddha, 97, 114. Path, Noble Eightfold, 92, 104. Patience' needed by missionaries, 129, 130. Patriotism and Shintoism, 3436. Peking, 194, 204. P'eng Lai Islands of Taoism, 175. People affected by Romanist evils, 275278. Perfections, the Ten. 117, 118. Persian thought in Taoism 169. Personality in Chinese nature worship 194, 195. Personnel of Buddhist mission to Japan, 136. Peter's Pence in Taoism, 177, 178. Phallic worship in Japan, 39. Philosophic Hinduism, 58, 59. Philosophical schools of India, six, ss, 56. Photography and Shintoism, 34. Pictures, Shintoism's use of, 37, 38,. 44- Pilgrimages of Islam, 249251. Pillars of Moslem religion, 245. Piracy of Taoism, literary, 164. Pifakas, or " Baskets " of Bud- dhism, 84, 86, 87. Pole-star, god of the, 173. Polygamy: In Africa, 17; of Mos- lems, 252, 253. Poorer classes appealed to by Buddhism, 142. Pope Chang, the Taoist, 171, 176^ 178. Posture in prayer, Moslem, 247. Prayer in mission lands: In Af- rica, 7, 12; in Japan 38, 45, 46, 148, 152, 154; Buddhist, 98; helpful to missionary, 73, 79; of Moslems, 246, 247; in Or- thodox Judaism, 220, 228. Prayer-book of Orthodox Jews, 220. Preaching: Lacking in Shintoism, 28; preaching to Buddhists, 131; to Moslems, 261263. Precepts: Of Buddhism, 117-119; of the Talmud, 213, 219. Predestination in Islam, 244, 245. Prelates, Japanese, 138. Pride, Buddha on, 117. Priesthood: In Japan, 148, 149, 150, 151; priesthood and sac- erdotalism, Roman, 271; priests affected by Roman system, 276. Priests of Taoism, 164. Procession in honor of Mara, 180, 181. Prohibitions of Buddhism, 146. Pronunciation of foreign words and names, key to, Facing page i. 298 INDEX Prophets of Islam, 242, 243. Psalms used as charms, 221. Puranas of India, 56, 72. Pure'Ones, the Three, 166, 171. Purifications of Islam, 247. Rabbinical injunctions, 228. Raga, lust, 103, 104. Rahula, Gautama's son, 89. Railroads an aid to Shintoism, 38. Rajagriha, 87, 90. Ram Mohan Roy, Indian reformer, 6s- Ramabai, quoted, Pundita, 70. Rama-chandra, 60. Ramayana, Indian epic, 56, 60. Recording angels of Islam, 240. Reform movements in Hinduism, 65. 67; Confucius' conception of reform, 188. Reformed Judaism: beliefs of, 218; methods of, 218, 219. Refuges of Buddhism, the Three, 97- Religion: Sense of term in Af- rica, 4, 5; its fruits, 5; ele- ments, 6-13; weakness, 13, 14; its strength, 14, 15; is Bud- dhism a religion? 84, 85; in Catholic lands, 282. Religious liberty in Japan, 41. Remmon sect in Japan, 43. Renunciation of Buddha, Great, 89, 90. Resolved-to-die Band, 35. Resurrection : Jewish belief in the, 217; Moslem. Day of, 243, 244. Revival of pure Shinto, 41. Riches, love of, 117. Righteousness and Buddhism, 142. Rights of man in China, 191. Rig-veda, 54; quotation from, 56, 57- Ritual of Buddhism attractive, 142. Ritualism, tendencies of, 281, 282. Ritualistic Hinduism, 57, 58. Rivers deified in India, 61. Roman Catholicism: For main sub-topics, _ see Contents of ch. X; for minor subdivisions, see italicised words and phrases of that chapter. Rosary of Buddhists, 122. Russia, Japan's war with, 35. Ryobu, in Japan, 40, 41, 138, 152. Sacerdotal system of Roman Catholicism, 267271. Sacred books: Of Hinduism 5456; of Buddhism, 86, 87; of Taoism, 164. Sacred places of India, 61. Sacrifice, see Atonement. Sage: Confucius on the, 190; worship of, 197199; Ideal Sage, 197, 198; worship of, 197199. Sakti worship, 56, 61. Sakya-muni, 136. Salvation in Buddhism, 109113, 125. Sama-veda, 54. Samhita of Hinduism, 55. Samsara, transmigration, no. Sangha, the Buddhist Order, 92, 97. Sankhya school in India, 55, 56, * 5 ?-. Saphir quoted, 231. Sastras of Hinduism, 62. Savior of the world, Buddha, 145. Scholar's view of ancestral wor- ship, Chinese, 203. Schools of Buddhism 83, 84. Scriptures useful with Buddhists, 131. Sects: Of Shinto, 42, 43; of Southern Buddhism, 123; of Buddhism in Japan, 148, 149; Moslem, 237, 238. Secular influence of Roman priesthood, 272. Secularization of Shintoism, 42. Self-control of missionary de- sirable, 73, 74; Buddhism on, 118. Self-examination of Buddhism, 153- Selfishness fostered by Talmud, 226. Sen, Guru Prasad, quoted. 62. Sensuality of Moslems, 258, 259. Sermons, Buddhist 154, 155. Serpent worship in Southern Asia, 84. Shafite Moslems, 238. Shang Ti, in Taolst phrase, 172 and note. Shiah Moslems, 238. Shingpn sect of Buddhism, 138. Shinto, see Shintoism. Definition, 29, 30. Shintoism: For main sub-topics, see Contents ch. II; for minor points, note the italicized words and headings of ch. II; insuf- ficient, 135; view of earthly dis- tinctions, 142; conflict with Buddhism, 137. Shi On, Four Favors, 145, 152. Shokon, or monuments, of Shin- toism, 36. Shotoku Taishi, 137^. Shrines of Shintoism, 27, 28; number of, 29; worship at, 34. Shwe Dagon Pagoda in Rangoon, 121, 122. INDEX 299 Sickness, how accounted for in Africa, 8, 9. Siddhartha, term applied to Bud- dha, 88. Sin: No word for in the Bantu, 13; Buddhist view of, 102107, 109, 124, 125; Jewish view of . 222, 223. Siva, 60. Six paths or worlds of Buddhism, 146, 147. Skandhas of Buddhism, 100, 108. Skepticism and Roman Catholi- cism, 278. Slavery under Islam, 252, 253. Smriti of Hinduism, 55, 56. Social benefits of Buddhism, 128. Social conditions in Africa, 5, 1 6, 17. Soldiers, spirit of Japanese, 35, 36. Solidarity of man taught by Hin- duism, 67. Solstitial worship at Peking, 194. Son of Heaven. In Japan, 40; in China, 193, 194. Soul, Buddha's view of the, 86, 99, 109. Sculs, Chinese theory as to, 178. Sources of Moslem belief, 238, 239- Southern School of Buddhism, 83, 84, 88. Spirit worship: In Southern Asia, 84; in Burmese homes, 122. Spiritual power abused, 272. Spread of Buddhism in Asia, 163, . 164- Sruti books of Hinduism, 54, 55. Star gods of Taoism, 172, 173, 174. Strength of religions: In Africa, 14, 15; of Shintoism, 44, 45; of Hinduism, 67; of Buddhism in Southern Asia, 128, 129; in Japan, 141-143, 156; of Juda- ism, 227-230; of Islam, 254- 256; of Roman Catholicism, 285. Student's interest in Hinduism, S3, 54- Sucilomasutta quoted, 101. Suddhodana, Buddha's father, 88. Sudras, 63. Suffering, Noble Truth of, 103. Sulagandi, sect of Burma, 123. Sun, Altar of, at Peking, 194. Sun goddess of Japan, 28, 31, 4. 138. Sun worshipped in Japan, 38, 42. Sunday and Reformed Jews, 219. Sunn! Sect of Moslems, 237. Superstitions: In Africa, 4, 12, 13, 16; of Taoism, 179, 180. Support of Shintoism, state, 41. Surety idea helpful, 77. Surya, India's Sun god, 57. Sutras of Taoism, 164. Sutta Pitaka, 87. Sword of Shintoism, significance, 29; sword making, 39. Sympathy for native views nec- essary for missionaries, 16, 17. 1 8. Syncretism, religious: In Japan, 138; in China, 163. on, 190. Tablet of Confucius, inscription Tablets, ancestral, 206. Talmud described, 217, 218; re- ferred to, 218, 219, 226, 228, 229, 230. Tanha, desire, 103, 104, 105, 106. Tantras of India, 56. Tantric worship, 61, 69. Tao, quotations bearing upon, 165, 166, 167, 168. Tao Te Ching, 167, 168. Taoism: For main topics, see Contents of, ch. VI; for sub- ordinate topics, see italicised words and phrases of the chap- ter. Tathagata, title of Buddha, 93, 114. Tattooing, 12; in Japan, 39. Teacher of Taoism, The Heav- enly, 177. Temmu's edict concerning Bud- dhism, 139. Temple: First Buddhist, in Japan, 135; temple building era of Jap- anese Buddhism, 139; temples of Buddhism, 151; worship at, 154; of Taoism, 172. Ten Commandments of Buddhism, 145, 146- Tendai sect of Buddhism, 138. Tenri sect in Japan, 43. Theology: Of Taoism, 169174; distorted Moslem, 257. Theosophy in India, 67. Thirteen Articles of Orthodox Jews, 216, 217. Three Bonds of Confucianism, 209. Three religions of China, 163. Three Stars of Taoism, 173. Times of Moslem prayer, 247. Titles: Of Lao-tzu, 165; of Mo- hammed, 242. Tolerance between Shintoism and Buddhism, 138; of Buddhism, 142. 300 INDEX Torii of Shintoism, 27; meaning of word, 27. Transit into Africa, 22. Translation, importance of work, 22, 23. Transmigration: In Africa, 14; in Buddhism, no, 113; in Hin- duism, 59 and note, 65; in Buddhism, 107. Transmutation of metals into gold, 1 68. Travelers' testimony as to Roman Catholicism, 284. Tree worship in Japan, 39. Triad : Of Hindu divinities, 60; of Buddhism, 97. Trimurti, see Triad. Trotter quoted, Miss, 259, 260. Truth, Buddha a king of, 145. Truth powerful against error, 48. Truths, the Four Noble, 103, 104, no. uDio, Zulu name of God, 6. Unhealthiness of Africa over- rated, 21. Uniformity, see Immobility. Unity lacking in Hinduism, 61, 62. Unsho quoted, Rev. Mr., 147. Upadanas, Clingings, 99, 100, 104, 1 06. Upaka, an Indian ascetic, 91. Upanishads of Hinduism, 55, 58, 63. Usira root, 106. Utensils of Shintoism, three, 28, 29. uTixo, Zulu name for God, 6. i Vagabond priests in Japan, 150. Vaiseshika school in India, 55. Vaisyas, 63. Varuna in India, 57. Vedaiita school of philosophy, 55, 56, 63, 67. Vedas, the four, 54, 55. Vedic Hinduism, 56, 57. Vesali, 87. Vijayasutta quoted, 101. Vmaya Pitaka ; 87. Virgin, worship of the, 279. Virtue, Confucianism's view of, 209, 210. Vishnu, 60, 72. Visions of Gautama, the four, 89. Wahhabis, 254. Walled cities of China, 172. Ward's services to China, 201. Wars of Moslems, religious, 253, 254- Way of life of Buddhism, 147. Way of the Gods, see Shintoism. Weaknesses of religions: In Af- rica, 13, i