REVELATION.
The preceding chapters present the system of natural religion, as it may
be gained by experience and those principles of reason or common sense
with which all men are endowed.
Whether mankind ever have, or ever would, fully evolve this system of
religious belief without any aid by revelation from the Creator, is a
question which we can not readily decide—inasmuch as the claim of
Christianity is, that from the first, our race have been instructed by
revelations from God, which have been more or less preserved in traditions
and written records. It is certain that the elimination of this system, by
unaided humanity, is dependent on the development of both the intellectual
and moral powers, just as much so, as the physical discoveries of Newton,
Copernicus and Columbus were dependent on the intellectual progress of the
race.
In reference to the question of the necessity or importance of revelations
from the Creator, it is interesting to examine how far those nations that
have been most advanced in intellectual development, have secured this
system of common sense, independently of the revelations contained in the
Bible—revelations which also have been more or less incorporated by
Mohammed into the Koran.
In a brief review of the pagan systems, that of Boodhism occupies the
first place, as one which has had longest and largest control over
civilized pagandom—one which has been most unimpeded by resistance, and
one which now controls _one half_ the human race.
We have seen that the common‐sense system teaches an eternally self‐
existent Creator, perfect in knowledge, wisdom, power and benevolence,
administering a perfect system by laws—his chief design being to produce
the most possible happiness with the least possible evil. It teaches also,
that the right _voluntary_ action of mind, as a part of this system,
consists in _good willing_ toward the Creator, toward self, and toward our
fellow‐beings, _according to the laws_ of God, so as to secure what is
_best_ for all concerned—making it imperative that self be made
subordinate to the public good. It teaches also, that the most effective
mode of securing this right action is, first, by imparting a _knowledge_
of these laws and their sanctions, and thus influencing mind by the
motives of _hope_ and _fear_; next, by the motive influences of _love_,
_gratitude_, _sympathy_ and _example_, as mutually exercised by God, our
fellow‐men and self. Finally, it teaches that all questions as to what is
right and wrong, are to be regulated with reference to the risks and
dangers of a _future life_, and not with chief reference to this life
alone—and that in this estimate the interests of self are to be made
subordinate to those of the commonwealth.
We will now notice how far the system of Boodh corresponds with that of
common sense.
This religion(13) is one in which there is no intervention of any supreme
God, or any self‐existent being, or any Creator; on the contrary, all
souls and all the universe exist from eternity. All souls from eternity
have gone on transmigrating from one body to another, rising or falling in
the scale of existence according to their merit or demerit. Boodh is a
general name for a divinity or god. There have been innumerable Boodhs in
different worlds and different ages, but in this world only four. These
four are beings who have risen by merit through various transmigrations,
and then became incarnate in human bodies. At last they were annihilated,
none of them being now in existence—so that this world for centuries has
been without any God.
The last Boodh of this world was Gaudama. He passed through innumerable
transmigrations in four hundred millions of worlds, and attained immense
merit. At last, he was born into this world the son of a king, about six
hundred years before Christ. The moment he was born he exclaimed, “Now am
I the noblest of men; this is the last time I shall ever be born!” He
remained forty‐five years as Boodh of this world—performed all sorts of
meritorious deeds, promulgated excellent laws, and then was annihilated.
Ever since, this world has had no God, and will have none for eight
thousand years, when the next Boodh is to appear. The first three Boodhs
left no laws or sayings. Those of Gaudama, the last Boodh, were reduced to
writing A. D. 94, and these are the _Bedegat_, or Bible of the Boodhists.
These teachings of Gaudama are so obligatory, that disbelief of them is
the only crime that incurs _eternal_ punishment.
According to this system, true virtue or rewardable merit, consists in
obeying the teachings of Gaudama. These teachings relate first to sins to
be avoided. The five general laws are, not to kill, not to steal, not to
commit adultery, not to lie, and not to drink intoxicating liquors. These
are subdivided so as to include all sins of similar kinds under each head.
For example, the first law includes even the killing of animals for food,
also capital punishments and war.
Sins are divided into these three classes: first, those of the body, such
as killing, theft, fornication, etc.; those of the tongue, as falsehood,
harsh language, idle talk, etc.; and those of the mind, as pride,
covetousness, envy, heretical thoughts, etc.
These writings of Gaudama strongly denounce the evils of pride, anger,
covetousness, and all inordinate appetites. Men are exhorted to avoid
excess in perfumes, ornaments and laughter—also strong drink, smoking,
opium, night wanderings, bad company, idleness, anger under abuse,
flattery to benefactors, annoying jests, and all that leads to strife.
For all such sins the most awful conceivable punishments are to follow in
a future state, and for millions of ages.
Rewardable merit is of three kinds:
1. Obedience to all the preceding precepts and prohibitions, and the
performance of all duties _fairly deducible_ from them, such as integrity,
gentleness, lenity, forbearance, condescension, veneration to parents and
love to mankind in general.
2. Alms‐giving and votive offerings. This includes feeding priests,
building temples and accommodations for priests and for travelers, making
roads, tanks and wells, planting fruit and shade trees, feeding criminals
and animals, and finally, giving alms to all classes of men in need.
3. Prayers and reading the Bedegat, or religious books. Of this last kind
of merit, there are three kinds: the first is the senseless repetition of
prayers and reading; the second, reading intelligently; the last, is
performing these exercises with strong desires and feelings. Prayers are
not addressed to any God, as there is none existing now for this world.
Gaudama, at his death, advised that, in addition to obeying his laws, his
relics and image should be worshiped, and temples be built to his honor
till the next Boodh came.
Votive offerings of fruit, rice and flowers are made to priests or placed
in temples. The prayers consist of the repetition of soliloquies that
express our liability to bodily evils and to mental suffering, and our
inability to escape. Also of protestations of this kind, “I will not lie;”
“I will not steal;” “I will not kill,” etc.
There are four Sabbaths or days for public worship each month, when the
people go with votive offerings and prayers to the temple of Gaudama, but
they have no general united worship.
The Boodhists have a hierarchy very much like the Catholic church, with
varied grades and ranks. The priests are required to practice celibacy,
and are mainly supported by voluntary gifts from the people.
They reside in buildings erected especially for them, and as celibacy and
the avoidance of women are enjoined on all, these establishments very much
resemble Catholic monasteries. Few of the priests preach, and only by
special request, after which, presents are made to them. They attend
funerals only when invited, and then expect presents. Part of them spend
some time in teaching novitiate priests, but most of them, regarding work
as unprofessional, spend their time in sheer idleness. It is the rule that
each priest perambulate the streets every morning till he receives boiled
rice enough for his daily wants. The higher class of priests avoid this.
In Burmah the priests are at the rate of one to every thirty persons, and
they are well supported by the people, and without interference from the
government to enforce it.
As to the motives that sustain this religion, there being no God to the
Boodhist, all motives arising from relations and regard to him are
excluded. All the motives presented appeal to hope of good and fear of
evil to _self_. Those who attain a certain measure of merit in obeying
Gaudama’s teachings go to some of the celestial regions, according to
their attainments. These consist of twenty‐six heavens, one above another,
which offer various degrees of enjoyment according to merit obtained.
There are eight principal hells; four that torment with cold and four with
heat. In the other hells are other sufferings, although not connected with
heat and cold. Worms bite, bowels are torn out, limbs are racked, bodies
are lacerated, they are pierced with hot spits, crucified head downward,
gnawed by dogs, torn by vultures. These are described with minuteness in
the _Bedegat_ and often depicted by the native artists in drawings,
reminding one of Dante’s Inferno illustrated.
For killing a parent or a priest a man will suffer in one of the hells of
fire for inconceivable millions of ages. Denying the doctrines of Gaudama
incurs _eternal_ suffering in fire. Insulting women, old men or priests,
receiving bribes, selling intoxicating drinks and parricide, are punished
in the worst hell.
Merit gained by any good conduct in these hells enables the person to rise
even to the celestial regions.
The souls of all the universe have existed from eternity, transmigrating
for ever, and thus rising and falling in the scale of existence according
to the degrees of merit at each birth. This is decided not by any deity
but by immutable fate. In passing through these changes the amount of
sorrow is incalculable. The Bedegat declares that the tears shed by one
soul in its various changes are so great that the ocean in comparison is
but a drop. Sorrow is declared to be the inevitable attendant of all
existence, and therefore “the chief end,” and the highest reward of
Boodhism is, _annihilation_.
The system of Boodhism commenced about six hundred years before Christ,
and has pervaded eastern, central and southern Asia about as long and as
fully as Christianity has pervaded Europe. The Burman empire, where this
account of that faith was obtained, presents the most favorable results of
this system on the character and condition of its votaries.
In China, Buddhism (another name for Boodhism) is the popular religion.
With it is associated Confucianism, which is a system of morals and
politics instituted by Confucius, B. C. 550, which teaches nothing in
regard to any God or a future state. With them co‐exist the sect of
Laotze, which is a kind of rationalism. Most of the temples and priests
are those of Boodh or Budda, but there is no such organized priesthood as
in Burmah, nor is this religion maintained by governmental power. It is
also considerably modified by the more ancient system of polytheism.
In Thibet and Tartary, the religion of the Grand Lama chiefly prevails,
which is one form of Boodhism.
In western India, Brahmanism is in constant warfare with Boodhism, and the
two systems are perfectly antagonistic. Brahmanism teaches one eternal
deity and three hundred and thirty‐three millions of other gods, with
hosts of idols representing them; Boodhism has no deity at all, and only
one image, that of Gaudama. Brahmanism enjoins sacrifices; Boodhism
forbids killing. Brahmanism requires atrocious tortures; Boodhism
inculcates fewer austerities than even Popery. Brahmanism makes lying,
fornication and theft sometimes commendable, and describes the gods as
excelling in such crimes; Boodhism never confounds right and wrong, and
never excuses any sin. Brahmanism makes the highest good or chief end of
man to be absorption into the supreme deity; Boodhism makes _annihilation_
the highest hope and aim of existence. These two systems, together with
Mohammedanism, so prevail in Hindostan that the distinct results of each
can never be compared. These are the prevailing religions in the most
advanced pagan nations at the present time; and of the two, Boodhism is
the best, and probably has been the most fairly tested in Burmah.
In past ages the two most highly developed heathen nations were those of
Greece and Rome, and of their religion we have the fullest records. It is
not probable that any one will consider their system of religion superior
to this now exhibited of modern paganism.
The result is that the most highly developed heathen nations, as yet, have
attained but very imperfectly the system of common sense.
No heathen religion ever taught an eternally‐existing Creator, perfect in
knowledge, wisdom, power and benevolence. None ever taught that the chief
end of our Creator is happiness‐making on the greatest possible scale.
None ever taught that this also is the chief end for which man is created.
None ever taught that right moral action, or true virtue, consists in
_good willing toward the Creator, toward self, and toward our fellow‐
beings, according to the laws of the Creator, so that every mind shall
make the good of self subordinate to the general good_. None ever taught
that all questions of right and wrong, or what is for _the best_, are to
be decided with reference to the risks and dangers of a future life. None
ever presented communion with, and the care, sympathy, sacrifices, and
example of a “long‐suffering” Creator, as motives to secure virtuous self‐
sacrifice from his creatures. If all this is taught by revelations from
God in the Bible, it is what was never taught by any other religion yet
known on earth.
In the history of the heathen world, we find anxious inquiries on these
subjects pressing on every thoughtful spirit. Who made this world with its
profound and ceaseless sorrows? Are there contending deities, and are the
malignant powers in the ascendant? If there be one supreme Creator of all,
is he propitious or hostile to a race so guilty as ours? Does he feel any
pity or sympathy for our profound ignorance, our infinite sorrows? Can we
do any thing to gain his help in our darkness and misery? Where do we go
when we die? Does our short and painful span of being end in eternal
night, or are we to go on in another career of similar suffering and
change? When we lay our beloved ones in the grave, shall we ever meet them
again, or is “the only proper utterance of a broken heart, _vale, vale, in
eternum vale_?”
These have been the mournful questionings of every age and every race,
while the wisest sages of the wisest nations, without a revelation, have
been unable to give any satisfactory reply.
Greece and Rome were the most civilized of all ancient nations, and they
give us Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Cicero, as their best and wisest
men, who most deeply pondered these great questions. Aristotle held to one
superior deity, but taught that the stars are true and eternal deities.
Cicero leads to the belief of many gods, and approves of worshiping
distinguished men as gods. Socrates held to a plurality of deities, and
also to transmigration. He held that the common sort of good men will go
into the forms of bees, ants, and other animals of a mild and social kind.
Plato held to two principles, God and matter, and that God was not
concerned either in the creation or government of this world. He argued
for the immortality of the soul on the ground of its _pre‐existence_, and
concludes some of his speculations thus:
“We can not of ourselves know what will be pleasing to God, or what
worship to pay him; but it is needful that a lawgiver be sent from heaven.
Such an one do I expect, and O how greatly do I desire to see him, and who
he is!”