CHRIST AND CHRISHNA
I. THEIR MIRACULOUS HISTORY AND LEADING PRINCIPLES.
1. The advent of each Savior was miraculously foretold by prophets.
2. The fallen and degenerate condition of the human race is taught in
the religion of each.
3. A plan of restoration or salvation is provided for in each case.
4. A divine Savior is considered necessary in both cases.
5. The necessity of atoning for sin is taught in the religion of each.
6. A God, or Son of God, is selected as the victim for the atoning
sacrifice in each case.
7. This God is sent down from heaven in each case in the form of a man.
8. The God or Savior in each case is the second person of the Trinity.
9. Chrishna, as well as Christ, was held to be really God incarnate.
10. The mission of each Savior is the same.
11. There is a resemblance in name-Chrishna and Christ.
12. Chrishna, as well as Christ, was incarnated and born of a woman.
13. The mother in each case was a holy virgin.
14. The same peculiarities of a miraculous conception and birth are
related of each.
15. Each had an adopted earthly father.
16. The father of Chrishna, as well as that of Christ, was a carpenter.
17. God is claimed as the real father in both cases.
18. A Spirit or Ghost was the author of the conception of each.
19. There was rejoicing on earth when each Savior was born.
20. There was also joy in heaven at the birth and advent of each.
21. Chrishna, as well as Christ, was of royal descent.
22. Their mothers were both reputedly pious women.
23. The names of two mothers are somewhat similar--Mary and Maia.
24. Each had a special female friend--Elizabeth in the one case, and the
wife of Nanda in the other.
25. Neither Savior was born in a house, but both in obscure situations.
26. Both were born on the 25th of December.
27. Both, at birth, were visited by wise men and shepards.
28. The visitors conducted by a star in each case.
29. The rite of purification observed by the mothers of each.
30. An angel warning of impending danger in each case.
31. The incumbent ruler was hostile in each case.
32. A bloody decree in each case for the destruction of the infant
Savior.
33. A flight of the parents takes place in both cases.
34. The parents of one sojourned at Muturea, the other at Mathura.
35. Each Savior had a forerunner--John the Baptist in one case, Bali
Rama in the other.
36. Both were preternaturally smart in childhood.
37. Each disputed with and vanquished learned opponents.
38. Both became objects of search by their parents.
39. And both occasioned anxiety, if not sorrow, to their parents.
40. The mother of each had other children--that is children begotten by
man as well as God.
41. Both Saviors retired to, and spent considerable time in the
wilderness.
42. The religious rite of "fasting" was practiced by each Savior.
43. Each delivered a noteworthy sermon, or series of moral lessons.
44. Chrishna, as well as Christ, was called and considered God.
45. Each was both God and the Son of God (so regarded).
46. "Savior" was one of the divine titles of each.
47. Each was designated "the Savior of man," "the Savior of the world,"
&c.
48. Both expressed a desire to "save all."
49. Each sustained the character of a Messiah.
50. Chrishna, as well as Christ, was a Redeemer.
51. Each Savior was called "Shepard."
52. Both were believed to be the Creator of the world.
53. Each is sometimes spoken of, also, as only an agent in the creation.
54. Both were the "Light and Life" of men.
55. Each "brought life and immortality to light."
56. Both are represented as "the seed of the woman bruising the
serpent's head."
57. Was Christ a "Dispenser of grace," so was the Hindoo Savior.
58. One was "the lion of the tribe of Judah," the other "the lion of the
tribe of Saki."
59. Christ was "the Beginning of the End," Chrishna "the Beginning, the
Middle, and the End."
60. Both proclaimed, "I am the Resurrection."
61. Each was "the way to the Father."
62. Both represented emblematically "the Sun of Righteousness."
63. Each is figuratively represented as being "all in all."
64. Both speak of having existed prior to human birth.
65. A dual existence--an existence in both heaven and earth at once--is
claimed by or for both.
66. Chrishna, as well as Christ, was "without sin."
67. Both assumed the divine prerogative of forgiving sins.
68. The mission of each was to deliver from sin.
69. Both came to destroy the devil and his works.
70. The doctrine of the "atonement" is practically realized in each
case.
71. Each made a voluntary offering for the sins of the world.
72. Both were human as well as divine.
73. Chrishna, as well as Christ, was worshiped as God absolute.
74. Each was regarded as "the Lord from Heaven."
75. Chrishna, as well as Christ, had applied to him all the attributes
of God.
76. Was Christ omniscient, so was Chrishna.
77. Was one omnipotent, so was the other (so believed).
78. And both are represented as being omnipresent.
79. Each was believed to be divinely perfect.
80. Was one "Lord of lords," so was the other.
81. Each embodied the "power and wisdom of God."
82. All power was committed unto each (so claimed).
83. Chrishna performed many miracles as well as Christ.
84. One of the first miracles of each was the cure of a leper.
85. Each healed "all manner of diseases."
86. The work of casting out devils constitutes a part of the mission of
each.
87. Each practically proved his power to raise the dead.
88. A miracle appertaining to a tree is related of both.
89. Both could read the thoughts of the people.
90. The power to detect and eject evil spirits was claimed by both.
91. Both had the keys or control of death.
92. Each led an extraordinary life.
93. Each had a character for supernatural greatness.
94. Both possesed or claimed a oneness with the Father.
95. A "oneness with his Lord and Master" is claimed, also, for the
disciples of each.
96. A strong reciprocal affection between Master and disciple in each
case.
97. Each offers to shoulder the burdens of his disciples.
98. A portion of the life of each was spent in preaching.
99. Both made converts by their miracles and preaching.
100. A numerous retinue of believers springs up in each case.
101. Both had commissioned apostles to proclaim their religion.
102. Each was an innovator upon the antecedent religion.
103. A beautiful reform in religion was inaugurated by each Savior.
104. Each opposed the existing popular priesthood.
105. Both abolished the law of lineal descent in the ancient priesthood.
106. Each was an object of conspiracy by his enemies.
107. Humility and external poverty distinguished the life of each.
108. Each denounced riches and rich men, and loathed and detested
wealth.
109. Both had a character for meekness.
110. Chastity or unmarried life was a distinguishing characteristic of
each.
111. Mercy was a noteworthy characteristic of each.
112. Both were censured for associating with sinners.
113. Each was a special friend to the poor.
114. A poor widow woman receives marked attention by each.
115. Each encounters a gentile woman at a well.
116. Both submitted unresistingly to injuries and insults.
117. General practical philanthropy and impartiality marks the life of
each Savior.
118. Each took more pleasure in repentant sinners than in virtuous
saints.
119. Both practically disclosed God's attempt to reconcile the world to
himself.
120. The closing incidents in the earth-life of each were strikingly
similar.
121. A memorable last supper marked the closing career of both.
122. Both were put to death by "wicked hands."
123. Chrishna, as well as Christ, was crucified.
124. Darkness attended the crucifixion of each.
125. Both were crucified between two thieves.
126. Each is reported to have forgiven his enemies.
127. The age of each at death corresponds (being between thirty and
thirty-six years).
128. Each, after giving up the ghost, descends into hell.
129. The resurrection from the dead is a marked period in the history of
each.
130. Each ascends to heaven after his resurrection.
131. Many people are reported to have witnessed the ascension in each
case.
132. Each is reported as having both descended and ascended.
133. The head of each, while living on earth, was anointed with oil.
II. DOCTRINES.
134. There is a similarity in the doctrines of their respective
religions.
135. The same doctrines are propagated by the disciples of each.
136. The doctrine of future rewards and punishments is a part of each
system.
137. Analogous views of heaven are found in each system.
138. A third heaven is spoken of in each system.
139. All sin must be punished according to the bible teachings of each.
140. Each has a hell provided for the wicked.
141. Both teach a hell of darkness and a hell of light.
142. An immortal worm finds employment in the hell of each system ("the
worm that dieth not.")
143. The arch-demon of the under world uses brimstone for fuel in one
case, and oil in the other.
144. The motive for future punishment is in both cases the same.
145. Each has a purgatory or sort of half-way house.
146. Special divine judgments on nations are taught by each.
147. A great and final day of judgment is taught by each.
148. A general resurrection also is taught in each religion.
149. That there is a "Judge of the dead" is a doctrine of each.
150. Two witnesses are to report on human actions in the final assizes.
151. We are furnished in each case with the dimension of heaven or "the
holy city."
152. Man is enjoined to strive against temptation to sin by each.
153. And repentance for sin is a doctrine taught by the bible of each.
154. Each has a prepared city for a paradise.
155. The bibles of both teach that we have no continuing city here.
156. Souls are carried to heaven by angels, as in the instance of
Lazarus, in each case.
157. A belief in angels or spirits is a tenant of each religion.
158. The doctrine of fallen or evil angels is found in both system.
159. Obsession by wicked or evil spirits is taught by each.
160. Both teach that sickness or disease is caused by evil spirits.
161. Each has a king-devil or arch-demon with a posse of subalterns or
evil spirits.
162. Both bibles record the story of a "hellaballoo" or war in heaven.
163. Both teach that an evil man can neither do nor speak a good thing.
164. Both teach that sin is a disadvantage in the present life as well
as in the future.
165. The doctrine of free will or free agency is taught by each.
166. Predestination seems to be inferentially taught by each.
167. In each case man is a prize in a lottery, with God and the devil
for ticket-holders.
168. Both make the devil (or devils) a scape-goat for sin.
169. Both teach the devil or evil spirits as the primary cause of all
evil.
170. The destiny of both body and soul is pointed out by each.
171. The true believers are known as "saints" under both systems.
172. Saints with "white robes" are spoken of by each.
173. Both specify "the Word of Logos" as God.
174. Wisdom, too, is personified as God by the holy Scriptures of each.
175. Both teach that God may be known by his works.
176. The doctrine of one supreme God is taught in each bible.
177. Light and truth are important words in the religious nomenclature
of each.
178. Both profess a high veneration for truth.
179. "Where the treasure is, there is the heart also," is taught by
each.
180. "Seek and ye shall find" is a condition prescribed by each.
181. Religious toleration is a virtue professed by both.
182. All nations are professedly based on an equality by each.
183. Both, however, enjoin partiality to "the household of faith."
184. The doors of salvation are thrown open to high and low, rich and
poor, by each.
185. Each professes to have "the only true and saving faith."
186. There is a mystery in the mission of each Savior.
187. "Rama" is a well known word in the bible of each.
188. "The understanding of the wise" is a phrase in each.
189. Both speak figuratively of "the blind leading the blind."
190. "A new heaven and a new earth" is spoken of by each.
191. The doctrine of a Trinity in the Godhead is taught by each.
192. Baptism by water is a tenant and ordinance of each.
193. "Living water" is a metaphor found in each.
194. Baptism by fire seems also to be recognized by each.
195. Fasting is emphatically enjoined by each.
196. Sacrifices are of secondary importance in each system, and are
partially or wholly abandoned by each.
197. The higher law is paramount to ceremonies in each religion.
198. The bible of each religion literally condemns idolatry.
199. Both also make concessions to idolatry.
200. Polygamy is not literally encouraged nor openly condemned by
either.
201. The power to forgive sins is conferred on the disciples of each.
202. The doctrine of blasphemy is recognized by each.
203. Pantheism, or the reciprocal in-being of God in nature and nature
in God, is taught by both.
III. BIBLES AND HOLY SCRIPTURES.
204. Each has a bible which is the idolized fountain of all religious
teaching.
205. Both have an Old Testament and a New Testament, virtually.
206. The New Testament inaugurates a new and reform system of religion
in each case.
207. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God" is the faith of the
disciples of each.
208. Each system claimed to have its inspired men to write its
scriptures.
209. Both hold a spiritual qualification necessary to understand their
bibles.
210. It is a sin to become "wise beyond what is written" in their
respective bibles.
211. Both recommend knowing the Scriptures in youth.
212. Alteration of their respective bibles is divinely interdicted.
213. The bible is an infallible rule of faith and practice in both
cases.
214. "All scripture is profitable for doctrine" is the faith of each.
215. Both explain away the errors of their bibles.
IV. SPIRITUALITY OF THE TWO RELIGIONS.
216. The religion of Chrishna is pre-eminently spiritual no less than
Christ's.
217. Both teach that "to be carnally minded is death."
218. External rites are practically dispensed with in each religion.
219. The spiritual law written on the heart is recognized by each.
220. "God is within you," Budhists teach as well as Christians.
221. Both recognize an invisible spiritual Savior.
222. "God dwells in the heart," say Hindoo as well as Christians.
223 An inward recognition of the divine law is amply seen in both.
224. Both confess allegiance to an inward monitor.
225. The doctrine of inspiration and internal illumination is found in
both.
226. The indwelling Comforter is believed in by both.
227. Both also teach that religion is an inward work.
228. Both speak of being born again--i. e., the second birth.
229. A spiritual body is also believed in by both.
230. "Spiritual things are incomprehensible to the natural man" say
each.
231. God's spiritually sustaining power Budhists also acknowledge.
232. Both give a spiritual interpretation to their bibles.
233. Each has a new and more interior law superseding the old law.
234. The spiritual cross--self-denial or asceticism--is a prominent
feature of each religion.
235. The duty of renouncing and abandoning the external world is
solemnly enjoined by each.
236. Budhists renounce the world more practically than Christians.
237. Withdrawal or seclusion from society is recommended by each.
238. Bodily suffering as a benefit to the soul is encouraged by each.
239. Voluntary suffering for righteousness' sake is a virtue with each.
240. The cross is a religious emblem in each system.
241. Both glory in "the religion of the cross" as better than a religion
without suffering.
242. Hence both teach "the greater the cross the greater the crown."
243. Earthly pleasures are regarded as evil by both.
244. Contempt for the body as an enemy to the soul is visible in both.
245. Retirement for religious contemplation is a duty with each.
246. The forsaking of relations is also enjoined by each.
247. Spiritual relationship is superior to external relationship with
both.
248. "To die is great gain" we are taught by each.
249. A subjugation of the passions is a religious duty with each.
250. The road to heaven is a narrow one with each.
251. The same state of religious perfection is aspired to by the
disciples of each.
V. THE DOCTRINE OF FAITH OR BELIEF.
252. Faith is an all-important element and doctrine with each.
253. Heresy, or want of faith, is a sin of great magnitude with both.
254. Faith in the Savior is a condition to salvation by both.
255. Confessing the Savior is also required in both cases.
256. "Believe or be damned" is the condition or profess to believe the
terrible sine qua non to salvation by each.
257. Skeptics or unbelievers are with both the chief of sinners.
258. "Faith can remove mountains," either with a Bud-hist or a
Christian.
259. Both contrast faith with works.
260. Faith without works is dead--so teach both Bud-hists and
Christians.
VI. THE DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE OF PRAYER.
261. Prayer is an important rite in each religion.
262. Private or secret prayer is recommended by both.
263. Each has also a formula of prayer.
264. "Pray without ceasing" is a Budhist as well as a Christian
injunction.
265. Praying to their respective Saviors in sickness and in health is a
custom with both.
266. The custom of praying for the dead is recognized in each system.
VII. TREATMENT OF ENEMIES.
267. It is a Hindoo as well as a Christian injunction to treat enemies
kindly.
268. Passive submission to injuries and abuse is enjoined by both.
269. The holy Scriptures of both require us to pray for enemies, and
feed them.
270. And even love to enemies is a part of the spirit of each religion.
VIII. THE MILLENNIUM.
271. Hindoos, like Christians, prophesy of a great millennial era.
272. There is a remarkable similarity in their notions with respect to
it.
273. Both anticipate a second advent or new Savior on the occasion.
274. The destruction of the world also is to take place in both cases.
275. And an entire renovation and a new order of things are to be
established in each case.
IX. MIRACLES.
276. There is almost a constant display of miraculous power in each
system.
277. The disciples of both are professedly endowed with this power.
278. Miraculous cures of the lame, the blind, and the sick are reported
in both cases.
279. Miracles of handling poisonous reptiles with impunity are reported
by both.
280. Swallowing deadly poison is enjoined by Christians and practiced by
Hindoos.
281. Many cases of the miraculous ejection of devils are reported by
both.
282. The miracle of thought-reading is displayed by both.
283. The saints in both cases are reported as raising the dead.
X. PRECEPTS.
284. "The kingdom of heaven" was to be sought first of all things in
each case.
285. Love to God is a paramount obligation under each system.
286. And the worship of God is an essential requisition in each
religious polity.
287. "Cease to do evil and learn to do well" is virtually enjoined by
each.
288. An inward knowledge of God is taught as essential by both systems.
289. A reliance on works is discouraged by both.
290. Purity of heart is inculcated by Hindoos as well as Christians.
291. Speak and think evil of no man is a gospel injunction of each.
292. A love of all beings is more prominently the spirit of Budhism than
that of Christianity.
293. The practice of strict godly virtue is enjoined by both.
294. Moderation and temperance are recommended by both.
295. Patience is a virtue in each religion.
296. The duty of controlling our thoughts is taught by each.
297. Charity has a high appreciation by each.
298. Both make the poor objects of attention.
299. The practice of hospitality is recommended by each.
300. Humility is a duty and a virtue under both systems.
301. Mirthfulness or light conversation is forbidden by each.
302. Purity of life is a duty with Hindoos as well as Christians.
303. Chasteness in conversation is inculcated by both.
304. "Respect to persons" is a sin in the moral polity of both.
305. Alms-giving is religiously enjoined by the holy Scriptures of both.
306. Both teach that "it is better to give than to receive."
307. Loyalty to rulers is a moral requisition of each system.
308. Honor to father and mother is esteemed a great virtue by both.
309. The correct training of children is with each a scriptural duty.
310. "Look not upon a woman" is more than hinted by each.
311. The reading of the holy Scriptures is enjoined by both.
312. Lying or falsehood is with each a sin of great magnitude.
313. Swearing is discountenanced by both religions.
314. Theft or stealing is specially condemned by both.
315. Both deprecate and condemn the practice of war.
316. Both discountenance fighting.
317. Neither of them professes to believe in slavery.
318. Drunkenness and the use of wine are more specifically condemned by
the Hindoo religion.
319. Adultery and fornication are heinous sins in the eyes of both.
320. Both condemn covetousness as a great sin.
321. Budhists more practically condemn anger than Christians do.
XI. MISCELLANEOUS ANALOGIES.
322. Both have their apocryphal as well as their canonical Scriptures.
323. Stories are found in the bible of each which would be rejected if
found elsewhere.
324. Both make their bible a finality in matters of faith.
325. Both have had their councils and commentaries to reveal theis
bibles over again.
326. Numerous schisms, divisions, sects, and creeds have sprung up in
each.
327. Various religious reforms have sprung up under each.
328. Conversion from one religious sect to another is common to both.
329. Both religions have been troubled with numerous skeptics or
infidels.
330. Both have often resorted to new interpretations for their bibles to
suit the times.
331. The unconverted are stigmatized by each.
332. "Knock and it shall be opened" is the invitation of each.
333. Public confession of sins in class-meetings is known to each.
334. Death-bed repentance often witnessed under both religious systems.
335. A belief in haunted houses incident to the religious countries of
both.
336. A superior respect for woman claimed by each.
337. An idolatrous veneration for religious ancestors by each.
338. Each sustain a numerous horde of expensive priests.
339. A divine call or illumination to preach claimed by each.
340. Religious martyrdom the glory of each.
341. Both have encountered "perils by sea and land" for their religion.
342. He who loseth his life (for his religion) shall find it, say both.
343. Both in ancient times suffered much persecution.
344. The disciples of both have suffered death without flinching from
the faith.
345. Each sent numerous missionaries abroad to preach and convert.
346. And, finally, each cherished the hope of converting the world to
their religion.
The author has in his possession historical quotations to prove the
truth of each one of the above parallels. He has all the historical
facts on which they were constructed found in and drawn from the
sacred books of the Hindoo religion and the works of Christian writers
descriptive of their religion. But they would swell the present volume
to unwieldy dimensions, and far beyond its proper and prescribed limits,
to present them here; they are therefore reserved for the second volume,
and may be published in pamphlet form also.
In proof of the correctness of the foregoing comparative analogies,
we will now summon the testimony of various authors setting forth the
historical character of the Hindoo God Chrishna, and the essential
nature of his religion, so far as it approximates in its doctrines
and moral teachings to the Christian religion. We will first hear from
Colonel Wiseman, for ten years a Christian missionary in India.
"There is one Indian (Hindoo) legend of considerable importance" says
this writer... "This is the story of Chrishna, the Indian Apollo. In
native legends he is represented as an Avatar, or incarnation of the
Divinity. At his birth, choirs of Devitas (angels) sung hymns of praise,
while shepherds surrounded his cradle. It was necessary to conceal his
birth from the tyrant ruler, Cansa, to whom it had been foretold that
the infant Savior should destroy him. The child escaped with his parents
beyond the coast of Lamouna. For a time he lived in obscurity, and then
commenced a public life distinguished for prowess and beneficence.
He washed the feet of the Brahmins, and preached the most excellent
doctrines; but at length the power of his enemies prevailed.... Before
dying, he foretold the miseries which would take place in the Cali-yuga,
or wicked age (Dark Age) of the world."
"Chrishna (says another writer) taught his followers that they alone
were the true believers of the saving faith; throwing down the barriers
of caste, and elevating the dogmas of their faith above the sacerdotal
class, he admitted every one who felt an inward desire to the ministry
to the preaching of their religion. A system thus associating itself
with the habits, feelings, and personal advantages of its disciples
could not fail to make rapid progress." (Upham's History. Doctrines of
Budhism.)
"Budhism inculcates benevolence, tenderness, forgiveness of injuries,
and love of enemies; and forbids sensuality, love of pleasure, and
attachment to worldly objects." (Judson).
"At the moment of his (Chrishna's) conception a God left heaven to enter
the womb of his mother (a virgin). Immediately after his birth he was
recognized as a divine personage, and it was predicted that he would
surpass all previous divine incarnations in holiness. Every one adored
him, saluting him as 'the God of Gods.' When twenty years of age he went
into a desert, and lived there in the austerest retirement, poverty,
simplicity, and virtue, spending his whole time in religious
contemplation. He was tempted in various ways, but his self-denial
resisted all the seductive approaches of sin. He declared, 'Religion
is my essence.' He experienced a lively opposition from the priests
attached to the ancient creeds (as Christ subsequently did). But he
triumphed over all his enemies after holding a discussion with them (as
Christ did with the doctors in the Temple). He revised the existing code
of morals and the social law. He reduced the main principles of morality
to four, viz: _mercy, aversion to cruelty, unbounded sympathy for all
animated beings and the strictest adherence to the moral law._ He also
gave a decalogue of commandments, viz.: 1. Not to kill. 2. Not to steal.
3. To be chaste. 4. Not to testify falsely. 5. Not to lie. 6. Not to
swear. 7. To avoid all impure words. 8. To be disinterested. 9. Not to
take revenge. 10. And not to be superstitious. This code of morals
was firmly established in the hearts of his followers." (Abridged from
Hardy's Manual of Budhism.)
"It was prophesied in olden times that a person would arise and redeem
Hindostan from 'the yoke of bondage.' At midnight, when the birth of
Chrishna was taking place, the clouds emitted low music, and poured
down a rain of flowers. The celestial child was greeted with hymns by
attending spirits.
"The room was illuminated by his light, and the countenances of his
father and mother emitted rays of glory, and they bowed in worship.'
'The people believed he was a God.' They eagerly caught the words which
fell from his lips, which taught his divine mission, and they called him
the 'Holy One,' and finally the 'Living God.' He performed miraculous
cures. At his birth a marvelous light illumined the earth. His followers
baptised, and performed miraculous cures. And he, when a child,
attracted attention by his miracles. While attending the herds with his
foster-father a great serpent poisoned the river, which caused the death
of cows and shepherd-boys when they drank of it, whom Chrishna restored
to life by a look of divine power. His life was devoted to mercy and
charity. He left paradise from pure compassion, to die for suffering
sinners. He sought to lead men to better paths and lives of virtue
and rectitude. He suffered to atone for the sins of the world; and the
sinner, through faith in him, can be saved. Christ and Chrishna both
taught the equality of man. Prayers addressed to Chrishna were after
this fashion: 'O thou Supreme One! thy essence is inscrutable. Thou art
all in all. The understanding of man cannot reach thy Almighty Power.
I, who know nothing, fly to thee for protection. Show mercy unto me, and
enable me to see and know thee.' Chrishna replies, 'Have faith in me.
No one who worships me can perish. Address thyself to me as the
only asylum. I will deliver thee from sin. I am animated with equal
benevolence toward all beings. I know neither hatred nor partiality.
Those who adore me devoutly are in me and I in them'"--"Christ within
you the hope of glory." (Abridged from Mr. Tuttle.)
"If we consider that Budhism proclaimed the equality of all men and
women in the sight of God, that it denounced the impious pretensions
of the most mischievous priesthood the world ever saw, and that it
inculcated a pure system of practical morality, we must admit that
the innovation was as advantageous as it was extensively spread and
adopted." (Hue's Journey through China, chap. v.)
"To Chrishna the Hindoos were indebted for a code of pure and practical
morality, which inculcated charity and chastity, performance of good
works, abstinence from evil, and general kindness to all living things."
(Cunningham.)
"Budhism never confounds right or wrong, and never excuses any sin"
(Catharine Beecher.)
"He (Chrishna) honored humanity by his virtues." (St Hilaire.)
"It is probable that every incident in his (Chrisna's) life is founded
in fact, which, if separated from surrounding fable, would afford
a history that would scarce have any equal in the importance of the
lessons it would teach." (Hardy's Manual of Budhism.)
"He (Chrishna) undertakes and counsels a constant struggle against the
body. In his eyes the body is the enemy of man's soul (as Paul thought
when he spoke of 'our vile bodies.') He aims to subdue the body and the
burning passions which consume it.... He requires humility, disregard of
wordly wealth, patience and resignation in adversity, love to enemies,
religious tolerance, horror at falsehood, avoidance of frivolous
conversation, consideration and esteem for women, sanctity of the
marriage relation, non-resistance to evil, confession of sins, and
conversion." (St. Hilaire.)
"Budhism has been called the Christianity of the East." (Abel Remuset.)
"The doctrine and practical piety of their bible (the Baghavat Gita)
bear a strong resemblance to those of the Holy Scriptures. It has
scarcely a precept or principle that is not found in the (Christian)
bible. And were the people to live up to its principles of peace
and love, oppression and injury would be known no more within their
borders... It has no mythology of obscene and ferocious deities, no
sanguinary or impure observances, no self-inflicting tortures, no
tyrannizing priesthood, no confounding of right and wrong by making
certain iniquities laudable in worship. In its moral code, its
description of the purity and peace of the first ages, and the
shortening of man's life by sin, it seems to follow genuine traditions.
In almost every respect it seems to be the best religion ever invented
by man." (Rev. H. Malcom's Travels in Asia.)
"If the morality of Budhism be examined, its exhortations to guard the
will, to curb the thoughts, to exercise kindness towards others,
to abstain from wrong to all, it propounds a very high standard of
practice." (Upham's Doctrines and History of Budhism.)
"It seeks the highest triumphants of humanity in the exercise of
devotion, self-contemplation, and self-denial." (Theogony of the Hindoos,
by Bjornsjerma.)
"And the doctrines of Budhism are not alone in the beauty of their
sentiments and the excellence of much of their morality. 'It is not
permitted to you to return evil for evil' is one of the sentiments of
Socrates." (Rev. H. S. Hardy's Eastern Monachism.)
"Budhism insists on the necessity of taking the intellectual faculties
for guides in philosophical researches." (Tiberghien.)
"It sought to wean mankind from the pleasures and vanities of life
by pointing to the transitoriness of all human enjoyment." (Smith's
Mongolia.)
"The principal characteristics of Budhism are the doctrines of mildness
and the universal brotherhood of man." (Ibid.)
"Life is a state of probation and misery, according to Budhism."
(Upham, chap. vi.)
"The Brahmins found fault with him (Chrishna) for receiving as
disciples the outcasts of Hindoo society (as the Jews did Christ for
fellowshipping publicans and sinners). But he (Chrishna) replied, 'My
law is a law of mercy to all.'" (Hue's Voyages through China.)
"Budhism attracted and furnished consolation for the poor and
unfortunate." (Ibid.)
"Budhism is a rationalistic and reform system as compared with
Brahminism. Landresse expresses his high admiration of the heroism with
which the Budhist missionaries before Christ crossed streams and seas
which had arrested armies, and traversed deserts and mountains upon
which no caravans dared to venture, and braved dangers and surmounted
obstacles which had defied the omnipotence of the emperors." (A note on
Landresse's _Foe Koui Ki._)
"If we addressed a Mogul or Thibetan this question, Who is Chrishna?
the reply was, instantly, 'The Savior of men.'" (Hue's Journey through
China.)
"Chrishna, the incarnate Deity of the Sanscrit romance continues to this
hour the darling God of the women of India.... Chrishna was the person
of Vishnu (God) himself in the human form." (Asiat. Researches, 260).
"Respectable natives told me that some of the missionaries had told them
that they were even now almost Christians" (owing to the two religions
being so nearly alike). (Ibid).
"All that converting the Hindoos to Christianity does for them is to
change the object of their worship from Chrishna to Christ." (Robert
Cheyne.)
"Brahminism or Budhism in some of its forms is said to constitute the
religion of considerably more than half the human race. It teaches the
existence of one supreme eternal, and uncreated God, called Brahma, who
created the world through Chrishna, the second member of the Trinity."
Paul says, God created the world through Jesus Christ, the second member
of the Christian Trinity. (Eph. iii. 9.) How striking the resemblance!
"The doctrine of the incarnation, the descent of the Deity upon earth,
and his manifestation in a human form for the redemption of mankind,
seems to have existed in the shape of prophecy or fact in all ages of
the world. Hindooism teaches nine of these incarnations. Furthermore, it
teaches the doctrine of the Trinity, the fall and redemption of man,
and a state of future rewards and punishments in a future life.... This
religion in chief of Asia is traceable to remote ages. The doctrine of
the Trinity is represented in the Elephantine cavern, and taught in
the Mahabarat, which goes back for its origin nearly two thousand years
before Christ." (New York Sunday Despatch, 1855.)
"In the year 3600, Chrishna descended to the earth for the purpose of
defeating the evil machinations of Chivan (the devil), as Christ 'came
to destroy the devil and his works.' (See John iii. 8.) After a fierce
combat with the devil, or serpent, he defeated him by bruising his
head--he receiving, during the contest, a wound in the heel. ('It [the
serpent] shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.'--Gen.
iii. 15.) He died at last between two thieves.... He lead a pure and
holy life, and was a meek, tender, and benevolent being, and enjoined
charity, hospitality, and mercy, and forbade lying, prevarication,
hypocrisy, and overreaching in dealing, and pilfering, and theft, and
violence toward any being." (Lecture before the Free Press Association
in 1827.)
"The birthplace of the Hindoo hero (Chrishna) is called Mathura, which
is easily changed, and by correct translation becomes Maturea, the place
where Christ is said to have stopped, between Nazareth and Egypt... To
show his humility he washed the feet of the Brahmins (as Christ is said
to have washed the feet of the Jews--see John xiii. 14). One day a
woman came to him and anointed his hair with oil, in return for which
he healed her maladies. One of his first miracles was that of healing
a leper, like Christ (See Mark i. 4). Finally, he was crucified, then
descended to Hades. (It is said of Christ, 'his soul was not left in
hell.'--Acts ii. 31.) He (Chrishna) rose from the dead and ascended to
Voicontha (heaven.)" (Higgin's Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 239).
Now, we ask, is it any wonder, in view of the foregoing historical
exposition, that Eusebius should exclaim, "The religion of Jesus
Christ is neither new nor strange?" (Eccl. Hist. ch. iv.) Truly did
St. Augustine say, "This, in our day, is the Christian religion, not
as having been unknown in former times, but as having recently received
that name."
Here, then, we pause to ask our good Christian reader, _Where is your
original Christianity now?_ or what constitutes the revealed religion
of Jesus Christ? or where is the evidence that any new religion was
revealed by him or preached by him, seeing we have all his religion, as
shown by the foregoing historical citations, included in an old heathen
system more than a thousand years old when Jesus Christ was born?
We find it all here in this old oriental system of Budhism--_every
essential part, particle and principle_ of it. We find Christianity all
here--its Alpha and Omega, its beginning and end. We find it here in
all its details,--its root, essence, and entity,--all its "revealed
doctrines," religious ideas, beautiful truths, senseless dogmas and
oriental phantoms. Not, a doctrine, principle, or precept of the
Christian system, but that is here proclaimed to the world ages before
"the angels announced the birth of a divine babe in Bethlehem." Will
you, then, persist in claiming that "truth, life, and immortality came
by Jesus Christ," and that "Christ came to preach a new gospel to the
world, and to set forth a new religion never before heard amongst men"
(to use the language of Archbishop Tillotson), when the historical facts
cited in this work demonstrate a hundred times over that such a position
is palpably erroneous? Will you still persist, with all those undeniable
facts staring you in the face (proving and reproving, with overwhelming
demonstration, that the statement is untrue), in declaring that "the
religion of Jesus Christ is the only true and soul-saving religion, and
all other systems are mere straw, stubble, tradition, and superstition"
(as asserted by a popular Christian writer), when no mathematician ever
demonstrated a scientific problem more clearly than we have proved in
these pages that all the principle systems of the past, by no means
excepting Christianity, are essentially alike in every important
particular--all of their cardinal doctrines being the same, differing
only in unimportant details?
Seeing, then, that all systems of religion have been found to be
essentially alike in spirit and in practice, the all-important question
arises here, What is the true cause assignable for this striking
resemblance? How is it to be accounted for? Perhaps some of our good
Christian readers, unacquainted with history, may cherish the thought
that all the oriental systems brought to notice are but imitations of
Christianity; that they were reconstructed out of materials obtained
from that source; that Christianity is the parent, and they the
off-spring. But, alas for their long-cherished idol, those who
entertain such forlorn hopes are "sowing to the wind, and are doomed to
disappointment." With the exception of Mahomedanism alone, Christianity
is the youngest system in the whole catalogue. The historical facts to
prove this statement are voluminous. But as it needs no proof to those
who have read religious history, but little space will be occupied
with citations for this purpose. With respect to the antiquity of the
principal oriental system, we need only to quote the testimony of Sir
William Jones, a devout Christian writer, who spent years in India,
and whose testimony will be accepted by any person acquainted with his
history. He makes the emphatic declaration, "That the name of Chrishna,
and the general outline of his history, were long anterior to the birth
of our Savior, and probably to the time of Homer (900 b. C.) we know
very certainly." (Asiat. Res. vol. i. p. 254.) No guess-work about it.
"_We know very certainly_."
And being a scholar, a traveler, and a sojourner among the Hindoos, and
well versed in their history, no person ever had a better opportunity
to know than he. We will hear this renowned author further. "In the
Sanscrit dictionary, compiled more than two thousand years ago, we have
the whole history of the incarnate deity (Chrishna), born of a virgin,
and miraculously escaping in his infancy from the reigning tyrant of
his country (Cansa). He passed a life of the most extraordinary and
incomprehensible devotion. His birth was concealed from the tyrant
Cansa, to whom it had been predicted that one born at that time, and in
that family, would destroy him;" i. e., destroy his power. (Asiat.
Res. vol. i. p. 273.) This writer also states that the first Christian
missionaries who entered India were astonished to find there a religion
so near like their own, and could only account for it by supposing
that the devil, foreseeing the advent of Christ, originated a system of
religion in advance of his, and "just like it." Stated in other words,
he got out the second edition of the gospel plan of salvation before the
first edition was published or had an existence. Rather a smart trick
this, thus to outwit God Almighty.
With respect to the vast antiquity of the Hindoo oriental religion,
which indicates it as being not only the source from which the materials
of the Christian religion were drawn, but as being the parent of all the
leading systems, with their three thousand subordinate branches which
existed at a much earlier period than Christianity, we need only point
to the deep chiseled sculptures and imperishable monuments enstamped
on their time-honored temples, tombs, altars, vases, columns, pagodas,
ruined towers, &c., which, with contemporary inscriptions, warrant us
in antedating the religion of the Himmalehas far beyond the authentic
records of any other religion that has floated down to us on the stream
of time. The numerous images of their crucified Gods, Chrishna and Saki,
emblazoned on their old rock temples in various parts of the country,
some of which are constructed of clay porphyry, now the very hardest
species of rock, with their attendant inscriptions in a language so very
ancient as to be lost to the memory of man, vie with the Sanscrit in
age, the oldest deciphered language in the world.
All these and a hundred corroboratory historical facts fix on India as
being the birthplace of the mother of all religions now existing, or
that ever had an existence, while the great workshop in which they were
subsequently remodeled was in Alexandria in Egypt, whose theological
schools furnished the model for nearly every system now found noticed
on the page of history--Christianity of course included. So much for
the unrivaled antiquity of the Hindoo religion. Now, the more important
query arises, What relationship does ancient heathen or Hindoo Budhism
bear to Christianity? What is the evidence that the latter is an
outgrowth of the former? As an answer to this question, the reader will
please note the following facts of history:--
1. Alexandria, the home of the world's great conqueror, was at one
period of time the great focal center for religious speculation and
propagandism, the great emporium for religious dogmas throughout the
East, and a place of resort for the disciples of nearly every system of
religious faith then existing.
2. In this capital city, comprising about five hundred thousand
inhabitants, were established a voluminous library, and vast theological
schools, in which men of every religious order, and of every phase of
faith, met and exchanged religious ideas, and borrowed new doctrines,
with which they remodeled their former systems of faith, amounting in
some cases to an entire change of their long-established creeds.
3. In these theological schools the Jewish sect, which afterward became
the founders of Christianity, were extensively represented; for, let it
be noted, its first disciples and founders had all been Jews, probably
of the Essene sect. "For a long time the Christians were but a Jewish
sect," says M. Reuss' "History of Christian Theology." Alexander had,
previous to this time (that is, about 330 b. c.), subjected the whole
of Western Asia to his dominions, including, of course, "The Holy
Land"--Judea.
4. By this act a large portion of the Jewish nation were transferred
from their own country to Alexandria. And this number was afterward
vastly increased by Alexander's successor, Ptolemy Sotor, who carried off
and settled in that credal city one hundred thousand more Jews.
5. As the result, in part, of these repeated calamities, "the Lord's
chosen people" were literally broken up. They lost their law, lost their
leader and lawgiver, lost their language, lost the control of their
country, the "_Promised Land"_ which (they verily believed) the Lord
had deeded to them _in fee simple_, and ratified in the high court
of heaven, and had declared they should hold and possess forever. And
finally they partially lost their nationality, being literally dissolved
and broken up; and were finally almost lost to history--the ten tribes
disappearing entirely.
6. The Jews had ever manifested a proneness for copying after the
religious customs of their heathen neighbors, and engrafting their
doctrines into their own creeds, as their bible history furnishes ample
proof.
7. In Alexandria a very superior opportunity was afforded for doing
this, excelling in this respect any previous period of their history.
8. The shattered condition of their own religion, with all its
conventional creeds, customs, and ceremonies, now suspended and
literally prostrated, as above shown, vastly augmented the temptation
ever rife with them to make another change in their religion, and
subject their creed to another installment of new doctrines, by which it
became Christianity.
9. The liberal character and tolerant spirit of the political and
religious institutions of the kingdom of Alexandria, with its vast
and attractive library of two hundred thousand volumes, established
principally by Ptolemy Phila-delphus, with other attractive features
already pointed out, furnished great facilities, as well as increased
temptations to religious propagandists to absorb new theories, and make
new creeds out of the vast medley of religious doctrines and speculative
dogmas preached and propagated in that royal city by the disciples and
representatives of nearly every religious system then in existence,
brought together by the attractions above specified.
10. Hence every consideration would lead us to conclude, taken in
connection with the facts above stated, and the well-known borrowing
proclivity and imitative propensity of the Jews, that they would not,
and could not, withstand the overweening and overpowering temptation to
make another radical change in their religion by a new draught on the
boundless reservoir of speculative ideas, religious tenets, and specious
theories then glowing in the popular schools of Alexandria.
11. All the facts above enumerated would impel us to the conclusion that
the Jews would--and every page of history touching the matter proves
they did--make important changes in their religion by this contact with
the oriental systems, as they had repeatedly done before. Some of this
proof we will here present, to show how they originated Christianity.
12. "The schools of Alexandria" says Mr. Enfield, a Christian writer,
"by pretending to teach sublime doctrines concerning God and divine
things, enticed men of different countries and religions, and among the
rest the Jews, to study its mysteries, and incorporate them with their
own.... The Jewish faith mixed with the Pythagorean, and afterward with
the Egyptian oriental theology" (that is, they became Essenes in the
Grecian school of Pythagoras, who taught the doctrines of that religious
order, then Bud-hists in the Egyptian schools of Alexandria). And
finally, with Christ as their leader, who taught the doctrines of
both schools (they being essentially alike), they assumed the name of
Christian in honor of him, and thus is Christianity from Essene Budhism.
13. Beers in his "History of the Jews," sustains the above statement by
the declaration that the Essenian Jews "fled to Egypt at the time of the
Babylonian captivity, and there became acquainted with the Pythagorean
philosophy, and ingrafted it upon the religion of Moses," which would
make them Essenian Budhists--for Cunningham assures us that "the
doctrine of Pythagoras were intensely Budhistic." (Philsa. Topus, chap.
x.)
14. We will condense a few more historical testimonies relative to the
entire change of the Jewish faith, while in Alexandria, as well as on
other occasions, to show how easy and natural it was for that portion of
the Jews who afterward became the founders of Christianity to slide into
and adopt Essenian Budhism, whose doctrines they took to constitute the
Christian religion.
15. Mr. Gibbon (chap. xxi.) declares that the theological opinions
of the Jews underwent great changes by their contact with the various
foreigners they found in Alexandria. Mr. Tytler likewise, in his
"Universal History," assures us that the Jewish religion "became
_totally changed by the intermixture of heathen doctrines_." Dr.
Campbell also testifies that "their views came pretty much to coincide
with those of the pagans." (See his Dissertation, vi.) And the author of
"_The Expositor_ for 1854" complains that the pagan "theology stole upon
them from every quarter, and mingled in all the views of the then known
tribes, so that by the year 150 b. c., it had wrought visible changes in
their notions and habits of thought." (P. 423.) Here we have the proof
that the whole Jewish religion underwent a change in Alexandria.
16. Now, most, certainly a nation or sect professing a religion so
easily changed, and possessing a character so fickle, or so
irrepressible as to yield on every slight occasion, and embrace every
opportunity to imbibe new religious ideas and doctrines, would easily,
if not naturally, slide into the adoption of the religious system then
promulgated in Alexandria under the name of Budhism, and afterward
remodeled or transformed, and called Christianity.
17. The Jews of the Essenian order, as we have in part shown in a
previous chapter, set forth in their creed all the leading doctrines now
comprised in the Christian religion hundreds of years before the advent
of Christ, not excepting the doctrine of the divine incarnation and its
adjuncts, as these concomitants of the present popular faith, we will
now prove, were not unknown to the Jewish theology, but constituted
a part of the religion of some of the principal Jewish sects. That
standard Christian author, Mr. Milman, in his "History of Christianity,"
tells us that "the doctrine of the incarnation ('God manifest in the
flesh') was the doctrine from the Ganges, and even the shores of the
Yellow Sea to the Ilissus. It was the fundamental principle of
the Indian Budhist religion and philosophy. It was the basis of
Zoroasterism. It was pure Platonism. It was Platonic Judaism in the
Alexandrian school." Here it is positively declared, by a popular
Christian writer, whose work is a part of nearly every popular library
in Christiandom as a standard authority, that the appearance of God
amongst men in the human form, by human birth, was a doctrine of
the Jewish religion in some of its branches, especially the Essenian
branch--further proof that Christianity originated nothing, and gave
utterance to no new doctrine or precepts, and performed no new miracles.
Where, then, is the claim for its originality? On what ground is it
predicated? Please answer us, good Christian brother.
18. It is a question of no importance, if it could be settled, whether
Christianity is a direct outgrowth from one of the new-fangled sects
of Judaism, or whether it derived a portion of its doctrines from this
source and the balance from ascetic Budhism. Yet we regard it as an
incontrovertible proposition that it all grew out of Budhism originally,
either directly or indirectly.
19. Christ may have received his doctrines secondhanded, all or a
portion from the Essenian Jews; for that sect held all the leading
doctrines of Budhism (as we have shown in a previous chapter), which now
goes under the name of the religion of Jesus Christ.
20. Or we may indulge the not unreasonable hypothesis that the founders
of Christianity, who republished the doctrines of Budhism and adopted
them as their own, received them all direct from the disciples of that
religious order; for "they were everywhere," as one writer (Mr. Taylor)
declares, speaking of their extensive travels to propagate their
doctrines through the world. And it was about that period, as Mr.
Goodrich informs us, they sent out nine hundred missionaries, who made
six millions of converts,--a small fraction of their present
number (three hundred and eighty millions, as given by some of our
geographies),--one third more than the entire census of Christendom, and
six times the number of believers in the Christian religion, if we omit
Greeks and Catholics. "It is." as a writer remarks, "the oldest and
most widely spread religion in the world." And, whatever hypothesis may
be adduced to account for the fact, Christianity is now all Budhism.
21. It is impossible, with the historic darkness which at present
environs and beclouds our pathway, to determine at what period or in
what manner Christ became an Essene,--whether he was born of Essenian
parents, or became a convert to the faith,--because the whole period of
his life, with the exception of about three years, is a total blank in
history. There is but one incident related of his movements by his
bible biographers prior to his twenty-seventh year, leaving more than
a quarter of a century of his probably active life unreported--a period
that may have witnessed several important changes in his religion. We
have not even his ancestry reported in his scriptural biography, in
either parental line, unless we assume Joseph to have been his father.
The parental lineage of his mother is entirely omitted Had we his
line of ancestry, or could we trace him back to his national or family
origin, we doubt not but we should there find a clue to the origin of
his religion. We should find his ancestors were Essenian Jews.
22. Nor can we fix the date when Essenian Budhism among the Jews
received the name of Christianity for a similar reason. There is a
link--a chain of events of four hundred years left out of the bible
between Judaism and Christianity--thus lacking four hundred years of
connecting the two religions together, or of showing how the latter
grew out of the former. Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament,
antedates the first events of Christian history four centuries, or
twelve generations, thus leaving a wide and dark gap between them. And
besides, we cannot find the name of Christ or Christianity mentioned in
any of the contemporary histories of that era till one hundred and four
years after the time fixed for Christ's birth by Christendom; Tacitus
being the first writer who names either, and this was at that date.
23. These facts disclose the whole secret with respect to the mystery
and darkness thrown around the origin of the Christian religion--the
how, the when, and the where of its origin. That chapter of Christian
history is left out of the record. The bible account itself is
but fragmentary, as it leaves nine tenths of Christ's history a
blank,--twenty-seven years out of the thirty,--and omits all mention of
his ancestors beyond his grandmother, and leaves even the time of his
birth a blank. "The researches of the learned," says Mr. Mosheim (a
standard Christian author), "though long and ably conducted, have been
unable to fix the time of Christ's birth with certainty." (Eccl. Hist.
p. 23.) Wonderful admission, truly, as it is an evidence that nothing
else can be fixed "with certainty," with respect to the history of
"the man Christ Jesus," only that his doctrines and precepts were all
borrowed perhaps during the twenty-seven dark and mysteries years of his
life, if not an Essene by birth.
24. There is no escaping the conclusion that Christianity is a _borrowed
system_--an outgrowth and remodeling of Budhism, with a change of name
only. A thousand facts of history prove and proclaim it, and the verdict
of posterity will be unanimous in affirming it.
25. From the almost endless chain of analogies, exhibiting a striking
resemblance even in their minute details of Christianity and Budhism,
we are compelled to conclude that one furnished the materials for the
other; that one is the offspring--the legitimate child--of the other.
And as it is a settled historical fact that Budhism is much the older
system, there is hence no difficulty in determining which is the parent
and which is the child.
26. In the Hindoo story of the creation of the human race, we find Adimo
and Heva given as the names of the first man and woman answering to
our Adam and Eve. And our Shem, Ham, and Japheth are traceable to their
Sherma, Hama, and Jiapheta; the difference in the mode of spelling is
probably owing to the difference in the languages. And under the new era
we have Christ Jesus answering to their Chrishna Zeus, as some writers
give the name of the eighth Avatar. And for Maia, a godmother, we have
Mary. And other similar analogies might be pointed out besides the long
string of strikingly similar events previously presented in the history
of the two Saviors (Christ and Chrishna), amounting to hundreds.
27. Such an almost countless list of similar and nearly identical
incidents bids defiance, and absolutely sets at naught all attempts
to account for it as a mere fortuitous accident. There is no
other explanation possible but that Christianity is a re-vamp or
re-establishment of Budhism.
28. Here let it be noted that Christianity was not the only religion
which was rehabilitated in the Alexandrian schools. On the contrary, all
the popular oriental systems then in active being had long previously
passed through the same representative theological schools and
creed-making institutions of that royal and commercial city. All were
remodeled in its theological workshops--a fact which accounts most
conclusively for the same train of religions ideas and historical
incidents being found in the later sacred books of each. And besides,
Sir William Jones says, "The disciples of these various systems of
religion had intercourse with each other long before the time of Christ,
which would necessarily bring about a uniformity in the doctrines and
general character of each system."
29. The disciples of all the religious systems cited their initiatory
miracles as a proof of being on familiar terms with God Almighty. They
all (as is claimed) healed the sick; all restored the deaf, the dumb,
and the blind; all cast out devils, and all raised the dead. (See
chapter on Parallels.) In fact, all their miracles and legendary marvels
run in parallel lines, because all were recast in the same creed-mold
in Alexandria. A coincidence is thus beautifully explained, which would
otherwise be hard to account for.
30. Mr. Gibbon says, "It was in the school of Alexandria that the
Christian theology appears to have assumed a regular and scientific
form" (Decline, &c., chap. xv.); that is, the regular and scientific
form of Budhism or Essenism.
31. Pregnant with meaning is the text, "It was in the city of Antioch
the disciples were first called Christians." (Acts xi. 36.) Here is
conclusive proof that the disciples of the Christian faith were not
always known by the same name, and were not at first called Christians.
Then what were they called during the earlier years of their history?
Here is a great and important query, and one involving a momentous
problem. Couple the two facts together, that the disciples were first
known as Christians at Antioch, and that the Essenian order of believers
expired and went out of history about that period, and the question is
at once and forever satisfactorily settled. It was not an infrequent act
on making important changes in a religion, and adopting some new items
of faith to change the title of the system, and give it a new name.
After Alexander Campbell had made some modifications in his previous
religious faith, and started a new church, his followers were popularly
called Campbellites. Elias Hicks ingrafted some reform ideas into the
Quaker faith, and instituted a new society of that order. Hence, and
henceforth, his disciples were known as Hicksites. In like manner Jesus
Christ having made some innovations in his inherited Jewish faith (which
was of the Essene stamp) by ingrafting more of the Budhist doctrine into
it, his followers were henceforth called Christians. How complete the
analogy! Here let it be borne in mind, as powerfully confirmatory of
this conclusion, that the first Christians were (as history affirms)
"merely reformatory Jews." The twelve chosen were all Jews, probably of
the Essene order. According to the Rev. Mr. Prideaux (Jewish History),
the Jews of this order were first called Israelites, in common with the
other tribes; then Chassidim; and thirdly Essenes. And finally, after
the Essenian Jesus Christ, with some new radical ideas, proclaimed, "Ye
have heard it hath been said by them of old time" thus and so, "but I
say unto you" differently. The title was again changed, and they adopted
or received the name of Christians--the Essenes going out of history
at the very date Christians first appear in history. Put this and that
together, and the chain is welded. Thus we can as easily trace the
origin of Christianity as we can trace the origin of a root running
beneath the soil in the direction of a certain tree. History, then,
proclaims that to the honest, pious, deeply-devout, self-denying, yet
ignorant, slothful, and filthy Budhistic Essenes must be awarded the
honor or dishonor of giving birth to that system of religion now known
as Christianity.
CHRISHNA AS A GOD--ADDITIONAL FACTS.
The following additional facts relative to the history, character, life,
and teachings of Zeus Chrishna, or Jeseus Christna (as styled by one
writer) are drawn mostly from the Vedas, Baghavat, Gita (Bible in
India).
1. _His Virgin Mother, her Character_.--The holy book declares, that
"through her the designs of God were accomplished. She was pure and
chaste; no animal food ever touched her lips; honey and milk were her
sustenance; her time was spent in solitude, lost in the contemplation of
God who showered upon her innumerable blessings; she looked upon death
as the birth to a new and better life; when she traveled, a column of
fire in the heavens went before her to guide her. One evening, as
she was praying, she heard celestial music, and fell into a profound
ecstasy, and being overshadowed by the spirit of God, she conceived the
God Chrishna." (Baghavat, Gita).
2. _Chrishna, his Life and Mission_.--This sin-atoning God was about
sixteen when he commenced active life. Like Christ, he chose twelve
disciples to aid him in propagating his doctrines. "He spent his time
working miracles, resuscitating the dead, healing lepers, restoring
the deaf and the blind, defending the weak against the strong, and the
oppressed against the oppressor, and in proclaiming his divine mission
to redeem man from original sin, and banish evil, and restore the reign
of good." (Baghavat, Gita.) It is declared that he came to teach peace,
charity, love to man, self-respect, the practice of good for its own
sake, and faith in the inexhaustible goodness of the Creator; also to
preach the immortality of the soul, and the doctrine of future rewards
and punishments, and to vanquish the prince of darkness, Rakshas. It is
further declared that "Brahma sent his son (Chrishna) upon the earth to
die for the salvation of man." "His lofty precepts and the purity of his
life spread his fame throughout all India, and finally won for him
more than three millions of followers." "He inculcated the sublimest
doctrines, and the purest morals, and the grand principles of charity
and self-denial." "He forbade revenge, and commanded to return good
for evil, and consoled the feeble and the unhappy." "He lived poor, and
loved the poor." "He lived chaste, and enjoined chastity." "Problems the
most lofty, and morals the most pure and sublime, and the future destiny
of man, were themes which engaged his most profound attention."
"Chrishna, we will venture to say (says the Bible in India) was the
greatest of philosophers, not only of India, but of the entire world."
"He was the grandest moral figure of ancient times." (Bible in India.)
"Chrishna was a moralist and a philosopher." "We should admire his moral
lessons, so sublime and so pure." "He was recognized as the 'Divine
Word.'" "He received the title of Jeseus, which means pure Essense."
Chrishna signifies the "Promised of God," the "Messiah." "When he
preached, he often spoke from a mount. He also spoke in parables.
'Parable plays a great part in the familiar instructions of this Hindoo
Redeemer.'" He relates a very interesting parable of a fisherman who
was much persecuted by his neighbors, but who in the time of a severe
famine, when the people were suffering and dying for the want of food,
being so noble as to return good for evil, he carried food to these same
persecuting enemies, and thus saved them from starvation. "Therefore,"
said he "do good to all, both the evil and the good, even your enemies."
His addresses to the people were simple, but to his disciples they were
elevated and philosophical. Such was the wisdom of his sermons and his
parables, that the people crowded around him, eager to behold and hear
him, "saying, This is indeed the Redeemer promised to our Fathers."
Great multitudes followed him, exclaiming, "This is he who resuscitates
the dead, and heals the lame, and the deaf, and the blind." On one
occasion, as he entered Madura (as Christ once entered Jerusalem), "the
people came out in flocks to meet him, and strewed branches in his way."
On another occasion two women approached him, anointed him with oil,
and worshiped him. When the people murmured at this waste, he replied,
"Better is a little given with an humble heart than much given with
ostentation." Such was his sense of decorum, that he admonished some
girls he once observed playing in a state of nudity on the bank of a
river after bathing. They repented, asked his forgiveness, and reformed.
"The followers of Chrishna practiced all the virtues, and observed a
complete abnegation of self (self-denial), and lived poor, hoping for a
reward in the future life. They occupied all their time in the service
of their Divine Master. Pure and majestic was their worship." Chrishna
had a favorite disciple _Adjaurna_, who sustained to him the relation of
John to Christ, while Angada acted the part of Judas by following him to
the Ganges and betraying him.
3. _His last Hours_.--"When Chrishna knew his hour had come, forbidding
his disciples to follow him, he repaired to the bank of the River
Ganges; and having performed three ablutions, he knelt down, and looking
up to heaven, he prayed to Brahma." While nailed to the cross, the
tree on which he was suspended became suddenly covered with great red
flowers, which diffused their fragrance all around. And it is said
he often appeared to his disciples after his death "in all his divine
majesty."
4. _The second Advent of Chrishna_.--"There is not a Hindoo or a Brahmin
who does not look upon the second coming of Chrishna as an established
article of faith." Their holy bibles (the Vedas and Gita) prophesy of
him thus: "He shall come crowned with lights; he shall come, and the
heavens and the earth shall be joyous; the stars shall pale before
his splendor; the earth will be too small to contain him, for he is
infinite, he is Almighty, he is Wisdom, he is Beauty, he is all and in
all; and all men, all animated beings, beasts, birds, trees, and plants,
will chant his praises; he will regenerate all bodies, and purify all
souls." "He will be as sweet as honey and ambrosia, and as pure as
the lamb without spot, or as the lips of a virgin. All hearts will be
transported with joy. From the rising to the setting of the sun it will
be a day of joy and exultation, when this God shall manifest his power
and his glory, and reconcile the world unto himself." Such are a few of
the prophetic utterances of his devout and prayerful disciples.
"We find," says a writer, "in all the theogonies of different countries
the hope of the advent of a God (either his first or his second
coming)--a hope which sprang from a sense of their own imperfections and
sufferings, which naturally induced them to look for a divine Redeemer."
5. _Precepts of Chrishna_.--Numerous are the prescriptive admonitions
found in the holy books which set forth the religion of "this heathen
demigod" (so called by Christian professors). They appertain to all
the duties of life, but are too numerous to be quoted here. Those
appertaining to woman enjoin the most sacred regard for her rights,
such as "woman should be protected with tenderness, and shielded with
fostering solicitude." "There is no crime more odious than to persecute
woman, or take advantage of her weakness." "Degrade woman and you
degrade man." For other similar precepts, see Chapter XXXII. The
injunctions to read their holy bible (the Vedas, &c.) are quite
numerous, such as, "Let him study the holy Scriptures unceasingly"
"Pray night and morning, and read the holy Scriptures in the attitude
of devotion." And many of them read it through upon their knees. (See
Chap. XLIV.) We have not space for a further exposition of this subject
here; but it will be found more fully set forth in the pamphlet, "Christ
and Chrishna Compared," which will, perhaps, become an Appendix to this
work.
It may be objected that there are precepts and stories to be found in
the religion of this Hindoo God (Chrishna), which reflect but
little credit or honor upon that religion. This is true. And similar
reflections would materially damage the religion of Christianity also.
The story of Christ beating and maltreating the money-changers in the
temple, his cursing an innocent, unoffending, and unconscious fig tree,
and his indulgence in profane swearing at his enemies,--"O ye fools
and blind, ye generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation
of hell!"--does not reflect any credit upon his religion, viewed as
a system. Defects, then, may be found in both systems. In viewing the
analogies of the two religions, it should be noted that the Hindoos
claim, with a forcible show of facts and logic, that the religion of
Christianity grew out of theirs. It has not been long since a learned
Hindoo maintained this position in a public debate with a missionary.
If all these facts effect nothing in the way of inducing the Christian
clergy to confess the falsity of their position in claiming their
religion to be a direct emanation from God, it will be a sad commentary
upon either their intelligence or their honesty.
These historical facts, with those set forth in the preceding chapters,
prove that the religion called Christianity, instead of being, as
Christians claim, "the product of the Divine Mind," is the product
of "heathen" minds; i. e., a spontaneous outgrowth of the moral and
religious elements of the human mind. And therefore, for God to have
revealed it over again to the founders of Christianity would have been
superfluous, and a proof of his ignorance of history.
Note.--The author deems it proper to state here, with respect to the
comparison between Christ and Chrishna, that some of the doctrines which
he has selected as constituting a part of the religion of the Hindoo
Savior, are not found in the reported teachings of that deified
moralist. But as they appear to breathe forth the same spirit, it is
presumed he would have indorsed them, had they come under his notice. As
Christians assume the liberty to arrange the doctrines of Paul and Peter
under the head of Christianity because claimed to be in consonance with
the religion of Christ, though not all taught by him, the author, in
like manner, has assumed, that some doctrines taught by other systems
and religious teachers of India accord with those taught by Chrishna,
and hence has arranged them with his. The author's purpose is not to set
forth the doctrines of any sect, any system, or any religious teacher,
but to show that all the doctrines of Christianity are traceable to
ancient India. But whether taught by this sect or that sect, it is
foreign to our purpose to inquire; and hence, for convenience, he has
arranged them all into one system, and designated them Chrishnianity
(borrowing a new term). There can be no more impropriety, he presumes,
in arranging the doctrines of the various conflicting sects of India
into one system (including even Brahminism and Budhism), than to
arrange, as Christians do, the doctrines taught by the antagnostic
system of Catholicism and Protestantism, and their six hundred
conflicting sects, under the head of Christianity. Hence, Christians, of
course, will not fault the arrangement. The classification above alluded
to comprises, in part, the religion of many of the Hindoo sects,
but does not set forth all their doctrines, only those analogous to
Christianity. Chrishna was a Vishnuite, and not a Brahmin, as some
writers assume. He and Christ were both reformers, and departed from the
ancient faith. Vishnuism appears to have finally centered in Budhism.