Buddhism stands in a different relation to Christianity from any other
world religion, because it has unquestionably done for Eastern peoples
something of the intellectual, moral, and spiritual service which
Christianity has done for Europe and America. Moreover, it is showing
a strange power of revival. It also seems to make a real appeal to
certain types of mind in the West. Little groups of Westerners in
Burma and in Ceylon, the former Scotch, the latter German, have for
some years been promoting the propagation of Buddhism in Western
lands. They feel convinced that it is "the religion of mature minds."
One of their number, a Scot, known as _Bhikkhu Silācāra_,[7] wrote
in 1913: "This seems to be the place of honour which Burma is called
upon to fill in the family of the nations of the world--that of being
_Dhammadāyaka_ to the world, giver of the _dhamma_[8] of the Blessed
One to all the nations of the earth. What prouder, what more glorious,
what more merit-bringing position could any people ask for than to be
chosen as the bearer of the sublime teaching of the Blessed One?"
There is a considerable amount of publication of Buddhist propaganda
to-day in Europe and America, even if few Eastern Buddhists are found
with the courage to preach Buddhism in person in Western cities. In
Germany, where there are said to be scores of thousands of Buddhists,
a publishing house has been set up at Breslau; and the _Buddhist
Review_ is published in London. In North America Buddhism has numerous
missions, especially on the Pacific Coast, where it aims at converting
Americans as well as at ministering to the Japanese. It is the only
non-Christian religion which has this appeal. What gives it this hold,
not only upon great sections of the East, but also upon those who have
been born within the range of Christianity, is a question which needs
a thoughtful answer. It is a question of vital importance to us all.