A Manual for Sunday Schools

Seventh Edition

THE EARLIEST RELIGION

1. The earliest form of religion cannot be known. The earliest peoples kept no record. The earliest remains of human workmanship that are found represent a period already comparatively late in the history of man; and even these do not convey the precise information which we require.
2. The religions of savage races now existing may perhaps teach us something in regard to the earliest form of religion. Many of these races, however, have evidently fallen from a somewhat higher condition, and in regard to none of them can we know through that changes it has passed. While we gain what information we can from the study of the religion of savages, we must remember how very imperfect are the results thus obtained, so far as our knowledge of the earliest religion is concerned.
3. No people absolutely without religion has probably yet been found; although in some degraded tribes the religion is often hardly worthy of the name.
4. Four elements enter into the religion of the savage, viz.: fetishism, nature-worship, and the worship of the spirits of the dead. There is also a more or less distinct recognition of spiritual beings that cannot be identified by us with the objects of any one of the forms of worship just named.
5. Fetishism and nature-worship grow out of the fact that the savage believes in general that the objects about him are something like himself; that is, he believes that they have thought and feeling, only they often possess much greater power than he has.
6. In fetishism, some object is selected by accident or caprice. The worshipper sometimes distinguishes it by artificial marks. He thinks that this object is a divinity that will bring him good fortune. If he succeeds in his enterprise, he honors it. If he fails, he punishes it, or throws it away. Some savages have great numbers of these fetishes.
7. In nature-worship, the object is selected for more special reasons than the fetish. It is something that is imposing by size or strength or usefulness, or even by its destructive power. It may be something merely that has been associated with good or evil fortune. Thus, it may be a mountain or a river, or an insect or a wild beast.
8. The worship of the spirits of the dead holds an important place in the religion of most savages. This worship is often nothing more than an attempt to propitiate the spirits that are feared.
9. The existence of the soul is firmly believed by the savage. He thinks that the soul, even in this life, may be sometimes independent of the body. He believes that the soul may leave the body in sleep. When he has dreamed of a distant place, he believes that his soul has really been there. When he has dreamed of a person, living or dead, he thinks that the soul of this person has actually visited him. This soul, he sometimes identifies with his shadow, or with the reflection of himself in a mirror, or with any representation of himself. For this reason, the savage is generally unwilling to have his picture taken. Whoever has his picture, he believes has some power over himself.
10. In the worship of spirits in general, those that work evil often receive more attention than those that are more kindly disposed. The former need to be propitiated; the latter do not.
11. The chief and most common methods of worship are prayers for what is wanted, and offerings. The latter include what the spirits are supposed to value the most. To the dead are given the articles that they are supposed to need in the new life. Much important knowledge of the habits of early peoples is gathered from objects found in tombs or other resting-places of the dead. Attendants, and even wives, are sometimes slain that they may accompany the spirit of the dead chief. Especially are offerings of food universal. What the spirits of the dead are supposed to enjoy, other spirits and the divinities in general are also supposed to prize. The earliest form of sacrifice is thus the offering of gifts. If animals are slain, it is that they may serve the divinity for food.
12. The savage may seem very foolish to us when he honors as divine stones, trees, and beasts, -things so much lower than himself. But we must remember how very little he knows about the world. He does, however, feel that there is about him a power that is different from any strength that he has, and which is greater than his strength. He feels himself at the mercy of this power. He has not learned to trust it.
13. The objects about him do wonderful things without organs such as he has. How rapidly the snake moves without limbs! How the animals understand one another without speech! How they guide themselves through regions that are strange to them! How they foresee coming changes! How the river brings to him so much that he needs! He believes, as we have seen, that everything has a consciousness like his own; and whatever works thus without instruments seems to him supernatural or divine.
14. His notions about the soul may seem absurd. But it is much that he has found something in himself which can say, I and me, which is not the body, though it is closely connected with the body.
15. He sometimes means in kindness what seems to us very cruel. What can seem more cruel than to kill those who are growing old, as if to escape the burden of them. But the savage often believes that he enters the next world in the state in which he leaves this. If his body is strong when he dies, his spirit will be strong death. Thus he wishes to be killed before the infirmities of age have come upon him.
16. The religion of the savage is of a very low sort; and he is often really cruel. This religion, how3ever, is the beginning of something that is to be the great glory of life. It is already a great step to feel the sense of an invisible power, even if one only fears it.
17. The religion of the savage is superstition; because, while he recognizes a supernatural power, he does not know what it really is. This power is to him something chiefly to be feared, or something that can be made an ally. He does not know that it has ends of its own. That which is beautiful does not reveal it to him, more than that which is ugly. Even the rainbow he sometimes believes to be a demon.
18. When man knows that this power, before which the savage shrinks, is just and good, and that it would have men also become just and good, then superstition has become religion.

QUESTIONS

 

1. Is it possible to discover what was the earliest form of religion? Why not?

What is the earliest thing that you remember in your own life? Can you remember how you first showed your love for your mother or other friends? Can you remember how you showed that you knew that you had friends or mother? Can you illustrate by this the way in which the race of men have forgotten their earliest history?

2. What is the best means we have of getting any knowledge of the earliest religion? Why is this means not wholly satisfactory?

If you cannot remember how you felt and acted when you were a baby, how do you know anything about it? What reason have you to think that you did not always walk and talk? Can you find out in this way exactly what you used to do? Why not?

3. Are there probably any people wholly without religion? Is the religion always what we should easily recognize as such?

Can you think of any other matters in regard to which we cannot judge others by our standards? Think of some games or other amusements that would not seem such to you. Did you ever hear what the Hindus think of the English dancing and out-of-door games? So may not some people find religious meaning in ceremonies that we should think very unreligious?

4. What four elements enter into the religion of savages?
5. What feeling is the source of fetishism and nature-worship?

Do you ever have a similar feeling toward lifeless objects? Did you never get angry with a stone that you stumbled over? Should you have been angry, if you had thought that it was merely a stone? Does every little girl always remember that her doll cannot love her, and cannot feel if she punishes it? How does the sailor sometimes feel towards his ship?

6. What is meant by fetishism?
7. What is meant by nature-worship?

Did you ever know anyone to believe in unlucky times, anyone, for instance, who would not begin anything on Friday? Did you ever know anyone to believe in lucky or unlucky things? How does this resemble fetish worship, and how does it differ from it? Have you never felt an affection for any object in nature,-any flower, or tree, or brook?

8. Of what nature is the worship of spirits?
9. What does the savage believe about the soul? How does he connect this with dreams or reflections of himself?
10. Why are kindly disposed spirits less worshipped than those who work evil?
11. What are the most common methods of worship? Of what nature are the earliest sacrifices?
12. Is all this as foolish as it looks at first? What has the savage found out in spite of his ignorance?

Do you never feel the presence of such a power in the world? Did you ever think what makes the trees grow, and the streams run, and the apples fall? Do scientific laws really explain anything?

13. What makes the savage think that some of the things about him are more divine than he?

Did you ever think how the birds of passage find their way from one region to another? How do you suppose that a cat that has been carried a long way in a box finds its way home? How do you suppose that the stars keep up in the sky? Does the earth rest on anything? Can you not, then, understand the mystery that the savage found in everything, and how he thought that the things about him must have some supernatural power that he did not have?

14. Is his notion of the soul as foolish as it may look at first?

What do you mean when you say of yourself, "I have a headache," or "I have hurt my hand"? What is it that suffers? Can the hand or the head itself ache? What do you mean when you say, "My head is tired with studying or thinking"? Can the head think? If we should take the body to pieces, could we find the something that thinks and feels? What is it?

15. Is the savage always as cruel as he seems? Give an illustration.
16. What sort of religion has the savage? Is he never really cruel? What can we claim for his religion?

Are children never cruel without knowing it? Are they never cruel without caring? Suppose such children to be as large and strong as men, would they not be something like savages? How are savages like children? How are they different?

17. Why do we call the religion of the savage superstition?

Are you ever afraid in the dark? What are you afraid of? Was not the savage in his ignorance very much like a child in the dark?

18. When does superstition become religion?

If a man merely trusts that God will help him carry out his private plans, so that he shall be safe or rich, is he religious or superstitious? How can any man help to carry out God’s plans in the world? How does the superstitious man try to make God his instrument? How does the religious man try to make himself God’s instrument?

 

                                    

                                       Chapter Two

                           ANCIENT ARYAN RELIGION.

 

1. The ancestors of most European peoples, of the Hindus of good caste, and of the Persians, once formed but one nation; just as the ancestors of the English and the inhabitants of the United States once formed but one nation.

 

2. As from England colonists went out to found new States in Canada, in Massachusetts, Virginia, and other regions, so emigrants went out at different times, and in different directions, from this more ancient home.

 

3. Different forms of speech arose in the different colonies that in time became different languages. This occurred, because the different colonies had little intercourse with one another. So in some parts of England, Germany, and other countries are found dialects that persons living in another part of the same country cannot easily understand.

 

4. Neither history nor tradition gives any account of this primeval people. The only evidence of its existence is found in the various languages spoken by its descendants. These, from their resemblances, show that they are derived from a common origin; while from the structure and meaning of the words, some hints are given as to the beliefs and customs of the common ancestors.

 

5. This ancient people were pastoral in their life. They were also familiar with the arts of war, and bore some marks of civilization. They are commonly called Aryans.

 

6. Their gods would seem to have been chiefly connected with the bright upper heavens. Their name for gods signified bright or celestial.

 

7. Their chief god at the time that the ancestors of the Greeks and Romans left their early home would seem to have been Dyaus, the heavenly, or celestial one. This name is preserved in the Greek Zeus. He is also called Dyaushpitar, or the celestial father. This title reappears in the Latin Jupiter.

 

8. Other gods were also worshipped; some of those that we shall find to have been recognized in the Vedas were already honored. Varuna, representing the enveloping heavens, was already somewhat known, though not fully developed, as in later times. Also, a divinity of the morning, called Saramyu.

 

9. The name of Saramyu would seem to be preserved in the Greek name for the furies. The dawn was said to expose crime, because with the shades of night the veil was taken away by which crime had been concealed. Thus the name of the divinity came at last to be regarded simply as that of an avenger of crime.

 

10. Faith in immortality was cherished by the ancient Aryans. This is evident from the nature of their funeral rites.

 

11. The three important ideas, of a Father in heaven, of a power that punishes sin, and of immortality, would seem to have been held by this early people, and transmitted to their descendants.

QUESTIONS

 

1. What nations are said to have a common ancestry?
2. How can you illustrate this relation?
3. How do the languages of these peoples come to be so different? How can you illustrate this by dialects in different parts of the same country today?

To what extent do we have such dialects in this country? Could you not understand the language in any part of the United States? Why is there so little difference of language in this country?

 

4. How do we know anything about this early people?
5. What was the character of the civilization of this early people? By what name are they ordinarily called?
6. What was the nature of the divinities worshipped by them?
7. What was the name of their chief god?

What do you see when you look up into the sky? How far off does it seem? Do you never, in looking up into the sky, have a feeling that may help you understand how these early people found something there to worship?

 

8. What other gods did they worship?
9. How did the name of a goddess of the sawn become connected by the Greeks with the punishers of crime?

Why should any be afraid of the light? What does Jesus say of hating the light? (John iii., 19, 20.)

10. What is said of faith in immortality among the ancient Aryans?
11. What three important ideas do we thus find that they held?

 

 

 

1. The ancestors of the Hindus remained longer in their ancient Aryan home than those of other peoples, and their religion may be regarded as a direct continuance of the ancient Aryan faith.

 

2. The Vedas contain the earliest records of the Hindu religion. These consist of hymns addressed to various divinities. Some of these hymns are of great beauty. They show that the nation was already far-advanced in literary skill. They are very ancient. Their precise date is unknown, but they must have been written earlier than the twelfth century before Christ.

 

3. The god Varuna is recognized in the earlier Vedic hymns as filling the chief position. Varuna represented the heavens that envelop the earth. He was a god of great sublimity and holiness. Nothing escaped his knowledge. The thoughts of men’s hearts were known to him. The winkings of their eyes were numbered. Where two talked together, there was the god Varuna as the third. Some of the hymns addressed to him are very lofty, and express exalted religious feeling.

 

I will give in prose translation a part of a hymn addressed to Varuna.

The great one who rules over these worlds beholds all things as if he were close at hand. When any man thinks he is doing aught by stealth, the gods know it all; and they perceive every one who stands or walks of glides along secretly or withdraws into his house or into any lurking place. Whatever two persons, sitting together, devise, Varuna, the king, knows it, being present there as a third. This earth, too, belongs to the king Varuna; and that vast sky, whose ends are so remote…He who should flee far beyond the sky would not there escape from Varuna the king. His messengers, descending from heaven, traverse this world; thousand-eyed, they look across the whole earth. King Varuna perceives all that exists within heaven and earth, and all that is beyond. The winkings of men’s eyes are all numbered by him. He handles all these things as a gamester throws his dice.

From the Atharva Veda

4. Indra, the rain-god, seems to have, in the course of time, succeeded Varuna in the popular regard. As the people descended to a warmer region, they felt more than before the blessing that comes with the rain. Perhaps, also, they lost something of their early nobleness. Indra became their principal deity. He was the god of the rain. They water was supposed to be shut up in the clouds, withheld from mortals by demons. Indra attacks these demons. The lightning is the spear that he hurls against them. The demons are conquered. The water falls in torrents, and Indra is praised for this great victory.

 

5. Indra was also the god of battles. His worshippers called upon him to help them win the victory. He was nearer to them than Varuna, and was called especially the friend of man. He was very fond of the soma juice, a sort of mildly intoxicating drink which the Hindus used in their religious rites. They offered it to all the gods, but Indra had a special love for it. He also punished sin, but he was less praised for holiness than Varuna.

 

6. The Hindus had many other gods. There was Agni, the god of fire. He was regarded also as a priest of the gods, because the offerings to them were put into the fire. There were the gods of the sun and of the dawn and of the tempest. The rainbow was regarded as a beautiful divinity.

 

7. The gods represented, for the most part, natural objects or forces. They were not these objects or forces taken simply as in the savage worship; but they were gods, partly connected with these natural things, and partly detached from them. This statement can perhaps be made clear by an example. Agni was, as we have seen, the god of fire. I will quote, in a prose translation, verses taken from a hymn to Agni: -

TO AGNI.

Let us lift this song of adoration, like a car (laden with praise) to him who is worthy of it, the preserver of riches, for his providence brings us weal in council. In alliance with thee, O Agni! No harm can befall us.

He whom thou helpest in sacrifice flourishes; he lives uninjured, and wins beautiful strength. He is exalted, and no trouble reaches him. In alliance with thee, etc.

May we have power to kindle thee! Bring the work to its issue. The gods eat what is sacrificed in thee….In alliance, etc.

Let us bring wood. Let us accomplish thine offering, at every change of the moon reminding thee of us. Bring the work to its issue so that we may live long. In alliance, etc.

In the night, thine offspring (the stars) are the protectors of dwellings and of the two-footed and the four-footed creatures. At the dawning (as the sun) thou art greater and brighter, thou messenger! In alliance, etc.

Thou art the sacrificer and the first herald; thou art the teacher, the purifier. Thou art the priest of nature. Thou knowest and blessest, O wise one! Every priestly work. In alliance, etc.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

When thou dost harness the red-flaming, the storm-driven, span to the chariot, then thou dost roar like a bull. Then dost thou fall upon the wood with the smoke-flagged (flames). In alliance, etc.

 

Then even the birds are scared by thy bellowing, when grass devouring thy sparks are scattered. Easy is it for thee and thy chariot to reach the goal. In alliance with thee, O Agni! No harm can befall us.

 

It will be noticed that Agni is here described as the fire. It is fed with wood. We see its sparks. We hear its roaring. We see its brightness in the sun and the stars. Yet it is something more than fire. It is a god. Yet it is not a god with a personality separate from the object it represents, like one of the Greek divinities. It is, as was stated before, in part connected with the natural object, in part distinct from it.

8. Varuna and Indra were not exalted above the other divinities as Jupiter was above the classic gods. It is only that they were somewhat more prominent than the rest.

 

9. Every god, as he was praised, was called supreme above all the rest. Very much the same terms of adoration are found applied to all. It seems as if the worshippers felt that all were manifestations of only one divinity. Everything seemed to them divine. They had not merely the vague sense of the supernatural, such as the savage has. They felt something of the real beauty and divinity that was about them, so that their hymns often express a real worship.

 

10. They had strong faith in immortality. Yama was the king of the abodes of death. He probably represented the setting sun. To his paradise the souls of the good and noble went, and found supreme happiness.

 

11. The worship of the divinities consisted in prayer and praise, and in offerings. The offerings consisted chiefly of clarified butter poured upon fire, and of the fermented juice of the soma plant. This seems to have been poured upon fire, or sprinkled on the sacred grass with which the floor was strewn. It was poured upon the fire, that Agni might transmit it to the divinities for whom it was designed. There seem to have been no temples. The worship was held in a chamber in the house of the worshipper devoted to this purpose.

 

12. The Hindu religion underwent still greater changes. The sacred or Brahman caste became more and more supreme in religious matters. Beliefs were largely transformed. Many, in process of time, came consciously to recognize all the gods as indeed manifestations of one divinity. Many came to look upon all that is as the manifestation of this divinity. This deity was not like any of the gods that are ordinarily worshipped. It was simply the great unity of the universe, with neither thought nor love. This one divinity was commonly called Brahma.

 

13. To lose their individual existence, and to become absorbed in Brahma, came to be, for these thinkers, the great abject of religion; so they withdrew from the world into the wilderness. They fasted and inflicted upon themselves all bodily torment. They wished to draw and drive themselves back into themselves, to lose thought and desire, that so they might become one with Brahma, the all.

 

14. The belief in the transmigration of souls furnished the special motive for this course. They believed that their souls would be born, endlessly, into new existences, in heaven, in earth, or in hell. Thus the future was full of peril. Life, at best, they regarded as an evil. If, by the processes above referred to, they could become absorbed into Brahma; they would rest at death, lost in him, and would be born no more into the changes and sorrows of existence.

 

15. These Hindus held a profound truth in the belief that their true life was in God. Paul himself tells us that "in him we live and move and have our being."

 

16. They held it very imperfectly, however. They did not know what God is. They thought that they must sink back into unconsciousness to find him, and must thus lose themselves in him. The apostle John teaches a higher and more inspiring truth: "God is love," he tells us; "and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and he in him." We share the divine life most when we live the fullest, most active, and most loving lives. Another point of difference between this Hindu view and the Christian teaching is, that in it God was only in Nature, not above it. That recognized nothing more than this unity of all things. Paul teaches the fuller truth. (Eph. iv., 6; comp. Acts xviii., 28.)

 

17. The modern Hindu religion is very unlike the ancient. The principal deities recognized in the later religion are Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. These are known as the creator, the preserver, and the destroyer. They form a trinity, and are represented as united. Of these, Brahma receives least honor, because his work is regarded as completed. Vishnu and Siva have each many worshippers, who make of him their chief divinity. Vishnu is believed to have been incarnated several times upon the earth. These incarnations were under various forms, as those of a fish, a tortoise, and a man, the great hero of Hindu tradition, and were to deliver or to help man. The worship of Siva involves often extravagant and shameful rites. Besides these deities, a multitude of divinities, idols, and natural objects are worshipped. Especially are the cow, the serpent, and the monkey considered sacred.

 

18. A purer and more spiritual religion, based largely upon the teachings of Jesus, has been accepted by certain Hindus. Chunder Sen is now the most prominent representative of this movement.

 

QUESTIONS

 

1. What is the relation of the early Hindu religion to that of the ancient Aryans?
2. What is the name of the earliest religious writings of the Hindus? Their nature? Their date?
3. What divinity fills the chief position in the earlier hymns of the Vedas? What was his character?

What words of Jesus does one of these phrases remind you of? (Matt, x., 30.)

4. What divinity succeeds Varuna in the highest honor of the Hindus? What are some of the reasons of this change? What was the chief work of Indra?

Do the clouds keep back water? What do they do for us? Are the clouds, then, to be regarded as enemies or friends? Do we ever make, in other matters, a mistake like that of the Hindus? Do you remember a verse of a hymn, by Cowper, that illustrates this? (See the hymn beginning "God moves in a mysterious way.")

 

5. What else was believed about Indra?
6. What are some other gods that the Hindus worshipped?

Do you remember anything that was said about the rainbow in the first lesson? What is the difference between the way the Hindu regarded the rainbow and that in which the savage regarded it? What gain does this show in the progress of religion?

7. What, in general, was the nature of these gods?
8. In what sense were Varuna and Indra the chief gods?
9. What peculiarity of their worship is spoken of? What view of nature would seem to be shown in this? What advance does this show from the religion of the savage?

How does this compare with our common view of nature? Which do you think is the highest view, -to look upon the world as a sort of complicated machine, or to look upon it as the manifestation of a certain divine life? Which do you think is the truest view?

 

10. What was the faith of the early Hindus in regard to immortality?
11. Give some account of the worship that was paid by them to their divinities.
12. What very different view came later to prevail in regard to the gods, and in regard to the universe?
13. What was the great object of religion with these thinkers? How did they accomplish this object?

Have any Christians ever used such bodily torment in order to obtain salvation? What can you find out about Simon Stylites? Have not Christians often believed in fasting for the sake of spiritual good? Was this the method of Jesus? (Matt. xi., 19.) How should we live in this respect?

 

14. What was the doctrine of transmigration of souls?
15. What was the truth in the belief of these thinkers in regard to their relation with God?
16. What was their error? Compare their thought with that of John, and with that of Paul. What other point of difference is named between the Hindu and the Christian view?

In the quotation from the Epistle to the Ephesians, which words mark the difference between Paul’s view and that of the Hindus? Suppose a leaf to want to enter most really into the life of the tree, how could it best do it? Could it do it by drawing back into itself and thus withering? How does this illustrate the beliefs that we are considering?

 

17. Give some account of the later Hindu religion.
18. What movement toward a better religion is taking place among the Hindus?

 

 

Chapter Four
BUDDHISM.

1. The religion called Buddhism prevails in Ceylon, Siam, and Burma, also in Nepal. Tibet, and Japan. Buddhism, as it exists in the three countries first named, is supposed to be more like the original form of the religion than that professed by Buddhists in the other and more northern countries. It at first extended over the greater part of India. It is calculated that more than a third of the inhabitants of the earth are Buddhists.

2. Buddhism is named from the title of its founder. This title means the awakened, or the enlightened. It describes one who is believed to have attained the highest wisdom.

3. The founder of the religion was born a prince, in the latter half of the sixth century BC. The sense of the evils of existence drove him into a life of poverty and withdrawal from the world. He became a recluse, and lived only on alms.

4. The character of Buddha, so far as we know anything in regard to it, was one of extreme beauty. He united in a remarkable degree strength and gentleness. None were so lowly that his sympathy did not reach them.

5. Many beliefs common to other Hindu systems were held in Buddha through the whole course of his life and teaching.

6. The doctrine of the transmigration of souls was practically thus held. When a man dies, he is born again on earth or in heaven or in hell. The state into which one is born was believed to depend upon a certain law of retribution, by which every good act is rewarded, and every evil act is punished. When this recompense will be received is doubtful. Acts are like seeds; one, like the pea or the bean, bears its fruit very soon; another, like the oak, bears its fruit very late. If a man is born into heaven, he remains there only so long as some good deed requires. After that, he may be born into hell for some evil deed committed either before or after the good deed. The future is thus wholly uncertain. As we cannot remember our past existences, we do not know what good or evil we may have committed, so we do not know what joy or misery may be before us. This law of retribution is called Karma.

7. The object of Buddha was to put an end to this process of repeated birth. He therefore sought, and as he believed found, the cause of this process, and thus the way to end it.

8. I. He taught that nothing is permanent. There is no reality in the universe, but that of a process that goes on forever. Nothing has more reality than bubbles that rise and burst.

9. II. He taught that men are bound to the world by so strong a love, that, when they die, they are drawn back again into life.

10. III. He taught how to overcome this clinging to life. This was, first, by learning the emptiness of all earthly things and thus acquiring a disgust for what had given most pleasure; and, secondly, by training one’s self in the virtues of unselfishness and charity.

11. Certain physical states, as that of trance, were also used for this purpose; but whether these formed a part of Buddha’s teaching, I do not know.

12. To imitate the course of their master was in general the duty of the disciples. They were obliged to withdraw from the world, and join the order that he founded. They lived on alms, and devoted themselves to the religious life. Fasting and bodily torment were, however, forbidden. Besides the disciples who gave themselves wholly to his direction were others less perfectly identified with his work, but who yet owned Buddha as their master.

13. All stood upon an equal footing in this order, no matter what had been their previous station in life. The principle of caste was not recognized there.

14. Religion has no place in the teaching of Buddha; at least, he did not teach religion in the common meaning of that word. He recognized no divine basis or substance of the world. The Hindu gods were recognized, but they were like fairies or angels. Buddha did not worship them; they were believed to worship him. After he became Buddha, he was the head of the universe.

15. Nirvana was the state which was to reward the Buddhist saint. Nirvana could be in part entered upon during this life. The saint could reach a lofty peace, which sprang from the sense that all his passions and desires were conquered, and that he should never be born into any other life. Full Nirvana was reached at death. What Nirvana was positively, Buddha refused to explain. On the one side, he did not affirm that it involved a continuation of being in any sense. On the other side, he did not deny that it was a continuation of being. He left the matter a perfect blank. The Buddhists have largely believed, however, that Nirvana is annihilation: and the best authority teaches that this view resulted naturally from general teaching of Buddha.

16. Buddhists in general do not look forward to Nirvana as though it belonged to them. I fact, Buddhists in general give little thought to Nirvana. They think only of the heavens and the hells that may be before them, or some future existence on the earth, and leave Nirvana for persons of exceptional saintliness. When it is understood that, in the last birth before reaching Nirvana, the saint was believed to have the power to pass through the air at will, it may be plain that, to most, if not to all, the thought of Nirvana must be something very far off and vague.

17. The Buddhists have monasteries very much like those of  the Catholic church. The heads of the monks are shaven like those of the Catholic monks. They have the rite of confession also, though the confession is made to the body of monks, not to a single priest. Indeed, the resemblance to the methods of the Catholic convent life is very striking in many respects.

18. The Buddhists have always honored the memory of Buddha. They have cherished relics of his body, or what they believe to be such. They offer to him praise and adoration, but not prayer, for he has passed into Nirvana. The adoration is paid to his memory. They do pray to those who in the future are to be Buddhas, and may also call upon the gods, who, as we have seen, receive only a minor homage. Probably no worshipers use so many flowers in their rites as the Buddhists. Preaching fills as large a place in their religion as it does in that of the Christian.


QUESTIONS

1. Where does Buddhism prevail? What proportion of the inhabitants of the earth are Buddhists?
2. What is the origin of the name Buddhism? What does the name Buddha mean?

What other religion is named for a title of its founder?
What does this title mean?

3. Into what position was Buddha born? Why did he give up this position?

Ought the evils of life to drive one to leave the world? How ought they to affect us?

4. What was the character of Buddha?

How does this remind you of Jesus? How does Buddha differ from Jesus?

5. Were the teachings of the religion of Buddha all original with him?

6. Name one that was received from the Hindu religion. How was one’s future life determined? Why was the future doubtful?

Compare this with the Christian doctrine of immortality.

7. What was the object of Buddha’s teaching?

8. What did he teach about the reality of things in the world?

Is there any outward thing in the world that we can trust to always be ours, and always to give us pleasure?
9. Why, according to Buddha, do men live again after death?

10. How was this attraction to the world to be overcome?

How much of this corresponds to the teaching of Jesus?

11. What physical states are referred to in this connection?

12. What was to be the general life f the Buddhist?

Compare this with the life taught by Jesus. What Christians have adopted a life like that of Buddhists? What advantage has this life? What disadvantage?

13. What was the relation of Buddhism to the law of caste?

Do you know anything about Hindu caste? Is there anything like caste in this country? Is it a good thing?

14. What did Buddha teach about God?

Can you imagine Christianity without the idea of God? Can you imagine life without it?

15. What was Nirvana? What was it as reached in this life? What was it reached after death?

Is this like the heaven of Christianity? Must not the Christian give up himself as truly as the Buddhist? What does he give himself up to? To what did the Buddhist give himself up?

16. How do ordinary Buddhists think of Nirvana? What sign was there believed to be when the Buddhist was soon to enter Nirvana? What does this show?

Can you imagine a school with different prizes for the younger and older scholars? What would the younger think of the highest prizes, say a Greek Plato?

17. What is said of the Buddhist monasteries?

18. What is the nature of the honor paid to Buddha? To whom do the Buddhists pray? What else is said about their methods of religious service?

 

 

 

Chapter Four
BUDDHISM.

1. The religion called Buddhism prevails in Ceylon, Siam, and Burma, also in Nepal. Tibet, and Japan. Buddhism, as it exists in the three countries first named, is supposed to be more like the original form of the religion than that professed by Buddhists in the other and more northern countries. It at first extended over the greater part of India. It is calculated that more than a third of the inhabitants of the earth are Buddhists.

2. Buddhism is named from the title of its founder. This title means the awakened, or the enlightened. It describes one who is believed to have attained the highest wisdom.

3. The founder of the religion was born a prince, in the latter half of the sixth century BC. The sense of the evils of existence drove him into a life of poverty and withdrawal from the world. He became a recluse, and lived only on alms.

4. The character of Buddha, so far as we know anything in regard to it, was one of extreme beauty. He united in a remarkable degree strength and gentleness. None were so lowly that his sympathy did not reach them.

5. Many beliefs common to other Hindu systems were held in Buddha through the whole course of his life and teaching.

6. The doctrine of the transmigration of souls was practically thus held. When a man dies, he is born again on earth or in heaven or in hell. The state into which one is born was believed to depend upon a certain law of retribution, by which every good act is rewarded, and every evil act is punished. When this recompense will be received is doubtful. Acts are like seeds; one, like the pea or the bean, bears its fruit very soon; another, like the oak, bears its fruit very late. If a man is born into heaven, he remains there only so long as some good deed requires. After that, he may be born into hell for some evil deed committed either before or after the good deed. The future is thus wholly uncertain. As we cannot remember our past existences, we do not know what good or evil we may have committed, so we do not know what joy or misery may be before us. This law of retribution is called Karma.

7. The object of Buddha was to put an end to this process of repeated birth. He therefore sought, and as he believed found, the cause of this process, and thus the way to end it.

8. I. He taught that nothing is permanent. There is no reality in the universe, but that of a process that goes on forever. Nothing has more reality than bubbles that rise and burst.

9. II. He taught that men are bound to the world by so strong a love, that, when they die, they are drawn back again into life.

10. III. He taught how to overcome this clinging to life. This was, first, by learning the emptiness of all earthly things and thus acquiring a disgust for what had given most pleasure; and, secondly, by training one’s self in the virtues of unselfishness and charity.

11. Certain physical states, as that of trance, were also used for this purpose; but whether these formed a part of Buddha’s teaching, I do not know.

12. To imitate the course of their master was in general the duty of the disciples. They were obliged to withdraw from the world, and join the order that he founded. They lived on alms, and devoted themselves to the religious life. Fasting and bodily torment were, however, forbidden. Besides the disciples who gave themselves wholly to his direction were others less perfectly identified with his work, but who yet owned Buddha as their master.

13. All stood upon an equal footing in this order, no matter what had been their previous station in life. The principle of caste was not recognized there.

14. Religion has no place in the teaching of Buddha; at least, he did not teach religion in the common meaning of that word. He recognized no divine basis or substance of the world. The Hindu gods were recognized, but they were like fairies or angels. Buddha did not worship them; they were believed to worship him. After he became Buddha, he was the head of the universe.

15. Nirvana was the state which was to reward the Buddhist saint. Nirvana could be in part entered upon during this life. The saint could reach a lofty peace, which sprang from the sense that all his passions and desires were conquered, and that he should never be born into any other life. Full Nirvana was reached at death. What Nirvana was positively, Buddha refused to explain. On the one side, he did not affirm that it involved a continuation of being in any sense. On the other side, he did not deny that it was a continuation of being. He left the matter a perfect blank. The Buddhists have largely believed, however, that Nirvana is annihilation: and the best authority teaches that this view resulted naturally from general teaching of Buddha.

16. Buddhists in general do not look forward to Nirvana as though it belonged to them. I fact, Buddhists in general give little thought to Nirvana. They think only of the heavens and the hells that may be before them, or some future existence on the earth, and leave Nirvana for persons of exceptional saintliness. When it is understood that, in the last birth before reaching Nirvana, the saint was believed to have the power to pass through the air at will, it may be plain that, to most, if not to all, the thought of Nirvana must be something very far off and vague.

17. The Buddhists have monasteries very much like those of  the Catholic church. The heads of the monks are shaven like those of the Catholic monks. They have the rite of confession also, though the confession is made to the body of monks, not to a single priest. Indeed, the resemblance to the methods of the Catholic convent life is very striking in many respects.

18. The Buddhists have always honored the memory of Buddha. They have cherished relics of his body, or what they believe to be such. They offer to him praise and adoration, but not prayer, for he has passed into Nirvana. The adoration is paid to his memory. They do pray to those who in the future are to be Buddhas, and may also call upon the gods, who, as we have seen, receive only a minor homage. Probably no worshipers use so many flowers in their rites as the Buddhists. Preaching fills as large a place in their religion as it does in that of the Christian.


QUESTIONS

1. Where does Buddhism prevail? What proportion of the inhabitants of the earth are Buddhists?
2. What is the origin of the name Buddhism? What does the name Buddha mean?

What other religion is named for a title of its founder?
What does this title mean?

3. Into what position was Buddha born? Why did he give up this position?

Ought the evils of life to drive one to leave the world? How ought they to affect us?

4. What was the character of Buddha?

How does this remind you of Jesus? How does Buddha differ from Jesus?

5. Were the teachings of the religion of Buddha all original with him?

6. Name one that was received from the Hindu religion. How was one’s future life determined? Why was the future doubtful?

Compare this with the Christian doctrine of immortality.

7. What was the object of Buddha’s teaching?

8. What did he teach about the reality of things in the world?

Is there any outward thing in the world that we can trust to always be ours, and always to give us pleasure?
9. Why, according to Buddha, do men live again after death?

10. How was this attraction to the world to be overcome?

How much of this corresponds to the teaching of Jesus?

11. What physical states are referred to in this connection?

12. What was to be the general life f the Buddhist?

Compare this with the life taught by Jesus. What Christians have adopted a life like that of Buddhists? What advantage has this life? What disadvantage?

13. What was the relation of Buddhism to the law of caste?

Do you know anything about Hindu caste? Is there anything like caste in this country? Is it a good thing?

14. What did Buddha teach about God?

Can you imagine Christianity without the idea of God? Can you imagine life without it?

15. What was Nirvana? What was it as reached in this life? What was it reached after death?

Is this like the heaven of Christianity? Must not the Christian give up himself as truly as the Buddhist? What does he give himself up to? To what did the Buddhist give himself up?

16. How do ordinary Buddhists think of Nirvana? What sign was there believed to be when the Buddhist was soon to enter Nirvana? What does this show?

Can you imagine a school with different prizes for the younger and older scholars? What would the younger think of the highest prizes, say a Greek Plato?

17. What is said of the Buddhist monasteries?

18. What is the nature of the honor paid to Buddha? To whom do the Buddhists pray? What else is said about their methods of religious service?

 

Chapter Four
BUDDHISM.

1. The religion called Buddhism prevails in Ceylon, Siam, and Burma, also in Nepal. Tibet, and Japan. Buddhism, as it exists in the three countries first named, is supposed to be more like the original form of the religion than that professed by Buddhists in the other and more northern countries. It at first extended over the greater part of India. It is calculated that more than a third of the inhabitants of the earth are Buddhists.

2. Buddhism is named from the title of its founder. This title means the awakened, or the enlightened. It describes one who is believed to have attained the highest wisdom.

3. The founder of the religion was born a prince, in the latter half of the sixth century BC. The sense of the evils of existence drove him into a life of poverty and withdrawal from the world. He became a recluse, and lived only on alms.

4. The character of Buddha, so far as we know anything in regard to it, was one of extreme beauty. He united in a remarkable degree strength and gentleness. None were so lowly that his sympathy did not reach them.

5. Many beliefs common to other Hindu systems were held in Buddha through the whole course of his life and teaching.

6. The doctrine of the transmigration of souls was practically thus held. When a man dies, he is born again on earth or in heaven or in hell. The state into which one is born was believed to depend upon a certain law of retribution, by which every good act is rewarded, and every evil act is punished. When this recompense will be received is doubtful. Acts are like seeds; one, like the pea or the bean, bears its fruit very soon; another, like the oak, bears its fruit very late. If a man is born into heaven, he remains there only so long as some good deed requires. After that, he may be born into hell for some evil deed committed either before or after the good deed. The future is thus wholly uncertain. As we cannot remember our past existences, we do not know what good or evil we may have committed, so we do not know what joy or misery may be before us. This law of retribution is called Karma.

7. The object of Buddha was to put an end to this process of repeated birth. He therefore sought, and as he believed found, the cause of this process, and thus the way to end it.

8. I. He taught that nothing is permanent. There is no reality in the universe, but that of a process that goes on forever. Nothing has more reality than bubbles that rise and burst.

9. II. He taught that men are bound to the world by so strong a love, that, when they die, they are drawn back again into life.

10. III. He taught how to overcome this clinging to life. This was, first, by learning the emptiness of all earthly things and thus acquiring a disgust for what had given most pleasure; and, secondly, by training one’s self in the virtues of unselfishness and charity.

11. Certain physical states, as that of trance, were also used for this purpose; but whether these formed a part of Buddha’s teaching, I do not know.

12. To imitate the course of their master was in general the duty of the disciples. They were obliged to withdraw from the world, and join the order that he founded. They lived on alms, and devoted themselves to the religious life. Fasting and bodily torment were, however, forbidden. Besides the disciples who gave themselves wholly to his direction were others less perfectly identified with his work, but who yet owned Buddha as their master.

13. All stood upon an equal footing in this order, no matter what had been their previous station in life. The principle of caste was not recognized there.

14. Religion has no place in the teaching of Buddha; at least, he did not teach religion in the common meaning of that word. He recognized no divine basis or substance of the world. The Hindu gods were recognized, but they were like fairies or angels. Buddha did not worship them; they were believed to worship him. After he became Buddha, he was the head of the universe.

15. Nirvana was the state which was to reward the Buddhist saint. Nirvana could be in part entered upon during this life. The saint could reach a lofty peace, which sprang from the sense that all his passions and desires were conquered, and that he should never be born into any other life. Full Nirvana was reached at death. What Nirvana was positively, Buddha refused to explain. On the one side, he did not affirm that it involved a continuation of being in any sense. On the other side, he did not deny that it was a continuation of being. He left the matter a perfect blank. The Buddhists have largely believed, however, that Nirvana is annihilation: and the best authority teaches that this view resulted naturally from general teaching of Buddha.

16. Buddhists in general do not look forward to Nirvana as though it belonged to them. I fact, Buddhists in general give little thought to Nirvana. They think only of the heavens and the hells that may be before them, or some future existence on the earth, and leave Nirvana for persons of exceptional saintliness. When it is understood that, in the last birth before reaching Nirvana, the saint was believed to have the power to pass through the air at will, it may be plain that, to most, if not to all, the thought of Nirvana must be something very far off and vague.

17. The Buddhists have monasteries very much like those of  the Catholic church. The heads of the monks are shaven like those of the Catholic monks. They have the rite of confession also, though the confession is made to the body of monks, not to a single priest. Indeed, the resemblance to the methods of the Catholic convent life is very striking in many respects.

18. The Buddhists have always honored the memory of Buddha. They have cherished relics of his body, or what they believe to be such. They offer to him praise and adoration, but not prayer, for he has passed into Nirvana. The adoration is paid to his memory. They do pray to those who in the future are to be Buddhas, and may also call upon the gods, who, as we have seen, receive only a minor homage. Probably no worshipers use so many flowers in their rites as the Buddhists. Preaching fills as large a place in their religion as it does in that of the Christian.


QUESTIONS

1. Where does Buddhism prevail? What proportion of the inhabitants of the earth are Buddhists?
2. What is the origin of the name Buddhism? What does the name Buddha mean?

What other religion is named for a title of its founder?
What does this title mean?

3. Into what position was Buddha born? Why did he give up this position?

Ought the evils of life to drive one to leave the world? How ought they to affect us?

4. What was the character of Buddha?

How does this remind you of Jesus? How does Buddha differ from Jesus?

5. Were the teachings of the religion of Buddha all original with him?

6. Name one that was received from the Hindu religion. How was one’s future life determined? Why was the future doubtful?

Compare this with the Christian doctrine of immortality.

7. What was the object of Buddha’s teaching?

8. What did he teach about the reality of things in the world?

Is there any outward thing in the world that we can trust to always be ours, and always to give us pleasure?
9. Why, according to Buddha, do men live again after death?

10. How was this attraction to the world to be overcome?

How much of this corresponds to the teaching of Jesus?

11. What physical states are referred to in this connection?

12. What was to be the general life f the Buddhist?

Compare this with the life taught by Jesus. What Christians have adopted a life like that of Buddhists? What advantage has this life? What disadvantage?

13. What was the relation of Buddhism to the law of caste?

Do you know anything about Hindu caste? Is there anything like caste in this country? Is it a good thing?

14. What did Buddha teach about God?

Can you imagine Christianity without the idea of God? Can you imagine life without it?

15. What was Nirvana? What was it as reached in this life? What was it reached after death?

Is this like the heaven of Christianity? Must not the Christian give up himself as truly as the Buddhist? What does he give himself up to? To what did the Buddhist give himself up?

16. How do ordinary Buddhists think of Nirvana? What sign was there believed to be when the Buddhist was soon to enter Nirvana? What does this show?

Can you imagine a school with different prizes for the younger and older scholars? What would the younger think of the highest prizes, say a Greek Plato?

17. What is said of the Buddhist monasteries?

18. What is the nature of the honor paid to Buddha? To whom do the Buddhists pray? What else is said about their methods of religious service?