Part 36

The Jews denied the Christian faith, and died for their own. Does that prove that Christianity was not true? Did the Protestant martyrs prove Protestantism true? Then the Catholic martyrs proved the reverse.

The Christians martyred or murdered millions, many millions, of innocent men and women. Does that prove that Christ was divine? No: it only proves that Christians could be fanatical, intolerant, bloody, and cruel.

And now, will you ponder these words of Arthur Lillie, M.A., the author of Buddha and Buddhism? Speaking of the astonishing success of the Buddhist missionaries, Mr. Lillie says:

This success was effected by moral means alone, for Buddhism is the one religion guiltless of coercion.

Christians are always boasting of the wonderful good works wrought by their religion. They are silent about the horrors, infamies, and shames of which it has been guilty.

Buddhism is the only religion with no blood upon its hands. I submit another very significant quotation from Mr. Lillie:

I will write down a few of the achievements of this inactive Buddha and the army of Bhikshus that he directed:

1. The most formidable priestly tyranny that the world had ever seen crumbled away before his attack, and the followers of Buddha were paramount in India for a thousand years.

2. The institution of caste was assailed and overthrown.

3. Polygamy was for the first time assailed and overturned.

4. Woman, from being considered a chattel and a beast of burden, was for the first time considered man's equal, and allowed to develop her spiritual life.

5. All bloodshed, whether with the knife of the priest or the sword of the conqueror, was rigidly forbidden.

6. Also, for the first time in the religious history of mankind, the awakening of the spiritual life of the individual was substituted for religion by body corporate.

7. The principle of religious propagandism was for the first time introduced with its two great instruments, the missionary and the preacher.

To that list we may add that Buddhism abolished slavery and religious persecution; taught temperance, chastity, and humanity; and invented the higher morality and the idea of the brotherhood of the entire human race.

What does that prove? It seems to me to prove that Archdeacon Wilson is mistaken.

THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY?

What is Christianity? When I began to discuss religion in the Clarion I thought I knew what Christianity was. I thought it was the religion I had been taught as a boy in Church of England and Congregationalist Sunday schools. But since then I have read many books, and pamphlets, and sermons, and articles intended to explain what Christianity is, and I begin to think there are as many kinds of Christianity as there are Christians. The differences are numerous and profound: they are astonishing. That must be a strange revelation of God which can be so differently interpreted.

Well, I cannot describe all these variants, nor can I reduce them to a common denominator. The most I can pretend to offer is a selection of some few doctrines to which all or many Christians would subscribe.

1. All Christians believe in a Supreme Being, called God, who created all beings. They all believe that He is a good and loving God, and our Heavenly Father.

2. Most Christians believe in Free Will.

3. All Christians believe that Man has sinned and does sin against God.

4. All Christians believe that Jesus Christ is in some way necessary to Man's "salvation," and that without Christ Man will be "lost."

But when we ask for the meaning of the terms "salvation" and "lost" the Christians give conflicting or divergent answers.

5. All Christians believe in the immortality of the soul. And I think they all, or nearly all, believe in some kind of future punishment or reward.

6. Most Christians believe that Christ was God.

7. Most Christians believe that after crucifixion Christ rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven.

8. Most Christians believe, or think they believe, in the efficacy of prayer.