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CHRIST OR BUDDHA

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Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jul 18, 1916

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 43, No. 28.

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CHRIST OR BUDDHA

By L. H. Christian

THE GOSPEL OF HOPELESS FATE

BY L. H. CHRISTIAN
THERE is a persistent effort, on the part of certain faddists, to bring into this country the religion and philosophy of India. We hear the wisdom and virtue of Buddha lauded to the skies. Assiduously, though indirectly, in lectures and by artistic magazines, the people are educated to believe that Gautama was the equal, if not the superior, of Christ.
Great interest was awakened in this subject years ago when Sir Edwin Arnold first published his pagan poem, "The Light of Asia." That poem purports to give us the preëxistence, birth, life work, and final destiny of Buddha. Those who read it will see at once the vast difference between Christ and Buddha. Buddha, like any other child, had a human father and mother. His father reigned as a mighty monarch of India; and his mother, who died when the boy was nine days old, was a beautiful queen in an Indian harem of women and wine.
At his birth, both heaven and earth were stirred and expectant. The wise and mighty among men and the great spirits above ministered to him. He was brought up in the splendor and glory of an Indian palace, and spent many years after his marriage in all the luxury of royalty. During the latter part of his life, he labored as a teacher. He died at the age of eighty, surrounded by his friends.

LIGHT THAT IS DARKNESS

Speaking of his departure from this life, Buddha informed his followers that he was going into Nirvana — that is, a state of hopeless nonexistence. Of this he said:
"If any teach Nirvana is to live, Say unto such they err!"
As to his preëxistence we read that one day when he, by some strange spell, had subdued a black stallion which no other rider could tame, he told his friends that he remembered using the same magic power "myriad rains ago," when as a male tiger in the forest he fought and subdued the other tigers, in this way winning his mate, a large, beautiful tigress. When asked, at another time, why he chose the beautiful maiden who became his wife, he replied that in "ages long gone by," he was a hunter's son, and as such lived with and loved her in a humble home. The gospel of Buddha was a gospel of law and fate. There was in it no power to save from sin, and no hope of eternal life.
How different from this is the Bible story of Christ! Buddha was first a tiger, then a hunter, then a mighty prince, and then nothing. Christ came from the glory of His Father, lived in humility upon earth, and returned to prepare a kingdom of glory for His own. His gospel is not mere ethics or morals, but the power of God to salvation. The light of Asia is darkness; the Saviour of the world is light and life.