“took the promise of his piteous speech,
   So that their lives, prisoned in the shape of ape,
   Tiger or deer, shagged bear, jackal or wolf,
   Foul-feeding kite, pearled dove or peacock gemmed,
   Squat toad or speckled serpent, lizard, bat,
   Yea, or fish fanning the river waves,
   Touched meekly at the skirts of brotherhood
   With man, who hath less innocence than these: 
   And in mute gladness knew their bondage broke
   Whilst Buddha spoke these things before the king.”

There was no mention of sin, but only of universal misfortune!

In contrast with the deep shadows of a brooding and all-embracing pessimism like this, we need only to hint at that glow of hope and joy with which the Sun of Righteousness has flooded the world, and the fatherly love and compassion with which the Old Testament and the New are replete, the divine plan of redemption, the psalms of praise and thanksgiving, the pity of Christ’s words and acts, and his invitations to the weary and heavy-laden.  In one view it is strange that pessimism should have comfort in the fellowship of pessimism, but so it is; there is luxury even in the sympathy of hate, and so Buddhist pessimism is a welcome guest among us, though our Communistic querulousness is more bitter.

Once more, Buddhist occultism has found congenial fellowship in American spiritualism.  Of late we hear less of spirit-rappings and far more of Theosophy.  But this is only the same crude system with other names, and rendered more respectable by the cast-off garments of old Indian philosophy.  There is a disposition in the more intellectual circles to assume a degree of disdain toward the crudeness of spiritualism and its vulgar familiarity with departed spirits, who must ever be disturbed by its beck and call; but it is confidently expected that the thousands, nay, as some say, millions, of American spiritualists will gladly welcome the name and the creed of Buddha.[89] It will be idle therefore to assume that the old sleepy system of Gautama has no chance in this wide-awake republic of the West.[90]

I have already called attention to the special tactics of Buddhists just now in claiming that Christianity, having been of later origin, has borrowed its principal facts and its teachings.  Let us examine the charge.  It is a real tribute to the character of Christ that so many sects of false religionists have in all ages claimed Him either as a follower or as an incarnation of their respective deities.  Others have acknowledged his teachings as belonging to their particular style and grade.  The bitter and scathing calumny of Celsus, in the first centuries of our era, did not prevent numerous attempts to prove the identity of Christ’s teachings with some of the most popular philosophies of the heathen world.  Porphyry claimed that many of Christ’s virtues were copied from Pythagoras.  With like concession Mohammedanism included Jesus as one of the six great prophets, and