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setting free its teeming population, before entangled in the meshes 

 of ceremonial observances and Brahmanical priestcraft.' Yes, I 

 admit this ; nay, I admit even more than this. I admit that 

 Buddhism conferred many other benefits on the millions inhabiting 

 the most populous part of Asia. It promoted progress up to a 

 certain point ; it preached purity in thought, word, and deed 

 (thoiigh only for the accumulation of merit) ; it proclaimed the 

 brotherhood of humanity ; it avowed sympathy with social liberty 

 and freedom ; it gave back much independence to women ; it incul- 

 cated universal benevolence, extending even to animals ; and, from 

 its declaration that a man's future depended on his present acts and 

 conditions, it did good service for a time in preventing stagnation, 

 promoting activity, and elevating the character of humanity. 



" But if, after makiug all these concessions, I am told that, on my 

 OAvn showing, Buddhism was a kind of introduction to Christianity, or 

 that Christianity is a kind of development of Buddhism, I must ask 

 you to bear with me a little longer while I point out certain other 

 contrasts, which ought to make it clear to every reasonable man 

 how vast, how profound, how impassable is the gulf separating the 

 true religion from a mere system of morality, founded on a form of 

 pessimistic philosophy. And, first of all, let us note that Christ 

 was God-sent, whereas Buddha was self-sent. Christ was with 

 His Father from everlasting, and was in the fulness of time sent by 

 Him into the world to be born of a pure virgin, in the likeness and 

 fashion of men. Buddha, on the contrary, by a force derived from 

 his own acts, passed through innumerable bodies of gods, demi-gods, 

 demons, men, and animals, until he reached one out of numerous 

 supposed heavens, and thence by his own will descended upon 

 earth, to enter the side of his mother, in the form of a white 

 elephant. Then Christ came down from heaven to be born on 

 earth in a poor and humble station, to be reared in a cottage, to be 

 trained to toilsome labour as a working man. Buddha came down 

 to be born on earth in a rich and princely family ; to be brought 

 up amid luxurious surroundings, and finally to go forth as a 

 mendicant, begging his own food and doing nothing for his own 

 support. Then, again, Christ as He grew up, showed no signs of 

 earthly majesty in His external form, whereas the Buddha is 

 described as marked with certain mystic symbols of universal 

 monarchy on his feet and on his hands, and taller and more stately 

 in frame and figure than ordinary human beings. Then, when each 

 entered on his ministry as a teacher, Christ was despised and 



