CHAP. XL] 



CHRISTIAN CONVERTS FEW. 



545 



and where the law and the Gospel alike enforce the love 

 of one's neighbour as the love of one's self, Buddhism 

 insists upon charity as the basis of worship, and calls on 

 its own followers " to appease anger by gentleness, and 

 overcome evil by good." 1 



Thus the outward concurrence of Christianity in those 

 points on which it agrees with their own religion, has 

 proved more embarrassing to the natives than their per- 

 plexity as to others in which it essentially differs ; till at 

 last, too timid to doubt and too feeble to inquire, they 

 cling with helpless tenacity to their own superstition, and 

 yet subscribe to the new faith simply by adding it on to 

 the old. 



Combined with this state of irresolution a serious ob- 

 stacle to the acceptance of reformed Christianity by the 

 Singhalese Buddhists has arisen from the differences and 

 disagreements' between the various churches by whose 

 ministers it has been successively offered to them. In the 

 persecution of the Eoman Catholics by the Dutch, the 

 subsequent supercession of the Church of HoUand by that 

 of England, the rivalries more or less apparent between 

 the Episcopalians and Presbyterians, and the peculiarities 

 which separate the Baptists from the Wesleyan Methodists 

 ah 1 of whom have their missions and representatives in 

 Ceylon the Singhalese can discover little more than that 

 they are offered something still doubtful and unsettled, 

 in exchange for which they are pressed to surrender their 



contingencies. A priest who should 

 take away the life of an animal, or 

 even an insect, under any circum- 

 stances, would be guilty of the offence 

 denominated Pachittvya and subject 

 to penal discipline ; but to take away 

 human life, to be accessory to murder, 

 or to encourage to suicide, amounts 

 to the sin of Pardjika, and is visited 

 with permanent expulsion from the 

 order. As regards the laity, the use 

 of animal food is not forbidden, pro- 

 vided the individual has not him- 

 self been an agent in depriving it 



VOL. I. 



of life. The doctrine of prohibition, 

 however, although thus regulated, 

 like many others of the Buddhists, 

 by subtleties and sophistry, has proved 

 an obstacle in the way of the Mission- 

 aries ; and, coupled with the permis- 

 sion in the Scriptures " to slay and 

 eat," it has not failed to operate pre- 

 j udicially to the spread of Christianity. 

 1 From the Singhalese book, the 

 " Dharmma Padan, or Footsteps of 

 Religion, portions of which are trans- 

 lated in " The Friend," Colombo, 

 1840. 

 N 



