MYSTICAL BUDDHISM. 39 
expect the perfection of their characters through suffering. It is 
certainly noteworthy that both Christianity and Buddhism agree in 
asserting that all creation travaileth in pain, in bodily suffering, in 
tribulation. But mark the vast, the vital distinction in the teach- 
ing of each. The one taught men to aim at the glorification of the 
suffering body, the other at its utter annihilation. What says our 
Bible? We Christians, it says, are members of Christ’s Body, of 
His flesh and of His Bones, of that Divine Body, which was a 
suffering body, a cross-bearing body, and is now a glorified body, 
an eyer-living, life-giving body. A Buddhist, on the other hand, 
repudiates, as a simple impossibility, all idea of being a member of 
the Buddha’s body. Howcould a Buddhist be a member of a body 
which was burnt, which was dissolved, which became extinct at the 
moment when the Buddha’s whole personality became extinguished 
also? But, say the admirers of Buddhism, at least you will admit 
that the Buddha told men to get rid of sin, and to aim at sanctity 
of life ? Nothing of the kind. The Buddha had no idea of sin, 
as an offence against God, no idea of true holiness. What he said 
was, Get rid of the demerit of evil actions and accumulate merit by 
good actions. This storing up of merit—like capital at a bank— 
is one of those inveterate propensities of human nature from which 
Christianity alone has delivered men. 
Only the other day I met an intelligent Sikh from the Punjab, 
and asked him about his religion. He replied, ‘I believe in One 
God, and I repeat my prayers, called Jap-jee, every morning and 
evening. These prayers occupy six pages of print, but I can get 
through them in little more than ten minutes.’ He seemed to 
pride himself on this rapid recitation as a work of increased merit. 
I said, ‘What else does your religion require of you?’ He 
replied, ‘I have made one pilgrimage to a sacred well near 
Amritsar ; eighty-five steps lead down to it. I descended and bathed 
in the sacred pool. Then I ascended one step and repeated my 
Jap-jee in about ten minutes. Then I descended again to the 
pool and bathed again, and ascended to the second step and 
repeated my prayers a second time. Then I descended a third 
time, and ascended to the third step, and repeated my Jap-jee a 
third time ; and so on for the whole eighty-five steps. It took me 
exactly fourteen hours, from 5 p.m. one evening to 7 a.m. next 
morning.’ I asked, ‘What good did you expect to get by going 
through this task ?? He replied, ‘I hope I have laid up a great 
store of merit, which will last me for a long time.’ This, let me 
