MYSTICAL BUDDHISM. 41 
who aim at the highest perfection abandon the world, and lead a 
life of celibacy and monkhood, In fine, they enjoin total absti- 
nence, because they dare not trust human beings to be temperate. 
How, indeed, could they trust them, when they promise no help, no 
Divine grace, no restraining power ? The glory of Christianity is, 
that having freely given that power to man, it trusts him to make 
use of the gift. It seems to speak to him thus: ‘Thy Creator 
has endowed thee with freedom of choice, and therefore respects 
thy liberty of action. He imposes on thee no rule of total absti- 
nence in regard to natural desires; He simply bids thee keep 
them within bounds, so that thy self-control and thy moderation may 
be known unto all men. He places thee in the world amid trials 
and temptations, and says to thee, ‘My grace is sufficient for thee, 
and by its aid thou mayest overcome them all.’ 
And, believe me, the great contrast between the moral precepts 
of Buddhism and Christianity is not so much in the letter of the 
precepts as in the motive power brought to bear in their application. 
Buddhism says : Be righteous by yourselves, and through your- 
selves, and for the final getting rid. of all suffering, of all 
individuality, of all life in yourselves: Christianity says: Be 
righteous through a power implanted in you from above ; through 
the power of a life-giving principle, freely given to you, and always 
abiding in you.’ The Buddha said to his followers :—‘ Take 
nothing from me, trust to no one but yourselves.’ Christ said, and 
says to us still :—‘* Take all from Me; take this free gift ; put on 
this spotless robe ; eat this bread of life ; drink this living water.’ 
He who receives a priceless gift is not likely to insult the 
Giver of it. He who accepts a snow-white robe is not likely 
willingly to soil it by impure acts. He who tastes life-giving bread 
is not likely to relish husks.. He who draws deep draughts at a 
living well is not likely to prefer the polluted water of a stagnant 
pool. If any one, therefore, insists on placing the Buddhist and 
Christian moral codes on the same level, let him ask himself one 
plain. question: Who would be the more likely to lead a godly, 
righteous, and sober life—a life of moderation and temperance—a 
life of holiness and happiness ; the man who has learnt his morality 
from the extinct Buddha, or the man who draws his morality and 
his holiness from the living, the eternal, the life-giving Christ ? 
Still, I seem to hear some one say, ‘We grant all this, we admit 
the truth of what you have stated ; nevertheless, for all that, you 
must allow that Buddhism conferred a great benefit on India by 
