BUDDHTSM, AND " THE LIGHT OF ASIA.'' 173 



■what is your soul, what is j'-our God, what is your deliverance, 

 you say we have none of these, what have you ? " And in reply 

 they said, " All souls are eternal as God is eternal. An eternal soul 

 is sheathed iu ignorance as in death, but no human effort can 

 illuminate that darkness. From God there must proceed the 

 Divine illumiuacion. The light from Him must come into the 

 human soul, or it never can see the light. You have no 

 illuminating beam that can proceed from that nonentity of a 

 Buddhist God, and it is clear that, according to Buddhism, your 

 dead are gone to nothingness and passed away; but from our 

 system comes the pure light, and raises the soul to ^aiva." There 

 is one more thing, "We believe," they said, "in a conscious 

 immortality. The souls of holy emancipated men bec3me, as it 

 were, satellites moving round a central sun. It never loses its 

 consciousness or light through eternity, and for ever it revolves 

 i-ound the central lighb, and is sharing in its functions, perceptions 

 and blessedness, and that is a much better system than your 

 negative system." So with all its imperfections, (^aivism still 

 reigns in the south, and Buddhism has ceased to do so. (Applause.) 



Rev. Kenneth S. Macdonald, D.D. — May I, as a missionary, and 

 one who has given a great deal of thought to the subject, say a few 

 words ? I have been to Patna, and other places, with the special 

 object of studying Buddhism. 1 entered on the study with a 

 strong prejudice in favour of Buddha, principally arising from 

 vkhat I had read of Buddha, Avritten by Europeans and. Americans, 

 and I followed Buddhism, as recorded in the books which profess 

 to give us his life, with intense interest. 



With regard to the paper that we have just had the privilege 

 of hearing. First of all permit me to say that I concur heartily with 

 the words of praise which the Chairman and the last speaker have 

 uttered in regard to it, and I believe it to be well worthy of a hearty 

 vote of thanks from us all. I have met people who seem to be 

 afraid of being regarded as speaking hardly of Buddha and Budd- 

 hism. I do not think we should be afraid to speak out the truth 

 openly with regard to it, and to stand to our guns, as far as the 

 original writings bear us out in reference to that opinion. Praise 

 is given to Buddha as to right conduct and moral conduct, the 

 condemnation of sin and the approbation of virtue. To find the 

 value of this you require first of all to ascertain what is right 

 conduct in Buddha's point of view ? What is sin from his poir<t 



