BUDDHISM, AND "THE LIGHT OP ASIA/^ , 183 



Christian legends are found, not in tlie four Gospels, but in the 

 Apocryphal Gospels of the fifth and sixth centuries, a.d. It can 

 liardly be doubted in these cases that the explanation is found in 

 the sti-ong Manichean influence, prevailiug in Syria when the 

 apocryphal "works were written. Manes claimed to be a Buddha 

 (as we learn from Epiphanins and Cyril of Jerusalem), and incor- 

 porated many Hindu beliefs into his system, such as reincarnation 

 and metempsychosis. 



Rev. A. B. Hutchinson, M.A. (of Japan), writes : — 



The title given by Sir E. Arnold to his brilliant but delusive 

 poem The Light of Asia, sugg'csts the reflection concerning the 

 countries in which Buddhism prevails — " If the Light which is in 

 thee be darkness, how great is that darkness.^' Moral precepts it 

 has given to both China and Japan, but these have been for the 

 most part empty words. Immorality on the part of the teachers 

 has nullified their ethical utterances. In the absence of any 

 recognition of the Creator and Preserver of the Universe there 

 has been lacking a stimulus to good. Ignorant of God's righteous- 

 ness a fictitious standard of good has been set up, and all sense of 

 sin eliminated from the mind of the people. Good is in action 

 rather than motive. 



The paper opens a question of great interest, viz., the source 

 of deliverance from ill taught by Sakya. It seems very probable 

 that the precepts of Confucius, or rather those which the 

 Chinese sage formulated from the ancient records of China, 

 may have reached India and exercised a great influence over 

 Sakya. The Doctrine of the Mean directly advocates the rectifi- 

 cation of the heart as the first preliminary to reformation of life 

 individual and social. Both in Confucianism and Buddhism there 

 is the same fatal halting and silence when confronted by the 

 question whence the power to do this thing ? It is noticeable also 

 that both in China and Japan, Nirvana is practically unknown to 

 the mass of people. A very material hell and heaven are looked 

 for by these, and paradise to be ultimately reached is the goal of 

 their desires. Man is in both countries supposed to have within 

 himself the power requisite to self correction if he will but use it. 

 The Rev. S. Beal some twelve years since pointed out to me that 

 the miracles attributed to Buddha date from quite the 



