16 EEV. W. ST. CLAIR TISDALL, M.A.^ D.D., ON THE INPHJENCE 



It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that, wherever we find 

 that any other religion, ancient or modern, has for a long course 

 of years been in contact with Christianity in any form, the 

 former has had an impress made upon it by Christian rites and 

 ceremonies, and even by Christian doctrines. Sometimes one 

 result of this has been to modify the non-Christian faith very 

 considerably. In some cases the latter has adopted certain 

 Christian doctrines, in whole or in part. Sometimes the influence 

 is manifested by the introduction of practices which have been 

 openly adopted from those of Christian Missions. At other times, 

 certain incidents related in the Gospels have been taken into 

 the religious books of the other religion in a more or less modi- 

 fied form. Occasionally, Christian sentiments, and even maxims, 

 have been consciously or unconsciously borrowed. But in what- 

 ever form, and under whatever disguise, Christianity has always 

 exercised an influence. 



Strangely enough, the elements thus taken over from 

 Christianity have at times been erroneously supposed by 

 prejudiced observers to have been derived by Christianity from 

 the other system. Hence, in modern times, men have boldly 

 asserted that the doctrine of our Lord's Virgin Birth has been 

 derived from Buddhism, in which religion in none of its many 

 varieties does that dogma really find place. So, too, the doctrine 

 of the Trinity has been, quite as erroneously, traced to the 

 Hindu Trimurti. In all such cases, careful examination of the 

 actual facts has shown that, either there is no real connexion or 

 resemblance at all, or that the borrowing has been on the other 

 side. For instance, when we hear people comparing the so- 

 called ''Kesurrection " of Osiris with our Lord's Eesurrection, 

 we find that the ancient Egyptians taught that Osiris' body still 

 lay in its tomb, and had not come to life again on earth, though 

 his spirit was supposed to reign in Amenti. In the Finnish 

 Kalevala, again, the story of Marjatta* is merely a confused and 

 corrupt form of the Gospel narrative of Christ's Nativity. Thus 

 the passage, instead of proving what a hasty opponent fancies, 

 is really an example of the influence which Christianity has 

 exercised on another religion. 



It is true that there is danger, on the other hand, of being too 

 hasty in ascribing to borrowing from Christianity ideas and 

 practices which do not spring from it at all. Thus, when we 

 find in certain forms of Hinduism the doctrines of Frasdda 

 (Grace), and BJiaMi (sometimes rendered faith), it would be 



* Runo L. (Forsman's Finnish text and Finnish notes, name index). 



