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The Parsi, too, does not wish for converts to his religion; he is proud of his faith, as of his blood; and though he believes in the final victory of truth and light, though he says to every man, 'Be bright as the sun, pure as the moon,' he himself does very little to drive away spiritual darkness from the face of the earth, by letting the light that is within him shine before the world.

But now let us look at the other cluster of religions at Buddhism, Mohammedanism, and Christianity. However they may differ from each other in some of their most essential doctrines, this they share in common-they all have faith in themselves, they all have life and vigour, they want to convince, they mean to conquer. From the very earliest dawn of their existence these three religions were missionary their very founders, or their first apostles, recognised the new duty of spreading the truth, of refuting error, of bringing the whole world to acknowledge the paramount, if not the divine, authority of their doctrines. This is what gives to them all a common expression, and lifts them high above the level of the other religions of the world.

Let us begin with Buddhism. We know, indeed, very little of its origin and earliest growth, for the earliest beginnings of all religions withdraw themselves by necessity from the eye of the historian. But we have something like contemporary evidence of the Great Council, held at Pâtaliputra, 242 B.C., in which the sacred canon of the Buddhist scriptures

not interfere with established castes, can form a new caste, and call themselves Hindus, and the Brahmans are always ready to receive all who submit to and pay them.' Can this be called proselytising?

was settled, and at the end of which missionaries were chosen and sent forth to preach the new doctrine, not only in India, but far beyond the frontiers of that vast country.' We possess inscriptions containing the edicts of the King who was to Buddhism what Constantine was to Christianity, who broke with the traditions of the old religion of the Brahmans, and recognised the doctrines of Buddha as the state religion of India. We possess the description of the Council of Pâtaliputra, which was to India what the Council of Nicæa, 570 years later, was to Europe; and we can still read there the simple story, how the chief Elder who had presided over the Council, an old man, too weak to travel by land, and carried from his hermitage to the Council in a boat -how that man, when the Council was over, began to reflect on the future, and found that the time had come to establish the religion of Buddha in foreign countries. He therefore despatched some of the most eminent priests to Cashmere, Cabul, and farther west, to the colonies founded by the Greeks in Bactria, to Alexandria on the Caucasus, and other cities. He sent others northward to Nepal, and to the inhabited portions of the Himalayan mountains. Another mission proceeded to the Dekhan, to the people of Mysore, to the Mahrattas, perhaps to Goa; nay, even Birma and Ceylon are mentioned as among the earliest missionary stations of Buddhist priests. We still possess accounts of their manner of preaching. When threatened by infuriated crowds, one of those Buddhist missionaries said calmly, 'If the whole world, including the Deva heavens, were to come. 1 Cf. Mahavanso, cap. 5. 2 Cf. Mahavanso, cap. 12.

and terrify me, they would not be able to create in me fear and terror.' And when he had brought the people to listen, he dismissed them with the simple prayer, Do not hereafter give way to anger, as before: do not destroy the crops, for all men love happiness. Show mercy to all living beings, and let men dwell in peace.'

1

No doubt, the accounts of the successes achieved by those early missionaries are exaggerated, and their fights with snakes and dragons and evil spirits remind us sometimes of the legendary accounts of the achievements of such men as St. Patrick in Ireland, or St. Boniface in Germany. But the fact that missionaries were sent out to convert the world seems beyond the reach of reasonable doubt; and this fact represents to us at that time a new thought -new, not only in the history of India, but in the history of the whole world. The recognition of a duty to preach the truth to every man, woman, and child, was an idea opposed to the deepest instincts of Brahmanism; and when, at the end of the chapter on the first missions, we read the simple words of the old chronicler, 'Who would demur, if the salvation of the world is at stake?' we feel at once that we move in a new world, we see the dawn of a new day, the opening of vaster horizons-we feel, for the first time in the history of the world, the beating of the great heart of humanity."

The Koran breathes a different spirit; it does

1 In some of the places mentioned by the Chronicle as among the earliest stations of Buddhist missions, relics have been discovered containing the names of the very missionaries mentioned by the Chronicle. See Koeppen, Die Religion des Buddha, p. 188.

1 Note A, p. 76.

not invite, it rather compels the world to come in. Yet there are passages, particularly in the earlier portions, which show that Mohammed, too, had realised the idea of humanity, and of a religion of humanity; nay, that at first he wished to unite his own religion with that of the Jews and Christians, comprehending all under the common name of Islâm. Islâm meant originally humility or devotion; and all who humbled themselves before God, and were filled with real reverence, were called Moslim. "The Islâm,' says Mohammed, 'is the true worship of God. When men dispute with you, say, "I am a Moslim." Ask those who have sacred books, and ask the heathen: "Are you a Moslim ?" If they are, they are on the right path; but if they turn away, then you have no other task but to deliver the message, to preach to them the Islâm.' 1

As to our own religion, its very soul is missionary, progressive, world-embracing; it would cease to exist if it ceased to be missionary-if it disregarded the parting words of its Founder: 'Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things I have commanded; and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.'

It is this missionary character, peculiar to these three religions, Buddhism, Mohammedanism, and

1 'Islâm is the verbal noun, and Moslim the participle of the same root which also yields Salâm, peace, and salim and salym, whole, honest. Islâm means, therefore, to satisfy or pacify by forbearance; it also means simply subjection.' Sprenger, Mohammad, i. p. 69; iii. 486.

Christianity, which binds them together, and lifts them to a higher sphere. Their differences, no doubt, are great; on some points they are opposed to each other like day and night. But they could not be what they are, they could not have achieved what they have achieved, unless the spirit of truth and the spirit of love had been alive in the hearts of their founders, their first messengers, and missionaries.

The spirit of truth is the life-spring of all religion, and where it exists it must manifest itself, it must plead, it must persuade, it must convince and convert. Missionary work, however, in the usual sense of the word, is only one manifestation of that spirit; for the same spirit which fills the heart of the missionary with daring abroad gives courage also to the preacher at home, bearing witness to the truth that is within him. The religions which can boast of missionaries who left the old home of their childhood, and parted with parents and friends-never to meet again in this life-who went into the wilderness, willing to spend a life of toil among strangers, ready, if need be, to lay down their life as witnesses to the truth, as martyrs for the glory of God-the same religions are rich also in those honest and intrepid inquirers who, at the bidding of the same spirit of truth, were ready to leave behind them the cherished creed of their childhood, to separate from the friends they loved best, to stand alone among men that shrug their shoulders, and ask, 'What is truth?' and to bear in silence a martyrdom more galling often than death itself. There are men who say that, if they held the whole truth in their hand, they would not open one finger. Such men know

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