Men, Women, and Gods Part 16

--Morley's "Diderot," p. 71.

** Professor Max Muller says that "the consciousness of sin is a leading feature in the religion of the Veda, so is likewise the belief that the G.o.ds are able to take away from man the heavy burden of his sins."

Brahmanism, with its two hundred millions of believers, and its Rig-Veda (Bible) composed two thousand four hundred years before Christ, has its rigid code of morals; its theory of creation; its teachings about sin; its revelations; its belief in the ability of the G.o.ds to forgive;** its belief that its bible came from G.o.d; and its devotees who believe that an infinite G.o.d is pleased with the toys of wors.h.i.+p, praise, and adulation of man. It has its prayers and hymns, its offerings and sacrifices. Corresponding with our "Trinity" idea the Brahmin has his three great G.o.ds; and in place of our "angels" he has his infinite number of little ones.*

Next, Zoroastrianism, certainly twelve hundred years older than Christ, has its legends (quite as authentic as our own) of miracles performed by its founder and his followers; its Zend-Avesta (Bible); its "Supreme Spirit;" its belief in G.o.ds and demons who interfere with affairs in this world and who are ever at war with each other; its sacred fires; its Lord; its praise; and its pretence to direct communication _in the past_ with spirits and with G.o.ds who gave their Prophet "commandments."**

It lacks none of the paraphernalia of a "divine inst.i.tution" ready for business, and we are unable to discount it in either loaves or fishes. It also has its heaven and h.e.l.l;*** its Messiah or Prophet; its arch fiend or devil; its rites and ceremonies.

* See Edward Clodd, F.R.A.S., "Childhood of Religions."

** "In the Gathas or oldest part of the Zend-Avesta, which contains the leading doctrines of Zoroaster, he asks Ormuzd [G.o.d] for truth and guidance, and desires to know what he shall do. He is told to be pure in thought, word, and deed; to be temperate, chaste, and truthful; to offer prayer to Ormuzd and the powers that fight with him; to destroy all hurtful things; and to do all that will increase the well- being of mankind. Men were not to cringe before the powers of darkness as slaves crouch before a tyrant, they were to meet them upstanding, and confound them by unending opposition and the power of a holy life. 'Oh men, if you cling to these commandments which Mazda has given, which are a torment to the wicked and a blessing to the righteous, then there will be victory through them.'"

--Max Muller.

*** "In this old faith there was a belief in two abodes for the departed: heaven, the 'house of the angels' hymns,' and h.e.l.l, where the wicked were sent. Between the two there was a bridge."

--Ibid.

Professor Max Muller remarks: "There were periods in the history of the world when the wors.h.i.+p of Ormuzd threatened to rise triumphant on the ruins of the temples of all other G.o.ds. If the battles of Marathon and Salamis had been lost and Greece had succ.u.mbed to Persia, the state religion of the empire of Cyrus, which was the wors.h.i.+p of Ormuzd, might have become the religion of the whole civilized world."

In which case my Chicago friend would have asked, "If you destroy a belief in Ormuzd, and that he gave the only supernatural moral law to Zoroaster, how will children ever be taught what is right and what is wrong, and how can they ever know that it is not right to lie and kill and steal?"

"Their creed is of the simplest kind; it is to fear G.o.d, to live a life of pure thoughts, pure words, pure deeds, and to die in the hope of a world to come. _It is the creed of those who have lived nearest to G.o.d and served him faithfullest in every age_, and wherever they dwell who accept it and practice it, they bear witness to that which makes them children of G.o.d and brethren of the prophets, among whom Zoroaster was not the least. The Jews were carried away as captives to Babylon some 600 years before Christ, and during the seventy years of their exile there, they came into contact with the Persian religion _and derived from it ideas about the immortality of the soul, which their own religion did not contain. They also borrowed from it their belief in a mult.i.tude of angels, and in Satan as the ruler over evil spirits_." [So you see that even our devil is a borrowed one, and it now seems to be about time to return him with thanks. ] "The ease with which man believes in unearthly powers working for his hurt prepares a people to admit into its creed the doctrine of evil spirits, and although it is certain that the Jews had no belief in such spirits before their captivity in Babylon, they spoke of Satan (which means _an adversary_) as a messenger sent from G.o.d to watch the deeds of men and accuse them to Him for their wrong-doing. Satan thus becoming by degrees an object of dread, upon whom all the evil which befell man was charged, the minds of the Jews were ripe for accepting the Persian doctrine of Ahriman with his legions of devils. Ahriman became the Jewish Satan, _a belief in whom formed part of early Christian doctrine, and is now but slowly dying out. What fearful ills it has caused, history has many a page to tell_. The doctrine that Satan, once an angel of light, had been cast from heaven for rebellion against G.o.d, and had ever since played havoc among mankind, gave rise to the belief that he and his demons could possess the souls of men and animals at pleasure. Hence grew the belief in wizards and witches, under which millions of creatures, both young and old, were cruelly tortured and put to death. We turn over the smeared pages of this history in haste, thankful that from such a nightmare the world has wakened." *

The world has awakened, but the Church still snores on, confident and happy in the belief that she has a devil all her own, and that he is attending strictly to business.

Next we have Buddhism, _which numbers more followers than any other faith_. It is five hundred years older than Christianity. It has its prophet or Messiah who was exposed to a tempter,** and overcame all evil; its fastings and prayers; its miracles and its visions. Of Buddha's teachings Prof. Max Muller tells us that he used to say, "Nothing on earth is stable, nothing is real. Life is as transitory as a spark of fire, or the sound of a lyre. There must be some supreme intelligence where we could find rest. If I attained it I could bring light to men. If I were free myself I could deliver the world."

*Clodd, F.R.A.S.

** "Afterward the tempter sent his three daughters, one a winning girl, one a blooming virgin, and one a middle-aged beauty, to allure him, but they could not. Buddha was proof against all the demon's arts, and his only trouble was whether it were well or not to preach his doctrines to men.

Feeling how hard to gain was that which he had gained, and how enslaved men were by their pa.s.sions so that they might neither listen to him nor understand him, he had well-nigh resolved to be silent, but, at the last, deep compa.s.sion for all beings made him resolve to tell his secret to mankind, that they too might be free, and he thus became the founder of _the most popular religion of ancient or modern times_.

The spot where Buddha obtained his knowledge became one of the most sacred places in India."

--Clodd.

Buddha, like Christ, wrote nothing, and the doctrines of the new religion were fixed and written by his disciples after his death.

Councils were held afterwards to correct errors and send out missionaries. You will see, therefore, that even "revisions" are not a product of Christianity, and that "revelations" have always been subject to reform to fit the times.*

* "Two other councils were afterward held for the correction of errors that had crept into the faith, and for sending missionaries into other lands. The last of these councils is said to have been held 251 years before Christ, so that long before Christianity was founded we have this great religion with its sacred traditions of Buddha's words, its councils and its missions, besides, as we shall presently see, many things strangely like the rites of the Roman Catholic Church."--Clodd.

I will here give a few of the wise or kind or moral commands of Buddha.

If the first were followed in Christian countries we should be a more moral and a less superst.i.tious people than we are to-day.

"Buddha said: '_The succoring of mother and father, the cheris.h.i.+ng of child and wife, and the following of a lawful calling, this is the greatest blessing._'

"'The giving alms, a religious life, aid rendered to relations, blameless acts, this, is the greatest blessing.'

"'The abstaining from sins and the avoiding them, the eschewing of intoxicating drink, diligence in good deeds, reverence and humility, contentment and gratefulness, this is the greatest blessing.'

"'Those who having done these things, become invincible on all sides, attain happiness on all sides. This is the greatest blessing.'

"'He who lives a hundred years, vicious and unrestrained, a life of one day is better if a man is virtuous and reflecting.'

"'Let no man think lightly of evil, saying in his heart, it will not come near unto me. Even by the falling of water-drops a water-pot is filled; the fool becomes full of evil if he gathers it little by little.'

"'Not to commit any sin, to do good, and to purify one's mind, that is the teaching of the Awakened.' (This is one of the most solemn verses among the Buddhists).

"'Let us live happily then, not hating those who hate us! Let us dwell free from hatred among men who hate!'

"After these doctrines there follow ten commandments, of which the first five apply to all people, and the rest chiefly to such as set themselves apart for a religious life. They are: not to kill; not to steal; not to commit adultery; not to lie; not to get drunk; to abstain from late meals; from public amus.e.m.e.nts; from expensive dress; from large beds; and to accept neither gold nor silver." *

Keep in mind that Buddha lived more than 500 years _before_ Christ.

"The success of Buddhism was in this: It was a protest against the powers of the priests; _it to a large degree broke down caste by declaring that all men are equal_, and by allowing any one desiring to live a holy life to become a priest. _It abolished sacrifices_; made it the _duty of all men to honor their parents and care for their children_, to be kind to the sick and poor and sorrowing, and to forgive their enemies and return good for evil; it spread a spirit of charity abroad which encompa.s.sed the lowest life as well as the highest." **

* Clodd.

** Ibid.

With these before him will a Christian suppose that morals are dependent upon our Bible?

Of Confucianism, believed by millions to be essential to their salvation, and one of the three state religions of China, Clodd says: "On the soil of this great country there is crowded nearly half the human race, the most orderly people on the globe. This man (Confucius), who was reviled in life, but whose influence sways the hundreds of millions of China, was born 551 years before Christ. His nature was so beautifully simple and sincere that _he would not pretend to knowledge of that which he felt was beyond human reach and thought_."

What an earthquake there would be if our clergymen where only to become inoculated with that sort of simple sincerity I His disciples and followers did that for him as has been done in most other cases.

"The sacred books of China are called the _Kings_, and are five in number, containing _treatises on morals_, books of rites, poems, and history. They are of great age, perhaps as old as the earliest hymns of the Rig-Veda, _and are free from any impure thoughts_. [Which is much more than can be said of our own sacred books, which are not so old.] In the Book of Poetry are three hundred pieces, but the design of them all may be embraced in that one sentence, '_Have no depraved thoughts._'

"At the time when Confucius lived, China was divided into a number of petty kingdoms whose rulers were ever quarrelling, and although he became engaged in various public situations of trust, the disorder of the State at last caused him to resign them, and he retired to another part of the country. He then continued the life of a public teacher, instructing men in the simple moral truths by which he sought to govern his own life. The purity of that life, and the example of veneration for the old laws which he set, gathered round him many grave and thoughtful men, who worked with him for the common good."

Confucius said among other wise and moral things: "Coa.r.s.e rice for food, water to drink, the bended arm for a pillow--happiness may be enjoyed even with these; but without virtue, both riches and honor seem to me like the pa.s.sing cloud.... Our pa.s.sions shut up the door of our souls against G.o.d."

What we are pleased to call "the golden rule," and to look upon as purely Christian, he gave in these words 500 years before Christ was born: "Tsze-kung said, '_What I do not wish men to do to me, I also wish not to do to men._' The Master said, 'You have not attained to that.'

"Such is the power of words, that those uttered by this intensely earnest man, whose work was ended only by death, have kept alive throughout the vast empire of China a reverence for the past _and a sense of duty to the present which_ have made the Chinese the most orderly and moral people in the world."

So much for the great religions that are older than our own and _could not have_ borrowed from us. So much for the moral sentiments of the peoples who developed them, and who live and die happy with them to-day.

It leaves only a small part of this globe and a comparatively small number of its inhabitants who believe in and are guided by the Bible, or by the morality which has grown side-by-side with it.

But there is one other great religion which is of interest to us: *

* See Appendix R.

"And the value of Islam, the youngest of the great religions, is that we are able to see how its first simple form became overlaid with legend and foolish superst.i.tion, and thus learn how, in like manner, myth and fable have grown around more ancient religions [and around our own].

"For example; although Mohammed came into the world like other children, wonderful things are said to have taken place at his birth.

"He never claimed to be a perfect man; he did not pretend to foretell events or to work miracles.

"In spite of all this, his followers said of him, while he was yet living, that he worked wonders, and they believed the golden vision, hinted at in Koran, to have been a real event, although Mohammed said over and over again that it was but a dream.

"This religion is the guide in life and the support in death of _one hundred and fifty millions of our fellow creatures_; like Christianity, it has its missionaries scattered over the globe, and offers itself as a faith needed by all men.