"The fool who knows his foolishness is wise so far. But a fool who thinks himself wise, he is called a fool indeed." "If one man conquer in battle a thousand times a thousand men, and if another conquer himself, he is the greatest of conquerors." "The wise who control their body, who control their tongue, who control their mind, are indeed well controlled." Self-restraint and purity, The knowledge of the noble truths, This is the greatest blessing. Buddha taught his disciples to be kind to everything that lives, never to take the life of any living being, to be patient and forgiving, to avoid covetousness, and never to tire of self-reflection. His fundamental principles are purity of mind, chastity of life, truthfulness, temperance, sincerity, benevolence, unselfishness, love. Thus we see that while the true idea of God may be lost, a sense of moral obligation remains. As one has said: "Buddha was a missionary of ethics, an apostle of righteousness, a reformer of abuses, a tender and compassionate man. He did not know that there is a personal God, but he did know that peace and rest are the result of virtuous thoughts and actions." When we consider the age in which he lived and the exalted ethics which he taught, and the unselfish spirit which he manifested, we must grant to him an exalted place among the moralists and reformers of the world. There is some reason, at least, for Mr. Arnold's title given to him, "The Light of Asia." Christ, the Light of the World. And yet what a miserable light is Buddha in comparison with the Christ. Neither he nor any of the sons of men, not even the apostles, are worthy to be compared with the Son of God. For they are to Him "As moonlight is to sunlight and as water is to wine." Gas light is very useful in its way, but it is a poor apology for the sun. It gives light in the midst of the street, but turn the corner and you are in deep shadows directly. Christ is not only a Teacher among the teachers, a Prophet among the prophets, a Leader among the leaders, but He is Divine, and hence speaks with authority. He came not as did Buddha, to learn, but to teach, not to disturb, but to settle. In Him is yea. Talk about the "Light of Asia." Look at India as it is to-day. India had that light, and here are some of the glimmerings of that wonderful light about which Arnold sings: No schools for women. No schools for children. To teach a woman is one of the five great sins. The highest honor that can be bestowed upon a wife is to be a slave to her husband. Her first privilege after serving him with his breakfast is to kiss his sacred feet. At night her highest honor is to wash his feet and then drink the dirty water for purification. There are to-day 23,000,000 widows in India. Six million of these are children under ten years of age. Widows in India do not remarry. Only God knows the horrors of India widowhood. The stars look down on no blacker picture than the 140,000,000 women in India suffering under the blessings (?) of "The light of Asia." Buddhism as a religion is a failure. It has multiplied lazy fraternities and useless retreats. It is opposed to thrift and industry. Its priests are paupers, clothed in rags, begging from door to door. It produces drones, idlers and religious vagabonds. Talk not of the light of Asia, nor yet of the light of nature. They have the light of nature in China, Korea and India. But it brings no light to their darkened hearts; it hangs no star in the sky of their eternity; it flashes no ray through the gloom of their lives. The light of nature has brought to those lands, Ganges to drown, Juggernaut to crush, funeral pyre to strangle, idol furnaces to burn, swords to slay. The light of nature left Fiji to roll in fratricide, left Samoa to wallow in beastliness and Greenland to be butchered by cannibalism. There is only one great light, Christ, the Son of God. He throws light on sin, salvation, immortality. He speaks to us of a personal God, calls Him Father, His Father and ours. The star of Bethlehem is rising even on the night of Asia. Some years ago two Congressmen in Washington used to meet every week to talk about the immortality of the soul. But they despised the Bible. They found no comfort. Their terms expired. They went home. Years afterward they met in Washington at the President's levee. One of them said: "John, any light?" The other one said: "No light," was the answer. "Henry, any light?" "No light," was the reply. They said nothing more. They parted to meet at the judgment. Are there any here to-night who have swung off from the Bible and Calvary? Oh, friend, let Christ put into your hands the torch of heaven. It will light you through the twilight of that last day, up that last mountain, down that last valley, across that last river. Throw open the door and let this light come in, and you will one day exclaim: Blessed light, glorious sunrise, eternal day, home at last, where they do not need the light of candle or sun, for the Lord God Himself is the light thereof. MOHAMMEDANISM, OR, THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS. Then said Jesus unto him, put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Matthew 26:52. M OHAMMEDANISM awakens in an inquiring mind a special interest and peculiar curiosity. How can we account for the fact that in so short a time the Arabian tribes, hitherto at war among themselves, were united in one faith, consolidated into one nation, brought into the light of history and wielded an almost irresistible force against the powerful nations of the world? Certainly the man who brought these things to pass was one of the remarkable men of history. He must have had the rare gift of natural empire. As we consider this subject we shall probably be able to agree with James Freeman Clark, who says: "To him more than to any other of whom history makes mention was. given "The monarch mind, the mystery of commanding Of wielding, molding, gathering, welding, banding, |