BRAHMINISM AND BUDDHISM.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3736, 6 July 1883, Page 4

BRAHMINISM AND BUDDHISM.

B.road Churchmen are much more radical in England than they arc in tin's country. The Rev. Mr Haweis, v clergyman of the English Church, recently preached on " Brahminism and Buddhism." In the course of his .sermon lie said that every religion was in it essence sacred, as the nocrefc yearning of the soul after the unknowable God. Tliore was no entirely new l'eligion, as there wa.s no new language. The .same radical ideas recurred —the intuilion of God, sense of human weakness, perceptiou of a divine order, mystery of suffering, law of sacrifice, hope of immorality. These radical ideas told of the unity and solidarity of a religious: conscience) in the human race. The Brahminical wa.s the ancient faith of India. The Brahmins «'J,OOO years ago conquered the aborigines, and imposed upon them their faith and rule, fi.i in later days the English have supplanted the Hindu. Some centuries before Christ Buddhism supplanted Brahminisin, and reigned for 1,000 years. At the present date about 170,000,000, or one-third of the human race, arc Buddhists. The Brahmins Imvo left no monuments, only tbo Vodas their sacred books. These records go back to_ 1,200 or l,;") 00 n.c. They give us glimpses of the old life of the peninsula. The wild beasts arc now come to drink at t\ (i> river; the elephant roams through the. vWscorched woods; the. troops of caM.Ys. am driven down to sacrifice. We seotho kuallesurrounded villages, the goldsmith,' ilie carpenter, the King in bis silver-decked chariot, the priest on his gold p ,% .yvcr. carpet, the Brahmin teachers first indispensable, and at last iutoleralAv burdensome to the people. These are sidelights from the Vedas. 'TlWd Brahminisin was polytheistic, witb a sense of a central divine essence or source, fn>lll whence Agui, tho five or light; India, the earth; "the •water, the wind, gods, etc., derived tlieitpower. "In the beginning," says an old Veda, "there arose the source of golden light."

Who i.s the God to whom we shall sacrifice ; .lie who brightens the sky, He who makes the earth,' He who measures the air, He who looks over the water-clouds :

He is the God to whom, etc. Words which remind n.s of other Scriptures —" God is lip-lit," " Oar God i.s fi eonsuniing lire," " Oli'er sacrifices unto (lie Lord," etc. The .Brahmin* taught that man was brought through sin into collision with (lie Brahmins—the .source of thought, who was spoken of as Agui, tlic purifier, though at other times Agui assumes a minor personality. Hear the Litany, a thousand years before Christ, rising by the shores of Ik: Gimsres: May our .sins be repented of, Have mercy, Ahiiirfitv ': If Igo along trembling likv u/.Toyd, " " . Have mbvry Abnighty I lhirst name upon &o worshii-mcr in the midst of the" walcra.

Have mercy Almighty,' Through tv; : /ui;. ( ,f strength, thou bright"God, Ikivo 1 tonic to the wrong shore. __ Have mercy Almighty .' But as Ivrceslma., the divine power, draws wy near to man, inspires his actions, into his pursuits, "I," says Krecshr L /., kind of Emanuel or GJod with to ' {\L young warrior, Arjoon, "I am t> '.:«,.„ lam the lire, lam tho vV , /V * l " *£', father and mother of tb' "' \ ! _„,„! . ,i t r m world, lam the roaci to the good, I ~ ' c , ~ witness, the a«y\r '}» l « l .° Kom&nta the follow words ' .''»' tho \ fn T d ; ll,K } I th l c " all mission . w \ ,(J F ,l(lcm } ruvcruntly by tile re V -.lines who lgnorant.ly trample upon (( rv .igion they would rather.seek to purify: α-liey who serve other gods with a firm belief in doing so really serve me."—San Francisco Buliotin.