ix. 23-25, in the last verse of which the saying is varied by the words

being used "what is a man advantaged if he gain the whole world and lose himself, or be cast away?" We are by habit more familiar with the style in which the Grecians wrote, than with that adopted by Sanscrit authors. But in both sets of writers the main idea is made strikingly apparent--viz., that to love anybody or anything on earth is prejudicial to our spiritual welfare, and that to act piously, it is necessary for the saint to free himself wholly from those instinctive affections which God has implanted in almost every one of his creatures. It is strange that any two ministers could have excogitated so monstrous a proposition, and that both should be called "Divine."

The effect of the teaching of Buddha and of Jesus was to draw many from their hearth whose duty, in our estimation, was clearly to remain at home, and endeavour to cherish and support their family. I enter my strong protest as an Englishman, as well as individual Christian, against the idea that a man who believes himself a disciple of the son of Mary must go abroad to teach and preach, or become an ascetic, a hermit, or a monk, and leave his wife and children to be cared for by his friends or the parish. I believe most strongly that our affections are implanted in us by our Maker, just as a mother's love exists alike in the tigress and the eagle, and that any religion which teaches us that we must overcome these propensities, is a false one. It is strange, to say the least of it, that both the son of Maya and of Mary should have promulgated such a doctrine--i.e., that religion is designed to make our pleasures less, and our miseries greater. It is perhaps too much to assert that no other form of faith, besides those which have sprung from Buddha and from Jesus, possesses such a tenet as that to which we refer; but we can safely affirm that we do not know of any in which the natural affections existing between parents and children, husband and wife, brothers and sisters, have not been cultivated as a portion of the duties to be fulfilled by the faithful.

It is scarcely necessary to call attention to the resemblance which the doctrine in question bears to that which was promulgated by the Grecian "Stoics"; and the similitude is still farther increased by such a sentence as the following in the Dhammapada:--

221. "Let a man leave anger, let him forsake pride, let him overcome all bondage! No sufferings befall the man who is not attached to either body or soul, and who calls nothing his own."

Once more we see a close resemblance between Buddhism and the Bible in

223. "Let a man overcome anger by love, let him overcome evil by good, let him overcome the greedy by liberality, the liar by truth." "If thine enemy be hungry give him bread to eat, and if he be thirsty give him water to drink," (Prov. xxv. 21). But the motive for this recommendation to the Jews is a vindictive one, for he is told that by so doing he will heap coals of fire upon his enemy's head, whilst the Lord will take care to reward the deed to the doer. In the epistle to the Romans this saying of the Proverbs is endorsed, and to it is added "Be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good" (Rom. xii. 20, 21).

224. "Speak the truth, do not yield to anger; give, if thou art asked, from the little thou hast--by those steps thou wilt go near the gods." "Let not mercy and truth forsake thee, bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart; so shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man" (Prov. iii. 3-4); "Wherefore, putting away lying, let every man speak the truth with his neighbour" (Eph. iv. 25). We scarcely can find, in the Old Testament, a strict parallel with the Buddhist precept, "do not yield to anger," for the Jewish scriptures, without exception, depict their God as giving way habitually to wrath, anger, and revenge--e.g., in Ps. vii. 11, we find it stated that Elohim is angry with the wicked every day. Again, in Isaiah v. 25, we read, "for all this, God's anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still;" Job iv. 9, By God's anger they are consumed; "To pour out upon them my fierce anger," (Zeph. iii. 8). There are, however, a few passages which inculcate upon men the propriety of a command over their temper. In Ps. xxxvii. 8, for example, we read, "Cease from anger, and forsake wrath," and in Proverbs xxvii. 4, "Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous," whilst "the Preacher" says, Eccles. vii. 9, "Anger resteth in the bosom of fools," and in xi. 10, "remove anger or sorrow from thy heart." In the Gospel we have a somewhat divided teaching. For example, we find, from Mark iii. 5, that Jesus himself indulged in anger, when he was vexed at what he thought the hardness of his hearers' hearts; and from his saying, in Matt. v. 22, "Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment," it is clear that the son of Mary approved of anger which had a cause. Again, we find, in Eph. iv. 26, "Be ye angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath," as if anger were not a culpable weakness, or passion, if only indulged in during the daylight. Yet, in the thirty-first verse of the same chapter we read, "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger.... be put away from you," and in Col.