of Indian minds. The new Advent, as that at Bethlehem, is a
turning-point of time; the gloomy winter of pessimism is turning to a
hopeful spring.

CHAPTER XVIII

INDIAN TRANSMIGRATION AND THE CHRISTIAN HERE AND HEREAFTER

"The dew is on the lotus. Rise, good sun!
And lift my leaf and mix me with the wave.
The sunrise comes!
The dewdrop slips into the shining sea.

If any teach Nirvana is to cease,
Say unto such they lie.
If any teach Nirvana is to live,
Say unto such they err."

(Buddha's teaching in Arnold's _Light of Asia_.)

[Sidenote: Over against Transmigration, Christian immortality is
continuity of the individual's memory.]

To appreciate the impact of the Christian idea of the Here and Hereafter
upon the Hindu idea of Transmigration and Absorption, the two ideas must
be more fully examined. Stated briefly, the Christian idea is that after
this life on earth comes an Eternity, whose character has been
determined by the life on earth. The crisis of death terminates our
bodily activities and renders impossible any further action, either
virtuous or sinful, and ushers the soul, its ledger closed, its earthy
limitations cast off, into some more immediate presence of God. If in
communion with God, through its faith in Jesus Christ, the soul is in a
state of blessedness; if still alien from God, the soul is in a state of
utter misery, for its spiritual perception and its recollection of
itself are now clear. That, at all events, seems a fair statement of the
belief of many Protestants, so far as their belief is definite at all.
But over against transmigration, what are the essential and distinctive
features of that Christian belief? Its essentially distinctive feature,
both in the case of the blessed and of the miserable, is a _continuity_
of the consciousness in the life that now is with that which is to come.
The soul in bliss or misery is able to associate its existing state with
its past. Even on earth, as the modern preacher tells us, heaven and
hell are already begun. Over against the Hindu idea of transmigration,
accordingly, we define the Christian idea of immortality as the
continuity of our consciousness, or the immortality of the individual
consciousness.

[Sidenote: Transmigration is essentially dissolution of the individual's
memory.]

Per contra, the distinguishing feature of the Hindu doctrine of
transmigration or rebirth is the interruption of conscio