that commonly succeeds to
the vacant place, not Christianity. Carlyle was right when he said,
'Better even to believe a lie than to believe nothing.' " And Buddhism is
not all a lie!

"The perishing heathen." Many of us have been revolted by such expressions
when heard at home. But it is only when one is living in the midst of the
people of whom they are spoken, that it is possible to realize the full
horror of their meaning. That men, women, and little children, who are
distinguished by so many good qualities,(25) and who--with, as we believe,
such immeasurably inferior opportunities--present, in many points, so
favourable a contrast to ourselves, should be condemned to a future of
hopeless and unending misery, for not believing that of which, it may be,
they have not even heard, or heard only in crude, distorted statement--can
any man _really_ think this, who recognizes the providence of a Father of
Love; nay, I will dare to say, of a Deity of bare Justice? And yet
language thus fearfully misrepresenting the Faith of Christ is still used
by some who are called by His name; and that it is used is known by the
people of Japan.(26)

But again. There is, I have observed, much in the scheme of Christianity
calculated to prove a stumbling-block to those who have been educated in
the doctrines of Buddhism. Let me proceed to state some of the
difficulties that would be experienced, some of the objections that would
be raised, by a Buddhist of a certain amount of intellectual capacity,
when confronted with the claims of the Christian Faith.

Thus, (_a_) _the Bible_. "We are unable," the Buddhist would say, "to
recognize in your Old and New Testaments an inspired revelation. Why
should we accept your Scriptures, with all their alleged miracles and
supernatural occurrences, when you reject ours? Besides, you are not
agreed among yourselves as to inspiration, authenticity, translation,
interpretation. Some of you, again, are for diffusing the Bible broadcast,
others would keep it in the background. Again, the Christian doctrine of
immortality appears to us entirely absent from the pages of the Old
Testament; while even the Jews, 'God's chosen people,' refuse to see in
the New Testament the fulfilment of the Old."

(_b_) _The Old Testament._ "We cannot regard the story of Creation, as
given in the Book of Genesis, as anything more than a myth, containing a
germ of truth. Neither can we accept, as historically true, the story o