ds through their withered fingers, for surely
there was no necessity for them to learn it. Has not everyone learnt it,
this, the first truth of Buddhism, long before his hair is gray, before
his hands are shaking, before his teeth are gone? But there they would
sit, evening after evening, thinking of the change about to come upon
them soon, realizing the emptiness of life, wishing for the Great Peace.

On Sundays the rest-house, like many others round the village, was
crowded. Old men there would be, and one or two young men, a few
children, and many women. Early in the morning they would come, and a
monk would come down from the monastery near by, and each one would vow,
with the monk as witness, that he or she would spend the day in
meditation and in holy thought, would banish all thought of evil, and be
for the day at least holy. And then, the vow made, the devotee would go
and sit in the rest-house and meditate. The village is not very near;
the sounds come very softly through the trees, not enough to disturb the
mind; only there is the sigh of the wind wandering amid the leaves, and
the occasional cry of birds. Once before noon a meal will be eaten,
either food brought with them cold, or a simple pot of rice boiled
beside the rest-house, and there they will stay till the sun sets and
darkness is gathering about the foot of the trees. There is no service
at all. The monk may come and read part of the sacred books--some of the
Abidama, or a sermon from the Thoots--and perhaps sometimes he may
expound a little; that is all. There is nothing akin to our ideas of
worship. For consider what our service consists of: there is
thanksgiving and praise, there is prayer, there is reading of the Bible,
there is a sermon. Our thanksgiving and praise is rendered to God for
things He has done, the pleasure that He has allowed us to enjoy, the
punishment that He might have inflicted upon us and has not. Our prayer
is to Him to preserve us in future, to assist us in our troubles, to
give us our daily food, not to be too severe upon us, not to punish us
as we deserve, but to be merciful and kind. We ask Him to protect us
from our enemies, not to allow them to triumph over us, but to give us
triumph over them.

But the Buddhist has far other thoughts than these. He believes that the
world is ruled by everlasting, unchangeable laws of righteousness. The
great God lives far behind His laws, and they are for ever and ever. You
cannot ch