condemn man to
everlasting isolation; cut away from him every ray of Divine help, and
the working out of his _Karma_ becomes a terrible and an almost
unending tragedy--a Sisyphean task with no hope of release save in the
wiping out of life itself. And this is what the great Soul of the East
believed and taught. He faced boldly the problem. He had, at the
beginning, ignored the very existence of God, and thus denied himself
the least hope of external aid in his own emancipation; and thus he
held that stern, cruel, relentless _Karma_ became the all-controlling
and universal law of life.

To a Christian, among the most pathetic words ever spoken are those
spoken by Buddha to his beloved cousin and disciple as death drew
near--"O! Anantha,... My journey is drawing to its close. I have
reached eighty years, and just as a worn-out cart can only with much
care be made to move along, so my body can only be kept going with
difficulty.... In future _be ye to yourselves your own light, your own
refuge; seek no other refuge.... Look not to any one but yourselves as
a refuge_."

And that which farther, and very naturally, widens the gulf which
separates them is their view of the adequacy or inadequacy of the
present human life to satisfy the laws of their being.

The law which Jesus believed to prevail, and which He constantly
promulgated and emphasized, was that of the finality of the human
life--that man has once only to pass through this earthly life and
that then comes death, which introduces him to an eternal future
corresponding with the character of his choices and life on earth.
According to Him, this brief earthly existence, which will not be
repeated, is a training school for the glorious life beyond. Blessed
is he who faithfully submits himself to this training and passes
through the gate of death prepared for an immortality of joy in God's
presence beyond.

Indeed, Jesus never gives the first intimation of any future birth or
life, save that which would be permanent and eternal in heaven or
hell.

He felt the adequacy of this life as a determiner of the eternal
destiny of all men. And He felt that the salvation which He wrought
and offered to all was able to carry man through the single portal of
death into unending bliss. Why another entrance into this world, if by
passing through the world God could bring into the life the seed and
power of His own grace and life which would blossom and bear fruit in
the soul t