Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

suffer for actions committed in this life, was not the identical one that walked the earth, though it was not a diferent one. He would be able to make the assembly understand this difficult doctrine, by a familiar illustration. A newly-plucked talipot leaf, exposed to the sun, loses its greenness, and assumes a whiteness; so man loses the use of his senses. While this process of loss is going on, three of the senses enter the body, and remain attached to the heart, the sense of feeling, the sense of understanding, and the sense of life. At death a man sees, as if in a dream, that he is engaged in the same actions, whether sinful or righteous, to which he was greatly addicted in his life. For example, if he had been given up to murder, he feels as if committing it again. The man who fancies at his death that he is engaged in wrong actions will be born in a state of misery. If he feels he is practising meritorious actions when he is dying, his future state is sure to be a happy one. As this state, whether happy or miserable, appears in an enchanted form, man, who is full of desires, naturally cleaves to it, so that immediately after death conception takes place. Death and the re-birth of the being are simultaneous. Man's actions and desires here regulate his future career. No part of man goes to another world to be born again, but simply this cleaving to existence takes place at death, according to the nature of the desires that exist in him. The Boodhist doctrine concerning man is, that man has neither beginning nor end. Migettuwatte here quoted Genesis ii. 7, to prove that Christians believe the same thing, for he said "the spirit breathed into Adam was a portion of the Spirit of the eternal God. If Adam is the father of the human

race, then all men are eternal." According to Boodhism, the only termination to this continual existence is by entering Nirwana, and this can only be attained by acting according to, and realising the results of, the four sublime paths of virtue prescribed by Boodha. A being who thus walks will be saved.

Migettu-watte next referred to Jephthah's vow to prove the fondness of the Christians' God for blood; alluded to our Saviour's own prediction as to His being three days in the tomb, which he said was not fulfilled; recapitulated what he called the ill omens that preceded the birth of Christ, for instance, the massacre of the innocents; and then drew a picture of the good omens which attended Boodha's birth; how people born blind received the use of their eyes; and how the halt and lame were healed. "Boodha came to bring happiness into the world, and introduce into it the true religion." The speaker concluded by imploring the audience to weigh, without prejudice, the arguments adduced on either side, and to hold fast to the faith of the successful party.

We have given at some length the substance of the first day's proceedings at this discussion, believing our readers will like to form for themselves some idea of the doctrines of Booddhism, and of the deeplyrooted hatred to Christianity indulged in by its adherents. It is needless, however, to dwell so long on the discussions which followed.

At eight o'clock the next morning Mr. Siriman-ne, a catechist belonging to the Church Missionary Society a man well-fitted to convey to the multitude in homely language a true idea of the points at issue was selected to commence. He was a fluent speaker, and accustomed to open-air preaching, and having been

mission

at one time connected with a Boodhist temple, he understood the popular side of Boodhism, though but little versed in its abstruse metaphysics. He began by stating, that any boy attending a mission school, could explain that "jealous" meant God's not giving His glory to another. God ordered Moses to perform miracles before Pharaoh, because that king had questioned who Jehovah was. The infliction of the plagues was to show God's might, not only to Pharaoh, but to all succeeding generations. The passage in Judges about "chariots of iron" referred to the tribe of Judah. God subdued a host of nine hundred iron chariots, as we read soon afterwards; and it was owing to want of faith in God, on the part of Judah, that that tribe had been afraid to fight in the first instance. In a similar way Mr. Siriman-ne handled the texts brought forward by Migettu-watte to prove that God delighted in blood, and was neither Omniscient nor Almighty. He slyly reminded his opponent of an expression he had made use of on the previous day-that if it could be shown that the death of even an ant had been caused by Boodha's birth, he (Migettu-watte) would renounce Boodhism. Every one knew that Boodha's mother died seven days after his birth. What reliance, he inquired, could be placed on the Boodhist Pitakas ("Scriptures"), which were not written till four hundred and fifty years after Boodha's death, and then not in the land where Boodha is said to have lived, nor by those who had heard him preach? He next brought forward some contradictory statements from these scriptures to prove that Boodha was not omniscient as represented, and asked the audience what was the use of praying to, or taking

refuge in, Boodha, in the wellknown formula which he repeated, knowing that Boodha had for so long ceased to exist.

As will be readily imagined, Migettu-watte's wrath was aroused. He began his reply by apologizing to the learned priests who surrounded him for having invited them to be present at a discussion, where he had vainly hoped to meet with some "able opponent." Referring to Mr. de Silva's speech on the previous day, he tried to fling a dart at him for damaging his own cause. Mr. de Silva had said, "If Boodhism denied the existence of the soul, it put man on an equality with a frog or a dog. Migettuwatte here quoted Ecclesiastes iii. 19, and asked, What think you of that? He sneered at Mr. de Silva for pretending to understand Boodha's abstruse doctrine of the soul, which even the great and learned commentator, Buddhaghosa, failed to comprehend, and likened his speech to "the barking of a dog envious at the splendour of the moon;" "the babbling of a madman ;" and "the roaming of a blind elephant in a thick jungle"-which last comparison, however, was unintentionally a little flattering. He tried to make out that the Bible hopelessly contradicts itself, by assert ing in one place that salvation and heaven depend on faith in Christ, while in the parable of the sheep and the goats, it is clear that salvation depends on works. Then taking up the remarks of Mr. Siriman-ne, the catechist, he called his explanation of Moses and his miracles, and of God not being afraid of iron, etc., "pure nonsense and "silly talk." He tried to distort his words and illustrations, and dwelt on the fact that he (Migettu-watte) had said, the wholesale massacre of children took place "on account of" Christ's

[ocr errors]

birth, and not "at" his birth, which no one could dispute. Boodha's mother's death was not in consequence of Boodha's birth, but"she paid her debt to nature at the appointed time." So Mr. Siriman-ne had misrepresented the clear statements made in the Boodhist Scriptures. He affirmed also that he had spoken an untruth, when he stated that the Tripitakas were not written till four hundred and fifty years after Boodha; for fifty-three years after Boodha had ceased to exist, his preachings were written down by rahats-celestial beings; and that, in this very island of Ceylon, and in Boodha's own lifetime, it is recorded, his sermons were engraved on golden leaves. (This statement was afterwards confuted by the Rev. Mr. de Silva, by reference to a standard Boodhist work.) After hinting that Moses was a magician, and that the Bible had once been destroyed by fire, and afterwards re-written by one of Jehovah's Kapuralas ("devil priests"), and a few similar bursts of animosity, he sat down.

It is scarcely necessary to say that Mr. de Silva was fully prepared to answer his opponent's accusations as to the Bible contradicting itself. He proved by reference to various works, that the Boodha, in whom Boodhists took "refuge," was in previous births immoral, a murderer, and a robber; and asked, Was such a man worthy of their trust? He compared a few of Boodha's teachings in geography with those admitted by all civilized nations, and produced a small globe to show the impossibility of one of the statements, to which reference is continually made, that in the centre of the earth rises a huge mountain, two million six hundred thousand miles high. If, he argued, a man

can propagate such a falsehood about a thing in this world, which, if true, every one would be able to see with his own eyes, how can he be believed when he teaches heavenly things, which cannot be seen? Besides, everything in Boodhism depends on the existence of this mountain. One heavenly world rests on it, and the rest are above it. If there is no such mountain, where are these worlds, and what is the use of performing meritorious actions to be born in one of them? such actions, for example, as meditation on abstruse metaphysics, which certain priests in Matura undertook, till, as it is well known, they became insane. Before Mr. de Silva sat down, he, in a few words, preached Christ and salvation to the assembled multitude, and concluded by imploring them to take refuge in Him.

Migettu-watte's last speech consisted principally of a recapitulation of what he had said on the previous day, intermingled with bitter epithets. He charged Mr. de Silva with being "envious" of him, with speaking "arrant nonsense,' "with giving "false interpretations" of the quotations he had adduced, and "silly illustrations of his subjects." He attempted a comparison between the holy Boodha and the murderer Moses. He cited Ecclesiastes i. 5, to show that the Christian theory proper, as to the sun moving round the earth, and Boodha's teachings were alike. He sneered at the little globe which had been exhibited, and said "amongst Englishmen there were serious doubts as to whether Sir I. Newton's theory-to which indirect allusion had been madewere correct or not." He then produced a work which he said he should be happy to show to the Christians, which completely refuted all Sir Isaac's arguments. It was

entitled "New Principia" by R. J. Morson, F.A.S.L. He said that asking people to take refuge in Boodha was not asking them to take refuge in a dead man. Boodha's death consisted of three stages, first, the death of the passions, second, the death of the Skandas-that is to say, perception, discrimination, and consciousness. These two had taken place, but not until two thousand five hundred years from the present time would the last death take place; then all Boodha's relics would get together near a Bo-tree in India, and after assuming the form of a living Boodha cease to exist. To prove that the great mountain which Mr. de Silva had denied, does exist, the sacred writings, he said, stated that it was in the North, and " every one knows the mariner's compass points to the North, showing there exists a huge mass there." The blasphemies to which Migettu-watte gave utterance at the close of his address, against the Creator, the Holy Spirit, and our Divine Saviour, were too vile to be committed to paper; suffice it to say, his words forcibly illustrated the description by St. James of the tongue "set on fire of hell." He wound up by informing the audience that "thousands of the most eminent had in all ages given their testimony in favour of Boodhism, and that great doctors, and propounders of astrology, etc., had always invoked Boodha's aid and extolled his religion in every one of their works."

Scarcely had he ceased speaking when cries of Sadu, Sâdu (“ Bravo") ascended in a deafening chorus from the assembled thousands, nor could they be hushed till Migettu-watte, at the suggestion of the High Priest of Adam's Peak, rose and waved his hand for silence.

So ended the "last" controversy.

It is not very likely another will ever take place on so large a scale in the island of Ceylon. Neither is it needed now, as it certainly was in years gone by, when few could read, and when the missionaries were glad to avail themselves of any means that would arouse the people from their apathy.

Four months passed away, and then a dark cloud overshadowed the Christian churches of the island. Our beloved Apollos, the Rev. D. de Silva, was laid on his death-bed. His work was done; but all felt it was a mysterious Providence which removed him from our midst at this particular crisis. Doubtless the anxiety attendant on these meetings told upon him, but no serious consequences were anticipated till the last. Everything that friendship could suggest was done for him, but frequent relapses, after disease was believed to have been conquered, at length banished hope from everyone's mind. He was quite calm and collected, and able to express his unabated trust in his Saviour. his end approached he begged some one to sing to him in Singhalese, "There is a fountain,”—a translation of his own; and the last words he is believed to have heard on earth were those, now so well known in England, "Safe in the arms of Jesus.' So long as the Wesleyan, or indeed any other mission continues in Ceylon, so long will the name of David de Silva, son of the pundit of our first Missionaries,― who in those days was a Boodhist, though through his son's instrumentality he died a Christian,—be revered and honoured.

As

Of the results of this "last controversy" who can speak? They have not been yet fully made known; but it will interest all who contribute to the Wesleyan Mission cause to know that, labouring in one

of the Circuits near Matura, South Ceylon, is a promising young catechist whose eyes were first opened

to see the errors of Boodhism by attending these gatherings. Matura. M. N.

CORAL ISLANDS.

THE remarkable work done by the coral animals, chiefly in the Pacific Ocean, is frequently referred to, and employed in illustration, by good writers. But it is matter for surprise how inaccurate the popular notions on the subject are, and how much absolute error passes unnoticed. We have a book now before us,* in which the authors, who undertake no less a work than a philosophical explanation of the universe, tell us "that coral is a semi-mineral growth, and not the work of insects!" As if any one who had ever read ten pages on the subject, to say nothing of having read zoology enough to obtain a medical diploma, ever supposed that insects were concerned in those wonderful marine productions. But remarkable as it is, this is a very usual error; and one from the employment of which neither the pulpit nor the press is free. The knowledge which we possess of these organisms has been much augmented during the last few years, and is certainly of great interest.

It is known to the school-boy that the whole animal group known to man is capable of natural division into two great kingdoms, the Invertebrate and the Vertebrate. These are both divided into sub-kingdoms. The coral animal belongs to a very early sub-kingdom of the Invertebrate series; for the first group

"The Origin of Creation; or, The Science of Matter and Force. A New System of Natural Philosophy. By Thomas R. Frazer, M.D., and Andrew Dewar." Longmans. London.

of animals in nature are named Protozoa-that is, first animals—the earliest, sometimes the smallest and the simplest animals known to us. Amongst these are the Spongesenormous colonies of minute structureless organisms, and the Infusoria.

Next to these come the subkingdom-Coelenterata. The best known representatives of this group are (1) The common hydra of our ponds, which is a minute simple tube set round with tentacles. It has no organs of circulation or respiration, and no traces of a nervous system; and (2) The sea anemones, which are but slightly more complex than the hydra; but they are large, and, as is well known, often beautiful.

Now in simple language, the coral animal is merely a minute seaanemone, endowed with the power to secrete from the ocean carbonate of lime, and to deposit it in exquisite forms round itself. The animals dwell in colonies; and each successive colony forms a layer upon the dead dwellings of its predecessors. And all this has been going on for unnumbered ages, so that there are in the ocean vast masses of dead coral, and a thin living stratum upon its surface. Hence there may be reefs a thousand miles long, and it may not be improbable that a vast continent of such reefs, which covered millions of miles in area, has by geological action sunk in the Pacific Ocean.

The general inference as to the industry of these little coral polyps.

« AnteriorContinuar »