The Christian missionary in Buddhist lands is faced with a task of infinite fascination. He is dealing, in the first place, with remarkable peoples for whom their religion has done much of the great service which Christianity has done for him and his people. He will find everywhere traces of a mighty Buddhist civilisation, and in many places, if he has the eye to see, proofs that this venerable religion is still alive and is reforming itself to meet the needs of the modern world. In the second place, he will find that it is vitally linked up with the intensely interesting and important nationalist movements of Asia, and that he cannot understand the political situation in these countries without a close and careful study of the religion. And in the third place, he will find that it is not only as part and parcel of nationalist movements that Buddhism is alive, but that it has an international programme and that it is closely bound up with the movement of "Asia for the Asiatics"--a movement deserving of respectful and sympathetic study. How then will the missionary prepare himself for this absorbing task? Nothing can take the place of friendly intercourse with Buddhists in temple and home, on pilgrimage and at great times of festival; it is thus that the religion will become a living reality to him, full of colour and movement, giving him at times moments of exquisite pleasure in its artistic pageantry, and bringing him into sympathetic touch with the "soul of the people" to whom he is seeking to minister. But to prepare him for this absorbing pursuit, at once business and pleasure, study and hobby, for any one who really enjoys such things, he can and must do some systematic reading. Appended are a course of study for the first two years worked out for Y.M.C.A. secretaries in India, and a more advanced and detailed course. The following additional notes may be of service in using these: 1. Clearly the first step is to get a sympathetic and accurate idea of the founder of Buddhism, of the essence of his teaching, and of the secret of his amazing influence. There is, in human history, only one figure more significant and more worthy of a study. Side by side the student should read Sir Edwin Arnold's _Light of Asia_ (London: Kegan Paul. 1s. 6d. and 5s.) and some good biographical study such as that of H. Oldenberg, _Buddha_ (London: Williams & Norgate. Out of print. 1882), or that by the present writer, _Gotama Buddha_ (New York: Association Press. 1920). 2. Next he will do well to saturate himself in such selections of the moral teachings of Gautama as are contained in the _Dhammapada_ or the _Itivuttaka_, both of which contain much very early material, some of which may be attributed to the founder himself. 3. For the whole Buddhist system in its earlier forms Warren's admirable _Buddhism in Translations_ (Harvard Oriental Series. Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A. 1900) is indispensable, and should be constantly used for reference.