In India in the fifth century before Christ, the Hindu religion had become a very poor religion indeed. It was at that time a mere system of priestcraft. The nation groaned under the burdens which the priests placed upon them. Then a man was raised up to reform this religion. Sakya-Muni was born in the middle of the century; after attempting to find in the Hindu religion that help which the people needed, he cast it all aside and struck out for himself a new line of reasoning. He called himself the Buddha, that is, the “Enlightened One.” Soon his teachings were accepted in all India, going as far as Ceylon even. But in India the priests soon triumphed over the new faith and Buddhism was expelled and Brahminism re-established. Excepting the Jains, a Buddhist sect in Western India, there are now no Buddhists in India proper. In Ceylon it still remains. Buddha taught his disciples to preach his teachings everywhere. So they went to Burmah (from Ceylon) not long after Buddha’s death. From there it spread East to Siam, and North-east up the Irrawady River along the route that the Chinese traders were accustomed to pass over. From China it entered Japan. The Tripitakas, or “Three Baskets,” as they are designated, are the sacred books of the Buddhists. CHINA’S RELIGIONS. The Chinese legends say that Noah was their first emperor. Whether this be true or not, we know that China, like Egypt, was early settled and possessed a high civilization. The nations moved from Persia in the West until they came to the great Hoang Ho River; along its banks, and to the north and south of it, they settled. Of their early religion we know but little. The great sage Confucius (or Kong the teacher), was born somewhere about 551 before Christ. He was a statesman reformer. He was not a priest, nor even noted for piety. But he gathered together the sayings of the ancients, and weaving in with them his own wisdom, he produced the system now known as Confucianism. The books containing his teachings, and those of his immediate disciples, are called the King. A little before Confucius, lived Lao-Tsze, a philosopher and astrologer, who did something toward re-establishing the old religion, and who also added new teachings. His weird system is called Taoism, and its sacred books are the Tao-Te-King. Buddhism in China has taken in with Buddha’s teachings the doctrines and gods of Confucius and Lao-Tsze. SHINTOISM IN JAPAN.