India, Its Life and ThoughtJones, John P. (John Peter)
Religion
India, Its Life and Thought
Jones, John P. (John Peter)
India -- Civilization; India -- Religion; Missions -- India
describing the judgment scene at the last great day, "Come, ye blessed
of my father, inasmuch as ye have treated kindly and lovingly one of
the least of my brethren ye have done it unto me, enter ye into the
joy of your Lord." Though He was born a Jew, He opened wide the
portals of His religion and invited all men of all conditions. "Come
unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you
rest." He sent forth His followers into all lands to disciple and
bring to the truth all nations. And in all lands His method of
procedure has been to reach first the lowest among the people and then
gradually to rise to the highest, until He has taken possession of the
whole land. His universal heart of love took in all men of all social
strata. All that He asked was that men should come to Him with purpose
sincere and with a longing for light and truth.
III
_The Principles and Teachings which differentiate and separate Christ
and Buddha_
Thus far we have seen these two great leaders of men standing side by
side and revealing the same traits and principles.
But they also revealed fundamental differences which it were well for
us to consider.
Though much united them, and that when more than five centuries and
thousands of miles held them apart, we also discover that a gulf
wider than that of time or space opened between them.
Their lives and their doctrines and the faiths which they promulgated
reveal strangely diverse contentions and tendencies.
(1) First of all, and at the root of all, lies their attitude toward
the Divine Being. Jesus was preeminently a God-intoxicated Being,
while the most manifest mental attitude of Gautama was his
agnosticism. Christ never ceased speaking of and communing with His
Father in heaven. He was wont to retire regularly from human society
in order that He might enjoy the Heavenly Presence whose very radiance
shone in and upon Him daily. He declared that He did nothing without
consulting with and receiving direction from God. And this was natural
enough when we remember His declaration that He came into the world to
reveal the Father unto men. Listen to His words, "My meat is to do the
will of Him that sent me and to finish His work." "The Father that
dwelleth in me doeth the work." "The Father is glorified in the Son."
"I love the Father and go unto Him." "Believest thou not that I am in
the Father and the Father in me?" "Oh, righteous Father, the world
hath not known Thee, but I have known Thee." In all His expressions
of oneness with God, of His living unto God, and of His drawing His
daily strength from God, His experience was eminently unique. He lived
more in heaven than on earth in those days of His incarnation. Apart
from any consideration of His Divinity, He can truly be said to be a
man of God whose soul was in harmony with the Father.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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