According to _Luke_, a courtesan visited Jesus and had her sins remitted. According to the _Mahavaggo_, Gotama was visited by a harlot whom he instructed in things divine.[1] In _Matthew_, Jesus is depicted as a glutton and a wine-bibber. In the _Mahavaggo_, the picture of Gotama is the same.[2] In _Matthew_ it is written; "Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust doth consume and where thieves break through and steal." The _Khuddakapatho_ says: "Righteousness is a treasure which no man can steal. It is a treasure that abideth alway."[3] In _Luke_ it is written: "As ye would that men should do unto you, do ye also unto them." The _Dhammaphada_ say: "Put yourself in the place of others, do as you would be done by."[4] [Footnote 1: Luke vii. 37-50. Sacred Books of the East, xi. 30.] [Footnote 2: Matthew xi, 19. S. B. E. xiii. 92.] [Footnote 3: Matthew vi. 19. S. B. E. x. 191.] [Footnote 4: Luke vi. 31. S. B. E. x. 36.] The miracle of walking on the water, that of the money-bearing fish, the story of the Woman at the Well, the proclamation of an unpardonable sin, even the mediaeval myth of the Wandering Jew, may have originated in Buddhist legend.[5] [Footnote 5: _Cf._ Edmunds: Buddhist and Christian Gospels.] Pious minds have been disturbed by these similitudes. The resemblance between Maya and Maria has perplexed. The perhaps uncertain likeness of Gotama to Jesus has occasioned irreverent doubts. But the parallelisms may be fortuitous. Probably they are. Even otherwise they but enhance the sororal beauties of faiths which if cognate are quite distinct. Then too the penetrating charm of the parables and sermons of the Buddha fades before the perfection of the sermons and parables of the Christ. The birth, ministry, transfiguration, and passing of Gotama are marvels which, however exquisite, the wholly spiritual apparitions of the Lord efface. Other similarities, such as they are, may without impropriety, perhaps, be attributed to the ideals progressus. Hindu and Chaldean beliefs constitute the two primal inspirational faiths. From the one, Buddhism and Zoroasterism developed. From the other the creed of Israel and possibly that of Egypt came. Religions that followed were afterthoughts of the divine. They were revelations sometimes more intelligible, in one instance inexpressibly more luminous, yet invariably reminiscent of an anterior light.