After many a weary round of births and deaths or long sojourns in Purgatory, after many a climb up the dark ladder of life, every being at last will reach the desired goal, and see the fulfilment of prophecy when God will _be_ all and _in_ all. A great Orientalist has pronounced Buddhism to be the most godless of all heathen religions. If this assertion means that the god of the heathens is anthropomorphic and that of the Buddhists is not so, then the statement of this distinguished scholar, though a little staggering at first sight, may be regarded as containing an element of truth, but not the whole truth. The question whether the true Buddhism of Gotama recognized a god in any sense of the expression still exercises the minds of controversialists. At the very outset of our inquiry into the Buddhistic conception of a god or no-god, we are confronted by directly conflicting conclusions arrived at by two eminent authorities. Professor Rhys Davids regards the true Buddhism of Gotama to be nothing but blank Atheism, whereas Mr. Arthur Lillie unflinchingly pronounces it to be Theism _pur et simple_. In my judgment, all the controversy that rages around the Hinayâna[O] and the Mahayâna, which represent respectively the Southern and Northern schools of thought, only confuses the issue; and the opinions of sectarian Buddhists, or even the edicts of Asoka, cannot, I think, be accepted in themselves as directly supporting any hard-and-fast theory regarding the Theistic or Atheistic tendencies in the teaching of Gotama. [O] The Hinayâna, or Small Vehicle of Salvation, was the abstract and philosophical presentment of Buddhism as first conceived. It was more adapted to the sage than to the masses who required a symbolic presentation, such as is afforded by the Mahayâna, or Great Vehicle of Salvation. We see the same kind of development holding a place in the history of Christianity. Upon the enigmatical utterances of Jesus and the mystical sophisms of St. Paul there has been raised a splendid fabric of dogmatic ecclesiasticism; and under the shadow of its symbolism the poor in spirit, the ignorant and the weak, have found consolations which would not have been theirs if no such development of the abstract principles of the faith had taken place. With reference to the evidence of the edicts, it must not be overlooked that Asoka figured as a good Theist while Viceroy at Ujain, and for some years subsequent to his becoming Emperor of India--a fact which several of his edicts, I believe, confirm.