Buddhism

THE WAY OF SALVATION.
CHRISTIANITY

“If God is Love, why do we need a Mediator? I think the best answer is, I do not know. Nor do I know why, God being Love, the intervention of maternal suffering is the indispensable condition of existence, or why suffering is the necessary medium for the procuring of anything that really deserves the name of blessing. Why are knowledge, civilization, health, purchased only by severe labour for us by others, that is by mediation? I only know that it is so, an unalterable law, the beauty of which I can dimly see, and always most brightly in those moments when I am least earthly in feeling, and most disposed to reckon nobleness immeasurably above physical, or even mental comfort. And seeing that as the law of the Universe, I am prepared to believe and acquiesce in it when found in the Atonement, as part of the Divine Government—a philosophically as well as theologically demanded necessity. It is no exception to the great system, but in perfect harmony with it.”

I

♦ The Father-thought ♦ The fundamental thought of the message of the Christ, as of His life, is the thought of the Fatherhood of God, man being in His view the child of God, brought into being for a great purpose. None have been so conscious as He of the failure of man to maintain this high relation, or of the disastrous effect of the failure upon the whole of human life. It involved the breaking up of the Home, unutterable pain to the Father, unutterable loss to man, as is recorded in St. Luke XV. The self-life, as opposed to the child-life, had been set up; there are two centres where one had been, two conflicting wills in a universe in which one Will alone must reign.

In other words, Jesus realized, above the universe, and beyond Law, One to Whom man is related by the closest ties, from Whom he is unable truly to separate himself, and towards Whom he is accountable. Thus to each man there falls, in addition to his personal and relative share in the suffering involved in conflict with the inexorable working of the inexorable Causal Law, a very solemn personal responsibility.

♦ The Father is the true Centre ♦ That the true centre of man’s life is the Father—“the Father from Whom every fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named”—is the fact never to be forgotten in the study of the “Way of Salvation” as taught by Jesus. The first move, when the Prodigal Son “comes to himself,” is back to the Father.

And should he prefer to remain in the far country, sowing there the seed of his evil desires and forthgoings, the law of the harvest is immutable: every seed sown brings its assured and appropriate harvest.

“Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap. He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.”

II

♦ The Law of Cause and Effect ♦ At the World’s Parliament of Religions, held in Chicago some years ago, a Buddhist delegate made the statement that no doctrine which ignores or denies the Law of Cause and Effect would find acceptance with men of his Faith. It is probable that he had not realized that the Christian Faith is founded upon the Law also.

♦ The supreme illustration ♦ The supreme illustration of the working of the Causal or Harvest Law, that which most exquisitely reveals its gracious beneficence, is that of the life, death, and rising of Jesus Christ. His own words in this connection are unmistakable, and should be carefully studied by any who are tempted to think that the death upon the Cross was either a mere martyrdom, or an arbitrary enactment of God designed to supersede His own Law. The Christ came not to be destroyed, nor to destroy, but to fulfil.

Why choose so ineffective a manner of life? Why court disaster by these repeated visits to the capital, unless prepared to yield something to the leaders of the religious and political parties there? Further, why go away, leaving the little company of devoted followers leaderless and comfortless?

Because He was carrying out the Father’s Purpose? Surely; but it was the Father’s Purpose because it was in the very nature of the case. The Causal Law demanded the Cross as the Effect of many Causes. The Causal Law demanded the Cross as a Cause from which should appear in their order such gracious world-embracing Effects as the wise and gentle Buddha must have rejoiced to know.

♦ Evil Causes ♦ Jesus refers to the evil Causes which led to the Cross very little, because in the “combination of Causes,” to use the Buddhist phrase, these must fall in with those which in the natural working of the Law must serve the purpose of the Law. The evil Causes were present, and penitent humanity will never cease to mourn them.

♦ The essential Cause ♦ The Harvest ♦ To make His meaning quite clear Jesus returned for illustration to the Law as it works in nature. “Except the corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” The little seed, hidden in the ground and apparently dead, reappears, not in its own individual life, but in a rich harvest. Present apparent failure; future great result. Now to all appearance, defeat, death, a Cross; some day, when realities are known, victory, life, glory.

How can these things be? If the little grain of wheat could speak, would it not say, “I die that the harvest may be”? and these are the very words of the Lord Jesus.

His harvest is, as we must remember, the same harvest which has been so passionately desired by all lovers of men—desired by the Buddha above them all—the harvest of the at-one-ment of humanity with the Universe, or, as He would state it, the harvest of the at-one-ment of men with the Father.

In other words, this shameful death is the seed of the Kingdom of the Father, sown in this world of ours, the harvest of which is silently, gradually, surely growing, as all harvests do grow. Men and women are being at-oned with the Father simply by falling into line with the universal harvest law. This fact may be stated and illustrated in many ways, but it must never be forgotten that this is our Lord’s own way of stating it. “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men.”

III

♦ Suffering and Love ♦ Is the Causal Law a cruel Law, since death to life appears to be its true meaning?

Jesus, speaking with the authority of a perfect understanding of the Father-heart, speaks of the Law as in its essence pure Love. The Father, Himself Love, introduced the Law, and the Law lies very deep in Love since He Himself obeyed it. God so loved, that He gave.

There is no attempt to minimize the suffering which lies inside the Law in the case of a world which has defied it. Jesus, the Saviour, knew strong crying and tears during those dark days of the sowing of the seed. But already He saw of the travail of His soul and was satisfied. The Father’s Name—that is the newly-revealed Name, Father—is glorified. The defeat of the arch-enemy is assured. The life-giving power of the Cross is realized, for all the world and for all time, as in a vision of glory. These were the thoughts which upheld the Saviour of the world, as He, resolutely refusing all relief, faced the days which lay before Him. Thus, the grain of wheat, falling into the ground and dying, has already borne a great Harvest. (See St. John xii. 24-36.)

“The great lesson of love is to die unto oneself. Christ’s love is always shown through death, just because the death of self is both the greatest expression of, and the only way to love. The two things go together inseparably; in fact, they are opposite faces of the same thing. And that dying is eternal life.”

“The pages blotted with tears are not always the darkest to look back upon. One page in the world’s history, stained with the bitterest tears ever shed upon earth, and steeped in guiltless blood, is not the darkest to read. It is in the light of that sorrow, and that sin, thou must learn to understand all the rest. All these hard and bitter questions are answered there to the holy heart: nowhere else, and to none else.”

IV

♦ The Law is Universal,
austere, but
immeasurably glorious ♦ Jesus maintained that the Law of the Harvest—the Law of Death unto Life—is universal. It holds as truly of every man and woman who would be in line with the Purpose of God as it did of the Christ. Devotion to Self kills the true Self; for the true centre of Man is not Self, but the Father. Hence the often-repeated demand of Jesus that His servants should follow Him in His life and death. Such surrender of the Self as His must, in their measure, be theirs. It is the only true human living, the living day by day in harmony with the fundamental Law.

The demand seems, until it is in some measure experienced, far too high, too austere, for the common human life. Many shrink back from it in fear. But those who know something of the forth-going life which takes the place of the old self-centred life know that it is immeasurably fuller, richer, nobler than the old; for they make the great discovery that the true glory of the child is that he should be in sympathy with the Father, in the joy of the harvest of a loving heart.

V

♦ No distinction between layman and saint ♦ The Law of Desire as taught by Christ ♦ It is a unique fact, though quite in the nature of the case, that in the thought of Jesus no distinction is drawn between layman and saint. All are called to be saints. The Law applies to every man. And it is no less startling to note that the Law of the death of self unto the finding of the greater self may be fulfilled in the ordinary daily human life. As we have already noted, there was no apartness in His own life; accordingly, there are no religious orders in His Kingdom; “they are in the world,” “I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world”; these are His own words. The reason is to be found in the Christian definition of the Law of Desire. Buddhism and Christianity are at one in the demand that the desires of the Self-life must die. But Christ substitutes for it a Desire so gracious, so fruitful, that it easily chokes all other desire, and makes even of the fascinating world a safe abode. This Desire is the Father. He is possessed by a passion for the Father, for His presence, His love, the fulfilment of His Purpose. The Law of the surrender of Desire becomes the most gracious free impulse of human nature. To die to self is the lesson of love. Uttermost allegiance to the King is an all-absorbing, consuming Desire. It is the old thirst for God, for the living God which distinguished the old seers of Israel, who foresaw that the thirst must be satisfied some day.

VI

♦ Each surrendered life another Seed Sown ♦ Each surrendered life is another seed sown, and adds its share to the great Harvest of the Kingdom: “a Harvest of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-restraint.” It is a literal harvest; not as some, who forget the ethical in Christianity, would have us believe, some magical transformation. The obedience to the fundamental Law is the whole of Christian law; but then it is the inclusive law, the law which the Father Himself obeys, the law of Love.

VII

♦ The End ♦ And the End? It is not the dreamless repose of Nirvana.

♦ With Him ♦ Let it be told in two commentaries upon two words of Jesus, from sources far removed from each other.

♦ New Service ♦ “Right, lad; the best reward for having wrought well already is to have more to do; and he that has been faithful over a few things must find his account in being made ruler over many things. That is the true and heroical rest, which only is worthy of gentlemen and sons of God. As for those who, either in this world or in the world to come, look for idleness, and hope that God shall feed them with pleasant things, as it were, with a spoon, Amyas, I count them cowards and base, even though they call themselves saints and elect.”—Kingsley.