Page images
PDF
EPUB

DEEPER CONSOLATIONS.

495

materials upon which their judgment is formed. No man can truly oppose their religion, for he who seems to be hostile to it is himself but one of the notes struck by the Unknowable Cause, which so plays upon the vast instrument of humanity as to bring harmony out of jangling sounds, and to produce the universal chords of truth from the individual dis

cords of error. Scientific discoveries and philosophic inquiries, so fatal to other creeds, touch not the universal religion. They who accept it can but desire the increase of knowledge, for even though new facts and deeper reasoning should overthrow something of what they have hitherto believed and taught, they will rejoice that their mistakes should be corrected, and their imperfections brought to light. They desire but the Truth, and the Truth has made them free. And as in their thoughts they can wish nothing so much as to know and to believe that which is true, so in their lives they will express the serenity which that desire will inevitably bring. They are pained or troubled because other men see not as they see. They have no vain hope of a unity of thought which the very conditions of our being do not permit. They aim not at conquering the minds of men; far rather would they stimulate and help them to discover a higher Truth than they themselves have been permitted to know. And as their action will thus be inspired with the hope of contributing their mite to the treasury of human knowledge, wellbeing, and moral good, so their death will be the expression of that peaceful faith which has sustained their lives. Even though torn away when, in their own judgment, they have still much to do, they will

not repine at the necessity of leaving it undone, even though they are well aware that their names, which might have been illustrious in the annals of our race, will now be buried in oblivion. For the disappearance of a single life is but a ripple on the ocean of humanity, and humanity feels it not. Hence they will meet their end "sustained and soothed by an unfaltering trust,"

"Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch

About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.”

But the opposite fate, sometimes still more terrible, that of continuing to live when the joys of life are gone, and its purest happiness is turned into the bitterest pain, will be accepted too. Thus they will be willing, if need be, to remain in a world where their labour is not yet ended, even though that labour be wrought through suffering, despondency, and sorrow; willing also, if need be, to meet the universal lot, even though it strike them in the midst of prosperity, happiness, and hope; bowing in either case to the verdict of fate with unmurmuring resignation and fearless calm.

THE END.

INDE X.

21

VOL. II.

INDEX.

ABHIDHARMA-PITAKA, its metaphysics, ii. 141-145

Abiogenesis, the theory of, ii. 446; its destined function, ii. 470

Abraham, a Hanyf, i. 247; story of, ii. 239-241

Acts, the book of, its value, ii. 323; review of, ii. 323-341

Aditi, the goddess, ii. 93

Africa, burial rites in, i. 84; divination in, i. 137; ordeals in, i. 143 Africans, western, sacrifice among, i. 34; drink-offerings among, i. 41 Agag hewn in pieces, ii. 314 Age, a golden, traditions of, ii. 230-232 Agui, the god, ii. 85

Agnosticism allied to mysticism, ii. 489 Ahab, his troubles, ii. 314 Ahuna-Vairya, the, ii. 181, 182 Ahura-Mazda and Zarathustra, i. 229, 230; the god of the Parsees, i. 233; ancient worship of, ii. 159, 160; praise of, ii. 160, 161; rank and character, ii. 163; address to, ii. 163, 164; worship of, ii. 165-167; fire and water given by, ii. 168; questioned by Zarathustra, ii. 173-180; things which please and things which displease, ii. 173, 174; prescribes for medical training, ii. 175; the same as Ormazd, ii. 181; throughout the god of the Parsees, ii. 189; creates the world, ii. 225 Aischylos, his conception of the commercial relation between gods and men, i.

28.

Akaba, the vow of the first and second, i. 238

Ali, sign at his birth, i. 292 Amatongo, sacrifice to the, i. 32 Amazulus, sacrifice among the, i. 42; sneezing as an omen among, i. 131 Amos, his prophecy and history, ii. 277; conduct towards Amaziah, ii. 278 Anagamin, the, ii. 149, 150 (note) Analysis, ultimate metaphysical, ii. 464 Ananda and the Matangi girl, i. 376; and Buddha, ii. 134, 136 Ananias and his wife, story of, ii. 327

Ancestors, worship of, in Fiji and among the Kafirs, ii. 389, 390; in Peru, ii. 390

Angekoks, the, consecration of, i. 114, 115

Apocalypse, the, its author, ii. 366; its style, ii. 366; compared with the "Pilgrim's Progress," ii. 366; its visions, ii. 367, 368

Apollo, worship of, i. 29; his sense of gratitude appealed to, i. 29; oracle of the Clarian, i. 155

Aranyakas, the, ii. 102, 103

Arhats, the, rank of, ii. 149, 150 Asceticism, various degrees of, i. 99; in Mexico and Peru, i. 100-104; rules of Chinese, ii. 127

Ashem-vohu, the, ii. 181, 182

Asita, the Rishi, the child and Buddha, i. 298

Asoka, the Buddhist king, ii. 110, 111
Astrology, i. 142

Astrologers in Thibet, i. 177
Asvagosha, a Buddhist preacher, i. 148
Atharva-Veda-Sanhitâ, the, ii. 78, 79
Atman, ii. 405

Atmospheric currents, an illustration, ii. 471

Atomatism, apparent puzzle of, resolved, ii. 464, 466

Australia, burial rites in, i. 84

BABEL, confusion at, ii. 312
Balaam, treatment of, ii. 312
Balaki, the Brahman, ii. 105
Banshee, the Irish, i. 136

Baptism, a general religious rite, i. 57;
in Fantee, i. 58; among the Cherokees,
Aztecs, &c., i. 58; in Mexico, i. 58,
61; in Mongolia and Thibet, i. 61;
among the Parsees, i. 61, 62; in the
Christian Church i. 62, 63; meaning of
the rite, i. 63, 64
Barabbas, i. 277, 278

Barnabas, and Paul in Antioch, ii. 333; taken for Zeus, ii. 333; separation, ii. 336

Beatitudes, the, i. 471, 472

« PreviousContinue »