on the other.

The gloomy nature of Buddhism is well expressed in Hardy's "Legends and
Theories of Buddhism" as follows: "The system of Buddhism is
humiliating, cheerless, man-marring, soul-crushing. It tells me that I
am not a reality, that I have no soul. It tells me that there is no
unalloyed happiness, no plenitude of enjoyment, no perfect unbroken
peace in the possession of any being whatever, from the highest to the
lowest, in any world. It tells me that I may live myriads of millions of
ages, and that not in any of those ages, nor in any portion of any age,
can I be free from apprehension as to the future, until I attain to a
state of unconsciousness; and that in order to arrive at this
consummation I must turn away from all that is pleasant, or lovely, or
instructive, or elevating, or sublime. It tells me by voices ever
repeated, like the ceaseless sound of the sea-wave on the shore, that I
shall be subject to sorrow, impermanence, and unreality so long as I
exist, and yet that I cannot cease to exist, nor for countless ages to
come, as I can only attain nirvana in the time of a Supreme Buddha. In
my distress I ask for the sympathy of an all-wise and all-powerful
friend. But I am mocked instead by the semblance of relief, and am told
to look to Buddha, who has ceased to exist; to the Dharma that never was
in existence, and to the Sangha, the members of which are real
existences, but like myself are partakers of sorrow and sin."

How shall we measure the contrast between all this and the ecstacies of
Christian hope, which in various forms are expressed in the Epistles of
Paul; the expected crown of righteousness, the eternal weight of glory;
heirship with Christ in an endless inheritance; the house not made with
hands; the General Assembly of the first born? Even in the midst of
earthly sorrows and persecutions he could say, "Nay, in all things we
are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of
God which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord."

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 80: It is by no means certain that Buddha's followers, in
carrying out his system, have not lapsed into the old notions of
merit-making asceticism to greater or less extent, and have become
virtually very much like the torpid a