[P] _Buddhism and its Christian Critics_, by Paul Carus.
General Forlong, in his _Short Studies in the Science of Comparative Religion_, informs us that "the first great Hindu Creating Father was a real Prajā-pati, 'Lord of Creations'--a true Hermaik Brahmā; and, being depicted as a potent masculine Zeus, like to Yahvê, Chemosh, Amon, etc., he in time naturally became distasteful to cultured and pious philosophic minds searching after a _great ideal_, and no magnified man, solar or royal governor. As did Vedantists, so have others developed a _great neuter Brahm_; even pious Christian philosophers have sought, and some few dared to own, a Brahm, despite the direct anthropomorphic teaching of the Christian and Hebrew Scriptures. Thus the Rev. Principal Caird, D.D. (Glasgow University), boldly says, in his Gifford Lectures, 1895-6, that in his view 'Christianity knows no such thing as a First Cause, or an Omnipotent Creator and moral governor of the world, a being framed after the image of man, an anthropomorphic potentate seated on a celestial throne and dispensing rewards after the manner of an earthly sovereign or magistrate.'"
It is remarkable to find a parallel conception of Law, as associated by Buddhists with the idea of divinity prevailing among the Egyptians, who "recognized a divinity in those cases only when they perceived the presence of a fixed Law, either of permanence or of change. This _regularity_, which is the constitutive character of the Egyptian divinity, was called Maāt. Maāt is, in fact, the Law and Order by which the universe exists. Truth and Justice are but forms of Maāt as applied to human action."[Q]
[Q] _Vide Book of the Dead_ (British Museum).
In Mr. Arthur Lillie's book, _The Influence of Buddhism on Primitive Christianity_, there is struck a note of playfulness which almost leads one to suppose that the writer does not intend that he should be taken seriously everywhere in his fascinating pages. This is apparent even in his treatment of the Jewish conception of an Almighty ruler, when he takes for his text (Judges i. 19): "The Lord was with Judah, and He drove out the inhabitants of the mountains, but _could not_ drive out the inhabitants of the valley because they had chariots of iron." In a similar spirit in this connection he would probably handle rather roughly the notion of omniscience.