N I THE ANTICIPATION EARLY two thousand years ago a great event took place. It was the birth of a man child. His advent had been dimly foretold in the garden of Eden, on the fall of the first Adam. The ark of Noah prefigured his work; and the altar of Abraham's son was a presage of the means. Moses, the lawgiver and leader, the counsellor and commander, the minister and mediator, offering himself in atonement for the sin of his people, foreshadowed the high offices of his celestial antitype, and established a typical ritual which subsisted till he came. Thus during four millenniums, more and more clearly in the wistful eyes of the waiting elect, he was coming, coming, coming, coming. Also throughout four prophetic epochs he was announced. David, his royal ancestor, celebrated his advent in imperishable songs. Elijah, the forerunner and reformer, standing for loyalty and legality in the dark days of defection and disorder, preached repentance for the remission of sins, and cried, Make ye ready the way of the Lord. The inspired seer Isaiah, to whom the future was present, with burning lips called out, Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem. Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. And Malachi, closing the long prophetic roll, stood forth at last, in the name of Jehovah proclaiming, Behold, the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in. Yet who may abide the day of his coming, and who shall stand when he appeareth? But unto you that fear his name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings. The time is ripening. Only four centuries remain. Now, O voice of prophecy, hush. During all those early ages, throughout the gentile world far and near, unconscious prophecies of his coming abounded. In the poignant consciousness of innate depravity and overt guilt, mankind instinctively sought for atonement in sacrifice, for remission in the vicarious shedding of blood, even of human blood. And so it was that every temple and every altar, every priest and every augur, betokened his coming. In many strange fables too, as of Pandora and of Prometheus, of Danae and of Perseus, the mythologists anticipated the evangelists. Groping thus in the valley and shadow of death, four races of mankind in diverse quarters of the world gathered severally at the feet of four great sages to be taught the way of light and life, hoping that in the teacher was life, and the life the light of men. Confucius, for nearly twenty-five centuries, has been the supreme and undisputed teacher of the most populous quarter of the globe. Leaving a memory perpetuated even yet in manners, gestures and dress, leaving analects of ethical maxims so wise and pure as to command universal admiration, he justly ranks as a leader of humanity, and as a type of the true light. Buddha, The Enlightened, The Light of Asia, was hailed as a deliverer, teaching a way of salvation from the miseries of life by the transmigration of Karma, and the reabsorbtion of Nirvana. In the Buddhistic Canon |