BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR, —May I be permitted to point out to "P. A. "—I wish I could do it with a grace and courtesy like his- own—that he has not yet answered to himself the question,—What is the "reward in a future world" in which "Christianity finds its best motive for action "?—one, I hesitate not to say, incomparably better
than that announced by Rama.
For our reward is not money, or money's worth in any manner ; not, with Carlyle's " Infinite Shoeblack," the gratification of every
wish (shoeblack's wish) as it arises ; no, but it is, "As for me, I shall behold thy presence in righteousness, and when .1 awake up
after thy likeness, I shall be satisfied with it"; it is, "When He shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is "; it is, "The soul becomes that which it contemplates "; it is,—
" Love, like an insect frequent in the woods, Will take the colour of the tree it feeds on "; it is the full answer given to the prayer of the Epiphany collect in our Common Prayer-book, "That we, which know Thee now by faith, may after this life have the fruition of thy glorious God- head." Is not living in the fruition of the living God better than "dying give the lie to a soulless destiny" ?—I am, Sir, &c.,
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