Heathen religious bodies have their sacred books, that answer to them as the Bible answers to the Christians. It is often claimed that they are as good in their way as the Bible. However the Bible need not fear comparison.
The Mohammedans have their Koran, the Hindus their Vedas, the Parsees their Zend Avesta, the Buddists their Tripitaka, and Confucian Texts.
Sir Monier Williams, who, it is claimed, knew more about the so-called sacred books of the East than any man, who has ever lived, contrasted them with the Bible as follows:
These non-Christian ‘Bibles’ are all developed in the wrong direction. They all begin with some flashes of true light and end in utter darkness. Pile them, if you will, on the left side of your study table, but place your own Holy Bible on the right side—all by itself—all alone—with a big gap between. It takes some courage to appear intolerant in this day of flabby compromise; but I contend … there is a gulf between the Bible and the sacred books of the East, which severs the one from the other utterly, hopelessly, and for ever—not a mere rift, which may be easily closed, across which the Christian and the non-Christian may shake hands and interchange similar ideas in regard to essential truths, but a veritable gulf, which cannot be bridged over by any science of religious thought—yes, a bridgeless chasm, which no theory of evolution can ever span.”
These are weighty words and well worth pondering over. We can confirm them by the following testimony of a missionary in China. He met a cultured Chinese gentleman, an ardent follower of Confucius. This Chinese gentleman said, “I know nothing about Christianity, but I would like to know.”
The missionary, instead of condemning the sacred books of the Buddhists, wisely began by saying, “The teachings of Confucius are very high, and the Moslem’s Koran teaches some excellent things.”
“Yes, indeed,” assented the Chinese gentleman.
“But then the Zend Avesta, and the Vedas and the precepts of Gautama Buddha all contain beautiful counsels,” said the missionary, “and even you would confess that Jesus Christ is at least not inferior to all these as a Great Teacher.”
“Yes,” replied the Chinese gentleman. “I’ve read the Sermon on the Mount—it is truly beautiful.”
“Then,” said the missionary, “I suppose you would suggest that each of us ought to follow his own religion—you should be a Confucianist—I a Christian—the Singhalese a Buddhist and so on.”
“Yes,” was the reply, “that is what we think in China.”
Then the missionary came to the vital point, the crux of the whole matter. “Now tell me,” he said, “where do you find the power to carry out what your prophet Confucius teaches?”
He leaned back in his chair and laughed aloud. “Oh! I have no power. We admire the teaching, but we have no power to carry it out.”
The missionary made no remark. He had evidently touched the Chinese gentleman on the weak spot in his armour. If conduct is going to take us to eternal bliss, and we have no power to follow the precepts given, the situation is despairing, hopeless—it ends in a frightful leap in the dark, and a fearful awakening when too late.
The Chinese gentleman leaned forward, and touching the missionary on the knee, asked earnestly, “Where do you find the power to do what Jesus Christ commands?
The missionary replied, “This is just where Christianity differs from every other religion. Our Lord told us, ‘Without Me ye can do nothing,’ but He sends His Holy Spirit into the hearts of His followers, those who trust Him as Saviour, and His Holy Spirit gives them both the desire and power to carry that desire into practice.”
A smile of joy spread over the Chinese gentleman’s face, “Why, that is wonderful! Wonderful tell me about it.”
The missionary, nothing loth, told the old old story out of a full heart. The truth laid hold of the Chinese gentleman. Heathen beliefs vanished like mists before the rising sun, and the missionary had the joy of baptising his friend.
A young Oriental student at Cambridge after long and cautious enquiry into the truth of Christianity said, “I have been reading your sacred Book; and the difference between it and our sacred books of the East is not altogether in its precepts; for there are wonderful precepts, high and great, also in our books; but your Book and yours alone, contains I see, the secret of how they may be done.”
Turn from the lofty precepts of these Eastern sacred books, and look at the practices of their adherents. Look at the frightful immorality of the priests and the vestal virgins of the temples. And mark you, that is carried on as part of their religion. Look at the backward condition of the nations over whom these religions hold sway. Look at the wickedness that goes on unrebuked.
Turn from that to the Bible. It is a life-giving book. It proclaims pardon and peace through the atoning work of the Son of God. It transforms lives. It uplifts men and women. It delivers them from sin. Read it, read it till that life is yours, till pardon and peace are yours. They are there on the sacred page for YOU. Miss these blessings, and you had better never have been born.
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). He is the only Saviour—not Mohammed, not Buddha, not Confucius. “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).