THE

METHODIST MAGAZINE,

FOR OCTOBER, 1819.

CONVERSION OF A BUDHIST PRIEST.

(Continued from page 649.)

HAVING inspected the temple, we proceeded to view the pagoda or sacred tower, connected therewith. There is no entrance to it, being constructed of a solid mass of earth, &c. Its appearance is not much unlike the dome of St. Paul's cathedral in London. It rises to a spire, which is, as I have already observed, finely gilt, an ornament with which these towers are not in the general attended; with this exception, all the others, which I have seen on the coast, are of the same model and appearance with this.

The common legend uniformly reported by all the priests, is, that beneath every one of these piles, is some part, however small, of the real body of Budhu; some pieces of his hair, some clip of his nails, some splinter of his bones, has been deposited at the laying of the foundation; and some even boast of a complete tooth of Budhu, being entombed beneath the pagoda of this temple.

The learned, however, of the priests, deny this honour save to four places in the universe; Rajagooroo informed me, the tradition is, that the four principal teeth of Budhu, two from the upper, and two from the lower jaw, were preserved as sacred relics, and have been deposited as follows:

The first, in Lokayey Sarrpayek, or the world of snakes. The second, in Tavating-seh, or one of the glorious heavens. The third, in Grandharadaiseh, a large city in the empire of China. And the fourth, in the principal temple at Kandy.

How it is preserved in the world of snakes, I am unable to say, through ignorance of the subject, or in Tavating-sèh, either; but the Kandian tooth is said to be contained in a massy gold box, and is certainly carried, to the present day, in splendid procession, upon the back of a sacred elephant, at certain festivals observed in the Kandian metropolis; some sketch of one of these processions, I will endeavour to give hereafter. It may be interesting to an European reader.

VOL. XLII, OCTOBER, 1819.

This circumstance relative to the sacred relics, or the belief of it, is sufficient to attach the highest degree of local sanctity to the honoured priests of a Budhist temple. Hence it is that the pagoda itself is an object of adoration; and I remember, once, on a visit to a place called Calany, where there is a very celebrated pagoga, near a river, in the bed of which, it is said Budhu left the impression of his foot, I saw a number of the comman Cingalese people, walking round the sacred tower, with much zeal, repeating a certain form of words, or litany, as a kind of responsive song; and on inquiry of the people why they did so, they replied, it was in honour of Budhu; and that they might live a thousand years! O thou blessed Jesus! how infinitely superior are the prospects held out to THY real worshippers, in thy holy gospel: an eternity of years! "And so shall we EVER be with the Lord." 1 Thess. iv. 17.

We were next conducted to the dwelling-house of Rajagooroo, which is situated without the wall of the temple yard, and as I have before related, was built under his own superintendance, and from a plan drawn by himself. The stairs leading to the upper rooms are remarkable, as being peculiarly awkward and inconvenient. In building a house with two floors, the principal part in which the native carpenters display any unaptness in constructing aright, is the stair-case, of which we have a daily proof in the Mission-house at Colombo.

On reaching the upper rooms, we were shewn into them all, with the utmost readiness. A fine open virandah encircled the whole floor, in the manner of the galleries at our ancient inns in England. Rajagooroo's study was furnished with a writingtable in the English fashion; and the Christian Scriptures were among his books. The centre room was devoted to general use as a library, the books of which were handsome and elegant, beyond description. In addition to a number of old Cingalese books, written on leaves, with others in the Pali and Sanscrit languages, there was a large quantity of Burman books, amounting to 175 volumes, some written in letters of gold, with the leaves richly gilt, and the covers superbly varnished and embossed; these were given to Rajagooroo from the royal library in Ava, at the King's command, and were proudly exhibited as the honourable trophies of his wisdom and talent; I have since learned from our convert, that the whole value of this library was estimated 4000 rds. or 2707. sterling, and his Cingalese books at about 130%. more.

After examining and admiring this elegant and valuable collection of eastern learning, which the absence of Rajagooroo, unfortunately prevented our having explained to us so amply as our inquiries would have dictated, we retired to the back virandah, and sat down to rest.

We were presently surrounded by all the household priests and others, and of course began a conversation with them on Divine things; the foremost in this conversation was Sumana, the priest next in rank to Rajagooroo, a man who had accompanied his superior to Ava; and was as firmly rivited in his Budhist opinions, as his master had been before his mind was enlightened by the influence of Divine truth. Notwithstanding a long and interesting amicable discussion, I am sorry to add, no perceptible impression was made on this man's mind. We left him, to all appearance, as we found him. He succeeded Rajagooroo, on his renouncing heathenism, and at present retains his situation. Some good effects were doubtless produced on the minds of some of the inferior priests, of which some fruit, though in a small degree, have been since apparent.

As we were departing, we were shewn another department of this sacerdotal estate, which must here be noticed, because afterwards some particulars shall be related, which will give an interest to it. It was the dormitory, or sleeping-house of the priests, attached to the temple; a large hall, or building, on the opposite side of the estate, to that on which the residence of the head priest stands. The whole concern appeared a complete heathen establishment, connected with which are 60 temples, which are supplied by 350 priests.

We took leave of our yellow-robed acquaintances in the most friendly manner, and thanking the head priest for his ready attentions, we departed, having fixed upon a day on which to preach to them. He said, he should be happy to see us, and would have all things in readiness.

On the day appointed, we set out early in the morning, eight o'clock being the hour agreed upon for the service to commence; we had previously mentioned our singular engagement to H. R. Sneyd, Esq. the provincial judge of Galle, a gentleman sincerely and ardently interested in the success of the Gospel; and he not only proposed to accompany us to the temple, but likewise begged us to call and breakfast with him, as we returned home. Besides this gentleman, the party consisted of brothers Erskine and Clough, Mrs. Harvard, and myself. Our assistant brother, A. C. Lallmam, accompanied us as our interpreter. On our arrival at the temple, we were received in great form by the priests, with Sumana at their head, dressed in a handsome robe of yellow velvet. The attentions paid us were by no means lessened by the provincial judge being with us.

We found many of the native Cingalese assembled, and several Christians, who had been attracted by the novelty of hearing the gospel in a Budhist temple. One of the priests recommended the dwelling-house as the most suitable place for the sermon; but having had so unequivocal an invitation from * 4 0 2. *

Rajagooroo, I was determined to pursue my original purpose of preaching within the sacred precincts of the idol's repose; and telling the man, mildly, that I preferred the temple, no further observation was made. The chairs were brought and placed under the virandah of the temple, for the Judge and another friend to sit on. I then took my standing with my back to the door, and preached to the priests and to the people from 1 Cor. viii. 4, "We know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one."

The sermon was not one of declamation, or abuse. If that had been the talent of the preacher, his respect for the honoured friend, who, this morning, was one of the audience, aside from every other consideration, would, of course, have prevented such a mode of address. The text is a very fair index to the sermon then delivered, the design and drift of which, was to shew:

First, That there was "nothing" intrinsically excellent in the idol to deserve adoration. This was illustrated by inquiring of the head priest relative to the materials of which it was com posed; in answer to which he confessed that it was made of earth. Here was a good ground of appeal after the manner of the prophet Isaiah (chap. xliv.) in favour of the declaration in the text, "We know that an idol is nothing in the world.”

Secondly, That there was nothing either in the character or doctrines of Budhu, which rendered his image a proper object of adoration. As it respects the character of Budhu, their sacred books declare, that he was the son of a king, consequently only a mortal man; and hence, the highest that could justly be said of him is that he was a good man! Now, thanks be to God! there are thousands of good men in the world still; and if we were to begin to pay Divine honours to men because of their goodness, there would be no end to our duties. And if we were all of us to become good men, then all would become gods; and there would be none to worship them. You know Budhu freely declares, that any man, by imitating his example, may become a Budhu likewise. If this religion were to prevail, and all people to become Budhus, the world would be a world of kings without subjects, of masters without servants, of gods without worshippers. It is plain, therefore, that whatever may be in the character of Budhu worthy of imitation, there can be nothing to render him a proper object of adoration. And with respect to his doctrines; though some of them may be good, yet others are very dangerous and destructive to the souls of men; and especially those which deny a Supreme Creator and God; which you know is inculcated in the Books of the Budhist religion. Now supposing a good man were to bring you a bason of good milk, and as he was bringing it, through his ignorance, were to put into it something of a

deadly, poisonous nature; would you drink the milk because the man was good? Or would you reject it because of the poison? The good doctrines of Budhu are the good milk; but the bad ones are the poison." Here Sumana, the head priest, interrupted, and said, "But supposing we did not know that the poison was put into the milk, what then?" I replied: Certainly the fault of drinking it would, in that case, not be so great. But still, notwithstanding your ignorance, the milk would not be the less poisonous on that account. Poison is poison; and though hidden and concealed, and unknown, it nevertheless continues to be poisonous. For many ages the people of this country have continued to drink the milk, generation after generation, but have not been aware of the poison. This, their ignorance, is therefore their excuse. But the people now cannot have this excuse. We are come to this land to shew the people the poison; I have shewed it to you this morning. What do you say? Will you drink any more of this poisonous milk? Or will you reject it, and accept of the pure milk of the Christian religion, which has no poison in it?" There could be no answer given to the inquiry; but we perceived the inferior priests to make many observations upon it among themselves. May the Lord send home the reflection to all their hearts! "Ho every one that thirsteth come ye. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." The service was utterly unlike an English discourse. We had several conversations and debates during the sermon, which led to remarks, which though they have long been forgotten by me, have, we trust, been remembered by the hearers.

Thirdly, That "there is none other God but one." This was established by several reasons which need not be repeated. And it was farther shown, that image-worship, even in honour of the true God, was entirely unsuitable to the Divine nature; who could not possibly be adequately represented under any form which we could conceive, and who being a pure spirit, is, of course, much more honoured and satisfied with the inward spiritual worship of the soul of man, and the outward obedience to the moral rules of his religion, than it can be supposed he would be with any gifts, however costly or valuable, or any salaam,* however profound and reverential, which could be made to a mere image made in his name.

The people were then suitably addressed on the sin and consequences of idol worship, to those who were better instructed, or who were within the reach of better instruction. And the glorious doctrines of the gospel being briefly stated and applied to the people's consciences, after prayer the novel assembly was dismissed. Between 20 and 30 priests stood in the virandah

* A profound bow of reverence.