| A well known Christian missionary of Peking, China, | | | | branded without inward faith would be an insult to your |
| was invited one day by a Buddhist acquaintance to | | | | religion as well as treachery to my own, would it not? |
| attend the ceremony of initiation for a class of one | | | | Is not real religion a matter of the heart?" |
| hundred and eighty priests and some twenty laity who | | | | The old lady, who had overheard with evident |
| had been undergoing preparatory instruction at the | | | | disapproval the remark of the attendant, turned to the |
| stately and important Buddhist monastery. The | | | | missionary at once and said, "Is that the way you |
| beautiful courts of the temple were filled by a throng | | | | Westerners, you Christians, speak of your faith? Is the |
| of invited guests and spectators, waiting to watch the | | | | reality of religion for you also an inward experience of |
| impressive procession of candidates, acolytes, | | | | the heart?" And with that began an interesting |
| attendants and high officials, all in their appropriate | | | | interchange of conversation, each party discovering |
| vestments. No outsider was privileged to witness the | | | | that in the heart of the other was a genuine longing for |
| solemn taking by each candidate for the priesthood of | | | | God that overwhelmed all the artificial, material |
| the vow to "keep the Ten Laws," followed by the | | | | distinctions and the human devices through which men |
| indelible branding of his scalp, truly a "baptism of fire." | | | | have limited to particular and exclusive paths their way |
| Less private was the initiation of the lay brethren and | | | | of search, and drew these two pilgrims on the way |
| _sisters,_ more lightly branded on the right wrist, while | | | | toward God into a common and very real fellowship |
| all about intoned "Na Mah Pen Shih Shih Chia Mou Ni | | | | of the spirit. |
| Fo." (I put my trust in my original teacher, | | | | A Buddhist monk was passing by a mission building in |
| Säkyamuni, Buddha.) | | | | another city' of China when his attention was suddenly |
| The missionary was deeply impressed by the serenity | | | | drawn to the Svastika and other Buddhist symbols |
| and devotion of the worshipers and by the dignity and | | | | which the architect had skilfully used in decorating the |
| solemnity of the service. The last candidate to rise and | | | | building. His face brightened as he said to his |
| receive the baptism of branding was a young married | | | | companion: "I did not know that Christians had any |
| woman of refined appearance, attended by an elderly | | | | appreciation of beauty in theirreligion." |
| lady, evidently her mother, who watched with an | | | | These incidents reveal aspects of the alchemy of the |
| expression of mingled devotion, insight and pride her | | | | soul by which the real devotee of one religion |
| daughter's initiation and welcomed her at the end of | | | | perceives values which are dear to him in another |
| the process with radiant face, as a daughter, now, in a | | | | religion. The good which he has attained in his old |
| spiritual as well as a physical sense. At that moment | | | | religion enables him to appropriate the better in the |
| an attendant, noting the keen interest of the missionary, | | | | new religion. A converted monk, explaining his |
| said to him rather flippantly, "Would you not like to have | | | | acceptance of Christianity, said: "I found in Jesus Christ |
| your arm branded, too?" "I might," he replied, "just out | | | | the great Bodhisattva, my Saviour, who brings to |
| of curiosity, but I could not receive the branding as a | | | | fruition the aspirations awakened in me by Buddhism. |
| believer in the Buddha. I am a Christian believer. To be | | | | |