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(9) It is said that Buddha could and did vanish, Vol. 11, Bacred Books of the East, p. 21 and p. 51. It is said that Jesua vanished out of eight, Luke 24, v. 31. Buddha, -we are told, could change his color and vanish, Vol. 11, Sacred Books of the East, p. 48 and 49. Jesus, it is said, vanished, or made himself in- visible and escaped (Luke 4, v. 30), when they were about to pitch him headlong from a precipice. A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 147 the tragedy very soon thereafter, but not, as Baronius supposes, by a demon. This much may truly be said of Apollonius : he firm- ly beheved in the immortahty of the soul, and he in- sisted that nothing ever perishes. Birth was, in his opinion, only a change of essence into substance. Death was simply a vanishing of substance into es- sence. Life, he said, is merely substance coming into sight, and at death it vanishes but is not destroyed. In fact, he said nothing is ever created or destroyed. In one of his letters to a friend ( 10) he speaks with contempt and disdain of riches and gaudy display ; but he mentions with pleasure his love for science and his abstinence from the use of animal foods. One writer, in pouring out the vials of his wrath against Apollonius, insisted that Satan was his assist- ant. The devil, he said, may know things of the past, and he may know what is transpiring at distant places ; and he might have made known ihose things to Apol- lonious. (11) As against such criticism I will quote a few lines from Apollonius' letter to his friend Hestius: "The truth is not concealed from us; how beautiful it is to have all the earth for one's country; and all men for brothers and friends; and that those who derive their origin from God, are all endowed with one and the same nature, with a community of reason and affec- (10) Sidonius, in writing of Apollonius about four hundred years after his death, thinks all antiquity fails to equal him. (11) Sebastian Tillemont, a French ecclesiastical historian, born 1637. 148 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES tions; and that wheresoever anyone may be or in whatever manner born, whether Greek or Barbarian, he is still a man." It was the firm behef of Apollonlus that nothing ever perislies ; that matter changes, and is ever chang- ing; that it comes into sight and disappears, but it is not annihilated. These things, he says, "are done and permitted by the Eternal God, who is all in all, and through all, and who if He should clothe Himself in names and forms, would suffer damage in His own nature." Section 6. As to the alleged miracles of Apol- lonius, it is exceedingly doubtful if he, or any other man, at any time or place ever performed one. How can or could man, by his puny word, at any period of the world contravene or overthrow the laws of God? It is true that the supposed miracles of Apollonius were extensively believed in for more than three hun- dred years after his death ; but a belief, as I have said elsewhere, never changes a fact. I know that we are told that a great personage, living in the time of Apol- lonius, could and did by his word change six water pots filled with water, of two or three firkins each, into good wine. But we must remember that only one man in all the millions that have ever lived, and he is of doubtful character, tells that improbable story. (12) Moreover, such wildly extravagant things as miracles, having taken their flight for now nineteen (12) John of the 4th Gospel. John 2, v. 6 to 10. A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 149 hundred years, we may justly question whether there was ever, at any time or place, such a thing as a miracle performed by Apollonius, or anyone else. Now while it is true that Apollonius was worshiped as a god well into the fourth century, and that even Christians believed that he wrought miracles, we of this age know that he was not a god, and we are very certain that he never performed a miracle. Neverthe- less divine honors were paid him; and a temple at Tyana was built to commemorate him, and his statue was placed among the gods. In fact, his name zvas in- voked for centuries as a god. As to the manner and place of his death, there are conflicting stories. Some writers tell us that he en- tered a temple at Lindus, and was seen no more. Oth- ers insist that he died at Ephesus, attended by two handmaids, one of whom he set free. History relates that there was a young man of Tyana, who very seriously doubted the immortality of the soul, and Apollonius had often tried to convince him of his error. "After your body is dead, if you will appear to me," said the young man, "I will be- lieve you." And we are soberly told that after Apol- lonius died, he appeared to his friend, who in amaze- ment cried out, "I believe you now ! I believe you !" The last glimpse we catch of this extraordinary man is at a temple in Crete, where great riches were stored under the protection of a pack of watch dogs, trained to guard the treasure. But when Apollonius entered I50 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES the temple, they did not bark, but fawned upon him as if he were an old friend or their master. The priests observing this, rushed out and seized Apollonius and bound him, thinking him a robber. But before morning he cast off his fetters, and calling the priests before him, convinced them he was not a robber and that he did nothing in secret. Then going to the gates, he found them open. On passing through, it is said the gates shut of themselves. Acts 12, v. 10, tells us that "an iron gate opened of its own accord" and let Peter and an angel out. (13) As Apollonius makes his exit from that temple, many voices were heard in unison singing : "Leave the earth, and come to heaven. Come, come, come !" (13) Acts 16, V. 26, and Acts 5, v. 19. CHAPTER XIII Buddha Against Brahmanism. Section i. No one will perhaps deny that Gotama and Jesus each sought to overthrow, or at least to im- prove, the ancient religions of their people, Buddha's life struggle was against Brahmanism, and its iron- bound caste system; and, moreover, he disbelieved in the inspiration of the Veda, the Brahman Bible. Jesus found in the Thora (law) of Moses, the doc- trine that if one plucked out the eye of another, his own eye should pay the penalty; in short, Moses' doc- trine was, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, (i) Jesus, to his immortal honor be it said, gave to the Jews and to the world a milder and better faith than the old Mosaic doctrine of revenge. He said : "Be reconciled to thy brother, do good unto others, love thy neighbor," and thy neighbor was all the world. Buddha said : "By love alone we can con- quer wrath," and he said, "Do unto others that which you would have them do unto you." Jesus said the same five hundred years later. (2) It is curious to note that both the Brahmic and Mosaic religions were claimed by their founders, and (1) Ex. 21, 24. (2) Luke 6, v. 31 151 152 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES are claimed to this day by tlieir followers, to be of divine or heavenly origin. The ancient Hindu believed that Brahma breathed forth the Rigveda; hence it was divine. The Brahmins in their inspired Bible, the Veda, insist that they heard (sruti) Brahma's (God's) voice, telling them in what manner to sacrifice their oblations. The Veda is therefore, they said, by rea- son of its divine origin, paramount to all reasoning and beyond all questioning. He who assailed it was a heretic and was scorned and banished. (3) Its foun- dations were laid so far back in the dim and misty past that it was, and is, truly venerable with hoary age. It is the oldest composition probably on the face of the earth. It is older than the Iliad and the Odyssey, older than Genesis; older, probably, than the pyramids — so old and so venerable that the very names of the Rishis (poets or seers) who composed it, are lost in the great ocean of oblivion. The ancient Hindu looked about him and questioned why he was here. He was taught that this passing world would, if he led a pious life, give place to a seat with the Gods in heaven. (4) Death to him was as the birth of a real and happy life. He believed that there was somewhere in the universe a self-existent Divine Being, from whom his Atma (soul or self) had become detached ; but at the death of the body it would return to Brahma (God) and be at rest. The body (3) Manu, 4:30, and 9:225; Vedanta Sutras, page 20, Vol. 34, Sacred Books of the East.