Asiatic religion had its Christs as well as the religions of nearer Asia and of Europe. The Sheng Mu (Holy Mother) of the Chinese and Japanese is commonly represented with a divine son. The God Yu, who was concealed in a manner similar to that of Moses was depicted as a babe on the knee or in her arms of his virgin. Even Kong-fu-tse, who escaped the common fate of reformers—deification—was credited with supernatural portents at birth. It is a natural urge of the devout mind to invest its hero with superhuman experiences.

Buddha’s teaching, as settled by modern scholars, was so decidedly non-religious that one would not expect him ever to be adorned with a supernatural halo. He not only plainly disavowed all the gods of India, but he bade his disciples waste no time in disputing about God and personal immortality. He was an Agnostic, a humanitarian. Yet, pure Buddhism almost perished from the earth. What is generally called Buddhism in Asia has no more relation to Buddha’s teaching than Roman Catholicism has to the teaching of Jesus. It is a system of temples and statues, priests and monks, rosaries and censers, rites and vestments, heavens and bells.

Buddha himself was degraded to the divine level. What would seem admirable and superior in Buddha and Jesus if they were men, becomes petty and trivial when one measures them by a divine standard. Christian apologists deny that there is any parallel between Buddha and Jesus because Buddha’s mother, Maya, was married. The real parallel is that Buddhists were like Christians in that they could not have their god born of carnal intercourse, and so his conception was miraculous. It does not matter that a woman who is not a virgin gives birth without intercourse. The point is not that the woman had had intercourse but that she had not had intercourse on this occasion. Buddhists did not call Maya “a virgin”. They believed in a “virgin birth”.

Krishna, Hercules, Zoroaster, Yu, Bacchus, Romulus, Moses and Cyrus, were each threatened with death but were miraculously preserved. The case of Augustus is related by Suetonius, that of Romulus by Livy, and that of Cyrus by Herodotus. Pharaoh, like Herod, to kill the infant Moses, ordered the death of all the male infants—though Herod did not exclude female infants. And cuneiform tablets found in Mesopotamia relate the same story as that of Moses about the great semitic king Sargon of Akkadia in the third millenium BC!

Saviours generally in early childhood have the ability to conquer danger or mental superiority over their opponents in argument. Christ proved his divine nature by equalling the doctors in the temple when only about twelve years of age.

The fame of Christ went out through all the region round about, according to Luke 4:14. The voice of fame soon published the birth of a miraculous child—not Christ this time but Æsculapius—and the people flocked from all quarters to behold him. In China, Confucius’s extensive knowledge and great wisdom soon made him known, and kings were governed by his counsels, and the people adored him wherever he went. He was rational and able from infancy. When the God Shang-ti, was questioned on the subject of government and the duties of princes while yet a child, his answers were such as to astonish the whole empire by his knowledge and wisdom.

One Grecian god killed serpents which attempted to bite him while in his cradle. The proof of Osiris’s divinity was a blaze of light shining around his cradle soon after he was born. Pythagoras displayed such a remarkable character, even in youth, he attractd the attention of all who saw and heard him speak. He was never at any time angry, never laughed, never acted irrationally or behaved badly. Because of his fame people flocked in multitudes to see him.

The people were astonished at Christ’s understanding and answers (Luke 2:47). The Gospel of the Infancy says that his tutor Zacheas was astonished at his learning. In the Mahabarata, the parents of the Saviour Krishna, to secure his education, sent him to a learned Brahmin, whom he astonished with his learning, and under whose tuition he mastered the sciences in a day and a night. Men, seeing the wonders performed by this child, told Nanda, his adopted father, that this could not possibly be his son.

As soon as Buddha was born, a light shone around his cradle, when he stood up and proclaimed his mission, and the River Ganges rose in a miraculous manner, but was stilled by his divine power, just as Christ stilled the tempest on the sea. He was born amidst great miracles, and soon as born, most solemnly proclaims his mission. The divine power and mission of Yu of China was very early evinced by the display of great miracles.

Moses, Solomon and Samuel showed mental superiority in early life; proving that if they were not considered by the Jews as gods, they were at least “from God”, endowed by him with divine power while yet mere children.