A Chinese was once telling the difference between Christ and Confucius and Buddha.
“I was down in a deep pit, half sunk in the mire and was crying for someone to help me out. As I looked up I saw a venerable, gray-haired man looking down at me. His countenance bore the marks of his pure and holy spirit. ‘My son,’ he said, 'this is a dreadful place.’ 'Yes.’ I said, 'I fell into it. Can’t you help me out?’ 'My son,’ he said, 'I am Confucius. If you had read my books and followed what they taught, you never would have been here.’ 'Yes, father,’ I said, 'but can’t you help me out?’ As I looked up he was gone.
"Soon I saw another form approaching, and another man bent over me, this time with closed eyes and folded arms. He seemed to be looking into some far-off, distant place. 'My son,’ he said, 'just close your eyes and fold your arms and forget all about yourself. Get into a state of perfect rest. Don’t think about anything that could disturb. Get so still that nothing can move you. Then, my child, you will be in such delicious rest as I am.’ 'Yes, father,’ I answered, 'I’ll do that when I am above ground. Can’t you help me out?’ But Buddha, too, was gone.
"I was just beginning to sink into despair when I saw another Figure above me, different from the others. He was very simple, and looked just like the rest of us, but there were the marks of suffering in His face. I cried out to Him: 'Oh, Father, can you help me?’ 'My child,’ He said, 'what is the matter?’ Before I could answer Him, He was down in the mire by my side; He folded His arms about me and lifted me up, and then He fed and rested me.
When I was well, He did not say, "Now, don’t do that again,’ but He said, 'We will walk on together now’; and we have been walking together until this day.”
-The Fourfold Gospel, by A.B. Simpson
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