Religions and all Anti-Christian Philosophies toward Fatalism—Pantheism and the Philosophy of Spinoza Agreeing in this Respect with the Hindu Vedantism—The Late Samuel Johnson's "Piety of Pantheism," and His Definition of Fatalism—What Saves the Scriptural Doctrine of Fore-ordination from Fatalism—The Province of Faith and of Trust.

LECTURE X.

THE DIVINE SUPREMACY OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 338

     The Claim that Christianity is the only True Religion—The Peculiar
     Tendencies of Modern Times to Deny this Supremacy and Monopoly—It
     is not Enough in Such Times to Simply Ignore the Challenge—The
     Unique Claim must be Defended—First: Christianity is
     Differentiated from all Other Religions by the Fact of a Divine
     Sacrifice for Sin—Mohammedanism, though Founded on a Belief in the
     True God and Partly on the Old Testament Teachings, Offers no
     Saviour—No Idea of Fatherhood is Found in any Non-Christian
     Faith—The Gloom of Buddhism and the Terror of Savage
     Tribes—Hinduism a System of Self-Help Merely—The Recognized
     Grandeur of the Principle of Self-Sacrifice as Reflected from
     Christ—Augustine Found a Way of Life only in His Divine
     Sacrifice—Second: No Other Faith than Christianity is Made
     Effectual by the Power of a Divine and Omnipotent Spirit—The
     Well-Attested Fact of Radical Transformations of Character—Other
     Systems have Made Converts only by Warlike Conquest or by Such
     Motives as might Appeal to the Natural Heart—Christianity Rises
     above all Other Systems in the Divine Personality of Christ—The
     Contrast in this Respect between Him and the Authors of the
     Non-Christian Systems—His Attractions and His Power Acknowledged
     by all Classes of Men—The Inferiority of Socrates as Compared with
     Christ—Bushnell's Tribute to the Perfection of this Divine
     Personality—Its Power Attested in the Life of Paul—The Adaptation
     of Christianity to all the Circumstances and Conditions of
     Life—Abraham and the Vedic Patriarchs, Moses and Manu, David's Joy
     and Gratitude, and the Gloom of Hindu or Buddhist Philosophy—Only
     Christianity Brings Man to True Penitence and Humility—The
     Recognized Beauty and the Convincing Lesson of the Prodigal
     Son—The Contrast between Mohammed's Blasphemous Suras, which
     Justify his Lust, and the Deep Contrition of David in the
     Fifty-first Psalm—The Moral Purity of the Old and New Testaments
     as Contrasted with all Other Sacred Books—The Scriptures Pure
     though Written in Ages of Corruption and Surrounded by Immoral
     Influences—Christ Belongs to no Land or Age—The Gospel Alone is
     Adapted to all Races and all Time as the Universal Religion of
     Mankind—Only Christianity Recognizes the True Relation between
     Divine Help and Human Effort—It Encourages by Omnipotent
     Co-operation—The All-Comprehensive Presentation of the Gospel.

APPENDIX 381

ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY

LECTURE I.

THE NEED OF UNDERSTANDING THE FALSE RELIGIONS

It is said that the very latest among the sciences is the Science of Religion. Without pausing to inquire how far it admits of scientific treatment, certain reasons which may be urged for the study of the existing religions of the world will be considered in this lecture. It must be admitted in the outset that those who have been the pioneers in this field of research have not, as a rule, been advocates of the Christian faith. The anti-Christian theory that all religions may be traced to common causes, that common wants and aspirations of mankind have led to the development of various systems according to environment, has until recently been the chief spur to this class of studies. Accordingly, the religions of the world have been submitted to some preconceived philosophy of language, or ethnology, or evolution, with the emphasis placed upon such facts as seemed to comport with this theory. Meanwhile there has been an air of broad-minded charity in the manner in which the apologists of Oriental systems have treated the subject. They have included Christ in the same category with Plato and Confucius, and have generally placed Him at the head; and this supposed breadth of sentiment has given them a degree of influence with dubious and wavering Christians, as well as with multitudes who are without faith of any kind.

In this country the study of comparative religion has been almost entirely in the hands of non-evangelical writers. We have had "The Ten Great Religions," from the pen of Rev. James Freeman Clarke; "The Oriental Religions," written with great labor by the late Samuel Johnson; and Mr. Moncure D. Conway's "Anthology," with its flowers, gathered from the sacred books of all systems, and so chosen as to carry the implication that they all are equally inspired. Many other works designed to show that Christianity was developed from ancient sun myths, or was only a plagiarism upon the old mythologies of India, have been current among us. But strangely enough, the Christian Church has seemed to regard this subject as scarcely worthy of serious consideration. With the exception of a very able work on Buddhism,[1] and several review articles on Hinduism, written by Professor S.H. Kellogg, very little has been published from the Christian standpoint.[2] The term "heathenism" has been used as an expression of contempt, and has been applied with too little discrimination.

There is a reason, perhaps, why these systems have been underestimated. It so happened that the races among whom the modern missionary enterprise has carried on its earlier work were mostly simple types of pagans, found in the wilds of America, in Greenland and Labrador, in the West Indies, on the African coast, or in the islands of the Pacific; and these worshippers of nature or of spirits gave a very different impression from that which the Apostles and the Early Church gained from their intercourse with the conquering Romans or the polished and philosophic Greeks. Our missionary work has been symbolized, as Sir William W. Hunter puts it, by a band of half-naked savages listening to a missionary seated under a palm-tree, and receiving his message with child-like and unquestioning faith.

But in the opening of free access to the great Asiatic nations, higher grades of men have been found, and with these we now have chiefly to do. The pioneer of India's missions, the devoted Ziegenbalg, had not been long in his field before he learned the mistake which the churches in Europe had made in regard to the religion and philosophy of the Hindus. He laid aside all his old notions when he came to encounter the metaphysical subtleties of Hindu thought, when he learned something of the immense Hindu literature, the voluminous ethics, the mystical and weird mythologies, the tremendous power of tradition and social customs—when, in short, he found his way hedged up by habits of thought wholly different from his own; and he resolved to know something of the religion which the people of India already possessed.

For the benefit of others who might follow him he wrote a book on Hinduism and its relations to Christianity, and sent it to Europe for publication. But so strong were the preconceived notions which prevailed among his brethren at home,