■ >' it: 
 
 •;. 
 
 ^i--^. 
 
 ,,..'."; ■S\ ■,' 
 
 ./ : 
 
 
 TOklO LECTllRES. 
 
 ■./ 
 
 1. 
 
 ,;, ,r.'. 
 
 Clri^tiaititjr anV Ci&ilt^atiou,. 
 
 ,-^-s-,.^-J-S 
 
 WITH A I'BELUDE ON THE 
 
 ANTIQUITY OF MAN, 
 
 "*., 
 
 ■ • r 
 
 . ^ 
 
 BY 
 
 < ,•• 
 
 
 •- f 
 
 • ;'-;\ ." 
 
 C. g. EBY, B.A. 
 
 v^, r. 
 
 
 W.V,' 
 
 r.',3 
 
 
 
 :.-41^..- 
 
 ■1 
 
 f 
 
 r ( 
 
 Delivered in Meiji Kiuiido, Tokio, ' ^i' -j^ 
 
 ,_,,,,'■ *^ •.,,.-!.; f;,;^ '*.'. .^^.■' 
 
 ./i^, 
 
 ,•■ ■' ' '■ -^f^ :... ■' ' -•■ '■■ <j 
 
 
 
 r 
 
 
 rv ,../ ■'■ ■>■,. 
 
 
 "f 
 
 
 Frintel at tl^o ♦' J»mn Gaisette " Office. 
 
 
 
TOKIO LECTURES, o^ 
 
 I. 
 
 WITH A PRELUDE ON THE 
 
 ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 
 
 BY 
 
 C. p. EBY; B.A. 
 
 Delivered in Meiji Kuaido, Tohio, 
 
 j:anuaru 6th, 1883. 
 
 Printed at the •' Japan Gazette " Office. 
 
PEEFACE 
 
 •o«c 
 
 Hon. J. A. Bingham, United States Minister 
 in Japan, presided on the occasion of the de- 
 livery of the first lecture of this series, 
 entitled Christianity and the Progress of 
 Civilization, and introduced the lecturer and 
 bis subject in the following terms : — 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 Honoured by the committee's invitation to 
 preside on this occasion, I beg leave to say 
 that in my opinion the series of public lectures 
 proposed to bo given in this place, the first 
 of which it will be our privilege to hear to- 
 day, may bo productive of good, and can 
 by no possibility work harm either to 
 bis Majesty's government, his Majesty's 
 subjects, or to the people of any other 
 nationality who may attend them. We 
 bave ample guarantee of this in tho high 
 character of the gentlemen who have kindly 
 
II 
 
 volunteered to give their time and best 
 thoughts to this service, in the subjects to be 
 discussed, and in the fact that an invitation 13 
 extended to all to suggest, such inquirie«» 
 and make such criticisms concerning each 
 lecture as tlioy may wish, all of ° which 
 will be kindly entertained and responded to. 
 I thank the gentlemen for this liberal invi- 
 tation, thereby according to others what they 
 claim for themselves, and proclaiming that 
 error itself may bo tolerated when truth is 
 left free to combat it, and affirming their 
 faith in the utterance of another age.— 
 "As for truth it endureth and is always 
 " strong ; it liveth and conquereth for ever- 
 
 " more." 
 
 We are to-day to be favoured with an 
 introductory address on the Aniiquity of 
 Mn- and a lecture on Christionfty and the 
 Progress of Civilization. 
 
 Being ourselves of the race o? man, what- 
 ever concerns men concerns each and all of 
 us. 
 
 Christianity is a great] central fact in the 
 world's history. It commands at this mo- 
 meut the reverent consic^eration and approval 
 
Ill 
 
 of enlightened men in all lands. Of the 
 general principles of Christianity it is nob 
 for me at present to speak, nor is it needful 
 that I should, as they apeak for themselves ; 
 but I may bo permitted to say of them that 
 they are largely incorporated in the constitu- 
 tfons and laws of the European and Ameri- 
 can states. 
 
 Oar modern civilization is largely the off- 
 spring of Christianity. It is the physical, 
 intellectual and moral development of in- 
 dividual and collective man, the citizen and 
 the nation. Its beneficent outgoings are to 
 be seen in the science, literature and laws, 
 and in the history, past and present, of our 
 race. They are to bo seen in the inventions 
 of genius which have laid the elements of 
 external nature under contribution and made 
 them minister to the wants and comforts 
 of man ; and in the gentle, wide-spread, 
 organized charity, which supplies so much of 
 human want, and mitigates so much of 
 human suffering. 
 
 In a word, civilization is tho sublime 
 march of humanity, the progress of which na. 
 earthly power can stay or successfully resist. 
 
IV 
 
 For Humanity sweeps onwaivl : where to-dav the 
 martyr stands, ^ 
 
 On the morrow crouches Judas, with the silver in 
 his hands. 
 
 While the hooting mob of yesterday in silent awe 
 return 
 
 To glean up the scattered ashes into History's 
 golden urn. '' 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen, it only remains 
 for me to introduce ray greatly valued friend 
 M?. Eby, who v7ill now address us on the 
 subjects indicated. 
 
LECTURES IN TOKIO. 
 
 On Saturday, the 6fch January, the first of a 
 series of lectures on Christianity was deliver- 
 ed at the Meiji Kuaido by C. S. Eby, B.A., 
 to a large audience of foreigners and native 
 scholars. The lecture was subsequently re- 
 peated in Japanese to a crowded and enthu- 
 siastic audience of natives. Mr. Eby prefaced 
 his lecture with a prelude on the 
 
 ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 
 
 '* The proper study of mankind is man." 
 
 THE most interesting and most important 
 subject that can engage our attention 
 as reasonable men is that of man himself. 
 What is man ? Whence came he ? Whi- 
 ther is he hastening ? are questions dis- 
 cussed since history dawned, and never more 
 earnestly than now, and never were more 
 varied answers given. Momentous interests 
 hang upon our answers to these questions, 
 involving not only the result of scientific 
 
research or theological dogma, bufc also man's 
 personal woe or weal, the welfare of-society, 
 the political consolidation or dissolution of 
 the strength of empires. The present course 
 of lectures aims at the study of man in his 
 manifold relations to the universe, his past, 
 present, and future, in such a way as shall 
 preclude a hasty and fatally one-sided deci- 
 sion, but shall open the path to such a 
 thoughtful weighing of all available evidence 
 as shall culminate in a practical decision 
 worthy of men possessed of reason and 
 conscience. These great questions are of 
 prime importance for the young men of 
 Japan, and above all things at this par- 
 ticular juncture in the development of your 
 country. In this time of transition from 
 ancient forms to the newer ones of a differ- 
 ing civilization, the impress given by this 
 generation of educated men to the plastic 
 masses of the nation will affect your posteri- 
 ty and the welfare of your people for all the 
 ages yet to come. I would therefore ask 
 you to look the matter seriously, solemnly ia 
 the face, and allow no petty side-issues to 
 divert us from the line of great principles, 
 which lie at the foundation of true civiliza- 
 tion, culture and progress. 
 
 As an introduction to the larger questions 
 in hand it seems proper that we should en- 
 quire as to the origin of man and how long 
 he has been on the earth. A vast number 
 of answers to this question has been given 
 nor has a satisfactory solution yet* been 
 fonnd ; it is simply one of those open ques- 
 
tlotis which are of great intereafc to us, but 
 the answer to which, one way or the other, 
 is not of the greatest practical importance. 
 We are often reminded, by persons or books 
 dealing with this question, of the angry dis- 
 cussions and misrepresentations of theologi- 
 ans as opposed to scientists and scientific 
 research of pre-historic man. But two very 
 important facts seem often to be overlooked 
 viz., (1) That scientists who were by no 
 means theologically warped, have earnestly 
 discussed the subject, and have as strongly 
 opposed and do oppose to the present day, 
 the teachings of other scientists with regard 
 to the antiquity of man ; and (2) That many 
 theologians such as, Mgr. Meignan, R. 0. 
 bishop, M. I'abb^ Lambert, and M. I'abbe 
 Bourgeois and others, have taken an active part 
 in pre-historic researches, and do not find the 
 teaching of the bible or the dogmas of the 
 church at all in the way. ^ _ 
 
 Now the fact is, there are scientists and 
 scientists, and there are theologians and 
 theologians ; and you will generally find that 
 it is not the profoundly scientific man but the 
 superficial sciolist who claims that science ia 
 destructive of faith, and who shouts, *' down 
 with religions and creeds." On the other 
 hand, it ia not the profound and thoughtful 
 theologian, but the narrow-minded and, half- 
 educated alarmist only, who decries science 
 and research into every nook and corner of 
 nature, as an enemy of theology and religion. 
 One of the sayings of a theological teacher 
 under whom 1 studied many years ago remains 
 
4 
 
 in my memory, and has been the guide of my 
 thoughts and studies ever since, and I would 
 recommend the same words to you for in 
 them is a whole heritage of wisdom. *' Young 
 men," ho used to say, "Young men, the world, 
 of thought is moving on ; do not accept a 
 thing simply because it is new, and do not be 
 afraid to accept a thing because it is new." 
 That seems simple enough, but it indicates 
 the path to sure and lasting progress, and a 
 means to avoid disaster and disappointment. 
 There are two classes of extremists, both of 
 which we should avoid with equal care, and 
 these are, if you will allow me to coin for you 
 a pair of new English words neomaniacs and 
 neojyJiohlsts. Neomaniacs are those who search 
 for what is new, and accept it because it is 
 new, rejecting the old landmarks, simply be- 
 cause they have been there so long. Jn this 
 class are a great many young people whose 
 ambition is more powerful than their judg- 
 ment is mature, and who are to be found 
 amongst both scientists and theologians. Neo- 
 phohists represent a class who stick to the old 
 and despise the new because it is now ; they 
 "will have nothing to do with your new fanglod 
 ideas and are constantly praising the past 
 and pointing back to the old landmarks. 
 There are a good many specimens of this 
 species in olden lands, and amongst elderly 
 people in every land, including old women, 
 in the garb of both science and religion. 
 Avoiding both extremes our way must be to 
 *' prove all things and hold fast that which 
 28 good " and true. I presume yoa will not 
 
object to that though it is a doctrine of 
 Christianity and the very words of the bible. 
 Test the new, test it fully, and if it is true 
 it must be good, and you must arcepf it or 
 commit mental suicide. Test the old, test 
 it well, be sure you are right, bnt if the old 
 is not true, it cannot be good ; you must 
 reject it or deprave your intellectual being. 
 The object of these lectures is to urge yoa 
 to search for and grasp, not what is new, 
 not what is old, as such, but above all tilings 
 *' Buy the truth and sell it not " — as Solomon 
 tells us to do. 
 
 But you ask, — docs not the bible com- 
 mit you to a fixed chronological limit 
 for the origin and existence of man upon 
 the earth ? Some would-be scientists who 
 knew more about rocks than about the 
 bible which they were affecting to criticise, 
 and some theologians, who knew more about 
 old musty traditions than about the scripture 
 they thought they were teaching, have said 
 so; but (1) no theological truth depends 
 upon our understanding of those ancient 
 chronological tables ; and (2) among students 
 of that chronology there are 140 distinct and 
 different opinions as to the (Lite of the begin- 
 ning of the historical sketch in the bible, 
 differing to the extent of over 3,000 years. 
 Thus tlie bible assorts nothing positive with 
 regard to that point, and it makes absolutely 
 no difference to the teachings of Christianity 
 whether man has been on the earth 4,000 
 or 400,000 years before Christ. 
 
 Again it is claimed that the Darwinian 
 
6 
 
 theory of evolution set tbe world on the right 
 track in the study ot man, and putting hioi 
 into his proper place as one of the mammals 
 in the animal kingdom explains the whole 
 mystery of man's origin, position and destiny. 
 While on the other hand physiologists and 
 other scientists of equal note and authority 
 declare that on Darwin's own theory it is as 
 . impossible that man should have developed 
 out of any known line of apes as out of cats 
 and tigers. It must ever be kept in mind 
 that the doctrine of evolution is still a theory, 
 a hypothesis ; one among scores that have 
 been set up by scieiico, some few of which 
 have been proved true, but most of which 
 have had to bo eventually abandoned as they 
 proved to bo untenable. It is well, naj 
 necessary, to have some hypothesis as an out- 
 lino in which to set facts as they are brought 
 to light ; but it is going too far to ask the 
 world to accept any hypothesis as truths 
 which we must believe as a scientific deduc- 
 tion until it shows itself true by a perfect 
 adjustment to a sufficient number of facts, 
 and is not to be vitiated by too many exceptions. 
 Now the theory of evolution seems to gather 
 a vast amount of facts, and place them in 
 Buch an order and harmony as to show that 
 there is a great deal of truth \n it as far as it 
 goes. And as far as facts attest the truth 
 BO far must we of course promptly accept it, 
 only wo must be careful not to suppose that 
 one ingredient in a compound of many forceil 
 and facts, fully explains the whole. The dis- 
 pute is one of science purely, and it seems that 
 
the majority of the best and most unbiassed 
 thinkers, look upon evolution in some form 
 as the law according^ to which things have 
 come into being. But a vast deal remains 
 yet to be done before it can be substantiated 
 as the Copernican system or the Keplerian 
 laws. And whatever the result may be, whe- 
 ther the hypothesis be true or not — unless it 
 can bo shown that matter evolves itself 
 without a creator — it makes absolutely no 
 difference to the principles of the Chris- 
 tian religion or the teachings of the bible. 
 
 But when men in the name of science, of 
 which they are not the best representatives, 
 overstep their sphere of empirical research 
 and attempt to teach us what are the ultimate 
 causes of things, and tell us that there is 
 nothing in the world but matter and force 
 and evolution, we cry — " Hold ! now you 
 are on ground that is common to us both. 
 We accept your facts as far as you bring us 
 proof, but when you begin to philosophise 
 on those facts, and attempt to construct a 
 system of thought, we too have the same 
 right to enquire into the metaphysical bear- 
 ings of the case." Bat, reply certain extre- 
 mists again : — The are no metaphysics ; that 
 is a region of fancy ; there is nothing in the 
 universe but matter, and mechanical force, 
 and evolution. . We reply that such a posi- 
 tion, ancient though it is, is too narrow, too 
 shallow, to allow room for all the facts of tha 
 case, and contradicts all the analogies of our 
 experience. You take a little acorn, plant 
 it, up springs a tiny tender shoot, the forces 
 
8 
 
 of the soil, and sunsliine, and air develop its 
 latent powers and increase its bulk until 
 eventunlly you have the majestic oak with 
 colossal trunk, gigantic branches, unnum- 
 bered twigs, a wealth of foliage and perennial 
 crops of new acorns. Now does the acorn, 
 that little seed, alone account for that deve- 
 lopment and productiveness ? Am I to be 
 blamed if I tell you I do not believe that 
 that seed could have produced an oak, even 
 with all the other forces of soil, and air, and 
 light, and heat combined, if there had nofc 
 first been involved in the acorn the life and 
 powers of a perfect oak tree from which it 
 sprang. Evolution cannot bring out of 
 matter and mechanical force what is not 
 actually involved in them. 
 
 Again you see this watch (not Paley's old 
 watch this time). 1 ask you to explain to 
 me the ])hilosophy of this watch. Well, you 
 say, here are gold and silver, and steel and 
 enamel, and jewels, and all combined make 
 np the watclj. Yes, but all tliosc things 
 might be, and still there be no watch, How 
 does it come to be a watch ? Why there are 
 the properties of the elements, inertia, mal- 
 liabiHty ductility, <fcc., and there is adjust- 
 ment of part to part, the hands indicating 
 the hours. Yes, but how does it come that 
 these form a watch ? Well there are cog 
 wheels, and springs, and balances, and regula- 
 tors, and mechanical forces, and — Yes, but 
 you have not yet told mo about the watch 
 at all, and whole volumes of such explana- 
 tions would not give mo a true philosophy 
 
9 
 
 of that little instrument. I mast be meta- 
 physical and talk of forces that I can nob 
 see, cannot touch, cannot know ; but do you 
 blame me for believing— yes having faith, 
 that all the matter and mechanical forces 
 in the universe could never have produced 
 this watch without the addition of mind. 
 Matter, and properties of matter plus mind, 
 produced this watch. At least so I believe 
 although I don't know how, or when, or 
 where, or by whom the watch was made. 
 Am I unscientific because I confess to yoa 
 my faith in the existence of a watchmaker 
 
 who had a mind ? . 
 
 And can you blamo me if following these 
 analogies, I find it impossible without the 
 addition of creative mind to believe that 
 matter and mechanical force alone combined 
 ethereal atoms into molecules, and these into 
 suns and systems and orbs eacli set m its 
 place and moving with more than clock like 
 regularity along its self-fippointed way ? or 
 that this earth' hardened into a sphere and 
 raised the mountain chains, and gave the sea 
 her bounds, and hollowed out a way for the 
 rivers, and prepared a soil for the child it 
 was about to produce? Or that matter 
 and mechanical force brought life into being, 
 by which chemical action is reversed and 
 made to build up by transformation of ap- 
 propriated matter, and by the loss of which 
 those chemical forces bring forth rottenness 
 and decay ; a power which clothes the plains 
 and hills with verdure, secures seed time and 
 harvest, and makes all nature rich and 
 
10 
 
 beautiful with tlie unbounded opulence of 
 forest and field and flower ? Or that matter 
 and mechanical force acting in the vega- 
 table world brought forth animal life, by 
 which the dark sea was peopled with tiny 
 creatures and monsters great, by which the 
 "worm of the sod, the beast of the forest and 
 field, the sougsters in the sky and the soar- 
 ing eagle were brought forth ? Or that 
 matter and mechanical force alone working 
 through the lower animals bri^ught forth man 
 with his ideas of moral good and evil, his 
 conception of spiritual unseen things beyond,. 
 Lis longing for immortality ! Do you blame 
 me when I tell you that as my philosophy of 
 this watch demands the existence of an unseen 
 mind to account for it, so my philosophy of 
 this marvellous universe demands the exis- 
 tence of a mind adequate to produce it, not 
 only out of matter and force, but nho to 
 produce matter and mechanical force them- 
 selves from a something still behind them. 
 Is it not just possible that this last highest 
 arc in the section of infinity which comes 
 within our reach, tlie mind, intellect, spiri- 
 tual longings of man, may give us a clue 
 to the mysterious problem, onward it readies 
 to spirit worlds and higlier possibilities still, 
 away on to the infinite mind, the climax 
 of all ; and is it not possible that when we 
 reach that point, apparently the antipodes of 
 matter and mechanical force, wo will find 
 ourselves at the fountain of infinite being, 
 the point from which all else has sprung, the 
 infinite cycle there complete. The infinite 
 
11 
 
 mind projecting itself in all the vast laws 
 of matter, and mecbanical forces, and vital 
 phenomena, is the one unseen and necessary 
 agent that makes even evolution possible and 
 holds the universe in harmony. 
 
 Bat what has all this to do with the antiquity 
 of man ? Much every way. Where does man 
 come in, in this evolution or creation or what- 
 ever it may be ? Man is of simian origin, 
 say the most of evolutionists, or have so said 
 until lately, some of the links of course being 
 missing; but the point of departure for the 
 development of man seems to bo driven back 
 step by stop and the missing lints to become 
 more numerous than ever. Morphologists, 
 those who study outline and form and re- 
 semblances there, tell us that there is a gene- 
 ral similarity between the skeleton of the 
 man and the higher apes. Anatomists who 
 study tlie parts more fully tell us that there 
 is a radical difference in every bone of the 
 body, and every muscle shows a different 
 adaptation. Physiologists tells us that the 
 viscera of man are carnivorous, and tliose of 
 the ape herbivorous, and that .we can as 
 easily have been evolved out of bears and lions 
 OS out of apes. Again we are reminded that 
 in the series of phenomena of individual 
 development of the body, the inverse order 
 is observed ; moreover apes are climbers 
 and men are walkers. Now, say many 
 scientists, *' it is evident that when two 
 organised beings follow an inverse order- 
 especially when otherwise antagonistic— in 
 the course of their growth, the more highly 
 
12 
 
 developed of the two cannot have descended 
 from the other by means of evolution." So 
 that even scientifically viewed, man's place 
 in evolution has not yet been defined. It is 
 well to notice that tims far, in all develop- 
 ments of apes from lowest to highest, there is 
 nothijiuf but ape and no approach toman; 
 and in all the degradation of man, there is 
 always man and no approach to apes. Noth- 
 ing is known to science of man and his pro- 
 genitors, excepting as essentially and per- 
 fectly man, and any talk of his simian origin 
 is pure imagination. 
 
 Just hero comes in another phase of the 
 question, when did man first appear ? Suffi- 
 cient proof lias been given that man existed 
 in the quaternary period along with the 
 marainoth elephant and cave tiger, before 
 Europe was last submerged and covered with 
 glacinl ice and arctic cold. Bat it is also 
 roundly asserted that man lived in tertiary 
 times, that is in geologic time — or 500,000, or 
 1,000,000 years ago. Now the supposed proofs 
 of this assertion in Europe are confined to a 
 few scratches on some bones, and a dubious 
 flint or two, so that cautious scientists there, 
 hesitate to accept, the assertion as fact. But 
 it is said that there is proof positive of the 
 fact in America, remains being found under 
 lava beds in gravel layers which belong to 
 this ancient age. This find in the region of 
 Table Mountain in California, has been used 
 even her6 to illustrate, above all other illust- 
 rations, the stupidity of theologians and the 
 vast ago of man. Let us look at this illus- 
 
trioua example more closely. I have afc 
 hand information respecting those imple- 
 ments found in those gravel beds, and either 
 the asserted facts are wrong, or there 
 is something hard for evolution to ex- 
 plain. As to the facts, (I) doubts are 
 entertained as to the the age of the sublava 
 gravels. They may be no older than the 
 early quaternary. (2) But admitting their 
 pliocene age, there are doubts as to the 
 authenticity of the findings, no competent 
 scientist having seen them there. (3) Admit- 
 ting their authenticity, there are grave doubts 
 as to the non-disturbance of the gravels pre- 
 vious to the time of the findings, for aurife- 
 rous gravels are peculiarly liable to dis- 
 turbance, and there is good reason to think 
 those of California had been worked by other 
 races before the whites. (4) The character 
 of the implements said to have been found 
 gives great force to the last (3rd) doubt, for 
 they are mostly mortars and pestles, and 
 other neolithic implements, such as are in 
 common use among the Indians and Mexicans 
 of to-day. The very idea of neolithic im- 
 plements in pliocene times is enough to make 
 even the wildest extremist among believers 
 in pre-historic man gasp and stare, it would 
 be like talking of specimens of railways and 
 telegraphs found among remains of the stone 
 age. — So that Favre, and Evans, and Huxley, 
 and Dawkins, and Labbock all say, the 
 existence of tertiary man is " not proven." 
 
 The second difficulty however is here, if, as 
 we have been told in this house, that tertiary 
 
14 
 
 man cxistfid in Ameri'cn, there is certainly 
 somctliing loose about evolution or man 
 must have had an evolution all to himself. 
 I quote from a professor in California. 
 '* Not a single existing mammalian species 
 can be traced back beyond the quaternary. 
 The higher the organism the more rapid- 
 ly species change. Existing mammals can 
 be traced back only into the quaternary, 
 moUuscan species, a small percentage to the 
 early tertiary ; protozoan species even to 
 the cretaceous Is it possible then that man 
 the highest of all, will be traced back to the 
 middle tertiary ? Why since that time the 
 whole mammalian fauna has changed 5 or 6 
 times ! Shall man be an exception to all 
 the laws governing the evolution of the ani- 
 mal kingdom." Man 500^000 years ago, and 
 man to-day on the same spot precisely the 
 same ! ! and the universe moving to the 
 march of evolution I ! Why such an excep- 
 tion ? 
 
 The fact is there is less talk about the vast 
 antiquity of man to-day than there was twenty 
 years or ten years ago, and all reliable evi- 
 dence is bringing him more and more with- 
 in hailing distance of historic times. 
 
 To conclude this subject I will just point 
 out a few facts that seem to be established, 
 not theories or scientific guesses, but facts 
 which seem to have proofs behind them, and 
 see how they compare with the bible account 
 of the first races of men. 
 
 1. — Fossil remains of quaternary man tell 
 ns, and all traces of pre-historic man confirm 
 
15 
 
 it, that from his beginning man was perfect 
 man physically as the ordinary man of to- 
 day, and if the brain is an indication of 
 intellectual strength, equal to the ordinary 
 intelligence of the present race of men. 
 
 This cannot be shown to conflict with the 
 ''bible. - , . ,'.;:^,," .,■ r / 
 
 2. — Science tells us he probably first ap» 
 peared in Central Asia, and thei^ce gradual- 
 ly peopled the globe. So the bible teaches. 
 
 3. — Everything seems to shovr that tha 
 present human races all belong to one species, 
 i.e. descended from one original pair. So the 
 biWe teaches. 
 
 4. — Science tells us that man was naturally 
 naked from the start, and had to clothj© 
 himself in leaves or bark or skins — So 
 teaches the bible. 
 
 5.— Science teaches that the first race of 
 men were savage in the sense of being great 
 in strength of passion, but children in reason 
 and personal control. So teaches the bible. 
 
 6. — Science tells us that pre-historic man 
 was ignorant of art, and music, and metals 
 for a time — So teaches the bible, giving the 
 names of inventors and teachers. 
 
 7. — Science tells us that ho must have 
 been without inherent legal fibre, that the 
 law faculty had to be developed. The 
 whole story of the first laws in the bible 
 would show the same fact of legal childhood. 
 
 8. — Science would indicate that the first 
 races were unmoral, perhaps sadly immoral. 
 The bible tells as that they were inexpressibly 
 Tile. 
 
• 16 
 
 9 —Science tells us that they lived before 
 a Keneral subsidence of land, by winch con- 
 tiiients were covered with water and ^^l^cial 
 ice and arctic cold, destroyinc. nearly all 
 animal life inchiding nearly the whole of the 
 human race. The bible records some such 
 disaster and it may be found tliat these 
 traditions preserved by men agree with tlio 
 records of geology. Tliat is yet to be sett ed. 
 
 In conclusion let it bo distinctly under- 
 Stood (1) that not a single fact regarding 
 pre-l.istoric man hns yet been estabhshed 
 contradictory of the Christian's bible. (^) 
 That it is a matter which does not toucli 
 the bible or Christianity whether man be 
 proved to have been a longer or a shorter 
 time on the earth, (3) that it does not affect 
 the truth of the bible whether the evo ution 
 theory be true or false, (4) that all established 
 facts regarding pre-historic man agree with 
 estabUshed biblical teaching where they cover 
 the same ground-in fact nothing has yet 
 appeared to shake my confidence m the bible 
 or my faith in a personal God. 
 
 NoTE.-Much that I have given above is due to 
 Figuier, Quaterfages, Bagehot, Le Conte and other 
 BC* atists. . 
 
17 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND THE TROGRESS OF 
 CIVILIZATION. 
 
 " These that have turned the world upside down 
 are come hither also." 
 
 Nothing is more interesting to the young 
 Japan of to-day, than the questions of 
 civilization and progress. The customg o'i. 
 the past, old forms of government and 
 law, are changing along with dress and food 
 and language. Some things seem to be 
 changing more rapidly than others, and 
 some changes do not always appear to be 
 for the best, or at least to entail a momen- 
 tary loss. Every crisis in a nation's history 
 brings with it a certain amount of trouble, 
 confusion and suffering, but if progress be 
 true, every crisis brings to birth a better 
 future. There are often well meaning in- 
 dividuals, short-sighted and fearful, who, 
 seeing only the momentary disadvantage, 
 decry all change, all progress, as a curse and 
 a wrong. Many doubtless there are to-day 
 in Japan, though their number is no doubfc 
 decreasing, who look back fondly on the 
 good old times of settled routine and fixed- 
 ness of custom, and who look towards the 
 future of the restless present with feelings 
 of dread or dismal forebodings of coming 
 disaster for the state and for society. 
 
18 
 I. 
 
 Is civilization a blessing ? a thing to bo 
 desired ? is a question often asked ; as we 
 are reminded of some sad remnant of evil, 
 or abnormal outcome of artificiality, as 
 though that were the legitimate fruit and 
 sign of civilization, giving tie impression 
 that it is not an unmixed good. Now in 
 reply to this question I will give a Scotch- 
 man's answpr by asking another question — 
 ** Is manhood as compared with childhood a 
 blessing ?" How often we look back on the 
 frolics of our childhood, its wild, unfettered, 
 careless freedom, and compar-) it with the 
 life of toil and disnppointment, and sorrow 
 perhaps, that wo have in maturer years, 
 and in moments of weakness we almosfc 
 wish ourselves back in our childhood 
 again. But what man of sober mind, of 
 widening thought, and aspiring soul would 
 in reality wish himself back in the narrow 
 though pleasant bounds of child life? Away 
 such a thought. Life's aim is not pleasure and 
 earth-born joy, but a grasping after a some- 
 thing higher than our past, a mastering, 
 ruling of something without us, that shall 
 minister to the enlargement of what is within 
 us though it bring its burden of sorrow. 
 There is no rose without its thorn ; shall we 
 therefore cast away the rose ? Nay, rather 
 avoid the thorn. Nor shall we cast away the 
 heritage of our manhood, but seek with its in- 
 crense of strength to lessen its burden of pain. 
 Civih'zation is the growth of nations mto 
 
19 
 
 social maturity and political power, whea 
 many of the frolics and liberties of olden bar- 
 barisms fall away, and new duties, new cares, 
 new burdens come along with etdargemenfc 
 of mind, the out-reachings of commerce, the 
 developments of social duties and political 
 entanglements, and that pride which is the 
 natural meed of conscious power. Is there a 
 civilized land on the face of the earth to-day 
 that would willingly go back to the ages of 
 savage freedom, of feudal pageantry, or the 
 stagnation of lands that have forgotten to 
 grow ? Away with such a puerile thought ; 
 better by far the manliness of civilization 
 with its cares, than the childish pleasures of 
 any fancied primitive land untouched by 
 modern restlessness. 
 
 Advancement is the normal law of life, a 
 natural necessity of a healthy living organism. 
 The child that grows not is an abortion of 
 being, a failure, physically. The mind that 
 grows not, but is content with a life of 
 routine and custom, is a mental abortion 
 which no one can either admire or choose. 
 A state that does not advance but contents 
 itself with a perpetual looking back at the 
 past, as the highest possible aim of life, will 
 stagnate, decay and be left far behind in the 
 race, by those who look forward and struggle 
 onward for a something better in the 
 future than they have known in the past. 
 
 Progress to a higher civilization is or should 
 be the normal fact in all nations, but there 
 are nations which seem to have made advance 
 for a time, to have reached a certain degree 
 
20 
 
 of development, and then to have stopped, 
 stagnated, decayed, or to have maintained 
 fin existence only by accumulations of primi- 
 tive elements rather than by a growth into 
 manlier forms. This is the- case with near- 
 ly all the civilizations of Asiatic nations, 
 and China, your ponderous neighbour, gives 
 us a tangible example. Thousands of years 
 ago while the world's civilization still was 
 young, China invented written characters — 
 even while her language was in its first 
 Bylhibic stage ; ethics, laws, customs, patterns 
 were fixed ; and all the growth of these many 
 centuries since then has been to accumulate 
 in rich but unwieldy exuberance a mass of 
 those primitive characters, repiesenti'ig a 
 language still in infantile form. All her 
 laws and ethics revolve around the one simple 
 thought of the earliest form of government, 
 that of the futher having co)itrol over his 
 household, and of children obeying their 
 parents; an idea which is made to do duty 
 in every -4)haso of otficial life even to the 
 Imperial Throne where sits the father of his 
 people; and her indigenous religion is nothing 
 but the worsliip of ancestors. Not a growth 
 of social and political ideas, you see, buJ a 
 vast accumulation of varied applications of 
 the one idea of the relation between a father 
 on the one hand, and an ignorant woman 
 with babies on the other. For the idea of 
 the relation of father and son in China is 
 that of father and little child, and has not 
 even advanced to the idea that when the son 
 lias grown to manhood, he is one man and 
 
21 
 
 bis father is another ; but the child is a child 
 for ever, the manly strength of the full grown 
 developed son must bow to the mumbhng of 
 a dolard father, and thus a whole hemisphere 
 of ideas, of duties, is unknown while the 
 other half is developed and strained, and 
 stretched to monstrosity. ^ -_ , 
 
 A relationship prior to that of parent and 
 child, the grand principle of all true sociology 
 given in the very beginning of tho bib e, and 
 fundamental in all progressive civilization, is 
 icrnored, unknown ; viz, the essential equality 
 oi the sexes, the husband being first of the two 
 in household rank, and that when the child 
 has become a man he is no longer a child, 
 but a man who may take to himself a wife 
 and these two then set up a new fi^m^'y- 
 
 The natural duties and relationships of par- 
 ents and children are reciprocal, like the two 
 arms of the body, which should be balanced, 
 though one may be a little more expert than 
 the other. But in China the relation of 
 father to child is so exaggerated that it is as 
 if the right arm had been developed into a limb 
 six feet long, wliile on the other hand, the 
 relation of chiU to parent from the stand- 
 point of parental responsibility is so 
 minified that it is as if the left arm had been 
 dwarfed to an inch ; and thus »s a feeble 
 flabby body with one arm of an unwieldy 
 lencTth and the other infinitesimally small, 
 woSld be a monstrosity, so the ethics of rela- 
 tionships in China have grown into a social 
 caricature of a fundamental truth. And then 
 the result of this state of nffairs is to preclude 
 
22 
 
 all growth. The law of advance is that each 
 generation is like the one preceding it, with 
 some little variety ; now if the variety is an 
 improvement and the little change be allowed 
 to live and grow, it will increase until, in a 
 few generations, there is seen to be a great 
 advance for the better. If however, all varia- 
 tions from the primitive form be prohibited, 
 all advance is impossible, and a dead uni- 
 formity of type results. 
 
 The tendency to suppress originality is 
 universal. The difficulty in civilizing the 
 world is not to get a people to submit to 
 fixed laws, but to get them out of fixedness 
 of law into a living, growing organism. The 
 tendency is seen even in the west. A Penn- 
 sylvania Dutchman of my grandfather's 
 day had a boy who was not satisfied with 
 the old way of carrying wheat to the mill, 
 with the wheat at one end-of the sack, on one 
 side of the horse ar.d a stone to balance it at 
 the other end of the sack, at the other side 
 of the horse, and put half the wheat on one 
 side and half on the other. He came running 
 to his father, " O Fader see, I haf put one 
 half on one side and one on die oder, and it 
 coes just as cood." His father scolded 
 him, saying, " what are you thinking 
 about ? Do you dink yourself better aa 
 your fader and grandfader ? You shust ga 
 and put in the shtone, as pefore." Now in 
 civilized lands, the progressive boy becomes 
 his own master before ho quite loses his new 
 iden, and ho develops it independently to 
 practical results, which even his old father 
 
23 
 
 by and by comes to approve, thou^li if he 
 had hnd his way, it never would huve been 
 done. 
 
 But* in China each rising? generation is 
 kept in the rut of its predecessor by the 
 almost absolute control of father over son, 
 nntil he in turn loses all tendency to vary, 
 and himself hecomes conservative — and thus 
 by the tyranny of the past over the present 
 the one type is perenially perpetuated. 
 
 II. 
 
 What is civilization ? 
 
 This is a crucial question, the proper 
 nnderstanding of which \\\\\ materially affect 
 our discussion. One cause of the endless 
 round of polemical warfare, and the bitter 
 wrangles in the world of thought, is the 
 defectiveness of definitions of cardinal points. 
 Let us try at the start to understand what 
 true civilization is.* Dr. Mitchel says, it is 
 the arresting of the principle of natural 
 selection in the process of evolution, by 
 which man comes to control himself and his 
 destiny. Buckle makes it out to be the 
 Bum or outcome of physical causes, the 
 moral element being insignificant, the mind 
 itself the product of matter. Bagehot tells 
 ns that the progress of civilization results 
 from creations of mind conserved and pro- 
 pagated by physical or lower causes. Guizot 
 
 * These definitions give rather the substance 
 than the words of the authors mentioned. 
 
— whom you all know, and cannot study toa 
 much, whose work on European civilization is 
 a masterly philosophy of history— tells us that 
 civilization in its most general idea is an 
 improved condition of man resultinpf from 
 the establishinoiit of social order in place of 
 individual indopendonce and lawlessness of 
 barbaric life, the pro^rress of the human race 
 towards realizing the idea of humanity. 
 
 Now, in attempting to formulate for our- 
 selves a definition of what civilization really 
 is, wo must not forget (1) that the state 
 is an aggregation of individual elements, 
 and that there can be no civilized and pro- 
 gressive land without civilized and educated 
 masses of people. (2) No true civilization is 
 in spots or partial developments. A state in 
 which there are few troubles, all things nicely- 
 arranged for everybody, but where the 
 people do not thitik for themselves, being 
 led by officialdom, like a flock of sheep in 
 intellectual and moral childhood— is not a 
 civilized state. A state that has acquired 
 considerable moral and intellectual advance, 
 but where the masses have little physical 
 comfort a!id no political liberty is not a 
 civilized state. Aland in which the people 
 have almost perfect liberty, but where mighb 
 is right, the weak oppressed and violence rules^ 
 is not a civilized land. A people in which 
 every individual has almost perfect liberty, 
 and inequality or difference is rare, but where 
 there is no national sentiment, no cohesion of 
 state, simply an overflowing mass of human 
 individuals— is not a civilized people. A land 
 
■ , . 25 „ , -. :-:':, 
 
 in which refinement and culture make a sorb 
 of paradise for the favored classes, but where 
 morality is rare, where effeminacy charac- 
 terizfts the public spirit, where no noble ideal 
 or lofty sentiment perraentes the masses of the 
 people, cannot be called a civilized state. 
 Thus no one principle alone can make a civili- 
 zation. (3) Civilization is not a thincr that can 
 be manufactured to order, or imported ready 
 made, a somethincr that men or nations can . 
 cboose and change, put on and off like a suit ; 
 of clothes. It is tiie life and growth of a 
 people, the oufconie in social and political 
 life of the principles which -actuate and con- 
 trol the individual character. Keeping these 
 points before our minds it will be seen that 
 a ti-iie form of civilization is only to be found 
 in those lands whore civilized individual 
 men combine on compatible principles and 
 evince a matured character in all the various 
 phnses of social and political life. 
 
 Now what is the character of this unifc, 
 this civilized man ? It is a man in whom all 
 the elements of human nature are matured 
 or are progressing in liarmonious develop- 
 ment towards legitimate maturity. A man 
 in whom the physical alone is developed 
 makes a magnificent savage, but is no com- 
 plete man. A man may cultivate his mind 
 and possess all the external refinement of the 
 scholar and the gentleman, and yet have in 
 his private life a moral foulness to which 
 he v.'ould never dare to introduce his mother 
 or sister, and thus make himself a representa- 
 tive, not of true civilization, but of thafc 
 
* 26 
 
 gangrene hy wliope rot many a nascent civi- 
 lization has fallen into irrecoverable ruin. 
 A man wbose moral sense lias been aroused, 
 and who follows the bent of his higher- 
 nature, wbo cultures himself into philosophic 
 calm and heroic virtue, but whose soul is 
 still uiilightoned by eternal hope and the 
 confidence of faith, in regions where faith 
 alone is rational, is a man whom we can ad- 
 mire, but whose gloomy type is impossible 
 as the ideal of a true civih'z itioii. The man 
 whose religious instincts have been so warp- 
 ed and misled as to make him a recluse or 
 a cynic, an ascetic neglcctor of physical, 
 mental, social, or political manliood, is au > 
 egregious failure as a man, and far from the 
 ideal after which we seek. Our ideal man 
 is one in whom all the elements of manhood 
 have full room for development, nothing 
 suppressed or removed, depriving fiumanity 
 of any legitimate heritage ; the lower, how- 
 ever, subject to the higher powers, and all in 
 conscious subjection — not to any man or com- 
 bination of men, but to Him who has creat- 
 ed the universe and is father of our spirits. 
 A man who cares for the physical as a valued 
 inheritance who takes his place as man 
 amongst men in social and political life, 
 whose mind is ever open and earnest in the 
 search after truth in every realm of nature 
 and of thought, whoso moral impulses and 
 actions are pure, whose; spirit rises unsullied 
 in hope of immortality and in scientific trust 
 upon God, is a civilized man. Let this be- 
 come tho ideal unit, the aim of a people^ 
 
fully realized perhaps by few, and that people 
 will surely advance in all that is true and 
 abidint^r ill civilization. ; 
 
 What strikes the mind first of all in a 
 country called civilized, is the external refine- 
 ment, the comfort and cotiveniences of life, 
 the power of machinery in manufacture, the 
 ramifications of commerce and the engines 
 of war. A step further and the school house 
 and college, the spread of education and its 
 influence become palpable. It requires deeper 
 penetration, however, to see the occult but 
 still more powerful moral and religious forces 
 behind it all. 
 
 That there can be no true civilization with- 
 out raornlity is a truism so thoroughly 
 accepted by all that I need spend no time in 
 arguing the point. History tells us, and 
 no one in Japan would doubt the fact, that 
 no amount of outer refinement, or advance 
 of commerce, or engines of war or education 
 could save a nation weakened by moral rot. 
 In so fai as a nation is immoral just so far 
 is it weak, and unless morally regenerated 
 it will assuredly perish. 
 
 But my next point may be disputed by 
 many and that is this. There is no public or 
 private morality possible without religion, 
 and then of course no true civilization with- 
 out a religion. Man has a religious instinct 
 that must be satisfied,, which, unmet by a 
 something true to match it, degenerates into 
 dark superstition and cruel rites, and which 
 untaught may be wrought upon by designing 
 men to enslave the mind and block the 
 
> 28 
 
 wheels of progress. If, however, this faculty 
 yearning for the unseen, supreme, and abso- 
 lute being, the author of our nature and tho 
 universe in which we dwell, is met by a 
 revelation which our reason tells us is worthy 
 of belief, it lifts man up, not out of the pre- 
 sent world in which we live, but gives him 
 the consciousness of superiority and authority 
 over all that is temporal, and of an heirship 
 to that which is eternal. Man is a worship- 
 ping animal "deifies and adores the first 
 thing he meets rather than cease to adore." * 
 This religious faculty is tho most funda- 
 mental of all our faculties, if developed 
 healthily ennobles, impels our whole being 
 forward atid upward, the soul of all true pro- 
 gress. " Ti-ue religion meeting the most 
 fundamental faculty of man's nature is the 
 most expansive and elevating power in the 
 world. Corrupted it is indeed corruptio 
 optimi pessima, the worst of all debasing 
 evils. To attempt to discard all religion 
 because of its frequent abuse, and the errors 
 believed and the crimes committed in ita 
 name, is as illogical as the asceticism of the 
 monk, which curses tho world because of the 
 evils wrought in it. The man of \v( 11 balanced 
 mind is neither monk nor infidel ; he is re- 
 ligious and social ; he neither exiles himself 
 from man nor seeks to repudiate God. And it 
 often happens that as men drift away from a 
 religions life some low superstition develops 
 within the soul. * Tis very true that in in- 
 
 ♦ Coquerel. 
 
dividual cases, tlie religious iiisfcincfc seoms to 
 be educated away. But blindness in many 
 an iudiviiiual does not prove the non-existence 
 of liirlit, and the atheism of a few abnormal 
 individuals is asjiothing compared with the 
 overwhelmintr testimony of all lands, of all 
 ages, proclaiming with the united voice of every 
 language, the hunger cry of the human soul 
 for the infinite, that feeling after God, which 
 must have something in winch to trust. 
 
 Nor is this religious faculty a mere senti- 
 ment which can be cultivated by philosophic 
 speculation, or by almost any kind of thing 
 called a religion. The universal hunger of 
 the human heart after God, this mysterious 
 longing for supernatural sympathy, those 
 hopes and fears for the unknown hereafter, 
 can never be satisfied with milk and water 
 disquisitions on " the true, the beautiful, and 
 the good " in the abstract. The sin-struek 
 conscience with forebodings of wrath, and 
 seeking the pardon of a loving father will 
 never be satisfied with learned discourses 
 about the evolution of conduct, the evanes- 
 cence of evil, and the comparison of relative 
 with absolute ethics. The soul that yearns 
 after personal conscious immortality, and 
 looks upon that hunger as a prophetic in- 
 stinct of future life, will never be satisfied 
 with any lean theory of transmission of in- 
 fluence ; nor will it be much hart by the 
 small talk of would-bo philosophers about 
 this hanger being selfish and low. As well 
 might they tell the common sense of man- 
 kind that the desire for food was low and 
 
• 30 
 
 selfish and animal. And vvliafc if it. is ? What- 
 ever you like to call it, it is there, and ifc 
 must be satisfied at any cost, philosophize as 
 you may, and so with the hunger of the 
 
 soul. .'. -V ^ ■■ /- ■ ■■^*"--^ '"' '^;''" -■ ^ 
 
 The world's religious instincts will not be 
 satisfied with mere hints and su^^gestions and 
 theories; this faculty demands something 
 definite, something authoritative which will 
 compel the heart's belief. But now as soon 
 as faith or belief in authority is spoken of, 
 up rises the wrath of a certain class of people 
 who call themselves scientists but are not 
 truly so, and they cry out " faith is suicidal 
 of science ! " " belief is destructive of reason ! " 
 Nothing could be more unscientific, more 
 absurd, than such assertions as these. We 
 don't ask any one to study the sciences by 
 faith, or to allow belief to take the place of 
 thought. There is a | lace for the microscope, 
 and another for the telescope, and they can- 
 not be interchanged. It would be absurd for 
 the astronomer to ridicule the raicroscopist 
 because he cannot see the mountains of the 
 moon with his little instrument, that was 
 made for an entirely different purpose; and 
 equally absurd for small thinkers to ridicule 
 faith because it is not adapted to a sphere for 
 "which it was never intended. We are subject 
 to laws, to limits, to authority on every hand, 
 obeying which we have freedom, as fish in 
 their natural element ; and outside of which 
 is death, as to fish thrown upon the land. 
 All matter to subject to physical laws, the inw 
 dividual is subject to social law, the citizea 
 
31 
 
 IS subject to polifcical law, tlie mind is subject 
 to mental laws, the soul is subject to 
 spiritual laws, and being a conscious per- 
 sonality seeks a conscious personality as the 
 source of that law to which it feels itself sub- 
 ject. Religion is the attitude of man to that 
 supernntural authority, and any communica- 
 tions which may come from him. And here 
 microscope, and telescope, and crucible, 
 filembic, scalpel, and test acids, and whole 
 laboratories of instruments arid experi- 
 mentalists cannot hflp us one iota — a 
 revelation must como in ; nor is it a region 
 of blind acceptance of every thing pre- 
 sented by any class of men. But if any 
 man, or any book, or any system of doctrine, 
 be it Koran, Zendavesta, Pitaka or the Bible, 
 -comes asserting a right, to proclaim to us 
 eternal verities, the will of the Sujirerae, or 
 the facts of tlio future world, before we 
 believe, we must ask for their credetUials ; 
 and submit these credentials to human 
 reason. And now you may call in your 
 microscope and telescope and alembic and 
 all the army of scien title experimentalists, 
 with all their facts and specimens and know- 
 ledge and let them test those credentials for 
 you. Don't be afraid ; those credentials are 
 very important; if they are false it will be 
 the height of folly to believe the message 
 they bring ; if they are true, it will be still 
 greater folly not to accept the message they 
 offer. Test them well, for they are the 
 Bcientifio links between the natural and the 
 supernatural, which if proved to be true 
 
32 
 
 will make your faith as thorouf(1ily scientific 
 as any other exorcise of the reasonable mind. 
 
 No religion that cannot produce its cre- 
 dentials, and triumphantly present tliem to 
 the test of reason can stand before the on- 
 ward march of scieiice, can for .^ moment 
 be considered as an element in true civiliza- 
 tion. No relif^ion which debimches i\\e 
 mind can produce thereafter true morality 
 of the heart and life, and in the march of 
 science must p^o to the wall. 
 
 And that brings me now to a statement 
 which C don't ask you to accept on my 
 authority, or on the authority of the Chris- 
 tian church, but which I ask you seriously 
 to consider, and to test scientifically^. It ia 
 indeed the centre of my thesis, and to prove 
 which this course of lectures is being deliver- 
 ed. And the statement is this ; you have 
 seen that there is no true civilization possible 
 without the salt of morality, and that as 
 there can be no general morality without 
 religion, I now make the statement there is 
 no religion but Christianity that can stand 
 the testing of science, the probing of ad- 
 vancing thought; and that can be the torch, 
 the sunlight if you will, of true civilization 
 of modern times. In every rebgion there 
 are elements of truth, but the large propor- 
 tion of ftalpable error, brought. to light by 
 modern education, vitiates the good ; and those 
 religions that aie unscientific are doomed to 
 pei'ish. But amid all the crash of falling 
 creeds, Christianity stands out as the one 
 exception, the soul of all true progress, whose 
 
; 33 
 
 path is being cleared by the march of in- 
 tellect, and whoso power is being more and 
 more unfoKled by the mflgnificent modern 
 triumphs of mind. And the reason is two- 
 fold, (1) Its credentials, when tested, are 
 found genuine, and thus it demands and 
 obtains a hearing from the thoughtful mind 
 of man ; and (2) It is the only known force 
 by the help of which the higher elements 
 in the perfect unit of a true civilization can 
 be produced, and all its legitimate influences 
 tend in that practical direction. 
 
 II r. 
 
 What is Christianity ? 
 
 And iu>w iho question properly arises, 
 what is Christianity ? Just here let me ask 
 you to dismiss from your minds for a mo- 
 ment all definitions and representations made 
 by opponents of Christianity, whether found 
 in the scurrilous refuse of Tom Paine or Ro- 
 bert Ingersoll, in the superficial pages of a Dra- 
 per when he leaves his proper sphere, the par- 
 tial staienients of pseudo-scientists or the pon- 
 derous but defective philosophy of Herbert 
 Spencer, and bear with mo while I give you 
 tho view from within, from the Christian 
 stand- point. 
 
 Very briefly then, wo hold that Christianity 
 is (I) a revelation of the mind of God to the 
 mind of man through Jesus Christ, and of 
 tho means by which man may bo in eternal 
 harmony wi(h God ; j\nd (2) an unfolding to 
 us of tho Creator's ideal of a complete man, 
 
34 
 
 in ilin man Clirisfc Jesus, and of the way by 
 wliioli mankind may reach this ideal ; the 
 following of which is the progress of the 
 truest civilization, and the attainment of which 
 its grandest culmination. This revelation is 
 contained in the bible; in the old testament 
 which prepared the world for the advent 
 of Ciu'ist and the reception of his teaching; 
 and the new testament which tells tlie story 
 of his life, and unfolds liis practical doctrines. 
 This revelation simply puts into the hands 
 of men tliat wliicli they could not by any 
 other means obtaiti, and only so far as will 
 be of practical value for the elevation of 
 man. Tt is put, however, in the hands of men, 
 that they may use it according to the inten- 
 tion of its Author, in harmony with every 
 other revelation of God which science or 
 thought opens to our view, tliat they may 
 disseminate its benefits among their fellovf 
 men and impart its unfolding riches of ma- 
 turer understanding to succeeding genera- 
 tions. This practical development of scriptural 
 revelation for human use is three-fold. First, 
 wo have Christian doctrine, secondly a Chris- 
 tian church, and thirdly a Christian manner 
 of life. 
 
 As it is necessary in studying the facts of 
 nature to put nature's laws into some system 
 that can bo comprehended by the human 
 mind, and bo taught to the enquiring student, 
 so the moral and religious truths of the 
 bible, imbedded in its history and poetry 
 and narrative and letters, unfold to those 
 who search for thorn, spiritual laws and facts 
 
35 
 
 wliicli miisfc bo systeraatised so as to be 
 apprehended as a whole, and fcaiif^lifc to 
 the young and those who are busy with 
 ether lines of life. Henco a system of 
 Christian doctrines or the science of theo- 
 logy is a matter of course. Now you. 
 may have been told that the dof?mns of the 
 Christian church are illogical, childish, un- 
 scientific, absurd ; and if you should call 
 Christian doctrine everything that has been 
 taught in the name of Ciiristianity, I would 
 have to agree with tlie verdict, for men 
 calling themselves Christian teachers have, 
 in their ignorance, taught many a falsehood, 
 many an unscientific tradition, many a 
 childish absurdity, many an atrocious cari- 
 cature of the truth, and were ready to damn 
 anyone who would dare to doubt their dog- 
 mas. I am not ignorant of these things and 
 am profoundly ashamed — not of Christianity, 
 but of men who have banished Christianity, 
 and in her name have set up the foul evolu- 
 tion of their own ignorance and corruption, 
 or have overlaid the fair face of truth with 
 the hideous mask of falsehood. Be pleased 
 to understand that doctrine and theology are 
 intended to show forth the laws and facts of 
 revelation, just as natural science is intended 
 to show forth the laws and facts of the na- 
 tural world. And just as false science docs 
 rot affect the facts and latvs of nature 
 in themselves, so false doctrine docs not 
 affect the facts of Christianity, excepting to 
 belie them. Christianity is not dogma. 
 You tr t science by experiment, by natural 
 
• 36 
 
 facts ; you must test doctrine by the standard 
 of tlie Christian bible, *' to the law and the 
 testimony," any doctrine or tradition that 
 cannot bo easily deduced therefrom is not 
 Christian — is alien — is a human addition. 
 Witli the bible 1 take my stand, and I chal- 
 len<ifo anyone to state a single doctrine that ia 
 childish, absurd, or false, that can be fairly 
 deduced from, the teachings of this standard. 
 For the conservation of doctrine, for the 
 gocial wants of religious people, a society is 
 necessary and hence we have a Christiaa 
 chnrch, but you will please remember that 
 a Christian church is a combination of 
 human beings — of fallible men — but if true 
 must combine on the line of biblical 
 principles. But you have been told that 
 the Christian church is a machincny of 
 prii^stcraft, designed to keep men in ignor- 
 ance and mental subjection, whose fetters 
 must be thrown off by all men of science 
 and thought. I beg your pardon, gentlemen ; 
 that is not the Christian church at all, but a 
 foul usurper of the name of Clirist under 
 wljose guidance men have duped their fellow- 
 men ; have robbed them of liberty of consci- 
 ence, and the heritage of free thought; have 
 become instruments of political corruption 
 and tyranny ; have disgraced the name of man, 
 and degraded all that men hold dear ; have 
 trod on the neck of kings, and been tolerant 
 of every crime but that of opposition to 
 themselves. A whole hideous range of dark 
 deeds of op{)ression and blood stands out 
 before my eyes, until I shudder and blush 
 
37 * 
 
 for — not Christianity, for slie has done none 
 of these things, but for those human beings 
 who could prostitute a thing so holy for ends 
 so vile. Gentlemen, Christianity is not that 
 thing which has often gone by the name of 
 the cliarch. Every thing tliat men have 
 added to that which can be fairly deduced 
 from Christ's own teachings, is not Christian, 
 and I challenge you to produce any scrip- 
 tural, biblical principle that in any sense 
 antagonizes the soundest principles of in- 
 dividual freedom, of mental enlargement, of 
 social advancement, of political economy, or 
 any element in the noblest civilization ! 
 
 Christianity aims also at producing a 
 Christian character, which shall be the normal 
 ty[)e of a Christian civilization, the elements 
 of a Christian nation, nay of a Christian 
 world. There are two ways in which the 
 out-working of this aim may bo seen in 
 individuals. In the first place in the cha- 
 racter of people who intelligently and con- 
 sciously strive after the Christian ideal. In 
 these you may find many a w< akness, 
 many a defect arising from various hu- 
 man imperfections. In so far as they ap- 
 proach the Christian t3'po, the man Christ 
 Jesus, they are found to appi'oach the perfect 
 ideal of complete humanity. In so far as they 
 vary fi-orii that typo in principle they cease 
 to be Christian. A second way in which this 
 tendency works is in introducing a sort of 
 moral fibre, imparted to national character, to 
 public opinion, to the working of thought 
 and social sympathies, tendencies which 
 
may bo peen in many a man who dis- 
 cards tho restraints and tho sanctions of 
 the Christian religion, and who may even 
 be far from the standard of purity in morals ; 
 so that there is often much more of frank- 
 ness and fairness, and of the fundamental 
 framework of noble humanity than one would, 
 at first suspect, in these characters in which 
 the Christian ideal is not yet evolved, where 
 much that is doubtful, or even repulsive ana 
 insolent, appears on the surface. But let ifc^ 
 be distinctly understood that what is doubt- 
 ful, and insolent, and repulsive is not duo to 
 Cln-istianity, unless you can find it in our 
 standard Jesus Clirist, but is due rather to 
 the absence of tho best elements of Chris- 
 tianity. But are not all foreigners who como 
 from Christian lands specimens of the Chris- 
 tian type ? Alas no, some of us are very 
 far from it. And how does it come that 
 if Christianity is such a boon, any one 
 can reject it? Simply because men are 
 free and fallible, and " men love darkness 
 rather than light" in these things, and for the 
 same reason as in Christ's day " because their 
 deeds are evil." Christianity invites men to 
 the highest good,- but God himself cannot, 
 will not, force the unwilling heart to love 
 him. But you speak of " Christian nations," 
 pejmit me to ask you to say *' so-called 
 Christian " nations, for history, neither past 
 nor present, can show us a single nation in- 
 which tho Christian ideal has been evolved. 
 Christian nations so-called do a groat many 
 things as nations which arc repudiated by 
 
-,;: : 39 ' '■■■■^^ '^'-<- 
 
 the Christian element tlierein ; and every 
 national crime, unless you can trace it 
 to Christian principle, is a new evidence 
 that the Christian ideal has not yet been 
 reached, and must not bo laid to the 
 charge of Christianity but to its partial re- 
 pudiation. And yet the wonderful results 
 achieved by the still partially evolved Chris- 
 tian civilization are so strikingly magnificent, 
 and so pregnant with promise of future good, 
 that we look forward with confidence and hope 
 •to the time when it shall permeate the world's 
 peoples, and humanity's highest ideal shall bo 
 realized by all raankiiid. This superiority of 
 a civilization influenced even partially by 
 Christianity can be understood only by a 
 comparison of civilizations that have not 
 been influenced by Chvistianity, with those 
 other lands where Christianity has to some 
 extent exerted her power. To such a com- 
 parison I now call your attention. But first 
 let me ask you to remember that Christianity 
 is not to bo measured by the defects of pre- 
 tended followers, but by its principles, its 
 facts, its legitimate influences, and also that 
 Christian civilization is not to be judged by 
 any isolated action or age, but to be traced 
 in the combination of facts and ages, through 
 which the influence of its principles is being 
 gradually evolved in practical life. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Pre-Christian Civilizations. 
 
 Wo glance first at the history of nations 
 in which civilization made advance before 
 
40 
 
 tbe rise of Christianity. We pass by the 
 partial civilizfitiona of Asia, where in his- 
 torical times, one type has ruled, charif^o has 
 been rare, and advance the exception ; mere- 
 ly calling attention to the fact that this 
 unity has tended to despotism and tyranny 
 on the one hand, and truculent ignoble sub- 
 mission on the other. But let us look at the 
 stately march of those six great empires which 
 Bucessively rose and fell, each bequeathing to 
 its successor all the advance it had gained, 
 bringing, at about the time of Christ, the 
 known world to the magnificent zenith of 
 the noblest civilization possible, without the 
 regenerating influences of a supernatural re- 
 ligion. Tho oldest historical nation is the 
 Egyptian, the monuments of whos^e greatness 
 of resources, of scientific advance are stand- 
 ing to-day in stately pyramid and silent* 
 sphinx, but whose land has for centuries been 
 the home of a beggarly remnant, without a 
 rag even of moral or political greatness. The 
 Assyrian Empire was vast in extent, splendid 
 in its conquests, its trumphs written on stone 
 that arc being deciphered to-day, its great 
 capital of Ninevah unsurpassed in magni- 
 ficence. The Babylonian wave of Empire 
 absorbed all the acquired strength of Assyria, 
 inherited its provinces and rose to greater 
 glory.' All the wealth of tho Babylonian 
 Empire and its civilization becarno a part 
 of the Persian wave of splendour, which drew 
 from still wider sources a still greater 
 opulence and grew to vaster grandeur. The 
 keen life of the Greek, in the brief time of the 
 
41 
 
 fluprrmacy of the Mnceclonian Empire, infused 
 a rich clement; into the conquered world, 
 and in her fall transmitted her enterprise 
 and intellectual supcu-iority as a heritage to 
 her Roman conquerors. The vast orgfaniza- 
 tion and iron strength of the R >tnan Empire 
 had, at the time of Christ, brought the 
 accumulations of all the preceding millen- 
 niums into one vast civilization which 
 was the culmination of the progress of the 
 preceding ages and the climax of triumph 
 * for human intellect and political power. 
 
 The intellectual greatness of tlioso ages is 
 : the marvel of to-day, so far as human genius 
 goes, in philosophy, poetry, sculpture, ora- 
 tory, statesmanship, they are still unsurpass- 
 •ed. In mngnificence and luxury they are 
 unapproachable. 
 
 But I dare not linger, let me point out one 
 or two facts. (1) All of these nations rose from 
 a state of partial barbarism, in which were 
 many virtues arising from lack of op- 
 portunity for vice, or the earlier impetus of a 
 young religion, and as a natural consequence 
 this virtue with physical strength, gave them 
 military heroism and manly courage. So 
 they conquered, and grew wealthy and refined 
 and civilized ; and in proportion as their 
 civilization and refinement grow, so vanished 
 their virtue, their heroism, their courage until 
 they became unspeakably immoral, complete- 
 ly effeminate and an easy prey to tlio next con- 
 queror. These new conquerors were barba- 
 ric, heroic, enterprising, until they in course 
 of time along with ever rising intellectual 
 
42 
 
 and pliyHical civilization, sank into still deeper 
 moi-Hl degradation and pitiable effeminacy, 
 becoming an easy prey to the next healtliy 
 barbarian with a new religion to replace or 
 add to the old one that had become effete. 
 And so it went on in ceaseless rounds, each 
 empire rising higher in refinement, philo- 
 sophy and civilization than the preceding, but 
 as a result of that civilization, sinking to 
 still lower depths of moral rottenness, until 
 the rude barbarians' of Europe shattered into 
 fragments th.o vast Roman Empire, the heir 
 of all that had preceded, the culmination and 
 the finis of that stylo of civilization, reveal- 
 ing at once its power and its signal failure. 
 (2) Another thing worthy of notice is thati 
 ■when these empires began to decay nothing 
 could impede the downward tendency. Ad- 
 vancing thought had undermined the re- 
 ligious faith, and the forms and ceremonies 
 Lad no longer a moral power ; philosophers 
 sought in vain to formulate ethics, and 
 prescribe for the peoples' malady, but the 
 incurable leprosy went on. There was 
 absolutely no morall}' regenerative force; 
 and for want of that, moral death brought 
 political ruin, which in every case was 
 inevitable. (3) Another fact is that in all 
 these civilizations there was an ideal and a 
 unity of purpose, but the ideal was too low, 
 too narrow, and under none of them, though 
 abundantly realized, could the complete- 
 man bo evolved. Take for instance the 
 Greek type, in some respects the most 
 attractive of all. Its typo is human, its- 
 
43 
 
 ideal tbe physically and mentally deve- 
 loped man, combined in a democracy 
 "where all shall be equal and the state 
 supreme. A type which naturally resulted 
 in the Athenians poisoning Socrates because 
 be taught their children to be more virtuous 
 than their fathers, and banished Aristides 
 because he had earned the title of " the just," 
 thus imperiling the uniformity of the state. 
 And just as defective the brutal heroism of 
 the Roman type with its gladiatorial shows, 
 its exposure of infants, and general disregard 
 for human life. 
 
 And what was it that put a stop to this 
 long series of revolutions from barbaric 
 strength to civilized weakness and pitiable 
 collapse ? Why did not the barbarians who 
 conquered E/omo adopt Roinan civilization, as 
 conquering Rome had adopted that of con- 
 quered Greece, and so on down the long story 
 of the past ? Why, because the world had 
 turned over a new leaf, and instead of bor- 
 rowing from Rome, modern civilization c .ves 
 its radical diiferenco, humanly speaking, to a 
 despised and feeble people, the Jews, and its 
 perennial vitality, its universally admired and 
 elevating ideal to p. village carpenter — 
 crucified when little more than a lad. 
 
 V. 
 
 Christian Civilization. 
 
 And now let us try to discern the cardinal 
 facts and causes of the new civilization of 
 Europe. Those of you who have read 
 
■•■-'■ 44 
 
 Guizot's History of European civilization 
 will remember his masterly delineation of 
 the three great forces contending with each 
 other at the downfall of the Roman Empire, 
 and for ages afterwards. These were (1) 
 the shattered wrecks of Roman Civilization, 
 which were more an impelling memory of 
 the magnificence of monarchy and of law 
 than anything tangible ; (2) the Christian 
 church, which had grown up from a mere 
 handful of poor Christians in the first century, 
 to a vast imperial hierarchy, a great political 
 power ; and (3) the barbarian element of 
 individual freedom and brutal coarseness and 
 cruelty. 1 am not prepared to say that the' 
 fact of the church having at that terrible 
 time, considerable political power was an 
 unmixed evil. For although the wielding of 
 direct political power by the Church is alien 
 to the spirit of Christianity, its province be- 
 ing to transform and elevate the individual, 
 and through the unit elevate the whole, yet 
 those ferocious half-savages, whose blood 
 flows in the veins of many of ns heve, needed 
 a stronger che. ': than kind words, and that 
 check they foui.d in the political power of the 
 church wl'.ich had survived the overthrow of 
 the imperial throne. 
 
 You will of course understand from what 
 I have Mli'cady said tliat I do not look upon 
 the Christian ehureh of tliat time, or of any 
 time when she directly mixes herself with 
 politics, as synonymous with Christianity. 
 The Christian church was a combination of 
 men who had certain political aims in view, 
 
and used as instruments the name, ilio his- 
 tory, the accumulated social influence, some 
 of the doctrines, the promises and threaten- 
 ings of Christianity, as a means to obtain 
 political sway. Thus the church became one 
 of the struggling factors in a new civiliza- 
 tion, with some grand divine elements behind 
 her, which she often prostituted, so that she 
 wa8 frequently a hindrance rather than a help 
 to the spread of Christianity and Christian 
 influence. 
 
 There were then these three ejen:ents, 
 monarchical tendencies inherited from tha 
 Roman empire, the politico-ecclesiastical 
 tendencies of the church, and the wild brutal 
 democracy of the conquering barbarians. 
 These three elements have struggled toge- 
 ther, none ever having the upper hand so 
 completely as to destroy the others ; none 
 ever so weak as not to influence the others ; * 
 each one modifying the others, repelling, 
 advancing, clashing, uniting, exploding, fu- 
 sing, imparting, increasing; and the straggle 
 goes on to-day, but on different lines, on 
 higher principles, and with less destruction ; 
 and will go on until all hearts are fused into 
 one brotherhood around our ideal Christ 
 
 Jesus. ■ ■ ■^'.■::'-: 
 
 To the quiet contemplative mind such a 
 series of perpetual conflict would seem to be 
 evil and only evil — and yet that series of war 
 >and combat has given birth to a civilization 
 which is totally different from all the 
 civilization that preceded it, in typo, in 
 cba:'actor, in power, and in promise for 
 
the future. I masfc condense a vasfc amount 
 of fnots infco a very few sentences now 
 to show you the salient points of this 
 new civilization, and the potent cause which 
 makos it differ so completely from every 
 other type. Let us recall the tliree great 
 facts respecting the former civilizations. (1) 
 It was seen that as civilization and retine- 
 ment and philosophy advanced, religion died, 
 and immorality, political effeminacy, weak- 
 ness, collapse, resulted. On the other hand 
 as modern civilization advances, pure and 
 noble religion lives on, while superstitious 
 trapi>ings fall away, and immorality is more 
 and more branded with shame and driven 
 into sewers ; and along with comfort and 
 peace, tliere is ever an increase of mili- 
 tary strength ; and along with this in- 
 crease of military strength there is a com- 
 mensurate decrease of military vices. Old 
 civilizati(;ns gradually made men unfit for 
 war, modern civilization puts in new energy, 
 and when needed, pours out from farm-house, 
 and manufactory, and commercial offices, and 
 mechanics' shops, deluges of men who need 
 only a little training to make them as steady 
 of nerve, as indomitable, as the most famed 
 veterans of a heroic age. This was seen in 
 the late American war, and can be seen in 
 any war that England or Germany wages. 
 The old civilizations fell before barbarian 
 power; in presence of modern civilization all 
 barbarisms druop, are powerless, their day 
 seems to bo done, they must become civilized 
 or die. The old civilizations when warlike 
 
' . 47 
 
 aimed at (3onquesfc, not so the new ; though 
 the war energy is there, jt \s turned into an 
 impulse to further the products of peaeo, and 
 the death of harharisms is more like the 
 meltino- of snow under tlio warmth of the 
 suuHhine of spring. 
 
 (2) We saw also that the empires of 
 pre-Christian times, tlieir civilizations being 
 only a superficial shell of refinement and 
 culture, with a heart weak with the 
 putrescei^ce of moral decay, could not 
 be saved from irretrivable ruin. On the 
 other hand the civilized nations of mo- 
 dern times have their chief defects on the 
 surface; many an undesirable thing is pro- 
 minent, many a wro!ig still unrightcd, many 
 a lack still to fill, but at heart there is solid 
 soundness and living force, so that repulses 
 and defeats are followed by resurrections and 
 grander growthri. Divisions mean only multi- 
 plication, as in the case of the United States 
 separating from Britain. Great Britain is 
 vastly greater than before, and the United 
 States almost as big as her mother. _ And 
 before long Canada and Australia will bo 
 nations greater than any old empire, whilo 
 Britain lierself from which they all Bpran.fr> 
 seems younger, fresher than over, not Vet 
 having reached her prime, and without a 
 sign of decay, although already older than 
 any empire of pre-Christian times. 
 
 3. We saw also that there was a sort of 
 national type or ideal in the olden civiliza- 
 tions, which, though realized fully, was 
 entirely inadequate to the powers of man or 
 
48 
 
 tho needs of a national life. On tlio other 
 hand the ideal of Cliristian civilization, 
 whether in the individual or in the nation 
 is still very far from being realized, bub 
 as vfG strain every nerve and every power 
 of complex humanity to reach it, it ad- 
 vances still and every rise we make serves 
 only as a vantajjje ground from which to be- 
 hold tlie heritage of our children, the vaster 
 possibilities of progress. It points ns for- 
 ward to a time foretold more than 2,500 
 years ngo when in poetic language of figure, 
 Isaiah sang of a time when " the wolf also 
 shall dwell with the lamb and tho leopard 
 shall lie down with the kid, and tho calf, 
 and the young lion, and the fatling together ; 
 and a little child shall lead them. They 
 shall not hurt nor destroy in all my 
 holy mountain — for tho earth shall be 
 full of the knowledge of the Lord, as 
 tho waters cover the sea — " mc.>,niiig that 
 when our ideal man shall havo become 
 realiz'id as tho actual unit of a pure 
 world-civilization, armies will bo disbajided, 
 their occupation gone, and the accumulated 
 energy of freer, perfecter men shall be held 
 in moderation, and turned to tho productiou 
 of tho blessings of "peace on oarth and good- 
 will to nuMi." I know that this culmination 
 seems still far away ; but let me remind you 
 that amid all tlio din of armaments of war, 
 men are gradually growing ashamed of tho 
 business of murder. I can scarcely conoeivG 
 of circumstances that would necessarily bring 
 war between Britain and tho United States. 
 
49 
 
 And just imagine to yourselves a general 
 civilization, a moral development in all, or 
 even most lands, equal only to that of these 
 nations at present, with Canada and Austra- 
 lia, and you would see that the army would 
 be nothing but a police force. And why 
 should not the evolution go on until soldier 
 and policemen both became interesting only 
 to the historian and the antiquarian. 
 
 VI. 
 
 The Potential Principle. 
 
 And now what is the potential cause of this 
 reversal of all preceding civilizations, similar 
 in fact to the introduction of life into the 
 natural world, reversing many of the processes 
 of former ages, and leading to marvellous 
 advance ? Just as in the change of the in- 
 organic world into organic, nothing absolutely 
 new was required but life, so in the change 
 from the lower civilizations of those old times 
 to the better one of to-day, there is no 
 absolutely new element, only the introduction, 
 of a living spiritual power, — the Christian 
 religion ; and you may be still more 
 surprised to learn that the most active 
 assistant is the spread of Christian in- 
 fluence is the colossal advance of modern 
 science. Science has done much to re- 
 move incumbrances of old pagan traditions 
 that had fastened themselves like parasites 
 on Christianity, and I hope and expect she 
 ■will work on the same line until every shred 
 of superstition, and human tradition, and 
 
useless form shall be done away, and 
 the golden Christianity of Christ alone 
 remain. Another thing she has done, and 
 that is to nourish aud stimulate a state 
 of mind that is not credulous, which advancea 
 only where the way is firm. And may she still 
 go on strengthening the intellectual powers, 
 for then the faith of the heart will be more 
 strong. But let her be careful to avoid that 
 most fatal of human mistakes, the going to 
 extremes, let her not seek in removing the 
 parasites to amputate the limbs, nor in 
 strengthening the mind to harden it against 
 evidence and reason. The influence of Christi- 
 anity has been exerted in two ways. (1) Tho 
 politico-ecclesiastical corporation called a 
 church, exerted as a political power a con- 
 siderable influence in curbing the violence of 
 the barbarian element, and introduced into 
 European laws some vital principles unknown 
 before, or at least not incorporated into the 
 old civilizations. Such for instance as, 
 
 1. The fact of a Supreme Lawgiver to 
 whom all human law should le tributary. 
 
 2. The importance of the individual man 
 in presence of the fuct that each is immortal. 
 
 S. The obligation of man to man as being 
 all equal in the eyes of the Supreme. 
 
 4 The sensitiveness to human life, pro- 
 claiming abortion to be murder, abolishing 
 the gladiatorial combats, forbidding the ex- 
 posure of children &G. 
 
 5. Judging of the enormity of crime by 
 the element of intention, aud so on. 
 
The other ways in which Christianity work- 
 ed, its more legitimate sphere, sometimes 
 with the help of the church and sometimes 
 in opposition to the church, was in trans- 
 forming individual man by the teachings 
 of the bible, so that he might become a pro- 
 perly developed unit among men, the basis 
 for the highest civilization. To show how 
 this was done and is being done is outside of 
 my present task, and to explain which would 
 lead me to the wide field of Christian doctrine ; 
 suffice It to say that ChrlHiianity has satisfied 
 the human heart with the revelation of a 
 God whom all can adore and love, and with 
 an ideal man whose supremo excellence is 
 acknowledged by all, and is still an inspiration 
 for the noblest among men. The world was 
 taught to believe in the enormity of sin, 
 and the necessity of internal holiness, as 
 the fountain for purer action. Religion 
 was made to be identical with practical 
 life. The marriage bond was made sacred, 
 the home was elevated, and vasf and in- 
 numerable streams of charity were sent 
 flowing to the lowest and the farthest of the 
 human race, ameliorating man's present and 
 pointing to a better future. These influences 
 working together have been little by little 
 transforming, elevating men, and through the 
 individual man, nations and civilizations. 
 
 I shall now close with the statement of a 
 momentous series of facts, and leave you to 
 consider the problem they contain. The 
 Christian religion is the religion of the bible. 
 The two cardinal points in the bible are the 
 
52 
 
 laws of Moses and ine facts and words of 
 Christ. A family of shepherds were taken to 
 Egypt, where their descendents were enslaved 
 in bi'tter bondage for centuries. They escape 
 to the desert, wander for forty years before 
 settling down in a little land called Palestine. 
 During those forty years of wanderings 
 Moses, their leader, elaborated a system of 
 laws. The time was more than three thousand 
 years ngo, and during all that time, by every 
 advance of civilization and of philosophy and 
 science, not one single element or fundamental 
 principle of law has been added to what 
 Moses gave to those escaped slaves. Can yoa 
 tell me why or how it came to pass that Mo- 
 ses nearly one thousand years before Con- 
 fucius was born, laid down every true prin- 
 ciple that Confucius taught, and did not 
 teach one of Confucius's blunders ? And also 
 how it comes that no civilized constitution 
 or code of laws to-day contains a single 
 principle that was not known to Moses, 
 and applied by him wisely to suit the times 
 and the people that he had to deal vyith, 
 and that in all his code there is not a single 
 principle now found to be false? Another fact 
 and problem. Palestine has become a miser- 
 able province of Rome, as immoral as any 
 other. Out of a wretched mountain village 
 comes a young man of 30 years, who calmly 
 contradicts the spirit of his times, and 
 at the age of 33 is ignominiously crucihed. 
 But ho leaves behind him a system of doctrine 
 in which every truth contained in every other 
 religion is contained, in which none of their 
 
errors are found, and which contains vital 
 truths unknown to any other ; and more won- 
 derful still, from that day to this, through 
 these nearly two thousand years, no new ethical 
 or religious truth has been added, and though 
 he taught only three years yet he left behind 
 him an influence which has revolutionized the 
 very meaning of civilization, and set the world 
 on the track of its grandest, fullest develop- 
 ment, infusing also the propelling power. 
 
 Tell me, can you explain these facts wiiii 
 reasons purely human? 
 
 Gentlemen, I am done !.