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.

Oriental Religions and Christianity A Course of Lectures Delivered on the Ely Foundation Before the Students of Union Theological Seminary, New York, 1891 · 第 22 / 58 题