14
STRONGHOLD OF TRUTH
Then there has been no new morality in the world since Jesus Christ came to this earth. Is not that a won derful thing? Here are we nineteen hundred years since Jesus Christ came, and yet not a new ethical principle has ever been discovered or expressed since His time. We have had great philosophers, great poets, and great writers of prose, and yet not one of them has given an ethical idea that we cannot find in this Book. Then, too, we notice, as Professor Romanes has said, that the world out-grows the teaching of other men, but it has not out grown the teaching of Jesus Christ. One of the most striking things is that we have not outgrown the teaching of the Man who lived and died in one of the narrowest countries-that of the Jews. All this is an attestation. ( c) Here is the third of these proofs or attestations, namely, the results of Christianity. Observe the effects of Christianity on life-the Father revealing, the Son saving, and the Spirit equipping. Life is the problem, and Christ is the solution; life is the question, and Christ is the answer. If you want to see the results of Chris tianity, test it by other religions. If we would know what Confucianism has done, let us look at China; if we would know what Buddhism has done, let us look at India; if we would know what Islam has done, let us look at Tur key and Persia. Some years ago when I was in Damas cus, looking over that magnificent mosque which used to be a Christian church, I noticed that the Turkey carpets on the ground were all fastened together roughly with thread, and I said to the dragoman: "Why are all these carpets fastened like this?" He said: "To keep those who come to pray from stealing them!" This is what Islam means in the matter of ethics-it has no idea of the connection between cause and effect, between principle and practice. Broken Lights Of course, we do not despise any of these religions to which I have referred. Everything that is good in them comes from God. They are what Tennyson calls
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