THE UNIVERSAL AND ABSOLUTE RELIGION 391 



arrayed against the East, and the East against the West, in a 

 mutual exclusiveness of suspicion, that one or the other must 

 wholly triumph, or wholly succumb to the triumph of the other. 

 As evidence of this, recall the noteworthy book of Meredith 

 Townsend on Asia avd Europe. The whole argument in this 

 book is to show that Europe is not likely to conquer Asia. The 

 deeper question to which Mr. Townsend does scant justice is this: 

 Has Europe, has Christendom, the power to bless the world in 

 such a way that neither Europe nor Asia will need any conquest, but 

 one of love and grace? 



If the positions laid down in the preceding pages are sound, the 

 matter of mere physical or national conquest, as between any two 

 races or peoples, is wholly irrelevant. The question lying at the 

 bottom of everything else, is this: Has any people anywhere on the 

 globe a message of such benignity, that if it were -communicated 

 to all the races of the world, it would result in a federation of man- 

 kind, a federation deeper than the mere " brotherhood of man; " 

 such a federation as would shortly pass into the communion of 

 saints? If Christianity, nay, if Christ himself, be not that mes- 

 sage, then as yet there is none upon earth. 



The work of foreign missions up to this time, and especially 

 during the past century, has been that of blazing the path to the 

 discovery of ways and means whereby humanity can get together 

 and find its real salvation, salvation in every sense. Grant that in 

 the efforts made many blunders have occurred; that the means 

 employed have been very inadequate, even that little more than 

 the sowing of the seed of the coming Kingdom of God has been 

 accomplished. Yet the effort has been an earnest one, a sincere 

 one, and, on the whole, an effective one. The humblest inquirers 

 in this realm are those who have labored hardest and sacrificed 

 most to get their message understood among the agnostic and 

 idolatrous races. Our contention, however, is that nothing less 

 than has been done could have been done, and the Christian 

 Church have remained decently Christian, and particularly in the 

 face of the great providential changes that have occurred in the 

 interrelations of the Occident and the orient within the past half 

 century. The reason why Christianity could not have done 

 less is precisely this: that Christianity when understood has in it 

 such elements as we have noted, elements in themselves of untold 

 value, and universally applicable to humankind. 



To recapitulate these: Christianity holds the only adequate con- 

 ception of human unity; it alone cherishes an idea of a glorious 

 redemption at the heart of its God. It only places a premium upon 

 loyalty to present light, with its corresponding divine attestation. 

 It alone guarantees human blessedness in providence utterly irre- 



