4 o 



PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION. 



have put to death those who dared thus to inquire, 

 and to make known what they had discovered; is a 

 problem which its advocates may settle among them- 

 selves. It is no problem to those who take the op- 

 posite view. 



In outlining the history of Christianity stress will 

 be here laid only upon those elements which caused 

 it to be an arresting force in man's intellectual de- 

 velopment, and, therefore, in his spiritual emanci- 

 pation from terrors begotten of ignorance. It does 

 not fall within our survey to speak of that primary 

 element in it which was before all dogma, and which 

 may survive when dogma has become only a matter 

 of antiquarian interest. That element, born of emo- 

 tion, which, as a crowd of kindred examples show, 

 incarnates, and then deifies the object of its worship, 

 was the belief in the manifestation of the divine 

 through the human Jesus who had borne men's 

 griefs, carried their sorrows, and offered rest to the 

 weary and heavy-laden. For no religion and here 

 Evolution comes in as witness can take root which 

 does not adapt itself to, and answer some need of, 

 the heart of man. Hence the importance of study 

 of the history of all religions. 



Evolution knows only one heresy the denial of 

 continuity. Recognising the present as the outcome 

 of the past, it searches after origins. It knows that 

 both that which revolts us in man's spiritual history 

 has, alike with that which attracts, its place, its neces- 

 sary place, in the development of ideas, and is, there- 



