II THE ARREST OF ENQUIRY 37 



advocates may settle among themselves. It is no 

 problem to those who take the opposite view. 



In outlining the history of Christianity stress will 

 be laid here only upon those elements which caused it 

 to be an arresting force in man's intellectual develop- 

 ment, and, therefore, in his spiritual emancipation 

 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 emotion 

 which, as a crowd of kindred examples show, incar- 

 nates 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 hereby the denial of con- 

 tinuity. 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 necessary place, 

 in the development of ideas, and is, therefore, capable 

 of explanation from its roots upwards. For this age 

 is sympathetic, not flippant. It looks with no favour 

 on criticism that is only destructive, or on ridicule or 

 ribaldry as modes of attack on current beliefs. Hence 

 we have the modern science of comparative theology, 

 with its Hibbert Lectures, and GifTor'd Lectures, which 



