296 PRESENT-DAY RATIONALISM 



truism may not be possible in the case of each individual, 

 it will one day be effected for the race."i 



(8) " Considering that man is the denizen of a universe 

 which can only be known to him through sense-percep- 

 tion , . . supernatural religion may perish at its touch, 

 but the religion of duty and virtue will become more virile, 

 and will acquire a firmer hold upon the human heart. 

 The moral ideal of Rationalism is truth, and on no other 

 foundation than truth can any lofty or durable system of 

 ethics be reared." ^ 



(9) "Taking the human race as a whole, it is clear 

 that Christianity cannot be specially identified with ' the 

 main stream of religious advance' (Balfour)."^ 



(10) "Other things being equal, a man's happiness is 

 in direct proportion to his virtue." * 



The author's appreciation of the New Testament can 

 be gathered from the following passage : — 



(11) "The New Testament contains nothing original 

 or important in the shape of speculation. The system 

 which we find in its pages is mainly a compound of 

 Jewish theology and demonology with the myths of 

 Paganism, modified by some admixture of neo-Platonic 

 philosophy, and the ethical maxims which had filtered 

 slowly into the Greek and Roman world from the Far 

 East, It is one of the commonplaces of criticism that 

 Christianity possesses nothing of ethical importance 

 which is not shared to an equal degree by other religions, 

 such as Buddhism and Zoroastrianism." '' 



(12) Speaking of Christ's death the author puts it in 

 this form : "It is conceivable that one of the Caesars 

 might have sacrificed his only begotten son for the sake 

 of some petty hamlet containing not more than twenty 



Wp.cit., p. 62. "Op. cit., p. 151. ^ Op. cit., p. iSi. 



*0p. cit., p. 190. ''Op. cit., p. 187. 



