OS 
(os) 
“I 
NOTE. 
ON COMPARATIVE RELIGIONS. 
Tue following remarks upon Comparative Religions* may 
not be out of place as the subject is touched upon in more 
than one paper in the present volume :— 
“Some time since, Principal Fairbairn, an acknowledged 
authority in Comparative Religions, gave a series of lectures in 
Andover, Massachusetts, which were briefly reported in a 
contemporary as follows :— 
The course comprised eleven lectures. The first two discussed funda- 
mentals. Then came one on the religions of China ; seven on the religions 
of India ; one on Mohammedanism. These were selected as most important 
from the missionary standpoint, and as furnishing the best exemplifications 
of the natural history of religions. Only a brief review is here given. 
Religion is universal. No lowest tribe is without it. On this ethno- 
logists are practically agreed. This thought is fundamental. 
The theme was then thrown into three divisions : (1.) The Philosophy 
of Religion ; (2.) The History of Religions ; (3.) The Philosopby of Religions. 
Under the first were considered the origin, nature, and function or end of 
religion. The formula was given and illustrated : “ As a man conce‘ves the 
origin of knowledge, so he conceives the origin of religion ; as a man con- 
ceives the origin of religion, so he conceives its purpose and its value at any 
time.” Materialism has never produced a transcendental theory of religion. 
Many spiritual theories have fallen short of truth. Religion is not thought, 
nor feeling, nor will, but all; it is the highest unity of man’s nature. 
The lecturer divides religions into spontaneous and instituted ; those 
crowing by unconscious processes ont of the instincts of the people, and those 
that run back to a great personality. All religions must be studied under 
historic conditions and with reference to underlying causes. Man is one 
factor, his environment another, For such study, a scientific spirit is indis- 
pensable, as also spiritual reverence. 
In discussing the religions of China, the lecturer referred to the great 
age of the Chinese empire. ‘“ When Rome was young, China was old.” Its 
civilisation is purely indigenous ; so are its great religions. These are two, 
* From an ably conducted American Review. 
