260 THE RIGHT REV. J. E. C. WELLDON, D.D., ON 



fairness and sympathy. But they should agree with the Lecturer 

 in his conclusion, not from the influence of their own personal 

 predilections, but in accordance with the evidence of fact. He 

 would draw attention to one fact in particular, namely, that there 

 was a marked absence from sacred books, other than the Bible, 

 of any answer to three most vital questions — questions that 

 Christianity answered fully. 



Man yearns after a Supreme Being, someone outside and above 

 himself to control his life. Other religions give no such concep- 

 tion as that of the Fatherhood of God, declared by Christianity. 



Next came the question of access to God by sinful man ; how can 

 God and man meet 1 The only answer possible is through Jesus 

 Christ. 



And the third question is as to where man can find the power to 

 live a holy life. These three questions were answered in that noble 

 formula with which they were all so familiar : The grace of Our 

 Lord, Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the 

 Holy Ghost." These were only learned in Christianity ; no other 

 religion could produce such a benediction. 



And no other religion had the same unifying influence. He had 

 witnessed some two or three hundred native converts kneeling with 

 Englishmen in a wattle hut on the banks of the Godaveri to receive 

 the Holy Communion, and, as he had watched the scene, he thought 

 that nothing could illustrate more forcibly the " Communion of 

 Saints," nothing else than Christianity could have brought together 

 in such communion those of such different races and character. 



Lt.-Col. Mackinlay desired to join heartily with the Chairman in 

 thanking the Bishop for his paper. He rejoiced in the statement 

 that Christianity stood alone ; that the religion of the Lord Jesus 

 Christ was the only one ; that it was true and all others false. 



The superiority of Christianity to all other religions as to its 

 world-wide character was well brought out l)y comparing it with 

 Judaism, itself of Divine origin. The Jew was forbidden to mix 

 with other races for fear of corruption to himself ; he did not seek 

 to make converts, and he was ordered to destroy the wickedness in 

 the land of Canaan by slaying the wicked inhabitants. The 

 followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, on the other hand, were ordered 

 to go and preach the Gospel to every creature, and his disciples 

 early obeyed this injunction, and now Christians arc to be found 



