348 
religion so latelv lost to us* lias told us his belief that the 
literature and philosophy of Greece was as much a part ot God s 
design for man’s elevation as the Law of Moses, and I have no 
wish to contradict him. But Christianity, as I believe, stands 
apart from any other element in the moral education of the 
world. The object of this paper is to show that its influence 
upon conduct is immeasurably greater than any other mankind 
has known. And we may remark, at the outset, that this influ- 
ence upon conduct is precisely what Christianity professes to 
exert. It professes to be a divinely-revealed scheme for the 
regeneration of man’s nature. Its greatest Apostle tells us, in 
the introduction to his greatest Epistle, that the Gospel is^a 
“ power of God unto salvation unto all them that believe ; 
and we surely do not require to be reminded that salvation, in 
the Scripture sense of the word, implies safety from sin as well 
as from sin’s punishment? Nor need I stop to show from 
Scripture that this regenerating power of our religion is not to 
be violent, sudden, imperious in its operation ; but that it is to 
be gradual, as the growth of the seed into the tree — of the 
infant into the man.f 
3. The Christian religion, then, has challenged the inquiry into 
which we are about to enter. If we are concerned to defend 
Christianity at all, we are bound to show that she lias made 
good her pretensions; that she has actually introduced into the 
world the most effective instrument for the moral and spiritual 
improvement of man which has ever been brought to bear upon 
him. And since that which elevates the individual cannot be 
without its effect upon the race, it will satisfy all the conditions 
of the inquiry if we show that Christianity has actually pioduced 
an extraordinary change in the condition of the woild. 
4. Now this is precisely what, in my belief, will be found to be 
the case. If we cast even the most cursory glance at history, 
we cannot fail to see that Christianity has worked a most 
miraculous moral revolution in the world, that it has changed 
the whole face of society, that it has waged unceasing war 
ao-ains't everything which is contrary to man’s true welfare, and 
that this campaign is still being carried on and will continue to 
be carried on until “the kingdoms of the world shall become 
the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ, or, in other 
words, until holiness, justice, purity, and truth shall be firmly 
established, and violence and oppression and sin and wickedness 
shall for ever cease to be. 
* Canon Kingsley. 
f Eph. iv. 13-15 ; 2 Pot. i. 5-7. 
