unto life, and also a savor of death unto death. It introduces the mysterious and indestructible energy of spiritual life into the soul's development. It touches heart and mind and will. It evolves charac

It introduces new relationships and new obligations. It establishes new institutions and new ideals. It stirs new aspirations and presents a new goal of destiny. Its presence produces far-reaching and manifold results, which ramify through all social life and touch literally every phase of human existence.

Another argument from analogy based upon the larger scope of moral evil.

There is still another suggestive lesson based upon analogy. Can there be any doubt of the larger scope of the forces of moral evil? How penetrating, how omnipresent, how universal is their mysterious sway! If evil is thus gifted with the capacity of overlapping itself and spreading its malign power through every channel of human influence, are we not justified in at least hoping and expecting that the same capacity of expansion and the same breadth of grasp shall characterize the great remedial force which God has planted in human life and experience? Is there any question, moreover, as to the larger scope of the dominant religions of the world other than Christianity? Is not the Oriental world a visible, tangible evidence that non-Christian religions have the power to impress themselves mightily upon social life, to mould its institutions after their own ideals, to cast their shadows far and wide over the fairest regions of the earth, to shape the social destiny and determine the economic and ethical environment of hundreds of millions of our fellow-men? If, then, the expansive influence of human religions is so powerful to penetrate and control the social evolution of the lands where they prevail, can we doubt that Christian forces are endowed with the same capacity? Is it not a foregone conclusion that Christian missions will in time reverse the social tendencies of lands in which they are planted and bring in a new and nobler era?

tion of the Old Testament suggests.

We have also a lesson from religious history, the suggestiveness of which is at once vivid and pointed. The divine legislation of the Old Testament was strikingly sociological in its spirit. What the divine legisla- No one can read the Mosaic code, given with a distinctively theocratic sanction, without recognizing that many of its provisions and requirements were directed to the welfare and control of society as such. These were addressed to Israel as a chosen nation, but they reveal the divine thought concerning social obligations, and the divine ideal with regard to social relationships. Individual rights were protected, but at the

DUFF COLLEGE AND GROUP OF STUDENTS, CALCUTTA, INDIA. Formerly known as the Free Church of Scotland Institution. Founded by Dr. Duff in 1830, and consists of the College proper and a High School. Pupils in College, 457, and in School, 529, making a total of 986.

same time the common welfare was carefully considered and planned for. There was a studied defense of the rights of the poor, the enfeebled, and the oppressed. Social wrongs were to be punished, and the welfare of society was to be diligently studied and conserved.1 If we find such a measure of attention to the interests of associate life in this early and incomplete stage of revelation, is it not a necessary inference that the spirit of the New Testament dispensation is upon even a higher plane of consideration for the welfare of a society which is expected to be permeated by Christian principle? 2

The same lesson of the large and penetrating scope of Christianity is enforced also by the history of what it has actually accomplished in the world just in this line of all-pervasive control.

The argument from

The national and social life of Christendom, whatever blemishes and sorrowful defects we may find historic achievement. in it, is a standing evidence of the elevating power

of Christian principles, and there is no mightier protest against the vices and wrongs of society in Christendom than is made by Christianity itself. There is no more vigorous warfare against iniquity and evil than that instituted and pushed under Christian auspices. Whatever of relief and purification is to be found in Christendom is due directly or indirectly to the influence of Christianity. The altruistic scope of benevolent and philanthropic endeavor is due, at least in its systematic and sustained form, to the inspiration of biblical teachings and the power of Christ's spirit. Then, in the wider realm of history, how many salutary reforms can be traced to a Christian origin! The remedial social legislation of Christendom, the overthrow of the feudal system, the revolt against slavery, the mitigation of the sufferings of war, the extension of the privileges of education, the thousand agencies of rescue, relief, and amelioration of misery and suffering, are all traceable in large measure to the power of Christian principle.

1 Fairbairn, "Religion in History and Modern Life," pp. 127-130.

All

2 "The theocracy which God commanded Moses to set up embraced everything that a nation needs; therefore all departments of government. The prophets spoke of Messiah's kingdom as still greater, embracing the temporal as well as the spiritual welfare of the nations. Our Lord's first sermon in Nazareth confirmed that opinion, as it spoke of political and social reforms for the benefit of the poor and oppressed. Christ's kingdom was not to be of this world, full of armed men to compel submission to unjust laws. The sum of the prophets' teaching indicates a kingdom without sin, without poverty, without oppression, without ignorance, and a righteous one full of joy! Jesus Christ said He came to set up that kingdom. He promised a hundredfold in this life, and in the world to come eternal life.”—The Rev. Timothy Richard (E. B. M.), Shanghai.

3 Adams, "Civilization During the Middle Ages," pp. 50-64. Cf. Storrs,

the brighter aspects of Christendom to-day are but a demonstration of the larger scope of Christianity. Now what has been done, albeit as yet very imperfectly, in Christendom, can and will be done through the power of Christianity if once planted and thoroughly established in non-Christian lands. It impinges inevitably at so many points upon social life and experience, its commands are so far-reaching and so varied in their application, that if properly obeyed a general and transforming influence is assured. How much the Bible speaks of the heart and the body, of husbands and wives, of parents and children, of rulers and subjects, of manhood and womanhood, of the sick, the sorrowing, the poor, the distressed, the afflicted, and the wronged! How it challenges motives and searches the secret springs of action! How it adjusts various relationships, and calls for justice, truth, sincerity, honesty, fidelity, gentleness, patience, sympathy, and love in a thousand varied relationships and emergencies of life! The religion of the Bible is intended to face actual conditions in the world. It is realistic, uncompromising, indefatigable. It works with untiring persistency towards the attainment of its ideals, and it never will rest until man, both individually and socially, is redeemed.

World-wide social re

demption the culminating thought of the New Testament.

It is instructive to note that the spiritual purport of the Old Testament was gradually revealed, and but dimly apprehended by Israel. The Messianic significance of prophecy and symbol grew clearer and clearer as the fulfillment drew near; yet those for whose instruction these revelations were given grasped them but feebly, with a faint recognition of their import, and a faltering faith in their reality. The Messiah at length had come, and the old dispensation culminated in the Incarnation and the atoning work of Christ. So also the revelation of the all-inclusive scope of redemption was gradually imparted, and not until Christ Himself had come was it announced in such explicit and emphatic terms that all doubt should have been forever impossible. The Jewish Church could not grasp the conception of a universal extension of Gospel privileges. The Church of the Apostolic era was inspired with the grandeur of this conception, but it seemed subsequently to fade largely from the consciousness of believers, and to have been revived in the era of modern missions. The Church as yet realizes only imperfectly the significance of the missionary aims of

The Divine Origin of Christianity Indicated by its Historical Effects," Lectures V.-IX.

1 Cf. "Christian Missions in Asia," by the Rev. Timothy Richard, The Baptist Missionary Review (Madras), March, 1895, pp. 81-93.