ng that every individual is bound to satisfy
himself by personal enquiry as to the truth of every element in his own
Religion; but, if and so far as he determines to do so, he cannot
reasonably accept an alleged revelation on any other ground than that
it comes home to him, that the content of that Religion appeals to him
as true, as satisfying the demands of his intellect and of his
conscience. The question in which most of us, I imagine, are most
vitally interested is whether the Christian Religion is a Religion
which we can accept on these grounds. That it possesses some truth,
that whatever in it is true comes from God--that much is likely to be
admitted by all who believe in any kind of Religion in the sense in
which we have been discussing Religion. The great question for us is,
'Can we find any reason for the modern man {153} identifying himself in
any exclusive way with the historical Christian Religion? Granted that
there is some truth in all Religions, does Christianity contain the
most truth? Is it in any sense the one absolute, final, universal
Religion?'

That will be the subject for our consideration in the next lecture.
But meanwhile I want to suggest to you one very broad provisional
answer to our problem. Christianity alone of the historical Religions
teaches those great truths to which we have been conducted by a mere
appeal to Reason and to Conscience. It teaches ethical Monotheism;
that is to say, it thinks of God as a thinking, feeling, willing
Consciousness, and understands His nature in the light of the highest
moral ideal. It teaches the belief in personal Immortality, and it
teaches a Morality which in its broad general principles still appeals
to the Conscience of Humanity. Universal Love it sets forth as at once
the central point in its moral ideal and the most important element in
its conception of God. In one of those metaphors which express so much
more than any more exact philosophical formula, it is the Religion
which teaches the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. And
these truths were taught by the historical Jesus. No one up to his
time had ever taught them with equal clearness and in equal purity, and
with the same freedom from other and inconsistent teachings: {154} and
this teaching was developed by his first followers. Amid all
aberrations and amid all contamination by heterogeneous elements, the
society or societies which look back to Christ as their Founder