teaching by
example. The instances are very numerous, in which the fitness of a
specific mode of conduct can be tested only by experiment; and Jesus
Christ tried successfully several experiments in morals that had not been
tried before within the memory of man, and evinced, in his own person and
by the success of his religion, the superior worth and efficacy of
qualities which had not previously borne the name of virtues.

Christianity still further enlarges our ethical knowledge by declaring the
*universality of moral laws*. There are many cases, in which it might seem
to us not only expedient, but even right, to set aside some principle
acknowledged to be valid in the greater number of instances, to violate
justice or truth for some urgent claim of charity, or to consent to the
performance of a little evil for the accomplishment of a great good. But
in all such cases Christianity interposes its peremptory precepts,
assuring us on authority which the Christian regards as supreme and
infallible, that there are no exceptions or qualifications to any rule of
right; that the moral law, in all its parts, is of inalienable obligation,
and that the greatest good cannot but be the ultimate result of inflexible
obedience.

That *Christianity gives a fuller knowledge of the right* than can be
attained independently of its teachings, is shown by the review of all
extra-Christian ethical systems. There is not one of these which does not
confessedly omit essential portions of the right, and hardly one which
does not sanction dispositions and modes of conduct confessedly wrong and
evil; while even those who disclaim Christianity as a Divine revelation,
fail to detect like omissions and blemishes in the ethics of the New
Testament. Thus, though there is hardly a precept of Jesus Christ, the
like of which cannot be found in the ethical writings of Greece, China,
India, or Persia, the faultlessness and completeness of his teachings give
them a position by themselves, and are among the strongest internal
evidences of their divinity. They are also distinguished from the ethical
systems of other teachers by their positiveness. Others say, "Thou shalt
not;" Jesus Christ says, "Thou shalt." They forbid and prohibit; He
commands. They prescribe abstinence from evil; He, a constant approach to
perfection. Buddhism is, in our time, often referred to as occupying a
higher plane than Christianity; but its precepts are all negative, its
virtues