said that "the
righteous of the heathen have also a share in the world to come."(1395)
The question which religion is true, has been, alas, too long arbitrated
by the sword, and will be decided peacefully only when the whole earth
will be full of the knowledge of God. Our own age, however, has begun to
examine the title to existence of every religion from the broad standpoint
of history and ethnology, assigning to each its proper rank. In this large
purview even the crude beliefs of savages are shown to be of value, and
the various heathen religions are seen to have a historical task of their
own. Each of them has to some extent awakened the dormant divine spark in
man; one has aided in the growth of the ideal of the beautiful in art,
another in the rise of the ideal of the true in philosophy and science; a
third in the cultivation of the ideal of the good and in stimulating
sympathy and love so as to ennoble men and nations. Thus after a careful
examination of the historical documents of the Christian and Mohammedan
religions, it is possible to state clearly their great historic mission
and their achievements in the whole domain of civilization. The Jewish
religion, as the mother who gave birth to both, must deliver the verdict,
how far they still contribute to the upbuilding of God's kingdom on earth.
In fulfilling their appointed mission, each has given rise to valuable and
peculiar institutions, and each has fallen short of the Messianic ideal as
visualized by our great prophets of old. Only an impartial judgment can
say which one has reached the higher stage of civilization.

7. Christianity's origin from Judaism is proved by its religious documents
as well as by its very name, which is derived from the Greek for the title
Messiah (_Christos_), bestowed on the Nazarene by his followers. Still the
name Christianity arose in Antioch among non-Jews who scarcely knew its
meaning. All the sources of the New Testament, however much they conflict
in details, agree that the movement of Christianity began with the
appearance of John the Baptist, a popular Essene saint. He rallied the
multitude at the shore of the Jordan, preparing them for the approaching
end of the Roman world-kingdom with the proclamation, "Wash yourselves
clean from your sins!" that is, "Take the baptismal bath of repentance,
for the kingdom of heaven is nigh."(1396) He conferred the baptismal bath
of repentance upon Jesus of Nazareth and the first apostl