e world. [Greek:
Megale dynamei], "_with great power_ gave the apostles their witness of
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus; and great grace was upon them
all."[49] And yet--dynamical elements vary--in the different atmosphere
of Athens (we are twice told in so many words) this same resurrection of
Christ dug a gulf between St. Paul and the Athenians.[50] Passing to a
very different period, the latter half of the eighteenth century, the
period of the rise of Methodism and the revival of religion in England,
the period of new interest in the inmates of prisons, of agitation for
the abolition of slavery, of the foundation of all the great missionary
societies, the period of the French Revolution and the demand at home
for extension of the franchise, all outcome of the same
inspiration,--what was the strong epidemic thought? Reading the
religious history of the time, we feel that the power that passed from
soul to soul was a tremulously intense realisation of the family of God
and the love of God for men, represented in Christ's voluntary death
upon the cross, love for the neglected and the enslaved in their sins
and their sorrows. And again in our own day, when we are tempted to say
that the consciousness of God and the eternal, the primary religious
instincts, are fading, what by common consent is really dynamical among
educated men? Assuredly not the shibboleths of High or Low Church. It is
the person of Jesus Christ that is dynamical; what He was on earth, what
He has been ever since in the hearts of individuals and in the Church.
In a real sense we are starting again from and with Himself.
Anticipating, let us say that these two elements most recently dynamical
in Britain have had force likewise in India.

[Sidenote: India a new touch-stone of Christianity.]

India in the nineteenth century has been indeed a new touchstone to the
Christian religion; and, in brief, to make plain how far Christianity
has proved its force and its fitness to survive will occupy the
remaining chapters of this book. What has been the nature and extent of
the impact of Christian and modern thought upon India, and particularly
upon Hinduism? Of course I am thinking particularly of the educated
native Hindu community that has sprung up during the century just
closed. The dynamic of Christianity, which it is our task to test,
implies a measure of conscious and intelligent approval. Japan is
another such testing ground. Indeed the only large fi