.

If we test the results at which we have arrived by general considerations,
we find them everywhere confirmed and established. There is nothing
original in the claim of Christianity to be regarded as Divine Revelation,
and nothing new either in the doctrines said to have been revealed,
or in the miracles by which it is alleged to have been distinguished.
There has not been a single historical religion largely held amongst
men which has not pretended to be divinely revealed, and the written
books of which have not been represented as directly inspired. There
is not a doctrine, sacrament, or rite of Christianity which has not
substantially formed part of earlier religions; and not a single
phase of the supernatural history of the Christ, from his miraculous
conception, birth and incarnation to his death, resurrection, and
ascension, which has not had its counterpart in earlier mythologies.
Heaven and hell, with characteristic variation of details, have held
an important place in the eschatology of many creeds and races. The
same may be said even of the moral teaching of Christianity, the elevated
precepts of which, although in a less perfect and connected form, had
already suggested themselves to many noble minds and been promulgated
by ancient sages and philosophers. That this Enquiry into the reality
of Divine Revelation has been limited to the claim of Christianity
has arisen solely from a desire to condense it within reasonable bounds,
and confine it to the only Religion in connection with which it could
practically interest us now.

There is nothing in the history and achievements of Christianity which
can be considered characteristic of a Religion Divinely revealed for the
salvation of mankind. Originally said to have been communicated to a
single nation, specially selected as the peculiar people of God, for
whom distinguished privileges were said to be reserved, it was almost
unanimously rejected by that nation at the time and it has continued to
be repudiated by its descendants, with singular unanimity, to the
present day. After more than eighteen centuries, this Divine scheme of
salvation has not obtained even the nominal adhesion of more than a
third of the human race, and if, in a census of Christendom, distinction
could now be made of those who no longer seriously believe in it as
Supernatural Religion, Christianity would take a much lower numerical
position. Sakya Muni, a teacher only second in nobility of