ined in human nature that not even Christianity has
been able altogether to remove it. Thus when we cast our first glance
into the labyrinth of the religions of the world, all seems to us
darkness, self-deceit, and vanity. It sounds like a degradation of the
very name of religion to apply it to the wild ravings of Hindu Yogins
or the blank blasphemies of Chinese Buddhists. But as we slowly and
patiently wend our way through the dreary prisons, our own eyes seem
to expand, and we perceive a glimmer of light where all was darkness
at first. We learn to understand the saying of one who more than
anybody had a right to speak with authority on this subject, that
'there is no religion which does not contain a spark of truth.' Those
who would limit the riches of God's goodness and forbearance and long
suffering, and would hand over the largest portion of the human race
to inevitable perdition, have never adduced a tittle of evidence from
the Gospel or from any other trustworthy source in support of so
unhallowed a belief. They have generally appealed to the devilries and
orgies of heathen worship; they have quoted the blasphemies of
Oriental Sufis and the immoralities sanctioned by the successors of
Mohammed; but they have seldom, if ever, endeavoured to discover the
true and original character of the strange forms of faith and worship
which they call the work of the devil. If the Indians had formed their
notions of Christianity from the soldiers of Cortez and Pizarro, or if
the Hindus had studied the principles of Christian morality in the
lives of Clive and Warren Hastings; or, to take a less extreme case,
if a Mohammedan, settled in England, were to test the practical
working of Christian charity by the spirit displayed in the journals
of our religious parties, their notions of Christianity would be about
as correct as the ideas which thousands of educated Christians
entertain of the diabolical character of heathen religion. Even
Christianity has been depraved into Jesuitism and Mormonism, and if
we, as Protestants, claim the right to appeal to the Gospel as the
only test by which our faith is to be judged, we must grant a similar
privilege to Mohammedans and Buddhists, and to all who possess a
written, and, as they believe, revealed authority for the articles of
their faith.

But though no one is likely to deny the necessity of studying each
religion in its most ancient form and from its original documents,
before we vent