anguages; till they can render those who possess them
at least a tenth part as willing to make costly efforts to insure to
them a circulation coextensive with the family of man; till they
occupy an equal space in the literature of the world, and are equally
bound up with the philosophy, history, poetry, of the community of
civilized nations; till they have given an equal number of human
communities a written language, and may thus boast of having imparted
to large sections of the human family the germ of all art, science,
and civilization; till they can cite an equal amount of testimonies
to their beauty and sublimity from those who reject their divine
original,--I shall scarcely think Christianity can be put simply on a
par with other religions.

Till it can be said that the sacred books of other religions are
equally unique in relation to all the literature in which they are
imbedded; similar neither to what precedes nor what comes after them,
--their enemies themselves being judges; till they can be shown
to be as superior to all that is found in contemporaneous authors
as the New Testament is to the writings of Christian Fathers or the
Jewish Rabbis,--I cannot say that Christianity is just like any other
religion.

Till we can find a religion that has stood as many different assaults
from infidelity in the midst of it,--educated infidelity, infidelity
aided by learning, genius, philosophy, freely employing all the power
of argument and all the power of ridicule to disabuse its votaries;
till we can find a religion which can point to an equal array of
educated men, philosophic in spirit, in learning, and genius, deeply
skilled in the investigation of evidence, deliberately declaring that
its claims are well sustained.--we cannot say that Christianity is just
like any other religion.

Till it can be shown that another religion to an equal extent, has
propagated itself without force amongst totally different races, and
in the most distant countries, and has survived equal revolutions of
thought and opinion, manners and laws, amongst those who have embraced
it, it cannot be said that Christianity is simply like any other religion.

Till it can be shown that the sacred books of other religions have
contained predictions as definite and as unlikely to be fulfilled as the
success of early Christianity against all the opposition of prejudice
and persecution,--its voluntary reception amongst different races,
contrary to