ery human action; its promise
of an ultimate salvation in consequence of good works; and of a redemption
from all the woes of time by obedience to the truth.

The evil in the system is that belonging to all legalism. It does not
inspire faith in any living and present God, or any definite immortality.
The principle, therefore, of development is wanting, and it leaves the
Mongol races standing on a low plane of civilization, restraining them
from evil, but not inspiring them by the sight of good.

Christianity, like Buddhism, teaches that whatever a man sows that shall
he also reap; that those who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for
glory, honor, and immortality shall receive eternal life; that the books
shall be opened in the last day, and every man be rewarded according to
his works; that he whose pound gains five pounds shall be ruler over five
cities. In short, Christianity, in its Scriptures and its practical
influence, has always taught salvation by works.

Yet, beside this, Christianity teaches justification by faith, as the root
and fountain of all real obedience. It inspires faith in a Heavenly Father
who has loved his every child from before the foundation of the world;
who welcomes the sinner back when he repents and returns; whose forgiving
love creates a new life in the heart. This faith evermore tends to awaken
the dormant energies in the soul of man; and so, under its influence, one
race after another has commenced a career of progress. Christianity,
therefore, can fulfil Buddhism also.

Sec. 4. Christianity compared with the Avesta and the Eddas. The Duad in all
Religions.

The essential truth in the Avesta and the Eddas is the same. They both
recognize the evil in the world as real, and teach the duty of fighting
against it. They avoid the pantheistic indifference of Brahmanism, and the
absence of enthusiasm in the systems of Confucius and the Buddha, by the
doctrine of a present conflict between the powers of good and evil, of
light and of darkness. This gives dignity and moral earnestness to both
systems. By fully admitting the freedom of man, they make the sense of
responsibility possible, and so purify and feed morality at its roots.

The difficulty with both is, that they carry this dualistic view of nature
too far, leaving it an unreconciled dualism. The supreme Monad is lost
sight of in this ever-present Duad. Let us see how this view of evil, or
the dual element in life, appe