Читать книгу Oriental Religions and Christianity - Frank F. Ellinwood - Страница 15

The Claim that Christianity is the only True Religion—The Peculiar

Tendencies of Modern Times to Deny this Supremacy and Monopoly—It

is not Enough in Such Times to Simply Ignore the Challenge—The

Unique Claim must be Defended—First: Christianity is

Differentiated from all Other Religions by the Fact of a Divine

Sacrifice for Sin—Mohammedanism, though Founded on a Belief in the

True God and Partly on the Old Testament Teachings, Offers no

Saviour—No Idea of Fatherhood is Found in any Non-Christian

Faith—The Gloom of Buddhism and the Terror of Savage

Tribes—Hinduism a System of Self-Help Merely—The Recognized

Grandeur of the Principle of Self-Sacrifice as Reflected from

Christ—Augustine Found a Way of Life only in His Divine

Sacrifice—Second: No Other Faith than Christianity is Made

Effectual by the Power of a Divine and Omnipotent Spirit—The

Well-Attested Fact of Radical Transformations of Character—Other

Systems have Made Converts only by Warlike Conquest or by Such

Motives as might Appeal to the Natural Heart—Christianity Rises

above all Other Systems in the Divine Personality of Christ—The

Contrast in this Respect between Him and the Authors of the

Non-Christian Systems—His Attractions and His Power Acknowledged

by all Classes of Men—The Inferiority of Socrates as Compared with

Christ—Bushnell's Tribute to the Perfection of this Divine

Personality—Its Power Attested in the Life of Paul—The Adaptation

of Christianity to all the Circumstances and Conditions of

Life—Abraham and the Vedic Patriarchs, Moses and Manu, David's Joy

and Gratitude, and the Gloom of Hindu or Buddhist Philosophy—Only

Christianity Brings Man to True Penitence and Humility—The

Recognized Beauty and the Convincing Lesson of the Prodigal

Son—The Contrast between Mohammed's Blasphemous Suras, which

Justify his Lust, and the Deep Contrition of David in the

Fifty-first Psalm—The Moral Purity of the Old and New Testaments

as Contrasted with all Other Sacred Books—The Scriptures Pure

though Written in Ages of Corruption and Surrounded by Immoral

Influences—Christ Belongs to no Land or Age—The Gospel Alone is

Adapted to all Races and all Time as the Universal Religion of

Mankind—Only Christianity Recognizes the True Relation between

Divine Help and Human Effort—It Encourages by Omnipotent

Co-operation—The All-Comprehensive Presentation of the Gospel.