to think that an exception might be made in his favor. But of course that could not be. If the laws of nature were broken for one person, justice would require that they should be broken for thousands, for all. And if only one of nature's laws could be proved to have been only once violated, our faith in law would be at an end; we should feel that we were living in a disorderly universe; we should lose the sense of the paramount importance of conduct; we should know that we were the sport of chance.

Pain, therefore, was an unavoidable necessity in the creation of the best of all possible worlds. But however many and however great were the difficulties in the Creator's path, the fact of evolution makes it certain that they are being gradually overcome. And among all the changes that have marked its progress, none is so palpable, so remarkable, so persistent as the development of goodness. Evolution "makes for righteousness." That would seem to be its end always.

The truth is constantly becoming more apparent that on the whole and in the long-run it is not well with the wicked; that sooner or later, both-in the lives of individuals and of nations, good triumphs over evil. And this tendency toward righteousness by which we find ourselves encompassed meets with a ready, an ever readier, response in our own hearts. We cannot help respecting goodness, and we have inextinguishable longings for its personal attainment. Notwithstanding "sore lets and hindrances," notwithstanding the fiercest temptations, notwithstanding the most disastrous failures, these yearnings continually reassert themselves with ever-increasing force. We feel, we know, that we shall always be dissatisfied and unhappy until the tendency within us is brought into perfect unison with the tendency without us, until we also make for righteousness steadily, unremittingly and with our whole heart. What is this disquietude, what are these yearnings, but the Spirit of the universe in communion with our spirits, inspiring us, impelling us, all but forcing us, to become co-workers with itself.

To sum up in one sentence. All knowledge, whether practical or scientific, nay, the commonest experience of everyday life, implies the existence of a Mind which is omnipresent and eternal, while the tendency toward righteousness, which is so unmistakably manifest in the course of history, together with the response which this tendency awakens in our own hearts, combine to prove that the infinite Thinker is just and kind and good. It must be because he is always with us that we sometimes imagine he is nowhere to be found.

"Oh, where is the sea?" the fishes cried,

As they swam the crystal clearness through.
"We have heard from of old of the ocean's tide
And we long to look on its waters blue.
The wise ones speak of an infinite sea:
Oh, who can tell us if such there be?"

The lark flew up in the morning bright
And sang and balanced on sunny wings;
And this was its song: "I see the light;
I look on a world of beautiful things;
But flying and singing everywhere
In vain have I sought to find the air.”

GYAN BAFI, OR WELL OF KNOWLEDGE, AT BENARES, INDIA.

HARMONIES AND DISTINCTIONS IN THE THEISTIC

TEACHING OF THE VARIOUS

HISTORIC FAITHS.

BY PROFESSOR M. VALENTINE.

In calling attention to the "Harmonies and Distinctions in the Theistic Teaching of the Various Historic Faiths," I must, by very necessity of the case, speak from the Christian standpoint. This standpoint is to me syn onymous with the very truth itself. I cannot speak as free from preposses sions. This, however, does not mean any unwillingness, nor, I trust, inabil ity to see and treat with sincerest candor and genuine appreciation the truth that may be found in each and all of the various theistic conceptions which reason and providence may have enabled men anywhere to reach. Undoubtedly some rays from the true divine "Light of the World" have been shining through reason, and reflected from "the things that are made" everywhere and at all times, God never nor in any place leaving himself wholly without witness. And though we now and here stand in the midst of the high illumination of what we accept as supernatural revelation, we rejoice to recognize the truth which may have come into view from other openings, blending with the light of God's redemptive self-manifestation in Christianity.

It is not necessarily prejudice to truth anywhere when, from this standpoint, I am further necessitated, in this comparative view, to take the Christian conception as the standard of comparison and measurement, We must use some standard if we are to proceed discriminatingly or reach any well defined and consistent conclusions. Simply to compare different conceptions with one another, without the unifying light of some accepted rule of judg ing, or at least of reference, can never lift the impression out of confusion or fix any valuable points of truth. Only to hold our eye to the varied shifting colors and combinations of the kaleidoscope can bring no satisfactory or edifying conclusion. That the Christian's comparative view of the "historic faiths," other than his own, necessarily thus ranges them under his own Christian canons of judgment, means no exclusion or obscuration of the light, but merely fixes the leading parallelism of its fall, securing consistency and clearness of presentation, a presentation under which not only the harmonies and distinctions, but the actual truth, may be most clearly and fairly

seen.

The phrase "theistic teaching," in the statement of the subject of this paper, I understand, in its broadest sense, as referring to the whole concepCopyright, 1893, by J. H. B.

tion concerning God, including the very question of his being, and therefore applicable to systems of thought, if any such there be, that in philosophic reality are atheistic. In this sense teachings on the subject of Deity or "the divine" are "theistic," though they negative the reality of God, and so may come legitimately into our comparative view. And yet we are to bear in mind, it is only the "theistic" teaching of the historic faiths, not their whole religious view, that falls under the intention of this paper. The subject is special, restricting us specifically to their ideas about God.

At the outset we need to remind ourselves of the exceeding difficulty of the comparison or of precise and firm classification of the theistic faiths of mankind. They are all at least all the ethnic faiths-developments or evolutions, having undergone various and immense changes. Their evolutions amount to revolutions in some cases. They are not permanently marked by the same features, and will not admit the same predicates at different times. Some are found to differ more from themselves in their history than from one another. There is such an intercrossing of principles and manifold forms of representation as to lead the most learned specialists into disputes and opposing conclusións, and render a scientific characterization and classification impossible. The most and best that can be done is to bring the teachings of the historic religions in this particular into comparison as to five or six of the fundamental and most distinctive features of Theistic conception. Their most vital points of likeness and difference will thus appear. It will be enough to include in the comparison, besides Christianity, the religions of ancient Greece and Rome, of old Egypt, / Indian Hinduism or more exactly, Brahmanism, Persian Parseeism or Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Chinese Confucianism, Celtic Druidism, the Norse or Teutonic mythology, and Mohammedanism, with incidental reference to some less prominent religions. I class Judaism as the early stage of unfolding Christianity.

Adopting this method, therefore, of comparing them under the light of a few leading features or elements of the theistic view, we begin with that which is most fundamental-belief in the existence of God, or of what we call "the Divine;" Deity, some higher power to which or to whom men sustain relations of dependence, obligation and hope. This is the bottom point, the question underlying all other questions in religious belief: Does a God exist? And here it is assuring; a wonderful harmony is found. All the historic faiths, save perhaps one, rest on belief in some divine existence or existences to be acknowledged, feared or pleased. It seems to be part of the religious instinct of the race. And the intellect concurs in fostering and developing the belief. History, ethnology and philology not only suggest, but amply prove that the idea of God, of some power or powers above, upon whom man depends and to whom he must answer, is so normal to human reason in the presence and experience of the phenomena of nature and life,