VYJ 
 
 Vs e I 
 
 7 
 
 THE 
 
 MESSAGE 
 
 OF 
 
 CHRISTIANITY 
 
 TO OTHER 
 
 RELIGIONS 
 
 REV. JAMES S. DENNIS, D.D. 
 
 FLEMING H. 
 REVELL COMPANY 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 CH1CAQO 
 
 TORONTO 
 
 V 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2016 
 
 https://archive.org/details/messageofchristi00denn_0 
 

FOREIGN MISSIONS . . . 
 AFTER A CENTURY 
 
 by REV. JAMES S. DENNIS D.D. 
 
 12 mo., cloth $1.50 
 
 It will comprise six lectures delivered before the Prince- 
 ton Theological Seminary during last Spring, being the 
 first course of the recently established Students Lectures 
 on Missions. The Lectures are: 
 
 1st. The Present-Day Message of Foreign Missions to the 
 Church. 
 
 2nd. The Present-Day Meaning of the Macedonian 
 Vision. 
 
 3rd. The Present-Day Conflicts of the Foreign Fields. 
 4th. The Present-Day Problems of Theory and Method 
 in Missions. 
 
 5th. The Present-Day Controversies of Christianity with 
 Opposing Religions. 
 
 6th. The Present-Day Summary of Success. 
 
 Sent post free on receipt of price. 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO 
 
PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 
 
 THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTI- 
 ANITY TO OTHER RELIGIONS 
 
 BY REV. JAMES S. DENNIS D.D. 
 
 Of the Presbyterian Mission, Beirut , Syria, Student's Lec- 
 turer on Missions, Princeton Theological Seminary, Au- 
 thor of Foreign Missions after a Century. 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company, New York, Chicago, 
 Toronto, Publishers of Evangelical Literature. 
 
Entered according to Act of Con ress, in the year 1893, 
 byFleming H. Revell Company, in the office of the 
 LibrarianofCongress, at Washington. 
 
THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTI- 
 ANITY TO OTHER RELIGIONS. 
 
 Christianity speaks in the name of God. 
 To Him it owes its existence, and the deep 
 secret of its dignity and power is that it reveals 
 Him. It would be effrontery for it to speak 
 simply upon its own responsibility or even 
 in the name of reason. It has no naturalistic 
 philosophy of its own evolution to propound. 
 It has a message from God to deliver. 
 It is not itself a philosophy; it is a religion. 
 It is not earth-born; it is God-wrought. It 
 comes not from man, but from God, and is 
 intensely alive with His power, alert with His 
 love, benign with His goodness, radiant with 
 His light, charged with His truth, sent with 
 His message, inspired with His energy, regnant 
 with His wisdom, instinct with the gift of 
 spiritual healing, and mighty with supreme 
 authority. 
 
 5 
 
<3 
 
 THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 It has a mission among men whenever 
 or wherever it finds them, which is as sub- 
 lime as creation, as marvelous as spiritual 
 existence and, as full of mysterious meaning 
 as eternity, ft finds its focus and as well its 
 radiating center in the personality of Jesus 
 Christ, its great Revealer and Teacher, to 
 whom before His advent all the fingers of light 
 pointed, and from whom since His incarnation 
 all the brightness of the day has shone. It 
 has a further and supplemental historic basis 
 in the Holy Scriptures which God has been 
 pleased to give through inspired writers chosen 
 and commissioned by Him. Its message is 
 much more than Judaism; it is infinitely more 
 than the revelation of nature; it is even more 
 than the best teachings of all other religions 
 combined, for whatever is good and true in 
 other religious systems is found in full and 
 authoritative form in Christianity. It has 
 wrought in love, with the touch of regenera- 
 tion, with the inspiration of prophetic vision, 
 in the mastery of spiritual control, and by the 
 transforming power of the divine indwelling, 
 until its own best evidence is what it has done 
 
TO OTHER RELIGIONS 
 
 7 
 
 to uplift and purify wherever it has been 
 welcomed among men. 
 
 I say welcomed, for Christianity must be 
 received in order to accomplish its mission. 
 It is addressed to the reason and the heart of 
 man, but does no violence to liberty. Its 
 limitations are not in its own nature, but in 
 the freedom which God has planted in man. 
 It is not to be judged, therefore, by what it 
 has achieved in the world, except as the world 
 has voluntarily received it. The sins of Chris- 
 tian nations cannot be rightly charged to 
 Christianity, for it does not sanction but for- 
 bids them. So-called Christian nations some- 
 times do frightfully un-Christian things, or at 
 least allow them to be done, and for this they 
 will be called to give an account by the God 
 of justice and judgment. Where Christianity 
 is not known, or where it has been ignore 
 and rejected, it withholds the evidence of its 
 power, but where it has been accepted it does 
 not shrink from the test but rather triumphs 
 in its achievements. Its attitude towards man- 
 kind is marked by gracious urgency, not com- 
 pulsion ; by gentle condescension, not pride; 
 
8 
 
 THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 by kindly ministry, not harshness; by faithful 
 warning, not taunting reproaches; by plain 
 instruction, not argument; by gentle and quiet 
 command, not noisy harangue; by limitless 
 promises to faith, not spectacular gifts to sight. 
 
 It has a message of supreme import to man, 
 fresh from the heart of God. It records the 
 great spiritual facts of human history, it an- 
 nounces the perils and needs of man, it reveals 
 the mighty resources of redemption, it solves 
 the problems and blesses the discipline of life, 
 it teaches the whole secret of regeneration 
 and hope and moral triumph, it brings to the 
 world the co-operation of divine wisdom in 
 the great struggle with the dark mysteries of 
 misery and suffering. Its message to the 
 world is so full of quickening inspiration, so 
 resplendent with light, so charged with power, 
 so effective in its ministry that its mission can 
 be characterized only by the use of the most 
 majestic symbolism of the natural universe. 
 It is indeed, as revealed in the person of its 
 founder, the “Sun of righteousness arising with 
 healing in his wings.” 
 
 We are asked now to consider the message 
 
TO OTHER RELIGIONS 
 
 0 
 
 of Christianity to other religions. If it has a 
 message to a sinful world, it must also have a 
 message to other religions which are seeking 
 to minister to the same fallen race and to 
 accomplish in their own way and by diverse 
 methods the very mission God has designed 
 should be Christianity’s privilege and high 
 function to discharge. 
 
 Let us seek now to catch the spirit of that 
 message and to indicate in brief outline its 
 purport. We must be content simply to give 
 the message; the limits of this paper forbid 
 any attempt to vindicate it, or to demonstrate 
 its historic integrity, its heavenly wisdom, and 
 its excellent glory. 
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE MESSAGE. 
 
 Its spirit is full of simple sincerity, exalted 
 dignity, and sWeet unselfishness. It aims to 
 impart a blessing, rather than to challenge a 
 comparison. It is not so anxious to vindicate 
 itself as to confer its benefits. It is not so 
 solicitous to secure supreme honor for itself as 
 to win its way to the heart. It does not seek 
 to taunt, or disparage, or humiliate a rival, 
 
10 
 
 THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 but rather to subdue by love, attract by its 
 own excellence, and supplant by virtue of its 
 own incomparable superiority. It is itself 
 incapable of a spirit of rivalry, because of its 
 own invincible right to reign. It has no use 
 for a sneer, it can dispense with contempt, it 
 carries no weapons of violence, it is not given 
 to argument, it is incapable of trickery or 
 deceit, and it repudiates cant. It relies ever 
 upon its own intrinsic merit, and bases all its 
 claims upon its right to be heard and honored. 
 
 Its miraculous evidence is rather an excep- 
 tion than a rule. It was a sign to help weak 
 faith. It was a concession made in a spirit 
 of condescension. Miracles suggest mercy 
 quite as much as they announce majesty. 
 When we consider the unlimited scope of 
 divine power, and the ease with which signs 
 and wonders might have been multiplied in 
 bewildering variety and impressiveness, we are 
 conscious of a rigid conservation of power and 
 a distinct repudiation of the spectacular. The 
 mystery of Christian history is the sparing 
 way in which Christianity has used its re- 
 sources. It is a tax. upon faith which is often 
 
TO OTHER RELIGIONS 
 
 11 
 
 painfully severe to note the apparent lack of 
 energy and dash and resistless force in the 
 seemingly slow advances of our holy religion. 
 
 Doubtless God has His reasons, but in the 
 meanwhile we cannot but recognize in Chris- 
 tianity a spirit of mysterious reserve, of mar- 
 velous patience, of subdued undertone, of 
 purposeful restraint. It does not “cry nor lift 
 up, nor cause its voice to be heard in the 
 street.” Centuries come and go and Chris- 
 tianity touches only portions of the earth, but 
 wherever it touches it transfigures. It seems 
 to despise material adjuncts, and to count 
 only those victories worth having which are 
 won through direct spiritual contact with the 
 individual soul. Its relations to other religions 
 has been characterized by singular reserve, 
 and its progress has been marked by an unos- 
 tentatious dignity, which is in harmony with 
 the majestic attitude of God its author, to all 
 false gods who have claimed divine honors 
 and sought to usurp the place which was His 
 alone. 
 
 Christianity is said to be intolerant. I do 
 not think the word is well chosen; it would be 
 
12 
 
 THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 more true to say that Christianity is uncom- 
 promising, and it is uncompromising because 
 it is true. It is as absurb to complain of the 
 uncompromising nature of Christianity as it is 
 to speak contemptuously of the inflexible 
 character of natural law. Christianity at the 
 same time that it is uncompromising, is toler- 
 ant of the convictions of others in a kindly 
 and generous spirit, and if true to itself it 
 would be the last religion in the world to stifle 
 liberty of conscience, or deny all proper free- 
 dom of speech. I regard the tolerance, 
 patience and meekness of Christianity in this 
 Parliament as simply sublime. God give us 
 wisdom and grace to maintain them to the 
 end. Its tolerance should ever be marked by 
 gentleness, patience and courtesy; its exclu- 
 siveness should be characterized by dignity, 
 magnanimity and charity. It should be the 
 steel hand of truth encased in the velvet glove 
 of love. 
 
 We are right then in speaking of the spirit 
 of this message as wholly free from the 
 commonplace sentiment of rivalry, entirely 
 above the use of spectacular or meretricious 
 
TO OTHER RELIGIONS 
 
 13 
 
 methods, infinitely removed from all mere 
 device or dramatic effect, wholly free from 
 cant or double facedness, with no anxiety for 
 alliance with worldly power or social eclat, 
 caring more for a place of influence in an 
 humble heart than for a seat of power on a 
 royal throne, wholly intent upon claiming the 
 loving allegiance of the soul, and securing the 
 moral transformation of charcter, in order 
 that its own spirit and principles may sway 
 the spiritual life of men. 
 
 It speaks then to other religions with un- 
 qualified frankness and plainness based upon 
 its incontrovertible claim to a hearing; it has 
 nothing to conceal, but rather invites to in- 
 quiry and investigation; it recognizes promptly 
 and cordially whatever is worthy of respect 
 in other religious systems; it acknowledges 
 the undoubted sincerity of personal conviction 
 and the intense and pathetic earnestness of 
 moral struggle in the case of many serious 
 souls who, like the Athenians of old, “wor- 
 ship in ignorance ;” it warns and persuades and 
 commands as is its right; it speaks as Paul 
 did in the presence of cultured heathenism on 
 
14 
 
 THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 Mars Hill, of that appointed day in which the 
 world must be judged and of “that man” by 
 whom it is to be judged; it echoes and re- 
 echoes its invariable and inflexible call to re- 
 pentance; it requires acceptance of its moral 
 standards, and exacts submission, loyalty, 
 reverence, and humility. 
 
 All this it does with a superb and un- 
 wavering tone of quiet insistence. It often 
 presses its claim with argument, appeal, and 
 tender urgency, yet in it all and through it all 
 would be recognized a clear, resonant, predom- 
 inant tone of uncompromising insistence, re- 
 vealing that supreme personal will which origi- 
 nated Christianity, and in whose name it ever 
 speaks. It delivers its message with an air 
 of untroubled confidence and quiet mastery. 
 There is no anxiety about precedence, no undue 
 care for externals, no apology for mysteries, no 
 bargaining for compliments, no possibility of 
 being patronized, no undignified spirit of com- 
 petition. It speaks rather with the conscious- 
 ness of that simple, natural, incomparable, 
 measureless supremacy which quickly disarms 
 rivalry, and in the end challenges the admi- 
 
TO OTHER RELIGIONS 
 
 15 
 
 ration and compels the submission of hearts 
 free from malice and guile. 
 
 THE PURPORT OF THE MESSAGE. 
 
 This being the spirit of the message let us 
 inquire as to its purport. There is one im- 
 mensely preponderating element here which 
 pervades the whole content of the message — 
 it is love for man. Christianity is full of it. 
 This is its supreme meaning to the world — 
 not that love eclipses or shadows every other 
 attribute in God’s character, but that it glori- 
 fies and more perfectly reveals and interprets 
 the nature of God and the history of His deal- 
 ings with man. The object of this love must 
 be carefully noted — it is mankind — the race 
 considered as individuals or as a whole. 
 Christianity unfolds a message to other relig- 
 ions which emphasizes this heavenly principle. 
 It reveals therein the secret of its power and 
 the unique wonder of its whole redemptive 
 system. “Never man spake like this man,” 
 was said of Christ. Never religion spake like 
 this religion, may be said of Christianity. 
 
 The Christian system is conceived in love; it 
 
16 
 
 THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 is wrought out by love; it brings the provision 
 of love to fallen man; it administers its mar- 
 velous functions in love; it introduces man 
 into an atmosphere of love; it gives him the 
 inspiration, the joy, the fruition of love; it 
 leads at last into the realm of eternal love. 
 While accomplishing this end, at the same 
 time it convicts of sin, it melts into humility, 
 it quickens gratitude, it purifies and sanctifies 
 the heart, it glorifies the character, it inspires 
 to obedience, it implants the instincts of 
 service, it introduces a regenerating agent into 
 social life, it teaches unselfishness as the great 
 lesson of heaven to earth, and it proposes 
 love as itself the supreme remedy for the 
 woes and wrongs of the world. It has also 
 its message of warning and judgment, which 
 must not be ignored. It speaks in the name 
 of justice, holiness, and eternal sovereignty of 
 the final issue of that folly which rejects its 
 proposals and appeals, and defies its authority. 
 In this it also reveals God and vindicates His 
 honor, and it is sadly true that he who slights 
 its message of love must finally face its sen- 
 tence of condemnation. 
 
TO OTHER RELIGIONS 
 
 1 ? 
 
 Let us look at this message more in detail. 
 In presenting it under present auspices our 
 purpose is not so distinctively controversial as 
 declarative. We do not seek to challenge or 
 rebuke, much less to denounce and condemn 
 other religions, but rather to unfold in calm 
 statement the essential features of the message 
 which Christianity is charged to deliver. 
 This is not the place or time to sit in judg- 
 ment; it is rather an opportunity for each re- 
 ligion to unfold its distinctive tenets, and de- 
 clare its innermost secrets of wisdom and 
 spiritual helpfulness to man in that spirit of 
 courtesy which is becoming in what may be 
 regarded as a conference upon comparative 
 religion. We who love and revere Christi- 
 anity believe that it declares the whole counsel 
 of God, and we are content to rest our case 
 upon the simple statement of its historic facts, 
 it spiritual teaching, and its unrivalled minis- 
 try to the world. Christianity is its own best 
 evidence; its very presence is full of power; its 
 spiritual contribution to the thought of the 
 world is its supreme credential; its exempli- 
 fication in the life of its Founder, and, to a less 
 
18 
 
 THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 conspicuous degree of all who are truly in His 
 likeness, is its unanswerable demonstration. 
 
 I have sought to give the essential outlines 
 of this immortal message of Christianity by 
 grouping its leading characteristics in a series 
 of code words which when presented in com- 
 bination give the distinctive signal of the 
 Christian religion which has waved aloft in 
 sunshine and storm during all the centuries 
 since the New Testament Scriptures were 
 given to man. 
 
 FATHERHOOD. 
 
 The initial word which we place in this 
 signal code of Christianity is Fatherhood. 
 This may have a strange sound to some ears, 
 but to the Christian it is full of sweetness and 
 dignity. It simply means that the creative 
 act of God, so far as our human family is con- 
 cerned, was done in the spirit of fatherly love 
 and goodness. He created us in His likeness, 
 and to express this idea of spiritual resem- 
 blance and tender relationship the symbolical 
 term of fatherhood is used. When Christ 
 taught us to pray, “Our Father,” in the spirit 
 
TO OTHER RELIGIONS 
 
 10 
 
 not only of natural but of gracious sonship, 
 He gave us a lesson which transcends human 
 philosophy and has in it so much of the 
 height and depth of divine feeling that human 
 reason has hardly dared to fully receive, much 
 less to originate, the conception. 
 
 BROTHERHOOD. 
 
 A second word which is representative in 
 the Christian message is, Brotherhood. This 
 exists in two senses — there is the universal 
 brotherhood of man to man, as children of 
 one Father in whose likeness the whole family 
 is created, and the spiritual brotherhood of 
 union in Christ. We are all brother men, 
 would that we were also all brother Christians. 
 Here again the suggestion is love as the rule 
 and sign of human as well as Christian fellow- 
 ship. The world has drifted far away from 
 this ideal of brotherhood; it has been repudi- 
 ated in some quarters even in the name of 
 religion, and it seems clear that it will never 
 be fully recognized and exemplified except as 
 the spirit of Christ assumes its sway over the 
 hearts of men. 
 
20 
 
 THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTTHNITY 
 
 REDEMPTION. 
 
 The next code word of Christianity is Re- 
 demption. We use it here in the sense of a 
 purpose on God's part to deliver man from 
 sin, and to make a universal provision for that 
 end, which if rightly used insures the result. 
 I need not remind you that this purpose is 
 conceived in love. God as Redeemer has 
 taken a gracious attitude towards man from 
 the beginnings of history, and He is “not far 
 from every one” in the immanence and omni- 
 presence of His love. Redemption is a world- 
 embracing term; it is not limited to any age 
 or class. Its potentiality is world-wide; its 
 efficiency is unrestrained, except as man him- 
 self limits it; its application it determined by 
 the sovereign wisdom of God, its Author, who 
 deals with each individual as a possible can- 
 didate for redemption, and decides his destiny 
 in accordance with his spiritual attitude to- 
 wards Christ. Where Christ is unknown God 
 still exercises His sovereignty, although He 
 has been pleased to maintain a significant re- 
 serve as to the possibility, extent, and spirit- 
 ual tests of redemption where trust is based 
 
TO OTHER RELIGIONS 
 
 21 
 
 upon God’s mercy in general, rather than 
 upon His mercy as specially revealed in Christ. 
 We know from His Woid that Christ’s sacri- 
 fice is infinite. God can apply its saving 
 benefits to one who intelligently accepts it in 
 faith, or to an infant who receives its benefits 
 as a sovereign gift, or to one who not having 
 known of Christ so casts himself upon God’s 
 mercy that divine wisdom sees good reason to 
 exercise the prerogative of compassion and 
 apply to the soul the saving power of the 
 great sacrifice. 
 
 INCARNATION. 
 
 Another cardinal idea in the Christian sys- 
 tem is Incarnation. God clothing Himself in 
 human form and coming into living touch 
 with mankind. This He did in the person of 
 Jesus of Nazareth. It is a mighty mystery, 
 and Christianity would never dare assert it 
 except as God has taught her its truth. 
 Granted the purpose of God to reveal Him- 
 self in visible form to man, He must be free 
 to choose His own method. He did not con- 
 sult human reason. He did not ask the advice 
 of philosophy. He did not seek the permis- 
 
22 
 
 THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 sion of ordinary laws. He came in His 
 spiritual chariot in the glory of the super- 
 natural, but He entered the realm of human 
 life through the humble gateway of nature. 
 He came not only to reveal God, but to bring 
 Him into contact with human life. He came 
 to assume permanent relations to the race. 
 His brief life among us upon earth was for a 
 purpose, and when that was acccomplished, 
 still retaining His humanity, He ascended to 
 assume His kingly dominion in the heavens. 
 
 ATONEMENT. 
 
 We are brought now to another funda- 
 mental truth in the Christian message — the 
 mysterious doctrine of Atonement. Sin is a 
 fact which is indisputable. It is universally 
 recognized and acknowledged. It is its own 
 evidence. It is moreover, a barrier between 
 man and his God. The divine holiness and 
 sin with its loathsomeness, its rebellion, its 
 horrid degradation, and its hopeless ruin, 
 cannot coalesce in any system of moral govern- 
 ment. God cannot tolerate sin or temporize 
 with it, or make a place for it in His presence. 
 
TO OTHER RELIFIONS 
 
 23 
 
 He cannot parley with it; He must punish it. 
 He cannot treat with it ; He must try it at the 
 bar. He cannot overlook it; He must over- 
 come it. He cannot give it a moral status; 
 He must visit it with the condemnation it 
 deserves. Atonement is God’s marvelous 
 method of vindicating once for all before the 
 universe His eternal attitude towards sin, by 
 the voluntary self-assumption in the spirit of 
 sacrifice of its penalty. This He does in the 
 person of Jesus Christ, who came as God 
 incarnate upon this sublime mission. The 
 facts of Christ’s birth, life, death, and resur- 
 rection, take their place in the realm of ver- 
 itable history, and the moral value and 
 propitiatory efficacy of His perfect obedience 
 and sacrificial death in a representative 
 capacity become a mysterious element of 
 limitless worth in the process of readjusting 
 the relation of the sinner to His God. Christ 
 is recognized by God as a substitute. The 
 merit of His obedience and the exalted 
 dignity of His sacrifice are both available to 
 faith. The sinner, humble, penitent, and 
 conscious of unworthiness, accepts Christ as 
 
24 
 
 THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 * 
 
 his Redeemer, his Mediator, his Intercessor, 
 his Saviour, and simply believes in Him, trust 
 ing in His assurances and promises, based as 
 they are upon His atoning intervention, and 
 receives from God as the gift of sovereign love 
 all the benefits of Christ’s mediatorial work. 
 
 This is God’s way of reaching the goal of 
 pardon and reconciliation. It is His way of 
 being Himself just, and yet accomplishing the 
 justification of the sinner. Here again we 
 have the mystery of love in its most intense 
 form, and the mystery of wisdom in its most 
 august exemplification. This is the heart of 
 the Gospel. It throbs with mysterious love; 
 it pulsates with ineffable throes of divine feel- 
 ing; it bears a vital relation to the whole 
 scheme of government; it is in its hidden 
 activities beyond the scrutiny of human reason, 
 but it sends the life blood coursing through 
 history, and it gives to Christianity its superb 
 vitality and its undying vigor. It is because 
 Christianity eliminates sin from the problem 
 that its solution is complete and final. 
 
 CHARACTER. 
 
 We pass now to another word of vital im- 
 
TO OTHER RELIGIONS 
 
 25 
 
 port — it is Character. God’s own attitude to 
 the sinner being settled and the problems of 
 moral government solved, the next matter 
 which presents itself is the personality of the 
 individual man. It must be purified, trans- 
 formed into the spiritual likeness of Christ, 
 trained for immortality. It must be brought 
 into harmony with the ethical standards of 
 Christ. This Christianity insists upon, and 
 for the accomplishment of this end it is gifted 
 with an influence and impulse, a potency and 
 winsomeness, an inspiration and helpfulness, 
 which is full of spiritual mastery over the soul. 
 Herein is hidden the secret of the new birth 
 by the Spirit of God. Christianity thus re- 
 generates, uplifts, transforms, and eventu ally 
 transfigures the personal character. It is an 
 incomparable school of transcendent ethics. 
 It honors the rugged training of discipline, 
 and uses it freely but tenderly. It accom- 
 plishes its purpose by exacting obedience, by 
 teaching submission, by helping to self-con- 
 trol, by insisting upon practical righteousness 
 as a rule of life, and by introducing the Golden 
 Rule as the law of contact and duty between 
 man and man. 
 
26 
 
 THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 SERVICE. 
 
 In vital connection with character is a word 
 of magnetic impulse and unique glory which 
 gives to Christianity a sublime, practical 
 power in history. It is Service. Here is a 
 forceful element in the double influence of 
 Christianity over the inner life and the out- 
 ward ministry of its followers. Christ, its 
 Founder, glorified service and lifted it in His 
 own experience to the dignity of sacrifice. In 
 the light of Christ’s example service becomes 
 an honor, a privilege, and a moral triumph; 
 it is consummated and crowned in sacrifice. 
 Christianity, receiving its lesson from Christ, 
 subsidizes character in the interest of service. 
 It lays its noblest fruitage of personal gifts 
 and spiriutal culture upon the altar of philan- 
 thropic beneficence. It is unworthy of its 
 name if it does not reproduce this spirit of its 
 Master; only by giving itself to benevolent 
 ministry as Christ gave Himself for the world 
 can it vindicate its origin. Christianity recog- 
 nizes no worship which is altogether divorced 
 from work for the weal of others. It endorses 
 no religious professions which are unmindful 
 
TO OTHER RELIGIONS 
 
 of the obligations of service; it allows itself 
 to be tested not simply by the purity of its 
 motives but by the measure of its sacrifice. 
 The crown and the goal of its followers is, 
 “Well done, good and faithful servant.” 
 
 FELLOWSHIP. 
 
 One other word completes the code. It is 
 Fellowship , of which the Spirit of God is the 
 blessed medium. It is a word which breathes 
 the sweetest hope, suggests the choicest 
 privilege, and sounds the highest destiny of 
 the Christian. It gives the grandest possible 
 meaning to eternity, for it suggests that it is 
 to be passed with God. It illumines and 
 transfigures the present, for it brings God into 
 it, and places Him in living touch with our 
 lives, and makes Him a helper in our moral 
 struggles, our spiritual aspirations, and our 
 heroic though imperfect efforts to live the life 
 of duty. It is solace in trouble, consolation 
 in sorrow, strength in weakness, courage in 
 trial, help in weariness, and cheer in loneli- 
 ness; it becomes an unfailing inspiration 
 when human nature left to its own resources 
 
28 
 
 THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 would lie down in despair and die. Fellow- 
 ship with God implies and secures fellowship 
 with each other in a mystical spiritual union 
 of Christ with His people and His people with 
 each other. An invisible society of regenerate 
 souls, which we call the Kingdom of God 
 among men, is the result. This has its visible 
 product in the organized society of the Chris- 
 tian Church, which is the chosen and honored 
 instrument of God for the conservation and 
 propagation of Christianity among men. 
 
 This then, is the message which Christianity 
 signals to other religions as it greets them to- 
 day: FATHERHOOD, BROTHERHOOD, REDEMP- 
 
 TION, INCARNATION, ATONEMENT, CHARACTER, 
 SERVICE, FELLLOWSHIP. 
 
 It remains to be said that Christianity 
 through the individual seeks to reach society. 
 Its aim is first the man, then men. It is 
 pledged to do for the race what it does for 
 the individual man. Its plans are elastic, 
 expansive, inclusive; it preempts the round 
 earth as its sphere of activity; it ignores no 
 class or rank; it forgets no tribe or nation; 
 it is charged to minister in God’s name to the 
 
TO OTHER RELIGIONS 
 
 29 
 
 world. It is commissioned, aye, commanded 
 by its great Founder to disciple all nations. 
 In this service it blesses and is blessed; in 
 this ministry it uplifts and is itself uplifted; 
 in the accomplishment of this noble mission 
 it will finally be forever vindicated and 
 crowned. 
 
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