Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-03

except by those who are morally blind
Through the rise of Japan fresh term OF
comparison has come into existence in the
presence of which the self-estimates of all
Christian nations and of Christianity itself
will have to be revised. What the labor OF
scholars could not effect is thus being
brought to accomplishment by the march
OF events: Buddhism has ceased to be q
curious phenomenon In our eyes, and ap-
pears as a factor of immense potency in
the moral development of the race; new
era has opened in the comprehension of the
east by the west new environment has
been created for Christianity as such; and
1t Is as certain as anything can be in this
world that the evolution of the Christian
religion Will no longer be self-containeA,
put viii have to adjust its inner relations
10 the fresh outer relations created by
these surprising events
The hold of Christianity upon the peo-
pies of the western world, he continues, Is
rooted in the conviction that this is the
religion that produces the best men," What
would be the effect, he asks, If a race OF
non-Christian men should appear who,
when judged by accepted standards OF
character, should be at once pronounced
the moral superiors of the Christian races
He goes on to say:
Hard as the effort will seem to many,
1t has now become the plain duty of Chris
tendon to realize that her hold on the
moral supremacy of the world is not SO Sc
cure as many of us imagine. There is room
nay, opportunity, for rival candidate
That the Christian ideal of moral excellence
is splendid, even unsurpassed, no one
doubts. But no less certain no less strik-
ing, is the failure of the west to Justify
that ideal, both in national and private
life The sense of dissatisfied on which
this failure has produced has entered deer
into the moral consciousness of Christians
all the world over; and If the impression
has been deep in the case of those who
profess and call themselves Christians II
has been yet deeper with the multitudes
who have turned their backs on the church
I rate this feeling among the greatest OF
the forces now moving the minds of men
Other things may create louder noise, but
this works revolutions.
The question of theological standards Is
being merged into that of the moral anC
we are being summoned as never before tt
find the correspondence between our profes
sions of our lives. Sue ha state of things
exposes Christendom to a rival challenge
and marks the fitting moment for another
claimant to appear on the scene.
The astounding divorce between the ethica
ideals of Christendom and its normal prac
tice, the liberty of Interpretation with which
the first principles of Christian morality are
misappled TO our social life; the freedom
amounting to effrontery, with which one
thing is professed and the opposite prac.
ticed; the disgraceful sophisms by which the
Christian conscience is taught to be blinG
to Its own faithlessness-thes and many
other truths of a like nature, once appre-
hended only by a small and neglected com
pany, have during the last three years beer
revealed in their true colors to tens 81
thousands Of persons who never though,
them before. Who can doubt that the
crisis which has so long been in prepare tor
for Christianity has been brought appre-
Gladly nearer by these things-so near, per-
maps, as TO be even now at the doors?'