"Once again, ye youthful students of the so called Sacred Books of the East ; search them through and through, and see if they affirm of any one what our Bible affirms of the Founder of Christianity,—that He, a dead and buried man, was made life ?—not merely that He is the giver of life, but that He is life? "'I ant the life.' When Christ, who is our life, shall appear.' He that bath the Son bath life.' Let me remind you, too, that 'the blood is the life,' and that our Sacred Book adds this matchless, this unparalleled, this astounding assertion : 'Ex cept ye cat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.' (6) "Again I say I am not presuming to in terpret so marvelous, so stupendous a statement. All I contend for is that it is absolutely unique, and I defy you to produce the shade of a shadow of a similar declaration in any other sacred book in the world. And bear in mind that these two matchless, these two unparalleled declarations, are closely, intimately connected with the great cen tral facts and doctrines of our religion—the in carnation, the crucifixion, the resurrection and the ascension of the Christ. Vyasa, Zoroaster, Confucius, Buddha, and Mohammed are all dead and buried; their flesh is dissolved ; their bodies are extinct. Even followers admit this.
"Christianity alone commemorates the passing into the heavens of its Divine Founder, not merely in the spirit, but 'in the body.' to be the eternal source of life and holiness to his people.
"(7) The two unparalleled declarations quoted by me from our Holy Bible make a gulf between it and the so-called Sacred Books of the East which sever the one from the other utterly. hope
lessly, and forever. Not a mere rift, which may be easily closed up, and across which the Christian and the non-Christian may shake hands and in terchange similar ideas in regard to essential truths, but a veritable gulf, which cannot be bridged over by any science of religious thought —yes, a bridgeless chasm which no theory of evo lution can ever span.
"(8) Go forth, then, yc missionaries, in your Master's name; go forth into all the world, and after studying all its false religions and philoso phies. fearlessly proclaim to suffering humanity the plain, the unchangeable, the eternal facts of the gospel.
"Dare to be downright with all the uncom promising courage of your own Bible, while with it vour watchwords are love, joy. peace and recon ciliation. Bc fair, be charitable. be Christlike, but let there be no mistake. Let it be made abso lutely clear that Christianity cannot, must not, he watered down to suit the palate of either Ilindu, Parsee, Confucianist, Buddhist, or Mo hammedan. and that whosoever wishes to pass from the false religion to the true can never hope to do so by the rickety planks of compromise. or by the help of faltering hands held out by half hearted Christians.
"He must leap the gulf in faith, and the living Christ will spread his everlasting arms beneath and land him safely on the eternal rock." (Trans. vir. inst. vol. 20. p. 302.)