But Christianity has shown itself capable of uniting conservatism with progress, in the civilization of Christendom.  It respects order, reveres the past, holds the family sacred, and yet is able also to make continual progress in science, in art, in literature, in the comfort of the whole community.  It therefore accepts the good and the truth in the doctrines of Confucius, and adds to these another element of new life.

Christianity and Buddhism.  The truth in Buddhism is in its doctrine of the relation of the soul to the laws of nature; its doctrine of consequences; its assurance of a strict retribution for every human action; its promise of an ultimate salvation in consequence of good works; and of a redemption from all the woes of time by obedience to the truth.

The evil in the system is that belonging to all legalism.  It does not inspire faith in any living and present God, or any definite immortality.  The principle, therefore, of development is wanting, and it leaves the Mongol races standing on a low plane of civilization, restraining them from evil, but not inspiring them by the sight of good.

Christianity, like Buddhism, teaches that whatever a man sows that shall he also reap; that those who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory, honor, and immortality shall receive eternal life; that the books shall be opened in the last day, and every man be rewarded according to his works; that he whose pound gains five pounds shall be ruler over five cities.  In short, Christianity, in its Scriptures and its practical influence, has always taught salvation by works.

Yet, beside this, Christianity teaches justification by faith, as the root and fountain of all real obedience.  It inspires faith in a Heavenly Father who has loved his every child from before the foundation of the world; who welcomes the sinner back when he repents and returns; whose forgiving love creates a new life in the heart.  This faith evermore tends to awaken the dormant energies in the soul of man; and so, under its influence, one race after another has commenced a career of progress.  Christianity, therefore, can fulfil Buddhism also.

Sec. 4.  Christianity compared with the Avesta and the Eddas.  The Duad in all Religions.

The essential truth in the Avesta and the Eddas is the same.  They both recognize the evil in the world as real, and teach the duty of fighting against it.  They avoid the pantheistic indifference of Brahmanism, and the absence of enthusiasm in the systems of Confucius and the Buddha, by the doctrine of a present conflict between the powers of good and evil, of light and of darkness.  This gives dignity and moral earnestness to both systems.  By fully admitting the freedom of man, they make the sense of responsibility possible, and so purify and feed morality at its roots.

The difficulty with both is, that they carry this dualistic view of nature too far, leaving it an unreconciled dualism.  The supreme Monad is lost sight of in this ever-present Duad.  Let us see how this view of evil, or the dual element in life, appears in other systems.