quite apart from a divinely revealed religion which may be cherished or be wholly lost.  The golden rule is found not only in the New Testament, but negatively at least in the Confucian classics;[16] and the Shastras of the Hindus present it in both the positive and the negative form.  And the still higher grace of doing good to those who injure us, was proclaimed by Laotze, five hundred years before Christ preached the Sermon on the Mount.

The immense superiority of the ethical standard in Christianity, lies in its harmony and completeness.  Confucius taught the active virtues of life, Laotze those of a passive kind; Christianity inculcates both.  In heathenism ethical truths exist in fragments—­mere half truths, like the broken and scattered remains of a temple once beautiful but now destroyed.  They hold no relation to any high religious purpose, because they have no intelligent relation to God.  Christian ethics begin with our relations to God as supreme, and they embrace the present life and the world to come.  The symmetry of the divine precept, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself,” finds no counterpart in the false religions of the world.  Nowhere else, not even in Buddhism, is found the perfect law of love.  The great secret of power in Christianity is God’s unspeakable love to men in Christ; and the reflex of that love is the highest and purest ever realized in human hearts.

Thirdly, the false systems should be studied by the Christian missionary, not for their own sakes so much as for an ulterior purpose, and they should be studied in constant comparison with the religion which it is his business to proclaim.  His aim is not that of a savant.  Let us not disguise it:  he is mainly endeavoring to gain a more thorough preparation for his own great work.  The professional scholar at Oxford or Leipsic might condemn this acknowledged bias—­this pursuit of truth as a means and not as an end—­but if he would be entirely frank, he would often find himself working in the interest of a linguistic theory, or a pet hypothesis of social science.  It was in this spirit that Spencer and Darwin have searched the world for facts to support their systems.[17]

I repeat, it is enough for the missionary that he shall be thoroughly candid.  He may exercise the burning zeal of Paul for the Gospel which he proclaims, if he will also exercise his clear discrimination, his scrupulous fairness, his courtesy, and his tact.  Let him not forget that he is studying religions comparatively; he should proceed with the Bible in one hand, and should examine the true and the false together.  Contrasts will appear step by step as he advances, and the great truths of Christianity will stand out in brighter radiance, for the shadows of the background.  If the question be asked, when and where shall the missionary candidate study the false systems, I answer at once; before he leaves his native land; and I assign