Traces in the Religion of the Egyptians—­Traditions of the Iroquois—­Prophecies Looking to Divine Deliverers—­The Tenth Avatar of Vishnu yet to Come as a Restorer of Righteousness—­The Influence of the Tradition as Utilized by a Missionary—­A Norse Deliverer and Millennium—­The Prediction of the Cumaean Sibyl Forty Years before the Birth of Christ—­Prevailing Conceptions of some Mediator between God and Man—­The Hindu Krishna as an Example—­Changes in Buddhism from the Old Atheism to Theism, and even to a Doctrine of Salvation by Faith—­A Trinity and at last a Saviour—­All the False Systems Claiming the Teachings and the Character of Christ.

LECTURE IX.

Ethical tendencies of the Eastern and the western
     philosophies 294

The Prevalence of Speculation in all Ages in Regard to the Great Questions of Man’s Origin and Destiny, and His Relations to God—­The Various Schemes which have Seemingly Dispensed with the Necessity for a Creator in Accounting for the Existence of the Visible World—­The Ancient Atomic Theories and Modern Evolution—­Kanada, Lucretius, Herbert Spencer—­Darwin’s Theory of the Development of Species—­Similar Theories Ascribed to the Chinese—­The Ethical Difficulties Attending Many Philosophic Speculations, Ancient and Modern—­Hindu Pantheism and Moral Responsibility—­In the Advance from Instinct to Conscience and Religion, where does Moral Sentiment Begin?—­If It was Right for Primeval Man to Maraud, why Might not Robbery again Become His Duty in Case of Extreme Deterioration?—­Mr. Spencer’s Theory of the Origin of Moral Intuition—­The Nobler Origin which the Scriptures Assign to Man’s Moral Nature—­The Demonstrated Possibility of the Most Radical and Sudden Moral Changes Produced by the Christian Faith—­Tendency of Ancient and Modern Theories to Lower the General Estimate of Man—­The Dignity with which the New Testament Invests Him—­The Ethical Tendency of the Doctrine of Evolution—­The Opinion Expressed on the Subject by Goldwin Smith—­Peschel’s Frank Admission—­The Pessimistic Tendency of all Anti-Biblical Theories of Man’s Origin, Life, and Destiny—­Buddha, Schopenhauer, and the Agnostics—­The more Hopeful Influence of the Bible—­The Tendency of all Heathen Religions and all Anti-Christian Philosophies toward Fatalism—­Pantheism and the Philosophy of Spinoza Agreeing in this Respect with the Hindu Vedantism—­The Late Samuel Johnson’s “Piety of Pantheism,” and His Definition of Fatalism—­What Saves the Scriptural Doctrine of Fore-ordination from Fatalism—­The Province of Faith and of Trust.

LECTURE X.

THE DIVINE SUPREMACY OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 338