It is a general, if not a universal, rule that those who reject Christianity with contempt are those who care not for religion of any kind.  ‘Depart from us’ has always been the sentiment of such.  On the other hand, those in whom the religious sentiment is intact, but who have rejected Christianity on intellectual grounds, still almost deify Christ.  These facts are remarkable.

If we estimate the greatness of a man by the influence which he has exerted on mankind, there can be no question, even from the secular point of view, that Christ is much the greatest man who has ever lived.

It is on all sides worth considering (blatant ignorance or base vulgarity alone excepted) that the revolution effected by Christianity in human life is immeasurable and unparalleled by any other movement in history; though most nearly approached by that of the Jewish religion, of which, however, it is a development, so that it may be regarded as of a piece with it.  If thus regarded, this whole system of religion is so immeasurably in advance of all others, that it may fairly be said, if it had not been for the Jews, the human race would not have had any religion worth our serious attention as such.  The whole of that side of human nature would never have been developed in civilized life.  And although there are numberless individuals who are not conscious of its development in themselves, yet even these have been influenced to an enormous extent by the atmosphere of religion around them.

But not only is Christianity thus so immeasurably in advance of all other religions.  It is no less so of every other system of thought that has ever been promulgated in regard to all that is moral and spiritual.  Whether it be true or false, it is certain that neither philosophy, science, nor poetry has ever produced results in thought, conduct, or beauty in any degree to be compared with it.  This I think will be on all hands allowed as regards conduct.  As regards thought and beauty it may be disputed.  But, consider, what has all the science or all the philosophy of the world done for the thought of mankind to be compared with the one doctrine, ‘God is love’?  Whether or not true, conceive what belief in it has been to thousands of millions of our race—­i.e. its influence on human thought, and thence on human conduct.  Thus to admit its incomparable influence in conduct is indirectly to admit it as regards thought.  Again, as regards beauty, the man who fails to see its incomparable excellence in this respect merely shows his own deficiency in the appreciation of all that is noblest in man.  True or not true, the entire Story of the Cross, from its commencement in prophetic aspiration to its culmination in the Gospel, is by far the most magnificent [presentation] in literature.  And surely the fact of its having all been lived does not detract from its poetic value.  Nor does the fact of its being capable of appropriation by the individual Christian of to-day as still a vital religion detract from its sublimity.  Only to a man wholly destitute of spiritual perception can it be that Christianity should fail to appear the greatest exhibition of the beautiful, the sublime, and of all else that appeals to our spiritual nature, which has ever been known upon our earth.