s had even been completely changed. Since that
lecture was delivered science and criticism have wrought a revolution
in theological belief, likely, as it appears to me, to be regarded
hereafter as the most momentous revolution in history. With the whole
passage cited by Dean Westcott I will not burden the columns of _The
Sun_, but part of it is this:--

"The type of character set forth in the Gospel history is an absolute
embodiment of love, both in the way of action and affection, crowned by
the highest possible exhibition of it in an act of the most
transcendent self-devotion to the interest of the human race. This
being the case, it is difficult to see how the Christian morality can
ever be brought into antagonism with the moral progress of mankind; or
how the Christian type of character can ever be left behind by the
course of human development, lose the allegiance of the moral world, or
give place to newly emerging and higher ideals. This type, it would
appear, being perfect, will be final. It will be final not as
precluding future history, but as comprehending it. The moral efforts
of all ages, to the consummation of the world, will be efforts to
realize this character and to make it actually, as it is potentially,
universal. While these efforts are being carried on under all the
various circumstances of life and society, and under all the various
moral and intellectual conditions attaching to particular men, an
infinite variety of characters, personal and national, will be
produced; a variety ranging from the highest human grandeur down to the
very verge of the grotesque. But these characters, with all their
variations, will go beyond their sources and their ideal only as the
rays of light go beyond the sun. Humanity, as it passes through phase
after phase of the historical movement, may advance indefinitely in
excellence; but its advance will be an indefinite approximation to the
Christian type. A divergence from that type, to whatever extent it may
take place, will not be progress, but debasement and corruption. In a
moral point of view, in short, the world may abandon Christianity, but
it can never advance beyond it. This is not a matter of authority, or
even of revelation. If it is true, it is a matter of reason as much as
anything in the world."

I went on to dwell on the freedom of the Christian type of character as
embodied in the Founder of Christianity from peculiarities of nation,
race, o