until Paul turned
Christian? History tells us no such gloomy story.

Are there no good, nor happy, nor worthy men and women to-day outside
the pale of the Christian churches? Amongst the eight hundred millions
of human beings who do not know or do not follow Christ, are there none
as happy and as worthy as any who follow Him?

Are we Rationalists so wicked, so miserable, so useless in the world,
so terrified of the shadow of death? I beg to say we are nothing of
the kind. We are quite easy and contented. There is no despair in our
hearts. We are not afraid of bogeys, nor do we dread the silence and the
dark.

Friend Christian, you are deceived in this matter. When you say that
Christ is the _only_ true teacher, that He is the _only_ hope of
mankind, that He is the _only_ Saviour, I must answer sharply that I do
not believe that, and I do not think you believe it deep down in your
heart. For if Christ is the only Saviour, then thousands of millions of
Buddhists have died unsaved, and you know you do not believe that.

Jeremy Taylor believed that; but you know better.

Do you not _know_, as a matter of fact, that it is as well in this
world, and shall be as well hereafter, with a good Buddhist, or Jew, or
Agnostic, as with a good Christian?

Do you deny that? If you deny it, tell me what punishment you think
will be inflicted, here or hereafter on a good man who does not accept
Christianity.

If you do not deny it, then on what grounds do you claim that Christ
is _the_ Saviour of all mankind, and that "only in Christ we are made
whole"?

You speak of the spiritual value of your religion. What can it give you
more than Socrates or Buddha possessed? These men had wisdom, courage,
morality, fortitude, love, mercy. Can you find in all the world to-day
two men as wise, as good, as gentle, as happy? Yet these men died
centuries before Christ was born.

If you believe that none but Christians can be happy or good; or if you
believe that none but Christians can escape extinction or punishment,
then there is some logic in your belief that Christ is our only Saviour.
But that is to believe that there never was a good man before Christ
died, and that Socrates and Buddha, and many thousands of millions of
men, and women, and children, before Christ and after, have been _lost_.

Such a belief is monstrous and absurd.

But I see no escape from the dilemma it places us in. If only Christ
can save, about twelve hundred mil