But here, also, historical comparative investigation
has disiUusioned the whole religious field. If
purity of ethics was to be the great test of reli-
gious systems, there are other religions that would
not suffer greatly when compared with Christian-
ity. Inniunerable passages can be quoted from
the reputed sayings of Zoroaster, Confucius, Gau-
tama, Socrates, and Plato, inspired with a purity
and sweetness of moral temper that strongly re-
mind one of Christ's own teaching. Surely human
ethics reaches its highest form in the doctrine of
universal love and benevolence, or in the kindred
doctrine that the great aim and end of moral life



204 THE ETHNIC TRINITIES

should be to become like God. Yet tbe former
doctrine is written on every page of Buddhistic
literature, while the latter doctrine was emphasized
by Plato in words that stir every ethical sentiment
of the soul. Christ's ^^ new commandment " that
men should love one another was not '^ new " in
history, though he by his own life and teaching
gave it a new meaning and power. Kighteousness
is the central ethical word of the Bible, but where
can a purer or more searching delineation of it be
found than in the second book of Plato's Repub-
lic ? To devote one's whole life, even to its end, in
a death of martyrdom, to the work of contributing
in the highest possible degree to the moral welfare
and progress of one's fellow-men, is surely the
highest ideal of a moral life; but where can a
more touching example of such a life be found
than that of Socrates as given in the Memora-
bilia of Xenophon and in the Phaedo of his dis-
ciple Plato ? Does the life of Jesus of Nazareth,
devoted to these same high moral ends, eclipse all
others, the secret of its superior attraction does
not lie in a new ethics, but elsewhere. What is
this secret? What is it that is original and
unique in the beginnings of Christianiiy ? There
is but one answer, — and he that runs may read
it, — when, dismissing all traditional conceptions,
one holds up directly before his eyes the actual
historical life of Christ and catches the spirit that
moved it as a principle and spur of moral action.
