human life, and other dogmatisms of the like kind, are almost
unintelligible. We realize that religion in some form is a natural
working of the human spirit, and, whatever place we give to religion
in the conduct of our own lives, as students of history we reckon
with the religious instinct as a factor of the highest import, and
we give to religious systems and organizations--above all, to
religious teachers and leaders--a more sympathetic and a profounder
study. Carlyle's lecture on Muhammad, in his course on "Heroes and
Hero Worship," may be taken as a landmark for English people in this
new treatment history.

The Christian Church, whether we like it or not, has been a force of
unparalleled power in human affairs; and prophecies that it will no
longer be so, and allegations that by now it has ceased to be so,
are not much made by cautious thinkers. There is evidence that the
influence of the Christian Church, so far from ebbing, is
rising--evidence more obvious when we reflect that the influence of
such a movement is not to be quickly guessed from the number of its
actual adherents. A century and a quarter of Christian missions in
India have resulted in so many converts--a million and a quarter is
no slight outcome; but that is a small part of the story. All over
India the old religious systems are being subjected to a new study
by their own adherents; their weak points are being felt; there are
reform movements, new apologetics, compromises, defences--all sorts
of indications of ferment and transition. There can be little
question that while many things go to the making of an age, the
prime impulse to all this intellectual, religious, and moral
upheaval was the faith of Christian missionaries that Jesus Christ
would bring about what we actually see. They believed--and they were
laughed at for their belief--that Jesus Christ was still a real