false cannot be morally good. Truth, goodness, beauty, they are but
three names for various aspects of one thing, and if it be that the
difference between B.C. and A.D. has come from a Gospel which is not
the truth of God, then all I can say is, that the richest vintage
that ever the world saw, and the noblest wine of which it ever drank,
did grow upon a thorn. I know that the Christian Church has sinfully
and tragically failed to present Christ adequately to the world. But
for all that, 'Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord'; and nobler
manners and purer laws have come in the wake of this Gospel of Jesus
Christ. And as I look round about upon what Christianity has done in
the world, I venture to say, 'Show us any system of religion or of no
religion that has done that or anything the least like it, and then
we will discuss with you the other evidences of the Gospel.'

In closing these words, may I venture relying on the melancholy
privilege of seniority, to drop for a minute or two into a tone of
advice? I would say, do not be frightened out of your confidence
either by the premature paean of victory from the opposite camp, or
by timid voices in our own ranks. And that you may not be so
frightened, be sure to keep clear in your mind the distinction
between the things that can be shaken and the kingdom that cannot be
moved. It is bad strategy to defend an elongated line. It is
cowardice to treat the capture of an outpost as involving the
evacuation of the key of the position. It is a mistake, to which many
good Christian people are sorely tempted in this day, to assert such
a connection between the eternal Gospel and our deductions from the
principles of that Gospel as that the refutation of the one must be
the overthrow of the other. And if it turns out to be so in any case,
a large part of the blame lies upon those good and mistaken people
who insist that everything must be held or all must be abandoned. The