It has given to man a belief in freedom, and in the necessity for a
complete change of heart. It has proved a source of deliverance from the
feeling, of guilt, and a comfort in suffering. Indeed, considering all
the facts, there seems to be no doubt that, of all the solutions
offered, religion has been the most powerful factor in the history of
mankind.

Its influence would continue for the present and future, were it not
that doubt has been cast upon its very foundations, and had not
circumstances arisen to take men's minds away from thoughts of a higher
and invisible world, and to concentrate them to a greater extent than
formerly upon the world of sense. The progress of the natural sciences
has done much to bring about the change. Christianity made man the
centre of the universe, for whom all things existed, but the sciences
have insisted upon a broader view of the universe, and have deposed man
from his throne, and given him a much humbler position. Then as the
conception of law became more prominent, and scientists became more and
more inclined to explain all things as the result of natural laws, the
idea of a personal God in constant communion with, and supervision over
mankind, fell into disfavour.

And the study of history has caused questions to be raised. Some
historians have endeavoured to show that the idea of an overworld is
merely the characteristic of a certain stage in the evolution of
mankind, and that the ideas of religion are, after all, little more than
the mental construction of a God upon the image of man's own self.
History has attacked the doctrinal form of religion, and has endeavoured
to show that religions have been very largely coloured and influenced by
the prevailing ideas of the time; and the question naturally arises as
to whether there is anything more in religion than these temporary