NON-CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 787, 9 April 1910, Page 9

NON-CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS.

THEIR RELATION WITH CHRISTIANITY. At a recent meeting.of tho Edinburgh Foreign Missionaries' Union, in United Eroo St. Andrew's Church Hall, Edinburgh, the Rev. Professor W. P. ■Patorson, D.D., opened a conference upon "The Relation of Christianity to Types of Other Religions," tho subject upon-n-hich tho forthcoming World Missionary Conference is' to report. Formerly, Professor P'atcrson said, religions had been classified into true and false; more generally now they were classified into perfect and imperfect, every one of the great religions being accepted as containing some elements of truth, and being of some good to its followers. Ho desired to know from missionaries present how far in actual mission practice they proceeded on the one classification or the other. Ho desired in the next place to know how far other religions wero regarded in tho actual working of missionaries as a preparation for Christianity. ' Were ' thev only negatively a preparation, by failing to satisfy or by proving to be useless, or were they positively a preparation as a school in which elements of Christianity might bo learnt? In,the third place, his early reading regarding missions had led him to believe that non-Christian peoples were consciously labouring under the guilt and power of sin, the missionary going to them with the gospel of peace and new power. From replies' of missionaries recently read-by him in connection with tho coming World Conference -it had, how-" ever,' been- borno in upon him that in non-Christian peoples the "sens© of sin was deficient and conscience required to bo cultivated if not engendered. From this last standpoint ho desired to know from men of actual experience what Christian elements they.really found to what, in other words, they, found to bo the cutting edge of the ! Christian message. Non-Christian religions, Professor Patorson'■. said,. ho would classify under four typos. In the first place, was.the Animistic—worship or propitiation of spirits and demons ;-' in the second place, the Moralistic, of which Confucianism was an illustration, which, being'ethical, was. nearer, to Christianity, and.yet was found.to offer a more;', successful v resistance'" to Christianity; in the third place,.'the Pantheistic, of-which- Brahmanism was the best illustration.' Ho wished particularly to know how far it was a schoolmaster leading to Christ • and giving comfort and hob to its followers. Lastly, was the Theistic type, of which Mohammedanism was-a type. -Mohammedanism ho regarded as a corrupted form of Old Testament religion. How. far were the elements of truth in it to bo regarded as a stage towards Christianity? ■■ .