Christendom has, no doubt, faults enough; and they are carefully pointed out; you may be sure of that. No one claims, that every good thing in Christendom is due to Jesus Christ; but its leading principles, no doubt are. It is not called "Christendom" for nothing. This is a fair enough argument.
But I do not notice any very consuming alacrity, on the part of those, who "have no use for Christianity," to get out of Christendom, into some parts of the earth, that are out of the scope of His influence, out of the reach of laws, that are founded on His teaching, and out of the reach of ideals that have soaked into our civilization from Him. For you can no more get away from the influence of Jesus Christ, than you can get away from your own skin.
It is often asked, What is Christianity? It is this; obeying Him. He said, "Follow Me." It will be useless for us to urge in excuse for our sins, that we could-n't accept some of the doctrines of the church. He doesn't ask us to accept them. He presents Himself to us, as He did to the men of His day, in the majesty of His holy gracious manhood, and asks us to follow Him as the Disciples did. He doesn't say, you must believe in this doctrine or that; He says, Believe in Me: Follow Me. Christianity is simple enough, if we cared to have it; but we don't.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.