Excerpt from Christian Civilization: An Address Delivered Before the Athenian Society And this is as true of politics, morals and religion as of practical art. Even in religion I believe there must be constant change, and may be constant progress. Some will think such a view most heretical; but let me ask you, if from the third century after Christ corruptions did not creep into the church? And whether, from the time of Luther, and even earlier, those corruptions have not been, one by one, laid aside? Have not men, during the last three hun dred years, learned to understand the Bible better and better, and to comprehend more and more the spirit of Jesus? If there has been progress thus far, will Christian humility lead us to think that it st0ps with us? That after all the struggles of the mightiest minds and noblest hearts, the advance is accomplished, and that we Wholly comprehend what our fathers understood but in part? And if there has not been progress, as there surely has been change, there must have been regress: and then, of course, if we have fallen behind our fathers, we must go forward to regain their position. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.