Excerpt from Christianity and Conduct: Or the Influence of Religious Beliefs on Morals A similar illusion has long existed about Christianity as an institution. Historians, philosophers, divines, novelists, poets, and journalists have for centuries described Christianity as the one perfect blessing con ferred on mankind. Before the Christian Church came into being as a spiritual, social, and political force, the world was sunk in darkness and degradation; to that Church we owe the dawn of true morality, the beginning of freedom for body and soul, and every manifestation of the good, true, and beautiful in human life. Progress apart from Christianity is unimaginable. Take away the foundations of the Christian creed or the pillars of the Christian Church, and the world Will sink into the utter barbarism from Which Christianity raised it. 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.