Page:The Relations of the Advanced and the Backward Races of Mankind.djvu/47

 equality and brotherhood of all men. 'There is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all and in all.' The precepts Christianity delivers might have been expected to soften the feelings and tame the pride of the stronger race. It must, however, be admitted that in all or nearly all the countries where white men and black men dwell together, Christianity, though it has brought from without not only devoted missionaries but such a band of noble and self-sacrificing women as went after the war to the Southern States to teach the newly liberated negroes, has failed to impress the lesson of human equality and brotherhood upon the whites established in the country. Their sense of scornful superiority resists its precepts. This seems the more strange when one remembers how successful Islam has been in creating a sentiment of equality in those who obey it. The common faith of Muslims not only unites them against all who stand outside, but extinguishes distinctions of personal status among them, softening slavery, and making the free negro the equal of Arab or Persian or Turk. To what causes is this difference between the influence of the two great faiths to be ascribed? Can one of those causes be that Christianity achieved less because it aimed at more? It said, 'Love your fellow man, for God is his Father and your Redeemer died for him.' Islam said, 'Recognize as an equal every one who worships God and acknowledges His Prophet.' Christians, of course with many noble exceptions, have failed to rise to the level of