William Lecky, one of Great Britain’s most noted historians and a fierce opponent of organized Christianity, saw the effect of true Christianity on the world. He writes:
It was reserved for Christianity to present to the world an ideal which through all the changes of eighteen centuries has inspired the hearts of men with an impassioned love; has shown itself capable of acting on all ages, nations, temperaments, and conditions; has been not only the highest pattern of virtue, but the strongest incentive to its practice. . . . The simple record of these three short years of active life has done more to regenerate and soften mankind than all the disquisitions of philosophers and all the exhortations of moralists.
William E. Lecky, History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne (New York: D. Appleton, 1903): 2:8-9.
