No subject claims more earnest attention from religious thinkers in the present day than the doctrine which this volume is designed to defend and interpret. The recognition of the all-important truth that the evolution of the human soul is carried on by means of successive experiences of life, will, when completely established, bring the essential principles of religion into line with our scientific appreciation of other natural laws. It will also rescue the spiritual aspirations of cultivated minds from the deadly burden of incredible dogmas, with which they have been encumbered during the growth of modern religious systems — dogmas that have gradually degraded, almost out of resemblance to its original aspect, the true Oriental teaching of the Founder of Christianity.