Christianity
The religion of Christ; the faith which He has inspired; the teachings and moral practises inculcated by this faith; the spirit of justice, charity, of obedience to law, purity of morals, and sanctity of domestic life which characterize the manners of those who adhere to this faith; and the consequent character of the civilization which is known as Christian and which influences even those who have never believed in Christ or who have lost that faith. The institutions of mercy, of every form of sociological relief, of education, and even of religion, though they do not profess belief in Christ or inculcate Christian practises, still feel constrained to continue and imitate the benevolence, the enlightenment, and to some extent even the worship and ceremonial, to which all such institutions must trace their origin. Christianity is the inspiration to which our art, architecture, painting, music, and literatures owe what is most beautiful and elevating in them.