To assume that they are wholly evil is disrespectful to human nature.

It supposes man to be the easy and universal dupe of fraud.

But these religions do not rest on such a sandy foundation, but on the feeling of dependence, the sense of accountability, the recognition of spiritual realities very near to this world of matter, and the need of looking up and worshipping some unseen power higher and better than ourselves.

A decent respect for the opinions of mankind forbids us to ascribe pagan religions to priestcraft as their chief source.
And a reverence for Divine Providence brings us to the same conclusion.
Can it be that God has left himself without a witness in the world, except among the Hebrews in ancient times and the Christians in modern times?
This narrow creed excludes God from any communion with the great majority of human beings.

The Father of the human race is represented as selecting a few of his children to keep near himself, and as leaving all the rest to perish in their ignorance and error.