For example, it has entirely altered the position of _women_, who are no longer looked down upon as they used to be. It has also altered the position of _children_, who were formerly considered as property, and at the disposal of their parents, infanticide being of course common. Again, it has changed our ideas as to the _sick_, a hospital being almost entirely a Christian institution. It has also changed our ideas about _work_. In all the nations of antiquity, and in heathen countries at the present day, a workman is looked down upon. But to Christians, who believe that God Himself worked in a carpenter's shop, all work is ennobled. Once more, it has created a respect for _human life_ as such, and apart from the position of the individual person, which was unknown in ancient times. In short, our acknowledgement of what are called the _rights of man_ is almost entirely due to Christianity. Nor is there anything surprising in this; for the common Fatherhood of God and the common love of Christ naturally afford the strongest argument for the common rights of man. In Christ, as St. Paul expresses it, there can be _neither bond, nor free_; _male nor female_; for all are equal.[450] The good which Christianity has done is thus indisputable. [Footnote 450: Gal. 3. 28.] But it may be said, has it not also done some _harm_? What about the religious wars and persecutions in the Middle Ages? With regard to the wars, however, religion was, as a rule, the excuse rather than the cause; for had Christianity never been heard of, there would doubtless have been wars in the Middle Ages, as in all other ages. With regard to the persecutions, they must be both admitted and deplored; but we may ask, what religion except Christianity could have been mixed up with such persecutions, and yet have escaped the odium of mankind? Christianity has done so, because men have seen that it was not the religion itself, but its false friends who were responsible for the persecutions. The important point is that the New Testament, unlike the Koran,[451] does not authorise, still less command, the employment of force in gaining converts. [Footnote 451: Koran, Sura viii. 12; ix. 5; xlvii. 4.]