i 1 :.-' : ]B : ' .V/v;. vy .V: ffl THE EBAL JESUS: A REVIEW OF HIS LIFE, CHARACTER, AND DEATH, FROM A JEWISH STANDPOINT. ADDRESSED TO MEMBERS OF THE THETSTIC CHURCH. BY JOHN VICKERS, Auihor of "Ike New "Koran" "The History of Herod," fyc. WILLIAMS & NORGATE, 14, HENRIETTA STEEET, COVENT GAEDEN, LONDON, AND 20, SOUTH FEEDEEICK STEEET, EDINBUEGH. 1891. OFFIT1 LONDON : PI INI ED AT 74-6, GBEAT QTTBEN STKIIT, LINCOLN 'S-INN FIELDS, W.C. CONTENTS. Chap. f INTRODUCTION ... ... ... ... V I. HIS MODERN EULOGISTS ... ... ... 1 II. HIS MESSIANIC CLAIMS ... 37 III. HIS APPEAL TO MIRACLES ... ... 50 IV. HIS PROPHETIC EVIDENCE .... ... 75- V. HIS REFORMATION CLAIMS ... ... 90 VI. HIS MORAL TEACHING ... ... ... 128 VII. FICTITIOUS MARTYRDOMS ... ... ... 185 VIII. THE CRUCIFIXION DRAMA ... 214 IX. THE RESURRECTION DRAMA ... ... 24O X. THE FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY ... ... 269> 132962 INTRODUCTION. Attempts to teach people in different stages of progress. 21 Conversionists and educationists. 3. The difficulty o5 distributing Theistic literature precisely where it is- wanted. 4. Helping <5n the orthodox by short and easy steps. 5. Sectarian rancour. 6. Class hatred. 7 Letters against labour agitation. 8. Discussion with a Socialist vicar. 9. A conference on Socialism in reference to Labour. 10. "The Socialism of Christianity" con- sidered. 14. Theistic and Unitarian congregations. 16_ The need of condescending to teach the masses. 18. Reforms mostly hindered by the immobility of the people. TO MY FELLOW MEMBEES OP THE THEISTIC CHURCH.. IN submitting the following work to your kind consideration and friendly criticism, it may be- well to report myself briefly, or let you know what I am doing here, and neglecting to do for the advancement of the religious reformation which we have so much at heart. During the eleven years- that I have been perched on this hill overlooking- the ancient city which witnessed the introduction- of monk-worship by St. Augustine, I have en- deavoured to instruct in a humble way, and to a very limited extent, two classes of people the Christian population of the country, and those who, like ourselves and the Jews, are compelled by conscience to stand outside the pale of Christianity. It is usual for religious teachers to confine their attention wholly to people of kindred sentiment, but the very few that can be found in this neighbourhood to entertain our views, affords me an ample justification for acting differently^ VI THE REAL JESUS. Moreover, it has always seemed to me that a person unfettered by sectarian prejudice has a right to instruct any portion of his countrymen, so far as they are willing to receive his instruction. If we go into a school or college, we shall see the pupils regularly grouped in classes according to their ages or gradations of progress, and it is not necessary that every teacher should be strictly confined to one class. He who is now giving lessons to youths or young men may presently do the same to children of tender age, if he only knows how to adapt his instruction properly to their capacity. A nation's religious or sectarian groups ;are in like manner distinguished, to some extent, by grades of intelligence, and though there cannot be anything like a regular exchange of pulpits main- tained, a person who teaches voluntarily in one group may within certain limits very reasonably and conscientiously teach in another. 2. Christian teachers have always been conver- sionists rather than educationists ; they have sought to change people's characters rapidly and entirely by some magical process, instead of trying to im- prove them gradually according to their growth and development. It is not surprising that some voung ardent Theists should have Christian ideas of advancing their cause by proselytism and speedily transforming the face of the world. "We cannot do much in this way, but even if we were able to achieve an immense success no great reformation would be effected. All the pupils of a school or college might be suddenly drafted into the higher class, yet such premature advancement would not conduce in any way to their benefit ; the mental condition of the lower learners would, in spite of the higher rank conferred upon them, continue just as low as before. So, if persevering proselytism were in the course of a few years to bring the whole English population INTRODUCTION. Vll into our communion, only a nominal change would thus be effected; there would be as much immo- rality as ever, as much ignorance, prejudice, and superstition, and the Theistic Church would be speedily broken up into as many discordant sects and divisions as are now seen to exist. In short, we should be imitating the rapid conversion of the Pagan world by the early Christians with very similar results ; it would be soon found that we had. introduced new names, symbols, and cere- monies, but had made no radical reform in the habits of the people. I never attempt to make converts all round, after the manner of Christian missionaries, and am convinced that what a person honestly believes or disbelieves is to a great extent the result of development. When an imprisoned chick is struggling to burst forth from its cracking shell into a world of light, you may assist it to good purpose, but not at an earlier period while it remains in a state of quiescence. In like manner, people may be properly helped to escape from the dark environment of superstition in which they have been reared, only when they have come to desire liberation, and are resolutely helping themselves. The Christians with whom I come in contact here experience at present no religious difficulties, and are wholly untroubled with doubts. It does not seem to me, therefore, right that these should be rudely thrust upon them so as to cause pain or perplexity : as long as the religious doctrine which they have imbibed suits their mental condition well it cannot be upset or parted from without hurt. 3. It is difficult to teach much when the neigh- bouring people, by reason of their prejudices, are not prepared to hear you, and those who would listen to you gladly and appreciate your instruction cannot be got at from their being sparsely scattered over the country. The majority of inquiring minds who Vlll THE EEAL JESUS. need such teaching as the Theistic Church is able to impart, can only be communed with and helped to some extent through the medium of literature, and it is hard to get this diffused so that ifc shall fall into precisely the right hands without giving others offence. A benevolent Christian gentleman is accustomed to distribute tracts in this district, hoping that they may be productive of good, and he occasionally leaves one at my cottage. I never think of destroying or despising these little missives, from their being thus unwittingly misplaced, as some do, but endeavour to distribute them afresh where they are likely to be treasured and have a beneficial influence. And if Christians would only have the kindness to pass on our litera- ture in the same way to those who might be ex- pected to appreciate it, the mutual help would be profitable to all. Some of them seem determined to do all in their power to prevent Theistic litera- ture from circulating, under the impression that it is only published for proselytising purposes, and as a disturbing influence must necessarily do more harm than good. So far as I am concerned, its dissemination has not been directed to unsettle people's minds, but to assist those already unsettled, to re-establish themselves on a religious basis of greater stability. My " New Koran " has never been introduced to my Christian relatives, nor put into the hands of any of the neighbouring people, from the conviction that they are as yet wholly unprepared for such a work. It would be wrong to distribute it anywhere, or place it where it is not wanted, just because most of those whom it would really benefit are not immediately discoverable. 4. The letters which I send from time to time to our local journals, as opportunity occurs, go quite as far as it is safe to go in a rationalistic direction, without so shocking the orthodox prejudices of the INTRODUCTION. IX people as to lose their respect and confidence. When Canon Fremantle was assailed here in 1887, on account of his " New Reformation " article in the Fortnightly Review, I wrote as many letters as the most liberal paper would admit in his vindication. More recently I sent a prompt reply to a clerical attack on Mrs. Humphry Ward's "Robert Elsinere," and it was politely returned, with apologies by the editor, who could not venture to give it insertion. The people of this neighbourhood must advance by short and easy steps if they make any progress at all; it would be well if they could only be delivered to some extent from their Sabbatarian superstitions. During the wet harvest of 1881 I wrote to the Canterbury Press : " If the disciples were permitted to pluck ears of corn on the sabbath, surely it is lawful for our distressed farmers to save their harvest on the day after the sabbath, yet however favourable the weather, they are, then, for the most part, prevented by superstitious fear from touching a sheaf. The two best harvest days which we have had in this district were the fine Sundays of August 28th and September 4th, both followed by wet Mondays. An abundance of corn was cut and fit to carry, and if the farmers had only set to work vigorously on those exceptional days, they might have had plenty of volunteer help, and would, doubtless, have saved, in a better condition than any that has yet been carried, a fourth of their crops.-''' I further contended that people were as much bound to save their food from water as from fire on a Sunday, and mentioned how Archbishop Cranmer declared the refusal to do necessary harvest work on that day positive sinfulness. If my letters had been seconded by one or two from clergymen to the same purpose, a good effect might have been produced ; but there was none willing to do this, and a Dissenting minister of X THE HEAL JESUS. Canterbury wrote strongly in opposition to them, and upholding strict Sabbatarianism. 5. The old spirit of sectarian bitterness is happily diminishing, but there is still a great deal of it in this place, and perhaps in most others ; the people must acquire broader sympathies, and be made in various ways better Christians, before they can properly become Theists. You may frequently hear throughout the district, Dissenters abused by Churchmen, and Churchmen 110 less evilly spoken of by Dissenters. I invariably discourage these petty animosities, and endeavour, as far as possible, to get each party of detractors to cultivate a more charitable spirit, and recognise the good which is being done under other forms and rules than their own. It has always been my aim to recommend and help diffuse 'the best Christian literature publications which are wholly free from bigotry and acerbity as a means of making the various groups of baptised believers more friendly one with another and tolerant towards the rest of mankind. The opprobrium heaped on the Salvationists of late from so many quarters has been dictated largely by jealousy of their rapid progress, and is mostly undeserved. It must be admitted that their proceedings at Eastbourne, and other places, in defiance of the law, and apparently to seek the glory of martyrdom, are quite inexcusable. But these are very small faults in comparison with the vast amount of good which they have effected in reclaiming the immoral population of our large towns, and in view of their salutary arrangements to relieve the pent-up poverty of such places by migration and emigration. 6. In proportion as sectarian rancour has de- clined in this country, class hatred seems to have increased, and industrial questions have, un- fortunately, risen to drive people into hostile camps INTRODUCTION. XI and set them at variance. At one time no right- minded person ever thought of stirring up dis- affection in a workshop and kindling strife between master and man ; he would as soon have attempted to cause trouble in families and sow dissension between husbands and wives. It was not till craftsmen, with the introduction of machinery, got to be associated in large bodies that it became worth anybody's while to cultivate grievances systematically among them, and plead as their professional advocate. When an agitator now gets hold of a labour dispute, he has some advantage over the lawyer who foments private quarrels; he can go on humouring his clients, and promising them redress year after year, without having to attend a court and seek in the face of opposition pleading a judicial settlement. He thus obtains a permanent case, and can manage to have things all his own way ; they pay him regularly, and are so satisfied with his one-sided advocacy that they do not believe it possible for anything reasonable to be said on the other side. It is just here that many working people especially want enlightening want bringing educationally up to a higher standing ground so as to obtain the greater breadth of view which will deliver them from their present exparte presumptiveness. The Labour Commission, which has been recently established, will help to accomplish this, and so will local Boards of Con- ciliation, and other attempts which have been made to deal with industrial questions in a judicial spirit; but much more will have to be done in various ways to promote sober discussion throughout the country, and moderate the bitterness of existing class strife. What I have been constantly saying as a peacemaker to intelligent artisans and labourers is this : " In any dispute between em- ployers and employed, the latter must not trust Xll THE REAL JESUS. wholly to the impassioned harangues of their paid advocates, and presume, by reason of numerical superiority, to settle the matter by* taking the law in their own hands. They are no more competent to judge their own quarrel than any individual disputant is allowed to be, and must bring them- selves to listen patiently to the arguments advanced on the other side, and then submit the whole case to the judgment of their impartial countrymen." 7. In 1882 I wrote to several provincial journals Conservative, Liberal, and Neutral asking them to insert a series of letters under the heading of "Farmers and Labourers," the object of which was to reconcile to some extent and improve the relations between those two classes whom agitators had set at variance. It was my special wish to obtain in this way an open platform for discussing the objects aimed at by Agricultural Unions, and to receive no shelter from criticism. My letters, to the number of about twenty, were accepted and duly published in the Hereford Times, the Norwich Argus, the Kentish Gazette, and the Kentish Express. Some of them also appeared in the Bucks Herald and the Wilts County Mirror, and a summary of them was published in the East Anglian Handbook for 1883. What was advanced in this correspondence en- countered some little opposition from Unionist agitators, and a Baptist minister who had taken up the role of an agitator; but the letters, which condemned wrongdoing on both sides, evidently had a beneficial result in clearing away much mis- apprehension, and helping to reconcile the parties which had been needlessly estranged from each other. In the autumn of 1889, a letter of mine was published in the Canterbury Press deploring the prevalent "Strike Mania " and its consequent injury to trade, together with the demoralisation which was being produced in the ranks of industry . INTRODUCTION. Xtll by the New Unionism. The Rev. W. Blissard, M.A., Vicar of Seasalter, wrote in reply, defending recent strikes as a justifiable uprising of labour against capitalistic oppression. This gentleman declaimed much against what he considered the tyranny of economic laws, and the too great in- equality of human possessions ; and the discussion which thus commenced between us lasted several weeks, when it was finally closed by the editor. 8. In disputing with Christians on any moral or social question where tney seem to be at fault, I always endeavour to make the best of Christianity, just as I would make the best of Islamism in dis- puting with Mohammedans. My clerical opponent said in one of his letters, " Trades unionism in the past has procured justice for working-men where, alas, Christianity had neglected their claim." To this I replied, " It has always seemed to me that Christianity as expounded and exemplified by its best teachers enjoins masters and servants, em- ployers and employed, to do their duty towards each other reciprocally, and encourages neither oppression on the one hand nor insubordination on the other. If people who are banded together in a great industrial enterprise would only keep in view the golden rule of doing as they would be done by ; if men would try to see things from the stand-point of their masters, and masters would try to put themselves in the places of their men, while they mutually cherished kindly feelings and a for- giving disposition, there could not well arise between them any serious or prolonged dispute. When a misunderstanding did occur they would be found calm and reasonable, so as to be easily re- conciled by the mediation of a friend ; or, if that could not be accomplished, they would in the last resort agree to separate peacefully and form fresh engagements. But trades unionism introduces XIV THE REAL JESUS. another system, and quite contrary principles, for the regulation of those who are associated as profit- earners and wage-earners. I have nothing to say against its good features, its mutual aid and pro- vident arrangements, and only object to it as an organization for industrial war. Those who would see it in its true aggressive character should read the reports of the Government Commission of 1867, and all the details of the terrible barbarities per- petrated at Sheffield and Manchester, where low wages could not be pointed to as a justification. Its unscrupulous leaders, with the view to their own advancement, did their utmost to instil hatred, malice, and revenge, into the minds of the working people, and render anything like a reconciliation with their employers and the establishment of friendly relations impossible. . . . We are now told that this terrible strike and outrage organiza- tion has surpassed Christianity in procuring justice for working-men, although industrial freedom has been completely trampled under foot by it, and it would be hard to show where there exists in the modern world a more atrocious system of injustice. Preachers who talk of 'justice for working-men/ should at least have a word to say in behalf of those poor ill-used labourers, who, from no fault of their own, are stigmatized as ' blacklegs,' and not permitted to follow their lawful avocations. We know it is not safe to assume that popularity hunt- ing priests who beg ostentatiously for bands of tumultuous strikers, are all like the priest and the Levite of the Gospel, and indifferent to the wants of the deserving poor, but the latter at any rate suffer from the misdirection of alms, and are doomed in consequence to receive less. I have never hesitated to denounce tyranny of every kind, whether practised by the rich or the poor, the few or the many ; also the indulgence in luxury, to say INTRODUCTION. XV nothing of riotous excess a moral failing by no means confined to one class but when your cor- respondent speaks of working-people having ' felt the grinding pressure of the economic law/ he is, in common with the Socialists, fighting a giant phantom of his imagination. We are all bound to study the economic law, just as much as the law of gravitation, and strictly conform to it, or we must suffer in consequence. The labourer is worthy of his hire, he is worthy of what he bargains for, and the seller of any marketable produce is worthy of his price, and ought not to be at any time de- frauded. But if a person seeks to deal com- mercially with his fellows, where his goods or his services happen to be in little demand, he will of necessity be poorly remunerated, just as the dis- ciples from casting their nets in a wrong direction ' toiled all the night and caught nothing/ A sensible Christian minister, instead of encouraging people, under these circumstances, to murmur at their fortune, and justifying their resort to acts of violence against innocent competitors, would surely give them good counsel and guide and assist them to take, in future, such wiser steps for advance- ment that their efforts might be reasonably crowned with success." 9. Soon after the close of this newspaper controversy, the Hon. W. H. Fremantle, Canon of Canterbury, wrote inviting me to read a paper at a conference which would be held at his house April 22, 1890, to discuss the subject of " Christian Socialism, or the Labour Question viewed in a Christian light/' I respectfully declined the invitation, but he wrote again, and subsequently called upon me, saying that they should be much benefited by having an expression of my views. It became necessary now to announce my religious opinions and ask if they would not disqualify me XVI THE KEAL JESUS. from attending a Christian conference. He seemed surprised at my being a Theist, but still thought that I might very properly attend the meeting,, and was well fitted on a subject of that kind to confer with Christians. I was induced, therefore, to prepare a paper, and at the time appointed presented myself at the Canon's house, in the Precincts, where a number of clergymen and laymen were collected. Three papers were read at the conference besides my own the first by the Yicar who had recently disputed with me in the Canterbury Press, the second by a Wesleyan minister, and the third by a layman. These gentlemen were apparently in substantial agreement as Christian Socialists, they all seemed from their remarks to go beyond the Maurice and Kingsley school and to be well up in line with the Rev. Stewart Headlam. My own paper disavowed communistic aspirations and the reduction of familyhoods to brotherhoods, and was simply a plea for such practical socialism as would check iniquitous selfishness and bind all classes together in greater friendliness and harmony. In the discussion which followed, two clergymen made some sensible remarks warmly sympathizing with the poorest labouring class and manifesting a disposition to promote social reform rather than to take up with revolutionary socialism. Other speakers denounced capitalism and were led away by the current Utopian theories of a reconstructed world ; one of them declared that socialism had a scientific basis, so that it was bound to prevail in time, and advised all who were present to procure and read the publications of the Fabian Society. One clerical member of the conference contended that property belonged to the community rather than to individuals, and declared that the great socialistic formula : " From each according to INTRODUCTION. his abilities, to each according to his needs," was in his opinion altogether just. No resolution was passed, but the majority of those present seemed to be decidedly in favour of a communistic form of socialism in agreement with Christ's doctrine and the example of the primitive church. 10. My old opponent, the socialistic vicar of Sea- salter, who was present at this conference, soon afterwards attended the Diocesan Conference of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace, where" The Church's Duty in regard to L'abour Disputes" was the principal subject of consideration. He reiterated on this occasion his levelling views, and was, in consequence, severely called to account by one or two lay members present, but did not receive the slightest check from the Primate, who seemed bent on trimming his sails to catch the popular breeze. Very recently Mr. Blissard has published a work entitled " The Socialism of Christianity," the drift of which may be pretty well gathered from the following extracts : (( Taking note of the vast wealth of the country, those whose labour helps to produce it are claiming to receive a larger share as the just reward of their labour ; they want to see a more equitable division of the world's goods." " Thus the foundation principle of all Socialism is co- operation and equity in dividing out the good things wherewith Pro videncehas blessed the world/' " This love of riches is thoroughly unsocial Riches can only be heaped together at somebody else's expense." " What one man has gained another man has first lost. What is added to the rich man's ample store has been taken out of the poor man's empty cupboard." "The man who girds himself to amass a fortune is doing the exact opposite to what Christ commands, for he is making himself rich by making others poor." " A fortune can only be made out of the misfortunes of others. XV111 THE EEAL JESUS. When a man makes money, as it is called, he does not really make it ; others have earned it, and he has been enabled by law or by circumstances to appropriate their earnings to his own use. So far the well-known phrase of Proudhon, 'Lapropwete est le vol,' expresses a Christian truth. There is robbery in what has been unjustly acquired " (pp. 8-66). 11. This levelling, parson, owning besides his benefice two farms in the neighbourhood, could not play the part of a second John Ball if he were disposed to do so, since his practice has always been strangely at variance with his preaching, and he is for various reasons one of the most unpopular ministers in Kent. Even had he been a more consistent Christian Socialist, the working men of this district are for the most part too intelligent and sensible to believe in his doctrine, that fortune- making is a sin, that the accumulation of wealth in business is of the nature of robbery. They know well that in a great community where the majority of people are improvident, incapable of saving when they have the means of doing so, it is well that there should be a few persons of an opposite character able to acquire and store wealth greatly in excess of their individual needs. Funds are thus provided to pay labourers and carry on various works conducive to the general welfare which would otherwise never be accomplished. Here and there a case of churlishness and oppression may be pointed to, but so far from robbing the poor whom they employ in a general way, the provident class give them wise direction and enable them to earn more than it would be possible for them to earn when working independently or in co-operative associa- tion. Prohibit the accumulation of large capitals, and there can be no large employers, the rate of wages must in consequence be rapidly reduced throughout the country, and the poor working class, instead of INTRODUCTION. XIX finding their material condition improved, will only sink into greater poverty. Many labourers at Seasalter, who find it hard to get work throughout the year, would like nothing better for the brightening of their prospects than to see some enterprising millionaire come into the parish. 12. The Vicar of Seasalter does not profess to be a strict communist, but he is constantly declaiming against covetousness, " great inequalities/' and what he considers the^ sin of accumulating much wealth. " We know, a"s a matter of fact," he says, " that many do amass large fortunes, far beyond what is required for reasonable wants They have not been content with enough ; they have striven to gain more than enough ; in raising themselves they have depressed others" (p. 67). A man who becomes rich by persevering industry and thrift is thus supposed to be akin to the swindler and the thief. Most reflecting labourers know better than this know that it is impossible for a person to make a large fortune in any useful profession or trade without conferring propor- tionate benefits on the community. People would soon cease to deal with him or serve him by agree- ment if the gains effected were entirely or too much on his own side. In the early part of the century there lived here in Canterbury a poor lad, Sidney Cooper, who, being passionately fond of drawing, managed, after awhile, to earn a living as a painter, and has now become a wealthy Royal Academician. Another such talented youth of this place, after acquiring, in a servile position, a good knowledge of medicine, emigrated to Melbourne, where he practised the healing art with so much success, that he has recently be- queathed 10,000 for the purpose of establishing a Working Men's Institute and Free Library in his native city. If these men had been content to A2 XX THE EEAL JESUS. earn less, so as to have just enough to live on, the public would, by reason of the fewer pictures painted and the fewer patients healed, have suffered proportionate loss. And it matters not whether a person acquires a fortune by his own skilful hand, or by organizing and directing the hands of others as a good industrial captain, he is equally a bene- factor of his fellow men; in raising himself, he does not depress those about him, but helps to raise them too, and add to his country's prosperity. Christian Socialists contend that employers, instead of making fortunes, should regularly share their profits among their workpeople ; but in that case the losses which they are liable to must also be shared, and such a regulation would not be advan- tageous to the wage-earner who wishes to be secured against risks. And if all employers were to allow those working for them to share their profits without their losses, their capital and the whole national wealth would be speedily reduced, the cost of production would be enhanced, every article of consumption would become dearer, a,nd the industrial population would soon find that what they received extra with one hand they would have to give away with the other. 13. If rich families persistently rob poor families with whom they have commercial transactions, as Mr. Blissard makes out, the same charge mast of course be brought against wealthy nations, and England ought to send a great amount of her hoarded gains to Ireland, Spain, Turkey, Russia, and other poorer countries, with whom she is accustomed to deal, so as to reduce the present disparity in their circumstances . Very few English- men would be got to approve of this " more equitable division of the world's goods," but that is what socialising on the communistic principle must come to if consistently carried out ; and the process of . INTRODUCTION. XXI levelling down more and more to get rid of hated inequalities must soon lead to universal impoverish- ment. Supposing we determined, by some foolish legislative measure, to distribute wealth more evenly only just here at home amongst ourselves, it would lead to very similar results. The more energetic and enterprising people, on finding that they must soon surrender a large portion of their honestly acquired possessions, would get away to other countries where they might reap the reward of their industry, thrift, and good business talent without disturbance. On the other hand there would flock in here an immense swarm of poor hungry continental Socialists eager to share in the general distribution or communisation of goods, and the deterioration of character and discouragement of individual effort thus brought about would soon reduce the whole country to a condition of beggary. If the vicar of Seasalter stood alone among the clergy as the advocate of a demoralising and ruinous equality, it would not so much matter, but it must be borne in mind that this gentleman was put into his present position by the Dean and Chapter ot Canterbury, that the Archbishop has recently listened to his revolutionary declamation with a silence which was supposed to imply approval, and that Bishop Mitchinson has written an introduc- tory letter for the purpose of recommending and promoting the circulation of his book. Instead of seeking to enlighten the poor working people who have been misled by agitators, and directing them in the true path of social advancement, many prelates now imitate the agitators in pandering to their prejudices, and, like unscrupulous politicians, are constantly bidding against rival parties for the Labour vote. The Conference at Canon Fremantle's and the subsequent Diocesan Conference at Lambeth Palace, have greatly strengthened my conviction XX11 THE REAL JESUS. that the errors of Christianity with which we are now called upon especially to deal are not theological/ but social. Hundreds of popular preachers have almost renounced the former only to take up more strongly with the latter, and the Theistic Church will have to meet them fairly and squarely in this change of front and treat their socialistic illusions as it has treated those of their theology. 14. It must be admitted that I have not been able to do much good in this neighbourhood as a missionary among Christians, trying to mend them a little and lead them on truthwards by easy gra- dations as far as they would go, but I should have effected still less good by confining myself wholly to the instruction of Theists. To do this it would have been necessary to establish here in some way or other a small congregation, and for such a work I am far from well fitted, having never been a good oral teacher, while being now so near sighted as to be unable to recognise people at a few yards distance. And had I the powers and experience of my younger brother, who is a preacher in the Wesleyan body, little could be done in this quarter for the gathering of people favourable to our religious re- formation. Dr. Cyril Greaves, of Blean, formerly a clergyman, tried during the summer of 1887 to establish a Theistic congregation in Canterbury, but with the most discouraging results. He hired a large music-hall for a month, and his religious services were well advertised, but very few persons could be induced to attend them either from sympathy or curiosity. I went to the last meeting to estimate the prospects of the movement, and took the opportunity to distribute some of Mr. Voysey's Sermons among those who were present and likely to appreciate them. No minister could be expected to go on preaching gratuitously, and INTRODUCTION. XXlll paying for .the necessary building accommodation to do so, while meeting in the way of attendance such little encouragement. 15. It would be very gratifying if we had a few more such men as Mr. Rowland Hill, of Bedford, to establish Theistic congregations in the largest pro- vincial towns, where there is a reasonable prospect of their being well sustained ; for many scattered Theists at present greatly need instruction, together with the sympathy and encouragement which are derived from association with kindred minds. But it seems to me neither practicable nor desirable that we should go on forming groups of rational religionists throughout the country to the same extent as has been done by the Unitarians. The Theistic Church would thus become in a little while nothing better than a sect, and what we ought rather to labour for is the utter breaking down of the barriers of sectarianism. For a Church to be of real service to the country in which it has arisen, it must not merely draw apart a few intelligent and moral people so as to constitute a respectable club, but must to some extent lay hold of and help to lift the unenlightened masses. I once heard an Independent minister denounce the Unitarians as a useless body : he said they did nothing whatever towards reclaiming and elevating the heathen population of the country, and only got their congregations by enticing good people away from other churches. He seemed to me to be under the influence of strong prejudice; but there is still a certain amount of truth in the reproach uttered, and it is likely to be directed for the same reason against congregations of Theists. Unitarians are in general very philanthropic and well disposed to instruct the poor and ignorant, but these cannot, be got to come up to their level, or led to appreciate the superiority of a rational form of XXIV THE REAL JESUS. Christianity over those which are emotional or sensational. Some of them have on this account been induced to condescend to lower orthodox levels that they might thus find listening crowds and acquire as teachers a greater sphere of usefulness. Mr. J. Goulden, of Blackfriars, Canterbury, told me some time ago that although a sincere Unitarian he no longer attended the neighbouring chapel of that communion, but went in preference to a Church where he could engage in Sunday School work and help to improve the rising generation. Probably several others who once went to the chapel have been induced to leave it in the same way without forsaking its principles, and this would account for the congregation's decline. The sectarian spirit which brings kindred minds together in close fellowship is everywhere getting weaker, and people of generous feelings are disposed to go not where they can get the most sympathy, but where they can do the most good. The Rev. J. Moden, a minister of decided talent, who preached in this chapel a few years ago, is now, for the sake of exercising more influence on his countrymen, a clergyman of the Established Church, and I have reason to believe that he retains as strongly as ever his Unitarian convictions. 16. Where people, who love to climb as reformers, thus lower themselves in an orthodox direction from no selfish consideration, but solely with a view to have a larger educational field and raise more effectively their ignorant and erring countrymen, no blame can be attached to them. It has often seemed to me, however, that they might take with advantage a very different course for the purpose of reaching and elevating a portion of the masses who are suffering from neglect. There are large numbers of working people in this country who attend no place of worship, not because they are INTRODUCTION. XXV sceptical, but because they are in a Christian sense rather irreligious and the usual church and chapel services are to their minds very unattractive. They believe in God, but not in theology, and much preaching, praying, and praising is a weariness to them it fails to interest them or produce on them a permanent salutary influence ,; and as they are not of an excitable temperament nor greatly troubled with superstitious fears, the Salvation Army entirely fails to make any impression on them. Yet this class of working people need instruction in the economy of life as much as any other class, and they are willing to be instructed by those who study their mental constitution and are reasonably accommo- dating to their tastes and their intelligence. In the course of a Sunday walk I am accustomed to meet occasionally with solitary labourers and small groups who want no one to preach to them and seek their conversion, but are glad to be spoken to in a friendly manner and to get information on any subject that interests them or is clearly connected with their well-being. Now and then their minds are burdened with some special trouble, and a little timely sympathy, together with advice as to what course should betaken with the view to mend matters, is sure to be very thankfully received. 1 7. These poor men, who regularly absent them- selves from religious services and have not much of the devotional spirit, would readily accept good moral and social teaching on a Theistic basis. I have had serious thoughts occasionally of inviting a number of them to assemble at an old barn so as to hold a Sunday meeting, and should have done so ere now if sufficient time could have been spared for the purpose. A meeting of that kind might be very properly opened with a short prayer and a hymn. As news is always well relished, I would then recount to the audience not the crimes and XXVI THE EEAL JESUS. horrors of the past week, but some of the most commendable deeds which had been done and improvements which had been effected, whether in their own district or elsewhere. Instead of giving- them a sermon for their edification they should have an authentic tale, showing how worthily some people have acted in resisting temptations and overcoming difficulties in circumstances similar to their own. Tales of this description are not at present sufficiently numerous it is much to be desired that Mr. Smiles and some others equally competent should add to our biographical literature " The Lives of Labourers." Many estimable men in this humble rank, to whom attention should be directed and who ought to be held up as permanent patterns of great worth, are continually suffered to pass away into oblivion. At the close of the meet- ing I would endeavour as far as possible to give any special information that might be required, to heal any dissensions that might exist among the audience, and to soothe and help those who were suffering from trouble. Possibly some kind of free labour agency might be established as an adjunct for the benefit of those who might be wanting em- ployment or seeking re-engagements. It is not to be expected that all Sunday meetings should take precisely this shape which I am suggesting ; they might be varied in many ways according to circum- stances and still be productive of good, and it may reasonably be assumed that they would be attended by one-third of those who find no attraction or profit in the present religious services. Unless, after a reasonable period of preparation, we of the Theistic Church can thus manage to reach and beneficially influence a portion of the working population that is entirely lost to other churches, we shall have no solid ground to stand upon, and all the arguments and theories which we may choose INTRODUCTION. to advance will be very naturally treated with corn- tempt. 18. We who are engaged in helping on the work of religious reformation in this country have need of great patience, for we must necessarily encounter a good deal of hostility and make slow progress. Not only in religion but in all other conventional systems which have been long established it is hard to get unreflecting people to entertain the idea of making any change for the better. Many of our country roads are laid out with no more judgment and regularity than the rabbit tracks which wind hither and thither in a wood. In years gone by, when tramping wearily from place to place in search of employment, I often felt disposed to murmur at the waste of land and waste of labour resulting from the crookedness of roads, and to wish for some authoritative power to effect their improvement. I now look out from my window every morning on roads that could be made straighter and better at comparatively little cost, but the majority of the neighbouring people have become so accustomed to their defects and incon- veniences that they scarcely deem them such, and cannot be got to consider seriously any proposals for their correction. Then, again, the anomalies which exist in our language and in all languages have come from blind unreasoning imitation and not from design, and, if people could only be brought to take united action, might be reformed away with immense advantage. But these irregu- larities, however awkward and troublesome to the learner, are pretty sure to be looked upon with favour and respect when once they are learned. The generality of people get so much attached to their old familiar word-forms that any suggestion to alter them with the view to securing greater regularity and economy in the expression of our XXV111 THE REAL JESUS. thoughts they resent as an uncalled-for innovation. A religion gets established in much the same manner as a language ; the theologians, like the grammarians, insist on the most prevalent usage being taught authoritatively as right and orthodox, no matter how unreasonable. And the more completely a people are thus drilled into the same crooked uniformity of practice the stronger is their attachment to it, the greater is their confidence in its soundness, and the more difficult becomes the task of those who see defects in it, and try to introduce beneficial reforms. Resistance to religious progress is further strengthened by superstitious fear ; it is supposed to be not only strange, eccentric, presumptuous, but positively sinful to depart in the slightest degree as truth-seekers from the conventionally established belief. The position of orthodoxy is secure enough on its basis of educational prejudice without this further support, nor is there any need that it should be continually fortified afresh by the writers of apologetics. Let us hope the time will soon come when orthodox theologians will be content to say with grammarians, " We teach this doctrine not as divinely inspired and intrinsically true, but because it is popularly established," and not go on as now bolstering up ancient errors with " Evidences," and defending with sophistical arguments what is altogether indefensible. Certain portions of the following chapters have appeared before as articles which I have contributed at various times to the Jewish Chronicle and the Jewish World. JOHN VICKEKS. ST. THOMAS'S HILL, CANTERBURY, November, 1891. THE REAL JESUS. CHAPTER I. HIS MODERN EULOGISTS. Human judgment biassed by relationship. 2. The magnified personality acquired by kings. 5. Attempts to modernize the character of Jesus. 6. Professor Huxley's view of him. 8. Idealistic and realistic biographies. 9. Matthew Arnold's lofty conception of Jesus considered. 12. The mythical theory of Strauss examined. 18. His estimate of Jesus well criticized by Professor Fisher. 20. The veneration of origins tending to idolatry. 22. Carlyle's estimate of the character and influence of Mohammed considered. 23. The personal influence of Mohammed compared with that of Jesu?. 24. Jewish opinions of Jesus. 25. Messiah-worship leading to worse idolatry. 27. Jew-Christian friendliness. 29. The justification of criticism. IN order to form a tolerably correct estimate of a person's character and life, or a sound judg- ment of his conduct on any particular occasion, it is desirable that we should have no biassing re- lationship with him, but should be able to regard him from an entirely independent and disinterested position. This has been universally insisted upon by all those who have concerned themselves with the impartial administration of justice. If the father of a family has a dispute with some neigh- bour or is charged with committing a fraud or an assault, no one would consider his children com- Z THE EEAL JESUS. petent to intervene in the case and pronounce any- thing like an equitable decision. Neither can they be expected to draw a perfectly fair and accurate sketch of his character, for if he only discharges his parental duties towards them satisfactorily, they are pretty sure to behold him only on the side of his virtues and to imagine that his vices are non- existent. By the outside world with whom he comes in contact in his business transactions he may be generally looked upon as an ignoramus, a knave, a curmudgeon, an idler, a slanderer, a coward, or a fop ; but it is impossible that he should be so regarded by the little family group who are dependent on his care and are constantly being instructed by him in some way or other, and receiving at his hands benefactions ; to them he will appear in comparison with other human beings a distinct paragon. "We thought there was but one wise man in the world, and that was our father/' writes William Cobbett, recalling the simplicity of his early days in a Surrey farm- house. The majority of children have an equally high opinion of their parents, to whom they are indebted above all others for protection, instruc- tion, and the common enjoyments of life, and wiser people do not think it worth while to try to undeceive them, believing that when they grow up to maturity and mix in the world's crowd they will soon enough become disillusioned. 2. The superior man who acquires a position of headship over a larger community, whether as a ruler or as a teacher, generally wins in a moderated degree such homage and respect from his depen- dent people as a father receives from his children. He is -the common friend who always studies their welfare, gives them counsel and direction, sym- pathizes with their troubles, champions their grievances, and binds them together in harmony HIS MODERN EULOGISTS. 3 and peace. From being thus especially favoured and led by him, they cannot well estimate his relative importance among leaders, nor the merit of any contention in which he may happen to be involved : so far as his paternal influence extends, his personality will be magnified, and he is sure to be partially judged. The greater the social body, the greater and more imposing in appearance becomes its recognized head ; but it is only in the case of newly-founde4 communities that one with the other is usually well proportioned. Men inhabiting the same region and subject to the same climatic and political influences are so nearly on a level in respect to physical and moral endow- ments that no one among them is able by his own intrinsic excellence to obtain a very large following. A moderately gifted individual may succeed in bringing together a few hundreds who have hitherto been strangers to each other to form the beginning of a sect or a nation ; a leader of greater ability may in like manner, with prolonged exertions, attract and organize several thousands ; but there was never yet known on earth a genius towering so high above his fellows and commanding so much respect and admiration, that he could establish a new community of millions. For a social structure to be formed of this magnitude the work of the founder must go on after his death ; there will be required the added labours and continued develop- ments of several generations, and his revered figure is thus sure to increase in appearance from age to age till it comes to have something like colossal dimensions. 3. It is no easy matter for a great expansive nation of many centuries' growth to form a correct opinion of their hereditary ruler when only a very few of their number ever come into his presence or have any direct communion with him. He may be B 2 THE REAL JESUS. a person of real ability admirably fitted for his high, position, or he may be incapable and hold it only by the fortune of birth, yet even in the latter case his defects, if well covered by wise ministers, will hardly be perceptible to the mass of his loyal people. So long as the government goes on satisfactorily and peace and order are maintained, he is pretty sure to be credited with most of the good work and recognized as his subjects ever- watchful guardian and benefactor. Moreover, a great deal is done systematically to cultivate loyal sentiment and exalt a sovereign's reputation in the eyes of the multitude ; prayers are constantly said in his behalf ; songs and anthems are sung in his praise ; demonstrations are got up to do him honour in every part of his dominions, and those few who happen to take an unfavourable view of him and refuse to join in the general chorus of laudation may deem it politic to keep their discordant sentiments to their own breasts. The gifted states- men who stand behind a constitutional monarch to assist him, or rather use him as a puppet in govern- ing the country, will, by falling in with the popular liomage, treat him as their superior, although conscious that he is both intellectually and morally vfcheir inferior. Thus he shines with a borrowed lustre ; the people believe that he alone has royal attributes the qualities and virtues of a true pre- destined king, and consequently the strength and excellence of the nation gather about him as it would not gather about anyone else to turn to good account their illusion. With all the artificial surroundings calculated to favourably impress the people and attach them to the throne in the interest of public order, and with all the mythical stories both of good and bad import which get circulated among the credulous, it is next to impossible that a living monarch should be judged fairly and HIS MODEEN EULOGISTS. accurately within the limits of his realm as we are accustomed to judge an ordinary man. His character may perhaps be depicted with some approach to truthfulness by a shrewd unbiassed foreigner, otherwise we must wait for his correct portraiture till some historian diligently collects evidence respecting him after his death, when the glamour which surrounded him has been com- pletely transferred to another. 4. Religions spread 'further and last longer than nations, and a spiritual monarch who has reigned for a thousand years and more over many distinct peoples can hardly fail to be proportionately magnified. Christ, as an ancient religious founder, has grown great in the imagination of his countless disciples in precisely the same way as Buddha and Mohammed have grown, nay, has become still more exalted, and rendered mysterious from his sup- posed divine relationship. Enlightened Christian teachers, even if they were not themselves more or less subject to the prevalent illusion respecting his moral pre-eminence and absolute perfection, would have to pander to it in order to maintain their influence. Some of the more thoughtful may now and then in their closets feel assured that the modern Church has produced men greatly superior in every way to the rude Galilean preacher who serves as its figure-head, but they would on no account venture to hint this to the idolatrous multitude. They know well that within certain wide geographical limits there is no other name to conjure with like that of Christ, that people believe in him as they would believe in no one else, that the prestige attached to him as a universal Saviour is unbounded, and therefore they proceed to make the best of him as a moral exemplar by ascribing to him their own virtues and every other excellence that has yet been recognized in Christendom. It 6 THE EEAL JESUS. would be unreasonable to blame them for doing what they are thus constrained to do under the pressure of the popular current, just as ifc would be wrong to censure the statesmen who gather about the hereditary occupant of a throne and humour the multitude in their political idolatry. But it must be clearly understood that their action, how- ever justifiable as a means of uniting, harmonizing, and influencing for their good the many who can- not be guided by reason, is directly opposed to the interests of historical truth. The judgment of those Christian writers, who profess to set the prophet of Nazareth clearly and correctly before the world, is tremendously biassed by relationship ; they cannot possibly estimate his character with any approximation to fairness so long as they treat him differently from all other prophets that is, will not hear one word whispered in his disparagement, and vie with each other as to who shall best describe his virtues and accord him the highest praise. 5. From a Christian standpoint much may be said in favour of the many recent biographical attempts to modernize the character of Jesus so as to make him appear somewhat less of a world- renouncing saint and more of an enlightened philanthropist. They undoubtedly serve a good educational purpose by introducing to the advanced intelligence of the Church an improved ideal, but they have not the slightest claim to historical truthfulness or authenticity. If we examine the representations of Christ's physical features which have been given us by Raphael, Correggio, Delaroche, Holman Hunt and other eminent artists, we shall find a great deal of variety in their conceptions, but each seems to have done his utmost to depict a model man, to surpass all pre- ceding portraits in sweetness and dignity of ex- pression, And so it is with the "Life" pictures HIS MODERN EULOGISTS. 7 which Christian biographers continue to draw of their venerated Master, and with the hymns of praise wnich Christian poets from time to time present to the world. They improve one upon another ; they show us in these works of art their own surpassing ideas; they reveal in each case some- thing of their own mental peculiarities, but tell us very little of the original mind of Christ. As long as one who lived in barbarous times is firmly believed in, and held aloft as a supreme moral pattern, it is desirable that his character, to accord with the progress of his followers, should thus receive continual embellishment. In short, what- ever advanced thoughts may be developed in the mind of a modern Christian, there is no way in which he can so effectively teach them or obtain a wide recognition for them as by ingeniously ascribing them to the Church's authoritative head. This is what was done by many primitive Christian writers in a more unscrupulous fashion ; they were accustomed to forge and interpolate gospels in order to put into the Master's mouth their own successive doctrinal developments. All who seek historical truth must be well on their guard against such tendencies. The following remarks of Pro- fessor Huxley on the idealistic portraits of Christ are deserving of attention : 6. ( ' In the course of other inquiries I have had to do with fossil remains which looked quite plain at a distance and became more and more indistinct as I tried to define their outline by close inspection. There was something there something which, if I could win assurance about it, might mark a new epoch in the history of the earth; but, study as long as I might, certainly eluded my grasp. So has it been with me in my efforts to define the grand figure of Jesus as it lies in the primitive ^strata of Christian literature. Is he the kindly 8 THE REAL JESUS. peaceful Christ depicted in the Catacombs ? Or is he the stern judge who frowns above the altar of SS. Cosmas and Damianus ? Or can he be rightly represented in the bleeding ascetic broken down by physical pain of too many mediaeval pictures ? Are we to accept the Jesus of the second or the Jesus of the fourth gospel as the true Jesus ? What did he really say and do ; and how much that is attributed to him in speech and action is the embroidery of the various parties into which his followers tended to split themselves within twenty years of his death when even the threefold tradition was only nascent ? If a man can find a friend, the hypostasis of all his hopes, the mirror of his ethical ideal, in the Jesus of any or all of the gospels, let him live by faith in that ideal. Who shall or can forbid him ? But let him not delude himself that his faith is evidence of the objective reality of that in which he trusts. Such evidence is to be obtained only by the use of the methods of science as applied to history and to literature; and it amounts at present to very little " (Nineteenth Century, No. 144, pp. 178-186). 7. Professor Huxley well contends that Christians have no moral right to thrust their idealistic portraits of Jesus on the unbiassed scientific world whose business it is to study realities and separate fiction from fact. But he would probably himself admit that he is scarcely justified in representing that histori- cal investigators have at present not sufficient evi- dence to pronounce either favourably or unfavour- ably of the character of the prophet of Nazareth. Indecision and doubt constitute a favourite mental attitude of some inquirers, and it is often a commend- able one, but they may carry their equipoise too far ; it now and then happens that they do not merely avoid rash judgments, but so hesitate to commit HIS MODERN EULOGISTS. 9 themselves as to be ill qualified for assuming a judicial position. Notwithstanding all the myths of the first and second centuries, and the successive- developments and numerous discrepancies of the- Gospel narrative, the true outline of the character of Jesus the substance of what he said and did stands out as clearly revealed to an unprejudiced inquirer as the moral features of Mohammed or St. Paul. The Apocalyptic doctrines which originated in Judea during bheMagcabean period were unques- tionably entertained by Jesus; those who formed with him the Nazarene community believed in vaticination, were influenced in no small degree by such spurious writings as the Book of Daniel and the Book of Enoch. He had what might be called a representative sectarian character: it is seen not only in his predecessors and contemporaries the Essenes,. but in his genuine followers the Ebionite Christians and in all the world-renouncing saints and martyrs of the primitive church. Where a man takes a prominent part in some well-known religious move- ment and organizes a new society which rapidly extends itself after his death and undergoes changes from continued proselytisin, however meagre and inadequate the record of his biographers, and how- ever much the popular imagination may invest him with myths, the nature of the original impulse which he communicated to those around him can never be so entirely obscured as to become a matter of conjecture. 8. There are many venerated teachers besides- Jesus of whom it is desirable that two distinct biographical portraits, or classes of portraits, should be produced one idealistic, for the contemplation of his affectionate adherents ; and the other real- istic, for the study of the outside world. Those- who endeavour to hold a man up to admiration as. a hero, a reformer, or a moral exemplar, are 10 THE EKAL JESUS. naturally desirous that the most should be made of his virtues, and that anything tending to lower him in the public estimation or detract from his influence should as far as possible be overlooked or explained away. On the other hand, people who have felt a considerable interest in his teaching and the extent of his influence in the world, without being themselves particularly attracted towards him, would like to know equally well both sides of his character and every striking detail of his life, whether creditable or the reverse. When Mr. Froude wrote the biography of his friend Carlyle he seems to have entertained some hope of producing a work which should satisfy at once disciples who want eulogy and non-disciples who want truth, but of course failed to do so, and in consequence of mentioning certain matters which were not likely to call forth admiration, incurred a great deal of obloquy from ardent Carly leans. Any similar attempt to take a medium course in exhibiting the character of Jesus, so as to afford satisfaction to Christians and non- Christians, must evidently be still more of a failure. The biographers, who wrote of him in the first in- stance, were not merely sympathetic friends but enthusiastic followers, and their aim was altogether eulogistic; they wrote especially for the faithful, the Christian brotherhood, and would not be likely, on the score of truthfulness, to mention disparaging facts, as an independent narrator might have done. In their simplicity, however, they recorded many things which a modern eulogist, placed in the same position, would have doubtless thought it best to leave out; what did not strike them as being in any way faulty or reprehensible has got to seem very much so in an age of greater enlight- enment. Hence they have been blamed, like Mr. Froude, for painting blemishes on a noble I I L - HIS MODERN EULOGISTS. 11 countenance that ought to have been free from the slightest disfigurement ; a cry has been raised that they were dull of comprehension, that they did not in the least understand their perfect Master, and that instead of doing justice to his character, they ascribed to him their own failings and prejudices. 9. Tho attempts of modern Christian scholars to put the Gospels through a process of sifting and refining criticism, so as to derive from them an improved portrait of Christ, are commendable enough as tending to break the bonds of literalism and encourage a spirit of progress. But when the same fanciful reconstructive work is taken up by writers outside the Christian pale, who are sup- posed to be independent investigators delivering an unbiased judgment before the world, it is much less entitled to respect. The reputation of Matthew Arnold as a philosophical critic deservedly stands high in this country : he is more clear-sighted, impartial, and free from rancour, than the majority of distinguished writers. In a review of Professor Dowden's " Life of Shelley " he contends that the biographer, trusting to the partial judgment of Mrs. Shelley, has in some instances taken a too favourable view of the poet's character. What Mrs. Shelley has said may be natural enough from her point of view as an affectionate and apprecia- tive wife, but her statements should not have been adopted fully without question by an independent writer desirous of setting before the world the plain unvarnished truth. The soundness of this criticism in its general application is indisputable ; in order to estimate people correctly we must not be too much influenced by the praises accorded them by warm-hearted relatives and friends. So when Christians exalt and magnify their founder, it is all very proper from their standpoint, and quite to be expected, but they must not be trust- 12 THE EEAL JESUS. fully followed by a philosopher who undertakes to deliver impartial judgments. Yefc Mr. Arnold (who could hardly be expected to detach himself from Christian sympathies) has done so, in short, has fallen elsewhere into just such mistaken guidance as that for which he corrects Professor Dowden. This is what he writes of the New Testament and Jesus in a spirit of super-lucidity more worthy of Swedenborg than of any cool investigator of historical truth. 10. "The book contains all that we know of a wonderful spirit far above the heads of his reporters, still further above the heads of the popular theology which has added to its own misunderstanding of the reporters to the reporters misunderstanding of Jesus. And it was quite inevitable that anything so superior and so pro- found should be imperfectly understood by those among whom it first appeared and for a very long time afterwards, and that it should come at last to stand out clearer only by Time, as the Greek maxim- says, the wisest of all things for he is the unfail- ing discoverer. Yet however much is discovered, the object of our scrutiny must still be beyond us, must still transcend our adequate knowledge, if for no other reason, because of the character of the first and only records of him. But in the view now taken we have even at the point to which we have already come at least a wonderful figure transcending his disciples, attaching them but transcending them in very much that he uttered going far above their heads, treating Scripture and prophecy like a master while they treated it like children, resting his doctrine on internal evidence while they rested it on miracles, and yet by his incomparable lucidity and penetrativeness planting his profound veins of thought in their memory along with their own notions and pre- HIS MODERN EULOGISTS. 13 possessions to come out all mixed up together but still distinguishable one day and separable and leaving his word thus to bear fruit for the future. Sure, to follow and extract these veins of ore is a wise man's business, not to let them lie neglected and unused " (" Literature and Dogma," p. 164). 11. Mr. Arnold professes, like Strauss, to reject the miraculous in Christian history, and yet proceeds to set before us in Jesus of Nazareth a prodigy of exceptional development transcending natural limits quite as much as the wonderful works ascribed to him or any that have since obtained credit in the Christian community. He believes the Galilean prophet to have been a genius who towered so high above the heads of his contemporaries that he was as good as lost among them, and is only now, after the lapse of eighteen centuries, beginning to be understood and rightly appreciated by a few of the most enlightened investigators of the present age. To ordinary students of ancient history men who have no cabalistic secret for interpreting the gospel's hidden wisdom nor gift of literary clairvoy- ance Jesus seems to have been quite as well understood by his immediate followers and others who had communion with him as John the Baptist, St. Paul, St. Dominic, or any other ascetic teacher that ever lived. He and his disciples were evidently men of congenial mind, entertaining certain notions then widely prevalent ; they had the same belief as he in charming away diseases and casting out devils, the same disposition to renounce industrial pursuits and roam about the country as mendicant preachers preparing for the end of the world. There was certainly no material difference between them in their interpretation of Scripture and prophecy ; it cannot be made out that he was less deceived than they by the forged Apocalyptic writings of the Maccabean period, 14 THE EEAL JESUS." and neither did lie any more than they anticipate the discoveries of modern scholars in reference to the composition of the Psalms and the Pentateuch. It was not till several years after his death and supposed resurrection that Jesus began to be misunderstood by newly-converted disciples, who exercised their imagination freely about him from having never heard his discourses or been in his company. From the time of Paul's divergent teaching and the importation of Alexandrian ideas, the majority of professing Christians wandered further and farther from the founder's views, while they rendered him increased homage, and, with, the help of mythical stories, made him actually divine. The theologians have disputed one with another and variously magnified him for many centuries, and nowjat length there are nurtured in the bosom of the Church learned critics who clear away the misconceptions of his orthodox worshippers only to metamorphose him still further, and convert him. into a reforming philosopher. Mr. Arnold writes more truthfully in one of his beautiful poems where he tells us that Christ is just that grand benevolent being that the idealizing faith of Christendom has made him a being who, having no^ojbjective basis for his claims, must change more and more with the change of human thought and aspiration. 12. Many English thinkers besides Matthew Arnold have been too much influenced by the "Leben Jesu," the great exegetical work of Dr. Strauss, in reference to the Evangelical narratives. This eminent German scholar, like his predecessor Paulus of Heidelberg, undertook the task of explaining away the Gospel miracles as illusions without involving those who produced them in the slightest moral obliquity. In the eyes of modern rationalizing Christians this is the especial merit HIS MODERN EULOGISTS. 15 of his criticism ; the miracles, which have been a stumbling-block to so many inquiring minds, he reduces to unconscious myths. He wrote his first " Life of Jesus " not as a philosopher of the Lessing or Gibbon school, but as a Christian reformer continuing the work of Luther, and he naturally felt chagrined that the orthodox clergy should attack him with so much virulence and so little appreciate his motives. Notwithstanding his later sceptical developments which carried him far beyond the pale of the church, the mythical theory which he propounded is highly esteemed at the present day by many thoughtful progressive ministers both here and in Germany. They give him credit for having introduced a masterly method of obviating the difficulties which continually present themselves to educated readers of the New Testament. The work supposed to have been accomplished by him is, indeed, little short of giving to the world a Fifth Gospel for the purpose of clearing away the clouds of myth which it is alleged half hide and blemish the grand figure of Jesus in the canonical Four. If objection is made to any of the outrageous precepts there ascribed to him, the ready answer of those who profit by the labours of Strauss is, " These are not the genuine doctrines of Jesus, but simply the notions which were imputed to him by ignorant and mistaken Christians of the second century." Then if any of the Gospel miracles are criticized, they reply, 1 e Jesus was no thaumaturgist ; he started a great religious reformation by the force of his superior character and genius, and was invested with a halo of miracles by the imagination of his followers in a subsequent age." 13. That there were a certain number of fabulous miracles attached to Jesus by the legendary writers of the primitive church as well as those of a later 16 THE REAL JESUS. period is quite indisputable. Such was the won- derful portrait which, according to Damascenus, he impressed upon his mantle, and which, being sent as a present to Abgarus, King of Edessa, was in after years carried around that city when attacked by the army of Chosroes, so as to save it from the besiegers' flames. Such also are the fanciful wonders recorded in the Gospel of the Infancy and other apocryphal writings of the second and third centuries. And to the same class belong the undoubted mythical stories of the birth and child- hood of Jesus prefixed to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. But we are not warranted from all this to infer that the whole of the wonders recorded by the Evangelists are unhistorical, and that Jesus never professed to work miracles. Faith-healings and exorcisms were greatly practised by the religious teachers of that age, and that he should acquire a reputation for performing such works without ever attempting anything of the kind is wholly inexplicable. The miracles ascribed to Catholic saints are generally considered illusory by Protestant investigators from three different causes. They commenced from pure enthusiasm ; the saint laid his hands on the sick and prayed for their cure, when they fancied themselves bettered, and in some instances actually were so through the efficacy of a powerful faith. This success led others to feign sickness for the purpose ot exhibiting apparently more wonderful cures, and so increasing the excitement and adding to the saint's reputation. Then after the dramatic came the mythical : when the holy man had terminated his career, and it was desirable that an account of his life should be written, some of the performances ascribed to him were considerably embellished, while there were ndded signs and wonders which were altogether legendary. HIS MODERN EULOGISTS. 17 14. Instead of studying carefully the "Lives of the Saints " and the history of the new sects and religious orders which at various times have sprung out of Christianity, for the purpose of forming a correct opinion of its own origin, Dr. Strauss wandered away to a religion of quite another genius, and expected to find for his instruction analogous features in the Grecian mythology. Paulus, in assuming the Gospels to be historical throughout, was something like a traveller who mistakes the distant cloud configurations on the horizon for solid land ; while Strauss with his theory was as one who falls into the opposite error of supposing a large tract of hazy hill-tops to be wholly a collection of mist. Both in the realm of nature and in that of art it is often easy to be thus deceived by things which happen to be associated or brought into juxtaposition. In a narrative, as well as in a picture, the real may be so mixed up and blended with the fictitious that no one un- acquainted with the secret of its production shall be able clearly to distinguish one from the other. We have sent to us the photograph of some intimate friend, who is represented as standing on the sea-shore in the midst of rugged and romantic scenery. As the picture tells its story our friend must have recently visited some part of the coast, and we may perhaps be disposed to believe it, but it turns out on inquiry that he has not been there at all : his likeness was really taken in some London studio, with a sea-painting put behind to produce an artistic illusion. With similar ingenuity people have been photographed occasionally in the presence of well got-up spectres, so as to afford strong confirmation to the popular belief in the visitation of ghosts. So also thousands of real characters have come down to us in the pictures of history, with legendary surroundings and em- 18 THE REAL JESUS. bellishments, and if the true and the false are made to blend well, it may be impossible to draw any sharp clear line of distinction between them, unless we have some clue to the manner in which the work was produced. It very frequently happens, however, both in photographic repre- sentations and in narrative sketches, that the real and the fictitious have not been well blended, and there is such a want of harmony and proportion between them that an experienced critic, if he cannot draw a distinguishing line with any great exactness, may yet point out without difficulty all their more prominent and decided marks of difference. 15. In the (C Lives of the Saints" and other similar records it is generally very easy to say of the marvels introduced, which were produced by dramatic art, and which must be considered un- doubtedly mythical. Dramatic miracles are as a rule less extravagant than those generated by a poetic imagination, and it will be seen, especially in the case of apparitions, that they move people very strongly, that they produce an immediate and powerful impression on the minds of believers. A consciousness of being in the presence of the super- natural, of seeing mysterious shapes and hearing voices presumably divine, has often roused simple credulous people as nothing else could rouse them, has kindled in a little while an infectious enthu- siasm among them almost amounting to madness. Well-known modern instances of such dramatic excitement may be pointed to in the occasional apparitions of the Virgin Mary in out-of-the-way places causing in a little while new churches to be erected, and bringing about religious revivals, numerous faith healings, and a regular succession of crowded pilgrimages. But no corresponding stir has ever been caused immediately by preaching HIS MODERN EULOGISTS. 19 alone or by legendary stories of wonders occurring at an earlier period. Such stories, if they happen to -take well, are propagated very slowly, and it generally requires centuries to get them sufficiently established in the popular belief to give rise to commemorative festivals and awaken some feeling of enthusiasm. For primitive Christianity in all its fervour to have originated from the unassisted labours of preachers and poets, as the advocates of the Mythical Theory Endeavour to make out, is clearly impossible. Even if there were no record of Jesus and those connected with him having worked miracles, such as the Christian Church has since occasionally exhibited, we should be forced to believe that something of that kind must have been done, for in 110 other way but by appealing dramatically to the supernatural could have been kindled the disciples' world -renouncing enthu- siasm. 16. If the prophet of Nazareth had been, as Dr. Strauss has represented, an eminent moral philosopher and not a thaumaturgist, he would have gathered about him, like every other ancient sage, a band of cultivated and thoughtful disciples, and his religion would have had no attraction whatever for the ignorant multitude. Nor would miracle-working, if repudiated by him, have been introduced into the church after his death and more or less practised in every succeeding age for the kindling and revival of religious enthusiasm. Mohammed presented himself to his countrymen as a prophet and revelator, but he made no appeal to miracles for the attesting of his mission, and it is well known that his followers have never since craved for that kind of stimulant, being content with their one miracle, the Koran. It is true that Arabian poets have created many myth wonders, but we do not hear of ingenious contrivances in c 2 20 THE EEAL JESUS. mosques to suggest supernatural intervention, or of new pilgrimages being got up in any Mussul- man country through the instrumentality of appari- tions and other dramatic illusions. And any other religion may be expected to exhibit the same amount of continuity or correspondence between its primitive character and that of its mature development. If Jesus had been simply a mystic like Mohammed/ or a sage of the type of Socrates, the community originating from him would have borne the permanent impress of his mind ; the instruction which he delivered would have been quietly read and expounded in the churches, and Christendom would not have been overrun and agitated for many centuries by wonder-working monks and other revivalists. 17. Dr. Strauss writes as follows of the Galilean prophet whose life he professes to present to the world free from mythical embellishment : " Few great men have existed of whose history we have such an unsatisfactory knowledge as we have of that of Jesus. How much more clear and distinct beyond all comparison is the figure of Socrates, which is four hundred years earlier The Roman conceived of man as he ought to be differ- ently from the Greek, the Jew differently from both, the Greek after Socrates differently from and unquestionably more perfectly than before. Every man of moral pre-eminence, every great thinker who has made the active nature of man the object of his investigation, has contributed in narrower or wider circles towards correcting that idea, perfecting and improving it. And among these improvers of the ideal of humanity Jesus stands at all events in the first place. He introduced features in it which were wanting in it before, or had continued undeveloped, reduced the dimen- sions of others which prevented its universal HIS MODEEN EULOGISTS. 21 application, imparted into it by the religious aspect which he gave it a more lofty consecration, and bestowed upon it by embodying it in his own person the most vital warmth ; while the religious society which took its rise from him provided for this ideal the widest acceptance among mankind " ("New Life of Jesus," Book xi. 99, 100). 18. It is evident that a strained and hollow eulo- gium of this sort will neither conciliate the hostility of orthodox Christians- who believe in the divinity of Jesus nor yet satisfy independent inquirers who are desirous, in his case as in that of Mohammed, to get at the unvarnished truth. Professor Fisher, of Yale College, one of the ablest of the Christian opponents of Strauss, makes the following pertinent reply to him : " Let us suppose that Socrates had claimed to be invested with all power in heaven and on earth, had required the acceptance of his doctrine on his mere authority, had demanded of all men an implicit obedience to his will and styled himself the lord and master of his disciples, had assumed to pardon impiety and transgression, had professed an ability to allot to men their ever- lasting destinies, besides delivering them from the hands of death, and had declared himself to be the constituted judge in the future world of the entire race of men. The question we put is, whether assumptions of this character, notwithstanding the acknowledged virtues of Socrates, would not exhibit a demented understanding, or an ingrained monstrous self-love, and self- exaggeration only to be explained on the supposition of a deep moral perversion ? Should we not be driven to conclude that claims so extravagant and presumptuous in a sane mind imply that the character is off its true foundations ? How else could self-deception and self-exaltation reach this height ? And would not complacency for certain traits and actions of 22 THE REAL JESUS. Socrates be lost in the repugnance we should feel for this arrogance of pretension ? An enthusiast is ordinarily looked upon with compassion by sober minds. But when enthusiasm leaps so high and leads to the usurping of a rank far beyond the allowance of truth and the moral law, it inspires a feeling of moral aversion. 19. " Had Jesus stood forth simply in the char- acter of the promulgator of some high and perhaps forgotten truth in theology or morals with which his whole being is penetrated, we might look upon the mistaken belief in a supernatural, mission. with a less unfavourable judgment. It is conceivable that the light which flashes on the intelligence should be wrongly attributed to a supernatural source, that the intuition should be taken for miraculous revelation, and that a glowing absorbing conviction should be held to come from above in a supernatural way. Such we should be willing to grant was the principal source of Mohammed's original faith in his own inspiration. The feebly recognised truth of the sovereign control of one almighty will came home to his soul with a vivid- ness which nothing in his view but preternatural influences could account for. In this or some similar way a man comes to recognise himself as the chosen repository of a great vital truth and the chosen instrument for its propagation. And such a conviction is even consistent with humility so long as the truth is kept uppermost and the function of the prophet is felt by himself to be merely sub- ordinate and ministerial. Nay. the very contrast between the sublimity of the truth of which he has been made the recipient and his own poor merits may intensify the feeling of personal unworthiness. It is true that pride ever stands near and self-flattery and arrogance gain easy admission. The humility is apt to be retained only in semblance while it is HIS MODERN EULOGISTS. 23 really supplanted by a principle wholly antagonistic. Still more important is it to remember that even this sort of self-deception belongs to men who, whatever may be thought of their earnestness and relative excellence, partake of the sinfulness of humanity. If they fall into the error of supposing that they are specially chosen agents of heaven when they are not, this is among the illusions which are due to the darkening influence of the sin which is common to mankind. Apart from this con- sideration, there was in fact no one idea of religion to which the mind of Jesus was surrendered and in which he was swallowed up. . . . His exalted claims then, in case they are not allowed, must be credited to the self-seeking which corrupts the simplicity of the enthusiast and moves him to put himself before the truth. Pride and ambition, how- ever hidden and subtle, are at the root of this gross and unwarranted self- elevation " (" Essays/' p. 533). 20. To say that the prophet of Nazareth had no substantial ground for the supernatural claims which he advanced, and yet to place him before the world as a pattern man, as many gifted writers have done in the present century, is clearly to take up a position which is wholly untenable. The fact is Jesus has more than any other ecclesiastical figure- head an artificial character ; he is judged not by his intrinsic merits, but by the commanding place which he holds in the church by the fortune of priority. It is the old superstitious worship of origins that has contributed beyond anything else to magnify and mystify his personality. People of poetic temperament have always been prone to imagine that whatever attains greatness by long growth must have a corresponding high parentage or such a beginning as should seem to fitly foretoken its maturity. The Nile and the Ganges were once 24 THE KEAL JESUS. supposed to flow from a celestial source by the inhabitants of those countries which are nourished by their vast confluence of fertilizing floods. Some of the most famous Oriental dynasties were believed in the kingdoms subject to their sway to have a genealogy that could be traced back to the Sun and the Moon or a descent from the national divinities. So every distinguished warrior, phil- osopher, and saint, when the story of his life came to be written, invariably had his birth accompanied by supernatural manifestations indicative of his future eminent career. And if any historical inquirer had endeavoured to show from very clear evidence that the nativity of the famous individual was an ordinary one, or that the ancestors of the renowned dynasty were people of humble rank, the notion of greatness having been developed from such a poor and low beginning would have been scouted as preposterous. In like manner investi- gators of the present day who venture to trace back the wonderful growth of the Christian Church to any other than a divine source are sure to be very generally discredited. The apologists who uphold its supernatural claims are constantly arguing to this effect : " Is it possible that the whole fabric of Christianity with its humanizing -and civilizing forces, its moral and social triumphs, its renovation of a dead Pagan world, its spiritual supremacy, its identification with all the noblest thoughts, feelings, and aims of mankind that all this is built on no more solid foundation than the dreams and illusions of a few Galilean peasants?" 21. Some of the finest cathedrals in this country are said to have been at their first erection scarcely better than thatched barns, and there is nothing in the present grand development of Christianity from rude beginnings in the least inconsistent with what we know to be the general order of human progress. HIS MODERN EULOGISTS. 25 We occasionally meet with, some eminent divine whose extensive learning, good sense, amiability, and unremitting exertions to promote human welfare make a profound impression on us. But if we prosecute inquiries and trace back his history far enough, it will be found that he was not formerly such an exemplary character, that there was much less in him to charm and command respect when he was passing as a young man through his collegiate course. And if we can. only get reliable informa- tion respecting his childhood it will probably be told us that he was then ignorant, selfish, untruthful, extremely credulous, and subject to all sorts of illusions. The same upward progress, the same increase of wisdom and virtue with advancing years which is thus seen in the individual Christian may also be witnessed in the Christian community. The standard of morality and intelligence is generally admitted to have gradually risen in the Wesleyan body, as well as in that of the Baptists, the Quakers, and every other Evangelical sect since it started years ago under the excitement generated by miracle belief. And it would be strange indeed if there were not a corresponding betterment in the great body of the Christian Church during its long growth of nineteen centuries. It is well to show a proper respect for our religious ancestors, to honour tihose who acted up to their convictions and did their duty as far as they understood it in a less en- lightened age; but when people look back rever- ently on the past, and imagine their spiritual fore- fathers to have been more holy and perfect than themselves, they fall into an idolatry which restrains their freedom and renders it more than ever difficult to look ahead and make the progress that is required by the times. Chaucer is deservedly honoured in this country as the Father of English Poetry; it would not, however, conduce to the advancement of 26 THE REAL JESUS. our literature if his verses were constantly thrust before us as models for imitation, and every critical remark made in reference to them were resented as a graceless profanity. 22. The illusion which so many writers are under at the present day with respect to what they consider the grand and lofty moral figure of Jesus cannot be better shown than in the language with which an orthodox Christian points out in the Wesleyan Magazine the corresponding error of Carlyle in estimating the character and influence o Mohammed. "Now let it be assumed/' says this writer, "that Mohammed has often been mis- represented and maligned; that he had certain commanding moral qualities as well as intellectual gifts, that he was not in the vulgar sense of the word an impostor, since it may be held that no man ever imposed a new creed on mankind till he had first imposed it on himself ; and hypocrisy is but a subordinate we had almost said un- conscious element in the forces of fanaticism. Bat we submit that the spread of his tenets is out of all proportion to his individual powers. We must look for the secret of his success rather in the character and circumstances of the Arabian people than in the personal greatness of their Prophet. Indeed it is a common error of Mr. Carlyle and his fellow-worshippers to magnify individual human agency till it is something god- like, and then to render it an undue homage. They forget ' what great effects from trivial causes spring.'' They know it is certain that mighty consequences must spring from adequate causes, but the river rolling through the plain is not all due to the rill escaping through a cleft of the mountains. It is fed by neighbouring rivulets and augmented by the winter rains, the higher table- land is secretly but surely drained for its increase, HIS MODERN EULOGISTS. 27 and a thousand independent springs find glad fellowship and a swifter course in its community of waves. And such is the history of Islamism in relation to the influence of its Prophet/' 23. Exactly so ; and such, too, is evidently the history of Christianity in its relation to Jesus of Nazareth. But the personal influence of the Arabian prophet was really much greater in his lifetime than that of the Galilean, and is seen to extend much further in moulding the character of the religion called after his name. Jesus simply headed a little band of Jewish communists who had imbibed the Essene doctrines, and were bent on establishing the predicted et kingdom of saints" (Dan. ii. 44) in anticipation of the approaching end of the world. What he and others attempted to bring about on the strength of predictions was an entire failure, and would have been speedily forgotten after his death only for the successful miracle drama of his resurrection. The young mystic, Paul of Cilicia, gave a com- pletely new turn to the religion of Jesus, and holding him aloft as the risen Christ and Saviour of those who believed, commenced a vigorous missionary campaign to effect the conversion of the G-entile world. Christianity thus modified, after vainly endeavouring for three centuries to extirpate Paganism, eventually compromised matters, formed a give-and-take alliance with it, and thus became the established religion of the Roman Empire. This wonderful denouement was not in the remotest degree foreseen by the suffering Messiah of Nazareth and his circumcised apostles who were to sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Matt. xix. 28). But it cannot be said that Islamism has so changed its front from time to time and entirely run away from its founder's directions and designs ; the 28 THE EKAL JESUS. modern religion which we see nourishing at Cairo, Damascus, and Agra still retains the features which were impressed on it by Mohammed, and his written instructions are as strictly obeyed now as when he went forth at the head of his first followers and overthrew the Arabian idolatry. 21. Modern Jewish scholars have in general been too mnch taken up with Talmudic studies to give any great attention to the Gospel narrative so as to be able to throw additional light on the personality of Jesus. Orthodox rabbis in their sermons occasionally deal rather severely with the Nazarene as a noted heresiarch and misleader of the people now become an object of Gentile idolatry, but they seldom do more in the way of criticising his claims than to show how he clearly broke the Law and misinterpreted the Prophets, nationalizing Jews, who reject the supernatural in history, have fallen a great deal under the influence of Strauss and E/enan, and are disposed to take their favourable and highly-coloured views of the prophet of Nazareth. Professor Graetz, in his " History of the Jews/' says, " The merits of Jesus consisted principally in his efforts to import great force to the precepts of Judaism, in the enthusiasm, with which he followed them out him- self, in his ardour to make the Judeans turn to Ood with filial love as children to their father, in his fervent upholding the brotherhood of men/' He considers him, however, decidedly inferior as a teacher to his learned contemporary Philo of Alexandria, and says .rightly enough that " his death was more effective than his life.-" Dr. Felix Adler, of New York, president of the Ethical ^Society (Jewish by birth but not by faith) has in his published lectures -entitled " Creed and Deed " drawn a very pleasing portrait of Jesus, which as a work of art might vie with the sketch of HIS MODERN EULOGISTS. 29 Ernest Renan. " There is/' says he, " a rare and gracious quality in the personality of Jesus which has exercised its charm on the most heterogeneous nations and periods of history wide in the order o time and culture. To grasp the subtle essence of that charm, and thereby to understand what it was- that has given Christianity so powerful a hold on the affections of mankind were a task well worthy the attention of thoughtful minds/' &c., &c. But the writings of Jewish reformers, such as the late Dr. Benisch, who, while cultivating friendly relations with Christians, hold on firmly to the faith of Israel and point out those portions of the Gospel teaching which they feel conscientiously bound to reject, are far more worthy of being studied by investigators who are desirous of getting at honest Hebrew opinion. 25. There are some few modern Jewish teachers, such as Rabbi Gottheil of New York, who hold the prophet of Nazareth in high estimation, and might, perhaps, without renouncing Judaism, be almost persuaded to take the view of him suggested by Canon Fremantle in his Contemporary Review article on " The Future of Judaism. " But the majority of thoughtful Jews at the present day, while lightening their ritualistic yoke, are further removed than ever from the position of Unitarian Christianity, since they no longer contemplate the reconstruction of their nation in Palestine and reject Messianism altogether as a superstition of their forefathers inevitably tending to idolatry. When we say that God from time to time raises up an able man to accomplish some great and beneficial work, we affirm nothing that is inconsistent with the fundamental principles of the Jewish religion or contrary to the universal experience of mankind. But it is quite another thing to get hold of the notion that one 30 THE KEAL JESUS. who renders an important service to his people, or is expected to do so, was marked out and designed for that particular mission long before he was born, and even from the beginning of the world. When Palestine was under Roman domi- nation, any wise observer of what was going on among the Jews might have anticipated that the continual looking for a long-predicted Prince to gather the tribes of Israel would lead to Messiah- worship when once an individual should present himself in that character and obtain a certain amount of recognition. As it was represented by learned interpreters of Scripture that the coming of this mysterious personage was foreshown to the patriarchs and hinted at from the time of the creation, the notion of his pre-existence very naturally arose : it was thought that one who had been in people's minds for so many generations must be something more than man, must be really the companion of the Eternal. The Jewish mystics, who in the seventeenth century gathered about Sabbathai Sevi with enthusiastic homage, went quite as far in suggesting a divine character and relationship for that fulfiller of Messianic predic- tions as the early Christians did in the case of Jesus. He was supposed to have a soul purified from original sin, he was believed to be the incar- nate primitive man (Adam Kadmon), and thus to be a constituent of the creating Deity. And if Abraham Yachni, Samuel Primo, and other of his more influential adherents could only have kept him out of the hands of the Turks awhile longer, and then brought him into collision with them in such a way that they could have exalted him as a martyred Messiah and created a belief in his re- surrection, he would have been certain, so far as his sect extended, to become a permanent object of idolatry. HIS MODERN EULOGISTS. 31 26. The Jews in the first century were .asked to acknowledge simply the Messiahship of Jesus, for very few at that period entertained the idea of proclaiming his divinity. In the second century he was magnified by theologians and raised to a position higher than that of man but considered nob quite the equal of God. A hundred years later the idolatrous homage of the Church had gone so far as to make him the Second Person in the Trinity, and there was 'eventually launched upon the world the monstrous -and bewildering Athana- sian Creed. At the present day it is the well- known policy of orthodox Christians, who aim at converting the Jews, to take up in their presence a strictly Unitarian position and keep their Athana- sian doctrines carefully in the background. The missionaries at first ply those on whom they have designs with the teaching of the New Testa- ment and refrain from makiug the slightest allusion to the Church's subsequent theological developments. By simply confessing that Jesus was the promised Messiah and submitting to the initiatory rite of baptism, an unsuspecting Jew is received as a convert, and it is not doubted that a regular church attendance with the customary singing of hymns and repetition of formularies will make him eventually a good Trinitarian. Thus every individual Jew now won over to Christ is expected to make, in about three years, the same amount o declension from the pure faith of his father^, the same amount of downward corrupt progress in idolatrous worship that the collective church made originally in three centuries. En- lightened Israelites, therefore, knowing well what lies before them in the old beaten track of Messianism, will not be enticed into it at all; they see plainly that they are expected as converts to take up an insecure position at the head of a 32 THE EEAL JESUS. dangerous world-drift, and they hold back and resolve to keep their feet firmly planted on the hard rock of truth. 27. Though Jewish reformers are thus compelled to reject the claims of Christianity on much stronger grounds than those advanced by their orthodox brethren, they are well disposed to cultivate friendly relations with the great rival religion which is so- widely established in the world, and even to assist its educational progress. In England and other countries Jews have occasionally contributed sums of money towards the erection of Christian schools and churches in a spirit of liberality and broad religious sympathy worthy of the great Herod and king Solomon. From America we have reports of Christian congregations while their chapels were rebuilding or undergoing repair being kindly allowed to assemble and conduct their worship in the neighbouring Jewish synagogue. Such com- mendable acts as these will do far more to recon- cile the divided communities than any accommo- dating bridge that Canon Fremantle may contrive to build between their discordant theologies. Thoughtful and progressive Jews are also fully prepared to approximate more to their Christian neighbours in emancipating themselves from the old pernicious race prejudice and in lightening the burdens of the ceremonial law. They believe that, circumstanced as they are now, it would be con- ducive both to their material and spiritual interests to alter their ancient time-table to some extent and synchronize with their Christian neighbours in sabbath-keeping. They are further well disposed to follow the lead of the churches in substituting the vernacular for the ecclesiastical tongue in their public worship, so as to bring religious instruction more effectively home to the common people. 28. The Jewish Chronicle said some time ago in HIS MODERN EULOGISTS. 33 fl, leading article, " There is much that we Jews could learn from the practice of Christians/' This opinion will be endorsed not only by every en- lightened and conscientious Israelite, but equally by members of the Theistic Church. It must be admitted on all hands that a great deal of moral excellence which deserves respect may be found in the various Christian communities. When we come to cast our eyes around on those who are marshalled under the banner of the cross, it is possible to point to hundreds of most estimable characters, notwithstanding their prejudices and superstitions. If we may consider ourselves supe- rior to them in some things, they will be found to surpass us in others, and we may watch them to good purpose and derive from their example pro- fitable instruction. One meritorious Christian may be taken as a pattern for his courage and patriotism, another for his industry and perseverance, a third for his commercial probity, a fourth for his high sense of honour, a fifth for his affability, a sixth for his unostentatious generosity, a seventh for his forbearance under provocation, an eighth for his patience and fortitude under prolonged adversity, a ninth for his efforts to allay strife, a tenth for his unceasing endeavours to mitigate human suffering and we shall be pretty sure in this way to mend our own defects all round and make a greater approach to moral symmetry. Distinguished modern Jews may be copied in like manner with advantage by Christians just as they study for edification those of old time and are able to see in Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, Solomon, Job, and other great Scripture characters some special virtue calculated to impress their minds and con- duce to their own improvement. 29. But when our Christian neighbours hold up for universal imitation and regard a miraculous 84 THE REAL JESUS. man one who is said to combine in his person not merely certain eminent virtues, but all the moral excellences that ever blossomed under heaven without a single counterbalancing defect we are compelled to question the truthfulness of their representations and to doubt whether they are really taking a right course for the promotion of morality, especially as we are told that this model of perfect manhood is the one religious exemplar who must be taken on trust, and on no account tested by adverse views or subjected to the slightest breath of criticism. Pass a free judgment on all the other prophets and wise men who ever lived; show where they were strong and where they were weak ; separate that which is good in their characters from whatever appears unworthy ; but beware of treating in such a manner the life and conduct of Jesus of Nazareth. If you consider him not wholly free from human fallibility ; if you whisper against him one disparaging word ; if you venture to hint that in any little thing that is recorded of him, he fell short of absolute perfec- tion, you blaspheme at your peril, and will not only be marked out as an object of universal reproba- tion in the present life, but will suffer everlastingly in hell-fire. Why, under such conditions as these if judgment is to be paralyzed by profound reverence ; if people are to look on overawed and dumb by the systematic working of ecclesiastical terrors the Mikado, the Grand Lama, or any other human being invested with a garb of sanctity and enveloped in incense, may be made to appear a supreme moral character abounding in all virtues and entirely without spot or blemish. If Jesus is not an imposing artificial figure, if the transcendent merits claimed for him are altogether native and genuine, the thousands of eulogists who are con- stantly vying with each other as to who shall HIS MODEEN EULOGISTS. exalt him most, instead of deprecating criticism, ought to earnestly invite it just to make it quito clear that the worship which they minister to will stand any testing and is in no way allied to idolatry. Equality before the law is a universally respected principle; the eminence or sanctity of a person will not obtain for him exceptional treatment at any of our courts of justice, and there is no reason why one prophet should be favoured more than all others at the great bar of public opinion ; to claim that this or that holy man shall be exempted from all cross-examination is to offer a very cogent argument for his being subjected to the more severe scrutiny. 30. Instead of helping to praise one who has been extravagantly overpraised and made to appear the equal of God, a conscientious Israelite should mete out commendation to some of the many unpretending reformers and patterns of virtue whom an idolatrous world has greatly neglected or altogether consigned to oblivion. He should especially endeavour to do justice to the memory of those who have long been misjudged by popular prejudice and blackened and disfigured by out- rageous calumny. If he accepts the Gospel's one- sided sectarian story, as he is invited to do, he must not only soon come to believe that the Nazarene leader was divine, but must admit that those who did not follow him all the most cultivated and influential portion of his country- men were diabolical. The criticism, which tends to bring down to a human level one ancient Judeaii who has long been worshipped, and raise to a human level many others who have been unjustly execrated, is not a work of malignity but of charity. It is besides absolutely necessary to advance from time to time on ancient religious types and improve authoritative moral standards. Not very long D 2 36 THE EEAL JESUS. since certain Protestant writers were severely denounced for venturing to see moral features which were not wholly beautiful, and acts which were not altogether commendable and wise in Tertullian, Cyprian, Augustine, and other eminent Fathers of the Church. It was considered the greatest presumption and even impiety for obscure modern investigators to think of detracting from the reputation of these eminent saints, and gloomy anticipations were expressed with regard to the probable consequences of weakening the veneration for ancient authorities; but it is now generally admitted that their criticism has healthfully stimulated religious inquiry and proved altogether beneficial in its results. The Jewish teachers and Mr. Voysey, who have gone a step further in their sermons and dared with clearer light to remove from the heads of the Founders of the Church their miraculous aureola, however much reprobated at present by orthodox worshippers, will be recognized in a while as genuine religious reformers who have done a good service for mankind. There are indeed already a considerable number of progressive Christian ministers in thorough accord with them, and quite prepared to preach the same mist- dispelling doctrine, only that a majority of their congregants are as yet too prejudiced to grasp it effectively or hear it with appreciation and profit. THE REAL JESUS. 37 CHAPTER II. HIS MESSIANIC CLAIMS. The modern Jewish dispersion voluntary and not a divine judgment on the race. *2. It did not commence at the death of Jesus, and neither was foretold by the prophets. 5. The Jews' reasons for not accepting Jesus as Messiah. 6. He failed to advertise himself or make his claims generally known. 7. One who aspired to rule the nation should have first been its deliverer. 9. He failed to reconcile the divisions of his countrymen, and prepare them for self-government but rather embittered their strifes. 12. His anarchical doctrines wholly unfitted him to be at the head of the nation. niHERE is a very prevalent Christian belief that JL the Jewish race are dispersed throughout the world at the present day as a punishment for their rejection and crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, who claimed to be their anointed king. But every unprejudiced Christian scholar knows well that this belief has no support from Scripture, and no foundation in fact. It is evident, in the first place, that the Jews for a very long period have not been strictly exiled from the land of their fathers and forbidden to return there or prevented from so doing, but have voluntarily dispersed themselves in the pursuit of commerce in much the same way as we now see scattered very widely the modern Armenians and Greeks. During the last half century a considerable number of Russian, Polish, and Roumanian Jews have actually returned and settled in Palestine, yet so far from thereby better- ing their fortunes, they have generally, from bad leadership and the want of a proper agricultural 38 . THE KEAL JESUS. training, been greatly impoverished, so as to become more or less dependent oir the charity of their dispersed brethren. The attempts at restoring the nation that were made in former times, under Persian, Greek, and Roman domination, if they had a greater measure of success, or led in various ways to greater results, proved in the end still more calamitous to that portion of the community who, on the strength of predictions, were so ill advised as to commit them- selves to that retrograde course. All the more intelligent and prosperous Jews of Western. Europe and America have long since renounced nationalist dreams, and would only return to settle in Palestine if taken and conveyed there by force, and even then they would seek the first favourable opportunity to escape from the country and re- disperse themselves. They desire freedom to wander into all countries where they may find good openings for trade, and so long as they are per- mitted in this way to follow their bent, they cannot be considered a doomed race subjected to a terrible divine judgment. Moreover, unless people can be brought to know and feel that they are suffering judicially for certain past misdeeds, it is clear that the correction administered will be vain and purpose- less, and will not in the slightest degree conduce to their amendment. 2. If great calamities had fallen on the Jews immediately after the crucifixion of Jesus, and their general dispersion from Palestine had commenced at that period, there would have been a much better ground afforded for the present popular Christian belief. But from all that we can learn, the chief priests, rulers, and scribes those who are said to have been the principal opponents of Jesus went peacefully to their graves, and it was not till a new generation had grown up that the country was HIS MESSIANIC CLAIMS. 39 much, troubled with war and Jerusalem was at length besieged and laid in ruins by Titus. A large number of captive Jews were then sold and dispersed as a punishment for the determined resistance which they had offered to the Romans, while those who fought on the Roman side or had taken no part in the war were permitted to remain undisturbed in Palestine. This was no new experi- ence to the people ; they had been treated in pre- cisely the same way before when their city was taken by foreign conquerors, as indeed they were at a subsequent period in the great rebellion that was subdued by Adrian and Severus. It was the policy alike of the Romans, and of the Greek and Assyrian rulers who preceded them, to banish from the country as much as possible all Hebrews who were likely to cause trouble, and to encourage the more peaceable and industrious to persevere in the cultivation of their native soil. But owing to what they suffered from the attacks of freebooters and the general disturbed state of the country, a large proportion of the peaceable class became dis- heartened at their prospects, and were induced to migrate to foreign lands where they could enjoy greater security. They went by preference to Babylon, Alexandria, Antioch, Rome, Carthage, Spain, and other places of commercial importance, so that when Christianity was first preached, there are said to have visited Jerusalem on the feast of Pentecost, " Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven }) (Acts ii. 5) . 3. The modern dispersion of the Jews as a divine judgment on them is said to be very clearly foretold in their own Scriptures, especially in Lev. xxvi., Deut. xxviii., and Jer. xxix. But this can only be apparent to very fanciful and prejudiced minds, for we find no hint there of the general abandonment of agriculture by the Jewish community and of 40 THE KEAL JESUS. their adopting by preference commercial pursuits. Nothing is said there of their suffering ill-treat- ment at the hands of Gentile nations who at the same time would bow down and reverence one of their brethren and acknowledge the excellence of their law. The author of Deuteronomy simply depicts in prophetic language the sorrowful condi- tion of the Jews forcibly dispersed in Chaldea, where they subsisted by the cultivation of the soil and suffered from plagues incidental to a dry climate. It is expressly declared that the people together with their king should be subjected to heathen idolaters, should become so impoverished as to borrow from their Gentile neighbours and not be able to lend, and should experience such miseries as then usually befel a recently vanquished and subjugated people all of which is a true picture of the condition of the exiles in Chaldea, but does not in the least apply to the modern community dispersed on commercial business thoughout the civilized world. Certainly Jeremiah threatens some of the Babylonian Jews with a wider dispersion into all kingdoms of the earth in consequence of their listening to opposition prophets, but it is clear that he no more predicts or has in view the present general distribution of the race than he foresees the Arabian conquest of Palestine, and the erection of the Mosque of Omar in the place of the Temple at Jerusalem. 4. This belief that the Jews, on account of the treatment that the prophet of Nazareth received from some of their race long ago, have been thus set in the pillory, as it were, throughout the world, to be hooted and pelted by Gentiles who claim to know the meaning of their ancient Scriptures better than they do themselves, is altogether a very serious delusion. However much they may have suffered from many centuries of calumny and per- HIS MESSIANIC CLAIMS. 41 secution, they have not been all this time under a terrible divine curse, and it is manifest that their accusers have formed a very exaggerated estimate of the measure of their guilt. The indictment which we hear continually brought against them is of a twofold nature : they are charged with wickedly refusing to acknowledge Jesus as their king, and with still more wickedly putting him to an ignominious death. On both these counts, when a hearing is only granted them, they are able to offer a very complete defence. But Jewish scholars have seldom spoken out with freedom as apologists for their nonconforming position, even when per- mitted to do so, because it is impossible to defend effectively the memory of their aspersed forefathers without impugning the credit and lowering to some extent the pretensions of primitive Christianity. And whatever injustice may have been done by the Christian Church in earlier and ruder times, they sincerely respect the enlightened and charitable spirit which it now generally manifests, and they especially wish to forgive past wrongs and live on terms of friendliness with their Christian fellow- countrymen. 5. It must be apparent to every impartial observer of the world's political strifes, that the culpability of the Jews in refusing to accept Jesus as their king was not nearly so great nor their blindness so palpable as that of many rebellious and disloyal communities. A nation has occasion- ally been well ru)ed for a number of years by some able and upright monarch, one who has defended it from external enemies, encouraged its industrial development, extended its commerce, and given it a long period of prosperous tranquillity. Yet a selfish faction, unmindful of all these benefits, have for the attainment of their own ends contrived his assassination, or have conspired against him, fought 42 THE EEAL JESUS. against him, and eventually effected his overthrow. We can imagine Jesus being treated in such a manner by a rebellious faction of Jews when he had ruled their country admirably for some ten or twenty years and in various ways bettered the con- dition of the people. In that case the conduct of the guilty party would well deserve to be held up to the reprobation of posterity, although it would still be very unjust to involve the entire Jewish community in their condemnation. But the rejec- tion of Jesus that is, the failure of a large majority of his countrymen to rally to him and acknow- ledge his claims if it is to be considered wrong, was at the worst an error of judgment, a want of appreciation on their parts, and was not an act of rebellion at all. For he was not actually a king of Judea and able to point to a long course of success- ful government, nor even the son of such a mon- arch, but simply one of many humble aspirants for the long vacant Jewish throne, and those who held aloof from him had no evidence whatever of his kingly capacity. They might know him to be an earnest preacher, a very successful exorcist and faith-healer, and one quite able to control a small band of communistic followers, yet might reason- ably doubt whether he would succeed equally well in reconciling their factions, suppressing their robber-bands, maintaining friendly relations with other countries, and giving them at once the ines- timable blessings of freedom and peace.. 6. Jesus was wholly without experience of government affairs, and he did not even do that which is invariably expected and required of every candidate for leadership, however poorly qualified ; he continued nearly the whole of his life-time in strict provincial seclusion and failed to bring his claims fully before the people. A true Messianic aspirant should have placed himself conspicuously HIS MESSIANIC CLAIMS. 43 in the midst of the nation, and at the same time sent messengers and manifestoes to all the families of Israel that were dispersed throughout the world. Jesus, instead of thus declaring him self and making all necessary preparations for ruling the people, was in the prime of manhood, that is, from the age of twenty to thirty, hiding his light under a bushel in a carpenter's shop at Nazareth and rendering his country apparently no higher service than what could be performed tiy any ordinary Galilean peasant. The inhabitants "of Jerusalem evidently knew little or nothing of him till a shert time before his self-sought martyrdom, when he entered the city at the head of a band of excited followers and caused some disturbance. Even at the period of his spectacular death it is highly probable that nine-tenths of the Jews of Palestine to say noth- ing of the still larger community dispersed in other countries had never so much as heard of his existence. The fact that not the slightest allusion is made to him by Philo and other con- temporary writers, while the disputed passage in Josephus is now admitted by all the best critics to be a Christian interpolation, renders it quite evi- dent that he must have been in lifetime a very obscure personage. There is then, really, no foundation for the common belief that the majority of his countrymen rejected him, for they could not possibly reject a person claiming to be the Messiah of whom they were as entirely ignorant as though he had never been born. 7. When a people are brought under a foreign yoke and longing to be free, the first duty of a prince or ruler who rises up among them must surely be to effect their deliverance ; he can have no claim whatever to rule them till he has shown in an unmistakable manner that he is able to defend them and save the'ni from their foes. David would 44 THE EEAL JESUS. never have been accepted as king by the tribes of Israel, if he had merely gone from place to place as a preacher and faith-healer and done nothing to free their land from the Philistines. Moses, Gideon, and Judas Maccabeus, preach and prophesy as they might, would not have been trusted to act as national rulers if they had not first very completely demonstrated their power as valiant deliverers. And all oppressed or subjugated nations have been in this respect very much alike in their expec- tations and demands of those aspiring to a position of authority. Would the great Alfred of England have gained the confidence of his people by linger- ing during the chief part of his lifetime in the Isle of Athelney or by wandering about with a few peasants in other provinces as a preaching and miracle-working monk ? Such an unworthy line of conduct in a young and valiant prince would have completely discredited him and made him an object of derision. The first great reform of that eminent ruler and the foundation of all his other reforms was the expulsion of the Danes from the country. 8. It has been affirmed that the waging of war, even for a good purpose, was altogether incom- patible with the pure and lofty mission of Jesus. He made war in a certain fashion, however, and put a combative spirit into his followers ; it cannot be said that his mission was one of conciliation and peace. "When supported by a mob of partisans he did not hesitate to drive some of his countrymen from the Temple court by physical force even when they were there pursuing lawful occupations ; how then could he, as a " Son of David," have the slightest objection to clear by such means the land of Israel from its heathen oppressors ? Moreover, he was credited by his followers with possessing supernatural powers, and in that case he could have easily fed any number of hungry soldiers, healed EIS MESSIANIC CLAIMS. 45 those that were sick and wounded, and even resuscitated the slain so as to render his army irresistible and their work of deliverance compara- tively light. Nay, he might have dispensed with military forces ; it was only necessary that he should go to Rome, obtain an audience of Caesar and the Senate, and make his powers pointedly felt in their presence, and the liberation of the country would have been speedily effected without shedding a drop of blood. The Jews did not want war if freedom could have been obtained in any other way ; but they were fully assured, from the teaching of their past history, that no man could be a true Messiah and rightly sit on the throne of David, unless he by some means or other re- moved the foreign yoke and gave his country complete independence. 9. It has been further said that Jesus did not attempt to deliver his countrymen from the Roman domination because they were in a very unsettled state at that period and wholly unfitted for the responsibilities of a free people. They certainly were in a condition unfavourable for the attain- ment of national independence ; but then it wa,s his duty as Messiah to thoroughly reform them in this respect and prepare them for self-government. He should have done everything in his power to heal the terrible divisions and strifes that prevailed throughout Palestine and gather about him an orderly and united people. When the Greeks, the Bulgarians, or any other modern nation happen to be in want of a king, they generally invite some foreign prince to come and settle among them, under the conviction that he will be free from their local and sectional prejudices, and therefore well qualified to mediate in their disputes as a chief magistrate and bind them together in harmony. The governors or viceroys whom England sends to occupy a regal 46 THE REAL JESUS. position in her colonies are supposed to be qualified in like manner better than any native politician to hold the balance fairly between conflicting parties and interests and take into consideration the wel- fare of the whole community. A native-born chief magistrate may in some cases succeed as well and command the respect of all his countrymen, that is, if he understands his position properly and what is required of him, if he studiously avoids identifying himself with this or that party and maintains an attitude of strict impartiality. And a good religious ruler ought to be similarly endowed for moderating extreme tendencies, reconciling discordant views and promoting general harmony. Every clergy- man who is sent into an English parish to be its minister should be above all things a man of broad sympathies and a peacemaker not one who will gather about him a little party or sect, but a mediator between parties and a healer of sectarian strifes. 10. The Jews of Palestine had many bitter dis- sensions when Christianity was first preached among them ; probably no troubled and divided nation ever stood in greater need of a reconciling head. If then Jesus had been in any degree qualified to undertake the duties of a prince of peace, there can bs no manner of doubt as to what would have been his attitude and the general direction of his efforts. He would have earnestly entreated his countrymen to sink their petty differences and regard each other in a more tolerant and charitable spirit. Instead of calling themselves Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and what not, and bitterly denouncing those who held other views or followed other ritual practices, he would have exhorted them, to study rather how they might do their duty to God and their fellow-men and become one and all good Israelites. The sects that had long opposed one JtJrtk t***~' HIS MESSIANIC CLAIMS. 47 another with fruitless strife he would have en- deavoured to reconcile and band together in close moral union that they might present a strong front to contend with the lawlessness and wickedness which then greatly discredited the country. An efficient voluntary police would have been organized, and the robbers, that infested every province to the terror of the agricultural population,, would have been compelled to renounce their evil habits and live industriously and honestly as other men. And when all this was accomplished, when the cities were tranquillized, the shepherds were keeping their flocks safely, and the husbandmen cultivating their fields in peace, he would have written and assured Caesar that the Jews were at length well able to maintain law and order without the assis- tance of the Roman legions, which should therefore be withdrawn for their mutual advantage and good- will and directed against turbulent populations else- where. 11. So far, however, from proceeding wisely in this way to reform the people and fit them for self- government, Jesus took the very opposite course : he was not a uniter but a divider of his country- men, making their already confused condition still worse. There cannot be a doubt that he was conscientious and determined to do what seemed right, like many another zealot, but he acted all along as though it was his chief business to aggra- vate sectarian rancour and intensify the bitterness of class strife. The Pharisees, the Sadducees, and other religious Jews, who should have been mildly reconciled and encouraged to persevere as good citizens in keeping the commandments on which social order is based, he fiercely denounced as vipers and hypocrites deserving the damnation of hell. On the other hand his forbidding all judicial and repressive measures afforded encouragement to the & /ki- 48 THE REAL JESUS. predatory class, and lie spoke words of commenda- tion to the ignorant and immoral populace who were unable to dispute with him and easily induced to acknowledge his claims. He was far more solicitous to have a number of credulous idlers crowded together and making demonstrations in his honour than to see sober men go forth in all direc- tions quietly discharging their social duties, and thus manifesting true loyalty to God. Instead of seeking to strengthen the bonds of society and improve the relationship of the classes, he rather laboured to produce separation and division : the poor were prompted by his communistic discourses to abhor the rich, and the illiterate to despise their learned brethren. The dissemination of his doctrine was not only expected to raise a great ferment and divide the nation, but he looked hopefully to its even breaking up families and producing universal secta- rian discord. " Think not/' said he, " that I came to bring peace, I came not to bring peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man ab variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own house- hold" (Matt. x. 34-36). 12. The Messiah was expected to rule the people justly as a true king of Israel, but Jesus did what he could to diffuse throughout the community a spirit of sanctified anarchism and make such rule utterly impossible. " Eesist not evil " and " Call no man master " are precepts which strike at all governing power and authority. It should be the aim of every genuine Israelite to resist first the evil within himself and afterwards that which breaks out in aggressive acts among his ruder and less enlightened brethren. So long as mankind are not equally intelligent, virtuous, and law-abiding, and cannot by educational efforts be made so, it is just HIS MESSIANIC CLAIMS. 49 as necessary to establish, as Moses did, a magistracy for the settlement of disputes and the repression of disorders that arise among them as for parents to rule over their children. No greater troubles can afflict society than those which come from the want of good government, or from the temporary sus- pension of the administration of justice, so that evil is for awhile permitted to go unresisted. The Gospel, instead of showing how such calamities are to be averted, how a jirst and harmonious social system is to be established, requires a communistic segregation of believing saints who are to have nothing to do with the political arrangements of the outside world (Mark x. 42, 43). Whatever may be said against Mohammed in these days, he at least puts the virtuous man in his true place as the ruler and treasurer of his weaker brethren, bids him judge equitably even if it should be against his own family and friends, and dispose of his property fairly at death : he also enjoins righteous dealing- between nation and nation, and the settling of their disputes by arbitration in preference to war. (Koran vi. xlix., &c.) But Jesus, looking for the future reversal of human fortunes, requires the saint to become the slave of the sinner, and the believing master to renounce his mastership, and he who has been a good storekeeper of society to deliver up his possessions at once, and distribute the means which he has of rewarding many labourers among the idle and improvident multitude (Matt. v. 39; vi. 20; xix. 21). In fact he legislates not for ordinary men, but for monks ; he provides no code for settled society, but is always contemplating society in a state of dissolution ; he teaches his countrymen how to leave the world with much hurry and apprehension in view of its predicted doom, and not how to live in it and care for its continual improvement. 50 THE REAL JESUS. CHAPTER III. HIS APPEAL TO MIRACLES. Thauinaturgy no proof of kingly capacity. 2. The poor results of supposed supernatural powers. 3. The uniformity of nature conducive to human welfare. 6. Miracle-belief has bad moral effects. 7. The perversion of the Greek Mysteries to evil purposes. 8. Judicial miracles have not promoted justice. 9. Beneficent miracles morally in- jurious. i.0. Modern missionaries rightly exhibit as vouchers mechanical inventions. 11. Miracles astonish and intimidate, but fail to enlighten. 12. Christian miracles worthless for attesting doctrine. 13. Cures effected by enthusiasm and pretension. 14. Works of Wesley and Irving. 17. Scenes produced by sham demoniacs. 18. Worthless apologetic assumptions. 19. The resurrection miracles dramatic. 20. The acting of Ananias and Sapphira. 21. Weak position of the early Christian apologists. WE sometimes hear it said that the Jews ought to have accepted Jesus as their Messiah without the slightest hesitation on account of the unequi- vocal vouchers which he presented to them in the way of miracles. Supposing that he really had the great preternatural gifts which have been ascribed to him, they would have been of no avail for demon- strating his fitness to govern the people. At that period there were in Palestine and throughout the East hundreds of thaumaturgists whose feats were believed to transcend natural human powers ; yet, because they exhibited wonders before ignorant crowds, they were not considered capable of ruling nations. If some of the Jewish rulers in earlier times were credited with working miracles, it was their superior natural abilities and performances HIS APPEAL TO MIRACLES. 51 that really won for them the respect of their countrymen. The Witch of Endor was evidently a woman of very little account in Israel although she was reputed to be able to raise the dead. On the other hand David and Solomon were not considered miracle-workers but simply wise and valiant men, and they are said to have ruled the nation and defended it with consummate ability. In ancient times tradition often ascribed miracles to dis- tinguished men on account of their great natural achievements what they did in the way of con- structing bridges, canals, ships, cities, temples, and other public works. But where a person could point to no performances but those of a thauma- turgic character calculated to afford a little tem- porary excitement, he was suspected by wise observers of pretentiousness, and he invariably failed to command any wide and general respect. 2. It is said, however, that Jesus was incom- parably superior to all his miraculously gifted contemporaries ; he is even alleged to have been a divine man, so that to him nothing could have been impossible or too hard to accomplish. In such case the work which he set about to do ought to have been proportionately great ; he might have easily transformed the whole face of the earth and regenerated every nation, while living in obscurity at Nazareth ; and he must be considered of all the idle and negligent men that ever breathed the one who made the poorest use of his opportunities and powers. Only consider how much permanent beneQt a wise and good man, able to do whatever was suggested to him, might have speedily con- ferred on his compatriots, and indeed on the whole human race. If Jesus had, as we are told, legions of angels at his beck and call, he could not only have delivered Palestine from a foreign yoke, but might have speedily broken up and disbanded all E 2 52 THE KEAL JESUS. other armies and put an end to the curse of war. He, who could make the winds and the sea obey him, might just as readily have set rocks, reefs, and sandbanks in motion, and thus removed the numerous natural obstructions to navigation and human intercourse. One who could foresee the end of the world the final wreck of the sun, moon, and stars ought to have revealed the solar system, foretold the return of comets and eclipses, and anticipated every important discovery that has since been made by the progressive intelligence of scientific men. But, with all the unlimited powers ascribed to him, he did just as little for the advance- ment of civilization and the enlargement of the field of accurate human knowledge as Buddha or Zoroaster. He was thought to be able to move mountains, but did not turn a stone in the way of useful engineering; he failed to suppress with his angel armies a single freebooter or deliver his friend John the Baptist from prison; all the miracle cures which he effected were not sufficient to bring to him such patients of rank and intelli- gence as visited a good Greek physician, and while supposed to have a knowledge of everything in heaven and earth, he really invented and discovered nothing. 8. The fact that miracles are not wrought on a large scale to gratify human wishes and convert the world into a paradise, that every step in the way of progress and improvement has to be accomplished by our own patient exertions, has often been adduced as an argument against Theism, but it is only against the old superstitious form of Theism that it really has any force. Modern Theists are not accustomed to consider the Most High an omnipotent magician sitting apart from the world as from a piece of mechanism, and from time to time arbitrarily interrupting its established HIS APPEAL TO MIRACLES. 53 course. They believe God to be the good over- ruling Spirit immanent in nature and man, and regularly helping on in the right path those who help themselves. This view is now getting to be more and more adopted both by reforming Christians and by Jews, as they perceive clearly that the constancy of the order of. nature is con- ducive to human welfare. " Physical science/' says Canon Fremantle, ^ " cannot advance a step without the assumption o"f the uniformity of nature. This uniformity is tested at every stage and never fails. The idea that it can fail becomes almost inconceivable. When the student turns to expe- rience he finds that violations of natural order which were supposed to take place in old times now take place no more ; that no such violations can be found in times and places where they can be verified. Even in the sphere of Christian apologetics this is admitted more and more. The position of miracles has completely changed. They are no longer the basis of the argument, but are themselves the subject of apology. One accepted writer puts them in the fifth rank of evidence. Bishop Temple in his ' Bampton Lectures ' shows by his treatment of them that they have lost their power. It is only the fact that they are supposed to be bound up with the moral and spiritual forces of Christianity which prevents their being treated wholly as indifferent " (Fortnightly Review, No. 243, p. 445). 4. We are accustomed to admire the regularity of a well-managed railway, where the trains are observed to run pretty true to their time and accidents are carefully guarded against and pre- vented. Many thousands of people who travel and despatch goods trust to this regularity and learn to conform to it, that is, to make their arrangements accordingly. And any unexpected departure from 54 THE EEAL JESUS. the order thus established would be certain to produce much confusion. If a train were now and then delayed for half-an-hour to accommodate some negligent passenger, or diverted from its track to avoid hurting some foolish person happen- ing to stray there, although it might afford satis- faction to those erring individuals, it would be sure to cause harm and inconvenience to others, and would by no means conduce to the general welfare. The confidence reposed in railway regu- larity would inevitably be weakened by such interruptions ; uncertainty would begin to manifest itself, and those who had cultivated habits of carefulness and punctuality would be less careful and punctual in future. Therefore when we have proof that a train has actually been delayed or thrown off its track we regard it as an unfortunate occurrence ; we ascribe it not to any design on the part of the managers, but deem it a rare accident which all their wisdom, watchfulness, and foresight have been unable to prevent. 5. In .the regularity of the constitution of nature as understood by the man of science, the navigator, the agriculturist, the engineer and the artisan, we have what is far more admirable and of incalculable advantage to the whole human race. On this fundamental rule all other rules all our industrial operations, laws, institutions, social customs, and domestic arrangements are systematically founded ; and, were it to fail so as not to be relied upon, we should be thrown into utter confusion. Those who still write in defence of miracles contend that although the stability of the natural laws which operate throughout the world is conducive to human welfare, occasions may now and then arise to make their suspension desirable and even necessary precisely as in the case of human ordinances. But if this were so, the parallel must HIS APPEAL TO MIRACLES. 55 hold good throughout ; it would be indispensable that people should be well advertised of the interruption, so that they might not be thrown into any uncertainty. When the English Govern- ment determines on suspending the Habeas Corpus Act on account of sedition prevailing in a certain province, or on closing the cattle-markets in con- sequence of an epidemic, people are duly warned as to the precise limits to which the departure from the ordinary course of Ihings shall extend, and there is thus caused as little inconvenience as possible and 110 room afforded for disputation,, doubt, or surprise. The same conditions are in- variably observed when any alteration is made in railway or post-office regulations, or in the ordinances of the churches. It is conceivable that natural laws might occasionally be suspended in the same way so as to cause no perplexity and very little inconvenience to mankind. But it cannot be shown in the whole history of the super- natural that this has ever been the case; the worst thing to be said of the miracles reported in past times and those still believed to occur is, not- that they have been departures from the order of nature, but that they have been capricious and unlooked-for departures, so as to confound and astonish people and render it impossible for any- one to point out between the natural and the alleged supernatural a clear dividing line. 6. It is quite indisputable that supernatural wonders, whether real or imaginary, have had to a large extent a bad moral effect? where they have been said to occur; miracle- belief, for one thing, will be generally found more or less conducive to madness. Any de- rangement of external nature, or what is thought to be such, must necessarily tend in some degree to derange the mind. There are many 56 THE REAL JESUS. instances on record of people having been astonished by miraculous appearances, and made suddenly and permanently insane. And those who have disordered minds are constantly behold- ing spectres and other marvellous phenomena which they conjure up around them ; they may be said to live in a world of illusions. Many poets and mystics who turn their thoughts strongly and con- tinuously in one direction become thereby partially mad, and are led to believe in the pictures created by their own imagination. An outburst of fanaticism or strong enthusiasm is a kind of epidemic madness affecting a large number of people, and marvellous appearances regarded as spiritual interventions have generally been its exciting cause. Credulous zealots so influenced may renounce some of their old habits, take to a new course of life, and exert themselves strenuously to advance the movement with which they are connected, and yet not be by any means in a healthy moral condition. Their minds are so ill-balanced that, however well disposed to live blamelessly and walk in the path of rectitude, they are pretty sure, when carried along by blind impulse, to overstep the mark somewhere and fall into pitiable excesses. Instead of going about their duty quietly as good law-abiding citizens, their desire is rather to encounter trouble and adversity, to throw aside discretion and risk every danger, and even selfishly rush upon death as the surest means of attaining speedily a happier existence. 7. Such miracles as apparitions would, from a moral point of view, be unobjectionable under certain conditions, that is, if they only came to all people openly and above board and we had unequi- vocal proof of their reality. It is quite conceivable that they might thus as celestial messengers convey HIS APPEAL TO JURA regularly such good instruction should render all other teaching superfluous, the apparitions, which we hear of, favour some persons and neglect others, appear stealthily in out-of-the-way places and under cover of the night, or become visible in buildings where facilities exist for getting up theatrical illusions. Good moral results are not likely to come from intercourse with supposed spiritual beings in this way when their form is altogether manlike and there is no guarantee against deception. Apparitions in the character of celestial messengers were regularly witnessed at the Greek Mysteries, and they are said to have produced a great impression on young people by discoursing of future rewards and punish- ments, and exhorting them to lead virtuous lives. Epictetus and other eminent Pagan teachers com- mended them for this reason as being likely to have a wholesome influence. But it is clear that the good moral lessons would have been better imparted without the miracles, because simple people, from what they then saw, became thoroughly convinced of the reality of spectres, and were pre- pared to be gulled by all sorts of designing impostors in a spiritual disguise. Eobberies were perpetrated by such plotters, and the young soldier who had learnt to be sober, honest, and truthful at the Mysteries, was liable soon after to be frightened from his post by some night prowler in a white robe whom he ought to have captured or speedily put to rout. Moreover, the Mysteries themselves were in time perverted from their original purpose to serve bad ends ; simple women were occasionally seduced in the temples by spectres who pretended to be their departed husbands, or gods who had come down upon earth in the likeness of men. Josephus gives an account of a pious Roman lady being debauched under a stratagem of this kind practised 58 TEE REAL JESUS. by Decius Mundus in the temple of Isis, which, on the scandal being discovered, led to the punishment of the guilty parties and the temple's destruction (Ant. XYIII. iii. 4). Rich profligate men, such as Mundus, and corrupt priests knew well how to turn dramatic representations of the spirit world to immoral ends, and thus at many places the nocturnal assemblies to witness the Mysteries became scenes of lewdness and depravity. Religious apparitions to influence people for good could have been perverted in Judea as well as in any Gentile country ; although they would not have been allowed there to minister to obscenity, they could have been turned by crafty schemers in various ways to dishonest purposes. The apparitions which served as vouchers for the doctrine of Jesus were in every way as objection- able as those which commanded the approval of Epictetus, because they could be readily imitated, and so long as people were guided by external appearances rather than by the inward monitor of their conscience, they could never be sure whether the attesting miracles presented to them as Divine were not after all Satanic. 8. If the world were really governed to a great extent by supernatural messengers, as is often assumed, it is quite conceivable that the administra- tion of justice, as we now see it carried on in all countries, might by such means be vastly improved. There might, for instance, be posted at every law court and assize an angel of justice to watch the proceedings carefully and thus prevent the perpe- tration of judicial wrong. And where disputes unhappily arise between nation and nation, and there is no earthly tribunal to which they can make an appeal for judgment, the timely arrival of an arbitrating angel might prevent them from resort- ing to hostilities. It is hard to see how superior beings, to whom good men are supposed to approxi- HIS APPEAL TO MIRACLES. 50 mate, could be more worthily occupied than in thus systematically aiding the administration of justice on earth and helping estranged nations to terminate their disputes equitably and settle down in concord and peace. But universal interventions of this kind, which would undeniably conduce to human welfare, have never formed any portion of the world's judicial economy. On the other hand, the special miracles reported^ as . occurring on various occasions for the furtherance of the ends of justice, have, by their very limitation, been favours conferred in here and there a case, or works of partiality, if not of a worse character. In former times, when apparitions were universally believed, it was easy by such means to incriminate a hated or suspected individual when no positive proof could be adduced of his guilt. And it is well known that hundreds of innocent people were condemned to death on spirit testimony or on other evidence which was regarded as miraculous during the terrible witchcraft persecutions. A witness of good character, who should now appear in any of our courts and testify on oath of strange preternatural phenomena which had come under his observation or of what he had been privately told by spirits, would not obtain credit for a moment. It is in thus adhering strictly to the natural and the reasonable, and reject- ing everything which is not in thorough agreement with the established order of the universe, that our modern administration of justice owes its immense superiority over that of bygone times. 9. It is claimed for the miracles ascribed to Jesus that they were for the most part of a decidedly beneficent character, such for instance as the heal- ing of the sick, the raising of the dead, the render- ing of poisons innoxious, the turning of water into wine, and the multiplication of loaves and fishes. But performances of this kind are at the best CO THE REAL JESUS. a capricious distribution of favours, a mere flinging of supernatural presents among the multitude, and likely to create a false trust in their repetition on future occasions, so as to be more hurtful than profitable in the end. Had Jesus discovered a universal antidote to poisons, he would have rendered life more secure from fatal accidents and conferred a great boon on mankind, but to render poisons innoxious to believers in his doctrine for an indefinite period would only have been to introduce confusion on earth and probably make people less guarded and discriminating than before, so as to lead to an increase of suffering. The feeding of the multitude by supernatural means would make the recipients of the largess less disposed than ever to apply themselves diligently to raising food from the soil by agricultural industry. By introducing better sanitary regulations, as Moses did in his day, he might have effected far more than he ever accomplished by miraculous charms and exorcisms towards improving the general health of the com- munity. The healing of diseases by miracles, however complete, would be sure to make people less disposed to investigation, less capable of tracing effects to causes, and thus discovering the true natural remedy for their infirmities. They would also be rendered more than ever credulous in regard to extravagant stories of the supernatural, and, from not being able to distinguish genuine from spurious wonders, would listen to impostors and become an easy prey to all kinds of magical illusions. 10. Modern Christian as well as Mohammedan missionaries, who go forth to preach to rude African tribes and reclaim them from barbarism, never think of exhibiting miracles in confirmation of their doctrine, but they produce vouchers of a far superior character. They present to the HIS APPEAL TO MIRACLES. 61 inspection of the wondering native people car- penters' tools, agricultural implements, watches, telescopes, sewing-machines, and other useful mechanical inventions. They instruct them in gardening and building operations, in wood-work, metal-work, brick-making, pottery, surgery, and medicine. The savages are thus convinced by these outward credentials of the missionaries' superior wisdom, and are willing to repose some confidence in their religious and moral discourses. They believe that men who excel them so much in the useful arts, and are so kindly disposed and evidently desirous to promote their welfare, are likely to be right in the impeachment of their heathen customs and in the new rules of conduct which they pre- scribe. Had Jesus really towered above the heads of his countrymen in intelligence, as a civilized missionary does above savages, he would doubt- less have put before them the same kind of evi- dential works. He would have made it clear that he had a far better knowledge than they of the abstruse operations of nature, and would have introduced useful arts and contrivances of various kinds greatly in advance of all that had yet been invented in that age. He would thus have become a great centre of attraction for all thoughtful and inquiring minds not only in Palestine but through- out the world. Enthusiastic learners would have flocked to him from every quarter to seek his wise counsel and imitate his superior workmanship, just as they now gather to an industrial exhibition or to a university. And they would have been so fa- vourably impressed with the many proofs of his transcendent ability as to give a calm and patient hearing to whatever he might have said in opposi- tion to their religious prejudices or in reproof of their superstitions and mo^al errors. 11. Where religious teachers have attempted to 62 THE REAL JESUS. accredit their doctrine by the exhibition of miracles the bulk of the converts won over by such means have not been really reformed but only intimidated. A man believed to be endowed with supernatural power is often feared by ignorant people just as a despotic ruler is feared,, for it is thought that if any offence is given, he will probably inflict on them some terrible punishment. He does not bring his followers to love right conduct for its own sake ; he entirely fails to educate their moral per- ceptions and cause them to feel the happiness which invariably results from leading a virtuous life. Any precepts of a wholesome character which he gives may be exceedingly distasteful to them, so that, if they outwardly obey him, it will only be from fear of otherwise incurring evil consequences. It is not therefore a high morality which he teaches, but a very low morality ; his adherents feel no genuine delight in living worthily and treading the path of rectitude, and are always liable under pressure of strong temptation to relapse into an immoral course. Moreover, the history of several modern religious sects shows that when miraculous powers are ascribed to a teacher by some of the least sober and least truthful of his disciples, it is pretty sure to have a prejudicial influence on his own mind and carry him far in the direction of fanaticism. He was perhaps at one time a pure, gentle, humble- minded reformer intent only on promoting religious earnestness and improving the conduct of his fellow-men ; but, deceived by the undue homage and exaggerations of ignorant people and believing in the wondrous gifts imputed to him, he becomes filled at length- with a conceit of extraordinary sanctity and imagines himself to be in a special manner the chosen messenger of Heaven. Pride and arrogance begin to have dominion over him, he feels as one in high authority entitled to receive HIS APPEAL TO MIRACLES. 63 from every quarter the utmost deference and respect ; and instead of reasoning calmly with op- ponents as in former years, upbraids them severely and deals in denunciations and threats. The more intelligent and thoughtful people, who were accus- tomed to hear his discourses, now fall away from him, while the ruder followers who continue to magnify and applaud him will tolerate no oppo- sition nor questioning of his claims, and if the circumstances of the time are only sufficiently favourable, will go on to establish by force a complete spiritual despotism. 12. The miracles of Jesus were clearly of no more worth for the purpose of attesting doctrinal truth to an erring world than those of a similar character which were wrought at that period by other religious teachers. Had the supernatural gifts, which he is said to have transmitted to his followers, been of any real efficacy in guiding them to a right decision in religious matters, they would have been distinguished from all other communities by their perfect agreement, by their having no serious and prolonged dispute. It is well known, however, that the Apostles, and afterwards the Fathers of the Church, engaged in controversy like ordinary men, and had to meet in council and come to a decision by vote ; in no instance did they get a decision by miracle, unless, in common with other superstitious people of that time, they resorted to some kind of divination. All the primitive Christian sects professed to have their miraculous gifts, and it was only through superior natural powers and a more commanding position that one of them at length prevailed over the rest and became the Eoman Catholic Church. This church has always laid claim to supernatural powers as the sure proof of her infallibility, but the articles of her creed have been established from time to time by 64 THE EEAL JESUS. the decision of ecclesiastical councils. For several centuries the doctrine of the Immaculate Con- ception was treated as an open question among Catholics ; it was advocated with enthusiasm by the Franciscans and as strongly opposed by the Dominicans, and in support of their different views both of these great religious fraternities appealed to- miracles. It was only in quite recent years that an Ecumenical Council was convened at Rome by Pius IX. , and the Franciscan opinion, which had been steadily gaining ground, was determined at length by a majority of representative voices to be an established doctrine of the Church. 13. Very similar miracles to those wrought by Jesus and his apostles have been occasionally exhibited among Christians in each succeeding century, but they have never been of such a character as to produce universal conviction in the churches. A Roman Catholic miracle is only believed by the more credulous portion of that com- munity, and is invariably rejected by the rest of the religious world. So far from helping to unite Christians, every supernatural manifestation witnessed among them is a subject for wrangling and tends to increase their divisions. Dr. Douglas, Bishop of Salisbury, produced a controversial work in the last century, the aim of which was to dis- criminate between genuine and spurious miracles, as the Rev. Joseph Glanvil at an earlier period had tried to do in cases of witchcraft. The bishop's criticism is directed chiefly against modern Roman Catholic wonders, although some of these, which he rejects, are supported by much stronger testimony than any of those recorded in the Gospels to which he attaches implicit credit. After showing that a large proportion of Romanist miracle cures can be satisfactorily explained as the effects of strong faith or enthusiasm, he proceeds to notice other HTS APPEAL TO MIEACLES. 65 cases which no hypothesis of mental excitement will suffice to account for, and these he thinks must be ascribed to imposture. A powerful emotion might occasionally remove or alleviate palsies, fevers, and other ailments due to obstruction or derangement of the nervous system, but would not enable a confirmed cripple to suddenly recover the use of his limbs or a totally blind man to see. Yet it is evidently possible for a person to feign lameness, blindness, or any other incurable ailment, and then proceed to astonish people by exhibiting on a fitting occasion an apparent cure by miracle. Such dramatic artifices have been more or less practised at every period in connection with faith- healing. The enthusiasm that is excited in the first place can hardly fail to lead on to imposture, since wonderful curative results are intensely relished by ignorant minds, and they are generally disposed to heighten and exaggerate them so as to make them appear more wonderful still. 14. It was from enthusiasm being supplemented by conscious deception that the celebrated Edward Irving was imposed upon by a number of his imagin- ative followers. He had excited by his preaching much religious fervour and a belief in the revival of the miraculous gifts which are said to have been exercised by the apostolic church, and at length they began to fancy that they could speak with other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance. And one went a little further than another in exhibiting the volubility of his newly-acquired speech, till that which was at first simple fanaticism ended with cases of downright imposture. Irving, being thoroughly honest and pure-minded himself, was not in the least inclined to suspect deception on the part of any who entertained his religious views. He believed that the unintelligible jargon that he heard around him was really miraculous F 66 . THE REAL JESUS. an inspired utterance which only needed interpreta- tion to edify the church and was thus completely deluded and carried away by the wonder-working artifices evoked by his own preaching. 15. Another revivalist, John Wesley, was de- ceived in exactly the same way by the pretences of a number of ignorant and fanatical people who were brought together by his ministrations. A recent writer commenting on Southey's (t Life of Wesley," says : " The effects which he produced both on body and mind appeared to himself and to his followers miraculous. Diseases were arrested or subdued by the faith which he inspired, madness was appeased, and in tbe sound and sane paroxysms were excited which were new to pathology, and which he believed to be supernatural interpositions vouchsafed to him in furtherance of his efforts by the spirit of God or worked in opposition to them by the exasperated spirit of evil Imposture in all degrees, from the first natural exaggeration to downright fraud, kept pace with enthusiasm. Some of his followers began to get up exhibitions of demoniacal possessions and heavenly trances. The violent convulsions which these people had the art of bring- ing on themselves, Wesley was clearly convinced were owing to the malice of Satan or to the work of the spirit of God according to the nature of the case. Even children were principal actors in these exhibitions. A girl at Bristol being questioned judiciously concerning her frequent fits and trances, confessed that what she did was for the purpose of making Mr. Wesley take notice of her. . . . He had not discerned that when occasion is afforded for imposture of this kind, the propensity is a vice to which children and young persons are especially addicted. If there be any natural obliquity of mind in the parties, sufficient motives are found in the pride of deceiving their elders, and the pleasure HIS APPEAL TO MIRACLES. 67 they feel in exercising the monkey-like instinct of imitation" (Barker's " Review/' vol. iii. p. 86). 16. The ignorant people who followed Jesus and on whom his miracles of healing were wrought, had such bodily and mental infirmities as are experienced by persons of a corresponding class in our own country. Not only had they the same palsies, fevers, epilepsies, and manias as those which were cured or relieved by Wesley, but they had the same passion for exaggeration, the same love of excitement, the same unscrupulous zeal to further a religious cause. What, then, could prevent them from resorting to the same artifice of counterfeiting diseases of an irremediable character in order to astonish people by exhibiting their apparently supernatural cure ? It will be said by some Christian controversialists that any attempt of the followers of Jesus to prac- tise deception in this way would have been instantly detected and rebuked by him. But there is no record of his ever having detected and exposed either sham cases of sickness, forged scriptures, or any of the other numerous impostures which abounded in his lifetime. Those who admit that Jesus was a natural-born man subject to the common errors of humanity (and we care not to argue with others) must surely allow that he was more likely to be deceived by supernatural appearances than either John Wesley or Edward Irving. For he did not belong, as they, to the educated class ; he had not seen, as they, the illusions of zealots repeatedly exposed in the pages of ecclesiastical history, and he lived before the dawn of scientific investigation when even educated people were for the most part extremely credulous and superstitious with regard to mysterious phenomena. 17. In every age and country where exorcism has been practised, the counterfeiting of madness for the exhibition of a supposed supernatural cure 68 THE KEAL JESUS. has to some extent accompanied it. Bishop Douglas, in his " Criterion of Miracles," mentions an instance of this kind occurring in Poland in 1564, when the object of the pretended demoniac was to exalt the virtue and spread the fame of certain curative relics; but, as his imposture happened to be suspected, Prince Radzivil expelled the devil from him by the vigorous application of a whip. In the Millennial Star for August 1st, 1847, there is an interesting account of the expul- sion of devils in the Mormon community. "The scene of the 20th of June/' says the writer, " will long be remembered by us as a day of rejoicing in the glorious manifestation of the power of God confirming the faith of the Saints and spreading the Gospel further than we could have done in a long time The sight was awful, but it has done us all good. I may as well say the devils told us, they were sent some by Cain, some by Kite, Judas, Kilo, Kelo, Kalmonia, and Lucifer. Some of these they informed us were presidents over seventies in Hell." There may be embellish- ment in this Mormon report, as well as in some of the Gospel stories of casting out devils, but it evidently originated in the stratagems of pretended demoniacs. To get up a sham opposition from, devils, and so obtain their adverse testimony to the truth of the Mormon doctrine, would be well calculated to confirm the faith of the ignorant saints and obtain new conversions to the cause. Such a spiritual drama could have been just as well contrived eighteen hundred years ago by some of the more astute world-renouncing saints of Palestine, and it would have been equally effective in winning popular support for a religious move- ment like that of the Nazarenes. 18. Dr. Paley, in the introduction to his "Evidences of Christianity," makes the extrava- HIS APPEAL TO MIRACLES. 69 gant assumption in behalf of his twelve hypo- thetical witnesses the apostles " it was impossible that they should be deceived." Was there ever known in any age of {he world human beings who were thus absolutely undeceivable ? Wesley, in a letter to the Bishop of Gloucester, says of the witnesses of Methodist miracles,, "they could neither deceive nor be deceived." Orson Pratt says also in his " Authenticity " of the witnesses of Mormon miracles, ' ' The nature of their evidence is such that it precludes all possibility of their being deceived If they were deceived there is no certainty in anything." This postulating that pcor fallible human creatures can in no way .be deceived as a ground for believing their testi- mony to the supernatural is a mere begging of the question ; it is the introducing of one miracle to form evidential support for another. We know that shrewd intelligent observers of phenomena are sometimes mistaken in very ordinary appear- ances of nature, how much more are simple untrained witnesses in a fever of religious excite- ment liable to deviate from accuracy in viewing and reporting what to them is extraordinary. An inferior rule cannot prove the incorrectness of a superior rule ; however honest and veracious people may be, they can no more as witnesses make it certain that the laws of nature have failed in constancy than a trusty clock or watch by being at variance with solar time can demonstrate that there has been any irregularity in the sun's course. 19. Those who view the Gospel scenes from one standpoint, as a drama is commonly viewed by spectators, are apt to imagine that Jesus had no higher human assistance than that of his twelve chief disciples, who always appear in the front- ground wandering about the country with him and subsisting on aims. But we may discover moving 70 THE EEAL JESUS. mysteriously in the back-ground a more intelligent class of partisans who were possessors of property, and who, without following Jesus, freely entertained him occasionally, and as far as possible rendered him assistance. There can be little doubt that such religious friends as Jairus, Lazarus of Bethany, and Joseph of Arimathea contrived to attach to him dramatically the superior miracles which confirmed his Zoroastrian doctrines and powerfully worked on the imagination of the multitude. The successful feigning of diseases as a basis of miracle-cures would be likely to suggest to them, as well as to others, the possibility of counterfeiting death itself, so as "to excite a still greater amount of wonder and faith by the exhibi-. tion of an apparently miraculous resurrection. It is not necessary to discuss here, whether Jesus was taken down from the cross alive and borne to the tomb in a state of coma so as to be able in a little while to present himself again to his disciples, or whether he really died, and, on his body being conveyed from the tomb secretly, a personator with crucifixion wounds appeared in his place. Investiga- tors are likely to differ on this question for some time to come, but his resurrection was clearly a dramatic miracle and not a myth, as Strauss has suggested, or it could never have produced the strong impression which it did and given such a great impetus to primitive Christianity. 20. The story of Ananias and Sapphira being struck dead for mendacity (Acts v. 5-11) is generally accepted by unbiassed critics as having an historical basis. It is reasonable to suppose that they were actors in a religious drama, and that their retributive deaths were feigned for the purpose of impressing new converts strongly and deterring them from understating the value of their possessions. The idea of the chief apostle OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HIS APPEAL TO taking part in such a stratagem is naturally enough repugnant to modern Christian sentiment ; bub venerable prelates of the Roman Catholic Church have often enough stooped to similar expedients for the purpose of frightening simple people from an evil course. If the man and his wife assumed death in the manner of tragedians, submitted to a form of burial and presently arose and left the neighbourhood secretly or reappeared in another guise, the worst that can be said of Peter is that he had a very objectionable priestcraft method of inculcating truthfulness. But on the supposition commonly believed, that he really struck two converts dead by supernatural power for failing to give a correct account of what they had obtained by the sale of their property, his proceeding was simply atrocious. It was not to be expected that Ananias and Sapphira, on first joining the Church and seeking instruction in righteous- ness, should have freed themselves at once from their old worldliness and vicious propensities, and it would have been very harsh treatment if there had only been pronounced for their offence a sentence of expulsion. To put them to death suddenly, however, and not allow them a moment's time for repentance, would have been capping their breach of the moral law by one of much greater magnitude ; it looks as if the Church slew them to appropriate the whole of their goods. It would have been especially scandalous on the part of Peter to punish with so much severity a want of truth- fulness in newly-converted people, when he had himself recently been in this respect a more flagrant transgressor, had lied passionately with oaths and curses. That the members of the infant Church* did not view the matter in this light only shows, as many other cases have done, that the superstitious fear generated by miracle-working is not favourable 72 THE EEAL JESUS. to reflection and can hardly fail to paralyze to some extent the moral perceptions. 21. Dr. Paley, in his "Evidences/' makes the following references to Justin Martyr and other early apologists of Christianity : " Justin expressly assigns the reason for his having recourse to he argument from prophecy rather than alleging the miracles of the Christian history, which reason was, that the persons with whom he contended would ascribe these miracles to magic, ' lest any of our opponents should say, What hinders but that he who is called Christ by us, being a man sprung from men, performed the miracles which we attribute to him by magical art ? 9 The suggestion of this reason meets, as I apprehend, the very point of the present objection, more especially when we find Justin followed in it by other writers of that age. Irenasus, who came about forty years after him, notices the same evasion in the adversaries of Christianity and replies to it by the same argument: 'But if they shall say that the Lord performed these things by an illusory appearance, leading these objectors to the prophecies, we will show from them that all things were thus predicted con- cerning him and strictly came to pass ' (Iren. I. ii. c. 57). Lactantius, who lived a century later, delivers the same sentiment upon the same occa- sion : f He performed miracles we might have supposed him to be a magician as ye say, and as the Jews then supposed, if all the prophets had not with one spirit foretold that Christ should perform these very things ' (Lactaut. v. 3)." ("Evidences/' Part in. ch. v.). 22. It is thus seen from the early Christian apologists whom Paley has quoted, that their Pagan opponents acknowledged that Jesus might have performed many wonderful works, but contended that these works did not prove him to be divine, HIS APPEAL TO MIEACLES. 73 because they resembled well-known wonders of a magical or illusory character and were plainly within the reach of human contrivance. Paley calls this very sound argument which they advanced an lt evasion :" it was really nothing of the kind, but just such an objection as Protestants have always been accustomed to urge against Roman Catholic miracles. They thought it quite possible, from their knowledge of human nature, that the mad- ness and sickness which Jesus worked upon were counterfeited, and that those whom he was supposed to restore to life were only dead in appearance. How did the early apologists meet these objections ? Not by taking the high moral ground that Paley and other modern divines would have done. They did not declare indignantly that any attempt to convince people by such artifices had never been sanctioned in the Church and was altogether inconsistent with the principles of Christianity. It did not occur to them as being easy to show that the miracles of Jesus were so immensely superior to those of ordinary thauma- turgists as to place them wholly beyond suspicion of any resemblance or relationship. They candidly admitted that his performances were similar in appearance to magical illusions, and might indeed be mistaken for such by any one ignorant of the Jewish scriptures, but declared that what in their estimation proved them to be divine miracles was the circumstance of it being expressly foretold by the prophets that Christ should do these things. This is a very poor argument ; because, even if it had been predicted by all the prophets that the Messiah, who was expected to deliver Israel, should turn water into wine, multiply loaves and fishes, heal the sick, and raise the dead, the works of Jesus might only have been fictitious fulfilments. There is, however, not a single prediction to this effect 74 THE REAL 'JESUS. in the Old Testament, and those passages of Scripture, which are. said to point clearly to him, are very far from dispelling all suspicion of unscru- pulousness on the part of his early followers in respect to imposing on the world with evidential deceits or propping their faith with false appear- ances. THE EEAL JESUS. 75 CHAPTER IV. HIS PEOPHETIC EVIDENCE. Prophetic evidence more readily tested than that of miracles. 3. Forged predictions of the early Christians. 5. Mythical and dramatic fulfilment of Scriptures. 6. Application to Jesus of texts referring to others. 7. The Christian enthusiasts saw what was in their own minds. 8. The personifications of suffering Israel. 9. The afflicted servant in Isaiah's Restoration poem. 10. Exposition of the fifty-third chapter. 12. 1 he predictions of the pseudo-Daniel in reference to the "kingdom of saints" and the successive attempts to prepare for its fulfilment. 14. The Scriptures misquoted and mis- interpreted by the New Testament writers. THE prophetic testimony adduced in support of the claims of Jesus is generally considered stronger than that furnished by his miracles. Its value is certainly subjected more readily to critical proof. In the case of his healing the sick, casting out devils, raising the dead, and multiplying loaves and fishes, we cannot now see what the disciples saw; for the phenomena which produced a miraculous impression on their minds soon disappeared. The same may be said of the apparitions or visions that were occasionally presented to them ; had a photographer been there to fix the marvellous appearances permanently and hand them down for the observance of posterity, they would perhaps not have made a corresponding impression on us, and we should have reason to deem the reports of them highly coloured. But his fulfilments of Scripture, which were thought by the early Christians still more marvellous, have really been transmitted to 76 THE REAL JESUS. us faithfully by literary art, so that what especially wrought conviction on them we can now examine for ourselves. Like the Rainbow, the Volcano, the Rocking-stone, the Voice of Memnon and other ancient prodigies, they may be looked upon as permanent miracles, yet they fail to impress people now and fill them with wonder as they did in a rude and unenlightened age. 2. In order that fulfilments of prophecy should be of any worth as evidence of a divine mission, the agreement between what is spoken of as being in the future and what actually comes to pass, must be clearly beyond the reach of human con- trivance. When, for instance, a monarch dies suddenly, and some imaginative person shortly after writes a prediction of the event or professes to discover one, however exactly the writing may point to the occurrence, it will afford no proof of supernatural foresight. In like manner if the death of a ruler is honestly foretold, and some one in consequence proceeds afc the given date to assassinate him, the fulfilment of what was spoken, which he thus endeavours to establish as the design of Heaven, will be equally worthless. All the prophecies which the early Christian apologists appealed to as furnishing the strongest evidence of the divine claims of Jesus will be found in one way or other of this defective character either the prediction was written after the event, or the event was made by dramatic or poetic art to square with the prediction. In not a single instance can it be shown that the agreement between the prophetic word and the recorded deed was of supernatural ordering and what could not possibly have been brought about by human design. 3. The Apocryphal book called "Esdras" contains the following striking prediction and one or two others equally clear : " For my son Jesus HIS PROPHETIC EVIDENCE. 77 shall be revealed with those that be with him, and they that remain shall rejoice within four-hundred years. After these years shall my son Christ die and all men that have life " - (2 Esd. vii. 28, 29). But this book of Esdras was not actually written by Esdras or Esra, who took a leading part in the restoration of the Captivity ; it is the work of some unknown forger of Scripture who lived at a later period. And even his spurious production has been subsequently corrupted : as the above texts cannot be found in the earlier versions of the book, they are so manifestly open to the suspicion of being interpolated by some primitive Christian writer that no one now ever thinks of appealing to them as Christian evidence. A book greatly esteemed in the early Church called "The Testimony of the Twelve Patriarchs," fortells the coming of Jesus as the Messiah and the principal events of his life with as much clearness as could be desired, and it imposed on many learned defenders of the faith, from Origen to Dr. Whiston. Its spurious character, however, has been established beyond doubt, and it is now universally acknowledged to be a Christian production of the second century. Dr. Lardner says, "It appears to me very evident that these ' Testaments ' are not the real last words of the Twelve Patriarchs. The clear knowledge of Christian affairs and principles shows this book to have been written, or else very much interpolated, after the publication of the Christian religion" (" Credibility," ii. 348). 4. The famous " Sibylline Books," a series of forged predictions commenced by Aristobulus, an Alexandrian Jew, about 150 years before the Christian era, had a wide circulation and obtained immense credit ; and when copies were at length got hold of and interpolated by Christians, they proved of very great service in convincing Pagans 78 THE REAL JESUS. that Jesus was the world's Messiah. " The Sibyl/' says Justin Martyr, " not only expressly and clearly foretells the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ, but also all things that should be done by him " (Ibid. ii. 335). Tertullian, Origen, Augustine, and several other Christian Fathers, appealed with equal confidence to these prophecies so clear and un- mistakable in referring to events of the Gospel narrative. And when it began to be shown by learned opponents that they were " blasphemous interpolations/-' they contended in reply that this charge was only trumped up by unbelievers in order to evade the force of the evidence. " Confuted by these testimonies/' says Lactantius, " some are wont to shelter themselves by saying that these are not Sibylline oracles, but verses forged and com- posed by our people" (Ibid. ii. 345). Proof of this being actually the case got to be so strong at last, however, that few ventured to deny it, and the famous Sibyl gradually fell into discredit. The appeal that had been made to prophecies of this character to show that Christian miracles were not deceptions was only calculated to increase the distrust of such works ; for a people, who did not hesitate to pervert Scripture for the establishment of their claims, would be thought just as likely for the same purpose to falsify nature. 5. The early Christians not only forged pro- phecies and historical testimonies, such as that inserted in Josephus (Ant. xvm. iii. 3), to fit the generally received record of the life of Jesus, but they also forged biographies of him to a certain extent which could just as readily be made to agree with the Jewish Scriptures. A considerable number of spurious Gospels are known to have existed in the second century, some of which have come down to our own times, and no one would now think of attaching the slightest credit to any HIS PROPHETIC EVIDENCE. 79 prophetic evidence that they might exhibit in- dependently. But certain portions of the canonical Gospels are of the same character, are admitted by the most competent .critics to be unhistorical, notably the marvellous and discordant birth stories which are prefixed to the narratives of Matthew and Luke. In the first of these introductory legends we have presented to us a number of Scrip- ture texts as being wonderfully fulfilled, such as, is often very loosely and inaccurately applied so as to become misleading. Strictly speaking, it means not merely the chance beginner of a movement, or the disturber who starts a rolling stone in the world, but one who, like the constructor of a bridge or a canal, designs a work and carries it out to completeness, or at least aims at and insures its completeness. Thus Alexander, Constantine, and Peter may be said to have founded the great cities which respectively bear their names, but it cannot be said that the Australian settler who happened to erect the first hut on the Yarra was the founder of Melbourne. Eomulus has been called the founder of the Roman empire ; all that he really did, how- ever, was to found a petty Italian state : he cannot be supposed to have had the remotest idea that his rude stronghold would eventually become a magni- ficent city, and the capital of the greatest civilizing dominion in the world. And Jesus with his little band of Judean communists preparing to establish the " kingdom of saints " spoken of by writers of spurious prophecies, had just as little foreboding of the compact which a future generation of his followers would make with Paganism in that quarter and the wide diffusion in consequence of their mixed system of religion. 2. If Jesus is to be held up as the author and designer of Christianity in its entire growth of nineteen centuries, it is clear that we shall have to ascribe to him not only its good but its evil develop- ments. Those who contend that he originated the Sunday schools, the orphanages, the temperance halls, the hospitals, the city missions, and other 92 THE REAL JESUS. benevolent institutions that confront us in every direction, will be equally bound to trace to his teaching the superstitions and barbarities which the Church has exhibited largely in past times. He must thus be made accountable for numberless pious frauds, frequent outbreaks of fanaticism, continual dissensions and religious wars, the deplorable witchcraft delusions, the burning and massacre of heretics, and the terrible persecutions which have not even yet wholly ceased to worry the Jewish community. But the eloquent clerical advocates, who thrust the claims of their religion upon us, will not consent to take fairly the good and the bad products together in their exhibition of the Christianity of Jesus, and endeavour to place before us with much skill only a very attractive selection. They dwell a great de*al on some of the best pages of ecclesiastical history and contrive to skip others as though they had no existence. The contents of the Gospels are manipulated in much the same fashion ; they make the most of a few good moral precepts contained in those writings and keep all the hard and unreasonable sayings of Jesus in the background, or otherwise contend that these did not really emanate from him, and must be regarded as later mythical accretions. Would they permit us to treat any other religious teacher in this manner for the purpose of embellishing his character and holding him aloft to attract the idolatrous homage of mankind ? 3. Evidently the claims of Jesus must be judged by what he himself designed during his brief public ministry, and not by what those who took the name of Christian designed under very different cir- cumstances long after the failure of his Messianic schemes. The Apocalyptic belief which he and his immediate followers held in reference to the im- pending doom of the world, however well calculated HIS REFORMATION CLAIMS. 93 to inspire them with an enthusiastic disregard of life, would entirely unfit them for the contem- plation of any reforms to further human progress. For a man to be a reformer he must have a clear prospective vision of the present life and look con- fidently for a continuance of the existing order of the universe. An English agriculturist may be expected to improve his farm if he has before him the run of a long lease, but will be very un- likely to take pains for bettering its condition in the event of suddenly receiving notice to quit. When a vessel is wrecked in mid-ocean and in danger of being momentarily swallowed up by the waves, the passengers will perhaps utter agonizing shrieks, and be very prayerful and devout at the contemplation of their impending fate, but will not entertain any thought of effecting nautical reforms. A convict under sentence of death is never found making wise resolves to lead a better life in the future, the utmost that he may be expected to do is to feel sorrow and contrition for the evil life that is past. And Jesus seemed to aim by his teaching to make this spirit of the sinking ship and the condemned cell universal ; people were to be brought into the solemn dying mood of the penitent thief and be got to renounce altogether the interests of this life for the attainment of salvation in paradise. In his view of the situation there was no time to contemplate improvements and set about training up a new generation in more salutary ways than those which then prevailed ; all that could be done was to send forth an alarum cry of instant repentance, for the end of the world was at hand. 4. When a genuine reformer rises up in a community he follows the true method of reform, that is, endeavours to introduce the beneficial changes which suggest themselves to his mind in a 94 THE REAL JESUS. quiet, orderly manner, so as not to clash with authority or disturb in any way the constitution of society. "An enlightened Englishman, who wishes to improve the laws of his country, exerts himself as a politician to become as speedily as possible a member of the legislative chamber, where he may stand and address the whole nation as from a vantage ground. In such a position he has only to gain the respect of his fellow-members, and make his plans known in clear and convincing language, and he will presently have with him a voting majority and see the measures which he advocates duly enacted and carried out. Now and then a reformer wishes to introduce an entirely new order of society, or propounds such advanced schemes that only a small fraction of his country- men can be got to view them with approval, but he does not in consequence chafe at the opposition that confronts him and assume an irreconcilable and revolutionary attitude. He either submits patiently to the postponement of his projects, and helps on measures of a more moderate character, or he withdraws with a few enthusiastic followers to some distant colony, where they acquire an independent position and are able to realize their political ideal undisturbed. Every sensible religious reformer is accustomed to act on similar lines ; if he is unable with all his exertions to obtain a com^ manding position, or finds it impracticable to move the whole Church through its governing council, yet can no longer submit to its doctrine and disci- pline, he quietly secedes with a small body of sympathisers, and they start an independent reform- ing community. 5. It was clearly open to Jesus to take one or other of these legitimate courses for promoting a great Jewish reformation. Hillel, who lived some years earlier in the same country, was a reformer : HIS REFORMATION CLAIMS. 95 how did lie proceed? This celebrated rabbi is said to have been originally a poor woodcutter at Babylon, a position not unlike that which Jesus is supposed to have occupied at Nazareth. He journeyed to Jerusalem in quest of learning, almost starved himself in acquiring, under great difficulties, a profound knowledge of the Law, and made his way eventually to be President of the Sanhedrin, where he ably and successfully promoted reforms. This was then the position that ought to have been secured by the prophet of Nazareth for speaking to his countrymen with a voice of authority which they could not fail to respect. There was surely no better way of reforming the nation than by commencing at the Temple, and through its supreme council diffusing new religious light over every portion of the land. It was also especially desirable to acquire by such means the custody of the sacred writings, so as to let the people know as nearly as possible how the various authoritative books were actually compiled, and what was their relative importance. Indeed a leading reformer, at the head of the Sanhedrin, ought to have dealt as freely with the Scriptures as the Maccabean rulers had done 150 years before; he should have subjected the Canon to a thorough revision, both taking away and adding to effect its improve- ment according to the better light of his times. This was the fundamental reform to be effected in that age of primitive bibliolatry had there only been in the country a master mind. If, how- ever, Jesus had considered it beyond his power to climb like Hillel to the presidency, or had resolved to conduct his reforming mission independently and not in any way acknowledge the authority of the Sanhedrin, it would have been incumbent on him as a true teacher to keep away altogether fr,om tlie Temple and not even visit Jerusalem. He 96 THE KEAL JESUS. should have taken up such a position as was held in his day by many good Jews of the Dispersion, and established a reforming synagogue in Galilee or elsewhere. Thus he might have quietly gathered about him a few enlightened and sympathetic countrymen, and proceeded to admit Gentiles into communion on the condition of their living worthily and acknowledging the fundamental principles of the Law. Such a course would not have involved him in any strife with the Judean rulers ; he would have held as strictly aloof from them as from the Alexandrian and Babylonian authorities, and his reformation might have advanced peacefully from Asia to Europe on its own intrinsic merits and gradually overspread the world. 6. It is well known, however, that Jesus did not call in question the authority of the Sanhedrin nor that of the sacred writings in their custody; he admitted that the seventy elders were the rightful rulers of the Jewish church, yet, instead of working as a reformer in accord with them that they might be led to discharge their duties more worthily, he studiously sought to discredit them in the eyes of the country, and provoke their hostility. He chose from among his humble followers a rival Sanhedrin, which was just as much an act of deliberate revolt as we should consider any attempt of disaffected politicians to set up here in England a rival Parliament. In taking this unconstitu- tional course he was simply treading in the steps of Jeroboam and others, bidding absolute defiance to those who legitimately ruled from the seat of David and creating a new division in Israel. When the Zealots and Idumeans made a sanguinary insurrection in Jerusalem during Vespasian's war, they established there in like manner a fictitious Sanhedrin for the purpose of competing with the HIS REFORMATION CLAIMS. 97 Temple rulers, and giving to their lawless proceed- ings a colour of authority. Although Jesus never incited the populace to acts of open violence, nor could do so consistently with his Essene doctrines, he breathed all along a spirit of implacable sedition, and made it clear that he was no friend of those on whom devolved the duty of maintaining order in the Jewish community. It could not be lawful nor advantageous to have two Seventies in Judea at the same time in direct opposition to one another ; the institution of a rival state council, however humble in form, must necessarily tend in some degree to weaken respect for government and generate in a society already much divided further confusion. There might, have been a great want of reformation in high places as everywhere else, and a prophet endowed with power and wisdom would have acted as another Moses, and so purified the venerable hierarchy descended from him as to gradually regenerate the nation. Jesus took a directly opposite course : failing to influence in the slightest degree his more intelligent and thoughtful countrymen, he appealed as their opponent to the weak credulous multitude; and one who in this way rouses popular passions and turns the ignorant tail of a community against its direct- ing head, is not a reformer but a revolutionist. 7. Jesus has often been held up before the world as a great religious reformer from the circumstance of his being to some extent an anti-ritualist, as was still more the case with St. Paul. But Jesus and Paul were bo thin a very different positionfrom that of Hillel; they were simply sectarians drafting away from the body of the nation, a small number of kindred spirits. They were no better qualified to reform the Mosaic economy or reduce the regulations which had been introduced from time to time in the Jewish Church than the members of a small Quaker or H 98 THE EEAL JESUS. Moravian colony are competent to frame a new code to supersede the complicated laws of England. The leader of a new enthusiastic sect, the members of which are all of one mind, may easily rebuke the formalism which he sees in an old complex com- munity, as Jesus is said to have done on several occasions, without being himself a genuine reformer or even manifesting much spiritual discernment. A national church, embracing all sorts and conditions of men, is very much like an army of similar cha- racter; its members can only be held together and got to maintain concerted action by strict disciplinary arrangements. Any one who directs his attention for the first time to military economy, will be struck with the vast amount of drill that is required to harmonize a mass of armed men and keep them in a state of permanent efficiency. Only let the dis- cipline get relaxed for awhile and the army will become a confused multitude and be utterly unfitted to take the field. But where a small body of volun- teer fighters are banded together by a common enthusiasm, as in the case of the Graribaldians in Italy and the Boers in South Africa, discipline is of comparatively little importance. Such rough and ready combatants know each others' minds and are so earnestly bent on attaining the object which they have in view, that they can dispense with constant drill, and the banners, music, pomp, and parade introduced to foster a military spirit on a large scale are for them unnecessary. In like manner the band of enthusiastic brethren, the people of one sort com- posing a new sect, will discard forms and ceremonies as useless, and despise the ritualism which priests maintain in older religious communities. It is well known that both in an army and in a church dis- ciplinary regulations may be too strongly enforced ; they may be so much insisted on that instead of being regarded as simply a means to an end, they HIS REFORMATION CLAIMS. 99 shall be looked upon as the end itself, the very essence of duty, by weak superstitious minds. And this was undoubtedly a special fault of a large portion of the sect of" Pharisees, but Jesus, who censured them from want of sympathy, did not enlighten them at all or take such wise steps as were calculated to promote their reform. 8. The ceremonies of public worship might be called the language of signs as distinguished from the language of words : they express the worshippers' meaning in a beautiful symbolic form, and if well chosen are very impressive. They may occasionally become obsolete just as words do, when the spirit or purpose which they were originally intended to express no longer exists or is expressed in other ways more correctly. Some Jewish observances were meant to impress the minds of rude people strongly with a love of purity and a loathing of all filth and defilement, and though outward cleanliness may not cleanse the heart, it is a manifest help in that direction. Other rites served the purpose of reminders, they put people in remembrance of the commands which they had received and thus helped to keep them faithful to their religious profession. A similiar kind of institution is the widely preva- lent marriage custom of wearing a ring, which is kept up both by Christians and Jews. The wedding-ring is intended not merely to distinguish the married woman, but to be a token of constancy which shall remind her of her vows and strengthen her determination to keep them. It is true that there are women whose virtue is so robust that they do not require any suggestive emblem to aid in its conservation, while others are so frail or corrupt that no external device will sustain them in the hour of temptation, yet few would think of arguing in consequence that ring-wearing is a useless form. If it can be shown that it tends on H 2 100 THE KEAL JESUS. the whole to give people a stronger impression of the sanctity of marriage and is in a majority of cases of real efficacy in preventing a breach of its obligations, whether it is kept up or discontinued will not be a matter of indifference. Circumcision and the wearing of phylacteries have been often enough condemned, because it has been observed that many have not profited by these outward reminders and become inwardly pure. Too much importance has generally been attached to them : the Jewish church has long maintained them as helps to religion, but has not pretended that they were religion itself. Rabbi Lipman testifies, " A certain Christian mocked us, saying, ' Women who cannot be circumcised cannot be reckoned among Jews ! 3 Such persons are ignorant that religion does not consist in circumcision, but in the heart. He who has not true religion is not a partaker of the Jewish circumcision; but he who has true religion is a Jew, although not circumcised " ('< Nizzachon," Num. 21, p. 39). ^ 9. The going through certain prescribed re- ligious forms without feeling the spirit which they are intended to arouse is not necessarily hypocrisy. Little children who are taught to pray, both in Jewish and Christian families, repeat their petitions mechanically or by rote for awhile as mere formalists, without knowing the sense of the words they utter, and are not on that account subjected to reproach. The great mass of people are scarcely better than children in religious development, and require a similar treatment; they are not expected to enter very heartily into the devotional instruction provided for them, and must be formal before they can be spiritual. It is a great thing if a rude population can be brought to respect public worship and so far master their animal propensities as to be outwardly religious; HIS REFORMATION CLAIMS. 10 1 those who have made this creditable advance may be expected to go further with good teaching and guidance, so as to reach at length the requirements of a righteous life. Jesus, therefore, might have reasonably stimulated any dull apathetic wor- shippers that he beheld and assured them that, unless they acquired through their religious exercises self-mastery and a real love of God and their fellow-men, their rigorous performance at appointed seasons would be labour expended in vain. But he had no patience with people whose outward religious demonstrations did not accord with their inmost thoughts ; he seemed to regard all such as conscious deceivers endeavouring to obtain credit for what was not in their hearts, and his objurgations were rather calculated to wound and irritate formalists than to quicken their conscience and help them to the attainment of true spiritual religion. 10. We all like a person of honest and frank behaviour, one who is accustomed to say just what he means, and we detest the flatterer or pretender who misleads us through his outward professions being at variance with his inmost thoughts and designs. But when the words and acts of a formalist are not in accord with his real sentiments, it is not from any deliberate intention to deceive us, and it is seldom that he does deceive any but the simplest and shallowest observers of the ways of humankind. If, for instance, a neighbour is formally polite to us, knowing that it is is quite possible for a bad feeling to lurk under a courteous exterior, we accept his proffered civilities for what they are worth, and are not imposed upon and misled by them in the slightest degree. But George Fox, the founder of the Quaker community, and one of the most genuine followers of Jesus, made no distinction between a formal manifest OP TH UNIVERSITY 102 THE REAL JESUS. courtesy, and hypocrisy ; and, in his eccentric advocacy of a frank and honest deportment, thought it desirable to get rid of all the polite usages of good society. No man with a fair knowledge of the world can doubt for a moment the value of these regulation manners as a means of refining rude people, softening their asperities, and enabling them as neighbours to get on with less friction and strife. If they are not always accompanied by a humble, respectful, and obliging disposition, they make it clear that such a spirit is considered worthy of imitation, and to some extent encourage its attainment. To entirely discard them, therefore, and make people more churlish, rude, and uncouth, in order that their behaviour should be more genuine, so far from conducing to the improvement of society, would only be a step backward in the direction of barbarism. The same objection may be fairly urged against the total abolition of religious forms with the view to expose the short- comings of a large class of worshippers ; if such a sweeping change could be accomplished, it would only have the effect of seriously interrupting the religious education of mankind. 11. If men were all equally virtuous, intelligent, and devout, if the world were wholly peopled with saints, they would thoroughly understand each other, would say and do spontaneously the right thing at the right time, and laws, rules, and forms of procedure for their guidance would be wholly unnecessary. This was just such a harmonious world as Jesus and his communistic followers were constantly dreaming of and hoping to find in their forthcoming Millennium. To govern and help on a large complex community in different stages of religious progress was a task quite unintelligible to them : it was only people of their own sort that they knew well how to deal with ; they were not HIS REFORMATION CLAIMS. 103 educationists, but perfectionists. Had they been placed in the position of Moses, instead of framiDg suitable laws and regulations to bind all classes together and contribute *to their gradual elevation and enlightenment, they would have picked out a few congenial spirits as being alone worthy of fellow- ship, and would have condemned all the rest to everlasting perdition. Before the commencement of their itinerant ministrations, neither Jesus nor Paul had held any public office or acted in a governing and directing capacity ; they had not even had domestic servants under them, nor the care of a young family, and so were utterly un- conversant and unsympathetic with -the means which are found requisite for maintaining order in a mixed community. It was easy enough for them to wander from place to place and disburden their thoughts for an hour or so to any idle crowd that happened to collect in the streets, but they could not at the end of the discourse have followed those hearers with authority and got them to live methodically and peacefully in their respective homes. Had they been called upon as rulers or magistrates to mediate between opposing factions, to settle the contentions arising among families, or restore a disturbed village to harmony, they would have proved in such a judicial position altogether useless to society. 12. If the early Christians had established some- where an independent colony, they might well have dispensed with most of the disciplinary regulations of the Jewish law, but it was not wise or safe to do so when they spread themselves abroad in every direction to effect the conversion of the Gentile world. Jewish rabbis, while admitting that their system of ritual wants reforming from time to time, have always valued it as a protective hedge of thorns which has checked hasty and inconsiderate 104 THE REAL JESUS. proselytism, and so helped to keep their religion from corruption. But Paul and those whom he led were desirous of making accession to the Church as easy as possible., that they might thus secure a more rapid increase. They were not at all scrupulous as to whom they admitted into their body nor careful to subject those attracted towards them to a long course of probationary discipline as was done by the Essenes. The miraculous virtue imparted by baptism and the laying on of hands was supposed to be all that was needed to regenerate the convert and transform his whole character and habits of life. Consequently, what they effected by wandering about the world excitedly preaching and baptizing with water was for the most part a mere surface conversion. By the end of the first century a multitude of people of various races, sects, and schools of thought professed themselves Christians by believing in Jesus, but their religious sentiments were of quite a different complexion from those of the primitive disciples. During the second century some of the most zealous and influential Christians had been brought up as Stoics, Platonists, and Pythagoreans, and they all imparted to the com- munity more or less of their educational bias, so that the Church which commenced in Galilee as a simple homogeneous brotherhood became a Babel of sects. The ablest minds, who wished to establish some bond of unity and concord between these divided worshippers, knew that it could only be brought about by a representative council, and as- semblies of this kind were therefore convened from time to time to settle the principal matters in dispute and decide on authoritative writings. Various com- promises of Jew and Gentile doctrine were thus effected; but at each succeeding council the Gentile element had with further propagandism increased in strength, and the majority of voices HIS REFORMATION CLAIMS. 105 carried Christianity a step farther off from the primitive faith and practice of the Galileans. When established at length by Constantino as the religion of the Roman Empire, the Church had by the final triumph of its proselytism become a monstrous growth that would have been quite un- recognizable by the little society of kindred minds with whom it originated : it was no longer a religious sheepfold, but a huge menagerie, containing such a variety of species that the primitive gregarian arrangement was wholly inadequate to bring them to live together in tolerable harmony. Jesus desired his disciples to associate as a communistic brotherhood and "call no man master/' but the time at length came when, having revolted against all other authorities, the once simple community became so complex that they required a High Priest of their own, together with a Caesar, to balance and reconcile their party differences. In short, to settle all the rancorous disputes that were continually breaking out, and hold the European, Asiatic, and African churches together in some kind of doctrinal agreement, it was necessary to have a supreme judge or final court of appeal established somewhere, and a Papacy or monarchical form of church government became inevitable. 13. Had the conversion of the Gentile world and the consequent growth of the Church from a simple religious brotherhood to a great complex community been actually contemplated and designed by Jesus, he would have provided for such a mighty develop- ment in the institutions which he gave his disciples. Seeing what was in the distant future, he would have told them plainly that, so long as they were a small company of sympathetic friends, they could dispense with observances and would hardly require to be bound by any system of government. But when once they should become diversified with 106 THE EEAL JESUS. continual increase and consist of many families old and young, learned and ignorant, rich and poor, all sorts and conditions of people sucli as are gathered in a great city he would have assured them that they would find it necessary to do as other citizens, to have capable rulers for the settling of strife and arrangements for holding their widely-dispersed communities together in harmony. If the leading Christians of the second and third centuries could have found a passage to this effect in any of the generally recognized authoritative discourses of Jesus, they would have deemed the- instruction invaluable, and it would have afforded them a most convincing proof of their master's wonderful sagacity and foresight. But the Gospels, which were then widely accepted in the Church, contained no such text, and it was too late to improve them by interpolations which should supply the defect. Consequently the most able and influential ecclesi* astics were compelled to do many things without authority ; they could only modify their institutions from time to time as circumstances called for it by disregarding the Gospels and acting entirely on their own discretion. But thoughtful Christians, unweighted with government responsibility, soon perceived that these new arrangements were totally at variance with the communistic teaching of Jesus. The changes of polity introduced by learned bishops were in their eyes not necessary developments, but corruptions, and thus arose the succession of revolutionary sects that disturbed the peace of the Church by agitating for the restoration of primitive Christianity. Jesus commenced his religious mission as an opponent of ecclesiastical rule, as a revolter against the Mosaic hierarchy, and did not see that he was thus creating a precedent for future revolts which should tear his own community to pieces with intermin- HIS BEFOEMATION CLAIMS. 107 able strife when once it should reach a complex development. 14. Every great religious reformation is said to have its birth in a reformer's prophetic mind ; some gifted individual more thoughtful and wise than his fellows sees the need of making salutary changes in the established system, and induces others to see it, and so they march steadily towards the realization of their views. But it is clear that the general renunciation of Jewish observances from the first to the fourth century and the sub- stitution of other observances in the Christian Church were not in the mind of Jesus ; the grow- ing community that professed to follow him drifted into these changes as occasion arose, and did not adopt them in consequence of his authoritative direction. "We might take as one palpable instance of this, the gradual neglect of the Jewish Sabbath, and the appointment in its stead of what Christians called the Lord's Day for the purpose of public worship and rest. Jesus never once hinted at such an alteration ; he declared that it was quite lawful on the Sabbath to attend to any urgent business that would not admit of postponement ; he showed, both by his teaching and acts, that he was not, like many Jews of that period, a Sabbatarian slave. This was the liberal doctrine and practice of the school of Hillel, and had he as well as Hillel con- tinued a loyal member of the Jewish Church, his followers would not have been likely to make any needless departure from the Mosaic economy. But his revolt against the Sanhedrin, coupled with his anti-ritualistic leaning, led others to suppose that he was aiming at the entire abrogation of the Law. Paul reproved the Galatians for observing sabbaths and festivals, and told the Colossians to let no man judge them for the non-observance of the Sabbath. Laxity in this matter must have been very common 108 THE REAL JESCS. with the scattered Gentile Christians whom he visited, and the need of a regular sabbath was not generally felt till long after, when the Church was better organized and Christianity had become the established religion of the empire. Then, as some Christians consistently kept the seventh day and others the first, or rested equally on both, the bishops under Constantine decided, for the sake of distinction, to leave the ancient usage to the uncon- verted Jews, and render the observance of the Lord's Day universal. The breach which already existed between Christianity and Judaism was thus needlessly widened ; and although one day might be considered as good as another for rest and worship, the institution of a rival sabbath was a revolutionary change, and could in no sense be considered a reform. 15. The early Christians drifted into some bene- ficial changes, such as the neglect of circumcision and the dietary laws, but they did nothing towards purging the Church of Israel from its Babylonian corruption, and promoting other much needed reforms. There had long been growing in the minds of the more enlightened and thoughtful Jews a wholesome distrust of the practice of offering sacrifices as a means of purchasing for- giveness of sins. It was felt that many people were thereby rather encouraged to continue in their evil ways than prompted to study right conduct, and set about earnestly to lead an amended. life. " To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices ? Bring no more vain oblations. Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings" (Isaiah, i. 11-16). "Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousand rivers of oil ? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ? He hath showed thee, man, what HIS REFORMATION CLAIMS. 109 is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" (Micah, vi. 7-8). It does not appear that Jesus caught this purer spirit which had manifested itself in the nation or said anything to the same purpose; he required his followers to offer sacrifices, with sincere repentance for what they had done amiss (Matt. v. 23, 24), which the priests also enjoined (Lev. v. 5), but did not show that repentance might become effectual without sacrifices. A real Jewish reformer, who rejected the authority of the Sanhedrin, should have kept away altogether from the sacrificial services of the Temple, and directed his utmost efforts towards increasing the congregations and advancing the purer worship of the synagogues. 16. It must be borne in mind that the Jews who returned from Babylon in successive migrations under the direction of Zerubbabel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and others, had no claim whatever to represent united Israel; they were only a poor fragment of the dispersed people the sect of Restorationists. Nor could they, any more than modern Palestine colonists, be justly considered an enlightened or God-guided minority chosen for their superior character to act as exemplars and work out the redemption of the whole race. The immense influence which they exerted over their dispersed brethren was due not to their virtues or intelligence, but to the commanding position which they held as inhabitants of the Holy Land. There was much truth in an old rabbinical saying once current in Chaldea and other parts of the East, that <( the chaff of the nation had returned to Palestine while the corn remained in Babylon/' Not only on the Euphrates, but in Egypt and elsewhere, the more sensible of the Dispersionist community seem to have regarded those who went back to the old 110 THE REAL JESUS. liorne distrustfully as priest-led visionaries in pur- suit of objects which were wholly unattainable. They could not restore the deposed royal family, they could not restore the lost ark and its sacred treasures, they could not restore their lost brethren without supernatural aid, and as such assistance was not forthcoming to make the work complete, a fragmentary restoration should not have been attempted at all. There was not the slightest propect before them of regaining their ancient national independence in Palestine; they simply migrated from one Persian province to another and remained in a tributary condition. To bring back in accordance with their dreams the dispersed twelve tribes to the respective territories occupied by their ancestors it would have been necessary to buy out the numerous Gentile families who had flown in and settled there, or otherwise expel them by force, and they were quite unable to do either. At the same time they assumed a jealous irrecon- cilable attitude towards those joint occupants of the country, which rendered future complications and wars inevitable. The exclusive disposition which they manifested in carrying on the restoration of the Temple, was very unlike the large-hearted, charitable spirit in which it was originally erected by Solomon; they scornfully refused the offer of assistance from the neighbouring Samaritans, and would have been well pleased to destroy every other temple in the world to its last stone. A more bigoted and intolerant community than these priest-led people never existed, and it was not progress that they aimed at, but retrogression towards ancestral conditions and usages. The reputed holiness of Jerusalem did not in any respect improve the character of the inhabitants, and considering the pride, hatred, and jealousy which centred there, and the fratricidal blood which HIS REFORMATION CLAIMS. Ill was often shed in the vicinity of the sacrificial services, it might well have been said by those Israelites who were content to pray and hear instruction in their quiet "synagogues, " the nearer the Temple the further from God." 17. The Restorationists professed to be very zealous in purifying the land from idolatry, that is, in reforming people from the superstition of honour- ing unduly the work of men's hands so as to become spiritually blinded in conducting their worship and altogether forgetful of the Most High. But it was only against honour given to images or representations of living things that they stub- bornly contended as being very prejudicial to religion. It never occurred to them that the work of an architect may become just as much an object of idolatrous homage as the production of a painter or a sculptor. Some of the world's renowned temples have been frequently venerated to excess, as well as the sacred emblems and relics contained within them, and this was especially the case with the restored sanctuary at Jerusalem. In an age when superstition was rampant under many forms, this building which attracted from afar immense crowds of people had become the idol of idols, yet those who bowed before it were so much afraid of giving honour to images, that they entirely pro- hibited the making of such things even for the innocent purposes of ornament. What was still worse, they could not be got to tolerate Greek and Roman sculpture, and from provocations thus arising, fanatical outbreaks attended with blood- shed were in some parts of Palestine of frequent occurrence. Even the ensigns, which were borne by the Roman legions, they resolved to expel from their country at any cost as a terrible pollution, although they could not resist the legions them- selves, and this iconophobia probably did as much 112 THE REAL JESUS. as anything to precipitate the final ruinous conflict with the forces of Vespasian. There was great need for a reformer to arise and tell the people that they were polluted by their own iniquities; and not by any customs and emblems which the conquerors had introduced without their consent, and further that the prejudice against images did not exist when the first Temple was built, and had formed no part of their primitive religion. They certainly failed to receive any instruction to this effect from the prophet of Nazareth or from those who became his disciples. The early Christians entertained just as strong an aversion to painting and sculpture as any of the Restorationist Jews ; such productions of genius as are now treasured in the galleries of Europe for universal admiration, were in their eyes heathen abominations hurtful to look upon, and having no right to exist. For the want of proper authorita- tive instruction on the use and abuse of works of art the expanding Church not only committed great injustice against pagans, but became eventually divided and distracted itself, one party persisting in a course of barbarous iconoclasm, while another fell into a more or less debasing idolatry. 18. The Jews who returned from Babylon corrupted the religion of Israel with many Persian arid Chaldean fables, especially with the doctrine of the Evil Spirit and the entire mythological system of Diabolism. So far from Jesus perceiving this serious lapse into error that had taken place, and doing all he could to correct and reform his country- men, he only helped to lead them further astray ; the religion which he taught was an outgrowth of the prevalent Chaldean corruption. An en- lightened Israelite would have told his brethren that God ruled uninterruptedly in heaven and earth, and that whatever evils befel them were wholesome corrections for what they had failed to HIS REFOEMATION CLAIMS. 113 do or had else done amiss in order to promote their amendment. This overruling of divine justice in the constitution of nature and the affairs of men was unintelligible to Jesus ; he imagined that diseases, accidents, and other ills, were caused by malignant demons that wandered about the world, or by the machinations of witchcraft. Satan, the Ahriman of the Persians, was supposed to be every- where busy with his subject spirits, concocting mischief, and ignorant, vicious, and negligent people were thus furnished with a ready means of accounting for their troubles and adversities, and putting away blame in the matter from themselves. A notion also grew up among such people that they were entitled to receive for their various ills and misfortunes compensation in the future life : it was thought that in the great world-struggle then raging God would eventually overcome Satan and proceed to indemnify his saints for all the harm and loss inflicted on them by the great spiritual enemy. Hence, too, arose the insane idea of asceticism, that it is advantageous for people to court persecution, to expose themselves as much as possible to Satan's attacks, and suffer the utmost misery and wrong in the present life in order to be entitled to a proportionately large amends in the life to come. Nothing ever contributed more effectively than this pernicious superstition to warp the moral judgment of mankind and set up a false standard of righteousness. It tended, moreover, beyond anything else, to harden and exaggerate human differences, to separate the members of a community into what were supposed to be the perfectly good, and the entirely bad; people believed that those who opposed them were not simply erring brothers who might presently be enlightened and reconciled, but men under Satan's influence delighting in every conceivable 114 THE REAL JESUS. wickedness and doomed to suffer everlastingly in Hell. 19. One of the most heathenish and hurtful pro- pensities that the Jews acquired during their sojourn in Babylon was the craving for supernatural fore- knowledge ; the disposition to go beyond the limits of human calculation in anticipating future events. They were perhaps not entirely free from this weak- ness at any period of their history, for every ancient nation was more or less infected with it, and it seems to have been a superstition inherent in the whole race of mankind. But after their contact with the astrologers, diviners, and soothsayers who abounded in Chaldea, they certainly became more addicted to unreasonable attempts at reading their destiny than their forefathers had ever been prior to the Captivity. Their very circumstances as an exiled people, coupled with the recollections of their past history, would naturally dispose them strongly to look into the future for the opening of brighter prospects and the chance of recovering their lost national inheritance. But whether individuals or communities take to consulting oracles and anticipating the fortune that is supposed to await them, wholly irrespective of their present conduct and exertions, it is not likely to conduce to their real welfare. Why did the Restorationists, who returned to Palestine, persist so long in attempting to reconstruct their broken nation, and after all fail ? Or rather why were they not as successful as the wisest of their race had been at an earlier period in establishing an independent dominion ? One reason of course is, that they had to compete with far more powerful Gentile neighbours than the Philistines and other border communities who with- stood the founders of the ancient monarchy. But a more especial reason is, that they consulted vacticinators, had always before them an impossible HIS REFORMATION CLAIMS. 115 programme to fulfil, and did not survey wisely the situation presented to them, and take this or that course for the advancement of their interests accord- ing to the turn of circumstances. David and Solomon were sagacious rulers, who engaged in a great enterprise when they saw that it was practi- cable and opportune, and not from its being pre- dicted that such things should come to pass, or in consequence of something similar being done by their ancestors long before when in a totally different position. Had they been influenced by such superstitions as these, and induced to commit themselves to undertakings so utterly dispro- portioned to their powers that miraculous aid must be considered indispensable to success, they, too, instead of prospering, would have experienced a long succession of sorrows and reverses. 20. The natural foreknowledge which sagacious people displayed in a rude unscientific age was invariably looked upon as supernatural and of un- limited extent by the more simple and credulous portion of the community. When a person by careful observation managed to foretell correctly a change of weather, or the course which a malady would take, or the result of an impending war, it did not strike the ignorant that such prevision was within the reach of all who would make a like diligent use of their opportunities and powers : they esteemed it, as they esteemed any other superior knowledge, or skill, a gift or favour divinely con- ferred on here and there an individual, and by ordinary mortals wholly unattainable. This super- stition was readily taken advantage of by a class ot pretentious people who engaged in every conceiv- able form of empirical vaticination, and claimed to be able to reveal fully all things of importance which were marked out to occur in the fortunes of men and the fates of empires. The failures of these i 2 116 THE REAL JESUS. professional readers of destiny were soon forgotten, while their occasional successes were considerably magnified, and in one way and another they grew into such universal repute that monarchs and other persons of the highest rank were disposed to consult them in every important crisis of their affairs. A little more reflection might have convinced such people that the conferring of prophetic favours which seemed so desirable in their eyes would not really be conducive to human welfare. Those who want superior knowledge or special information of any kind, that they may see as prophets further than their fellows in this or that direction, must earn it by diligent study ; it is utter folly to expect to obtain it gratuitously. There is no royal road to effecting new discoveries and foretelling events any more than there is to the acquisition of ordinary school learning. The idle scholar who clandestinely obtains help in the work- ing of his exercises and the solution of his problems, so far from being benefited by such favours, will only suffer loss in the end, since he will fail to effect the strengthening and development of his mental powers, which is the chief purpose of educa- tion. Every human learner, every student in the world's great university, would suffer in precisely the same way, if he were favoured with divine intimations about hidden things and forthcoming events which would save him from the usual course of persistent application and inquiry that is needed to procure enlightenment. 21. When we say that God rules the world, it does not imply that all human actions are divinely planned and prearranged as in a drama, so that every individual is bound to take a certain pre- scribed course. And even if the succession of events which are to make history were preordained it could serve no good moral purpose to have them HIS EEFOKMATION CLAIMS. 117 beforehand revealed. If the world's future could be clearly mapped out under the observation of mankind, they would not really become wiser in consequence, but wouldrather be preventedfrom acquiring wisdom, since they would no longer have any scope for the exercise of their reflecting powers in the calcula- tion of probabilities. Their minds, too, would be so much taken up with the contemplation of a vast series of future events, that they would be unable to concentrate sufficient attention on the business immediately before them. An individual grappling resolutely with new circumstances as they arise from day to day might be not unaptly compared with a chess-player, who, whether he makes good moves or bad moves, is pretty sure to profit from the experience thus acquired and grow wiser as the game proceeds. But imagine a game of chess to be played in which the moves on each side should be all prearranged and written down consecutively for the players, there would in such case be no need for the continual exercise of their judgment, and the whole affair from beginning to end would be an idle mechanical exhibition. Those who believe in predestination and desire to have the future revealed would convert into just such a puerile stage performance the whole economy of human life ; people would thus move as determined on in the manner of puppets ; wise reflection would be no longer wanted in the ordering of their affairs, and they would be entirely freed from moral responsi- bility. 22. What has been the actual moral result of consulting oracles and believing in predictions of future events? what solid advantage have mankind ever gained by seeking to have their destiny miraculously revealed ? A sensible person in deciding as to what course he shall take in any given circumstance, endeavours to keep his mind 118 THE REAL JESUS. as free and unprejudiced as possible, but a belief in vaticination inclines people one way more than another, or puts them under a strong bias which diminishes their scope of doing what will be for the best. The cultivator of the soil, who is guided in his operations from week to week by the weather predictions of an almanac, will not be found a model agriculturist. Superstitious peasants in this country, when in any doubt as to what they should do, occasionally resort to divination ; they suspend a Bible from their door-key, and watch the direc- tion in which it turns, or they open the sacred volume hap-hazard and place their finger un- wittingly on a certain text, which if rightly in- terpreted is supposed to indicate their true course. Such expedients, like the casting of lots or the toss- up of a coin, enable the indolent and credulous to shirk the responsibility of making a proper use of their reflective powers, and commit them to a chance decision. Then, if they take some unwise step and suffer in consequence, instead of resolving to profit from their errors and act with more discre- tion in future, they console themselves with the thought that it was predestined that they should do what has been done, and there is no help for it. Many a person, from trusting to some flattering prediction of future prosperity, has failed to make the most of the opportunities presented to him for gradually ameliorating his lot, and has been reduced at length to a condition of beggary. Even those oracular assurances of success, which in all ages have been so much valued by politicians and military commanders as tending to inspire con- fidence and thus fulfil themselves, have not un- f requently made people neglectful in their prepara- tions, or given rise to a spirit of headlong rashness which had ended in overwhelming defeat. 23. Those who have observed the pernicious HIS REFORMATION CLAIMS. 119 influence which the habit of seeking supernatural foreknowledge has had on mankind in general, may form a very good idea of its effect on the Jews of Palestine during that long struggle to recover their former glory when they were under a complete vaticination craze. The Eestorationist propliets, only a portion of whose utterances are embalmed in Scripture, did good service so long as they simply rebuked the corrupt tendencies of their age and admonished the people to turn from their iniquities. When, however, they no longer bore witness against the prevalent demoralization, and, yielding to the popular demand for political fortune-telling, pre- dicted the doom of Tyre, Damascus, Egypt, and other countries, they spoke presumptuously, deceiving themselves and the sympathetic crowd. Moses, if correctly reported, very clearly taught his brethren to be guided at all times by religious principles and not to be ruled by predictions. To prevent the people from being influenced one way or another by hearing it said that such and such things were to happen, he enjoined them to wait awhile, and leave the value of predictions to be decided by events (Deut. xviii. 21). He further told them that even in the case of prophetic signs being given which should actually be fulfilled, they should not allow such fulfilments to govern their conduct or lead them away from their religion (xiii. 1-3). Another wise teacher of Israel said, " Whoso re- gardeth dreams is like him that catcheth at a shadow and followeth after the wind. The vision of dreams is the resemblance of one thing to another, even as the likeness of a face to a face. Of an unclean thing what can be cleansed ? and from that which is false what truth can come ? Divinations and soothsayings and dreams are vain, and the heart fancieth as a woman's heart in travail" (Ecclus, xxxiv. 2-5). 24. During the whole Restoration period there 120 THE REAL JESUS. were probably always some few sensible Jews wlio gave no heed to soothsaying and considered follies of that kind inconsistent with the fundamental truths of their religion, but they had not sufficient influence to enlighten and reform their more credu- lous countrymen. Plenty of vaticinators stood ready to pander to the popular craving for a know- ledge of the nation's future, nor was the superstition checked in any degree by the continual failure of predictions. It was in vain that this rule had been given for general guidance, " if the thing follow not nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken," for the priests as well as the people had come to regard certain treasured prophecies as the infallible word of God, whether they were fulfilled or not. From the record of what was supposed to have been spoken to Nathan, " I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever" (2 Sam. vii. 13), they seem to have been under the impression that God was pledged in a manner to perpetuate the dominion of David whatever might be the conduct of his posterity or that of their subject people. And some devout Jews, in their fervent outpourings, instead of blaming the pre- sumptuousness of prophetic writers and showing how they were confuted by the course of events, felt inclined to half remonstrate with the Eternal for having, as they thought, neglected to keep his word. Thus the author of Psalm Ixxxix. (probably Mac- cabean, and written evidently at a time when the struggling people were depressed by defeat) says, " My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my mouth. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. But thou hast cast off and abhorred, thou hast been wroth HIS EEFOEMATION CLAIMS. 121 with, thine anointed. Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant: thou hast profaned his crown by casting it to the ground. Thou hast broken down all his hedges, thou hast brought his strongholds to ruin. All that pass by spoil hirn : he is a reproach to his neighbours. Thou hast set up the right hand of his adversaries; thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice. Thou hast also turned the edge of his sword, and hast not made him to stand in battle. Thou hast made his glory to cease and cast his throne down to the ground" (35-44). 25. The difficulty experienced by pious Eestora- tionists with respect to the non-fulfilment of pre- dictions was in the course of time inefc in quite another way. It was still imagined that there could be no error or miscalculation on the part of the prophetic writer ; his inspired word could not fail under any circumstance, but those who read it might not be able to rightly comprehend its meaning. Where predictions seemed to be unfulfilled or contradicted by the course of events, they were supposed to have a mysterious spiritual significance which could only be expounded by the gifted and wise. There accordingly arose a school of mys- tical interpreters, the precursors of the Kabbalists, who engaged in a kind of Scriptural divination, and established fanciful rules for extracting the deep spiritual sense which was supposed to be hidden in every portion of the sacred records. Some of the prophets had spoken in hyperbolical language of terrible divine judgments which were to fall on the Gentile nations, and these predictions were believed at length to foreshadow an approaching general destruction of the world. It was further imagined that the restoration of the Twelve Tribes, which had been repeatedly foretold, would be fulfilled eventually, not in Palestine, but by the establishment of an everlasting Kingdom of Heaven. 122 THE REAL JESUS. As the author of Psalm xc. had said that a thousand years were only as one day to the Eternal, it was supposed that a prophetic day signified mystically a thousand years, and since the world, according to Jewish tradition, was created in six days, which were followed by a sabbath, so it was expected to endure just six thousand years, when there would succeed a sabbatical thousand, or what is commonly called the Millennium. 26. During the intense excitement of the Maccabean struggles another class of visionaries arose, who did not confine themselves to the interpretation of what had been written long before, but took the bolder course of writing mystical revelations of their own and passing them off as the productions of an earlier age. By far the most important of these in respect to the credit which they obtained and the influence which they exerted in the world, were the Book of Enoch and the Book of Daniel, which last even got to be admitted into the Hebrew canon. In both theso Apocalyptic writings are predicted certain approach- ing supernatural events which many Jews of the Maccabean period were disposed to believe, namely, the impending destruction of the world, a general resurrection and judgment of the dead, and the establishment of the saints of Israel in an everlasting celestial kingdom. Concurrently with these views the ascetic delusion was making great progress among the people, as it seemed to accord well with their reverses of fortune and long succession of national calamities. It was thought especially meritorious to undergo hardship and wrong as the surest means of obtaining a future recompense : a life of much suffering in the present world was believed to furnish the best title to a blissful existence in the world to come. But if unjust treatment was necessary to prove the elect of HIS REFORMATION CLAIMS. 123 Israel and fit them for their everlasting reward, not only must each individual saint submit to this ordeal, but even the anointed ruler could not be exempted from it, any m&re than the heir of David could escape the humiliation that fell on his subjects during the Captivity. Thus there was forced on the minds of those Jews, who were under the influence of the ascetic mania, the notion of a Suffering Messiah coming to gather and organize the saints of his kingdom prior to the impending destruction of the world, and they studied the sacred writings carefully with the view to find there a confirmation of their theory. 27. While the Restorationists were thus domi- nated by the vaticination mania, ever thinking of a glorious national future, and endeavouring to do all the unreasonable things which has been by wild dreamers predicted, the Dispersionist communities were for the most part free from their delusion and in a much more healthy moral condition. They fell under Palestinian influence eventually, and accepted the prophets of the Maccabean Canon as inspired writers for their authoritative guidance, but they were better guided by their own synagogue teachers, when they simply discharged their moral obligations from day to day free from all prophetic bias. Had then Jesus of Nazareth really been a great religious reformer, he would have set himself strongly against the Restoration movement as a radical error, would have denounced the whole line of vaticinators as misleaders of the people, and by travelling to Egypt, Babylon, Antioch, and other places, would have endeavoured to establish some bond of union between the uncorrupted Disper- sionists. He would have taught the people to renounce the soothsaying folly entirely, to let the future alone and care for the present, which was clearly revealed, to go about their duty from day to 124 THE EEAL JESUS. day as good Israelites, having peace among them- selves and no quarrel with the neighbouring Gentiles, since the country which God had now given them to dwell in was not only Palestine but the wide world. A council of the wisest teachers in Israel would have been duly convened by him, and they together would have purified the Law from priestly corruption and effected a thorough revision of the sacred writings, taking care that every synagogue should be supplied in good time with a copy of their work : there would thus have been accomplished a fundamental religious reform of inestimable value both for Jews and Gentiles. 28. It does not appear, however, that Jesus had the slightest intercourse with the dispersed synagogues, either by letter or otherwise, and it is clear that he was entirely carried away by the vaticination delusions of the Judean community. The Restorationists were morally injured from the belief that their destiny was revealed and that they were bound to adhere to an inflexible programme, and any one presuming to act as their predicted leader must have been from the same cause especially perverted. Jesus, the Suffering Messiah, threw himself as a fatalist into collision with his countrymen, just as they, the suffering nation, continued from time to time to provoke a mad conflict with the outside world. He felt that he must go up to Jerusalem, not as a reformer, not as a peacemaker, not as a reconciler of parties and general benefactor of the nation, not simply to observe the state of affairs there, and so do the best he could under existing circumstances, but deliberately to court hostility and suffer death, else how could the Scriptures be fulfilled ? He said to his disciples, " The Son of Man goeth as it is written of him " (Matt. xxvi. 24). " It is written of the Son of Man that he must suffer many things HIS KEFOEMATION CLAIMS. 125 and be set at nought " (Mark ix. 12). "When I sent you without purse or scrip, lacked ye anything ? And they said, Nothing. Then said lie unto them, But now,-he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip ; and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one. For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me. And he was reckoned among the transgressors : for the things concerning me have an end. And they said, Lord, behold, here are two swords. And he said unto them, It is enough" (Luke xxii. 35-38). This punctilious endeavour to act in strict accordance to what was supposed to have been written prophetically rather than to do from time to time what conscience dictated as reasonable and just is one of the most pitiable exhibitions that religious delusion has ever presented to the world. Although Jesus was not fettered by the obligations of a rigid ceremonialism like some of the Pharisees, he was quite as much as they a slave of superstition, in being bound hand and foot by the mystical interpretation put on certain priestly documents. If he had been all along guided by principle and not by prediction, if, instead of going dramatically through the part which Scriptural divination had prescribed for the Suffering Messiah, he had simply done his best to serve God and promote the welfare of his fellow- men as a free Israelite, the superstitious world would have honoured him less, but his example would have harmonized with the eternal course of things and been of infinitely more worth to succeed- ing generations of mankind. 29. Jesus may be justly pointed to as a distinguished religious devotee, whose misunder- stood and embellished death has greatly moved the hearts of the millions that are usually much 126 THE EEAL JESUS. affected by mythical and dramatic representations of murdered innocence, but there is not the slightest ground for holding him before the world as an eminent religious reformer. The greatest reforms effected from time to time in the community of which he is considered the founder have been the renunciation or explaining away of his extravagant precepts and the adoption of more rational and practical views of life. Much religious progress and enlargement of mind has been made not only in the churches but in the synagogues. Enlightened modern Jews are very far in advance of those who were vainly striving eighteen hundred years ago to reconstruct their nation in Palestine. We see now no retrograde tendency manifested among them, no disposition to build again the temple of their forefathers, and restore the sacrificial services. They do not allow themselves to be worked up to a frightful pitch of militant fanaticism by the old superstitious prejudice against images and pictures. The notion of Satan and his legions of evil spirits roaming about over the world to vex mankind with diseases and other troubles has ceased to be a part of their belief. They do not in any of their business transactions resort to divination, nor consult prophetic writings, nor manifest the least craving for supernatural foreknowledge in reference to the destiny of their race. There is some little amount of difference between them in their conceptions of the future life: some hold that it is useless to speculate at all on what is absolutely beyond human ken ; while others affirm that they find much ground for consolation and hope in the contemplation of a higher and purer existence. But the old barbarous notion of dividing mankind sharply according to their deserts into two sections the sheep and the goats the former to be consigned to everlasting bliss and the latter to endless torment, they are OF THE UNIVERSITY i HIS REFORMATION CLA^M.^., quite agreed in rejecting as being well in accord with the ancient Egyptian mythology ; but utterly inconsistent with the belief in a just God. Such is the course which Jewish reformation has taken, and will any unprejudiced person say that this reforma- tion,, which is still progressing, was initiated long ago or has been since helped on by the teaching of the prophet of Nazareth ? 128 THE EEAL JESUS. CHAPTER VI. HIS MORAL TEACHING. Jesus more a poet than an ethical teacher. 2. In a family teaching and ruling are combined. 3. They were BO combined by Moses the leader of Israel. 4. Jesus neither ruled nor helped others to rule. 5. While Moses took charge of the entire people, Jesus established a sect. 7. He had no idea of educating and training the young. 9. The poor results of his wayside discourses. 10. He did nothing to arrest the crying evil of brigandage. 12. While Moses sought to establish justice on earth, Jesus tried to introduce unjust equality. 13. He had not a well-balanced, but a lop-sided morality. 15. His golden rule condemns not only the wrong-doer, but the judge. 16. His doctrine of universal forgiveness considered. 19. Ill treatment of honest opponents. 21. Encouragement to suffer wrong with an eye to compensation. 22. Scourging the innocent and sparing the guilty. 23. Bitter invectives against the Pharisees. 27. The virtues practised by Jesus of a cheap petty character. 28. He did not befriend the industrious poor. 31. He taught people to beg and pray, but not to work. 33. His erratic teaching on marriage, divorce, and eunuchism. 36. His requiring the renuncia- tion of property. 38. Dissembled asceticism. 39. True spirit of the Gospel. 41. Courting persecution and martyrdom. 42.. Lr. Philip Schaffs remarks considered. 43. The Gospel inspired the martyr mania of Origen and Cyprian. JESUS is commonly held up to universal regard at the present day as a great ethical teacher ; from the nature of his discourses, however, he would be much more correctly designated a religious poet. All the Jewish Restoration prophets were poets rather than moralists ; they presented their visions to the world from time to time in lofty impressive language, but did not lay down very clearly and fully before the people the common duties HIS MORAL TEACHING. 129 of life. The wise Son of Sirach and the author of the Book of Proverbs gave a far greater amount of wholesome moral instruction to their countrymen than can be found in a\\ the combined burdens of the prophets from Isaiah to Malachi. Jesus is not, as some have described him, a mystic having subjective visions ; he does not in his discourses reveal celestial scenes and conjure up strange typical beasts like the writers of the Apocalyptic school ; but he is clearly gifted with poetic talent of a better sort, continually deals in similitudes, and directs his hearers' attention to the surrounding beauties of nature. In some of his parables and short pithy sayings he reminds us much more of the ancient Jewish sages than of the prophets. And a large portion of these brief utterances, if taken separately, have much intrinsic excellence^ whether they are to be considered entirely his own or common proverbs of the country. " Cast not pearls before swine." " Set not a candle under a bushel." "New wine should not be put into old bottles." " They strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel." " Men do not gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles." " Where the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together." " Hypocrites are whited sepulchres." " They that are sound need not a physician." " A prophet gets no honour at home." " Before you begin to build count the cost." There is wisdom in these detached sen- tences, as we may find bits of wisdom in nearly every poet of ancient and modern times, but we must take into consideration the general design of a man's teaching to estimate its true worth. We may have pointed out to us in an ancient building a number of bright gems together with beautiful pieces of carved work and other orna- ments; it will be necessary however, to have a more comprehensive view of the structure to form K 130 THE KEAL JESUS. a correct opinion of the ability and genius of the architect. 2. The first ruler that rises up among mankind is the father of a family who is also the first teacher ; with him teaching and ruling go harmoniously together in moulding the young generation. If he gives his children wholesome advice and prays God to guide them aright, yet imposes no restraint on their vicious inclinations, and subjects them to no regular educational discipline, his duty will be only half accomplished, and they will not take to moral courses simply from hearing his admonition and prayers. A good father stands in the midst of his young dependent people both as a prophet and as a magistrate ; he points out their failings and evil tendencies, warns them of the trials and temptations that await them when they go forth into the world, and enjoins them to persevere in faithfully discharg- ing their duty before God and their fellow-men; at the same time he insists on their conform- ing to his household regulations, trains them carefully in moral habits, curbs their selfish and aggressive propensities, settles promptly the disputes which arise among them, and requires them to be at peace with their neighbours and respect the laws of their country. In some families the mother teaches and cannot rule, while the father rules and cannot teach, so that, though they would probably each fail alone to train up their children aright, they succeed well by working harmoniously together and supporting each other's authority. Such concord between the great educational forces which are directed towards the elevation and regulation of mankind ought to be maintained as far as possible in all communities not only in every family, but in every nation. Owing, however, to conquests, revolutions, migrations, and the various other great social HIS MORAL TEACHFNG. 131 changes which have been effected in the world, it frequently happens that the national teacher and the national ruler,, the prophet and the magistrate, work independently of each other, and, instead of maintaining friendly relations, are altogether at cross purposes, so that their influence is weakened, and they fail to subdue disorder effectively and keep society in a healthy moral condition. Where a conflict or misunderstanding exists between a nation's teaching and ruling authorities it is generally owing to those who presume to instruct the people occupying a free competitive position which forces them into factious advocacy. They cannot afford to be impartial, and speak whole- some moral truths to all, as the father of a family, the master of a school, or the founder of a colony would do; they can only obtain an audience or following by alluring with blandishments people of one sort a class, a party, or a sect to whose crotchets and prejudices they must pander, when it is very desirable to do otherwise for their enlighten- ment. 3. The Israelites, who migrated from Egypt to Canaan under the leadership of Moses, resembled in some respects the Pilgrim Fathers who went from our own country to New England. They were driven to seek a new abode by oppression, and when encamped on independent ground Moses became at once their prophet and magistrate ; in his hands instruction and government were just as effectively united as they would be by any father of a family. The Judges, who succeeded him, were both teachers and rulers of the people, so far as their authority extended in a period of great confusion and almost uninterrupted warfare. Under the early monarchy the same combination of educa- tional forces continued, and the system may be said to have reached its fullest development during the K 2 132 THE REAL JESUS. glorious reign of king Solomon. After the death of that sagacious ruler the disruption and sad decline of Israel commenced : the kingdom was torn asunder by factious dissensions, and soon scattered in subjugated fragments never more to be brought together again. A class of teachers arose to speak to the divided and confused people who were called " prophets/' but they were not magisterial prophets as Moses and the Judges had been ; they did nothing towards settling men's differences and causing them to live together in harmony. They resembled greatly the dervishes, marabouts, and other holy men who still abound in the East, and the nearest analogues to them in this part of the world would perhaps be the ranting preacher, and the intemperate agitator or stump orator. In short, they were visionaries, men of wild theory, professing to teach without knowing how to rule or having had the smallest experience of government. No concord subsisted between them ; they competed one against the other for popular support ; every party, every faction, every sect, had a prophet who was blind to its faults while bitterly denouncing -the sins of the rest of the community ; and the rival prophets were constantly flinging abuse and pouring forth maledictions one against the other. They un- doubtedly rebuked iniquity at times and did good in a small way, but they were too fanatical, prejudiced, and conflicting in their views to command general respect and act beneficially as teachers of the whole community. 4. Now it is evident that had Jesus any clear conception of being called upon by God to reunite divided Israel, he would not have taken up the miserable role of these holy visionaries to add to their confusion, but would have assumed the magisterial office and set about to restore order and HIS MORAL TEACHING. . 133 build up the nation on just principles. For a prophet or any other man of superior intelligence to teach effectively and, bring a corrupt people to amend their lives, he should also, like Moses, be able to govern, or at least should be a respecter and upholder of government. But Jesus neither ruled himself nor assisted others to rule ; when he went from place to place with a number of mendicant followers, delivering revolutionary discourses to those who gathered about him, he was really nothing better than an anarchist. The most serious defect that can be pointed to in his ethical system, if it deserves to be called such, is that it is virtually based on anarchy, so as to fail altogether to meet the requirements of civil society and the constitution of family life. It was impossible for him as a wandering preacher to do much for the moral elevation of his countrymen, when he did not understand the paramount duty of maintaining order in the world, and had not the least sympathy with those who were placed in authority and responsible for the administration of justice. If he did not choose to cultivate friendly relations with the Roman rulers of his country, he might still have done much to ameliorate its condition as a Jewish magis- trate. He could have founded somewhere a small agricultural colony to serve as a pattern for the rest of Palestine, and thus commenced the regeneration of the whole community. There was nothing to prevent him from forming a settlement of this kind, and the people who gathered about him to earn a subsistence by honest labour would have been, with the exception of paying an annual tribute to Cassar, in a position of independence. Under such an arrangement he could have far better instructed his countrymen in the common duties and obligations of life than in the position which he actually took of renouncing industrial pursuits and J 84 THE EEAL JESUS. wandering about with a company of celibate religious beggars preparing for the end of the world. 5. It must be borne in mind that the religion of Israel was not sectarian in its origin and consti- tution, but national or rather pastorian : Moses did not gather about him a band of kindred spirits, a few sympathetic persons of one sort, but took charge of the entire people without regard to their opinions or sentiments, and did his best to reconcile them and lead them on together in the path of righteousness. This was what every subsequent Jewish teacher was expected to do, and it is what we may see done more or less effectively now in every modern synagogue. No genuine Israelite would think of drafting off from the rest of the community a portion of his brethren holding- peculiar views in order to establish a sect. Perfect uniformity between the synagogues is not to be expected under the circumstances of a people so varying in culture and widely dispersed throughout the world as the modern Jews. In every con- gregation, and, indeed, in every family, there will necessarily be differences of opinion and diversities of taste with regard to theological questions, and other abstruse subjects of human study, as well as on matters of ritual ; and the important thing is, that the members should manage, in spite of these divergences, to do their duty mutually before God and get on harmo- niously together. A narrow system of mystical dogmatism which encourages petty disputa- tions, and does not inculcate toleration of the sentiments of honest people who are con- strained to differ from us, is not worthy of the name of religion. 6. Jesus took a course directly opposite from that of Moses in establishing a sect. If he had been HIS MORAL TEACHING. 135 eminently successful in competing with other sectarian teachers so as to gain by his persuasive eloquence a hundred thousand followers, it would still have been a very unworthy achievement for one claiming to be the head of the whole community of Israel. But in reality his attempts to influence the people by preaching and exorcism produced but very meagre results : during the whole period of his ministry he obtained few disciples, and it is indis- putable that he did very little for the instruction and improvement of his countrymen. It has been observed all the world over that like attracts like, that the capacity of a religious teacher is invariably denoted by the ignorance or intelligence of his congregation. Those who gathered about the prophet of Nazareth, so far from being the flower of the nation, the most progressive and thoughtful members of the Jewish community, were only the dregs of the city population and a number of credulous Galilean peasants. We are told by his modern worshippers that he deliberately passed by men of learning and ability, and sought out by preference the poor, degraded, and uncared-for those belonging to the lowest stratum of society as being in the greatest need of his pastoral care. It must be admitted that this notion is well acted upon at the present day by many good clergymen and others who are doing their best to reclaim the outcast population of our large towns. But Jesus gathered about him a crowd of poor vagrant people wanting excitement and hungering for doles from utter inability to attract those of higher intelligence and superior worth. The sensible portion of his countrymen, hearing him announce that the end of the world was at hand arid require them to abandon in haste their property and industrial pursuits, could not fail to regard him as a demented visionary. Besides, if he was what he professed to be the Good 136 THE REAL JESUS. Shepherd of Israel it was clearly his duty not to confine his attention to any particular class, but to set about reforming the whole nation. The true way of reclaiming and elevating the degraded portion of a community is through the instrumen- tality of their more intelligent and less degraded brethren, and no worse method could possibly be devised than that of drawing the most ignorant class apart from the better educated and setting them at variance. A genuine reformer would have followed the example of Moses, would have selected for his assistants the most able and intelligent men that could be found, and by giving them proper instruction, and placing them judiciously where they could impart it to others, would have succeeded in harmonizing and enlightening the whole brother- hood of Israel. 7. Had Jesus only been the father of a family he might have gained from that responsible position some little knowledge of the constitution of society and of the need of a system of government. The desirability of establishing schools, and having special educational arrangements for training the young collectively in habits of virtue, would also have probably been impressed on his mind. Moreover, his own experience in ruling a household would have enabled him to give much sound practical advice to other parents as to the proper discharge of their kindred duties. But he was a celibate individual, an entire stranger to paternal obligations, ever seeking with his world-renouncing saint followers to break up family life, and such a teacher would not be likely to do anything, either by precept or example, to improve the fatherhood and motherhood of the country. On one occasion when Jewish parents brought their children into his presence, it does not appear that he gave them a word of good counsel on the subject of training HIS MOKAL TEACHING. 137 the young, but simply laid his hands on the little ones and blessed them, just as an Italian priest blesses the cattle that are brought to him on a certain saint's day, and "sprinkles them with holy water. Nothing was to be done by painstaking labour for the strengthening and gradual improve- ment of their minds, but everything was to be accomplished by miracle : prayers, charms, and exorcisms were expected to dispel all distempers, whether physical or moral, so as to render wise training and the cultivation of new and better habits of life wholly unnecessary. 8. The rude, slovenly, careless agriculture which Jesus has depicted in the Parable of the Sower very correctly typifies the character of his own teaching. There is no tillage described, no ploughing and preparation of the soil, and careful harrowing in of the seed; neither is there any water- ing, hoeing, and weeding to strengthen the young plant and insure its satisfactory growth. The husbandman goes forth and scatters the seed before him indifferently as a blind man might do, no matter where or how it falls, and imagines that his work is fitly accomplished. But see the result : much that he flings carelessly abroad settles in wild and stony places, where it cannot possibly germinate, and some perishes for want of sustenance or is carried off by birds, and only a comparatively small portion strikes root in a good soil, so as to be eventually productive. Correspondingly poor issues would be sure to come from his own irregular wayside discourses wandering from place to place and imparting to groups of rude unprepared minds instruction without education. The hortatory words which he thus delivered, whether wise and reasonable or the reverse, might be expected to produce but very little impression on the majority of his hearers, and to pass in a little while from 138 THE REAL JESUS. their remembrance. But if he had acted on another system, if he had brought people together in an industrial colony and carefully trained them in the ordinary duties of life, the instruction which he delivered would have been more effective, the precepts which fell from his lips would have sunk into their hearts and permanently influenced them for good. 9. When any remark is made on the little that Jesus accomplished as a teacher for the moral improvement of his countrymen, we are commonly told that this was due to their obstinate and intractable disposition, their extreme hardness of heart and unbelief. But no people have ever been more ready than the Jews to recognize men of superior genius in their community, and they were not less capable of discerning real merit when Jesus appeared among them than at any other period of their history. Even supposing that they had all the spiritual blindness and prejudice ascribed to them, a teacher of transcendent ability should have known how to treat them and gradually effect their enlightment. Those who visit the Free School in Bell Lane, Spitalfields, the work of which is annually tested by results, will see how much may be accomplished by a real Jewish teacher for the moral elevation of some of the most ill-conditioned and intractable of his race. Many of the scholars there, children of poor immigrants, have been reared in continental cities amidst the worst possible surroundings, and are completely dominated by foreign habits and prejudices. A mixed multitude more difficult to bring under discipline and manage collectively in a large educa- tional establishment it would be hardly possible to conceive. Yet this task is marvellously well performed by the head master and his staff of assistants ; the children, however rough and HIS MOEAL TEACHING. 139 disorderly, are speedily organized, strongly im- pressed with, a sense of their religious duty, and encouraged to look forward with the good resolve to earn a living by honest industry, and grow up loyal and law-abiding citizens of England. Had there been during the life-time of Jesus such a school steadily operating on the poor neglected Jewish population of Palestine, and made the nursery of a wide ramification of industrial colonies, there can be little doubt that it would have completely regenerated and saved the nation. 10. All communities have their special moral failings; the great vice of the English people is intemperance, that of the French licentiousness, as it was the reproach of the ancient Greeks and Romans in a still worse degree. The Jews of Palestine among whom Jesus lived were as a rule neither drunken nor unchaste, but they were an excitable and turbulent people, ever ready on the slightest provocation to engage in fierce conflict either against their own rulers or the Gentiles. It happened with them as it as happened with many other combative races ; frequent insurrections and a succession of wars unsettled their industry and left behind them an evil inheritance of brigandage. When hostilities ceased for a time and they were enabled to disband their forces, some of the most active fighters had got so accustomed to live by forays and requisitions, that they preferred to keep up the campaigning in a small way on their own account rather than return to the quiet pursuits of industrial life. During the whole period of the Roman domination bands of freebooters were a terrible pest to the country, not only in respect to the depredations which they committed on the villages and farms, but in the fact that they incited futile attempts at revolt and brought on many districts severe military repression. While affecting 140 THE KEAL JESUS. a spirit of ultra patriotism, as is common with their class, and professing to fight for the liberation of their country, they were in reality its worst oppressors ; it was chiefly through them that many cohorts had to be maintained and taxation was burdensome. As there was no powerful leader able to unite the people and give them independence, as irregular and spasmodic efforts against the forces of imperial Rome were altogether hopeless, the wisest Jews advocated patient submission to their foreign rulers and co-operation with them, so as to more effectually maintain order and tranquillity. Had the people, in agreement with these counsels, everywhere steadily devoted themselves to industrial pursuits, the Roman yoke would not have been heavy in Palestine ; and by maintaining their national strength and virtue intact, they would have been certain eventually to gain a position of independence. It was brigandage that formed the great marplot to the realization of the hopes of liberty : the brigands, counterworking in every direction the efforts of the wise, would not allow the nation to bide its time and husband its resources, but kept it in a state of perpetual ferment, and in conjunction with equally mischievous fanatics they eventually lit up the flames of the great calamitous war. 11. During the whole period of his public ministry Jesus was never known to set his face strongly against brigandage : he not only took no special pains to diminish this crying iniquity, which more than anything else was discrediting and injuring the country, as a true moral reformer would have done, but he did not even vigorously denounce it at any time or make it apparent that he was very much concerned at its existence. Indeed he seems to have troubled himself just as little about the frequent depredations of robbers as about those which were committed by wild HIS MOKAL TEACHING. 141 beasts. He and his mendicant followers, being engaged in no industrial pursuit and having no property to lose, were not likely to worry them- selves much at the occasional losses from pillage which others might suffer whom they persistently accused of covetousness. Had any Jewish farmers, after discovering that their cattle or sheep had been stolen, appealed to Jesus for redress, they would doubtless have met with just such a rebuff as he administered to the young man who complained that his brother had appropriated the whole of the family inheritance (Luke xii. 13). He did not positively take the part of the predatory class, but a great deal of his teaching, which under- mined the foundations of property and discouraged judicial proceedings against the perpetrators of wrong, must have served their purpose indirectly even better than if he had been their avowed advocate. And so far as his influence extended in wandering about at the head of a band of communistic beggars, he quite as much as they helped to weaken the hands of industry, dissolve social and family ties, and keep the nation in that state of unhealthy excitement and longing for revolutionary change which precipitated unwise struggles and the final ruinous overthrow. 12. It is not possible to distinguish clearly the genuine legislation of Moses from the later priest legislation which was imputed to him, but it seems to have been his great aim to establish a reign of justice on earth; he was firmly resolved to protect his brethren from external wrong and not allow them to wrong one another. Such also was the disposition of every subsequent ruler of Israel who conscientiously followed in his footsteps and endeavoured to promote the welfare of the community. But Jesus, in claiming to be the head of the nation, was actuated by quite another spirit : 142 THE EEAL JESUS. it was not justice that he was zealous for and determined to extend to all classes of people, bat equality, that is, a levelling and subversive system of communism. He seems to have wanted all men to live like the birds of heaven, in a state of natural freedom, and take just what came to hand for their daily sustenance. It was not against the robber, but against the rich man that his indignation was chiefly directed : he who possessed two coats was told to give one away, and he who was robbed of anything was on no account to seek its recovery. A person of provident habits who stored up the fruits of his industry for the future wants of his family and dependent people, he condemned as avaricious and worldly, while the idle and thriftless, who took no thought for the morrow, and permitted their children to run about in a destitute condition, were in his estimation genuine saints suffering here on earth that they might have compensation in heaven. Jewish agriculture, from the unsettled state of the country, was already sufficiently depressed, but he, by requiring every diligent farmer to sell his property and distribute the proceeds in alms, would have ruined it outright. It was his aim to overspread all Palestine with mendicant preachers and self -mortify ing ascetics preparing for the end of the world, and if his behests had been generally obeyed and his example followed, there would soon have been no one left to beg of; the cultivated lands would have relapsed into the condition of a wilderness, and the inhabitants, taking no thought for the morrow, would have been reduced to the condition of savages and wild beasts. 13. Moses was not only a legislator but a chief magistrate, and no position is more favourable than that of a magistrate for the cultivation of a con- sistent all-round morality as distinguished from a HIS MORAL TEACHING. 143 lopsided morality. One who sits daily to determine the causes that are brought before him will be sure to learn much of human nature, will have constant exercise for his reflective powers, and whatever proclivity or impulse he may have in this or that direction is likely to be kept 1 under wholesome check. It will be his business to urge unremittingly the paramount importance of those great virtues of civil life Justice, Honesty, and Truthfulness which no one ever strains unduly or practises in excess. Other virtues, the impulsive virtues, if not controlled by judgment, may be carried to such immoderate lengths as to resemble at last vices, and become in like manner positively injurious. Thus it is well for people, especially for those in humble circumstances, to be thrifty, but any one with too strong a propensity in that direction will become in awhile niggardly, and even acquire the grovelling habits of a miser. Generosity is highly com- mendable, but an extremely warm-hearted liberal man will sometimes become a victim of rogues, or will impoverish himself and his family in en- deavouring to assist those who are unworthy of assistance, or will give away in inconsiderate charity what ought in justice to have been given to his creditors. Sensuality should be studiously avoided, yet those who fly with excessive zeal from the gratification of the senses may be carried to an unwholesome extreme of asceticism. Courage, if carried too far, will become reckless foolhardiness : love may lead at length to idolatrous infatuation. Cruelty is very shocking to all gentle and kindly dispositions, yet an unreasonable abhorrence of inflicting a little corrective pain has often had the effect of increasing human misery a hundredfold. Humane people have exerted themselves very comrnendably of late to prevent the torturing of dumb animals; there are some few, however, so 144 THE EEAL JESUS. entirely carried away by feelings of tenderness that they would abolish, if they could, the use of spurs and riding- whips, and even prohibit the destruction of vermin. It is evident, therefore, that good impulses have just as much need of control and regulation as bad impulses, in order to avoid follies and extravagances in life and establish a sound morality in every way conducive to human welfare. 14. Jesus had certainly not a reflective mind like Moses, but was very impulsive and enthusiastic; he had no magisterial experience nor even the inborn qualities which fit a man to undertake the duty of judging the people. And, as might be expected of such a prophet, the morality which he set before his followers by precept and example was not balanced and regulated, but ever running to fanatical excess. In the avoidance of covetous- ness, the abstaining from concupiscence, the dis- pensing of charitable relief, and the forgiveness of injuries, he is alike such a thorough going extremist as to render his moral system wholly unfitted for the requirements of a great complex community. At the same time such virtues as industry, providence, cleanliness, filial duty, urbanity, and others of much importance in the economy of human life, were either despised by him or altogether overlooked, as though they had no existence. The community that sprung from his teaching the primitive saints subsisting on alms, undergoing rigorous penances, courting persecution and martyrdom, calumniating all honest people who held different views from their own, and condemning them to the torments of hell-fire do not form by any means an edifying ethical picture. They were in some respects a less lovable people than even the Hindoo ascetics, and certainly less harmless than the saints of the far East who HIS MORAL TEACHING. 145 were brought to practise the mad morality of Buddha. 15. An ancient Jewish teacher said, " Do that to no man which thou hatest " (Tobit iv. 15). Hillel, the reforming rabbi and ruler who lived in the time of Herod the Great, said, " Do not unto thy neighbour that which thou wouldst not have him do unto thee " (Talmud. B Shabbath, 31a). So Jesus summarized human duty in these words, " Whatso- ever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets (Matt. vii. 12). It must be observed, however, that the meaning of Hillel the ruler, and the meaning of Jesus, were not exactly alike. Hillel desired simply to inculcate true equity or the refraining from all aggressive acts ; he meant, ' t-l A FICTITIOUS MARTYRDOMS. 199 appear an act of concert. Annas would have saved his life if he could; he was not deliberately courting martyrdom and fulfilling Scripture; he did not studiously provoke his opponents to condemn .him to death, but suffered involuntarily at their hands while faithfully discharging his duty in endeavouring to maintain order and peace. There will also probably appear to modern Jewish minds a greater amount of criminality in " the long, cruel, and infamous persecutions " which the Arch- deacon admits their race to have suffered in past times from people of his own faith. For they are known to have died unwillingly in those persecu- tions ; they were not fanatics eager to rush out of the world by violence for the attainment of a blissful recompense, but sober conscientious citizens desirous to do all they could to conciliate their opponents and avert an unjust death. Moreover, in respect to these and all other genuine crimes that have darkened the pages of history, we are in no way at a loss to understand the motives of the perpetrators. Annas was struck down by the rabble of Jerusalem because they wanted freedom to plunder the city, and he stood in their path as an obstacle to the carrying out of their anarchical designs. So the many families of Jews who were unjustly tortured and put to death during the middle ages generally had some amount of property, and the multitude trumped up terrible charges against them, that would insure their condemnation, in order to get possession of their wealth. 17. The crucifixion of Jesus, viewed as a crime, does not stand alone ; it is simply one of an immense series of preternatural crimes which Christians imputed to Jews and other religious opponents from the first century down to the period of the Reformation, and which have been 200 THE REAL JESUS. occasionally heard of in later times. They believed in Diabolism, believed that those who opposed them or did not hold their doctrine were in league with the Evil Spirit, and as his agents were bound to work mischief, and carry on an unrelenting war against righteousness. When people thus acquire the superstitious notion that their neighbours, who differ from them a little, are under the domination of Satan, they are sure to regard their conduct with suspicion and distrust, and imagine them to be guilty of malignant misdeeds. The first opposi- tion encountered by the Christian sect was from the Jewish authorities at Jerusalem, who consequently appeared in their distempered fancy full of devilish- ness, monsters of wickedness and cruelty con- spiring day and night to destroy Jesus. They soon after, in their career of proselytism beyond Palestine, met with an occasional check from Pagan rulers and magistrates, and every one of these was more or less calumniated by them, and represented as a fierce, evil-minded persecutor of the saints. Prior to the conversion of Constantine the greater portion of those who composed the militant church were accustomed to regard all earthly potentates as feudatories of Satan at deadly war against the kingdom of Christ. When once they came under the protection of Christian emperors they looked distrustfully on their Pagan fellow-subjects as children of the devil, who were constantly having recourse to sorcery and plotting their ruin. In the fourth century the Christian emperor Yalentinian had many Pagans, some of them persons of high position, condemned and executed because they were suspected of injuring Christians with magical arts. " A general charge of magic hung over the whole city. Maximin poured these dark rumours into the greedy ear of Valentinian, and obtained the authority which he FICTITIOUS MARTYRDOMS. 201 coveted for making a strict inquisition into the offences, for exacting evidence by torture from men of every rank and station, and for condemning them to a barbarous and ignominious death " (Milman's " History of Christianity," vol. iii. p. 37). 18. As the Pagan population throughout the Roman empire were generally converted or driven into the churches after having their temples destroyed, the hostility of Christians was con- centrated more and more on their earlier opponents, the unbelieving, unrepentant Jews. The devilish hatred of Christ which they were thought to entertain was supposed to break out regularly at the season of Easter, when they crucified any Christian children that they were able to lay their hands upon, and insulted the consecrated Host. And as this belief was generally held both by learned and ignorant, it is not surprising that unscrupulous people who wanted to injure the Jews should occasionally get up fictitious evidence in its support. A church was now and then found broken open on Good Friday, and the sacred wafer treasured therein was seen to be removed from the pix and pierced with knives. The body of a dead child was also sometimes discovered at the same season nailed up against a wall, a tree, or a wooden cross, with a ghastly wound in its side to suggest a re-enactment of the crucifixion of Jesus. Sus- picion at once fell on the Jews, who were alone considered capable of perpetrating such hellish deeds, and they were forthwith arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and sent to execution, while their houses were pillaged by the mob. Perhaps here and there a sensible magistrate deemed the outrages a great mystery, since the accused people were not mad, and it was clear that they could derive no earthly advantage from such acts even if they escaped detection or were suffered to go un- 202 THE HEAL JESUS. punished. But it would have been said that the Jews were not ordinary human beings, that they were emissaries of Satan, and were incited by him to war against Christ, as their fathers did, from pure love of wickedness. They were supposed to inherit the devilishness of the original crucifiers and to long for an opportunity to repeat at any cost the same nefarious deeds. 19. Not only were the crimes imputed to the Jews irrational and contrary to human nature, but the Christian imagination invariably connected with them a variety of other miracles. Thus in the year 1250 the Jews of Saragossa are said to have nailed a child named Dominic to a wall in the form of a, cross and then to have pierced its side with a spear. We are told that they buried the body to conceal the crime, but in the night time the place of sepulture shone with such a brilliant light, that some Christians found the martyred child's remains, and they were deposited in a church where many wonderful cures were performed. About five years later, according to the monkish chronicler Matthew Paris, the Jews of Lincoln stole a boy eight years old the celebrated St. Hugh. They then invited the principal Jews from all parts of England that they might attend the crucifixion of the child, and appointed one to sit in judgment on him, as Pontius Pilate. They afterwards scourged him till he was black and blue, spat in his face, crowned him with thorns, mocked him in reproachful and blasphemous language, calling him Jesus the false prophet. At length, after giving him gall to drink and loading him with every kind of abuse, they crucified him and pierced his side with a spear. Afterwards they took out the bowels of the child to be used for magical purposes, and privately buried the corpse. The earth, however, vomited FICTITIOUS MARTYRDOMS. 203 forth the innocent body ; as often as they tried to "bury it securely, it revealed itself the next day above ground* Fearing that their crime would be discovered by this miracle, they threw it into a well, where it was at length found by the mother. On its being drawn forth it became a wonderful spectacle to the people. There happened to be among them John Lexingtone, a man of much learning and discretion, who said, " We have sometimes heard that the Jews have dared to attempt such things to discredit the crucified Jesus our Lord." Then one of the Jews near whose house the child was last seen, on being apprehended and put to the torture, confessed the whole plot. He was soon fastened to a horse's tail and dragged to the gallows. Eighteen of the richest and most influential Jews of Lincoln were executed in the same way, and ninety others were sent in chains to London. The body of the child was given to the canons of Lincoln cathedral in compliance with their petition, and it was there honourably buried and enshrined as a precious martyr. . 20. It is scarcely worth while to attempt to separate fact from fiction in the above abridged narrative of the learned monk. Hundreds of such martyr stories were at one time current throughout Christendom ; they generally originated in fictitious evidence, which was got up to incriminate the Jews and involve them in punishment, and they were subsequently embellished and made more wonderful by a mythopaeic imagination. Let us now go back from the record of Matthew Paris to that of an older and more venerated monkish chronicler Matthew the Apostle and see what he says on the subject of preternatural crimes committed by the enemies of Christ. Archdeacon Farrar deems the alleged propensity of the Jews to kill Christian children during the middle ages wholly incredible ; 204 THE REAL JESUS. but he has not the least doubt respecting the reality of the Massacre of the Innocents at Bethlehem by Herod the Great. It is not easy, however, to see how King Herod, any more than the Jews, could expect to derive the slightest temporary advantage from his Christ-hatred and monstrous criminality. If he occasionally inflicted severe punishments, even on his own relatives, he at least had a clear motive for so doing : he was universally admitted to be a sagacious ruler, and no tributary king in his right senses would have ever thought of slaying a multitude of infant children in this wanton manner with the view to safeguard his throne. Had this monarch, whom the Koman Senate elected and upheld, subject to his good behaviour, actually been fool enough to believe that his position was endangered by the birth of some wondrous peasant child, and, for the chance of removing his supposed rival, mad enough to command a sweeping massacre of young Bethlehemites, those about him would have readily perceived that his mind was disordered, and would not have ventured to carry out his ex- travagant behest. It is quite certain that such a slaughter could not have been effected without the consent and aid of a large number of capable men, and how could ths king obtain their co-operation and at the same time escape the consequences of his mad misgovernment ? We might search through all history and the whole range of fiction beside, for anything to match the utter imbecility, to say nothing of the monstrosity, of this ill-invented political crime. The author of the legend and those who first received it as an authentic record must have been in point of intellectual de- velopment and knowledge of the world's affairs, nothing better than dreaming children. 21. Even if the reported Massacre of the FICTITIOUS MAETYEDOMS. 205 Bethlehe mites could be regarded as a rational crime, as a bold and able stroke of Eastern statesmanship, it would still, without abundant corroboration, be wholly unentitled to belief. For Herod was a famous ruler of that period, only second in im- portance to his great patron Augustus Caesar ; and, had he committed the unparalleled outrage on an innocent population ascribed to him, it would soon have been in everybody's mouth and would have resounded through the whole Roman empire. Yet there is not the slightest allusion to it in any of the numerous writers of the Augustan age whose works have come down to our own times. Moreover, Josephus, a writer strongly antagonistic to Herod, in the great historical work dealing with the whole period of his reign, makes no mention of any such child massacre. He tells us, too, that after the death of that monarch fifty deputies of the faction opposed to him went to Rome for the express purpose of decrying his rule and blasting his reputation, in order to create a prejudice against his sou Archelaus, who was then petitioning to have the succession. These deputies, in their fruitless appeal to Caesar, raked up everything that they were able to remember to Herod's disadvantage, and did their utmost to represent him as a merciless tyrant and oppressor, yet of the massacre which if true must have been very recent and more to their purpose than anything else they said not a word, which makes it clear that the legend of Matthew was then not in existence. 22. The alleged mad attempt of Herod to slay Jesus when a child is a pure fiction ; the alleged wicked conspiracy of the Jewish rulers to crucify him when a grown man is a misrepresented fact, just as we have fictions and distorted facts bound up together in the stories of child martyrdom which arose in the middle ages. Even if there had been 206 THE REAL JESUS. no crucifixion and Jesus had died from some natural ailment, his death would probably have been ascribed to the evil devices of the Sanhedrin. The charge of murderous malignity fastened on this religious assembly is in some respects more outrageous and incredible than that made against the king. For Herod was a military ruler, who had both the power and the disposition to put people to death for state purposes, and was known to have ordered many to execution. Whereas the Jewish elders had no corresponding power nor like sanguinary record, and, even if one or two had not borne the high character which befitted such an assembly and had desired from pure malice to kill a righteous man, they would have been severely restrained by the rest. Everybody who has the least knowledge of human affairs and is capable of looking round on the world with unprejudiced eyes, must be convinced that under such moral conditions as those depicted by the Evangelists a religious government able to command respect would be impossible; a council of elders at the head of a nation so utterly abominable and at the same time so idiotic could not exist. During the witchcraft persecutions of the seventeenth century men of good reputation were frequently tried and condemned to death for perpetrating extravagant Satanic crimes on the testimony of silly fanciful children. The early Christian saints, who per- sistently calumniated people in authority and suffered their imagination to run wild were, in point of intelligence and truthfulness, pretty much on a level with these child witnesses whose revelations startled the world. And if those whom they accused were not immediately injured in consequence an endless amount of injustice was thereby eventually inflicted on their posterity, or rather visited on their dispersed race. FICTITIOUS MAETYRDOMS. 207 23. Even where people are not crazed by the superstition of Diabolism, ex parte statements of cruelty and wrong committed by an opposing faction are notoriously untrustworthy. When a community is sharply divided by political or religious strife, it is not in human nature for one of the contending parties to lay aside all prejudice and give a fair and accurate report of that strife. It will be sure to get up a more or less coloured and distorted account of what took place, embellish- ing a little here and blackening there, leaving out entirely or diminishing some things which ought to have been mentioned, and introducing others for which there is scarcely any other basis but imagina- tion. Hence the necessity of confronting every such one-sided story by the statements of opposition witnesses, in order that independent inquirers may make a fair judicial decision or arrive as nearly as possible at the truth. In the accounts which have come down to us of the English Civil War, the French Revolution, the origin of the Quakers, the Wesleyans, and several other sects, we have this requisite completeness of testimony, each side of the conflict or movement is well represented in literature, and one historian rightly corrects the partiality of another. But the contention which long ago existed between the humble Nazarene sect and other religious Jews who could not be won over by their proselytizing efforts is only reported to us in the one-sided sectarian story of the Evangelists. Their narrative may seem credible enough throughout by those who have been carefully trained from childhood to regard it as a divine revelation, yet any similar story coming to them afresh on its own intrinsic merits would be instantly rejected as untrustworthy, and partisan testimony of such a character would entirely fail to command respect in a modern court of justice. 208 THE EEAL JESUS. 24. The monstrous charges which the first Christian writers made against the Sanhedrin were not published openly at Jerusalem during the life- time of the accused, so as to challenge criticism and refutation. Oral statements to the same effect were probably uttered there by disciples of Jesus, under the shelter of obscurity, and they would not be treated seriously or considered worthy of notice by educated and sensible people. Then, as the missionaries of the sect wandered into other countries to propagate their doctrines and an- nounce the coming end of the world, they could tell their pitiable tales of persecution and martyrdom to sympathetic audiences without the least fear of contradiction. In this way their sectarian slanders soon struck root in a congenial soil, and before the lapse of a century were carried by ignorant, sensation-loving, gossiping converts into all parts of the Roman empire. Whatever independent documents might have existed in Jerusalem to check or confute them were probably destroyed during Vespasian's war, so that after the death of that generation the Christian story would remain in almost undisputed possession of the field. The dispersed Jews did occasionally meet with Christian preachers, and indignantly deny the calumnious statements they were propagating, but they had not the requisite information to controvert them satisfactorily, and even if they could have done this it would not have availed much to arrest a story which had got the start of them in every direction and was winged with fanaticism. Some Jewish writers, having no authentic knowledge of the origin of the Nazarene sect, very unwisely replied to Christian falsehoods with fables of their own invention, just as Christians themselves at a later period attempted to disprove by fiction the claims of Mohammedanism. And the time at length FICTITIOUS MARTYRDOMS. 209 arrived when the proselytizing Roman Church, backed by the secular power, became so aggressive and intolerant that its one-sided sectarian testi- mony had to be listened to in humble silence: those who ventured to question the truth of the charges which its early chroniclers made against the Sanhedrin answered for their temerity with their lives. 25. The monstrous charges of shedding innocent blood which used to be brought against the Jews regularly at Easter time, at first broke down, not from their intrinsic unreasonableness, but from its being clearly demonstrated that they were based on fictitious evidence. Unprincipled men were occasionally detected in the very act of craftily fabricating appearances of guilt with the view to incriminate them, and on this becoming known it induced the magistrates to give all such cases a more careful investigation. The celebrated Manasseh Ben Israel, writing in the seventeenth century, says, " I cannot but weep bitterly and with much anguish of soul lament that strange and horrid accusation of some Christians against the dispersed and afflicted Jews that dwell among them, when they say that the Jews are wont to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread by fermenting it with the blood of some Christian whom they have for the purpose killed, when the calumniators have found one dead, and cast the body as if it had been murdered by the Jews into their houses and yards, as lamentable experience has proved in various places. Then with unbridled rage they have accused the innocent Jews of doing what has only been done in appearance, which detest- able wickedness has sometimes been perpetrated that they might thereby take advantage and exercise their cruelty upon them, and sometimes justify former massacres " ("Vindiciae Judseorum"). /} A*-* 210 THE EEAL JESUS. 26. The repeated failure of these accusations when subjected to a thorough investigation did not for awhile in the least weaken the popular belief in former charges which had met with success. It was thought that the Jews, although now and then accused falsely, had certainly been often enough guilty of killing Christian children, as was shown by the unimpeachable testimony of many holy shrines. There was no questioning that St. Hugh of Lincoln, St. William of Norwich, St. Werner of Bacharach, St. Robert de Pontoise, and others were genuine martyrs who had suffered from the malignancy of the hereditary enemies of Christ. People began to suspect at length, however, that even these charges were probably of the same baseless character as those which had been recently exposed, and that they only obtained credit at the time from not being subjected to a like searching criticism. And this has now got to be the general opinion of educated Christians ; the numerous child martyrdoms of ecclesiastical- history are regarded as being from first to last calumnious fabrications which have only brought disgrace on the church. Dr. M'Caul, who laboured long and earnestly to convert the Jews, wrote some years ago of the repeated attempts made to convict them of Diabolism as follows: "In the first place, the charge has been only made in the times and regions of ignorance, and in countries where justice is not impartially administered. How is it that during the last two centuries the sound of it has gradually died away in Europe ? Why is it that no case of the kind now occurs in France, Holland, Prussia, or England ? . . . . This accusation is brought forward among others now universally acknowledged to be gross and ridiculous falsehoods, and almost every case of child murder recorded is itself inter- woven with a narrative of lying wonders, so that of FICTITIOUS MARTYRDOMS. 211 each such history one part is confessedly fabulous, and if the one part be rejected why should the other be believed ? . . . . The enormous lying and profound ignorance of Judaism and the Jews, as well as degrading superstition involved in some of these charges, throw discredit on all. The mere recital of these follies shows that they are the offspring of an unenlightened imagination, if not the invention of a malignant heart. The total absence of all credible testimony compels us to refuse our belief. The only evidence to be had is that extracted from the victims of torture. But that mode of examination would have made the same persons confess that they were metempsychoses of Judas Iscariot or Pontius Pilate that they had caused the ruinous convulsions of an earthquake or the devastations of the cholera " (" Reasons," &c., pp. 2-24). 27. Dr. M'Caul, after giving a list of blood accusations accompanied by lying wonders extend- ing from the sixth century to the sixteenth, admits that during this whole period Christians were for the most part credulous, untruthful, and much disposed to calumniate their Jewish neighbours, and that they only ceased to bring false charges against them when the growth of intelligence and the improved administration of justice rendered it difficult to get their absurd stories believed in the courts. But the martyrdoms and miracles of the thousand years which preceded the Reformation are manifestly akin to those of the first century recorded by the Evangelists ; and as their supposed truthfulness was then thought to prove the un- broken succession of Christian truth, their known falsity now proves the unmistakable continuity of Christian falsehood. It must be clear to every unprejudiced mind that the evidence of character has turned more and more against the accusers p 2 212 THE KEAL JESUS. and in favour of the accused. The alleged pro- pensity of the Jews to shed innocent blood has been repeatedly and abundantly disproved, while to precisely the same extent the Christian propensity to calumniate those who are not of their faith has been confirmed and established. We have there- fore a very strong presumptive ground for believing the original charge of devilry the unsupported story of the Jewish rulers conspiring from pure malice and envy to put Jesus to death to be no better founded than the numerous horrifying mur- der tales which gave from time to time additional martyrs to the church during the middle ages. It is not to be supposed that Christians of the firsfc century were in point of intelligence and veracity superior to those of the sixth. Fairness towards opponents, careful investigation and accuracy of statement, are no more to be looked for from the credulous and excited community forming the primitive church than from any modern group of Catholic peasant children to whom the Virgin Mary has recently appeared. Christianity in its earliest stages had in a marked degree those moral weaknesses which are characteristic of the age of infancy ; it believed in its own wild dreams and revelled in exaggeration and fiction. Then after awhile it learned the wisdom of putting a rein on its imagination, and to some extent bridling its tongue, from the repeated checks and corrections which it received from the outside world. Like every individual human being, as it grew in strength and importance and found its extravagant assertions more subjected to criticism, it became gradually educated in truthfulness. The reasoning capacity of such men as Origen and Tertullian was poor enough, as their works testify, yet it was much better than that of the earlier and less instructed FICTITIOUS HAETYEDOMS. 213 saints ; and, besides,, they wrote under a sense of greater publicity ; they knew that they were con- fronted and watcfied by educated unbelievers, and they had not such a chance as some of their obscure predecessors to impose on the credulous world by misrepresentation and miracle-mongering. 214 THE REAL JESUS. CHAPTER VIII. THE CRUCIFIXION DRAMA. Subjective and objective visions of revelators. 2. The Pagan mysteries. 3. Christian masked dramas. 4. Personated and forged authorities. 5. The Transfiguration vision in Galilee. 6. Jesus there instructed to prepare for mar- tyrdom. 7. Stratagems of his instructors. 8. It was clearly not the chief priests and rulers who plotted his death. 10. Dr. Geikie's surmise that he was tried before a fictitious sanhedrin. 12. The fickle behaviour of the populace towards him shows that they were a hireling mob. 13. The part acted by Judas Iscariot is dramatic. 14. Jesus troubled at his approaching death. 15. No defence offered at his trial. 16. Kemarks of Dr. Beriisch on his supposed trial before the Sanhedrin. 18. Dr. Philippson's mistaken theory of his punishment by the Bonians as a political offender. 20. The Crucifixion as dramatic and artificial as a modern Passion-Play. 21. Imaginary wrongs and real ones. ri\HE apparitions or spectres, which we read of JL or hear of as being now and then seen but much' less frequently than in past times, are known to be of two kinds subjective and objective. In the former case a person evolves spirits from his own mind as in a dream, that is, believes in the pictures produced by his imagination ; in the latter case he sees in external nature real objects which he supposes to be ghosts. There is precisely the same difference of character in the revelatory visions which have effected at one time and another very important results in the religious world. The ancient prophets who obtained recognition as revelators were for the most part mystics who had, as they firmly believed, direct communication with Heaven. Ezekiel says at the commencement of THE CRUCIFIXION DEAMA. 215 his revelations, "the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God" The prophet's visions on this occasion were evidently subjective; he fell into a reverie and saw with a powerful imagination what was not apparent to any one else. The author of the Apocalypse, Mohammed, the Druse prophet, Swedenborg, and hundreds of other revelators of ancient and modern times, thus beheld independently with their mind's eye the spiritual pictures which they afterwards described to the world. And the visions of many dis- tinguished poets, such as Virgil, Dante, and Milton, have been of a similar character; their much exercised imagination has completely overmastered their reflective powers, so that they have as thoroughly believed the reality of the celestial scenes presented to them as though they were observations made in the course of travel. 2. The great bulk of mankind are neither poets nor mystics ; their imagination is feeble or so much under control that if they are to see in their waking hours what they shall deem visions, these must be clear objective visions or phenomena outside themselves. Mohammed complains in the Koran of certain heathen Arabs saying to him, " We will not believe thee unless thou make thy paradise appear and show us the torments of hell." These people wanted objective revelations to satisfy them, but the Prophet thought they should take his word ; he would do nothing in the way of wonder-working to meet their requests, which he considered altogether unreasonable. Many other religious teachers have, however, differed from him in this respect ; some of his followers, who established in Persia the heretical sect of Ismaelites, obtained immense influence over a certain number of credulous people by taking them while they slept into beautiful gardens so that they might behold on awaking objective vision OF 216 THE KEAL JESUS. paradise. And long before his time the priests in some of the Pagan temples got up mysteries or religious dramas in which were skilfully exhibited the punishment of the wicked in Tartarus and the reward of the righteous in the Elysian Fields. White-robed spectral forms appeared who delivered to the trembling audience very impressive moral discourses, as though theyhad been messengers from heaven. Thousands of people believed in the supernatural character of these dramatic visions, when they would not have given a moment's credit to what any individual revelator might profess to have heard and seen by himself. The mysteries were undoubtedly the most powerful instrumen- tality ever devised for the religious instruction of a rude people, but they were greatly abused by some profligate persons, and they fell at length into complete discredit on that account, and from their being employed more and more by un- scrupulous priests for the advancement of their own selfish ends rather than for the moral guidance and elevation of the community. 3. In every age when the sacerdotal class have wanted to get influence over credulous people and persuade them more powerfully than mere preaching- could do either to reform their lives, to devote themselves to some special undertaking, or perform an act of self-sacrifice for the advancement of a religious cause, they have repeatedly sought to attain their end by getting up objective visions. For there have always been many who would not do this, that, and the other thing against their inclina- tion at the request of any fellow-mortal, yet would instantly obey a voice that was thought to come from the spirit world. And it has not been necessary to have a sacred edifice or any special place for the production of such visions, as in the case of the Pagan mysteries ; they have occasionally been THE CEUCIFIXION DRAMA. 217 exhibited to good purpose in private houses and in all sorts of obscure localities. In Eomau Catholic countries a few sinlple peasants have occasionally been favoured with a surprise visit of the Virgin Mary, who has given them a message requiring the neighbouring people to erect a sanctuary there, or attend to their religious duties better in future, and the instructions thus delivered as divine have been believed and acted upon with a great deal more promptness than if they had emanated from the Pope. A searching investigation has in some few instances exposed these masked dramas and identified the personators of the Virgin, as was the case at La Salette in 1846, but for all that the popular belief in their supernatural character has been generally maintained. The Rev. Alban Butler, in his "Lives of the Saints," has given an interesting account of the discovery of the relics of St. Sbeph} i through a revelation from the ghost of Gamaliel, that is, from some venerable man clothed in a white garment professing to be Gamaliel. Such reve- lations were common enough at that period ; the early Christians in general were well disposed to use deception for what they considered a good pur- pose ; if they wanted to palm anything off on the credulous multitude they did not hesitate to bring in some eminent authority to vouch for it by per- sonation or forgery. Dramatic apparitions of de- parted saints and spurious epistles from them testi- fying in behalf of this and that doctrine or institution were, in their eyes, perfectly justifiable, because, when everything else failed, these stratagems produced conviction. 4. The resort to pious frauds for the purpose of influencing the credulous did not commence especially in the fourth and fifth centuries, as the historian Mosheim would make it appear; they were equally, nay more, practised in the first century, and 218 THE REAL JESUS. at earlier periods. It is well known that the dominant ideas of primitive Christianity were derived mainly from two forged revelations of Maccabean times the Book of Daniel and the Book of Enoch. Jesus and those associated with him in his mission never entertained the least suspicion of those writings being forgeries, they received them as unquestionably genuine. Indeed he seems to have valued them above all other Scriptures, from their revealing the doctrine of the <( kingdom of heaven/' and it is from them that he derives that favourite designation, the " Son of Man," which he applies to himself. Would not enthusiasts so destitute of the critical faculty have been just as readily imposed upon by any designing people who might craftily personate the dead ? Had two men clothed in white garments appeared to Jesus in the night time representing themselves respectively as Daniel and Enoch, and bringing him divine messages, he would have been sure to place the same implicit credit in the oral revelations thus delivered as he did in those of the spurious books. And there are very strong reasons for believing that he really was influenced by secret messages of this character : indeed it is hardly conceivable how he could have been brought in any other way to act the extraordinary religious part which he did. Some writers persist in calling him a mystic, but there is nothing of that character about him ; he was no more an independent revelator than his disciples were \ he was clearly instigated and moved by others who would of course enjoin secrecy upon him ; his whole line of conduct affords evidence of his being a credulous zealot schooled by objective visions. The Jews of that period, who believed in the coming " kingdom of heaven/' seem to have thought that with certain dramatic preparations and fulfilments of Scripture many others would be THE CRUCIFIXION DKAMA. 219 brought to believe, and that the predicted events would thus be accelerated. It was needful in their estimation that the suffering nation should have a suffering Messiah who must die as a martyr and rise again in appearance, foretokening the general resurrection. And it was not by mere persuasion and argument that a pious Galilean peasant would be led to believe that he was the Messiah specially pointed to in Scripture and was required to under- take a mission which would involve the laying down of his life. 5. One of the most important events which the Evangelists record is what is called the Transfiguration of Jesus that is, the interview which he is said to have had with " Moses and Elias " on a mountain of Galilee, where three of his most trusted disciples were permitted to accompany him (Matt. xvii. 1-9). Expositors of the school of Strauss have been accustomed to explain this remarkable interview as a purely mythical picture, but, judged by internal evidence and in connection with those closing events of the prophet's career which are allowed to be historical, it is much more likely to be the report of an objective vision especially designed to prepare him for martyrdom. As in the case of several well- known Eoman Catholic apparitions, the whole scene is strictly mundane and plainly within the reach of human contrivance, and there are several suspicious circumstances connected with it, such as the seclusion and elevation of the spot, the fewness of the spectators, their previous sleep, and the charge of secrecy imposed upon them, which remind us of the old mystery performances and forcibly suggest dramatic design. It seems to have been the object of those who appeared on the mountain in a spiritual guise not only to influence and instruct Jesus, but to furnish the chief disciples with very 220 THE EEAL JESUS. strong and impressive evidence that their master Lad communion with the greatest of the prophets, and was really the divinely commissioned Messiah. "We are told that when Peter, James, and John had ascended the mountain to some distance they were fatigued with the exertion and lay down to rest. While they were sleeping, the " Moses and Elias " of the drama, whom Jesus would have been prepared to meet by arrangement, came forth from their concealment and clothed him in a garment beautifully white. The disciples were then awakened to witness with astonishment their master thus gloriously robed and the risen prophets who accompanied him, while a voice from the height above, which they supposed to be no other than God's voice, said, ''This is my beloved son, hear ye him." The three disciples, like those initiated at the Greek mysteries, were naturally enough frightened at what they had seen and heard, and Jesus came at length and spoke with them familiarly, and aroused them from their prostration. When they looked up they found their master standing with them alone, so that they neither witnessed the advent nor the departure of the apparitions, and came down from the mountain as fully confirmed in their faith, and as much enchanted with their foretaste of paradise as the devotees who in an interval of freedom from intoxicating stupor passed through the delightful gardens of Alimoot. 6. At this mountain drama or vision of the Transfiguration, it is worthy of notice that the personators of Moses and Elias spoke to Jesus of his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem (Luke ix. 31) ; and about this period he seems to have first revealed the serious under- taking which he had in prospect to his disciples. We are told, " From that time forth began Jesus to THE CRUCIFIXION DRAMA. 221 show unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders, and chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day " (Matt. xvi. 21). " Tell the vision to no man, till the Son of Man be risen from the dead " (xvii. 9). "And Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples apart by the way, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem ; and the Bon of Man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death" (xx. 17, 18). The disciples, or most of them, were not prepared for this grave information, and seem to have had great difficulty in believing that their master would really suffer an ignominious death. But Jesus told them that they must not only soon see him suffer, but be ready also to lay down their own lives in order to obtain life everlasting. " Whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake the same shall find it " (xvi. 25). Thus the trained devotees of the Nazarene sect, the simple con- fiding men, who hoped ere long to sit on twelve thrones judging .the twelve tribes of Israel, were taught at length that the high places in paradise were only to be obtained by submitting to perse- cution and martyrdom. It is not at all probable that Jesus would of himself have entertained the idea of rising again after being buried three days ; but the real heads of the sect, Joseph of Arimathea and others who had secret intercourse with him, had an obvious reason for predicting this as though it had been revealed from heaven, that he might the more readily devote himself to martyrdom, and his disciples be the more disposed at the appointed time to believe in the projected miracle of the Eesurrection. 7. The Nazarene confederacy, in arming their 222 THE KEAL JESUS. suffering Messiah with, evidences, relied in no small degree on what they considered the fulfilment of Scripture texts, and they seem to have taken especial care that he should conform to the sacred writings in the important acts that were just about to close his career. He was instructed to make his public entry into Jerusalem on a young ass, that he might thereby seem to fulfil a passage (Zechariah ix. 9) which is supposed to refer to the humble condition of Zerubbabel when he came from Chaldea to rebuild the city walls. In connection with this fulfilment of Scripture it is interesting to notice the dramatic artifices resorted to for convincing the simple disciples of their master's prophetic foresight. As they approached Jerusalem, Jesus, probably from some information conveyed to him by " Moses and Elias," sent two of his disciples in advance, telling them that at a certain place they would find a colt tied, which, by delivering a given message to the keepers, they would be suffered to bring away (Mark xi. 3). They went forward to a place where two ways met, . and found everything precisely as their master had foretold. When they ave the correct answer to the keepers' interrogations, "The Lord hath need of him/' they were permitted to remove the animal, and they would be sure to regard this as an unequivocal proof of their master's divine fore- knowledge and power. Again, on the day of unleavened bread, Peter and John (probably the same two disciples that brought Jesus the colt) were sent into the city to engage a room for the Passover feast. They were told that on entering the city a person would meet them bearing a pitcher of water, whom they were directed to follow home and say to the occupant of the house, " The master saith unto thee, Where is the guest chamber where I shall eat the Passover with my THE CRUCIFIXION DRAMA. 223 disciples?" (Lukexxii. 11). They went accordingly, and found every circumstance as Jesus had foreshown and made ready as he had directed. The room which they prepared belonged probably to Joseph of Arimathea or one of his colleagues ; but the simple unsuspecting disciples would imagine that the engagement was brought about by a supernatural power which their master had over the minds of strangers to induce them to minister to his wants. 8. Soon after eating the Passover feast with his disciples Jesus is said to have been arrested and brought to trial, and there can be little doubt that the same secret chiefs of the Nazarene sect, who got up the mountain vision and spoke of the martyrdom which he was -soon to suffer, were really instrumental to its accomplishment. They had, under the guise of messengers from heaven, directed their Messianic devotee to go up to Jerusalem, and there die, to rise again according to the Scriptures, and now that he had arrived within the city they laboured craftily and assiduously for the completion of their design, The intemperate harangue which Jesus made against tlie Temple authorities, commencing, ' ' Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! " (Matt, xxiii.) was undoubtedly intended to pro- voke the Jewish rulers to get him arrested and condemned to death, just as many tumultuous Christians of the second century forced from the hands of Pagan priests and magistrates the martyr's crown. His noisy and triumphal entrance into the city, his rude interference with the arrangements of the Temple court and the privileges of the merchants, and lastly his collecting a crowd of people and coarsely denouncing their educated teachers, must naturally have given considerable offence. But there were many sects 224 . THE REAL JESUS. at that time and much freedom of speech, and it is not likely that the chief priests and rulers would have cared greatly for anything that the prophet of Nazareth might say so long as he did not commit any serious breach of the peace. At the Passover season prophets, devotees, and fanatics flocked into the city from every quarter (as, indeed, they do at this day), and they were allowed great indulgence, if they only abstained from open rioting and inciting to insurrection. The Jewish ecclesiastical authorities, acting in concert with the procurator, were not likely to be more alarmed or exasperated at the violent behaviour of Jesus than they were at the temporary indiscretions of other excited zealots. They might naturally suppose, from what usually happened with such characters, that in the course of a few days his enthusiasm would evaporate, and he would quietly return to his native province. 9. If the chief priests and scribes had really been moved with " envy " against Jesus, and had sought how they might take him by craft and put him to death " (Mark xiv. 1), as they are falsely reported to have done, they would beyond all doubt have tried to assassinate him, and not have plotted to obtain the punishment of an innocent man by the tedious and hazardous process of a public trial, which would have been likely to expose their malevolence to the reprobation of all honest people. They could have hired secret murderers just as readily as they are said to have procured false witnesses, and the agency of the former would have been infinitely the safer and surer means of terminating the prophet's career. For Jesus was not a resident citizen, but a houseless wanderer, far away from his native province ; and as he was often alone, or only accompanied by a few simple unarmed disciples, must have offered THE CRUCIFIXION DEAMA. 225 on such occasions the most accessible mark for an assassin. Now the fact that no stealthy dagger assault on his life .was ever attempted, that he went where he pleased in the neighbourhood of the city unmolested either by day or by night, is a convincing proof that the chief priests and rulers were not, as they have been represented, always plotting and seeking how they might by subtlety seize and destroy him. It is manifest, too, that if they took any hostile part against him at last, they were not conspirators, but more truly the victims of a conspiracy, for they never would have incurred the trouble, risk, and obloquy of deliver- ing one of their countrymen into the hands of the Romans to be publicly crucified, when they might have watched their opportunity and taken him off secretly in his retirement. The real conspirators in this affair were those who got up the masked drama on the mountain of Galilee, and persuaded Jesus to go up to Jerusalem and seek death at the hands of men who had then, probably, never heard of him, could certainly have no enmity against him, and, however strange his conduct might seem when he at length thrust himself under their notice, so long as he behaved as a law-abiding citizen, would not have hurt a hair of his head. 10. Dr G-eikie has the following remarks on the constitution of the Jewish Sanhedrin the court before which Jesus is alleged to have been tried : " The accused was in all cases to be held innocent till proved guilty. It was an axiom that the Sanhedrin was to save, not to destroy life. No one could be tried and condemned in his absence, and when a person accused was brought before the court, it was the duty of the president at the outset to admonish the witnesses to remember the value of human life, and to take care that they forgot nothing that would tell in the prisoner's Q 226 THE REAL JESUS. favour. Nor was he left undefended ; a Baal-Rib, or counsel, was appointed to see that all possible was done for his acquittal. Whatever evidence tended to aid him was to be freely admitted, and no member of the court who had once spoken in favour of acquittal could afterwards vote for condemnation. The votes of the youngest of the judges were taken first, that they might not be influenced by their seniors. In capital charges it required at least two to condemn, and while the verdict of acquittal could be given at once, that of guilty could only be pronounced the next day. Hence capital trials could not begin on the day preceding a Sabbath or public feast. No criminal trial could be carried through in the night ; the judges who condemned any one to death had to fast all the day before, and no one could be exe- cuted on the same day on which the sentence was pronounced. Rules so precise and so humane condemn the whole trial of Jesus before Caiaphas as an outrage. It was, in fact, an anticipation of the prostitution of justice which Josephus records as common in the later days of Jerusalem. ' Fic- titious tribunals and judicatures, 5 he tells us, { were setup, and men called together to act as judges, though they had no real authority, when it was - desired to secure the death of an opponent/ As in these later instances so now in the case of Jesus, they kept up the form and mockery of a tribunal to the close" ("Life of Christ," p. 680)." 11. The mock tribunals which Josephus speaks of as being instituted during an insurrection in Jerusalem have been referred to in the preceding chapter (vii. 15), and it must be borne in mind that they were not set up by the chief priests and rulers, but by their revolutionary enemies, who even went so far as to kill without trial Annas, the brother- in-law of Caiaphas. So, if Dr. Geikie is right in his THE CRUCIFIXION DRAMA. 227 very reasonable surmise that Jesus was tried before a fictitious sanhedrin, it is quite certain that the president would not have been the high-priest, although it might have been some one who simulated the high-priest. Some of the Nazarene confederacy, who wanted to bring about the martyr- dom of Jesus for the advancement of their cause, might possibly have gone to the Jewish rulers and besought them to arrest Jesus as a preacher of sedition and disturber of the public peace, just as French magistrates during the great Revolution were occasionally persuaded to arrest or attempt to arrest a mob leader, in the hope that such a proceeding would turn against them the vengeance of the people. On the assumption that the genuine Sanhedrin did take some kind of judicial action against one who was seeking a condemnation to death, they must have been inveigled into doing so by their designing enemies, but the narrative of the Evangelists points rather to the probability of a counterfeit court being got up in some part of the city to make an exhibition of injustice that would cast on the true rulers opprobrium. As Dr. Geikie points out, this tribunal did not conform to the rules which the Jewish Sanhedrin was bound to observe,and there are indications of a dramatic show and marks of semblance and unreality in the whole of their proceedings. In a genuine trial we see two parties earnestly opposing each other like the contending hosts on a battlefield : one side labours hard to obtain a conviction, and the other spares no effort of reasoning and persuasion to get an acquittal ; but in what is presented to us as the trial of Jesus a regular concordance is maintained it is all accusation, unreasonable accusation, and no defence. 12. The contradictory behaviour of the populace towards Jesus on the day of his public entry into Jerusalem, and immediately afterwards, can only Q 2 228 THE HEAL JESUS. be- explained on the supposition of their being a hireling mob under the direction of a managing confederacy. The people who strewed palms for Jesus and shouted hosannas received no provo- cation from him after his entrance into the city ; the sudden and violent change of sentiment mani- fested towards him must, therefore, have been a dramatic display, and could not have proceeded from any natural impulse. If such marvellous instability of temper were not dramatic, we should be forced to consider it mythical, and some com- mentators have actually endeavoured to explain it in this light, although not with the same amount of reasonableness. Dr. Philippson, in his journal, Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums, says : " The same people that a day before received Jesus with a festive procession and gave him the greatest homage, of whom the priests, and the Sanhedrin, and the Pharisees were afraid, so that they would not lay hands on Jesus, that gave him the power to act the part of a master in the Temple of God, and drive from its courts the whole crowd of traders and vendors, together with all their followers ; the same people stand on the next day before the judg- ment seat of the governor and clamour most terribly for the blood of Jesus, refuse all requests, repudiate all compassion, prefer the release of a notable robber, and even desire that the responsi- bility of the crucifixion may rest on their heads and on the heads of their children. And here it must be remembered that the same people had prepared that triumph for the popular speaker and Messiah, and must therefore have known what they were doing. However changeable the tempera- ment of a populace may be in general, we have here a contradiction which proves the statement of a fact to "be untrue/' The populace who are said to have demonstrated in this strange fashion are THE CRUCIFIXION DRAMA. 229 likely to have been a very small number of people, perhaps less than a hundred. 13. The singular part acted by Judas Iscariot in this crucifixion drama is a further proof of its being entirely under the direction of the Nazarene confederacy. If Judas had been a real traitor employed by the chief priests and rulers to compass his master's destruction, he would have been persuaded to poison him or strangle him while he slept, or at least to betray him into the hands of some other secret assassin. The mere act of publicly kissing Jesus and pointing him out in the midst of his disciples when he was well known and did not attempt to conceal himself, would have been a useless service to his religious opponents had they wished to arrest him, and could only have served the purpose of those who were directing all his movements, urging him to martyr- dom, and getting up dramatic spectacles to fulfil Scripture and impose on the credulous multitude. The confederacy would naturally desire to test the apostles previous to their master's death, and see if they were also prepared for the yoke of martyrdom, or likely to be induced by any worldly conside- rations to abandon their cause. Secret agents pretending to be adversaries of Jesus had probably frequent conversations with them for the purpose of proving their real sentiments. If they found any of the number inclined to apostatize they might deem it advisable to anticipate his defection and eject him from his office as a perpetual example of punished faithlessness, which could in no way have been more thoroughly effected than in the casting off and punishment of Judas. That this man was not a very sincere ascetic and devoted follower of Jesus, that his character and disposition were such as to unfit him for discipleship is very probable j but that he should suddenly become so 230 THE REAL JESUS. wicked and reckless as to plot against his master's life is highly improbable. The story that he went of his own accord to the chief priests and agreed to reveal Jesus to them for thirty pieces of silver is absurd, for even if he had made the proposal it is certain that they would not have accepted on any terms such idle services. Bat on the supposi- tion that one of the Nazarene party, pretending to be a servant of the chief priest, came and offered the condemned disciple to accompany him on the Passover eve to the place where Jesus was waiting and there salute him with a kiss, the formal act of betrayal is perfectly intelligible. The simple and unfortunate man would readily comply with such an offer, not imagining that any harm would come from it till the dramatic salutation was accom- plished, when he would suddenly find himself pointed at by his apostolic brethren, cast off and spurned as a traitor. 14. The behaviour of Jesus when awaiting his arrest in the garden of Gethsemane (which prob- ably belonged to Joseph of Arimathea) was very unlike that of a genuine martyr, hunted by implac- able enemies, from whom there was no possibility of making escape. Men in such circumstances have generally conducted themselves like a brave shipwrecked mariner, who, having exhausted every effort to save himself from drowning, becomes perfectly calm and resigned to his fate. But Jesus had a consciousness that his fate depended upon his own will, and was convulsed by the internal struggle of desiring to become a martyr and wishing to avoid death. His agony was something like that which used to be occasionally experienced by a weak, irresolute Hindoo widow, who, having promised the Brahmins that she would sacrifice herself on the body of her dead husband, when the hour of trial came was distracted by conflicting THE CRUCIFIXION DRAMA. 231 passions, and led to feel that she had imposed on herself too great a task. The instructors of Jesus might naturally be apprehensive that his martyr courage would fail him at the last moment, unless he should be assured by some means that spiritual messengers were near. The " angel J} who, as Luke informs us, came to strengthen him in the garden, was probably a real person related to the white-robed visitors who conferred with him on a mountain in Galilee. When the party who arrested him at night moved from the garden towards the house of Caiaphas, and the disciples dispersed or timidly loitered at some distance in the rear, Mark tells us that " there followed him a certain young man having a linen cloth cast about his naked body, and the young men laid hold of him, and he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked " (xiv. 51-52). Some orthodox commentators have conjectured that this young man spoken of was Mark himself. But it is very improbable that Mark, if he had been present, would have been clothed in this manner, or would have been separated from the other disciples. It is more reasonable to suppose that the mysterious young man in a linen cloth who followed the procession from Grethsemane was the same as Luke's " angel," or a companion messenger. The eagerness which he manifested to get away from his pursuers at all costs affords ground for suspicion that he was really engaged in a serious religious ghost plot, and was fearful of being caught and identified. 15. When brought to the judgment-hall before Pilate, Jesus had recovered his firmness, and, like a true seeker of martyrdom, made no attempt to defend himself against his accusers and save his life. Pilate said, "Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee ? And he answered him to never a word ; insomuch that the 232 THE EEAL JESUS. governor marvelled greatly" (Matt, xxvii. 13 14). Neither did any of his friends nor followers come forward to speak in his behalf, which abundantly shows who were the parties really interested and active in bringing about his crucifixion. The procurator was anxious to give him a fair trial, extremely reluctant to condemn him, suggesting all he could think of to afford him a legitimate path of escape, so that if any of his friends had come forward to testify of his innocence and of the good which he had wrought among them, as they should have done, they might have easily obtained for him an honour- able acquittal. But that nothing of this kind was attempted, that no expression of sympathy was manifested, that not a single voice was raised in his defence could only have been because Jesus, at the instance of his secret white-robed instructors, had strictly forbidden his followers to plead in his behalf, or give themselves any concern for his safety. Joseph of Arimathea is said to have been one of the Jewish rulers, but he is more likely to have been a member of some fictitious sanhedrin. It was reported that he dissented from the verdict of the other rulers who delivered Jesus over to Pilate (Luke xxiii. 51), and Joseph would have been likely enough to represent that he had opposed their wicked designs ; there can be little doubt, however, that this man who refused to appear before the governor and plead for the life of Jesus, but "went in boldly" and begged for his dead body (Mark xv. 43), was one of the most active, if not the chief, of the mystic confederacy who contrived and brought about his crucifixion. 16. It is commonly believed among Christians that Jesus was tried and condemned by the Jewish Sanhedrin previously to being taken before Pilate, and this opinion is maintained by Mr. Taylor Innes in his two articles on te The Trial of Jesus THE CEUCIFIXION DRAMA. 233 Christ," which appeared some years ago in the Contemporary Review. If there really was a Jewish trial, it must have been, as Dr. Geikie has suggested, nothing better than a mock trial before a fictitious sanhedrin. Dr. Benisch, as well as this Christian scholar, points to the irregularities attending it, and is convinced that they would never have been permitted by the genuine Temple authorities. He says, f ' To conclude that there was a Jewish trial, we have to assume that the Sanhedrin which condemned Jesus undertook an utterly useless, and even senseless task, since a Jewish court at the time had no longer the power to carry out its sentence; that this court was presided over by Caiaphas, the high-priest, con- sequently of the seed of Aaron, when we know from history that the presidency of the court was hereditary in the family of Hillel, certainly nob descended from priests, and are acquainted with the name of every one of these functionaries until the court was closed by the Eomans And what was the crime of which he was accused, and for which he was sentenced to death ? Was he condemned because he called himself the Son of God ? Every Judean addressed God as his Father in heaven. All Israel are called in the Bible God's children ; God distinctly called David ' My son/ How, therefore, could a Judean be condemned for an utterance which might have been, and no doubt was, in the mouths of thousands of his countrymen? Surely no one will maintain that when Jesus called himself the Son of God, and his disciples assented to that designation, they understood it in a sense subsequently given to it by the Council of Nice or in the Apostles' creed ? Of such a sonship the disciples could have had no idea. Now if there was no crime, how could a sentence have been passed ? " (" Judaism and Christianity/' pp. 31-33). 234 THE REAL JESUS. 17. I quite agree with Dr. Benisch up to this point, that there was no actual trial of Jesus before the Jewish Sanhedrin, which held its sittings in the Tempte, and not at the house of Caiaphas. It is very certain that the absurd charges which are said to have been brought against him, such as his calling himself the Son of God, and saying that he would destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days, would not have been made by the real Jewish authorities. Men experienced as they were in the administration of justice would have either found a reasonable accusation to advance against him or would have said nothing. Is it to be sup- posed that they could have found no true witnesses to accuse him amongst the merchants on whom he had recently committed an assault, or that they would have entirely forgotten to mention that clear breach of the peace, while they paid false witnesses to say what was irrelevant, and altogether ridicu- lous ? The false testimony which the chief priests and rulers are said to have bought for the purpose of this prosecution would have been of just about as much value to them as the kiss of Judas. It what the Evangelists describe to us is not purely mythical, it can only be reasonably explained as a mock trial, a mere dramatic performance got up by a confederacy to impose on credulous people. Dr. Benisch does not seem to entertain any suspicion of Jesus being taken before a fictitious tribunal, and endorses the theory propounded by Philippson, in 1865, that he was really prosecuted and punished not by Jews, but by the Eomans as a political offender. While holding both these distinguished scholars in very high estimation and giving careful consideration to their opinion, I am unable to accept it as correct for the following reasons. 18. Jesus, although claiming to be the Jewish Messiah, differed entirely from the warrior chiefs, THE CRUCIFIXION DRAMA. 235 such as Judas of Galilee and Barcochebas, who made themselves obnoxious to the Roman autho- rities. He was not only non-military, but he preached non-resistance and looked for the redemp- tion of Israel wholly by supernatural means, so that he could not be considered dangerous in a political sense nor expected to raise a standard of revolt. The Romans, who had so many robbers and insur- rectionists to contend with, would be likely to regard with the greatest tolerance a harmless zealot of this kind, and to believe that his parading about with a few unarmed peasant followers as king of the Jews would be a very likely means of bringing the aspirations of the national party into contempt. Then it is well known that Jesus had no quarrel with the Romans on the score of their unbelief, he did not seek to effect their conversion ; he regarded them as aliens, but not as enemies, and passed them by without feeling any more concern for them than he would have done for the horses of Csesar. Dr. Philippson believes that it was a leading object of the New Testament writers " to clear the Romans from the guilt of the death of Jesus and charge it altogether on the Jews." I am quite unable to see any such disposition in those chroniclers ; they undoubtedly did their utmost to blacken the Jewish authorities, but they were equally ready to calumniate the Roman governors of the country. The Herods not even excepting the amiable Herod Agrippa are represented as persecuting monsters, ever seeking occasion to shed the blood of the saints. Pilate, we are told, " took Jesus and scourged him," even while admitting him to be an innocent man. The Christian creed says expressly that Jesus " suffered under Pontius Pilate," and from the first century to the nineteenth this Roman governor has been held up to the execration of all Christendom. The Nazarene 236 THE EEAL JESUS. saints were revolutionists opposed to all govern- ment beyond their own circle, and delighting to calumniate every ruler and magistrate whose shadow came across their path, and it must be admitted that they bestowed their abuse with the strictest impartiality. 19. Dr. Philippson contends that the Evangel- ists whom he supposes to have written in the second century had this capital reason for exculpating the Romans and inculpating the Jews. " Christianity found no favour at all among the Jewish people ; hence the proper scene of con- version had to be removed into heathen nations. But then it was of vital importance to controvert the belief that Jesus had been executed by the Roman authorities/' &c. This political reason which the Evangelists are supposed to have had for colouring their narrative seems to me wholly imaginary. In the first place it is incorrect to say that Christianity found no favour at all among the Jewish people, when it originated among them, was in complete harmony with the Essene teaching, and notoriously found favour with the poor and ignorant. Jesus and his apostles and their true successors, the Ebionites, were thoroughly Jewish, so was Paul, though widely differing from them, and indeed every one of the writers of the New Testament. Then it is a completely mistaken view of the character and aims of primitive Christianity to suppose that in whatever quarter ifc hoped to obtain proselytes it must needs endeavour to conciliate and flatter the authorities, for the very reverse of this policy was actually pursued. The revolutionary sect was not conciliatory, but combative, and always contrived to stir up a persecuting enemy in its field of proselytism. During the lifetime of Jesus, and so long as it only sought to lay hold of Jewish converts, it had TOE CRUCIFIXION DKAMA. 237 no quarrel except with the established teachers ot Judaism, and then in the second century, when Jerusalem had fallen and the Sanhedrin had ceased to exist, it found a new enemy to challenge in the rulers of Paganism. The overthrow of the Seven- hilled city the great Babylon, as they called it' was ardently desired and predicted by the Christian writers of that period, and the Satanic powers constantly held up to execration were the Pagan Beast, the Antichrist, and the Man of Sin (2Thess. ii. 3; 1 Johnii.18; Eev.xiii.2; xvii.8). " O haughty Rome ! " says one of the Christian Sibyls, <( the just chastisement of Heaven shall come down upon thee from on high ; fchou shalt stoop thy neck and be levelled with the earth, and fire shall consume thee to thy very foundations, and thy wealth shall perish ; wolves and foxes shall dwell among thy ruins, and thou shalt be desolate as if thou hadst never been." It is therefore to the last degree improbable that just when the struggle with the organized priesthood at Jerusalem had ceased, and a new and terrible conflict had commenced with the Pagan magistracy and prest- hood, the Christians who then wrote would be disposed to take a burden of infamy from oft Pontius Pilate and cast it on the shoulders of Caiaphas. 20. The way in which the Crucifixion was carried out, no less than the whole course of preparation for it, clearly shows that it is what neither the Roman nor the Jewish authorities would have designed for the punishment of one who had become obnoxious to them. If real political adversaries or religious opponents had the plotting of his death, it would have taken place as quietly and privately as possible, and without any of the laboured dramatic display which actually accompanied it. They would never have 238 THE REAL JESUS. entertained the notion of crucifying him between two thieves, of giving him vinegar to drink as he hung on the cross, of piercing his side with a spear, of parting his garments and casting lots for his vesture, so as to establish a mystic agreement with certain texts of Scripture. And they would have been wholly unable to disarm the opposition of his disciples and friends, or prevent a demonstration being made in his favour by the shouting crowd who had recently welcomed him into the city. But all this, which would have been the greatest infatua- tion and childishness on the part of the chief priests and rulers, or would otherwise have exceeded their power, was on the part of the Nazarene confederacy a well-devised scheme and one which they were well able to carry out. It was to them simply the getting up of a masked drama to impose on the world; they stood behind the scenes and commanded the whole of the movements; they had only to engage a number of people to act certain parts, to do this, that, and the other thing, for a small payment as they directed, and the religious mystery was performed with entire success. Those who crucified Jesus, mocked, and insulted him, no more acted from natural impulse than do their modern imitators in the Bavarian Passion-Play ; they did as they were told, just to fulfil Scripture and produce a strong impression on the minds of spectators ; the whole story is dramatic, coloured to some little extent with mythical embellishment. Nothing else so powerfully moves mankind as a harrowing representation of murdered innocence, and there is little need of its being well founded and truthful ; the bodies of Christian children that were occasionally nailed up during the middle ages served just as effectively to work on the feelings of credulous people as the dramatic crucifixion which took place long before on Mount Calvary. THE CRUCIFIXION DEAMA. 239 21. Imaginary wrongs are often made a great deal more of than real ones. Just as sentimental people are sometimes affected to tears by an ordinary theatrical performance having no founda- tion in fact, so still more strongly are devout Christians moved by contemplating the tragic scene of the Crucifixion as exhibited in the Gospels, and converted by St. Paul's mystic teaching into a divine sacrifice. A succession of religious painters and poets have for many centuries expended all their powers in embellishing and idealizing the wondrous death of the Messiah on Mount Calvary. And any realistic interpretation which detracts in the slightest degree from the dignity and solemnity of the transaction, as they have been accustomed to regard it, will, as a matter of course, be in- tensely repugnant to Christian feelings not only unbelievable, but almost unendurable. There is no other martyr festival but that of the Mohurrum that can distantly compare with the Good Friday commemoration, which imparts a dolorous mood to so many millions of worshippers throughout Christendom. Both these festivals, and especially the latter, have been fruitful in calling forth unreasonable vengeance and the shedding of much innocent blood. If the devout people who keep the Crucifixion day with a great show of mourning and sorrow could only be got to shed a few tears for the thousands of poor Jews who have been murdered at this time of the year in consequence of an imaginary crime of their ancestors, Christian grief would be expended to much better purpose. And those who wear crosses and believe that sacrificial magic will cleanse them from all sin- fulness, would serve God far more worthily by looking steadfastly to the straight path of duty which lies before them, and resolutely reforming their lives. 240 THE EEAL JESUS. CHAPTER IX. THE RESUKEECTION DRAMA. The measures taken ostensibly to prevent a false resurrection must have been a mere blind devised not by the chief priests but by the Nazarenes. 5. The soldiers more likely to report a fictitious miracle than deny a real one. 6. The Sauhedrin would have been not only wicked, but mad to reward the utterance of useless falsehoods. 7. Those who buried the body evidently bore it away. 8. On what grounds the personator of Jesus obtained credit. 10. His mannerisms and crucifixion wounds. 15. His appearing by appointment. 14. The disciples' doubts, and difficulties of recognition. 15. The rising of Lazarus contrasted with that of Jesus. 16. Evidence of the great Christian miracle less complete than that of Mormonism. 19. The Ascension. 20. Conversion of Paul by an objective vision. 21. The success which Christianity derived from its obscure origin. WHEN Joseph and Nicodemus, two of the confederacy called et rulers/' who had secret communion with Jesus, had taken his body and put it into a new vault or cavern prepared for the purpose (John xix. 38-39), we are told that (c the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead : so the last error shall be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch : go your way, make it as sure as ye can. So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch" (Matt, xxvii. 62-66). It is THE EESUEEECTION DEAMA. 241 highly improbable that the chief priests and rulers ever resorted to such a foolish and clumsy contrivance as tbis for the purpose of strangling the supernatural evidences of Christianity at its birth. If they, or any rational and intelligent men, had known of Jesus having promised his disciples that he would rise again after three days, and had seriously resolved to prevent them from effecting a pretended resurrection, they would have petitioned Pilate not to suffer the body to be buried at all during that time, or would have had it divided as the relics of saints have been treated, and placed here and there in safe custody. But the common belief that they were expecting a surreptitious removal of the body to be attempted, that they were anxious to do all in their power to prevent its abstraction, and that they yet permitted the partisans of Jesus to conceal it in their private vault, which might possibly have more than one entrance, is manifestly absurd ; still more so is the supposition that they were so infatuated as to entrust the watching of this Nazarene tomb to a party of Pagan soldiers, who could only be expected to discharge such a duty from mercenary motives. 2. If the Jewish rulers and their friends had been actively engaged in contriving and bringing about the death of Jesus, and had now at length got him in their hands as a fallen enemy, it is evident that they would no more have delivered him up into the hands of his disciples after the cru- cifixion than before that event, while they had him under arrest. For as he was not considered per- manently dead, as it was believed by many that in three days he would rise again and effect his escape from the tomb, or, as others supposed, that his body would be stolen, and that a pretended Jesus would go forth and deceive the people, he must have been under these circumstances regarded and E 242 THE REAL JESUS. treated as a prisoner, and it would have been utter madness to deliver such a prisoner into the custody of his own partisans. Fancy Charles I. falling* into the hands of Cromwell's forces during the Civil War, and being delivered by them into the custody of Prince Rupert; and the English Parliament sending a company of foreign mercenaries to the residence of that distinguished royalist, charging them to lock the doors carefully and prevent the king's escape, and we should have something like a parallel case to that of the Jewish Sanhedrin delivering the body of Jesus into the safe keeping of Joseph of Arimathea, and sending a hireling Roman guard to seal the entrance of that Nazarene leader's private tomb, so as to prevent the removal of the crucified Messiah. 3. On the other hand, if the religious con- federacy to which Joseph belonged had the placing of the Eoman watch at the sepulchre, we can readily perceive their motives for it, and it was a prudent and well-arranged measure. In the raising of Lazarus and other important miracles which they had enabled Jesus to perform, they chose their own convenient time and suitable spectators; but now, if the report had begun to spread that Jesus after three days was to rise again if the time and place of the miracle were fixed,- and there was, in consequence, a probability of some of their religious opponents.bemg present at the sepulchre, how, in the face of such hostile supervision, could the intended resurrection be accomplished ? It might naturally seem advisable to them under these circumstances to place a guard at the sepulchre to keep away all impertinent and hostile intruders. And who could be more fitted for such a task than their late hired assistants, the Roman soldiers, who had so well acted their part of fulfilling prophecy at the crucifixion ? Moreover, THE INSURRECTION DRAMA. 243 by getting a military guard placed at the tomb for the ostensible purpose of preventing the expected fraudulent resurrection, it might tend to lull sus- picion, to quiet and satisfy those who were really apprehensive of a secret abstraction of the body, and who might otherwise have deemed it necessary to be present and watch for themselves. That the confederacy were apprehensive of an unwelcome intrusion on this occasion is manifest by the prema- ture haste with which they effected the pretended resurrection. The body ought to have remained in the tomb till Monday evening, but it was borne away early on Sunday morning, cc when it was yet dark/' so that instead of rising cf after three days/' Jesus was actually made to rise before the second day was completed. 4. It is commonly assumed by Christian writers that the band of soldiers stationed at the sepulchre were acting in behalf of the Roman government, so that they dare not abandon or betray their charge, must necessarily have been hostile to the partisans of Jesus, and would have presented an invincible obstacle to their bearing away his body. They have, however, a totally mistaken view of the soldiers' position. If those men had been un- faithful in their duty to CaBsar they would most assuredly have been punished by the procurator ; but Pilate cared no more than G-allio for the religious quarrels of the Jews, and if either the chief priests and rulers, or a sectarian confederacy at enmity with them chose to engage at their own expense a number of his men to frustrate the designs of their opponents, he would have been wholly indifferent to their fidelity and vigilance in such a cause, and the soldiers' only care would have been to get as much pay as they could from either party of contending Jews who might happen to solicit their services. It is evident, then, that the R 2 244 THE REAL JESUS. Roman watch placed at the sepulchre, instead of preventing, must rather have facilitated the fraudulent abstraction of the body. For if, as we believe, they were in the hire of the religious party to whom the sepulchre belonged, they would have been ready enough to quit their post whenever their employers might require them to do so. On the other hand, had they been engaged by the chief priests and rulers, they might easily have been bribed by the proprietors of the tomb to go away " when it was yet dark/' And even supposing the soldiers had been in any danger of punishment for not performing their duty on this occasion, they would have incurred less risk by telling a lie for the confederacy, reporting a miraculous resurrection which no power could prevent, than by falsely declaring for the Jewish council that they had slept at their post and suffered the body to be stolen. For although the chief priests and their friends would not have believed the reported miracle, they might have thought it probable enough that the soldiers had been frightened from their post by the sudden approach of white-robed men, whom they mistook for angels. Whereas the absurd story of their sleeping on duty, and thus permitting the tomb to be broken open and emptied by the disciples, would at once have- convicted them of unpardonable negligence or perfidy. 5. It is further infinitely more probable that the soldiers and other people then living in Jerusalem would report a fictitious miracle than deny a real one. They might easily fancy and say that they had seen angels or spirits approach and open the sepulchre, as miracles of this sort have been imagined and reported times without number. But what if angels had descended in reality ; what if the heavens had opened and the earth had quaked THE RESURRECTION DRAMA. 245 and given up her dead, as poets have described the last judgment would those who had witnessed the awful spectacle easily forget it, or be in any humour to go forth and declare to the neighbours that nothing of the kind had taken place ? No ; such utter callousness and indifference to miraculous manifestations of this astounding character would not be in human nature. The soldiers, who are said to have been so appalled at the tremendous scene which they witnessed that they " became as dead men, " when somewhat recovered from the shock and able to walk and speak, must have been in a very serious frame of mind. Having this actual commencement of the end of the world and the coming kingdom of heaven made visible to them, they ought to have been the fittest and foremost Christians to part with their temporal possessions and travel up and down in all countries preaching and bearing witness of the resurrection. So far, however, from their setting out on such a mission, we are informed that they had the hardihood to go straightway into the city and deny what they had seen, and, for a few pieces of paltry coin, renounce their prospect of wearing everlasting crowns. It is by no means rare for men to lie both consciously and unconsciously in agreement with their passions and their apparent interest, but it is very unusual and unnatural for them to start a falsehood in the opposite direction. In our own times it now and then happens that a ghost story is created either by some credulous person who is dominated by superstitious fears, or by a more crafty individual who wishes for some purpose to get it believed that a certain place is haunted. But there is no well- known instance in this or any other country of people having seen what they took for a real ghost and been nearly frightened to death by it, 246 THE REAL JESUS. and yet denying their terrible experience before the world. 6. Not only would it have been morally impossible for the Roman soldiers to see Jesus raised from the dead by an angel descending from heaven, and then go and report that his body was stolen by the disciples, but we may be sure that the Jewish Sanhedrin would not have suggested and paid them to utter such a monstrous falsehood. Some of the members of that assembly might justify the practice of deception occasionally in the service of religion, as was common with all sacerdotalists at that period, others might not exhibit the strictest pro- bity in their private life, but when they were all solemnly acting together in their official capacity, they would be sure to respect the ninth command- ment, and would never so far renounce their moral dignity as to bribe a number of heathen wretches to lie for them in the face of Heaven. "It is a difficulty," says Strauss, " acknowledged even by orthodox expositors, that the Sanhedrin, in a regular assembly and after a formal consultation, should have resolved to corrupt the soldiers and put a lie into their mouths. That in this manner a college of seventy men should have officially decided on suggesting and rewarding the utterance of a false- hood is too widely at variance with the decorum, the sense of propriety inseparable from such an assembly. " Moreover, the council must have known that the lie which they are said to have purchased would not, after all, avail them for conceal- ing the truth and obstructing the cause of their opponents. For if they deemed the report of the resurrection false, they would know it to be far better to examine the men publicly and expose their lie than to pay them to contradict it by a second lie which no rational person would be found to believe. On the other hand, had they been THE RESURRECTION DRAMA. 247 convinced of the truth of the miracle, they would have been further convinced that they could not by any contemptible falsehood which they might start against it prevent it from becoming manifested to the world. They would have known that if Jesus had really broken forth from the bonds of death and the sepulchre, and was become as a king escaped from prison, he would soon, by his personal presence among the people, give any report which might be circulated of the stealing of his body a triumphant refutation. The lie, then, which the Evangelists tell us was set going by the Sanhedrin and the soldiers to arrest the Christian faith must be con- sidered a preternatural lie, and the Kesurrection itself was scarcely more miraculous. 7. There is little room to doubt that the same confederate party who had stealthy communion with Jesus, and who deposited his body in a receptacle which they had prepared for the purpose in their garden, also secretly bore it away. But they would not think of carrying off and concealing the dead prophet of Nazareth without providing a living representative to go forth in his place and fulfil the prediction of his rising. In order to complete their resurrection drama it would be necessary for one of the confederacy to personate the revived Jesus before some of the leading disciples, as they had on a former occasion per- sonated Moses and Elias in Galilee. Accordingly we find in the Gospel narrative an account of a mysterious visitor presenting himself to a few privileged beholders in that character. It is generally supposed that this person, who obtruded himself on the notice of the disciples occasionally, soon after the evacuation of the sepulchre, was believed by them to be Jesus, on the ground of his perfect identity in form and feature with their late master. This assumption is, however, quite 248 THE REAL JESUS. incorrect, as the narrative plainly shows that they did not believe him to be Jesus in consequence of any striking natural resemblance, but for other and chiefly the following reasons. 8. The resurrection and reappearance of dead persons was not antecedently so incredible to the immediate followers of Jesus as it would be to modern Christians. If any one were now told that his deceased friend had risen from the grave he would at once deem it impossible,, because such a thing is contrary to all present experience, or at least is never reported and looked for in modern times. In the age of the apostles, however, there were frequent rumours of the rising of interred bodies as the commencement of an expected general rising, and fleshly apparitions were as readily believed by superstitious people as disembodied spectres are among the ignorant population of our own country. The disciples of Jesus had seen the pretended Moses and Elias, Lazarus of Bethany, the daughter of Jairus, and several others, who either professed to have been raised themselves from the dead, or to have witnessed other resurrections. It was believed by some, as the Evangelists report, that the martyred John the Baptist had risen out of his grave and reappeared in the person of Jesus. At the very time of the supposed reappearance of Jesus we are told that " the graves were opened ; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many" (Matt, xxvii. 52-53). This story may be nothing more than a mythical embellishment, but it would not have been written in that age nor believed, if such a thing as the rising of the dead had been considered a very rare occurrence demanding very clear and positive evidence for UNIVERSITY OF THE RESURRECTION DRAMA. 249 its credibility. The disciples were also fully expecting their master's reappearance ; for Jesus, acting under the'direction of the confederacy, had told them repeatedly that three days after his death he would rise again and revisit them (Matt. xvi. 21 ; Mark viii. 30; Luke ix. 22, &c.). Bearing these promises in mind, they were looking forward to the appointed day and fancying him back again with such confidence as an affectionate family await the period of a father or brother's return from prison ; and it is when people are in this state of feverish expectancy with regard to the appearance of a beloved form that they are especially liable to be deceived. 9. There remained for the confederacy one more artifice to prepare the disciples 7 minds for a ready belief in any pretender who might present himself to them, and that was to station some of their party at the sepulchre when the body was ab- stracted, to start the report that Jesus had actually risen from the dead, and was gone into Galilee to the place where he had appointed to meet them. In Luke and John we are told of two angels, or men clothed in white garments to have that ap- pearance, being posted at the sepulchre on the morning of the resurrection to give the necessary information to inquiring disciples. In Mark it is said that when two female disciples came early to the sepulchre "they saw that the stone was rolled away, for it was very great. And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted. And he said unto them, Be not affrighted : ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified : he is risen : he is not here : behold the place where they laid him. But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee : there shall ye see him, as he said unto you' 7 (xvi. 4-7). 250 THE EEAL JESUS. In Matthew's account the rolling away of the stone is magnified into a " great earthquake/' and the white-robed young man becomes an " angel of the Lord/' but the message delivered is nearly the same. From the circumstance of the two women coming to anoint Jesus with spices it has been inferred that they could have had no expectation of his rising again,, but the mark of respect that they were anxious to show the Master's body in the sepulchre no more implies a disbelief in his resur- rection than the anointing at Bethany. From the others disbelieving the report of the women, it has been argued that they were naturally incredulous, and had no thought of seeing Jesus return to life. They certainly expected him to reappear according to his promise, but naturally disbelieved the report of the women, partly because it was somewhat unseasonable. He was to have lain in the sepulchre three days, and it was now only a day and a half since his burial. The women themselves were perhaps not considered reliable witnesses. Mary Magdalene appears to have been at one time ac- counted a demoniac (Luke xvi. 9), and the disciples might think that what this poor woman reported originated in her own feverish and disordered mind, and was unworthy of consideration. It would seem, too, very unlikely that she should have the high honour of a first interview with their risen Lord ; and as the twelve disciples were jealous of their rank, other chance interviews were discredited by those not present (John xx. 25). During the last supper Jesus had told the disciples that after he was risen he would meet them at a certain mountain in Galilee. Those who were to rule over the twelve tribes of Israel expected their risen Lord to meet there in a stately and formal manner, and did not suppose that he would be witnessed by any one until the whole THE RESUKRECTION DRAMA. 251 party were regularly assembled according to his appointment. 10. We have thus seen that the disciples were fully prepared and confidently looking for their revived Master before any one in that character made his appearance. They probably did not at first expect to meet him until they had arrived at the mountain in Galilee ; but when they found that the sepulchre was empty, heard that he was risen, and that he had been seen alive in the neighbour- hood, their minds would not fail to become excited, and their eyes would have been ready to anticipate his appearance in the form of every stranger who approached them. When, therefore, a personator of Jesus did actually present himself, a few weak cir- cumstantial evidences that he was armed with sufficed to convince them of his identity. On one occasion he fell in with two disciples casually as they journeyed to Bmmaus, and exhibited consider- able skill and address in drawing from them a recog- nition. He did not rush before them and exhibit at once all his " infallible proofs," and so risk the chance of a complete failure, but began by sounding them and preparing their minds for belief, and then proceeded cautiously to display his signs of identity one after another till they should be persuaded that they were in the presence of their risen Lord. Even if they had not after all been induced to recognize him in this way, the game would only have been suspended, and he might have quietly withdrawn to renew his pretensions and seek better fortune elsewhere. The two disciples going to Bmmaus seem to have been convinced at length that their travelling companion was no other than Jesus, by his peculiar manner of breaking and blessing bread. At the last supper Jesus had probably told the twelve that as soon as he should rise and reappear he would again 252 THE REAL JESUS. break bread with them, and the personator, by performing this ceremony in his manner, evidently meant that it should serve as a sort of masonic sign to accredit him as the risen Christ. If they had had no expectation of the reappearance of Jesus the stranger's manner of blessing bread and expounding Scripture would have merely served to remind them of him, but as they believed that he would rise again after the third day and had just heard a report that he was risen, they only required to see a few such points of formal resemblance to imagine that he stood in their presence. 11. As soon as the supposed Jesus was recog- nized by the two brethren who went to Ernmaus, we are told that he " vanished out of their sight." From this vague statement in reference to his abrupt departure, it is commonly believed that he suddenly became invisible and disappeared in the manner of a ghost or wizard. But the proba- bility is that he did not want them to acquire too much familiarity with him, as they might have done under a prolonged interview, and contrived to engage them in prayer or divert their attention in some other way, and then quickly withdrew unobserved so as to leave them in a cloud of pro- found wonder and amazement. Again, in the evening of that day, when other disciples were met together with closed doors conversing on their Lord's reappearance, we are told that he suddenly " stood in the midst of them " (Luke xxiv. 36 ; John xx. 19), and they were "terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit." They were probably assembled on this occasion at the same house of the confederacy where they had eaten the Passover feast, and where they after- wards, on the day of Pentecost, witnessed the miracle of the fiery tongues. The personator of THE RESURRECTION DRAMA. 253 Jesus with some of his colleagues might be con- cealed in another room, so as to overhear their conversation and learn the current of their thoughts, and then, at a favourable moment while they were praying, he would only have to rush in among them by a sudden coup de theatre and exhibit his pierced hands and feet, and the amazed disciples would have been fully convinced of his identity. 12. But the very fact of his exhibiting crucifixion wounds as a proof of his being the genuine Jesus, and giving prominence to this proof, and relying on it as above all others complete, must seem to every intelligent and impartial judgment the most damn- ing evidence of his imposture. For if the crucified Jesus had actually risen from the dead, his wounds, which were the cause of his death, must certainly have been healed, so that he would have come forth from the tomb perfectly whole. This would have been just as necessary in his case as if he had been decapitated or drawn and quartered ; a man could no more live with a deep spear wound in his pericardium than with his throat cut. What would be thought of John the Baptist rising from the dead without the reunion of his divided vertebrae, and going about exhibiting to his astonished disciples the broad gaping passage of the heads- man's axe as the crowning proof of his identity ? There was an important difference between the wounds of the genuine Jesus and those of the pretender; the former were deep and serious enough to cause death, while the latter were only stigmata, such as several saints imprinted on them- selves, and such as the monk Jetzer at Berne received from the Dominican confederacy. A true man would never exhibit wounds or any other artificial marks that can be easily imitated as the main proof of his identity. Marks of genuineness 254 THE EEAL JESUS. to be worth anything should be natural and entirely beyond the reach of human simulation, and the disciples, from not having this consideration before them, were as blind as the old patriarch who mistook Jacob's kidskin sleeve for the hairy arm of his son Esau. When a person now and then comes for- ward professing to be the lost heir of an estate, any scars or tattooings which he may exhibit for the purpose of identification are invariably regarded by shrewd magistrates with the greatest distrust. Yet it is precisely on evidence of this kind exhibited nearly two thousand years ago that we are now expected to believe in the supernatural origin of Christianity. 13. The mountain in Galilee where the per- sonator of Jesus met the disciples (Matt, xxviii. 16) was probabty the same mountain where three of them, with Jesus himself, had not long before seen objective visions of (( Moses and Eiias " (xvii. 1-9). It does not seem that he exhibited crucifixion wounds, or came in actual contact with them on this occasion, but the evidence relied on was his appearing exactly at the place where Jesus had promised that he would appear. When the disciples, full of faith, undertook their journey into Galilee, as they approached the mountain where the Master had appointed to meet them, their expectation would have been wrought up to the highest pitch; they would have been all on tip-toe to catch a first glimpse of their risen Lord, and no sooner had a human form become visible on the mountain than all would have been ready to exclaim, ' ' There he is ! " If the personator had been habited in a white garment the evidence of his being what he professed to be would have seemed to most of them conclusive, and they were probably cautioned, like Mary Magdelene, to keep at a little distance, or might be prevented by superstitious fear from. TOE RESURRECTION DUAMA. 255 approaching near enough to have a good observa- tion of his features. 14. Notwithstanding all the artifices resorted to by the personator of Jesus to force a recognition from the disciples, and exceedingly credulous as they must have been, they could not help enter- taining some feeling of distrust in reference to his identity. Their slowness to believe that they were actually in the presence of their late Master forms a difficulty which is admitted by most orthodox commentators. It is remarkable that on his first appearance they all failed to observe in him any striking likeness of Jesus, and but for the manner- isms which he thrust upon their notice would have passed him by as an ordinary stranger. When he first appeared to Mary Magdalene, she, we are told, supposed him to be the gardener, and addressed him as such (John xx. 15). When he fell in with the two disciples on their journey to Ernmaus and entered into familiar conversation with them they failed to notice anything either in his features or the tone of his voice to remind them of their Master, which is only to be accounted for by the statement of Mark, that he appeared unto them " in another form " (xvi. 12). Even when he met the party of disciples according to appointment at the mountain in Galilee, and they were in every way prepared for his recognition, we are told that " some doubted" (Matt, xxviii. 17). If the disciples had been but little acquainted with Jesus or had not seen and associated with him for a con- siderable time before his death, they might have had an imperfect remembrance of his features, which might also have altered by sickness and prolonged suffering. But this was by no means the case ; for as the orthodox Dr. Wardlaw says, "They had long intimate familiar acquaintance with their Master previous to his death, and up to the time of 256 THE EEAL JESUS. his death. They had associated with him constantly for three years. They knew him in every feature of his countenance and every member of his frame ; in every attitude, every gesture, every look, every tone of voice, in every particular by which it is conceivable that personal identity can be ascer- tained ; and having thus known him, there was no interval of subsequent separation to weaken the im- pressions or obscure their reminiscences of him. Suppose our most intimate friend to die, to die not by a lingering and wasting process of dissolu- tion, but by a sudden death in his full strength, without tedious emaciation or aught that could induce any alteration of his ordinary appearance ; suppose him to continue dead from Friday afternoon till Sunday morning, and then to appear to us, not in vision, but really and corporally his bona fide self, is it possible, think you, that in so short a time we could so have forgotten him as to be even in the slightest degree at a loss to recognize him and to be sure of his identity ? " (" On Miracles, 33 ch. iv., sec. iv). 15. Certainly not. We would undertake to say that there is not a Sadducee in the country but would in such a case recognize his resuscitated friend the moment he saw him, and the disciples would have been equally ready to recognize their late Master, if he had only appeared to them in reality. It would not have been necessary for him in such case to exhibit wounds, or have recourse to any other artifice to draw from them a recognition. It must be borne in mind, too, that they had none of our antecedent unbelief to restrain them, because they had seen other reputed risen men, and a resurrection was not deemed in those days an impossible, or very extraordinary occurrence. When Lazarus, who pretended to be dead and buried, came forth out of the cave artfully wrapped THE RESURRECTION DRAMA. 257 about in burial clothes, the people who had known him, and who had been invited to witness his apparently miraculous rising, as well as those who carne to see him afterwards, appear to have had no doubt or misgiving as to his being the genuine Lazarus of Bethany. It is worthy of especial observation that when the resurrection of Lazarus took place many witnesses ivere invited who were satisfied every one of that man's identity, and only wanted proof of his death. In the case of Jesus the opposite side of an imperfect miracle was exhibited ; for his death had been made a kind of public spectacle, but liis rising was secret, and when at length a living person professing to be him did appear stealthily to a few chosen witnesses, it was not without considerable difficulty that they were got to believe in his identity. 16. What, after all, is the amount of evidence adduced in support of this great "Foundation Miracle" of orthodox Christianity? Was this ' ' the sealing and signing of the New Covenant/' the " ratification of the New Law " witnessed by the whole Jewish nation ? Was the entire popula- tion of Jerusalem called forth to bear testimony to it ? Did it take place in the presence of all those spectators who had recently witnessed the Cruci- fixion ? The bare unvarnished fact is, that this momentous sealing and signing of the nation's new covenant, as it is called, was not witnessed by a solitary Israelite ! Indeed the Resurrection itself, the rising of the body from the sepulchre, as repre- sented by Christian painters, was not witnessed by a single individual. A party of Pagan soldiers are reported to have seen the stone rolled away from the sepulchre by an " angel," or man dressed in white. Some of the disciples saw a white-robed stranger at the sepulchre who told them that Jesus was risen from the dead. Another stranger after- 258 THE REAL JESUS. wards appeared to the credulous disciples, and pretended with, much art that he was the risen Jesus. But where is the connecting link of this marvellous evidence ? Where is the actual resur- rection ? It seems to have been much such a miracle as the transmutation which now takes place occasionally under the box of a conjuror; the people who stand by as spectators are per- mitted to see the dead thing which goes in and the live thing which conies out, and having these few intimations and suggestions of a miracle given them, are expected to imagine and believe the rest. 17. The evidence that we have of the re- surrection of Jesus is not even so complete and satisfactory as that which is offered for the modern confidential miracle producing a new religion the resurrection of the Book of Mormon. The four witnesses of the Mormon Covenant testify that "they saw the angel descend, they heard his voice, they saw the plates in his hand, they saw the engravings npon them as the angel turned them over leaf after leaf, at the the same time they heard the voice of the Lord out of the heavens/' Pratt, the Mormon apologist, compares the testimony of these four witnesses with that of the disciples who saw the risen Jesus. He declares that of all the disciples who are said to have seen Jesus after his re- surrection only four Matthew, John, Paul, and Peter have handed down to our day their written testimony. ' ' Therefore/' he says, " when this generation can establish the writings of these four apostles to be genuine, uncorrupted, and translated correctly, they will have the testimony of as many witnesses to establish the resurrection of Christ as there was in the first place to establish the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon ; but until then the witnesses of the Book of Mormon will not only be equal in number but superior in certainty to THE RESURRECTION DRAMA. 259 those which, this generation have of Christ's resurrection. Why is it, then, that men will believe four witnesses who lived eighteen centuries ago, and reject the same number of witnesses that have lived in their own day, who testify of things with equally as much certainty, having both heard and seen ? It is because it has become popular through tradition to believe what their fathers believed, without at all inquiring into the strength of the evidence on which their faith is founded " ("Authenticity/' p. 51). 18. The apologist of Mormonism can hardly be said to have made the best of his case : he has not placed the evidences of his own religion and those of Christianity quite in juxtaposition with each other. He ought to have placed the testimony of Matthew, John, Paul, and Peter, who are said to have seen Jesus after his resurrection, beside that of the many simple and sincere Mormon disciples who were permitted to see their sacred book after it was disinterred and partly translated. In the evidence of Christ's resurrection there is not to be found any counterpart to that of the highly favoured witnesses who profess to have seen the Book of Mormon delivered from the hands of the angel. If the Nazarene confederacy had done as much to authenticate their foundation miracle as has since been done by the Mormon confederacy : if the stealthy Joseph, Nicodemus, and two more of their colleagues had handed down their written testimony to the effect that they were present at the Resurrection, that they saw the angel descend on the sepulchre, saw him roll away the stone, and saw the dead body of Jesus suddenly revive and rise up out of the sepulchre, the evidences of Christianity would then, and only then, fully compare with the evidences of Mormonism. 19. The Ascension of Jesus is generally believed s 2 260 THE EEAL JESUS. to have been a much more public and indisputable miracle than the Resurrection, and painters have made an imposing spectacle of it by representing him soaring sublimely into the cloud regions while a number of witnesses stand below with wonder- ing upturned eyes as people are now accustomed to gaze on a balloon. But we are as convinced that they have very much magnified the marvel as that certain Catholic artists have gone beyond the sober reality in their representations of the "Appari- tion of the Blessed Virgin at La Salette." Had there only been a photographer present to fix correctly the phenomena presented to human observation he would not have handed down to posterity such an imposing scene. The narrative of the Ascension is so brief and vague that we are not informed whether it took place by night or by day, or how many of the disciples were present to witness it. It had probably just as little publicity as the Transfiguration vision, which in some respects it appears to have resembled. The disciples being sufficiently persuaded that their Master was risen from the dead, would as a matter of course believe in his ascension whenever the impersonator should discontinue his visits or withdraw from the neighbourhood. According to Luke's account he made a final parting with them on Mount Olivet, and perhaps retired from view on the other side of the mount with the avowed purpose of ascending into heaven. While they stood gazing into the skies, " two men in white apparel," who might have been " Moses and Elias," or the "angels" who had recently been posted at the sepulchre, suddenly approached and persuaded them to cease gazing, as Jesus had flown away beyond their sight, but would at some future time so come from heaven and visit them again (Acts i. 912). 20. It would be interesting to know something THE EESQEEECTION DRAMA. 261 of the intercourse which Joseph of Arirnathea and his colleagues maintained with the leading disciples of Jesus during the few years immediately fol- lowing his death. But we have no other account of this important and critical period in the church's history besides that which Luke has furnished in the early chapters of what he calls " The Acts of the Apostles/' but which might have been more correctly called et The Acts of Paul/' of whom alone the writer appears to have had any clear and detailed information. It is evident that Jesus and Paul were during the lifetime of the former complete strangers to each other. Jesus travelled from place to place communing with various classes of people, instructing and exhorting them to prepare for the kingdom of heaven, but he never deemed ib worth while to spend an hour of his ministry with the young disciple of Gamaliel, as he surely would have done, if he had intended with prophetic foresight to call him to the apostleship and make him the chief revelator of the church. As there is not the least hint thrown out in his discourses that he intended after his death to convert by a special miracle one of the unbelieving Pharisees, of whom he had said "no sign shall be given them/' nor any warning to the twelve that their new brother would be commissioned to preach new doctrines and abase the Law to bring in the Gentiles, so neither does Paul in his Epistles utter a single word to make it seem probable that he ever had communion with the original Jesus. Not only does he never profess to have attended the public ministry of Jesus, but he seems to have had no good second-hand knowledge of that ministry, such as we obtain through the writings of the Evangelists. He does not quote a syllable from either of the Gospels, and we may reasonably infer that he had never seen them nor heard any complete narrative like them. When charged by 262 THE REAL JESUS. those Christians who relied on the testimony of eye- witnesses with preaching a false gospel, he does not endeavour to set himself right with them by seeking authentic information. He seems to have conferred once or twice with the leading disciples of Jesus, but would neither learn anything from them nor yield to their higher authority. He says expressly, " the fospel which was preached of me was not after men. or I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it but by the revelation of Jesus Christ" (Gal. i. 11-12). He declares in the same chapter that immediately after his conversion, instead of going up to Jerusalem and learning of the other apostles, he went away into Arabia, where he probably meditated in solitary places and had mystic visions and trances (2 Cor. xii. 2). 21. The Nazarenes, who were looking for a spiritual restoration of the kingdom of Israel, naturally regarded Paul and his Grentile followers as a body of heretics, but this sect, by reason of their lighter obligations, rapidly gained ground of their opponents, and became at length the stronger community. The Paulinists grew in time to have the same relationship to the primitive Christians that the Sabines are said to have had to the primitive Romans they conquered their better established rival tribe, imposed their principal laws and customs on them, jointly occupied their dominion, and assumed their name (Newman's "Regal Rome," p. 57). And just as patriotic Roman historians laboured to disguise their old feuds and divisions, and give a vexatious conquest the appearance of a friendly arrangement and con- cession, so there arose in the Christian Church a reconciliation party, who, in order to obliterate their dissensions, and facilitate the amalgamation of the Judaic Christians with the Paulinists, endeavoured to represent that from the very first THE EESUERECTION DRAMA. 263 they had lived and laboured together in concord. The Second Epistle of Peter, which recognizes Paul as a " beloved brother," and defends the " things hard to be understood " in his writings, is admitted by such orthodox critics as Neander to be a spurious production of the second century, written for the express purpose of reconciling the followers of Paul with those who adhered to the doctrine of Jesus. The author of the Acts of the Apostles has evidently a similar object in view; he is intent on making Paulinism seem a super- natural outgrowth of the church's original tree, and not a heretical graft, as it had been commonly regarded, and on this account the early portion of his narrative, including the story of Paul's con- version, is believed by many expositors to be mythical. 22. There can be little doubt that this early chronicler of the Church takes the full licence of the age in inventing speeches, but the marvellous stories which he records are quite likely to have some basis of fact. It is wholly incredible that the Roman government would permit the chief priest to employ Saul of Tarsus, as a grand inquisitor, and send him through the different provinces as far as Damascus, arresting followers of Jesus everywhere, both men and women, and committing them to prison (Acts viii. 3 ; ix. 2) . But the confederacy that arrested and brought Jesus to trial, as if they had been agents of the chief priests, could easily, under the same cover, subject his disciples to a mock persecution. It is not unlikely that Saul, who was known to be hostile to the Christians, should have been lured into an expedition against them by pretended officers of the chief priests with the view to effect his conversion. The guides who accompanied him on his journey might have been disguised Nazarenes, 264 THE KEAL JESUS. who had concerted to take him into a sort of ambush, where one of their party was stationed, to frighten him from his purpose by impersonating the risen Jesus, they themselves helping to accomplish this object by falling to the earth on meeting the apparition and feigning to be greatly alarmed. Such a pious stratagem might reasonably be expected from the crafty miracle-mongers who got up the Transfiguration scene and planned the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus. It was fear that drove the disciple of Gamaliel into the church, and not sympathy with its doctrines, but he was too opinionated and self-assertive to be kept long in leading strings ; he looked to his own subjective visions for guidance, and became just the independent Christian preacher that a Hellenized Jew of Cilicia might be expected to become from such a sudden and irregular process of conversion. 23. As the Jews in Paul's estimation were vessels of honour favoured with divine revelation above the rest of mankind, so a certain small fraction of Jews the followers of Jesus were at length favoured in like manner above the rest of their countrymen. It was their good fortune to see performed in obscure places a number of miracles and listen to revealed doctrines respecting which the bulk of their nation, both in Judea and beyond its con- fines, were kept in profound ignorance. Through seeing, hearing, and believing they became, as it were, anew chosen people the select of the select while the few who were present and doubted, and the many more who were absent and knew not that anything unusual was transpiring in the country, became thereby marked out as a reprobate people vessels made unto dishonour and doomed to ever- lasting perdition. It was hard that the great mass of Jewish people should be thus condemned for disbelieving miracles they had not seen, especially THE RESURRECTION DRAMA. 265 that of the alleged Resurrection of Jesus. The Nazarene propbet having had a public death, it was probably expected that his predicted rising would be public ; and, since people were then fre- quently imposed upon by objective visions and other dramatic illusions, the secrecy of his reported rising could not fail to fill many reflective minds with suspicion and doubt. It was not only the Sadducees who treated the report as absolutely incredible; their opponents, the Pharisees, were equally constrained to reject it, and Paul among the Pharisees was as confident and earnest as any in declaring his unbelief. But the risen Jesus, while carefully avoiding the chief priests and rulers, presently appeared to Paul in an over- powering vision, and absolutely compelled him to believe. Had he been endowed with humility and a genuine love of justice, had he felt assured from the bottom of his heart that Grod was no respecter of persons, he would now have earnestly prayed that the same convincing evidence that had been vouchsafed to him might be presented to the rest of his countrymen. And remembering how he had scornfully rejected the miracle testimony of Stephen and the twelve, he would have felt a little modest diffidence in delivering his own report and expected that what he now said of- the super- natural would be received with equal incredulity. Having, however, unlimited assurance, and believing that he had been singled out from all other Jews as an object of divine favour and regard, he was not the man to be troubled with such reflections. He had now, in addition to the conceit of superiority which was common to most Pharisees, acquired the arrogant dictatorial spirit of a Pope. He advanced his high pretensions and asserted himself as a " chosen vessel " somewhat to this effect, " When Stephen and the rest had visions of the risen Jesus, 266 THE REAL JESUS. what they saw was nothing to me; it was not to be supposed that I should take their word, but now that I have had such visions, you are all bound to accept my word, although it were contradicted by an angel from heaven, or without doubt you will perish everlastingly." 24. The wide credit which was given to the supernatural claims of Christianity in the first century resembles in many respects the more rapid success which is now obtained by here and there a fortunate Koman Catholic miracle. The original witnesses of an apparition of the Virgin are invariably simple-minded and credulous people so deficient in the critical faculty that they may be easily imposed upon by any well-contrived dramatic illusion. Having a good honest reputation and no apparent motive for palming on the world a fiction of that kind, their testimony is considered worthy of credit by some of the shrewder neighbours, who, had they been present at the scene of the miracle, would have found reasons to doubt its reality. As the story continues to spread and to get embellished the circle of believers daily increases and at the same time rises in intelligence; for just as a river grows in volume and strength and first carries down only sticks and straws before it, and next small logs and branches, but after awhile big trunks of trees, so the current of faith gets stronger and more persuasive as it increases in magnitude ; and there are many educated and thoughtful people who would not have gone with the first ten, nor even with the first thousand, but are constrained at length to go with the million. And such superior converts, when they meet with objectors, are generally able to furnish very substantial arguments in support of their faith. They contend that there is no antecedent improbability attached to the apparition, and THE RESURRECTION DRAMA. 267 insist strongly on the simple honest character of the witnesses. Had it originated from mere human contrivance they express their firm conviction that the whole plot must have been speedily detected and exposed. They proceed to judge the miracle by its moral effects, they point to the host of pilgrims which it has brought together from distant parts, and to the manifest religious revival which it has produced throughout the district, and contend that it seems to them quite inconceivable how all these beneficial results should have been generated by a miserable imposture. 25. There cannot be a doubt that the great success which Christianity obtained in the course of three centuries among the more credulous populations of the Roman empire was largely due to the obscurity of its origin. Had Jesus been a man of resplendent genius towering high in wisdom and virtue above all other teachers of that age, he would have been so much visited by intelligent writers from various parts of the world, and so correctly reported, that it would have been impossible to start any extraordinary fiction about him and get it believed. His influence in his lifetime would have been much greater, but, after his death, he could not have been invested with a halo of myths and magnified more and more by superstitious reverence till he should be worshipped at length as the highest Divinity. It was no small advantage to the early Christian' propagandists that when they went from city to city declaring how their founder excited the enmity of the Jewish rulers by his wonderful works, and then suffered, and died, and rose again, no one had hitherto heard of his existence. Thus, however much their story might be doubted or disbelieved by thoughtful people, it continually gained ground because, from want of information, it could not be readily contradicted. 268 THE EEAL JESUS. Some of the dispersed Jews occasionally disputed with these ardent missionaries, and affirmed that they calumniated the chief priests and rulers, but to very little purpose, as they had not been present in Jerusalem at the time of the Crucifixion to say what then actually occurred. Even if any inquirer had written to the city a few years after that event to learn something about it from disinterested eye-witnesses there could not have been thrown upon it much light. For the Nazarenes were not in their origin such a sect as the Quakers or the Methodists, having everything about them open and above-board; they were a secret society working by miracle and mystery, and as little understood by the people of Jerusalem as by the rest of the world. If the wire-pulling arrangements of the confederacy had been unravelled to some extent ; if its stratagems had been betrayed, and those who personated Moses, Elias, and Jesus in objective visions clearly identified, the whole illusory movement which imposed on the credulous would have completely broken down ; it was only in consequence of well - maintained secrecy that it had a permanent and immense success. THE REAL JESUS. 269 CHAPTER X. THE FRUITS OP CHRISTIANITY. Mr. Froude's view of early Christianity as a reforming influence. 3. The results of its proselytism as shown by Merivale and Milman. 6. Effect of its doomsday illu- sions. 7. Character of Origen considered. 9. Untruth- fulness followed by injustice. 10. Other religious systems not without salutary moral force. 11. Julian's projected reforms. 12. Archdeacon Farrar's exaggeration of Christian benefits. 14. Failure of Christianity to reclaim the rude and lawless. 15. Reform must begin with good family life. 16. The radical error of Christian com- munism or club life. 19. Aggressive and revolutionary communism. 20. Modern Christian Socialists. 23. The supposed tyranny of Capitalism. 24. Extremes of wealth and poverty considered. 26. The alleged evils of competi- tion. 28. Its authoritative regulation in the public interest. 29. Its unjust restriction by selfish combinations and rings. 30. Violence of Trade-unions. 31. Christian ministers pander to lawlessness. 32. Hard bargaining and forced bargains. 33. Promotion by merit discouraged. 34. Employers and employed, who should be well mated, kept at discord. 35. A gleaner's combination. 36. Chinese banded beggars. 37. Distinguished prelates bid for popular support, and are strife-makers rather than peace-makers. ME, FROUDE, like many German writers, has endeavoured to exalt Christianity to the highest place among the religions of the world, not on the ground of its supernatural claims, but by reason of what he considers its sovereign efficacy in correcting the vices of Paganism. He says in one of his instructive essays, " Religion as a rule of life neither is nor can be a record of events which once occurred on a corner of this 270 THE REAL JESUS. planet. It is the expression and statement of our duties to one another and of our relations to the Sovereign Power that called us into existence. And these duties and these relations are not conditions which once were or which will be here- after. They are conditions of our present being as much as what we call the laws of nature. For the laws of bodily health we are not depended on the observations of Galen or the history of the plague at Athens. We learn from present experience as Galen himself learnt, and we refer to the records of the past only as a single chapter in the vast volume of our instructions. The evidence of the truth of religion is not the testimony of this or that person who saw or thought he saw long ago something which seemed to him an indication of a supernatural presence. The evidence is the power which lies in religion to cope with moral disease and bind the brutal appetites and intellectual per- versities of man, and to lift him out of grossness and self-indulgence into higher and nobler desires. This was what Christianity effected as no creed or system of philosophy ever did before or has done since, and Christianity was thus, as Goethe declares, beyond comparison the grandest work that was ever accomplished by humanity. It is a height, he says, which having once risen to it, mankind can never again descend ; and thus of all studies the most interesting to us is that of the conditions under which so extraordinary a force developed itself" (" Origen and Celsus"). 2. He proceeds to examine these conditions with the help of old Christian and Pagan writings those of Origen, Celsus, and Lucian. In re- producing from Origen's quotations the argument of Celsus in a clear connected form, he tries to be impartial, but still sees with Origen's eyes, and throughout the investigation gives unmistakable TOE FEUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 271 proof of being under a strong bias. Professing to exhibit the moral forces which were at work throughout the Roman empire in the third century, he skilfully embellishes the character and aims of the Christian propagandists, while he blackens the Pagan teachers, and altogether ignores the Jews. The message of the disciples of Christianity, he tells us, " was a message never before heard on earth. It was to invite their fellow-men to lead new lives, to put away sin, to separate themselves from the abominations o? the world, to care nothing for wealth, and to be content with poverty, to aim only at overcoming each for himself his own sensuality and seln'shness ; to welcome pain, want, disease, and everything which the world most shrank from, if it would assist him in self-conquest; and to expect no reward, at least in this life, save the peace which would arise from the consciousness that he was doing what God had commanded." 3. This is an attempt to make it appear that the early Christians preached virtue for its own sake, that they were pure, disinterested, simple- minded reformers, caring only for the cultivation of character and the inward satisfaction and peace of mind derived from leading a good life. No representation can well be further from the truth. For the promulgators of Christianity to win over the rabble of every city by such a lofty message as this would really have been more marvellous than all the miracles believed by the orthodox. There were undoubtedly some few Christians of superior character who rebuked to good purpose the licentiousness of their times, just as there were some virtuous Pagan teachers, such as Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius ; but the majority of the ignorant and credulous people who became converts were not influenced at all by ethical discourses and a thirst for righteousness; they were 272 THE REAL JESUS. simply idle fortune-seekers desirous of going to some far-off blissful region where everything would be provided for their enjoyment without labour and care. By coming into fellowship and submitting to the Church's disciplinary regulations they could not fail to be morally benefited to some extent, but this was not at all the object which they mainly had in view. What they really cared for was to escape the threatened torments of Hell and attain the promised felicity of Heaven with as little trouble and procrastination as possible, and they had no more solicitude for virtue and the reforma- tion of their evil habits than the penitent thief. Merivale, speaking of the conversion of the Franks, says: "The old religion appealed to the imagina- tion, and it was on the imagination and not on the moral sense that the early influence of Christianity among them showed itself. They went on in their former fierce irregular ways ; they gave up nothing of their love of carousal, bloodshed, and violence Tlie Franks had given up their worship of nature as a thing of purity and beauty for a worship in which they still did not get beyond material conceptions, while, as their manners degenerated from their early simplicity and vigour, these conceptions grew dark and distorted, and represented that the world was swayed by hateful and magical forces. Christianity was degraded into a scheme of sorcery and enchantment ; Christian faith consisted in a superstitious regard for relics and a credulous acceptance of the grossest miracles; Christian practice in outward acts of confession and penance, and of expiatory prodigality engaged in during the intervals of crime " ("Early Catholicism in Western Europe"). 4. Milman, writing of the earlier proselytism of the third and fourth centuries, says: "While then the religion of the world underwent a total change, THE FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 273 while the church rose on the ruins of the temple, and the pontifical establishment of Paganism became gradually extinct, or suffered violent suppression, the moral revolution was far more slow and far less complete. With a large portion of mankind it must be admitted that the religion itself was Paganism, under another form, with different appellations ; with another part it was the religion passively received without any change in the moral sentiments or habits; with a third, and perhaps the more considerable part, there was a transfer of the passions and the intellectual activity to a new cause. They were completely identified with Christianity, and to a certain degree actuated by its principles, but they did not apprehend the beautiful harmony which subsists between its doctrines and its moral perfection. Its dogmatic purity was the sole engrossing subject; the unity of doctrine superseded and obscured all other considerations Everywhere there was- exaggeration of one of the constituent elements of Christianity, that exaggeration which is the in- evitable consequence of a strong impulse on the human mind. "Wherever men feel strongly they act violently. The more speculative Christians, therefore, who were more inclined in the deep and somewhat selfish solicitude for their own salvation to isolate themselves from the infected mass of mankind, pressed into the extreme of asceticism. The more practical, who were earnest in the desire of disseminating the blessings of religion through- out society, scrupled little to press into their service whatever might advance their cause. With both extremes the dogmatical part of the religion pre- dominated. The monkish believer imposed the same severity upon the aberrations of the mind as upon the appetites of the body; and, in general, those who are severe to themselves are both dis- 274 THE EEAL JESUS. posed and think themselves entitled to enforce the same seventy on others. The other, as his sphere became extended, was satisfied with an adhesion to the Christian creed instead of that total change of life demanded of the early Christian and watched over with such jealous vigilance by the mutual superintendence of a small society. [The great requirement at first was faith, and the renunciation of property and industrial pursuits rather than a reformation of character.] In proportion to the admitted importance of the creed men became more sternly and exclusively wedded to their opinions. Thus an antagonistic principle of ex- clusiveness co-existed with the most comprehensive ambition. While they swept in converts indis- criminately from the palace and the public street, while the emperor and the lowest of the populace were alike admitted on little more than the open profession of allegiance, they were satisfied if the allegiance in this respect was blind and complete" ("History of Christianity," p. 402). 5. The historian says a little further on : tc The ferocious and ignorant populace of the large cities, which found a new aliment in Christian faction for their mutinous and sanguinary outbursts of tur- bulence, had almost been better left to sleep on in the passive and undestructive quiet of Pagan indifference. " What were the Christian teachers doing to reform and elevate these degraded masses who had been swept pell-mell into the proselytizing net of the church ? Some were wandering in solitary places, spending much time in fasting and prayer, and submitting to severe mortifications of the flesh, so as to acquire the reputation of saints. Others were establishing monasteries, imposing on the neighbouring people with fictitious relics and miracles, carrying on a lucrative trade by pre- tending to deliver souls from purgatory, and THE FEUITS OP CHRISTIANITY. 275 offering a safe asylum to murderers and other fugitive criminals who had broken the laws of their country. 'The bishops and the rest of the established clergy were, with a few bright ex- ceptions, wholly indifferent to the intellectual and moral improvement of the rude populations over whom they exercised a spiritual authority. They were constantly insisting on the text, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned " (Mark xvi. 16). So long as a man had been sprinkled with baptismal water and had faith in the magical virtue of the blood of Jesus to cleanse his soul from impurity, it mattered very little in their estimation what his character might be, or whether he sinned little or much. What they were most solicitous about was to prevent intelligent people from entertaining a distrust of the efficacy of sacerdotal charms ; they continually warned those who lived virtuously not to rely on their own good conduct for salvation, and thus fall at length into everlasting perdition. 6. The early Christians undoubtedly did some- thing towards checking sensualism by propagating the mistaken belief which they shared with the Essenes and some other Jews as to the near approaching end of the world. There were not wanting in that age enlightened religious teachers to denounce the voluptuousness and profligacy which existed around them and demonstrate the higher happiness which every idle pleasure-seeker might obtain by leading a virtuous life. And they had their thoughtful disciples, they each attracted by such discourses an intelligent and truth-loving audience. But a certain portion of the people, although not quite brutalized, were too ignorant and too weak-minded to appreciate the reflections of a wise teacher ; the ablest reasoning was thrown away upon them ; they could only be T 2 276 THE HEAL JESUS. influenced at all by working on their hopes and fears in some such way as is done by a modern ranting Bevivalist. The Christian missionaries drew simple-minded believers of this sort from their vicious indulgences (and even from innocent pleasures) by exhorting them to flee from the wrath to come, and they based their prophetic warning, not merely on the shortness and uncertainty of individual life, but on the impending doom of the world. The preaching of this illusory belief pro- duced at some places a veritable panic : " fear came upon every soul/' hundreds of excited converts were listening from hour to hour for the archangel's trumpet blast, ever fancying that they saw in the heavens signs of the coming Christ, and beholding the sun set with little expectation that it would ever rise again. Under the influence of such solemn anticipations pleasure was of course not to be thought of; the right thing to do was to engage in fasting, prayer, and penance, and have a con- tinual preparation for eternity. Even among sturdy Pagan unbelievers the sight of this Christian asceticism might have a sobering effect; it was a constant reminder of the shortness of carnal pleasures, something like the skull which the old -Egyptians were accustomed to place at their feasts for the purpose of checking intemperance. But it cannot be said that such fanatical excitement contributed in any degree to the cultivation of a high morality; and some men are likely to have been thoroughly disgusted at the severe mortifica- tions of the Christian saints, and to have been rather driven thereby into the opposite extreme of self-indulgence. 7. Mr. Froude, in reviewing the important dis- cussion between Origen and Cclsus, says: "On the moral and spiritual side Origen was as completely victorious as Celsus was irresistible on the intellec- THE FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 277 tual. Celsus insisted that Christianity was identical in character with a thousand other superstitions. Origen was able to insist on the extraordinary difference, that neither the philosophy of the schools nor the mysteries, the festivals, the rituals of the heathen gods availed to check the impurity of society, or to alleviate the miseries of mankind, and that vice and wretchedness disappeared in every house into which the Gospel found an entrance. This was true : and it was a truth which outweighed a millionfold the skilfullest cavils of the intellect. A new life had come into the world ; it was growing like the grain of mustard-seed by its own vital force, and the earth was growing green under its shadow. Such an argument was unanswerable. No other creed could be pointed to from which any stream was flowing of moral regeneration" (Ibid). 8. As to Origen's having a great moral superiority over his antagonist in the argument, it is hard to see where that superiority lies unless there is moral excellence to be found in boasting, exaggeration, and untruthfulness. Bishop Horsley and others have shown that this distinguished man the most learned Christian of his time was extravagantly unveracious as a controversialist. He did not hesitate to resort to any sophistry or misrepresen- tation that seemed likely to serve his purpose or give him an apparent advantage in arguing on behalf of Christianity. In his discussion with Celsus he makes things appear or disappear for the improvement of his case in the manner of a conjuror ; he refers to monstrous fables as if they were facts, and when he finds it hard to give a reasonable explanation of any Scripture difficulty, instantly converts the narrative into an allegory. That such an unscrupulous writer should decry Paganism, magnify his own religion, and make it 278 THE REAL JESUS. appear that all the vices and evils that beset mankind were being charmed away before the benignant light of the Gospel, is not at all to be wondered at, but it surprises us greatly that an able historical inquirer of the nineteenth century should admire his moral qualities and consider him entitled to belief. 9. The Christians were not only untruthful in their persistent efforts to impose their faith on the whole world, but extremely unjust. It was their policy to allure first the credulous multitude by persuasion and craft, and then, having once secured a majority on their side, to intimidate with their denunciations the intelligent and sceptical, and bend them at length to outward conformity by brute force. They did not mind the arguments that were directed against them by a few learned philosophers so long as they were able to convince the rude populace. While a hundred sensible people were reading and appreciating the "True Story" of Celsus, a thousand of their illiterate neighbours were being persuaded to accept the irrational belief which it controverted. The masses of ignorance were thus made at length to over-ride and conquer intelligence; two hundred years after Origen wrote his lame and crooked apology the clergy found a short and easy method of refuting Celsus by committing his book to the flames, and had he been living at that period he would have been pretty sure himself to share the same fate. ISIow that they had grown powerful with continued proselytism, and had at their command the resources of the Roman empire, it was no longer necessary for them to argue this and that point with unbelievers, or creep into obscure places with their marvels to escape criticism; they resolved to drive criticism clean out of the world. All the treatises which had been written against the claims of their religion in the whole preceding OF 1 \ f UNIVERSITY ) OF THE FRUITS OF CHRISTIAN] period of free discussion were hunted up as far as possible and rigorously suppressed, and every independent thinker, whether Jew or Gentile, who ventured to differ from the dominant creed was compelled to maintain a discreet silence. 10. Mr. Froude asserts that when Christianity was being propagated throughout the Roman empire in the time of Origen "no other creed could bepointed to from which was flowing any stream of moral regeneration." Could people then be morally regenerated only by making themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake, fanatically urging their friends and neighbours to seek the glory of martyrdom, and carrying on a work of conversion by having recourse to unblushing falsehoods and pious frauds ? The Stoics and Neo-Platonists of that period were moral reformers, and much was unquestionably done towards reclaiming the heathen by the mild proselytism of the Jews. The morality of the purest primitive Christians was in no respect superior to that of the Essenes. Nay, the latter community were a more peaceable, tolerant, and truthful sect ; they were a people who minded their business better, and did not set out with the ambitious design of imposing their spiritual yoke on the whole world. It has been said that the Jews made such slow advances with their own missionary enterprises, that if the conversion of the Roman empire had been left entirely to them it would not have been by this time accomplished. Their pro- gress in reclaiming their heathen neighbours was undoubtedly slow, as from the nature of the case it must have been, but it was sound progress. They had learnt wisdom from experience; in the old Maccabean times their zealous ancestors had repeatedly taken up arms to proselytize by force and make a clean sweep of idolatry, but only to end at length in complete failure. Images had been often 280 THE REAL JESUS. broken and altars overthrown to cleanse their country swiftly from the infection of heathenism, but as there was no internal reform, as the minds of the people were still corrupt, a restoration of the old superstitious customs was as a matter of course soon effected. And even when the old idolatry was rooted out many hasty attempts which were made to convert strangers into true Israelites ended in their half conversion, and a compromise of Jewish doctrine and worship with that of the Gentiles. From all these untoward results the dispersed Jewish teachers had learnt to proceed cautiously with their proselytizing efforts and trust wholly to slow educational reform; and Christian missionaries contending with heathenism in India and elsewhere have now found it discreet to follow their 'example in this respect, but only after the lapse of many centuries. 11. Much has been said of the mighty and unparalleled reformation which the followers of Jesus accomplished, a few centuries after his death, throughout the Roman empire ; but it was after all only a mixing and blending of faiths ; the Christians were in the end quite as much converted to Paganism as the Pagans were converted to Christianity. The greater part of the so-called conversion was not a moral work at all, but a forcible suppression of the old forms of worship by military power : the most successful missionaries were the fierce soldiers of Constantine, Theodosius, and Charlemagne, who drove timid crowds at the sword's point to renounce their ancient idols and bow to the new images or saints. And the intolerant propagandists who thus carried on a long revolutionary war with the Pagans for religious supremacy, when they became at length victorious, were found to be divided among themselves and equally ready to assail one another. Even before the death of Constantine a sanguinary THE FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 281 struggle broke out between the great rival sects Athanasians and Arians and the one which was eventually successful and made its views prevail was that which had gone furthest in idolatry. It was the spirit of intolerance which had been introduced, and the terrible conflicts which raged between the sects, that drove Julian, an enlightened moral philosopher, to abandon Christianity in disgust, and entertain a belief that the various populations of the empire would get on far more peacefully and prosperously together under the teaching of a reformed Paganism. A grand design was formed by him which he did not live to carry out. " In every province/' says Milman, " a supreme pontiff was to be appointed charged with. a superintendence of the conduct of the inferior priesthood, and armed with authority to suspend or depose those who should be guilty of any indecent irregularity. The whole priesthood were to be sober, chaste, temperate in all things. They were to abstain not merely from loose society ; but in a spirit diametrically opposite to the old religion, were rarely to be seen at public festivals, never where women mingled in them. In private houses they were only to be present at the moderate banquets of the virtuous ; they were never to be seen drinking in taverns or exercising any base or sordid trade. The priesthood were to stand aloof from society and only mingle with it to infuse their own grave decency and unimpeachable moral tone. ... A tax was to be levied in every province for the maintenance of the poor, and distributed by the priesthood. Hospitals for the sick and for in- digent strangers of every creed were to be formed in convenient places " ("History of Christianity," p. 468). 12. Archdeacon Farrar, in casting about for additional evidences in support of his faith, has been tempted to go quite as far in conjuring with 282 THE EEAL JESUS. history as St. Paul went in conjuring with Scripture. He says : ' ' The effects, then, of the work of Christ are even to the unbeliever indisput- able and historical. It expelled cruelty; it curbed passion ; it branded suicide ; it punished and re- pressed an execrable infanticide ; it drove the shameless impurities of heathendom into a congenial darkness. There was hardly a class whose wrongs it did not remedy. It rescued the gladiator ; it freed the slave ; it protected the captive ; it nursed the sick; it sheltered the orphan; it elevated the woman ; it shrouded as with a halo of sacred innocence the tender years of the child. In every region of life its ameliorating influence was felt " (" Life of Christ ") . 13. After ascribing in this eloquent strain every step of human improvement and every social and moral reform called forth in the great circle of Koman civilization to the revolutionary religion which proclaimed that the end of the world was at hand, he argues that there can be no doubt what- ever as to its having a Divine origin. He evi- dently believes this himself; but in magnifying the virtues of Christianity to the utmost he is unconsciously practising something much like imposture, and a multitude of sympathetic readers will be imposed upon by the magic of his words. "It expelled cruelty," says he, as though there were no cruelty in its fierce sectarian wars and massacres, and Jew and heretic persecutions, and witch-burnings. " It curbed passion," like every system of asceticism, in one direction, but inflamed it to ma,dness in another. "It branded suicide," in the case of people who were simply weary of life ; but exalted and sanctified it where fanatics provoked persecution and rushed upon death to gain in haste the joys of paradise. " It punished and repressed infanticide," yet this practice is not THE FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 283 expressly prohibited in the New Testament as it is in the Koran, and to this day it is more frequent in Christian than in Mohammedan countries. " It drove the shameless impurities of heathendom into a congenial darkness/' but it did not reform them away, and they still nourish under covert in all the great cities whose temples are dedicated to its saints. "There was hardly a class whose wrongs it did not remedy/' and there was hardly a people outside its own pale on whom it did not inflict some wrong. " It rescued the gladiator/' only to make him a bull-fighter, a prize-fighter, or a duellist. Pagan reformers did as much to suppress san- guinary sport. Apollonius of Tyana, for instance, " spoke against the cruel gladiatorial shows ; and when the Athenians, who were celebrating such games, invited him to the public assembly, he replied that he could not tread on a spot stained by the shedding of so much human blood " (Neander's " History "). "It freed the slave/' so far as its anarchical teaching abolished master- ship and established communistic brotherhoods; but beyond such small select circles, in the whole wide Christian world it took no decided steps to mitigate the cruelties of slavery nor to remove from mankind the horrors of war. Its modern fanatical anti - slavery crusades and universal emancipation movements have led to terrible conflicts, excited furious race-hatred, and aggra- vated human misery a hundredfold. It has acquired more distinction from protecting the fugitive criminal than the war captive, and the Western woman owes her elevation not so much to any religious teaching imported from Asia, as to the love of social freedom inherent in the Euro- pean race. 14. The Christian nations at the present day are distinguished by superior energy and intelli- '784 THE REAL JESUS. gence rather than by a higher morality. They are beyond question the most quarrelsome, the most aggressive and warlike communities in the whole civilized world. In 110 Mohammedan or heathen countries will be found such rank vices of drunken- ness, prostitution, gambling, roguery, and pro- digality as flourish in the lands which boast of being evangelized. Christianity, a mere hortatory system, has never known how to deal effectively with rude barbarous people who are accustomed to live without law. Jesus selected for his disciples a few simple honest peasants who could be influenced by preaching and by working on their superstitious fears. He did nothing towards re- claiming the brigands of Palestine and the criminal population of the towns, since he relied on persuasion alone, and they required systematic industrial training and government. So when the religion derived from him was extensively pro- pagated and whole districts became professedly Christian, it was only a small portion of the baptized believers who were men of pure and innocent lives. As "Milman testifies, not the slightest moral improvement was effected in the conduct of the majority ; they continued in their old lawless brutal ways, pretty much as if they had been baptized swine. The same checkered moral conditions may be witnessed at the present day throughout the whole of Christendom. Bodies of decent orderly people whom words will influence regularly assemble in all the churches, while the brute masses who cannot be attracted and impressed by such means are left to take their own course. The population of every Christian country, that is, its believing population, consists of multitudes of sinners interspersed with small groups of sympa- thetic saints. And the former cannot be re- generated by the latter, because they need for their THE FRUITS OP CHRISTIANITY. 285 moral elevation what the Gospel has failed to prescribe a system of reformatory government. The missionaries who go forth into remote regions to reclaim savage races preach to these rude people as though they were intelligent men instead of governing them as if they were children. They treat them very kindly, but the simple people are not regularly protected, subjected to discipline, and restrained for their good, therefore, as soon as they come in contact with traders and the vices of civilization, they begin to wither and perish, as before the invasion of a deadly epidemic, and the efforts to reclaim them are found to have been labour expended in vain. 15. The great work of uplifting savage and brutalized humanity at the present day, is the reclamation of the degraded masses to be found in all the great cities of Christendom. Every civilized nation may be considered a confedera- tion of kindred families domestic communities speaking the same language and subject to the same law and if each of these families were well cared for and properly governed, very little more would be wanted in the way of government. A good householder brings his children up virtuously, carefully trains them in industrious and provident habits, starts them fairly in some profession which befits their capacity, and they may be trusted to do well and not become in any way a source of trouble to their country. A bad householder, on the other hand, presents an evil example to his children, and gives them scarcely any training at all ; they are under no domestic law, they run about as wild and free to do what they please as the offspring of Kaffirs and Hottentots. They could neither do much harm nor catch harm in a wilderness, but in the midst of a great city, with no other prospect of living than that of beggary or crime, they are 286 THE EEAL JESUS. sure to suffer greatly as well as prove a constant annoyance. It is for such, victims of parental neglect that prisons and workhouses have to be erected in every province, and an army of police employed to keep constant watch on them, and as far as possible check their aggressions. The better course for a government, however, is to prevent this evil development by insisting on a proper discharge of parental duty throughout the nation, and making people more responsible for their children's misdeeds. The bad householder, who is hatching trouble for his country, should not only be disallowed any voice in the management of public affairs, but should be deprived of his own domestic rule, and his neglected children, with the view to their proper training, should be made directly subject to the nation's higher paternal authority. 16. Primitive Christianity, instead of seeking to improve family government in the interest of social order, rather sought to effect its entire abolition and to encourage parental neglect. There was to be no more wholesome restraint, no more toiling and storing up wealth, but children and parents were to forget alike their obligations to each other, and herd together in a free mendicant community. Even at the present day the misery of a slum population is ascribed not to vices acquired from want of early training, but to the greed of their industrious and provident neighbours who have been reared in good homes. And it is the latter, and not the former, who are called npon to set about in humble penitence and alter their manner of life. It was the belief of the early Christians that some people had too little of the good things which are requisite to make life enjoyable in consequence of others having too much, and that justice demanded an equalization of human THE FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 287 possessions. If the world which we inhabit were a great monastery, or if the food, clothing, and shelter which w'e need were placed gratuitously within the reach of us all, their notion would not be incorrect or unreasonable. Those who, like the old medicant friars and the first followers of Jesus, are accustomed to rely wholly on alms for their support, may well expect to receive evenly, since no one among them contributes more than another towards procuring the means of subsistence. It is not surprising that an unequal distribution of largess among poor people should excite a feeling of jealousy in their breasts and give rise to more grumbling than gratitude. But wealth is not ordinarily distributed as a free gift any more than learning : it has to be diligently sought for, earned by wise calculation and persevering effort, so that he who gets most usually deserves most. It is, moreover, advantageous for the whole community that those who have the ability to acquire and conserve wealth in excess of their individual needs should keep what they win under their own manage- ment and direction, rather than pass it gratuitously into less capable hands. 1 7. In the case of an ordinary working family consisting of seven members it would not be equitable and conducive to their general welfare to divide the property which they own into seven shares, or to allow the simple improvident children the same free access which the parents have to the cupboard and the purse. Under such an arrange- ment it is quite certain that these youthful members would be got to do very little work, and the family capital, insteadof increasing, would be fast dissipated. Similar results on a much larger scale would be brought about by any attempt to equalize the property of a nation. As many working people are mere children ia mental development, accustomed 288 THE KEAL JESUS. to live from liand to mouth, and incapable of making any provision for the future, an equalized share of the national capital placed in their hands, so far from permanently bettering their position, would only cause them to live idly till the whole was spent. Christian Socialists do not see the need of improving the moral habits of a large portion of the community ; they are continually assuring us that to remedy the dreadful poverty that exists there must be a more even distribution of wealth. It is quite clear, however, that such distribution would lead to great waste and idleness, and thus bring about eventually still -worse poverty. Where people are both intemperate and improvident, destitution will come and cannot be charmed away. But it is certain that the more a country advances in prosperity and accumulates capital the better wages will its industrial population receive, and it can only continue prosperous so long as its wealth is under the control of the comparatively few who are both wise managers and good storekeepers. Those who have capital which they cannot turn to good account themselves have generally sense enough to put it in the hands of others who are likely to use it well and make it productive, just as a gun might be lent to a good marksman and not to those who would be sure to waste the ammunition, and besides commit serious mischief. 18. In the eyes of the early Christians one person was as fitted to be entrusted with wealth as another ; they recognized no difference of business capacity among men, denounced all industrial and providential undertakings as worldly, and expected true believers to live from hand to mouth in a state of holy poverty, which fitted them for the joys of Heaven. The great error of these enthusiasts was their attempt to dissolve family life, from which civilization had sprung, andintroduce TtJE FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 289 in its stead a social system like that of the Essenes, based on club life, or communism. It is only a few persons "of kindred disposition and good moral character that have ever been able to form a successful communistic association. It would be possible in almost any neighbourhood to select a number of good amiable people who, while satisfied with the present constitution of society and not asking for revolutionary changes, might be relied upon to get on as well as the Shakers and the Moravians if circumstances arose which rendered it expedient for them to adopt the same mode of living. They would doubtless take cheerfully to communistic ways and study each other's welfare admirably, just as courteous strangers do when they happen to be thrown together for a time in a railway carriage or on board a passenger ship. Instead of being ever on the watch to get some petty selfish advantage, or obtain more than their proper share of the provisions and accommodation afforded, they would strive rather for the honour of rendering the greatest amount of service, and promoting in the most effective manner, the common welfare. But though such people, by segregating and living apart in this way, might be very happy and exhibit a picture of great harmony, it can hardly be considered right and commendable that they should do so purposely and altogether turn their backs on the unregenerate world. The Shakers, and those who shut themselves up in monasteries, would be much better employed in guiding congregations, teaching schools, or going about as temperance lecturers to reclaim some of their more degraded countrymen. People who lead virtuous lives and are capable of doing something in the way of elevating the masses, may reasonably be expected to confer together occasion- ally and compare notes for their mutual enlighten- u 290 THE REAL JESUS."" rnent; but they cannot be constantly herding together as a religious club for the sake of congenial society without incurring blame for a great waste of working talent and neglect of the duty which they owe to the general community. 19. The various Christian brotherhoods estab- lished from time to time have always been harmless and peaceable; they have presented to the world a pattern of the strict religious life which they have felt bound to follow, without expecting their rules to be adopted by all sorts and conditions of people. From being of kindred sentiment and accustomed to self-control they have found it possible to associate as friends and hold their property in common, and when any out- sider of good character is desirous to join them, they will receive him as a probationer and help him to conform to their ways. If, after a sufficient trial, he fails to submit to their discipline, or is not satisfied with their mode of life, he has only to part company with them and return quietly to his former social conditions. But unfortunately there have always been levelling sects and teachers who have held the social regulations of the primitive church to be o universal obligation, and have endeavoured to force the equalization of property on the whole Christian community. One of the first of these revolutionary sects was that of the Circumcellions, who during the reign of the emperor Constantino raised an insurrection in Africa, and plundered without compunction all possessors of property, that they might so relieve the wants of the poor. It was not without much difficulty, and after terrible murders and ravages had been committed, that they were finally sup- pressed. Many sects with similar aims sprung up at the period of the Reformation, such as the Hussites in Bohemia, the followers of John Ball :i THE FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 291 England, and the Anabaptists, who, under the lead of Muntzer and Bocold, created great disorders both in Germany and in Holland. The communistic ideas which were propagated in this way by fanatical preachers contributed in no small degree to produce the English Civil War, as in the following century, when disseminated by equally fanatical writers, they helped to provoke in quick succession the American and the French Revolutions. 20. Authoritative Socialists at the present day uphold family life, and seek to promote greater concord upon earth by inducing the various orders of the social hierarchy to recognize their relationship in a kindly spirit, and mutually fulfil their obligations towards each other. The Democratic or Christian Socialists have very different aims; they think of producing harmony by abolishing all class distinctions and bringing people to a common level. In their eyes a nation, instead of being a great familyhood, ought to be a great brotherhood or universal club, the members of which are all free and equal. This is the revolutionary doctrine persistently preached in our time from hundreds of pulpits and advocated with much fervour in such journals as the Christian Million and the Christian Socialist. In recommending the communization of land and other such measures, they appeal not only to the practice of the Apostolic Church, but to earlier Jewish customs, and might just as reasonably, on the same ground, support the Mormon revival of polygamy. The Rev. Stewart Headlam recently protested against the London School Board omitting from its practical Scripture lessons the chapter in Leviticus which sets forth that the land shall be restored to its original possessors in the year of Jubilee. The Christian Million has the following paragraph on the same subject. " Why was Leviticus xxv., the account of the Mosaic u 2 292 THE REAL JESUS. Jubilee,, excluded from the Bible lessons of some of our elementary schools ? The chapter is truly democratic in the highest and best sense of the word, and it stands in strange contrast to some modern ' jubilees/ Surely with the land question pressing for a political solution, with ' usury > as the known and perceived cause of our worst social evils and dangers, we should be careful to instruct our children in what God taught on these subjects." 21. The following argument is advanced by the Christian Socialist in behalf of a community of goods. Its doctrine is a very hard one for the gifted, and noble worker, but encouraging for the criminal class, since it makes robbery a justifiable act, and so annuls individual responsibility, that an assassin might contend that the foul deed with which he is charged was really performed by G-od and humanity: " When a full-grown man goes to his place ' to work for himself/ he goes indebted to a series of social institutions for what he is. He is not his own; he is bought with a great human price. Follow any man as a producer, and see how the divine and the social mix themselves inevitably with his labour. Observe a man making a table, for example ; he shapes the pieces of wood, puts them together, and says, ' the table is mine.' But you notice that he did not make the wood, the tools, the skill, the time, or any of the things essential to the production of the table. Nor did the idea of the table originate with him, but shaped itself in the course of living. He may say he bought the wood and the tools, but his purchase of the wood is a fiction. It is a divine creation, and no one has a right to charge for it. What he paid for when he got the wood was only the human labour expended in bringing it to his hand. If he paid for anything else in the name of the price of wood, the payment THE FittJITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 293 was improper. Through, the wood, the time, the light, and other divine forces necessary to the production, God is a joint owner with him in the table. Then through the tools and the skill humanity is another joint owner. The tools represent ages of experience and invention. The skill is partly an inheritance and partly an acquire- ment. God and humanity are the real ' creators ' of the table. The man who produced it is only their agent and trustee. He may justly have the use of it, but he is not its ' owner/ If there are others who have no table he owes them the use of the table, and has no right to any ' interest ' for the loan of it. Ownership cannot be individual, because pro- duction is collective" (vol. vii., No. 68). 22. It would not much matter if those who advocate these views were content to carry them out in a small way by themselves, after the manner of the Shaker and the Moravian communities. But our Christian Socialists, or a majority of them, like their precursors the Anabaptists, wish to impose their regulations on all people, whether they are approved of or not, and make them everywhere prevalent by physical force. They think that they have as good a right to overthrow the existing constitution of society by violent means as a former generation of fighting Christians had to suppress the Pagan institutions of the Roman Empire. In respect to theological doctrines they are as liberal and tolerant as Kousseau, and they are altogether free from the asceticism of the primitive church ; the one permanent and essential requirement of Christianity in their eyes is, that every man shall exalt Christ and be a good Communist. And if he continues unorthodox in this matter, and persists in holding private property, he must be coerced, not by the faggot and stake, but by the guillotine, and his possessions divided among the people. This 294 THE KEAL JESUS. is the Grospel that Marat preached so successfully a hundred years ago., the Grospel that invariably finds favour with a slum population, and disposes the more lawless among them to distribute property to some extent by the pillage of shops and ware- houses. It is true that our popular pulpit Socialists do not directly incite distressed people to engage in open riot,, but they are always predicting an outbreak and wondering that it does not take place, and when it does occur are always ready to excuse it and accord it their sympathy. They do scarcely anything in the way of ameliorating the condition of the poor by promoting moral reform and a better system of industrial education, while there is nothing wanted on their part to minister to ignorant discontent, foster a spirit of anarchy, and light up the flames of a fanatical and destructive revolution. 23. The outcry which these modern preachers make against the tyranny of Capitalism is just as unreasonable as the old Puritan excitement against the devilish iniquity of witchcraft. Capitalism may be truly said to originate in the family ; it begins with the starting help which children derive from the parents by whom they are reared. We are frequently told that all wealth is produced by labour a proposition which is not true in reference to that which comes directly from the hand of nature but admitting it to be so produced, how does labour get its operative force ? A child would never be able to run on errands, weed a garden, mind cows and sheep, and do other little services which it is ordered to do unless it is first clothed and fed. The first employers of labour that we have any record of in the pages of history were those who, like the old patriarchs, regularly employed their own children. And in every civilized country thousands of young people at the present day are THE FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 295 well trained to industry and qualified to earn a living in some profession or other under parental authority. WheVi they grow up and can act for themselves there is one of three industrial courses open before them they may be their own masters and work independently; they may co-operate with men of equal ability and share their joint earnings ; or they may take a subordinate position under a person of more experience and superior business capacity, on his offering them a fixed remunera- tion. For many thousands of hard-working men without much calculation, especially such as marry early and live from hand to mouth, the position of a wage-earner is decidedly the most profitable, or they would not cheerfully sacrifice for it their independence. A wage-earner is not expropriated and robbed, as Karl Marx teaches, nor worsted, as Mr. Ruskin would make it appear ("Munera Pulveris, p. 131"), butbenefited by an advantageous industrial alliance. If a capitalist taxes the labour of the men in his employment, it is not to the extent of the increased earnings that he enables them to make ; what they get from him more than counter- balances what he gets from them, or they would very soon dissolve the connection. It sometimes happens that the gain resulting from an industrial enterprise is taken wholly by the humble wage earners, and the profit earner, who is supposed to fleece them unmercifully, has to submit to a dead loss. We never hear of the converse of this : there is no such thing as a capitalist clearing a handsome sum out of the work which he undertakes and the men in his employment getting nothing. If there were any truth in the stupid theory of capitalists being necessarily oppressors, sensible working people would be seen migrating to some part of the world where there are none to be found, but they really take the opposite course, knowing that 296 THE KEAL JESUS. the highest remuneration for labour is always to be obtained where there are the greatest accumulators of wealth. 24. Christian Socialists complain of the extremes of wealth and poverty which exist side by side in every civilized country ; this is not,however, as they represent, caused by wealth squeezing poverty, but by its having attracted poverty. If the rich and poor, who live near together, dwelt apart from each other, and had 110 intercourse, the inequality in their conditions would only be increased. Take the pauper population, the lame, halt, and blind, who are cared for and kept alive by charity in a rich country, and transfer them to a poor country where no superfluities exist for their maintenance, and the greater portion of them would speedily perish. It is said that our constitution of society tends to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. In reality it does nothing of the kind ; it permits all classes to better their condition if they are disposed to do so, and the different rates of pro- gress which are made only arise from people being by nature differently endowed. The sturdy rustics, who race for small prizes at a village fair, generally stand in line and start together from a common goal, but on getting fairly off the evenness in their rank is not long maintained ; some are seen to forge ahead while others lag behind, and the farther they go the more are the front and rear men drawn apart from each other. Very similar is the order of progress in the great march of civilization ; people are not like gifted either physically or morally ; some individuals get on faster than others in ameliorating their condition, and it is the same with communities, and the unevenness thus established between them naturally increases with time. Among the Zulus and other primitive races the difference in rank and intelligence is compara- UNIVERSITY J - THE FRUITS OF CHKISTIANJTY. 297 lively slight, the king and his state officers are elevated but very little above the rest of the people. But in each succeeding generation the superior and inferior classes become somewhat more divided and distinguishable. Only let such rude peoples continue to flourish and attain a high civilization, and their occupations will become diversified, their possessions will vary till they have eventually as many social grades rising one above another as there are terraces on the Great Pyramid. 25. The improvement of their material condition which is effected by energetic and thoughtful people may in some instances prove detrimental to their sluggish neighbours, who are unwilling to exert themselves and make any corresponding progress. Thus when European settlers reclaim a distant wilderness they benefit themselves and the world at large, but the savage native inhabitants, who refuse to profit by the agricultural lessons presented to them, find in awhile their hunting- ground reduced so that they gradually retire and their numbers decrease. A like melancholy picture of displacement and decadence may be seen in the midst of civilized communities, where an ignorant, prejudiced, and dilatory class of people fail to readily adapt themselves to new circumstances and advance with the times. Every step of human progress necessarily disturbs old arrangements, and is therefore likely to inconvenience and throw out of gear some of the more laggard portion of the community. The improvements effected in spinning and weaving in the early part of the present century deprived many textile workers of their customary employment and incited them to carry on a ruthless war against machinery, just as savages fight against the introduction of fences and agriculture. At a more recent period the rapid construction of railways took away the 298 THE EEAL JESUS. employment of thousands who were dependent on the old mode of conveyance, and, where they could not take readily to some new occupation, distressed them greatly and even shortened their lives. These various sufferers from collision with the wheels of progress are often simple inoffensive people entitled to a great deal of pity and charity, and they should be helped as far as possible to get on their legs again and recover themselves, but it cannot be made out that they are actually wronged by the changes which have proved adverse to their conservative interests so as to have any claim to judicial compensation. 26. Much is said by the preachers of Christian Socialism on the economic disadvantages and other evils resulting from Competition. But though human rivalries may be beneficially restrained and modified to some extent, they cannot be entirely got rid of without a sacrifice of liberty to which the world will not willingly submit. Single men are con- stantly competing one against the other for wives, and single women are striving in like manner for husbands, and how can we manage by legislative or any other means to put an end to the strife ? A great deal of jealousy, mortification, and agonizing distress comes from it : murder is sometimes committed as one of its results, and it not un- frequently leads to madness, suicide, and premature death. Yet we cannot get opposing suitors to renounce^ their freedom of choice, and submit to be paired authoritatively : all that may be hoped for is to train them to compete sensibly, to respect the claims of their rivals, and to bear disappointment without overmuch grief. Competition stimulates people, as nothing else would, to make the best of themselves and afford pleasure and satisfaction to others. Lovers would be slovenly if they had no rivals, students would be idle, servants neglectful. THE FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 299 masters overbearing, and tradesmen would impose on their customers rather than study to oblige. In primitive colonial communities, as well as in small towns and in remote country villages, great extortion is often practised by a trader or professional man who has the field to himself and is able to command a monopoly. If no restraining authority exists to prevent people so circumstanced from taking undue advantage of their neighbours' needs, it is only by a rival stepping in that they will ever be brought to revise their tariff and content themselves with moderate charges. Hence in all communities that have -suffered more or less from monopolist impositions it is common to hear the saying " Competition is good for the public/' and no adage commands a more general acceptance. 27. In most of our large towns, however, quite an opposite state of things exists at the present day; people have hardly had any experience of the evils of monopoly, while competition is so keen in some trades that profits are not only rendered moderate, but reduced so low as to be hardly sufficient to support life. The only true remedy for the suffering in such case is to lessen the industrial pressure, to diminish the competition by well-distributed migration and emigration ; but the Kingsley school, instead of directing their efforts wisely in this way, have raised a howl against the operation of economic laws and the universal striving to buy cheaply, that is, to get things at the market rates. They might just as reasonably stand by and denounce the cruelty of the law of gravitation when a number of rash youths, without calculating correctly their strength and their prospects, have plunged beyond their depth into a rough rolling sea. Where grown-up people have not sense enough to place themselves wisely on the earth's surface for obtaining the means of - 800 THE REAL JESUS. subsistence they ought to be dealt with as children. Many years ago there were a number of Christian saints in Syria who perched regularly on the tops of pillars, and the neighbouring people held them in great veneration, and were very assiduous in ministering to their wants. At the present day such anchorites, instead of being well waited on, would probably be told in an unceremonious manner to come down and work. Yet even now we have thousands of shiftless men as well as women who persist in settling where they are not in the least wanted, and have scarcely any better prospect of earning an honest living than if they were located on pillar tops. Carlyle has said that working horses are always valuable, while working men in this confused world are often so little in request that they become a burden on society, and suggest the desirability of persuading them to go and hang themselves. This is because horses are wisely distributed ; if they were permitted to crowd to certain places without direction according to their humour, and remain there for an indefinite period whether wanted or not, so far from being Valued more than men in the same plight, we should soon see them shot down as a nuisance. 28. If workpeople and others are only rightly distributed, so that there is no excessive com- petition or industrial congestion, they ought to experience no distress. This happy condition of things may be witnessed in certain well-governed localities. Some years ago an agricultural parish in a central part of England belonged entirely to one benevolent gentleman, who constantly studied the welfare of his dependent people. He settled all disputes that arose among them and maintained a good school for their children at his own expense. He had one grocer's shop, or general store, in the village conducted by an honest tradesman, who, on THE FRUITS OP CHRISTIANITY. 301 the condition of his selling good articles at the market price,, w,as protected from competition. Carpenter, smith,, tailor, and what few other artizans the village contained, were under precisely the same regulations ; they had no fear of rivals stepping in, but were bound to render fair and efficient service, and both they and the agricultural population were seen to prosper and get 011 harmoniously together. Competition might very well be regulated in the same way by the municipal authorities of a town, and the number of traders and artisans protected from hurtful pressure on the condition of their properly discharging their duty. The Government has done much of late years to secure elementary schools from hurtful rivalry, and at the same time to increase their efficiency by regular inspection. Competition between railways has been authorita- tively limited and regulated with no less beneficial results. Hundreds of lines are projected by scheming adventurers where they are not really wanted and there is not the slightest prospect of their being remunerative. But any such line will serve the purpose of the schemers if it can only allure investors for its construction, or be worked in such a way as to annoy some other company and force it to buy up the annoyance. Government, therefore, although sometimes imposed upon, generally refuses to sanction such ill- concerted enterprises ; it agrees to protect the really useful companies from injurious competition on the condition that the public shall receive from them liberal treatment and fairly share their advantages. 29. But because Government, or an impartial magistrate, can thus regulate competition advan- tageously in the interest of the general public, it affords no warrant for any body of selfish traders or workers attempting to regulate it in their own interest. While the municipal authorities of a town 302 THE EEAL JESUS. might be deemed competent to decide whether any more shops of a certain class are needed for the accommodation of the inhabitants, such decision would not be safely left to the shopkeepers themselves, since they would aim at limiting their number as'much as possible,, to create a monopoly and enhance the price of their goods. In short, they would want to check competition for the purpose of raising things to an artificial value so as to cheat the public, having precisely the same end in view as those who give deficient weight and measure or practise adulteration. Four hundred years ago such a system of fraudulent restriction was actually carried on in England by a number of affiliated societies called Trade Guilds, till the public would no longer endure their unjust monopolies, and they were suppressed by legislative enactment. " The decline of the guilds/' says Wade, " like that of most other oppressions, resulted from an endeavour to exercise a power incompatible with the general welfare. Their object was to promote the interest of their own monopolies by the sacrifice of the interests of the community. This was conspicuous iu the selfish and contracted policy with which they opposed the admission of apprentices, against which several statutes in the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII. were specially directed" (" History of the Working Classes," chap, xii) . 30. Carlyle has rightly said that there were some good moral features in the old Trade Guilds, but that the Trades Unions which have succeeded them "are avowedly for increase of wages alone; of thievery, knavery, botchery, meeting in the work done." In short these societies are an attempt on the part of banded working people to revive the guilds in a more aggravated form. They not only combine to keep up the rate of wages, but, to make this end more attainable, widen their conspiracy THE FEUITS OP CHRISTIANITY. 303 against the public by urging their masters to further combine and keep up the rate of profits. A body of discontented colliers, when told that the state of trade will not admit of any increase in their wages, demand that the price of coals shall be raised a shilling a ton, and the employers in several instances have actually been driven to take concerted action and carry out their behest. The ironmasters have in like manner been dictated to by their workmen and forced to raise the price of iron goods, and the same artificial enhancement has been brought about by the action of unionism in many other industries, to the disadvantage of the public. Men in combination have also gone so far as to insist on their masters discharging all non-unionist hands from their employment and in limiting the number of their apprentices. In short, they have been seeking in various ways to force oil their employers a narrow protectionist policy and practically revive the old industrial monopolies of the middle ages. Moreover, they despise law, and do not hesitate to take advantage of their employers and the public by resorting to intimidation and violence. Mr. Voysey, a warm-hearted friend of the working class, says in one of his discourses, (; No sensible or just person will find any fault with labourers who, dis- satisfied with their wages, demand an increase from their employers. They have a perfect right to do this, and also a perfect right to combine together voluntarily to refuse to work except at their own terms. No one, I say, can justly find fault with this in a country which professes to be free. But when these men, having refused to do the work offered, venture to prevent other men from accepting it who are willing and glad to take it on the terms offered, then surely they are wholly in the wrong, violating all the traditions and laws of freedom ; yes, violating that very freedom under whose 304 THE EEAL JESUS. protection they live, and setting up a tyranny not to be endured for a moment in a land like ours" ("Theistic Sermons/' vol. xiii., No. 9). 31. There may be some few Christian ministers who would endorse these just views, but the majority of such have not the moral courage to publicly avow them from the pulpit. When a strike occurs and numbers of poor men are being maltreated and mobbed away from their em- ployment by ruffianly picketers, a certain portion of the clergy will meekly look on and not venture to express an opinion. They will refer to the text, "Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you" ? (Luke xii. 14), and say, as the Kev, Harry Jones did at a recent Church Congress, " after this high and suggestive example, the Church has no busi- ness to offer, and no call to accept the office of judge in the settlement of money disputes.'' Those, however, who form the Christian Socialist party such as Cardinal Manning, Canon Scott Holland, and Canon Wilberforce boldly take u a position by the side of labour agitators, an pander in like manner to an outbreak of mob violence in order to acquire popularity. They justify, strikes which are rendered successful by a resort to picketing and intimidation, and contend that only in this way can the industrial population cope with the tyranny of capitalism. They assure us that poor working men are too feeble to stand alone and bargain with their employers individually; it is necessary that they should combine for that purpose so that they may obtain better terms. 32. These Christian prelates look upon what is commonly called hard bargaining as a very great iniquity, although arranged by mutual consent, and yet will approve of a bargain which men force on their employers by violence. It may be very reprehensible, as we all know, for one man to aim THE FEUITS OP CHRISTIANITY. 305 at profiting commercially by another's distress, if it be very urgent and exceptional distress. When a neighbour's house is on fire or his life is in imminent danger, we must not think of offering him help on hard terms, as Jacob did to Esau, but proceed promptly to his succour without any thought of compensation. We are under no such obligation, however, to assist all who happen to be in straitened circumstances. Ordinary poverty, if it fails to obtain help from private friends, meets with no favour or consideration in the world's market, and it is not to be expected that it should. Certain small and needy hop-planters in my neigh- bourhood are often forced to sell their growths at a disadvantage, while those who can afford to wait will obtain a better price. A shopkeeper, if hard pressed by creditors, may be compelled to dispose of a portion of his stock at a considerable sacrifice. And working people, who from some cause or other happen to be in a destitute condition, are often glad to snatch at any poor employment that offers, and earn low wages which at other times they would have been sure to refuse. Such people are not unfairly dealt with : all who sell their goods or their labour very cheaply, under the force of circumstances, will be seen to sell very dearly when once there comes a turn of fortune and they find themselves standing on a vantage ground. 33. A poor man can make his own bargains as an individual quite as effectively as his rich neighbour ; in all the little commercial transactions of life he will be found quite able to take care of himself, if he is not shrewd enough to take advantage of others. When he goes to make shop purchases he needs no union secretary behind him to insure his getting satisfactory terras. Nor does he find it desirable to force down prices by combination pressure after the manner of the Parisian mobs in 1793. The 306 THE REAL JESUS. shopkeeper will be reluctant to impose ou him or in any way disoblige him, lest he should transfer his custom elsewhere. When he hires a lodging or a house there is no pressing necessity for him to join a tenant's league for the purpose of reducing his rent, as the Campaigners have done in Ireland. For if he is too high rented or not justly dealt with in any way, a more liberal landlord will receive him with open arms, as honest tenants are always in request. Nor is there any better reason for his having associated support in dealing with those who undertake to requite him periodically for his industry. An employer, who understands his own interest, will always be disposed to conciliate a good workman by granting any reasonable request rather than treat him in a way that will be likely to result in the loss of his services. There is unquestionably more justice done to workpeople when dealt with individually than when treated collectively, because in the former case -character is properly taken account of, whereas good men and bad are confounded when they act under combination. Many thousands of people are engaged independently in various offices throughout the country as surveyors, inspectors, managers, clerks, secretaries, teachers, travellers, servants, labourers, &c. and they .are not, for want of unionism, squeezed and oppressed. If discontented they can soon leave, and if they give satisfaction it will be profitable to offer them some inducement to cling to their posts; it is a general rule in such cases to increase their remuneration from time to time in proportion to the increased value of their services. This rule of graduated and correlative advancement is followed by the Government in all its civil departments, and a more just system of compensating people for their labour could not possibly be devised. In the army it is also carried TflR FEUTTS OP CinilSTIANITY. 307 out even down to the lowest ranks ; a deserving soldier always has before him a prospect of in- creased emolument, and under such a regulation men are encouraged to do their best and steadily advance in efficiency. But the jealous spirit of unionism discourages improving efforts, it recog- nizes no industrial superiority, and aims at keeping all men on the same communistic level; there must be no such thing as individual promotion, but a uniform rise for the combined mass, wholly irre- spective of merit. 34. Under the ordinary non-unionist engagements good masters generally become associated with good men, and bad masters with bad men, so that character on both sides obtains the recognition which it ought to receive. But it is the disposition of unionism to hinder this true assortment of associated workers, to ignore distinctions of character, and to lump people together in classes as though they were all morally alike. It is desirable that employers should have a frequent intercourse with their men individually in order to keep up a good understanding with them, and where differences of opinion exist among a large body of men, in no other way is it possible to ascertain the strength of a formulated demand. This, however, is just what the agitators endeavour to prevent by all possible means; they are constantly fomenting a spirit of ignorant distrust and stubborn unfriendliness ; it is their aim to keep men and masters apart in two hostile camps glaring fiercely at each other, and having scarcely any exchange of views but through an occasional treaty which themselves shall be privileged to negotiate. It is pretty generally admitted outside trade-union, circles, that people who are associated as employers and employed ought as far as posible to maintain friendly relations and study to promote each other's x 2 308 THE HEAL JESUS. welfare. But if they are selfish in their dispositions and fail to discharge their duty towards each other reciprocally, war is not likely to improve their relations ; they will not be coerced into doing what is right or become more amiable and agreeable when smarting under deliberately inflicted injuries. If they cannot be reconciled,, their only proper course is to separate and form re-engagements with the view- to securing greater harmony. The man who displeases one employer may suit another admirably ; when Smith and Jones fail to agree, Smith and Brown may get on satisfactorily together, and Jones may have no serious quarrel when he becomes associated with Eobiuson. It is the aim of unionism, however, to prevent such wise separa- tion and readjustment in the interest of peace ; an employer is not allowed to part with a man who displeases him, but is compelled to discharge one who is friendly and devoted to his interest ; masters and men, instead of working together amicably, must be as ill-mated as possible, so as to be kept in perpetual discord. 35. We all know that injured people have some- times rightly combined to defeat a strong oppressor, just as a flock of small birds will mob away a predatory hawk, but the various trade combina- tions which have been established are themselves notoriously engines of oppression. A large pro- portion of those who join the organizations would much rather be free men, but are compelled to join under a remorseless system of persecution. And having been made recruits by a unionist press- gang, they are forced against their will to make weekly contributions to a military chest and engage any day at brief notice in an industrial war which may involve them in the greatest misery. We are told that trade combinations are necessary before ul) things for the purpose of checking competition. THE FEUITS OP CHRISTIANITY. 309 But why should competition be forcibly restrained to favour any particular section of the community? What right have we to prevent our fellow-men from competing with us in a free open field of industry, and so arrogate to ourselves exclusive privileges ? Those who do not scruple to act in this way can have hardly any better notion of equity than a tribe of lawless savages. The first industrial combination that happened to come under my notice was that of a party of rustic gleaners, who both intellectually and morally were not much superior to Hottentots. Poor cottagers glean after harvest in different parts of the country under different regulations ; four families were on this occasion permitted to glean together in a wheat stubble, but on being left to themselves three of them combined for the improvement of their posi^ tion, and mobbed the other out of the field. No com- bination on the part of skilled artisans or any other class, relying on physical force or a resort to open war for the attainment of their ends, can have any better claim to respect. ' 36. Where a civilized government exists and law and order are regularly maintained, not only is a com- bination on the part of any class wholly unnecessary for the purpose of securing justice for that class in the great struggle of life, but it will be found to contribute in an unmistakable manner to the promotion of injustice. Both at Perak and Labuan it has been found necessary to break up the Chinese secret societies, which, so long as they held together, baffled the police, shielded offenders, and rendered altogether powerless and ineffective the magisterial authority. In some parts of China beggars are said to band themselves together on unionist principles for the purpose of unfairly increasing their gains. A group of them will persistently blockade the door of a shop so as to prevent any more customers from 310 THE KEAL JESUS. entering, till the poor annoyed shopkeeper is induced to come forth and negotiate for the resumption of commercial freedom by paying a sufficient ransom. They are also accustomed to surround a person whom they meet in a lone place, and so worry and prevent him from making further progress till he reluctantly accedes to their demands. It might be argued that such stratagems are necessary in the great struggle for existence, and enable the poor to get more liberal treatment* from their prosperous neighbours than they would do by soliciting alms individually. It is clear, however, that when beggars make separate appeals for relief there is a much greater proba- bility of their all being treated fairly according to their deserts. Their combination stratagems, which are only a modified system of highway robbery, are likely to harden people's hearts against them. And if it could be shown that in the long run they got increased alms by their method of extortion, they could not be permanently benefited or socially elevated by proceedings which must necessarily tend to their demoralization. 37. It has always been considered the duty of a civilized government to maintain order among the whole of its subject population, and not allow one citizen to molest, assault, or make war upon another. This is generally well accomplished so far as indi- viduals and small parties are concerned, but where a multitude conspire to gain their ends by a resort to violence they are less easily laid hold of and judicially curbed. In Greece, at a comparatively recent period, brigands were able to set the laws at defiance from having a considerable amount of political influence and being well supported by popular sympathy. It is from similar causes that the land-leaguers of Ireland have managed to carry on a system of disguised robbery in that country and treat the authority of the magistrates with contempt. And THE FEUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 311 in our own country bands of ruffianly picketers have taken upon themselves almost as much liberty of action as foreign invaders would have done, and have laughed at the opposing efforts of the police. It is not surprising that such lawless combinations should receive as a quid pro quo the support of politicians any more than that ordinary criminals should secure special pleaders to advocate their cause. But here, as well as in Ireland and in Greece, the confederated law-breakers have received the heartiest encouragement from Christian ministers who have taken up the role of the revolu- tionary agitator with the view to acquire popu- larity. There may be some excuse for priests acting as partisan advocates where they are entirely dependent on one section or class of the community for support. But an established national clergy, who are placed in an independent position, ought to be as strictly impartial as government magistrates, and, in any dispute arising between class and class, should rebuke wrong on either side and endeavour to bring about reconcilia- tion and peace. This is done, it must be admitted, by some ministers who are specially endowed with good sense, but those who engage in Communistic agitation are at present a growing party, and they are constantly reminding us that Christianity, what- ever it may accomplish in the way of purity and charity, is not a religion of justice, nor one well fitted to impart moral strength to the poor and permanently ameliorate their condition. 38. Christian Socialists are for the most part very benevolent, and very sympathetic towards human suffering, yet their mistaken meddling in behalf of their impoverished countrymen often tends to aggravate their woes. There is perhaps not a more noble and generous feeling in the human breast than that of chivalry the spirit which urges us to 312 THE REAL JESUS. protect the poor, the weak, and the vanquished from oppression, and, if those imbued with it were at the same time always wise and discriminating, they would be true ministers of justice and confer on society an unmixed good. But unfortunately as Cervantes has taught us in " Don Quixote " people who are warm-hearted and very chivalrous are not always proportionately wise. In their eagerness to redress wrong they are very apt to let their generous feelings carry away their judgment, and so fall into all sorts of indiscretions. When chivalry degenerates into what is called knight- errantry, it commits the egregious mistake of over- looking the moral grounds of every quarrel and invariably ranging itself on what is supposed to be the weaker side. People in humble circumstances may be very gentle, innocent, and unselfish, and those who lord it over them may be proud, covetous, and tyrannical, yet this is by no means so generally the case as the knight-errant is prone to imagine. On the contrary, those who hold a ruling position in the world, such as teachers, managers, proprietors, organizers of industry, and others, are presumably, by the very fact of their having such a position, more virtuous and wise than their subordinates. Human beings who cannot get on well indepen- dently, and find it needful to submit to the direction of others, are not in general the most far-sighted and reflective. They have to be looked after, instructed, told of their faults, kept to their duty, and only the little unpleasantness of being reproved occasionally or not permitted to have their own way, is liable to be regarded by the hot-tempered as a grievance. The amount of service required of them, and the amount of remuneration offered for it will always afford to some, if not for all, a permanent groundfor discontent. Disputes between employers and employed are therefore, from the OFTH \ UNIVERSITY ) OF / THE FRUITS OP nature of their relationship, pretty sure to occur everywhere, and the former are sometimes guilty of manifest injustice and deserve the greater blame. But if they were not on the whole more reasonable and conciliatory than the combinations whom agitators influence, and more desirous of avoiding injurious conflicts, the position which they hold could not possibly be maintained long, and great organized industries would soon fall to pieces. 39. Our frequent labour troubles, like many other social evils, may be said to originate largely from the bad home training or parental neglect which numbers of the young generation experience. At nearly every school complaints will be heard of the great difficulty of managing and contenting a certain portion of the children who have been reared in utter lawlessness. Those who form our violent combinations of strikers and leaguers at the present day are only unruly boys grown up to be turbulent men, and transferring the hostility which they once entertained against the school teacher to the employer, the magistrate, and the police. Their aim is to be free from restraint, to counterwork the efforts of all who are in a position of authority, to thwart and circumvent them in such a crafty manner as to render the maintenance of order nearly impossible. In the proceedings of moon- lighters in the west of Ireland, in the unionist atrocities perpetrated in some of our large manu- facturing towns, and in the destructive riots that have occurred on certain railways, we may see the budding ruffianism of bands of schoolboys fully developed. The adult combinators have the same intimidation of witnesses which they practised in their youth, the same tyrannical pressure to force the better disposed to enter their ranks, the same barbarity, only carried to greater lengths, in their mode of inflicting punishment ; and the idea that 314 THE KEAL JESUS. they are driven to such courses by genuine oppres- sion, however well it may serve political purposes, is one of the greatest delusions ever propagated. . So perverted has the public judgment become in these days of perpetual agitation and demagogy, that what is deemed most culpable from a moral point of view in the conduct of an individual is not only excused, but considered commendable on the part of a multitude. " The wrong a bad man does with shame a mob will do with pride. Thus English working men arrange extorting combinations, And Irish leagues their land disputes by outrage force decide, And shield their incapacity and shirk their obligations. " And priests will favour in a mob what in a man they blame ; The haughty, proud, imperious lord is now no longer dreaded. The loftiest kings are looked upon as bears and lions tame, And courtiers only cringe and bow to tyrants many-headed. WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. THE NEW KORAN: A BOOK OF INSTRUCTION FOR RELIGIOUS REFORMERS, in Scriptural Style and Arrangement. POST 8vo., PP. 672. 5s. " { The New Koran ' is exactly the opposite of the ' Book of Mormon/ Its narratives are short and varied, interesting and life-like, and there is not a page or a paragraph without its useful lessons. It is as readable as ' Robinson Crusoe,' and as instructive as Theodore Parker's Sermons. And its lessons are generally of the most valuable description, and put in the most intelligible and taking forms. In religion, in morals, and in politics you have the genuine inspiration of the spirit of wisdom and benevolence. And it is fitted for people of various ages and all stations. Young and old, rich and poor, rulers and subjects, may read it with equal pleasure and equal profit." Barker's Review. "The writer is intelligent, clever, and conscientious aye, much more conscientious than many a professor of a ceremonial faith. His aims are excellent in the direction of peacemaking and toleration, and his labours merit recognition, however much we may differ in matters of faith. He speaks through the mouthpiece of one Jaido Morata, who is a preacher to all nations travelling over the habitable globe, calling all religionists to a sense of brotherly feeling, denouncing their vices and follies, and exhorting them to pursue the paths of rectitude. The work is eminently readable, is far from being pedantic or dogmatic, and displays an amount of keen reflection that proves the writer to be an astute thinker and profound observer of the actions and thoughts of Jews, Christians, and Mohammedans. He exhibits a knowledge of Jewish matters and peculiarities that is truly surprising." Jewish World. " 'The New Koran,' it should be stated, is not altogether a new book. It was originally published some years since, but at that time experienced the usual fate of books recommended solely by their merit. Its emergence from neglect is highly creditable to the discernment of the few who have not suffered it to be forgotten; and we very sincerely trust that it s diffusion will not be retarded by what a liberal mind ought to regard as the eminent merit of sturdy independence of all the reigning schools of thought. It is a rare pleasure to encounter an author capable of thinking so resolutely for himself. Though independent he is so far from unsocial that one of the principal objects of the republication of the work is stated to be the encouragement of religious reformers to collective action more or less after the pattern exhibited by Jaido Morata. Without entering on so large a subject here, we may affirm that whenever a coDgregation of the description con- templated does assemble, it will find ' The New Koran ' much better adapted for employment in its services than the old one. Objective, dramatic, impressive, aphoristic, pregnant with thought, and transparent in expression, it has every requisite for public recitation, while far more than a ' forty parson power ' of homilisiog would be needed to exhaust its manifold suggestiveness." Dr. Richard Garnett, in the Examiner. MONARCHY DEFENDED : A Treatise for Revolutionary Times. CLOTH 8vo., PP. xv.-230. 2s. 6d. "His arguments in favour of hereditary constitutional monarchy, as contrasted with various forms of republicanism, have been repeatedly urged and have certainly weight. A form of government cannot be pronounced good or bad in the abstract, as in the way of debating societies, but must be con- sidered in relation to the people governed and their circum- stances Mr. Vickers remarks that a city community is apt to be more democratic than a rural community, not so much from its possession of higher intelligence as from its lower organization, which allows men to be independent of their neighbours, and so indirectly encourages many to live by actual crime. Hereditary monarchy has, he argues, as much to say for itself as any elective arrangement, which in many cases is a notorious failure, and leads merely to the advancement of the noisy and forward, who are often very ignorant and incompetent." Spectator. " Those who desire a really able resume of the arguments in favour of a constitutional monarchy and at the same time the completest answer to those who bid us look to the Republics of other countries notably that of America cannot do better than procure Mr. Vickers's book The chapters in which incompetence, economy, wars, and progress are re- spectively considered and contrasted under the Monarchical and the Republican regimes are specially worthy of study." Northampton Herald. " His defence of monarchy is a very able one We admire throughout his calm and powerful argumentative style and felicity of language. His book, too, gives evidence of great and varied historical research, and of clear and matured thought. He evidently knows the labouring classes, and especially the agricultural labourers, well ; and although he does not flatter them he writes of them as a well-wisher and a true friend. His book is eminently a thought-provoking one, and deserves to be widely read." Mark Lane Express. THE HISTORY OF HEROD: Another look at a man emerging from twenty centuries of calumny. CLOTH 8vo., PP. xxvn.-360. 6s. "The puzzle which he has set himself, and which he has certainly executed with some skill, is to detect and exhibit the real Herod the patriotic statesman, philosophic thinker, illuminated theologian, liberal critic, ecclesiastical reformer, amiable kinsman, and generally good and great man whose noble countenance is veiled behind the scowls and grimaces of the accepted caricature." Saturday Review. " Although the writer adds no new matter to the story told by Josephus, and although he takes the part of an advocate rather than that of a judge, yet his reading of the text is so fair, and the consequent inferences are so reasonable, that he may justly be held to have earned for his client the favourable verdict of posterity None but an able soldier, a consummate diplomatist, and a just statesman, could have acquired, as Herod undoubtedly did, the confidence of the successive rulers of the Roman world, and the respect of his subjects, as evinced by the tranquillity of his kingdom during the greater part of a long reign and the anarchy which followed his death Our thanks are due to Mr. Vickers for having produced an exceedingly lively and well-written account of the epoch." Westminster' Review. "To all impressed with the justice of the ancient aphorism ' Audi alteram partem,' we would commend the perusal of this really remarkable volume." Knowledge. "There can be no doubt that one will be better able to judge intelligently not only of Herod as a man and a ruler, but also of the Jewish nation from the time of the return from Babylon to its final overthrow by the Romans, after reading this book. In the case of a ruler whose reputation has come to us only through the word of bitter enemies it is but fair to cross-examine the witnesses." The Unitarian (Chicago). THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN THIS BOOK ON THE DATE .-DUE. THE PENALTY WILL INCREASE TO 5O CENTS ON THE FOURTH DAY AND TO $1.OO ON THE SEVENTH DAY OVERDUE. LD 21-100m-7,'39(402s) Vtr