. j*. 
 
 *&
 
 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF
 
 FROM REVIEWS OF FIRST AND SECOND EDITIONS. 
 
 "From beginning to end of the book there is not a single dull 
 passage, not a sentence obscure from overloading, not an argument 
 skimped into shallowness, not a point ineffectively put. . . . The interest 
 never flags ; one is carried from point to point by perspicuous links of 
 connection till all are welded together into a complete and rounded 
 whole. . . . It is a perfect mine of quotation for men with little time 
 for deep study, who are called, as modern ministers are, to be not only 
 visitors and workers, but also preachers and teachers." Guardian. 
 
 ' ' The science of Apologetics is not dead. The hope of a better day 
 wakens with the reading of a new book by Mr. Ballard. It is a full in- 
 troduction to the modern science of Apologetics. The new ground is 
 carefully chosen. In face of an enemy as hostile as ever, the opposition 
 is uncompromising, but the warfare is less barbarous than of old. Even 
 in the timely discussion of Haechel's ' Riddle of the Universe ' there is 
 courtesy mingled with the vigour of the refutation." . . . [Second 
 Edition] ' ' Mr. Ballard has made a remarkable hit. We prophesy for 
 the book now a very wide circulation. " Expository Times. 
 
 " This is a well-written, reasonable, forcible piece of argument. We 
 have been much impressed by Mr. Ballard's earnestness and acumen ; 
 his book take it all round is a real contribution to the large literature 
 of Apologetics." Christian World. 
 
 "A most useful volume, thoroughly up to date, clear and telling in 
 style and thought, and very well informed. Mr. Ballard makes a 
 capital reply to his critics in a new preface." British Weekly. 
 
 " It is written by an expert in science as well as theology, a fair- 
 minded man who faces religious difficulties, not ignores them, and one 
 who knows how to reason out his case like an accomplished advocate, 
 without pressing it like an unscrupulous one. Mr. Ballard has rendered 
 valuable service to the cause of Christian truth, and given us an 
 excellent and useful book, deserving a large circulation." Methodist 
 Recorder (Prof. W. T. DAVISON, M.A., D.D.). 
 
 " Mr. Ballard writes as a master of the subject of which he treats, 
 and has produced something more than a good book ; indeed, we think 
 that in calling it a great book we are not far wide of the mark." 
 Methodist Times. 
 
 "We very heartily recommend Mr. Ballard's work, not only for its 
 extremely well-reasoned arguments, but for its admirable notes and its 
 useful list of books upon various branches of the subject. No one who 
 reads the chapter on ' Christ, His Origin and Character," will say that 
 we have spoken too favourably of the Apologetic merit of the book. 
 The Christ of the Gospels is at least possible and conceivable", but the 
 naturalistic Christ is alike unthinkable and impossible. It is Mr. 
 Ballard's crowning merit that he proves this with triumphant logic to 
 the uttermost." Church Quarterly Review. 
 
 " This unpretentious volume is by all odds the best apology of the 
 Christian religion that has appeared for many a day." Presbyterian 
 and Reformed Review (edited by Prof. WARFIELD, Princeton).
 
 THE MIRACLES OF 
 UNBELIEF 
 
 FRANK BALLARD 
 
 M.A., B.Sc., F.R.M.S., ETC. 
 
 COUBLE PRIZEMAN IN HEBREW AND NEW TESTAMENT GREEK IN THE 
 UNIVERSITY OF LONDON 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 "THE MISSION OF CHRISTIANITY" "REASONABLE ORTHODOXY" 
 "WHICH BIBLE TO READ" ETC. 
 
 THIRD EDITION 
 REVISED AND ENLARGED 
 
 EDINBURGH 
 
 T. & T. CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET 
 1901
 
 PRINTED BY 
 MORRISON AXD GIBB LIMITED, 
 
 FOR 
 
 T. & T. CLARK, EDINBURGH. 
 
 LONDON : 8LMPKIX, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, AND CO. LIMITED. 
 NEW YORK : CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS.
 
 WITH REVERENT LOVE 
 
 TO A WIFE 
 WHOM ALL THE YEARS HAVE PROVED TO BE 
 
 INCARNATE GOODNESS 
 
 2039GOO
 
 " Hold thou the good : define it well : 
 For fear divine Philosophy 
 Should push beyond her mark and be 
 Procuress to the Lords of HelL"
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION .... vi 
 
 PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION . , ... vii 
 
 PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION . . , . xxii 
 
 I. INTRODUCTORY . . . ... ] 
 
 II. THE ATTITUDE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH . 11 
 
 III. STATEMENT OF THE CASE . . ... 27 
 
 NOTES . . V . .. . 37 
 
 IV. THE REALM OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE . . . 47 
 V. FACTS OF HISTORY AND THEIR EXPLANATION . 107 
 
 VI. THE REALM OF PSYCHOLOGY . . . 175 
 
 VII. THE MORAL REALM . . . . . 215 
 
 VIII. CHRIST, His ORIGIN AND CHARACTER . -. 245 
 
 IX. THE SPIRITUAL REALM . ;..'... .277 
 
 X. COMPLICATION, CULMINATION, CONCLUSION . 317 
 
 XI. SPECIAL NOTE ON ERNST HAECKEL'S "THE RIDDLE 
 
 OF THE UNIVERSE" .... 343 
 
 XII. APPENDIX : LIST OF USEFUL BOOKS . . 357 
 
 ADDENDA . . ... . . . 363 
 
 INDEX 3G5
 
 PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION 
 
 THE speedy demand for a Third Edition of this work 
 confirms the hope that such an appeal to reason on 
 behalf of Christian faith as it embodies, is alike timely 
 and valid. The present issue differs from the preceding 
 only in the addition of a Note on p. 364 in relation 
 to two recent and unfavourable reviews. The Author's 
 whole and only desire is contained in the apostolic word, 
 " Whatsoever things are true . . . these consider." 
 
 SHEFFIELD, November 1901.
 
 PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION 
 
 THE demand for a Second Edition of this work so soon 
 after its publication, suggests the hope that the labour 
 spent upon it has not been wholly in vain, and offers a 
 valuable opportunity for profiting by some criticisms 
 passed upon it. No one can be more conscious of its 
 defects and incompleteness than the author. It is 
 perhaps an insufficient apology to plead the many inter- 
 ruptions and inevitable engrossments of a city pastorate ; 
 yet I humbly claim at least as much right as Haeckel 
 (vide p. 348) to affirm that "my" Christian "philosophy 
 is sincere from beginning to end, and is the complete 
 expression of the conviction that has come to me after 
 many years of ardent research and unceasing reflection." 
 For the believer quite as truly as for the unbeliever, 
 such conviction of sincerity is unshakeable, and the 
 expression of it becomes the best contribution any man 
 can make to the moral and spiritual welfare of his 
 generation. 
 
 I have to thank several reviewers for pointing out a 
 few minor slips, such as the misplacement of Schleier- 
 macher's name, the possible overestimate of the number of 
 
 vii
 
 viii PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION 
 
 early Christian martyrs, etc., all of which, together with 
 one or two repetitions which had escaped notice, have been 
 corrected in this edition. It is satisfactory to observe 
 that the main positions adopted in these pages remain 
 not only unshaken, but virtually unassailed. Some 
 criticisms, indeed, must be disregarded, as being either 
 unwarranted in fact or displaying an animus which is 
 best left without reply. But a few matters appear to 
 be of sufficient importance to merit such further con- 
 sideration as is possible in a Preface. 
 
 It has been suggested that the terms " natural " and 
 " supernatural " are not denned with sufficient philo- 
 sophical precision. I must, however, be content to refer 
 to the Preface, together with pp. 43, 151154, as 
 supplying all that the scope of this work either required 
 or admitted. 
 
 Another writer represents the author as one " whose 
 best plea for Christianity is that all other things are 
 worse." Unfortunately the acuteness of this antithesis 
 is purchased at the expense of truth, as both the Preface 
 and p. 332 should suffice to show. When, moreover, 
 the same reviewer proceeds to remark that " we could 
 wish that writers like Mr. Ballard would pay more 
 attention to the teaching of Jesus Himself," it becomes a 
 little difficult to reply with placidity. Does this writer 
 seriously wish the public to understand that only he and 
 the school he represents, give any heed to the Gospels ? 
 When, indeed, he goes on to say, " The New Testament 
 itself represents Jesus as refusing to work miracles," it 
 becomes really necessary in the interests of truth that 
 we should inquire why he does not " pay more attention "
 
 PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION ix 
 
 to the records with which he professes to deal ? For 
 everyone knows that, as a general statement, such an 
 affirmation is simply untrue. To what straits writers of 
 this school are reduced is witnessed by the following : 
 
 " These things shcmld at least raise the question, Did Jesus Him- 
 self believe in the New Testament miracles ? A question which never 
 seems to have occurred to Mr. Ballard, but which, nevertheless, is 
 fundamental to the whole theory of miraculous Christianity. For 
 if, when Jesus had said that no miracles should be given, we still 
 believe in them, His character for truth-speaking is not improved." 
 
 The italics are mine. And it seems sufficient to add 
 that no such question as this critic supposes could ever 
 occur to any ordinary reader of the New Testament, 
 unless suggested by an a priori theory which has pre- 
 viously begged the whole question, in dismissing the 
 Gospel of John and limiting the Christian records to a 
 sufficiently eviscerated " Triple Tradition." Though even 
 then, as the writer on " Miracles " in Hastings' recent 
 Bible Dictionary truly remarks : 
 
 " Even if we attempt to restrict the original documents which the 
 Synoptic evangelists had before them when compiling their Gospels, 
 by the simple though unscientific process of rejecting everything 
 which is not common to all three, and so arrive at a ' Triple 
 Tradition,' we shall still find that it teems with miracle. There 
 is no aid to faith in the mere reduction of the number of miracles." 
 
 So that as regards " truth-speaking," seeing that Jesus 
 definitely appealed to His miracles (for, to take one 
 instance only and that not out of the Fourth Gospel 
 no other significance can be critically attached to 
 SvvdfjLeis in Matt. xi. 21, 23), His character is certainly 
 " not improved " by those who endeavour to show that 
 there were no " mighty works " to appeal to. For in 
 such case it must needs follow that the Jesus of the
 
 x PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION 
 
 Gospels was either deceiving or deceived. To represent 
 Christ's own reference to His miracles as mere metaphors 
 after the fashion of General Booth's employment of army 
 terms, is to strain one's belief in either the intelligence 
 or the sincerity of anyone who can make such a sug- 
 gestion. For the rest, I would respectfully draw the 
 attention of this reviewer, and those who think with him, 
 to the quoted words of the late Professor Seeley (pp. 
 44, 261), as coming from one confessedly free from any 
 orthodox bias. The thoughtful reader I would also refer 
 to the works specified in the Appendix on the general 
 subject of miracles, and particularly to a brief but clear 
 discussion of the same on pp. 329 and 350 of Henry 
 Eogers' volume mentioned on p. 112 (last edition, 
 Hodder & Stoughton), from which, for emphasis' sake, 
 I cannot but extract the following words : 
 
 " If the miracles were falsely imputed to the historic Christ with 
 His acquiescence, it occurs to ask the following questions : (1) Did 
 He pretend to work them, though He never did ? If so, then in 
 spite of all M. Kenan's sophistical attempts to justify Him in such 
 tracasserie, His conduct is at utter variance with the impressions of 
 that intellectual and moral greatness the world has ever accorded to 
 Him. He was equally weak and wicked." 
 
 For myself, I am happy to find the only conclusion 
 to which I can honestly come endorsed, since the 
 appearance of this volume, by the weighty words of 
 Professor W. T. Davison (London Quarterly for April 
 1901, p. 309), which, in my judgement, truly sum up 
 the whole case 
 
 "Christianity is bound up with miracle. The supernatural is 
 not for it a superfluous garment, which may be stripped off without 
 loss, or perhaps with advantage. It belongs to the very essence of
 
 PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION xi 
 
 the Christian faith. Not thaumaturgy ; not the working of wonders 
 to make men gape and stare, but the delivery of a message from God, 
 with credentials which give it a character and authority of its own. 
 Christianity does not contradict, but transcend nature ; it is based 
 on a supernatural which forms, together with the natural, one vast 
 kingdom of natural-supernatural, in which the foremost figure is 
 the divine-human Person of Jesus Christ our Lord. We do not 
 deny that a very real and valuable religious belief may exist without 
 this, though it hardly deserves what it often claims, the name 
 Christian. And this Christ is essentially one with the Christ of the 
 Synoptics and the Fourth Gospel." 
 
 An esteemed Professor thinks that " sufficient attention 
 has not here been bestowed upon the theory of visions " 
 in regard to Christ's resurrection. It may be so. Yet 
 I would respectfully plead that this volume is not a 
 monograph upon the resurrection, and space had to be 
 considered. Furthermore, the " vision theory " is really 
 included in the careful consideration given to the 
 " physical " resurrection. If there were, as I seek to 
 show, a necessary physical objectivity in the risen body 
 of Christ, then the vision theory is by consequence 
 precluded. And against such physical although incom- 
 prehensible objectivity, I fail to find any valid scientific 
 or historical objection. The only sufficient disproof 
 would be the demonstration of the impossibility of the 
 miraculous altogether. 
 
 The same reviewer finds it necessary to "protest 
 against the author's frequent reiteration of the argument 
 that if the Virgin birth is denied, Christ must have been 
 the son of an adulteress. Even if the dilemma were 
 correct, the latter alternative would reflect no disgrace 
 on Jesus Himself." Such a judgement, from such a 
 source, confessedly surprises me. I can only ask the
 
 xii PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION 
 
 esteemed writer to believe that every single reference to 
 this theme was carefully considered. The pain of having 
 to contravene the apparently sincere and manifestly 
 erudite convictions of others herein, is to me most real. 
 Nor has anything caused me more surprise and grief, 
 since these pages appeared, than the hint in certain quarters 
 that such pain was nothing to me. Moreover, if Professor 
 Peake will forgive me, I cannot for a moment accept his 
 verdict that " he denounces the Churches." I submit 
 that there is no denunciation in frank and respectful 
 expostulation, any more than in the brief mention of the 
 Salvation Army there is the slightest disparagement of 
 a Christian work which I have always revered and 
 desired to help. 
 
 So as to the Virgin birth. The critic is undoubtedly 
 warranted when he hints that the crux of the whole 
 matter is the " authenticity of the reported sayings of 
 Christ," and " the truth of the Gospel narratives." But 
 it were unreasonable indeed to expect me to rehearse, or 
 even epitomise, the whole modern discussion of this great 
 question, in a volume written for a different purpose. 
 All, it seems to me, that an author can do under the 
 circumstances, is to make only such general references as 
 are, in his judgement, warranted by the facts of the case, 
 and to employ only such assumptions as are justified by 
 the most recent findings of a reliable critical consensus. 
 On these lines, then, I cannot in the present case con- 
 cede that the opening narratives in Matthew and Luke 
 are either necessarily discredited by their contents, or 
 actually shown to be critically unreliable. Nor, again, 
 can I at all consent to the ruling out wholesale of the
 
 PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION xiii 
 
 Fourth Gospel. No sufficiently overwhelming reasons 
 have as yet been adduced for such a procedure. So that, 
 in regard to Professor Peake's words above quoted, I am 
 compelled to hold (i.) that the dilemma is correct as 
 I have stated it and it seemed necessary to state it 
 plainly in order to do justice to its significance; and 
 (ii.) that until the Fourth Gospel is proved unreliable, 
 and not a few strong utterances in the Synoptics are 
 critically jettisoned, the fact of an illegitimate birth 
 would certainly " reflect disgrace " upon the Jesus who 
 declared again and again that He had " come down from 
 heaven," and from His Father, in a sense which could 
 not have been predicated of any ordinary man, much less 
 of one born out of the wedlock which He Himself so 
 emphasised, in contradistinction to some religious teachers 
 of His time. The greatest disgrace that could possibly 
 be cast upon the Christ of the Gospels would be to fasten 
 upon Him the stigma of personal untruthfulness. 
 
 One reviewer has complained, not unkindly, that " in 
 his book he does not grapple with these fundamental 
 questions." I trust he will forgive my recalling his 
 attention to pp. 151-172, which are wholly concerned 
 with the fundamental miracle of the " physical " resur- 
 rection. And if, as I must be pardoned for believing, 
 the evidence is sufficient to establish such a resurrection, 
 cadit quaestio. One such establishment covers all the 
 other ground. There is nothing left to " grapple witri " 
 in the supernatural birth or ascension of the same Jesus. 
 
 It has also been suggested that in regard to the 
 argument from the existence and history of the Jews, 
 " a weak position " cannot be made strong. But this is
 
 xiv PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION 
 
 surely to decide beforehand the case under consideration. 
 Is the position really " weak " ? That is the point. 
 There are not a few, and these by no means unintelligent, 
 to whom it seems rather that the more carefully and 
 thoroughly this matter is considered, the stronger becomes 
 the conviction that the purely natural factors of heredity 
 and environment can no more account for the Jewish 
 people, in the past and present, than they can for Christ 
 Himself. Eeaders of Henry Eogers' work, referred to 
 above, will appreciate his brief note upon this subject on 
 p. 331. 
 
 A critic who has distinguished himself in his presenta- 
 tion of Kitschlian doctrines to the British public, feels 
 justified in asking certain questions, on the ground that 
 "a champion who goes forth to the battle with so fine a 
 scorn for his foe, and bold a boast of his own weapons, 
 should have no weak joints in his armour." I acknow- 
 ledge the conclusion, but I deny the premisses. With 
 all respect, I entirely repudiate both the " scorn " and 
 the " boast," as alike foreign to my mind and unwarranted 
 by anything here written. I cannot wonder, though I 
 greatly grieve, at finding this misrepresentation of dis- 
 courtesy copied into the Secularist press. There is really 
 no more offensive " boast " on my part than when Dr. 
 Eamsay if he will pardon the reference in his valuable 
 monograph, Was Christ born at Bethlehem ? says, in 
 regard to a particular theory (p. 256), that "the theory 
 seems to me incredible, irrational, and psychologically 
 impossible." 
 
 However, the questions remain, and although their 
 proper answer calls for volumes rather than a few
 
 PEEFACE TO SECOND EDITION xv 
 
 sentences, yet out of regard for the truth and respect for 
 the proposer, they shall receive as much attention as can 
 here be reasonably expected. 
 
 1. "Are the birth stories as well attested as the 
 Triple Tradition ? " Well, (i.) if the " Triple Tradition " 
 has for its sole attestation the a priori dismissal of the 
 Fourth Gospel, and the mechanical elimination of all that 
 is not common to the Synoptics, then such methods are 
 so manifestly unscientific, and the result necessarily so 
 forced and arbitrary, that the very least that can be said 
 for the " birth stories " is that they are better attested 
 than the " Triple Tradition." (ii.) If upon other grounds 
 it can be established that there is a Triple Tradition 
 which genuinely receives threefold critical corroboration, 
 then it may be fairly alleged that the birth stories are 
 not so well attested. But (iii.) this is not to prove that 
 the birth stories should be rejected. Moreover, (iv.) it 
 may be affirmed with confidence that, apart from the 
 special contents of these narratives, there is no textual 
 warrant for their rejection. And (v.) to dismiss a narra- 
 tive, otherwise textually valid, because it contains the 
 report of a supernatural event, is to judge by prejudice 
 and not by evidence, which is unscientific and therefore, 
 as a method of procedure, sufficiently discredited. 
 
 2. " Does either sound reasoning or good taste justify 
 the alternative which the writer forces ad nauseam on 
 those who question the Virgin birth, since the rejection 
 of the birth stories disposes of any ground for such 
 alternative?" If the alternative be correct, its repetition 
 may be justified on the ground of importance. So that 
 the question resolves itself into an examination of the 
 
 b
 
 xvi PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION 
 
 validity of the dilemma. It may freely be conceded that 
 the rejection of the birth stories makes possible a " third 
 alternative." Yet until such rejection is critically justi- 
 fied, that is merely the delusive cutting of a Gordian 
 knot which cannot be untied. Suppose that the early 
 chapters of Matthew and Luke are less strongly attested 
 than the " Triple Tradition," at least they are better at- 
 tested than the pure supposition of an ordinary paternity 
 for Jesus, of which there is no assertion in the Synoptics 
 for the question in Matt. xiii. 55 is merely that of the 
 crowd, whilst the co? eVo/i/ero of Luke iii. 23 is as critic- 
 ally valid as it is hermeneutically significant and against 
 which a great deal worthy of consideration may be 
 discovered in all the four Gospels. Furthermore, when 
 a writer has carefully examined a debated point, and has 
 been compelled to come to a conclusion, why should he 
 not be permitted to avow such conclusion, and employ it 
 as a fulcrum in his reasonings 1 The proper treatment 
 of his position by an opponent is not objection to his 
 leverage, but displacement of his fulcrum. It is precisely 
 because it appears to me that sound reasoning not only 
 justifies but demands the statement of the alternative in 
 question, that it is asserted more than once in these 
 pages. I may be wrong. But there is neither scorn 
 nor assumed infallibility in putting forth definitely what 
 one has been led on rational grounds to believe. 
 
 3. " Had the disciples anything to do with the con- 
 version of Paul 1 " I reply first by another question 
 How are we to tell 1 In other words, are we to decide 
 such a matter by exercising the " historical imagination " 
 ad lib., or should we be content with the sources of
 
 PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION xvii 
 
 information open to us in the Acts and the apostolic 
 writings ? If the former, it is, of course, open to anyone 
 to conjecture anything. But whether we adopt the 
 suggestion that Saul, the fiery persecutor, was cajoled 
 into a nearer approach to Christian faith by the disciples 
 (the questioner does not suggest any name, but it were 
 an interesting inquiry as to which of them was most 
 likely to attempt this), or that he was absolutely unap- 
 proachable, mere conjecture can never be worth anything 
 as evidence. Dr. Stevens (New Testament Theology, quoted 
 on p. 176, infra) says, I think rightly, that "no explana- 
 tion tallies with all the facts which are known to us, 
 except that which Paul himself gives us." If, then, we 
 are to keep to this account, the supposition that the 
 disciples had " something to do " with his conversion (in 
 the apparently intended sense of suggested substitution 
 of natural means for supernatural) appears to be met on 
 the part of the apostle himself with as direct a contra- 
 diction as is expressible in human speech. To me at 
 least it seems impossible to put any other natural con- 
 struction upon his deliberate avowal in Gal. i. 11-16. 
 Furthermore, when all the facts of the case, as set forth 
 by Lord Lyttleton and Henry Eogers, are fairly considered, 
 it would appear that the main principle enforced through- 
 out the following pages would apply here also. That is to 
 say, if the disciples "had anything to do" with Saul's con- 
 version into Paul, so effectually as to bring it to pass on 
 purely " natural " lines, then, in face of all the indubitable 
 facts, the event becomes more miraculous without the 
 supernatural agency alleged in his own account than 
 with it. The hypothesis which is compelled to assume
 
 xviii PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION 
 
 Saul of Tarsus to have been a fool, or Paul the Apostle 
 of the Gentiles a liar, would appear to be sufficiently 
 self-discredited. 
 
 4. " Is it beyond controversy that Jesus intended the 
 Lord's Supper to be continually repeated as a memorial 
 feast ?" In these days nothing would seem to be beyond 
 controversy. If we follow Renan, we may make it 
 doubtful by emphasising the silence of John. Or if we 
 heed Strauss' representation of the Synoptics, it may be 
 regarded as but the expression of Christ's depressed 
 spirits. But judging for ourselves, unless the total 
 Gospel account, together with Paul's testimony, be 
 dismissed as worthless, there seems to be simply no room 
 for doubt that Jesus Himself did so intend. As to 
 differ en tiation of the Lord's Supper from " the common 
 meal of heathen clubs," or from the rites of Greek and 
 Eoman mythology, detailed discussion is here impossible. 
 But one may affirm that even if the " Agape " be shown 
 to have some derivative relation to these, it is impossible 
 naturally to derive from them the special significance with 
 which first Jesus Himself and then the early Christians 
 invested it. For a fair and forceful statement of the 
 whole matter the reader may be referred to the dis- 
 course on pp. 174 seq. of Dr. Salmon's Non-miraculous 
 Christianity, and Professor V. Bartlet's Apostolic Age, 
 pp. 322-325, 465-475. 
 
 5. "Do the closing verses of Mark 'represent the 
 earliest tradition ' ? " Into elaborate discussion of this 
 also one is precluded from entering here. Yet upon 
 further reflection I cannot concede that the expression 
 is, on the whole, too strong. Dr. S. D. F. Salmond's
 
 PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION xix 
 
 statement hereupon (vide article in Hastings' Bible Diet.), 
 expresses fairly the finding of present-day criticism. "It 
 is difficult to suppose that it was added by the original 
 hand. It must have been of very early date, however, 
 and it is not the kind of addition that can be readily 
 explained as a work of mere invention. It embodies a 
 true apostolic tradition, and may have been written by 
 some companion or successor of the original author." 
 
 6. "Have we in the four Gospels independent wit- 
 nesses ? " As this is not my statement, I am not con- 
 cerned to defend it, but I believe that what is affirmed 
 on p. 1 8 8 is true. As to whether there is in the Gospels 
 " such marked absence of both the personal character- 
 istics and comments of the writers " perhaps the word 
 " absence " is too strong : with thanks, therefore, to the 
 questioner, I have altered it into " repression," which is, 
 I think, warranted by the facts, and equally suited to 
 the argument. 
 
 7. " How could the heretical acumen of a Marcion 
 ' prove futile in attempted alteration of the Canon ' when 
 no Canon existed in his age, and he was probably the 
 first to attempt the formation of one ? " For full answer 
 to this I must be content to refer to Dr. Sanday's Gospels 
 in the Second Century. Here I can only say that, whilst 
 it is no doubt true, as Westcott says {Canon, p. 312), 
 that Marcion's Canon is " the first of which there is any 
 record," yet here is no disproof of the previous existence 
 of a Canon which was none the less real for being 
 practical rather than literary. What else can be inferred 
 from the statement, on good authority, that Marcion 
 "rejected" the "Acts and Pauline Epistles," and that
 
 xx PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION 
 
 the " rejection of the other books of the New Testament 
 Canon was the necessary consequence of Marcion's 
 principles " ? Surely, therefore, Westcott is justified in 
 his summary : " There is indeed no evidence to show that 
 any definite canon of the apostolic writings was already 
 published in Asia Minor when Marcion's appeared; but the 
 minute and varied hints which have been already collected 
 tend to prove that, if it were not expressly fixed, it was 
 yet implicitly determined by the practice of the Church." 
 And that is quite sufficient for my argument. 
 
 8. " Can the moral hair-splittings of the Talmud be 
 reckoned as part of the environment of Jesus ? " The 
 expression is confessedly too condensed, and I thank the 
 reviewer for pointing it out. It should rather be " of 
 the Pharisaic traditions which were afterwards embodied 
 in the Mishnas and Talmuds," to quote Dr. Briggs (The 
 Study of Holy Scripture, p. 429). But Dr. Angus was 
 warranted in writing that " the traditions which compose 
 the Talmud arose about three hundred years before Christ, 
 and were no doubt such as met our Lord in the days of 
 His personal ministry." And if to characterise these as 
 " immoral hair-splittings " seems too strong language, it 
 is only employed as summing up the estimate of Christ 
 Himself in Matt, xxiii. and Luke xi. 
 
 These brief answers to suggested questions will, I fear, 
 be unsatisfactory to a reviewer who definitely refrains 
 from "expressing any judgement on the matters in 
 dispute" which is a perfectly safe position. I hope, 
 however, that the few hints here given, by way of reply, 
 will suffice to suggest that answers might be forthcoming 
 which would at least prevent any discrediting of the
 
 PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION xxi 
 
 main argument of these pages. With the general protest 
 that " there should be, in apologetic literature, the greatest 
 possible care in stating only what is certain," I most 
 earnestly concur. 
 
 In conclusion, I cannot but repeat, with all possible 
 sincerity, the regret above expressed that some should 
 have found reason to wish that this work had been 
 " more moderate and conciliatory in its general tone." 
 It may be that in deep concern for the substance of the 
 truth I have sometimes embodied its expression in strong 
 terms. But every word has been weighed carefully, with 
 the earnest desire to set forth the maximum of truth 
 with the minimum of offence. And when one reviewer, 
 after some kindly appreciation, adds that " some day we 
 may hope to see the work better done by someone who 
 will unite to Mr. Ballard's high qualifications others 
 which are not his," I heartily endorse his desire. I can 
 but envy those who, with richer natural endowments and 
 larger powers of investigation, also enjoy opportunities 
 for calm thought and pellucid expression which are 
 denied to me. No one will rejoice more than I when 
 the "larger man" shall come, who will make at once 
 clear and strong and sweet to all, the truth which I have 
 thus imperfectly sought to outline. 
 
 Meanwhile, perhaps, I may be permitted longo inter- 
 vallo to repeat the word of one to whom, in common 
 with the Christian world, I owe much. " Yet I would 
 humbly pray that by His blessing, who is perfect wisdom 
 and perfect light, what has been written with candour 
 and reverence may contribute, however little, to further
 
 xxii PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION 
 
 the cause of truth and faith, the twin messengers of earth 
 and heaven. In His hand are loth we and our words." 
 (Westcott, Gospels, p. xiii.) F. B. 
 
 HULL, May 1901. 
 
 PKEFACE TO FIKST EDITION 
 
 "DIFFICULTIES," in regard to Christian faith, naturally 
 tend to increase in an age of unrestricted mental develop- 
 ment. At a time when critical knowledge is advancing 
 pari passu with scientific discovery, there cannot but 
 arise new conceptions, new comparisons, new standpoints, 
 which tend to bewilder if not to confound those who 
 previously have been content with a simpler belief. 
 The result in too many cases, especially as regards the 
 rising generation, is a kind of practical Agnosticism. 
 Christianity appears no longer binding upon the con- 
 science as a personal conviction and a daily rule of life, 
 but is regarded as a question of taste, or treated as an 
 accident of temperament, or else dismissed altogether as 
 a mere matter of option, even if not scorned as a delusion. 
 How great loss accrues to the Christian Church and to 
 individual character from this paralysis of faith, becomes 
 ever more manifest to all who have eyes to see. The 
 lofty cynicism of the undergraduate, the self-complacent 
 unconcern of the busy merchant, the stolid indifference 
 of the man in the street, are coming to be all alike 
 defended upon the same plea. There are, it is said, so
 
 PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION xxiii 
 
 many difficulties in connection with Christianity, that no 
 man can be quite sure of its Divine origin; whilst so 
 many differences of opinion exist between Christian 
 teachers and theologians, that they cannot all be right, 
 and may possibly be all wrong. 
 
 Against this spirit, which is evidently growing in all 
 our great cities, there is pressing need that the Churches 
 of to-day should set themselves, with equal wisdom and 
 love. Amongst other things it should be of some avail 
 to utter a reasoned protest which is, so far as it goes, 
 unanswerable. Not that it amounts to a final proof 
 of the truth of Christianity, when we show that the 
 difficulties of unbelief are greater than those of faith, 
 but at least it opens the way for the appreciation of 
 such proof as only experience and observation can afford. 
 It destroys all presumptive objection against that actual 
 obedience to Christ's commands, and thorough pursuit of 
 New Testament ideals, wherein alone, either individually 
 or socially, the benediction of Christianity can be 
 realised. 
 
 It is something to show that the choice as regards the 
 origin and explanation of acknowledged Christian facts 
 is really not between the natural and the super-natural, 
 but between the super -natural and the anti- natural. 
 No conceivable amount of modern knowledge, no kind 
 or degree of mental effort, can compress into the 
 term " natural " more than the human mind is able 
 to apprehend of this incomprehensible universe. The 
 " natural " rightly includes all nature both " naturans " 
 and " naturata " so far as we can know it. But in 
 spite of all present-day scientific generalisations, and
 
 PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION 
 
 these based on the widest inductions possible to us, 
 we have no warrant whatever for the assumption, that 
 the possibilities of the universe end where our human 
 apprehension of nature has reached its ne plus ultra. 
 The acceptance of the super-natural, therefore, simply 
 amounts to an acknowledgment of the limitations of 
 our faculties. It is not intellectual weakness, but only 
 the sanity of modesty, to own that there must be 
 
 " more things in heaven and earth 
 Than are dreamt of in our philosophy." 
 
 On behalf of the anti-natural, however, no such plea 
 can be advanced. For it directly contradicts all that we 
 do know, so far as we can know anything, e.g. that we 
 are alive, and have intellectual perceptions, together with 
 moral capacity. If, therefore, it be reasonable because of 
 " difficulties " to incline to reject Christian doctrine, it is 
 equally reasonable to shrink yet more emphatically from 
 unchristian or antichristian substitutes for that doctrine. 
 
 In a word, Christian facts being as they are, we are 
 helplessly shut up to the miraculous. The only rational 
 choice is between the miracles of the New Testament 
 and the miracles of unbelief. It is here submitted that, 
 so long as reason and science are anything to be regarded, 
 the difference between these two is so manifest and 
 significant as to be really decisive on behalf of the 
 validity of Christian faith. 
 
 The endeavour to demonstrate this does not indeed 
 present so much opportunity for the " originality and 
 freshness of treatment," which constitute the sum-mum 
 bonum of the literary critic, as for the carefulness and
 
 PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION xxv 
 
 veracity of statement which commend themselves to the 
 genuine seeker after truth. Nor can the theme itself be 
 pronounced novel enough to excite the curiosity of the 
 modern Athenian, seeing that it has not seldom been 
 hinted at, or incidentally mentioned, in works upon 
 Apologetics. But, so far as I am aware, no frank and 
 thorough-going examination of the whole case has yet 
 been undertaken. Which is the greater matter for sur- 
 prise,' because not only does the recoil from the miracles 
 of unbelief open wide the door for the sympathetic study 
 of Christian evidences, but it is such as every intelligent 
 and sincere thinker, however little skilled in dialectics, 
 can fully appreciate. 
 
 In his little work on The Scientific Evidences of Organic 
 Evolution, the late Professor G. J. Romanes wrote as 
 follows l 
 
 "Such, then, is a sketch of the evidence in favour of organic 
 evolution. Of course in such a meagre outline it has not been 
 possible to do justice to that evidence, which should be studied in 
 detail rather than looked at in such a bird's-eye view as I have pre- 
 sented. Nevertheless, enough, I hope, has been said to convince all 
 reasonable persons, that any longer to withhold assent from so vast 
 a body of evidence is a token, not of intellectual prudence but of in- 
 tellecDual incapacity. With Professor Huxley, therefore, I exclaim, 
 ' Choose your hypothesis, I have chosen mine,' and ' I refuse to run 
 the risk of insulting any sane man by supposing that he seriously 
 holds such a notion as that of special creation.' These words, I 
 submit, are not in the least too strong. For if any man can study 
 the many and important lines of evidence, all converging on the 
 central truth that evolution has been the law of organic nature, and 
 still fail to perceive the certainty of that truth, then I say that 
 that man either on account of his prejudices or from his inability 
 to estimate the value of evidence must properly be regarded as a 
 weak-minded man." 
 
 1 Pp. 76, 77.
 
 xxvi PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION 
 
 This expression of deliberate scientific judgement cer- 
 tainly does not lack vigour. But if it be justified by 
 the special quantity and quality of the evidence, then also 
 the analogous quality and quantity of the evidence bearing 
 upon our subject here, would seem to warrant an equally 
 pronounced verdict. Substitute only " Agnosticism " for 
 " special creation," " Christianity " (in the New Testament 
 sense including the supernatural) for " Evolution," and 
 " spiritual " for " organic," and such incisiveness of speech 
 is as truly justified in regard to Christian faith, as it is 
 concerning the now generally accepted creed of modern 
 science. 
 
 Far indeed be it from me to pronounce any individual 
 Agnostic " weak-minded." But facts remain, and reason 
 must rule. Hence it is the sincere purpose of the follow- 
 ing pages to show that, at the very least, the man who 
 rejects Christianity on account of its difficulties, is un- 
 reasonable. For he turns, and he ever must turn, not 
 from greater difficulty to less, but from less to greater. 
 He strains out the gnat, and swallows the camel. 
 
 F. B. 
 HULL, August 1900.
 
 I 
 
 INTRODUCTORY
 
 " Since writing the above remarks about the reluctance of the 
 ablest men to be ordained, I have been told that the state of 
 things is even worse than I had conceived at Cambridge. There, 
 at the two largest colleges, Trinity and St. John's, I am told that of 
 the Fellows who took their degrees between 1873 and 1879 only 
 eight out of sixty or thereabouts took holy orders ; and of those 
 who took degrees between 1880 to 1886, only three out of sixty. 
 Trinity is conspicuous ; of the sixty Fellows who took degrees from 
 1873 to 1886, only two have been ordained." The Kernel and the 
 Husk, p. 353. 
 
 "But speaking generally and on principle, Christianity, and all 
 the previous revelations of the Bible, have claimed faith, because, 
 so far as they can be tested, they are authenticated by conscience, 
 and because, in the points on which they go beyond our experience, 
 they have a moral purpose and, so to speak, a moral limitation. 
 We ask for faith, but not a blind faith." Dr. Wace, Christianity 
 and Morality, Boyle Lectures 1874, p. 274.
 
 I 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 IN his famous Analogy, Bishop Butler remarks that, 
 at the time he wrote, it had " come to be taken for 
 granted that Christianity " was " not so much a subject 
 of inquiry," but had been " now at length discovered to 
 be fictitious." All that remained, therefore, was " to set it 
 up as a principal subject of mirth and ridicule, as it were 
 by way of reprisals, for its having so long interrupted the 
 pleasures of the world." During the century and a half 
 which have elapsed since his day, the spirit to which 
 he referred has in some quarters gathered strength 
 and audacity. It reached its climax in the shameless 
 publication of a " comic life of Jesus," with illustrations 
 to match, which an eminent critic, himself anything but 
 orthodox, 1 well characterised as " a disgusting failure, not 
 so much an outrage upon Christ as upon humanity." 
 And when he added, " it is the yell of a baffled fiend," 
 there is only too much reason to pronounce the 
 judgement true, as all who are familiar with the literature 
 in question know. 
 
 But it would be glaring error to speak of modern 
 unbelief as fairly represented by the mere ribaldry of 
 1 Professor Gold win Smith, Contemporary Review.
 
 4 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 antichristian spite. It cannot, indeed, be fairly judged 
 at all by such company. There is yet, alas ! unbelief 
 coarse enough and foul enough to reflect credit upon the 
 faith at which it scoffs. Such assaults on Christian 
 faith merit only pitiful disregard. But this kind of 
 opposition is decidedly on the wane. Even amongst 
 Secularists, who constitute, as a rule, the most vigorous 
 and least educated of modern unbelievers, there are 
 large numbers of thoughtful and sincere men who are 
 far from sympathising with the rabid utterances of some 
 of their spokesmen. 
 
 Taking a broader view, therefore, and comparing 
 Bishop Butler's picture with the present attitude of 
 society towards Christian verities, we cannot but mark 
 manifest lines of difference. The great changes which 
 have passed over the country in the matter of education, 
 together with the vast influence of that Evangelical 
 revival which began with Wesley and Whitefield, have 
 effectually modified both the quality and quantity of 
 modern unbelief. Whatever faults may justly be 
 attributed to " Evangelicalism," its general influence on 
 human life has sufficed to vindicate alike its character 
 and its commission. The very revival of rationalism and 
 tendency of sceptical thought to-day to flow in literary 
 and scientific channels, testify that Evangelicalism has 
 thus far accomplished its mission, in that it has 
 transferred objections from fact to doctrine, from the 
 Christian character to Christian belief. 
 
 It can scarcely be too plainly asserted that the last 
 century has, on the whole, done decidedly more for 
 Christian faith than against it. The diffusion of
 
 INTRODUCTORY 5 
 
 knowledge which has multiplied the number of minor 
 philosophers and hasty doubters, has at the same time 
 contributed morp than any other factor in the world's 
 history towards clearing the perceptions and correcting 
 the judgements of men in general. Vast numbers have 
 thus become worthier exponents of the principles of the 
 New Testament. 
 
 Again, the very energy of that " destructive " Biblical 
 criticism which was represented by such names as 
 Paulus, Strauss, Baur, Eenan, etc., has recoiled upon the 
 party that fostered it. The "Tubingen" school really 
 exists no longer. Nor is it too much to say that later 
 assaults upon the authenticity, if not also upon the 
 genuineness, of the Gospels, have contributed more than 
 any preceding Christian efforts to the discovery that it 
 is impossible effectually to discredit them. They have 
 come out of the fiery furnace virtually unscathed, with 
 the history of their ordeal as a guarantee for generations 
 to come. 
 
 It is too soon as yet to estimate the final results 
 of that " Higher Criticism " which is now concerning 
 itself with the literary problems of the Old Testament. 
 But we do already know enough concerning it to feel 
 well assured that as regards those of its general 
 findings which are apparently beyond question it will 
 prove fatal only to certain a priori theories of inspiration 
 for which Christianity is no more responsible than the 
 science of optics is for Newton's Emission Theory of 
 Light. Indeed the promise rather is that in spite of 
 the well meant though lamentable prejudice of some 
 excellent people in the Churches this effort will
 
 6 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 supplement that other just referred to, in setting 
 Christianity free from an incubus with which it really 
 ought never to have been weighted, and in defending it 
 from those attacks " through the sides of Judaism " to 
 which it has all too long been exposed. 
 
 Again, ever accumulating facts in science, though 
 seeming sometimes to add emphasis to Mill's sensational 
 indictment of Natural Theology, have yet more vividly 
 unfolded a ceaseless mystery of good, the clearer 
 manifestation of which cannot but " soothe and bless," 
 in spite of all the world's tragic travailing in pain. 
 
 Finally, Agnosticism itself is a valued witness to true 
 progress. When the real gospel was hid through 
 mediaeval fogs of corrupt and cruel ecclesiasticism, and 
 when there was neither knowledge nor skill to penetrate 
 beneath that surface of nature whereon she seemed " so 
 careless of the single life " so utterly abandoned to the 
 callousness of absentee divinities, there was scarcely 
 room for a middle position. A sharp line alone divided 
 timid slaves of clerical superstition from brave but 
 despairing men of reason. Now, however, superstition 
 has been so far driven back that faith and reason, when 
 avowedly antagonistic, have found room for at least an 
 armistice, in a zone of genuine neutrality midway betwixt 
 definite belief and actual unbelief. This debatable 
 ground is confessedly unsatisfactory from the Christian 
 standpoint, but it constitutes a far more hopeful region 
 than either the dark dungeons of hierarchical fetish 
 worship, or the black morass of dogmatic Atheism. 
 It is real gain to have an avowal from the deliberate 
 consensus of our clearest modern thought, that ecclesi-
 
 INTRODUCTORY 7 
 
 astical fanaticism, blank Atheism, mechanical Fatalism, 
 and despairing Pessimism, are all alike as unthinkable 
 as they are unattractive. It is Christian advantage to 
 have men held even in suspense by an ignorance which, 
 in proportion as it is honest, must involve more or less 
 of reverence as well as reason. For these are ever 
 close akin to faith, and constitute at least the soil 
 in which, some day, the " fruit of the Spirit " may 
 be grown. 
 
 These things being so, it may well be asked what is 
 left to justify the commonplace reference to " difficulties " 
 in the way of Christian faith ? For of these we still 
 hear on every hand. Not merely in well-worn phrase 
 from Secularist platforms, but in fluent if not flippant 
 newspaper articles, in pungent " correspondence," in not 
 a few contributions to our leading Eeviews, as well as in 
 the common talk of workshops, wherein it is suggested 
 that whilst a good old-fashioned respect for religion may 
 abide, as a sort of venerable or even useful relic, actual 
 personal belief in Christian verities must be left to 
 professional preachers, or be seriously held only by 
 women and children. 
 
 Now when we inquire for the sufficient cause of all 
 this, we find that the idea of " difficulty " is the most 
 solid notion we can discover by way of explanation. It 
 is not that the husband who sends his wife alone to 
 church is a Secularist by deliberate conviction. It is 
 not that the man in the street has proved to himself by 
 earnest examination that the Gospels are forgeries. Nor 
 has the youth who is content to wander about anywhere 
 on Sundays in order to escape religion, formulated any
 
 8 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 definite reasons for his aversion. It is rather, in all 
 these and similar cases, that our whole modern 
 atmosphere teems with suggestions of " difficulties," with 
 their consequent doubts, in regard to the great funda- 
 mental facts upon which Christianity manifestly rests. 
 " If the foundations are destroyed, what shall the 
 righteous do ? " is an ancient and significant query. 
 It would appear that its modern answer is to the effect 
 that the foundations of Christian doctrine are so 
 uncertain that the unrighteous, at all events, need do 
 nothing. Difficulties in regard to Biblical Inspiration, 
 difficulties as to prayer and natural law, difficulties 
 about miracles, difficulties as to the Incarnation and 
 Resurrection of Christ, difficulties relating to the 
 doctrines of the Trinity and the Atonement, etc., have 
 become quite the intellectual order of the day, whenever 
 reference is definitely made to Christian decision of 
 character. Boldly pronounced every now and then, 
 ex cathedra, by some man of repute, they are eagerly 
 repeated by well-known journals, echoed by unthinking 
 readers, and treasured by partisan exponents. Thus 
 they filter down through the successive strata of the 
 community, as well as spread abroad upon the surface 
 of daily life, allying themselves everywhere with the 
 endless questionings of child minds, the floating 
 superstitions of the ignorant, and the ready shrewdness 
 of antichristian demagogues, until such a conglomerate 
 of unbelief is formed as Bishop Butler never conceived. 
 
 Thus it happens, that upon the vision of every 
 honest observer of the opening century, from the 
 Christian standpoint, there loom out large three
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 masses of fact the portentous significance of which is 
 unmistakable. These are 
 
 i. That there are around the Churches on every 
 hand, vast numbers of men and women who are 
 manifestly " out of touch " with Christian sanctions and 
 institutions. 
 
 ii. These are, to a large extent, not kept away from 
 Christian associations through moral indifference, or 
 practical hindrances, or social engrossments, so much as 
 for reasons sufficiently intellectual to be truly described 
 as " difficulties " in regard to " orthodox " Christian 
 doctrine. This is especially the case with the younger 
 portion of the better educated, in the middle-class 
 life of to-day. It is scarcely less true of considerable 
 numbers of artisans who shrink as really from definite 
 Christianity as from dogmatic Secularism. 
 
 iii. The neutral and hesitant spirit thus manifest, 
 shows every sign of increasing rather than diminishing 
 with the advent of the twentieth century. It will 
 certainly not be the fault of numerous writers in this 
 generation if the " difficulties " attaching to Christian 
 faith, fail to become more prominent and more 
 influential. This silent weakening of the intensity 
 of Christian conviction in the majority of our fellow- 
 countrymen, is one of the most undeniable as well as 
 ominous of all the religious phenomena of our day.
 
 II 
 
 THE ATTITUDE OF THE 
 CHRISTIAN CHURCH
 
 " That which is chiefly to be discerned in a survey of the state of 
 religious thought in England and in Europe, alike among friends 
 and foes, is a deep conviction that the Religion of the Christian 
 nations is gravely menaced from within. The doubts thus generated 
 are diffused far more widely than is generally avowed. That the 
 very air is heavy with them, that they pervade alike literature and 
 society, that they are not confined to the learned, that they perplex 
 parents and confuse the young these are the facts with which 
 the apologist has in the present day to deal. It is no time for 
 him to be contented, as in happier days, with addressing himself 
 to the pleasant task of adorning or elaborating he has to deal 
 with influences, open or disguised, which are sapping the very 
 foundations not merely of orthodox Christianity, but of Christian 
 civilisation." Dr. Wace, Christianity and Morality, Boyle Lectures 
 1874, p. 3. 
 
 " Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia. 
 they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews : 
 and Paul, as his custom was, went in unto them, and for three 
 Sabbath days reasoned with them from the Scriptures, opening and 
 alleging that it behoved the Christ to suffer and to rise again from 
 the dead ; and that this Jesus, whom, said he, I proclaim unto you, 
 is the Christ." 
 
 " Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that 
 they received the word with all readiness of mind, examining the 
 Scriptures daily, whether these things were so. Many of them 
 therefore believed." 
 
 " Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was pro- 
 voked within him, as he beheld the city full of idols. So he 
 reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, 
 and in the market-place every day with them that met with him." 
 AcTSxvii. 1, 11, 16.
 
 II 
 
 THE ATTITUDE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH 
 
 ONE of the most pointed and weighty questions addressed 
 by Christ to the men of His day was " Yea, and why 
 even of yourselves judge ye not what is right ? " ] The 
 intervening centuries have rather increased than lessened 
 its emphasis for us. It is indeed a two-edged test, in 
 that it affects equally those who own and those who dis- 
 own Him. In the following pages it is applied mostly 
 to the latter. Yet it appears to be quite as necessary 
 first, to call earnest attention to its bearing upon the 
 methods of modern Christian Churches. 
 
 Peter was but echoing his Master's word when he 
 wrote, " Sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord : being 
 ready always to give answer to every man that asketh 
 you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, yet with 
 meekness and fear : having a good conscience ; that 
 wherein ye are spoken against, they may be put to 
 shame who revile your good manner of life in Christ." 2 
 
 If this word had only been obeyed by all those who, 
 
 since the apostle's day, have professed to accept Christ 
 
 as their Master, the history of Christianity in Europe 
 
 would indeed have been a different record. Even yet, 
 
 1 Luke xii. 57. 2 1 Pet. iii. 15.
 
 14 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 however, it is but partially heeded. The great principles 
 which are here so marked, namely, that right reason 
 should precede belief ; that all rendering of reasons and 
 enforcement of beliefs should be with the meekness and 
 gentleness of Jesus Christ ; that all profession of faith 
 should be guaranteed by the traits of character set forth 
 in the New Testament, are indeed nominally accepted 
 by the Churches of to-day, but in innumerable instances 
 they appear to be sadly " more honoured in the breach 
 than in the observance." 
 
 We hear much, confessedly, about the " proclamation 
 of the gospel," and those who are familiar with evan- 
 gelical " missions " know how large use is made of such 
 phrases as " preaching Christ," " the simple gospel," 
 " proclaiming the truth," etc. But without in the least 
 intending to slight these good and true ideals, let us 
 honestly ask, what, in actual fact, do they come to ? 
 They really mean public assertions by professional men 
 from a protected pulpit. Now the very first thing that 
 must strike an acute observer, is the direct and unmis- 
 takable contrast between this and the method of both 
 Christ Himself and His apostles. It may, indeed, be 
 truly said that neither He nor they ever " preached a 
 gospel sermon," as the phrase goes nowadays. That is, 
 neither the Master nor His earliest witnesses ever robed 
 themselves in special attire and delivered public harangues 
 where no man else was permitted to speak, full of asser- 
 tions to be received without demur, and of assumptions 
 which no one present might question. Yet this is a fair 
 and true description of almost the whole of what is now 
 known as " Christian preaching." Some few instances
 
 THE ATTITUDE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHUECH 15 
 
 perhaps in Hyde Park, and possibly in our large pro- 
 vincial cities, of what is termed " outdoor work," may 
 count as exceptions. But they are very few indeed, in 
 proportion to the mass of Christian public services. The 
 Salvation Army does not here come into account, because 
 its message is all assertion, and neither courts nor permits 
 reply from any of its myriad hearers. But Christ and 
 His apostles always did both. He and they alike 
 taught, indeed, " in synagogues and in the temple where 
 all the Jews come together," but it was always definite 
 teaching, in regard to which after inquiry was not only 
 allowed but invited. 1 Their method could not be better 
 described than in the words of Peter above quoted. 
 The maxim that all things should be done " decently and 
 in order," remains unquestioned and unquestionable. But 
 all the legal protection that the Master and His witnesses 
 had, was sincerity and truth. To-day, in " Christian " 
 countries, at all events, the " proclaimer " of Christ's 
 truth is hedged round by law which compels silence on 
 the part of all present. Those who deem this method 
 unsatisfactory, have but one alternative to stay away. 
 This is at least one reason why, in modern " Christian " 
 England, there are four men absent for every one present 
 at Sunday services. 
 
 But besides this ignoring of the New Testament model, 
 is there no room for inquiry into the effect of our present 
 stereotyped system upon preachers themselves ? That 
 they are human, will be conceded. Is it not alarmingly 
 possible for human nature to deceive itself under such 
 circumstances ? Is it not delusively easy to argue, when 
 1 Cf. Acts xiii. 15, 43, etc.
 
 16 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 it is certain that there will be no rejoinder ? And, as a 
 matter of fact, are not statements allowed to pass un- 
 challenged in the pulpit, which would anywhere else be 
 subject to immediate and rigorous discussion ? So has it 
 resulted that " pulpit logic " has become a phrase at once 
 too significant and insignificant ; whilst the pulpit itself 
 may sometimes truly, even if unkindly, be called a 
 " coward's castle." 
 
 Paul's fearless and open appeal to men of reason upon 
 Mars' Hill l was a very different affair. His bitterest 
 opponents could never accuse him of unmanliness. How 
 much more difficult such methods as his are than mere 
 proclamation, every missionary knows. But if to-day all 
 Christian preachers in foreign fields are expected as 
 they are to rise to the apostolic standard, why not 
 also those at home, in the midst of their exceptional 
 advantages ? 2 
 
 Two remarks, therefore, appear to be really called for. 
 
 1 Acts xvii. 16-34. 
 
 2 The reply may, of course, be made that in a modern building, 
 erected ostensibly for Christian purposes, only those are supposed 
 to assemble who are already convinced Christians, and that these 
 gather together for worship, not discussion. But it needs only a 
 moment's reflection to show that this is a mere evasion of New 
 Testament principles. The "worship" which is not altruistic 
 enough to care for others is, as James says,* vain. The Christianity 
 which is content to gather together its own disciples merely as a 
 select cult for mutual congratulation, and regardless of the sin and 
 sorrow and need of the ever-growing modern human environment, 
 is so utterly foreign to the intention of Christ and the practice of 
 His apostles, as to be altogether unworthy of the name. The 
 " Christian purpose " of any Church building is quite as much the 
 saving of the world as the edification of believers. 
 
 * Jas. i. 27, where Gprja-Kfia really signifies worship, ii. 8, etc.
 
 THE ATTITUDE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH 17 
 
 1. We know that the "common people heard" Jesus 
 " gladly," and that the crowds of ordinary men in Asia 
 Minor who listened to the apostles, were moved far 
 more than the " masses " of to - day are affected by 
 Christian preaching. If, then, the present lamentable 
 disproportion between unchristian and Christian men is 
 to be reduced, if the vast numbers of the artisan popula : 
 tion are to be in any real sense " won for Christ," some- 
 thing more than ordinary " preaching " will surely have 
 to be done by modern advocates of His gospel. If the 
 men who have been educated in our Board schools are to 
 be moved by appeal, that appeal must have manliness for 
 its essence, and reasoned truth, not clerical assumption, 
 for its foundation. This, however, can scarcely be the 
 case so long as Christian teachers are content to ensconce 
 themselves behind legal protection, and simply assume 
 that all who differ from them are either weak or 
 wicked. 
 
 Of course it is far more difficult to convince than to 
 denounce. It is manifestly a much harder task to set 
 forth, in courteous patience, clear reasons for belief in 
 Christ and obedience to His teachings, than it is to hold 
 Mission Services in which all statements must be by all 
 men accepted as true upon the authority of the preacher. 
 But it is sadly plain that the easier method is not 
 sufficient, else why have we in London alone some four 
 millions of human beings unassociated with any Christian 
 Church, and a like proportion of " outsiders " in all the 
 other great cities throughout the realm ? 
 
 Every passing year shows that the harder way of, at 
 least, supplementing earnest appeal with open reasoning,
 
 18 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 is becoming one of the most necessary methods of dealing 
 with the men of the coming age. 
 
 So that without underrating, much less despising or 
 discontinuing, any Evangelical effort, or humble Mission 
 work, or regular Sunday worship, it must be manifest 
 that there is a definite and growing necessity to add to 
 these, other and frequent opportunities for grappling with 
 the thoughts as well as emotions of modern men and 
 women. The impressions likely to result from an 
 accidental and often feeble tract, or the singing of 
 Sankey's hymns with crude exhortations at a street 
 corner, do not and will not, for the world of to-day, atone 
 for the deficiencies of ordinary Christian services. These 
 deficiencies may not be apparent to Church-members, to 
 whom full oft the comfortable sitting, the pealing organ, 
 the refined ethical atmosphere, together with the easy 
 and emotional assumptions of the pulpit, constitute a 
 perfect gospel. But modem life is making men ever 
 more hard and keen, more shrewd and subtle, and if 
 without these aesthetic adjuncts the true Christian 
 Evangel won its first and most difficult foothold in a 
 bitterly antagonistic world, assuredly it must not depend 
 absolutely upon such means to maintain its position now 
 or fulfil its mission to the Twentieth Century. 
 
 2. Yet further. It can scarcely be denied that the 
 general treatment accorded to doubters and unbelievers 
 by gospel preachers has been, and still is, to ignore 
 them. Sermons on Christian Evidences are as rare as 
 they are unpopular with ordinary church-goers. Such 
 efforts are pronounced " controversial," and " lacking in 
 spirituality," etc. etc. The preacher who endeavours
 
 THE ATTITUDE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH 19 
 
 occasionally thus to teach, will assuredly be censured for 
 " bringing doubts into the pulpit," rather than thanked 
 for seeking to help those who already are half-alienated 
 by " difficulties." Compared with him, the " popular " 
 preacher who takes care to touch nothing questionable, 
 the revivalist who assumes everything he wants, the 
 pietist who settles all doubts by the quotation of 
 religious poetry, will be pronounced true Evangelists, 
 whilst younger preachers will be exhorted to take warn- 
 ing from the unpopularity of the " controversialist." 
 
 Yet what results from this exclusive adherence to well- 
 worn methods ? May it not be said here also though 
 in a sense far removed from its relation to St. Paul's 
 Cathedral " Si monumentum quseris, circumspice " ? 
 In England, confessedly the most Christian nation on 
 earth, three-quarters of the population are apparently 
 unconvinced of the Deity of Christ, with all that flows 
 from it, especially the supreme present import of His 
 message to mankind. All we can say of them at best 
 is, that they are not pronounced Atheists, or avowed 
 Secularists. It is no reply to affirm that they are merely 
 indifferent, for what is indifference but unbelief ? It is 
 really and truly unconvincedness. Similar indifference 
 often prevails in regard to other matters, e.g. as to the 
 advisability of life insurance, or the duty of recording a 
 vote at an election, or even the value of education at all. 
 How then do men propose to deal with such mental 
 inertia ? Surely by earnestness and persistence in that 
 kind of appeal which tends to produce downright con- 
 viction. Unless, therefore, Christianity be far more 
 ultra-rational than even Mr. Kidd would have us believe,
 
 20 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 the same methods must be adopted by Christian advocates 
 who would win men to whole-hearted decision for Christ. 
 Unfortunately we are all too well aware that audiences 
 already Christian by profession, find it much more 
 pleasant to enjoy "comforting" sermons, to listen to 
 generalities, to admire rhetoric, to appreciate brilliant 
 epigram, to thrill in response to pathetic illustration, 
 than to think soberly and unselfishly in face of facts. 
 One of the latest and most able books on behalf of 
 Christianity 1 has for its sub -title, " Essays in aid of a 
 reasonable, satisfying, and consolatory religion." Which is 
 good enough, so far as it goes. But how does it comport 
 with that maxim in which the Founder of the Christian 
 religion Himself said : 2 " It is more blessed to give than 
 to receive " ? It is well, truly, that we ourselves should 
 be both satisfied and consoled, but what of that other 
 and far greater audience outside all the Churches which 
 makes no profession, exhibits no conviction, evinces no 
 desire at all to know or appreciate Christian truth ? Are 
 not these also they " for whom Christ died " ? Do they 
 not need Him all the more for failing to recognise Him ? 
 Surely it is more Christian to think and care for these, 
 than simply to satiate oneself with the luxuries of un- 
 doubting faith. No philanthropy is so real as that which 
 seeks to redeem men from the anguish and despair 
 typically exhibited by Strauss, when with one breath he 
 confesses the- " awful sense of abandonment " which falls 
 upon the man who has lost all faith in God, and then 
 with the next exclaims, " But of what avail is it to have 
 
 1 Rev. A. H. Craufurd's Christian Instincts and Modern Doubt. 
 
 2 Acts xx. 35, R.V.
 
 THE ATTITUDE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH 21 
 
 recourse to an illusion " ? x This tragedy of loss is far 
 more common in our modern life than comfortable con- 
 gregations permit themselves to acknowledge. There are 
 literally thousands around the Churches to-day of whom 
 it is true. The number is, moreover, continually grow- 
 ing. There is, one may truly affirm, no Church in any 
 city of the realm that does not now reckon among its 
 worshippers those whose faith is blighted, whose joy is 
 dimmed, and whose character is dwarfed, by the existence 
 of honest and even pathetic difficulty. 
 
 It is time, therefore, that we heard less as to the 
 " mistake of argumentation " on the part of Christian 
 teachers. The usual disparagement of " controversy " 
 and the almost contempt for " Apologetics," are alike 
 unwarranted and unworthy. Their real source, too often, 
 it must be frankly said, is selfishness in congregations 
 and indolence in preachers. It is high time, for the 
 sake of the growing numbers who are kept away from 
 Christian services by the chilling influences of modern 
 doubt, that we went back to first principles, and cost 
 ourselves any amount of labour, self-denial, pains and 
 patience, in order to deal with honest doubters as Jesus 
 did with Thomas. Such are neither as few nor as 
 unworthy as is often represented. It is, moreover, as 
 certain as the very existence of the Churches, that mere 
 exhortation, joined with sinister hints at the moral 
 depravity of doubters in that they do not at once 
 accept what they are told, will only act upon them as 
 the policy of Rehoboam did upon the tribes of Israel. 
 
 No plea is here advanced on behalf of what are called 
 1 Strauss, The Old Faith and the New, p. 435.
 
 22 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 public religious " discussions," or " debates " with Secular- 
 ists. In general it may be said that such are necessarily 
 rather harmful than helpful to the Christian cause. The 
 mental excitement, the heated partisanship, the enforced 
 hastiness of reference, the temptations to snatch a verbal 
 victory even when personalities are avoided, the un- 
 certainties and ambiguities of impromptu speech for all 
 but the most practised disputants, together with other 
 reasons, render this method so undesirable that it should 
 only be employed under very special circumstances. 
 These must be locally decided. But in every case, the 
 conjunction of perfect self-control, in courtesy and 
 patience, with sufficient knowledge and competent 
 endowments of mind and speech, constitute the sine 
 qud non of such an undertaking. 
 
 The delivery of Christian Evidence lectures is not 
 open to these objections, although in this case the 
 lecturer must be prepared patiently and honestly to deal 
 with questions at the close. So far, however, as practical 
 suggestions come here within our scope, it must suffice 
 rather to recommend the practice of taking well- 
 advertised evidential subjects at stated intervals, on 
 Sunday evenings, always followed by an open conference 
 where every man may have perfect liberty to question 
 any statement or discuss any difficulty, according to 
 need. 1 For not only is Sunday evening by far the best, 
 and indeed the only practicable occasion in the week for 
 
 1 That this is entirely practicable is proved by the writer's own 
 experience, inasmuch as for some years such a method has been 
 adopted in his church, with nothing but good results. All that is 
 needed is that the preacher should know his subject, and exhibit 
 the spirit of his Master.
 
 THE ATTITUDE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH 23 
 
 such a purpose, but it is also true that ordinary Christian 
 congregations need teaching in these matters almost as 
 much as doubting outsiders. Should any objection be 
 raised against this method as an " innovation," it is 
 surely sufficient to point out that it was almost always 
 the practice of the apostles, 1 and indeed of Christ 
 Himself. 2 It cannot be dangerous to be in such an 
 apostolical succession, or wrong to follow the Master's 
 own example. 
 
 Such a suggestion confessedly calls for more unselfish- 
 ness on the part of Christian worshippers, and entails 
 more labour upon preachers, than ordinary "services." 
 But what is the Christianity worth that cannot supply 
 these ? At all events, be the trouble and self-denial 
 involved what they may, some such effort is the only 
 way in which to-day vast numbers of outsiders will be 
 reached at all by the Christian message. 
 
 For there must be no blinking the fact, nor any 
 hesitation in announcing it, that the first appeal of the 
 gospel of Christ is not to men's feelings but to their 
 judgement. " Why, even of yourselves judge ye not 
 what is right ? " we have seen is Christ's own question. 
 The late Sir Andrew Clark was therefore well warranted 
 in his avowal of this principle : 3 " Now the reasons, I 
 apprehend, which influence a man in his acceptance of 
 the Christian faith, lie in two directions, first in his head, 
 secondly in his heart." The acknowledgment of fact 
 must ever precede feeling arising from it. Emotion, to 
 
 J Cf. Acts xix. 8. 9, etc. 
 
 2 Cf. the Gospels, especially the Fourth, passim. 
 
 3 A Physician's Testimony for Christ, p. 14.
 
 24 THE MIEACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 be worthy, must always be based upon judgement. 
 Through reason, not through faith, must really come the 
 first conviction, though not the last proof, of the truth- 
 fulness of Christ's gospel. The sooner this is frankly 
 recognised and practically exemplified by all true 
 disciples of Jesus, the better will it be both for those 
 within and those without the Churches. 
 
 To insist upon this does not in the least disparage the 
 evidence from experience. Without that, all Apologetics 
 would be but the defence and laudation of a mirage. 
 
 It must, however, be owned that both the ethical and 
 the experimental sides of Christianity have abundant 
 advocates in all the religious bodies of to-day. The 
 purity and nobleness of the Christian ideal in these 
 respects is, happily, not likely to lack exponents. Yet 
 all this is but as a human body without backbone, unless 
 it be preceded and accompanied by that reasoned 
 argument and definite teaching which, according to the 
 Gospel records, formed so large a part of Christ's own 
 life-work. It is especially to be noted that the Fourth 
 Gospel, simplest, deepest, and most experimental as it is, 
 contains the largest amount of what so many Christian 
 people in these days disdain under the title of 
 " controversy." 
 
 Printed books upon these themes, however numerous 
 and valuable, no more satisfy all our modern need than 
 did the original written sources or manuscripts of our 
 Gospels suffice at first, without the living testimony of the 
 apostles. The work of the Christian advocate to-day is 
 not more arduous than theirs. But only in the degree 
 in which he is faithful to his high commission whatever
 
 THE ATTITUDE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH 25 
 
 it may cost him in pains and patience has he any right 
 to look for that which is so easy to sing about, but which 
 seems yet so far away, namely, the " conversion of the 
 world." 
 
 Thus we are brought to the place and use of the 
 argument set forth in the following pages. It is not an 
 appeal to the heart, but a challenge to the mind of 
 every man who feels himself driven to doubt. It is no 
 less a challenge for being expressed with the utmost 
 possible respect and courtesy. It amounts to this, 
 which must be openly declared without ambiguity or 
 hesitation, that the first grave charge brought by 
 Christian faith against all forms of modern unbelief is, 
 not that they are plain proofs of moral depravity, but 
 that they do unquestionably exhibit mental obliquity. 
 The affirmation of belief is that unbelief is demonstrably 
 unreasonable. 
 
 Now this undoubtedly constitutes the most severe 
 indictment that can be brought against any system of 
 thought, or method of human life. The late Professor 
 Jevons affirmed that "we are nothing if not logical." 
 Who, save a man in bondage to superstition or " autho- 
 rity," can exclaim against the " corrosive action of reason " 
 in such an avowal ? It is but to say that we must be 
 true to what we know. And if even a Cardinal deny that, 
 we may on various grounds respect the man, but our very 
 manhood must sit in judgement upon his creed. When 
 Reason, indeed, disdains the help of Faith, it becomes but a 
 poor galley-slave aimlessly toiling at a hopeless destiny. 
 But when Faith decries Reason, the ruin is even greater. 
 For it wholly contemns the example of its Lord, besides
 
 26 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 bringing about its own destruction. From the lofty 
 heights of its pious imagining it casts itself down in 
 unwarranted presumption, only to exhibit human nature 
 maimed by ignorance, mangled by fanaticism, crushed 
 by despair. If there could have been a greater sin than 
 rebellion against right reason, the gospel commission 
 would never have been ratified by Eternal love and 
 justice with the solemn seal " He that believeth shall 
 be saved ; but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned."
 
 Ill 
 
 STATEMENT OF THE CASE
 
 " Modern Agnosticism is performing this great service to Christian 
 faith ; it is silencing all rational scepticism of the a, priori kind. 
 And this it is bound to do more and more the purer it becomes. 
 In every generation it must henceforth become more and more 
 recognised by logical thinking, that all antecedent objections to 
 Christianity founded upon reason alone are ipso facto nugatory. 
 Now all the strongest objections to Christianity have ever been 
 those of the antecedent kind, hence the effect of modern thinking 
 is that of more and more diminishing the purely speculative diffi- 
 culties, such as that of the Incarnation, etc. In other words, the 
 force of Butler's argument about our being incompetent judges, is 
 being more and more increased." Romanes, Thoughts on Religion, 
 p. 166. 
 
 " Materialistic philosophy is mere juggling or self -deceiving. It 
 fancies that time, millions of years, will somehow perform the 
 impossible. It waits for difficulties to flow away, as the simple- 
 minded rustic in Horace waited for the stream. By distributing 
 its stupendous miracles through endless aeons, by introducing them 
 bit by bit into the scheme of the world, Materialism hopes to 
 make them credible and natural, and so to evade all recognition of 
 the unfathomable primal mystery. But the fundamental laws of 
 thought care nothing for time. They are the same yesterday, to-day 
 and for ever." A. H. Craufurd, Christian Instincts and Modern 
 Doubt, p. 71. 
 
 " The form of belief from which the ultra-rational element has 
 been eliminated is, it would appear, no longer capable of exercising 
 the function of a religion." Benjamin Kidd, Social Evolution, 
 p. 114. 
 
 " Not a few intelligent and educated men who pay homage to 
 Christ as the greatest of men, refuse to accept as correct the portrait 
 of Him given in the New Testament. If this portrait be incorrect, 
 these men have detected an ancient and serious error and have 
 restored to the civilised world the true conception of God. We 
 expect to see in them as a fruit of their important discovery some 
 moral and spiritual superiority to those who are still held fast by 
 the great delusion. We look in vain." Professor Beet, article 
 " Christology " in Hastings' Bible Dictionary (T. & T. Clark).
 
 Ill 
 
 STATEMENT OF THE CASE 
 
 IN one of His most earnest expostulations with those 
 around Him, Christ is reported to have exclaimed, " Ye 
 blind guides, which strain out the gnat, and swallow the 
 camel ! " x The reproof was unquestionably a severe one. 
 But there are occasions when every true teacher not 
 only may, but must be severe. Wrong that is based 
 upon mere ignorance, or weakness, or mistake, he may 
 treat with gentle rebuke and tender patience. He cannot, 
 however, so pass over error that is not merely rooted in 
 unreason, but exalts itself above all else in coarse self- 
 assertion. There is no question that this latter was 
 the general temper of the Pharisees, and that thus they 
 truly merited the stern treatment they received. In 
 these days, indeed, we should scarce have patience even 
 to read the petty and tortuous devices by which their 
 traditions travestied great truths and reduced holy prin- 
 ciples to mockery. 
 
 The proverbial figure cited by Christ aptly exposed, 
 
 therefore, and justly condemned, their guilty foolishness. 
 
 The gnat and the camel were alike unclean, according 
 
 to Levitical law, so that the comparison resolves itself 
 
 1 Matt, xxiii. 24.
 
 30 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 into that of insisting vehemently upon trifles, whilst 
 giving no heed to enormities. " Ye tithe mint and 
 anise and cummin, and have left undone the weightier 
 matters of the law, judgement and mercy and faith." So 
 long as morality is of any account amongst men, such 
 doctrine and example as this must merit scathing rebuke. 
 
 But human nature persistently repeats its follies from 
 age to age. The children of the Pharisees have proved 
 an interminable race. The Christian Church itself has 
 ever included some who have deserved, as completely 
 as they have ignored, the stringency of Christ's rebuke. 
 There are, however, good reasons for believing that such 
 Pharisaism is becoming decidedly less in quantity, whilst 
 its quality is ever more truly estimated. 
 
 We are free, therefore, to turn our thoughts in 
 another direction, where, beyond the pale of the Church, 
 very much the same wrong is still being perpetrated. 
 As compared with Pharisaism, it would not be inapt to 
 term this human attitude " Philistinism," seeing that it 
 as incessantly menaces Christian truth ah extra as the 
 Philistines of old did the people of Israel. 
 
 To modern ears, doubtless, the name of " Agnosticism " 
 is much more familiar. In its freedom from all moral 
 reproach, it is also unquestionably more agreeable to 
 unbelievers. Nor would any thoughtful Christian advo- 
 cate to-day avow that lack of faith necessarily involves 
 deterioration of morals, or recklessly assert that doubt 
 and depravity are one. It cannot be denied that, to an 
 ever-increasing degree, " honest doubt " prevails around 
 all our modern Churches. Their name is legion, who, 
 as sincere doubters, deserve all possible sympathy from
 
 STATEMENT OF THE CASE 31 
 
 Christian teachers. They constitute a growing class 
 whose necessities will have to be met with increasing 
 frankness and patience. For as each generation develops 
 more mental power, it becomes even more necessary to 
 do justice to the last edition of Butler's Analogy, than 
 to weep over the pathos of the Bonnie Brier Bush. 
 Christianity, according to Paul's conception of it, calls 
 for "rational service" (Eom. xii. 1), and one of the finest 
 of our modern scholars has right nobly said that " human 
 nature craves to be both religious and rational. And 
 the life that is not both is neither." x 
 
 Whilst, however, it were vain for any believer to 
 deny either the existence or the seriousness of modern 
 unbelief, and the growing disposition certainly is to 
 estimate it fairly and meet it frankly, there is one wide- 
 spread assumption against which an unmistakable and 
 emphatic protest must be raised. Sometimes it is mildly 
 hinted under the guise of a cultured Agnosticism, some- 
 times it is blurted out with coarse assurance by an un- 
 disguised Secularism. The substance of the assertion is 
 the same in either case, viz. that so many " difficulties " 
 are, in these days, attached to Christian faith, that a man 
 may well be forgiven either his hesitation to join the 
 Church, or even his downright scepticism. Thus it is 
 made to appear that the best, and indeed the only way 
 out of religious difficulties, is to relinquish all belief in 
 Christian verities, or become at least an avowed Agnostic. 
 
 Now it is this assumption which is here openly and 
 unhesitatingly challenged. It is the purpose of the 
 following pages to show that, even if we dismiss all 
 1 The late Aubrey L. Moore, Lux Mundi, p. 109.
 
 32 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 suggestion of moral obliquity and credit every unbeliever 
 with pure sincerity, there remains, on grounds of clear 
 reason alone, sufficient cause to apply to modern scep- 
 ticism the very same rebuke which Christ addressed to 
 the Pharisees. It is still manifestly a case of straining 
 out the gnat and swallowing the camel. In other words, 
 whatever be the difficulties of Christian belief, the diffi- 
 culties of unbelief are greater. Whatever mental per- 
 plexities may seem to block the path of faith, those in the 
 way of unfaith are immeasurably worse. If Christianity 
 be rejected because its miracles seem incredible, the 
 miracles which unbelief is " compelled to posit " in their 
 place, are far more incredible, both as to quantity and 
 quality. So that if, on the whole, it be accepted as a 
 principle of reason that men should in their convictions 
 ever proceed upon the path of least rational difficulty, 
 we are entirely warranted in calling upon them to 
 become Christian. For the very ground upon which 
 they might be disposed to refuse, viz. the existence of 
 difficulties, ought rather to become their sufficient reason 
 for consenting, seeing that such refusal inevitably commits 
 them to more and greater difficulties. 
 
 In setting out to show this, it is impossible to pass 
 without regard some recent attempts which have been 
 made, with good intent, to reduce the supposed hindrances 
 to Christian faith to a minimum. It must be conceded 
 that the New Testament sets before us great and indeed 
 unfathomable mysteries. These, in the light of our 
 ordinary human experience, may well present " diffi- 
 culties " of acceptance. But the question as to how far 
 we may proceed, with a view to economising faith, in
 
 STATEMENT OF THE CASE 33 
 
 minimising the facts out of which such difficulties arise, 
 is a very serious and important one. Doubtless some 
 Christian difficulties have been unnecessary and un- 
 warranted. They have arisen out of special theories 
 concerning the Bible, or human nature, or eschatology, 
 which the gospel never really authorised. These certainly 
 call for revision, and there is little risk in affirming that 
 evangelical Christianity to-day is being more and more 
 purified from such adulterations, and is presented to men 
 in more rational form than ever. The rejection of 
 Christian truth becomes, in such case, correspondingly 
 more irrational. 
 
 But this principle of the reduction of difficulties has 
 definite limits. There is an irreducible minimum. 
 When, for instance, it is suggested that if only all 
 miracles be given up as mythical accretions, or the 
 supernatural in general dismissed, faith would be much 
 easier ; or that the Incarnation and Eesurrection of Christ 
 may well be resolved into legendary halo "the mere 
 offspring of the imagination" gathering around His 
 ordinary birth and death, it is time to cry " Hold ! " l 
 
 For unless we are prepared to tear the New Testa- 
 ment to shreds, and pronounce it either a deliberately 
 fraudulent concoction, or, at least, an utterly unreliable 
 collection of writings, these verities constitute the un- 
 mistakable sine qud non of Christianity. 2 A man would 
 as soon continue to live and work after his vital organs 
 have been removed, as Christ's Christianity remain after 
 these have been subtracted. A surgeon might doubtless 
 engage to relieve a patient of angina pectoris by " easily " 2 
 
 1 See Note A, p. 37. 2 See Note B, p. 38. 
 
 3
 
 34 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 removing his heart ; but doctor and patient alike know 
 well that after the operation there would be left not a 
 healthy man, but a corpse. 
 
 Even so, if the Incarnation, as brought about by the 
 miraculous conception, be but myth, it is absolutely cer- 
 tain that there is no Christian salvation for men through 
 the merely human son of an adulteress. 1 If the Eesur- 
 rection be, after all, only subjective hallucination or 
 hysterical imagining, it is the chief Christian apostle 
 who reiterates that our " faith is vain." If there 
 be nothing at all miraculous, i.e. beyond the scope of 
 natural evolution, in the life and works and death of 
 Jesus Christ, then indeed, cadit qucestio, there is left 
 no Christianity to discuss. It is certainly true that 
 " if the wonders related of Him are to be reduced to 
 exaggeration, misconception, natural occurrences falsely 
 attributed to supernatural causes, we must say that the 
 mistake which the Church has made was made in His 
 own lifetime, and was shared by Himself." 2 
 
 Hence there is to be found no real help whatever 
 towards the solution of Christian difficulties in what is 
 often called but really miscalled "naturalising," unless 
 it be also considered helpful to a man's thinking powers 
 to remove his head. Such a proceeding would assuredly 
 be very unnatural. But it is no less so to seek to help 
 the Christian faith by destroying the very vitals of 
 Christianity. 3 
 
 No unbiassed reader of the New Testament 4 can for a 
 
 1 See Note C, p. 39. 
 
 2 Dr. Salmon's Non-Miraculous Christianity, p. 8. 
 
 3 See Note D, p. 41. 4 See Note E, p. 42.
 
 STATEMENT OF THE CASE 35 
 
 moment doubt that its general conception of Christ and 
 His work, includes all these elements usually classed as 
 supernatural and miraculous, but now regarded by some 
 as mere traditional superfluities. 1 
 
 Unless modern a priori prejudice or hypercriticism 
 be allowed to eviscerate the New Testament, as we at 
 present possess it, the words of one able writer on 
 these themes are thoroughly warranted 
 
 "If we are to get rid of miracles, we must get rid of the Incarna- 
 tion, the Resurrection, the Ascension, in fact of the whole Christian 
 system altogether. Christianity is interpenetrated with miracle, 
 and miracle is indissolubly bound up with Christianity. Miracle 
 as an evidence may have retired into the background, now that 
 its place has been so amply supplied by other proofs. Miracle as 
 a fact cannot be so dispensed with. Without the doctrine of a 
 supernatural order, capable of modifying the action of things 
 visible at its will, Christianity must cease to exist. It is in- 
 separably connected with the history of one who "did many 
 mighty works, for God was with Him," and who was " declared to 
 be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead." 2 
 
 The real question is, to-day, practically the same as 
 that which Paul put to Agrippa : " Why is it judged 
 incredible with you, if God doth raise the dead ? " 3 Why 
 should we shrink from accepting as true the miracle- 
 involving accounts of Christ and His redemptive work, 
 because of the " burdens of difficulty " with which 
 modern scientific thought invests them ? A valid 
 answer is to be found in the following paradox. If, 
 because it postulates the supernatural, Christianity be 
 regarded as incredible, it is demonstrably yet more 
 incredible without the supernatural. The facts lei'ng as 
 
 1 See Note F, p. 43. 2 Dr. Lias, Are Miracles Credible? p. 25a 
 8 Acts xxvi. 8.
 
 36 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 they are, the gospel of the New Testament without 
 miracles is shown to be immeasurably more miraculous 
 than with them. And unbelief can only substantiate its 
 objections to the Christian miracles, by calling into the 
 field greater and grosser miracles of its own. 
 
 Now the more detailed be the unfolding of this 
 paradox, the more will it be found to rest upon undeni- 
 able facts and rational inferences. In the following 
 chapters, however, we can do little more than make a 
 succinct summary, leaving the reader to follow out, in 
 each section, the lines of thought suggested. 
 
 The Bible in general (and the Christian religion in 
 particular) regards humanity as existing in several 
 realms. These correspond alike with our simplest 
 consciousness and our highest instincts. Physical, 
 intellectual, moral, and spiritual elements enter into 
 our inmost being, and constitute our daily environment. 
 In each of these realms, therefore, we now proceed to 
 show how the temper which rejects Christian faith on 
 account of its difficulties, is driven by that very rejection 
 to accept far greater difficulties. In other words, it is 
 compelled to " swallow the camel " in its determination 
 to get rid of " the gnat." 
 
 One assumption, and one only, must be made. For 
 every event there must le an adequate cause. Such 
 a postulate no man of reason will refuse. The only 
 question that can arise concerning it, is as to what 
 constitutes adequacy. For sane humanity, however, it 
 may surely be asserted that that cause is in each case 
 adequate which explains the fact, or the event, most 
 easily and most thoroughly. The easiness ever makes
 
 STATEMENT OF THE CASE 37 
 
 itself manifest when the alleged explanation agrees with 
 rather than contradicts the working of those reasoning 
 faculties which necessarily constitute our final guides. 
 All this is plainly involved in Christ's own question 
 above quoted (Luke xii. 57). 
 
 Upon such fair principles of reason, then, the position 
 of modern unbelief is well and truly illustrated by the 
 story of the man who is said to have been troubled by the 
 presence of several large mounds of earth in his garden, 
 and not a little perplexed as to how to rid himself of them, 
 when a friend suggested that he should dig a large hole 
 and bury them. However deep and laboriously made be 
 the diggings for the interment of those foundation facts 
 of Christianity which connote the miraculous, there 
 always and inevitably results an outstanding heap of 
 natural difficulties which, both in weight and bulk, are 
 far harder to deal with. In removing the Christian 
 mole-hill, there is of necessity created an Agnostic 
 mountain. 
 
 NOTES 
 
 A. Perhaps no fairer or more typical form of this assumption, that 
 it is easier to believe in Christ without miracles, can be found, than 
 in the words of the amiable and erudite author of Philochristus and 
 Onesimus. Thus in The Kernel and the Husk we find him describing 
 himself as " one who has for many years found peace and salvation 
 in the worship of a non-miraculous Christ." He cannot, however, 
 be unaware of the fact that such an avowal contributes no more to 
 the settlement of the actual question, than the analogous assertion 
 of the Methodist, or Romanist, or Swedenborgian, each of whom 
 has "found peace and salvation" in a miraculous or hyper- 
 miraculous gospel. 
 
 When, however, he adds, that " we all feel that we understand
 
 38 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 astronomy better in the light of the law of gravitation ; and in the 
 same way some may feel that Christianity becomes more spiritual, as 
 well as more clear, when it becomes more natural," he rightly 
 expresses the main principle upon which the present inquiry is 
 conducted. The very essence of the thesis of the following pages 
 is that miraculous Christianity is demonstrably .far more natural 
 than non-miraculous. Indeed, that which it especially aims at 
 establishing, could scarcely be better stated than in Dr. Abbott's 
 own words, " that many of Christianity's so-called difficulties fade 
 or vanish, when what may be called its celestial and its terrestrial 
 phenomena are found to rest upon similar principles." 
 
 B. The modern cultured and plausible method of statement is well 
 exemplified in The Kernel and, the Husk (p. 3) : " Christ will remain 
 for us a necessary object of worship, even if we detach the miracles 
 from the Gospels. Now I cannot do this without showing that 
 the miraculous accounts stand on a lower level than the rest of the 
 Gospel narrative, and that they may have been easily introduced 
 into the Gospels without any sufficient basis of fact, and yet without 
 any intention to deceive, so that the discrediting of the miracles 
 will not discredit their non-miraculous context." 
 
 But this is none the less a real for being a quiet begging of the 
 main question. It is, of course, impossible here to digress into a 
 detailed scrutiny of the textual worth of the miracle-containing 
 narratives. Besides which, the argument of these pages is addressed 
 not so much to selected scholars as to all persons of ordinary in- 
 telligence. Two notes, however, may appropriately be made. 
 (1) As to the "easily" in the above quotation, the thoughtful 
 reader of the English New Testament is in a position to examine 
 and judge for himself. Of course if the miraculous element be the 
 deadly delusion which is here assumed, every shred of it must be 
 as thoroughly removed as every particle of cancer by the surgeon's 
 knife. Let this be faithfully done. The residue will speak for 
 itself as to the easiness of the operation. 
 
 Moreover, (2) the general assertion cannot possibly be passed 
 without challenge. The assumption, indeed, made here and else- 
 where, that modern Biblical scholarship, especially in the form of 
 textual criticism, tends to give us two distinct strata of Gospel 
 narrative, one wholly non-miraculous, sound, firm, and on a " high 
 level " ; and another miraculous, "on a lower level " and unreliable, 
 is directly contrary to the facts of the case.
 
 STATEMENT OF THE CASE 39 
 
 No doubt there have been critics ever since Schleiermacher's 
 Critical Essay on the Gospel of Luke, in 1821, who would more or less 
 approve such a general statement especially the Tubingen school 
 of "destructive" criticism represented, about the middle of the 
 century, by Baur, Schwegler, and Zeller. But " in the heart of the 
 Tubingen school there soon arose a series of divergences, corrections, 
 and even retractations." It was opposed by Bleek, Meyer, Eeuss, 
 Keim, etc., and has now virtually ceased to be. [Vide note on p. 363.] 
 
 C. It is, of course, easy to assert, as was recently done by the 
 editor of a well-known religious journal, that such a statement as this 
 involves a circulus in probando. " It first supposes the birth stories 
 denied, and then goes to them for the suggestion of an adulteress." 
 The matter is not, however, quite so easily disposed of. This 
 nebulous phrase " the birth stories," needs to be carefully defined 
 and considered. It is in vain to refer to a " triple tradition," and 
 to assume that whatever is beyond this that is, whatever is outside 
 the mechanical consensus of the Synoptics is to be rejected. For 
 such an assumption is critically preposterous. There is no sufficient 
 textual reason whatever for the rejection, as unhistorical, of all 
 mention of the relations between Joseph and Mary. Nothing that 
 has been written concerning the "growth of the Gospels" (wid. 
 Kernel and Husk, p. 170) has amounted to either critical or rational 
 proof that these pre-infancy narratives are to be dismissed as on 
 a "lower level" of credibility than the matters included in the 
 "triple tradition." Dr. Salmon is entirely warranted, on the con- 
 trary, when he protests (Non-Miraculous Christianity, p. 11) : "It 
 would be clearly irrational if we were to imagine that even if 
 we could absolutely settle the words common to the three synoptic 
 Gospels criticism had then finished its work, and that we might 
 jump to the conclusion that in these common words, and these 
 alone, we had the original document. Such a process involves the 
 assumption (the unreasonableness of which is seen the moment it 
 is put into words), that on the supposition that such a document 
 existed, and that it was made use of by three subsequent compilers, 
 each of these compilers was bound to incorporate every particular 
 of it in his work, so that an omission by any one of them condemns 
 the part left out as no portion of the original Gospel." 
 
 Whilst, therefore, the statement that Joseph came "into Judea, 
 to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of 
 the house and lineage of David : to enrol himself with Mary who
 
 40 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 was betrothed to him, being great with child " (Luke ii. 4, 5), remains 
 firm on the same textual grounds as avail to establish the non- 
 miraculous narratives, the dilemma naturally and inevitably arises, 
 however much the advocates of neo-Christianity may shrink from 
 it, that either Mary's conception was miraculous, or Jesus was born 
 of adultery. There is no literary or rational or critical warrant 
 whatever for dismissing certain portions of a homogeneous narra- 
 tive on the ground of a priori prejudice against the supernatural. 
 
 It is true that the author of The Kernel and the Husk (p. 71) 
 affirms : " I may with the author of the Fourth Gospel heartily 
 believe in the supernatural incarnation while omitting from my 
 gospel all mention of the miraculous conception." But such an 
 assertion merits double reply. 
 
 (1) Here is an insinuation which is not warranted. "With the 
 author of the Fourth Gospel." The half truth here whicli is ever 
 "a harder matter to fight" is that in our Fourth Gospel the 
 miraculous conception is not mentioned. That may pass for what 
 it is worth. It is certainly not valid proof that John either denied 
 or ignored the supernatural birth of Christ. A priori, everything 
 throughout his record would seem to point to the contrary. And 
 inasmuch as it is. now generally conceded that John was acquainted 
 with the Synoptics, even if he had them not definitely before him, 
 so that his task was confessedly supplementary, it is quite as 
 legitimate to suggest that the reason of his silence was that the 
 remarkable event was already sufficiently recorded in the Christian 
 writings and established amongst Christian Churches. Certainly it 
 requires no little pre-determination of mind to warrant the assump- 
 tion that the silence of John is sufficiently clear to utterly con- 
 tradict and make void the deliberate record of an earlier writer, 
 who specially affirms (Luke i. 3) that he had "traced the course 
 of all things accurately from the first." That is, as Dr. Plummer 
 well puts it, "he has begun at the beginning, and has investigated 
 everything" (Int. Grit. Comm. in loc.). Nor would it be unwar- 
 rantable straining if, under all the circumstances, we discovered in 
 the Gospel of John itself a definite pointer to Christ's supernatural 
 origin when we read (John vi. 38), " I am come down from heaven, 
 not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me." The 
 writer of the above extract, therefore, it is submitted, has no right 
 to claim confirmation from the Gospel of John. One might as well 
 affirm that Mark's abrupt beginning or comparative brevity, is 
 proof that he denied or ignored all that is found in the other 
 Synoptics beyond his own narrative.
 
 STATEMENT OF THE CASE 41 
 
 (2) The actual matter in hand is whether the supernatural In- 
 carnation which is conceded, really requires the miraculous concep- 
 tion to make it valid. The fact that this author asserts his hearty 
 belief in the separableness of these two, is just a testimony to his 
 own conviction, and nothing more. Those who would see how much 
 can be thoughtfully affirmed in the other direction, will do well to 
 study the statement of Mr. Griffith Jones in his Ascent through Christ, 
 p. 263 ff.; and Dr. Wace's Third Lecture in his Gospel and its Witnesses. 
 
 Meanwhile, the double assertion holds good, that it is unscientific 
 to object to the virgin birth as impossible, and therefore incredible ; 
 and it is uncritical or hypercritical to stigmatise the " birth stories " 
 of Matthew and Luke as unreliable, because a few leading critics 
 decline, on a priori grounds, to receive in their case such evidence 
 as avails for all other portions of the same narrative. 
 
 D. It is true that there is a small, perhaps a growing class of 
 Christian thinkers, even amongst the " Evangelical " Churches, who 
 are increasingly disposed to deny that the vital part of Christianity 
 is the miraculous. The following excerpts are typical of this 
 temper : " We have come through the growth of science and the 
 scientific method, through the growth of criticism and the historical 
 spirit, to a climate of opinion in which miracles are becoming an 
 increasing burden to faith." "Christianity without miracles may 
 be Christianity still." " The real truth is that the miraculous birth 
 stories have nothing to do with the doctrine of the Incarnation, the 
 miraculous physical resurrection has nothing to do with the doctrine 
 of the risen Christ, and the miraculous ascension has nothing to do 
 with the doctrine of the living and reigning Christ." (Cf . Christian 
 World, July 1898.) 
 
 It does not come within the scope of these pages to enter upon 
 such a definite and elaborate refutation of these statements as the 
 manifest sincerity and ability of the writers would seem to merit. 
 The reasoned reply, for instance, to The Kernel and the Husk, would 
 have to be a volume of at least equal size. But thoughtful 
 inquirers will find answers in abundance on the part of modern 
 Christian scholarship. Especial reference may be made to Dr. 
 Fairbairn's Christ in Modern Theology, Griffith Jones' The Ascent 
 through Christ, Row's Supernatural in the New Testament, Wain- 
 wright's Question of Questions, and portions of Lux Mundi. Other 
 works are mentioned in the Appendix. Meanwhile the statement 
 of Strauss (Leben Jesu, 1864, p. 18), that "if the Gospels in general
 
 42 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 be admitted as historical records, it is impossible to eliminate 
 miracle from the life of Jesus," remains unshaken as against that 
 of Dr. Abbott. Dr. Salmon fairly represents the vast consensus of 
 the Christian scholarship of to-day when he affirms that " in sum 
 then, a non-miraculous Christianity is as much a contradiction in 
 terms as a quadrangular circle. When you have taken away the 
 supernatural, what is left behind is not Christianity. It is not the 
 religion which the apostles preached, it is not that into which the 
 early converts were baptized, it is not that for which the martyrs 
 gave their lives." Whence it is not too much to avow that the 
 attempts to "save" the Incarnation by rejecting the miraculous 
 birth, to keep the risen Christ by denying the "physical" 
 Resurrection, to confirm the reigning Christ by casting scorn upon 
 the Ascension, are all alike worse than wasted economy. 
 
 E. No slight, of course, is here for a moment intended upon either 
 the honesty or the erudition of those who, with the author of The 
 Kernel and the Husk, lay claim to a superior reading of the New 
 Testament in their discovery that the " miracle portions " may be 
 safely omitted, so far as Christianity is concerned, and ought to be 
 deleted on critical grounds. But the wish is manifestly father to 
 the thought. And the wish, as we have seen, is derived from the 
 desire to smooth the path of faith by removing the assumed 
 stumbling-block of the supernatural. The truth is, however, and it 
 cannot be too often or too emphatically reiterated, that it has yet 
 to be shown that through "the growth of the scientific spirit, or the 
 historical method," it is necessary to jettison the miraculous element 
 in the New Testament in order to save Christianity from ship- 
 wreck. To assume that is simply to beg the whole question at issue. 
 
 On p. 12 of The Kernel and the Husk the author remarks : "I was 
 amazed to find that little or nothing had been done by English 
 scholars to compare the different styles, and analyse the narratives 
 into their component parts." But what, we may ask, even, if this 
 somewhat sweeping statement be allowed to pass, is the special 
 value of the " English " here specified ? Surely analyses enough 
 have been attempted by the Tiibingen school and its followers on 
 the Continent. If these all had demonstrated an exclusive " triple 
 tradition" beyond reach of controversy, would not that demon- 
 stration also avail on this side the Channel 1 " After some years 
 of work," continues the same author, "I found myself gradually 
 led to the conclusion that the miraculous element in the Gospels
 
 STATEMENT OF THE CASE 43 
 
 was not historical." This was confessedly a personal discovery, 
 undoubtedly subjective and sincere, but very far indeed from being 
 a demonstration for others. Indeed there was nothing in it either 
 new or final. The esteemed author may lay claim with all honesty 
 to " a belief that has been fifteen years in making, and for ten years 
 more has been reviewed, criticised, and finally retained as being 
 historically true and spiritually reliable." But he must not forget 
 that precisely the same asseveration has been made concerning their 
 convictions by numbers of Eomanists, Ritualists, Secularists, and 
 others, including assuredly scholars, English as well as foreign, who 
 are reasonably " orthodox." and whose researches have been equally 
 thorough and equally prolonged. 
 
 F. " Supernatural and miraculous." Nothing is gained for neo- 
 Christianity by endeavouring to set up an arbitrary distinction 
 between these two, and so make them mutually exclusive. As when 
 the author of The Kernel and the Husk asserts, " Nor does the belief 
 in the supernatural in the least imply a belief in the miraculous 
 also. Supernatural is the name given to the existence of God and 
 to His creation and continuous development of all things ; the 
 Divine action being regarded not as contrary to nature but 
 as above nature, not as suspending the sequences of nature but as 
 originating and supporting them." The sense here attached to the 
 term " supernatural " is somewhat unique. " The Divine creation 
 and continuous development of all things," as known to us by 
 observation and experience, are much rather the expression of the 
 natural than the supernatural. Moreover, no Christian thinker 
 to-day, meriting attention, regards the supernatural or the 
 miraculous as being " contrary " to nature. 
 
 In another place (p. 71) the same author assumes that a miracle 
 means that " the observed sequence of what we call cause and effect 
 in the material world has been violated." But in his definitions we 
 find that " miracle means a supposed suspension of a sequence or 
 law of nature." Now it must be pointed out that these two terms 
 are not synonymous. A suspension is not a violation. No event, 
 therefore, can be both at once. Meanwhile we are told that 
 " Marvel, or mighty work, means a rare sequence of nature in 
 which great effects are produced by causes seemingly but not really 
 inadequate." Also that the Divine action in the supernatural is to 
 be regarded "not as suspending the sequences of nature, but as 
 originating and supporting them." Now with the utmost respect
 
 44 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 for the sincerity and erudition of the author, it is difficult to under- 
 stand how a trained mind can satisfy itself with such a general 
 attitude as this. 
 
 (1) Are we to understand that there is an essential distinction 
 in the New Testament records between "miracles" and "mighty 
 works," the latter being possible though rare, but the former 
 impossible and incredible ? Certainly as Christ Himself used the 
 terms, and in the ten other occurrences of them, there is no hint 
 whatever at any such distinction. Nor is there any reason, 
 critical or scientific, for suggesting this differentiation. It is 
 a distinction without a difference. But when, as in the New 
 Testament, miracles and mighty works are put upon the same 
 level, they may truly be said to be "produced by causes seemingly 
 but not really inadequate," so long as it is definitely understood 
 that the real adequacy in the case is, as the Gospels everywhere 
 suggest, the definite will and supernatural power of Christ Himself. 
 The author of Ecce Homo did not put it too strongly when he 
 wrote, " The fact that Christ appeared as a worker of miracles is 
 the best attested fact in his whole biography, both by the absolute 
 unanimity of all the witnesses, by the confirmatory circumstances 
 just mentioned, and by countless other special confirmations of 
 circumstances not likely to be invented, striking sayings inseparably 
 connected with them, etc., in particular cases " (12th ed. p. ix). 
 
 (2) Neither in regard to miracles nor mighty works is there 
 any reason to speak of them as "violations" of cause and effect 
 in nature, for that would be assuming a scientific knowledge 
 that we do not possess. It is indeed too much, as one of our ablest 
 physicists has recently affirmed, to assume that we comprehend the 
 dynamics of the simplest push. Nor is it at all necessary to affirm 
 that miracles must be "violations of observed sequences." It is 
 quite sufficient that they should be regarded as suspensions or over- 
 rulings of such sequences. Even if we assume that there is a 
 natural, radical, necessary nexus between cause and effect, it is not 
 in any such case violated, because it may be exercising its natural 
 force all the time, as gravitation is when, in spite of it, we lift a 
 heavy body from the ground. Moreover, (i.) we are constantly sus- 
 pending such sequences ourselves, by virtue of our own knowledge 
 and will, for sufficient reasons, (ii.) It is preposterous to assume 
 that our little knowledge of the phenomena and noumena of 
 nature warrants us in asserting that there can be no suspensions 
 of sequence beyond our own experience. 
 
 (3) For aught science can say to the contrary, there is nothing
 
 STATEMENT OF THE CASE 45 
 
 more incredible in a miracle than in an ordinary occurrence, granted 
 the Divine intention and power. Both are alike the natural result 
 of supernatural energy. The difference between them is merely 
 a matter of degree. The supernatural miracle is but a higher 
 or more vivid manifestation of that Divine energy which ever 
 permeates the " creation and continuous development of all things," 
 and makes possible our natural ordinary life. 
 
 (4) But the whole Gospel record assumes this Divine power and 
 affirms this Divine intention. The mission of Jesus Christ is to 
 reveal the holy love of an infinite and omnipotent Father, with the 
 direct purpose of redeeming men from moral evil and its con- 
 sequences, and bringing to pass an immeasurable spiritual evolution 
 of human nature. The miraculous element, therefore, in the gospel, 
 whatever be its quantity or quality, is neither more nor less than 
 the manifestation of the supernatural in the greater degree necessary 
 for the carrying out of the special design of redemption, just as the 
 ordinary sequences of nature manifest the supernatural in the lesser 
 degree necessary for the physical life and well-being of humanity. 
 
 And unless we are prepared to dismiss as unreliable the whole 
 testimony of the Fourth Gospel, it is impossible to mistake the 
 reference in Christ's own words : " If I do not the works of My 
 Father, believe Me not. But if I do them, though ye believe not 
 Me, believe the works." Nor, again, can we misapprehend the 
 meaning of the writer's comment: "But though He had done 
 so many signs before them, yet they believed not on Him." 
 
 The whole case is clearly and truly summarised in the words of 
 Professor A. S. Wilkins (The Light of the World, 2nd ed. p. ix), 
 written thirty years since : " The instances of the suspension of the 
 laws of nature supposed to be involved in the Catholic doctrine of 
 the Incarnation, are presenting very serious stumbling-blocks in the 
 way of many earnest seekers for the truth. The rejection of this 
 belief, the very sheet-anchor of hope for the Church of the world, 
 involves the hypothesis of a no less miraculous suspension of the 
 laws that rule in the world of mind. If the need of an adequate 
 cause for the appearance of a phenomenon be held to exist as fully 
 for the spiritual as for the material, then it is no longer a question 
 of Faith or Eeason which divides the Christian and the unbeliever. 
 It is a question whether the canons of a rigid induction shall or 
 shall not be followed for mind as well as for matter ; whether we 
 will test all truth, or only the lower and less important, by a 
 strictly scientific method."
 
 GARDNER'S EXPLORATIO EVANGELIC A 
 
 THE general attitude of The Kernel and the Husk, quoted above, is 
 also that of Dr. Gardner's recently published Exploratio Evangelica. 
 It is impossible to study this work without admiring the tone of 
 reverence, courtesy, and culture which pervades it. And yet one 
 lays it down with a sigh of mingled wonder and lament. For the 
 whole procedure adopted is precisely analogous to what might have 
 happened a few years since in that Samoan Bay, when the Calliope, 
 
 by means of reliable engines, fought its way through the fearful 
 hurricane, if in the midst of the struggle some of the officers had 
 suggested that in order to save the ship they should break up the 
 
 engines and throw them overboard. 
 
 The remark of the author in regard to Mr. Gore's defence of the 
 Virgin birth, applies generally to himself also "All critics are at 
 one in acknowledging the candour and sincerity of the writer, but 
 a good deal of his argument admits of complete reply." 
 
 In his concluding summary (p. 519) we are told* that "the way 
 of regarding religion which is wholly inconsistent with the views of 
 this book, is what I have called the way of absolute religion, the 
 view that Christianity was sent into the world fully equipped and 
 complete, supported by a series of miracles, and not to be approached 
 by the ordinary principles of reason which we apply to other prac- 
 tical affairs of life." Upon which it seems necessary to remark, 
 that the way of regarding religion which may be called reasonable 
 orthodoxy, certainly does not (1) necessitate any cast-iron conception 
 of absolute religion ; nor does it (2) assume that Christianity was 
 sent into the world " fully equipped and complete " ; nor, a fortiori, 
 (3) does it plead that Christianity should not be approached by 
 ordinary principles of reason. The main purpose of these pages, 
 at all events, is to urge that these principles should be applied 
 alike to the whole kosmos, to human nature, and to Christian 
 foundations. What has most to be borne in mind, as J. S. Mill 
 long ago made clear, is that, whatever refinements of conception 
 modern thought may introduce, God and miracle stand or fall 
 together. To affirm (p. 262) that "the materialist circumstances 
 of the tale of the Resurrection are now an impediment rather than 
 
 help to faith," is to confuse accident with essence in a cloud 
 
 nbiguity. 
 Christian faith, is, when the '"materialist* circumstances" "are 
 
 of ambiguity. The question upon which depends the validity of 
 
 subtracted from the " tale of the Resurrection," what is left ? How 
 the disciples came to believe, is for us secondary to the crucial 
 inquiry, Was what they believed true ? In a word, does the Gospel 
 rest on fact or fancy ? Did Jesus rise from the dead, or not? If 
 He did, the Christian faith is well grounded, and miracle is beyond 
 dispute. If, now, we know that He did not, Christianity is a 
 delusion, and nothing in science, or in history, or in "experience" 
 can rehabilitate it.
 
 IV 
 
 THE REALM OF PHYSICAL 
 SCIENCE
 
 "These discoveries effectually destroy the idea of an external 
 self-existent matter, by giving to each of its atoms at once the 
 essential characteristics of a manufactured article and a subordinate 
 agent. When we see a great number of things precisely alike, we 
 do not believe the similarity to have originated except from a 
 common principle independent of them." Sir John Herschell 
 Address to Royal Society. 
 
 " There is in every earnest thinker a craving after a final cause, 
 and this craving can no more be extinguished than our belief in 
 . objective reality. Our belief in what we call the evidence of our 
 senses is less strong than our faith that in the orderly sequence of 
 events there is a meaning which our minds could fathom were they 
 only vast enough." Fiske, Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy, p. 138. 
 
 " But as the universe in which we find ourselves is constituted, 
 the proof of Design, which is furnished by the characteristics of 
 beauty and sublimity that are apparent in it, is not derived from 
 phenomena few in number or requiring to be sought out by 
 ingenuity. Many of those who are most bitterly opposed to the 
 doctrine to which the existence of these characteristics appears to 
 point, nevertheless vie with those who hold it, in admiration of the 
 startling confusion of splendour with which nature abounds." 
 J. H. Kennedy, Natural Theology and Modern Thought, p. 193. 
 
 " The Darwinian theory, properly understood, replaces as much 
 teleology as it destroys." J. Fiske, Man's Destiny, p. 109. 
 
 " The scientific conception, more or less clearly developed, is that 
 we live in a physical universe of which the moral world forms a 
 part. The Hebrew and Christian conception is that we live in 
 a moral universe of which the physical world forms a part." 
 Dr. Wace, Boyle Lectures 1874, p. 302.
 
 IV 
 THE EEALM OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 
 
 WE are linked, as men and women, by what is generally 
 deemed the lower part of our nature, to all the world 
 about us. Not only do we find ourselves definitely 
 related to all other forms of animal life, but also and 
 unmistakably to our whole physical environment. Our 
 bodies are built up of the very same elements as are 
 found in the air we breathe and the ground on which 
 we tread. We thus form part of that whole " kosmos " 
 which, from time immemorial, has challenged the thought 
 of mankind to explain its origin. 
 
 Now we do not find in the Gospels that Christ made 
 any definite attempt to inculcate and demonstrate 
 Theism ; nor does the rest of the New Testament. But 
 the revelation of the Divine Fatherhood therein con- 
 tained, manifestly postulates the most definite Theism 
 conceivable. The consequent doctrine of Christianity is 
 that there is one God, personal and almighty, the Creator 
 of all things, the great Final Cause of the whole universe, 
 no less than of this tiny fraction of it which we call our 
 Earth. For all who do justice to its enormity, this con- 
 ception is confessedly overwhelming. It is only natural 
 that we should be baffled in every attempt we make to 
 4
 
 50 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 realise it. To that extent it may be acknowledged that 
 Christian faith is difficult. Before, however, we reject 
 Christianity for such a reason, it is well to ask first 
 what we should have to face from the standpoint of 
 Atheism or Agnosticism. 
 
 Starting, then, with the one axiom, that for every 
 event there must be an adequate cause, it is undeniable 
 that each day of our lives we are in contact with order, 
 law, adaptation, harmony, correlation, beauty, in nature 
 all around us, as well as in our own constitution. This 
 is simple fact. As such it must be accounted for 
 adequately. If we could take some one of these just 
 named, and do justice to it by means of detailed illustra- 
 tion, as is done, say, in Sir Charles Bell's treatise on the 
 Hand, or Helmholtz' lectures on the Eye, or Sir G. Stokes' 
 Burnett Lectures on Light, it would doubtless make the 
 realities of the case more impressive, and our apprehen- 
 sion of them correspondingly more vivid. It would 
 indeed be great gain, if all modern doubters could be 
 induced even to give Paley's Natural Theology 1 a 
 thorough perusal. For amongst the floating fallacies of 
 to-day, none is more delusive than the common notion, 
 so eagerly fostered in some quarters, that such treatises 
 as these are too antiquated to be of any value. How 
 unjustified is the suggestion, may be left to the common 
 sense of every careful reader. The facts pointed out by 
 the writers above named remain facts, in whatever way 
 we account for them. It is not too much to say that in 
 the fair and full contemplation of either the human eye 
 or hand, there will always be marvel enough to put to 
 1 The last edition as edited by Professor Le Gros Clark.
 
 THE KEALM OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 51 
 
 confusion all Atheistic or anti-Theistic theories of the 
 Universe. 
 
 If, for instance, a child should ask the modern 
 physiologist how the human eye comes to grow at all, 
 so as to appear duly in each newborn babe, there is 
 absolutely no answer save that of Tennyson, " Behold we 
 know not anything." And if the child should insist that 
 God caused it so to do, it is utterly beyond the power 
 of all modern science to contradict. Agnosticism, we 
 know, professes to neither affirm nor deny. But this 
 is one of those cases in which mental neutrality is im- 
 possible ; that is, if we desire to be rational If we do 
 not know that two and two make four, we do know that 
 mathematics are not to be relied upon. The universe 
 must either have involved mind in its origin or not. 
 Any mean between these two extremes is unthinkable. 
 The terms being mutually exclusive, to decline to affirm 
 the one is virtually to affirm the other. Cultured scep- 
 ticism may, indeed, avow that the Christian doctrine of 
 God is but a hypothesis. Yet it is at least a sufficient 
 hypothesis. Whether the kosmos results from specific 
 creation or slow evolution, makes here no difference 
 whatever, save as Darwin said, to impart in the latter 
 case the grandeur of simplicity. 
 
 Now if, when every human babe was born, the eyes 
 should be found accompanying in a separate membranous 
 bag, which it would remain for parents to place in situ, 
 that would be in itself wonderful enough, when the 
 histological structure of the eye is taken into account. 
 Besides which, all sorts of preadaptations and correla- 
 tions, bony, nervous, and muscular, would manifestly be
 
 52 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 necessary in order that perfect vision should result. 
 They could not conceivably be placed in the proper 
 position without care proceeding from mind. How then, 
 as daily recurring facts, do they come to be normally 
 placed in the foetus in ute.ro ? 1 Furthermore, whatever 
 be our relation to other seeing mammals, we must not, for 
 honesty's sake, blind ourselves to the marvellousness of 
 the organ of sight as human beings now actually possess 
 it. For assuming the eyeball to be rightly situated in 
 the bony socket i.e. with the cornea turned outwards 
 rather than inwards, etc. etc. what of the rest ? Not 
 only must the optic nerve be duly attached and proceed 
 to the brain, but each eye must be provided with two 
 delicate and exactly correlated lenses, two distinct kinds 
 of intervening transparent media, six muscles (including 
 a pulley passing through a socket so as to reverse the 
 direction of the pull of two of them), ten distinct nerve 
 layers co-ordinating with delicate fibrillse of the optic 
 nerve to receive and appreciate and transfer multi- 
 tudinous infinitesimal impressions from the ether, 
 together with an automatic curtain for regulating the 
 amount of light permitted to enter (this the best modern 
 
 1 Or take another example : " A most apposite comment upon 
 the cogency of the argument suggested here, is supplied by the ex- 
 perience, happily rare, known to medical men as ectopic gestation. 
 Here the ovum is diverted from its suited and preparing home ; it 
 develops up to a certain lamentable degree in its abnormal posi- 
 tion an exile from its home, until a fatal result to mother and ovum 
 is seldom averted, and then only by the exhibition of surgical skill 
 brilliant among many brilliant triumphs ; which is a sad but apt 
 comment upon the interruption of design on the one hand and 
 on the other upon the power of mind, albeit a human mind." 
 t)r. Walter Kidd, F.Z.S., Journal Viet. Inst., No. 123, p. 201.
 
 THE KEALM OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 53 
 
 optical instruments have now roughly copied), and the 
 whole enclosed in a stout protecting membrane. All 
 this apparatus, however, goes but a little way towards 
 explaining the mystery of sight. How, for instance, in 
 order to the appreciation of the colour of a violet, waves 
 of the ether must pass through the delicate lenses, with- 
 out injuring them, and impinge upon the retina behind 
 at the rate of more than eight hundred millions of 
 millions per second ! l We have to think of this 
 marvellous structure as being exactly duplicated for 
 every one of all the millions upon millions who have 
 lived, or still live, on this earth for the exceptions in 
 the case of the blind are so few comparatively as not 
 to merit special notice here. 2 Then it must also be 
 borne in mind that this whole organ of sense is but a 
 small fragment of the marvel even of human physiology 
 alone. In fact, examine nature where we will, take the 
 first specimen of either animal or vegetable life that 
 comes to hand, and we find similar wonderfulness of 
 structure, in ever varying degrees of complexity pro- 
 portioned to the grade in the scale of being. Only by 
 
 1 It is small wonder that our greatest physicists should express 
 themselves strongly in face of this mystery belonging to the border- 
 land between physics and physiology. Thus Sir G. G. Stokes, speak- 
 ing upon the perception of colour, says, " The subject leads us to some 
 interesting contemplations, and one thing I think we cannot fail 
 to be strongly impressed with, namely, the astonishing complexity 
 of this marvellous organ, the eye, and the wonderful proof which 
 (to my own mind at least) it gives of design in its construction." 
 Journal Viet. Inst., No. 124, p. 264. 
 
 2 Such exceptions belong more to the realm of theology than that 
 of scientific apologetics, inasmuch as they relate to the character 
 rather than the existence of a Supreme Being.
 
 54 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 repeated efforts of careful scrutiny in every direction, can 
 we at last form even a faint idea of all that is involved 
 in our physical constitution and environment. 
 
 Now this immense and complex whole must in some 
 way be accounted for. The would-be simple nescience 
 of pure Agnosticism is mere childish fatuity, for it 
 amounts to the sacrifice of reason, i.e. to the abnegation 
 of manhood. Unable we may be to comprehend the 
 whole, or even to apprehend it, when taken en masse ; 
 but we can intelligently and fairly estimate any portion 
 of it and assure ourselves, whilst reason remains to us, 
 that for every detail, as well as for the immeasurable 
 totality with all its complicated correlations, there must 
 have been and must be some adequate cause. 
 
 The modern magic word is Evolution. To utter this, 
 however, is to say nothing, until we know whether 
 Theistic or Atheistic Evolution is intended. The former 
 may be regarded as both intelligible and sufficient. 1 In 
 its simplicity as a theory of the universe we might well 
 find its true formula in the opening words of Genesis : " In 
 the beginning, GOD " If, however, by reason of the 
 alleged difficulties of Theism which need not here be 
 enumerated this formula be rejected, the only rational 
 course is to turn to the latter, and see whether or no it 
 presents us with fewer or lesser difficulties. 
 
 Now in this case it is manifest at the very outset 
 that all things must have caused themselves to be as 
 
 1 Dr. Iverach has good reason for saying that " the Christian view 
 of the world is the only view which does justice to all the factors of 
 evolution, and recognises all its complexity" (Christianity and 
 Evolution, p. 231).
 
 THE REALM OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 55 
 
 they are, for no cause outside themselves is alleged or 
 allowed. Then, for such a process, both material and 
 method are to seek. The only conclusion logically 
 possible is that ultimately the material was nothing, and 
 the method was chance. But truly, if chance working 
 upon nothing has produced this universe, including our- 
 selves, such a stupendous and absolute violation of all 
 we know to be natural and rational has been accom- 
 plished, that all the difficulties of Theism and all the 
 miracles of Christianity together, are literally as nothing 
 compared with it. 
 
 But we shall do well to examine the case a little more 
 in detail. " Evolution " really signifies mere unfolding. 
 That is, the gradual manifestation, through development, 
 of a pre-existing potentiality. Evolution is the process 
 whereby that is brought out which already was latent 
 in the matter whereof the world, or the universe, was 
 composed. Eor it is certain that gradual growth, per se, 
 could never evoke, in a whole eternity, anything out of 
 either a germ or a molten globe, which was not previously 
 and totally contained in the same. Thus Evolution 
 always and necessarily assumes Involution, and the 
 question of questions ever is to account for the latter, if 
 the former is to be made even thinkable. 1 
 
 1 An instructive illustration of this may be pointed out in 
 the words of the great modern exponent of Evolution. "If," 
 says Mr. Herbert Spencer (Synthetic Philosophy, sec. 118, p. 109), "a 
 single cell, under appropriate conditions, becomes a man in the space 
 of a few years, there can surely be no difficulty in understanding 
 how, under appropriate conditions, a cell may in the course of untold 
 millions of years give origin to the human race." Now, apart from 
 the entirely false assumption that any biologist " understands " the 
 development of the foetus in utero even the mind of a child can
 
 56 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 Now Christian thinkers have every reason for accept- 
 ing Evolution as the general method of world growth, 
 even as far as its culmination in humanity. For, besides 
 the supreme regard for truth which the Christian law 
 enforces, making compulsory the acceptance of demon- 
 strated cause for manifest fact, there is absolutely nothing 
 contrary to the highest Theism in Evolution as a working 
 principle. 1 Dr. Lyman Abbott has well said 2 " Does 
 this doctrine of creation by evolution take God away 
 from the world ? It seems to me that it brings Him 
 a great deal nearer. There is no chasm of six thousand 
 years between the Evolutionist and his Creator. The 
 evolutionist lives in the creative days, and sees the 
 creative processes taking place before him." 
 
 When, however, what has been flippantly termed the 
 " God hypothesis " is rejected, all explanation of Evolution 
 by means of a sufficient preceding Involution is, of course, 
 precluded. Here then we have to contemplate, not only 
 a pyramid poised upon its apex, but the apex itself resting 
 upon nothing. To make light of this, and then profess 
 to find staggering difficulties in the Bible, is truly to 
 vault over a mountain and fall headlong over a straw. 
 appreciate such verbal jugglery as this. Given a wound reel of 
 cotton, how easy it is to unwind it ! But is it so easy if the ready- 
 to-be-unwound reel be not given ? Whence come the " appropriate 
 conditions " through which alone the cell becomes a man ? That is 
 the question for a genuine thinker to face and answer. 
 
 1 For a thorough statement of this the reader may well be referred 
 to Dr. Iverach's Christianity and Evolution, mentioned elsewhere, and 
 to Prof. Le Conte's Evolution and its Relation to Religious Thought. So, 
 too, the late Prof. Drummond/'Uptothistimeno word has been spoken 
 to reconcile Christianity and Evolution, or Evolution with Christianity. 
 And why ? Because the two are one " (Ascent of Man, p. 438). 
 
 2 Theology of an Evolutionist, pp. 29, 30.
 
 THE EEALM OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 57 
 
 Let us, for a typical example, take the case as set forth 
 by one of the most popular and approved advocates of the 
 Agnostic philosophy. In Mr. E. Clodd's Story of Creation 
 and Plain Account of Evolution l we find the following : 
 
 " Of the beginning, of what was before the present state of things, 
 we know nothing, and speculation about it is futile." 
 
 This is especially interesting and noteworthy in the 
 light of what immediately follows : 
 
 "But since everything points to the finite duration of the present 
 universe, we must make a start somewhere. And we are therefore 
 compelled to posit a primordial nebulous non-luminous state, when 
 the atoms with their inherent forces and energies stood apart from one 
 another. Not evenly distributed, else Force would have drawn 
 them together as a uniform spherical mass round a common centre 
 of gravity, and energy, awakened by the collision of atom with atom, 
 would have passed profitlessly in the form of heat to the ethereal 
 medium : but varying in position and character with special gravita- 
 tion towards special centres. All changes of state are due to the 
 rearrangement of atoms through the play of attracting forces and 
 repelling energies, resulting in the evolution of the seeming like into 
 the actual unlike, of the shapeless into the shapely, of the simple 
 into the more and more complex, till the highest complexity is 
 reached in the development of living matter." 
 
 Now it is certainly instructive to be told in one breath 
 that " speculation is futile," and in the next that we are 
 " compelled to posit " a primordial nebulosity. For what 
 else is this than speculation pure and simple ? It is, in 
 truth, sheer assumption, moulded and fashioned entirely 
 with a view to the hypothesis that follows. But we 
 must be permitted to ask, plainly, is not this " primitive 
 nebulosity " itself definitely and necessarily the effect of 
 a preceding cause ? And if we are " compelled to posit " 
 
 1 Published by Longmans, p. 137 ff. The italics are the present 
 
 writer's.
 
 58 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 the effect, are we not in all reason equally " compelled to 
 posit " the preceding cause of it ? 
 
 A moment's glance, however, suffices to show that 
 what this writer, like not a few others, here does, is 
 simply, by the help of the " scientific imagination," to 
 " posit," i.e. to assume, an Involution of exactly what he 
 finds necessary in order to the subsequent Evolution of 
 the earth and man. 
 
 But this whole case requires to be set forth in other 
 and more perspicuous language. In actual truth what 
 does it all mean ? It is a tissue of assumptions, as 
 unscientific in substance as preposterous in audacity. 
 For this is what it really and inevitably involves. That 
 in the beginning matter made itself. That is, nothing 
 created something, out of nothing. That this self- 
 created matter first appeared as a primitive nebulosity 
 of such tenuity that several million cubic miles of it 
 would scarcely weigh one grain. 1 That thus the 
 atoms composing it were the nearest approach to 
 nothing conceivable. That in the whole universe there 
 was no other existence. That, somehow, these atoms, 
 being all exactly alike, for there was no reason at 
 all why they should be different, proceeded to make 
 themselves in many cases entirely different from each 
 other. So that, through no power at all outside them- 
 selves, they suddenly for there must have been some 
 moment of definite change became as utterly distinct 
 as we now know the atoms of Carbon, Hydrogen, 
 Nitrogen, Oxygen, etc., to be. Tlien again, somehow, 
 being next to nothing themselves, and having nothing 
 1 The estimate of Professor Helmholtz.
 
 THE REALM OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 59 
 
 to work with, they endowed themselves with all those 
 potentialities " their inherent forces and energies " 
 out of which all the infinite possibilities of worlds to 
 come should be evolved. Then further, through no 
 power at all outside themselves, these self-differentiated 
 atoms began to move. They were "not evenly dis- 
 tributed," i.e. they distributed themselves unevenly, and 
 manifestly with a purpose, namely, so that " Force," which 
 came from nowhere, might not draw them around one 
 common centre which was everywhere and "energy 
 awakened by collision of atom with atom " which 
 collision in every case " awakened " itself might not 
 be " profitlessly " lost to a universe in which there was 
 nowhere any mind whatever to appreciate, or anticipate, 
 either profit or loss. Then all following changes were 
 due to the " rearrangement of atoms " it being the 
 special function of mindless chance to " arrange " things 
 in profitable order l through the play of " attracting 
 forces and repelling energies" which came necessarily 
 from nowhere, and, being absolutely unguided, worked 
 anyhow and tended nowhither. Yet, through nothing 
 whatever beyond these infinitesimal next-to-nothing 
 atoms, worked upon by nothing save self-created, 
 mindless, aimless forces, the unlike came out of the 
 like, the shapely out of the shapeless, the useful out 
 
 1 Thus Mr. H. Spencer says in his Preface to Epitome of Synthetic 
 Philosophy (pp. viii, ix) : "Throughout the universe, in general and 
 detail, there is aii unceasing redistribution of matter and motion. 
 This redistribution constitutes evolution." Just so. But is " distri- 
 bution " or " redistribution " thinkable without the assumption of 
 a guiding mind ? Could not any compositor who " set up " one of 
 Mr. Spencer's works give a valid reply ?
 
 60 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 of the useless, and finally, by one bold stroke, the 
 living out of the lifeless. 
 
 Marvellous, indeed, was this last transformation, for if 
 modern science be sure of anything, it is that life can 
 and does only spring from preceding life. 1 But see now 
 
 1 The words of an expert merit attention here. Says Professor 
 Lionel S. Beale, M.B., F.R.S., etc. : " Life is not a consequence of 
 the organisation of matter, but the cause. Life precedes, instead of 
 succeeding, organisation, conversion, formation" (Life Theories and 
 Religious Thought, p. 83). Again, in regard to the "Nature of 
 Life," the same authority, after a careful exposition of the subject, 
 concludes as follows : " Having long thought over the evidence I 
 have been able to obtain as regards the Nature of Life during the 
 past forty years, from the study of the actual Living Matter, the 
 Bioplasm, its characters, arrangement, and its relation to tissue as 
 existing during its life, and shortly after death, in the case of 
 organisms of very different orders, in various conditions of vital 
 activity, in health and disease, with the aid of very high magnify- 
 ing powers (up to 5,000 linear), I now feel it a duty to publicly 
 advocate the doctrine of the constant operation in all life, throughout 
 the whole living world, of Vital Power Power as distinct from all 
 forces, potencies, and properties belonging to or derived from any kind, 
 or resulting from any physical or chemical state, of cosmic matter. 
 
 " I have failed to discover any facts which would tend to cause 
 a thoughtful student of Living Nature to hesitate as to the existence 
 of Vitality, and so far I have been unable to discover or frame any 
 hypothesis which could be advanced as a reasonable explanation 
 of the facts of any kind of living matter without admitting the 
 influence of Infinite Power, Prevision, and Wisdom. All my efforts 
 to obtain evidence which in reason could be regarded as adequate 
 to account in some other way for the facts, have entirely failed. 
 Looking from a purely scientific point of view only, it seems to me 
 that the cause of all vital phenomena from the very beginning of 
 Life in the present state of our knowledge can only be referred to 
 the direct influence of an Almighty Power, and I feel confident that 
 each succeeding advance in natural knowledge will be found to be, in 
 the words of the Victoria Institute motto, 'Ad Major em Dei Gloriam.' " 
 
 So, too, Professor E. Hull, LL.D., F.R.S. : " I say that it is 
 impossible by any reasonable hypothesis to account for the origin of
 
 THE KEALM OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 61 
 
 what happened in the good old times. Protoplasm, 1 Sir 
 Henry Eoscoe has shown, is really not a compound at 
 all, but a structure, built up of many complex con- 
 stituents, and taxing all the resources of the latest 
 chemistry even to partly unravel it. But, formerly, 
 chance working on the primordial nebulosity, made it 
 quite easy. Thus, according to Mr. Clodd 
 
 " Given the matter which, composes it and the play of forces and 
 energies of which that matter is the vehicle, wherein lies the differ- 
 ence which gives as one result non-living substance and as another 
 result living substance ? The answer obviously is that the ingredients 
 being the same, the difference must be in the mixing." (The italics are 
 Mr. Clodd's.) 
 
 " Obviously ! " In very deed. To say nothing of 
 the unblushing assumption of the first word here, in 
 " positing " exactly the materials and forces required, 
 the " mixing " that utterly defies the whole mind power 
 of modern science to explain or repeat, is the simple 
 result of blind chance, working upon a primitive 
 nebulosity of such tenuity that millions of cubic miles 
 of it would be required to weigh one single grain ! 
 
 life on the globe without calling in the interposition of an Almighty 
 power." Again " When we come to deal with organised beings, so 
 vast is the distinction between dead matter and living, I feel that 
 we are justified in inferring, not only the ordinary guidance, 
 but also the frequent extraordinary interposition, of Omnipotent 
 Power, from the creation of the first living cell to man himself. 
 The difference between inert inorganic matter and a living 
 organism, is as vast as space itself." 
 
 It were an easy matter to multiply such deliberate utterances on 
 the part of men whose scientific qualifications are above question. 
 
 1 Which thirty years ago was referred to by Professor Huxley as 
 "The basis of physical life, or the physical basis of life" as if 
 these two were perfectly synonymous 1
 
 62 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 This, however, is but the beginning of miracles. Having 
 manufactured Protoplasm, chance proceeded further, as 
 well it might. Without any help db extra, without mind 
 or purpose, it took in hand to produce that wonder- 
 ful complexity known to biology as the ultimate cell. 
 Thence, through nothing, absolutely nothing, but the 
 fortuitous concurrence of protoplasmic molecules, there 
 gradually emerged those complex aggregations of cells 
 which, in greater or less numbers, constitute the structure 
 of all living bodies. These, again, differentiated them- 
 selves into vegetable and animal, and without any 
 guidance at all, produced the sum -total of all known 
 species' of each on earth, in highest as well as lowest types. 
 That is to say, from nothing but the mindless, senseless, 
 aimless working of pure chance upon the primordial 
 nebulosity which made itself out of nothing, "since 
 everything points to the finite duration of the present 
 universe" there have issued not only all the order 
 and wonder, the adaptation and harmony, the beauty 
 and the laws of nature, but also the philosophy of 
 Socrates and Plato, the genius of Shakespeare and 
 Goethe, the poetry of Dante and Tennyson, the 
 philanthropy of Wilberforce and Howard, the devotion 
 of Wesley and Whitefield, the politics of Bismarck and 
 Gladstone, the theology of Dorner and Fairbairn, and 
 even the subtleties of modern Agnosticism. All from 
 nothing wrought upon by chance ! Verily, in face of this 
 miracle, which is absolutely necessary and inevitable upon 
 the Agnostic hypothesis, Dr. Lionel Beale is abundantly 
 warranted in his exclamation, " Miraculosa credulitas ! " 1 
 1 Protoplasm, p. 247.
 
 THE REALM OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 63 
 
 To accept all this, after rejecting Christian faith on the 
 ground of its difficulties, is indeed to swallow a camel 
 after straining out a gnat. For whilst the Christian 
 doctrine of an Infinite but personal God logically and 
 completely accounts for all, its sole difficulty is that we 
 cannot comprehend His nature, either by extending the 
 personal as we know it, or compressing the infinite into 
 compass of our knowledge. This difficulty is natural. 
 It arises naturally and necessarily from the limitations 
 of our faculties. God who could be comprehended by 
 man, could not be the God of the universe. 1 
 
 But the Atheistic, or what is here the same, the 
 Agnostic theory of the origin of all, does not merely 
 transcend, it flatly and emphatically contradicts our 
 reason. We see that the most skilled writers cannot 
 even state such a doctrine, without making assumptions 
 which either beg the whole question at issue, or set at 
 defiance all the observation and experience of sane 
 humanity. 2 Hence when Mr. Clodd cries out against 
 
 1 " Say that ' in the beginning God created the heaven and the 
 earth ' and at least you have left your disciple an universe which 
 does not shock his very elements of knowledge. If the existence of 
 a Divine First Cause be admitted, it is difficult to see what a priori 
 objection can be against this view of the seed-plot of life of which 
 this globe may perhaps be but a part. 
 
 " It is not less difficult to see what ascertained facts as to life and 
 its manifestations forbid this view, harmonious at once with Revela- 
 tion, Reason, and scientific knowledge." Dr. Walter Kidd, F.Z.S., 
 Journal Viet. Inst., No. 123, p. 199. 
 
 2 Lord Kelvin will be accepted by all competent judges as a 
 physicist of greater weight than Mr. Clodd. His words in this 
 connection are, therefore, worthy of regard. " Sir George Stokes 
 spoke of design. Is it conceivable that the luminiferous ether 
 should throw out these effects by chance that the colours of the
 
 64 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 the " unverifiable assumption of dogmatic theology," he 
 both contradicts and confounds himself. The Agnosticism 
 that " can only confess ignorance " 1 ought not, certainly, 
 to pronounce anything " unverifiable." Whilst to a 
 system of doctrine which can only exalt itself into 
 a tenable theory by wholesale and indeed outrageous 
 assumptions, 2 it is sufficient to reply, " Cast out first 
 the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see 
 clearly to cast out the mote " from the eye of Christian 
 philosophy. The words of the great Newton, summing 
 up his profound researches, come as a refreshing contrast. 
 " From a blind metaphysical necessity, which of course 
 is the same everywhere and always, no variety could 
 originate. The whole diversity of created things in 
 regard to places and times, could have its origin only in 
 the ideas and the will of a necessarily existing Being." 
 
 We have dwelt thus definitely and at length upon 
 the words of Mr. Clodd, because his volume is at once 
 popular and typical of a great deal more which is being 
 diffused through the English-speaking world, as the latest 
 and most exact science. How little it really deserves 
 the name is manifest. 
 
 But before we pass from the physical realm, it is 
 
 butterfly or of a beautiful flower should result from a fortuitous 
 concourse of atoms, and having come by a fortuitous concourse of 
 atoms, they should give pleasure, whatever that may mean, to 
 another fortuitous concourse of atoms constituting myself, and I 
 should I do not know how to express it. The atheistic idea is so 
 nonsensical that I do not see how I can put it in words." Journal 
 Viet. Inst., No. 124, p. 267. 
 
 1 Story of Creation, p. 152. 
 
 2 See extract at commencement of chapter x., from Dr. Momerie's 
 Mief in God.
 
 THE REALM OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 65 
 
 necessary to present at least a summary of the case as it 
 stands in regard to three other distinct lines of thought. 
 These are (1) the argument for the existence of God 
 from nature's manifestations of intelligent design, (2) the 
 unmistakable exhibition of beauty and sublimity through- 
 out the known universe, and (3) the question as to the 
 impossibility or incredibility of miracles. 
 
 (1) From time immemorial, long ages before Paley's 
 Natural Theology was conceived, the human mind in- 
 ferred the existence of an omnipotent Creator from the 
 wonderfulness of the adaptations which men could not 
 but mark on every hand, including those manifest in 
 themselves. The 139th and other Psalms, together 
 with such utterances as Job xl. and xli., etc., may be 
 taken as sufficient illustrations of this. Paley's work 
 served the purpose of summarising these general con- 
 victions of men in succinct and vivid form. The 
 impression it produced was naturally great and wide- 
 spread. Now, however, we are informed that all such 
 notions are " out of date," that design in nature is but 
 an " old-fashioned conceit," and that Paley is " antiquated," 
 deserving only to be forgotten. The extent to which 
 such assertions as these are made and accepted by great 
 numbers of artisans and young people, is much more 
 serious than Christian Churches in general apprehend. 
 Nor is it to be wondered at when we remember that in 
 every Free Library throughout the kingdom, the works 
 of Spencer, Darwin, Tyndall, Huxley, Proctor, Clodd, 
 Grant Allen, Eomanes, etc., are not only obtainable, 
 but are continually being read. Let us here take but 
 one specimen. In his Scientific Evidences of Organic 
 5
 
 66 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 Evolution l the late Professor Eornanes wrote thus, con- 
 cerning the origin of nature 
 
 " Two hypotheses and two only are in the field. Of these one is 
 intelligent design manifested in creation. The other is natural 
 selection manifested through countless ages of the past. Now it 
 would be proof positive of intelligent design if it could be shown 
 that all species of plants and animals were created, that is, suddenly 
 introduced into the complex conditions of their life. For it is quite 
 inconceivable that any cause other than intelligence could be com- 
 petent to adapt an organism to its environment suddenly. Thus 
 the whole question as between natural selection and supernatural 
 design, resolves itself into this, were all species of plants and animals 
 separately created, or were they slowly evolved ? For if they were 
 specially created, the evidence of supernatural design remains un- 
 refuted and irrefutable. Whereas, if they were slowly evolved, 
 that evidence has been utterly and for ever destroyed. . . . The 
 natural theologians can no longer adhere to the arguments of such 
 writers as Paley, Bell, Chalmers, without deliberately violating the 
 only logical principle which separates science from fetishism." 2 
 
 These words have at least the merit of being clear 
 and incisive. It is small wonder that such a statement, 
 coming from such a source, and put into such popular 
 form, should make deep and lasting impression upon the 
 minds of ordinary people in this generation. And yet 
 it cannot possibly be said too plainly, or indeed with 
 sufficient emphasis, that it is absolutely unwarranted and 
 untrue. 
 
 How it should come to pass that able men, equally 
 acquainted with the facts of modern science, take en- 
 
 1 "Nature" Series, pp. 12, 13, 14, 76, 77. 
 
 2 This passage, I find, has attracted the attention also of Dr. 
 Iverach in his valuable little volume, Christianity and Evolution 
 (Hodder & Stoughton), p. 78. But as these pages were written some 
 time before that volume appeared, it seems unnecessary to remove 
 them under fear of apparent plagiarism. The situation will bear 
 emphasis from independent minds.
 
 THE REALM OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 67 
 
 tirely opposite views concerning its results, we are not 
 here concerned to discuss. At least this must be said, 
 that if it be a difficulty for the Christian believer to 
 account for the attitude of Agnostic men of science, 
 assuming them to be as sincere as able, it is even more 
 difficult for the unbeliever to account for the greater 
 number of equally eminent students of science, who do 
 not find it necessary to give up their faith because of 
 their knowledge. 1 It were an easy task, though it 
 would perhaps avail little, to draw up counter lists of 
 names. Assuredly for quantity and quality alike, the 
 roll of Christian scientists would not be inferior to that 
 of Agnostics. It must never be forgotten that if the 
 opinions of many are summed up by Haeckel, when he 
 says in his History of Creation 
 
 " I maintain with regard to the much-talked-of purpose in nature, 
 that it really has no existence but for those persons who observe 
 phenomena in animals and plants in the most superficial manner," 2 
 
 1 Thus says Professor J. H. Gladstone, Ph.D., F.R.S. : "Many of 
 us Christian men of Science, recognise that there is a unity of plan, 
 as well as of purpose, running through the works of God. We hold 
 that the Darwinian theory of the survival of the fittest, so far from 
 destroying the idea of a Divine purpose and plan in nature, rather 
 confirms it, and gives us a welcome insight into the way in which 
 this has been carried out throughout the ages, not as a series of 
 fortuitous events, but as the result of an orderly law." 
 
 2 " Most superficial manner ! " This is, alas ! by no means the 
 only specimen of what cannot but be termed the insolence of some 
 writers on modern science. When we call to mind the names of 
 all those students of nature who deliberately endorse, after many 
 years of investigation, the judgement of Sir George Stokes " the 
 complexity of this marvellous organ, and the wonderful proof 
 which (to my own mind at least) it gives of design in its construc- 
 tion " one is driven to conclude that a cause must be in a poor way 
 indeed, which needs the advocacy of such downright impertinence.
 
 68 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 he is contradicted most emphatically by leading evolu- 
 tionists themselves. So that if Darwin himself felt 
 constrained to confess in his later years, "I am con- 
 scious that I am in an utterly hopeless muddle," much 
 more may the humble student of the writings of his 
 followers be bewildered by such contradictions ! If, 
 therefore, it were conceded that what Huxley has called 
 " the commoner and coarser forms of teleology " have 
 received their death-blow, and the avowal - 
 
 " I found him not in world or sun 
 Or eagle's wing or insect's eye," 
 
 were accepted as axiomatic truth, it is at least equally 
 true to add 
 
 " Nor thro' the questions men may try, 
 The petty cobwebs we have spun." 
 
 If Haeckel and Eomanes 1 are right, then Huxley, and 
 Asa Gray, and Darwin himself, are wrong. For Huxley 
 declares that " Evolution does not even come into con- 
 tact with Theism, considered as a philosophic doctrine." 
 And when Asa Gray wrote 
 
 "Let us recognise Darwin's great service to natural science in 
 bringing back to it teleology ; so that instead of morphology versus 
 teleology, we shall have morphology wedded to teleology," 
 
 it was Darwin himself who replied, " What you say 
 about teleology, pleases me especially." And even in 
 the year when he spoke of his bewilderment he says, 
 " I am inclined to look at everything as resulting from 
 
 1 In the extract quoted above. Those who are acquainted with 
 his Thoughts on Religion will know how to modify this statement by 
 his later convictions.
 
 THE REALM OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 69 
 
 designed laws." Thus Professor Huxley's words may 
 fairly be taken as the summing up of the case against 
 Haeckel's dogmatism, when he affirms that " it is necessary 
 to remember that there is a wider teleology which is not 
 touched by the doctrine of evolution, but is actually 
 based upon the fundamental proposition of evolution." 
 
 But more remains. We have only to bestow one 
 careful glance upon each of the chief items of the popular 
 faith in Agnostic evolution, to see that the substitution 
 of a greater difficulty for a less, looms out large in every 
 case. 
 
 Consider first the " suddenness " upon which Professor 
 Eomanes laid such stress. 1 What does it amount to? 
 Eeally, however unintentionally, an ignoring of the facts, 
 with corresponding evasion of their consequences. There 
 is no gradual adaptation which is not made up of sudden 
 changes. What does the " modification " of an organ, or 
 an organism, mean, but the occurrence of actual, that is 
 definite and therefore necessarily sudden, changes, in the 
 ultimate cells of which that organism is composed ? 
 Total gradual adaptation to environment is conceivable 
 in no other way. Nay more. If the organism, as a 
 whole, is to be profited by the aggregate result of such 
 changes, each one of them, however infinitesimal, must 
 be suitable, and there must also be some co-operating 
 co-ordination of such multitudinous microscopic changes, 
 else the result would be confusion rather than organic 
 advantage. 
 
 Besides which, the most ordinary intelligence can 
 surely appreciate the fallacy of invoking suddenness in 
 1 Cf. note on p. 66.
 
 70 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 general as sufficient criterion of design. 1 That a plain 
 deal box which can be knocked together in an hour, 
 should be accepted as proof positive of the working of 
 intelligence, whilst the construction of a highly-finished 
 chronometer which would occupy a skilled workman many 
 months, would require no intelligence, simply because it 
 came to its intended condition more slowly, is surely 
 a delusion transparent enough for the eyes of a child. 
 But the truth is, that no such comparison between time 
 and thought ought ever to have been made. The terms 
 are utterly incommensurable. Speed and purpose have 
 no points in contact. Slowness has absolutely nothing 
 to do with the presence or absence of intelligence. Here 
 again, therefore, the powers which naturally and neces- 
 sarily belong to the Infinite Mind are denied, only to 
 invest with all the attributes of Deity the fortuitous 
 concourse of hypothetic atoms ! 
 
 But further. It is not seldom the fashion, in these 
 days, to hold up the " Design argument " to scorn as the 
 embodiment of a " big carpenter theory " of creation. A 
 
 1 It is instructive to note by way of contrast the utterances of 
 other men of science equally qualified to speak. " In considering 
 the preparation of the home for coming Man, we must not lose sight 
 of the remarkable fact of the existence of those plants which he 
 found ready to his hand, which he was able to cultivate as cereals, 
 nor of the equally noticeable production of the great classes of 
 domesticable animals. The more subtle agency which the genius of 
 Darwin brought to light, that of earthworms, becomes of immense 
 importance. The position here maintained is that the arguments 
 from the slow and orderly preparation of the environments for 
 coming life on the globe necessarily imply the existence of Design. 
 Design, though infinitely long-drawn, is the only conceivable ex- 
 planation of things." Dr. W. Kidd, F.Z.S., Journ. Viet. List., 
 No. 123, p. 207.
 
 THE REALM OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 71 
 
 moment's thought, however, makes it difficult to credit 
 with sincerity either the coiner or the repeater of so 
 false a phrase. 1 To say nothing of the quality of the 
 science which can suggest a mechanical solution for vital 
 phenomena, the only semblance even of force in the 
 phrase, is due to an insinuation utterly devoid of truth. 
 For no human mechanic ever yet either supplied himself 
 with materials upon which to work, or perpetuated his 
 work by conferring upon it the power of reproduction. 
 But passing by that also, the phrase, so far as it ia 
 to be taken seriously, proves too much. For even every 
 " carpenter " at least possesses personality and mind. If 
 Mr. Spencer concedes these to the Author of nature, 
 Christian faith has no further controversy with him. 
 
 Much reference is also made to " rudimentary organs," 
 as though their presence ruled out of all further con- 
 sideration the notion of design. Such an assumption is 
 much too hasty. The dilemma can scarcely be better 
 stated than in the words of Professor Huxley: "For 
 either these rudiments are of no use to the animals, in 
 which case they ought to have disappeared ; or they are 
 of some use to the animal, in which case they are of no 
 use as arguments against teleology." 2 Seeing, moreover, 
 that rudimentary organs may be beginnings as well as 
 endings, and indeed all organs must have begun with 
 rudiments, we are compelled to ask whence came the 
 
 1 Those who care for a thorough-going examination of the whole 
 Agnostic position as represented by Mr. Spencer, will find it in 
 No. 68 of the Journal of Transactions of the Victoria Institute, in 
 the paper by Sir E. Beckett (Lord Grimthorpe) on " How did the 
 World evolve itself?" also in Ground's Spencer's Structural Principles 
 examined (Parker & Co.). 
 
 2 Darwinism and Design, St. Clair, 1 51.
 
 72 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 start, and how came there to he present the potentiality 
 in the material upon which both the initial internal 
 impulse and the assumed outer influence of environment 
 worked, so that both the start and its development were 
 not only possible but co-ordinated ? These greater 
 difficulties of Haeckelian evolution are yet waiting for 
 answer. 1 
 
 Perhaps the most effective popular plea against the 
 Design argument is the appeal to nature as being " red 
 in tooth and claw with ravine." This much abused 
 quotation has been ceaselessly pressed into unintended 
 uses. A scientific indictment is not, as a rule, fairly 
 couched in poetic terms. Nor is this oft repeated phrase 
 any exception. With our wider knowledge of nature, it 
 is true, no one thinks of denying that there is a struggle 
 for existence and a survival of the strongest. But that 
 is a very different thing from affirming that the amount 
 of cruelty and suffering in nature, as illustrated, say, in 
 the Sphex wasp, or in the habits of carnivorous animals, 
 rule absolutely out of thought all traces of the finger of 
 God. Paley, for instance, wrote, " This is a happy world 
 after all The air, the earth, the water, teem with 
 delighted existence." This, however, is to-day said to be 
 such sentiment as " no intelligent man could now write." 
 
 1 Those, and those only, who have given to Dr. H. Stirling's 
 Darwinianism, Workmen and Work, the thorough study which it 
 richly merits, will appreciate his final sentence : " For myself, in 
 conclusion, I must say this, I admire the naturalist and I honour 
 the man ; but I hope to be forgiven if, ' for the life of me,' I 
 cannot but smile when assured by Mr. Darwin that there is not 
 necessarily such a thing as design in this universe ' now that the 
 law of natural selection has been discovered.' "
 
 THE REALM OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 73 
 
 But why not, we ask ? Has the " delighted existence " 
 all ceased, so that there is no happiness worth mention- 
 ing in the life of the world as we now see it ? No 
 suggestion could possibly be more misleading. As a 
 matter of simple fact, the whole " mystery of pain " has 
 been grossly and sentimentally exaggerated, whilst the 
 vastly greater mystery of painlessness has been treated as 
 a trifle, or calmly ignored altogether. Here, once more, is 
 the almost hysterical " straining out " of the lesser and 
 the effortless swallowing of the greater difficulty. One 
 would think, to listen to some authors, that every fly 
 that is found in autumn cemented by fungus to the 
 window-pane, represented a long-drawn death agony, 
 putting a tragic end to a painful and abortive existence. 
 If, indeed, this were roundly asserted, it would scarcely be 
 more unscientific in its falsity than the frequent assump- 
 tion that the pain of living and the manner of dying 
 in the animal world, are such as to reduce conscious 
 existence to a manifest calamity, and blot out for ever 
 the ancient belief that " the Lord is good to all, and His 
 tender mercies are over all His works." There is only 
 one way in which such pessimism can be justified. That 
 is, by magnifying the smaller part of nature's working, 
 and intensifying its darkness beyond warrant, whilst at 
 the same time minifying the greater proportion and 
 treating its unquestionable " sweetness and light " as of 
 no account. 
 
 Now we are perfectly free, as Christian believers, to 
 acknowledge that the mystery of pain, both as to its 
 quantity and quality, is past our comprehension. But 
 such an avowal by no means involves either the
 
 74 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 destruction of the " Design argument," or the justification 
 of wholesale pessimism. All that it really signifies is 
 the limitation of our human powers of vision, which 
 ought not, for sane men, to be so startling or repulsive a 
 lesson. So far as the lower orders of life are concerned, 
 we have neither the knowledge whereby to estimate 
 accurately the actual amount of pain endured, nor the 
 faculties to decide whether wisdom and benevolence, or 
 their opposites, ordained that the progress upwards 
 should arise out of a struggle for existence. It is 
 manifestly easy for a shallow sentimentality to affirm 
 that there ought to be no struggle at all. But the 
 assertion has no more intellectual value than the opinion 
 of the little child in the nursery that his father ought 
 not to go to business on a wet day. 
 
 In regard to the nature and amount of human suffering 
 the question is at once entangled, and that inseparably, 
 with moral influences. In so far as human suffering is 
 purely physical, it is shared in common with the rest of 
 the animal world. But the existence of pain amongst 
 men is related quite as actually to moral causes and effects. 
 These latter may be bad. They may equally be good. 
 Which they shall be, is largely for the individual to 
 decide. Certain it is that pain has been the most 
 effectual schoolmaster of the race intellectually, and the 
 undoubted means whereby the very highest and noblest 
 parts of our nature have been developed. Unless, there- 
 fore, these be ruled wholly out of consideration, it is no 
 less lawful to regard them as justifying all preceding 
 processes that lead up to them, than to see in the human 
 form a worthy physical result of long ages of gradual
 
 THE EEALM OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 75 
 
 upward "progress by differentiation." The confessed 
 mystery of pain is thus by no means without its wide 
 margins of mitigation and justification. 
 
 But whether our estimate of these be higher or lower, 
 one vast truth remains, often ignored but incontrovertible. 
 Whatever grade of life be considered, from the lowest 
 insect to the highest mammal, the mystery of painless- 
 ness is ever greater than the mystery of pain. It is 
 greater in quality, for pain is the expression of something 
 abnormal in one organ, whilst health is the result of a 
 balance to which thousands of separate parts contribute. 
 It is greater also in quantity, for not only is the number 
 of healthy creatures at any time vastly in excess of the 
 unhealthy, but in each individual higher life, 1 taken on 
 the average, the duration of the period of painlessness, 
 and generally of definite happiness, is many times longer 
 than the hours of pain. Never, indeed, throughout the 
 whole range of poetry, has a falser impression been 
 conveyed than by this oft quoted but utterly misleading 
 couplet that 
 
 "Nature red in tooth and claw 
 With ravine, shrieked against the creed/' 
 
 that 
 
 " God was love indeed, 
 And love creation's final law." 
 
 Calmly and impartially considered, nature does nothing 
 of the kind. For the "cruelty" of nature has been 
 
 1 As to the lower ranges of animal life, there are grave reasons 
 for doubting whether the great majority of such creatures ever 
 know or can know pain at all.
 
 76 THE MIKACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 unwarrantably exaggerated by an unscientific senti- 
 mentalism, 1 which has at the same time strangely 
 underestimated the wonder and enormity of its 
 manifestations of benevolence. 
 
 If honest thought demands that we should face and 
 estimate the suffering of some poor human victim of 
 cancer or consumption, who takes twelve months to die, 
 or the sudden (and almost painless) death of weaker 
 animals which fall a prey to the stronger, it requires 
 no less that we should bear in mind the longer period, 
 sometimes amounting to twenty or thirty or forty years 
 of healthy and enjoyable life, which has preceded. 2 To 
 disregard this can only be an act of wilful blindness. 
 To do it justice, as a true rule which exceptions do not 
 suffice to annul, is to see that the denial of gracious 
 design in nature, by reason of the mystery of pain, is but 
 
 1 A brief monograph by Mr. J. Crowther Hirst, entitled, la 
 Nature cruel f (James Clark & Co.), is well worth consideration as 
 "a partial answer" at least, founded on the "experiences of big 
 game hunters and others while under the attack of wild beasts." 
 The evidence shows that " in the majority of cases of attack, the 
 tenderest-hearted person could not imagine a more desirable end to 
 life than this. Let the physiological explanation be what it may, it 
 is difficult to resist the conclusion that for victims of the carnivora 
 there is in nature itself a merciful provision by a benevolent 
 Creator for lessening the pain of death." 
 
 2 " In the animal world what happiness reigns ! What ease, 
 grace, beauty, leisure and content ! Watch these living specks as 
 they glide through their forests of algae, all 'without hurry and 
 care,' as if their 'span-long lives' could really endure for the 
 thousand years that the old catch pines for. Here is no greedy 
 jostling at the banquet that nature has spread for them, no dread of 
 each other, but a leisurely inspection of the field that shows neither 
 the pressure of hunger nor the dread of an enemy." Dr. Hudson, 
 Address to Royal Microscopical Society, 1890.
 
 THE REALM OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 77 
 
 another instance of ignoring the mountain and professing 
 to be awestruck by the mole-hill. 
 
 Once more, before leaving the question of Design, it 
 appears necessary to point out how those who reject it 
 on account of its difficulties in the light of Evolution, do 
 but entangle themselves in a bottomless quagmire of 
 greater difficulties. Darwin, for instance, wrote thus 
 concerning orchids 
 
 " The more I study nature the more I become impressed with the 
 conclusion that the contrivances and beautiful adaptations slowly 
 acquired through each part varying in a slight degree but in many 
 ways, and the preservation or natural selection of those variations 
 which are beneficial to the organism under the complex and ever 
 varying conditions of life, transcend in an incomparable degree the 
 contrivances and adaptations which the most fertile imagination of 
 the most imaginative man could suggest, with unlimited time at 
 his disposal." x 
 
 Surely no words can be more emphatic than these. 
 Here, then, is the dilemma. These wonderful "adaptations" 
 either have or have not a guiding mind behind them. 
 Slowness or suddenness, directness or indirectness, do not 
 affect the case in the least. If these confessedly greater 
 marvels do not require mind to account for them, 
 certainly the lesser works of men do not. In that case 
 all the instances of careful structure which we have been 
 
 1 Note also these other utterances of the same authority. " Any 
 young observer will be delighted at the perfection of the adaptations 
 by which insects are forced, unconsciously on their part, to carry 
 pollen from the stamens of one plant to the stigma of another. 
 Design in nature has for a long time deeply interested many men, 
 and though the subject must now be looked at from a somewhat 
 different point of view to what was formerly the case, it is not thus 
 rendered the less interesting." Miiller's Fertilisation of Flowers, 
 Prefatory Notice by Charles Darwin.
 
 78 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 accustomed to regard as proofs of human intelligence, 
 from a chronometer to the Forth Bridge, are nothing of 
 the kind, but simply the result of the slow and fortuitous 
 concurrence of materials. To which one may well say, 
 " Credat Judceus I " If, however, our common sense 
 rejects this conclusion, and insists that mind must some- 
 where, somehow, precede these and all other such 
 constructions, by what process of reasoning is intelligence 
 affirmed as a necessity for the lesser marvels and coarser 
 " adaptations," and denied for the greater and finer ? 
 
 Who, again, that has ever read Professor Huxley's 
 graphic and well-known description of the development of 
 the tadpole in its slimy cradle, can forget or fail to see the 
 force of his closing sentence ? 
 
 "After watching the process hour by hour, one is almost involun- 
 tarily possessed by the notion that some more subtle aid to vision 
 than an achromatic object glass, would show the hidden artist with 
 his plan before him, striving with skilful manipulation to perfect 
 his work." 1 
 
 Yet all this, according to Haeckel, is nothing more than 
 the fortuitous concourse of atoms ! 
 
 Or again. Whereas in former time the human eye 
 was regarded as so wonderful an organ that it might 
 fairly be taken for definite proof of design, it has become 
 quite the fashion now to drop dark hints about its being 
 a very "imperfect instrument"; whilst Professor Helmholtz 
 is quoted, as a physicist of great repute, in support of 
 such depreciation. Half a truth, however, may be 
 equivalent to a whole lie. A few words are taken from 
 the professor's well - known Scientific Lectures, 2 to the 
 1 Lay Sermons, p. 286. 2 P. 227.
 
 THE REALM OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 79 
 
 effect that " the eye has every possible defect that can 
 be found in an optical instrument, and even some that 
 are peculiar to itself" but the rest is conveniently 
 omitted. Let us complete the quotation 
 
 " But they are all so counteracted, that the inexactness of the images 
 very little exceeds the limits which are set to the delicacy of sensa- 
 tion by the dimensions of the retinal cones. The adaptation of the 
 eye to its functions is therefore most complete, and is seen in the very 
 limits set to its defects. The result, which may have been reached 
 by innumerable generations under the Darwinian law of inheritance, 
 coincides with what the wisest wisdom may have devised beforehand." J 
 
 The reference to this high scientific authority is thus 
 somewhat unfortunate for those who wish to invalidate 
 design and deify chance. It reminds one of the attempts 
 of Balak in olden time to get Balaam to come and curse 
 Israel. For it really issues in fourfold corroboration. 
 (1) Even an imperfect instrument, theoretically, may be a 
 perfectly valid testimony to intelligent design. (2) " The 
 very limits set to " the imperfections, testify to design 
 in that they still more manifestly bespeak purpose. 
 (3) Theoretic imperfection may sometimes be practically 
 more perfect than theoretic perfection. Every piano 
 and organ, for instance, is imperfectly tuned. If, indeed, 
 either were perfectly tuned, it would be practically use- 
 less, for no melody whatever could be played upon it. 
 We listen to a thrilling rendering of Beethoven or 
 Mozart, simply because the piano has been imperfectly 
 tuned, with a view to such practical results. In every 
 analogous case, whether as to sight or sound, imperfection 
 becomes a more emphatic witness to design than perfection. 
 Extra intelligence, so to speak, is required to avoid 
 1 The italics are the present writer's.
 
 80 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 theoretic perfection with a view to practical purposes. 
 Thus (4), the total result is coincidence with the prevision 
 of the wisest wisdom. Such coincidence has billions to 
 one against its being the result of unguided chance. 
 
 Furthermore, if the human eye has only become so 
 suitable for human beings after passing through many 
 grades of inferior stages, it is equally true that in each of 
 those stages of inferiority it has been practically perfect 
 for the usage of a correspondingly inferior creature. The 
 eye of the ant, poor as it is in comparison with our own, 
 is perfectly adapted to the habits of the insect, as also is 
 that of the fish to its environment. " Allowing as much 
 gradual improvement as you like by biological evolution, 
 or the creation of small or large changes, adapted to 
 changing circumstances, each creature has somehow come 
 to be as well contrived as possible for its own work." 1 
 
 Suppose, however, that we turn an open ear to the 
 Agnostic plea, and ask from its best known representative 
 for the adequate cause of all nature, including ourselves, 
 what do we actually find ? The " final formula " of 
 Evolution is thus presented to us by its most authorita- 
 tive exponent. " Evolution is an integration of matter 
 and concomitant dissipation of motion; during which 
 the matter passes from an indefinite, incoherent homo- 
 geneity to a definite, coherent heterogeneity ; and during 
 which the retained motion undergoes a parallel trans- 
 formation." 2 To the uninstructed mind this has certainly 
 all the merit of grandiloquence ; yet one of our ablest 
 
 1 Sir E. Beckett (Lord Grimthorpe), Viet. Inst. Trans., No. 68, 
 p. 303. 
 
 2 Herbert Spencer, First Principles, p. 397.
 
 THE REALM OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 81 
 
 jurists, who is equally accomplished in mathematics, does 
 not hesitate to affirm in public and before a critical 
 audience, that " every important word in this definition 
 is either unmeaning or wrong, and ought to be reversed 
 or combined with its opposite." l Such an estimate from 
 such a source, at least avails to rob it of all magisterial 
 authority, and leaves us the liberty of our own thought. 
 A very little reflection then suffices to show that he who 
 can accept this, in place of the postulates of Christian 
 Theism, must have truly miraculous powers of mental 
 digestion. For looking calmly into it, we find that not 
 only is " matter " quietly assumed, but most convenient 
 " matter." That is, first, matter itself is taken for 
 granted, then, its potentiality for integration, then the 
 process of integration itself. Whence came these three ? 
 Surely they demand an adequate cause, quite as much 
 as anything we see around us. 
 
 But more. With all respect to a great " thinker," 
 the terms " indefinite, incoherent, homogeneity " are 
 themselves self - contradictory. "Homogeneity" is dis- 
 tinctly definite, and incoherence also is at least as 
 definite a notion as coherence, to say nothing of the 
 fact that, unless gravity be ruled wholly out of account 
 at this stage and then it has to be created at some 
 later stage an "incoherent homogeneity" is simply 
 " unthinkable " on sound physical principles. In thorough- 
 going scrutiny of Mr. Spencer's First Principles, much 
 more might be, and indeed has been, said. 2 Enough, 
 
 1 Lord Grimthorpe, Journal Viet. Inst., No. 68, p. 291. 
 
 2 Thus Lord Grimtliorpe, in the paper above mentioned, foi-cibly 
 comments upon some of the main Spencerian positions. E.g. " All 
 
 6
 
 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 however, has here been plainly pointed out to justify the 
 main assertion of these pages, namely, that the idea of 
 escaping difficulties by turning from belief to unbelief, is 
 less hopeful than flying from Scylla to Charybdis. It is 
 indeed not one whit too strong language when the writer 
 above quoted adds, " The very idea of power making or 
 developing itself, is contrary to all modern science, and 
 would not be listened to for a moment in any but the 
 hazy regions of automatic cosmogony, for which any 
 hypothesis seems good enough." 
 
 reasoned out conclusions must rest upon some postulate. And 
 whoever contemplates the relation in which it stands to the truths 
 of science in general, will see that this truth-transcending demon- 
 stration is the persistence of force." But in reply rightly says his 
 critic, " Even if he could prove that everything may follow from the 
 conservation of force, yet, until he proves that to be an a priori 
 necessity, and not a law of nature which required a prime cause to 
 make and to maintain it, his philosophy is nowhere. He has failed 
 utterly on his very first proposition, and his whole case is gone. 
 Abstract force, in no particular direction, is nonsense." 
 
 Again, when Mr. Spencer affirms that " the Absolute Cause of 
 changes is incomprehensible," it is quite to the point to reply : 
 " No doubt we might use the same words, only we should mean by 
 them that the cause of all apparently automatic changes is the will 
 of a Creator, who is Himself incomprehensible beyond what He has 
 told us of Himself. But Mr. Spencer abandons Him for a variety 
 of incomprehensibles of his own, which can do nothing, and are 
 nothing but mere words expressing that he knows nothing of any 
 of those processes which he dogmatically calls corollaries of per- 
 sistent force." ..." Perhaps Mr. Spencer, or one of his admirers who 
 think they understand his philosophy, will condescend to explain 
 some day how profound mysteries of experience can be necessary 
 results and corollaries of a self-evident truth, which was itself only 
 discovered by a long course of experimental investigation, and then 
 how all knowledge is unified by telling us that all these things are 
 unfathomable, and that the philosopher is hopelessly in the dark 
 about them."
 
 THE REALM OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 83 
 
 But the notion that the argument from design has 
 been " utterly and for ever destroyed " is, thanks to some 
 well-known writers, so widely diffused at the present 
 moment, that it is worth while, before dismissing the 
 subject, to quote one or two more unequivocal utter- 
 ances from men whose acknowledged eminence well 
 qualifies them to speak. Thus Lord Grimthorpe calls 
 attention to the fact, 1 familiar to every anatomist, that 
 
 "There are cases, properly insisted on by Paley, and never 
 answered, of holes being made in certain bones for arteries to pass 
 through, and of sinews passed through loops in others like cords 
 through a pulley to change their direction. It is plain that those 
 must be all or nothing, and could not come gradually. And animals 
 that live by gnawing and biting hard things, such as- the rodents 
 and elephants, have their teeth continually growing, which no 
 others could have. What conceivable automatic process could have 
 caused that ; and that the teeth should not only grow, but be in 
 alternate hard and soft slices vertically, so as to keep the grinding 
 teeth always rough, and the gnawing teeth sharp, and yet not too 
 thin ? There are innumerable other questions like these, to which 
 the Evolutionists never attempt any answer." 
 
 And it is quite worth while to adduce here his further 
 protest, 2 that 
 
 " It is necessary to remind people that they have to choose 
 between two only possible alternatives, according to the balance of 
 probabilities. There is no middle way between the world, and all 
 that is in it, having been either designed or not designed; and 
 therefore we, ipso facto, believe and cannot but believe, one just so 
 far as we disbelieve the other. A man may or may not have made 
 up his mind which to believe. That man's opinion is worth no- 
 thing. In fact he has none. An Agnostic must be wrong, whether 
 Theists or Atheists are right." . . . "Therefore also a man who 
 denies design, but cannot state any other rational mode of generating 
 
 1 Journal of Viet. Inst., No. 68, p. 307. 
 
 2 Ib. p. 302.
 
 84 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 the universe, condemns himself. For unquestionably a designing 
 Creator could produce the universe, and therefore must have 
 done it, if nothing else did. And that something else must be 
 capable of rational and intelligible description, and proof of its 
 capacity for doing the business before we need attend to it." 
 
 This " rational and intelligible description," we have 
 seen above, is impossible to Agnostic Evolution, with- 
 out a wholesale petitio principii, which settles the 
 matter from the point of view of human reason. 
 
 Professor Le Conte's x deliberate avowal is that 
 "It is simply impossible to talk about such structures without 
 using language which implies design. The very word 'adaptive' 
 implies it. It is impossible even to think of such structures 
 without implicitly assuming intelligence as the cause. It makes 
 no particle of difference how the material originated, or whether it 
 ever originated at all. It matters not whether the adaptation 
 was done at once out of hand, or whether by slow process of 
 modification. It matters not whether the adaptive modification 
 was brought about by a process of natural selection, or by pressure 
 of physical environment, whether without law or according to law. 
 The removal of the result from manlike directness of separate 
 action cannot destroy the idea of design, but only modify our con- 
 ception of the Designer. What science, and especially evolution, 
 destroys, therefore, is not the idea of design, but only our low 
 anthropomorphic notions of the mode of working of the Designer. 
 There is still design in everything, but no longer a separate design, 
 only a separate manifestation of the one infinite design." 
 
 In his Fernley Lecture on The Creator and what we 
 may know of the Method of Creation, p. 74, Dr. Dallinger 
 also affirms that 
 
 "Design, purpose, intention, appear, then, when all the facts of 
 the universe are studied in the light of all our reasoning faculties, 
 to be ineradicable from our view of the creation. Teleology does 
 not now depend for its existence on Paleyan instances, but all the 
 universe, its whole progress in time and space, is one majestic 
 
 1 Evolution and Religious Thought, pp. 323, 325.
 
 THE REALM OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 85 
 
 evidence of teleology. The will and purpose running through it 
 are as incapable of being shut out of our consciousness and reason- 
 ing faculties, as its phenomena and their modes are of being 
 rendered wholly imperceptible by our senses." 
 
 Again, Professor Le Gros Clark (F.E.S., F.RC.S. etc.), 
 when President of the Eoyal College of Surgeons, edited 
 Paley's Natural Theology, and in the Introduction 
 expresses his deliberate opinion that 
 
 " The modern doctrine of Evolution does not necessarily carry 
 with it a confutation of the argument from the appearance of 
 design. If this theory shall ever take its place among the uni- 
 versally recognised truths of science, it will undoubtedly affect 
 what may be called the incidence of the argument, and render the 
 application of it more remote. But a little consideration will 
 show that the argument itself will retain its essential validity, 
 and by no means be robbed of its force, or become antiquated or 
 useless." 
 
 The late Kitchen Parker (Hunterian Professor of the 
 Koyal College of Surgeons) gives also his judgement 
 explicitly l 
 
 " Do not think that because Evolution has been taken advantage 
 of to endeavour to get rid of Christianity, therefore Evolution is or 
 means any harm, or that Darwin's Theory of the gradual origin of 
 Species means any harm. It means nothing of the sort." 
 
 It were indeed quite easy to multiply testimonies 
 of other acknowledged experts to the same effect. 
 And however by some they may be pronounced incon- 
 clusive, they have at least this unquestionable force and 
 value, that they absolutely disprove the by no means 
 uncommon assertion that the " leaders of modern science 
 have been compelled to give up the design argument, 
 1 Report of Christian Evidence Society, 1889, p. 45.
 
 86 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 and forsake the Christian faith." The utter falseness of 
 such floating rumours is sufficiently manifest from the 
 foregoing. But a final and unequivocal testimony may be 
 added from Lord Kelvin, who is acknowledged by all 
 competent to judge as the "greatest living master of 
 natural science," and who has openly avowed, even from 
 the chair of the British Association, that 
 
 " I feel profoundly convinced that the argument from design has 
 been greatly too much lost sight of in recent zoological speculations. 
 Overwhelmingly strong proofs of intelligent and benevolent design 
 lie around us, and if ever perplexities, whether metaphysical or 
 scientific, turn us away from them for a time, they come back upon 
 us with irresistible force, showing to us through nature the in- 
 fluence of a free will, and teaching us that all living things depend 
 upon one everlasting Creator and Ruler." 
 
 So far, therefore, as the Argument from Design is con- 
 cerned, the miracle of unbelief may be fairly summarised 
 in the forceful words of Lord Grimthorpe l 
 
 "Until some theory can be invented to account for all those 
 stages of Evolution from a microscopic particle, including its own 
 generation, up to a philosopher, by any conceivable self-existing 
 forces out of homogeneous self-existing matter, and also for the 
 production of beauty not merely a little of it all the phrases 
 which have been invented pretending to account for these things 
 are nothing more than words. Natural selections, sexual selections, 
 survivals of the fittest, atavisms, heredities, and I don't know how 
 many more, may all be true as facts or processes, and may do what 
 they can. But the (Agnostic) Evolutionists are at an immeasurable 
 distance yet from showing that they can do everything. It is 
 entirely bad logic to assume that they can do a bit more than we 
 can prove. And, if we could prove them to be capable of doing 
 even such inconceivable things as producing the general beauty ot 
 nature, and starting generation, the theory of spontaneous cosmo- 
 gony would still be nowhere, until we could prove for them that 
 
 1 Viet. Inst. Journal, quoted above.
 
 THE REALM OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 87 
 
 all the necessary forces started themselves and maintain them- 
 selves, and all their powers of transformation, according to the 
 ascertained laws of conservation of force." 
 
 But it is necessary now to glance, at least, at other 
 physical phenomena which equally involve the necessity 
 of a supreme guiding Mind. No man with sane powers 
 of perception will deny the existence of the beautiful 
 and the sublime around us, in greater or less degree, con- 
 tinually. There would be much truth and no wrong in 
 our adding to these, so as to complete the sesthetic 
 emotions, the sense of the ludicrous. For this also, 
 beyond all question, postulates some degree of mind, 
 whenever and wherever experienced. But as it would 
 merely echo and confirm the conclusions which follow 
 from a fair estimate of our perception of the beautiful, 
 we may omit it from further consideration here. Indeed 
 it is for similar reasons unnecessary to dwell at any 
 length upon the apprehension of the sublime. . For 
 although its essence may well be, as Professor Bain 
 suggests, " the sympathetic sentiment of superior power 
 in its highest degrees," it will suffice for our present 
 purpose to regard it as simply the appreciation of the 
 beautiful upon the larger scale. Its inclusion of the 
 sense of awe in presence of the vast and terrible, will 
 only confirm our inferences from the universal manifesta- 
 tions of the beautiful, and our corresponding powers of 
 appreciation. 
 
 To most people who have not been given to abstract 
 thought, a definition of the beautiful would be a difficult 
 task. Yet as our appeal here is rather to common sense 
 than to metaphysics, it may suffice to affirm that all
 
 88 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 ordinary human beings have a real and indeed a double 
 apprehension of beauty, however much that apprehension 
 may vary with temperament and education. Dismissing 
 now the less intellectual of our sensations, we do at least 
 appreciate that which is beautiful in both sight and 
 sound. It is perfectly true, as Bain remarks, that " the 
 source of beauty is not to be sought in any single 
 quality but in a circle of effects." We may have a 
 beautiful form without colour, or a beautiful colour 
 without any precise form ; but when the two are com- 
 bined in some special relations, there is an unquestion- 
 able heightening of the effect. This enhanced effect 
 reaches its maximum when the element of quantity 
 is added. That which is beautiful when viewed upon 
 the small scale, becomes magnificent or sublime when 
 gathered into a vast aggregate. Illustrations are here 
 unnecessary because they abound in all directions. The 
 questipns which concern us are whence this perception 
 and appreciation of beauty are derived, and what they 
 signify. Christian faith regards them as an expression 
 of the benevolence of the Divine Mind, which has inten- 
 tionally brought about such exact correlation between 
 human surroundings and perceptions as issues in our 
 enjoyment of the beautiful. The only difficulty attending 
 such a causal conception, is the natural and necessary 
 impossibility that finite intelligence should comprehend 
 the infinite. That, however, is no contradiction to our 
 powers of reasoning. But if faith's answer to our 
 inquiry be rejected, what remains ? Manifestly nothing 
 but this, that the whole complex appreciation of the 
 beautiful, both as regards our subjective faculties and
 
 THE 'REALM OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 89 
 
 the objective phenomena which so exactly correspond, is 
 the fortuitous result of the haphazard collisions of mind- 
 less atoms through eeons past. Yet no one suggests 
 to-day that there is actually or conceivably any apprecia- 
 tion of beauty apart from mind. How then can that 
 which always requires mind to apprehend it, be rationally 
 ascribed for origin to mindless chance ? The initial 
 absurdity of such a suggestion is strongly confirmed 
 when we look into the physical and physiological 
 elements out of which our perception of beauty is 
 built up. 
 
 Think for a moment of the visibly beautiful. It is an 
 easy thing to admire a flower. It is still more easy to 
 forget how marvellous, in its complex intricacy, is the 
 apparatus whereby even the outer elements of its beauty 
 are apprehended. Not to repeat what we have pre- 
 viously summarised, three things only need here be 
 emphasised. first, the inexpressible wonderfulness of 
 the physical relations involved ; secondly, the unfathom- 
 able reality of the ultra-physical element in the case ; 
 thirdly, the exact and thorough -going correlation 
 between these two. 
 
 For the first, besides the distinctly pleasurable appre- 
 hension of form and it is to be observed that the 
 sharp-cut angles of the crystal may be as definitely 
 beautiful as the rounded curves of a flower this is 
 inseparably connected with the delight of colour. But 
 what does this latter element mean ? Only this, that 
 in the case of a flower exhibiting the three ordinary 
 colours of red, green, and violet, the eye must be sensi- 
 tive, at one and the same time, to vibrations of the
 
 90 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 luminiferous ether, at the respective rates of 400, 700, 
 and 850 millions of millions per second! It is the 
 combination of this perception with that of certain 
 forms, as distinct from other forms (for all combinations 
 of form and colour are not beautiful), which gives rise to 
 the ultra-physical apprehension which we call the " love 
 of the beautiful." Now that all this should result from 
 mere chance, involves a degree of improbability which 
 we have no figures to express. 1 Compared with it, all 
 the difficulties of Christian faith put together are but as 
 an ant-heap by the side of a mountain. 
 
 Yet again, the unquestionable fact confronts us that 
 all our own creations of beauty, without exception, 
 are acknowledged to be results and expressions of mind. 
 The artist or sculptor who should take his materials and 
 persistently fling them about in chaotic heaps, in hope 
 that somehow or other a beautiful picture or statue 
 might emerge from the confusion, would only be regarded 
 as a madman. The student in art is to-day more and 
 more given to understand that his hope of success lies 
 in the degree in which he puts mind and soul into his 
 work. No one questions this. But what after all is the 
 highest attainable degree of success in art ? Is it not 
 that the picture, or the sculpture, should be true to 
 nature ? Surely, then, it is none else than the veritable 
 irony of unbelief, which can insist that the imperfect 
 and faulty copy ever involves mind, whilst the vast 
 original which transcends all our estimates may be 
 ascribed to chance! How far, indeed, the beauty of 
 
 1 Of. Lord Kelvin's comment on Sir G. Stokes' reference to design 
 as manifest in our human perception of colour. Note on pp. 63, 64.
 
 THE REALM OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 91 
 
 nature exceeds that of our highest art, is often forgotten. 
 But it is only the superficiality of our vision which 
 makes such forgetfulness possible. In the matter before 
 us, an overwhelming a fortiori argument arises out of 
 the difference between our human art, at its best, 
 and nature's realities. This difference admits of brief 
 expression. The more we examine nature in careful 
 detail, even to miscroscopic minuteness, the more of the 
 truly beautiful do we find. But the more closely we 
 investigate works of art the more do we become 
 conscious of imperfections which, if regarded, would 
 entirely spoil the general impression of beauty. 
 
 The beauty of a landscape, for instance, appeals t6 us 
 all. But if, instead of the vast whole, we contemplate 
 a single flower or blade of grass, or even a microscopic 
 portion of either, we find that the beauty is often 
 enhanced rather than lost. If, however, we take for 
 microscopic scrutiny a quarter of an inch of any human 
 work of art, we find at once the seeming perfection 
 exchanged for roughness and coarseness, whilst the 
 general sense of beauty in the whole is lost without 
 any compensation whatever in the more closely 
 examined part. The works of art, indeed, which are 
 most admired, and into which it is acknowledged most 
 effort of mind has been put, will no more bear the 
 microscope than the back of any famous painting would 
 bear the close inspection bestowed upon the front. 
 But who that has ever examined microscopically the 
 back or front alike of the leaf of an ordinary Box plant, 
 or Deutzia, can forget the delicate wonder of the myriad 
 stomata, or the crystal beauty of the stellate hairs ?
 
 92 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 These are but tiny types of what is everywhere to 
 be found, in indescribable profusion, throughout nature. 1 
 Marvellous truly in its obtuseness then must be the 
 philosophy which, in the confessedly faulty and imper- 
 fect can clearly recognise and freely own the evidences 
 of intelligence, but in the wonder and beauty which 
 are far more manifest in the infinitely great and the 
 infinitely small, can find nothing save the results of 
 the accidental collisions of mindless atoms ! 
 
 Attempts have been made, we know, to break the 
 manifest force of this suggestion by referring to the 
 struggle for existence amongst living creatures, and the 
 survival of the fittest through natural selection, as sole 
 factors of the beautiful in nature. Thus the beauty of 
 flowers is attributed in many cases to the gradual 
 increase in vigour of those plants which, through 
 possessing colours more conspicuous than the green 
 of leaves, attracted to themselves a larger number of 
 insects, and so secured more efficient cross-fertilisation. 
 So, too, the beauty of butterflies is said to be due to 
 sexual selection. Those clad in the most attractive 
 colours were chosen for reproduction whilst others became 
 extiact. This sounds very plausible, but the merest 
 glance is enough to show its utter feebleness and 
 inadequacy as an account of the beautiful in all nature. 
 We might indeed well ask, whence came the first patch 
 of colour, or the first conspicuous marking, which lead to 
 
 1 " The world we live in is a fairyland of exquisite beauty, our 
 very existence is a miracle in itself ; and yet few of us enjoy as we 
 might, and none as yet appreciate fully the beauties and wonders 
 which surround us." Lord Avebury (Sir J. Lubbock), Tlie Beauties 
 of Nature, p. 1.
 
 THE REALM OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 93 
 
 such fruitful consequences in butterfly or flower ? But 
 many other considerations clamour for attention. 
 
 1. The manifest assumption here is that beauty and 
 conspicuousness are one. But it is utterly false. To 
 say nothing of those wonderful half -shades, of colour in 
 nature which defy the artist's imitation, and yet in their 
 delicate beauty are the very opposite of conspicuous, 
 some of the smallest and least noticeable flowers are 
 the most beautiful. Who would think for a moment 
 of attributing to the poppy more beauty than to the 
 violet ? Besides which it cannot be at all conceded that 
 the beauty of the tropical flora, however striking, is more 
 real than that of our English country lanes. There may 
 be greater quantity, there may be more gorgeous dis- 
 play, but these do not constitute the soul of beauty. 
 How easy it would be to name a score of our familiar 
 wild flowers whose beauty is so distinctly sui generis 
 that nothing can surpass them. And of these, as of 
 numberless other beautiful things, it is true that the 
 most actual beauty is often the most delicate, that is, 
 the least conspicuous. 
 
 2. Again, whatever be the manifest preferences of 
 insects, we have no warrant for attributing to them any 
 sense of the beautiful as we perceive it. In their case, 
 as the theory of natural selection must acknowledge, it 
 is a purely biological impulse. They are hungry and 
 want food, or they are urged by simple sexual instinct, 
 nothing more. But the vision of the beautiful which 
 flowers and insects yield to us, is certainly very much 
 more than these. In fact it may be truly said that the 
 sense of beauty does not come into play until these
 
 94 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 appetites and instincts have been either satisfied or ruled 
 out by will. Now it is this super-sensuous, ultra-physical, 
 appreciation of beauty which has to be accounted for in 
 ourselves, not the mere apprehension of striking form 
 or conspicuous colour. It is the marvellous correlation 
 between certain forms and colours which may or may 
 not already have served biological purpose in lower 
 grades of life and our own powers of perception, 
 whence there arises in us that refined pleasure of 
 appreciated beauty for which adequate cause must be 
 found. To profess to do so by pointing to the appe- 
 tites of insects, is to adduce a collection of sandhills 
 as explanation of the Matterhorn. 1 
 
 3. But besides this, we may not forget how small 
 a portion of the beautiful in nature is touched at all 
 by reference to biological utility. It has indeed been 
 confidently asserted that beauty is always associated 
 with utility in the world around us. The boldness of 
 the assertion is, however, only equalled by its falsity. 
 
 1 " It is to insects, then, that flowers owe their beauty, scent, and 
 sweetness." ..." It is well established that the main object of the 
 colour, scent, and honey of flowers is to attract insects, which are 
 of use to the plant in carrying the pollen from flower to flower." 
 Sir J. Lubbock, The Beauties of Nature, p. 66. 
 
 May be. No botanist now controverts the fact, but the question 
 is as to its teleological significance. If the words italicised are 
 accurate, they indicate indubitable intention somewhere. Where 1 
 In the flowers themselves? Intention inevitably connotes mind. 
 Hence the colour, scent, and honey and all else to the same 
 effect in plants, e.g. the construction of the Salvias, in regard to 
 which Sir J. Lubbock well says, " It is one of the most beautiful 
 pieces of plant mechanism" must mean either that the flowers 
 themselves possess mind, or that a supreme Mind brought to pass 
 the law of their being which they unconsciously obey. Other sane 
 alternative there is none.
 
 THE REALM OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 95 
 
 Instances to the contrary abound everywhere. Even 
 if we agree to regard as more especially beautiful 
 that colouring of entomophilous plants which attracts 
 useful insects to them, there is yet left the vast realm 
 of anemophilous plants. When it is remarked that upon 
 the whole their colouring is less conspicuous, that does 
 not lessen the reality of the beauty in them which appeals 
 to us. The oak tree and the aspen are beautiful, in their 
 own way, quite as really as the lily or the orchid. 
 
 Or if we turn from the vegetable to the animal world, 
 even in its lowliest forms, where do we find surpassed 
 the wondrous architecture of the Foraminifera, or the 
 delicate symmetry of the Eadiolaria, or the graceful 
 activities of the Eotifera ? But it would be absurd to 
 talk about that beautifulness, which no human eye can 
 help seeing in them, having anything to do with sexual 
 selection or the survival of the fittest. How surpass- 
 ingly beautiful they are, in myriads of cases, is best 
 known to those who have spent hours in examining 
 them. But it is a beauty which exists for our eyes 
 alone. No other creature on earth appreciates it. 
 Useless, apart from us, it may be called ; but useful, in 
 the biological sense, never. Thus Professor Le Conte 1 is 
 entirely warranted in his statement that 
 
 "These and many other cases of beauty may doubtless be ex- 
 plained by showing that it is useful ; but beauty which is without 
 any use cannot be explained by natural selection. Now the most 
 gorgeous beauty is lavishly distributed even amongst the lowest 
 animals, such as marine shells and polyps, where no such explana- 
 tion is possible. The process by which such beauty is originated 
 and intensified is wholly unknown to us." 
 
 1 Evolution in Relation to Religious Thought, p. 252.
 
 96 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 This uselessness of inexplicable beauty, and its utter 
 non-reference to any struggle for existence, is, however, 
 seen most emphatically in the mineral world. We 
 should but waste words if we attempted to describe 
 those properties of form and colour which, from time 
 immemorial, have made precious stones the delight of 
 mankind. The eye of the savage has been caught 
 and fascinated, we know, equally with the fastidious 
 vanity of the lady of fashion. The love of jewellery 
 appears rather to increase than grow less with the 
 advance of civilisation. In the fervid ferment of our 
 great European cities, as markedly as in the slow 
 courts of an Eastern Eajah, position in society is fairly 
 indicated by the quality and quantity of the jewels 
 worn upon the person. Several considerations here- 
 from at once suggest themselves. 
 
 (1) There is no manner of doubt that it is the beauty 
 of all brilliant gems which ever constitutes their at- 
 traction. (2) This beauty exists for men and women 
 alone, of all creatures upon earth. The glow of the 
 carbuncle and the flash of the diamond are absolutely 
 nothing to the most sagacious elephant or the most 
 intelligent dog. (3) The basis of all this mineral 
 beauty is a process of crystallisation which has no 
 conceivable connection with any struggle for existence, 
 or survival of the fittest. The essence of the attractive- 
 ness, to human eyes, is a combination of form and colour 
 which is brought to pass under special conditions in 
 nature's great workshop. On the smaller scale we may 
 even ourselves set the process going and watch its 
 progress. Thus in the words of Professor Tyndall
 
 THE REALM OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 97 
 
 "By permitting alum to crystallise in this slow way, we 
 obtain these perfect octahedrons ; by allowing carbonate of lime 
 to crystallise, nature produces these beautiful rhomboids; when 
 silica crystallises, we have formed these hexagonal prisms capped 
 at the end by pyramids ; by allowing saltpetre to crystallise, we 
 have these prismatic masses ; and when carbon crystallises, we have 
 the diamond." l 
 
 4. By mechanical processes men continually seek to 
 enhance the beauty they find. Great part of the 
 brilliancy of the diamond, we know, is due to its 
 special cutting and setting. The art of the lapidary, 
 however, with its gleaming results, seems likely to be 
 outrivalled by that of the chemist, seeing that in our 
 modern laboratories garnets and even small diamonds 
 have been produced by synthesis to say nothing of 
 the increasing production of the imitations technically 
 known as " paste." Now no one for a moment questions 
 that these processes, whether chemical or mechanical, 
 require skill guided by intelligence, and both in high 
 degree. Yet what are all the best results which meu 
 can compass with their utmost efforts, compared with 
 those exhibited in nature ? The conditions of tem- 
 perature and pressure requisite for the production, say, 
 of a " Koh-i-noor " will, we know, never be created by 
 ' the art of man. Yet if mind be manifestly necessary 
 for the production of the lesser, by what logic is the 
 measurelessly greater asserted to be derived from chance ? 
 It is especially interesting to observe that as our great 
 biologist found himself unable to do justice to the 
 wonder and beauty of a tadpole's development without 
 invoking a " hidden Artist," so is the renowned author 
 
 1 Fragments of Science, vol. i. p. 357. 
 7
 
 98 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 of the " Belfast Address " obliged to make mention of 
 an " Architect " in his description of the wonders of 
 crystallography. Thus he says concerning a solution 
 of sulphate of soda 
 
 " Looking into it mentally, we see the molecules of that liquid, 
 like disciplined squadrons under a governing eye, arranging them- 
 selves into battalions, gathering round distinct centres, and forming 
 themselves into solid masses, which after a time assume the visible 
 shape of the crystal now held in my hand. Here there is an archi- 
 tect at work who makes no chips, no din, and who is now building 
 the particles into crystals, similar in shape and structure to those 
 beautiful masses which we see upon the table." 1 
 
 One cannot but admire the chivalrous frankness with 
 which these prophets of Agnosticism, in their anxiety to 
 do justice to facts, shrink not from employing phrases 
 which cut the ground entirely from under their own 
 philosophic standpoint. To urge that these are only 
 figures of speech, is to forget that by such figures the 
 most exact as well as vivid truth is ever conveyed in 
 human speech. We are driven therefore to this con- 
 clusion, that it is simply impossible to do justice in 
 thoughts and words to the whole vast exhibition of 
 beauty in nature, without as definitely invoking the 
 Divine mind for its origin as the human mind for its 
 appreciation. 
 
 5. Such a conclusion is the more confirmed in 
 proportion as we extend our observation. Does any 
 one doubt, for instance, that there is such a thing as 
 beauty of sound ? Certainly we have no intellectual 
 right to limit the beautiful to the visible. We speak 
 with perfect truthfulness of the sweetness of some flow- 
 1 The italics are the present writer's.
 
 THE EEALM OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 99 
 
 ing melody of Mozart, or the grandeur of Beethoven's 
 deep and complex harmonies. These are but phases 
 of the beautiful, in its appeal to the sense of sound 
 rather than of sight. Where, however, in these is any 
 room at all for natural selection, or struggle for exist- 
 ence, or survival of the fittest ? Furthermore, it is 
 manifest that this exhibition of the beautiful exists 
 for human ears alone. The dog, our most intelligent 
 animal, howls his unmistakable disapproval of it. 
 Moreover, a trained ear is required to appreciate that 
 which, by common consent, most truly deserves to be 
 called "music." The rattle of the tom-toms and the 
 wild screeching of much Oriental and all savage music, 
 we regard with mingled amazement and pity. That is 
 to say, music in us means mind, and the noblest music 
 means the highest development of a distinctive capacity, 
 potential only in primeval man. Whence, then, that 
 potentiality ? The man who should venture to affirm, 
 seriously and in public, that the great organ in one 
 of our cathedrals evolved itself, without any touch, ab 
 extra, from an indiscriminate heap of wood and metal, 
 would only be regarded as an imbecile. But the whole 
 mechanism of the organ is truly a rough trifle compared 
 with the human ear, alike in its general structure and 
 its minute histology. 
 
 To this, however, must be added all the wonders of 
 acoustics, together with those unalterable laws whereby 
 certain distinct musical notes proceed from varying rates 
 of atmospheric vibration. Even then, we are but on the 
 threshold of the actual mystery. For no living physicist 
 or physiologist knows, or doubtless ever will know, how
 
 100 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 it comes to pass that these vibrations are translated 
 into consciousness, even for one single musical note, to 
 say nothing of the enjoyment of vast and complicated 
 harmonies, as in an oratorio. 
 
 So then it comes all to this, that the organ is pro- 
 nounced, without controversy, an intricate and beautiful 
 piece of workmanship, proving exceedingly high intelli- 
 gence in its construction, whilst the actual possession of 
 that intelligence, together with an immeasurably superior 
 instrument, whence arises the faculty to appreciate the 
 results of the complex man -designed mechanism, the 
 wonderful ultra-material reality of the audibly beautiful, 
 distinct from, yet arising out of these material condi- 
 tions, and correlating perfectly with a prepared human 
 sensorium, all have been brought to pass by sheer chance 
 out of a primitive nebulosity several million cubic miles 
 of which would be required to weigh a single grain ! 
 Truly the faith of Agnosticism is unbounded. 
 
 6. The two highest forms of beauty, however, yet remain. 
 They deserve at least succinct and appreciative notice. 
 Of all instances of visible beautifulness none can surely 
 be more manifest than its exhibition, in innumerable 
 cases, in the human face. That wonderful combination 
 of form and colour which is generally termed handsome- 
 ness in men and beauty in women, has been through 
 all ages past the constant observation of historians and 
 the ceaseless theme of poets. What does it all amount 
 to ? Is the beauty of the human face simply the 
 biological expression of pure chance ? Is it ultimately 
 nothing more than " nature's " means of sexual attrac- 
 tion, with a view to the continuation of the species ?
 
 THE REALM OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 101 
 
 This would seem to be the inevitable though masked 
 result of the opinions of many, and the downright 
 assertion of an outspoken few. To find anything 
 " Divine " in the human face, is by these philosophers 
 regarded only as a passing dream of poetic fiction. 
 Yet it is substantiated by all that is purest and noblest 
 in our nature. The highest reality of the case is un- 
 doubtedly with the poet rather than the biologist. 
 Untold myriads of men and women could be called 
 upon to testify to the pure loftiness, the genuine 
 spirituality, of the emotion enkindled within them by 
 the sight of the noble brow, the speaking eyes, the 
 mobile mouth, the cheeks suffused with healthy glow, 
 which go to make up the fairest vision upon earth. 
 The artist who can only approximately reproduce this, 
 is accounted a genius. That is, his mind powers are 
 pronounced far above the average. Yet that soul of 
 beauty itself which he strives most of all to catch, and 
 so often strives in vain because of its very beautifulness, 
 is to be ascribed to the mindless clash of atoms develop- 
 ing aimlessly through unguided ages ! May be. But in 
 comparison with this, to insist that the chef d'aeuvre of 
 a Turner or a Tadema, is nothing more than a haphazard 
 daub with closed eyes and reckless hand, is a very mild 
 form of assertion. 
 
 7. The plain truth is that the human face may, and 
 in the vast majority of cases does, betoken moral 
 character. It is the expression of this expression which 
 most baffles the skill of the artist. The fact that here 
 and there a fair face is to be found behind which lurks 
 a foul soul, does not invalidate the general rule that a
 
 102 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 beautiful face at least suggests a richer and deeper 
 beauty behind. Whenever we are assured of the 
 contrary, there is an unquestionable feeling of dis- 
 appointment or even revulsion. King Arthur's prayer 
 concerning Galahad 
 
 "God make thee good as thou art beautiful," 
 
 rises in such case involuntarily to our lips. What then 
 is this internal beauty, as indefinable as real, which not 
 only beamed on the pure brow of Percival's sister when, 
 looking upon the same noble knight, 
 
 " She sent the deathless passion in her eyes 
 Thro' him, and made him hers, and laid her mind 
 On him, and he believed in her belief," 
 
 but gleams and glows in the whole "expression" of 
 myriads more ? It is quite as real as the fairness 
 of any landscape panorama ; it is much more rich than 
 the flash of any crystal ; it is more full of sweet and 
 high suggestion than the brightest rainbow ; why should 
 it be passed over as unworthy of account ? There can 
 be no doubt whatever that it is this beautifulness, more 
 than any other upon earth, which makes human life 
 worth living. All that is best and noblest in human 
 nature responds ever to the poet's deep and tender plaint 
 when he called to mind the character-beauty of his 
 departed friend 
 
 " And manhood fused with female grace 
 In such a sort, the child would twine 
 A trustful hand, unask'd, in thine, 
 And find his comfort in thy face.
 
 THE REALM OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 103 
 
 All these have been, and thee mine eyes 
 Have look'd on : if they look'd in vain, 
 My shame is greater who remain, 
 
 Nor let thy wisdom make me wise." 1 
 
 To take wholly out of our daily environment the tender 
 look of sympathy, the sunny smile of unselfish gladness, 
 the winsome cheeriness of manifest benevolence, the 
 guileless trustfulness of the eyes of little children, would 
 be to reduce our humanity to soulless mechanism, or 
 degrade it to the level of the tiger and the ape. The 
 sublimest distance from such low level is found con- 
 fessedly in the character of the Christ of the Gospels. 
 As such we shall have to estimate it, farther on. Here 
 it is sufficient to aver that moral and spiritual beauty 
 when rooted in human nature and blooming in the 
 " human face divine," demand adequate cause and 
 explanation, quite as definitely as earth's fairest flowers 
 and most luscious fruit, or their attempted representa- 
 tions in the pictures of " great " artists. The cultivation 
 of orchids, we are told, is one of the most delicate and 
 difficult as well as costly of modern arts. It would be 
 regarded as complete proof of imbecility if any man were 
 to suggest that these floral beauties would come of them- 
 selves, without culture, stock, or seed, in any of our 
 gardens. How then can it be less than imbecile to 
 assert, or assume, that the measurelessly nobler and 
 higher beauty of human characters, with their expression 
 in human features, which no cynic or pessimist on earth 
 can call in question, arose simply and solely out of animal 
 instincts which have for their ultimate essence nothing 
 1 In Memoriam, cix.
 
 104 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 but the satisfying of a biological craving, and even 
 this as the chance result of the fortuitous clash of 
 infinitesimal atoms ? The bare fact that we are called 
 upon to accept such an explanation of moral beauty in 
 human character, shows to what desperate shifts the 
 philosophy is reduced which rejects the Christian theory 
 of origins. 
 
 The reality and profusion, therefore, of the beautiful 
 throughout the wide, wide world, whether we contemplate 
 the tender loveliness of a little flower or the glowing glory 
 of the setting sun, whether we gaze enwrapt upon a sweet 
 and noble face or think of the Diviner beauty of many a 
 human character, whether we scrutinise our whole en- 
 vironment with microscopic minuteness or tremble before 
 the vastness of the sublime, is amply sufficient to warrant 
 our echoing, with all the added intensity of our modern 
 knowledge, the reverent gratitude of the Psalmist 
 
 "O Lord, Thou hast searched me, and known me. ... I will 
 give thanks unto Thee ; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made : 
 wonderful are Thy works ; and that my soul knoweth right well." 
 
 It might appear to be our next duty under the head 
 of Physical Science, to enter upon an elaborate discussion 
 of the case for and against miracles. But it is not 
 so. Voluminous indeed and often wearisome have been 
 the contributions to this vexed question during the last 
 half-century. It would appear alike unnecessary and 
 impossible to add more. But one point of greatest 
 import has been irreversibly established, namely, that the 
 question as to the possibility of miracles exists only for 
 the Atheist. For all others, including Agnostics no less
 
 THE REALM OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 105 
 
 than Christians, the sole matter for discussion is the 
 sufficiency in quantity and in quality of the evidence 
 adduced on their behalf. A few testimonies to this 
 effect from acknowledged authorities will preclude the 
 necessity of any enlargement upon it here. Thus Mr. 
 J. S. Mill 
 
 "We cannot, then, conclude absolutely that the miraculous theory 
 ought to be at once rejected. Once admit a God, and the production 
 of an effect by His direct volition must be reckoned with as a 
 serious possibility." Essays on Religion, p. 230. 
 
 So, too, Dr. Carpenter 
 
 " The scientific Theist need find no abstract difficulty in the 
 conception that the Author of Nature can, if He will, occasionally 
 depart from the so-called Laws of Nature. I am not conscious of 
 any such scientific prepossession against miracles as would prevent 
 me from accepting them as facts if trustworthy evidence of their 
 reality could be adduced. The question with me, therefore, is 
 simply have we any adequate historical ground for the belief that 
 such departure has ever taken place ? " 
 
 The words of Professor Huxley are equally clear and 
 emphatic 
 
 " It is not upon any a priori considerations that objections either 
 to the supposed efficacy of prayer, or to the supposed occurrences of 
 miracles, can be based. To my mind the fatal objection to both 
 these suppositions is the inadequacy of the evidence to prove any 
 given case of such occurrence which has been adduced." 
 
 Principal Shairp was therefore quite warranted when, 
 twenty years ago he wrote 
 
 " The statement, then, that miracles are in themselves impossible, 
 being a wholly groundless assumption, the question of their actual 
 occurrence becomes one of purely historical evidence." Culture 
 and Religion, p. 117. 
 
 Dr. Lyman Abbott's words, in his recently published
 
 106 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 Theology of an Evolutionist, may thus fairly stand for 
 a summary of the whole case 
 
 "The question whether God answers prayer, the question 
 Avhether the so-called miracles, or any of them recorded in the 
 Bible, ever took place, are to be determined by evidence simply. 
 If the evidence sustains the affirmative answer, there is nothing in 
 evolution inconsistent with that answer." 
 
 In the light of the preceding pages it cannot be 
 pronounced unreasonable that we should here assume 
 Theism, and so dismiss at once and finally any inquiry 
 into the physical possibility of the miraculous. That 
 may well be taken for granted, until those who object 
 to it have faced and solved the greater miracles which 
 have been shown to be necessitated, when matter and 
 chance are enthroned instead of a Supreme Mind, as the 
 fons et origo of all that is. 
 
 The reality of miracles, then, so far as they are 
 involved in Christian faith, is purely a question of 
 evidence. This transports us at once out of the realm of 
 science into that of history and psychology. There we 
 shall find that the miracles of unbelief, to which denial 
 of the evidence for Christian miracles inevitably leads, 
 become ever more manifest and pronounced as we 
 proceed to do justice to undeniable facts.
 
 FACTS OF HISTORY AND THEIR 
 EXPLANATION 
 
 107
 
 " It is often thought that a historical revelation of God must 
 require more than ordinary historical evidence to prove it, and that 
 what is supernatural must needs be supernaturally attested. But 
 this assumption is neither correct, nor helpful to Christianity." 
 Dr. W. N. Clarke, Outlines of Christian Theology, p. 38. 
 
 " The labours of the apostles and the results of those labours are 
 unparalleled in the history of mankind. For those labours there 
 must have been an adequate motive. To admit the truth of the 
 story is to assign that adequate motive. To deny its truth is to 
 leave those labours without a motive. And this is not to get rid of 
 miracles, it is to establish them. For, that labours so unparalleled 
 should be sustained through sufferings so severe and prolonged 
 without a motive would itself be a greater miracle than any of 
 those recorded in the story." Dr. S. Wainwright, The Question of 
 Questions, p. 157. 
 
 "The sceptic may indeed very well say, 'Do not imagine that 
 you gain anything, as far as we are concerned, by giving up one 
 miracle after another under the idea that what remains will be 
 easier to accept. The motive spoils the act. You ought neither 
 to keep nor let go with any reference to us, but simply with 
 reference to truth. Besides, to satisfy us you must omit the 
 supernatural altogether. When you have done that, what will 
 be left that we do not already possess?'" Rev. A. J. Harrison, 
 Problems of Christianity and Scepticism, p. 21 . 
 
 " Only to a man destitute of spiritual perception can it be that 
 Christianity should fail to appear the greatest exhibition of the 
 beautiful, the sublime, and of all else that appeals to our spiritual 
 nature which has ever been known upon our earth. The most 
 remarkable thing about Christianity is its adaptation to all sorts 
 and conditions of men/'' G. J. Romanes, Thoughts on Religion, 
 p. 160. 
 
 " Miracles play so important a part in Christ's scheme that any 
 theory which would represent them as due entirely to the imagina- 
 tion of His followers, or of a later age, destroys the credibility of 
 the documents not partially but wholly, and leaves Christ a 
 personage as mythical as Hercules." Ecce Homo, 12th ed., p. 41. 
 
 " There is no aid to faith in the mere reduction of the number of 
 miracles." Hastings' Bible Dictionary (T. & T. Clark).
 
 FACTS OF HISTOEY AND THEIE EXPLANATION 
 
 THE gross enormities of contradiction which arise in the 
 realm of physics from the rejection of Christian verities, 
 have an impressive parallel in the sphere of mind. Here 
 we are concerned no longer with the origin of inanimate 
 nature or even the evolution of life, whether animal or 
 vegetable, but with matters distinctively human. Dis- 
 missing now the future by reason of its uncertainty, we 
 note that the minds of men are continually busied not 
 only with the present, in sensation and perception, but 
 with the past, through personal memory and written 
 records. The former process comprises the realm of 
 psychology, the latter that of history. This last it will 
 be convenient to consider first. 
 
 Even when we limit the term history to the considera- 
 tion of the human past, it is manifest that we can only 
 touch upon a few salient points of so vast a theme. In 
 every case mentioned below, however, the argument 
 would be only strengthened by elaboration in detail. 
 
 I. Let us consider, first, the case of the Jews, in refer- 
 ence to their past origin, present condition, and national 
 idiosyncrasies. Their whole history, as summarised in 
 the Bible, forms confessedly the natural and necessary 
 
 109
 
 110 THE MIBACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 basis of Christianity. In order to appreciate this relation 
 it is not necessary here to estimate the effects of what 
 is now known as the " higher criticism." Its concern is 
 with literary matters, ours with theological. Whatever 
 may be ultimately the findings of literary criticism, they 
 cannot seriously affect what here is the main point, 
 namely, that the Biblical account of the origin and 
 history of the Jewish nation manifestly involves not only 
 the personal existence, the supreme rule, and the holy 
 character, of God as Creator, Preserver, and Judge of 
 all, but also the presence and working of supernatural 
 influences x definitely attributed to Him. 
 
 This Biblical history, even when clarified and arranged 
 by modem criticism, perfectly and naturally accounts for 
 the whole of the remarkable phenomena presented to us 
 to-day, in the striking idiosyncrasies, the modern social 
 condition, and the apparent indestructibility, of the Jews 
 as a people. When, moreover, the predictive element in 
 this account is put alongside the actual facts of their 
 history and experiences, from the Christian era to the 
 latest European anti-Semitic development, it may safely 
 be affirmed that there is no parallel record of anticipa- 
 tion and fulfilment in our whole knowledge of the 
 human past. 
 
 Suppose, then, that the Biblical account is rejected 
 because it is inseparably bound up with a definite 
 Theism, and is thus pledged to the supernatural, what 
 follows? Three plain considerations at once face us. 
 (1) The whole Bible must, in such case, be regarded aa 
 but a mixture of delusion and fraud. (2) The complex 
 J See Note A, p. 151.
 
 FACTS OF HISTORY AND THEIR EXPLANATION 111 
 
 and indestructible idiosyncrasies which distinguish the 
 Jews from every other nation upon earth, must be 
 ascribed to purely natural causes. (3) The marvellous 
 and unparalleled agreement between predictions ac- 
 knowledged to be nearly three thousand years old, and 
 the remarkable facts of their past career and present 
 condition, must be attributed to a merely fortuitous 
 coincidence. 
 
 These considerations are soon enumerated, but to do 
 them justice would require volumes. As to (1), that the 
 whole Bible is pledged to the supernatural in the history 
 of the Jews, no honest reader can for a moment doubt. 
 The quantity of the supernatural deleted by modern 
 criticism is a comparatively unimportant matter. The 
 quality of the irreducible residuum remains unmistak- 
 able. With the hand of God in Jewish history from 
 Abraham to the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus 
 assuredly the Bible stands or falls. But if this historical 
 basis be entirely false in its most essential part, what are 
 we to say concerning the lofty ethics, the gracious and 
 elevating influence, the amazing vitality of this Book of 
 books ? 
 
 These cannot honestly be denied. Few genuine 
 thinkers will call them in question. Professor Huxley's 
 testimony may perhaps be fairly taken as the least that 
 can be said 
 
 " Consider the great historical fact that for three centuries this 
 book has been woven into the life of all that is best and noblest in 
 English history. By the study of what other book could children be 
 so much humanised and made to feel that each figure . . . earns the 
 blessings or the curses of all time, according to its effort to do good 
 and hate evil ? ... I do not say that even the highest Biblical ideal
 
 112 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 is exclusive of others or needs no supplement. But I do believe that 
 the human race is not yet, possibly never may be, in a position to 
 dispense with it." 1 
 
 To do justice to the gracious and elevating influence 
 of the Bible in all lands and ages, would require volumes 
 of reference to facts. 2 Such testimony when it comes 
 from believers is none the less reliable, but rather more 
 so. For this is a case in which experience deserves to 
 count quite as fully as observation. Upon the vitality of 
 the Bible, moreover, not a few volumes have been written. 3 
 But everything about the Bible assuredly goes to confirm 
 the main thesis of Henry Eogers' well-known work, 4 
 namely, that "the Bible is not such a book as man would 
 have made if he could, or could have made if he would." 
 Yet we are now called upon to regard this wonderful 
 volume, which is far more truly described as a library 
 than a book, as merely the embodiment of a colossal 
 delusion. For such in very deed it must be, if the 
 God of Abraham, and Moses, and Elijah, and Isaiah, be 
 
 1 Essays on Controverted Questions, 51-53. 
 
 2 Yet it might be fairly illustrated, and sufficiently for our 
 present purpose, by that which is related concerning a ship wrecked 
 off one of the Fiji islands. A boat's crew that had got ashore 
 were terribly alarmed lest they should be devoured by cannibals. 
 And not without reason, considering what had been known of the 
 inhabitants. When they dispersed, for safety's sake, two of them 
 found a cottage and cautiously sought to explore it, when suddenly 
 one called out to his companion, " All right, Jack, there is a Bible 
 on this table ; no fear now." Cf. a brief but impressive summary 
 in No. 67 of " Present-Day Tracts " (Eel. Tract Soc.) by Dr. Murdoch. 
 
 3 See a convenient and able resume by Dr. Blaikie, published 
 as No. 23 of the " Present-Day Tracts " Series by the Eel. Tract Soc. 
 
 4 The Superhuman Origin of the Bible inferred from Itself, the 
 Congregational Union Lecture for 1873, a book deserving most 
 careful study.
 
 FACTS OF HISTORY AND THEIR EXPLANATION 113 
 
 nothing more than the subjective idol of men given up 
 to superstition. Yet if this be so, assuredly the Bible 
 is more supernatural than ever. On the premisses of 
 Atheism, the Bible both necessitates and embodies more 
 miracles by far than when regarded as a true testimony 
 to the Divine. 
 
 (2) But again. The task of giving adequate account 
 of Jewish nature, idiosyncrasy, origin, religious belief, and 
 present condition, on a purely naturalistic hypothesis, 
 also involves decidedly greater difficulties than the 
 acceptance of all that is reliably recorded concerning 
 them in the Bible. The rejection of the miraculous 
 element, which is confessedly involved in the real 
 purpose and guidance of GOD throughout the history 
 of the Jews, does but necessitate other and greater 
 miracles of unbelief. 
 
 (3) Moreover, if Lord Eochester, as a sceptic of the 
 time of Charles II., found himself unable to gainsay the 
 argument for Christianity based upon the then condition 
 of the Jews as a nation, much more will the Agnosticism 
 of to-day find similar and indeed far worse difficulties. 1 
 For the predictions of the Old Testament, both as regards 
 their persecution and their preservation, have in our later 
 days gathered a force which only those who have examined 
 it carefully can appreciate. 
 
 1 If the case of the gipsies should be suggested as similar, it is a 
 sufficient reply to compare the two cases in actual detail. So, too, if 
 mention be made of the Maronites, or the Armenians, or indeed the 
 Chinese, as possessing undoubted idiosyncrasies, the answer is still 
 the same, namely, that not one of these presents the total of remark- 
 able features which mark out the Jews in their history, nature, 
 circumstances, and religion from every other nation under heaven. 
 8
 
 114 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 The most remarkable passages bearing upon this are 
 undoubtedly Deut. xxviii. and xxix., though there are 
 others which deserve notice. 1 The fearful sufferings 
 there predicted have been fulfilled with a lurid accuracy 
 upon which comment would be superfluous. Take now 
 but a portion of the solemn warning recorded 
 
 "And among these nations thou shalt find no ease, and there 
 shall be no rest for the sole of thy foot : but the Lord shall give 
 thee a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and pining of soul : and 
 thy life shall hang in doubt before thee ; and thou shalt fear night 
 and day, and shalt have none assurance of thy life : in the morning 
 thou shalt say, Would GOD it were even ! and at even thou shalt 
 say, Would GOD it were morning ! for the fear of thine heart which 
 thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt 
 see " (Deut. xxviii. 65-67). 
 
 Omitting here other remarkable utterances in this 
 chapter, though mention might well be made of 
 vv. 5257, and those fearful scenes in the siege of 
 Jerusalem by Titus in which they were literally ful- 
 filled, compare the foregoing quotation with what has 
 really taken place during the last nineteen centuries. 
 The following is but a truthful summary : 
 
 " The history of the Jews since the Crucifixion has been one long 
 unfolding of the scenes depicted in the pages of the Pentateuch and 
 the Prophets. Driven out from Palestine, not allowed by Hadrian 
 even to set foot in the Holy City, persecuted from Persia on the one 
 side to Spain and England on the other, their lives never safe, com- 
 pelled to wear a distinguishing mark on their clothes throughout 
 the greater part of the Middle Ages, and in Persia to our own time, 
 exiled from the Peninsula in thousands, the prey in Germany of 
 every riotous band of marauding Crusaders, the sport of the popu- 
 lace and the chattel of kings, they have had one long weary 
 
 1 E.cj. Lev. xxvi. ; Jer. xxiv. 8-10, etc.
 
 FACTS OF HISTORY AND THEIR EXPLANATION 115 
 
 existence of terror and distress. Even to-day there is in some 
 countries no real change in the feeling with which the Jews have 
 for ages been regarded by those among whom they live. They are 
 still as much as ever the objects of dislike and contempt. The 
 anti-Semitism of Germany and France markedly illustrated in 
 the recent Dreyfus-Zola trial is but the surface-play of a current 
 that runs deep, and the warning of a mighty storm ever ready to 
 break. There is no peace for the Jew of even to-day." l 
 
 But in the study of the Old Testament it is equally 
 impossible to overlook the strong words which are 
 employed to express the future restoration of the Jews. 
 Such passages as Jer. xxx. 3, 10, xxxi. 3537, xxxiii. 
 25, 26 ; Amos ix. 14, etc., cannot possibly be resolved 
 into mere assurances of temporary safety, or the haze 
 of a distant mirage. Unless they are dismissed wholly 
 as the pious delusions of the seer, they point unmis- 
 takably to a Divinely-contemplated restoration of Israel, 
 at some future period, to its ancient country. With 
 modern facts and tendencies before us, it is scarcely 
 too much to say that this restoration is already begun. 
 
 "Whereas some twenty years ago there were not more than 
 12,000 Jews in Jerusalem, and 30,000 in all the Holy Land, there 
 are now about 43,000 in Jerusalem alone, and over 100,000 in 
 Palestine. As many as 70,000 have gone there in the last few 
 years ; more by far than the 49,897 who went up with Zerubbabel 
 from the Babylonian captivity (Ezra ii. 64, 65)." 
 
 1 The whole "Present-Day Tract" (No. 77, Rel. Tract Soc.), from 
 which the above extract is taken, well deserves consideration. It 
 is entitled, " The Jews in their Present Condition Witnesses to 
 the Bible," by Messrs. Burnett and Williams. Whilst these pages 
 were preparing for the press the celebrated trial of Dreyfus at 
 Rennes took place than which no event of the century has more 
 luridly illustrated the anti - Semitic feeling yet prevalent upon 
 the Continent.
 
 116 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 Whether this " Zionist " movement will grow into im- 
 posing dimensions or simply ebb away again, we need not 
 venture to predict, but at present it yields no small 
 appearance of becoming as remarkable a fulfilling of 
 prophecy on its brighter side as all European history 
 since the Christian era has been of the darker. 
 
 Be this, however, as it may, it is but a part of the 
 complex whole which we are here considering. The 
 actual correspondence between the descriptions of Jewish 
 idiosyncrasy as illustrated in all the historical and 
 prophetical books of the Bible, together with the pre- 
 dictions as to the future condition of the Jewish nation, 
 and the actual facts of their later history and present 
 circumstances, is too manifest to admit of denial. The 
 Biblical, that is, the supernatural account of all this, 
 is perfectly natural and fully sufficient. It supplies 
 a " vera causa," an adequate explanation of all the 
 phenomena in question. To reject this, however, is to 
 ascribe the whole vast and intricate correspondence to 
 mere chance coincidence, and represent it as springing 
 solely from the accidental variations of " natural " evolu- 
 tion. But words and figures alike fail to do justice to 
 the enormity of the improbabilities which lie against such 
 a suggestion. The very least that can be said is, that 
 the man who can accept such a thesis, swallows at one 
 gulp a veritable camel, compared with which the other 
 alternative is but as a gnat for difficulty. 
 
 II. Let us pass on, however, from Judaism to 
 Christianity. Here again we start with certainty. 
 For the existence, diffusion, and influence of the 
 Christian faith to-day is manifest beyond all cavil.
 
 FACTS OF HISTORY AND THEIR EXPLANATION 117 
 
 It is an immeasurable force in the present condition 
 and future destiny of humanity. Whence then has it 
 sprung, and how has it come to be what we now see 
 and know ? For, it must be reiterated, this is a case 
 entirely unique, however freely we acknowledge the 
 presence and influence of other religions in the world. 
 It is quite true that the adherents of Buddhism alone 
 outnumber all Christians put together. Hindus and 
 Mohammedans also confessedly amount to vast numbers. 
 But no one of these faiths constitutes a parallel to 
 Christianity. For besides their totally different origins, 
 and the well - understood methods by which Moham- 
 medanism was propagated, they are all alike at this 
 hour inseparably bound up with Eastern civilisations, 
 which are not merely inoperative, but gradually and 
 necessarily vanishing in the course of the world's pro- 
 gress. Whereas Christianity exercises an immeasurable 
 and ever - increasing influence throughout the world, 
 seeing that it is strongest in the foremost nations, such 
 as England, America, and Germany, which show every 
 sign of developing vitality and vigorous growth. Every 
 now and then, indeed, we meet with sporadic prophecies 
 that Christianity will soon be extinct, as also bold 
 assertions that it is a " dying creed." But in all such 
 cases the wish is so manifestly father to the thought, 
 the Cassandra cry has become so hackneyed with vain 
 repetition, and the confident prediction has been so 
 flatly contradicted by the march of events, that we 
 may pass them by with regretful compassion. All the 
 world knows what were the oracular sentences of doom 
 pronounced upon the Christian faith by Kousseau and
 
 118 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 Voltaire and Paine a century ago. To-day every man 
 is witness as to how they are being fulfilled. As a 
 matter of simple fact, the whole world is being per- 
 meated, and great portions of it saturated, with Chris- 
 tian doctrine and practice. The success of Christian 
 " missions " to foreign countries during the last century, 
 has been far greater than the progress of the Christian 
 Churches in a similar length of time in the apostolic 
 and sub-apostolic days. That there are now, as then, 
 many kinds and degrees of Christianness, does not in 
 the least detract from, but rather add to the significance 
 of such a fact. For it testifies to the adaptability of 
 Christian verities to all sorts and conditions of human 
 nature, and the wonderful vitality exhibited in their 
 triumph over unmeasured degrees of corruption within, 
 no less than of opposition without. 
 
 But one or two collateral certainties equally deserve 
 notice. We do know, beyond question, when, where, 
 and how Christianity arose. Occasional attempts to 
 cast doubt upon the real existence of Christ and His 
 apostles are too wild and foolish to call for serious 
 discussion. It is historically certain, from abundant 
 proofs, that Jesus lived, taught, and was crucified in 
 Judsea at the period stated in our Gospels. Also that 
 His doctrines were promulgated without force, and that 
 from Jerusalem as a centre they soon spread everywhere 
 throughout the then known world, in spite of their 
 being most bitterly opposed. This general statement, 
 however, does but scanty justice to the actual facts of 
 the case. There is truly a triple opposition to be 
 estimated, and a triple triumph to be accounted for in
 
 FACTS OF HISTOKY AND THEIR EXPLANATION 119 
 
 regard to the beginning of Christianity and its con- 
 tinuance to this hour. No one of these can be fully 
 set forth in few words. Yet it is essential to the 
 truth that they be fairly taken into account. 1 
 
 1. As to the initial stages, then, of Christianity, it 
 is only true to say that if we can imagine a lion, a 
 tiger, and a wolf uniting in desperate effort to destroy a 
 lamb and failing, we should but have a fair parallel 
 to that which actually happened in human society at 
 the commencement of the Christian era. The practical 
 alliance between Jewish hate, Eoman might, and Greek 
 subtlety, against the infant Christian faith, is absolutely 
 without parallel in history. The two former of these 
 anti-Christian factors, at least, we are considerably in 
 danger of underrating in these days of liberty and peace. 
 
 Here it is necessary, first, to bear well in mind the 
 whole truth concerning Jewish nature. We cannot but 
 see how its wondrous idiosyncrasies of vitality, tenacity, 
 fanaticism, have been writ large on the page of history, 
 from the time of the unparalleled horrors and heroism 
 of the war with Eome which ended in the destruction of 
 Jerusalem, down to the latest Eussian persecution. We 
 are well able to estimate the frame of mind in which 
 the long chain of previous wars and captivities had 
 left them at the period when Christ appeared. Their 
 
 1 The sincere reader should study carefully Storrs' Divine Origin 
 of Christianity, or Pressense's Early Years of Christianity, and 
 Martyrs and Apologists. Brief but excellent summaries may he 
 found in Nos. 6 and 49 of "Present- Day Tracts," published by 
 the Religious Tract Society, under the titles, "The Success of 
 Christianity and Modern Explanations of it," and " Is the Evolu- 
 tion of Christianity from mere Natural Sources credible ? "
 
 120 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 condition just then, moreover, under the Eoman yoke, 
 especially disposed them to hail with enthusiasm one 
 kind of Messiah, and to reject with execration the 
 opposite. Yet it was unquestionably this opposite 
 which Jesus exemplified. So that the intensity of the 
 national hate which He occasioned, may be measured 
 by the shock which He administered to the popular 
 chafing and pride and expectation then generally pre- 
 valent, as well as to all those deeply-rooted prejudices 
 of which priests and scribes and Pharisees were the 
 exponents. We may form some estimate of the acerbity 
 of this national revulsion, from our own observation of 
 Jewish characteristics as they exist in Europe to-day. 
 
 But that at first a humble few, and afterwards large 
 numbers of Jews, including priests and elders, did believe 
 on Him and act accordingly, is fact beyond all con- 
 troversy. Now, whilst nothing is easier to understand 
 than the rejection of Christ by the majority of His 
 fellow-countrymen at that time, it is proportionately 
 difficult, not to say utterly impossible, to account for 
 the belief of His disciples on any other basis than that 
 alleged in the New Testament. For if we reject this, 
 unbelief is compelled to assume that they, of all people 
 in the world, were most easily deceived, and this 
 when their highest hopes and strongest desires, their 
 keenest anticipations and most intense faith, together 
 with their most fervid patriotism, were all alike being 
 uncompromisingly contradicted. 
 
 This, however, is but an introduction to the difficulties 
 which next arise for unbelief in connection with the 
 origin and growth of the Christian Church. The atti-
 
 FACTS OF HISTORY AND THEIR EXPLANATION 121 
 
 tude of Greeks and Komans demands also to be taken 
 into account. The spectacle is indeed a strange one 
 from the Agnostic standpoint. Men of the most cultured 
 nation in the world, submitting themselves in great 
 numbers to a transparent fraud ; and citizens of the 
 haughtiest community ever known, surrendering them- 
 selves throughout the empire to the supreme governance 
 of the memory of a fanatic Jew, whom their own 
 deputy had just put to a shameful death ! 
 
 It is manifest enough that the only alliance possible 
 between Jew and Eoman of that age was this common 
 determination, one from religious the other from poli- 
 tical motives, that the followers of Christ should be 
 exterminated and His very name blotted out. What 
 the Koman lacked in bitterness the Jew supplied. What 
 the Jew could not do though he would, the Eoman 
 undertook ' to accomplish by brute force. Both the 
 quantity and quality of this force have to be fairly borne 
 in mind. Here, however, we can only bestow upon the 
 whole a single glance. It has been well said concerning 
 those early Christians, that " as dynamite explodes at the 
 tap of the hammer, so the whole savage empire smote 
 them with an unutterable fierceness, and wrapped them 
 in consuming fury." What language of earth can ever 
 do justice either to the sufferings or the heroism of a 
 Blandina, a Perpetua, a Potamion, a Felicitas ? But by way 
 of avoiding detailed horrors, it shall suffice to quote Mr. 
 Lecky's summary, in his History of European Morals 
 
 " We read of Christians bound in chairs of red-hot iron while the 
 stench of the unconsumed bodies rose in a suffocating cloud to 
 heaven : of others torn to the very bone by shells or hooks of iron :
 
 122 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 of holy virgins given over to the lust of gladiators or the mercies of 
 the pander : of two hundred and twenty-seven sent on one occasion 
 to the mines each with one leg severed by a hot iron and an eye 
 scooped from the socket : of fires so slow that the victims writhed 
 for hours in their agony : of tortures prolonged and varied through 
 entire days. For the love of their Divine Master, for the cause 
 which they believed to be true, men, and even weak girls, endured 
 these things, when one word would have freed them from their 
 sufferings." 
 
 In estimating the quality of such maltreatment, we 
 must not forget the quantity. 
 
 " The great persecutions," says Pressense, " are generally 
 enumerated as ten. This, however, is an arbitrary division. It 
 would be an error to assert that persecution burst forth only 
 ten times before the Constantine era. In reality it never ceased. 
 Checked at one point, it only flamed forth afresh at another. The 
 decree of Trajan, reinforced by many others, was not for a single 
 day withdrawn. Persecution was therefore always lawful, and did 
 not need ~a special permission." 
 
 Commencing with the innumerable and indescribable 
 barbarities of Nero at Eome, persecution became, as 
 Prof. Vernon Bartlet has well expressed it, " a permanent 
 police measure " throughout the empire. It was not 
 only intensified by the cruelties of Domitian, but every- 
 where savagely enforced by the people themselves. Yet 
 as early as the time of Trajan, only fifty years after the 
 martyrdom of Paul, we find the Koman proconsul Pliny 
 writing to the emperor, to complain that he is so 
 surrounded in Asia Minor with Christian converts that 
 he does not know what to do with them 
 
 "The superstition has spread from the cities into the country 
 like an infection carried by the wind." 
 
 " It has seemed to me a matter worthy of consultation, chiefly 
 on account of the number of persons in danger. Many of all ages 
 and ranks, and of both sexes, are and will be in danger."
 
 FACTS OF HISTORY AND THEIR EXPLANATION 123 
 
 The persecution continued none the less, and, with 
 variations in the degree of violence, lasted on throng] i 
 the reigns of Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius 
 Maximinus Thrax, Gallus, Gallienus, until under Galerius 
 and Diocletian, at. the end of the third century, a last 
 frantic attempt was made to " sweep Christianity from 
 the earth." Diocletian's three edicts were promulgated 
 throughout the empire, and " persecution rose to an 
 almost unparalleled height of fury." In that persecution 
 alone there perished from torture 184,000 persons in 
 the province of Egypt, besides 700,000 in exile, or at 
 the public works. How many more suffered elsewhere 
 can never be known. 
 
 And now what was the result of this " long and 
 bloody struggle " ? We may find it in the Edict of 
 Toleration issued by that very Galerius whose torturing 
 of the Christians by slow fires is too horrible to be 
 recounted. In that remarkable document which we 
 have from Lactantius, an eye-witness the ruthless 
 pagan confesses his utter failure to overthrow Christianity, 
 and in the pangs of his incurable disease, concedes to 
 Christians the right to assemble for worship, only asking 
 them to pray for him ! Thus it was that " Christianity 
 took its place amongst the recognised religions of the 
 empire." Fuller entrance into detail alone is necessary 
 to confirm the conviction, that a parallel to this long- 
 drawn tragedy has not been known in the world's 
 history. 
 
 It is, of course, easy to say that persecution makes a 
 cause popular and creates enthusiasm. It is just as true 
 as to say that water makes fire burn brighter. Some-
 
 124 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 times it does. But always and only on condition that 
 (1) the fire is stronger than the water poured upon it, 
 and (2) there should be such potential affinity between 
 the fire and the water, as we know does exist in the 
 relations of oxygen to combustion. But in the case 
 before us, (1), the indomitable strength and unquenchable 
 fervour of Christian conviction are the very things to 
 be accounted for. Whilst (2), it is preposterous to suggest 
 that there was any possibility of sympathy whatever 
 between the unresisting meekness of the Christians and 
 typical Eoman pride, or between Christian penitence 
 and Greek self-complacency, or between those who 
 clung to a crucified Messiah alleged to have risen from 
 the dead, and the average convictions of the Jews of that 
 period. The flame of wild fanaticism might perhaps 
 suffice to spread a plausible superstition. But where in 
 this case is there any vestige of the plausible ? The 
 Christian scheme is before us, and we have a fair know- 
 ledge of those times with their prevalent moral temper. 
 Where is there any trace of affinity ? Did Christianity 
 hold out any inducements likely to minister to the pride, 
 or the expectations, or the lust, of the world as it then 
 was ? Nay, in all sober truth, it is simply impossible to 
 imagine a scheme of morals or an ideal of philosophy, 
 a plan of human life or a conception of the Divine 
 Nature, more utterly opposed than was Christianity, to 
 the convictions and tastes of Jew, and Greek, and 
 Bornan alike. And this not merely as regards the 
 lower classes, but equally men of high position. In 
 fact, those who possessed most wealth and influence 
 had ever most to lose, and were correspondingly soonest
 
 FACTS OF HISTORY AND THEIE EXPLANATION 125 
 
 and most bitterly offended. Meanwhile how far re- 
 moved from blind, frenzied fanaticism was the faith of 
 the early Christians, may be well expressed in other- 
 words of the Eationalist historian quoted above 
 
 " Christianity united with its distinctive teaching a pure and 
 noble system of Ethics. It produced more heroic actions and 
 formed more upright men than any other creed. It transformed 
 the character of multitudes, vivified the cold heart by new 
 enthusiasm, redeemed, regenerated, emancipated the most depraved 
 of mankind." 
 
 So that when Gibbon cynically proffers, as explanation 
 of early Christian triumphs, (1) the devotion of Christians, 
 and (2) the power of Constantine, he calmly assumes the 
 very thing to be accounted for. It is precisely as if one 
 should claim to explain the cause of a great conflagration 
 by the assertion that it was kindled by a lighted match. 
 Which would leave unanswered the very questions that 
 most demand answer, namely, (1) how came the match to 
 have its potentiality of fire ? (2) who struck and applied 
 it ? and (3) why ? It is a belated question, and withal 
 quite irrelevant, to ask how much Constantine did for 
 Christianity. The actual problem to be solved is, what 
 was it in Christianity which, in spite of all the relent- 
 less fury of preceding persecutions, had already caused 
 it so to triumph as to make it worth the while of 
 Constantine to seek its alliance rather than continue 
 the manifestly useless attempts to destroy it ? If, one 
 must ask, there was such all-explaining potency in 
 the imperial patronage of Constantine, why were the 
 frantic and brutal and bloody efforts of Diocletian 
 just before, as well as the civil and social efforts and
 
 126 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 energies of Julian just after, alike impotent to compass 
 its end ? l 
 
 "We may safely conclude, therefore, that Constantine's 
 attitude only testifies to the resistless force of that 
 Christian devotion for which adequate cause has to be 
 found. It is but a counsel of despair to attribute it to 
 fanatic contagion. For whilst the plausibility of pleasing 
 error, or the attractions of profitable fraud, may avail to 
 fan a transient flame, they cannot and do not confer 
 glowing immortality upon falsehood, they do not and 
 cannot cause a system of lofty and difficult ethics to take 
 on such vitality in human society as not only to defy 
 extinction, but gather strength with passing ages and 
 become in the end the mightiest " power that makes for 
 righteousness " in the greatest nations of the world. 
 
 One need not here dwell upon the "wisdom of the 
 Greek " save to affirm that it was, in some respects, a more 
 formidable foe even than persecution. But a pertinent 
 question may be put with emphasis. If Christ were 
 only a Galilean impostor, seeking to establish a borrowed 
 system of morals upon a fraudulent or fanatical basis, so 
 clumsily, moreover, that to-day the eye of the mind can 
 easily detect His fallacies over a vista of eighteen 
 centuries, how came it to pass that all the subtlety and 
 force of the Greek intellect could not, there and then, 
 
 1 "The first of these laws (of Julian) prohibited the children of 
 Galileans for this was the name he gave to Christians from being 
 instructed in poetry, rhetoric, or philosophy." Such is the testimony 
 of Theodoret. And it is confirmed by Ammianus, who was a pagan 
 sympathiser with Julian : " His forbidding masters of rhetoric and 
 grammar to instruct Christians was a cruel action, and one 
 deserving to be buried in everlasting oblivion.'
 
 FACTS OF HISTORY AND THEIR EXPLANATION 127 
 
 expose the whole, even as the Coulombs recently exploded 
 in situ the Blavatsky frauds in India ? 
 
 So far, however, from succumbing to this threefold 
 opposition, which assuredly was such as no other religion 
 on earth has ever experienced, we see that from each 
 and all of these opposing sources, Jewish, Greek, and 
 Eoman, the ranks of the early converts were continually 
 recruited, until they became the ever victorious army 
 which included the whole world in its triumphal march. 
 The first manifest triumph of Christianity, therefore, was 
 over its enemies. 
 
 2. The second, hardly less significant, has been over 
 its friends. For as history records in regard to 
 Hannibal's famous struggle with Eome, that "Capua 
 was the Cannse of Carthage," by reason of its enervat- 
 ing luxury, so may it be averred that the freeing of 
 Christianity from persecution and contumely, and the 
 flooding it with imperial wealth and privilege, constituted 
 a far more real and potent danger than the previous 
 ordeals of fire and sword. From this time, indeed, it 
 must be owned that the history of the Christian Church, 
 in its main features, becomes alike perplexing and 
 saddening. As a matter of lamentable fact, during the 
 subsequent generations when external persecution had 
 ceased, Christians in all too many cases began to do 
 exactly contrary to the teaching and the spirit of the 
 Master whose name they bore. The details of the de- 
 generating process through which the " light of the 
 world," obscured more and more by ecclesiastical pride 
 and corruption, sank into the darkness of the Middle 
 Ages, must be sought elsewhere. It is often and truly
 
 128 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 said that Church history is sad reading. But in the 
 heart of the confession a question lurks which must not 
 be overlooked, namely, how came it to pass that such 
 internal poison did not succeed in accomplishing what 
 external violence had failed to do ? Germ diseases, we 
 now know, are the most deadly of all, both as to dire 
 effect and difficulty of cure. 1 Why, then, did not 
 Christianity die of the fevered un-Christianness which 
 so soon and so virulently permeated its whole extent ? 
 Such triumph over the corruption of its friends bespeaks 
 if it be a merely human development based on de- 
 lusion a greater moral miracle even than its refusal 
 to succumb to the onslaughts of its enemies. 
 
 3. A third triumph might also justly be specified, 
 namely, that over the definite and vigorous unbelief of the 
 last century. The detailed history cannot, of course, be 
 here attempted. It is sufficient to recall the early vigour 
 of Continental Deism with its English echo, followed by the 
 development of Atheism and Secularism in this country 
 pari passu with the " destructive criticism " of Germany 
 and the widespread influence of Strauss and Kenan. 2 It 
 certainly appeared as if Christianity had but a short time to 
 live. Yet to-day, in spite of Agnosticism, which appears, 
 under the influence of modern education, to be taking the 
 place of Secularism and Atheism, it is simply true to say 
 that Christianity is not only as vigorous as ever, but has 
 taken on fresh vitality, and exhibits definite promise of 
 
 1 Mr. H. G. Wells is perfectly justified in his War of Worlds in 
 representing the dreadful and resistless Martians as succumbing at 
 last to Bacterial attack. 
 
 2 An able summary of the case in regard to modern Secularism 
 will be found in Rev. H. Footman's Reasonable Apprehensions and 
 Reassuring Hints (London : Field & Tuer).
 
 FACTS OF HISTORY AND THEIR EXPLANATION 129 
 
 becoming at once purer and stronger than during all 
 the preceding centuries. Its present activity throughout 
 this country is too manifest to call for comment. When 
 all fair allowance has been made for differences of opinion 
 between the various sections of the Church, it yet 
 remains true that there is to-day more devotion and 
 influence in the world than ever before which must 
 be definitely pronounced Christian, whilst all kinds of 
 Christian workers are more numerous and more energetic 
 than ever. Missionary operations alone exhibit a degree 
 of disinterested zeal never before equalled in the whole 
 course of history, and the results of these labours surpass 
 even those of the first century of Christian propagandism. 1 
 The more perplexing, therefore, and disappointing the 
 history of Christianity may be when tried by the high 
 standard of the New Testament, the greater is the marvel 
 of its indestructible vitality and perpetual rejuvenescence. 
 Unless, indeed, the foundations of the Christian faith are 
 true, this marvel becomes a veritable miracle. For upon 
 the theory of unbelief, all this triumph, all this unparal- 
 leled diffusion, this strength of conviction which has 
 manifestly defied empires, this inner spring of purity 
 which has prevented even internal corruption from 
 issuing in destruction, this whole complex, immeasur- 
 able, irrepressible reality of growth, and permanence, and 
 vigour, originated in fraud or delusion, or a sinister 
 
 1 Take a typical comment from an unbiassed source. Says the 
 Daily Chronicle of July 4, 1900: '"Is Christianity a failure? 'was 
 the subject of a correspondence pursued in this paper some years 
 ago. The answer has come in a tremendous reawakening of the 
 Churches in the direction of practical life ; and in America this has 
 been visible with perhaps more distinctness even than in England." 
 
 9
 
 130 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 admixture of both ! Can any process of thought what- 
 ever render this either reasonable or credible ? l 
 
 To sum up, then, we are warranted in affirming that 
 if the whole past and present of Christianity can be 
 attributed to myth, to ignorance, to hysteria, to fanaticism 
 spiced with fraud, or to any conceivable combination of 
 all these, then it is not enough to liken such an attribu- 
 tion to a pyramid poised upon its apex, for the apex 
 itself rests upon nothing. Thus is involved a miracle 
 indeed, as much more stupendous in the quantity of its 
 supernaturalness as more sinister in quality, than all 
 those recorded in the New Testament. It is undoubtedly 
 true, as Mr. Lecky has frankly acknowledged, that 
 
 "Amid all the sins and failings, amid all the priestcraft, the 
 persecution, and fanaticism which have defaced the Church, it has 
 preserved, in the character and example of its Founder, an enduring 
 principle of regeneration." 
 
 But if only a character so high and an example so 
 potent be conceded as a necessity of the case, unbelief 
 answers itself (as will be presently more fully shown), 
 and rationalism is hoist with its own petard. We are 
 entirely warranted, therefore, in borrowing the words of 
 Hume and saying, in regard to the New Testament 
 account of the rise, progress, vitality, and influence of the 
 Christian religion, that " its falsehood would be more 
 
 1 The origin and history of Mohammedanism or Buddhism may 
 well be acknowledged to be remarkable. But no one fairly 
 acquainted with these can for a moment allege them as a parallel to 
 Christianity. Rather they exactly illustrate the present contention. 
 For in regard to each of these we are able to discover clear and 
 sufficient natural causes for their diffusion. But in the case of 
 Christianity, the more such are sought the less they are found,
 
 FACTS OF HISTORY AND THEIR EXPLANATION 131 
 
 miraculous than the fact which it endeavours to 
 establish." 
 
 III. We proceed now to notice another testimony in 
 the same direction, namely, that arising from the present 
 existence, significance, and origin of the Christian rite 
 known as " The Lord's Supper," or the " Eucharist," or 
 " The Communion of the Lord's Table." The particular 
 name adopted, or indeed the specific theological concep- 
 tion of the meaning of this service, does not here concern 
 us. The argument is the same either from the High 
 Anglican or the Free Church standpoint. It is not 
 affected by the adoption of the Eomish, or Zwinglian, or 
 Lutheran conception of this rite. We can, indeed, only 
 now sketch in outline that which richly merits closest 
 attention. But we will at least start once more with 
 certainty. Throughout the whole world, wherever 
 Christianity is known, this rite is observed. With what 
 degree of complexity or variation as to method, is here 
 irrelevant. The simple and sufficient fact is that this 
 observation of a unique service has always been part of 
 the Christian religion. It is no less significant, though 
 we may not here pause to dwell upon it, that somehow, 
 wherever it has prevailed, living sacrifices for sin have 
 ceased, and at the same time the sense of sin has been 
 greatly intensified. 
 
 For our present purpose we are only concerned to 
 demand an adequate cause for this unique institution. 
 The New Testament account of its origin, intention, and 
 promulgation is at once simple, reasonable, and suffi- 
 cient. If, however, this be rejected, on the ground 
 that it involves the truth of Christ's resurrection, as a
 
 132 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 supernatural and therefore incredible event, what fol- 
 lows ? Such rejection disposes of none of the facts. 
 The features of the case which may be fairly said 
 to be beyond controversy are these 
 
 1. That this rite has been sacredly observed by all 
 Christians without exception and in every part of the 
 world, without a break, for the last eighteen and a half 
 centuries. 
 
 2. That it could not possibly have been derived from 
 Judaism, seeing that it entirely, ignores the very heart 
 of the analogous Jewish rite, namely, a living animal 
 victim for sacrifice. 
 
 3. That, on the other hand, the bare notion of a 
 Messiah making Himself a sacrifice, could only shock 
 and horrify the pious Jew. 
 
 4. That there was nothing in Greek or Eoman 
 mythology from which this rite could be derived, nor 
 was there any reason at all why any such borrowing 
 should be even contemplated. It was, indeed, a puzzle 
 alike to Jewish and Eoman persecutors. 
 
 5. That it was definitely instituted by Christ 
 Himself, and manifestly intended by Him as a memorial 
 service to be continually repeated from that time forth. 
 
 6. That not only has it been so observed, un- 
 brokenly, from that day to this, but it is more and 
 more repeated every year by means of Christian 
 Foreign Missions, and promises to become known ere 
 long absolutely throughout the whole world. 
 
 Now upon the assumption of unbelief, namely, that 
 Christ was simply a human reformer, murdered and 
 left in some known grave like other men, two questions
 
 FACTS OF HISTORY AND THEIR EXPLANATION 133 
 
 at least demand an unevasive answer. First, what 
 could be the motive for the institution of such a 
 service by Christ Himself ? Secondly, how came it to 
 be universally accepted as a distinctive Christian rite, 
 and continually prevalent thenceforth to the present 
 hour ? 
 
 For, be it clearly observed, on the assumption that 
 the Eesurrection is false, this service could only be, 
 from the very first, the perpetuation and proclamation 
 of an utter failure, as well as the absolute contradiction 
 of Christ's own most emphatic assurance and definite 
 promise. It would also be, in such case, the manifest 
 stultification of all that the apostles afterwards so 
 earnestly taught. Over and over again Christ asserted 
 that He would not only be killed, but " the third day 
 rise again from the dead." Now upon the hypothesis 
 of unbelief, He must either have known or not have 
 known that this prediction of His was utterly delusive. 
 In the former case, He must be regarded as a deceiver ; 
 in the latter, as deceived. What then becomes of that 
 character which, as will be presently shown, unbelief has 
 extolled almost as highly as belief ? The same dilemma, 
 however, also applies to all the apostles. For whilst we 
 know that they went everywhere preaching " Jesus and 
 the resurrection," they also insisted, in every Church, 
 upon the observance of this service, which, if Christ 
 were not risen, utterly mocked their teaching and called 
 attention to its foundation falsehood, seeing that all men 
 were thereby continually reminded of what they them- 
 selves also knew, namely, that the dead body of the Christ 
 of whom they spoke lay rotting in some Jewish grave.
 
 134 THE MIEACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 And strangest of all, this most glaring of all con- 
 tradictions arose on the very spot where the events in 
 question took place ; thence as from a centre developed 
 itself throughout the world; and now, after the lapse 
 of nearly nineteen centuries, has stronger hold than 
 ever upon the reverent affections of the noblest men 
 and the foremost nations of modern civilisation ! Well 
 indeed has Ebrard said that "in the whole sphere of 
 criticism there is no absurdity more uncritical than 
 the idea that a rite which universally prevailed should 
 have grown up accidentally and gradually, especially a 
 rite of such marked peculiarity." But when to this is 
 added the inference which necessarily follows from the 
 assumption of Christ's non-resurrection, namely, that the 
 whole rite was but the mark of an utter delusion, or 
 a manifest fraud, combined with unmeasured failure, we 
 have in truth a miracle of unbelief, which, in modern 
 parlance, is simply and utterly " unthinkable." 
 
 For the more we strive to avoid the supernatural by 
 assuming Christ's non-resurrection, the more vainly do 
 we ask how it came to pass that the Master Himself 
 instituted such a service ; or what could induce the 
 first disciples to perpetuate the memory of a death 
 which proved them to be either deceivers or deceived ; 
 or what could possibly have led others of all tempera- 
 ments and positions from the very midst of their 
 opponents and persecutors, to join in the continuance 
 of this rite, and the deification of an impostor who 
 had broken his most emphatic promise and disappointed 
 every hope that he had raised ? 
 
 The actuality of the Resurrection, on the other hand,
 
 FACTS OF HISTORY AND THEIR EXPLANATION 135 
 
 as a sign and seal of the divineness of Christ's life and 
 death, is a simple and sufficient explanation of all the 
 facts. But if that be rejected, then the institution of 
 such a rite, at such a time, and under such circumstances, 
 together with its unbroken and ever-increasing perpetua- 
 tion to this day, is more inexplicable upon natural 
 principles, and therefore more miraculous, than the 
 Eesurrection itself. 
 
 IV. It is time, however, that we faced unflinchingly, 
 and upon its merits, the whole modern case for or 
 against Christ's actual Eesurrection. It has of late 
 years become more and more apparent, that the key 
 of the entire Christian position is in the reality, or 
 otherwise, of the Eesurrection of Christ from the dead. 
 Mr. Eow, in his lecture before the Christian Evidence 
 Society, stated the case with emphatic frankness when 
 he said, " Above all, let unbelievers not carp at minor 
 details about miracles, but join issue in the truth 
 or falsehood of the Eesurrection of Jesus Christ, with 
 the truth of which miracle the writers of the New 
 Testament affirm that Christianity stands or falls." 
 
 It cannot be said these words are too strong. If 
 this greatest of all miracles be true, there is no more 
 question about the reality of the supernatural. If 
 this be false, the whole representation of the New 
 Testament is a delusion, and there is left no Christianity 
 to defend. We cannot be surprised, therefore, that a 
 special attack has been made upon this central position 
 of the Christian faith. It was also to be expected that 
 equally concentrated attention, by way of reply, would be 
 paid to it by Christiuu apologists. Many monographs
 
 136 THE MIKACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 have thus appeared upon this theme. 1 Here it must 
 suffice for us to attempt a fair estimate of the facts 
 which confessedly remain, after all the winnowing criti- 
 cism of the present day has done its utmost. Abundant 
 reasons may be supplied for the following general 
 affirmations : 
 
 1. That the witnesses on behalf of the Resurrection 
 were entirely competent. 2 
 
 The further possible suggestion that they were 
 wanting in moral character will be met presently. 
 The only valid proof of incompetence as witnesses 
 would be the demonstration that all the apostles and 
 early preachers were insane, which suggestion is its own 
 sufficient refutation. 
 
 2. That they were sufficient in number. 
 
 3. That they commenced their zealous testimony 
 immediately upon the occurrence of the events recorded 
 hi the Gospels. Time for growth of a myth is, thanks 
 to modern critical research, entirely out of the question. 
 
 4. That believers in the Eesurrection multiplied at 
 once in the very place where it was alleged to have 
 occurred, and thence, as from a centre, it spread until 
 the world of that day was filled with the doctrine. 
 
 1 For ordinary readers the best modern statement of the case is 
 undoubtedly that of Dr. J. Kennedy's little volume, entitled, The 
 Resurrection of Jesus Christ, published by the Religious Tract 
 Society. For a succinct summary of the whole position see 
 Reasonable Orthodoxy, by the present writer. 
 
 2 The suggestion that the early witnesses of the Resurrection were 
 lacking in the critical and scientific faculty is quite irrevelant. 
 For it is plain that neither of these faculties was necessary for the 
 clear apprehension of the fact that Christ was risen, or the truthful 
 representation of that fact to others.
 
 FACTS OF HISTORY AND THEIR EXPLANATION 137 
 
 5. That the early developments of party differ- 
 ences, on other matters, between the first believers, 
 prevented all possibility of dishonest collusion in 
 regard to this great fundamental conviction and 
 declaration. 
 
 6. That the number of backsliders and perverts, 
 through persecution, is sufficient guarantee that there 
 was no guilty secret to be kept, or it would most 
 certainly have come to light. 
 
 7. That from the belief in the Eesurrection there 
 sprang a moral and spiritual impetus which set in 
 motion the mightiest forces for righteousness known 
 in human history. 
 
 8. That this mighty and holy impulse has not only 
 lasted until now, but is still developing fresh energy 
 year by year, in the diffusion of Christianity throughout 
 the world. 
 
 Now all this, and more that might truthfully be 
 tabulated, has to be rationally accounted for. These 
 facts, as such, demand a valid explanation and an 
 adequate cause. They can no more have arisen out 
 of nothing, or come about by chance, than our great 
 modern railroad system could have arisen spontaneously 
 in a land where iron was unknown, or have been 
 developed without the brain of a Watt and the genius 
 of a Stephenson. 
 
 In other words, if all this weight of testimony, this 
 enormity of actual, wonderful, and holy result, could have 
 sprung either from nothing or from fraud, aided only by 
 delusion and superstition, a greater psychological and 
 moral difficulty is involved than any mental or physical
 
 138 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 difficulty attendant upon the actuality of the Eesurrection 
 as recorded in the Gospels. 
 
 In order, however, to bring out into due relief the 
 weighty truths thus summarised, let us briefly survey 
 the dilemma of unbelief. That something happened which 
 gave rise to the great foundation belief of Christianity, 
 may be postulated as incontrovertible. What was that 
 something ? The choice is necessarily restricted to one 
 of the three following : 
 
 1. Christ did actually rise from the dead, 1 sub- 
 stantially as recorded in the New Testament, thus at 
 once creating and explaining the new impulse of spiritual 
 life, fervid zeal, and triumphant hope, in the disciples. 
 
 2. Or else, the indisputable and rapid spread of 
 Christian belief throughout all the early Churches, with 
 its continuance and influence until now, resulted solely 
 from the superstitious and weak-minded delusion of a 
 small band of Jewish men and women who were given 
 over to credulity and fanaticism. 
 
 3: Or else, the whole Christian result rests upon 
 well-known and cunningly concocted fraud. 
 
 Now of these, if (1) be accepted, everything is not 
 only adequately accounted for, but explained as naturally 
 as supernaturally. If this, however, be rejected, we 
 must look to (2) or (3) for the sufficient cause of the 
 whole result. But the more searchingly this is done, 
 the more does it become manifest that such' a proceeding 
 is but an overwhelming case of straining out the gnat 
 
 1 The question as to the nature of His Resurrection, whether 
 " physical " or " spiritual," is here irrelevant, but will be considered 
 at the close of this chapter. See Note B, p. 155.
 
 FACTS OF HISTORY AND THEIR EXPLANATION 139 
 
 and swallowing the camel. The difficulties which at 
 once and inevitably arise, are incomparably greater than 
 those which on the side of Christian faith are regarded 
 as incredible. 
 
 For in this case one of two statements must be true. 
 (1) Either Christ did die, but did not really rise again ; 
 or (2) He did not really die, and so only seemed to rise 
 from the dead. 
 
 Now the latter alternative can scarcely be better 
 despatched than in the words of Strauss himself. Such 
 a witness should surely suffice, even apart from other 
 incredibilities. Thus he says 
 
 " It is impossible that a being who had stolen half dead out of 
 the sepulchre, who crept about weak and ill, wanting medical treat- 
 ment, who required bandaging, strengthening, indulgence, and who 
 still at last yielded to his sufferings, could have given the disciples 
 the impression that he was a conqueror over death and the grave. 
 Such a resuscitation could only have weakened the impression he 
 had made upon them in life and in death. It could by no possi- 
 bility .have changed their sorrow into enthusiasm, or have elevated 
 their reverence into worship." 
 
 All this seems so self-manifest that it would appeal- 
 scarcely worth while to take further notice of so puerile 
 a hypothesis. And yet, strange to say, this very sup- 
 position is that which has most recommended itself to the 
 late President of the Koyal Society, Prof. T. H. Huxley. 
 How a man of his scientific acumen and polemical skill 
 could bring himself to such a choice in the dilemma, is 
 not ours to say. One must, however, avow that it is 
 sheer scientific pedantry to refuse to believe that Christ 
 really died, "unless careful thermometric observation 
 proved that the temperature of the body had sunk to
 
 140 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 a certain point, or unless the cadaverous stiffening of 
 the muscles had become well established." 
 
 But whatever we may think of such a proposition, the 
 difficulties which immediately arise upon denying the 
 reality of Christ's death have to be honestly faced. They 
 have been sufficiently put by Keim in his Jesu von Nazara 
 (vol. vi. p. 330) 
 
 " And what impossibilities meet us, from the rolling away of the 
 stone to the restless travelling, those long journeys between Jerusalem 
 and Galilee with his utterly exhausted vital force, even if we grant 
 to Dr. Paulus that his feet had not been pierced. Then there is the 
 most impossible thing of all ; a poor sick, weak Jesus, with difficulty 
 holding himself erect, in hiding, disguised, and finally dying, this 
 Jesus an object of faith, of exalted emotion, of the triumph of his 
 adherents, a risen conqueror and Son of God ! Here, in fact, the 
 theory begins to grow absurd, worthy only of rejection, since it 
 makes the apostles either miserable victims of deceit, or with Jesus 
 themselves deceivers. On these grounds the theory of apparent death 
 has in recent times been rejected by critics almost without exception." 
 
 It has been reserved for England's foremost son of 
 science to endeavour to resuscitate this moribund hypo- 
 thesis. Certainly one would have said that if modern 
 science really had anything worth regarding against the 
 Eesurrection of Christ, an abler advocate of its findings 
 could not be found than Thomas Henry Huxley. But, 
 in good sooth, if this is the best that even he has to 
 advance, then Christianity is firmly based indeed. 
 
 Dr. Sanday 1 has but expressed the final finding of 
 modern criticism after the most exact and prolonged 
 scrutiny when he avows that both this suggestion of 
 only pseudo-death, and the theory that the early witnesses 
 
 1 In the recent Dictionary of the Bilk, edited by Dr. Hastings 
 (T. & T. Clark).
 
 FACTS OF HISTORY AND THEIR EXPLANATION 141 
 
 to the Eesurrection might have been wilful deceivers, 
 are dead and done with, so far as further present-day 
 consideration is concerned. 
 
 If we turn instead to the second supposition, namely, that 
 Christ did really die but did not really rise, we have first 
 to consider Strauss' own belief, that mythical theory upon 
 which he spent so much cultured ingenuity, and which 
 was afterwards so embellished by the rhetoric of Eenan. 
 
 According to this, the spring and centre of the whole 
 Christian doctrine of the Resurrection was the hysterical 
 imagination of Mary Magdalene. Jesus did die indeed, but 
 did not rise. Mary simply thought she saw Him, and made 
 all the rest of His former disciples think so too. Out of 
 their conjoint " elevation of mental and nervous life " in 
 plain statement, out of their weak-minded and credulous 
 fanaticism, sprang the Resurrection narratives with all 
 their following results. Thus, according to this suggestion, 
 the real foundation of the apostolic Christianity which 
 overran the world, was mere hysteria plus credulity ! 
 
 Well, one thing assuredly follows. If this be so, it 
 is at all events a greater miracle by far than the Resur- 
 rection itself. If such a result from such a cause be 
 deemed credible, there need no longer be any objection 
 to the supernatural, for here we have thrust upon us 
 that which is not only beyond but utterly opposed to all 
 that we know to be natural. Let us, however, see clearly 
 to what this my thico- visionary supposition commits us. 
 There are certain facts of the case which may be pro- 
 nounced indisputable. These are as follows : 
 
 1. The Resurrection was confessedly entirely contrary 
 alike to the fears and the hopes of the disciples. There
 
 142 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 is, therefore, no reason whatever to call in question the 
 representation of them which we find in the Gospels, as 
 being astounded at something which followed upon the 
 Crucifixion, sceptical as to the reality of a resurrection, 
 " slow indeed " to believe that it was actually true. 
 
 2. By their final conviction that it was true, and 
 the consequent undertaking of a world-wide propaganda, 
 they had nothing whatever to gain, but everything 
 valuable to lose. All hope of personal advantage in this 
 life was reversed. All that they had naturally held 
 precious up to that time, was utterly lost. Everything 
 that human nature finds hardest to bear and most seeks 
 to avoid, shame, persecution, martyrdom, stood out luridly 
 before them as their inevitable prospect. 
 
 3. The first converts were from amongst the Jews, 
 including priests and other Mosaic devotees, of whom 
 Saul of Tarsus stands out as a prominent specimen. If 
 any man is disposed to think that such men as these 
 are easily moved from their venerable traditions, it is 
 open to him honestly to prove it to-day, whenever he 
 will, by trying to compass the same results in the case 
 of any ordinary Jewish Eabbi. 
 
 4. From Paul's unchallenged or perhaps rather 
 challenged and confirmed letters, namely, those to the 
 Komans, Corinthians, and Galatians, we do know that 
 the full and unhesitating belief in Christ's real Eesur- 
 rection was established amongst all Christians through- 
 out the then known world within about twenty-five years 
 after the Crucifixion. That is, during a less period of 
 time than has elapsed between the passing of the Educa- 
 tion Act of 1870 and the present day. Is this, then, sum-
 
 FACTS OF HISTORY AND THEIR EXPLANATION 143 
 
 cienfc time for the development of a "myth," at the 
 centre of which was a sheer delusion, into the strength 
 of a conviction which was more than conqueror over 
 the bitter prejudice of the Jew, the stubborn pride of 
 the Eoman, and the cultured conceit of the Greek ? 
 Should this, indeed, be accepted as true, we need go 
 no farther. The supernatural in sinister fashion is 
 proved to demonstration. 
 
 5. Again, Keirn repudiates the "vision theory" 
 after prolonged and friendly consideration on the ground 
 that it "leaves the main facts unexplained, and indeed 
 subordinates what is historically attested to weak and 
 untenable views." He also acknowledges that the belief 
 in the Eesurrection was " directly accompanied by astonish- 
 ingly clear perceptions and resolves." But this acknow- 
 ledgment surely connotes more than the author of it 
 appears to perceive. " Clear perceptions " could not but 
 distinguish between the sight or touch of the body of 
 their risen Lord, and a " telegram from heaven " in the 
 shape of some misleading impression made upon their 
 brain, whereby they mistook the subjective for the 
 objective. Dr. Bruce well asks 1 
 
 " If the resurrection be an unreality, if the body that was nailed 
 to the tree never came forth from the tomb, why send messages 
 that were certain to produce an opposite impression ? " 
 
 1 Apologetics, p. 393. This " telegram theory " is well criticised 
 and dismissed by Dr. Bruce, but calls for no special considera- 
 tion here, inasmuch as it concedes the supernatural. Dr. Bruce 
 forcibly remarks, " it is simply a question whether what was seen 
 was the body that was laid in the tomb, or a vision bearing the 
 likeness of that body, produced for the benefit of His disciples by 
 the still living spirit of Jesus."
 
 144 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 Out of the "main facts" which are "historically 
 attested," rises, however, the real question of importance. 
 Whence did the disciples draw the influence which made 
 them, almost immediately after the Crucifixion, the very 
 opposite to what they had been before ? Not only have 
 we abundant evidence of their previous narrow-mindedness 
 and dulness of spiritual apprehension, but we know 
 that these characteristics remained right up to the time 
 of their Master's betrayal and death. Whilst, indeed, 
 He was yet with them, and when He most of all needed 
 their support, they were so craven-hearted that they " all 
 forsook Him and fled " ; one of them afterwards denying 
 with oaths that he had been in His company. 
 
 Yet see what now follows. The Master whom they 
 had so long timidly followed is absolutely overwhelmed 
 by Jewish hate working through Eoman might, is help- 
 lessly subjected to shame and suffering, and finally put 
 to death in the most ignominious way as a common 
 malefactor. Thus He is utterly taken away from them, 
 and with His removal every high hope that they had 
 cherished is wholly lost, every chance of renewed inspira- 
 tion is gone for ever. The natural result of all this we 
 know if we know anything at all about human nature 
 would be that broken-hearted, crushed in spirit, 
 scattered in all directions, they should sink into obscurity, 
 leaving only the record of another prophet's failure to 
 be reckoned with that of Theudas, and Judas of Galilee, 
 and similar sporadic flashes of Jewish fanaticism. 
 
 But instead of this what do we actually find? The 
 very men who whilst their leader was with them were 
 arrant cowards, now that He is taken away become bold
 
 FACTS OF HISTORY AND THEIR EXPLANATION 145 
 
 as lions. The disciples who when they had their Teacher 
 daily in their midst were dull in mind and "slow of 
 heart," selfish in aim and craven in spirit, now stand 
 forth before the whole world, clear-toned in their mission, 
 fervent in zeal, defiant alike of the religious spleen of 
 the Jew and the political animosity of the Eoman. And 
 whereas, formerly, they were chiefly anxious to know how 
 much each would gain in this world by becoming the 
 followers of the Prophet of Nazareth, now they care 
 nothing for aught of riches or honour that men can 
 bestow, but have their whole soul-vision intently fixed 
 upon the present approval of an invisible Lord, and the 
 assurance of reward from Him hereafter. Thus the very 
 same individuals who a little time before, in cowardly 
 haste to save themselves, fled and left their Master to 
 His fate, now openly avow themselves His disciples ; 
 paying no heed to the malignant threats of scribes and 
 Pharisees, or the maledictions of priests and elders ; 
 bearing shame with perfect equanimity ; making light of 
 the sufferings that came through persecution ; and treat- 
 ing death itself as but a trifle ; so only that they might 
 bear witness everywhere to their Lord, and to the gospel 
 which they conceived they were commissioned from Him 
 to preach. 
 
 This is indeed a sudden change in human nature, as 
 manifest in fact as unparalleled in history. The events 
 cannot be called in question, either as to their reality 
 or their rapidity. Yet this whole phenomenon, with all 
 that flowed from it and is inseparably connected with it, 
 is to be explained by hysterical imagination working upon 
 weak-minded infatuation! Those who can believe this
 
 146 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 should, in simple modesty, surely be the last in the world 
 to make mention of the " difficulties " of Christian faith. 
 
 But the difficulties of unfaith in this case are by no 
 means yet exhausted. The tissue of absurdities to which 
 denial of the Eesurrection of Jesus inevitably commits 
 us, is far from complete. Another question remains 
 which is generally overlooked, but merits fair and full 
 examination. We are bound to ask what actually 
 became of the body of the crucified Teacher, in the event 
 of His not having risen again ? If we assume the 
 substantial reliability of the New Testament narrative, 
 such a question is at once simply and sufficiently 
 answered by the reality of the transformation of the 
 " natural " body of Jesus the Crucified into the glorified 
 body of the Eisen Christ. 
 
 But if not this, then what? Would not the pro- 
 duction of that body have been perfectly easy for the 
 authorities to have arranged ? Would not such pro- 
 duction have ended, necessarily and at one blow, the 
 whole mission of the men who went everywhere pro- 
 claiming " Jesus and the Eesurrection " ? One open 
 procession in the streets of Jerusalem, one public 
 proclamation inviting verification, one exhibition of that 
 mangled form so well known to all and the new faith 
 would have been strangled in the birth. Such palpable 
 proof of delusion would unquestionably have sufficed, at 
 once and for ever, to convict of manifest falsehood all 
 those who throughout Judea w r ere making Christ's 
 Eesurrection the unvarying basis of their strange and 
 obnoxious doctrine. Is it conceivable that neither the 
 fertile cunning of the Jew nor the astute shrewdness of
 
 FACTS OF HISTORY AND THEIR EXPLANATION 147 
 
 the Eoman, was capable of suggesting such an effective 
 coup de grdce, when priests and rulers alike were incensed 
 and baffled by the newborn zeal of the Christians ? 
 
 "But might not the body have been stolen?" It 
 might, possibly. But in such case certain other questions 
 at once demand answer. (1) By whom should this theft 
 be compassed ? By the craven band that had just executed 
 such a sauve qui peut ? Were these the men to outwit 
 the lynx-eyed watchfulness of the Jews, or surprise, or 
 overcome, or bribe, the stolid Eoman guards ? The 
 puerility of the suggestion, " Say ye, His disciples came 
 by night and stole Him away while we slept," is only 
 equalled by its barefaced assertion of the manifestly 
 incredible. (2) For, we must ask, why should this 
 insignificant band of weeping women and panic-stricken 
 men attempt such a foolhardy feat ? It is not in human 
 nature to undertake such a rash and risky venture with- 
 out reason. Yet there is absolutely no single valid reason 
 that can here be suggested. There was nothing what- 
 ever of comfort, or hope, or guidance, or inspiration, to 
 be gained, even if such a fanatic attempt should succeed. 
 (3) Moreover, one may surely add, that if they had 
 succeeded in stealing a mangled body, that would in 
 itself have availed them nothing, unless there had also 
 been the conjoined, universal, and life-long perpetuation 
 of what they knew to be a lie. But in that case other 
 difficulties immediately arise. If the ceaselessly pro- 
 claimed resurrection were thus only a guilty lying secret, 
 how came it to pass that from such a source there 
 emanated the ethics of the New Testament ? Or how did 
 it happen that out of all the thousands of early Christians,
 
 148 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 so many of whom, we know, proved backsliders and 
 renegades, not one was found to betray this ghastly 
 trust and explode the colossal deception by revealing 
 where the body really was, or what had actually been 
 done with it ? Has any secret society known to us or 
 to all history, kept its oaths so effectually, in the per- 
 petual concealment of outrageous falsehood ? (4) The 
 very fact that, in order to dispose of this difficulty, 
 some have suggested that the body of Jesus might 
 have been swallowed up in the earthquake recorded by 
 Matthew l serves to show how hard pressed is the modern 
 scepticism which can have recourse to such a shift. 
 (5) But let this also pass. Suppose that, without either 
 courage or reason, the disciples did somehow elude the 
 Jews, overpower the Eoman guard, and possess them- 
 selves of the corpse. What then ? Then, in view of 
 facts which cannot be disputed, the following con- 
 sequences inevitably ensue. That this same band of 
 cowardly but successful thieves, knowing themselves to 
 be such, went forth (maintaining a miracle of silent con- 
 spiracy amongst themselves) and gave themselves up (at 
 the cost of everything enjoyable and precious, with a 
 reward of pain and shame and suffering and death) to 
 the ceaseless advocacy of truth by the tireless promulga- 
 tion of what they knew to be a lie. By their main 
 falsehood they converted a keen and zealous young 
 Eabbi, who (being conversant with all the facts) at first 
 bitterly opposed them, and then became suddenly the 
 ablest and most influential of all their co-workers in the 
 self-same mission. Together they victoriously defied the 
 1 Matt, xxviii. 2.
 
 FACTS OF HISTORY AND THEIR EXPLANATION 149 
 
 venerable traditions of Judaism, the all - conquering 
 might of Eome, the subtle intellectual pride of Greece. 
 Thus, upon the corrupting body of a deluded enthusiast, 
 they proceeded to build up, by means of ignorance, 
 fanaticism, delusion, and fraud, the whole fabric of the 
 Christian Church as outlined in the New Testament, 
 with its undeniable sanctions of truth and goodness, 
 a system of ethics to whose loftiness the greatest .un- 
 believers have ever borne ungrudging witness, as well as 
 the most worthy hope of blessed immortality that has 
 ever stirred the hearts of men. 
 
 Verily, those who can believe that such results sprang 
 from such causes, can believe anything. But, to ordinary 
 minds, the difficulty of accepting this wholesale mon- 
 strosity, as compared with that of acknowledging the 
 Kesurrection of Christ to be true, can only appear as an 
 enormity by the side of a trifle, alike illogical and in- 
 credible. 
 
 Dr. Kennedy is therefore well warranted in saying 
 that l 
 
 "The utter collapse of all attempts to explain the facts which 
 unbelievers acknowledge, while denying the main, the supernatural 
 fact, adds not a little to the force of the evidence." 
 
 No doubt Dr. Bruce is right 2 that "the physical 
 resurrection remains a great mystery." Mystery, how- 
 ever, is no bar to faith. In this case it may freely 
 be affirmed that mystery is far more reasonable than 
 perspicuity. Besides which, it must be borne in mind 
 that every vision we have of a friend, every intelligent 
 conversation we hold, every simple thrill of consciousness, 
 1 The Resurrection, R.T.S., p. 172. 2 Vide p. 172.
 
 150 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 nay, the life of every gnat that flits in the summer sun, 
 and of every infinitesimal bacterium that fulfils its 
 function in the soil, all alike embody mysteries as utterly 
 unfathomed and unfathomable by our latest and most 
 exact science, as the Kesurrection of Jesus Christ. 
 
 To sum up the whole case, therefore, 1 we are driven 
 
 1 Other testimonies similar to that of Dr. Bruce might, of course, 
 be multiplied. As it is sometimes of value to know the definite 
 judgement of those who occupy leading positions and have earned 
 their reputations, we may here quote the deliberate utterance of 
 Dr. Maclaren of Manchester : " And so we are shut up in spite of 
 people who do not accept that great truth we are shut up to the 
 old alternative, as it seems to me, either Jesus rose from the dead, 
 or the noblest lives that the world has ever seen, and the loftiest 
 system of morality that has ever been proclaimed, were built upon 
 a lie. And we are called upon to believe that, at the bidding 
 of a mere unsupported, bare, dogmatic assertion that miracles are 
 impossible. Believe it who will, I decline to be coerced into 
 believing a blank, staring contradiction and psychological impos- 
 sibility in order to be saved the necessity of admitting the existence 
 of the supernatural. I would rather believe in the supernatural 
 than the ridiculous. And to me it is unspeakably ridiculous to 
 suppose that anything but the fact of the resurrection accounts for 
 the existence of the Church, and for the faith of this witness that 
 we have before us." On the First Epistle to the Thessalonians. 
 
 The clear straightforwardness of this statement contrasts very 
 distinctly with the mazy verbal shufflings of some who pose as 
 advanced Christian teachers, but profess to have grave intellectual 
 doubts concerning the reality of the supernatural. One of these 
 recently, whilst affirming his belief in the Resurrection, explains it 
 thus : " We believe that Jesus rose from the dead when His 
 gracious spirit returned to His Father's care." Surely only ordinary 
 intelligence is required to put this side by side with the New 
 Testament and see that, as a professed exposition of the force of 
 Christ's own words and the definite assertions of the Apostles, 
 it is even worse than "ridiculous." Such an invertebrate and 
 eviscerated Christianity has no honest claim to the name. 
 Whilst as to "difficulties," it doubles rather than relieves them. 
 For it is weighted both with those of faith and those of unfaith.
 
 FACTS OF HISTORY AND THEIR EXPLANATION 151 
 
 to affirm that, in view of all the related facts which are 
 incontrovertible, somewhere and somehow in this connection 
 the miraculous is inevitable. The facts and laws of 
 psychology are just as real, just as sure, as those of any 
 other branch of science. If, therefore, on grounds of 
 biology, or physics, the actual and historical Eesurrection, 
 as narrated in the New Testament, be rejected, then im- 
 mediately, upon equally valid grounds of psychology, that 
 rejection must itself in turn be rejected. By no " natural " 
 possibility whatever, can hypocrisy flood the world with 
 sincerity. No brainless fanaticism can naturally enforce 
 universal sobriety. Fraud cannot, save by miracle, build 
 up through all the ages the pure and lofty temple of truth. 
 Weak-minded and heartless selfishness cannot naturally 
 give birth to an unquenchable world reform, the very 
 essence of which is rational but self-denying devotion to 
 the " strong Son of God " who is " immortal love." 
 
 Thus are we warranted in the conclusion, that if the 
 Christian account of the Eesurrection of Jesus Christ 
 involves solemn mystery, the un- Christian invokes utter 
 impossibility. The miracles of faith are credible and 
 justifiable. The miracles of unbelief are incredible 
 monstrosities. Between these two, for every reasonable 
 mind, the choice is plain. 
 
 NOTES 
 
 A. The nnsatisfactoriness of the attempt to establish any sub- 
 stantial difference between the supernatural and the miraculous 
 has already been noticed (p. 43). It seems necessary, however, 
 to give a moment's heed to the shyness with which the very 
 term "supernatural" appears to be increasingly regarded, even by
 
 152 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 estimable thinkers and speakers inside the modern Christian Church. 
 Is there after all any real ground for this ? The author of The Kernel 
 and the Husk apparently thinks not : " In the supernatural, every 
 rational man must believe, if he knows what is meant by the term ; 
 for every rational man must acknowledge that the world either had 
 a beginning or no beginning, a First Cause or no First Cause ; and 
 either hypothesis is altogether above the level of natural phenomena, 
 and therefore supernatural. The Theist and the Atheist alike 
 are believers in the supernatural." 
 
 This, however, is rather to cut than to untie the Gordian knot. 
 Reasons have been given above for regarding the "supernatural" of 
 the Atheist as really and emphatically the anti-natural. And when 
 our author carefully spells "super-natural" with a hyphen, in 
 which he is quite justified, it is manifest that then the true con- 
 notation of the term necessarily depends upon the significance of 
 the word "natural." In his interesting chapter upon "What is 
 Nature ? " two general meanings are suggested : (1) " the ordinary 
 course of things apart from us and from our intervention " ; (2) " the 
 ordinary course of things in ourselves, not in our bodies but in 
 some other part of us, but still apart from our deliberate inter- 
 vention." Such a definition, however, scarcely grasps the attitude of 
 modern science in this matter. According to scientific thought 
 to-day the essence of the natural is to be found in the continuity and 
 uniformity which appear to be everywhere exemplified around and 
 within us. Hence " the idea of the supernatural, i.e. of a region on 
 this earth closed to science, where continuity ceases and uniformity 
 cannot be assumed," is said to be a " monstrosity which scientific 
 thought cannot for a moment tolerate." Thus " wherever science 
 goes there can be no supernatural." Now in some cases these 
 postulates of continuity and uniformity are carried to such an 
 extent that what is termed " natural " becomes merely a synonym 
 for physical. But such an ignoring of moral and spiritual 
 phenomena cannot be allowed to pass, even if it were permitted 
 under the term " physical " to include vital and intellectual realities, 
 in all the myriad degrees in which they are manifest around as well 
 as within us. " Natural " must certainly mean more than " physical." 
 On the other hand, although " it is now by the advance of the 
 physical sciences no longer possible to draw any sharp line of 
 distinction between the natural and the super-natural," yet the 
 absence of the " sharp line," and the substitution of a borderland 
 wherein much is indeterminate, does not abolish the reality of the 
 distinction between the two. Nothing is gained for truth by over-
 
 FACTS OF HISTORY AND THEIR EXPLANATION 153 
 
 weighting the term " natural " with an artificial connotation. When, 
 for instance, instead of signifying, as scientifically it should do, the 
 sum-total of our actual modern knowledge concerning ourselves and 
 the universe which may be ever growing, but beyond which no 
 one can rationally deny that there may be something it is made 
 to assume an acquaintance with the universe within and without, 
 beyond which there shall be nothing, plainly by the " natural " is 
 really connoted the infinite. So that when we are told that there 
 can be no supernatural, the assertion is tantamount to saying that 
 there can be nothing beyond the infinite. Which avowal is as 
 unnecessary as it is irrelevant. 
 
 But "everything in this universe within our ken is according 
 to law." May be. Yet there are two things, at least, which such 
 a statement does not prove. (1) That the universe contains nothing 
 beyond our ken. (2) That the only working laws within our ken 
 are those which human science at present recognises. Furthermore, 
 what are we to understand by " law " 1 "An order of nature which 
 is based upon universal and invariable experience." 1 More and 
 greater fallacies could hardly be packed into as many words. 
 " Invariable " means that which cannot be broken. Even this, 
 applied to nature, must signify by any power at our disposal. But 
 what has science to do with specifying that which cannot be? 
 Nothing at all. And until the whole experience of prophets, 
 martyrs, saints, and Christian heroes has been definitely proved 
 to be delusion or insanity, how can there be a " universal " experi- 
 ence against the basis of faith ? ^ 
 
 But more. How can any order of nature, as an objective reality, 
 be "based" upon human experience at all? Our experience has 
 nothing whatever to do with it, save to witness, appreciate, and sub- 
 mit to it. It is based, and can only be based, upon that which causes 
 it to be order and not chaos. If that cause be nothing, then nature is 
 self-ordered, which puts an end to reasoning. If that cause be some- 
 thing, it must at least be something independent of, that is, beyond, 
 the nature which is ordered. That is, it must be supernatural. 
 
 If, then, there be a " nature " to be recognised, it is because of the 
 order which manifestly prevails. For the very conception of nature 
 excludes chaos. This order means a continuity and uniformity in 
 the succession of phenomena, which, so far as we can see or work, 
 are unvarying. But they can only be accounted "laws " by regard- 
 ing them as expressing the will of a Lawgiver. To assume that 
 
 1 Supernatural Religion, vol. ii. p. 210.
 
 154 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 there cannot be a rational will outside or beyond the human 
 organism, is the greatest petitio qucestionis conceivable. 1 
 
 It is, however, asserted that the supernatural can only work by 
 "interfering" with the natural, and that all such interference is 
 unscientific. But even this is too much to affirm. For " there may 
 not have been a single link in the chain of biological progression 
 which for aught science has proved to the contrary might not 
 have required special intervention to cause it to be precisely as 
 it was." 2 There is no scientific warrant whatever for represent- 
 ing the natural sphere as so solidly exclusive that it is utterly 
 impervious to the supernatural. Whilst we are assured that 
 physically no two atoms of matter are actually in contact, so that 
 there is room everywhere for the all-penetrating ether, how can 
 either rational analogy or the scientific imagination consistently 
 pronounce that vision a mirage which exhibits the natural as every- 
 where suffused and saturated with the supernatural ? 
 
 The scorn, therefore, poured upon this term by some " advanced " 
 scientists is quite uncalled for ; nor is there any substantial reason 
 why the Christian teacher of to-day should throw this word as a 
 sop to the modern Cerberus. For the " natural " is neither a closed 
 circle shutting out the supernatural save when it " interferes," as 
 possibly some unwise advocates of faith might represent, nor is it 
 a circle whose radii are infinite, so that its limiting circumference is 
 nowhere, as some overweening advocates of science would postulate. 
 Bather is the supernatural at the very heart of the natural, extend- 
 ing thence by ever spreading concentric circles of influence all 
 through it, and measurelessly beyond. It is thus distinct though 
 always present. Though super-natural it is often most " beyond " 
 when most near. It is ever real, though not amenable at will to 
 our ordinary physical or mental tests. It is under law, indeed, 
 but under His law Who is the Author of nature, though not neces- 
 sarily those fragments of His law which our science has thus far 
 unveiled. Reason no less than faith thus echoes the ancient 
 estimate " Lo, these are but the outskirts of His ways ; and how 
 
 1 See review of Supernatural Religion in the Church Quarterly 
 Review, April 1876. See also Lectures on the Cumulative Evidences 
 of Divine Revelation, by L. F. March Phillips (Lond. : Chris. Evid. 
 Soc.) ; an underrated book, which honest inquirers would do well 
 to study. 
 
 2 The late Mr. R, A. Proctor, in Knowledge.
 
 FACTS OF HISTORY AND THEIR EXPLANATION 155 
 
 small a whisper do we hear of Him ! But the thunder .of His 
 power, who can understand ? " (Job xxvi. 14). 
 
 B. The words of Baur 1 are here worth quoting : " The question 
 as to the nature and reality of the Resurrection lies outside the 
 sphere of historical inquiry. History must be content with the 
 simple fact that, in the faith of the disciples, the Resurrection of 
 Jesus came to be regarded as a solid and unquestionable fact. It was 
 in this faith that Christianity acquired a firm basis for its historical 
 development. What history requires as the necessary antecedent of 
 all that is to follow, is not so much the fact of the Resurrection of 
 Jesus as the belief that it was a fact." But although this may be 
 true as far as it goes, assuredly, as Strauss saw, and every honest 
 mind must also see, it does not go far enough. History itself he*e 
 becomes useless, if it is not concerned to know whether the fact of 
 the disciples' faith rested upon reality or upon delusion. Upon 
 that, not upon the mere endurance and development of a belief, 
 depends the worth of Christianity to every individual soul as well 
 as to humanity at large. 
 
 Sooner or later the question must arise, What do we mean by the 
 " actual " resurrection ? We may be well content to accept Strauss' 
 strong utterance (p. 139) as the coup de grace of the suggestion 
 that Jesus did not really die, which Prof. Huxley was pleased to 
 bless with his approval, whilst as to the theory of "visions," the 
 words of Keim himself 2 may suffice : " After all that has been said, 
 it must be allowed that the theory of visions which has of late 
 become so popular, is only a hypothesis : that, while it explains 
 some things, it fails to explain the main substance of the narrations 
 to be dealt with : nay, that it leads us to look at facts historically 
 attested, from a distorted and untenable point of view." Nor does 
 the further concession that such visions must have been divinely 
 caused, with a view to producing their exact effect, serve to 
 rehabilitate this theory. 
 
 What then is left for ordinary Christian faith to-day ? With the 
 plain New Testament in hand there will probably be little hesi- 
 tation in avowing that reality, in this case, involves both the re- 
 vivification and transformation of the veritable body of Christ which 
 had been so carefully and tearfully buried in the tomb of Joseph of 
 
 1 Church History of the first three Centuries, I p. 42. 
 
 2 Jesu von Nazara, iii. p. 600.
 
 156 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 Arimathea. This is generally known as the " physical " resurrection, 
 because there is undoubtedly a physical side to it which would 
 constitute such an event the miracle par excellence of the Christian 
 gospel. But it is precisely this-which creates the " difficulty," in the 
 eyes of that pseudo-scientific school of criticism, which approaches 
 the Gospel narratives with an acknowledged predetermination to 
 eliminate miracle. The echo of this avowal and the reflection of 
 this attitude are manifest amongst those Christian thinkers who are 
 confessedly bent upon the utmost economisation of the miraculous 
 element in the New Testament, if not even upon its unsparing 
 excision. Hence the efforts with which the Churches are 
 becoming more and more familiar, to jettison every trace of 
 the " physical " and establish instead what is termed a purely 
 " spiritual " resurrection. 
 
 This is done with no little ingenuity and confidence by the 
 author of The Kernel and the Husk, in a chapter especially devoted 
 to the theme. It is certainly interesting to find so sincere and 
 erudite a writer saying on one page in reply to the supposed 
 retort, " You are ready enough to attack other people's notions about 
 the semi-material resurrection, but you are not equally ready to 
 explain your own notions about a spiritual resurrection. You 
 cannot even tell us what a spiritual body is." " Precisely so, I am 
 quite ignorant. Yet in my knowledge of this matter " which is a 
 remarkable kind of ignorance " I am superior to a very great 
 number of other theologians. For they think they know, whereas 
 I know that neither I nor they know." After this refreshingly 
 emphatic humility, within a few lines we are told : " For my part, 
 I am now quite certain of Christ's spiritual Resurrection, and in 
 that conviction " (certainty ?) " I am far happier and far more trustful 
 than when I at first mechanically accepted upon authority and 
 evidence the belief in the Resurrection of Christ's body, and subse- 
 quently strove to retain that belief, against the testimony of my 
 intelligence and my conscience." This sentence is fairly typical of 
 the whole chapter ; and as it is impossible here to examine the latter 
 in detail, it may be worth while, by means of the italics and a few 
 notes, to call attention to the former. 
 
 How any thinker can be, concerning the same matter, at once 
 " quite ignorant " and " quite certain," constitutes an initial puzzle. 
 It is, we know, frequently solved by those who know all because 
 they examine nothing ; but Dr. Abbott cannot be included in this 
 category, so that the puzzle must remain. Yet the clothing of such 
 an attitude in the apparently modest garb of a personal conviction,
 
 FACTS OF HISTORY AND THEIR EXPLANATION 157 
 
 by no means conceals the fine scorn (which is so general a char- 
 acteristic of the school represented) for all other poor benighted 
 theologians who have "mechanically accepted," etc., "against the 
 testimony of intelligence and conscience." These innuendoes are 
 surely unworthy. " Mechanical acceptance " of evidence and 
 authority has yet to be shown to be an essential part of reasonable 
 orthodoxy. And it ought to be conceded, if it is not, that those 
 who still find reasons for believing in the real Resurrection of 
 Christ's body, have neither forfeited their intelligence nor strained 
 their conscience in so doing. Jn the end it may appear that the 
 believer in a " spiritual " resurrection is, in a sense not to be 
 admired, " far more trustful " than those from whom he differs. 
 
 It would certainly seem, at the outset, that Dr. Milligan is 
 warranted in his estimate of the view that " the Resurrection of our 
 Lord is to be understood in a spiritual not in a literal sense," namely, 
 that " it is not necessary to ask whether a clear and definite idea 
 can be attached to this view. One thing is obvious it is not that 
 given us in Scripture." l 
 
 The most recent effort in this direction is confessedly the attempt 
 to confer a nebulous objectivity upon this " spiritual " resurrection, 
 which is said to be warranted in somewhat the same sense as when 
 we read, " Blessed are the pure in heart : for they shall see God." 
 But even though we freely concede that such purely mental- 
 spiritual objectivity is possible and actual in this latter case, it is 
 assuredly no parallel to that whicli is before us. And the following 
 reasons may be outlined on behalf of the conviction that this effort, 
 under fear of the modern prejudice against the miraculous, to 
 " spiritualise " the recorded and necessary foundation facts of -the 
 Resurrection, shares the fate of almost all similar attempts spring- 
 ing from hyper-timidity. It increases rather than diminishes the 
 difficulties it undertakes to remove. 
 
 1. The utter ignoring of the human body which is implied in 
 the "spiritual" theory of the Resurrection, is emphatically con- 
 trary to the plainest utterances both of Christ Himself and the 
 apostles. The well-known passages in John ii. 18-22 and 1 Cor. 
 xv. 35-50, may be taken as typical and sufficient. 
 
 It must be averred that some of Dr. Abbott's words are strange 
 reading. 2 Thus 
 
 "A heartfelt conviction of the spiritual resurrection of Christ 
 
 1 The Resurrection of Our Lord, p. 7. 
 
 2 The Kernel and the Husk, pp. 256, 257.
 
 158 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 affords more comfort than your old belief based largely upon 
 historical evidence, and brain-felt rather than heart-felt in His 
 physical resurrection. For the former unites us with Christ, the 
 latter separates us from Christ. If Christ rose a material body from 
 the grave that stirs no hope in us. But if, while His body 
 remained in the grave, His spirit rose triumphant to the throne of 
 God, then we see a hope indeed that may suit our case and give us 
 some gleam of consolation. . The bodies of the dead may lie there 
 and decay, but what of that ? Even so was it with the Saviour ; 
 but the spiritual body is independent of the flesh, and shall rise 
 superior to death." 
 
 It is, indeed, marvellous how any writer at once so erudite and 
 sincere can satisfy himself with this verbal jumble. One may 
 make bold to say, with all respect, that he could not possibly 
 do so, but for the predetermination against miracle with which he 
 avowedly starts. 
 
 What means, for instance, this semi-sneer at "historical 
 evidence," seeing that this is the very evidence upon which the author 
 bases his own a priori rejection of the miraculous element in the 
 Gospels ? How can the same evidence be valid for the wholesale 
 rejection of miracle, and at the same time invalid for the establish- 
 ment of plain facts of seeing and hearing ? As to " brain-felt rather 
 than heart-felt," is he not himself deciding against the " traditional " 
 account of the Eesurrection upon brain-felt grounds ? And did not 
 Christ Himself appeal to brain-felt evidence when He remonstrated 
 with the Jews: "Yea, and why even of yourselves judge ye not 
 what is right ?" 1 Is not, moreover, the initial apprehension of the 
 whole gospel, and of Christ Himself, always and necessarily brain-felt? 
 
 Again, as regards the attempted antithesis between the material 
 and the spiritual body, it is really necessary to ask definitely which 
 are we called upon to accept, a "spiritual" resurrection, or a 
 "spiritual body" resurrection? The author, as it pleases him, 
 treats these as synonymous. Can it be that he does not see that 
 here is the crux of the whole question ? At one moment he says, 
 "But if, while His body remained in the grave, His spirit rose 
 triumphant to the throne of God," upon which we are bound to 
 ask how pure "spirit" can "rise triumphant" at all, much less 
 when a definite and almost spatial direction is appended ? But the 
 next moment we are told : " Do not imagine that the spiritual body 
 is one whit less real than the material body." Now it is easy to 
 
 1 Luke xii. 57.
 
 FACTS OF HISTORY AND THEIR EXPLANATION 159 
 
 add, by way of mental legerdemain, that "as to the relation 
 between the material body and the spiritual body we know nothing, 
 and we need know nothing." But if that be so, surely this whole 
 discussion is only "much ado about nothing." For if we know 
 nothing, we do not know that these two are antithetical at all ; we 
 do not even know that they differ. So that for aught we know, all 
 that is true of the material body may be equally true of the 
 spiritual body. In which case cadit tota qucestio, and we are all 
 agreed about everything. 
 
 But, speaking soberly, one must submit that three notes at least 
 ought to be made hereupon, (i.) "Spirit" is not the same as 
 " spiritual body." If a spiritual body is " a real body," then by all 
 that reality it is differentiated from pure spirit. And it must be 
 plainly avowed that the whole of the New Testament is one in the 
 doctrine that from the mere continuance, or " rising," of the " spirit 
 of Jesus," no resurrection whatever can be predicated. The reality 
 of the Resurrection depends upon the reality of the resurrection 
 body, whether we know much or little as to the nature of that 
 body. 
 
 (ii.) Again, the author entirely assumes, not proves, his contention 
 that Christ's body remained in the grave and decayed. There is 
 not only no hint whatever in our Christian records as to any such 
 thing, but the absolute contrary is affirmed as didactically and 
 emphatically as language permits. 1 Nor is it a matter which can 
 be resolved by the elimination, on critical grounds, of a few incon- 
 venient and isolated passages. It is the doctrine of the whole New 
 Testament that Christ's body did not remain in the grave, and did 
 not see corruption. If, then, a new " Christian" theory can only be 
 substantiated by flat contradiction of the Christian Scriptures, we 
 should surely know what to think of its Christianness. 
 
 (iii.) Furthermore, it is not true that a " spiritual " resurrection 
 unites us with Christ, whilst a " physical " resurrection separates us 
 from Him. For we no more think of a physical resurrection in 
 the crass material sense of Professor Tyndall either for Christ or 
 for ourselves, than the New Testament does. Besides which, are 
 not the terms "physical" and "material," as applied to the Resur- 
 rection, synonymous ? And is not their significance precisely the 
 same as Paul's word " natural " 1 2 How then should we posit or 
 desiderate a " natural " resurrection, when he assures us that such 
 is not the Christian doctrine (and we ourselves heartily agree 
 
 1 Cf. Acts v. 31. 2 1 Cor. xv. 44, i/o^t/cdf.
 
 160 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 with him) in his solemn assertion that " flesh and blood cannot 
 inherit the kingdom of God"? 
 
 Whilst as to the assertion that a belief in the " physical resurrec- 
 tion of Christ commits us also to belief in a local, spatial, and 
 therefore unthinkable heaven" it is sufficient to reply that it is 
 simply untrue. No Christian thinker worth taking into account 
 contemplates such a purely physical resurrection. For that were 
 manifestly as clear a contradiction of New Testament testimony as 
 is a purely spiritual resurrection. The true contents of the term 
 " physical " in this connection, are, revivification and transformation 
 as applied to the body of Christ, and as constituting all the 
 essentials of actual resurrection. Here is no more committal to a 
 spatial heaven than in the words of the apostle himself. 
 
 No more do we look to be united with Christ hereafter in a 
 " spiritual " resurrection. For there is no such thing possible, either 
 for our Lord or for ourselves. If it be a resurrection, it is more than 
 spiritual. If it be not more than spiritual, it is no resurrection at 
 all. For in His case as in ours, the spirit does not die and therefore 
 cannot rise again. And whatever difficulty there may be to us to 
 conceive of a "spiritual body" (surely no greater, comparatively, 
 than that which a caterpillar might find in conceiving of a butterfly 
 body), the whole promise of the future life that begins with the 
 "resurrection from the dead" is the promise of a life associated 
 with a body. To eliminate wholly the idea of a body, is to dismiss 
 for ever the notion of a resurrection. It is difficult to imagine how 
 human language could express this more clearly and emphatically 
 than that employed by the apostle in writing to the Philippians : 
 " The Lord Jesus Christ, who shall fashion anew the body of our 
 humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of His glory, 
 according to the working whereby He is able even to subject all 
 things unto Himself." l Whether this be a " physical " conception 
 or not, assuredly it is the only Christian one. 
 
 Certainly such words, if at all authoritative, make manifest that 
 it is by means of a spiritual body (which we are assured is also a 
 " real " body), not by a merely " spiritual " resurrection, that we are 
 linked, alike for comfort and hope, with the risen and living Christ. 
 His Resurrection is undoubtedly put forth as the pledge and earnest 
 of our own. Such as His was, ours will be. If His " rising from the 
 dead" was purely spiritual, without any nexus at all, call it physical, 
 material, corporeal, or what we may, with His pre-resurrection body, 
 
 1 Phil. iii. 21.
 
 FACTS OF HISTORY AND THEIR EXPLANATION 161 
 
 then not only is our resurrection rendered unthinkable, but the whole 
 New Testament conception and doctrine concerning the future are 
 falsified. In regard, therefore, to the relation between Christ and 
 ourselves, when His risen life is considered as the true type of our 
 own, the words of Dr. Westcott sum up the true Christian doctrine : 
 " Thus the Resurrection answers, as completely as it can be answered, 
 the first great question by which we are met. In the person of 
 Christ we see the whole man of man, His body and soul, raised 
 together from the grave. No part is left behind. The whole 
 complex nature is raised and glorified. It is not that the soul only 
 lives ; nor yet that the body, such as it was before, is restored to 
 its former vigour. The Saviour, as far as we regard His manhood, 
 is 'not unclothed,' to use St. Paul's image, but 'clothed upon.' 
 Nothing is taken away, but something is added by which all that 
 was before present is transfigured. ' The corruptible puts on incor- 
 ruption ; the mortal puts on immortality.' " l 
 
 Or, in the words of one of the most thoughtful of recent writers 
 upon these themes, " In a word, we are made to feel as we read the 
 strange story, that the body of our Lord after His resurrection was 
 a 'glorified' or 'spiritual' body, and that while it was as real as 
 ours, it was possessed of certain attributes which we cannot predicate 
 of our own. It was a body such as we can easily .conceive ours 
 would be if it were released from the laws of decay and death, and 
 the trammels of locality and infirmity. It was indeed a type of the 
 spiritual body which is the heavenly heritage of those who die in 
 faith." 2 
 
 2. All the records agree that the Christ after the Resurrection 
 was, in a true and reliable sense, the same as before. Dr. Milligan 
 is warranted in his statement that "whatever difficulties may 
 attend the conception of the fact, one thing is clear, that the 
 apostles and early disciples of Christ did not think of His resur- 
 rection state as simply spiritual, but that the very substance and 
 essence and peculiarity of their faith was this, that the same SOD 
 of Man with whom they had companied during the years of His 
 ministry, had been brought back by the glory of the Father from 
 the grave." Whilst as to Christ Himself, " there can be no doubt 
 that He Himself wished to be recognised by them as essentially the 
 same as ever, and that they acknowledged Him to be so." This 
 being the case, it is difficult to know how to understand Dr. Abbott's 
 
 1 Gospel of the Resurrection, 6th edition, p. 164. 
 
 2 The Ascent through Christ, by Rev. Griffith Jones, p. 343.
 
 162 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 avowal : " The movements of the risen Saviour appear to me to 
 have been the movements of God." This much, however, seems to 
 be warranted in our thought. According to the apostolic conception, 
 the identity between the risen and the pre-crucified Christ was so 
 real and far-reaching, that if after the Resurrection He was nothing 
 more than spirit, we are helplessly committed to the old Docetic 
 heresy, that also before His death He was never really, but only 
 apparently, man. 
 
 It has, we are aware, been stated that the facts of His life and 
 death and resurrection were not facts " of the same order, inasmuch 
 as (i.) His works and the crucifixion were apprehensible by anyone 
 possessed with ordinary faculties, whereas the resurrection was only 
 manifested to and appreciated by believers ; and (ii.) Christ's death 
 was His own doing, but the resurrection was God's doing to Him." 
 But in regard to the first of these, whilst it may be generally true 
 that "a fact which demands special fitness or faculty to appreciate 
 it, is not of the same order or sense as ordinary facts," yet in the 
 present case, that which is assumed is not only that which should 
 first be proved, but something which cannot be proved because it is 
 contrary to fact. The Resurrection certainly was not at the outset 
 appreciated by " believers," but by unbelievers, with only ordinary 
 faculties. For we are given distinctly to understand that none of 
 the original witnesses either expected Christ to rise again, or, at 
 first, believed that He had risen. Moreover, the words in the 
 Acts which state so plainly that " Him God raised up on the third 
 day, and gave Him to be made manifest ; not to all the people, but 
 unto witnesses that were chosen before of God," add also the signi- 
 ficant statement, " even to us, who did eat and drink with Him after 
 He rose from the dead." l Such words at least assert that it was not 
 a purely spiritual resurrection to which the witnesses were to testify. 
 
 As regards the second suggestion, it is no doubt in accord with 
 the verse just quoted, as well as with other similar expressions, but 
 it must not be forgotten that Christ Himself said, " I have power to 
 lay it down, and I have power to take it again." 2 
 
 Even if, therefore, it were conceded that the facts of the Crucifixion 
 and the Resurrection were not "of the same order," it is surely an 
 insufficient foundation upon which to build up a theory of a resur- 
 rection whose objectivity was purely spiritual, as against the trans- 
 
 1 Acts x. 41. 
 
 2 See Dr. Westcott's note on this passage in the Speaker's 
 Commentary.
 
 FACTS OF HISTORY AND THEIR EXPLANATION 163 
 
 formation of the dead physical body, which yet (according to the New 
 Testament) left it objective on occasion to ordinary ocular perception. 
 
 3. This, however, brings necessarily before us the right employ- 
 ment of the two terms "objective" and "subjective" which are 
 
 capable of contributing so much towards the formation of opinion 
 in this matter. It has been well said 1 that the ultimate question 
 herein is, " What was the nature of the experience which convinced 
 the apostles that the Lord had risen ? Was it something that 
 happened only in the region of the spirit, or of physical sensations ? 
 Three possibilities, and only three, are conceivable : (i.) that their 
 experience was purely subjective ; (ii.) that it was objective and 
 spiritual ; (iii.) that it was objective and material." Now of these 
 the first may be dismissed, as being to-day finally discredited. The 
 second is said to have its stronghold in the Epistles, and the third 
 in the Gospels. But we must ask, Is it so clear that these two latter 
 conceptions are utterly distinct and mutually exclusive? Does 
 the "spiritual" resurrection which is suggested admit of being 
 considered thus unequivocally objective ? And does the objective- 
 ness of the Resurrection, as recorded in the Gospels, compel us to 
 regard it as in the ordinary sense of the word " material " ? Both 
 these questions would seem to be most truly answered in the 
 negative. 
 
 It is suggested that the true solution of the question should begin 
 with the experience of the Apostle Paul, because his Epistles ante- 
 date the Gospels ; that his experience, to quote Dr. Abbott, " must 
 have been of the nature of a vision, and in a sense subjective" ; 2 
 and that his experience was essentially the same as that of all the 
 other apostles. Whence it would follow that their experience was 
 also "in a sense" subjective, and the Resurrection was purely 
 spiritual and non-objective. Now there can be no doubt to quote 
 Dr. McGiffert that " Paul believed that at a particular period in 
 his life the risen Christ appeared to him, and to that appearance he 
 owed his Christian faith." 3 But is it demonstrated that this whole 
 "appearance" was subjective, or only spiritually objective ? The 
 narrative in the 9th chapter of the Acts certainly does not commit 
 us to this, and it might well be asked whether there is not rather the 
 suggestion of both the objective and the " material " in the statement 
 
 1 In a thoughtful paper read at a Theological Conference at 
 Lancashire College, June 1900, by the Rev. Eric Lawrence of Halifax. 
 
 2 The Kernel and the Husk, p. 244. 
 
 8 History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age, p. 121,
 
 1G4 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 that " straightway there fell from his eyes as it were scales." At 
 least Prof. Vernon Bartlet is warranted in his judgement that in 
 Paul's words in 1 Cor. xv. 1, etc., " the explicit statement, ' and that 
 He was buried,' coming between ' He died ' and ' He was raised,' proves 
 Paul's belief in a highly objective resurrection, including a bodily 
 somewhat, though of a non-fleshly order. It was the prototype, in 
 fact, of the spiritual body in which the believer is clothed at resur- 
 rection, in contrast to the sensuous body committed to the grave. 
 And this confirms the view, often confidently challenged, that the 
 4 empty grave ' was an element in the original apostolic witness, not 
 a later supplement." 1 
 
 Seeing, moreover, that there is no sufficient reason, on chrono- 
 logical grounds, for preferring the testimony of Paul to that of the 
 Gospels, 2 it would rather appear that we are justified in deciding 
 the objectivity of Paul's vision from the undoubted objectivity of 
 the Gospel accounts. Hereupon Mr. Griffith Jones rightly points 
 out that 3 " our Lord is distinctly spoken of as having risen from 
 the dead in a real objective sense. There is abundant evidence of 
 the impression of both identity and corporeality in the Resurrection 
 body of Jesus ; so that His disciples, i.e. those who knew Him 
 best, and could not possibly be deceived by any fancied resemblance 
 between Him and a pretender who might have personified Him, 
 were left in no manner of doubt that He was the Jesus whom they 
 had known and loved during His earthly life." 
 
 This objectiveness, then, being considered beyond dispute, the 
 question that remains is whether it was purely "spiritual," or 
 whether it involved also other elements which, for the moment, we 
 may call material ? 
 
 On behalf of the former view we are asked what Christ meant 
 by " Blessed are the pure in heart : for they shall see God " ? Or 
 what we intend when we speak or read of a " vision of the glory of 
 God"? Are not these at once spiritual and objective? It may be 
 freely conceded that they are. But it must at the same time be 
 insisted that they constitute no parallel to the case before us, and 
 therefore yield us no guiding analogy. In these cases there neither 
 is nor could be any suggestion of a corporeal or material element ; 
 whilst as to the Resurrection of Christ, the suggestion to say the 
 least of such element is so vivid that the ordinary reader generally 
 
 1 The Apostolic Age, p. 4. 
 
 2 Cf. Keim's estimate, quoted on pp. 140, 143, 155. 
 
 3 The Ascent through Christ, p. 341.
 
 PACTS OF HISTORY AND THEIR EXPLANATION 165 
 
 takes it for the whole, and the modern attempt to rule it out only 
 arises under the pressure of the prejudice against the miraculous 
 which at present prevails. The being of God and the risen Christ are, 
 indeed, " facts of a different order," much more distinctly than the 
 Crucifixion and the Resurrection, as alleged above. In the one case 
 it is as necessary to empty the conception of all material appeal to 
 
 the senses, as in the other case according to the narrative it is 
 
 manifestly intended to put into the conception as real an appeal to 
 the ordinary faculties as is compatible with all the other assertions 
 made in reference to the same event. It may well be that our 
 powers of speech and thought are here inadequate ; that " objective " 
 is too strongly redolent of the material, and inevitably suggests 
 " this too solid flesh " which will not " thaw and resolve itself into 
 a dew " ; whilst " subjective " is equally misleading, in suggesting 
 the purely internal and immaterial, and eliminating wholly all 
 appeal to those faculties by which the disciples had always known 
 their Lord before He died, and were ready to recognise Him if 
 He arose. 
 
 That there was something more than this "purely spiritual," 
 subjective objectivity, seems to be really involved in the fact that 
 the conviction that Christ was definitely and objectively before 
 them came so often collectively, as Paul narrates. Upon this the 
 author of Supernatural Religion has, we know, alleged that l " if 
 we turn to the inquiry whether a similar subjective impression can 
 be received by many persons at one time, and be mistaken by them 
 for an objective reality, an equally certain reply in the affirmative 
 must unhesitatingly be given." But the instances he alleges in 
 support of this are singularly feeble and inadequate as parallels. 
 As Mr. Eow remarks, 2 "It is easy to say that these enthusiasts 
 communicated their enthusiasm to the rest. But this little sentence 
 conceals behind it whole mountains of difficulty." And we shall do 
 well to remember that Paul's assertion concerning the five hundred 
 brethren at once " is boldly made in the face of the powerful party 
 who denied his apostleship. If this assertion was false, nothing was 
 easier than for the opponents of the apostle to refute it. However 
 common the belief in ghost stories, it would be impossible to find 
 a case of several hundred persons who believed that on some one 
 definite occasion when they were all assembled, they had seen the 
 ghost of a person who had recently been executed, appear before 
 
 1 Vol. iii. p. 532. 
 
 2 The Supernatural in the New Testament, p. 460.
 
 166 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 them, and on the strength of this belief constituted themselves into 
 a new society a society which has endured through eighteen 
 centuries. However cynical our views may be, it is impossible to 
 believe that human nature is a lie." 
 
 On the whole, therefore, we are driven to the conclusion that the 
 " objective and spiritual " estimate of the apostolic experience cannot 
 be substantiated, and does not satisfy the conditions of the inquiry. 
 
 4. But other matters also demand notice. If, for instance, the 
 Resurrection were purely spiritual, not only is there no sufficient 
 nexus between the Christ who "died and was buried according to 
 the Scriptures," and the risen Christ, but there is no basis whatever 
 for the universal Christian doctrine, surely warranted by the New 
 Testament, that Christ has glorified our humanity in retaining the 
 Resurrection body henceforth and for ever. In this connection the 
 following is worth quoting as a fair summary. 1 "As a matter 
 bearing vitally on our special inquiry, it should be noticed that it 
 is not taught us in the analogy of our Lord's resurrection that the 
 future life is a disembodied state. The future life is not to be one 
 of pure spirit. We are to be like our Lord, and He ascended into 
 the Unseen in possession of a body like ours, only glorified and 
 made free from the law of sin and death. Though this does not 
 make a belief in a future life more easy in itself, it does take away 
 that difficulty which is felt by many who cannot realise how the 
 soul can exist without some kind of an organism with which to 
 act." No doubt, as Dr. Westcott says, " it is vain for us to speculate 
 on the nature of that transformed human body " ; 2 but for that 
 matter it is no more insoluble a mystery than the growth of a 
 flower, say a poppy, from a tiny seed in which lie potentially all 
 the beauty and wonder of the future. At all events the spiritual 
 body, and not the purely spiritual resurrection, is the doctrine of 
 the Christian records. 
 
 5. According to John's account, Christ Himself definitely appealed 
 to His Resurrection body in order to satisfy the doubts of Thomas, 
 and so at least represented it as objective enough in its reality to 
 answer to the proposed physical tests of the doubting disciple. It is, 
 of course, easy to dismiss this incident as not finding a place in the 
 " Triple Tradition," but there is manifestly no textual warrant for 
 such an arbitrary proceeding. 
 
 6. Again, the references to the "third day" are too definite and 
 
 1 The Ascent through Christ, by Rev. Griffith Jones, p. 358. 
 
 2 Gospel of the Resurrection, p. 163.
 
 FACTS OF HISTORY AND THEIR EXPLANATION 167 
 
 too often reiterated to be put aside as an unimportant detail. All 
 the accounts point to something remarkable happening on the third 
 day, as a distinct beginning of appearances, which, so far as we can 
 gather from a record that is avowedly imperfect, continued with 
 startling vividness for a comparatively short time, and then wholly 
 ceased. Nothing less than this can be inferred from Paul's public 
 avowal. 1 " He was seen for many days of them that came up with 
 Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now His witnesses unto 
 the people." The restoration of the word " now," according to the 
 best authorities, adds emphasis to this definiteness. But it is 
 impossible to think of a purely spiritual resurrection, which would 
 necessarily be quite as much subjective as objective to all witnesses, 
 thus beginning and ending suddenly. No such limit manifestly is set 
 to the other spiritual gifts which are conspicuous in the same records. 
 
 7. An equally important consideration in this regard, is the 
 question as to what became of the Lord's body. It is not a new 
 inquiry, but one must be forgiven for saying that all the attempts 
 to deal with it from the anti-miraculous standpoint, display a 
 startling amount of tergiversation. A lively imagination is also 
 called in to help out the difficulty, as when we are told* that 
 "possibly some of the enemies of Jesus had themselves removed 
 the body. Being almost surprised in the act, they may not have 
 had time to replace the great stone at the entrance of the tomb, 
 when the women arrived. If so, the action of Christ's own enemies 
 prepared the way for the belief in His Resurrection by exhibiting 
 to the sorrowing disciples the stone rolled away and the empty 
 sepulchre. First came the cry, ' He is not here,' and that prepared 
 the way for ' He is risen.' " 
 
 It is surely a hard pressed Christian (!) theory which leads 
 ultimately to the assumed thievish malignity of Christ's enemies, 
 as the true basis of that belief in His Resurrection which inspired 
 the early Church. The suggestion that the body "might have 
 been swallowed up in one of the recorded earthquakes" cannot 
 be any more highly appraised, seeing that it only substitutes acci- 
 dent for fraud. No answer, indeed, has ever been given worthy of 
 serious thought to the plain consideration, resting on indubitable 
 fact, that, whether the body were left to decay in the tomb or were 
 stolen by enemies, the production of it in any way to the people 
 would have silenced for ever all the witness to the Resurrection. 
 Whilst the suggestion that the friends of Christ may have stolen 
 
 1 Acts xiii. 31. 2 The Kernel aiui the Husk, p. 243.
 
 168 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 and disposed of it, might do very well J for the malignant elders 
 and callous soldiers, but is utterly useless to-day. The idea of 
 the emanation of the ethics of the New Testament from a coterie 
 of conscious deceivers, is now too preposterous to be even thinkable. 
 Every theory of a " purely spiritual " resurrection finds an insuper- 
 able difficulty in the dead body which it ignores. 
 
 8. The Ascension has also to be fairly considered. But it is 
 in no sense a fair consideration simply to dismiss it with a wave of 
 the critical hand, and say with Dr. Anderson, 2 that " the miraculous 
 Ascension to heaven has nothing to do with the doctrine of the 
 living and reigning Christ." This attitude is taken because of 
 " all the difficulties connected with the belief in miracle " in general, 
 and with the Resurrection in particular. There is, however, no 
 textual warrant for such an evisceration of the Christian gospel, 
 nor has any modern destructive criticism justified the elimination 
 from the Christian records of such statements as are found in 
 Acts i. 6-11 ; Eph. iv. 9, 10 ; John xx. 17, etc. And even if the 
 closing verses of Mark's Gospel be adjudged a separate document, 
 it must, at least, be conceded that they represent the earliest 
 tradition, and are not rightly to be ruled out of all further 
 regard. 
 
 The true doctrine of the Ascension is in no degree affected by 
 such remarks as those of the author of Supernatural Religion : 3 " The 
 bodily Ascension up the sky in a cloud, apart from the miraculous 
 nature of such an occurrence, seems singularly to localise Heaven, 
 and to present views of cosmical and celestial phenomena suitable 
 certainly to the age of the writer, but which are not endorsed by 
 modern science." The objection here, it would appear, is that 
 there is not enough miracle, but that another should have been 
 performed in causing the writers of that age to anticipate the 
 findings of the science of to-day. 4 But the very economy of 
 miracle in the Christian gospel is no slight testimony to its 
 genuineness. Even the writers of that day, however, do not use 
 such an expression as "the bodily Ascension up the sky " (!), nor do 
 they by any means necessarily imply it. For them it was enough, 
 as it may well be for us, that " a cloud received Him out of their 
 sight." All hints and innuendoes, that we are hereby committed 
 
 1 Cf. Matt, xxviii. 12-15 and p. 147 supra. 
 
 2 Christian World, May 1898. 8 Vid. iii. p. 473. 
 
 4 See note on p. 270 of The Ascent through Christ, by Rev. 
 Griffith Jones.
 
 FACTS OF HISTORY AND THEIR EXPLANATION 169 
 
 to-day to a localised or spatial heaven, are neither endorsed by 
 the New Testament, nor by modern reasonable orthodoxy. The 
 miraculous nature of the occurrence is assumed, which is per- 
 fectly permissible until miracles are shown to be incredible and 
 impossible. Whilst all reference to the "body" is unmistakably 
 to the spiritual body, which, according to the accounts given, had 
 already vanished on previous and lesser occasions. But, as 
 Dr. Abbott assures us, it was a "real" body; and we may ven- 
 ture to assure him that it was also objective enough to warrant 
 those who were present in " looking steadfastly " with their bodily 
 eyes. For the conception of a group of sincere and sensible men 
 looking consentaneously with closed eyes at one and the same sub- 
 jective cerebral creation, is as unimaginable as that they should 
 be constrained to gather in order to gaze unitedly into vacancy. 
 The reality of the Ascension, therefore, may be said to show that 
 the Resurrection was not purely spiritual. 
 
 9. It is certain that the first opponents of the Christian faith, 
 of all nationalities, knew nothing about a purely spiritual resur- 
 rection. Such a doctrine as that already quoted, 1 that "while 
 His body remained in the grave His spirit rose triumphant to the 
 throne of God," or that " the essence of the resurrection of Christ is 
 that His spirit should have really triumphed over death," i.e. that 
 He still lived in the spirit world, was assuredly neither what the 
 apostles preached nor their hearers so often disbelieved. The 
 attitude of both preacher and hearers at Athens 2 may be taken as 
 a typical case. " When they heard of the resurrection of the dead 
 some mocked." But neither Jew nor Greek could have mocked 
 at the doctrine of the continuance of the life of the spirit, as 
 apart from that of the body. It is not even needful to quote 
 proofs of this. The real objection of the thinkers of that day was 
 precisely the same, mutatis mutandis, as that which weighs on 
 anti-supernaturalists at the present, viz. the allegation of a bodily 
 resurrection. And one cannot but feel that the ancient sceptics 
 deserve our sympathy rather than the modern. For their crude 
 conceptions of the nature and laws of matter may well have 
 prevented their acceptance of the apostolic doctrine of a spiritual 
 body. But our modern scientific assurances that "matter is a 
 double-faced somewhat" of which spirit is rather to be regarded 
 as the cause than the effect, should dispose us in the opposite 
 direction. The ever-enlarging revelation of the potentialities of 
 
 i The Kernel and the Husk, p. 256. 2 Acts xvii. 32.
 
 170 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 the ultimate atom are, moreover, such as to make the Christian 
 conception of a spiritual body comparatively easy. But it was in 
 regard to a bodily resurrection, unquestionably, that Paul wrote : 
 " Whether then it be I or they, so we preach and so ye believed" 
 or disbelieved. 
 
 10. It has been said 1 that the Gospel narrative, rightly con- 
 sidered, "strongly supports the theory which regards the 
 resurrection as belonging to spiritual things, to be spiritually 
 discerned." Also, 2 that the certainty of the apostolic conviction 
 was " that kind of certainty which is bred from faith and hope. 
 And this sort of certainty, and no other, appears to me that which 
 was intended to be produced by the Resurrection of Christ." "As 
 in the life of Christ, so in the Resurrection of Christ, conviction 
 appears never to have been forced on any entirely unwilling 
 unbeliever." Upon this last sentence we may remark that, as it 
 stands, it is an irrelevant truism. For conviction to be such, 
 cannot be forced upon anyone, save by manifest preponderance of 
 indubitable evidence. That there is sufficient evidence to convince 
 everyone open to conviction, is assumed in the general formula, 
 " He that disbelieves shall be condemned." But if it be intended 
 here that only those believed who already possessed some germs of 
 " faith and hope " in the risen Christ, such a statement would seem 
 to be so contrary to the plain facts of the establishment of the primi- 
 tive Church as to need no refuting. 3 Is it not also true that the 
 spiritual discernment rather followed than preceded the acceptance of 
 the reality of the Resurrection, in the case of the original witnesses 1 4 
 Doubtless " there was a spiritual side to the manifestation of the 
 risen Christ which could only be discerned spiritually." 5 But was 
 it the apprehension of this spiritual side which first convinced the 
 early disciples that their Lord had actually risen? Is there any 
 evidence at all that the men and women who came to the tomb, or 
 gathered together in frightened conference, were any quicker in 
 spiritual discernment than the men who in terror forsook Him and 
 
 1 Paper by Rev. Eric Lawrence, referred to above. 
 
 2 The Kernel and the Husk, p. 248. 
 
 3 Matt, xxviii. 17 ; Acts vi. 7, xvii. 32, xxvi. 9, 10, 11, etc. 
 
 4 Dr. Westcott says concerning the apostle himself, " We find 
 an appearance granted to St. Paul, which carried with it immedi- 
 ate conviction to an unbeliever." Note on p. 158, Gospel of the 
 Resurrection. 
 
 6 Gospel of the Resurrection, p. 158.
 
 FACTS OF HISTORY AND THEIR EXPLANATION 171 
 
 fled, or the women who clung to Him out of sheer despair during 
 His last agony ? The whole consensus of the Christian Scriptures 
 appears to be that it was the apprehension of the reality of His 
 Resurrection, which first opened the eyes of their heart to the true 
 nature of their Master's mission, and the kind of service to which 
 He had called them as His witnesses. 
 
 11. The term "spiritual," as applied to a theory of Christ's 
 Resurrection which especially sets itself to oppose all reference to the 
 physical body, is distinctly misleading. " Spiritual " in Christian 
 terminology has a definite connotation, and is, in accordance with 
 New Testament usage, antithetic to "carnal" not to "physical." 
 When resurrection signifies, as in Paul's doctrine, the revivification 
 and transformation of the dead body, there is confessedly the concept 
 of an altered and glorified body which may be called " spiritual " and 
 set over against the physical. "If there is a natural body there 
 is also a spiritual body." But the theory which is now suggested 
 under the guise of a " spiritual resurrection," expressly excludes the 
 body, asserting that this " remained in the grave and decayed." Its 
 whole concern, therefore, is with the spirit, and the proper appella- 
 tion for it is manifestly "spirit resurrection." But as this has been 
 shown to involve a contradiction in terms, it must be dismissed" 
 altogether. If we agree to leave out of account the "objective 
 and material" view of what transpired, there is left for 
 our acceptance, not the "objective and spiritual," but the 
 " objective and transformed material," which is not rightly named 
 " spiritual." x 
 
 12. Upon the whole, it must be 'alleged that the attempt to 
 reduce the miraculous element in the Resurrection to a minimum, 
 however well intended, is but wasted economy. The whole genius 
 of Christianity and the total witness of the New Testament endorse 
 what Dr. "Westcott said hereupon some years since. 2 " The Resur- 
 rection is either a miracle or it is an illusion. Here there is no 
 alternative, no ambiguity. And it is not an accessory of the 
 apostolic message, but the sum of the message itself. Its unique 
 character is the very point on which the first teachers of Christianity 
 support all their arguments. It claims to be the opening of a new 
 life to the world." Its mystery may be great, although for that 
 
 1 For a thoughtful and suggestive study hereupon cf. " The 
 Problem of the Resurrection" in the volume entitled The Imperfect 
 Angel, by Rev. T. G. Selby. 
 
 2 Gospel of the Resurrection, p. 52.
 
 172 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 matter it is no more inscrutable to modern science than is the life 
 of a gnat. But to take away this mystery, is to pluck out the very 
 heart of the living body of truth which, constitutes the Christian 
 Gospel. To succeed in reducing this transcendent and fundamental 
 event to the non-miraculous and the ordinary, is to dethrone the 
 living and reigning Christ, and to undo His whole redemptive 
 work. 
 
 For all these reasons, therefore, as well as others unmentioned, 
 it is submitted that we must not only pause before accepting what 
 is termed the " spiritual resurrection," but after pausing must put 
 it aside as really, though not intentionally, subversive of the true 
 Gospel of Jesus Christ. 
 
 By way of conclusion, it may not be amiss to give in brief, the 
 findings of three modern Christian writers who have earned a right 
 to be heard respectfully. 
 
 In his article on "Jesus Christ" in the new Bible Dictionary 
 (edited by Dr. Hastings, p. 641), Dr. Sanday says : " This is the 
 least that must be asserted. A belief that has had such incalculably 
 momentous results, must have had an adequate cause. No appari- 
 tion, no mere hallucination of the senses, ever yet moved the world. 
 But we may doubt whether the theory of visions, even as Keim 
 presents it, is either adequate or really called for. It belongs to 
 the process of so trimming down the elements that we call super- 
 natural in the Gospel narratives, as to bring them within the limits 
 of everyday experience. But that process we must needs think has 
 failed. The facts are too obstinate, the evidence for them is too 
 strong, and the measures which we apply are too narrow and 
 bounded. It is better to keep substantially the form which a 
 sound tradition has handed down to us, even though its contents in 
 some degree pass our comprehension." 
 
 Again, Dr. Bruce in his Apologetics (p. 397) thus concludes his 
 examination : " The result of the foregoing inquiry is that all 
 naturalistic attempts to explain away the resurrection, up to this 
 date, have turned out failures. The physical resurrection remains, 
 it need not be added, a great mystery. Much that relates to this 
 august event is enveloped in mystery ; not to speak of the dis- 
 crepancy in the narratives, or the angelic agency, there is the fact 
 that the resurrection body of Jesus appears even in the evangelic 
 accounts a pneumatic body, and the further fact that according to 
 the teaching of Paul as well as the suggestions of reason, flesh and 
 blood, a gross corruptible body, can have no place in the kingdom 
 of God or in the eternal world. In the resurrection of Jesus two
 
 FACTS OF HISTORY AND THEIR EXPLANATION 173 
 
 processes seem to have been combined into one ; the revivification 
 of the crucified body, and its transformation into a spiritual body 
 endowed with an eternal form of existence ; the first process being 
 merely a means to an end, the actual, if not the indispensable, 
 condition of the second." 
 
 And Dr. Clarke of New York, in his recent and most valuable 
 work upon Christian Theology, 1 sums up the whole in these weighty 
 words : "No one can claim thoroughly to understand the resurrection 
 of Jesus, for the whole event partakes in the mystery that hangs over 
 the world of spirits. With what body He rose has been much dis- 
 cussed, and without much profit, for the materials for a clear answer 
 do not exist. If we define the resurrection of Jesus according 
 to the data that the Gospels give us, we shall not call it a return 
 to bodily life in the old condition, but rather a rising from death 
 into glorious spiritual life, with power to manifest Himself at will 
 to men in this world. According to these data, He was alive, the 
 same Jesus as before, and showed Himself in recognisable presence 
 and spiritual identity to those who knew Him. That death had 
 not destroyed Him, but that He lived unchanged, and with new 
 glory, and appeared among His friends to prove it, this is the 
 testimony of the gospel concerning His resurrection/' 
 
 1 P. 273 a volume which should be carefully studied by all 
 modern inquirers. 
 
 Note to p. 123. 
 
 The estimate given in the former edition may be considered 
 extreme, although it was taken from definite published authority. 
 The precise number is irrelevant to the argument, but Gibbon's 
 estimate of 15,000 as a total is certainly far too small. For a valid 
 refutation of his famous "five causes," as well as for a vivid yet 
 sober representation of the dire sufferings and marvellous fortitude 
 of the early Christians, see Dr. J. H. Newman's Grammar of Assent, 
 pp. 456-486 ; Storrs' Divine Origin of Christianity, pp. 275, 591-595, 
 613, 4 ; Dr. G. P. Fisher's History of the Christian Church, p. 50 ; 
 Pressense's Martyrs and Apologists, passim.
 
 VI 
 THE REALM OF PSYCHOLOGY
 
 " From the time of the appearance of Jesus Christ in human flesh, 
 a regenerating power has been at work in the world altogether out 
 of proportion to any other that has ever influenced mankind. It is 
 therefore eminently reasonable, eminently scientific even, to contend 
 that the supernatural forces demonstrably overruling the forces of 
 the natural world, received their highest embodiment in the super- 
 natural life and work of Jesus Christ." Rev. Chancellor Lias, Viet. 
 Inst. Trans., No. 116, p. 269. 
 
 " The man who accepts the consummation of Christianity in the 
 Resurrection of Jesus, and the supernatural doctrines connected with 
 it (such as the abiding presence of the Spirit and the forgiveness of 
 sins through the death of Christ), may reasonably presume that the 
 miraculous manifestations were not limited to that one supreme 
 moment. He is therefore prepared to accept a preliminary mira- 
 culous history which has a ' reasonable ' amount of direct evidence 
 supporting it, and which is not manifestly incongruous with the 
 system. As already remarked, the general congruity of the Christian 
 system and the remarkable restraint under which the miraculous 
 narratives have been written, form a large part of the evidence com- 
 pelling us to accept the Bible as true history." Dr. G. F. Wright, 
 Scientific Aspects of Christian Evidences, p. 190. 
 
 " I do not know why, two months ago, I took it into my head to 
 read the New Testament, before my studies had advanced to the 
 age in which it was written. I had not read it for many years, and 
 was prejudiced against it before I took it in hand. I have read no 
 book on this subject, but hitherto in all my study of the ancient 
 times, I have always felt the want of something, and it was not 
 until I knew our Lord that all was clear to me ; with Him there is 
 nothing which I am not able to solve. If this religion is not 
 Divine, I understand nothing at all." Johann von Muller, the Swiss 
 historian, 1782, Werke, 15, 315, etc. 
 
 " What was the turning-point of Paul's life ? The Acts and the 
 Epistles agree in declaring that it was a supernatural revelation of 
 Christ to him. This was to him a most certain reality. He classes 
 it along with the appearances of the risen Jesus to His disciples on 
 earth as an objective fact. The Apostle believed that a miraculous 
 disclosure of Christ's heavenly glory formed the crisis of his life, 
 and he had the best opportunity of knowing. No explanation 
 tallies with all the facts which are known to us except that which 
 Paul himself gives." Dr. G. B. Stevens, Theology of the New Testa- 
 ment, p. 329 (International Theological Library). 
 176
 
 VI 
 
 THE EEALM OF PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 MENTAL phenomena have to do not only with history 
 but psychology. The former is concerned with the past, 
 the latter with the present. To ordinary readers the 
 technical term " psychology " may perhaps be unfamiliar, 
 but nothing can be more common or more easily 
 apprehended than the realities to which it refers. For 
 it simply signifies our assured knowledge of human 
 nature through daily observation and experience. Facts 
 of mind are just as real, and as open to examination, as 
 those of light or sound. Eelative to our subject there 
 are at least two well-known Christian phenomena which, 
 under this head, here call for earnest attention. These 
 are, the conversion of St. Paul, and the nature and origin 
 of the New Testament. 
 
 I. THE CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL 
 
 For those who would do justice to this remarkable 
 event, there can scarcely be, even now, a better statement 
 of the case than that of Lord Lyttleton. 1 It was issued, 
 
 1 Published in neat and cheap form by the Religious Tract 
 Society, together with a valuable introductory essay by the late 
 Professor Henry Rogers. 
 
 12
 
 178 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 indeed, many years ago, at the request of his friend 
 Gilbert West, who from being a Deist had become a 
 Christian, and published his still valuable Observations on 
 the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. But it has never been 
 definitely answered, and the positions maintained in it 
 have not been in the least degree weakened by any of 
 the intervening investigations of the modern critical 
 school " I thought," says Lord Lyttleton, that " the 
 conversion and apostleship of St. Paul alone, duly 
 considered, was of itself a demonstration sufficient 
 to prove Christianity to be a Divine revelation." 
 And, adds Mr. Eogers, " Lord Lyttleton was, in 
 several respects, especially well qualified to treat this 
 subject, and his judgement ought to have weight with 
 the reader. He had been a sceptic, he became a 
 Christian after deliberate examination. Being a 
 layman, he had no professional bias in favour of 
 his conclusion. His studies being honest, ended in 
 conviction." 
 
 The narratives given in Acts ix., xxii., xxvi. are too 
 familiar to need detailed quotation here. But two 
 remarks are definitely in place. First, that the 
 authentic character of this record known as the 
 " Acts of the Apostles " has been confirmed rather than 
 otherwise, by the keen scrutiny of modern Biblical 
 criticism. It is easy to say with McGiffert 1 that " the 
 supposition " that it is " from the pen of one of Paul's 
 companions" is "beset with serious difficulties." 
 Far more serious difficulties attend his own sugges- 
 tion, that it emanated from the pen of some anonymous 
 1 History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age, p. 237.
 
 THE EEALM OF PSYCHOLOGY 179 
 
 author in the time of Domitian. 1 However, discussion 
 of the date and genuineness of the Acts does not come 
 here within our scope. It is enough to remark that, 
 as the author just quoted himself acknowledges, Paul's 
 conversion, according to reliable records, " was one of 
 the most remarkable transformations in history." 
 
 Secondly, that whilst we are by no means compelled 
 to relinquish our hold of any of Paul's writings at the 
 behest of modern destructive criticism, there are at least 
 four of his Epistles, the genuineness of which may now 
 be said to be established beyond controversy. These are, 
 as is well known, Eomans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, and 
 Galatians. These are abundantly sufficient as data for 
 our present summary. To put the whole into a word, 
 there can be no doubt whatever as to the supernatural- 
 ness of Paul's conversion, if we accept his own account of 
 it. This narration, as set forth directly in the Acts, and 
 indirectly supported in his letters, gives us at once clear 
 and adequate cause for the marvellous change from Saul 
 of Tarsus, the learned young Eabbi, the abettor in 
 Stephen's murder, and fiery persecutor of Christians 
 generally, to Paul the prisoner of Jesus Christ, the 
 founder of Christian Churches, the foremost Apostle of 
 the Gentiles, the aged martyr for the truth. At the 
 same time it yields complete and irrefragable testimony 
 to the Divineness of the nature and mission of Christ 
 Himself. Doubtless it is the perception of this latter 
 inference, with its manifest inclusion of the miraculous, 
 which has led not a few to call in question the reliability 
 of the whole account. 
 
 1 Cf. The Apostolic Age, by Prof. Vernon Bartlet, pp. x. 5 1, 509, 
 a brief but valuable note.
 
 180 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 Meanwhile Lord Lyttleton's treatise waits, apparently 
 in vain, for specific answer. It is most in accord with 
 our present purpose to point out that those who deny 
 the New Testament narrative of an event thus alike 
 wonderful and undeniable, are themselves bound to 
 furnish a reasonable account of it without the super- 
 natural. 
 
 For all such, three, and only three, avenues of explana- 
 tion are open, as Lord Lyttleton also pointed out. His 
 words are worth repeating 
 
 " The person asserting these things of himself, and of whom they 
 are recorded in so authentic a manner, was either (i.) an impostor, 
 who said what he knew to be false with an intent to deceive ; or 
 (ii.) an enthusiast, who, by the force of an overheated imagination, 
 imposed on himself ; or (iii.) he was deceived by the fraud of others, 
 and all that he said must be imputed to the power of that deceit ; 
 or else what he declared to be the course of his conversion, and to 
 have happened in consequence of it, did all really happen, and 
 therefore the Christian religion is a Divine revelation." 1 
 
 Now the equal incredibility of each of these three 
 suppositions requires only a few moments' consideration 
 to make it manifest. Or, to express it more in ac- 
 cordance with the tenor of our present examination, 
 whichever of these three suggestions be adopted, greater 
 difficulties inevitably arise than those of the original 
 account which they are intended to displace. The 
 attempt to eliminate the supernatural, issues in con- 
 tradictions so grossly unnatural, that they are seen to be 
 more glaring violations of natural law than the ordinary 
 Christian account. In Professor McGiffert's phrase, the 
 
 1 Conversion and Apostleship of St. Paul, by Lord Lyttleton 
 (Religious Tract Society), p. 82.
 
 THE REALM OF PSYCHOLOGY 181 
 
 event becomes, in each of these three c t ases alike, 
 " psychologically inconceivable." 
 
 For (1) shall we say that Paul was a wilful and 
 deliberate deceiver? Then he himself is a standing 
 miracle of contradiction and perversity, to an utterly 
 unparalleled degree. For he must have acted not only 
 without any of the motives which all our experience and 
 observation show to be quite indispensable in such a 
 case, but also in utter defiance of every conceivable 
 inducement to the contrary. In addition to which, he 
 so succeeded in carrying through his deception, that 
 Greek and Jew, Eoman and barbarian, equally without 
 motive and against inducement, became his confederates, 
 and together spread throughout the world what they well 
 knew to be false. The absurdity of all this is self- 
 manifest. To quote from the late Professor Henry 
 Eogers - 
 
 " The world has renounced this hypothesis. It refuses to believe 
 in the possibility of a hypocrite, whose writings inculcate, and 
 whose conduct exemplifies, the highest order of moral excellence ; 
 it refuses to believe in a benevolent, self-denying, modest, 
 magnanimous liar, in whom falsehood speaks with the very 
 tongue, looks through the very eyes, and personates the very 
 gestures and tones of truth ; it refuses to believe that a man with 
 no earthly motive for it, and every earthly motive against it, spent 
 thirty years in cheating men into truth and virtue, which he 
 himself had utterly renounced." l 
 
 (2) Was he, then, deceived by others? Let us see what 
 such a supposition involves. He was a Jew ; a devout, 
 devoted Pharisee, a cultured, clever Eabbi. Are such so 
 easily befooled ? Especially, are they easily deceived in the 
 direction of Christianity? Let any modern missionary 
 1 Op. cit. p. 57.
 
 182 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 to the Jews reply. What, then, did these poor un- 
 lettered early Christians do these untaught fishermen 
 of Galilee ? They singled out the most cultured, most 
 able, most energetic, most determined of their per- 
 secutors, in the very heat of his intensest fury against 
 themselves and their Lord, and entirely succeeded in 
 persuading him that the false was true. At one stroke 
 they reversed all his life convictions, changed his hatred 
 into love, and in the very city and decade where these 
 strange facts were alleged to have occurred converted 
 the zealous Eabbi into a weak-minded and credulous 
 believer of whatever they chose to tell him Thus, in 
 their ignorant or fraudulent simplicity, with no help 
 whatever from any source there being by the supposi- 
 tion no supernatural, no risen Christ at all, in fact 
 nothing to act upon learned Jewish fanaticism save the 
 same temperament unlearned they transformed the 
 strong-minded, tireless, virulent persecutor into Paul the 
 Apostle of the Gentiles, the author of the Epistles, who 
 of all men did most to establish Christian Churches 
 everywhere, and finally laid down his life for the 
 crucified Christ ! Is there any need whatever to 
 inquire into their " arrangement " of the phenomena on 
 the road to Damascus ? Is it not rather overwhelmingly 
 manifest that the absurdity of this whole supposition 
 sufficiently confutes itself? 1 
 
 (3) There remains, then, only the possibility that Paul 
 may have been an enthusiast who, somehow or other, 
 
 1 The deliberate judgement of Keim is perhaps here worth 
 recording by reason of his manifest freedom from orthodox bias. 
 He says (Jesu von Nazara, i. p. 52) : " It would be even easy to show
 
 THE REALM OF PSYCHOLOGY 183 
 
 was carried away by heated imagination into self- 
 deception. By way of helping out this manifestly flimsy 
 suggestion, modern pseudo-scientific doubt has also 
 called in pathology, and sought to represent him as an 
 epileptic, who probably experienced a sunstroke en route 
 for Damascus. Does this, however, really assist the 
 case for unbelief at all ? Let us see. Two things have 
 to be borne in mind. First of all, we are fairly well 
 acquainted, from constant observation as well as his- 
 tory, with the natural elements of fanatic enthusiasm. 
 Secondly, we do also know, from his unquestioned 
 labours and writings, what were the leading features of 
 the apostle's character. Fair juxtaposition will suffice 
 to decide whether the latter can have naturally pro- 
 ceeded from the former. 
 
 What, then, are the marks of the genuinely fanatic 
 temperament ? Of these we stand no more in doubt 
 than of the distinctive reactions of a chemical compound. 
 They include great excitability, extravagance, credulity, 
 vanity, narrowness of mind, unpracticalness, imprudence 
 amounting to recklessness, and these all associated more 
 or less with morbid fancies and melancholy moods, often 
 also with a general disregard for the plain elements of 
 morality, and utter disregard for the sacredness of human 
 life. The history of fanaticism through ages past, marks 
 out these traits of character as unmistakably as the study 
 
 that Paul was compelled to satisfy his own mind, historically and 
 critically. His conversion had to struggle into existence through 
 doubt and denial, and his mental character was pre-eminently 
 logical ; he was never happy until his ideas were firmly established, 
 until he had arrived at positive conclusions, and had anticipated all 
 objections."
 
 184 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 of geology makes plain the various strata of the earth's 
 crust. 1 
 
 Now the task of the unbelief which rejects the 
 supernatural is, given such a temperament, and a 
 murdered teacher of strange doctrines who before his 
 death had only succeeded in impressing a few unlettered 
 folk, whilst he had aroused to passionate heat against 
 himself the religious prejudice of the Jew, the haughty 
 hate of Borne, and the contemptuous malice of scribes 
 and Pharisees, to produce in the midst of most hostile 
 surroundings, and within not more than five-and-twenty 
 years a character and a life such as that of Paul, with 
 his gospel of purity, and peace, and truth, and love. 
 Surely those who can believe this to have been possible, 
 ought not to be staggered by miracle anywhere. 
 
 But even if we assume the credibility of the incredible, 
 and allow for a moment the possibility of the impossible, 
 under the pretext that sheer fanaticism may bring 
 about unexpected results, is it shown that Paul truly 
 was such an enthusiast ? The answer must be that from 
 all that we know reliably concerning him, one and only 
 one of all these characteristics can honestly be acknow- 
 ledged as true, namely, warmth of temperament. But if 
 this constitutes valid ground for an accusation of fanaticism, 
 what shall we say of half the best known and noblest of 
 mankind ! Such a man as Paul may, confessedly, be the 
 slave of his strongest impulses. But there is no proof 
 whatever that he did so lack self-control. Whilst as to 
 
 1 Tragic illustration is afforded, whilst these sheets are passing 
 through the press, by the fearful ravages of the " Boxers " in China, 
 and the ghastly murder of the King of Italy.
 
 THE REALM OF PSYCHOLOGY 185 
 
 the other indubitable marks of the true fanatic, his 
 whole character exhibits continual proof of traits the 
 very opposite. To sum up, therefore, under this head 
 of enthusiasm, the only way of so accounting for the 
 actual facts of the case, is to attribute to the apostle 
 a character which he certainly never possessed, and then 
 endow that character with utterly incredible potentialities. 
 And this by way of getting rid of difficulties ! From 
 such a tangle of incredibilities it is refreshing to turn 
 once again to the judgement of Keirn 1 
 
 "We are thus led to two important conclusions. In the first 
 place, the apostle's faith must have rested, not upon the meagre 
 notices of the person of Jesus which we find in his writings, but 
 upon a knowledge of His life sufficiently comprehensive to justify 
 all the results of his reasoning, and to present to his mind, either 
 on the ground of his own observation or that of others, the picture 
 of a character without spot and full of nobility. And, in the 
 second place, this knowledge is not the fruit of a blind acceptance 
 of unexamined Christian tradition picked up here and there, but, 
 as the case of the inquiry into the evidence of the resurrection 
 shows, was arrived at by means of a lucid, keen, searching, 
 sceptical observation, comparison, collection and collation of such 
 materials as were accessible to him." 
 
 Finally, even if we should waive all the difficulties 
 of unbelief which are associated with Paul's actual 
 conversion and following career, we have yet to give 
 rational account of his letters. Let these be honestly 
 examined, and their ethics compared with those of any 
 other of the world's best known teachers. Are these 
 writings the work of a fool, or a knave, or a sun- 
 struck epileptic, or a crack-brained enthusiast ? Is such 
 a result from such a cause " psychologically conceivable " ? 
 1 Jesu von Nazara, i. p. 52.
 
 186 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 This at least, must in the end be unhesitatingly affirmed, 
 that if the conversion, character, career, and writings of 
 the Apostle Paul did so originate, then all objection to 
 the miraculous should cease. For in such a case a far 
 greater and grosser contradiction to nature is before us, 
 than all the Christian miracles together can supply. 
 The supernaturalness of such a miracle of unbelief 
 would only be equalled by its unnaturalness, or surpassed 
 by its anti-naturalness. 
 
 II. NATURE AND ORIGIN OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 Under the same head of psychological contradiction 
 we pass to consider the case of the New Testament 
 generally. It is confessedly too vast a theme to treat here 
 with the detailed attention that it merits. Happily, 
 however, the literature of the subject has during recent 
 years so been cleared of fog and rendered accessible, that 
 we may honestly assume much, and leave the rest open 
 to the careful scrutiny of every person of intelligence 
 and sincerity who is disposed to examine for himself. 
 
 The New Testament, with all its remarkable character- 
 istics, is manifestly before us, and we are driven to ask 
 both what it is and whence it comes. We will, therefore, 
 first summarise the plain facts, and then briefly estimate 
 them, in order that we may clearly see whether of the 
 two is the more difficult or indeed the more miraculous 
 the account of their origin given by Christian belief, 
 or that suggested by unbelief. 
 
 Here, then, in our hands, is a collection of writings 
 upon subjects most of all difficult to handle, and in 
 regard to which, between all other authors upon earth,
 
 THE REALM OF PSYCHOLOGY 187 
 
 the greatest conceivable confusion and contradiction 
 prevail. These Christian writings comprise twenty-seven 
 different portions, acknowledged to have been written at 
 different times, by not less than eight or nine distinct 
 persons, perhaps more. They are addressed to entirely 
 different communities called Churches, situated in various 
 localities distant from each other. Besides the diffi- 
 culties which are inseparable from an admixture of 
 matters historical, ethical, and religious, these writings 
 introduce events and opinions emphatically peculiar to 
 themselves, and involving considerations in which above 
 all others "many men" were likely to have "many 
 minds." Such themes are the conception of Christ's 
 person and work, together with His Crucifixion and 
 Eesurrection, and all those ensuing results which are 
 connoted in the New Testament term " salvation." 
 
 Eight distinct classes of facts at least, merit attention. 
 
 1. Every reader of the Acts of the Apostles, in 
 which Paul's conversion is recorded, sees that there is 
 presupposed and indeed in the opening verses distinctly 
 asserted the existence of just such another narrative of 
 great events connected with the Christ, as we find in 
 the Gospel of Luke. But we possess besides this, three 
 other similar records, making together a unique quadruple 
 biography. Now at whatever time these Gospels them- 
 selves were written, the events which they record 
 manifestly preceded those related in the Acts. This 
 being the case, we are most of all concerned to know 
 whether we may rely upon this fourfold account as true, 
 whenever and by whomsoever written. Certainly they 
 give us a full and sufficient narrative of such things as
 
 188 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 must be presupposed necessary, both to Paul's conversion 
 and that of all others mentioned in the Acts. Were it 
 not for the supernatural element involved in them, 
 probably no one would question their authenticity. 
 When, however, this is impugned, it becomes the task 
 of critical unbelief to account for these narratives as they 
 have come down to us, and to show cause for regarding 
 as more reliable some other record of what undoubtedly 
 happened 
 
 Meanwhile, these our Gospels not only exist, but are 
 better known in the modern world than any other 
 ancient writings whatever. If, therefore, the general 
 Christian view respecting their origin be rejected, then 
 all those features which go to make them absolutely 
 unique in the world's literature, must be explained upon 
 purely natural principles and according to the acknow- 
 ledged laws of psychology. 
 
 Much has been said elsewhere, well and deservedly, 
 concerning their style, both in the form in which 
 English readers know it, and yet more emphatically as 
 to the original Greek. Their simplicity has also been 
 justly admired, in that they give so marvellous a history 
 with such naturalness and such marked repression of both 
 the personal characteristics and comments of the writers. 
 The conception of such a figure as that of the Christ, 
 moving through them with traits of character quite 
 unprecedented and utterly foreign to the ideals alike of 
 Judaism and Paganism, has been freely acknowledged to 
 be sublime. The wonderful harmony of four such 
 witnesses, who, to say the very least, have been shown 
 to be distinct in person and to have written at different
 
 THE REALM OF PSYCHOLOGY 189 
 
 times, has been conceded. Whilst no less remarkable are 
 the numerous differences which no conceivable forgery 
 would have allowed to pass. For all this adequate 
 cause must be found. 
 
 But there is a great deal more to be accounted for. 
 Difficult beyond measure as the biographical subject 
 manifestly is, no honest mind can deny the real unity of 
 the fourfold portrait. The wonder and beauty of the 
 character thus displayed has been not only revered by 
 believers, but warmly appreciated by the noblest amongst 
 unbelievers. Of this attitude the well-known words of 
 John Stuart Mill may be taken as typical 
 
 "Whatever else may be taken away from us by rational criti- 
 cism, Christ is still left a unique figure, not more unlike all His 
 precursors than all His followers, even those who had the direct 
 benefit of His personal teaching. It is of no use to say that Christ X" 
 as exhibited in the Gospels is not historical, and that we know ' 
 not how much of what is admirable has been superadded by the 
 tradition of His followers. Who among his disciples or among their 
 proselytes was capable of inventing the sayings ascribed to Jesus, 
 or of imagining the life and character revealed in the Gospels ? 
 Certainly not the fishermen of Galilee, still less the early Christian 
 writers." l 
 
 It is quite certain, moreover, from all the scrutiny of 
 criticism, that the wondrous unity in the portraiture of 
 the Gospels was not the . result of any collusion between 
 the writers. The many so-called " discrepancies " between 
 these records, especially between the Synoptics Matthew, 
 Mark, and Luke and the Fourth Gospel, suffice to 
 establish this. None of these, indeed, at all avail to 
 destroy the real unity of the general conception, but it 
 is quite " psychologically inconceivable " that accounts so 
 1 Essays on Nature, the Utility of Religion and Theism, pp. 253-255.
 
 190 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 apparently differing, should be given by writers working 
 together for purposes of deception. 
 
 2. Yet it is not merely of the Gospels and their 
 idiosyncrasies that unbelief is bound to furnish adequate 
 account. The three-and-tvventy other distinct writings 
 which are included in the rest of the New Testament, 
 demand none the less to be taken into careful regard. 
 The Christian view of the origin of these also is simple 
 and sufficient, whilst the difficulties of unbelief thicken 
 into a hopeless tangle. For here we are called upon to 
 consider a great deal more than merely special features 
 of style and subject. To read, even superficially, the 
 letters which form so large a portion of the Christian 
 Scriptures, and believe that such candour, simplicity, 
 and ethical dignity, can be the work of either clever 
 forgers or deluded enthusiasts, bespeaks much more 
 credulity than can ever be attributed to believers. 
 
 But it is only when we come to examine all these 
 writings with calm and critical comparison, that the 
 magnitude of the task which scepticism sets itself 
 becomes apparent. Here are twenty-three writings, 
 longer or shorter, all dealing with a subject most of all 
 difficult to delineate, viz. a new religion, resting upon 
 the words and works of a once crucified but afterwards 
 risen Saviour, a theme which had never before entered 
 into the human mind ; all assuming the happening of 
 events and the existence of facts so strange, that the 
 uttermost precautions could never have ensured sub- 
 stantial agreement amongst narrators, had the facts 
 been other than as represented; all, moreover, written 
 at different tunes, and to a great extent by different
 
 THE REALM OF PSYCHOLOGY 191 
 
 authors, and sent, without explanation, to widely differing 
 communities. Yet all these, despite the difficulty of their 
 purpose and the diversity of their standpoints, so agree, 
 that they were not merely soon gathered into one 
 volume and regarded as inspired, but they have defied 
 all scrutiny, of friends and foes alike, from that time to 
 this, to find any contradiction between them serious 
 enough to imperil for a moment the reliability of the 
 whole. 1 
 
 3. Between the Acts of the Apostles and the 
 Epistles, indeed, there exists a special relation which 
 must not be overlooked. A modern judge, giving his 
 opinion as to what kind of evidence most deserved 
 credence, expressed himself to the effect that it is " not 
 that of hardy and direct assertion, but that which 
 receives incidental confirmation from the putting to- 
 gether of incidental circumstances ; " in short," he said, 
 " the sort of coincidences in Paley's Horce Paulina;." 
 This was not spoken with any reference to theology, 
 but simply as indicating a certain kind of evidence. 
 We cannot here give large quotations from Paley's 
 work, but it is easily accessible, and worthy of careful 
 study, especially from the vast number of modern readers 
 who ignore it as antiquated. Nothing that modern 
 
 1 In so saying one does not forget that such works as Supernatural 
 Religion have appeared nor need we discourteously ignore them. 
 But seeing that it is manifestly impossible here to break off and 
 attempt to hold the balances between such works and the categoric 
 replies which have been issued by competent Christian scholars, 
 the only course left is to give, not without examination, a deliberate 
 judgement, and leave those who question it to the results of their 
 own investigation. Eeference may also be made to the list of books 
 at the end.
 
 192 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 criticism has established, avails in the least to dimmish 
 the evidential value of the marvellous network of un- 
 designed coincidences to which Paley directs attention. 
 The correlations in minute detail between the Acts and 
 Epistles, are in truth such as to extract from F. W. 
 Newman the acknowledgment that "the very complete 
 establishment which this work gives to the narrative 
 concerning Paul in the latter half of the Acts, appears 
 to me to reflect critical honour on the whole New 
 Testament." But the honour of the whole New 
 Testament and especially of those four Epistles to 
 Eome, Corinth, and Galatia, which the most destructive 
 modern criticism accepts as genuine is undeniably 
 pledged to the actual truth of the Supernatural in 
 general, and the Resurrection of Christ in particular. 
 Nor can it be too plainly pointed out, that if modern 
 unbelief could succeed in showing that all this intricate 
 labyrinth of mutually confirming references is but the 
 result of foolish fanaticism or guilty deceit, it would 
 then have demonstrated a psychological miracle which, 
 for transgression of natural law, would far exceed any- 
 thing recorded in the Gospels. 
 
 4. Still more to be considered is the substantial 
 unanimity existing between all the various parts of the 
 New Testament. Our general familiarity with these 
 Christian writings, in their conventional juxtaposition 
 and arrangement within the covers of one volume, 
 blinds the eyes of the vast majority of ordinary readers 
 to the actual marvel on any other supposition than 
 their truthfulness of their consensus in regard to the 
 most strange and, in some sense, contradictory series of
 
 THE REALM OF PSYCHOLOGY 193 
 
 events that the world has ever known. In no other 
 history whatever would mutual falsification between 
 different writers have been so easy, or, one may say, 
 so inevitable. Yet when the utmost deference has 
 been paid to the sincerity and ability of the modern 
 critic, it is unquestionable that the various representa- 
 tions of the person of Christ, the series of great events, 
 the doctrinal and ethical consequences of Christ's mys- 
 terious death and actual resurrection, are substantially 
 and unmistakably one. But that such a unity should 
 issue, by the mere hap of the case, from a con- 
 glomeration of delusion, fanaticism, and deceit, is an 
 improbability beyond mathematical expression. The 
 improbability of the Christian miracles is small indeed 
 by comparison. 
 
 5. Again, the historical fidelity of these writings is 
 as marvellous as it is indirect. The references which 
 can be directly compared with accredited history, occur, 
 naturally, in some parts of the New Testament more 
 than in others. But the fact that they are always 
 and only incidental, greatly enhances their value. 1 They 
 admit of being variously classified, but it must suffice 
 here to point out that in their unequivocal allusions 
 to contemporary Jewish rulers and Eoman authorities, 
 as also to the political and religious condition of the 
 Jewish nation, with passing references to persons and 
 events in the surrounding Gentile world, the New 
 
 1 See No. 41 of the admirable series of "Present-Day Tracts" 
 issued by the Religious Tract Society, in which Dr. Maclear sets 
 forth the case with forceful succinctness. This, as well as all the 
 other members of the series, deserves the earnest study of every 
 person of ordinary intelligence throughout the land.
 
 194 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 Testament writers ingenuously lay themselves open to 
 criticism or confutation in numberless instances. The 
 comparative meagreness of the reference to the new 
 faith made by the non-Christian writers of the period, 
 is capable of easy and adequate explanation. But the 
 points of contact between the Christian narrative and 
 the civil or political environment, are neither too few 
 nor too many to be natural. They are free alike from 
 evasion and from ostentation. And with such trifling 
 exceptions as only concern those who are pledged to 
 the untenable theory of "verbal" inspiration, the ac- 
 curacy of these references is established now beyond 
 dispute. 1 How, then, we ask, is such historical fidelity 
 to be accounted for, on such a theme, amongst so many 
 and so different contributors, writing at varying times, 
 and distinctly separated from each other by distance 
 and by circumstance ? There can be but one valid 
 psychological explanation, namely, that they spoke and 
 wrote the truth. Any other supposition makes greater 
 demands upon our powers of belief than all the 
 miraculous elements of the events recorded. 
 
 6. We have yet, however, to take some notice of 
 that selection of some Christian writings from others, 
 and collection of them into a universally recognised 
 whole, which is summarised under the term " Canonicity." 
 On this theme the works of Drs. Westcott and Charteris 
 will be appreciated only by students. Yet it is not 
 for students so much as for all ordinary people, that 
 
 1 See, especially, " Discoveries illustrating the Acts of the 
 Apostles," on pp. 291-302 of Dr. Lightfoot's Essays on Super- 
 natural Religion.
 
 THE REALM OF PSYCHOLOGY 195 
 
 Mrs. Besant and others have issued manuals in which 
 special attention is directed to the number of so-called 
 "Apocryphal" Christian writings, in the course of the 
 first and second centuries. The intention of such 
 enumeration is, avowedly, to damage the received 
 authority of our New Testament. The actual effect is 
 exactly the contrary. 
 
 Mr. J. S. Mill might well say in answer to the 
 question, " Who wrote the Gospels ? " " Certainly not 
 the fishermen of Galilee, still less the early Christian 
 writers." For the comparison of those writings which, 
 as being included in the New Testament, are called 
 " canonical," with the productions generally comprised 
 in the Christian Apocrypha, as well as the writings of 
 the early " Fathers," is happily possible to-day to any- 
 one who chooses to make it. It is simply impossible 
 to conceive of any person of intelligence and honesty 
 who would not endorse the verdict of Mr. B. H. Cowper, 
 the accomplished translator of the best of these pseudo- 
 Gospels and Epistles, when he says 
 
 " Before I undertook this task, I never realised so completely as 
 I do now, the impassable character of the gulf which separates the 
 genuine Gospels from these." l 
 
 How is this gulf to be accounted for? It cannot 
 be denied. It can scarcely be measured. That mere 
 chance or blind credulity should first create such a 
 distinction, and then cause it to crystallise permanently 
 out of the tossing sea of differing opinions, bitter con- 
 flicts, and energetic heresies which, we know, so soon 
 1 The Apocryphal Gospels, by B. H. Cowper (Norgate). Preface.
 
 196 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 characterised the early Church, is indeed " psychologi- 
 cally inconceivable." How came it to pass that the 
 writings which, whether we think of them as com- 
 prising the New Testament or not, are acknowledged 
 to be incomparably superior to any other Christian 
 productions, ancient or modern, were really though 
 gradually separated from all others, and with such 
 emphasis that, equally then and now, a man might 
 as well set himself the task of creating a world as 
 either to increase or diminish their number ? For such 
 attempted alteration of the Canon, we know that the 
 heretical acumen of a Marcion, the rude strength of a 
 Luther, and the critical determination of a Baur, proved 
 alike futile. 
 
 To assign all this ultimately to the Spirit of God, 
 working out a definite purpose towards humanity by 
 means of the truth and its influence on the minds of 
 men, is at least an adequate and reasonable cause. But 
 to ascribe such an event, utterly without parallel as it 
 is in the world of literature, to the mere accident of 
 religious party conflict, inspired only by hysteria or 
 fanaticism, is a psychological monstrosity, compared 
 with which the "ghost theory" of Mr. Spencer and 
 Mr. Clodd, as recently shown up by Mr. Andrew 
 Lang, scarcely deserves mention. 
 
 7. This, however, is by no means all. A whole volume 
 might be written upon another phase of the question 
 which can here receive only passing notice, namely, the 
 wonderful preservation and unquenchable vitality of these 
 writings. Such a theme would, of course, include also 
 the whole Bible. But even if, for the time being, we
 
 THE REALM OF PSYCHOLOGY 197 
 
 should allow the reverence or jealousy of Jew and 
 Samaritan to have been sufficient cause for the preser- 
 vation of the Old Testament, much more remains to be 
 considered. 1 
 
 The New Testament has had more vigorous friends 
 and enemies than any other known collection of human 
 writings. These, however, have not so much cancelled 
 each other's influence as they have together tended to 
 injure the proper understanding, the honest reading, the 
 sheer existence of the whole Bible. What other writings 
 amongst men have been subject to such contrary extremes 
 as bigoted Bibliolatry on the one hand, and fierce hatred, 
 like that of heathenism or the Eomish Inquisition, upon 
 the other ? Neither the Koran nor any of the writings 
 of the East has passed through such vicissitudes of storm 
 and stress as have repeatedly spent themselves upon the 
 Bible. Vain attempts to destroy it have been accom- 
 panied by compensating prophecies that it would soon 
 be blotted out, and it has been the shrewd habit of a 
 certain section to refer to it again and again as passing 
 into oblivion. But all has been in vain. It not only 
 still exists, but is to-day more widely diffused and more 
 influential than ever. 
 
 Meanwhile the very fact of the difference, and in some 
 manifest aspects the contradiction, between the Old and 
 New Covenants, emphasises the marvel, oft underrated 
 and forgotten, that these two so long have been, and 
 
 1 See Professor Henry Rogers, Superhuman Origin of the Bilk. 
 An able and convenient summary of the case will also be found, 
 for ordinary readers, in No. 23 of the series of "Present- Day 
 Tracts " (Religious Tract Society), by Rev. Dr. Blaikie.
 
 198 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 henceforth are, bound together in one volume as an 
 indissoluble whole. 
 
 Again, the acknowledged loss of the original autographs, 
 alike as regards the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, 
 contrasts notably with the double fact that their transla- 
 tions made from admittedly better " texts " than the 
 ancient classics are more widely known throughout the 
 world than any other, and rest to-day upon a firmer critical 
 basis than at any time since the days of the Apostles. 
 
 On the whole, it is not too much to say that there is 
 in these days just as much room to question the best 
 known events of history, as the reliability of the Hebrew 
 and Greek texts, in regard to all those great facts which 
 they adduce as demonstrating the reality of the super- 
 natural in the spiritual evolution of mankind. Nor is 
 there any risk in the affirmation that gravitation will 
 cease to be a force in this earth's physics, as surely and 
 as soon as the Bible and its influence will be cast out of 
 the heart of humanity. If, therefore, the root of this 
 manifestly indestructible tree be but pure delusion, if 
 the source of this mighty and resistless stream be only 
 an accidental confluence of the deceiving and the deceived, 
 truly it is not enough to say with Tennyson 
 
 " There's something in this world amiss 
 Shall be unriddled by and by" ; 
 
 for all is chaos and confusion in the world of mind, 
 whatever we may think we see in surrounding physical 
 creation. 
 
 At least it must be affirmed that there is no parallel 
 in history to this peaceful but irresistible dissemination
 
 THE KEALM OF PSYCHOLOGY 199 
 
 throughout the world, of writings which are unique alike 
 in their doctrine of God and man, which admit of neither 
 rival nor partner in their claims, which pander to nothing 
 in human nature that is unworthy, but, on the contrary, 
 set up a standard of conduct that most men find quite 
 unattainable. 
 
 In regard to the New Testament especially, to suggest 
 that a band of a dozen men, mostly unlettered, should 
 succeed in concocting a story which they all knew to be 
 false, and not only force it upon Jew and Gentile of their 
 own day, but so embalm it in records and letters as 
 literally to fill the world with their doctrine after an 
 interval of nineteen centuries, until it were as vain to 
 attempt to destroy all human knowledge, and substitute 
 savagery for civilisation, as to blot out this doctrine from 
 human affairs, is surely to ask credence for a greater as 
 well as darker miracle than any of the supernatural 
 events recorded in the Gospels, Acts, or Epistles. 
 
 8. There is yet another consideration which certainly 
 must not be left out of account, namely, the nature of the 
 influence which is thus confessedly indestructible. This 
 opens the door, it must be owned, for an estimate of the 
 whole value of religion in the development of human 
 nature and civilisation. But we need not enter it in 
 order to do justice to our present theme. It were alike 
 discourteous and vain to ignore, or treat as trifles, the 
 strongly expressed convictions of unbelievers who have 
 been sometimes as distinguished for intellectual ability as 
 for moral probity. The true Christian has neither need 
 nor desire to cast scorn upon the writings of such men 
 as Strauss, Eenan, Biichner, Haeckel, John Stuart Mill,
 
 200 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 Herbert Spencer, H. T. Buckle, Charles Bradlaugh, Prof. 
 Clifford, the author of Supernatural Religion, Carl Pearson, 
 and the like ; nor again of such women as Marian Evans 
 (" George Eliot "), Annie Besant, and Mrs. Humphry 
 Ward. At the same time, the personal disavowal of 
 Christianity on the part of these prominent writers by 
 no means avails to settle the question as to the influence 
 of the Bible, and especially of the New Testament, in 
 the mental and moral history of humanity. 
 
 For, in the first place, if personal testimonies are to 
 count, according to the acknowledged intellectual power, 
 manifest sincerity, social influence, world-wide promi- 
 nence, of well-known writers and leaders of thought, there 
 cannot be a moment's hesitation as to which side would 
 show to greatest advantage. It is not sufficient to aver 
 that in every realm of civilised life, in literature, science, 
 art, and politics, no less than in philosophy and morals, 
 the names of eminent believers would amply suffice as 
 a set-off against those of unbelievers. The fact is that 
 they would be in an overwhelming majority. It is not 
 seldom forgotten, especially by the younger or popular 
 advocates of scepticism, that the common appeal to the 
 authority of Huxley, and Tyndall, and Clifford, etc., as 
 instances of unbelief, introduces a principle of decision 
 which would tell irresistibly on behalf of Christian faith. 
 We do not, of course, here appeal to such testimony as 
 decisive on the general question, but when we remember 
 that deliberate expressions of strong conviction, from 
 men acknowledged to be among the world's greatest and 
 best, could be multiplied indefinitely, we do at least 
 conclude that the question as to the influence of this
 
 THE REALM OF PSYCHOLOGY 201 
 
 wondrous collection of writings which we call Holy 
 Scripture, is by no means foreclosed by a few notable 
 instances of sceptic disparagement. Its perpetual re- 
 statement is, rather, as desirable as permissible. 
 
 The appeal is always twofold, to principle and to fact. 
 We have to ask both what is likely to be, and what 
 has been. The logical and legitimate consequences of 
 principles demand estimate, equally with the actual 
 events of history. By far the greater part of the 
 common objections raised by Secularists and others 
 against Christianity, consists of reminders and accusa- 
 tions in regard to conduct which the Bible itself 
 condemns far more emphatically than its opponents do. 
 Of these we need take no notice. If so-called Christians 
 have carried fire and sword, opium and alcohol, greed 
 and treachery, throughout the world, or if, even at home, 
 " envy, hatred and malice, and all uncharitableness " 
 do sometimes characterise their behaviour, the New 
 Testament is its own witness that the condemnation of 
 faith concerning such things is far more severe than 
 the censure of unfaith. The Gospels and Epistles are 
 no more responsible for these occasional evil doings 
 of Christian nations or individuals, than the laws of 
 England are for the greed of gamblers or the vile 
 deeds of every criminal. 
 
 But, on the other hand, what a change for the better 
 would necessarily come over our cities, our nation, the 
 whole of Europe and the world, if only such fundamental 
 Christian principles as are set forth in the Sermon on 
 the Mount, or Bom. xii., or Col. iii., or Eph. iv., etc., 
 were actually enshrined in all human hearts, and
 
 202 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 embodied in the daily conduct of humanity, every honest 
 mind must be called upon to judge for itself. 
 
 Meanwhile we are able to estimate that which actually 
 has been. We may inquire frankly as to the effect of 
 Scripture upon national character, upon family life, upon 
 civic behaviour, and indeed upon human development in 
 general. It is also quite right that we should take 
 into account the efforts and results of modern Foreign 
 Missions. Nor is there any sound reason why we should 
 refuse to listen to well-substantiated personal testimony. 
 
 To do all this in detail would, of necessity, occupy 
 volumes rather than pages. The following deliberate 
 expressions of opinion, therefore, may be taken as con- 
 venient summaries, representative not only of many 
 more, but of the preponderating judgement of the human 
 mind, when all due subtraction has been made for the 
 opposing attitude of unbelievers. It may be avowed 
 without hesitation that every one of the eminent men 
 whose words are here given, is no less distinguished for 
 intellectual eminence than raised above suspicion for 
 probity and truthfulness. Nearly a century ago Fichte 
 wrote thus 
 
 " It remains certain that we with our whole age and with all our 
 philosophic inquiries, are established on and have proceeded from 
 Christianity ; that this Christianity has entered into our whole 
 culture in the most varied forms, and that, on the whole, we might 
 have been nothing of all that we are, had not this mighty principle 
 gone before us in time." l 
 
 Lord M-Acaulay, again, expresses himself thus 
 
 " How vast the difference between Christianity and heathenism ! 
 I altogether abstain' from alluding to topics which belong to 
 
 1 Doctrine of Religion, Lect. vi. p. 473, Smith's edition.
 
 THE REALM OF PSYCHOLOGY 203 
 
 divines. I speak merely as a politician, anxious for the morality 
 and the temporal well-being of society. And so speaking I say that 
 to discountenance that religion which has done so much to promote 
 justice, and mercy, and freedom, and arts, and science, and good 
 government, and domestic happiness, which has struck off the 
 chains of the slave, which has mitigated the horrors of war, which 
 has raised women from servants and playthings into companions and 
 friends, is to commit high treason against humanity and civilisation." 1 
 
 Professor Huxley's words, above-quoted, merit repeti- 
 tion : 
 
 " By the study of what other book could children be so much 
 humanised and made to feel that each figure in the vast historical 
 procession fills, like themselves, but a momentary space between 
 two eternities; and earns the blessings or curses of all time, 
 according to its effort to do good and hate evil, even as they are 
 also earning their payment for their work ? " "I do not say 
 that even the highest Biblical ideal is exclusive of others or 
 needs no supplement. But I do believe that the human race is not 
 yet, possibly may never be, in a position to dispense with it." 2 
 
 Sir Andrew Clark has left his deliberate judgement to 
 this effect 
 
 " No one can doubt who has had adequate opportunities of 
 observation and powers of reflection, that there is one remedy, and 
 one alone, for all this spiritual disease, and that is to be found in 
 the person and work of Jesus Christ." 3 
 
 So, too, Sir Eisdon Bennett, late P.E.C.S. 
 
 " How can we look round the world and fail to see proof of the 
 power of Christianity wherever the gospel is known, among all 
 races of mankind, all classes of society, all ranks of intellect ! 
 What is there comparable to Christianity in promoting the 
 happiness and welfare of mankind 1 " 4 
 
 The Eight Hon. W. E. Gladstone, whose life was 
 
 1 Speeches The Gates of Somnauth. 
 
 2 Essays on Controverted Questions, pp. 51-53. 
 
 3 Report of CJiristian Evidence Society, p. 33. 
 
 4 Ibid. p. 41.
 
 204 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 sufficient witness to the reality of his convictions, has 
 left behind him abundant testimonies which are well 
 summarised in these his words 
 
 " Christianity, even in its sadly imperfect development, is, as 
 matter of fact, at the head of the world. As the first existing 
 power, it rules the world ; and of all the more or less noisy 
 pretenders who, as if it were an Ottoman despotism, are prematurely 
 disputing for the succession, there is not one which has given 
 evidence either of being capable, or of being accepted, for the 
 place it has so long held." 1 "For the last fifteen hundred years 
 Christianity has always marched in the van of human improvement 
 and civilisation, and it has harnessed to its car all that is great and 
 glorious in humanity.'" 2 
 
 Such testimonies as these could easily be multiplied 
 and confirmed. They may suffice here, as fair specimens 
 of the best thought of some of the ablest judges of the 
 true welfare of society. 8 
 
 It would, however, be an injustice to the truth to 
 omit all reference to the equally significant witness 
 afforded by the work of modern Christian Missions in 
 foreign countries. Strange ignorance prevails, accom- 
 panied by an amazing underestimate, both within and 
 without the Churches, as to the wonderfulness and 
 the value of the results of such effort. The following 
 expressions of the judgement of representative men, may 
 again be taken as truly typical of a general consensus 
 
 1 Rectorial Address, Glasgow, p. 26. 2 Private letter. 
 
 3 Reference to other works upon this theme, to be inclusive only 
 of the best, would resemble the catalogue of a large library, but 
 the following may be singled out from a host as being worthy of 
 .special study. The Influence of Jesus, Bohlen Lectures, by the late 
 Dr. Phillips Brooks ; Gesf.a Cliristi, by the late G. Loring Brace ; 
 Christian Sociology, by Dr. Stuckenberg ; and Practical Christian 
 Sociology, by Dr. Crafts.
 
 THE REALM OF PSYCHOLOGY 205 
 
 which is simply overwhelming in its testimony to the 
 worth of such Christian work. 
 
 A more impartial witness it would be difficult to find 
 than the late Mr. Charles Darwin. When he touched 
 at New Zealand in 1835, we find him recording his 
 impressions thus 
 
 " I believe we were all glad to leave New Zealand the greater 
 part of the English are the very refuse of society. I look back to 
 but one bright spot, and that is Waimate, with its native Christian 
 inhabitants." 
 
 Again, referring to the attacks made upon the mis- 
 sionaries by critics at home, he says 
 
 " They forget, or will not remember, that human sacrifices and 
 the power of an idolatrous priesthood a system of profligacy un- 
 paralleled in any other part of the world infanticide a consequence 
 of that system bloody wars where the conquerors spared neither 
 women nor children that all these have been abolished, and 
 that dishonesty, intemperance, and licentiousness have been greatly 
 reduced by the introduction of Christianity. In a voyager to forget . 
 these things is base ingratitude ; for should he chance to be at the y 
 point of shipwreck on some unknown coast, he will most devoutly 
 pray that the lesson of the missionary may have reached thus far.' 
 ..." The lesson of the missionary is the enchanter's wand. The 
 house had been built, the windows framed, the fields and even the 
 trees grafted by the New Zealander. When I looked at the whole 
 scene I thought it admirable. The march of improvement con- 
 sequent on the introduction of Christianity, throughout the South 
 Sea, probably stands by itself in the records of history." 1 
 
 Another equally unbiassed authority, the Standard 
 newspaper, 2 in regard to the formerly savage " Society 
 Islands," writes as follows: 
 
 " Up to 1820 they resisted vigorously any attempts to impose upon 
 them the new faith. Even the lives of the missionaries were in 
 
 1 Journal of Researches, 2nd edition, pp. 414, 425, 428, 505. 
 
 2 For October 2G, 1887.
 
 7 
 
 206 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 danger. Now all this is changed. With few exceptions the 
 natives have abandoned their idolatry, and even send missionaries 
 to other islands. Churches and schools have been erected, and in 
 other respects they might set an example to the world nearer 
 home." 
 
 Miss Gordon Gumming, writing of Fiji, 1 says 
 
 " It is only forty years since the missionaries landed, and already 
 they have won over to the new religion of peace and love, upwards 
 of a hundred thousand ferocious cannibals." 
 
 When Protestant missions were first projected in 
 regard to the island of Madagascar, the French governor 
 of the island of Bourbon declared 
 
 " You make the Malagasy Christians ! Impossible ! They are 
 mere brutes, and have no more sense than irrational cattle." 
 
 Now there are hundreds of Protestant Churches, and 
 that in spite of a bloody persecution, in which vast 
 numbers bore themselves as nobly as any other martyrs 
 . of history. Whilst in connection with the London 
 Missionary Society alone, there are nearly 1000 native 
 pastors, and 100,000 children in the schools. 
 
 If we turn our thoughts for a moment to India, with 
 
 its immense numbers and ancient history, the testimony 
 
 is the same. Mr. Hutton has reminded us not so long 
 
 since that up to 1837, about 150 human sacrifices were 
 
 annually offered in Goomsur alone, that in Kattiawar and 
 
 ' *Kutch alone about 3000 female infants were annually 
 
 exposed, that in four months, in 1824, no less than 115 
 
 widows were burnt alive near Calcutta. What has been 
 
 done in face of such evils may best be summarised in 
 
 1 See the whole of At Home in Fiji, by the Authoress.
 
 THE REALM OF PSYCHOLOGY 207 
 
 the "Beport of the Secretary of State and Council of 
 India." * 
 
 " The Government of India cannot but acknowledge the great 
 obligation under which it is laid by the benevolent exertions made 
 by the missionaries, whose blameless example and self-denying 
 labours are infusing new vigour into the stereotyped life of the 
 great populations placed under English rule, and are preparing 
 them to be in every way better men and better citizens of the great 
 empire in which they dwell." 
 
 Babu Keshub Chunder Sen, the well-known leader 
 of the Bramo Somaj in Calcutta, said 2 
 
 " The spirit of Christianity has already pervaded the whole 
 atmosphere of Indian society, and we breathe, think, feel, and 
 move in a Christian atmosphere. Native society is being roused, 
 enlightened, and reformed under the influence of Christian 
 education." 
 
 In 1880 the Maharajah of Travancore said 3 
 
 "Long before the State undertook the humanising task of 
 educating the subject population, the Christian missionaries had 
 raised the beacon of knowledge in this land. One cannot be 
 sufficiently thankful for the introduction of this civilising element 
 and its happily steady development. Your labours have been 
 increasing year by year the number of a loyal, law-abiding, and 
 civilised population the very foundation of good government." 
 
 Sir Bartle Frere, formerly Governor of Bombay, 
 declared 4 
 
 "Whatever you may be told to the contrary, the teaching of 
 Christianity among 160 millions of civilised, industrious Hindoos 
 
 1 On the progress of India for 1871-72, ordered to be printed by 
 the House of Commons, April 28, 1873. 
 
 2 Lectures, Bramo Tract Society, Calcutta, 1883, pp. 2, 6, 15, 
 281, etc. 
 
 8 Replying to an address from the missionaries at Cottayam. 
 4 Lecture before the Christian Evidence Society, July 9, 1872,
 
 208 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 and Mohammedans in India, is effecting changes, moral, social, and 
 political, which, for extent and rapidity of effect, are far more 
 extraordinary than anything you or your fathers have witnessed in 
 modern Europe." 
 
 And the late Lord Lawrence, who was Governor- 
 General of India, and probably knew India better than 
 any other man of his day, declared that 
 
 " Notwithstanding all that the English people have done to 
 benefit India, the missionaries have done more than all other 
 agencies combined." 
 
 Whilst these pages are passing through the press the 
 strained attention of Europe is being drawn towards 
 China in its terrible convulsions, brought about by the 
 savage fury of "Boxers" against the "foreign devil," 
 which Li Hung Chang and others ascribe to the in- 
 fluence of missionaries. How far this is from the actual 
 truth does not come within our sphere of discussion ; but 
 the following is only one out of numberless testimonies 
 which might be quoted from experts in Chinese matters. 
 
 In a recent interview Dr. John Dudgeon says : 
 
 " The missionary question in China is the question of the century ! 
 When you ask me if missionary enterprise in China has made for 
 good on the whole, I answer, Unquestionably, without any 
 reservation not only almost an unmixed good, but almost the 
 only good. As to whether the Chinese will ultimately become 
 a Christian people I believe it. The civilisation that half the 
 
 1 From Great Thoughts. Dr. Dudgeon is a M.D. and C.M. of 
 Glasgow, thirty years resident in China, head of the Imperial 
 College, Pekin, Physician and Surgeon to the British Legation and 
 the Japanese Legation in that city : author of To Yewj-Chi- 
 Kwan; The Land Question, or Peasant Proprietorship in China; Diet, 
 Dwellings, and Dress of the Chinese, etc. etc.
 
 THE EEALM OF PSYCHOLOGY 209 
 
 Powers would introduce is the civilisation of selfishness. Railways 
 are not everything, and will not take the place of mental and moral 
 training. We are upsetting the ideas of the Chinese, and not giv- 
 ing them anything in their place. The only influence that can 
 counteract the evil effects of a breaking away from old restraints 
 and abandonment of old beliefs, is the civilisation that springs from 
 Christianity. It is the only hope for China." 
 
 Only space is required to adduce evidence in regard to 
 other countries. If we pass from China to South Africa, 
 or from North America to the isles of the Pacific, 
 similar testimonies to the degree in which the influence 
 of the Bible, and more especially of the Christianity of 
 the New Testament, upon the character and destinies of 
 humanity has been equally beneficent and irresistible. 
 
 Nor is there any sufficient reason why the personal 
 experience of Christians at home should be ignored. For 
 it is as scientifically valid as other testimony, and could 
 be adduced, with all the modesty of truthfulness, from 
 all conditions of life and all classes of the community. 
 It is quite as rational to consider the highest as it is to 
 note the lowest estimate of Christianity. At least it 
 must be owned that in these Christian writings which we 
 are considering, men of intelligence and sincerity have . 
 found, in cases without number, a comfort and an inspir- J 
 ation, as well as solemn warning and clear guidance, 
 which have made life altogether a new thing, filling 
 hearts with joy and homes with gladness, regenerating 
 society with elevating influences, and, when all that is 
 human fades away, providing a worthy hope that trans- 
 forms death itself into a benediction. Such, in very deed, 
 has been, and yet is, the influence of that gospel which 
 through the Christian Scriptures has permeated the world.
 
 210 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 The facts, in a word, are such that, with all that wo 
 can gather concerning the history and influence of other 
 religions, it must be owned that these Scriptures have 
 affected the progress of the world, and that for good, 
 more than any other records known to humanity. Here 
 then, once more, is a vast congeries of fact for which 
 adequate cause must be discovered if either our religion 
 or irreligion is to be rational. 
 
 The eight distinct lines of thought thus summarised 
 have been sufficiently elaborated in other volumes ; what 
 we have here to do is to sum them up in one clear view, 
 and find for the whole, as for each, an adequate cause. 
 It is an entirely true, but by no means sufficient, avowal, 
 that there is no parallel to this whole case in human 
 history. For the uniqueness of the records and the 
 unparalleled influence for good of the Christian 
 Scriptures, become more and more manifest in pro- 
 portion to the thoroughness with which they are 
 investigated. 
 
 Now the explanation of this total complex phenomenon, 
 according to Christian faith, is confessedly as adequate 
 as manifest. The actuality of the fundamental events 
 recorded, the reality of the co-operating Divine influence, 
 the energy of human nature working upon well-known 
 lines, supply together reasonable and sufficient cause for 
 all the phenomena in question. But to remove any 
 one of these three forces, is to wreck the whole, as 
 infallibly as the swift progress of a locomotive would 
 be prevented if we take away the fire, or the water, 
 or the mechanism, by the conjoint means of which it 
 works.
 
 THE REALM OF PSYCHOLOGY 211 
 
 Dr. Wace has therefore well said, that 
 
 " The whole case of the Christian reasoner is that the records of 
 the New Testament defy any attempt to explain them by natural 
 causes. The German critics Hase, Strauss, Baur, Hausrath, Keim, 
 all have made the attempt, and each, in the opinion of the others, 
 and finally of Pfleiderer, has offered an insufficient solution of 
 the problem. The case of the Christian is not that the evidence 
 ought not to be explained naturally, and translated into everyday 
 experience, but that it cannot be." 
 
 In other words, it is simply "psychologically 
 inconceivable " that this vast and marvellous structure 
 can have had fraud, or folly, for its foundation, and 
 fanaticism or delusion for the plan of its development. 
 Could it be demonstrated that such was the case, the 
 reality of the miraculous element would not merely 
 remain, but would be as manifestly increased in quantity 
 as subverted in quality, by its transference from the side 
 of faith to that of unfaith. The miracles of unbelief 
 would be immeasurably more " difficult," in all respects, 
 than those of belief. 
 
 One final feature of the case merits separate mention. 
 It has become increasingly the fashion of late years to 
 insist upon the foolishness, and ignorance, and super- 
 stition, of the men of the primitive Christian age, in 
 order to make it easy to understand how they could 
 believe in miracles, and be led away into accepting the 
 Christian story generally. Now this would be all very 
 well if they had only left behind them such religious 
 Munchausen tales as the Apocryphal writings; or if 
 the practical resiilts of their associated folly had been 
 equally mischievous and shortlived. This, however, we 
 know to be the exact opposite of the truth. Whilst,
 
 212 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 therefore, the honesty and reliability of these Christian 
 Scriptures are becoming more clear the more closely 
 they are examined, and the world is gradually but 
 surely learning so to distinguish Christianity from 
 ecclesiasticism as to recognise in the true mind of 
 Christ the greatest blessing and noblest hope of our 
 race, correspondingly more serious grows evermore the 
 problem for unbelief. For the more weak and foolish 
 these early Christian disciples and advocates were, 
 according to the naturalistic hypothesis, the more 
 impossible it becomes to explain how, from such an 
 origin, there can have sprung the Christian writings, 
 with their wonderful representations, their indestructible 
 vitality, their elevating and ennobling influence. 
 
 It would indeed be a stupendous problem to explain 
 how the world's highest ideal of truth could have 
 originated in falsehood ; how the severest standard of 
 purity and honour could have arisen out of fable, fraud, 
 and fanaticism ; how writings which are unique in simple 
 excellence of style, and sustain the strictest investiga- 
 sion into their mutual relations, could yet be utterly 
 unreliable as to the main facts which they assert and 
 upon which they wholly depend. If "men do not 
 gather grapes of thorns or figs from thistles," it is 
 worse than fatuous to talk of the credulity of certain 
 fanatic Jews of the first century, as the sufficient cause 
 of the New Testament record of facts and system of 
 doctrine. It is simply preposterous to avow that a 
 mere handful of tares can be the source of untold acres 
 of wholesome wheat. 
 
 The problem of accounting, therefore, for the Bible,
 
 THE REALM OF PSYCHOLOGY 213 
 
 and more especially the New Testament, without the 
 substantial accuracy of the alleged events, and without 
 the reality of the supernatural influences which are 
 asserted as having interworked with human energies, is a 
 veritable Sisyphus task, recoiling evermore upon him who 
 attempts it. To treat such a problem as either of small 
 account or easy to solve, is a feat of mental jugglery 
 which has been reserved for modern anti-supernatural 
 philosophy. Nor are there any better words with which 
 we may close this section, than those of J. J. Eousseau, 
 who may fairly be regarded as an impartial witness, 
 and whose question, now a century old, has in the 
 interval gathered additional weight for the men of 
 this generation 
 
 "Can a book, at once so sublime and so simple, be the work of 
 men ? Can the Person, whose history it relates, be Himself but a 
 mere man ? Should we suppose the gospel was a story, invented 
 to please ? It is not in this manner that we forge tales, for the 
 actions of Socrates, of which no person has the least doubt, are less 
 satisfactorily attested than those of Jesus Christ. Such a supposi- 
 tion, in fact, only shifts the difficulty without removing it. It 
 is more inconceivable that a number of persons should agree to 
 write such a history, than that one only should furnish the subject 
 of it." * 
 
 1 Emilius and Sophia, vol. iii. bk. iv. p. 136, English edition, 1769,
 
 VII 
 THE MORAL REALM
 
 " la ordinary cases the presumption against the occurrence of a 
 miracle is so great, that it would be extremely difficult to accumulate 
 sufficient proof to make it credible. The course of nature is so well 
 known in certain respects and so fixed, that only the most important 
 reasons could suffice for a miraculous interference with it. But 
 to the student of Christian evidences such a reason is clearly pre- 
 sent in the field. Man is great. His wants are profound. The 
 remedial agencies of the gospel are of such transcendent value, and 
 their adaptation to human necessities so perfect, that they clearly 
 constitute a sufficient reason for such an inauguration as shall make 
 them effective. So complete is this adaptation that the antecedent 
 presumption against its miraculous inauguration is more than over- 
 come in the minds of those who most fully understand the con- 
 dition of things. The presumption is not that the gospel is ' too 
 beautiful to be true,' but that it is ' too beautiful not to be true.' 
 Dr. Q. F. Wright, Scientific Aspects of Christian Evidences, p. 189. 
 
 " No religion ever appeared in the world whose natural tendency 
 was so much directed to promote the peace and happiness of man- 
 kind as Christianity. The system of religion which Christ published 
 and his evangelists recorded, is a complete system for the purposes 
 of religion, natural and revealed. Christianity as it stands in the 
 Gospels is not only a complete but a very plain system of religion. 
 The Gospel is, in all cases, one continued lesson of the strictest 
 morality, of justice, of benevolence, and of universal charity." 
 Viscount Bolingbroke Deist Works published in 1754 by Mallet. 
 
 "Miracles have sometimes been used too exclusively as testi- 
 monies to a supernatural mission; but the value, even in this 
 respect, is immensely enhanced when they are further regarded as 
 the unique testimony of experience to the moral fact, that the 
 highest Might has never been seen on earth apart from Right, and 
 that unlimited mastery over the whole forces of evil has only been 
 exercised by perfect holiness. Miracles are indeed revelations of 
 power, but the power is that of a righteous will." Dr. Wace, 
 Boyle Lectures 1874, pp. 305, 306.
 
 VII 
 THE MOEAL EEALM 
 
 FKOM the intellectual realm we pass, by the next higher 
 stage of transition, to the moral. That man is a moral 
 being may be assumed without apology. All that may 
 be said or thought as to primeval savages, or the 
 aborigines of Africa, etc., is irrelevant; for our inquiry 
 is concerned with the highest, not the lowest. If 
 evolution, uncreated, unguided, unhelped, is to account 
 for anything, it must account for everything. As 
 regards the physical universe, we have seen that all 
 Agnosticism can do is to postulate matter, assume the 
 necessary and convenient potentialities, take motion for 
 granted, add chance, and then claim to have fully ac- 
 counted for the boundless mystery of good within and 
 around us, " without the supernatural " ! We have 
 also seen that the preposterousness of such a claim 
 is manifested by the unnatural monstrosities which it 
 necessitates. In their attempt to eliminate the miracles 
 of Theism, Atheism and Agnosticism are " compelled to 
 posit" far greater miracles of their own. 
 
 When, however, we turn from the physical facts 
 which plunge unbelief into mental difficulties, and con- 
 fine our attention, be it ever so briefly, to morals, the 
 
 217
 
 218 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 problems become as much more complicated as refined. 
 The moral element in our nature is as much higher 
 than the mental, as the mental is above the physical. 
 Consequently, as mental problems require more careful 
 handling than physical, if we would in their case sift 
 out the truth, so do matters involving moral questions 
 demand proportionately greater delicacy of treatment. 
 At the same time, far from weakening the importance 
 of the latter, this really exalts it to a very high degree. 
 Modern science shows emphatically how the problems 
 which deal with minutest quantities, and therefore 
 require the most tender handling by means of the 
 most delicate instruments, are of the very first import- 
 ance, and are indeed laden with issues of health or 
 sickness, life or death, to the whole human race. 
 
 1. The first item of moral difficulty for the anti- 
 supernaturalist may seem to be elementary, but that 
 does not lessen its significance. The universal idea of 
 God, and the cultivation of religion, in some form or 
 other, amongst all mankind, have often been referred 
 to by Christian apologists, but no adequate account of 
 them has ever been given by those who reject the idea 
 of revelation. Many efforts, indeed, have been made to 
 diminish the force of this consideration. But it would 
 here again be easy to collect testimonies from those best 
 qualified to speak, showing that the term " universal," 
 in this application, may be truly taken within such a 
 hair's-breadth of literalness, as to justify the neglect of 
 two or three alleged exceptions. The few savage tribes, 
 moreover, which have come nearest to exemplifying the 
 absence of the idea of God, have not only been the
 
 THE MORAL REALM 219 
 
 very lowest representatives of humanity, but have in 
 almost all instances shown signs of degeneration from 
 a better past. 
 
 It belongs, therefore, to the unbeliever to account for 
 this inherent and indestructible human instinct, which 
 has confessedly played such an important part in history. 
 It is no reply to characterise it all as a delusion. If it 
 be such, to explain its origin and persistence becomes an 
 even harder task. A better index to the felt desperate- 
 ness of the situation can scarcely be found than in the 
 serious suggestion of an eminent modern scientist, that 
 the moral sense which emphasises the distinction 'twixt 
 right and wrong, and culminates in the most reverent 
 and sublime conception of God, originated far back in 
 the brain of some prehistoric anthropoid ape who was 
 " pining with hunger or crossed in love " ! 
 
 Meanwhile the words of Cicero deserve to be reiterated, 
 for they receive confirmation rather than confutation 
 from our later and wider knowledge 
 
 " There never was any nation so barbarous, nor any people in the 
 world so savage, as to be without' some notion of gods ; many have 
 wrong notions, for that is the nature or ordinary consequence of 
 bad customs, yet all allow that there is a certain Divine nature or 
 energy. Nor does this proceed from the conversation of men or 
 the agreement of philosophers ; it is not an opinion established by 
 institutions or by laws ; but no doubt in every case the consent of 
 all nations is to be looked on as a law of nature." 
 
 How hideously " wrong," as Cicero hints, may be the 
 notions of God cherished by some men, we know, not only 
 from the reports of travellers and missionaries, but even 
 from the history of theology. Yet the very prevalence 
 of fetish-worship and theological error is only a proof, as
 
 220 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 Kiiskin reminds us, of the distorting influence of the 
 human mirror which reflects the Divine Presence. It 
 may be surprising and even revolting to view a fair face 
 twisted into a monstrosity in a concave or untrue mirror, 
 but we are well aware that all such distortion can be 
 explained by the laws of optics. That which has, how- 
 ever, in this case to be explained, is the appearance of 
 any face at all, if there be nothing in front of the 
 mirror from which it can, even distortedly, be reflected. 
 Such a phenomenon science does not regard as even 
 conceivable. Yet this, and no less, is the task of the 
 unbelief which "posits" the rise and development of 
 this world - wide human instinct out of nothing but 
 chance and the primitive nebulosity. If, however, such 
 a task should be accomplished, all objection to the super- 
 natural must forthwith cease. For cause will then be 
 no longer necessary to effect, and " laws of nature " will 
 have been shown to be mere figments of the imagination. 
 2. But we have here to do not with the lowest so 
 much as the highest thought of good and of God which 
 has entered into human hearts and lives. For this, it is 
 no exaggeration to say, the world is learning, and to a 
 large extent has learnt, to look to the New Testament. 
 The yearning of Plato " We will wait for one, be it a 
 God or a God-inspired man, to teach us our religious 
 duties, and to take away the darkness from our eyes" 
 has found its fulfilment in the mission of the Christ of 
 whom His least sympathising contemporaries said, " Never 
 man spake like this man." Such an estimate concerning 
 Christ's revelation of God, with its inseparable corollaries 
 concerning human morals, is undoubtedly well warranted.
 
 THE MORAL REALM 221 
 
 Our appeal here must be, for brevity's sake, to testimony 
 rather than to discussion. The convictions of the best 
 Christian teachers in every age, are sufficiently attested 
 by their lives and writings. If we abstain from quoting 
 their words, it is by no means an acknowledgment that 
 their testimony should be ruled out of court. There is 
 not a vestige of reason for suggesting that, in intellectual 
 apprehension or in honesty, the standard of faith is lower 
 than that of unbelief. 
 
 But there are certain names well known in the world 
 of letters which here must have all the more weight as 
 impartial, seeing that their recorded convictions did 
 not, for reasons inexplicable to us, issue in their 
 becoming definitely Christians. They represent, there- 
 fore, the least that the best minds free from bias can say, 
 in regard to the lofty excellence of the New Testament 
 scheme of faith and morals. Thus the great German 
 philosopher and poet Goethe, in his conversations with 
 Eckerman, is reported to have said 
 
 " Let mental culture go on advancing, let the natural sciences pro- 
 gress in ever greater extent and depth, and the human mind widen 
 itself as much as it desires, beyond the elevation and moral culture 
 of Christianity as it shines forth in the Gospels, it will not go." 1 
 
 In 1835 there appeared on the Continent a book 
 which was reported to be the deathblow of Christianity. 
 It was Strauss' Leben Jem. But in the very midst of its 
 reasons for scepticism we find this avowal 2 - 
 
 " Amongst the personages to whom mankind is indebted for the 
 perfecting of its moral consciousness, Jesus occupies, at anyrate, the 
 
 1 For original, with comment by Prof. A. Harnack, vide p. 278. 
 
 2 Life of Jesus, People's edition, 1864, p. 625 ff.
 
 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 highest place. He introduced into our ideal of goodness some 
 features in which it was deficient before he appeared, by the 
 religious direction which he impressed upon morality, he gave it a 
 higher consecration, and by incarnating goodness in his own person, 
 he imparted to it a living warmth. With reference to all that 
 bears upon the love of God and of our neighbour, upon purity of 
 heart and upon the individual life, nothing can be added to the 
 moral intuition which Jesus Christ has left us." 
 
 Such an estimate as this is confirmed, beyond expres- 
 sion, by comparison with the facts which relate to the 
 only two other world teachers who here merit notice, 
 namely, Buddha and Mohammed. 1 
 
 The former tendency of Christian advocates to scorn 
 comparative religion has in our day happily ceased. In 
 its place, however, we sometimes find the opposite 
 extreme. The excellences of Mohammed, and the good- 
 ness of the " Light of Asia," have been extolled to an 
 unprecedented degree. But a fair comparison of the 
 New Testament with the Koran is amply sufficient for 
 any ordinary mind. Whilst as to Buddha and the sacred 
 writings of the East, all Christians owe a deep debt of 
 gratitude to Professor Max Miiller for his prolonged 
 labours in putting these before English readers, so that 
 any person of fair intelligence can form his own con- 
 clusions. With these in our hands, we can appreciate 
 the estimate of Strauss and Goethe and others, as never 
 before. Without entering upon the technicalities of 
 Christian theology, we cannot but see, by emphatic 
 contrast, how much we owe to the Christ of the Gospels 
 for setting before us God not only as the infinite Spirit, 
 
 1 See hereupon a thoughtful little volume by Dr. Marcus Dods, 
 entitled Mohammed, Buddha, and Christ.
 
 THE MORAL REALM 223 
 
 but the Eternal Father, whose " tender mercies are over 
 all His works " more fully and intensely than even the 
 Psalmist thought. To Christ alone humanity owes the 
 threefold assurance, "God is Spirit," "God is light," 
 " God is love," which invests religion with unprecedented 
 meaning and inspiration for all men, and makes the 
 Christian life to be both richest in comfort now, and 
 fullest of hope in face of coming eternity. 
 
 It is this highest, purest, noblest conception of God 
 and goodness, of faith and duty, which has to be traced 
 to its fount and explained by adequate cause. 
 
 3. But along with this purest and sublimest con- 
 ception of the Divine nature, comes at once the highest 
 and lowest estimate of the human. That conviction of 
 sin which has haunted mankind from the beginning, finds 
 in the doctrine of Jesus its broadest scope and deepest 
 intensity. But how did it originate at all ? The horrors 
 associated with this sense of wrong in barbaric ages and 
 amid savage tribes, put gruesome emphasis indeed upon 
 it, but show it nevertheless in all cases to have been 
 derived and not spontaneous. In civilised communities 
 and modern times the conviction is no less strongly 
 manifest, even where Christianity is disowned. It proves 
 itself to be equally ineradicable with the thought of God 
 and the tendency to worship. Now, that all this, with 
 all that it connotes, should have evolved itself out of the 
 ante-primeval nebular mist, is certainly more miraculous 
 than anything related in the Bible concerning the creation 
 and higher education of man. 
 
 4. Let us, however, inquire more closely into the 
 doctrine and influence of Christianity as regards this
 
 224 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 moral sense in men. It is beyond dispute that the 
 ordinary expression of the feeling of guiltiness, even 
 from the earliest times, has been the practice of animal 
 sacrifices. In some extreme cases we know that even 
 human victims were deemed necessary by way of atone- 
 ment or propitiation. The advanced civilisations of Greece 
 and Kome put no stop to this. On the contrary, such 
 slaughter of animals was looked upon as the fittest 
 and most necessary part of religion, to be insisted upon 
 authoritatively and continually. 
 
 Nor was this view of the case by any means confined 
 to these nations. Whatever else may be said concerning 
 the Old Testament, its main outlines of Jewish history 
 are unquestionably true, as also is the fact that in the 
 Hebrew Scriptures we have the record of the intensest 
 feelings of the most religious nation in all history. In 
 perfect accord with the foregoing, we find its system of 
 sacrifices most of all elaborate in detail and exacting in 
 requirement. So far as the circumstances of the Jews 
 permitted it, this their feeling and practice continued 
 right down to the time of Christ. 
 
 But from His time living sacrifices have gradually but 
 surely ceased. This is a great fact which calls for valid 
 explanation. Considerable influence may no doubt be 
 attributed to the destruction of Jerusalem as the chief 
 centre of Jewish worship. But it is plain enough that 
 no other such change has come over the national idiosyn- 
 crasies. Except in this one matter of sacrifices, the 
 characteristics of the Jews are as patent to-day as they 
 were when so vividly described in Deuteronomy and the 
 prophetic writings. It is to be noted, moreover, that not
 
 THE MORAL REALM 225 
 
 only within the pale of Judaism has this cessation of 
 sacrifices come to pass, but throughout the world, wherever 
 the influence of Christianity has penetrated. Only seventy 
 years after Christ's crucifixion, it was the complaint of 
 the Eoman governor that in his province the sacrificial 
 victims remained unsold. The fact has proved itself so 
 typical, that the lament of the ancient Pagan is echoed in 
 the cry of modern cannibals from distant islands of the sea. 
 Now it is acknowledged freely, even by unbelievers, 
 that of all human ideas and habits, those pertaining to 
 religion are the most obstinate and least liable to altera- 
 tion. How, then, is this vast change to be accounted 
 for? The supernatural events recorded in the New 
 Testament, with their attached doctrines, give us the 
 adequate explanation we require ; but if these be rejected, 
 a pyramid is left to poise itself upon its apex. Even 
 as regards the destruction of the Holy City and the 
 cessation of the Temple worship, all this had happened 
 before, and more than once. The preceding oppression 
 of Antiochus had been far more religiously bitter, as 
 is well known, than that of the Eomans. The latter, 
 indeed, made it a principle of their conquests not to 
 interfere with the religions of their dependencies. It 
 was unquestionably due to the spread of Christian 
 influence rather than to Eoman might, that Jewish and 
 heathen sacrifices gradually became a thing of the past. 
 So that if the supernatural elements of the gospel 
 preaching were mere delusion or deception, upon one or 
 the other of these two, it matters little which, must 
 be founded the most marked and important change in 
 the general features of religion which has occurred in the 
 15
 
 226 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 world's history. Science had nothing to do with it, for 
 science was not yet born. Philosophy had nourished for 
 generations before, and had made no difference whatever. 
 Inexpressible probabilities are against our regarding such 
 a change as a mere fortuitous development. That it 
 should proceed from nothing, or worse than nothing, is 
 indeed " psychologically inconceivable." 
 
 5. But this is by no means the whole case. It will 
 doubtless be remembered that there is one well-known 
 religious system besides Christianity, which appears to 
 ignore the practice of sacrifice. But Buddhism rejects, 
 along with sacrifice, the notion that past sin is any real 
 obstacle to man's being at peace with God. Now, if 
 there be, as would certainly seem, a definite natural 
 connection between these two, the sense of sin and the 
 offering of sacrifice, then the cessation of the latter 
 throughout Christendom ought also to be accompanied 
 by a corresponding approach to Buddhism in lessening 
 the importance of sin. That intensity of the conviction of 
 moral ill which is connoted in the suffering and death of 
 animals, ought to wane away until it becomes a vanish- 
 ing point. But is it so in fact ? Has Christianity 
 driven out all painful sense of personal shortcoming as if 
 it were but a mocking fiend ? The very opposite, we 
 know, is whab has really come to pass. One writer has 
 well remarked that " there has never been a time when 
 the conviction of sin was more and more intensified, 
 amongst the most cultivated nations, than during the last 
 eighteen hundred years." So manifestly true is this 
 estimate, that it has become a fairly common thing 
 amongst modern rationalists to follow the example of
 
 THE MORAL REALM 227 
 
 Emerson, and inveigh against the word " sin " in its 
 Christian usage, as being a pessimistic exaggeration, and 
 a moral bugbear because of its gathered extent and 
 intensity. And the attitude of the modern press, 
 echoed continually by the man in the street, is much 
 to the same effect. 
 
 This remarkable phenomenon, then, awaits the ex- 
 planation of unbelief. Sacrifice, as the ancient and 
 widespread symbol of guiltiness, has ceased ; but with 
 that cessation there has come upon the human heart a 
 deeper conviction than ever of the sinfulness of sin. A 
 sufficient explanation is indeed forthcoming, if we accept 
 the truth of the words of Christ which are at once 
 suggested : " And when He the Spirit of truth is come, 
 He shall convict the world of sin." But if this be 
 treated as a pious fiction, if the most transcendent 
 elements in the gospel be rejected because they involve 
 the supernatural, if Christ Himself be thus necessarily 
 reduced to a deluded seer, or a mistaken if not 
 hypocritical teacher, then the explanation of the above 
 paradox may truly be said to be a task in morals akin 
 to a demand in physics to account for the motion of our 
 earth in its orbit without the sun. 
 
 By way of confirmation, let us call to mind the 
 eloquent words of the late Professor Seeley, an author 
 whose ability and freedom from bias are alike 
 unquestionable ] 
 
 " Compare the ancient with the modern world : look on this 
 picture and on that. One broad distinction forces itself into, 
 prominence. Among all the men of the ancient heathen world, 
 
 1 Ecce Homo, small edition, p. 161.
 
 228 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 there were scarcely one or two to whom we might venture to apply 
 the epithet holy. In other words, there were not more than one 
 or two, if any, who, besides being virtuous in their actions, were 
 possessed with an unaffected enthusiasm of goodness, and besides 
 abstaining from vice, regarded even a vicious thought with 
 horror. Probably no one will deny that in Christian countries 
 this higher-toned goodness which we call holiness has existed. 
 Few will maintain that it has been exceedingly rare." 
 
 Compare with this the confession of Mr. Bradlaugh, 
 in his well-known Socratic debate with Dr. Baylee, that 
 the term " holiness " was to him, as an unbeliever, 
 without meaning or recognition. 
 
 Here are at least three facts which ought to pass 
 unchallenged, as beyond controversy. (1) Neither in the 
 natural mind nor under the Jewish dispensation, do we 
 find such a conception of moral purity as is implied in 
 the Christian term "holiness." (2) The origin of this 
 highest ideal is directly traceable to the life and 
 character, the teaching and working, the death and 
 resurrection, of Jesus Christ. (3) Since the Christian 
 era it has spread with blessed contagion, as an ideal, 
 over all the world, and through the intervening ages, 
 until to-day its existence and import are more fully 
 recognised than ever. 
 
 Yet according to the thesis of unbelief, the germ of 
 all this most actual and potent influence for human 
 elevation came into being by sheer accident ; in an 
 ignorant and superstitious age, it was born of credulity 
 and guile, and only prolonged its life by the weakness of 
 mind or falsity of heart of those who cherished it. Is 
 this psychologically conceivable ? 
 
 6. Concerning the general morality of the New
 
 THE MORAL REALM 229 
 
 Testament, so much has been said that it is only 
 necessary here to touch upon it lightly. One would 
 think that no unbiassed mind could for a moment 
 question its marked superiority, whether as compared 
 with the Old Testament, or with the disquisitions of 
 pagan philosophy. It would suffice for our present 
 purpose, if we took only the stand of Thomas Paine, to 
 the effect that l 
 
 "Jesus Christ was a virtuous and amiable man. The morality 
 which he preached was of the most benevolent kind it has not 
 been exceeded by any." 
 
 But we have quite as good reason for regarding with 
 acceptance the estimate of Dr. Wace, in his well-known 
 Boyle Lectures. No short quotation can do justice to 
 their sustained argument. But a deliberate conviction so 
 reached, ought to command at least respectful regard 
 
 " It is, alas ! scarcely possible for us adequately to realise the 
 immeasurable and overpowering glory of this revelation, but we 
 may form some estimate of it by the effect which has been produced 
 by those means of those four reflections of it which have been 
 preserved to us in the Gospels. Those outlines for they cannot, 
 however admirable, be called more of the Lord's life and character 
 have sufficed to command the homage not merely of the Church, 
 but of the world ; and their reflected rays have, in every age and 
 country, acted like the sunlight of the moral sphere, awakening in 
 the soul of man a new life and beauty. Conceive all that influence 
 infinitely multiplied, and brought to bear upon pure and true souls, 
 and you may then form some distant conception of the supreme 
 influence which led them, through love, to the profoundest adoration 
 which can be offered by the human heart." 2 
 
 Nor is there any rational ground whatever for refusing 
 to be influenced by such deliberate and cultured findings 
 
 1 Age of Reason, 1794, p. 3. 
 
 2 Boyle Lectures, Christianity and Morality, 3rd edition, p. 247.
 
 230 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 as those of Professor A. S. "Wilkins, who, in his most 
 valuable little volume, The Light of the World, writes l 
 
 "I have tried in the following pages to give my reasons for 
 believing that the Christian ethics so far transcend the ethics of any 
 or all the pagan systems, in method, in purity, and in power, as to 
 compel us to assume for them an origin, differing in kind from the 
 origin of any purely human system." 
 
 " Not only because the system of Christian ethics transcends all 
 others in purity, but because this perfect purity is reached by a 
 scientific method of development, is based on a sure foundation, and 
 has shown itself by far the most powerful help that the world has 
 known for its regeneration, do we claim for it an origin directly 
 and immediately Divine." 
 
 " It was much that Christianity based morality no longer on the 
 shifting sands of speculation, but on the revealed condition and 
 destiny of man, and spoke with authority on his end of life. It 
 was much that it embraced the whole nature of man within the 
 compass of its moral laws, and taught him to present his whole 
 being, body, soul, and spirit, a living sacrifice, which was but his 
 reasonable service. But it was more, far more than all the rest, 
 that it made the mainspring of all right action to consist in an 
 enthusiasm that all might feel, that the laws of its kingdom might 
 be known and obeyed by the meanest and humblest of its subjects." 
 
 When, however, such an estimate is confirmed by 
 words like the following, from an author of the acumen 
 and character of Thomas Carlyle 2 
 
 "Look on our divinest Symbol: on Jesus of Nazareth and his 
 life and his biography and what followed therefrom. Higher has 
 the human thought not yet reached : this is Christianity and 
 Christendom, a symbol of quite perennial, infinite character : whose 
 significance will ever demand to be anew inquired into and anew 
 made manifest " 
 
 the high estimate of Christian morality usually assumed, 
 may be considered as established beyond cavil. Truly, 
 apart altogether from the appreciation of believers, 
 
 1 Hulsean Prize Essay, 1869, pp. viii, 146, 147, 148. 
 
 2 Sartor Resartus* Bk. iii. chap. iii.
 
 THE MORAL EEALM 231 
 
 the purity and loftiness of New Testament ethics is 
 abundantly confirmed from the testimonies of unbelief. 
 Whilst even those dark pages of history which tell of 
 Christian corruption, bear witness by contrast to the 
 nobility of the ideal which they knowingly ignored. 
 Mr. Mill unquestionably voiced the total conviction of 
 the nineteenth century when he wrote l 
 
 " Nor even now would it be easy, even for an unbeliever, to find f 
 a better translation of the rule of virtue from the abstract into J 
 the concrete, than to endeavour so to live that Christ would approve 
 our life." 
 
 But besides being the inaugurator of a spiritually 
 lofty ideal of personal goodness which has availed to 
 make modern civilisation a thing wholly different from 
 ancient, Christian morality has operated upon a wider 
 social and political scale. In these days, indeed, we 
 have become quite accustomed to hear of Christianity as 
 the deliverer of Western-world civilisation from the 
 triple curse of corruption, slavery, and cruelty. Such 
 a claim may, of course, be called in question. But 
 the onus of detailed discussion belongs to those who 
 challenge it, although all the points raised have been 
 fairly met by Christian apologists. It might surely be 
 considered sufficient to appeal to such writers and 
 thinkers as are well known to be far removed from 
 orthodoxy. From the recorded judgements assuredly 
 unbiassed of Montesquieu, Mill, Comte, Lecky, and 
 others of similar calibre, we may learn how real, equally 
 beyond ancient cruel calumny and modern carping 
 1 Essays on Nature, the Utility of Religion, and Theism, pp. 253-255.
 
 232 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 criticism, is the regenerating power which awoke for 
 human society at the fiat of Jesus Christ. 1 
 
 Almost all that can be adduced by way of serious 
 reply, is found in such superficial reminders as that 
 the Buddhists of India still outnumber the followers of 
 Christ, and that Christianity, as a whole, has not yet 
 obtained " even the nominal adhesion of more than a 
 third of the human race." But to treat this as an 
 argument against the divineness of the Christian revela- 
 tion, is to perpetrate many fallacies in one. Not only 
 is the avowed conclusion far wider than the premisses, 
 but there is a measurable underrating of great facts. 
 The attitude is indeed substantially the same as if one 
 should declaim against the poverty of some individual, 
 on the ground that he only possessed a few paper notes 
 whilst his neighbour's pockets were full of copper coins. 
 Not that there is, indeed, from the standpoint of Chris- 
 tianity, any " copper " humanity. The very imperfection 
 of the simile testifies to the superhumanness of Christian 
 morals. Horace, truly voicing the feeling of earth's " great 
 ones," might cry 
 
 " Odi profanum vulgus " 
 
 but no Christian poet has ever echoed his contempt. 
 One of the very first lessons impressed with especial 
 emphasis upon the first disciples, was that they should 
 " not call any man common or unclean." The Chris- 
 tianity of Christ has never forgotten this, as even the 
 darkest of the dark ages could clearly testify. 
 
 1 Those who wish for a fuller statement of this position will find 
 it in Mr. G. L. Brace's Gesta Christi, and Storrs' Divine Origin of 
 Christianity. See also Appendix.
 
 THE MORAL REALM 233 
 
 Yet without despising the teeming millions of Asia, 
 or casting any scorn upon the followers of Sakya-Mouni, 
 or of Confucius and Mencius, it is none the less true that 
 the nations which have been formed under Christianity 
 and are still more or less ruled by its sanctions, are 
 the foremost nations of the world. In all that tends to 
 the possession of power, the exercise of influence, and the 
 promise of progress, the " third," referred to above with 
 such contemptuousness, far outweighs in the scale of 
 humanity all the rest put together. Nor can it. be 
 doubted, even by those who make lightest of Scripture 
 prophecies, that this " third " is growing more and more, 
 with the manifest prospect of overrunning and overruling 
 the world. Whilst in those farthest nations which have 
 hitherto known little or nothing of the gospel, Chris- 
 tianity is now obtaining such hold that missionary zeal 
 and success can no longer be . smiled at as the fancy 
 of religious fanaticism, but have to be taken into serious 
 account by Governments as well as Churches, in con- 
 sidering the programme of the future. 1 
 
 Here then we have a world-wide influence sufficiently 
 real, potent, and beneficent, to warrant our insisting upon 
 the discovery of an adequate cause for it. If the super- 
 natural origin of Christian morality be denied, then it 
 and all its influences must be accounted for upon purely 
 natural' principles. We know at what time it first 
 appeared, we know under what circumstances, we know 
 
 1 The lamentable outbreak of fanatic fury in China, which is 
 working such sad havoc whilst these pages are passing through the 
 press, is, at least in part, the protest of the ignorant native mind 
 against the degree in which Christian missions are succeeding, in 
 spite of all opposition, throughout that vast empire.
 
 234 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 amidst what men and in what conditions of society, 
 The great question then is, do these data in themselves, 
 absolutely without any help db extra, suffice to explain 
 the conception and promulgation of the purest and 
 loftiest system of morality which has impressed itself 
 upon human consciences ? 
 
 We shall perhaps be reminded again of Gibbon's famous 
 chapter, which calmly begs the whole question, in 
 assuming the very thing to be proved, and we have the 
 self-evident fallacy of Hume's argument buttressed by 
 Professor Huxley. 1 But eyes which are not previously 
 blinded by the odium anti-supernaturale, cannot help see- 
 ing that these are as ineffective for their alleged purpose, 
 as are the little muddy brooklets that struggle down to 
 the seashore, to account for the depth and fulness of 
 the ocean. At least, if these do account for Christian 
 morality, we are face to face with a miracle which all 
 that we know of morality and psychology pronounces to 
 be far more strange, more difficult, more unaccountable, 
 than anything recorded in the New Testament. So that 
 if in this matter belief had to be decided by the measure 
 of the difficulties upon an opposite side, for very easiness' 
 sake we could not but be Christian. 
 
 7. Nor is explanation required only for these and 
 other features of the New Testament morality or ethics,* 
 which are actually present, but with well-nigh equal 
 force its omissions press also for recognition. It must 
 be borne in mind that no compromise whatever can be 
 
 1 The logical worth of this attempt to rehabilitate a position long 
 acknowledged to be untenable, may be seen in Lord Grimthorpe's 
 Huxley and Hume on Miracles, published by the S.P.C.K.
 
 THE MORAL REALM 235 
 
 effected between the account which the gospel gives of 
 its great facts and any other. The Apostles and Evan- 
 gelists were either dealing with supernatural realities, 
 and received supernatural help, or not. If not, then 
 everything must be accounted for upon those plain prin- 
 ciples of human nature with which, by observation and 
 experience, we are perfectly familiar. And we must keep 
 well in memory the characteristics of the age in which 
 the events in question took place. He, therefore, who 
 rejects the New Testament narratives, has not only to 
 find natural cause for the existence of the Gospels 
 and Epistles, but also for the rise and development of 
 Christian morality with all its idiosyncrasies. He has 
 to produce what Eenan and Mill said could not be 
 found, the men of that age who were capable of origi- 
 nating a system of faith and morals rendered thus doubly 
 unique, first by what these Christian records (on which it 
 is based) contain, and then by the not less remarkable 
 absence of other elements that could not but be naturally 
 expected in genuine human productions of such a period. 
 How often, for instance, has it not been alleged against 
 the New Testament morality that it does not prohibit 
 slavery, that it passes social problems by unheeded, that 
 it takes no notice of political economy, that it does 
 not deal with international relations, nor insist upon 
 patriotism, nor even inculcate what now is known as 
 " public spirit " ? These very objections are of value as 
 showing to what men are inclined when dealing naturally 
 with oreat matters of human welfare. We have, more- 
 
 O 
 
 over, the treatises of Plato and Aristotle, of Cicero and 
 Seneca, in addition to all the later writings of moralists
 
 236 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 and political economists upon similar themes. From these 
 we can judge with fairness and certainty what might 
 have been expected from a band of uninstructed zealots, 
 who, in the time of Tiberius and Herod, set themselves 
 to re-create, the world of morals. 
 
 If, indeed, we rule ont the supernatural, our first 
 inquiry should surely be as to the reason of their ever 
 thinking of such a thing. Is there any parallel on earth 
 to such an event as a company of men banding them- 
 selves together for such a purpose, with no hope of 
 reward beyond opposition, shame, and suffering ? Even 
 if, however, we pass over this, it could scarcely be denied 
 that the men who were capable of conceiving such a 
 notion, under all the known circumstances, must be 
 fanatics. And there need be little hesitation as to the 
 kind of programme that pure fanaticism would draw up. 
 We have had fair specimens of such in more recent times. 
 To say nothing of the wild schemes of the French 
 Eevolution, or of Eussian Nihilism, or of Irish Fenianism, 
 or Continental Anarchism, the propaganda of modern 
 Socialism supplies us with sufficient illustration. Had 
 this same natural spirit prevailed in the first century 
 under the Christian name, there can be no reasonable 
 doubt that the New Testament would have been pledged 
 to the absolute and immediate prohibition of slavery, 
 and quite possibly might have advocated universal revolt, 
 the results of which tenets would doubtless have been 
 similar to those associated with Eome's Servile Wars. 
 Such fanatics would also, in all human probability, have 
 chosen some rigid and extreme political ideal, and in 
 binding themselves fast to it, have effectually prevented
 
 THE MORAL REALM 237 
 
 the adoption of Christianity by other nations, or its 
 adaptation to the immensely varied circumstances of 
 our modern world. 
 
 How far the Christian Scriptures actually are from 
 the fatal rigidity of this pseudo-comprehensiveness, we 
 are our own witnesses. The significant omissions of the 
 New Testament have been often noticed by Christian 
 apologists, but the true state of the case has not been 
 made as clear as it might be. For it stands thus. 
 Whereas these alleged deficiencies are brought forward 
 in proof that the Gospels and Epistles are merely natural 
 productions, it is really far more difficult to account for 
 such omissions upon purely natural principles, than it 
 is if we allow the presence of the supernatural element 
 claimed for them. 
 
 All this is emphasised beyond measure, if we compare 
 the New Testament with the so-called Apocryphal 
 Gospels, or the writings of the Fathers, or the Koran of 
 later date, as well as with subsequent attempts of moral 
 teachers and reformers who have abjured Christianity. 
 
 That it should be possible for a few ordinary and 
 ignorant men in the age of Tiberius, or a mere handful 
 of Jewish fanatics in the days of Herod, to enunciate a 
 system of faith and morals which, quite as much by 
 what it did not teach as by what it did, should prove 
 itself equally adapted to the first century and the nine- 
 teenth, to ancient Eome and to modern England, 1 and 
 should thus work out results of elevation and benevo- 
 
 1 See an able lecture by Sir Bartle Frere on " Christianity 
 adapted to all forms of civilisation," Faith and Freethouyht, Chris- 
 tian Evidence Society Lectures.
 
 238 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 lence beyond any other system ever promulgated, is a 
 fact that waits for explanation, as being utterly without 
 a parallel in the history of the world, and without a 
 clue in all that we know of human nature's capabilities 
 or proclivities. 
 
 Here again, therefore, we see that to reject the Chris- 
 tian account of these psychological and ethical realities, 
 because of the difficulty involved in the conception of 
 the supernatural, is only to bring ourselves once more 
 face to face with far greater difficulties in attempting to 
 explain the actual phenomena upon natural principles. 
 
 8. Before -we close this section, one other matter 
 should not escape notice. There is no doubt whatever 
 that the early Christians did genuinely believe in the 
 great miraculous events recorded in the Gospels and 
 the Acts of the Apostles. In order to discount the 
 value of this fact, regarded as evidence for their actual 
 occurrence, recent scepticism has put forth strenuous 
 efforts to show that the men and women of those times 
 were so sunk in ignorance and superstition, and withal 
 so utterly devoid of any critical faculty of investigation, 
 that they could easily be persuaded to believe anything. 
 Thus their testimony would count for comparatively 
 nothing. Such a suggestion, however, surely illustrates 
 rather the wish than the thought of unbelief. For even 
 if this contention were allowed though there can be 
 no reasonable doubt that it is a gross exaggeration 
 it brings more difficulties than it removes. It was 
 pointed out above (cf. p. 211) under the head of 
 Psychology, that this process of belittling the early 
 Christians and besmirching them with ridicule, only
 
 THE MORAL REALM 239 
 
 serves to make any rational account of the idiosyncrasies 
 of the New Testament impossible. It is even more so when 
 we view the moral aspect of the case. For whatever 
 seems thereby to be taken off the task of naturalism 
 in explaining the physical miracles, becomes so much 
 added incubus to the mental and moral miracle which 
 must ensue, if from out the uninspired bosom of men 
 most ignorant and superstitious, there should spring a 
 system of morality so sublime as to elicit in after ages 
 the profoundest admiration of the greatest minds, and 
 wring out of noblest hearts the confession that it was 
 above their highest aspirations after goodness. The 
 words of Eousseau a century since x come back to us 
 with redoubled force 
 
 " Whence could Jesus have derived among his countrymen this 
 elevated and pure morality of which he alone has given the precept 
 and example? From the bosom of the most furious bigotry, the 
 most exalted wisdom is heard, and the simplicity of the most heroic 
 virtues honours the vilest of the people." 
 
 If the moral sphere be allowed to be higher than the 
 physical, and this much we here assume, then that 
 which is contrary to all experience and observation in 
 the former, must involve even greater difficulty of con- 
 ception than in the latter. Hence the instantaneous 
 healing of disease, the feeding of five thousand with a 
 few loaves, or even the resurrection of the dead, pale 
 into smaUness of import beside the stupendous contra- 
 dictions hinted at by Eousseau and Mill, namely, that 
 ethical wisdom should be spontaneously generated by 
 folly, that a faith equally sober and sublime should 
 1 Emile, iv, vol. ii. pp. 110, 111.
 
 240 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 spring from mere credulity, and earth's highest-toned 
 morality arise suddenly out of sheer fanaticism. 
 
 Thus it becomes manifest that, the facts being as they 
 are, the withdrawal of the supernatural as an explanation 
 of the origin and development of Christian morality, 
 serves only to intensify the miracle. That the purest 
 and loftiest and most comprehensive moral ideal known 
 to men should spring forth out of the dregs of popular 
 superstition, Eabbinic narrowness, and Pharisaic pride, 
 demands an inspiration of some sort, in very deed. But 
 that such inspiration, leading from the lowest and least 
 spiritual x to the highest and holiest, should arise from 
 nowhere, or from below, is and must ever be far more 
 miraculous than that it should come from God. 
 
 On the other hand, if the unwarranted depreciation 
 of the early Christian times be withdrawn, the case for 
 unbelief is scarcely any easier. Of the three nations 
 which were concerned in the New Testament records of 
 events, we have fairly full knowledge. Although the 
 Koman power has disappeared, we have its history and 
 its codes of law. The wisdom of the Greek has never 
 lacked appreciation in modern times, certainly not 
 to-day. The Jews, everywhere present, always distinct, 
 continually persecuted, generally despised, are their own 
 witnesses as to character. The Old Testament, with its 
 doctrines and precepts, is in our hands. The Jewish 
 commentaries, both Talmud and Targums, upon which 
 the scribes and Pharisees relied, are accessible to our 
 scholars. The task, then, of unbelief is, out of these 
 sources to formulate New Testament ethics, and construct 
 1 Cf. Matt, xxiii. passim.
 
 THE MORAL REALM 241 
 
 the moral teaching of Christ. Evolution of any kind is 
 here out of the question. A single century covered the 
 whole of the time occupied by the data of the problem. 
 Such limitation entirely cuts off the forlorn hope of 
 accounting for the facts upon the principles of unaided 
 human nature's gradual amelioration. 
 
 9. To sum up. We have seen how from the very 
 critics and opponents of Christian faith comes the con- 
 cession that we have in Christianity a system of morals 
 whose lofty purity justifies our unbounded respect and 
 admiration. This high ideal, with its accompanying 
 motive force and potent source of obligation, has proved 
 itself the greatest " power not ourselves that makes for 
 righteousness" ever operating in the world, and has 
 established its claim to universal adoption, by the 
 wonders of elevation and ennoblement which it has 
 caused to spring forth from modern quarters as little 
 likely to foster it as ancient Palestine was to create it. 
 
 An influence at once so gracious and so potent 
 assuredly demands adequate cause. This the New 
 Testament account confessedly supplies. The super- 
 natural events alleged, together with the actuality of 
 the sublime character and mighty works of the super- 
 natural Person portrayed, afford a simple yet sufficient 
 reason for all that accompanies them in doctrine and 
 effect. But if these all are rejected as incredible, what 
 necessarily follows ? Let us fairly face the general 
 conclusions which in such case are simply inevitable. 
 We are, then, called upon to believe always assuming, 
 of course, that there is no supernatural, nor anything at 
 all beyond what we know as natural 
 16
 
 242 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 (1) That the purest and sublimest conceptions of God 
 sprang spontaneously from the heart of the narrowest 
 religious fanaticism. 
 
 (2) That from amidst the most mechanical pietism 
 and self-complacent religious superficiality, there arose 
 a moral revolution which has issued in the immeasurable 
 deepening of the world's conviction of sin, coincidently 
 with the cessation of those animal sacrifices which have 
 always been the keenest acknowledgment of human 
 guiltiness. 
 
 (3) That the world's loftiest standard of morality 
 generated itself out of the conceits of shallow-minded 
 rustics and hysterical women, who were themselves 
 deceivers, or deceived, or both. 
 
 (4) That those remarkable omissions in the original 
 programme of Christian Ethics, by means of which 
 Christianity became an embodiment of eternal principles 
 rather than of temporary details, that is, a universal 
 faith instead of a mere local enthusiasm, happened by 
 pure accident, in emphatic contradiction to all human 
 probability. 
 
 (5) That the most exalted ideal of self-sacrificing love, 
 as embodied in that " higher toned goodness which we 
 call holiness," l suddenly evolved itself out of the very 
 midst of an environment of gross and sordid self-seeking. 
 
 (6) That the broadest as well as most exalted and 
 benevolent code of Ethics known to men, was devised, 
 for no special purpose but at fearful cost, by weak- 
 minded and credulous fisher folk, aided and abetted 
 afterwards by a bigoted Jewish Rabbi. 
 
 1 Ecce Homo, small edition, p. 161. Of. 1 Cor. xiii. etc.
 
 THE MORAL REALM 243 
 
 (7) That, finally, the brightest hopes of blessed 
 immortality after death, in a condition and a service 
 worthy of the Christ of whom (to say the least) Kousseau 
 and Strauss, Eenan and Mill, have spoken in such high 
 terms, were created out of the helpless murder of a 
 reformer who failed to keep his word, by men whose 
 whole expectations and longings were limited to local 
 Jewish deliverance, personal prosperity, and present-life 
 triumph in Palestine. 
 
 The alternative comprised in the sum-total of these 
 paradoxes, is undoubtedly that which has to be faced by 
 honest Agnosticism. And it is here submitted that the 
 " difficulties " therein involved, are far greater than ' all 
 those associated with the Christology of the New 
 Testament. 
 
 For whilst the miracles of faith confessedly tran- 
 scend reason, those of unbelief manifestly contradict 
 it. Now there can be no justification of the contra- 
 diction of reason, seeing that it is, as Bishop Butler 
 rightly said, "the candle of the Lord within us," and 
 our chief guide to truth. But there is nothing what- 
 ever in reason against the assumption that the universe 
 is greater than all our thought concerning it, and that 
 there may have arisen human circumstances excep- 
 tional enough to call for Divine methods beyond our 
 ken. Consistently with itself, the Bible alleges that 
 this was the case in the moral history of mankind 
 when Christ came. 
 
 To reject, therefore, that which, though transcending 
 our knowledge of nature, is not only possible but even 
 in fair measure probable, and then accept alternatives
 
 244 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 which flatly contradict the surest principles of reason 
 and philosophy, no less than all experience and observa- 
 tion, is assuredly to leap over a precipice in order to 
 escape a shallow ditch. It is to shudder at a shrimp- 
 pool and make light of an ocean.
 
 VIII 
 
 CHRIST, HIS ORIGIN AND 
 CHARACTER 
 
 1. INTRODUCTION. 
 
 2. ESTIMATE OF CHRIST'S CHARACTER TESTIMONIES OF 
 
 UNBELIEF. 
 
 3. EVOLUTION AS AN EXPLANATION. 
 
 4. CHRIST'S WITNESS CONCERNING HIMSELF IF GOOD, THEN 
 
 ALSO TRUE. 
 
 5. His EEPRESENTATION OF HIMSELF AS A WORKER OF 
 
 MIRACLES. 
 
 6. His CLAIMS TO BE SINLESS. 
 
 7. His ASSUMPTION OF DIVINE AUTHORITY. 
 
 8. THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE GOSPEL ACCOUNT. 
 
 9. SUMMARY OF THE DILEMMAS OF UNBELIEF CONCERNING HIM.
 
 " It was reserved for Christianity to present to the world an ideal 
 character, which, through all the changes of eighteen centuries, has 
 filled the hearts of men with an impassioned love, and has shown 
 itself capable of acting in all ages, nations, temperaments, and 
 conditions ; has not only been the highest pattern of virtue, but 
 the highest incentive to its practice, and has exerted so deep an 
 influence that it may be truly said that the simple record of three 
 short years of active life has done more to regenerate and to soften 
 mankind than all the disquisitions of philosophers, and than all 
 the exhortations of moralists. This has, indeed, been the well- 
 spring of whatever has been best and purest in the Christian life. 
 Amid all the sins and failings, amid all the priestcraft, the per- 
 secution, and fanaticism which have defaced the Church, it has 
 preserved, in the character and example of its Founder, an enduring 
 principle of regeneration." Mr. Lecky, History of Morality, vol. ii. 
 p. 88. 
 
 " Measure the religious doctrine of Jesus by that of the time and 
 place he lived in, or that of any time and place. Consider what 
 a work his words and deeds have wrought in the world. Remember 
 that the greatest minds, the richest hearts, have set no loftier aim, 
 no truer method than his of perfect love to God and man. Shall 
 we be told such a man never lived the whole story is a lie ! 
 Suppose that Plato and Newton never lived. But who did their 
 wonders, and thought their thought ? It takes a Newton to forge a 
 Newton. What man could have fabricated a Jesus ? None but a 
 Jesus." Theodore Parker, Life of Jesus, p. 363. 
 
 "It was neither for his miracles, nor for the beauty of his 
 doctrine that Christ was worshipped. It was for this, that he, 
 whose power and greatness as shown in his miracles were over- 
 whelming, denied himself the use of his power, treated it as a 
 slight thing, walked .among men as though he were one of them, 
 relieved them in distress, taught them to love each other, bore with 
 undisturbed patience a perpetual hailstorm of calumny, and when 
 his enemies grew fiercer, continued still to endure their attacks in 
 silence, until, petrified and bewildered with astonishment, men saw 
 him arrested and put to death with torture, refusing steadfastly to 
 use in his own behalf the power he conceived he held for the 
 benefit of others. It was the combination of greatness and self- 
 sacrifice which won their hearts, the mighty powers held under a 
 mighty control, the unspeakable condescension, the Cross of Christ." 
 Ecce Homo, small edition, p. 46.
 
 VIII 
 
 CHKIST, HIS OEIGIN AND CHAEACTEE 
 
 1. THE morality of Christianity and the origin of the 
 New Testament, can never be fairly considered apart 
 from Him who is the manifest centre and substance of 
 the whole. Often has it been said, and ever truly, that 
 "Christianity is Christ." Professing Christians are 
 disciples indeed, only in the degree in which they 
 resemble Him whom they avow to be their Master and 
 Lord. By His character, therefore, not by theirs, 
 Christianity has to be judged. 
 
 This does not, however, amount to a lessening in any 
 degree of the arguments outlined in the preceding chapter. 
 However lamentably Christians may have failed from 
 their high example, Christianity still involves and con- 
 tains enough of the moral mystery of good to warrant 
 the position taken above. In this regard, it may be well 
 to quote once more a witness, equally able and impartial. 
 In his Ecce Homo} the late Professor Seeley penned a 
 most scathing indictment of conventional Christianity. 
 By very virtue of this we are the more free to appreciate 
 his further estimate, part of which was quoted above, 2 
 and to give heed to his concluding summary. 
 
 1 Popular edition, pp. 159, 160. 2 P. 227 ; vide also p. 262. 
 
 247
 
 248 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 " On. the other hand, the Christian morality, if somewhat less 
 safe and exempt from perversion than science, is more directly and 
 vitally beneficial to mankind. The scientific life is less noble than 
 the Christian : it is better, so to speak, to be a citizen in the New 
 Jerusalem than in the New Athens. . . . But the achievement of 
 Christ in founding by his single will and power a structure so 
 durable and so universal is like no other achievement which history 
 records. The masterpieces of the men of action are coarse and 
 common in comparison with it, and the masterpieces of speculation 
 flimsy and insubstantial. When we speak of it the commonplaces 
 of admiration fail us altogether. Shall we speak of the originality 
 of the design, of the skill displayed in the execution? All such 
 terms are inadequate. The creative effort which produced that 
 against which, it is said, the gates of hell shall not prevail, cannot 
 be analyzed. The inconceivable work was done in calmness; before 
 the eyes of men it was noiselessly accomplished, attracting little 
 attention. No man saw the building of the New Jerusalem it 
 descended out of heaven from God." ..." And if this be so, has 
 Christ failed or can Christianity die ?" 
 
 This last question of the Professor of Modern History 
 we may leave facts themselves to answer. The matter 
 in hand here, is to account adequately for the Christ of 
 whom we read and speak That is to say, we must first 
 truly estimate Christ as a person and a character, and 
 then on the supposition that the New Testament 
 account of His origin, nature, and mission, is rejected by 
 reason of its dependence upon the supernatural it 
 remains to ask whether He can be rationally accounted 
 for on " natural " lines. 
 
 2. As to the personality and character of Christ, of 
 one thing we are absolutely sure, namely, that no subtlety 
 of thought or speech can ever reduce Him to unimportant 
 mediocrity. His character and influence are incon- 
 trovertibly extreme. Utterly unique in the history of
 
 CHRIST, HIS ORIGIN AND CHARACTER 249 
 
 our world, He must be pronounced either supremely 
 good as the noblest teacher, prophet, and, indeed, Saviour 
 of our race, or else unapproachably bad as earth's most 
 disappointing deceiver. Between these two, judging by 
 the New Testament, there is no possible compromise. 
 
 Now the general estimate of Christendom is well 
 known. But there is, in not a few quarters, a growing 
 tendency to treat this estimate as worthless. Eeligious 
 bias is supposed so to warp the judgement of believers as 
 to render their testimony valueless. Well, however, may 
 we ask why should this be so. Is there any depart- 
 ment of business or of morals, of science or of art, in 
 which, to say the very least, believers have not equalled 
 unbelievers ? Assuredly' there is none whatever. More- 
 over, it is universally conceded that to do justice to 
 any human character there must be at all events some 
 measure of sympathy and affection. Whilst of every 
 person worth knowing at all, it is equally true that those 
 who are most closely and tenderly attached to him, best 
 know him. That reverent appreciation, therefore, of 
 Christ's character which, through all ages and amidst 
 all divisions of creeds and Church systems, has been the 
 one great centre of agreement between all who profess 
 and call themselves Christians, is not to be set aside as 
 irrelevant. 
 
 So that if we now proceed to waive it, and content 
 ourselves with the judgement of sceptic authorities, it is 
 only for two reasons, first, that we may exercise the 
 utmost courtesy towards unbelievers and indeed be 
 generous rather than just, and secondly, that we may 
 make sure of an a, fortiori argument which cannot be
 
 250 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 set aside. For if our inferences hold good upon the 
 lowest estimate of Christ which deserves notice, they 
 become so much the more convincing in the light of 
 those higher estimates of Christian faith which we find 
 no valid reason to discard. 
 
 The lowest estimate we can truthfully take, is found 
 in the best utterances of unbelief. By " best " is not 
 necessarily here intended those most favourable to our 
 purpose, but utterances of men who for culture, candour, 
 ability, and reverence, deserve our highest esteem. 
 Scurrilous pamphlets and the coarse buffoonery which 
 has characterised some Secularist publications, merit only 
 pitiful silence. Those who are so given to quotation from 
 Thomas Paine's^e of Reason, would do well to remember 
 not only his scathing invectives, but the reverence for 
 good evidenced in his declaration, quoted above, that 
 " nothing that is here said can apply even with the most 
 distant disrespect to the real character of Jesus Christ." 
 
 But unbelief as well as faith has its worthy repre- 
 sentatives. It is matter for deep Christian sorrow, yet 
 unquestionably true, that there have been and are men 
 in all respects able and estimable, who more or less 
 absolutely reject the Christian faith. If, now, we accept 
 their judgement in reference to the character of Christ, 
 we shall at least obtain data which ought to be regarded 
 as beyond controversy for the starting-point of our 
 thought. When we turn to these nobler advocates of 
 scepticism, we find an agreement amongst them which 
 differs only in degree from that prevalent throughout 
 Christendom. Let us take but a few, as specimens of 
 many.
 
 CHRIST, HIS ORIGIN AND CHARACTER 251 
 
 Spinoza 1 speaks of Christ as the symbol of Divine 
 wisdom, and attributes to Him an immediate intuition 
 of God. 
 
 Eousseau asks 2 
 
 "Can the Person whose history the Gospels relate be himself 
 a man? What sweetness, what purity in his manners! What 
 affecting goodness in his instructions ! What sublimity in his 
 maxims ! What profound wisdom in his discourses ! What 
 presence of mind, what ingenuity of justice in his replies ! Yes, 
 if the life and death of Socrates are those of a philosopher, the life 
 and death of Jesus Christ are those of a God." 
 
 Goethe, too, speaks thus 3 
 
 " I esteem the Gospels to be thoroughly genuine, for there shines 
 forth from them the reflected splendour of a sublimity, proceeding 
 from the person of Jesus Christ, and of as Divine a kind as was ever 
 manifested upon earth." 
 
 Strauss accounts Him 4 
 
 "The highest object we can possibly imagine with respect to 
 religion, the Being without whose presence in the mind perfect 
 piety is impossible." 
 
 Eenan's estimate is well known, and equally em- 
 phatic 5 
 
 " Jesus is in every respect unique, and nothing can be compared 
 with him. Be the unlooked for phenomena of the future what 
 they may, Jesus will not be surpassed. Noble Initiator repose now 
 in thy glory ! Thy work is finished, thy divinity established. A 
 thousand times more living, a thousand times more loved since 
 thy death, than during the days of thy course here below, thou 
 shalt become the corner-stone of humanity, insomuch that to tear 
 
 1 Tractatus Theol. Polit. 2 Emile, iv. vol. ii. p. 110. 
 
 3 Conversations with Eclcerman, iii. 371. 
 
 4 Life of Jesus, People's edition, 1864, p. G25. 
 
 5 Etude d'Hist. Bel. pp. 175, 213, 214.
 
 252 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 thy name from this world would be to shake it to its very founda- 
 tions. No more shall men distinguish between thee and God." 
 
 John Stuart Mill's testimony has been quoted above, 
 but a few more deliberate utterances of acknowledged 
 leaders of thought merit attention. Thus Theodore 
 Parker avows that l 
 
 "Christ unites in himself the subliinest principles and divinest 
 practices, thus more than realising the dream of prophets and 
 sages, rises free from all prejudices of his age, nation, or sect, 
 and pours out a doctrine beautiful as the light, sublime as heaven, 
 and true as God. Eighteen centuries have passed since the sun of 
 humanity rose so high in Jesus. What man, what sect has mastered 
 hi thought, comprehended his method, and fully applied it to life ? " 
 
 Miss F. P. Cobbe considers that 
 
 " The originator of the Christian movement must have been the 
 greatest soul of his time, as indeed of all time." 
 
 Dr. Channing's whole estimate may be expressed in 
 one sentence of his 
 
 "I know not what can be added to heighten the wonder, 
 reverence, and love which are due to Jesus." 2 
 
 Mr. W. R Greg affirms that 3 
 
 "Jesus had one of those gifted natures rarely met with, never in 
 equal perfection, the purity and absolute harmony of whose mental 
 and moral elements confer a clearness of vision which almost rises 
 to the quality of prophecy." 
 
 Hausrath thinks that 
 
 " There is no other noble life known to human record encumbered 
 with so little that is earthy, transitory, local ; no other that can be 
 put to purposes so high and universal." 
 
 1 Discourses on Religion, pp. 294, 303. 2 Works, vol. ii. p. 61. 
 8 Miscellaneous Essays, p. 247.
 
 CHRIST, HIS ORIGIN AND CHARACTER 253 
 
 Dr. Congreve, speaking for Positivism, says l 
 
 "The more truly you serve Christ, the more thoroughly you 
 mould yourselves into his image, the more keen will be our 
 sympathy and admiration." 
 
 So, too, the author of Supernatural Religion wrote 
 concerning Christ 2 
 
 "A man of unparalleled purity and elevation of character, 
 surpassing in his sublime earnestness the moral grandeur of Chakya- 
 Mouni, and putting to the blush the sometimes sullied, though 
 generally admirable teachings of Socrates and Plato and the whole 
 round of Greek philosophers." 
 
 . Professor Seeley, in his well known Ecce Homo, writes 
 
 " Of this human race Christ himself was a member, and to this 
 day is it not the best answer to all blasphemers of the species, the 
 best consolation when our sense of its degradation is keenest, that a 
 human brain was behind his forehead and a human heart beating 
 in his breast, and that within the whole creation of God nothing 
 more elevated or more attractive has yet been found than he ? " 3 
 
 Mr. Lecky's oft quoted words are so true that they 
 merit repetition here by way of emphasis 4 
 
 " The simple record of three short years of (Christ's) active life, 
 has done more to regenerate and soften mankind than all the dis- 
 quisitions of philosophers, and than all the exhortations of moralists. 
 This has indeed been the well-spring of whatever has been best and 
 purest in the Christian life." 
 
 These witnesses may suffice, though it were an easy 
 task to multiply them. Taken together with the 
 reverent judgement of Christian thinkers, they do at 
 least show that we are here dealing with a real person, 
 whose character was one of unique and transcendent 
 
 1 Essays, p. 298. 2 Vol. ii. p. 487, 2nd edition. 
 
 8 Popular edition, p. 155. * History of Morality, vol. ii. p. 88.
 
 254 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 goodness. According to this united testimony, no other 
 answer can truthfully be given to the question, " What 
 think ye of Christ ? " 
 
 But His own query immediately following upon this, 
 demands equal attention. "Whose son is He?" was 
 not only rightfully put to the cynical Pharisees, but 
 waits for answer also from the modern unbeliever. 
 With this wonderful portraiture before us, the further 
 inquiry is inevitable, "Whence came He?" Was He 
 born naturally or supernaturally ? Is He merely Son 
 of man, or, also and supremely, Son of God ? We know 
 that those around Him were early driven to ask 
 
 " Whence hath this man this wisdom and these mighty works ? 
 Is not this the carpenter's son ? Is not his mother called Mary ? 
 And his brethren, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And 
 his sisters, are they not all with us ? Whence then hath this man 
 all these things ? " 1 
 
 3. The modern reply to all such questions is supposed 
 to be, in one word, Evolution. No other answer, indeed, 
 is possible for those who reject the supernatural and 
 therefore deny alike the miraculous conception and 
 Divine incarnation. In this case Christ could only be 
 the natural product of heredity plus environment. He 
 must be just as really and entirely the outcome of His 
 parentage and circumstances as any other man of genius 
 or notable character, such as Luther, Washington, 
 Napoleon, 2 Wesley, Gladstone. 
 
 1 Matt. xiii. 54. 
 
 2 Napoleon, indeed, flatly contradicted such a notion. In plain 
 words, the genuineness of which is well established (see Liddon's 
 Bampton Lectures for 1866, p. 148), he affirmed : "I think I under-
 
 CHRIST, HIS ORIGIN AND CHARACTER 255 
 
 Now, whilst such an assertion may be made as easily 
 as any other impossible suggestion, it really proves nothing. 
 Its assumptions must be subjected to twofold scrutiny. 
 First, we are bound to ask whether the principle of 
 evolution finds here any valid application at all? And 
 secondly, what necessarily follows if the Christ of the 
 Gospels be so derived ? 
 
 We say advisedly " the Christ of the Gospels," because 
 all the searching criticism of the last century has 
 unquestionably tended, in the main, to establish rather 
 than weaken alike the early date, the genuineness, and 
 the authenticity of these Christian records. 1 Whence it 
 follows that if they are sufficiently reliable to warrant 
 the eulogies from unbelievers above quoted, they are also 
 for the distinctly Christian estimate. If their accounts 
 of Christ's environment may be trusted, so too may their 
 representations of His works and words. It is sometimes 
 assumed that the mere presence of the supernatural 
 element is sufficient proof of unreliability, but besides 
 the fact that such assumption is alike unreasonable and 
 unwarranted, the most ordinary reader can see that the 
 
 stand something of human nature, and I tell you all these were 
 men and I am a man ; none else is like Him, Jesus Christ was more 
 than man. . . . This phenomenon is unaccountable, it is altogether 
 beyond the scope of man's creative powers. This it is which proves 
 to me convincingly the divinity of Jesus Christ." It is easy to 
 sneer at this testimony as an " improvised Christology," but that 
 neither disproves the genuineness nor lessens the significance of 
 such an utterance. 
 
 1 It is, of course, impossible here to branch off into a detailed 
 proof of this statement. But it is not too strong. Abundant 
 justification of it will be found in the list of works given in the 
 Appendix, under the heading "Biblical."
 
 256 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 character and personal history of Christ are inseparably 
 bound up with His whole environment. 
 
 Professor Henslow has summed up in a sentence the 
 true answer to the first of the inquiries just indicated l 
 
 "When evidence for a natural evolution of Christ as He is 
 portrayed to us in the Gospels is looked for, none is forthcoming." 
 
 For we do know, without doubt, what were the 
 " environmental conditions of Jesus Christ " at the time 
 of His birth and life in Palestine. Politically, we need 
 scarcely consider it, seeing that Christ did not teach 
 politics, though even then one might well ask how He 
 came so to transcend narrow local conceptions. As 
 regards Greek philosophy, it is perfectly manifest that to 
 it Christ Himself owes nothing. The operative environ- 
 ment, therefore, must be limited to the religious atmosphere 
 and the national spirit. The latter would be represented 
 in His parentage and surroundings, mostly at Nazareth, 
 though also in greater degree afterwards at Jerusalem. 
 The former is exhibited in the three sects, with their 
 tenets, which at that time divided Judea between them, 
 namely, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes. 
 Of these, the first two are manifestly and at once ruled 
 out of consideration. That Christ could be the natural 
 product of Pharisaism or of Sadduceism, is mere fatuity 
 even to suggest. Some few attempts, however, have 
 been made to derive Jesus from the Essenes. But His 
 emphatic contradiction of their best known and most 
 
 1 Christ no Product of Evolution. Published by G. Stoneman, 
 Warwick Lane. This little volume, from the pen of a pronounced 
 Evolutionist, is well worthy of close attention.
 
 CHRIST, HIS ORIGIN AND CHARACTER 257 
 
 cherished principles is quite sufficient, apart from other 
 considerations, 1 to show how utterly impossible it is to 
 credit these monkish ascetics with being the soil out of 
 which the Jesus of the evangelists spontaneously sprang. 
 
 The more closely and impartially we acquaint ourselves 
 with all the facts as to Christ's religious environment, 
 the more emphatically true appears the remark of Eenan, 
 that His special and intense sense of communion with 
 God as His Father "was His grand act of originality, 
 there was nothing here in common with His race." 
 Even if we do utmost justice to the highest and best of 
 the Old Testament heroes and saints, honest consideration 
 cannot but bring out the truth of Mr. Mill's remark that 
 Christ is " a unique figure, not more unlike all His pre- 
 decessors than all His followers." 
 
 But other undeniable facts have to be borne in mind. 
 There is no room for controversy touching the actual 
 condition of Judaism when Christ appeared. The High 
 Priests with their jealousies, the Eabbis with their 
 traditions, the unspiritual conceits of the Pharisees, the 
 immoral hair-splittings of the Talmud, the hypocrisies 
 of the Elders and Scribes, all contributed to an 
 environment out of which the evolution of Jesus by 
 mere natural processes is quite as unthinkable as the 
 
 1 For which see Lightfoot on Colossians, pp. 148-179 : "It has 
 become a common practice with a certain class of writers to call 
 Essenism to their aid in accounting for any distinctive features of 
 Christianity which they are unable to explain in any other way. 
 I purpose testing these strong assertions by an appeal to facts." 
 The thirty pages which follow do not admit of condensation here, 
 but to an unprejudiced mind they certainly amount to a demon- 
 stration that " we may dismiss the statement as mere hypothesis, 
 unsupported by evidence and improbable in itself."
 
 258 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 production of grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles. 
 His whole character, teaching, works, promises, were indeed 
 an unequivocal reversal and contradiction of what men 
 in general, and His own countrymen in particular, held 
 for the best, the most sacred, the most necessary. So 
 that if Christ's character actually justifies but half what 
 the above-quoted estimates affirm, then evolution, as 
 a merely natural method of progression, by means of 
 infinitesimal variations with no breach of continuity, can 
 only account for Him by flatly contradicting itself. 
 
 So let us come to the second half of the inevitable 
 scrutiny suggested abova If it be insisted that the 
 Jesus of the evangelists must, after all, have been 
 naturally evolved from His age and environment and 
 parentage, the conclusion immediately and necessarily 
 follows that, in such case, evolution is no longer what 
 we have so often been assured, nor does it work as 
 is continually alleged. For here, in the person, the 
 character, the doctrine, the influence of Christ, as 
 compared with His ancestors and contemporaries, is 
 a sudden and immeasurable leap instead of continuity; 
 here is reversal not development, here is contradiction 
 rather than modification. If these results be in accordance 
 with the natural working of evolution, then certainly it 
 can no longer, on the lines of modern science, account for 
 the world of nature around us, still less for the vast 
 universe of which we form such a tiny part. In a word, 
 evolution, per se, can only account for Christ by destroy- 
 ing itself. 
 
 4. Meanwhile another equally pertinent reflection 
 must be fairly faced. The testimonies to the character
 
 CHRIST, HIS ORIGIN AND CHARACTER 259 
 
 of Christ quoted above, may fairly be taken, apart 
 from any other views of their respective authors, as 
 affording an unbiassed estimate of Him from the 
 standpoint of intelligent criticism. Beyond controversy 
 they are all in one respect emphatically agreed, namely, 
 that He was supremely yood. Now goodness cannot 
 possibly be divorced from truthfulness, any more than 
 moral sublimity can be attached to self-delusion. It 
 becomes, therefore, of the very first importance to 
 ascertain what the truthfulness of Christ involves. If 
 He was so good and so sublime as has been acknow- 
 ledged, He must also have been true, both in regard 
 to His representations concerning Himself, and the 
 doctrines which He put forth for the benefit of mankind. 
 The same applies also to His " mighty works." It is 
 utterly impossible to conceive of a good man and true 
 pretending to do miracles of healing, or indeed signs of 
 any kind, knowing them all the time to be mere im- 
 positions. It is equally inconceivable that in matters 
 of greatest moment Christ should be a self-deceived 
 enthusiast, and at the same time to quote Strauss 
 " the highest personage to whom mankind is indebted 
 for the perfecting of its moral consciousness." 
 
 Let us ask then, what really did Jesus do and teach'? 
 The answer, for our present purpose, may be summed up 
 in few words. As regards Himself, He unequivocally 
 insisted upon a supernatural origin and pre-existence, to 
 be followed by a voluntary death, which should issue in 
 a miraculous resurrection and ascension. In reference 
 to His works and doctrine, He claimed that His whole 
 mission was the revelation of the reality and nearness of the
 
 260 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 supernatural, both in the constant presence of His Father 
 and in the special co-operation of the Holy Spirit who 
 was to be afterwards more fully manifested. To which He 
 added unmistakably, the promise of a future life perfectly 
 in accord with these supernatural premisses. It has 
 been reserved for the hardihood of modern Agnosticism 
 to treat all this as a trifle or an " illusion," whilst yet 
 professing to regard Christ as humanity's highest type of 
 goodness. But the naturalism which denies the reality 
 of miracle, and finds in Christ only an elevated human 
 element throughout the whole history of His origin and 
 influence, is bound to show how He can be at once 
 supremely good and utterly false. One is driven to ask in 
 the words of James, " Doth the fountain send forth from 
 the same opening sweet water and bitter ? " Does not such 
 goodness necessarily involve corresponding truthfulness ? 
 In the case of a supremely lofty character, exercising 
 proportionate influence towards human regeneration, is 
 it reasonable to allege utter self-deception as coexistent 
 with transcendent nobility ? 
 
 The simple truth of the case is, that the moral and 
 spiritual phenomena of Christ's character are such as to 
 occasion far greater difficulties without the supernatural 
 than with it. It were a much greater and more stagger- 
 ing miracle that the Christ of the Gospels should be 
 either a deceiver or deceived, than that He should be a 
 worker of real miracles and a teacher of eternal truth. 
 In a word, if He be false in His doctrine, then He is no 
 longer supremely good in His example. If the mighty 
 works to which He Himself appealed were only delusions, 
 then His own chosen credentials of character are un-
 
 CHRIST, HIS ORIGIN AND CHARACTER 261 
 
 reliable. 1 If, however, He be as true as good, then the 
 supernatural element in His whole nature and mission is 
 no longer a matter of question. 
 
 It is particularly to be observed, and for this cause 
 it may be reiterated, that the dilemma of unbelief 
 herein is hopeless. That Jesus professed to work 
 miracles, and that His contemporaries believed Him 
 actually to do so, may be assumed as not open to 
 question. 2 These avowed miracles were either real or 
 false. If real, our main contention is settled. If 
 false, they must have been so either consciously or 
 unconsciously upon His part. For the requirements of 
 unbelief, one supposition is as helpless as the other. 
 In the one case we get ignorant superstition, in the 
 other wilful deception, as the method and accompani- 
 ment of the sublimest character ever recorded in 
 history, and the foundation of the purest and most 
 powerful system of ethics known to men. " Which is 
 absurd," as Euclid says. 
 
 6. But there is yet another special feature of 
 Christ's character which must by no means be lost 
 sight of, if we would do justice to the whole truth. 
 To view it aright we must revert once more to 
 His own declarations concerning Himself. When the 
 
 1 Cf. John x. 37, 38 ; Acts ii. 22, etc. 
 
 3 Cf. the statement of Professor Seeley quoted on p. 44 from Ecce 
 Homo. Also the following (E. H. p. 41) : " Now, if the character 
 depicted in the Gospels is in the main real and historical, they 
 must be generally trustworthy, and, if so, the responsibility of 
 miracles is fixed on Christ. In this case the reality of the miracles 
 themselves depends in a great degree on the opinion we form of 
 Christ's veracity, and this opinion must arise gradually from the 
 careful examination of his whole life."
 
 262 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 acknowledgment is wrung from unbelief that He is 
 unique as a human character, it is generally quite 
 overlooked that He represents Himself, and is portrayed 
 by all the New Testament writers, as sinless. If we 
 accept as it stands the whole account given of Him in 
 the Gospels, it cannot be doubted that this assump- 
 tion, which would concerning any ordinary individual be 
 pronounced intolerable, in His case perfectly harmonises 
 with all else that is related concerning Him. Is there, 
 however, on record any other case of a truly good man 
 thus posing as utterly exempt from moral ill ? Has 
 it not rather been ever true that the nobler the 
 individual the more sensitive, or even hypersensitive, 
 has he been to moral wrong, within as well as without ? 
 Certainly in all Christian ages and countries, as has been 
 pointed out above, the conviction of sin has so deepened 
 that the universal verdict of conscience has been that 
 
 " they who fain would serve Thee best 
 Are conscious most of wrong within." 
 
 Professor Seeley has, indeed, good reason for saying 1 that 
 
 " Perhaps the truth is that there has scarcely been a town in any 
 Christian country since the time of Christ where a century has 
 passed without exhibiting a character of such elevation that his 
 mere presence has shamed the bad and made the good better, and 
 has been felt at times like the presence of God Himself." 
 
 But has any one of those who have unquestionably 
 illustrated this " higher toned goodness which we call 
 holiness," ever given a hint to his fellows that he 
 regarded himself as sinless? Full well we know that 
 it has always been exactly the reverse. It is in accord 
 1 Cf. also the quotation on p. 228.
 
 CHRIST, HIS ORIGIN AND CHARACTER 263 
 
 with the clearest principles of high morality, that the 
 sense of wrong should always be in proportion to the 
 appreciation of right. Yet Christ Himself, from whom, 
 on the acknowledgment of the most cultured unbelief, 
 we get our highest and most delicate perceptions of 
 right, makes no confession of sin and has apparently 
 no consciousness of wrong ! Nay, on the contrary, He 
 not only challenges His enemies to convict Him of any 
 visible moral failure, and in presence of His keenest 
 and most bitter foes exclaims "Which of you con- 
 vinceth Me of sin ? " but avowedly, speaking from the 
 most secret depths of His own consciousness, represents 
 His inner life as perfectly pure, and utterly in harmony 
 with that supremely holy will Divine which He came 
 to make vivid for all men. 
 
 Now it is for the deniers of the supernatural to recon- 
 cile this unmitigated self-assertion on the one hand with 
 Christ's moral sanity, and on the other with that high 
 degree of moral excellence which we have seen above 
 accorded to Him by cultured and impartial criticism. It 
 is also for unbelief to explain how, on the hypothesis that 
 He was only naturally man, it came to pass that, sur- 
 rounded by malignant foes whose Jewish keenness was 
 sharpened against Him to its finest point by hate, he 
 could defy them to find any real moral blemish in His 
 life or character. And yet again, how it was that such 
 a Koinan as Pilate, and such a Eoman matron as Pilate's 
 wife, and such a man of blood and iron as the centurion 
 by the Cross, were all alike compelled to echo the ac- 
 knowledgment of His innocence which was wrung out 
 of His very murderers. Last, though not least, it must
 
 264 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 be explained how it happens that all the very few 
 attempts to convict Him of sin, have recoiled and still 
 recoil upon those that make them ; how it comes about 
 that this very claim of sinlessness, which would be at 
 once pronounced intolerable presumption on the part oi 
 any other man, however noble, has been in His case almost 
 universally allowed. Also how, above all, He, being at 
 once a mere man and a good man, could so represent Him- 
 self. But that this transcendent claim was endorsed to 
 the uttermost by those who first believed on Him, the 
 whole New Testament testifies. Hence, as we survey all 
 this, the only conclusion to which we can possibly come, 
 after the lapse of nineteen centuries, is that the difficulties 
 in the way of regarding Him as merely Son of man, are 
 far greater than those which give us pause before we 
 can accept Him as the Son of God. 
 
 7. For still our contemplation is unfinished. The 
 problem intensifies itself as we proceed. The claim of 
 Christ is not only to sinlessness, but to Divine royalty. 
 He proclaimed Himself a king. The " good confession " 
 to quote the Apostle Paul 1 which Christ witnessed 
 before Pilate, was uttered when that astute and haughty 
 Eoman " said unto Him, Art thou a king then ? Jesus 
 answered, Thou sayest it, I am a king." 2 When He said 
 " My kingdom " manifestly Pilate winced, but when He 
 added that His regal sphere was the truth, we can 
 catch the sigh of relief mingling with the sneer of 
 Pilate's rejoinder. He had no more perception of the 
 reality and vastness of that royal realm, than the infant 
 has of the ubiquity and potency of electricity. 
 1 1 Tim. vi. 13. 2 John xviii. 36-38.
 
 CHRIST, HIS OEIGIN AND CHARACTER 265 
 
 Yet Miss Cobbe is assuredly right when she says 
 
 " Let us obtain the measure of the change introduced into the 
 world by Christianity, and we shall at the same time obtain the 
 best measure of the greatness of Christ." 
 
 No test can be fairer. Nor can the result of such a 
 scrutiny be better expressed than in the words of one 
 who had striven for and obtained such sway over his 
 fellows as few monarchs on earth have equalled. The 
 estimate of Napoleon 1 merits attention most of all 
 because it is according to facts 
 
 "Christ alone has succeeded in so raising the mind of man 
 towards the unseen that it becomes insensible to the barriers of time 
 and space. Across the chasm of eighteen hundred years Jesus 
 Christ makes a demand which is beyond all others difficult to 
 satisfy. He asks for that which a philosopher may often seek in 
 vain at the hands of his friends, or a father of his children, or a 
 bride of her spouse, or a man of his brother. He asks for the 
 human heart ; He will have it entirely to Himself ; He demands it 
 unconditionally, and forthwith His demand is granted. Its powers 
 and faculties become an annexation to the empire of Christ. All 
 who sincerely believe in Him experience that supernatural love 
 towards Him. This phenomenon is unaccountable, it is altogether 
 beyond the scope of man's creative powers. Time, the great 
 destroyer, can neither exhaust its strength nor put a limit to its 
 range." 
 
 All this has been proved true in innumerable cases, 
 and is so still, concerning greater numbers than ever. No 
 honest man can deny that to-day Christ rules millions of 
 hearts and lives, the wide world over. It is, moreover, 
 plain as the light of day, that amongst these have been 
 and yet are included some, if not most, of the noblest men J 
 and women who have lived since the Christian era. And 
 they would be the first to avow, with the emphasis of their 
 1 See note on p. 254.
 
 266 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 whole soul, that this love of Christ had been to them 
 what Mr. Lecky has said, " the well-spring of all that was 
 purest and noblest " in their nature or conduct. It is no 
 exaggeration to affirm that the list of names which might 
 easily be drawn up, of those who have rejoiced to avow 
 this, would, for purity and loftiness of character, be 
 at once the longest and the noblest that earth could 
 furnish from its whole history. Yet if the supernatural 
 be false, these all have been, and all their living repre- 
 sentatives still are, merely the pitiful victims of a delusion 
 and the misguided followers of an impostor. Which 
 would, again, be a greater contradiction to nature than 
 any miracle recorded in the New Testament. 
 
 But if the claim of sinlessness, even on the part of the 
 best of men, would amount to moral presumption and 
 falsity, the demand and expectation to rule as king in 
 the hearts and consciences of men could be accounted 
 nothing less than blasphemy. Moses of old was con- 
 demned for putting himself on a level with the Divine at 
 a critical but unthinking moment. Of how much greater 
 blasphemy must any mere man be guilty, who should 
 deliberately and emphatically insist that he and God 
 were so one, that for all time the true and sufficient 
 test of loyalty to the Divine should be this "If ye 
 love Me, keep My commandments." The pretensions 
 of Mohammed, the precepts of Buddha, the maxims of 
 Confucius, pale into feebleness by the side of this. Yet 
 according to the anti-supernaturalist, all the time Jesus 
 was nothing more than the illegitimate l son of a Jewish 
 carpenter, equally deceiving and deceived ! Truly such 
 1 See note on p. 39.
 
 CHRIST, HIS ORIGIN AND CHARACTER 267 
 
 a suggestion does indeed require for its acceptance more 
 credulity than all the Christian miracles together. 
 
 8. Now there is one way, and only one, by which 
 the overwhelming force of the preceding difficulties for 
 unbelief can be avoided. And it reminds one of what 
 often happens in some bewildering labyrinth, in which 
 the wanderer, after having tried in vain every apparent 
 way of escape, suddenly lights upon a previously over- 
 looked outlet which promises to lead at last into 
 freedom. What then is his dismay when, after following 
 it up thoroughly, he finds himself in the end brought 
 back once more to his original position! Such is 
 unquestionably the case of unbelief when it seeks escape 
 from the difficulties of its own creation by the short and 
 easy method of denying altogether the credibility of the 
 Gospels. It would seem that the knot which cannot 
 be untied must be cut. The supernatural being ex 
 liypothesi necessarily false, all that involves it must be 
 somehow or other untrue. This is but a fair representa- 
 tion of the bias which modern scepticism seeks to make 
 axiomatic in the study of Christian origins. In the case 
 before us, the shortest apparent way of evading .the 
 dilemmas of doubt, is to refuse to accept the reliability of 
 the quadruple history of Christ and His work which we 
 know as the four Gospels. 
 
 Now it is manifestly impossible to deny that we 
 possess these ancient records, and that, as they stand, 
 they involve the supernatural Christ. But this fourfold 
 testimony is put into the crucible of "destructive 
 criticism," and after much tossing to and fro, we are 
 presented with no one knows what. It is difficult,
 
 268 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 almost to impossibility, to represent fairly in few words 
 the conclusions of the extreme school of modern 
 nationalism in regard to our Gospels. But allow- 
 ing for all detailed disharmony between the con- 
 flicting theories and their following inferences, the 
 position may be generally summarised in a few leading 
 points. The a priori assumption is that there can be no 
 supernatural. Hence the Gospels in their present form 
 cannot be authentic. This leads on to the suspicion that 
 they may not be genuine. Further scrutiny results in 
 dismissing the Gospel of John altogether from our 
 credence, and in making the first three Gospels the 
 " Synoptics " to be of wholly unknown authorship, and 
 of such late date that the historical Christ, who, to start 
 with, was only a Jewish peasant of originality and 
 promise, is transformed by myths and floating fancies 
 from the non-miracle-working, natural teacher of the 
 " Triple Tradition," into the mighty worker of miracles, 
 the supernatural Christ, and the risen Lord. 
 
 The unsophisticated reader will be ready to ask with 
 Nicodemus, " How can these things be ? " And well he 
 may. For if by this process what some deem the great 
 ghost of the supernatural is supposed to be laid, the very 
 air becomes immediately thick with spectral questions 
 clamouring for attention and answer. The simplest way 
 to a succinct summary is to inquire whence in this case 
 come such estimates as those of Strauss, Eenan, etc., 
 already quoted ? The reply can only be, from our 
 Gospels. But our Gospels certainly involve the super- 
 natural. Then those portions which thus insist upon 
 supernatural facts and doctrines must be omitted. But
 
 CHRIST, HIS ORIGIN AND CHARACTER 269 
 
 upon whose authority ? Upon that of the subjective 
 
 faculty of the particular critic ! In plain English 
 
 which is perfectly warranted by prolonged study of the 
 latest Continental school of criticism with its nearer 
 echoes what the critic "feels" to be genuine and reliable 
 may be accepted, but what he "feels" to be obliged 
 to reject, must be dismissed at once and finally as 
 incredible ! 
 
 Now much might be said concerning the vastly 
 differing opinions of the leaders in these critical processes. 
 Scarcely any two of them agree in the published results 
 of their investigations. Such differences necessarily 
 follow from the carrying out of the subjective method. 
 It is significant that the hushing of the " still small 
 voice " from on high, only results in a discordant Babel 
 of human opinions all around. Great stress is not 
 seldom laid upon the differences of doctrine which exist 
 amongst Christians. It is confessedly a fact which 
 admits of being used with some effect against the reality 
 of a Divine revelation. But if unanimity be the valid 
 test of truth, things will go much more hardly with 
 unbelief than faith. It may generally be kept out of 
 sight, but it is emphatically true, that the camp of anti- 
 supernaturalism is split up into sections far more 
 mutually contradictory than those which constitute the 
 ordinary Christian Churches. For in regard to the 
 subject before us, namely, the reality or unreality of 
 the supernatural in the New Testament, all sections in 
 Christendom except perhaps a few "Broad Church- 
 men " or " advanced " Nonconformists or " extreme " 
 Unitarians are entirely one. Whereas on the other side,
 
 270 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 save only as to the simple denial of the supernatural, 
 there are as many strongly differing attitudes as there are 
 varieties of opinion amongst politicians. 
 
 Meanwhile, is there no plain answer to all this ming- 
 ling of assumption and assertion ? There is. There is 
 such answer as makes us see yet more clearly that 
 the onus of explanation which was shown above to rest 
 upon unbelief, cannot possibly be shifted by this last 
 desperate resort. We have a fifth Gospel, of unim- 
 peachable genuineness, and allowed to be of earliest 
 date, even by most extreme " destructive " critics. This 
 consists of the " four " above-mentioned " great Epistles " 
 of Paul to the Kornans, Corinthians, Galatians. These, 
 therefore, demand notice once more, at this juncture. 
 
 Now it is abundantly manifest to every careful reader, 
 that the Christ of Paul in these his acknowledged 
 letters, is no other than the supernatural Christ of 
 the Gospels. All the main features of the description 
 of His person, character, doctrine, works, passion, and 
 resurrection, which appear in the Gospels, are clearly 
 affirmed and directly insisted upon by Paul, in writing 
 to these various Churches. Thus we have much more 
 than the testimony of Paul. For it is evident that he 
 could not write in this style to Churches which knew 
 nothing of the subjects referred to. His method of 
 indirect allusion unquestionably supposes these entirely 
 distinct and distant Churches, to be all intimately ac- 
 quainted with just such a series of facts as is recounted 
 in the four Gospels. But we have to remember that 
 the earliest of these letters was certainly written within 
 thirty years of Christ's crucifixion. And we cannot
 
 CHRIST, HIS ORIGIN AND CHARACTER 271 
 
 but see that it contains a taken-for -granted portrayal 
 of Christ, similar in all important features to that of 
 the Evangelists. Hence appears the utter futility of 
 the appeal to myth, as an explanation of the super- 
 natural element in the Gospel narrative. The keenest 
 criticism cannot deny that years before the earliest 
 date allowed by the Tubingen school for the first 
 written Gospel, there was thoroughly spread abroad 
 amongst the whole body of Christians, precisely such a 
 conception of and belief in the supernatural Christ as 
 the Gospels themselves warrant. So far, therefore, from 
 these records being the creation of a gradually develop- 
 ing mythical tendency, they did but record what was 
 already unanimously received by the whole of the then 
 Christian world. 
 
 All that is accomplished, indeed, by the last extreme 
 effort of sceptic criticism under this head, is the narrow- 
 ing and therefore the aggravating of difficulties for 
 the anti-supernaturalist. There is no valid ground for 
 doubting what is now generally accepted, that the 
 Epistles of Paul to the Thessalonians, to the Corinthians, 
 to the Galatians, to the Komans, were all written, prob- 
 ably in this order, before the year A.D. 60 ; that is, within 
 about thirty years of the Crucifixion. Between these 
 letters there is no sign whatever of any sinister connexion. 
 The substance, therefore, of what is assumed all through 
 each of them to be well known and accepted by those 
 to whom they are addressed, is of the very highest 
 character as testimony, and is of the very earliest date. 
 Now we are surrounded on all hands, every day, by 
 men who can easily go back over thirty years of
 
 272 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 recollection. To all such the appeal may be made as 
 to what likelihood, or rather what possibility, there was 
 that in such a time, a mere man who had been put to 
 death as a malefactor, amidst almost universal execration, 
 should be received and worshipped as risen and Divine, 
 without any further cause, by men and women of all 
 grades and nations, who were almost His contemporaries. 
 
 We might, indeed, be content to contemplate a much 
 longer period than thirty years in the case of one who, 
 like Jesus of Nazareth, drew upon Himself the notice 
 of vast multitudes. Take a modern instance by way of 
 analogy. Is it possible for any devoted admirer of the 
 character and career of Napoleon Buonaparte to weave 
 around his memory at this distance from his death, a 
 wreath of wild imaginings contrary to acknowledged facts ? 
 Archbishop Whately has well shown in his little book 
 Historic Doubts concerning Buonaparte what may 
 result from the thorough application of that subjective 
 method which has become the soul of modern criticism. 
 He thereby perfectly demonstrates that Napoleon 
 never existed. At which conclusion, of course, we 
 smile. But it must plainly be affirmed that there is 
 only one way of escape from the questions and reason- 
 ings put forth, and that is, appeal to the experience 
 and testimony of those who were connected with him 
 and were influenced by his career, precisely in the 
 same way as were the great bulk of early Christians 
 by the life and works, the death and resurrection of 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 The final stand, therefore, of the anti-supernatural 
 critic is of no avail. It must be observed that only
 
 CHRIST, HIS ORIGIN AND CHARACTER 273 
 
 as a matter of courtesy have we even temporarily 
 adopted his attitude of "extreme" criticism. It is by 
 no means made out that the time-honoured credentials 
 of our evangelists are wholly unworthy of credit. 
 Every year's additional sifting does but tend, slowly 
 maybe but really, to show that their reliability is 
 rather less than more to be called in question. 1 
 
 There is, therefore, no reason why we should with- 
 draw, or even modify, our general statement of the 
 difficulties of unbelief in regard to the person, and 
 work, and character of Christ. We have such reliable 
 records of the doings and sayings of Jesus as give us 
 sure ground for not only pronouncing Him supremely 
 good, but also for relying upon His own emphatic 
 claim to supernatural origin and powers. This claim 
 
 1 Thus in regard to Luke's Gospel, Dr. McGiffert, almost the latest 
 critical writer upon the Apostolic age, says : " It is therefore safe 
 to conclude that it was written before the close of the first century, 
 very likely a decade or two before." Again, in regard to the 
 vexed questions as to the authorship and date of the Fourth 
 Gospel, he gives his judgement that "there are traces in the 
 literature of the second century both of the Gospel itself and the 
 first Epistle, which compel us to push them back at least as far as 
 the early years of that century." And again : " The Gospel of John 
 alone reveals the secret of Christ's marvellous power in his profound 
 God-consciousness, and it is this that gives it its permanent historic 
 as well as religious value." Moreover, one of the latest issues of the 
 Life of Christ, in German, from the able and fearless pen of Dr. 
 Weiss, strongly insists that this Gospel of John is the most reliable 
 of all. True, he underrates to some extent the value of the Synop- 
 tics, but the point to be here noted is that this modern scholar, with 
 all the results of other critical labours before him, and after un- 
 biassed scrutiny, flatly contradicts what not a few were beginning to 
 claim as settled, and gives us full permission to build our estimate 
 of Christ upon those facts and discourses which by his predecessors 
 have been loudly proclaimed to be forbidden ground. 
 18
 
 274 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 is such that if the goodness of Christ be conceded, His 
 truthfulness of necessity follows, and the supernatural 
 is placed beyond question. If Christ be not true He 
 is not good, and destructive criticism must eat its own 
 words. The only valid method of attack upon the 
 supernatural is by destruction of the character of Christ. 1 
 Jesus Himself must be crucified again, and put to a 
 worse shame than has ever yet been attempted, before 
 the supernatural message of love and truth and hope 
 which He pronounced " finished," can be tortured into a 
 delusion or twisted into a fraud. 
 
 9. Let us then sum up the miracles of unbelief as 
 they appear in regard to Christ Himself. We start, 
 be it remembered, with Palestine during the time of 
 Augustus, and especially with Jerusalem under the 
 government of Pontius Pilate. On the principles of 
 unbelief we may postulate no Deus ex machina, no 
 supernatural help whatever, no spiritual instincts, but 
 simply Jewish history and temperament environed by 
 Roman civilisation, and national pride smarting under 
 the foreign yoke, together with the pronounced leaven 
 of the scribes and Pharisees. From this total has to 
 be evolved naturally, i.e. without any of those powers 
 and influences which are included in the " supernatural " 
 of ordinary Christian parlance, the Christ of the Gospels, 
 with the whole of His doctrine and its effects, as ex- 
 hibited in the Christianity of the New Testament, and 
 perpetuated on the larger scale in all Christian history 
 to this hour. 
 
 If, then, we lay aside, for the sake of sureness and 
 1 See Note A, p. 276.
 
 CHRIST, HIS ORIGIN AND CHARACTER 275 
 
 generosity in discussion, all prevailing Christian estimates 
 of Christ and the ethics of His gospel, and accept only 
 those of unbelief, as above outlined in quotation, what 
 necessarily follows upon naturalistic lines ? Manifestly 
 nothing less than the following : 
 
 (1) That the purest, sweetest, noblest, character in all 
 human history 1 was at the same time either a conscious 
 liar or a deluded fanatic, judged by His own accepted words. 
 
 (2) That the world's acknowledged sublimest teacher 
 was, of all mankind, most emphatically either deceiving 
 or deceived. 
 
 (3) That the most marked and mighty impulse of the 
 past towards all that is purest, worthiest, loftiest, in the 
 evolution of human nature, emanated spontaneously from 
 the untutored, peasant-bred son of an adulteress. 2 
 
 (4) That the most elevated, and indeed "perfect" 
 system of morals known to philosophy, the " moral 
 intuition to which nothing can be added," the rule of life 
 which " even an unbeliever cannot do better than follow," 
 has for its changeless centre one whose whole career was 
 at best infatuated self-deception, or at worst conscious 
 falsehood. 
 
 These concluding dilemmas of doubt are inevitable. 
 The premisses upon which they are based are those con- 
 ceded by men of equal ability and impartiality. The 
 sequence of thought is clear and valid. The miracles of 
 unbelief which emerge speak for themselves. Thus it 
 is manifest once more, that to reject the principles of 
 
 1 Note especially the testimonies of Strauss, Renan, Mill, Seeley, 
 Lecky, etc., given above. 
 
 2 Cf. note, p. 39.
 
 276 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 Christian faith and accept those of unfaith, is in very deed 
 to reject the lesser and accept the greater difficulty. In 
 a word, the more thoroughly the facts are contemplated, 
 the more assured becomes the final certainty that the 
 miracle involved in the creation of the Christian Church 
 through the life and works, the death and resurrection of 
 the supernatural Christ, is as nothing by the side of that 
 which is absolutely necessary, in order to the creation of 
 the Christ of the Gospels by the Church of the first 
 century. The former is at least possible and conceivable. 
 The latter is alike unthinkable and impossibla 
 
 NOTE A. That this is the case is apparently realised by some of 
 the advocates of the lower grade of scepticism referred to on p. 3. 
 Thus a pamphlet was published recently by Mr. G. W. Foote, based 
 on the Jesus and the Gospels of M. Joules Soury, in which, with no 
 sense of shame, the author asks, as a title, Was Jesus Insane ? and 
 after a dozen pages of coarse misrepresentation and contumely, 
 conies to the conclusion : " We can, indeed, only excuse the wanton 
 actions of Jesus, and sympathise with him in his bitter fate, by 
 reflecting that he was incurably insane." Such ribaldry may, of 
 course, be left to answer itself. But when it is remembered that 
 publications of this character are circulated to-day by the thousand 
 amongst the artisan population of all our great cities, it ceases to 
 be a wonder that so many of them, who read nothing better than 
 the newspapers, and hear nothing higher than the talk of the 
 streets, should become as indifferent to as ignorant of the actual 
 truths upon which Christian faith rests. Surely the growing need 
 for careful teaching, as well aa "preaching," could receive no 
 weightier emphasis.
 
 IX 
 THE SPIRITUAL REALM
 
 " It is incomparably more free from difficulties to believe in an 
 all - embracing mind, endowed with goodness, than to deny it. 
 Granted such a mind, it is really no step in advance at all, but 
 only a necessary unfolding of what is implied already, to call it 
 personal. A personality so vast may indeed be to us unpictur- 
 able, but it does not follow that it is inconceivable. On the other 
 hand, when we approach the question through the open door of 
 resemblances a door opened wider to us by the doctrine of evolu- 
 tion than by any other view of things that was ever current 
 among men we find that the personality of God is easier to believe 
 in than to set aside." Dr. W. N. Clarke, Can we believe in God the 
 Father ? p. 113. 
 
 " ' Mag die geistige Kultur nur iinmer fortschreiten, der mensch- 
 liche Geist sich erweitern, wie er will ; liber die Hoheit und sittliche 
 Kultur des Christentums, wie es in den Evangelien schimmert uud 
 leuchtet, wird er nicht hinauskommen.' In diesen Worten hat 
 Goethe nach vielen Versuchen und in unermiidlicher Arbeit an 
 sich selbst das Ergebnis seiner sittlichen und geschichtlichen Ein- 
 sicht zusammengefasst. Sprache auch der eigene Wunsch in uns 
 nicht, so wird es sich doch schon um der Zeugnisses dieses Mannes 
 willen lohnen, dem ein ernstes Nachdenken zu widmen, was ihm 
 als so wertvoll aufgogangen ist." Adolf Harnach, Das Wesen des 
 Christentums, p. 3. 
 
 " The last place in the world to which I should go for informa- 
 tion about a state of things, in which thought and feeling can exist 
 in the absence of a cerebrum, would be cerebral physiology. The 
 materialistic assumption that there is no such state of things, and 
 that the life of the soul accordingly ends with the life of the body, 
 is perhaps the most colossal instance of baseless assumption that is 
 known to the history of philosophy. For my own part, therefore, 
 I believe in the immortality of the soul, not in the sense in which 
 I accept the demonstrable truths of science, but as a supreme act 
 of faith in the reasonableness of God's work." J. Fiske, Man's 
 Destiny, p. 109. 
 
 278
 
 IX 
 
 THE SPIBITUAL EEALM 
 
 Two things, Kant avowed, overwhelmed him with awe, 
 namely, " the starry heavens above and the moral law 
 within." His conviction is shared by almost all who 
 make any claim to be accounted thoughtful. We have 
 seen in the foregoing pages how, in regard to the former 
 of these, it is worse than foolishness to attribute the 
 awful grandeur of the physical universe, so far as we 
 can apprehend it, to the blind hap of mindless evolution. 
 It remains to be shown that it is equal fatuity to ascribe 
 to the same source those elements of human nature 
 which, always in some degree and sometimes with un- 
 measured emphasis, convince us of its marvellous 
 capacities and unmatched dignity. 
 
 Amidst the complex features which so markedly dis- 
 tinguish humanity from the surrounding brute creation, 
 two instincts stand out above the rest in universality and 
 indestructibility. These are, the tendency to worship, and 
 the yearning for immortality. The numberless volumes 
 which have been written upon these themes, have neither 
 exhausted the material nor diminished its interest. We 
 are concerned now, however, only with some few salient 
 points. Whilst fully acknowledging the variations in
 
 280 THE MIKACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 kind and degree which have often veiled these instincts 
 in obscurity, we are here entirely warranted in taking 
 them at their highest and best, and as such seeking 
 an adequate explanation of their origin and develop- 
 ment. 
 
 L Concerning ourselves first with the instinct to wor- 
 ship, one cannot fail to see that two distinct subjects open 
 out at once for consideration. Worship always neces- 
 sarily implies both an object and an influence. The kind 
 of worship adopted is ever contingent upon the assumed 
 nature of the God or gods adored ; whilst there must 
 always ensue some definite effect upon the worshippers, in 
 proportion as any particular belief, with its accompanying 
 rites and ceremonies, is elevating or degrading. Now we 
 may dismiss as quite irrelevant the modern attempts to 
 prove that a portion of the human family has been with- 
 out religion altogether. Our concern, as already hinted 
 above, is with the immense majority, not with the 
 minority ; with the highest and best, not with the lowest 
 and worst. If there be no supernatural, then everything 
 has to be accounted for by natural evolution. And that 
 which most manifestly demands adequate explanation, is 
 not the vice but the virtue of humanity. What we have 
 to discover is the true source not so much of the low, 
 coarse, sensual desires and practices, which may well 
 enough be associated with an animal nature, but of the 
 high and noble and unselfish aspirations which con- 
 fessedly form so large a part of the best forms of 
 religious devotion. 
 
 First, then, as to the object of worship and the methods 
 adopted in the service of the accepted deity. The task
 
 THE SPIEITUAL REALM 281 
 
 before us is to examine and decide upon two things, 
 namely, which form of religion deserves to rank as 
 highest and best, and, when this is settled, to account for 
 it upon the naturalistic hypothesis. Mr. Herbert Spencer 
 has not said one whit too strongly that 
 
 "An unbiassed consideration force's us to conclude that religion, 
 everywhere present as a weft running through the warp of human 
 history, expresses some eternal fact." 
 
 But as surely as the vegetable world yields fruits that 
 vary by all the difference between wholesome cereals and 
 deadly poisons, so does the world of human religiousness 
 produce its higher and lower conceptions of the deity 
 demanding adoration and service. If we accept, indeed, 
 the criterion of the late Professor Clifford, that " belief 
 in God is a source of refined and elevated pleasure to 
 those who can hold it," we shall neither be yielding to 
 Christian bias, nor have any need whatever to consider 
 those forms of religion whose god has been a fetish or a 
 monster. The God whose worship is to yield us " re- 
 fined and elevated pleasure " must Himself be manifestly 
 elevated and refined. This conveniently and truthfully 
 narrows the area of our thought. In fact there are, on 
 such terms, but three forms of religion which can for a 
 moment come into comparison with Christianity, namely, 
 Buddhism, Mohammedanism, and Positivism. 
 
 As regards the last of these, we may surely save our- 
 selves the labour of a protracted comparison, by quoting 
 the words of two critics of ability who are acknowledged 
 as controversial experts, and who are manifestly free from 
 any undue disposition to favour the Christian ideal
 
 282 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 Thus in regard to Positivism and the worship in- 
 augurated by Comte, Professor Huxley says 
 
 "Great was my perplexity, not to say disappointment, as I 
 followed the progress of this mighty son of earth in his work of 
 reconstruction. Undoubtedly God disappeared, but the New, the 
 Supreme great Being, a gigantic fetish, turned out brand new by 
 M. Comte's own hands, reigned in his stead." 
 
 Whilst Sir James F. Stephen, referring to Mr* Spencer's 
 " Unknowable," in comparison with the deified Humanity 
 of Comte, remarks that 
 
 " Humanity with a capital H, is neither better nor worse fitted to 
 be a god than the unknowable with a capital U. Each is a barren 
 abstraction." 
 
 The trenchant words of Mr. Wm. Arthur are thus not 
 without justification, as regards the definition of the 
 " Humanity " whom we are called upon by Positivism 
 to worship 
 
 "We began with an unknown, the sum of past, present, and 
 future men ; from this we were told to subtract an unknown, the 
 sum of the useless men ; to the remainder, the third unknown, we 
 were told to add a fourth unknown, the sum of helpful animals. 
 Four unknowns do not make one known. The first sum-total was 
 an abstraction, the sum deducted was an abstraction, the sum added 
 was an abstraction ; the result is an unknown fraction of an un- 
 knowable abstraction. This is the New Supreme Being of M. 
 Comte's tumid abortions, and of Mr. Frederic Harrison's crackling 
 audacity. This it is which men claiming above all things to be 
 thinkers, can with a serious air offer to our soul, to our trust and 
 hope, instead of our Maker, Preserver, Redeemer, and Judge." 
 
 Again, as regards Buddhism, we are not here concerned 
 with the vast number of its adherents, nor the moral 
 attractiveness of the life of Gautama, nor yet with the
 
 THE SPIRITUAL REALM 283 
 
 desperate attempts made by modern teachers, from Max 
 Mtiller downwards, to derive Christian history from 
 Buddhist legend. We are estimating the nature and 
 object of worship as a universal human instinct. 1 In 
 this respect, when we inquire concerning Buddhism, 
 we find that it is well-nigh impossible to characterise 
 its tenets. For whilst it is true, as Dr. Eeynolds has 
 remarked, that 
 
 "Buddhism on a stupendous scale has occupied the thoughts, 
 stimulated the speculations, and to some extent satisfied the 
 cravings of mankind," 
 
 it is equally the fact that besides its "pessimistic 
 cosmology and ethical fatality, with its ghastly Nirvana 
 and the hopelessness of its summum bonum," the 
 supreme object of its devotion is but confusion and 
 contradiction. Essentially Buddhism is agnostic, inas- 
 much as originally it insists that " a vast cycle of events, 
 and not a will or a cause, have produced the universe." - 
 However unbounded the eulogy bestowed by Buddhist 
 writings upon Gautama himself, he is never really 
 invested with the attributes of Deity. " The Buddhist 
 theory of the universe," well says Dr. Eeynolds, " is that 
 it forms one vast lazar house, through which the name 
 of all devouring desire and boundless illusion is ever 
 rushing." Southern Buddhism has adhered to this 
 
 1 Although Buddhism and Mohammedanism were mentioned 
 above (p. 222) in connexion with the Christian basis of morality, 
 it is necessary to renew the comparison briefly from the distinctly 
 spiritual standpoint of worship with its influence upon the 
 worshippers. 
 
 2 The Yasomitra, quoted by Burnouf.
 
 284 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 dismal conception, but in Nepal, Tibet, China, Japan, 
 and Mongolia, there have been marked changes in the 
 direction of living deities, taking indeed the form of a 
 definite Trinity. In regard to the earliest of these, 
 Vajrapani, Manjusri, Avalokitesvara, Mr. Rhys Davids 
 says 
 
 " These beings and one or two less conspicuous Bodliisatwas had 
 become practical gods ; and it need not be pointed out how utterly 
 contrary their worship was to the original teaching of Gautama, 
 which knew nothing of God, taught that Arahats, holy men, were 
 better than gods, and acknowledged no form of prayer. The name 
 Avalokitesvara, which means 'the Lord who looks down from on 
 high,' is a purely metaphysical invention." 
 
 No comment is required to emphasise the difference 
 between this conception of the origin and order of the 
 universe, and the Christian doctrine of God. The simple 
 yet sublime conception that "God is Spirit," "God is 
 light," " God is love," is as far removed from the original 
 agnosticism and later god-inventions of Buddhism, as it 
 is exalted both spiritually and intellectually above the 
 ridiculous inconsistencies of Positivism. 
 
 As regards Mohammedanism, the case is somewhat 
 different. Here Sir William Muir's words are to the 
 point 
 
 " There can be no question but that with its pure monotheism 
 and a code founded in the main on justice and humanity, Islam 
 succeeds in raising to a higher level races sunk in idolatry and 
 fetishism, like those of Central Africa, and that in some respects, 
 notably in that of temperance, it materially improves the morality 
 of such peoples." 
 
 But its doctrine of God, as the supreme object 
 of worship, whilst undeniably superior to Positivist
 
 THE SPIRITUAL REALM 285 
 
 Humanity, and Buddhist metaphysical abstract Trinities; 
 falls immeasurably short of the doctrine of Christ.' 
 Eightly again says Sir William Muir 
 
 "While the Goran represents God as Creator, Ruler, and Pre- 
 server, the Rewarder of good and evil, and the Hearer of prayer, 
 it nowhere recognises Him as a Father, much less the Father of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ " 
 
 The best and highest conception of the Moslem in 
 regard to God, is that of an overruling Power, some- 
 times benevolent, always terrible. Such a sentiment as 
 that so often and emphatically expressed by Christ, 
 " The Father Himself loveth you " " He that hath seen 
 Me hath seen the Father " " God so loved the world, 
 that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever 
 believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal 
 life " is as far beyond and above the stern and unbend- 
 ing monotheism of Islam, as the character of Jesus 
 Himself is in every respect superior to that of the 
 Arabian prophet. Indeed as regards the character of 
 Mohammed, none too strongly does Mr. T. P. Hughes 
 say 1 
 
 "We follow the would-be prophet in his self -asserted mission, 
 from the cave of Hira to the closing scene when he dies in the 
 midst of the lamentations of his harem, and the contentions of his 
 friends. Then it is that the Divine and holy character of Jesus 
 rises to our view, and the inquiring mind sickens at the thought 
 of the beloved, the pure, the lowly Jesus, giving place to that of the 
 ambitious, the sensual, the time-serving hero of Arabia." 
 
 It is unnecessary here to pursue this comparison 
 further. Enough has been set forth, even if succinctly, 
 to warrant the assertion that of all earth's forms of 
 1 In his Notes on Mubammadanism, p. 7,
 
 286 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 religion, the purest and loftiest object of worship has 
 unquestionably been set before mankind by the teach- 
 ing of Christ and His apostles, as exhibited in the New 
 Testament. The thought of God, as not only Creator 
 of all but also the Eternal Father, the Infinite Spirit 
 Who is also light and love, is at once the worthiest, 
 sublimest, and most inspiring that has ever exercised the 
 mind or moved the heart of humanity. 
 
 But it is manifestly impossible to separate the cult of 
 any religion from its effect upon the character and lives 
 of its devotees. What ideals of conduct are enforced ? 
 What are the actual results of such ideals ? These are 
 the questions which must ever be asked and answered, 
 if we would estimate the comparative worth of human 
 forms of faith. In these respects Christianity has from 
 its very commencement challenged comparison with all 
 other religions. 
 
 As to its ideal of life and character, the testimonies of 
 unbelievers quoted above might well suffice. But the 
 New Testament is after all its own best witness. For it 
 is not merely true, as J. S. Mill remarked, that " some 
 precepts of Christ as exhibited in the Gospels, carry some 
 kinds of moral goodness to a greater height than had 
 ever been attained before," but that the whole Christian 
 ideal admits of being summed up in a word, namely, 
 communion with God, the God whom Christ revealed 
 in response to Philip's representative cry, " Lord, show us 
 the Father, and it sufficeth us." Christ's answer we know 
 was, " I and My Father are one " " Abide in Me, and I 
 in you." ^.nd that this most pure and lofty conception 
 of spiritual life is indissolubly joined with practical
 
 THE SPIRITUAL REALM 287 
 
 behaviour, all His own words, no less than those of the 
 Apostles, bear overwhelming testimony. The world of 
 morals may safely be challenged to produce a parallel 
 to such ethical programmes as appear in the twelfth 
 chapter of Eomans, or the fourth of Ephesians, or the 
 third of Colossians, or the whole of John's first Epistle. 
 
 Again, when it is asked whether facts correspond with 
 ideals, there need be no hesitation as to the reply. The 
 inconsistencies of Christian believers have indeed been 
 neither few nor small. But ample justice has been done 
 them, both as regards individuals and nations, by ancient 
 and modern cynics and sceptics. The fact is generally 
 overlooked that the more inconsistent they are shown to 
 be, the more it redounds to the honour of the ideal they 
 have failed to reach. The blacker the shadow, the 
 brighter ever is the light that casts it. The whole truth 
 to quote once more from Ecce Homo can scarcely 
 be better expressed, as a fact corroborated times without 
 number, than in the following words : l 
 
 " As love provokes love, many have found it possible to conceive 
 for Christ an attachment the closeness of which no words can 
 describe, a veneration so possessing and absorbing the man within 
 them, that they 'have said, ' I live no more, but Christ lives in 
 me.' Now such a feeling carries with it of necessity the feeling 
 of love for all human beings. It matters no longer what quality 
 men may exhibit ; amiable or unamiable, as the brothers of 
 Christ, as belonging to his sacred and consecrated kind, as the 
 objects of his love in life and death, they must be dear to all to 
 whom he is dear." 
 
 For emphasis' sake the assertion made above 2 may be 
 repeated here, that if we could but have a fairly com- 
 plete list of those who, for sheer purity and nobility of 
 1 Small edition, p. 157. 8 P. 266.
 
 288 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 character have stood out conspicuous in the history of the 
 past nineteen centuries, or even during the last century 
 have wielded mightiest influence for the highest welfare 
 of mankind, the vast majority of names, in every sphere 
 of human life, would be definitely Christian. And of 
 all the rest, could there be found one who was truly 
 under no obligation to the work and influence of Christ ? 
 Moreover, though it may be assailed as a prejudiced 
 statement, it is probably quite true, that to-day, amidst 
 all the turmoil and fight of our advanced civilisation, the 
 actual " salt of the earth " and " light of the world " are 
 those who, in every grade of life, are ceaselessly endea- 
 vouring to shape their whole character and conduct as in 
 the sight of the living "God and Father of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ." 
 
 The effect upon society in general and the nations at 
 large, demands also to be taken into full consideration. 
 It is too vast a theme, of course, for exhaustive treatment 
 here. But a glance, though general, may be careful and 
 reliable. This at least is possible. Voltaire said that 
 "not to believe in any God would be an error incom- 
 patible with wise government." But no country has 
 more tragically illustrated than his own, the Nemesis that 
 follows upon belief in a false god who is worse than no 
 god. French history during the last hundred years has 
 been a vivid comment upon Mr. Frederic Harrison's 
 avowal not so long since, 1 that 
 
 " Those who teach that the future can be built upon science and 
 civilisation, are attempting to build a pyramid of bricks without 
 straw." 
 
 1 Nineteenth Century, April 1877.
 
 THE SPIRITUAL REALM 289 
 
 Nor has anything been more pitifully as well as amply 
 proved, in the past history of society, than that " human 
 nature is not a thing so docile and intellectual that it 
 can be tamed by fine thoughts, nor is society amenable 
 to pure ideas." But besides mere ideas 
 
 "Morals are not adequate to direct human life until they are /" 
 transfused into that sense of resignation, adoration, and communion J 
 with an overruling providence which is the true mark of religion." 
 
 Where, however, has this actually taken place outside 
 of Christianity or Christian influence ? For it must be 
 borne well in mind that, as Professor Seeley says l 
 
 " The atmosphere of Europe has been saturated for some fifteen 
 centuries with Christian principles, Christian influences are in the i 
 air, our very conception of virtue is Christian ; the tone, the habits 4 
 of sentiment and language, in short all the associations of virtue, 
 have been furnished by the discipline of the Christian Church." 
 
 Let another equally unbiassed witness answer our 
 question. Says Professor Goldwin Smith 
 
 " Progress is conterminous with Christendom. Outside the pale I 
 of Christendom all is stationary. Japan, to whatever she may be J 
 destined to come, has kindled her new civilisation with a coal from 
 the Christian hearth." 
 
 This judgement is corroborated, as regards Islam, 
 which is sometimes spoken of as the great rival religion 
 to Christianity, by the weighty words of such experts 
 in that subject as Sir Wm. Muir and Mr. T. P. Hughes. 
 Says the former 
 
 " But having raised them (i.e. peoples sunk in barbarism) to a 
 certain point, it leaves them there. Whether in things secular or 
 things spiritual, there is no advance." 
 
 1 Preface to Ecce Homo.
 
 290 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 And the latter confirms such a judgement 
 
 "Notwithstanding its fair show of outward observance, and its 
 severe legal enactments, there is something in Islam which strikes 
 at the very root of morals, poisons domestic life, and in its truest 
 sense disorganises society. Freedom of judgment is crushed, and a 
 barrier has been raised not merely against the advance of Chris- 
 tianity, but against the progress of civilisation itself. For every- 
 thing in religion, in law, in life, and in thought, has been measured 
 for all time. Mohammedanism admits of no progress in morals, 
 law, or commerce. It fails to regenerate the man, and it is equally 
 powerless in regenerating the nation." 
 
 It is confessedly strong language to aver that " how- 
 ever far the rebellion against the Church may have 
 spread, it may still be called the Moral University of 
 the world not merely the greatest, but the only great 
 School of Virtue existing." 1 But Professor Seeley was 
 by no means a champion for orthodoxy, and gave good 
 reasons for his assertions. His avowal that " the scien- 
 tific life is less noble than the Christian ; it is better, so 
 to speak, to be a citizen in the New Jerusalem than in 
 the New Athens," 2 may be especially hard for this genera- 
 tion to realise, but such a judgement, from such a source 
 at least, cannot be accused of Evangelical bias. Without, 
 therefore, enlarging further upon the spiritual superiority 
 of the Christian faith, enough has been established, 
 especially when taken in conjunction with a former 
 chapter, 3 to call for very definite explanation as to its 
 origination and development. Let us take but one more 
 quotation, by way of final summary, from a source which 
 should be unimpeachable. The author of A candid 
 Examination of Theism, apart from his eminence in 
 
 1 Preface to Ecce Homo, small edition, p. xvii. 
 
 2 Cf. p. 248. 8 Cf. Chapter VII.
 
 THE SPIRITUAL REALM 291 
 
 science, gave sufficient pledges of ability and impartiality. 
 But his final finding is thus expressed l 
 
 " It is on all sides worth considering (blatant ignorance or base 
 vulgarity alone excepted) that the revolution effected by Christianity 
 in human life, is immeasurable, and unparalleled by any other 
 movement in history. This whole system of religion is so im- 
 measurably in advance of all others, that it may fairly be said that 
 if it had not been for the Jews, the human race would not have had 
 any religion worth our serious attention as such. But not only is 
 Christianity thus so immeasurably in advance of all other religions, 
 it is no less so of every other system of thought that has ever been 
 promulgated, in regard to all that is moral and spiritual. Whether 
 it be true or false, it is certain that neither philosophy, science, nor 
 poetry has ever produced results in thought, conduct, or beauty, in 
 any degree to be compared with it. Only to a man wholly destitute 
 of spiritual perception can it be that Christianity should fail to 
 appear the greatest exhibition of the beautiful, the sublime, and of 
 all else that appeals to our spiritual nature, which has ever been 
 known upon earth." 
 
 Whence then, it is time io ask, comes this system of 
 doctrine which lifts men's thoughts most utterly above 
 themselves, from the lowest to the highest, this ideal 
 of conduct which tends more to make our earth a 
 heaven than any other human philosophy? 2 No plainer or 
 truer answer can ever be given than that of the Apostle 
 
 Paul : " For me to live is Christ." So utterly is the 
 
 whole Christian scheme of thought and life centred in 
 Jesus Christ, that it is scarcely a figure of speech, but 
 rather a vivid truth, to say that Christianity is Christ. 
 To this the whole New Testament bears unmistakable 
 witness. Even if we accept the estimate of the eminent 
 unbelievers above quoted, concerning the person and 
 
 1 Romanes, Thoughts on Religion, p. 159. 
 
 2 Cf. estimate by G. J. Romanes, facing Chapter V. p. 108.
 
 292 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 character of Christ, the acknowledgment is inevitable 
 that this Jesus, whom they cannot help admiring and 
 revering, has Himself insisted upon being so intensely and 
 entirely the emulation of His followers, that His relation 
 to them can only be expressed in His own words, " Abide 
 in Me, and I in you." These are among His last utter- 
 ances, thrown up into more solemn and tender relief 
 than usual by the near approach of that hour of darkness 
 to which He had all along looked forward. The hidden 
 prophecy of this exhortation is elsewhere plainly ex- 
 pressed : " And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will 
 draw all men unto Me." This is what has really come 
 to pass through the ages. There can be no manner of 
 doubt that the Cross of Christ, lit up by the light of 
 the Resurrection morn, was " the power of God unto 
 salvation " which the apostles themselves felt, and upon 
 which they relied for the production of similar effects 
 upon others, wherever they preached throughout the 
 world. That those effects did follow, is simple matter 
 of history. And over against the trite reminder of the 
 failures and follies of Christians, may be set the indubit- 
 able fact that myriads upon myriads of human souls, 
 whose goodness has found no earthly chronicler, have thus 
 loved and served Him as their Saviour and Master, 
 and have been miniature Christs to their surrounding 
 generation. 
 
 Well, then, may we ask with the earliest sceptics, 
 " Whence hath this man this wisdom and these mighty 
 works ? " How comes it to pass that if the super- 
 natural be ruled out as inadmissible the purest, sub- 
 limest, most spiritual conception of God known to men,
 
 THE SPIRITUAL REALM 293 
 
 together with a moral and spiritual impulse unparalleled 
 in the world's history, should arise from the lips of an 
 uncultured Jewish artisan, of sinister birth, brought up 
 in rustic ignorance, and surrounded by superstition and 
 bigotry ? How has it happened that the highest ethical 
 philosophy which has ever moved mankind, the mightiest 
 " power not ourselves that makes for righteousness " in 
 our latest civilisation, sprang spontaneously, some nineteen 
 centuries ago, from the most narrow-minded religionists, 
 at a period of their most pronounced spiritual degeneracy, 
 and when even their best thoughts were utterly localised 
 in an obscure corner of an empire that has long since 
 passed away ? If this has all indeed been so, then 
 Christianity, with all its past history and its present-day 
 influence, is verily a much more stupendous miracle than 
 has ever yet been acknowledged. For it is a case in 
 which the old maxim e nihilo nihil fit must have been 
 set aside for e, nihilo omnia fiunt. Nothing has, in 
 such case, given birth to everything, the best has been 
 naturally born of the worst, and evolution has contra- 
 dicted itself for ever. 
 
 II. There is, however, yet another consideration, which 
 merits more attention than it often receives. One of 
 the strongest apostolic utterances is to the effect that 
 " if in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of 
 all men most pitiable." The well-known words which 
 follow, in Paul's letter to the Corinthians, embody the 
 best statement of the relation of Christian doctrine to 
 the great question of human immortality. Upon this 
 vast theme a whole literature has accumulated, from 
 earliest human records to the present day. The worth
 
 294 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 of this must be estimated elsewhere. We are here 
 concerned to acknowledge and account for two great 
 facts, namely, humanity's yearning for immortality, and 
 the Christian answer to it. Each of these is worthy of 
 our best thought. 
 
 1. The reality and strength of the longing for and 
 belief in a continuance of being after death, have been 
 abundantly manifest in human nature from time 
 immemorial. The attempts to minimise or deny this 
 are really not worth controverting. Dr. Tylor is well 
 warranted in his remark, that 
 
 " Looking at the religion of the lower races as a whole, we shall 
 at least not be ill advised in taking as one of its general and 
 principal elements, the doctrine of the soul's future life." 
 
 It was from out the heart of Koman civilisation that 
 Cicero declared 
 
 " It is by the unanimous opinion of all nations that we hold the 
 doctrine of the permanent existence of the soul." 
 
 But as regards some few primitive races which are 
 generally quoted to the contrary, the authority of such 
 experts as M. Renouf and Mr. Alger should suffice. 
 Says the former 
 
 "A belief in the persistence of life after death, and the observ- 
 ance of religious practices founded upon the belief, may be dis- 
 covered in every part of the world, in every age, and among men 
 representing every degree and variety of culture." 
 
 And the latter 
 
 " The belief of mankind that a soul or ghost survives the body, 
 has been so nearly universal as to appear like the spontaneous 
 result of an instinct."
 
 THE SPIRITUAL EEALM 295 
 
 In the records of Accadians, Egyptians, Babylonians, 
 Assyrians, Persians, etc., to say nothing of the nations of 
 the far East, there is plenty of proof of the general 
 accuracy of these statements. The witness of Jewish 
 history is equally real though indefinite, and culminates 
 in the more pronounced faith of the Apocrypha. The 
 testimony of the Greeks is too well known to call for 
 reference. Coming down to the present, the varied 
 voices of our own nation may well be taken as true to 
 the rest of humanity. Nor were Dr. Liddon's glowing 
 words exaggerated as all will know who have mingled 
 much with the working classes when he said l 
 
 " Explain to these, the suffering classes, that you have disposed of 
 immortality on the authority of this anatomist or of that physician, 
 and you will encounter a conviction of which you suspect neither 
 the strength nor the majesty. That mass of unintelligible suffering 
 will look around it at the many who ' come into no misfortune like 
 other folk, neither are plagued like other men,' yet without doing 
 or being anything that could merit such exemption ; it will look up 
 to that heaven in which God reigns, hidden, indeed, by the clouds 
 of His impenetrable providence, but in Himself eternally and 
 unchangeably just ; and, finally, after a moment of terrible suspense, 
 it will look you in the face to tell you that your disbelief in 
 immortality is inhuman : it will tell you that there must be an 
 eternity, even though it should be too honest and too humble at 
 once to add, with the Psalmist, ' My flesh and my heart faileth : but 
 God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.' " 
 
 This inarticulate but quenchless faith has been 
 acknowledged and emphasised by the most able and 
 fearless thinkers, of whom Dr. Momerie may be taken 
 as type 
 
 " But if this world be a system complete in itself, if this life is 
 not to be followed by another, if hopes are born only to be blighted, 
 
 1 University Sermons.
 
 296 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 yearnings roused only to be crushed, beings created only to be 
 destroyed then the Author of nature is either very wicked or 
 very weak. God and immortality stand or fall together."' 
 
 And all the world knows how tenderly, yet strongly 
 and constantly, poetry has given utterance to the same 
 ineradicable instinct. In words almost too familiar to 
 quote, the two great poets of this century have expressed 
 the feeling of their fellows. In every healthy mind and 
 honest heart, Tennyson's words l find an echo 
 
 "My own dim life should teach me this, 
 That life shall live for evermore, 
 Else earth is darkness at the core, 
 And dust and ashes all that is." 
 
 If it be true, as according to the godless conception of 
 Nature it must be, that 
 
 " Man, her last work, who seem'd so fair, 
 Such splendid purpose in his eyes, 
 Who roll'd the psalm to wintry skies, 
 And built him fanes of fruitless prayer," 
 
 has no more exalted destiny before him than the gnat 
 that flits for an hour in the sunshine, or the parasite 
 that burrows in his skin, so that his utmost expectation 
 is to be hereafter 
 
 "Blown about the desert dust 
 Or seal'd within the iron hills : " 
 
 then the agonising despair of humanity is fairly 
 expressed in the cry 
 
 "No more? A monster then, a dream, 
 A discord. Dragons of the prime, 
 That tare each other in their slime, 
 Were mellow music match'd with him." - 
 
 1 In Memoriam, xxxiv., Ivi.
 
 THE SPIRITUAL REALM 297 
 
 Whilst Browning puts it no -less forcefully 1 
 
 " Truly there needs another life to come ! 
 If this be all ... 
 And other life await us not for one 
 I say 'tis a poor cheat, a stupid bungle, 
 A wretched failure. I, for one, protest 
 Against it, and I hurl it back with scorn." 
 
 Moreover, during recent years, Science herself has 
 awakened to a sense of the vast importance of this 
 subject. What are called " occult phenomena " are no 
 longer despised and left to the dreamy mystics of 
 the East, but brought within the grasp of the cooler 
 analysis and more rigid logic of the Western scientist. 
 Mesmerism, Hypnotism, Spiritism, and kindred themes, 
 which unquestionably derive their interest from the 
 alleged revelations of another state of being, have been 
 and are increasingly subjected to the unflinching scrutiny 
 of students fairly represented in the Society for Psychical 
 Eesearch. Some are even found bold enough to claim 
 to have set forth "A scientific demonstration of the 
 future life." Mr. T. J. Hudson writes under this title 
 
 "In demonstrating the fact of a future life, I have simply t 
 analysed the mental organisation of man, and shown that from the r 
 very nature of his physical, intellectual, and psychical structure 
 and organism, any other conclusion than that he is destined to a 
 future life is logically and scientifically untenable." 2 
 
 Many other considerations might, of course, be added, 
 
 by way of emphasising the human yearn for immortality. 
 
 Our judgements and affections alike cry out against the 
 
 mysteries of this life's sins and sorrows, diseases and 
 
 1 Paracelsus. 2 Preface, p. 8.
 
 298 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 inequalities, as a final condition of being for mortal men. 
 But quite enough has been here suggested to warrant 
 the inquiry, Whence comes all this ? Can it have 
 evolved, uncaused, undirected, from a primordial fire- 
 mist ? If there be, as Mr. Fiske avers, 1 " no insuperable 
 difficulty in the notion that at some period in the 
 evolution of humanity, this Divine spark may have 
 acquired sufficient concentration and steadiness to 
 survive the wreck of material forms and endure for 
 ever," the " concentration and steadiness " are inconceiv- 
 able without that Divine guidance which is avowedly 
 supernatural. To say 
 
 "Such a crowning wonder seems to me no more than the fit 
 climax to a creative work that has been ineffably beautiful and 
 marvellous in all its myriad stages " 
 
 is to invoke a definite principle of continuity, which is 
 simply unthinkable as proceeding from eternal chaos, 
 without any help from the guiding hand of a supreme 
 Mind. The very least that can be said in such a case 
 is, that if this spiritual and quenchless yearning of the 
 human heart, involving as it also does all that is highest 
 and noblest in the mind of man, can have issued from 
 nothing but the fortuitous clash of atoms with no 
 directing influence save mindless chance, we have to 
 accept a veritable miracle of miracles. For we are face 
 to face once more not merely with a pyramid self-poised 
 upon its apex, but the apex itself resting upon nothing. 
 Assuredly this involves a " permanent intellectual 
 confusion," far worse than follows from anything in the 
 Bible. 
 
 1 Man's Destiny, p. 117.
 
 THE SPIRITUAL REALM 299 
 
 2. This, however, is not all. The Christian faith offers 
 a definite and emphatic response to this human cry. 
 And there are certain unmistakable characteristics of 
 that response which mark it out as absolutely unique in 
 the religious history of mankind. It is well known that 
 there have been attempts without number to satisfy this 
 quenchless craving of our nature. Every national faith 
 has drawn its pictures of the life to come, and peopled 
 the future with possibilities according to its taste. But 
 in five respects at least, putting it succinctly, the 
 Christian hope of immortality is distinguished from all 
 others. 
 
 (i.) In its tone of certainty. No one questions, 
 indeed, that the devout Moslem firmly believes that if 
 he dies fighting for his creed, his future bliss is secure. 
 But his faith is wholly subjective, with absolutely 
 nothing for its warranty, save the word of the Prophet, 
 who, even if taken at his best, died as helplessly and 
 irrevocably as the rest of men. But the Christian 
 certainty rests not on any mere affirmation, even of 
 Christ Himself, but upon the confirmation of all His 
 teaching in the actuality of His own resurrection from 
 the dead. The final Christian standard stakes all upon 
 this fact. " If Christ be not risen, our faith is vain." 
 We have seen above that the negation of this fact 
 necessarily involves greater miracles than its acceptance. 
 In this respect, therefore, the Christian hope rests upon 
 a firmer basis than any other. 
 
 (ii.) Again, as to its simplicity. Contrast it herein 
 with the promised future of Islam or Buddhism, which 
 are really the only two faiths that offer any comparison
 
 300 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 worth noticing. It is true that in the New Testament 
 Apocalypse we find many remarkable representations of 
 celestial things, but the whole " book " is so avowedly 
 visionary, and manifestly figurative, that the mind of 
 a child could scarcely be misled into taking them for 
 literal assertions concerning the actual future. There 
 is nothing in the whole teaching of Christ and His 
 apostles answering to the bridge of Sirat, 1 or the eight 
 divisions of celestial blessedness, or the seven heavenly 
 firmaments. 
 
 As to the Buddhist doctrine of Nirvana, there is no 
 appreciable risk in affirming that to this hour no man 
 really knows what it is. The ablest experts in Eastern 
 lore flatly contradict each other, some indeed asserting 
 that " Buddha said nothing positive on the subject of 
 an after life, because knowledge on such a subject could 
 not advance a saint's holiness." It will assuredly be 
 a long time before the ordinary Western mind will be 
 able to grasp what Professor Max Mliller says is the 
 meaning of the Maitreyopanishad use of Nirvana, namely, 
 " Absorption in the highest being, beyond which is 
 neither being nor not-being." 
 
 (iii.) The Christian hope of immortality is no less 
 distinguished by the intensity of the individuality which 
 
 a " Sirat is a bridge which all must pass over on the day of 
 judgement. It is said to extend over the midst of hell, and to be 
 sharper than the edge of a sword. In passing it the feet of the 
 infidel will slip, and he will fall into hell fire, but the feet of the 
 Muslim will be firm, and carry him safely to Paradise." Hughe?, 
 Notes on Muhammadanism, p. 90. Paul's reference to the " third 
 heaven" is manifestly a rhetorical expression, with no more 
 doctrinal significance than when he "besought the. Lord thrice," 
 or when Peter's vision was " thrice repeated."
 
 THE SPIRITUAL REALM 301 
 
 it postulates. Herein it agrees with the Koran, but 
 differs alike from the dark mists of ancient Buddhism 
 and the airy nothings of modern rationalism. How far 
 the Buddhist doctrine of Karma includes or excludes 
 the continuance of personal identity, must be left for 
 specialists to discuss, But Mr. Le Gallienne, with 
 charming frankness, leaves us in no doubt as to the 
 faith of the modern litterateur who finds Christianity 
 too tame 1 
 
 " We often hear people say that so precious is personality that 
 the meanest creature living would not if it could change places 
 with the highest. All I can say then is More fool it! Such 
 general statements are mainly fallacies. Our clinging to personal 
 identity is an illusion. We do not really cherish it so much as 
 we imagine. What we do cherish is living and what matter if 
 we live again in our present individuality or a new one. After 
 the dip in Lethe we shall not know the difference. That we shall 
 live somewhere in some continuation of qualities and forces is 
 certain ; so much of immortality is at least assured us." 
 
 The man who can find comfort in this vapouring 
 farrago, must indeed both possess microscopic vision 
 and be thankful for small mercies. Compared with 
 this, the Christian hope is as bracing as would be 
 the mountain air to a man who had been striving 
 to breathe in vacuo. " So then each one of us shall 
 give account of himself to God," conveys more weighty 
 truth than whole tomes of such literary nebulosity 
 
 (iv.) Nor is there any more room to question the 
 superior elevation of the Christian hope, from the 
 standpoint of moral purity and nobility. No man 
 acquainted with the history of Mohammed, can honestly 
 doubt either the sensual character of his promised 
 1 Religion of a Literary Man, pp. 48, 55.
 
 302 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 Paradise, or its influence, as such, upon the minds of 
 his converts and devotees. A perusal of Suras Iv. Ivi. 
 Ixxvi. for the former, and xlvii. for the latter, will be 
 amply sufficient. 1 
 
 By the side of these, the Christian conception of 
 heaven shines forth as a clear spring day after a murky 
 winter fog. And this not merely as regards the absence 
 of all sensual or sensuous gratifications, which is connoted 
 in Christ's own assertion that in the coming life " they 
 neither marry nor are given in marriage," but in the 
 positive anticipation of such moral purity and spiritual 
 development as is conveyed in the apostolic assurance, 
 " Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not 
 yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that 
 if He should be manifested, we shall be like Him ; 
 for we shall see Him even as He is." 2 Whilst as to 
 the effect of this conception upon character, the same 
 writer truly adds, " And every one that hath this hope 
 set on him purifieth himself, even as He is pure." It 
 is beyond all controversy that the eschatology of the 
 New Testament, when stripped of mediaeval excrescences 
 and fairly interpreted by itself, is the loftiest and 
 worthiest that the mind of man has had before it to 
 this hour. 
 
 1 As regards the disposition of some writers to treat these Moslem 
 visions of a sensuous heaven as purely figurative, Mr. T. P. Hughes 
 has said, with the authority of an expert, " All Muslim theologians 
 have given a literal interpretation of these sensual delights, and it 
 is impossible for any candid mind to read the Koran, and traditions, 
 and arrive at any other conclusion on the subject." Notes on 
 Muhammadanism, p. 93. 
 
 2 1 John iii. 2.
 
 THE SPIRITUAL REALM 303 
 
 (v.) Nor is this estimate diminished, but rather 
 enhanced, by the remarkable reserve of the Christian 
 Scriptures upon many of the very questions which 
 most intensely interest us. Those realistic details 
 which constitute the essence of the fascination of Dante, 
 the "uncanny" curiosities which keep up the spell of 
 modern Spiritism, the intricate problems concerning 
 material and immaterial personal identity which crowd 
 out all other considerations for the man of science, 
 these, strangely enough, are only conspicuous by their 
 absence from the records which claim to be a direct 
 revelation of the mind of the eternal God concerning 
 the destiny of mortal men. The myriad questions 
 which even a reverent faith eagerly desires to propose, 
 and the darker mysteries of the present which can find 
 relief only through some reliable utterance from behind 
 the veil, these all equally appeal in vain to the silent 
 reserves of Christian doctrine. This, certainly, is not 
 the way in which false oracles make their mark or 
 build their temples, as the history of all other religions 
 abundantly testifies. 
 
 Whence, then, we are driven again to inquire, can have 
 come this unique and unmistakable answer to the great 
 human cry that refuses to be stilled by scorn or hushed 
 by blandishment? This absolute certainty as to the 
 general fact of continued human existence after death, 
 this tender simplicity which comforts the heart of 
 the peasant as surely as that of the philosopher, this 
 unhesitating assurance that the tiny but precious indi- 
 viduality which sums up in itself the whole of oui 
 conscious inner world, shall not be " cast as rubbish to
 
 304 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 the void " or lost as the drop in the ocean, this 
 unparalleled loftiness of moral and spiritual prospect, 
 this impenetrable and dignified reserve how can such 
 a marvellous intertwining of golden strands in purest 
 strength, to hold us to an eternal hope, have been all 
 wrought out ? 
 
 There is overwhelming evidence that it cannot have 
 arisen spontaneously from unassisted human nature. 
 We have specimens in abundance as to what can be 
 evolved from such a source. It is not too much to say 
 that the oft quoted reverie of Hamlet gives us at once 
 the highest, purest, and utmost that either can be 
 expected, or has ever yet been derived, from unhelped 
 
 human thought 
 
 " To die, to sleep ; 
 
 To sleep ! perchance to dream ; ay, there's the rub ; 
 For in that sleep of death what dreams may come. 
 When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, 
 Must give us pause." 
 
 Undoubtedly there speaks humanity, and in its 
 deeper, better moods. But to put forth this sixteenth 
 century efflorescence as fairly representing the source 
 of the Christian hope of blessed immortality, would be 
 less of an anachronism than a psychological impossi- 
 bility. A fungus may more reasonably be expected 
 to develop immediately into an orchid, than the 
 thought - gropings of pre - Christian philosophy, even 
 though directed by a Socrates, to have originated the 
 heavenly hope which the New Testament sets with such 
 simple but significant vividness before all men. 
 
 It is equally impossible to ascribe it to the Jew. We 
 look in vain for any sufficient source of it in the Old Testa-
 
 THE SPIRITUAL REALM 305 
 
 ment. The very pathos of the yearning of the Psalmists 
 is that they had no such hope, and. at their best and 
 utmost could but anticipate the modern singer who re- 
 coiled in trembling doubt from his own highest wish 1 
 
 " So runs my dream : but what am I ? 
 An infant crying in the night : 
 An infant crying for the light : 
 And with no language but a cry." 
 
 It is true that some modern writers upon Christian 
 Eschatology, especially those who term themselves " Con- 
 ditionalists," have assumed that a definite knowledge of 
 the world to come runs through all the writings of the 
 Old Testament. But a little honest scrutiny is sufficient, 
 in every case, to show the fallacy of such an assumption. 
 What Dr. Salmond has accurately said in regard to the 
 Apocryphal "Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach," 
 applies no less truly to the canonical Jewish Scriptures : 
 " There is nothing in it that speaks of an objective 
 immortality, far less of the hope of the resurrection. 
 The immortality which it looks to is the name which 
 the departed leave behind them, and the life which 
 they live in their children." 2 
 
 The second Book of Maccabees is certainly said to be 
 " eloquent on the certainties of immortality, rich in the 
 expression of a faith in the blessedness of a future life 
 which made men and women superior to the terrors of 
 the most cruel martyrdom." 3 But all that is needed to 
 differentiate this faith, and indeed all else included in 
 the pre-Christian Apocrypha, from the Christian doctrine 
 and hope which appear in the New Testament, is to read 
 
 1 In Memoriam, liv. 2 Christian Doctrine of Immortality, p. 408. 
 
 3 Christian Doctrine of Immortality, p. 410.
 
 306 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 them side by side. The pure and sparkling mountain 
 spring may as well be attributed to the muddy marsh 
 around the base, as the simple but certain, lofty yet 
 reserved, Christian confidence in a glorious hereafter, 
 resting upon the risen Christ, to Rabbinic fancy or 
 Maccabeau frenzy. The stolidity and obtuseness of the 
 apostles themselves herein, just before the Eesurrection, 
 is a much more truthful representation of the case as it 
 actually stood. 
 
 It is manifestly impossible to accredit the Christian 
 hope of immortality to science, because, as above remarked, 
 there was no science, in the modern sense, at the time of 
 the Christian era. Besides which, as regards this vast 
 subject, modern science, which doubtless alone deserves the 
 name, has scarcely now emerged from its materialistic 
 swaddling bands. The " Proceedings " of the " Psychical 
 Research Society" (which is the latest attempt to deal 
 reasonably with occult phenomena) show clearly that this 
 highly cultured body sets before itself, almost as a 
 primary purpose, the elimination of the supernatural by 
 natural law, and the explanation of a spiritist other- 
 world by reference to the present physical system. It 
 is true that, as mentioned above, there has recently been 
 given to the thinking world a " scientific demonstration " 
 of the future life j 1 but even if this were now accepted as 
 valid, it would be the grossest anachronism to posit any 
 
 1 By T. J. Hudson (Putnam's Sons, London). " The object of this 
 book is to outline a method of scientific inquiry concerning the 
 powers, attributes, and destiny of the soul, and to specifically point 
 out and classify a sufficient number of well authenticated facts of 
 psychic science, to demonstrate the fact of a future life for man- 
 kind. " Preface.
 
 THE SPIRITUAL REALM 307 
 
 such mental developments as the source of the Christian 
 hope of immortality. 
 
 Meanwhile the fact remains that the world of 
 humanity is full of the general hope and expectation 
 of another life beyond the present. The acknowledged 
 degrees in the quality and quantity of this expectation, 
 do not avail to disprove the fact or lessen its significance. 
 All that is highest and noblest within us, echoes the 
 suggestion of our late Laureate 
 
 " The wish, that of the living whole 
 
 No life may fail beyond the grave, 
 Derives it not from what we have 
 The likest God within the soul." 
 
 Even at its lowest and poorest, this yearning for life is 
 something to be accounted for, as definitely as a volcanic 
 peak that towers up suddenly out of the water in mid- 
 ocean. No sane man or child could be persuaded that 
 such a rock rested only upon the surface foam of the 
 waves. Similarly, when we call to mind that no other 
 living thing shares with man the pathos of the ceaseless 
 
 cry 
 
 "'Tis life whereof our nerves are scant, 
 O life, not death, for which we pant : 
 More life and fuller, that I want" 
 
 we are driven to ask, Can this all have evolved from 
 nothing but nebulous matter, under the control of no 
 guiding mind, the mere haphazard result of pure chance 
 operating through the fortuitous clash of self-created 
 atoms ? Truly if this be so, it is a stupendous miracle, 
 compared with which the floating of iron, or the burning 
 of a bush that was not consumed, or the feeding of a
 
 308 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 crowd with a few loaves and fishes, are the merest trifles. 
 On such a view, as Mr. Fiske has well said, " the riddle 
 of the universe becomes a riddle without a meaning." 
 Mankind becomes a veritable incarnation of contradiction. 
 
 Of all nostrums held out to suffering humanity, by 
 way of alleviating this contradictory riddle, that of anni- 
 hilation is at once the most pitiful, the most repulsive, 
 the most degrading. In such case a man might well 
 envy a cabbage. For whilst his marvellously superior 
 organism affords him unparalleled capacity, both as 
 regards suffering and enjoyment, the former becomes 
 equally purposeless and profitless, whilst the latter is only 
 a Will-o'-the-wisp luring him on to an ever-growing 
 expectation which is doomed to bitterest disappointment. 
 
 Thus upon the principles of atheistic naturalism, man 
 is, from the cradle to the grave, a gloomy enigma and a 
 hopeless puzzle. If Mr. James Mill be correct, that " of 
 the origin of things nothing whatever can be known," 
 and men are not willing to be taught from above 
 that which they cannot of themselves discover, there 
 is nothing for it but a life of alternating delusion and 
 depression, en route to a final plunge into despair. That 
 which most seems to be, least is ; that which seems as 
 if it least ought to be, becomes finally our only resort. 
 Annihilation is only eternal pessimism, yet to it at last 
 the human spirit, shrinking and shuddering all the while, 
 must turn, as the final hope ! In face of this we are the 
 more disposed to give ear to Mr. Fiske when he says 1 
 
 " The more thoroughly we comprehend that process of evolution 
 by which things have come to be what they are, the more we 
 
 1 Man's Destiny, p. 115.
 
 THE SPIRITUAL REALM 309 
 
 are likely to feel that to deny the everlasting persistence of the 
 spiritual element in man, is to rob the whole process of its meaning. 
 It goes far towards putting us to permanent intellectual confusion, 
 and I do not see that any one has as yet alleged, or is ever likely to 
 allege, a sufficient reason for our accepting so dire an alternative." 
 
 If, however, we believe in the immortality of the soul 
 " as a supreme act of faith in the reasonableness of God's 
 work," what are we to say concerning the purest and 
 noblest expression of that faith, as it comes from the 
 lips of Christ and His apostles ? It may not only be 
 affirmed with general accuracy that the hope of a nobler 
 life after death is felt most by the best men and least by 
 the worst, but it is equally true that at this hour, the 
 foremost nations in the world are those which are most 
 profoundly moved, if not altogether inspired, by the 
 Christian promise of the future. 
 
 Whence, then, comes this highest conception of the 
 best hope of humanity, which most commends itself to 
 the greatest of our race ? Can it possibly have arisen 
 spontaneously out of a superstitious admixture of whole- 
 sale delusion and unparalleled fraud, such as, according 
 to the naturalistic hypothesis, must have constituted the 
 basis of Christianity at the outset? If so, then this 
 matchless natural miracle utterly dwarfs all those 
 which are attributed to supernatural influence in the 
 pages of the New Testament. Mr. Hudson avers that l 
 
 " Modern psychic science reveals the same immortal destiny for 
 man which Jesus brought to light, and prescribes the same 
 conditions precedent to its enjoyment. It also reveals a most 
 perfect means for conferring the rewards promised by the Christian 
 religion for a well spent life, as well as for meting out the 
 
 i Scientific Demonstration of a Future Life, p. 326.
 
 310 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 punishments for vice and crime in exact and necessary accordance 
 with the deeds done in the body. Moreover, science ceases its 
 revelations at the vary point where Jesus paused, namely, at the 
 portals of the tomb. He gave us an assurance of a future life, and 
 science confirms His words. He assured us of abundant rewards in 
 the future life for righteousness in this, and science reveals in us 
 the capacity for the enjoyment of the promised rewards. Beyond 
 that His lips were sealed. Beyond that science cannot penetrate." 
 
 Then if this be so, how coines to pass so remarkable a 
 correspondence between the high and quenchless yearn 
 of humanity and the tender yet glorious sufficiency of 
 the hope of the gospel in Jesus Christ ? Is it psycho- 
 logically conceivable that such transcendent correlations 
 should be brought about by chance? Rather, surely, 
 viewing all the facts in their coolest aspect, and bearing 
 in mind with other eschatologies and philosophies 
 before us as object - lessons all that might most 
 "naturally" have been expected from the times and 
 writers of the Gospels and Epistles, there appears to be 
 here well warranted application of the concluding words 
 of the authors of Tlie Unseen Universe l 
 
 " Science so developed, instead of appearing antagonistic to the 
 claims of Christianity, is in reality its most efficient supporter ; and 
 the burden of showing how the early Christians got hold of a 
 constitution of the unseen universe, altogether different from any 
 other cosmogony but similar to that which modern science proclaims, 
 is transferred to the shoulders of the opponents of Christianity." 
 
 Finally, and as a brief summary of the results of this 
 chapter, let us see to what we are committed on the 
 anti-supernatural hypothesis, in the spiritual realm of 
 human life and thought. 
 
 We have, first, the undeniable and unquenchable 
 1 P. 271.
 
 THE SPIRITUAL REALM 311 
 
 human instinct to worship. This instinct confessedly 
 meets with its purest and noblest answer in Christianity. 
 To repeat the strong words of the late Professor Eomanes, 
 Christian faith sets before us "the greatest exhibition 
 of the beautiful, the sublime, and of all else that appeals 
 to our spiritual nature, which has ever been known upon 
 earth." This, however, on the hypothesis presented to 
 modern thought by such writers as Mr. Edward Clodd, 
 or the late Mr. Grant Allen, or Professor Clifford, 
 issues wholly and solely from an inextricable tangle of 
 ignorance, superstition, delusion (or fraud), and folly. 
 Not only are we called upon to believe that "God 
 is largely a manufactured article," and that "corpse 
 worship is the protoplasm of religion," but that the 
 Christianity which Professor Eomanes, and so many 
 others perfectly qualified to speak, declared to be 
 "immeasurably in advance of all other religions," has 
 created itself out of fanatic credulity embodied in base- 
 less myths concerning an eccentric Jew whose very 
 existence is problematic ! 
 
 Yet, further, as regards the effect which Christianity, 
 in common with all other religions, has upon its devotees. 
 The quality of a cult may always be safely tested by its 
 results in the lives and characters of the worshippers. 
 The manifestly sincere author of A candid Examination 
 of Theism, asserts in regard to Christianity l 
 
 "That it is immeasurably in advance of every other system of 
 thought that has ever been promulgated in regard to all that is 
 moral and spiritual. Whether it be true or false, it is certain that 
 neither philosophy, science, nor poeti-y has ever produced results in 
 
 1 G. J. Romanes, Thoughts on Religion, p. 150.
 
 312 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 thought, conduct, or beauty in any degree to be compared with it. 
 What has all the science or all the philosophy of the world done for 
 the thought of mankind, to be compared with the one doctrine, God 
 is love?" 
 
 As to its influence on individual conduct, enough 
 has been said above. Moreover, its ennobling power 
 has been and is equally manifest in regard to human 
 society and the nations at large. What we find, there- 
 fore, upon the naturalistic hypothesis amounts to this. 
 (1) That the purest and highest conception of God 
 the world has ever known, the simplest but sublimest 
 ideal of communion with Him and likeness to Him, 
 arose spontaneously in the breast of an untaught, 
 fanatical if not fraudulent, Jew, in the midst of an 
 environment of Pharisees and Sadducees, and at a time 
 when these were spiritually at their lowest and worst. 
 
 (2) That the ideal of human relationship which is at 
 once tenderest, most effective, and most comprehensive of 
 all, namely, that of a genuine spiritual brotherhood, 1 based 
 upon the love of an infinite Father, and thus irrespective 
 of race or clime or nationality, is due to the illegitimate 
 son of a Galilean carpenter, born and brought up in a 
 despised district of the smallest, most exclusive, most 
 
 1 Cf. Professor Knight in his valuable little volume upon The 
 Christian Ethic. "The Christian religion was meant by its Founder 
 to be both a religion and a life for all mankind, a morality for the race 
 at large. It interwove with Jewish monotheism the further idea of 
 the Divine Fatherhood, an idea which was first articulately taught 
 and practically borne witness to by the Founder of the Christian 
 religion." " It was meant to abolish the exclusiveness of privileged 
 orders, to overthrow their caste, to break down the barriers between 
 alien races, and to unite men of the most diverse tendencies in one 
 vast human brotherhood." P. 25 ff.
 
 THE SPIRITUAL REALM 313 
 
 bigoted of nations, whose fierce and unquenchable pride 
 of clan was at the very time only kept within bounds 
 by the sheer might of Eoman arms. 1 
 
 (3) That, thus, the gospel, which has for its very 
 essence liberty, equality, fraternity, amongst all men 
 throughout the wide, wide world, in a sense alike spiritual 
 and practical, issued, unprompted and unprecedented, 
 out of the midst of a community whose intense and 
 tenacious faith had for its very basis absolute and 
 perpetual separation from all other nations upon 
 earth. 
 
 (4) Nor is this yet all. Similar mental monstrosities 
 face us when we turn to the other quenchless instinct of 
 humanity. Doubtless Mr. Grant Allen was right in 
 estimating the belief in immortality as " the most per- 
 sistent and perpetually recurring element of all religious 
 thinking, the core and basis of worship and of Deity." 
 But even such writers as he must acknowledge that 
 this indestructible faith varies in quality as well as 
 quantity. It is equally difficult and foolish to say, with 
 the New Testament before us, that God is nothing more 
 than the " immortal ghost etherealised and extended." 
 Bather is it right to ask, whence comes this sublimest 
 and purest conception not only of Deity, but of a 
 Heaven hereafter, equally removed from the darkling 
 fog of Buddhist Nirvana, or the eternal harem of the 
 Mussulman, or the wild Valhalla of our ancestral Vikings ? 
 It is quite irrelevant to allege the Purgatorial horrors of 
 mediseval ecclesiasticism, or the well-nigh grotesque 
 
 1 Of. the details of the internecine Jewish strife during the siege 
 of Jerusalem by Titus.
 
 314 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 literalism of some modern " evangelical " preachers. 
 These are but instances of the myriad mistakes of well- 
 meaning but fallible men. The words of Christ Himself 
 remain, as the simple but sufficient expression of the 
 divinest hopes of blessed immortality which have ever 
 comforted and inspired mortal men. 1 The apostle to 
 whom we owe most of the New Testament, shrank with 
 reverent reticence from adding anything to his Master's 
 revelation, and the glowing imagery of the Apocalypse is 
 at the utmost merely suggestive. Yet we are now bidden 
 believe that this whole Christian hope of immortality, in 
 all its tenderness and dignity, its sublimity and reserve, 
 its purity and sufficiency, carne from and is still centred 
 in a low-born Jew, who misled his ignorant and doubting 
 followers with high-flown and ambiguous promises which 
 were never realised, who was at last in spite of all 
 his assurances that he would rise again, helplessly and 
 effectually done to death by his own fellow-countrymen 
 and co-religionists, whilst the craven band of disciples, 
 who at the time of his murder " all forsook him and 
 fled," suddenly became heroes of faith, proclaiming every- 
 where, at the cost of shameful suffering and cruel death, 
 a resurrection that never happened, as the all-sufficient 
 reason for purity, love, spiritual power, and eternal hope 
 amongst all mankind ! And this faith triumphed ! 
 
 There may be minds to whom all these conclusions, 
 inevitable as they are from the naturalistic standpoint, 
 appear easy of credence. It is not ours to judge their 
 sincerity. But it is ours to affirm that to the average 
 mind, working on ordinary lines of logic, there must 
 1 John xiv. 1, 2, etc.
 
 THE SPIRITUAL REALM 315 
 
 rather arise a clear and strong conviction that if these 
 things can be, all the signs and wonders of Christian 
 history sink into utter insignificance by comparison. 
 These miracles of unbelief, even in the spiritual sphere 
 alone, far surpass in strangeness, in improbability, in 
 inconceivability, everything associated with " supernatural 
 religion." For the Christian miracles there may at all 
 events be urged the plea that though their rationale is 
 beyond our present powers of perception, they do not 
 contradict our reason. Though strange to our human 
 experience, they are bound up with higher purposes 
 which recommend themselves to our moral instincts. 
 Though supernatural, they are so only in the sense of 
 being extensions beyond our acquaintance with what is 
 natural, not contradictions of the really universal and 
 Divine. 
 
 But no one of these modifying considerations can be 
 alleged on behalf of the miracles of modern naturalism. 
 These are in essence monstrosities, flat contradictions of 
 natural principles which are as certain as our own 
 consciousness. They are, moreover, entirely purposeless, 
 representing the mere hap of mindless and heartless 
 chance, issuing only in painful deception now and in 
 unrelieved hopelessness as to any hereafter. To welcome 
 these latter, therefore, and reject the former, is once more 
 in very deed to " strain out the gnat and swallow the 
 camel." Compared with this, the acceptance of the 
 Arabian Nights' Entertainments as thoroughly reliable 
 details of veracious history, would seem to be but a light 
 and easy matter.
 
 COMPLICATION, CULMINATION, 
 CONCLUSION
 
 "When only eleven planets were known, De Morgan showed 
 that the odds against their moving in one direction round the sun 
 with a slight inclination of the planes of their orbits- had chance 
 determined the movement would have been 20,000,000,000 to 1. 
 And this movement of the planets is but a single item, a tiny detail, 
 an infinitesimal fraction, in a universe which in spite of all argu- 
 ments to the contrary still appears to be pervaded through and 
 through with purpose. Let every human being now alive upon the 
 earth spend the rest of his days and nights in writing down arith- 
 metical figures ; let the enormous numbers which these figures 
 would represent each number forming a library in itself be all 
 added together ; let this result be squared, cubed, multiplied by 
 itself ten thousand times; and the final product would still fall 
 infinitely short of expressing the probabilities against the world 
 having been evolved by chance. Whoever believes in its accidental 
 origin must have a singularly constituted mind. In comparison with 
 such a supposition, the most extravagant vagaries of a theological 
 fanatic, the wildest imaginings of a raving lunatic are calm and 
 sober sense." Belief in God, by A. W. Homeric, M.A., D.Sc. 
 (late Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, and Professor of 
 Logic and Metaphysics in King's College, London), p. 68. 
 
 " It is said that the theophilanthropist Larevellere-Lepeaux once 
 confided to Talleyrand his disappointment at the ill-success of his 
 attempt to bring into vogue a sort of improved Christianity, a 
 benevolent rationalism which he had invented to meet the wants 
 of a sceptical age. His propaganda made no way, he said. What 
 was he to do, he asked 1 The ex -bishop politely condoled with him, 
 feared it was indeed a difficult task to found a new religion more 
 difficult than could be imagined : so difficult that he hardly knew 
 what to advise. ' Still ' so he went on after a moment's reflection 
 ' there is one plan which you might at least try ; I should recom- 
 mend you to be crucified and to rise again the third day.' Yes, 
 indeed! this is a lightning flash that clears the air." Natural 
 Religion, by Professor Seeley, p. 181.
 
 X 
 
 COMPLICATION, CULMINATION, CONCLUSION 
 
 IN the foregoing pages we have taken a rapid glance at 
 the difficulties created by the rejection of the super- 
 natural in various realms of thought and being. In 
 each particular instance this imperfect summary might 
 easily be expanded into a more formidable statement by 
 detailed examination. In some few cases, indeed, this 
 has been done. Definite monographs have been produced 
 upon the Eesurrection of Christ by authors already named, 
 upon the conversion of Paul by Lord Lyttleton, upon 
 the Canon of the New Testament by Dr. Westcott 
 and others, upon the character of Christ and the in- 
 lluence of Christianity by numbers of the ablest writers, 
 some of whom are mentioned at the close of this volume 
 by way of reference. These all are open to the honest 
 examination of every sincere student. In truth it is only 
 by the patient and thorough scrutiny of these themes, 
 taken one by one, that the full conception gradually 
 dawns upon the mind of the enormity of the difficulties 
 which inevitably arise when, after the modern fashion, 
 the sweeping denial or the gradual elimination of the 
 supernatural is proposed as an easy panacea for troubled 
 intellects. Such a suggestion does but remove a mole-hill 
 to set in motion forces which bring down an avalanche.
 
 320 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 This, however, is far from being the whole case. 
 Two most weighty considerations yet remain. (1) The 
 one is the crowning difficulty exhibited in the impossi- 
 bility of reconciling the complicated and mutually con- 
 tradictory solutions of the problems of naturalism which 
 have been attempted. (2) The other is the right estimate 
 of all these distinct difficulties, considered as a complex 
 and organic whole. 
 
 1. We have seen how each of the distinct realms of 
 the physical, the historical, the mental, the moral, and 
 the spiritual, presents us with facts which, even to a 
 cursory inspection, are both real and great, and which, 
 considered as facts, call for explanation, whilst viewed 
 as effects they demand the finding of efficient cause. 
 Now the idiosyncrasy of each particular class of facts 
 must always be acknowledged. The various groups are 
 alike only in being equally real. Questions of physical 
 science may well be kept apart from those of history, 
 whilst as distinct a line may be drawn between that 
 which is purely mental, and whatever is moral or 
 spiritual But besides the question whether, in each 
 case taken singly, the particular explanation offered 
 deserves our credence, it remains unquestionably the task 
 of the unbeliever to make all these varied explanations 
 consistent with each other. If there is to be the forma- 
 tion of any valid conviction against the reality of the 
 supernatural, it is surely necessary that there should be 
 between all these opposing explanations at least sub- 
 stantial agreement. Unless, indeed, there be this, they 
 sufficiently confute each other. 
 
 Now it requires but a very partial acquaintance with
 
 COMPLICATION, CULMINATION, CONCLUSION 321 
 
 the literature of the subject, to show how far such agree- 
 ment is from being found. It is quite a truism to point 
 out the scarceness of such offered explanations at all. 
 Scepticism has ever preferred the easier task of destruc- 
 tion, to the harder but even more necessary one of construc- 
 tion. Every honest thinker will own that the real test of 
 the validity of any hypothesis, lies not in what it can pull 
 down, but in what it can build up. It is here, in con- 
 structiveness, that unbelief has ever failed and fails still. 
 The last efforts of Strauss, in which he for the first time 
 really tried his hand at construction, were confessedly 
 weakest, so much so that they satisfied neither friend 
 nor foe. It would be, moreover, an easy task to adduce 
 parallels to this in other well-known cases. Thus the 
 author of Supernatural Eeligion, after his whole elaborate 
 effort at destruction, gives us this concluding sentence 
 as his contribution to the positive redemption, hope, and 
 comfort of humanity 
 
 " That mysterious Unknown or Unknowable is no cruel darkness, 
 but simply an impenetrable distance into which we are impotent 
 to glance, but which excludes no legitimate speculation and forbids 
 no reasonable hope." 
 
 Which is meagre enough, in very deed, as a panacea for 
 the sin and sorrow and despair of human hearts. Though, 
 for that matter, it is only reasonable that a scheme of 
 thought which "posits" as sufficient origin of our whole 
 Kosmos a mere primeval nebulosity, should also terminate 
 in a similarly close approximation to nothingness. If, 
 however, that " mysterious Unknown " be " unknowable," 
 it would be interesting to inquire how this author thus
 
 322 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 knows that it "is no cruel darkness." To most minds it 
 must seem that to talk about a " reasonable hope " in 
 such connection is the veriest rhodomontade, and really 
 deserves to be pronounced the cant of unbelief. 
 
 But even if we were willing to accept as valid and 
 sufficient the individual efforts made by well-known 
 unbelievers, in propounding some definite hypothesis for 
 the solution of the difficulty in any one case, there opens 
 up at once a new and impossible task, namely, that of 
 bringing into harmony with each other all these various 
 attempts. 
 
 How many theories, for instance, have been promul- 
 gated hi order to explain away the Gospel story of the 
 Eesurrection. The author of Supernatural Religion labours 
 hard to support the vision theory of Strauss, which, as 
 we have seen above, was rejected by Keim and contra- 
 dicted by Huxley, whilst Baur ruled the whole question 
 out of consideration. Meanwhile, Mr. W. E. Greg has 
 well said * 
 
 " Three different suppositions may be adopted, each of which has 
 found favour in the eyes of some writers. We may either imagine 
 that Jesus was not really and entirely dead when taken down from 
 the Cross, a supposition which Paulus and others show to be far 
 from destitute of probability ; or we may imagine that the appari- 
 tion of Jesus to his disciples, belongs to that class of appearances 
 of departed spirits for which so much staggering and bewildering 
 evidence is on record ; or, lastly, we may believe that the minds of 
 the disciples, excited by the disappearance of the body, and the 
 announcement by the women of his resurrection, mistook some 
 passing individual for their risen Lord, and that from such an 
 origin multiplied rumours of his reappearance arose and spread." 
 
 This is a fair example of the utmost constructive 
 1 Creed of Christendom, p. 154, etc.
 
 COMPLICATION, CULMINATION, CONCLUSION 323 
 
 ability of acute unbelief. Three remarks, at least, must 
 be made hereupon. 
 
 (i.) It is certainly true that " each of these supposi- 
 tions has found favour in the eyes of some writers," but 
 it is no less true that each is utterly incompatible with 
 the other two. Whichever of them is true, the others 
 are necessarily false. The first duty of scepticism, there- 
 fore, in a matter of such transcendent importance, is to 
 eliminate the false, so that what it finally considers the 
 truth may stand alone. Manifestly there is no more 
 likelihood of this coming to pass now than there was in 
 the days of Celsus. 
 
 (ii.) Mr. Greg has spoken rightly of "suppositions." For 
 they are nothing more ; and even if any one of them were 
 accepted as true, it would still leave entirely untouched 
 the miracle of falsehood pointed out above, namely, the 
 fact that the Christianity of Christ, with all its " sublime 
 morality," its elevating and purifying influence in the 
 world, originated in superficial mistake, or hysterical 
 delusion, or deliberate fraud, or a sinister admixture of 
 all three, which would assuredly involve quite as much 
 the magnification as the degradation of the miraculous. 
 
 (iii.) Meanwhile there is yet another supposition, which 
 Mr. Greg has no right whatever to omit upon a priori 
 grounds, namely, that the Eesurrection, as narrated in 
 the Gospels, is true. And since it is the only supposition 
 which gives a rational explanation alike of the preceding 
 character of Him who arose, of all the attendant cir- 
 cumstances, and of the whole following behaviour of His 
 disciples, it is at least entitled to be received as valid, 
 until a better rationale of the facts is found. By that
 
 324 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 decision every Christian believer will be well content 
 to abide. 
 
 How many mutually contradictory opinions, again, 
 have been advanced as " natural " explanations of Paul's 
 conversion ! What we find, indeed, in regard to this 
 remarkable event, as in regard to the Resurrection, is 
 that one solution after another has been proposed with 
 all imaginable confidence, each acknowledging the utter 
 failure of its predecessor, each proclaiming itself final, 
 but each also retaining its boast only until the next 
 champion of unbelief saved Christian advocates the 
 trouble of demolishing it. So far as we are able to 
 make a composite summary of the latest findings, all that 
 seems necessary is simply to state them. Namely, that 
 Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles, and writer of many if not 
 thirteen of the Epistles of the New Testament, was merely 
 a fanatic and epileptic rabbi, who although shrewd by 
 nature and brought up in the strictest Pharisaic school, 
 had been converted from everything intensely anti- 
 Christian, to devoted self-sacrificing Christian devotion 
 by a sunstroke ! Be it so. But in such case the 
 miracle of unbelief is enormously greater and more 
 irrational than that of faith. The latter is confessedly 
 remarkable, the former is utterly inconceivable. 
 
 2. It would, however, be worse than profitless to go 
 through the whole gamut of discord which such varying 
 answers and attempted explanations present, in regard 
 to the facts which are undeniable in each realm of 
 thought. But it is supremely important to point out 
 that the only sure result which follows from the a 
 priori silencing of the voice from heaven, is the outburst
 
 COMPLICATION, CULMINATION, CONCLUSION 325 
 
 of a chorus of contradictions from the lips of men. 
 
 homines, tot sententice, in very deed ! Christianity 
 has been more than sufficiently reminded of the differing 
 theological sentiments which prevail amongst those who 
 claim to have been with their Lord " in the holy mount." 
 Difficult as those differences may be to harmonise, there 
 is a far harder task devolving upon modern scepticism, 
 namely, to translate the present speech of the plains of 
 Shinar. It would seem that as in the rabid crowd 
 which at the last hung upon the steps of Jesus, there 
 was but one intelligible cry and that full of bitterest 
 hate " Crucify him, Crucify him" ; so, in these later days, 
 from the strife of tongues around His life and death and 
 resurrection, there issues but one plain design and desire, 
 namely, " away with the supernatural " ! There are times 
 when it may be well to reply still, as of yore, " Why, 
 what evil hath it done ? " But seeing that now, as then, 
 such reasonable remonstrance does but serve often to 
 increase the confusion, Christians may take refuge as their 
 Master did, in the dignity of silence, until the facts come 
 out which prove that the modern no less than ancient ex- 
 amination is prejudiced and one-sided, and that therefore 
 to be true its judgement must be reversed. 
 
 Thus, in regard to miracles generally, it has been well 
 remarked by one of the latest writers upon this well- 
 worn theme, that " objectors to Christianity persist in 
 representing the point at issue as being simply whether 
 the Scripture accounts of miracles are worthy of credence. 
 The real point is whether we are justified in rejecting 
 the whole body of evidence for revealed religion, vast and 
 varied as it is, simply on the ground that miracles are
 
 326 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 unusual, and, in all ordinary circumstances, incredible 
 occurrences." x Dr. Lias is quite warranted in adding 
 
 " This point in the argument requires special attention. It is 
 invariably evaded by objectors to Christianity." 
 
 Learning from the mistakes of those who differ from 
 him, it is rather the part of the Christian believer to 
 press unbelief with respectful firmness, not merely for 
 an answer to the specific questions based on fact which 
 group themselves about the Eesurrection, but for a fair, 
 full, and rational explanation of ALL those difficulties 
 which accumulate from the varied realms of thought, 
 ever springing up, as they do, from the ground where 
 with such enormous pains the supernatural has been 
 buried as a dead delusion. 
 
 Moreover, it must be clearly borne in mind that the 
 problems which recoil on naturalism in regard to each 
 separate case, are in the aggregate not added together 
 but multiplied. The rational way of unbelief is blocked, 
 not by a mere scattered heap of suspicious circumstances, 
 but by a solid rock of difficulty conglomerated out of the 
 manifold ingenuities of its own advocates. 
 
 Clearly unreasonable as it is, in any one case, that 
 the greater difficulty should be put forward as the solu- 
 tion of the lesser, when this is found to be the only way 
 of escape from Christian conviction, in every realm of 
 thought alike, the sum-total can only be a huge com- 
 pacted mass of difficulty, far heavier and more intractable 
 than can be expressed by the simple adding up of a 
 series of contradictions. 
 
 1 Are Miracles Credible? Prof. Lias, p. 13. Hodder & Stoughton.
 
 COMPLICATION, CULMINATION, CONCLUSION 327 
 
 It has been well pointed out by not a few Christian 
 advocates, 1 that even if some lines of Christian evidence 
 may seem to be inconclusive when taken separately, yet 
 their perpetual convergence to one common focus, ulti- 
 mately gives us grounds of conviction as conclusive as 
 anything can possibly be to human minds. In similar 
 fashion, though to opposite purpose, the difficulties of 
 unbelief also have their convergence, and it is at this 
 central core of aggregated contradictions that we most 
 surely learn how impossible it is, out of natural law and 
 human nature alone, to build up the vast and solid 
 structure of the Christian faith. 
 
 It is not, of course, assumed that Christianity has 
 no difficulties of its own though it would seem well- 
 nigh impossible now to find anything against it which 
 has not already been alleged and answered. It is, 
 however, especially worth while to point out one 
 fundamental distinction between the difficulties which 
 accompany Christian belief, and those which arise upon 
 its rejection, namely, that the former bring with them 
 assured even though distant promise of solution, whilst 
 the latter have neither promise nor hope of any kind 
 whatever. 
 
 Let but the reality of Christ's resurrection be granted, 
 with all that flows from it, and although His disciples now 
 see many things only " through a mirror in a riddle," there 
 is well-grounded prospect of the day when " we shall see 
 
 1 See, especially, a lecture by B. Shaw, Esq., M.A., late Fellow of 
 Trinity College, Cambridge, in Faith and Freethought (Hodder & 
 Stoughton), upon " The force imparted to the evidence of Christi- 
 anity from the manner in which a number of distinct lines of proof 
 converge in a common centre."
 
 328 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 face to face." That love and wisdom and power Divine, 
 which are all pledged to men in the transcendent realities 
 of Christ's Incarnation and Eesurrection and Ascension, 
 are more than sufficient guarantee for the final and 
 perfect solution of every problem which now may agitate 
 the minds or trouble the hearts of sincere believers. 
 
 But it is entirely the opposite as regards the con- 
 tradictions and impossibilities which spring from the 
 rejection of the supernatural in the origination and 
 development of Christianity. These, in the very nature 
 of the case, can no more promise any hope of future 
 enlightenment than afford explanation of past facts. 
 Chaos can only issue in chaos. The acceptance of the 
 inconceivable as the rationale of what has been, yields no 
 reasonable grounds for hope in regard to what is yet 
 to be. 
 
 Take but one familiar instance. It is often avowed 
 that the most serious argument against the Christian con- 
 ception of God, is based upon the terrible degree in which 
 suffering prevails throughout the whole animal world. 
 We have already acknowledged the reality of the problem 
 involved. If, however, we are to deal with an honest 
 residuum of fact, we must first " clear our minds of cant." 
 So much has been made of this dark side of nature, that 
 it is worth while to repeat succinctly what has already 
 been pointed out above, 1 in connection with the argument 
 from Design. The amount of suffering amongst the lower 
 animals has been hugely exaggerated by means of warped 
 philosophy and poetic sentiment. John Stuart Mill's 
 indictment of nature under this head is well known. 
 1 Cf. Chapter IV. pp. 72-76.
 
 COMPLICATION, CULMINATION, CONCLUSION 329 
 
 But his conclusion, that we are driven " to believe the 
 animal creation to be the work of a demon," is for such 
 a logician an astounding double fallacy. For both pre- 
 misses and consequent are alike false. It was doubtless 
 under similar misapprehensions that Sir S. Baker declared 
 that nature was " a system of terrorism from the begin- 
 ning to the end." But Prince Kropotkin is much more 
 truly supported by facts, when they are fairly and 
 accurately considered, in his counter assertion 1 
 
 "How false, therefore, is the view of those who speak of the 
 animal world as if nothing were to be seen in it but lions and 
 hyenas plunging their bleeding teeth into the flesh of the victims ! 
 One might as well imagine that the whole of human life is nothing 
 but a succession of Tel-el-Kebir and Geok-tepe massacres." 
 
 The late Professor Huxley's name doubtless gave con- 
 siderable weight to his avowal, that the world cannot be 
 ruled by benevolence, because we hear, or may hear, so 
 many sighs and groans of pain throughout the whole 
 animal realm. But he has no greater right to be heard 
 than Mr. A. E. Wallace, the co-originator of the doctrine 
 of Evolution, who says 
 
 "Now there is, I think, good reason to believe that all this is 
 greatly exaggerated : that the supposed torments and miseries of 
 animals have little real existence, but are the reflection of the 
 imagined sensations of cultivated men and women in similar cir- 
 cumstances ; and that the amount of actual suffering caused by the 
 struggle for existence among animals is altogether insignificant. 
 
 " On the whole, then, we conclude that the popular idea of the 
 struggle for existence entailing misery and pain on the animal 
 world, is the very reverse of the truth. What it really brings about 
 is the maximum of life and the enjoyment of life with the minimum 
 of suffering and pain." 
 
 1 See Nineteenth Century, Nov. 1890.
 
 330 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 Furthermore, when we rise into the consideration of 
 purely human suffering, we must never allow a false 
 sentimentalism to blind us to the fact that an enormous 
 proportion of this, at any given time, is due, not to the 
 plan of nature, but to the manifest thwarting of that plan 
 by the persistent vice and guilty folly of men and women. 
 The mystery of pain may be great, but to honest eyes, 
 there are always visible along with it two greater mysteries, 
 namely, the mystery of painlessness incarnate in the over- 
 whelming majority of living creatures alive at any moment, 
 and the mystery of the human will which perversely 
 turns into evil so much that would otherwise make for 
 the good alike of the individual and the race. 
 
 Let it be granted, however, that when all these just 
 deductions have been made, there yet remains an 
 appalling amount of pain, in the natural history of 
 humanity in particular, that can neither be avoided nor 
 explained. Does the Nemesis of faith lighten this load 
 upon our hearts, or dispel the darkness of such mystery ? 
 
 The frank avowal of Strauss will serve for sufficient 
 reply when, towards the end of his attempt at recon- 
 struction, 1 he declares that 
 
 " The loss of the belief in Providence belongs indeed to the most 
 sensible deprivations which are connected with a renunciation 
 of Christianity. In the enormous machine of the universe, amid 
 the incessant whirl and hiss of its jagged iron wheels, amid the 
 deafening crash of its ponderous stamps and hammers, in the midst 
 of this whole terrific commotion, man, a helpless and defenceless 
 creature, finds himself placed, not secure for a moment that on an 
 imprudent motion a wheel may not seize and rend him, or a hammer 
 crush him to powder. This sense of abandonment is something 
 awfuL" 
 
 1 The Old Faith and the New, p. 435.
 
 COMPLICATION, CULMINATION, CONCLUSION 331 
 
 Even if it were wholly true, as he goes on to assert, that 
 " the understanding clearly shows that the world indeed 
 is such a machine," it would nevertheless remain manifest 
 that in passing from Christian Theism to Atheism, there 
 would be a reversion from the glimmer of dawn that 
 promises day, to the hopeless blackness of eternal night. 
 For the attitude of faith, however sometimes bewildered 
 like the disciples on the tempestuous lake, is expressed 
 in a word 
 
 "Well roars the storm to those that hear, 
 A deeper voice across the storm." 
 
 The gospel of Jesus Christ assuredly counsels no 
 callous Stoicism in face of the world's suffering. Eather 
 does it bid men listen with sympathetic hearts and helping 
 hands to the groans of creation as it " travaileth together 
 in pain." Yet over all the storm, the reverent believer 
 hears a voice that can be trusted, saying, " Peace, be 
 still." The great facts upon which his faith is grounded 
 warrant his looking forward, with a patience made possible 
 by humility and love, to the day when not only he but 
 "the creation itself also shall be delivered from the 
 bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of 
 the children of God." 
 
 No such vision of hope presents itself to the anxious 
 and despondent gaze of unbelief. Neither for the 
 intellectual difficulties which present themselves immedi- 
 ately upon the rejection of the supernatural, nor for the 
 oppression of heart which, as Strauss affirmed, results 
 from the loss of faith in God, is there any present relief 
 or any future promise. Thus despair joins hands with 
 difficulty to block the downward way of unfaith. An
 
 332 THE MIKACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 inevitable precipice, with a fathomless abyss yawning 
 from its edge, terminates the bypath which under the 
 guise of " naturalness " turns so seductively off the high 
 road of a reasonable faith into the mazes of anti-super- 
 naturalism. 
 
 The great objection, we are told, to the supernatural 
 element in the Gospel, is the difficulty of accepting it in 
 the face of the natural law which on all hands encom- 
 passes us. But when it is demonstrated that natural law, 
 if taken alone as the adequate cause of all the manifest 
 facts of the case, creates more difficulties than it removes, 
 nothing is left for the persistent objector but the per- 
 petuation of captivity in the meshes of a net of his 
 own devising. Certainly if difficulty be a valid objection 
 to the supernatural, then the very validity of the objec- 
 tion is the deathblow of naturalism. 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 It should be observed, finally, that the preceding con- 
 siderations are not put forward as definite evidence of 
 the Divine origin of Christianity. The positive reasons 
 for accepting the Christian gospel constitute a distinct 
 subject, and will be found elsewhere. Yet there cannot 
 but be immense significance in the fact that events and 
 realities so many and so great as are comprised in 
 the history and essence of Christianity, should all be per- 
 fectly and naturally explicable upon one supposition, and 
 utterly inexplicable rationally upon any other. That 
 supposition is, of course, the simple truthfulness of the 
 account given of them in the New Testament.
 
 COMPLICATION, CULMINATION, CONCLUSION 333 
 
 The modern aversion to the supernatural, on the other 
 hand, can account for nothing, can elucidate nothing, 
 can inspire nothing, can promise nothing. The final 
 researches of the latest science do but bring us to the 
 edge of "a great gulf fixed," where even the hardiest 
 assertor has to own himself helplessly baffled. It is as 
 true to-day as it was some three thousand years ago, 
 that " the secret things belong to the Lord our God ; but 
 the things which are revealed, to us and to our children 
 for ever." l Of all those " secret thing?," the persistent 
 diligence of our vaunted modern knowledge has not 
 succeeded in wresting one out of the Almighty hand. 
 How evolution began to be, how the organic issued from 
 the inorganic, how the living sprang from the non-living, 
 how the highly organised came to pass, through no 
 matter how many stages, from the not-at-all-organised, 
 how the intellectual arose out of the physical, with the 
 inherent potentiality of the moral and spiritual, our 
 fullest knowledge no more informs us to-day than the 
 opening chapters of Genesis. 2 Life may be as Mr. 
 Herbert Spencer affirms, the " definite combination of 
 heterogeneous changes, both simultaneous and successive, 
 in correspondence with external coexistences and 
 sequences " ; but if so, we know less about it after it has 
 been thus accurately defined for us than before. It was 
 the late Dr. Carpenter who asserted, with an authority 
 which he had assuredly earned, that we not only did not 
 know, but were never likely to know, how any single 
 gland or cell in the whole human body fulfils its ap- 
 pointed function. That we live, we feel assured, but we 
 i Deut. xxix. 29. 2 See Chapter XL, p. 343.
 
 334 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 know no more. 1 That the brain works, we have suffi- 
 cient reason to believe; but how the vibrations of its 
 ultimate molecules which are confessedly material 
 produce the immaterial ideas and emotions which we call 
 consciousness, out of varying states of matter, is as far 
 beyond our utmost modern analysis as the differential 
 calculus is beyond the comprehension of a savage. No 
 man living can explain, or is ever likely to explain, how 
 it comes to pass that the black marks on white which 
 form the printer's type on this page, become instantane- 
 ously intellectual perceptions. Even the late Professor 
 Clifford acknowledged that if these miracle-working 
 molecules of our brain could be magnified some sixty 
 million times, so that we might see them in their utter- 
 most actual working, we should be as far as ever from 
 the secret we so long to grasp. Every time that the cry 
 of an infant falls upon an anxious mother's ear, the love 
 responding to the sound sets science the utterly insoluble 
 problem as to how the immaterial can be brought into 
 existence by means of the material. 
 
 Yet it is in these very things, which are denied us, 
 that the essence of real knowledge consists. To know 
 that a fact is, is nothing. It is merely the apprehension 
 of phenomena. True knowledge comes only when we 
 know how it is, i.e. when noumena are comprehended. 
 Until science can unravel these mysteries for us, that is, 
 until science can do that which its ablest representatives 
 pronounce it never likely to do, it is utterly beside the 
 mark to reject the supernatural on the ground of its 
 
 1 Cf. Dr. Lionel S. Beale's Life Theories and Religious Thought 
 (Churchill), and Protoplasm (Harrison), passim.
 
 COMPLICATION, CULMINATION, CONCLUSION 335 
 
 incomprehensibility. On the other hand, it is the very 
 essence of the indictment which faith brings against 
 'unbelief, that by its a priori rejection of facts and truths 
 which involve supernatural influence and action, it un- 
 necessarily intensifies and complicates the mystery of 
 human life, even to the point of wholesale and hopeless 
 confusion. Hence, if it be a canon of the human mind 
 that of two mysteries the lesser and easier should be 
 accepted, according to the " law of parsimony," then a 
 fair and full statement of the case for and against a super- 
 natural Author of nature and Eevealer of Himself to men 
 in the Gospel, results in a manifest duty on the part of 
 all thinking men to accept and abide by the former. 
 
 Whenever, therefore, what is now known as 
 " naturalism " becomes, as it occasionally does, arrogant 
 enough to vaunt itself to be a complete theory of the 
 universe, to the utter exclusion of all that is super-natural, 
 a triple failure must be alleged, namely, its intellectual 
 insufficiency to solve the problems which relate to the 
 past, to explain the realities of the present, to do anything 
 else than crush human aspirations in regard to the future. 
 In the very midst of this world's physical suffering and 
 moral evil, naturalism, with all its dramatic pessimism, can 
 give no rational account of the whence or the whither of 
 either of these. It is therefore utterly disqualified on 
 scientific principles from suggesting any fundamental cure. 
 Surrounded, moreover, on all hands, by overwhelming 
 sublimity and delicate beauty, together with manifest 
 benevolence, marvellously adapted to human needs, and 
 in the richness of its profusion baffling all our powers of 
 perception even when reinforced with the microscope and
 
 336 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 spectroscope, naturalism can render no reason whatever 
 as to the source and existence of all these things, save 
 that they developed themselves by chance, through a process 
 of evolution which determined itself, out of ultimate atoms 
 which caused themselves to be the " manufactured articles " 
 which science is compelled to own them. The plain and 
 genuine records of history concerning the origin of Chris- 
 tianity, a mere fraction of which would suffice as evidence 
 to establish other matters, it can only meet with laboured 
 evasions which are more and more clearly seen to be 
 fallacious in the light of exact scholarship. In face of 
 mental facts which cannot be gainsaid, it is compelled to 
 resort to such suggestions of wholesale delusion or down- 
 right fraud as would necessitate more miracle by far 
 than the alleged Christian account. As regards the 
 historic Christ, whilst it is constrained to acknowledge 
 His transcendent greatness and goodness, it is driven 
 in the next breath to accuse Him either of deliberate 
 falsehood or superstitious fanaticism. And, finally, with 
 reference to that deepest and finest instinct of humanity 
 which leaps up in quick response to the promise of 
 Christ the yearning for blessed immortality natural- 
 ism has nothing to hold out to the sore heart of man but 
 the clammy hand of hopeless death, together with the 
 sarcastic comfort that some day, when each individual 
 in turn shall have become " a forgotten streak in the 
 infinite azure of the past," a " golden age " for the race 
 shall arrive which shall itself culminate m the eternal 
 extinction of this whole planet. 
 
 Such, in brief but careful summary, is the solid
 
 COMPLICATION, CULMINATION, CONCLUSION 337 
 
 content of the system of thought which offers itself with 
 growing audacity as a substitute for the "glorious 
 gospel of the blessed God." Sometimes it stoops with 
 pitying patronage from haughty heights of scientific 
 eminence; sometimes it shrieks and howls from the 
 deeps of coarse popularity. Its meaning and purpose 
 are ever the same. No sheep's clothing can avail to 
 conceal its true character. It is fairly judged neither 
 by the hasty sentiments of Christian subjectivity, nor by 
 the personal amiability and social influence of some of 
 its representatives, but by actual facts and reasonable 
 principles. These show that, so far from relieving the 
 human heart from its anxieties, it does but add to 
 them a hideous nightmare of despair ; and instead of 
 liberating the human mind from difficulties, it serves 
 only to increase and aggravate and perpetuate them. 
 
 For sheer mental relief, therefore, no less than for 
 comfort of heart, we " turn again home " to the actuality 
 and working of the supernatural as postulated by 
 Christian Theism, and asserted from beginning to end 
 of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Neither by threats nor 
 blandishments can the intellectual foundations of this 
 highest hope of humanity be shaken. The more thorough 
 the scrutiny with which these are examined, the more 
 firm and clear becomes the conviction that " we have 
 not followed cunningly devised fables " in accepting 
 the Christ of the Gospels as the Saviour of the world, 
 but are rather on the high road towards that farthest 
 goal of human certainty so well expressed by Eobert 
 Browning 1 
 
 1 " A Death in the Desert."
 
 338 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 " I say, the acknowledgment of God in Christ 
 Accepted by thy reason, solves for thee 
 All questions in the earth and out of it, 
 And has so far advanced thee to be wise." 
 
 The only weapon forged against this trust which 
 seems to have even the semblance of prospering, is the 
 counter charge of inconsistency brought against those who 
 profess to hold it. And it must freely be acknowledged 
 to be, as Paley said, " a tremendous thing to believe 
 in one God." It is confessedly no less tremendous to 
 believe in the risen, ascended, ever-living Christ, and in 
 an ever-present, ever -working Spirit, to Whom each 
 individual is an object of tender care throughout all the 
 march of history and amid the crush of our modern 
 environment. Alas! that there should be any ground 
 at all for the suggestion that average Christendom does 
 not justify its avowed belief. It cannot be denied that 
 the profession of a supernatural creed involves, as a 
 logical result, the living of a life also in some degree at 
 least supernatural : a life, that is, whose goodness truly 
 exceeds the natural instincts of human beings, as Jesus 
 Himself pointed out in His " Sermon on the Mount." 
 The justification of the gospel, does not, indeed, call for a 
 gross quantity of fanaticism, but it does demand the true 
 quality of Christian holiness. It is to be feared that the 
 ordinary professing Christian too often forgets that the 
 test of genuine discipleship is not goodness but extra- 
 goodness. Christ's own crucial question 1 was, "What 
 extra do ye?" and His unmistakable insistence, "I say unto 
 you, That except your righteousness shall exceed that of " 
 
 1 See Matt. V. 47, ri irfpuro-bv n-oif ire ;
 
 COMPLICATION, CULMINATION, CONCLUSION 339 
 
 the pious Jew, "ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of 
 heaven." l Maybe it is too sadly true that, judged by this 
 standard, Christendom has been, and yet is, to some extent, 
 a failure. The opponents of the supernatural, baffled in 
 their attacks upon its roots, may perhaps find some oppor- 
 tunity for revenging themselves upon its branches. 
 
 Yet even then, as a counter charge, every such attempt 
 fails of its purpose. For however much the human side 
 of the gospel, as seen in avowed Christians, may be open 
 to criticism, its actual foundation in truth can only be 
 attacked through Christ Himself. It is not the mis- 
 representation of the Divine ideal in men which has to 
 be reckoned with, but the true representation in Him. 
 The question whether Christians are everything that they 
 ought to be, is one that really does not at all concern the 
 unbeliever. " To his own master " every servant stands 
 or falls. 2 Even the inquiry as to whether Christianity 
 be true, is really meaningless until it is expressed in its 
 ultimate terms " Is Christ true ? " This is the actual 
 and transcendent demand which comes with ever-grow- 
 ing emphasis before the world for answer. Christ the 
 Heaven-born Lord of life, the crucified Son of God, the 
 risen Saviour of the world ; or, Christ the son of an 
 adulteress, the impostor of Galilee, the world's greatest 
 disappointment and delusion such is the awful dilemma 
 before the mind and heart of humanity. Nor is there 
 any more pressing need in the whole world of thought 
 to-day, than that this dilemma should be unflinchingly 
 stated and fairly faced. 
 
 That many sincere unbelievers and some avowed 
 1 Matt. v. 20. a Rom. xiv. 4.
 
 340 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIKF 
 
 believers persistently evade such a dilemma, is not to 
 be wondered at. If anti-supernaturalism could but be 
 driven to its only logical result, namely, tbe disowning and 
 denunciation of Christ, it would be no small gain for the 
 truth. For as not a few in the past have been saved 
 from making utter shipwreck of faith by the contempla- 
 tion of such an inevitable result, so might many who for 
 the time being have gone under, like the late Professor 
 Eomanes, be rescued from despair, even as he was. 
 
 Meanwhile Jesus Himself stands before us, transfigured 
 in the light of nineteen centuries. Fain we still may 
 be to veil our eyes before the glory of the mystery of 
 the veritable incarnation of God in our human midst, 
 yet to troubled modern thinkers as earnestly as to His 
 first perplexed disciples comes His own gentle remon- 
 strance, " Will ye also go away ? " And from the minds 
 of men to-day, made clear and keen by later knowledge, 
 no less than from human hearts grown heavier through 
 a deeper apprehension of the whole world's sin and woe, 
 there may well come the response, " To whom shall we 
 go ? Thou hast the words of eternal life." 
 
 But if now, as in the days of His earthly ministry, 
 men should still be found disposed to turn upon their 
 heel by reason of the difficulties of His doctrine, and say, 
 " This is a hard saying, who can hear it ? " one plea yet 
 remains, as solemn as it is reasonable. If they deem 
 Him in any degree wise or good, they should at least 
 learn from Him to cast out the beam from the eye of 
 their own philosophy before complaining of the mote 
 in that of Christian doctrine. 
 
 It is and must ever remain most of all irrational, upon
 
 COMPLICATION, CULMINATION, CONCLUSION 341 
 
 avowedly rational principles to "strain out the gnat" 
 and then "swallow the camel." That being, however, 
 the process to which the rejection of the supernatural 
 inevitably leads, a certain French savant of high repute 
 was well warranted in his retort, " In truth, I am not 
 credulous enough to be an unbeliever." 
 
 That God the infinite and eternal and self -existent Spirit, 
 whose boundless might and unmeasured benevolence are 
 manifest on every hand, should in past eternity have 
 created what we call " matter," and have ordained all those 
 relations which we know as its "laws," whence follow worlds 
 and systems, is just as naturally conceivable as it is neces- 
 sarily incomprehensible. But that matter should have 
 created itself, and that mere chance should have ordained 
 the laws which have issued in evolution, is, and must ever 
 be, utterly unthinkable by the powers of human reason. 
 
 That life and mind, with the correlative environment 
 of this whole kosmos, should have come to pass in 
 response to the creative fiat of the Eternal Mind, and 
 in obedience to His will should continue to work up- 
 wards into all the intellectual and moral and spiritual 
 capacities of human nature, is a perfectly rational con- 
 ception. But that all these should ever have issued 
 fortuitously out of a lifeless, mindless, self-created 
 nebulosity, is a suggestion that can only find place 
 where reason has been dethroned. 
 
 That the Christianity of the New Testament, with 
 its lofty ethics and its hallowing influence, should have 
 resulted from the incarnation of Divine pity and tender- 
 ness in the life and works, the suffering and death, the 
 resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, and thence-
 
 342 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 forth through the power of the Holy Spirit, should have 
 triumphed over all the bitter opposition of foes and the 
 even deadlier injuries of friends, is a stupendous fact 
 adequately accounted for. But that all its acknowledged 
 purity and strength, its inculcation of truth and love, 
 its inspiring motives and ennobling hopes, should have 
 spontaneously generated themselves out of delusion, or 
 fraud, or both combined, is a thesis that can only be 
 pronounced monstrous by all sane men. 
 
 And, finally, that Christ, the Christ of the Gospels, 
 at once supremely good and utterly true, equally Divine 
 and human, should have created the Christian Church, 
 is at least credible, whatever difficulties or failures may 
 require consideration and tend to make Christian be- 
 lievers equally humble and charitable. But that the 
 primitive Church, as it existed during the First Century, 
 should have created, out of nothing but contemporary 
 credulousness, ignorance, and bigotry, the Christ of the 
 New Testament, so full of sublime goodness as to com- 
 mand the ever-growing adoration of humanity and become 
 at this hour the holiest and mightiest power that makes 
 for righteousness throughout the world, is so absolutely 
 incredible, from whatever standpoint it is viewed, that 
 the acceptance of such a preposterous notion could only 
 bitterly intensify the problem of being, and land the 
 human race in " permanent intellectual confusion." 
 
 Thus, in one word, the miracles of unbelief compared 
 with those of faith, are as immeasurable enormities by 
 the side of scarcely significant trifles. The latter we 
 may learn to bear in the "patience of hope." The 
 former are, now and evermore, intolerable.
 
 XI 
 
 HAECKEL'S 
 THE RIDDLE OF THE UNIVERSE" 
 
 S43
 
 'Let him, the wiser man who springs 
 Hereafter, up from childhood shape 
 His action like the greater ape, 
 
 But I was born to other things."
 
 XI 
 
 HAECKEL'S "THE KIDDLE OF THE UNIVEESE" 
 
 IF this statement (vid. note 2, p. 333) should seem so strong 
 as to need confirmation, the requisite support may be 
 found in an unexpected quarter. Whilst these pages are 
 passing through the press, there has appeared an English 
 translation of Die Welt-rathsel, by Ernst Haeckel, of Jena. 
 This is an uncompromising synopsis, in forceful language, 
 of the most virulent opposition to Christianity on the 
 part of Ultramontane science. From it the following 
 acknowledgment may therefore be taken without suspicion 
 (p. 388) : 
 
 "We grant at once that the innermost character of nature is 
 just as little understood by us as it was by Anaximander and 
 Empedocles 2400 years ago, by Spinoza and Newton 200 years ago, 
 and by Kant and Goethe 100 years ago. We must even grant that 
 this essence of substance becomes more mysterious and enigmatic 
 the more deeply we penetrate into the knowledge of its attributes, 
 matter and energy, and the more thoroughly we study its countless 
 phenomenal forms and their evolution. We do not know the 
 thing in itself that lies behind these knowable phenomena." 
 
 To a thoughtful mind this extract is more than suffi- 
 cient to warrant all that has been said above (p. 333). 
 But the whole work from which it is taken calls for some 
 further notice, both on account of the scientific eminence 
 of the author, and the expectation evinced by the trans- 
 lator (an ex-Eomish priest), that it will in England as 
 in Germany find "an immediate and extensive circle 
 of readers." Whether it deserves to do so is a matter 
 open to question. The title scarcely conveys the writer's 
 intention, which is to cast out at once and for ever, in 
 
 345
 
 346 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 the name of modern science, all thought of God, the 
 human soul, free will, and immortality, as being nothing 
 more than "creations of poetic mysticism and baseless 
 dogma; and to substitute instead, a thoroughgoing 
 'monism,'" which consists in attributing everything to 
 " the true and only cosmological law, the law of sub- 
 stance." This effectually rebukes the " false anthropism " 
 which permits man to think himself of any importance 
 at all in the universe, and assures him that he is 
 absolutely nothing more than a protoplasmic automaton 
 whose destiny is ruled by " eternal laws of iron," and 
 issues only in utter extinction. Thus the book might 
 more truthfully be entitled, "The Scientific Gospel of 
 Despair." A more utterly one-sided polemic it would 
 be impossible to imagine. All the writer's acknowledged 
 eminence in the realm of biology is employed as a kind 
 of malleus hereticorum to crush those who dissent from 
 his dogmatic estimates and sentences of condemnation. 
 It would be amusing if it were not pitiful, to mark how 
 all whose findings in regard to the great " Welt - rdthsel " 
 differ from his own, are dismissed with a contemptuous 
 wave of the hand. Even such workers as Newton, Bois- 
 Eeymond, Baer, Eomanes, Wallace, etc., whose scientific 
 acumen the author himself cannot deny, are credited 
 with having become weak-minded, because they decline 
 to adopt the monism which he so vehemently urges. 
 To Darwin is accorded the " palm of victory," because 
 he "gave us the key to the monistic explanation of 
 organisation in his theory of selection forty years ago," 
 whence "it has become possible for us to trace the 
 splendid variety of orderly ' tendencies of the organic 
 world to mechanical, natural causes, just as we could 
 formerly in the organic world alone." Hence " the super- 
 natural and telic forces to which the scientist has had 
 recourse, have been rendered superfluous." This is a 
 fair specimen of the author's style of completely ignoring 
 all that has been advanced to the contrary, including the 
 acknowledgments of Darwin himself. Which is all very 
 well for those whose acquaintance with science is limited 
 to what they find on his pages. But there are other
 
 HAECKEL'S "THE RIDDLE OF THE UNIVERSE" 347 
 
 workers and thinkers besides the few whom he admits 
 into his pantheon, who will assuredly neither be anni- 
 hilated nor silenced by these lulminations. Nor will 
 the "dualism" for which he cannot find sufficiently 
 scornful expletives, cease to be, because of these ex 
 cathedra anathemas of scientific pseudo-infallibility. The 
 translator opines that "it seems impossible to follow 
 this broad survey of the psychic world from protist to 
 man, without bearing away a conviction of the natural 
 origin of every power and content of the human soul." 
 But apart from the fact that, as is shown above, the 
 Christian^ account of human origin and power is more 
 " natural " than the anti - Christian, and that what is 
 wanted is rather a true than a " broad " survey of the 
 psychic world, the conviction which many will bear 
 away is certainly, that when all which here deserves to 
 be called science is extracted from the false statements, 
 unwarranted inferences, misinterpretations and misre- 
 presentations which are to be found on almost every 
 page, there is left, in spite of all the energetic animus 
 displayed, only another instance of the failure of pure 
 naturalism, or monism, to explain even one power of 
 the human soul, let alone its whole content, still less 
 the contents of the universe. One leading reviewer has 
 already well said concerning a portion of this book : " Nor 
 would the author have written the amazing chapter on 
 ' Science and Christianity ' had he devoted to it a fraction 
 of the critical care he has bestowed on the propagation of 
 protozoa." 
 
 So far as the present work is concerned, this volume of 
 Dr. Haeckel's serves rather to emphasise than to diminish 
 the force of the main contention. No valid answer, alike 
 rational and manifest, is here given to any one of the 
 problems of unbelief shown to demand solution in each 
 realm of thought, and the general position stated on 
 p. 326, remains decidedly stronger rather than weaker. 
 
 Take but one instance. With specially repulsive bald- 
 ness of speech, and gratuitous innuendoes which seem to 
 show a kind of delight in his task, this well-known 
 scientist commits himself utterly and contentedly to the
 
 348 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 ridiculous story of an apocryphal gospel, that the father 
 of Jesus was a Eoman officer, named Pandera, who 
 seduced Mary of Bethlehem, about whom (says Dr. 
 Haeckel) "other details are given which are far from 
 being to the credit of the 'Queen of Heaven.'" The 
 ruthlessness of this coarse and credulous slander is on 
 a par with the sneering employment of a title which 
 (according to critically reliable gospels) Mary herself 
 would have repudiated as utterly as most thoughtful 
 Christians in this country. But without subjecting this 
 assumption to a critical inquiry which it does not merit, 
 or pausing to ask this eminent biologist in response to 
 the perpetually reiterated impossibility and inconceiv- 
 ability of an immaculate conception whether even in 
 the lower reaches of life he has never heard of partheno- 
 genesis, it must suffice here to point out that this puerile 
 attitude of uncritical assertion only adds further weight 
 and point to what has been advanced above (cf. pp. 
 247-276). The miracle of unbelief which from such a 
 source can extract the Christ of the Gospels, or even 
 the Christ of D. F. Strauss, is such as, by comparison, 
 to make the "impossible thesis of a conception by the 
 Holy Spirit " not only decidedly possible, but even easy. 
 
 To take seriously in hand, however, all the allegations 
 and conclusions of this remarkable production, would 
 require another volume of equal size. We must here be 
 content to call attention to one or two main features 
 which lie unmistakably upon the surface. All due 
 respect should, of course, be paid to such a writer, when 
 he avows that " my Monistic Philosophy is sincere from 
 beginning to end it is the complete expression of the 
 conviction that has come to me after many years of 
 ardent research into Nature, and unceasing reflection as 
 to the true basis of its phenomena." But granting this, 
 freely and deferentially, we are bound to ask how it comes 
 to pass that the scientific sincerity which thus pleads for 
 respectful consideration, should so utterly fail to accord 
 the same to others. For, assuredly, the treatment meted 
 out to dualistic philosophers (and these mentioned by 
 name), as well as all branches of Christian believers, is
 
 HAECKEL'S "THE RIDDLE OF THE UNIVERSE" 349 
 
 disrespectful and contemptuous to the last decree 
 Waiving, however, this question of sincerity, is it truly 
 scientific, is it Monistic Philosophy, to make definitely 
 false statements, to multiply misrepresentations, to em- 
 ploy language which cannot but give unnecessary pain 
 to those who think differently, to claim by a sweeping 
 ipse dixil, in numerous cases, to have settled for ever 
 that which is disputed, and even denied, by workers every 
 whit as able and sincere as this author himself ? Only 
 space is needed to prove all these intimations to the 
 utmost. A few typical instances may stand for many 
 more. 
 
 Is it true that the " majority of believers " conceive of 
 God as "a gaseous vertebrate"? (p. 295). The author 
 should know that it is just as false as to assert that he 
 himself worships a clod. Is it any more true that the 
 Christian doctrine of a future life (p. 20.1) " teaches that 
 the material body shall rise and dwell in a material 
 heaven " ? The writer confessedly shows small ac- 
 quaintance with the New Testament, yet one might 
 have thought that the apostle's words were sufficiently 
 familiar and plain to give the lie to an assertion of this 
 character "But this I say, brethren, that flesh and 
 blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God ; neither doth 
 corruption inherit incorruption." Where has this writer 
 learnt (p. 323) that "the exclusive preparing for an 
 unknown eternity, beyond the tomb, the contempt of 
 nature, the withdrawal from the study of it, are essential 
 elements of Christianity " ? It were surely sheer waste to 
 quote to such a one from the New Testament, if he is 
 thus contemptuously blind to the myriad workers of his 
 own age who, under Christian auspices, are exhibiting in 
 every department of modern life, ability and devotion 
 quite equal to that on which, in pleading for himself, he 
 lays such stress. And when it is demonstrated, even 
 beyond the denial of a monistic philosopher, that such 
 earnest attention to present-life duties and opportunities 
 is given by numbers around him, by what right does this 
 man of science who so strongly pleads for respectful 
 regard on the ground of his own sincerity assert that
 
 350 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 (p. 331) " Liberal Protestantism " means that " there has 
 arisen a widespread religious profession in educated 
 spheres which we can only call Pseudo-Christianity, at 
 the bottom of it a religious lie of the worst character " ? 
 We in return can " only call " this reckless rant, calumny, 
 and opine that it is unworthy of the name of science. 
 Some of the statements in regard to the Papacy are, no 
 doubt, sadly true, but they do not constitute the whole 
 case even as to Eome. Nor is it anything more than 
 similar wholesale recklessness of vituperation to represent 
 Constantine (p. 325) as being only "a worthless character, 
 a false-hearted hypocrite, and a murderer." 
 
 Especially in regard to Christianity do we find mis- 
 representations so gross and glaring, as to make it 
 extremely difficult to credit the writer at once with 
 mental ability and sincerity. If similarly false or careless 
 statements were made by theologians in regard to the 
 Monera or Metazoa, it is easy enough to imagine how 
 they would be dealt with by the author of The natural 
 history of Creation. Here, however, we are told, 
 without any qualification, that "Christian theologians 
 deny the freedom of the will, because it is irreconcilable 
 with their belief in the omnipotence of God and in pre- 
 destination. God omnipotent and omniscient saw and 
 willed all things from eternity He must consequently 
 have predetermined the conduct of man." Any tyro in 
 theology to-day would reject this " consequently " ; and the 
 whole statement is just about as true as to affirm that 
 modern chemists deny the atomic theory of matter, 
 because it conflicts with their conception of the four 
 elements as earth, air, fire, and water. 
 
 Again, we are informed that " all that we find in the 
 life of man here below, all that is beautiful in art and 
 science, in public and in private life, is of no real value to 
 Christianity. The true Christian must avert his eyes 
 from them, he must think only of a worthy preparation 
 for the life beyond. Contempt of nature, aversion from 
 all its inexhaustible charms, rejection of every kind of 
 fine art, are Christian duties." Furthermore, it is roundly 
 asserted that "Christianity has no place for love of
 
 HAECKEL'S "THE KIDDLE OF THE UNIVERSE" 351 
 
 animals, or sympathy with nearly related and friendly 
 mammals": that "according to Christ's teaching our 
 earthly life is valueless that all earthly goods, such as 
 technical science, hygiene, commerce, painting, sculpture, 
 music, and poetry, are worthless, nay injurious": that 
 " Christ thought as lightly of woman and the family, as 
 of all other goods": that "he shared the idea which 
 prevailed everywhere in the East, that woman is sub- 
 ordinate to man, and that intercourse with her is unclean." 
 So we might continue in quotation. No comment is 
 required upon such gross parodies. If wholesale mis- 
 representations like these are sincere, then the ignorance 
 they display is alike culpable and pitiable. 
 
 Of similar calibre are the representations in regard to 
 the four Gospels in our New Testaments. In one place 
 (p. 320) the reader is informed that at the Council of 
 Nicea " the three synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and 
 Luke all written after them, not ly them, at the 
 beginning of the second century and the very different 
 Fourth Gospel, ostensibly after John, written about the 
 middle of the second century, leaped upon the table out 
 of forty which had been placed underneath the altar, and 
 so became canonical " ; and " were thenceforth recognised, 
 with their thousand mutual contradictions, as the inspired 
 foundations of Christian doctrine." Meanwhile the 
 Christian doctrines in regard to immortality, resurrection, 
 and the Trinity are " dogmas that contradict pure reason 
 no more and no less than that miraculous bound of the 
 Gospel manuscripts." In another place we are told that 
 " the four Gospels were deliberately chosen from a much 
 larger number of gospels," but "the details which the 
 apocryphal gospels give of the life of Christ have just 
 as much claim to historical validity as the four canonical 
 Gospels." Also, that " the most important sources after 
 the Gospels are the fourteen separate and generally forged 
 epistles of Paul." But the "genuine Pauline Epistles were 
 three in number, to the Eomans, Galatians, and Corinthians." 
 Such quotations as these are confessedly nauseating to the 
 modern " sincere " student of the New Testament ; but it is 
 well that they should be set forth, in order that the reader
 
 352 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 may see what from quarters which boast the highest 
 intelligence is supplied to the world of unbelief by those 
 who ceaselessly vaunt their quest of truth. 
 
 It is tempting, indeed, to turn to the scientific features 
 of this diatribe, but detailed scrutiny is neither possible 
 here nor necessary. It is interesting, however, to find 
 that although we as human beings have neither wills nor 
 souls, " the two fundamental forms of substance, ponder- 
 able matter and ether," have both. For these " are not 
 dead, and only moved by extrinsic force, but they are 
 endowed with sensation and will: they experience an 
 inclination for condensation, a dislike of strain ; they 
 strive after the one and struggle against the other." This 
 being categorical information, and in the author's own 
 words, it is surely a false modesty which remarks, " I am 
 myself too little informed in physics and mathematics to 
 enter into a critical discussion " For certainly men like 
 James Clerk Maxwell, Sir G. G-. Stokes, and Lord Kelvin, 
 etc., who are confessedly well " informed " in these matters, 
 have neither mentioned the love stories of the ether 
 particles, nor recognized their wills and souls. 
 
 It is also somewhat perplexing to be told more than 
 once that this little world of ours is by and by going 
 just to drop into the sun and be lost for ever, and yet 
 also, " The duration of the world (sic) is equally infinite 
 and unbounded: it has no beginning and no end: it is 
 eternity." What we are really to understand from this, 
 must be left to each reader's judgement. 
 
 Meanwhile it is well to note that Dr. Haeckel utters 
 no uncertain sound upon one important matter. He 
 " entirely " agrees with Naegeli that " to reject abiogenesis 
 is to admit a miracle." That is to say, in plain English, 
 life certainly did create itself. " It is an indispensable 
 thesis in any natural theory of evolution, that the first 
 development of living protoplasm should be out of 
 inorganic carbonates" purely by chance, without any 
 influence db extra save " the law of substance." " The 
 monera which consist only of primitive protoplasm, arise 
 by spontaneous generation from inorganic nitrocarbonates." 
 
 Such language has at least the merit of lucidity. As
 
 HAECKEL'S "THE RIDDLE OF THE UNIVERSE" 353 
 
 the strength of any chain is but that of its weakest link, 
 here is one link which may be tested in that of the 
 Monistic philosophy. It is by no means the only faulty 
 one, but it must suffice here. Monism stands or falls with 
 spontaneous generation. Is it necessary, however, to call up 
 Tyndall from the grave to express the attitude of modern 
 science upon this matter? Are the names of Pasteur, 
 Drysdale, Dallinger, Eoscoe, Kelvin, Beale, and a host of 
 others, to count for nothing ? At all events, valid con- 
 firmation is hereby afforded of what has been said in the 
 present work (Preface, p. ix, etc.), that the miraculous is 
 inevitable. The choice is, manifestly, whether God, the 
 Creator of life, shall be regarded as the miracle-worker, 
 or whether it shall be accomplished by the nitro- 
 carbonates. Now the consensus of modern science is 
 unmistakably to the effect that the nitrocarbonates 
 cannot naturally do this. In the more precise language 
 of a well-known JF.K.S., "new life is not generated in the 
 absence of all living substances at least in a world 
 constituted as ours now is." It is conceded (cf. p. 105, 
 above) that to God the miraculous is easy enough. 
 But that the nitrocarbonates, without God, should create 
 life, is assuredly not easy. By all the difference, herefore, 
 between inorganic salts and the infinite Mind postulated 
 by Christian Theism, the miracle of unbelief therein is 
 greater than that of faith. So that on principles of sheer 
 mental economy, we are constrained to prefer Christian 
 dualism to Dr. Haeckel's monism. 
 
 Under all the circumstances, one can understand how 
 such an author, however sincere, is obliged at last to take 
 refuge in sheer assertion. A good bold ipse dixit is like 
 a bomb-proof shelter, invulnerable. Of such a character 
 one cannot but pronounce the following to be. They are 
 merely specimens. " Man is not distinguished from apes, 
 dogs, etc., by a special kind of soul, or by any peculiar and 
 exclusive psychic function, but only by a higher degree 
 of psychic activity, a superior stage of development." 
 Would Mr. A. E. Wallace, the co-discoverer of evolu- 
 tion, endorse this? It matters not. Dr. Haeckel has 
 spoken. 
 23
 
 354 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 Again (pp. 207-9), as regards the immortality of the soul. 
 " The theological proof is a pure myth. The cosmological 
 proof is a baseless dogma. The ideological proof rests 
 on a false anthropism. The moral proof is only a pious 
 wish. The ethnological proof is an error in fact. The 
 ontological proof is a spiritualistic fallacy." So it is all 
 settled, at once and for ever. What Dr. Salmond and a 
 score of other writers, quite as able and sincere as our 
 author, have set forth, amounts to nothing worthy of 
 regard. " The monistic view definitely rules out the three 
 central dogmas of metaphysics, God, freedom, and immor- 
 tality." That is enough. Upon the tomb of Christian 
 truth and hope, Reqiiiescat in pace has been cut by Dr. 
 Haeckel's own hand. 
 
 Again (p. 275, etc.), as regards design in nature. " No- 
 where in the evolution of animals and plants do we find 
 any trace of design, but merely the inevitable outcome of 
 the struggle for existence, the blind controller, instead of 
 the provident God, that effects the changes of organic 
 forms by a mutual action of the laws of heredity and 
 adaptation." The reader of Chap. IV. above, will, it is 
 hoped, know how to estimate this magisterial dogma. 
 Could the Vatican say more ? 
 
 " Eeligious faith," we are further told, " means always 
 belief in a miracle, and as such is in hopeless contradiction 
 with the natural faith of reason. In opposition to reason 
 it postulates supernatural agencies, and therefore may 
 be justly called superstition. The so-called revelations 
 on which the mythical dogmas of Christianity are based, 
 are incompatible with the firmest results of modern 
 science." But if incompatibility with the firmest result 
 of modern science constitutes a myth, certainly the doctrine 
 of biogenesis is such a result. Now monism is confessedly 
 incompatible with that. Monism, therefore, is the myth 
 hereby condemned. The rest of this quotation is, as every 
 youthful student will see, simple petitio qucestionis. 
 
 An exhaustive list, however, of such dogmatic settle- 
 ments would be as wearying as unprofitable. It only 
 remains to ask what is the human issue of this monism, 
 alias determinism, concerning which the writer modestly
 
 HAECKEL'S "THE RIDDLE OF THE UNIVERSE" 355 
 
 claims that " the great struggle between the determinist 
 and the indeterminist, between the opponent and the 
 sustainer of the freedom of the will, has ended to-day, 
 after more than two thousand years, completely in favour 
 of the determinist " ? Assuming for the moment as true 
 what many deem to be manifestly false, we may at least 
 appraise the answer to " the riddle of the universe " which 
 pure monism offers to humanity. 
 
 The source of the most dangerous errors, in the eyes of 
 this eminent biologist, is " anthropism " ; i.e. the human 
 conceit which falsely and foolishly thinks a man, not to 
 say mankind, worth something in the sight of the great 
 Creator, as being gifted above other animals and dowered 
 with the potentiality of an eternal destiny. Monism 
 pronounces this to be mere fatuity. "Our own human 
 nature which exalted itself into an image of God in its 
 anthropistic illusion, sinks to the level of a placental 
 mammal, which has no more value for the universe at 
 large than the ant, the fly of a summer's day, the micro- 
 scopic infusorium, or the smallest bacillus. Humanity is 
 but the transitory phase of the evolution of an eternal 
 substance, a particular phenomenal form of matter and 
 energy, the true proportion of which we soon perceive 
 when we set it on the background of infinite space and 
 eternal time." 
 
 From this cheerful prospect, the dogmatism of which 
 was rightly characterised as " Philistinism," years ago, by 
 Professor Huxley, it is easy to deduce the difference 
 between Christian dualism and Haeckelian monism. The 
 one asks " How much is a man better than a sheep ? " 
 and answers, " Immeasurably." The other inquires how 
 much a man is better than "the smallest bacillus," and 
 answers, "Not at all." Whether this involves the 
 exaltation of the bacillus or the degradation of the man, 
 students of bacteriology will be best able to estimate. 
 According to such a view, the hope of the twentieth 
 century is that it will bring about "the construction 
 of a system of pure monism, and so spread far and 
 wide the long-desired unity of world conception." And 
 the solid contents of this conception, the gospel of
 
 356 THE MIRACLES OF UNBELIEF 
 
 monism, in the "perfect poetic expression" of Goethe, 
 adopted by Dr. Haeckel, is simply this 
 " By eternal laws 
 
 Of iron ruled 
 
 Must all fulfil 
 
 The cycle of 
 
 Their destiny." 
 
 Clearly therefore the " antitheses " which the next century 
 " will complete the task of resolving," are, anthropism and 
 misanthropism. In regard to which we may safely aver 
 that whatever be the faults of the former, it is as much 
 better as truer than the latter. For the science which 
 dogmatises to man that, in spite of all his convictions, feel- 
 ings, sufferings, struggles, hopes, he is less than a chance 
 drop in an ocean of spray, coming through nothing, from 
 nothing, en route to nothing, bears its own sentence of 
 refusal writ large across its brow. It is not poetic 
 imagination, but the valid science of the heart which, in 
 such case, cries out against Goethe's helpless and hopeless 
 determinism 
 
 " Not only cunning casts in clay : 
 
 Let science prove we are, and then 
 What matters science unto men, 
 At least to me? I would not stay." 
 
 But when it is further demonstrated that the road to this 
 abyss of despair is blocked by greater and grosser miracles 
 of unbelief than those which bar the way of faith, the man 
 possessed of equal head and heart may well pause before 
 Hinging away his only hope, and committing himself to the 
 blackness of darkness which Strauss from sad experience 
 pronounced to be " something awful." The mysteries of 
 Providence and of human life, of pain and of moral evil, 
 upon which Dr. Haeckel and others seem almost to gloat, 
 may bring him even bewilderment and tears, but the voice 
 which bids him wait, in " the work of faith, the labour of 
 love, and the patience of hope," is that of One whom he 
 can afford to trust, though it be in the dark, when He 
 says : " Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be 
 afraid : believe in God, believe also in Me." Such faith is 
 but the noblest expression of the highest reason.
 
 XII 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 THE following list of books is appended, not as being by 
 any means exhaustive, but as affording useful suggestions 
 to those who may wish to study the subject more care- 
 fully from the Christian standpoint. At the same tune, 
 although they are simply works most familiar personally 
 to the writer, and taken from his own shelves, they 
 represent beyond question the researches and conclusions 
 of men thoroughly well qualified to speak in their own 
 departments. They therefore deserve the earnest and 
 unbiassed attention of all those who sincerely desire to 
 face with honest care the grave questions at issue. They 
 can be obtained from any bookseller. Not one of them 
 will be found to be either superficial or superfluous. A 
 few are marked with an asterisk as meriting especial 
 notice. 
 
 I. GENERAL 
 
 TITLE. 
 
 AUTHOR. 
 
 PUBLISHER. 
 
 *Cumulative Evidences of Divine Reve- 
 lation. (A small volume not nearly 
 so well known as it ought to be.) 
 Apologetics ; or, Christianity defen- 
 sively stated 
 *The Basis of Faith. Congregational 
 Union Lecture for 1877 
 The Christian's Plea against Modern 
 Unbelief 
 Christian Evidences in Relation to 
 Modern Thought. Bampton Lec- 
 tures for 1877 
 
 Phillips, L.F.M. 
 
 Bruce, Dr. A. B. 
 Conder,Dr. E. R. 
 Redford, R. A. 
 Row, C. A. 
 
 Christian Evi- 
 dence Society 
 
 T. & T. Clark 
 
 Hodder & 
 Stoughton 
 
 Norgate
 
 358 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 TITLE. 
 
 AUTHOR. 
 
 PUBLISHER. 
 
 *The Foundations of Faith. Bampton 
 
 Wace, Dr. H. 
 
 Macmillan 
 
 Lectures for 1879 
 
 
 
 Modern Doubt and Christian Belief . 
 
 Christlieb, Dr. 
 
 T. & T. Clark 
 
 The Logic of Christian Evidences . 
 Christian Theism . . . , 
 
 Wright, G. F. 
 Row, C. A. 
 
 Dickinson 
 H. &S. 
 
 
 
 
 Modern Scepticism ^ 
 
 
 
 Faith and Freethought 
 
 
 
 Popular Objections to Revealed Truth }- J 
 
 Various authors 
 
 Clm. Ev. Soc. 
 
 Strivings for the Faith 
 Credentials of Christianity . . J 
 
 
 
 Boston Monday Lectures on Tran- 
 
 Cook, Dr. Joseph 
 
 H. &S. 
 
 scendentalism, Biology, Orthodoxy, 
 
 
 
 Labour, Marriage, Conscience, He- 
 
 
 > 
 
 redity, Socialism 
 
 
 
 Religious Doubt ... 
 
 Diggle, J. W. 
 
 Longmans 
 
 Christian Instincts and Modern Doubt 
 
 Craufurd, A. H. 
 
 James Clarke 
 
 *Theistic Problems .... 
 
 Sexton, Dr. G. 
 
 H. &S. 
 
 Nature and the Supernatural 
 Popular Handbook of Christian Evi- 
 
 Bushnell, H. 
 Kennedy, Dr. J. 
 
 Strahan 
 London Sunday 
 
 dences 
 
 
 School Union 
 
 Defence of the Christian Faith . 
 
 Godet, Dr. F. 
 
 T. & T. Clark 
 
 Credentials of the Gospel. Fernley 
 
 Beet, Dr. J. A. 
 
 Ch. Kelly 
 
 Lecture for 1889 
 
 
 
 Reasonable Orthodoxy 
 
 Ballard, F. 
 
 James Clarke 
 
 Critical History of Free Thought. 
 
 Farrar, T. 
 
 Macmillan 
 
 Bampton Lectures for 1882 
 
 
 
 In Relief of Doubt . . 
 
 Welsh, R. E. 
 
 James Clarke 
 
 Christian Dogmatics . , 
 
 Martensen, Dr. 
 
 T. & T. Clark 
 
 Reason in Revelation . . . 
 
 Caillard, E. 
 
 Nisbet 
 
 Christian Evidences . 
 
 Fisher, Dr. G. P. 
 
 Dickinson 
 
 Thoughts on Religion 
 
 Romanes, G. J. 
 
 Longmans 
 
 Christianity Vindicated by its Enemies 
 
 Dorchester 
 
 Hunt & Eaton 
 
 Some Modern Religious Difficulties 
 
 Various 
 
 S.P.C.K. 
 
 Present-Day Tracts. A series of nearly 
 
 
 Religious Tract 
 
 100 monographs, brief but by the 
 
 
 Society 
 
 best authors. (An exceedingly valu- 
 
 
 
 able collection, meriting a much 
 
 
 
 more attractive name. ) 
 
 
 
 God, the Soul and a Future State . 
 
 Cooper, Thos. 
 
 II. & S. 
 
 II. PHYSICAL 
 
 Paley's Natural Theology. Latest 
 edition, with special Introduction by 
 Professor le Gros Clark, F.R.C.S. 
 
 Edited by Prof, 
 le Gros Clark 
 
 S.P.C.K. 
 
 These five volumes are all of exceptional interest and value, and merit 
 most careful study.
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 359 
 
 TITLE. 
 
 AUTHOR. 
 
 PUBLISHER. 
 
 Christian Prayer and General Laws. 
 
 Romanes, G. J. 
 
 Macmillan 
 
 The Burney Prize Essay for 1873 
 
 
 
 The Supernatural in Nature 
 Science and the Faith 
 
 Reynolds, J. W. 
 Moore, Aubrey L. 
 
 Kegan Paul 
 
 Does Science aid Faith ? 
 
 Cotterill, Dr. 
 
 H.'& S. " 
 
 Life Theories and Religious Thought . 
 
 Beale, Dr. L. 
 
 Churchill 
 
 Protoplasm . 
 
 
 
 Natural Theology. Gifford Lectures 
 
 Stokes, Prof. 
 
 A. & C. Black 
 
 for 1891 
 
 G. G. 
 
 
 Natural Theology and Modern Thought 
 Scientific Obstacles to Christian Belief. 
 
 Kennedy, J. H. 
 Curteis, G. H. 
 
 H. &S. 
 
 Macmillan 
 
 TheJBoyle Lectures for 1884 
 
 
 
 Christian Doctrine and Modern 
 
 Bonney, Prof. 
 
 Longmans 
 
 Thought 
 
 T. G. 
 
 
 The Creator and Method of Creation. 
 
 Dallinger, Dr. 
 
 Charles Kelly 
 
 Fernley Lecture for 1887 
 
 W. H. 
 
 
 Origin of the Laws of Nature 
 
 LordGrimthorpe 
 
 S.P.C.K. 
 
 The Unseen Universe .... 
 
 Stewart and Tait 
 
 Macmillan 
 
 Baseless Fabric of Scientific Scepticism 
 
 Sexton, Dr. G. 
 
 Smart & Allen 
 
 Aspects of Theism. Baird Lecture 
 
 Flint 
 
 Blackwood 
 
 Anti-Theistic Theories 
 
 
 H 
 
 Nature and Revelation 
 
 Pritchard.Dr. C. 
 
 Murray 
 
 Scientific Sophisms .... 
 
 Wainwright, Dr. 
 
 H. &S. 
 
 Burnett Lectures on Light. 3 vols. . 
 
 Stokes, Pro f.G.G 
 
 Macmillan 
 
 Moral Teaching of Science . 
 
 Buckley, A. 
 
 Stanford 
 
 III. MIRACLES 
 
 Miracles. Bampton Lectures for 1865 
 
 Mozley, Dr. J. B. 
 
 Rivingtons 
 
 Can we believe in Miracles ? 
 
 Wariugton, G. 
 
 S.P.C.K. 
 
 Miracles : An Argument and a Chal- 
 
 Cox, Dr. S. 
 
 Kegan Paul 
 
 lenge 
 Are Miracles Credible ? 
 
 Lias, J. J. 
 
 H. &S. 
 
 The Mystery of Miracle 
 Review of Hume and Huxley on 
 
 Reynold, Dr. J. 
 LordGrimthorpe 
 
 Kegan Paul 
 S.P.C.K. 
 
 IVliracles 
 
 
 
 The Christian Miracles, and Con- 
 
 Thomson, W. 
 
 T. & T. Clark. 
 
 clusions of Science ... 
 
 
 
 The Verity and Value of Miracles 
 
 Cooper, Thos. 
 
 H. &S. 
 
 IV. EVOLUTION 
 
 Evolution in Relation to Religious 
 
 Le Conte, Prof. 
 
 Chapman & Hall 
 
 Thought 
 Evolution and Religion 
 Christianity and Evolution 
 Christianity and Evolution: Symposium 
 The Basis of Evolution 
 Modern Ideas of Evolution . 
 
 Henslow, Prof. 
 Iverach, Dr. J. 
 Various 
 Croll, Dr. J. 
 Dawson, Sir W. 
 
 Macmillan 
 H. &S. 
 Nisbet 
 Stanford 
 Eel. Tr. Soc. 
 
 Darwinism and Design 
 
 St. Glair 
 
 H. & S.
 
 360 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 TITLE. 
 
 AUTHOR. 
 
 PUBLIS 
 
 HER. 
 
 Darwinianism : Workmen and Work . 
 The Theology of an Evolutionist 
 Preorganic Evolution and the Biblical 
 
 Idea of God 
 
 The Ascent of Man. Lowell Lectures 
 *The Ascent through Christ 
 Evolution of the Universe . 
 
 Stirling, Dr. J.H.' T. & T. Clark 
 Abbott, Dr. L. James Clarke 
 Chapman, Dr. C. ! T. & T. Clark 
 
 Drummond, H. ' H. & S. 
 Griffith- Jones, E. James Bowden 
 Howard, W. W. Nisbet & Co. 
 
 V. HISTORICAL 
 
 *The Divine Origin of Christianity 
 The Witness of History to Christ. 
 
 Storrs, Dr. R. S. 
 Farrar,Dr. F. W. 
 
 H. &S. 
 Macmillan 
 
 Hulsean Lectures for 1870 
 
 
 
 The Preparation for Christianity 
 
 Wenley, Dr. 
 
 R. & R. Clark 
 
 Fragmentary Records of Jesus of Naza- 
 
 Wynne, E. R. 
 
 H. &S. 
 
 reth 
 
 
 
 * Plain Proofs 
 
 
 
 Gesta Christi 
 
 Brace, C. L. 
 
 " 
 
 Religion and History in Modern Life . 
 
 Fairbairn, Dr. 
 
 M 
 
 Historic Doubts concerning Napoleon 
 
 Whately, Dr. 
 
 Putnam s 
 
 Buonaparte 
 
 
 
 The Bridge of History 
 
 Cooper, Thos. 
 
 H. &S. 
 
 VI. CHRIST 
 
 The Christ of History 
 
 Young, Dr. J. 
 
 Strahan 
 
 Our Lord's Divinity. Bampton Lee 
 
 Liddon, Dr. 
 
 Rivingtons 
 
 tures for 1866 
 
 
 
 Christ in Modern Theology 
 
 Fairbairn, Dr. 
 
 H. &S. 
 
 Mohammed, Buddha, and Christ 
 
 Dods, Dr. M. 
 
 9j 
 
 *The Self-Revelation of Jesus Christ 
 
 Kennedy, Dr. J. 
 
 Isbister 
 
 Pilate's Question 
 
 
 D. Douglas 
 
 The Jesus of the Evangelists 
 The Gospel and its Witnesses 
 *Ecce Homo .... 
 
 Row','c. A. " 
 Wace, Dr. H. 
 Seeley, Prof. 
 
 Norgate 
 Murray 
 Macmillan 
 
 *Christ not a Product of Evolution 
 
 Henslow, Prof. 
 
 Nisbet 
 
 Gleanings about Christ and Early 
 
 Alexander, J. H. 
 
 }J 
 
 Christianity 
 
 
 
 VII. THE RESURRECTION 
 
 This subject is dealt with continually 
 in other books referred to. But the 
 following merit special mention : 
 *The Resurrection of Jesus Christ 
 *The Gospel of the Resurrection . 
 
 The Verity of Christ's Resurrection . 
 Witnesses of the Resurrection 
 
 Kennedy, Dr. J, 
 Westcott, Dr. 
 
 B. F. 
 
 Cooper, Thos. 
 Milligan, Dr. 
 
 Rel. Tr. Soc. 
 Macmillan 
 
 H. &S.
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 361 
 
 VIII. BIBLICAL 
 (1) GENERAL 
 
 TITLE. 
 
 AlTHOR. 
 
 PUBLISHER. 
 
 *The Superhuman Origin of the Bible. 
 Congregational Union Lectures for 
 
 Rogers, Dr. H. 
 
 H. &S. 
 
 1893 
 
 
 
 What is the Bible ? .... 
 
 Ladd, Dr. G. T. 
 
 Chas. Scribner's 
 
 
 
 Sons 
 
 The Impregnable Rock of Holy Scrip- 
 
 Gladstone, W.E. 
 
 Isbister 
 
 ture 
 
 
 
 Scripture and its Witnesses 
 
 Banks, J. H. 
 
 Charles Kelly 
 
 Guide to Biblical Study . . 
 The Bible in the Church 
 
 Peake, Prof. 
 Westcott, Dr. 
 
 H.&S. 
 Macmillan 
 
 
 B. F. 
 
 
 Inspiration. Bampton Lectures for 
 
 Sanday, Dr. W. 
 
 Longmans 
 
 1893 
 
 
 
 History of the English Bible 
 
 Westcott, Dr. 
 B. F. 
 
 Macmillan 
 
 Bible Dictionary. Edited by Dr. 
 
 
 T. & T. Clark. 
 
 Hastings, containing most valuable 
 
 
 
 articles by ablest men, on modern 
 
 
 
 lines. 
 
 
 
 (2) NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 The Canon of the New Testament 
 Canonicity 
 introduction to the New Testament . 
 
 Westcott, Dr. B. 
 Charteris, Dr. 
 Salmon, Dr. 
 
 Macmillan 
 Blackwood 
 Murray 
 
 The New Testament Scriptures . 
 *The Moral Teaching of the New Testa- 
 
 Charteris, Dr. 
 Row, C. A. 
 
 Nisbet 
 S.P.C.K. 
 
 ment 
 
 
 
 (3) GOSPELS 
 
 Introduction to the Gospels 
 
 i Westcott, Dr. 
 B. F. 
 
 Macmillan 
 
 T'K/N Pavninornaec nf tTlP frOSVJels . 
 
 Norton, Andrews 
 
 Norgate 
 
 J_nG (jTfiiiuinencss 01 iuv v*uojjcio 
 The Gospels : their Age and Authorship 
 
 Kennedy, Dr. 
 
 Sunday School 
 Union 
 
 Christianity and Agnosticism . 
 Authorship and Historical Character of 
 
 Wace, Dr. H. 
 Sanday, Dr. W. 
 
 Blackwood 
 Macmillan 
 
 the Fourth Gospel 
 The Apocryphal Gospels . 
 
 Cowper, B. H. 
 
 Norgate
 
 362 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 IX. PSYCHOLOGICAL 
 
 TITLE. 
 
 AUTHOR. PUBLISHER. 
 
 Spencer's Structural Principles Ex- 
 amined 
 The Philosophy of Eeligion 
 The Supernatural in the New Testament 
 The Conversion of Paul 
 The Whence and Whither of Man 
 
 Ground, W. D. 
 
 Lotze, Prof. H. 
 Row, C. A. 
 Lyttleton, Lord 
 Tylor,Prof.J.M. 
 
 Parker 
 
 Dickinson 
 Norgate 
 Rel. Tr. Soc. 
 Blackwood 
 
 X. MORAL AND SPIRITUAL 
 
 Boyle 
 
 Christianity and Morality. 
 Lectures for 1874 
 
 Physical and Moral Law. Fernley 
 Lectures for 1883 
 
 Christian Ethics 
 
 The Christian Ethic . 
 
 The Moral Teachings of Science 
 "Burning Questions 
 
 The Ascent of Faith . 
 
 The Teachings of Experience 
 
 Autobiography . 
 
 Social Evolution 
 
 e 
 
 Wace, Dr. H. 
 
 Macmillan 
 
 7 
 
 Arthur, W. 
 
 Charles Kelly 
 
 
 Smyth, Newman 
 Knight, Prof. W. 
 Buckley, Ara. 
 Gladden, Dr. W. 
 Harrison, A. J. 
 Barker, Jos. 
 
 T. & T. Clark 
 Murray 
 Stanford 
 James Clarke 
 H. &S. 
 
 
 B. Kidd " 
 
 " 
 
 XI. COMPARATIVE RELIGION 
 
 Christ and other Masters . 
 
 Hardwick, Arch- 
 
 Macmillan 
 
 
 deacon 
 
 
 *The Mohammedan Controversy 
 Mahomet and Islam . 
 
 Muir, Sir W. 
 
 T. & T. Clark 
 Rel. Tr. Soc. 
 
 Notes on Muhammadanism 
 Islam .... 
 Hinduism . 
 
 Hughes, *T. P. 
 Stobart,J.W.H. 
 Monier- Williams 
 
 Allen 
 S.P.C.K. 
 
 The Unknown God, . 
 
 Brace, C. L. 
 
 H. & S. 
 
 XII. ESCHATOLOGICAL 
 
 *The Christian Doctrine of Immortality 
 The Hope of Immortality . 
 
 Salmond, Dr. 
 Welldon, Dr. J. 
 
 T. & T. Clark 
 Seeley 
 
 The Natural History of Immortality 
 
 Reynolds, J. W. 
 
 Longmans 
 
 The AVorld to Come . 
 
 
 Kegan Paul 
 
 Physical Theory of another Life 
 *Human Immortality . 
 
 Taylor, Isaac' 
 James, Prof. 
 
 Constable 
 
 The Witness to Immortality 
 
 Gordon, Dr. 
 
 Putnams 
 
 A Scientific Demonstration of the 
 
 Hudson, T. J. 
 
 H 
 
 Future Life 
 
 
 
 
 Fiske, J. 
 
 Macmillan
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 363 
 
 ADDENDA 
 
 The following works, inadvertently omitted in First Edition, also 
 deserve notice : 
 
 TITLE. 
 
 AUTHOR. 
 
 PUBLISHER. 
 
 Chretien ou Agnostique 
 
 Abb4 Picard 
 
 
 Foundations of the Creed . 
 
 Dr. Harvey 
 
 
 
 Goodwin 
 
 
 Grammar of Assent .... 
 
 Dr. J. H. New- 
 
 Longmans 
 
 
 man 
 
 
 Scientific Aspects of Christian Evidences 
 The Mystery of God .... 
 Christianity and Agnosticism 
 Modern Realism Examined . 
 
 G. F. Wright 
 T. V. Tymms 
 Wace, Dr. H. 
 T. M. Herbert 
 
 C. A. Pearson 
 Elliot Stock 
 Blackwood 
 Macmillau 
 
 * Witnesses to Christ .... 
 
 Dr. Wm. Clark 
 
 T. & T. Clark 
 
 Christian View of God and the World 
 
 Dr. Orr 
 
 Andrew Elliot 
 
 The Evolution of Christianity . 
 
 Dr. Lyman Ab- 
 
 Jas. Clarke & Co. 
 
 
 bott 
 
 
 Note to p. 39. 
 
 Nor can it be truly said that during the last half-century, the 
 trend of modern textual criticism with all respect to Eitschlian 
 developments is definitely in the direction of the sweeping and 
 dogmatic conclusion asserted above. 
 
 The standpoint, for example, of the author of the recent Com- 
 mentary upon Luke's Gospel in the " International Critical Com- 
 mentary" Series, or the article on "Gospels" in Hastings' Bible 
 Dictionary, is quite as really abreast of modern knowledge in this 
 regard, as anything assumed or asserted by Dr. Abbott, or Dr. 
 Schmiedel and the Encyclopedia Biblica.
 
 364 APPENDIX 
 
 NOTE TO THE PRESENT EDITION 
 
 SINCE the issue of the Second Edition only two adverse notices have 
 appeared. One from an avowed Secularist prefaces its animadversions 
 by thanking the author "for his recent humorous contribution to 
 literature." Such a critic cannot reasonably complain if his objections 
 are treated as too " humorous" for further consideration. 
 
 A courteous and thoughtful reviewer in the Literary Guide hints at 
 replies which would, he says, if elaborated, reduce the miracles of unbelief 
 "to modest and natural proportions." If, however, we may judge of the 
 elaboration from the synopsis, it would seem to tend rather to the magni- 
 fication than the diminution of unfaith's monstrosities. After a simple 
 assertion that the attitude of the foregoing pages is "at variance with 
 the indisputable results of modern science and modern criticism," he 
 proceeds to defend Haeckel's unworthy sneer at God, in Christian parlance, 
 as "a gaseous vertebrate," on the ground that an "Infinite Mind "is a 
 nebulous phrase. Is this philosophy ? He regards all Biblical predictions 
 as simply post-dated history. Is this valid modern criticism ? He re- 
 affirms Haeckel's assumption of spontaneous generation, avowing that 
 "life arises from the non-living by some natural process at present 
 unknown." Is this science? If it be, then such names as Tyndall 
 Huxley, Carpenter, Drysdale, Dallinger, Beale, Wallace, and a host of 
 others, must be set aside as of no account. Again, "the universe," it 
 appears, "was never originated" at all, it simply "resulted inevitably 
 from the interaction of Matter and Energy " (why spelt with capitals ?) 
 which "are eternal and self-existent." There is "nothing singular in 
 the rise and rapid spread of Christianity " ; the ' ' Christ of the Gospels 
 was the slow creation of the first and second centuries, and many widely- 
 spread Churches contributed their quota to the stream of myth and 
 tradition which slowly crystallised into the Four Gospels." Christ's 
 resurrection is ' ' absolutely disproved by the one fact " that He appeared 
 only to chosen witnesses. Paul, the only authentic witness, "either 
 knew nothing of the discourses, parables, and miracles of Jesus, or he 
 thought it right to treat them with silent contempt." "The Gospels 
 declare that Jesus was not the son of His mother's husband. The story 
 that He was begotten by the Holy Spirit is incredible and absurd, He 
 must therefore have been illegitimate. Thus if there be any substratum 
 of truth at all in the New Testament narratives, the Talmudic account 
 of Jesus, son of Pandera, becomes the natural explanation of the alleged 
 birth of Jesus Christ." The italics are mine. The logic would be 
 ' ' humorous " if it were not so desperate. The Gospels, it seems, are 
 reliable so far as subserves the anti-supernatural pre-determinations of 
 Agnosticism ; beyond that all is "incredible and absurd " ! Very simple, 
 but hardly sufficient to an unprejudiced mind. At all events the argument 
 of the preceding pages is hereby strengthened. From the merely human 
 son of an adulteress, Christianity, with all that it includes and involves, 
 has to be evolved. Knowing what we do of the first and second centuries, 
 if they accomplished this feat, then the literal miracle is greater than ever. 
 
 It cannot, however, be too plainly pointed out, whether this reviewer is 
 or is not aware of it, that all these points of his, and many others, have 
 been fairly and squarely met in the volumes enumerated in the foregoing 
 list. To these, therefore, I must be content, for the present, to refer the 
 scrutiny of the honest inquirer, in support of the assertion that, for all its 
 courtesy, such criticism as this does but serve to throw up into more lurid 
 relief the monstrosity of the miracles of unbelief.
 
 INDEX 
 
 ABBOTT, Dr. E. A., as to spiritual 
 Resurrection, 157. 
 
 Abbott, Dr. Lyman, on Miracles, 105. 
 
 Acts, as related to the Epistles, 191. 
 
 Adaptation to environment, 69. 
 
 Agnosticism, a witness to true pro- 
 gress, 6. 
 
 Modern forms, 30-54. 
 Contrary to reason, 63. 
 Alternative in rejecting Chris- 
 tianity, 243. 
 
 Akoustics, wonders and beauties of, 
 99. 
 
 Alger, Mr., on life after death, 294. 
 
 Allen, Mr. Grant, as to Christianity, 
 
 311. 
 As to Immortality, 313. 
 
 Alternatives of Belief and Unbelief, 
 341. 
 
 Ammianus, as to Julian's Edict, 126. 
 
 Anderson, Dr., on the Ascension, 168. 
 
 Annihilation, repulsive and degrad- 
 ing, 308. 
 
 Anthropism, denounced by Haeckel, 
 346-355. 
 
 Anti - Supernaturalism, its logical 
 result, 340. 
 
 Apocrypha, Old Testament, as to 
 life after death, 295. 
 
 Apocryphal Gospels compared with 
 the New Testament, 237. 
 
 Apologetics, neglected and ignored 
 in the pulpit, 18-21. 
 
 Appendix, list of books, 359. 
 
 Arabian Nights' Entertainment, 315. 
 
 Argument, a necessity of Gospel 
 teaching, 24. 
 
 Armenians, 113. 
 
 Arthur, Rev. William, on Positivism, 
 282. 
 
 Ascension, the, 168. 
 
 Assumption, one only in this work 
 36. 
 
 Assumptions of Mr. Clodd's Evolu- 
 tion, 58. 
 
 Attitude of the Christian Church, 11. 
 
 Avebury, Lord, on The Beauties oj 
 Nature, 92, 94. 
 
 BAKKE, Sir Samuel, as to cruelty in 
 
 Nature, 329. 
 Bartlet, Professor Vernon, on early 
 
 Christian persecution, 122. 
 As to Paul's belief in Christ's 
 
 Kesurrection, 164. 
 As to authorship of Acts, 179. 
 Baur, as to the Resurrection, 155. 
 Beale, Dr. Lionel S., on Life, 60, 62, 
 
 334. 
 Beauty, a witness for the Divine 
 
 Existence, 65. 
 
 Showing design in Nature, 87. 
 Involving mind, 89. 
 Impossible from chance, 90. 
 And the struggle for existence, 92. 
 Crystalline, 98. 
 
 Of human face and character, 100. 
 Beet, Professor J. A., on Christology, 
 
 28. 
 Belfast Address, Dr. Tyndall's, on 
 
 Crystalline Beauty, 98. 
 Bennett, Sir Risdon, as to the power 
 
 of Christianity, 203. 
 Besant, Mrs., on Christian Apoc- 
 ryphal writings, 195. 
 Bias of Scepticism against the Super- 
 natural, 267. 
 Bible; its ethics, 111. 
 Influence, 112. 
 Superhuman origin, 112.
 
 366 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Bible, more miraculous on premisses 
 
 of Atheism, 113. 
 Vitality of, 197. 
 
 Bible Dictionary, Hastings', quoted. 
 28, 108. 
 
 "Big carpenter," the, theory of 
 Creation, 70. 
 
 Birth stories of Gospels not dis- 
 credited, 39. 
 
 Blaikie, Dr., on the Vitality of the 
 Bible, 197. 
 
 Blasphemy, human, 266. 
 
 Blavatsky frauds in India, 127. 
 
 Body of Christ, the, what became of 
 
 it, 146. 
 Stolen, an absurdity, 147. 
 
 Bolingbroke, Viscount, Deist, quoted, 
 216. 
 
 Books, list of useful, 359. 
 
 Boxers, Chinese, as illustrations of 
 fanaticism, 184, 208, 233. 
 
 Brace, G. Loring, Gesta Christi, 20 i. 
 
 Brooks, Dr. Phillips, on the influence 
 of Jesus, 204. 
 
 Browning, Robert, on the life to come, 
 
 297. 
 
 On the reasonableness of Chris- 
 tianity, 338. 
 
 Bruce, Dr. A. B., as to the Resur- 
 rection, 143, 172. 
 
 Buonaparte, Napoleon, historic 
 doubts concerning his existence, 
 272. 
 
 Butler, Bishop, on the ridicule of 
 Christianity, 3. 
 
 CAMEL swallowed after straining 
 out gnat, 63, 341. 
 
 Candid examination of Theism, by 
 Physicus, 290, 311. 
 
 Canon of the New Testament unalter- 
 able, 196. 
 
 Carlyle, Thomas, on Jesus of Naza- 
 reth, 230. 
 
 Carpenter, Dr. "W. B., as to miracles, 
 
 105. 
 
 On the ignorance of modern 
 Science, 333. 
 
 Cell, the ultimate, as a product of 
 chance, 62. 
 
 Certainty in the Christian promise 
 of Immortality, 299. 
 
 Cessation of animal sacrifices, ex- 
 planation of, 225. 
 
 Channing, Dr., on Christ's character, 
 
 252. 
 
 Character of Christ, the only valid 
 method of attack on the Super- 
 natural, 274. 
 
 Chinese not similar to Jews, 113. 
 Christ, His origin and character, 
 247. 
 
 His personality and influence 
 extreme, 248. 
 
 The lowest estimate possible, 250. 
 
 Estimates of well - known un- 
 believers, 251-253. 
 
 Evolution as an explanation of, 
 254-258. 
 
 His goodness inseparable from His 
 truthfulness, 259. 
 
 His claim to sinlessness, 262. 
 
 His claim to royalty, 264. 
 
 The dilemma concerning Him, 339. 
 Christendom, partial failure of, no 
 
 disproof of Christianity, 339. 
 Christian Evidence lectures, 22. 
 Christian inconsistencies and their 
 significance, 200. 
 
 Intensification of sin, 226. 
 
 Appreciation of Christ not irrele- 
 vant, 249. 
 
 Christianity, its first appeal to the 
 judgement, 23. 
 
 The sine qud non of, 33. 
 
 More incredible without the Super- 
 natural than with, 35. 
 
 Existence and diffusion, 116. 
 
 Unique, 117. 
 
 Origin, 118. 
 
 Triumph over enemies and friends, 
 127. 
 
 Third triumph, 128. 
 
 More vigorous than ever, 128. 
 
 Compared with Mohammedanism 
 and Buddhism, 130, 226. 
 
 Its elevating influence, 199. 
 
 To be accounted for, 233. 
 
 Adequately explained by New 
 Testament account, 241. 
 
 Its early programme inexplicable, 
 
 239. 
 
 Cicero, as to the universal notion of 
 gods, 219. 
 
 As to future existence, 294. 
 Clark, Sir Andrew, as to Christian 
 faith, 23. 
 
 As to effect of Gospel, 203.
 
 INDEX 
 
 367 
 
 Clark, Prof. Le Gros, on Paley's 
 Natural Theology, 85. 
 
 Clarke, Dr. W. N., as to Evolution, 
 
 108. 
 
 On the Resurrection, 173. 
 On the Personality of God, 278. 
 
 Clifford, Prof. W. K., as to belief in 
 
 God, 281. 
 
 As to Christianity, 311. 
 On the mystery of brain action, 334. 
 
 Clodd, Mr. E., Plain Account of 
 
 Evolution, 57-64. 
 As to Christianity, 311. 
 
 Cobbe, Miss F. P., on Christ's 
 character, 252, 265. 
 
 Comparative insignificance of Chris- 
 tian miracles, 315. 
 
 Complication and culmination of 
 argument, 319. 
 
 Concluding summary, 332. 
 
 Conditionalists and the future life, 305. 
 
 Congreve, Dr., on Positivism and 
 Christ's character, 253. 
 
 Consensus of New Testament writ- 
 ings, 192. 
 
 Consolatory religion insufficient, 20. 
 
 Constantino and early Christianity, 
 125. 
 
 Conviction versus Denunciation, 17. 
 
 Conversion of Paul, 177-186. 
 Natural explanations of, contra- 
 dictory, 324. 
 
 Cowper, B. Harris, as to the Christian 
 Apocrypha, 195. 
 
 Crafts, Dr., on practical Christian 
 Sociology, 204. 
 
 Craufurd, Rev. A. H., Christian 
 Instincts and Modern Doubt, 
 20, 71. 
 
 Credentials of Gospels not disproved, 
 273. 
 
 Credibility of Gospels, 267. 
 
 Credulity of primitive Christians 
 estimated, 211, 238. 
 
 Critical notes, 37. 
 
 Cruelty in Nature exaggerated, 75, 
 328. 
 
 Gumming, Miss Gordon, as to Chris- 
 tianity in Fiji, 206. 
 
 Daily Chronicle, Testimony to 
 vitality of Christianity, 129. 
 
 Dallinger, 'Dr., Fernley Lecture on 
 the Creator and Creation, 84. 
 
 Darwin, confession in his later years 
 
 68. 
 
 As to teleology, 68. 
 Concerning orchids and adaptation, 
 
 As to influence of Christianity in 
 
 New Zealand, 205. 
 Davids, Mr. Rhys, as to the Buddhist 
 
 Trinity, 284. 
 Debates on religion unsatisfactory, 
 
 22. 
 Design, as proof of God's existence, 
 
 65-104 
 
 j Destructive criticism, 267. 
 Deuteronomy xxviii. and xxix., 
 
 114. 
 
 Differences of Doctrine amongst 
 Christians exceeded amongst 
 Unbelievers, 269. 
 
 Difficulties in connection with Chris- 
 tianity, 7, 8, 31. 
 Of unbelief greater than those of 
 
 belief, 32. 
 Of unbelief in regard to Christ's 
 
 character, 260. 
 
 Of unbelief in construction, 321. 
 Aggravated and perpetuated by 
 
 Naturalism, 337. 
 
 Dilemma of unbelief hopeless, 261. 
 Inevitable, 275. 
 As to Christian philosophy and its 
 
 origin, 293. 
 
 As to Christian ethics, 312. 
 As to Immortality, 313. 
 Dilemmas of Naturalism, 310, 311. 
 Diocletian, his persecution of the 
 
 early Christians, 123, 125. 
 Discordant explanations of unbelief, 
 
 324. 
 Discrepancies in the Gospels and 
 
 their significance, 189. 
 Disharmony of Rationalism as to the 
 
 Gospels, 268. 
 
 Distinction between the difficul- 
 ties of belief and unbelief, 
 327. 
 Dods, Dr. Marcus, On Mohammed, 
 
 Buddha, and Christ, 222. 
 Dreyfus Trial, The, and modern anti- 
 Semitism, 115. 
 
 Drummond, Prof. Henry, on Evolu- 
 tion, 56. 
 
 Dudgeon, Dr., as to missions in 
 China, 208.
 
 368 
 
 INDEX 
 
 EBRARD, quoted as to the Lord's 
 
 Supper, 134. 
 Ecce Homo, as to Christ's miracles, 
 
 44, 108, 261. 
 
 As to Christian holiness, 227. 
 
 As to Christ's character, 246, 253. 
 
 As to Christian philanthropy, 287. 
 
 As to Christian influence, 289, 290. 
 
 Ectopic gestation, as a comment, 52. 
 
 Effect of modern preaching upon 
 
 preachers, 15. 
 Christian Scriptures, 202. 
 Christianity upon humanity, 288. 
 Elimination of the supernatural as an 
 
 intellectual panacea, 319. 
 Environmental conditions of Christ's 
 
 birth and life, 256. 
 Epistles, as related to the Acts, 191. 
 Essenism, as an explanation of Christ, 
 
 257. 
 
 Ethics of Christianity, not derived 
 from Romans, Greeks, Jews, 240. 
 Evangelicalism, and its work, 4. 
 Evolution, the modern word, 54. 
 Herbert Spencer's final formula, 80. 
 Out of the question in regard to 
 
 Christian morality, 241. 
 As an explanation of Christ's 
 
 character, 254-258. 
 Contradicting itself as to Christian 
 
 philosophy, 293. 
 Experience of Christians, a valid 
 
 argument, 209, 
 Explanation of all difficulties required 
 
 from unbelief, 326. 
 Eye, the human, 51-53, 78, 79. 
 
 FACTS of the same order as to the 
 Resurrection, 162. 
 
 Fanaticism, characteristics of, well- 
 known, 183, 236. 
 
 Fathers, writings of the, compared j 
 with the New Testament, 237. | 
 
 Fetish worship, rightly, estimated, ! 
 219. 
 
 Fichte's estimate of Christianity, 202. 
 
 Fifth Gospel, the, Paul's acknow- 
 ledged letters, 290. 
 
 First Principles, Mr. Herbert 
 Spencer's, 81. 
 
 Fiske, Mr. John, on teleology, 48. 
 Cosmic Philosophy, quoted, 48. 
 As to the immortality of the soul, 
 278, 298, 308. 
 
 Footman, Rev. H., on "reasonable 
 
 apprehensions," 128. 
 Foraminifera, beauty of, 95. 
 Fourth Gospel, the, as to miracles, 45. 
 Fragments of Science, Tyndall's, 
 
 quoted, 97. 
 Frere, Sir Bartle, as to missions in 
 
 India, 207. 
 On Christianity's adaptation to all 
 
 forms of civilisation, 237. 
 Future life, scientific demonstration 
 
 of : by Mr. T. J. Hudson, 297, 
 
 GALAHAD, Sir, 102. 
 
 Galerius. persecution and edict of 
 
 toleration, 123. 
 Gardner's Exploratio Evangclica, 
 
 note on, 46. 
 
 Gibbon's explanations of early Chris- 
 tian triumphs, 125, 173, 234. 
 Gipsies, no parallel to the Jews, 113. 
 Gladstone, Prof. J. H., F.R.S., on 
 
 the Divine purpose in Nature, 67. 
 Gladstone, W. E., as to the worth of 
 
 Christianity, 204. 
 God, idea of, universal, 218. 
 Goethe, as to genuineness of Gospels, 
 
 176. 
 
 As to Christianity, 221, 278. 
 As to Christ's character, 251. 
 Quoted by Haeckel, 356. 
 Goodness in Christ's character 
 
 inseparable from truthfulness, 
 
 259, 274. 
 Gospel, the, more miraculous without 
 
 miracles, 36. 
 Of John dismissed, 268. 
 Gospels, their characteristics, 188. 
 
 Their credibility, 267. 
 Gray, Dr. Asa, as to teleology, 68. 
 Greeks, attitude of, towards the 
 
 Gospel, 121, 126. 
 Greg, Mr. W. R., as to Christ's 
 
 character, 252. 
 
 As to Christ's Resurrection, 322. 
 Grimthorpe, Lord, on Agnostic Evolu- 
 tion, 71, 80, 81, 83, 86. 
 On Huxley and Hume, 234. 
 Ground, on Spencer's structural 
 
 principles, 71. 
 
 HAECKEL, History of Creation, 67. 
 Theory of Evolution, 72.
 
 INDEX 
 
 369 
 
 Haeckel, on The Riddle of the Uni- 
 verse, 345. 
 Emphasises main contention of 
 
 this work, 347, 
 Assertion of sincerity, 348. 
 Contemptuous ipse dixit, 349. 353. 
 
 354. 
 
 False statements, 349-352. 
 Pledged to abiogenesis, 352 
 
 Hamlet, and the sequence of death, 
 304. 
 
 Happiness, in the animal world, 76. 
 
 Harnack, Adolf, Das Wesen des 
 Christentums, 278. 
 
 Harrison, Rev. A. J., quoted, 108. 
 Mr. Frederic, as to the need of 
 religion, 288, 289. 
 
 Hastings' Bible Dictionary, referred 
 to, 140. 
 
 Hausrath, Dr., as to Christ's char- 
 acter, 252. 
 
 Helmholtz, Professor, as to the primi- 
 tive nebulosity, 58. 
 As to the human eye, 78. 
 
 Henslow, Professor, as to Evolution 
 and Christ's character, 256. 
 
 Herschel, Sir John, quoted, 48. 
 
 Higher Criticism, the, and its influ- 
 ence, 5. 
 Irrelevant here, 110. 
 
 Hirst, Mr. J. Crowther, as to Nature's 
 cruelty, 76. 
 
 History, realm of, 109 et seq. 
 
 Holiness, as a Christian conception, 
 228. 
 
 Hope, Christian, in face of the 
 mystery of pain, 331. 
 
 Horce PauZince, Paley 's, instanced ,191. 
 
 Hudson, Dr., on animal happiness, 
 
 76. 
 
 Mr. T. J., scientific demonstration 
 of a future life, 297, 306, 309. 
 
 Hughes, Rev. T. P., on Mohammed- 
 anism, 285, 290, 302. 
 
 Hull, Professor E., F.R.S., as to the 
 origin of life, 60. 
 
 Human eye, the, related to moral 
 causes and effects, 74. 
 
 Hume, as to Christianity, 130. 
 
 Hutton, Mr., on human sacrifices in 
 India, 206. 
 
 Huxley, Professor T. H., as to the 
 
 basis of life, 61. 
 As to teleology, 68, 69, 71. 
 24 
 
 Huxley, as to development of the 
 
 tadpole, 78. 
 As to miracles, 105. 
 As to Bible ethics, 111. 
 As to Christ's Resurrection, 139. 
 As to the effect of Bible teaching 
 
 203. 
 
 As to Positivism, 282. 
 As to suffering in Nature, 329. 
 
 IDEAS of Christianity compared with 
 
 those of other religions, 286. 
 Ignorance of modern Science, 334. 
 
 Attested by Haeckel, 345. 
 Immortality, its significance in 
 
 human thought, 293-295. 
 Its certainty in Christian thought, 
 
 299. 
 Its simplicity in Christian thought, 
 
 300. 
 
 Its individuality and nobility, 301. 
 Reserve in the Christian doctrine 
 
 of, 303. 
 
 Not derived from Judaism, 304. 
 As a corollary to Evolution, 308, 
 
 309. 
 
 Most desired by the best, 309. 
 Imperfection, the, of human eye no 
 
 disproof of design, 79. 
 Inconsistencies of Christians, 287. 
 Individuality in the Christian 
 
 promise of immortality, 300. 
 Inevitable conclusion, from rejection 
 
 of Supernatural, 242. 
 Inferior eyes of lower creatures con- 
 sistent with design, 80. 
 In Memoriam, quoted, 102, 296, 305, 
 
 307, 331, 344, 356. 
 Intelligence, required for greater 
 
 marvels, if for lesser, 78. 
 Introductory Chapter, 1. 
 Involution necessary to Evolution, 55. 
 Irrational to reject the Supernatural, 
 
 341. 
 
 Islam, 117, 285, 289, 290, 299, 302. 
 Iverach, Dr., on Evolution, 54, 56, 
 66. 
 
 JEVONS, Professor S., quoted, 25. 
 Jewish idiosyncrasies inexplicable by 
 
 natural Evolution, 116. 
 Well known, 119. 
 Early belief of, only explained by 
 New Testament account, 120.
 
 370 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Jews, the, 109-116. 
 
 Jones, Rev. Griffith, as to the Resur- 
 rection Body of Christ, 151, 164, 
 156. 
 As to the Ascension, 168. 
 
 Judgement, the true basis of emotion, 
 24. 
 
 Julian, and early Christianity, 126. 
 
 KANT'S avowal, 279. 
 
 Karma, Buddhist doctrine of, 301. 
 
 Keim, as to Christ's Resurrection, 
 
 140, 143, 155. 
 As to Paul's conversion, 182, 185. 
 
 Kelvin, Lord, atheistic idea non- 
 sensical, 64. 
 
 ' As to design, 86. 
 
 Kennedy, Dr., on the Resurrection 
 of Christ, 136. 
 
 Kennedy, Rev. J. H., on Natural 
 Theology and Mulcrn Thought, 
 quoted, 48. 
 
 Kernel and the Husk, The, quoted, 2. 
 As to a non-miraculous Christ, 37. 
 As to the Fourth Gospel and the 
 
 Miraculous Conception, 40. 
 As to the Supernatural, 152. 
 As to a spiritual Resurrection, 156, 
 172. 
 
 Keshub Chunder Sen, as to Chris- 
 tianity in India, 207. 
 
 Kidd, Mr. Benj., Social Evolution, 
 quoted, 28. 
 
 Kidd, Dr. W., F.Z.S., as to Creation, 
 
 63. 
 As to Design, 70. 
 
 Knight, Professor, on Christian 
 Ethics, 312. 
 
 Koran, compared with the New Testa- 
 ment, 237. 
 
 Kropotkin, Prince, as to suffering in 
 Nature, 329. 
 
 LACTAXTIUS, as a witness of early 
 Christian persecution, 123. 
 
 Law of Parsimony, 335. 
 
 Lawrence, Lord, as to missions in 
 India, 208. 
 
 Lawrence, Rev. Eric, on the Resurrec- 
 tion, 163, 170. 
 
 Leaders of modern Science not neces- 
 sarily Agnostic, 86. 
 
 Lecky, Histori/ of European Morals, 
 121, 125, 130. 
 
 Lecky, as to Christ's character and 
 
 influence, 246, 253. 
 Le Conte, Professor, Evolution and 
 
 Religious thought, 48. 
 On Design, 84. 
 
 As to beauty, apart from use, 95. 
 Le Gallienne, Mr. R., as to personal 
 
 identity, 301. 
 Lias, Dr., on miracles, 35. 
 As to Christ's influence, 176. 
 As to the whole body of evidence 
 
 for Christianity, 326. 
 Liddon, Dr., on the belief in Im- 
 mortality, 295. 
 Lightfoot, Dr., on the Acts of the 
 
 Apostles, 194. 
 As to Essenism, 257. 
 Lord's Supper, The, and its signifi- 
 cance, 131-234. 
 Luke's Gospel and its date according 
 
 to McGiffert, 273. 
 
 Lyttleton, Lord, on the Conversion of 
 Paul, 177-180. 
 
 MACAULAY, Lord, political estimate 
 of Christianity, 202. 
 
 Maccabees, Second Book of, references 
 to Immortality, 305, 306. 
 
 Maclaren, Dr., as to the Resurrec- 
 tion, 150. 
 
 Maclear, Dr., on the historical 
 fidelity of New Testament, 193. 
 
 Madagascar, effect of Christian 
 missions in, 206. 
 
 Maharajah of Travail core, as to mis- 
 sions in India, 207. 
 
 Man, a moral being assumed, 217. 
 
 Maronites, 113. 
 
 Martyrs, early Christian, 121. 
 
 McGiffert, Dr., as to Paul's belief in 
 
 Christ's Resurrection, 163. 
 As to the Acts of the Apostles, 178. 
 As to Gospels of Luke and John, 
 273. 
 
 Mental obliquity of unbelief, 25. 
 
 Mill, James, on the origin of things, 
 308. 
 
 Mill, John Stuart, as to miracles, 105. 
 As to character of Christ, 189, 257. 
 As to Gospels, 195. 
 As to Christianity, 231, 286. 
 Indictment of Nature, 329. 
 
 Milligan, Dr., on a spiritual Resur- 
 rection. 157, 161.
 
 INDEX 
 
 371 
 
 Mind, involved in the universe, 51. 
 Mineral world, inexplicable and use- 
 less beauty of, 96. 
 
 Minimum, an irreducible, for Chris- 
 tianity, 33. 
 Miracles, cannot be detached from 
 
 the Gospel, 38, 41. 
 In the New Testament, 42. 
 And mighty works, 43, 44. 
 Not violations of cause and effect, 
 
 44. 
 
 Not incredible, 45. 
 And the Fourth Gospel, 45. 
 Not impossible or incredible, 
 
 65. 
 Rejection of, only necessary for the 
 
 Atheist, 105. 
 Purely a question of evidence. 
 
 106. 
 Inevitable in connection with the 
 
 Resurrection, 151. 
 Intensified by withdrawal of the 
 
 Supernatural, 240. 
 Miracles, of unbelief, in regard to 
 
 Christ, summarised, 274, 275. 
 Miraculous conception, 40, 41. 
 Miraculous and supernatural com- 
 pared, 43. 
 Missions, Christian, and their effects, 
 
 118, 129, 204, 233. 
 Modern life and its influences, 18. 
 Mohammed and Christ, 222. 
 Mohammedanism, 117, 284, 289, 290, 
 
 299, 302. 
 Momerie, Dr., on belief in God, 64, 
 
 318. 
 
 On belief in immortality, 295. 
 Monism, failure of, 347. 
 Monstrosities of Naturalism, 315. 
 Moral realm, the, 217. 
 Muir, Sir Wm., as to Mohammedan- 
 ism and Christianity, 285, 289. 
 Mtiller's Fertilisation of Flowers, 
 
 quoted, 77. 
 
 Mystery of pain exaggerated, 73. 
 Myth, futility of appeal to, 271. 
 
 NAPOLEON BUONOPARTE, as to 
 
 Christ's character, 254. 
 Doubts as to existence of, 272. 
 Natural difficulties worse than mira- 
 culous, 37. 
 
 Natural Eeligion, Seeley's, quoted, 
 318. 
 
 24-2 
 
 Naturalising, the, of Christianity 
 
 mistaken, 34. 
 Naturalism, its difficulty as to Christ, 
 
 Its influence, 308. 
 Its dilemmas, 312, 315. 
 Its contradictory solutions of Chris- 
 tian difficulties, 320. 
 Creates more difficulties than it 
 
 removes, 332. 
 Treble failure of, 335. 
 Summary of its contradictions, 
 
 336. 
 Nature, "red in tooth and claw," a 
 
 misrepresentation, 72. 
 Necessity for other Christian methods 
 
 besides preaching, 18. 
 Neglect of Apologetics in the pulpit, 
 
 18, 21. 
 Newman, F. W., acknowledgment of, 
 
 as to New Testament, 192. 
 New Testament and its miracle por- 
 tions, 42. 
 As to its nature and origin. 186- 
 
 213. 
 Its foundation on fraud pyscho- 
 
 logically inconceivable, 211. 
 Newton, Sir Isaac, as to the Being 
 
 of God, 64. 
 Nitro-carbonates, the, as workers of 
 
 miracle, 353. 
 
 Nobility of Christian promise of Im- 
 mortality, 301. 
 Notes on The Kernel and the Husk, 
 
 37. 
 
 Number of believing men of science 
 greater than of unbelieving, 67. 
 Numbers as an estimate of moral 
 worth, 232. 
 
 OBJECTIVE and Subjective, as to 
 
 Christ's Resurrection, 163. 
 Occult phenomena, 297. 
 Omissions of New Testament calling 
 
 for explanations, 234, 237. 
 Open conferences unobjectionable 
 
 and profitable, 22. 
 Opening century, three portentous 
 
 facts, 9. 
 Orchids, cultivation of, 103. 
 
 PAIN, value of, to the race, 74. 
 Mystery of its mitigation and alle- 
 viation 75.
 
 372 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Paine, Thomas, 118. 
 
 As to Christ's character, 229. 
 Painlessness, the greater mystery of, 
 
 75. 
 
 Paley's Natural Theology not anti- 
 quated, 50. 
 Scorn cast upon, 65. 
 Happiness of this world, 72. 
 On belief in God, 338. 
 Paracelsus, Browning's, quoted, 297. 
 Parker, Prof. Kitchen, on Evolution, 
 
 85. 
 Parker, Theodore, as to Christ's 
 
 character, 246, 252. 
 Paul's acknowledged letters, 270. 
 
 Their date, 271. 
 Paul's conversion, 177-186. 
 Supernatural, 176. 
 Contrary explanations of, 324. 
 Persecution of early Christians, 122. 
 And increased enthusiasm, 123, 
 
 124. 
 
 Persistence of religious notions, 225. 
 Personal sincerity insufficient, 43. 
 Philistinism, modern, 30. 
 Phillips, L. F. March, 154. 
 Lectures on Cumulative Evidences 
 
 of Divine Revelation, 154. 
 Physical Science, realm of, 47. 
 Plato, as to the need for God, 
 
 220. 
 
 Pliny's rescript to Trajan, 122. 
 Political economy not noticed in New 
 
 Testament, 235. 
 Preaching, modern, compared with 
 
 Apostolic methods, 14. 
 Present - Day Tracts, commended, 
 
 112, 115, 119, 193, 197. 
 Pressense's Early Years of Chris- 
 tianity, Martyrs and Apologists, 
 
 119, 122. 
 Proctor, Mr. Richard A., quoted as 
 
 to Divine intervention, 154. 
 Psychical Research Society, 306. 
 Psychology, realm of, 175. 
 Pulpit logic, 16. 
 Pyramid, poised on nothing, 56. 
 
 RADIOLARIA, beauty of, 95. 
 Reason before faith, 14, 24. 
 
 And faith, their relations, 25. ' 
 Renan, M., as to Christ's character, 
 
 251, 257. 
 Renouf, M., on life after death, 294. 
 
 Reserve of New Testament ns to 
 
 future life, 303. 
 
 Response, the Christian, to the long- 
 ing for Immortality, 299. 
 Results of timid conservatism in 
 
 pulpit, 19. 
 
 Resurrection of Christ, the, 135-151. 
 Indisputable facts as to the, 141. 
 Its immediate results unparalleled, 
 
 145. 
 Actuality of, 155. 
 
 Spiritual, considered, 156-172. 
 Varying theories of unbelief con- 
 cerning, 322. 
 The only rational explanation of, 
 
 323. 
 
 Reynolds, Dr., on Buddhism, 283. 
 Rogers, Prof. Henry, on the Bible, 
 
 112, 197. 
 
 On the con version of Paul, 177, 181. 
 Romanes, G. J., quoted, 28. 
 As to sudden creation, 66. 
 Thoughts on Religion, quoted, 108. 
 On Christianity, 291, 311. 
 Romans, attitude of, towards the 
 
 early Gospel, 120. 
 
 Roscoe, Sir Henry, on Protoplasm, 61. 
 Rousseau, 117. 
 
 As to origin of New Testament, 213. 
 As to Christ's morality, 239. 
 As to Christ's character, 251. 
 Row, Rev. C. A., on the Resurrection, 
 
 135, 165. 
 Royalty, Christ's claim to, 264, 265. 
 
 SACRIFICES, meaning and cessation 
 
 of, 224. 
 Salmon, Dr., as to non-miraculous 
 
 Christianity, 39-42. 
 Salmond, Dr., as to the Jewish con- 
 ceptions of Immortality, 305. 
 Sanday, Dr., as to the Resurrection, 
 
 140, 172. 
 Sartor Resartus, Carlyle's, quoted, 
 
 230. 
 Scientific demonstration of a future 
 
 life, by T. J. Hudson, 297, 306, 
 
 309. 
 Secretary of State, as to effect of 
 
 missions in India, 207. 
 Secularist ribaldry, 3, 250, 276. 
 Seel ey, Prof., as to Christian holiness, 
 
 227. 
 As to Christ's character, 246, 253.
 
 INDEX 
 
 373 
 
 Seeley, Prof., as to miracles, 261. 
 As to Christian philanthropy, 287. 
 As to Christian influence, 289, 
 
 290. 
 
 As to natural religion, 318. 
 Selby, Rev. T. G., on the resurrection 
 
 body, 171. 
 
 Self-confutation of sceptic explana- 
 tions of Christianity, 320. 
 Severity, Christ's, towards the Phari- 
 sees, 29. 
 
 Shairp, Principal, on miracles, 105. 
 Shallow sentimentality as to the 
 
 course of nature, 74. 
 Shaw, Mr. D., on converging proofs 
 
 of Christianity, 327. 
 Silencing of modern hearers, 15. 
 Simplicity of Christian hope of Im- 
 mortality, 299. 
 Sin, conviction of, in Christianity, 
 
 223. 
 Conviction of, strongest in best 
 
 men, 262. 
 Sinlessness, Christ's claim to, 262- 
 
 264. 
 Slavery, not prohibited in the New 
 
 Testament, 235. 
 Smith, Prof. Goldwin, as to Secularist 
 
 ribaldry, 3. 
 As to progress and Christendom, 
 
 289. 
 Socrates and the Christian hope of 
 
 Immortality, 304. 
 Sound, beauty and significance of, 
 
 98. 
 Speed and purpose incommensurable, 
 
 70. 
 Spencer, Mr. Herbert, as to religion, 
 
 281. 
 
 Appropriate conditions, 55. 
 Redistribution, 59. 
 " Big carpenter" theory, 71. 
 Evolution, 80. 
 Definition of life, 333. 
 Spinoza, as to Christ's character, 251. 
 Spiritual resurrection, 156, 172. 
 
 Realm, the, 279. 
 Spontaneous generation asserted by 
 
 Hacckel, 352. 
 
 Standard, testimony of, as to Chris- 
 tian missions, 205. 
 Statement of the case, 27. 
 Stephen, Sir James F., as to Positive 
 Humanity, 282. 
 
 Stevens, Dr., Theology of New Testa- 
 ment, quoted, 176. 
 Stirling, Dr. Hutchinson, on Darwin- 
 
 ianism, 72. 
 
 Stokes, Sir G. G., on Design, 53, 67. 
 Storrs' Divine Origin of Christianity, 
 
 119, 232. 
 Strata, no two distinct in Gospel 
 
 narratives, 38. 
 Strauss, as to Christ's resurrection, 
 
 139. 
 
 Mythical theory, 141. 
 Character of Christ, 221, 230, 251 
 As to loss of faith, 330. 
 Stuckeuberg, Dr., on Christian 
 
 Sociology, 204. 
 Subjective criticism, 209. 
 
 And objective, as to Christ's 
 
 Resurrection, 163. 
 Sublimity in Nature and the Design 
 
 argument, 87. 
 
 Suddenness as proof of Design, 69, 70. 
 Suffering as an argument against 
 
 Christianity, 328. 
 Largely due to vice and folly, 330. 
 Supernatural versus Miraculous, 43. 
 Supernatural, the, in history of Jews, 
 
 111. 
 
 Meaning of, 152-154. 
 Modern aversion to, 333. 
 Supernatural Religion, author of, 
 as to subjective impressions, 165. 
 As to the Ascension, 168. 
 As to Christ's character, 253. 
 His final construction, 321. 
 As to Christ's resurrection, 322. 
 Suppositions of Mr. Greg, as to 
 
 Christ's Resurrection, 322, 323. 
 Synoptic Gospels discredited, 268. 
 Synthesis of gems and the inevitable 
 inference, 97. 
 
 TALLYKAND referred to by Prof. 
 Seeley, 318. 
 
 Testimonies of unbelief to Christ s 
 character, 250, 253. 
 
 Theism assumed by the New Testa- 
 ment, 49. 
 
 Theodoret, as to Julian's laws, 126. 
 
 Theology of an Evolutionist, Dr. 
 Lyman Abbott's, 106. 
 
 Thoughts on Religion, by J. G. 
 Romanes, quoted, 68, 108, 291, 
 311.
 
 374 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Tragedy of loss of faith growing, 21. 
 Triple opposition to Christianity and 
 
 triple triumph, 119. 
 "Triple tradition," 268. 
 Tiibingen School, 5. 
 "Two Voices," Tennyson's, quoted, 
 
 307. 
 Tylor, Dr., on the longing fora future 
 
 life, 294. 
 Tyndall, Prof., as to beauties of 
 
 crystallisation, 97, 98. 
 
 UNBELIEF unreasonable, 25. 
 
 Its dilemma as to Christ, hopeless, 
 
 261. 
 Its difficulties of construction, 321. 
 
 Unbelievers, well known, worth of 
 their testimony, 200. 
 
 Unconvincedness, 19. 
 
 Unseen Universe, The, authors of, on 
 science as a supporter of Chris- 
 tianity, 310. 
 
 VERBAL inspiration untenable, 194. 
 Voltaire, 118. 
 As to belief in God, 288. 
 
 WAGE, Dr., Boyle Lectures, quoted, 2, 
 12, 48. 
 
 Wace, Dr., on natural explanations of 
 
 the New Testament, 211. 
 As to miracles, 216. 
 Christianity and Morality, 229. 
 Wainwright, Dr. S., quoted, 108. 
 Wallace, Dr. A. Russell, as to the 
 
 exaggeration of suffering in 
 
 Nature, 329. 
 Weakening of Christian Conviction, 
 
 9. 
 Well-known unbelievers and their 
 
 testimony, 200. 
 Wells, Mr. H. G., and the War of 
 
 Worlds, 128. 
 West, Gilbert, on the Resurrection 
 
 of Christ, 178. 
 Westcott, on the nature of Christ's 
 
 Resurrection, 161, 166, 170. 
 Whately, Abp., Historic Doubts con- 
 cerning Napoleon, 272. 
 Wilkins, Prof. A. S., on Induction, 
 
 45. 
 
 As to Christian ethics, 230. 
 Worship, its object and influence, 
 
 280. 
 Wright, Dr. G. F., Scientific Aspects 
 
 of Christian Evidences, 176, 216. 
 
 ZIONIST Movement, 116. 
 
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 English commentary. '-Methodist Times. 
 
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 In post 8vo, Third Edition (pp. 678), price 125., 
 
 ST. LUKE'S GOSPEL 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. ALFRED PLUMMER, M.A., D.D., 
 
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 SPECIMEN PAGE 
 
 320 DEUTERONOMY 
 
 XXIX. -XXX. Moses Third Discourse. Israel 
 formally called upon to enter into the Deutero- 
 nomic Covenant. 
 
 The Deuteronomic Code ends with c. 28. C. 29-30 is of 
 the nature of a supplement, insisting afresh upon the funda- 
 mental principle of the Code, viz. devotion to Jehovah, and 
 calling upon Israel to yield loyal allegiance to it. The 
 discourse falls naturally into three parts. In the first, 
 Moses, after referring to what Jehovah has done for Israel 
 ^ 2 gi-s(2-9)^ reminds them that the purpose for which they are 
 now assembled together is that they may enter solemnly into 
 covenant with Him, and warns them afresh of the disastrous 
 consequences, including national ruin and exile, which a lapse 
 into idolatry will inevitably entail (ag 9 * 2 ^ 10 - 29 )) ; in the second, 
 imagining the threatened exile to have taken place, he promises 
 that even then, if Israel sincerely repents, Jehovah will again 
 receive it into His favour, and restore it to the land of promise 
 (3O 1 " 10 ) ; in the third, he sums up, in brief but forcible words, 
 the two alternatives placed before Israel, life and happiness 
 on the one side, death and misfortune on the other, and 
 adjures the nation to choose wisely between them (so 11 ' 20 ). 
 
 In these chapters, the connection is sometimes imperfect, esp. between 
 30 1 ' 10 and 3O 11 ' 20 (see on 30") ; several words and phrases occur, not other- 
 wise found in Dt. (Dillm. notes V'DBTI 29* t 9 ', n"?K oath, imprecation, ag 11 - 13 - 18 - 
 19. 20 (12. H. 19. 20. a) 3^ idol-blocks and detestations 29 16 ( 17 >, tr ]o 29" P 8 ', nrn 
 stubbornness ag 18 P 9 > , fjK \yy and nVo 29 19 P>, njn 1 ? unto evil 29 P 1 ', D'KiVnn sick- 
 nesses 29 21 f 22 ), forsake the covenant 29^ I 25 ', eru pluck up 29^ I 28 ', mn drive 
 a-way 30*- 4 ; and the phrases 29" ( 6 ) b - " t 18 )* 1 - 18 P 9 )") ; and the points of contact 
 with Jeremiah are more numerous than usual. A question thus arises, 
 whether the text is throughout in its original order, and whether it is 
 entirely by the same hand as the body of Dt. : see the Introduction, 4. 
 
 XXIX. 1-8 (2-9). Moses reminds the Israelites of all that 
 Jehovah has wrought for them, from the time of their deliver- 
 ance from Egypt, founding upon it a renewed exhortation to 
 obey the words of the covenant. The paragraph is a recapitu- 
 lation of the substance of earlier parts of Dt., stated largely 
 in the same phraseology. 1(2). And Moses called unto all 
 Israel (i 1 ), and said unto them] exactly as 5 1 . Ye (emph.) have
 
 SPECIMEN PAGE 
 
 238 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO S. LUKE [VIII. 54, 55. 
 
 This laying hold of her hand and the raised voice (e^w^o-ev) are 
 consonant with waking one out of sleep, and the two may be 
 regarded as the means of the miracle. Comp. and contrast through- 
 out Acts ix. 36-42. 
 
 'H TTCHS, eyeipe. " Arise, get up," not " awake." Mt. omits 
 the command ; Mk. gives the exact words, Talitha cumi. For the 
 nom. with the art. as voc. see on x. 21, xviii. u, 13. For e<j>wn]o-i' 
 comp. ver. 8, xvi. 24. 
 
 55. eWcrrpeiJ/ej' TO irveujxa aurrjs. There can be no doubt that 
 the Evangelist uses the phrase of the spirit returning to a dead 
 body, which is the accurate use of the phrase. Only the beloved 
 physician makes this statement. In LXX it is twice used of a 
 living man's strength reviving; of the fainting Samson (Judg. 
 xv. 19), and of the starving Egyptian (i Sam. xxx. 12). Note that 
 Lk. has his favourite 7rapa^p^/Aa, where Mk. has his favourite 
 evflu's; and comp. ver. 44, v. 25, xviii. 43, xxii. 60. 
 
 Sieralei' aurfj 806^01 ^ayei^. This care of Jesus in command- 
 ing food after 'the child's long exhaustion would be of special 
 interest to Lk. In their joy and excitement the parents might 
 have forgotten it. The charge is somewhat parallel to eSw/cev avrov 
 T-fj p.r]Tpl avrov (vii. 15) of the widow's son at Nain. In each case 
 He intimates that nature is to resume its usual course : the old ties 
 and the old responsibilities are to begin again. 
 
 56. TrapriyyeiXei' aurols p.T]oecl elireii' TO yeyoros. The command 
 has been rejected as an unintelligible addition to the narrative. 
 No such command was given at Nain or at Bethany. The object 
 of it cannot have been to keep the miracle a secret. Many were 
 outside expecting the funeral, and they would have to be told why 
 no funeral was to take place. It can hardly have been Christ's 
 intention in this way to prevent the multitude from making a bad 
 use of the miracle. This command to the parents would not have 
 attained such an object. It was given more probably for the 
 parents' sake, to keep them from letting the effect of this great 
 blessing evaporate in vainglorious gossip. To thank God for it at 
 home would be far more profitable than talking about it abroad. 
 
 IX. 1-50. To the Departure for Jerusalem. 
 
 This is the last of the four sections into which the Ministry in 
 Galilee (iv. u-ix. 50) was divided. It contains the Mission of the 
 Twelve (1-9), the Feeding of the Five Thousand (10-17), the 
 Transfiguration (28-36), the Healing of the Demoniac Boy (37-43). 
 and two Predictions of the Passion (18-27, 43~5 )- 
 
 1-9 The Mission of the Twelve and the Fears of Herod. Mt. 
 x. 1-15; Mk. vi. 7-1 1. Mt. is the most full. Lk. gives no note
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL CRITICAL COMMENTARY. 
 
 NINE VOLUMES NOW READY. See preceding pages. 
 
 The following other Volumes are in course of preparation : 
 THE OLD TESTAMENT. 
 
 Genesis. 
 
 Exodus. 
 Leviticus. 
 
 Numbers. 
 
 Joshua. 
 
 Kings. 
 
 Isaiah. 
 
 Jeremiah. 
 
 Minor Prophets. 
 Psalms. 
 
 Job. 
 Daniel. 
 
 Ezra and Nehemiah. 
 Chronicles. 
 
 Synopsis of the 
 
 Four Gospels. 
 
 Matthew. 
 
 Acts. 
 
 Corinthians. 
 
 Galatians. 
 
 The Pastoral Epistles. 
 Hebrews. 
 
 James. 
 
 Peter and Jude. 
 
 The Johannine 
 
 Epistles. 
 Revelation. 
 
 T. K. CHEYNE, D.D., Oriel Professor of the Interpretation of Holy 
 
 Scripture, Oxford, and Canon of Rochester. 
 
 A. K. 8. KBNNEDY, D.D., Professor of Hebrew, University of Edinburgh. 
 ,1 F STESNING, M.A., Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford ; and the late 
 
 Rev. H. A. White, M.A., Fellow of New College, Oxford. 
 G. BUCHANAN GRAY, M.A., Lecturer in Hebrew, Mansfield College, 
 
 Oxford. 
 GEORGE ADAM SMITH, D.D., Professor of Hebrew, Free Church College, 
 
 Glasgow. 
 FRANCIS BROWN, D.D., Professor of Hebrew and Cognate Languages, 
 
 Union Theological Seminary, New York. 
 A. B. DAVIDSON, D.D., LL.D., Professor of Hebrew, Free Church College, 
 
 Edinburgh. 
 A. F. KIRKPATRICK, D.D., Regius Professor of Hebrew, and Fellow of 
 
 Trinity College, Cambridge. 
 
 W. R. HARPER, Ph.D., President of Chicago University. 
 C. A. BRIOOS, D.D., Edward Robinson Professor of Biblical Theology, 
 
 Union Theological Seminar}', New York. 
 S. R. DRIVER, D.D., Regius Professor of Hebrew, Oxford. 
 Rev. JOHN P. PETERS, Ph.D., late Professor of Hebrew, P. E. Divinity 
 
 School, Philadelphia, now Rector of St. Michael's Church, New 
 
 York City. 
 
 Rev. L. W. BATTEN, Ph.D., Professor of Hebrew, P. E. Divinity School, 
 
 Philadelphia. 
 EDWARD L. CURTIS, D.D., Professor of Hebrew, Yale University, New 
 
 Haven, Conn. 
 
 THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 W. SASHAY, D.D., LL.D., Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity, Oxford ; 
 
 and Rev. W. C. ALI.EN, M.A., Exeter College, Oxford. 
 Rev. WILLOCGHBY C. ALLEN, M.A., Chaplain, Fellow, and Lecturer in 
 
 Theology and Hebrew, Exeter College, Oxford. 
 
 FREDERICK H. CHASE, D.D., Christ's College, Cambridge. 
 
 ARCH. ROBERTSON, D.D., Principal of King's College, London. 
 
 Rev. ERNEST D. BURTON, A.B., Professor of New Testament Literature, 
 
 University of Chicago. 
 
 WALTER LOCK, D.D., Dean Ireland's Professor of Exegesis, Oxford. 
 T. C. EDWARDS, D.D., Principal of the Theological College, Bala ; late 
 
 Principal of University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. 
 
 Rev. JAMES H. ROPES, A.B., Instructor in New Testament Criticism in 
 Harvard University. 
 
 CHARLES BIGG, D.D., Rector of Fenny Compton, Leamington ; Bampton 
 Lecturer, 1886. 
 
 S. D. F. SALMOND, D.D., Principal, and Professor of Systematic Theology, 
 Free Church College, Aberdeen. 
 
 ROBERT H. CHARLES, D.D., Professor of Biblical Greek in the University 
 of Dublin. 
 
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