WHAT IS RELIGION? 229 



the New Testament is withdrawn directly the fall of man 

 and original sin are found to be myths. 



But what is the origin of the New Testament ? The 

 origin of the books contained in the canonical New 

 Testament is obscure. Previous to the Nicene Council 



were remembrances of lore obtained from the Chaldeans ? What 

 matters it that the beautiful story of Joseph is found to be in part 

 derived from an Egyptian romance, of which the hieroglyphs may 

 still be seen ? What matters it that the story of David and Goliath 

 is poetry ; and that Samson, like so many men of strength in other 

 religions, is probably a sun-myth ? What matters it that the incul- 

 cation of high duty in the childhood of the world is embodied in such 

 quaint stories as those of Jonah and Balaam ? The more we realize 

 these facts, the richer becomes that great body of literature brought 

 together within the covers of the Bible. What matters it that those 

 who incorporated the Creation lore of Babylonia and other Oriental 

 nations into the sacred books of the Hebrews, mixed it with their own 

 conceptions and deductions ? What matters it that Darwin changed 

 the whole aspect of our Creation myths ; that Lyell and his compeers 

 placed the Hebrew story of Creation and of the Deluge of Noah 

 among legends : that Copernicus put an end to the standing still of 

 the sun for Joshua ; that Halley, in promulgating his law of comets, 

 put an end to the doctrine of ' signs and wonders ' ; that Pinel, in 

 showing that all insanity is physical disease, relegated to the realm 

 of mythology the witch of Endor and all stories of demoniacal posses- 

 sion ; that the Eev. Dr. Schaff, and a multitude of recent Christian 

 travellers in Palestine, have put into the realm of legend the story of 

 Lot's wife transformed into a pillar of salt ; that the anthropologists, 

 by showing how man has risen everywhere from low and brutal 

 beginnings, have destroyed the whole theological theory of ' the fall 

 of man ' ? ur great body of sacred literature is thereby only made 

 more and more valuable to us : more and more we see how long and 

 patiently the forces in the universe which make for righteousness 

 have been acting in and upon mankind through the only agencies 

 fitted for such work in the earliest ages of the world through myth, 

 legend, parable, and poem." (" A History of the Warfare of 

 Science with Theology in Christendom," A. D. White, 1896, vol. ii. 

 p. 207.) 



