\ri POSSIBILITIES AND IMPOSSIBILITIES 193 



of Satan and the surbordinate ministers of evil as 

 strongly as they believed in that of God and the 

 angels, and that they had an unhesitating faith in 

 possession and in exorcism. No reader of the first 

 three Gospels can hesitate to admit that, in the 

 opinion of those persons among whom the tradi- 

 tions out of which they are compiled arose, Jesus 

 held, and constantly acted upon, the same theory 

 of the spiritual world. Nowhere do we find the 

 slightest hint that he doubted the theory, or 

 questioned the efficacy of the curative operations 

 based upon it. 



Thus, when such a story as that about the 

 Gadarene swine is placed before us, the importance 

 of the decision, whether it is to be accepted or 

 rejected, cannot be overestimated. If the demon- 

 ological part of it is to be accepted, the authority 

 of Jesus is unmistakably pledged to the demono- 

 logical system current in JudaBa in the first 

 century. The belief in devils who possess men 

 and can be transferred from men to pigs, becomes 

 as much a part of Christian dogma as any article 

 of the creeds. If it is to be rejected, there are two 

 alternative conclusions. Supposing the Gospels to 

 be historically accurate, it follows that Jesus 

 shared in the errors, respecting the nature of the 

 spiritual world, prevalent in the age in which he 

 lived and among the people of his nation. If, on 

 the other hand, the Gospel traditions gives us only 

 a popular version of the sayings and doings of 



