212 AGNOSTICISM VII 



persons attacked, which is so dear to the less 

 refined sort of controversialist. The agnostic 

 says, " I cannot find good evidence that so and so 

 is true." " Ah," says his adversary, seizing his 

 opportunity, " then you declare that Jesus Christ 

 was untruthful, for he said so and so ; " a very 

 telling method of rousing prejudice. But suppose 

 that the value of the evidence as to what Jesus 

 may have said and done, and as to the exact 

 nature and scope of his authority, is just that 

 which the agnostic finds it most difficult to deter- 

 mine. . If I venture to doubt that the Duke of 

 Wellington gave the command " Up, Guards, and 

 at 'em ! " at Waterloo, I do not think that even 

 Dr. Wace would accuse me of disbelieving the 

 Duke. Yet it would be just as reasonable to do 

 this as to accuse any one of denying what Jesus 

 said, before the preliminary question as to what 

 he did say is settled. 



Now, the question as to what Jesus really said 

 and did is strictly a scientific problem, which is 

 capable of solution by no other methods than 

 those practised by the historian and the literary 

 critic. It is a problem of immense difficulty, 

 which has occupied some of the best heads in 

 Europe for the last century ; and it is only of late 

 years that their investigations have begun to con- 

 verge towards one conclusion. 1 



1 Dr. Wace tells us, "It may be asked how far we can rely on 

 the accounts we possess of our Lord's teaching on these subjects." 



