230 AGNOSTICISM 



VII 



If any one will answer these questions for me 

 with something more to the point than feeble talk 

 about the " cowardice of agnosticism/' I shall be 

 deeply his debtor. Unless and until they are 

 satisfactorily answered, I say of agnosticism in 

 this matter, " J*y suis, etfy reste" 



But, as we have seen, it is asserted that I have 

 no business to call myself an agnostic ; that, if I 

 am not a Christian I am an infidel ; and that I 

 ought to call myself by that name of " unpleasant 

 significance." Well, I do not care much what I 

 am called by other people, and if I had at my side 

 all those who, since the Christian era, have been 

 called infidels by other folks, I could not desire 

 better company. If these are my ancestors, I pre- 

 fer, with the old Frank, to be with them wherever 

 , they are. But there are several points in Dr. 

 Wace's contention which must be elucidated 

 before I can even think of undertaking to carry 

 out his wishes. I must, for instance, know what 

 a Christian is. Now what is a Christian ? By 

 whose authority is the signification of that term 

 defined ? Is there any doubt that the immediate 

 followers of Jesus, the " sect of the Nazarenes," 

 were strictly orthodox Jews differing from other 

 Jews not more than the Sadducees, the Pharisees, 

 and the Essenes differed from one another ; in fact, 

 only in the belief that the Messiah, for whom the 

 rest of their nation waited, had come ? Was not 

 their chief, "James, the brother of the Lord/' 



