232 AGNOSTICISM VII 



Protestant Churches ! And, probably, this hearty 

 and unanimous condemnation of the creed/held by 

 those who were in the closest personal relation 

 with their Lord, is almost the only point upon 

 which they would be cordially of one mind. On 

 the other hand, though I hardly dare imagine 

 such a thing, I very much fear that the " pillars " 

 of the primitive Hierosolymitan Church would 

 have considered Dr. Wace an infidel. No one can 

 read the famous second chapter of Galatians and 

 the book of Revelation without seeing how nar- 

 row was even Paul's escape from a similar fate. 

 And, if ecclesiastical history is to be trusted, the 

 thirty-nine articles, be they right or wrong, 

 diverge from the primitive doctrine of the Naza- 

 renes vastly more than even Pauline Christianity 

 did. 



But, further than this, I have great difficulty 

 in assuring myself that even James, "the brother 

 of the Lord," and his "myriads" of Nazarenes, 

 properly represented the doctrines of their 

 Master. For it is constantly asserted by our 

 modern " pillars " that one of the chief features of 

 the work of Jesus was the instauration of Religion 

 by the abolition of what our sticklers for articles 

 and liturgies, with unconscious humour, call the 

 narrow restrictions of the Law. Yet, if James 

 knew this, how could the bitter controversy with 

 Paul have arisen ; and why did not one or 

 the other side quote any of the various sayings of 



