272 AGNOSTICISM : A REJOINDER VTTT 



Jesus Christ preached that Sermon, made those promises, and 

 taught that prayer, then any one who says that we know nothing 

 of God, or of a future life, or of an unseen world, says that he 

 does not believe Jesus Christ (pp. 354-355). 



Again 



The main question at issue, in a word, is one which Pro- 

 fessor Huxley has chosen to leave entirely on one side whether, 

 namely, allowing for the utmost uncertainty on other points of 

 the criticism to which he appeals, there is any reasonable doubt 

 that the Lord's Prayer and the Sermon on the Mount afford a 

 true account of our Lord's essential belief and cardinal teaching 

 (p. 355). 



I certainly was not aware that I had evaded the 

 questions here stated ; indeed I should say that I 

 have indicated my reply to them pretty clearly ; 

 but, as Dr. Wace wants a plainer answer, he shall 

 certainly be gratified. If, as Dr. Wace declares it 

 is, his " whole case is involved in " the argument 

 as stated in the latter of these two extracts, so 

 much the worse for his whole case. For I am of 

 opinion that there is the gravest reason for 

 doubting whether the " Sermon on the Mount " 

 was ever preached, and whether the so-called 

 "Lord's Prayer" was ever prayed, by Jesus of 

 Nazareth. My reasons for this opinion are, among 

 others, these : There is now no doubt that the 

 three Synoptic Gospels, so far from being the work 

 of three independent writers, are closely inter- 

 dependent, 1 and that in one of two ways. Either 



1 I suppose this is what Dr. Wace is thinking about when he 

 says that I allege that there "is no visible escape " from the 



