274 AGNOSTICISM: A EEJOINDER vm 



contains neither the " Sermon on the Mount " nor 

 the " Lord's Prayer," those typical embodiments, 

 according to Dr. Wace, of the " essential belief and 

 cardinal teaching " of Jesus ? Not only does 

 " Mark's " gospel fail to contain the " Sermon on 

 the Mount," or anything but a very few of the 

 sayings contained in that collection; but, at the 

 point of the history of Jesus where the " Sermon " 

 occurs in " Matthew/' there is in " Mark " an 

 apparently unbroken narrative from the calling of 

 James and John to the healing of Simon's wife's 

 mother. Thus the oldest tradition not only ignores 

 the " Sermon on the Mount," but, by implication, 

 raises a probability against its being delivered 

 when and where the later " Matthew " inserts it in 

 his compilation. 



And still more weighty is the fact that the third 

 gospel, the author of which tells us that he wrote 

 after " many " others had " taken in hand " the 

 same enterprise; who should therefore have known 

 the first gospel (if it existed), and was bound to 

 pay to it the deference due to the work of an 

 apostolic eye-witness (if he had any reason for 

 thinking it was so) this writer, who exhibits far 

 more literary competence than the other two, 

 ignores any " Sermon on the Mount," such as that 

 reported by " Matthew," just as much as the oldest 

 authority does. Yet " Luke " has a great many 

 passages identical, or parallel, with those in 

 " Matthew's " " Sermon on the Mount," which are, 



