348 AGNOSTICISM AND CHRISTIANITY ix 



make of my own knowledge is true. All which 

 things I notice, merely to illustrate the great 

 truth, forced on me by long experience, that it is 

 only from those who enjoy the blessing of a firm 

 hold of the Christian faith that such manifesta- 

 tions of meekness, patience, and charity are to be 

 expected. 



I had imagined that no one who had read 

 my preceding papers, could entertain a doubt as 

 to my position in respect of the main issue, as 

 it has been stated and restated by my opponent : 



an Agnosticism which knows nothing of the relation of man to 

 God must not only refuse belief to our Lord's most undoubted 

 teaching, but must deny the reality of the spiritual convictions 

 in which He lived. l 



That is said to be " the simple question which is 

 at issue between us," and the three testimonies to 

 that teaching and those convictions selected are 

 the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord's Prayer, and 

 the Story of the Passion. 



My answer, reduced to its briefest form, has 

 been : In the first place, the evidence is such that 

 the exact nature of the teachings and the convic- 

 tions of Jesus is extremely uncertain; so that 

 what ecclesiastics are pleased to call a denial of 

 them may be nothing of the kind. And, in the 

 second place, if Jesus taught the demonological 

 system involved in the Gadarene story if a belief 



1 Nineteenth Century, May 1389 (p. 701). 



