IX AGNOSTICISM AND CHRISTIANITY 349 



in that system formed a part of the spiritual con- 

 victions in which he lived and died then I, for 

 my part, unhesitatingly refuse belief in that 

 teaching, and deny the reality of those spiritual 

 convictions. And I go further and add, that, 

 exactly in so far as it can be proved that Jesus 

 sanctioned the essentially pagan demon olooical 

 theories current among the Jews of his age, 

 exactly in so far, for me, will his authority in 

 any matter touching the spiritual world be weak- 

 ened. 



With respect to the first half of my answer, I 

 have pointed out that the Sermon on the Mount, 

 as given in the first Gospel, is, in the opinion of 

 the best critics, a " mosaic work " of materials 

 derived from different sources, and I do not under- 

 stand that this statement is challenged. The only 

 other Gospel the third which contains some- 

 thing like it, makes, not only the discourse, but the 

 circumstances under which it was delivered, very 

 different. Now, it is one thing to say that there 

 was something real at the bottom of the two 

 discourses which is quite possible; and another 

 to affirm that we have any right to say what that 

 something was, or to fix upon any particular 

 phrase and declare it to be a genuine utterance. 

 Those who pursue theology as a science, and bring 

 to the study an adequate knowledge of the ways of 

 ancient historians, will find no difficulty in provid- 

 ing illustrations of my meaning. I may supply 



