352 AGNOSTICISM AND CHRISTIANITY ix 



occasionally displays : surely the chances that the 

 Gospels are altogether trustworthy records of the 

 teachings of Jesus become very slender. And, 

 since the whole of the case of the other side is 

 based on the supposition that they are accurate 

 records (especially of speeches, about which ancient 

 historians are so curiously loose), I really do ven- 

 ture to submit that this part of my argument bears 

 very seriously on the main issue ; and, as ratio- 

 cination, is sound to the core. 



Again, when I passed by the topic of the 

 speeches of Jesus on the Cross, it appears that I 

 could have had no other motive than the dictates 

 of my native evasiveness. An ecclesiastical dig- 

 nitary may have respectable reasons for declining 

 a fencing match " in sight of Gethsemane and 

 Calvary " ; but an ecclesiastical " Infidel " ! Never. 

 It is obviously impossible that, in the belief that 

 " the greater includes the less," I, having declared 

 the Gospel evidence in general, as to the sayings of 

 Jesus, to be of questionable value, thought it need- 

 less to select for illustration of my views, those 

 particular instances which were likely to be most 

 offensive to persons of another way of thinking. 

 But any supposition that may have been enter- 

 tained that the old familiar tones of the ecclesias- 

 tical war-drum will tempt me to engage in such 

 needless discussion had better be renounced. I 

 shall do nothing of the kind. Let it suffice that 

 I ask my readers to turn to the twenty-third 



