66 THE LIGHT OF DAT 



for Christianity, but in no sense is there a radical 

 change of nature. It is simply a transference of al- 

 legiance, as in the case of Paul. All these things 

 may be so stated as to harmonize with the rest of 

 our knowledge, but as expounded in theological 

 books they do not so harmonize, but run counter to 

 it completely. Subjective truths are stated as if 

 they were objective facts ; qualities of the mind 

 and spirit are expounded as if they were realities of 

 the experience. 



Certain of the alleged miracles of the New Testa- 

 ment, as the healing of the sick by an act of faith, 

 agree with what we now know to be true. Certain 

 human ailments, mainly diseases of the mind and the 

 nervous system, have in recent times undoubtedly 

 yielded to an act of faith in the supreme efficacy of 

 certain rites, or to an unwonted mental resolution. 

 But the remedy is subjective and not objective. 

 The virtue was not in the hem of the garment 

 touched, but in the effort of the will of the person 

 who touched it. 



What is at variance with the rest of our know- 

 ledge in the New Testament are such things as grew 

 up naturally in a superstitious age around the person 

 and teachings of such a transcendent being as Jesus 

 was, — the notion that he was more than human, 

 that he had no earthly father, that he had some 

 superhuman control over the forces of nature, that 

 he rose from the dead, that his death bore some 

 mysterious relation to the sins of the world, etc. 

 When a man talks about the value and importance 



