THE ARREST OF INQUIRY. 55 



iar is the assumption of knowledge of the behaviour 

 of these agents, and of the nature of the places they 

 come from or haunt. Of this, mediaeval speculations 

 on demonology, and modern books of anthropology, 

 supply any number of examples. Here we are con- 

 cerned only with the momentous fact that belief in 

 demoniacal activity pervades the New Testament 

 from beginning to end, and, therefore; gave the war- 

 rant for the unspeakable cruelties with which that 

 belief has stained the annals of Christendom. John 

 Wesley was consistent when he wrote that " Giving 

 up the belief in witchcraft was in effect giving up 

 the Bible," and it may be added that giving up be- 

 lief in the devil is giving up belief in the atonement 

 — the central doctrine of the Christian faith. To this 

 the early Christians would have subscribed: so, also, 

 would the great Augustine, who said that " nothing 

 is to be accepted save on the authority of Scripture, 

 since greater is that authority than all the powers 

 of the human mind " ; so would all who have followed 

 him in ancient confessions of the faith. It is only 

 the amorphous form of that faith which, lingering 

 on, anaemic and boneless, denies by evasion. 



But they who abandon belief in maleficent de- 

 mons and in witches; as also, for this follows, in be- 

 neficent agents, as angels ; land themselves in serious 

 dilemma. For to this are such committed. If Jesus, 

 who came " that he might destroy the works of the 

 devil," and who is reported, among other proofs of 

 his divine ministry, to have cast out demons from 



