AGNOSTICISM AND CHRISTIANITY. 451 



which science, art, and any serious occupation with, the things of 

 this world were alike despicable. 



Again, all that is best in the ethics of the modern world, in so 

 far as it has not grown out of Greek thought or barbarian man- 

 hood, is the direct development of the ethics of old Israel. There 

 is no code of legislation, ancient or modern, at once so just and 

 so merciful, so tender to the weak and poor, as the Jewish law ; 

 and if the Gospels are to be trusted, Jesus of Nazareth himself 

 declared that he taught nothing but that which lay implicitly, or 

 explicitly, in the religious and ethical system of his people. 



And the scribe said unto him, Of a truth, Teacher, thou hast well said that 

 he is one ; and there is none other but he : and to love him with all the heart, 

 and with all the understanding, and with all the strength, and to love his neigh- 

 bor as himself, is much more than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices. (Mark 

 xii, 32, S3.) 



Here is the briefest of summaries of the teaching of the 

 prophets of Israel of the eighth century ; does the Teacher, whose 

 doctrine is thus set forth in his presence, repudiate the exposi- 

 tion ? Nay, we are told, on the contrary, that Jesus saw that he 

 H answered discreetly," and replied, " Thou art not far from the 

 kingdom of God." 



So that I think that even if the creeds, from the so-called 

 " Apostles' " to the so-called " Athanasian," were swept into obliv- 

 ion ; and even if the human race should arrive at the conclusion 

 that whether a bishop washes a cup or leaves it unwashed, is not 

 a matter of the least consequence, it will get on very well. The 

 causes which have led to the development of morality in man- 

 kind, which have guided or impelled us all the way from the 

 savage to the civilized state, will not cease to operate because 

 a number of ecclesiastical hypotheses turn out to be baseless. 

 And, even if the absurd notion that morality is more the child 

 of speculation than of practical necessity and inherited instinct, 

 had any foundation ; if all the world is going to thieve, murder, 

 and otherwise misconduct itself as soon as it discovers that cer- 

 tain portions of ancient history are mythical, what is the rele- 

 vance of such arguments to any one who holds by the agnostic 

 principle ? 



Surely the attempt to cast out Beelzebub by the aid of Beelze- 

 bub is a hopeful procedure as compared to that of preserving mo- 

 rality by the aid of immorality. For I suppose it is admitted 

 that an agnostic may be perfectly sincere, may be competent, 

 and may have studied the question at issue with as much care as 

 his clerical opponents. But, if the agnostic really believes what 

 he says, the " dreadful consequence " argufier (consistently I admit 

 with his own principles) virtually asks him to abstain from tell- 



