AGNOSTICISM AND CHRISTIANITY. 469 



It appears again that, adopting the tactics of Conachar when 

 brought face to face with Hal o' the Wynd, I have been trying to 

 get my simple-minded adversary to follow me on a wild-goose 

 chase through the early history of Christianity, in the hope of 

 escaping impending defeat on the main issue. But I may be per- 

 mitted to point out that there is an alternative hypothesis which 

 equally fits the facts ; and that, after all, there may have been 

 method in the madness of my supposed panic. 



For suppose it to be established that Gentile Christianity was 

 a totally different thing from the Nazarenism of Jesus and his im- 

 mediate disciples ; suppose it to be demonstrable that, as early as 

 the sixth decade of our era at least, there were violent divergen- 

 cies of opinion among the followers of Jesus ; suppose it to be 

 hardly doubtful that the Gospels and the Acts took their present 

 shapes under the influence of these divergencies; suppose that 

 their authors, and those through whose hands they passed, had 

 notions of historical veracity not more eccentric than those which 

 Josephus occasionally displays — surely the chances that the Gos- 

 pels are altogether trustworthy records of the teachings of Jesus 

 become very slender. And as 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 curi- 

 ously loose), I really do venture to submit that this part of my 

 argument bears very seriously on the main issue ; and, as ratioci- 

 nation, 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 dignitary 

 may have respectable reasons for declining a fencing-match " in 

 sight of Gethsemane and Calvary " ; but an ecclesiastical " infi- 

 del " ! Never. It is obviously impossible that, in the belief that 

 * the greater includes the less," I, having declared the Gospel evi- 

 dence in general, as to the sayings of Jesus, to be of questionable 

 value, thought it needless 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 entertained that the old familiar tones of the eccle- 

 siastical war-drum will tempt me to engage in such needless dis- 

 cussion 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 

 chapter of Luke (revised version), verse thirty-four, and he will 

 find in the margin 



Some ancient authorities omit: And Jesns said, "Father, forgive them, for 

 they know not what they do." 



So that, even as late as the fourth century, there were ancient 

 authorities, indeed some of the most ancient and weightiest, who 



