THE REV. W. ST. CLAIR TISDALL, D.D., ON MITHRAISM. 279 



hostile to those opinions, and in no sense guided by them. And if, 

 as nineteen centuries of Christianity have abundantly taught .us, 

 Christ was " the Way, the Truth, and the Life," sent forth from 

 God to reveal His Mind and Purpose to the world, it were strange 

 indeed if He did not make full provision for the faithful trans- 

 mission of the Message He had sent. 



I am quite sure I have your consent to thank Dr. Tisdall most 

 cordially for his able and convincing paper. 



Dr. Tisdall : Archdeacon Beresford Potter has apparently omitted 

 to notice that the authority I quoted concerning the date of the 

 composition of the Gospels was Professor Harnack's very latest work 

 on the subject, as mentioned in my note, p. 240. A careful study of 

 Petrie's Groivth of the Gospels will, I think, show that it also supports 

 my contention in the text, to which the Archdeacon takes exception. 

 He forgets the immense number of ancient quotations from the 

 Gospels, beginning with the Apostolic Fathers," the many ancient 

 versions of the New Testament, and a mass of other evidence, which 

 permits of the issue of such an edition of the Greek text as that just 

 published by Professor Alexander Souter at the Clarendon Press, 

 Oxford. If two MSS. date from early in the fourth century and 

 show a variety of readings, it is plain that the original work existed 

 at least considerably earlier. If a writer of the second century 

 quotes passages from a book in such a way as to show that he 

 knows that his readers know and honour it, it is safe to conclude 

 that the work had come into existence very considerably before his 

 time. This has been exhaustively dealt with by a host of able 

 writers. Consider one specimen fact out of many. Origen, wha 

 died A.D. 248, mentions our four Gospels by name as well known 

 and generally accepted by Christians. His commentary on 

 St. John's Gospel in thirty-two books is still extant and easily 

 obtainable (Cambridge University Press, 2 vols., 1896). How long 

 must that Gospel have been known and honoured in its present form 

 before such a work on it was needed ! 



Some considerable study of Comparative Religion {vide my little 

 book under that title published by Longmans) and a certain degree 

 of knowledge of the Egyptian Book of the Dead and the Babylonian 

 creation and deluge tablets, etc., in their original languages have led 

 me to a conclusion absolutely contrary to that of the Archdeacon 

 regarding what he calls the " remarkable correspondence between 



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