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I’ious ethnological connection between the Hyksos usurpers of 
Nopig and tho Bedawin sheikhs of Canaan. 
But the most remarkable offspring of this scientific mode 
of misinterpreting the Scriptures appears in two works, one 
many years subsequent to the other, both differing considerably 
iu method and in detail, but both exhibiting the same animus 
and the same principle ; 
“ Facies lion omnibus una, 
Nec di versa tamen, qualem decet esse sororuin.” 
I mean, of course, those two fancy “ Lives of Christ ” which wo 
know by the names of their authors, Strauss and Renan. 
The former handles his subject as we might expect a German 
philosopher to do. Christ (I cannot bring myself to employ 
our Saviour’s Holy Name in discussing sceptical writings, and 
I therefore use His title) is with Strauss a mere idea personi- 
fied. 'Whether this personified idea was attached to the name 
of a real person or not, is of little consequence. The preach- 
ing, the miracles, the suffering, the resurrection, are merely 
modes of telling us that the yearning after a national life, and 
perhaps a Theocracy, continued to agitate tho minds of 
Israelites long after the Roman Empire had suppressed their 
separate nationality; and that their hopes, though rudely dashed 
to the ground, were nevertheless indestructible. The self- 
consciousness of the nation was as lasting as that of the 
individual, and survived everything but annihilation. In 
jmocess of time men began to see that this personification of 
the national spirit might be made to include the yearnings of 
humanity itself after something higher and purer ; hence the 
tale of the admission of the Gentiles to the Christian covenant. 
And finally, the personification itself was adored : martyrs 
bled, and confessors suffered for a deified figment of Oriental 
imagination. 
Renan, on the other hand, gives us a romance. He leads 
us among cool groves, and fields of fragrant lilies, overbold hill- 
tops, and through shady valleys. He takes us to the fountain- 
side ; he bids us, like the Reubenites in the Song of Deborah, 
to tarry among the sheep-folds and listen to the piping of tho 
shepherds. Christ with him is a real person, a fascinating en- 
thusiast, half believing in himself, and making others wholly 
to do so. Without being deliberately untruthful, he lends 
himself to occasional deceit — for what Oriental would do other- 
wise ? And so, when his enthusiasm, or that of his disciples, 
has gone so far as to become obnoxious to the stern reality of 
Roman rule, he suffers as Romans always made such dangerous 
