Chapter 2 No.2

P. 44, lines 22–3.-Mansel, Mozley, Farrar, Westcott, on Miracles.

Dean Mansel said: "If there be one fact recorded in Scripture which is entitled, in the fullest sense of the word, to the name of a miracle, the Resurrection of Christ is that fact. Here, at least, is an instance in which the entire Christian faith must stand or fall with our belief in the supernatural.... A superhuman authority needs to be substantiated by superhuman evidence, and what is superhuman is miraculous" (pp. 3 and 35 of Aids to Faith, 4th ed.).

Canon Mozley said: "Miracles and the supernatural contents of Christianity must stand or fall together" (Bampton Lectures, 1865).

Dean Farrar said: "However skilfully the modern ingenuity of semi-belief may have tampered with supernatural interpositions, it is clear to every honest and unsophisticated mind that, if miracles be incredible, Christianity is false" (The Witness of History to Christ, Hulsean Lectures for 1870, 2nd ed., p. 25).

Bishop Westcott said: "The essence of Christianity lies in a miracle, and, if it can be shown that a miracle is either impossible or incredible, all further inquiry into the details of its history is superfluous from a religious point of view" (The Gospel of the Resurrection, 3rd ed., 1874, p. 34). See also Archbishop Trench's Notes on Miracles.

P. 44, lines 28–9.-The opinion of the majority of our living dignitaries.

This has been made abundantly clear by the unanimous reply of a large number of Bishops to a correspondent of the Record, who had written letters to them stating that he had heard that "not a single Bishop on the bench to-day believed in the miraculous in religion" (reported in the daily papers towards the close of January, 1905).

P. 48, lines 25–6.-Some even hold that it [devil-possession] still exists.

Thus, in the introduction to Pastor Hsi (a book of which 24,000 copies were printed between 1903 and 1905), the Rev. D. E. Hoste, General Director of the China Inland Mission, not only expresses this belief, but seeks to explain why devil-possession should now be chiefly confined to heathen lands. "Careful observation and study of the subject have," he says, "led many to conclude that, although in lands where Christianity has long held sway the special manifestations we are now considering are comparatively unknown, the conditions among the heathen being more akin to those prevailing when and where the Gospel was first propagated, it is not surprising that a corresponding energy of the powers of evil should be met with in missionary work to-day." He would have us believe, apparently, that the atmosphere of holiness in Christendom is so overpowering that the Devil and his crew are rendered less active! Taking him seriously, can he also explain how it is that God permits devils to perform such pranks? Not only is the house "swept and garnished" that they may "enter in, and dwell there"; but in the case of Saul we are told that they were purposely sent by God! (See Luke xi. 25, 26, and 1 Sam. xviii. 10 and xix. 9.)

The importance of this question is brought home to us by Mr. Benn in his History of English Rationalism in the Nineteenth Century, where he says (p. 454): "The witness of Jesus to the Fatherhood of God as a personal spirit amounts to no more than his witness to personal devils as authors of disease; and the witness of the Evangelists to their Master's authorship of the Sermon on the Mount is less unanimous than their witness to the destruction by diabolical agency of the Gadarene swine."

P. 49, lines 13–14.-The feeding of the five thousand.

Bishop Ingram attaches the utmost importance to the truth of this miracle. In a sermon published in the Church Times of October 7th, 1904, he is reported to have said: "It is the worst policy of defence to throw over the miracle of feeding the five thousand, or our Lord's power over disease and death, and then expect to keep the faith of the world in His incarnation, His Virgin-birth, and His resurrection."

P. 61, line 14.-The simple theory of the spiritists.

Dr. Moncure Conway relates, in his Autobiography, how it was a spiritualist séance which made him realise the kind of frenzy that took possession of those early Christians who really believed that a dead man had returned to life. See also Professor Lombroso on "spiritualistic" phenomena, p. 396.

P. 64, lines 20–1.-Few of us have ever had our belief tested.

Persons who have never spent their lives, or a portion of their lives, among the heathen, have never had their faith put to the fullest test, for in such an environment they would find faith's difficulties considerably enhanced. I remember, a few days after my arrival in India, a certain Bishop looking me in the face and, with a kindly hand upon my shoulder, saying: "You will find life much more difficult in India." He referred, of course, to the religious life, and was quite right, although, probably, he was thinking chiefly of the example that I should find set me by my fellow Christians; while, as mine was largely a camp life, it was more the insight into the belief of my native companions which affected me. There, all around you, are simple folk believing in what you know to be absurd; you are brought face to face with ignorance and superstition; you see how faith can be misplaced, and how trusting natures can be deceived. It sets you thinking whether, after all, you too may not be deceived; whether the possession of an unlimited capacity for faith has the virtue in it which the priest tells you it has, whether, in fact, faith is a reliable guide. Should you attempt to convert an educated native, you not only find that the task is hopeless, but that you are asking him to accept a belief which is as unfounded and unproven as the one he already holds. Anyone wishing to form some idea of an experience of this sort should read The Bible: Is it the Word of God? by Thomas Lumsden Strange, formerly a judge of the High Court of Madras. The way the observations are cast in the shape of a conversation between a student of the Bible and a cultured native of India brings home many Bible difficulties which largely escape the notice and consideration of the devout. I have taken my illustration from this book.