his theory.

That theory is, that He, whom all Christians have called Our Lord, was a
mere man, of what race is uncertain, born in Galilee of a man named
Joseph and of a woman named Mary; who taught in Galilee and a little in
Judea, and who was at last killed and buried, and so an end of _Him_.
This theory M. Renan has to find in the Gospels, and there is, as we
have hinted, very little of the Gospels left when he gets through. It is
so palpably against them that he has to get rid of the most of them to
make it stand.

Now this theory, like all others, must be put to the test. Will it
explain the facts? We have seen how it is compelled to get rid of the
Gospels. But we put that aside. Will it explain the history of
Christianity? Will it explain its place to-day? Will it account for its
effects?

The Jesus of M. Renan is a strange character. He is more difficult of
comprehension than any mystery of orthodoxy. We ask where He gets His
wondrous wisdom, this young carpenter, how _He_ learned to speak 'as man
never spoke?' and M. Renan sentimentalizes. We ask how He got this
wondrous power over men, to lead them and control them, so that they
followed Him and 'heard Him gladly,' and M. Renan goes off into
ecstasies over the 'delicious climate' and 'the lovely villages,' and
the Arcadian simplicity of Galilee, as he fancies they once were, and
expects us to be answered. His influence over women is accounted for
more readily. M. Renan tells us, in his peculiar way, that 'this
beautiful young man' had great power over the 'nervous' susceptibilities
of Mary Magdalene; and Pilate's wife, having once seen him, 'dreamed
about him' the next night, and sent to her husband to save him in
consequence!

However, He begins His teaching. Where He learned it, how He learned it,
why it took the form it did, how _He_ came to give moral law to the
world, where He found the words of wisdom and consolation--the divine
words of power--for all generations, there is positively not one
sentence of explanation. Of all the young Jews of His day, how came He
by these powers and this omnipotent wisdom? Now the Christian theory
_does_ attempt an explanation. It gives an ample answer to the question.
M. Renan gives no answer whatever. He flies to sentiment. We have all
sorts of adjectives--'delicious,' 'enchanting, 'beautiful,' 'sweet,'
'charming'--he beats a whole female seminary at the business, in
attempting to describe how, like full-grown babe