sible; and the only thing that
either will say with regard to their happening is that the greater
descent of the people as a whole into materiality has made the
possession of these powers a far rarer qualification of a believer in
one or other of the religions, than was the case in the early days of
enthusiasm, and of a greater outpouring of spiritual life. There is no
doubt, so far as Christianity is concerned, that the sacred books of
the Christians entirely support the Roman Catholic contention. I am
not going into the question of the authenticity of particular phrases;
I simply take the New Testament, as it is admitted to be a sacred
book. There you have placed in the mouth of Jesus the distinct
declaration that those who believe on Him should do greater works than
He did; and in one passage--rejected, I know, as not in the original
manuscripts by many scholars, but still coming down from a great
Christian antiquity--you have the distinct statement that they shall
be able to drink poison, and so on. So it is clearly a part of the
definite Christian teaching and tradition, that these so-called
abnormal powers are within the reach of believers in Christianity. And
so also with regard to Hinduism.

Now another thing is to be observed in this connection: that as the
religion has gone on generation after generation, century after
century, there has been a diminution of the powers, and a much less
frequent happening of these so-called miracles. Side by side with the
weakening of these powers and the lessening in number of the phenomena
has been also the gradual lessening of the power of the religion over
the minds and lives of men. The inroads of other forms of thought, the
slackening of the grasp of the believer on the realities of the unseen
worlds, have diminished religious authority, and the power of those
unseen realities has weakened as time has gone on. So if we take the
case of Hinduism or Christianity we find them giving back before
the inroads of a more materialistic philosophy, before the inroads of
a self-assertive science. We find among cultured and thoughtful people
in the East and West there has been a great slackening of hold on the
teachings of religion, and that the power exercised over the lives of
believers has become much less real than in earlier days. That is
inevitable, the result of the efflux of time, and the need for the
recurrence of spiritual impulses lies in that fact, which is ever
repeatin