achievements
of the human spirit, that I have no difficulty in confessing, humbly
and reverently, that I am in the presence of one who seems to me to be
above humanity, and not only of it. If all the miraculous events of
the Gospels could be proved never to have occurred, it would not
disturb my faith in Christ for an instant. But I am content, as it is,
to believe in the possibility of so abnormal a personality being
surrounded by abnormal events, though I am not in a position to
disentangle the actual truth from the possibilities of
misrepresentation and exaggeration.

Dealing with the rest of the New Testament, I see in the Acts of the
Apostles a deeply interesting record of the first ripples of the faith
in the world. In the Pauline and other epistles I see the words of
fervent primitive Christians, men of real and untutored genius, in
which one has amazing instances of the effect produced, on contemporary
or nearly contemporary persons, of the same overwhelming personality,
the personality of Christ. In the Apocalypse I see a vision of deep
poetical force and insight.

But in none of these compositions, though they reveal a glow and
fervour of conviction that places them high among the memorials of the
human spirit, do I recognise anything which is beyond human
possibilities. I observe, indeed, that St Paul's method of argument is
not always perfectly consistent, nor his conclusions absolutely cogent.
Such inspiration as they contain they draw from their nearness to and
their close apprehension of the dim and awe-inspiring presence of
Christ Himself.

If, as I say, the Church would concentrate her forces in this inner
fortress, the personality of Christ, and quit the debatable ground of
historical enquiry, it would be to me and to many an unfeigned relief;
but meanwhile, neither scientific critics nor irrational pedants shall
invalidate my claim to be of the number of believing Christians. I
claim a Christian liberty of thought, while I acknowledge, with bowed
head, my belief in God the Father of men, in a Divine Christ, the
Redeemer and Saviour, and in the presence in the hearts of men of a
Divine spirit, leading humanity tenderly forward. I can neither affirm
nor deny the literal accuracy of Scripture records; I am not in a
position to deny the superstructure of definite dogma raised by the
tradition of the Church about the central truths of its teaching, but
neither can I deny the possibility of an a