l criticism, even of the most rationalistic, being so
decidedly opposed to {175} it. To deny that He existed is commonly
felt to be the outcome of the most arbitrary prejudice, the conclusions
of Whately's _Historic Doubts relative to Napoleon Buonaparte_
remaining grave and weighty in comparison. That Jesus of Nazareth
lived and taught and was crucified, that, immediately after His Death,
His disciples were proclaiming that He had risen, and was their living
inspiration, these are facts which can be denied only by the very
extravagance of scepticism. And the admission of these simple facts
implies a great deal more than is commonly supposed.

I

It is the fashion for hostile critics to say, 'Christianity is not
dependent upon Christ: it is the creation of the semi-historical Paul,
not of the unhistorical Jesus. There is at best no more connection
between Christendom and Christ than between America and {176} Amerigo
Vespucci.[2] See how much Christians have been obliged to give up: see
how belief after belief has had to be surrendered; see how they are now
left with the merest fragment of their ancient Creed, how evidently
they will soon be compelled to part with the little to which they still
desperately cling.' The conclusion is somewhat hasty and premature.
The fragment which remains is after all the main portion of the Creed
of the early disciples. Where that fragment is declared and held and
lived in, there is the presence and the power of the Christian Faith.
We need not trouble ourselves about sundry points which, at one epoch
or another, have come to be denied or ignored: we need not say anything
either for them or against them. We have to take our stand on what is
accepted, not on what is rejected. And for the moment we may {177}
venture to take our stand only on what is accepted by the critics least
biassed in favour of the traditional views of Christendom. Those who
have come to imagine it to be a mark of advanced culture to break with
all religion, to confine their attention to the fleeting present, to
reject all that claims to have Divine sanction, may listen with respect
to the words of some who appear in fancied hostility to Christianity.

We are not assuming that because men are great in Science or History or
Philosophy they must be great in spiritual things. Their achievements
in their own sphere, let us gratefully recognise; their uprightness,
their single-heartedness, let us imitate; an