CAN WE THEN BELIEVE ?
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.].
SIR,—In your issue of to-day your reviewer discriminates the teaching of history between " that Jesus of Nazareth lived, taught, ministered, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate," and then history will add " it was believed by. His followers that His resurrection and what is known as. His ascension took place after His death. Later beliefs were added, such as His birth of a Virgin and the Gift of the Spirit." Why this discrimination ? There is little secular history as to the facts on which the faith of the Church was founded and the first series of facts rests on precisely the same basis as the second, viz., the testimony of the evangelists,. of St. Paul, St. Peter and St. James, the witnesses appointed. It is important to consider the characters of these witnesses as they appear in their writings, especially of St. Paul. He was a man of extraordinary ability and also full of what we call " practical common sense?! Besides his own personal experience, his " conversion," which might perhaps be con- sidered to be the beginning of his conversion, he was in close contact with those who had been actual witnesses of the facts, and from his character we may assume that he would be a competent judge of their reliability.—I am, Sir, &c.,
August 7th.
A PLAIN MAN.
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