The very
words "laying on of hands" would seem to suggest something
different from a mere benediction.
Enough has been said, perhaps, to show the reader that it is
possible to put forward a view of Christ's life which would be in
strict accord with the most modern psychic knowledge, and which,
far from supplanting Christianity, would show the surprising
accuracy of some of the details handed down to us, and would
support the novel conclusion that those very miracles, which have
been the stumbling block to so many truthful, earnest minds, may
finally offer some very cogent arguments for the truth of the
whole narrative. Is this then a line of thought which merits the
wholesale condemnations and anathemas hurled at it by those
who profess to speak in the name of religion? At the same
time, though we bring support to the New Testament, it would,
indeed, be a misconception if these, or any such remarks, were
quoted as sustaining its literal accuracy--an idea from which so
much harm has come in the past. It would, indeed, be a good,
though an unattainable thing, that a really honest and open-
minded attempt should be made to weed out from that record the
obvious forgeries and interpolations which disfigure it, and
lessen the value of those parts which are really above suspicion.
Is it necessary, for example, to be told, as an inspired fact
from Christ's own lips, that Zacharias, the son of Barachias,[7]
was struck dead within the precincts of the Temple in the time of
Christ, when, by a curious chance, Josephus has independently
narrated the incident as having occurred during the siege of
Jerusalem, thirty-seven years later? This makes it very clear
that this particular Gospel, in its present form, was written
after that event, and that the writer fitted into it at least one
other incident which had struck his imagination.
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