lterous generation"
merely for asking a miracle worker to give an exhibition of his powers,
is rather a startling experience. Mahomet, by the way, also lost his
temper when people asked him to perform miracles. But Mahomet expressly
disclaimed any unusual powers; whereas it is clear from Matthew's story
that Jesus (unfortunately for himself, as he thought) had some powers of
healing. It is also obvious that the exercise of such powers would give
rise to wild tales of magical feats which would expose their hero to
condemnation as an impostor among people whose good opinion was of great
consequence to the movement started by his mission.

But the deepest annoyance arising from the miracles would be the
irrelevance of the issue raised by them. Jesus's teaching has nothing
to do with miracles. If his mission had been simply to demonstrate a new
method of restoring lost eyesight, the miracle of curing the blind would
have been entirely relevant. But to say "You should love your enemies;
and to convince you of this I will now proceed to cure this gentleman
of cataract" would have been, to a man of Jesus's intelligence, the
proposition of an idiot. If it could be proved today that not one of the
miracles of Jesus actually occurred, that proof would not invalidate a
single one of his didactic utterances; and conversely, if it could be
proved that not only did the miracles actually occur, but that he had
wrought a thousand other miracles a thousand times more wonderful, not
a jot of weight would be added to his doctrine. And yet the intellectual
energy of sceptics and divines has been wasted for generations in
arguing about the miracles on the assumption that Christianity is at
stake in the controversy as to whether the stories of Matthew are false
or true. According to Matthew himself, Jesus must have known this
only too well; for wherever he went he was assailed with a clamor for
miracles, though his doctrine created bewilderment.

So much for the miracles! Matthew tells us further, that Jesus declared
that his doctrines would be attacked by Church and State, and that the
common multitude were the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
His disciples, in their relations with the political and ecclesiastical
organizations, would be as sheep among wolves.

MATTHEW IMPUTES DIGNITY TO JESUS.

Matthew, like most biographers, strives to identify the opinions and
prejudices of his hero with his own. Although he describ