, before
all things let us lie," is the sum total of many an exhortation
addressed to the "Infidel." Now, as I have already pointed out, we
cannot oblige our exhorters. We leave the practical application of the
convenient doctrines of "Reserve" and "Non-natural interpretation" to
those who invented them.

I trust that I have now made amends for any ambiguity, or want of
fulness, in my previous exposition of that which I hold to be the
essence of the Agnostic doctrine. Henceforward, I might hope to hear
no more of the assertion that we are necessarily Materialists,
Idealists, Atheists, Theists, or any other _ists_, if experience had
led me to think that the proved falsity of a statement was any
guarantee against its repetition. And those who appreciate the nature
of our position will see, at once, that when Ecclesiasticism declares
that we ought to believe this, that, and the other, and are very
wicked if we don't, it is impossible for us to give any answer but
this: We have not the slightest objection to believe anything you
like, if you will give us good grounds for belief; but, if you cannot,
we must respectfully refuse, even if that refusal should wreck
mortality and insure our own damnation several times over. We are
quite content to leave that to the decision of the future. The course
of the past has impressed us with the firm conviction that no good
ever comes of falsehood, and we feel warranted in refusing even to
experiment in that direction.

* * * * *

In the course of the present discussion it has been asserted that the
"Sermon on the Mount" and the "Lord's Prayer" furnish a summary and
condensed view of the essentials of the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth,
set forth by himself. Now this supposed _Summa_ of Nazarene theology
distinctly affirms the existence of a spiritual world, of a Heaven,
and of a Hell of fire; it teaches the Fatherhood of God and the
malignity of the Devil; it declares the superintending providence of
the former and our need of deliverance from the machinations of the
latter; it affirms the fact of demoniac possession and the power of
casting out devils by the faithful. And from these premises, the
conclusion is drawn, that those Agnostics who deny that there is any
evidence of such a character as to justify certainty, respecting the
existence and the nature of the spiritual world, contradict the
express declarations of Jesus. I have replied to this argum