of Christ, which I
believe. Firstly, because it is testified by men who had every
opportunity of seeing and knowing, and whose veracity was tested by the
most tremendous trials, both of energy and endurance, during long lives.
Secondly, because of the marvellous effect it had upon the world. As a
moral phenomenon, the spread and mastery of Christianity is without a
parallel. I can no more believe that colossal moral effects can be
without a cause, than I can believe that the various motions of the
magnet are without a cause, though I cannot wholly explain them. To any
one who believes the Resurrection of Christ, the rest presents little
difficulty. No one who has that belief will doubt that those who were
commissioned by Him to speak--Paul, Peter, Mark, John--carried a Divine
message. St. Matthew falls into the same category. St. Luke has the
warrant of the generation of Christians who saw and heard the others."

So far the testimony of a layman. Arnold, as we know, loved and elegized
one Dean of Westminster. Would he have tolerated the testimony of
another?

"The Church believes to-day in the Resurrection of Christ, because she
has always believed in it. If all the documents which tell the story of
the first Easter Day should disappear, the Church would still shout her
Easter praises, and offer her Easter sacrifice of thanksgiving; for she
is older than the oldest of her documents, and from father to son all
through the centuries she has passed on the message of the first Easter
morning--'The Lord is risen indeed.' The Church believes in the
Resurrection because she is the product of the Resurrection."[52]

But, in spite of varied criticism, _Literature and Dogma_ was well
received. Three editions were published in 1873; a fourth in 1874; a
fifth in 1876, and the "popular edition" in 1883. As usual, he was
serenely pleased with his handiwork. In 1874 he wrote to his sister: "It
will more and more become evident how entirely religious is the work
which I have done in _Literature and Dogma_. The enemies of religion see
this well enough already." Ten years later, he wrote from Cincinnati:
"What strikes me in America is the number of friends _Literature and
Dogma_ has made me, amongst ministers of religion especially--and how
the effect of the book here is conservative."

To the various criticisms of the book he began replying in the
_Contemporary Review_ for October, 1874. In November of that year he
wrote to Lady de