r were speedily superseded by some new demand on the
ever ready belief." (Vol. i. p. 98.)

He proceeds to devote above twenty pages to instances of the
superstition and credulity of the Jews about the time of Christ. The
contents of these pages would be amusing if they did not reveal such
deep mental degradation in a race which Christians regard as sacred,
because of God's dealings with their fathers.

Most readers, however, of these pages on the Demonology and Angelology
of the Jews will, I think, be affected by them in a totally different
way, and will draw a very different inference, from what the writer
intends. The thoughtful reader will ask, "How could the Evangelical
narratives be the outcome of such a hotbed of superstition as the author
describes that time to have been?" It is quite impossible, it is
incredible that the same natural cause, _i.e._ the prevalence of
superstition, should have produced about the same time the Book of Enoch
and the Gospel according to St. Matthew. And this is the more remarkable
from the fact that the Gospels are in no sense more Sadducean than the
Book of Enoch. The being and agency of good and evil spirits is as fully
recognized in the inspired writings as in the Apocryphal, but with what
a difference! I append in a note a part of the author's reproduction of
the Book of Enoch, that the reader may see how necessary it is, on all
principles of common sense, to look for some very different explanation
of the origin of the Evangelical narratives than that given by the
author of "Supernatural Religion." [168:1]

In the Evangelical narratives I need hardly say the angels are simply
messengers, as their name imports, and absolutely nothing more. When one
describes himself it is in the words, "I am Gabriel that stand in the
presence of God, and am sent to speak unto thee and to show thee these
glad tidings."

On the credulity of the Jews in our Lord's time, I repeat the author's
remarks:--

"During the whole life of Christ, and the early propagation of the
religion, it must be borne in mind that they took place in an age,
and among a people, which superstition had made so familiar with
what were supposed to be preternatural events, that wonders awakened
no emotion, or were speedily superseded by some new demand on the
ever-ready belief." (Vol. i. p. 98.)

Now, if the records of our Lord's life in the Gospels are not a tissue
of falsehoods from beginning