was and is, it will be the province of
Natural Science to explain and to demonstrate by natural and spiritual
law, how, without mystery or miracle, Jesus became the Master _Christos_
and so remains to-day.

Natural Science is not the invention of man, more than is the law of
gravitation, the law of equilibrium, or the binomial theorem. Man may
discover these laws from the phenomena of Nature, and demonstrate their
existence and mode of operation like any others.

It is a question of dispassionate and intelligent apprehension and
demonstration.

All actual progress of man up to the present time lies along these lines.
Beyond this all is conjecture and guess-work. Natural Science, however, is
far more than modern physical science so-called. It includes physical,
mental, moral, and spiritual science.

Its _methods_ everywhere and at all times are the same.

It may theorize, but never dogmatize, and it must _demonstrate_ at every
step. Facts must not only support the theorem, but demonstrate the
conclusions as inevitable, and the basis of all such actual demonstration
must be a verifiable individual experience, with formulated laws and
processes for its repetition, just as in physical science, in chemistry,
and mathematics. Nothing less than this on any plane or in any department
of investigation can enable the individual to declare "_I Know_."

Demonstration is the sign manual of knowledge; Dogmatism the arrogance of
ignorance.

It is impossible to make these radical distinctions too clear and
specific.

When this method of Natural Science is applied to the investigation of
religions, tradition is separated from fact, dogma from demonstration,
miracle from natural law, mythology and folklore are found to be the
fabric woven by the imagination of mankind around the receding
revelations, deifying their authors, and mingling fact with fable, till
the originals become unrecognizable.

Romance and superstition become substitutes for simple Faith, moral law,
and social Justice.

To question or to repudiate the dogmas of superstition becomes a "mortal
sin," even when the most plain and specific moral or ethical obligations
are entirely subverted or reversed by dogmatic authority.

It is thus that the original revelation is subverted and at last
overthrown.

From first to last, the whole fabric is claimed to be "sacred and divine,"
and to question it, "sacrilege" and "profanation of holy things." Thus,
that which s