Jesus said: "When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory; and before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats; and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, 'Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.' Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, ‘Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels."" "The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth."1

"The days will come in which there shall not be left one stone [of the temple] upon another. And they asked him saying, 'But when shall these things be?' Then said he unto them, 'Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines and pestilences; and fearful sights shall there be from heaven. And when ye see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. There shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass

away.'

Many of the expressions and ideas ascribed to Jesus by the evangelists are not mentioned in the epistles, but the near approach of the end of the world seems to have been prominent in the minds of nearly all the writers of New Testament books. It is repeatedly mentioned by Paul. He speaks of his own generation as "those upon whom the ends of the world are come," and in the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, if that be his work, he says: "The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air." The main idea of Revelation is the speedy return of Jesus to judge the world. "The time is at hand. Behold I come quickly." It is evident that if the world was to come to an end in the generation of Jesus-that is, within the third of a century—there would be no opportunity for the establishment of a permanent church, and no sufficient motive for adopting an elaborate ecclesiastical organization, suited for perma

nence.

SEC. 518. Faith.-The gospel of Mark states in very plain words that belief is an indispensable part of righteousness: He that believeth not shall be damned." In the fourth evangel Jesus is represented as saying, “He that believeth on me hath everlasting life." There is no suggestion in any part of the New Testament that faith. should be founded on a careful study of evidence. To Thomas, Jesus said, "Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed."1

Faith in Jesus and repentance for sin are, in some passages, treated as equivalents. Jesus thus denounced the

unbelieving cities of Galilee: "Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell; for if the mighty works which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee.”2

We are told in the gospel of Mark that Jesus said that those persons who believe should have power to cast out devils;" and according to the Synoptists, he frequently cured demoniacs, or persons of whom evil spirits had obtained control. The following is one of the most notable cases in which he expelled demons. "And when he [Jesus] was come to the other side [of the lake of Galilee] into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two [lunatics] possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. And behold they [the devils] cried out, saying, 'What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?' And there was a good way off from them a herd of many swine feeding, so the devils besought him, saying, 'If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine.' And he said unto them, 'Go.' And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine; and behold the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea and perished in the waters." A Phoenician woman had a daughter of whom a demon had

taken possession, and Jesus, after driving out the evil one, said to the mother, "The devil is gone out of thy daughter."

The New Testament tells us that the miraculous powers possessed by Jesus were transmitted by him to all persons who sincerely believe in him. When taking leave of the apostles after his resurrection, he said to them, as reported by Mark, "These signs shall follow them that believe; in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.'

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These same miraculous powers are claimed by the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church in the present day for themselves and for the holy relics in their possession. They tell us of miracles performed by their missionaries among savages, where miracles are supposed to be most needed, and of supernatural cures performed by the waters of the holy fountain of Lourdes and by the holy coat of Treves. As Jesus performed no miracle in Jerusalem, and none in the presence of any high priest or Roman official whose name is given, so the Roman Catholic priests of our time perform none in London or Paris, and none elsewhere in the presence of distinguished Protestants or sceptics. The ancient and modern miracles are mostly cures of disease, under circumstances in which the ailment is imaginary, or the report of the cure suspicious. The construction of great architectural monuments, the introduction of important improvements in industry, and valuable contributions to scientific knowledge are never the results of supernatural power.

The aid of faith is necessary in the working of miracles. Jesus said, "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed

[that is, in the smallest possible quantity] ye shall say unto this mountain, 'Remove hence to yonder place,' and it shall remove." On another occasion he said, "If ye have faith and doubt not, . . if ye shall say unto this mountain, 'Be thou removed and cast into the sea,' it shall be done." He also said, "All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, ye shall receive.""

SEC. 519. Pharisees.-It has been a custom with ascetics and anarchists to denounce not only rich men, but also those intellectual leaders who give their influence to support established institutions. In harmony with this usage, the ascetic writer, who furnished much of the material for the synoptical gospels, represented Jesus as cursing the lawyers, the scribes, and the Pharisees. The two latter classes are spoken of as though they were all hypocrites, and oppressors of the poor; though our information from other sources leads us to believe that they were no worse relatively in Judea than the scholars and scribes in other countries. Jesus said: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore, ye shall receive the greater damnation. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. . Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup, but within they are full of extortion and exWoe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye

cess.