existed. Yet the most impossible utterances are put in Jesus' mouth.
He is made to say: "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will I
do." No man who makes such a promise can keep it. It is not sayings
like the above that can prove a man a God. Has Jesus kept his promise?
Does he give his people everything, or "whatsoever" they ask of him?
But, it is answered, "Jesus only meant to say that he would give
whatever he himself considered good for his friends to have." Indeed!
Is that the way to crawl out of a contract? If that is what he meant,
why did he say something else? Could he not have _said_ just what
he _meant_, in the first place? Would it not have been fairer not
to have given his friends any occasion for false expectations? Better
to promise a little and do more, than to promise everything and do
nothing. But to say that Jesus really entered into any such agreement
is to throw doubt upon his existence. Such a character is too wild to
be real. Only a mythical Jesus could virtually hand over the
government of the universe to courtiers who have petitions to press
upon his attention. Moreover, if Jesus could keep his promise, there
would be today no misery in the world, no orphans, no childless
mothers, no shipwrecks, no floods, no famines, no disease, no crippled
children, no insanity, no wars, no crime, no wrong! Have not a
thousand, thousand prayers been offered in Jesus' name against every
evil which has ploughed the face of our earth? Have these prayers been
answered? Then why is there discontent in the world? Can the followers
of Jesus move mountains, drink deadly poisons, touch serpents, or work
greater miracles than are ascribed to Jesus, as it was promised that
they would do? How many self-deluded prophets these extravagant claims
have produced! And who can number the bitter disappointments caused by
such impossible promises?

George Jacob Holyoake, of England, tells how in the days of utter