And yet the Reconciliation is not far to seek. It is difficult for the average churchman, or theologian, to apprehend and remember, that a _fact_, in nature or in life, is one thing; and that the _interpretation_, or _explanation_ put upon that fact, by any man, or body of men, is another thing entirely. Here is where Belief, Dogma, and Heresy come in. As soon as one denies the interpretation, he is accused of denying the fact, no matter how illogical or absurd the interpretation may be, on the one hand, or how openly he admits the fact as the basis of his own conclusions, on the other. Few individuals will be found nowadays who deny the _fact_ of the birth, life, mission, and death of Jesus of Nazareth. But the interpretations read into the fact differ so widely as to result in almost numberless sects, and an endless war of words. All this theological wrangling may be focalized at one point, almost on a single word. Did Jesus of Nazareth differ in kind or in _Degree_, from the rest of Humanity? If he had "a like nature with ours," as he and his disciples took the utmost pains to declare, and to demonstrate, then he differed in _degree_ of unfoldment, and was indeed, our Elder Brother; He differed as the holy differs from the unholy; as the pure differs from the impure; as the kind and charitable differ from the unkind and the uncharitable. It is just at this point that all the theological juggling comes in, in the effort to reconcile contradictions and irreconcilable paradoxes, under the designation--Mystery, Miracle, and Faith. Few theologians would admit that it is desirable, even if possible, that the mystery and miracle should disappear, and that wisdom and understanding should take their place. In other words, that Jesus should be proved an evolution under both natural and divine law, as the result of "Living the Life." Bear in mind that we are dealing with _Interpretations_ only, and with the opinions of men; and that there is nothing "sacred" or "holy" about these opinions, no matter how they may be hedged about by dogma, or ecclesiastic authority. The Immaculate Conception; the Virgin Birth; the Resurrection of the physical body, and the Vicarious Atonement, are each and all Dogmas; the opinions of men, in _interpreting_ the mystery, and miracle, they have assigned to the nature of Jesus, in what they call the "plan," or the "Scheme of Salvation." If the nature of Jesus were radically and essentially different from ours; if he differed from us in _kind_, instead of in _degree_; if he were "very God," instead of a perfected man, as the result of "Living the Life"; then he can have little in common with us; and, so far as "like natures," "common temptations," and human sympathies, and destinies, are concerned, he might as well have been born on the planet Mars.