As far as the Evangelists are concerned, the supposition that I am now considering involves nothing more than that they held a false theory as to the cause of a particular form of disease, and that they have used language respecting it that embodies this theory. In this point of view they would not differ from writers of every age who have entertained false theories as to the causes of physical phenomena. In such cases it is easy to separate the fact from the incorrect view as to what were the causes of that fact. Ancient philosophical writers held many false theories as to the place of the local habitation in our bodies of certain affections of our moral nature. These can be traced very distinctly in the language of the present day. Thus we say that a man is devoid of heart, and talk of making appeals to the heart. These, and multitudes of similar expressions which occur both in ancient and modern writings, involve false philosophical theories; but it is easy to separate the facts intended from the theories. Thus, if the authors of the Gospels inform us that our Lord cured a demoniac, and give an account of the demoniac’s outcries, as though they were the utterances of a demon, we have only to substitute madman for demoniac, and the correct state of the case is easily discovered. The real difficulty which is felt on this subject, arises not from the narratives as ordinary histories, but on the supposition that the writers possessed an inspiration which ought to have guarded them from such errors. Popular theories of inspiration unquestionably render such an assumption necessary, but I can see no ground for it, either in the statements of the Gospels, or any other portion of the New Testament. Nowhere is it affirmed that its writers were to be guided into all truth, scientific, philosophical, or even historical. All that is affirmed is that they possessed a degree of supernatural enlightenment adequate to communicate the Christian revelation to mankind. Neither is there a hint given, nor can a fact be adduced, to show that their supernatural illumination extended beyond this. The spiritual gifts bestowed no enlightenment beyond the special function of those gifts. This the affirmation of St. Paul in the Epistles to the Corinthians makes clear. A person having the gift of tongues, if he had not also that of interpretation was unable to interpret his own utterances, and the possession of the high gift of prophecy by no means exempted the possessor from the danger of using it in a manner to create confusion in the Church. Even the highest apostolic gifts conferred no infallibility, but were strictly limited to their proper functions of communicating the great truths of the Christian revelation. The idea that they conferred a general infallibility is no statement of the New Testament, but a pure figment of the imagination.