_Answer_. This question has been answered long ago, time and time again. _Question_. Perhaps it has, but would it not be well enough to answer it once more? Some may not have seen the answer? _Answer_. Show me the hospitals that infidels have built; show me the asylums that infidels have founded. _Question_. I know you have given the usual an- swer; but after all, is it not singular that a miracle so wonderful as the bodily ascension of a man, should not have been mentioned by all the writers of that man's life? Is it not wonderful that some of them said that he did ascend, and others that he agreed to stay with his disciples always? _Answer_. People unacquainted with the Hebrew, can have no conception of these things. A story in plain English, does not sound as it does in Hebrew. Miracles seem altogether more credible, when told in a dead language. _Question_. What, in your judgment, became of the dead who were raised by Christ? Is it not singular that they were never mentioned afterward? 405 Would not a man who had been raised from the dead naturally be an object of considerable interest, especially to his friends and acquaintances? And is it not also wonderful that Christ, after having wrought so many miracles, cured so many lame and halt and blind, fed so many thousands miraculously, and after having entered Jerusalem in triumph as a conqueror and king, had to be pointed out by one of his own disciples who was bribed for the purpose? _Answer_. Of course, all these things are exceed- ingly wonderful, and if found in any other book, would be absolutely incredible; but we have no right to apply the same kind of reasoning to the Bible that we apply to the Koran or to the sacred books of the Hindus. For the ordinary affairs of this world, God has given us reason; but in the examination of religious questions, we should de- pend upon credulity and faith. _Question_. If Christ came to offer himself a sacri- fice, for the purpose of making atonement for the sins of such as might believe on him, why did he not make this fact known to all of his disciples? _Answer_. He did. This was, and is, the gospel. _Question_. How is it that Matthew says nothing about "salvation by faith," but simply says that God 406 will be merciful to the merciful, that he will forgive the forgiving, and says not one word about the necessity of believing anything? _Answer_. But you will remember that Mark says, in the last chapter of his gospel, that "whoso be- "lieveth not shall be damned." _Question_. Do you admit that Matthew says nothing on the subject? _Answer_. Yes, I suppose I must. _Question_. Is not that passage in Mark generally admitted to be an interpolation? _Answer_. Some biblical scholars say that it is. _Question_. Is that portion of the last chapter of Mark found in the Syriac version of the Bible? _Answer_. It is not.