The Vital Message | Page 6

Arthur Conan Doyle
other considerations which
should have weight when we contemplate this life and its efficacy as an example. One of
these is that the very essence of it was that He critically examined religion as He found it,
and brought His robust common sense and courage to bear in exposing the shams and in
pointing out the better path. THAT is the hall-mark of the true follower of Christ, and not
the mute acceptance of doctrines which are, upon the face of them, false and pernicious,
because they come to us with some show of authority. What authority have we now, save
this very life, which could compare with those Jewish books which were so binding in
their force, and so immutably sacred that even the misspellings or pen-slips of the scribe,
were most carefully preserved? It is a simple obvious fact that if Christ had been
orthodox, and had possessed what is so often praised as a "child-like faith," there could
have been no such thing as Christianity. Let reformers who love Him take heart as they
consider that they are indeed following in the footsteps of the Master, who has at no time
said that the revelation which He brought, and which has been so imperfectly used, is the
last which will come to mankind. In our own times an equally great one has been released
from the centre of all truth, which will make as deep an impression upon the human race
as Christianity, though no predominant figure has yet appeared to enforce its lessons.
Such a figure has appeared once when the days were ripe, and I do not doubt that this
may occur once more. One other consideration must be urged. Christ has not given His
message in the first person. If He had done so our position would be stronger. It has been
repeated by the hearsay and report of earnest but ill-educated men. It speaks much for
education in the Roman province of Judea that these fishermen, publicans and others
could even read or write. Luke and Paul were, of course, of a higher class, but their
information came from their lowly predecessors. Their account is splendidly satisfying in
the unity of the general impression which it produces, and the clear drawing of the
Master's teaching and character. At the same time it is full of inconsistencies and
contradictions upon immaterial matters. For example, the four accounts of the
resurrection differ in detail, and there is no orthodox learned lawyer who dutifully accepts
all four versions who could not shatter the evidence if he dealt with it in the course of his

profession. These details are immaterial to the spirit of the message. It is not common
sense to suppose that every item is inspired, or that we have to make no allowance for
imperfect reporting, individual convictions, oriental phraseology, or faults of translation.
These have, indeed, been admitted by revised versions. In His utterance about the letter
and the spirit we could almost believe that Christ had foreseen the plague of texts from
which we have suffered, even as He Himself suffered at the hands of the theologians of
His day, who then, as now, have been a curse to the world. We were meant to use our
reasons and brains in adapting His teaching to the conditions of our altered lives and
times. Much depended upon the society and mode of expression which belonged to His
era. To suppose in these days that one has literally to give all to the poor, or that a starved
English prisoner should literally love his enemy the Kaiser, or that because Christ
protested against the lax marriages of His day therefore two spouses who loathe each
other should be for ever chained in a life servitude and martyrdom--all these assertions
are to travesty His teaching and to take from it that robust quality of common sense
which was its main characteristic. To ask what is impossible from human nature is to
weaken your appeal when you ask for what is reasonable. It has already been stated that
of the three headings under which reforms are grouped, the exclusion of the old
dispensation, the greater attention to Christ's life as compared to His death, and the new
spiritual influx which is giving us psychic religion, it is only on the latter that one can
quote the authority of the beyond. Here, however, the case is really understated. In regard
to the Old Testament I have never seen the matter treated in a spiritual communication.
The nature of Christ, however, and His teaching, have been expounded a score of times
with some variation of detail, but in the main as reproduced here. Spirits have their
individuality of view, and some carry over strong earthly prepossessions which they do
Continue reading on your phone by scaning this QR Code

 / 39
Tip: The current page has been bookmarked automatically. If you wish to continue reading later, just open the Dertz Homepage, and click on the 'continue reading' link at the bottom of the page.