Excerpt from Commentaries on Hebrew and Christian Mythology The claim which has so long been persistently maintained of the supernatural origin of Christianity and its Christ has at last been met by positive denials, and thereby an issue has been raised. Because of the natural difficulty of proving a negative, the rule has long since been permanently established that he who asserts a thing which is denied must first offer proofs sufficient to make a prima-facie case, before the party denying the allegation is called upon for a defense. Has the church ever made sufficient proof that its religion and its founder were of supernatural origin to call for counter-evidence? We think not; but this claim has been made, and for nearly nineteen hundred years it has been acquiesced in by a very large and respectable body of men calling themselves Christians. It may be said, not without some show of reason, that this long acquiescence is equivalent to proof sufficient to make a prima-facie case. Assuming such to be true, we are put on the defensive, but with the right to enter a special plea as to the force of the proof offered by the church, and under this plea we may criticise the church's position, and inquire: First, whether such a man as Christ is said to have been ever lived; second, if he be a real person, then what do we know of and concerning his sayings and doings. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.