Excerpt from The Life of Jesus the Christ, Vol. 1 The Lives of Christ which have appeared of late years have naturally partaken largely of the dialectic and critical spirit. They have either attacked or defended. The Gospel, like a city of four gates, has been taken and retaken by alternate parties, or held in part by Opposing hosts, while on every side the marks of siege and defence cover the ground. This may be unfortunate, but it is necessary. As long as great learning and acute criticism are brought to assail the text of the Gos pels, their historic authenticity, the truth of their contents, and the ethical nature of their teachings, so long must great learn ing and sound philosophy be brought to the defence of those precious documents. 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.