The fifth overthrows the subtle heresy that confounds the Word of the Most High with the intellectual development of mankind.
The sixth condemns the repudiation of Divine faith as hostile to human reason.
The seventh denounces the impious blasphemy of Strauss and his compeers, reducing the Scriptures to a system of mythology.
Such blasphemies can scarce be heard without a shudder. But before dismissing the revolting subject it is well, in a brief digression, if such it be, to unfold something of the daring and impious system condemned in the seventh proposition. Christ, say its supporters, is a myth, like Prometheus. What is a myth? A hero of fiction? Not exactly; the myth will be in most cases an historical being, but whose real character can but faintly be made out through the haze of fable and legend which has thickened round it. So it is with Prometheus; the legend of the god-like son of heaven, whom Vulcan chained to Mount Caucasus in punishment for his philanthropy, is found, in one shape or another, among Greeks, Romans, Hindoos, Chinese, etc. It must have some foundation in truth. But no mortal wisdom can now discern that truth in the troubled water of legends that envelope it. So it is with Christ. He is a myth, like Prometheus. That man, crucified in Judea, doubtless, did exist. But to make out the real Christ from the Christ of the New Testament is beyond the power of criticism.
Such is the blasphemous error here denounced. Its refutation is easy. The age of myths and the age of Christ are separated by many centuries. The latest
