Let us now clear up the situation a little. The New Testament tells two
stories for two different sorts of readers. One is the old story of the
achievement of our salvation by the sacrifice and atonement of a divine
personage who was barbarously slain and rose again on the third day:
the story as it was accepted by the apostles. And in this story the
political, economic, and moral views of the Christ have no importance:
the atonement is everything; and we are saved by our faith in it, and
not by works or opinions (other than that particular opinion) bearing on
practical affairs.
The other is the story of a prophet who, after expressing several
very interesting opinions as to practical conduct, both personal and
political, which are now of pressing importance, and instructing his
disciples to carry them out in their daily life, lost his head; believed
himself to be a crude legendary form of god; and under that delusion
courted and suffered a cruel execution in the belief that he would rise
from the dead and come in glory to reign over a regenerated world.
In this form, the political, economic and moral opinions of Jesus,
as guides to conduct, are interesting and important: the rest is mere
psychopathy and superstition. The accounts of the resurrection, the
parthenogenetic birth, and the more incredible miracles are rejected
as inventions; and such episodes as the conversation with the devil
are classed with similar conversations recorded of St. Dunstan, Luther,
Bunyan, Swedenborg, and Blake.