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strike at God and his Book on every point that is exposed and vulnerable would be to write a bigger and, possibly, a more questionable book than the one I attack. According to Homer, Achilles had a vulnerable heel; but Jehovah is vulnerable all over, from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head. There is no profit in attacking his prophets. They usually attack themselves by foretelling events after they have happened, or by vaticinating in such a vague and misty fashion that one set of polemics may contend that the prophecy has been fulfilled, and an equally honest and able set of dialecticians may aver that the prophecy has not been fulfilled. Pushing aside all the major and minor prophets, from weeping Jeremiah to raving John of Patmos, we will take a solitary glance at the prophetic attainments of the only begotten son of the author of the Bible. Christ himself, it must be remembered, tried his hand at prophecy. If he was no prophet, he was also no fool; for he took care that his great prophecy was to be fulfilled after his death. This is always a wise precaution; for, if the prophecy do not be fulfilled, the prophet is saved the hazard of being branded an arrant impostor.

Christ, when he tried his hand at prophecy—having previously tried his hand at the jack-plane—foretold that he would return to the earth for the second time before the generation to which he appeared had passed away. His followers distinctly understood this promise and