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* THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
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ization was fast declining about the time of the visit of Jesus, the atmosphere of the land must nevertheless have been thoroughly saturated with the tenets of mysticism and dogmatic theology. Although Jesus was very young at the time, still the early impressions of such an atmosphere could not be lightly effaced from the impressionable mind of the child, and their further and fuller development, in the future, depended merely on favourable opportunity. His interest in the Jewish faith was just the sort of stimulus required to keep his early impressions alive, and it only needed a chance acquaintance with the Indian philosoply to fan the spark into a flame. His teachings, thus, form an epitome of the views of the diverse schools of divine knowledge which had, so to speak, filtered through his great mind.
Jesus might, no doubt, have worked out his system independently of the Hindus and others, but the probability to the contrary is so great as to be almost conclusive on the point. A glance at the contents of the New Testament is sufficient to show that they are not only repetitions of the doctrines of the earlier creeds, but also do not possess any of those characteristicslogical inference, sequence of causal law, systematic presentation, and the like-which one naturally expectsto find in an intellectually thought out system of philosophy. Most of its passages are only full of dogmas and myths. Rather than furnish an explanation of the nature of things, they themselves stand in need of being explained to be understood. The policy of observing secrecy might be responsible, to a certain extent, for
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