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us by the lapse of time. Perhaps the best thing for the average man to do under the circumstances is to suspend his judgment as to the possibility of such a secret in nature. To deny it would be rash, on the one hand, and to admit it, on the other, would be tantamount to substituting assumption for proof. But the ancient records and scriptures are to be read in the light of the beliefs of the ancients, however much they might remain unverified by us. The ancients undoubtedly have the merit of truthfulness in their favour; and we see no reason to disbelieve them when they are unanimous in the description of things which were of a fairly common occurrence in their time, simply because our own inferior faculties and powers of observation do not corroborate their statements.
RESURRECTION.
The residents of the heaven-world, called devas in Jainism and Hinduism and angels in Christianity and Islam, are also said to possess the power of making themselves invisible to men at will. This goes to show that the matter of their bodies is of a type which readily obeys the impulses of their will. The difference between devas and men with respect to this wonderful power lies in the fact that while the former enjoy it in consequence of their birth, the latter have to acquire it by the practising of renunciation and severe austerities. In addition to this miraculous power, the devas also enjoy the memory of their earth-lives, and the power to descend to this world; and some of them have been actually known to have come down in the past to their earthly friends.
So far, then, as Jesus is concerned, it is also conceiv
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