At all events, though Mr. Coates gives no definite answer he seems not to have tthe necessary knowledge, as I instinctively deducted from his apodictive statements.
Others may be induced to take him as a guide, I prefer to decline his offer, where he does not even understand the responsibility of his task.
He evades the pertinent point by making a comparison after the metaphor that the truth the Bible enshrines is called the Bread of Life.
Well, Mr. Editor, if Mr. Coates had been content with the Bread of Life himself, I would not have asked him about his knowledge of the breadmaking process. I stated purposely: His is not the profession of some transcendental truth of Christian Religion, the only thing that matters, but an irrelevant statement of a coming fact of cryptical origin."
He asks us to believe in a special definite fact, that he mixes with the real teachings. He cannot deny that a Christian who is prepared already ito face his Lord will not be dammed if he refuses to believe the tales of Mr. Coates about the exact date of His coming. So he is making the Bread of Life with some concoction of his own invention. And therefore I asked him,. how can you tell it? Do you merely guess it, or are you dead certain about it, and if so, explain me your expert knowledge of bread. Otherwise 1 must decline your testimony as wit how: any importance. There has been a time and in some countries it survives where breadmaking as all other handicraft, was monopolized in guilds to prevent frauds, -just like bible-interpretation was and_ is sometimes still a privilege.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.