HISTORIC CHRISTIANITY had no common dream, and tumbled out on deck, to take the air. As he did so, he met a ship's officer, turning in from his watch. ' What is the time ? ' he asked him. " Midnight," was the answer. " And where are we ?" " Just fifty miles off Crete ! " This unexpected coincidence startled the Swami, lending inevitable emphasis to the dream itself. The experience now seemed to precipitate elements, that without it, would have lain in his mind meaningless and un- related. He confessed afterwards that up to this time it had never occurred to him to doubt the historic personality of Christ, and that after this, he could never rely upon it. He understood all at once that it was S. Paul alone of whom we could be sure. He saw the meaning of the fact that the Acts of the Apostles was an older record than the Gospels. And he divined that the teaching of Jesus might have originated with the 352
