I am not going into the question of the authenticity of particular phrases; I simply take the New Testament, as it is admitted to be a sacred book.

There you have placed in the mouth of Jesus the distinct declaration that those who believe on Him should do greater works than He did; and in one passage--rejected, I know, as not in the original manuscripts by many scholars, but still coming down from a great Christian antiquity--you have the distinct statement that they shall be able to drink poison, and so on.

So it is clearly a part of the definite Christian teaching and tradition, that these so-called abnormal powers are within the reach of believers in Christianity.

And so also with regard to Hinduism.
Now another thing is to be observed in this connection: that as the religion has gone on generation after generation, century after century, there has been a diminution of the powers, and a much less frequent happening of these so-called miracles.

Side by side with the weakening of these powers and the lessening in number of the phenomena has been also the gradual lessening of the power of the religion over the minds and lives of men.