Classicly

The present treatise is intended to give what the author has often felt the need of—a compact and thoroughly reliable statement of the principal historical facts to the authenticity and integrity of the New Testament writings concerning our Lord, and the presumptions from them which establish his claims as our Divine Redeemer and Saviour.

While the proofs have been marshalled around the principal fact, those to establish the subsidiary question of our Four Gospels and the Book of Acts have been largely centered upon the “Memoirs” mentioned in the confessedly genuine writings of Justin Martyr. Justin, in his First Apology, so called, written before the year one hundred and fifty of our era, and probably ten years earlier, has given a graphic account of the usages in the churches generally. In this account he says that, on the “day called Sunday,” Memoirs of Christ were read with the Prophets, in all their assemblies. Hence, when it is ascertained that these Memoirs were our Canonical Gospels, we make a long stride toward the conclusion of their undoubted authenticity and genuineness.