{105} In the British and other museums may be found thousands of manuscripts on every conceivable subject embracing every age for the past sixteen hundred years and even some still earlier. Among these manuscripts are over two thousand copies of the New Testament, some of them dating back to apostolic times. These manuscripts have been scrutinized by the most critical scholars; yet the result of this examination is merely the suggestion of thirteen unimportant alterations in the seven thousand nine hundred and fifty-nine verses of the New Testament. This is a fact utterly unexampled in the history of manuscripts. We are thus, by the special providence of God, as undoubtedly in possession of genuine copies of the gospels and epistles, some of which were written while the companions of the Savior were still living and the divine authority and Priesthood were still upon the earth, as we are of genuine copies of the Constitution of the United States and of the Declaration of Independence. There is no history so trustworthy as that prepared by cotemporary writers, especially by those who have themselves been actively engaged in the events which they relate. Such history never loses its interest, nor does the lapse of ages, in the least degree, impair its credibility. While the documents can be preserved, Xenophon's "Retreat of the Ten Thousand," Wellington's dispatches, and Washington's letters to Congress, will be as trustworthy as on the day they were written. Of the great facts described in these {106} documents addressed to their cotemporaries, able at a glance to detect a falsehood, we never entertain the least suspicion. Many such historical allusions might be quoted. We have selected one from the well-known works of Tacitus, the celebrated Roman historian, who lived between A. D. 60 and 120, and wrote a history of Rome up to the reign of the emperor Trajan. Concerning this extract from the history of Tacitus the infidel, Gibbon, says, "The most skeptical criticism is obliged to respect the truth of this important fact and the integrity of this important passage of Tacitus." After relating the burning of the city of Rome by order of Nero, and his attempt to transfer the odium of it to the Christians, Tacitus says: