Some illustrations have already been given in chapter eleven of the brief interval between the Apostles and Justin Martyr. Let any intelligent reader of sixty, from his own recollection, or any young person, from the recollections of others with whom he is acquainted, determine for himself. The writer was admitted to the Bar almost forty years ago; he has within a few months seen an original deed[2] of land in Londonderry (the home of his ancestors) executed one hundred and fifty years ago; he has in his possession certified copies of certificates of marriages and births, in his own genealogical record—going back from one to two hundred years, in one instance two hundred and thirty years, and these certificates would be received as _evidence_ in any Court. They would be received, because made by the proper custodian of public documents, found in the proper repository for them. The presumption of law in such case is the judgment of charity. It presumes that documents found in their proper repository, and not bearing marks of forgery, are genuine. A deed forty years old, followed by a possession agreeing with it, is admitted in evidence without other proof of its execution. Our Gospels in Justin’s time were where they _should_ have been, if authentic. The Church was the proper repository for authentic Memoirs of its Founder. _Our Gospels were there._ They were in their proper repository. And upon every principle that rules in the administration of justice, or in the common affairs of life, it must be presumed that they were _rightfully_ there. Their rejection is _not_ “the judgment of charity.” It reverses the maxim that fraud is not to be presumed. It charges forgery, of which there is no evidence, upon persons whom it finds it impossible to discover and identify. It imputes ignorance and indifference to multitudes who had every opportunity for knowing the truth, and who were willing to suffer all things for their convictions of the truth. It presses, as of vital consequence, trivial objections and alleged errors in chronology, geography and history, which (if made out) would not for a moment be thought sufficient to successfully impugn the authenticity of any secular work as well supported by external evidence. It is unnecessary to further consider such objections.[3] It is no exaggeration to say, that the various theories and speculations of those who deny the genuineness of the Gospels are, in the main, but ingenious attempts at the solution of the problem: “Given, the impossibility of miracles, what may be supposed to be the true history of Jesus Christ?” The only consistent answer that could be made, would be that upon such an hypothesis, it is impossible to determine what was his life or character. But, given, the possibility of miracles (and if there is a God they must be possible), there is no reasonable doubt of the authenticity of the Gospels, and the book of Acts. They come to us from their proper