But further; besides this account which the Church has given of its own origin, there is no rival account of it in existence. As far as historical documents are concerned, there is no other. All others are founded on conjecture. Our opponents, however, affirm that the alleged fact which the Church asserts to have been the cause of its existence is incredible, because all miracles are impossible. Then, leaving _à priori_ grounds, they also affirm that the evidence to prove the Resurrection to have been an historical fact is insufficient for the purpose. The Church, however, is clearly in possession of a vantage‐ground, from which it is not easy to dislodge her. The cause which she alleges is adequate to account for all the phenomena. The _onus probandi_ therefore clearly rests on the opponents of Christianity. If they deny the truth of the fact which the Church has ever handed down as the true account of her origin, they are bound not only to show that it is devoid of historical attestation, but to propound a theory which will adequately account for all the facts to which history testifies. It is clear that nothing short of this is required of them as philosophical historians. Certain facts are plain and undeniable. A society, of a very special character, sprang into existence at a definite point of history, and has exerted a mightier influence than any other on the destinies of man. If therefore they reject the account which the Church herself gives, they are bound to supply a rational account of how this great society came into being; how the phenomena which constitute its history have been brought about; and what it was that imparted to it its vitality and power. We are in the presence of the greatest institution with which history is acquainted, founded as it is on the greatest ideal conception (if it is not historical) which the human mind has ever succeeded in inventing. Both these came into existence, not in pre‐ historic times, but in the midst of a period of contemporaneous history. Respecting the times, the modes of thought, and the general character of the period, we have extensive historical data. The religious, moral, and philosophical opinions, and the general line of thought, are well known. The various forces which were then in activity we are able to appreciate. With all these data before him, it is incumbent on the philosophical historian to give us an account of the moral and religious forces in activity at this period, which were capable of creating the Christian Church, and generating its conception of the ideal Christ. If it is alleged that after the utmost investigation it is impossible to account for their origin by the action of any known moral or spiritual forces acting on the human mind, this would be at once to confess that the origin of Christianity and the Church is entirely abnormal, or in other words, that it is a moral and spiritual miracle.