But the value to be assigned to the Gospels as histories must be a matter for subsequent consideration. At present I need simply draw attention to the fact that while the opponents of Christianity fully recognize the necessity of propounding a rational theory of its origin, the more we examine their various theories in detail, the more apparent becomes their inadequacy to account for the phenomena. The fact, already alluded to, that unbelievers cannot come to any agreement among themselves on this subject, shows that they find the problem extremely difficult of solution. The plausibility of their theories is due to the abstract and general form in which they are presented. Various causes are held up without any discrimination as to what each of them is capable of effecting; and the wished‐for result is ascribed to their combined action. But when we analyse the various forces at their command, ascertain the mode of their action, the difficulties they would have to encounter before they could effectuate their results, and examine whether they are true to the facts of human nature as testified to by the long course of history, it is not too much to affirm that all the investigations of unbelievers have completely failed to give an account of the origin of Christianity which can take the place of that handed down to us by the Church. Until this can be given, notwithstanding all the expenditure of intellect on the question, we are justified in affirming that the problem is insoluble, although Christianity originated in a period unquestionably historical, in the midst of the Roman Empire over which it rapidly spread, despite the opposition of the government and the entire organization of society. Before proceeding to the direct considerations by which the great fact of Christianity is attested, I must take a general glance at the nature of the materials which we have at our command, and at their historical value.