These letters also form the most convincing proof, not only that the Resurrection was universally believed as a fact by the communities to which they were addressed, but that it was accepted by the individual members of these Churches from the first commencement of their Christianity. Although two of these Churches had been planted by St. Paul, that of the Romans was not planted by him, and was of considerable standing when he wrote the letter. Its fame had spread throughout the whole Christian world. Everything in the Epistle denotes that its Christianity was of no recent growth. Many of these Churches, especially the Jewish portions of them, could carry their recollections up to a much earlier time. It should be carefully observed that the interval of twenty‐ eight years from the foundation of a sect is a period wholly insufficient for the growth of an hereditary and otiose faith. The majority of the members of these Churches were beyond all doubt actual converts, who had once been either Jews or Pagans. However credulous we may suppose them to have been, their conversion must have been due to an inquiry of some kind. The short period which had elapsed since the foundation of the Church and the supreme interest which the whole of the events and circumstances must have excited in the converts, were precisely what was requisite for preserving traditionary recollections with the utmost soundness. There could have been no doubt in any of their minds whether or not the belief in the Resurrection was the groundwork of their Christianity. They must have known therefore whether it was a story which had gradually spread, or had existed from the beginning; or whether the peculiar form of it was an invention of St. Paul; or whether it was the foundation of the convictions of those by whom they had been converted. The manner in which the fact of the Resurrection is referred to in these Epistles proves that the belief was of no recent growth, but had existed from the beginning. The Epistle to the Romans opens with these words:—“Concerning His Son Jesus Christ ... who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, _by the resurrection from the dead_.” It is impossible that a writer could have made such a reference as this at the opening of his letter, unless he had been certain that the belief in the Resurrection had been accepted as a fact by those whom he addressed, and by the whole Christian community with whom they were acquainted. But further: it is utterly incredible that if the converts accepted the fact of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ as the foundation of their Christianity, they should have contentedly remained ignorant of the facts of His previous history, at a period when there must have been abundant means of obtaining an acquaintance with it.