The Saviour of men came to teach us that all worldly distinctions are as nothing, compared with those which concern our spiritual nature and our immortal being;—and how could he have taught this, if he had not himself trodden them under foot?
Read MoreAbout the end of the second century, the Gospels were reverenced as sacred books by a community dispersed over the world, composed of men of different nations and languages. There were, to say the least, sixty thousand copies of them in existence; they were read in the churches of Christians; they were continually quoted, and appealed to, as of the highest authority; their reputation was as well established among believers, from one end of the Roman empire to the other, as it is at the present day among Christians in any country. …
Read MoreThe whole Christian world has believed that these stories proceeded from Apostles and their associates. But it was not so. They proceeded from another party among the followers of Christ, a party that does not appear in history, the existence of which is irreconcilable with all remaining records and memorials of the times when it is supposed to have flourished, utterly irreconcilable with all probability, and which, therefore, was unknown to the world before its discovery by Strauss.
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