ok at the unbelieving, bloody, persecuting hosts, and choose
your future associates.

Strauss says: "No man knows who wrote the Gospels." Can he mean that
they are anonymous books? Does he mean that they are not
biographies--books containing, in their historic matter, an account of
the authors _themselves_? Who does not know that those books are and
have been called the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John? And who
has, in all the past centuries, produced evidence showing that those are
the wrong names. No one. Insane men might say such a thing. Infidels
don't like to say that; they just say you can't prove your religion, nor
show that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote those books. Will any
sensible man affirm that they are the wrong names? How do we judge and
believe respecting the authorship of other ancient books? Why do we
believe that Caesar wrote the Commentaries on the Gallic War? And why do
we believe that Virgil wrote the AEneid? No sane man ever doubted the
authorship of those writings. Preoccupancy during the ages past is
considered by infidels themselves a sufficient ground for belief. The
fact that those books exist has certainly been known from the age of the
apostles to the present time, for men quoted extensively from them in
the second century. The names they bear were in the possessive case
then, and it is but fair to consider them the true owners.

Why are skeptics and infidels so partial among ancient books? They doubt
the authorship of no ancient books unless they are written in favor of
the religion of Christ. Will some wise one tell us why this strange
inconsistency? O, it is an evidence of a wicked heart--that's all!
all!!--ALL THERE IS OF IT!!!

Here are the dates of the books of the New Testaments, along with
contemporary landmarks:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| |
BOOKS. | AFTER | CONTEMPORARY LANDMARKS.
| PENTECOST. |
-------------+------------+----------------------------------------------
1 Peter | 16 | Claudius Caesar ruled from A.D. 41 to 54.
Galatians | 18 |
1 Thess | 19 | Romans settled in England between 41 and 54.
2 Thess | 20 |
1 Cor | 24 | Nero ruled from 54 to 68.
2 Cor | 25 |
1 Timothy | 25 | Paul and Peter were martyred at Rome in or
Romans | 25 | about the year 63; 30 y