TESTIMONY OF HISTORY TO THE GENUINENESS OF THE GOSPELS. BY FREDERIC HUIDEKOPER. NEW YORK: JAMES MILLER. 1879. 2555 1977 Copyright, BY FREDERIC HUIDEKOPER. 1879. UNIVERSITY PRESS: JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE. PREFACE. THE history of mankind evinces that civilization has been highest in communities where conscience and hopefulness have been most developed.1 It further shows that these have been most developed in communities having most faith in a Moral Ruler of the universe, to whom mankind are responsible, and in whom they can trust.2 Yet further: no community without belief in revelation has ever believed in such a Ruler. If we now turn to the question of revelation we find at least two communications, one through Moses and a later one through Jesus, which claim to be from God, and the evidence for which, internal or external, claims respectful attention. The one through Moses is so buried in a remote antiquity as to furnish us with little or no external evidence save what we find in the Old Testament and in the influence which Judaism exercised on Greek civilization. The other, through Jesus, is at a date when 1 See Judaism at Rome, pp. 364, 367-371, 382-386. 2 See Judaism, pp. 367, 370, 386. |