On one occasion he gives a very circumstantial account of the testimony
on which the belief in the Resurrection rested (1 Cor. xv. 4-8). And,
not only does he assert the Resurrection as a fact, but he builds
upon it a whole scheme of doctrine: 'If Christ be not risen,' he says,
'then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.' We do not
stay now to consider the exact philosophical weight of this evidence.
It will be time enough to do this when it has received the critical
discussion that may be presumed to be in store for it. But as external
evidence, in the legal sense, it is probably the best that can be
produced, and it has been entirely untouched so far.

Again, in considering the evidence for the age of the Synoptic
Gospels, that which is derived from external sources is only a
part, and not perhaps the more important part, of the whole. It
points backwards indeed, and we shall see with what amount of
force and range. But there is still an interval within which only
approximate conclusions are possible. These conclusions need to be
supplemented from the phenomena of the documents themselves. In
the relation of the Gospels to the growth of the Christian society
and the development of Christian doctrine, and especially to the
great turning-point in the history, the taking of Jerusalem, there
is very considerable internal evidence for determining the date
within which they must have been composed. It is well known that
many critics, without any apologetic object, have found a more or
less exact criterion in the eschatological discourses (Matt. xxiv,
Mark xiii, Luke xxi. 5-36), and to this large additions may be
made. As I hope some day to have an opportunity of discussing the
whole question of the origin and composition of the Synoptic
Gospels, I shall not go into this at present: but in the mean time
it should be remembered that all these further questions lie in