got the one simple story to tell. It is, indeed, a gospel, a
philosophy, a theology, the reconciliation of earth and heaven, the
revelation of God to man, and of man to himself, the unveiling of the
future world, the basis of hope; but we bring it to you first as a
thing that happened upon this earth of ours, which we saw with our
eyes, and of which we are the witnesses.'

To that work there can be no successors. Some of the Apostles were
inspired to be the writers of the authoritative fountains of
religious truth; but that gift did not belong to them all, and was
not the distinctive possession of the Twelve. The power of working
miracles, and of communicating supernatural gifts, was not confined
to them, but is found exercised by other believers, as well as by a
whole 'presbytery.' And as for what was properly their task, and
their qualifications, there can be no succession, for there is
nothing to succeed to, but what cannot be transmitted--the sight of
the risen Saviour, and the witness to His Resurrection as a fact
certified by their senses.

II. The sufficiency of the testimony.

Peter regards (as does the whole New Testament, and as did Peter's
Master, when He appointed these men) the witness which he and his
fellows bore as enough to lay firm and deep the historical fact of
the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The first point that I would suggest here is this: if we think of
Christianity as being mainly a set of truths--spiritual, moral,
intellectual--then, of course, the way to prove Christianity is to
show the consistency of that body of truths with one another, their