stimony for miracles and the reality of
Divine Revelation.

Applying similar tests to the Acts of the Apostles we arrived at similar
results. Acknowledged to be composed by the same author who produced the
third Synoptic, that author's identity is not thereby made more clear.
There is no evidence of the slightest value regarding its character,
but, on the other hand, the work itself teems to such an extent with
miraculous incidents and supernatural agency that the credibility of the
narrative requires an extraordinary amount of attestation to secure for
it any serious consideration. When the statements of the author are
compared with the emphatic declarations of the Apostle Paul and with
authentic accounts of the development of the early Christian Church, it
becomes evident that the Acts of the Apostles, as might have been
supposed, is a legendary composition of a later day, which cannot be
regarded as sober and credible history, and rather discredits than tends
to establish the reality of the miracles with which its pages so
suspiciously abound.

The remaining books of the New Testament Canon required no separate
examination, because, even if genuine, they contain no additional
testimony to the reality of Divine Revelation, beyond the implied belief
in such doctrines as the Incarnation and Resurrection. It is
unquestionable, we suppose, that in some form or other the Apostles
believed in these miracles, and the assumption that they did so
supersedes the necessity for examining the authenticity of the Catholic
Epistles and Apocalypse. In like manner, the recognition as genuine of
four Epistles of Paul, which contain his testimony to miracles, renders
it superfluous to discuss the authenticity of the other letters
attributed to him.

The general belief in miraculous power and its possession by the Church
is brought to a practical test in the case of the Apostle Paul. After
elaborate consideration of his letters, we came to the unhesitating
conclusion that, instead of establishing the reality of miracles, the
unconscious testimony of Paul clearly demonstrates the facility with
which erroneous inferences convert the most natural phenomena into
supernatural occurrences.

As a final test, we carefully examined the whole of the evidence for the
cardinal dogmas of Christianity, the Resurrection and Ascension of
Jesus. First taking the four Gospels, we found that their accounts of
these events are not only full of legendar