alleged fact.

In the fourth place, although there is some evidence that some
Gospels were known in the first century, there is no evidence that
the Gospels as we know them were then in existence.

In the fifth place, even supposing that the existing Gospels and
the Epistles of Paul were originally composed by men who knew Christ,
and that these men were entirely honest and capable witnesses,
there is no certainty that what they wrote has come down to us
unaltered.

The only serious evidence of the Resurrection being in the books
of the New Testament, we are bound to scrutinise those books
closely, as on their testimony the case for Christianity entirely
depends.

Who, then, are the witnesses? They are the authors of the Gospels,
the Acts, and the Epistles of Peter and of Paul.

Who were these authors? Matthew and John are "supposed" to have
been disciples of Christ; but were they? I should say Matthew
certainly was not contemporary with Jesus, for in the last chapter
of the Gospel according to Matthew we read as follows:

Now while they were going behold some of the guard came into
the city, and told unto the chief priests all the things that
were come to pass. And when they were assembled with the elders,
and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers,
saying, Say yet his disciples came by night and stole him away