'Clement, almost in every page, cites passages taken from the New

Testament, from all the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, each of

Paul's epistles, the 1st and 2nd epistles of John, that of Jude, that

of Hebrews, and the Apocalypse'.

Tertullian.  Although Tertullian is the latest of these three, he is

the most ancient of the Latins whose writings have been preserved.  Lardner

says of Tertullian:

'The quotations made by this father alone, from the little volumes of

the New Testament, are more extensive and more abundant than those from

the works of Cicero by all the writers of all kinds and all ages'.

While the testimony of these three men is sufficient to prove that at a

very early date the canon of the New Testament was recognized and accepted,

it is but a tithe of the witness available.  Others of the many more who

attest the canonicity of the books of the New Testament are:

Clement of Rome, died a.d. 99.

Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, died a martyr, a.d. 115.

Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch, converted a.d. 150.

Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth about a.d. 170.

Athenagoras, a philosopher of Athens, flourishing

a.d. 177.

Asterius Urbanus, Bishop of Galatia, about a.d. 188,

and it is only right to say that every book of the New Testament is not

quoted by every writer, nor perhaps by all together.  It is easily

understandable, for instance, that such an epistle as Philemon or 3 John

should escape, and that not because it was doubtful, but because it may not

have served the purpose of the writer, for the strength and beauty of these

testimonies is in the unconscious confirmation they give of the canon, the

writers having a variety of objects in view, but never the mere presentation

of catalogues of books set out for the purpose of proving canonicity.  There

are such catalogues, and we must include their testimony, but for the present

we have seen sufficient.

The importance of the fact that the Hebrew canon numbers twenty-two may

now be seen.  The number of books in the New Testament is twenty-seven, and

thus 22 + 27 gives us 49, the perfect number, for the complete canon Old and

New.  Moreover, of this forty-nine there are seven catholic epistles, seven

Pauline epistles written before Acts 28, seven Pauline epistles written after

Acts 28, and the book of the Revelation is composed of epistles sent to the

seven churches in Asia.  We have, therefore, the great basis of Law,

Prophets, Psalms, Gospels and Acts, supporting the seven columns of Epistles,

crowned with the sevenfold cornice of the Apocalypse.  A temple of truth,

complete, perfect, and all of God.

We have briefly considered the claims of the Scriptures to inspiration,

and have also indicated the grounds we have for accepting as truly canonical

all and only those books which are now contained in the collection known as

the Bible.  Here we might leave the matter, but such a treasure as the very

Word of God is an abiding source of delight, and teems with points of

interest that cannot but be attractive to every believer.  Consequently we