This 1897 review covers a history of Christian origins and Jewish and Christian literature to the end of the second century. Witness the rise of Nero, the fall of Jerusalem, the accession of a new faith, the Gnostics, the flight to the catacombs, and more. Gould says of the volume, "I have penetrated the dark chamber [of the fallible authorship of the Old Testament], and at least left the door ajar by which that influential person, the General Reader, may enter."