c)
should have conspired to mislead mankind? And further, on what
intelligible principle is the consent of all the other uncials, and the
whole mass of cursives, to be explained, if this verse of Scripture be
indeed spurious?

I know that the rejoinder will be as follows:--'Yes, but if the ten
words in dispute really are part of the inspired verity, how is their
absence from the earliest Codexes to be accounted for?' Now it happens
that for once I am able to assign the reason. But I do so under protest,
for I insist that to point out the source of the mistakes in our oldest
Codexes is no part of a critic's business. It would not only prove an
endless, but also a hopeless task. This time, however, I am able to
explain.

If the reader will take the trouble to inquire at the Bibliotheque at
Paris for a Greek Codex numbered '71,' an Evangelium will be put into
his hands which differs from any that I ever met with in giving
singularly minute and full rubrical directions. At the end of St. Mark
xv. 27, he will read as follows:--'When thou readest the sixth Gospel of
the Passion,--also when thou readest the second Gospel of the Vigil of
Good Friday,--stop here: skip verse 28: then go on at verse 29.' The
inference from this is so obvious, that it would be to abuse the
reader's patience if I were to enlarge upon it, or even to draw it out
in detail. Very ancient indeed must the Lectionary practice in this
particular have been that it should leave so fatal a trace of its
operation in our four oldest Codexes: but _it has left it_[164]. The
explanation is evident, the verse is plainly genuine, and the Codexes
which leave it out are corrupt.

One word about the evidence of the cursive copies on this occasion.
Tischendorf says that 'about forty-five' of them are without this
precious verse of Scripture. I venture to say that the learned critic
would be puzzled to produce forty-five copies of the Gospels in which
this verse has no place. But in fact his very next statement (viz. that
about half of these are Lectionaries),--satisfactorily explains the
matter. Just so. From every Lectionary in the world, for the reason
already assigned, these words are away; as well as in every MS. which,
like B and [Symbol: Aleph], has been depraved by the influence of the
Lectionary practice.

And now I venture to ask,--What is to be thought of that Revision of our
Authorized Version which omits ver. 28 altogether; with a marginal
intimation th