ended by any one who desires to know exactly what the alleged
evidence of Eusebius concerning the last chapter of S. Mark's Gospel is
worth,--as I will explain more fully by-and-by. Let it, however, be
candidly admitted that there seems to be no reason for supposing that
whenever the lost work of Eusebius comes to light, (and it has been seen
within about 300 years(83),) it will exhibit anything essentially
different from what is contained in the famous passage which has given
rise to so much debate, and which may be exhibited in English as follows.
It is put in the form of a reply to one "Marinus," who is represented as
asking, first, the following question:--

"How is it, that, according to Matthew [xxviii. 1], the SAVIOUR appears to
have risen 'in the end of the Sabbath;' but, according to Mark [xvi. 9],
'early the first day of the week'?"--Eusebius answers,

"This difficulty admits of a twofold solution. He who is for getting rid
of the entire passage,(84) will say that it is not met with in _all_ the
copies of Mark's Gospel: the accurate copies, at all events, making the
end of Mark's narrative come after the words of the young man who appeared
to the women and said, 'Fear not ye! Ye seek JESUS of Nazareth,' &c.: to
which the Evangelist adds,--'And when they heard it, they fled, and said
nothing to any man, for they were afraid.' For at those words, in almost
all copies of the Gospel according to Mark, comes the end. What follows,
(which is met with seldom, [and only] in some copies, certainly not in
all,) might be dispensed with; especially if it should prove to contradict
the record of the other Evangelists. This, then, is what a person will say
who is for evading and entirely getting rid of a gratuitous problem.

"But another, on no account daring to reject anything whatever which is,
under whatever circumstances, met with in the text of the Gospels, will
say that here are two readings, (as is so often the case elsewhere;) and
that _both_ are to be received,--inasmuch as by the faithful and pious,
_this_ reading is not held to be genuine rather than _that_; nor _that_
than _this_."

It will be best to exhibit the whole of what Eusebius has written on this
subject,--as far as we are permitted to know it,--continuously. He
proceeds:--

"Well then, allowing this piece to be really genuine, our business is to
interpret the sense of the passage.(85) And certainly, if I divide the
meaning into two, we shall find t