be able to render to their Master?

Absolutely nothing.[58] There is no proof, nothing more than a fair
presumption, that any one of the Gospels existed, in the state in
which we find it in the authorised version of the Bible, before the
second century, or, in other words, sixty or seventy years after the
events recorded. And, between that time and the date of the oldest
extant manuscripts of the Gospels, there is no telling what additions
and alterations and interpolations may have been made. It may be said
that this is all mere speculation, but it is a good deal more. As
competent scholars and honest men, our revisers have felt compelled to
point out that such things have happened even since the date of the
oldest known manuscripts. The oldest two copies of the second Gospel
end with the 8th verse of the 16th chapter; the remaining twelve
verses are spurious, and it is noteworthy that the maker of the
addition has not hesitation to introduce a speech in which Jesus
promises his disciples that "in My name shall they cast out devils."

The other passage "rejected to the margin" is still more instructive.
It is that touching apologue, with its profound ethical sense, of the
woman taken in adultery--which, if internal evidence were an
infallible guide, might well be affirmed to be a typical example of
the teachings of Jesus. Yet, say the revisers, pitilessly, "Most of
the ancient authorities emit John vii. 53-viii. 11." Now let any
reasonable man ask himself this question. If, after an approximate
settlement of the canon of the New Testament, and even later than the
fourth and fifth centuries, literary fabricators had the skill and the
audacity to make such additions and interpolations as these, what may
they have done when no one had thought of a canon; when oral
tradition, still unfixed, was regarded as more valuable than such
written records as may have existed in the latter portion of the first
century? Or, to take the other alternative, if those who gradually
settled the canon did not know of the existence of the oldest codices
which have come down to us; or if, knowing them, they rejected their
authority, what is to be thought of their competency as critics of the
text?

People who object to free criticism of the Christian Scriptures forget
that they are what they are in virtue of very free criticism; unless
the advocates of inspiration are prepared to affirm that the majority
of influential ecclesiastics durin