speak with almost absolute confidence. Not one of them, in all probability, is as old as the Diocletian persecution. Of the latter, some of them were probably in existence before that period; and so it comes to pass that there are now in existence translations which are older than any Greek copy we possess. Of course these Greek MSS. and translations form a very small portion of the number of copies actually made during the long period of a thousand years. Myriads of copies were doubtless made in that time, which have been burnt by fire, or eaten by rats, or in other ways destroyed; and of those which have been discovered not one is a perfect and entire copy. Some contain one portion of Scripture, and some another; "manuscripts of the gospels being most numerous, and those of the epistles of Paul next." This fact will help us to form some idea of the immense labour required to form a complete New Testament. Nearly all the seven hundred MSS. have been carefully examined; omissions in one have been supplied from another, errors in some have been corrected from others; and thus as perfect a text as possible has been formed, according to the number and antiquity of the MSS. examined. This is called "collating" of manuscripts, and occupies much of the time of learned men.

One of the most ancient manuscripts in the world is that which was last discovered, viz, the Sinaitic. This valuable Codex was found in fragments by Tischendorf, during several visits to the Monastery of St. Catherine, on Mount Sinai, so recently as the years 1844, 1853, and 1859. It contains the whole of the New Testament, and is now in the possession of the Emperor of Russia at St. Petersburg.

The palm of antiquity lies between this Codex and the Codex of the Vatican. The learned are undecided which is the older of the two, but refer both to the fourth century; probably to a period little posterior to the conversion of Constantine.

There are two other MSS. which are classed along with the Codex Sinaiticus and the Codex Vaticanus, on account of their antiquity, viz., the Codex Alexandrinus and the Codex Regius, or Ephræmi. The Codex Alexandrinus was presented to Charles I. in 1628, by the Patriarch of Constantinople. Critics assign it to the fifth century. It was brought from Alexandria to Constantinople. It is now in the British Museum. The Codex Ephræmi is in the Imperial Library at Paris, and probably belongs to the beginning of the fifth century. There are other MSS. scattered up and down in the libraries of the world, which are of great antiquity, and therefore of great value; but these four are the most valuable because they are the most ancient.

For the most ancient manuscripts are obviously the most valuable. The nearer we approach to the original writings, the fewer, of course, are the errors likely to be found. He who first transcribed one of Paul's Epistles, or the Gospel written by Luke's own hand, would have a per

fect copy before him. If he made any errors, they would be perpetuated by the next who copied from him. If this second copyist added som errors of his own, these, as well as the errors of the first, would be continued by a third, and so on. It must not be understood from this that many errors of any serious importance ever crept into the text. Considering the number of the copyists for so many hundreds of years, and considering also how many conflicting doctrinal and ecclesiastical interests were at work, it is little short of miraculous that the later manuscripts vary so little from the most ancient. Yet it was inevitable, even with the most honest and most loving copyist, that errors should occur in transcription; and hence the most ancient MSS. we possess must ever remain the most valuable, until these are superseded by others more ancient still, of which there is now little hope. And yet do we realise the amazing fact that there is a period of not less than two hundred and fifty years between the writing of John's Gospel and the oldest manuscript known to exist? During that interval many copies would doubtless be made. Where are those copies? What has become of them? Where is the copy from which the Codex Sinaiticus or the Codex Vaticanus was made? What honour would be too great for him who should discover a manuscript a hundred years older than either? What, we ask in despair, has become of the original MSS. of all? and what would the world not give to possess them? Meanwhile, let this be our comfort, that with the seven hundred manuscripts in their hands, the variations of which, from first to last, are so (comparatively) slight and insignificant, scholars have ample means at command by which to form a text of Scripture almost, if not altogether, as pure as that which came from the hands of the sacred writers themselves.

The material upon which our manuscripts are written is either parchment or some kind of paper-principally parchment. The writing in all the manuscripts down to the ninth century is in capital letters. The labour of transcribing a gospel or an epistle in this way, and much more an entire New Testament, must have been immense. Later on a smaller character was adopted for the sake of celerity, which came into general use in the tenth century. But whatever the kind of letter adopted, the writing itself is simply wonderful. A few years ago, through the courtesy of Canon Champneys, it was the writer's privilege to see, in Lichfield Cathedral, a portion of the New Testament in manuscript. It is of no great critical value, being only of the tenth or twelfth century, but the beauty of the caligraphy is amazing. The uncial, or capital letters (literally letters of an inch long), are exquisitely illuminated, and every minor character is so perfectly formed, that he wonders to this day how mortal hands could do such work. But the old monks had plenty of time on their hands, and some of them plenty of true love in their hearts; and, after all, what cannot the human hand, that most perfect

instrument in the universe, do when it is set to work by an all-absorbing devotion to Christ and His truth?

Some ancient and very valuable MSS. are called Palimpsests; whereby hangs a tale. Parchment, we have observed, was the principal writing material during the middle ages, the writers being monks. But not all the monks were engaged during that long dark night in the pious task of copying the Scriptures. Many busied themselves more with the lives of saints and the writings of the Fathers, for which there was more demand; and when the supply of writing material fell short, what did these monks do but take parchments containing the written Word, the fruit of long, laborious toil in a less corrupt age, and by the use of pumice-stone obliterate the sacred Text, and write in its place the legendary, and sometimes impure, tales, in which they took delight. Fortunately these sapient monks only half did their work; for when the manuscripts were found, containing only, as was supposed, absurd legends, it was discovered that the writing underneath could still be deciphered, and in some cases was ascertained to be of a very early date. Such was the fact with regard to the Codex Regius, or Codex Ephræmi, already referred to as one of the four most ancient MSS. in existence. "The original writing had been partially erased in order that the ascetic works of Ephrem Syrus might be written over it." Hence the name Palimpsest. The word is Greek, and signifies scraped, or rubbed, as the manuscripts in question were scraped, or rubbed by pumice-stone. It may be some excuse for the Latin monks that they did not understand Greek, and could not recognise a Greek manuscript of the New Testament when they saw one. In any case the Palimpsests are remarkable as illustrations not only of man's ignorance and folly, but also of God's gracious providence in the preservation of His Word.

Another peculiarity of some of the manuscripts is that they are written without punctuation, and without spaces between the words. The MSS. which the writer saw in Lichfield Cathedral is written in this way, if he remembers rightly. In the smaller characters there is nothing to distinguish one word from another, so that a whole line looks like one continuous word, and it is only when a capital appears that there is any rest for the eye or guide to the understanding. Reading must have been very difficult under such circumstances, and we need not wonder that at an early period attempts were made to break up the writing into chapters, and paragraphs, and sentences. But how much more difficult must reading have been where all the letters are capitals. We may in part realise the difficulty in both cases by writing a familiar verse or two thus: "Therewasamansentfrom Godwhosen amewasJoh nthesamecameforawitnesstobearwitnessof thelightthatallmenthroughhimmig htbelieve." And thus: " THERE WASAMANSENTFROMGODWHOSEMAMEWASJO

HNTHESAMECAMEFORAWITNESSTOBEARWITNESSOFTHELIGHTTHATALLMENTHR

OUGHHIMMIGHTBELIEVE."

Words were divided and punctuation first introduced in the fifth century. Our present division into chapters dates from the thirteenth century, and was due to Cardinal Hugo, St. Cher, who died 1263. He made it first of all for the Vulgate alone, but it was not until the middle of the fifteenth century, after the introduction of printing, that it was transferred from the Vulgate to the original text. The division into verses was made by Robert Stephens, or Etienne, a distinguished Frenchman, about the year 1551.

We must close this paper by briefly noticing some of the early versions or translations, two of which, the Syriac and the Vulgate, or the Vetus Itala, from which the Vulgate was formed, are anterior to any Greek MS. we possess. The oldest of these is the Syriac, which was made in the second century, probably within half a century of the death of the Apostle John. The Vetus Itala was almost as ancient as this, as Tertullian, who died 220, states "that in his time there was already a Latin version in common use." Towards the end of the fourth century Jerome undertook the revision of this ancient version. The result was the present Latin Vulgate. It took a long time to displace its predecessor, but from the seventh century onward it has been the established translation of the West, and has exercised immeasurable influence. Other translations followed these, both in the East and West. There was the Ethiopic and the Egyptian-the latter in three dialects-and the Georgian. There was the Gothic, and the Slavonian, and the Tartar, and the Armenian. "In Europe, translators were at work in Germany and Southern France, in Italy, Ireland, and our own native land. Wherever we look, even in those dark ages, we find students at work, copying, translating, and expounding the Word of God. There were many bright streaks before the dawn."

And so the work has gone on, receiving one mighty impulse after another, until nothing distinguishes the present era more than the number of languages into which the Scriptures have been translated. And this fact of translation into so many tongues is one of the grandest tributes to the beneficent character and transcendent glory of the truths the Scriptures contain. Translation is a test in two ways. First, it tries the capability of a work for being translated at all, or without material loss. Some productions suffer much by translation. No work, indeed, can be turned from one language into another without loss. But some works lose more than others. If the thoughts are provincial, or insular, and the truths they contain are of limited application, translation is their ruin. If, on the other hand, they contain "thoughts that wander through eternity; "-cosmopolitan, cosmo-humanitarian, capable of stirring human hearts wherever human hearts are found—

then they bear translation with impunity, because language in every nation is the symbol of man's profoundest reasonings and experiences, and "deep calleth unto deep." It is on this account that the New Testament suffers less by translation than any other book. It treats of man's relation to God, of conscience, of sin, redemption, and immortality; all of which are subjects in which man all the world over is interested-subjects on which he reasons and speculates, and on which he reasons and speculates in vain until the Scriptures come to his assistance. Hence, secondly, translation tests the economical value of a work. We mean, it will not get translated if it is not worth translating. But the New Testament has been translated into every known language of savage or civilised man, because it, and it alone, contains all it is needful for man to know. The work began in the second century with the Peshito, or Syriac, and the ancient Latin version. It has been carried on more or less through all the intervening ages. And so will it be continued, and the blessed truths of salvation be translated into every language yet to be discovered by the intrepidity and acquired by the zeal of the missionaries of modern times. H. L. T.

CHRISTIAN PROGRESS.

"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."-Philippians iii. 13, 14.

It is characteristic of the old to look back, and to find in the past their joy and inspiration-indeed, their home. Memory is their cherished friend, with which they hold very happy communion. It leads them often into regions and among people that fill them with rapturous thoughts and feelings. And, though in the journey they see things that sadden them, in the very midst of these they also find perennial springs of pleasure. As men near death they turn their back upon it, and their faces toward the life they have lived, the various experiences they have had, the attainments they have made, the victories they have lost or won, the riches they have acquired or spent. Remembrance is a chief element in their life.

It is characteristic of the young to look forward, to find in the future their stimulus and strength, their home and rest. It inspires them with life. It awakens and feeds noble ambitions. It fills them with high purposes that lead to ennobling work. It stirs their souls and saves them from stagnation and death, because it is full of glorious possibilities, of splendid achievements that may be made, high attainments that may be reached, and great joys that may be realised. Hope is their