And Athanasius sent it to him by one of the pages in attendance. The grim old presbyter received the parchment, and looked at it, and handled it, and turned it over and over in his hands with a strange, sarcastic smile, and then said in that peculiar, sibilant tone which cut and tingled like a serpent’s hiss: "I perceive, brethren, that this beautiful manuscript is one of those copies which hath been supplied to many bishops and presbyters by the zeal and benevolence of our most Christian, but unbaptized, emperor; and the book is beautifully written in the new, running Greek text which hath lately come into use. I have but one objection to it, brethren; and the objection is, that the words ’_in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth_’--these words were never written by John, but by some one else; they have been added to the text within the last ten years!" And then the tall form reared itself to the full height of its gigantic stature; the long, thin right hand swayed to and fro with a strange rhythmic motion, the huge, rough, noble head seemed to start forward upon the long, bony neck, as a cobra thrusts it forward; the strange, mesmeric light burned in the somber eyes, and, fastening his gaze full upon the emperor, he cried out in tones that rang through every corner and crevice of the vast hall, shrill, incisive, penetrating: "These words are forgeries--every one of them! What John wrote was this: ’_For there are three that bear record, the spirit, the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one._’" The effect was electrical. Many trembled for the bold and eloquent man whose words and manner seemed to charge upon the emperor himself the guilt of sacrilege in forging the sacred writings; although, perhaps, none doubted that the words were forged. But Athanasius gazed upon him haughtily, and demanded: "Who art thou, madman, that dost so boldly assail the genuineness of a scripture that suiteth not with thy notorious heresy? How knowest thou that the words were never written by John?"