The oldest MS. of the New Testament is the Codex Sinaiticus, discovered by Tischendorf at the convent of St. Catherine, on Mount Sinai, in 1859, and supposed to belong to the fourth century. The Codex Vaticanus is also supposed to belong to the fourth century, and was first published at Rome by Vercellone, in 1858. The Codex Alexandrinus, containing both Old and New Testaments, is supposed to belong to the fifth century, and was first published by Woide, in 1786, and afterwards by Cowper, in 1860. Of the Old Testament it contains, besides the canonical and most apocryphal books found in our editions, the third and fourth books of the Maccabees, Epistle of Athanasius to Marcellinus (prefixed to the Psalms), and fourteen hymns, the eleventh in honour of the Virgin. Ecclesiasticus, the Song of the Three Children, Susannah, and Bell and the Dragon do not appear. Of the New Testament there is, in addition to the received books, the First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians and part of the Second. The Codex Ephraemi is supposed to belong to the fifth century, and was published by Tischendorf in 1843. The Codex Bezæ is a Græco-Latin MS., said to belong to the sixth century, and first published by Kipling, in 1793, and afterwards by Scrivener, in 1864. All these MSS. are written in continuous capitals, so badly formed, and so jumbled together, as to be almost illegible. According to the showing of those most interested in proving the antiquity of sacred writings, the very earliest MS. cannot lay claim to an earlier date than the fourth century; and, if the authors to whom the Church has attributed the various writings in the Bible wrote the said records, it is clear that the latest originals must date from the first century. But the originals do not anywhere exist, and consequently it is utterly impossible for anybody to know who wrote any one of the books of the Bible, which is, therefore, a compilation of anonymous writings, and, as such, is of no authority whatever. So far from being a divinely-inspired record, it is, as we have seen, a product of the cunning and ingenuity of knaves and fanatics, who deserve credit for only one thing, and that is that they managed to make any sense whatever out of the wretched scribble and scrawl from which they derived their information. THE “ANNALS” OF TACITUS.