If the reader will take the trouble to inquire at the Bibliotheque at Paris for a Greek Codex numbered '71,' an Evangelium will be put into his hands which differs from any that I ever met with in giving singularly minute and full rubrical directions. At the end of St. Mark xv. 27, he will read as follows:--'When thou readest the sixth Gospel of the Passion,--also when thou readest the second Gospel of the Vigil of Good Friday,--stop here: skip verse 28: then go on at verse 29.' The inference from this is so obvious, that it would be to abuse the reader's patience if I were to enlarge upon it, or even to draw it out in detail. Very ancient indeed must the Lectionary practice in this particular have been that it should leave so fatal a trace of its operation in our four oldest Codexes: but _it has left it_[164]. The explanation is evident, the verse is plainly genuine, and the Codexes which leave it out are corrupt. One word about the evidence of the cursive copies on this occasion. Tischendorf says that 'about forty-five' of them are without this precious verse of Scripture. I venture to say that the learned critic would be puzzled to produce forty-five copies of the Gospels in which this verse has no place. But in fact his very next statement (viz. that about half of these are Lectionaries),--satisfactorily explains the matter. Just so. From every Lectionary in the world, for the reason already assigned, these words are away; as well as in every MS. which, like B and [Symbol: Aleph], has been depraved by the influence of the Lectionary practice. And now I venture to ask,--What is to be thought of that Revision of our Authorized Version which omits ver. 28 altogether; with a marginal intimation that 'many ancient authorities insert it'? Would it not have been the course of ordinary reverence,--I was going to say of truth and fairness,--to leave the text unmolested: with a marginal memorandum that just 'a very few ancient authorities leave it out'? Sec. 5. A gross depravation of the Text resulting from this cause, which nevertheless has imposed on several critics, as has been already said, is furnished by the first words of Acts iii. The most ancient witness accessible, namely the Peshitto, confirms the usual reading of the place, which is also the text of the cursives: viz. [Greek: Epi to auto de Petros kai Ioannes k.t.l.] So the Harkleian and Bede. So Codex E.