This is not all however. Survey the preceding enumeration geographically, and note that, besides 1 name from Gaul,—at least 2 stand for Constantinople,—while 5 are dotted over Asia Minor:—10 at least represent Antioch; and—6, other parts of Syria:—3 stand for Palestine, and 12 for other Churches of the East:—at least 5 are Alexandrian,—2 are men of Cyprus, and—1 is from Crete. If the articulate voices of so many illustrious Bishops, coming back to us in this way from every part of ancient Christendom and all delivering the same unfaltering message,—if _this_ be not allowed to be decisive on a point of the kind just now before us, then pray let us have it explained to us,—What amount of evidence _will_ men accept as final? It is high time that this were known.... The plain truth is, that a case has been established against א A B D and the Latin version, which amounts to _proof_ that those documents, even when they conspire to yield the self-same evidence, are not to be depended on as witnesses to the text of Scripture. The history of the reading advocated by the Revisionists is briefly this:—_It emerges into notice in the IInd century; and in the Vth, disappears from sight entirely._ Enough and to spare has now been offered concerning the true reading of S. Luke ii. 14. But because we propose to ourselves that _no uncertainty whatever_ shall remain on this subject, it will not be wasted labour if at parting we pour into the ruined citadel just enough of shot and shell to leave no dark corner standing for the ghost of a respectable doubt hereafter to hide in. Now, it is confessedly nothing else but the high estimate which Critics have conceived of the value of the testimony of the old uncials (א A B C D), which has occasioned any doubt at all to exist in this behalf. Let the learned Reader then ascertain for himself the character of codices א A B C D hereabouts, by collating _the context in which S. Luke ii. 14 is found_, viz. the 13 verses which precede and the one verse (ver. 15) which immediately follows. If the old uncials are observed all to sing in tune throughout, hereabouts, well and good: but if on the contrary, their voices prove utterly discordant, _who_ sees not that the last pretence has been taken away for placing _any confidence at all_ in their testimony concerning the text of ver. 14, turning as it does on the presence or absence of _a single letter_?... He will find, as the result of his analysis, that within the space of those 14 verses, the old uncials are responsible for 56 “various readings” (so-called): singly, for 41; in combination with one another, for 15. So diverse, however, is the testimony they respectively render, that they are found severally to differ from the Text of the cursives no less than 70 times. Among them, besides twice varying the phrase,—they contrive to omit 19 words:—to add 4:—to substitute 17:—to alter 10:—to transpose 24.—Lastly, these five