we are justified in replying:"Very true; the human mind has developed, you have worked hard; you have stirred up thought; you have filled our libraries with first-rate books; there have been some profound thinkers and sublime geniuses among you; and you have given birth to many admirable ideas. All this we admit; nevertheless, show us a book superior to our Gospel, or one which will even bear comparison with it. Tell us where it is to be found. You talk of progress, and bid us follow you; but it is we who are in advance, and you who are behind.

Begin your studies afresh; do something better, and then come to us again, and we will see. In the meantime, we occupy the foremost place, and are determined to hold it."

Our power, we maintain, is far above that of any earthly weapons; for the Christian preacher is backed by eighteen centuries of learning and virtue, which believed what he declares-by more than ten millions of martyrs, who died to attest the truth of what he proclaims; and, behind all that, he is supported by the mighty voice of God, which says to him:"Speak, and be not afraid, for I am with thee."

It behoves us, therefore, to be thoroughly persuaded of the power which the Divine word confers upon us. But, besides this, we must make our hearers feel that we are so endowed. They must be impressed, whilst listening to us, that we verily and indeed speak in God's name-that we are not men who have merely cogitated or mused in their stadies, and then come forth to propound their own ideas; but that we are commissioned from on high to proclaim to mankind the laws and promises of God, before whom we ourselves profoundly bow.

They must read all this in our whole deportment, in our voice, our gestures, and, above all, in our charity. In a word, we must possess the accent of conviction, that accent which believes, speaks, arrests, and alarms.

The accent of conviction is made up of a mixture of faith, power and love combined; the combination forming a characteristic which is at once simple, pious, and grand, redolent of inspiration and sanctity. It is the power, the life of speech; the sacred fire, or what Mirabeau styles divinity in eloquence. "I have never heard any one speak," said he, referring to Barnave, "so long, so rapidly, and so well; but there is no divinity in him." The accent of conviction is the magic of speech . . . that which puts argument to silence, withdraws all attention from the preacher, and fixes it solely on what he says; or, rather, on what God says through him.

Unhappily, we are very backward in this respect. There is faith undoubtedly in our souls; but it is not always manifest in our speech. . . . How, then, can we expect to make others believe what we do not seem to them to believe ourselves?

We have to deal with a light, reasoning, and somewhat sceptical world, accustomed to regard every one as merely acting a part... and if you do not pos sess the accent of conviction, it will either suspect you of hypocrisy, or will brand you by admiring how well you ply the trade, and how cleverly you play your game.

There is a remark very common now-a-days, which is much to be regretted. If one speaks of a preacher, he is immediately asked: "Has he faith?" which means, Does he appear to believe what he says? Should the reply

be, "No; ... but he is a fine speaker;" the rejoinder generally is: "Then I shall not go to listen to him; for I want to hear somebody who has faith." This observation is not intended to imply any doubt of the inward faith of the preacher, but that he preaches as if he did not believe what he utters.

Let us, however, do the world this justice, that when it meets with the accent of conviction-the bold accent of faith, as St. Chrysostom calls it-it is deeply impressed thereby. The preacher who believes, and speaks out of that belief, astounds, staggers, and overcomes the gainsayers. A few words uttered with the accent of conviction go much further than many long sermons. How, indeed, can any prevail against one in whom God is felt to dwell?

Fine language, talent, imagination, brilliant argumentative powers-all these are common enough amongst us, and we are quite accustomed to them; but what is rare, what is unlookedfor, what carries everything before it, is the language of a faith and of a heart which seems to echo the voice of God Himself.

Two years ago, the late pious and gallant Captain Marceau was present at a meeting of operatives in Paris, many of whom were unbelievers and wrong-headed men. He felt moved to address them, and the impression which he produced was almost magical. He had never before spoken in public; nevertheless, he did so on the occasion referred to with that accent of conviction and candour which finds its way at once to the heart, overcoming all resistance, and sometimes seeming to take away one's breath.

"My friends," said he, "there are doubtless some among you who are not yet Christians, and who have no love for religion. I

was once as ungodly as you areperhaps more so; for no one has hated Christianity more cordially than I have done. I am bound, however, to do it this justice, that while I was not a Christian, that is, till I was twenty-three years old, I was unhappy, profoundly unhappy. Up to that period, my friends, I had not lived. No, it was not living. I worried myself, or, rather, my passions drew or drove me hither and thither, and carried me away; but I did not live I was a machine but I was not a

man.

...

Strange to say, scarcely any attention is paid to this accent of conviction, which is the soul of all eloquence; more especially, of sacred eloquence. Those destined to proclaim the Divine word, are instructed in everything else but this.... Hence the language from the pulpit is often cold, monotonous, turgid, stiff, cramped, conventional, perfunctory; savouring of a formal compliment, but of nothing to indicate the effusion of a genial soul, and without any of those felicitous sallies of the heart, those insinuating and familiar tones, as Fénélon, calls them, which produce in you almost a Divine impression.

And yet there are many pious priests amongst us, many who are truly men of God. Still, such is the deplorable power of routine, that their piety seems to abandon them when in the pulpit-the very place where it should be most conspicuous.

Like myself, you have, doubtless, in the course of your life, often met with one of those estimable priests, full of faith and charity. His countenance alone did you good, and his words cheered you alike in familiar conversation and in the confessional. The same individual occupies the pulpit you are delighted to see

him there, and forthwith set yourself to listen to him with earnest attention; but, alas! vou no longer recognise him he is no longer the same; what he utters is no longer the word of life. You exclaim: "What has become of my model pastor, my saint ?" for you hear nothing now but declamation, or a sing-song speech a uniform tone which utters the denunciation : "Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire," and the invitation : "Come ye blessed of my Father," in the same strain. ... You hear what you have heard a hundred times before-a poor man who, with a painful sense of effort, is doing his best to evoke refractory thoughts and phrases, and are almost led to doubt whether he is not acting a part.

This monotony, this dull uniformity, this mannerism, must be abandoned, and we must resume our personality-our own minds and hearts-enlarged and inspired by the breath of God;

otherwise, by persisting in that dismal tone, that frigidly-philosophical style, that finely-spun phraseology, that speech without emphasis, which characterizes the generality of our sermons nowa-days, we shall wholly lose time, our pains, and, perchance, our souls also.

Can it, indeed, be that we are wanting in a just sense of our mission, and that we do not adequately estimate the object which those who speak in God's name should have in view? The end of preaching is to bring back the souls of men to the Creator.

In this respect, also, it is to be feared that the philosophical spirit, and a tendency to controversy, have turned us aside from our proper aim and the end of all our efforts. Take away the accent

of conviction from a sermon, divest it of energetic faith, and what is left thereof to the hearers? Mere sounding phrases, and nothing more?

Now, let me ask, are you aware of the enemies with whom you have to deal, and the difficulties which you have to contend against? The object set before you is to redeem the hearts of men, who, in their thirst, their rage for happiness, have given themselves up to the sensual, visible, intoxicating things which surround them. You will have to do battle with the human passions; to say to pride, be abased; to voluptuousness, be accursed; to the love of gold, renounce your avarice, and be bountiful. and you fancy that you will succeed in the encounter by the use of mere phrases, forgetting, perchance, that those passions can make better phrases than yours. They know how to give them life, and will hurl them at you, glowing with a fire which will speedily devour your cold and meagre speeches. Nothing can restrain and subdue the passions but the inspiration, the power of God.

...

It is high time that we should resume the accent of conviction in our ministrations. Having that, the soul is perfectly at ease, and, feeling sure of its footing, cherishes the widest benevolence. ... Why should it be troubled, knowing that it is secure in the Power on which it relies? It is only those powers which doubt their own strength that are suspicious and wavering. And when God is with us, we cannot fail to entertain profound pity for the weaknesses, the prejudices, the profanities, and the false reasonings of humanity.

M. L'ABBE ISIDORE MULLOIS,
Chaplain to Napoleon III.

MANUSCRIPT AUTHORITIES FOR

THE GOSPELS, ETC.

Query.-What are the chief ancient manuscript authorities for the text of the Gospel and Acts of the Apostles?-C. M. J.

Replicant. In answer to the question of C. M. J., we give the following extract:-

THE VATICAN MANUSCRIPT.This is by common consent allowed to be the oldest existing copy of the sacred text. It was probably written in Egypt, in the fourth century, i.e., between A.D. 300 and 400. It is in the Vatican Library at Rome, and, owing to the vexatious restrictions of that establishment, is almost inaccessible to scholars. No accurate edition of it has ever been published, and in some passages it is still doubtful what its text is. I had access to it for five days in 1861, and examined some hundred or two of doubtful places; but five days' work in Rome is equal to not more than two days in England, the nominal library hours at the Vatican being only three, and the real ones not more than two and a quarter.

This

MS. is contained in one small quarto volume. It is written on vellum, very clearly and beautifully, and is in admirable preservation. Were it anywhere but at Rome, it would long ago have been photographed, and thus given in its original form to the Church. Permission to effect this has more than once been sought, but has been as often persistently refused. The whole

treatment of this great manuscript, including the pretended edition of it by the late Cardinal Mai, is a disgrace to the Roman Catholic Church.

THE SINAITIC MANUSCRIPT. This, which is in value almost equal to the Vatican, was produced by Professor Tischendorf, in 1859, from the Monastery of St. Catherine, on Mount Sinai. It also is supposed to have been written in the fourth century. A magnificent edition of this MS., printed page for page and line for line, with types cast to imitate the letters of the original, was sent forth from St. Petersburgh in 1863, and is now to be found in most of our considerable libraries. An audacious assertion was made by a celebrated forger of manuscripts, named Simonides, to the effect that he, when young, wrote this MS. with his own hand. But this is completely disproved by the phenomena of the MS. itself, and is now entirely exploded, and the MS. received unhesitatingly by all scholars as one of the principal ancient testimonies to the sacred text.

THE PARISIAN MANUSCRIPT.— This very valuable MS. is unfortunately only a series of considerable fragments, with large gaps between them. It is of that kind called palimpsest, being writing which has been again written over by a later hand and with other matter, so that the sacred text has to be painfully deciphered beneath the same modern writing. It is supposed to have

been originally written in the fifth century, i.e., between A.D. 400 and 500. An accurate edition of it has been published by Professor Tischendorf, page for page and line for line.

THE ALEXANDRIAN MANUSCRIPT. -This MS. once belonged to Cyril Lucar, Patriarch of Constantinople, and was by him presented to our King Charles I. It is now in the British Museum. It is generally believed to have been written in the fifth century. An edition, in types imitating the original, and page for page and line for line, was published in London by Woide, in 1786; and there is a modern one, in ordinary type, by Mr. Harris Cowper. This MS. is in quarto, much dilapidated, the ink of the letters having eaten through the vellum, and it would in consequence be extremely difficult to photograph effectively.

THE CAMBRIDGE MANUSCRIPT, presented by the Reformer Beza to the University Library at Cambridge in 1581. Edited, with imitation types, and line for line, by Dr. Kipling, in 1793; and re-edited still more carefully by Mr. Scrivener in our own time. This very remarkable MS. is now generally supposed to have been written in the latter end of the fifth or beginning of the sixth century. The sacred text in this MS. is peculiar, differing often very much in form of expression, and not seldom in sense also, from that in the rest. Sometimes, and especially in the Acts of the Apostles, clauses and passages are found which are not in the other MSS. The origin of these must ever remain a matter of question-whether they have

been inserted in a shorter original text, or were originally in the text, and have been excluded by a process of abridgment.

These are the most considerable ancient authorities to the Gospels and Acts. Of them the VATICAN MS. contains the Gospels and Acts complete. The SINAITIC MS. the same. The PARISIAN MS., as above noticed, fragments only. The ALEXANDRIAN MS. has unfor tunately had the first leaves torn off, and does not begin till Matt. XXV. 6. It has also lost from John vi. 50 to viii. 52. The CAMBRIDGE MS. contains the Gospels and Acts, but with many and considerable gaps, e.g., Matt. vi. 20 to ix. 2; John i. 16 to iii. 26; xviii. 13 to xx. 13; Acts viii. 29 to x. 14; and xxii. 29 to end.

There are, besides these, several MSS. of similar date, containing larger or smaller portions of the whole-as, e.g., a Dublin MS. of the sixth century, containing the Gospel of St. Matthew, two "palimpsest" fragments at Wolfenbuttel, containing many frag ments, and written in the fifth and sixth centuries, &c., &c.

And there are the testimonies of the ancient versions into different languages, some of them far older than our oldest MSS., and the testimonies of quotation in the writings of the ancient Fathers. These latter are of course somewhat difficult to get at, seeing that these writers quoted often from memory, and attributed to one evangelist the words of another. But some times, where an author quotes expressly, or discriminates by name one evangelist from another, the testimony is precise and valuable.

DEAN ALFORD.