that our Authorised Version is far from accurate in many of its renderings of the original; the Revised Version omitted some of these inaccuracies. The Authorised Version was itself a revision of the versions in use at the period of its publication, and all such versions were translated from the Latin Vulgate.

Since the publication of the Authorised Version, hundreds of Manuscripts in Greek have been discovered, many of these are very valuable and ancient. The oldest Greek MSS. containing the Book of Revelation is the "Sinaitic," evidently written about the middle of the Fourth Century, A.D., but only found and made known to the world in 1859.

The matter of Rev. 20: 5, in our Authorised Versions is omitted from this manuscript. This omission is so striking that several scholarly expositors writing since the "Sinaitic" MSS. was found, have questioned the wisdom and utility of retaining the verse, or of resting any Scriptural argument on it.

Dr. Glasgow's work, "The Apocalypse translated and expounded," contains the following reference to the disputed matter of Rev. 20: 5: "That weight should "be attached to these words is a grave question, as a "preponderance of evidence seems to mark them as "not of the text. The 'Codex Sinaiticus' wants them; "and as it is the oldest and completest copy of the "Greek New Testament known to exist, it would involve "a very onerous responsibility to receive the words "in opposition to it, unless there were opposite evi"dences to outweigh this. The supporter of these words "(Rev. 20: 5) may feel that at best they are very "questionable, and he would be a hardy advocate of "a theory who would rest so much of his cause on "these words as was formerly done.

"But I go further, and think we cannot on the "ground of sufficient evidence, prove them textual. "First, because the most Ancient 'Codex' wants "them, as well as the 'Syriac' and twenty others. "Second, because they are at best a parenthesis, break"ing the sense, and having all the appearance of an "interpolation, not like anything else in the New

"Testament. They state that 'the rest of the dead "lived not,' and yet they are followed immediately "by "this is the first resurrection.' That cannot "be a resurrection of such as did not rise. The first "resurrection is predicted of those who lived and "reigned with Christ the thousand years."

Comment on this appears to be needless. If, by any means, it can be shown that Rev. 20: 5, is not wholly an interpolation, then it must be admitted by every honest Bible Student that it cannot be a correct presentation of what John the Apostle wrote, as worded in our Versions; since it is in conflict with all other Scriptural testimony.

CHAPTER 2.

THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST'S SECOND ADVENT. Its Important Place in Scripture and History. The Covenants With the Fathers and Israel. The Hope of Israel the One True Hope. Important Position Filled by New

Testament. The Manner of His Return.

ITS IMPORTANT PLACE IN SCRIPTURE AND HISTORY.

The hopeful promise in "Paradise" after the Fall, of the Woman's seed bruising the serpent's head, was the Divine intimation not only of a triumph over the fall and its consequences, but of the coming "Great One" to accomplish this. The first message of Prophecy through mortal lips, delivered by Enoch the 7th from Adam, was a reiteration of the same promise, "The Lord cometh with ten thousands of His Saints." (Jude 14.)

The Book of Genesis, as indicated by its title, contains the beginnings of all matters connected with this earthly order, and connects these with coming developments and their Divinely arranged endings.

In its outlines of the many departments of truth embraced in its revelations there is much condensation. The wonderful revelations from the Divine to the founders of our race are briefly outlined. It is, however, very clear from connected matters, that the human family in the early days had comprehensive ideas of the Divine purpose, much beyond the degree either of modern nations, or beyond what is generally credited to them.

The associations of the "Garden of Eden," or Paradise, both in regard to its first constitution as the home and testing place of the human pair, and later, of its continuance down to the flood, with its "Cheru

bim of Glory" at the entrance as the manifestations of the Divine presence, contributed to the development and establishment of Divine truth amongst mankind.

The brief and condensed summary of those early days presented in Genesis, of the enlightenment of mankind in the purposes and designs of the Almighty, do not suggest any lack of understanding in the Antediluvian or post-diluvian peoples regarding the purpose of God in the destiny of man. The remarkable additions to Ancient history brought to our understanding during the past century, reveal how very advanced and accurate was the knowledge of the Divine Being and His purposes with mankind, in the times succeeding the Flood, and amongst all the founders and peoples of the first Empires of the Earth. "Learned men may indeed persist in asserting that ""Fetichism,' or the worship of the material elements, "was the Universal religion of the earliest inhabitants "of the Earth; and this has been done so frequently "and so confidently, that it has to a great extent been "admitted by incautious and inconsiderate readers. "Nothing, however, can be more opposed to the his"tory of every ancient nation, as well as the explicit "declarations of Scripture, than this notion. All "Ancient testimony proves the condition of man in "the outset of his career to have been one of religion, "happiness, and moral elevation.

"The Pictorial literature extant on the monuments "of Egypt, and the disinterred sculptures of Assyria, "Babylon, and Persia, have been carefully studied, and "found to teach lessons of history, religion, manners "and morals, in perfect harmony with, and in strong "corroboration of, the Scriptural account." (Gentile Nations), Geo. Smith, F.A.S.

Idolatry, which became universal amongst the Gentile Nations, and into which the Hebrew people lapsed periodically, did not originate in ignorance of God and His purposes amongst the early peoples succeeding the Flood, and was not the original or first state of the race. It started by a perversion of the known truth; it embodied in its first manifestations, as well

as later developments, the facts of Paradise, the Divine promise of the "Seed of the woman. The earliest phases of idolatry at Babylon (the first Empire) revealed how the authors and founders of this were not only acquainted with the Divine promise of the "Woman's Seed" as the "deliverer of mankind" and the Earth, but they knew that this "deliverer" was to be an "only begotten Son."

Here is an explanation of the remarkable similarity existing between the Mythology of Babylon, Assyria, Persia, Media, Egypt, etc., and the recoras or prophetic outlines in the Sacred Scriptures. These idolatrous compositions were perversions of the great truths embodied in the Divine revelations to the founders of the race. The knowledge of these fundamental truths was transmitted through the various generations from Paradise, and clearly understood by the founders of the first Empires after the Flood. This unquestionable historical fact is in harmony with Paul's declaration in Rom. 1: 19-23, "when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God. . and changed the glory of the uncorruptable God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things."

"The Revelations of Paradise, in their use or abuse, "coloured and formed the religious doctrines of man"kind in the ages succeeding the Flood. The primitive "promise that 'the seed of the woman should bruise "the serpent's head,' was evidently understood, not "only so far as to form a solid foundation for human "hope, but as it respected the means by which the "deliverance was to be effected, viz., that the promised "Redeemer would be an Incarnation of the Deity.

"Every element of primitive truth was perverted "in heathen idolatry. Every kind of profane presump"tion was based on the primitive truth of the 'woman's "seed.' The original and ruling idea in all the des"potic Monarchs of ancient Empires in their impious 'assumptions, was the 'promised incarnation.' In"dividually they regarded themselves as the 'pro"mised seed' the prophesied deliverer, hence the