evangelical formula as it stands in St.
Matt. vi. 13; while in some instances the divergences of expression are
even extraordinary. Subjoined is what may perhaps be regarded as the
typical eucharistic formula, derived from the liturgy which passes as
Chrysostom's. Precisely the same form recurs in the office which is
called after the name of Basil: and it is essentially reproduced by
Gregory of Nyssa, Cyril of Jerusalem, and pseudo-Caesarius; while
something very like it is found to have been in use in more of the
Churches of the East.

'_For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory_, Father, Son
and Holy Ghost, now and always and _for ever_ and ever. _Amen_.'

But as every one sees at a glance, such a formula as the
foregoing,--with its ever-varying terminology of praise,--its constant
reference to the blessed Trinity,--its habitual [Greek: nun kai
aei],--and its invariable [Greek: eis tous aionas ton aionon], (which
must needs be of very high antiquity, for it is mentioned by
Irenaeus[170], and may be as old as 2 Tim. iv. 18 itself;)--the
doxology, I say, which formed part of the Church's liturgy, though
transcribed 10,000 times, could never by possibility have resulted in
the unvarying doxology found in MSS. of St. Matt. vi. 13,--'_For thine
is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen._'

On the other hand, the inference from a careful survey of so many
Oriental liturgies is inevitable. The universal prevalence of a doxology
of some sort at the end of the Lord's Prayer; the general prefix 'for
thine'; the prevailing mention therein of 'the kingdom and the power and
the glory'; the invariable reference to Eternity:--all this constitutes
a weighty corroboration of the genuineness of the form in St. Matthew.
Eked out with a confession of faith in the Trinity, and otherwise
amplified as piety or zeal for doctrinal purity suggested, every
liturgical formula of the kind is clearly derivable from the form of
words in St. Matt. vi. 13. In no conceivable way, on the other hand,
could that briefer formula have resulted from the practice of the
ancient Church. The thing, I repeat, is simply impossible.

What need to point out in conclusion that the Church's peculiar method
of reciting the Lord's Prayer in the public liturgy does notwithstanding
supply the obvious and sufficient explanation of all the adverse
phenomena of the case? It was the invariable practice from the earliest
time for the Choi