nce, the proceeding would be intelligible. But I take leave to
point out that a highly complex and very important incident--as related
in twelve consecutive verses of the Gospel--cannot be so dealt with.
Squatters on the waste are liable at any moment to be served with a
notice of ejectment: but the owner of a mansion surrounded by broad
acres which his ancestors are known to have owned before the Heptarchy,
may on no account be dispossessed by any such summary process. This--to
speak without a figure--is a connected and very striking portion of the
sacred narrative:--the description of a considerable incident, complete
in itself, full of serious teaching, and of a kind which no one would
have ever dared to invent. Those who would assail it successfully must
come forward with weapons of a very different kind from those usually
employed in textual warfare.

It shall be presently shewn that these Twelve Verses hold their actual
place by a more extraordinary right of tenure than any other twelve
verses which can be named in the Gospel: but it would be premature to
enter upon the proof of that circumstance now. I prefer to invite the
reader's attention, next to the actual texture of the _pericope de
adultera_, by which name (as already explained) the last verse of St.
John vii. together with verses 1-11 of ch. viii. are familiarly
designated. Although external testimony supplies the sole proof of
genuineness, it is nevertheless reasonable to inquire what the verses in
question may have to say for themselves. Do they carry on their front
the tokens of that baseness of origin which their impugners so
confidently seek to fasten upon them? Or do they, on the contrary,
unmistakably bear the impress of Truth?

The first thing which strikes me in them is that the actual narrative
concerning 'the woman taken in adultery' is entirely contained in the
last nine of these verses: being preceded by two short paragraphs of an
entirely different character and complexion. Let these be first produced
and studied:

'and every man went to his own house: but Jesus went to the
Mount of Olives.' 'And again, very early in the morning, He
presented Himself in the Temple; and all the people came unto
Him: and He sat down and taught them.'

Now as every one must see, the former of these two paragraphs is
unmistakably not the beginning but the end of a narrative. It purports
to be the conclusion of something which went before, not