the north of Palestine and
various parts of southern Italy and Sicily, although now almost
extirpated; and we have reason to believe, from one or two incidental
notices in St. John's writings, that it was the material employed by
the apostles themselves. This papyrus paper was of a very perishable
nature, and manuscripts written on it, apart from the wear and tear of
continual use, would succumb to the process of decay in a
comparatively short period. We are indebted for the preservation of
all the papyrus manuscripts that have come down to us from a remote
antiquity to the fact of their having been kept in exceptionally
favourable circumstances, as in the hermetically-sealed interiors of
Egyptian tombs. Those exposed to the air have all disappeared ages
ago. In the second century parchment was brought into common use as a
writing material, and papyrus paper gradually fell into disuse. And
with the change of material the shape of manuscripts was changed; the
ancient form of the papyrus-roll giving place, in manuscripts written
on parchment, to the form of books with leaves. How we should value
the original rolls which contained the handwriting of the evangelists
and apostles! With what profound interest should we gaze upon the
signature and salutation of St. Paul affixed to the Epistles which he
dictated to an amanuensis on account of his defective eyesight! How we
should prize the apostolic autograph of the Epistle to the Galatians,
of which the writer says, "Ye see how large a letter I have written
unto you with mine own hand." What a thrill would pass through us at
the sight of those two pastoral Epistles, at the close of which St.
John says,--"I had many things to write, but I will not with pen and
ink write unto thee"! Our legitimate veneration, however, would be apt
to pass over into idolatrous superstition. We should worship such
precious documents as the early Christians worshipped the relics of
the saints. It was, therefore, a wise providential arrangement that
such a temptation should have been taken out of the way. All the
original manuscripts of the sacred writings disappeared, on account of
the fragile character of their materials, probably in a few years
after the death of the writers, no special care having been taken to
preserve them; and, as Dr. Westcott has remarked, not a single
authentic appeal is made to them in the religious disputes regarding
the exact words of certain passages in the Gospels and E