25 AUGUST 1883, Page 24

The Three Witnesses. By the Rev. H. T. Armfield, M.A.

(Bagster and Sons.)—Mr. Artnfleld deserves, in any case, the praise of courage. " Lost causes" approve themselves to a certain class of chivalrous minds, and the cause of the "Three Witnesses" is surely lost. Surely, there is no need to say anything more, when we have the fact, stated with commendable candour in the preface, that "the verse is found in no one of the principal MSS. of the Now Testa- ment," more especially when we consider that it strongly favours what has been the dominant creed of Christendom. Is it credible that a verse which would furnish to anti-Asian disputants a weapon of inestimable value should ever have been permitted to drop out of the text ?