Eighteen centuries have passed since the Bible was finished. They have been centuries of great changes. In their course the world has been wrought over into newness at almost every point. But, to-day, the text of the Scriptures, after copyings almost innumerable and after having been tossed about through ages of ignorance and tumult, is found by exhaustive criticism to be unaltered in every important particular - there being not a single doctrine, nor duty, nor fact of any grade, that is brought into question by variations of readings - a fact that stands alone in the history of such ancient literature.