id')  Great  care  has  been  bestowed  on  the  punctuation.  Our  practice
has  been  to  maintain  what  is  sometimes  called  the  heavier  system  of
stopping,  or,  in  other  words,  that  system  which,  especially  for  con-
venience in  reading  aloud,  suggests  svich  pauses  as  will  best  ensure  a
clear  and  intelligent  setting  forth  of  the  true  meaning  of  the  words.
This  course  has  rendered  necessary,  especially  in  the  Epistles,  a
larger  use  of  colons  and  semicolons  than  is  customary  in  modern
English  printing.
{e)  We  may  in  the  last  place  notice  one  particular  to  which  we
were  not  expressly  directed  to  extend  our  revision,  namely,  the
titles  of  the  Books  of  the  New  Testament.  These  titles  are  no  part
of  the  original  text ;  and  the  titles  found  in  the  most  ancient  manu-
scripts are  of  too  short  a  form  to  be  convenient  for  use.  Under
these  circumstances,  we  have  deemed  it  best  to  leave  unchanged


PREFACE.
the  titles  which  are   given   in   the  Authorised  Version   as   printed
in  1611.
We  now  conclude,  humbly  commending  our  labours  to  Almighty
God,  and  praying  that  his  favour  and  blessing  may  be  vouchsafed
to  that  which  has  been  done  in  his  name.  We  recognised  from  the
first  the  responsibility  of  the  undertaking ;  and  through  our  manifold
experience  of  its  abounding  difficulties  we  have  felt  more  and  more,
as  we  went  onward,  that  such  a  work  can  never  be  accomplished
by  organised  efforts  of  scholarship  and  criticism,  unless  assisted  by
Divine  help.
We  know  full  well  that  defects  must  have  their  place  in  a  work
so  long  and  so  arduous  as  this  which  has  now  come  to  an  end.
