And this slipshod account of the matter is universally acquiesced in by learned and unlearned readers alike at the present day.
From an examination of above fifty ancient oriental liturgies, it is found then that though the utmost variety prevails among them, yet that _not one_ of them exhibits the evangelical formula as it stands in St.
Matt.vi.

13; while in some instances the divergences of expression are even extraordinary.

Subjoined is what may perhaps be regarded as the typical eucharistic formula, derived from the liturgy which passes as Chrysostom's.

Precisely the same form recurs in the office which is called after the name of Basil: and it is essentially reproduced by Gregory of Nyssa, Cyril of Jerusalem, and pseudo-Caesarius; while something very like it is found to have been in use in more of the Churches of the East.
'_For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory_, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, now and always and _for ever_ and ever.

_Amen_.' But as every one sees at a glance, such a formula as the foregoing,--with its ever-varying terminology of praise,--its constant reference to the blessed Trinity,--its habitual [Greek: nun kai aei],--and its invariable [Greek: eis tous aionas ton aionon], (which must needs be of very high antiquity, for it is mentioned by Irenaeus[170], and may be as old as 2 Tim.iv.18 itself;)--the doxology, I say, which formed part of the Church's liturgy, though transcribed 10,000 times, could never by possibility have resulted in the unvarying doxology found in MSS.