important subject with which it deals; while, as regards method and fairness and the most scrupulous regard for accuracy in even the smallest particulars, it will serve as a model to all subsequent workers in the same field.

A History of the Revised Version of the New Testament, by SAMUEL HEMPHILL, D.D., Litt.D. (Elliot Stock, London, no date.)

IT is unfortunate that the last of the New Testament Revisers should have passed away without the publication of an authoritative History of their work. Nor can Dr Hemphill's book be said to do much to supply the want. It is not so much a History as a vigorously written Essay to shew how much better it would have been if the New Testament Revisers had adhered to the same method of procedure as their colleagues in the Old Testament Company, more particularly with regard to the number of changes introduced. Regarding this conclusion opinions may differ. In the meantime it is sufficient to notice that the writer has taken great pains to collect a number of passages in support of his position, especially from the writings of the Revisers themselves, and that his work cannot but prove useful to the future historian of the version.

G. MILLIGAN.

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Growth of Christianity, London Lectures, by PERCY GARDNER, Litt. D., LL.D. (A. & C. Black, London, 1907.)

DR GARDNER traces in this volume the 'baptism' of Judaea, of Greece, of Asia, and of Rome, the materialistic developement of the Middle Ages, the revival of religion by the Reformation, and the theory of its developement as discussed chiefly by Newman and Ehrhard— for he notices none but Roman Catholic writers in this connexion.

The work is beautifully written, and pervaded by a strong religious spirit, a strong aesthetic spirit, and a strong sense of a divine guidance in history. It starts from the usual 'critical' position, that the Gospels contain many things (the sacraments and the second coming for example) quite unlike the Founder's own teaching. The second generation' put into them very much what they pleased. But the chief part of the work is a broad historical survey; and much of this is admirably done.

By baptism' Dr Gardner means that the thoughts of successive ages were transfigured by Christianity. The Psalms hardly needed 'baptism'; but on the other hand, the Church never assimilated

Greek culture as it should have done. When the Gospel came to deal with Rome, it 'baptized' civic cults by exchanging heroes for saints, the worship of ancestors for a doctrine of purgatory; but ritual and government were 'baptized' rather into the Church than into Christ, and in the Middle Ages the sacraments were grossly materialized. But the spirit of the North was always mystic, so that the Reformation gives the other side of the truth. Unfortunately the Reformers made trouble for us by accepting the Bible and the Creeds just as they found them.

I make no criticism: I ask but one question. Dr Gardner speaks well and truly of 'doing the will of God': but is not Christianity summed up better by St Paul, who finds its living power in the love of Christ, who died for us and rose again that He might call forth our love?

H. M. GWATKIN.

The Religion of all Good Men, and other Studies in Christian Ethic, by H. W. GARROD. (Constable, 1906.)

MR GARROD's book reminds us of Hans Andersen's story of the king who walked naked in a procession, while his ministers and people sang the praises of the imaginary robes they consented in believing him to wear, till the illusion was dispelled by the shrill exclamation of a child, But he has no clothes on!' Living as the young among the young, Mr Garrod, with intrepid naïveté, raises a like cry with regard to the visionary Christianity (as he regards it), which many generations of Christians have consented to look upon as clothed with the beauty of holiness. The processions of the ages have agreed to reverence Jesus of Nazareth as Son of Man, or to worship Him as Son of God. 'He wore no such attributes,' says Mr Garrod, 'He never claimed Himself to be Son of Man, but to be the Forerunner of a coming Son of Man, a future Messiah.'

We have no space to discuss this paradox, but turn to some important deductions that Mr Garrod draws from his hypothesis.

Our Lord, he thinks, lived and taught in the expectation of a speedy 'end of the world', and it was in view of this that He promulgated His ethical system, obedience to whose precepts would lead to the dissolution, in any age, of what is called Society. But the precepts, he says, never have been obeyed, nor have those who call themselves Christians ever shewn honour to their brethren in proportion as they have sought to exemplify them in their tone and conduct. What really influences conduct and brings favour and repute is the Gothic code of morals, of which leading principles are chivalry and honour.

Now who, we may fairly ask, are in literature our favourite and typical heroes, regarded as gentlemen? Are they not such men as Don Quixote, Tennyson's King Arthur, Colonel Newcome, and John Inglesant? These are men who display the qualities of chivalry, or care and compassion for the weak, and honour, which is self-respecting dignity. But they combine them with certain traits of meekness, humility, and sweetness little known to the Goths, the salt with which Christianity seasoned society when it seemed likely to be shattered by conflicts between the self-assertive and the hustling. We can afford to make many concessions to Mr Garrod's paradoxical sauciness; that the Founder of Christianity has in the past been regarded too exclusively as 'The Man of Sorrows', too little as "The Joyous Comrade'; that the gloom of the times somewhat saddened the tone of primitive Christian literature; that Paul's view of the flesh was tinged with asceticism, and that the Johannine literature sometimes seems to make a cleavage between the secular world with its varied interests rather than to invest these with its spiritual atmosphere; that the spirit of Bibliolatry has given undue weight to the influence of the Primitive period, as compared with the after developement demanded by changed conditions; that this (shall we call it ?) anachronistic Puritanism has a tendency to estrange the hearts of the young from what they are tempted to consider (as Mr Garrod testifies) as the mild and effeminate notes of Christian ethics.

Supposing all this to be granted, we need not abandon the claim of Christianity to have inspired heroism, as well as to have solaced sorrow. It may be that even now a wider, brighter view of Christianity is dawning upon us; for Christianity, like the world, is young.

J. HUNTER SMITH.

Adonis, Attis, Osiris: Studies in the History of Oriental Religion, by J. G. FRAZER, D.C.L., LL.D., Litt.D. (Macmillan & Co., 1906.) As this book is to be incorporated in the third edition of the Golden Bough it does not call for extended notice now. Moreover, it is only incidentally theological, unless Theology is to include the study of dead religions. This, however, must to some extent be admitted. The three oriental divinities named in the title seem to have been national variants or counterparts possessing essential similarity of character; and all three were believed to have died and risen again from the dead. The divine death and resurrection were dramatically represented at annual festivals; with weeping succeeded by transports of joy.. Dr Frazer conceives that Osiris was a corn-god, and that what was signified was

the decay and revival of vegetation. The close connexion of the festivals with the seasons, and calendar dates, has suggested to some writers an astronomical explanation. Dr Frazer himself admits that at one period Osiris was identified with Ra the sun-god, and that his spouse Isis, although in the olden time a rustic corn-month (p. 284), was the goddess of the Dog-star (p. 228).

A more important point is this, that the pagan festivals became Christianized. In midsummer customs, as still practised in Sardinia and Sicily, St John appears to have taken the place of Adonis; and this is but one instance of many. Dr Frazer says that 'when we reflect how often the Church has skilfully contrived to plant the seeds of the new faith on the old stock of paganism, we may surmise that the Easter celebration of the dead and risen Christ was grafted upon a similar celebration of the dead and risen Adonis, which, as we have reason to believe, was celebrated in Syria at the same season' (p. 157). Apologists will have to meet Dr Frazer's entire argument.

GEO. ST. CLAIR.

Antilegomena. Die Reste der ausserkanonischen Evangelien und urchristlichen Überlieferungen, herausgegeben und übersetzt von ERWIN PREUSCHEN. Zweite umgearbeitete und erweiterte Auflage. (Alfred Töpelmann, Giessen, 1905.)

THIS Volume contains all that was in the first edition of 1901, sometime since exhausted, and in addition several fragments of the earliest age which have been recently discovered; namely the new logia or logoi of Drs Grenfell and Hunt, the Gospel citations of the Syriac Teaching of the Apostles published in the Texte und Untersuchungen by Flemming, the Coptic fragmentary narrative of the Resurrection published by C. Schmidt, and a gospel fragment in the same tongue published by Jacoby. The first half of the volume gives the Greek texts, with the reconstructions and conjectures, where necessary, of leading scholars; the second half a German translation. There is an ample index of scripture references and an alphabetical list of notes and monographs written on the various documents. The first edition already contained Origen's citations of Celsus, Origen's citations of apocryphal gospels, the Gospel, Preaching, and Apocalypse of Peter, the Remains of the Ebionite and Hebrew Gospels, the citations preserved in II Clement and in the Clementine Homilies, the fragments of Papias, of the Presbyter of Irenaeus, of Hegesippus, the remains of the gospels known as of the Egyptians, Naassenes, of Philip, of Thomas, &c. The volume is indispensable to students of the first age of Christianity.

F. C. CONYBEARE.

CHRONICLE

OLD TESTAMENT.

The Problem of the Pentateuch, by the Rev. R. H. McKim (Longmans, 1907), consists of three lectures delivered by the author against the results of modern biblical criticism and, as is unfortunately too often the case with literature of this kind, does not take the trouble to examine with any patience the reasons which have led biblical scholars to depart from the usual traditional standpoint. It is clear that the author does not perceive the character of the Pentateuchal problems, and it is to be regretted that one so ill-equipped should have ventured to publish the one-sided arguments which confront us. An interesting foreword is contributed by the Dean of Canterbury, in the course of which he expresses his 'entire acceptance of the duty and the advantage of an unfettered application to the Holy Scriptures of the processes of sound criticism'. Although he objects to the almost unanimous conclusions which are deduced, he candidly admits: 'of course, if the new views were proved, we should have to accommodate ourselves to them, at the cost of the reconstruction of our faith in vital points.'

That this is both necessary and practicable is seen in the popular little introduction by the Rev. Theodore Knight, Criticism and the Old Testament (Elliot Stock, 1907). It is a book which those who are impressed by Mr. McKim's lectures should not fail to read. It removes many of the usual misapprehensions, and its sober and careful treatment of critical results is especially intended for the ordinary reader. Notice is taken of the bearing of biblical criticism upon the larger religious problems of the present day, and the writer hopes that his book may help to bridge the gulf which exists between the work of modern scholarship and everyday religion. Its general utility is increased by the addition of a bibliography which includes works especially helpful for those engaged in teaching the young.

Modern Old Testament research is conducted either in its relation to theology and in its bearing upon religious problems, or, more comprehensively, as a department of the study of ancient history, archaeology, and thought. Viewed in the latter aspect it assumes the character of a more scientific and technical discipline, and much of the work at the present day is devoted to the more thorough investigation of biblical problems in accordance with those principles of historical research which are regularly admitted. Hitherto the literary problems