Peace, these are the subjects which he loves to handle, and which he handles with grace and effectiveness. One or two of the little discourses are probably above the heads of any ordinary household, e.g., the one on "The Rest that Remaineth " (pp. 91-94). It is less than three pages, but it is not as simple as it is short, and it contains a sentence which is only six lines short of being a page long. In one of Bishop Lightfoot's Cambridge Sermons there is a sentence which runs for more than a page. To an English audience, even of educated people, such prolonged constructions are bewildering. But Mr. Stopford Brooke is nearly always clear and readily understood. The following, both in tone and in expression, is a fair sample of his teaching in this volume:—

"There are few things which bless and soothe the life of others more, or do them more good, than the giving of thanks. It makes men feel that they are some use in the world, and that is one of the finest impulses to a better life. It cheers many a wearied heart with pleasant hope, and bids many a man who is sad in mood take courage. It is the soother of the world, and, like mercy, its work is twofold, for it blesses him who gives it and receives it. We give much blame, and it may be well. Let us give a little more gratitude, and it will be better for the world. For the world wants kindness far more than harshness. It is very sore with many sorrows, many blows, and we know not how much good a tender voice and soft hand may do" (pp. 56, 57). A. PLUMMER, D.D.

THE EPISTLES OF THE APOSTLE PAUL; A SKETCH OF THEIR ORIGIN AND CONTENTS. By GEORGE G. FINDLAY, B.A. C. H. Kelly, London. FROM the pen of Mr. Findlay we always expect good work, and we are never disappointed. For years he has studied the writings of the Apostle of the Gentiles, has made himself familiar with all the questions which are raised of the life and times of St. Paul, and has arrived at conclusions which are worthy of the attention of all students. Such a book needs no apology from him. We are indeed glad of any occasion which helps to persuade Mr. Findlay to give to the world the fruits of his wide reading, deep thinking, and ripe scholarship. His aim is,

"To furnish in a form as brief and clear as possible a connected view of the Epistles of St. Paul. We shall look at them," he says, "in their historical order and continuity, as an expression of the living mind of the great Apostle of the Gentiles, and a part of his life work. We shall seek to understand their environment, the combination of circumstances under which they originated, and the condition of the young Christian communities to which they were addressed. We shall treat the letters as an organic whole, viewing each in its relation to its companions and to the general teaching of its author, and endeavour to trace out their internal unity and pervasive spirit. We shall follow the progress of the writer's thought, and the application of his governing principles to the changing conditions of life around him, and to the growing necessities of the work of God committed to his charge."

Such are the high aims of Mr. Findlay, and we think that he has succeeded in realising them. We have found in them more light and guidance than we have got from the perusal of many bulky treatises. We know no better "Introduction" to the writings of St. Paul, and none which can be more readily understood by the general reader. The little volume is a book of the rarest order, and deserves to be widely read. J. IVERACH, D.D.

THE ASCENSION AND HEAVENLY PRIESTHOOD OF OUR LORD. By WILLIAM MILLIGAN, D.D., Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism in the University of Aberdeen. London: Macmillan & Co. 1892.

IN 1879 Professor Milligan delivered the Croall Lectures on "The Resurrection of our Lord"; and now, as a sequel, in the form of the Baird Lectures for last year, he gives us this compact and full volume on "The Ascension and Heavenly Priest

hood." It contains, probably, the most closely reasoned and consistent treatment of its subject, following no beaten pathway in regard to exposition, but throughout fresh, suggestive, effective. The critical standpoint is that of the older orthodoxy. Some of the details considered are of necessity of the most perplexing and mysterious kind, involving excursions into regions where there is but little room for the sole of the foot. But the sections in which the chief appeal lies to a quickened religious imagination, are more than outbalanced by others, in which the theme is shown to have the most important practical bearings. And a place is found for even such matters of present interest as the doctrine of the Visible Church, the pulpit-functions of sensationalism, and the conditions under which a creed may be made a test of membership.

Of the six lectures, the first alone is devoted directly to the consideration of the Ascension. Viewed as the completion of all that is involved in the Incarnation, it is represented as our Lord's entrance at once upon His own reward and into a new sphere of exertion for the good of man. And the main difficulties that beset any attempt to understand it are met by two suggestions, one of which, according to a prevalent view, delocalizes some of the terms that are used in Scripture; whilst the other is more novel, and perhaps not likely to convince gainsayers. "Tangible," it is said, may mean "subject to be touched apart altogether from the will of him whose body is spoken of "; or, "capable of being touched according to his will and in such manner as he may choose." The former definition is more in accordance with general usage than the latter, which loses its right to rank as a definition by the transference of the volitional element to the person or thing touched; and though some such distinction may be necessary in theology, it is a not unlikely source of confusion to require a word to be accommodated in sense, rather than allow the sense to control the use of the word. That the body of the Risen Christ was tangible, and that He was able to make it tangible, are not the same, but different propositions; and the advantage of treating them as synonymous is not evident.

The remaining lectures discuss the Heavenly Priesthood; three of them as it is exercised above, and two in its relation to the life, work, worship, and confession of the Church beneath. On these chapters the reader will be likely to linger, and probably with most of their contents to agree. He will find much skilful and original use of minute touches in Scripture; and though his own theory of inspiration may not permit him to consider these of much moment, the patient labour with which they are elaborated and guarded will attract and stimulate him. More careful work in the way of exposition could hardly be produced. The best instance is, perhaps, the study of the use of the term Spirit, with or without the article or the attribute of holiness, in the New Testament. And the conclusion reached is that the Spirit bestowed by the glorified Lord is, "not the Third Person of the Trinity in His absolute and metaphysical existence, but that Person as He is mediated through the Son"; or, as it is put in another place, "that Person as He entered into, took possession of, consecrated and perfected the human nature of our Lord." It is difficult to imagine that the writers of the New Testament were familiar with this distinction, which would be received with scant courtesy by the Greek Church. That it involves the incarnation of the Third Person of the Trinity, is met by the plea that incarnation implies the assumption of both a human soul and a human body, which is not contended for here. It is simply urged that the incarnation of the Second Person must affect the Trinity as a whole and each of its members; and that when the Spirit, thenceforward "penetrating and filling all the properties of that human

nature which the Living Lord possesses," is bestowed, He comes, as Archer Butler is quoted as saying, "with a superadded tincture of celestialized humanity." If these lectures were addressed to general readers, it would be possible to imagine them wondering what this distinction means. It seems to add to the mystery of a subject that without it is sufficiently "hard to be understood," and not to admit of easily intelligible statement.

In the time which Dr. Milligan assigns for the commencement of the priestly work of Christ he differs from many able theologians. He holds that, "in conformity with the whole tenor of Scripture," the earthly ministry was but the preparation for the priesthood, the work of which is mainly executed in heaven. And hence he dates the beginning of the priesthood from the Crucifixion, or, to be more exact, from the time when Christ "was lifted up out of this lower world, and before He died." The importance of that view is that it not only provides in due order of time for the accomplishment of everything that was involved in the separate offerings of the law, but also makes the chief sacrifice an offering of life rather than of death, and thus accentuates the inseparability, except in thought, of justification and regeneration. In a very valuable appendix Dr. Milligan sets forth his opinions on this subject of the offering of our Lord more fully, placing them in their "right relation to one or two leading ideas deeply embedded in the experience of Christian men, to the demands of the heart seeking after salvation, to the teaching of Scripture, and to the religious life and theology of the Reformed Church." To have written that appendix alone would have been to have earned the gratitude of all who are perplexed by conflicting views of the Atonement.

Towards the end of the lectures our author becomes almost epigrammatic in the discussion of matters that are now in controversy north of the Tweed, and perhaps to a less degree elsewhere. He believes that the Church must have a creed, whose statements must be both free from ambiguity and cast in a mould corresponding with that of the thought of the day. But at the same time he holds that a Church, however much one great truth or particular aspect of truth has taken hold of its members, has no right to limit its communion by requiring as the condition of membership subscription to a creed that contains other than the fundamental articles of faith. 66 'No individual may dare " to determine what articles are fundamental, which is to be decided by the Church herself. What precisely is meant by the Church in this connection, and how the work is to be done, do not seem to be indicated. The doctrine of the Person of Christ, and a statement of the purposes for which the Church is called, would, however, in Dr. Milligan's opinion, be the principal, if not the sole contents of the confessional test. But the argument appears to overlook the fact that God reveals His will in providence and history as well as in His Word; and remote deductions from the last are in their processes as open to the influence of human error as are the interpretations of the former. Even in New Testament times there are indications of the existence, not only of an allembracing Church, but also of Churches knit together in the faith of a common Lord, already separating under tendencies that were partly natural and due to Divine governance. When the assertion is made that "a distinct denial must be given to the statement that the Church is a voluntary society," it is in either sense of the term hardly defensible. The Church is rather a voluntary society, and something more. As catholic, it yet consists of men whose wills cleave to its Heaa; and in its separate parts, of men who do not unchurch one another, but gather themselves together or are gathered by the providence of God into companies, acknowledging the same Saviour, and allied in His worship and service, but finding in their own

particular methods and views the richest pasture for their spirits and the readiest weapons for their warfare. If "the Church is founded and regulated by Christ," Dr. Milligan's own teaching would lead men to look alike for a human and a Divine element in her, under the operation of that Holy Spirit who "diffuses Himself through the members of Christ's body, and abides in them, . . . . entering into and coalescing with what is human." For if the Church be not a voluntary society, the human element in her seems not to be entered into and sanctified, but destroyed. To make her only Divine is rather to extinguish human nature than lift it up to God. R. WADDY Moss.

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THE COMPOSITION OF THE BOOK OF GENESIS. By E. A. FRIPP. Nutt, 1892. FOR some years the eyes of critics have been turned with peculiar intentness upon the earlier books of the Bible, and up till recently all were agreed that they could see a great deal which had been overlooked by earlier students; but as soon as they began to state what they thought was to be seen, it was found that they were no longer agreed. Some saw one thing, and some another. What was plain to one was doubtful to another. But latterly the discordant voices have been dropping out one by one, and increasing harmony has shown itself among the chorus of critics.

Genesis is the book where agreement is closest. It is, therefore, matter for congratulation that a young English scholar should have been the first to gather up the latest fruits of these years of study in a form which is capable of showing their significance. Kautzsch and Socin in Germany, it is true, have published an edition in which the sources of the present narrative are marked by differences of type. But convenient as their edition is for consultation, when it is desired to see the probable composition of a particular passage, it is difficult or impossible to get from it a connected view of any of the documents thus distinguished. And this is just what Mr. Fripp's method is intended to facilitate. He has printed in a small handy volume the text of Genesis in a new and sometimes striking translation, mainly founded on the Revised Version. He separates the "Priestly" narrative completely, and gives it by itself at the end in italic type, thus indicating its later date, and less original character. The double thread of "Prophetic" story is also carefully divided into its constituent elements, which are printed, not consecutively, but arranged in parallel columns so as to show as far as possible parallel passages in the two documents (called J and E, from the difference in their use of the Divine names) on the same opening of the page. The whole proceeding may appear simply arbitrary to some readers. Especially will the numerous transpositions, and the minute dissection of words and phrases seem at first sight startling and improbable. But the author would probably be the last person to claim absolute finality for all the detail of his conclusions. He has satisfied himself that two complete narratives of the history of Israel from the earliest times were first woven together by a compiler into one, and then that a third has been added to them much later, and that the work has undergone a long-continued process of editorial revision. Now, if these assumptions are once granted, Mr. Fripp's procedure is immediately justified, for a compiler whose aim was to preserve all that he possibly could of his sources, would be bound both to shift the position of certain portions, and to dovetail sentences and clauses into a more or less coherent fabric. So what Mr. Fripp has done has been, with infinite labour and ingenuity, to detect the several fragments, to assign them to their respective sources, and finally to build them up afresh into distinct narratives in which the original documents are reconstructed so far as the materials suffice for so difficult a task, and throughout he is surprisingly successful even where previous inquirers were almost baffled.

This is not the place to discuss the assumptions on which this work is based. Canon Driver's Introduction contains an outline of the grounds on which the verdict of modern scholars has gone forth almost unanimously in favour of those assumptions as being necessary results of honest scientific criticism. But there is still need of a more special work, which shall give the evidence which has proved so convincing in a less condensed form than Canon Driver, and in a more popular and also more sympathetically Christian fashion than Kuenen in his Introduction to the Hexateuch. Meanwhile, however, Mr. Fripp has provided the British public with a rough and ready means of testing the critical theory. If the narratives, as he prints them, convey to the mind on the whole the impression of distinctness and separate origin, that will be a long step towards an assurance of the soundness of the critical conclusions in the main as regards the analysis of the text. For it is incredible that 'so minute a dissection and so thorough a reconstruction should be carried through with any success if the narrative, as it stands, is really homogeneous.

Mr. Fripp also assumes certain dates for his documents. And these assumptions, too, may be roughly tested by reading through first one document and then another. Thus we may pass from the Priestly narrative to the Iahvistic history, and ask whether we are breathing the atmosphere of the same, or of an earlier, simpler, and ruder age.

There is one point that ought not to be omitted in a notice of Mr. Fripp's book. He has been very careful in bringing out the religious spirit of the whole. The religious motive may be different in passages which belong to different centuries, but it is always there, and it constitutes the distinctive feature of the literature. It must be confessed, however, that there is evident, in this work, a decided lack of sympathy with the ecclesiastical view of things, as reflected in the Priestly sections, while the author occasionally allows himself a freedom of expression in which all of his readers will not be inclined to follow him. Still, those who possess this little work, and are prepared in any degree to accept the author as their guide through the maze of critical analysis, will have a fresh clue to the knowledge of the religious conditions and successive stages of revelation amongst the Israelites which should by no means be neglected. In particular, the "Prophetic" narratives anticipate and supplement the witness of the great prophets themselves in a most important degree.

It remains for us to notice a few points in the book not yet remarked upon. Besides the new translation, and the re-construction of the three main documents, Mr. Fripp gives a short introduction, in which he describes the successive stages in the literary growth of Genesis, sums up excellently the characteristics of each element, and indicates the dates to which the several portions may, in his judgment, be most reasonably assigned. And the author has sketched a most ingenious series of outline maps to illustrate the ethnographical significance of the stories of the patriarchs. The text is accompanied by a brief running commentary at the foot of the page. Perhaps the form of notes would have been more convenient; but the chief points in justification of the details of the analysis are admirably summarized, and the numerous transpositions are defended always with ingenuity and often with convincing force. In spite of what Mr. Fripp urges on behalf of his quaint fad, as we must call it, of transliterating Hebrew proper names, we must express our regret that he should have disfigured his pages with such unsightly and unnecessary forms.

In the matter of publication, Mr. Fripp has been forestalled by a very competent American worker in the same field, Mr. B. W. Bacon, in his more diffuse and bulky book, The genesis of Genesis; but the two are quite independent of one another, and to Mr. Fripp is due the credit of the first original work of the kind that has