2. Welcome new truth. The multitude of unsolved problems ought to make men modest. But many seem to have made up their minds on every subject, and to have left no room for appendix or supplement. It is astonishing, when Christianity is such a broad thing, on what a narrow platform many are contented to stand. It required a miracle to uproot Peter's prejudice-to shake off the yoke of Jewish exclusiveness, and win him over to a world-wide Christianity. Let us allow old prejudices to die under the light of new truth. While the Gospel cannot be improved, men's understanding and interpretation of it may be indefinitely improved. 3. Providential preparation of hearer and preacher. There is a beautiful connection and interplay of Divine providence seen here. These two visions were needed to remove the prejudice of both Jew and Gentile; that the one might teach, and the other hear. May we not believe that God thus often makes ready both the sower and the soil? He 4. God has no favourites. This was not a new truth, though now, for the first time, it dawned upon Peter in all its fulness. might have found it in the Scriptures (see Deut. x. 17; 2 Chron. xix. 7; Job xxxiv. 19). The outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Gentiles taught him that they were, in all that is essential to salvation, on a level with the Jews. 5. Visions and tasks are never far apart. Special Divine manifestations are given to men not for their own delight mainly, but for the good of others. The value of any vision of glory lies in its power to give fitness for work and endurance. 6. Men, not angels, are to preach the Gospel. 7. The Holy Spirit crowns obedient labour. While Peter was preaching, the Holy Spirit "fell on all them which heard the word." Power with man is God's gift.-(George W. Brown.) THE GOSPEL PREACHED AT ANTIOCH. ACTS ii. 19-30. In the passage before us we see Christianity growing, taking on new forms, and at the same time becoming solidified. I. We see the settlement of the character of the new movement. This is denoted to us by the fastening upon the saints of the name "Christians" (ver. 26). It is often asked, "What's in a name?" and the answer might well be, "It depends." Where a name is not a mere arbitrary combination of sounds, but the result of a historical evolution which has given to it unmistakable definiteness, there is very much in it. Before the people of Antioch invented the new name for them, the followers of Jesus had been known among themselves as "the disciples," "the saints," "the faithful," "the believers," "the brethren," and "those of the Way," while by outsiders they were called Nazarenes and Galileans. These last names were given in contempt by the Jews. The Greeks of Antioch, however, had no reason for holding the followers of Jesus in contempt, so they invented for them the name of "Christians," which was not a term of opprobrium, but a simple expression of the fact that those designated by it followed one who claimed to be the Christ. Negatively, it is evident that certain persons were not included in the designation. And it is necessary to point this out, because there are those to-day who would include a corresponding kind of people in the present time under the name Christian. In Antioch there were Greeks (the Grecians of v. 20). Doubtless among these Greeks there some who were very good men, who were pure, honest, unselfish, and kind. They truly strove to make their lives what they ought to be. But these men were not, therefore, Christians. Often a pastor in talking to people about religion may ask, "Are you a Christian?" And the answer may be, "I hope so." Then if he asks, "What do you mean by a Christian?" the reply is very likely to be, "One who leads a good life." It is true a Christian is one who leads a good life, but it is not that that makes him a Christian, else the upright Greeks of Antioch would have been Christians. But they would have denied it. And so would Barnabas and Saul who preached to them, trying to make Christians out of them. Therefore we cannot put it too plainly to ourselves that moral men are not necessarily Christians. There were also in Antioch Jews (ver. 19). Among these there some, doubtless, who led good lives (like the upright Greeks), and who added religiousness to morality, who served the true God. But they were not, therefore, Christians. They would have repudiated the name with scorn. Christianity is narrow in a sense, but its narrowness is Christ-made and necessary. What, then, positively, is a Christian? It is one who believes in Jesus as his personal Saviour. First, I believe that Jesus is the Saviour of the world; second, I accept of Him by faith as my personal Saviour. It is the latter especially which makes the Christian. II. The growth of Christianity comes next for our thought. It was by means of persecution (ver. 19). Stephen's pitiful death was not wasted. If he had lived he could certainly not have accomplished as much good as came from the scattering of the Christians because of his death. For the Church, as for individuals, peace is dangerous: then there comes the moral relaxation which gives temptation a double opportunity. But the growth of the Apostolic Church was in the form of change as well as by accretion. It increased in size and it altered in quality; it became a Gentile Church as well as a Jewish Church. Those who fled at Stephen's death preached "the word to none but unto the Jews only" (ver. 19). But some of them, being of Cyprus and Cyrene in Africa, "spake unto the Grecians" (ver. 20), that is, the heathen. The Church was broadening out to be Gentile as well as Jewish, that it might at last become neither. This double progress of the Church, in size and in character, was accomplished through the labours of good men. The Church was not a disembodied influence; it used implements of flesh and blood. One of these was Barnabas, who built up the Church by reason of the fact (" for," ver. 24) that he ". was a good man and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith." Such men, impelled from within to the good work of God, are used by Him for the glory of His name in the in-gathering of souls. For the being used by God is, after all, what gives growth to the Church. It is "the hand of the Lord" (ver. 21), the power of God in Christ, the grace from on high, that leads a great number of people to believe and turn unto the Lord (ver. 21), and adds much people unto the Lord (ver. 24). To convert outsiders is not the only end of the Church's life; for those who are already in it need to advance in character. All this growth of the Antiochian Church was along certain lines that opened up quite simply and naturally, and yet it was along the great line of the far-reaching plan of God. III. The characteristics of the early Christianity come out in part here. We see that Christ was the centre of its thought. The name Christian gives us this idea. We find it also in such expressions as these "Preaching the Lord Jesus" (ver. 20); "the hand of the Lord" (referring to Christ) (ver. 21); the exhortation that "they would cleave unto the Lord" (ver. 23); "and much people were added unto the Lord." Through all these words runs the thought of Jesus as the Divine Saviour. He was the centre of their thoughts, their faith, and their hearts' deepest love. Barnabas and Saul taught the members of the Church (ver. 26). The Church is to be taught ever and ever again out of the truth of God. The entering into the Christian life is the entering into a course of development, for life is development. The cordiality of the fellowship of the early Church is one of its most delightful characteristics. It is exhibited in the relief sent by the Antiochian Christians to the faminestricken brethren of Judæa (ver. 29). It is not surprising that when Barnabas saw what God had wrought at Antioch he was glad (ver. 23). Joy was a characteristic of that early Christian life. And why were they joyful? Because of the grace of God (ver. 23) given to them so abundantly. When the. fields are rich with grain and the orchards with fruit, men's hearts are glad. The blessing of God in nature rejoices us. Much more when it comes down in showers of refreshing grace, causing the spiritual desert to blossom as the rose. Revival times are always glad times. IV. The special personal lessons that come to us are these 1. The duty of faithfulness to our Lord. Barnabas "exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord” (ver. 23). They had special temptations to unfaithfulness in that rich, gay, frivolous Oriental city. We have our special temptations to-day. 2. The centre of the Christian's thought should be the personal Christ. 3. We need, like Barnabas (ver. 24), the endowment of the Holy Spirit that we may do our work aright.—(D. J. Burrell, D.D.) THE SURVEY OF THOUGHT. TO OUR READERS.-We have now come nearly to the close of the year, when we may reasonably be expected to report progress as regards the past, and also to announce our intentions concerning the future. THE THINKER has had a good and steady circulation throughout the year, and has succeeded much better than we anticipated. The magazine has received a cordial welcome from the press, has gained the hearty approval of a large circle of readers, and has taken a first place amongst the magazine literature of the age. No other magazine occupies exactly the same groundit alone gives, in ready and accessible form, the current Christian Thought of the world, and nowhere else do the pressing problems of the hour receive more scholarly elucidation. During the past year we have had great pressure on our space, and have had frequently to return papers which we would gladly have printed. In order to remedy this we shall next year omit the sections "Sunday in Church" and "Sunday in School." This will place several pages at our disposal for Current Thought, for Book Reviews, and for original articles of permanent value. We hope that our readers will consider this a wise arrangement. We have made very interesting and extensive literary arrangements for next year, which will be found in detail in our advertising pages. We would especially invite attention to the prizes which we offer for the best Theological, Biblical, or Expository papers, which are to be sent to the Editor by February 25th, 1893. We shall give £10 for the best paper received, £5 for the second in order of merit, £3 for the third, £2 for the fourth, and £1 for the fifth. The conditions of the competition are printed on the first page of our wrapper. We hope that many unknown but careful Biblical students may in this way be induced to publish some of the results of their studies. We ask our readers to do all in their power to make THE THINKER known to their friends and to secure new subscribers. GENESIS PRINTED IN COLOURS. By Prof. BISSELL, Chicago. - The method taken by this American professor to give the general reader an idea of the most recent criticism of the Book of Genesis is an exceedingly happy one. It is that of representing the supposed original sources by a variety of colours. The Revised Version is used, and the scheme of analysis is that of Kautzsch and Socin. Seven colours in all are used to represent the matter belonging respectively to P, J, the Redactor, J, JE, E, and a passage (chap. xiv.) which the editors are unable to classify with any of the other documents. To the unlearned there is certainly something ludicrous in the extraordinary appearance of many of the pages, in which, what is apparently a connected. NO. V.-VOL. II.-THE THINKER. BB narrative, is printed in half-a-dozen different colours, indicating as many different sources, and many will come to the conclusion that unless adequate proof be given, the mere exhibition of the results of the criticism in question is the best refutation of it. Prof. Bissell himself is thoroughly opposed to the current theory of the Book of Genesis, which he thus literally depicts, viz., that it is a compilation belonging to the period of the Exile (B.C. 444). At the same time he is not a rigid adherent of the "traditional theory." Nobody," he says, "now holds, as far as we know, that Moses, or any one else, originally composed Genesis, verbatim et literatim, just as we now have it. All scholars regard it as probable that whoever wrote it had, for some parts of it, documentary sources." And he thinks it is not beyond the power of literary criticism to succeed, in course of time, in determining with some measure of probability the limits of these original sources. But he objects to the reasoning by which the current theory of the Pentateuch is supported, as inductive in name but not in fact, and as being unfair. He makes a skilful use of the Akkadian narrative of the deluge in support of the unity of the history in Genesis (vi.-ix.), which is treated by modern critics as the combination of two different and discordant documents (J, P). The date of the Akkadian story of the flood is, he says, generally admitted to be not far from that of Abraham, or about B.C. 2,000, and it furnishes, from a polytheistic point of view, a duplicate narrative of the events recorded in the above section of Genesis. Throughout, they follow the same general order of topics, and their similarity in other respects is remarkable. They agree in the main as respects the region of the cataclysm; definitely in stating that the warning of it was given to one man; that it was to be a flood; that it was on account of sin. This one man is bidden to prepare a vessel whose dimensions and other details are stated; and he does as he is bidden. The object of the vessel is said to be to save the Akkadian Noah, and others, in order to " preserve the seed of life." The flood has a second announcement as in the Bible. The hero embarks with relatives and the beasts of the field. The door of the vessel is shut, and the flood appears as announced. It is caused by rain, and the convulsions of nature. (Our critics hold that P and J are utterly discordant in this particular, the one attributing the flood to convulsions of nature, the other to forty days' rain.) Mankind is destroyed. The duration of the flood is given. This other Noah, like the Biblical, opens a window. The ship strands in Armenia. Birds are sent out after seven days. The occupants of the ship disembark; a sacrifice is offered to the gods, who are pleased with the odour; and (as the text is generally read) a rainbow appears in the sky, and a promise is made that the world shall not again be so destroyed. At the end, the man and his wife are blessed by Bel. This is the order of events as recorded in the Akkadian narrative. Prof. Bissell considers that the bearing of this account on the unity of the Biblical is direct, and that it contains conclusive evidence against the position of the critics in question. "The Babylonian tablets contain, in the form of a continuous narrative, the more prominent facts of both the alleged Elohistic and Jehovistic sections of Genesis, and presents them mainly in the Biblical order, as one can plainly see. That is to say, several hundred years before the era of Moses the principal contents of the Biblical narrative of the flood were current in ancient Akkadia, the general region from which, and at about the time when, Abraham set out at God's command to find a home in Canaan. How improbable, then, on its face the theory that in Genesis we have two essentially different and discordant accounts, originating hundreds of years apart, and united together at the period of the Exile (B.c. 444)!" We should be very glad if some of the critics whom Prof. Bissell assails would take up this challenge. 66 THE BIBLE: IS IT A REVELATION FROM GOD? (Elliot Stock).—No name appears on the title-page of this little book, but a Mr. Alfred H. Burton, who writes a preface to it, discloses in a footnote on the last page that the author is the late J. N. Darby. It was originally written in answer to Prof. Smith's article, "The Bible," in the Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th edition; but evidently has not been generally regarded as conclusive, The "rationalistic theories" it assails have, according to the editor, been "dished up afresh under a more popular form " (the confusion of metaphors is ours), and this is his reason for reprinting the work. In the preface Mr. Burton traces the origin of Biblical Criticism to a very remote antiquity, and ascribes it to a supernatural author. The moving of questions tending "to invalidate the Word of God" is said to have begun with Satan, when, in the form of a serpent, he asked Eve concerning an alleged Divine utterance, Yea, hath God said?" We may say of this what Darwin said of his theory of the descent of man from a group of marine animals, resembling the larvæ of existing Ascidians, that "it is a pedigree of prodigious length, but not of noble quality." The Plymouthistic note is apparent from time to time in the book, in the evident relish with which it is asserted that all kinds of ecclesiastical personages-professors of divinity, doctors of theology, learned clerics, and eloquent preachers—are questioning the authority of the Scriptures, and that it behoves the individual Christian to be on the alert against them and against the poisonous influences which have overpowered them. The alarm in the Plymouthistic camp is well founded, for the passing away of the theory of verbal inspiration means the overthrow of the tenets they found upon the literal interpretation of isolated texts. The character of the book before us, and the qualifications of the author to discuss questions of Biblical Criticism, may be judged from the following extract: "The attack on the Word of God is not from heathens as of old, or open infidels, but from the bosom of Christendom itself. Men who are called its ministers are undermining the confidence of the simple in what was the basis of all faith-the Word of God. They tell you they believe in the Bible, nay, in inspiration, only taking up literary questions. It is false utterly false. None can deny that it is but the crambe repetita-the dishing up afresh-what is borrowed from the Eichhorns (though he is now left far |