ceeding toward the center. He quite frequently contrasts his own views with the more radical views of Weiss.

Probably the best single part of the author's work is his discussion of the fundamental thought and purpose of the Gospel (pp. 3-15), in which he forcibly presents its unity and progress of thought. A translation of this section appeared in the Biblical World of March and April, 1893.

His argument from internal evidence for the apostolic authorship of the Gospel is an interesting one. It consists in the fact that the Gospel makes upon us the impression of such spiritual power as can be attribnted only to an apostle (p. 27). Its author's independent treatment of the Old Testament is like that of Jesus himself, devout and yet independent, free from rabbinical allegorizing. He alters its words freely yet never alters its sense because "the Spirit of God who gave the Old Testament and the Spirit of him who fulfilled it, fully inspires and guides him" (p. 17). This same independent and original treatment is seen in his presentation of the discourses of Jesus. Luke is simply a reproducer of what he found in his sources, sometimes not daring to do more than compile disconnected statements of Jesus without trying to combine them into unity. Matthew, on the other hand, is "master of his material," working it over into a connected whole, and yet presenting a true picture of Jesus in word and deed. No one but an apostle in whom the promises of John xiv. 26 and xvi. 13 had been fulfilled, could use such freedom with such effect (pp. 20, 27). There is no reason to doubt the tradition that this apostolic author was Matthew.

Yet Matthew used sources. He had not only his own remembrance of events and common oral tradition but also written sources. Dr. Kübel accepts the two document hypothesis, one of the documents being an original-Mark (which our Mark most nearly reproduces), and the other a Logia document containing comparatively short, loosely connected pieces of teaching which Luke has least altered. Both of these were used by Matthew. Matthew was also probably helped by an amanuensis who took some liberties. The ideas of authorship prevalent then were different from ours and did not prevent friends from adding or changing where the interest of the matter described seemed to demand it. Yet we believe, as a matter of faith, that God, through these circumstances, has secured for us a true picture of the life of Jesus (p. 34).

The Hebrew Gospel attributed by Papias to Matthew, was a translation or free working over of our Greek Gospel, made possibly at the instigation of Matthew himself (p. 33).

Dr. Kübel's standpoint is well illustrated by his treatment of demoniacal possession and of the alleged disagreements between the Synoptists and John as to the day of the month on which the crucifixion occurred. He believes demoniacal possession to have been due to the actual presence of demons and to be possible to-day, though apparent to no such extent as at that "critical point in the development of the con

flict between God and Belial." The supper which Jesus ate with his disciples the evening before his crucifixion, was, according to Dr. Kübel, an irregular passover meal, eaten one evening before the regular time. The synoptists do not mention this irregularity, but speak of it as the regular passover supper, because they had forgotten that it was not. John, however, in chapter xiii., remembering that it was not the regular paschal supper, makes no allusion to its paschal character, and rightly alludes to the regular passover as occurring after the crucifixion.

One feels inclined to protest against the use of any "homiletical commentary" on the ground that it greatly weakens the preacher, by tempting him to neglect close exegetical study, and by really furnishing him with sermon outlines which he ought to prepare for himself. The present volume is less objectionable than some of the sort because its homiletical comments are really the fruit of critical exegesis. The exegetical parts and the critical discussions are what give the volume its value. They are the product of a spirit both scholarly and devout, and represent an effort to adopt some of the newer critical views without at all abating the reverence of that traditional “Bibelglauben" to which the author so often alludes. It is certainly a useful protest against an extremely radical criticism which refuses to see unity in any of the synoptical Gospels and so shreds them as to leave no trustworthy account of the life and teachings of Jesus.

A criticism to which the book as a whole is liable, is that it too much neglects the contemporaneous thought and life of the first century, the "Jewish background" upon which Professor Schnedermann and others have for some years been placing so much emphasis.

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. By J. M. Stifler, D. D., Professor of New Testament Exegesis in Crozer Theological Seminary, New York. Chicago and Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Co. 1892. (Pp. vi, 287. 53⁄4×338.) $1,25. As the author explains in the preface, this book is not an introduction in the ordinary sense of the word, inasmuch as it does not consider questions of authorship, time and place of writing, or integrity of the composition. It is an effort "to trace out the course of thought," showing why Luke made such selection of material as is here presented, and what he meant to teach by it. In accordance with this purpose the steps in the emancipation of Christianity from Judaism, as narrated by Luke, are clearly brought out. It is an outline of Acts considerably amplified, and with some application of its truths to present-day situations; as when, for instance, on page 47, those who try to gain reputation by preaching other men's sermons, are warned by the fate of Ananias and Sapphira.

The book evidently is not, and does not purport to be, the work of one who, by prolonged critical study, has brought himself into sympathy with the life and thought of the first century. It is written entirely from

a nineteenth century standpoint. Occasionally the outline will appear to some to rest upon a fanciful and artificial exegesis. On page 190, Paul's increased activity after the absorption of John's twelve disciples into the church at Ephesus (Acts xix.) is said to be a duplication of Jesus' increased activity after the imprisonment of John (Mark i. 14). Or again, on page 268, regarding the miracles performed by Paul on the island of Melita, it is said to be "a token of the fall of Israel that from the restoration of Eutychus to life (xx.) until this hour, or from the moment that Paul turned his face, more than two years before, toward Jerusalem, until now when he is at the gates of Rome, the divine energy could not show itself. It is given again on Roman soil."

The book will be of value, especially to those in training-classes and Sunday-schools who wish a bird's-eye view of Acts before beginning to study it in detail.

LUTHER HALSEY GULICK: Missionary in Hawaii, Micronesia, Japan, and China By Frances Gulick Jewett. Boston and Chicago: Congregation Sunday-School and Publishing Society. 1895. (Pp. 314. 58x34

25.

In this biography of her father, Mrs. Jewett has written one of the most interesting and instructive volumes that have appeared for a long while. Luther Halsey Gulick was born of missionary parents in the Sandwich Islands, came to America at the age of twelve, received his general, theological, and medical education under the loving care of friends and relatives, and returned with his cultivated wife in 1851, to lay the foundations of missionary work in the Micronesian Islands. Two years after his arrival an epidemic of small pox occurred upon the islands, which tested to the utmost both the wisdom and the courage of the medical missionary. In the absence of fresh vaccine material, Dr. Gulick first inoculated himself with small pox and suffered it to have its course, in the meantime isolating himself from his family, and then inoculated as many of the natives as were willing to trust themselves to his skill, and as he was able to provide for. The horrors of those months of isolation with this plague can scarcely be imagined, but they were safely passed, and the confidence of the people was so completely won that the message of the missionaries was thereafter heard with gladness, and a great moral change immediately followed. But five thousand of the ten thousand inhabitants had been carried away by the plague.

After ten years Dr. Gulick returned to the United States for a vacation, and for a year or more his story of missionary work thrilled the churches like a message from the other world. Owing to the health of his family it was not thought best for him to go back to Micronesia, and his general capacity for organization led to his appointment to have general charge of missionary affairs in the Hawaiian Islands, where he remained until 1870, when the change of policy there set him free for other

work. For two years he was sent to the papal lands in Europe to inaug. urate the experiments of the American Board in Spain and Italy, and to make investigations into the conditions of the missions in Turkey. From 1876 to 1889 he had charge of the work of the American Bible Society in China, which was prosecuted with remarkable energy, 252,000 copies of the Bible having been distributed in the single year 1887.

If any one is inclined to fear that the primitive spirit of Christian heroism is dying out in these later centuries there is no better corrective than to read the simple but charmingly-told story of this book.

THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN, from the Dawn of History to the Era of Méiji. By William Elliot Griffis, D. D., formerly of the Imperial University of Tokio; author of "The Mikado's Empire" and "Corea, the Hermit Nation"; late Lecturer on the Morse Foundation in Union Theological Seminary in New York. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1895. (Pp. xxi, 457. 578x338.) $2.00.

The rapidity of changes taking place in the Japanese Empire makes this volume of Dr. Griffis most important and timely. The author's residence in Japan and his general studies in Japanese history and social conditions enable him to write with an authority upon the subject which few possess. The author's sympathy with the Japanese is also above question. Still it would be difficult anywhere to find a more serious arraignment of heathen religions than this volume presents. Polytheism and its degrading accompaniments exhibit themselves on every page. Pantheism is seen to be everywhere the fruitful parent of animism or chamanism, fetichism and phallicism. Of the latter the author says that the efforts of the government in 1872 to abolish it have been so far successful in hiding its emblems from public view that recent scholars and investigators have scarcely suspected its universality. Previous to that time the degrading emblems were everywhere visible along the roads and in the religious procession. "To the enlightened Buddhist, Confucian, and even the modern Shintoist the phallus-worshipper is a 'heathen,' a 'pagan,' and yet he still practises his faith and rites; . . . the Eastern Asiatic mind runs to pantheism as surely as the body of flesh and blood seeks food" (pp. 29, 30).

After reading the really powerful arraignment of Japanese heathenism which appears in the body of this volume, one is the more surprised at a paragraph in the preface which, on the authority of Principal Fairbairn, affirms, that "what we call superstition in the savage is not superstition in him. . . . Between fetichism and Christian faith there is a great distance but a great affinity--the recognition of a supra-sensible life" (p. xiii). In illustration of this, Dr. Griffis remarks:

"I write in sight of beautiful Lake Cayuga, on the fertile and sloping shores of which in old time the Iroquois Indian confessed the mysteries of life. Having planted his corn, he made his pregnant squaw walk round the seed bed in hope of receiving from the Source of life increased

blessing and sustenance for body and mind. Between such a truly religious act of the savage, and that of the Christian sage, Joseph Henry, who uncovered his head while investigating electro-magnetism to 'ask God a question,' or that of Samuel F. B. Morse, who sent as his first telegraphic message 'What hath God wrought,' I see no essential difference. All three were acts of faith and acknowledgment of a power greater than man. Religion is one, though religions are many” (p. xii).

It is but fair to say, however, that the essential errors of this remark are amply refuted in the pages of the book itself.

OUTLINES OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY. By Rev. Cornelius Walker, D. D., Professor of Systematic Divinity in the Theological Seminary of Virginia. New York: Thomas Whittaker. 1894. (Pp. 256. 64x3%.)

This modest volume contains the clear and concise statement of the Christian doctrines which are generally accepted as the basis of our religious life and the mainspring of our religious activities. Such a comprehensive statement is really the best defense of the doctrines themselves. There are twenty-two chapters, appended to each of which there is a list of six or eight of the most important and acceptable treatises to be consulted for fuller information. The judiciousness of the author's treatment appears in a single quotation. Speaking of the doctrine of original sin, which represents infants as criminal participants in the sin of Adam and under its divine sentence of doom, the author discusses the doctrine of baptismal regeneration in the following manner:

"This, very naturally, led to the sacramental remedy. For dying infants there could be no other. The sin and its doom, criminally incurred, not by their own act, was, in the same manner, without their act or knowledge, removed. And, as one sacrament thus became debased from its original high moral and spiritual significance into a mere fetich, so in due time, the other came to be regarded and treated as of similar character. Where sin is looked upon as a physical thing, it will be treated, and its cure sought with physical remedies" (p. 156).

We trust the book will have a wide circulation.

INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF the Gospel OF ST. JOHN, together with an Interlinear Literal Translation of the Greek Text of Stephens, 1550, with the Authorized Version conveniently presented in the Margins for Ready Reference, and with the Various Readings of the editions of Elzevir, 1624, Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Alford, and Wordsworth. By J. P. MacLean, Ph. D. Cincinnati: The Robert Clarke Co. 1895. (Pp. x, 240. 6%x4.) $1.50.

Mr. MacLean has done a good service in presenting in so short compass and in so clear a manner the main considerations which prove the genuineness of the Fourth Gospel, and, at the same time, a full analysis of the contents of the book. The volume is a safe and very convenient guide to the study of the subject. Its merits are such that they should secure for it a large sale.