6

Elis Wadstein, on Olaf Trételgja and his surname, is a piece of textual criticism on part of the Ynglingatál, with intent to prove that Olaf's name of the wood-cutter' rests on a mistaken reading. Unfortunately most old Scandinavian texts are in such a state as to lend themselves to any amount of emendation, but Hr. Wadstein's are very ingenious.—The two last articles are a curious contrast; both relate to the rough flint implements known as 'triangular axes,' and both turn on the late Hr. Sehested's view that they could not have been used as axes. Captain G. V. Smith from actual experiments seeks to prove that they were employed as such, while Prof. Petersen maintains that they were not, and inclines to the view that they were a kind of digging implement. As the two papers are quite independent, the last word on the question is yet to come.-Vol. VII., Parts 1 and 2 are occupied with a long examination of the sources of Saxo's chronicle by Axel Olrik. Quellenkritik is usually very dubious work, but the writer has a good case here. He seeks to show that Saxo's accounts are not, as commonly assumed, of purely Danish origin as opposed to Icelandic and Norse, but are partly from both sources. The idea is not new, but the proofs are original, and are divided according to (1) material and style, (2) forms of proper names, and (3) the list of Danish kings. In the first of these he notes the differences between Icelandic and Danish forms of legends as well as modes of thought and expression, especially in reference to religious views and popular customs. Under the third head the various lists of Danish kings are thoroughly discussed. The article is a valuable contribution to the study of old Northern literature and history.-Professor Fenger writes on the date of the so-called Attila's hoard,' the gold vessels found in 1799 at Great St. Micklos in Hungary, and now in Vienna. The proofs are not very strong, but from a comparison of Sassanid and Byzantine art the date he advances is one somewhere between Justinian I. and Charlemagne.

CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE.

The Soteriology of the New Testament. By WILLIAM PORCHER DU BOSE, M.A., S.T.D., Professor of Exegesis in the University of the South. London and New York: Macmillan & Co. 1892.

The doctrine of salvation, while one of the principal doctrines of Christian theology, is one of the most difficult to handle. Not only are its aspects and relations manifold; the terms which are used in connection with it, are, from the use which has from time to time been made of them, in many instances either ambiguous or wanting in precision. The author of the present volume seems to have felt this, and has apparently done his best to make his own meaning as clear as possible. Whether he has succeeded is a question which every reader can only answer for himself. It may be doubted, however, whether he has adopted the best method of making the pages of what is certainly an able book, altogether attractive. The multiplication of words does not always conduce to clearness. It has often the effect of making a book heavy. Professor Du Bose's book is scarcely so able as Butler's Analogy, but it continually reminds one of it. There is in it the same evident struggle after clearness of expression and the same consequent tendency to obscurity. To say the least, the volume is hard reading. All the same, there is in it much frank expression of opinion and a good deal of solid thinking. The author has studied his subject closely, and whether the reader is able to follow him or not, he is evidently in possession of very clear and distinct ideas of what he wants to say. As for the definition of salvation, he adopts the Aristotelian method of defining it by its end, and says:-'It is deliverance from the actual evil or evils to which we are subject, and to the good or goods for which our nature designs us.' With respect to the meaning of salvation in the New Testament, he observes: 'A divine salvation is an absolute salvation. Such a Salvation for man must be not only from his evil to his good, but from all his evil to all his good.' And continuing, he remarks: 'It is natural enough that in the New Testament the word should not be used in every instance in the whole length and breadth of its meaning. Any part of Salvation is Salvation, and in this or that connection_the word may mean any one or other aspect of its whole significance. For example, it may mean only a present forgiveness of sin, or exemption from some consequence or consequences of sin. But Christian Salvation must mean all Salvation.' It will thus be seen that of the doctrine itself Mr. Du Bose takes a very large and comprehensive view. As for his mode of dealing with it, it will, at least for those who are acquainted with discussions of this kind, be sufficiently indicated if we say that he treats of Christ as our Salvation, Reconciliation, Redemption, Resurrection and Propitiation, and that after the chapters dealing with these topics come the necessary chapters on New Testament Christology and others on the Sacrifices of Christ, the Flesh and the Spirit, Christ our High Priest, Salvation in the Church, and Of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Mr. Du Bose discriminates sharply between the actual and the ideal, and makes considerable use of the distinction. He distinguishes also between testimony and authority on the one hand, and the evidence of personal experience on the other. On a number of points the reader may be disposed to differ from the learned

Professor, but there can be no doubt that his book is in many respects a scholarly and able contribution to the study of a very difficult and important subject.

The Canon of the Old Testament: An Essay on the Growth and Formation of the Hebrew Canon of Scripture. By HERBERT EDWARD RYLE, B.D., Hulsean Professor of Divinity, etc. London and New York: Macmillan & Co. 1892.

The Scriptures of the Old Testament have during recent years attracted a very great amount of attention. Much critical ability has been expended in their study, and many speculations have been adventured as to their origin and the formation of the Canon. As yet, however, the attempts to provide the student with the results arrived at in anything like a compendious form have, at least in English, been somewhat rare. The history of the New Testament Canon is comparatively well known, but the history of the Canon of the Hebrew Scriptures is not. Very few, it would seem, even among theologians, have any very accurate conceptions as to what it has been. The reason may be that the study as now understood is, in a measure, if not altogether, new. At any rate the account which Professor Ryle here gives of the origin, growth, and formation of the Old Testament Canon is very different from that which but a few years ago was generally accepted. What this was may be seen by consulting the valuable excursus which Professor Ryle has appended to his volume. As for his own treatment of the subject, it may be said to be based upon the results of the most recent criticisms. The stories respecting the formation of the Canon by Ezra and the Men of the Great Synagogue, he sets aside as fictitious, and begins his narrative at a much earlier period. Very wisely he points out that the discussion of his subject involves no question as to the authority or inspiration of the Hebrew Scriptures. With Canon Driver and other writers, he maintains that the question is of a purely historical and literary character. At the same time, he assumes that the entire bearings of the Canon are religious, and that the idea on which it was formed was religious. The suggestion that the Canon contains merely the relics of Hebrew literature, which, having survived the ravages of time, were on that account regarded by the Jews as sacred and authoritative, is set aside as unwarranted. So also is the supposition that the Old Testament is merely an anthology or a choice selection of the gems of Hebrew literature. 'We assume,' says Professor Ryle, 'that the writings included in the Canon of the Old Testament were brought together for a special purpose, and that that purpose was a religious one.' The chapter on the preparation for a Canon will probably be found the least satisfactory, not, however, from any inadequacy of treatment, but on account of the intricacy and obscurity of the subject. That the formation of a Canon of Scripture presupposes the existence of a community of believers, and that there was a Hebrew literature before there was a Hebrew Canon, are general propositions which do not admit of being questioned; but to what extent the preexisting literature was adopted into the canonical writings, or what was the relation between them, are questions which are not easily determined. This is especially the case in respect to the legal writings. Dr. Robertson Smith's theory is not altogether above criticism, and Professor Ryle adds nothing to it. That many of the old social and religious customs were adopted into the Sinaitic legislation is probably beyond question, but it is not so clear that all that that legislation did was to give a new significance to that which had already long existed among Semitic races,' and to

'lay the foundation of a higher symbolism, leading to a more spiritual worship. The probability is, we should say, that it did more, but how much it is impossible to say, with anything like exactitude. The beginnings of the Canon, Professor Ryle finds in the Book of the Law discovered by Hilkiah in the Temple, in the reign of Josiah. This he regards as 'substantially identical with the Deuteronomic portion of the Old Testament,' and inclines to the opinion that it was compiled in the latter part of Hezekiah's or in the early part of Manasseh's reign. With other writers he assigns the completion of the first Canons or 'The Law' to Ezra, and gives as the approximate date for its completion the year 432 B.C., the year in which the grandson of the high priest Eliashib was expelled from Jerusalem by Nehemiah. The grounds on which these opinions are based are discussed with candour and at considerable length. The same may be said in respect to the grounds on which Professor Ryle bases his opinions as to the contents and formation of the second and third Canons. Here, however, we can do no more than allude to them. We can only add that the volume, containing as it does a large amount of information which to most readers is new, and being written throughout with admirable scholarship and in a reverent and in some respects conservative spirit, is deserving of the most careful study, not only by preachers and students, but also by every one who desires to obtain an intelligent understanding of the origin, growth, and fortune of the most remarkable of the ancient literatures, and next to New Testament, the most important collection of writings in existence.

Regni Evangelium. A Survey of the Teaching of Jesus Christ. By the Rev. EDWIN PINDER BARROW, M.A. London: Williams & Norgate, 1892.

It is often asserted, and indeed is generally admitted, that Christianity, though constantly multiplying and vigorously directing its home agencies and its missionary enterprises, is losing its hold on great masses of intelligent people in all classes of our society. It is not the idle and dissipated, the ignorant and unthinking, only that absent themselves from the churches, and treat with either indifference or scorn the teaching of the pulpit. Those who do so are to be found in large, and, we are told, in ever-increasing, numbers among the skilled, industrious, and intellectually inquisitive working men, as well as among the monied and highly-cultured classes of both our cities and our rural districts. What is, or are, the causes of this? and, By what means, if any, can these people be won back again to Christian worship? These are questions which are exercising all the Church courts, and every individual man and woman of earnest mind in all our churches. By many of our most thoughtful writers it is being advanced, as one of the most fertile causes of this modern disaffection towards our religious services, that the Christianity of to-day, both in its worship and in its doctrines, is a sad mixture of Christian truth and heathen superstition, of fact and fiction, of sweet reasonableness and repulsive absurdity, the latter elements preponderating and engaging attention to the detriment of the former. And persuaded of this, some of the best of these writers are endeavouring to separate again the pure gold of the Gospel from the manifold alloys that have got mixed up with it in our creeds and in our Church services to present to us, in short, the Christianity of Christ' as it lives in the Gospels, and is testified to in history; in other words, as it was before it became corrupted in passing through the minds of half-Christian, but still half-heathen, converts, who were placed in positions of authority in the Church. Of all the books we have seen directed towards this object, that

of the Rev. E. P. Barrow is, we think, one of the soberest and best. It is written in a spirit of the deepest respect for the Christian faith, and in the earnest desire to conserve all that is best and noblest in it. There are no fierce philippics in the volume against any of the phases of our modern Christian life. It is a quiet, scholarly, and devout effort to pourtray the Christ of history, and show what His ideal really was of God's reign in the mind and heart of the individual, and of society as a whole, what the world would become under the inspiring influence and guidance of the Spirit of God in the hearts of men. 'The Gospel of the kingdom,' says Mr. Barrow, 'is the announcement of a new principle of life in the individual, of a new rule of conduct in society, of a new soul relationship to God,' and the purpose of his volume can hardly be better described than in his own words as an attempt to gather from the teaching of Christ'this system of divine order under the three heads of Moral Reform, Social Reform, and Spiritual Reform.' He takes the message of Christ, that is to say, and shows its bearing on the complicated relationships of society and on the life and work of the Church. In three appendices he deals with special problems that bear closely on New Testament exegesis, (1) the passages where prophecies are quoted in the Gospels as fulfilled' in the incidents of Jesus' life; (3) passages that seem in conflict with one another; and (3) the Christology of the New Testament. Whether the reader approves or disapproves of Mr. Barrow's standpoint, he cannot but find this work most stimulating, and, on many points, most instructive.

The Apology of Origen in Reply to Celsus: A chapter in the History of Apologetics. By JOHN PATRICK, B.D. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood & Sons. 1892. Among theologians on the Continent, the monograph is a favourite form of writing. Among ourselves it is somewhat rare. Still more rare are monographs written with the care, thoroughness, and ability of the one before us. The subject Mr. Patrick has chosen for treatment is in every way worthy, and the wonder is that it has not attracted as much attention here as it has in Germany or France. Whatever may be thought of the True Word as a literary or philosophical performance, there can be no doubt that in its day it was an important document. It was so regarded by Ambrose and Origen, and the simple fact that these two thought it worthy, after it had been abroad some seventy years, of a careful and elaborate refutation, is an ample proof of the effect it was having. Origen's opus aureum in reply to it, on the other hand, notwithstanding its shortcomings, is deserving of all the praise which has been given to it. In spite of its antiquity there is still a certain air of modernness about it, and it may still be regarded as a rich storehouse of arms' for the Christian apologist. Mr. Patrick would have done a good work if he had contented himself with merely giving an account of Origen's arguments. But he has done more. In order to make the reply as intelligible as possible, he has exhumed from the text of Origen the arguments of Celsus, and put them together with considerable skill. This in itself, in the absence of the True Word, is a decided gain, and not the least noteworthy feature of the volume. Mr. Patrick's estimate of Celsus, while by no means extravagant, does ample justice to his ability and acquirements. We can scarcely accept his opinion as to his skill as a controversialist, and are disposed to think that he did not take all the trouble he might have taken in order to inform himself respecting the real character of the religion he assailed. Mr. Patrick's fairness, however, is in striking contrast to the prejudice with which many