history of the whole subject. In the wide knowledge displayed by the editor in the general preparation of this volume, and in the indications of minute historical study displayed in the closing chapter, one can easily see how it is that Dr. Lorimer maintains himself through succes sive decades in addressing the largest regular congregation which is gathered in any one place in the United States.

A CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. By the Rev. EZRA P. GOULD, S. T. D., Professor of the New Testament Literature and Language, Divinity School of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Philadelphia. Pp. lv, 317. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1896. $2.50 net.

Professor Gould's contribution to the "International Critical Conimentary" series will do much to raise its reputation among conservative scholars. The volume is characterized by extensive learning, patient attention to details, and a fair degree of caution, arising from deep regard for the analogy of faith. The author recognizes the reality of the supernatural element in the Gospels, and is not inclined to eliminate miracles by hypercritical methods, though occasionally, as in the case of the demoniacs at Gadara (p. 92), he seems to regard the idea of demoniacal possession as an accretion made by a credulous age to the simple story, and speaks of it as a tax upon our belief, which, one would infer from his treatment, is more than can be endured.

We find, also, in his treatment of texts bearing upon future punishment, the tendency of the author's school to substitute their own prepos. sessions for the more evident meaning of the text. For example, in commenting upon chapter ix. 49, 50, he endeavors to break the force of the obvious meaning by unduly exaggerating the figure involved in the phrase "salted with fire," asserting that "the object of all retributions, even of the penal retribution of Gehenna, is to purify. They serve, like sickness in the physical being, to warn man against violations of the laws of his being " (p. 181). The incorrectness of such statements will appear with special clearness when applied to Satan, who is everywhere spoken of as in a condition of hopeless punishment. For a more satisfactory treatment of this passage, the reader may be referred to Professor Salmond's book on “The Christian Doctrine of Immortality" p. 376), where the figure of retribution here used is regarded as referring to "another order than any that takes effect on earth. . . . Salt is the sign of the binding obligation of the covenant, and the covenant relation had its terrible side to the faithless as well as its gracious side to the faithful.”

To some the literary references of the commentary will seem too much restricted, Thayer's Grimm being almost the only lexicon referred to, and Winer's Grammar of New Testament Greek almost the only grammar. The author is also unduly prejudiced against what he calls "the ingenuities and curiosities of harmonizing interpretations" (p. 68, and is too ready to assert a positive contradiction upon the part of one evangel

ist by another, when the fact of contradiction depends wholly upon the commentator's interpretation of some general introductory or connecting phrase. The author, also, is more confident than the facts warrant in his opinion that it is the "generally accepted solution of the Synoptical problem" that Mark is "the principal source of Matthew and Luke, his account being supplemented and modified by material taken from the Hebrew Logia of Matthew" (p. 5). Indeed the author affirms that the "critical theme of this volume is the interrelation of the Synoptics," while admitting that this critical result is accepted not by all, but only by "many English and American scholars." The two statements scarcely agree, unless he means unduly to depreciate many English and American scholars.

MORAL LAW AND CIVIL LAW Parts of the Same Thing. By ELI F. RITTER. Pp. 212. New York: Hunt & Eaton; Cincinnati: Cranston & Curts. 1896. 90 cents.

This is the work of an able lawyer, aiming at the conclusion that laws prohibiting saloons for the sale of alcoholic beverages are in the direct line of the steady progress made by the courts towards the bringing of direct legislation into full harmony with morality. The general discussion of principles is exceedingly valuable, and provides a rational basis for the anti-saloon agitation so characteristic of the present time.

THE INDWELLING CHRIST. By JAMES M. CAMPBELL, author of "Unto the Uttermost." Pp. 178. Chicago, New York, and Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Co. 1895. $1.00.

This little volume presents with rare beauty and force the practical side of the doctrine of the divine immanence bereft of its pantheistic tendencies. It will prove of great service as a devotional book; for it has the rare merit of presenting a profound view of the relation of God to man in such simple style that the reader forgets that he is really borne along by an undercurrent of deep philosophy.

THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL. Popular Sketches from Old Testament History. By CARL HEINRICH CORNILL, Doctor of Theology and Professor of Old Testament History in the University of Königsberg. Translated by Sutton F. Corkran. Chicago: The Open Court Publishing Co. 1895.

Professor Cornill's lectures were given before a general audience in his native city of Frankfort-on-the-Main, and thus present in the most attractive form the ultimate results of the present style of higher criticism in Germany. The style of the lectures is attractive, and one is gratified with the spiritual fervor of the author, but will be startled at some of his most positive conclusions. For instance, he writes: "We have not received a line, not even a word, from Moses himself or from any of his contemporaries; even the celebrated Ten Commandments are not from him, but, as can be proved, were written in the first half of the seventh

century, between 700 and 650 B.C." (p. 17). The reader will find the practical side of the views of his school of critics set forth in this volume in their most attractive form.

THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE: extending from the Earliest Saxon Translations to the present Anglo-American Revision: with Special Reference to the Protestant Religion and the English Language. By BLACKFORD CONDIT. Pp. xvi, 453. New York and Chicago: A. S. Barnes & Co. 1882.

The fourteen years which have elapsed since the publication of this volume have by no means effaced its value. Though evidently designed to be specially timely in connection with the revised translation of the Bible, it is of permanent interest as a scholarly and full record of the various translations of the Bible into English which have been made from before the days of Wyclif to the present time.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

FABLES AND ESSAYS. BY JOHN BRYAN. Vol. I. Pp. x, 244. New York: The Arts and Lettres Co. 1895.

ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE NICENE THEOLOGY. BY HUGH M. SCOTT, D.D. Chicago: Chicago Theological Seminary Press. THE ECUMENICAL COUNCILS. (Ten Epochs of Church History.) By WILLIAM P. DU BOSE. New York: Christian Literature Co. 1896. THE RELIGIOUS FORCES OF THE UNITED STATES: enumerated, classified, and described on the Basis of the Government Census of 1890. (American Church History.) With an Introduction on the Condition and Character of American Christianity. By H. K. CARROLL, LL.D., in charge of the Division of Churches, Eleventh Census. Revised, January 1, 1896, with additional Tables of Statistics for the Five Years since the Census of 1890. The same. 1896.

THE THEOLOGY OF THE APOSTLES PETER AND PAUL in their own Words. By AUGUSTUS SCHULTZE, D.D. Pp. xi, 137. Bethlehem, Pa.: The Comenius Press. 1896.

HENRY W. GRADY: The Editor, The Orator, The Man. By James W. LEE, author of "The Making of a Man," "Earthly Footsteps of the Man of Galilee." Pp. 106. New York, Chicago, and Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Co.

1896. 50 cents.

ADONIRAM JUDSON GORDON. By his Son ERNEST B. GORDON. Pp. 386. The same. $1.50.

CHOSEN OF GOD. By Rev. HERBERT LATHE. Pp. 306. The same. 1896. $1.25.

Life of Jesus. By ERNEST RENAN, author of "History of the People of Israel," "The Future of Science," etc. Translation newly revised from the Twenty-third and Final Edition. Pp. x, 471. Boston: Rob erts Brothers. 1896. $2.50.

By HENRY Y. SAT1895.

A CREEDLESS GOSPEL AND THE GOSPEL CREED.
TERLEE, D.D. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
AGNOSTICISM AND RELIGION. BY JACOB GOULD SCHURMAN. The

same.

CHRISTIAN CHARACTER: A Study in New Testament Morality. (Bible Class Primer.) By the Rev. T. B. KILPATRICK, B. D. Imported by Charles Scribner's Sons.

INDEX.