and the Means of Grace. 785 traits? Not if it is true that diversity in unity is a law of creation, and that God has never made two souls any more than he has made two faces that are not distinguishable. Let the next question be, What is the Christian's best preparation for winning souls to Christ, whether he be a preacher or a private member of the Church? Our doctrine of sympathy plainly answers: a desire for the glory of God and the good of our fellow-men, so strong that it must express itselfyea, compel its subject to oppose his whole weight against the downward movements of the sinner, and apply his whole force to move him heavenwards. When men see that you are yourself deeply impressed by the claims of God and the preciousness of Jesus Christ, and that you sincerely long that others should be thus impressed also, the principle of sympathy will mightily tend to incline them, and under the grace of the Holy Ghost, will actually incline them, to take your views of religion, and to feel and obey as you do. Men will judge by our lives whether our words are sincere, and truly express our feelings. Paul's entreaty was sustained by his constant conduct. Men knew that his words unveiled his heart; hence their power. Ah, it is a sad thing when a Christian's life is such that he dare not say to his brother, "I beseech thee, serve God." If the earnest desire of a Christian heart may be the effectual means of another's salvation, how important is it that we should keep our religious emotions and interest always in a lively condition! "I've known the pregnant thinkers of this time, To an unconjectured harmony of truth; And yet I've been more moved, more raised, I say, A three-years' infant might say after you— A look, a sigh, a touch upon the palm, Which means less than I love you . . . than by all But, finally, our doctrine contains the answer to the tremendous question, What is the most pressing need of the perishing world in which we live? We see, in the light of Paul's entreaty, and of the human element in the Scriptures, and in all the means of grace, that what is most needed by perishing men is to have the most powerful appeal to their sympathy with the human made to them in favour of Christianity. How then is this appeal to be made? The structure of the Bible, the records of God manifested in the flesh, and the very design of the Church as taught in the Scriptures, in answer point to an embodiment, an incarnation, a living manifestation of the truth by the Church of Jesus Christ. Suppose the Church and the truth to be one, somewhat as the humanity of Jesus and the Divine Logos were one; that she manifested the truth as Jesus did the divine nature; or, if this too far transcends the power of our poor aspirations, suppose the Church to be under the influence of divine truth as Paul the apostle was, to realise her mission as he did his; suppose Zion to travail with an agony proportioned to her profession, her promises and work, what results might we not expect to behold! See what happens in a particular congregation when the members of the church feel and manifest a deep and operative interest in the salvation of souls. Every revival of religion proves the inestimable value of hearty, earnest, and vigorous appeals made by the church to the sinner's sympathy with the human in favour of religion. The sinner's sense of the reality and importance of religion is very apt to be graded according to the church's earnestness in promoting the divine glory. That old, hoary, oft-quoted aphorism, "Great is the truth, and it will prevail," should find some iconoclastic Carlyle to test its merits and show how far it should be permitted to shape our hopes. Moral truth can prevail over moral error only by meeting it in its own form. When error clothes itself only in abstract theories and fine speeches, then truth may put it down by abstract arguments and eloquent harangues. But when error concretes not alone with the brain, the tongue, and the folio, but with the very life of men, is ensouled and embodied in them, then, if truth is ever to prevail, it, too, must become flesh, and dwell amongst men; it must dominate all the capacities and powers of the Church. To overcome paganism, irreligion, and wrong religion and sin, truth must operate in and through the Church, as these operate in and through the world. Let the Church's mind move in charity, rest in Providence, and turn upon the poles of truth, and then its light will and the Means of Grace. 787 so shine before men that they will see her good works, and glorify our Father in heaven. But, even as things are, how tremendous is the human appeal made to each one of us, urging us to receive and enjoy the mercies of God! There is the appeal of prophets, and apostles, and evangelists, addressing us under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost; there is the appeal of the man, Christ Jesus, speaking on earth, and from heaven-an appeal of blood and agony, and of victory and glory; there is the appeal of many martyrs of the Primitive Church and the Reformed Church; there is the appeal of what the Bible has wrought in reference to man's temporal interests; there is the appeal of home, of Sabbath-school, and Church; there is the appeal from the glorious Humanity, which is this day enthroned above angels and archangels, and vested with unbounded dominion. Can we remain unmoved, while thus entreated to be reconciled to God, and to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, a reasonable service! FRANCIS P. MULLALY. ART. IX.-Current Literature. VEN the most casual observer must have noticed that, so EVEN far as science and literature are concerned, the demand of the present day is not in favour of the bulky volumes of the past. The only large volumes which have a chance of sale to-day are those which are encyclopædic. The contemporaneous existence of these with the small thin volumes is no exception to the rule, but an additional proof of it. When we remember the ponderous volumes of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, and compare them with the productions of this century, in its first half even, we at once see the increasing tendency to diminution in size. But when we take up one of the shilling manuals of the last year or two, and go with it to the shelves, on which, alas! repose the huge giants of our forefathers' libraries, covered with dust far too often, through our want of loving remembrance and veneration for the mighty dead, we find ourselves under the influence of strangely mingled feelings and thoughts. We can hardly at first say whether we should yield to tears or laughter, and perhaps we turn away, and, having seated ourselves in the old study chair, are ready to fall into a reverie from which we may rouse ourselves by many thoughts of this busy, hurried, and utilitarian age. Thus catching up the spirit of the time, or rather being caught up by that prevailing Zeit-Geist, we feel proudly vain and generous-generous in our estimate alike of their learning and perseverance, and vain of our own advantages derived from their indefatigable toils, and from the noble and strong impulse which they gave to learning—an impulse whose force is not yet spent, but which, the further it advances, gathers in power in proportion to its loss in bulkand at last, as now, survives in the pithy, stimulating essences and delightful elixirs with which the youth of the present day are, shall we say pampered, favoured, or satiated-which? Theologians and exegetes have not been behind their literary and scientific fellows in manifesting the spirit, and following the book-making fashion of the day. Handbooks for Bible classes have appeared with marvellous rapidity both in Scotland and in England. Messrs. Clark of Edinburgh have already been recognised as the Scotch publishers who have kept pace with the Zeit-Geist above referred to. Through their enterprising energy we have been favoured with translations, as all the world knows, of many of the best German and French theological, exegetical, and philosophical works. They are now publishing a series of Handbooks—the work for the most part of ministers of the Free Church of Scotlandunder the general editorship of Rev. Marcus Dods, D.D., and Rev. Alex. Whyte, D.D. Already eleven of the series are published, and no less than twenty-one are announced as in preparation. These valuable manuals give evidence of varied and substantial scholarship, and we question whether, taking them all in all, any Church in the kingdom can produce better work, or give a better account of its high talent and freshness of spirit and vigour. We need only refer to such books of this series as The Sacraments, by Professor Candlish; A Life of Christ, by Rev. James Stalker, M.A.; The Confession of Faith, Prof. Davidson's Handbook to Hebrews. 789 by Rev. John Macpherson, M.A.; and now to The Epistle to the Hebrews, by Professor Davidson (1). It would not be easy anywhere to find a more competent author to deal with this Epistle. As a scholar, teacher, and exegete, Dr. Davidson stands in the first rank,-a worthy successor to Rabbi Duncan, who taught with such genius and spiritual and truly philosophical insight. In the volume before us, the present occupant of the Hebrew Chair in the New College seems to have done his best to carry out the intention and desire of the editors, and the result is a very fresh, readable, rich, and business-like work. In an introduction of twenty-six pages, Dr. Davidson elucidates such questions as respect the readers of the Epistle,-their circumstances-their locality: the Epistle itself, its occasion, its substance, and, lastly, the Author. These several questions are examined with both minuteness and brevity-a pleasing combination, which delights the student. In his answers we have abundant evidence of our author's recognised caution while, in a truly philosophic and religious spirit, handling freely, but ever reverently, questions which have not yet been satisfactorily solved. For instance, as to the locality of the Hebrews to whom the Epistle is addressed, after having examined the arguments in favour of (1) Jerusalem, (2) Rome, (3) Alexandria, he sums up thus: "Upon the whole, while nothing approaching to certainty can be reached, some community of the Dispersion in the East,-not, however, Jerusalem, nor any church in its immediate neighbourhood,-with a Hellenistic type of Judaism, best suits the circumstances of the case." Again, giving a rapid glance at the history of opinion and conjecture with regard to the author of the Epistle, Dr. Davidson sets forth the prevailing modern view with his wonted and characteristic caution. He will not commit himself, in the absence of decisive evidence, to any of the parties who positively affirm that Barnabas or Apollos wrote the Epistle, though from his use of the expressions "felicitous conjecture” (p. 26), and "happy suggestion" (p. 34), of Luther, that Apollos of Alexandria might be the author, we might fancy that he in (1) The Epistle to the Hebrews. With Introduction and Notes by A. B. Davidson, M.A., LL.D., Professor of Hebrew, etc., in the New College, Edinburgh. Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark. 1882. |