by the peculiar manner in which the other records are composed.

Again, therefore, we should think it probable that St. Luke's, like St. Mark's, motive for writing was to do precisely that which our preliminary investigation shows that he has done.

Such I submit is the general impression as to the relation of the Gospels, which a first study of them would make upon the mind of any student who was wholly unbiassed by any preconceived and possibly misleading ideas on the subject.

Supposing this impression to be a correct one, it must necessarily serve to make the following facts stand out in bold relief :

(1) The two Gospels by Apostles are both seen to be independent documents, i.e. without any such repetition as would detract from the originality of whichever was the later written.

(2) The close, and especially the verbal connection between the Gospels of St. Mark and St. Luke on the one hand, and St. Matthew on the other, does, as a matter of indisputable fact, serve to graft the non-Apostolic text of St. Mark and St. Luke upon the Apostolic text of St. Matthew, and so imparts to the former an Apostolic authority.

To gain this authority clearly may have been the motive for St. Mark and St. Luke writing as they did.

(3) Supposing that St. John wrote before St. Matthew, and that the latter was followed by St. Mark and St. Luke, each successive portion of the fourfold record must, at the date of its publication, have presented the history in a form complete as far as it went.

Thus St. John, inasmuch as he explains the manifest historical incompleteness of his narrative, thereby constitutes his Gospel the one record which, without creating any false impression by its omissions, was suited to have stood alone as a first Gospel. We thus get the following results with regard to the four documents :

(1) St. Matthew's record, when read with St. John's, completes a primary representation of the more personal aspect of our Lord's ministry and teaching.

(2) St. Mark's narrative explains and supplements St. Matthew's history.

(3) St. Luke's Gospel gives a final completeness to the whole record, and notably in the matter of historical sequence explains much which, in the case of extra- Judæan readers especially, must clearly have needed explanation.

I will now deal with each of the Gospels separately, taking them in the order which the above general survey suggests. (To be continued.)

THE "International Theological Library" aims at a high ideal, both as to competence and as to spirit; and hitherto, at least, it has fallen but little, if at all, short of its aim. If Dr. Driver's Introduction is full of the best qualities of scientific research, and if Dr. Bruce's Apologetics tells of largeness of spirit and profound Christian insight, no less may be claimed for Dr. Smyth's Christian Ethics, the first real contribution to this vitally important branch of theology made by an AngloSaxon theologian. Its prominent features are thoroughness, balance, freshness; and, underlying

all, a deep enthusiasm which makes the book eminently readable and stimulating. Sanity and wholesomeness are in every line, and the whole book lives.

It is, however, obvious that certain aspects of a book so comprehensive are more fitted than others for notice in these pages. Accordingly, after indicating the general line of treatment, we will try to emphasise those parts which throw light on biblical truth and on the Christian life of to-day.

Admirable, indeed, both in its sympathy and firmness, is the philosophical Introduction, dealing with the relations of Christian Ethics to Ethics in general, to Religion, and to Theology. Its tone is well represented in the dictum, quoted from Martineau, that "conscience may act as human

before it is discovered to be divine." The positive exposition falls into two parts, one devoted to the Christian Ideal, the other to Christian Duties, which latter are classified according as the Moral End involved is (1) self, (2) others, (3) God.

The topics discussed in Part I. are the conditions under which the Christian Ideal has been revealed a subject involving points of great moment for the present transition epoch in religious thought; the contents of that Ideal, the true summum bonum, considered both in itself and in contrast to rival ideals; the stages in its progressive realisation, before and after Christ, its veritable Norm; the spheres in which it is to be realised the family, the State, the Church, and the indeterminate social spheres, e.g. friendships.

Such, then, is the general morphology of the book. But we have reserved for further reference certain chapters viewing the life, which animates the moral organism, more from the inside, as the dynamic element in Christian experience. But, before proceeding to exhibit their contents, let us see where the previous "survey of the ethical nature and history of man" has already placed us. From it "we have now gained some conception of the Christian Ideal as the highest conceivable moral good; and also we have learned how, in the age of the Christ, the new birth of the Christian personality has been brought to pass. We shall have to do in the following chapters with the last and highest product of man's moral history, that is, with the new man in Christ Jesus," in his social as well as in his more strictly personal aspects (p. 214). It will at once be observed how the author brings to the front the "new birth of the Christian personality," or the specifically Christian consciousness, as the basis of what follows. If we know aright its essential instincts and desires, we shall know the secret of Christian Ethics, the life of the "new man," spite of all the infinite applications of which it is capable. Accordingly, we find a chapter devoted to the Christian Consciousness, with a view to the discovery of the forms in which the true summum bonum, both as individual virtue and as social good, is realised.

What, then, is its virtuous principle upon which the several Christian virtues or graces depend? Dr. Smyth's answer is happily stated. As "Faith was said to be the material, and the Scriptures the formal principle of the Reformation," so "in Ethics we may say that Love is the material, and

Faith the formal principle of Christian virtue. The Christian character is formed by faith: it lives in love. It is constituted what it is through faith, but it consists in love. Or, we might say, love . . . in its receptive and formative principle is trust; and faith, in its positive and active power, becomes love.1 Faith passes into love which abides. And love remains love only as it always trusts." 2 Love then-love which in finite spirits ever involves faith or trust is the ultimate form of virtue in Christianity. How simple is all this, and how scriptural! For "God is love; and he that abideth in love, abideth in God and God in him." And yet how necessary that the old should ever be made new to us. If, then, faith as a moral energy, involving the very principle of virtue itself, is of the nature of the virtuous, is it meritorious? If so, is salvation after all a matter of merit? Certainly not in the ordinary sense of "works." "Faith has character "—is an aspect of regeneration "and is good, so far as it goes," and is accordingly imputed for righteousness; but of itself it has no merit that deserves, though it does qualify for, salvation, which is ever "of grace." For "the new moral life, the salvation which is to be gained will consist in the real union of faith and its Object, not in any virtue of the faith apart from its Object." Works, or merit wherein any could "boast," are thereby excluded. Still "as an act of trust, a giving of personal confidence, it implies an outgoing of self towards another, which is love in the moral germ at least of it."

This Love, when full grown, manifests itself in three phases or moments, viz. as self-affirmation, self-impartation, and self-finding in others-according to the deepest paradox of the gospel, "he that loseth his life shall find it." No doubt the first member of this triad will not bear emphasis, as will the other two; but none the less it needs recognition, ere we suffer it to be absorbed as implicit in the other aspects of love, on which frail humanity can better afford to dwell. But implied it must be; for "to love worthily is at the same time to be worthy of love;" and in this sense a certain self-reverence is needful, if ethical personality is to be preserved. Witness even the Cavalier's couplet

"I could not love thee, dear, so much,
Loved I not honour more."

1 Gal. v. 6.

"

2 I Cor. xiii. fin. 3 See John iii. 18-21, vi. 29.

If the gift of oneself to another be more than relative self-effacement, it is spiritual suicide. And against this Holiness, latent in the highest love whether in man or in God,-as is finely adduced to meet Pantheism, presents the needed limit. But this safeguarded, love's proper self-importation has free course and is glorified; not only in the absolute self-sacrifice of Christ, but also when the Christian" lays down his life for the brethren." But the consideration just mentioned at once leads our thought on to the third or last moment in love's life, its blissful self-finding or realisation in the perfected sense of joint-life with the beloved alter ego. How matchless, then, is the motive involved in such "love of God shed abroad in the heart" of the man that truly loves Him ! He, the Infinite alter ego of the loving soul, if the phrase be allowable, carries in His bosom, and commends to the love of each, the countless spirits whom He calls our brethren. And yet there are those who hotly deny that there is or can be such a thing as "Christian Ethics," other than ethics in general, "independent ethics," which as such know nothing of a "Father of Spirits." Gladly we may admit that even "naturalistic" ethics may for the time, at least, revere the moral order simply as human. But we are at a loss to understand how certain moralists can refuse to confess that their reverence would be deeper, steadier, and more assured, could they recognise in the human but the adumbration of the Divine.

Thus far, "from this supreme ethical principle of love, . . . we have obtained a threefold division of the virtues, viz. righteousness (holiness),1 benevolence, and sympathy," or vicariousness. "These are the three primary colours of love. From each one of these, in secondary combination with the others, further specific virtues may be derived." And this is done in detail in the part, entitled "Christian Duties," in the course of which "the Social Problem" meets with earnest and sympathetic notice. But though every chapter will repay perusal, we must return to the pages in which our author verifies his analysis of the Christian moral consciousness, by the complementary "biological" or genetic consideration of the Christian personality, as seen in the experience of the "new birth." Beginning with the preparation of the soil of

1 "Righteousness, as subjective regard for our own moral being, is holiness; as objective regard for the persons of others, it becomes justice."

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Humanity in which the individual is sown,—a soil which, in Christendom, is potentially of a regenerate order, whereof baptism is the symbol,-Dr. Smyth traces the process through the stages of awakening to "the moral disharmony of our nature," the sense of personal helplessness, dependence on some higher Power for deliverance," until, "through acceptance of the gospel and personal trust in Christ, the moral nature receives new energy, and springs forward to hopeful obedience. A new heart is gained for duty and for all moral endeavour." For, as Chalmers would have said, "the expulsive power of a new affection" is realised, and the soul issues "a declaration of spiritual independence" in the face of the now broken power of sin; though the formation of the Christian character, "the new man,” is yet a task of future joint-labour with God rather than a fait accompli. The true Christian will not be content to remain a Christian in general, but he will strive to become a Christian in the particulars of his daily life. This is the truest "applied Christianity," though it must not stop short at personal holiness, often falsely socalled, for holiness is "love made perfect " in every relation of life. Such is its positive, its essentially Christ-like, form. And in this process of putting on the "new man," really, in daily experience, the immense significance of the fact that Christian Ethics have, as exemplar, a realised ideal in Christ, and no mere nebulous abstraction, like the ideal "wise man" of antiquity, emerges into full power and splendour. "Let this mind (character) be in you which was also in Christ Jesus"-what Christian does not know the power of this appeal? But even it fails of its full efficacy, until the unique resources of motive present in the gospel are brought into full play, with the recognition of that "other Comforter," the inner Upholder and Developer of the Christ-life in the believer, the Spirit of holiness and love: "who worketh in us to will and to do" of God's "good pleasure," 2 by fashioning within. the heart desires and petitions, tending towards "the image of Christ," albeit they are at first but "unutterable groanings" of the aspiring spirit.3

These and kindred truths constitute the "Christian moral motive power," to which Dr. Smyth devotes his last chapter, and make Christianity to be also the absolute morality. For, as he truly observes, "Ethics are finally a question of motive power." "Moralism" is Christianity become legal

The style of Mr. M'Crie's book is generally clear and good. There are occasional marks of haste, very excusable on the part of a minister in a county town, conscious possibly that his ordinary work was getting into heavy arrears while he put his Cunningham Lectures into final shape. In a second edition, our author will probably remodel a few awkward sentences, such as that which fills the first thirteen and a half lines of p. 308. We trust he will avoid such barbarisms as "so he reminisced" (p. 48). He will also correct one or two of those petty slips which are unavoidable to mortal man in traversing so wide a field, such as that on p. 146, where he says that "the fifth" of the Articles of Perth enjoined "the observance of the four holidays." It was the second Article, and Mr. M'Crie has forgotten Ascension Day. But these are very small and exceptional things.

This work has the great advantage of being written by a man thoroughly interested in his subject. "I kent your Grace's heart wad warm to the tartan," Jeanie Deans says to the Duke of Argyll, to excuse herself for having kept her plaid about her, when she came to plead with him in London for her sister. Mr. M'Crie shows an admirable fairness to all sides, as he makes his way across the well-trodden battlefields of Scottish Church history; but we feel that his heart warms to John Knox, the Covenanters, and the Seceders. It is with evident relish that he notes "John Knox, his mark," in the "Black Rubric," abhorred of High Churchmen, which remains to this day at the end of the Communion Office in the Anglican Prayer-Book. There is an underglow of personal interest, in which perhaps all his readers will not share, in our author's faithful description of Ralph Erskine's "Smoking Spiritualised," and of the cautious stages by which "Scripture Songs and Hymns"—"human or otherwise—w -won their way in the different sections of the Secession Church (pp. 296-309).

Mr. M'Crie has wisely availed himself of the newest light thrown upon his theme by recent publications. In his pages we see for ourselves the worship of the Scottish Church at different dates in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries through the eyes of such "early travellers in Scotland" as Sir William Brereton of Cheshire; Kay, the naturalist; Thomas Morer, the rector of St. Anne's, Aldersgate; and other contemporary witnesses.

Much ignorance still prevails in many quarters

as to the principles and practices of the "Second Reformation" period in Scotland with respect to worship. It will probably still come as a surprise to some of Mr. M'Crie's readers to learn from his impartial pages that it was not because prayers were being read in St. Giles that Jenny Geddes threw her stool at the Dean; that among the "novations" against which Alexander Henderson and the Covenanters contended were the prelates "interdicting morning and evening prayers" in the churches; and that Scottish country ministers of that period, like Robert Baillie of Kilwinning, were grieved to find that "yeomen of their flock," under English influences, were being led to doubt "the lawfulness of read prayers," and "to scunner at " the Lord's Prayer, the "Gloria Patri," and "the Belief" or "Apostles' Creed" in public worship.

May we suggest to Mr. M'Crie that one deficiency in his work might be supplied with advantage in another edition? He gives us no account of the rise and development of the Scottish Sacramental Fast-day, and other arrangements for special preparation before the Communion and for thanksgiving after it. This peculiarly Scottish institution grew up by degrees about the middle of the sixteenth century in the time of the Covenanters. It found such general acceptance in the Church that it lived, and had a powerful influence, down almost to our own day. It still survives in the Highlands, and to a certain extent in some Lowland districts of Scotland.

To any intelligent student of Church life and worship, as differently developed in different parts of Christendom at different times, this old Scottish Communion system presents some very interesting and suggestive features. It marks one of the few points on which the Scottish Reformers departed from the general consensus of reformed Christendom. In Switzerland, France, Holland, and Germany the Reformed or Calvinistic Churches observed, in one way or other, the five great days historically associated with the leading events in the life of our Lord and with the Advent of the Holy Spirit. In almost every case, Easter, Pentecost, Harvest-time, and Christmas were the Communion seasons, and Good Friday was kept as a day of religious fasting. The five Christian anniversaries were distinctly recognised and approved in the Second Helvetic Confession, the most widely adopted and most authoritative of all the Confessions of the Reformed Church in Europe.

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