with which he wrote, and would not stop though remonstrated with. The volume is to be issued immediately, a handsome octavo, and may be looked for, if the chapters which have appeared in the Sword and the Trowel are fair specimens of the whole.

The editor of the Bible Christian Magazine has issued an excellent number for March. Wittenberg is described and illustrated. Then there are two terse, accurate, expository articles,-the one by Dr. J. O. Keen, on St. Peter's Salutation in his First Epistle, the other by the Rev. J. H. Batt, on a passage in Hebrews. "How the People of Noibla

drove out Lohocla" sounds Red Indian, but is Mr. Luke's way of spelling quite familiar words as he speaks of a too familiar thing. And these and other bright papers-social, missionary, and expository-altogether form a most interesting number.

Messrs. Longmans' religious and theological announcements for the spring include the second volume of the late Bishop Wordsworth's Reminiscences; a volume of Plain Sermons by Bishop Oxenden; the fourth and last series of Professor Max Müller's Gifford Lectures; and a work on Canonicity by the Rev. W. E. Barnes, B.D., Fellow of St. Peter's College, Oxford.

Bishop Wordsworth did not live to complete his Reminiscences. This second volume, which must be the last, carries us down ten years later than the first, and ends abruptly there.

Mr. Barnes' book will come at an opportune time, and is almost certain to be profitable to read. He calls it Canonical and Uncanonical Gospels; and among the things by the way which will be touched are the newly recovered "Gospel of Peter," and the words of our Lord not recorded in the Gospels.

It will appear at an opportune moment, for we are sure to be all discussing these subjects with an interest much freshened through the reports of Dr. Sanday's Bampton Lectures. As we write we have the Syllabus of the Lectures before us, and a verbatim report of the first, the only one yet delivered.

The title which Dr. Sanday has given to his lectures is "The Early History and Origin of the Doctrine of Biblical Inspiration." The Syllabus

is an exemplary piece of workmanship. It is so clear, so convincing, that you feel, with it beside you, you could write out a lecture on the subject yourself. And in truth it would not be easy to find a better mental discipline than to essay that very enterprise. And then if you completed the enterprise by comparing your own writing with the lecture Dr. Sanday has written out and delivered, it would almost certainly tend to an increase both in knowledge and in humility.

This is the Syllabus of the first lecture:

THE HISTORIC CANON.

ESTIMATE OF N. T. BY THE EARLY CHURCH. Subject and method of the proposed inquiry. Two lectures to be devoted to analysis of main points in the conception of the Canon; the succeeding five to an attempt to sketch constructively the process by which that conception was reached; the last to retrospect and summary.

Idea of a Canon extended from O. T. to N. T. Two landmarks in the history of the N. T. Canon about 400 A. D. and 200 A.D.

Contents of N. T. (1) c. 400 A.D. Practically the same as our own over the greater part of Christendom. This result very partially due to Synodical decisions (African Synods of 393, 397, 419 [Council of Laodicea c. 363], Trullan Council of 692); far more in the West to the influence of the Vulgate, in the East to that of leading Churchmen (Athanasius, Cyril of Jerusalem, Amphilochius, Gregory Nazianzen).

Only considerable exception the Syrian Church which recognised no more than three (two) Epp. Cath. and rejected Apoc. These books wanting in Peshitto, but added in later Syriac Versions.

Contents of N. T. (2) c. 200 A.D. : approximate date of Muratorian Fragment. Solid nucleus of Four Gospels, thirteen Epp. Paul., Acts.

Divergent views on this subject. It is questioned (i.) that the Four Gospels were everywhere accepted; (ii.) that Epp. Paul stood on an equal footing with Gospels and O. T.; (iii.) that Acts formed part of the collection. In each case with but slight real support from the evidence.

Writings struggling for admission to the Canon: I Pet., I Jo. all but fixed-Heb., Jac., Apoc. -2 [3] Jo., Jud., 2 Pet.

Writings which obtain a partial footing but are dislodged: Evv. sec. Heb., sec. Aegypt., sec. Pet.-Epp. Clem., Barn. -Didaché, Pastor-Leucian Acts, Predicatio Petri, Acta Paul. et Thecl., etc.-Apoc. Pet.

II. Properties ascribed to the Canonical Books. The N. T. is (1) a sacred book; (2) on the same footing with O. T.-a proposition questioned but true; (3) inspired by the Holy Spirit, or bearing the authority of Christ; (4) this inspiration is even "verbal," and extends to facts as well as doctrines; (5) it carries with it a sort of perfection, completeness, infallibility; (6) the N. T. Scriptures are appealed to as (a) the rule of faith, (b) the rule of conduct; (7) they are interpreted allegorically like a sacred book, and complaints are made of perverse interpretation.

Yet along with this high doctrine there are occasional traces of (1) the recognition of degrees of inspiration; (2) a natural account of the origin of certain books (e.g. the Gospels).

ment.

III. Criteria by which books were admitted to New Testa(1) Apostolic origin; (2) reception by the Churches ; (3) conformity to established doctrine; (4) conformity to recognised history; (5) mystical significance of numbers.

Short

The Sequence of the Christian
Virtues.

A FRIEND asked me to put down what I thought was the exact sequence of ideas in the mind of St. Peter when he enumerated the stages of Christian excellence in the familiar passage 2 Pet. i. 5-7. After careful consideration, I jotted down my views on the text as follows. If you think them of any exegetical value, you may print them. I have only to add that the interpretation of åperý given by some critics, as synonymous with ȧvdpeía, or courage, is contrary to the use both of the classical writers on eithics and the Greek of the New Testament, and that the eyкpárea, in our version "temperance," is as far above the modern meaning of that word as the oeuvós of Phil. iv. 8 is above the "honest" of the English of the present day.

1. Faith, believing and receiving Christ as a teacher sent from God; the seed of the future growth.

2. Virtue, proving the reality of such a moral faith by its natural sequence, a virtuous life, or what St. James calls good works.

3. Knowledge, making clear to yourself, as an intelligent being, that such faith producing such results is intelligent insight, and wisdom in the sphere of social action.

4. ¿ykpáτeia, self-mastery and self-control, without which all faith and all goodness and all knowledge may be as useless as a ship without a rudder, or a spirited horse without a rein.

5. And not only habitual self-control, but patience and endurance to hold out persistently against the delays and difficulties that never fail to beset the path of the earnest believer.

6. And let it never be forgotten that, though a virtuous life in the relations between man and man

may be shaped forth independently of all religious belief, no human being can be looked on as perfectly equipped, morally, without the reverential regard to the Father of the human family which belongs to a dependent creature. For in Christianity, and to a certain extent also in all forms of human faith, religion is the key-stone which holds the social arch together firmly as an inseparable whole.

7. But as the key-stone exists, not for its own sake, but for the sake of the arch which makes the bridge, so the religious reverence due to the great Father of the human family has its practical significance in the love of the brotherhood, specially the spiritual brotherhood composing the Christian Church; but

8. There is a love of even wider scope than this, the love which, in the shape not indeed of perfect brotherhood, but of active sympathy and. kindly aid, embraces the whole human race-nay, even the various wealth of all living things, and in this regard is justly called by St. Paul the πλήρωμα, the fulness and completeness of the Law. JOHN STUART BLACKIE.

But, aside altogether from the influence of traditional association, or theological prejudice, on purely literary grounds it may be doubted whether the Revisers have made an improvement, since the same class of objections may be urged against "reconciliation" as were pressed against "atonement." Evidently the term "atonement" was rejected, because, among other reasons against it, the idea was too definitely theological, and in other respects not historically justifiable as the equivalent of the original, katállage.

The use of this term illustrates the plasticity of early Christianity. It had not yet received a classic form. It could be freely pressed into the moulds of current secular ideas. It had not yet hardened into conventionalisms. No dogma had yet established itself in exclusive possession of the field. Christianity moved about, and, like the hermit-crab, took possession of whatever suitable shells of ideas it found empty, and filled them with its own contents. Thus modified and modifying, as when it seized upon the term katállage.

Again, the use of this term illustrates that claim to originality so strongly put forward by Paul in Gal. i. 11-16. For he is the only New Testament writer who employs it to set forth an idea of salvation through Christ. Yet katállage can scarcely, with justice, be reckoned a Pauline term. For he uses it but sparingly. And when he has occasion to use it, he seems rather to be borrowing from the known vocabulary of his correspondents than to be drawing on the stock of his own diction.

The term occurs only in three passages of two of Paul's canonical letters, viz. in those to the churches at Rome and Corinth. Among the current ideas of men in these two cities the apostle found this thought-mould, katállage. It expressed a certain clear notion in ordinary life. And, accordingly, Paul laid hold of it, and used it as a form or figure to convey to the minds of his friends in these cities a corresponding notion regarding Christian life. Thus katállage belongs to the representation of Christianity rather than to the reality. It was one of the most common of commercial terms; and hence, like our own corresponding word "change," was employed to denote, at different times, a variety of things associated together in mercantile transactions. An example will illustrate its use and meaning. Suppose a

case of sale. When the seller accepted a price for the article exposed, his relation to that object underwent a change. He was no longer its owner. It changed hands. And the technical trade word for that fact was katállage. The term declared the fact of the change without describing either its nature, the means by which it had been brought about, the object in view, or the previous relations of those concerned in the transaction. In other words, the information conveyed by katállage is formal, not real. It is a colourless term, and takes its tone from the situation, in which it is found.

The idea of katállage very readily lent itself to a transference from the region of commerce to the domain of morals, to denote a change of relation between individuals, as, e.g., between adversaries, and especially where such a change involved a money composition or compensation. But here also the term preserves its formal and negative character. It offers no suggestion as to how, why, or whence the change. It simply chronicles the fact, and leaves its character and issues to be supplied from other sources.

Thus the term "atonement" is far from commensurate with katállage. And this inadequacy, with other things, has brought about its displacement from the text of our English Bibles. But "reconciliation," which has been substituted for "atonement," is quite as distinctly different from the idea of katállage. For the Greek term describes no such privilege as "reconciliation." This was frequently a part, and even a chief part, of the object in cases where a katállage was effected, but by no means all that was included in it. "Reconciliation" is entirely foreign to the original idea of the commercial term katállage. And in the moral sphere, the latter effects infinitely more than mere reconciliation. Further, "reconciliation" applies to only one phase of the relations between God and man; katállage covers the whole sphere of man's existence and history. Reconciliation can properly apply only between men and God: katállage directly embraces "the world" (kóopos), Rom. xi. 15, and man as an incident in it.

Tullibody.

A. THOM

Printed by MORRISON & GIBB, Tanfield Works, and Published by T. & T. CLARK, 38 George Street, Edinburgh. It is requested that all literary communications be addressed to THE EDITOR, Kinneff, Bervie, N.B.

may be taken as the final evidence of its truth, there is no religion upon earth but may be proved divine. Take the lowest of all. Among many savages, anything that has been used by a chief becomes taboo, and may not be appropriated by any one else, for fear of certain penalties which are expected to follow such a trespass. Now, there are well-attested cases where a man has unknowingly transgressed taboo, and on learning of his fault has suffered the consequences which superstition has attached to such an offence. The experience has been perfectly real, for many have actually died in this way; yet no civilised person will seriously believe that it was due to anything but the man's faith in his creed and conviction that most disastrous consequences must follow his use of forbidden things. Yet the savage points triumphantly to such facts as proving the truth of his belief."

Mr. St. Chad Boscawen is sending some letters from Egypt to THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. In the latest, which is published in the issue for April 13, he writes most admirably on "The Shepherds and the Exodus." In a footnote he contributes this item to the still vexed but gradually settling question of the date of the Exodus. He says: "An approximate date for the period of the Hyksos or foreign rule may be now obtained. The entry of Abram into Egypt precedes by a short time the war of Chedorlaomer and his allied kings in Syria (Gen. xiv.). Here the Elamite ruler is evidently supreme over the Babylonian and other kings. It is, therefore, the Elamite dynasty founded by Kudar-Nakhunti in B.C. 2280. This dynasty was overthrown by the native Babylonian king Khammurabi, whose date is also to be fixed. In an inscription of Nabonidus we are told that there were 700 years between the reign of Khammurabi and that of Burraburyas. Burraburyas was the contemporary of Amenophis III., B.C. 1450, which gives B.C. 2155 for date of the end of the reign of Khammurabi. He reigned fifty years, which places his accession in B.C. 2200; so that the entry of Abram into Egypt is between B.C.

2280-2200. Lepsius places Hyksos commencement B.C. 2136; Brugsch 2233."

In the days of His flesh our Lord encountered two classes of men. He could not have encountered more than two classes, for there were no more. One might hazard the conviction that there never have been but these two classes anywhere. But it might demand proof. And at present it is sufficient to deal with unquestioned fact. In Palestine in the day of Jesus Christ there were two classes of men, and there were no more.

That is unquestioned, because we have Christ's own word for it. In one of the most Messianic sentences He ever spoke, He unmistakably divided the men of Israel into two classes, and named them so. The words are these: "I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance." "Sinners" and "just persons"—these are the two classes. And it is impossible to deny that they included, at least, all those who belonged to the house of Israel then.

In that passage our Lord divided the people into these two classes, and called them by these two names. But the division and the designation were not originally His. He did no more than accept a well recognised distinction, and He used a perfectly familiar designation. How the distinction arose, and how it came to be so freely accepted, are very interesting inquiries, but they are unnecessary for our present purpose. One pregnant remark made by the pharisees, and occurring in St. John's Gospel (vii. 48, 49), may alone be referred to: "Have any of the rulers or of the pharisees believed on Him? But this people (multitude in the R.V.) which knoweth not the law are cursed." It is enough that the names were there, and that they expressed a distinction which was openly recognised. The sinners did not deny that they were sinners, and the just persons were thankful to know that they were just.