much that is beautiful and instructive. The picture of "Church and Church History" closes the first section with an exhaustive view of the relations of the Romans to Christianity, and then passes to the bloody persecutions of the Christians in the Roman realm. The chapters

Christian Doctrine and Heresy," "The Apostolic Fathers," lead us into the active spiritual work of the Church, while a very entertaining picture of heathen polemics appears in the article on Minucius, Felix, and Tertullian." The "Origin of the Church festivals" is exceedingly instructive, as is the treatise on Basilicas and Catacombs. As the author comes down to our time, he treats of the Church and the German people, where he gives some telling narratives regarding German princes, in which there is a motley distribution of light and shade. These are followed by "life pictures" of Gregory VII. and Henry IV. Then, in what he denominates the plateau of the Middle Ages, he marshals up the forms of Innocent III. and Frederic II., of Abelard and Heloise, and Saint Elizabeth-a masterly group, indeed, to be brought out by such a supposed recluse as Dr. Kahnis. The sinking Middle Ages shows us the "Decay of the Papacy," with the moral corruption of Avignon, the Papal schisms, and the futile reformatory efforts of the Great Councils. After these the article on Scholasticism and Mysticism seems rather tame, though the author recovers himself on "Protestant Tendencies," “Humanitarianism," and "The Waldenses." Wycliffe and Huss form the transition-period over to the modern Church, of which we have spoken above. An attentive and conscientious reader will draw both enjoyment and satisfaction from this valuable book of Dr. Kahnis. It is hoped that it will also prove a timely contribution against the growing indifference of the Protestant Church in Germany, and lead its members to riper judgment of their duties, a better comprehension of what the Church really is, and the necessity of an active participation in its work.

... Professor Harnack, of Giessen, has just published an interesting monogram on "Monasticism, its Ideals and its History." It is one of his lectures, and acceptable even to the scholar for the mastery everywhere shown by the author, who seems completely to command his subject, and who treats it in such a manner as to show the closest relation to the entire history of the Church in all the phases of its develop. ment. The classical form and the attractive presentation of the subject must claim the attention of every reader. We may call special attention to the manner in which the author extracts the origin of Monasticism from the central story of the first centuries, and leads it on to the beautiful contrast between Greek and Latin Monasticism, and from this latter, through all its phases, to the twelfth century, through the mendicant orders, and then finally to Jesuitism. Every line of this latter effort is striking and instructive, and the whole is extremely timely.

...

.. The Evangelical Church in Russia is making a bold stand for life and progress under difficulties. It has just published the fourteenth volume of its "Mittheilungen und Nachrichten," edited by Helmsing.

The first article in the collection is by Eberhard, and treats of the Doctrine of the Logos, and the firm basis that it finds in the Scriptures. Another communication enlightens us regarding the status of the Evangelical Lutheran Churches in eastern and western Siberia, and the contents are quite a revelation to those who will be surprised to learn that there really are Evangelical Churches in those distant regions. Again, we find a report of the proceedings of the District Synod of Riga; and then we are led to an official report of the Church Council of Odessa. "The Emerital Kasse in St. Petersburg" treats of the financial aid received from the capital of Russia, and then we follow the contributors away off into Russian America, where there is a Lutheran parish. There is great hope that this Protestant leaven will succeed in giving life to the inert lump in Russia.

... Schmidt Warneck, a pastor of one of the Evangelical Churches in the Baltic Provinces of Russia, published a work on the "Conception of Salvation, and its Significance for a Life of Faith." This was nearly twenty years ago, and he now appears, with his riper thoughts from the study of all these years, in a new work, which he entitles, "The Intellectual Doctrine of Faith in its Contrast to the Material Principle of the Protestant Church." His idea is to stem the tide in the orthodox German Church which he thinks is turning toward Romanism. His earnest intention, and his clear insight into this Protestant tendency to wander off toward strange gods, excite sympathy for his undertaking. All that he says regarding a faith without orthodoxy is excellent and well placed. But his censure of an orthodoxy that would go back to the power crushed by the Reformation is also timely and telling. The High Lutheran Church in Germany is becoming, in some localities, as whimsical and perverted as are the High Churches of England, and is tending toward the material and ceremonial rather than the intellectual and spiritual.

... A veritable hymn-book war is now waging in Hanover, which has called forth an interesting and valuable treatise from Professor Wilhelm Bode, entitled "Origin of the Hymns of the Hanoverian Hymn-Book, and their respective Melodies." This agitation is caused by an effort to transform the old standard book and modernize it, a proceeding to which Bode is opposed. Therefore he appears with a learned polemic, in which he traces the history of the old collection, and calls attention to its great value. His story and statistics are quite interesting, and give us an idea of the muscularity and core contained in German hymnology. He gives a history of the origin of the text and the melody of each hymn, and short biographical notices of the authors where he can obtain them. The old Hymnal was introduced in 1640 by Gesenius and Denike after the Nuremberg Hymnal had been in use for some time. The old book has two hundred and twenty-two hymns; but a third edition is enriched by twenty-eight new ones. Until 1660 the same collection appeared in new editions, but in 1698 there appeared a revisal from the

hands of a member of the Consistory. The change was a book almost entirely new, containing over a thousand hymns, arranged by a committee of four members of the Consistory. This, with trifling changes, was used for forty years, and in the main is the same book that has held its place down to our time. From the older Hanoverian Hymnal came forth, also, in 1661, the Luneberg Hymnal, which sometimes is found alone, and sometimes is incorporated with its virtual ancestor. This Luneberg collection commenced with four hundred and forty-nine hymns, and by 1759 it had a large addition. The last change in this occurred in 1767. This controversy will at least bring forth a large amount of interesting information in relation to the genesis of German spiritual songs and melodies; and for the curious in these matters we may say that the best authorities in Germany on this subject are Koch's "History of Sacred Song," and this new work of Bode, which is a valuable addition to the great works of Philip Wackernagel and Hoffman von Fallersleben.

ART. XII.-QUARTERLY BOOK-TABLE.

Religion, Theology, and Biblical Literature.

Thoughts on the Holy Gospels: How They Came to be in Manner and Form as They Are. By FRANCIS W. UPHAM, LL.D., author of "The Church and Science," "The Wise Men, Who they Were," and "The Star of our Lord." 12mo., pp. 378. New York: Phillips & Hunt. Cincinnati: Walden & Stowe. 1881. Dr. Upham exhibits in this volume the same research, independence of thought, suggestiveness, force of style, and sometimes, but less rarely, the same overbold theorizing, as in his "Star" and other productions. His survey of the gospels and their times is taken fresh from life, with the freedom of an original autoptist. The main purpose of the volume is to show that the Gospels, especially Matthew's, were not written so late and so long after the events as even Christian apologists and commentators have timidly conceded to exacting opponents. We believe the grounds he takes to be true and demonstrable. In our edition of Matthew prepared for English republication we modified our original Introduction, and avowed, as the result of further study, the firm belief that his gospel in the Aramaic was written within eight years from the crucifixion. Dr. Upham confirms this conclusion with arguments that cannot be refuted. We do not believe that Paul's Epistles are the earliest Christian documents extant. We do not believe what Dean Stanley, in accordance with the ordinary notion, says: that Paul's narrative of the eucharist is far earlier than that of the Gospel of Matthew and Luke.

We hold that Matthew's Aramaic narrative was furnished before what, in our notes on Acts viii, 4, we have called "the downfall of the Pentecostal Church," during the twelve years when, as there noted, the apostles held their center at Jerusalem with their itinerancies through Judea; and that his Greek rewriting of his work was near the close of that period when need was felt of a Greek edition for the diffusion of the gospel through the Gentile world. The Jerusalem Church was dispersed; the Aramaic Matthew, as no longer of use, was lost; and the Greek edition, as of sole authority, had to be translated back into Syriac for the Peshito.

Solid arguments Dr. Upham furnishes against the tame concession that Judea was a non-writing and non-reading country, and that the apostles had no predilection for writing, and never purposed and never wrote a gospel until long years after the ascension. Besides Moses, read every Sabbath in the synagogue, there was the Septuagint often quoted in the gospels as known to the readers, and there were the scribes, a numerous literary class. And that literature was familiar to the middle class of Jews. During the twelve apostolic years at Jerusalem, the narrative and discourses of Jesus would be repeated much as the rabbis repeated their lessons, and would be catechetically taught to candidates for baptism. But St. Luke's introduction to his gospel is on this point briefly very explicit. He tells us that before his writing "many had taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration [statement] of those things," etc. Now this presupposes, first, that memoranda of facts, anecdotes, reports of discourses, had been jotted down by the admirers of the wonderful Teacher, just as the pupils jotted down the discourses of their rabbis; second, that some had attempted to collect and give a sort of arrangement to these miscellanies; and third, that Luke found them so far incomplete that he undertakes a critical revision, and, like a Macaulay or Bancroft, constructs his best selected material into a regular narrative. All this was done before he wrote his Acts; and the Acts, as the closing verse shows, was written just at the close of Paul's first Roman imprisonment. This crowds the first two gospels into a very early date, and pushes Matthew's Aramaic into the pentecostal period before the Pauline persecution and dispersion.

Another very conclusive proof, both of the early date of the earlier gospels and the genuineness of their chronological order as preserved in our New Testament, is derived by Dr. Upham from the hypothesis of prudential concealment. Matthew almost omits

the mention of the blessed mother, because too free a mention would expose her to persecution and danger; and so it is the later Luke, who writes after her departure to Ephesus, that gives her full narrative, perhaps derived personally from herself. But even Luke names not the family of Bethany for a similar reason, and it is John who brings the whole story out, names and all! We recommend the study of this remarkable point to our biblicists, not only in Dr. Upham's pages but in the sacred text itself. If his grounds are tenable, and we hold them to be plausible, some valuable conclusions will follow, that ought to take place in our evidential argument, in our biblical introductions, and in our commentary. Our author's hypothesis of prudential concealment should be well tested, both as to fact and applications.

Now, this fact of concealment for safety, if we properly isolate it, appears unequivocally a widespread fact. We trace it even more widely than Dr. Upham suggests. Why did the family of David lurk in wild and den-like Nazareth during the Herodian reign? Why was their royal pedigree so unmentioned that Nazareth only knew Jesus as the carpenter's son? Why did it take Augustus' enrollment to bring out the fact that Mary was Davidic, and must go to David-town to be registered? And why was this journey so quietly done that Herod took his panic, not from their pedigree, but from the visit of the magi and the report of his lawyers that Bethlehem was the prophetic place of Messianic birth. All this looks like prudential concealment. And this concealment is intensified into a flight to Egypt and a return, not to Judea, but to Nazareth. Once in his boyhood he must visit Jerusalem to claim his "father's house," but how quick his return. His main early ministry is in Galilee, beyond Samaria; even here he sometimes forbids his miracles to be reported; and in Samaria it is that he makes, perhaps, his only early express and public avowal that he is the "Messias" predicted. What wonder, then, that the same prudence is required in the earlier gospels in bringing out the leading personages of the gospel history? And the application of this fact, both to the explanation of certain phenomena in the gospels and to their dates and chronological order, is a topic well worth attention.

A Key to the Apocalypse; or, Revelation of Jesus Christ to St. John in the Isle of PATMOS. By ALFRED BRONSON, A.M., D.D. Cincinnati: Walden & Stowe. New York: Philips & Hunt. 1881. Price $1.00.

The venerated author of this little volume has nearly finished his nine decades of life. As we have furnished our own commen