peculiar pleasure that his American friends greeted Professor Sanday at the chapel of Union Seminary, in the city of New York, last fall, when he delivered these lectures for the first time with his accustomed rare spirit of simplicity, fairness, and high learning. Beginning with a survey of the present situation, Dr. Sanday takes up in turn the several schools or groups of critics, advances to a discussion of the chief points involved, culminating in a review and restatement of both the internal and external evidence for the Johannine authorship of the gospel, acknowledging frankly the unsolved because unsolvable problems subordinate to the main question, and concludes with an epilogue on the principles of criticism, which again for our day clears the atmosphere and confidently claims the field for the traditional position. To the ordinary reader no portion of this noteworthy book can exceed in interest Dr. Sanday's discriminating survey of the literature of the subject. Theodore Zahn he considers "the most learned" of all the workers in the field of early Christian literature. Bernard Weiss is somewhat easier in style and more in touch with other opinion on the right hand and on the left, and so "on the whole more helpful." Beyschlag has more still of "historical dare and flow, but one feels that in his hands problems are apt to become less difficult than they really are," and "it may be doubted whether he really sounds the depths of the (fourth) gospel." In this respect Luthardt and Godet, both recently deceased, are more satisfactory. Of American scholars Ezra Abbot, whose work he takes as "specially typical of the American mind at its best," and Dr. Fisher, of Yale, whose "Ground of Theistic Belief is most excellent for further study," are highly commended. Bishop Westcott's Commentary on John is esteemed "the best that we have on the Fourth Gospel, and, together with the article on Origen, the best and most characteristic work that its author has bequeathed to the world." These are classed as forming the conservative group of critics, and with them Sanday takes his stand without hesitation. Next comes the mediating group, comprising those who fail to identify the disciple whom Jesus loved with John the son of Zebedee, or who hold that the gospel was written by John the Presbyter, possibly a disciple of the apostle John. Here belong Delff, Bousset, Harnack, Schürer, Moffatt, and McGiffert. "Harnack, whose influence is greatest, has not been quite consistent in the view that he has taken; . . . he has blown both hot and cold," while in McGiffert "there seem also to be two strains which are not as yet fully harmonized." Wendt, Briggs, and Bacon are types of the partition theorists-whose attempts are, in Dr. Sanday's opinion, foredoomed to failure. The contentions of these three "lack sufficient proof," and are laid "in the wrong direction," or are as bricks made with a "minimum of straw, or even with no straw at all," respectively. The school of uncompromising rejection includes both Heinrich and Oskar Holzmann, Jülicher, Schmiedel, and several French critics. As a class they are thoroughgoing allegorists, and all start with "a reduced conception of Christianity" and bringing their verdict as they do the Fourth Gospel, beforehand. Finally we come to the recent reaction, in the splendid work of James Drummond in his Character and Authorship of the Fourth Gospel,

and V. H. Stanton in his The Gospels as Historical Documents. Despite our author's deserved high tribute to these writings we cannot but rejoice that he was already well advanced in his own work before these appeared. The trio form a battery of exceptional range and power, and they mightily reinforce the traditional view as to the authorship of the Fourth Gospel, together with all which that position legitimately implies.

The Prophetic Element in the Old Testament. An Aid to Historical Study. For Use in Advanced Bible Classes. By WILLIAM RAINEY HARPER, Professor of Semitic Languages and Literatures in the University of Chicago. [Constructive Bible Studies, College Series.] 8vo, pp. 142. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Price, cloth, $1.

This book is unhappily but a fragment of a larger plan, as will be seen in the following list of the titles of the various chapters: I. Content and Classification of the Prophetic Element. II. Definition and Principles of the Prophetic Element. These two chapters comprise Part I, which is entitled, "General Scope of the Prophetic Element in the Old Testament." This is followed by Part II, "The History of Prophecy through Hosea," which is subdivided into chapters as follows: III. Prophecy and Prophetism during the Period of the Patriarchs and Judges. IV. Prophecy and Prophetism during the Davidic Period. V. The Background of Prophecy and Prophetism in the Northern Kingdom. VI. The Product of Prophecy and Prophetism from 933 to 800 B. C. VII. The Prophetic Message of the Early Histories. VIII. The Prophetic Message of Amos. IX. The Prophetic Message of Hosea. Following these chapters are these appendices: A. A Table of Important Dates. B. A Chronological Table of the Religious Life of Israel. C. The Prophetic Vocabulary. D. The Analysis of the Hexateuch. It appears at once that the book gives a general introduction to Prophecy, and then an analysis of the prophetic literature through Hosea. There it abruptly breaks off, making no provision for a study of Isaiah and Micah, of Jeremiah and Ezekiel and the rest. Harper's book on The Priestly Elements in the Old Testament, reviewed recently in these columns, has the great advantage over this that it is a complete whole. On the other hand, this is an easier and more interesting book for ordinary students to manage. It is quite plain that Harper has seriously meant to carry out the statement made in the preface that “No conscious effort has been put forth to control the exact development of his [the student's] thought." Nevertheless the book does, in a measure, by its very arrangement, condition the student's thinking. The whole temper of it is on the side of the modern critical view. But though this is true the book is nevertheless squarely based upon a supernatural and not upon a rationalistic view of Israel's Prophetism. Here, for example, is a paragraph which positively proves this to be true: "Old Testament prophecy is both history and literature; the former, if viewed as a movement; the latter, if viewed as the product of that movement. The prophets made history as well as literature. As agents of the higher power which they firmly believed had especially called them to its service, they entered heartily into everything that constituted national life. At times they were actually in full control of the nation's development and

for a period they almost exclusively constituted the literary class. Whatever is said of Israel's history may be said of Israel's prophetism; whatever is said of Israel's literature may be said of Israel's prophecy. It was a movement, in some respects the most eventful in the history of human thought, exhibiting more definitely than any other, perhaps, the direct influence of the Holy Spirit" (p. 21). That last sentence is particularly weighty in estimating the tendency of the book. A book which expressly finds the work of the Holy Spirit in the words of the prophets cannot be fundamentally dangerous, however much it may differ with traditional dates or authorship. But besides this fundamental point there are other points well guarded, which in this age much need a defense, as, for example: "Prediction occupies a large and important place in prophecy" (p. 18). Of course, we do not mean to say that the book has not many places in which there is not only a breach with traditionalism, but also a very clear break with much of current theological thought which has been commonly held to have freed itself from traditional bonds. But the great and useful thing is that, all the way through, Harper has tried to get the student to study the Bible itself, and not merely study about it. The bibliographical lists are extensive, and they are also carefully chosen. Here, then, is a book, not indeed suited to Sunday schools, as it seems to us, but admirably adapted for serious study in college and seminary. We shall earnestly hope for its completion, and extension over all the prophetic literature. For, even though we may not agree in all particulars with its conclusions, there can be no doubt that its study will make for a definite knowledge of this large and important part of God's Word. From that only good results can flow in the long run.

The Messianic Hope in the New Testament. By SHAILER MATTHEWS, Professor in the University of Chicago. Crown 8vo, pp. xx, 338. Chicago: The University Press. Price, cloth, $2.50.

For the Messianic hope, or the concept of Messiah, Professor Matthews uses by preference the clumsy term Messianism and discusses it in four parts: 1. The Messianism of Judaism; 2. The Messianism of Jesus; 3. The Messianism of the Apostles; and, 4. Christian Messianism and the Christian Religion. The historical basis of the Messianic concept was the golden age of the Hebrew kingdom under David and Solomon, directly reflected in the second psalm. The Babylonian exile greatly modified and purified it, as Ezekiel most fully shows. Under the Maccabees it took a revolutionary form, the literary reflection of which must be sought in the Old Testament Apocrypha. The final national phases flared out in the war of the zealots, 66-70 A. D. With the destruction of the temple Messianism as a purely revolutionary program became modified by apocalyptic elements and took on a transcendental character, reflected by the literature of pharisaism. The Messianic self-consciousness of Jesus, a phrase which our author well considers an unhappy one, came to recognition at the time of his baptism, and from that time was full fledged and never dormant. It reached its full and positive declaration at Cæsarea Philippi, and it is significant that from that time its

eschatological features are increasingly dwelt upon. This finally led to complete rupture with the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians, which ended in his crucifixion. "It is a serious mistake to think of Jesus as being a passive martyr; on the contrary, it was he who was the aggressor and it is in his positive rejection of certain elements of pharisaism that we have an expression of these general principles which led him to modify the Messianic conception he had inherited." The center of Christ's teaching was more than the kingdom of God, with its ethic and political connotations; it was eternal life. "Life in the enjoyment of eternity! that is the supreme good." The strictly Messianic teaching of Jesus was born of Judaism and it "will be dynamic only as one assents to Judaistic preconceptions. The life will ever be the light of man." Although the Messianic hope as held and proclaimed by all the primitive and later Christian teachers is taken up in chronological order, by far the most valuable chapters in this portion of the hook are those which treat of the Messianic concept and doctrine of Paul. It is from this standpoint that Paulinism as a system should be approached. It is true, as the earlier theologians taught, that the apostle believed faith in Jesus as Christ to be the condition of moral advance, and he certainly believed, as the later interpreters represent, in the union of the believer with Christ, but neither of these two conceptions forms the real center of his thought. "Both by his experience and his antecedents Paul could hardly have made anything but eschatological Messianism the coördinating scheme of a system that centered about a belief that Jesus was the Christ." Professor Matthews maintains that the Thessalonian letters do not represent a passing or a local phase of the apostle's thought, but that eschatology always conditioned it. We cannot in justice follow longer the author's lead, but we heartily thank him for bringing forward and emphasizing a view so historically tenable and trustworthy, and we heartily commend his able discussion to the thoughts of biblical students.

HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, AND TOPOGRAPHY

Sir Thomas Browne. By EDMUND GOSSE. 12mo, pp. 214. New York: The Macmillan Company. Price, cloth, 75 cents.

This, the twenty-second volume in the series on English Men of Letters, edited by John Morley, is written in a style perfectly adapted to its subject by the felicitous pen of Mr. Gosse. A most notable and gifted character was the famous Norwich physician, who left behind him writings of no little splendor. The man and his works have fine presentation in this little monograph. The nature of his bringing up may be inferred from the family report that, in his childhood, "his father used to open his breast when he was asleep and kiss it, in prayers over him that the Holy Ghost would take possession there." His reasonable, ample, amiable, and liberal nature is expressed in his own words: "I have no antipathies. I wonder not at the French for their dishes of frogs, snails, and toadstools, nor at the Jews for eating locusts and grasshoppers; but

when among them make these my common viands, and find them to agree with my stomach as well as with theirs. I could digest a salad gathered in a graveyard as well as one from a garden. I cannot start at the presence of a serpent or scorpion. At sight of toads or vipers I feel no impulse to take up a stone to destroy them. National repugnances do not touch me, nor do I behold with prejudice the French, Italian, Spaniard, or Dutch; but where I find their actions worthy I honor, love, and embrace them as I would my country men. I seem to be formed and constellated unto all climates. All places and airs make unto me one country. I am in England everywhere and under any meridian. I have been shipwrecked, yet am not an enemy to seas and winds. I can study, play, or sleep in a tempest. In brief, I am averse to nothing. I hate, abhor, detest nothing but the devil." Although a Protestant and a Puritan he confesses, "I could never hear the Ave-Maria bell without a feeling of elevation." He kept an independent mind, free from that slavish subjection to tradition and to dead-and-gone authorities which is the ban and bar of progress. He was provoked at a doctor of physics in Italy who said he "could not perfectly believe the immortality of the soul, because Galen had seemed to doubt thereof"; and at a divine who was so graveled with three lines of Seneca that all Browne's reasonings could not expel the poisonous error from him. Browne's most important work, entitled Religio Medici, had to his contemporaries a dangerous savor of skepticism, but is to us a work of practical piety. It is a defense of the attitude of a mind that is scientific and yet reverent. It shows how religion looks, in the presence of a scientific education, to a man habituated to the experimental method of investigation. We see that as far back as 1636 there was need for some adjusting to be done between religious conceptions and scientific discoveries and methods. Doubtless the readjusting of old ideas to new light and fresh facts must always be going on. How vain the fight of those who resist the rearrangement of ideas or new puttings of truth-who fear and hate the new thought or persecute the thinker of new thoughts, the bringer of new learning! Sir Thomas Browne was one of the great old writers whom Louis Stevenson studied to imitate, playing, as he says, the "sedulous ape" to them. Browne had a passion for remote, odd, and splendid words, and some of his writings roll a large and swelling music in a diapason of vocal harmonies. Especially is this true of his imaginative treatise on Urn-Burial and his botanical study of plants, entitled The Garden of Cyrus. In the former of these, Mr. Gosse says, "The jeweled, slow-moving sentences proceed with extraordinary gorgeousness and pomp, heavy and almost bowed down under their trappings of ornament;" and again he says, "In the highly inflammable state of Browne's imagination the least suggestion, a phrase or epithet, is sufficient to start him off, and he blazes in a spurt of odorous language like a pine knot touched by a lighted match." Sir Thomas's excess is in dressing the commonplace in coronation robes of fine language. "He pillages antiquity, particularly the ornate Latin of the Renaissance, to adorn his work, and he likes to hear great classic names, sonorous and obscure, reverberating down the hollow places of his prose.