must have improved rapidly; and it is not impossible that the Red man might have improved had he been better handled. At any rate, there was as much difference between the Mexicans and the Hurons as between the Æduan or Belgic Gauls and the savage Attacetti.

66

Dr. Dawson (whose book would have been much improved by an index) has collected a great number of facts about "the physical characteristics of prehistoric men," of which we will only say, that it is a little rash to argue from the capacity of one or two skulls here and there. He pronounces the CroMagnon men to have been "gigantic and magnificent," thus confirming the belief that "there were giants in those days." Judging from their great cranial capacity, and the small number of their skeletons found, we may suppose they represent rude outlying tribes belonging to races which elsewhere had attained to greater numbers and culture. These giants were superseded by a small-statured race with shorter heads, possibly after the catastrophes which destroyed the post-Pliocene continent that stretched westward through Ireland. But whether this bigness of brain indicates, "like the mound-builders preceding the Red Indians, that man's earlier state was the best, that he had been a good and noble creature before he became a savage," we cannot pretend to say. Dr. Dawson claims that this high organization of the cave men "justifies the tradition of a golden and Edenic age, and mutely protests against the philosophy of progressive development as applied to man." We do not see how, as a geologist, he reconciles man's recent origin with his CroMagnon man having possibly visited "the great Atlantis, and the valley of the Gihon, where now is the Mediterranean, and that nameless river which flowed where now is the German Ocean." But, then, he is a catastrophic geologist, and believes that Noah's flood was the break up of this post-Pliocene world, and the bringing land and sea into their present shape. His explanation of the height above the present water level of the Somme Valley caves is ingenious: the land may have risen. It certainly has done so in Scandinavia, in Scotland, etc. "In the days of the cave men the lower valley may have been a sort of delta, with banks of gravel, to which they might resort for materials, or into which their rejected implements might be drifted." They would thus have lived when the land was slowly rising, after the great depression which let in the Irish Sea and German Ocean on what had been dry land.

His summing up, then, is that there is no ground for believing in any race more rude or less physically developed than the modern semi-civilized races. The modern savage is a degenerate creature. The most ancient man seems to have been a welldeveloped and cultured Turanian; and this "tells in favor both. of the moderate antiquity and unity of the species." Further, Dr. Dawson thinks he can find in these old men "the primitive idea of God, the instinct of immortality, and even some premonitions of a Redeemer." Into this very important subject we can

not enter; but we strongly recommend (on the audi alteram partem principle) the students of Dr. Tyler and Sir J. Lubbock to see what use the American geologist makes of much the same facts as those with which they deal. The similarity between the carved reindeer horns of the Dordogne cavern and the totems of Red Indian tribes is at any rate curious; while Dr. Dawson's engraving of the upright monument of a Chippewa chief closely resembles some of the "sculptured stones" of Scotland, and some of the French roches percées. That so-called "primitive" modes of interment lasted on in outlying places to quite modern times is proved by the discovery, in previously unopened Cornish barrows, of very late Roman coins associated with chipped flints and rude pottery.-Pp. 491-494.

BRITISH QUARTERLY REVIEW, July, 1880. (London.) 1. The Two Nations and the Commonwealth. 2. Father Curci's New Translation of the Gospels. 3. Religion and Morality. 4. Evolution, Viewed in Relation to Theology. 5. Inspiration. 6. Irish Land Reforms. 7. The London Water Question. 8. The General Election and its Results.

The following quotation from the fifth article clearly illustrates the doctrine of

THE NEW TESTAMENT AN ORGANIC Book.

Our entire canon is the product of the authoritative mind of the primitive Church, including the Gospel of John, and the Epistles of 2 Peter and Jude.

We recognize in the books of the New Testament, in the first place, the relation of the writings themselves to the special spiritual requirements of the Church of God, or of some one portion of it, at the time. The Gospels are adapted, each one, to a definite Christian consciousness, while it is nevertheless true that they stand four-square in their unity. We may believe that as the Christian writings were called forth by their adaptation to portions of the Church, so they were preserved by them. The unity which is manifested in the New Testament is the unity of the Christian Church itself. And upon what basis was it that these different portions of the Church received and preserved the sacred writings? Entirely on the basis of their apostolic authority. Justin Martyr not only recognizes generally that apostolic authority, but he connects it with their work as teachers. "Through the power of God they declared to every race of men that they were sent by Christ to teach all men the word of God." He compares this apostolic teaching to that of the prophets.* "Just as Abraham," he says, "believed the voice of God, and it was counted to him for righteousness; so we Christians, also believing the voice of God, which is both spoken again through the apostles of Christ and proclaimed to us through the prophets, have re

* L. Apol., 39.

nounced even to death all that is in the world." * "Prophetical gifts remain with us even to this time, from which you (Jews) ought to understand that those which were formerly left with your nation are now transferred to us."†

The same view is very distinctly supported by the writings of Irenæus, and by those of Tertullian in his "Exhortation concerning Chastity," (c. 4.) "It is true," says the latter, "that believers have the Spirit of God, but not all believers are apostles. For apostles have the Spirit of God properly who have him fully in the operations of prophecy and the efficacy of healing virtues and the evidence of the tongues; not partially, as others have." This was the voice of the second century. We may well believe that it was that of the first as well. "The history of the New Testament canon," says Dr. Westcott, "may be divided into three periods. The first extends to the time of Hegesippus, (A. D. 170,) and includes the era of the separate circulation and gradual collection of the apostolic writings. The second is closed by the persecution of Diocletian, (A.D. 303,) and marks the separation of the sacred writings from the remaining ecclesiastical literature. The third may be defined by the third council of Carthage, (A.D. 397,) in which a catalogue of the books of Scripture was formally ratified by conciliar authority. The first is characteristically a period of tradition, the second of speculation, the third of authority."§

Speaking of that first period, and of the gradual collection of the apostolic writings, the same devout and admirable scholar remarks in another place: "Silently and slowly, without any formal deliberations or open contests, the work of God went forward. The principles which the apostles set forth separately were combined and systematized. The societies which they founded were more fully organized according to the outlines they had drawn. The writings which they left were preserved and studied, and exercised more and more a formative authority. The Church rose and spread, not by any sudden miracle, but by the gradual assimilation of all around which could contribute to its growth, in virtue of the action of that Spirit which is its life. . . . In their origin the writings of the apostles are seen to have been casual and fragmentary. Their authors claim for themselves distinctly the gift of the Holy Spirit; but they nowhere express any design of conveying to their readers a full outline of the faith. Still less do they indicate any idea of supplementing the Old Testament by a new collection of Scriptures. Yet it is equally certain that the New Testament does form a whole. Its different elements are united internally by the closest and most subtle harmonies. No part can be taken away without sensible injury to its unity and richness. The words of the apostles were placed more and more frequently by the side of the words of the prophets, as the teach+ Ibid., § 82. See his work "Against Heresies," book iv, c. ix, 25, 26. § Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible," Art. Canon.

"Dial. with Trypho," § 119.

ing of Christ by that of the law. Partial collections of the Scriptures of 'the New Testament' were formed without the Church; and as the whole Christian body realized the fullness of its common life, the teaching and the books, which had been in some sense the symbol of a part only, were ratified by the whole."*

Thus we are shut up to this conclusion, that the authority attached to the sacred books was the authority of the Spirit of God as testified first in the sacred writers themselves, and next in those who received their writings and applied to them the test of their own Christian consciousness, as it was developed in the living communities of believers and embodied in the traditions and usages of the Church. In the application of this test, doubtless, it was not either a mere instinct which was appealed to, nor a mere historical tradition, nor the existence of actual documents critically examined. The voice of the Christian community was first the voice of the few and then the voice of the many; first the echo of the living voices of the apostles themselves, and then the memory of those voices, and then the residuum of testimony in the communities, books, and current speech of Christians. And the result is a volume of inspired writings which has preserved to us not alone the testimony of Christ and his twelve representative disciples, but the indirect evidence of the embodiment of that teaching in a Christian society without which it would have been impossible that those writings should have been handed down. The Spirit of God in the book and the Spirit of God in the life of man, in the historic world, confirm and authorize one another-"The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us."-Pp. 120-122.

These principles lie at the basis of all solid Biblical Introduction. On this subject we recommend the perusal of Bernard's "Progress of Doctrine in the New Testament."

German Reviews.

ZEITSCHRIFT FUR KIRCHENGESCHICHTE. (Journal for Church History.) Edited by Brieger. Fourth Volume. Second Number.-Essays: 1. BRIEGER, The Religious Policy of Constantine the Great. 2. REUTER, Studies on Augustine, (Second Article.) Critical Reviews: BUDDENSDEG, Recent English Literature on the History of the Reformation. Analecta: 1. NEUMANN, A Tubingen Manuscript of PseudoJustin containing the Epistle to Diognetus. 2. WALTZ, Epistolae Reformatorum. 3. KAWERAU, Epistles and Documents Relating to the History of the Antinomian Controversy, (First Article.) 4. WALTZ, Dicta Melancthonis. 5. CRECELIUS, Miscellaneous.

The article by Dr. Brieger inquires into the personal relation and motives of Constantine the Great in regard to Christianity.

"Bible in the Church," chap. v.

He assumes that Eusebius' story of the cross vision, in 311, is no longer believed by any writer of note. The personal life of Constantine up to his death proves that he was not a Christian by personal conviction, but that the favors he bestowed upon Christianity were a part of his policy. The first proof of his intention to favor the Christians was given in 312, when he ordered the shields of his soldiers to be marked with the monogram of the name of Christ, a combination of the letters XP. The celebrated labarum which was subsequently carried in front of his armies may possibly have been made at that time, but this is not probable. The Christian symbol when adopted in 312 was, however, by no means used exclusively, but it was placed side by side with the ancient pagan symbols. In 313 the famous edict of toleration was issued in favor of the Christians, but this edict involved no infringement upon the rights of the State religion. The entire pagan worship was continued, inclusive of astrology; occasionally the continuance was guaranteed by laws. Even the coins of the emperor continue to wear a heathen impress; quite frequently they are devoted to the sun-god, the favorite of the enlightened pagan monotheists; in many other cases, to Jupiter or to Mars. The emperor shows no intention, as some writers have believed, to introduce a new universal religion; but, in his opinion, the two religions, the old and the new, shall co-exist. In order to promote their mutual toleration he endeavored to find a neutral ground. Therefore, he speaks in his letters and edicts frequently of a supreme Deity, by which the Christians were expected to think of God the Father, the pagans of Jupiter or of the sun-god. The introduction of the celebration of Sunday had the same aim, and in order that Christian and pagan soldiers might celebrate it conjointly he prescribed a general monotheistic prayer to be used by both. When Constantine became the sole ruler of the empire, the favors bestowed by him upon the Christians became more marked, but still the continuance of pagan worship was not interfered with. It is true, paganism was designated as an impious opinion, as a power of darkness. But the "erring" pagans were authorized to keep their false temples. In 326 he issued a prohibition to repair decaying temples, but he remained Pontifex Maximus of the pagan State religion; he provided for the pagan priests,