14 SEPTEMBER 1901, Page 25

Another volume in "The Century Bible" (T. C. and E.

C. Jack, Edinburgh, 2s.) is The Pastoral Epistles: Timothy and Titus, edited by R. F. Horton, M.A. Mr. Horton frankly acknowledges the difficulties which surround the question of the authorship of the Pastoral Epistles. They occur to him, he says, with "overwhelm- ing force" ; at the same time, he cannot but feel that there is much that is Pauline in the Epistles. "The difficulties in believing in the fabrications outweigh the difficulties of accepting the genuineness." The introduction is one of the most satisfactory pieces of honest, candid work that we have ever seen. The book, as a whole, is not for celery one; but a thoughtful student could not do better than make it his own. We must take exception to the dictum that "the notion that the bad character of the clergy does not hinder the grace which they administer" is "corrupting." No one seriously denies that a bad clergyman is a very mischievous person ; but to hold that the sacraments which he administers are invalidated by his badness is the beginning of unutterable confusion. Does Mr. Horton hold with the Donatists in this matter ? Article XXVI. is not intended to go beyond Augustine.—With this we may mention Studies in the Acts of the Apostles, by the Rev. William Robert- son, appearing in the very useful series of "Guild Text Books" (A.. and C. Black, 6d. net).