18 MAY 1867, Page 20

collection of all tho Apocryphal Gospels, prefaced by a sketch

of their history, of their relation to the Gospel history, and of their reception by the Church. This introduction is extremely able, and marked by a close acquaintance with all the works which bear on the subject. Of the False Gospels themselves we cannot speak here, but they might afford an infinity of texts to a preacher. Mr. Cowper rightly remarks that they

are not traditions, but legends ; they seem to us to contain many germs of that spirit of pseudo-Christianity which has at all times been potent in working evil. We may allude particularly to those chapters in which the child Jesus is represented as striking dead the boys who push against him roughly, or who break up the pools which He has made And the false Gospels are full of similar superstitions.