ARCHBISHOP BENSON ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.
Addresses on the Acts of the Apostles. By Archbishop Benson. (Macmillan and Co. 21s.)—These lectures were delivered to ladies in Lambeth Palace during the years 1887 to 1892. They were never written out in full by their author, but were spoken from short notes, and have been put together by Miss Benson with the aid of the fuller notes taken down by various listeners. The Archbishop undertook to give a series of addresses on the Book of Acts in compliance with a request made by a number of ladies, who represented to him their serious fear that the hold of moral and religious truth upon the educated and leisured classes was slackening. The principal object, therefore, of the lectures was to put before those who heard them a picture of the time of the Apostles, and to point out the parallelism of the problems of the Church at that time with those of the Church to-day. The moral aspects of St. Luke's chronicle are those chiefly insisted on, and Dr. Benson deals rather with the
theological and religions suggestions of the narrative than with its historical feasts. Perhaps the most isteresting of the sermons are those entitled "Christ in the Great Towns" and the one on the martyrdom of St. Stephen. One of the former gives a vivid description of Corinth as it was in the time of St. Paul, with its great commerce, wealth, and luxury side by side with its poverty, misery, and wretchedness. The lecturer reminds his hearers how the great Apostle, discouraged, and even broken-hearted, by the attitude of the Corinthian Jews towards the new faith, "shook out his raiment" in the Synagogue, and declared their blood to be upon their own heads. In the midst of his despair St. Paul was consoled by a direct communication from Christ, and "the Lord said unto Paul in the night by a vision : Be not afraid, but speak ; hold not thy peace, for I am with thee, and no man shall set upon thee to harm thee, for I have much people in this city." Out of this incident the preacher draws with much eloquence a message of encouragement for all who labour for the good of London. In expressing our gratitude to Miss Benson for the trouble she has taken and the literary skill she has displayed in preserving for the public these valuable addresses, we cannot but add that the book she has compiled is somewhat too long Six hundred and fifty pages, even though none may be dull, daunt at first sight the courage of even the most diligent reader.
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