Studies of the Divine Master. By Thomas Griffith, A.M., Prebendary
of St. Paul's. (Henry S. King and Co.)—Mr. Griffith is careful to dis- claim any attempt at writing a "life" of Jesus, yet though he himself calla these studies "fragmentary," there is manifestly a method in them. Using chiefly St. Mark's Gospel as a guide, and supplementing it where necessary from those of St. Matthew and St. Luke, he goes through the whole of the public career of Jesus, showing, what is sometimes for- gotten, that there was an order in that career, into which all its acts, discourses, and events fitted themselves. "In the life of Jesus, as sketched by Mark, there are indicated stages of progress, whereby He mounts up in His course and gains its consummation." The names by which Mr. Griffith marks these stages, and which give titles to the divisions of his book, have an air of fancifulness. These titles are,— " The Night," "The Dawn," "The Sunrise," "The Sun-noon," "The Noonday," "The Sunset," and "The After-glow." Mr. Griffith's para- phrases are often suggestive, and help to clear obscurities, but on the whole are rather laboured. Why, in the parable of the "Pharisee and Publican," should he designate the latter by these different titles," tax- collector," "tax-gatherer," and " tax- contractor ? " The common ver- sion is, we think, better than this :—" The tax-contractor, standing afar off, presumed not to lift up even his eyes to heaven." In the notes to this book there is a perfect "thesaurus" of quotations, which prove the writer to be a man of vast and varied reading ; the references, indeed, are sometimes redundant, and therefore tedious.
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