28 APRIL 1866, Page 21

S. Chrysostom on the Priesthood. Translated from the Greek. By

B. Harris Cowper. (Williams and Norgate.)—Mr. Cowper has translated into very readable English the six books in which S. Chrysostom, de- fending his early disinclination to the priestly office, dilates with his well known power of language on the dignity and responsibility of the sacred functions. Certainly, according to him, to use the words at the head of one of Mr. Cowper's chapters, "the priesthood is something tremendous ;" and we cannot agree with Mr. Cowper in thinking that the writer may be claimed as well by the Evangelical as by the Roman or Anglican Churchman. On the contrary, the good saint grants all that the Church of Rome demands on behalf of her priests, and if he attributes a high value to the Scriptures and the operations of grace, it is no more than what that Church does herself ; but when in a system certain men are endowed with the power of forgiving sins" and

producing "the Lord sacrificed and prostrate," all other features are dwarfed into insignificance by comparison with these tremendous attri- butes. However, we accept Mr. Cowper's opinion that the book throws a light upon the Church of the latter half of the fourth century, and has in consequence an archaeological as well as a theological value, whatever that may be ; and we quite think that an acquaintance with it could not be made under more favourable circumstances than in this excellent translation, which really does catch something of the spirit of the original.