14 JULY 1906, Page 24

The Epistle of St. Paul to Philemon: a Devotional Commentary.

By the Rev. A. H. Drysdale, D.D. (R.T.S. 250—This volume will be found suitable for its purpose ; more we need not say. On one point, which does not, however, concern this aspect of the book, we venture to differ from the author, and that is St. Paul's attitude towards slavery. That the abolition of slavery is implicit in Christian truth we do not doubt, but it can hardly be main- tained that St. Paul held it explicitly. How are we to reconcile such a position with his words where he seems to urge the slave to remain iu his servile condition ?