16 OCTOBER 1915, Page 20

THE NEW TESTAMENT IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.* IN the days

of our fathers there were popular manuals, or " Bible Handbooks," the first and best being the celebrated Introduction to the Critical Study of the Holy Scriptures, by Thomas Hartwell Horne, which aimed at giving the Christian layman all the information Ile would be likely to require about the date and authorship of the several books. The volume before us takes its place in the series of these admir- able helps to popular. instruction, with the difference, charac- teristic of the present day, that it deals not with ascertained results, but with problems still in controversy. Any one who wishes to make acquaintance with recent theories, either in regard to the person of Christ or as to the mutual relations of the Gospels, and the authenticity of other books of the New Testament about which there has been dispute, will find here a clear statement of the issues, generally in the words of their several advocates. The precis is admirably done; points of difference are clearly indicated; and full references are given, so that the reader may pursue further on his own account any discussion that especially interests him. At the same time the book is more than a summary. Mr. Maurice Jones has not made himself acquainted with the full cycle of current theories without making up his own mind upon them; and his comments on one and another are shrewd and helpful. We hope the wide circulation of his hook will repay the author for the labour and scholarship he has spent upon it.