CHURCH HISTORY FOR LAY READERS.
The Post-Apostolic Age. By Lucius Waterman, D.D. With an Introduction by Henry Codman Potter, D.D., LL.D., Bishop of New York. (T. and T. Clark, Edinburgh. 6s.)—The author of this volume acknowledges that his main purpose was to make Church history interesting to lay readers, and apply some of its lessons to our own times. The Bishop of New York gives his benediction to the work, and expresses satisfaction that scholar- ship is in our day emancipating itself from the domination of ecclesiasticism. He adds that traditions of suppression, per- version, and sometimes of deliberate mutilation of truth have been a dominant note in almost all Latin methods of dealing with the history of Christianity, and especially with any- thing that concerned the claims or authority of the Church. We wish we could say that such methods have been exclusively Latin, but we are glad to find that the Bishop of New York condemns them. Dr. Waterman's work is distinctly interesting. In dealing with the many difficult critical questions of Post-Apostolic history he does not always show himself to be a highly trained scholar, and be is hardly competent to sit in judgment on Hatch and Harnack ; but he has read largely, and has gathered together a great deal of information which will be of service to readers who desire a general knowledge of the period. He sometimes illustrates the ancient story very happily by means of modern analogies. The following upon the Early Church heresies would appeal especially to modern American experiences :—" Much more dangerous to the Church than perse- cution was the attempt—there was really a host of them—to rival the new religion by the discovery of another, still more attractive to the mind of the day. Imagine forty or fifty forms of what is known as 'Christian Science' sweeping over the world of our day, and drawing much people after them, so as to be a serious hindrance to the endeavours of the Christian Kingdom to get a hearing. Then you will have some slight idea of what the various forms of Gnosticism were to the Christian Church of the second century." We regret that this notice of Dr. Waterman's work has been delayed by an accident.
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