The Spiritual Sense in Sacred Legend. By Edward J. Brailaford.
(Robert Caney. 3s. 6d.)—We may quote from Mr. Brailsford's introduction a passage which explains his purpose :—" Other races besides the Hebrew have received their revelations—they possess their independent accounts of the Creation and the Flood—they have had their own spiritual struggle towards enlightenment and liberty ; and wherever we turn our eyes, and however far back into the dim past we look, there are human figures—men of like passion,. with ourselves, who strove to walk with God, so far as they knew Him, and to keep His commandments. This being so, we are prepared to meet with confessions of faith, conceptions of the divine nature, explanations of natural phenomena, ideals of conduct, and theories as to the meaning of life." It is with the vast mass of legend that may be found, either connected by ties close Or remote with the Bible, or independent of it, that our author sets himself to deal. " Around the volume of the Canonical Scriptures there is a belt of unused matter." It is of this he treats ; he seeks to draw out the meaning which lies hidden sometimes under what has a very strange appearance. It is evident at once that he has studied the subject very profoundly, and as we go on we see that he handles it with discretion and good taste. We may Mention the second section of Part I., in which various beliefs as to the inhabitants of the spiritual world are set forth. Further on we find a highly interesting account of the Apocryphal Gospels, and of the legends which may be said to supplement the Canonical histories of the beginning of Christianity and its growth. An example of this may be found in pp. 191 seq., where the legends that have grown up round the personality of Mary the mother of Jesus are treated. Somewhat later comes the legend of the Holy Grail. Altogether, the book is one well worthy of study. We can see that it might be specially useful to teachers, whom it will furnish with an abundance of highly attractive matter.
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