CURRENT LITERATURE.
The Life and Writings of St. John. By James M. Macdonald, D.D., Princetown, New Jersey, U.S. (Hodder and Stoughton.)—We are told by Dean Howson in his introduction that Dr. Macdonold, an American clergyman highly distinguished, as this book proves, for earnestness and learning, died just before its publication. He has left behind him a valuable legacy in this volume, which is a storehouse of erudition. We notice in passing that it is enriched with very many illustrations, drawn mostly from photographs. We think, however, that it is a mistake to expand into the foun of a Life the little that is known to us concerning St. John. The writer of such a book is continually under the temptation to make his narrative more lifelike, by making a great deal too much of what are mere hypo- theses, and to introduce a good deal of matter which is quite irre- levant. There is surely no occasion to take trouble in order to prove that St. John's family were in "comfortable circumstances and respectable position," a9 when it is suggested that "possibly Zebedee and his sons pursued fishing more for pleasure and recreation, than as a means of livelihood." The exegetical part of the volume is perhaps more valuable than the narrative. The writer's interpretation of "the two witnesses" strikes us as singular. He says that they must have prophesied at Jerusalem just be- fore its destruction ; that they were slain there, rose again, and
ascended into heaven, though they left no record behind them of all this, because no other Christians were present to record it, their only history being contained in St. John's predictions about them. We have noted two statements made by Dr. Macdonald which are very interest- ing, but which, we think, require confirmation by more searching Investigation. One is, that at Nablona, in Samaria, a record has been discovered, kept by the priests, and reaching back hundreds of years before Christ, which contains an allusion to the crucifixion of Jesus. The other statement is that there exists among the Jews a society of disciples of John the Baptist, who possess documents of the time of John, and are waiting to profess themselves Christians, at a time which is to be intimated by the leaders of the Order.
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