The Church of the Early Fathers : External History. By
Alfred Plummer, M.A. (Longmans.)—This is an account of the spread of Christianity from the secession of Trojan down to the Edict of Toleration published at Milan,—a period of nearly two hundred and twenty years. Syria, Asia Minor, Greene and Egypt, Italy, North Africa, Gaul, and Britain are mumessively treated. Then there is a chapter on the Apologists, and the controversies which they carried on with Jewish or heathen assailants. Finally, we have a chapter on the Persecutions. The book compresses, it will be seem, a large subject into a small space, and does it, we may say, very well.— A Comparative View of Church Organisations, by the Rev. James H. Rigg, D.D. (Woolmer), begins with chapters on the " Fellowship " and the " Organisation" of the Primitive Church, and discusses, on the basis of the conclusions at which he arrives, the claims of Anglicanism, Presbyterianism, Congregationalism, and finally Wesleyan-Methodism. It may safely be said that Dr. Rigg is most interesting, and perhaps we may add, most valuable, when he discusses the affairs of his own community.—The Growth of Church Institutions, by Edwin Hatch, D.D. (Hodder and Stoughton), aims at giving a soientifio account of ecclesiastioal development. Dr. Hatch takes a wholly different view of things from that of the writer just mentioned. His belief, indeed, as to the facts of early Christianity are much the same. But he differs seriously in the conclusions which he draws. That diocesan episcopacy is a comparatively late arrangement, does not binder him from believing that it may be the most salutary and effective form of Church government. In fact, he believes in what may be called a "survival of the fittest," and is ready to allow that if a primitive organisation has yielded to something different, it is because a need had to be met for which the older institution did not suffice. The book gives the result of a careful study, and is not the less valuable because it will scarcely please any of the contending parties.—Antigua Mater a Study of Christian Origins. (Trilbner and Co.)—The author discusses his subject from a decidedly sceptical point of view. He acknowledges nothing earlier than the Apology of Justin Martyr. He maintains that the famous letters of Pliny and Trojan are not genuine. The evidence against the passage in the " Annals " "seems overwhelming." The reference in the " Nero " of Saetonius "betrays interpolation." It is scarcely worth while to do more than quote these propositions. — Church and State in the First Eight Centuries. By the Rev. W. Armitage. (Rivingtons.)—The author gives sketches of various persons and events during the period specified in the tide of his book, using a simple, perhaps sometimes over-simple, style. " When observations have been made or inferences drawn, it has been with a desire to keep within the eanotion and authority of our own Church of England."—Free Church Principles, by the Rev. William Wilson, D.D. (Macniven and Wallace, Edinburgh), contains the "Chalmers Lecture," the first series, we suppose, judging from the date of the deed (1880), that has been delivered. The subject ie found to be "The Headship of Christ over His Church, and its Independent Spiritual Jurisdiction." Dr. Wilson applies himself to prove that this principle has been carried out in the action of the Free Church of Scotland. We gather that he atilt holds to the tenet that Estab- lishment is theoretically desirable, and that he has not gone over to Voluntaryism.—In The Church of Our Fathers (David Bryce and Son, Glasgow), the Rev. Allan Cameron, after a historical survey of Scottish Ecclesiastical History from Reformation Days, a survey which includes sketches of Calvin, John Knox, Andrew Melville, and Alexander Henderson, comes to the conclusion that the movement of 1843 set the Church free, after a long period of bondage under the sway of the Moderates. Those were evil days indeed, when clergy- men went to theatres !
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