An Outline of the Early Jewish Church, from a Christian
Point of View. By the Rev. S. C. Malan, M.A. (Saunders and Otley.)—If Mr. Malan would keep clear of argument and abase, his work would gain general applause for the knowledge of history it shows, and for the minute details by means of which it brings everything before us. But Mr. Malan must needs go out of the way on all occasions to sneer at the infidel absurdities of certain philosophers who are too clever to have common sense, who from ignorance and overweening conceit will believe nothing that they do not understand, and whose pitiable ignorance is to be smiled at if their perversion of facts is not so wilful as to make us grieve. Again, when he cites the text by which the punishment of death for murder was enjoined on the Israelites, he must needs urge that this text is as much of divine appointment as the law by which matt increases and multiplies, and that "the State which tampers with this sentence or abrogates it from some mistaken, and in any case un- sound motive, cannot do so without incurring God's displeasure." These are just the arguments that make men doubt as to the necessity of capital punishment. Indeed, Mi. Malan has a happy knack of proving the very opposite of what he wants to establish. He is continually begging the question by meeting any objection to the words of Scrip- ture with a quotation of the words themselves, which is no doubt suffi- VI:ht for those whose minds are made up already, and for whom Mr. Malan writes, but is useless for all others. We regret that a book of much research and ability should be spoiled by such affectation of orthodoxy.
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