The Jesus of the Evangelists. By the Rev. C. A.
Row, M.A. (Williams and Norgate.)—If the matter contained in this volume were greatly condensed and thrown into a somewhat different shape, the book would take a respectable place in that class of apologetic literature with which we are familiar in the aeries of the Bampton Lectures. It is written with considerable vigour, butt from the stand-point of the preacher rather than of the historical inquirer. We cannot but think Mr. Row's method unscientific. He says, "The present work assumes nothing but two facts the truth of which it is impossible to deny, viz., the existence of the four Gospels, and that they contain a portraiture of our Lord. . . If we can prove that the portraiture cannot be an ideal or mythical creation, we.have established its historical character. If it is historical, its origin must have been divine." But is not this to invert the true
method ? How can it be shown that the portraiture of Christ cannot be ideal, except by showing that it is historical? If it be granted that the. author has succeeded in proving the extreme improbability of the mythi- cal hypotheses which he combats, and we think he has fairly eatablished so much as this, the question stands precisely where it did before these hypotheses were advanced. The fact is that the objections to the his- torical character must be dealt with, and these Mr. Row disclaims any intention of approaching. Again, as our author rests his proof of our Lord's divinity upon the superhuman glories of His character, ho might be fairly called upon to state tho precise elevation at which moral excel- lence passes from the human into the divine. We sympathize so pro- foundly with Mr. Row's object, that we feel the more bound to point out what seems to us radical defects in his argument.
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