The Student's Gospel Harmony, being the Four Gospels in the
Original Greek. By the Rev. John Slatter, M.A. (W. Wells Gardner.)—Harmonies of the Gospels are not of unquestioned utility ; they often appear to suggest more doubts than they remove. Canon Slatter's book differs from similar works chiefly in the acceptance of St. Luke's order as the basis of the arrangement. Great care has evidently been bestowed upon the preparation of the volume ; this is especially the case with the tables and indices. The type, too, is re- markably clear and good. The plan upon which the author proceeds enables him to avoid some mistakes common to other harmonists. The great fault of the book is the choice of a text which quite fails to satisfy the requirements of modern critical scholarship. It is de- scribed as "a simple transcript of Bishop Lloyd's Oxford edition," which seems to differ very slightly, if at all, from the common textus receptus. Why the compiler, who is well acquainted with the works of Tischendorf, should have passed him by in favour of Lloyd, is strange indeed. Canon Slatter offers no explanation of the fact, and we can suggest none. In the composition of a Harmony, a sound text would seem to be indispensable. The admission, without note or comment, of such a passage as John vii., 58, et seq., which, though probably true in point of fact, is yet clearly out of place as it stands, cannot fail to cause some confusion, and to put a needless obstacle in the way of the student. It is to be regretted that a work in other respects creditable to the author's care and scholarship should be marred by what seems to us a serious error in judgment.
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