The Conversion of Armenia to the Christian Faith. By W.
St. Clair Tisdall, M.A. (Religious Tract Society.)—Mr. Tisdall, who dates his preface from " Jun Isfahan," must have been some- what affected by the uncritical atmosphere of the East. Other- wise he would hardly have written that " there can be little doubt that Christianity was introduced as early as the first century into Armenia." It would have been safer to write "second " for "first" The Christian King, Abgarns VII., is an historical per- sonage in the last quarter of the second century, and we may go back to a generation before him for the first beginning of Christianity in Edessa. It must be confessed that the story of Gregory the Illuminator, though possessing an historical kernel, is in some of its details of a mythical kind. Mr. Tisdall, however, accepts it, though he owns that the narrative of Agathangelos, on which it rests, has had some incredible matters interpolated into
it. The book loses something in value from this want of discrimi- nation in its writer. Still, it contains much that is interesting, nor will it be difficult for the student to correct any errors by a reference to some such standard authority as the " Dictionary o' Christian Biography."
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