The Lost Gospel and Its Contents ; or, the Author
of "Supernatural Religion" Refuted by Himself. By the Rev. M. F. Sadler, M.A., Rector of Honiton. (G. Bell and Sons.)—The title of this book shows that it is purely controversial, and that the subject of controversy is, for the most part, the one particular conclusion of the author of " Supernatural Religion." The " lost gospel " is that gospel, or group of gospels, which that writer supposes the fathers of the second century to have used, written at a period far earlier than that of the existing Gospels. The questions which Mr. Sadler proposes are these :—What were the contents of this lost gospel, so far as they can be recovered ? Was the supernatural element as conspicuous in it as in the Gospels which we possess ? He seeks an answer to these questions chiefly in the writings of Justin Martyr, which he examines at length. We think that he succeeds in proving that this father must either have been familiar with the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, or have acquired his informa- tion from a " lost gospel " which contained the substance of their writings. His conclusion, therefore, is that if the author of " Super- natural Religion" has been successful in tracing the existence of nar- ratives earlier than the Gospels we possess, he "has only succeeded in proving that the Gospel narrative itself, in a written form, is at least fifty or sixty years older than the books which he attempts to discredit."
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