guidance—“ God has enlightened my eyes so as to lift the veil hitherto spread over these questions "—is obviously beset with not a few difficulties, but it is, at any rate, quite as probable as Gentile efforts.

PAUL'S BIRTHPLACE.-An interesting volume issued recently from the pen of Pastor Schneller of Cologne, under the title of Apostelfahrten, gives some curious details drawn from personal observation concerning the present condition of Paul's Cilician home and the country round. Tarsus, it seems, although no longer one of the world's notable cities, is still a busy place. Its narrow dirty streets are crowded with asses, carts drawn by oxen, laden camels, and people of half a dozen nationalities. Conspicuous among the latter are peasants clad in all the colours of the rainbow, and each armed with a huge sickle. These are reapers in quest of employment. Weaving is still one of the industries of Tarsus. Herr Schneller gives a graphic account of his visit to a little workshop in a narrow street. The weaver, who was an old man wearing a red cap, sat before a loom of primitive construction, such as Paul may have worked at. His yarn hung over his head. His shoes and a jug of water stood on the floor beside him. Under the loom was a depression in the ground, in which the feet were busy whilst the hands attended to the shuttle. The flocks which supplied the material used in the apostle's handicraft are still to be found in the uplands. "When I was travelling over the Taurus,” observes our author, "I was often astonished by the numerous herds, partly consisting of valuable Angora goats, and partly of mohair sheep, which find nourishment on these rude mountains." The Apostle Paul is still held in high honour by some of the natives, who are nominally Mohammedans. He is their principal saint. To him they pray with more fervour and affection than to any other; and the trees which cover what is believed by them to be his grave are always hung with thousands of bits of cloth. These singular people, who are regarded as heretical by orthodox Moslems, are called Nusseiri. The young people of Tarsus are said to be exceptionally well-mannered. Herr Schneller was never assailed by them with that terrible word, which is such a potent engine of persecution in most Eastern towns and cities-backshish!

THE DIATESSARON OF TATIAN.-In an erudite and able article in the Nineteenth Century, Mr. W. R. Cassels deals with the question of the apologetic value of the recently discovered works attributed to Tatian, in settling the question of the date of the Fourth Gospel. As is well known, Tatian is said to have made a Harmony of the Four Gospels, probably some time about A.D. 175-180. Until recently, the argument has mainly turned upon the inference drawn from the name Diatessaron, given to this Harmony, that, if based upon four Gospels, these could be no other than those which have been accepted by the Church-an inference which has been steadily rejected by a majority of the greatest independent critics,

beginning with Baur, who affirmed that in no case could the Fourth Gospel have formed part of the Diatessaron. A new phase of the debate has now been entered upon by the discovery of two important works. The first of these is the Armenian translation of a commentary said to be that which Ephraem Syrus wrote upon the Diatessaron. The second is an Arabic version of a Syriac Harmony, affirmed to be the Diatessaron of Tatian itself, published with a Latin translation of the text by Ciasca, in 1888. These contain a Harmony of the Four Gospels. Mr. Cassels, however, points out that there has been undue haste on the part of apologists in believing that we have thus recovered the famous Harmony of the second century. The works in question do not correspond with the little that is known of the characteristics of the Diatessaron, and the identification rests upon the notes affixed to them by transcribers, concerning the accuracy of whose information we know nothing. Ephraem Syrus, or the writer of the commentary, whoever he may be, never himself calls the work upon which he is commenting the Diatessaron, but sometimes Scriptura, and occasionally Evangelium; while the Arabic version above referred to belongs to a date nine centuries after Tatian's time, and no evidence exists beyond the notes of the scribe for identifying the original with the work of that Father. "This being the case," Mr. Cassels says, "it is evident that the wish is very much father to the thought of those who accept the Arabic Diatessaron as the Harmony said to have been compiled by Tatian. Considering the difficulty or impossibility of identifying any anonymous Gospel Harmony amongst others, possibly or probably made to a great extent on similar lines, after a great lapse of time, it may seem equally rash to affirm or deny any claim of this kind which may be set up, but at least the Scotch verdict, not proven,' may unhesitatingly be brought in concerning this Arabic Diatessaron, which has only in its favour the notes in the Borgian manuscript, and against it that it does not clearly bear the only marks by which we know the original to have been distinguished."

EARLY ANABAPTISM.-In these days, when so much is spoken and written on Christian Socialism, and when so many speak of the desirability of reconstructing society on New Testament principles, the study of a movement like Anabaptism should be one full of interest. A strongly sympathetic estimate of it is contained in an article by Mr. Richard Heath, in the Contemporary Review. He does full justice to the religious principles which inspired the movement, and shows clearly how it came about that both Protestant Reformers and their Roman Catholic opponents were equally opposed to the new sect. "In the crisis caused by the decay of mediæval institutions, Anabaptism arose, asserting that Christendom must be renewed in the spirit of its Founder, and according to His commands. It was not the outcome of a mere spirit of sectarianism, nor was it at all local or national, but was as world-wide in its aims and

sympathies as Christianity itself. Anabaptism was as much a social and political movement as a moral and religious one. It started with the doctrine that the Divine was in all men, not produced there by the sacramental efficacy of baptism, or through an act of faith, but by the will of God, who, in creating man, breathed into him a breath of the Divine life. The conviction that Christ, the Light of the world, was in every man, led the Anabaptist into a position of antagonism to the world, such as might rather have been expected from the doctrine of Luther and Zwingli than from a doctrine instinct with the idea of universal love. Yet it soon developed an opposition to the world infinitely more irreconcilable than was the case with the Lutheran and Zwinglian Reformers. A conviction, born of the conscience and testified to by the prophets of every religion. at every period, assured them that such opposition was the only course left to the man who would be true to the Divine light within. The Anabaptist was a man or woman who could see no way out of this difficulty. He was forced to go on, though he knew that to do so was to go straight out of the world. How often did he long to turn into port from the deep sea upon which he had drifted! but this was not possible without making the compromise which meant death to his soul." To those whose minds. were set upon the establishment of the kingdom of heaven upon earth, the Reformation seemed but the substitution of one worldly and corrupt Church for another. Luther himself regarded the then existing Christendom as the Apocalyptic " Babylon;" the Anabaptists, in their uncompromising attitude towards society as then constituted, agreed with him in the use of the term, but applied it also to the Lutheran and Zwinglian Churches. This position finally led them to the great struggle at Münster. Anabaptism," says the writer, "notwithstanding the great calamity at Münster, had laid hold of the heart of the common man.' It was his religion, expressing his hopes and aspirations, and giving him a field for the education of all his powers. Every baptized man and woman might become an apostle, and hundreds travelled over Europe in all directions, ardent missionaries of Anabaptism. Arrested, thrown into prison, executed, nothing stopped their ardour; others soon arose to supply their place. This religion is not yet dead. Along the routes whereon its first missionaries scattered the seed, it still lies waiting for a new spring."

66

THE LIFE OF JESUS PRIOR TO HIS PUBLIC MINISTRY.

BY PROFESSOR F. GODET, D.D.

IF in this paper we study the development of our Lord from a strictly human point of view, none must suppose that our intention is to attack the fact of His Divine pre-existence. This fact, which was so clearly

revealed by the testimony of Jesus Himself and by the teaching of His apostles, is, for us, as undeniable as that of His real humanity.

But Jesus did not Himself become conscious of this sublime fact until the testimony of God was given at His baptism: "Thou art My well-beloved Son." In that hour was His true relation with the Father fully revealed to Him; thenceforward He knew Himself as "the Word made flesh," and He was able, when He prayed, to say, "Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world."

His development may rightly, therefore, be studied, up to that period of His life, from a purely human point of view. A truly human childhood and youth had been impossibilities if the deep mystery which formed the background of His earthly existence had been unveiled to Him sooner. It could not then have been said of Him that "He was made like unto His brethren, yet without sin."

No portion of the human life is more delicate than childhood. It is, therefore, a task of the utmost difficulty to retrace, in a correct and faithful manner, the various stages by which the purest, the most sensitive, the most delicate Being that ever lived gradually developed from childhood to youth, and from youth to manhood. Many unskilful hands have attempted to touch this subject. The authors of the Gospels known as the Apocrypha, those writings which for centuries have edified believers in the Churches of the East, laid hold of it; but they were far from imitating the discretion of our Biblical writers. Giving full scope to the flights of their imagination, they enlarged most injudiciously upon that period of the life of our Lord over which our Gospels cast but a dim and discreet demi-jour. Enveloping the humble apparition of the Child in a flood of marvellous light, they pictured Him making an ostentatious display of His supernatural power and knowledge; they described Him delighting to embarrass His schoolmaster by His ludicrous questions, giving His companions the most astonishing proofs of His Divine superiority, and going so far even as to inflict severe punishment upon any who failed to show Him all the respect to which He considered Himself entitled.

On the other hand, in the second century of the Church, there rose up a doctor who, in the interest of the glory of our Lord, thought it advisable to cast off even the incomplete outline supplied by our evangelical narratives. Marcion, who came from Asia Minor about the year 140, affirmed that the Man Jesus had suddenly appeared at Capernaum without having passed through the phases of infancy and youth. In the Gospel which he compiled expressly for the use of his Churches, and which he based on that of Luke, omitting many circumstances, however, he taught, says Tertullian, "that, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, Jesus had descended from heaven at Capernaum, a city of Galilee."

Whilst the authors of the Apocryphal Gospels supplied the

deficiencies of the apostolical narratives by their ridiculous inventions, Marcion denied the truth of the few facts related by them. He was evidently shocked by the humbly human aspect of the childhood of Jesus, such as it is retraced in our Gospels. He was unable to conceive this grand truth, that all truly Divine work has a small beginning, and that its growth is necessarily gradual and slow. But is there aught more unpretending than the method by which the grandest of all phenomena, that of life, has been introduced upon earth in the form of a minute and contemptible molluse? And what of that feeble stem which breaks through the sod, and will soon become the lily of the field, whose magnificent corolla was declared to have been unequalled by the royal apparel of Solomon? Isaiah had obtained a more accurate conception than Marcion of the Divine method, when, ages before the advent of Christ, He thus described this event: "He shall grow up as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He hath no form nor comeliness."

It was during the thirty years of obscurity and silence spent in Nazareth that Jesus prepared Himself for the two years of public activity by which He renewed the face of the world, and reconciled heaven with earth and earth with heaven.

What occurred during that period, the longest but least known, of the life of our Lord? The information we are given on this point is comprised in two or three expressions. We are told in Luke ii. 40 that "the Child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled [literally, 'becoming filled'] with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon Him." These few words are perfectly descriptive of the whole of His boyhood. The same evangelist, in ch. ii. 52, adds, "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." Of the Saviour's boyhood, only one incident is recorded, that of His first journey to Jerusalem, when He was twelve years old, and of His sitting in the temple amongst the doctors. This scene closes with the following words: "And He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them." We find another significant expression in the narrative which Matthew and Mark have left us of the visit of Jesus to Nazareth in the course of His ministry (Matt. xiii. 55; Mark vi. 3). The people of the town, having heard Him in the synagogue, said to one another, "Is not this the Carpenter ? " (Mark); "the carpenter's Son?" (Matthew); "is not His mother called Mary, and His brethren James and Joses, and Simon and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us?" It would seem, therefore, that Jesus had learned His father's trade, and had worked with him for a certain time, in the midst of His numerous brothers and sisters. One who has spent many years of his life in Palestine has recently expressed his opinion that the Greek work which is usually rendered by "carpenter" really signifies "builder." In fact, this is even at the present day the occupation

1 M. L. Schneller, formerly Pastor at Bethlehem, now at Cologne, in his charming work, Kennst du das Land.