fund for the benefit of all who were in need. "And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that aught of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection. of the Lord Jesus." And this condition of things continued for at least two full centuries after the tragedy on Calvary. It was only when the world-spirit took possession of the Church, and when covetousness led men to sneer at the communism of the early brotherhood, that the gloom of the Dark Ages settled upon humanity.

Our social system is different from any system which obtained among men who were governed by the will of God, and it is contrary both in spirit and practice to the teachings of the Bible. No matter whether the principles and methods be understood or not, facts demonstrate that the body of law and custom to-day favors the few at the expense of the many. We look upon the laws of God which require exact justice for all, which aim after brotherhood and universal prosperity, and because they are strange to us, because their adoption would bring loss to some, we pronounce them impractical and visionary. In fact, we see that not only the requirements of God's word are rejected by regenerated men, but such thinkers as Tolstoi and Bellamy, who, no matter what their theories may be, draw their inspiration from the Bible, are hooted out of Christian society!

I know there are grave problems involved. I know that it is difficult to see how the social teachings of God's word can be put in practice in our day. The difficulties are not insuperable. There are men living who can tell how it may be done. But there is another side to this matter. It is not impossible to do right. Every man can refuse to profit by that which is evil; if he has more land than he needs for his own use he can let his poor neighbor use the surplus; the man who has more money than he needs can lend to his necessitous neighbor without interest; the individual who is receiving gain from a business that makes use of unjust methods can withdraw from that business. Every believer in Jesus Christ may become a teacher of right-doing, and be a light in the world, even though his discipleship involve a life of poverty and suf

fering. Every citizen of the United States is a factor in government, and as such is in duty bound to strive for the enactment of just and righteous laws. And the Church can teach from her pulpits the truths insisted upon by the prophets, Jesus, and the apostles, even though every land-grabber, usurer, and beneficiary of unfair and unjust methods flee from her communion. There is no insuperable obstacle in the way of right-doing, providing a man wants to do right.

To return for a moment to our original proposition. Our social system is firmly grounded, is clearly defined, and is supported by the force of law and custom. The people, by tradition, by education, by custom, by legislation, have been led to look upon it as just and right, and, maybe, the only possible system to be devised. But under the principles which govern society, wrongdoing, injustice, oppression, covetousness, vice, and immorality are increasing instead of decreasing. More than ever there is appeal to law and force to keep the people in subjection to the system. Efforts toward reform have proven abortive, and the Church is becoming more of a fashionable organization than a living power for righteousness. Every reform movement along the lines above indicated is opposed by the Church. Reform, to be permanent, must lay the ax at the root of the tree-must aid in enforcing justice and natural rights. The Church antagonizes the doctrine of natural rights because it conflicts with the doctrine of vested rights; and, as a consequence, if every individual in the United States should be "regenerated" in an hour, this wholesale conversion of the community-under present methods-would not result in a single reform in the industrial or social world.

6. M. Morse.

ART. IV.-ORIGIN AND RELIGIOUS CONTENTS OF THE PSALTER.*

THIS large volume (8vo, pp. xxxviii, 517) from the pen of Dr. Cheyne is unique. There is nothing like it in the English language. It therefore deserves attention. The eight lectures therein contained were first delivered as Bampton Lectures in 1889. The fact that nearly two years elapsed before they appeared in printed form shows that the author regarded their editing, with copious notes, appendices, and indices, as a matter of prime importance, though we are assured that no essential changes have been made (p. xxix). These lectures, brimful of varied learning, show wonderful scholarship and rare familiarity with literature, both ancient and modern, especially with exegetical and critical works upon Old Testament topics. The book is a difficult one to read. There is a diffuseness and lack of perspicuity in parts of it which are inexcusable. There are too many opinions accompanied with long quotations from various theological works; and the multifarious reading of the preacher makes it difficult to form a clear idea of the exact nature of his conclusions. The book can never become popular, nor a standard work on the origin of the Psalter; it is too intricate, wordy, and vague for this. The author neither expects nor desires to make at once a large number of converts to his theories (p. x).

In spite of Professor Cheyne's plea for fair play and toleration the tone of the book is often bigoted and dictatorial. It aims to be revolutionary. The learned author follows no guide, acknowledges no leader, listens to the voice of no mentor who might advise or warn him. He is solitary and alone; an intrepid explorer sailing "up the stream of song;" a hardy pioneer traveling through unknown regions. He has left the ordinary, well-beaten path, the good old way familiar to the masses throughout the centuries; nay, more, he has even outrun the most advanced Dutch and German historical critics. He feels

*The Origin and Religious Contents of the Psalter, in the Light of Old Testament Criticism. With an Introduction and Appendices. By Thomas Kelly Cheyne, M.A., D.D., Oriel Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture, and Canon of Rochester. New York: Thomas Whittaker. 1892.

this, and would have all the world know it too; for, in a letter to the Athenæum, August 15, 1891, he complains of the injustice done him by a reviewer who claimed that results such as those expressed in this volume had been practically a settled matter in the Dutch and German schools of biblical criticism. He says:

No comprehensive and systematic treatment of the Psalms has yet been published in either Holland or Germany. I feel that your reviewer has-no doubt unintentionally-done me an injustice in suggesting that I am only presenting views which have been long ago arrived at by others.

He then adds that these advanced views have been persistently opposed by the majority of foreign scholars. Though he professes to make "the voyage up the stream of song" according to strict scientific principles, we must confess that to us he seems to have neither compass nor star to guide his course. On this voyage, as on other voyages, he is fully conscious of his loneliness and of the inability of his brethren to keep up with him, for he speaks of brethren left behind and of the difficult experience he had to pass through in order to gain or regain their sympathy (p. xiii). He frankly confesses a change of front, and that there is a noteworthy difference between his two works, The Prophecies of Isaiah and these lectures on the Psalter published ten years later. He states the case very fully, but we shall quote only one sentence:

That extreme self-suppression which marks the former work throughout, and that willingness to concede to traditions all that could with any plausibility be conceded, it would be scarcely proper to exhibit in the altered circumstances of the Church (p. xv).

In 1880 he saw too much with the eyes of his expected readers; in 1890 he saw entirely with his own eyes. Time of compromise has passed; we must no longer put a piece of new cloth upon an old garment (p. 4). He hails with delight the increased numbers who accept the plurality of authorship of the Book of Isaiah. While gratefully acknowledging his obligations to Germany he nevertheless thinks himself deserving of a better title than that of "Germanizer" (p. 1). The author, formerly a disciple of Schleiermacher and Ewald, has passed beyond these to the schools of Graf and Kuenen (p. xvi). If his progress during the next decade should be any way commensu

rate with that of the last ten years the most advanced historical or destructive critics of Germany and other lands will have to meekly follow the Bampton lecturer of 1889. He refers with pleasure to the few congenial souls among the English-speaking people, such as W. Robertson Smith, Driver, Davidson, and Briggs (p. xviii). He tells us that he has proved by personal experience that faith and free historical criticism of the Bible can be reconciled thoroughly, and that a work can be at once uncompromisingly critical and evangelical (p. xxiii). There is a pathos in the following:

To me, at any rate, the exercise of the critical faculty and of the historic imagination has been as truly a religious work as joining in the worship of the sanctuary (p. xxxiv).

Again:

There is another priesthood not less of divine appointment than that of the Church-the priesthood of study and of teaching. All lovers of truth will agree with the Oriel professor in one thing, at least, when he says, "Preconceived theological notions ought to be rigorously excluded from exegesis;" and with him every good man will long for the glorious time when all will break away from untenable traditions. Yea, we all believe and heartily indorse his sentiment as expressed in the following:

The formularies should be interpreted by the Scriptures, and not the Scriptures by some current view of the formularies, and a true Evangelical begins not with the Prayer Book and Articles, but with the Holy Scriptures (p. xxvii).

The object of the book, which "is primarily historical, but also in a very real sense apologetic," is to show the very late origin of the Psalms. It is said:

...

The Psalter is really a monument of the best religious ideas of the great post-exile Jewish Church. . . . From Jeremiah onward there has been a continuous development, through the cooperation of some of the noblest non-Jewish races and the unerring guidance of the adorable Spirit of truth, in the direction which leads to Christ (p. 425).

The learned author endeavors to prove that the Psalter has not a single psalm from the pen of David; that, with one possible exception (Psalm xviii), the entire collection is post-exilic, and that the earliest possible date for this, the earliest of all the