be doubted whether the passage on the 'genuine undenominationalism' is equally satisfactory. Mr. Gladstone rightly regards it as an objection to the forms which he condemns that they are 'divested of many salient points needful in the view of historic Christendom for a complete Christianity.' A similar objection may be made to the form with which he expresses his great sympathy. The Episcopate is a salient point.' It involves, to pass by much else, the Eucharistic means of union with Christ. It has always been regarded in the view of historic Christendom' as 'needful' 'for a complete Christianity.' The 'genuine undenominationalism' is prepared to sacrifice it.

It is, indeed, a matter for profound thankfulness that many Christians who have parted with much historical Christianity have retained a firm belief in the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation. Even if, as we are disposed to think, the proportion of orthodox Dissenters' who have a real hold on these doctrines is less than Mr. Gladstone appears to believe, there are certainly many who regard them as vital truths. But, valuable as that which they possess is, we may not make light of that which they have lost. It is well to use our common ground as a means to lead them to fuller truth. We shall hardly commend the fuller truth if we minimize the difference between ourselves and those who do not possess it.

Mr. Gladstone is of opinion that

'everything besides that clusters round them [i.e. round the central tenets of the Holy Trinity and of the Incarnation of our Lord'], including the doctrines respecting the Church, the Ministry, the Sacraments, the Communion of the Saints, and the great facts of eschatology, is only developments which have been embodied in the historic Christianity of the past, as auxiliary to the great central purpose of redemption' (p. 173).

This statement appears to us to ignore the truth that a body of Christian doctrine, the deposit of the Faith, was committed by our Lord to His Apostles, and by them to the Catholic Church.' To whatever extent the clear definition of dogmas, and the complete realization of their meaning, may have been a matter of time, the existence of such a deposit precludes the doctrines respecting the Church, the Ministry, the Sacraments, the Communion of Saints, and the great facts of eschatology' from being 'only developments.' To take the last point only, it is an essential doctrine of the Christian.

1 See, eg, Acts i. 3, xviii. 26; 1 Cor. xv. 3; 2 Ep. to Tim. i. 13, 14, iv. 7.

Faith, a part of the sacred trust held and guarded from the first, that the penalties of the lost are unending, that the reward of the faithful is eternal joy in the presence of God.

The article points out the value, from an evidential point of view, of the common belief of 'dissonant and conflicting bodies' in the 'tenets of the Holy Trinity and of the Incarnation of our Lord.'

If, then, the Christian Church has sustained heavy loss through its divisions in the weight of its testimonials, and in its aggressive powers as against the world, I would still ask whether she may not, in the good providence of God, have received a suitable, perhaps a preponderating, compensation in the accordant witness of all Christendom to the truths that our religion is the religion of the GodMan, and that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh' (p. 173).

The Providence of God brings good out of evil. But it is not always a preponderating compensation.' So here there is a special evidential value in the agreement about central truths among those who disagree about much else. But can it be compared for one moment to the wonderful testimony to the truth of God which would be afforded by the visible unity in belief and communion of all who are known by the Christian name? The strength of the Church against heathenism and unbelief is grievously impaired by the differences among those known as Christians, just as the vigour of her own life is lessened by the divisions between East and West, between Rome and England. To say so is no human speculation. It was Christ Himself who linked together the unity of believers and the converting power of the Faith.'

If our thoughts turn to re-union, at what are we to aim? Its only possible basis can be in complete loyalty to the historic Faith. So great a fact, if it is ever accomplished, can only be the result of Divine grace. Can we hope for the help of God unless we are scrupulously faithful to the trust which His covenanted means imply? And to make little of the lack of Orders is to part company with historical Christianity.

Our duty to our fellow Christians, no less than the need of loyalty to God and His revealed methods, requires us to maintain an uncompromising position that heresy and schism are in themselves sins, however much they, like other sins, may, in God's judgment, be lessened in gravity by ignorance or misconception of His law on the part of those who commit them. This duty is partly to Dissenters. We do 1 St. John xvii. 21.

them an injustice if, in the name of charity, we represent the wrong of schism as being less than Christ and His Apostles have said that it is. The duty is also to the branches of the Catholic Church from which we are, unhappily, outwardly divided. We owe it to them to help in maintaining an attitude which, in common with them, we inherit.

And it is our right policy, in the true sense of that often misused word, to be thoughtful how our actions and utterances may appear in the eyes of Eastern and Roman Christians. To play with Dissent is to compromise ourselves. If we are to win belief in the privileges we are convinced we possess, we must show that we value them.

To make one more criticism, we cannot accept the phrase in which it is said that the Christian Church' is no longer entitled to speak with an undivided and universal authority, and thus to take her place among the paramount facts of life' (p. 173). The divisions between Eastern and Western, and between Roman and English Churchmen, indeed, make new decisions, uniformly arrived at, impossible. But sad and injurious as they are, they do not prevent an authoritative appeal to the decrees of the past or to the beliefs now held in common, in spite of separation. If this is fairly considered, it can hardly be denied that the Church still has her place among the paramount facts of life.' The 'private conscience' may indeed be 'the vicegerent of God' (p. 174), but the conscience, if it is to be a good and dependable guide, needs to be instructed by the revelation in Holy Scripture, the history of the past, and the Church of the present. And the instruction is required not less on the subjects of heresy and schism than with regard to other sins.

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We are conscious of a possibility that the real difference between Mr. Gladstone and ourselves is less than it may appear to be. We cannot get rid of an impression that his extraordinary powers of sympathy have caused him to use language which makes the concessions he is prepared to grant to the position of Dissenters seem greater than he would, on further consideration, think to be possible. If an under-current in the article really means that this is the case there is reason for great thankfulness. But we are not at liberty in our criticisms to assume anything else than that all the statements it contains are deliberately made, and there is no doubt that the law of Christ against heresy and schism is said to be mutable.

ART. V.-GREEK PAPYRI.

1. Aristotle on the Constitution of Athens. Edited by F. G. KENYON. (London, 1891.)

2. The Flinders Petrie Papyri. Edited by the Rev. J. P. MAHAFFY, D.D. Parts I. and II. (Dublin, 1891 and 1893.)

3. Classical Texts from Papyri in the British Museum ; including the Poems of Herodas. Edited by F. G. KENYON. (London, 1891.)

4. Corpus Papyrorum Ægypti, tome iii, fasc. 1, Le Plaidoyer d Hypéride contre Athénogène. Par EUGÈNE REVILLOUT. (Paris, 1892.)

5. Greek Papyri in the British Muscum: Catalogue, with. Texts. Edited by F. G. KENYON. (London, 1893.) 6. Griechische Urkunden aus den Museen in Berlin. Parts I. to X. Edited by Prof. U. WILCKEN, Fr. KREBS, and P. VIERECK. (Berlin, 1893-4.)

IT is within the knowledge, not only of scholars, but of all who take an interest in the progress of our knowledge of classical antiquity, that during the last four years a very large number of Greek documents written on papyrus have been discovered in Egypt, several of which contain copies of literary works, some of them hitherto unknown to us except by name. Of the most important of these, the treatise of Aristotle on the Athenian Constitution, an account was given in this Review very shortly after its first publication. It is the most important of the discoveries yet made, but it does not stand alone. One announcement has followed close upon another with a rapidity almost bewildering; and alongside of the literary works there has been brought to light a much greater quantity of non-literary documents, of various degrees of interest. Time was needed in order to obtain a true appreciation of the newly-appearing works. In the first dust and turmoil of discovery and publication, both their importance and their defects were likely to be emphasized too sharply. But now that a pause seems to have befallen in the succession of publications, it may be interesting to try to enumerate our gains, and to estimate the real value of the new acquisitions to our knowledge. The list of works which stands at the head of this article is far from including all the recent publications of papyri. In particular, it omits all the minor announcements which have appeared in considerable numbers in the philological journals of England, Germany, and France;

but it contains all the larger and more important discoveries, and fully illustrates the character of the papyri in general and the range of subjects which they embrace. A consideration of their contents will show how rich has been the harvest of the last four years.

It is no part of our design to sit in judgment on the work of the various editors to whom has fallen the good fortune of dealing with this mass of interesting material. It is satisfactory to us as Englishmen to know that the most valuable of the new papyri have been acquired by this country. The papyri in the British Museum have been edited by Mr. Kenyon; those which were rescued by Professor Flinders Petrie from the mummy-cases of Gurob have been dealt with by Professor Mahaffy. The one important acquisition of the Louvre-the speech of Hyperides against Athenogeneswas both discovered and published by M. E. Revillout; the other French papyri were edited several years ago by MM. Letronne and Brunet de Presle, with subsequent additions by Dr. Wessely, of Vienna. The Berlin papyri, a countless mass of documents, but including hardly any literary remains, are in course of publication by Professor Wilcken, Dr. Krebs, and Dr. Viereck. Finally, the great collection of the Archduke Rainer at Vienna, which contains many literary fragments but no works of any great size, are in the hands of Dr. Wessely; but as yet very few of their texts have been published. To all these editors we offer our congratulations on the extraordinarily interesting nature of the tasks which have fallen to their lot, but our present concern is rather with the papyri themselves.

The most striking and, on the whole, the most valuable of the documents which the explorer's spade has restored to us are those which relate to the works of Greek literature; for these are additions to the great patrimony from which the modern world has derived the major part of its intellectual culture. To sum this up in the briefest way, we have recovered within the last four years, of works hitherto totally lost, Aristotle's Constitution of Athens, several poems by Herodas, portions of two orations of Hyperides, and a considerable fragment of one of the lost plays of Euripides; to say nothing of some fragments of Callimachus (inscribed, not on papyrus, but on wood) and smaller scraps of several authors. In addition to these we have obtained manuscripts of portions of the known works of Homer, Euripides, Isocrates, Plato, Demosthenes, Theocritus, and others, many centuries older than any of the copies hitherto extant.