position will scarcely win approval, but the volumes are useful, because they present, in form convenient for reference, the evidence for and against various readings, and because they call attention to some cases where the principles of textual criticism were too rigidly followed. E. I, B. ABRISS DES BIBLISCHEN ARAMÄISCH GRAMMATIK nach Handschriften berichtigte Texte Wörterbuch, von Professor D. HERMANN L. STRACK. Leipzig. 1896. In this little book Professor Strack has rendered a real service to theological students. The lack of a convenient manual such as this, has been at least one cause of the failure, on the part of our theological students, to read the Aramaic sections of the Old Testament. Within the space of twenty-four pages, Professor Strack has given a very satisfactory outline of the grammar, including a practically exhaustive list of the Aramaic verbal forms which occur in the Old Testament. Many would doubtless question the expediency of printing the text, but Professor Strack has here put into practice his theory on the subject which he expressed in his "Einleitung" (pp. 171, 172), and as a result of a comparison of manuscripts, believes that he can offer a better text than that given in the Baer and Delitzsch edition. But, whatever the opinion as to the text, all must welcome the vocabulary. While not so valuable now as it would have been a few years ago, before the newer lexicons adopted the very sensible plan of putting the biblical Aramaic vocabulary in an appendix, it will still be extremely convenient, especially for the begin ner. The book is simply an outline, and makes no pretensions to displace Kautzsch's grammar, which will still remain the standard work on the subject. RICHARD ROLLE OF HAMPOLE, an English Father of the W. R. B. Church AND Edited by C. Pp. xiv, 442. This volume is a monument of painstaking research in a field that has been neglected hitherto. Heretofore little has been known of the theological literature which flourished in the north of England in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The present volume is the first in a series which is to bring these writings within the reach of the general public. The student of Anglo-Saxon, as well as the church historian, will find it a mine of wealth, since he finds here extensive literature in circulation a century before Chaucer wrote; while the church historian is introduced to an interesting phase of religious mysticism whose influence is still felt in the religious life of England. BOOKS RECEIVED. A HISTORY OF THE WARFARE OF THEOLOGY in Christendom. By ANDREW DICKSON WHITE. Pp. xxiii, 415 and xiii, 474. New York: D. Appleton & Co. $2.50 each. PROGRESS IN SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE. By the Rev. CHAUNCEY GILES. A Memorial Volume. Pp. 369. Philadelphia: American New-Church Tract and Publication Society. 1895. THE BOOK OF THE TWELVE PROPHETS commonly called the Minor. (The Expositor's Bible. By GEORGE ADAM SMITH. In two volumes. Vol. I.--AMOS, HOSEA, AND MICAH. Pp. xviii, 438. New York: A. C. Armstrong & Son. 1896. THE LIFE, LETTERS, AND JOURNALS OF THE REV. AND HON. PETER PARKER, M. D., Missionary, Physician, and Diplomatist. The Father of Medical Missions and Founder of the Opthalmic Hospital in Canton. By the Rev. George B. StevENS, D. D., Professor in Yale Uni versity, with the coöperation of the Rev. W. FISHER MARKWICK, D. D., Ansonia, Conn. Pp. 362. Boston: Congregational Sunday School and Publication Society. 1896. BAPTISM AS TAUGHT IN THE SCRIPTURES. BY RHYS R. LLOYD, A. M., Professor of New Testament Greek and Exegesis in the Pacific Theological Seminary. The Same. 1896. Pp. 99. SOCIAL MEANINGS OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCES. By George D. HERRON. Pp. 237. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell. 75 cents. PROPHECY; or, Speaking for God. By the Rev. EVERETT S. STACKPOLE, D. D. Pp. 167. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell. 1896. 75 cents. VISIONS AND SERVICE. Fourteen Discourses delivered in College Chapels. By WILLIAM LAWRENCE, Bishop of Massachusetts. Pp. vi, 233. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1896. $1.25. MORAL AND CIVIL LAW, Parts of the Same Thing. By ELI F. RITTER. Pp. 212. New York: Hunt & Eaton; Cincinnati: Cranston & Curts. 1896. THE DOCTRINE OF THE INCARNATION. BY ROBERT L. OTTLEY, M. A. In two volumes. Vol. I.-To the Council of Nicæa. Pp. xii, 324. Vol. II.-To the Present Day. Pp. x, 366. New York: The Macmil lan Co. 186. $350. EDEN LOST AND WON. Studies of the Early History and Final Destiny of Man as taught in Nature and Revelation. By Sir J. WILLIAM DAWSON, LL. D., F. R. S., etc. Pp. viii, 226. New York, Chicago, Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Co. 1896. $1.25. HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE (International Theological Library). By GEORGE PARK FISHER. Pp. xv, 583. New York: Charles Scrib. ner's Sons. 1896. $2.50. A HISTORY OF THE COUNCILS OF THE CHURCH. By the Right Rev. CHARLES JOSEPH HEFELE, Vol. V. A. D. 626 to the Close of the Second Council of Nicæa, A. D. 787. Pp. xvi, 472. New York: Imported by Charles Scribner's Sons. 1896. $4.50 a volume. THE PEOPLE'S BIBLE HISTORY. By Rev. GEORGE C.LORIMER, LL. D. With an Introduction by Right Hon. WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE, M. P. Pp. xxix, 910. Chicago: The Henry O. Shepard Co. 1896. THE BIBLIOTHECA SACRA. ARTICLE I. THE ARCHÆOLOGY OF THE MODE OF BAPTISM. BY THE REV. BENJAMIN B. WARFIELD, D. D., LL.D. It is rather striking to observe the diversity which has grown up in the several branches of the Christian church in the mode of administering the initiatory rite of Christianity. Throughout the whole West, affusion is in use. The ritual of the great Latin church directs as follows: "Then the godfather or godmother, or both, holding the infant, the priest takes the baptismal water in a little vessel or jug, and pours the same three times upon the head of the infant in the form of the cross, and at the same time he says, uttering the words once only, distinctly and attentively: 'N, I baptize thee in the name of the Father,'-he pours first; and of the Son'-he pours a second time; and of the Holy Ghost'he pours the third time." Here is a trine affusion. With the exception of the large Baptist denominations, Protestants use a single affusion. The Baptists employ a single immersion. Throughout the East a trine immersion is the rule. Although practice seems sometimes to vary whether all three immersions shall be total, the Orthodox Greek church in1 Cf. Schaff, The Oldest Church Manual, pp. 42-43. VOL. LIII. NO. 212 I sists somewhat strenuously upon trine immersion. The ritual in use in the Russian church directs as follows: "And after he has anointed the whole body, the Priest baptizes the candidate, held erect and looking towards the east, and says: The servant of God, N, is baptized in the name of the father, Amen; and of the Son, Amen; and of the Holy Ghost, Amen; now and ever, and to ages of ages, Amen!' At each invocation he immerses the candidate and raises him again." Significant variations obtain, however, among the other Oriental communions. The Nestorians, for example, cause the candidate to stand erect in water reaching to the neck, and dip the head three times.2 The Syrians, whether Jacobite or Maronite, place the candidate upright on his feet and pour water three times over his head in the name of the Trinity.3 The office of the Syrian church of Jerusalem provides as follows: "The priest first lets the candidate down into the baptistery. Then laying his right hand on the head of the person to be baptized, with the left hand he takes up water successively from before, behind, and upon each side of the candidate, and washes his whole body (funditque super caput ejus, et abluit totum ipsius corpus).”1 In the Coptic church the custom has become fixed for the priest to dip the body the first time up to the middle, the second time up to the neck, and the third time over the head. Sometimes, however, apparently, the actual practice is that the child is dipped only up to the neck, and the im 1 Bjerring, The Offices of the Oriental Church, p. 94; cf. p. xxiv. 2 Denzinger, Ritus Orientalium, etc., i. 17; Butler, The Ancient Coptic Churches of Egypt, ii. 267. Cf. the ritual in Denzinger, i. 381. Denzinger, loc. cit. Cf. Washburn, The New York Independent, August 7, 1884. I have quoted the words from Egbert C. Smyth (Andover Review, May, 1884, p. 540), who takes them from Chrystal's History of the Modes of Christian Baptism. Cf. Denzinger, as above, p. 17, and for actual forms, pp. 277, 287, 307. Butler, The Ancient Coptic Churches of Egypt, ii. 267; also Bernat, as quoted by Denzinger, loc. cit. mersion is completed by pouring the water over the head.1 The Armenians duplicate the rite in a very odd way. Among them, we are told, "the priest asks the child's name; and, on hearing it, lets the child down into the water, saying, 'This, N, servant of God, who is come from the state of childhood (or from the state of a catechumen) to baptism, is baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. . . . While saying this, the priest buries the child (or catechumen) three times in the water, as a figure of Christ's three days' burial. Then taking the child out of the water, he thrice pours a handful of water on its head, saying, 'As many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. Hallelujah! As many of you as have been enlightened of the Father, the Holy Spirit is put into you. Hallelujah!" 2 If we neglect for the moment the usages of minor divisions of the church, we may say that the practice of the church is divided into an Eastern and a Western mode. Broadly speaking, the East baptizes by a trine immersion; the West by affusion. When we scrutinize the history of these differing practices, however, we quickly learn that, with whatever unessential variations in details, the usage of the East runs back into a high antiquity; while there are indications on the surface of the Western usage that it is comparatively recent in origin, and survivals of an older custom persist side by side with it. To be sure, the immersion as practiced by the Protestant Baptists can scarcely be numbered among these survivals. The original Baptists apparently did not immerse; and Dr. Dexter appears to have shown that even the first English Baptists who seceded from the 1 Schaff, The Oldest Church Manual (ed. 2), p. 43 †. 2 I have quoted this from Smith and Cheetham, i. 169a. But cf. Denzinger, loc. cit., and for the ritual itself, pp. 387 and 395, where, however, the order of the two halves of the rite differs from that given above, and in both cases the actual baptism is connected with the affusion, and the burial is separated from it. |