and that therefore what they spake may be absolutely relied upon. But while we believe that all that each one said was truth, God's truth, we do not believe it was all the truth. You must have all that all of them said, in order to be sure that you have all the truth. "Which things we speak," writes the Apostle Paul, "not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual." And only by such collation and comparison can God's truth be comprehended in all the breadth and beauty of its meaning. You cannot obtain any accurate representation of a building by taking only a single view. And so the photographer is accustomed to take two pictures, from a little different points of view, and when both these are looked at at once, as in a stereopticon, you see not two pictures, but one, and that not a flat surface such as each of the pictures shows, but a solid that stands out in its massiveness before your eyes. And yet even then you do not see the hinder part, but only half the building. To see it all in its completed symmetry, we should be obliged to have four views, and to look at them all at once. But this is, of course, impossible, inasmuch as we have not four eyes, but only two. But the principle applies though its application be impossible. Singularly enough there are just four gospels. The metropolis of gospel truth, like the heavenly metropolis, lieth four square. Four pictures have we here of the matchless Man of Nazareth, four pictures, and all so much alike that sometimes captious critics have said that there was only one original gospel and the other three were copied from that. Four pictures, and yet all so different that other skeptical critics have alleged that there are glaring discrepancies in them, that are hopelessly irreconcilable. The pictures, of course, must be alike, for all of them are pictures of HIM. The pictures, of course, must be unlike, for each of the portrait painters had his own peculiar point of

view. And yet it takes all four to give us the Christ of history in all the completeness of his humanity and divinity. And so we turn from one to the other, and seek as best we can while gazing upon one to carry the others in our mind; and yet to the ordinary reader, and even to the reader that is more than ordinary, there is conscious difficulty and more or less confusion, in attempting such a process, and there would still be, even though all four of the gospels were spread before us in parallel columns, as has sometimes been done in preparing a gospel Harmony.

In the present volume the attempt is made to obviate this difficulty by weaving the four into one, and making a mosaic, in which the tracery and coloring of each of the divinely-guided artist-evangelists shall be faithfully preserved, and so the matchless portrait of the Son of Man shall beam upon us, as it were, from a single canvass instead of four. How well the attempt has succeeded must be left for the devout and scholarly student to judge. That it is not an easy task which our author has undertaken, he will himself very frankly concede; nor is it one in which absolute perfection can be possibly attained by human hands. That great pains have been taken, great research employed, and marked ability displayed in the preparation of this volume, must be readily apparent to every thoughtful reader of it. That it will be an aid of great value in Bible study, and that it will enhance our appreciation of the marvelous unity in variety, harmony in diversity; that distinguishes the gospel histories, and above all that it will contribute not a little to the clearness and fullness of our conceptions of him "in whom all fullness dwells, and of whose fullness we have all received, and grace for grace," I do very sincerely and firmly believe; and therefore I do very cordially commend it to all who love him, and long for his appearing, and who feel that above all things else, his "life is the light of men." P. S. HENSON.

CHICAGO.

Page. Matt. Mark. Luke. John.