The Church of the Apostles. By Lonsdale Ragg, B.D. (Riving-
tons. 4s. 6d. net.)—This is a volume of the "Church Universal" Series, appearing under the editorship of Mr. W. H. Hutton, the first in order of subject, though not of appearance. It is a careful piece of work, which may be read with pleasure and profit. We cannot always accept Mr. Ragg's explanations. It would, for instance, be convenient if we could antedate the difference between Paul and Peter by a few months,—put it, in fact, before the Council of Jerusalem. But to do so would be to take a great liberty with the narrative; no secular history would be so treated. The conjecture as to the origin of the Monarchical 'episcopate is certainly attractive. Bishop and presbyter are inter- changeable terms in the Epistles ; but we have an Apostolic Monarchy. The Monarchy reappears again in the Epistles of Ignatius about fifteen years after the death of the last of the Apostles. May it not have been his legacy to tho Church ? But Mr. Ragg seems to us to be taking too much for granted when he writes : " We may be justified in picturing the aged St. John when he celebrated, or, in later phrase, ' pontificated,' clad (if we may take the expression literally) in a sacerdotal breastplate as ministering fasting to a fasting congregation in the early morning f the Lord's Day." From the Monarchy of St. Paul to the Monarchy of the Ignatian Bishop is not a difficult translation, but it is a different thing when we exchange the Corinthian Eucharist for Mr. Ragg's " Mass." .
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