AN ADDRESS BY THE REV. JOHN STEVENS, D.D., LIT, If proof were needed of the grip that Jesus has upon the cultured and thinking minds of our age, it would be quite sufticient to point to the wide-spread and eager interest awakened by the news of a di covery of the fragment of a leaf from an ancient papyrus book, upon which are a few sentences, each of which is prefaced by the words, dive Inooic—"* Jesus says." Not only scholars, but thoughtful people generally, have been engaged in a keen se: iting of these so called Logic, or sayings of our Lord; comparing; them with His teachings as they are recorded by the four evangelists framing theories and weighing theories containing them: must be -referfod, by to thei probable age to which the' papyrus whom it was written, and the bearing it has upon the problems connected with the history and present form of the Canonical gospels. The numerous articles in our newspapers and in religious journals, the many public lectures and sermons which have been delivered, the several discussions which have taken place in learned societies upon these Logia, a'l bear witness that the common feeling in this century towards Jesus as a teacher is much the same as that which moved the temple soldiers who were sent to arrest Him, to return to those who sent them and say: Never man spoke like this man I want to give in the briefest possible way some account of these Logia, and* to indicate their probable meaning. If some of the points I mention are already familiar to any who hear mo, you. will please understand that I have in mind as I. speak those who have not had opportunity to acquaint themselves with the facts of this remarkable discovery. In connection with the?Egypt Exploration Fund, Messrs. Grenfell"and Hunt have been searching the low sand-covered mounds which taatk the site of the ancient city of Oxyrhynchus, 120 miles south' of Cairo, on the border of the Libyan desert. Here they have found 8 great many papyri; among them the fragment the. publication of which has onused general attention to be directed to it. It measures 5} by 3} inches, and is broken at the bottom. From the character of the writing upon it, it is believed that it belongs to the first half of the Third Century, and perhaps to the second half of the Second Century. Of the eight Logit which it originally contained, there are six which are so far decipherable that their sense can be fixed, and four. are
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.