Morison. Faber and Faber, London Some idea of the interest aroused by the appearance of this book can be gained when it is realised th a second impression was called for during the same month as the first ter's a funny story but it fits—it fits"—the remark of the padre in Ernest Raymond's novel "Wanderlight" might be taken as the motto of the book. The author tells us that as a young man when in the English Church service he was repeating the Creed he would say "suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried' "at this point I used to set my teeth tightly and refuse to utter another word." This is explained because "When as a very young man I first began seriously to study the life of Christ, I did so with a very definite feeling that, if 1 may so put it, His history rested upon very insecure foundations." He. further tells us' that te had begun to take a deep interest physical science and though he di not attach the same weight to the findings of textual critics "I'did to this fundamental matter ' of the miraculous, It seemed tome that purely: documentary criticism might} be mistaken but that the laws of! the Universe should go back on themselves ina quite arbitrary and inconsequential manner seemed. very improbable."
So he decided to write a book but as a result of his study he wrote a very different account from what he had at first intended, "But to-day I feel differently. I have wrestled with that problem and found it tougher then ever I could have conceived possible. It is easy to say that you will believe nothing that will not fit into the mould of a rationalist conception of the Universe. But suppose the facts won't fit into that mould?
The utmost that an honest man. can do is to undertake to examine the facts patiently and imparti and to see where they lead him: That is what I propose to do, The book ends with these: word:
"There may be, and, as the writer thinks, there certainly is, a deep and profoundly historical basis for that much disputed sentence in the Apostles Creed 'The Third Day he rose again from the dead'." The book in some ways reads like a detective story or perhaps one, should say like a barrister's cross examination of witnesses. It is very readable and holds the atten-jon so that one feels that one must go on reading. The reader may not always feel obliged to assent to the conclusions drawn by the author but he does at least] make one realise the implications of the words of the gospels and as q result of a "Spiritual Pilgrim age" it has great interest and value. The following quotation will show the writer's style and type of argument.
"Nothing can be clearer than that throughout the week which preceded the arrest there was some impediment which led to the event being postponed to the eleventh hour, when in the nature of things their difficulties were increased.
'The first interview with Judas seems to have promised well because we are told (Mark XIV y, LI) 'And they, when they heard it, were glad and promised to give hi And he sought how he mi veniently deliver him unto them'.
"If we are to follow the chronology. of the Gospels, this happened at the very latest on Tuesday after the dinner at the house of Simon the Leper, yet still no overt move was made, "Tt was not until Into on Thursday night, when Judas hurried from the Supper Room, that hesitation changed into rephase of intense and feverish activity set in" (Page 48 f.)—Cuenicus.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.