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but the contaminating influence of the old system of appointments seems likely in the end to be swept entirely away. Another result of the agitation has been the adoption of a similar law in several of the States. New York took the lead, but the Empire State was soon followed by Massachusetts. In both of these States the Commissioners have received very comprehensive authority, and the testimony is uniform that the new system is everywhere received, not only with general satisfaction, but even with not a little enthusiasm. report says that the effect of the new law in New York is akin to the feelings of a community at last relieved of the plague. The first annual message of the Mayor of Brooklyn after the law came into force reported that the city had saved " in a single bureau double the cost of the new system for a year." Not to go into details, it is enough perhaps to say that the success of the law in the State and municipal service was so conspicuous during the first year of its operation, that in 1884 the scope of its application was greatly extended, and it was made compulsory on all the cities of the State. More than five thousand five hundred places, that in the city of New York were formerly given to "strikers" and favourites as the result of political service of the most disreputable kind, are now awarded as the result of successful competition; and (as foreigners will not be averse to being told) there is abundant evidence that the change is destined to revolutionize the city government. This prospect shows itself in the weakening of the greatest sources of evil. The bane of New York politics has been the existence of certain societies or "halls," of which Tammany is the chief, and which have had no means of existence except assessments on office-holders and office-seekers. Only two years ago an investigation made by the New York Legislature showed that the county clerk, the recorder, and the sheriff were paying from $30,000 to $50,000 a year to each of these patent engines of evil. But the adoption of the improved system has deprived the "halls" of their means of support, and their downfall is clearly impending. Best of all, the good results of the reform are making themselves appreciated not only in the States immediately benefited, but also far beyond their borders. In Maryland, in Missouri, in California, and perhaps elsewhere, the subject is receiving earnest and especial consideration.

The course of President Cleveland during the few weeks since his inauguration has more than justified the hopes of those who may be said to have turned the scale in his favour. Notwithstanding the fact that his party sneered at civil service reform in its Convention, the President has shown since his accession to office that his views on the subject amount to something more than a sentimental sympathy-that they amount, in fact, to a principle of action. It is therefore safe to expect, not only that he will heartily aid the Commissioners in carrying out the provisions of the Pendleton Bill, but also that he will be in favour of extending the reform into branches of the service not yet reached.

The reform, however, can never be made complete till the Tenure of Office Bill of 1820 is repealed. This Act fixes the tenure at four years; and consequently at every presidential election more than a hundred thousand officers and clerks are incapacitated for their legitimate work by their feverish anxiety concerning the result. Here is a picture of what occurred in the Government offices at the time of the election last November:

"In all but those rooms where current work is obliged to be done there was no pretence of doing anything. . . . . The women in the departments were evidently less able to stand the strain than the men. They were pale and nervous, and many were really made ill by the strain. On Wednesday, in one of the rooms of the Treasury, as they talked over the bad news, and speculated on the chances of Republicans keeping their places, a usually staid and placid woman burst into a passion of tears. Instantly the contagion spread. The pent-up hearts gave way, and every woman began to sob. In another department a despatch was read on Thursday claiming Blaine's election. A woman sprang on a chair and called for three cheers for Blaine. When they were given she kept on screaming, and could not stop. She went off into a perfect storm of hysterics. At the Pension Office the excitement was more intense even than in the other buildings. So thoroughly unnerved were the clerks on Wednesday that they were informally dismissed at noon, and again on Thursday very few were to be found at work."

The basis of this excitement was the apprehension that, in case of Mr. Cleveland's election, every Republican, and every person appointed by a Republican, would be dismissed. Even those who thought it probable that efficient officers and clerks would be retained till their terms of service expired, had every reason to suppose that at that time Republicans would be succeeded by Democrats. The crowd of office-seekers who have thronged the avenues of Washington since the election are enough to show that these apprehensions were not altogether ill-founded. A man of less firmness than President Cleveland would be likely to yield to so enormous a pressure. There can be no assurance that in the future men of a yielding temperament will not find their way into the presidential chair; and consequently there can be no safety for the service till the tenure of office is made exclusively dependent on efficiency and good behaviour. And that can only be done by repealing the Act of 1820, and restoring the service to the condition it was in during the first thirty years of our national history.

Nor is there any valid argument in favour of retaining that pernicious Act. Within five years after it was passed a Select Committee of the Senate reported that it defeated its own professed object. Webster struck at the root of the evil when he said that "he who controls another man's means of living controls his will." Jefferson declared that "the law introduces a principle of intrigue and corruption, which will soon cover the mass, not only of senators, but of citizens." He predicted still further that it would "keep in constant excitement all hungry cormorants for office, render them, as well as those in place, sycophants to their senators, engage them in eternal intrigue to put out one and put in another, to make them, what all executive directories become, mere sinks of corruption and factions." This striking prediction has been literally fulfilled; and it is far within the bounds of truth and moderation to say that the Act referred to has been the cause of more political corruption than any other Act in the history of the Government. Therefore, although much has already been accomplished for which every lover of good government has reason to be thankful, there remains much yet to be done before our administrative service can be regarded as in a satisfactory condition.

CHARLES KENDALL ADAMS.

CONTEMPORARY RECORDS.

A

I.-NEW TESTAMENT EXEGESIS.

LL thoughtful readers will welcome a new commentary from the pen of the Rev. Joseph Agar Beet.* Having already dealt with St. Paul's Epistles to the Romans and the Corinthians, he proceeds in this volume to explain the Epistle to the Galatians. Mr. Beet's first volume, that on the Epistle to the Romans, at once gave him high rank among contemporary expositors. It received the favourable notice of the best Biblical scholars both at home and abroad. His peculiar merits are thoroughness, independence, and impartiality. Mr. Beet has undertaken the onerous and deeply responsible task of commenting on all St. Paul's Epistles, and the success which he has hitherto achieved gives promise that the complete work will be one of high value. Mr. Beet follows the example set by the Bishops of Gloucester and Durham in their well-known editions of various Epistles. His views of the functions of an expositor are thoroughly sound. He begins in every case with a careful grammatical study of the New Testament Greek, which he examines not only with the aid of the best classical and Hellenistic grammars, but also by familiar intercourse with the writings of Aristotle, Plato, and Lucian, and above all with the Septuagint. He also thoroughly examines the phraseology, availing himself of the labours of Grimm, Bruder, Cremer, and other lexicographers. He gives careful and consecutive attention to the more important parts of the Old Testament; consults the best commentaries, such as those of Chrysostom among the Fathers, Calvin and Luther among the Reformers, Bengel in the Post-Reformation period, Estius among the Roman Catholics; and among the moderns Meyer, Fritsche, Jowett, Godet, and many others. We respect Mr. Beet all the more for his not being ashamed to tell us that he has been the better able to understand St. Paul by the constant endeavour to apply his teaching to his own practical and spiritual benefit, holding that all Revealed Truth is designed for our good, and that only by using it can we acquire the power of looking more deeply into God's great purpose of mercy. So whole-hearted have been Mr. Beet's endeavours, that he has even looked for illustrations of theological truth in social life and in the material creation, believing that "whatever is human casts light on whatever else is real and human.”

But Mr. Beet's most distinctive merits are his severe logical analysis of the arguments of St. Paul according to the unchanging laws of the human mind, and his careful examination of dogmatic theology. Having, like the great majority of the ablest modern exegetes, abandoned the theory of verbal and mechanical dictation, he traces the

"A Commentary on St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians." By Joseph Agar Beet. Hodder & Stoughton. 1885.

evolution of the Apostle's thoughts as moulded by his natural disposition, his history, and his circumstances; and he takes special pains to discover "the great first principles which St. Paul assumes without giving proof, and from which he deduces the details of his teaching." He finds that these were few in number, and the fact that, amid minor diversities, they, or truths equivalent to them, are assumed by all the New Testament writers, lead him to the conclusion that they were derived from the One Teacher at whose feet all the Apostles sat.

In his edition of the Romans, Mr. Beet had pointed out that the Epistle is the development of five great doctrines-namely: 1. Justification through faith; 2. Justification through Christ's death; 3. Sanctification in Christ; 4. Sanctification through faith; and 5. Sanctification through the Holy Spirit. He finds, in the Epistle to the Galatians, a view of justification by faith seen from another standpoint and in a different perspective. In Romans, it is "the massive foundationstone of a compact theological structure;" in Galatians, "it stands alone, a lofty monument in solitary grandeur." In Romans it is expounded in quiet theological thought; in Galatians in living contact with actual and deadly error. Of the valuable dissertations which conclude the volume, the sixth, which is on "Justification by Faith," is the best. There is nothing in it which is wholly new to theologians, but the results are, on one hand, expressed with admirable terseness and clearness, and, on the other, have been thought out with the honest and severe labour which marks all Mr. Beet's work. It is difficult to condense an essay which is already condensed into the smallest compass, and closely reasoned step by step. Mr. Beet points out that there are two justifications, the preliminary and the final-the one obtained by believing the words of Jesus, the other by obeying the commands of God-which are most closely related to each other. The manner in which, with this clue to guide him, Mr. Beet harmonizes the different types of teaching which are found in the various New Testament writers, is very able. He shows how it enables us to retain in their fullest sense the aspects of salvation presented alike by St. Matthew, St. Luke, St. James, St. John, and St. Paul. He concludes his essay with an excellent and very fair comparison of the views of Luther and the Tridentine Fathers. His main conclusions are that justification is obtained simply by faith, before faith has attested itself by any good works, or has produced even hope; that it will be lost unless followed by obedience; and that we do not rely for God's favour on our obedience, but simply on His word, which promises, through the death of Christ, life to all who believe.

We have no space to enter into the details of Mr. Beet's expositions, but we are sure that readers will be struck by the strength and sobriety of his conclusions. Rejecting all parade of learning, all multiplication of authorities, and all discussion of varying opinions, he gives his conclusions as the direct result of close reasoning and examination. Any one who will consult his notes on disputed passages, such as Gal. iii. 16, or Gal. iii. 20, or the one passage in which St. Paul borrows a passing illustration from the Philonian method of allegory (Gal. iv. 21-31), will appreciate the value of the method which gives them the final inferences of sound thought while it spares them the interminable fancies of exegetic superficiality. We heartily thank Mr.

Beet for his work, and we congratulate the Missionary College at Richmond, which has secured his services as Professor of Systematic. Theology.

There seems to be no limit to the demand for commentaries on the Epistles of St. Paul. The last ten years have produced them in great multitudes, and so long as they are serious and useful, we can only rejoice that so many students seek for guidance in understanding the thoughts of the great Apostle. Principal Edwards gives us a thick volume on the First Epistle to the Corinthians.* We cannot rank it so high as the work of Mr. Beet, but we can still give it a meed of sincere praise. It is the result of several years of prolonged and solitary study, devoted to an endeavour to find out the real meaning and central principle of St. Paul, of whose words the author quotes the judgment of Wiclif, that they "passen othere writingis in two thingis -thei ben pure, sutil, and plenteuous to preche the people." Mr. Edwards found the principle for which he was in search in St. Paul's doctrine of Christ; of the vitality and power of which doctrine, its sufficiency, and its peculiar fitness to rekindle our dying faith, he became more and more convinced. "To me," he says, "its power was the evidence of its truth. It seemed not merely to answer the anxious questions of the age, but also to raise the entire spiritual life into a higher sphere, in which doubt is put away with the things of the child, and faith in the supernatural made human, becomes a promise of strength, and a pledge of victory." We do not find much that is new in the hermeneutic matter, but the rest of the introduction is valuable. Mr. Edwards points out that during the four or five years of silence which followed the Epistles to the Thessalonians, St. Paul, who had passed a large part of this time with Apollos at Ephesus, seems to have added new elements to his theology-elements due, perhaps, in part to the influence of Alexandria, or to closer acquaintance with Greek ideas. This new point of view rests mainly on the conception of a mystical union between Christ and the believer. St. Paul had never wavered in his belief of the supernatural facts of Christianity, but now he had found a clue to their inner meaning, transforming into spirituality his hopes of Christ's advent, and rendering love to Christ not a short-lived affection, or feeling of gratitude, but a holy well-spring of zeal and consecration. This core of his theology is first clearly found in the First Epistle to the Corinthians. It is not tentative or inductive, but it is idealistic. St. Paul does not prove it, he appeals to it, and bases upon it the superstructure of all his other teaching. It becomes to him an objective unifying principle, "a real cosmical factor," and he regards it as the result of an outward revelation of essential facts, and an inward revelation of the principle involved in them. Thus, in St. Paul's use of the word, "Faith is both the cry of the terror-stricken sinner for pity, and the eye of the spiritual man that can look at the sun without blinking; and it is the one and the other, because it unites the soul to Christ, who is at once the Saviour and the Example." Mr. Edwards proceeds to show that St. Paul solves every question and decides every controversy with which the Epistle deals, by direct reference to this doctrine of mystic union with Christ. "Factions are

"A Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians." By Thomas Charles Edwards, M.A., Principal of the University College of Wales. Hamilton, Adams & Co.