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of the middle schools in the prefectural cities, the other day, China took a step forward which she can never retrace. With the metropolitan province thus taking the lead in carrying out literally the imperial commands, it is a moral certainty-which means, in China, a necessary propriety-that the other provinces, lag as they may, must join in the procession.

The movement, in truth, is general. Two men, in particular, who were famous as statesmen when Yuan Shi-kai was only a soldier, are entitled to more credit, perhaps, than any others for the present progressive attitude of the imperial court; I mean Viceroy Liu, of Nanking, whose recent death has called forth a universal expression of regret, and Viceroy Chang, of Hankow (Wuchang). Back of the officials are the scholars and the gentry. From their ranks the officials are chosen. The great provincial examinations for the degrees which are the passport to office have just been concludedthe first held since the reform of the examination system. Here again those who prophesied that the reform was all a pretense are confuted. With remarkable alacrity the examiners have dropped the ancient formularies and propounded themes from history, political science, and the application of classic doctrines to China's present and most pressing problems. For months the candidates have been reading everything in reach on these subjects. The results of the examinations-which have not yet generally been announced-will almost certainly cause much dissatisfaction; for the examiners themselves have, in many cases, but a scant equipment for their new duties. But the reform will go on; for every scholar knows, as the government has declared, that the only hope for coping with the might of Western nations is by getting their knowledge. Back from the gates of examination courts sweeps a wave of eager, aspiring intellectual life to the doors of our colleges, only to return with gathered force for the next trial. Everywhere private schools are springing up for the teaching-often by ill-prepared teachers-of English and of "Western" sciences. The printing houses cannot meet the demand for translations of histories, geographies, and scientific works. The demand is indicated in one undesirable but unmistakable way-the prevalence of "pirating." Standard books of mathematics, etc., prepared, in many cases, by missionaries, for their schools, have been photolithographed and republished in vast quantities.

The controlling sentiment in China to-day may be summed up, so far as regards the foreigner, in the desire to use him where he is indispensable and a determination to put an end to his domineering. It has taken forty years' schooling to develop this desire, and it may take forty years of waiting to accomplish this determination. Inertia has been China's strongest resource in every contest with the West. It may still suffice to preserve her formal integrity during this critical transition period, when, by making use of extraneous agents, in perhaps dangerously large numbers, she is seeking to

recuperate her own vital forces. Her restiveness with the system of extraterritorial jurisdiction has been displayed in the current treaty negotiations. When she does come into full possession and enjoyment of her native resources there will be the making of more history, both domestic and international, than the wisest of political prophets can forecast. For the present she is engaged, almost strenuously, in doing what her wise old viceroy, in his book, China's Only Hope, told her she must do: Learn! With the zealous endeavor to help her attain the best and highest learning may also be bound up much of the hope of the world. Shanghai, China.

C. M. LACEY SITES.

THE TEMPTATION OF CHRIST.

FIRST of all, Jesus was a perfect and complete man. He was not only divine but human, and was tempted in his humanity as we are. Satan not only appealed to his bodily hunger to tempt him, but he appealed also to his human intellect and spirit. We are encouraged because Jesus resisted evil humanly, in our nature as we do. He somehow unthroned and uncrowned himself, emptied himself, as Paul says, that, facing temptation in his natural humanity, he might feel its awful power, and, conquering it, show us how to conquer. Himself man, tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin, yes, conqueror of sin, he is able to help the tempted.

The natural desire which is used in temptation to overthrow us is sinless. I cannot help being hungry if I have gone without food; but if I secure food at any price, if I sell out to the devil to satisfy my natural appetite, that is sin. Sin begins when the will consents to temptation. The first Adam not only desired the fruit forbidden, but he subordinated the higher law of obedience to the will of God to the lower desire of self-gratification, and sinned. The second Adam desired bread, needed bread, he was hungry, pale, emaciated, fainting with long fasting; but he would rather die amid the friendless stones of the Jordan desert than to be untrue to his Father's will. "Not as I will, but as thou wilt," was his word in the desert, in the garden, on the cross. The core of sin is self-will. The vowel in sin is "I." As Baron Bunsen said, "There is no sin but selfishness, and all selfishness is sin." The will is not all of the man, but it is the citadel of the soul. If that citadel remain true all will come true; if that citadel is false all will be lost.

Whether in the Gospel records of the temptation we have literal history of outward visible events or a pictorial presentation of inward spiritual conflict, we have a powerful realistic picture of actual and fearful strife between the supremely loyal Son of God and the supreme traitor of the universe. Whether Jesus was capable of sinning and falling or not, we are sure that it was no mock battle, sure that from that awful strife he came forth a sinless conqueror. One is not ready to be exalted to high service until one has first been

tested and proven. Goodness that is mere sinlessness does not mean character and great moral power. Goodness must become positive before it is crystallized into holiness. It is resistance to evil, conquest of temptation, that equips us with moral power and positive holiness. So Jesus must be tempted in all points if he would be the perfect man and the perfect Saviour of men who are tempted.

Tintoretto in art and Elizabeth Stuart Phelps in literature have vividly portrayed the terrific temptation of Jesus. The desert is a dreary and appalling desolation. There is Jesus at the foot of the bare chalk hills. There is no sign of life except birds and beasts and hissing, wriggling serpents. Perhaps a robber steps forth to gaze gloomily, then dodge back from view, like a bat or owl of the night. The baptism at the Jordan is fresh in his immediate memory. The white dove still floats before his vision. His ears reecho the Father's attestation, "Thou art my beloved Son." It was the crisis of the life of Jesus, the end of his private citizenship, the beginning of his public ministry. Peril and opportunity met. If Jesus is loyal in will and affection and judgment, loyal in his whole being to God, the supreme will, the supreme wisdom, the uttermost love-then is he God's Son indeed. But can the tempter entice and allure and lie him into a disloyal will, a false affection, or into some dare-devil act of ruinous folly, some scatter-brain enthusiasm reckless of all consequences? Satan will make his utmost endeavor.

To the lonely and hungry man half frenzied with forty days of famine the stones of the desert seem like loaves warm from his mother's oven. He touches them: they are stones, cold, sharp, exasperating. But the voice is in his ears, "Thou art my Son." Cannot the Son of God, the firstborn of the Creator, turn stones to bread? The very Godhead pulses in his almost desperate brain and will. A word and the stones are bread! But what is the Father's will? For Jesus this is ever the supreme question. For answer he remembers the word of Moses, who like him had fasted forty days in the mountain: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God." God, God, God is man's life. It is easier for the starving body to be nourished by the mind and heart of God than for the starving soul to live on bread alone. The temptation is cut in pieces by the swordthrust of the word of God. Satan, the very embodiment of what Dr. Gunsaulus calls "a delicious gospel," says, "Enjoy life, avoid suffering, have a good time, do no wrong to yourself." Jesus answers from the inspired word that man is more than earthly and needs more than bread. Strenuous moral effort to meet the will of God shatters the temptation to yield to the sleek enticements of the selfindulgent world. Satan takes the sword by which Christ conquers him in the first temptation to tempt him in the second. He will quote Scripture himself. He will tempt a religious man with a religious temptation. Yet while there are three temptations it is really one great threefold temptation, namely this, to forget the Father's will. Does Jesus trust God for bread? Very well, Satan

will turn his very faith into presumption, and make his strength his ruin. What multitudes of mighty men has he overthrown this way! If an appeal to appetite will not prevail he will appeal to spirituality. "God is your Father. Angels attend you, float from the tempter; the people will adore you, and you will be acknowledged Messiah and King of the Jews."

One fairly trembles at the possibility of a surrender to Satan. We may tremble for ourselves and for our children, for the tempter still lives and has lost none of his cunning. He stands ready to throw dust in the eyes of the very elect, leading them into maddening superstition to follow the pretensions of a wonder-making prophet rather than the quiet, reasonable will of the loving Father, until a burly policeman is compelled to snatch a poor, suffering burned child from the arms of its own parents, victims of the temptation to desire a prodigy and seek after a sign.

Jesus again recalls the Scripture, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." You are not to have so much faith that it becomes credulity and superstition. Beware of false prophets. Beware of the misuse of Scripture. Beware of the religious temptation. The beast has the horns of a lamb in the book of Revelation. The destroyer wears sheep's clothing. Foiled in his appeal to the natural appetite of Jesus, foiled in his subtle temptation of the very spirituality of Jesus, Satan in very desperation sought to tempt him in the line of worldly ambition, begging him to fall down and worship him and receive the crown of all the kingdoms of the world. This is open, palpable treason against the great God, but it is a last resort. Jesus, aroused by this insult to the majesty of God, with the flash of a holy indignation in his eyes, thrusts the sword of the Spirit into the very heart of the arch traitor who would make the supremely loyal Son of God a sharer of his own infamous treason. The apostate spirit thrust through by the absolute loyalty of Jesus, and his pride cut to the blood at the commandment which Jesus quotes as the statute of loyalty, reminds him of his own awful revolt-defeated, dishonored, exposed, falls back and abandons the siege of the irreducible fortress of Jesus's will forever loyal to the Father.

In Jesus's ears still sing the words, "Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." And angels came to celebrate the Victor who had thrown back the strength and the cunning and the impuIdence of hell. JOHN P. BRUSHINGHAM.

Chicago, Ill.

THE ITINERANTS' CLUB.

A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF COMMENTARIES, CONCORDANCES, BIBLE DICTIONARIES, AND ENCYCLOPÆDIAS.

THIS bibliography, we hardly need say, does not aim at completeness. It might easily be made fuller. The difficulty has been to keep the list down. The books included have been selected as in some way the most important of their class. Of course, the Review is not to be understood as indorsing or agreeing with all the teachings and opinions in any one of the books mentioned. Each student must use his own careful discrimination in accepting or rejecting any part of their contents; he must be supposed to be able to discern what can be adjusted with the doctrines and views of Methodism and what is antagonistic thereto or inharmonious therewith. To do that is his lifelong business with reference to all the literature that comes in his way. He must practice it on the books in this list. Specifically, we must say that, valuable as Hastings's Dictionary of the Bible is, we cannot approve it in toto; and, as for the Encyclopædia Biblica, the only safe or proper place for it is in the libraries of specialists in biblical scholarship whose work compels them to know the literature of that department pro and con, hostile as well as friendly. The works here mentioned all represent ability and scholarly research. The different works under each head are arranged in the order of preference. It should be noted that the Commentaries in the first group-those on the entire Bible-contain many of the best works on particular books of Holy Scripture.

I. COMMENTARIES ON THE ENTIRE BIBLE.

1. A Commentary on the Old and New Testaments.

D. D. Whedon. 14 vols.

2. The Bible Commentary-"The Speaker's."

Cook. 10 vols.

Edited by

Edited by F. C.

3. The Expositor's Bible. Edited by W. Robertson Nicol. 28 vols. 4. The Pulpit Commentary. Edited by H. D. M. Spence and J. S. Exell. 51 vols.

5. Commentary for English Readers. Edited by C. J. Ellicott.

8 vols.

II. COMMENTARIES ON PARTICULAR BOOKS.

OLD TESTAMENT.

1. Genesis. (a) F. Delitzsch. 2 vols. (b) A. Dillmann. 2 vols. 2. Exodus. J. MacGregor. 2 vols.

3. Leviticus. M. M. Kalisch. 2 vols.

4. Deuteronomy. S. R. Driver.

5. Joshua. G. F. Maclear.

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