writings were often read in the early church, and some of them are found in the same manuscripts with the New Testament books, we feel that it was a sound instinct which finally set them aside as uninspired. Indeed, one proof of the inspiration of the New Testament is the marked contrast in spiritual elevation, wisdom, and power, between its books and those of the Apostolic Fathers. Their writings, of which few have been preserved, were simple, earnest Christian messages to readers whose faith in Christ was already established. The only exception is Justin Martyr, who belongs to this period, but whose able defence of Christianity entitles him to be ranked more properly as first of the Apologists who in the next half century wrote long and powerful replies to heathen assailants of the faith.

While the Apostolic Fathers, especially Justin Martyr, tell much about the life of Christ, they tell almost nothing in addition to what is in the gospels. Justin Martyr says that he was born in a cave, that his work as a "carpenter" was to make yokes and ploughs, and that the Jews when mocking him set him on the judgment seat and said, "Judge us"-all of which seems credible. He also says that as Jesus was baptized in the Jordan, "When he stepped into the water, a fire was kindled in the Jordan," which adds to the scene a theophany similar to those described in the Old Testament. There are, also, in the Apostolic Fathers and

still later writers, a few sayings attributed to Jesus which are not found in the gospels, and which-from that fact―are often designated as the Agrapha, i. e., unwritten. None of them can compare in beauty or importance with Acts 20: 35. The following are a

sample:

"They who wish to behold me and lay hold on my kingdom, must receive me by affliction and suffering." 66 Be approved money-changers; disapproving some things, but holding fast to that which is good."

"In whatsoever things I may find you, in these shall I also judge you."

"Ask for the great things, and the small shall be added unto you; ask for the heavenly things, and the earthly shall be added unto you."

"Never rejoice except when ye have looked upon your brother in love."

"He that wonders shall reign, and he that reigns shall rest."

It is doubtful whether any of these sayings are genuine, though the best of them may contain some reminiscence of Christ's teaching.

In this connection it is worth while to notice the newly discovered sayings of Jesus which Grenfell and Hunt unearthed at the site of Oxyrhynchus, in lower Egypt, in 1897 and 1903. The first to be discovered were on a single leaf of papyrus, somewhat broken and illegible and beginning with the middle of a say

ing continued from a previous leaf. They were as follows:

66

... and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote that is in thy brother's eye."

"Jesus saith, Except ye fast to the world, ye shall in no wise find the Kingdom of God; and except ye keep the Sabbath, ye shall not see the Father."

"Jesus saith, I stood in the midst of the world, and in the flesh was I seen of them; and I found all men drunken, and none found I athirst among them; and my soul grieveth over the sons of men because they are blind in heart. . .

"Jesus saith, Wherever there are

one

alone, I am with him. Raise the stone and there thou shalt find me; cleave the wood, and there am I."

"Jesus saith, A prophet is not acceptable in his own country, neither does a physician work cures upon them that know him."

"Jesus saith, A city built upon the top of a high hill and established can neither fall nor be hid."

The later discoveries were on the back of a survey-list of various pieces of land, and have suffered still greater mutilation. Grenfell and Hunt give the following translation of them, with their own conjectural restoration of parts of the missing text indicated by brackets:

"These are the [wonderful] words which Jesus the living [Lord] spake to . . . and Thomas; and he said

..

unto [them], Every one that hearkens to these words shall never taste of death."

"Jesus saith, Let not him who seeks . . . cease until he finds, and when he finds he shall be astonished, and astonished he shall reach the kingdom, and having reached the kingdom he shall rest.”

“Jesus saith [Ye ask? who are those] that draw us [to the kingdom, if] the kingdom is in heaven? . the fowls of the air, and all beasts that are under the earth or upon the earth, and the fishes of the sea [these are they which draw] you, and the Kingdom of Heaven is within you, and whosoever shall know himself shall find it. [Strive therefore?] to know yourselves, and ye shall be aware that ye are the sons of the [almighty?] [Father,] [and] ye shall know that ye are in [the city of God?], and ye are [the city].'

"Jesus saith, A man shall not hesitate. . . to ask

concerning his place [in the kingdom. Ye shall know] that many that are first shall be last, and the last first and [they shall have eternal life?].”

"Jesus saith, Everything that is not before thy face, and that which is hidden from thee, shall be revealed to thee. For there is nothing hidden which shall not be made manifest; nor buried which shall not be raised."

"His disciples question him, and say, How shall we fast and how shall we [pray]? . . . and what [commandment] shall we keep Jesus saith... do not... of truth ... blessed is he .

These two groups of sayings seem to have belonged to one original collection, whose date critics put somewhere in the first half of the second century. The source of this collection, and consequently its value, cannot with the present data be determined. The sayings may be based upon those in the Four Gospels, in which case the new material is the product of later speculation, and is of little value except as revealing the development of Christian thought in the second century; or the sayings may present one form in which the teaching of Jesus was handed down by tradition, in which case they could be used as a source, though not a first-class one, for his words. In a minute study of the problems connected with the origin and character of the Four Gospels these new sayings may give a little help; but they are of small importance otherwise, except as their discovery draws our thought to the treasures that may yet be found in that wonderful land of Egypt, where the things of yesterday seem old and crumbling, while the things of centuries ago are fresh and perfectly preserved.