originally it was part of the fifth chapter of John, following immediately after verse 16, and that it should be restored to its original place. We give his remarks in a somewhat condensed form:

In John v, 1-15, the healing of the sick man at the pool of Bethesda is related. According to verse 16 the Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to slay him because he had done these things on the Sabbath-day. In verse 17 Jesus answers: "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." According to verse 18 the Jews sought the more to kill him because he said that God was his Father. The answer of Jesus, in verse 17, has no direct reference to the Sabbath. Such a reference may only be thought to be implied in the words, " My Father worketh hitherto," which may be understood as meaning that the Father worketh every day, also on the Sabbath-day, and that this justifies the healing of the sick man on the Sabbath-day. At all events the necessary reference to the Sabbath is not expressly made, but must be supplied by conjecture. Now, it is note worthy that an explicit reference of this kind does find itself in John vii, 19-24, and that in the latter place it seems to break the connection. A transposition of these verses from the seventh chapter of John to the fifth chapter, inserting them between verses 16 and 17, would give us in both chapters the most natural connection. If this transposition is made, Jesus answers the charge that, in healing the sick man, he broke the Sabbath by referring the Jews to the fact that in cases of circumcision they all transgress the law. The Jews, therefore, are admonished, (vii, 24 :) "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment," and the healing of the sick man, like circumcision, is represented as an act of justification and redemption which is not only allowed on the Sabbath, but necessary. The transposition facilitates the understanding of John v, 17; the miraculous healing of a sick man being a remarkable manifestation of the uninterrupted (“hitherto ") working of the Father, and, therefore, a proof that such an act performed on the Sabbath-day is no crime, but divine worship. The transfer of vii, 19-24, will also greatly improve the connection between the remaining parts of this chapter, (verses 1-18, and 25 to the end of chapter.) Chapter vii relates that Jesus went somewhat later to the feast of the Tabernacles

than the others. About the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and taught. Some of the Jews "marveled at his words," inquiring how "this man knew letters, having never learned." Jesus answered that indeed his teaching was not human wisdom-not any thing contrived by man-but that it came from God, and was a divine testimony for every earnest inquirer. The men who speak of themselves seek their own glory, but if one seeks only the glory of God, then the hearers may be convinced that there is no unrighteousness in him. The transition from this assertion (verse 18) to the law of Moses concerning circumcision (verse 19) appears not to be very obvious. On the other hand, by transposing verses 19 to 24 from chapter vii to chapter v, and connecting vii, 18, directly with vii, 25, the transition becomes entirely natural. It appears both from vii, 15, and from vii, 25-27, that the hearers of Jesus were wavering, and could not make up their minds as to what to think of him. Therefore it also appears entirely natural that the powerful argument for the divine origin of the teaching of Jesus (in verse 18) should be followed (in verse 25) by the marveling inquiry "of some of them of Jerusalem," "Is not this he whom they seek to kill?"

In conclusion, the author frankly admits that there is one serious objection to his argumentation. All the ancient manuscripts and translations agree in giving the verses referred to in the very place where they are found in our present Bible. The simplest way to explain this fact is, in his opinion, to assume that in the earliest times, when there was as yet only one copy of this Gospel, one entire leaf, containing verses 19-24, was misplaced while being copied.

French Reviews.

REVUE CHRETIENNE. (Christian Review.) December, 1879. 1. COUSSIRAT, Henry Ward Beecher. 2. BONET-MAURY, The Friends of God in the Fourteenth Century. 2. ALONE, TOO Probable Not To Be True, (A Novel.) 4. PRESSENSE, The Free Synod and the New Projects of Conciliation in the Reformed State Church of France. January, 1880.-1. FEER, The Religion of Aryan India in Vedic Times. 2. ASTIE, The Correspondence of Doudan. 3. IRMA S., A History which Begins with a Marriage. February, 1880.-1. NAVILLE, Religion. 2. ASTIE, The Correspondence of Doudan. 3. The Life to Come, Shall We Recognize Each Other?

The "Christian Review," which began, on January 1, 1880, the twenty-sixth year of its existence, will be conducted

during the coming year according to the former plan. The bi-monthly articles on German and English affairs which have graced the pages of the Review for several years, and which are excellent specimens of "Foreign Religious " and " Foreign Literary Intelligence," will be continued during the coming year. The articles on German affairs are by E. Lichtenberger. The monthly reviews of French affairs will, as in former years, be alternately supplied by Pressensé and Sabatier. Articles are announced as forthcoming in the course of 1880 from Pressensé, Bersier, Naville, Godet, Astié, Father Hyacinthe, (on Paganism in Paris, formerly and at present,) and others.

ART. IX.-FOREIGN RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE. MOHAMMEDANISM AND CHRISTIANITY IN TURKEY AND THE NEW BALKAN STATES.-The treaty of Berlin, as was expected, has greatly changed the religious aspect of the Turkish empire and the neighboring States. Roumania, Servia, and Montenegro have been generally recognized as independent States, and thus a considerable portion of the Balkan peninsula again finds itself under Christian rule. Bulgaria remains nominally a dependency of Turkey, but, virtually, it is likewise an independent Christian State. Even East Roumelia is really made a new Christian State, as it has its own Parliament, under a governor who must be a Christian, and whose appointment must be confirmed by the Christian powers. Besides, Bosnia and Herzegovina have been placed under the administration of Austria, and they can never be replaced under the direct rule of Turkey, but must become either a part of the Austrian Empire or States virtually or really independent, like the other new States just referred to. In consequence of these changes the rule of a Mohammedan government over large territories and a population of several million Christians has ceased, and a considerable number of Mohammedans have now become subjects of Christian governments.

The following table, which gives the total population of each of these States, together with the Mohammedan population and the population connected with the Greek Church, will illustrate the magnitude of the changes which have taken place in the religious aspect of these countries:

All the above States, with the exception of part of Montenegro, were, until 1878, subject to the rule of the Sultan. In consequence of the treaty of Berlin the Sultan's authority over a population of nearly 11,000,000 has been wholly, or at least virtually, destroyed. Of this population about 1,600,000 are Mohammedans, who will now be distributed among six different Christian States. They form a minority in each of these States, except in Eastern Roumelia, where they constitute about one half of the total population. The immense majority of these Mohammedans do not belong to the Turkish race, but are descendants of Slavs, who were induced by the prospect of worldly advantages and privileges to embrace Mohammedanism. They still speak the language of the Slavic tribes to which they belong, and the consciousness of a common nationality cannot fail to exert upon them, in the course of time, a strong influence. The national feeling makes itself so strongly felt in all the Slavic countries that it will certainly attract many of the young Mohammedans; and it must, of course, be expected that in proportion as the Mohammedan Slavs begin to feel a more intense interest in the aspirations of their race, their connection with the Islam will be weakened. All the six Christian States of which these Mohammedans are subjects have to make provision for the religious worship of the Mohammedans; and as all of them have a constitutional form of government, it will be a matter of considerable interest to watch the development of the Church government of the Mohammedans in these States.

There is as yet no indication that the decay of the Mohammedan power in Turkey, which has for centuries been on the increase, has received any check. On the contrary, other territorial losses will certainly occur ere long, and a general dissolution becomes more and more probable. Turkey has bound itself by the Berlin Treaty to cede a part of its territory to Greece, and the execution of this part of the treaty has thus far been only delayed by the disagreement of the Greek and Turkish commissioners. In Candia and the smaller islands the Mohammedan element of population is so weak, and the desire of the majority of the population who belong to the Greek nationality for annexation to Greece is so strong, that a reunion with the kingdom of Greece appears to be very probable. In Asia, as the British embassador, in 1879, told the government of Constantinople, the failure of the Turkish government to carry out the reforms promised in the separate treaty between England and Turkey, has stimulated among the Armenians, and also among the other Christian nationalities of the Asiatic dominions of Turkey, aspirations for an autonomy similar to that of Bulgaria and East Roumelia, in Europe. By the pressure brought upon him by England, the Sultan has finally been forced to intrust to an Englishman the task of reconstructing the administration in the Asiatic provinces. The financial condition of this empire is so wretched, and the inability of most of the Mohammedan statesmen to effect any lasting reforms so palpable, that even the chief representatives of the religious interests of Mohammedanism, the ulemas,

urged, in 1879, upon their government the appointment of able financiers of Christian Europe to assume the control of the Turkish finances. Turkey is the only country in Europe the population statistics of which are little known. The statements both of the total population and the religious statistics have hitherto greatly varied; only of late greater care has been taken to obtain reliable figures. In view of the probability that the disintegration of Turkey will go on, the following religious statistics of the vilayets or provinces of European Turkey, which are given by M. Jakshitch, the head of the statistical bureau in Belgrade, Servia, will be found of interest:

The table shows that in none of the vilayets the Mohammedans constitute a large majority, and that in several they even are very largely in the minority. The Christians generally would prefer incorporation with one of the Christian Balkan States, and the weakness of the Mohammedans makes it highly probable that a partition of at least European Turkey between the Christian races of the Balkan peninsula is highly probable. In Asiatic Turkey Mohammedanism is, numerically, much stronger. The Mohammedans constitute the large majority of the population, numbering about twelve and a half millions of a total population of sixteen and a half millions. But here, also, Turkey is threatened with great losses in the future. The difference of race makes itself felt in Asia also. Of the Mohammedans only 6,000,000 are Turks, the remainder belong to other races, The Christians, about 2,800,000, constitute a considerable majority in several districts. They have begun to aspire after political independence, or at least autonomy; and if ever they should secure the acquiescence of both Russia and England the Turks will be entirely unable to resist their demands for independence. Another very remarkable fact in regard to the future of Asiatic Turkey is the very rapid advance of the Greek population all along the coast. Almost the entire commerce of the large cities is in the hands of Greeks, Armenians, and other Christians. The Turks feel their inability to compete with the Christians, and more and more fall back from the coast to the interior. In Africa, Egypt has, of late, grown so rapidly that it now has a territory larger than the entire immediate possessions of the Sultan, with a population about equal to that of Asiatic Turkey. The authority of the Sultan in the African dependencies is not much greater than it is in Bulgaria. It must necessarily come to an end if the power of Turkey is still further reduced in Europe and Asia.