Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1897-01-13

FOR BIBLE STUDENTS.

Rev. Mr.. Anderson Recommends a Most
Valuable Work.
Editor Of The Yorkville Enquirer.
May I call the attention of the
Bible readers of our community to a
work of great value, now being sold
at price to put it within the reach
of ALP While it is not work that
would be appreciated or cared for by
the ordinary reader of wishy-washy
literary and religious books and pa
pers, for those who are willing to
obtain accurate knowledge by hard
work, it is a work of peculiar value.
I refer to Rev. DR.. Alfred Edersheim's
"Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah. !"
The author of the book was the child
of Jewish parents, and, am told, was
in his youth trained for the office of a
Rabbi. He became a Christian, and
finally entered the ministry of the
Church of England. He was a man
of the profoundest learning, especially
in the Rabbinic Hebrew, having the
Jewish writings in apparently absolute
knowledge, while he seems to have
no superior in the matters under dis
cussion by the infdel or rationalistic
writers of the Continent.
With this equipment he has produced
work which is probably the great
est work on Christology of the last
half of the century, if not of the last
200 or 300 years. The world of that
day, the teaching of the Rabbis, the
life of the common people, are pre-
sented to us in pictures so vivid that
they seem to stand out as from the
painters canvas. We may say that
he demonstrates that the Gospels could
not have been written after the first
century, nor by any one who had not,
during that century, prior to the year
70 A. D., or the destruction of Jeru-
salem, lived in Judea. Especially is
this true of the Gospel according to St.
John. He shows that things are famil-
iarly mentioned by st. John that no
Jew could have been familiar with, and
certainly no Christian, after the gen.
Grafton which had lived in Judea had
passed away.
By the advice of a dear old friend
in the ministry, I purchased the book
upon its first appearance in America
in 1885, and now re-reading it from
beginning to end, I am more than ever
impressed with it's wonderful value.
I write this, not in the interest of the
publishers but of students of the
Gospels of every faith, or of no faith
at all. There is no honest student of
the Life which has most profoundly
influenced humanity, that will not be
benefited by careful study of this
monumental work. 1t seems to me
that it's value for students of the Di.
vine life cannot be exaggerated, and
this irrespective of the religious de-
nomination to which they may belong.
Now let me guard myself from
being misunderstood. AS the work
is in two large volumes, one of 69S
pages and the other of 1926 pages, am
evidently not recommending it to
every one, but to those VINO nave the
time and diligence to use it to advan-
tage. For those who have not these
advantages, much of the material may
be gathered from the abridgment of
the book prepared after DR.. Eder-
sheim's death in the spring of 1889,
under the editorship of DIR. Sunday
of Oxford. But the student, espe-
cially those who are trusted with the
care of souls, should not only own,
but read, mark, learn and inwardly
digest the large work, there being alb
solutely nothing in the English Ian
guage which can take its place.
RICHARD w. ANDERSON.
Rector of the Church of the Good
Shepherd.