n xxx. 1, cf. Charles's note and _The
Assumption of Moses_, i. 14, where the pre-existence of Moses seems to
be asserted. Again, _the Fall of Adam and its effect in introducing
death_ (_or premature death_) _into the world_. See xxiii. 4; xlviii.
42; liv. 15; lvi. 6, and {264} Charles's notes. Once more The
Resurrection of the Body. See _Baruch_, l; li. On all these points we
see what was the material in existing Jewish thought or, in other
words, what were the existing developements of Old Testament belief,
which the Christian inspiration had to work upon. The effect of the
specifically Christian inspiration is chiefly seen (1) in selection
among existing beliefs--taking some and utterly rejecting others; (2)
in giving a definite and fixed form to current Messianic and other
ideas which were continually shifting and incoherent; and (3) in
spiritualizing and moralizing what it appropriated. Of course it is in
the Revelation or Apocalypse of St. John that we have the most signal
instance of the New Testament use of contemporary Jewish material. But
such material holds a very large place in the whole of the New
Testament, and there is no more important assistance to the study of
the New Testament than is afforded by contemporary Jewish literature,
especially that of an Apocalyptic character.

[1] _The Apoc. of Baruch_ (A. and C. Black, 1896), p. lxxxii. The
statement is compiled from Weber, _Lehre des Talmuds_.

[2] Edited also by R. H. Charles (A. and C. Black, 1897), p. 37.

NOTE D. See p. 120.

THE BROTHERHOOD OF ST. ANDREW

After the above passage was written, as to the need amongst us of a
deeper idea of the obligations of church membership, it fell to my lot
to go to the United States, to make acquaintance with the work of the
Brotherhood of St. Andrew in that country, and to assist at its general
convention in Buffalo. It seemed to me that nothing could be better
calculated to revive the true spirit of laymanship than that society,
'formed in recognition of {265} the fact that every Christian man is
pledged to devote his life to the spread of the kingdom of Christ on
earth.'

It was started among a small band of young men, of the number of the
apostles, nearly fifteen years ago, in St. James's parish, Chicago, and
has spread till to-day it numbers more than 1,200 parochial chapters in
the United States alone, and has taken firm root in Canada and other
parts of the world. It has a doubl