that usually alleged could not be effected by a single rescript addressed to a few Italian bishops, and dealing with a case of merely local interest. The sins recited from the libellum were apparently those which, whether trivial or heinous, were known to the offender and the priest alone. That Leo is not prohibiting the public acknowledgment of open and notorious sins, seems evident from the fact that public penance for this class of offences still continued in both the East and West, although more and more difficulty was experienced in enforcing it. E. N. BENNETT. NOTE ON THE MEANING OF THE WORD ΑΙΩΝΙΟΣ. SOME time ago some papers appeared in the EXPOSITOR, from the pen of Dr. Agar Beet, "On the Future Punishment of Sin." He carefully examined the meaning of the word alávios; and I believe I am right in saying that the only passage adduced by him in which the word apparently meant "endless" was Plato, Laws, 904A. But does not the word here mean rather "perpetual or abiding"? Does not Plato say that the "animal soul" and the "body" are indestructible, but not perpetual or abiding (aioviov)? They are always undergoing a process of dissolution and reconstruction. They have, as we should say, no "individuality." On the other hand, they are indestructible, because, if either of the two were destroyed, living creatures could no longer be generated. They are described as Tò yevoμévov, whereas the rational soul belongs to a different category of things. It is not transmitted in generation, but is drawn from the great "treasury of souls by the Author of all things. Similarly in Aristotle didios is used as the contradictory οἱ τὰ γένητα and τὰ φθάρτα. With him, as with Plato, didios and aivios are practically interchangeable, as also they are in much later Greek, as, e.g., the Apostolical Constitutions (circ. 340-380 A.D.), in which aiovios Kóλaois and ἀΐδιος κόλασις are convertible terms. To Plato and Aristotle both these words signified the "abiding" realities of the ideal or noumenal world, as opposed to the unceasing flux or change of things phenomenal. Indeed, I doubt whether, either in Plato's age or in the time of Christ, or even in the fourth century A.D., the idea of "eternity" in the sense of "endlessness" can be said to have existed. On the other hand, it is well known that in the LXX. alovios varies in its meaning, as Dr. Beet showed, according to the range of time in the writer's mind. But are we at liberty to say the same of the New Testament? Doubtless the classical use had modified the meaning of the word in Hellenistic Greek. But do not the use of the LXX. and that of classical Greek meet in the one idea common to. both, viz., "lasting" or "abiding" as opposed to "fleeting" or "changing"? That, however, the word was still used of a limited range of time, appears from the following passage, which occurs in the Apostolical Constitutions, a work of the fourth century. In v. 19. 4 the author, referring to the institution of the Eucharist and the observance of Easter, makes the apostles say, "Kai TOÛто vμîv čσтw τοῦτο ὑμῖν ἔστω νόμιμον αἰώνιον ἕως τῆς συντελείας τοῦ αἰῶνος.” Here αἰώνιον is used simply in the sense perpetual," and a definite limit is put to the time denoted, viz., the end of the world. A remarkable parallel occurs in the English PrayerBook, in what is known as the "Consecration Prayer," in the words, "a perpetual memory of that His precious. death." 66 Abiding or continuous pain seems to be the idea contained in the awful words, "Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched," which are, of course, a quotation from Isaiah lxvi. 24. Pain which, so long as it lasts, has no pauses or reliefs may be called "abiding," or "perpetual," or pain may be so called simply from its perpetual gnawing. But these words of Isaiah, which Christ adopted, by no means necessarily imply endless pain. A friend drew my attention to the use of ȧidios in Josephus and iv. Maccabees. He thinks that the word is clearly there used in the sense of "endless." In the Jewish Wars, ii. 8. 14, and Antiquities, xviii. 1. 3, Josephus, in describing the beliefs of the Pharisees, says that the souls of the wicked are punished ἀϊδίῳ τιμωρίᾳ, or suffer εἵργμον aidov. But does not this simply mean that the wicked suffer an "abiding" penalty, or "the penalty of perpetual imprisonment"? Nothing is said of endless imprisonment. In this present "æon " perpetual imprisonment has a limit, viz., death. And there may be similar deliverance for the "souls in prison" in the "æon" which is to come. In iv. Maccabees my friend quoted such expressions as “ αἰώνιον βάσανον διὰ πυρὸς” (ix. 9), and “ ἀκαταλύτους Kартеρηoеis ẞaoávovs." But does not this last mean "torments which one cannot break loose from "? J. H. WILKINSON. Cheap Edition.-In foolscap 8vo, tastefully printed and bound, price 2s. 6d. The Following of Christ. Being Short Exercises from Modern Writers. Selected, Arranged, and Introduced by CHARLES L. MARSON. In this work are brought together some of the most striking and suggestive passages on the subject of THE IMITATION AND FOLLOWING OF CHRIST from eminent writers of our time. Each quotation carries some suggestive thought or stimulating truth, and is headed by an appropriate title. It is believed that it will be found helpful and suggestive for devotional reading, and that by use of the copious index which accompanies the work it will prove useful also as a work of reference on the subject which it is devoted to. 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