turn to him), and in that faith shall submit his body to be baptised, he shall be held to have been saved in Christ” (Tit. iii. 4, 5); and so in the sight of God our Saviour his soul shall be held as though it had been sprinkled with the blood of Jesus (Heb. x. 22; xii. 24; 1 Pet. i. 12), and the New Covenant relation into which (as by a new birth) he is thereby brought in respect of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, shall be the relation of a son. . . . . On the other hand, he who in an evil heart of unbelief rejects the gracious offer of salvation through Christ, he shall be held to have been condemned in Adam (Rom. v. 12, 15-19; 1 Cor. xv. 22); and because not saved through Christ, because he hath not, neither believeth in the Son, nor in the express testimony concerning him which God hath, he shall not see Life; but the wrath of God—subject to which he was born (Eph. ii. 3), as a child of Adam, and from which only as a child of God's grace in Christ may any one be delivered —the wrath of God abideth on him (John iii. 36: 1 John v. 10, 12).’

Again :

1 Cor. xv. 22.-Even as, in the natural state that now is, it is in THE ADAM (ie. as partakers of one corrupted, debased, and condemned humanity, that all pay the debt of nature; so, in the spiritual state that shall be after death, it is in THE CHRIST, i.e., as partakers of One Redeemed, Regenerated, and Glorified Humanity) that all shall be found to have been quickened with the free gift of the Spirit of Life.'

The reader may from these two examples, furnished by the author himself in his Appendix, be able to estimate the power of the key which he has picked up to unlock a secret drawer in that ancient cabinet, the Greek text of Scripture.' The view which is taken necessarily imparts its colour to some renderings and interpretations, but it does not appear to us that it does in many instances produce a sense materially different from that which is usually received. These specimens from the Appendix will give a fair notion of the author's mode of expository paraphrase in the body of the work; and it may be said that although he does often succeed in bringing out the meaning of the sacred writer with distinctness, it sometimes demands considerable attention to see that distinctness through the cloud of words in which the paraphrase is expressed.

The Gospel of St. Mark Illustrated (chiefly in the Doctrinal and Moral sense, from ancient and modern Authors. By the Rev. JAMES FORD, M.A. London: Masters, 1849.

There seems to have been a previous work of the same description on Matthew, which has not fallen under our notice. The object of the volume is well expressed by its title. The text is given in paragraphs according to the Authorized Version, under which are arranged the extracts, which are drawn not from commentaries, but from sermons, treatises, dissertations, &c., those from ancient authors being given in English. The effect is good, the passages cited being to a great extent new in their application, if not in their substance. From the practical and doctrinal works in which our theological literature abounds, and under the guidance of a good taste and instructed judgment, works of this kind might be multiplied almost to any extent. Any private collection of theological books might furnish materials for a new one. The present selection of extracts shows the editor to be in possession of a good collection of the fathers' and of solid old Church of England authors; but it appears to be tolerably free from the works of recent

church

church divines, and to be wholly destitute of any books by the great Puritan theologians or by later Nonconformists. Both classes of works abound in materials by which such a book as this might be enriched ; and Mr. Ford is not free from blame in thus ignoring the existence of sources from which the value and variety of his collections might have been greatly enhanced. The plan is essentially that of D'Oyly and Mant's Bible, applied to separate books, and embracing a more special range of subjects. It is, however, a sad thing that there should be considerations which prevent an author who can cite Confucius in illustration of the Gospels from citing Christian authors who claim to be reckoned among the best and deepest practical and doctrinal writers in the English language. Some remarks of the author's own are interspersed. They are distinguished by his initials, and are not generally the best, nor always the worst, in the book. The only other living or indeed recent writer whose name we find is that of J. F. Newman,' which, coupled with the omission of the names of all the past or present writers usually known as 'evangelical,' will suggest still narrower limitations than have been already indicated. We point out these matters not invidiously, but because in a book of this nature names are facts; and it is our duty to give our readers such information as shall enable them to know what they are doing when they order a book. Allowing for the unwise narrowness of range as to authorities, the work is a good one. Many of the remarks are acute, fruitful,' solid, and suggestive; some from old writers are quaint and curious. The quotations from the Fathers are good and appropriate; and the author has a taste for the old Latin hymns, from which he introduces many well chosen and beautiful extracts.

6

A Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature abridged. By JOHN KITTO, D.D., F.S.A. Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 8vo. pp.

800. 1849.

The publication of this work in numbers being completed, we are led to think it right to apprise our readers in what respects it differs from the larger work. That work must be regarded as a sort of Thesaurus of Biblical knowledge suited to students and ministers, brought together, at a great cost and with much labour, by a large number of contributors, distinguished in this department of Christian literature. This work was thought to furnish ample materials from which a more compendious book might be prepared, suited to general and popular use. It is stated in the preface that the substantial labour of this operation has been executed by the Rev. Dr. John Taylor, of Glasgow, with the assistance and under the supervision of the editor. The result is before us in a very beautifully printed volume, enriched with a considerable proportion of the more useful and illustrative engravings of the original work, and the literary contents of which will probably not disappoint the expectations in which the abridgment originated. Whatever be its other merits, the book is certainly most closely packed with highly condensed information, embodying the results of the best and most recent researches in all that

2 E 2

belongs

belongs to such a work. It is as much a selection as an abridgment; for some articles are altogether omitted which, however valuable in the larger work, seemed scarcely suited to a popular Dictionary of the Bible. What most strikes the eye on opening the volume is perhaps the more even look of the page (as compared with the original work), owing to the absence of Greek and Oriental types, and of references printed in Italics, which, however useful or necessary, sadly mar the fair look of a book. These facts indicate that the results of research are here given rather than the processes and authorities; and this indeed is the feature by which the work is most distinguished from the original. A volume like this can never compensate for the want of the larger work to those who are able to use and appreciate its multifarious contents; but for the general body of readers, and especially of young persons, who feel the need of some help in the study of the Scriptures, without being disposed to enter fully into Biblical investigations, this volume appears to possess every adaptation, as well from the intrinsic value as from the soundness of the information it imparts.

A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, including the Biblical Chaldee. From the Latin of William Gesenius, by EDWARD ROBINSON, Professor in the Union Theological Seminary. Third edition; with corrections and large additions, partly furnished by the author in manuscript, and partly condensed from his larger Thesaurus. Crocker and Brewster, Boston: London, Wiley. 1849. We learn from the preface to this edition that the sale of a second impression of three thousand copies of the Lexicon in the space of five years, rendered necessary early measures for the preparation of a new edition. As the author now rests from his labours, and his colleague Rödiger, to whom he intrusted the completion of his Thesaurus, was understood to have nearly finished the manuscript, it was deemed advisable to conform the present Lexicon everywhere to the latest views expressed in the Thesaurus and the accompanying corrections, and then give to the work a permanent form. Measures were accordingly taken to ensure the reception of the sheets from the German publisher at the earliest moment; and the process of stereotyping the pages was begun and continued until interrupted by the delay of the Thesaurus in Germany.

As some delay in the publication of the concluding part of the Thesaurus still appeared likely, the publishers of this Lexicon, in order to meet the pressing demand, concluded to print a limited edition from the plates, so far as finished, and the rest from types. Accordingly the present volume is thus printed from the plates as far as page 1032, inclusive. This portion, having been thoroughly revised, is now permanent, and exhibits the latest views of Gesenius as contained in the Thesaurus, as translated to the translator in manuscript just before the author's decease. The remaining portion has also been carefully revised and compared with the later writings of the author, but can receive its permanent form only when the publication of the Thesau

rus

rus shall have been completed. It is not too much to say,' says Dr. Robinson, that the present volume, even now, exhibits the only full summary of the latest labours and results of Gesenius in the department of Hebrew lexicography. No other work yet published, of whatever pretensions, bears a like close relation to the Thesaurus, and to the later views and corrections of its author.'

When it is recollected that as much of the Thesaurus was published when the last edition of this Lexicon appeared as at present, and that the portion then wanting to complete that great work is wanting still, any great changes or alterations are not to be expected. The labour of preparing such an edition, and of giving to it its final and permanent value, lies much in the attention to small particulars and minute details, the extent and value of which can only be estimated in the actual use of the volume. The two editions are of the same size and appearance, differing in extent by only fourteen pages, the new edition having that number fewer than the old.

English Polyglot Bible. Large Print Edition. London: S. Bagster and Sons, 1849.

The inventive ingenuity of the Messrs. Bagster in the service of the readers of the Bible is continually claiming our notice in one form or another. We remember when-now about a quarter of a century ago -the English portion of their Polyglot came into general use among students and ministers as a pocket and hand Bible. Its portability, its flatness, its excellent references, and its useful maps and tables, fully accounted for this. But many eyes that were bright and sharp-sighted then, have since grown dim; and the small type has become distressing to many who, nevertheless, from the habit of using this Bible, have a facility of reference with it, by the aid of local memory or habit of hand, which they cannot transfer to any larger printed edition that does not correspond with it page for page.

No sooner was this difficulty perceived then the Messrs. Bagster hastened to supply it by printing an edition in larger type, on paper of the same thickness (or rather thinness) as the original edition; and with the pages word for word the same throughout. The difficulty of furnishing a volume with a bold and clear type on the one hand, and yet still exceedingly portable on the other, has been admirably mastered in the 'getting up' of this volume, for the ease and comfort offered by which, many of our readers will be most thankful to the publishers.

The Apostolical Acts and Epistles, from the Peschito or Ancient Syriac. To which are added the remaining Epistles and the Book of Revelation, after a later Syrian Text. Translated with Prolegomena and Indices by J. W. ETHERIDGE, M.A., Doctor in Philosophy of the University of Heidelberg, and Member of the Asiatic Society of Paris. London: Longman and Co. 1849.

We hope that this book is an indication of an increasing attention to Syriac in this country. Those who are commencing their study of

that

that language would probably find Mr. Etheridge's translation an assistance to them, as he appears to have followed the idiom of the Syriac as closely as he could. There is one peculiarity which at once strikes the eye of a reader: proper names are given (strangely enough) in their Syriac forms; thus we find Urishlem, Juhanon, Shemun, Ripha, &c., and even Aloha is substituted for God. As far as we have been able to examine the volume, it appears to evince Mr. Etheridge's competent Syriac scholarship and his industry; his translation may be regarded as sufficiently representing in English the text of the ancient Syriac version, so far as that text is given in the edition of Schaaf.

Cyclopædia of Moral and Religious Anecdotes. By the Rev. K. ARVINE, A.M. With an Introduction by the Rev. GEORGE B. CHEEVER, D.D. New York, Leavitt; London, Wiley: 1849.

This thick octavo, in double columns, is one of those compilations, or rather combinations, which, from the nature of the case, can only be produced in America. It comprises the cream of all the collections of this sort extant among us, with many additional ones, original or selected from American publications, and for the most part new to readers in this country. The whole are arranged and classified upon a new plan, with copious topical and Scriptural indexes. The Introduction, written in Dr. Cheever's customary pointed and picturesque style, sets forth with much effect the use and advantage of illustration in the enforcement of truth. Sometimes when we come upon such landing-places in the midst of a sermon, it is like anchoring at a verdant island after a somewhat tiresome sail. You remember the lake itself more by the island in the midst of it, and by what happened there, than by the smooth expanse of water.' This is true. But illustration of this sort is an instrument that needs to be delicately handled; for it requires great tact and judgment to introduce illustrative anecdotes with effect; and even with the aid of the index, which points out the texts which the anecdotes may be used to illustrate, much care in the selection and application will still be needed. We think highly of the useful effect of a well chosen anecdote in relieving the attention of an audience; and we know them to be of especial value in gaining the ear of young people; yet it is so rare to hear an anecdote really well applied, or to hit with direct sharpness the point at which it is aimed, that anecdotal preaching and discourse is, we suppose for this reason, not held in the highest estimation. As this work is so particularly arranged for the use of preachers, we have thought it right to look at it in that point of view. But there are many other purposes besides production in sermons to which anecdotes are applicable. There are scarcely any circumstances in which men have intercourse with one another, in which a well-put anecdote is not heard with pleasure. To those who have charge of young people anecdotes are of peculiar service and value. Even taken by themselves, there are few things that form more attractive reading to large classes of

readers.