covet earnestly the best arguments, and, possessing them, to present them to his people with a frequency and emphasis corresponding to their relative value.

Sciolism is especially to be avoided in the pulpit. The man who takes a flower or a bit of musk, and attempts to evolve therefrom a cogent argument for the immortality of the soul; or who from a sunbeam or the sonorous emissions of a tuning-fork elaborates principles which are to serve as corner-stones for his theory of the universe; or who catches the chirp of a cricket and attempts to draw from it a demonstration of the falsity of materialism, may be a genius of such calibre as to make his subject sublime; but he runs great risk of making it ridiculous to his more thoughtful auditors. Access to and contact with a man of large scientific attainments and of sound judgment during their theological course would do much to repress the tendency, too manifest among clergymen, of resorting to superficial analogies and far-fetched theories for their arguments in proof both of natural and revealed theology.

Another important end to be secured by the presence of a scientific professor in a theological seminary relates to the advancement of science. Clergymen enjoy peculiarly favorable opportunities for making discoveries in some departments of investigation, and thus for adding to the general stock of human knowledge. This is singularly true with reference to the sciences of botany, zoology, geology, anthropology, and language. In each one of these departments of study every district presents peculiar problems calling for the special attention of a local observer. What class of men can there be better situated than the clergy for prosecuting these much-needed investigations? The preacher of the gospel goes wherever man is found. He is by virtue of his occupation given to thought and reflection, and he needs the recreation which such incidental pursuits bring to the weary mind.

It is to the lasting credit of the clergy that science owes them already so great a debt. It was a Roman Catholic priest (Rev. J. MacEnery), who discovered, and first perceived the archaeological importance of the human implements found in the cave at Kent's Hole in South-western England. The Catholic Abbé Bourgeois has performed a similar service for the archeological fragments found at St. Prest in France. So eminent did J. Pye Smith of England and President Hitchcock of Amherst become as geologists that the world has well nigh forgotten their zeal and success in their chosen calling as preachers of the gospel. The student of glacial phenomena is made almost as familiar with the name of Canon Mozley for his investigations into the characteristics of ice movements as the theologian is through the theological publications bearing that distinguished name. According to the testimony of Professor Dana, an obscure Congregational minister in Western Vermont (the Rev. A. Wing, now deceased) did more by a judicious employment of his vacations to solve

the vexed but important questions relating to the geology of the region in which he lived than was accomplished by the expensive professional survey provided by the State. More recently a Lutheran clergyman in Ohio has through his familiarity with his own locality made most important and interesting discoveries in palaeontology. The comprehensive knowledge of the state geologist was essential to a full understanding of the significance of the discoveries, but except for the clergyman's scientific predilections and his minute knowledge of local facts, the secrets of nature might never have been disclosed. The meteorological discoveries of the Rev. T. D. Stoddard while a missionary in Persia drew forth warm expressions of gratitude from the great astronomer Herschel. Carl Ritter pays the highest compliments to the Missionary Herald as a repository of geographical information, and declares that he could not have written his "Erdkunde," except for the material transmitted to him by missionaries. The botany, zoology, and topography of South Africa had a flood of light shed upon them by the essays of the cultured missionary Champion in the American Journal of Science. The zoological specimens from Western Africa, with which more than one museum in this country are supplied, bear witness to the scientific zeal of Rev. William Walker; and the contributions of Rev. E. Burgess to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, shed much light upon the geology of the Cape of Good Hope. The geology of Persia is under similar obligations to the Rev. Justin Perkins; while the missionaries to the Sandwich Islands have been the guardians of Mauna Loa. To give an adequate account of Livingstone's contributions to science would require volumes. In the study of language the service of missionaries has been indispensable. More than two hundred languages have been reduced by them to writing, and the peculiarities of as many dialects brought within reach of the students of comparative philology at the great seats of learning. The late Bishop Pattison of the South Sea Islands was one of the most valued correspondents of Max Muller. We are told that the Ethnological Society in New York rarely holds a meeting in which papers from missionaries are not read. If without organized effort so much has been done by clergymen towards enlarging the boundaries of scientific knowledge, what might not the results be if there were in each prominent theological seminary a thoroughly equipped scientific professor who should make it a part of his business to stimulate and direct such work! Blessings innumerable shall rest upon the heads of those thoroughly furnished professors of science and religion who shall hereafter sit in our seats of theological learning, and shall bring themselves into loving sympathy with our candidates for the ministry, and shall consider with them their various fields of labor, and direct the attention of the young men to the scientific problems which can best be studied in their several places of settlement. The labors of the pastors of the large city churches may be so arduous, their

salaries so generous, and their opportunities for vacations so abundant that they will feel little need of such sympathy and direction; yet even they would find more satisfactory recreation in the pursuit of science than in shooting small birds and adding to the persecutions of diminutive trout. It will be of more than scientific interest if some clergyman would identify the ledge from which came the boulder at Plymouth, Mass., upon which the Pilgrims are said to have landed.

But especially serviceable to the clergymen settled on small salaries in the retired parishes of the country, to the home missionaries bearing the hardships of the frontier, and to the foreign missionaries laboring in the distant portions of the earth, the professor of physical science as related to theology may be of signal advantage. He will help them to break the monotony of their daily labor by well-directed effort in some scientific avocation, and will be of assistance to them in bringing their observations before the scientific world. In this manner, though not serving the highest of all purposes, he will do what may well satisfy the ambition of no ordinary man. He will confer an inestimable favor upon the hardworked and poorly-paid portion of our clergy; he will in the eyes of the world add dignity to the pastoral calling, and he will greatly increase the stock of human knowledge. The ministers and missionaries from a single theological seminary are far more numerous, and more widely scattered than the officers of the United States Signal Service. With concerted effort how might they enrich the world's repertory of scientific facts, and add to the advantages and give lustre to the name of their alma mater, while increasing the dignity and influence of the whole profession of which they are members.

G. F. W.

[The preceding Article confines itself to the Relation of Theology to Physical Science, because Articles have already appeared in the Bibliotheca Sacra on the Relation of Theology to other Sciences. See especially Bib. Sac., Vol. xxxiii. pp. 288-292.]

ARTICLE IX.

NOTICES OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS.

A STUDY OF THE PENTATEUCH FOR POPULAR READING. Being an Inquiry into the Age of the so-called Books of Moses, with an Introductory Examination of recent Dutch Theories, as represented by Dr. Kuenen's Religion of Israel. By Rufus P. Stebbins, D.D., formerly President, Lecturer on Hebrew Literature, and Professor of Theology in the Meadville Theological School. 12mo. pp. 233. Boston: Geo. H. Ellis. 1881.

This work is characterized by good strong sense. It is not written for the learned, but it is the result of long-continued study. The critics who are partial to the views of Dr. Kuenen will criticise many positions of Dr. Stebbins, but will commend his candor and truth-loving spirit. Although he is a prominent Unitarian, and does not in this volume claim any inspiration for the Pentateuch, yet his work will be hailed with a peculiar joy by the orthodox divines. They will be more nearly unanimous than his own brethren in their commendation of it.

The style of the volume is pleasing. It is very direct and perspicuous in its statements. The following is one part of its statement of Dr. Kuenen's theory. "Moses wrote nothing of the Pentateuch but an abbreviated form of the Ten Commandments or Ten Words.' A few chapters in Exodus and Leviticus may have been composed before settling in Canaan; but the Book of Deuteronomy was not composed till the reign of Josiah, 620 B.C., and the historical portions of the four other books were not written till the Captivity. Ezra and his fellow-priests drew up nearly the whole ritual as we now find it in Leviticus and the other books of the Pentateuch just before his return to Jerusalem from Babylon, and brought it with him, and introduced it, with the aid of Nehemiah and the priests, as a Mosaic production, and venerable with age and the observance of the fathers; and the Books of Chronicles were written, perverting and falsifying history, to sustain the false claim of Ezra's ritual to antiquity and the supremacy of the tribe of Levi, and the dignity and sacredness of the priesthood. The older historian of the Books of the Kings had no knowledge of any such ritual and priesthood. The prophets disappeared before the new order of priests, and the voice of the poetpreacher was stifled by the smoke of holocausts" (pp. 17, 18).

The great aim of the volume is to prove that "the Pentateuch is substantially of the Mosaic age; and largely, either directly or indirectly, of

Mosaic authorship" (p. 230). After a lengthened Introduction on the general character of Dr. Kuenen's Religion of Israel, the volume states the External Evidences in favor of the Mosaic origin of the Pentateuch (pp. 75-156); afterward, the Internal Evidence of it (pp. 157-230). Dr. Stebbins premises his investigation with the following statement: "This inquiry respecting the origin and age of the Pentateuch may be pursued, if one pleases, as a purely literary one; for the Mosaic dispensation is not ours, nor is the law our rule of life. Whatever may prove true in regard to the Pentateuch, our relations to God, to Christ, and to man, are unchanged. Whether the law was of human or of divine origin, we are, as Christians, to obey Christ, and accept the 'substance,' of which the law, at the best, was only a shadow.' As a purely literary inquiry, therefore, I shall discuss them" (pp. 80, 81). He also lays down the following canon of criticism as guiding the inquirer into the age of the Pentateuch: "If we find that an ancient book is referred to, in all later works, by the name which is now given to it, and that references are made to it, and that quotations are made from its contents, such substantially as we now find in it, then the proper, the necessary, conclusion is that the book is the same as that which we possess" (p. 83).

Dr. Stebbins excels in brief and pithy replies to individual charges made by the Dutch School. One of these charges is that the Books of the Chronicles are substantially historical forgeries, composed in order to give a color of truth to the ritual forgeries of Ezra. Dr. Stebbins admits that many names and numbers are incorrectly given in the Chronicles; but he says: "Genealogies may be erroneous, and yet the events recorded may be substantially correct. ..... There is open before me, as I write, the first volume of Savage's Genealogy of New England, a very miracle of accuracy,' and yet there are twenty octavo pages of additions and corrections' at the end of it" (p. 41).

In the celebrated "Bible for Learners" by Dr. H. Oort of Amsterdam and Dr. T. Hooykaas of Rotterdam, assisted by Dr. Kuenen, it is said that "the prophet Malachi [420-490 B.C.] is the first to use the expression Law of Moses."" To this Dr. Stebbins replies: "Now the title is used 1 Kings ii. 3 and 2 Kings xxiii. 25, books acknowledged by such critics as De Wette and Davidson to have been written about 550 B.C. And the title is also used by the writer of the Book of Joshua, placed by the same critics about 650 B.C., or two centuries earlier than Dr. Oort admits that the title was used. Dr. Oort tells 'learners' that 'the very name given to the Mount of Sinai signifies the moon-god.' We do not say that some modern critics are moon-struck, but the moon has as much influence on their criticism as it has on the meteorology of the rustic. Gesenius (Hebrew, Thesaurus, ad verb.) says Sinai signifies lutum, mire! Again, Dr. Oort tells 'learners' that the very name of the hero himself [Samson] signifies "sun-god."" Gesenius says it signifies sunlike.'