"Now this, O Bhikkus, is the noble truth concerning suffering. Birth is attended with pain; decay is painful; disease is painful; death is painful. Union with the unpleasant is painful; painful is separation from the pleasant; and any craving that is unsatisfied, that, too, is painful. In brief, the five aggregates which spring from attachment (the conditions of individuality and their cause) are painful.

"This then, O Bhikkus, is the noble truth concerning suffering. "Now this, O Bhikkus, is the noble truth concerning the origin of suffering. Verily, it is that thirst (or craving), causing the renewal of existence, accompanied by sensual delight, seeking satisfaction now here, now there

that is to say, the craving for the gratification of the passions, or the craving for (a future) life, or the craving for success (in this present life). "This, then, O Bhikkus is the noble truth concerning the origin of suffering.

"Now this, O Bhikkus, is the noble truth concerning the destruction of suffering. Verily, it is the destruction, in which no passion remains, of this very thirst; the laying aside of, the getting rid of, the being free from, the harboring no longer of this thirst.

"This, then, O Bhikkus, is the noble truth concerning the destruction of suffering.

"Now this, O Bhikkus, is the noble truth concerning the way which leads to the destruction of sorrow. Verily, it is this noble eightfold path; that is to say, right views, right aspirations, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right contemplation. "This, then, O Bhikkus, is the noble truth concerning the destruction of sorrow" (pp. 148 ff.).

But here our extracts must cease. We need only add, as we close this volume, that it is one of no small interest to the intelligent reader, as well as of very much value to the historian, or to the student of comparative religion. The name of the translator will be a sufficient guarantee of accuracy of rendering; and the English style is not only exceedingly appropriate to the subject matter, being both chaste and lofty in diction, but is also in itself elegant, sometimes even eloquent. As a whole, we consider this volume more readable than any that have preceded it in this series. This is due partly to the excellence of the translator's work, and partly to the subject matter of the book. A similar remark, we imagine, can be made regarding Buddhist literature in general, as compared with that either of Hinduism or Zoroastrianism. Next to the Buddhist books we should be inclined to place those of Muhammadanism.

ARTICLE VIII.

NOTICES OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS.

THE BOOK OF ENOCH: Translated from the Ethiopic, with Introduction and Notes. By Rev. George H. Schodde, Ph.D., Professor in Capital University, Columbus, Ohio. 12mo. pp. 278. Andover: Warren F. Draper. 1882.

In the fourteenth and fifteenth verses of the Epistle of Jude we read: "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying: Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judg ment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed," etc. In Enoch i. 9 we read: "And behold, he comes with myriads of the holy to pass judgment upon them, and will destroy the impious, and will call to account all flesh for everything the sinners and the impious have done and committed against him." It has been commonly supposed that the preceding passage in Jude is quoted from the passage in Enoch. In the sixth verse of Jude we read: "And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." The Book of Enoch speaks of "iron chains of immense weight"-"prepared for the hosts of Azâzêl, to imprison them and put them into the lowest hell." "Michael and Gabriel, Rufael and Fanuel, they will overpower them on that great day, will throw them on that day into the oven of burning fire,” etc., liv. 3-6; comp. lvi. 1 sq.; lxii. 11. There are numerous coincidences, more or less noticeable, between the Book of Enoch and the New Testament. Between that book and the Old Testament, particularly the prophecy of Daniel, the coincidences are more obvious. In the Book of Enoch we read of the expected Messiah as "the Just One," "the Righteous One,” "the Chosen One," "the Son of Man," "the Anointed," "the Son of the woman sitting on the throne of his glory," the Judge who will try and condemn the fallen angels and wicked men.

J. Chr. K. von Hofmann and Phllipi contend that an inspired writer would not have quoted from an apocryphal book, and that the Book of Enoch was written after the Epistle of Jude. Jerome, believing that Jude quoted from Enoch, did not regard Jude as inspired. The majority of critics, however, believe that, at least, certain parts of the book were written before the New Testament, and that Jude made a citation from it. Prof. Schodde supposes that the "Groundwork" of the book was

written "before the death of Judas [Maccabi] in B.C. 160; that the "Parables" in the book were written about 374 B.C.; that the "Noachian Fragments" were written somewhat later than the Parables; and that the whole book is Jewish and gives no sign of a post-Christian origin. This opinion seems to be the correct one.

The book was probably written in the Hebrew or Aramaic language, was early translated into the Greek, but the original and the Greek translation have been lost for centuries. In 1773 an Ethiopic translation was discovered in Abyssinia by the English traveller, James Bruce. In 1800 Silvestre de Sacy made some use of some copies of the Ethiopic translation. In 1821 Professor Laurence, afterwards Archbishop of Cashel, published an English translation of the Ethiopic. In 1833, Prof. A. G. Hofmann of Jena, began the publication of a German translation. In 1840 Gfrörer published a Latin translation. In 1851 Dillmann issued the most reliable Ethiopic Text, and in 1853 the most accurate translation of it. Prof. Schodde has given us the best English translation, from the Text of Dillmann. He has evidently made a careful study of that Text, and of the discussions of Dillmann, Lücke, Ewald, Köstlin, Hilgenfeld, Volkmar, Langen, Gebhardt, Tidemann, and others. He has made not only an interesting but an important contribution to theological literature. The Book of Enoch has attracted the attention of the church fathers, as Justin Martyr, Clemens of Alexandria, Origen, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Eusebius, Jerome, Hilary, Epiphanius, Augustine, and many others. It has been studied with special care by commentators on Daniel, Isaiah, the Epistles of Jude and Peter, and the Revelation of John. It reflects light on the doctrinal ideas prevalent during the first and second centuries preceding the Christian era.

Methodist Commentaries.

Our readers are aware that Rev. D. D. Whedon, LL.D., has been engaged for more than a quarter of a century in editing a series of Commentaries on the Bible. We have received the following volumes of the series on the Old Testament; The Commentary on Joshua to 2 Samuel, by Rev. D. Steele, D.D., and Rev. Milton S.Terry, A.M.; The Commentary on Kings to Esther, by Rev. Milton S. Terry, A.M.; The Commentary on Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Solomon's Song, by Rev. J. K. Burr, D.D., Rev. W. Hunter, D.D., Rev. A. B. Hyde, D.D. These three volumes are uniform with the following, which is the last received by us, and bears the following title: COMMENTARY ON THE OLD TESTAMENT. Vol. v. The Book of Psalms. By F. G. Hibbard, D D. 12mo. pp. 448. New York: Phillips and Hunt; Cincinnati: Walden and Stowe. 1882. This volume, like the preceding volumes of the Old Testament series, is well fitted for popular use. It is conservative and candid. The Psalms which relate to the future life and to the Messiah

are explained with special care. The imprecatory Psalms are treated judiciously. One passage, extracted from Tholuck's Commentary, has a Calvinistic ring : Is not man permitted," asks the German professor, "to desire that God should do what he really does, provided he desires it in that sense in which God does it?"

The series on the Old Testament is to contain eight duodecimo volumes, and is yet incomplete. The series on the New Testament contains five volumes, the last of which has the following title: COMMENTARY ON THE NEW TESTAMENT. Intended for Popular Use. By D. D. Whedon, LL.D. Vol. v. Titus-Revelation. 12mo. pp. 483. New York: Phillips and Hunt; Cincinnati: Hitchcock and Walden. 1880. The five volumes of this New Testament series are not so well known and so much read as they should be by the Congregational and Presbyterian clergy. They are the result of severe and extensive study. They give evidence of an acute and vigorous mind. They are written in a lucid, precise, and often felicitous style. On some passages the reasoning is remarkably powerful. Of course, the arguments against the Calvinistic interpretations of the New Testament will not be accepted by the majority of our readers; but the arguments for the evangelical system in general will be gratefully appreciated. We will here call attention to what we consider one fair specimen of the commentary as a whole, We refer to the explanation given by Dr. D. A. Whedon of 1 Pet. iii. 18-20. This litigated passage is represented as teaching that Christ by his Spirit preached in the person of Noah to the antediluvians, who were disobedient at the time of their listening to the patriarch's message, and were in prison, in a state of punishment, at the time of Christ's crucifixion. The commentary opposes the various theories that Christ after his crucifixion preached in his own person to those spirits, and offered salvation to them. In opposing these theories the following passages occur:

.....

Our Lord's descent to Hades was to "Paradise, the blessed side of Hades, whither the penitent thief accompanied him, as was promised on the cross. ... He entered that world as do other men, with the humble, prayerful cry upon his lips, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit' (Luke xxiii. 46), and with the limitations of a man, as he had passed his whole earthly life. That saints and angels welcomed him as personally, though not yet officially, victorious, and that he partook of a higher bliss than when on earth, we can well believe. But not even his human soul could bridge over the awful, impassable gulf between Paradise and the prison-house of Hades, of which Father Abraham said to the rich man, They which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us that would come from thence' (Luke xvi. 26). This is one of the inexorable laws of the realm of the dead, which some of the abovementioned theories forget when they imagine Christ's human spirit crossing to preach to the lost, or the lost accepting salvation, and passing VOL. XXXIX. No. 155.

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the 'great gulf' into Paradise, which our Lord himself, in the words cited, declares impossible. If Christ in person preached in hades to the antediluvians there imprisoned, by the well-known law, Exceptio probat regulam, The exception proves the rule,'-the specification of the persons to whom he preached, namely, the disobedient of Noah's time, excludes all others from the message." The representations that Christ entered "the world of spirits as a triumphant conqueror, there doing the work of Judge and Saviour, overlook the important fact that he was still in his state of humiliation. Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross' (Phil. ii. 8). He had voluntarily gone down to the lowest depths of self-humiliation in his death on the cross, and there he remained until the moment of his resurrection, the beginning of his exaltation. Death was conqueror, and still held him in its grasp. The shame of the cross was upon him. The curse which he took upon himself had crushed him in the sight of the universe; and he still lay under it where he fell. The atonement in itself was complete in his dying; but, however exultingly the wonderful story, soon to be made glorious, might be told in Paradise, its application and the proclamation of it as an accomplished and valid fact required the precedent deliverance from the curse by the resurrection. Only so, as it seems to us, was the "all power" (Matt. xxviii. 18) won to authoritatively condemn as Judge, or to offer mercy as Redeemer." "The doctrine that Christ preached the gospel to the antediluvians when they were in Hades is contrary to the whole tenor of Scripture, which confines its offers of salvation to the present life, and connects the decisions of the final judgment with the characters and acts of men as they are in the world, and not as they may be formed after death. See Matt. vii. 21-23; x. 32, 33; xxv. 31-46; Mark viii. 38; Luke xvi. 25, 26; Rom. ii. 6; 2 Cor. v. 10; Heb. ix. 27; Rev. ii. 10. An interpretation which is at war with the analogy of faith cannot be safe or true."

Works on Eschatology.

Various notices of these Works have been prepared for the Bibliotheca Sacra, but must now be omitted. The following are condensed from more lengthened notices for which we have not sufficient space.

BIBLE TERMINOLOGY RELATIVE TO THE FUTURE LIFE. An Inquiry into the Meaning of the principal Scriptural Terms touching the Nature and Destiny of Man, viz. Soul; Spirit; Life; Death; Hell; the Second Death; Punishment; Everlasting Destruction; the Life Everlasting; Eternal; the Great Salvation; the Unspeakable Gift; Discarded Scriptural Terms. By J. H. Pettingell, A. M. 12mo. pp. 368. Philadelphia: The Bible Banner Association; J. D. Brown, Agent. 1881.