the world, and man with sufficient clearness and fullness, he expends his strength on die Lehre vom Heil, or the doctrine of salvation, unfolding it from the stand-point of theology abstractly considered, the teachings of the New Testament, and the testimony of the Christian Church. It is proper to state that in the refutation of theories he does not accept he is not as vehement or as virile as in the announcement and defense of his own positions. In the discussion of evil he brings forth nothing new, though the pages reflect an original influence that atones for the failure to solve the problem in hand. So, also, in the consideration of the eschatological problems that belong to the system, the reader will discover a deficiency of new suggestion, though no wavering of certainty in the mind of the author as he grapples with things to come. We must, therefore, pronounce the book valuable, because it fully represents our faith; but it does not advance our system in a new way, or in a stronger way than has been done by former theologians. The style is not altogether finished or elegant, the book at times betraying haste in preparation, or at least carelessness in composition. As to subject-matter, it contains sufficient for its purpose, and carefully studied it will equip the minister for preaching the Gospel from the Methodist stand-point. It should, therefore, be widely circulated.

A New Commentary on Genesis. By FRANZ Delitzsch, D.D., Leipzig.

Translated

by SOPHIA TAYLOR. Vol. I. 8vo, pp. 412. New York: Scribner & Welford. Price, cloth, $3.

Of all German commentators, whether of rationalistic or evangelical tendency, we regard the author of this volume as inferior to none, and really as occupying the first rank for breadth of scholarship, incisive textual critical ingenuity, and safe hermeneutical exposition. While he affirms the post-Mosaic authorship of the main portions of the Pentateuch, thus joining the school of destructive critics, it must be said that the value of his interpretations is not impaired or affected by this rationalistic basis. His views of the Pentateuch are clearly and strongly given in the introduction, and are worthy of perusal, though the scholar is quite able to detect incorrect statement and unwarranted deduction on many a page. This is all forgotten, however, in the rich and abundant suggestions of the author as he considers patiently and thoroughly the successive chapters and verses of Genesis. The book is not for the common reader; that is, the methods of reasoning founded upon so many etymologies will confuse, and seem obscure to one not familiar with more than one language. Hebrew, Greek, and Latin are used with rare ease and grace; and so profound and skillful is the commentator in his inferences and combinations that only the most carefully trained mind can fitly appropriate and digest all that he has prepared. So close and painstaking is his work that this volume covers not more than fourteen chapters of Genesis. If he continue the commentary after this fashion until the entire Pentateuch shall have been gone over, the scholar will wish to have every volume; indeed, it will be indispensable.

An Introduction to the New Testament. By MARCUS DODD, D.D., Author of The Book of Genesis, The Parables of our Lord, Israel's Iron Age, etc. 247. New York: Thomas Whittaker. Price, cloth, 75 cents.

16mo, pp.

The Christian scholar can make valuable use of this "Introduction." He will find in it no needless or circumlocutory discussions, or any attempt to settle the numerous theories respecting the origin or the interpretation of the books of the New Testament; but a straightforward yet learned exposition of the problems involved in the contents of the books, and a clear representation of the purpose of their authors. While not a "lower" or a "higher" critic, the author is independently critical and original in defense of his positions. He joins the large company of modern commentators who reject the Pauline authorship of the epistle to the Hebrews, but as its canonicity is assured its authorship is a minor question. He is also frank enough to indicate the perplexities of the German schools of rationalists and theologians, extricating them when he can do so briefly and satisfactorily. It is patent that in the circles of Christian investigators biblical science is superseding theology, the main question being not one of diminished creeds but of exact historic truth. This established, a true theology is possible. This book delivers the reader from all theological prepossessions, and prepares him for an untrammeled study of the New Testament.

What is the Bible? An Inquiry into the Origin and Nature of the Old and New Testaments in the Light of Modern Biblical Study. By GEORGE T. LADD. D.D., Professor of Philosophy in Yale University. 12mo, pp. 497. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Price, cloth, $2.

Yale College is the center of American rationalism. Its principal professors who have gone into authorship, or who associate editorship with their proper duties, are exponents of a modern phase of hermeneutics that threatens to undermine certain doctrinal beliefs or systems which have prevailed for centuries in the Church of the ages. Professor Ladd viciously assails the post-reformation theory of inspiration, asserting that it was not held by the Reformers, and that modern intelligence has almost extinguished it. Whatever the demerit of that theory, it is not clear that any thing is gained by resorting to an interpretation that explains miracles by natural agencies and the divine record as a human production. The failure to distinguish between the natural and the supernatural in miracle, and the human and the divine in prophecy or inspiration, compels one to vibrate between plenary inspiration or rationalism. Professor Ladd is as censurable as the theologians he condemns, for if they claimed too much he insists upon too little. Philip Doddridge, and others who grant certain possibilities of error in the versions of the Scriptures, should not be quoted in defense of a theory of inspiration that is wanting in every element of supernaturalism. The hypercriticism of small matters so noticeable in these pages is proof of a cause almost causeless. The book is rationalism in esse and destructive of orthodox confidence. The author is sincere, able, enthusiastic; but Pelagius was sincere, Hobbes was able, Renan and Kuenen are majestic in

their assaults upon the truth. The critical student of the Scriptures is dissatisfied with the post-reformation dogma of inspiration, and is anxious not to go to the opposite extreme, nor to accept a compromise as a relief from some of the old burdens of thought, but to ascertain the exact meaning of inspiration as a force, and to consider the riddle of truth as solved. The theory of Dr. Ladd is not a solution: it is only a theory, and repugnant to the progressive, inquiring sense of the honest mind.

Manual of Biblical Archæology. By CARL FRIEDRICH KEIL, Doctor and Professor of Theology. With Alterations and Additions Furnished by the Author for the English Translation. Vol. II. Translated from the German and Edited by the Rev. ALEX. CUSIN, M.A., Edinburgh. 8vo, pp. 404. New York: Scribner & Welford. Price, cloth, $3.

Dr. Keil's scholarship, vast researches, and patient and exhaustive labors are manifest in this volume. He seems anxious to interpret the life and character of the Israelites, and to understand the origin and growth of those customs and institutions of the ancient people that have so largely affected the religious thought and institutions of mankind. Such is his comprehension of the old economy that he sees at a glance the minute as well as the large, the transient as well as the permanent, in the development of the history of Israel; and without attempting to maintain a theory of that history he at the same time evolves, perhaps unconsciously, an acceptable theory of the dispensation from the facts as they appear under analysis and combination. The principal portions of the book relate to an exposition of the domestic relations, the various occupations, and the theocratic and administrative functions and tendencies of the civil government of the Hebrews. In no department of inquiry is he at all deficient in knowledge, or hesitant in opinion, but satisfactory and certainly authoritative. In discussing meats and drinks, dress and dwellings, marriage and sickness, wine and olive culture, hunting and fishing, weights and money, poetry and oratory, land and property, judges and courts of law, offenses and punishments, armies and wars, he is curiously painstaking in detail, learnedly explicit in statement, and equally furnished on all the subjects with arguments, illustrations, and apt suggestions. The work is marvelous, and taken in connection with the first volume constitutes a sufficient thesaurus on the archæology of the Old Testament.

The Second Book of Samuel. By the Rev. Professor W. G. BLAIKIE, D.D., LL.D., New College, Edinburgh. 8vo, pp. 400. New York: A. C. Armstrong & Son. Price, $1 50.

The primary thought of the learned author is, that the sacred book under consideration is not a history of the kingdom of Israel, but rather a history of the kingdom of God in Israel. This may apply to all the historic books of the Old Testament. The distinction, though justified by the contents of the histories, is overlooked by the average student, who in blindness and narrowness traces merely the development of the Jewish race or nation, being forgetful of the higher kingdom in process of an

evolution that will never end. In the light of this distinction David stands before us not merely as king of a people, but as the instrument of Jehovah working out apparently his personal plans, but ideally the unseen plan of the occupant of the divine throne. The reverses and punishments that befell the royal ruler, the one-time miscarriage of his government in the struggle with Absalom, and the frequent insurrections and foreign wars that disturbed him, are proofs of a divine intervention in the affairs of the kingdom that the divine plan might go forward. As David is the central figure of the book, it reads quite like a biography of the shepherd prince, with sufficient details of the lives of Uriah, Nathan, Amnon, Absalom, Barzillai, and Sheba. In character it is expository rather than exegetical, and in influence instructive rather than inspiring.

In the Footsteps of Arminius. A Delightsome Pilgrimage. By WILLIAM F. WARREN, D.D., LL.D., President of Boston University, Author of Einleitung in die Systematische Theologie; Paradise Found; A Study of the Prehistoric World, etc. 16mo, pp. 52. New York: Hunt & Eaton. Cincinnati Cranston & Stowe. Price, cloth, 35 cents.

In 1856-58 Dr. Warren pilgrimized in Europe, visiting various theological centers, especially Oudewater, Utrecht, Leyden, Geneva, Basel, Padua, and Rome, and came home bent on re-exhibiting the teachings of James Arminius, the scholar, theologian, and founder of the school of thought in opposition to the iron system of Calvinism, in volumes of grasp and strength. The purpose was never executed; but after the lapse of many years, and mature study of Arminianism, three articles, embodying the results of his visits to Europe, were published in The Christian Advocate, and are here reproduced for preservation and still greater usefulness. The charm of the author's usual style, with such biographical references to the eminent Hollandic thinker, and such striking comments of his own on points of doctrine, compels the reader's close attention from the first to the last page. He that follows the author treads truly in the footsteps of Arminius, and breathes the atmosphere of religious freedom. The book is suggestive, inspiring, and helpful.

The Preachers of Scotland. From the Sixth to the Nineteenth Century. Twelfth Series of Cunningham Lectures. By WILLIAM GARDEN BLAIKIE, D.D., LL.D., Professor of Apologetical and of Pastoral Theology, New College, Edinburgh. 8vo, pp. 350. New York: Scribner & Welford. Price, cloth, $2. The Scotch pulpit, from the early days of St. Columba to the modern period of Guthrie, Hanna, Norman McLeod, Macdonald, and Oswald Dykes, has exercised a potent influence on the national character, and pioneered the development of the sturdy theology of the inhabitants of Caledonia. The story of the achievements of the heroic leaders of the Church; the reformations they introduced; the covenants they established; the fidelity they maintained in the stormy periods of controversy and secession; and the pure evangelical spirit they breathed in times of reaction and progress, are a part of the history of the people's life and of

the kingdom to which Scotland belongs. The reader of this volume will become acquainted with a large number of the divines who officiated in the growth of Scotland, and whose celebrity is based upon their heroism and fidelity in preaching the Gospel. The preachers of the Reformation, of the covenanting period, of the days of moderatism, and of the rise of a true evangelical movement, are sketched by a masterly hand, leaving the impression that the preacher is the mightiest force in society as well as in the Church. John Knox was not the only great preacher in Scotland; nor was John Erskine the only evangelical trumpeter of the eighteenth century; for Patrick Hamilton, Robert Rollock, John Davidson, Robert Blair, John Livingstone, James Durham, Robert Douglas, Robert Leighton, John Logan, Alexander Webster, and Thomas Chalmers stand out like great oaks in the forest, and had much to do with shaping Scotland's destiny. That these preachers were Calvinistic makes not against them, nor does it relieve Calvinism of its error or weakness. We accept the history as they made it, and look to other sources for our theology. They were mighty men, the Anakim of Scotland from the Celtic Church until the days of Edward Irving and John Brown. As history this book is reliable; as biography it is charming; in the literary point of view it is strong and well equipped; in mechanical appearance it is complete; in theology only is it rejectable.

MODERN SCIENCE AND LANGUAGE.

Modern Science in Bible Lands. By Sir J. W. DAWSON, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S., Author of The Story of the Earth and Man, The Origin of the World, etc. With Maps and Illustrations. 12mo, pp. 606. New York: Harper & Brothers. Price, cloth, $2.

Bible lands, especially Egypt and Palestine, will never cease to attract the traveler or inspire the observer to record what he sees, and to in. terpret the countries either according to a preconceived theory or to a theory which observation itself suggests. The observer freest from all prejudgment respecting these lands should be the scientist, who goes, as is supposed, to ascertain their geological structure or scientific history, and who is determined to report the facts just as they are discovered. He can scarcely be said to have a religious theory that will interfere with his views of mountains, deserts, plains, and rivers. In this work religion cannot bind science, and science cannot obligate religion to its dictation. In this spirit of strict and accurate survey of the geological contents of these lands the author prepared this volume, confining himself to the literal story as he read it on the face of nature. He did not undertake too much, either as a traveler or scientist, but kept in view the main purpose before him, and so has furnished the reader a statement worthy of attention. He discusses briefly some general historical questions, as seemed necessary, but his point of view is that of a geological observer intent upon exhibiting the geological structure of Egypt and Palestine. With the aid of a