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parted to me. The classes of pupils under my instruction soon began to importune me to give them some information respecting the Apocalypse. I commenced the study of it with a design to comply with their request. I soon found myself, however, in pursuing the way of regular interpretation, as applied to other books of Scripture, completely hedged in; and I felt, at the same time, that to pursue my former method of interpreting the book, would cast me inevitably upon the boundless ocean of mere conjectural exposition. I frankly told my pupils, therefore, that I knew nothing respecting the book which could profit them, VOL. VII.-1

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THE

METHODIST QUARTERLY REVIEW.

JANUARY, 1847.

EDITED BY GEORGE PECK, D. D.

ART. I.-A Commentary on the Apocalypse. By MOSES STUART, Prof. of Sacred Literature in the Theological Seminary at Andover, Mass. 2 vols. 8vo. Andover: Allen, Morrell & Wardwell. New-York: M. H. Newman. 1845.

WE at length have a Commentary by an American scholar and divine on the Revelation of St. John; and a work of which we may be proud: a work which, while it does not despise the labors and opinions of its predecessors, is eminently original and sound. Moses Stuart, the author, has long since come to be considered a Coryphæus among Biblical scholars and interpreters, both in this country and in Europe. His commentaries on some of the most difficult portions of the Scriptures, as the Epistles of Paul to the Romans and to the Hebrews, have won for him an elevated rank as a commentator, on both sides of the Atlantic. The immense learning, fervent piety, and clear, sound sense of the author, peculiarly qualify him for the work of interpretation. The occasion and manner in which the work was composed are thus stated in the Preface:

"When I began my official duties in my present station, I had no other knowledge of the book, than what the reading of Bishop Newton on the Prophecies, and of others who were of the like cast, had imparted to me. The classes of pupils under my instruction soon began to importune me to give them some information respecting the Apocalypse. I commenced the study of it with a design to comply with their request. I soon found myself, however, in pursuing the way of regular interpretation, as applied to other books of Scripture, completely hedged in; and I felt, at the same time, that to pursue my former method of interpreting the book, would cast me inevitably upon the boundless ocean of mere conjectural exposition. I frankly told my pupils, therefore, that I knew nothing respecting the book which could profit them, VOL. VII.-1

and that I could not attempt to lecture upon it. After still further examination, I came to a resolution not to attempt the exegesis of the Apocalypse until a period of ten years had elapsed, which should be devoted, so far as my other duties would permit, to the study of the Hebrew prophets. I kept my resolution. After this period had passed, I began, with much caution, to say a few things in the lecture-room respecting the book in question. Every three years, these lectures, such as they were, I repeated, with some additions and alterations. In process of time I began to go through the whole book. This I have done several times; and the present work is the result of these oftenrepeated and long-continued labors."-P. 5.

Prof. Stuart sets out with the proposition that this book has one great object in view,-and that is to declare the final victory of the church over all her foes, the triumph of Christ, and the glorious establishment of his kingdom here in the earth. It is maintained that this is discernible by even common and ordinary readers, and still further, that we cannot suppose the revelator wrote a series of unintelligible symbols, but that the book really was intelligible to all well-informed readers of the seven churches of Asia, to whom it was immediately addressed. That the book is substantially the same in form and manner with other prophecies, as those of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Zechariah. The import of their prophecies was understood by the well-informed Hebrew converts scattered through the churches of Asia Minor, and that these could have explained it to others. The Paradise Lost of Milton is intelligible and read with interest by common readers, but there are some things, as its frequent classical allusions, which only well-informed readers would comprehend. So with the Revelation; by the common spiritual Christian it may be read with interest and profit, though the prophetic images and symbols, and striking orientalisms, may be understood only by the reader well-instructed in the Old Testament Scriptures. In illustration and confirmation of this position, follows an elaborate section on the similarity of the Apocalypse with other Scriptural prophecies. There is only a general, not a minute, resemblance as to form and method between the Apocalypse and the Old Testament prophecies. The same general theme is observable, viz.: "The final and universal triumph of truth and holiness over error and sin." In many a passage of the Old Testament and of the New, we find the kernel or nucleus of the Revelation. The chief difference is, that the Revelation is more extended and diffuse in its descriptions of the great struggle between the powers of sin and holiness. The Old Testament descriptions are rather simple statements of the great result-the glorious triumph of the gospel; while the Apocalypse gives us

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