poet. We are getting tired of "lectures on preaching." The poorest preachers amongst us are the most ready to enact homiletic rules and utter homiletic advice. The born preacher is the only man who can promote good preaching, and this by his own masterly discourses and effective delivery. He should be physically, intellectually, and morally of the highest type of manhood. HAPPINESS. NO spirit in the universe can be happy without thorough harmony with the will and mind of God. Heaven is happy because of this harmony; hell is miserable because of antagonism to the Divine Mind. WARNING.-Heaven does not punish without warnings. Nature warns, Providence warns, conscience warns; there is no sinful soul in which the trumpet of alarm does not sound. THE GOSPEL.-We think it can be demonstrated that the Gospel is not only adapted to man, but is essential to man. If a man is to breathe, he must have air; if he is to see, he must have light; if he is to live, he must have food; and if he is to be happy,-happy as a moral and intelligent being,-he must have the Gospel. To prove this to men, is what is wanted in all our books and in all our preaching. Literary Notices. [We hold it to be the duty of an Editor either to give an early notice of the books sent to him for remark, or to return them at once to the Publisher. It is unjust to praise worthless books; it is robbery to retain unnoticed ones.] THE REVIEWER'S CANON. In every work regard the author's end, THE NEW TESTAMENT TRANSLATED FROM THE CRITICAL TEXT OF VON TISCHENDORF; WITH AN INTRODUCTION ON THE CRITICISM, TRANSLATION, AND INTERPRETATION OF THE BOOK. By SAMUEL DAVIDSON, D.D., LL.D. London: Henry S. King, 65, Cornhill. We are not a little pleased to receive another learned work from the scholarly pen of Dr. Davidson. When we entered on our ministry, now upwards of thirty years ago, two volumes were presented to us by a friend, which we have regarded ever since as the best books in our library, and from which from time to time we have derived invaluable assistance in our endeavours to interpret God's Holy Word. Dr. Davidson's volume on "Biblical Criticism" as well as that on "Sacred Hermeneutics" are still invaluable to us; and notwithstanding that since their publication Biblical scholarship has made some progress, the interpretation they give and the hermeneutic rules they propound demand the attention of every man who presumes to expound THE BOOK to others. We cannot better perhaps introduce the work now before us to our readers, than by furnishing them with an extract from the Author's preface. "The present version," says the Author, "originated in one of the conversations which the writer had with Von Tischendorf in the summer of 1872. That scholar had just completed the publication of the 8th critical edition, contemplating no future one, because his best efforts and mature judgment had been expended on the finished volumes. Having prepared a text for scholars, he naturally wished it to be read by all English-speaking people, and asked the Translator to make it accessible to that large class who do not know Greek. Feeling the arduousness of the task, the latter hesitated, but finally consented to gratify a friend whom he loved; and some arrangements were made at the time for its immediate performance. But difficulties arose. Von Tischendorf was struck down, and compelled to cease from mental occupation. Affliction came upon the present writer, also, who was visited with irreparable loss. The translation was interrupted by this bereavement and by a subsequent sojourn in Italy. But it was never abandoned. Though prosecuted slowly, the Author felt himself bound by a principle of honour to perform his promise. It has been a solace in affliction, a relief from the fruitless indulgence of regrets, an engrossing employment amid lonely longings for the society of the just made perfect. Our friend, alas !. is not here to see the completed work. Had he lived, he would have written an Introduction to accompany the present one. But his ideas generally coincided with those of the Translator; and he would have expressed little that has not been said here. His Preface would have related to the text he finally edited, whose antiquity he put on a par almost with originality; for his opinion was, that the text of the second century is presented in substantial integrity." The Author's Introduction is exceedingly valuable. It contains strictures, honest, generous, and enlightened, upon the translations of Dean Alford, the American Bible Union, and Dr. Noyes of Halle University, and others. It also lays down and vindicates the principle on which his own translation has proceeded, which is that of strict literality and the smallest possible amount of paraphrase. It has, moreover, many valuable remarks on certain disputed and misunderstood passages. As to the translation itself, it is as faithful to the original as any translation can be, and free from any theological and sectarian bias. There is no translation of the New Testament extant equal to it, and henceforth it must be used as The New Testament in English. In looking into it somewhat carefully, we have had one old regret concerning the Author removed, and another old regret strengthened. The one removed is this, that the Author was not appointed a member of the Bible Revision Committee. When that Committee was formed, we wondered and grieved that such a Biblical scholar as Dr. Davidson was left out: there was no man in Europe more eligible, few men appointed who could approach him in linguistical attainment, Biblical scholarship, and critical acumen. With this translation in our hands this regret vanishes. The Revision Committee is formed of men of different communions and theological predilections. Their rendering, we presume, is a matter of voting. Numbers, not capacity, learning, or merit, will carry the day. It would be more than human, therefore, to expect a thoroughly faithful translation. While Dr. Davidson is profoundly Christian in doctrine and spirit, few men are freer from theological bias or ecclesiastical influences than he; and as a scholar pre-eminent amongst scholars, we have here, therefore, a translation more faithful than we could possibly expect from any committee of men. But whilst this work has banished one regret it has strengthened another. The learned Author of this book, who was Professor of Biblical Literature in the Royal Academical University of Belfast some thirty-five years ago, subsequently held for many years a chair in the Lancashire Independent College. Why is he not there now? His position there, we know, gave a prestige to the institution and shed a lustre on the communion to which it belonged; and never had the Independent denomination fewer distinguished scholars than now. Why did he resign? A few men,-most of whom, we think, are in their graves (and therefore their names shall not be mentioned),— raised against him the charge of heresy; fools believed the charge. The Doctor walked away from their midst, if not with indignation, with a dignity that became a high-minded man. We have reason to believe that the most enlightened and ablest men of that communion have never ceased to regret the loss of such a man to their denomination. It is indeed a loss; but no great souls can live in a denomination. The Dedication of this book is exquisitely beautiful and touching; its wail has struck in us one of the deepest chords of the heart. THE RELIGION OF THE CHRIST. THE BAMPTON LECTURES FOR 1874. By Rev. STANLEY LEATHES, M.A. London: Rivingtons. As a The subjects of these lectures are,-" Anticipation of the Christ in heathen nations; The Christ of Jewish history; The Christ of the Psalms; The Christ of prophecy; The Christ of the Gospels; The Christ of the Acts; the Christ of the Pauline Epistles; The Christ of the other books." "The object of the Lectures," says the author, "has been to unfold the significance, too often overlooked or forgotten, of the name Christianity, which is neither more nor less than the religion of the Christ. matter of historic fact, the name by which this religion is known does not lead us back so to Christ as its Founder,-in the way that Mahomedanism leads us back to Mahomet for its founder, as it does to Christ as the object and substance of the earliest ascertainable faith of the people called Christians. Whatever uncertainty, real or imaginary, may attach to the actual origin of this belief, there is and can be no question whatever as to its earliest expressions. These survive to us in literary anonuments which are imperishable and undoubted. The four great epistles of St. Paul are themselves a treasury of evidence in this respect; and they must continue to be so until it can be shown on equal evidence, which as yet is not producible, that they represent only one phase, and that a partial and sectional phase, of early Christianity." It is needless to say that the Author has accomplished the work he undertook in a most satisfactory manner. His lectures reveal extensive reading, much originality, vigorous thought, and a fine, clear, and energetic style of utterance. THE KERNEL OF TRUTH, STRIPPED OF THE HUSK; OR, THE SOUL AND THE SPIRIT OF MAN, AND THEIR CONSCIOUS EXISTENCE IN THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. BY SILAS HENN. London: Elliot Stock, Paternoster Row. The author of this pamphlet sets himself to the establishing of three propositions. First: That the soul is not mere animal life, common alike to man and beast, but that it embraces the rational nature or the intellectual life. Secondly: That the spirit in man, whilst an emanation from the Divine Spirit, is not to be regarded simply as a portion of the Divine Spirit. Thirdly: That the spirit of man exists in a conscious state between death and the resurrection. The author, in his arguments, combats the work of Mr. Henry Constable, entitled "Hades,"-this work, however, we have not seen;-and at the same time he adduces with much pertinence and point a large variety of Biblical passages to sustain his positions. The Author, in thought, spirit, and style, deserves all praise. REGENERATION. By the late Rev. WILLIAM ANDERSON, LL.D. WITH AN INTRODUCTORY SKETCH OF REV. JOHN KER, D.D. London: Hodder & Stoughton, Paternoster Row. Many years ago, on its first appearance, we made ourselves acquainted with this work. We then formed a very high judgment of it; and although since then our reading and thinking have been very considerable, our estimate is not much abated. There are few, if any, works on the subject that we consider superior to this. And although the theology of the book is too stiffly orthodox to accord with our views of Biblical teaching, and its explanation of the work of regeneration in the soul does not exactly satisfy our metaphysics, we can with the utmost confidence recommend the work. "It is,"-to use the language of Dr. Ker, in his able introductory sketch," a true book by a true man." Nehushtan; or, Means and Ends in our Spiritual Life. "He [Hezekiah] . . . brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan."-2 KINGS Xviii. 4. HE temple at Jerusalem was the national museum of the Jews. It was fitting that it should be so, for the treasures of that Godgoverned nation were all of a sacred kind. Among the most prized of all the objects contained in that great sanctuary, there was one round which very interesting associations gathered, and which, for many reasons, the ancient people would be loath to lose. I refer to the brazen serpent, that image which belonged to the pilgrim-passage of their history, and which was connected with a very striking incident in the experience of their fathers. The fact that it was so long preserved, proves of itself that no slight feeling was entertained about it. One generation handed it down to another through several centuries. It might well have served the people of God as a KINDLY BEACON, warning VOL. XXXVII. F |