having been hitherto so miserably limited. The Newspapers abound with advertisements of Works on every ephemeral topic, and every nonsensical dogma in Theology-but in vain does the man of common sense, and yet of religious feeling, look for works which shall lead him to just and comprehensive views on the general bearings of Theology, and of the Scriptures as affecting it. If he turn with distaste from the popular works on the subject, as crowded with misconceptions, he meets with nothing but the controversy of the Textual Critic on the one hand, and the irreligious sneering of the Infidel on the other. By the first he is immersed in a sea of texts and interpretations on the Nature of the Godhead, the doctrines of atonement and future retribution, which however suitable to a mind working itself out of a belief in the Popular faith, is wearisome and barren to a man whose mind is fully made up on the falseness of the views generally prevalent, and who has many doubts whether the textual controversy itself, as employed by both parties, is not based upon an erroneous principle. By the second, the irreligious infidel, he is immersed in a series of heartless attacks upon religion itself, and to his infinite distaste finds views and opinions embracing much of what appears to him holy and beautiful truth (mixed up indeed often with much that is unworthy, and based often on grounds that are dubious or untenable) assailed not with the vehemence of strong and distinguishing argument, but with the virulence of strong and undistinguishing hate. We do not know what provision for the guidance of opinion in minds of this order has been made by the public Press of this country. It is so scanty, as to be almost none, if it can be said to exist at all. Now this class of minds, enlarging as it is by its own innate force, would be very much augmented by a more frequent publication of works like the one to which this notice is devoted. It is for this reason that we hail the appearance of the present brief, popular, and English form of an interesting German work on the Theology of the Old Testament, not so much as a separate and individual, or by any means a complete or perfect Work, as one of a series, which will supply the elements to be at leisure assimilated to individual mental constitutions, of a more correct and rational state of Theological opinion.

Any one who takes up this thin octavo, expecting from the title of it to find a succinct and stirring review of a number of opinions on a number of theological topics, will in this respect be disappointed. The word Theology is used in its restricted and proper sense, as embracing the views which man has in various æras of his existence entertained of the Being,

Nature, Character, and Providence of the Deity. By entitling the work further the Theology of the Old Testament, the author has still more restricted his subject to the statement of the views entertained by the people of a particular nation, and during a certain period.

The sources of his information obviously are the various books of the Old Testament, arranged (with a view better to mark the progress of opinion) in the chronological order supposed to be indicated by their internal structure and evidence. Under the head of each separate Book or Portion he arranges the views entertained of, and the kind of actions ascribed to Deity, with those dispositions and duties He is represented as requiring of man. Great lucidness is thus conferred upon the work, though at the expense of a good deal of repetition, even in the English edition, (and not having compared it with the original, we must be understood as speaking solely in reference to it,) but according to the Translator still more so in the original. This repetition is caused by the sentiments of some of the books and the æras differing but little from those of preceding

ones.

One great and peculiar advantage of the Work for popular reading is that all the passages referred to are laid at length before the reader, so that while he has not the trouble of perpetually laying down his book to look for them, he does not suffer the penalty of negligently omitting to do so.

From the observations on the book of Deuteronomy the following extract may be made, as a specimen at once of the style and the spirit with which our author treats his subject :—

"Jehovah is humanly represented ;

'Jehovah talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire.'

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Behold, Jehovah our God hath shewed us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen this day that God doth talk with man and he liveth.'-Chap. v, 4 and 24.

If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams for Jehovah your God proveth you, to know whether ye love Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul.'-Chap. xiii, 1-3. "Jehovah is a partial God.

:

For thou art an holy people unto Jehovah thy God: Jehovah thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.'-Chap. vii, 6.

Jehovah is wrathful. The fierceness of his anger is turned away

from Israel in answer to the prayer of Moses, also, lest the nations shall say, Jehovah is not able to bring them into the land which he pro

mised them.'

'I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people : let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under Heaven and I will make of thee a nation greater and mightier than they.'-Chap. ix, 13, 14.

"Jehovah is cruel in commanding the utter destruction of the Canaanites.

"When Jehovah thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou: and when Jehovah thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them.'-Chap. vii, 1, 2.

"Jehovah is a jealous God.

For Jehovah thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.'— Chap iv, 24.

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For Jehovah thy God is a jealous God among you.'-Chap. vi, 15. "Jehovah has his oracle among the Israelites.

Then there shall be a place which Jehovah your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there; thither shall ye bring all that I command you; your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which ye vow unto Jehovah.'-Chap. xii, 11.

And of Levi he said, Let thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy holy one, whom thou didst prove at Massah, and with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah.'-Chap. xxxiii, 8.

"Jehovah establishes his covenant with Israel, and engages to be a God unto them, if they will serve him faithfully, and not worship Gods whom they know not.

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"And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep them, and do them. Jehovah our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. Jehovah made not, this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day.'-Chap. v, 1-3.

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Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other Gods, and worship them: and then Jehovah's wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit, and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which Jehovah giveth you.'-Chap. xi, 16, 17.

"With these feeble and imperfect notions of a national God, which prevailed among the Hebrews during the Mosaic age, are combined representations of the being and attributes of Deity, which are of a very different and of a far higher and worthier character.

"The divine unity is plainly declared, and the nothingness of Ido

and of strange Gods, is unequivocally stated. The majesty, faithfulness, righteousness, and loving-kindness of the only God of Heaven and earth, are beautifully set forth, particularly in what is called the Song of Moses.

"What God is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy works, and according to thy might ?'-Chap. iii, 24.

Know therefore this day and consider it in thine heart, that Jehovah he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.'-Chap. iv, 39.

Hear, Oh Israel, Jehovah our God is one Jehovah, and thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.'-Chap. vi, 4, 5.

"Know therefore that Jehovah thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.'-Chap. vii, 9.

"Behold the heaven and the heaven of heavens is Jehovah's thy God, the earth also with all that therein is.'

For Jehovah your God is God of Gods, and Jehovah of Jehovahs, a great God, a mighty and terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh rewards. He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.'Chap. x, 14, 17, 18.

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Ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the Rock, his work is perfect for all his ways are judgment: A God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he. See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no God with me: I kill and I make alive; I wound, and I heal, neither is there any can deliver out of my hand.'-Chap. xxxii, 2, 3, 39.

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There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.-Chap. xxxiii, 26, 27.

It is not always, however, that our author preserves the impartiality and fairness which appear to us to characterize the above deductions of Doctrine. He sometimes finds peculiar notions in the text, which the text does not very obviously contain, and gravely deduces a deliberate opinion from an occasional anthropomorphism or figure of speech. Thus does he really imagine that the writer of the following exquisite passage from the book of Job meant seriously to propound the doctrine that "Wisdom dwells in a Palace whose entrance is known to God only?" Are we to regard this fact as part of "the Theology of the Old Testament?"

"Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding? Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air. Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears. God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof. For he looketh to the ends of the

earth, and seeth under the whole heaven; to make the weight for the winds; and he weigheth the waters by measure. When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder; then did he see it, and declare it; he prepared it, yea, and searched it out.' -Chap. xxviii, 20-27.”

Here and elsewhere in the volume the qualifying remark that occurs on p. 132 might with propriety have been introduced :"Jehovah knows every thing. He keeps a book of remembrance in which the names of those who fear him are written. The seven lamps described by Zechariah are the eyes of Jehovah which run to and fro through the whole earth.

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Then they that feared Jehovah spake often one to another: and Jehovah hearkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared Jehovah, and that thought upon his name.'-Mal. iii, 16.

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They are the eyes of Jehovah which run to and fro through the whole earth.'-Zech. iv, 10.

"We do not imagine that these metaphorical representations were intended by their authors to be literally understood."

Is the following a doctrine fairly drawn from his text, when he says (p. 142) that in this Division of the Book of Daniel we find a new notion that " atonement for sins may be made by the exercise of charity towards the poor?" "Wherefore, O king-break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the Poor."

What we have ventured to regard as the defects of the Book are for the most part of this description, and evince on the part of the Writer a perhaps unconscious tendency unduly to limit some of the views, and too straitly and literally to interpret some of the language, of the Sacred Writers. He has the merit, however, of reducing to something like distinctness and classification, matter which unfortunately to the minds of most persons is a rudis indigestaque moles. Such Guides, albeit not infallible or complete, to the right Interpretation of the Old Testament and its Theology, to the right unfolding of the Beauty and the Power of that misapprehended volume, should be most gratefully welcomed by the searcher after Truth. They will make him actively ponder on its contents, not sleepily turn over its pages give sense to what might otherwise appear unmeaning, and deep interest to what we fear is usually thought dull. As one of a class, then-as giving one out of many phases in which the Old Testament has yet to be held up to the Religious World, we recommend this little volume to the perusal of the thinking, the serious, and the candid.

C.