trivial point, but Mr Grosart, of all men, will not deem us hyper-critical in pointing out a "little sin" of style, one of the merest slips or peccadillos of authorship.

The Divine Human in the Scriptures. By TAYLER LEWIS. London: James Nisbet & Co. 1863.

The title of this treatise may startle, if not scare away, some readers, as savouring of rationalistic phraseology. In a brief prefatory note we are assured that in America, the name of Professor Lewis, who is highly reputed as a Christian and a scholar, would be an effectual defence against any such idea of the nature of the work." And the slightest perusal of it is enough to dispel any such suspicion. Few treatises are more at variance with the spirit in which rationalism treats the holy Scriptures, and few, we think, are more fitted to counteract the vicious and wide spreading influ ence of that system. By "the Divine Human in the Scriptures," the author does not mean that they are partly of divine and partly of human origin, but points to the fact that they are not only divinely communicated through the minds and the language of man, but also divinely adapted to the capacities, and fitted to engage the sympathies of humanity. The main object of the author is to demonstrate the naturalness of Scripture, and from this to infer its divine origin and authority. On this principle, and in direct opposition to the low theory of inspiration vented by Arnold, and widely prevailing in England, Mr Lewis pleads for verbal inspiration. The following is his idea of inspiration, which we give in his own words :—“ It must, then, be one of the most unfaltering deductions of such a subdued spirit, thus believing in revelation as a fact as well as an idea, that not only its thought but its very language is divine. This one may hold without being driven to that extreme view of verbal inspiration which regards the sacred penmen as mere amanuenses, writing words and painting figures dictated to them by a power and intelligence acting in a manner wholly extraneous to the laws of their own spirits, except so far as those laws are merely physical or mechanical. We may believe that such divine intelligence employed in this sacred work, not merely the hands of its media, not merely the vocal organs played upon by an outward material afflatus, not merely the mechanical impressions of the senses, or the more inward, though still outwardly reflected images of the fancy and the memory, but also the thoughts, the modes of thinking, modes of feeling, modes of conceiving, and, hence, of outward expression-in a word, the intellectual, emotional, and imaginative temperaments, all their own, each peculiar to the respective instruments, yet each directed, controlled, made holy, truthful, pure, as became the trustworthy agents, for the time being, of so holy a work. The face is human, most distinctly human, yet each lineament, besides its own outward expression, represents also some part of that photographic process that had its origin in the world of light, and came down from the Father of Lights, with whom there is no parallax or shadow of turning.'”—(P. 17, 18.) Or, as he expresses it elsewhere, "It is God's chosen language to us— -the words and images specially selected and specially arranged with a reference to the wants of our human race in their peculiar moral history; . . . and it should be therefore, of all others, that which we should employ when we take with us words and return unto the Lord." As far as possible, our prayers, our praises, our confessions, our thanksgivings, all our devotional intercourse with Deity, should be in the very language of Scripture, in that sacred speech which he has prepared and given to us, even as he originally taught to Adam the language of the common life and common wants." The same truly rational, and yet affectionate and reverential, treatment is applied to the miracles of Scripture. Here he shews, in a manner as touching as it is convincing, the vast, the

infinite distance at which the miraculous narratives of Scripture stand from the lying legends of false religions, and how far the supernatural in Scripture differs from the unnatural, as it appears in the incredible and revolting monstrosities of superstition.

We have been particularly struck with the beautiful demonstration of "the wonderful adaptability of Scripture." After shewing that "every other assumed revelation has been addressed to but one phase of humanity, -adapted to one age, to one people, to one peculiar style of human thought, -that their books have never assumed a cosmical character, or been capable of any catholic expansion," and illustrated this from the cases of Zoroaster, Confucius, the Hindoo writings, and the Koran-" Each," he says, "has its peculiar phase, chronological or ethnological, out of which it cannot be transplanted. The Bible alone makes disciples of every race. It would be hard to decide where it has more strongly displayed its subduing power,on the Asiatic, the African, or the European mind. Descending with the ages, and through every phase of humanity, it has met them all; it has warred with them all; and its uniform triumph warrants the induction, even aside from faith, that it will surely survive them all."-(P. 88).

We regret that our space will not admit of our quoting more largely from this well-timed and masterly publication, otherwise we might have adverted to his remarks on the "internal truthfulness of the Scriptures," embodying the best answers we have seen to objectors of the Colenso stamp, and to his finely discriminative estimate of the character of Paul. Altogether, without committing ourselves to all the views of the author, we know few books of the same size more fitted, from the beauty of its diction, to arrest the thoughtless, or from the force of its reasoning to satisfy the thoughtful reader.

What is Sabbath-Breaking? A Discussion occasioned by the proposal to open the Botanical Gardens of Edinburgh on Sunday Afternoons. Edinburgh.

1863.

There is a class of writers among us bent on the desecration of the Lord's Day, who seem animated by all the proselytising zeal of the ancient Scribes on whom our Lord pronounced such an emphatic" Woe." Nothing can exceed their industry in propagating their views. While our worthy fathers were at pains to instil into the minds of their children a profound regard to the holy Sabbath; while they'laboured, by precept and example, by every sanction, civil and religious, to preserve inviolate the sacred enclosure, our modern anti-Sabbatarians seem determined to undo all their work, and uproot the customs they planted in the land; and, as if the carnal mind of man were not already sufficiently prone to forget the day which God has enjoined us to " remember they supply arguments to profaneness, and teach men how they may violate God's law according to the Scripture. For this purpose, the Sunday League of London has secured the services of the writer of the brochure now before us, which is compounded of sundry letters addressed to the Scotsman newspaper, under the imposing signature of One who values the Lord's Day," with a vast array of notes and illustrations. Whoever the writer may be, one thing is clear, that he is familiar with Biblical Criticism; and, judging from the present production, he seems fond of startling novelties in Scripture interpretation, and of talking neologically about the sacred penmen. We have no space for minutely criticising this learned Theban; but there is one point on which he lays the main stress of his argumentation in behalf of a loose observance of the Sabbath, and on which we cannot avoid saying a few words. We refer to his interpretation of verse 13th of the 58th chapter of Isaiah:-"If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor

finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words," &c. It seems that in their petition against the opening of the Botanic Gardens on the Lord's day, the Sabbath Alliance characterised it as "a violation of the divine law, which forbids us from doing our own pleasure on God's holy day." Upon this our scribe, who "Values the Lord's Day," takes them severely to task for misinterpreting and misapplying the Scripture. "Supposing," he says, "the Jewish law of the Sabbath to bind the Gentile Christians, I say that the prohibition to the Jews by Isaiah (or whoever else wrote the 58th chapter of the book), against finding their own pleasure' on God's holy day, can be rationally understood only as referring to pleasure contrary to the Divine pleasure, and hence emphatically styled 'their own.' What the particular pleasure alluded to by the prophet was, we are not informed; but it may be partly inferred that the people he addressed were prone either to work upon the Sabbath-the sin for which the Jews are expressly reproved by their prophets—or to mis-spend the day of leisure in vicious enjoyment." Upon this he rings the changes throughout his letters; contending, with the Vulgate, that the word translated by us "pleasure," is voluntas (will), not voluptas (enjoyment.) What meaning the Sabbath Alliance may have attached to the term, we cannot say; it is not likely they used it in any other sense than that of self-will or self-pleasing, in opposition to "delighting" in the Sabbath. But what shall we say of the interpretation put upon it by this learned critic? According to him, the expression, "not finding their own pleasure," means mis-spending the Sabbath in "vicious enjoyments," and as the phrase is equivalent with "doing their own ways" on that holy day, it follows that as they could unquestionably do their own work on other days o they might do their own pleasure on other days also; in other words, they might spend all other days but the Sabbath in" vicious enjoyments!" On the same principle of exegesis, it would follow that when the Jews were prohibited to speak their own words "on the Sabbath, the meaning must be that they were only to abstain from speaking bad words on that day; leaving them at liberty to speak as many of these as they chose on other days! Every one must see at a glance that whatever may be the meaning of "our own pleasure," forbidden in this passage, whether it may be the voluntas or the voluptas, it must refer to lawful pleasure, even as the work forbidden must refer to lawful work. To our mind it appears very evident that what is forbidden is just the liberty of doing whatever we please on that holy day. We are not to look upon the day as our own property, but as God's. "Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work," all thy pleasure, in thought, word, and deed; "but the seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God;" on that day thou art not at liberty to consult thine own pleasure, but God's pleasure. And this view of the passage covers, in our estimation, all that those contend for who think that, on the Lord's day, we are not at liberty to do whatsoever we may please to do, and may lawfully do, on other days.

We may add, that great advantage has been taken in this publication of the corporeal rest and refreshment allowed to the Jews under that dispensation of fleshly forms and figures; without adverting to the change under the gospel, indicated by their own prophets, and introduced by our Lord, when the Sabbath, like all other institutions, is to be hallowed, not by mere bodily resting or festive enjoyment, but "in spirit and in truth"-spirit superseding matter, and truth supplanting the shadow. But "strike high or strike low," there is no pleasing some people; they must have their gibe or their sneer at the Sabbath of old Scotland. Tell them they ought not to do their own pleasure on God's holy day, and they will charge you with Jewish bigotry, and hurl at you the epithets of Pharisees and Judaisers. Tell them that they are mistaken, and that the Jews enjoyed themselves on their Sabbaths; and, without perceiving the gross inconsistency of the two charges, they will twit you in the same breath with Rabbinical joviality, and insist on reviving the Judaical Sabbath!

Academic Addresses on Various Occasions. By W. D. KILLEN, D.D. Belfast: W. M'Comb. 1863.

These admirable addresses, delivered to the students of Belfast Presbyterian College, relate to the following topics: 1. The character and position of candidates for the ministry. 2. The supply of candidates for the ministry. 3. Colleges, their history and claims. 4. The Scriptures and the preacher. They are all marked by the good sense, the manly piety, and Christian spirit of their author. We are happy to observe the hopeful spirit in which Dr Killen speaks of the prospects of candidates for the ministry. Theological students of all denominations would do well to peruse these addresses, and none of our people can do so without feeling a deeper interest in our collegiate institutions.

The Standard of the Cross among the Flags of the Nations; a Narrative of Christian Effort in the Great Exhibition. By V. M. S. London: James Nisbet & Co.

A young lady, daughter of a country clergyman, happened to read that at the former "Great Exhibition" a foreigner came to this country and returned to his own without having been asked whether he had a soul to be saved. She determined to wipe away this reproach so far as she could, and stirred up a friend to visit the Exhibition. This friend wrote letters to her, giving an account of his progress, while she aided and assisted in every way in her power. The close of the work was a meeting for tea, presided over by the Earl of Shaftesbury, within the building, and attended by 800 or more of the attendants at the various establishments within the Exhibition, addressed by Mr Capel Molyneux, Mr Baptist W. Noel, and others, and which, we doubt not, was productive of good permanent results. This volume is chiefly composed of the letters written to the clergyman's daughter referred to by the gentleman who visited the Exhibition for the purpose chiefly of doing good to the souls of the ignorant and out of the way who might be met with there. The letters are full of interest, many of the facts are curious and striking, and the volume closes with an account of the meeting to which we have referred. As a memorial of the Great Exhibition of 1862, were it on no higher grounds, the book is worth a place on the shelves of a full library. The Book of Bible Prayer; containing all the Prayers recorded to have been offered in the Bible, with a Short Introduction to each. By JOHN B. MARSH, Manchester. London: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co. 1863.

We regard this as a very handy little volume. It is one we have long wished to see. Most thoughtful students of the Bible have formed such a volume practically for themselves. "The short introduction to each," of which the title-page speaks, is very short-agreeably so. We have only the thing wanted, namely, all the prayers recorded in the Bible as having been offered. The Book of Psalms is the exception. As there are very many of the Psalms which are substantially prayers, it would have swelled the volume to an undue size to have given all the prayers that are recorded there. We have only one remark we care to add. There are only three, or at most four prayers of any considerable length recorded in the whole word of God. The first is that of Solomon, at the dedication of the temple; the second is "the confession of the Levites on the revival of the temple service;" the third is "the prayer of Daniel for the restoration of Jerusalem ;" and the fourth is our Lord's intercessory prayer, recorded in the 17th chapter of John's gospel -all public prayers therefore. The book commends itself.

Extra Work of a London Pastor. London: The Book Society, Paternoster

Row. 1863.

This volume is "the extra work" of the Rev. Samuel Martin of Westmin

ster. It consists of a series of papers on various topics. There is a wide range of subjects discussed in the several essays. Most of them have appeared before, the major part as lectures to young men, delivered at Exeter Hall, and one or two are reproductions of old matter now out of print. Mr Martin did well to gather together these stray fragments. There is nothing ephemeral either in the subjects or in his manner of handling them. Mr Martin does a thing thoroughly; he goes to the bottom of it. If some of our younger preachers would read and digest this volume, it would help them to understand at least one of the elements that go to constitute a great preacher, and that is a thorough and minute acquaintance with the topic treated. Perhaps he might learn also that a great preacher thinks nothing in the shape of information too far out of the way for him to make himself familiar with it. He that would be a great preacher cannot know too much, too well, too accurately. One of the most interesting of the lectures is that on "money," which contains a full treatment of the whole subject. Another valuable lecture is entitled, "Anglo Saxon Christianity and Augustin of Canterbury." There is also an excellent biographical sketch of Cardinal Wolsey, and a paper of great value on the reformation of criminals, which contains much valuable statistical information. The style of the volume is quite a model of terse, nervous, clear, and forcible, as well as elegant English.

Christ on Earth, from the Supper at Bethany to his Ascension into Glory. By the Rev. JOSEPH BAYLEE, D.D., Principal of St Aidan College, Birkenhead. London: Wertheim, Macintosh, & Hunt. 1863.

The title of this volume is not happily chosen, but the matter is solid, substantial, and excellent. The topics treated are the whole events and teaching of our Lord's last week on earth. There is evidence that good attention has been paid to the exegesis of the passages discussed, and the style is sometimes hortatory, sometimes expository, sometimes meditative. Dr Baylee has produced an excellent volume, sound in doctrine, elegant in style, substantial in matter, practical, experimental, and devotional.

The Kingdom and the People; or the Parables of our Lord Jesus Christ explained. With a Preface by the Rev. EDWARD GARBETT, M.A., Incumbent of St Bartholomew's, Gray's Inn Road. London: Sealey, Jackson, & Halliday. 1863.

This little volume is the work of a lady. But the theology is masculine, and the illustrations are apt and varied. The parables are brought together into groups, and after a statement of the main truth taught in each, they are illustrated by facts, anecdotes, and missionary memorabilia. There is a thoughtful preface, elegantly expressed, by Mr Garbett, Boyle lecturer for the present year. The volume is to be commended as sound, safe, and every way trustworthy.

The Messianic Prophecies of Isaiah; the Donnellan Lecture for 1862, with Appendices and Notes, &c. By WILLIAM DE BURGH, D.D. Dublin: Hodges, Smith, & Co. 1863.

Six Lectures, with Addenda, on Messianic Prophecies from Isaiah, the Donnellan Lecture for 1862. The contents are-The Last Days-Immanuel, the Branch and Root of Jesse-The Saviour Waited for-The Foundation Stone -The Way of the Lord Prepared-The Man of Sorrows-The Redeemer to come to Zion, and the Messiah. The author is an accomplished Hebraist, sound in doctrine, and millenarian in his views of prophetic interpretation.