Egyptian. Is it not strange that among these an unusual name of Egypt should be once introduced without apparent motive, and that name a word usually having a different signification, which it will bear here also?

5. The expression, which Fürst renders cities of Egypt, in Mic. vii. 12, occurs also in 2 Chron. viii. 5, where it cannot have that meaning, being used of the Upper and Nether Beth-horon, cities built by Solomon in the Land of Judah, and being further explained as cities with walls, gates, and bars. In like manner i, Nah. iii. 14, can have no other meaning than waters of siege, or water for use in siege.

These considerations render it so doubtful in my view whether the sacred writers ever use as a name of Egypt, that I do not place that rendering in the text, though I retain it (as a possible one) in the margin.

THE PSALMS: with Notes, Critical, Explanatory, and Practical; designed for both Pastors and People. By Henry Cowles, D.D. 12mo. pp. 554. New York: D. Appleton and Co. 1872.

This volume contains a Preface (very brief), a General Introduction (too brief), and an Appendix, but not the needed Index. It thus devotes 543 pages to the Commentary. It is not the best Commentary which we have for pastors, but is perhaps the best for well-instructed laymen. The statements of Dr. Cowles are sometimes remarkably clear, terse, and concise, compressing into a brief space the results of prolonged thought and of no little reading. The student who is familiar with the difficulties attending the explanation of the one hundred and thirty-seventh Psalm, will see in the following quotation the signs of Prof. Cowles's acquaintance with the literature of that Psalm, and of the processes by which he has reached his own conclusions. In Robert Young's Literal Translation of the Bible we have the following translation of the eighth and ninth verses of this Psalm:

"O daughter of Babylon, O destroyed one,

O the happiness of him that repayeth to thee thy deed

That thou hast done to us.

O the happiness of him who doth seize

And hath dashed thy sucklings on the rock."

Without noticing any other than our received translation of these verses, Dr. Cowles remarks:

"These words will suggest, even to candid minds, the query whether they are not open to the charge of cruel vindictiveness? In answer to this question it has been said: These words were simply reported by the Psalmist as having been wrung from the lips and souls of the crushed captives, but not indorsed as right. But this leaves the question still unanswered: Why then do they stand in a song for the Hebrew sanctuary with no exception taken to their spirit? Would there not be danger lest

their spirit, supposing it to be wrong, would be contagious and morally bad? A deeper view of the case will suggest that this idea of retribution, even in its most specific form, was not original with these captives. They must have known the burden of Babylon' as given by Isaiah (xiii. 16, 18). Their children shall be dashed in pieces before their eyes; they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.' Also the words of Jeremiah, sent expressly to them during their captivity. Take vengeance upon her; as she hath done, do unto her. Recompense her according to her work; according to all that she hath done, do unto her" (Jer. l. 15, 29). Remarkably, the Targum represents these words of our Psalm as uttered by the archangels Michael and Gabriel. Wordsworth remarks that this view of them has its value as showing that in the opinion of the Hebrew church these expressions were not regarded as coming from the mouth of men speaking their own feelings, but as derived from a higher source. This is the true view of them. They are the words of the people of God accepting and re-echoing the judicial decrees revealed in his word.' It seems to me that no just opinion of their moral character can be formed without taking into account the prophecies on the subject, a part only of which are cited above, and which must have taught them unmistakably God's purpose of retribution upon both Babylon and Edom, and, in fact, which must have suggested to them the very ideas which seem to our view most exceptionable the dashing of their infants upon the rocks. The question in its moral aspects amounts therefore to this: Is it, or is it not, morally right for God's people to accept his purposes of retribution upon their enemies when those purposes are definitely revealed? Can they with moral uprightness say, 'Even so, Father, for so it has seemed good in thy sight'?"

THE BOOKS OF THE KINGS. By Karl W. F. Bähr, D.D., Ministerial Counsellor at Carlsruhe. Translated, enlarged, and edited, Part I. by Edwin Harwood, D.D., Rector of Trinity Church, New Haven, Ct.; Book II. by W. G. Sumner, B. A., Rector of the Church of the Redeemer, Morristown, N. J. pp. 572. 8vo. New York: Scribner, Armstrong, and Co. 1872.

The name of Dr. Bähr is sufficient to insure a thorough study of this volume. The textual and grammatical Notes of Professor Gardiner considerably increase the exegetical value of the Commentary. Mr. Sumner's Appendix, Chronological Table, and Notes on the contemporaneous history of the kings form also a valuable addition to the original work. Some of these notes impart an almost modern aspect to the history. Thus the results of the latest Assyrian and Egyptian researches give a living reality to it."The long inscriptions found by M. Botta in the palace of Khorsabad make us even better acquainted with the details of his [Sargon's, B.C. 718-704] reign than with more than one of the Roman emperors" (Part

ii. p. 189). We think that in this volume, as well as in some other parts of Lange's series, the homiletical and practical notes taken from the English authors are superior to those taken from the German. All such notes, however, constitute the least valuable part of the series.

While noticing a volume of Dr. Lange's extensive series of Commentaries, we ought to state that the revised edition of Mr. Barnes's series is still in progress, with the well-known title:

NOTES EXPLANATORY AND PRACTICAL ON THE GOSPELS: Designed for Sunday-School Teachers and Bible-Classes. By Albert Barnes. New York: Harper and Brothers.

We have received the first three volumes of this edition. Before his lamented decease, in 1870, Mr. Barnes introduced into these volumes various improvements on the preceding editions. The best recommendation which need be given of these volumes is found on p. iv. of the Preface to Vol. i.: "In the revision the essential character of the work has not been changed. It would have been easy to have enlarged [to enlarge] it very greatly, and by one competent to the task it might have been made much more learned; but it was supposed that the fact that since the first edition of the Gospels was issued more than five hundred and fifty thousand volumes have been sold in this country, and probably a larger number in Great Britain, and that it has been translated, in whole or in part, into the Welsh, French, and Tamil languages, and that numerous imitations of the general form and style of the work have been made in different religious denominations in this country, has shown that the plan of the work met a want in the public mind, and was adapted in some measure to supply that want, and that no essential change in its plan and character should be attempted. As the usefulness of the work, it is believed, has been much promoted by the fact that it was at first issued in small and convenient volumes, especially adapted to the use of Sabbath-schools and Bible-classes, that form of publication has not been changed."

THE BREMEN LECTURES, on Fundamental, Living, Religious Questions. By various eminent European Divines. Translated from the original German by Rev. D. Heagle. With an Introduction by Alvah Hovey, D.D., President of Newton Theological Institution. 12mo. pp. 308. Boston: Gould and Lincoln; New York: Sheldon and Co. 1871.

These Lectures were delivered in Bremen, in the early part of the year 1871. They were listened to by large audiences. Their original purpose was of a kindred sort with that of the "Boston Lectures"; being meant to resist the sceptical tendencies prevailing in Germany and in countries outside. Some of the themes discussed are, the Biblical Account of Creation, Miracles, the Person and the Resurrection of Christ, and the

Scriptural Doctrine of Atonement. Apart altogether from the general interest which these Lectures will have for American Christians from the nature of the subjects discussed in them, the wish to know how these subjects are viewed by German thinkers will be likely to awaken a more special interest. There will be found, we think, in the Bremen Lectures, a substantial agreement with the views of our own evangelical writers. We say substantial agreement; for sometimes the reader will detect a want of agreement in certain details. The answer given, on page 84, to the question, What is a miracle? differs in form, at least, from that given by Prof. Fisher, in his work on "The Supernatural Origin of Christianity."— The translation, done by a native German, strikes us as unusually good.

PROPHECY A PREPARATION FOR CHRIST: Eight Lectures preached before the University of Oxford, in the year 1869, on the Bampton Foundation. By R. Payne Smith, D.D., Regius Professor of Divinity, and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford. 12mo.

pp. 397. Boston: Gould and Lincoln; New York: Sheldon and Co.; Cincinnati: G. S. Blanchard and Co. 1870.

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This book is one which should be of great interest to all intelligent Christians. Its object is to prove that there exists in the Old Testament an element -prophecy which naturalistic criticism cannot explain away; that prophecy includes not only prediction, but religious instruction and the right of interference in civil and military affairs; all this for the purpose of preserving the national existence of Israel, and so of preparing the world for the introduction of Christianity. The nature of propehcy, furthermore, is such, especially when one takes into account the miraculous element contained in it, as to show that it must have been a divine institution. An institution of this character, embracing so much that is supernatural, cannot be conceived to have existed, unless that for which it was evidently a preparation, namely Christianity, was also of divine origin. The argument of the book is somewhat analogous to that adopted by John Howe for proving the immortality of the soul, in his memorable sermon on "The Vanity of Man as Mortal."

The style of this volume is vigorous; more vigorous, perhaps, than elegant. We imagine the "heads of colleges" must have stood aghast at hearing it said by an Oxford professor that "the Bible ages not." Its faults of style, it may be, are due in part to the fact of the book's being a collection of lectures.

THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. A Series of Discourses by Eliphalet Nott, D.D., LL.D., late President of Union College. With an Introduction and Notes by Tayler Lewis. 12mo. pp. 157. New York:

Scribner, Armstrong, and Co. 1872.

Fifty years ago a volume of sermons from Dr. Nott would have attracted

general attention; especially if the volume included several of his discourses like that on the death of Hamilton. At that time his tones of voice, his rhetorical pauses, the general style of his delivery, were well known to the public. Now they are forgotten. His volume suggests to us the evanescent nature of popular oratory, as an influence to be definitely traced. Its power is swallowed up in the character of the men affected by it at the time. Those, however, who retain a remembrance of Dr. Nott's elocution, and those who can imagine it will read his posthumous works with engrossing interest. The sermons, as a discussion of the doctrine of the Saviour's Resurrection, have a value. They are very well characterised in Professor Lewis's Introduction, which is an appropriate and suggestive commentary on Dr. Nott's style of preaching. He reduces the argument of the sermons to the four following propositions.

“First ground: That the disciples and other witnesses of Christ's resurrection should have been imposed upon in regard to a fact, or series of facts, falling so directly under the observation of the senses in their most familiar exercise is incredible.

Second ground: Designed imposture on their part, when considered in connection with their subsequent lives, is - still more incredible.

Third ground: The sudden change in the spiritual character and in the corresponding action of the first preachers of Christianity, demands for its credible cause no less an event, or one no less superhuman and miraculous, than that assigned, — namely, the resurrection of Christ, showing its first effects in a revivifying of their souls, and an entire remoulding of their lives.

Fourth ground: The great spiritual miracle of the early and rapid spread of Christianity, or of the new life — as truly new as any physical revivification-coming from no previous human development, and continuing, even down to the preacher's time, to reanimate and renew the souls of men." pp. ix, x.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. By R. W. Dale, M.A., author of "Weekday Sermons," etc. Second edition. 12mo. pp. 258. Boston: Congregational Publishing Society. 1871.

This is an unambitious, but altogether praiseworthy attempt to expound the Ten Commandments with reference to the moral condition of our own age. We like the forcible manner, verging even on sternness, with which it deals with certain forms of vice. It takes the ground that moral distinctions are eternal, and independent of the will of God. It places moral obligation on a sure basis. The work is written throughout in a fresh and energetic style, and, while not distasteful to the scholar, it is especially fitted to take hold of the popular mind. Its author, readers will scarcely need to be informed, is the successor and biographer of Rev. John Angell James, of Birmingham, England.