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will ever feel an interest in the character of the father, who gave them the

lines :

"Thou art gone to the grave, but we will not deplore thee,
Though sorrows and darkness encompass the tomb," etc.

of the missionary, who sung:

"From Greenland's icy mountains," etc.

of the devout Christian, who indited the Hymns :

"Brightest and best of the sons of the morning," etc.

"The Lord shall come, - the earth shall quake," etc.

--

"By cool Siloam's shady rill," etc.

Few men, if any, intrench themselves so firmly in the heart of the church, as those who write the devotional poetry that is sung at our firesides, in our conference rooms, in the house of God. To his poetical attractions, Bishop Heber has added those of a missionary, and of an eloquent Christian preacher. The perusal of his Memoir and of his Sermons leads us to honor the grace and aspire for the favor of Him who encircles his crown with gems so brilliant, rich, and enduring.

VI. ADAMS'S COMMUNION SABBATH.1

THE publishers of this volume have given it to us in a beautiful form, appropriate to the style and thought of the author. The work exhibits a rare tenderness and originality of feeling. Dr. Adams adopts no stereotyped forms of expressing emotion, but has sensibilities of his own, and manifests them in his own way. He reads the Bible for himself, and his interpretations of it are not squared by any artificial rules. Hence he exhibits and awakens a freshness of interest in the sacred volume, and this is the main source of his power in the pulpit. In the following simple but touching method he describes the sacrifices of the Old Testament; and this description affords a good specimen of the author's general style.

"It was ordained from the beginning that life must be paid for sin. This was the reason for appointing the blood of victims as the emblem of atonement. While there is no value in the blood of animals, as there is in their skins and flesh, the Scripture says: The life is in the blood; and the appointment of blood, therefore, to make atonement, signified that life must be paid for sin. It would seem that men would have sinned but seldom, knowing what they must do to atone for it. Having trespassed against God, and being penitent on account of it, something yet remains for the sin

The Communion Sabbath. By Nehemiah Adams, D. D., Pastor of Essex Street Church, Boston. Boston: Published by John P. Jewett and Company. Cleveland, Ohio: Jewett, Proctor and Worthington. New York: Sheldon, Lamport and Blakeman. 1856. pp. 208. 8vo.

ner to do: He goes to his flock and takes a lamb or goat, or to his herds and selects a young bullock, binds him, and brings him to the priest. As he passes along, the soul of the sinner is melted within him. This animal, he says, is not to die in order to feed me and mine; its innocent head is to bear my sin; the knife will demand its blood because I have done wrong. A creature about to be sacrificed must have excited strong emotions in one who, for his own sin, was leading the innocent victim to be put to death. The victim was required to be the best of its kind, without blemish, and was therefore in itself an interesting object. Its fear, its struggles, its blood, its moan, its eye fixed in death, one might suppose, would prevent the repetition of a sin, and restrain from other transgressions; for the thought, If I sin, one must die for me, a life must go for my life, would have the effect, if anything could do it, to keep one back from presumptuous sins. Anything but sin could be prevented by such considerations; and anything but the heart which is desperately wicked would yield to such a motive.”

Dr. Adams avoids, in the main, the technics of theological science. It is easy to perceive, however, that under his popular phraseology lie the true doctrines of the New England divines. Take, for example, the nature and extent of the atonement. If Christ literally suffered the penalty which the law threatened us, if he literally paid our debt, and literally satisfied the law and the retributive as well as the general justice of God, then it must be true, either that all men will be saved, or that Christ died for the elect only. The old Calvinists were entirely logical in adopting the latter inference, after they had rejected the former. But Dr. Adams rejects both these inferences; and, therefore, as we also conclude from other features of the volume, he adopts the New England theory of the atonement. He gives us the following illustrations of the practical power belonging to the doctrine of general atonement :-

"If you, reader, are one who leaves the Saviour and his table behind you, know that Christ suffered nothing for another more than he did for you. As you go home, he will walk by your side; as you sit and think of the scene which you have left behind, he will sit with you; and if you choose to be forgetful and use means to banish serious thoughts from your mind, still remember this: There is no one at that table who is more properly there than you would be, no one for whom Christ died more than for you, and there is no one who has been or can be more welcome. Wherever you go, Christ died for you. Whatever you do― Christ died for you. If you are saved — Christ died for you. If you are lost — Christ died for you. How long will you turn away from that table which Infinite Love has spread for no human being more truly than for you?"

"Many think of Christ, and of their obligations to him, as they do, for example, of the services rendered by the patriots of their country to the whole people, but do not think of him as bestowing favor on them in particular, or expressly for each of them. This is erroneous: for it is the excellent glory and praise of Christ as a Saviour, that he is, to every individual all which he can be to the race; and that every one can, with as

perfect truth, appropriate his whole redeeming work, - his birth, his sufferings, his death, his intercession,-as though he alone were to be saved by Christ. We admit that he died for all. Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.' These words (not to quote others like them) teach us that one human being is at least as much included in the benefits intended by the Saviour's death as another. God is no less the Creator of each of us, in being the Parent of the whole human family."

The same idea is repeated, in the same form, on page 55. The meaning of the author is doubtless that, so far as the honor of the law is concerned, and the honor of God's distributive justice and holiness, Christ died for Paul “in no sense, in which he has not suffered and died for us,” and all men. Still Dr. Adams does not deny, but he elsewhere affirms, that so far as God's electing love is concerned, Christ died in a special sense for those whom he chose to save.

VII. FELT'S ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. VOL. I.1 NO HISTORY is more instructive and interesting to the philanthropist, the statesman, or the general scholar, than that of New England; and the foundation of all New England history is its ecclesiastical history. The subject of Mr. Felt's work, therefore, is well fitted to attract the attention of the public; and the two excellent societies, under whose auspices it is published, give it a farther claim upon our respectful notice. Only the first volume has yet been issued, bringing down the history to the year 1649; and the second lies in manuscript, awaiting a larger sale of the first, that the author may not be embarrassed by a too heavy pecuniary burden. The friends of New England are bound to see to it that he does not bear, or attempt to bear, the burden alone; but they should help him and benefit themselves by a speedy purchase and perusal of the volume before us. The work is arranged in the form of annals, each State by itself, and each year by itself, and even the order of months and days very generally observed. This form, so well adapted to the student, whose aim is to acquire, arrange, and digest the most important information for his own use, of course deprives the author of opportunity for sparkling, continuous narrative, or brilliant general speculation, after the manner of Macaulay. Nor is this Mr. Felt's object. He does what he undertakes, and does it well. He gives the results of a most extensive and thorough course of reading, of a patient and profound research among the original sources of information, in concise, plain, well arranged and easily understood paragraphs. His selection of noticeable facts is judicious; his frequent quotations of the precise words of the original authors, commends his narrative to the reader as unusually relia

1 The Ecclesiastical History of New England; comprising not only Religious, but also Moral and other Relations. By Joseph B. Felt. Boston: Published by the Congregational Library Association and by the Congregational Board of Publication. 1855. Vol. I. pp. 664.

ble and satisfactory; while the copious indexes, both of names and subjects, together with the strictly chronological arrangement of the whole, makes the work exceedingly convenient as a book of reference. In the most valuable kind of historical information the book is exceedingly rich. The best read scholars in New England history will find, here, much that is new; and not only new, but well authenticated and important. It is a book of great value as a guide to future historians. And here we will notice the only thing which seems to us a serious defect in the volume, namely, the want of a copious, continuous, and minute reference to the original sources from which the author has drawn. Mr. Felt knows what and where the authorities are better than most men, even of those who have given the best attention to the subject; and we want his book as a guide to our own reading and research, as well as a repository of information made ready to our hand. On all accounts, we desire a rapid sale of this volume and the speedy appearance of the next.

VIII. DAVIDSON ON THE HEBREW TEXT OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.1

Ir is not long since we noticed a work on the revision of the Greek text of the New Testament by that eminent critical scholar Dr. S. P. Tregelles. We have now the pleasure of announcing a similar work on the Hebrew text of the Old Testament by another English critic of a well earned and preeminent reputation, Dr. S. Davidson. It is a work greatly needed; for much less has been done for the original text of the Old, than for that of the New Testament. Yet it is perfectly obvious to any reader in the free exercise of common sense, that the O. Test. text is, in many places, corrupt, especially in regard to numbers. Who can believe that the numbers in 1 Sam. 6: 19 are correctly given? As they stand in the received text, they differ from Josephus, from the Syrian and Arabian translations, and from several MSS., and are so monstrous as to be utterly incredible. So the numbers in 2 Chron. 22: 2 are most absurdly wrong, for they make the son to be two years older than his father, and are directly contradicted by the statement in 2 Kings 8: 26. The received text of the Old Testament, notwithstanding all the care of the learned Hebrews, is still very far from being perfect, and there is yet need of a vast amount of critical labor to be bestowed upon its revision. Unhappily the resources for such a revision are much more scarce than those which we have for the New Testament ; for Jewish superstition, while it took great care for the literal correctness of the text, likewise labored to put out of the way all the means for detect

1 The Hebrew Text of the Old Testament, revised from Critical Sources, being an Attempt to present a purer and more correct Text than the received one of Van der Hooght; by the aid of the best existing Materials, with the principal Various Readings found in MSS., Ancient Versions, Jewish Books and Writers, Quotations, etc. etc. By Samuel Davidson, D. D. London: Samuel Bagster and Sons. pp. xvi. 222.

ing variations; as if such a course could disarm suspicion, or accomplish anything towards establishing the authority of the books. We have very few Hebrew MSS., of any great antiquity or value, because the Jews themselves generally bury those which by age become unfit for use, lest they should fall into profane hands, and the veneration due to the Sacred Writings should thus be impaired. Truly a most short-sighted policy, and, like all the efforts of bigotry, just defeating its own purposes. Still we have resources in ancient versions, commentaries, quotations, etc.; which, if diligently used, may in the end produce a text more satisfactory than the present one, which, though generally very correct, has here and there sad blots.

Dr. Davidson in this, as in all his numerous writings, has done well. How he finds time for so much research and writing, and how he gets strength to accomplish what he does, may well excite our wonder and stimulate emulation. With all the learning of Germany, he has the sound sense, veneration, and piety characteristic of old England; and is one of the most eminent of that noble band of scholars who have introduced into Great Britain the free and profound method of critical investigation of the Holy Scriptures in which, since the days of Milton and Selden and Lightfoot, she had been so generally deficient. We hope yet to see many other works of the same kind, from the pen of Dr. Davidson and others of his countrymen, who are so efficiently laboring in the same field.

ARTICLE IX.

EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE.

AN eminent scholar writes to us:

"I have before me a letter from Rev. Andrew T. Pratt, missionary of the American Board, dated Aintab, Aug. 1, 1855, portions of which relate to the boundaries of the Arabic and of the Armenian language, and to the course of the waters of Aintab.

"He states the northern boundary of the Arabic, on the authority of Rev. J. E. Ford of Aleppo (who has been over the ground), thus: Commence at the mouth of the Asy river (see Stieler's Map of Asiatic Turkey), follow the left bank so as to include Antioch, then to the Lake of Antioch and up its tributary the Afrin; then east, passing just south of Killis, to the Euphrates just south of Birejik; east, just south of Oorfa, then north of Mardin, and to the Tigris north of Djesirah. All south of this line is Arabic, except a few villages of Turkish-speaking Armenians in Kessab and vicinity, i. e. twenty or thirty miles south of Antioch.'

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