interest the young in the reading of the sacred scriptures. Its "full-page illustrations" are faithfully executed, and its smaller illustrations are also valuable. Such books as these prepare the reader to appreciate the services of the sanctuary. Many of our religious books for the young create a distase for solid sermons. By awakening an intelligent interest in the Bible, this volume tends to foster a love of doctrinal, more especially of biblical, preaching. OPPORTUNITIES. A Sequel to "What She Could." By the Author of "The Wide, Wide World." "Whatsoever thy Hand findeth to do, do it." pp. 382. New York: Robert Carter and Brothers. 1871. This little book stands midway between two sequels; one already before the public, the other, yet to appear. If stories must continue to be multiplied at the present fearful rate, we should be rejoiced to find a majority of them pervaded by as elevated a moral tone as this is, even though accompanied by its faults, among which, one of the most conspicuous is a wearisome prolixity. HYMN AND TUNE BOOKS FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP. Had we the requisite space we should delight in noticing several new Collections of Hymns and Tunes. One of them is "THE SERVICE of Song, for Baptist Churches. By S. L. Caldwell and A. J. Gordon." This book, in many respects an admirable one, contains one thousand and sixty-nine Hymns and thirty-eight Doxologies. Another of the Collections is "THE BAPTIST HYMN BOOK," containing one thousand Hymns, set to appropriate Tunes, and published in four different editions, commanding different prices. Both of these books are designed and well fitted for Congregational Singing. Another dissimilar Collection is entitled: "CHRISTIAN HEART-SONGS: A Collection of Solos, Quartettes, and Choruses, of all Metres, together with a Selection of Chants and Set Pieces." By John Zundel, author of "Modern School for the Organ," "Treatise on Harmony and Modulation," and various works for the Choir, Organ, and Melodeon. 8vo. pp. 160. New York: J. B. Ford and Co.; Zundel and Brand, Toledo, Ohio, agents for the Music Trade. 1870. Mr. Zundel was once the organist of the First Unitarian church in Brooklyn, then in St. George's church in New York, and, during the eighteen years past, has been the organist in Mr Beecher's church, Brooklyn. He has prepared the present work with a view to its "use by large choirs, or, perhaps, in congregational singing." He is a decided advocate of congregational singing. His remarks on this subject are of great importance; he says: "The frequent pretence of the adversaries of congregational singing, that the American people are not sufficiently musically educated for its introduction, is quite absurd. As a German-born citizen, I may take the liberty of saying that, superior as musical education in Germany may be, or even is, church singing has little profited by it. The Germans sing their chorals mostly after hearing them; they learn them partly at school, and the parents sing them to the children from generation to generation. To introduce a new choral into a congregation is no less trouble than to make a new tune go in any American church, provided the tune be singable and enjoyable at all." Mr. Zundel in conclusion, justly says, that "unless the tunes are rightly interpreted, unless they are sung in the spirit that conceived them, the best purpose of the work — true musical worship, impressive edification-will be lost." JESUS ON THE THRONE OF HIS FATHER DAVID; or, the Tabernacle of David: When will it be built again? By Joseph L. Lord, A.M., of the Boston Bar. 12mo. pp. 102. Boston and New York. 1869. THE PROMISE OF SHILOH; or, Christ's Temporal Sovereignty upon the Earth: When will it be fulfilled? By Joseph L. Lord, A.M., of the Boston Bar. 12mo. pp. 106. Boston and New York. 1869. PROPHETIC IMPERIALISM; or, the Prophetic Entail of Imperial Power. By Joseph L. Lord, A.M., of the Boston Bar. 12mo. pp. 96. New York: Hurd and Houghton. Cambridge: Riverside Press. 1871. To explain the Prophecies of the Old and New Testaments requires not only a minute acquaintance with the languages in which they are written, but also with the history of the empires to which they refer, and with the times in and near which they were written. When they are thus rigorously examined they leave the distinct impression that they were not designed to make men prophets, and that their meaning is unfolded by the events which actually occur. In these volumes of Mr. Lord we miss the philological and historical lore which is essential to the elucidation of scriptures so "hard to be understood" as are the ancient Prophecies. He remarks in the Preface to one of these works: "We believe that the scriptures clearly teach that the present dispensation of time will be followed by the personal return to the earth of Jesus, as the Son of David and King of Israel; and that it will be signalized by his personal reign in the flesh, in his own proper and personal humanity, on the throne of his father David." Mr. Lord is very earnest in the advocacy of this theory. We must own ourselves, however, not yet convinced of the soundness of his reasoning. We think that interpretation of the prophecies referred to by Mr. Lord, which gives them a spiritual, rather than a secular and material, significance much the best. The Author is very fond of long sentences. We have noticed two occupying together about ten quite large pages. In many respects, however, the author's style is commendable, and reminds us of the style of his honored father, the late President of Dartmouth College. THE BIBLIOTHECA SACRA. ARTICLE I. PATRISTIC VIEWS OF THE TWO GENEALOGIES OF OUR LORD. BY FREDEric Gardiner, d.d., prOFESSOR IN THE BERKELEY DIVINITY SCHOOL, MIDDLETOWN, CONN. THE genealogies of our Lord, as given by the first and the third evangelists, are marked by such differences as have called forth a variety of explanations. By some the difficulty is simply passed over as one for the solution of which we have no sufficient data; and among others there is great difference, and even contrariety, of opinion. It seems, therefore, worth while to inquire what view was taken of the matter by Christian antiquity; and if the result of that inquiry shall be to show that for many centuries there was no settled and definite opinion at all, it will leave us the more free to determine the question simply on grounds of probable evidence. In estimating the value of such explanations as we may find in the Fathers, it is to be noted that the differences between the genealogies are of a character to attract attention whenever the Gospels were carefully compared together. Such comparisons were made at an early date; and if the reasons for the differences had been positively known, they would have been distinctly and uniformly stated whenever the matter was discussed at all. Moreover, unless there were some explanation generally received, as there evidently was not, we should expect to meet with the statement of these reasons somewhat frequently in the early treatment of the Gospels. This is not the case; and in the investigation. of ancient opinion, it soon becomes evident that each writer merely proposes what seems to him the most probable solution of the difficulty, or, knowing nothing better, adopts that of some one who had gone before. The earliest mention of the subject is in a fragment of Julius Africanus (†232), preserved by Eusebius. He discusses the question at length; and his hypothesis is adopted by Eusebius, who says that Julius had received it from his ancestors (Eccl. Hist. i. 7; vi. 31). Julius himself, however, intimates that his explanation was not altogether satisfactory, and disclaims any authority in its support. From his discussion it is quite plain that in his time say at the close of the second century there could not have existed any trustworthy tradition on the subject; but that the ancients, like ourselves, were obliged to consider the question on its merits. -- Julius Africanus considers both genealogies as designed to show the ancestry of Joseph. This view was taken for granted, apparently without inquiry, by many of the ancients, because both genealogies terminate formally in Joseph; and from these Fathers it has passed on to many modern writers. Julius considers that "the families descended from Solomon and those from Nathan were so intermingled, by substitutions in the place of those who had died childless, by second marriages and the raising up of seed, that the same persons are justly considered as in one respect belonging to the one of these, and in another respect belonging to others." He explains the last three links of the genealogy in detail, thus: Nathan (Matt. i. 15) married a woman named Estha, as tradition records her name, by whom he had a son Jacob, and died; Melchi (Luke iii. 24) now married the widow Estha, and by her had a son Eli. Jacob and Eli were thus halfbrothers by the same mother, and were, of course, next of kin to each other. Eli dying without issue, his half-brother - Jacob married his widow, and by her had a son Joseph, who is thus reckoned by the first evangelist naturally as his son, but by the third, legally, as the son of Eli. After some further discussion, Julius adds: "This is neither incapable of proof, nor is it idle conjecture"; but it does not appear whether he means this to refer to the general law of levirate marriages, or to the particular case of Jacob and Eli. He then relates that the public records of Jewish pedigrees were destroyed by Herod, but the relatives of our Lord the desponsyni had yet, by memory, " or in some other way," preserved their pedigree, and gave this account of the genealogies in the Gospels. Nevertheless, he closes the whole discussion by saying: "Whether, then, the matter be thus or otherwise, as far as I and every impartial judge would say, no one certainly could discover a more obvious interpretation. And this may suffice on the subject; for, although it be not supported by testimony,1 we have nothing to advance either better or more consistent with the truth." At the close of the letter he reiterates his hypothesis, and Eusebius adds that thus Mary also is shown to be of the same tribe, "since by the Mosaic law intermarriages among different tribes were not permitted"; a very doubtful argument, yet testifying to the desire felt for some knowledge of the genealogy of the Virgin. It will be observed that Julius finds the natural parentage of Joseph in Matthew's genealogy; his legal, in Luke's. This is not inconsistent with his general view of both genealogies as made up partly of natural and partly of legal descents. But later criticism seems to have established the fact that Matthew gives (as he was bound to do) the official or legal genealogy throughout, whether it concurred with the natural, or not. The shortness of his whole list, with the omission of several known names, its artificial arrangement for mnemonic purposes, his certain adoption of the legal descent in the case of Salathiel, and his adherence to 1 καὶ ἡμῖν αὕτη μελέτω, εἰ καὶ μὴ ἐμμάρτυρός ἐστι, τῷ μὴ κρείττονα ἢ ἀληθεστέραν ἔχειν εἰπεῖν. |