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and those who share his views, namely, that the Semitic races had a special instinct for monotheism and religion, whilst the Indo-Germanic races were naturally of a reverse tendency. The following are the headings of the chapters of his book: 1. Modern Representations of Semitism; 2. The Indo-Germanic Races; 3. Epic Poems as the Source of our Knowledge of the Nature and Character of Indo-Germanism; 4, 5, 6. Exposition of the three great Indo-Germanic Epics-the Iliad, the Nibelungenlied, and the Mahabharata; 7, 8. The Unity of the three Epics as to their Mythical substance, and as to their Fundamental Thoughts; 9. Their Unity as to Detail; 10. Mythology of the Indo-Germans; 11. Ethics of the Indo-Germans; 12. Critique of the Modern Representations of Semitism; 13. Japhet in the Tents of Shem; Paul. The work will be found useful, and, though specialists will probably be able to find flaws here and there, the main ideas are certainly well founded.

CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS.'- Herr Baumstark founds his apology for Christianity on anthropology, i.e. the nature and constitution of man as revealed in consciousness, science, and history. This is unquestionably, too, the right starting-point. All, of course, depends on the subsequent mode of procedure. There is no very great novelty in the idea; for we have been used to popular defences of Christianity on the ground of its adaptation to human nature. All depends on the carrying out of the idea. Generally speaking, too much is taken for granted, and the apologist does not work on the same plane as the inquirer whom he is endeavoring to convince. Accordingly, the two never meet. There is some difficulty, it is true, in ascertaining the precise plane on which many of our modern doubters do move; for their movements, when they meet a Christian defender, are more like wriggles than the steady, onward march of a logical and conscientious thinker. Still, more may be done than sometimes is done to see that the points of view and departure are as nearly as possible the same both for believer and unbeliever. In this volume Herr Baumstark first lays his anthropological basis by considering man: 1. As a Spiritual Being; 2. As an Individual Being; 3. As a Religious Being. In a second section he discusses the non-Christian religions, under the two heads of Heathenism and Mohammedanism.

In the chapter on man as a spiritual being, the author seeks to controvert the views of Büchner, Moleschott, and the whole materialistic school, by vindicating, first, for force the position of an independent element in the world of phenomena alongside of matter, denying its being a mere accident of matter; then, for the soul an existence distinct from the brain, on the ground of its acknowledged influence on the body, and of the unity of consciousness; and, lastly, for the human soul an essential difference 1 Christliche Apologetik auf anthropologischer Grundlage. 1 Band. Von Chr. E. Baumstark. Frankfurt. 1872. Price, 2 Thaler.

from the animal soul. The work would have been more successful if the author's point of view had been more completely that of his antagonists. Sill, it is an able production.

B. ENGLISH AND AMERICAN WORKS. SUGGESTED EMENDATIONS OF THE AUTHORIZED ENGLISH VERSION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. By Elias Riggs, Missionary of the A.B. C.F.M. at Constantinople.

We depart from our custom in this instance, and notice a work which has not yet appeared in print. A volume with the above-named title is now in press, and will soon be published by Mr. Warren F. Draper. Its author, Dr. Riggs, is well known as a learned missionary, skilled in the Oriental languages. He has already published a Manual of the Chaldee Language; a Brief Grammar of the Modern Armenian Language; a Vocabulary of Moods used in Modern Armenian, but not found in the Ancient Armenian Lexicons; Notes on the Grammar of the Bulgarian Language; Outline of a Grammar of the Turkish Language as written in the Armenian Character, etc., etc. His "Suggested Emendations of the Authorized English Version of the Old Testament" will be examined with interest by biblical students, and will serve important purposes. We insert a note on 2 Kings xix. 24, which was sent for publication in the Bibliotheca Sacra, and will be found in the forthcoming volume.

DOES THE WORD EVER SIGNIFY EGYPT?

Gesenius gives it this sense in 2 Kings xix. 24, Isa. xix. 6, and Isa. xxxvii. 25 (the first and last passages are the same). He seems to have overlooked Micah vii. 12, where the word occurs twice, and will equally well bear this sense. Fürst translates Egypt in all these cases. But,

1. everywhere else is a common noun, which appears primarily to signify straitness; then siege, as in the phrase, etc.; then fortification, as in the phrase is a fortified city.

2. In the passages cited no one of the ancient versions in Walton gives the rendering Egypt. Had this word been a name of Egypt in Hebrew, it seems hardly conceivable that neither the authors of the Targum, nor the Seventy (who resided in Egypt), nor the Arabic translator (in whose language the name is in the singular number) should have

known it.

3. I can find no evidence that Sennacherib had conquered Egypt, as Gesenius's rendering of 2 Kings xix. 24 implies; on the contrary, xviii. 21 seems to imply that he had not. If he had done so, he could hardly have failed to mention Egypt with Hamath, etc., xix. 12, 13. Compare also vs. 9.

4. In Isa. xix. occurs more times than there are verses in the chapter. Twenty times it is translated Egypt, and six times Egyptians or

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, 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

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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. 1. 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. Sumuer'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

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