Lee, Benjamin Abbot, Willbur Fisk, Durbin, and Gilbert Haven. It is illustrated with twenty engravings, and furnishes a very pleasing hand-book for our German brethren. The Mosaic Era. A Series of Lectures on Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. By JOHN MONRO GIBSON, M.A., D.D., author of "The Age Before Moses." 12mo, pp. 359. New York: Anson D. F. Randolph & Co. Dr. Gibson has here unfolded the four later books of the Pentateuch with great lucidness and beauty. IIe unfolds them in their threefold aspects, historical, evangelical, and personal; historical, as wonderfully tallying with the latest developments of Egyptian archæology; evangelical, as representing with supernatural power the divine foreshadowings of the sacrificial gospel of the New Testament in the Old; and personal, as having a most solemn impressiveness on the conscience of every reader. Like Fairbairn's work on "Typology," and Atwater on the "Tabernacle," this volume possesses great evidential force in favor of the true Mosaic authorship and divine canonicity of the Pentateuch. Dr. Gibson writes in a style of great freshness and force. Ideas of striking value are clothed in words of eloquence and life. For ministers and laymen this volume affords a view of the old law with a clearness and attractiveness hardly any where equaled in so brief a space. The New Testament in the Original Greek. The Text revised by BROOKE FOSS WESTCOTT, D.D., Canon of Peterborough and Regius Professor of Divinity, Cambridge and Fenton, JOHN ANTHONY HORT, D.D., Hulsean Professor of Divinity, Cambridge. American edition. With an Introduction by PHILIP SCHAFF, D.D., LL.D., Professor in the Union Theological Seminary, New York, President of the American Bible Revision Committee. 12mo, pp. 580. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1881. The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Translated out of the Greek. Being the version set forth A. D. 1611. Compared with the most ancient authorities, and revised A. D. 1881. Svo, pp. 652. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1881. The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Translated out of the Greek. Being the version set forth A. D. 1611. Compared with the most ancient authorities, and revised A. D. 1881. 12mo, pp. 442. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1881. The first of the above volumes declares to its readers in good modern Latin, "You have here, of all the editions, the most ancient and purest text." It presents in its small compass the clean result of textual criticism since the first questioning of the Received Text. A good, cheap, manual edition of the Greek Testament has for some time been needed, and certainly nothing could be well imagined, so far as text is concerned, better than one sustaining such a claim as this. The Introduction, by Dr. Schaff, contains a brief but very fresh and clear survey of the history of the text. It is a very complete edition for the student's use. Yet, after all, as noted in our Synopsis of Quarterlies, the Greek text, relying so largely as it does upon the Sinaitic Codex, is subjected by high authority to grave question. The second is a large and handsome print of the Revised Edition, suited for aged eyes and for family use. The third is a neat manual of the Revision. The Theory of Preaching. Lectures on Homiletics. By AUSTIN PHELPS, D.D. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Prof. Phelps' work is a series of most excellent talks on preaching rather than a set text-book on sermon making. On this account it is likely to be decried as empirical and unscientific; but, in fact, this feature makes it all the more valuable. The work abounds in good advice and suggestion from which no young preacher could fail to derive great advantage; and it is, withal, free from that dull rigidity which marks so many of the "scientific" preachers on the subject, and which so surely leads to a corresponding frigidity in the preaching which is ruled thereby. We know of no other work on homiletics which is as likely to be useful without cramping the student. "He Giveth His Beloved Sleep." By Elizabeth BARRETT BROWNING. With Designs by Miss L. B. HUMPHREY, Engraved by ANDREW. 12mo. Boston: Lee & Shepard; New York: Charles T. Dillingham. 1882. A beautiful reprint, with rich adornments, of one of Mrs. Browning's poetic gems. The Works of Oliver Goldsmith. volumes, 8vo. Vol. I, pp. 487. pp. 531. Edited by PETER CUNNINGHAM, F.S.A. In four Goldsmith is here finely and liberally printed for a library edition, neatly boxed, and, as it were, embalmed for immortality. One of the purest of English classics he is, whose place is fixed beyond appeal or criticism. Horpers' Young People, 1881. Large 8vo, pp. 832. New York: Harper & Brotherg. Like every body else, the "young people" must have their periodical—their "organ." This is the booked-up organ for the whole year, and is very plain and solid outside, but full of fun and wisdom inside. We have received, year in and year out, "Harpers' Weekly Journal" and "Weekly Bazaar." The former is edited by Mr. Curtis, who possesses the inflexible firmness for "the right" in politics exhibited by Horace Greeley in his golden prime, with an invariable courtesy which Horace never attained. John Wesley. By Rev. R. GREEN. Pp. 192. London, Paris, and New York: Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co. A very admirable, popular biography of the great reformer of England. Lectures in Defense of the Christian Faith. By Prof. F. GODET, Author of Commentaries on Saint Luke and Saint John and Romans, etc. Translated by W. H. LITTLETON, M.A., Rector of Hagley and Canon of Gloucester. 8vo, pp. 320. New York: Anson D. F. Randolph & Co. Randolph & Company have done a good work in republishing in America these brilliant lectures at a price cheaper for the popular circulation they deserve than the British edition. Hosannahs of the Children, and other Short Sermons for Young Worshipers; or, A Chime of Bells from the Little Sanctuary. By J. R. MACDUFF, D.D. 12mo, pp. 354. New York: Robert Carter & Brothers. 1882. Unbelief in the Eighteenth Century, as Contrasted with its Earlier and Later History. Being the Cunningham Lectures for 1880. BY JOHN CAIRNS, D.D., Principal and Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics in the United Presbyterian College. Pp. 216. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1881. De Quincey. By DAVID MASSON. 12mo, pp. 198. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1882. Manual of Object Teaching. With Illustrative Lessons in Methods and Science of Education. By N. A. CALKINS, Author of "Primary Object-Lessons," "Phonic Charts," and "School and Family Charts." 8vo, pp. 469. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1882. German Principia. Part I. A First German Course, containing Grammar, Delectus, and Exercise-Book, with Vocabularies, and Materials for German Conversation. On the Plan of Dr. William Smith's "Principia Latina." Third Edition, Revised and Enlarged, with the Exercises Printed in both German and English Characters. Pp. 237. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1882. Nez Perce Joseph. An Account of his Ancestors, his Lands, his Confederates, his Enemies, his Murders, his War, his Pursuit and Capture. By O. O. HOWARD, Brig.-Gen. U. S. A. Pp. 274. Boston: Lee & Shepard. New York: Charles T. Dillingham. 1881. 1879. 8vo, pp. 757. Pp. 47. Stories about New York: Phillips & Report of the Commissioner of Education, for the Year The Berean Question-Book (Berean Series, No. 2) on the International Lessons for Garfield's Words. Suggestive Passages from the Public and Private Writings of James Abram Garfield. Compiled by WILLIAM RALSTON BALCH. Pp. 184. Cambridge: The Riverside Press. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 1881. The Boy Travelers in the Far East. Part III. Adventures of Two Youths in a REV. WILLBUR FISK, D.D. DR. WILLBUR FISK, whose likeness and sign-manual form the frontispiece of the present number of our QUARTERLY, was born at Brattleboro, Vermont, August 31, 1792. His parents were of the fine old Puritan stock, but had become Methodist in sentiment. Under the parental roof his character was marked for rectitude, manliness, and piety. He entered Burlington College in 1812, but that institution being suspended during the war, he went to Brown University, where he was graduated in 1815, under President Messer. In his college course he was eminent for ability, especially in extemporaneous oratory. But his spirit became secularized, and his ambition turned toward law and statesmanship. He studied for a brief period, but his health failed and pulmonary symptoms appeared. Under a revival at Lyndon, Vermont, he received a religious renewal, and entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He soon became distinguished, not only for piety and zeal, but for his rare ability as a pulpit orator. He was chaplain to the legislature, preacher of the annual Election Sermon, and his pulpit productions frequently became widely diffused through the press. In conjunction with a number of his ministerial brethren he founded a religious weekly paper, which is now "Zion's Herald," which was the first religious weekly in Methodism, "if not," says his biographer, "in the world." Under similar auspices the first Methodist literary Institution in New England was established at Wilbraham, Mass., of which he became the first Principal. Soon after the Methodist college was established at Middletown, Conn., and he became "First President of the Wesleyan University." While at Wilbraham he was elected Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada, and while at Middletown he was elected Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States, but he declined both positions in behalf of his mission as an educator. But eminent and varied as were the qualifications of Dr. Fisk, it was as a theologian that we most honor his memory. It was the great question of theodicy, the divine sovereignty and human responsibility, which, misstated by the predestinarian theology in New England, especially called forth his powers. His sermons and publications brought out the ablest championship on the other side, and beyond all question he was master of the field. Nowhere in England or America has the true Wesleyan-Arminian theology—that evangelical theology which has been, and still is, marching to a sure triumph in the general Protestant Church-been more clearly and conclusively stated than in his brief volume entitled "Calvinistic Controversy." In the great slavery controversy Dr. Fisk was an intrepid leader for years on the conservative side. He foresaw with accurate prescience that war was the sure result. He foretold the bloody contest. He therefore stood with the great body of the wise and good for tolerance of a great evil in hopes of an ultimate providential deliverance. Thereby happily he retarded the day of bloodshed until the North was powerful enough to win the battle for freedom. In this great discussion all the executive and oratorical ability of Dr. Fisk were exerted. His friends have compared him for his gentle piety to Fénelon; but it is certain that when aroused he could assume something of the imperious type of Bossuet. Too brief for the fullness of his usefulness and fame were the years of his life. The pulmonary tendencies of his early days never left him; and he long worked as a resolute and heroic semi-invalid. His career closed with a death-bed of holy triumph, Dec. 22, 1838. His Life, written by his chosen biographer, Rev. Dr. Holdich, is a deeply interesting portraiture. Our engraving is from a portrait painted in England during his visit. thither, now in possession of Mrs. Fisk, who is still living in her residence on the University grounds at Middletown. Plan of Episcopal Visitation for Spring Conferences of 1882. |