XI. RECENT PUBLICATIONS.

OXFORD TEACHER'S BIBLE.

Printed at the University Press.

London: Henry Frowde, Oxford University Press Warehouse, Amen Corner. New York: 91 and 93 Fifth Avenue.

The establishment of a branch of the Oxford Press in New York is a matter for congratulation to American Christians. The Oxford Teacher's Bible, of which a new edition, in long primer type, India paper, Levant binding, is before us, is, in our judgment, by long odds, the best extant. Its various helps are sound and conservative. The authors contributing the several parts, especially the Introductions to the Pentateuch and the different books of the Bible, are at once scholarly and free from the taint of modern advanced criticism. This fact appears abundantly in the discussion of the Pentateuch, Isaiah, and Daniel. The helps are generous as well as learned. They are preceded by a series of one hundred and twenty-four plates illustrating the language, writings, and versions of the Scriptures, and the men, habits, beliefs, religions, social customs, coins, etc., of Old Testament and New Testament history, and the history of the nations whose contact with the Chosen People affected their life and career. In six parts, entitled The Bible; The Old Testament; The Apocrypha; The New Testament; Palestine, Its Inhabitants, Physical Geography, Customs, etc.; and Indices, they embrace General Introduction, discussing the titles, canonicity, languages, and authenticity of the Bible; the integrity of the text, versions, etc.; special introduction to the several books; chronology and ethnology; a summary of the Apocrypha; a historical sketch of the inter-biblical period; the political conditions, sects, and parties of the Jews; the physical features of Palestine; and very full indices, composed of a glossary of antiquities, customs, etc.; a dictionary of Scripture proper names and meanings, a subject-index, and concordance. A series of fifteen maps of remarkable clearness and beauty closes the volume. Taken altogether,

this edition is the best Teacher's Bible that we can find, and it should be recommended as such to all inquirers. Its publication in a type as large as long primer, as well as in smaller types, while it is yet, by the use of India paper of the finest quality, a light and thin volume, adapts it to the use of those whose eyes are not strong, or who are advancing in years.

CHRIST AND THE CHERUBIM; Or, The Ark of the Covenant a Type of Christ Our Saviour. By J. M. P. Otts, LL. D., author of "The Land Where Jesus Lived"; "At Mother's Knee," etc. With an Introduction by Francis R. Beattie, B. D., Ph. D., D. D., Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics in the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. 12mo, pp. 63. Richmond, Virginia: Presbyterian Committee of Publication. 1896.

The author's aim in this work, as he himself states it, and as is clear to the reader, is to show that the ark of the covenant was a type of the man Christ Jesus; and, in connection with this, that the gospel of love and mercy has always been

known, having been especially set forth in the ark of the covenant. He first studies the ark as to its typical relations to the person of Christ, and maintains that in its materials and form it was a type of the two natures in the one person of the man Christ Jesus. The perfect wood of the inner box of the ark was a type of Christ's perfect human nature; the precious gold of the outer box, of his perfect divine nature. The incasing of the one box in the other, the two being so blended and wrought together that they constituted but one thing, sets forth the two natures in the one person. He holds that the only contents of the ark were the tables of the law, and these so sealed up in it that they could not be taken out without removing the mercy-seat and breaking open the holy chest, thus typifying Christ's atonement, which, as it were, shut up the law within himself by his perfect obedience. Thus both the person and the work of the Redeemer are set forth. In subsequent pages the author argues that the cherubim on the mercyseat were a type of the eternal life of the redeemed; that the cherubim and flaming sword at Eden were the prototype of the ark of the covenant; and that the ark in its successive sanctuaries was a type of Christ in the church in all dispensations. In the elaboration of all the details of these positions the author evinces the most reverent spirit and devout purpose. We can most cordially commend the work as a whole, though questioning certain particulars of the elaboration; and we think that the author has not clearly grasped, or, at least, set forth, the distinction between the typical and the symbolic in the Levitical ceremonials and materials. Much that is symbolic is not to be regarded as typical, in the technical sense of the word; and there is always danger of Origenizing in our interpretations when we seek for a spiritual meaning in every detail of Bible description. The evangelical spirit, soundness in the faith, scholarliness, and unusual common sense of the author have prevented his yielding to this tendency in a work which, in another's hands, would, most probably, have developed this style of interpretation.

The Introduction to the book is a brief, but suggestive, discussion of the subject of typology, its nature, usefulness, and importance as a branch of biblical study.

HE IS NOT HERE. The Resurrection of Christ. By the Rev. J. H. Brookes, D. D. Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-school Work. 1896. 12mo. pp., 170.

This treatise on the resurrection of Christ begins by showing the importance of that fact. The author shows that if there be no risen Christ the Gospels are a myth, there is no revelation, the apostles are liars, the church has no basis upon which to rest, the remarkable power of early Christianity cannot be accounted for, there is no ground for either Christian doctrine or Christian morality, and the truest and best that man has known must be blotted out. He then shows from the marvellous spread of the word of God, and the genuineness and authenticity of its books, that men have reliable sources for information and proof of the fact of the resurrection. The schemes and efforts of infidelity to disprove the fact, as that it was a theory of fraud; as that, according to the naturalistic theory of Paulus, there was not really death upon the cross; as that, with Strauss, the story of it was mythical; as that, with Renan, it was a hallucination; or with Keim, that his

appearing again was a spiritualism or spiritistic manifestation; or, as that, with a certain class of so-called higher critics, the Bible is not trustworthy, are all shown to be failures. The possibility of a miracle is then clearly proved. After this, the author presents the testimony from Christ himself, the evangelists and other witnesses, the monuments, the prophecies, and that of science and nature. Lastly, he shows the relation between Christ's resurrection and our own, closing with a brief chapter on Christ's personal return. The whole is written in the clear and eminently scriptural and evangelical style and spirit for which the author is so well known. It is a book to be read and prized.

BEYOND THE HORIZON; Or, Bright Side Chapters on the Future Life. By Henry D. Kimball, D. D. 12mo., pp. 250. $1.00. New York: Eaton & Mains. 1896.

The author of this book maintains, and brings the evidence of a thirty years' ministry to prove it, that the idea that thought of the future and inquiry into it are impractical and of no appreciable value is entirely erroneous, and that there is really a wider and deeper interest in the discussion of questions relating to the future life than in any other. In this work he studies the brighter side of the life beyond. He first shows, by a most satisfactory line of argument, the immortality of man, and that the future is a conscious existence. He then discusses the idea of an intermediate state. He shows that neither philosophical necessity, nor the right interpretation of the Scriptures, demand such a place for the spirits of the dead. He then presents the subjects of the resurrection and the judgment, holding to evangelical views on both these doctrines. The questions, Where is Heaven, What is Heaven, and Recognition in Heaven, form the last three chapters. They are discussed from both scriptural and philosophical standpoints, and without affectation or any attempt at novelty. The whole volume is practical and simple, while abounding in careful thought and study. The author has fully justified his claim when he says, in the preface, "The possible readers we have had in mind are not great theologians, or profound philosophers. Nor have we had a vision of the sentimentalist, who lives in his feelings, poring over these pages."

PREDESTINATION AND FREE AGENCY. A sermon delivered in the First Presbyterian Church of Richmond, Va., and published by request. By Robert P. Kerr, D. D. Richmond, Va.: Whittet & Shepperson. 1897.

A sermon that will well repay reading. It is in Dr. Kerr's happiest vein. It presents the relations of the two subjects considered most practically. It specially dwells upon the inability of man to understand the hidden things of God, and shows clearly that mystery is no necessary barrier to belief, but that it rather makes us adore, and the adoring soul does not wish to comprehend its God.

CHRISTIAN BAPTISM, Under the Rules of Evidence Governing Courts of Justice. By J. P. Hobson. Second Edition. 16mo, pp. 131. Richmond, Va. : Presbyterian Committee of Publication. 1896.

From the quotations taken from the Confession of Faith, and the deliverances of the General Assembly of 1894, which appear in this booklet in the usual place of the preface, we infer that the author is not disposed to think that the Assembly

had the right to declare, in one sentence, the utter unscripturalness of baptism by immersion and the validity of the ordinance when thus administered. The treatise is admirably compact and clear, following the method named in the title. Its chapters are: The Case Stated, The Evidence for Immersion, The Evidence for Affusion, The Evidence Summed up, and The Difficulties of Immersion. The usual arguments are stated forcibly. As a handbook on the subject, this booklet is well adapted for general use. It should be widely distributed, and its cheapness will make this practicable.

By

SABBATH-DAY JOURNEYS, A study of the thirty-third chapter of Numbers. the Rev. William Justin Harsha, D. D., Pastor of the Second Collegiate Reformed Church of Harlem, New York City. New York, Chicago, Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Company. 1896. 12mo, pp. 275. $1.00.

The title, "Sabbath-day Journeys," refers rather to the use of the several chapters of this book, which number practically one for each Sabbath of a year, than to the successive stages in the wilderness wanderings of the children of Israel. The book is an attempt to draw spiritual lessons from the names of each of the places mentioned in Moses' summary of the wandering in the desert. The incidents occurring at some of the places named are, of course, well known through the Scriptures; but in the other cases, the author, following chiefly the suggestions of a fanciful writer of England of a century and a half ago, Thomas Bromley, "spiritualizes" the names of the stations and thus draws lessons from them. It is an unusual specimen, for this day, of "Origenizing" the Bible. The lessons are good and wholesome, we think, but they could as well be drawn from other sources. As a specimen, one finds that Abarim, the name of the mountain range lying to the east of the Elanitic Gulf, is supposed to mean passings-away." So "There are certain practical lessons to be drawn from the station which no thoughtful mind can miss. We learn: 1, The passing away of Moses and the old covenant; 2, The preparation for passing from law to Christ; 3, The preparation for passing from the observation of the letter to the love of the Spirit--from prophecy to power." We are reminded of a sermon of which we have heard on the text, "And it came to pass," in which the preacher sets forth the evanescence of all things, showing how health, beauty, wealth, fame, even life itself, comes only to pass." Each one, precious and happy though it seemed to be in itself, or in its capacity to bring us blessing, only came to pass."

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FOUR BIBLE STUDIES: Shamelessness, Revenge, Prayer, Fidelity. By John H. Osborne. 12mo, pp. vi., 90. New York: A. C. Armstrong & Son. 1896. These are studies on the parables of the Friend at Midnight, the Unjust Judge, the Mammon of Unrighteousness, and or Elijah's Prayer. Of the first the author makes the singular interpretation that the man coming at midnight to borrow loaves to feed his guest was doing an unnecessary and unreasonable thing, merely making a show of zeal in fulfilling the duties of hospitality, reckless of the outrage he was committing against the kindly and considerate feelings of others, a man of reckless spirit and brazen ways. Of the parable of the Unjust Judge, he holds that the widow who sought with such importunity to be avenged is not one who gained her point merely by her importunity, but who had a full resolution and a

settled plan for getting even and more than even with her adversary, and whose case the judge recognized to be of so strong a nature that he had to yield lest she "give him a black eye," that is, defeat his plans, disappoint him in some of his expectations, overthrow him by some sudden and unpreventable disaster. This will sufficiently illustrate the author's methods of interpretation. The principle upon which he bases his method, and for which he argues, is that no parable was ever uttered to teach a truth by way of contrast or unlikeness.

CHOSEN OF GOD. By Rev. Herbert W. Lathe. 12mo, pp, 306. $1.25. Chicago, New York, and Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Company.

1896.

The author of this book recognizes the fact that many Christians make little progress after conversion, and it is his object to lead such into the richer experiences of the life of Christ. He believes that a most fruitful cause of Christians' failure is that to many of them the Christian life is a human undertaking attended by divine aid. They are here shown that as they are the chosen of God before their new birth, so they are his chosen in the Christian life, and, therefore, should cast themselves entirely upon him, committing their souls to him in well-doing. He carefully guards against all antinomianism and fatalism. The chapter on the sovereignty of God in its practical relations is delightful. He shows that this great doctrine runs through the Bible and is its ruling idea, that all God's attributes partake of it, that the devout soul rejoices in it, that it is manifest in the origin of redemption, and in the application of redemption, that the Christian life depends upon it, and that it is the comfort of God's people. The whole work is full of richness and strength and scripturalness. It is the most complete in its development of the principle of election as shown in the believer's life that we have ever read,

THE CELESTIAL SUMMONS. By Rev. Angelo Carroll; Edited by Homer Eaton, D. D. New York: Eaton & Mains. 1896. 12mo, pp. 280. $1.25.

Mr. Carroll was a noted pulpit orator of the Methodist Episcopal Church, spending the larger part of his ministerial life in the prominent New England pulpits, and closing his career in the California Conference, after a most successful ministry of forty-four years. The book before us is a memorial volume of his sermons, the title being taken from the first of this collection of twelve discourses. They are all full of fervid eloquence and power, clothed in English of rare beauty. LIFE'S BYWAYS AND WAYSIDES. By J. R. Miller, D. D., author of "Week-day Religion," "In His Steps," etc. 12mo, pp. 320. Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-school Work. 1895.

A series of twenty-five studies, named from the first, in the author's best vein. Dr. Miller is too well known for his happy gift in the preparation of devotional literature for us to commend him. The studies in this book, on such subjects as Wayside Ministries, The Silent Christ, Unto His Nest Again, The Ministry of Suffering, Great in God's Sight, etc., are full of interest and are most beautifully and strikingly illustrated by the scriptural facts which are gathered up under each of them. We take pleasure in recommending that this book be in all our Sunday libraries, and that those who would read a sermon or lecture in a pastor's absence take some of these delightful chapters.