basin, do we with the help of final causes, and a great central purpose, reproduce the living and glorious frame which had seemed dissolved.

Mr Garbett in the treatment of his subject has divided it into two parts. In the first he considers the general principles, and the consequences involved in the divine plan of human redemption, as conceived by him, and by the greatest doctors of the church of Christ. To say that we know all God's purposes, or even perhaps the greatest of them, in sending his Son to die for man, would be utterly foolish as philosophy, and an impious presumption in a religious sense. But its purpose touching ourselves we do know, and as Mr Garbett justly argues, it is no modesty, but an infirm renunciation of God's gifts, not to reason where God invites us to meditate on his revealed dealings and purposes. The necessary consequences of the divine plan, are with great power deduced by the author-the employment of human instruments and human language, the only representative and organ of human things, revelation outwardly of the spiritual world within him. Hence follows the feeble side of revelation, the human element in thought and word, involving at once many sore probations to faith, a thousand difficulties and complexities, inseparable from the very nature of language, its endless ambiguity, confusions, and conflicts. To this is superadded the growth through long ages of the human race, and the necessary adaptation of the revelation to the capacity of those for whom it was designed, and who, from age to age, carried on the truth, like the λaμTadŋpogor of old, to the generations that came after. Then came as a necessary instrument of transmission the choice of a single race, necessary, yet complicating still more the problem, by their passions and earthly elements and manifold secular relations, in a way which divine wisdom, adjusting the end from the beginning, could alone have solved. How marvellously it was wrought out, and in what harmony with the alternatives and possibilities of the case, restricted on all sides by the mode of action which God himself had selected, as an artist is by his materials, is shewn with great ability in the third lecture. This lecture completes the

abstract and theoretic view of the divine and human sides of the scheme of redemption, with the main difficulties and results wrapt up in the conception of it, and constitutes the strictly scientific portion of the book. Throughout the caution is to be observed, that in all this we dare not tempt the abysses of God's counsels, nor dare approach the blaze of the unapproachable light. Very finely does Mr Garbett describe the majestic march of God's dealings :-"It is the very march of God himself coming visibly out of his place, and in the development of his great plan riding gloriously across the whole firmament of human thought. This is the highest unity-the circle most approaching the Infinite-into which we can search; for the whole system of human things, visible and invisible, physical and spiritual, are subordinate parts of it. In tracing its progress, as out of the depths of the Divine wisdom it has become more and more conspicuously revealed, all details of human action pass comparatively out of view. The grandest pictures which human life can suggest-and there are none so grand as the sacred history describes-sink into subordinate importance. Not only individual men, but peoples and empires, thrones, and states, and revolutions, are but secondary adjuncts, where the central figure is God himself, in the object of revelation, its mode, its course, its accomplishment-God alone, coming out of the eternity before time, and lost to present view in the eternity after time, like the natural sun moving from one horizon to the other, in a cloudless flood of light and glory."

In the fourth lecture, the author applies his principles to the pre-Mosaic period. The purpose of God being given, and the selection of the nation which was to treasure the truth till the period of its proclamation, and the ripeness of the times arrived, it followed that there must be given a know

ledge of God, of their relation to him, of their condition as fallen creatures, and their election as a chosen race, bound to the God of their forefathers by solemn and definite covenant. This, and no scientific or merely historical information, was the object of their part of the revelation. We are quite agreed with the author, that after all that science has done and infidel intellect attempted, no real contradiction can be shewn to exist between the utterances of the divine oracles and ascertained facts. The incomparable sublimity of the opening chapter of Genesis is fact, for all that can be shown to the contrary, as well as elevated thought. The creation, the antiquity of man, the descent of the human race fron a single pair, and the deluge, the fundamental facts in the history of the human race, are unshaken. We fear not science or the progress of knowledge. But we resist imperfect science as an imposture, and theories without facts, or beyond the facts, as not knowledge, but shallow empiricism at the best. Considered in the light of the central truth, nothing is imperfect, nothing meaningless or fragmentary in the earlier chapters of the Bible. In the fifth lecture, the author treats the earlier history of the Hebrew nation from the settlement of the patriarchal tribe on the banks of the Nile, to that which Bunsen justly styles the commencement of the rational history of nations, the triumphant exodus of the Israelites. From the land of their long and iron captivity, into which they came a family, they went a nation conquering and to conquer. There is a great deal of Ethnological reading in this lecture, and those who are interested in tracing the growth of nations, and their gradual hardening into a definite shape, and enduring characteristics, will find a masterly analysis of the elements that went to form the new people, and see the hand of the Potter as he moulded, by subtle and powerful touches, the yet not fully tempered clay. The durable result of the law, combined with other almost as potent influences, is before our eyes in the wondrous Jewish race, more permanent than iron or adamant against the waste of time, revolution, and the tyranny of man.

And now we come to the stormy period of the Judges, and the change of the theocratic commonwealth into the kingdom; a transformation foreseen from the first, and announced as a future event by Moses himself. Throughout there is a continuous and unbroken thread of design, the golden line of the divine counsels. In weal and woe, in curse and in blessing, in obedience and in rebellion, still on sweeps the purpose of Jehovah, embracing the end from the beginning, and wondrously moulding to his will the wayward passions of the chosen race, even amidst the wild surging and commotions, and heart-breaking tyrannies and blood-shedding of the Judges. Then at last emerged the kingdom in its greatness; and full in the eyes of the nations, from the rock of Zion and the golden temple of Jerusalem, shone forth the imperial glory of David and of Solomon. The events are outwardly secular and earthly; the interpretation of them, and their overruling to a spiritual purpose, is divine. This is their use to mankind. And in the sixth lecture will be found the antidote to much that is dangerous to youth in Ewald, great as he is, and in Mr F. Newman, and Mr Mackay, author of the "Hebrew Monarchy." And now the end approaches. All through the history of the monarchy, the line of the prophets has been uninterrupted, throwing an awful interpretation on passing events, and the blaze of God's wrath on the sins of king and people. And as the earthly empire declines, and the clouds gather blacker and blacker over the fortunes of the nation, the divine Spirit throws, in rapturous song and solemn prophecy, into ever increasing prominence the kingdom of the Messiah; and still shaking itself clear from the present, and hardly looking back to the past, throws onward the hopes of Israel and of man to the coming of the great Redeemer. The first streaks of the dawn are visible in the distance, and the Day-Spring is close at hand. "The sovereign will of God, fixing the

end and selecting the means for its accomplishment, gives consistency and unerring certainty to this hope of the universal church. What divine goodness ordains, divine wisdom arranges, and divine power executes. The possibility of failure must be as absolutely absent from the future as the possibility of mistake is from the past. On this assurance faith devoutly rests. Through the entangled and complicated difficulties besetting the prospects of the church of Christ, reason is wholly unable to trace beforehand the consistent path; but to the mind of God all things are ordered and sure from the beginning to the end. The clouds may gather blackly across the heavens, but the sun shines beyond and above them. The apparent motion and disturbance are only in ourselves: the Jews at the period of the captivity were probably exercised by anxious doubts relative to the accomplishment of the divine promises. Yet, at that very time, in a way they thought not, God's purposes were fast ripening to their completion, and the time was already at hand when the covenant with their fathers should be fulfilled, and the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings."

This is a proper place to remark, that this view of the great purpose of Scripture, the tracing of God's counsels for man's redemption from Adam downwards, and mainly for many centuries through the necessarily restricted channel of one chosen race, the trustees of mankind, affords a rational and satisfactory assurance of the truth of the historical narrative, and the exercise of the same divine superintendence over the chosen historians, as over the utterers of the most awful and directly divine verities. All is woven in the same web, all points to the same one supreme purpose, the links of the whole chain are compacted by the same almighty hand; and manifestly when allowance is made for the infirmities of human copyists, and the unavoidable variations of text, the overshadowing of the sacred outstretched wings of the Spirit is over it all. Let us not rashly withdraw any portion of it from out of that majestic shelter. Nor let us forget that all this time it is for argument's sake, and in the consciousness of strength to spare, that, for the moment, we have consented to fight the battle and peril the issue of this question of questions on a single point. During all this raging of the infidel, and the shouts of religious conflict, no hand has attempted to assail the arguments on behalf of the historical truths of Christianity which giant intellects have framed. They stand unconquerable, and with them the truth they guard. Miracles and prophecy, outward evidences and inward, all with concentrating lines converge to the grand Sun of righteousness; and the force of the argument for the truth that has come from him, is the accumulated strength of the vast and combined whole, most multiplex, like God's material universe, but by virtue of the informing soul absolutely one. The force of these general statements of the cause of revelation, any simple and intelligent Christian can understand and appreciate. Let them make him sure that, in the handling of abstruser doctrines and points of criticism and scholarship beyond his grasp, the truth is similarly vindicated. And at any rate, there is the inner witness of the Spirit which God bestows on all who love him and seek to know him, being ready to do his will. This is the best verification of the truth of the word, and he needs no logical proofs nor demonstration from without, whose heart is the temple of God, through the sanctification of the Spirit, and the sprinkling of the blood of the Lamb of God. We heartily recommend Mr Garbett's volume as a xra is así to the church.

G.

The Book of Ruth in Hebrew, with a Critically Revised Text, Various Readings, including a new Collation of Twenty-eight Hebrew MSS. (most of them not previously collated), and a Grammatical and Critical Commentary, to which is appended the Chaldee Targum, with Various Readings, Grammatical Notes, and a Chaldee Glossary. By CHARLES H. H. WRIGHT, M.A. of Trinity College, Dublin, and Exeter College, Oxford, British Chaplain at Dresden. London: Williams and Norgate. Leipzig: Rudolph Hartman. 1864.

This is a small but valuable contribution to the available means of acquiring a critical knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures. In commencing it, the editor had two principal objects in view: viz., to exhibit a specimen of a minute collation of Hebrew MSS., and to supply junior students with such assistance as might be needful in their early attempts at translating Hebrew, while at the same time the requirements of advanced scholars were steadily borne in mind. The work is well adapted to both these purposes.

The introduction explains the principles upon which the text has been constructed and the notes appended. The basis of the text is that of Theile; but several alterations have been introduced, the chief of which are the following: The scriptio defectiva has been uniformly substituted for the scriptio plena whenever MS. authority could be found for so doing. The sign of Raphe is restored throughout. Mappik is restored in both and when used at the end of a word with their consonantal power, and is sometimes inserted in . The feminine pronoun of the third person is written and pointed instead of NT. The sacred name is everywhere pointed. The word [] placed within brackets is three times inserted in the text. In two of these instances it is supplied in the keri. The alterations in individual words affecting the sense of the several passages, are as follows: chap. ii. 18, instead of ; chap. iii. 16, ♫ instead of y; and chap. iv. 20,

instead of; chap. iv. 4,

A minute account is given of the אֶת שִׂלְמָה instead of אֶת שִׂלְמן

twenty-eight MSS. collated by the author; and the numerous references to the slightest variation of their readings shews his great diligence and care in examining them. He notes particularly what has never been systematically done before, the differences in regard to the vowel points and the accents. The results exhibit very little difference from our common Hebrew text of Van Der Hooght.

Another peculiarity, and what to most young students of Hebrew will be a striking novelty, is the placing of Raphe over so many letters. The very form of it must have been but indistinctly apprehended from the short and not too clear descriptions of it in most grammars. The elder Buxtorf, in whose days it had become obsolete in printed copies, well designates it as virgula transversa, a stroke across. It can easily be imagined how great an incumbrance these heavy strokes, from such types as were used in the infancy of printing, would be on the page, and the relief felt when such an impediment was removed; or, to use the words of Buxtorf, when it would be said of Raphe:-" Adhibitam adhuc cernere est in quibusdam veteribus Bibliorum editionibus Constantinopoli impressis; in recentioribus autem libris plane exolevit." In this new work, however, the types are so "clean cut" that the restoration of Raphe does not disfigure the page. The strokes are very fine, but in our opinion most of them are too long. On the contrary, Metheg is generally printed too short.

As a specimen of the diacritic marks used in MSS., the restoration of Raphe is certainly interesting, but its practical utility to the student in reading is very doubtful. Moreover, we fear it will interfere seriously, if generally adopted, with the correct printing of the point Hholem. An instance

In this case the

of this evil is to be seen in chap. i. 8, in the word ɔɔɔ. Raphe above the is of the same length as the Pattahh below it, thus, ; while the Raphe above the is,double that length, and thereby has crushed the Hholem between it and the into so small dimensions that, to the naked eye, it is scarcely visible. And, what makes the case worse, the poor Hholem has been deprived, by the preference for the scriptio defectiva, of its natural companion. And again, chap. iv. 14, in the first word of the verse, is allowed to remain with the softening Raphe above it, and above that, Zaqethqaton instead of Hholem. These are grave errors in a critical edition of so small a book. There are, besides, three serious errors arising from other causes, namely, chap. i. 18, Mappik has been left out of the in N chap. ii. 12, has been dropped from the beginning of the word; and chap. iii. 16, occurs instead of iu the word . Grammatical errors occur even in the English portion of the work, in consequence, perhaps, of its having been printed out of England, for example, p. xxxvi, we have "desiring of." These errors should be corrected in the next edition, which we hope the work will soon reach.

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The Commentary is, upon the whole, well digested. Appropriate quotations from the ancient versions are frequently introduced, which throw light upon the Hebrew text. There is not the slightest attempt to exalt these versions to an equality with, far less to raise them above, the original. This is as it should be. No man would think of claiming a greater degree of authority for any translation, however good, of a modern book than for the book itself. It is only perversity of mind to apply a different principle to books of ancient times. The quotations from the Arabic and Syriac versions are often, with a laudable consideration of the case of younger students, translated. It would have done no harm to have translated the whole. As to those from the Greek and Latin, it is not likely that any one disposed to use the book will be unacquainted with them. Mr Wright, in his Commentary, has freely used and acknowledged the labours of others, and shews his ability to form and communicate an independent and candid opinion.

There is a separate portion set apart to Notes on Accentuation. In order to use the valuable remarks in this part to advantage, the student would require to have at hand "Davidson's Outlines of Hebrew Accentuation," which is constantly referred to. The Chaldee Targum will be very useful to those who can be persuaded to master it. But if the author, or editor we should perhaps rather say, has his doubts regarding the state of Hebrew scholarship, he need have none as to the small progress made in this country by the mass of students in Chaldee. In such circumstances we are inclined to think that it would be a profitable addition (we do not say as a substitute for the Glossary) were a literal translation of the Targum to be appended to it. Were that done, it might allure some to study the Targum with the help of the glossary, and it might encourage others to persevere after having begun. In making this suggestion, we have in view chiefly the case of those who may not have the opportunity of enjoying the assistance of a living teacher. Such would be encouraged, by a judicious reference to a translation, to proceed with confidence and precision. Without this addition, we think the work is not well adapted to be a First Reading-Book in Chaldee, a thing very much wanted. There is no lack of first reading-books for Hebrew. And, simple and short as this Book of Ruth is, it will not suit beginners in Hebrew without something more elementary going before it, or the voice of a living teacher along with it. Mr Wright is elementary enough for the class he has in view, but he is mistaken in supposing that students of Hebrew throughout Great Britain usually begin with the Psalms. In Scotland they usually begin with Genesis and proceed to Ruth; the very order which he is following himself in his editions of the Old Testament.

N.