The first part of the Saviour's commission is to make disciples of all nations, and this high duty ought never to be lost sight of in the operations of Christian churches.

3.

J. M. P.

The Englishman's Greek Concordance of the New Testament, being an attempt at a verbal connection between the Greek and the English texts: including a Concordance of the Proper Names [in Greek], with Indexes, Greek-English, and English-Greek. New York. Harper & Brothers. 1848. 8vo.

pp. 882.

This is an exact and beautifully executed reprint of a second edition of an English work, widely and favorably known in this country. We have seen more copies of the imported volume on the table of ministers within a few years past, than almost any other as expensive volume. This shows how extensively it is appreciated; nor can it be doubted that this American edition, quite as good and at less than half the cost of the English, will rapidly find its way all over the country.

The plan proposed is this; to present in alphabetical succession every word which occurs in the Greek New Testament, with the series of passages from the English translation in which such word occurs; the word or words exhibiting the Greek word under immediate consideration being printed in italic letters. This portion of the work, extending nearly through 700 pages of the volume, leaves nothing to be desired so far as the completeness and accuracy of a concordance for the comparison and ready reference of the Greek usage of words in the New Testament is concerned. It will readily enable each one to become his own lexicographer, and to judge of the justness of criticisms on words, so far as this depends on the New Testament usage of them. Next follows a list of all the proper names found in the Greek New Testament, with every place quoted in full where they occur. This occupies nearly fifty pages more, chiefly valuable to the curious, but adapted certainly to give greater completeness to the work. A still larger number of pages are next occupied with an English-Greek Index; the purpose of which is to render the work available to the mere English scholar-made, we are told, at the instance of a lady who was employed in copying out for the press a portion of the manuscript, and who was anxious for this key, to lay open sacred treasures to the uninitiated. Then follows a Greek-English Index, confined in its definitions, however, almost entirely to our common English version of the meaning of Greek words, and hence rendering no essential aid to correct and enlarged criticism. The Appendix, parts 1 and 2, is occupied with references and remarks on seven Greek particles of very frequent occurrence in the New Testament.

We have thus given a summary schedule of the entire volume. That it will secure a large circulation we have no doubt: for as a work of convenient reference, it will be welcome even to scholars; and by supplying such abundant facilities for maintaining the appearance of learning, it will be an inviting succedaneum to thousands who have very slender pretensions to scholarship. We cannot but hope too, that the vastly increased facilities it will give to the empyrical pretences of learning, will make the disgusting exhibitions of pedantic assumption more rare: since a principal motive for their indulgence has been, that

it raised such pretenders above the vulgar. All men of sense will readily understand how indispensable to true and elevated criticism is the acquaintance with the literature of any language; not merely the list of words in one small book. Hence we chiefly desire stimulants to true scholarship, not shallow substitutes for it. So far as this noble, inviting volume may promote the former and repress the latter, it should be hailed with cordial satisfaction.

B.

By J. S. C. ABBOTT. 12mo. pp. 312.

4. Kings and Queens, or Life in the Palace. New York. Harper & Brothers. 1848. Josephine and Maria Louisa, the successive wives of Napoleon, and each, of course, an Empress; Queen Isabella of Spain, and Victoria of Great Britain; together with Louis Philippe, late King of the French, Ferdinand of Austria, Nicholas of Russia and Leopold of Belgium, are all sketched in this volume. It forms an agreeable variety of light reading, which may well supersede a resort to fiction. Truth as here presented, is not less strange, romantic, exciting, than the reveries of the imagination.

We

The author of these sketches has earned a solid reputation by some former publications of deserved celebrity, like the Mother at Home, the Child at Home, and others of this class. In the present instance, he seems to have taken unusual pains to trace out the ancestry, family connections, personal habits and individual character of the distinguished personages, whose biography he causes to pass before us. think he follows Mr. Headly too far in his partiality for Napoleon; and that he should have re-written some portions of the volume, after the astounding revolutions of the last half year had shown the state of the people of Austria for instance-in a light so different from his representations. But with these slight drawbacks, the volume must be pronounced one of rare value and interest. It is also beautifully embellished.

5. Notes, Explanatory and Practical on the General Peter, John and Jude. By ALBERT BARNES.

12mo.

pp. 459.

B.

Epistles of James,
Harpers. 1848.

In its general features, this volume resembles its predecessors of the same series. It is marked by the same earnest and persevering effort so to explain the text, that no reader shall be left in uncertainty as to its meaning; and then in the practical enforcement, the author would leave no feasible method unattempted, to bring the conduct of his readers, both the internal principle and affections, and the external development, into harmony with the divine requirement. Indeed, were we required to point out the one feature of the whole series of Mr. Barnes' Notes on the New Testament, which has given them more extensive currency than any other Commentary, we should not hesitate to fix on their eminently practical character, as entitled to this distinc

tion.

Nearly all the modern critical Scripture expositors-the Germans in this department taking the lead-seem to have designedly kept aloof from any approaches to the homiletic enforcement on the heart, the VOL. XIII.NO. LI.

39

conscience, the life, of that sense of sacred Scripture, which it is their great purpose to evolve. Mr. Barnes, on the contrary, makes this a prominent, if not the chief end of his notes. Not unlikely his habit of studying the lively oracles as a preacher, and primarily, at least, with reference to the exigencies of his own numerous and intelligent congregation, may have tended to this result, and served, along with the practical and earnest character of his own mind, to stamp this impress upon the work. He could not without violence bring himself to look on these sentences, chapters and books of divine revelation as a mere verbal critic; but after ascertaining, with aid from all the best helps accessible, the real sense of God's word, he feels impelled to press it home and make it immediately available for the spiritual benefit of his readers. Most of them will regard this as a decided advantage; and hence the immense popularity, the wide circulation of the Notes in this country, as well as in England and Scotland.

But this very union of the preacher and the expositor has also its disadvantages. It naturally leads the writer to assume a warmth and zeal in the more hortatory portion, which insensibly but naturally somewhat lessens the respect of those who follow him, for his candor and the impartial coolness which we instinctively require in one who holds and metes out the award from the balances of truth. In brief, it transmutes the expositor, from the impartial judge explaining and applying the law, into the earnest and impassioned advocate, for whose statements not unnaturally there may be feared some suspicion of party bias. This endeavor to mingle practical suggestions with the explanation of the text, leads also to undue amplification. This, we think, is pretty generally regarded as the chief fault of these Notes. They abound in repetitions, and in what a severe taste would not hesitate to pronounce the manifestations of redundant fulness. If we mistake not, moreover, this is a growing fault, being more frequent and glaring in the later than in the earlier volumes. Manifold reasons may be assigned for this, such as the crowded occupation of the writer's mindkept constantly on the stretch by his arduous professional duties-and hence less fitted to exercise needful vigor and care in pruning away these redundancies. Again the assimilation of his style to the hortatory oral addresses to his congregation, and the very purpose above adverted to, of securing immediate practical results, may all have led to this extreme. We think it has insinuated itself into the more strictly expository portions of his Notes, and it renders his development of the meaning of the text less clear and satisfactory, in many instances, than would a more compact and concise style.

Mr. Barnes may now justly be regarded as the American Commentator upon Scripture-having written more, and better than any other of our countrymen in this department of sacred literature. His ten portable volumes on the New Testament, with four or five on important books of the Old Testament, are a pleasing monument of the industry and success of the writer, and of the high appreciation of American and English readers. Several years since, the earlier volumes on the New Testament had reached a circulation in this country of 40,000 copies each, and it may be presumed the later ones will speedily approximate this number. Numerous transatlantic editions have in the meantime been published. With such a seal of public approbation al

ready stamped on his labors, we cannot but hope this beloved and indefatigable laborer in Christ's cause, will feel impelled to subject his entire series of volumes on the New Testament to a thorough revision, in which redundancies and other blemishes shall be removed, and the work rendered more worthy of the permanent regard of all who love the holy book of God.

6.

B.

Germany, England and Scotland; or, Recollections of a Swiss Minister. By J. H. MERLE D'AUBIGNE', D. D. New York. Robert Carter. 12mo. pp. 371.

The celebrated author of the volumes on the Reformation was called, in the year 1845, to visit Great Britain, as a member of the Evangelical Alliance. In the following year he was invited by his fellowtownsmen to give them an account of what he had seen during his tour. Accordingly, in the winter of 1846, he gave, in four lectures, his travelling recollections. At a subsequent period, in compliance with a similar request, he gave them additional information of the results of his journey, as historical recollections. These lectures are the basis of the present work. The author enters, from his peculiar constitution and habits of mind, much more into the inner life of the various classes of Christians, and of the various sects, than travellers are accustomed to do. His observations relate especially to the ecclesiastical views, faith, and development of Germany, England and Scotland, past and present. The view of Scotland, which has been the theatre of so much interest in consequence of the Free Church movement, is very complete, occupying nearly two-thirds of the volume. The volume contains a mass of interesting and instructive views in the manner and spirit of the author's well known historical work, and will richly repay a perusal.

7.

Peter Schlemihl in America. Philadelphia. Carey & Hart. 1848. pp. 495. 12mo.

This book is evidently designed as a tract for the times. It belongs to the class of religious novels; and for that reason, with our present convictions, we cannot recommend it. Its merit is that it sets forth in a proper light some of the absurd claims of Episcopacy, with its pomp and forms, and demonstrates the folly of those modern discoveries which have of late sought to foist themselves into the rank which belongs only to the gospel. In a tone of the severest sarcasm the author, whose principles seem to be orthodox, deals unsparing blows upon the system of Unitarianism, leaving no stone unturned to bring it into contempt. He also makes very pungent allusions to the ultra-societies of the age, by which, under the protection and aid of the social principle, and for the show of zeal and power, men assume to be doing great things for the welfare and purity of the race, and with a great noise and clatter of machinery. In his various scenes he calls in the coöperation of a "Gentleman in Black,” (Satan, in disguise,) who, it must be confessed, does him excellent service, in expounding principles, disclosing mysteries, solving objections, accounting for customs, and pleading, pro or con, as may suit emergencies, and subserve the interests of the kingdom of darkness.

We dread, however, to have the germs of infidelity suggested to the common mind, as they must necessarily be suggested through such a book. It is safe not to exhibit the poison at all, even though we may administer at once the antidote to neutralize it. We dread, also, such an intermingling of things sacred and profane as the book in many instances involves. If we must win men to the truth, we prefer to use other and more dignified methods. The writer seems to be perfectly familiar with much that has transpired, within the last few years, in what may be appropriately called the fashionable religious world; and he has presented many facts of great interest; but a stranger in this portion of the United States would require additional testimony to verify them, or to distinguish for him between what is truth and what is fiction. The proper and profitable perusal of the book demands a knowledge of events and of religious matters, beyond what is ordinarily found among novel-readers. The volume is written, however, with great forcibleness, and, to minds not in danger of being injured by it, may serve as an amusing recreation to be enjoyed temperately, or as a genial preliminary of a siesta on a summer's day.

8.

Chambers' Library for Young People. Boston. Gould, Kendall & Lincoln. 1848.

This is a series of entertaining narratives for children and young persons. Five numbers are already printed, adorned with handsome fancy binding-Orlandino, or Self-Denial, Jacopo, Little Robinson, Uncle Sam's Money Box, and Alfred in India. The volumes teach sound moral truths, and have proved themselves extremely popular with those for whom they were specially designed. The compilations of the Messrs. Chambers are among the most instructive and popular books of the day; they may be read without danger to the morals, and will secure a fund of information to the young, which will prove of great value to them in their future life.

9.

General Principles of the Philosophy of Nature: with an Outline of some of its recent Developments among the Germans, embracing the Philosophical Systems of Schelling and Hegel, and Oken's System of Nature. By J. B. STALLO, A. M., lately Professor in St. John's College, N. Y. Boston. Crosby & Nichols. 1848. pp. 520.

12mo.

He who has read the title of this book has read the most intelligible part of it. What it is, we do not know. We read with strange wonder the parts of it which we seem to understand; but are perpetually met by sentences and paragraphs which we cannot understand. Of one thing we are certain, it is designed exclusively for the learned; for none but the learned can follow the author in his peculiar terms, his new formations of words, and his strange collocation of words already in use. At the same time we suspect that the learned will have little patience to wade through a work so peculiar, so abstract, so outré. We do not wish to do the author injustice by citing passages at random, and out of their connection. Still a passage taken any where is almost equally unintelligible. For example, opening the book casually, we find the following sentences, as the first paragraph