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The author gives us a new translation of the chapter on the creation, with comments; although it was according to him no creation. "The recognition of matter as created, did not belong to any ancient systems, either Hebrew or Greek. They did not, therefore, reach the true doctrine of creation." The author does not think highly of this record of the creation it is full of conjectural theories which science has demolished, and its highest lesson is the illustration which it affords of the folly and presumption of undertaking to judge of God and his doings a priori." Still he kindly admits that it is not an "imposition." "It has every appearance of being an honest fiction; it exhibits no more indications of an intention to deceive than the Pilgrim's Progress, or Homer's Iliad." Nay, "correctly interpreted, it becomes both harmless and useful." These admissions we thankfully receive.

But the author is in the full tide of improvement. The divine origin of the Sabbath, therefore, and the story that Eve was formed from a rib taken out of the side of Adam, he rejects with contempt. With the Garden of Eden and its scenes, he makes curious work. He evidently knows all about the matter. The significance of the matter is, that man first appears as engaged in "tree culture." "History finds him alone, without a wife, living like a beast of the forest, on forest fruits." But after "tree culture" comes the "invention of language," the use of sounds and articulations to denote things. "Both of these

arts began with Adam, the first stock man known to tradition; where the race had been, and what it had been doing before this stage, we may guess, or accept the opinion of the traditionist if we think proper." But the race is in the way of improvement, and its progress is rapid. After tree culture and language, comes marriage, and then, the greatest step of all, he becomes rational, and finally pious. The transition to a state of reason is due proximately to his wife, but ultimately and mainly to "the introduction and use of a new kind of food." Eve found this food and gave it to man; because, the race not having got up to civilization, woman was the servant and drudge of man, and "was allowed to make herself useful by gathering and laying up the forest fruits for the support of the family." Eve in her explorations lighted upon a larger and finer fruit than Adam had yet tried: she, perhaps, had a pet serpent upon which she tried its virtues. The result was favorable; the serpent grew fat on it, and then she and Adam ate of it with the happiest results, the race being immediately "raised to a higher elevation than it had ever before been gained." Such is the importance of good food. Some have supposed this fruit the apple, some a fig, "but the more

probable opinion is that it was wheat and the other cereal grains." This was the great upward step of humanity. That which the allegorist has ignorantly represented as the fall of man, was in fact his rise; his first and great transgression passes over into the first and noblest act by which he arose to seek the true end of his being; and God, instead of disapproving and condemning his progress in becoming rational, could only favor and approve.

We will not follow out the details of these "improvements." There are a great many of them. Mr. Sawyer has a fertile brain and a searching philosophy. The Old Testament is a cob-house in his hands, which he can demolish and re-construct at pleasure. It is not easy to say where his improvements will end, but it is perfectly apparent where they will not end. They will not terminate with the venerable records of the Old Testament. The Biblical Science of the New will have to undergo the same searching and improving process as that of the Old; for it rests upon and assumes the truth of that. The story of Jesus Christ will go into the same limbo of fable and allegory, of corrupt tradition and ignorant invention, with the histories of Adam and the Patriarchs. The Bible will be improved into a work of the same value with the poems of Hesiod and Ovid, and Mr. Sawyer will take his place, where in fact he has already taken his place, in the extreme van of the ranks of the Theodore Parkerites and the Westminster Reviewers.

We do not deny that there are yet many difficult problems connected with the interpretation of the Old Testament; but either the highest laws of evidence must fail, or that solution of these problems will yet prevail which vindicates, against all cavil and objection, their heaven descended origin and their substantial verity.

John Albert Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament. Pointing out from the natural force of its words, the simplicity, depth, harmony and saving power of its divine thoughts. A new translation, by CHARLTON T. LEWIS, M. A., and MARVIN R. VINCENT, M. A., Professors in Troy University. Philadelphia: Perkinpine & Higgins. 1862. Vol. I., 8vo., pp. 925; Vol. II. pp. 980.

THE first impression made on us by these thick volumes was, that strange work must have been made with the terse and pithy Latin of Bengel to have swelled a translation into such enormous bulk. A brief glance at the text, and then at the preface, quickly solved the mystery. It is not merely a translation that is attempted, but an emendation as well. We have virtually a new commentary, on the basis of Bengel

except that Bengel is left unmutilated, and the emendations, which consist of excerpts from numerous authors, are appended in brackets. The translators wisely concluded that too much progress had been made in Biblical science since Bengel's day to warrant the publication of a mere translation of his work. They have summoned other authors, particularly De Wette, Lücke, Olshausen, Meyer, and Alford to correct and supplement him.

The present translation is made from the Steudel edition of the original, and though diligently compared with the translation published by the Messrs. Clarke of Edinburgh, to which it is greatly indebted, is an independent and more accurate version. The translators say of their work, "an attempt has been made to render the whole book intelligible to those who have no knowledge of the ancient languages, by removing all difficulties not really inherent in the subject or the thought." And the attempt has been, to a degree unusual in such cases, a successful one. The demand for commentaries among readers who are familiar with only their mother English, is steadily and rapidly increasing. Such readers will find this amended version of Bengel well suited to their necessities.

Professor Lewis attaches great importance to his critical revision of the Greek text, after Tischendorf and Alford. He supposes the commentary will now "serve the English reader as a Critical English Testament. By comparing this work with the authorized English version, the student will be able, without any knowledge of Greek, to understand the precise results of modern criticism in revising the text of the New Testament." On the value of this part of his labors, we are sorry not to place so high an estimate as the author seems to do. Doubtless there are English readers who will appreciate them, but in the present state of textual revision, we greatly doubt their utility to the general public.

The Canon of the Holy Scriptures, Examined in the light of History. By Prof. L. GAUSSEN, of Geneva, Switzerland, author of "Theopneusty," "Birth-day of Creation," etc., etc. Translated from the French, and abridged by EDWARD N. KIRK, D. D. Published by the American Tract Society, Boston. 12mo., pp. 463.

PROF. GAUSSEN has been long and widely known by his work on the Inspiration of the Scriptures. The present treatise was intended to be a sequel to that work. The two are strikingly harmonious in their method, spirit, argument and theory. The intervening years of study

between the composition of the two, which were not few, seem in no way to have shaken his earlier convictions.

The original work on the Canon, consisting of two large octavos, is in two unequal parts, the first and larger of which discusses the external or historical evidences, and is entitled by the author," The Method of Science," the second treats of the internal or self-witnessing testimony of the Bible itself, and is entitled, "The Method of Faith." The translator gives us only the first part, or historical argument, and this wisely reduced, by abridgment and condensation, to the limits of a single convenient volume. In its present form the survey is both broad and minute enough for every purpose which the work is fitted to serve.

The author is a very firm believer in the canonicity of both Testaments, just as they stand. The claims of the Apocalypse, and of the Epistle to the Hebrews, are specially considered, and the right of the Epistles of James and Jude, of the second of Peter, and of the second and third of John to their places in the cannon is vigorously defended. The work has been prepared, the author informs us, "in view of the numerous attacks recently made" on the Canon. We could wish that the nature and ground of the attacks had been more clearly pointed out than they have been, and the feeling of security thus more firmly established in those whose faith has been shaken. The well-beaten pathway of previous writers is traversed with a discerning eye, but no new lines of defence are pointed out, no new barriers erected. To the unperverted inquirer, who asks simply for the historical evidence of canonical Scripture, Prof. Gaussen's work will supply a lucid and satisfactory answer; and Dr. Kirk and the American Tract Society of Boston, have laid the churches under obligation by giving it to the American public in an English dress; but to minds that have been imbued with distrust, and made inquisitive by sceptical assaults, Mr. Westcott's General View of the History of the Canon will be a safer and more satisfactory treatise. The translation, like that of the Theopneusty from the same hand, is in good, perspicuous, easy, idiomatic, and even elegant English.

PRACTICAL RELIGION.

Church Discipline, in two parts, Formative aud Corrective; in which is developed the true Philosophy of Religious Education. By Rev. ELEAZER SAVAGE, Rochester, N. Y. (second thousand). Sheldon & Company, New York. 1863.

CHRISTIANITY is a religion that teaches and trains its adherents by

enlightening their minds, by reforming their habits and disciplining their hearts. How far the Christian spirit shall be left to the freedom of its own spontaneity, and how far it shall be subjected to a formal discipline, is a question to which the most opposite and extreme answers have been given. If the Methodists have shown a tendency to one extreme, it must be admitted that some Baptists have exhibited a leaning to the other. Mr. Savage in preparing his book has performed a needed service, and performed it well. He presents clearly and comprehensively the preventive and curative means to be employed, and has enunciated distinctly the principles which lie at the foundation of all personal Christian character, as well as of all church prosperity. Chap. v., Part I., entitled "Formative Agents and Means," contains a great many useful hints to both ministers and Sabbath-school teachers, besides many needed suggestions and just remarks on "revival efforts." We cordially commend the book to the attention of pastors and churches generally.

A Manual of Worship, suitable to be used in legislative and other public bodies, in the army and navy, and in military and naval academies, asylums, hospitals, etc. Compiled from the forms and in accordance with the common usages of all Christian denominations. And jointly recommended by eminent clergymen of various persuasions. Philadelphia: George W. Childs. 1862.

We have no doubt that there are occasions when the choice between no religious service and a service conducted by a person who knows nothing experimentally of religion, would make such a manual as this desirable. Doubtless, also, there are persons officiating as chaplains in the army and navy, and there may be those in military academies, asylums, hospitals, etc., whose ministrations would be edifying in proportion to the frequency of their use of the forms of worship laid down in this manual, but that an intelligent Christian minister could make use of these forms as the stated vehicles of his thoughts and emotions, we do not believe. We half suspect an intended irony in the "discretionary use" of the "recommendation" in which a large number of very respectable clergymen of all denominations "cordially unite." We doubt if any one of them would content himself with the use of these forms on any conceivable occasion. Should a man, pretending to conduct religious service in the places and on the occasions contemplated by the compiler of these forms, not know how to select appropriate scripture, or to adapt his prayer to a given emergency, by all means let him procure this little manual of worship.