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readers. It is true that they are apt to cloy, if not taken in small doses at a time; but so taken, they furnish a refreshing and not unwholesome stimulus. Few collections will, however, altogether satisfy a fastidious taste this one does so more than many; but in so large a mass of this kind of material it would be too much to expect that many of the anecdotes should not be pointless, some of questionable religious or moral value, and many of apocryphal character. By supplying the place which the feebler anecdotes of the collection occupy with others taken from authentic biographies and memoirs, the value of the book might have been materially enhanced; but as the work stands, it is certainly the best and most carefully prepared collection of the kind that we have met with, and will form quite a treasury to those who delight in this kind of reading.

The Book of Revelation, translated from the ancient Greek Text. By S. P. TREG elles. London: S. Bagster and Sons.

In the year 1844 Mr. Tregelles edited the Greek Text of the Book of Revelation from the ancient authorities, with an English translation adapted to the Greek text so edited, and a critical introduction. The present work is the English translation, printed separately, after careful revision. The character of the work may be understood from the commencing paragraph of the useful and interesting Introduction:

'This translation of the Book of Revelation is executed from the Greek text according to the ancient authorities; so that there is not a single word which is not guaranteed by manuscript authority of at least TWELVE HUNDRED YEARS old; and by far the greater part is vouched for by MSS. of FOURTEEN HUNDRED YEARS OLD.'

Mr. Tregelles states that he has long felt the importance of putting the English reader of the Word of God in possession of the results of textual criticism; and as such criticism supplies just as many corrections of the text of the Book of Revelation alone as of all the Epistles of St. Paul taken together, it became a matter of manifest importance that this book should be given to the English reader on the basis of the best authorities. As Mr. Tregelles's edition of the text and his translation of the Apocalypse have already become authorities with the students of that profoundly important book, we truly rejoice to see the results of his learned labours exhibited in this generally accessible shape.

ANALECTA

ANALECTA BIBLICA.

THE ANTEDILUVIANS.-The first men lived from nine hundred to a thousand years. A man of talents in those days commencing with all the knowledge communicated to Adam, and directing his attention to any art, such as the cultivation of corn, and the taming and breeding of animals, the working of metals, the art of music, the manufacture of cloths, etc., could afford to employ five or six hundred years in his favourite occupation, or in his favourite experiments. In that time he might make more progress than a succession of men can now do in a succession of ages, because each can only afford a dozen or two of years to his favourite pursuit, and then leaves the unfinished task, not perhaps to be immediately taken up by a successor. This accounts for the rapid progress of the arts in the antediluvian world. We learn that Noah after the flood could not only support his family by agriculture, by which alone they could subsist till his few animals multiplied; but we learn that he was well acquainted with the luxuries to be obtained by that art. One of his first employments was to plant a vineyard, and to make wine.

Before the flood one woman might bear some hundreds of children, and might in her lifetime see some thousands of her descendants. Thus it is literally true that one of these patriarchs might build a city. For a time after the flood men lived some hundreds of years, whereby population proceeded rapidly, and the arts previously invented were established in Asia and Egypt. The plough, the loom, the domestication of certain animals, the use of fire, of metals, and of letters were never lost. Accordingly, we trace most of these arts to the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris. The Greeks derived their letters from Phoenicia or Palestine, and completed their numerals by the aid of the Jewish letters. In the working of steel the inhabitants of Damascus retained their superiority almost down to our own times. Ancient Tyre possessed many of our present manufactures, and the articles of commerce of that city were both valuable and of great variety. (See Ezek. xxvii. 13, etc.) From the remains of their buildings it is evident that the architects or engineers of Egypt and Syria possessed a power of managing great weights, to which our modern engineers have never attained.

They used locks on their great canal between the Red Sea and the Nile; and an Egyptian king in one instance made a road of polished marble, to which our railways seem paltry. (Herodotus, Euterpe.) In proportion as men emigrated from the patriarchal seats, they sunk into barbarity, unless they emigrated, as already remarked, in numerous bodies, as to Egypt, Carthage, Greece, and Italy, when they carried with them a considerable portion of the permanent arts. Those who emigrated in single families could only retain few arts, and often de

generated

generated into mere huntsmen and fishermen, a state in which they were generally conquered, and often exterminated, by large bodies advancing from the original stock. These again frequently made war on each other, but still the arts of civilized life remained along the waters that descended from the mountains of Ararat. The emigrations of these early colonies cannot now be traced. The Spartans (1 Maccabees xii. 21), like the Arabs and Jews, considered themselves as descendants of Abraham; and Greece and Italy were settled, conquered, and instructed by successive invasions proceeding westward in considerable bodies in quest of fertile lands.-FORSYTH'S Observations on Genesis and Exodus.

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WEIGHING MONEY.-The state of commerce in regard to the use of money is incidentally explained in Gen. xxiii. Abraham's wife Sarah having died, he purchased as a burying-place a field containing a cave. The bargain was conducted with much polite ceremonial on both sides. The price demanded, or rather stated by the seller as the value of the field, was four hundred shekels of silver, and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money or coin.' Why was it necessary to weigh it? An explanation will be obtained by attending to the state of the coin in Bengal before the time of Lord Cornwallis. The silver rupee, for example, was of considerable thickness, and bore a stamp on each side; but it was not stamped, or, as it is called, milled,' round the edges. Hence it could easily be pared or cut in the edges, so that the ordinary rupees were not all of one weight, in consequence of fraudulent operations on them. The stamp showed the purity of the metal, so as to render it current coin, but not being milled or stamped round the edges, it was necessary to weigh it, in order to ascertain that the proper weight of silver was delivered. Lord Cornwallis, when governor-general, put an end to this inconvenient kind of money, by establishing a mint at Calcutta, in which thin pieces milled round the edges were coined, in order to ascertain, as with us, both the quantity and quality of the coin, and so to supersede the necessity of weighing the money. This improvement had not been made in Syria in Abraham's time.-FORSYTH'S Observations on Genesis and Exodus.

TRAIT OF JOSHUA'S CHARACTER.-We have here (Exod. xxxii. 17) one of those little touches which mark a historian, drawing from fact, recording from nature. Joshua, all whose character was military, when the distant murmur from the valley catches his ear, thinks of nothing but the hostile assault on the encampment. Like Job's warhorse, he smelleth the battle afar off.' There is a noise of war,' he says, ' in the camp.'-PALFREY'S Academical Lectures.

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BIBLICAL

BIBLICAL INTELLIGENCE.

Since the commencement of our undertaking there has been no quarter so unproductive of works in sacred literature, at home or abroad, as that which has now closed. Our list of publications bears witness to this fact. This is however always the worst quarter of the year in respect of new publications of all descriptions. The approaching publishing season will probably compensate for this deficiency; but we have as yet heard little of its promise in our own department.

The new edition of Williams' Holy City (which is extended to two volumes, each larger than the one volume in which the first was comprised) contains a large folding plan of Jerusalem printed on glazed linen, being the first of the kind that has fallen under our notice. Those who have experienced the discomfort and annoyance arising from the tearing and from the wear at the folds of book maps and plans printed on paper, will appreciate the advantage of this contrivance. The plan itself is the largest we have seen; and it is also the best and most trustworthy, having been copied, by permission of the Master-General of the Ordnance, from the surveys made in 1841 by Lieuts. Aldrich and Symonds, of the Royal Engineers. The third volume of the American Professor Torrey's translation of Neander's Church History is in the press, and will shortly be published.

Dr. Alexander, the author of the work on Isaiah, reviewed in the present number, has succeeded Dr. Miller as Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Church Government in the theological seminary at Princeton, New Jersey.

The first portion of a new work of much promise, under the title of Christliche Biographie (Christian Biography), from the pen of Dr. Rudelbach, has lately appeared at Leipzig.

The last (August) Number of the American Bibliotheca Sacra is full of good matter, but less biblical than usual. A General Introduction to Church History, by Professor Schaffe; the Spirituality of the Book of Job, as exhibited in a Commentary on Chap. xiv., by Professor Tayler Lewis; and a translation of the Chronology of Winer's Lexicon, are the principal articles: and there are others on Cemeteries; on the Claims of the Natural Sciences to the Christian Ministry; on the Sanscrit Language, &c. Upon the whole this is a strong and creditable Number of this valuable publication.

The last Number (July) of the Biblical Repository is chiefly doctrinal so far as theological-On the Atonement; On Romans viii. 19-23; Review of Works on Baptism; Argument for the Being of God from the Constitution of Man; and a Homily on the Greatness of Scripture. The best papers are perhaps those on secular subjects: Classical Study, by Dr. Owen; and the Spirit of Literature and Art, by Dr. Tappan-a capital article.

That well conducted journal the (American) Methodist Quarterly Review is less theological than usual in its last Number. There are however articles on Julian the Apostate; on the Preparation for Christianity in the History of the World a proof of its Divine origin; on the Plan and Structure of the Book of Ecclesiastes (from the German); on Charles Wesley and his Poetry; and on the Philosophy of Christian Perfection-besides some secular articles.

Lord's Theological and Literary Journal is wholly theological in the last Number. It is chiefly occupied by three articles-a Designation of the Figures of Isaiah, Chap. xi.; the Restoration of the Israelites; and a review of Dr. Bushnell's Dissertation on Language. This publication goes on with much spirit considering that the burden of the work, both as to editing and contributing, rests mainly on the shoulders of one man.

The

The last Number of the Journal of the German Oriental Society is chiefly occupied with a long and learned and most able paper on the famous inscriptions upon the rocks of Sinai, from the pen of Professor Tuch. As we hope to give the substance of this paper to our readers, we shall not here anticipate the conclusions it exhibits.

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REV. ALBERT BARNES.-The New York correspondent of the Boston Chronotype thus speaks of a discourse lately delivered by this popular annotator on Scripture in that city. It was a missionary sermon : Mr. Barnes spoke for nearly two hours. He stood as still as a post the whole time; not a gesture, not a movement, not an expression of passion in his voice or countenance; his eye was fixed on his manuscript. There were no flashes; no salient points; everything was level, dressed in everyday clothes, so to speak; utterly free from all pretence or reality of fine writing. Yet there was something both in the manner and matter of the speaker which irresistibly chained the attention of the large audience. They were evidently taken by surprise and a spell was upon them. It was that of the simple earnestness, the freedom from all appearance of ambition, the air of deep conviction, and the strong, manly good sense which pervaded the discourse. If Mr. Barnes has not eloquence, he has something better than eloquence.'

We are reminded by this notice of the preaching of Albert Barnes, of the squabble among the publishers in this country respecting the reprint of his works. There are it seems three rival reprinters of his last work-Notes on some of the Epistles. One of them thinks to steal a march upon the others by sending the American author the splendid present of fifty guineas! and forthwith claims the exclusive copyright in Great Britain. Whereupon the rival publishers proclaim to the four winds of heaven the recent decision of the Chief Baron, that a foreign author can hold no copyright in this country. Thus therefore an American author, writing in our common English tongue-and conferring immortal benefits on all by whom that tongue is spoken, is not allowed to secure to himself any beneficial interest in the products of his thoughtful toil among the largest portion of those who can receive advantage from his labours. Albert Barnes might be rendered wealthy through the great popularity which his various works have attained in this country; but it now turns out that this, the natural birthright of his intellect, is by unjust law-or rather, by the absence of just law-deprived of even the value of that mess of pottage which was tendered to him. It is true that the wrong is as great—is indeed far greater, on the other side of the Atlantic; but this does not excuse the injustice of our own laws, and the best mode of getting right from the other side would be to do right on our own, without care for the consequences.

BIBLIOTHECA CLERICALIS.-In reference to the Catalogue of theological works in preparation by Mr. Darling, which we had occasion to notice in the last Number of the Journal, we are now enabled from more exact information to point out a most important feature by which it will be distinguished from the classed Catalogues, not only of this country, but of the Continent. It will exhibit a classified arrangement, not only of books, but of the several dissertations and treatises contained in volumes; and it will also render generally accessible-by means of a twofold arrangement of texts and subjects the large body of theological disquisition and biblical knowledge locked up in innumerable sermons and discourses. The practical acquaintance which Mr. Darling possesses with the wants of theological students and ministers, affords him great advantages in the execution of this really important undertaking, while his earnest and ever ready zeal (of which we can speak from experience) in imparting to those engaged in theological inquiries the benefit of his extensive knowledge of books, well entitles him to the support and encouragement which may enable him to put this most useful and valuable instrument into the hands of scholars and theologians.

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