ARTICLE IX. LITERARY AND CRITICAL NOTICES OF BOOKS. By the EDITOR. 1. THE PSALMS TRANSLATED AND EXPLAINED. By J. A. ALEXANDER, Professor in the Theological Seminary at Princeton. Vol. 1, 12mo, pp. 436. New York: Baker & Scribner. 1850. Hengstenberg's voluminous and masterly exposition of the Psalms is acknowledged by the author to be the basis of the present work. Few men are so well qualified as is Professor Alexander for the work he has here undertaken; and all that eminent scholarship, patient and thorough preparation, pious feeling, and love for the truth can do to explain this wonderful and instructive book, we know will be done. This volume embraces the first L. Psalms, and will be speedily followed by two more, embracing the entire Psalter. The plan of the work is somewhat limited. Not only is all devotional and practical remark excluded, but all attempt to give the history of the interpretation, together with a great mass of materials which would naturally find their place in a Critical Introduction. A wide range of topics is thus excluded. "The idea which he has endeavored here to realize is that of an amplified translation." This plan has many advantages over the one usually adopted. The meaning of the sacred text is more clearly and fully developed, and is left to speak in its own divine simplicity and directness, and the work is brought within a smaller compass. Still, we heartily wish that the devotional feature, which so strikingly characterizes the original, had been preserved in this work. It would have given an additional interest and value to it. We read the Psalms not so much for doctrine-to learn the anatomy of truth, or the law of Christianity-as for devotional and practical uses; and there is no part of the Bible richer, more varied to suit every phase of Christian feeling and experience, or more powerful to quicken and invigorate the life of God in the soul. This is the peculiar charm, the crowning excellence of the book of Psalms, and we regret that we have here only the bare skeleton of the original text. But as it is, the volume is a mine of pure gold. We regard it, in its way, as a model exposition or commentary on the Scriptures. There is no parade of learning, and yet it bears on every page the marks of rich and varied scholarship. It is equally removed from unappreciable profundity, and from common-place superficiality. It is not wanting in the matter and style of literary merit, and yet the execution is perfectly unambitious, and the language the finest of good old English. The Christian of humble parts will read it understandingly, while the erudite scholar and profound thinker will be profited by it. Professor Alexander adopts and vindicates the position, (denied by many), that the titles affixed to the several Psalms form an integral part of the sacred text, and he treats them accordingly. He classifies the Psalms on the principle proposed by Hengstenberg, and founded on the tone of pious feeling which they severally express. As to a formal division of the Psalter, he repudiates the ancient division into five parts, which modern German critics have tasked their ingenuity to prove are distinct collections, contemporaneous or successive, of detached compositions, afterward combined to form the present Psalter. A much more probable hypothesis, though coupled with a very doubtful theory, he thinks, is that of Hengstenberg, who regards the actual arrangement as that of Ezra, or some other skillful and authoritative hand. But "the best arrangement for the ordinary student of the Psalter," says the author," is the actual arrangement of the book itself; first, because we have no better, and the efforts to invent a better have proved fruitless; then because there are sufficient indications of a principle or purpose in this actual arrangement" (in the title or inscription, in resemblance of subject or historical occasion, or in some remarkable coincidence of general form or of set phrases)," whether we can always trace it there or not; and lastly, because uniform tradition and analogy agree in representing it as highly probable that this arrangement was the work of Ezra, the inspired collector and rédacteur of the canon, so that even if nothing more should ever be discovered with respect to his particular design or plan, we have still the satisfaction of relying, not on chance, but on a competent, or, rather, an infallible authority, as well as the advantage of studying the Psalms in a connection and an order which may possibly throw light upon them, even when it seems to us most fortuitous or arbitrary." The work, when complete, will unquestionably rank among the very best specimens of Biblical exposition, and prove a most valuable aid to the better understanding of this portion of the Scriptures. 2. A TREATISE ON THE PHYSICAL CAUSE OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST, and 1847. This work, we believe, has been quite recently republished in this country but the splendid copy before us is a London one, for which we are indebted to the kindness of the respected author. It is really a most learned and valuable Treatise on the deeply interesting and somewhat novel subject of which it treats. work is masterly. It embodies very many facts gathered from the author's The whole execution of the extended medical studies, which are of importance to the Biblical student, and especially to the gospel minister. The argument is purely inductive; it is fairly conducted, and thoroughly fortified; and in the end we must think amounts well nigh to a demonstration. Its chief object is to demonstrate the immediate cause and mode of the death of Christ. presents that death in the most impressive and affecting point of view. And his explanation Having satisfactorily shown that neither the ordinary sufferings of crucifixion, nor the wound inflicted by the soldier's spear, nor an unusual degree of weakness, nor the interposition of supernatural influence, was the immediate cause of the Saviour's death, he proceeds to demonstrate his main position, that the immediate cause THE HEART. To establish this conclusion numerous details are given, and many was AGONY OF MIND, PRODUCING RUPTURE OF high authorities are cited. in favor of his general view. He gives several wellattested instances of death in a similar form and from a similar cause, as well as instances of persons sweating blood; and by an unbroken chain of inductive reasoning he establishes, we think, his conclusion, and shows its harmony with all the facts of the case. We have space for only a single paragraph. "It may, therefore, with certainty be affirmed, that between the agony of mind which the Saviour endured in the garden of Gethsemane, and the profuse sweat mixed with clotted blood which so rapidly followed it, violent palpitation of the heart must have intervened; this being the only known condition which could have been at once the effect of the former occurrence and the cause of the latter. In like manner, when on the cross this agony was renewed, and by the addition of bodily suffering was increased to the utmost intensity, no other known condition could have formed the connecting link between that mental anguish and his sudden death, preceded by loud exclamations, and followed by an effusion of blood and water from his side when afterward pierced with a spear, than the aggravation even to rupture of the same violent action of the heart, of which the previous palpitation and bloody sweat were but a lower degree, and a natural prelude. If, whilst every other explanation hitherto offered has been shown to be untenable, the cause now assigned for the death of Christ, namely, RUPTURE OF THE HEART FROM AGONY OF MIND, has been proved to be the result of an actual power in nature, fully adequate to the effect, really present without counteraction, minutely agreeing with all the facts of the case, and necessarily implied by them, this cause must, according to the principles of inductive reasoning, be regarded as demonstrable." Having established this point, the author proceeds to an extended elucidation of Scriptural truth by the foregoing explanation of the death of Christ. We commend his labors as judicious and thorough, and as shedding much new and important light on the stupendous scene of the crucifixion, We are happy to learn that the same author has in press a New Greek Harmony of the Four Gospels, which will soon be published by Bagster & Sons, London. From the ability and character of the present work, as well as from a specimen of the forthcoming Harmony embracing the evangelical narrative of the Resurrection of Christ, with which Dr. Stroud has favored us, we have no doubt that it will prove to be a work of rare value; and we hope it will speedily find its way across the waters. 3. JOURNAL OF THREE YEARS' RESIDENCE IN ABYSSINIA, by Rev. SAMUEL GOBAT, Bishop of Jerusalem. With an Introduction, Geographical and Historical, on Abyssinia, by Rev. S. D. CLARK, accompanied with a Biographical Sketch of Bishop Gobat, by Dr. BAIRD. 12mo. pp. 480. New York: M. W. Dodd. 1850. A much needed and valuable book. It gives a pretty full and intelligent view of this almost unknown, yet for many reasons, peculiarly interesting portion of the world. The information, too, is perfectly reliable; it comes from one who had the best means of knowing; who had no motive for misrepresenting; and who is admirably qualified for the service he has rendered. And it is a service which lays the whole Christian world under obligation to Bishop Gobat. His are not the hasty sketches of the traveler, nor the colored pictures of the professional book-maker, nor the poetic rhapsodies of the sentimentalist; but the sober records of the actual experience and extended observation of a self-denying and noble-souled Christian Missionary. Dr. Baird says of him: "Few men of our times are more worthy of our profound respect than Bishop Gobat. It is the testimony of all who have seen him, that he is a man of extraordinary talents, great humility, and devoted piety and zeal. We do not believe that Henry Martyn was a more remarkable man." Mr. Gobat was educated at the celebrated Missionary Institution at Basle, and sent out to Abyssinia by the English Church Missionary Society in 1830, where he labored three years most faithfully, but with little apparent success. He went out the second time in '35, and remained a year and a half; but disease prostrated him, and he could do nothing. He subsequently spent six years at Malta superintending the publication of the Scriptures in the Arabic and other oriental languages. After the death of the first Bishop of Jerusalem, Dr. Alexander, he was appointed to that post, and still remains in that hard and sterile field of missionary toil. Mr. Clark has given us, in a lengthy Introduction, a good translation from the French, of a Geographical and Historical work on Abyssinia. Christianity was introduced into Abyssinia as early as the 4th century, and is still the religion of the majority of the people; and although it "has sadly fallen from the high eminence to which its dignified nature and glorious destiny aspire, some slight traces of its excellence still remain stamped on the character of the inhabitants." The volume is accompanied with a portrait of Bishop Gobat, and also a map of Abyssinia to illustrate his Journal; and Mr. Dodd has given it a very attractive dress, so that every man who desires a correct idea of the temporal and spiritual condition of the Abyssinians, and who feels any interest in the prophecy, "Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands to God," is strongly tempted to buy it. 4. DISCOURSES ON THE RECTITUDE OF HUMAN NATURE. BY GEorge W. BURNAP, D.D., Pastor of the First Independent Church of Baltimore. 12mo, pp. 409. Boston: Wm. Crosby and H P. Nichols. 1850. The doctrine of this book is aptly and truthfully expressed in the title given it-RECTITUDE OF HUMAN NATURE. It boldly denies the orthodox doctrine of original sin and total depravity, and stoutly maintains the essential rectitude of man. It is a cool and deliberate attempt to set aside the testimony of the Scriptures, of the Westminster Confession, and of the entire evangelical church, on this fundamental doctrine, and to give currency to the views of a "liberal Christianity." We have seldom seen more error that is specious, yet radical-flattering to man, yet contradictory to the Word of God, and subversive of the entire system of grace, brought into the same space. We can scarcely speak of the book in terms sufficiently severe to express our deep-seated conviction of the utter falsity of its teaching and of its soul-ruining tendency, and yet be courteous and dignified. We agree with the author as to the importance of the subject. "It underlies all theology, it enters into all preaching. It modifies all Christian enterprise. It makes the basis of every system of religious education. It determines the type of all piety, it colors all our views of life. It has an important influence on the temper. It has occupied a large space in all theological speculations since the days of the apostles." A religious system, therefore, if such it can be called, based on the radical soundness of human nature, is quite "another gospel"-a gospel without an atonement for sin or the neces sity of one-without a Divine Jesus-without a regenerating Spirit, and of course without a resulting holy nature and life as the fitting and indispensable preparation for heaven. It is a little remarkable that the Scriptures have very little to do in the construction and management of the entire argument. Though they are religious discourses, and each is introduced with a text of Scripture, yet it is mainly a course of independent reasoning and theorizing throughout. A few of the passages which teach an opposite doctrine are referred to, but liberties are taken with them that are surprising and painful. A few sentences will show that we do not misrepresent. They are the leading and emphatic passages of the book, and mostly put in italics or capitals. "Human nature as it now is, is our law." "All that can be expected of man is that his career should be progressive; that his choice should be fixed on good after wavering awhile." (!) "VIRTUE, not vice, is the congenial element of man." "Revelation may confer great advantages, it cannot be indispensable." "There is no such thing as the wrath of God manifested in the evils which men suffer in this world." The Scriptures assume and take for granted the rectitude of the moral nature "A good man is human nature perfected." of man, and recognize the dictates of that nature, the reason, the conscience, and the religious convictions of men, as co-ordinate and of equal authority with themselves." "Adam left human nature just where he found it." "The temptation and fall of Adam is evidently an Oriental apologue, the object of which is to give a symbolical account of the introduction into the world of moral and physical evil, without casting any imputation upon God."-The conclusion to which he comes is, "not that human nature is fallen, but that every individual man is liable to fall, and does fall so far as he sins; but that God has provided in human nature itself, and the discipline to which it is subjected, the means of deliverance and restoration." It follows that human nature needs no Saviour. "All the influence that Christ has ever exerted in this world has been upon character." No regeneration, in the sense in which orthodox men use the term, is necessary. doctrine of regeneration, as it is usually taught, is not only false, but exceed"The ingly pernicious. It is a libel on God and man. It makes God partial and unjust, and man a mere machine. It subverts the very foundations of character and responsibility." The author has a very short way of getting rid of opposing proof-texts; e. g. "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." "This may be, and doubtless is, intended as a description of deep and almost universal depravity; but we must consider it hyperbolical, and not intended to be taken literally." David's strong language in the 51st Psalm, is "poetic exaggeration.' "It is not necessary to suppose that Paul actually believed in the doctrine of original sin, or the introduction of death into the world by the transgression of Adam, because he refers to such a superstition." none. His views of inspiration are of the loosest sort. "Some persons may be alarmed at the admission, that there is such an element in the Bible as the floating opinions of the age." The introduction of sin into the world, a part of the Mosaic record of the creation, the demonology of the New Testament, and the existence of the Devil, are placed in the category of "traditionary opinions, which the Bible records, but for whose literal truth it is not responsible." As a specimen of sophistry and rhetoric this book has considerable power, but as a creature of sound logical reasoning or Scripture interpretation, it has Take a single specimen of its reasoning, (on p. 236). "If they had no good thoughts," referring to the antideluvian world, "conscience had become wholly extinct and annihilated. If so, men were no longer moral agents, and no longer capable of sinning, let them do what they might. The existence of conscience is indispensable to the existence of sin." We suppose the Devil has very little coscience left, but is he not "capable of sinning?" Is he not "a moral agent," though he has no good thoughts? And is not the same true of every lost spirit in hell? Can a moral being, do what he may, so annihilate his moral nature as that his perfect depravity shall be his innocence? reach a degree of wickedness beyond which further sinning is impos sible? Deeply do we regret the issue of such a book. We had begun to hope better things of those who advocate a "liberal Christianity." It takes, we think, the very lowest view of things that has ever emanated from the Unitarian ranks. Its spirit and sentiments are very different from those which now often characterize the discourses of such men as Bartol, Osgood, and others, and such papers as the Christian Inquirer and the Christian Register. 5. THE HAND OF GOD IN HISTORY; or, Divine Providence Historically Illustrated in the Extension of Christianity. By Rev. HOLLIS READ. 12mo, pp. 402. Hartford: H. Huntington. 1849. Although this book made its appearance nearly a year since, it has but just fallen in our way. Even at this late day we cannot forego the pleasure of commending it. We could point out imperfections in it, if so disposed. The style is a little too ambitious; it lacks unity; the mass of facts is not reduced to order and system; and in some places, there is a little straining of the point. But it has many excellencies, and it is far more congenial to our feelings to speak of them." The idea itself which the book seeks to realize is a grand one—THE HAND OF GOD IN HISTORY. God is the soul of History. His power is the all-controlling agency in universal matter and in mind. "The Philosophy of History" is but the efficacious agency of the Almighty, ordering all things after the counsel of his own will, and rolling on the tide of subsidiary agencies and events to accomplish his eternal purposes of wisdom and grace. And this is a pious attempt to trace that unseen Hand in its ever-busy and marvelous ministries on this earthly scene of action. The author, imbued with the spirit of Divine philosophy, takes his post of observation by the cross of Christ as the centre of all Providential agencies, and thence surveys the broad and interesting field of History, and following in the path of its triumphs in its circuit among the nations, marks the Hand of God in the extension and establishment of Christianity-now preparing the way by a long series of eventsnow fulfilling prophecy, now interposing to rescue his people and punish his enemies, now working out reformations and developing new agencies and facilities, now planting missions and opening new doors for the spread of the |