far-seeing writer declares Paul's meaning to be, that the thing is possible but will rarely happen. Dr. Robinson's labor is ended in a moment. The word scarcely is exhausted. The result, we may suppose, is telegraphed to Dr. Van Doren, at Chicago, and, being accepted and approved by the great originator of the plan, it is placed in the new book, to be a source of illumination to all ministers who start out on dark evenings for their conference meetings, without the remotest idea what they can possibly say to their waiting congregations on the meaning of scarcely. How precisely and charmingly like Bengel! We do not wonder that Dr. Robinson was inspired to new energy in his work, and that he pressed onward in his examination, until he discovered, in volume No. 94,999, the hint that the words even dare are to be explained by the words implying difficulty and requiring boldness. Not only is the hidden depth of Paul's thought here opened to the reader with wonderful precision and clearness,-even "implying difficulty" and dare "requiring boldness,"-but the explanation is given with so much greater brevity than the original words of Paul, that we could hardly expect to find anywhere outside of the Basle library so remarkable a commentary. We suppose it was the careful perusal of the volume in which this was discovered, which led Dr. Robinson in his preface to say, "It is surprising how many words can be left out, and yet the sense remain plain,” and to adopt, as "the rule and characteristic feature" of his own book, "rigid condensation." How grateful, also, ought we to be to Dr. Robinson, or to the author from whom he quotes, for telling us that, when Paul spoke of daring to die, he did not mean merely daring to risk life as in war, but daring actually to die. And yet there is something that alarms us here. Dr. Van Doren has recently, we understand, made a serious charge against the Rev. Dr. Noah Porter, of Yale College, and one of his associate professors in the same institution, because they have recently, in some connection or other in a book or newspaper article, spoken of the style of the New Testament writers as artless and careless. But what is Dr. Van Doren, through his subordinate and coadjutor, Dr. Robinson, intimating with regard to Paul? How careless to leave the words dare to die, as if his readers would understand his meaning. How many persons, reading these words, might derive from them the impression that they meant merely to risk one's life as in war. If Paul had only said that he did not mean this, and had made the verse, instead of reading as it does in our Bibles, "yet peradventure for a good man some would even

dare to die," read as follows: "yet peradventure for a good man [is it not remarkable that there is no comment on peradventure?] some would, though the thing involves difficulty, have the requisite boldness, not merely to risk life as in war, but actually to die," how much more distinct would have been his meaning, and how much more tender and beautiful, in a rhetorical point of view, would have been his expression of his thought. Paul, surely, was artless-is not this the implication of Dr. Robinson, in his sugges tive comment?-if not careless, in his language in this passage. Dr. Van Doren ought to have early correspondence with his English assistant on this point. The library at Basle, we fear, is a dangerous place. It is better to keep away from it hereafter. Chicago is much safer. The suggestions to be picked up there-without any previous preparation are quite as good as those already brought over from Basle, and all the dangers are avoided.

As another example of the kind of suggestions with which this book abounds, we call attention to the comments on chap. viii, v. 36: "For thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." "For thy sake," Dr. Robinson inform us, means, "For adherence to God's worship and truth; discipleship to Christ." The word killed, he says, indicates "the severity of sufferings," and he adds, that "there is a killing time in the experience of most Christian countries." In regard to all the day long, we are told that it indicates the "continuance of sufferings; 1, All the day; 2, Every day." In connection with the first of these points (all the day), the suggestion is added, "Massacres, as in Paris, usually extend through the whole of the day." In connection with the second (every day), perhaps, though we do not discover the precise line of Dr. Robinson's thoughts, we have the words, "killing times permitted only for a season-ten days, Rev. ii, 10." Counted is explained as meaning "reckoned, looked upon by persecutors and enemies." On the words as sheep for the slaughter, the following comments and suggestions are made:

Indicates, 1. Barbarity and contempt of the persecutors. 2. Helplessness of the persecuted. 3. Their innocence. 4. Their patience and meekness.

Christ's disciples like sheep among wolves, Matt. x, 16.

No more concern in killing a believer than in slaughtering a sheep.
Believers sometimes killed for gratification as sheep for the table.
Nero entertained the Romans with the tortures of the Christians.
Spanish auto da fé or burning of heretics a public show.

Cardinal Beaton entertained his friends with Wishart at the stake.

It seems to us, but we submit the decision of the question to our readers, that the "prosaic" element is pretty conspicuously

manifest, after we get beyond the capital letters, in these annotations. Gleams of lightning and sunbeams are not precisely like the hints and finger-pointings of this modern professed imitator of Bengel. The book is, if we may so express ourselves, Van Dorenized, or filled with Robinsoniana, to such an extent that the good old author, whose Gnomon has been so charming and wonderful a book to all who have been familiar with it, seems to vanish completely out of sight. The house where he used to dwell has become, as it were, an ordinary lodging-house, where two gentlemen of the present day are entertaining visitors of a moderate order from Basle and elsewhere. The genius of Bengel is no longer the genius of the place. It has certainly departed to be in another sphere, and is not here.

The diligence with which Dr. Robinson examined the volumes in the library at Basle, was imperatively demanded by the comprehensiveness of Dr. Van Doren's plan. There were to be, so the preface tells us, "illustrations from all sources, classical, Rabbinical and ecclesiastical; as well as allusions, whether of a historical, scientific, or archæological nature." "There were to be presented, for example, in their proper place and in the same condensed style, a sketch of the history, condition, and character of the Grecian States, both in their civil and social, moral and religious aspects; the history and character of Roman legislation; the hypocrisy and arrogant pretensions of Pharisaical and Rabbinical Judaism; the nature and moral influence of heathenism, especially among the Greeks and Romans; the principal arguments of Natural Theology in proving and illustrating the existence and perfections of God; and, finally, the history of the leading doctrines taught in the Epistle, from the age succeeding that of the Apostle to the present time!" Dr. Robinson does not place any exclamation marks after this passage in his preface, [we have ourselves added one, in order to give a faint expression to our sense of vastness,] but he modestly intimates that he has come short of the high ideal placed before him by the projector of the work. "The wide sweep intended to be taken in the Commentary," he says, "was not presented to him at the time of his undertaking the work; or else it is possible he might have shrunk from a task which, had there been a consciousness of ability, might have involved more time and labor than he might have been able to expend upon it." We cannot be surprised that, as the plan was gradually unfolded to his mind, as it stretched itself out to draw in all illustrations to be derived from classical, Rabbinical and ecclesiastical sources; and not only this,

but all allusions, whether of a historical, scientific, or archæological nature; as it covered heathenism and Judaism, Greek, Roman, and modern history, natural and revealed theology, the history of doctrines, and a little of everything else--he betook himself speedily to a large library, and that he began the reading of so many thousands of volumes. Why he selected the commonplace ones and left the rest, it may be difficult to say with confidence. Perhaps, it was owing to Bengel's unavoidable absence. But that he should have read for his life, as it were, cannot be considered strange. And when he had done this for an indefinite period, and had began to gather together the multitude of very unsuggestive suggestions which he had noted down in his reading, we may perhaps account, without much difficulty, for the fact that he mistook such a comment as this, from some dull author,-Must needs. "Strong expression. It is a matter of necessity. Some duties require to be particularly enforced;"-or this: It is high time to awake. "Rouse ourself to watchfulness and activity,"--for a gleam of lightning clearing up the meaning of Scripture. We know of nothing, indeed, that could bring a man into a state of hopeless darkness, so that he might be ready to hail anything as a sunbeam, so perfectly as the reading of a very large number-(say, ninety-five thousand,)-of volumes of practical suggestions or homiletical comments on the New Testament. Oh, that Dr. Van Doren would change his plan, we should suppose would be the involuntary exclamation of " the eminent Biblical scholars of England and America," who are aiding him in his work. For ourselves, we should rather take upon ourselves the burden of making preparation for our evening meetings and Bible classes,—of doing this regularly and carefully, than to impose upon this company of scholars such a task as was given to Dr. Robinson, or to make any demand for such a modern " imitation" of Bengel. It occurs to us that we might even extemporize on the meaning of scarcely or must needs, if we had made no preparation.

Allusion is made at the beginning of these volumes to a criticism of the London press, which hints at the similarity between the suggestions contained in them and the homiletical notes in another recently published commentary. It is stated, however, that there had been two years of labor on this series of commentaries, before the notes contained in the other were seen. We cannot help thinking that it must have been a disappointment to Drs. Robinson and Van Doren, after so much reading and preparation, to find their results anticipated in considerable measure. The only

way to avoid such a disappointment in future, as it seems to us, is to read less or to read faster-or, on the principle of "rigid condensation," which is stated to be the foundation of the plan of this work, to omit altogether all that the other commentary contains. To compress into two small volumes the whole of the Basle library is too great a work to undertake with the possibility of being anticipated by another. Would it not be better for the two parties attempting it to agree to divide the library between them-one taking, for example, forty-seven thousand volumes, and the other forty-eight thousand, or one confining himself to the "illustrations" to be derived from "classical, Rabbinical and ecclesiastical sources," and the other giving his time to the collection of the "allusions." The temptation to which Dr. Van Doren has yielded, to make a commentary which should embrace all that is valuable in previous commentaries, is so strong in these days, that some one else is almost certain to undertake it. There are two or three such works already before the public. By an arrangement dividing up the work between two persons who devise such comprehensive and all embracing plans, much labor could be saved, and the different books, being each of them shortened by these means, might be both purchased at the same price which is now charged for each of them.

Our notice of this work has been extended far beyond the space which it should have occupied, as a mere notice of the book. It should be stated that there are critical notes as well as the suggestive ones, occupying perhaps a tenth part of the volumes. They are completely overborne by the other class of annotations, however, and if the book has any reason for existing, it lies in its Bengel-ian character.

GLASGOW ON THE APOCALYPSE. *This large octavo volume comes to us with high recommendations from Scotland. It is evidently a work on which the author has bestowed much labor, and in the preparation of which he has taken much satisfaction. Like all his countrymen, he has been a student of the prophetic Scriptures from his college days, and, beyond most of them, he has enjoyed special opportunities for his chosen studies. The principle of interpretation, which he adopts, is that of "chronological continuative fulfillment of the apocalyptic prophecies."

*The Apocalypse, translated and expounded. By JAMES GLASGOW, D.D., Irish General Assembly's Professor of Oriental Languages, late Fellow of the University of Bombay, and late Member of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bombay. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. 1872. New York: Scribner, Welford & Armstrong. 8vo, pp. 611.