Meanwhile, many valuable works are being drawn fortn in defence of the truth. We shall probably profit much in our knowledge of the sacred Scriptures, by the attacks now made on their authority, and thus, as in many previous instances, God will bring good out of evil, and make even the wrath of man to praise Him. In this connection we are glad to lay before our readers the following account of a forthcoming Church of England

Commentary on the Holy Scriptures.

"We are happy to see that the objections brought against certain portions of the Bible are about to be met by leading theologians of the Church of England in a very practical way. If a false and unfair interpretation has been applied to the text of Scripture, the best way of confuting it is to apply a true and legitimate one. The honour of originating the plan is due to the Speaker of the House of Commons, who consulted several of the bishops on the subject, and the Archbishop of York at his instance undertook to organise a plan for producing a commentary which should put the reader in full possession of whatever information may be requisite to enable him to understand the word of God, and supply him with satisfactory answers to objections resting upon misrepresentation of its contents. The plan has received the sanction of the Primate. A committee, consisting of the Archbishop of York, the Bishops of London, Lichfield, Llandaff, Gloucestor, and Bristol, Lord Lyttelton, the Speaker, Mr Walpole, Drs Jacobson, and Jeremie, takes the general superintendence of the work. The Rev. F. C. Cook, preacher at Lincoln's-Inn, will be the general editor, and will advise with the Archbishop of York, and the Regius Professors of Divinity at Oxford and Cambridge, upon any questions which may arise. The work will be divided into eight sections, the first of which will consist of the Pentateuch, a difficult subject, and will be edited by Professor Harold Browne, the Revs. R. C. Pascoe, T. F. Thrupp, T. E. Espin, and W. Dewhurst, contributors. The historical books (is the Pentateuch, then, not 'historical?') will be consigned to the Rev. G. Rawlinson, editor, and the Rev. T. E. Espin and Lord Arthur Harvey, contributors. The Rev. F. C. Cook will edit, and the Revs. E. H. Plumptre, W. T. Bulloch, and T. Kingsburgh, will annotate the poetical books. The four great prophets will be undertaken by Dr M'Caul as editor, and by the Revs. R. Payne Smith and H. Rose as contributors. The Bishop of St David's and the Rev. R. Gandell will edit the twelve minor prophets, and the Revs. E. Huxtable, W. Drake, and F. Meyrick will contribute. The Gospels and Acts will form the sixth section; the first three Gospels will be edited by Professor Mansel, the Gospel of St John by the Dean of Canterbury, and the Acts by Dr Jacobson. The editorship of St Paul's Epistles is appropriately assigned to Bishop Ellicott and Dr Jeremie, with Dr Gifford, Professor T. Evans, Rev. J. Waite, and Professor J. Lightfoot as contributors. To the Archbishop elect of Dublin, and the Master of Balliol, is assigned the rest of the sacred canon. This really promises to be a work second only in importance to the LXX., or the English version made by order of King James. Perhaps it will be quoted as the XXX.' The names of the editors and contributors, while they insure orthodoxy, give promise that the comment thus put forth, almost with the sanction of the Church of England as a body, will not be the utterance of any narrow school or section of it."-Guardian, Nov. 11.

1863.

Soon after the above was written, one of the ablest of the proposed contributors passed away from this world. Dr Alexander M'Caul, Rector of St Magnus the Martyr, London, and Professor of Hebrew

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in King's College, died on November 13. at the rectory of St Magnus. Dr M'Caul was well known as a profound Hebrew scholar, and did good service to the cause of truth by his "Examination of Bishop Colenso's Difficulties," his contributions to the volume entitled "Aids to Faith," and other publications.

The government of the Czar has of late been peculiarly fortunate in the acquisition of sacred literary treasures. Through the extraordinary discovery of Tischendorf, the famous Codex Sinaiticus now belongs to the imperial library of St Petersburg, and another precious addition to its contents is announced in the following account of the

Discovery of ancient Hebrew MSS.

"The Russian government has just completed a remarkable collection of works written by the Caraites, a Jewish sect which rejects the Talmud and the Rabbinical traditions, and adheres strictly to the letter of the Holy Scriptures. Two Jewish brothers of the name of Firkawich, have been the laborious and successful agents in forming this collection, in which they have been engaged for more than thirty years. Some of the MSS. collected are said to be of a date anterior to the birth of Christ. During his residence at Constantinople in 1830, Abraham Ferkawick had succeeded in procuring several Hebrew MSS., and was hence led to hope he might possibly discover others still more ancient. In the course of his researches, which led him through the whole Crimea and the Caucasus, he was exposed to all sorts of privations, and his life was often in danger. He lived whole months concealed in cemeteries, for the purpose of studying and transcribing, without interruption, the MSS. which had come into his hands. He had access to many synagogues, and often to the secret places in which the Jews hid their books in time of persecution. In this way he has brought together 124 different Hebrew MSS. of the Old Testament, all more ancient than any of those at present in the public libraries of Europe. Of these, five-and-twenty were written before the ninth century, and twenty before the tenth. To sum up, this collection includes in the form of rolls, 27 MSS. of the Pentateuch, 77 different copies of the whole Old Testament, 23 translations of it into various oriental languages, 272 Caraite works, 523 Rabbinical works, 550 letters and historical documents, 722 sepulchral inscriptions, and 300 plans of ancient fortresses of New Russia. In the opinion of Tischendorf, Dorn, Becker, and others, no European library contains MSS. of a date so ancient as those of this remarkable collection. This will render its publication most valuable, both as an aid to the study of the Old Testament, and also as furnishing fresh materials for paleography and chronology."-Observateur Catholique, No. 195, p. 82.

If the above extraordinary account can be accepted as accurate and trustworthy, it is scarcely possible to over-estimate the preciousness of the collection referred to, in its bearing on one of the most pressing questions of our day,-the criticism of the Old Testament.

The advocates for the extreme antiquity of the human race have not of late been particularly fortunate in their arguments. The famous case of the Abbeville jaw-bone has broken down entirely, and nothing better than the flints has yet been discovered. We gave in our last issue an extract from the Edinburgh Review on Sir Charles Lyell's work, and now we subjoin a passage from the last number of the Quarterly on the same subject.

Sir C. Lyell's "Antiquity of Man."

"In considering as a whole the remarkable volume before us, we observe that the method taken by Sir Charles Lyell to solve the problem of the antiquity of man in the west of Europe, is to prove two propositions: 1. That man was contemporary with several animals no longer seen in the same regions, and with some which are no longer to be found living on the earth; 2. That an interval of time, enormous as compared with the reach of human animals, though small as compared with the immeasurable ages of the history of the earth, separates our present epoch from that of the extinction of the mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, and cavern bear. The first of these propositions is of great importance in geology; the second may have higher interests of another kind. For the first we hold the evidence now brought together by Sir C. Lyell to be strong, though not conclusive, both from gravel-beds and from caverns. The remaining doubts in the case of gravel-beds arise from the fact, that the bones of quadrupeds found on the gravel are in general so scattered as to suggest their derivation from an earlier repository. If that were so, the flint tools, which betray very little signs of local displacement, may be of later origin, though of contemporaneous deposition.

"In the case of caverns where the bones and flints have been often and much displaced by water-in some cases brought in by water-there is room for a similar doubt. But every fresh example of the concurrence of human implements and quadrupedal bones strengthens the argument for the contemporaneity of man and the animals; and thus by degrees the proposition has been brought within the range of reasonable acceptance, at least provisionally, and for those countries where the observations have been made.

"But with respect to the immense antiquity of the oldest human remains in Europe, the case is different, the evidence insufficient. . . . And if to effect the improvement of the flints on which already such dexterous handling had been performed, required nine times ten thousand years, what must we think of the human animal, who for all that period has left no better monuments of his ingenuity? This immensity of time, with nothing to shew for it, is a heavy encumbrance on the hypothesis. Even if it were conceded that geological evidence might support some extension of the ordinary chronology, and this could be done without violence to other testimony, there is certainly no warrant for proceeding many steps in this direction, along a slippery path, over which time has gathered many shadows, and along which the torch of science sheds but a feeble and unsteady light."-Quarterly Review, October 1863.

XII.-GERMAN THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE.

Luther's Theologie in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwickelung und ihren inneren Zusammenhange dargestellt. (Luther's Theology in its Historical Development and its Inner Connection.) Von JULIUS KOSTTIN, Dr der Phil. und Theol. Ord. Prof. der Theol. in Breslau. Stuttgart, 1863.

Numerous as Luther's biographers have been, both in past generations and in the present age, it is remarkable that Professor Kösttin is the first author who has ever undertaken to give an account of his theology in its historical development, as well as in its inner connection as a

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systematic whole. The dogmatic system of the Lutheran Church has been often enough expounded, but never before the personal theology of Luther himself, as it gradually unfolded itself under the combined influences of his spiritual life, his persevering study of the word of God, and the successive phases of the great struggle in which he was engaged during his whole public career, either with Popery on the one hand, or with what he sometimes justly, and sometimes unjustly, regarded as false and morbid manifestations of the evangelical spirit on the other. It was one of Professor Kösttin's literary designs to supply such a work, as his mind was more attached to Luther's writings than to those of any other theologian; but he was long withheld from fulfilling his design by the height and greatness of the theme, as well as by the pressure of his official duties. His contribution of the article "Luther" to Herzog's Real-Encyclopädie, stimulated him to take up the subject in earnest; and the result is now before us in a work of great ability and merit, and which we doubt not will be accepted in Germany as a very successful and adequate treatment of a subject which must always have a profound interest and importance for the Protestant churches of that country. Luther's biography forms, of course, the frame in which the portraiture of his theology, in its successive phases, is set, but there is no larger amount of biographical matter introduced than is absolutely necessary; and the reader is presumed to be well acquainted with the ordinary history of the great movement which Luther originated. The work is divided into Four Books. In the first, the author treats of the inner life and doctrine of Luther down to 1517, when his war against indulgences began; and this to most readers will probably be the most interesting part of the work. The second book contains "the great Reformation testimony from 1517 to 1521, or from the 95 Theses down to the Diet of Worms. The third book contains the "chief points in the further development of Luther's doctrine during and subsequently to his confinement in the Wartburg, in opposition to Catholicism on the one hand, and especially, on the other, to tendencies which had manifested themselves on the soil of the Reformation itself, including not only the errors of Carlstadt, Munzer, and other fanatics, but also what unfortunately appeared to Luther to be manifestations of the same spirit, the doctrines of the Swiss Reformers regarding the Lord's Supper. The fourth book, gathering up the whole results of the Reformer's theological development, exhibits them in a connected organic system-reducing them all to the few root-principles from which they all sprung, and thus manifesting their unity and mutual dependence. This was, of course, the section of the work which made the greatest demand upon the dogmatic ability of the author; and it is only justice to him to say, that he has shewn himself quite equal to the difficulty of his task. His estimate of Luther's characteristics as a dogmatic divine, both of his excellences and his shortcomings, is thoroughly just and discriminating; and he has a perfect appreciation of, and sympathy with, the intensely practical interest which inspired and informed the whole of his teachings-without which appreciation no man can ever find the true path either to the life or the doctrine of the great German reformer. For, as he remarks (v. ii. p. 237), "the cardinal point around which, not only all Luther's views and thoughts, but his whole inner life revolved, is the great antithesis between sin and grace; or, to express it more accurately, it is grace itself, viz., the grace of God in Christ, in which faith is to find redemption, adoption, and eternal life. The inmost and deepest interest in Luther's religious life and theology was this, that he should be certified for himself of this grace in the form and way in which it sets itself forth in the divine word."

It would be an interesting and profitable employment to compare the late Dr Cunningham's views of Luther, as set forth in the posthumous

volumes lately published, with those of the able and accomplished Lutheran divine whom it is the object of this brief and imperfect notice to introduce to our readers. Dr Kösttin, though an earnest Lutheran, is far from being a man of exclusive sympathies. He has written largely, and in a genial spirit, of the Scottish Reformation and Reformers, different as they were in many respects from those of the German Fatherland. He has done more than any living German writer to inform and interest his countrymen in the ecclesiastical history and condition of Scotland, and we trust that this, his greatest work, will not be without a good number of Scottish readers,-for, out of, Germany itself, we are persuaded that nowhere is the memory of Luther more revered, and his character as a reformer more cordially admired, than in the country and church of John Knox. L.

Zeitschrift für die Historische Theologie. (Journal of Historical Theology.) Jahrgang, 1863. Drittes und Viertes Heft.

The whole of these two parts of this valuable journal are taken up with a continuation of Professor Ebrard's papers on the Church of the Culdees, to which we called attention in a former number of the Review. The title which he gives to these papers, now concluded, is, "The Culdean Church of the Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Centuries," and he divides his subject into the six following heads:-1. The Culdean reckoning of Easter, and the controversies with Rome thence arising. 2. The religion and theology of the Culdees. 3. Their church constitution, and the organization of their monasteries. 4. Their miracles. 5. The spread and extension of the Culdean church; and, 6. The destruction of the Church. On all these topics he has dilated at much length, and with a minuteness of detail which must be surprising to all who have hitherto known no more of the subject than is to be learned from the writings of Usher and Jamieson. He has described, in particular, very fully the Missionary character of the church of the Culdees; and the account which he has given of its missions on the continent, in France, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy, is full of facts which, to all but a very few ecclesiastical antiquarians, deeply read in medieval history, and the Acta Sanctorum of the Bollandists, must be as fresh and new as they are deeply interesting. The whole Protestant church, indeed, is deeply indebted to the author for the labour which he has bestowed upon the collection and combination of these numerous facts here brought together for the first time, from the most remote and almost inaccessible sources; and for the immense expense of critical effort which it must have cost him, in many instances, to distinguish the precious grains of historical truth from the accumulated rubbish of legend and fable in which they were almost irrecoverably lost. The chief value of Dr Ebrard's papers lies in his copious elucidations of the continental part of the Culdean history, which has never been hitherto written. Those who have read Dr Jamieson's learned work on the Culdees, are aware that he does not profess to give more than the British and Irish portion of their history; and in Archbishop Usher's "Discourse on the Religion anciently professed by the Irish and British," while there is much light thrown upon their theology, and a good deal upon their institutions, there is little or no information to be found regarding their missions. Even in his "Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates," so full of erudition, there is scarcely anything said upon this subject. Nor does the learned Dr Reeves, the last and most elaborate editor of Adamnan's Life of St Columba—a work brought out at the joint expense of the Irish Archaeological Society and the Bannatyne Club-communicate much upon the continental labours of the missionaries of Iona, copious and minute as are his notes upon almost every other point connected with the history of that celebrated seat and centre of Christian learning and evangelization, and yet there are few portions of