General Assembly's and the Queen's College at Belfast, pp. 273. Prof. Murphy gives a new translation of the text instead of adopting the authorized English translation. The language of Dr. Murphy is more exactly accordant with the Hebrew, but is less rhythmical than that of our English Bible.

The Book of Ezra, Theologically and Homiletically expounded by Fr. W. Schultz, Professor in Ordinary in the University of Breslau, Prussia. Translated, enlarged, and edited by Rev. Charles O. Briggs, D.D., Professor of Old Testament Exegesis in the Union Theological Seminary, New York. pp. 100.- Dr. Briggs inserts no useless notes; none merely for the purpose of saying something. All his notes are pertinent and opportune.

The Book of Nehemiah, Critically and Theologically expounded, including the Homiletical Sections of Dr. Schultz. By Rev. Howard Crosby, D.D., LL.D., Chancellor of the University of New York. pp. 62.- This exposition by Dr. Crosby illustrates the advantage which an American expositor has over a German exposititor for American readers; just as a German has an advantage over an American for German readers.

The Book of Esther, Theologically and Homiletically expounded by Fr. W. Schultz, Professor in Ordinary of Theology at Breslau, Prussia. Translated, enlarged, and edited by James Strong, S. T. D., Professor of Exegetical Theology in Drew Theological Seminary, Madison, N. J. pp. 96. Dr. Strong has made some valuable additions to this work, especially on pp. 18-20 and 25-27. Professor Schultz's Section on the Canonical Dignity of the Book of Esther, pp. 11-18, is particularly valuable. We wish that it had been more expanded.

SERMONS FOR THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. Translatea rom the German of the late Richard Rothe, D.D.; with a Preface by William R. Clark, M.A., Prebendary of Wells and Vicar of Taunton. From Advent to Trinity. 12mo. pp. 379. Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark; New York: Scribner, Welford, and Armstrong. 1877.

Nineteen of these sermons were translated by Miss E. Prince of Taunton; nine by Miss E. M. Brand of Edinburgh; one by Miss K. Clark; and one by Miss F. Prince. The whole translation has been revised by Rev. W. R. Clark. The translators deserve praise for their skill. Rothe's style is a difficult one. It is interesting to read his practical sermons; they are so different from his Ethik.

THE WOMEN OF THE ARABS. With a Chapter for Children. By Rev. Henry Harris Jessup, D.D., Seventeen Years American Missionary in Syria. Edited by C. S. Robinson, D.D., and Rev. Isaac Riley. 12mo. pp. 372. New York: Dodd and Mead.

"The threshold weeps forty days when a girl is born." "The best

son-in-law is the grave." Similar to these are many Arabic proverbs illustrating the contemptuous feelings of the Arabs toward the female sex. The volume of Dr. Jessup contains many affecting descriptions of the woes which women are condemned to suffer among this barbarous people. It was once deemed a virtue to bury female children alive. "To send women before to the other world is a benefit." "It is said that the only occasion on which Othman ever shed a tear was when his little daughter, whom he was burying alive, wiped the dust of the grave-earth from his beard." Dr. Jessup's volume abounds with illustrations of the fact that a man will often continue to cherish reverential feelings toward what he knows to be unworthy of them (see pp. 269-272). When his judgment is in exercise, he despises the objects which in moments of excited feeling he will adore. For its many instructive lessons this book deserves a wide circulation.

ARCHOLOGY; or the Science of Government. By S. V. Blakeslee, Oakland, California. 16mo. pp. 164. New York and San Francisco: A. Roman and Co. 1876.

This volume is written in a clear style and with much force. Its author is an independent thinker. He has wrought out his own system, and expressed it in his own way. While we do not coincide with him in some positions which he has taken, and do not approve of some phrases which he has adopted, we still have examined the book with much interest, and believe that the influence of it will be salutary. Mr. Blakeslee's views of the science of government are in the main rational, conservative, conformed to the spirit of the Bible as well as to the dictates of conscience. He deserves attention, for he is an enthusiastic as well as an independent inquirer for the truth; a sound and honest thinker. If the members of our national congress and state legislatures would study the eighteen chapters of this volume, they would obtain more definite ideas in regard to the science of government than they can obtain from the vast majority of all the speeches to which they are condemned to listen. Our legislators need to consult such a volume as Mr. Blakeslee's, and conform to it in their spirit and action.

SHORT STUDIES ON GREAT SUBJECTS. By James Anthony Froude, M.A., Late Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. 12mo. pp. 400. Third Series. New York: Scribner, Welford, and Armstrong. 1877.

This volume resembles the two preceding Series of Essays by the same author, and needs no further commendation.

THE

BIBLIOTHECA SACRA.

ARTICLE I.

THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE CONCEPT OF GOD.

BY REV. GEORGE T. LADD, MILWAUKEE, WIS.

A THEME at once so promising and so transcendently lofty as this, demands of him who ventures to write his thoughts underneath it, an immediate disclaimer of undue pretensions. The author of this Article lays no claim to the discovery of any metaphysical secrets. He knows of no new instrument, like the intellectual intuition of Schelling or the dialectic development of Hegel, by which to view, as they are in themselves, the mysteries of the Divine Being. He is of opinion that the ancient organon of knowledge, the human soul, is trustworthy. He does not even venture to promise any wholly new light upon any of the questions with which he is to deal, much less the complete solution of any of them.

It cannot, however, fail to appear to any careful observer of the course of current thought, that questions which concern the reality and nature of the Personal Absolute, whom faith calls God, are the leading theologic questions of the day. Theology is called in question, not so much as to the validity of its special dogmas, as to its right to existence at all. The "stream of tendency," the "One not ourselves," coming from Greek thought, and the personal I Am, the One revealed in ourselves, coming from the Hebrew heart, have met each VOL. XXXIV. No. 136.-OCTOBER, 1877. 75

other in the world's highway. Are the two one? and is that one the one everlasting and true, the absolute and infinite God? To answer these inquiries the thinkers of the age are taxing the resources of thought. The true, permanent answer does not depend upon the decision of investigators; it will be given vitally in the experience of the individual, in the history of the race. But the answer, so far as the investigators can furnish one, must consist in more thoroughly analytic criticism of the facts and laws of nature, history, and consciousness.

What each investigator especially needs is a point of view from which to conduct the criticism of difficulties. From such a favorable point of view we should be able to distinguish between real, insuperable difficulties, and alleged but removable ones; also to see in some measure wherein and why the real, insuperable difficulties are such.

In the January number of this Quarterly there appeared an Article upon "the Origin of the Concept of God." The view then expressed may be summed up in two or three sentences: "This concept is the resultant of God's revelation of himself to the human soul"; "It is a centre upon which converge many lines, not only of argument, but also of intuition, feeling, and purpose"; "The organon for receiving the divine self-revelation is the entire soul of man." I do not say that this way of viewing and authenticating that knowledge of God which the human soul furnishes will solve any of the difficulties which accompany the knowledge. On the contrary, it shows that many of the difficulties are necessarily involved in the constituent elements of that knowledge. It does, however, seem to furnish help for the classification and criticism of these difficulties. It seems to offer suggestions which may be used so as to show whence and why the difficulties arise, in what they consist, what is their rationale, so to speak, and what ones among the whole number are likely to be either lightened or solved by the progress of the race. So far as the former discussion has led to a true opinion upon the nature of this concept as to origin, it

will also help to a true opinion upon its nature as to its obscure and seemingly contradictory elements.

The object of the present Article is, then, The Classification and Criticism of some of the Difficulties of the Concept of God as they appear when examined in the light of the former Article upon the Origin of this Concept. And though the present Article can be only fragmentary, it is our hope to make it so much one with the former, that whoever accepted the truth of that will be helped by this over difficult and dangerous paths of research.

We enter, then, the present discussion with a certain basis laid in that which has gone before. We find the truths from which to take our points of starting in these following statements, which are corollaries of the central truth just stated, viz. "The concept of God is the resultant of God's revelation of himself to the human soul."

According to this view of the origin of the concept of God, all knowledge of God is of the nature of divine self-revelation. God unrevealed is an unknown God. This statement is true of every form of knowledge, however derived from any of the manifold sources of self-revelation, in which the divine is made known to man. The proof of this statement consists partially in a criticism of the forms under which all knowledge comes to the human soul. All knowledge of principles is in some sort a self-revelation of God; and the subjective necessity which marks all principles as such, is an assertion of the divine vigor with which their revealer impresses objective law and fact upon the organon through which his revelation is made. The postulate of all rationality in man is a self-revealing God. But the special proof of this statement is discovered when we analyze the concept and the organon through which the concept is given, and observe how the truths given in the concept correspond with the faculties given to the organon. The analysis shows us one common source for the soul which knows God, and for the facts and laws which reveal God. The facts and laws thus take the form of a self-revelation of the same