either in whole or in part, by the Government; or the system of America, where all are indiscriminately left to the free-will offerings of the people. For my own part, though a member of an established church, and therefore holding that establishments are not unlawful in the Christian sense of the phrase, and though receiving a liberal salary from the Crown as a minister of that church in a British colony, I confess I should greatly prefer the latter of these systems-I mean the system of America-for the colony of New South Wales; and were the Government salaries of the clergy of all denominations in that colony to be forthwith and for ever withdrawn, so far from despairing of the cause of God in the colony, or from being less loyal as a British subject than I have hitherto been, I should rather be inclined to say, Advance Australia! God save the King!

In fact, I have long been convinced that the interests of the Christian religion would by this time have been in a much more advanced and prosperous state than they actually are, even in the convict colony of New South Wales, if not one sixpence had ever been paid from the colonial treasury to a single minister of religion in the territory, and if the planting of churches in the colony had been left entirely to Christian philanthropy and British benevolence.'

Lang, Vol. II. pp. 247-303.

This honest and faithful testimony of so competent a witness, must carry weight with every impartial reader; and at the present moment, evidence of this kind is peculiarly important. The whole of the chapter from which these extracts are taken, is deserving of most attentive consideration. Dr. Lang deserves well of his adopted country for the boldness with which he has laid open the vices and evils of the present colonial system, at the risk, or rather the certainty of giving great offence; and his historical retrospect of the colony, although it may be thought to rake up forgotten disputes, contrary to the approved maxim, ‘let bygones be bygones,' certainly throws much light upon the present state of the Colonies. His ideas of the transportation system, we must consider both as erroneous and visionary; and his opinions both of men and things are, probably, a little biassed by his views on this point. His honest statements, however, supply the best possible refutation of his own theory; nor can Archbishop Whately desire better confirmation of his argument than the evidence supplied in these pages.

We find that we must not now enter upon the general question of Colonization, in connexion with the Swan River Settlement, and the proposed new British province of South Australia.' We shall resume the subject, probably, in our next Number, by which time the Bill now in progress will have received the Royal Assent; and we shall then advert to the statistical and geographical information contained in the several publications noticed at the head of this article. We are happy to state, that one specific provision of the measure before Parliament, is, that the

transportation system shall never be inflicted' on the new colony.

A promise to the same effect was made to the first settlers in Western Australia; and until that colony was undone by the want of constant and combinable labour, the assurance that it would never suffer the infliction of being turned into a jail, was one of its highest recommendations. Until the banks of the Swan River were opened for settlement, the great natural advantages of Australia had been counteracted by the moral evils of the convict system. For fear of the degrading and corrupting influence of transportation, the emigrant who was possessed of a decent pride, and of some regard for the morals of his children, preferred the dense forests and long winters of Canada, -the arduous labour of " clearing" before the plough can be used,→ ague in summer, and frost during half the year, to the fine climate and grassy plains of Australia: but when the Swan River was planted -Now, said the government of that day, and its organ the Quarterly Review, the advantages of an open country and beautiful climate, all the great natural advantages of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, may be enjoyed without any countervailing evil. And the prophecy was not fulfilled, only because other evils than those of the convict system were created by an erroneous mode of dealing with waste land. In so much as Van Diemen's Land or New South Wales is more attractive to the emigrant than Western Australia, that latest English colony would be benefited by the introduction of the convict system; but why? because here there has been no system, or rather the worst possible system, of treating the chief elements of colonization. In that respect, the Swan-River Settlement has been very useful for the present case, "as an example to deter." The founders of South Australia may venture to boast that their colony, besides never suffering the infliction, will never feel the want of convict labour.' New British Province, &c., pp. 133-135.

Art. IV. 1. The Conjugation of the Greek Verb, made easy for the Use of Schools, according to Professor Thiersch's System developed in his German Greek Grammar. By the Rev. J. G. Tiarks, Minister of the German Protestant Reformed Church in London. 8vo. pp. 68. London, 1833.

2. A Practical Grammar of the German Language. By the Rev. J. G. Tiarks. 12mo. pp. 267. London, 1834.

SO

THESE two books will be welcome to schools and colleges, and to the numerous class of young persons who are honourably labouring in the path of self-tuition. Sir Daniel Sandford's translation of the first Part of Thiersch's large Greek Grammar has made that work advantageously known to English students. But its size and cost are considerations which rendered

desirable a brief and cheap exhibition of its etymological principles. This service has been performed by Mr. Tiarks in a terse, luminous, and satisfactory manner. Thiersch's philological discussions and philosophical acumen flowed from the school of Hemsterhuys as modified by Hermann; but those who are acquiring the elements of Greek cannot dig this knowledge out of the extensive and profound work of the learned Bavarian. In Mr. Tiark's Compendium, they will find the results clearly exhibited, and will enjoy no small delight in perceiving the ground of the Homeric forms and the admirable reason of the primitive Greek tongue.

In forming his German Grammar, Mr. T. has considered what are the kinds and mode of information which an English student feels that he wants; a student of respectable and especially classical education, who desires to open for himself the stores of knowledge which the nations of Germany have accumulated. Such a learner is teazed and driven from his object by the needless verbiage which stuffs out the larger number of Grammars and Introductions to the modern European languages. He wants a guide who will take him by the hand on the ground which he already occupies; and who, instead of pulling him back into the thickets at the bottom of the hill, will ascend with him from this more elevated point, will help him over the remaining difficulties, will explain the windings of the path, and will open to him the prospects in which he may anticipate delight. Such a guide is Mr. Tiarks; simple but highly intelligent, philosophical but not obscure, and comprehensive but the reverse of tedious. His Chapter on the Arrangement of Words' is a beautiful application of the principles of Logic and Rational Grammar. A similar commendation is due to the explication of the Prefixes to Verbs, and of the primary meaning and different government of the Prepositions. Such an Introduction as this, for the German language, has been long an object of our desire; and on behalf of the public, especially the theological public, we thank the esteemed author. This work, we trust, will be an instrument of good, in a very important subserviency to the great objects of his life as a minister of the gospel.

Art. V. The Biblical Cabinet; or Hermeneutical, Exegetical, and Philological Library. Volumes III., IV., V., and VI. 12mo. The number of pages in each varying from about 320 to 390. Edinburgh. 1833 and 1834.

F this valuable and much needed series of publications, it is only requisite for us to report the progress, referring our readers for a more detailed account of its plan to a former article.

(Ecl. Rev. 3d S., Vol. IX., p. 119. February 1833.) The four volumes since published comprise Volume II. of Ernesti's Prin ciples of Biblical Interpretation, translated by C. H. Terrot, A.M., making two volumes; Tittmann on the Synonyms of the New Testament; (about one half;) by Edw. Craig, M.A.; Tholuck's Exposition of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, to the end of chap. vi., by Robert Menzies; and Tholuck's Exposition, Doctrinal and Philological, of Christ's Sermon on the Mount; intended likewise as a Help towards the Formation of a Pure Biblical System of Faith and Morals (to chap. v. 23. but making in extent one half of the work). We regard with great satisfaction the judicious choice of works which the Editors of this collection have made; in respect both to those already published, and to those which are announced as in preparation. In the latter class we find the names of Flatt, Olshausen, Nösselt, Knapp, Storr, Koppe, Pareau, Usteri, Bilroth, Lisco, Steiger, Gebser, Döpke, and Bähr. (See our former Article on this collection, page 121.) Our earnest advice to theological students is, to gird themselves to the attainment of the German language, and to the indefatigable study of its best authors. But, as we fear many will shrink from this labour, in which none must hope for success without diligence, constancy, and perseverance, duris urgens in rebus, the Biblical Cabinet will immediately meet their wishes and supply their wants.

6

Professor Tholuck's Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount, is one of his most valuable (and we believe, latest) productions. The specific design of the learned Author in the composition of it was, to evince, in the instance of a minute section of the Holy Scriptures, the riches of their contents; and to demonstrate, that, in order to arrive at fixed and certain results in the expo'sition of Scripture, nothing more is generally required than a careful and complete investigation of its statements.' It is a masterly and exemplary specimen of the combination of Biblical Criticism with Exegetical Theology. We borrow this last phrase from the Translator, who remarks, in his preface, that the want of works of this description, and the general neglect of Exegetical studies, are felt and acknowledged by all discerning friends of the Church of Scotland at home, and form its chief reproach abroad.

Systematic Theology, with which the minds of our young divines are exclusively imbued, is doubtless a useful, an indispensable subject of study. It is the scientific form which the results of Exegetical Theology assume, and upon that it has afterwards a reflex operation, for a knowledge of it becomes the best guide in further researches into the department from which its own materials were drawn. But surely it should need few arguments to demonstrate, that no acquaintance, however familiar and extensive, with the doctrines of Christianity, in those artificial systems according to which men have classified and

arranged them, can ever dispense the professional student from the necessity of studying them in that particular garb and connection in which God has been pleased to present them to mankind.

"It has indeed been said, in depreciation of such studies, that Exegesis, even in the hands of the greatest masters, has never elicited a single new truth from the sacred Scriptures. And what if the statement were absolutely true? Does volume then constitute the only excellence of knowledge, and are there not many other qualities equally essential to its perfection? Take intensity for example. Surely there is a vast difference between the first faint and unsteady perception of a truth, and that full intuition of it which annihilates every doubt, overpowers the conviction, touches the heart, and subdues the will! Has not Christian faith manifold degrees, from the rising of the daystar in the heart, to the blessedness of full assurance? Short of that, no Christian should take rest. More especially, however, are they bound to press with strenuous and incessant effort towards the high mark, who, as the lights of the world, are called upon not merely to shine for themselves, but to enlighten and to kindle all around them; nor, of the human means for the attainment of that desirable end, does any appear so obvious and simple, as just to trace the various doctrines of our faith, up to the original fountain in which they spring, and ascertain, by a full and searching scrutiny, that they are indeed the voice of God to us, and that we know precisely what he says.

‹ But, it is far from being absolutely true, that exegesis makes no discoveries in the Sacred volume. Undoubtedly, the grand essential doctrines of our religion lie exposed upon its surface; conspicuous even to the unlettered peasant, who, perhaps, never fancied that any language was spoken upon earth but his mother tongue, and who has no human aids to guide him in understanding what he reads, but his own untutored common sense. The word of God to man required to be adapted to all descriptions of men. Hence the Bible is the book of the simple; but, for the very same reason, it is also the book of the wise. It is not the less a stream for the elephant to wade, although it will not drown the lamb. Habet scriptura sacra haustus primos, says Augustine, habet secundos, habet tertios. It contains hidden as well as open treasures, things hard as well as things easy to be understood. There are undiscovered aspects of its truths, secret and beautiful harmonies between them, that lie beyond the reach of the common eye, and are perceptible only to him who explores its more profound recesses with the lamp of learning and science in his hand.

Now, surely, this is peculiarly the task of such as aspire to the high office of being stewards of the mysteries of God. The researches of those who have gone before us in the lofty path, instead of exempting from similar labours, on the contrary impose upon us a new obligation to transmit the precious fund of sacred science which we have inherited from them, augmented and improved, to our posterity. Like the wisdom and the knowledge of him who formed it, the mine which invites our scrutiny is inexhaustible, and, so long as the church endures, will still contain in its unfathomed deeps, many a gem of purest ray, to tempt and reward the search of the highest intellect and the profoundest erudition.