Scenes in the Holy Land: one volume square duodecimo. Philadelphia, American Sunday School Union.
This work is founded on, or rather is a free translation of, the “Scènes Evangéliques” of Napoleon Roussel, published a year or two since in Paris. It contains an account of the principal incidents in the lives of the Savior and of the great apostle of the Gentiles, written with singular simplicity and perspicuity, and illustrated with numerous etchings by a clever French artist. It is published, we believe, as a juvenile gift book for the holiday season.
Ladies’ Annual Register for 1843. New York, S. Colman.
The Ladies’ Annual Register is a neat little annuary, edited for several years by Mrs. Gilman, of Charleston. It embraces, beside the usual contents of the almanacs, many useful recipes for the housewife, with anecdotes, poems, etc.
Biblical and Prophetical Works of Rev. George Bush, D. D., author of “The Life of Mohammed,” etc., and Professor of Hebrew in the New York City University. New York, Dayton & Newman.
Professor Bush is one of the most profound and ingenious scholars and critics of the present age, and we perceive with pleasure that he is rapidly multiplying the fruits of his industrious pen. To all the lovers of sound biblical exposition it must be gratifying to know that the Hebrew Scriptures are in a fair way to develop their riches to the English reader more fully than ever before. Professor Bush’s commentaries on the Old Testament, now extending to six volumes, embrace all the works of the Pentateuch but the last two, and these, we learn, he proposes shortly to enter upon. His careful study, his scrupulous fidelity in eliciting the exact meaning of the original, and his peculiar tact in explaining it, have made his Notes everywhere popular, so that before the completion of the series, the first volume has reached a sixth edition, the second a fifth, etc. In all of them will be found discussions on the most important points of biblical science, extending far beyond the ordinary dimensions of expository notes, and amounting in fact to elaborate dissertations of great value. Among the subjects thus extensively treated are, in Genesis, the temptation and the fall, the dispersion from Babel, the prophecies of Noah, the character of Melchizedec, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the history of Joseph, and the prophetical benedictions of Jacob; in Exodus, the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, the miracles of the magicians, the pillar of cloud as the seat of the Shekinah, the decalogue, the Hebrew theocracy, the tabernacle, the cherubim, the candle-stick, the shew bread, the altar, &c.; in Leviticus, a clear and minute specification of the different sacrifices, the law of marriage, including the case of marriage with a deceased wife’s sister, very largely considered, and a full account of the Jewish festivals. The sixth volume, including Joshua and Judges, contains an ample and erudite exposition of the Song of Deborah, and an extended discussion on the subject of Jeptha’s vow, with a view to determine whether the Jewish warrior really sacrificed his daughter. The Professor gives an array of very strong reasons in favor of the negative.
In his celebrated “Treatise on the Millennium,” which merely as a literary performance has received the highest commendations of the critics, our author has assumed the position that the millennium, strictly so called, is past. But by the millennium he does not understand the golden age of the church, which he, in common with nearly all good men, regards as a future era. He contends that as the memorable period of the thousand years of the apocalypse is distinguished mainly by the binding of the symbolical dragon, we must first determine by the legitimate canons of interpretation what is shadowed forth by this mystic personage, before we can assure ourselves of the true character of the millennial age. But the dragon, he supposes, is the grand hieroglyphic of Paganism—the “binding of the dragon,” but a figurative phrase for the suppression of Paganism within the limits of the Roman empire, a fulfilment which he contends commenced in the reign of Constantine, and was consummated in that of Theodosius, his successor. Professor Bush draws largely on the pages of Gibbon in support of his theory, assuming all along the great foundation principle that the apocalypse of John is but a series of pictured emblems, shadowing forth the ecclesiastical and civil history of the world. From a cursory examination of his Treatise, we are inclined to adopt the opinion of one of the first theologians of our country, that if his premises be admitted, his conclusion is irresistible; and that he did not know how to gainsay the premises.