ART. I.-Christ's Second Coming, will it be Pre-Millennial? By ART. II. Sermons by the late Rev. David Welsh, D.D., with a Memoir, by A. DUNLOP, Esq., Advocate. ART. III.—Greece under the Romans. A Historical View of the Condition of the Greek Nation, from the time of its conquest by the Romans, until the extinction of the Roman empire in the East. By GEORGE FINLAY, K. R. G., Member of the ART. IV. Memoirs of Mrs William Veitch, Mr Thomas Hog of Kiltearn, Mr Henry Erskine, and Mr John Carstairs. Issued by the Committee of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, for the Publication of the Works of Scottish Re- ART. V.-A Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature, edited by JOHN KITTO, D.Ď., F.S.A., Editor of the Pictorial Bible, &c. ART. VI.-A Commentary on the Book of Leviticus, Expository and Practical, with Critical Notes. By the Rev. ANDREW A. BONAR, Collace, Author of the Memoirs of the Rev. Robert ART. VII.-np, The Hebrew Text and a Latin Version of the Book of Solomon, called Ecclesiastes. With original Notes, and a Translation of the Commentary of Mendelsohn from the Rabbinic Hebrew. Also a new arranged English Version of The Evidence of Christianity in the Nineteenth Century; or, Results of In- quiry as to the Divine Origin of the Scriptures. By the Rev. W. BROWN, Sermons touching some points much controverted at present. By the Rev. ib. The Ecclesiastical History of the Second and Third Centuries; illustrated from the Writings of Tertullian. By JOHN, Bishop of Lincoln. The History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century. By J. H. MERLE Practical Religion Exemplified, by Letters and Passages from the Life of the late Rev. Robert Anderson, of Trinity Chapel, Brighton. By the Hon. Mrs ANDERSON, Memoir of Mrs Ann Johnstone, Greenock, Hymns from the German of Dr Martin Luther. By the Rev. J. ANDERSON, A Century of Scottish Church History; an Historical Account of the Church of Scotland from the Secession to the Disruption. With an Account of the Free ib. A Greek-English Lexicon. By H. G. LIDDELL and R. SCOTT, Life and Correspondence of David Hume. By J. H. BURTON, Esq. Contributions, Biographical, Literary, and Philosophical, to the Electic Review. 66 Every Eye shall see him;" or Prince Albert's Visit to Liverpool used in illus- tration of the Second Coming of Christ. A Sermon by the Rev. HUGH THE PRESBYTERIAN REVIEW. No. LXXI.-JAN. 1846. ART. I.-Meditationes Hebraica, or, a Doctrinal and Practical Exposition of the Epistle of St Paul to the Hebrews. By the Rev. W. TAIT, Wakefield. London: Seeleys. 1845. THERE is much in these two volumes to refresh the spirit of the Christian reader. There is a great deal of sound exposition throughout, coupled with close and urgent application of each successive doctrine. The author seems to have honestly and earnestly set himself to gather out the mind of the Spirit of God in the different parts of this epistle, under a consciousness of his responsibility to the MASTER as well as to the Church. There is no show or affectation about his work. He writes simply, and sometimes with point, sometimes with beauty. He is intent upon bringing out the meaning of the passages, and is not scrupulous about the polish of his style; but pushes right on to his object, not diverting his reader from the point before him by any needless finery. Yet the style is occasionally heavy, and deficient in vigour and point; though by no means so in general, but rather the opposite. He seems obviously to have bestowed great pains upon the sentiments and doctrines set forth, and a proportionate degree of pains upon the manner and style would not have been amiss. His work has confessedly not been one of research into the labours of others. He tells us at the outset, that, with the exception of Moses Stuart and Lord Mandeville (now Duke of Manchester) he has not availed himself of any author, but has studied the epistle entirely for himself. To this no one certainly has any right to object, for we have to do with the contents of the book, and not with the way in which these were come by. But a wider range of authorship and critical research would have been useful to the author himself, and profitable to others, more especially as Stuart is not always a safe guide, and Lord VOL XIX. NO. I. B Mandeville merely traverses the first four chapters, if we remember aright, though we must say in a very admirable manner, like a scholar and like a Christian, so far as he goes. It is not easy to calculate how much one loses by neglecting to avail himself of the labours of others. There is no need for being a plagiarist. Our reading is not designed merely to replenish our emptiness with the ideas of other men, which we are to give forth in words of our own. No: It is to set us a-thinking. The thoughts of others are good provocatives of thought in ourselves. The suggestions of others need not be acted on at all; nay, they may be positively rejected by us, and yet they may set a-going innumerable trains of thought in our own mind which all may lead on to something original and new. We be lieve with Mr Tait, that there are many ungathered jewels in this field of treasure to repay the labours of those who shall diligently seek them.' But we also believe that the study of the works of others, so far from covering up these 'ungathered jewels,' would only quicken the search for them, and bring up to the surface many more than would otherwise be gathered. Nor is the authorship upon this epistle uninteresting or repulsive. It is extensive enough; yet not so much so as upon other portions of Scripture. It is voluminous enough; yet full of interest. We do not profess to have mastered the whole of Tena, nor to have gone wholly through the authors of the Critici Sacri; but we have managed to get on pretty well with John Owen's eight octavo volumes, and we can say with truth, that we thought the time well spent indeed in studying them. Not that we never got weary, or felt provoked at his prolixity, repetition, and sometimes self-contradiction; but somehow or other we always felt an irresistible longing to be back to him again, after we had thrown him aside as too wearisome to be resumed. We have enjoyed Owen in our younger and more studious days; we enjoy him still; nor do we wish for the time when we shall cease to do So. We should begin to think evil of ourselves, and of our own state of mind, when we begin to despise Owen. With all his faults, he has few like him; and Robert Hall only lowered himself in the estimation of the Christian public, when he spoke contemptuously of John Owen. We are far from insinuating that there is the least approach towards any thing like such contempt in the volumes now before us. We were unconsciously led on to speak of Owen from our habitual veneration for him, but nowhere in Mr Tait's work is there any slighting of others manifested. He is free from such dogmatism and puerility. He speaks honestly his own mind, but he slights no one. He tells us that he has finished his work with |