is an act of worship. Didactic, exhortatory, or sentimental prayers are admitted to be offensive and unedifying. Hymns of like character are equally objectionable in public worship. 4. Hymns for children are as much out of place for a book designed for the sanctuary, as nursery prayers in a liturgy. 5. The mutilation or alteration of hymns should be avoided. The pastor can select the portions of a hymn he desires to be sung. It is commonly unnecessary thus to change an author's productions. Such changes are almost always for the worse; and often do violence to the cherished associations of the people, who are attached to the hymns in the form with which they are familiar. The thanks of the church are due to the committee for the labour, taste, and talent, exercised in the production of the new book. We hope they may be able so to modify it as to give general, if not universal, satisfaction.

SHORT NOTICES.

Presbyterian Historical Almanac and Annual Remembrancer of the Church, for 1865. By Joseph M. Wilson. Vol. VII. Philadelphia: Joseph M. Wilson, No. 111 South Tenth street. Pp. 406.

This work has an established reputation. It is a condensed record of matters of interest to the whole body of Presbyterians. It will be found of great practical value; a storehouse of information to ministers and people.

Clark's Foreign Theological Library. Fourth Series. Vol. VII. Hengstenberg's Commentary on the Gospel of St. John. Vol. II. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clarke, 1865, pp. 541.

This Foreign Theological Library, of the Messrs. Clark, renders accessible to English readers almost all the important evangelical modern works of Germany. In this country the successive volumes. can generally be procured of Messrs. Smith & English, of Philadelphia. This Commentary of Dr. Hengstenberg, on the Gospel of St. John, although probably not equal to some of his other works, is full of valuable information and fertile suggestions.

Commentary on Joshua, Judges, and Ruth. By C. F. Keil, D.D., and F. Delitzsch, D.D., pp. 494.

This is another volume from the same press, and belonging to the same series. It is the production of two of the most eminent living scholars and divines of Germany. Although a complete work in itself, it forms part of a commentary on the Old Testament, which these distinguished men have in the course of preparation.

An Exposition of the First Epistle of John. By James Morgan, D.D. Belfast, Author of the "Scriptural Testimony to the Holy Spirit." Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1866, pp. 528.

Dr. Morgan has been for thirty-seven years pastor of one church in Belfast, Ireland. He tells us he has prepared this Exposition of the Epistle of John, the principal topic of which is brotherly love," as a memorial of the peace and harmony which has so long prevailed among his people. The work consists of a course of lectures exegetical, doctrinal, and practical, on the whole epistle. It is distinguished by soundness, piety, and excellent judgment, and will doubtless prove acceptable and useful to a large class of readers.

Commentary on the Gospels of Luke and John. By Rev. Dr. Wheden, of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Carlton & Porter. Pp. 422.

It is a matter of gratulation that so many distinguished men, of all denominations, are turning their attention to the preparation of commentaries on the Holy Scriptures. This volume forms part of a work, now in progress, designed to embrace all the books of the New Testament, and ultimately those also of the Old Testament. It is written in a clear, terse, and forcible style. There is very little waste of words. The expositions are concise, to the point, and evangelical and edifying. It bids fair to be a very valuable work.

Prophecy viewed in respect to its Distinctive Nature, Special Function, and Proper Interpretation. By Patrick. Fairbairn, D. D., Principal of the Free Church College, Glasgow; Author of "Typology of Scripture," "Ezekiel and the Book of his Prophecy." New York: Carlton & Porter, 200 Mulberry Street. 1866. Pp. 524.

Prophecy is now exposed to two principal perverting influences. The spirit of Rationalism strives to disprove or explain away its supernatural character, and Literalism to interpret it so as to favour the introduction of Judaism, both by weakening or destroying the argument from prophecy, in proof of the Messiahship of Jesus of Nazareth, and by representing the future of Christ's kingdom as little more than the realization of the Jewish idea on that subject. The book of Dr. Fairbairn will be received with great interest. The importance and the difficulty of the subject, the high character of the author, and the special adaptation of his work to the state of the times, must secure for it a general and cordial welcome.

Giant Cities of Bashan; and Syria's Holy Places. By Rev. J. L. Porter, A. M., author of "Five Years in Damascus," &c. New York: T. Nelson & Sons, 137 Grand Street. 1866. Pp. 377.

Bashan, which fell to the portion of the half-tribe of Manasseh, has been less frequently explored than most other of the countries belonging to the ancient Jews. In many of its features, it is, perhaps, more remarkable than any of them. This book, not merely of travel, but of description and research, presents to the general reader a very instructive and important account of its characteristics and antiquities:

The Emphatic Diaglott: Containing the Original Text of the New Testament, with an interlineary word for word English Translation; a New Emphatic Version, based on the Interlineary Translation, &c. By Benjamin Wilson. New York: Fowler & Wells, 389 Broadway. 1865. The title page of this book is too long and minute for transcription. The book evinces a good deal of labour, being fur

nished with various readings, references to parallel passages, and occasional critical or illustrative remarks. We cannot see the advantage of the interlinear translation, unless it be to give the English reader some idea of the Greek idiom. As a help to the student of Greek it can be of little importance. Every attempt, however, to induce people to study the Scriptures, especially in the form in which they came from the sacred writers, is to be regarded as a good work.

Life of Emanuel Swedenborg; together with a brief Synopsis of his Wri tings, both Philosophical and Theological. By William White. With an Introduction by B. F. Barrett. First American Edition. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1866. Pp. 270.

Swedenborg has been called by his friends, "the most unknown," and "the best abused man in the world." If thus unknown, it must be because he is incomprehensible, for more lives and memoirs of the man, and expositions of his doctrine, have been published within the last five and twenty, or thirty years, than have been devoted to any other celebrity. This small, well-printed, and compact volume, may assist the public in gaining some knowledge of a very remarkable man, and of a system of doctrine which still evinces great vitality.

The Living Forces of the Universe. The Temple and the Worshippers. Know and Govern Thyself. By George W. Thompson. Philadelphia: Howard Challen. 1866. Pp. 358.

"Well knowing," says the author, "the tendency to degradation in vulgar, rude, animalistic, and human imaginates, and in a language which corresponds with and embodies them, and conscious of the necessities of pure ideas and of the proper dignity and exaltation which should accompany them, the latter have been adopted, and rather than lower these to the standard of a life which need all elements of purification and elevation, a Glossary of a few words not current among general readers, is added, with the hope that the work will be more widely useful and acceptable."

With all the help of the Glossary, we have to confess that we soon became lost in a fog of misty verbiage, to which even "vulgar, rude, animalistic, and human imaginates," if we could understand precisely what they are, might be preferable. By no effort of "intusception," or "discriminate injection of self into the object of cognition," could we comprehend the work, and we have therefore been obliged to abandon it as thoroughly "objectio-facient, i. e., set over in independent or quasi independent entity."

It is the first duty of a writer on philosophical subjects to study clearness and simplicity in his language, and never to coin

a new word, when an old one will serve his purpose. The author by disregarding this obvious rule, has exposed himself not merely to misapprehension, but to ridicule, and to more perhaps than is deserved; for the evident seriousness and earnestness with which he writes, and the vigour and freshness of his conceptions, are worthy of a better style. Should the proposed continuation of the work have but the common merit of being intelligible, we will then be able to discuss its claims to be considered as a new philosophy with a new method, and whether its tendency will be for good or evil.

Life of Benjamin Silliman, M. D., LL.D., late Professor of Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Geology, in Yale College, chiefly from his Manuscript Reminiscences, Diaries, and Correspondence. By George P. Fisher, P fessor in Yale College. In two volumes. New York: Charles Scribner & Co., 1866.

Professor Silliman was beyond all question one of the high men of his age and country. Few of his American contemporaries were so widely and favourably known, not only in the scientific world, but wherever elegant letters, brilliant oratory, with manhood, Christian excellence, graceful manners, social amenity, the dignity, courtesy, and courage of the true gentleman, united in rarest symmetry, are appreciated. His majestic form and radiant countenance not only made him, to the eye of the stranger, facile princeps in almost any group of men, however eminent, but they rendered his very presence a power and inspiration in all circles and assemblies, private and public, collegiate, scientific, social, and Christian. He was not, indeed, remarkable for original discovery, or for logical method. But his brilliant rhetoric, his intellectual quickness, activity, and perseverance; his enterprise and tact, his unfailing benevolence and suavity, enabled him to surpass all others in introducing modern science to the country, and exalting it in public estimation. Rarely has science, in any of its branches, enjoyed the advantage of such successful experiments, rich illustration, and fascinating eloquence. To have established the Journal of Science, and edited it with success until it was passed over to the able editorship of his son and son-in-law, under which it continues to flourish in the forty-eighth year of its existence, is an achievement possible only to an extraordinary man.

Professor Silliman, owing to the associations of birth, nurture, marriage, foreign travel, scientific and professional eminence, high position in Yale College, and as the organ of communication between scientific men and the public, through the pages of his journal, along with the personal qualities before mentioned, added to an extraordinary love and facility for letter