"The Ancestry of Our English Bible." By Ira Maurice Price, Ph.D. Second edition. Price $1.50. Sunday School Times Company, Philadelphia.
This volume is an account of the various manuscripts, texts, and versions of the Bible, from the oldest Hebrew text to the latest-found Greek. Its author is professor of Semitic languages and literatures in the University of Chicago. The design is a popular treatise as to where our Bible came from. There is one chapter on "The English Bible of To-day," with its various versions, variant readings in the margins, and another chapter on the "Bases of Our Present Versions." The rest of the work is divided into three parts: The Old Testament, ten chapters; the New Testament, six chapters; and the "English Versions of the Bible," seven chapters. In these twenty-five chapters is packed a vast amount of information on the old versions and manuscripts, the changes in methods of writing and preserving; the Apocrypha, and why rejected, the great Greek manuscripts, the uncial and discursive writing of Greek and of the men who labored so diligently and keenly to dig out, restore, and translate these ancient writings. The last part, the "English Versions," is of great interest, and makes one appreciate more fully the last, the American Standard Revision. There are added to the book a Bibliographical list, a chronological table, with a topical and a Scripture index. It is a valuable little work. There are upwards of fifty cuts and diagrams.
"Religious Liberty in South America." By John Lee, M.A., D.D. $1.25 net. Eaton and Mains, New York.
This truly illuminating little work is written "with especial reference to recent legislation in Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia." This movement for religious liberty in these republics began by an address by Dr. John F. Thomson before the Methodist ministers' meeting of Chicago, Ill., April 2, 1894. At the close of the address, a committee of three was appointed to lay the matter before the Roman Catholic authorities, and for six years agitation was maintained and crowned with a large degree of success. Mr. Lee tells the story of the struggle. It clearly shows by official documents that the Roman Catholic love of religious liberty depends on the country. The points at issue in these countries were liberty of worship and legalized marriage, both of which had been proscribed in the republics named. It is a serious question whether Bishop Vincent has not in the second paragraph of his introduction done as much harm as good in his talk over "Church-State," a thing which would develop into as much evil as the State-Church. There is an ample index to the book. Every professional man in the United States ought to read it.
"History of Medievæval and Modern Civilization to the End of the Seventh Century." By Charles Seignobos, of the University of Paris; translation edited by James Alton James, Ph.D., professor of history in Northwestern University. $1.25 net. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York.
This little volume is the second in a series of three, the first of which is "History of Ancient Civilization," and the last, now in press, "History of Contemporary Civilization." The main facts of history are set down seemingly without passion or partiality. Those who wish to study history exhaustively will desire some of the standard larger works, but those desiring a limited work on the History of Civilization, will find in this a concise, general view, written clearly, and letting facts moralize for themselves.
"The Bible as It Is." By Rev. Alexander Patterson. Price 75 cents. The Winona Publishing Company, Chicago.
This is designed to be "a simple method of mastering and understanding the Bible, illustrated by diagrams and charts. This volume extends from Genesis to Judges. There are many excellent hints and suggestions in the little book, and it is a pity it is marred by a few errors which are vital to the understanding of the word. The writer speaks of the week of Genesis 1 as six creation days and creation week, which he holds to be six long periods of time; but the Bible never so designates that week. "In six days the Lord made heaven and earth," distinct from its creation in verse 1. In looking upon that week as a long period of evolutionary change, we lose the assurance of God's power to change, transform, remake, the soul. He places the fourth commandment on the second table as a commandment pertaining to man, because Jesus says "the Sabbath was made for man," forgetting that it is to be kept "holy unto the Lord." And then, when the Bible declares the Sabbath to be the seventh day, and he finds no command authorizing a change, he tries to uphold it by inferences, utterly unwarranted. Apart from these blunders largely, the little work has excellent hints and helpful suggestions.