was that which had been exemplified in the flaming fire that swept the hosts arrayed against him to destruction, chapter xxxiv. 8, 9.

1. Comparison. "Why is there redness on thine apparel; and (why are) thy garments like one treading in a wine press?" vs. 2. This indicates that his garments were not wholly red, but were stained as though he had trodden grapes in a wine press; and it was this-as his robe was doubtless white-that led the prophet to make the inquiryWhy his vestments, that were white, were thus crimsoned, like theirs who tread the wine press?

2. Hypocatastasis in using treading the wine press, for destroying his enemies. "The press I have trodden myself, and of the nations there was not a man with me: and I will tread them in my anger, and trample them in my fury, and their juice shall spirt upon my garments, and all my vesture I have stained," vs. 3. Treading the press, is put for slaughtering his enemies; and it bespeaks at once their utter helplessness, the resistlessness of his power, and the awfulness of his vengeance. No human being is to unite with him in that act. He is to strike down his foes by his own Almighty hand, and vindicate thereby his deity, and show the presumption and impiety of their war against him.

3, 4. Hypocatastases in the use of treading and trampling, to denote the analogous acts of vehemence and resistlessness by which he will overwhelm them. They are to be swept to destruction, the prophecy, chapter xxxiv. 9, 10, foreshows, by a tempest of fire and brimstone.

5. Metaphor in denominating their blood juice, because its color is like the juice of the grape.

6, 7. Hypocatastases in the use of treading down and making drunk. "For the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my redeemed has come. And I looked, and there was none to help, and I was astonished that there was none sustaining: and my own arm saved for me, and my fury it upheld me. And I will tread the nations in my anger, and I will make them drunk in my wrath, and I will bring down their juice to the earth," vs. 4-6. This seems to imply that the redeemed Israelites themselves will not comprehend the necessity of such a destruction of their

enemies; they will not have reached such a sense of their guilt as to see it to be indispensable that they should be treated according to their deserts, and anticipate and approve Christ's vengeance on them. But justice alone is the attribute it will behove him to exercise towards them; and he will pour on them the storm of his anger, because his own vindication and the well-being of his kingdom require it. This awful display of his vengeance is foreshown in many other passages. Chap. xiv. 15, 16. 2 Thess. i. 8. Their being made drunk, denotes their becoming utterly bewildered, stupefied, and powerless.

Christ's deliverance of his people, and judgment of his enemies, being thus foreshown, it is now predicted that the Israelites will then be made to remember and commemorate his dealings with them.

"The mercies of Jehovah I will cause to be remembered, the praises of Jehovah according to all that Jehovah hath done for us, and the great goodness to the house of Israel which he hath done for them, according to his compassions, and according to the multitude of his mercies," vs. 7. They will be led to review the whole of his dispensations towards them, discern their ineffable wisdom, righteousness, and goodness, and praise and glorify him for the mercy and love that will be seen to characterize them all.

"And he said. They only are my people. My people shall not lie: and he became a Saviour for them," vs. 8. The prophet represents them as first recounting God's choice of them as his people, his requirement of a true allegiance from them, and his becoming under that covenant their Saviour. They next recall his dealings with them.

8, 9. Hypocatastases in the use of taking up and carrying, to denote analogous acts of support and care. “In all their enmity, he was not their enemy; and the angel of his face saved them; in his love and in his sparing mercy he redeemed them, and he them all the days of old," vs. 9. did not become their enemy. which he chastened them were and love; and they were saved, sustained, and led on by his care and mercy.

took them up and carried Though they rebelled he Even the judgments with prompted by faithfulness

"Yet they rebelled and grieved his holy Spirit; and he

was turned for them into an enemy; he himself fought against them," vs. 10. It was not till they had long revolted, and by their apostasy caused his Spirit to desert them, that he turned against them as an avenger, and fought against them by the conquering nations into whose hands he delivered them.

10, 11. Metaphors in denominating Moses a shepherd, and Israel a flock. "Yet he remembered the days of old, Moses and his people. Where is he that brought them up from the sea, the shepherd of his flock? Where is he that put within him his Holy Spirit?" vs. 11.

12. Hypocatastasis in putting, leading them by the right hand of Moses, for directing them by him. "Leading them by the right hand of Moses, and by his own glorious arm, cleaving the waters from before them, to make for him an everlasting name," vs. 12.

13, 14. Comparisons. "Making them walk in the depths, like the horse in the desert, that they should not stumble. As a herd goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of Jehovah causes it to rest. So didst thou lead thy people, to make for thyself a name of glory," vs. 12-14. Amidst all their rebellions Jehovah remembered Moses and the people who were obedient under his leadership, and the great miracles he wrought for their salvation, by which his name was glorified. But he will not only cause Israel thus to remember and commemorate his wonderful acts towards them of mercy and of judgment; he will recall to their thoughts also the effects of his chastenings on his people; their appeals to his pity; their pleas for the blessings promised in the covenant with Abraham, their expostulations, their entreaties for the return of his mercy. This is undoubtedly the proper construction of the verses that follow. They are uttered after the temple had been finally destroyed, after the nation had been dispossessed of their land; after God had seemed to desert them. They are recapitulative therefore, and obviously, of the pleas, supplications, and longings for deliverance, that had been breathed from the hearts of his people, through their long discipline of chastening and sorrow.

15. Apostrophe to Jehovah. "Look (down) from heaven, and see from thy dwelling-place of holiness and beauty! Where is thy zeal and thy might?" vs. 15.

16. Metonymy of the effect-sounding of the bowels-for sympathy, the cause. "The sounding of thy bowels, and thy mercies towards me have repressed themselves," vs. 15. These are pleas for God's notice of them, and complaints that he has deserted them.

"For thou art our Father: Because Abraham hath not known us, and Israel will not recognise us; thou, Jehovah, art our Father, our Redeemer. From everlasting is thy name," vs. 16. This is an appeal to him as the everlasting, and a profession that their trust is in him as their Father and Redeemer; not in their relationship to Abrahan and Israel.

"Why wilt thou make us wander, O Jehovah, from thy ways; why wilt thou harden our heart from thy fear? Return for the sake of thy servants, the tribes of thine inheritance. Thy holy people possessed (their inheritance) but a little while. Our enemies tread down thy sanctuary. We are of old. Thou hast not ruled over them. Thy name has not been called upon them," vs. 17-19. These are entreaties and expostulations that were natural to the Israelites when deserted of God, driven into exile, and groaning under the tyranny of their conquerors; and they form, doubtless, a part of the remembrances to which God will recall the nation, when he has accomplished their final redemption.

ART. VI.-LITERARY AND CRITICAL NOTICES.

1. COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES, with other Treatises. By E. W. Hengstenberg, D.D., Professor of Theology, Berlin. Translated from the German by D. W. Simon. Philadelphia: Smith & English. New York: Sheldon & Co. Boston: Gould & Lincoln. 1860.

THIS is a valuable accession to our theological literature. The Commentary on Ecclesiastes occupies about one half of the volume. That work, Dr. Hengstenberg, like most who have recently written on it, regards as having proceeded, not from the pen of Solomon, but of some unknown but inspired author

of the age of Ezra and Nehemiah, when the Israelites, though restored, were greatly depressed under the Persian rule; and its aim, he holds, was, not to reveal new truths, or foreshow events that were future, but, on the one hand, to depict the emptiness and nothingness of the treasures, and pleasures, and honors of this life, as a portion; and, on the other, to point out and unfold the righteousness and goodness of God which reigns through all the calamities and sorrows of the present scene, and enjoin submission under trials, and trust in him. The Commentary is learned, copious, and abounds with just and striking thoughts.

Of the Treatises which occupy the remainder of the volume, the first is a Prolegomena on the Song of Solomon, in which he maintains that Solomon was its author, that it is a single, not a collection of songs, and that it is an allegory; the king representing the Messiah, the bride the redeemed Israelitish church, and her attendants and companions the redeemed Gentile churches. It is brief, learned, and tasteful.

Next succeeds a Lecture on the Book of Job, in which he holds that the poem was founded on fact, but owes much of its drapery and coloring to the writer's fancy. Other Essays follow on Isaiah, on Sacrifices, and on the Jews and the Christian church. In the last he argues at much length to prove, that in the numerous promises in the Old Testament to the Israelites of restoration to their land, and their special relations to God, they are mere representatives of the Christian church. He, however, regards the New Testament as indicating very clearly that the Jews, as a people, are at length to be converted to the Christian faith.

2. LIFE OF THE REV. RICHARD KNILL, OF ST. PETERSBURG ; being Selections from his Reminiscences, Journals, and Correspondence. By the Rev. Charles M. Birrell, of the Baptist Church, Liverpool. With a Review of his Character by the late J. A. James. Printed by the American Tract Society, 150 Nassau Street, New York.

A VERY pleasing memoir of one eminent for his gifts and piety, who labored with much success as a missionary, at first at Madras, subsequently at St. Petersburg, and in his last years in England, and left a bright example to the church of self-denial, skill, fidelity, and delight in communicating the blessings of the gospel to the perishing.