increase their personal fitness, the prospects of Christian missions in India might have looked somewhat brighter this day.

The reader will have noticed the significant fact quoted by Mr Wenger in his paper on vernacular preaching, that such preaching requires to be accompanied with the distribution of printed matter to be permanently successful. The fact speaks volumes for the necessity of an elevating Christian literature. Even "the peasantry of this country," says Mr Long, “are justly considered to be an intelligent race, quick to learn; in fact, in acuteness of observation and natural intelligence, they are far ahead of the English peasantry." And the people have given unmistakeable evidence of their taste for reading especially, by making large and eager use of the press now established among them. "In 1853, four hundred and eighteen thousand, two hundred and seventy-five books and pamphlets, issued from the native presses of Calcutta, the greater part of which were sold within the year; while, since the commencement of this century, more than sixteen hundred works have been printed in Bengali, either original compositions or translations from the Sanskrit, English, or Persian. These have had a circulation of probably not less than twenty millions copies."

These statistics are to us positively startling. Here we have already existing in India a great reading public; and that a public which is, to a large extent, actually supplying itself. What is doing to turn this state of things to account? Not so much as might be done, it is confessed. The Christian press is employed in sending forth Bibles, and tracts, and other religious works, mostly of European manufacture; but the great want of a fresh, healthy, country-born, vernacular literature, to make its way, by dint of its own vigour, among the masses, and to counteract, in some measure, the pestilential trash which now has the heart of Hindu society, this want has yet to be supplied. It is to the colleges (government and missionary) that we may look for that class of natives who will compete for the honours of modern authorship; but the misery is, that the peculiarly English education which these men receive, must so far disqualify them for ever becoming, in the highest sense of the word, popular writers in Hindustan. In regard to the government students, this may be no great matter; for in the clerkships and collectorships to which they may be appointed, they have their true reward. But in regard to the missionary student, who has literary talent enough to exercise a great influence over his countrymen through the press, it cannot be a matter of little moment that he is acquainted with Bacon and Shakspere, but knows little or nothing of the writers of his own land. England and India are in every way so wide apart, that books written in the former country can never tell deeply or exten

sively on the people of the latter. "Our religious tracts and books," says Mr Long, "seem rather to have been written amid the fogs of London, or the ice of St Petersburgh, than in a country with the associations of the gorgeous east. Such books as Baxter's Call, are, for this country, little better than waste paper. The oriental mind must be addressed through oriental imagery." It is the fashion in some quarters rather to discredit this department of the work; to talk of the literary missionary as if he were less self-denying and laborious than his brethren. We shall not attempt to adjust the competing claims. This, however, we will say, that we can think of no greater boon that God could at this moment confer upon the mission cause in India, than that of raising up a Hindu of genius, eloquence, and power, who, with a perfect mastery over his own tongue, and a thorough knowledge of his own nation, and a profound acquaintance with Scripture truth, should write a Christian book containing a clear statement of the fundamental principles of the gospel applied to the conditions of Oriental life, and fitted, in virtue of its own intrinsic force and excellence, to achieve for itself a really national reputation.

There still remains one point of peculiar interest in this connection to which our now limited space permits us merely to allude. It is the possibility of heathenism in India being removed, and something other than Christianity taking its place. It does not follow that when a man has ceased to be a believer in the Pantheon of Hinduism and the divinity of caste, he necessarily becomes either a Christian or an Atheist. The Brahminical religion, though requiring in practice the worship of innumerable gods, has a strictly monotheistic basis. The philosophic Vedantist separates what he fancies to be essential truth, from the superincumbent error; and when the missionary supposes that he has broken down all his defences, and secured him at last as a captive to the truth, he finds to his dismay that he is entrenched amid a maze of subtleties from which it is almost impossible to dislodge him.

Nor is a new form of Brahminism the only conceivable system in which the Hindu mind may find refuge. "It is quite possible, that from the mingled elements of western and eastern metaphysics," says Mr Clarkson, "of European and Asiatic infidelity, of German and Indian mysticisms, may be produced a system unparalleled for godlessness, which may for a while rule over the minds of intelligent Hindus, and exercise an important influence over the religious and civil, and even political interests of India. From the Asiatic mind, impregnated by the philosophic infidelity of Europe, we know not but that there may be evolved a principle that shall be the very extreme and terminus of human ungodliness, a concentration of the virus of atheism

which, in one form or other, is congenial to the human heart. India has been Satan's seat for ages. It may yet continue so 'for a season,' until the mystery of eastern iniquity shall have been accomplished, and the last and darkest phase of human apostasy shall have succeeded those of previous ages."

As a set off to these dark forebodings we can now only quote the more cheerful view taken of the prospects of the gospel by Mr Lacroix, one of the oldest, wisest, and most able missionaries now labouring in India. "While we are often lamenting how little success we have had, those who can compare the present with the past, must see abundant cause of thankfulness and hope for the future. Hence it is that no class of missionaries keep up their spirits better, or entertain more sanguine hopes of ultimate success than the old men who have been longest in the field."

After all, whatever may be the immediate future, “God reigneth." The great enemy of mankind, fertile as he is in invention and resource, ever prepared to meet the gospel when it threatens the foundations of his kingdom, with some new and before unimagined phase of error, shall not be able to maintain his dominion one moment longer than his master and ours permits. The inevitable day is coming when Christ shall rule. India, with the other heathen nations, will then lay her treasures at his feet, and this only shall we say in conclusion, that if the people of England only realised the half of what hangs upon that result, they would pray and labour more earnestly that it might be speedily achieved.

IX. CRITICAL NOTICES.

Analytical Exposition of the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans. By JOHN BROWN, D.D., Senior Minister of the United Presbyterian Congregation, Broughton Place, Edinburgh, and Professor of Exegetical Theology to the United Presbyterian Church. W. Oliphant & Son. Edinburgh: 1857. 8vo, 640 pages.

WE had occasion lately (vol. vi. p. 231) to express the very high sense we entertain of Dr Brown's qualifications as an interpreter of the sacred Scriptures, and of the value of the services he has rendered to this fundamental department of theology, by publishing a series of works which expound and apply many of the most important portions of the inspired volume; and we rejoice that he has been spared to give to the Church an Analytical Exposition of Paul's Epistle to the Romans. This is undoubtedly a great work, and is fitted to serve some most important purposes. It exhibits many

of the highest qualities of a thoroughly trained and accomplished exe

gete, brought to bear in the most favourable circumstances upon the opening up of the exact train of thought presented in this epistle. This object, we are persuaded, he has to a very large extent effected, and this is a result of the highest value. Dr Brown finds in the teaching of Paul the fundamental principles of that scheme of doctrine which is usually called Calvinism. But he has not gone out of his way to seek for them, and he has strained nothing whatever in order to get support for them. This mode of procedure is peculiarly well fitted to influence favourably a, certain class of minds, who are jealous of being driven farther and faster than the carefully and accurately ascertained meaning of Scriptural statements leads them. For other purposes, and with a different class of minds, a fuller bringing out of Scripture consequences, and a more thorough unfolding of all that Scriptural statements fairly suggest and imply, would be desirable. But the most important of all things is the conclusive establishment of the exact meaning of Scriptural statements as they stand, for this is the only firm basis on which a solid superstructure either of doctrines or duties can be built. Dr Brown's work is admirably fitted to convince and to satisfy those who will take nothing on trust, but who must see clearly and understand distinctly every thing in its meaning and evidence, before they can receive it; though from the peculiar plan he has followed, in giving most fully the logical connection of thought and furnishing only partially and incidentally the grammatical and historical exposition, the professional reader is likely to desiderate sometimes a fuller statement of the philological grounds on which a particular interpretation is adopted. This will probably be felt by many chiefly in reference to the important expression, "the righteousness of God," which Dr Brown thinks is to be understood in the sense of the divine method of justification. We are not satisfied of the soundness of this interpretation, and we would have liked to have seen from Dr. Brown a detailed philological exposition of all the passages where the expression. occurs. It is true, that in some of the passages there is nothing to shut out, and much to countenance, the sense which Dr Brown attaches to it. We could not object materially to Dr John Pye Smith's statement upon this point (First Lines of Christian Theology, p. 587), that "in the Epistles of Paul it often occurs in the peculiar sense of the way in which the favour of God may be obtained, the method of being justified or constituted righteous.” This statement

is true if the word often be taken in the sense of sometimes. But we do not believe that this interpretation can be carried through all the passages where the expression occurs. We think that there are some of them which supply materials for shewing, that it must be taken there in the more limited and specific sense of the righteousness which God provides and bestows, and which is the ground of our acceptance with him; and this, indeed, we still believe to be its ordinary meaning.

Dr Brown possesses so many of the highest qualifications of an interpreter and expositor of Scripture, he possesses many of them in so eminent a degree, and he has so patiently and conscientiously

brought them to bear upon the analytical exposition of the Epistle to the Romans, that he has made a very valuable contribution to the exact interpretation of this important portion of the inspired volume. We have no doubt that all who may henceforth contemplate preparing a commentary upon this epistle, will regard it as an imperative duty to examine carefully and to weigh deliberately Dr Brown's exposition of it.

From the importance of this work, and the peculiarity of the plan pursued in it, we think it proper to lay before our readers the author's own statement of its history and objects :

:

"It is more than forty years since the Epistle to the Romans became to me an object of peculiar interest, and the subject of critical study. At that time I wrote considerably ample illustrations of it, with such helps as were within my reach. These were comparatively scanty. In addition to my Greek Testament, Lexicon, and Concordance, Poli Synopsis, a book which it would be difficult to praise beyond its merits, Bengel's Gnomon, and Koppe's Annotations, with Whitby, Locke, and Taylor, formed my principal critical apparatus. Since that time,

many Exegetical works, of great and varied merit, have appeared, having for their object the Exposition of this Epistle. Besides those most valuable helps to the study of the New Testament generally-Robinson's Lexicon, Winer's Grammar of the New Testament Idioms, and Davidson's Introduction to the New Testament-I need only mention the works of Tholuck, Böhme, Fritzsche, Olshausen, Stuart, Hodge, Turner, Barnes, and Alford. These works, and an endless variety of illustrations of particular passages in the Epistle, in the Opuscula of German Exegetes, many of them of great value, have been carefully consulted by me; and my illustrations, corrected and enlarged by an increasing acquaintance with the inexhaustible subject, have, in substance, been repeatedly, though in different forms, presented to Christian congregations, and to classes of Theological Students.

Under the impression that I might be able to shed some new light on the general design of the Epistle, and on some of the more important and obscure passages in it, I, at one time, entertained the design of either publishing, or leaving for publication, an Exposition which might have some claim to the threefold appellation of a Grammatical, Historical, and Logical Commentary. The work is still, however, so far from being what I think it ought to be, that, at my advanced period of life, I cannot reasonably expect to be able to complete it, in the way that could be desired, and I have, therefore, given up, not without a struggle, this long and fondly cherished expectation.

Yet I am unwilling to go hence without leaving some traces of the labour I have bestowed on this master-work of the apostle-without contributing some assistance, however limited, toward the production of what, whenever produced, will mark an era in the history of Scriptural Exegesis-a Complete Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans. Forbidden to build the temple, I would yet do what I can to furnish materials to him who shall be honoured to raise it.

For the last twelve months, my principal occupation has been, so to condense and remodel my work, as to present, in the fewest and plainest words, what appears to me the true meaning and force of the statements, contained in this Epistle, of the doctrine and law of Christ, and of the arguments in support of the one, and the motives to comply with the other; and to do this, in such a form as to convey, so far as possible, to the mind of the general reader, unacquainted with any but the vernacular language, the evidence on which I rest my conviction, that such is the import of the apostle's words.

In carrying out this plan, I have, as a matter of course, confined myself chiefly to what may be termed Logical or Analytical Exposition. To the unlearned, grammatical interpretation can only, within narrow limits, be made intelligible, and within still narrower bounds, interesting; and the force of evidence by which a particular conclusion is come to, on grammatical principles, they can scarcely at all appreciate. From similar causes, they can derive but little advantage even from what is termed Historical interpretation.