1898, Dr. Nicol, who since their delivery has been appointed
to an important theological professorship in the University' of Aberdeen, has summed up in a systematic fashion and with almost perfect lucidity of style the results of recent &raker,- logical investigations of the sort that is specially identified with such names as those of Professors Ramsay and Flinders Petrie, in so far as they bear upon the interpretation of the Bible. The lectures are eight in all, and deal with such subjects as recent dis- covery in Palestine, Egypt, and Babylonia, the Hebrew Monarchy in the light of Assyrian annals, and, finally, the times of Christ and His Apostles in the light of recent discovery.Dr. Nicol, • who since his lectures were delivered has made a -tour of the Levant and visited the Egyptian National Museum at Ghizeh and the Imperial Ottoman Museum in Stamboul, shows great judgment in dealing with rival schools of archteology and in striking a balance between different opinions. The spirit-Of reverence for the Scriptures in which he writes may be gathered from the closing sentences of his penultimate lecture :--" It is the Word of God which has preserved to modern times the story of Babylonian rulers, Egyptian Pharaohs, and Assyrian Kings, when their own records were swallowed up in the sands of .the desert, or were buried deep in the marshes which had engulfed city and temple and palace. It is the Word of God which has furnished the surest clue to their recovery, as well as supplied the impulse to explore and excavate in search of their remains, for great as is the value of these relics for the reconstruction. of the history of antiquity, their value for the elucidation and confirmation of the Bible history is the greatest of all."
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