31 JANUARY 1874, Page 23

The Bible Educator. Edited by the Rev. E. H. Plumptre.

Vol. L (Cassell.)—We desire on the present occasion to call attention to rather than to review this work, which is being published in numbers, and of which the first volume lies before us. In the case of such a bOok, it is especially necessary to see the whole, before wo can pass upon it any- thing like a really adequate criticism. Nevertheless, we have here enough to assure us that the Bible Educator deserves a favourable reception from the public. In some degree it occupies the same ground as is taken up by "Bible Dictionaries," but its treatment of the same subjects is more popular, and when occasion demands, more didactic. In relating, for instance, the lives of the patriarchs, there is to be noticed an ethical and religious, as well as a critical and historical, element. It has, again, in some cases, as in that of the botany of Scripture plants, a better opportunity of discussing the subject in a fall and orderly way. Some subjects, too, are dealt with which the dictionary very rightly avoids, but which, whether they land us in theological controversy or no, must be treated of, because people must read about them, and must, in one way or another, make up their minds about them. We may notice, as belonging to this class of subjects, some papers by the Rev. Dr. Farrar, of Marlborough, on "Inspiration," written with that gentleman's accus- tomed eloquence and force. Among other contents of this volume we may mention "The Coincidences of Scripture," "Difficult Passages Explained," &e.