7 OCTOBER 1899, Page 38

CURRENT LITERATURE.

SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.

[Under this heading we notice such Books of the week as have not been reserved for review in other forms.] Texts Explained. By F. W. Farrar, D.D. (Longmans and Co. 6s.)—This is a most us.-ful volume, from which readers of the New Testament may get very easily a great amount of gain. It gives in a brief compass the result of much study. Sometimes, we think, Dean Farrar allows his feelings to carry him away. We sympathise h.-artily with his views about the Larger Hope, but surely there is nothing inconsistent with that belief in the words of our Lord about the traitor. "Good were it for that man if he had never been born." Yet Dean Farrar says : "If this be the correct rendering, the verse is the most terrible in the whole Scriptures." No one could have felt it to be true more than Judas, even though he, too, share in the restitution of all things. The book is adapted for English readers of the New Testament, but those who are acquainted with Greek will more fully appreciate its value. A more useful present to a young student could hardly be. It gives the best substance of many commentaries.