14 JANUARY 1871, Page 22

Gurney's Handy Dictionary of the Holy Bible. Edited by the

Rev. J. G. Wrench. (Tegg.)--This book was originally written nearly a century ago ; the present editor has sought to bring it up to the present state of Biblical criticism and knowledge. This has been done, as far as we have examined the volume, with considerable success. It does not, of course, pretend to compete with such a book as Dr. Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible "; but it is much smaller and cheaper than even the " Con- cise Dictionary," and it possesses one useful feature of its own, which should make it serviceable to less advanced students ; it gives explana- tions of the more difficult words that occur in the Scriptures, being other than names of places, persons, &c.