Graven in the Rock. By the Rev. Samuel Kinns, Ph.D.
(Cassell and Co.)—It cannot be said that Dr. Kinns contributes much original matter to the controversies in which he takes a part, or that he approaches the questions involved in them in a satisfying way. When he disposes of the difficulty involved in the enormous numbers of the Israelite migration out of Egypt by saying that they were under the leadership of a "Divine General," he is not advancing his case. It is equally futile to say that the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch is proved by our Lord's quoting it as "Moses saith." We are not impressed by reading that the heroine of the Song of Solomon is supposed to be Solomon's first wife, Pharaoh's daughter. Dr. Kinns speaks of this as "one little bright ray" in the darkness of the King's falling away. Is it possible that Dr. Kinns can believe this to be the case ? The fact is, that there is much interesting matter collected in this volume from various sources ; more cannot be said. The faculty of criti- cising and appreciating is wanting. Dr. Kinns is so eminently conservative, that it is not a little surprising to find him, in chap. 18, arguing that the traditional view of the place of Christ's Nativity is all wrong. "The only word upon which the whole theory of the stable and the cattle has been built is manger,' which in the original Greek is ori.rits (an eating-place), and comes from rariolhat (I eat). This does not at all imply the presence of cattle," &c. As a matter of fact, stulTva is used in humorous metaphor for food or maintenance, but used, as by St. Luke, in narrative it must mean a place from which cattle feed. This is the uniform signification of the word, from Homer downwards. What does Dr. Kinns think it means in St. Luke ? And what authority can he quote ?
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