the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures.  The three books here reviewed are readable

by all who can read ordinary English, no knowledge of either Hebrew or Greek

being necessary.  These are tools for the unashamed workman, and a look out

for any or all of them should be kept.

Since writing the above, a copy of a book by George Crabb, M.A.  has

come before us.  It is entitled English Synonyms Explained.  This work was

published in 1846 and is comprised of 799 pages.  Lloyd's Encyclopaedic

Dictionary makes copious reference to this work.  We give a portion only of

the opening synonyms, abandon, desert, forsake, relinquish.

`Abandoning is a violation of the most sacred ties ... desertion is a

breach of honour and fidelity ... by forsaking the kindly feelings are

hurt and the social ties are broken.  A bad mother abandons her

offspring: a soldier deserts his comrades; a man forsakes his

companions.  Things as well as persons may be abandoned, deserted, or

forsaken; things only are relinquished'.

This is a most valuable and useful `tool'.

There is a row of books on our shelves, thirteen in one set and four in

the other, that provoke inquiry by reason of the fact that the authors are of

the same name, although one lived over two hundred years earlier than the

The first set of books are the works of Dr. John Lightfoot, who was

born 1602, and were the gift of a brother in Christ, the second comprises

some of the commentaries of Bishop Lightfoot who was born 1828.

The earlier writer is remembered chiefly for his researches into the

Talmud and the light that the writings of the Rabbins throw upon the teaching

of the New Testament.

Concerning the study of the Talmudical writings, he says, in his

dedication of Vol. xi:

`When all the books of the New Testament were written by Jews, and

among Jews, and unto them: and when all the discourses made there, were

made in like manner by Jews, and to Jews, and among them: I was always

fully persuaded, as of a thing past all doubting, that that Testament

could not but everywhere taste of, and retain, the Jew's style, idiom,

form, and rule of speaking.  And hence in this second place, I

concluded, as assuredly, that in the obscurer places of that Testament

(which are very many) the best and most natural method of searching out

the sense, is, to inquire how, and in what sense, those phrases and

manners of speech were understood, according to the vulgar and common

dialect and opinion of that nation; and how they took them, by whom

they were spoken, and by whom they were heard'.

Speaking of the difficulty encountered by any one who attempts the

study of the Talmud, Lightfoot says:

`In no writers is greater or equal trifling.  The doctrines of the

gospel hath no more bitter enemies than they, and yet the text of the

gospel hath no more plain interpreters'.